DX LISTENING DIGEST 12-35, August 29, 2012 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 2012 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 WORLD OF RADIO 1632 HEADLINES: *DX and station news about: Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, Ethiopia, Finland, Greece, Kuwait, Madagascar, Morocco, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Somaliland, Swains Island, Turkey, USA, Vatican non SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1632, August 30-September 5, 2012 Thu 0330 WRMI 9955 Thu 2100 WTWW 9479 [confirmed] Fri 0329v WWRB 5050 [missing on SW but OK on webcast] Sat 0130v WBCQ 5110v-CUSB Area 51 Sat 0630 HLR 7265 Hamburger Lokal Radio Sat 0800 WRMI 9955 Sat 1500 WRMI 9955 Sat 1730 WRMI 9955 Sun 0400 WTWW 5755 Sun 0800 WRMI 9955 Sun 1530 WRMI 9955 Sun 1730 WRMI 9955 Mon 0500 WRMI 9955 Mon 1130 WRMI 9955 Tue 0930 HLR 5980 Hamburger Lokal Radio Thu 0330 WRMI 9955 [or maybe 1633 if ready in time] 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://www.wrn.org/listeners/#world-of-radio WORLD OF RADIO PODCASTS VIA WRN: http://www.wrn.org/listeners/customize-panel/addToPlaylist/98/09:00:00UTC/English OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO: http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org DAY-BY-DAY ARCHIVE OF GLENN HAUSER`S LOG REPORTS: Unedited, uncondensed, unchanged from original version, many of them too complex, minutely researched, multi-frequency, opinionated, inconsequential, off-topic, or lengthy for some log editors to manage; and also ahead of their availability in these weekly issues: http://www.hard-core-dx.com/index.php?topic=Hauser DXLD YAHOOGROUP: Why wait for DXLD? 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, and say something about why you want to join. 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/ ** AFGHANISTAN. Radio Afghanistan staff are still producing programs each day (now including 30 minutes daily in Arabic and Russian, in addition to the English and Urdu that we DXers already knew about), even though it appears that the SW transmitter has not worked for several months. The official line from Radio Afghanistan management to outsiders is that the station is on the air for two hours a day on 6100 (sic), from a 400 (sic) kW transmitter." (a source, not Brock Whaley or Al Muick, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALASKA. KWJG SHUTS DOWN DUE TO NUMEROUS FCC ‘ADMIN INFRACTIONS’ By Joseph Robertia Redoubt Reporter Bill Glynn [caption] http://homertribune.com/2012/08/kwjg-shuts-down-due-to-numerous-fcc-%E2%80%98admin-infractions%E2%80%99/ The sharp crackle of static, that’s what now replaces the music and various educational and entertainment programs that used to resonate from the speakers when a radio in the central and southern Kenai Peninsula was dialed to 91.5 FM. “We went off the air at 7:10 p.m. on Aug. 12,” said Bill Glynn, president of Kasilof Public Broadcasting and general manager of KWJG in Kasilof, and sister station KMJG, in Homer. “And no one knows how long it will last.” Started as a dream to provide the Kenai Peninsula with a commercial- free radio alternative, KWJG signed onto the air in September 1998, pumping a puny 45 watts of power. But it was enough power to be heard and people started listening. Within a year, the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C., authorized a power increase to 1,000 watts, where it remained until the station’s final day roughly a week ago. Wanting to not only be commercial free, but free of government influence, as well, KWJG has never accepted funding from any governmental entity. Instead, the station was supported entirely by listeners’ donations and underwriters. According to Glynn, that is where the problems arose that led to the station going off the air. “It’s my belief that state-funded public radio doesn’t want us calling ourselves public radio, or competing with them for listeners, so pressure is being applied to squeeze us off the dial,” he said. This “pressure,” as Glynn puts it, came in the way of numerous and thorough inspections by the FCC. He said that while no technical or operational issues were noted by the inspectors, KWJG was cited for numerous administrative infractions, many of which come with citations and fines. “I believe they’re trying to fine us out of existence,” he said. “Generally speaking I stay on top of the paperwork, but they dug deep to find stuff. Some of the things were having the 2003 version of ‘Broadcasting in the Public,’ instead of the 2008 version. All my licenses were in order and posted, but we’re supposed to have Xeroxed copies of all of them and I had missed one. “We also didn’t have enough specificity to adjustments in our transmitting logs, which means if we made tuning adjustments we were supposed to record them, but we don’t do them. It’s always the same number. It was lots of things like this,” Glynn said. Glynn doesn’t yet know the price tag for those infractions. “We’re waiting for the monetary forfeiture determination to come out of D.C. The fines could be $100,000 plus another $25,000 per citation. Since funds will have to be put toward paying these fines, which means funds won’t be available for other things, like paying the electricity bills at the station, our board made the decision to take us off the air,” he said. A representative of the FCC field office in Anchorage, from which the inspectors hailed, said the office could not comment on an ongoing matter, and the Washington office could only confirm that a “Notification of suspension of operations” of KWJG was filed Aug 3. In the interim, many of the disc jockeys are dismayed at being off the air. The volunteers produced, at times, as much as 40 hours a week of local programs, ranging from the peninsula’s only live radio cooking show to the “E-Zone” devoted specifically to women in music. Faith Hays, who hosted the Friday afternoon “Just Dogs” show, which offered education about responsible pet ownership, said she is sad to no longer have the venue. “I think the biggest thing that will suffer will be the dogs at the shelters because every week I’d call all the shelters and put all the available dogs on the air,” she said. Hays said that she also will miss educating the general public about dog-related issues. “It was going so well. We discussed how to pick the right dog for you, and how to get them to come when called, all kinds of educational things. I remember having a guy from Homer call in when we were discussing puppy mills. He had never heard of them before that show and had no idea how widespread they were. He learned about that issue from listening to the show. That’s when I knew we were really teaching people,” she said. While Hays’ program was a teaching tool, Doug Johnson’s Sunday afternoon shows were simply to “remember the way things used to was.” He played polka music, classic country and even bits from the folksy “Amos and Andy” show as part of the “Parade of Old-Time Bands.” “I think it’s really too bad. I’ve never seen the FCC crack down like this,” Johnson said. Having worked as a DJ since 1972, and at large commercial stations down to tiny, 50-kilowatt farm stations, he said he’s experienced issues like this before. It’s more than just the station employees or, in this case, volunteers, who feel the pain, he said. “The listening audience are the ones who really suffer,” he said. Johnson started with KWJG not long after the station went on the air and has developed a following in that time, not just for his music, but also for his reporting on community happenings. When events such as the Tustumena 200 were going on, he often was the first to report the standings, and when sourdoughs like Herman Hermansen, of Kasilof, died, Johnson reported on them, sobbing through a cracking, teary voice. This will all be absent from the airwaves now, he said. “There’s just not a lot like that out there on other stations, and, sure, Pickle Hill (KDLL in Kenai) and KBBI (in Homer) would probably let me do my shows, but that would be kind of like going to bed with the enemy after all this,” he said. KWJG’s listening audience shared Johnson’s pain on the last day of his radio show. After he announced the station was going off the air, numerous people called in, expressing a range of emotion from anger to grief. “We moved here from Seward in 2005 and I’ve been listening to him and them since then,” said Coleen Sykora, who liked to tune the radio the KWJG while working in her AK Second Hand store across from TJ Seggy’s on the Sterling Highway. “I’m sad to see it go. It was a good way to keep up with what was going on in the community,” she said. “They had such a different kind of programming. It’s not the stuff you usually find, so I hope they get back on the air soon, in some form or another.” Supporters of KWJG will hold a “Fill the case” fund drive from 7 to 10 p.m. Sept. 8 at the Alaska Roadhouse (formerly the J-Bar-B) on the Sterling Highway, with food by The Galley Wench and live music by Robert Pepper, Bryan Larger and Holly Wiley, Nick “The Dream” Weaver and Killer Wild Jungle Gerbil Jam. Cash donations, and donations of items and services for a silent auction, are requested. Contact Holly Wiley at 741-0009 or Glynn at 260-7702 (via Blaine Thompson, IN, ABDX via DXLD) ** ALASKA. 7355, Aug 23 at 1214, Christian praise music, sounds like English; yes, 1217 talk about need for strong families. Fair signal declining to poor. It`s KNLS at 12-13, 285 degrees from Anchor Point (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANGUILLA. 1610, Caribbean Beacon, 0822, noted as het against 1611 slop but readable in LSB; no doubt the one with usual rant by Dr. Gene Scott and // 6090. 25/8 (David Sharp, NSW, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA [non]. ANTÁRTICOS EN EL ÉTER --- En el programa "La Rosa de Tokio" que se emite a distintos medios del país y el mundo Los invitamos a escucharlos Invitamos a escuchar un programa con la participación de Antárticos, donde en el mismo se mezclarán las actualidades referidas a la radio y la conmemoración del dia 27 de agosto, fecha que se cumple un nuevo aniversario de la salida al aire de la primera transmisión de radio hecha a nivel mundial en el año 1920 por los argentinos Enrique SUSINI, Miguel MUJICA, César GUERRICO y Luis ROMERO, que eran los llamados "Locos de la Azotea", lo que marcó un hito en la radiotelefonía. En este programa se va a hacer una suerte de metáfora entre aquellos "locos" y los "loquitos antárticos" que instalaron la primera estación de radio en la Antártida el 20 de octubre de 1979, cuando comenzaban las primeras emisiones de LRA36 Radio Nacional "Arcángel San Gabriel" emplazada en la Base de Ejército Esperanza de la Antártida Argentina. Se presentarán varias notas que hacen a la historia de la radiodifusión y se comentará sobre el futuro de la emisora antártica, su historia, muchas identificaciones y las palabras de una de las locutoras, del técnico operador, como así también una larga entrevista al Suboficial Mayor EA EDB (R) Juan Carlos SALVIA, uno de los fundadores y su primer locutor. Mañana sábado 25 de agosto a las 9 horas, saldrá al aire en el programa "La Rosa de Tokio" que se emitirá por LS11 Radio Provincia de la Ciudad de La Plata Buenos Aires en la frecuencia de AM 1270 que tiene una cobertura de 700 kilómetros e ilimitada por Internet (seleccionado escuchar AM) en http://www.amprovincia.com.ar también por las emisoras que lo retransmiten en todo el país, cuya nomina puede verla haciendo en http://www.marambio.aq/audio/larosadetokio1.html Este programa a partir de mañana sábado, después de su emisión, quedará en forma permanente en http://www.marambio.aq/audio/larosadetokiolra36.html Los saluda con afecto. Dr. Juan Carlos LUJAN Suboficial Mayor (R) FAA (VGM-EDB), Presidente - Fundación Marambio PD. Para muchos argentinos, hoy 24 de agosto es el Día del Padre. Vea en http://www.diadelpadre.org Para ellos, FELÍZ DÍA DEL PADRE Fundación Marambio - http://www.marambio.aq - Tel. +54(11)4766-3086 4763-2649 (via Juan Franco Crespo, Spain, DXLD) LRA36 remains silent La Rosa de Tokio is also on WRMI webcast and 9955: Sunday 0700, Tuesday 1100, Wed 0300, per new schedule grid dated 19 August (gh, DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. AM16-20 Ayre nuevo --- Esta emisora de Mar del Plata se escuchó con buena señal en el círculo polar ártico hace menos de una semana. Al curulla le puse en contacto con alguien de la radio y la respuesta no demoró nada. En 20 minutos le llegó. Y ya se sabe que la locutora comercial, la que identifica la radio, se llama Laura de Sua. (Henrik Klemetz, Borås, Suecia, Aug 29, condiglist yg via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. 11710.7, RAE, Buenos Aires - Interval signal with multi- lingual IDs to TOH, 0100, then into Japanese service with YL & OM announcers. Good signal tonight with slight static but seems to be a distinct hum on the transmitter (Stephen Wood, Harwich, Ma.Perseus SDR w/ 25 x 50 NE terminated superloop antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. Finally, R Symban audible here in central Texas, so far only once. Aug 24 at 1100z on 2368.5 kHz with Greek music. Down in the noise by about 1150. I have logged their het several times but this was the first time with audio. JL, Drake R8B, T2FD (Jerry Lenamon, Waco, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Jerry, Very nice reception for Texas! Recently they have been doing better than the norm here on the California coast, as noted at identical sign off times of 1209* on both on Aug 24 and 25. In another month you perhaps will also be able to hear their sign off too. Is a fun station to catch due to their unique Greek programming and their low power. 500 W the last I knew! (Ron Howard, ibid., WORLD OF RADIO 1632) ** AUSTRALIA. 4835, 1057, 18-08-2012, sport comments by both male and female, a lot of QRM from WWCR 4840. It is Australia's Alice Spring radio station (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4835, VL8A Alice Springs, 1315 Aug 24, call-in show answering technology questions. Fair (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening through the local sunrise period, lakeside from my car with the Eton E1 and Sony AN1 active antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4835, VL8A, Alice Springs, 2103-2112, 25-08, English, female, the weather, "Alice Springs, sunny, good morning", male, comments. 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Logs in Friol, Sony ICF SW 7600 G, cable antenna, 10 meters, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. 15340, Aug 24 at 1307, HCJB in the clear as RHC is missing, so we can hear S Asian languages; still at 1343 and 1434 chex. Languages vary from day to day but Aoki shows these on Fridays: 1300-1315 Dzongkha, 1315-1330 Hmar, 1330-1400 Hindi daily, 1400-1430 Urdu daily, 1430-1445 Gujarati, and would have heard English at 1445- 1530 exc Sat Nepali (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA [and non]. R. Australia made some changes in overseas relays effective 19 August: Note: TAIWAN is no longer mentioned! GH extracted and reformatted from a PDF color-coded schedule [as corrected interpreting the graphic display, tnx to Wolfgang Büschel]: 0000-0030 Indonesian 9490-UAE 0100-0130 Burmese 11780-Singapore 0400-0430 Indonesian 17840-Palau 0500-0530 Indonesian 11700-Singapore 1100-1300 English/Asia 6140-Singapore 1300-1430 Chinese 9965-Palau 1600-1630 Chinese 9540-Singapore 2200-2400 English/Asia 9855-UAE 2200-2300 Burmese 5955-UAE 2200-2330 Indonesian 9525-UA And here is the full current schedule. Note that there are some duplications, as 9965 registered both by FCC and BAB (gh, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DXLD) Nigel Holmes sent this Update. In the interests of sharing arcane information here's the current RA hf schedule. Changes relate to the off-shore relays from UAE, Singapore & Palau. No change at Shepparton or Brandon. No DRM from Shepparton yet. From B-12 season I will change 11945 kHz to something around 12 MHz to avoid R. Veritas at 1000-1200 UT (Nigel Holmes-AUS, via Andreas Volk-D ADDX Munich; via wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Aug 21/24 via DXLD) Radio Australia update, according Radio Australia v1.3 operating schedule August 19, 2012, revised Aug 21. N = DRM mode. 5940 1300 1700 43,44,50,51,54,55,58N SHP 100 334 D En AUS ABC 5955 2300 2330 49NW DHA 500 85 D BurmeseUAE BAB 5995 0800 0900 51,56,61,64,65 BRN 10 10 D En AUS ABC 5995 0900 1100 51,56,61,64,65 BRN 10 10 D Tok Pisin ABC exc. English 1000-1100 UT Sat/Sun 5995 1100 1200 51,56,61,64,65 BRN 10 10 D En AUS ABC 5995 1200 1400 51,56,61,64,65 BRN 5 10 N En AUS ABC DRM 5995 1400 1800 51,55,56,61,64,65,76,77 SHP 100 30 D En AUS ABC 6020 0900 1100 51,55,56,64,65 SHP 100 30 D Tok Pisin ABC exc. English 1000-1100 UT Sat/Sun 6020 1100 1400 51,55,56,61,76,77 SHP 100 30 D En AUS ABC 6080 0900 1100 45,50,51,54E,56W,64 SHP 100 5 D Tok Pisin ABC exc. English 1000-1100 UT Sat/Sun 6080 1100 1300 44,45,50,51,54E,55,59N,64SHP 100 30 D En AUS ABC 6080 1730 2030 45,50,51,54E,56W,64 SHP 100 5 D En AUS ABC 6140 1100 1300 49S,54 SNG 100 13 D En SNG BAB 7240 1500 1700 56,60-63,76,77 SHP 100 50 D En AUS ABC 7410 0700 0900 51,55,56,61,64,65,76,77 SHP 100 30 D En AUS ABC 9475 0700 0900 50,51,54,55,58N SHP 100 353 D En AUS ABC 9475 0900 1100 51,55,56,61,64,65,76,77 SHP 100 30 D Tok Pisin ABC exc. English 1000-1100 UT Sat/Sun 9475 1100 1300 43,44,50,51,54,55,58N SHP 100 329 D En AUS ABC 9475 1300 1430 43,44,50,51,54,55,58N SHP 100 329 D Chin AUS ABC 9475 1430 1900 43,44,50,51,54,55,58N SHP 100 329 D En AUS ABC 9490 0000 0030 51W,54 DHA 500 105 D Ins UAE BAB 9500 1700 2030 43,44,45,50,51,54,55,58 SHP 100 353 D En AUS ABC 9500 2030 2200 43,44,45,50,51,54,55,58 SHP 100 355 D En AUS ABC 9525 2200 2330 51W,54 DHA 500 105 D Ins UAE BAB 9540 1600 1630 49S,54 SNG 100 340 D Chin SNG BAB 9580 0800 1000 56,60-63 SHP 100 80 D En AUS ABC 9580 1000 1500 56,60-63 SHP 100 70 D En AUS ABC 9580 1700 2100 56,60-63 SHP 100 70 D En AUS ABC 9660 2100 0800 51,56,61,64,65 BRN 10 10 D En AUS ABC 9710 0700 0900 45,51,54E,55,56W,64,65W SHP 100 353 D En AUS ABC 9710 0900 1100 45,51,54E,55,56W,64,65W SHP 100 353 D Tok Pisin ABC exc. English 1000-1100 UT Sat/Sun 9710 1800 2000 51,55,56,61,64,65,76,77 SHP 100 30 D En AUS ABC 9855 2200 2400 49S,54 DHA 500 105 D En UAE BAB 9965 1300 1430 43SE,44S,49 HBN 100 318 D Chin USA FCC 9965 1300 1430 43NE,44N HBN 100 318 D Chin USA BAB 11650 2000 2200 51,55,56,61,64,65,76,77 SHP 100 30 D En AUS ABC 11660 1300 1430 44,49-51,54,55,58N SHP 100 329 D Chin AUS ABC 11660 1430 1730 44,49-51,54,55,58N SHP 100 329 D En AUS ABC 11660 1900 2100 56,60-63,76,77 SHP 100 65 D En AUS ABC 11695 2030 2200 50,51,54,55,58N SHP 100 329 D En AUS ABC 11695 2200 2330 50,51,54,55,58N SHP 100 329 D Ins AUS ABC 11700 0500 0530 51W,54 SNG 100 140 D Ins SNG BAB 11780 0100 0130 49NW SNG 100 340 D BurmeseSNG BAB 11880 1530 2000 51,55,56,61,64,65,76,77 SHP 100 50 D En AUS ABC 11945 0600 1000 51E,56,61-65 SHP 100 100 D En AUS ABC 11945 1000 1530 56,60-63,65 SHP 100 70 D En AUS ABC 11945 1100 1300 44,49-51,54,55,58N SHP 100 329 D En AUS ABC 12080 2000 0900 51,56,60-62 BRN 10 80 D En AUS ABC exc. French 0300-0315 UT Mon-Fri 12080 0900 1100 51,56,60-62 BRN 10 80 D Tok Pisin ABC exc. English 1000-1100 UT Sat/Sun 12080 1100 1200 51,56,60-62 BRN 5 80 N En AUS ABC DRM 13630 0500 0800 56,60-63,76,77 SHP 100 50 D En AUS ABC 13630 2100 2300 51E,56,61,64,65 SHP 100 65 D En AUS ABC 15160 0100 0500 56,60-63 SHP 100 65 D En AUS ABC 15230 2200 2400 51,55,56,61,64,65,76,77 SHP 100 30 D En AUS ABC 15240 0000 0900 51,55,56,61,64,65 SHP 100 30 D En AUS ABC exc. French 0300-0315 UT Mon-Fri 15240 Ins 0400-0530 ex 15415 15415 2200 0700 50,51,54,55,58N SHP 100 329 D En AUS ABC 15515 0300 0557 61-63 SHP 100 70 D Fr AUS ABC exc. French 0300-0315 UT Mon-Fri 15515 2000 2300 51,55,56,61,64,65,76,77 SHP 100 30 D En AUS ABC 17750 0000 0030 44,49-51,54,55,58N SHP 100 329 D Ins AUS ABC 17750 0030 0400 44,49-51,54,55,58N SHP 100 329 D En AUS ABC 17750 0400 0530 44,49-51,54,55,58N SHP 100 329 D Ins AUS ABC 17750 0530 0700 44,49-51,54,55,58N SHP 100 329 D En AUS ABC 17750 2330 2400 44,49-51,54,55,58N SHP 100 329 D En AUS ABC 17795 2300 0300 51E,56,61-65 SHP 100 50 D En AUS ABC 17840 0400 0430 51W,54 HBN 100 270 D Ins USA BAB 19000 2300 0100 45,51,55,56,60-65 SHP 100 65 D En AUS ABC 19000 0100 0300 56,60-63,76,77 SHP 100 70 D En AUS ABC 21725 0300 0500 45,50,51,54W,55,56,64,65 SHP 100 355 D En AUS ABC 21725 0500 0700 44,49-51,54,55,58N SHP 100 329 D En AUS ABC 21740 2100 0100 56,60-63,76,77 SHP 100 70 D En AUS ABC (via Andreas Volk-D ADDX Munich; combined hfcc data and RA operation schedule by wb. via wwdxc BC-DX TopNews, revised Aug 21 via DXLD) Updated A-12 of Radio Australia by languages as of August 19: Burmese 0100-0130 on 11780 SNG 100 kW / 340 deg 2300-2330 NF 9525 DHA 250 kW / 085 deg, ex 9490 Chinese 1300-1430 on 9475 SHP 100 kW / 329 deg 1300-1430 on 9965 HBN 100 kW / 318 deg 1300-1430 on 11660 SHP 100 kW / 329 deg English 0000-0900 on 15240 SHP 100 kW / 030 deg (0300-0315 Mon-Fri in French) 0030-0400 on 17750 SHP 100 kW / 329 deg 0100-0300 on 19000 SHP 100 kW / 070 deg 0100-0500 on 15160 SHP 100 kW / 065 deg 0300-0500 on 21725 SHP 100 kW / 355 deg 0300-0600 on 15515 SHP 100 kW / 070 deg (0300-0315 Mon-Fri in French) 0500-0700 on 21725 SHP 100 kW / 329 deg 0500-0800 on 13630 SHP 100 kW / 050 deg 0530-0700 on 17750 SHP 100 kW / 329 deg 0600-1000 on 11945 SHP 100 kW / 100 deg 0700-0900 on 7410 SHP 100 kW / 030 deg 0700-0900 on 9710 SHP 100 kW / 355 deg 0700-0900 on 9475 SHP 100 kW / 353 deg 0800-0900 on 5995 BRN 010 kW / 010 deg 0800-1000 on 9580 SHP 100 kW / 080 deg 0900-1100 on 6080 SHP 100 kW / 334 deg 1000-1500 on 9580 SHP 100 kW / 070 deg 1000-1530 on 11945 SHP 100 kW / 070 deg 1100-1300 on 11945 SHP 100 kW / 329 deg 1100-1200 on 5995 BRN 010 kW / 010 deg 1100-1200 on 12080 BRN 005 kW / 080 deg DRM 1100-1300 on 6080 SHP 100 kW / 334 deg 1100-1300 on 6140 SNG 100 kW / 013 deg 1100-1300 on 9475 SHP 100 kW / 329 deg 1100-1400 on 6020 SHP 100 kW / 030 deg 1200-1400 on 5995 BRN 005 kW / 010 deg DRM 1300-1700 on 5940 SHP 100 kW / 334 deg 1400-1800 on 5995 SHP 100 kW / 030 deg 1430-1730 on 11660 SHP 100 kW / 329 deg 1430-1900 on 9475 SHP 100 kW / 329 deg 1500-1700 on 7240 SHP 100 kW / 040 deg 1530-2000 on 11880 SHP 100 kW / 050 deg 1600-1630 on 9540 SNG 100 kW / 340 deg 1700-2000 on 9710 SHP 100 kW / 030 deg 1700-2030 on 9500 SHP 100 kW / 353 deg 1700-2100 on 9580 SHP 100 kW / 070 deg 1730-2030 on 6080 SHP 100 kW / 005 deg 1800-2000 on 7240 SHP 100 kW / 030 deg 1900-2030 on 9500 SHP 100 kW / 329 deg 1900-2100 on 11660 SHP 100 kW / 065 deg 2000-2200 on 11650 SHP 100 kW / 030 deg 2000-2300 on 15515 SHP 100 kW / 050 deg 2000-0900 on 12080 BRN 010 kW / 080 deg (0300-0315 Mon-Fri in French) 2030-2200 on 9500 SHP 100 kW / 355 deg 2030-2200 on 11695 SHP 100 kW / 329 deg 2100-2300 on 13630 SHP 100 kW / 065 deg 2100-0100 on 21740 SHP 100 kW / 070 deg 2100-0800 on 9660 BRN 010 kW / 010 deg 2200-2400 on 9855 DHA 250 kW / 105 deg 2200-2400 on 15230 SHP 100 kW / 030 deg 2200-0700 on 15415 SHP 100 kW / 355 deg 2300-0100 on 19000 SHP 100 kW / 065 deg 2300-0300 on 17795 SHP 100 kW / 050 deg 2330-2400 on 17750 SHP 100 kW / 329 deg French 0300-0315 on 12080 BRN 010 kW / 080 deg Mon-Fri 0300-0315 on 15240 SHP 100 kW / 030 deg Mon-Fri 0300-0315 on 15515 SHP 100 kW / 070 deg Mon-Fri Indonesian 0000-0030 NF 9490 DHA 250 kW / 105 deg co-ch R. República Spanish, ex 12005 0000-0030 on 17750 SHP 100 kW / 329 deg 0400-0430 NF 17840 HBN 100 kW / 270 deg, ex 17800 0400-0530 on 17750 SHP 100 kW / 329 deg 0500-0530 on 11700 SNG 100 kW / 340 deg 0500-0530 on 17750 SHP 100 kW / 329 deg 2200-2330 NF 5955 DHA 250 kW / 105 deg, ex 9695 2200-2330 on 11695 SHP 100 kW / 329 deg Tok Pisin 0900-1000 on 5995 BRN 010 kW / 010 deg 0900-1000 on 6020 SHP 100 kW / 030 deg 0900-1000 on 6080 SHP 100 kW / 334 deg 0900-1000 on 9475 SHP 100 kW / 030 deg 0900-1000 on 9710 SHP 100 kW / 355 deg 0900-1000 on 12080 BRN 010 kW / 080 deg 1000-1100 on 5995 BRN 010 kW / 010 deg Mon-Fri 1000-1100 on 6020 SHP 100 kW / 030 deg Mon-Fri 1000-1100 on 6080 SHP 100 kW / 334 deg Mon-Fri 1000-1100 on 9475 SHP 100 kW / 030 deg Mon-Fri 1000-1100 on 9710 SHP 100 kW / 355 deg Mon-Fri 1000-1100 on 12080 BRN 010 kW / 080 deg Mon-Fri BRN=Brandon, Australia DHA=Al-Dhabbaya, United Arab Emirates HBN=Palau SHP=Shepparton, Australia SNG=Kranji, Singapore. All transmissions via Taiwan relays are terminated. (DX Re Mix News, Bulgaria, 27 August via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. 19000, Aug 25 at 2338, no signal from RA here, tho 21740 is VG at 2340; Aug 26 at 0001, still nothing on 19000, must be off the air tho scheduled 23-01; however at 0133 recheck, now 19000 is on contrary to latest schedule; making up for lost time? Or better yet, finally escaping the collision with Spain on 15160 between 01 and 02? No! At 0148 recheck, under Spain I can still hear RA // 19000. The latest operational schedule shows 19000 at 23-01 is the same transmitter F, as on 15160 after 0100 (and during the rest of the UT day the one switching consecutively to 13630, 9580, 7240, 9580, 13630). So there`s been some shuffling around. Probably one of them is now the spare 100 kW Shepparton transmitter which is available at all times, but why? 19000, re previous report of RA on this frequency at unscheduled time after 0100: axually, it is now in the new operational schedule. I didn`t check that because supposedly it only updated changes to the overseas relays. At 0100, 19000 switches from transmitter F to transmitter E for another bihour, and from a 65 to a 70-degree antenna. Another mystery from this arcane schedule: some of the frequencies are displayed in bold italic, such as 19000 after 0100 but not before. What does that signify? Not explained. This applies only to the transmitter-E lineup, possibly meaning not in daily use?? O, I bet these are the ones planned for DRM, target date delayed and unknown: So bold-italic/DRM spans are: 01-03 19000, 07-09 7410, 09-11 9475, 11- 13 6080, 13-17 5940, 9475 17-19. Non-bold italic: 03-07 21725, 19-21 11660, 21-01 21740 19000, Aug 27 at 0039 check, now the first transmission on this frequency is back on the air, missing the previous day (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) At a recent broadcast trade show I stopped at the Continental Electronics booth and talked a bit about their shortwave business. It was mentioned that they have recently sent several (maybe 5 ?) 100 kW transmitters to RA, apparently for DRM use. They had no information concerning eventual on air dates. JL (Jerry Lenamon, Waco TX, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) It seems all new Continental transmitters are DRM-capable, but that does not mean they will be used only in DRM. Probably these are routine replacements for aging AM units (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** AUSTRALIA. Rugby/Football in Australia --- Had fun tuning the "Coral Sea Service" of Radio Australia this morning from 0950 to 1035 GMT on 12080 kHz. This is a separate transmission in Tok Pisn beaming from Brandon in Queensland, tropical northeast Australia, with an operating power of only 10 kW! The transmission is intended for people in the Coral Sea area, such as Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Bougainville, etc. My S-Meter showed 3.5 out of 5 with a clear, steady signal. There was a minimum of background noise. On Saturdays and Sundays, though, from 1000 to 1100 GMT they switch their usual broadcast in Tok Pisn (Pidgin) to English by picking up the regular transmission from RA. The broadcast in progress at 1000 was the Saturday night professional rugby (football) match between the Queensland Cowboys and the Newcastle Knights. At half-time, about 1023 GMT, the Cowboys were ahead by a score of 18 to 14. During the half-time, the announcer even reported on the surfing trials in Tahiti! Sounded wonderful to me (Grayson Watson in Dallas, TX using a Satellit 750 with an Apex Radio 700DTA, Aug 25, NASWA yg via DXLD) Interesting! As pointed out recently by someone -- I don't recall if at this venue or another -- but Australian rugby and football (Australian Rules variety) are not the same game. Australian Rules Football is, among other thing, played on an oval field, rugby on a square field. The former, it is claimed, is faster and requires more endurance. Rugby is rougher and tougher, requiring more physical strength, though adherents argue those points. Each has a professional league in Australia, each game is most popular in different parts of Australia. As it turns out, the teams you mentioned, Grayson, are indeed, rugby. But a different game than (football) or footy. I'm sure our Aussie friends could point out differences better than this Yank with only a google's worth of knowledge on the issue (-don Jensen, WI, ibid.) Don: it was indeed professional Rugby, but they endlessly referred to it, correctly or not, as football. GW (Grayson Watson, ibid.) And I surely know little about either rugby or Australian Rules football. I have no credentials to challenge the play by play announcers. They, not me, know the sport. I only know that someone -- I think Bob Padula -- somewhere -- perhaps on this list or another, not long ago -- made a point about the difference between the two games. And having been pointed by Grayson toward this Coral Sea service, I also have been finding it fascinating listening! (Don Jensen, ibid.) Hi Grayson, Indeed you are correct, which makes it very difficult for us that are less than expert rugby and/or football aficionados to differentiate the two. I am the one who incorrectly named a live game I heard via Alice Springs on 4835 kHz. Received an email from Robin Harwood (Tasmania): "It certainly was NOT Rugby! There is a difference between Rugby (or as some call it thugby) and Australian Rules football which closer to Gaelic Football and Handball." Robin is a "passionate Collingwood supporter", so he of course immediately noted my error in reporting their game that I heard. Also Bob Padula (Australia) pointed out my mistake. But no matter which game is played, the announcers certainly make the game sound very exciting. Almost as exciting as "football", oops that's "fútbol", oh no it's "soccer", hi (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, ibid.) ** BANGLADESH. 15505, Bangladesh Betar, 1527-1545*, August 22. This is the strongest frequency and time for me to hear them; subcontinent music and in Hindi; ID at sign off. MP3 audio at https://www.box.com/s/3760f1f1eac6356d545d (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re: Bangladesh Betar heard today, 22 Aug, back on 7105 kHz signing on at 1745 with their English programme and news in English. By the way, since their re-activation, I have not heard the Voice of Islam ID being used at any time - only the External Service of Bangladesh Betar ID (Alan Roe, Teddington, UK, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, now at 1955 UT fair signal with little fading - OM singing a Bengali song "Ami je Bangladeshi ...", and another song at 1957. And yes, I also haven't heard the "Voice of Islam" ID yet like mentioned in the WRTH (Partha Sarathi Goswami, West Bengal, ibid.) Where is the ID mentioned? They carry the programme title themselves, though: http://www.betar.org.bd/externalservices.html 73, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, WRTH, ibid.) What we don’t know is how old that schedule on their website is. It is starting to sound like it may be an out-of-date one, if they are carrying news at 1745 onwards, as appears to be the case. Perhaps VOI has been dropped, or moved (they still show 7250 as the frequency in use, so who knows). Local: 23:45-00:15 UT: 17:45-18:15 Recitation from Holy Quran; Examples, Hamd, Nath etc. Voice of Islam (Eng.) & Europe 73, (Sean Gilbert, via?? Partha, DXLD) Alokesh Gupta from New Delhi, India gives a link to latest recording in August 2012: Bangladesh Betar V of Islam ID at 1802z: http://soundcloud.com/alokesh/bangladesh-betar-7250-khz-1802 Sorry for misinterpretation - it's not station ID; rather it's program title - and yes, they still have the same name, and there is also some Koran/religious related content as past (The main English program doesn't carry much religious content) (Partha, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, I agree it`s a programme, not a station ID, but its carried after 1800 now, not at 1745 when they broadcast news & comment. 73s (Dave Kenny, ibid.) OK, I meant the language division, not the frequency, but it seems that also the languages are exactly the same. Just happened to see the message below from Jose and thought it was different now. I think it would be better just to say English 1745-1900 anyway; many stations have religious segments in their transmission (Mauno Ritola via Partha Sarathi Goswami, ibid.) They are changing the frequencies regularly; otherwise timings are accurately displayed in Swopan Chakraborty's blog at http://swopan.blogspot.in/ They are changing frequencies frequently in test phase where they are checking the transmitter with old and new antenna systems. I think they are not yet satisfied with the results, you may understand that the 4750 kHz of them is one of the most well tuned nicely working transmission system used for national service during 6- 15 UT and some time more if some special event occurs, and the new setup of external service is yet far from it in terms of performance. For the external service they take feed from FM 103 MHz (if I am not wrong) which is audible in Dhaka city. The segment is specially meant for religious content for Bangladeshis leaving abroad, so they put that title of the program. Another thing I noticed is that their external service has almost identical content for all the language services in a same day - like NHK Radio Japan (As I can understand Nepali, Hindi, Urdu, Bangla, English audio/speech) (Partha Sarathi Goswami, WB, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15105, Aug 23, little to no signals from Bangladesh Betar during the 1230 English and 1315 Nepali semihours; and from 1358 past 1400, no signal at all on 15505 where Urdu was expected, as IS was recorded yesterday for WORLD OF RADIO 1631. Really poor propagation today and/or have they changed frequencies again? The great-circle path from Dacca (as on my old globe) to Enid passes within 7 degrees of the North Pole at 83 N, and enters North America at Mould Bay on Prince Patrick Island (if it`s still called that) in the NW Canadian Arctic. Long path traverses the base of Palmer Peninsula, Antarctica (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hello Glenn, The last time that I checked here Wednesday the 22nd, Bangladesh Betar as follows: Aug 22 1255, 15105, Bangladesh Betar with English news & women empowerment in Bangladesh; good signal, slight fade into Newfoundland. I will continue to check in the coming days and see if it's still audible at the time in question or if things have changed with their transmission. 73 (Allen Willie, Bristol's Hope, Newfoundland, Aug 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15105, Aug 24 before 1300, no signal detectable from BB`s English broadcast; nor at 1343 toward end of scheduled Nepali semihour. Just not propagating, or no longer there? 15505, by 1357 Aug 24, the next BB frequency is propagating, tone test, fair signal with flutter, 1358:50 starts IS but out of synch and faded out as another iteration has already started, timesignal ending late at 1400:12. After 1409 or so the rest of the Urdu transmission is mostly S Asian vocal music, presumably Bengali, rarely heard in Pakistan? 1429 brief announcement, hum, then hum stops, but carrier remains past 1432. I previously pointed out that signals from Dhaka to here are almost transpolar within 7 degrees of North Pole, but what great circle across N America is within 0-1 degrees of exactly transpolar? Thunder Bay-Madison-Cairo-New Orleans-Mérida-San Salvador. The antipodes is in the Pacific west of Antofagasta, Chile, just beyond the Tropic of Capricorn, the nearest islands to the east being Chile`s San Félix & San Ambrosio (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15505, Aug 25 at *1347:45 comes on with Bangladesh Betar IS in progress, poor with flutter. 1400 timesignal is early for a change, by 7 seconds. By 1421 has improved to fair with music, 1429 presumed Urdu announcement, 1430 bring up the hum. I certainly prefer and enjoy the music, but wonder why they spend so much to reactivate SW external service, with only half an hour a day scheduled for Pakistan, and fill so much of it, maybe 2/3 with music rather than significant talk content? Between 1230 and 1345, only traces of signal on 15105 for English and Nepali. The Pak azimuth consistently works better for us, still way offbeam. 15105, Aug 26 at 1255 I can hear some signal for a change, presumably BB in English. At 1400, 15505 is very poor, fluttery with S Asian music in Urdu service (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Bangladesh Betar has now shifted to 7205 kHz. http://swopan.blogspot.in/2012/08/bangladesh-betar-on-new-7205-khz.html Reports are welcome at rrc @ dhaka.net Thanks, (Swopan Chakroborty 1738 UT Aug 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 1 comment: Anonymous said: 7205 is a completely useless frequency in Europe; it`s blocked by a very strong Russian-language transmission. There is something in English, presumably Bangladesh, just detectable underneath. So 7105 or 7250 were very much better here. 73s Dave UK August 26, 2012 11:43 PM [probably Kenny] Signed on at 1745 UT, S9 +40dB, with news in English, nice signal but with fading and some static noise here. Clear audio on peaks. Then wiped out by CRI Russian signing on at 1800 UT (Tony Molloy, nr Winter Hill, UK, SD639114, 53.6 N 2.55 W, IO83ro, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Now at 1900 UT some usual 1025 Hertz test tone procedure heard. No expertise on engineer staff of Radio Bangladesh Betar Khabipur, every day to use another frequency in 41 mb. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Aug 26, ibid.) Yesterday Bangladesh Betar replaced the last two broadcast frequencies from 7105 kHz to 7205 kHz, but that caused collisions again, although the reception was much better in my part of world, but I checked the target area Europe via Twente University remote in The Netherlands. China Radio International in Russian was much stronger in Europe 1800 to 1857 UT as scheduled; Radio Thailand, English from 1900 to 2000 UT although not stronger than Bangladesh Betar, BB can be understood well but a co-channel is not appreciated at all, that made Radio Thailand almost useless. All were on accurate frequencies of 7205 kHz I believe as I havn't found any het (Partha Sarathi Goswami, WB, ibid.) 15105, Aug 27 at 1325 checking for Bangladesh Betar during Nepali service, JBA carrier might be it, also at 1343. 15505, entirely different at 1359 with fair signal, not the BB IS as normal, but just a big hum, 1400 hint of a note from the IS, no timesignal, more hum; 1400.6 the hum goes down and Urdu announcement music, still some hum. 1420 check, talk with hum; 1421 big hum only; 1423 hum down again and bits of modulation cut on; 1423 change to a song with no hum. Maybe the hum comes from the weakest link, studio to transmitter? BB still doesn`t have its act together (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, based on your tips of the last few days, I checked 15505 this morning and found Bangla Betar at about 1410 UT with a fair/poor signal at first, slowing degrading during the half-hour. Nothing but female announcer in presumed Urdu and what sounded like Indian subcontinent music; announcement around 1430 then into that "hum" as you called it (about a 200-Hz tone). Checked later about 1512 or so and found their interval signal playing -- pretty weak but unmistakable prior to listed Hindi service. Still audible weakly about 1530. I didn't try 15105 earlier in the morning for the English service, which I have yet to hear (Randy Stewart, Battlefield MO, Yaesu FRG-100B/short random wire; Tecsun PL-660 & stock whip (audible on both; Tecsun actually provided somewhat clearer audio!), Aug 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tonight on 7250 kHz, every day another QRG. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, 1903 UT Aug 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Updated summer A-12 schedule of Radio Bangladesh Betar: 1230-1300 15105 DKA 250 kW / 140 deg SEAs English 1315-1345 15105 DKA 250 kW / 320 deg SoAs Nepali 1400-1430 15505 DKA 250 kW / 290 deg WeAs Urdu 1515-1545 15505 DKA 250 kW / 305 deg SoAs Hindi, August 23 on 15105! 1600-1630 15505*DKA 250 kW / 290 deg N/ME Arabic 1630-1730 15505*DKA 250 kW / 290 deg N/ME Bangla 1745-1900 7105#DKA 250 kW / 320 deg WeEu English, also not on 7250! 1915-2000 7105#DKA 250 kW / 320 deg WeEu Bangla, also not on 7250! *from August 22 no transmissions on 15505 1600-1730, maybe change frequency #from August 25 no transmissions on 7105 1745-2000, maybe change frequency (DX Re Mix News, Bulgaria, 27 August via DXLD) He`s missed latest reports of 7205 also used at 1745-2000 (gh, DXLD) 7105 / 7205 / 7250 At present - since Aug 25th - Bangladesh Betar now using 7205 kHz outside the amateur radio band. 1745-1900 &7205#DKA 250 kW 320 deg to WeEUR English, also not 7250! 1915-2000 &7205#DKA 250 kW 320 deg to WeEUR Bangla, also not 7250! #from August 25 no transmissions 7105 1745-2000, maybe change frequency (DX MIX News, Ivo Ivanov-BUL, via wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Aug 27) & noted Aug 26th 7205 kHz, Aug 27th 7250 kHz instead. Now at 1900-1915 UT pause, some usual 1025 Hertz test tone procedure heard (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Uli, DJ9KR, of the DARC amateur radio club band watch, DARC / IARU-R1- Monitoring System Intruder Watch group sent me this explanation: "... But in Dhaka they have understand that they did broadcast in the 7105 kHz amateur radio band previously. I had sent polite but firm e-mail with the plan allocations of the ITU Geneve as attachment, to Zia Hasan, Senior Engineer (email ) and Ahmed Nadeem of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union in Kuala-Lumpur Malaysia (email ) This has worked well. Mr. Zia Hasan wrote to a Mr. Bahadir by the ABU with a copy to me. ``After getting his mail, we already stopped the test transmissions on 7105 kHz. According to the suggestions of Mr. Ulrich we will use 7250 kHz for Europe for CIRAF ZONE 27, which is allocated for Bangladesh Betar." Mr. Zia Hasan must have thought I'm in Geneva at the UN agency ITU - International Telecommunication Union, hi! Thanks for your tip, to who it is on 7105 kHz. The "Voice of Islam" is only part of a program R. BGD and be heard around 1803 UT. Where is this poor country can afford such a fine establishment? All countries are reducing shortwave, and BGD builds on this excellent technology. de Uli, DJ9KR (Aug 28) (via Wolfgang Büschel, Aug 28, dxldyg via DXLD) 15105, Aug 28 at 1238, JBA carrier at best, possibly BB English service; 15505 tried at 1400-1404+ and nothing heard today either, when Urdu has often been audible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15105, Bangladesh Betar (presumed), 1229 Aug 29, very faint music detected, followed by woman speaking at 1230. Checked again at 1250 and doing slightly better, with woman talking, but couldn’t confirm it was English. 1252 song in Hindi, 1257 popular sounding song, 1259:45 female speaker, 1300:15 tone and off. Very poor (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, listening from my car, overlooking Kalamalka Lake, with the Eton E1 and Sony AN-1 active antenna, Editor of World English Survey and Target Listening, available at http://www.odxa.on.ca dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15105, Aug 29 at 1245, BB English service is poorly audible, but only with S Asian songs, still at 1253; 1256 brief announcement, more music; 1259 closing presumably in English with some hum unlike during music, brief tone and off at 1300:45*. Thruout was bothered by splash from CNR1 jammer on 15115, rather than from much weaker first adjacent 15110 signal. By 1335 during presumed Nepali semihour, nothing but a JBA carrier on 15105. 15505, Aug 29 at 1359, much better fair signal with tone still running; 1359:35 finally starts IS but played only twice; 5+1 timesignal ends 25 seconds late after 1400, opening Urdu (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) But Bangladesh Betar back on regular 7250.0 kHz, "Bangladesh Betar" identification in English at 1755:30 UT Aug 29, suffers today Aug 29 still by odd heterodyne buzzy signal from their neighbour country India, like AIR Goa Panaji in Malayalam 1730-1830 UT on odd 7249.978 kHz (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Aug 29, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 5951v, 0100, 26-08-2012, Andean off-vocal music and comments from male announcer in Spanish. Unfortunately there's a lot of QRM and what seems to be jamming from a closer channel [Cuba 5955 vs R. República]. SINPO 33222. Strong jamming at 0105 and almost impossible lo listen to. Radio Pio XII, Bolivia (presumed). (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Normally reported above 5952 (gh to Leonardo, via DXLD) I did observe this station on this frequency. There was a lot of interference, so that was the best side of the dial to tune in to them (Leonardo, ibid.) Fine, but stations should be reported primarily by their carrier frequencies, please, rather than any side-tuning which may be necessary (gh, ibid.) ** BOLIVIA. 6134.818, Radio Santa Cruz, 0030-0045 Aug 30. At tune in noted steady popular type Latin music. At 0034 a canned ID over the music as, "... Radio Santa Cruz ..." by a female after which the music continues. More canned comments at 0036. Signal was fair with plenty of noise (Chuck Bolland, Excalibur, Clewiston FL, 26N 081W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 6154.90, R. Fides, La Paz, 20/08 2338-0010, 33333, hablan sobre la situación en Bolivia, ads Banco Central de Bolivia” ID “Gracias a la gente que se comunica con Radio Fides 94.7 FM” (Pedro F. Arrunátegui, Lima, Perú, Chasqui DX Agosto, La recepción la he efectuado en compañía de mi sabueso Icom IC R72 acompañado del Mizuho KX-3, una grabadora Alesis Palm Track, una antena de hilo largo de 15 metros y una antena loop, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6155, 0957, 25-08-2012, news by female announcer in both Spanish and Quechua (??), mentioning "Cochabamba" and "La Paz", Bolivia. SINPO 54444. But, signal decreased since 10.08. Impossible to ID this station. Still audible at 10.26 "la hora es seis de la mañana y veintiséis minutos" (06.26 am Bolivian time), but there was a lot of QRM with other stations. Atmospheric noise. SINPO 21322. Radio Fides, Bolivia (presumed). (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOTSWANA. 909, VOA, 2040, clearly audible on peaks with hilife and // 4930. A few other stations competing but this one dominant. 17/8 (David Sharp, NSW, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Por Favor Amigos uma forcinha pra Nós http://www.facebook.com/amstereo.brasil Campanha Am Stereo de volta ao Brasil. Participem (bigsatsb, 27 August, radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 4865.00, BRASIL, R. Verde[s] Floresta[s], Acre, 1/08 1110- 1137, 44444, ads, propaganda política, ID “Por Radio Verde Floresta….” 5035.00, R. Aparecida, Aparecida, 14/08 2350-0030, 44444, música LA ID “Por Radio Aparecida…” ads (Pedro F. Arrunátegui, Lima, Perú, Chasqui DX Agosto, La recepción la he efectuado en compañía de mi sabueso Icom IC R72 acompañado del Mizuho KX-3, una grabadora Alesis Palm Track, una antena de hilo largo de 15 metros y una antena loop, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Inconfidência e Band[eirantes] SP --- Venho através desta informar que: Rádio Inconfidência voltou hoje, às 1505 UT. Inconfidência voltou as emissoes na faixa de 49 mts, em 6010. Rádio Bandeirantes SP 6090, não está transmitindo o horário político na internet e em 6090 às 1500 UT foi verificado progama de desportos (durval503, 27 August, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Inconfidência está com potência reduzida em 49 m 6010 kHz? Ela deveria chegar aqui no Rio Grande do Sul melhor que a có irmã Itatiaia 5970 com 10 kW, mas opera com 25 kW. Entretanto a intensidade de seu sinal é até inferior a Itatiaia. Os colegas confirmam esta constatação? (Edison Bocorny Jr., Novo Hamburgo RS, ibid.) Olá Edison, Não sei se é baixa potência, ou está mesmo fora do ar. Sou ouvinte assíduo da Inconfidência 6010, e de uma semana prá cá, não consigo sintonizá-la mais. Em compensação a Rádio Gaúcha 6020 está chegando aqui com sinal 33333 ao cair da tarde. a Itatiaia chega aqui estourando tudo, parece emissora local, 55555. Abraço e boas escutas!! (Cássio Santos - Goiânia, Goiás, ibid.) Ontem, para minha alegria, a Rádio Inconfidência voltou a transmitir nos 49 metros (Cássio Santos - Goiânia - Goiás, Aug 28, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Inconfidencia e Band SP --- Ontem à noite também ouvi a Inconfidência, com sinal forte. Paulo Labastie, Pindamonhangaba/ SP, 28 August, ibid. via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DXLD) ** BRAZIL [and non]. 9820-, Aug 25 at 2350, het of C#5 = 554 Hz, no doubt from off-frequency R. Nove de Julho which would be on 9819.446 if the other station is on 9820.000. R9J is not usually reported that far off; EiBi lists 9819.7, so need more direct rather than inferential measurement. Aoki shows the only alternatives are: 9820 CNR 2 2330-0100 1234567 Chinese 150 290 Xianyang 594 CHN 10854E 3412N CNR2=11845 a12 9820 RADIO 9 DE JULHO 0000-2400 1234567 Portuguese 10 ND São Paulo SP B 04639W 2333S ZYR96 9820 VO Beibu Bay Radio 2300-2400 .....67 Chinese 15 225 Nanning 954 CHN 10811E 2247N BBR 9820 VO Beibu Bay Radio 2300-2400 12345.. Vietnamese 15 225 Nanning 954 CHN 10811E 2247N BBR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. QSL: Rádio Brasil Central, 11815, full data scenes from Goiânia card in 348 days for Portuguese airmail report and 2 IRCs and follow-up in Portuguese via registered airmail with US $5 return postage. QSL arrived 37 days after follow-up with US $5 returned. 73 (Al Muick, Williamsport PA USA, Aug 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CAMBODIA [non]. 9960, OPPOSITION, Khmer People Power Movement Radio (presumed), 1201-1231. M presenter in Cambodian. Fair peaking to good signal. Much clearer signal then recent broadcasts. At 1223 there started to be some QRM from Cuban jamming on the adjacent frequency of 9955. Monday 8/20/12 (Steve Handler, Buffalo Grove, Illinois, Icom IC- 7200, Tecsun PL-660; wire antennas, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** CANADA. DX-midAMerica reports:- 820 CHAM ON Hamilton COMedy "Funny820", was C&W Best wishes (via Barry : -) Davies, (Carlisle UK, PERSEUS, 3.7m x 10m Flag + FLG100 amp), Aug 24, MWCircle yg via DXLD) Just can`t get enough yux all-night six nights on CFRB 1010? (gh, DXLD) ** CANADA. 1550 in Windsor to return?? Sources within Her Majesty's Broadcast Network indicate that Her Majesty is considering returning the 1.55 megacycle signal to the airwaves here in Windsor. The now silent CBE site just outside of Windsor in the lovely hamlet of Maidstone, Ontario, had a For Sale sign put up the day after the last transmission. A cool $655k was all it would cost to buy the towers, property, building, et al. However, when Her Majesty then turned her attention to the CBEF (French language Radio Canada) site in northern Amherstburg near the first battle site of the War of 1812, she realized that the 100 acres or so of property right next to an expanding subdivision was worth a lot more than the four acres or so of the CBE site, and that the four towers on the CBEF site were in need of some expensive remedial work. That the two recently rebuilt towers of the former CBE site were in much better shape. So, apparently Her Majesty is now thinking of putting the 1.55 megacycle signal back on the air and shutting down 540. Makes sense, eh? Unfortunately the splatter from 1550 will wipe out my new favourite station, WSAI in Kentucky (a.k.a. southern Cincinnati, Ohio) that puts in a really decent signal into Windsor day and night. That ESPN outlet broadcasts some great baseball in the fall when other outlets have fallen silent. But I digress. Then again, Her Majesty recent ticked off some of her subjects scattered throughout the Sun Parlour and the Nord Shore of Essex County when she shut down the CBEFT French network TV analogue sender with no local replacement for those who do not subscribe to either cable or satellite. That she could have simply put that signal on a digital channel of the English language CBET transmitter might've made too much sense! I would complain to Her Majesty but she's probably too busy worrying about the antics of her grandchildren (Bill Leal in the sunny south, VE3ES, Aug 24, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** CANADA. MONTREAL RADIO STATION TORCHED --- from cnews.ca A Haitian radio station here was hit by arsonists recently after hosts criticized the country's former dictator. “CPAM-1610" was torched following calls by the radio hosts for a criminal trial for Jean- Claude Duvalier, who returned last year to the country he terrorized for decades. CPAM's north-end administrative offices were partially destroyed and the studio suffered water damage, rendering it useless. But the operators wouldn't be intimidated and were back on the air 10 hours after the attack. "The culprit has disturbed our routine, but he can't disrupt our ideas," station manager Jean-Ernest Pierre told listeners Monday morning from a temporary studio. CPAM is a beacon for the 100,000 Haitian expatriates in Montreal who form the largest such community in Canada. Pierre told QMI Agency a fellow broadcaster made his studios available to CPAM during the rebuilding process. He has spent the past two days reassuring listeners and appealing for calm. Hosts and loyal listeners were shocked at the arson attack. "People have continued to stream in to see the debris," Pierre said. "It's like a funeral." No arrests have been made and police have no suspects (when? via NRC DX News Aug 13 via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DXLD) That was a July 3 story, original here, with illustration: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2012/07/03/19946551.html (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. RADIO CANADA INTERNATIONAL'S FUTURE AS A SHORTWAVE BROADCASTER IS GOING UP IN SMOKE. LITERALLY. Posted: 26 Aug 2012 CBC News, 24 Aug 2012: "A large grass fire that ignited at the Radio Canada International towers site on Friday in Sackville is under control. The fire was inside the circle of towers. Members of the Sackville Fire Department got the call shortly before 2 p.m. Robert Ladrier, a senior remote area transmission technician, says the possible cause for the fire could be electrical arcing and a very dry field. One transmitter was on at the time of the fire, he says, but was shut down as soon as firefighters arrived. No one has been injured. There doesn’t seem to be major damage, according to Ladrier. However, some minor transmission equipment may have been damaged, but it’s not yet clear." (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) -- Because of an 80% budget cut, RCI has withdrawn from shortwave, and the Sackville site is for sale (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) ** CANADA [non]. GERMANY, Some Media&Broadcast changes: Bible Voice Broadcasting in English, additional transmission from August 19: 1830-1915 on 9635 WER 100 kW / 120 deg to N/ME Sunday only (DX Re Mix News, Bulgaria, 27 August via DXLD) ** CAYMAN ISLANDS [and non]. Re 12-34: ``CARIBBEAN FM DX FROM GRAND CAYMAN... Oh, how I wish I lived here. Anniversary #41 today. Great place to spend it! (Mike Bugaj, Enfield, CT, Aug 21, WTFDA via DXLD)`` No Radio ICCI-FM on 101.1? Or is that the one he indicates not hearing? Why not tell? When I was there many years ago lots of Jamaican FMers came in daily. I am not so sure it's really tropo (Terry L Krueger, FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHAD [non]. 6165, Aug 25 at 0430 checking for Chad, but only a JBA carrier unlikely this, maybe remnant of Zambia. RNT appears to be sporadic; it was also unheard by Wolfgang Büschel Aug 24 at 0500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) /ZAMBIA, 6165.003, Zambia ZNBC2 on air this morning, 6165 kHz yes a tiny string seen on the screen, nothing noted here from Chad on SW at 0500 UT Aug 24 (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Aug 24 via DXLD) [non non]. R. N'Djamena, Buonasera, in questo momento su i 6165 Khz R.N'Djamena parlato in francese dal Chad. Segnale 9+10, radio 4, audio un po' basso. RX. Elad fdm-s1, Ant. Miniwhip. un saluto (Davide Morotti, Italy, 2025 UT Aug 25, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) 6165, Aug 27 at 0521, RNT is on again, fair signal in French (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHILE. The 2 CVC lavoz QSL is received for report by email of dates in January 2012 & March 2012 both 17680 kHz via Calera de Tango, with 2 stickers and a possible rubber wrist band. In past few month ago I verified Chile with NHK Portuguese on 11880 kHz. Thanks & Regards, (Partha Sarathi Goswami, Siliguri, Darjeeling, West Bengal, INDIA Skype: dxinginfo Aug 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. 15410 kHz mit zwei Begleitern --- Auf 15406 und 15414 kHz wird das gleiche Programm abgestrahlt (zur Zeit ein "romantisches Schlagerlied"). Ist das als Störmaßnahme für die 15410 (Radio Liberty in turkmenischer Sprache via Wertachtal) gedacht? 1654 UTC, Radio Liberty mit O=4, die Begleiter mit O=2. 73, (Günter Lorenz, D-85354 Freising, RX: Perseus ANT: ALA1530+SSB August 26, A- DX via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) [A-DX] 15410 kHz with two companions --- On 15406 and 15414 kHz is radiated the same program (currently a "Romantic pop song"). Is that a jamming for 15410 (Radio Liberty Turkmen Language via Wertachtal)? 1654 UT, Radio Liberty with O = 4, the second companion with O = [?] 73, (Günter, D-85354 Freising, RX: Perseus ANT: ALA1530 + SSB, ibid.) [translations interspersed, by wb?] Heute, jetzt um 1640 UT wieder ein romantisches Lied zu hören. Still ein Rätsel. Also, ein Störsender sieht anders aus. Das Programm auf 15414 ist schön aufnehmbar, dagegen der Sender auf 15406 ist geradeso an der Grasnarbe. Muss wohl irgend eine Intermodulation oder foule Funktion einer - noch unbekannten Ausstrahlung in Chinesisch - sein. HELP. 73 (wb August 27, ibid.) 15410 kHz with two companions --- Today, now around 1640 UT again to hear a romantic song. Still a mystery. So, a jammer is different. The program is nicely accommodated on 15414, however the station in \\ on 15406. Is just as to the turf. Must have any intermodulation or foule a function - yet Be - unknown broadcast in Chinese. HELP. 73 wb (ibid.) Ich habe mal den Wasserfall laufen lassen, und dann einen Screenshot gezogen. Also RL Turkmen Wertachtal hat um 1659:10 den Stecker gezogen. Beide 15406/15414 Signale brachten noch das Zeitzeichen für 17 UT, danach 10 Sekunden später war auch hier Sendeschluss. Die CRI Chinesen enden meist xx.57, oder nach den Nachrichten xx.05 hrs. Auch vom eher 'weichen' Programminhalt her, muss es sich um ein chinesisches Domestikprogramm handeln. Still ein Rätsel, die Frequenzbelegung und der Zeitraum deutet auf eine bisher nicht beobachtete Jammingart hin. Dabei höre ich aber nichts Dergleichen auf den anderen RL 9760 und 11780 Frequenzen... Gibt es denn in West Tibet/China eine turkmenische Minderheit? vy73 Wolfgang (Büschel, ibid.) I have had time to run the waterfall, and then take pulled a screenshot. So RL Turkmen Wertachtal has pulled the plug at 16:59:10 UT Aug 27. Both 15406/15414 signals brought yet the time signal for exact 1700 UT, followed here was closedown at 10 seconds later. The Chinese CRI usually end program at xx.57, or hrs after the news at xx.05. Also observed from the rather 'soft sound' program in content, it must be a Chinese domestic program. Still a mystery, the occupancy rate and the period indicates a have not watched Jamming kind yet. And I hear nothing on the others in \\ RLs 9760 and 11780 frequencies. Is there in Western Tibet / China a Turkmen minority? Vy73 (Wolfgang, ibid.) Puzzle, RL Turkmen 15410 kHz, and accompanied CNR program on 15406 / 15414 kHz 15414_15406_15410RL_Turkmen.jpg15414_15406_15410RL_Turkmen.jpg Guenter Lorenz of Germany in A-DX newsgroup logged this 2-Frequency outlet puzzle, yesterday Aug 26. HELP. Is that a summer schedule of CNR8 in Kazakh on 15410 kHz ? 73 wolfy (Büschel, ibid.) At least 15415 kHz signed off normally at 0957, nothing on 15406 or 15414 kHz. 73, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, Aug 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No peaks observed in 14-15 UT slot today. [Aug 28] When checked at 1504 UT Aug 27, both Chinese language peaks seen again on 15406 and 15414 kHz, adjacent of RFI Swahili 15410 from Meyerton AFS. 73 (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Now there is CNR Chinese on 15406 and 15414 kHz. Weak carrier also on 15398 kHz, 15390 kHz blocked and 15382 kHz very weak. Stronger on 15422 kHz, strongest 15430 kHz, 15438 kHz getting again to weaker direction, the same with 15446, 15454. 15462 only carrier. I think they started at 1500. 73, (Mauno Ritola, 1520 UT Aug 28, ibid.) So, this is a malfunction of the jamming station 15430 kHz against RFA Mandarin? With a like 'garden fence' every 8 kHz from 15382 to 15462 kHz. Similar 8 kHz 'garden fence' reported by GH around 11760 / 11700 in DXLD recently. 73 (Wolfy, ibid.) Saipan ex-12005/11610 kHz now on 15430 kHz. 15430 1500-1700 43,44 SAI 100 325 Mandarin USA IBB center of the CHN Jamming activity, 73 wb (Büschel, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, ibid.) Yes, wasn't that 1300-1500, so can be same tx? I also noticed it some time ago on 11752 kHz. 73, (Mauno Ritola, ibid.) Gentlemen, excellent detective work! 73, (Günter Lorenz, Germany, ibid.) Same malfunction jamming transmitter noted Aug 29 at 09{-11} UT against VOA Chinese from Saipan 13610 kHz, spur strings visible on remote Perseus units in East Asia on 8 kHz 'garden fence' at 13586, 13594, 13602, center 13610, 13618, 13626 kHz (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Aug 29, ibid.) 11718, Aug 28 at 1259-1300* UT a carrier detectable here aside much stronger one from 11715 kHz KJES. As Ron Howard points out, 11718 kHz is part of a bunch of 8-kHz-spaced carriers at that hour. It`s presumably originating from a ChiCom jammer on 11710 (way under North Korea). (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) against 11710 CBSC Radio Taiwan International Taipei Chinese service at 11-13 UT (Büschel, Aug 29, ibid.) Same malfunction jamming transmitter noted Aug 29 at 11{-13} UT against CBSC Radio Taiwan International Taipei Chinese service, spur strings visible on remote Perseus units in East Asia on 8 kHz 'garden fence' at 11686, 11694, 11702, center 11710, stronger on upper side 11718, 11726, 11734, weak 11742 kHz (wb, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Aug 29, ibid.) Same malfunction jamming transmitter noted Aug 29 at 13{-1430} UT? against PHANTOM dummy broadcast of former Radio Australia Chinese service via Tanshui 300 kW transmission, jamming spur strings visible on remote Perseus units in East Asia on 8 kHz 'garden fence' at 11744, 11752, center 11760, 11768, 11776 kHz. The Chinese have not yet realized that Nigel Holmes has started a new Radio Australia schedule without the Taiwan relay transmissions... like former 11760 kHz at 1300-1430 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Aug 29, via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) {continuing from previous reports} UNIDENTIFIED. Further chex for weak mystery carriers in the 11.7s (is anyone else hearing them, if not tracing them?): 11734, Aug 23 before 1300, this is the only one and not in sequence with the others. 11776, Aug 23 cuts on at *1259:43 hetting Anguilla, and then all the others at +/- 8 kHz intervals from 11760 are also audible: 11736, 11744, 11752, 11768, 11784. Are these emanating from something on 11760? There is CCI under RHC there, but not sure what. On Aug 24 the 11.7+ MHz mystery carriers spaced exactly 8 kHz apart were not audible, as major signals from E Asia were also not propagating, but Aug 25 at 1301 they`re back, and I also hunt with BFO for further ones lower and higher than previously logged; easy to miss since there happen to be no legit broadcast signals to het, and I detect all these: 11728 (new), 11736, 11744, 11752, 11768, 11776 11784, 11792 (new). Note this amounts to four on each side of presumed source, some transmitter on 11760.0. There could be even more on 11720 and 11800 but landing on `even` channels hard to distinguish from intentional weak signals. 11776, Aug 26 at 1402, mystery carrier het is louder than usual and Anguilla 11775 is weaker than usual. I expect the others at 8 kHz intervals above and below 11760 were also there at various levels, but too busy to hunt them today. I have finally been able to pin the multiple 8-kHz-spaced carriers on CNR1, as some modulation finally came thru on some of them Aug 27 around 1315. At least JBA carriers were detected on all these: 11728, 11736, 11744, 11752, 11768, 11776, 11784, 11792. One of them far enough from other stations not to have a het was 11768 and there I could make out Chinese talk, and soon found it matched 11990 CNR1 jammer, tho not synchronized. Then also some audio on 11744 in the clear; it was almost synched with CNR1 jammer on 11785. At 1320, even 11776 had some audio like the 11805 jammer, and then 11752 as well. Still not positive is the source of these, but 11760 remains in the middle of them all, normally covered by RHC, and when not, CRI English via Kunming is scheduled there at 12-14, but the spurs only start at *1300 and end at 1500*. Aoki also shows a CNR1 on 11760 at 00-12, 100 kW, 165 degrees from Shijiazhuang 723 site, so maybe it`s really on at 13-15 too as the spur-producer? In that case it might also be doing so before 1200 when I am seldom monitoring and/or propagation is not so favorable (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sorry Glenn, I should have earlier suggested to you the following item from DXLD 12-26, which I found when investigating Terry Krueger's UNID on 11702.00: (Ron Howard, Aug 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) CHINA. 11686 // 11702 // 11718 // 11726 // 11734, CNR1, 1128-1140, June 25. In Chinese; // 6125. Last May when I heard CNR1 on 11717.98 (DXLD 12-20) I should have been more curious, otherwise I might have found these other frequencies. Spurs? What is the primary frequency? (Ron Howard, San Francisco at Ocean Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The pattern appears to be; 11686 11694 -8 (this one is missing) 11702 -8 11710 +8 (fundamental) 11718 +8 11726 etc JL (Jerry Lenamon, TX, ibid.) Tnx Ron and Jerry, I did recall there was something like this reported before but not on on `my` set of frequencies. A fundamental of 11710 would explain the carrier I have also heard on 11734 before 1300. It would be nice if we could correlate the same transmitter on 11710 before 1300 and on 11760 after 1300. Not quite. Aoki has 11710 CNR 1 1000-1735 1234567 Chinese 100 285 Beijing 572 CHN 11627E 3957N CNR1 a12 11710*R.TAIWAN INT. 1100-1300 1234567 Chinese 300 300 Taipei TWN 12124E 2509N CBSC a12 which means the 11710 source is probably a jammer itself against RTI. But there does not appear to be anything needing jamming on 11760 after 1300 --- unless it`s Sound of Hope on a later and dailier schedule than Aoki has: 11760*SOH Xi Wang Zhi Sheng 0900-1100 1.....7 Chinese 300 325 Tanshui TWN 12125E 2511N SOH a12 11760 CHINA RADIO INTER. 1200-1300 1234567 English 500 135 Kunming CHN 10250E 2510N CRI a12 11760 CHINA RADIO INTER. 1300-1357 1234567 English 500 135 Kunming CHN 10250E 2510N CRI a12 11718, Aug 28 at 1259-1300* a carrier detectable here aside much stronger one from 11715 KJES. As Ron Howard points out, 11718 is part of a bunch of 8-kHz-spaced carriers at that hour. It`s presumably originating from a ChiCom jammer on 11710 (way under North Korea). Then from 1300 the same defective transmitter presumably changes to 11760 (way under Cuba), and today reheard weak carriers on 11744, 11752, 11768, 11776, 11784; with 11752, 11776 and 11784 easily perceptible making hets to on-frequency stations. 11744, 11752, 11768, 11776, JBA carriers at 1405 Aug 29; 11752 caused het to Cuba 11750, but Anguilla 11775 was off. Wolfgang Büschel assumes the target of the fundamental on 11760 was R. Australia in Mandarin via Taiwan at 1300-1430, which is no longer relayed by Taiwan at all. (However, I didn`t think RA had been a target of ChiCom jamming; maybe only when they used Taiwan, and that could be a reason for quitting it??). Furthermore, the same kind of ``garden fence`` CNR1 jammer-spurs he has also been hearing after 1500 surrounding 15430 center, vs R. Free Asia via Saipan. And yet more: at 09-11 centered on 13610 vs VOA Chinese via Saipan, every 8 kHz from 13586 to 13626. So now we have four instances of this thing from 09 to 17(?) UT, likely a single defective jamming transmitter, which probably does the same thing on yet more frequencies the rest of the 24 hours (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Firedrake August 23, before 1300: 14700, JBA at 1227, none in the 11s, 12s, 13s 15555, very poor at 1254, het on lo side; none in the 16s, 17s 15710, poor at 1253; unusual spot, not in Aoki, nor any likely target, but probably a jumparound from Sound of Hope or Voice of Tibet via Tajikistan. Would you believe WHRI5 is on 15710 at 12-13? No, it`s not (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Couldn't sleep; hunted dragons. No other broadcasts noticed beneath the music. 24 Aug 2012, manual scan of 7 - 15 MHz: 14870: very poor at 1149 (Eric Weatherall, Eton E5 + indoor random wire antenna; San Francisco, CA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Firedrake Aug 24, before 1400: 15485, very poor at 1350, het on hi side; none others 12-18 MHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Couldn't sleep; hunted dragons. No other broadcasts noticed beneath the music. 25 Aug 2012, manual scan of 7 - 16 MHz: 12320: very good at 1117 and 1145 12670: poor at 1118 and 1147 (Eric Weatherall, Eton E5 + indoor random wire antenna; San Francisco, CA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Firedrake Aug 25, before 1300: 14980, very poor at 1258; none in the 17s, 13s; 12s unknown, too late 15555, fair with flutter at 1257; also noise? 16980, poor with flutter at 1257 After 1300: 15560, fair at 1313 with het on lo side, ex-15555 before 1300 above Firedrake August 25, before 2400: 15900, poor at 2335 with flutter 15970, very poor at 2335 with flutter 16100, very poor with flutter at 2336 17170, JBA at 2337; none in the 18s, 14s, 13s, 12s Firedrake August 26, before 1300, all with flutter: 12230, poor at 1252 12670, fair at 1252 13920, good at 1252 14700, good at 1254 14800, good at 1254 14870, good at 1254 15555, good at 1255 16100, poor at 1257; none in the 17s, 18s 16600, good at 1257; new frequency. The only previous 16600 mentioned in DXLD was issue 8-026, quoting an ITU monitoring entry from 17 October 2007, probably either Firedrake or Sound of Hope: ``K 16600.00 17 10 1827 1827 4.3 UNKNOWN BC 0.299 A3E 11 ????`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Firedrake Logs of Steven Handler from August 26, 2012: Hi Glenn, Here are some Firedrake logs from today. Good DX, Steve Handler 12230 Firedrake 1256 Fair signal. 12670 Firedrake 1257 Good-Excellent signal 13920 Firedrake 1258 Good-Excellent signal 14700 Firedrake 1259 Good 14800 Firedrake 1259 Excellent signal 14870 Firedrake 1259 Good signal. 15485 Firedrake 1307 Fair signal. 15490 Firedrake 1345 Fair signal with het. 15555 Firedrake 1251 15560 Firedrake 1308 Fair signal. 15605 Firedrake along with the propeller jammer 1336-1342 Poor signal 16100 Firedrake 1259 Poor (Steve Handler, IL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 27 Aug 2012, manual scan of 10 - 17 MHz: 12320: poor at 0834 12230: fair at 0836 13850: good at 0838 (Eric Weatherall, Eton E5 + indoor random wire antenna; San Francisco, CA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Firedrake August 27, after 1330: 15490, good at 1346 with het on lo side, down from 15495: 15495, fair at 1332, het on hi side 16100, good at 1334 17170, good at 1334 17235, poor at 1335, with ute QRM. New frequency, thought maybe spur? (At 1345, WWVH 10000 reported the K-index at 12 was 1) Before 1430: 15495, good at 1420, het on hi side; none in the 16s 17565, fair at 1425 vs V of Tibet via Madagascar jumparound; none in the 18s, 16s, 14s, 13s, 12s Firedrake August 28, after 1230: 13920, very good at 1233; none in the 12s 14700, very good at 1236 15545, good at 1240 16100, very poor at 1241 16980, good at 1241; none in the 17s, 18s Before 1400: 15490, fair at 1357, het on lo side 15605, poor at 1357 with noise jamming added Firedrake August 29 before 1300: 12320, very good at 1252 12670, very good at 1253 13850, very good at 1252, over WWCR 13845 13920, poor at 1252 with utility QRM, Australian fax? 14870, very good at 1249 15555, very good at 1249; this one only still on at 1303 16920, fair at 1250 16980, very good at 1250 17450, poor at 1250; none in the 18s Before 1400: 12670, good at 1339 13530, poor at 1339 15490, good at 1358 15495, fair until 1337* 15605, fair at 1337 with propeller noise, but at 1338 just the noise; 1358 recheck the FD music is back and still on at 1401 15700, good at 1338; very good at 1358; none in the 14s 16100, very good at 1340; none in the 17s (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Two firedrake (FD) frequencies found August 29 with perhaps faulty tx or additional jamming? Which was it? Could hear the FD, but there was an additional loud noise (white noise?). Have never heard this before. 17570 at 1416 and gone after 1430 against VOT. Identical situation on 17100 from 1416 to well past 1430 for SOH. MP3 audio at https://www.box.com/s/985b7430f0826d5f4e08 All the other FD heard with their normal clear music jamming on 14700, 14870 and 15495 (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Steve Handler and I have reported the noise jamming a number of times, including today, a.k.a. ``propeller noise`` --- I think it is just additional deliberate jamming, not necessarily from same site as the Firedrake (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Ron, This airplane sounding noise is very similar to double sideband mutiplex teletype transmissions from the old days. I don't know if anyone still uses that equipment. I seem to remember that the Navy could send 32 channels of teletype (16 lsb, 16usb). Could be that it's just a recording. JL (Jerry Lenamon, ibid.) Jerry, STANAG (STANdard AGreement) 4586 (and its variants) transmissions make exactly the same "sound" these days, except they are more often than not phase modulation (there have been some FSK instances) and mostly one high-speed channel. These are NATO transmissions and usually encrypted. Their idle markers can be decoded with the Hoka or Wavecom software series. Lotsa big bucks just for the idle marker. 73 (Al Muick, PA, ibid.) ** CHINA. 7315, 2158, 25-08-2012, open carrier. 22.00 "Zhongguo guoji guangbo diantai. China Radio Internazia". China Radio International via Kashgar, East Turkistan in Esperanto language to SAm. Very good reception. SINPO 55545. News by YL about Israel and other parts of the world. Interesting to listen to one broadcast in this language!! (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. 1170, Caracol, Cartegena, Bolívar. 0015 August 25, 2012. In-studio female bantering with remote reporters, frequent mentions of Colombia, brief ad block, then Caracol Colombia ID. Good (Terry L. Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, JRC NRD-535; ICOM IC-R75; Sony ICF- 7600GR; Sangean PR-D5; Aqua Guide 705 RDF Marine Radio; GE Superadio III; JPS NF-60 Notch Filter; JPS ANC-4 Noise Phaser; 1 X roof dipole; 1 X room random wire; Terk Advantage non-active portable loop, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. RCN Radio y la Cadena Súper firman acuerdo More Sharing Services Por: RCN La Radio Fernando Molina Soto, Presidente de RCN Radio y Álvaro Pava Camelo, Presidente de la Cadena Súper de Colombia, comunican: 1.- Han realizado una alianza estratégica para operar diferentes estaciones AM, de propiedad de los accionistas de la Cadena Súper de Colombia. 2. Esta alianza incluye las emisoras: 970 de Bogotá, 710 de Medellín, 1200 de Cali, 1020 de Villavicencio, 1020 de Ibagué, 900 de Cúcuta y 1100 de Neiva. 3. Esta alianza empezará a regir a partir del primero (1) de noviembre del presente año y pretende, básicamente ofrecerle más alternativas a los oyentes de los dos medios de comunicación. 4. Esta es una alianza estratégica de riesgo compartido, regida por las normas del derecho privado, existentes en Colombia. 5.- La Cadena Súper de Colombia, mantendrá la propiedad de la totalidad de sus emisoras. 6.- El contenido noticioso de RCN Televisión, estará a disposición de los oyentes de RCN Radio, en estas estaciones. 7. Oportunamente comunicaremos a nuestros oyentes la nueva programación de las estaciones Súper, ahora asociadas a RCN. Firmado en Bogotá, D.C, a los veintiocho (28) días del mes de agosto de dos mil doce (2012). FERNANDO MOLINA SOTO PRESIDENTE RCN RADIO ÁLVARO PAVA CAMELO PRESIDENTE CADENA RADIAL SÚPER FUENTE: http://www.rcnradio.com/noticias/rcn-radio-y-la-cadena-super-firman-acuerdo-18096 (Via @yimbergaviria, DXLD) RCN CONFIRMÓ COMPRA DE RADIO SÚPER Apartir del 1 de noviembre, Radio Súper será oficialmente una emisora de RCN. Los presidentes de ambas cadenas, Fernando Molina y Álvaro Pava, informaron que se suscribió un acuerdo para operar diferentes estaciones AM, que son propiedad de la Cadena Súper de Colombia. Esta alianza incluye las emisoras: 970 de Bogotá, 710 de Medellín, 1200 de Cali, 1020 de Villavicencio, 1020 de Ibagué, 900 de Cúcuta y 1100 de Neiva. De momento, están a la espera de anunciar la nueva programación de las estaciones Súper, sin embargo, se sabe que estas emitirán contenidos de RCN Televisión. Los actuales dueños de Súper, la familia Pava, estarán al frente de la estación radial hasta el 31 diciembre de este año, afirmaron algunos medios de comunicación paisas. FUENTE: http://www.radiosantafe.com/2012/08/29/rcn-confirmo-compra-de-radio-super/ NOTA: Uff! Lo que se temia, en la noticia anterior http://colombiadx.blogspot.com/2012/08/colombia-rcn-radio-y-la-cadena-super.html creo que RCN adornó la noticia, sobre la compra de la cadena SUPER, y Radio Santa Fe lo confirma (@yimbergaviria, August 29, DXLD) Hola Yimber y colegas de la lista, cabe anotar que desde hace un tiempo ya, RCN tenía algún tipo de control de las emisoras 900 kHz Cúcuta donde está operando RCN Fiesta y la de Neiva en 1100 kHz que está operando como Radio Uno (Rafael Rodríguez R., playdx via DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. RADIO SUTATENZA, LA UTOPÍA QUE SE CONVIRTIÓ EN HITO EDUCATIVO 23 ago 2012 Lo que en 1947 empezó como el proyecto de un radioaficionado, el padre José Joaquín Salcedo, terminó por convertirse en una de las industrias culturales de mayor impacto social en América Latina. El modelo de escuelas radiofónicas que creó laFundación Acción Cultural Popular — ACPO —, más conocida como Radio Sutatenza, permitió que más de ocho millones de campesinos colombianos aprendieran a leer y escribir, y adquirieran conocimientos básicos en diferentes áreas, que les permitieron mejorar sus condiciones de vida. El próximo 29 de agosto, Margarita Garrido, directora de la Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, presentará la edición 82 del Boletín Cultural y Bibliográfico —BCB—, que cuenta la historia y el impacto de Radio Sutatenza, mientras RTVC lanzará el disco Sutatenza. El campo de la radio. “Para cada uno de los campesinos colombianos que vio cambiar su mundo, que se constituyó en ciudadano y miembro activo de la sociedad en la que vivía gracias a su vinculación a un proyecto conocido como Acción Cultural Popular, esta historia tiene una moraleja que le indica que los sueños pueden ser reales.”(1) En 2008 el Banco de la República recibió de ACPO el archivo de Radio Sutatenza para conservarlo y ponerlo a disposición de todos los colombianos en las salas de la Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango. Esta iniciativa, busca incentivar nuevas investigaciones y abrir nuevas perspectivas sobre lo que fue este proyecto para la historia nacional y del mundo. “En el archivo se encuentran no solo el audio de los programas que transmitió la emisora durante cerca de cincuenta años, también están los guiones que se usaron, la colección completa del periódico El Campesino, los discos de las escuelas radiofónicas y las diferentes publicaciones que se hicieron, entre otros documentos. Tal vez uno de los tesoros inesperados es la correspondencia entre los líderes campesinos que impulsaban la alfabetización en sus regiones y los funcionarios de ACPO, quienes les contestaban religiosamente las cartas.”(2) La reciente edición del BCB incluye los artículos: Radio Sutatenza: un modelo colombiano de industria cultural y educativa de Hernando Bernal Alarcón; Sutatenza: retos y sueños de un proyecto radial de Gabriel Gómez Mejía; La cultura escrita en sociedades campesinas: la experiencia de Radio Sutatenza en el Suroccidente colombiano de Aura Hurtado; Promoción de la alfabetización en la frontera de los Llanos: la influencia de Radio Sutatenza y Acción Cultural Popular en el departamento del Meta, 1950 a 1990 de Jane Rausch; El Campesino “Un semanario al servicio y en defensa de los campesinos de Colombia” de José Arturo Rojas M. e Hilaria: una vida al servicio de una causa que relata el testimonio de quien preservó los archivos de Radio Sutatenza que hoy reposan en la Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango. También incluye el intercambio de correspondencia entre Camilo Torres Restrepo y representantes de Radio Sutatenza, acompañada de una presentación del padre Fernán González. Además, como es regular en la publicación, una selección de poemas e ilustraciones, esta vez a cargo Ramón Cote Baraibar y María Isabel Plata Rosas respectivamente, así como las habituales reseñas de libros colombianos. Sutatenza. El campo de la radio Radio Televisión Nacional de Colombia, RTVC, a través de su fonoteca y la Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, presentarán el trabajo Sutatenza. El campo de la radio, que incluye una selección de la recuperación del archivo sonoro de Radio Sutatenza. La compilación recoge una muestra de programas educativos y de entretenimiento realizados en el marco de los ejes temáticos promovidos por la emisora y su sistema de escuelas radiofónicas. 1. Gabriel Gómez. Los sueños de la radio. Boletín Cultural y Bibliográfico Nº 82. Banco de la República, 2012. 2. Ángela María Pérez Mejía. Texto de presentación, Boletín Cultural y Bibliográfico Nº 82. Banco de la República, 2012. Fuente: http://banrep.gov.co FUENTE: http://www.estereofonica.com/radio-sutatenza-la-utopia-que-se-convirtio-en-hito-educativo/ Imagen cortesia de: commons.wikimedia.org (Via @yimbergaviria, DXLD) R. Sutatenza was once a bigsig on 5075, 5095; and 810? (gh, DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. 5909.92, R. Alcavarán [sic], Lomalinda, 17/08 1115-1145, 44444, programa religioso (estudio bíblico), ID “Por Alcavarán radio..” música religiosa (Pedro F. Arrunátegui, Lima, Perú, Chasqui DX Agosto, La recepción la he efectuado en compañía de mi sabueso Icom IC R72 acompañado del Mizuho KX-3, una grabadora Alesis Palm Track, una antena de hilo largo de 15 metros y una antena loop, DX LISTENING DIGEST) It`s Alcaraván Radio (gh, DXLD) 5910, 0440 12/08/2012, R. Alcavaran [sic] - spa - ID, musica sudamericana, 33333 (Ivan Guerini, # Swl I2 - 5759 #, http://swl-i2- 5759.blogspot.com/ via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. 14951, 2311 11/08/2012, Salem Estéreo - spa - musica folk + commenti 23333 (Ivan Guerini, # Swl I2 - 5759 #, http://swl-i2-5759.blogspot.com/ via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) 14950.75, Aug 23 at 0248, Salem Stereo has quite a fair signal during a ballad about El Señor (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 14950+, Aug 26 at 0133 check, Salem Stereo is quite readable, but it`s the usual preaching during this semihour instead of any music. When I first heard it with very weak signal, I thought it was USB plus carrier, and someone else recently reported it thus, but once again it`s clearly AM/DSB and really sounds better in AM mode than LSB or USB receiver positions. 14950+, Aug 26 at 1254 while hunting Firedrakes, instead hear Spanish gospel music mentioning ``corazón``, so Salem Stereo again lux out against likely CCI from FD (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 14959.76, Salem Estéreo, 1919-2000 seemed like a program of religious music and M host. Pretty lax about deadair between songs and announcements. A really nice peak at 1949, but died in a matter of 3 seconds. Caught canned ID at 1950 by M though, then canned dialog by W and M. Was getting some annoying QRM from ute bursts all around this frequency (29 August) 73 (Dave Valko, Dunlo, PA, DXpedition to nearby Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26, Microtelecom Perseus SDR with ARR preamp, 315' Beverage (BOG) at 90 , Solar Flux = 118, A Index = 4, K Index = 1, No storms, HCDX via DXLD) ** CROATIA. 3985, 0405, 11-08-2012, The Voice of Croatia in Croatian to Europe via its own facilities. News bulletin by OM as well as the complete transmission schedule in Croatian. The broadcast kept with another program by both OM and YL and there was a music segment with Croatian music. SINPO 25332 (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. 1230, Radio Progreso, unknown site. 0014 August 28, 2012. Man and woman skit, male host, some type of serial entertainment show. Briefly excellent on post-sunset enhancement, parallel weaker 640 (Terry L. Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, JRC NRD-535; ICOM IC-R75; Sony ICF-7600GR; Sangean PR-D5; Aqua Guide 705 RDF Marine Radio; GE Superadio III; JPS NF-60 Notch Filter; JPS ANC-4 Noise Phaser; 1 X roof dipole; 1 X room random wire; Terk Advantage non-active portable loop, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. 08-24-12, 0048, 5025 -- Radio Rebelde coming in very nicely, SINPO 54334. Sports show presumably for domestic audience, male announcer scolds audience over complaints their call-in phone number is always busy, says people are misdialing it, repeats the number several times. Listened for about 10 minutes, and it was same caller the whole time, going on and on; suspiciously articulate and good on air for a "random" sports radio caller. Hrmm (Bill Blair, TECSUN PL- 380 portable in Euless, Texas, USA, with 25 foot reel wire antenna, on a second floor, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Ho hum, another night and more SNAFUs to report from RHC: 6010, Aug 24 *0514 carrier comes on for the 0500 English service, 0515 adding modulation. Then I check 6125; it`s only open carrier until 0519 modulation brought up. Meanwhile 6050 and 6060 were already running. RadioCuba also suffered HCJB to be heard on 15340, RHC never showing up at 1307-1434+; see AUSTRALIA. Meanwhile RHC had bigsigs on 13780, 17580, 17730. 11680, Aug 25 at 2344, RHC with `Sonido Cubano` program ID, music; much louder than // 11840 which axually had almost the same S9+22 signal level, but undermodulated. RHC anomalies Aug 29: at 0501, 6000 is still on the air in English, much weaker than 6010; 6050 and 6060 are very poor on each side of stronger 6055 Spain, and 6125 is missing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. "NEGATIVE REPORTING" BY RADIO/TV MARTÍ IS BASIS OF LEGAL APPEAL BY CONVICTED CUBAN SPY. Posted: 25 Aug 2012 Miami Herald, 20 Aug 2012, Juan O. Tamayo: "An appeals lawyer for the leader of five Cuban spies convicted in a Miami trial filed an affidavit Monday arguing that Radio/TV Marti secretly paid millions of dollars to journalists to influence jury members against his client. ... [Gerardo] Hernandez is serving two life sentences on charges that encrypted reports he sent to Havana helped Cuban MiG jets shoot down two unarmed Brothers to the Rescue airplanes over international waters in 1996, killing all four South Florida men aboard. Martin Garbus, a prominent civil rights lawyer, argued in the brief that the U.S. government tainted the jurors in the trial of the five Cubans by using the U.S. government-owned Radio/TV Marti to hire journalists expressly to produce reports condemning the spies. The New York attorney noted that some of the payments were secret - the affidavit uses the word 55 times - and argued that prosecutors should have revealed them to the defense during the trial. ... The negative reporting amounted to illegal propaganda 'by agents, not journalists,' designed to predispose potential jurors to convict the five, Garbus said. ... Radio/TV Marti and the dozen or so South Florida journalists mentioned in the affidavit have previously denied those allegations, first made public in 2006." (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** DJIBOUTI. 4780, Aug 23 at 0305, R. Djibouti is on with Qur`an, fair signal making 7 bars on the DX-398, altho doesn`t sound that strong. Several earlier chex still did not find it at 0300, so must have come on a bit late. Only African audible on 60m but I`ll take it. No sign of VOA Botswana scheduled to start 4930 at 0300; nor CVC Zambia on 4965 which has now been abolished, per Wolfgang Büschel (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. 4781v, 2302, 25-08-2012, adverts by male and then some music. IDed as "Radio Oriental" at 2307. SINPO 25332. This time broadcasting Caribbean Spanish music, "Merengue" and other genres. Musical program with no comments. Abrupt closedown of transmission at 0001. Reception improved as time passed by. Around 2330 SINPO was 45443 (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR [non]. Some Media&Broadcast changes: New schedule of HCJB Global Voice in German from August 25: 2300-2330 NF 9835 WER 100 kW / 240 deg to BRA, ex 2215-2245 on 11920 (DX Re Mix News, Bulgaria, 27 August via DXLD) ** EGYPT. Anyone to help the Egyptians to get proper signals from their transmitters? or are those broadcasts used as torture? (Walter Eibl, ed., Aug-Sept WWDXC DX News via DXLD) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 5005, Radio Nacional, Bata, 0504-0525, 26-08, Spanish and vernacular songs, female, comments in Spanish, identification: "En Radio Bata". 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Logs in Friol, Sony ICF SW 7600 G, cable antenna, 10 meters, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, Aug 23 at 0553, gospel huxters discussing how wives must obey husbands, and gay marriage just won`t do, leading to adoption rather than procreation of children. 0558 wrapping up with no names of speakers or the program just heard, until next week; brief pause, no ID and 0559 starting another, Program #124, which is how Tony Alamo started his shows, and sure `nuff, it`s really him mumbling despite being incarcerated for 175 years following convixion for child sexual abuse. He notes that it`s Mothers` Day (no doubt from a year long ago), and prays that God will somehow ``take taxation off the people that I married``, i.e. minors. Chorus of assent from girls with him. Then YL starts reading letters allegedly from listeners, first from someone in Kinshasa, DR Congo (another tuner to 15190?) addressed to ``My dear Pastor Alamo``, then someone in Illinois. Thank you, Pan American Broadcasting, for keeping this monster on the air. 15190, Aug 24 at 2010, R. Africa, good signal with YL remarking how her ``angel hair is difficult to work with``; modulation somewhat muffled (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15190, 1750, 25-08-2012, man preaching in English from the Holy Bible. Radio Africa, Bata. Good reception. SINPO 55444. Some QTHs to send letters to Bible teaching organizations in the United States. Nor Brazil neither Philippines were on the air this time, so the frequency was clear to Radio Africa (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Philippines probably was on the air, just not audible (gh, DXLD) It was clear. This is not the first time I tune in this frequency. If I say it was clear it's because it really was. At least it was in my country. Sometimes there is Brazil or Filipines, but this time none of them were interfering to RA (Leonardo Santiago, ibid.) 15190, Radio Africa, 0518-0533, 26-08, male, English, religious comments. 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Logs in Friol, Sony ICF SW 7600 G, cable antenna, 10 meters, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15190, Aug 26 at 0549, R. Africa is on with hymn; nothing there a few minutes earlier. 0550 over to YL gospel huxter. Recheck 0604, it`s dead air past 0607 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15190, Aug 28 at 2003, R. Africa is still on and sounds like Tony Alamumble at a later hour than usual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 6110, Wed Aug 23 at 0257, poor signal with repetitive music, seems an IS. The last two descending notes repeat the previous two. 0259 some other music and announcement but too weak. If I were list-logging strictly by Aoki, the conclusion would be V. of Azerbaijan which starts at 0300, but the trouble is, it`s been off SW for years, altho not so indicated by Aoki and wasn`t it really on 6111? Aoki shows R. Fana, Ethiopia not starting until 0330 M-F, but 0300 on weekends. However, EiBi has R. Fana starting at 0300 daily, and the WRTH agrees altho without any language details. Fana is certainly the most likely, sunrise just right at 0317 UT in Addis Ababa, but Tibet is also on here (too late in the daytime, sunrise 2328 UT), and so is AIR Srinagar, Kashmir (sunrise at 0030 UT). I was about to report this as UNIDENTIFIED, until I checked the clip at http://www.intervalsignals.net/files/eth-fana_national_240112.m3u and there`s a match! (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. Re Hans Östnells Unid, 12-34: ``7200, 16 Aug 1730, UNID here playing jazz and French chansons (including a.o. Edith Piaf) and speaking French with an African accent. Sometimes even as strong as Sudan. What could this be? (Hans Östnell, Vardö, Norway, SW Bulletin Aug 19, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` Certainly R. Ethiopia External Service. Often there at this hour until 1800*, should be // 7234.7v, 9558.5v and 9705 kHz, but 9705 usually jammed by ERITREAN programme + ETHIOPIAN noise, and the other two with usually quite low audio. So at my location reception 7200 is occasionally best of these four. 73 (Thorsten Hallmann, Münster, Germany, Aug 24, http://www.africalist.de.ms DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FINLAND. Don`t let it slip past you if you have any chance of pulling in this 100 watt station, preferably inside Europe: next 24- hour broadcast of Scandinavian Weekend Radio starts already Friday 31 August at 2100 UT, since that is the very beginning of the first Saturday in September, local time: http://www.swradio.net/schedule.htm (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. Frequency change of Radio France International in French: 1700-1900 NF 13825 ISS 500 kW / 200 deg to NWAf, ex 13740 to avoid WYFR Farsi (DX Re Mix News, Bulgaria, 27 August via DXLD) ** FRANCE [non]. 7340, Aug 28 at 0458 pop music, flutter, off abruptly at 0500 without announcement. HFCC shows it`s RFI, 500 kW, 19 degrees from Meyerton, SOUTH AFRICA at 0430-0500 daily in Swahili. (A lot of signals end at 0500 on the 7 MHz band, clearing it out) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. Radio 6150: Dear friends and listeners, we are sorry to tell you, that you will have to wait some more days for the start of our new station. Don't worry, everything is running well, but we have to wait for delivery of our new transmitter. 'Till the start of our new station there will be Offshore-programs on 6070 kHz 24/7 with about 750 watts. And if you would like to hire some airtime on 6070 kHz with powers from 1.2 to 20 kW, please write to us! We made some changes on our homepage http://www.radio6150.de Please have a look, and don't forget to click on the GOOGLE ads, if you want to support us; thanks! Best wishes (from qsl@radio6150.de [also in German and Dutch] 27 Aug via Harald Kuhl, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) f.y.i. up to 20 kW on 6070 kHz from Germany sooner or later 73 (Harald Kuhl, ibid.) See also ECUADOR [non] Huge increase in signal strength noted here at 1925 UT. Still with old Laser 558 tapes. Regards & 73s (John Hoadd, Faversham Kent, ibid.) ** GERMANY EAST. Radio Berlin International returning? I don't think so! A few weeks ago on FB there were some messages about Radio Berlin International returning. Some group in Germany said they were going to restart RBI. This was a scam. And Media Network caught them. To hear how we did it check out this weeks Media Network Plus. The 55 minute monthly edition has a longer look at this very odd and funny story. The URL is http://www.pcjmedia.com/medianetworkplus (Keith Perron, Taiwan, Aug 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Told you so, or did I not even bother? If so: Nothing there pointed at former RBI staff members, and everyone here in Germany, including journalists who once worked at RBI, had other things to do than digging into the weird online activities of some unknown people (if it was more than a single individual at all). The interesting aspect of this story is something else: The flurry it caused amongst some German DXers but even more abroad. To me this indicates how self-referential the "international broadcasting community" (whatever that may be) is, perhaps not even foreseeing it while looking down at those shortwave enthusiasts who have no idea of real media (Kai Ludwig, ex-East Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Well this story has taken another strange turn. Will post the details soon (Keith Perron, 1911 UT Aug 27, ibid.) ** GREECE. 9420, August 23 at 0158, great traditional atmospheric music from The Voice of Greece to plug-pulling at 0200, as with previous recent local evenings. I used to listen to them well into the nights here; now with this truncated schedule, broadcasts end just as reception starts to improve with local sundown. Reception was fair, for those two minutes, very listenable for the music (Eric Bryan, WA, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX Listening Digest) [and non] Agreed; I also get acceptable reception around 20-22 UT on 15630 during afternoon nap-time. Also Kuwait Western music on 15540, Arabic on 17550; Morocco 15349.1; VOA Africa music announced in English on 15580; French on 15730, 17530 [the last ones only until 2030] (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUATEMALA. 4055v, Aug 25 at 1126, TGAV good S9+13 signal with hymn, but rather distorted, and with BFO can tell carrier is slightly unstable (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4055, Radio Verdad, Chiquimula, 0456-0607*, 26-08, male, Spanish, religious comments, at 0500 English program "Spiritual Songs", religious comments and songs, identification: "Radio Trust, P. O. Box 5, Chiquimula, Guatemala, Central America", at 0557 identification in various languages, anthem and close down. Good signal today. 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, Logs in Friol, Sony ICF SW 7600 G, cable antenna, 10 meters, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4055, Radio Verdad, 1155 Aug 29, Spanish, hymn played on banjo, 1157 electronic organ, announcements and IDs in Spanish, 1200 clock strikes, hymn. Fair (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, listening from my car, overlooking Kalamalka Lake, with the Eton E1 and Sony AN-1 active antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUYANA. Does anyone have a working email or fax number for NCN Guyana (Voice of Guyana)? No fax listed on the site, and the WRTH fax number gets answered by a human. feedback(at)ncnguyana(dot)com is always over quota and the newsroom email is bogus. Not too interested in hearing from listeners, I guess, lol. Many thanks and 73s (Al Muick, Williamsport, PA USA, Aug 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Al, have you tried this one? Voice Of Guyana Address: PO Box 94486, Seattle, WA 98124 Tel: 100000074986617 http://www.hotfrog.com/Companies/Voice-Of-Guyana/SendEmail.aspx?company=Voice-Of-Guyana (Bruce Jensen, California, USA, ibid.) ** INDIA. 4850, AIR Kohima, 1210-1401*, August 22. In English, vernacular and Hindi; religious songs; repetitive indigenous songs; 1302 normally heard ID and scheduling in English; 1314-1324 transmitter off the air; 1340-1350 news in Hindi; 1350-1400 news in English; poor to almost fair at times, with CW QRM. August 25 off the air; not heard at checks at 1241 and 1320 (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non]. 4850, AIR Kohima. August 26 found off the air at 1303 and 1321. Erratic! 4990, AIR Itanagar, 1251-1341, August 26. The often heard regional / indigenous chanting/songs from the state of Arunachal Pradesh, as confirmed by Partha Sarathi Goswami; 1330 news in Hindi; subcontinent songs; audio hum; music heard at fair audio level, but the speaking segments had very low audio; CW QRM. Random checking from 1346 to 1355: 4775 AIR Imphal not heard. 4810 AIR Bhopal heard. 4820.8 AIR Kolkata heard (recently often off frequency). 4835 AIR Gangtok perhaps the faint audio under ABC? 4880 AIR Lucknow heard. 4895 AIR Kurseong heard (clearly not Mongolia). 4920 AIR Chennai not heard at all (unusual), only PBS Xizang. 4970 AIR Shillong heard with fine audio today. 5010 AIR Thiruvananthapuram heard today and yesterday with a strong hum. At first thought it was a utility open carrier on top of them, but perhaps it really is the AIR tx? 5050 AIR Aizawl, am fairly sure this is off the air. 9425 AIR Delhi not heard. I really miss AIR Bangalore that was formerly here with their strong signal. Now is rare that I get any audio from Delhi. 9870 AIR Bangalore heard under CRI in English (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. AIR carrying live commentary of India vs New Zealand cricket series --- All India Radio is broadcasting live cricket commentary alternatively in English and Hindi from 0900 IST (0330 UT) to 1700 IST (1130 UT) or till the end of the match. The commentary can be heard on selected SW, MW & Rajadhani and FM Gold Channels. Tour Schedule: 1st Test: India v NZ at Hyderabad (Deccan) - Aug 23-27 2nd Test: India v NZ at Bangalore Aug 31-Sep 4 (0930 IST, 0400 UT) 1st T20I: India v NZ at Visakhapatnam Sep 8 (2000 IST, 1430 UT) 2nd T20I: India v NZ at Chennai Sep 11, 2012 (2000 IST, 1430 UT) At 0355 UT today noted following AIR stations carrying live commentary: 4880 - Lucknow 7270 - Chennai 7430 - Bhopal ---- (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, Aug 23, dx_india yg via DXLD) Cricket commentary on AIR, At 0657 UT: 7210 - Kolkata (Scheduled from 0700z) 7325 - Jaipur 7430 - Bhopal 7440 - Lucknow Following stations were carrying regular programs: 7240 - Mumbai 7420 - H'bad BTW, just now it was announced during the commentary that Indian beat Australia by six-wickets in the Under-19 World Cup final at Tony Ireland Stadium in Townsville, Australia. --- (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, Aug 26, ibid.) ** INDIA [and non]. 15135-15140-15145, Aug 27 at 1636 and still at 1701, DRM noise. At first suspected Ethiopian jamming of a clandestine. (There`s something wrong with your technology if such an assumption can be made.) But Aoki soon shows it`s intentional DRM at 1615-1715, the AIR Russian service, 250 kW (really?), 132 degrees from Delhi(Khampur). I could also detect an AM carrier in the middle of it, not a jamming target but it might as well be: Surely Oman being blown away during its 15-22 UT Arabic service which has been on this frequency forever. Wait a minute, why would AIR be broadcasting Russian to the southeast??? Unless no proper antenna available and hoping for back-coverage. No, 132 must be an Aoki typo, as HFCC shows same transmission at 312 degrees. That`s more like it, and also more fitting for such a signal way off in deep North America. 17670, Aug 27 at 1638, no modulation other than hum and whine or tone. Would have suspected Egypt or maybe Saudi Arabia, but HFCC and Aoki agree the only thing here is AIR, Hindi at 1615-1730, 250 kW, 245 degrees from Delhi(Khampur), same parameters for Swahili at 1515-1615. 15050, Aug 28 at 1237, open carrier with flutter, lite het, couple breaks, back to OC. Probably the AIR Delhi-Khampur transmitter warming up prior to the 1300 Sinhala broadcast in DRM. (I see that HFCC does not show it as DRM but Aoki does; it normally is DRM with a few exceptions.) Or, still on following the Tamil broadcast intentionally in AM until 1215 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 3325, RRI Palangkaraya, 1209 Aug 24, Indonesian, Jakarta. National News with some lengthy reports from 1212 to 1228, then some fanfare music and news headlines repeated, 1229 Radio Republik Indonesia ID and into “Bagimu Negeri” (For You Our Country) song (thanks to Ron Howard for this info). Fair (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening through the local sunrise period, lakeside from my car with the Eton E1 and Sony AN1 active antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 4749.95, RRI Makassar, 1217-1230, August 24. A recent development this week has been they now have the Jakarta News relay at 1200. Heard in progress with some long items (one with the sound of police sirens in the background, so wonder if about NY City shooting?); they continue to play the patriotic song “Dirgahayu Indonesiaku” to mark this month’s independence anniversary and probably next month will return to the usually heard “Bagimu Negeri” (For You Our Country); fair; // RRI Palangkaraya on 3325; after 1230 no longer // (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4750, RRI Makassar, 1230 Aug 24, Indonesian, tuned in to hear “Bagimu Negeri” song in parallel to 3325 (see above), followed by pop music and no longer parallel 3325. Fair (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening through the local sunrise period, lakeside from my car with the Eton E1 and Sony AN1 active antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4749.95, RRI Makassar. August 28 (Tuesday) not a good day here due to heavy QRM from both CNR1 and Bangladesh Betar. Years ago the KGI show was 20 minutes long, but is now a half hour; 1320-1350 with the weekly “Kang Guru Indonesia” program in English; presented by Kevin and Ana with quiz about Indonesia; song by Colin Hay (Scottish-Australian) “Overkill”; asked people what they would like to change about Indonesia (“keep country clean” because people throw garbage into rivers); KGI has two theme songs: Men At Work “Down Under” and Dionne Warwick “That’s What Friends Are For” (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 4869.95v, RRI Wamena, 1152-1226, August 28. Only the third time this month that they have been broadcasting during this time period! EZL pop songs; 1159 Love Ambon(?) into Jakarta News relay; patriotic song “Dirgahayu Indonesiaku”; poor. News and song // 3325 RRI Palangkaraya, 4749.95 RRI Makassar and 9860 RRI Jakarta. RRI Wamena audio streaming can be heard at their website http://rriwamena.com/streaming-radio (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Papua, Indonesia - RRI Wamena - 5 kW at 4870 kHz - post with prepared QSL card, with verification letter. Report sent on 14 February 2012 via Air Mail with Self Addressed Stamped Envelope (Indonesian Stamp of 5000 Rupiah), Report in English and Indonesian, Picture post card (for them), prepared QSL card (Photo Courtesy Swopan Chakroborty). - they sent July 2012, received here in August 2012 Papua, Indonesia is my 71st Country verified :) The letter in Bhasa Indonesia looks like as follows after a Google translation: QUOTE Once In The Air Stay In The Air Wamena, July 2, 2012 Number: 358/LPP-RRI/WMN/VII/2012 Appendix: 1 (one) Files Subject: Delivery Data Acceptance to Mr Partha Sarathi Goswami .... Greetings from Friends in RRI Wamena - Indonesia - Papua, we respectfully submit to Partha Sarathi Goswami that your letter has been received whereby our old, our new reply because they were very busy because we were happy to receive your letter. Within their data have been reported, we've matched and correctly reported by Mr. Partha. About the frequency and the wave is as follows: SW 5 kW wave 61.6 Meters, 4870 kHz, 18 Meter Antenna Height, .10 kW MW transmitters 1395 kHz Antenna 40 Meters High, NEC 97.1 MHz FM Antenna 45 Meter High and Comcys FM 96.3 MHz Antenna Height 45 Meters. Broadcast starting at 05.00 till 10:00 Wit uses SW and MW transmitters, at 10.00 till 16:00 using FM transmitter and at 16.00 till 24.00 using SW and MW transmitters. So what can we say, finally greetings from RRI Wamena for Partha and family and friends all in India. A.n. Head of RRI Wamena Head of Administration, Yoswa Kumurawak, SE Copy to: 1. Dear Mrs. President L.P.P. RRI in Jakarta 2. Archive. - UNQUOTE Thanks & Regards (Partha Sarathi Goswami, Siliguri, Darjeeling, West Bengal, INDIA Skype: dxinginfo Aug 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, RRI Wamena found off the air on August 29. Strange how they appear for one day and then are gone for many days. Congratulations to Partha Sarathi Goswami for his nice RRI Wamena QSL card, along with a letter from Yoswa Kumurawak, both of which are displayed at his Facebook page. Excellent! (Ron Howard, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 9526-, Aug 29 at 1243 check, still no signal from VOI. http://rri.jpn.org agrees as of today with a grid of blank spaces that it`s been totally missing since last heard July 26 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Also RRI domestic service 9680v missed past days too (Wolfgang Büschel, Aug 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ?? Maybe for you, but Atsunori still has 9680 every day thru today at +0830-1500v, *2200v-2300 (gh, DXLD) Hi Wolfy, 9680 (RRI Jakarta) was heard by me as follows: On August 28 at 1200 had the usual Jakarta news which was // 3325 RRI Palangkaraya, 4749.95 RRI Makassar and 4869.95v, RRI Wamena. On August 29 noted after 1200 again with Jakarta news, but today there was no transmission from RRI Wamena. Also note http://rri.jpn.org/ confirms 9680 was on the air. (Ron Howard, California, USA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re 9680.v but nothing noted in 08-approx. 12 UT slot - in past days and today Aug 29. Today heard only R Taiwan International, Chinese 9680 and China Mainland jamming on this channel. At 2200-2300 UT Aug 29, 9680 is totally free channel, nothing of RRI Jakarta broadcasts. 73 wb - good night (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM [non]. THE TINY TV BROADCASTER THAT CABLE AND INTERNET GIANTS ARE TRYING TO KILL --- This story appears in the September 10, 2012 issue of Forbes. Daniel Fisher, Forbes Staff 8/23/2012 @ 7:00AM | 8,750 views Photograph by Caleb Kuhl Sky Angel’s satellite farm outside Chattanooga, Tenn. looks like any cable-television headend–down to the gray-haired engineer who strides out of the electronics shed sporting a short-sleeved dress shirt, narrow tie and pocket protector. With 19 state-of-the-art satellite dishes, the faith-based and family-themed broadcaster can download more than 50 cable-television channels and deliver them potentially to hundreds of thousands of customers nationwide. One big problem: Sky Angel distributes its signals over the Internet instead of a conventional cable-TV system. That’s got the cable-TV industry in a big-screen snit. If enough companies do what the Naples, Fla. firm is doing, a new wave of competition could demolish the cozy duopoly between land-based cable TV and satellite competitors like DirecTV. Rates could drop, and cable operators might lose their most cherished power: compelling consumers to buy bundles of programming instead of ordering channels à la carte. . . http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2012/08/23/the-tiny-tv-broadcaster-that-cable-and-internet-giants-are-trying-to-kill/ (via CGC Communicator Aug 27 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. 6972v, 0110, 26-08-2012, instrumental piano music, then English language music as well. A lot of atmospheric noise, but nice to hear. SINPO 45343. At 0114 some comments by YL before the song "Everybody wants to rule the world" (Oh yeah!! One of my favourite songs!!!). Galei Zahal, Israel, in Hebrew, on 6973, but sounded better on 6972 (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15850, Galei Zahal, 1919-2000 good signal with blues music and M host repeating the English lyrics. Got nice canned ID jingles at 1957-1959. 3 minutes of news at 2000 ending with ID, brief music filler, then discussion by several men. Good. (29 August) 73 (Dave Valko, Dunlo, PA, DXpedition to nearby Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26, Microtelecom Perseus SDR with ARR preamp, 315' Beverage (BOG) at 90 , Solar Flux = 118, A Index = 4, K Index = 1, No storms, HCDX via DXLD) ** ITALY. [Re 12-34, here`s the missing item the pirate complained about] Radio Melody 1566 kHz from Italy. Yesterday Aug 16th afternoon Radio Melody was on the air again on 1566 kHz. I took my Sony ICF-2010 and drove towards Ravenna. I triangulated the signal and my search confirmed that the station location is indeed in Ravenna, as listed in EMWG. More precisely it's in Lido Adriano, a little centre in the Ravenna outskirts on the Adriatic coast. The antenna, an inverted-V dipole, is on the top of a building just in front of the sea. Distance from my QTH is 27 km (Fabrizio Magrone, Italy, mwdx yg Aug 17 via BC-DX Aug 24 via DXLD) Well, that was easy; surely the authorities could have done the same if they cared to (gh, DXLD) ** ITALY. Radio Studio X 1584 --- from Momigno, Italy, is on the air just now (1900 UT) on 1584 kHz with non stop dance music and IDs. It seems to be transmitting at full power. 73 (Fabrizio (Forli, Italy), Magrone, Monday Aug 27, MWCircle yg via DXLD) ** JAPAN [non]. 6195, Aug 25 at 0427, NHK World Radio Japón, very good concluding ``vamos a cantar en japonés`` segment of `Actualidades del Sábado`` show. Still via BONAIRE; in B-12 this changes to GUIANA FRENCH, and the repeat at 0500 changes from 6080 CANADA to 6195 WHRI. Unless CBC finds a way to get rid of inconvenient relays earlier and start demolishing Sackville (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGST) ** KOREA NORTH. 2850, Aug 28 at 1145, KCBS is audible with choral music, Korean announcement vs hi noise level here shortly before 1200 sunrise. Not even a carrier could surpass noise on 120m, and hardly anything on 90m (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 2850, Pyongyang Broadcasting Station, 1315 Aug 29, Korean, man and woman speakers with several recorded speakers. Fair (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, listening from my car, overlooking Kalamalka Lake, with the Eton E1 and Sony AN-1 active antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [and non]. 6070.352v, Aug 25 at 1124, het upon CFRX 6070 is audibly wavering, but approx. G4 pitch = above middle C on keyboard, which is 392 Hz. Wolfgang Büschel`s latest measurement of CFRX is 6069.960 so that makes Pyongyang on 6070.352v (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENIING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [and non]. 7220-7225+, Aug 27 at 1303, buzzing bothering VOA Korean on 7225, which is via Tinang, PHILIPPINES. N. Korean jamming would be expected, but seldom heard on any of the VOA Korean frequencies, e.g. 15775 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA SOUTH. 5900, MND Radio (presumed), 1246-1248*, August 24. Korean song; no jamming today so good reception; // 6760 fair with light jamming; normally both heard with heavy jamming (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA SOUTH [non]. 9650, Wed Aug 29 at 1239, KBSWR via CANADA in Korean lesson, CCI from North Korea direct, as often the case, SAH of about 6 Hz. 1242 opening `Sounds of Korea` traditional music show I would like to enjoy but too much QRM. With HFCC B-12 conference underway this week in Paris, it seems KBS still hasn`t decided what to do in the post-Sackville era. Let`s hope they pick a better frequency from a new site, rather than give up or keep 9650 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KUWAIT. 21540, Aug 29 at 1334, R. Kuwait in Arabic, music, rather reverential, at first with only lite SAH from Spain underneath, by 1357 more of that. 15115, Aug 23 at 2009, I am looking for R. Kuwait`s new General Service Arabic frequency, allegedly on air for very long hours, 12-24 UT, 500 kW, 59 degrees from Kabd to E Asia since Aug 20, per DX Re Mix News, Bulgaria --- but nothing audible here despite 15540 English well audible, presumably toward Europe and us. The Arabic frequencies for NAm are still on, 13650 until 2000, then much better 17550 after 2000. By 2059 as 15540 is signing off, I can now get a JBA signal on 15515, and seems but not confirmed // 17550. Direxionality of their respective antennas must be highly efficient. 15540, Aug 25 at 1942, I switch from Morocco to good signal from Kuwait and from one culture to another as ``Hotel California`` is playing, must be long version, by The Eagles. The real meaning of the lyrix has been the subject of much speculation, summed up here: http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/hotel.asp At 1953, ``She`s a Lady`` by Tom Jones. Would that meet Islamic moral standards? Well, when you read the lyrix this song seems rather male chauvinist: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/tomjones/shesalady.html At 2006, ``The Midnight Rider``, one of numerous covers, not the original by Allman Brothers Band. Might as well link those lyrix too: http://www.elyrics.net/read/a/allman-brothers-band-lyrics/midnight-rider-lyrics.html (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA. Re: DXLD 12-34: ``Is 11600 still ever on around +17-18+? NO reports in several weeks. I never could hear it here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DXLD)`` Glenn, Not sure that I ever saw anyone reply to this query. I used to hear it regularly (with varying degrees reception quality), but I have not heard it either for some weeks (Alan Roe, Teddington, UK, Aug 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR [and non]. Looks like the Talata relay is falling apart with all kinds of anomalies: 13840, Aug 23 at 0532 and still at 0540, open carrier/dead air instead of NHK relay in French. 13765, Aug 23 at 0532, Vatican Radio, Portuguese with continuous whistles/squeals worse than ever. 15400, Aug 23 at 0534 and several later chex before 0600, no signal from R. Dabanga, which is usually quite good. (Something very poor on 11650, presumably still Dabanga via Vatican; other Africans are in well on 19m: 15120 Nigeria, 15190 Equatorial Guinea, 15580 VOA BOTS.) Then there`s the 15580 collision at 2000 with VOA, still being investigated (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see U S A [non] 15400, Aug 24 at 0502, R. Dabanga is back with VG signal, singing IDs immediately, after totally missing 24 hours earlier. (15725 VOSSR at same time, JBA, indicating quite a different signal source for it.) 13765, Aug 24 at 0506, Vatican Radio in English, VG S9+20 signal via Talata, but with ``buzzing-fly`` modulation problem. It`s always something on this. I prefer the cat`s meow. 13840, Aug 24 at 0528, open carrier so I keep listening to find whether unlike 24 hours earlier, Talata manages to modulate the NHK French relay. Yes, they do from 0530 `Sakura` and opening. 13765, Aug 26 at 0458, VR IS without any squeals or meaows/miaux, 0500 opening African service in English also sounds OK. Recheck at 0527 during brief pause after program and start of Vatican IS again, I can barely hear a ``mosquito whine`` on the modulation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also ZIMBABWE [non] ** MALAYSIA. Wai FM via Kajang (near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) on 11665 continued their programming till 1600 on August 22, when they changed over to Sarawak FM programming and became // 9835 (Sarawak FM) with singing National Anthem (Negaraku – Lagu Kebangsaan Malaysia); fair on both 11665 and 9835 (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 5964.7, Klasik Nasional FM, Kajang, 1237 Aug 24, Bahasa Malay, Muslim call to prayer, 1238 announcer and pop music with occasional announcements, 1258 a series of announcements and heard a “Klasik FM” ID. Good, with splatter from adjacent channels. (Sellers- BC) 6050, Asyik FM, Kajang, 1301 Aug 24, Bahasa Malay, male DJ, pop music, speaking to phone callers. Fair. (Sellers-BC) 7295, Traxx FM, Kajang, 1333 Aug 24, English, female DJ, “Traxx FM” ID, pop music. Fair-good. (Sellers-BC) 9835, Sarawak FM, Kajang, 1335 Aug 24, Bahasa Malay, pop Malay music, female DJ, 1347 announcements by man, including several mentions of Sarawak, at 1400-1406 national news in parallel to 11665. Good. (Sellers-BC) 11665, Wai FM, Kajang, 1357 Aug 24, Bahasa Malay, easy-listening songs, 1400 “Wai FM” ID and into network news to 1406 when back to music, was //9835 for the news. Good (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening through the local sunrise period, lakeside from my car with the Eton E1 and Sony AN1 active antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7295, 1055, 25-08-2012, disco and pop Western music in English. At 1058 a musical promo "pop...rock...Traxx FM". News bulletin by male announcer at 1100. Finally considerable good reception of Traxx FM since I have been listening to this during the mornings. SINPO 45344 (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALI. ISLAMISTS IN NORTHERN MALI FORBID SECULAR MUSIC ON THE RADIO 22nd Aug 2012. === Rebels justify action with Sharia rules. Bamako - In the north of the West African Republic of Mali have there ruling Islamists in the secular music radio broadcasting prohibited. The "spread secular music" in the regions of Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal was forbidden, said a spokesman for the Movement for the Unit and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) the AFP news agency. The ban kick into force on Wednesday, added Oussama Ould Abdel Kader added. With "satanic" music must be an end. Instead, it must Quranic verses give. Operators of private radio stations in the towns of Gao and Niafunke confirmed the arrangement of the Islamists. These have recently been in the north Mali proceeded strengthened against media people. In the West African Country in March, a group of soldiers, the long-time president Amadou Toumani Toure overthrown. Succeeded in the power vacuum after the coup it Tuareg rebels and several Islamist groups within Days, bringing the northern Mali under its control. the Tuareg rebels were, however, and increasingly by the Islamists of MUJAO the al-Qaeda offshoot Ansar Dine sold (A_P_A, 22/08/2012; via Herbert Meixner-AUT, A-DX via BC-DX Aug 24 via DXLD) You`d think machine translation of German would have become better than this by now (gh) see also USA: VOA - Mali ** MAURITANIA [and non]. 7245, Aug 23 at 0547, IGIM is on by now with usual soporific wake-up chanting session. 7245, Aug 25 at 0432, weak modulation in Arabish beside much stronger 7240 DW Rwanda English; so IGIM continues to be unpredictably on air overnight or not. Unless: The only known competition on 7245 is Voice of Tajik, not in HFCC either, but Aoki shows Ovozi Tojik, all 100 kW, non-direxional from Dushanbe-Orzu continuously from 0200 to 1840 with language segments in this period as 0200-0400 Tajik, 0400-0600 Persian, 0600-0800 Dari . . . (English only at 1300-1400). EiBi and WRTH May update agree, except ending at 1800. I have not knowingly heard it even when Mauritania is not on; is this really on the air? Should be audible in Europe. Of course Tajikistan is easy on many higher frequencies with relays of other stations. 7245, Aug 26 at 0509, IGIM is on and chanting, good signal; still doing it at 0543, and even final check 0608, at least an hour of this! Are we awake yet? 7245, Aug 27 at 0518, IGIM is on and chanting (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Massive signal at ~0145 UT 27 Aug on the E1 in Metro Vancouver, though with lower than recent modulation even for them. TD (Theo Donnelly, BC, ptsw yg via DXLD) 7245, Aug 28 at 0500, no signal from IGIM for a change. Re my log yesterday when it was on at 0518, Theo Donnelly in BC says it was also on earlier at 0145 Aug 27, so apparently all-night on that occasion. You never know whether they`ll be on or not. No replies have reached me about whether Tajikistan is really active on 7245 after 0200 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 560, Aug 25 at 1119 UT, canned promo for FM 93.3, then live YL DJ with phone numbers, mentions Zacatecas, music. Weak but clear signal; where are all the other Mexican and US stations? Held up past 1130. Cantú nails it: 560 XEXZ Lupe + FM 93.3 Zacatecas, Zac. 5,000 1,000 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 700, Aug 25 at 1115 UT, weak but steady and unQRMed signal mentioning ``1110 AM, Radio Red``, so it`s the Guadalajara 10 kW relay, XEDKR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 710, Aug 25 at 1109 UT, XEDP Ciudad Cuauhtémoc is still playing the Chihuahua anthem with male singer; then female sings a prayer of some sort; 1111 sign-on or full ID; 1112 right into ranchera music, so no Mennonite preacher today Saturday in Low German or Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 760, Aug 28 at 1202 UT, full ID in Spanish, but too much QRM to get a clue, then plays choral Mexican NA. There are two Sonorans and a Chihuahuan in the UT-6 zone (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 770, Aug 28 at 1201 UT, `Gloria` song with Spanish lyrix from WSW; 1206 ID mentioning ``104.3, Los 40 Principales`` and into rock with English lyrix. Thus per Cantú it is again: 770 XEREV Los 40 Principales + FM 104.3 Los Mochis, Sin. 5,000 100 and again I can`t believe this good signal dominating the frequency on sunrise skip can be on night power, tho the Sinaloans pretend it is 6 am by the local advanced clock (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 790, Aug 28 at 1207 UT amid QRM, Spanish talk mentioning ``Estados Unidos`` (in a way the Mexicans would, not ourselves), 1208 choral Mexican NA starts rather late, finished already at 1210, mentions Radio Fórmula. Cantú shows: 790 XENT Radio Fórmula + FM 97.5 La Paz, B.C.S. 10,000 750 There is another R. Fórmula on 790, but only 250 watts from Guadalajara. Sunrise there is 1236, and in La Paz 1302 UT, but this loops WSW, and I`m quite sure it`s XENT. Besides, Guadalajara would be antheming around 1100 UT (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 870, Aug 29 at 1200 UT the Mexican music I am hearing is coming from KLSQ Nevada as IDed a minute later, see USA. Once upon a time, XETAR in Chihuahua owned this frequency around local sunrise here. That`s presumably what started to make a SAH of about 5 Hz with KLSQ at 1204 with bits of the Mexican NA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 980, Aug 24 at 1203 UT, news and weather originating from the DF, loops more west than south, and suspect it`s the IMER station I have heard before, per Cantú: 980 XEFQ La Voz de la Ciudad del Cobre, Cananea, Sonora 2,500 500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. Sunrise DX session August 24, UT; LSR Enid at 1157 UT: 990, Aug 24 at 1202 tune-in, dominant signal from XECL Mexicali giving full ID, Rocola. Cantú shows higher nite power! 990 XECL La Rocola Mexicali, B.C. 1,400 3,000 I was also getting Mexicali on TV last night, coincidentally? (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. Of course on 1030 where my Double KAZ null clobbers WBZ and as usual my new west coast pest XESDD is in, tonight with Spanish religion // http://www.latremenda1030am.com/ Their owner is a famous cheater and I find it hard to believe that they only are using 5 kW. Others in the midwest can catch XESDD, perhaps by waiting for sunrise to take out WBZ and aiming their loops west to null XEQR/XELJ etc and before area stns on 1030 come on day power; i.e., a good time is early Sept. 73 KAZ Barrington IL (Neil Kazaross, Aug 25, IRCA via DXLD) ** MEXICO. Sunrise DX session August 24, UT; LSR Enid at 1157 UT: 1130 at 1201 UT, I can hear a weak Mexican NA under LA or KS station. Presumably at 6 am local, so in the MDT/CST zone, not CDT. That means BCS, Sinaloa, Nayarit or Chihuahua. That means one or the other of: 1130 XELUP Radio Lupita Tepic, Nay. 1,000 D 1130 XEMOS W Radio + FM 94.1 Los Mochis, Sin. 1,000 250 per http://www.mexicoradiotv.com/frec_am_1100-1390.htm Nayarit is rare here, and Sinaloa common, FWIW (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 1140, Aug 28 at 0506 UT after NA, too-quick full ID from XEMR, Monterrey, just caught ``Radio Esperanza, emisora manantial, del grupo ---``, right into gospel rock praise music. Continues to dominate frequency even tho pattern shows all signal goes south (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 1170, XEZS, Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz. 1059 August 25, 2012. Presumed by default choral Veracruz anthem at tune-in, the only listed Veracruz station on 1170. WAVS, Davie. Florida up on power/pattern at 1101, messing with (Terry L. Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, JRC NRD-535; ICOM IC-R75; Sony ICF-7600GR; Sangean PR-D5; Aqua Guide 705 RDF Marine Radio; GE Superadio III; JPS NF-60 Notch Filter; JPS ANC-4 Noise Phaser; 1 X roof dipole; 1 X room random wire; Terk Advantage non-active portable loop, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 2, Aug 23 at 0018 UT, I have the analog TV on producing snow, when fades in a weak sporadic-E signal from the SSE; about all I can see is IFE in big letters briefly, i.e. a PSA for the Mexican Federal Elexion Institute, so it`s probably XHY-TV in Mérida. Same station was reported a few hours earlier in North Carolina (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) XHY TV-2 Mérida, Yucatán in and out of the CCI here at the moment with music video show "MTO Evolution", parallel to their lagging-behind UStream feed at http://sipse.com (Jay Novello, Wake Forest NC, 2151 UT Aug 22, WTFDA via DXLD) Late-season sporadic E erupted August 23, with analog signals from Mexico, UT: 2309 on 2, tune-in to find two or more stations in CCI, in Spanish, peaking SSW; soon on top is a novela from net-5 2311 on 3, same net-5 novela // 2, but a word or two apart in audio 2326 on 4, yet another // net-5 novela; less CCI here, none at first 2343 on 3, XHQ bug in UR, i.e. the italic 3 in an oval, dubbed film drama, no CCI now. Culiacán, Sinaloa 2357 on 5, novela promo, with net-2 star logo (at first I thought it was the Multimedios star, but none known on ch 5) UT August 24, continuing: 0024 on 2, still heavy CCI 0039 on 5, and 6, some signals showing 0040 on 3, almost zero-beat CCI, dead giveaway for XHBC vs XHTJB in BCN, direxion west chex 0048 on 5, novela from west, no doubt XHAQ Mexicali, then fades in to confirm net-13 Azteca bug in UR 0049 on 3, YL talk show, fade in to confirm XHBC with national Televisa logo in UR with MEXICALI in tiny letters below it. Looks like the girls are sitting on a big bed 0115 signals mostly gone 0147 on 3, DTV converter how-to PSA/promo with XHQ bug in UR again, audio slogan ``Canal 3, creciendo contigo``. Then another PSA outroed as ``servicio social de Televisoras Grupo del Pacífico``; back to news 0201 on 2, 3, 4, 5, MUF is up again; 5 has a game show {or lottery? I think I glimpsed some number balls}; not from west 0244, still weak signals up to channel 6 0300, something remains on 3 0322, opening finished (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. New in the area is XHTJB-DT Tijuana. This station is on RF-46, mostly simulcasting analog channel 3. “Mostly”, because the digital signal has a continuous callsign ID superimposed on the programming – the analog station has never IDed (Dennis Park Smith, Santa Bárbara CA, Sept WTFDA VHF-UHF Digest via DXLD) ** MOROCCO. 15349.1, Aug 25 from 1900 to 1942 I was napping to the sound of IMM, including quite a bit of music. (Can`t call it ME, in NWAf.) Fidelity is not that great, but this is a good hour without any 15350 het and sufficient signal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. Caros amigos, Seguem os dados da última confirmação recebida: 7110 - Thazin Radio - Naypyidaw - BRM - Recebido cartão QSL e carta de agradecimento. 78 dias. V/S: Win Aung (Director of Broadcasting) . QTH: Myanmar Radio & Television, 426, Pyay Rd, Kamayut-11041, Myanmar Depois de passar pela incrível alegria de há poucos dias receber uma confirmação do Níger (Niamey Aero), agora consegui mais um país raríssimo e que há alguns anos considerava impossível de captar: Myanmar (antiga Birmânia). Confirmar então, pior ainda... Este é meu 111º país confirmado. A imagem da confirmação estará disponível em breve em meu blog (Ivan Dias Jr. - Sorocaba/SP, http://ivandias.wordpress.com http://twitter.com/ivandiasjr Aug 28, radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** MYANMAR. 7200.13, Myanmar Radio, 1147, August 24. Poor audio (garbled!). Off the air August 25. Erratic! 7200.13, Myanmar Radio, 1208-1221*, August 26. Back on the air today; in vernacular with EZL songs; audio varies from good to bad; 1220 usual sign off indigenous theme music; fair to poor; ham QRM (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR. The end of OTA TV in Nain, Labrador --- Here's a brief piece on the dismantling of CBC and APTN gear in a remote city in Labrador. Interesting picture montage. http://torngats.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-end-of-era.html (Karl Zuk N2KZ WTFDA via DXLD) ** NEW ZEALAND. 15720, 0443, 12-08-2012, English language program. ID at 0456 as "Radio New Zealand International". Announced 11725 to be used the next hour. SINPO 35433. So, the program started again on 11725 with a news bulletin by OM. SINPO 45444. Very good reception on this new one!! (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. Updated A-12 of R New Zealand International, Aug. 22: 0459-0758 on 11725 RAN 050 kW / 000 deg AM All Pacific 0459-0650 on 11675 RAN 025 kW / 000 deg DRM All Pacific 0651-0758 on 9890 RAN 035 kW / 035 deg DRM Tonga 0759-1058 on 6170 RAN 050 kW / 000 deg AM All Pacific 0759-1158 on 7440 RAN 025 kW / 000 deg DRM All Pacific 1059-1259 on 9655 RAN 100 kW / 325 deg AM Timor, NW Pacific 1300-1550 on 6170 RAN 050 kW / 000 deg AM All Pacific 1551-1745 on 7440 RAN 100 kW / 035 deg AM Cook Isl, Samoa, Fiji 1551-1745 on 6170 RAN 035 kW / 035 deg DRM Cook Isl, Samoa, Fiji 1746-1850 on 9615 RAN 050 kW / 000 deg AM All Pacific 1746-1836 NF 7440 RAN 035 kW / 035 deg DRM Cook Isl, Samoa, Fiji, ex 6170 1837-1850 NF 11675 RAN 035 kW / 035 deg DRM Samoa, ex 9890 1851-2150 on 11725 RAN 050 kW / 000 deg AM All Pacific 1851-2150 NF 15720 RAN 025 kW / 035 deg DRM Niue, Fiji, Samoa, ex 13730 2151-0458 on 15720 RAN 050 kW / 000 deg AM All Pacific 2151-0458 on 17675 RAN 025 kW / 000 deg DRM All Pacific (DX Re Mix News, Bulgaria, 27 August via DXLD) ** NIGERIA. 7255, V of Nigeria, 2009 talk by M in French mentioning nationale. Afro Hi-life music at 2011 recheck, followed by W in French. Decent signal. Suddenly went off the air at 2012 29 August. I was surprised to hear a number of decent signals on 41 meters already by 2015. That's 3½ hours before sunset. Wonder how early they were coming in. 73 (Dave Valko, Dunlo, PA, DXpedition to nearby Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26, Microtelecom Perseus SDR with ARR preamp, 315' Beverage (BOG) at 90 , Solar Flux = 118, A Index = 4, K Index = 1, No storms, HCDX via DXLD) ** NIGERIA. 15120, Aug 23 at 0535, VON at S9+13 level with hum, distorted rock music. Many nights it is inaudible or off. 15120, Aug 24 at 0504, VON is on and audible at S9+12, but undermodulated and hum/whine during news. 15120, Aug 26 at 0528, VON is audible now, tho it was not closer to or before 0500: hum, crowd shouting, YL narration about poetry(?); it was a festival by some ethnic group; 0529 outro program `Celebrations`, ID, 0530 intro `Reflexions`. Reads S7 to S9+5, undermodulated. 0600 as I am awaiting SW Radio Africa on 15115, VON on 15120 airs a timecheck for 0600, `world news` introduced by drumming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Today Monday August 27 Voice of Nigeria was noted: 0800-0900 on 15120 in English, instead of 9690 in Hausa (DX Re Mix News, Bulgaria, 27 August via DXLD) ** NORTH AMERICA. 6935-SSB, Aug 26 at 0514 I find one pirate active, very poor signal with song. Matched frequency to WWCR 5935 exactly 1000 kHz below. 0520 fiddlin` at first seemed country hoedown, then Celtic. 0524 ID as ``Blue Ocean Radio,`` maybe three times (that`s the way to do it when you are low-power with lots of storm noise to combat), more music, soul; 0544 still going (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTH AMERICA. 6950, 0208, 26-08-2012, distorted music in English without comments. Difficult to understand. I think it's a pirate broadcast in USB/SSB. But, I don't have those modes in my receiver (D'oh!!). End of transmission at 0231 with very few words from male announcer. SINPO 35333 but distorted due to the mode they were broadcasting on. Too bad!! Somebody knows what could it be? I suspect from any NAm pirate broadcast, but no idea what exactly! Thanks to Glenn Hauser for the information. According to him, it’s Wolverine Radio, heard also by Mark Taylor, Madison WI, USA. It has been informed this time the station audio was strong, which was something that called my attention too. So, this is very probable Wolverine Radio was also able to be heard in Venezuela, far from NAm (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: 6950-USB, PIRATE, Wolverine Radio, 0145–0232, 8/26/12. Summer / heat songs, including 2 versions of “Ain’t no cure for the summertime blues” in one set. ID every 3rd song. Brief sketch, echo ID, SSTV off 0232 (Mark Taylor, Madison WI, WinRadio g313e, Grunding G1 & G5, Satellit 800; EWE, Flextenna, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** NORWAY [and non]. RADIO NORTHERN STAR, 2 NEW PRESS RELEASES Dear radio friend, Special thanks so much to those of you who has responded so favourably to our broadcast test transmission this summer and to those that took time out to send us reception reports! Thanks also to those of you who have given positive feedback on our format and our music! I have now the pleasure of sending you two new press releases. If you don't want to receive these irregular updates, we'd be glad to know. ================================= RADIO NORTHERN STAR TEST TRANSMISSION ON SHORTWAVE 5895 KHZ A GREAT SUCCESS! Dated 22nd of August, 2012 For Immediate release ================================= On July 6th, 2012 the programmes of Radio Northern Star were relayed in a test transmission from Radio Nord Revival in Sala, Sweden, on 5895 kHz, 10 kW, in the 49 metres Shortwave Band, lasting from 0327 until 0401 UT the following morning. The test transmission was a great success! And we warmly thank the site owner as well as the Radio Nord Revival station for their interest in our project. So far, we’ve had over 80 reception reports from 22 countries: New Zealand, Japan, Russia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Egypt, England, Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. [note: zero from Americas] Most reports indicate good signal strength and many of our listeners point out they like our format very much! Our general format is Favorites, Flips and Flops! Rarities, too! We have now mailed reception verifications to all who sent in correct reports. Several listeners have posted videos of their reception of the station on the web! Here are a couple of links to give you the “feel” of the broadcast reception in three different countries, situated in Scandinavia, Eastern and Western Europe: Reception in Joensuu, Finland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zLZNt0IlGM Reception in Craiova, Romania: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKUBzjSDopw and reception near Stevenage, just north of London, England: http://soundcloud.com/mikebrc/radio-northern-star-5895-2250 Needless to say, our company is hard working to be back in the broadcast bands as soon as possible! ================================= RADIO NORTHERN STAR: NEW BROADCASTERS AND PROGRAMMING! Dated 23rd of August, 2012 For Immediate release [note: Nothing about shortwave in the remainder:] ================================= Radio Northern Star is proud to welcome new broadcasters and programming to the station! [CET = really CEDT/CEST = UT +2] *Adam O' Quinn will be hosting ”Country Roads” with great Country Classics on Saturdays at 2200-0000 CET, starting August 25th with a repeat the coming Tuesday 2000-2200 CET, starting August 28th! *Ron O' Quinn is the host of ”Northern Star Rewind” playing great oldies on Sundays at 2000-2200 CET, starting August 26th with a repeat the coming Wednesday 2000-2200 CET, starting August 29th! *As our regular listeners have noted, Paul Graham’s ”Soundtrack of the 60s” has already been with us throughout the Summer. Paul is broadcasting on Radio Northern Star Saturdays at 1800-1900 CET, and his show is repeated on Tuesdays 0100-0200 CET. *Then, Dave Gillbee’s and Mal Dunn’s ”The Rusty Ships” comes to The Northern Star on Friday, August 31st 2100-0000 CET with a repeat the day after, on Saturday September 1st 1900-2200 CET. This radio documentary featuring Dave, the late ”TW” Tony Windsor and Eddie Blackwell is broadcast up to, as well as on an important date for free radio fans: At Midnight, Sept 1st, 1967 Radio Caroline North went "International" as the Marine Offences Act was extended to the Isle of Man. On the same date 1974 was the end of Radio Atlantis, RNI/ Radio Noordzee Internationaal, and Radio Veronica. And, Radio Caroline/Radio Mi Amigo continued broadcasting that day in 1974 off the Essex coast-once more! Short bios: *Adam O’Quinn Previous stations: 106.7 WOKA-FM, 100,000 watts – Douglas, GA 92.9 WAAC-FM, 100,000 watts – Valdosta, GA 100.3 WOBB-FM, 100,000 watts – Albany, GA Rated the #1 country radio DJ in all counties in the Albany metro market according to Arbitron‘s Spring 2001 report 101.9 WPNG-FM, 25,000 watts – Pearson, GA 92.5 WVOH-FM, 50,000 watts – Hazlehurst, GA Adam has worked in multiple genres of music, but country classics remain his favorites. In 2007, he decided to share his favorite music and stir his listeners’ memories by starting his weekly show, Country Roads. He particularly enjoys Don Williams, Loretta Lynn, Elvis Presley, Merle Haggard, Patty Loveless, Dolly Parton & Mark Chesnutt. In addition to radio, Adam has also done voiceover work for television and corporate events, and playing private events. Though he is now semi-retired from radio, due to his love of the music and radio, he still works with area stations doing live remote broadcasts on occasion. Adam works full-time as an insurance agent in Douglas, Georgia, USA, where he lives with his fiancée Teresa & son Liam. His hobbies include power-boating, canoeing, hunting & geocaching. Adam looks forward to sharing the country classics with the world on The Northern Star! Be sure to email him your requests and feedback at radioadam@mail.com *Ron O’Quinn Previous stations: 1340 WROD Daytona Beach, FL 1450 WVLD Valdosta, Georgia, GA 1130 WMGA Moultrie, GA 1380 WLCY St. Petersburg FL 1965 - as Jack E. Rabbitt 790 WFUN Miami FL 1965 - as Jack Armstrong 1322/845 Swinging Radio England/Britain Radio (offshore pirate twin stations)1966 940 WYLD New Orleans LA 1967 790 WFUN Miami 1968 - as Jack Armstrong 1260 KYA San Francisco, CA 1970 1230 WUBE Cincinnati, OH National Program Director of Urban Stations for Rounsaville Organization, Atlanta, GA 1380 WSIZ Ocilla, GA 1971 Rock & Roll Reunion syndicated [Macon GA] 1988 syndicated on 88 stations across the USA Memories Unlimited, on WQZY-FM and WKKZ-FM in Dublin, GA Radio England Rewind, syndicated 2010 Ron is retired and living with his wife in Glenwood, GA. Ron was the original Program Director of Swinging Radio England. Ron travelled with The Beatles on the 1966 American Tour and has worked with many of the biggest acts in music. Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_O%27Quinn Be sure to email him your requests and feedback at rewindron@gmail.com *Paul Graham Paul first broadcast in 1968 at Manx Radio whilst on holiday on the Isle of Man introducing pop records following a visit to the station, he later got involved in land based free radio stations in the Midlands in the 70's and also appeared on BBC Radio Leicester in the late 70's. Paul went over to Ireland in the early 80's and worked on several commercial radio stations in the west and also in Dublin and Cork. He also had a spell at Sunshine Radio in Shropshire in 1984. Paul joined Radio Caroline in 1987 and did several stints on board the legendary offshore station into 1988 mainly hosting the drive time shift and was also heard on the UK's first gold format service Solid Gold Radio Sovereign and in Boulogne France at RBL FM. Further stints in Ireland followed including Radio Nova (Dublin), ZEE 103 and a long spell at Radio HMV in London's west end, in 1989 Paul was heard on ILR and found his way in 1990 to KCBC in Kettering. Many other stations followed, Mellow 1557, Invicta Radio, Chiltern Supergold, Hereward Radio(WGMS), Q96, Radio Maldwyn, Yorkshire Dales Radio, Juke Box Memories AM/FM, The Rock FM (Southern Spain), Premier FM(Dublin) plus a host of RSL stations which Paul managed such as The Link FM, Radio London, Maidstone FM and MLR FM(Maidstone) to name but a few. Paul set up his own consultants business in the late 90's and still runs it today but in the 2000's Paul still managed to work for Classic Gold, Big L 1395 and KMFM. He also wrote several licence applications for both Commercial and Community radio stations during this time.? He moved to the Canary Isles in 2010 and was the manager of Pirate FM based in Los Cristianos in Tenerife, a further move took him to the Costa Blanca Spain in 2011 to join Radio Nova 106.7 FM where he still hosts a daily show, see http://www.radionova-costablanca.com For more information on Paul visit http://www.paulgrahamconsultants.com Paul also hosts the world wide syndicated show “Soundtrack of The 60‘s”, for more information on this show email Paul at soundtrackofthesixtys@gmail.com *Dave Gillbee or Dave MacKay was born in Ilford, Essex, and educated at Warwick public school, Dave got into broadcasting by pure chance. He was working as an air traffic controller at Gatwick airport and one day went to a pub with some colleagues. The conversation got round to pirate radio and Dave expressed critical comments about a Radio City DJ. A stranger overheard and asked if he thought he could do better. This man turned out to be Eric K Martin, Radio City's station manager. As a result of this chance encounter, in February 1965, Dave was invited out to the Radio City fort to present a few shows. Reg Calvert, the owner, was suitably impressed and over the next few months Dave combined his shifts at Gatwick with periodic trips out to Shivering Sands, although he never joined the City staff full-time. Bitten by the radio bug, Dave sent off applications to all the other offshore stations. In August 1966 he got accepted by Britain Radio. He stayed when, in March 1967, it became Radio 355 and, in fact, he remained with this middle-of-the-road station right up until it closed down in August 1967. He was the last radio presenter to leave the ship “Olga Patricia” while it was still in European Waters. Following the closure, he joined forces with fellow 355 presenter Tony Monson to start a mobile disco businesses and in 1971 they opened a record and hi-fi shop in Brighton, Sussex. While living in the town he also broadcast on BBC Radio Brighton (now known as Southern Counties Radio). He has since been heard on Essex Radio, BBC Essex, Melody Radio and Primetime Radio. --- From Jon Myer’s great Pirate Radio Hall of Fame website at http://www.offshoreradio.co.uk "SvennM" CEO/Radiosjef Radio Northern Star "Your Radio Heartland of Music" Northern Star Media Box 100 N5331 RONG NORWAY Note: These press releases and earlier ones may also be read on our website at this link: http://www.northernstar.no/press.pdf ================================= All rights reserved: Northern Star Media ©2012- *Radio Northern Star is an independent commercial station broadcasting on available broadcasting platforms and on the web at http://www.northernstar.no The website has been well established since 2001, and has 2000 hits daily on a regular basis. Download our iTunes and Windows Media Player software from our Player window on the website. Have a smartphone? Download our iPhone/iPad/iPod touch app from iTunes store, or-our Android app from Google Play. *Radio Northern Star is owned and operated by Northern Star Media, a Norwegian Small Business company working with broadcasting and related activites. Reg. no.: 982990890. Owner: S Martinsen Reg. address: Rong Senter, Box 100, N-5331 Rong, Norway. E-mail: 1000@northernstar.no *For further details on sponsorship, advertising on air or on the web, and leasing of program time, see website: http://www.northernstar.no Phone: +47 56 32 49 85 Fax +47 56 38 22 41 Mobile/Text: +47 950 67890 Bank Account: Sparebanken Vest IBAN NO6936285335781 Paypal Account: See website (Svenn Martinsen, Aug 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. Thread discussing wildfire coverage earlier in August, mainly Tulsa, also OKC; KRMG 740 the best, TV pitiful. Be sure to go on to the second page: http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=217065.0 (former radio-info.com OK board via Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. 930, Aug 24 at 1204 UT, WKY either just came on or was already running open carrier. This plus sharp groundwave null allowed an SRS signal to come thru, thought to be KCCC Carlsbad NM, but see UNIDENTIFIED. By 1228 recheck, La Indomable had begun modulating music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. 1230, Aug 24 at 1212 UT, WBBZ Ponca City with local announcer giving weather, and 1214 into sports. He has a way of ``swallowing`` every other syllable, but I can still understand him. Nice to hear a real voice on a hometown station rather than a pro announcer. On Aug 28 around the same time there was a `pro` announcer; no offense 1230, Aug 29 at 1213, WBBZ has gone back to the syllable-swallowing announcer with weather summary, after having heard a pro announcer yesterday. Canned ID as ``1230 AM stereo, WBBZ, Ponca City``, and on to sports news. 1221 ending that and back to music, ``Working at the Carwash Blues``; same announcer becomes a DJ, Mike Beckwith(?) saying he`s substituting for Bill & Andy (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. 1520, USA, Oklahoma, KOKC, Oklahoma City, 1130, tune-in to conspiracy-laden "The Third Opinion" show, ad for local businesses and asking for calls (but none received). Fair on peaks. 25/8 (David Sharp, NSW, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. MORE ON THE 2012 OK MOZART BROADCAST SERIES Greetings to you all! It's hard to believe that in a few days we'll be in September! And I'm down to producing the final four editions of the 2012 OKM Chamber Music Broadcast Series. If you haven't had a chance to hear the programs, you can enjoy them for a limited time via podcast at http://bit.ly/PerformanceOklahoma Also I've added another in my series of behind-the-scenes looks at the making of a broadcast series here: http://bit.ly/POUkSN The program editions this week include the French songs, Ravel's Rapsodie Espagnole, the Schumann Violin Sonata, the Strauss, Lehar and Viennese songs from the Gala and the Mendelssohn Trio. And great news! Just last week we added streams specific to i-devices and Android phones and a Quicktime stream for Mac. http://www.kcscfm.com Best regards, (Kimberly Powell Director of Production & Syndication Assistant Director of Programming Host/Producer Performance Oklahoma Oklahoma's Choice for Classical Music 90.1 KCSC Edmond Oklahoma City, 91.9 KBCW McAlester http://www.kcscfm.com (405) 974.2111 August 28 via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. KOSU 2.0 --- A CLOSER LOOK AT THE NEW SCHEDULE You've probably noticed the fairly major changes to KOSU's night and weekend schedule. We made these decisions after more than a year of studying listener data, conducting listening sessions and collecting survey data. The theme we heard over and over was that listeners and potential listeners wanted more local programming that reflected our local communities. As we studied ways to accomplish that goal, we formed a partnership with The Spy, a local independent online radio station that was already producing some of that great local programming. The shows are diverse and many feature local musicians. Another serious programming issue presented itself as we crafted our strategic plan for the coming years. The first is that many of the legacy shows public radio has leaned upon heavily for the last 30 years may soon end. Garrison Keillor has talked for years about possible retirement with no real succession plan; Car Talk will cease producing original shows later this year, and Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz ended original show production earlier this year. New shows including The TED Radio Hour, The Dinner Party, The Moth Radio Hour and a number of seasonal shows are being created in an effort to fill that void. All of them are starting as experiments in public radio just like Car Talk and A Prairie Home Companion did decades ago. These shows are like old friends, but we hope in the coming months and years to introduce you to new ones that you may grow to like just as much. We have worked to keep as many of your favorite programs as intact as possible while making room for new shows and planning for the future of public radio on KOSU. These changes mostly affect night and weekend programming, but you will notice one major change in our weekday news schedule. The Takeaway has decided to reduce production to one hour each day. This forced KOSU to add another program to our daily schedule, and after considering our options, we added On Point with host Tom Ashbrook at 10 a.m. weekdays. On Point unites distinct and provocative voices with passionate discussion as it confronts the stories that are at the center of what is important in the world today. Leaving no perspective unchallenged, On Point digs past the surface and into the core of a subject, exposing each of its real world implications. With this new program schedule, we have launched a new interactive program guide on kosu.org, which has also undergone a redesign. You can read our strategic plan which goes into much greater detail about the feedback we received and the challenges KOSU faces for the next few years here. . . http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=359eee09f6&id=6b57711cdb&e=7c7f7cdde1 (KOSU Newsletter Aug 28 linked to this web version of same via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. 93.1, circa 1830 UT Aug 23, Enid translator K226BR of KIMY 93.9 Watonga is instead radiating a horrible noise like continuous sucking on a straw from an almost empty cup {maybe some kind of feedback?}. Just the latest problem with this piece of crap. Also bothers adjacent channels (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. KOHC-LD 45, OKC, which allegedly started broadcasting the new MundoFox network Aug 13, now has added Azteca America on 45.2, with MF specified on 45.1, according to ads in the Aug 23 issue of El Nacional de Oklahoma, which owns the station. Still have not been able to pick it up in Enid (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. As Bill Hepburn`s tropo maps had predicted, there was enhanced reception in OK and KS the morning of Aug 28. First noted with KWOU 88.1 Woodward in solid and KHCC 90.1 KS overriding KCSC at 1350 UT. After oatmeal, TV on at 1411 UT aiming west: 34, KOMI ``24`` Woodward is in, as are two OETA translators more to the North: K48KE- D, Buffalo, 11.8 kW, and K30AE-D, Alva, 15 kW. Plus some from Kansas: see U S A (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. 7512.312, Very odd signal of Radio Pakistan Islamabad API-4 transmitter carrying Persian service, noted on Aug 24 at 17-18 UT. Regular on 7510 kHz. But my tune-in was a little late around 1757 UT, and couldn't check the \\ 9370 kHz channel tonight (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Aug 24, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DXLD) Hello Wolfgang, I was very interested to read this from you as the two 100 kW transmitters (API-3 & 4) have not been heard by me for a long time. Mauno Ritola has heard them occasionally, but with weak and faulty signals. I hope the engineers have been able to bring them to life again (ancient technology). API-3 is a Continental from 1968 and API-4 a "Russian" from 1974. I wonder if they've obtained some spare parts from Russia? It should be possible to hear their S Asian services on 15 MHz - particularly their Sinhala and Tamil at 1230-1330 - so I'll look out for these too. Best 73 - and many thanks as always for your mailings, Noel Green (via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) At present on Aug 25th at 1725 UT, 7512.323 kHz weak, and stronger on 9370.0 kHz Persian service. vy73 (Wolfgang Büschel, Aug 25, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re Radio Pakistan checked Aug 27: Chinese 1200-1300 FE 15700-okay; 17725-okay minus 7 Hertz Gujarati 1145-1215 SAs 9805 rather 9807.137 kHz; 11860? not traced Hindi 1045-1145 SAs 9805 rather 9807.137 kHz; 11860? not traced 9807.137 switched OFF at 1215:50 UT. 73 wolfy (Wolfgang Büschel, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15265, 1700, 26-08-2012, ID in English as "This is Radio Pakistan". News bulletin by male. SINPO 45444 but distorted. Heard till 1710 (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Confirmação Recebida 27/08/2012 --- 15490 - Rádio Pakistan - Islamabad - PAK - Recebido cartão QSL. 82 dias. Informe enviado por email: fmcell@radio.gov.pk QTH: Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation Headquarters G-5‚ Constitutional Avenue Islamabad‚ Pakistan. Imagens em Meu Blog (Álex Robert, radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3204.96, NBC Sandaun, 1231-1246, August 26. In Tok Pisin; mostly indigenous chanting and drums; poor-fair/QRN. (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3205, NBC Sandaun, 1304 Aug 29, English, news of PNG and the Pacific to 1307, // 3315 and 3365 until end of news, then all three went to different music, 3205 off at about 1315. Poor (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, listening from my car, overlooking Kalamalka Lake, with the Eton E1 and Sony AN-1 active antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3260, NBC Madang, 1151-1206*, August 25 (Saturday). DJ in Tok Pisin; pop Pacific Island songs; off in mid-song (the weekend, so no news at ToH); fair-poor. Consistently the strongest PNG at this time period! August 22 (Wednesday) noted same 1206*; went off in the middle of the news in English. 3260, NBC Madang, 1149-1206*, August 26. In Tok Pisin; pop Pacific Island songs and religious songs; 1203 ID; off in mid-song; another day with consistent sign off time; must be via a timer (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3915, Radio Fly via Kiunga, briefly noted at 1229 on August 26 (Sunday) with religious songs; poor (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. CQ, CQ, CQ; Aquí Pedro F. Arrunátegui para compartir algo con los que disfrutan y aman el DX latinoamericano, todas las horas son UTC, desde la tierra de los incas, les informo mediante este Quipus lo siguiente: 3329.54, R. Ondas del Huallaga, Huánuco, 24/07 1105-1135, 44444, música, ID “Aquí al costado de radio Onda del Huallaga” programa Encuentro con la felicidad, ID “Radio Onda del Huallaga, cobertura total…” ads Caja de ahorro Piura. 4747.05, R. Huanta 2000, Huanta, 20/08 2220-2250, 44444, música, ID “Responde y llama yo escucho radio Huanta 2000, la primera…” música tropical salsa, ads en quechua y español. 4774.95, R. Tarma, Tarma, 8/08 1110-1145, 44444, programa, Noticiero El Demoledor, ID “Estas noticias nacionales e internacionales, las venimos desarrollando aquí en Radio Tarma internacional”, ads Universidad de los Andes, les brinda ahora el estudio a distancia… 4826.55, R. Sicuani, Sicuani, 22/08 2325-2355, 33333, ID “A través de Radio Sicuani”, música, ID, ``6 y 40 para todo el Perú, en su Radio Sicuani” NOTA. 2345 comenzó un fuerte zumbido que casi cubría a la radio; fue necesario pasarme a escucharlos en LSB 5039.15, R. Libertad, Junín, 23/08 1105-1135, 33333, música huayno, ads, conjunto musical Los Tigres del Perú, mxf huaylas. ads Casa Naturista Vicente de los Milagros, nos encuentra en jirón San Martín 552, Barrio San Cristobal, Junín, ID “Usted que está en sintonía de Radio Libertad”, mxf 5120.00, R. Ondas del Sur Oriente, Quillabamba, 22/08 2220-2315, 44444, música romántica LA, ID “Por Radio Ondas del Sur Oriente”, ads joven El Batallón Quillabamba 84, te invita a enrolarte a nuestro glorioso Ejército para servir en el Vraem. For more informations about VRAEM see http://www.peruviantimes.com/tag/vraem/ (Pedro F. Arrunátegui, Lima, Perú, Chasqui DX Agosto, La recepción la he efectuado en compañía de mi sabueso Icom IC R72 acompañado del Mizuho KX-3, una grabadora Alesis Palm Track, una antena de hilo largo de 15 metros y una antena loop, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU [and non]. 4810.00, *0023-0035, INDIA, 24.08, AIR Bhopal, AIR IS, Urdu (presumed) ann, "Vande Mataram" choir hymn, ID: "Akashvani", sitar music, 0030 "Yeh Akashvani" and news in Hindi from Delhi; 34343, heard // 4840, 4880 and 4910 AP-DNK 4810.00, 0100-0110, PERU, 24.08, R Logos, Chazuta, Tarapoto. Vernacular religious talk by man and woman, hymn, best in LSB due to heavy noise in USB, slight CODAR QRM, 24232. Also heard weak carrier at 2310 on 23.08, but not yet audio (Anker Petersen, from Skovlunde, Denmark, on the AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) FORMER HOSTAGE DRIVES OPENING OF REGIONAL RADIO STATION IN PERUVIAN JUNGLES (Aug. 24, 2012 - by Harold Goerzen) More than 200,000 indigenous people hidden deep in Peru’s northern jungles can hear Christian broadcasts — many for the first time — as the result of a cooperative project with the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), a local church and HCJB Global. Spearheading the project was veteran SIL missionary Ray Rising who became well known after being kidnapped by Colombian guerrillas in 1994. He was held captive for 810 days before being released unharmed in 1996. Years later he met with some of his captors in prison, sharing a clear gospel message with them. Today he’s using his skills to share the good news via the airwaves, broadcasting on a TB1000 (1,000-watt, regional shortwave transmitter) built and designed by engineers at the HCJB Global Technology Center in Elkhart, Ind. The unit, installed with the mission’s help in Chazuta, Peru, last month, is broadcasting a message of hope across the northern third of Peru as well as parts of neighboring Ecuador and Brazil. “Praise the Lord for His miracles!” exclaimed Rising, SIL’s ethnic radio manager, in an email message. “At 8 p.m. Saturday, July 21, Radio Logos went on the air, broadcasting several hours a day (4 a.m.- 10 p.m.).” [0900-0300 UT] “I rejoice in the Lord to let you know that [the station] is being an encouragement to those less fortunate people,” added Pastor Jairo Sangama, the local radio partner. “We are very pleased to have the HCJB transmitter which is useful in communicating the Scriptures in the people’s native tongues. We’re now broadcasting in seven languages (Achuar, Bora, Junicui, Ticuna, Pastaza Quechua, San Martín Quechua and Spanish) and hope to incorporate more languages.” Sangama also expressed gratefulness to HCJB Global missionary Allen Graham for holding a five-day radio workshop attended by 29 people at the new station in mid-August, the third such training to be held in Chazuta, a town of about 10,000 some 500 miles deep in the Amazon. “It was exciting to see the energy and enthusiasm of the participants from the different language groups as they learned how to prepare programs to reach out to their own people,” Graham said, adding that participants represented seven Amazonian tribes. “One of the goals of our radio training ministry in Latin America is to develop a network of like-minded Christian broadcasters who can come alongside HCJB Global team members in our workshop,” Graham related. “In Chazuta I was accompanied by Kenny Lazo of Radio Arequipavisión. He did a fantastic job teaching and was well received by the participants. A practicing lawyer, Kenny has volunteered at the Christian station in Arequipa in southern Peru and is passionate about how radio can be used to reach people with the good news of Jesus.” The station is a landmark achievement for the area’s evangelical churches that stemmed from a single congregation in Chazuta 50 years ago, born as the result of missionary work. Today there are 19 church associations representing 17 language groups in the Peruvian Amazon basin, accounting for more than 500 churches. The project to install a Christian shortwave radio station culminated nearly two years of planning and prayer, dating back to December 2010 when 120 local church members began preparing the materials to build the station on a 1.2-acre plot donated by the municipality of Chazuta. The station includes recording studios, transmitting equipment and a hostel for those arriving to produce radio programs. The first 15 radio volunteers were trained in January 2011, and after the studios were completed, they used the newly installed equipment to record 100 radio programs in four languages. The programs include public service announcements, Bible readings, music and special programming for children and women, including lessons based on the book, Women of the Bible. The station’s “impact statement” says it was established so “indigenous communities across the vast Amazon basin could be reached with the gospel by listening to broadcasts in their own language, transforming their lives. The listeners learn to live according to biblical principles and thus mature in their faith and thus demonstrate positive change of character.” This was the third TB1000 that HCJB Global has installed in South America in cooperation with Rising. The first two went to Bolivia to spread the gospel in the continent’s central region. Sources: HCJB Global, SIL (HCJB Global newsletter Aug 20-24 via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. 5930 slightly stronger than // 5940 Aug 27 at 1240, R. Rossii with some weird music, often interesting stuff before 1300*; poor signals but getting better into fall, and no WWCR in between at this hour, from Pet/Kam and Magadan respectively (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. 12065, Aug 25 at 1133, military band music, could well be an unfamiliar national anthem; fair with flutter. I keep listening and at 1135 hear a bit of echoey Chinese(?) but soon switched to English narration and then more martial music. Must be VOR as scheduled 11-14, 500 kW, 205 degrees from Chita. EiBi shows all to SE Asia, the first hour in English, but the HFCC CIRAF zones are all the way from Pakistan to Maluku. VOR program grid at http://english.ruvr.ru/radio_broadcast/schedule/ shows the entire 11-12 UT hour Tue-Sat is `Music & Musicians`. Beware: that page also autolaunches VOR audio, how rude, which will QRM whatever else you are already listening to (like a Prom Concert!) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. Moskovskaya oblast. Letter from radio center No3 of the MRC RTRS, Taldom, the pic. North, Hello, Anatoly [Klepov]. Thank you for attention to our transmissions for Your report. Sorry for the delay in answering - I was on vacation for almost a month, the answer was no. The fact is that, in contrast to the radio (for example, VGTRK "Radio of Russia" or GRK "Voice of Russia") in transmitting radiocenters never was the service of the interaction with radio stations, and this activity on our radiocenter is held only due to my own initiative and still have enough enthusiasm. In his time (in 2003). at the beginning of an experienced radio broadcasting in digital format DRM radio Amateurs all over the world really helped us in the assessment of the reception of our gear in different modes, and we were able to pick up the most optimum parameters for the qualitative and stable broadcast in a mode of DRM. Unfortunately, our management does not fully understand the importance of this feedback, recalls about the possibility of a feedback with the trainees, when it gets the circumstances of the claims. Skilled Amateurs can provide a more objective and detailed circumstances of reception conditions and the state of the ether in a zone of reception than the usual listeners, ?????????? [zhalyushchiyesiya --- untranslated and untransliterated] just in a bad reception. In particular, there were cases of interference on the part of the Albanian transmitters with acceptance of our transmission in Western Europe, and it was not our fault. German and British Amateurs helped to understand the situation, we promptly got the proof of his "alibi", and claims against us have been withdrawn. Safely allowing their problems, management shifted its attention to other things... All this to the fact, that the official QSL-cards our management does not ordered, and I can send You only its version of QSL-cards in electronic form, which You will be able to print on inkjet printer in color. You can also send your report to the address of "Radio of Russia" by e-mail: mail@radiorus.ru - it is possible, they will send You their official QSL-card. Historical information about our center. Our centre was established in 1952 near the city of Taldom, which in the 19th century was a town of craftsmen-shoemakers. Together with radio centers was built by the village of Severny (North), in which lived the first builders, and then the employees of the radio center. There were built 4 stations, antenna installations and auxiliary buildings for different services. At the present time there are 3 stations, which are 2 of long-wave (LW) transmitter with a capacity of 500 and 300 kW (which now does not work), short-wave (SW) AM-transmitters with a capacity of 250 kW (5 pieces) and 500 kW (2 PCs.), also 3 shortwave DRM-transmitter (40 kW). A few years ago worked another station, where they were located communication SW transmitters, now they were dismantled, and the plant closed down. Our centre is a part of the Moscow Regional Center (MRC), which is, in turn, branch of the Russian Television and Broadcasting Network (RTRS). All of the major broadcasting companies in Russia use transmitting technical means of the company as of the all-Russian operator of connection and broadcasting. So, our transmitters are used for broadcasting of such programs as "Radio of Russia" of the all- Russian State TV and Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) for domestic broadcasting and programme of the State radio company "the Voice of Russia" for the international broadcasting on short wave The program "Radio of Russia" for the listeners in Europe with our radio center broadcasts on short-wave one of the AM transmitter (250 kW) according to the following schedule: 04:00 - 08:00 UTC - 12070 kHz; 08:30 - 13:00 UTC - 13665 kHz; 13:30 - 17:00 UTC - 9480 kHz; 17:30 - 21:00 UTC - 7215 kHz. Programme of the State radio company "the Voice of Russia" are transferred to our radio center in the AM mode on short-wave transmitters with a nominal capacity of 250 kW: 0200-0600 UT - 11965 kHz in the Russian language, 1300-1500 UT - 11860 kHz in the Russian language, 1400-1600 UT - 11985 kHz in the Turkish language, 1600-1800 UT - 11985 kHz in English, 1500-1700 UT - 11610 kHz in the Serbian/Croatian languages, 1700-1900 UT - 11610 kHz in the French language, 1700-1800 UT - 15465 kHz in the Italian language, 1800-2000 UT - 15465 kHz in the French language. Transmission of the programs of radio "Voice of Russia" in the digital standard DRM (with an average capacity of 40 kW) in the format of MDI 0600-1000 UT - 11830 kHz RUVR-1A-in English 0600-0900 UT - 11830 kHz RUVR-1B-in the Russian language 0900-1000 UT - 11830 kHz RUVR-1B-in the German language. I wish you success in Your hobby and all the best. With respect, Andrey Shaidurov, leading engineer, radio center No3 of the MRC RTRS, Taldom, the pic. North [sic], Russia (via editor Anatloy Klepov, RusDX Aug 26 via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. Badges, pins, buttons, other radio station ``icons``, collectibles, some auxioned at incredible prices: http://molotok.ru/listing.php/search?string=%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B8%D0%BE&from_showcat=1&category=48569&description=1&buy=0&clear_cookie=0&listing=0&listing_sel=2&listing_interval=7&postcode_enabled=0&state=90&city=&order=t&price_from=&price_to=&view=gtext&change_view=1 (Alexander Muravjev / “deneb-radio-dx” via RusDX Aug 26 via DXLD) ** SAAR. Hi everyone, Some high-resolution pictures of the broken Europe 1 mast can be seen at: http://the-antenna-site.eu/germany-uberherrn-zumsender-pictures.html Also, there is a rumour going around that the mast snapped because the guy wire was actually stolen; but that may just be a rumour. 73s, (Rémy Friess, Aug 24, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) We already saw these (gh) ** SAO TOME & PRINCIPE. 1530, São Tomé e Príncipe, VOA, 2112, giving cochannel 2VM Moree a good run for its money, and often dominating over semi-local with hilife and talk by a man. 17/8 (David Sharp, NSW, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. 17615, Aug 23 at 1330-1348+, Qur`an from BSKSA; lovely performance by tenor and perfect for dozing as I didn`t get enough sleep last night. There`s no rhyme and no reason, especially if one doesn`t understand Arabic; if you have a bass voice, don`t even dream of becoming an Islamic cantor, why? We now have amplification and radio. Clearer and stronger here than // 17625 with its perpetual hum (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SERBIA [non]. 9560, BOSNIA, International Radio Serbia (presumed) – Bijeljina, 0034. W presenter in Serbian followed by 0034 with song in Serbian and then the W announcer speaking. Excellent signal (Steve Handler, Buffalo Grove, Illinois, Icom IC-7200, Tecsun PL-660; wire antennas, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) Is this frequency correct? Serbia is on 9685, just reconfirmed tonight. Nothing listed on 9560 at that hour except something from China. What was the date? (Glenn to Steve, via DXLD) On Bosnia I am at a loss. My notes show it was 9560. It is certainly possible I entered the frequency incorrectly, especially in light of the fact that I forgot to enter the date. I assume it was on 8/20/12 GMT. Hope this information helps (Steve Handler, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I include this on the possibility it really showed up on 9560 one night (gh, DXLD) ** SINT MAARTEN. QSL TIP: The Voice of St Maarten PJD2, 1300 kHz, 1 kW: For those of you who have been fortunate enough to hear this station and are having trouble QSLing it, I have some help. As usual, my letter was never answered, but rather than spend a lot of money on registered airmail, I tried finding its fax number. The WRTH has fax numbers listed that are actually voice numbers, and the station's website lists a number that is now no longer valid. I finally called the main switchboard and asked a few simple questions, and was told that they only really use the fax to send and therefore only engage it when they need it and it can be on any number. I was then given two email addresses to write to with reports or requests. As you all may have noticed, their email does not appear on the website, nor have I been able to find it anywhere on the web. For those who want to write with a report, you can send your emails to the following addresses: sxmislandtime(at)gmail(dot)com and stevencyrillien(at)gmail(dot)com Slowly, slowly, all the follow-ups, phone calls and faxes are starting to pay off. Still no answer from the Maldives, even though I went through their embassy, and from the Faroes after going through the Danish embassy. Hope springs eternal, however. 73 (Al Muick, Williamsport PA USA, Aug 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 5019.9, S.I.B.C., 1155 Aug 24, Tok Pisin, pop music, 1156 devotional Bible message in English, 1201 “You have been listening to the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Happy Isles.”, frequencies, goodbyes, national anthem to close. Fair (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening through the local sunrise period, lakeside from my car with the Eton E1 and Sony AN1 active antenna, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOMALIA [non]. 11980, 1940, 26-08-2012, some kind of African music in vernacular. No comments and a little bit distorted. SINPO 45343. Clandestine Radio Damal, Voice of Somali People in Somali language (presumed). (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Via UAE at 1930-2130 per HFCC (gh, DXLD) ** SOMALILAND. INFORMATION MINISTRY REBUFFS ALLEGED INTERNAL INFIGHTING --- Saturday, 25 August 2012 19:42 http://somalilandsun.com/index.php/politics/government/1333-somaliland-information-ministry-rebuffs-alleged-internal-infighting DG Abdirashid(L) flanked by Dawan boss Mohamed O Mire "Sayid" & Technical direcor (below) new transmitter & antennaesDG Abdirashid(L) flanked by Dawan boss Mohamed O Mire "Sayid" & Technical direcor (below) new transmitter & antennaes [captions] • All departments heads are working in Harmony • SLNTV Finance Director Suspended until Investigations are complete • New Radio Transmitter operational soon By: Yusuf M Hasan HARGEISA (Somalilandsun) – The Ministry of information has denied the existence of differences among senior staff. The Ministry's Director General Mr. Abdirashid Jibril Yusuf made the denial during a press briefing where he also informed on the status of the new radio Hargeisa transmitter and purported dismissal of a senior officer. The DG who was flanked by six departmental heads said that continued insinuations by some local TV stations, newspapers and websites as per internal infighting among senior staff was false and of ill intent. On the issue of the Somaliland National TV-SLNTV Director of Administration & Finance Mr. Hasan Mohamed Mahmoud, DG Abdirashid revealed that the ministry has only suspended him from duties pending completion of investigations by the office of the Auditor General. Said he, "Mr. Hasan has not been fired but only suspended by the ministry until the AG's office complete ongoing investigations" According to the media reports that the DG refuted, the SLNTV director of Finance is said to have been fired though the AG had failed to prove alleged corruption against him. The reports also indicate that the ministry is engulfed in internal infighting with departmental heads showing dissatisfaction with current leadership. "I take this opportunity to inform all citizens that the purported differences in the ministry of information are false" Said DG Abdirashid Jibril who is also acting minister in the absence of his boss current in south Sudan. In the course of ongoing investigations by the office of the Auditor General, the CID on orders of the AG arrested Mr. Hasan Mohamed Mahmoud the SLNTV director of Adm/finance only to be released a few days later by the High court in Hargeisa after his clan elders bailed him on an undisclosed surety thus await case conclusion while on bond. Upon his release, Minister Abdirahman Boobe reinstated Mr. Hasan before his departure to south Sudan where he presented a paper on the history of Somaliland at an international symposium organized and held at Juba University. According to the DG the future of the suspended director is solely depended on the outcome of the AG's investigations, said he, "If he is found guilty of misappropriating public funds then legal procedures will be followed and if innocent he shall resume his normal duties. The press briefing was also informed about the status of the new Radio Hargeisa Transmitter which the ministry had earlier on indicate its commissioning day to concede with EID Ul-Fitr celebrations that were held last week. "I wish to inform that the new transmitter is installed and antennae are fully erected and testing will commence immediately the studios are connected" Said the DG According to the Ministry's Technical Director Mr. Ahmed Suleiman, the much-anticipated nationwide radio transmission will be on service as soon as ongoing tests and linkage with studios is completed. The technical director further informed that all ongoing works are under local engineers following the departure of the 14 Chinese experts whose mission pertained to installation of the Transmitter and erection of antennae's. Somalilanders are anxiously awaiting the full commissioning of the 100Kw Radio Transmitter that will avail nationwide transmissions of Radio Hargeisa broadcasts since the current Radio Hargeisa transmitter has a capacity to cover only a distance of 40sq Km radius thus only Hargeisa residents and those in its peri-urban areas receive programs from the national radio station [all sic] (Somaliland Sun via gh, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DXLD) SOMALILAND: BOOBE FIRED DAYS AFTER HE FIRED SENIOR DIRECTORS Wednesday, 29 August 2012 14:10 President Silanyo (L) will reinstate Sayid Mire(R) a Staunch Ally fired by Boobe [caption] --- By: Yusuf M Hasan HARGEISA (Somalilandsun) – The minister of information and national guidance has been sacked from his post with immediate effect. The president H.E. Ahmed Mahmoud Silanyo has relieved Abdirahman Yusuf Duale "Boobe' of his duties as the minister of Information and national guidance. The firing that was conveyed in a presidential decree No: JSL/M/XILQ/249/1-1280/082012 stated that the president of the republic of Somaliland has fired the minister of information. The decree read: Subject: Sacking To: Abdirahman Yusuf Duale "Boobe' This is to thank you for the duration you have worked with me as well as for the service you have rendered to the public. As you are, aware posts within the public service belong to the public and are given to those capable and with relevant skills. To this effect, I have decided to relieve you of your office as the minister of information and national guidance. At the same time, I hope that you will hand over, with a clean heart, your office, to the minister of Defence Hon Ahmed Haji Adami who will hold the post on a temporary basis until I appoint a permanent replacement. End Quote The sacking of Boobe comes 48 hours after he sacked the director of the national TV station-SLNTV Mr. Ahmed Mohamed Suleiman 'Duhul' and the Managing editor of the state print owned Dawan Media Group Mr. Mohamed Osman Mire 'Sayid' in what the fired Boobe had termed as a move to streamline ministerial operations. The firing of Sayid and Duhul was perceived by many as a fallacy by Boobe owing to their high esteem within the presidency due to the outstanding performance as managers of the then Kulmiye party owned clandestine radio station of 'Horiyal'. Sayid Mire became a thorn in the flesh of the then president Dahir Rayale Kahin and his UDUB ruling part. The Sayid Mire led Horiyal clandestine radio which landed him in jail several times is directly attributed with having broken the spine of the then ruling party UDUB. To crown the success of dislodging UDUB from office, the Boobe fired and now presumably reinstated Managing editor of Dawan Media Group Mr. Mohamed Osman Mire 'Sayid' conducts official business seated on the chair that used to be president Rayale's. Click the links below to review the saga that is attributed to the minister's firing read relevant articles posted by SLSUN http://somalilandsun.com/index.php/politics/government/1349-somaliland-the-boobe-gun-blazes-and-fires http://somalilandsun.com/index.php/politics/government/1333-somaliland-information-ministry-rebuffs-alleged-internal-infighting Comment: -1 #1 Somalilander 2012-08-29 15:08 --- This sacking is Shameful act indeed. As a minister Boobe performed oustandingly. He is one of the most nationalistic polticians in Somaliland today. On the other hand Silanyo is more of a corrupt tribal elder rather than statesman. Shame on Silanyo and his tribal advisors (via DXLD) Radio Hargeisa’s new SW transmitter has been testing, beginning this past Sunday, 8/26. So far I have not been able to make it clear to my non-technical contact that a frequency of “41” (that is 41 mb) is not a specific enough. I am also pushing my inquiries as to frequency and times of testing. RH reportedly has used 7120, 7145 and 7530 in past years. My checks of those at various times in the past few days have not produced any results (Don Jensen, WI, Aug 28, NASWA yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DXLD) It`s 7120 at 1500-1830 or 1900, as in next DXLD, or without delay in the dxldyg (gh) ** SOUTH AFRICA. QSL: RTÉ Radio Worldwide (IRELAND) via Meyerton, 17500, full data letter QSL in 340 days for English airmail report and 3 IRCs and English followup via registered airmail and US $10. QSL arrived 18 days after follow-up. V/s Bernie Pope, Network Support, who also returned the US $10 with an apology and stated they never received the first report. 73 (Al Muick, Williamsport PA USA, Aug 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA. 15745, 0133, 26-08-2012, live show with English language music - most of them American oldies - and greetings to listeners from DJ whom mentions "Sunday morning". Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation. SINPO 35343. Abrupt closedown at 0141!! It must be my friend DJ Harold Fernando who produces a show like this one as follows: All correspond to Sri Lanka time [UT +5:30] . Tuesdays 07.00 to 08.30 . Wednesdays 12.30 to 16.30 . Thursdays 10.30 to 12.30 . Sundays 10.30 to 12.30 (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. 11560, UKRAINE, Radio Miraya FM (presumed), 0455 Aug 27, English, male speaker, music bridge, child with African accent, 0500 heard announcer mention news and say “Good morning, once again.” and into what seemed to be African news. Poor. (Harold Sellers, Vernon, British Columbia, Listening in my car, parked overlooking Kalamalka Lake, with the Eton E1 and Sony AN1 active antenna. Editor of World English Survey and Target Listening, available at http://www.odxa.on.ca dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. Today Monday August 27 Voice of South Sudan Revolutionary Radio in Sudanese Arabic and English was observed: 0502-0822 on 15725 and carrier till 0842 (DX Re Mix News, Bulgaria, 27 August via DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. 13715, 1814, 25-08-2012, kind of news bulletin by both male and female with report from male correspondent. It sounds a lot like Arabic language, but not sure. They mention "Ramadan" at various times. SINPO 35333. According to EiBi A-2012 it's Afia Darfur Radio via São Tomé. It closed with VOA ID (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWAINS ISLAND. NH8, SWAINS ISLANDS. Another press release was posted on the Swains Island Web page with pictures on August 25th, this time from Alex Jennings. In short, David Jennings and his advance crew departed Pago harbor on the "MV Sili" for Swains Island on August 24th. They took with them all the materials and supplies to set up two operating stations, as well as sleeping quarters, a kitchen and restroom facilities. They were also able to take all of the radio equipment that was shipped in from California from the operators. Read the complete press release at the above Web link. Remember, we should hear NH8S possibly September 5th (Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin No. 1076, August 27, 2012, Editor Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW, Provided by BARF80.ORG (Cleveland, Ohio), via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DXLD) It must be a DXCC entity for them to go to all this trouble and expense ($200,000 at least). Yet there is no NH8 in ARRL`s list: http://www.arrl.org/files/file/DXCC/2012%20DXCC%20Current_H.pdf Instead you have to find it under KH8. Indeed there is no N-anything in that list (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWAZILAND. 15360, Aug 25 at 1406, like Bangladesh here`s an Urdu service that is mostly music, but must be Christian hymns, since it`s TWR Swaziland, as finally IDed in English during music box IS at 1415- 1416:18* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWITZERLAND. Time signal station to be dynamited: WORLD OF HOROLOGY ** SYRIA. OPPOSITION WATAN FM ON AIR IN DAMASCUS See Al-Jazeera report on the station [in Arabic, 2:46] at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLJp1HNCiHs&feature=youtu.be Watan = Homeland. "Huna Dimashq" also heard several times. (Chris Greenway, UK, Aug 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Chris, The station started transmitting on 12/8. According to a source in the station they don't transmit on one frequency and they are going to use different locations to transmit and not to be caught. I heard couple of programs online, but I noticed that they use sound cloud, so I did some search and here's the result http://www.soundcloud.com/watan-fm All the best (Tarek Zeidan, Cairo, Egypt, ibid.) ** TAHITI. Re 12-34: I think the stations closed totally around the end of February 1971. I had a Tahitian couple who used to come to my place to listen to the music. Regards and happy DX (Des Davey, Te Kuiti, New Zealand, Aug NZ DX Times via DXLD)`` No, they remained on shortwave at least into the 1980's (well received here too, well into the summer nights at least). They must have been on into the 90's per: http://www.schoechi.de/au-oce.html (Terry L Krueger, FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN. 15500, 2323 11/08/2012, Sound of Hope - cin - parlato 55444 (Ivan Guerini, # Swl I2 - 5759 #, http://swl-i2-5759.blogspot.com/ via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) Chinese talk; no jamming? (gh, DXLD) ** TIBET [non]. 7505, 2215, 25-08-2012, news commentary in Chinese Mandarin from CNR 1 Jammer, with IDs and promos. In the same frequency I can listen to Radio Free Asia in Tibetan via TAJIKISTAN. SINPO for RFA 21442. China is the stronger one (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TIBET [non]. 17560, 1358, 26-08-2012, no open carrier from Madagascar as expected for Voice of Tibet. But it started at 1400 with presentation by male, although I didn't recognize the name of the station. At 1403 I noticed some non-vocal music, a lot like Firedrake. SINPO 34343. Nothing on 17570, but they went off the air suddenly at 1409, and then I moved to 17570 where they were broadcasting their program by same female host. SINPO 35343. Again off the air for some seconds at 1412, and this time the musical interference appeared again. Now SINPO 24332. I checked again 17560 and nor Voice of Tibet neither Firedrake were there!! At 1443 it was almost impossible to listen to. SINPO 13321. Closed transmission at 1427. Firedrake kept on the air (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY. TRT Emirler symmetrical intermodulations at 1927-2027 UT 9285.005 and 9810.029 are symmetrical intermodulations from TRT Emirler site of the Voice of Turkey Ankara tonight. Basis frequencies are 9460.005 kHz at 1600-2100 UT in Turkish, and 9635.016 kHz in French language at 1927-2027 UT. vy73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Aug 26, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non?]. 15410, Aug 27 at 1327, despite DW Hausa via RWANDA USward audible underneath, BBC is also transmitting on this unscheduled frequency in order to inform us that ``This is the BBC; there is no programme on this channel at present. Details of all our services are at bbcworldservice.com.`` Before each repeat, YL exclaims ``BBC`` and then an OM. Continues past 1330 but stops at 1331:30 and then off the air. Site? Purpose? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. AMATEUR RADIO : HAS 2O12L BROKEN A WORLD RECORD? Southgate August 28, 2012 The RSGB reports that the team at 2O12L, the amateur radio special event station for the London Olympic and Paralympic Games, believe that they have now broken the world record for the number of contacts by a Special Event Station. It is believed the record was made by DQ2006X during the 2006 World Cup, their total made between 13 May and 16 July 2006 was 47,790 contacts. At 2142 UT on 21 August, 2O12L made contact number 47,791. The team would like to thank the thousands who have joined the pile- ups to contact 2O12L and now they look forward to hitting their overall target of 60,000 QSOs. 2O12L goes QRT on 9 September after the Paralympic Games' closing ceremony so there is plenty of time to work the station or get more band-slots. http://www.2o12l.com/ http://www.rsgb.org/olympics http://www.southgatearc.org/news/august2012/has%202o12l_broken_a_world_record.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AmateurRadioNews+%28Southgate+Amateur+Radio+News%29 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Special event record maybe, but I believe many DXpeditions have made far more contacts (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. 7811-USB, Aug 26 at 0513, AFN is audible with poor signal, but not at 1248; 5446.5-USB audible at 0610 concluding a CBS feature, and also very poor at 1242; 12133.5-USB audible at 1253. TS/Hurricane Isaac is about to cross the Florida Keys, so we`ll see if it knox this SW station off the air. Checking for AFN Saddlebunch Keys FL, as Isaac is blowing around, Aug 27 at 0519, not heard on 7811 or 12133.5. At 1238 not heard on 5446.5; at 1305 not heard on 7811; but at 1322 audible on 12133.5-USB mentioning ``AFN Radio`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. NINE-MONTH ABSENCE OF VOA PERSIAN SHOW "PARAZIT" IS BEGINNING TO CAUSE SOME STATIC. Posted: 25 Aug 2012 US News & World Report, Washington Whispers, 23 Aug 2012, Elizabeth Flock: "To Americans, Parazit was known as an Iranian version of the Daily Show. To Iranians, it was proof the opposition had a voice. And to U.S. lawmakers, it was as one of the best tools they had to move the needle on human rights in Iran, and to change the country’s theocratic rule. The much-watched Persian-language show hosted by the U.S. government-run Voice of America for years spent half an hour weekly satirizing Iranian politics and culture. The show reached 19 million people via the Internet, through bootleg CDs, and illegal satellite dishes. It became one of VOA’s most popular shows to date, in one of the broadcaster’s biggest audiences. ... But last November, Parazit abruptly went off air — and though Iranians mourned its disappearance, the U.S. lawmakers who championed the show didn't have a clue. The popular show was dark for almost nine months before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee learned about it, according to a staffer on the committee. The committee was not told about the show's disappearance by VOA, but instead by a member of the show. ... VOA spokesman Kyle King says the show is only 'on hiatus,' not canceled, due to 'difficult talent and staffing issues.' King would not give further details about those issues, citing privacy concerns." See also VOA PNN Watchdog, 11 June 2012 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Does VOA have to notify Congress before it can take a program off the air? In international broadcasting, the general practice is that programs are introduced with great fanfare, whereas other programs are dropped from the schedule quietly. We reported on the apparent breakup of the Parazit team on 25 Dec 2011. Parazit stemmed from a unique combination of talent. Reconstituting Parazit is not a simple matter of handing two other VOA Persian staffers Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor and assigning them to produce a funny show. The writer of the US News piece appears to assume that VOA Persian News Network is an opposition station rather than a news service. See "Even the Static Must Be Credible." (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) ** U S A. [Re 12-34, VOA PNN etc.] USA +non VOA/BBG I find it pretty remarkable how even an anti-BBG blog does not dare to point out how poorly informed these governors are. I would have expected them to have some staff which keeps an eye on developments in the field. And such staff should have noted at least this and pointed out to their bosses: http://www.kimandrewelliott.com/?id=12573 Concerning the Epoch Times item referenced there, too: VOA PNN appears at present to be included in the IBB mux on Hotbird 13B, as of May as "Persian TV 225", with the number referring to the SID (not that it makes terribly much sense to put it in the ident., too). It had in the past been temporarily removed, and the apparent rationale was to get the mux out of the Iranian jamming fire in order to not loose the complete USIB signal distribution in Europe. Those who may on a political level oppose this approach should ask IBB executives. I don't think that Eutelsat or the French authorities had anything to do with it. What I find more interesting, besides RFE/RL now being a TV operation as well (Azadliq Radiosu TV), is this "DOS TV 340" which Lyngsat lists as "American Embassy TV Network". So much for the independence of USIB from US diplomacy. cf. http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=13545 Why is this stuff not simply distributed via AFRTS facilities, especially while the IBB muxes are almost bursting from own USIB signals already? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Aug 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. BROADCASTING BOARD OF GOVERNORS COMMITTEE TO DISCUSS CONTROVERSIAL GALLUP CONTRACT --- By BBGWatcher on 27 August 2012 in Featured News, Hot Tub Blog with No Comments http://www.usgbroadcasts.com/bbgwatch/2012/08/27/broadcasting-board-of-governors-committee-to-discuss-controversial-gallup-contract/ The controversial 50 million dollar audience research contract between the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and The Gallup Organization will be discussed on Tuesday by the BBG Strategy and Budget Committee. The move comes after the U.S. Department of Justice joined a suit accusing Gallup of overcharging other U.S. government agencies for similar work. The Gallup Organization strongly disputes these charges. The BBG executive staff, which continues to support the contract, did not refer specifically to The Gallup Organization in the announcement of the meeting posted on the BBG website. The announcement itself does not appear on the home page and requires searching the site to be found. BBG Watch has learned that the staff discussed keeping the Gallup contract off the agenda but eventually included a reference to the BBG global research contract without mentioning Gallup. The BBG’s contract with Gallup is highly controversial because of its high cost — 50 million dollars over five years — and the fact that it was negotiated at the time when BBG executives were proposing to eliminate key radio and television broadcasts to China and other countries without free media. Critics have also charged that the terms of the contract are highly unfavorable to the U.S. government and call for collecting data, much of which can be obtained for free. Critics also point out that any data Gallup can provide from countries ruled by dictatorial or authoritarian regimes, like Iran and China, are highly suspect since many individuals there are either too afraid to participate in face-to-face or telephone surveys or may give misleading answers to protect themselves. Critics also said that the BBG executive staff is incapable of properly interpreting research data, as evidenced by their proposal to eliminate Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcasts to Tibet. The proposal was eventually rejected by BBG members after a storm of protests from Congress and human rights organizations. Ambassador Victor Ashe, who is one of the two members of the BBG Strategy And Budget Committee, has called for the BBG to disengage from the contract with Gallup in light of the U.S. Department of Justice decision to join a suit accusing Gallup of overcharging government agencies. Ashe believes that pulling out of the five-year 50 million dollar contract with Gallup would be a prudent move. He was a vocal critic of the contract when it was being negotiated and called the 50 million dollar amount excessive in times of tight budgets and layoffs of BBG journalists. Ashe, a Republican, does not hide his criticism of the BBG executive staff, which reports to the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) director Richard Lobo. Michael Meehan, a Democrat, the second member of the Stategy and Budget Committee, is also known to be critical of BBG/IBB executives, as is another BBG Democratic member Susan McCue. BBG Watch and U.S. News & World Report disclosed recently that senior IBB and VOA managers kept BBG members and key Congressional staffers in the dark about a prominent Voice of America television program “Parazit” to Iran being off the air for the past nine months while at the same time issuing press releases that suggested that the program was still being broadcast. BBG executives and BBG research staffers respond by questioning the criticism. Writing in a private blog, one BBG researcher asserted that the agency has no obligation to inform Congress about stopping programs and took barbs at BBG Watch and Victor Ashe. A VOA spokesperson said that “Parazit” program was “suspended” and not canceled. It appears, however, unlikely that the program will be revived. A VOA executive in charge of programs to Iran is involved in another controversy over his request to the United Nations to “review” UN press accreditation of independent American journalist Matthew Russell Lee who apparently annoyed him with emails relating to a private dispute with a VOA reporter at the UN. ### The Broadcasting Board of Governors executive staff posted the following announcement about the BBG Strategy And Budget Committee Meeting on August 28, 2012, which notes that the meeting will be closed to the public. ### BBG STRATEGY AND BUDGET COMMITTEE MEETING, AUGUST 28, 2012 The Strategy and Budget Committee will meet on August 28 to consider the ongoing implementation of the Agency’s Strategic Plan and related issues. Agenda topics include broadcasting to Burma, Iran, and the Balkans; Internet anti-censorship efforts; the BBG global research contract; the Agency’s proposed FY 2014 budget submission; and new content distribution opportunities. The meeting is closed to the public (BBGWatch via DXLD) REPORT: BBG MEMBER VICTOR ASHE CALLS FOR BBG TO "DISENGAGE" FROM GALLUP RESEARCH CONTRACT AFTER DOJ JOINS LAWSUIT. Posted: 25 Aug 2012 [excerpted from the above] (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) These remarks by Mr. Ashe are not reported elsewhere. It's interesting that the only outlet for statements by this BBG member is the anti-BBG BBG Watch. Would it be possible for each BBG member to be granted space in the BBG website for such statements, remarks, and thoughts? (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) AP, 23 Aug 2012, Pete Yost: "The Justice Department said Wednesday that it has joined a lawsuit against The Gallup Organization alleging the polling company filed false claims on contracts with the U.S. Mint, the State Department and other government agencies. A fired Gallup employee who became a whistle-blower, Michael Lindley, alleges in the lawsuit that he discovered shortly after going to work for the polling company that it had engaged in widespread fraud against the government. ... His lawsuit, filed nearly three years ago and unsealed Wednesday in federal court, says Gallup routinely submitted inflated cost estimates which enabled the company to reap huge profits from its government business. ... The Justice Department said it was stepping into the case with respect to Gallup's contracts with the Mint and the State Department. In response, Gallup general counsel Steve O'Brien said, 'We believe that the allegations and the legal theory that the Justice Department is using are entirely meritless.'" See also Department of Justice press release, 22 Aug 2012 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Gallup's dealings with the BBG are apparently not part of the DOJ suit (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) ** U S A. DEFEDERALIZATION IS A BAD IDEA Dr. Kim Andrew Elliott has written an interesting blog in which he comments on a lengthy article by Jeffery Gedmin, president of RFE/RL from 2007-2011. The article is worth reading and we highly recommend you take a look at both. http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=1358 http://www.the-american-interest.com/article-bd.cfm?piece=1298 We at AFGE Local 1812 agree with a lot of what Gedmin recommends but we object especially to his call for the defederalization of the VOA and the total repeal of the Smith/Mundt Act. One of his suggestions is to take VOA out of the federal mix and make it a grantee organization like RFE/RL, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Network. He maintains that this arrangement would be best to foster public diplomacy efforts. We have long advocated bolstering the validity and credibility of VOA while keeping the surrogates as they are. The best and most efficient tool of Public Diplomacy, from a journalistic standpoint and for purely national interests, is to do what the VOA Charter directs us to do: be a reliable and authoritative source of objective, unbiased and accurate news and information; represent the diverse elements of American society and present government policies clearly while fostering responsible debate over them. We, as the duly elected representatives of nearly 900 employees at the VOA, the Greenville, N.C. relay station and Radio/TV Marti in Miami question Gedmin’s motives in suggesting that VOA be de-federalized. Gedmin has written: “this will mean an end to VOA’s union, a step that will almost certainly have to wait for a Republican Administration.” It is not exactly clear from this statement if Gedmin actually supports the elimination of the VOA union. We hope this extremist view is not reflective of most Republicans. After all, unions have been very good for this country as they have arguably been the largest single factor in expanding the middle class. Unions extend the idea of democracy into the worksite. It is hard to square Gedmin’s support of the BBG mission with his apparent desire to eliminate employees’ union rights. After all a main part of the BBG mission statement is to support democracy worldwide and that would presumably include their own house. Writes Gedmin: “VOA should be de-federalized to permit greater flexibility in recruiting and managing personnel.” Maybe the flexibility he supports is VOA management’s illegal predilection for hiring non-US citizens despite the presence of qualified US citizens – a violation of a provision of the Smith/Mundt Act which gives hiring priority to US citizens. Maintaining this priority is something AFGE Local 1812 has vigorously supported especially in light of the current high unemployment rate in this country. Perhaps this is his motive in calling for the repeal of the entire Smith/Mundt Act instead of just that part of the Act that prevents the domestic dissemination of the content of International government broadcasting. The federal civil service system is there for a reason – to prevent the political patronage system and the rampant cronyism federal jobs were subjected to before it was established. Since the Government is the employer it also establishes some rights for employees based on the Constitution such as providing due process. There is no good reason to defederalize the VOA. We agree with Gedmin when he explains that there are “two sides to America’s broadcasting coin” and that “…VOA was about ‘us’, RFE and RL was about ‘them’" and that “…broadcasting should reflect these two distinct yet complimentary missions”. There is no need for a reorganization to stress this reality. He also mentions the “mission creep” of the VOA – the gradual morphing of the VOA into a “hybrid of surrogate and public diplomacy work”. He is absolutely right about this and it should be reversed. There are those who are in charge of this agency who refuse to recognize that there is a difference between the missions of the VOA and the surrogates. They should be corrected. The surrogates – the government funded replacements for local media in the countries they serve – have their mission. VOA has a separate mission. For VOA the idea is that if you tell the truth, people will flock to you and you can persuade people with the truth. Writes Gedmin: “U.S. government-sponsored broadcasting has the potential to become again a central element of American soft-power strategy …” which is true if you keep it out of the partisan politics that has very nearly wrecked this Agency. Posted: Wednesday, Aug 22, 2012 (AFGE Local 1812 via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. VOA STARTS MOBILE NEWSCASTS TO MALI Media Relations / Press Releases Washington DC August 29, 2012 Voice of America is now offering special daily news broadcasts for mobile phone users in Mali, where Islamic militants in the north have clamped down on independent sources of information. “Mobile phones are the single best platform to share news and information in places like northern Mali,” according to Gwen Dillard, the Director of VOA’s Africa Division. “The audience for mobile broadcasts has been growing by leaps and bounds in Africa. It’s an excellent way to reach places where radio and television are subject to censorship and intimidation. Even in the most unstable regions, you find widespread use of mobile phones,” Dillard says. The three-minute French-language mobile newscasts include on-the- ground reports from Bamako and the northern cities of Timbuktu, Gao, Kidal, and Mopti, as well as breaking news from the surrounding countries of Mauritania, Niger and Chad. The first broadcast included information about a recent Cholera outbreak. The newscasts can be accessed on the mobile platform http://www.mali1.com/ Many private radio stations have stopped broadcasting in northern Mali and the flow of information has been sharply limited since Islamic militants seized control of the region following a coup that overthrew Mali’s government earlier this year. Some independent reporters in the region have been assaulted and threatened by militants who have imposed strict Islamic law and shut down private radio stations. Voice of America’s French Service, which can be heard online, on shortwave and medium wave, has been providing extensive coverage of the situation in Mali and the neighboring countries. (VOA PR via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Do many mobile phones in Mali have internet access? If not, is there dial-in access to these VOA broadcasts? If not, radio may still be "the best platform to share news and information" in Mali. (I believe VOA French is still transmitted on shortwave, although I can't find any shortwave frequencies listed at the VOA French website.)(Kim Andrew Elliott, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Dial a News Bulletin - is it working, I wonder? So what happens if you're a radio station broadcasting to a country and your local FM relays get yanked for political reasons or because you can't afford the carriage fees. You respond by offering a news bulletin service via the phone. Everyone has a phone right? True. There are more phones than radios out there. But what doesn't work is putting radio on the phone. Mali1 is a case in point. It's a phone service set up by the French for Africa service of US government broadcaster Voice of America because it can't get an FM signal into Mali at the moment. They tell people to go to the website where they can stream or download the news bulletin. That means you need a phone with web access to find it. To be fair, they have recently changed the website to make it much easier to navigate on a small screen than a couple of weeks back. I don't understand why they tell people to listen to Mali 1 at 1530 UTC. They mean the bulletin is refreshed at 1530 daily. Mali is on UTC, so I'd just say Mali time. My beef is with the audio. Listeners are paying for the call in some way (either bandwidth or time) so why bother to put a jingle in the bulletin? And the correspondents reports from Mali by mobile phone need to be revoiced. Once they have been compressed again down to such a small bandwidth they are often unintelligible. And I'd normalise the audio file, rather like putting Optimod on an FM signal. The examples I listened to were difficult to understand under my ideal listening conditions, let alone in troubled Mali. This kind of service is clearly a medium of last resort. So how does that explain Radio France Internationale's phone service in the USA? I'm sure that nobody needs to call that number to pay to hear someone reading news over the phone. Reminds me of Dial-a-Disc in the UK in the 1960's. You dialled 160 and a song would play repeatedly. Was more useful later when the music was replaced with cricket scores. Posted by Jonathan Marks at Sunday, August 26, 2012 (from http://criticaldistance.blogspot.nl/2012/08/dial-news-bulletin-is-it-working-i.html via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) This note about the voanews.com website: The Inside VOA section has been re-labeled About VOA. The page that results from clicking on the Media Relations link http://www.insidevoa.com/ includes some recent press releases, but no (working) link to the full archive of VOA press release. For that archive, go to this page. http://www.insidevoa.com/archive/media-relations-press-releases/latest/1502/1503.html (Kim Andrew Elliott, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. 15580, Aug 23 at 0537, good signal at S9+12 from VOA BOTSWANA with news in English. I believe this is `International Edition` which according to AFGE Local 1812 is now originally aired live only at 0530 and repeated later in the day without updating. 7575, Aug 23 at 1208, detailed report on row between Japan and China over disputed islands, eventually IDed as `Crossroads Asia` program. This is about to be canceled, per AFGE Local 1812, as in DXLD 12-33, but not yet. The 12-13 hour on 7575 radiates 18 degrees from Udorn, THAILAND, also USward. (A few minutes earlier, R. Japan was reporting on dispute between Japan and South Korea over some other islands.) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. [continued from Aug 21 and 22 reports in DXLD 12-34 under MADAGASCAR:] 15580, Aug 23 I am tuned in early at 1956 to track what is happening with the collision after 2000. Nothing but VOA English to Africa at first, poor with flutter, Spe-cial Eng-lish feature on the 2000 Bush vs Gore stolen elexion (no, they did not put it that way); outro as `The Making of a Nation` (rather, unmaking). Botswana drops carrier immediately at 2000, and a few sex later crash-starts with much stronger signal: 15580, two stations mixing immediately, and it`s now certain this is a double audio feed into and out of a single transmitter, i.e. Talata. It`s at least the third night in a row this has happened; doesn`t anyone there even listen for two seconds to their own transmission, either line or off-the-air monitoring? Of course not! Just let the automation do it. VOA`s `African Beat` is into music immediately, who cares about news on the hour? So again difficultizes making any sense of the other audio, at equal level, but music tends to sound louder; almost all talk, but what station and language?? It`s either Japanese or Korean. I listen for key words. Once I think I hear a ``desu ka`` which means Japanese (but it could be just a clip). Then I hear ``VOA`` mentioned, and an ``imnida``, and then ``Hangkuk``, which mean it`s Korean. Unlike in our mornings/their evenings when VOA Korean service has jingles in English and plays a lot of American music in English. Japanese was dropped long ago by VOA, as who needs to say anything to a firm ally?? It so happens that VOA does have a Korean broadcast at this time, but of course not intended to be broadcast from Madagascar to Africa! I`ll bet it`s on an adjacent satellite channel, which somehow Talata is feeding into the transmitter along with the correct one. And never noticing! Found schedule at VOA site: http://www.voakorea.com/info/frequencies/2921.html including: 4AM - 6AM (1900-2100 UTC) 5835, 6060, 7420 kHz 648 kHz But those frequencies are outdated! as current EiBi and WRTH May update agree on some others (and HFCC too): 1900 2100 USA Voice of America K FE 5870/PHL-t 6060/THA-u 7365/THA-u 1900-2100 daily EAs 648vld, 5870pht, 6060udo, 7365udo (RFA`s Korean is conveniently before and after 19-21 UT). No way we can check those low frequencies here for // but they could in Europe. How much longer will this go on, making the VOA African service on 15580 at 2000-2100 unlistenable? 15580, another check for the VOA double-program feed at 2000 UT as logged the past few days: Aug 24 not tuned in until 2006 and find a JBA signal rather than the usual good signal from MADAGASCAR aimed USward. Can barely detect music, but can`t tell if the Korean audio is mixed in. Not a propagation problem, as at 2010 check, African signals are still sufficient on 15190 from Equatorial Guinea, 15349.1 Morocco, plus nearby 15195 and 15400 from Ascension; as well as higher-latitude ones from 15540 Kuwait, 15630 Greece. So my theory now is that IBB finally caught on to the problem at Talata and pulled the transmission, substituting some other site which was barely propagating to here. However, next check of 15580 near the end of the collision hour, at 2057 found much better signal with `The African Beat` music, only, until cut off modulation at 2100 and a few seconds later carrier off too (scheduled next on 15580 is VOA Botswana, but if so did not come up immediately.) We`ll see what happen Aug 25. 15580, another check Aug 25 to see what happens with this VOA frequency, which had been saddled with double-audio this week from the MADAGASCAR relay. I tune in early at 1954 and find an open carrier is already on the air, blotting out anything else. Botswana is supposed to be running right up until 2000, as heard previously, when there was a well-coördinated DCI/CS handover, but not today. At 1959:45 tail of some music begins the modulation; brief pause and 2000 opening `Music Time in Africa` with its new ethnomusicologist hostess who previews music from central Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Benin, Ethiopia, etc. (later heard Afro-influenced music from Colombia too). By 2003 already the song is ``The Apostles Will Bow at Jesus` Feet``. Oh-oh, hope she dosn`t have hidden agenda, and this will at least be balanced by some animist hymns; otherwise, standard remark about USG`s IBB again violating Separation of Church & State. Recheck at 2127, 15580 is still on with same signal characteristix as earlier, but after 2100 it`s supposed to switch back to Botswana; really? Now there is some music, but soon bringing in an interview about film (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. 17530, Sat Aug 25 at 1403, VOA news in English delivered by Marty (sp? female) Johnson (sp?), 1405 into `On the Line`, topix to be human rights and traffic jams. This hour is 124 degrees from São Tomé, close to off-the-back here. It should be easy to find VOA presenters on the voanews.com website, right? So I search on ``marty johnson``, ``marti johnson``, ``marti jonson``, ``marty jonson`` with zero hits; then ``martha johnson`` and get this one: http://www.voanews.com/content/did_toxic_culture_lead_to_gsa_spending_scandal/296700.html Martha Johnson was the GSA Administrator in that scandal, who then resigned. New job at VOA, or another person? Searching on ``newscasters`` leads only to 8 stories mentioning that word, all but one from 2009y. Singular ``newscaster`` leads to 26, but still nothing about the worldwide voices we hear on the VOAir. I should have used major Google search in the first place. If I put in ``Marty Johnson`` ``Voice of America`` I get three top hits from unknown sites quoting her newscasts as far back as 2009y: ``It's 15:00 Universal Time, and here is the news from the Voice of America. I'm Marty Johnson from the VOA News Center in Washington`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 15470, 1640, 26-08-2012, "VOA special English", talking about computer technology. VOA in English via Greenville, USA. Good! SINPO 55445. Female announcer talking about word formation processes related to the Internet. Program "Words and their Stories" with Faith Lapidus. Steve and Barbara with next program at 1645, "People in America" (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 17530, 1715, 26-08-2012, Portuguese language program about "A feira internacional da música e a leitura". SINPO 55444. It was expected to be broadcast till 1730, but transmission kept on the air with news bulletin. Information about the storm which beats Florida State and Cuba. HFCC shows VOA Portuguese via Greenville from 1700 to 1730 (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) HFCC as of Aug 29 shows VOA Portuguese via Greenville daily at 1700- 1800, adding 1800-1830 M-F; and also Fridays only 1630-1700 via Wertachtal (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. 17895, 1735, 26-08-2012, news bulletin by man in English informing about the storm which beats Florida and Cuba, as well as remembering about the tragedy in New Orleans 7 years ago. At 1735 "You are listening to the news in V-O-A special English". Also news about the explosion in Paraguaná State of Venezuela, which took place last Saturday. SINPO 55445. Again VOA English from Greenville, USA. Same programs I heard this day during their previous broadcasts at 1640 (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. This morning at 1220 GMT I tuned, for the first time, VOA transmission on 11990 kHz in Chinese from Agignan Point, Saipan, a U.S. Commonwealth in the Pacific. The signal was clear and relatively strong with an S-Meter reading of 3 to 3.5 out of 5. This transmitter is 7168 miles from Dallas, my home. Listened from 1220 thru 1240 GMT to talk (probably a news report) and some strangely beautiful Chinese music--music which attracted my attention in the first place. Transmission beams daily on frequency 11990 kHz from 1100 to 1300 GMT. (Grayson Watson; Dallas, TX, Aug 27, using a Satellit 750 with an Apex Radio 700DTA antenna, dxingwithcumbre yg via DXLD) Grayson, This and all other VOA Chinese frequencies are constantly jammed by CNR1 programming from China. This is more likely what you will hear, sometimes a mix. You may be able to figure out which is which by checking parallels with legitimate CNR1 (only) frequencies. If you consult the Aoki list, look out for as*erisks which mean the frequency is jammed. EiBi also lists jamming separately under each frequency. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) And jamming of any sort is too hot a topic for HFCC to deal with; it`s better to have the #1 user of SW, PRC, in the group than out (gh) If newbies would start reading DXLD archives, they could get up to speed on things like this; I guess that`s too much to expect. So why do I keep compiling all this info and making it available to anyone who will consult it? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1631 monitoring: confirmed on WTWW 9479, Thursday August 23 at 2100. As usual, starts a few sex before 2100, then interrupted for canned ID by Ted Randall, cuts back to rest of my opening theme and billboard. Nevertheless, in case there are unforeseen problems with subsequent airings, I recommend everyone try to catch this transmission if at all possible. Other WTWW airing is UT Sunday 0400 on 5755. Next airing also confirmed, on WWRB 5050, altho initially I was monitoring the webcast: SC preacher finishes ``amen & amen`` at 0330:48 UT; respectful pause of open carrier until hum starts at 0332:25; WOR playback finally starts at 0333:16, somewhat suppressing the hum but not totally. At 0353 I check 5050 direct and note that most of the hum goes away by monitoring on USB with the DX-398. Next: 0130v UT Saturday on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB, as on this week`s worldmicroscope schedule, but it was last week too when really delayed until 0200, so hang loose; it depends on what filler is inserted after `Allan Weiner Worldwide`. On WRMI 9955: Sat 0800, 1500, 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, Mon 0500, 1130. On Hamburger Lokalradio: Sat 0630 on 7265, Tue 0930 on 5980. On WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1730, Sun 0830. WORLD OF RADIO 1631 monitoring: confirmed on 5110v-CUSB from Area 51 via WBCQ, UT Saturday Aug 25 at 0136.5 as my clip of Bangladesh started; indicating playback commenced only a few minutes late. Remaining airings: WRMI 9955: Sat 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, Mon 0500, 1130 WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1730, Sun 0830 WTWW 5755: UT Sun 0400 HLR 5980: Tue 0930 5755, 0358, 26-08-2012, WTWW with religious program in English. Then "World of Radio" with Glenn Hauser, but very distorted :( Don't know what was going on because this frequency works very well for reception here in my land during the nights, but the audio was very distorted this time. SINPO 55445 but distorted (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WORLD OF RADIO 1631 monitoring: confirmed on WTWW-1 5755, UT Sunday August 26 at 0400. Unfortunately, the program feed line is still distorted as it had been all afternoon (except for the locally inserted ID at 0400 interrupting the start of WOR). Remaining SW airings: on WRMI 9955, Sun 1530, 1730, Mon 0500, 1130. On HLR 5980: Tue 0930. Also: On WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sunday 1730 9955, Sunday August 26 at 0503, Roberto Scaglione, Sicily is introducing his `Studio DX` Italian DX program, mentioning being on WRMI 9955. Fair signal, no jamming. Fingers crossed for WOR 24 hours later. WORLD OF RADIO 1631 monitoring: confirmed on WRMI 9955, Monday August 27 at 0515 check, but pulse jamming is slightly stronger, each fading independently. So both stations are still funxional despite Isaac. Tnx a lot, Arnie! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 12105, Sat Aug 25 at 1308, WTWW-3 is on with Russian; has been quite sporadic, often missing at various daypart chex, especially this early in the morning. 9479, Aug 25 at 1830, WTWW-1 in `QSO with Ted Randall`, but it`s quite overmodulated and distorted. Carrier also wobbling with BFO on (tho George McClintock insists when this happens it`s my receiver, not the transmitter); still overmod/distorted near end of QSO at 1957 recheck. A little better but still distorting on peaks at 2349 during SFAW, carrier OK. As for 12105, WTWW-3, lots of down time recently, a set of photos just in from George McClintock (posted to the dxldyg) shows why: the transmitter tube has been replaced. Looks like the old one was quite carbonized (black). Now #3 is up and running fine, he says. 12105, Aug 27 at 1632, WTWW-3 is not on; while neighbor 12160, WWCR is inbooming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 5109.74, 0045-0055 24.08, WBCQ, Monticello, Maine. English talk about "The Land", strong on Thursday night, but only in AM and USB, 35343 (Anker Petersen, from Skovlunde, Denmark, on the AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) 7490, UT Sunday August 26 at 0510, it`s another Saturday night and another ad-hoc late-nite extension of WBCQ playing music. It`s great to hear WBCQ`s only full-AM, full-power transmitter with very nice modulation fidelity, and *not* devoted to Brother Scare at the moment. However, first song heard is a hymn ``O Lord, You`re Beautiful``. Checked WWCR 5890 just in case but not // to the strident non-BS TOM gospel huxter there. Periodic chex later: 0531, country song with steel guitar, harmonica, segués. 0538, YL announces ``We`re Antenna Album Rock``. 0554 another break, she says ``You`re listening to antenna4.com``. 0609 final check still on with music. That website shows this was a special broadcast on WBCQ starting at 0400, ``Portable Concert``, Grateful Dead, originally live at Missoula MT in 1974. To be repeated UT Monday Aug 27 at 0000 on 7490. (Durations not given). Antenna4 apparently streams via Live365.com and other means, and has commercial sponsorship but I never heard anything but music and IDs on WBCQ. Too bad there was no advance notice of the first airing, but now there is of the second. Maybe by 0510 it was back to `normal` Antenna4.com programming rather than G. Dead special, as never heard that mentioned, tho I was hardly listening continuously (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9330-CUSB, Aug 28 at 0450, dead air from WBCQ`s Good Friends Radio Network/Radio 211. First time caught silent in some time now; next check at 1155 remodulating with preacher (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 9385, Aug 25 at 2136, WWRB is already off, having (recently?) moved the switch to Brother Scare`s night frequency three hours earlier from 2400 to 2100, per DX Re Mix News. Of course, 3185 is totally inaudible here this early; even at 2353 it`s a JBA carrier vs summer storm and local noise level. Sunset at WWRB is approximately 0020 UT now. 5050, Aug 27 at 0523, narration about Nostradamus, predixions for May 2000, earthquake in California; it will be 1999y in 7 months when ``great terror will come from the sky``. All accompanied by ``space music``, and periodically there would be a pause for several seconds as if playing back individual modules. Very good signal past 0530. First assumption would be WWRB running this on the frequency they normally close at 0400, but nothing identifiable. Certainly a major transmitter, not a pirate. Once one US station gets a SW frequency authorized, others can get it too at other hours. FCC finally updated A-12 file July 24, now URLed: http://transition.fcc.gov/ib/sand/neg/hf_web/A12FCC02.TXT but it still shows WWRB registered for this much longer span: 5050 2200 1300 WWRB 100 45 4,5,9 1234567 250312 281012 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See unID! ** U S A. Does anyone else notice that when WRNO in New Orleans is off the air, there still a carrier there? It's got be them, because the signal is at 7507 kHz. Wonder when they'll ever fix them being off frequency? (Thomas Lavern Nyberg on Facebook via Mike Terry, Aug 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) You mean 7506.4, or 7506.38 (gh) ** U S A. 7505, 0323, 18-08-2012, pop music with no comments, especially kind of American pop music. IDed at 0327 as "This is WRNO, New Orleans...", followed by a Coldplay song. Special announcement at 0333 “wrno...com, you can save money with...” Also another known song. At this time some problems with modulation. SINPO 45443 (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Really 7506.4, but says his receiver can`t measure that closely. Did Isaac knock it off the air? Didn`t notice (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. 9844 & 9876, approx. centers, Aug 23 at 0120 check, the nasty WHRI 9860 spurblobs are back 24 hours after first heard. All gone at 0226 recheck, so apparently on the air at 01-02 only rather than registered 01-03. Later looked up what these might be interfering with, and what luck, nothing at all scheduled anywhere on 9840, 9845, 9875 or 9880 during this hour. So the horrible engineering of WHR is unimpeded for all to hear. How long before they fix it? 9837-9850 & 9872-9882 approx., Aug 24 at 0142 check, extent of big dirty distorted FMy parasitic spurs from 9860 WHRI, with same modulation definitely audible. For at least the third night in a row, and no telling how long before that, as not a time I had been monitoring much. Why doesn`t anyone else report these gross violations of broadcast standards? 9860, Aug 25 at 0135 check, after three nights of horrible parasitic spurring on both sides of this frequency, WHRI has fixed it; now there is only direct splatter from 9860 out to at least 10 kHz on both sides (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Does anyone know if the SW station in Scotts Corner Maine (formerly WCSN of the Christian Science Monitor) is still operational? Is their programming or frequencies available only anywhere? Thanks! D (Lou Gawab, Boston, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) It`s been off the air for years. After WCSN, it was briefly WVHA, and then WHRA. Final owners WHR may have moved the transmitter to South Carolina (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Seems like an awfully expensive proposition to move an entire site. Why are they off the air? It's owned by WHRI? Does it have separate calls? (Gawab, ibid.) Apparently it was not cost-effective for WHR to operate a single transmitter in Maine when they had all the others consolidated in South Carolina. I didn`t say they moved the entire site, but the transmitter which would be the single most valuable item on the site, and it`s not unusual for transmitters to be moved from one site to another. I`m really not sure of the disposition of the transmitter. You can probably search out details of this in old DXLDs or elsewhere online, unless someone else wants to chime in. Altho Maine is as close as you can get to Europe from the CONUS, lower-latitude paths from SC are better propagationally, and WHRI can serve Europe just as well or better, plus Africa and Latin America (and Fiji). BTW, the Christian Scientists called the site Scott`s Corner, but the World Harvesters called it Greenbush --- same place, and hard to find on an ordinary map (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) I have also heard stories that the Scotts Corner/Greenbush Maine station did not live up to Christian Science Monitor had for coverage [sic]. I had heard that it did not penetrate much beyond the coast of Northern Africa, and not much beyond basic Western Europe. Does anyone know if the site is basically a warehouse? Is anyone stationed there? (Gawab, ibid.) Re Greenbush Maine: Three masts dismanteled between (see GE image history) 31 Oct 2007 and 26 Nov 2011. Towers Rd., Greenbush, ME 04418, USA G.C. 45 08'09.19"N 68 33'31.03"W but Google Maps image shows still the masts (of older 29 April 2004 image) http://goo.gl/maps/kwCDO 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Was the transmitter really the most valuable item of the entire site? I would assume that the construction of the curtain antenna set was more expensive. It had been reported that the transmitter was supposed to be moved to Furman/SC (the former WSHB, now called WHRI, not to be confused with the former facility in Indiana), but I do not recall seeing a confirmation of this really being done, especially the transmitter being installed there. What limited the use of the facility in Maine was the circumstance that it could not be used for anything else than transmissions to Europe and Africa. I would say it put indeed the best signals of all US sites into Europe at least after Greenville was out of this game (although Furman is a really close second), but who wants to book such transmissions anymore? And I'm not aware of any third party still using Furman for Africa either. So it's really no surprise that WHR disposed of its facility in Maine. Concerning its location: Greenbush is the municipality where it's located, also the nearest settlement, hardly more than a small village in the Taiga-like forests (check it out on Street View), so of course not showing up in an atlas (for that refer to Bangor). Scott's Corner referred to some road crossing, at least that's how this original site designator had been explained back then. I could not associate it with anything in Google Maps. See also http://www.garlinger.com/whri/WHRA-day.jpg and especially http://www.garlinger.com/whri/WHRA-nite.jpg Context: http://www.garlinger.com/whri/whri.html (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) Who was the last entity to use the Greenbush facility to transmit anything? (David, ibid.) WHR Defunct broadcasters --- Hello All! Bear with me, I am returning to the SWL hobby after many years, and wondering what happened to some of the US broadcasters of the past: Whatever became of: KUSW was bought by TBN and became KTBN. What happened to KTBN? WCC Chatham Massachusetts? Was this relatively recent station or was this a call sign from "way back when"? WVOH & WTJC Newport NC. Where are these stations now? Thanks for any insight! (David, ibid.) TBN lost interest in SW and closed it. I believe the transmitter went to Caribbean Beacon, Anguilla. WCC is or was a coastal communications station from the earliest days, not a broadcaster. Nowhere. FBN closed WBOH (not WVOH) in 2009, as I recently reported, and closed WTJC a few weeks ago as I also reported. May I suggest that newbies or returnees to SW could do well to start reading thru back issues of DX LISTENING DIGEST. Or skimming them. Or searching them. Questions like these could be answered. That`s why I compile and save all this material for future reference. http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Is there a reason we can't discuss it here and now? After all, mailing/discussion lists go in cycles (David, ibid.) Go ahead. Something new or more accurate may come out of it. But please do not overlook the vast resource I have been accumulating for decades. Details there are likely to be more reliable than memory, including my own (Glenn, ibid.) BTM> WTJC Newport NC. Where are these stations now? This one left short wave just a few weeks ago, on August 2, 2012. More info in DXLD 12-32 http://www.w4uvh.net/dxld1232.txt (Aleksandr Diadischev, Ukraine, ibid.) ** U S A. 13830, Aug 25 at 1311 surprised to hear Spanish here, apparent kidshow for Saturday morning, and yes, it`s // stronger 11550, so WEWN R. Católica Mundial, and not on 12050 where it is supposed to be until 1700 switch to 13830! As still per own website schedule, and latest HFCC. Error or change? Also not audible yet on English frequency 15615, maybe not propagating, but often late coming on. 12050, Aug 26 at 1401 check, WEWN Spanish is back on the frequency it is supposed to use at this hour, instead of 13830 where it had appeared 25 hours earlier. Very poor but // 11550. 12050, Aug 29 at 1403, R. Católica Mundial, modulation distorted but carrier stable, while // 11550 was OK. Giving phone numbers including one in Spain (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. Me permito compartir una carta digital recibida de Diego Jora, miembro del equipo RDS [?] de CVC La Voz (Rubén Guillermo Margenet, Argentina, Aug 23, condiglist yg via DXLD) Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:20:46 +0000 From: diegojora@forum.cvc.tv Estimado Ruben, Un cordial saludo en el precioso nombre de nuestro Señor Jesucristo, mi nombre es Diego, Formo parte de correspondencia de CVC La Voz, gracias por escribirnos. Quiero decirle que desde noviembre del 1998, el ministerio de CVC La Voz ha perseguido el objetivo de impactar vidas usando los medios adecuados para llegar a la mayor cantidad de personas con el menor costo posible. Durante estos catorce años, la onda corta nos ha abierto la posibilidad de llegar a la audiencia hispana en todo el mundo. Paralelamente y durante este tiempo, la tecnología ha avanzado, influenciando en la manera como el público consume los medios. Este crecimiento y cambio ha transformado todo, ahora el oyente o usuario es quien tiene el control y no el medio. Con el propósito de estar al día, en cómo podemos llegar a la máxima cantidad de personas, el ministerio de Christian Visión, la fundación matriz que apoya económicamente y desarrolla la visión de tocar mil millones de personas en el mundo, ha tomado la decisión de utilizar estos nuevos medios para lograr su meta. Por muchos años hemos visto que el desarrollo de la onda corta digital no llegó a tomar la importancia que esperábamos, en los países que cubrimos, esto no es solamente en American [sic] Latina, sino en casi todos los países del mundo. Hemos llegado a la conclusión, aunque muy difícil por nuestra gran historia en el uso de esta estrategia, de reducir nuestro presupuesto global dirigido a la onda corta y aumentar los proyectos en los nuevos medios. Uno de de ellos es el de yesHeis.com. Sabemos que esta decisión, seguramente te ha afectado de alguna manera. Es nuestra oración que comprendas que nuestro mayor deseo es ser buenos mayordomos de los recursos que Dios nos ha dado y por lo tanto, con el cambio y avance de la tecnología, ciertas decisiones son importantes para seguir nuestra pasión de impactar vidas. Mirando lo que sucede globalmente, estamos seguros, que hoy tenemos que avanzar con más velocidad. Gracias por tus oraciones y apoyo en todo momento. Igual queremos estar pendientes de cómo este cambio te ha afectado. Atentamente, Diego Jora Miembro del Equipo RDS CVC La Voz (via Margenet, ibid.) Es prácticamente lo mismo que decían el último día por radio (José A. Kucher, ibid.) Parafraseando el término empleado de "impactar vidas", me impacta cómo atribuyen al oyente la decisión tomada cuando dice: «ahora el oyente o usuario es quien tiene el control y no el medio» ¿No son las grandes empresas multinacionales las que compiten con nuevas formas de comunicación para ser primeras en controlar el mercado? (Rubén, ibid.) ** U S A. HURRICANE ISAAC: LISTEN TO EYEWITNESS WEATHER REPORTS ON SHORTWAVE --- The SWLing Post By Thomas August 29, 2012 I'm listening to the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) on 14325 kHz at time of this posting. I can hear the HWN net control receiving weather reports as Hurricane Isaac hits Louisiana with 80 mph winds, dumping torrential rain, and causing wide-spread flooding. Though this is "only" a category 1 hurricane, I suspect damage will exceed similar storms from the past. If you have a shortwave radio, even a portable, that can tune in SSB (or Single-Side Band), you can listen to or participate in the Hurricane Watch Net. More here http://swling.com/blog/2012/08/hurricane-isaac-listen-to-eyewitness-weather-reports-on-shortwave/ (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DXLD) ** U S A. 790, Aug 29 at 1232 UT, River City Casino ad, ``Cardinals Report`` summarizing last nite`s BB game, report on ``extreme commuting``, 1234 River View Resort ad. That casino is in St. Louis. There are several resorts by that name, like Maine and Massachusetts, but I`ll go with the one near Eureka Springs AR, so this is KURM in Rogers AR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 840, Aug 28 at 1159 UT, tune in just in time for air conditioner ad from theyesman.com, I thought, but Googling leads instead to http://www.theyesmancan.com/ in Las Vegas NV --- and hurried legal ID for ``Newsradio 100.5, KXNT-FM`` and 840, plus some other frequencies, translators?, bong and into CBS news from this network-owned station. (W9WI.com shows KXNT-FM on 100.5 is really licensed to Henderson, 100 kW at 357 meters, format ``soft adcon`` [what`s that?], so it`s another victim of the migration of AM formats to FM. Plus they have an application to move to another site with higher AAT, 459 meters, and much lower power, 5.6 kW.) Weak but steady signal, and no sign of KTIC or WHAS nor anything else on 840. Both day and night patterns of KXNT are supposed to have a deep null toward the east, except for a very tiny lobe. Recently heard them earlier in the 11 UT hour with `Coast to Coast` on delayed PDT feed. I do think their pattern is out of whack, so a good bet for rare Nevada, eastwards. Fading out by 1205. Today`s Enid LSR was 1200 UT. Checked 720 for KDWN at 1203 UT, but it must be in whack, nothing heard (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hmmmm; I have to check my 1100 recording from yesterday when I was up looking for TP's No trace except a carrier on 702 too weak for audio and an even weaker one on 738. I recall when tuning past 840 there wasn't much of a signal from anything and that KOA's IBOC was awful. I'll double check the Perseus when I get home to see if KXNT was there. KXNT pattern was seriously outta whack several years back when they were widely heard, but Glenn is lots closer to them (1 hop range) than I am where they are two E-hops by "ordinary" prop. Re: KDWN, you may have a chance at sunset just prior to their pattern switch at 9:30 pm CDT for the remainder of the month. Sunset skip was quite good here last night, i.e. best of the season with stuff from WA coming in, etc. 73 KAZ Barrington IL Perseus and Double KAZ Antenna 21 ft x 112 ft aimed west (Neil Kazaross, WTFDA-AM via DXLD) "Soft adcon" = Soft Adult Contemporary" --- which is probably no more helpful than the abbreviated version! Been a long time since I've heard KDWN either (Randy Stewart, Arts Producer, KSMU, 901 S. National, Springfield MO 65897, ibid.) 840, Aug 29 at 1159 UT, 24 hours after yesterday`s log, KXNT is in again at weak and steady level with a different ad, ID primarily for KXNT-FM, Newsradio 100.5, then 840, and also mentions HD, but could not catch whether referring to AM or FM. NRC AM Log of last year does list 840 as IBOC; CBS is a diehard supporter of this failed technology. Note: city of license of KXNT (AM) is North Las Vegas NV, not merely Las Vegas. Could help minimize confusion with original Las Vegas in NM, which has no North. This time held up a bit later after CBS network news on hour; 1208 introducing more news with substitute anchors, all the stories previewed being national, nothing about LV/NV, so is this local origination or does CBS have a continuous national radio newsfeed available to its own stations? KXNT could simulcast KNX Los Angeles; note the similarity in calls. Note also the happy coincidence that the heritage KNX calls came about long before the all-nx format. 870, August 29 at 1200 UT I am hearing Mexican music, no NA, 1201 quick legal ID mentioning Las Vegas. Call letters were pronounced in English but could not copy them. Listed as KLSQ, city of license really Whitney NV. That was easy; heard this last year and it was tough to get a definite ID vs other SS such as from The Metroplex. Supposed to be 5 kW day, 430 watts nite, and it`s certainly night at 5 am local PDT (really 4 am PST). FCC shows non-direxional daytime; nighttime with major lobe to NW, minor lobe at 85 degrees, which means even less than 430 watts OKward if really on nite facilities, which I seriously doubt. This was just after relogging neighbor 840 KXNT North Las Vegas, also suspected out of whack but with much more power to start with. Too late to be hearing WWL`s continuous Isaac coverage; and where`s XETAR? See MEXICO (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Some info about Hurricane Issac coming into Louisiana: This is hardly DX here in Mississippi but way away from Louisiana some may want to know what is going on with Tropical Storm Isaac. WWL, 870 AM, New Orleans, LA is doing their excellent coverage of Hurricane Isaac. They are going with 24 hour coverage instead of airing Dave Ramsey after midnight on WWL (Richard Lewis, KA-1103, Aug 28, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) All sounds relatively calm and not predicted to damage New Orleans like Katrina. Live online coverage at http://tunein.com/radio/WWL-870-s23790/ (Mike Terry, England, 0816 UT Aug 28, ibid.) WWL 870 in NOLA has been doing Isaac coverage the last two days. Interesting stuff (Kevin, Crump TN, Redding, 1116 UT Aug 28, ABDX via DXLD) WWL had the best coverage in Katrina, and in the aftermath, ALL of the other AM and FM stations were Simulcasting WWL in the NO Area! It was sad when they got rid of The Road Gang and the Cajun music shows, but when the chips are down, the staff of WWL can still Get 'Er Done! [tagline] There is no limitation to the fidelity of AM radio. From a mathematical standpoint, AM does better in frequency response than FM. - Leonard Kahn. 73, (Kevin Raper, KJ4HYD, CE WCKI WQIZ WLTQ, ibid.) Go to WWL.com and listen live on their web site. The hurricane map is on the web site (Richard Lewis, Forest MS, 2239 UT Aug 28, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I tuned in last night about 9 pm, shortly after our sunset. It was great radio. The description of blue/green night sky as transformers and power lines shorted out was wonderful. Unfortunately, WWL faded into the noise by 10 o'clock (Larry Wild, Old guy from Aberdeen, SD, Aug 29, ABDX via DXLD) Means 0200, 0300 UT; in the CDT part of SD (gh) Fascinating live coverage here http://tunein.com/radio/WWL-870-s23790/ We are indeed fortunate in the UK to usually have moderate weather (Mike Terry, Aug 29, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) ** U S A. [Re 12-34]: ``WINZ-940 off pattern? I occasionally do an AM bandscan around 0200 [EDT presumably]. For the past year and a half the top station on 940 has been a weak Macon, GA and just a jumble way below it. Now all of a sudden appears WINZ Miami generally above Macon and sometimes with a signal approaching good. Been noted several times this past week (Joe Fela, So. Plainfield, N.J., Aug 21, AMFMTVDX mailing list, via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DXLD)`` Unfortunately ionospheric wave propagation does indeed occur at 940 kHz. No real conclusion can be drawn from this report at all. Radiation pattern analysis is done with precise field strength measurements at know distances and azimuths surrounding a source. A plot is generated and records are kept and compared over time. "This station is now louder than that one" states away has nothing at all to do with illustration of a radiation pattern change or discrepancy. Thanks (Joe / W8SS / Mesh Engineering / 810-629-5500 AKA: Dr. Joe Mesh, D.M.D., C.A.G.S. (Prosthodontics) from beautiful downtown HELL, Michigan, ibid.) Don't buy it. Doing an occasional check for over a year and a half and they didn't show even one time. Now in a 10 day period they show 5 out of 5 tries!!! On one of the nights for about a 10 minute period there were only 4 signals that you could listen to between 880 and 1080. WCBS-880 - CHML-900 (strongest skyway signal here) - WINZ - WTIC- 1080. I have 58 years experience at this hobby so I should know what I'm listening to, and when someone is playing games. End of story; won't comment further on this one (Joe Fela, ibid.) Poor Florida did not get a single non-direxional clear channel AM assignment like most northern states; about time! (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) I've seen enough situations like this over decades of DXing. It's usually pretty obvious to a trained DXer's ear when a station's signal is out of whack, or conversely when conditions' are active. I haven't been able to listen in this case as I'm in downtown Toronto, and my radios are at my DX site. However, the only thing that's generally hard to know for sure in cases like this is what is behind a signal's aberration. Could be forgetting to switch from day to night pattern/power. Could be a range of technical problems. Could be a temporary fix or a fix in progress. Could be intentional (special high school football authorization, etc). And it's not always night or day power - it could be somewhere in between. I've seen 'em all (or rather 'heard' 'em all) as a DXer. The report re WINZ strikes me, again, as patently obvious given that it's been reportedly dominant for multiple nights in a row despite relatively low auroral activity. Thanks to those who have reported it. BTW, DX Test season is coming up fast. I've a model test-request letter that I will be sending my station contacts, and I am happy to share it with any of you who care to help line up some winter-season fun (Saul Chernos, Ont., amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) Later: After shutting down the computer last night, I decided to give an old radio a spin, one I seldom use for DX, that I keep as a bedside radio in Toronto for news. 940 was at times dominant WMAC GA and at others WINZ FL. Both about equal. I've sat on 940 many times in Toronto and at Burnt River ON as it's currently vacated by Montreal, soon to be reoccupied. And I've never had WINZ in Toronto, and only a few times at Burnt River. So, a welcome new catch here. When I've had WINZ at B.R. conditions have been decidedly auroral. Not the case last night. Case closed (Saul Chernos, Toronto, Aug 24, ibid.) I would like to add that Friday Night Football Authority season is also upon us, with at least a limited schedule tonight into full action next Friday. Those who listen to these broadcasts on fall Fridays are more than likely to be rewarded with at least a few new ones. 73 (Bill Dvorak, Madison WI, ibid.) Re: [AMFMTVDX] WINZ-940 off pattern? WINZ cheats regularly (Steve Francis, Alcoa High School 1966, Aug 23, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) Booming in here in NW NJ right now! They are obviously running 50,000 watts ND (Rick Shaftan, 0332 UT 24 Aug, ibid.) Well before any possible excuse due to Isaac, unlike next report (gh, DXLD) 850 and 940 in Florida --- 2:30 EDT, Big Talk 850 WFTL West Palm Beach with Phil Hendrie, good on presumed day power for hurricane. WINZ-940 Miami also with usual boffo August 2012 nite signal (Steve Francis, Alcoa, Tennessee, 0642 UT Aug 28, IRCA via DXLD) ** U S A. Haven`t heard 50 kW KXEN 1010 Festus lately? Here`s why (gh) FCC Actions: 1010 KXEN MO St. Louis – Licensed for U4 50000/500, KXEN has a CP for U4 50000/420. This action temporarily moves their transmission to Tower #2 of the WGNU-920 transmitter site located 1.16 km east of the KXEN site with U1 350/125. The land on which KXEN’s towers are located is being sold and the new owners have indicated that the land will be used for commercial, rather than as a broadcast tower site. The temporary facilities will be in force until KXEN finds a new tower site and the facility can be built (Bill Hale, NRC DX News Aug 13 via DXLD) 1010, August 29 at 1225 UT, several St. Louis ads with 314-AC phones, call 511 for safe digging, 1230 ``KXEN, St. Louis` good news station, joining you in prayer`` (huh??), and into a revival show from Connecticut, live? At least mentioned today`s date. I was looking for KXEN after reading this in the latest NRC DX News: [as above] The KXEN website http://www.kxen1010am.com says nothing about this, still claiming 50 kW daytime coverage, with maps! Can`t find a program schedule to check name of the 7:30 am show. FCC AM Query, besides the originally licensed 50/0.5 kW facilities and a new 50 kW CP, also shows a CP for 420 watts at night, and applications only for 350 watts day, 125 watts night, but apparently the latter are already in use now. So I was really not expecting to hear KXEN this well, if at all. Poor signal but atop the QRM at the moment. Note: the WGNU site is in Illinois, near Granite City, as are the old and proposed KXEN sites nearby (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thanks to Glenn for personally doing some research on this. The St Louis 1010 religious station KXEN may have already implemented the CP proposal for a massive daytime reduction in daytime power from 50 kW down to 0.42 kW. I will keep an eye on the many US contributors' posts on DXLD to see whether this full power station has made the switch. Is the reason lack of audience, lack of funds, or both!? 73's (Dan Goldfarb, mwmasts yg via DXLD) ** U S A. 1030, August 29 at 1225 UT, ``Newstalk 1030, KFAY``, WSJ report on higher fuel economy standards to be blamed on Obama. KFAY: as in Fayetteville, Arkansas, tho COL is Farmington. Official August LSR is 1130 UT; September, 1200. 10 kW day pattern is close to ND, but with more to the SW and plenty to the west. So it was still propagating almost an hour later, and a semihour after our sunrise (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1260, Aug 24 at 1215 UT, ``104.1 Newstalk, Springfield``, i.e. KSGF in Missouri (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1330, August 29 at 1219 UT, ``Jail House Rock`` ending, 7:20 TC, ad for Hearing West Texas in Odessa and numerous other towns; KCKM Monahans, a regular on SRS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1370, WFDR, GA, MANCHESTER, 2103, 29/0812 --- Ad for Paradise grill in Warm Springs; Ad for some store in Manchester, faded and missed name; then returned to what sounded like a local call-in talk show where they were discussing Obama - and his birth certificate and if he was a legitimate president. [Just reporting what was said.] At 2120 went into talk about TS Isaac and pouring down of the rain in Manchester. Lots of QSB and QRM. I have several stations mixing - one is WFDR and one is carrying the RNC convention and a station with C&W music. For those who may be interested: Manchester, GA is next to Warm Springs. This is where president Roosevelt had his southern White House and where he died in 1945, thus the call letters FDR. IF you have never been to Warm Springs you should take trip there and see his house and car. Well worth the trip! (DXer: Willis, QTH: Old Fort, TN, ANTENNA: 143' long wire, RCVR: Drake R-4C, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) Time 2103, what zone? TN is split between CDT and EDT. He`s somewhere near Chattanooga which is right near the boundary. I look up Oldfort (one word as in Rand McNally) and find it east of Chatta, closer to Cleveland TN, so it must be EDT = 0103 UT Aug 30. Standard remark about the superiority of invariable UT, and if you must report in local time, don`t force everyone to research where you are (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. 1460, Aug 24 at 1232 UT, Gregorian-chantish music briefly; is there a Catholic station here now? Can`t find any leads in last year`s NRC AM Log. {overlooked KHOJ St. Charles MO, EWTN} Might have gone with KBRZ Missouri City/Houston TX, ``ethnic`` but their website http://kbrzradio.com/5.html shows: ``MONDAY-SUNDAY 24 HOUR A DAY!!!!!! SANGEET RADIO Variety program for the South Asian community http://www.sangeetradio.com `` When I tuned back a minute later, music was gone, but copied tentative ID in passing, maybe different outlet, as ``1460 KFNO``. Make that KXNO Des Moines IA, sports format, rather than KENO Las Vegas NV, also sports (not including keno?). Volatile propagation post-sunrise (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1480, Aug 24 at 1233 UT, still no sign of reactivated Metroplex TX station to be known as KBXD; more construxion delays? Only KQAM Wichita advertising Kansas State Fair; 1440 Metroplex Spanish was still skywaving in so should have heard KBXD if on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. There is another station you can listen to for Hurricane Isaac info, WTNI, AM 1640, Biloxi, MS. They are simulcasting WLOX-TV in Biloxi, MS, a local TV station (Richard Lewis, MS, Kaito KA-1103, 0009 UT Aug 29, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1650, Aug 24 at 1217, looking for KYHN Fort Smith AR, which DX MidAmerica reported to be back on the air as of Aug 17 (NRC AM Log says it was silent since April 2008; IIRC their transmitter site {in Oklahoma!} was flooded or somehow damaged) --- but, no sign of it in KFXY 1640 null, just KCNZ Cedar Falls IA with local sports talk, mentions Waterloo, etc. Cross-promotion for a game on `Cruisin` 1250` i.e. KDNZ, which must no longer be Spanish as in last year`s NRC AM Log? Yes, see http://www.cruisin1250.com/ --- now ``real oldies``. Or has the call changed too? Yes, per FCC, now it`s KCFI which makes a lot more sense (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nor heard any sign of KYHN on several further day and nite chex (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. KXBT sale to UT Austin --- Re: Regents put the Proposed KXBT sale on the August 22-23 on the Agenda --- As expected, it's for all intents and purposes a done deal: http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/highereducation/entries/2012/08/22/ut_regents_panel_votes_41_to_a.html and from the Texas Tribune (and why is there a time limit on editing my own messages?).... http://www.texastribune.org/texas-education/higher-education/ut-system-regents-table-proposal-expand-kut/ (mmnassour, radio-info.com via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** U S A. Regional tropo from Kansas morning of August 28, after some Okies: RF 49 at 1425, something almost breaking bad, occasional glimpses of frozen frame, maybe KTKA Topeka? from that direxion. No, it`s much closer and much weaker Wichitan KGPT, since I see a ``Bounce`` network bug in the lower-right, during movie(?). W9WI.com shows this as still analog, KGPT-CA, CA-LIC with 4.8 kW, while in DTV list it`s shown as KGPT-CA, DC-APP with 5.45 kW. But it`s now changed to KGPT-DT as shown on the PSIP for 49-1. (PSIP IDs aren`t necessarily ``legal`` as a low-power stations should be - LD, not DT, right?) Furthermore they have an LD-CP for RF 24 as KGPT- LD with 15 kW. (Analog 24 is the ex-KSAS channel now on RF 26, but still virtually 24; I suppose that means an eventual KGPT really on 24 will have to pretend to be on some other virtual channel.) I also have a bad DTV signal on 43, which could also be Wichita, but some others listed, 30, 40 and 51, are blocked by Okies. Wichita`s remaining analog is also visible on 28, KWKD-LP (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tropo last night from rare direction (KCIT-15) --- Last night I set two Zenith boxes on channels 15 and 33 where weak signals were evident. Both captured stations with KCIT-15 from Amarillo, TX a real surprise. I only saw Amarillo once in about 60 years of DXing in analog. Distance approximately 430 miles. The KCIT call letters were once used in Kansas City on channel 50 as an independent. When it went dark in the early 70s I was working at KCPT-19 (now channel 18) and helped move KCPT into the building once occupied by KCIT-TV. The channel 33 was less exciting as it only traveled about 125 miles from Wichita. Local TBN LPTV on channel 33 in Topeka is still off the air. I assume they are switching to digital but I hope they are gone forever. KTAJ-21, TBN in Kansas City licensed to St. Joseph, MO puts a strong signal into Topeka making channel 33 a duplication of KTAJ-TV. Others of note last night were KSMN-15 from Worthington (MN), KMNE-7 from Bassett (NE), and KDLV-26 from Mitchell, SD. Just last week we visited the Corn Palace in Mitchell. Strange place, but interesting. (Dave Pomeroy, Topeka, Kansas, Aug 28, WTFDA via DXLD) I used to get the Amarillo analog VHF stations often by tropo to OK, about 245 miles, but hardly ever in the DTV era (gh, Enid, DXLD) Area tropo from Wichita KS at least, less than 200 km, up again the morning of August 29, UT: 28, at 1410 UT, opening first noted by presence of analog signal here, even when antenna not aimed at Wichita, KWKD-LP. Once aimed, enough to lock in with gospel huxter, at first without sound, then strengthening by 1423 with audio; grafix about ``demonic spirits``, on `Breakthrough` program from rodparsley.com which will sell you something for $60+; after 1430 on to Benny Hinn. During this hour I tuned thru all channels from 2 to 69 looking for anything else in analog, but only saw 48 from OKC off the back. Of course, there`s now lots of utility QRM on 52-69, soon to be the fate of even lower ex-UHF TV channels. The rest are DTV, besides the bigsigs from Wichita: 49, at 1422 UT, trying for BOUNCE again from Wichita, and it starts to decode, old drama I don`t recognize, with black and white characters, stays in for several minutes, tho freezing at times; PSIP says KGPT- DT. 43, from previous research, I knew there is another Wichitan here, so parked on it, and initially ``bad`` signal broke thru at 1433 with PSIP as 43-1, "THIS" including the quotation marks. However it was not a movie or old rerun, but instead ``Know the Cause`` per continuous lower-right bug superimposed on an apple outline: apparently a health infomercial. Also referred to ``News and Views``. Still in at 1445 when I took some photos of it. ``This`` must be KCTU-LD, Wichita, only 2.7 kW, which per W9WI.com also has three other subchannels I should have tried for: ``ThisTV|AMG|Untamed Sports|Fn||`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 21420, Aug 25 at 2339 a rare AM signal on 15m, and nicely modulated too, but deep fades: CQ 15 from WS4B, even announced the frequency, but missed location if any. Two separate CQs but no answers so far. ARRL/FCC lookup shows: MESSICK, BRADLEY J, WS4B 7114 91ST STREET EAST PALMETTO, FL 34221 7245, Aug 25 at 2355, Kansas Q-SO Party with CQs from KS0KS; one contact is AA0DF; they exchange counties including Johnson. At first sounded like AM, but then SSB; they were riding zero-beat to some broadcast carrier, Mauritania? Which was barely modulated. Locations per ARRL/FCC lookup: SANTA FE TRAIL ARC, KS0KS (Club) PO Box: 3144 Olathe, KS 66063 ATTN: MICHAEL P ASSELTA Trustee: ASSELTA, MICHAEL P, KD0CDQ Previous call sign: KC0AAR Licensee ID: L00173982 FRN: 0006732333 Radio Service: HV Issue Date: 02/22/2007 Expire Date: 04/08/2017 Date of Last Change: 05/19/2011 (License Modified) Johnson, Donald L, AA0DF 2903 Road F Americus, KS 668359587 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VATICAN. VATICAN GARDEN {downtown Rome, not SMG Santa Maria di Galeria site} 75 mb Radio Vatican um 1840 UT in Deutsch. Christian Milling von R700 hatte dieser Tage schon mal von einem abenteuerlichen Signal auf 3975 kHz vom 10 kW Sender aus dem vatikanischen Garten berichtet. Das Program in einzelner Vieltontechnik auch heute nur zu erahnen, nur wenn man langjaehriger Hoerer ist und die Ansagen und das Pausensignal kennt, auch zu identifizieren. Um 1830 UT ist ein Zweiton Signal in peaks sichtbar (like RTTY), auf 3975.285 und 3975.789 kHz. Ab 1840 UT dann ein Vielton-Peak Lattenzaun mit verzerrtem Klang, mit peaks bei +300, +600, +730 Hertz usw. bis zum oberen Ende bei 3977.700 kHz. Da hat die Putzfrau an die Knoepfe des Senders gelangt und von AM Mode auf irgend einen Fernschreibcode umgestellt, und der Chefingenieur ist im typischen italienischen Augusturlaub aushaeusig (Wolfgang Büschel, Aug 20, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Aug 24 via DXLD) ** VATICAN [and non]. 9900, Aug 24 at 1313, tonetest and open carrier, 1314, JBA Vatican Radio IS, 1315 ``Laudetur Jesus Christus`` and opening Vietnamese, music. Very undermodulated and tones continued on and off, so suppressed by a stronger carrier? Scheduled in Aoki are: 1230-1312 VR Chinese, 100 kW, 125 degrees from Irkutsk, RUSSIA, which may not have been turned off promptly; and 1315-1400 VR Vietnamese, 250 kW, 270 degrees from Tinang, PHILIPPINES. 15570, Aug 27 at 1643, HOA music and language, but which? First recognizable word is ``liberazione``, i.e. Italian-derived, so I figure an Ethiopian language is prime suspect. Later mentions Nigeria, Mozambique, Catholic, 1650 ``Vatican Radio``, alternating with bits of echoey rustic music. Uplooked later, it`s Amharic until 1645, then Tigrigna. Sufficient signal aimed oppositeward at 139 degrees, yet another instance of Santa Maria di Galeria`s terrific back-radiation capability. Meanwhile at 1652, coreligionist 15610 WEWN has priest who would never win a talent contest singing mass in Latin (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VATICAN [non]. /MADAGASCAR, Frequency changes of Vatican Radio from August 27: 1415-1430 17510 MDC 250 kW / 035 deg SoAs, ex 17520* Urdu Wed/Sun 1430-1450 17510 MDC 250 kW / 045 deg SoAs, ex 17520* Hindi Daily 1450-1510 17510 MDC 250 kW / 045 deg SoAs, ex 17520* Tamil Daily 1510-1530 17510 MDC 250 kW / 045 deg SoAs, ex 17520* Malayalam Daily 1530-1550 17510 MDC 250 kW / 045 deg SoAs, ex 17520* English Sun-Fri 1550-1600 17510 MDC 250 kW / 045 deg SoAs, ex 17520* English Sat * to avoid Radio Pakistan in Urdu WS (DX Re Mix News, Bulgaria, 27 August via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DXLD) ** VIETNAM. 12000, Aug 27 at 1323 Vietnamese song, cut off the air at 1328*. Presumed VOV Chinese service, only thing scheduled, until 1330 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. 15115, Sunday August 26 at 0600 I am awaiting SW Radio Africa to start up via MADAGASCAR as scheduled on Sat & Sun only; tune halfway between this and 15120 Nigeria, I hear a het/carrier come on at *0600:48. Poor signal as expected since R. Dabanga on 15400 before that hour from same site, likely same transmitter, was also poor tonight. After some mbira, I can make out that once again SWRA is just replaying an evening show in English, mentioning 4880 and http://www.swradioafrica.com 0603, ``Good evening`` and part 2 of something, talk about a constitution. Deep fading was louder than the modulation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 930, Aug 24 at 1204 UT, joint ID ``93.5 and AM 930``, thought for sure I had KCCC Carlsbad NM, nicely in null of WKY open carrier! But can`t match that FM frequency to it. Wish I could decipher a slogan I scrawled a few minutes after upwaking! Maybe it was KDET Center TX (near Shreveport), which has an FM on 92.5 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 1110, Aug 28 at 0507 UT, as KFAB is opening `Coast to Coast`, quite a SAH is pumping from an open carrier, measuring 280/minute = 4 and 2/3 Hz, most obvious with KFAB nulled. There are several stations SE of here, many of them daytimers, none to the NW until the west coast. After midnight CDT, could be a legal test from a daytimer. KTEK Alvin TX has a day pattern aimed right at us. MW Offsets doesn`t list any stations in the likely area, http://www.myradiobase.de/mediumwave/mwoffset.txt but shows KFAB at 1.8 Hz high as of last November: 1110 1110.0018 USA KFAB (Omaha, NE) [1110.000-] 20111114 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 1110 possibility KVTT Mineral Wells (Fort Worth)? True, the pattern looks a little awful towards Enid (David Block, TX, ptswyg via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 1530, Aug 28 at 1212 UT, sports talk about the ``Leones Negros``, fading out and in, mentions Veracruz too, and more Mexican deportes stuff. Loops WSW/ENE or so, and a weaker SS in the null. The Black Lions are the soccer team at the University of Guadalajara. Likely national show, as there are only three XEs on 1530, none of them in Guadalajara or with likely sportstalk format. Could even be KXTD Tulsa/Wagoner OK (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Radio América 1700 kHz --- Hi all, I heard a Portuguese speaking BC station on 1700 on 21 and 25 august 2012. I went searching on the net for more info and found a youtube video about this station. Can someone give me more info about this station? I cannot find a callsign, but the transmitter seems to be in Newark, NJ USA. Could this transmission originate from the Brasilian Embassy? My knowlege of the Portugese language is non existent :( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nViwQLibnkk 73' (Ron ON2RON / DXA64 @ jo21ec, i.e. Belgium, Aug 30, MWCircle yg via DXLD) This video is a promotional piece by/for the station dated 4/21/10; starts with an endorsement from the Brazilian consul in New York (no embassy there!). Linx to another earlier shorter video 7/17/09 from the Planeta Brasil program on TV Globo. Some of the same ``radialistas`` appear in both, notably apparently the head guy, Ricardo Sarmento. Yes, they are based in Newark, New Jersey. I`ve never heard of it before, and likely really a part-15 (extremely low power) station, altho it could be illegally higher as a pirate. In either case, very unlikely to make it to Belgium. Glimpsed a website on one of the videos, http://www.radioamerica1700.com which now goes nowhere. Searching leads to some supposed streaming sources, but one I tried at ustream is ``offline``. What times did you hear it, really from a receiver in Belgium? 73, (Glenn Hauser, Oklahoma, ibid.) With the help of archive.org: RADIO AMERICA AM 50 Jefferson St Newark, NJ 07105 Tel: 973 - 732-0332 E-mail: radioamericaam@... the domains radioamerica1700.com and radioamericausa.com are for sale now. 73s (Mauricio Molano, Salamanca, ESPAÑA - SPAIN, ibid.) Hi Glenn, The receiving times where 0400 and 0430 UT. I do also find it unlikely that a low power signal is to be received here in Belgium. What puzzles me is that I also receive La Plata, Argentina (Radio Diagonal) on 1630 kHz at the same time and with the same propagation as the received 1700 signal, which I hear frequently but not every day the last few weeks. Maybe the signal could be originating from Brasil. What puzzles me tough, that there is some African music played on the transmission together with Portuguese talks. I have an audio recording of this station. Two guys of our radio club suggested WJCC Miami Springs, FL as a possible candidate, but from the info I see on their website the speaking language is Spanish but it definitely is not Spanish I heard. My receiving equipment is a Perseus with a supercharged delta flag as antenna (15 x 8 meter with a FLG100LN Wellbrook preamp) pointed at 300 towards the USA. On my Beverage pointing in the same direction the station is not heard as the receive angle is more narrow compared to the Flag so South America is not heard and even the Central American stations are weaker compared to the flag. I can hear 1610 kHz, Radio Rabelde from Cuba every day the last three weeks so the propagation is present. 73' (Ron, ON2RON / DXA64 @ jo21ec, ibid.) Ron, WJCC is definitely not exclusively Spanish - I've heard French Creole from them. Although I have not heard Portuguese, I would not be surprised if this were the source (Andrew Brade, UK, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 3200, Aug 23 at 0251, very poor signal, maybe a trace of music. Not a spur from 3215 WWCR as this is only a shade below 3200.0 and the WWCR-1 spurs seem to have been suppressed, nothing around 3230 either. It`s been a long time since I`ve heard a MW harmonic, new or old, so hoping for a 2 x 1600, but it`s probably just TWR Swaziland, which is scheduled to open at 0255 in Ndebele (except Sundays English) with 50 kW at 3 degrees from Manzini. BTW, the religious station that WDX6AA keeps reporting on 3215 is only WWCR, not AWR Madagascar (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 5050, 1134-1158*, August 27. What is happening here? Have confirmed it was not Ozy Radio (thanks to John Wright and Ian Baxter). In English; mixing with Beibu Bay Radio (Nanning, China); about catastrophic events that may happen; mentioned the Southern Hemisphere and Australia several times; prepare for self survival (“personal responsibility”); no station IDs heard. WWRB at this time period? First time I have heard this. https://www.box.com/s/723ab3b520d841c60c12 contains MP3 audio (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sounds like along same lines of what I reported a few hours earlier [Nostradamus stuff; see USA WWRB]. Of course, the program schedules at http://www.wwrb.org are quite out of date with long-abandoned frequencies, but 5050 still shown as 0100-0400 UT only (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Thanks Glenn, August 28 not heard at 1150, so perhaps yesterday was a one day event (Ron Howard, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 9860, Aug 27 at 1346, big open carrier with lo-level roar fading up and down until off at 1349*. Certainly not China or Saudi Arabia as in some schedules. Perhaps WHRI testing the transmitter which last week was putting out horrible spurs in the 01- 02 UT period (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 9995, 2237, 26-08-2012, open carrier, strong and clear but there is not anything to listen to (??). Suddenly switched off at 2239. No idea! SINPO 55445 (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. 8-kHz-spaced mystery carriers in the 11.7-11.8 range: see CHINA UNIDENTIFIED. LOG: 11820 kHz 2012-08-24, 1045z O=4-5 "testtransmission" (??) ".....RR to transmissiontest@gmail.com...." http://www.rhci-online.de/11820kHz_1045z.mp3 IC-R75/dipol 2x6m/STUDIO1 v1.1d/mp3directcut-rec QTH: D-06193 Petersberg/Germany UK-operator ?? (Roger, UK, August 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Long clip, with excellent reception there, bits of music patched together, something different every few seconds. Same thing I was hearing on 15180 and 15515. Surely from BaBcoCk, probably UK site. They haven`t answered the reception report they requested from me (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) At least under such circumstances it appears to originate from Europe. When seeing earlier reports about it, somewhere on 19 metres, I suspected they could try out something for the western hemisphere. Soon the options Babcock has there will be limited to WHRI. Calera de Tango is dead, Sackville and Bonaire are dying swans as well (and there are no indications of Babcock intending to take over either site, as they mused over in a publication just a few years ago), and Montsinéry is the other company. Just note the already known Sackville replacements for Voice of Vietnam: One slot at WHRI, anything else will have to be Woofferton. (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hello Glenn, I have heard this two times in the past. They told me they are testing an old (?) equipment: ``Hi Georgi, Thank you for your reception report. We are testing our faulty transmitter based in the UK. You can expect to hear us intermittently on various approved test frequencies on all broadcast bands so please keep listening and send your reports. Regards`` 73, (Georgi Bancov, Bulgaria, DX LISTENING DIGEST UNIDENTIFIED. 12000 Unknown; 1530, Aug-22: Tone, unknown tone (1200 Hz ?) from 1530 to 1532 when it went off. No stations scheduled at this frequency and time according to "short-wave.info". Average signal with little noise or interference. 343 (Fred Kincaid, Spring Lake MI, MARE Tipsheet Aug 24 via DXLD) Someone running a transmitter test? Ideas anyone??? (MARE ed., ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. Today (August 27 at 1258 UT) I can catch this strange transmission on 14400 kHz. Is this some sort of Chinese jammer over an out-of-band frequency of Voice of Hope or something? http://youtu.be/w_Fg6S5-F4Q Any ideas? 73 from Montevideo. (Rodolfo Tizzi, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sounds like whatever they are saying repeats every few seconds. Haven`t heard that kind of thing before, but 14400 is certainly an occasional Sound of Hope (not Voice of Hope) frequency (not heard for some time here), so likely to be either that or jamming (Glenn, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 14949-LSB, approx., Aug 24 at 0354, checking 14950 for Salem Stereo, but not even a carrier audible from it; instead 2-way in Spanish on this lower frequency; unrelated? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 15487.085, distorted audio, 1217-1247 UT, but seemingly not Voice of Tibet, which was on 15543, but Firedrake music was 15520 til 1228 UT, later after 1230 UT on 15545 kHz. 15487, But I guess is like a PIRATE music station which broadcast QRM free till 1259 UT. Then at 1300 UT Voice of Tibet from Yangi Yul TJK appeared here. At 1303 UT FIREDRAKE music started on 15485 kHz. see AOKI list jamming hopping table entries: VoTibet 1338-1400 UT Aug 29 15488 kHz and FIREDRAKE on 15490. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, Aug 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 1320 UT, 15495 kHz, Firedrake with S9+ // 15565 kHz (Partha Sarathi Goswami, WB, Aug 29, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 15515, 0341, 25-08-2012, English language program vs Arabic language Holy Qur`an recitation. First station is Radio Australia in English, but no idea what the second one could be. Is it Radio Kuwait? Lot of atmospheric noise and the most salient is Australia (Leonardo Santiago, CDXA, ICF SW35, Outdoor TV type antenna, Pueblo Llano, Mérida, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) HFCC has Kuwait at 05-10 on this frequency, but may not have been using it; DX Re Mix News recently reported 15515 as new on longer hours (gh, DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Your contributions always welcome, not necessarily in US funds, via PayPal to woradio at yahoo.com or by check or money order in the p- mail, US funds only please, to World of Radio, P O Box 1684, Enid OK 73702 USA (gh, WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DX LISTENING DIGEST) World of Radio 1631 just heard (0800-0830 UT) on WRN Europe Web stream. I must appreciate the nice Bangladesh Betar Recording, after a long time we heard clip in World of Radio - I loved it. 73s (Partha Sarathi Goswami, Siliguri, W.B., India, Aug 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, I should do more of those; it`s just logistically inconvenient and increases the time I have to spend in producing the show (gh, DXLD) Subject: [NASWA] Re: Glenn Hauser logs --- Since the below footer is obviously aimed at me, I will no longer be posting my all-band logs on this list. A shame that some control-freak would rather suppress my way of doing things than allow all members to benefit from the mostly- SWBC material I report, the rest of which may be ignored if desired. Those who would like to continue getting my complete logs may want to subscribe to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dxld/ 73, (Glenn Hauser, NASWA yg via DXLD) Viz.: Re: ``Stick to shortwave broadcast material; there are other groups for MW, FM, TV, utility & ham logs - please do not post them here. Avoid made-up words, spellings and abbreviations, as well as repetitive announcements. Thanks!`` Hi Glenn. Read your comments on radio loggings via NASWA. As a young boy, I remember hearing your voice on shortwave radio. I will not be renewing my club membership to NASWA. Hope one day to get back into amateur and shortwave radio. SDR? I plan to meet some of my mentor am radio dx'ers on Cape Cod. Massachusetts soon. Have a good weekend (Bob Rush, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I would rise to the defense of the list moderator who is, after all, only noting a 46-year policy of NASWA to cover exclusively SWBC, not medium wave, TV-FM, amateur radio, utilities, scanner logs, etc. (For the record, the membership, in a democratically conducted referendum, May-July 1966, approved changing from an "all-band" club to one focusing only on SWBC. I hold that it has been a successful policy for nearly a half century) It would seem to me that in this case the one who insists on "my way of doing things" is the "control-freak," not the NASWA list moderator. --don (Don Jensen, NASWA yg via DXLD) No, you do not understand what ``control freak`` means --- of course, everyone controls their own axions. It`s only someone who wants to control others` that is a ``control freak``. I am more offended by the instruxions on how I should write than the SWBC-only angle (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ NRC AM LOG 33RD EDITION, 2012-2013 Has just been published. Highly recommended, best time to get it is right now, hot off the press. Description and ordering info: http://www.nrcdxas.org/catalog/books/index1.html#ARL (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ CAN RADIO SAVE DYING LANGUAGES? Published on Current.org August 15, 2012 By Dru Sefton Loris Taylor, president of Native Public Media, leads off a story in The Atlantic on how radio is being used to resurrect dead and dying languages. The mag reports that Taylor has lobbied the FCC and supported projects to get “increasingly rare tongues like Hopi” onto the airwaves. And it’s happening worldwide: Radio producers from Peru, Mexico, Canada, El Salvador and other countries met in Washington, D.C., earlier this month for the “Our Voices on the Air” conference for indigenous speakers. “Following centuries of oppression that have marginalized minority languages,” The Atlantic notes, “radio represents a modest but surprisingly promising way to reinvigorate the traditions keeping those languages alive.” http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/08/radio-free-cherokee-endangered-languages-take-to-the-airwaves/261165/ Copyright 2012 American University (Current.org blog via DXLD) Viz.: RADIO FREE CHEROKEE: ENDANGERED LANGUAGES TAKE TO THE AIRWAVES By Alexis Hauk inShare3 Aug 15 2012, 11:05 AM ET 5 How indigenous tongues facing extinction are finding new life on community radio stations kuyi 615 radio.jpg Arizona's KUYI 88.1 broadcasts in Hopi to approximately 9,000 people. (KUYI) [caption] Loris Taylor, the CEO and president of Native Public Media, still has the scars on her hands from when she was caught speaking Hopi in school and got the sharp end of the ruler as a result. "They hit so hard, the flesh was taken off," she remembers. "Deep down inside, it builds some resistance in you." Now, she's at the forefront of a movement to revive dead and dying languages using an old medium: radio. As CEO and president of Native Public Media, she's lobbied the FCC and overseen projects to get increasingly rare tongues like Hopi onto airwaves so that Native Americans can keep their ancestors' ways of speaking alive—and pass those ways of speaking to new generations. . . (via gh, DXLD) ``Radio Free Cherokee`` is just a catchy unimaginative and inappropriate headline, not the name of any station or program. What station carries the show `Cherokee Voices and Cherokee Sound`, tribal music and language instruxion? Airs Saturdays at 8-9 am and Sundays at 12-1 pm [1300 & 1700 UT] on KRSC Claremore OK 91.3, http://www.rsuradio.com/index.php/programming which does stream and we had it in our Monitoring Reminders Calendar for years (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) MAPPING THE BIRTHPLACE OF MODERN LANGUAGES Aug. 24, 2012 Image courtesy of Q.D. Atkinson Map showing the distribution of words across Europe for 'mother.' The Indo-European language family, stretching from Iceland to Sri Lanka, was first identified on the basis of systematic sound correspondences between similar words for specific meanings across the languages. Known as cognates, these similarities could not have plausibly occurred by chance and are taken to indicate that the languages have a common origin. 'Mother' shows similar forms across the whole family. By modeling the evolution of hundreds of such words through time, we can infer relationships between all the languages and trace back to the origin of the family. Reporting in Science, researchers write that many of today’s most widely spoken languages, like English, Spanish, and Hindi, can be traced back to ancient tongues in present-day Turkey. Evolutionary biologist Quentin Atkinson talks about investigating language evolution using the same methods geneticists use to trace flu virus outbreaks. . . Produced by Christopher Intagliata, Associate Senior Producer http://sciencefriday.com/segment/08/24/2012/mapping-the-birthplace-of-modern-languages.html (Talk of the Nation Science Friday Aug 24 via gh, DXLD) This was disappointingly elementary, nothing new really, about the Indo-European family, how similar words for ``mother`` abound (gh) DX-PEDITIONS ++++++++++++ NORD ATLANTICO 2012 Una diecina di anni fà in "Alle falde del Kilimangiaro" venne presentato un servizio su di un viaggio "via superficie" dall'Italia all'Islanda con imbarco in Danimarca e sosta alle Isole Faroe. Decisi subito di aggiungerlo alla lista del mio "pozzo dei desideri". Certo, c'erano mete ben più ambite sia dal punto di vista turistico che radiofonico, e a queste sempre detti la precedenza, ma mai mi dimenticai di quel progetto ed in questo 2012, finalmente, l' ho realizzato. . . (Roberto Pavanello, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) Very long and interesting report on his trip thru France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, but mainly Faroe Islands, Iceland, visiting lots of radio stations. We hope it will become available at http://www.playdx.com/ from new link at top, or under Radio Travel (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) OREGON CLIFF DXPEDITION VIDEO (AND DEMONSTRATION MP3'S) Hello All, For those interested in the fanatical new sport of chasing Transoceanic DX on sheer ocean side cliffs with Ultralight radios and FSL antennas, a new DXpedition video has been uploaded to YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=filugExDz7E&feature=plcp Showing the sheer 400 foot (122 m) ocean side cliff on the Oregon coast that was the venue for last week's Ultralight Medium Wave and Longwave DXpeditions, the video features displays of the Cliff's awesome scenery, dynamite-blasted topography and straight-down drop off to the ocean (400 feet below). The 7.5" loopstick Tecsun PL-380 model and 8" FSL antenna used for the DXpedition are shown in their operating configuration, while a sleep-deprived DXing fanatic does his best to provide a coherent narrative. An example of the extreme South Pacific propagation boost provided by this sheer cliff was this three-way Maori language parallel network recorded on the morning of August 21. 603-Radio Waatea (5 kW, Auckland, New Zealand) was pegging the PL-380's S/N reading at the 25 maximum (this is a station which has apparently never been received at Grayland): http://www.mediafire.com/?so9c7cy42nxpj60 765-Radio Kahungunu (2.5 kW, Napier-Hastings, New Zealand, 2.5 kW) was running the same Maori-language interview, and also coming close to pegging the PL-380's S/N reading: http://www.mediafire.com/?u83bv670cc980c1 Finally, the low-powered 585-Radio Ngati Porou (Ruatoria, New Zealand, 2 kW) was identified at a much weaker level because of the same two Maori-languages voices during the parallel programming. This is another DU which has apparently never been received at Grayland: http://www.mediafire.com/?7nbva8tj5f9zfub Hopefully the video (and the upcoming DXpedition report) will motivate a few other fanatics to grab their radio and head for the cliffs. 73 and Good DX, (Gary DeBock (in Puyallup, WA, USA), Ultralight Radio Group Co-Founder, NRC-AM via DXLD) Loved the video, Gary! Also loved the audio clips. Keep the good stuff coming to us landlocked DXers! We can live vicariously. The audio clarity of the 603 New Zealand was astounding, simply astounding. Sincerely, (Earl Higgins, RX-321 and 15 m end fed wire thing outside, St. Louis, Missouri, USA (W 90.32 N 38.65), ibid.) Hi Earl, Thanks very much for your comments on the DXpedition video, and audio clips. As for the limitations of landlocked DXing, unfortunately I'm all too familiar with them! Of the 38 South Pacific stations that showed up during this week's trip to the Oregon Cliff site, only 2 have ever showed up at my home location of Puyallup, WA - - at just above the noise level (594-3WV and 738-Tahiti). I'll be uploading MP3's of the Top Ten South Pacific signals received in Oregon soon, many of which pegged the PL-380's S/N reading at 25. A still photo of the DXing setup at the Cliff (antenna, radio and DXing fanatic) is posted at http://www.mediafire.com/view/?khqdch7gk0w1v1l 73 and Thanks, (Gary DeBock (in Puyallup, WA), ibid.) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ INVITACIÓN III ENCUENTRO DIEXISTA COLOMBO-VENEZOLANO -Retos para el futuro- 5 y 6 de Enero del 2013. Paipa, Boyacá Colombia Estimados colegas diexistas y radioescuchas de Venezuela, Colombia y el mundo, Queremos invitarlos a participar en el III Encuentro Diexista Colombo-Venezolano, que se llevará a cabo los días 5 y 6 de enero del 2013, en la ciudad de Paipa en el departamento cuna de la Libertad y altar de la patria, Boyacá. Una vez más nos damos cita para compartir las experiencias entorno a nuestra afición, luego de un año tan difícil para la radiodifusión internacional en onda corta como lo ha sido el 2012. Queremos analizar qué hay para el futuro en práctica del diexismo. También tendremos la oportunidad de realizar una cacería DX y según el interés de los participantes, hacer un recorrido por lugares con alto valor histórico para nuestros países hermanos. ``Por el diexismo latinoamericano hay que sumar y multiplicar, no restar ni dividir`` En Paipa nos vemos! (Rafael Rodríguez R., Bogotá, Aug 24, condiglist yg via DXLD) Véase: http://edxcv.blogspot.com (CDXA Internacional, DX LISTENING DIGEST) MUSEA +++++ $850,000 RAISED FOR TESLA MUSEUM Southgate August 23, 2012 Cartoonist Matthew Inman, creator of The Oatmeal, has raised $850,000 to set up a museum honoring the great scientist Nikola Tesla. Tesla's old laboratory in Shoreham, New York (known as Wardenclyffe) is up for sale with a price tag of $1.6m. The Friends of Science East want to buy the site and build a museum to Tesla, and the New York State government offered a grant of $850,000 to purchase the site if matching funds could be raised. Read the article by Iain Thomson on The Register at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/22/oatmeal_tesla_museum/ Tesla is best known for his contributions to the modern alternating current (AC) electrical supply system. Tesla's patents and theoretical work helped form the basis of wireless communication and radio. His many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism were based on Michael Faraday's theories of electromagnetic technology. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla Nikola Tesla BBC Documentary 1982 http://www.southgatearc.org/news/march2012/wireless_power.htm Tesla Museum Fundraiser Site http://theoatmeal.com/blog/tesla_museum http://www.southgatearc.org/news/august2012/850000_for_tesla_museum_raised_on_kickstarter.htm (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) More on the new news: http://www.fastcompany.com/3000715/its-nikola-teslas-world-were-just-opening-museums-about-him-it Needed even more since the Tesla Museum in Colorado Springs (which I had visited) closed years ago. See http://teslamuseum.us/?page_id=66 http://www.tripcart.com/usa-regions/Colorado-Rockies/museums/Nikola-Tesla-Museum-of-Science-Industry.html (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) EX CENTRO TRASMITTENTE RAI AD ONDE MEDIE DI BUDRIO (BO) DEDICATO A GUGLIELMO MARCONI Segnaliamo il file allegato. per altre informazioni cliccate qui http://www.radiomarconi.com/marconi/budrio.html Cordiali saluti, Elio Antonucci (via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) Lots of photos of ancient and current transmitter sites (gh, DXLD) WORLD OF HOROLOGY +++++++++++++++++ SWISS TIME STATION TO BE DISMANTLED Hi everyone, The antenna masts of the Swiss time station at Prangins, which went off the air a few months ago, are to be dismantled on sept. 6. If you read French the following links might be interesting to have a look at: http://www.24heures.ch/geneve/la-cote/Les-pylones-de-Prangins-seront-bientot-demontes/story/10245536 http://www.admin.ch/aktuell/00089/?lang=fr&msg-id=45662 http://www.bluewin.ch/fr/index.php/1929,648871/Les_pyl%C3%B4nes_de_l%C3%A9metteur_de_Prangins_seront_dynamit%C3%A9s/fr/news/regio/ (credit: Paul Jamet, via the Radio Club du Perche news service) 73s, (Rémy Friess, France, Aug 25, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) HBG, but WTFK? Only first link has a view (gh, DXLD) Initially found on BDXC news this led me to several articles in French. These articles all state that on 6 September 2012 there will be a dismantling operation at Prangins to remove the HEM time signal station on 75 kHz at 46 24 24N, 06 15 06E. Sources are many. The most official is from admin.ch and I attach a link below. http://www.admin.ch/aktuell/00089/?lang=fr&msg-id=45662 73's and 88's (Dan Goldfarb, mwmasts yg via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DTV See OKLAHOMA; U S A ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DRM See AUSTRALIA; INDIA; NEW ZEALAND ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ also mentioned in IBOC thread DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- IBOC +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ALL-DIGITAL AM TESTS CONSIDERED Radio World By Leslie Stimson August 23, 2012 For years, we’ve heard from some HD Radio proponents that perceived ills of the AM band, like susceptibility to massive interference, could largely be solved if stations went all-digital on a wide-scale basis. After all, the IBOC system always was envisioned as a transitional one, allowing the industry to operate “all-digitally” someday, rather than in hybrid mode, should it choose to do so and the FCC allow. But this question was seen as one for the distant future, given market realities; and many broadcasters have resisted talk about ever “turning off the analog.” However, the matter of AM’s health and future is a current industry debate topic. Against that background, members of the NAB Radio Technology Committee now want to test iBiquity Digital’s all-digital AM system to quantify any such improvements. This would entail putting one or more all-digital AM signals on the air experimentally at existing stations. The idea, I hear, is one of several being bandied about in discussions about how to help AMs, particularly medium- and small-market AMs that lack powerful signals, to remain economically viable. The committee was formed last year. Television has such a technical committee, and NAB members felt there should be one for radio. Barry Thomas, vice president of engineering at Lincoln Financial Media, stepped away from chairing the NRSC subcommittee on RDS to head this group, as we’ve reported.. . Full article here http://radioworld.com/article/all-digital-am-tests-considered/215014 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) [which led to a very long thread, with a lot more insight --- ] One interesting thing about such a test - if it is even reported - would be to learn just how few AM listeners are receiving digital. While the article indicates that "the bulk" of AM listeners are in analog, I wonder how many of them really understand how big a % that is (Russ Edmunds, 15 mi NNW of Philadelphia, NRC-AM via DXLD) I don't know anyone who uses a digital AM radio on a regular basis. I tried one here in Lima, but only one station was marginally listenable in the daytime (Fred Vobbe, OH, ibid.) The only people I know who have them are either employed by a station and/or are DX'ers. Most people don't have a clue what FM Digital is. (Russ Edmunds, 15 mi NNW of Philadelphia, ibid.) I bought a Sony XDRF1HD several years ago which is the one most DXers have and to get it to work at all reliably I had to put an FM yagi on my roof. AM HD is hopeless, the only AM HD I could get at all was WBZ during the day (approx 40 miles) and it would drop out most of the time and when it was in it sounded very artificial. FM HD sounds good, the noise floor is lower than analog FM but reception was marginal at best with the FM dipole included with the tuner and any FM that sounded good in HD also sounded good in analog (Bob Young, Millbury, MA, NRC-AM via DXLD) I would have preferred DRM. I have heard it on shortwave, and thought it great using only a 10 kHz bandwidth (Allan Dunn, K1UCY, ibid.) Agreed. However, I still wish they would have placed all the digital radio on UHF channels 14 and 15, which would give the stations what they need, (enough channels interference free, good city grade coverage, and no interference to existing analog). I can almost predict what will happen with all medium wave IBOC. The stations will still have coverage issues, and someone will suggest doubling or tripling power. That will only cause more interference. Those of us old enough to remember what happened when Class IV stations were allowed to raise night power will recall how that really didn't fix anything, but brought up the noise floor by 3 to 6 dB (Fred Vobbe, OH, ibid.) I was at dinner last night with the president of a very reputable Mazda and VW dealership. She was wondering why HD Radio wasn't working "according to the promotion." I explained what was happening and suggested that, the new cars she sold with HD expectations would be coming back. She notes that this is so; her service folks can respond only by "trying another radio". When that doesn't solve it, she has buyers trying to return cars. This apparently is a serious concern among auto dealers. I suggested she have her I-T guy reach out for factual reports on realistic HD expectations; and then create a short bullet-point list for her salesmen, so they can lower consumer expectations during the sale of the car (Mark Durenberger, On the Road, ibid.) I suspect they'll find all-digital mode works VERY well and pretty much eliminates the adjacent-channel interference problem. Of course, any station which chooses to operate in all-digital mode will lose nearly all its audience (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, NRC-AM via DXLD) True indeed. And unless the tests are brief, they may not get them back. And if the past is any indication, the tests won't involve reception in vehicles in cities, nor reception where there are terrain issues. They'll predict some number of miles which only are achievable with good equipment and optimum circumstances. Ultimately if AM goes all digital, it will die, and I think they know that. We will see more FM translators for AM's and more FM simulcasts. But neither low power translators nor low-saturation second/third FM channels on HD will be the answer either because they'll never reach enough of the audience, which will largely have gone elsewhere anyway. And unless they do something to FM HD to increase its coverage, even going all digital on FM will likely have similar effects (Russ Edmunds, 15 mi NNW of Philadelphia, ibid.) Well, the way I read it, they intend to run this test on a station that is already economically insignificant, so I don't think they care if they lose the test station's entire existing audience. Both of them. Of course, that doesn't help when you have to do this for real. While I believe all-digital IBOC will work very well, I don't think it's going to provide any *improvement* in coverage when compared to analog. So, if you have only one AM station with market-wide coverage, either you kill that station (which is probably making money) or your digital operation ends up on a signal that a lot of people couldn't hear in analog & won't be able to hear in digital. I sure don't see CBS Chicago killing WSCR-670 in order to make it the digital side of WBBM- AM. If they buy WYLL-1160 & run *it* as WBBM's digital side, it's still going to come in better at night in Nashville than it does in Aurora. Full-digital mode isn't going to fix a difficult pattern. I'm really pretty optimistic about this thing from the technical standpoint. You're probably right that they'll skimp on the testing but I think there's a very good chance it'll compare very favorably with analog. While it's apples & oranges to say so, in TV we have found that the coverage of digital microwave (for remote broadcasts) compares almost perfectly to that of the old analog system. In some cases it's *better*. At the same power level. Hams: doesn't PSK31 compare pretty favorably with CW for coverage per watt? (it certainly blows away analog voice, even SSB) Digital doesn't necessarily mean less reliable, you just have to pick the *right* digital & not try to jam too much stuff into not enough spectrum. And ultimately if AM *doesn't* go all digital, it will die. Really, in the end we have 5,000 stations in a 500-station band. We're not going to fix that by technical means. It's politically impossible to fix it by the only means that will work. FM doesn't face the same technical issues that threaten AM. IMHO in the long term, as long as FM-IBOC forms a legal handle for a translator, nobody really cares whether anyone in the general public can receive it. – (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) I agree for the most part. The final point though, I think you may have misunderstood the point I was trying to make, namely that the listeners as a group aren't going to be reached by either the digital primary at current power levels OR by low-powered translators. Both suffer from blockage and terrain issues owing to the low powers. The fact that one is analog and the other digital is really a side issue on this one. If the listeners who could hear the analog signal cannot hear the replacements with similar quality to what they had before, they will move on. And 'forcing' listeners to buy new digital receivers isn't necessarily going to reverse the current lack of interest in digital radio. It may well instead push more people faster to internet radio, streaming, and other devices (Russ Edmunds, 15 mi NNW of Philadelphia, NRCAM via DXLD) Actually I'm still having trouble parsing your [last] comment :) I don't think the industry believes it can force a digital conversion in radio. I do think it may hope to move along a voluntary conversion. Nobody much wanted to buy FM radios in the 1960s either, but when the industry stumbled across a good reason for listeners to buy FM, buy it they did. – (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) There's very little programming on AM that's compelling enough to get listeners to buy new radios to accommodate another delivery system. And why would the successful stations take such a risk? The sane thing to do would be to expand the FM band significantly to accommodate and relocate existing AM stations. No, not more translators on an already overpacked FM band, but approx. 25 additional MHz of spectrum to absorb the reallocated AM stations and to spread out existing FM facilities over a period of years to minimize interference. The underutilized frequencies below the current FM band would be ideal for this. Simulcasting should be allowed for maybe five years after an AM gets an additional facility. I don't think a scheme can be developed that'll keep everybody on a level playing field, but really, everyone isn't on one now, either on AM or FM. I can't picture an all- IBOC AM band as the answer (Rick Lewis, ibid.) > And why would the successful stations take such a risk? They wouldn't. But consider some data points from my vantage "deep in the trenches": 1. Any "successful station" on AM will be on FM within a few short years. The AM news-talkers that are still doing well are rushing to add FM translators or moving their programming wholesale to full-power FM signals, and the ones that haven't done it yet are all looking to do it soon. Successful broadcasters see that the audience has moved, and they're following the move that the audience has already made. There are still some holdouts, to be sure - KFI, WABC, WCBS, WINS, WFAN, WBZ - but they're increasingly the exception, not the rule. 2. As long as the FCC continues to enforce its current market ownership caps, big broadcasters will continue to have an incentive to hang on to legacy AM facilities. CBS would love to add a fourth FM to its New York cluster, but it can't - it's limited to no more than six radio stations in the market, and three of those are legacy AMs. Assuming WFAN, for instance, eventually migrates to FM, what do you do with 660? What do you do right now, if you're CBS, with WIP's 610 facility in Philadelphia now that you've moved that format and that audience to 94.1 FM? 3. The old answers to that last question don't work anymore, now that AM station values are in freefall. Just a few years ago, Rick Buckley was turning down $150 million offers for WOR. Two weeks ago, his kids sold that signal to Clear Channel for just $30 million, and they were lucky that the circumstances came together to produce a willing buyer at even that price. And, perhaps most critically: 4. Auto industry experts tell us there's a massive wave of new-car purchases due to hit around 2014-2015, as all of us who have been sitting on our aging cars due to the economy finally have no choice but to replace them. (Here in my driveway, I have a 2003 VW with 124k miles on it and a 2004 Honda van with 100k on it. The Honda has a few more years on its lifespan, but by 2015 I expect the Jetta will be overdue for replacement.) Behind the scenes, even as many of us have scoffed, HD receivers (including AM capability!) have quietly been showing up in more cars than you'd think. If the PR flacks at the NAB Show are to be believed (and even if you use a generous grain-of-salt discount on them), there are deals in place to put HD in a sizable number of those new 2014- 2015 models. So, again: let's say you're CBS. You have no incentive to sell off WIP 610 at a fire-sale price. You're still investing fairly heavily to keep an expensive RF plant on the air, on a big piece of relatively valuable land. You've already migrated the AM's format and its audience to FM, yet you still have an AM RF signal that's very, very strong over the entire Philadelphia market (arguably the best AM in town, in fact!) What do you do? Do you keep simulcasting the FM and making a buck here or there on putting overflow sports coverage on 610? Do you sink money into a new AM format, knowing you're paddling against a tide of very rapidly plummeting analog AM listenership that's likely to be closing in on zero within a few years? Or do you take a little risk? You already know that the value of 610 as an ongoing analog operation is falling fast. You know that engineering projections suggest that an all-digital WIP 610 (or KCBS 740, or WBBM 780, or KXNT 840, just to name a few others in the same boat) will have a monster signal with potentially much better coverage than even a "full-market" analog FM. You know there aren't many of those flamethrower signals, and that only a handful of big broadcasters control most of them. You know that there are projections that a reasonable number of receivers will be on the roads in a few short years to hear those signals. You're not going to turn off analog on WFAN or WBZ or KNX, not just yet. But if you've got a portfolio of AMs like WIP that are no longer "successful," then why not at least take a flyer on something that MIGHT provide some continued value from the fairly substantial sunken investment in a big AM transmitting facility? It won't be a "simulcast" of anything existing; it will effectively be a new blank programming slate reaching a new audience entirely separate from today's AM listenership. It's far from a sure thing, of course; all sorts of technological disruption could come along and shake things up even further in the next few years. And it doesn't offer much hope for the little graveyarder on 1230 or the regional AM on 1370 whose market has long outgrown its 1940s-era signal (ahem...) Any station in that boat that's lucky enough to still have a profitable mass audience had better be well along by now on the process of migrating that audience somewhere on the FM dial. (Not to an "expanded FM band," either. That proposal has no significant industry support nor anyone pushing hard for it within the FCC. The free market has already spoken on this - the viable AM programmers, by and large, are already migrating to FM under their own steam and have no desire to subsidize relocation late in the game by broadcasters who weren't as prescient early on. It sounds harsh, but that's the "in the trenches" reality right now. Nobody - aside from us DXers and a handful of idealists without any skin in the game - actually wants a level playing field.) Again --- I'm not saying I AGREE with everything here - just passing along what I'm seeing and hearing from within the industry. So flame away with impunity... s (Scott Fybush, Rochester NY, ibid.) I would argue only one point. That is that even the big group owners converting only the best AM signals in each major market to digital likely won't save AM. I believe that battle has already long been lost. There's a whole generation or two of people out there who either are unaware of AM, only marginally aware of it, or have an awareness but no longer care. My wife has a 1998 Mitsubishi with about 100k on it which will be replaced in that timeframe and while I'll not be replacing like with like, I doubt whatever I am likely to buy will be a major enough brand to have such a radio in it. My car is is 2003 with less than 60K so it'll be around a while. I don't see that there will be enough AM stations with enough attractive programming available to make up for the lost decades noted above. I also believe that too much more time will elapse with an overcrowded AM band full of way too many crammed in stations, many running the same tired formats before enough of them fall away to have not lost yet another generation for AM. AM as we have it now will continue on its current path for quite a while yet. As Doug noted, none of the scenarios which would make a changeover occur more quickly are going to happen (Russ Edmunds, 15 mi NNW of Philadelphia, NRC-AM via DXLD) Scott, I don't question your observations, especially since, and these are my words (not yours) the FCC long ago abrogated their responsibility to regulate the bands in a way that favors anyone but the big boys. Even if you disagree with that opinion, much AM IBOC so far mostly sounds bad, with limited coverage area. Okay, so presumably, without the baggage of the analog signal the coverage can be increased. Still, my experience is that AM HD often sounds like a bad Internet stream: swishy, full of artifacts, fatiguing to listen to. No matter how many cars have HD, how is this going to be addressed. when by 2014 or 2015 listeners will be able to hear good Internet feeds and other music and information sources that will sound better and may be programmed better too? With all of the power going into the HD signal, will that be enough to overcome the current flaws of IBOC? Or will the noise and interference just push people away from AM at a faster rate? Good grief, I don't know about Joe Six-Pack, (because my six-packs are Dr Pepper), but I'd much rather listen to a 64K web stream than a 24- or 32K IBOC signal that's intermittent and full of artifacts. Whether the industry supports it or not, I still contend that FM expansion, with a long adjustment period, is the only way to go. (And the big conglomerates would likely be able to get more signals if there was actually room for them, instead of translators.) Maybe the wrong people are running the show. In fact, I'll go even further and say that the radio industry hasn't exactly been stellar about making good decisions for itself. That's why many listeners have given up on it. -- (Rick Lewis, NRC-AM via DXLD) Nothing will "save AM" in its current form. Some of the bigger players may still have a decade or more of stability left before the rot sets in; I wouldn't bet against WGN or WBZ just yet. Some of the niche players may last even longer, provided no better solution comes along to fill the niches they serve. If Bob Bittner, bless him, lives to be 100, he can probably keep WJIB and WJTO chugging along for another 30 years. The scenario I'm offering up isn't "save AM"; it's effectively a brand new platform that just happens to be built on the bones of some of the bigger legacy AM signals. Whether it can be a compelling enough platform to draw ears remains, of course, to be determined - but it will have to sink or swim on its own merits, not on whatever remains of AM radio's legacy and visibility. It's been almost 35 years since an FM station first ranked number one in the New York City ratings, displacing WABC(AM). What percentage of the New York audience came of age after that 1978 milestone? It's got to be the majority, or close to it, by now. You might be surprised by the "major enough [car] brands" that are (or that Ibiquity claims are) committed to including HD capability. That may be the biggest unknown in all of this: *IF* there's a big enough turnover in the fleet later this decade, and *IF* enough of those new cars come with HD as standard equipment, it *might* be enough to become a game changer. (Personally, I'd still bet against it, but if I owned WIP and KXNT and could afford to take the risk, I just might try it...) ``I don't see that there will be enough AM stations with enough attractive programming available to make up for the lost decades noted above. I also believe that too much more time will elapse with an overcrowded AM band full of way too many crammed in stations, many running the same tired formats before enough of them fall away to have not lost yet another generation for AM.`` And THAT is where the interests of CBS/Clear/Salem/Beasley/Cumulus diverge, dramatically, from the interests of most of the 3,000+ other AM station owners out there. It's somewhat in the interest of the big guys for all those small AM owners to crater, sooner rather than later. But, again, if you own 610 in Philadelphia, and if you can have it show up as part of a new "digital something" in the car, I don't think you really care what the peanut-whistles are doing on 1340 or 1310 or 1440 or 1540. They're already in a separate universe anyway, and they have been for decades. It's the stations crammed into overcrowded regional channels that won't have the chance to benefit from all-digital, IF it comes to pass. That's where you'd have to see some dramatic thinning of the herd, which seems unlikely under present circumstances. s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) By the time the FCC was created in 1934, Federal regulation already favored the big boys. It has ever been thus. The only significant regulatory diversions from that path have come from outside the FCC: the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, which established a funding path for public TV (and, as a sideline, for public radio) and LPFM a decade ago. Here's the counter-argument, such as it is: yes, AM HD in its current hybrid form is a full-out failure. There's not enough data throughput to provide quality audio, and the system has all the robustness of a wet paper bag in a windstorm --- not to mention all the slop it inflicts on adjacent channels. All-digital AM, in theory, is a different story. Instead of impinging on an adjacent channel and trying to pretend to fit inside the analog interference mask, it sits right in the central bandwidth of the current AM analog channel --- and instead of 24 kbps, it can have much higher data throughput. (I'm not sure of the exact numbers being tossed around.) We know from the DTV experience, and from at least some real-world experience with DRM on MW outside the US, that what works in theory may not function in practice. That's one big reason broadcasters want to try this out in the real world. Few webstreams are 64k. The difference between webstreams and IBOC signals is that the quality of the compression has improved dramatically in recent years. The HE-AAC codec can work wonders at surprisingly low bitrates. And don't underestimate the real-world impact of usage caps on the use of streaming audio in vehicles. Even if technology simplifies the process of listening to a stream in my car (which, for me, involves connecting my often-sluggish Droid to an often-noisy FM modulator), I'm going to be less inclined to do that if I have to think about whether it will cost me an extra $5 in data charges at the end of the month. Short-term thinking and the corrosive effects of massive debt service have led to a lot of bad decisions. But having said that, I still think the ship of FM band expansion sailed years ago. The FCC needs to keep 76-88 MHz in TV service if it has any hope of reclaiming UHF spectrum for auction (which is a rant unto itself), so that band is simply unavailable. And even if it were, there's no stomach for a "long adjustment period" anywhere in the industry. Put yourself in the shoes of an AM station with reasonably successful programming in a small-to-medium market. For $75,000 or so, you can get your hands on an FM translator that may not perfectly duplicate your AM coverage but is likely "close enough" - and which can be heard on 100% of existing radios. For $200k or so, you can probably buy an existing full-power FM signal to migrate your AM programming. What's your incentive for building a higher-powered expanded-band FM that could easily cost six figures for transmitter and antenna and all the various licensing costs --- and which will be receivable on 0% of existing radios on day one? Unlike the full-digital-AM argument, which assumes that broadcasters have already sunk significant costs into their existing AM plants, band expansion calls for new investment. That's a much higher risk-to-reward ratio at a time when few broadcasters want to take any kind of risk...which may be why it hasn't achieved much traction. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Hi Scott, And, in this spirited but friendly exchange, you say, ``Unlike the full-digital-AM argument, which assumes that broadcasters have already sunk significant costs into their existing AM plants, band expansion calls for new investment. That's a much higher risk-to- reward ratio at a time when few broadcasters want to take any kind of risk...which may be why it hasn't achieved much traction.`` And I'm sure you sum that up accurately, but I suspect it's a coin flip on whether HD-only would be a better bet than an expanded band. (Incidentally, the 30-50 MHz band is almost unused in most areas, and I suspect it'll be completely unused shortly.) Selling points of an expanded band: More stations, broadcast reliably and basically interference-free; Wider coverage areas; Less interference to existing stations; Potential for more allocations, (and if they're gonna take risks, they could take them on the new allocations.) Obviously, since AM is out of fashion, as you point out, they're not going to talk about what band an HD is on; it isn't sexy and it would only hurt the new image. I think it's a real shame that they're so enamored of HD technology that they'll plunge money into it, while at the same time they unload talent and offer less and less incentive for listeners to tune in by skimping on what matters most: programming. I know this is a different discussion, as is UHF TV allocation, but it's sinful for these guys to put good people on the street while they're propping up this questionable technology. I hope the HD-only plan fails miserably. The curious part of me wants to witness the test, but I still hope it doesn't fly. Incidentally, your point about the inequality of radio allocation, even in its early days, is a valid one. That doesn't mean that the inequity shouldn't be fixed, but it won't be. – (Rick Lewis, ibid.) ``(Incidentally, the 30-50 mHZ band is almost unused in most areas, and I suspect it'll be completely unused shortly.)`` Very true; but the huge potential for E-skip makes this band of questionable value for broadcasting even if you can get past the total lack of a receiver base. (The 76-88 MHz band at least offers the possibility of modifying radios that already have that band built in for Asian markets.) The key point is, though, that they're really NOT plunging any money into full-digital AM. The transmitter facilities already exist, and represent a very significant sunk cost on the big broadcasters' books. The conversion from analog/digital hybrid to all-digital is a matter of uploading software into existing digital exciters. Any AM that's already spent the money to go to hybrid IBOC can go all-digital for almost no additional cost. It's not a question of being "so enamored of HD"; it's a question of trying Plan B after already spending money for Plan A and getting nowhere with it. I would contend that's a very different sort of "risk" than the very significant six-figure expense of building out a brand-new high-power 76-88 MHz facility from transmitter to antenna. I'm exceedingly skeptical about whether it will work, but on balance I think I hope it does. Once you accept that AM as we've known it is dead (or at least in its death throes), why not root for some kind of useful next life for the more viable MW facilities out there? I'd rather see the WHAMs and WBZs and KCBSes of the world pumping out bits (and maybe even taking the kind of programming risks you can take when the stakes are low) than see the towers come down, the sites get turned into housing developments and the frequencies left to sit vacant. (And as a DXer, I'd love to see what a more robust all-digital signal could do over skywave!) It may be (as I noted in my reply to Fred's interesting comments) that the move away from AM inadvertently wipes out some of those longstanding inequities. Back in the late 1920s, commercial broadcasters used their muscle to make sure university-run educational stations were relegated to crummy facilities. WHA in Madison is one of the oldest stations in America, and it has essentially no night signal to speak of. But on FM, its sister station WERN 88.7 ended up with a signal that's as good as any in the market - and it has ratings to match. Put good content on the air where listeners can find it and it can still win. With the exception of a handful of big-signal stations with decades of heritage, analog AM is not that place anymore. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Then there are those media owners who have looked at possible radio station ownership and decided against it, (such as who I work for), because they see the Cumulus and Clear Channels have made the radio industry moot by driving listeners away. As I sit here tonight, working on a project, I'm finding it hard to find anything worth listening to on AM. It again falls back to content. Would have loved to have some radio move in with us (Fred Vobbe, WLIO- TV, Lima OH, NRC-AM via DXLD) As big as CC and Cumulus are, they're not invulnerable to good competition, and I'd think your group would have been very good competition indeed, Fred. It's hard for a typical standalone operator to compete against the big guys in a small market because the big guys can easily pipe in programming from bigger markets and keep ruthlessly cutting ad rates in ways that most local operators just can't match. But, wow; if I had all four local TV affiliates to sell alongside a radio cluster, and all the local news resources and cross-promotional opportunities that went with that --- well, now you're getting some very real leverage against a Clear Channel's weak spots. CC can cut rates all it wants, but in a market the size of Lima, it can't afford to crank up the kind of local programming that could challenge a hypothetical "WLIO Radio." That's why some of the big guys have actively divested their smallest markets. CBS Radio ditched everything smaller than about market #25, Clear Channel has exited most markets smaller than #100 or so (Ohio is a big exception, largely because of the huge regional presence that was built up there in the Jacor days), and even Cumulus has been exiting places like Binghamton and Augusta, Maine by trading up to bigger markets. All those little markets are barely rounding errors for the big guys, and there's no reason for them to put much effort into market 200 when they could get much bigger bang for the buck by investing in market 2. And in some ways, you could even make the case that the shift away from AM has opened up space for some competition. In the days when AM ruled, if you owned the only full-time, full-market AM in the market, you owned the market. (Especially if, in the case of WIMA, you could buy up and shut down the other full-time AM in town!) But when you've got a dozen class A FMs that all have roughly equal coverage of a fairly compact market, that "lone-AM advantage" isn't much of an advantage anymore. Again, I'm not privy to all the research and data that your employer has on that particular market, and maybe there are some factors I'm not seeing here; but if ever there were a spot where all the pieces seem to come together (existing content, existing sales force, promotional opportunity and fairly weak existing competition) to make it possible to revive some interesting radio, Lima sure looks to me like it coulda been a contender. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) There was some serious thought being given to radio. After all, we still have 1/4 of a city block we haven't built on yet. :-) Tech wise it was all possible what we wanted to do. On the programming side it would have been a win for the community as a whole, and radio aficionados. In the end it came down to how many commercials would you have to sell in order to pay back the investment. In the end, with no community goodwill, reputation tarnished, it would have been like getting a new license and having to start fresh. In the end, we would have been buying a 72 Vega for the price of a 2010 Cadillac. It made no financial sense, so we walked. I really held out hope. I have no doubt that we could have waxed competition based on the program plans, and probably made the region's broadcasters uncomfortable. Channels 5 & 6 might be usable, but not if broadcasters intend to "superpower". Then as you say, propagation becomes a foe. Channels 14 & 15 would have been ideal given some thought before the DTV movement. That said, if the FCC "repacks" the band again, perhaps channels 31 & 32 are set aside for digital. The UHF platform would be more stable for the digital signals than 30-50 MHz. I also don't see why channels 52 to 69 could not have something carved out for digital. After all, how many Homeland Security transmitters can you pack into 700 MHz in every town in the U.S. ? :-D (Fred Vobbe, WLIO-TV, NRC-AM via DXLD) In response to a couple of earlier comments, I guess I just can't figure out what could possibly be programmed on a new digital AM band that would attract listeners who already consider terrestrial radio as 'old technology'. I'm not sure that my 11-year-old grandson consciously recognizes that radio exists in any real sense. His world is streaming audio, smartphones and iPods. He downloads the music he wants, and plays it how and when he wants. His father has satellite radio in his car but I'm not sure that registers either. The whole earlier debate about satellite vs. terrestrial radio featured discussions about how satellite wouldn't last either because of the effects of newer media. Ultimately, as those of us who have lived with terrestrial radio all of our lives will pass on, and I think terrestrial radio will survive until the numbers of those who haven't migrated to newer technologies reaches a certain point. The direction of tomorrow is the individual choosing and controlling what they listen to, how, and when. I don't think that genie is going back into the bottle (Russ Edmunds, 15 mi NNW of Philadelphia, ibid.) All-digital radio has been tried in various countries, notably DAB in Great Britain with little to no success. Even with the government putting their weight behind it, digital radio including DRM also on shortwave has been a failure everywhere. IF this all digital test comes to fruition it too will be a failure. First of all, what station owner in his right mind is going to abandon his analog listeners even for one week for a technology which is already a proven long term failure everywhere? Digital radio is not the answer (Bob Young, Millbury, MA, NRC-AM vi DXLD) I think the jury's out with respect to a nice clean fit for a digital- only AM carrier. It may or may not be solid. It may or may not allow better audio bit-rates. It may or may not create adjacent-channel interference. And how long will it be before users are saying (as they did with FM): "just gives us a 10db Power increase and it'll work fine" (Mark Durenberger, On the Road, ibid.) Scott wrote: ``The conversion from analog/digital hybrid to all- digital is a matter of uploading software into existing digital exciters. Any AM that's already spent the money to go to hybrid IBOC can go all-digital for almost no additional cost.`` Somehow I can't believe that iBiquity hasn't got the fees for that already wrapped up and set (Russ Edmunds, 15 mi NNW of Philadelphia, ibid.) Sometimes we, those who work or have a hobby in radio, forget that content points us in specific directions. A good example of that was during a trip to upper Michigan when I turned on the radio and my son was interested in one station which was playing 70s oldies and local news. He didn't care that it was AM. He cared only that the station had content he enjoyed. Consequently he put away his iPod. But while there has been an exodus from terrestrial radio, I'm optimistic that given a good local operator catering to the community, listeners will return. Of course it may mean using newspaper, direct mail, Facebook, and other media to let people know there is something there for them. In one of our powwows, the state of radio was described as being like the population of Detroit. Once thriving, now a wasteland, but now there are pockets where revitalization has taken place and business is back (Fred Vobbe, OH, ibid.) That creates a different political issue. We scanner freaks refer to the 470-512 MHz as the UHF-T band. TV channels 14 thru 20 are reserved for public safety in various major markets. In my local area (Boston) as well as New York City, TV channels 14 and 16 are for police and fire. Some may migrate to 700 MHz eventually, but in this economy where local government budgets are already constrained and taxes are already too high, I don't see it happening at more than a turtle's pace. Technically I think it [all digital MW] will work without any power increase, although sky wave propagation could hinder things at night (Allan Dunn, K1UCY, ibid.) This is all fun, speculating on the future of IBOC on the AM band and a no-one-cares all-digital test, but let's get real for a second and look at it for what it is: iBiquity's latest publicity scheme to publicize their dead-in-the-water digital modulation scheme for radio people. They do this at least once a year, probably for the higher-ups in radio who bankrolled it and adamantly will not admit they were wrong (Bob Young, Millbury, MA, ibid.) Channels 5 and/or 6 are off-limits in large swaths of the country due to TV stations still operating there. For example, no channel 5 in most of Tennessee; there are three TV stations on the frequency (there's overlap with a channel 6 no-go area in the south of the state, where interference with a Birmingham station would be likely). No channel 5 in greater Chicago, Milwaukee, most of southern Michigan, northern Indiana, and northwest Ohio (including Detroit). No channel 6 in Philadelphia, Baltimore, or New York. Many of the proponents of an "expanded FM band" seem to believe the FCC would be willing & able to clear these TV stations out of this spectrum. It's not going to happen. Those stations have nowhere to go but UHF -- some can't go there either -- and the Commission wants stations to move *from* UHF, not *to* UHF (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ GERMAN ADDX GROUP OPPOSES PLT STANDARD; EINDE VAN HET DXEN? -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- http://www.southgatearc.org/news/august2012/german_addx_group_opposes_plt_standard.htm meldet: The German ADDX Group has expresses its opposition to the proposed draft PLT standard prEN50561-1 Read the ADDX response at http://www.rsgb.org/news/articlelinks.php?id=0391 RSGB board member Don Beattie G3BJ explains the threat posed by this draft PLT standard at http://www.southgatearc.org/news/august2012/new_draft_plt_standard_pren50561_1.htm RSGB EMC Committee Statement on prEN50561-1 http://www.rsgb.org/news/articlelinks.php?id=0388 (via Max Van Arnhem, BDX via DXLD) THE BPL WAR: EU VS RSGB OVER BPL STANDARD Amateur Radio Newsline™ Report 1828 – August 24 2012 A battle appears to be brewing between the Radio Society of Great Britain and the chairman of the European Union Committee. This after the latter attacked the RSGB's call to arms in the battle against Powerline Transmission radio pollution. A technology better known as Broadband Over Powerline here in the United States. Amateur Radio Newsline's Norm Seeley, KI7UP, has more: -- The chairman of the European Union committee on Powerline Networking has responded to the Radio Society of Great Britain's call to arms, claiming that every minute of filibustering pollutes the radio spectrum more. According to the UK newspaper the Register, the Radio Society of Great Britain says that the new standard for broadband powerline transmission, will water down existing requirements. This it says will open the way to greater spectrum pollution. As such, the RSGB has asked members to lobby their local representatives. But Ronald Storrs, Chair of the committee defining the standard refutes that. He claims that it is the RSGB that is risking the airwaves with – and we quote" "their pointless protests and inflexible attitude." The problem is that sending data signals over unshielded mains wiring, as Broadband Over Powerline transmissions does generates radio interference. And as the manufacturers push to increase speeds that interference is spreading into the frequencies used by other radio services. That, says the RSGB, is unacceptable. But BPL or PLT equipment manufacturers have a totally different view. They say that the devices don't generate significant interference. Rather it's the mains wiring is the culprit. The manufacturers also contend that in many homes the wiring is sufficiently shielded that no interference is generated. As such they will continue to sell their devices legally. Meantime UK telecommunications regulator Ofcom has taken a back seat in this matter. It says that it can't do anything as the devices themselves aren't radio transmitters so fall outside their purview. Ofcom says it's waiting for the new standard to be enacted which will give it some authority to regulate Broadband over Powerline technology. So it appears that a proverbial line has been drawn in the sand between the UK ham radio community represented by the Radio Society of Great Britain and those who want to sell Broadband Over Powerline or PLT gear. And while the European Union's Storrs agrees that BPL is generating unacceptable interference, he says that every day there isn't an applicable standard in place more unrestricted gear is getting into the marketplace. He adds that the intransigence of United Kingdom's ham radio community isn't helping. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Norm Seeley, KI7UP, in Scottsdale, Arizona (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ AUDIO INTELLIGIBILITY RATING SYSTEM I really like Nick Hall-Patch's rating system for audio intelligibility on trans-oceanic receptions! It seems applicable to a lot of different DX situations: --"pretty darn good audio (all of it understandable by a native speaker, at least briefly)" --"reasonable audio at times during the period (much of it understandable by a native speaker, though often battling w/splash or noise)" --"not so reasonable audio, occasional words or phrases in splash or noise could be understood by a native speaker" --"Burbles in the splatter and noise (if lucky, language might be guessed at by cadence of talk, or parallel established by changes in talk or music)" (Randy Stewart, Arts Producer, KSMU, 901 S. National, Springfield MO 65897, IRCA via DXLD) THE DXERS` BLIGHT - THE NEW QRN In less than a year, my noise level in my concrete and steel tower has gone from below -110dbm (less than S1) to S7 to S9 on medium waves. YouTube snippet - http://youtu.be/a3B_7CsjRGc I guess this is the blight of our digital age --- wireless TV's, wireless DVD players, wireless printers, internet over the power line - all with crappy switching power supplies made in China with little or no shielding. (A year ago) Our local DX group worked with our local electrical utility and telecom industry regulator to isolate and eliminate an interference source near a local park that was so powerful, it was easily audible under a 50 kW local. Each agency spent a few hours snooping around the neighborhood with equipment easily from the late 70's and totally unsuited to noise sleuthing - finding nothing. We isolated it to a couple of power poles, one of which was feeding an apartment building - the likely culprit a Chinese made stair-master with a power supply that was easily radiating 15 to 20 watts of RF on the long, medium and shortwaves. In the year or so since we did that failed attempt at eliminating a noise source, similar broad spectrum noises have appeared in a variety of neighborhoods in Victoria. Bottom line - there is no commitment to fixing the problem because, after all, there is nothing on AM or SW anymore right? Will be interesting to see what happens when all the digital interference that we are generating starts to interfere with this things we really enjoy! (Colin Newell - Victoria area DXer and radio enthusiast, IRCA via DXLD) Colin, I don't know how your power companies work, but at least Pacific Power has been good to solve my issues in the past (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) My experiences in Western Canada indicate that unless it is impinging on someone`s flat-screen TV or making their beer fridge malfunction, you are going to get zero action from the "crown corporations..." Was looking at a prospective property yesterday in one of the suburbs of Victoria that backs onto a series of school fields that are at least 1000 feet deep --- in a neighborhood of underground utilities -- - several km from the ocean. Time for a new QTH when the hobby gets shut down by noise (Colin Newell - VA7WWV - Victoria B.C. Canada, IRCA via DXLD) I know some PUD's in the states have a small crew and little money to fix QRN troubles, but a company like Pacific Power has the money & crew to fix issues. They have been great (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, IRCA via DXLD) PUD = public utility department? LA RADIO PODRÍA DESAPARECER POR CULPA DE APPLE El monopolio tecnológico de Apple ha extendido aún más sus tentáculos con la nueva patente que la firma acaba de anunciar que, por cierto, pone en peligro a la radio comercial. El nuevo sistema (aún sin nombre) sustituirá automáticamente alguna canción molesta, y anuncios publicitarios, por otra que el usuario tenga almacenada en la biblioteca de su gadget, lo que se traduce en una transmisión ininterrumpida. Lo interesante de la nueva patente radica en que ésta no requiere de la estación de radio para funcionar, sino que el sistema permite que una “entidad especializada” se encargue de mandar la señal al aparato sin utilizar alguna onda de FM o AM. Aunque el sistema podría adecuarse a la tv, los ingenieros de Apple han decidido, por el momento, emplearlo sólo en radio, como un proyecto piloto. Para la industria radiofónica, ¿este podría ser el principio de su desaparición? Desde un inicio, una de las características de la firma ha sido la personalización de la tecnología como un instrumento de control que permite que los usuarios no puedan conocer ni descubrir lo que hay más allá de su entorno y sus gustos, encerrándolo en sí mismo, prohibiéndole, bajo el falso pretexto de un beneficio, el compartimento de información que nutra más su mente a través de los gustos ajenos. Cortesía: pijamasurf.com Link: http://www.elsiglo.com.ve/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=30493 (Via @yimbergaviria, DXLD) SMART METER MOVEMENT STIRS ROWDY DEBATE IN TEXAS By SARAH KUTA Associated Press DALLAS August 25, 2012 (AP) Thelma Taormina keeps a pistol at her Houston-area home to protect against intruders. But one of the last times she used it, she said, was to run off a persistent utility company worker who was trying to replace her old electricity meter with a new digital unit. "This is Texas." she declared at a recent public hearing on the new meters. "We have rights to choose what appliances we want in our home." A nationwide effort to upgrade local power systems with modern equipment has run into growing resistance in Texas, where suspicion of government and fear of electronic snooping have made a humble household device the center of a politically charged showdown over personal liberty. Some angry residents are building steel cages around their electric meters, threatening installers who show up with new ones and brandishing Texas flags at boisterous hearings about the utility conversion. . . http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/smart-meter-movement-stirs-rowdy-debate-texas-17079732 (via gh, DXLD) DRAKE Re 12-34: ``The Drake web site indicates that they are moving to a new facility in Miamisburg, Ohio, not far from where they are at right now. However, when you Google the address shown, it is a 7500 sq. ft. office building, not the 100,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility that they now have, or perhaps to say that they are now moving from. Wondering if they are closing up manufacturing or shipping it elsewhere and leaving an administrative HQ in Miamisburg?? 'es (Bill Leal, VE3ES, ibid.)`` Why such long debates when one could simply pick up the phone, call and ask? I don't own a Drake so I don't really care (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Too easy TWENTE UNIVERSITY, NETHERLANDS SDR RECEIVER NOW ONLINE No software download needed: "On this page you can listen to and control a short-wave receiver located at the amateur radio club ETGD at the University of Twente. In contrast to other web-controlled receivers, this receiver can be tuned by multiple users simultaneously, thanks to the use of Software-Defined Radio. This site, which in 2008 was the very first WebSDR site ever, was finally reactivated in July 2012 after an interruption of more than 1.5 years" IIRC it was amateur bands only at that time and previously "August 17: Updated the system (SDR firmware and software) for continuous coverage of 0 to 29 MHz!" Just put a name in, which it will remember for future log ins, put a frequency in and tune away. Thanks to Arnaldo Slaen who tipped me off about this in the Pirate Radio Chat Room. http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ (Mike Barraclough, dxldyg via DXLD) Thanks Arnaldo and Mike for the tip. 4 years ago I've always heard on Twente online SDR. Then went to use also super light. Probably it was because of my incompetence, today I have two hours needed to come up clear with the call and supply. With repeated up and down start the PC. Ultimately, I did not know until now what it was, the server positive to call connect. Does it work with you the first time around? First the server wanted to the latest Javascript software programs and add-ones for Firefox and / or Microsoft Internet Explorer installed. Then I had to take back the Internet Options in the Security Settings to the lower level of 'medium'. Active scripting must be opened / activated. Protected Mode must be disabled. My PC / router firewall still demanded the manual tunnel opening Twente with port-8901 there. The browser starts always with the default settings from the server, but you can make your own preferences in an optional Memory Entry, save as freq, bandwidth, speed, display Spectrum / Waterfall, size, and then the next time "Recall" read-in, to avoid the pesky procedures have to be repeated again and again. Now I have to go delete cookies, then the preference is determined lost; so really happened. Now, I heard Israel army transmitter 15850 kHz beautifully over Twente server unit, at 82 dBm signal level, and 93 other users are on the server in //. Greetings Wolfy (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I didn`t have to do any of that. Just enter a login, and a frequency, and there it is. Immediately changing to any other frequency. But I continue to prefer to hear things on my own radios (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Wolfgang, I use Chrome as default browser with Windows XP SP3, in computer terms mine is old, 2005. First time I went there I was asked to give Java permission to run and I did so permanently for the site. Then I just entered name and started tuning, next time I went there remembered my name presume from a cookie. Only problem I have noticed so far is occasionally the frequency you are on changes by a few kiloHertz, I just reset it, perhaps some software glitch. Apart from that very pleased so far, not tried on my other browsers (Mike Barraclough, Letchworth G. C., dxldyg via DXLD) Hi!! For me is a nice experience!! I heard yesterday and today Radio Fox 48 (6925), Radio Merlin International (6305); IMR (6940); Radio Bluestarr (6175) and many unID stations. For me is a new moment in my 35 years in the DX. Ah!!! today wrote me PUR Radio 1 and like my address for send a QSL. Is incredible!!!! Thanks to Mike for the help! My English is very very bad and Mike is very friendly and kind with me and told me many informations about different stations. 73 (Arnaldo Slaen, ibid.) AOR REVEALED NEW "LA800 SUPER LOOP ANTENNA" AOR Japan revealed the new magnetic shielded "LA800 Super Loop Antenna" at Ham Fair 2012 held on August 25 and 26 in Odaiba island, Tokyo. This is a tuned magnetic shielded loop antenna for outdoor use with 78cm diameter, covering 10 kHz-500 MHz. Tunable with 6 bands between 150 kHz-30 MHz, untuble [untunable?] between 10-150 kHz and 30-500 MHz. Price 59,850 yen, will be on sale in autumn 2012 (Takahito Akabayashi, Tokyo, Japan, Aug 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Specifications are interesting but isn't the cost (about 760 USD) is too heavy in respect to UK's Wellbrook or US Pixel Technologies? 73 (Partha Sarathi Goswami, W.B., ibid.) Hi! Sounds interesting. I have one AOR SA7000 Antenna. Functions great! Will look forward to this one as well. Kind regards, SG/VU3TKG (Sudipta Ghose, India, ibid.) HINTS ON PHOTOGRAPHING RADIO TOWERS Those of you who photograph AM towers: got any hints for getting decent shots? I have a LOT of trouble getting shots with decent contrast. In most cases I don't have time to get permission to enter the site and shoot the towers close-up; I have to shoot them from the nearest public road, often several hundred feet away. Humans can see the towers just fine; the camera, not so much so. I have available a typical consumer digital still camera -- no interchangeable lenses, but some amount of control over exposure etc.. Hints would be appreciated! -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, WTFDA AM via DXLD) Rule # 1 is to keep the sun to your back or nearly so. I'd also hope for some clouds to partial or moderate overcast. That eliminates the glare and also keeps the bright light from affecting the exposure- sensing metering. If your camera permits, I'd go to a higher F-stop to reduce the glare and washout. That's a manual simulation of partial overcast (Russ Edmunds, 15 mi NNW of Philadelphia, ibid.) Either a polarizing or a yellow filter can help on a camera which will accept add-on filters. Unfortunately a single-mast, guyed antenna is no match for the brightness of the sky behind it (Paul Swearingen, Topeka, NRC-AM via DXLD) Paul brings up a good point about filters. Also, when doing evening shots of arrays, when tower lights are on, try using a "star" filter which will give you a cool effect on the markers or strobes (Fred Vobbe, ibid.) I'll bet Scott Fybush will chime in; his work is fantastic!!! (Mark Durenberger, mobile, ibid.) Why, thank you! Yes, I've been at it for a long time now and have had a lot of practice, and it's nice to have it appreciated :) Not every site will yield a picture that's "calendar-worthy," as I like to think of the good ones. (Did I mention the 2013 edition is just about to go to the printer?) Here's some of what I've learned along the way: The tips from Russ and Paul about getting the sun behind you and using filters are both very good. With an object as small as a tower (especially a narrow-faced guyed tower) and a background as bright as a sunny sky, it's very easy for the tower to get washed out, so if you can possibly move around to a spot where the sun is over your shoulder aiming at the tower, you'll get a much better picture. As Paul notes, a polarizing filter can make a world of difference, even with a fixed-lens camera. What starts off as a washed-out tower against a bright sky can become a sharply-detailed tower against a much darker sky if you manipulate the polarizer just right. Time of day is the other really critical factor. If you have the luxury of choosing when you're going to be going past the tower you want to photograph, don't do it at high noon when the sun is beating down and washing out the image. I've been doing a lot of photography late in the afternoon when the sun is at a low angle and the sky is starting to shade toward dusk. It makes for a much more flattering picture. I suppose the same is true of dawn and the early morning hours, but I'm never out looking at towers that early! Nobody's ever taken a bad picture of the WLW tower, as far as I know, but it helps to be there late in the day - you can see some variations on the theme in different lighting conditions at my WLW page here: http://www.fybush.com/site-of-the-week-5182012-wlw-cincinnati-2010/ If you have manual control over your camera settings, you can really push deep into dusk for some interesting pictures. Use a tripod (even a cheapie ten-buck flex-leg one that can sit on the roof of your car) and try long exposures. If you can keep the camera steady enough, you can get some spectacular images right at (or even just after!) dusk. Towers look prettier with the lights on, especially if they're the older red lights. (Newer strobes just wash out the picture!) Image resolution matters - always use the highest-quality settings your camera offers, because you have more leeway that way to tweak things in Photoshop after the fact. The "sharpen" function works wonders to bring out detail on intricate tower segments and FM antennas. Instead of the $1500 perspective-control lenses you'd once have needed to create an image showing all the towers in an AM directional array standing up straight, you can now shoot it with an ordinary wide-angle lens and then correct the perspective after the fact in Photoshop, as I do for many of the images in my calendar and on my website. (You can fix tilted images that way, too, though I've learned to use the grid lines in my camera's viewfinder to make sure I have things lined up straight to begin with.) Focus manually if your camera will let you and your eyesight is good enough. Whenever possible, shoot "RAW" images instead of JPEGs; you end up with much more data later on if you need to play with color balance and exposure settings. Use the lowest ISO setting you can get away with to avoid grainy images. Here's something I've wanted to play around with and haven't yet: I'm thinking "high dynamic-range photography" would produce interesting results for tower images: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging If you have time to compose your image carefully, that can make the difference between a boring picture and a decent one. If you have the 2012 Tower Calendar handy, this month's photo (WLKN in Wisconsin) is a good example: what could be a dull shot of a generic-looking FM tower in a corn field became a little more interesting when I was able to frame the tower base nicely between two fields of corn in the foreground. Take advantage of seasonal features: I like having a few shots of towers with autumn foliage or winter snow in the foreground, especially when I need to find shots for the October or January pages of the calendar! If you can possibly avoid getting power lines in the picture, do so; I'm often moving around to different spots by the roadside to find a vantage point beneath power lines that would otherwise be obscuring part of a tower array. Don't overlook the possibility of interesting angles - in addition to a head-on shot of a tower from a distance, see if there's a vantage point from which you can look down on a directional array (there's a nice shot down to the three-tower WSYR 570 array from up in the hills south of Syracuse, for instance) or a good vista looking straight up a tower from the base. (There's one of those on the WLW page linked above, too!) Or stand right by a guy anchor and include the guy wires in your composition. Unless there's someone chasing me with a rifle, I've never been terribly afraid to go where I need to go to line up a pretty shot, "no trespassing" signs or not. It's amazing how little people seem to notice a guy with a camera, for the most part, and on the rare occasions when anybody should happen to ask, I try to keep a calendar and a few business cards in the car to show them that I'm not just a kook (but rather a kook with a calendar and business cards!) I also have my Society of Broadcast Engineers membership card in my wallet if anyone asks. I expect that in Doug's case, at least, having an Extra- class ham ticket and the license plates to go with it would also be a useful diversion. I've only ever had the cops called on me once in 20 years of doing this, and it was in the jumpy days right after the Iraq War began in 2003, when I had no idea the FM tower I was shooting in North Carolina was across the street from a chemical factory with an overly-nervous security guy. Nothing ever came of it; I was gone before the cop got there, and he ended up calling the house and having a nice chat with Lisa, who explained that I was (mostly) harmless. And it turned out to be a lousy picture anyway: http://www.fybush.com/sites/2006/site-061006.html Fire away with questions - obviously, this is something I've thought about a lot and enjoy discussing. Maybe it should be a talk at next year's NRC/WTFDA convention if there's interest? s (Scott Fybush, Rochester NY, ibid.) Scott might be more of an expert than anyone, but I use several lens depending on the angle and distance. A 5-10 mm works well when close up, but you'll get sort of a fish-eye effect if not careful, making the tower appear to be bent. This is especially the case on multitower arrays where the center tower is straight, and the one to each side looks bent. A standard lens 28-80 mm works well when you have reasonable distance. For distant shots, I use a Sigma 100-400 mm, and sometimes put on the x2. Tripoding the camera, and then adjusting the F-stop for the best exposure. Remember on digital cameras the F-stop will change the light level to fool the automatic function of the camera, so go manual and play with the setting. With 400 mm you can frame the WSM tower from about 3/4 mile away. I prefer distant shots unless you like the view of "looking up". Also try manual focus, using something on the tower as your focal point, such as an FM bay, or cross bracing. One other trick which can make a difference, wait for near sunset, tripod the camera, and then take a picture with a longer exposure. With a low sun you get the tower lit pretty good, but all the stuff on the ground is somewhat shaded. Experiment with light levels. Also, it sort of looks cool to catch tower lights on with what "appears" to be still sunny surroundings. Just some thoughts. BTW, I shoot with a Canon Rebel EOS digital, Canon lens except for my "long" lens which is Sigma. I also do film at times, but it's getting hard to find processors here in Lima (Fred Vobbe, OH, NRC AM via DXLD) I am not a big fan of fisheye lenses for exactly that reason. The widest I go on my Nikon D70 is 18 mm (roughly the equivalent of 28 mm on a full 35 mm frame), and even that can produce objectionable fish- eye effects at the edge of the frame. That's fixable to some extent in Photoshop if you're skilled and patient, but I'd just as soon avoid the issue entirely. "Keystone" distortion (if you're looking straight up at a row of towers and the towers at the ends seem to be bending inward) can be more easily fixed after the fact if you're not so wide- angle that the towers appear to bow out in the middle. If I'm shooting a long row of towers, I generally like to be toward the end of the row so I'm getting them lined up fairly narrowly in the frame - or far enough away to get them all in reasonably straight. Fred is very familiar with one of my usual examples of an array like that: the old 1520 Toledo day site that was right next to the I-75/Ohio Turnpike tollbooths. Luckily, there was a spot on the offramp from the Turnpike just before the tollbooths where you could pull off and get a decent side-on view of the towers just far enough away to fit easily in the frame. ``With 400 mm you can frame the WSM tower from about 3/4 mile away. I prefer distant shots unless you like the view of "looking up".`` To my eye, that depends a bit on what's in the foreground. As a general rule, my favorite AM array shots tend to provide a clear view of what's at ground level in the array - transmitter building, transmission lines if they're above-ground, etc. That's not always possible to do even when you're close-in. It's usually impossible at a distance. Fred, of course, has had the chance to do something I haven't: he's played around with shooting tower sites from a low-flying private plane! ``One other trick which can make a difference, wait for near sunset, tripod the camera, and then take a picture with a longer exposure. With a low sun you get the tower lit pretty good, but all the stuff on the ground is somewhat shaded. Experiment with light levels. Also, it sort of looks cool to catch tower lights on with what "appears" to be still sunny surroundings.`` Absolutely! The nice thing about digital is that there's no penalty at all for experimentation. For anything that's at all critical (which, for me, is any photo that I think might appear in a calendar or on the website), I now routinely bracket my exposures a couple of notches in each direction. Modern digital SLRs make that ridiculously easy to do, and of course the cost of storage is now negligible, especially compared to what it used to cost to bracket extensively when shooting and processing a 24-exposure roll of film at 15 or 20 bucks a pop. This being (ex-)Kodak Town, we still have some decent shops in Rochester that can run print film, but for the most part now anyone shooting slides is best advised to send them off to someplace like Dwayne's in Kansas that has expertise. I think that's where our local shops send their E-6 slide film. It's been a few years since I've used them. s (Scott Fybush, NRC-AM via DXLD) And now you'll probably have to send your undeveloped slides to some place like Moscow, as Dwayne's in Parsons, KS stopped processing slides earlier this year. Apparently they were the last photofinisher in the USA still to process E-6 slide film (Paul Swearingen, Topeka, ibid.) Amateur Astronomers using Astrophotography techniques have been using so called "High Dynamic-Range Photography" for many years now. Using various cameras or any good quality camera they take hundreds of pictures of the object and pick out the sharpest ones and overlap them. But now they have various software which will do this automatically. For instance some pictures of craters of the Moon by Amateur Astronomers show more detail than the 200 inch Hale telescope. When I was picking up stations using meteor scatter for analog TV, I found that taking a picture while the VCR was running would produce a better quality picture than if I stopped the VCR and took the picture. One would need precise timing and it would be easier if the station was on screen for one or more seconds long (Roy Barstow, Cape Cod, WTFDA via DXLD) Dwayne's was the last place left processing Kodachrome (K-14 process), and they did a land-office business for the last few months as all of us with odd rolls of Kodachrome sitting around sent them in to be processed (I sent in two rolls from here and even bought a nice yellow "end of Kodachrome" T-shirt from them!) The Ektachrome (E-6) process is much simpler - it can even be done at home - and there's still film being made and processing being done, at Dwayne's and elsewhere. Here's Dwayne's page about it: http://www.dwaynesphoto.com/newsite2006/slide-film.html s (Scott Fybush, NRC-AM via DXLD) I stand corrected, Scott. Kodachrome: gone. Ektachome: still here. Got it (Paul Swearingen, Topeka, ibid.) The painful part, for this Rochester boy, is that "Ektachrome" itself is on its last legs with Kodak getting ready to exit the consumer business entirely. The pros I know swear by Fuji's Velvia slide film, which also uses the E-6 Ektachrome process. (But me, I've been pretty much all-digital since 2004 or so...) s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Bob and myself tried to take a picture of 1130's massive 9 tower array but the only road puts one right next to one tower and to catch a picture with all towers visible is seemingly impossible. Any ideas? Thanks (Todd Skaine, Woodbury, MN, NRC-AM via DXLD) Minneapolis It's been a few years, but my recollection is that this one was best photographed with a long-ish lens at a bit of a distance: http://www.fybush.com/sites/2006/site-060210.html Comparing my picture to the Google Earth satellite view leads me to think I was shooting this from somewhere along Flag Trail as it bends eastward, north of the 1130 site. (Which reminds me: Google Earth, Street View and Bing aerial maps are really useful tools for scouting out vantage points and transmitter access roads ahead of a trip!) s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Very nice pics Scott (Todd, ibid.) Thanks, Todd. I went back and looked at the original images from that 2005 trip, and I'm pretty sure I can pinpoint the spot where I took that view of all nine towers - it would have been on the south side of Flag Trail, somewhere past the High Point Trail intersection and just before the driveway to the farm that comes in where Flag Trail bends south to run just alongside the 1130 array. I had some shots after that that were taken closer to the array, and I couldn't get all 9 towers into the frame on those. It's a good thing there aren't many 9-tower arrays like that out there - they can be hard to photograph! The 12-tower 1190 night array in Dallas, by comparison, is a little easier, as long as you get on one of the narrow ends of it and shoot down the two rows of six towers each. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Just retreat a 1/4 mile or so and find a larger lens, say 150 mm. As you stand near the array, look around and see what is nearby that you can get some elevation. One shot I took required about a 1/2-mile walk, but after going up an overpass and balancing on the guardrail, I got a real good picture of a DA system that couldn't have been taken anywhere else. Also, carry with you a small trucker's ladder. You see them in truck stops, and truckers use it to set up next to the truck so they can reach out over the windshields to clean them. It will give you 4' or so of elevation. Not that I really advocate this, but I have set it up in the back of the pickup truck bed and I get about 6 to 7 feet from ground shooting. Makes a big difference. As you look through the eyepiece, before you pull the shutter, compose the picture. Note what is around you and what can be seen. Sometimes it makes sense to capture building and other "stuff", but you want the tower to be the principle object in the photo. Also remember, when shooting digital, the camera will attempt to set levels according to the brightest object. So reflections such as glare, white buildings, ect can hurt you. If you're in Mnpls, ask Mark D if you can ride on his shoulders. That will allow you to see over 8' security fences. :-) (Fred Vobbe, ibid.) JOHN BATTISON DIES, WAS FATHER OF THE SOCIETY OF BROADCAST ENGINEERS Radio World By James O'Neal August 28, 2012 http://www.radioworld.com/article/john-battison-dies-was-father-of-the-sbe/215154 John Henry Battison, a broadcasting engineer whose achievements and service spanned more than seven decades, died on Aug. 28, 2012, at home in Columbus, Ohio. He was 96. Battison was born in Wembley, England on Sept. 11, 1915 and grew up in London. It was there at an early age that he began his lifelong interest in broadcasting and electronics. As a youngster, Battison constructed a mechanical television receiver in order to view John Logie Baird’s 30-line images being transmitted then by the BBC. Battison’s recalled that his fascination with receiving these early television transmissions frequently resulted in a form of truancy. "I was quite often too ‘ill’ to attend school on those days when the television broadcasts took place," Battison admitted. After completing his early education, Battison joined the research staff of Ekco, a pioneer U.K. radio and television manufacturing firm, and remained with the company until England became caught up in World War II. Battison’s interests also included aviation, and for six-and- a-half years he helped defend his homeland as an RAF fighter and bomber pilot. Following the war, Battison decided to seek a career in American broadcasting, immigrating to this country in 1946. He was initially employed at KMBC in Kansas City and later moved to CBS Television, where he worked with Dr. Peter Goldmark in that network’s color television development program. In 1955, Battison elected to launch his own television station and moved to New Mexico to establish KAVE(TV) in Carlsbad. Battison constructed the station and operated it in concert with KAVE radio. In addition to engineering duties, he frequently appeared on camera and behind the microphone at both operations. Later, Battison was employed by the American Broadcasting Company to help plan and design a number of that network’s owned-and-operated radio and television stations. He interrupted his U.S. career in 1968 to travel to Saudi Arabia where he served as the chief engineer of Saudi Television. He later returned to the United States where he became director of engineering at Ohio State University’s broadcast center. Part of Battison’s career was spent as an engineering consultant, with a client list that included the American University, the governments of both Lebanon and Uganda, and the governor of New Mexico. Battison was also director of education for the National Radio Institute in Washington, and lectured at the Peking Institute of Broadcasting in China as an official guest of the government. Battison may best be remembered for initiating a movement that lead to the creation of the Society of Broadcast Engineers. He was not pleased with a decision made in the early 1960s to merge the Institute of Radio Engineers with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, and wrote an editorial encouraging the creation of a new organization to represent the interests of broadcast engineers. In 1963, after no one volunteered to move this idea forward, Battison made time to take the lead in this effort, despite many other activities and commitments. With the help of his family, he sent membership invitation letters to nearly 5,000 radio and television chief engineers. His actions led to the founding of the Society of Broadcast Engineers, with Battison becoming its first member. The organization has now grown to more than 5,500 members worldwide. Battison authored 15 technical books and wrote more than 500 technical articles for publication. He also served as technical editor for Radio magazine and was a frequent contributor to Broadcast Engineering magazine. In 1998, Battison was named Engineer of the Year by the National Association of Broadcasters and in 2006 he received the Society of Broadcast Engineer’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The society subsequently renamed the award itself for Battison. Battison remained active in broadcast engineering activities until the time of his death. He was also an ordained Anglican priest and traveled 160 miles each weekend from his home in Loudonville, Ohio to conduct services at Christ Church in Columbus, Ohio. Plans for funeral and memorial services are still pending (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) obit PROPAGATION +++++++++++ ESTADOS UNIDOS HACE UN LLAMAMIENTO POR «LA TORMENTA SOLAR DEL SIGLO» El Congreso estadounidense advierte de la necesidad de estar preparados ante una fuerte llamarada solar ep / madrid Día 23/08/2012 - 15.53h abc El Congreso de Estados Unidos ha hecho un llamamiento a los ciudadanos para que desarrollen un plan de emergencias de cara a estar preparados para «la tormenta solar del siglo». Además, en una resolución parlamentaria, actualmente en trámite, se ha pedido a las comunidades locales que se doten de los recursos necesarios para abastecer a la población de un mínimo de energía, alimento y agua. Del mismo modo, la resolución destaca la importancia de una prevención adecuada ante este tipo de fenómenos por parte de las comunidades de vecinos, ya que se necesita coordinación entre los diferentes agentes. . . http://www.abc.es/20120822/ciencia/abci-llamamiento-tormenta-solar-201208211853.html TORMENTA SOLAR: ¿APOCALIPSIS O EXAGERACIÓN? La alarma empieza a generalizarse tras la advertencia de EE.UU. a sus ciudadanos de la necesidad de preparase ante este fenómeno patricia biosca Día 24/08/2012 - 15.16h http://www.abc.es/20120823/ciencia/abci-tormenta-solar-apocalipsis-exageracion-201208231521.html (via Juan Franco Crespo, Spain, DXLD) F. K. JANDA, OK1HH : P.I.G. BULLETIN 120826 Solar & Geomagnetic activity forecast for the period August 27 - September 23 Solar activity will dynamically fluctuate between 90 - 130 s.f.u. in next few weeks, depending of present active regions on solar disc (high about September 3, low about September 14). Occurrence of C class, maybe also some M class is expected. Geomagnetic field will be: quiet on August 31, September 1, 6 - 8, 14 - 15, 19, 21 - 22, mostly quiet on August 27 - 28, September 2, 16, 20, quiet to unsettled on September 3 - 5, 9, quiet to active on August 29, September 10 - 13, 17 - 18, 23, active to disturbed on August 30. High probability of changes in solar wind which may cause changes in magnetosphere and ionosphere is expected on August 27 - 28, September 3, (8,) 14 - 15 and 20 - 21. F. K. Janda, OK1HH Czech Propagation Interest Group (OK1HH & OK1MGW, weekly forecasts since 1978) e-mail: ok1hh(at)rsys.cz (via Dario Monferini, DXLD) Geomagnetic field activity was mostly quiet to unsettled with an isolated active period mid-day on 26 August. At the beginning of the period, solar wind speed, measured at the ACE spacecraft, indicated the presence of a coronal hole high speed stream (CH HSS). Solar wind decreased steadily from approximately 600 km/s to 400 km/s by early on 22 August. Quiet to unsettled conditions were observed on 20 - 21 August. By mid-day on 24 August, the phi angle changed from a positive to negative orientation indicating a solar sector boundary crossing. Solar wind speed began to increase early on 25 August from approximately 400 km/s to 610 km/s as another CH HSS moved into geoeffective position. Solar wind speed increased once more mid-day on 26 August and ended the period around 700 km/s. Conditions were quiet on 22 August. Conditions remained at quiet to unsettled levels from 23 August until mid-day on 26 August as an isolated active period was observed. FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 27 AUGUST-22 SEPTEMBER 2012 Solar activity is expected to be at very low to low levels with a slight chance for M-class activity through the forecast period. No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at high levels on 29 - 30 August, 09 - 10 September, 16 - 17 September, and again on 22 September due to effects from coronal hole high speed streams. Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be mostly quiet to unsettled until 15 September as a recurrent coronal hole high speed stream moves into a geoeffective position. Unsettled to active conditions are expected on 15 - 16 September. Conditions are expected to be mostly quiet to unsettled again from 17 September through 21 September. Another recurrent coronal hole high speed stream is expected to become geoeffective on 22 September causing unsettled to active conditions. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2012 Aug 27 0630 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 2012-08-27 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2012 Aug 27 115 8 3 2012 Aug 28 120 8 3 2012 Aug 29 120 8 3 2012 Aug 30 125 5 2 2012 Aug 31 125 5 2 2012 Sep 01 125 5 2 2012 Sep 02 120 5 2 2012 Sep 03 120 5 2 2012 Sep 04 120 5 2 2012 Sep 05 120 5 2 2012 Sep 06 115 5 2 2012 Sep 07 115 5 2 2012 Sep 08 115 8 3 2012 Sep 09 110 8 3 2012 Sep 10 110 5 2 2012 Sep 11 105 5 2 2012 Sep 12 105 5 2 2012 Sep 13 100 5 2 2012 Sep 14 100 5 2 2012 Sep 15 100 12 4 2012 Sep 16 100 12 4 2012 Sep 17 95 8 3 2012 Sep 18 95 8 3 2012 Sep 19 95 5 2 2012 Sep 20 95 8 3 2012 Sep 21 95 8 3 2012 Sep 22 95 10 4 (SWPC via WORLD OF RADIO 1632, DXLD) F. K. JANDA, OK1HH: WEEKLY FORECASTS FROM ONDREJOV Solar activity forecast for the period August 31 - September 6, 2012 Activity level: mostly low X-ray background flux (1.0-8.0 A): in the range B2.0-B9.5 Radio flux (10.7 cm): a fluctuation in the range 95-140 f.u. Flares: class C (0-15/day), class M (0-5/period), class X (0/period), proton (0/period) Relative sunspot number: in the range 30-105 Astronomical Institute, Solar Dept., Ondrejov, Czech Republic e-mail: sunwatch(at)asu.cas.cz (RWC Prague) ______________________________ Geomagnetic activity forecast for period August 31-September 23, 2012 Geomagnetic field will be: quiet on September 6 - 8, 14 - 15, 19, 21 - 22, mostly quiet on September 1 - 2, 16, 20, quiet to unsettled on August 31, September 3 - 5, 9, quiet to active on September 10 - 13, 17 - 18, 23. High probability of changes in solar wind which may cause changes in magnetosphere and ionosphere is expected on September 3, (8,) 14 - 15 and 20 - 21. F. K. Janda, OK1HH, Czech Propagation Interest Group (OK1HH & OK1MGW, weekly forecasts since 1978) e-mail: ok1hh(at)rsys.cz (via Dario Monferini, DXLD) ###