DX LISTENING DIGEST 7-098, August 16, 2007 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 2007 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO Extra 76 [= COM 07-02] Wed 2200 WBCQ 7415 [first airing of each edition] Wed 2300 WBCQ 18910-CLSB or 17495-CLSB Thu 0600 WRMI 9955 Thu 1430 WRMI 7385 Thu 1500 KAIJ 9480 Fri 0630 WRMI 9955 Fri 1030 KAIJ 5755 Fri 1100 WRMI 9955 Fri 2030 WWCR1 15825 Sat 0800 WRMI 9955 Sat 1630 WWCR3 12160 [irregular; confirmed 8/11/07] Sat 2130 WRMI 9955 Sun 0230 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0630 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0800 WRMI 9955 Sun 1500 WRMI 7385 Mon 0300 WBCQ 9330-CLSB [irregular; not 8/13/07] Mon 0415 WBCQ 7415 [time varies] Mon 0830 WRMI 9955 Tue 1030 WRMI 9955 Tue 1530 WRMI 7385 Wed 0730 WRMI 9955 WORLD OF RADIO, CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL SCHEDULE: Latest edition of this schedule version, including AM, FM, satellite and webcasts with hotlinks to station sites and audio, is at: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html For updates see our Anomaly Alert page: http://www.worldofradio.com/anomaly.html WRN ON DEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 WORLD OF RADIO PODCASTS VIA WRN NOW AVAILABLE: http://www.wrn.org/listeners/stations/podcast.php OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO [also CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL] http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org ** ALBANIA. Re 7-097, log of same broadcast: Dear Drita, Greetings from England, where the weather is cool and cloudy. Hope that the sun is shining where you are. I am listening to Radio Tirana broadcast to NAm, on 13750, at 1315 UT, today 15th Aug. The signal is excellent, but the audio sounds mangled. Have Radio Tirana started to use a different recording device? It sounds garbled. Maybe you could shed some light on this. Thanks! All the best (from England, Christopher Lewis, via Drita Çiço, R. Tirana, DXLD) ** ANTARCTICA. ANTARCTICA WORKERS FROZEN OUT OF U.S. TAX BREAK Ryan J. Donmoyer and Alison Fitzgerald Wed Aug 15, 3:56 PM ET Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Antarctica may be a great place to avoid the heat and the crowds. For U.S. citizens living there, one thing can't be avoided: taxes. The U.S. Tax Court ruled that the approximately 1,100 workers at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, McMurdo Station or other areas on the southern continent don't qualify for a longstanding exemption for Americans living abroad. At issue in the tax cases is whether Antarctica qualifies as a foreign country for purposes of a 50-year-old law that allows Americans living abroad to exclude part of their income from U.S. tax . . . http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20070815/pl_bloomberg/adhtapywytq (via gh, DXLD) Bears on the political status of the continent ** AUSTRALIA. 4910, VL8T-Tennant Creek, 1355-1408, August 16, on late, scheduled for sign-off at 0830, weak but clearly heard OM with Australian accent in English and mentions of Australia, but could not tell what he was talking about (Ron Howard, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Ron, noted here until 1445+. Nothing heard on 4835. Tried to // with the big guy (R. Australia, nyuk) in case it was something of great import but apparently not (Dan Sheedy, CA, R75 & 60' random wire, ibid.) ** AUSTRALIA. 5995.0, *0758 Aug 16, R Australia, Brandon. Waltzing Matilda IS until 0800 "You`re listening to Radio Australia; it`s 6 PM is Melbourne", into news. Fair to good signal (Brandon Jordan, Memphis, TN, http://www.bcdx.org Gleanings from overnight 190 kHz RFSpace SDR-14 recordings, Receiver: RFSpace SDR-14; Antenna: Wellbrook ALA 100; Filter: GAP Hear IT DSP, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. FROM COMMISSION TO CORPORATION: 75 YEARS OF THE ABC To mark the 75th anniversary of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, historian Ken Inglis, author of the two-volume history of the ABC, and fellow historian and broadcaster Michael Cathcart, discuss the history of the national public broadcaster. They reflect on the origins of the ABC, its relationship with government, and the role it has played in the cultural and social history of Australia. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/hindsight/stories/2007/2000668.htm Listen Now - 12082007 | Download Audio - 12082007 Hindsight, also on RA Thursday at 1405-1500 on 9590, etc. Includes some historic clips (Glenn Hauser, in advance, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. GENERAL MACARTHUR'S BRISBANE RADIO [more history] It is a little known fact that over a lengthy period of time, the United States has built and/or operated a cluster of radio stations in mainland Australia, and if our count is correct, it could be almost a dozen in number. If we take into account their radio stations in the Australian territories north of the continent, then that number would increase to two or three dozen, or perhaps even more. Here in our DX program “Wavescan”, we will take a look at some of these radio stations, one by one progressively, as we have the opportunity. On this occasion, we take a look at what is probably the first radio station built by the Americans in Australia and it was established for communication with their national capital, Washington DC. We go back to the year 1941. You will remember the concentrated stress-filled events of that era. At this stage, General Douglas MacArthur was on duty in the Philippines and in order to keep up with the rapidly changing events in the Pacific and Asia, he tuned in every evening to the news bulletins on shortwave coming from the powerful and quite new station, KGEI in Belmont California. In February 1942, under orders from MacArthur, a quite new 1 kW shortwave transmitter was removed from station KZRH in downtown Manila and re-activated on the Bataan peninsula, on the edge of Manila Bay. This station identified on air as “Freedom Radio” and it was established for coverage in nearby areas of the Philippines. However, during its short life span of about four months, it was also heard quite regularly in Australia and New Zealand. In March, MacArthur was ordered by President Roosevelt to evacuate to Australia and he did so by traveling at night in a small motor powered PT boat, and then by plane. Originally it was intended that this plane should land in Darwin, the city that is now the capital of Australia's Northern Territory. However, there was an air raid on at the time and so the plane was quickly diverted to a primitive airstrip at lonely Batchelor, some 80 miles further south. Another plane took him and his entourage to Alice Springs where he caught the exotic little train affectionately known as the “Ghan” and a couple of days later he arrived in Adelaide and then went on to Melbourne. It was in Melbourne that MacArthur first established his Australian headquarters and he began to map out a strategy for the areas of the South Pacific. He proposed a plan to the Australian government that America would construct a railway line running from Cloncurry in outback Queensland up to Darwin at the “Top End”. This project, he suggested, would be accomplished at no cost to Australia for men nor materials. However, the Australian Labor Unions nixed this intended project. At this stage, MacArthur also proposed to establish his headquarters on a mobile train that could effectively move quickly to any desired location, and he also suggested that a shortwave station capable of international communication should be established on this train. A report in the American journal, “Radio News”, states that the U.S. Army Signal Corps actually did install several high powered shortwave transmitters onboard railway carriages for us by MacArthur. It seems that the high powered radio transmitters referred to here were actually 3 kW teletype and Morse Code units. In view of the fact that railway usage in Australia was “out” as far as MacArthur was concerned, then in mid 1942 he transferred his headquarters from Melbourne to Brisbane, and on July 20, he commandeered the AMP Society Building in downtown Brisbane for American usage. The basement of the AMP building was fitted out with communication equipment of the latest type and a radio station was established on the western edge of Brisbane, the state capital for Queensland. Two tracts of land were procured, half a dozen acres at Hemmant and a smaller property six miles distant at Capalaba. The transmitter station consisted of two buildings, a large T shaped transmitter hall and a smaller generator building. The antenna system, beamed to the United States, was made up of rhombics mounted on towers 100 ft high. The program feed came in on cable from the teletype printers in the AMP building five miles distant. According to a report as found on the Internet at http://home.st.net.au there was a Press Wireless Shifter Unit at this transmitter station which converted teletype signals into radio signals and this electronic information was then fed into a 1 kW Federal Transmitter type BC339K which was then fed into a 10 kW Colonial amplifier. However, in a report on the work of the United States 999th Signal Company in France, it is stated that there was also a 40 kW Press Wireless transmitter in this facility in suburban Brisbane and that it was installed by servicemen who were trained on a similar unit at the Press Wireless station located at Hicksville on New York's Long island. The power generator at Hemmant was a 250 kW Buckeye, so it is evident that this American radio station could readily support multiple transmitters. The receiver station was a smaller building with a Wilcox receiver and teletype equipment. A Cummins diesel provided emergency power when needed. This station was used for receiving communications from Washington DC and for listening to coded messages from the islands north of Australia. On August 26, 1946, both the transmitting and receiving stations were taken over by the PMG Dept in Australia and the facility was used for shortwave communications and for frequency measurement of Australian mediumwave stations. Interestingly, two of Brisbane's mediumwave stations were on the air from a radio tower that was located very close to the American radio station. These were the commercial station 4KQ which subsequently transferred to St. Helena Island, and public broadcaster 4RPH during an interim emergency period. The Hemmant land was later bought by a commercial company, and it is now owned privately as a family home. The Capalaba land is now in use regionally as an Air Navigation Station. Well, there it is! You have just heard the story of two radio stations established by the Americans in continental Australia. One was installed for use on the railway system though it was never placed into actual usage, and the other was a substantial station in use for a period of nearly four years with international communications. There are no known reports in any radio magazines of the monitoring of these stations; they came, they worked, and then they were silenced. QSLs? Impossible! (Adrian Peterson, AWR Wavescan July 29 via DXLD) ** BERMUDA. FM --- Latest scan, from Paget, 2 miles to Hamilton. 89.1, ZBM-FM (pronounced Zed-B-M) FM 89 EZL/AC 94.9, ZFB-FM Power 95 UC 98.1, "KJAZ" Smooth Jazz. Actual calls unknown [k-j-a-zed?? -- gh] 100.1, Open Carrier. Could be a baby monitor but the signal is very strong here. Will see if it shows up elsewhere. 102.7, "Magic 102.7" new station on air March 2007. RDS MAGIC. Actual calls unknown. 105.1, "Bermuda Spirit" // ZFB-AM 1230. Not listed anywhere on any sites. Religious programming. Actual calls unknown. 106.1, VSB-FM "Mix 106" 107.5, "WHT" Hott-FM R&B RDS HOTT 107.5. Actual calls unknown. A lot of images at this location. If there is ever to be an FM DXpedition here, should be at one end of the island or the other (Rick Shaftan of NJ, visiting Bermuda, Aug 15, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4781.5v, *0959, R. Tacana, Tumupasa, Aug 15. Presumed. Transmitter switched on at *0959 on measured 4781.46, drifting upward rapidly. Transmitter off at 1016 and then back at 1027, but only threshold audio noted by R Coatán 4779.96 *1030 sign-on with massive signal. 4796.36, *1000, R. Mallku, Uyuni, Aug 15. Presumed per LA SW Logs. Transmitter switched on at *1000 on measured 4796.38 kHz. Due to heavy CODAR, no usable audio until 1030 and then only able to determine Spanish language, and transmitter had settled down to 4796.36 kHz. Buenas Nuevas slop at *1056 along with CODAR made signal totally unusable, even in LSB (Brandon Jordan, Memphis TN, gleanings from overnight 190 kHz RFSpace SDR-14 recordings, 4750-4940 kHz, 0347-1200 UT 15 Aug 2007; Antenna: Wellbrook ALA 100, Filter: GAP Hear IT DSP, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5952.41, *1004 Aug 16, Em. Pio XII, Siglo Veinte. Presumed this the one switching the transmitter on at *1004. Threshold audio noted from 1100 with male announcer. Extremely poor on both sidebands due to slop from adjacent channels (Brandon Jordan, TN, http://www.bcdx.org Gleanings from overnight 190 kHz RFSpace SDR-14 recordings, Receiver: RFSpace SDR-14; Antenna: Wellbrook ALA 100; Filter: GAP Hear IT DSP, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Discussion of spelling of 4755 Catholic station: see LANGUAGE LESSONS ** BRAZIL. 4775.04, *0759, R. Congonhas, Congonhas MG, Aug 15. Presumed. Transmitter switched on at *0759 and measured on 4775.02 kHz. Only threshold audio at best around 0936 'sunrise at transmitter' enhancement, at which time the transmitter had settled on 4775.04 kHz. 4785.07, *0844, R. Caiari, Porto Velho RO, Aug 15. Presumed. Transmitter switched on at *0844, but no audio heard until beginning around 1020 UTC with Portuguese talk by male announcer with audio slightly improving until vocals at 1027 'sunrise at transmitter' enhancement. Fading back down by 1028. Poor in static with mild CODAR. 4805.00, *0955, R Dif do Amazonas, Manaus AM, Aug 15. Transmitter switched on at 0932 and transmission started at *0955 with sign-on announcements by man. No definite ID heard but many mentions of Brazil and Amazonas, various phone numbers mentioned, etc. Great signal but not a match for CODAR. 4845.23, *1031, Ondas Tropicais, Manaus AM, Aug 15. Transmitter switched on at 1002 with strong S9 carrier with 1004 'sunrise at transmitter' enhancement. Signal levels were still good when transmission began at 1031 with a brief sign on ID by man mentioning Ondas Tropicais and Brazil, but unable to catch entire announcement due to UTE on 4845 transmitting at that moment. Directly into back to back contemporary vocals, with no announcements heard, lasting until 1100 by which time audio had faded to unusable levels. [I thought it was R. Cultura and ``ondas tropicais`` was just a slogan, not name] 4925.03, *1019, R. Educação Rural, Tefé AM, Aug 15. Presumed. Transmitter switched on at *1019 with announcements in Portuguese by man and woman, possible ads or promos. Fair signal from sign-on which was 4 minutes from sunrise at the transmitter, but massive CODAR QRM here. No ID heard (Brandon Jordan, Memphis TN, gleanings from overnight 190 kHz RFSpace SDR-14 recordings, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5999.99, 0945-1047 Aug 16, R Guaíba, Porto Alegre RS. Weak and noisy but in the clear after WYFR 0945*, improving around 1000 with notícias and then and interview type program male announcer, also taking phone calls. Fading by 1030 and Cuba back on at 1047 (Brandon Jordan, Memphis, TN, http://www.bcdx.org Gleanings from overnight 190 kHz RFSpace SDR-14 recordings, Receiver: RFSpace SDR-14; Antenna: Wellbrook ALA 100; Filter: GAP Hear IT DSP, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BULGARIA. Re 7-097: Here are some of R. Bulgaria`s program schedule pages, apparently updated for A-07, tho without specific times within bi-, uni- or semi-hour broadcasts: http://www.bnr.bg/RadioBulgaria/Emission_English/scheme.htm http://www.bnr.bg/RadioBulgaria/Emission_Spanish/scheme.htm http://www.bnr.bg/RadioBulgaria/Emission_Bulgarian/scheme.htm Regarding the folk or choral music I often hear on 15700 after 1330, this is a 2-hour broadcast starting in summer at 1200, altho for M-F it is labeled with one asterisk which means half an hour! Here are some musicky titles at the end of the broadcast: Thu Kulturna Panorama Sat Sherenata Cherga, Musikalen Kompas Some other titles may have to do with music, but my Bulgarian is rather limited, and Google`s even more so as I tried treating it as Russian for translation, but this usually results in nothing more than transliteration (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Overnight recording 14-15 Aug on 1690.7 kHz, for a change on the 290 degree beverage, following up Paul Crankshaw's tip. Nothing heard at 2300, traces in interference at 0000; CHTO English IDs noted in fair peaks at 0100, 0200, 0300, 0330, 0400, 0430; rapid reduction in strength after 0440, in and out of the noise, and totally gone by 0525. 1690.7, CHTO, Toronto ON; English ID “The Greek Canadian radio station CHTO AM 16-90 is now broadcasting on 1,690 kHz in the AM frequency. Our call letters are CHTO and we are located at … in Toronto” etc; Greek songs, fair peaks with English IDs on the hour and half-hour until 0440. 73s (Martin A. Hall, Clashmore, Scotland. NRD-545, RPA-1 preamp, beverages: 513m at 240 degrees, terminated; 475m at 265 degrees, terminated; 506m at 290 degrees, terminated. http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/clashmoreradio/ MWC via DXLD) ** CHAD. Aug 16 was checking for distorted Tchad on approximately 7257 but no trace of it at 1825 UT. Instead there was a station under Croatia on 6165 with what sounds like a similar program Tchad used to have (modulation OK). Worth to check if Tchad is back home again or is this some other station. Distorted signal around 7257 was still audible a day or two ago (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, I still noticed 7260v scratching around 0530 UT Aug 14 or 15 but did not log it (gh, DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. 5909.99, 1020-1040 Aug 16, Marfíl Estéreo, Lomalinda. Female DJ playing ballads and romantic vocals, with TCs, IDs and chatter between songs. Good in LSB with 1.8 kHz filter to avoid UTE centered around 5912 kHz. 6035.0v, *0943 Aug 16, LV del Guaviare, S.J. Guaviare. Transmitter turned on at *0943 on 6035.09 kHz with transmission already in progress, drifting downward quickly and settling around 6035 and oscillating a few Hz back and forth. Variety of music and discussions, IDs and TCs. Also noted another station sign-on 6035.0 at *0948, likely PBS Yunnan (Brandon Jordan, Memphis, TN, http://www.bcdx.org Gleanings from overnight 190 kHz RFSpace SDR-14 recordings, Receiver: RFSpace SDR-14; Antenna: Wellbrook ALA 100; Filter: GAP Hear IT DSP, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CROATIA [non]. I enjoy listening to the Voice of Croatia at 0200 UT on 9925 kHz. It's much better than in the days of the Tudjman regime. Roughly 10 minutes of news/sports/weather, a 5-minute cultural report, and 15 minutes of Eastern European pop music, which I personally find oddly nostalgic, even if it's not the greatest music out there. (It's better than the ghastly Asian pop, which all seems to be performed by foppish boy bands with pointless hip-hop influences, or cookie-cutter women.) I enjoy Radio Taiwan International; especially the classical music program "Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes" (Ted Schuerzinger, August 16, swprograms via DXLD) ** GABON. 4777.00, *0456, R Gabon, Moyabi Aug 15, Transmitter switched on at 0456 and French programming beginning at 0459 with repeated announcements by woman over musical instrument. News read by man from 0501 to 0511, then back to female announcer playing lively African vocals between announcements and TCs with many mentions of Radio Gabon. Initial noisy S7 signal rapidly improved to very good S9+10 by 0509 sunrise at transmitter and lasting until 0523 before slowing starting to fade. The carrier did not drop below the noise floor until 0757 UT (Brandon Jordan, Memphis TN, gleanings from overnight 190 kHz RFSpace SDR-14 recordings, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GEORGIA. Muza, the new ``classical`` station, webcasting via Netherlands, isn`t strictly classical. You never know what they will be playing, but at 2250 UT Aug 16, it was labeled as ``G`s Bass Beat Battle Bowling the Ball Beyond Bold Bohemians``. Hmmm. And then it was ``Paradox for Barrel Organ``. How Georgian (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUATEMALA. 4779.96, *1030, R. Coatán, San Sebastian, Aug 15. Sign- on with NA, the canned ID at 1036, 'Buenos dias.... Estereo Coatán..' into organ music. 4799.77, *1058, R. Buenas Nuevas, Aug 15. *1058 sign-on with S9+10 signal. Children singing, announcements and ID by woman then man. Even with a S9+10 signal, CODAR ruined it (Brandon Jordan, Memphis TN, gleanings from overnight 190 kHz RFSpace SDR-14 recordings, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA (IRIAN JAYA). 4789.98, 0835, RRI Fak Fak, Aug 15. Carrier first noticed at 0835 just above the noise floor and rising to S5 by 0917 sunrise at the transmitter. By 1100 the signal was at S6 levels with program consisted a wide variety of pop style songs with a female announcer speaking between selections. Heavy CODAR QRM on the frequency throughout. (IRIAN JAYA) 4869.93, 0741, RRI Wamena, Aug 15. Very tentative. Spotted a very weak carrier just above the noise floor at 0741 and slowly climbing to S3 by 0800 and at S5 by 0846, which is sunset at Wamena. Signal held steady at this level until rising to S6 levels about 20 minutes before 1128 sunrise here in Memphis and stayed at this level until the recording ended at 1200. Very noisy and only threshold snippets of audio from 1100 (Brandon Jordan, Memphis TN, gleanings from overnight 190 kHz RFSpace SDR-14 recordings, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. Kol Israel on WRN: see ISRAEL ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [and non]. Lasting well into August, I noticed the Hurricane Watch Net webpage had not been updated since 2006, but now it has! http://www.hwn.org/ Also check http://www.wx4nhc.org/ The main frequency to monitor is 14325-USB (Glenn Hauser, Aug 16, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. Kol Israel Back at 7:30 PM Eastern on WRN --- Kol Israel has remained on the WRN US stream at 1:00 AM Eastern, since the IBA cutbacks, but they just brought the 7:30 PM Eastern Time [2330 UT] broadcast back. They play the 8:30 PM Israel Time / 1730 UT / 1:30 PM ET broadcast. Since the broadcast is now only 15 minutes, they play music after that. For the past few weeks, they had RTE on during the 7:30 PM ET slot. The program which is listed as 1900 UT on the WRN's Israel Radio page, is now actually the 1730 UT broadcast. For a while, it had Russian, which was on at 1900 UT (Doni Rosenzweig, Aug 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 6003.0, *1041 Aug 16, (presumed) Echo of Hope. Transmitter switched on at 1041 although no audio present before Cuba- 6000 *1047. Occasional snippets of audio heard between 1100-1200 amidst significant QRN from Cuba. Monologues by male and female in presumed Korean (Brandon Jordan, Memphis, TN, http://www.bcdx.org Gleanings from overnight 190 kHz RFSpace SDR-14 recordings, Receiver: RFSpace SDR-14; Antenna: Wellbrook ALA 100; Filter: GAP Hear IT DSP, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LAOS. RADIO BROADCASTING IN THE LAOS --- Introduction Lao People's Democratic Republic is a landlocked country located on the Indochinese Peninsula. It is bounded on the north by China, on the northeast and east by Vietnam, on the south by Cambodia, on the west by Thailand, and on the northwest by Myanmar. Laos extends about 650 miles from northwest to southeast and has a total area of approximately 91,400 square miles. The capital is Vientiane. Dominating the landscape of Laos are its inhospitable, forest-covered mountains, which in the north rise to a maximum elevation of 9,245 feet (2,818 metres) above sea level at Mount Bia and everywhere constitute an impediment to travel. Plant and animal life Laos has tropical rain forests of broad-leaved evergreens in the north and monsoon forests of mixed evergreens and deciduous trees in the south. In the monsoon forest areas the ground is covered with tall, coarse grass called tranh; the trees are mostly second growth, with an abundance of bamboo, scrub, and wild banana. The forests support a rich wildlife, including elephants, gaurs (wild oxen), deer, bears, tigers and leopards, monkeys, and a large variety of birds. Settlement patterns Laos is predominantly rural and agricultural. The numerous isolated valley communities preserve a variety of different traditions and dialects. Villages usually are located close to rivers and roads that give the people access to itinerant traders as well as to each other. Most villages are laid out around a main street or open area, farmlands being adjacent to the residential areas. Every village, if it can, has a Buddhist temple and supports at least one monk. The temple compound usually includes a public building that serves as a school and a meeting hall. Village leadership is usually divided, the headman having authority in secular matters and the monk in religious. Urban life in Laos is limited mainly to the capital, Vientiane, the former royal capital, Luang Prabang, and four or five other large towns. With the exception of Luang Prabang, all are located in the floodplain area near the Mekong River. Their populations are predominantly Lao, with smaller groups of Chinese, Vietnamese, and Indians. Compared with the cities of Thailand, Malaysia, or Vietnam, those of Laos are small and provincial. The Economy Laos is one of the world's poorest countries. The disruption during the civil-war period and the economic policies of the early years of the LPDR-notably the attempt to collectivise agriculture-resulted in economic stagnation in the country. By 1980, however, the government had begun to pursue more pragmatic development policies, and in 1986 it introduced market-oriented reforms. Subsequently, private enterprise has been allowed to operate on every level, and foreign investment has been encouraged. A number of nongovernmental organizations, including some from the United States, have been assisting the government, mainly in the fields of rural development and public health. Press and broadcasting The government controls all aspects of the media. The largest- circulating daily newspaper is Pasason, published in Vientiane; it is the official organ of the ruling party. Also published in Vientiane is the quarterly journal Aloun Mai. The official news agency is Khaosan Pathet Lao (KPL). The National Radio of Laos broadcasts in a number of languages, principally Lao, English, and French. There is also a government-run television station. Lao National Radio Lao National radio was launched in 1960 in the resistance zone of the North Eastern Laos. Lao National Radio (LNR) became the national broadcaster in 1975, talking over the studios of the former Royal Lao Radio Station in Vientiane. Between 1983 and 1993 it was administered jointly with Lao National Television but since 1993 it has one more operated as a separate entity. Today it broadcast on 567 KHz AM, on 6130 and 7145 kHz shortwave and two FM channels - FM1 (103.7) and FM2 (97.25 MHz). The programmes of Lao National Radio broadcast simultaneously on AM and shortwave and are focused mainly on news and 'targeted' programmes (for farmers, youth, women etc), while FM1 carries a mixture of news, entertainment and 'targeted' programmes and FM2 is focused purely on entertainment. Both FM stations take advertising but FM2 generates the highest advertising revenues. AM broadcasting has been relayed around the country by satellite since 13 August 1999 and FM broadcasting since 3 April 2000. In June 2003 Lao National Radio began broadcasting 15-minute Lao-language news bulletins on website http://www.lnr.org.la English and Hmong language news broadcasts were added in 2004. Provisional Stations There are 17 regional or provisional stations in the Laos. Lao National Radio programmes make up a large part of the daily programming schedules of the provincial radio stations - in general it may be said that the radio stations of larger, richer provinces such as Luang Prabang and Savannakhet tend to produce more of their own programmes, while poorer provinces broadcast more LNR and less home- grown material. Listeners interested in writing to Lao National Radio or wishing to send a reception report should address them to: Lao National Radio, B. P. 310, Vientiane, LAOS. Courtesy: 1. Lao National Radio Website 2. Encyclopaedia Britannica 3. The Penguin India Year Book (Compiled by T. R. Rajeesh for World DX Club, Report from India, Aug Contact via Alan Roe, DXLD) The 7145 channel carries the Foreign Service, the A07 schedule compiled by Shigenori Aoki lists it carrying Cambodian 0000-0030, Thai 0500-0530, French 0530-0600, English 0600-0630, Thai 1130-1200, Vietnamese 1200-1230, Cambodian 1230-1300, French 1300-1330, English 1330-1400, Vietnamese 2330-2400. 6130 carries the National Programme 2200-1600. Also listed are provincial stations at Houa Phan on 4660 1030-1230 and 2300-0130 and Luang Prabang on 4678 0400-0600, 1000-1230 and 2300-0130. WRTH only lists Houa Phan on 4678 variable and says not recently confirmed (Mike Barraclough, ibid.) ** MALAYSIA. See SARAWAK ** MALI. 4835.58, *0537-0800*, ORTM, Bamako, Aug 15. Transmitter switched on at 0537 with S5 signal. Hints of threshold audio appearing around 0610 and signal peaking at to S7-8 levels with 0620 'sunrise at transmitter' enhancement lasting only about 10 minutes. A very nice extended ethnic vocal featuring a female singing over stringed instruments before audio rapidly faded to unusable levels. Signal still above noise floor at 0800* sign off (Brandon Jordan, Memphis TN, gleanings from overnight 190 kHz RFSpace SDR-14 recordings, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5995.0 *0556-0758 Aug 16, RTV Mali. Terrible slop from Cuba on 6000 until 0632. Much improved by 0658 with stringed instruments until 0702 then man in French with ID and into news bulletin. Transmission consisted of monologues by male announcers until RA *0758 sign-on. Poor to fair (Brandon Jordan, Memphis TN, http://www.bcdx.org Gleanings from overnight 190 kHz RFSpace SDR-14 recordings, Receiver: RFSpace SDR-14; Antenna: Wellbrook ALA 100; Filter: GAP Hear IT DSP, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MAURITANIA. 4845.15, *0703, R Mauritanie, Nouakchott, Aug 15. Transmitter switched on at *0703 with news in progress in French. S6 signal, significant static and strong UTE QRM on lower side. Sign-on was too late for 0646 'sunrise at transmitter' enhancement. Good modulation, so audio was at decent levels despite the noise, and transmitter downward while warming up from 4845.19 until settling at 4845.15 by 0715 (Brandon Jordan, Memphis TN, gleanings from overnight 190 kHz RFSpace SDR-14 recordings, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 4810.00, 0900, XERTA, México City, Aug 15. Same new age synthesized tune played over and over until SDR-14 recording ended at 1200. No announcements at all, just this boring tune non-stop (Brandon Jordan, Memphis TN, gleanings from overnight 190 kHz RFSpace SDR-14 recordings, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. 4769.97, 0416, R Nigeria, Kaduna, Aug 15. Transmitter switched on at 0416, but only threshold audio detectable by 0428 due to poor modulation despite S6 to S7 signal. Signal suddenly rising to S8-9 with improved audio exactly at 0513 'sunrise at transmitter' enhancement lasting until 0523 before beginning to deteriorate, with news type monologue by male in presumed Hausa. Audio back to barely threshold levels by 0540 and carrier finally dropped below noise floor at 0730 (Brandon Jordan, Memphis TN, gleanings from overnight 190 kHz RFSpace SDR-14 recordings, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 4754.97, *0917, R. Huanta 2000, Huanta, Aug 15. Noticed this one signing on at *0913 on 4755.01 kHz, but dominated by Campo Grande, Brazil. Checked back at 1054 'sunrise at transmitter' enhancement and all alone with many mentions of Huanta and Peru by male and female announcers and lots of sound effects, although overall poor due to static. Transmitter drifted downwards until finally settling on 4754.97 around 1035. 4774.96, *0953, R. Tarma, Tarma, Aug 15. Presumed. Transmitter turned on at on at 0953 and measured at 4774.98. No audio noted until almost 1100 and barely improving to threshold audio by 1115-1118 despite greyline between Tarma and Memphis, at which time the transmitter had stabilized around 4774.96 kHz (Brandon Jordan, Memphis TN, gleanings from overnight 190 kHz RFSpace SDR-14 recordings, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. Tsunami warnings have been issued after 7.5 magnitude earthquake hits 90 miles SSE of Lima: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A tsunami warning was issued for Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Colombia after two powerful earthquakes struck Peru late on Wednesday, said the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii (via Brandon Jordan, TN, 0132 UT Aug 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio Programas del Perù special live program now http://www.rpp.com.pe/audios/0.php (Roberto Scaglione, Sicily, bclnews.it yg 0148 UT, ibid.) Displays error message but nevertheless plays. Good luck on hearing some Peruvian SW stations with news about this (gh, ibid.) [posts on the dxldyg were flying fast as the story was breaking] A magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck off the coast of central Perú, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Perú's Pan Americana TV showed medics tending to a woman, along with chunks of plaster that had fallen from buildings. Pan Americana TV live from Perù now: http://www.cnn.com/video/live/live.html?stream=stream4 (Roberto Scaglione, 0146 UT bclnews.it yg via DXLD) I had to look thru several press stories before I found the time of the quake: 2340 or 2341 GMT. If the epicenter was under land, a tsunami would seem much less likely (Glenn, ibid.) A BBC graphic shows the epicenter well inland from Chincha Alta http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6948888.stm While Reuters shows it just off the coast from there: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070816/india_nm/india289989_3;_ylt=AqKS92UqJpZzzlxnMoUP3Kl8akAB I`ll bet the BBC version was just illustrative and not worthy of precision implied in the center of the target. BBC story stayed at same URL as it was being updated; the misleading map remained there all evening, but when rechecked at 1553 UT had been replaced by an accurate one (Glenn, ibid.) Could get audio for 5 or 7 minutes but enter in buffering and then no page reload from http://www.rpp.com.pe/audios/0.php# Had the chance to get the Presidential message, indicating casualties. Cronica, Argentinian cable TV, playing videos right now (Horacio Nigro, Uruguay, 0242 UT, Aug 16, ibid.) Panamericana TV referred to the USGS having upgraded this from 7.5 to 7.9. USGS info on quake: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/eqinthenews/2007/us2007gbcv/ (Glenn, ibid.) http://www.cpnradio.com.pe/ not loading at this time. Audio again from http://www.rpp.com.pe/audios/0.php Website: http://www.rpp.com.pe/portada/# News reading right now. 0252 UT, Aug 16 (Horacio Nigro, Uruguay, ibid.) Great damages also in Chincha, 60% destroyed. Communications collapsed Take a look... but slow opening http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/?region=1 http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php (Roberto Scaglione, dxldyg via DXLD) Serious damages in Pisca and Ica, department of Ica. A tremendous video one minute long during earthquake some minutes ago on http://www.cnn.com/video/live/live.html?stream=stream4 70 réplicas [aftershox; ¿cómo se dice en alemán?] in the last minutes (Robert Scaglione, ibid.) Great live video from Panamericana TV, ads in broadcast included. More than one minute. This along with RPP Audio makes a thrill-box from my PC like SW was 70 years ago (Horacio Nigro, ibid.) Yes, but, much of Panam video was just traffic jamming in downtown Lima. I never saw any ads; the live feed via CNN cut off the bottom of the screen, and ended at 0400, as I recall (Glenn, ibid.) CBC News from Regina at 1600 UT said it happened ``just before 7 o`clock local time`` --- 6:41 is NOT `` just before 7`` Re bridge collapse, `caster also referred to Hennepin *country* sheriff office - -- geez (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Todo bien por acá; acabo de hablar con César Pérez Dioses y me dijo que todo bien al menos por Chimbote. En Lima la cosa estuvo mal pero en donde está terrible es en Ica y sus demás ciudades, tales como Pisco y Chincha. NO hay Unión en 6115, pero les queda Melodía 5940, Universal 6090, Quillabamba 5025, y Tarma 4775 para que se informen a través de la SW. Cordiales 73 y MUCHAS GRACIAS AMIGOS DE LA LISTA POR LA PREOCUPACION (Alfredo Cañote, Perú, Aug 16, condiglist yg via DXLD) ** PERU. 5939.2v, 0332-1157 Aug 16, R Melodía, Arequipa. Melodía present during the entire recording, drifting back and forth between 5939.27 to 5939.29. Signal improved close to 1103 sunrise at transmitter with huayños and indigenous music. Began fading not along after 1120 Memphis sunrise. Poor (Brandon Jordan, Memphis, TN, http://www.bcdx.org Gleanings from overnight 190 kHz RFSpace SDR-14 recordings, Receiver: RFSpace SDR-14; Antenna: Wellbrook ALA 100; Filter: GAP Hear IT DSP, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ROMANIA. Dear Glenn, I picked up R. Romania today Aug 9 at 2200 on 9795. This was the first time I have been able to pick up R. Romania in over three years (Murry Beasley, Athens GA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Listed as 9790 in EiBi (gh) ** SARAWAK. RADIO BROADCASTING IN MALAYSIAN BORNEO - SARAWAK [history] The Malaysian state of Sarawak occupies much of the northwest territory on the island of Borneo. It is about 400 miles long and 100 miles wide with a population of about one and half million. The small capital city is Kuching which is located almost at the bottom end of the state. Sarawak is home to several unique life forms in the natural world, such as the proboscis monkey with its strange floppy nose, the bearded pig, and the world's largest flower. The Rafflesia in full bloom is more than three feet wide. It was back in the year 1914 that work commenced on the installation of two dozen spark wireless stations throughout the British territory of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. It was intended that these stations could inter-communicate with each other, though their main flow of communications would be to the headquarters station at Kuching which in turn would pass its messages on to the main station in Singapore. The callsigns of the stations in Sarawak were in the series VQA to VQZ, with additional callsigns in the VS series. The main station at the capital city Kuching was licensed with the callsign VQF and it was to communicate internally with the stations throughout Sarawak and with VPW in Singapore. However, work on the entire network in Sarawak was suspended towards the end of the year 1914 and completion of the project was thus delayed for nearly three years. In 1917, the French took over this communication project though the total number of stations that were completed throughout Sarawak was considerably reduced. The main station, VQF, was installed at Stapok on the edge of the capital city Kuching and it became operational in 1917. Regional stations at Sibu (VQV), Miri (VQP) and Simunjan (VSV) were also completed by the French in 1917 and each station was similar in design and equipment. The spark transmitters were the same design as those that were installed on French navy vessels and they were rated at a power of 4 kW. The antenna system was described as a T type, centre fed, single wire, suspended between two tall masts. All stations worked on the longwave channel 1800 metres, corresponding to 167 kHz. Radio broadcasting did not come to Sarawak until nearly a quarter of a century later and by this time the spark transmitters in the communication stations had been replaced by valve transmitters. It was in March 1941 that an introductory broadcast service was launched over the Kuching station and it was on the air shortwave every Saturday evening for just one hour. This transmission over station VQF was noted at times in Australia and New Zealand on 6985 kHz. When the Japanese administration took over Kuching in December 1941, they re-activated the nearby radio station and it was noted on the air as VQF for somewhere around three years. And again, the British re- activated station VQF in September 1945, under the same callsign VQF2 and on the same shortwave channel 6985 kHz. However, the time had come for the establishment of a regular radio broadcasting service in Sarawak and so the BBC in London was invited to perform a “Planning Survey” which began its task early in the year 1951. Upon the recommendations from the BBC personnel, plans were made to inaugurate a regular broadcasting service from Kuching using mediumwave for local coverage and shortwave for regional coverage. The new radio station, located nearby at Rock Hill, was officially opened on June 7, 1954 with the use of two new Marconi transmitters, mediumwave 850 kHz and shortwave 4860 kHz, both at 5 kW. This opening broadcast was heard in Australia, and probably in New Zealand also. Spasmodic broadcasts were noted occasionally from both transmitters, though a continuing series of test transmissions did not begin for another two and a half years, in January 1957. This new radio broadcasting service was officially inaugurated one year later again as Radio Sarawak in April 1958. The political circumstances were a-changing and on September 16, 1963, the separated territories in Borneo and Malaya were conjoined into Malaysia. Thus it was, that Radio Sarawak became Radio Malaysia Sarawak on that date. Soon afterwards, work began on the upgrading of the radio station at Stapok, Kuching. A new transmitter hall was built and nine transmitters were installed, together with a tall transmission tower, 450 ft high. At this stage, there were four program channels on the air from Kuching, two in each of the main language streams, and each was also on the air with two shortwave units in parallel. In the mid 1960s, plans were announced for an increase in power for the shortwave transmitters and shortly thereafter, all channels at Kuching Stapok were shown as capable for either 20 kW and 10 kW. However, as time went by, the usage of the full complement of shortwave transmitters began to dwindle. Over a period of some thirty years or more, malfunctions occurred on aging equipment and FM services were introduced along with television. These days only four shortwave channels are listed for Kuching Stapok, and one of these is shown as inactive. Interestingly though, at the turn of the century a 100 kW shortwave transmitter was installed near Kuching in order to provide wide-area radio coverage to the entire island of Borneo and beyond. This unit operates at times on 7270 kHz. Beginning in the early 1970s, work commenced on the development of two regional shortwave stations, one at Sibu and the other at Miri. A total of three transmitters were installed at each location, two mediumwave at 20 kW and one shortwave at 10 kW. The new Sibu facility was officially opened on December 7, 1974 and the new Miri facility was officially opened on September 2, 1975. An additional 10 kW shortwave transmitter was installed at each location shortly afterwards. However, as time went by, the usage of these shortwave units has diminished, due mainly to aging equipment in a tropical climate. Sibu is shown these days with only one channel on shortwave, 6050 kHz; and Miri has been off the air shortwave for half a dozen years or more. Interestingly though, a government official in Sarawak announced recently that two new shortwave transmitters will be installed soon, one as a replacement unit at Sibu and the other at a new location Sarikei, which is actually quite close to Sibu. Over the years, numerous QSL cards have been issued from the three shortwave radio stations in Sarawak; Kuching, Sibu & Miri, and we are holding more than a score of these valuable historic items, either as original cards or copies. The QSL cards issued by Radio Sarawak Kuching before federation into Malaysia are these days quite rare. There are no known QSLs from this station under the Japanese administration in the 1940s. Maybe you should try to log Radio TV Malaysia Sarawak on shortwave and obtain you QSL card. Another good opportunity should occur when the two new shortwave transmitters come onto the air, perhaps next year (Adrian Peterson, AWR Wavescan July 29 via DXLD) ** SWAZILAND. 4774.97, 0400, TWR, Mpangela, Aug 15. Religious vocals and instrumentals, poor to fair with static (Brandon Jordan, Memphis TN, gleanings from overnight 190 kHz RFSpace SDR-14 recordings, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S S R. WWORD-140 -- 14.07.2007 17.07.2007 http://www.dxing.ru/content/view/600/85/ Hello, radio listeners and DX-ers. I'm Olexandr Yegorov and here is your programme - "The Whole World on the Radio Dial". I remind you that all times in this programme are given in UTC. The main item on our programme is broadcasting news from the vicinity of Ukraine. MOLDOVA. From the beginning of July, the Trans-Dnistern Moldovian Radio from Tiraspol has expanded its broadcasting time from 1 to 16 hours on the mediumwave frequency of 549 kHz. The transmitter of 150kW is located in Grigoriopol, and the broadcasting schedule consists of local programmes mainly in the Russian language, a few short programmes during the day in the Romanian and Ukrainian languages, and also consists of the relaying of the Russian radio station “Mayak”. Transmissions are on the air from 05.00 to 21.00. Now, when the Ukrainian network of transmitters of “Radio Promin” does not work on the frequency of 549 kHz, the Trans-Dnistern Radio is heard in Kyiv even at daytime. But, it will be possible that “Radio Promin” will resume its transmissions on this frequency via transmitters in Mykolaiv, Lviv and Vinnytsia. By the way, some ten years ago I heard the Russian radio station “Mayak” on 594 kHz, relayed via Grigoriopol. The history of the frequency allocations on the territory of CIS countries is very interesting. During the years of existence of the USSR, Moscow had the exclusive right to allocate the frequencies among the Soviet Republics. Moreover, the frequencies were allocated according to the residue principle. The All-Union programmes got the best frequencies, and as for the Soviet Republics, the frequencies higher of 1 MHz were allocated. After the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, the transmitters of the synchronous networks physically had remained on the territories of the already independent countries: Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Moldova, etc. For example, the transmitters located on the territory of Russia continued transmitting Radio Mayak and other Russian national radio programmes. And Ukraine stopped relaying radio programmes from Russia on its territory. The frequency allocations among all countries of the world were assigned by the international Geneva-75 agreement. As to 549 kHz, the following transmitters were assigned to work on this frequency in the European part of the former Soviet Union: in Byelorussia, Minsk 1000 kW; in Ukraine, Rivne 150 kW and Simferopol 100 kW; in Moldova, Kishinev 1000 kW; in Russia, Kaliningrad 25 kW, Leningrad 100 kW, Moscow 100 kW. With the purpose of the national security, the former Soviet Union misinformed deliberately about the location and parameters of the most powerful transmitters on its territory. For example, the Mykolaiv transmitter centre got the international site- code SMF, that stands for Simferopol, which is located in the Crimean peninsula, hundreds kilometers from Mykolaiv. This code exists even today. At the 1996 Moscow meeting of the Executive Committee of the regional commonwealth in the communications sphere it was noted by the representatives of the National Radio Company of Ukraine that the broadcasting stations of Ukraine would not relay radio programmes of CIS synchronous networks, and that the frequency allocations of the ex-Soviet synchronous networks on long and mediumwave bands had to be used by the analogous synchronous networks of Ukraine. In September 1996, in Sofrino, the Moscow region, the Second administrative meeting of the Executive Committee of the regional commonwealth in the communications sphere was held. There the confirmation was made that the only possible way to resolve the frequency collisions was to separate the transmitters by different frequencies, or to redistribute the synchronous networks among the countries with the preservation for Ukraine of those frequencies, which provide the greatest serving broadcasting zones on its territory, for example the frequencies of 549 and 594kHz. The meeting in Sofrino considered all frequency allocations for the Ukrainian broadcasting stations, which were used in the synchronous networks of the ex-Soviet Union. An agreement with the Moldovian Administration of the Communications was reached about a possibility of mutual exchange with radio programmes: Ukrainian programmes for the transmitter in Tiraspol, Moldova (that is in Grigoriopol site), and Moldovian programmes for the transmitter in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. Also, according to the Ukraine’s proposal, the 1000 kW transmitter on 549 kHz in Kishinev was renotified from Moldovian site-code to Ukrainian, and the 1000 kW transmitter on 1548 kHz in Vinnytsia was renotified from Ukrainian to Moldovian site-code, where the Voice of Russia uses it now. The using of 594 kHz by Moldova was cancelled, and it has been assigned to Kiev, Ukraine. But an issue of using the frequencies of the ex-Soviet radio networks on 171, 549 and 873 kHz is not resolved effectively even now. Some of the powerful transmitters working on these frequencies have been switched off. 171 kHz is used now by Russian “Radio Rossii” and “Chechnia Svobodnaya”; 549 kHz – by Russian “Radio Mayak” and Moldovian “Radio Pridnestrovia” (the Ukrainian “Radio Promin” is temporarily off the air); 873 kHz – by Russian “Radio Rossii” and Moldovian Radio 1, and also by the Ukrainian regional radio stations OR2 in Dnipropetrovsk and “Radio Hvylia” in Vinnytsia (Olex Yegorov, Whole World on the Radio Dial, July 14, Radio Ukraine International via DXLD) ** U K [non]. BBCWS successfully sabotages itself so N Americans won`t listen to it on SW. 13640 WHRI, Aug 16 at 2159 had a heavy SAH of about 6 Hz --- what station was about to open co-channel in the middle of the 2-hour BBC transmission? CRI, in Japanese! Tho much further from here, CRI from Jinhua site, 28N07, 119E39, at 59 degrees toward Japan axually aims more at us in CNAm than BBCWS does via SC at 173 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LI STENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Early this morning, a gunman shot through an outer window of Pacifica station KPFT in Houston. The bullet came within 18 inches of hitting the head of Mary Thomas, the DJ who was hosting a Zydeco music show, according to the Houston Chronicle. [Via Rolas de Aztlan.] posted at 10:53 AM EST Aug 13 (Current via DXLD) See: http://houston.kpft.org/site/PageServer http://kpft.wordpress.com/ (via gh, DXLD) ** U S A. MAINE'S "HUMBLE FARMER" FANS CONTINUE FIGHT AFTER HE LOSES HIS JOB --- Defenders of fired Maine Public Radio deejay-humorist Robert Skoglund have established a website to agitate for his reinstatement. http://www.freethehumblefarmer.com/ One of his fans, Susan Cook, secretary of the state Democratic Party, sees a connection between the prominence of Republican campaign donors on the Maine network board and the political remarks that got him in trouble: DEFENDER OF MAINE DEEJAY SEES CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN LICENSEE BOARD Aug. 8, 2007 To the editors: I think your article about the firing of the Humble Farmer (Current, June 25), Robert Skoglund, and MPBN's "high standards" largely misses the mark about what MPBN was really worried about. I reprint below a letter I sent to MPBN CEO James Dowe about the $60,000 (and more) that their Board of Trustees has given to Republican candidates in Maine. That figure does not include the $100,000 that MPBN Board member Al Glickman gave to the Republican National Committee in 2000. The hypocrisy in taking "humble" to task for inappropriate mixing of "standards" and political commentary is possibly unprecedented given that William Cohen, Susan Collins' chief campaign strategist and Barry McCrum, who through his family business heavily donates to "Susie," both sit on the MPBN Board and were very involved in insisting that humble be fired. I challenge you to go to the Federal Election Commission website and check the numbers yourself. The MPBN Board members are all named on the MPBN website. . . http://www.current.org/radio/radio0714humblefarmerletter.shtml (Current via DXLD) ** U S A. FM TRANSLATORS OF AM STATIONS: RULES PROPOSED http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/openAttachment.do?link=FCC-07-144A1.txt The FCC has proposed to allow FM translators to relay AM stations. A handful of these are already authorized under STA (I'm aware of five, but the FCC document says there are eleven). The proposal would restrict the FM translators' 60 dBu contour to within the 2mV/m daytime contour of the AM station, or a 25-mile radius of the AM transmitter site, whichever is less (60 dBu is the radius to which most full-power FM stations are protected from interference. The 60 dBu contour of a 250-watt translator with antenna 100 m high is 13 km, about 8 miles. Most translators are somewhat less powerful). Normally, a FM translator is required to go off the air when the station it's authorized to relay is off. The FCC proposes to allow FM translators of daytime-only AM stations to continue operating after the associated AM goes off for the night (and for those of Class D AM stations with very low night powers to operate at night even if the associated AM station isn't using its AM night power). Some questions the FCC is asking: - Should eligibility to apply be phased in? (should daytime-only and "graveyard" AM stations get first shot?) - Should AM stations whose owners don't have an FM in the same market get first shot? - How many translators should a given AM be permitted? (Wisconsin Public Radio proposed limiting a given AM station to ten FM translators) - Should AM owners be allowed to lease FM translators owned by others? (normally FM translator owners may not receive compensation from the station being relayed) - Should FM translators operating below 92MHz be limited to relaying non-commercial AM stations? -- (I also note it looks like old friend "gullfoss.fcc.gov" is no more; it seems to have been replaced by a new server fjallfoss.fcc.gov. That probably explains some "weirdnesses" on the FCC website for the last week or so!) (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, Aug 16, NRC-AM via DXLD) Those `foss` words in FCC website are Icelandic, as someone pointed out, but we still don`t know why, other than to be weird. Who said federal regulatory agencies can`t have a bit of fun? (gh, DXLD) ** VENEZUELA. He contactado con el personal de RNV 880; he conversado con la Sra. Solimar Márquez, quien me atendió amablemente y me ha dado la información solicitada que a continuación comparto con Ustedes. RNV 880 es el Canal Musical de Radio Nacional de Venezuela, lo que quiere decir que Deportiva 880 desapareció y pasó a ser RNV 880 Canal Musical. La Sra. Libeslay Bermúdez es la Jefa del Canal 880. La dirección de la radio es la siguiente: Calle Las Marías, Quinta RNV, La Florida, Caracas. Teléfonos: 0212 7311045 y 0212 7308376. La página web es: http://www.rnv.gov.ve Me ha informado la amiga Solimar Márquez, que en la dirección mencionada quedan las cuatro radios del complejo RNV, o sea: 630 canal informativo, 880 canal musical, 91.1 canal clásico, y 103.9 Activa, canal juvenil. Queridos amigos, un abrazo para todos y espero que la información sea de utilidad. atte: (José Elías Díaz Gómez, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Solimar --- what a lovely name, sun & sea (gh) UNIDENTIFIED. Re 7-097: Yes, the 6111 is intriguing. I was so tentative about it because of the times involved & I didn't want to jump to conclusions. It does seem early (AZR time) to be propagating here on 49 meters. My thought at the time was - it would either need to be long path mostly through darkness - not likely because of the distances involved and light / dark / light, but I don't think it is that likely. (I checked and it was clearly not greyline,) Or short path through daylight, where it seems unlikely to propagate. On the other hand, it was +1 kHz away from the 6110 stations on an exceptional morning, the language did sound Turk - like and there were words I recognized similar to "Baku" and "Azerbaijan". I think it was more than wishful thinking, but certainly not a firm ID. Next time I'm bringing a tape recorder. 73 (Mark Taylor, WI, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. This just missed DXLD 7-097: Hallo Glenn, Following UNID has me puzzled somewhat. Hopefully you can include this in upcoming DXLD. 7175. What mystery station did I hear on August 15 opening at 1600 without any announcement and straight into nonstop Arab vocals by same female singer (possibly her whole album?) to 1645 sign-off, again without any previous ID or whatever. VBME Asmara was co-channel (and not on 7180 as reported in DXLD 7-096) but never on top. Anyone any clues please? Keep up the good work, 73, (Martien Groot, Schoorl, Netherlands, via gh, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Could be something via Emirates Media, UAE, or the Egyptian spy station with Umm Kalthoum, also reported on 9450 and various places on 49, 41m (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) The singer did not sound at all like Umm Khaltoum who has a much more traditional repertoire than what I heard yesterday. Will try again this evening, see what emerges (Martien Groot, Aug 16, DXLD) Martien, The Egyptian station apparently plays nothing but Umm K. That seemed a possibility since you didn`t specify otherwise. You could find the DXLD items about that by searching the last few months on 9450 or even EGYPT. I guess you are not on the dxld yg where Wolfgang Bueschel also replied about this: ``Probably Emirates Media towards AUS / INS: 7175 1400-1900 55,58,59 DHA 500 120 UAE EMI EMI`` But which particular client would be on at the time you heard it, we don`t know (Glenn to Martien, via DXLD) There are two EMI HFCC registrations on 7175 - one at 0000-0100 and the next 1400-1900. Both list ADM BRC FMO as UAE EMI EMI. But if you look at some other transmissions via DHA you'll find the ADM BRC FMO lists the relayed broadcaster such as NHK, WYFR etc. Now look at 21735 - UAE EMI EMI. This frequency was formerly used by Abu Dhabi when the DHA transmitters carried their Arabic services. So, does this mean that UAE EMI EMI registrations are "wooden"? And that they refer to broadcasts no longer carried via the DHA SW transmitters? I've searched the material I have concerning the latest VT relays but there is no reference to 7175, and not in the BBC schedule either. Of course I could have missed something, and there could be an update somewhere. The updated Aoki list doesn't show EMI 7175, and neither does EiBi. 73 from (Noel Green, ibid.) Martien, 7175 - nothing heard here at Stuttgart in 1600-1630 UT slot on Aug 16th. From 1700 UT onwards IRIB Ahwaz in Russian noted CLEARLY with a tiny S=4 signal. Maybe the Arabic relay via EMI is NOT EVERY DAY on schedule ? 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AUDIBLE ATROCITIES ++++++++++++++++++ NPR News at 1403 UT Aug 16 with Paul Brown had an item about hurricanes mentioning Caribbean islands, including ``Saint Domínica``! There are some saintly islands, but not this one, and as I have had to point out time and time again, it is pronounced dom-uh-NEE-kuh. Ask any local or listen to any radio station in the Caribbean, or even the BBC Carib service. At least do the latter before you become a national network`s newsreader (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also PERU LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ IMMACULATE CONCEPTION SPELLING NOT TOO CERTAIN IN PORTUGUESE Re 7-093, BRAZIL log: ``4754.90, 2345-0105, R Inmaculada Concepçao`` I was about to correct the spelling on this to Conceição, which is the way I see it spelt in Brasil, but to my surprise when I looked it up in my Langenscheidt Pocket PT/EG dixionary, which purports to favor Brazilian usage, the only spelling was Concepção, so I left it. I should have anyway put in the ã and corrected the other word to Imaculada, since Inmaculada is Spanish, not Portuguese. Now I see another log of it by a native Brazilian: ``4755 – 11/08 – 2035 – R. Imaculada Conceição, C[am]po Grande, MS, programa religioso, 35433 (Paschoal Francisco Fideli, Membro do DX Clube do Brasil, Aclimação - São Paulo - SP, radioescutas yg via DXLD)`` Perhaps the -cep- spelling is really Lusitanian rather than Brazilian? BTW, Brasilians would be inclined to insert a vowel such as -i- between the p and ç when pronouncing, if not spelling it, but making it -ceiç- in the first place avoids this tongue-twisting. A book Carlos Gonçalves sent me about European Portuguese shows both spellings, but in concepção the p is silent. That apparently has led to the alternate spelling, but in that case I don`t see the need for the i; why not just conceção? BTW, WRTH 2007 spells it Imaculada Conceicao without those pesky accents but at least with the `right` letters, which is strange as I glance thru the other SW by-frequency listings under BRAZIL and see most of them accented properly. All this is quite aside from the imaginary nature of the very concept of ``immaculate conception`` (Guilherme Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) BBC MUNDO JOURNALISTS TRAVEL ACROSS U.S. SPEAKING ONLY SPANISH Aug 13, 2007 Maureen Cavanaugh (Guest Host): The British Broadcasting Company [sic] has a lot of different news services, including of course, the BBC World Today, you hear every evening on KPBS Radio. One of their services is called BBC Mundo, and it covers Latin America. As an assignment, two journalists from BBC Mundo decided to go on a road trip across the southern half of the United States. Their mission was to see if they could make the journey from Florida to L.A. speaking only Spanish. They have just completed their journey and they are speaking to us from Los Angeles. Guests José Baig, BBC correspondent for U.S. Hispanic Affairs. Carlos Ceresole, video producer for BBC Mundo.com. 14:31 audio: http://www.kpbs.org/radio/these_days;id=9321# (via kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) BBC OFFERS FREE ENGLISH LESSONS VIA PODCASTS PRESS RELEASE 15 August 2007 English learners, wherever they are, can now access a range of BBC Learning English programmes as free podcasts. The fun weekly programmes, How to…, Grammar Challenge and Talk about English, which come in bite-size formats and show students how to tackle tricky aspects of the English language, are now available for downloading on demand via http://bbcworldservice.com/podcasts Head of BBC World Service English Learning, Andrew Thompson, said: “A really good way to improve your English is to listen on the go to short and sharp, user-friendly tips and suggestions - and that is just what we have prepared for learners, to BBC standards of quality.” How to… is a series of practical six-minute audio programmes helping students discover and practise phrases and expressions which they can use in all kinds of situations, whether it's to order a meal in a restaurant or congratulate someone on their engagement. In addition to the audio programme and downloadable transcript, the units feature a guided presentation and analysis of a language structure. Each unit is accompanied by various practice activities and is wrapped up with a consolidation quiz. Grammar Challenge comes in six-minute units featuring real learners in live situations grappling a tricky English grammatical structure: for example, Fatima from Iran is challenged to use the Present Perfect verb form correctly to talk about the actor Tom Cruise while Edward from France is challenged with uncountable nouns. Each unit offers a downloadable grammar explanation, and learners are also offered English grammar practice material which features personalised feedback by language experts. Talk about English is a topical 20-minute audio programme. It features quizzes, debates, interviews and discussions with native and non- native speakers both in the studio and on location. It also offers vocabulary support, downloadable programme scripts, 'word facts' etc. All BBC Learning English programmes can be accessed via http://bbclearningenglish.com Ends For more information please contact: Lala Najafova, International Publicist, BBC World Service +44(0)207 557 2944; lala.najafova @ bbc.co.uk (BBC press release, also via Mukesh Kumar, via DXLD) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ HAMINFOBAR --- A FREE TOOLBAR FOR HAMS AND SWLS Hi Glenn, May I bring to your attention the launch of my new free toolbar designed for hams and SWLs Website: http://www.haminfobar.co.uk If you feel this is a useful tool please could you share it with other radio enthusiasts. Thank you for your consideration. Regards, (John - G0DPC, Aug 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) MUSEA +++++ THE WESTERN HISTORIC RADIO MUSEUM The Western Historic Radio Museum in (historic) Virginia City, NV, is run by Henry and Sharon Rogers (both also amateur radio operators). This is the ideal time of year to visit, which I did last Monday. Almost every item on display has been restored to working condition. See the pictures and info on their Website. It is a magical place! Bill Kingman, KTHO/KRLT/KOWL, Lake Tahoe, tahoe61 (at) juno.com http://www.radioblvd.com/ KOWL(AM) TRANSMITTER DONATED TO WESTERN HISTORIC RADIO MUSEUM [Last Wednesday the 51 year old KOWL(AM) broadcast transmitter was donated to the Western Historic Radio Museum.] That xmtr carried the voices of nearly every celebrity and entertainer that appeared at Harrah's Tahoe where KOWL had its studios for 25 years, so it has a glamorous show-biz background! Its 800 lbs. produced 250 watts with all tubes and heavy transformers. It still operated when retired from service in 1993. Bill Kingman KTHO/KRLT/KOWL http://tinyurl.com/2xxyq9 (CGC Communicator Aug 13 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: not mentioned in this issue ++++++++++++++++++++ COMPLAINING ABOUT IBOC Once the IBOC rules are printed, what would keep a station from immediately running the IBOC 24/7 from the beginning? Is there any reason why they cannot? Why the 30 day thing? (Patrick Martin, OR, IRCA via DXLD) That's the way these rules are usually written - they explicitly say they take effect 30 (or 60, or 90) days after publication in the Federal Register. I guess that allows for typos to be corrected, objections to be heard (probably at the international level, in this case) and so on. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) I think there's a time requirement for notice before things go into effect. Standard gummint practice. At least we'll get a month before the band turns into unmitigated sewage plant fodder. From a purely perverse sense, it oughta be interesting. We should start a pool to see who is the first to cry "uncle!". Probably some poor Mom 'n Pop station sandwiched between two 50 kW barnburners. I'm thinking I'll be looking at LW and beacons again. This also could put pirates out of business. Probably another reason why the big guys want this. Jam rimshot competitors, kill off pirates, what's not to like? Wonder who got paid off in Mexico? Looks like their complaint was window dressing only. Certainly got swept away fast enough. Wonder how Fidel/Raul will respond when the hiss climbs all over their stations? I'm also looking for the HSFB STA to be used a lot more, just to overcome the racket. I sure won't complain. Unless the STA includes IBOC. With broadcasting going the way it is, that WalMart greeter job is looking better and better. Good times, indeed (Craig Healy, Providence, RI, ibid.) ``It`s way too late to stop IBAC. Its going to happen because not enough people complained and told the FCC when they were asking for comments on 99-325. I begged and begged lots of you to comment. Back in the day, the most comments that were against IBAC were from ABDX when it had less than 75 members. (Kevin Redding)`` Wrong. The industry (i.e., the NAB) was telling the FCC that it had to have IBOC, and they were willing to live with its warts. If each and every member of every club or DX-related mailing list had filed comments, it would not have made one iota of difference at that point. I was one of those who filed (four times, in fact [see below, paragraph 105]), and my filings contained substantive technical arguments concerning occupied bandwidth, protection rules, and the like. In their subsequent Report & Order a few months ago, the FCC did not address these comments at all - they simply ignored them (except for some comments I made about the violation of international agreements). Like I said, the fix was in. ``The train has left the station. The time for complaining is over. Best thing you can do is get an HD radio if you are going to DX the MW or VHF BCB. Sorry, hate to say it, but that`s about the size of it.`` Wrong again. On the contrary, the time for complaining is about to begin - in 30 days, to be exact, when 24/7 AM IBOC begins. This will be the time to let the stations being interfered with know what is happening. They can choose to ignore the complaints, but they really need to see how IBOC interference (which, in some cases, may be self- inflicted) is affecting their bottom line. Measuring that against the ho hum reception that HD radio is receiving in the marketplace, they might just decide that it's not worth it. Add that to the flak that the FCC is getting from other countries, and it could push AM IBOC past the tipping point, into oblivion. So, if you love radio, whether you're a DXer or just a casual listener, please ignore Kevin's advice and complain, complain, complain. And don't bother buying an HD radio if you want to DX MW - you'll be terribly disappointed if you do (Barry McLarnon, VE3JF Ottawa, ON, IRCA via DXLD) Well, it's August so I'll poke in my monthly IBOC post. The average station doesn't really care much about messages/complaints from listeners. What will get their attention is complaints from advertisers. When they listen to one of their spots and find it sullied by a hissing noise, there will be Hades Minions to pay. The best complaint a listener can make is to ignore the station if/when they have an Arbitron diary. In a market the size of Providence, there are usually under a thousand diaries per rating period. You can just imagine the weight each carries. If there are notes in the diary about how station X has a noise on their audio, it will be noted. With *very* few exceptions, local station personnel have no say whatsoever in the decision to run IBOC. It's all mandated from on high at the corporate level. I would be willing to bet that the average Clear Channel market manager could not order IBOC shut off on their stations. IBOC will fail only if it causes ratings and advertising revenue to drop. Or, if radios continue to be unsold and unrequested. So, we can complain as listeners, or whatever you want to pose as. It really will make no appreciable difference unless you have an Arbitron diary at hand. I don't think too many of us are advertisers, either. Once in a while I do shop at an advertiser on one station or another. If it's an IBOC station, I do always mention that their ad had a hiss on it. And usually it does, so it's not a lie (Craig Healy, Providence, RI, IRCA via DXLD) If IBOC proceeds at night and involves a significant number of stations there won't be much left to DX, and therefore QSL. So there's nothing much to lose by complaining. Those of us who choose to voice our opinion would benefit by remaining civil in any communications, especially if we get on-air. One way to achieve that is to consciously smile while making your point, and to relax - see the exercise as one small step, not as the magic call that will forever reverse the evil world of IBOC. Slagging station personnel won't achieve anything. If anything, broadcasting and broadcasters, even some that adopt or flirt with IBOC, will be victims, losing money, perhaps even more than money. Citing actual cases of signal erosion or loss, within primary markets if possible, will be more effective. State case with Spock- like lack of emotion. There is also no need to ID as DXers. That's too much to explain to people unfamiliar with the hobby. We're radio listeners, and some of us (not me) are engineers, or have such skills and expertise. Keep it simple. Keep yourself out of the argument as much as possible. It is also helpful to make one's point quickly and effectively. One tactic I employ is to write down all the main points - argument by argument, example by example, in order of importance. Reduce each to a sentence or two, max. And also write down your preferred answer to possible questions. That way there's less chance of stumbling on-air. Learn from each experience. (Tape each session). As for me, I'll wait and see what the actual fallout looks like in September. If I find a legit complaint, I'll make it. And, if the AM band becomes unDXable or unpleasant to listen to I'll DX elsewhere - FM meteor scatter, for instance. Wintertime can be great for nulling semi-local FMs up here at Burnt River. My best guess is IBOC won't fully take off, not all of the band will be affected all of the time, and there will be some margin for DX. Maybe this thing will ultimately die. At the end of the day, we have every right and even a public duty to voice constructive concern when we see something wrong. If that means that a few people won't provide us with party favours, well ... too bad. Look at the massive majority of stations that haven't thus far gone to IBOC. I think most stations will love us (Saul Chernos, Ont., Aug 16, IRCA via DXLD) IBOC NIGHT OPERATION It appears that IBOC operation has hit the Federal Register this morning. You have a month to DX analog unfettered and free. You can find all 213 stations that can broadcast in HD IBOC at this site. http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/sta_list.pl?Service=AM&digital_status=H This is more or less the target list when things find their way into a massive miasma of hissing noise (Kevin Redding, AZ, Aug 15, ABDX via DXLD) It looks like the IBOC rules were published in the Federal Register this morning, starting the 30-day clock to their becoming effective. (and nighttime AM-IBOC) – (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, Aug 15, NRC-AM via DXLD) The HD rules were published in the Federal Register this morning. 24/7 AM HD starts September 14, 2007 (Thomas R. Ray, III, CPBE, W2TRR Vice President, Corporate Director of Engineering Buckley Broadcasting/WOR-710HD Radio Chairman, Society of Broadcast Engineers, Chapter 15 New York City, 212-642-4462 phax: 212-764-1573 NRC-AM via DXLD) I guess this is Tom Ray's big day. He is getting his IBOC. There has been times when the relations between Tom and DXers have been a lot less than optimal. He was not the first to put on digital radio, that goes to KXNT 840 in Vegas, but he is certainly the first engineer to put digital radio on MW 24/7 at WOR (Kevin Redding, AZ, ABDX via DXLD) ‘IF THERE ARE CALL LETTERS, THERE IS AN OPINION’ --- Radio Engineers Find Little Common Ground in AM HD-R Nighttime Interference Debate by Alan Carter, 8.15.2007 Alan Carter is the former editor in chief of Radio World International. The Reference Room :: Digital Radio “Some say that the apocalypse is about to begin,” said Tom Ray, vice president and corporate director of engineering for Buckley Broadcasting. “I’m the one who will be starting it.” That would be when Ray, an outspoken advocate of AM HD Radio who is also an RW contributor, keeps the HD-R signal of the powerful 50 kW WOR 710HD in New York on the air at night and skywave effect takes his embedded digital signal hundreds of miles outside the designated service area along with the analog stream. This, many observers believe, will undoubtedly create increased interference with first-adjacent and second-adjacent analog stations by the digital channels along the way. . . [much more] http://www.radioworld.com/pages/s.0049/t.7843.html (via Harry Helms, ABDX via DXLD) Interesting article. After looking up my expected signal levels at v-soft, I found I was particularly struck by this from the article: "This is adequate, but without a good external antenna, it may take 30 mV/m or more to achieve acceptable digital reception performance," he said. According to v-soft, I get more than 30 mV/m from ONE local station. And that's only at night. There are only TWO stations that provide more than 20 mV/m. There are only SIX stations that provide more than 10 mV/m. And those are estimates for the primary analog signal. It's my understanding the digital side lobes have considerably less power. I'm not out in the boonies. I'm right in the middle of the residential areas surrounding Orlando. I'm less than 20 miles from most of the transmitters. I guess it's a good thing there's only one AM HD station in the area. Here in Orlando the Disney station is the only one that is using IBAC on AM. It's rather ironic that implementing IBAC in an alleged attempt to improve their sound has resulted in the existing analog signal having a very noticeable hiss when listened to with a somewhat wide filter. When I use the wide filter on my KA-2100, which I read somewhere is supposed to be 6kHz, I can clearly hear the IBAC hiss. It's not present when using the 3kHz narrow filter, but then neither are any of the higher frequencies that make it sound like real music. I know they have a chicken and egg problem here, but it seems that in the effort to produce the egg they've managed to pull quite a few of the feathers out of the chicken. The end result is that Radio Disney on my KA-2100 sounds WORSE than it would if they turned off the IBAC (Jay Heyl, FL, ABDX via DXLD) Link to the published HD rules in the Federal Register http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/E7-15922.htm (Brian Urgan, Broadcast Radio Technical Forum, Aug 15, via Bob Foxworth, ABDX via DXLD) Here are some particularly pertinent sections of the long FCC file linked above: IV. International Issues 103. In the DAB R&O, the Commission stated that during the period of interim IBOC operation, all relevant international agreements will be reviewed and any necessary modifications will be addressed at a later date. In the DAB NOI, we noted that these matters are being informally addressed by the Commission's International Bureau (``IB'') and asked what IB should focus on to expedite the rollout of DAB in the United States. The Commission has rules pertaining to FM broadcasting and international agreements relevant to the service. Specifically, Section 73.207 states that under the Canada-United States FM Broadcasting Agreement, domestic U.S. allotments and assignments within 320 kilometers (199 miles) of the common border must be separated from Canadian allotments and assignments by not less than the distances provided in the Commission's rules. It also states that under the 1992 Mexico-United States FM Broadcasting Agreement, domestic U.S. assignments or allotments within 320 kilometers (199 miles) of the common border must be separated from Mexican assignments or allotments by not less than the distances stated in the rule. 104. According to iBiquity, the International Bureau has appropriately analyzed the ability of the United States to implement IBOC consistent with the United States' treaty obligations to Canada and Mexico. The International Bureau also has held informal discussions with both the Canadian and Mexican governments concerning implementation of IBOC in the United States. iBiquity states that it supports these efforts and submits that the current process is adequately addressing the international requirements for implementing IBOC. 105. One commenter, Barry McLarnon, states that the current broadcast co-channel allocation rules are no longer adequate to prevent objectionable interference from operating hybrid AM IBOC radio stations. He argues that AM IBOC is not permissible under the terms of the U.S.-Canada bilateral agreement on AM broadcasting. Specifically, he asserts that AM IBOC interference is in contravention of the article in that agreement which states: ``Classes of emission other than A3E, for instance to accommodate stereophonic systems, could also be used on condition that the energy level outside the necessary bandwidth does not exceed that normally expected in A3E. * * *.'' McLarnon asserts that the ``necessary bandwidth'' in this case is defined as 10 kHz and the hybrid AM IBOC system increases the occupied bandwidth of an AM station to approximately 28 kHz. He further asserts that the increased power is outside the necessary bandwidth of the AM signal and exceeds that normally expected in A3E. He also states that identical wording is used in the agreement between the U.S. and Mexico, and therefore, that agreement is also violated by any usage of the hybrid AM IBOC system. 106. All matters pertaining to the relevant international agreements, including the above contentions, are being addressed in the appropriate bilateral and multilateral fora. While we are optimistic that we will be able to resolve any outstanding issues with Canada and Mexico or other countries, these issues remain subject to ongoing negotiations. Therefore, until the negotiations are completed, we advise the radio industry that the following condition will be applied to stations operating with IBOC DAB: Operation with facilities specified herein is subject to modification, suspension or termination without right to hearing, as may be necessary to carry out the applicable provisions of the ITU Radio Regulations, the Final Acts of the ITU Administrative Conference on Medium Frequency Broadcasting in Region 2 (Rio de Janeiro, 1981), or any bilateral or multilateral agreement(s) of the United States. […] 110. John Pavlica, Jr. petition. Pavlica states that the iBiquity IBOC systems cause ``substantial and nearly continuous interference'' to existing AM and FM stations. According to Pavlica, the Commission should consider options such as better receiver technology before adopting any digital radio system. Pavlica suggests a one-year period for evaluating alternatives to IBOC. Pavlica also expresses concern about iBiquity's status as the sole source of proprietary IBOC technology. All of Pavlica's contentions were thoroughly addressed in the DAB R&O. Beyond the simple assertion that IBOC causes extensive interference, the petition offers no technical support for this characterization of IBOC operation. In sharp contrast, the NRSC spent several years crafting IBOC tests, the results of which are documented in detailed comments. The comparison of alternatives for introducing digital technology to the AM and FM bands that Pavlica calls for began with the DAB NPRM in 1999, and concluded with the selection of IBOC in 2002 based on a substantial record. It is well established that the Commission does not grant reconsideration for the purpose of debating matters on which it has already deliberated. 111. Other Pleadings. In two letters, Amherst suggests that IBOC operations may cause interference to the AMBER alert system. In participating states, AMBER alerts are broadcast as part of the Emergency Alert System. EAS messages are transmitted via the main analog radio signal. Amherst offers no support for the allegation. Test results presented in the NRSC AM and FM reports demonstrate that analog radio signals will not be subject to interference that would impair EAS transmissions. Any interference from IBOC is likely to occur at the fringes of a station's normally protected coverage area, where the analog signal quality is poor. In such circumstances, analog listeners are likely to tune to another radio station with a stronger signal, particularly in the event of an emergency. Amherst provides no countervailing evidence that IBOC will interfere with AMBER alerts, and no reason to delay IBOC implementation. 112. In a petition for rulemaking filed January 24, 2003, Kahn Communications, Inc. requests that the Commission initiate a new proceeding to revise procedures for evaluating new technology. Kahn also requests that the Commission stay the DAB R&O and reevaluate its adoption of IBOC in light of any resulting policy revisions. To the extent that Kahn's filing is a petition for reconsideration of the DAB R&O, the petition is untimely. Kahn provides no justification for failing to file timely comments in this proceeding. Moreover, we do not find that the public interest would be served by further delay of the long-contemplated digital conversion of the terrestrial radio service. Therefore, we will not consider Kahn's untimely comments in this proceeding (via gh, DXLD) List of IBOC stations http://www.ibiquity.com/hd_radio/hdradio_find_a_station (Paul B. Walker, NRC-AM via DXLD) Barry McLarnon had a list on his site as well. The iBiquity list has regularly been reported to be stations licensed, not stations operating IBOC whereas Barry's is stations actually reported on with it (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA, ibid.) There are a couple web sites of which I am aware, that keep their IBOC station lists up to date: Barry McLarnon: http://topazdesigns.com/iboc/station-list.html Lee J Freshwater: http://www.amlogbook.com/iboc.htm I've submitted changes in the local situation to both and they have quickly updated their information. For just the local, SE FL scene, there is my web site, link in my signature below (W. Curt Deegan, Boca Ratón, Florida, USA http://ScooterHound.com/WWWR/radio/sefliboc.html IRCA via DXLD) Not as up to date as I would like, but I do have a list at http://www.amlogbook.com fresh (Lee Freshwater, FL, IRCA via DXLD) If we send audio clips to advertisers whose ads are mutilated by stations running IBOC on adjacent frequencies, and enough advertisers pull their ads, there could be quite a bit of pressure to kill nighttime IBOC (Marc DeLorenzo, South Dennis, MA, IRCA via DXLD) I wonder if the Canadian Government has filed any objections to HD 24/7. Many Canadian AM stations will suffer interference from US stations running HD at night. One that occurs to me immediately is Montreal-1040. In the suburbs of Montreal, their signal will get CLOBBERED by WBZ's HD (Marc DeLorenzo, South Dennis, MA, http://hometown.aol.com/midcapemarc/myhomepage/profile.html WTFDA-AM via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ QUALCOMM MEDIAFLO Re 7-097: MediaFLO (and Medeo) will NOT use existing cellular networks (analog or digital). They will use what will be de facto new broadcasting bands, and you'll find their repeaters on a variety of towers and buildings. The coverage of MediaFLO and Medeo will not necessarily be comparable to those of cell phones. 80% of the population doesn't have access to cable television or broadband internet, yet plenty of money is being made by those two businesses. All that's necessary for the success off MediaFLO or Medeo is to have sufficient coverage of the largest, most lucrative markets; I doubt QualComm or Crown Castle is too worried about the difficulties of cracking the lucrative central Nevada or west Texas markets! ;-) As I've said before here --- to the distress of some --- these new technologies will skim the cream of the listening audience and turn AM (and perhaps FM) into bottom-feeders (Harry Helms W5HLH, Smithville, TX EL19, ABDX via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ PROPAGATION OUTLOOK FROM PRAGUE Solar-activity forecast for the period Aug 17 - 23, 2007 Activity level: very low Radio flux (10.7 cm): a fluctuation in the range 65-75 f.u. Flares: weak (0-6/day) Relative sunspot number: in the range 0-30 Astronomical Institute, Solar Dept., Ondrejov, Czech Republic e-mail: sunwatch(at)asu.cas.cz (RWC Prague) Geomagnetic activity forecast for the period Aug 17 to Aug 23, 2007 quiet: Aug 17, 20, and 21 quiet to unsettled: Aug 23 unsettled: Aug 19, and 22 unsetlled to active: Aug 18 active: 0 minor storm:0 major storm: 0 severe storm:0 Geomagnetic activity summary: geomagnetic field was quiet on Aug 9, 12, 13, and 14, unsettled on Aug 10, 11, and 15. RWC Prague, Geophysical Institute Prague, Geomagnetic Dept, Czech Republic. e-mail: geom(at)ig.cas.cz Geomagnetic activity forecast for the period of one solar rotation unsettled to active: Aug 23, Sep 4 active to disturbed: Aug (17,) 22, (25-28,) Sep 2-3, 6(-7) quiet: Aug 18-20, (21, 24, 29-30,) 31, Sep 1, 5, 8-11 Survey: quiet on: Aug 9, 13 mostly quiet - quiet to unsettled on: Aug 12, 14-15 quiet to active - quiet to disturbed on: Aug 10 mostly unsettled on: Aug 11 unsettled to active on: Aug 8 unsettled to disturbed - mostly active - active to disturbed - disturbed - Notice: Days in brackets refer to a lower probability of possible solar activity enhancements depending on previous developments on the sun. F. K. Janda, OK1HH, Czech Propagation Interested Group e-mail: franta.janda(at)quick.cz (via DXLD) ###