DX LISTENING DIGEST 7-137, November 15, 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 NEXT SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1382 Fri 0730 WRMI 9955 Fri 1200 KAIJ 5755 Fri 1200 WRMI 9955 Fri 2130 WWCR1 15825 Sat 0900 WRMI 9955 Sat 1730 WWCR3 12160 Sat 2230 WRMI 9955 Sun 0330 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0730 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0900 WRMI 9955 Sun 1615 WRMI 7385 Mon 0400 WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0515 WBCQ 7415 [time varies] Mon 0930 WRMI 9955 Tue 1130 WRMI 9955 Tue 1630 WRMI 7385 Wed 0830 WRMI 9955 Thu 0000 WBCQ 17495-CUSB Thu 1600 KAIJ 9480 [usually new edition not yet aired] 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 ** AFGHANISTAN [non]. R. Solh, 15265, very big signal from Rampisham UK, Nov 15 at 1435-1500* with usual (and I do mean usual) selexion of lively music, occasional announcements. If it`s S9+20 way off the back of the beam, what is it like in the boresight? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15265, 500 kW, Radio Solh to Afghanistan, RMP signal, S=9 +40 dB powerhouse at 1400 UT Nov 14. And broadband peak distorted overmodulated signal from Rampisham on 15225 to 15305 kHz range too !!!! (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, wwdxc BC-DX via DXLD) ** ALBANIA. 1458, Albania off-frequency. Medium Wave Fllaka heard in New Hampshire USA with sophisticated special MW antenna equipment, and measured on exact 1457.626 kHz after 2300 UT. 1457.626 Fllake Nov 9 at 2320 UT. Het against 1458 kHz, measuring 1457.626 kHz, signed off at 2330 UT (Bruce Conti, Nashua New Hampshire-USA, mw-offsets Nov 9 via BC-DX via DXLD) It`s been off for years, but this was also reported to R. Tirana (gh) ** ARGENTINA. NUEVA EMISORA EN LA X-BAND ARGENTINA Amigos, Tengo escuchado esta emisora en la X-Band; llega con senal muy buena. Arnaldo, tiene alguna noticia sobre esta emisora? En el sitio web de la estacion tiene la frecuencia de 670 em AM. ARGENTINA, 1620, 07/11 0258, Radio Universo FM, Mar del Plata, pop, rock, ID as 0300 como " LRI 309 UNIVERSO, FM 103.3 desde Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 33433. Gracias, (Samuel Cássio Martins, São Carlos SP Brasil, condiglist yg via DXLD) Saludos Samuel desde Argentina, Un poco extraña la captacion en principio, pero intentaré alguna explicación: LRI 309, y LRI 209 son señales de RADIO MAR DEL PLATA, ciudad de la costa atlántica de la provincia de Buenos Aires; la primera pertenece a su FM y se denomina "universo", emite regularmente en 103.3 MHz; la segunda es la onda media que lo hace por 670 kHz. Esta emisora es propiedad del grupo "La capital" que ejerce un claro monopolio en las frecuencias de AM de esta ciudad, ya que también opera la otra emisora "clase A" (LU6 Atántica 760-93.3) Paralelamente se vincula a este grupo a la aparición de una nueva emisora llamada "La Prensa" en 1620 kHz, de la que hasta ahora no se han tenido noticias al aire. Así que imagino que podemos estar ante una prueba de esta nueva radio utilizando el canal de su nueva AM, en un paralelo ocasional con una de sus tradicionales FM. Saludos (Loco Azulado, Argentina, ibid.) Acabo de leer esta explicación y adhiero. Y, si no se trata de esa emisora nueva, posiblemente vinculada a LU9 y su FM, podría ser como decía en otro correo, una nueva estación en 1620 que toma la QSA de Universo (Arnaldo Slaen, ibid.) Estimados, en la madrugada de hoy he podido escuchar en 1620 kHz esta emisora nueva reportada en la X-band, con buena señal, a eso de las 0330 UT en adelante. Cuidada selección de "oldies" con pocas interrupciones, e identificándose como "Universo 103" A las 0400 pasaron una identificación completa, mencionado Mar del Plata e identificándose como Universo FM, en 103.3 MHz. La señal era de intensidad media pero muy estable, con escasos períodos de desvanecimiento, lo que contrasta con otras emisoras de esa banda que suben y bajan sin cesar. Por la intensidad y estabilidad de la señal me atreverí a decir que la potencia emitida debe ser del orden de 10 kW si no es más, aunque no compite con otra emisora marplatense, LU9 que pone por aquí una señal casi de local en 670 kHz. ¿Será posible que a esa hora tenga una onda terrestre tan significativa o será todo propagación ionosférica? Habrá que ver si es posible escucharla de día. Traté de hallar la dirección de la onda, y es aproximadamente N-S, o sea en este caso del Sur. El nulo no coincide exactamente con el de LU9, pero una radio portátil no es precisamente un radiogoniómetro de precisión, de modo que concedámosle el beneficio de la duda y aceptemos que realmente el tranmisor puede estar en esa ciudad. Escucha realizada con DE-1103 con su antena de ferrite. 73, (Moisés Knochen, Montevideo, Uruguay, condiglist yg via DXLD) see also PERU ** AUSTRALIA. For some historical pictures (and info) of the Radio Australia - Darwin transmitter site. Follow the link below. http://groups.msn.com/HistoryofRadioAustraliaCoxPeninsula/photosofra.msnw (Ian Baxter-AUS, SW TXsite Nov 11 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** BELARUS. 7360, Radio Belarus, Minsk; 2240-2258 14 November, 2007. Dance/techno-ish vocals in Russian or whatever, male "You're listening to Radio Belarus..." More of the same music till 2245, then "You're tuned to the external service of Radio Belarus" and another song. Nasty QRM popped up at 2258, preventing reception of the sign-off. No audible parallels located (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, logs paralleled on the JRC NRD-535 and ICOM R- 75, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BHUTAN. 6035 BBS (tent.) on Nov 10 from 0030 UT tune with woman announcer mixing with La Voz del Guaviare - latter began to dominate the channel after 0040. Need to tune this earlier to confirm BBS - they always have Buddhist chanting from just after sign-on announcements at 0000 to approx 0030 UT. Program sched for Saturday morning (local Bhutan time) shows a women's program in the 0030 to 0100 UT time slot. At this time of year Bhutan can make it to WCNA via long path on a good day, and that was last year with 50 kW transmitter S2 and fading (Bruce W. Churchill, Fallbrook CA, DXplorer Nov 10 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. In a week where 90 meters has been quite good: Mosoj Chaski (tentative), 3310, 0105-0130, 11/16/07. Listed in Quechua. W with brief talk, M with long talk, unidentifiable music, 0129 M with probable sign-off announcement, 0130 off. Just at threshold, making it impossible to tell what language was spoken. Not likely Spanish nor English as I would have picked a word or two out of either of those. Besides, I have no ear for Quechua. Aoki shows Mosoj Chaski as off at 0100, but EiBi (A07), and the Mosquito coast list show 0130 or 0200 sign off times, and the 2007 Passport shows 0130 s/off. Mosoj Chaski is the only station listed on this frequency. So I am pretty confident this was it! (Mark Taylor, Madison WI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BULGARIA. R. Bulgaria wide splatter signal on 7400 (7370-7430 range) this morning Nov 8th, German 0630 UT. Spanish service at 0700- 0730 UT appeared this morning on 11600 kHz instead of registered 7200 kHz. \\ 9500 kHz (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 8 via DXLD) ** BURKINA FASO. 5030, RTB, Ouagadougou, 0639-0701. 13 Nov. French yak & local music with kalimba (?), gongs, hollow log drums. W with "Radio Burkina" ID at 0643, into feature/interview, 0648 W over music bridge into African-style rap & hip-hop, 0653 announcement in French, vernacular, greetings to listeners & more local music to –0659, gongs/drums & M with "RTB" (almost growled) & "Radio Burkina Fas(o)" by W into vernacular yak with kids' choral music. When Rebelde-5025 wasn't playing music, RTB was about 80-90% readable at a fair level (Dan Sheedy, CA, R75/Kiwa & Par EF102040, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) TIRWR is usually the obstacle here; not on? (gh, OK, DXLD) ** CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC. PARTNER LAUNCHES SHORTWAVE STATION IN CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC A new shortwave station in Central Africa Republic is making Christian broadcasts and community health information available to most of the country’s 3.5 million people. This is the country’s first privately owned shortwave station. Curt Bender of the Indiana-based HCJB Global Technology Center led the team that installed the station in Boali, culminating several years of planning and prayer by partner, Integrated Community Development International (ICDI). . . http://www.hcjb.org/news/hcjb_global_in_the_news/partner_launches_shortwave_station_in_central_african_republic_4.html (via Arnaldo Slaen, BC-DX via DXLD) Not sure this is a new story; HCJB doesn`t bother to date them; similar to the content of the Youtube video (gh) ** CHINA. Per my B07 Aoki detective work I have discovered two CRI broadcasts on 7180 at 1400... they may be co-channeling each other! Chinese via Kashi, 100 kW/174 deg. Nepali via Beijing, 500 kW/215 deg. This potential conflict on 7180 was discovered from looking up the Aoki B07 listings, and this could be an interference problem in the Asian reception area. Chicoms vs. Chicoms! (Joe Hanlon, NJ, Nov 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Anfrage Esperanto Programme durch Klaus Spielvogel. Nach meinem Eindruck von einer Woche Winterperiode hat CRI fast alle Winterfrequenzen aus dem Vorjahr wieder belegt. Bei den Japanern in Nagoya findest Du immer die besten Tabellen ueber China Radio: http://www2.starcat.ne.jp/~ndxc/ und klicke links CRI B07 schedule, die kannst Du auch dann auf Deinem PC downladen. 1100-1157 Esperanto 7210uru, 6100uru, 1017 1300-1357 Esperanto 11650xia, 9440bei 1700-1757 Esperanto 7245xia, 1215fla 1930-2027 Esperanto 9745uru, 7265kas 2200-2257 Esperanto 9860kas, 7315kas 7245 und 9745 habe ich die vergangenen Tage hier in Spanien erkannt / gehoert (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 7 via DXLD) ** CHINA. The Anning site near Kunming, Yunnan, has recently appeared in high resolution on Google Earth, though unfortunately there's quite a bit of glare or haze in some areas. I see a large complex of buildings around 24 53 04 N 102 29 44 E Two big directional mediumwave arrays are visible to the west and south, I think each with two \\ rows of four masts. One array must be beaming approx 160 deg towards SE Asia, the other must be beaming approx 260 deg towards S Asia. There are one or two single-mast MW antennas towards the north of the site, presumably for the CNR domestic services on 855 and 1008 kHz (Alan Davies, Asia, ARC MV-Eko Nov 12 via BC-DX Nov 16 via DXLD) and 28 SW array masts at 24 52 56.89 N 102 29 17.25 E http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=24.884195&lon=102.486277&z=15.9&r=0&src=ggl 1521 kHz: The Hutubi 500 kW CRI transmitter in Xinjiang, NW of Urumqi, seems to have several directional arrays at its disposal. It is off for two minutes for antenna switching from 1257, 1457, 1557, 1657, 1757. The sign off is at 1957 (Olle Alm, Sweden, ARC MV-Eko Nov 12 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. Re 7-136, the site with the news about FARC clandestine being bombed was http://www.deradios.com/noticias.php --- not sure if such stories are archived there or if you have to catch them on the fly (gh, WOR 1382, DXLD) ** CUBA. RHC, 15510, very weak spur at 1431 Nov 15 with IS // very strong 15370. Can`t figure out any leapfrog mix as no other Cuban frequency on 19m at this time. 15230 CRI relay would work, except that`s via Sackville (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. WRC in Geneva says Radio Martí’s airborne broadcasts are “illegal” - Text of report by Cuban news agency Prensa Latina on 14 November: The World Radiocommunication Conference recognized Wednesday that US transmissions against Cuba are illegal, thus causing irritation among US representatives at the forum. After three weeks of negotiations, the conference of technical experts from several countries rejected this practice. “Radio transmissions from an aircraft only toward the territory of another government, and without its consent,” contravenes radio communication regulations,” the conference decided. Diplomats interviewed by Prensa Latina said “this is a firm rejection of measures implemented by the Bush government in the last years.” The plenary meeting also indicated that Washington has not stopped the prejudicial interference of Cuban broadcast services, despite several requests by the Radiocommunications Office. Regarding that, it urged the United States to adopt the necessary measures to resolve this and asked the International Telecommunications Union to inform on related progress in coming meetings. After the remarks, the US delegation decided to withdraw from the agreement and, clearly challenging the meeting, said the illegal transmission policy toward Cuba will be maintained. (Source: Prensa Latina) One Response: Mike Barraclough Says: November 15th, 2007 at 7:49 pm So what is this meeting doing about jamming including that by Cuba? (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** CYPRUS TURKISH. CYPRUS [Northern Turkish occupied zone] 6150, Music program with slow R&B songs, also songs sung by George Michael and more heard 2000-2103 and later, only one ID by DJ - a Lady in English, "Bayrak Radio and Television Corporation" (different program from those on MW 1098 kHz was) - on Nov 3rd and on Nov 4th at 0545 UT with poor signal and song "You're the First, You're the Best and You're the Everything`` by Barry White, all on 6150 kHz (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, Nov 9, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 16 via DXLD) ** DIEGO GARCIA [and non]. AFN, Diego Garcia, 4319-USB, heard here at 0045 with NPR programming. Parallel 10320-USB, Hawaii (Steve Lare Holland, MI USA, UT Nov 15, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4319-USB, AFRTS; 2303-2307 15 November, 2007. Unidentified US network news feed, fair but semi-clobbered by a nearby RTTY (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, logs paralleled on the JRC NRD-535 and ICOM R-75, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. 4909.19, Radio Chaskis Del Norte, 1113-1125 Nov 15. First noticed a male in Spanish comments until 1114 when a female comments and gives ID, "... Del Norte ...", This followed by music. Signal was fair (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, FL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. I missed 15190 kHz Equatorial Guinea in past weeks, even in Spain no bip on this channel at present (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 7 via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [and non]. Now it seems that the Ethiopians, or their supporters, are jamming Deutsche Welle. Nov 14 at 1443 I found jamming on 11645, wavering carriers sweeping slowing back and forth across the frequency, causing hets of constantly varying pitch, but as they swept they were also wobbling up and down. At maximum deviation the pitch was high enough that interference to the target was minimized, but it was worst when approaching and receding from zero-beat. The main jammer was much stronger than the target, whose language I could not identify. With BFO on, I could hear the varying carriers on both sides of 11645. This was quite different from the rapidly oscillating jamming heard during the same period the day before on 15645, but nothing audible there today. At 1455 the jamming against 11645 shifted, or another transmitter was added, with more rapid oscillation. But the target went off between 1457 and 1458 and so did all the jamming shortly afterwards. At 1459 a somewhat stronger carrier came back on, and 1500 Deutsche Welle ID, into language. I figured the previous station on 11645 would be yet another Ethiopian clandestine, but looked up in HFCC, we find it`s the Amharic service of DW at 1400-1457 via Rwanda, at 30 degrees! Followed at 1500 by DW Swahili via Rwanda, at 180 degrees --- why would they aim Swahili due south from Rwanda?? As for the source of the jamming, either the Ethiopians have made a considerable investment in a somewhat sophisticated SW jamming system, or they are clients of an hypothetical International Jamming Services, Ltd. which uses spare capacity at well-known HF transmitter sites on a mercenary basis. Tuned in 11645 earlier in the hour the next day, Nov 15 at 1404; could not hear any DW until after 1430, but the jamming was underway, variable carrier hets, but also solid noise, motorboating. Wolfgang Büschel was also monitoring this and pointed out that the // frequency for DW Amharic is 15640 via Sri Lanka, and that has also been getting jammed. I heard that too Nov 15 at 1407, just noise, and much more effective. He describes the jamming as ``a combination of four sounds, like bubble, motorboat, pips, and whistle buoy howl. Never heard about jamming against DWL Amharic before in past decades or so``. Meanwhile, I e-mailed the DW Amharic service to make sure they know they are being jammed (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1382, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DWL HA Ausstrahlungskoordination, Transmission Control Monitoring, told me today Nov 15 that they were be aware of this [Ethiopian] jamming action in week #46 already. DWL measurement on monitoring station Bockhacken and some other international monitoring stations will spy out the origin of the jamming signals. Same ETH jamming signal noted/parked Nov 15th around 1600-1700 UT on 7450 kHz, just near adjacent Firedrake jammed 7445 kHz, IBB Tinian 1500-2000 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, Nov 15, BC-X via DXLD) ** EUROPE. FRS on air November 18th, 2007 Hello SW Friends, FRS-Holland will be carrying out its next broadcast November 18th 2007 (not the 11th what was originally intended)! The broadcast will start at 0800 UT/09.00 CET and close down will be at 1200 UT/13.00 CET. Of course we do hope propagation will be satisfactory that day. Programme line-up consists of FRS Magazine, German Service, FRS Goes DX and part- the final part- of our documentary about the History of Offshore Jingles. Ingredients: great music, DX News, letters, a flashback to November 1980, an Internet item and an item about forgotten pirates. That's the way we do it: real radio entertainment on a Sunday. Tune in: 6220 kHz/ 48 metres. November 25th 1500-1800 UT/16.00-20.00 CET will see a full repeat of the November 18th broadcast but this time in streaming audio via the Internet. You should check on your computer http://nednl.net:8000/frsh.m3u or alternatively http://nednl.net February of this year we came up with a new series consisting of four different QSL cards called the FRS Transmitter Series. QSL #2 will be issued in November. Edition of FRS News is out now containing four A4 pages full of information and columns. A copy can be obtained simply by sending 1 euro to our mailing address. Alternatively you can get yourself a free digital copy provided you have MS Publisher on your computer. In that case just send us an e-mail. 73s, Peter V. (on behalf of the FRS staff) a Balance between Music & Information joined to one format.... FRS-Holland P O Box 2702 6049 ZG Herten The Netherlands e-mail: frs.holland @ hccnet.nl e-mail: frs @ frsholland. nl (via bclnews.it yg via DXLD) ** GEORGIA. 9494.76: Today noted for the first time after summer prop break the Abkhazia-Georgia separatists area Radio in Russian, tiny at S=1-2 level on odd 9494.76 kHz, but well ahead of poor WYFR co-channel even 9495.00 kHz (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 7 via DXLD) ** GERMANY. 153 longwave. Engineers of T-systems Telekom DLF Donebach LW 153 kHz are preparing the antenna of 20 kHz width for DRM mode services in past six days. Transmitter is off totally or on test in AM and DRM mode between 0710 and 1700 UT approx., and at 1210-1900 UT on Nov 15/16. Both two 500 kW Telefunken beasts of 1981? at Donebach are replaced by new TransRadio transistorized 500 kW units. Antenna alignment action last from Nov 8th til 16th (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 14 via DXLD) Donebach 153 kHz war bereits gestern abend mit 23,5 kbps mono im DRM- Betrieb. Naehe Kassel mit SNR 23db, was beim Winradio bekanntlich ein sehr guter Wert ist. Auch der MR[?] hatte keine Probleme (Klaus Schneider-D, direct Nov 14, ibid.) I guess broadbanding a huge LF antenna would be more difficult than on MF and HF? (gh, DXLD) ** GERMANY [non]. DWL English transmissions in B-07: 1548 0300-0400 400 TRINCOMALEE 035 SAS 1548 1600-1700 400 TRINCOMALEE 035 SAS 5905 0400-0500 250 WOOFFERTON 184 WAF 5945 0400-0457 250 SINES 160 WAF 5945 0600-0629 250 SINES 180 WAF 5965 1600-1658 250 TRINCOMALEE 015 SAS 6180 0400-0500 250 KIGALI 0ND C/EAF 6180 0500-0530 250 KIGALI 0ND C/EAF 7225 0400-0459 250 SINES 120 AF 7240 0600-0630 250 WOOFFERTON 180 WAF 7265 0000-0057 250 TRINCOMALEE 105 SEAS 7280 2100-2200 250 SINES 160 WAF 7285 0500-0529 500 RAMPISHAM 180 WAF 9545 2100-2200 250 TRINCOMALEE 270 WAF 9735 1900-1930 250 KIGALI 210 AF 9735 2000-2057 250 KIGALI 210 C/EAF remains on 9735 ! 9735 2000-2057 250 KIGALI 295 WAF >> NOW 9690 from Nov 8th 9755 0500-0530 250 KIGALI 295 WAF 9785 0000-0058 250 TRINCOMALEE 090 SEAS 9785 0300-0358 250 TRINCOMALEE 015 SAS 9795 1600-1658 250 TRINCOMALEE 345 SAS 9795 1600-1700 250 TRINCOMALEE 060 FE and additional Chita-RUS relay 9850 0100-0200 TCH 250 kW 230 deg 9880 2000-2059 250 DHABAYYA 225 AF 11690 1900-1929 100 MEYERTON 015 C/EAF 11690 2100-2200 250 KIGALI 295 WAF Probably DRM tests on 12005 0800-0858 TRM 90 kW 345 degr DRM-mode 12045 0500-0530 250 KIGALI 180 C/SAF 12045 0600-0630 250 KIGALI 295 WAF 13780 1900-1930 250 TRINCOMALEE 240 AF 13780 2000-2058 250 TRINCOMALEE 255 C/SAF 13780 2100-2157 250 KIGALI 280 WAF 13790 0300-0400 250 DHABAYYA 085 SAS 15275 1900-1930 250 SINES 130 C/EAF 15410 0500-0530 250 DHABAYYA 220 AF 15445 0400-0458 250 TRINCOMALEE 255 C/EAF 15595 0000-0100 250 PETROPAVL. 247 FE 17710 0900-1000 250 TRINCOMALEE 045 FE 21840 0900-1000 250 TRINCOMALEE 060 FE (DWL, Oct 18, 2007; via ADDX Andreas Volk-D; comment by wb, BC-DX Nov 16 via DXLD) About DWL Dari/Pashto and Urdu services: Thanks of a tip from Noel Green in Blackpool, England and Y.T. noted a change in DWL's service to Afghanistan. We noted DWL Dari/Pashto on 13855 instead of former 15620, and in \\ 12090 from Trinco. 1400-1457 UT, on Nov 12 / 13 / 14 / 15. That seems definitely. But there is also an additional [test] frequency of 9380 kHz in use. Mainly for Urdu at 1430 UT, but heard also earlier in Dari/Pashto; 9380 is in parallel to 13855, but Trincomalee Sri Lanka 12090 kHz transmission is 1/8 second behind. I guess this latter 9380 service is coming from Al Dhabbaya UAE ??? A reserve frequency of 9380 kHz for R Pakistan Urdu to ME/NE is registered in same time slot too --- but R PAK uses 7520 and 11570 instead (wb, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 15, via DXLD) DW jammed: ETHIOPIA DEUTSCHE WELLE --- Following frequency will be added as a test transmission until further notice, starting November 14, 2007: Urdu 1430-1500 UT 9380 kHz (Kanwar Sandhu, India, UDXL, ibid.) Well, it actually came on air at 1330 UT and carried the Dari and Pashtu services \\ 12090 and 13855, and now Urdu at 1430. It was stronger at sign on that it is now at 1430 UT, but conditions might be the problem today. I have been monitoring the 9 MHz band over several days, and each day signals are received differently (Noel Green, England, Nov 14, BC-DX via DXLD) More DW QSY: see NETHERLANDS ANTILLES ** HUNGARY. 3975, Kossuth Rádió; 2238-2300* 15 November, 2007. Nonstop, mumbly Hungarian male speaker until 2254 when a different man mentioned "kiloHertz" and into classical bumper music, then a clear Kossuth Rádió ID, into what seemed to be an interval signal and what also seemed to be a multi-language identification (German for one, seemingly Radio Budapest) and transmitter abruptly off. Fair and clear, except for the occasionally weak ARO/ham/pigsnot QRM (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, logs paralleled on the JRC NRD-535 and ICOM R-75, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. FM. Eight years after the downfall of Suharto it seems that the use of languages in media is being liberalized. Here in Bandung there is one FM station broadcasting entirely in Chinese. This is not an overseas relay of some sorts, since it carries local place names and products. Especially the use of Chinese in public was totally banned under Suharto; now Chinese characters appear in printed adverts and on signboards of shops. Also, there is at least one FM station broadcasting entirely in Bahasa Sunda, the west Javan regional language, quite distinct from BI. This was unheard of ten years ago, except the occasional broadcast of a local wayang kulit play (Gerhard Werdin touring in Indonesia, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 6 via DXLD) The following stations were (not) audible on 23 & 24 Oct between 1100- 1400 UT: 2960, RPDT2 Manggarai; anncts by YL in definitely BI, poor level even here SIO 232. 3215, RRI Manado not heard. 3266, RRI Gorontalo, local/regioinal announcements in BI, many mentions of "pemerintah"=government, distinct echo probably from feeder, later gone when studio announcements, ID & TA waktu Indonesia tengah Central Indonesia Time, SIO 433. 3325, RRI Palangkaraya, Indonesian pop music, SIO 444. 3345, RRI Ternate, phone-in program in BI, SIO 333. 3579, tentative RSPK Ngada, here I am not sure, too weak to identify even the language. 3976, RRI Pontianak, BI telephone reports, SIO 444. 3987, RRI Manokwari, word program in BI with either instrumental music in background or second station 3985/3990. 3995, RRI Kendari, local/regional announcements with many mentions of "pemerintah", SIO 333. 4050, Pirate; chat by male voice in BI, 1 min off, then on again, chat with background music, quite strong but hollow audio. 4606, RRI Serui, BI lovesong, 1159 RPK (SCI), ID into warta berita, co-channel Utye or Pirate with talk in BI, SIO 333. 4750, RRI Makassar, BI news, still the strongest of them all here, but distorted audio, SIO 434. 4790, RRI Fak-Fak, BI anncts, 1209 sports transmission with rapid talk by OM, SIO 434. 4870, RRI Wamena not heard. 4875, RRI Sorong not heard. 4925, RRI Jambi, word program & live reports in BI, later ID into regional news, the second strongerst here, SIO 444. 4925, Pirate at 1425 after s/off of Jambi, chat & music, sounds rather unprofessional, also at around 1430 no IS, no ID or TA, strong - I recall 10 years ago when I lived here having come across this several times, pirate stations occupying an RRI station after close-down of latter (Gerhard Werdin touring in Pangandarn, Indonesia, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 6 via DXLD) 3579, RSPK Ngada, Bajawa, Flores; I can confirm that there is definitely a broadcast station with (observed) word program in BI, not pirate-like chat, rather professional, but even here in West-Java little more than threshold level on my ICF 7600GR, observed on Oct 23rd at 1145 UT and Nov 8th at 1315 UT. 4750, RRI Makassar Contrary to reports read somewhere the station is alive and kickin'! Heard here many days, last on Nov 10th between 0900 and 1300+, off at 1405 UT. 4925, RRI Jambi: this is a bit of a puzzle, between 0940 fade-in to about 1400 UT it`s definitely RRI Jambi, heard often here with many IDs. After 1400 on some days heard what might be a pirate station, e.g. on 08.11. at 1400 a male voice with announcements and chats in BI, many phone-ins, callers giving their name and place. What puzzled me there was no ID, no TA [time announcements?], no warta berita [news], the same program continued till past 1520 UT, but gone at re-check 1555 UT. Or is it just a "late night show" on RRI Jambi. Strength here in Bandung as Jambi before, also audio quite good. On Nov 10th station was off altogether, not heard between 1000 to 1400 UT. Anyone any idea? (Gerhard Werdin touring in Bandung, Indonesia, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 11, via DXLD) Precision frequency measurement could probably answer whether there are two different transmitters, but also probably not an option with travel portable equipment (gh, DXLD) ** IRAN. 7160, Voice of Justice; 0132-0220 15 November, 2007. Excellent with great English propaganda programming, aired a Kor`an passage in Farsi [? Arabic?] followed by English translation with slight reverb for wonderfully creepy effects, mentioned the date (so apparently not too far canned), cheery greetings and into mostly anti- US news. Format and copy writing is a clone of Radio Havana Cuba's English style. Hmm, maybe we'll get VoIRI/Voice of Justice via Cuba eventually? Why not? Hanoi, Moscow and Caracas worked (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, logs paralleled on the JRC NRD-535 and ICOM R-75, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JAPAN [non]. Listening to R. Japan in English at 05 on 6110- Sackville is difficult in the NE part of the USA, not just with declining reception (skip zone?) from Sackville at this time of year, but there's BBC in Arabic (500 kW/140 deg.) via Rampisham on the same channel; if 6110 doesn't work, try 5975 from Skelton which has a good, readable signal here. [Later:] R. Japan-5975 at 0500-0530 is via Rampisham, 500 kW/140 degrees (ironically the same power/bearing as BBC-Arabic on 6110, explained earlier) I long thought Skelton was always used by NHK, but the above Aoki listing says otherwise (Joe Hanlon, NJ, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JORDAN. R. Jordan, in keeping with above-average propagation from ME Nov 15, at 1400 on 11690 with news in French; good signal but some flutter; HCJB and RTTY not a problem, but HCJB faded up a few minutes later to mix (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Solar-terrestrial indices for 14 November follow. Solar flux 70 and mid-latitude A-index 12. The mid-latitude K-index at 1500 UTC on 15 November was 2 (14 nT). No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours. No space weather storms are expected for the next 24 hours (SWPC via DXLD) ** KAZAKHSTAN. As in B-06 Voice of Orthodox (Golas Pravaslavia) in Russian 1630-1700 Tue and Fri on 7460 kHz, announced address in St. Petersburg Russia (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, Nov 9, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 16 via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH. D.P.R., Voice of Korea was reported on Nov the 3rd at 1600 with National Anthem and programs in English on 3560 \\ 9990 and in French on 4405 \\ 13760. BTW on Nov the 5th at 0700 UT started the winter schedule - times are as in A-07 and frequencies are as in B-06 (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, Nov 9, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 16 via DXLD) 11735v, Voice of Korea in Russian at 0800-0900 UT Nov 10. Noted two independent carriers here, the stronger on 11734.90, and another on 11735.03 kHz, hetting each other. Two co-channel transmitters in use? (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX Nov 16 via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. Shiokaze, 5985 via Yamata, Japan [not Taiwan as I misremembered in original post; tnx Ron Howard], Nov 14 at 1400 with piano theme, opening in Japanese, tho later it sounded like Korean. Slight het, presumably from Myanmar 5986v (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LAOS. Re 7-133, Lao National Radio - updated information. There's a bunch of links on Lao National Radio's web page http://www.lnr.org.la/lnr_aboutus.php Comments by Alan Davies: Vientiane has been using 640 kHz for a few years, replacing 702 kHz, but unfortunately for DXers it was only operating in local daylight at 2330-1000 UT last time I checked. I suppose there's a faint chance it could be detected in Europe around the 2330 sign-on. I believe the 10 kW 640 kHz transmitter is the unit that used to carry LNR International Service on 1030 kHz. I've never been able to hear Khammouane 765 kHz, and suspect it may be inactive. It was definitely not on air when I visited the Thai city of Nakhon Phanom, just across the Mekong, which would have been in 1999 as I recall. In the past few years I've checked 765 quite often from various locations in Laos and neighbouring countries, but have never heard a Lao station on that frequency. In WRTH 2008 I've marked the listing as "unconfirmed". Oudomxay's listed MW frequency is 800 kHz 1 kW with a Chinese transmitter, rather than 705 kHz as mentioned below, so probably 705 is a mix-up with Luang Prabang. In any case, I believe Oudomxay has been inactive for several years on MW and is now on FM only, based on information from recent Internet sources. Luang Prabang has been heard much better at night over the past few years on 705 kHz than it used to be, so the story about the new 10 kW transmitter is very credible. For some reason they decided to stay on the split frequency (Alan Davies, Asia via ARC MV-Eko Nov 12 via BC-DX Nov 16 via DXLD) ** LATVIA. Relays this weekend via 9290 kHz Sat November 17th Radio Waves International 2200-2300 UT parallel 945 AM and http://www.radionord.lv Latvia Today 2300-2400 UT Good listening (Tom Taylor, Nov 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBERIA. 4760 reactivated? Not 100% certain with this, but the NA and s/off time, which they broadcasted up to occasionally, lean toward ELWA. 4760, presumed ELWA Radio, 2125-2301*, Nov 14, English. Rough copy at tune-in with CODAR, QRN and fading. Bits of religious talk between music. Slowly improving by ToH [top of hour] with OM with more religious talk; real "feel good" stuff; between choral music bits. Contact info for California. Hymn-like music from 2226, sounded Italian, until barely audible announcer at 2300 followed by Liberian NA. NA matches that of old R. Liberia clip at intervalsignals.net (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH-USA, R8, R75, NIR10, MLB-1, 200' Beverages, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Scott. I was listening to ELWA at the same time (2215-2301) same day. Similar programming heard here with deep fades. Went down just before TOH but the N/A came again very nicely. No positive ID here either, but N/A and frequency suggests this is ELWA. Haven't heard them for a long time (I guess I haven't tried hard enough :-) I checked various websites and found out that ELWA has a new 5 kW SW transmitter under installation, maybe even testing now. They will use old 4760 frequency and another channel in the 49 meterband. Some pages suggest 6070 will be used. Not yet known which transmitter will be on which frequency. I e-mailed the station in Monrovia and hopefully we'll have the latest from them (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, ibid.) ** LITHUANIA. Are the frequencies at the R. Vilnius site, http://www.lrt.lt/en/static.php?strid=170282& valid? I tuned in at 0030 UT on November 14, 2007 hoping to hear R. Vilnius and heard DW instead. 73, (Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz. partially: ``To Europe at 8:30 am UTC on 9710 kHz. To North America at 11.30 pm UTC on 9875 kHz and at 00.30 am UTC on 11690 kHz. Online archive --- Radio Vilnius online archive with shows availabe for download can be found at http://www.lrt.lt/archyvas Select LR channel on the left, then "laidos" to the right of the radio logo and choose "Radio Vilnius: current affairs in English" from the drop down meniu on the top right. Podcast --- You can get podcast of Radio Vilnius by pasting this link into your software`` (R. Vilnius website above via DXLD) Hi Kraig, not valid. Log: LITUANIA 7325 Radio Vilnius, 2255-2303, escuchada el 4 de noviembre en inglés la cuña de identificación “This is Radio Vilnius from Lithuania”, comienza emisión con un segmento de canto coral, locutora en Lituano con presentación y locutor con comentarios o boletín de noticias, SINPO 34232. 73 (José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Buenas noches, José: chequeando la banda de 41m alrededor de las 2335 acabo de escuchar dicha transmisión en inglés de Radio Vilnius 7325. Buena señal, aunque un poco flanqueada de splatters. 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, ibid.) Here are the Sitkunai LTU transmissions: 7325 2200-2400 4,8,9 SIT 100 310 LTU LRT 2300 Lit, 2330 En 7325 0100-0300 4,8,9 SIT 100 310 LTU LRT 0100 Lit, 0130 En 9710 0800-1500 27,28 SIT 100 259 LTU LRT 0800 Lit, 0830 En also IRIB Tehran relay via Sitkunai txion center 0630-0728 7545 Italian 6225 noted seemingly IRIB Tehran in Spanish at 2030-2128 UT, via Sitkunai Lithuania? Other IRIB relays, Italian at 0630-0728 UT on 7545 kHz; Russian at 1430-1528 UT on 6250. 6265 (x6255) Ge 1730, Fr 1830, En 1920-2028 UT. R Raja [Racja] Belarussian 1530-1730 UT 6225 kHz 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) ** MICRONESIA. The Cross heard in NZ. After several attempts The Cross Radio Station has been heard here in Blenheim. Best reception seems to be around 1245 onwards with a good ID at 1300 UT. In fact this was the only announcement heard as the rest was non stop recordings. With an e-mail verification the following address etc was given. Pacific Missionary Aviation The Cross Radio Station P.O. Box 517 Pohnpei, FM 96941 Federated States of Micronesia Tel: 691-320-1122 Email: radio @ pmapacific.org Web: http://www.pmapacific.org | http://radio.pmapacific.org (Ian Cattermole, Nov NZ DX Times via DXLD) Date??? Believed inactive from mid Oct to mid Nov at least (gh, DXLD) QSL OF THE MONTH --- Pride of place this month goes to IAN CATTERMOLE’s verification of the new shortwave station in the Federated States of Micronesia, called ‘The Cross’, operating on 4755.25 kHz. The email QSL he received came direct from Pohnpei and was signed by Roland. Whereas your editor [BC] submitted his reception report via the PMA website mentioned in earlier issues and is still waiting for a response, Ian showed initiative by sending his report to the PMA Guam office. They forwarded it on to the station in Pohnpei and a few days later the QSL e-mail arrived. Roland advised Ian that PMA were experiencing transmitter problems to do with modulation and were expecting to provide much better reception in the future (Bryan Clark, Nov NZ DX Times via DXLD) ** MONGOLIA. 7260, 13 Nov 0838-, Mongolian R 2nd program, Ulaanbaatar. Good signal with news in English and ID: "This is the news bulletin of the Voice of Mongolia in English on the Blue Sky Radio. We are on the air on Tuesday and Thursday" (Mauno Ritola, Finland, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1382, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7260 scheduled 0700-1300 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS ANTILLES [and non]. 9885, Deutsche Welle via Bonaire frequency change on 15 November. Deutsche Welle's broadcast in German to Australia and New Zealand at 0800-1000 UT via Bonaire will change its frequency from 15 November onwards due to interference from a Spanish DRM transmission [of REE Noblejas, 9780 drm 100 kW 50 deg] on 9780 kHz at same time slot. The current frequency, 9785 kHz, will change to 9885 kHz. http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/deutsche-welle-via-bonaire-frequency-change-on-15-november (RNW Hilversum site, Nov 13 via BC-DX via DXLD) Checked today Nov 13: REE Noblejas in DRM mode covers 9775.15 to 9784.80 kHz range on my Eton E1, using 2.3 kHz filter (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Well, just under 10 kHz wide as supposed to be (gh) ** NEW ZEALAND. FREQUENCY SCHEDULE Effective from 13 November 2007 ANALOGUE SERVICE UTC kHz Primary Target 1300 – 1550 5950 Pacific 1551 - 1750 7145 NE Pacific, Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands **change** 1751 – 1950 9615 NE Pacific, Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands 1951 - 2240 17675 Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji 2241 - 0458 15720 Pacific 0459 - 0658 17675 Pacific 0659 - 1058 9765 Pacific 1059 - 1258 13840 NW Pacific, Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, Timor DRM SERVICE 1300 – 1555 NO SERVICE 1551 - 1750 5950 NE Pacific, Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands 1751 – 1935 9890 NE Pacific, Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands 1936 – 1950 11675 Tonga 1951 - 2240 15720 Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji 2241 – 0458 17675 Pacific 0459 - 0658 15720 Pacific 0659 - 1258 9870 Pacific (Nov NZ DX Times via DXLD) By date this would appear to be current, but another version of their schedule shows 9870 in analog instead of DRM. Is it? (gh, DXLD) 5950, RNZI in English noted till 1549:04 UT Nov 15, S=3 signal level in AM mode, but a little weaker on 7145 kHz after the switch around 1549:44 UT. Switchover took 40 seconds in duration (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 15 via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. I haven`t dug into FCC records about this, but a couple of Legal Notices appeared in the Enid Eagle Nov 14: The Love Station, Inc., filed an application with the FCC on 10/22/07 for a construxion permit for a new station on Channel 202 to serve Hillsdale. This 100,000 watt station would have studios 3 miles west of Ponca City, OK and transmitter site 42 km southeast of Hillsdale. The antenna height is 82 meters. A copy of the application is available for public inspection at Hillsdale Christian School, 200 East Taylor Ave., Hillsdale. Doyle Brewer, President/Director; Steve Avampato, VP/Dir; Cleve Powell, Secretary; Larry East, Treasurer/Dir; Nancy Brewer, Asst. Secretary. PUBLIC NOTICE – On October 12, 2007, Amigos Ministry Church Inc, filed an application with the FCC for a new FM non commercial broadcast station to be licensed to the city of Enid, OK. The purpose of the application is to create a new radio station to serve the Enid, OK area on 83.3 [SIC] MHz, Class A at 700 watt with an antenna located at 35 m above average terrain. The transmitter will be located at 36-18- 33 N / 97-34-58 W with studios at 749 N 11th, Enid, OK. Amigos Ministry Church Inc. is made up of Jacob DeSouza, Mirthala DeSouza, Alan Seibel, David Roman and Mike Manley. Copy of the application may be inspected in the public file located at 749 N 11th, Enid OK (retyped by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST, as the legal notices appear not to be online at http://www.enidnews.com) The uninformed reader would never know that these two are MX, mutually exclusive, both for 88.3 MHz, especially since the second one gets the frequency wrong as 83.3. The Love Station already has KLVV-88.7 and The House 89.7 with 24-hour gospel-huxtering, plus translators such as 98.3 in Enid, and they want MORE MORE MORE! Amigos also already has an LPFM station in Enid, KAMG on 92.3, which we have reported about previously. Furthermore, KGOU, University of Oklahoma, has a CP for a full-power public radio station on 88.3 in Woodward, which I believe would be MX for 100 kW near Hillsdale. There is also a Family Radio translator already in Enid on 88.3 which could be bumped off by either of these non-translators (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. Re the report from Aslam Javaid in 7-134: Via the current B-07 Frequency Schedule for Shortwave Services sched received from Frequency Management in Rawalpindi --- what is listed is exactly as we already have seen reported. API-3 is shown to carry only external services, API-4 carries Current Affairs at 0200-0400 and 1300-1800 followed by Islamabad Programme for Gulf & Iran 1915-0045 all using 4835. It is possible that changes have been made since the schedule was prepared, but many services listed via API-3 are not being heard - Russian, Turkish, Irani and Arabic for instance. The two 250 kW transmitters API-5 & 6 are used at: 0045-0215 World Service for SEAsia on 15485 11580 0500-0700 World Service for Gulf & ME on 15100 11570 0730-0830 English Service for WEurope on 15100 17835 0830-1104 World Service to WEurope on 15100 17835 (includes English news at 1100-1104) 1200-1230 Chinese Service on 11570 9380 (both via 70deg - and are audible at my location!) 1330-1530 World Service to Gulf & ME* on 11570 7520 [1600-1615] English News & Commentary for EAfrica (233deg) on 11570 and for ME* on 7520 [1730?-] World Service for WEurope on 9380 7530 (The * also shows transmission for East Africa via a beam of 282 minus 30 = 252 deg). All other external services are shown to use just one transmitter = API-3 Additionally via separate mail, API-8 (Rawalpindi III or AKR as we know it) at 0045-0215 UT 3975 kHz and 1945 - 2315 UT 3975. I think the time of 1945-2315 is rather PST = 1445-1815 UT. And APR (10 kW) (Rawalpindi) is shown --- From 0230 to 0925 UT 4790 kHz and 1835-1930 UT 4790 kHz. And again I think 1835-1930 is PST and should be 1335- 1430 UT. Maybe Aslam can confirm these for us. 73 (Noel R. Green (NW England), Nov 15, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. [before seeing the item above] 3975, 4790. The anomaly of Radio Pakistan Rawalpindi III Hi Glenn, Radio Pakistan frequency schedules list a station under the title Rawalpindi III, whereas no station exists under the said ID, leading to confusion about its whereabouts. In fact, Rawalpindi III is both the Azad Kashmir Radio Trarkhal and the clandestine Radio "Sadiye Hurriyat Jammu & Kashmir-Voice of Jammu & Kashmir Freedom Movement". Azad Kashmir Radio Trarkhal is not located at Trarkhal, a small village in Pakistani Kashmir. And it uses the studios of Radio Pakistan Rawalpindi and Islamabad transmitter API-8 (100 kW) and the Rawalpindi transmitter APR-2 (10 kW) for its broadcasts at 4790 kHz for B-07. Similarly the clandestine radio "Sadiye Hurriyat Jammu & Kashmir - Voice of Jammu & Kashmir Freedom Movement" uses the Islamabad transmitter API-8 (100 kW) and studios of Radio Pakistan Rawalpindi. Its broadcasts for the B07 season are available at 3975 kHz (75.47 m). The transmission times are 1st- 0230-0400, 2nd- 0745-0845 and 3rd- 1300-1430 UT. I have monitored it for the 1st and the 3rd broadcast during B07 (Aslam Javaid, Lahore, Pakistan, Nov 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN [non]. Additional broadcasts to: see GERMANY, UK, USA ** PERU. Information received from César Pérez Dioses, Chimbote, Perú: 1600, R. Internacional – San Pablo, Cajamarca 1610, R. Sabor – Arequipa 1615, R. Luz y Vida – San Ignaco, Cajamarca 1630, R. San Juan – Centro Poblado El Tambo, Bambamarca, Cajamarca 1650, R. Ecológica - San Ignacio, Cajamarca Note: These stations are using different frequencies since I presume they are not authorized by the government, so they may be pirate stations. So one day we can listen to Radio Ecológica on 1640 kHz and the next day on 1650 kHz as I noted very often. These stations do not give a postal address for this reason. César Pérez Dioses (ARC SOUTH AMERICAN NEWS DESK Nov 2007 edited by Tore B. Vik, MYSEN, Norway, via DXLD) Do they keep to strict 5 or 10-kHz steps, or just vary? (gh, DXLD) ** RUSSIA. V efire --- Hi Glenn, Thanks to Mika Mäkeläinen for his note on Russian IDs in DXLD 7-136. "efire" is the Russian for "ether" - I like the way Russian preserves this term in a radio context. Before it left SW, a very common ID heard was "V efire Mayak", literally meaning "Mayak in the ether", or "Mayak on the air" as we would say in English. For those who might say that "ether" is a quaint misunderstanding of physics, the same could be said of "air" - radio waves requiring neither air nor "ether" to propagate. "V efire" is pronounced as one word - vi-FEAR-ree. Cheers, (Chris Greenway, England, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. 15150 ?? Came across of a Russian language DX programme of "Golos Rossii" at Wed 1340 to 1358 UT. Most probably Pavel Mikhailov speaking - in like machine gun type. 15150 not listed in any frequency list yet. S=9+10 dB, one hop reception, so I guess 250 / 500 kW outlet originate direct from Moscow site. Items noted were amongst a lot of more different ones: "Razdolnje tx site", "Morocco VOA Briech closure in spring 2008", "Swiss Info Broadcast", by Bob Zanotti, U.K. pirate radio feature; and many other items (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 14 via DXLD) ** RUSSIA [non]. 7350, Mayak; *0200+; thanks David Crawford discovery a couple of weeks ago. Nightly and local level; so nice to hear Mayak once again, and the interval signal just before the hour. Not the same Mayak of old, now with sporadic US/UK pop music at times, and slick canned ID's. Transmitter site unknown, thus my generic lumping under "Russia" for this entry (really Moldova or Ukraine?). (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, logs paralleled on the JRC NRD-535 and ICOM R-75, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7350 is Vatican, of all things, at 0200-0600, 294 degrees to USA E of 90 degrees. Russian World Service, Mayak not specifically given, per the B-07 sked in Open DX. At 0300 it switches to VOR in English. Should be // 6155 via Germany and 7150, 12010, 12030 during the 02-03 hour (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Wow. I guess Mayak was an audio place holder. Checking just before 0300 tonight (16 November), it's Voice of Russia in English now (Krueger, ibid.) ** RWANDA. Radio Rwanda, 6055, in vernacular, interspersed with bits of French and English, playing the hits at 2030. Quite an animated announcer, who sounded as though he was having a ball. Sign off at 2100 (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, Nov 15, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. 11854.89 - two stations nearby on 11855 kHz channel. On odd seemingly BSKSA Jeddah in Arabic, prayer HQ at 1440 UT. And on even x.00 YFR Okeechobee FL seems underneath (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 14 via DXLD) ** SPAIN. [Cf GERMANY] REE emite diariamente, para Europa en DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale), durante dos horas, 0800-1000 UTC por la frecuencia de 9780 kHz con una potencia de 100 kws. El DRM es un sistema creado por el consorcio del mismo nombre que establece un sistema digital para las bandas de radiodifusión con modulación de amplitud: Onda Larga, Onda Media y Onda Corta. "Amigos de la Onda Corta`` es un programa de Radio Exterior de España dedicado a las telecomunicaciones y a los oyentes de emisoras de Onda Corta (SW) que tienen como pasatiempo o dedicación especial la captación de las señales de las emisoras extranjeras y el envío de controles de escucha. El desarrollo de las Tecnologías de la Información y de la Comunicación ha aumentado nuestro interés por contenidos relacionados con Internet, las transmisiones y el mundo digital. Las radios internacionales, y en este caso Radio Exterior de España, utilizan todas las vías posibles de comunicación para llevar a los oyentes información sobre las nuevas tecnologías y las telecomunicaciones. La onda corta, el satélite e Internet son medios transmisores y divulgadores de un mensaje sonoro que se renueva semana tras semana. "Amigos de la Onda Corta`` continúa la senda trazada en Radio Exterior de España por anteriores espacios como "CQ, CQ, llamada general`` [VOA] o el "Programa DX de REE``. Una travesía que ha contado con sucesivos relevos: Ambrosio Wang An-Po y Josefina Peña, Pilar Salvador y Pablo Hulka, Antonio Lapeña, Wenceslao Pérez Gómez, Ángel Rodríguez Lozano, Manuel Lobeiras y Antonio Buitrago. "Amigos de la Onda Corta`` puede ser escuchado en vivo o en directo a través de su transmisión ionosférica, por satélite o Internet, y también en diferido cuando lo desee, mediante la descarga del programa en Mp3 o Podcast desde la siguiente dirección: http://www.rtve.es/rne/ree "Amigos de la Onda Corta`` 4 ediciones [but probably +5 mins after hr] Sábado 1100 UT. 13720 15585 EUR 21610 NE/ME/IND 21540 AF 21570 LatAM Domingo 0400 UT. 3350 5965 6125 9535 9620 LatAM 6055 9535 9675 NoAM Lunes 0330 UT. 3350 6125 9535 9620 9765 LatAM 6055 9535 9675 NoAM Viernes 0730 UT. 9710 11920 EUR 15560bei 17770 AS/AUS/PAC 5965 SoAM REE Parilla Programación desde 29 de Octubre de 2007 http://www.rtve.es/archivos/70-7021-FICHERO/ParrillaRee2007Invierno_Renovada.pdf Frecuencias: http://www.rtve.es/archivos/70-6805-FICHERO/FrecuenciasInvierno2007.pdf (REE via wb wwdxc BC-DX Nov 14 via DXLD) ** TUNISIA. Google Earth imagery. RTT Sfax - Sidi Mansour transmitter site 7 SW masts and 2 x MW mast of 1566 kHz unit. 34 49 10.57 N 10 51 06.35 E Yahoo Maps: http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=34.820392&lon=10.851202&z=17.4&r=0&src=yh (Ian Baxter, Australia, SW TXsites, Nov 10 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** TURKEY. Big problem with one of Turkish transmitters! From 0555 UT and following program in Albanian of V of Turkey a strong broom covering all other stations and signals as follows: center frequency 9765 and broom in ranges 9551-9562, 9601-9617, 9711-9819 and 9922-9930 kHz. At 1000 VOT in Romanian center frequency 9560 kHz and broom in ranges 9397-9403, 9408-9420, 9460-9465, 9494-9624, 9652-9660, 9676- 9692, and 9717-9725 kHz (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, Nov 9, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 16 via DXLD) The departing VOT announcer made a second farewell appearance on Thursday`s Live from Turkey, Nov 15 at 1355 on 12035 with good reception. He`s really leaving the country the next day (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. BBC London has introduced additional service in Urdu to Pakistan 0200-0230 9510 11740 15560 0730-0800 15325 15420 17560 1200-1230 7205 9660 11650 15420 (Alok Dasgupta-IND, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 14 via DXLD) ** U S A. VOA WASHINGTON extended VOA Urdu service on SW, in addition to the normal broadcast, are as follows: 0630-0700 17655 17685 1500-1600 7345 9705 1600-1700 7345 7405 1800-1900 7355 7405 (Alok Dasgupta, India, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 14 via DXLD) ** U S A. 9955, 0657, WRMI Radio Miami International with “Glenn Hauser’s World of Radio” edition 1376, giving tribute to Richard Wood, fair in EE, 9/10. BCM (Bryan Clark, NZ, Nov NZ DX Times via DXLD) Unusual to see this reported from NZ (gh) ** U S A. Hi, Glenn! Sorry that I couldn't get this to you sooner: I'm afraid that you have lost WoR's WWCR 12160 UT Sat 1730 airing. I tried to listen to it this past Saturday, and there was a religious program on instead, and it must have been live, because the preacher was discussing that this was the "Saturday morning at 11:30 AM" program with the implication that this would be on the air for the forseeable future (in addition to some evening program(s) in his lineup). Propagation in the evenings has been so variable that it seems we cannot rely on hearing it on WBCQ or in the WWCR DX Block. An odd thing about WWCR propagation to here on 5070 these recent Saturday evenings -- it seems to vanish into the noise earlier in the evening but comes back up into audibility later; means you have to dedicate a radio to 5070 and just leave it on all that timeframe in case the signal returns. Not sure how trustworthy this return in time for hearing WoR will be as the season progresses... 73, (Will Martin, St Louis MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No word from WWCR about whether Sat 1730 is a permanent change or not; guess we`ll just have to tune in and find out (gh, DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. Checking for WORLD OF RADIO on reactivated WBCQ frequency 17495.1-CUSB, UT Thu Nov 15 at 0005, what did I hear? Nothing but Chinese. Yes, CRI is scheduled there from Beijing site southwards from 0000. With all the open frequencies on 16m, why such a collision? Perhaps because WBCQ is registered only until 2300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WBCQ 17495: 1200-2300 UT 50 kW at 245 degrees, main lobe at Toronto, Akron, St. Louis, Little Rock, Austin, Nuevo Laredo, Durango, Mazatlán. WBCQ Kennebunk Monticello approx. at 46 00 00 N 67 49 60 W http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=46&lon=-67.833333&z=16.5&r=0&src=ggl (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX Nov 16 via DXLD) Seems like my city lineup. Kennebunk was previous office location, hundreds of km from Monticello transmitter and office site now (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. Does WWRB really ever use 9430, 11915, 12180 or 15250 as per their web site and/or HFCC listings, i.e. in the approx 1700-2200/2300 period? The only daytime WWRB channel I am able to confirm in the UK is 9385. 73s (Dave Kenny, England, Nov 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 12180 has been active recently, the others I think not, altho have heard in past except 9430. Just checked at 1910 UT Thursday: none of them are on, and 12180 has Spanish 5-digit spynumbers! (Unless that is from WWRB...) Some could be on standby or Saturday/Sunday only. This is a time of day when I don`t do much monitoring, so I could have missed something, and of course above is only one spot check. 73, (Glenn Hauser, to Dave via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Appears WWRB schedule is exaggeratedly registered, but as long as they have paid the FCC for the frequency-hours, they can use them if needed. Any other observations? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U S A. KTMI, the projected SW station in Oregon, was missing from the initial FCC B-07 schedule, so we figured that was the end of it, but now they have registered 50 kW on 9820 at 0700-1100, 309 degrees to CIRAF 35, Kamchatka, and 11570 at 0100-0500, 70 degrees to CIRAF 3, central Canada, 9465 at 0000-0400, 110 degrees to CIRAF 11, CAm & Caribbean. This does not necessarily mean they will be on air anytime soon, as other vapor SW stations are still on the FCC books as long as they pay for imaginary frequency usage (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Station WJCR (shortwave) - Millerstown, [KENTUCKY] USA. Last programming carried: WJIE Based on the following information received from Adrian Peterson, we appear to have the incorrect site coordinates listed in the most recent version of our Excel File for this former SW broadcaster. Adrian provides the following very helpful information: "A week or two back, while en route south from Indianapolis into Kentucky & Tennessee, I took the opportunity to make another visit to the SW station WJCR. I met the son of the founder who is today the manager of the facility down there. The FM station is still on the air under the original callsign WJCR. The SW facility has been off the air for some time, and it is owned by WJIE in Louisville. To get to the SW station WJCR, the directions are as follows:- Take Hwy 65 south, turn right west at Upton exit onto Hwy 224, turn left south onto Hwy 1140 East in Millerstown, turn right onto Leon Srygler Rd, and the station is at the end of this short road. On the recent occasion of my visit to SW WJCR-WJIE, the weather was wet, windy, cold and rainy. Because of this, I did not take any photos, at least not on this occasion. Yes, the antennas are still standing. They are two rhombics, running out approximately west from the transmitter building. They are not impressive, just simply wire running on tall telephone poles." Ian's comments: It not totally clear to me as to where this road ends. based on looking at maps with http://www.flashearth.com I can speculate that the txer building might be somewhere around one of four sites: 37 26 07 N 86 02 11.9 W or 37 26 05.5 N 86 02 04.8 W or 37 25 58.6 N 86 01 49.6 W or 37 25 53.6 N 86 02 15.7 W 37 26 11 N 86 02 07 W http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=37.436515&lon=86.035328&z=17.8&r=0&src=msa Also of interest would be the coordinates of the rhombic antennas. Google Maps & Google Earth resolutions are too poor to see anything, whilst the other aerial views of the other maps as provided by Flashearth provide better medium/low resolution images. Though still to poor to see any antenna masts or shadows there of. Perhaps future map updates to Google Earth will assist. Any further details or clarifications appreciated (Ian Baxter-AUS, SW TXsites, Nov 7 via BC-DX via DXLD) SUBJECT: WJCR - The final chapter --- Hi folks, Many thanks to Adrian & Wolfgang for the following information: Original Text & Site visit information from: Adrian Peterson 2. "…is a small cluster of small buildings. As you enter the property on their roadway-driveway (Leon Srygler Rd), the first building on the left and parallel to the driveway is the studio building for WJCR-FM (and it was also the studio building for WJCR-SW). The 2nd building on the left at right angle to the driveway is their storage-work space building for shipping consignments of welfare goods overseas. The 3rd building on the left at right angle to the driveway is the transmitter building containing 5 transmitters, 3 RCA modified MW, and 2 from VOA Bethany (From Adrian's info this would be 37 25 58N, 86 01 49W - IB) 3. "The 2 rhombic antennas cannot be seen, but they are located south of the transmitter building, if the map is actually correct in its rotation; that is, adjacent to the transmitter building but a little towards the bottom of the map." (As per Wolfgang's post & Adrian's info & noted observations around this area 37 26 11.7N, 86 02 6.9W – At least 5 masts can be seen on Microsoft Visual Earth via Flashearth IB)" 4. "OK, now follow the dirt roadway around the bend that goes to the right (apparently east), and take the track into the stand of trees. That is actually a rising hill, and where the dirt roadway ends, that is the location of the very tall WJCR FM tower" (IB – I believe this would be at 37 26 13N 86 02 11W) Best image is seen with MS Visual Earth (via Flashearth) as per private post from Wolfgang. (IB) Regards (Ian Baxter, Australia, Nov 15, shortwavesites yg via DXLD) ** U S A. WFAW DX Test Final Report I think we have the majority of reports in, and many DXers were able to overcome the challenges presented low power with a rather crowded channel and put WFAW into their logs. For many it was only sweep tones and Morse code, but that's just fine in my book. Here's the list of listeners who have indicated they heard the test: Saul Chernos Burnt River, ON, Canada Pete Dernbach St. Louis, MO Steve Francis Alcoa, TN Bill Harms Elkridge, MD Glenn Hauser Enid, OK David Hochfelder Albany, NY John Hunter Rossville, GA Tom Jasinski Shorewood, IL Chris Johnson Taylors, SC Brandon Jordan Memphis, TN Barry McLarnon Ottawa, ON, Canada Willis Monk Old Fort, TN Tim Noonan Oak Creek, WI Jim Pogue Memphis, TN Dave Pyatt Burlington, ON, Canada Les Rayburn Birmingham, AL Larry Russell Flushing, MI Curtis Sadowski Paxton, IL Brett Saylor Central PA Doug Smith Menomonee Falls, WI J.D. Stephens Hampton Cove, AL John Wilke Milwaukee, WI Bruce Winkelman Tulsa, OK Niel Wolfish Burnt River, ON, Canada Joe Wozniak St. Louis, MO A great big thank you goes out to CE Ernie Swanson for the great test. He was very happy with the results, and just informed me that he has gotten the OK to conduct a test over another station he works for: WRDB - 1400 kHz in Reedsburg, WI. This test on a local channel is going to be a real challenge. But those of you who have been at this for awhile know that some of our best DX tests have come from stations on the graveyard frequencies. Thanks to everyone who tried for the test, and congratulations to those who logged it. Ernie promises a nice QSL package, so get those reports in to him soon. We should have details on a test from a Virginia station put together soon, plus Ernie has several other stations in the upper Midwest that are good possibilities. And we have lots of other irons in the fire too. Check the DXTESTS.INFO Web site frequently and listen to the BTC Podcasts for news and late-breaking developments (Jim Pogue, IRCA/NRC Joint Broadcast Test Committee Coordinator, Memphis, TN, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Possible DX opportunity --- Hi gang - wanted to quickly post something. Looks like 790 KBRV in Soda Springs, Idaho is actually running at full power today. I have no idea why but with them, this usually doesn't last. The MOST I've seen them run their full 5 kW in most of the 17 years I've lived here in SW Wyoming is about a week then they're gone again. Have no clue why but for some reason they have a hard time staying at 5 kW. They've been absent for quite some time, since the spring of this year but they're there today. So might be an opportunity to grab them. Looks like their format is some sort of AC or 70s. Heard Elton John-Bennie & the Jets and Andrew Gold- Lonely Boy. Might be an opportunity for some of you to grab them if you need them since it doesn't seem very often that they are running at full power. On a related note, FCC shows there's still a CP for them to move to 800 kHz at 50 kW. Obviously that hasn't happened yet. Strange thing is I don't see the CP listed in the list of applications so I don't know when it was issued or when it expires. Some of you that are a little more FCC-savvy than I am might be able to figure that one out. I'm curious to know how long they have to do this move if they're going to do it at all (Michael n Wyo Richard, Nov 15, ABDX via DXLD) The CP to increase to 50 kW was granted November 15, 2006, exactly one year ago. They have 2 years left, from today, to build it out. That 50 kW covers a much larger area, obviously, including a major city. I would be surprised to see them sell the station as is with the CP.. or build out the CP then sell it (Paul Walker, SC, ibid.) ** U S A. It's been more than 20 years since RKO salvaged the sale of its then-WOR-TV (Channel 9) by playing a political game in which the station's license was moved across the river from New York City to Secaucus, NEW JERSEY, but the ramifications of that move are still being felt. The station (now WWOR) has gone through several owners in the interim, and its current licensee, Fox Television Stations, came under fire from several activist groups (including the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition) for failing to adequately serve the needs of New Jersey viewers. So before the FCC will issue a license renewal (as it almost inevitably will), it's scheduling a rare public hearing on the issue. The hearing will take place Nov. 28, from 4 to 6 PM, at the Rutgers University Newark campus, and while we'd expect plenty of complaints about WWOR's news coverage and the general lack of specific local broadcast service to the millions of people who call northern New Jersey home, we'd be surprised to see the FCC justify a non-renewal of the WWOR license in an era in which other broadcasters are held to almost nonexistent standards of community service. (We'd be unsurprised, however, to find Fox making a few concessions that will thwart its plans to consolidate the WWOR operation into the Manhattan studios of its WNYW.) (Scott Fybush, NE Radio Watch Nov 12 via DXLD) ** VATICAN [non]. VR relay via Sackville, 6100 at 0230-0400 in French, English, Spanish, which as we pointed out collides with DentroCuban Jamming Command and Radio República, is being moved to 6040. Seems like they had to do the same thing in a previous season, perhaps because República refuses to register it usage (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also RUSSIA [non] ** VENEZUELA. Radio Amazonas en el aire, este 14/11, a las 2124 UT (captada desde las 1900), con una onda expansiva de distorsión desde 4925 hasta 4940 kHz. Transmite vallenatos e identificaciones. Locutor de guardia. ¿Conocerá uno de los colegas a algún ingeniero de transmisiones de la estación de marras? Es insólito que aún no hayan solventado ese problema. SINPO 35533. 73s y buen DX, (Adán González, Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) marras == long ago ** ZAMBIA. 13590, CVC via Lusaka, 0625-0630. 13 Nov. Lively reggae- style religious songs, W in English with TC for Central African Time, undermod jingle into barnyard animal sounds & TC/ID for "8:30, Probably the best radio station in the world, Radio Christian Voice." Quick news headlines & gone. Aoki B07 says 06-14, but no signal or carrier heard after 0631 (Dan Sheedy, CA, R75/Kiwa & Par EF102040, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also UNIDENTIFIED 13650 UNIDENTIFIED. A private e-mail correcting data from PEI resulted in a new map of the signal on 1181: http://tonnesoftware.com/1180H.gif (JimTonne, Nov 14, ABDX via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Noted a Russian language 5 number station yesterday Tue Nov 6th 1735 UT on exact 5820 kHz. (wb, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 7) UNIDENTIFIED. Number station in eastern Europe accented English noted at 1630-1648 UT on 7830.00 kHz, overmodulated suuuuuperpower signal here in Germany, S=9+20 dB (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 15 via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 12180, checking whether WWRB was active on registered frequency, Nov 16 at 1910, heard instead 5-digit Spanish YL spy numbers, only fair signal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. On which side of the pond is the unidentified on 13650 coming from (Nov. 14)? A concert (with audience) of American singers and guitars has been in progress from before 1530 (I don't know the artists) and still going at 1615 without any announcements heard so far. It's a fair to weak signal here, now with lots of fading (Noel R. Green (NW England), really Nov 15, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Listened from 1625 past 1630 Nov 15. Sounds like hymns, soft gospel. Rather weak here, so doubt it`s in NAm. My guess is CVC Lusaka testing already; see Aoki: 13650 CVC INTERNATIONAL 1400-1700 1234567 English 100 315 Lusaka ZMB 02815E1530 CVC b07 Dec. 1- 13650 CVC INTERNATIONAL 1400-1700 1234567 English 100 125 Yerevan- Gavar ARM 04511E4025 CVC b07 Or is this frequency really Armenia? And note Dan Sheedy`s report of Zambia on 13590 at 0600+ (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Also audible here with from 1650 tune-in, with continuous music. Still going strong at 1705. I agree with Glenn that Zambia testing is the most likely explanation. (Armenia wouldn't propagate like this and would have closed at 1700) (Dave Kenny, Caversham UK, AOR7030 + 80ft LW, ibid.) Thanks Glenn and Dave for the replies. Slightly different reception in NW England to centre south of the country - it faded out at around 1645 at my location. I too would favour Zambia rather than Armenia - RNW via Madagascar (if my information is correct) has been audible here at 1600-1700 on 13840 recently and so southern Africa should also make it to Europe (and N America). BTW - 13650 is listed as a Sunday only frequency for WHRA at 1500-1600 on their website. I couldn't hear the weekday 15665, but did hear something American on 17650 at 1600 which seemed to rule out any involvement by this station. 73 from (Noel R. Green, England, ibid.) Look out for 9430 at 5-6 UT too. Lusaka CVC Makeni ranch west of Lusaka is at 15 31'40.69"S, 27 58'44.34"E in G.E. unfortunately in low resolution. http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=-15.527969&lon=27.978983&z=14.8&r=0&src=ggl 9430 0500-0600 46SE LUS 100 315 English ZMB CVC CVI 13590 0600-1400 46SE LUS 100 315 English ZMB CVC CVI 13590 1400-2100 46SE LUS 100 315 English ZMB CVC CVI 13650 1400-1700 46SE LUS 100 315 English ZMB CVC CVI 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) see also ZAMBIA UNIDENTIFIED. I suspect Saudi Arabia has made some schedule changes not yet showing up in the registrations. Once again on Nov 14 at 1500, no sign of the scheduled Call of Islam service on 15435, but at 1507 I did hear a weak muezzin on 15170, which is a BSKSA frequency in the local mornings, but nothing scheduled at this hour; no more audible at 1528 recheck (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 15660, something new here not in HFCC or Aoki, at 1408 news with English actualities, voiceovered in unID language, about Pakistan. Sounds like a major broadcaster (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ WRC-07 - ERO REPORT ON THIRD WEEK The European Radiocommunications Office (ERO) has published a report on the third week of the World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC- 07). Agenda Item 1.13 deals with the HF bands between 4 MHz and 10 MHz, the ERO report says: During the third week of the Conference it was expected to have a decision on the YES or NO for additional broadcasting in the range 4- 10 MHz. With a lot of regret that it became a NO for the so much needed additional spectrum for the broadcasters. During formal and informal meetings a lot of pressure was put on CEPT, as CEPT was the only regional organisation who had prepared proposals for additional spectrum. During the Conference, CEPT has tried to find a compromise by even lowering the amount from 350 to 200 kHz. And even during the last informal meeting, one country, from outside CEPT, proposed 100 kHz as a compromise, but even that was not acceptable for all the others. Via internal CEPT meetings it was decided to state during the Committee 4 meeting that CEPT was not willing to compromise to a NOC nor to withdraw its proposals as requested and suggested by the other regional organisations, but to agree with a lot of reluctance to the option having no additional spectrum for broadcasting during this Conference in order to let the Conference to progress. During the Plenary meeting, also United Kingdom has made a statement in the same direction. After this statement, the other 1.13 related issues were agreed in a speedy manner. As a major part of Appendix could not be touched as advised by the ITU Head of the Legal Department, a revised version of Resolution 351 was developed for a stand-alone agenda item for the WRC-11 Conference. Also it was concluded that studies should continue and a new resolution was developed for the continuation of studies and collecting data. On the radio amateur matters, CEPT had proposed, via a footnote, that administrations may allow radio amateur service to use, on a secondary basis and with power restrictions, part of the lower 5 MHz band. Unfortunately even that proposal was not supported. As the footnote for CEPT was not the most important issue for AI 1.13, CEPT agreed to the majority view for no change in Article 5 of Radio Regulations. It has to be concluded that CEPT has lost the battle on this agenda item, although the developed proposals were correct, feasible and advantageous for all services. Other agenda items also reference allocations used by the Amateur Radio and Amateur Satellite services: Agenda Item 1.15 concerns an Amateur secondary allocation at 135.7- 137.8 kHz", ERO say COM 4 has finalised its work on agenda item 1.15. Therefore, there is nothing to report on this item for the third week. On Agenda Item 1.12 they say An agreement has been reached on RNSS in the bands 1 215-1 300 MHz and 1 559-1 610 MHz : MOD 5.328B and MOD 5.329A Agenda Item 1.4 relates to future development of IMT-2000, the report says Modifications to the table of frequency allocations and related Resolutions were developed for all remaining candidate bands (450-470 MHz, 470-862 MHz, 2300-2400 MHz and 3400-4200 MHz). The full report can be downloaded from http://www.ero.dk/83DD42B0-83DE-4981-81F0-9F882451BC7F?frames=no & For other WRC-07 related documents on the ERO website follow these steps: 1. Go to the ERO home page http://www.ero.dk/ 2. Under "ECC Activities" select "Meeting Documents" 3. In "Select Group:" choose "Conference Preparatory Group" 4. In "Select Year:" choose "CPG-2007" (Southgate http://www.southgatearc.org/news/november2007/wrc07_ero_third_week.htm via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) 41st EDXC CONFERENCE The Finnish City of Vaasa SEPTEMBER 5-7, 2008 Dear DX -- Friends ! We just came back from the 40th EDXC CONFERENCE in Lugano, Switzerland. Detailed report you will receive in a few weeks time. During the Conference in Lugano, Mr. Risto Vahakainu from the Finnish DX Association made an announcement about the next years Conference in Finland. The Finnish DX Association, The Suomen DX -- Liitto will be celebrating the 50th Anniversary next year, 2008. In connection with this they wish to arrange the EDXC CONFERENCE 2008. The Conference language will be English. They promise an interesting programme during 3 days : SEPTEMBER 5 --- 7, 2008. VENUE OF THE CONFERENCE: The Finnish City of Vaasa, on the West Coast of Finland. Additional / optional travel after the Conference will be also offered either to the Baltic States or to the Northern Part of Finland. We are coming back with more details to You later on. With very best wishes and greetings from Stockholm, T i b o r S z i l a g y i EDXC Secretary General Phone : 0 0 4 6 8 5 0 0 2 6 4 8 3 . E --- Mail : tiszi2035 @ yahoo.com Written in Vaesterhaninge / Sweden on Monday, November 5, 2007 at 12:16 Hours (via Dario Monferini, playdxyg via DXLD) WORLD OF HOROLOGY +++++++++++++++++ ALL LOGS SHOULD BE IN UNIVERSAL TIME I have never understood how geographical or frequency boundaries should make a difference in how times are reported for logs. Everybody doing his own thing in local time, especially the rest of us who have to cope with DST whether we like it or not, just makes for mass confusion unless you`re only discussing what you hear with your fellow timezonians, which is not the case in most DX lists. The only constant and non-confusing zone, internationally recognized is UT = GMT = Zulu. Once you get acquainted with it, all ambiguity and confusion vanishes. If one has more than one clock or watch, why not set one of them on UT until it becomes second nature. It shouldn`t be a matter of majority rule, by opinion or location, but simply using the best compromise to convey info accurately and unambiguously. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ABDX via DXLD) Glenn, I made the suggestion once or twice on the other two major radio clubs just to use UTC for everything. I got my head handed back to me. A long time ago, back in the dim ages of the early and nacent times of ABDX, probably in mid 2001, we had this argument on how to report times. It was a mess. I finally said, report your times any way you want. Later you came to ABDX and suggested UTC for HF and we went with that since it made the most sense. Everything in HF is in UTC. My HF logs are in UTC. At least I try to send them in UTC and 24 hour time as well (Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) Just a comment and suggestion. I'm still listening to my mp3 recordings, but suspect I won't be hearing the DX test. A large number of people reported hearing or tentatively hearing WFAW. I was quite confused over the times, though. Some use EST, others CST, and quite a few others state no time zone at all. This is highly confusing. In the SWL world, one only uses UTC. This is my preferred format. In this way, there is no chance of confusion. Is there any similar protocol on the MW side of the house? If not, may I suggest we all use UTC, or at the very least what time zone you are referring to! Thanks to all the organizers of this DX test (Walt Salmaniw, IRCA via DXLD) Thinking back about 25 years ago, and I recall being on the IRCA BOD for a while back then. I submitted a proposal to make UT standard for all club columns and was shot down faster than our first troops that landed on Omaha Beach. 73 KAZ who still wants UTC standard (Neil Kazaross, IL, NRC-AM via DXLD) I prefer using either Eastern Time, or the time zone of which the station is in. Not all of us know, care to know or care to learn how to figure out UTC time, nor should we be just because a select few want it (Paul B Walker, Jr., SC, NRC via DXLD) We're not exactly talking brain surgery here - if you're in Eastern Time, UT is local time plus four hours in the summer, plus five hours in the winter. So if I'm typing this at 1611 local standard time, I add five hours and --- presto! It's 2111 UT. That said, I'm content to go with the flow depending on which club I'm reporting to; as long as there's some indication of what time zone the reporter is in, and whether they're using local time or UTC, I'm cool with that. s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) Something like 30 years ago the NRC settled on UTC for IDXD and ELT (EST and EDT) for DDXD, both columns in "DX News". Accordingly, I believe that most reportage elsewhere (like on this listserv) has followed that paradigm, with international DX being reported in UTC, and domestic DX (USA and Canada) in ELT. I can understand why those who deal mostly with UTC would prefer the use of it, and I hope they can understand why every time time changes back and forth from DST I can't remember whether I need to use -5 or -6 hours to figure out how to calculate the UTC difference from CST/CDT and have to look it up! - (Paul Swearingen, Topeka, ibid.) One easy way to access UTC is to call (303) 499-7111. That's the phone number for WWV - it will automatically answer & play over the phone the same audio the shortwave stations broadcast. Of course, if you have a shortwave radio you can avoid the long-distance charges(grin). In the days before computers, hams were known to buy an extra cheap clock and keep it set to UTC. Today, you can download free clock applications that will display UTC on your computer. I would suggest that UTC is at least as meaningful as EST/EDT when used by West Coast DXers - or by the rest of us when reading their reports. 1,500-mile DX of a Class A station at 1800 ELT this time of year is nothing worth reporting - unless your local time is PST. (in which case that DX was logged at 1500 local, well before sunset) (Doug Smith, ibid.) I have a 24 hour clock next to my radio set to UTC (Greenwich Mean Time) which of course never changes, only this country and Canada have the hairbrained scheme of changing the time you read on your clock twice a year. Here's a website for the mathematically challenged: http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/ (Bob Young, Analog, MA, ibid.) Sorry, but the DST plague has spread to a lot more countries, especially Europe, and even some in the tropix where it makes even less sense (gh, DXLD) Both clubs had considered this back in the 1970's, and in the NRC, also earlier. In both cases a smallish number of mainly international DX'ers proposed it. Since active international DX'ers do not comprise a significant proportion of the membership of either club, the majority would understandably be resistant to it, whereas most of those who are either mainly international DX'ers or who do both are already quite accustomed to converting (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA ( 360' ASL ) [15 mi NNW of Philadelphia], ibid.) I really like the idea of using UTC with DX test notifications. But there is no avoiding the risk of a time miscalculation. If using UTC, the person organizing the test would need to make sure they - and the engineer at the station- are both on the same page in converting local time to UTC. This could get tricky, especially close to a time change or when dealing with an area where there is no time change. So, no matter what system is used, UTC or local time, the people organizing and running a test have to be very careful to set the right time. It would of course be pretty straightforward for any DXer able to calculate UTC. But wouldn't it be funny (Not!) if the organizers of a test and the station got it wrong and tested at a time when no one was listening. My bottom line is I will happily go with the flow, but I I could get very used to doing al my DX reportage and communication in UTC, because it is universal. However, that does not change the fact that we would still have to take care with our time zone number- crunching (Saul Chernos, Ont., IRCA via DXLD) LA CROSSE TECHNOLOGY RADIO CONTROLLED WALL CLOCK New clock --- Early this year I purchased a La Crosse Technology radio controlled wall clock to put on the wall in my radio room. It works okay, but messed up with both DST time changes. This fall I finally emailed their support to ask about it. They asked a few questions and then asked for my mailing address. Today there was a brand new clock at my door when I got home from work. I didn't even ask them to replace it. I have to give La Crosse credit for standing behind their product. A lot of companies would have given me the run-around, claiming it was my fault some how and hoping I'd forget about it. The only connection to radio is that this is the clock I refer to when making log entries, so it's nice to know it always has the correct time (Jay Heyl, Orlando FL, ABDX via DXLD) Now fellers, there is also another connection to radio. It IS a radio- controlled clock. It's always right because it's always listening to WWV or one of its companions. So it IS very on-topic :D The clocks are (like most other modern-day appliances) hard-coded with the dates that daylight savings [sic] time is SUPPOSED to occur. That is, before G.W. decided to screw all that up. Now most computers and computerized appliances and VCRs and receivers and the like --- they all "fell back" a week earlier than scheduled because the president added a week on either side of it this year. Dumb idea if you ask me but no one did so don't take that political. But his little idea that did little good sure caused a whole lot of ruckus with BILLIONS of appliances/computers/gadgets that have all incorporated the "latest technology" over the years so that they'd be trouble-free and you'd never have to worry about re-setting the clock when daylight savings time began/ended. Most of us that have modern-day Windows XP computers (and Vista and Macs) received automatic software updates to fix the problem. But any others ended up jumping ahead a week early and falling back a week early. I know Kevin Redding is laughing his a$$ off right now at all of us who must go through all this BS just to observe daylight savings time --- something that Arizona, parts of Indiana, and Hawaii (and other places too) don't have to worry about. But YES Jay, your radio- controlled clock is controlled by the atomic clock, something we pick up on shortwave radio. Therefore I say it's quite on-topic indeed. My political ranting, however, was NOT on-topic. I only get a little miffed because I'm a tech and I had to be the one to fix a lot of those matters that occurred (Michael n Wyo Richard, ibid.) My two radio-controlled clocks, one analog, the other digital, took care of the DST change with the radio signal, so evidently, they weren't hard coded as they're both several years old and manufactured before the law changed. Of course, only the digital clock includes the day and date, so that would have been the only one hard coded of the two (Bob Smoak, Bamberg, SC, ibid.) WWVB, actually, broadcasting at 60 kHz. Two things here. First, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 was passed by the House and the Senate. You can't blame G.W. for everything Congress does. Well, you can, but you'd be wrong. Sometimes they do things even when he pulls out the veto stamp. He didn't in this case, but I'm just saying... Second, the WWVB signal contains two DST bits that change in sequence on the day the time is supposed to change. One bit changes at the beginning of the day, the other at the end of the day. This lets properly designed clocks prepare for the change. Clocks designed according to the instructions freely given away by NIST (and readily available on the internet) use these bits, not some pre-programmed dates. The reason La Crosse replaced my clock is that they messed up with the design. The beginning of DST was actually moved to three weeks earlier than it had been. Interestingly, the last time they messed with this the candy manufacturers were some of the prime lobbyers, wanting to get the fall change moved past Halloween so the kids would have an extra hour of daylight to trick-or-treat. Congress changed it, but not in the way the candy folks wanted, ending DST the week before Halloween. Now that very few kids go trick-or-treating anymore, Congress finally moves it to the beginning of November. I suspect more difficulty actually occurred due to this change than occurred due to the Y2K "problem". It's supposed to save energy by moving more daylight to the evening hours when most people will be awake, rather than having the sun come up at 4am when most people will be asleep anyway. I'm not sure it really makes all that much difference these days. Indiana joined the rest of us fools and changed their clocks this year. They had a real mess before, with some parts of the state being EST, some unofficially being EDT, and some being CDT. Effectively three time zones in one state. At least now they're down to just two (Jay Heyl, ABDX via DXLD) I should not have said anything and I apologize to anyone who got offended. I usually don't follow politics at all and don't care because that's a taboo subject. I guess I assumed it was Bush. It was Congress. All in all, whoever it was, it was not a good idea. Personally I'm with the Arizonans --- just leave things alone to begin with and don't change anything. It is what it is. But my point was that DST change times had been the same since their inception way back when and now we had finally reached the technology age where VCRs, TVs, Computers, phones, etc., could now be programmed to take care of this automatically so life is a bit easier. Then they (Congress) went and changed it for (in my opinion) no valid reason. Seems to me it did more harm than good and was just a pointless idea (Michael n Wyo, ibid.) WWVB clocks usually change at 2 AM - which is a good thing, because I have never had one reliably change in the middle of the day when I push "reset". Given how ridiculously undersized ferrite bars are in AM radios related to wavelength - the situation is much worse at 60 kHz, especially in a clock with a small case. I'm in Plano, TX, less than 1000 miles from WWVB. I don't see how those atomic clocks even work in the NorthEast or Florida, given how weak the signal must be. Let alone Alaska or Hawaii - unless there is a WWVBH (Bruce Carter, ibid.) Having lived in the northeast for many years, the clocks do a great job of receiving WWVB, no problem (Kevin Redding, ibid.) I have no problem receiving WWVB 60 kHz here in PEI, even though consumer atomic clocks are marketed in Canada as will not work in Atlantic Canada. But I did take care in setting it up. Needless to say, mine is set for UTC figure out my AST or ADT by subtracting 4 hours or 3 hours respectively (Phil Rafuse, ibid.) The clock that La Crosse replaced doesn't seem to have a problem picking up the signal, but I have another La Crosse time and weather gizmo that practically refuses to pick up WWVB. It's still running on DST because it hasn't picked up the signal, even though I've moved it to several different places in the house. I guess I'm going to have to put it outside overnight. Just correcting a point of fact here. The dates for DST have changed many times since its inception. The last change was in 1987. There were also temporary changes in the '70s to allegedly save energy during the big "crisis". DST started in January during one of those years. At the risk of picking at an old wound, this is one of the reasons some of us advocate the use of UTC for all logs. It never changes. (Well, technically it does, but only by a tiny amount to correct for the earth's rotation slowing.) (Jay Heyl, ibid.) LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ KISWAHILI IS THE FASTEST GROWING AFRICAN LANGUAGE Kiswhahili is the fastest growing African language and ranks among six languages used by the United Nations to broadcast radio programmes. This was revealed by Dr Peter Mtesigwa, a linguist from Kiswahili Research Institute (TUKI) of the University of Dar es Salaam, when presenting a paper at the ongoing symposium for Kiswahili language international broadcasters in Dar es Salaam yesterday. Other languages used for broadcasting UN programmes are English, German, French, Portuguese and Arabic. Other officially recognised languages by the UN system, which are not used to broadcast programmes, are Spanish and Chinese. Dr Mtesigwa said Kiswahili is no longer limited to local use as was the case before, since it has spread from the coastal areas of East Africa to the interior and across borders. He said Kiswahili is among the highly spoken and respected languages worldwide which is also used at a regional level. “Kiswahili is currently spoken among more than 100 million people in Africa, Europe, Australia, Asia, South and North America,” he stressed. He called on the media to understand its role in enhancing the development of standard Kiswahili worldwide, noting that the media should avoid grammatical, phonetic, phonological stylistic and semantic errors to maintain standard Kiswahili in both written and spoken discourse. Earlier, the chief of Kiswahili Language Unit in the Department of Public Information at the United Nations Radio, Mr Abdillahi Rijal, told the TSN Daily News that Kiswahili is the only African language used for permanent broadcasting services at the UN and challenged African leaders to assist in advancing it. He said the UN radio has been broadcasting in Kiswahili since the 1960s, adding that the radio is currently broadcasting through Internet, providing African radio stations with its Kiswahili programmes twice a week. The professional broadcaster named Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC), Burundi Radio, Rwanda Radio, South African Broadcasting Corporation, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation and Uganda Broadcasting Corporation as the main stakeholders with key roles to play in the spread of Kiswahili. (Source: TSN Daily News)(November 14th, 2007 - 10:27 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: GERMANY [non], NETHERLANDS ANTILLES [and ++++++++++++++++++++ [non]; NEW ZEALAND; SPAIN DTV TRANSITION COSTLY AND UNFAIR TO BROADCASTERS The unfunded mandates on the TV broadcasters during the DTV transition have been huge, especially in the smallest markets, where the cost of new transmitters, antennas, towers, master-control gear, etc. has in some cases literally been more than the stations themselves have been worth. Profit margins in local TV are down dramatically - and if you don't want to take my word for that, look at the sudden collapse a few days ago of Clear Channel's deal to sell its group of TV stations. In a lot of markets, cable/satellite penetration is now north of 90%. Those viewers don't need to hear a lot about the DTV transition - it won't affect them. Even those viewers who will be affected can't do much about it just yet; it'll be next spring before those NTIA $40 coupons for converter boxes are available, along with the inexpensive boxes themselves. I'd be steamed, too, if I were being forced by the government first to spend millions of dollars to stay on the air, and then to give up chunks of my airtime for a promotional campaign that won't mean anything to pretty much any of my viewers just yet. (None of this, incidentally, has anything to do with the political views of Rupert Murdoch, Clear Channel, or anyone else who owns a TV station; I think that's a red herring as far as this topic goes.) s (Scott Fybush, WTFDA via DXLD) ENGINEERS CONFESS ABOUT IBOC My chief engineer forwarded this to me (apparently from Radio World's website) 'Anti' IBOC Alliance Membership Grows by Leslie Stimson, 11.14.2007 (Leslie Stimson is the News Editor and Washington Bureau Chief for Radio World.) WYSL owner Bob Savage says he has more than 90 members for his new anti-IBOC alliance which I mentioned in my last post. None wished to be identified by name. "For the most part these people are not bomb-throwing reactionaries but are radio pros who are genuinely concerned about IBOC's adverse effects on AM radio," he tells me. The entries also include "many accounts of serious interference" he says. There are a few DXers, ham operators and other "civilians" among that group; however, he said, the majority are broadcasters who represent a cross-section "from the small-market guys all the way to major-market 50 kW AM stations." One anonymous "confessional entry," he says, "loses sleep over being forced by management to install HD-AM, which he regards as an ethical transgression, because it generates harmful interference. He's certain that if his name and station got out he would lose his job." (via Randy Stewart, Arts Producer, KSMU, Missouri State University, Springfield MO, Nov 15, IRCA via DXLD) Related: http://www.radioworld.com/pages/s.0121/t.9437.html (via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ FCC "ADMONISHES" AMBIENT OVER BPL ISSUES --- ARRL November 14, 2007 The FCC, in a letter to Yehuda Cern, Chief Engineer for Ambient Corporation, concluded their investigation into whether Ambient's BPL operation caused "harmful interference" to Amateur Radio stations in Briarcliff Manor, New York. The Commission found that "Ambient's BPL operation has violated the radiated emission limits of Section 15.109" of the FCC Rules "and the terms of its experimental license, call sign WD2XEQ." The FCC's letter went on to say that "we hereby admonish Ambient." No findings were made, however, as to whether or not the system actually caused interference to Amateur Radio, and the Enforcement Bureau left open the issue of future experimental BPL operations at Briarcliff Manor... full story at http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2007/11/14/100/?nc=1 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) OOOOH. An admonishment. An admonishment? How about a fine? (John Figliozzi, ibid.) ###