DX LISTENING DIGEST 7-138, November 18, 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 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 ** ALBANIA. R. Tirana, November 16, 2007 *1945-1957* 7465 kHz. "News Bulletin" and "Albanian Press Review". SIO 554 73, (Kraig, KG4LAC Krist, Manassas, VA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7465, 1948-2000 17 Nov, R. Tirana in English with news, commentary on Tirana, poor modulation, co/channel QRM and fading, end transmission at 1957 (John Kecskes, Australia, HCDX via DXLD) CCI from what??? R. Tirana, Nov 16 English to NAm at 2115 inaudible on 9915, maybe off for antenna repairs? Or not propagating, but // 7430 to Europe was coming in well, so we are still covered with lower winter MUFs (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS. 4760.00, AIR Port Blair, 1120 to 1140 11 Nov, slowly fading in while watching gray line clock. Excellent subcontinental music. Tnx Scott Barbour for encouraging me to make a 60 meter band dipole. Have been reading "The Sign of the Four", in Sherlock Holmes The Novels: New Annotated Edition, a gift from my son. Andaman Islands play an interesting part in this novel (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach FL, Japan Premium via DXLD) Also heard 1445-1540, Nov 07, Hindi talks, 1530 Delhi news in English, 33343, QRM from weaker AIR Leh (presumed) played Indian film songs, talk in a different Indian language (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Nov 14 via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. RAE, 15344.6, Friday Nov 16 at 2253 in what must be DX program in Spanish, feature about the BBC, and missionary station in Congo DR whose name sounded like Radio Pacis, really Kahuzi? M&W alternate reading each sentence of script. Then some DX tips credited to Arnaldo Slaen and Conexión Digital, Cairo 6290, Rusia 6240, DW Sines 15275, Zambia 4965; outro at 2258 says it was Suplemento de Actualidad DX, written by Gabriel Iván Barrera; 2259 into next program, Conociendo la Argentina. Tho off-frequency as usual, there was nothing on 15345 at this hour to het RAE. Last info I had was that this DX program aired Fri at 2315, evidently moved forward to 2250 or so; also supposed to be on 11710, 6060, not heard or checked. May mean that the original Actualidad DX on Tuesdays is also at 2250 instead of 2315. How about the morning airing I have on the calendar at 1220? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. 5130 (Harmonic) AM1710, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, (1710 kHz x 3), 2345+, November 11, Spanish, ID as: “Desde Villa Urquiza, suena la 1710”, 44444 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA [and non]. Gentlemen, now that conditions are less than optimal, Radio Australia's transmissions in Eastern North America are weaker than normal. One can now clearly hear the 20 kHz of slop emanating from CRI's Cuba transmitter on 9570. Though Radio Australia's transmissions are currently weak, they would normally be perfectly listenable, but because of the Cuban, listening to 9580 & 9590 is virtually impossible (Andy Reid, Ont., Nov 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST, cc to Nigel Holmes, RA frequency manager) ** AUSTRALIA. Re 7-137: The MSN Group about the Darwin site reveals a so far unknown fact: CVC shut down two of the three original Collins transmitters and replaced them by two Continental 100 kW units. New or used, and if the latter from where? http://groups.msn.com/HistoryofRadioAustraliaCoxPeninsula/photosofra.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=38&LastModified=4675626876796916020 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Nov 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN RADIO 5 PART SERIES HISTORYCHANNEL TONIGHT "Thanks For Listening" The history of Australian Radio, A five part series starts tonight (Sunday) on the History channel at 7.30 pm http://www.historychannel.com.au/thanksforlistening/home.aspx A compelling, five-part series that takes a definitive look at the medium that has shaped our lives from its inception in the 1920's to the present day. Episode One : Theatre of the Mind / Episode Two : We're On The Air / Episode Three : Music, Music, Music / Episode Four : You Say You Want a Revolution / Episode Five : Here's What's Happening. Cheers (John Smith, Brisbane, Nov 18, ARDXC via DXLD) And if you have a Foxtel IQ have a look in the "On Demand" menu - the first episode was downloaded to the hard-disk a few days ago which allows you to watch you it early. It's great! I'm looking forward to episode 2. Cheers, (Mark Fahey, ibid.) Another long story about this: RADIO WITH PICTURES http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2007/11/11/1194749391193.html (via Dan Say, BC, DXLD) I suppose HC will never show it in USA (gh) ** AUSTRIA. Some transmitter pictures (both sites/antennas and equipment) are available at http://www.deutsches-drm-forum.de/html/drm_sendestellen.html Go to "Sender-Kurzwelle", "Sender-Mittelwelle" and "Sender-Langwelle", respectively. Moosbrunn: It is my understanding that rather the new Thomson transmitters there are in use for the (now almost discontinued, away from a single CVC transmission) DRM services while the second S4005 unit is largely occupied by AWR and the first one on air all-day long on 6155 anyway. Btw, some hints indicate that Moosbrunn could probably face its closure if ORF should decide to abandon shortwave (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Nov 17, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also GERMANY ** BANGLADESH. Dear Friends, Radio Bangladesh is not heard after the cyclone hit Bangladesh. 4750 kHz, 693 kHz MW (1000 kW) etc. used to be heard well here in Hyderabad before. On 4750 Chinese station is heard while on 693 kHz an Iran station is heard this evening. On 7 MHz Amateur band, a Bangladesh Amateur Station Mr. Maju with callsign S21AM was reported by Amateurs in Kolkata operating today daytime with low power on battery (not heard at my station due to band conditions). (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, National Institute of Amateur Radio Hyderabad, India, http://www.niar.org 1632 UT Nov 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio Bangladesh is noted back on air on 4750 but 693 is still off. (Jose, 1246 UT Nov 17, ibid.) 4750 was noted back on air when I checked at around 1230 UT, 693 still missing. At around 1205 UT, VU2CSV, Deep from Kolkata was noted in QSO with S21DM, Himayat from B'desh on 7045 LSB. Exchanged usual info's on cyclone. S21DM informed that he is absolutely fine. VU2CSV informed that some of the Kolkata hams are in touch with High Commission of B'desh regarding permission to move into cyclone hit areas of B'desh with their HF equipment for help. VU3SUY & VU2DPD also joined later on. S21 & Kolkata hams normally operate on 7045 during 0100-0200 UT. Regards, (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, 1243 UT Nov 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 693 was also noted back on air at around 1250 UT with female announcer announcing that they were off the air due to power breakdown. Regards, (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, 1301 UT Nov 17, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELARUS. B07: BR-1 250 kW: 0500-0800 7170 kHz, 1600-1800 6090 kHz 150 kW: 0300-0200 6080 kHz 75 kW: 0300-2300 6115 kHz, 2300-0200 6105 kHz Kanal Kultura, 1125 kHz, 150 kW, 0300-0000 Belorusskoe Radio 250 kW, 1805 - .... 150 kW, 1200-0000, 7390 kHz 75 kW, 1200-0000, 7360 kHz (Sergey Akekseychik, Grodno, Belarus / "open_dx" via Rus-DX Nov 18 via DXLD) 7360, Radio Belarus International; *2100-2116+, 13-Nov; ID spots at sign-on and after news at 2113; Belarus news to commentary at 2115; EZL music bumpers. All in English. SIO=3+32+, QRM includes weak jammer 7350-60; nothing on 7390; // 6090 detectable but covered by roar QRM [DRM; see LUXEMBOURG] (Harold Frodge, MI, MARE Tipsheet Nov 16 via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 6089.95, Rádio Bandeirantes, São Paulo, 0835-0845, Nov 17, Portuguese talk. Fair but slight DRM QRM. // 9645.24-very weak. Anguilla 6090 off the air (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BULGARIA. RADIO BULGARIA'S ENGLISH LANGUAGE DX PROGRAM CELEBRATES ITS 50TH ANNIVERSARY Full text of the special DX program presented by Iva Letnikova- Delcheva and Ivan Videnov alongwith pictures available at : http://www.bnr.bg/RadioBulgaria/Emission_English/Theme_DX_Programme/Material/DX50.htm To listen to this special dx program click on link below : http://213.222.53.195/BNR.RadioBulgaria/Angliiska/DX%20programa/Audio10_eng_14_11_07.mp3 Best Regards, (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, dxldyg via DXLD) ** BURKINA FASO. 5030, RTB, Ouagadougou, 0615+, 17 Nov. Apparently opens around 0600 as unheard before. French/vernacular program with Rebelde whacking them a bit. TIRWR off again (or yet) (Dan Sheedy, CA, R75/PAR 102040 sloper, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dan Sheedy (CA) has already reported that TIRWR was off the air Nov 17, during his Burkina Faso reception on 5030, just after 0600 UT, but also from 0755-0844 I noticed TIRWR was not on. Was too late for me to catch Burkina Faso, but their sunrise is about 0605 UT, which should make for good reception then, if TIRWR cooperates and stays off. [Next day:] 5030, RTB (presumed), Ouagadougou, 0605-0632, Nov 18, TIRWR not heard for a second consecutive day, program in French, consisting mostly of African high-life music and songs, 0622 seemed to change to a type of African rap song, ballad, etc. The timing for this was perfect, as their sunrise was at 0606 UT. Reception would have been fair to good, except for a problem with local noise. Some QRM from Radio Rebelde on 5025. Am very grateful to Dan Sheedy for this tip (Ron Howard, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BURMA [non]. DW noted in English with echo effect now at 1600 on 9795. (ex 9485) (Jose Jacob, Hyderabad, India, Nov 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) DW English to Burma 2 x 9485 txions were in A-07 2 x 9795 txions in B-07 9795 1600-1700 44,49,50 TRM 250 60degrees -30 ENGLISH CLN DWL 9795 1600-1658 40E,41,42 TRM 250 345degrees 0 ENGLISH CLN DWL Yes, 9485 / 9795 noted with echo effect in Germany too. 60 degree outlet is the 4th 250 kW unit at the station, only reserve unit so far... 73 wolfie (Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) The added transmitter on same frequency as another one at Trinco started in early October. By now they should have managed to get them synchronized (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC. I did receive a reply from ICDI regarding its SW transmitter site, but unfortunately the familiar story of not being able to provide coordinates due to security concerns. I have covered the topic of security previously. Regards (Ian Baxter, shortwavesites yg via DXLD) How many lazy-H`s can there be around Boali? (gh, DXLD) ** CHILE. CVC classical music: see JAPAN [and non] ** CHINA [and non]. Pse action against Firedrake-Jammer on 18160 kHz Dear fellow Intruder Busters, No good news: The Chinese Firedragon- Jammer is back again and rattling with his tail on 18160 kHz with an S-9-signal with my dipole. It was first heard on 15 November from 0600 to 0900 UT in Germany, and today 16 November since 0853 (I started to listen) until now at 1215 the telephone is ringing all the time from German hams who want to tell me about the jammer. It is the well known Chinese temple music with flutes and gongs. There is a break of 5 minutes at full hour. Will you please inform your telecoms. authorities as have done Peter HB9CET from USKA Intruder Watch and I myself with the German Bundesnetzagentur. The more complaints the better. The culprit is "Sound-of-Hope" broadcast from Taiwan transmitting on 18160 kHz which "attracts" the jammer for action. The signal is a re-broadcast from Chinese "Chinasat-6B". See http://www.satdirectory.com/firedrake.html for further information. Pse hit also http://www.iarums-r1.org for further information (see "Successful Actions"!) on the left side of the homepage! Be prepared! Regards, (Uli Bihlmayer DJ9KR and Wolf Hadel DK2OM, Nov 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear friends, today, Saturday 17 November 2007, the firedrake jammer is on 18180 kHz. It has left 18160 kHz. I have heard it this morning at 0630 UTC, and it is still on right now at 1130 UTC. Let's keep our fingers crossed that "Sound-of-Hope" together with the music jammer will stay there. Have a nice weekend, and stay tuned! Vy 73 de:- (Uli, DJ9KR, ibid., also via Wolfgang Büschel) As long as it is above 18163, no concern to hams (gh, DXLD) CRI QRM to AUSTRALIA: q.v. ** COLOMBIA [sic]. Radio Colombia, 9630, 2020, Spanish, 333, Nov 14, YL interviewing an OM plus some music and a YL with the ID of Colombia and back to the interview (Stewart MacKenzie, Huntington Beach CA, DX LISTENING DIGEST and copied to numerous DX editors, DX publications and group lists) As soon as I saw this, I sent Stewart, and a few of the cc`s I could see, a correxion, and suggested he make sure it got to his entire mailing list: ``There is no such station as R. Colombia on 9630 or any other frequency. 9630 is REE, Noblejas, Spain, at 1900-2300 to North America. Perhaps they were talking about Colombia. I wonder what your source for this ID was?`` Two days later, I have yet to see any correxion published, except the few I sent directly as cc. And Japan Premium, for one, promptly published the log as if it were correct, thus misleading many others. Colombia is getting to be a hard country to DX on SWBC. Everyone makes mistaxes, including yours truly, but if you do, you have an obligation to get them corrected as quickly and thoroughly as possible! Note that the log was already a couple of days old when he circulated it; plenty of time to research it. Maybe he was thinking of the old Radiodifusora Nacional de Colombia, which IIRC was on 9635 sesquidecades ago, long gone (Glenn Hauser, Nov 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Speaking of 9635: ** CONGO DR [non]. 9635, R. Okapi (via Meyerton, SAf), *0353-0415, 17 Nov. High/low single tones to opening at 0400 in French with "Okapi" drop-ins between items, phone report on Katanga/Lubumbashi, "en Radio Okapi" at 0407 and report from Kisangani; mention of Congo-Brazzaville & République Democratique du Congo, drums and repeated "Okapi" jingle at 0415, then M in French with ID/frequency (Dan Sheedy, CA, R75/PAR 102040 sloper, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9635, R. Okapi via Meyerton, *0400-0419, Nov 18, noted tones before sign-on, drums and into French programming, seems to be various R. Okapi reporters with many recorded items, each item ending with "Radio Okapi", 0415 their usual upbeat "Okapi" singing jingle, fair to good. Again thanks to Dan Sheedy for the heads up that this was being well heard (Ron Howard, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I tipped this already Oct 28, BTW (gh, DXLD) ** COSTA RICA. On Sundays, REE Cariari is on both 15170 and 15125, Nov 18 at 1406, synchronized and with undermodulation, lo-fi. 15125 was weaker, to be expected at 110 degrees vis-à-vis 340 degrees on 15170. Looked for leapfrog mixing product on 15080, but none detected; on 15215 there was a very weak carrier aside WYFR 15210, source unknown (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CROATIA. 3985.03, Croatian Radio-Voice of Croatia, 2315-2329, Nov 16, English "Croatia Today" news program along with sports and weather. IDs. Local music at 2329. Weak but readable. Much better reception on // 7285-via Germany (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. Have not yet reconfirmed FueraCuban R. República`s exact schedule via UK(?) relays for B-07, as the only way to do that is via monitoring, but Nov 16 at 2237 check, 6135 was quite strong, atop DentroCuban jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. TRANSPARENCIA DE RADIO MARTÍ 16 noviembre de 2007 http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y07/nov07/16a1.htm RANCHUELO, Cuba, 16 de noviembre (Félix Reyes Gutiérrez, Cubanacán Press / http://www.cubanet.org ) - Gran impacto ha causado en los residentes del municipio Ranchuelo, provincia Villa Clara, la limpia recepción en sus radiorreceptores de las ondas de Radio Martí desde el pasado 10 de noviembre. Orestes Suárez Torres dijo que la transparencia en la señal de Radio Martí se debe a las averías del equipo instalado en el Comité Militar Municipal con el propósito de interferir las señales de la emisora. Señaló Orestes que cientos de ranchueleros se sienten complacidos por el acontecimiento que representa escuchar a Radio Martí sin interrupción alguna durante los horarios del día y la noche. Mario González López, vecino del reparto 9 de Abril expresó: “Es una felicidad escuchar la emisora sin el sonido intermitente que semeja un claxon. De igual modo ha permitido al pueblo conocer con toda claridad las informaciones de la isla y el mundo que el gobierno oculta (via José Miguel Romero2, dxldyg via DXLD) Almost identical stories like this, fill in the blanks as to location, appear periodically from fueraCuban sources. I`m suspicious; while breakdowns in jamming undoubtedly occur, I doubt that beneficiaries would talk openly about it by name with exile media. And, WTFK???? Martí has one or two MW frequencies, which may be subject to local- area jamming all over the island, but if one of those breaks down surely there would still be QRM from others, or at least the co- channel high-power transmitters Cuba runs specifically to block Martí. So are we talking about SW? That too is subject to heavy jamming, probably both groundwave and skywave, and we know how heavy the skywave jamming gets out to the rest of the world. Since this was shortly after the seasonal schedule changes, could just be that this was a period when the DentroCuban Jamming Command had not caught up with the latest frequencies, as we have observed some of them briefly unjammed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CYPRUS [non]. Looking for CyBC`s weekend-only external service in Greek, Friday Nov 16 at 2241 on 6180, good signal with Greek music, or so I thought; but nothing audible on // 9760, not propagating? Nor 7210. Still going on 6180 past 2245, however, and soon became clear it was RN Amazônia instead when the Greek-sounding music had Portuguese lyrix! And then a Portuguese announcement. Bryan Alexander had it figured out in DXLD 7-135. Perhaps CyBC needs to rethink its frequency selexion (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [non non] 9760, Cyprus BC Corp, Limassol, *2215-2244*, Nov 17, Sign on with local Greek music and into Greek talk. Sign off with Greek music. Listed for Fri, Sat, Sun only. Good at sign on but very weak by 2225 & only a threshold signal by 2244. // 7210-fair level but mixing with a strong China Radio International. // 6180-very weak under Brazil's Radio Nac da Amazônia (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DJIBOUTI. 4780, Radio Djibouti; 0518-0534+, 13-Nov; M&W in French - - the man sounds like Bro. Stair! Classical music bumpers. Afro music 0523-0530. Extensive ID at 0530, pronounced Jee-boo-tee'. SIO=3+43+ with occasional ute blasts (Harold Frodge, MI, MARE Tipsheet Nov 16 via DXLD) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 5005, Radio Nacional-Bata, 2240-2301* Nov 16, Spanish announcements. Afro-pop music. Sign off with their usual long National Anthem. Not heard in some time. Fairly strong carrier but weak modulation (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6250, R. Malabo, 0532-0605+, 17 Nov. Big signal with hi-life-style vocal, M in Spanish/vernaclar with wake-up chat, "fin de la semana, en compañía de R. Malabo" & "buenos días, compañeros de Radio Malabo", call-in report at 0540 into "programa nacional" feature; government/national news at 06, with local items following & "buenos días, Radio Nacional (Bata?)", more news, best in LSB to avoid nasty RTTY-like beeper QRM on high side of 6250 (Dan Sheedy, CA, R75/PAR 102040 sloper, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6250.0, Radio Nacional-Malabo, 0620-0655, Nov 17, Re-activated frequency. Spanish talk. Many mentions of Radio Bata & Malabo. Afro- pop music. Fair (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6250, Guinea Ecuatorial, RN Guinea Ecuatorial, Malabo 17/11, Spanish, 0619 male: "la ciudad de Malabo celebra hoy", 0621 ID by female, talks about football "la selección de Niger jugará ", short music alternating male talks until 0638; much fading, 33423 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP, Brasil (23 33 S, 46 51 W), Sony ICF SW40, dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DXLD) 6250 also here in Stuttgart around 0518 UT, tiny (Wolfgang Büschel, Nov 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) If this be on in the evening it will collide with R. Cairo`s European language services! (gh, DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [and non]. GERMAN RADIO BROADCASTS TO ETHIOPIA "JAMMED" - HOBBYISTS Shortwave radio hobbyists have reported deliberate interference to the Amharic-language transmissions of Germany's international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle (DW), beamed to Ethiopia. A US hobbyist noted "jamming" of DW's signal on 11645 kHz on 14 and 15 November, and to DW's Amharic broadcast on 15640 kHz on 15 November. (Glenn Hauser, DX Listening Digest, 15 November) A German listener said the interference resembled a combination of sounds, "like bubble, motorboat, pips, and whistle buoy howl". In a separate report, Ethiopian Review website reported on 13 November that VOA broadcasts to Ethiopia had been jammed since 12 November "with the help of the Chinese government that provided technicians and powerful radio jamming equipment". Source: BBC Monitoring research 16 Nov 07 (via DXLD) I`ve always wondered what I am. Now I know (gh, DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [and non]. Ref. the reports in DXLD 7-137 and WOR 1382 that Ethiopia is now jamming Deutsche Welle at 1400-1500 on 11645 and 15640: please note that opposition Ethiopian sources are reporting that VOA in Amharic is also being jammed. The frequencies to check for VOA are: 1800-1900 on 9320, 9860, 11675, 11905, 13870. Can they jam all five?! For example, see http://www.ethiopianreview.com/articles/1489 which says the jamming began on 12 November. Background: As has been well reported in DXLD, Ethiopia has (a) been jamming Eritrea and opposition broadcasts beamed to Ethiopia, and (b) recently brought a number of extra SW transmitters onto the air for its own broadcast services. The two facts may be related (Chris Greenway, England, Nov 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Chris, I agree with your statement totally. About the source of this transmitter and jamming mode equipment: I guess only one country in the world would deliver such technical equipment of sensitive matter to Africa: China mainland. I don't believe that RIZ Zagreb Croatia would deliver such gear. 73 wolfie (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Thanks, Wolfie. I wonder if the various new transmitters that we have seen recently relaying Radio Fana and Voice of the Tigray Revolution in the 6 MHz band are really jamming transmitters which the Ethiopians have been testing? Mauno Ritola and I have counted that the Ethiopians may now have as many as 12 SW broadcast transmitters, which is more than they need for their various services. For example, two transmitters for Radio Fana (one on 6 MHz and one on 7 MHz) would be more than enough. Why do they need three or four for such a service? I am busy tonight and tomorrow, but will try to listen to VOA on Sunday. I suppose the Chinese could be doing the jamming using transmitters in China, but then we would expect Firedrake audio (Chris Greenway, Nov 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re ``UNIDENTIFIED. 15660, something new here not in HFCC or Aoki, at 1408 Nov 16, news with English actualities, voiceovered in unID language, about Pakistan. Sounds like a major broadcaster (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` Yes, it is - it's Deutsche Welle in Amharic in parallel 11645. There is no trace of TRM 15640 and so 15660 seems to be a replacement. It's a good signal but has some QRM from what sounds like audio bursts on the high side. Ah yes, it's the Bulgarian transmitter using 15700 that's still faulty, and splattering it's audio all around the nominal frequency (Noel R. Green (NW England), Nov 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Another check of the jamming situation against Deutsche Welle Amharic service, Nov 16: propagation not so good today vs my high local noise level, and at 1420 nothing audible on 11645 or 15640, which were originally the frequencies for this service. The day before I had an unID on 15660, and this turns out in fact to be the latest frequency for the DW Amharic service. At 1420 there was a report about Somalia, as mentioned frequently along with Washington, and clips in American English into voice-over translation. Was still not sure of its identity but at 1432 ``Yih Deutsche Welle Radio`` ID and theme, so it is DW and it is Amharic. 15640 had been Trincomalee, and only the jamming against it was audible here previously, but the 15660 signal does not have trans- polar characteristics, and DW has indeed switched site as well as frequency, now Rwanda, as reception was fair with no polar flutter. And NO jamming audible --- until 1441 when a slightly unstable carrier came on about 15663 and very slowly began drifting downwards. 1444 another DW ID and theme on 15660. 1451 the interfering carrier was receding back upwards from zero-beat to 15661+. While it was annoying, it never prevented one from hearing what DW was saying, and understanding it if one spoke Amharic. No sign here of the several other jamming modes. DW off at usual 1457* after frequency announcement (I wonder if that had been updated or was deliberately misleading, as jammed services cannot be blamed for doing). The other carrier stayed on a minute or so, then was gone too. Then checking other reports, Noel Green in England made the same ID of 15660, but assumed it was Trinco ex-15640 and he was still hearing // 11645. Chris Greenway in England says that Ethiopian Review reports that Ethiopia is also jamming VOA Amharic since Nov 12. Wolfgang Büschel observes that the only country likely to provide such sensitive equipment to Ethiopia would be China. From the color-coded VOA website Nov 16, HOA language schedules, subject to jamming, to be checked: http://www.voanews.com/english/about/frequenciesAtoZ_a.cfm Somali daily 1600-1630 UTC 1431 13580 15620 daily 1630-1800 UTC 13580 15620 Afan Oromo M-F 1730-1800 UTC 9320 9860 11675 11905 13870 Amharic daily 1800-1900 UTC 9320 9860 11675 11905 13870 Tigrigna M-F 1900-1930 UTC 9320 9860 11675 11905 13870 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [sites, azimuths for Amharic hour: 9320 Sri Lanka 275 9860 São Tomé 076 11675 Sri Lanka 279 11905 Wertachtal 150 to 1845; then Dhabayya 255; why switch then?? 13870 not listed; no longer in use? --- gh, Nov 18] One of the comments following the Ethiopian Review article, which also blames China for the jamming equipment, says that FEBA `Seychelles` to Ethiopia is also being jammed. Language(s) not specified, but here is their B-07 schedule to that worldpart, via Alokesh Gupta as archived at bclnews.it: 1530-1545 smtwtfs AMHARIC 12125 25 MEY 1545-1600 smtwtfs MAKONDE 12125 25 MEY 1600-1630 smtwtfs AFAR 11875 25 KIG 1600-1630 s...tfs AMHARIC 12125 25 MEY 1600-1630 .mtw... GURAGENA 12125 25 MEY 1630-1700 smtwtfs AMHARIC 12125 25 MEY 1630-1700 smtw... TIGRINYA 9850 31 DHA 1630-1700 ....tfs AMHARIC 9850 31 DHA 1700-1730 smtwtfs OROMINYA 6180 49 DHA 1700-1730 smtwtfs SOMALI 9850 31 KIG 1730-1757 smtwtfs TIGRINYA 9850 31 KIG (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I heard DW Amharic on 15640 from TRM 1436-1444 on 16 Nov. I'm pretty sure It's DW as I heard DW signature tunes. 11645 was complete blocked by jamming (Yogesh, Hong Kong, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Further checking Nov 17 of the jamming situation with DW`s Amharic service at 1400-1500: At 1403 tuned in 15660 to find heavy adjacent splash from WHRA 15665. This is in HFCC as daily, and on WHR website as Mon-Sat, but it certainly was not there on Thu or Fri during this hour! On 15660 I could hear presumably DW and no conventional jamming but there seemed to be another broadcast station mixing with it. This was more certain at 1430 when one was in talk, the other in music, with a fast SAH between them. Meanwhile, there was continuous hash/noise jamming on 15640-15645 and also on 11645. 15660 for the DW Amharic service appears via Rwanda to be in addition to rather than replacing another frequency, so I guess it is still on 15640 Trinco and 11645 Kigali, altho all I can hear is noise jamming on those frequencies. Yogesh in Hong Kong was still hearing DW on 15640 Nov 16 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DWL Amharic. Yes, and NO bubble jamming audible today Nov 17th. Came home late, switched on the E1 around 1440 UT and noted high noise level on 25/19 mb or hash noise jamming, I couldn't apart each other ... signals so weak today. 11645 KIG and NEW additional 15660 kHz at 1400-1457 UT, no time differ in feed. Latter strongest signal like from Armavir-RUS or Rampisham-UK relay. 15640 TRM as usual one minute more at 1400-1458 UT. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Checked all five VOA frequencies in Amharic, 1837 UT Nov 17, but nothing audible, jamming or VOA, above noise level (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Solar-terrestrial indices for 16 November follow. Solar flux 71 and mid-latitude A-index 6. The mid-latitude K-index at 1800 UTC on 17 November was 1 (09 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) As it happens, I did check 13580 and 15620 between 1600 and 1700 on the 17th, but there were no signals audible at all. This check was made to try to parallel a transmission on 9730 same time using a Horn of Africa area language with music. It turned out to be Bible Voice, and tentatively using Amharic with a change of language after English ID at 1700. Even though the signal was weak there was no jamming audible. DTK Nauen is listed on 11780 for BVB to NE Africa at this time and so a frequency change may have been made as 11780 wasn't audible. If conditions on Friday are anything to go by then signals above 9 MHZ from VOA and FEBA at the listed times will be hard to hear at this location. Another jammed transmission from DTK Nauen is heard on 9485 at 1700-1800 for listed Sagalee Bilisummaa Oromoo. This was of harsh noise resembling DRM. 73 (Noel R. Green, (NW England), Nov 18 dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15660, I had a superpower QRM by WHRA on adjacent 15665 on Saturday 17th here in Europe. 15665 1300-1500 27-29,37-39 HRA 250 kW 60 degr To check the new DWL 15660 Amh relay, I had to set my E1 to LSB mode, in order to separate and check the \\ programmes on 11645 and 15640 kHz. But prop cond were much 'dull' on Friday. On Fri 16th QRM was really "This was of harsh noise resembling DRM" instead of bubble/motoboot race audio etc. Alternative 15660: via powerful RMP, MEY, ARM, or MSK ??? Still a puzzle. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No, it is registered as Rwanda (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Another check of the jamming vs DW situation Nov 18: at 1400, 15660 came on with DW theme, fair signal but under much stronger WHRA 15665`s Heart of Jesus. Could not detect any jamming under the circumstances (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Conditions appear to have perked up some this Sunday afternoon - the 18th. 15640 carrier appeared at 1355 and DW Amharic opened at 1400 followed by jamming at about 1402. DW signal was only fair strength and the jamming at least equal level. 15660 was much, much stronger, and if there was jamming I didn't hear it. Wolfgang suggests Rampisham - too strong here for that station, and I doubt ARM or MSK. 11645 was also audible at fair strength and jammed. WHRI [sic – it`s WHRA – gh] was very good on 15665 - I assume it was this one on 13650 at 1500 (as sched on Sundays) and in Russian. VOA also duly appeared at 1600 on both 15620 (fair) and 13580 (poor). I assume the language to be Somali, and no jamming was audible. 13580 faded by 1630, and 15620 went by 1645. FEBA 12125 via MEY was fair strength at 1530 in assumed Amharic, and no jamming was heard. It's a poor signal now at 1700 off. Interestingly - there was an unID using 12128 around 1630 - this has also faded or gone off. The language was French, and audio "rough" sounding compared to 12125. Frequency 11875 via KIG appeared at 1600 at very good strength in listed Afar - no jamming heard. 9850 via DHA at 1600-1700 (off with IS) - this was good strength at first but faded down to poor by 1700 - no jamming heard. There was another co-channel in English too at 1630. I guess it was this one (Sunday only)............. 9850 PAN AMERICAN BC 1630-1645 1...... English 100 100 Juelich 6180 is good strength but low audio and tentatively FEBA at 1700+. No jamming audible 9850 via KIG has not appeared at 1700 - as far as I can tell the frequency is clear. It therefore seems doubtful that FEBA is being jammed - if jamming has been heard then maybe it was a mistake. And similarly VOA's Somali service (Noel R. Green, (NW England), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Possible noise jamming heard on 9320 (VOA Amharic) after 1800 today (18 Nov). It sounded like a carrier rapidly varying in frequency (thus giving a whistle rapidly varying in pitch), along with an on-off-on- off noise. I don't think it was local QRM but would want to hear it again, and have others hear it, to be quite sure. Nothing heard for certain on the other fqs (9860, 11675, 11905, 13870) but that is inconclusive owing to (lack of) propagation on the higher frequencies at that time (Chris Greenway, England, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See site info inserted above; same kind of jamming I heard against DW ** GERMANY. 5965, R Gloria International, Dresden, via Juelich, *1300- 1400*, Su Oct 28, German and English announcement, QSL from P. O. Box 460143, D-01246 Dresden for return postage 1-2 USD also to support the transmitter expenditures. Next broadcast will be Nov 25 (Roland Schulze, Stuttgart, Germany, DSWCI DX Window Nov 14 via DXLD) ** GERMANY. 6265, 0810 UT 18/11/07, Bible Voice Broadcasting/WYFR, Jülich (3rd order ip 5945+6105) poor. (not even a carrier on symmetrical 5785) (Tim Bucknall, 53.900N, 2.120W [England], 325ft ASL, harmonics yg via DXLD) ** GERMANY. Some transmitter pictures (both sites/antennas and equipment) are available at http://www.deutsches-drm-forum.de/html/drm_sendestellen.html Go to "Sender-Kurzwelle", "Sender-Mittelwelle" and "Sender-Langwelle", respectively. The farest away, different looking transmitters in the Jülich hall are the 1968 vintage SV2420 units which had been left there, unlike all the even older equipment which had been replaced by S4001 transmitters. Zehlendorf: The mentioned TRAM 200S is on 693, not on 603 (that's a TRAM 50, run at 20 kW). TRAM 200S is correct, it had been upgraded to 250 kW AM carrier power when originally installed for Megaradio (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Nov 17, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) also AUSTRIA ** GERMANY. Re 7-137, Donebach 153 kHz: "I guess broadbanding a huge LF antenna would be more difficult than on MF and HF?" --- That's of course true. Especially the Donebach antenna was infamous for insufficient bandwidth, resulting in quite muffled audio. I just rechecked and found no improvement, all sibilants on speech are still missing, unlike 207 (and the mediumwave outlets) which sounds noticeably better. 153, 177 and 207 transmitters at a glance: http://members.aon.at/wabweb/radio/lw3.htm However, the triangular hammock antenna at Zehlendorf no longer exists; it was dismantled last spring: http://forum.mysnip.de/read.php?8773,488568,488568,sv=1#msg-488568 (Features some remains of this antenna and a view of station now, with only two masts left.) Contrary maintenance of the last remaining mast at Königs Wusterhausen is under way now, starting with the 18 guys. The contractor describes their shape as "quite good, some rust, but nothing to worry about, no need for replacements": http://www.maerkischeallgemeine.de/cms/beitrag/11062716/62129/ (unfortunately not illustrated) The same newspaper also reminds of the crash of a big lattice tower 35 years ago: http://www.maerkischeallgemeine.de/cms/beitrag/11064139/62129/ Btw, it's indeed Königs Wusterhausen and not Königswusterhausen. Linguistically this means "the King's Wusterhausen", and it refers to a castle inaugurated here in 1718. Until then it was Wendisch Wusterhausen ("Sorbian Wusterhausen"), as opposed to Deutsch Wusterhausen ("German Wusterhausen"), another village west of the town which became part of the municipality of Königs Wusterhausen not before 1974. An unrelated, plain Wusterhausen also exists, about 60 km northwest of Berlin (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Nov 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GHANA. GHANA BROADCASTING CORPORATION TO INSTALL NEW SHORTWAVE TRANSMITTER Ghana’s Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Kwadwo Baah- Wiredu, presented the 2008 Budget to Parliament yesterday. Mr Baah-Wiredu said three Foreign Information Desks would be opened in three strategic regions to promote Ghana and attract Foreign Investment into Ghana. He said the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) would install a 50 kW transmitter to improve upon its shortwave service and introduce a second channel to be situated in Kumasi for commercialisation and public education on government policies and programmes. The Corporation will rehabilitate Radio and TV Studios in Accra and all the Regional stations as part of the retooling project. (Source: GNA via ModernGhana.com) (November 16th, 2007 - 16:16 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) Keep an ear on 3366, 4915 (gh, DXLD) ** GREECE. Greece: Re. >> 792 kHz is transmitted from Malgara, west of Thessaloniki together with 1179 kHz, via a combiner through the same antenna. 792 kHz is using a HARRIS 100 KW transmitter, transferred to ERT by IBB, years back. An identical transmitter is operating in Corfu (Kerkyra) for at least 4 years by now. << This is quite interesting: IBB gave away two new mediumwave transmitters to Greece and at almost the same time did bother to move a rather old tube transmitter (I think it's a Continental 318.5A which should be basically a 150 kW version of the 317 model) from Holzkirchen to Kuwait. Do we still have to be surprised about IBB rigorously shutting down their Greece operations after hearing about such things? And in fact activating 792 from Malgara is a return, since it was on air from here until the Xanthi/Kavala plant had been opened and the 150 kW at Malgara reused by ERT on 1044. Probably this old VOA transmitter is still on air there, or has it been replaced by a new one in the meantime? Btw, Malgara is located on the shores of the Axios river, certainly a good location for an AM transmitter site. But don't bother, only poor aerial images of this are are online. (Yahoo has the best material, if somebody still wants to try.) (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Nov 17, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re: various Thessaloniki sites [all the below aggregated by wb] Kai, some correction; the US-Greek VoA relay terms matter is much more difficult. Greek negotiations with US Athens embassy for prolongation of Kavalla and Rhodes relay contract was not very friendly especially in the nineties and in 2002y. US had to fear the worst case of Kavalla & Rhodes closure after April 25, 1996. I guess more or less the negative negotiation climate described by Athens personnel took effect heavily to sudden closure of Kavalla [Apr 1973 - 21 Apr 2006] and Rhodes [1964-] installations in 1998/2001. (wb) The terms between Greece and VOA concerning the relay sites were renegotiated twice. First time in 1997, and then again in 2002. In 2002, the agreement called for VOA granting Voice of Greece the use of relay time on the US based Delano and Greenville SW transmitters (John Babbis) Then the contract prolonged for another 5 years. The US embassy offered a gift to the Greeks, five former RFE Gloria Portugal site 250 kW SW units; [and as another discovered detail chip N O W , also two x 100 kW Harris MW tx units too. One erected at Kerkyra-Corfu in 2004y and the other at Kimina, Nea Malgara in 2007y]. (wb) > Kai Ludwig: "...IBB gave away two new mediumwave transmitters..." :: I guess that gift happened already after negotiations in 1997 ?? :: Long before Holzkirchen closed and IBB Kuwait site was erected ... (wb) John Babbis-MD-USA, dxld Jan 10/12, 2001: "A few years ago, you had an article in Monitoring Times that the Radio Free Europe-Portugal facility was closing up and that five 250 kW transmitters were being donated to the Greek government - three to Athens and two to Thessaloniki. As for info about progress on their installation, it seems that the V of Greece engineers are being close-mouthed, except for that one postcard that I received from Dionisios Angelogiannis saying that VOG hoped to begin transmitting on one of the new transmitters in November." (JB) wb, bc-dx Jan 10/12, 2001: Perea 1044 was featured in DSWCI Shortwave News March-1991, meaning two half wave vertical masts for mediumwave mentioned, 2 x 75 kW units, off for maintenance on Wednesdays 1100-1300. Two easy SW dipole arrays 115 degrees to Cyprus, and 315 degrees to Central Europe. MW 1179 kHz is from different Kimina, Nea Malgara site; off Tuesdays 1000-1200. (wb) Kai: ``And in fact activating 792 from Malgara is a return, since it was on air from here until the Xanthi/Kavala plant had been opened and the 150 kW at Malgara reused by ERT on 1044. Probably this old VOA transmitter is still on air there, or has it been replaced by a new one in the meantime?`` No: :: The former VOA/EIR/ERA 791 kHz outlet never appeared from Nea Malgara site, only at Perea on March 15, 1950 til March 3, 1973. ERT 1044 kHz 150 kW is still and ever via Thessaloniki I Perea site. VOA 791/792 kHz moved to Kavalla in March 4th, 1973. Thessaloniki I contained 791 kHz 50 kW of VOA - partly Greek national program relay in daytime, latter as well at Kavalla too. And 1043 kHz 50 kW of EIR/ERA, as well as 4 x 35 kW Collins transmitters, three transmitters for VOA broadcasts, the fourth used partly by ERA [R Macedonia] to Greek nationals [foreign workers] in Western Europe during late daytime and evening. EIR - Ethnikon Idhryma Radiophonias, Radiophonikos Stathmos Macedonias, Thessaloniki. ERA - Hellenic Radio. Elliniki Radiophonia. Thessaloniki I Perea GRC, former ERA / VOA Thessaloniki Perea at 40 30 45.32 N 22 56 34.88 E see Yahoo Maps also http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=40.512589&lon=22.943022&z=16.5&r=0&src=yh VOA THA used since March 15, 1950 til March 3, 1973 for both VOA 791 kHz, 150 kW and ERA 1043 50 kW, as well as SW. On March 4th, 1973 all VOA MW 791 and SW services moved to then new Kavalla site. In 1972 all ERA SW transmissions moved from THA 240 kilometers south to then very new Avlis site, 2 x 100 kW. ERA Voice of Greece Athens Akra Avlis SW site at 38 23 22.12 N 23 36 25.00 E --- see Yahoo Maps http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=38.389746&lon=23.606992&z=16.8&r=0&src=yh Remained THA used for ERA 1044 kHz with 50 kW since 1973 til 1984. And a single 35 kW Collins for R Macedonia relay via Perea site remained there too. (wb) John Babbis-MD-USA, dxld Feb 13, 2007: "On May 12, 1988, Professor Athanasios Dermanis of the Thessaloniki Station wrote the following: ""Within a short space of time, our new rhombic antenna will be broadcasting at 315 degrees and the power of our transmitter will remain at 35 kW."" Latter Collins unit for the very last time on odd 7430.29 kHz on January 23, 2001 !! and shifted to 100 kW Avlis site the next day. (reported by Olle Alm-SWE, wwdxc BC-DX Jan 30, 2001) Zacharias Liangas-Thessaloniki-GRC in an e-mail of Jan 30, 2001y ! : "Phone number transmitters 30 392 23363 at Perea. Not affilated any more with SW, affiliate only for MW 1044 kHz." In late 1984 the MW site Thessaloniki Perea built up another powerful MW transmitter unit, and new 150 kW transmitter [2 x 75 kW units] on 1044 kHz appeared, and INTERFERRED HEAVILY the more or less exclusive signal from Radio GDR I Dresden Wilsdruff in central and southeastern Europe. (wb) - - - Thessaloniki II Kimina, Nea Malgara. Greece, ERA Thessaloniki II Kimina, Nea Malgara site 1179 kHz, 50 kW. erected across the THA bay located on the shores of the Axios river. 40 31 54.25 N 22 41 28.13 E http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=40.531736&lon=22.691147&z=17.6&r=0&src=ggl First appeared in WRTH 1973 with 50 kW as YENED, Greek Military Junta Forces Radio in 1972 til 1983. From 1984 under ERT-2 service. At present in use via a combiner on both, on both 792[100] and 1179 kHz [50 kW]. 73 (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, Nov 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also MOROCCO Hello, after again looking at this matter I have to warn: Beware of any references to the now gone shortwave activities from Thessaloniki; many sources mess up the two sites into something like "Perea Nea Malgara", like the source quoted at http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/dxld1011.txt So I was never aware of 1044/1179 in fact being different sites until now. The notes about Perea heavily interfering with co-channel Wilsdruff are quite true. Back in 1992/1993 it appeared as a faint whisper in the background even here, just 50 km away from the transmitter, running 250/150 kW at this time. Here is a recording of the last minutes of MDR Sputnik (ex-DT64, already renamed but at this point still from the Berlin/Nalepastraße studios) transmission on June 30 1993. At about 4:20 into this file the mentioned whisper can be made out, and Perea becomes were obvious towards the end, when the 250 kW transmitter (run at 150 kW) cut carrier and the 20 kW unit came up after a short break: http://www.radioeins.de/meta/sendungen/apparat/030628_A3.ram (If you find the audio processing overdone: It had been set up at Berlin by tuning a radio to 1044 and listen to what could be heard of it in the ET studio complex, with this result...) And here are two pictures of the Perea site. Again BEWARE, because 1179 is incorrectly mentioned here as well: http://www.geocities.com/zliangas/ths-trans.html The two lattice towers are clearly visible in the Yahoo aerial images. I guess the large four masts are a second mediumwave system? And the small masts would belong to the former shortwave operations (which in the end were always more or less off-frequency and suffered from distorted modulation). All the best, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Nov 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE. Macedonian Radio Station, 7450 via Avlis, Nov 16 at 2132 with a couple of clear IDs by W, as ``Radiophonikós Stathmós Makedonías``. Better signal than VOG 7475, and the latter was also undermodulated (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE. Hellenes Around the World was missing again, UT Sunday Nov 18 0300-0400; checked during the entire hour on webcast, stayed in Greek. Is this really the correct time for it now? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 13710, AIR in English at 1450 at good level with Indian music, program preview for 2245 broadcast, then into news bulletin; at 1456 BSKSA carrier came on with Arabic program, QRMing AIR signal for last few minutes; 9690 was fair at 1457 check (Joe Hanlon, Estell Manor Park, NJ 11/17 DXpedition, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 4970, AIR Shillong, 1437-1506, Nov 18, in vernacular, nice program of sub-continent music and songs, fair. This was their best reception so far this DX season (Ron Howard, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. RADIO FREE EVERYWHERE Read this before it`s pulled: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200712/radio/2?ca=2eR2NjZHkCocXQ2C/PRELp5lqZm4fC7TmYrf6mzAfjw= (Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) This link may work better for most: http://tinyurl.com/yr8aya (Possum Hunter, ibid.) Tinyrul goes to page 2, so go back to page 1; about some good webcasting stations, e.g. WOJB (gh) ** IRAQ. YI - The Iraqi government has reopened the amateur radio service as of 20 November, and Scott, AD7MI will be operating as YI9MI from Camp Taji until 15 May. Expect activity on 10-80 metres SSB, CW, PSK-31 and RTTY. QSL via AD7MI. [TNX NG3K] (425 DX News Nov 17 via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. IBA GETS ANOTHER REPRIEVE --- The Israel Broadcasting Authority, which has been walking a financial tightrope for several years with repeated threats of closure spurred by growing deficits, has once again won a reprieve. An agreement was signed with the Treasury on Thursday night by Eran Horn, the IBA’s deputy director- general for finances. The agreement enables the transfer of interim funds needed to pay IBA salaries till the end of the year. Now that the agreement has been signed, the Treasury will lodge a request with the Knesset Finance Committee for immediate transfer of funds. Read the full story in the Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1195127527014&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull (November 18th, 2007 - 12:01 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) Yes, but what about SHORTWAVE, which may be closed 12/31? (gh, DXLD) ** JAPAN [and non]. NHK Warido`s Sunday-morning classical music show is still going, run across starting at 2305 UT Saturday Nov 17 on 11665, which is a direct frequency, and on this occasion better than // 17605-Bonaire, which was fading down and running about one second behind. Only other frequency on the B-07 schedule which I looked up later, is 11910 to Asia, while 11665 is to SE Asia. Our cup runneth over: CVC Chile also is doing their token classical music show during the same hour on 15410, better reception than both of Japan`s frequencies, but blasphemously, CVC audio kept cutting out during Hallelujah Chorus (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KASHMIR. 4950, R Kashmir, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, 0117-0125, subcontinental music. Kashmir sites fade in later than other Indians here on long path but signals are generally weaker (Bruce W. Churchill, Fallbrook, CA, DSWCI DX Window Nov 14 via DXLD) This is right at grayline between California and Kashmir, so why not short- path? Cf his TAJIKISTAN log (gh, DXLD) ** KUWAIT [and non]. 6055, REE Spanish at 0447, / co-channel DRM R Kuwait hash, covers 6050, 6055, 6060; 6060, RHC Spanish at 0445 UT, suffers by DRM Kuwait 6055 (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, Nov 17, Eton E1 rx, and \\ check AOR 7030 and Sony ICF 2010, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBERIA. 4760, ELWA as per others in HCDX, with songs. Short talk intervals in between 2250 with a halleluiah song. Signal S7, 35223 with fast fades (Zacharias Liangas, 15 Nov, Retziki THS, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Not to be confused with TWR Swaziland, currently scheduled only at 1545-1700. Perhaps TWR will relinquish 4760 if ELWA need it more (gh) S Africa [sic] 4760, R Transmundial (as IDed) 1643 in Portuguese mentioning address in Rwanda. At 1647 in Swahili (presumed), S9 45534 (Zacharias Liangas, 15 Nov, Retziki THS Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4760.04, ELWA, Monrovia, 2230-2303*, Nov 16, English religious messages. Religious music. Sign off with National Anthem. Weak. Poor signal in noisy conditions (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LUXEMBOURG. Giampiero Bernardini of Italy reported in Cumbre recently hearing RTL Luxembourg on 5990 and 6090 around 1300. These broadcasts were in DRM, but Giampiero says that broken French audio came through occasionally. There's no chance for 5990 or 6090 at 1300 here, but if you hear broken French audio there between about 2000 and 0800, it could be RTL. Since Rev. Barbi will be pontificating on 6090 most of that time, 2000-2200 might be the only shot for 6090 here. Fame & Fortune! --- OK, questionable fame. MARE Tip Sheet logs frequently show up in Glenn Hauser's DX Listening Digest (Harold Frodge, MARE Tipsheet Nov 16 via DXLD) Meaning the ``broken French audio`` is analog, not DRM? Transmission somehow defective or deliberately hybrid? (gh, DXLD) ** MEXICO. 9599.27, Radio UNAM, Mexico City, 2225-2235, Nov 16, classical music. Several IDs at 2228-2229. Spanish talk. Good signal strength but QRM from station on 9600 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Still going, het noticed Nov 18 at 1350 (gh, DXLD) ** MICRONESIA. Re 7-137, date of PMA reception and QSL? Hi Glenn, In response to my e-mail to him asking about his reception, Ian indicates he heard them on Oct 7, with ID as "The Star", at 1300 UT. After that he heard continuous recorded songs, without any other announcements, until tuned-out at 1335. In Ian's QSL, the station mentioned they were experiencing modulation problems, so maybe they are off the air now doing repairs. Ian has not heard them since Oct 7, but then he says he has only checked on them a few times since then (Ron Howard, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Not ``The Cross``? ** MOROCCO. U.S. MOROCCO SHORTWAVE STATION WILL CLOSE --- 11.16.2007 http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0100/t.9704.html Another big U.S. international broadcast facility will close soon. Officials with the Broadcasting Board of Governors confirm that broadcasts from the Morocco Transmitting Station will cease in March, though no programs will be affected; other facilities will pick up those services. The government expects to vacate the facility by the end of 2008, and it will be returned to the government of Morocco. “The rising cost of operating the Morocco station prompted this decision,” Letitia King, chief of media relations for the International Broadcasting Bureau, told RW. The facility includes about 2,000 acres of land with 80,000 square feet of buildings and 10 high-power (500 kW) shortwave transmitters. It carries U.S. government broadcasts from Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Farda. U.S. officials expect to save $3 million to $4 million a year; actual savings will depend on the cost of the new lease arrangements and other expenses related to continuing transmissions, she said. There are 56 government employees there, including four U.S. citizens and 52 local employees. “The U.S. Government will honor its commitments to each of the Morocco Transmitting Station’s employees by providing fair and equitable treatment under the scope of the U.S. Embassy agreements,” King said; a memo to staff states that affected employees will receive severance compensation. “The closing will not reduce the number of hours of radio programming currently broadcast by shortwave,” King continued. “All programs currently broadcast from the Morocco station will continue to be broadcast, either from other IBB facilities or through lease arrangements.” As first reported by RW this summer, the International Broadcasting Bureau also recently closed a VOA shortwave facility in Delano, Calif. BBG continues to operate 11 transmission stations globally. U.S. international broadcasting in Morocco started in 1949 with the Tangier Relay Station. The current facility is 18 miles southwest of Tangier and began broadcasting in 1993. Plans for redeploying the transmitting equipment have not been finalized (Radio World Newsbite via Artie Bigley, DXLD) The discussion of the former IBB operations in Greece [q.v.] also makes me wonder about the "rising costs of operating the Morocco station", again mentioned by IBB's chief of media relations to Radio World [above] as reason for closing down the Briech plant. Note also this repeated statement: "All programs currently broadcast from the Morocco station will continue to be broadcast, either from other IBB facilities or through lease arrangements." So have the plans to abolish VOA programming in Albanian, Croatian, Serbian and Russian been terminated? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Nov 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I bet they have not, and this statement was made without thinking about the further plans in that direxion (gh, DXLD) ** MYANMAR. Finally, Burma into the hinterlands: 5985.8 at 1325z, R Myanmar, music & voices. My first log from Myanmar, or even Burma. Local noise prevented good copy but definitely off key at 5985.8 (Jerry Lenamon, Waco, Texas, Nov 16, Drake R8B with T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. 5770, Myanmar Defense Forces BC (tentative) via Taunggyi, 1525-1529*, Nov 18, in vernacular, pop Asian song, brief sign-off announcement, usual indigenous instrumental music and off, poor (Ron Howard, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS. FLEVO ANTENNAS BACK ON AIR FOR AMATEUR SIGNALS Flevoland weer even actief --- Nu het KPN Broadcast Services kortegolf zendstation te Flevoland buiten dienst is voor omroepuitzendingen wordt komend weekeinde, 17 en 18 november het station in de lucht gebracht door de KPN BCS zendamateurgroep. Er wordt gewerkt op de amateurbanden van 40 t/m 12 meter met 2 zenders van 100W in CW, SSB en PSK onder de call PI9NOZ/A. De 19 gordijnantenne's hebben gain hebben van rond de 21 dB en de twee rondstralers voor Europa 7 dB gain. QSL kaarten PA3FZV. info van de VERON site. 73 (Herman Römer - PA9HR, BDX via DXLD) WTFK? 100 watts but 21 dB direxional gain, 7 dB non- direxional. In advance on the dxldyg (gh, DXLD) ** NIGERIA. 6089.9a, R. Nigeria-Kaduna (tentative), *0430-0505+, 17 Nov. Drum IS into vocal anthem & possible Qur`an recitation, M in Hausa (has occasional borrowed Arabic words) at 0437; recheck at 0449 had hi-life music, voice-over at 0500, possible news as a couple mentions of Kaduna, back to more "tribal" music (didn't sound quite so "hi-life-like"). Muddy audio except on music, seemed to drift very slowly down towards 6089.87. Anguilla not on & not missed, either. Bandeirantes (tentative [see BRAZIL]) noted around 0715 with partial ID, too (Dan Sheedy, CA, R75/PAR 102040 sloper, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTH AMERICA. Crystal Ship: 3240, 0303-0308*. 11/12. English. The Xtal Ship sailing the pirate seas on another odd frequency. Heard the last few minutes of the broadcast. Music included a sea chantey, punk rock sounding song & audio clips including something by Jack Webb from Dragnet. I lost the signal at 0308 without sign off announcements. Fair-Good (Joe Wood, Greenback TN, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) Well, which is it, 3240 or 3420? (gh, DXLD) Viz.: The Crystal Ship, 3420, 0303-0308*. 11/12/07. English. The Xtal Ship sailing the pirate seas on another odd frequency. I heard the last few minutes of the bx. Music included a Sea Chantey and a punk rock sounding song, and audio clips including something by Jack Webb from Dragnet. I lost the signal at 0308 without sign off announcements. Fair to Good (Joe Wood, Greenback TN, Free Radio Weekly via DXLD) 3237.9/AM, 2310-2333+, 15-Nov; Rock & folksy tunes. Never heard an ID. SIO=3+43-, fady; het [carrier?] only on 6899.1, no audio (Harold Frodge, MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) TCS On Air Sunday Night: *0000- NEW FREQUENCYþ Good evening, pirate radio fans and happy Sunday! The Crystal Ship will be on the air this evening, commencing shortly after 0000 UT, on the following frequencies: On or about 3420 kHz and 5385 kHz We would welcome any reception notes on any 3420 QRM noted, to our mailbox at tcsshortwave @ yahoo.com We've been chased out of the 90 meter band by a frequency-moble MARS net on 3269/3286 kHz USB, in the midwest, with whom we do not wish to interfere. Hearing this station discussed on their net on a non- broadcast night was quite unsettling (although, let's face it, they have little else to talk about. "Do you have any comment? No, I have no comment.") There are also new difficulties for us on 43 meters, where WYFR and another religious station have now taken up residence on 6875 and on 6890 in the evenings, apparently. However, that now leaves our old frequency of 6854 kHz clear after the Spanish numbers lady is done, usually by 2300 UT. We expect to come up with another comparable frequency on 43 meters for use earlier in the evening. 6875 and 6899 remain clear for possible weekend morning use by this station, and these timeslots are now more effective during the late fall and winter.... so we may be more active on Sat/Sun mornings after 1300 UT until next spring. -- 73s and FIGHT for FREE RADIO! The Poet The Crystal Ship (John Poet, tcs, Nov 12, via Will Martin, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Greetings, Pirate Radio accomplices! The Crystal Ship is going on the air tonight rather late (in relative terms). We have a brand-new antenna up, an inverted L fed with parallel line, about twice as high as our other antennas at the feedpoint, transmitting on about 6858 + or - 1 kHz. Unfortunately, the signal will bounce over most of you in the Eastern US at this late hour, other than Florida or the Gulf Coast. Texas and the southwest or western US, Arizona, California, Idaho, this ought to give you a better signal, in theory. (Much greater low-angle radiation than the usual antenna). Transmitter there tonight is the Viking II. We are also on about 3420/3421 kHz, for those closer in. Tune for best read. Anyone want to give me a good read on our center frequency there, be my guest, I'm having trouble making it out... although it seems like about 3420.5ish. Transmitter is Johnson Valiant #1. Are planning to erect a horizontal full-wave loop antenna for this band, which should increase the signal strength for those receiving this band decently already, fairly close in (basically an NVIS antenna), but it isn't up there yet. Commencing about 0209 UT. How about some Pink Floyd, King Crimson, etc? Ok... Cheers! -- 73s and FIGHT for FREE RADIO! The Poet The Crystal Ship (John Poet, tcs, Nov 15, via Will Martin, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. Re: ``Special ham events: Nov 10 & 17 [Sats], 1400Z- 2300Z, Guthrie, OK. Edmond Amateur Radio Society, W5G. Oklahoma Centennial Statehood Day at Territorial Capital Blg. 21260 14260 7260. Certificate. EARS, PO Box 48, Edmond, OK 73083. http://www.k5eok.org (QRZ? Nov ODXA Listening In via DXLD)`` And from above website: EARS will celebrate the Centennial by holding a special event station at the State Capital Publishing Museum on November 10th (1400-2300z) and 17th (1400-2000z) in Guthrie. EARS will use the 1x1 call sign W5G to commemorate the event. Stop by, visit with us and experience the thrill of being on the "right" side of a pile-up! Those working W5G should monitor 14.260, 7.260 and 3.860. Certificate provided to those sending a large envelope with appropriate postage to: EARS, PO Box 48, Edmond, OK 73083 (via Glenn Hauser, Enid, DXLD) I could hear W5G, barely with high noise level, 1840-1900+ on 3860- LSB. Somewhat better apparently when antenna turned in this direxion. Said he would probably QSY to 7260 after 1900, but had not yet when I finished. And maybe 14260 later before QRT at 3 pm local = 21 UT. On 75m was working OK & KS stations only (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OMAN. 15140, Radio Sultanate of Oman, 1452-1500, Nov 17, tune-in to English program entitled "November Achievements" in Oman. Local pop music. Euro-pops. Chimes/gongs at 1500 & into Arabic. Weak but readable. Not heard in some time (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Only active one day a month? (gh, DXLD) ** PERU. 4790, R. Voz de la Salvación, Chiclayo 11/16, Spanish, 0643 male preacher: "Chiclayo", "i recibir un gran milagro", "hay escutado la Voz de la Salvacion" [sics], 0647 "haleluia", 34433 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP, Brasil (23 33 S, 46 51 W), Sony ICF SW40, dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DXLD) Voz de la Salvación is the name of a *program*, not the station, which is Radio Visión. This is the program in portuñol, or españuguês, as implied by the fraxured quotes above (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** PERU. 5014.28v, R. Altura (tentative), 1017-1111, Nov 18, OM DJ with mostly OA folk music and songs, ads, slight drift to 5014.25, poor to fair. Unable to dig out an ID (Ron Howard, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** QATAR. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AL JAZEERA Commentary by Andy Sennitt 15-11-2007 15 November 2007 marks the first anniversary of the launch of Al Jazeera's English service. The Qatar-based 24-hour TV news station has quickly built up a good reputation for the quality of its journalism and, according to its Managing Director Nigel Parsons, "proved the sceptics wrong." Apart from those in the US, that is. It's still almost impossible to find Al Jazeera on any of the US cable systems, and that's a pity because in my opinion it delivers an international news service that is infinitely superior to what's on offer from the domestic US networks, including Fox News and CNN. . . http://www.radionetherlands.nl/features/media/071115-al-jazeera (Media Network via DXLD) ** ROMANIA [and non]. Weak signal in English on 6115, Nov 16 at 2147, which per schedules would be Romania; but also continuous noise interference, jamming or DRM? Could not really decide which, they are so much alike. But nothing on schedules likely to be jammed, tho Taldom, Russia is on DRM centered on 6105 at this time, which should be too far away to bother as this was centered on 6115. Oh! It`s Romania with its own defective roaring transmitter, I bet, self-QRMing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. VOR on 9280 in Arabic, 1730 UT! What an odd frequency! Hello Group, checking the 31 MB tonight 17/11/07 I noticed an Arabic speaking station around 1730 UT with OM and YL representing a show about women in the Arab world; the style was familiar. I waited till I heard an ID --- VOR. I checked their website for the frequencies of the Arabic section http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=arb&w=49&p= but that frequency was not listed. Could be an error? Around 1800 UT IS with an ID followed by the news // 7155 which is listed on their website. All the best from Cairo (Tarek Zeidan, Egypt, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAINT HELENA. QSL: Radio St. Helena, 11092u. Date: 04/05 Nov 06. Time: 2157-0020. Received a full data card in 739 days for an English report, a follow up letter, a follow up email, $5, an applause card, and local post card. The card had two nice stamps featuring Napoleon and was address in a wonderful hand. It was dated: 09-19-07 with a postmark date of 11/26/07. V/S: Laura Lawrences [sic], Station Mgr. QSL addy: Radio Saint Helena, QSL Manager, Post Office Box 24, Jamestown, Saint Helena Island, STHL 1ZZ, South Atlantic Ocean. Station addy: Radio Station, Pounceys, St. Helena, STHL 1ZZ, South Atlantic Ocean. Huzzah, Huzzah!!! I am very happy with this one. This reply came about two years quicker than the last! It is amazing what we SWLs will do to receive a little piece of paper. Pretty fast mail service from St. Helena (Joe Wood, Greenback TN, MARE Tipsheet Nov 16 via DXLD) ** SAINT HELENA. Robert Kipp spoke during 25 minutes about his St. Helena project last year in October/November. He was personally involved there on the spot. There is a new shortwave transmitter and a new logperiodic antenna. The financial coverage came from shortwave clubs but also through voluntary work. Robert, who is a ham enthusiast, helped with the putting up and installation of the antenna. On Saturday, December 15, 2007 will be new transmissions on short wave. In Europe we can listen to this on 11092.5 kHz USB between 21:15 and 21:45 Hours Central European Winter Time. Robert showed also interesting pictures about the hard work, in order to make everything work smoothly. The shortwave transmitter has a power of 1 kW and is "fully transistorized", Correct reception reports came from South Africa (Tibor Szilagyi`s report on EDXC Lugano, via Dario Monferini, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) --- and elsewhere, I hope (gh, DXLD) ** SIERRA LEONE [non]. 9525, Cotton Tree News (CTN) via Ascension, 0743-0800*, Nov 18, they had some technical problems today. News in English, "This ends the news from CTN, Freetown", news followed in "local languages", open carrier, drums and the re-start of their programming, the same news again in English, suddenly off at 0800. Fair-poor (Ron Howard, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SLOVAKIA. ITALY/ SLOVAKIA. In their promo for European Gospel R on the PANAMBC site http://www.radiopanam.com/europe.htm IRRS claims that they are now broadcasting from Slovakia (DSWCI DX Window Nov 14 via DXLD) No, it does NOT. There is no mention of IRRS (nor NEXUS/IBA) on this website. It is PanAm which is responsible for saying it is Slovakia. I bet if you ask IRRS even today, they would refuse to confirm or deny this. The full report in DXW is remarkably similar to the original revelation in BC-DX (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SLOVAKIA. / ITALY. 7285, IRRS, Milano, Italy, 1845-1957, Nov 16 "Wells of Salvation" English religious program. IRRS ID & address at 1902 followed by more religious programming. United News & Information (UNI) news at 1932. Lite music at 1939. Program of poems at 1946. Totally covered by China at 1957. Good signal until 1957 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH AFRICA. 7390, Channel Africa, *0357, 17 Nov. Bird call/drum IS with English/French ID loop, into French at 0400 with "Bonjour, Channel Afrique". 9685, Channel Africa, 0509-0516, 17 Nov. Quite nice in English with S African news/sports, long ID at 0512 "This is Channel Africa, international public radio station on short-wave and the net, the Voice of the African Renaissance", into recorded health (?) program speech (Dan Sheedy, CA, R75/PAR 102040 sloper, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. Amigos de la Onda Corta: Acabo de escuchar [en línea] el programa del domingo que no comienza a las 0400 sino a las 0405 y hasta 0430. Supongo que el de las ``11:00`` tambien comience después del noticiario para comenzar la hora. 73, (Glenn Hauser, OK, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) REE, yet another station which rounds off its program times, when they should know perfectly well the correct time --- or is the news on the hour of no importance whatsoever? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. If you hear Spanish, especially Castilian on 13720 before 1400, it`s not the RHC leapfrog spur of 13760 over 13740 CRI relay --- because 13740 isn`t on the air yet, at least not Nov 18 at 1347 tho the 13740 carrier does come on many minutes early. This weakish signal was instead REE, // 17595 with news of Pakistan, Darfur. 13720 is in HFCC registered from 0600 to 1700, for W&CEu, at 0 degrees, but the REE frequency schedule http://www.rtve.es/archivos/70-6805-FICHERO/FrecuenciasInvierno2007.pdf shows 08-13 only, except Sat/Sun to 1400. So another caveat not to take HFCC registrations as absolute; they are at times exaggerated, to allow wiggle room in case station wants to extend usage of a certain frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. SSIRI, 15675 via South Africa, Sat Nov 17 at 1406 with English lessons, punxuated by tones or drums; this is Tue/Thu/Sat only. Nothing audible on 15390 which may have similar if not // programming from a further site (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Interesting, Glenn, 'cause I was listening at the same period (1400+) and not a pip up here; not even a carrier could be detected! As well, nothing on 15390 kHz at the same period (Edward Kusalík, Coaldale, Alberta, using a NRD-525 modified with various antennas, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWEDEN [non]. 7120, Nov 16 at 2140, a talk in English frequently mentioning Sweden. Yes, this is R. Sweden as scheduled at 2130 via Madagascar, 280 degrees. Fair signal and modulation different from what we get on 15240 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAJIKISTAN. 4635, Tajik R, Yangiyul, 0130-0145, Nov 10, Tajik talk with background transmitter hum, vocal and instrumental music, even more flutter fading than Indians (polar path from here - loop pointed 355 deg). S2, fast fade (Bruce W. Churchill, Fallbrook, CA, DSWCI DX Window Nov 14 via DXLD) ** TURKMENISTAN. 4930, Türkmen R, Asgabat, 2135-2200, Nov 11, Turkmen talk mentioning Turkmen, 3 ID's: "Midas Radio...", audible in AM and LSB only, 33333. Another Central Asian station was audible at the same time, maybe a spurious signal from another Türkmen programme which was not // 5015 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Nov 14 via DXLD) ** UGANDA. 4975.97, Radio Uganda, 2225-2235, Nov 17, Afro-pops. English talk. Poor in noisy conditions. On later than usual (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. BBC WORLD SERVICE 75TH ANNIVERSARY: "MEMORYSHARE" PROJECT I know many folks hear love trashing the BBC World Service nowadays, but you have to admit the BBC has cast a very long shadow over international broadcasting and shortwave radio over the past 75 years. The BBC is gearing up in several different ways for this 75th anniversary; in this space I've mentioned my participation in a discussion forum hosted by the WS development team. As part of the celebration there is a World Service initiative called "Free To Speak", and World Service involvement in a project called "BBC Memoryshare" that allows registered users (doesn't cost; primarily for avoiding bogus entries) to create / post / view dated memories regarding the World Service. Some of these memories have been posted by World Service staff; others have been posted by fellow World Service enthusiasts. General participation is invited -- Check it out at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/memoryshare/worldservice/ArticleSearch?contenttype=-1&phrase=_memory&show=10&phrase=_client-worldservice or http://snipurl.com/1tskx -- (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, Nov 17, International broadcasting / shortwave blog: http://www.intlradio.blogspot.com Swprograms mailing list via DXLD) Any quarrels we've had with recent BBCWS management decisions arise directly out of concern over the preservation of this unique legacy for the future. In some cases, it has appeared to some of us that today's World Service caretakers take too little notice of that august history in their planning and policy. It's good to see that this anniversary and the things that make it so special are being celebrated. To the extent we can, we should all take part (John Figliozzi, Halfmoon, NY, swprograms via DXLD) ** U S A. WHERE 250-KILOWATT TRANSMITTERS USED TO TELL AMERICA'S STORY, DOGS WILL DO THEIR BUSINESS. "Visitors to Voice of America Park in West Chester Twp. [former VOA Bethany, Ohio, transmitting station] next month may notice an odd device. With a 'warm up wheel' and exercise bike, it's a new generation of park course equipment, and MetroParks of Butler County officials say it could be the beginning of a new feature at the park." Transfer of the site to Butler County MetroParks "opens the door for big, long-discussed projects there, such as a dog park and tree grove." Middletown Journal, 18 November 2007. See also MetroParks Voice of America Park web page. Posted: 18 Nov 2007 (Links: http://www.kimandrewelliott.com/index.php?id=2736 via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. On 7140, Nov 16 at 2238, station in Chinese talking about Mei Guo; VOA Mandarin is scheduled during this hour only, via Udorn, Thailand at 30 degrees, so also aiming at NAm; over Firedrake co-channel jamming by the Chicom who do their best to prevent the Chinese people from hearing what America has to say to them, quite the contrary of CRI`s multiple unimpeded English broadcasts via nearby relay sites to USA. On 15150, Nov 16 at 2254 tone test on weak open carrier; 2300 rechecked, VOA opening news in English, polar flutter. This is 349 degrees from Tinang, Philippines, only until 2400. VOA Kurdish, 17750 via Morocco, Nov 17 at 1415 with nice Kurdish music, vocal solo with plucked instrument; 1422 giving E-mail, phone number, 1423 mentioned Spiderman 3, 1424 voanews.com/kurdish, 1425 into country music in English, quite a contrast to the earlier music. Most days, WYFR 17760 overshadows this, but not today. Another service likely to be harder for us in USA to hear once Briech is closed next March (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Jamming: ETHIOPIA ** U S A [non]. 7175 + 7190 both IBB Morocco Radio Liberty, Russian, +30 dB both! It`s a pity that US IBB Briech Morocco will be closed in March 2008! (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, Nov 17, Eton E1 rx, and \\ check AOR 7030 and Sony ICF 2010, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also MOROCCO ** U S A. The first speaker was Jeff White from Radio Miami International. He spoke about RMI, the NASB (North American Shortwave Broadcasters) and about the State of the Art of DRM in the U.S. Just now a 500 kW DRM transmitter is undergoing test in the USA (Tibor Szilagyi`s report on EDXC Lugano, via Dario Monferini, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) Which station is that? When will tests be on the air? (gh, DXLD) Glenn: I think what Tibor is referring to is that the NASB is hoping to do some DRM tests from within the US in the not-too-distant future. We have some people doing some research to find the stations which would have the most easily-adaptable transmitters, and then we're going to see which station(s) might be interested in participating. But no specific station or transmitter has been chosen yet. We're waiting for some help from Don Messer on this, and he's been tied up at the WRC in Geneva. But hopefully this is something that can be done during the first half of 2008 (Jeff White, USADRM, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 5835, WHRI, Cypress Creek SC; 0514, 13-Nov; Sister Astor; "Now is the time to trim your lamps and get ready for the Lord." Apparently this religion doesn't believe in long wicks -- a perfectly good basis for a religion. SIO=544+ (Harold Frodge, MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) ** U S A. Sunday Nov 18 at 1338 noticed that DXing with Cumbre was running on WHRI 7520. A week or two before at same time, it was on 11785! This date, no WHR on 11785, just Chinese and a het, probably Indonesia. 11785 was on after 1400 for Hmong Lao Radio. Trouble is, the WHR website sked for Angel 1 claims DWC is at 1330 Saturday on 7520, and 1330 Sunday on 11785! I give up (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 9265.04, WMLK, Bethel, PA, 1757-1830+, Nov 16, ID, phone number. Usual English religious talk about Yahweh teachings. Fair signal with a good modulation level for a change (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Presumably groundwave for him ** U S A. The Worldwide Beacon of Hope is a piece of junk, to put it politely. Nov 16 at 2235 found 5920 signal with distorted undermodulation, furthermore audio cutting off about 8 times per second. Fortunately, fundamentally, WBOH has nothing sensible to say (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5919.95, WBOH Newport, English, pips at 0500, S=7, news on Bangladesh, gas prices,S=7 (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, Nov 17, Eton E1 rx, and \\ check AOR 7030 and Sony ICF 2010, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Did you try to listen to "Off the Hook" Wednesday? [UT Thursday Nov 15 at 0000 on WBCQ 7415] If you didn't, let me tell you that it was a frustrating experience. WBCQ on 7415 was actually coming in clearly prior to their start, and then they began, and five minutes into the program their connection to WBCQ went dead, and we shortly heard the incredibly annoying ring and "If you'd like to make a call..." telco recording that we always hear when a link to a broadcaster disappears. After a few minutes of dead air, WBCQ brought up Xtian Media Network to fill the space, and that lasted for many minutes. I finally used some of my usually-wasted minutes of free LD service to call the WBCQ studio line, and incredibly it rang and Jennifer (I think) answered. I asked her if she had tried to get in touch with the 2600 people to bring up the link again, and she told me (sounding understandably exasperated) that she had sent multiple e-mails, called every number she had for them, and left multiple voice-mail messages, but no response. I thanked her, telling her that that's as much as anyone could expect, and hung up. Shortly thereafter, the 7415 signal nosedived into the noise and that was it. Sad that, if they HAD to lose the connection, it hadn't happened a half-hour later! But what gets me is that these 2600 guys are supposed to be phone phreaks and technical geniuses, and yet they lost a simple phone link and remained unaware of it or at least didn't restore it! They could at least leave a cheap SW radio playing in a corner of the WBAI studio room to monitor their SW relay! (Yes, I admit that receiving SW inside an NYC building surrounded by electronic gadgets is problematic, but maybe one of their remote participants calling in could do that monitoring.) Sigh... That same 6:30 PM-local 7415-signal dying happened Thursday, too, so I heard the silly music program that precedes WoR but then lost the WoR audio after a few minutes of hearing you. Again sigh... 73, (Will Martin, MO, Nov 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I suspect the 2600 guys are only dimly aware of or care about the SW relay, with all their newfangled media; don`t they have multiple streams going? Surely WBCQ could have accessed one of those as a backup (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. CVC Portuguese classical music: see JAPAN [and non] ** U S A. WATCH THE VIDEO OF THE RADIO HALL OF FAME INDUCTION! Announced by Jim Bohannon, but then creep Sean Hannity, emcees --- mms://68.251.204.5/video/special/rhof2007.wmv (from http://www.museum.tv/rhofsection.php?page=394 via DXLD) ** U S A. WGN FOR SALE? November 16, 2007 By Robert Feder Chicago Sun-Times Columnist http://www.suntimes.com/business/feder/653340,CST-FIN-feder16.article If buying the Cubs is a little too expensive for you, there's another Chicago institution you might be able to pick up in a Tribune Co. fire sale. The prospect of top-rated news/talk WGN-AM (720) going on the block moved a step closer to reality this week with news that FCC chief Kevin Martin has proposed the sale as a condition of allowing Tribune Co. to own both WGN-Channel 9 and its newspaper here under Sam Zell. Tom Langmyer, vice president and general manager of WGN, declined to comment Thursday. But he previously testified to the FCC that forcing a sale could rob the station of its unique localism after 83 years in Trib hands. Industry sources estimated that WGN, which led the market in billing $48.4 million last year, could fetch close to $300 million. "WGN Radio is like some amazing ride on Navy Pier that's been there for decades, and everybody grew up with and enjoyed," said Tom Taylor, news editor of Radio-Info.com. "But if it got sold and the new owner had to pay a lot of money for it, you'd wonder if all the bells and whistles would still be there." How significant would such a deal be? Says Taylor: "There's nothing like WGN in any other major market -- certainly not with the variety of programming and the size of the payroll. ... It is one of the things that makes Chicago special, and you'd worry that an out-of-town owner might not understand all the things that make it tick." As previously noted here, one company that would be an ideal new owner of WGN is Bonneville International, the Salt Lake City-based blue chip parent of three Chicago FM music stations, including hot adult- contemporary WTMX-FM (101.9). (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Not so ideal, BI owned by wacky religionists. I fear first show to be canceled under just about any new ownership would be Extension 720, as far too intellexual for the masses (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Recent photos with Bruce Elving from KUMD 50th anniversary: Hi, it's been several months, but I finally opened to the KUMD *103.3 Duluth MN website, and looked at these pictures. The program honored 50 years of KUMD, starting as an extra-legal AM station. Visit http://www.kumd.org/50th Then click on the various photos. You can even enlarge the shots to see all of us in the fullest glory! One picture includes wife Carol Elving. As ever, (Bruce Elving, Nov 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. It's a tad under the 530-1700 BCB but if you are east of the Mississippi you have probably heard the beacon LYQ-529. It was getting out pretty well last month when I was driving from Chattanooga to Owensboro KY. I called them for info. It's at an airport in Morrison, TN and is part of the WWRB (SW) operation. It is running 25w from 353703n 860504w from a 125' tower (I think he said it was a flattop). It took a lightning hit a few days ago so is currently off the air. They are in the process of adding some ground radials. The phone # is 931/728-6087 and according to the web site, it is manned from 9 pm to 3 am EST. And finally, it should come as no great surprise that it has already been logged out west (in OR) by Steve Ratzlaff. You will be pleased to know that LYQ is not installing IBOC (Pete Taylor, Tacoma, WA, 12225w 4719n, ICF2010 + Kiwa air core loop, DX398; Palomar loop, Nov 16, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** UZBEKISTAN. ??? 6260, The Voice, 2355 16 Nov: Open carrier till 2357 starting with Bollywood songs (Lata Mangeshkar), talks by YL in Hindi using a new background song, after T[op of ] H[ouor]. ID by another YL at 0001:30 followed by Amen and Halleluiah. S9 max, 44434 (Zacharias Liangas, Retziki THS Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) It`s via Tashkent, hardly a bastion of Christianity, 0000-0400, 100 kW at 153 degrees to CIRAF 41 (gh, DXLD) ** VATICAN. Saludos cordiales, hoy 16 de noviembre a las 1745 estoy escuchando la extraña señal en 11625, probablemente servicio de Radio Vaticano en inglés, parece que el transmisor sufre algún tipo de problema, puede confirmar ésta particularidad para descartar ruido generado cerca de mi casa (José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I did not see any replies; what kind of sound is it? Heard only on 11625? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) VR, 5885, very good signal Nov 16 at 2235 with bells of St. Peter`s. Recheck after 2300, playing classical and semi-classical music. 2309 it was there, recheck at 2310 it was gone; moving transmitter to 9600? Tuned there but XEYU and its het were both too weak (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA [and non]. The 2300-2400 UT broadcast of R. Nacional de Venezuela, Canal Internacional, via Cuba, is unlike the others supposed to be on two frequencies, but Nov 17 at 2315 found it only on 15250, nothing on 13680; however, at 2352 recheck, both were on. You just can`t depend on the Cuban transmitter engineers to be on time. As expected, there is a big collision between RNV via Cuba and WEWN on Sundays when both are on 11875 for an hour; as confirmed Nov 18 at 1408 when RNV was way over WEWN; 11875 // 17750 but an echo apart from two different Cuban sites. Commies vs Catholix! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** YEMEN. 6135, Aden/Sanaa in Arabic, HQ prayer, 3-6 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, Nov 17, Eton E1 rx, and \\ check AOR 7030 and Sony ICF 2010, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZAMBIA. Heard CVC's new transmitter on 13650 at 1415 with VG signal, lots of English pop music and talk; later check at 1455 found transmitter off the air; likely testing for 12/1 launch which will replace all transmissions from T-Systems German facilities. Rx: Sony ICF-SW7600G w/Sony AN-LP1 loop. Also had Grundig G5 w/30 ft. wire but batteries died (Joe Hanlon, Estell Manor Park, NJ 11/17 DXpedition, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Following report claims CVC is using SENTECH even for 6065 and 4965. This is completely incorrect, as all these are really ZAMBIA. And as we know, 13590 and 13650 are already being heard as above (gh, DXLD) ZAMBIA: Esquema de emisiones en inglés de la emisora religiosa Christian Voice, vía Sentech, (Sudáfrica): HORA UT KHZ 0500-1500 6065 0600-1400* 13590 1400-1700* 13650 1500-0500 4965 1700-2100* 13590 Nota: (*) Emisiones válidas a partir del 31-12-2007. QTH: Christian Voice of Zambia, Private Bag E606, Lusaka, Zambia. E-mail: cvoice @ zamnet.zm Web: http://www.voiceafrica.net (Marcelo A. Cornachioni, Argentina, Conexión Digital Nov 18 via DXLD) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. Hi Glenn, SWRA is currently heard on 7125, 1700- 1900 daily with usual programming that the station posts up on its website. It has not yet been jammed by the Zim government. But it did suffer interference from the jammer on 7120 targeting VOP (Voice of the People via RNW Madagascar) for a few days after 28 Oct change over. That jammer has since left 7120 so 7125 is in the clear with SWRA 1700-1900. The HFCC schedule B07 lists the following: 7125 1700 1900 52E,53NW WOF 250 160 1234567 281007 300308 D USA MNO MER 16315 Site is Woofferton UK, 250 kW, direction 160 degrees to target Central Southern Africa. Can't figure out why Merlin have listed it as directed to the USA with Merlin Number One programming. But that is clandestine broadcasting at its best disguise! 73 (David Pringle-Wood, Zimbabwe, Nov 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi David, Hope things are going OK for you, as hadn`t heard from you for some time. The MNO registrations all seem to mention USA. Not sure why; maybe some part of the time-brokering process or frequency selection goes thru USA? `USA` does not mean it`s directed to the USA. Of course Merlin Network One no longer exists either under that name, but that`s the way HFCC refers to it. 73, (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. MADAGASCAR. 11610, Radio Voice of the People, *0400-0445, Nov 17, sign on with local music and opening announcements in local language. English ID announcements & frequency schedule at 0401 followed by talk in local language. Occasional IDs. Short breaks of African music. English after 0437 but difficult to understand due to accent. Music loop jammer started at 0402 causing some co-channel QRM. Jammer's signal strength varied from weak to fairly strong making reception quite difficult at times (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 1181 carrier seems to be more of an obstacle to R. Martí reception in New Zealand than it is here; Bryan Clark has a recording of the het on his DX report within RNZI Mailbox, for 29 October, the audio file of which will be available for another week at http://www.rnzi.com/pages/audio.php Plus recorded examples of many other kinds of jamming on SW, including woodpecker against AFN Diego Garcia 4319. Starts about 5 minutes into the file (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. No Identificada en español de noche a las 0120 en 3450 kHz, muy baja calidad de la señal; aparenta ser una religiosa probable armónico de la onda media (Alfredo Locatelli, desde Durazno, Uruguay, no date, Conexión Digital Nov 18 via DXLD) 3 x 1150? UNIDENTIFIED [non]. 5090, 1917-1935 11 Nov, possible Taiwan. Asian type of drums and string music; another station can be heard fading in and out now again, poor reception with fading and QRN, possibly // 6095 sounds like the same music (John Kecskes, Australia, HCDX via DXLD) 6095 is R. Free Asia in Chinese via Tinian. Nothing listed on 5090, but since you have a Radio Australia image on 5120, your 5090 is most likely also an image of 5990, another RFA Chinese via Tinian frequency, both jammed by Firedrake (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. 5120, 1030-1040 11 Nov, maybe Vanuatu or another one of the Pacific Island relay, fair to poor reception, in Tok Pidgin, with a short segment of ABC Australia IS, followed by news from Australia, then news from Fiji, 1037 ID as Radio Australia, Pacific Service (John Kecskes, Australia, HCDX via DXLD) Receiver-produced image of R. Australia on 6020, minus 2 x the IF of 450 kHz. You need to look for real frequency 900 kHz higher when you hear something like this (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. U.K.?? 5815 - came across an unID Russian language station, my noting did last 1712 to 1729 close-down. Heard no ID. Midst between two adjacent IBB's from Tinian and Kuwait. Checked the whole 49 mb for a \\ , but without success. 5905 RRS had a different program. Station played modern pop music, not religious. And audio was of good quality. Still puzzles me. Which stations Russian ends at xx.30 hours? Could it be RCI in Russian ? ... 9555 1700-1730 29,30 RMP 500 kW 47 deg 11935 1700-1730 29,30 SKN 300 90 RUSSIAN 17:00-17:29 7 days RMP 9555 300 47 HR 4/4/1.0 29,30 SKN 11935 300 90 HR 4/2/0.5 29,30 BTW, I guess dead zone is extended tonight, only stations of long distances greater 1800 km heard around 1700 UT. No trace of nearby DRMs from LUX, or AUT, HNG and CZE etc. (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 5980, like Radio Cairo music and songs; 0400-0500* UT c- down. S=8. VoTR - Voice of the Tigray Revolution, in parallel with 6030? (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, Nov 17, Eton E1 rx, and \\ check AOR 7030 and Sony ICF 2010, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. WYFR, 9495 in Spanish at 0615 November 17 had QRM from big continuous noise around 9500, maybe like a low-rate DRM. Whatever, should be no such noise inside the 31m band (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ THE LATIN AMERICAN SW LOGS have been updated as of 15 November: http://home.tele2.it/MCDXT/LASWLOGS.htm (Steve Lare, Holland, MI USA, Nov 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) GLARING OMISSION IN PASSPORT Hi Glenn, I got my copy of the 2008 Passport to Worldband Radio last week, and was reading the section on software-defined-radios (SDRs) last night. I was really surprised to see that the book did NOT rate (or even mention) the SDR-IQ. There's a SDR-IQ Yahoo group, and people rave about how good it is, especially for the price. The radio has been out a while, so I think that Larry Magne had time to review it, but didn't. I find this to be a glaring omission. And Larry reviews many other SDRs, so it's not that he didn't review any SDRs. The SDR-IQ seems to give the most bang for the buck compared to the other SDRs. So it makes this omission all the more grievous. Just my opinion (Paul McDonough, Natick, MA, Nov 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) O, when I saw your subject line, I figured the Glaring Omission would be for the n-th time, no mention whatsoever of Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO or DX LISTENING DIGEST/REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING, as if we were non-entities in the shortwave world! It must be that we are just too much competition for them in SWBC information-conveying. Since PWBR cannot be searched electronically, should anyone run across any reference to us in the 2008 edition, please tell us the page number. We are not breathholding (Glenn Hauser) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ DRM: see AUSTRIA; BELARUS; BRAZIL; ETHIOPIA; GERMANY; KUWAIT; LUXEMBOURG; ROMANIA; USA; UNID 5815; UNID 9495 PROPAGATION +++++++++++ OUR EXCLUSIVE AND NOT COPYRIGHTED HF PLUS LOW BAND VHF PROPAGATION UPDATE AND FORECAST Solar activity continues to be at rock bottom levels; a very small sunspot appeared briefly this week and vanished, and once again the daily solar observations showed an almost blank, but today the Sun has a single sunspot --- just one and not powerful, but YES, it is a sunspot. Also the heliosysmic observations that allow scientists to know about solar activity happening on the side of the Sun that we don't see from Earth, show that there is no active sunspot region there. Solar flux hovering around base levels, and according to the most recent reports, we won't see the first signs of solar cycle 24 until the second half of 2008 (Arnie Coro, CO2KK, RHC DXers Unlimited Nov 17, HCDX via DXLD) ###