DX LISTENING DIGEST 7-156, December 22, 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 1387 **flexible times Sat 0900 WRMI 9955 Sat 1730 WWCR3 12160 Sat 2230 WRMI 9955 Sun 0330 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0730 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0900 WRMI 9955 Sun 1200 WRMI 9955 [new] Sun 1615 WRMI 7385 Mon 0400 WBCQ 9330-CLSB [irregular] Mon 0515 WBCQ 7415 [time varies] Mon 0930 WRMI 9955** Tue 1130 WRMI 9955** Tue 1630 WRMI 7385 Wed 0830 WRMI 9955** WORLD OF RADIO, CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL SCHEDULE: Latest edition of this schedule version, including AM, FM, satellite and webcasts with hotlinks to station sites and audio, is at: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html For updates see our Anomaly Alert page: http://www.worldofradio.com/anomaly.html WRN ON DEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 WORLD OF RADIO PODCASTS VIA WRN NOW AVAILABLE: http://www.wrn.org/listeners/stations/podcast.php OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO [also CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL] http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org ** CANADA. In the past, CBC Radio 1 did not run CBC Overnight service as usual on Christmas Eve/Day, Christmas Day/Boxing Day instead Rick Phillips, host of Sound Advice on CBC Radio 1 and 2 presented “Mistletoe And Egg Nog” playing Christmas Music of a symphonic nature and in place of World Radio Network programming on Boxing Day Morning, he played the entire Nutcracker Ballet by Tchaikovsky, and other major works, pausing only for news on the hour. For those with access to CFMT – TV, Toronto, one can watch many Christmas/New Year’s extravaganzas from around the world, from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and others. Check your listings as they say. Cable Pulse 24 broadcasts of Daily Planet are extended on holidays too, an opportunity to see television broadcasts from around the world. These normally air at 3 am Toronto time daily. It used to stream at http://www.pulse24.com but apparently no longer. CHML --- On Christmas Eve (and perhaps even Christmas Day) I like to listen to CHML 900 in Hamilton, Ontario. And if you don’t live within reach of CHML, fear not, for CHML streams at http://www.900chml.com/ On Christmas Eve (and a few other times through the holidays) one can hear A Paul Reid Christmas (see Paul Reid item at the end of this column). To my mind this program is what theatre of the mind is all about. For 2 hours, Paul takes us on a journey to Christmas’s past --- evoking the memories, sounds and even the smells of Christmas in his youth. Paul Reid was a master storyteller, remembered fondly by those who knew him. Although he has been dead for almost a quarter of a century this annual program is his legacy. Every year CHML gets numerous letters, phone calls and emails, enquiring whether the program will continue to be aired. It has become a CHML tradition. It is one of mine too. (It also airs on CJAD Montreal, another station where Reid worked for many years.) After Paul’s show is over, virtually all night, one can hear episode after episode of Christmas favourites from Jack Benny, The Life of Riley, Charlie McCarthy and all the great radio shows of days gone by. It’s a real treat if you love these old gems. They can also be heard for most of the night on New Years Eve too. CHWO AM 740 in Toronto, which recently began streaming http://www.am740.ca will air some special treats on the Monday before Christmas during Brian Peroff’s (live) Flashback show. He always plays lots of Christmas gems. On the Shortwaves CBC (RCI, CBCNQSWS, PRI, online) As It Happens -- Listen on the last weeknight before Christmas to As It Happens for their annual Christmas program, phone calls from Canadian Forces personnel around the world, and later, hear Alan “Fireside Al” Maitland and his traditional reading of “The Shepherd”. [meaning Xmas eve this year, or Dec 21?] (Fred Waterer, Programming Matters, Dec ODXA Listening In via DXLD) ** CANADA. CBC Radio’s winter schedule--- Okay, this is shameless promotion, but for those of you not CBC employees who follow the blog, here are some highlights from CBC Radio One’s winter schedule: Dr. Brian Goldman will be back with new episodes of White Coat, Black Art, which was one of our most popular programs this past summer. The show takes listeners inside the health care system, demystifying the world of medicine, as healthcare professionals explain how the system really works, with a refreshing dose of honesty. The series will air Monday mornings at 11:30 a.m. and Friday evenings at 8 p.m. Advertising guru Terry O’Reilly will be back with Age of Persuasion. Every week, he will explore how advertising and marketing have come to permeate almost every aspect of 21st century life. It airs Saturday mornings at 11:30 a.m. We’ll also be taking an off-kilter look at Canada - U.S. relations with our comedy series Canadia 2056. The show follows the adventures of the crew of the spaceship Canadia, the lone Canadian ship on a mission with the U.S. Space fleet as they set out on a pre-emptive strike against the planet Ipampilash. Canadia 2056 will air Wednesday nights at 11 p.m. and Friday mornings at 11:30 a.m. January also sees the debut of a new host for The Debaters. Steve Patterson takes over from Sean Majumder on the show that takes Canada’s best comic talent, gives them a topic, and lets the sparks fly. Steve has toured the world as a standup comedian. He’s also made multiple appearances at Montreal’s Just for Laughs Festival, and was a finalist for top male standup at this year’s Canadian Comedy Awards. CBC Radio has extended the runs of two series that debuted in the fall --- Spark and Search Engine. Spark is your guide to the Next Big Thing. Every week, Nora Young looks at technology, trends and fresh ideas. It airs Wednesdays at 11:30 a.m. and Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. On Search Engine, Jesse Brown looks at the surprising and significant ways the Internet is transforming our world. You can hear Search Engine Thursdays at 11:30 a.m. and Tuesdays at 3:30 p.m. (in select markets). (Inside the CBC blog Dec 19 via DXLD) ** CANADA. CANADIAN COMMUNICATIONS FOUNDATION http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/index3.html = http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/ccf_gendir.html LOTS of material on how Canadian broadcasting works and its history, including history of CBU, ref. 7-155: http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/listings_and_histories/radio/histories.php?id=56&historyID=21#CCF%20Bottom%20Nav http://www.cbc.ca/bc/making-the-move-to-fm/ (via Dan Say, BC, DXLD) ** CHAD. 4904.97, RNT, 2120-2229*, Dec 21, French talk. African hi- life music. Sign off with National Anthem at 2228. Fair-good (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. [Re DXLD 3-235, December 31, 2003] COSTA RICAN CONVICTED IN REPORTER DEATH Wed Dec 19, 11:28 PM ET http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071220/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/costa_rica_reporter_killed SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - A court convicted a businessman of ordering the 2001 murder of a journalist who denounced fraud at a religious radio station, but acquitted a priest of the killing. The businessman, Omar Chaves, was sentenced to 35 years for paying a gunman to kill Colombian-born journalist Parmenio Medina. The gunman, Luís Alberto Aguirre, got the same sentence. Chaves ran Radio María with Father Minor de Jesús Calvo, who was acquitted in the murder case but convicted of fraud and sentenced to 15 years in jail. Chaves also got a 12-year prison sentence on the fraud count. Medina's reporting on the misuse of donations solicited by Calvo's radio station was believed to be the motive behind his killing. Medina, gunned down in his car on July 7, 2001 at age 62, ran a radio program called "La Patada," or "The Kick." Chaves and Calvo misappropriated millions of dollars in donations made to the station, instead of spending the money on charitable works as promised, the court found. The court's verdict called Calvo's conduct "especially reproachable, given that he is a Catholic priest." Calvo had been a popular and widely known religious broadcaster, but his handling of the radio station — which he had registered in his own name — upset church authorities, who ordered it shut down in June 2001 because of growing debts (via Henrik Klemetz, DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA. 6110, Radio Fana, Addis Ababa, *0258-0315, Dec 21, Sign on with IS. Opening ID announcements at 0302 & into local Horn of Africa music. Good. Strong. In the clear. Threshold signal on // 7210 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [non]. Frequency change of DW in Chinese: 1300-1330 9650 SNG 100 kW / 013 deg + 9650 TRM 250 kW / 045 deg, ex 9810 \\ 11945 TRM 250 kW / 060 deg, 13735 SNG 100 kW / 013 deg (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 3 via DXLD) ** GUATEMALA. Radio Maya 2360/3325 kHz website --- Radio Maya (TGBA), Huehuetenango, Guatemala has launched an official website - in the form of a blog - at http://radiomaya.com/ You can listen the station online. Address of the station: 4ta. Avenida 0-14 Zona 1, Barillas, Huehuetenango, Guatemala. An email -address is also available at the site. (finndxer) December 11, 2007 (Dxing the Finnish Way blog via DXLD) That`s helpful since they have been off 3325 for a long time, and off 2360 much longer. Not much info there. Says schedule is 1000-0500 UT (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL. CHRISTMAS AND SEASONAL PROGRAMMING Please note: Because of the nature of the deadlines for this column, I tend to review what has been heard in past years. For up-to-date information on upcoming Christmas specials and any other programming for that matter, consult your on-line resources, or your favourite DX programs. Good places to start include the ODXA and DXLD yahoo groups. Listen to your favourite stations and programs, or check their websites, for announcements of upcoming shows. [see also CANADA; UK; USA WEWN] And my own website will be updated as often as possible, with a special page listing what I know to be coming up, over the holiday period. http://www.doghousecharlie.com/christmas-programming Now, on to some of my recommendations --- Christmas and Seasonal Programming (Online) --- Check out the Treasure Island Oldies Christmas special, December 23. Michael always comes up with the best and sometimes obscure tunes from the 50s 60s and 70s. Listen live Sunday night at 9 pm EST, or listen to the show archive later. http://www.treasureislandoldies.com Deutsche Welle’s German service can be counted on for seasonal music and programming throughout the day on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Vatican Radio will have highlights of Christmas events at the Vatican. Christmas from the Southern Hemisphere is also a very different experience. Christmas is a summertime holiday below the equator. Check out Radio Australia, Radio New Zealand International, Channel Africa and others for a tropical twist on the holidays. Many non-Christian nations may make note of Christmas. You never know what you might hear. Christmas Eve, Day, New Years Eve, Day and the week in between tend to be filled with festive programs and end-of-the-year reviews. For example, the year in sports, the year in news, the year in the Netherlands, Russia, and so forth. No doubt most were recorded earlier so staff could have a Christmas holiday break, but the programs are usually interesting nonetheless. One can hear, not only retrospective programs, but forward-looking ones as well. The end of one year inevitably means the beginning of a new one. So you will hear programs not only reviewing the end of one year, but also anticipating what will/may happen in the year ahead. (Fred Waterer, Programming Matters, Dec ODXA Listening In via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. Worldspace - living up to its name Sorry folks, I cannot believe that Worldspace is going to last much longer. They are using a technology which is now out of date and now focussing on Italy, a country already saturated with radio. Their 3rd quarter results released on November 8th said The Company ended the quarter with 177,644 subscribers worldwide, a loss of 12,689 from the close of the prior quarter, reflecting loss of subscribers in India and the planned cessation of marketing efforts in Europe ahead of the company's efforts to test and subsequently commence mobile service in Europe. In India, the Company lost 8,713 net subscribers during the third quarter of 2007, reflecting reduced marketing in that region, ending the period with 164,902 subscribers in India, 19% higher than at the end of the third quarter of 2006. After bumping along at around 4 dollars, last Friday's price was US$1.98. Could it be that analysts are finally joining me in the ranks of the unconvinced that this satellite project will ever turn the corner? . . . http://criticaldistance.blogspot.com/2007/12/worldspace-living-up-to-its-name.html (Jonathan Marks, Critical Distance Blog Dec 16 via DXLD) ** IRAQ. FATHER AND SON TOGETHER ON COMMANDO SOLO PSYOPS MISSIONS Heir apparent: Father, son deploy together Senior Master Sgt. Michael Kovach (left) and his son, Master Sgt. Shawn Kovach, look through an EC-130J Commando Solo technical order manual while going over updated emergency procedures Nov. 26 in Southwest Asia. Both Airmen are assigned to the 43rd Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron and are deployed from the Pennsylvania Air National Guard's 193rd Special Operations Wing from Middletown, Penn. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Tia Schroeder) http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123080079 Related Fact Sheets • EC-130J Commando Solo by Staff Sgt. Tia Schroeder 386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs 12/19/2007 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- When a father of a 3-year-old son entered the Air Force 27 years ago, he never thought that one day he'd be working side by side with his son at a deployed location. Today the father and son duo are fighting the war on terrorism together as they are based at a Southwest Asia air base flying missions on board the EC-130J Commando Solo. "I'm very excited that I've had this opportunity to deploy with my son," said Senior Master Sgt. Michael Kovach, a 43rd Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron electronic communications instructor. "I'm very proud of my son. I feel like he's paid me the highest compliment a son can pay his father by following in my footsteps." This is the second time in the last eight years that both father and son have deployed together with the Pennsylvania Air National Guard's 193rd Special Operations Wing from Middletown, Penn. "I was thrilled to find out that Dad and I would actually be here at the same time," said Master Sgt. Shawn Kovach, a 43rd EECS loadmaster. "I was really looking forward to being deployed with him again. It's not every day you get to deploy with your father, even though we're not allowed to fly on the same combat missions together." Both father and son joined the active-duty Air Force and switched over into the Guard early in their careers. After years of watching his dad fly on C-130 Hercules aircraft, the son grew up knowing he'd one day follow in his father's path. "The strongest memory that I have is when my father came back from Operation Desert Storm," the younger Kovach said. "I was at the airport when my dad and his crew stepped off the plane. I will always remember that day. My dad was my biggest inspiration growing up. I knew one day I would be an aircrew member of a C-130 and be a part of the Air National Guard family." Today the Kovaches have a direct effect on saving the lives of servicemembers in Iraq while flying in the EC-130J. Recently they flew their 100th combat mission. The elder Kovach presented his son with a certificate and patch commemorating the event. "It was a pretty neat thing when we first found out we're going to fly our 100th combat mission," Sergeant Shawn Kovach said. "For a couple weeks I had the old man beat, since we were on separate crews. I felt really proud that I could share this moment with my dad. We're looking forward to 100 more missions." (December 20th, 2007 - 10:42 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** JAPAN. 9825, Radio Japan, 1432-1440*, Dec 21, tune-in to IS/multilingual ID sequence to 1440 sign off. Fair. Needs further checking. Not scheduled for this frequency around this time period (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADEIRA. PEF-Posto Emissor do Funchal, 1530 kHz 10 kW Funchal & 1017 kHz 1 kW Santana, http://www.pef.pt has built a new site at Chão dos Balcões, near Poiso, for 1530 kHz that includes a 60 m high MF tower. Click the "A Rádio" button on the page http://www.pef.pt/index.php?h_op=historial For many months now, 1530 kHz puts a very pale signal with a weak audio too while the weaker Santana transmitter exhibits a fair to moderate signal albeit plagued with adjacent QRM from Spain. Best regards, (Carlos Gonçalves, Lisbon (9/12-2007), Ydun`s mediumwave.info via DXLD) These are the new data on PEF-Posto Emissor do Funchal, Madeira island. Encruzilhadas (de Santo António) is the actual place where the present MF tower located, and nearby Barreira is the VHF tower site. Both are just a few km NW of Funchal. PEF was forced to move out of the existing MF site because of dwellers' complaints against interference. It seems that Encruzilhadas de Stº António, which I was unable to find in GoogleEarth, is becoming too much crowded with houses, thence the decision of the municipal authority. The first consequence of that was the power reduction: about 1 kW which explains why PEF 1530 kHz is so pale for many months now. The neighbouring Barreira VHF site also will move to the new MF site, where the 60 m high tower (already in place together with the building) will be used for the VHF-FM antennae too. So most probably the MF tower will be grounded and the radiating system consisting of a cage. Despite announcing the new MF & VHF site at Chão dos Balcões is expected to start still this year, it's believed the feasible date is on the occasion of PEF's 60th anniversary, in May '08. Best regards, (Carlos Gonçalves (11/12-2007, Ydun`s mediumwave.info via DXLD) ** MEXICO [and non]. A FURTHER DTV COMPLICATION - BORDER BROADCASTERS http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5g5kkwHkkBo--j-hgVkH2R3qaDn6w Summary of article: American TV broadcasters along the U.S.-Mexican border fear competition from Mexican analog TV stations after the DTV transition. Congress will address the issue by possibly delaying analog switch off in these regions (Curtis Sadowski, IL, WTFDA via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS. ‘HEAR THE WORLD’ WITH RNW ON CHRISTMAS DAY This year, Radio Netherlands Worldwide brings you a special programme on Christmas Day, 25 December. Chris Chambers presents ‘Hear The World’, a concert from the famous Concertgebouw in Amsterdam marking the sixtieth anniversary of Radio Netherlands. You’ll be able to hear some of the best musicians from around the world including the African percussionist Ali Keita and the mezzo-soprano Tania Kross from Curacao. There’s also some homegrown talent as one of the Netherlands’ most famous bands, Blof, sing some of their best-known songs. On shortwave, ‘Hear the World’ airs as follows, UT: 1000: East/Southeast Asia 12065, East Asia 9795, Far East 6040 1200: Eastern N America 11675 1400: South Asia 9345, 12080, 15595 1500: South Asia 9345, 12080, 15595 1800: Southern Africa 6020, East/Central Africa 11655, 12050 1900: East Africa 11805, 12050, West Africa 17810, Central/Southern Africa 7120 2000: East Africa 11805, 12050, West Africa 11655, 17810, Central/Southern Africa 7120 0000: Eastern N America 6165 0100: Central N America 6165 0500: Western N America 6165 I was at the concert, along with many of my colleagues, and can highly recommend listening to this programme. It featured some unique collaborative performances, for example mezzo-soprano Tania Kross singing with Blof. The artists, some of whom had never met each other, let alone worked together, before rehearsals started for this concert, were clearly having a great time, and we are pleased that our English- speaking listeners around the world will get the chance to share in this unique musical event (December 21st, 2007 - 14:48 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS ANTILLES. Welcome to the sunny Caribbean island of Bonaire, a tiny speck of land just north of the Venezuelan coast, known for its diving, its wildlife -- and for the signal it sends forth on 800 kHz. Yes, this is Trans World Radio, otherwise known as PJB. Or, more correctly, this was Trans World Radio as it appeared in the spring of 1996, when the five towers shown above (and yes, they're straight in real life; what you see above is a montage of two photos) were still sending out 500 kW, the highest-powered medium-wave signal in the Americas. . . http://www.fybush.com/sites/2006/site-060526.html The shortwave transmitters were already gone when I visited Bonaire in 1996 - just a big empty room that was being reworked as a power plant. There's a pretty good international market in used high-power transmitters. The Brown-Boveri 500 kW MW unit I saw at TWR had been purchased used from somewhere in Africa (I want to say Bophuthatswana, but I could be wrong), and could easily have gone back there or to somewhere in the Middle East or Asia. It was in pretty good shape, and not that old, as I recall (Scott Fybush, ABDX via DXLD) I don't know what they are running. Perhaps 50 or 100 kilowatts. http://schedulesearch.twr.org/search.php Set language to English, country all targets, time as local or UT, then leave the program name at all programs & set the sort any way you like. 800 kHz is there along with a 1230 frequency. I don't know what power 1230 is but it's for Bermuda. Yes I still have QSL's for both AM and shortwave from TWR Bonaire & one or two for shortwave from Guam (Robert M. Bratcher, Jr., TX, ibid.) ** NIGERIA. 7274.87, Radio Nigeria, Abuja, 0655-0705, Dec 21, stronger than usual with English talk about local politics. Not // 4769.97. Two separate English programs on these frequencies (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OMAN. 15140, Radio Sultanate of Oman, 1405-1500, Dec 21, Very tentative. Fairly strong carrier but very weak modulation. Too weak to catch any kind of program details (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. 15100, R. Pakistan, Dec 15 *0728-0737, 35433 English, 0728 sign on with IS, Kor`an, ID, Opening announce, Music. Also Dec 18, 0731-0744, 35433, English, Kor`an, ID and Opening announce, Music (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium Dec 21 via DXLD) ** TAIWAN. NCC MAY DROP BCC OWNERSHIP CHANGE Taiwan’s National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday claimed that it would drop its previous approval on the ownership change of Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC), if BCC’s new chairman Jaw Shao-long’s wife Liang Lei fails to reduce her stake in UFO Network Broadcasting Co to 10 percent from 30 percent before the deadline of Dec. 26. The NCC in June this year approved the ownership change of BCC and Jaw’s election to the station’s board of directors on conditions that Jaw’s wife should reduce her shareholdings in UFO Network Broadcasting to 10 percent within six months. If the NCC scraps its approval of the BCC’s ownership change, then the ownership and transaction value involving the BCC will have to be adjusted. Some two months earlier, Jaw announced his withdrawal from the management of BCC, citing government blockage of his leadership at Taiwan’s largest radio station. Jaw told reporters that he decided to call it quits and the government had refused to recognize him as the legitimate chairman of BCC. Four companies affiliated with Jaw bought BCC from the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) late last year ahead of the legal deadline set for political parties’ withdrawal from media operations. But the Cabinet has refused to recognize the sale of BCC or Jaw’s appointment, claiming the deal was set up to help the KMT launder assets - including the radio station - it had allegedly stolen from the nation. (Source: The China Post) (December 20th, 2007 - 12:21 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** U K [non]. Frequency changes for BBC: 1300-1330 NF 9670 SNG 100 kW / 340 deg, ex 9540 in Indonesian 1345-1430 NF 9580 SNG 100 kW / 140 deg, ex 9540 in Burmese (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 3 via DXLD) ** U K. BBCWS --- Christmas is the one time of the year that the Queen speaks directly to the world. The annual broadcast of the Queen’s Christmas message is a tradition that dates back to the earliest days of the BBC, and the “Empire Service”. It was Queen Elizabeth’s grandfather, George V, who made the first such broadcast. This year the broadcast should be heard several times on the 25th. There will be many special broadcasts from the BBC including the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols (1502 UTC Christmas Eve): “Our Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was first held on Christmas Eve 1918. It was planned by Eric Milner-White, who at the age of thirty-four had just been appointed Dean of King’s, after experience as an army chaplain which had convinced him that the Church of England needed more imaginative worship. A revision of the Order of Service was made in 1919, involving rearrangement of the lessons, and from that date the service has always begun with the hymn ‘Once in royal David’s city’. “The service was first broadcast in 1928 and, with the exception of 1930, has been broadcast annually, even during the Second World War, when the ancient glass (and also all heat) had been removed from the Chapel and the name of King’s could not be broadcast for security reasons. Sometime in the early 1930’s the BBC began broadcasting the service on overseas programmes. It is estimated that there are millions of listeners worldwide, including those to Radio Four in the United Kingdom. In recent years it has become the practice to broadcast a digital recording on Christmas Day on Radio Three, and since 1963 a shorter service has been filmed periodically for television.” http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/chapel/ninelessons/index.html BBC World Service traditionally broadcasts many specials around this time of year. In past years, these have included adaptations of The Wind in the Willows, A Child’s Christmas in Wales and The Shepherd. In addition, regular programs will have special editions. Finally, check out BBC Radio 2 online, on Christmas Day, for a Christmas show with a twist. Mark LaMarr (in my opinion one of the best presenters anywhere on the BBC, or elsewhere for that matter) hosts Mark LaMarr’s Christmas Business: “Mark Lamarr treats listeners to some of his favourite Christmas tracks with songs from across the musical genres - ska, rock ‘n’ roll, blues, soul and more on Christmas Day. Listeners can join in by calling in or e-mailing and letting Mark know how their Christmas Day is going.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/events/christmas/christmas.shtml (Fred Waterer, Programming Matters, Dec ODXA Listening In via DXLD) ** U S A. WEWN in Birmingham, AL usually carries the Pope’s Christmas Eve Mass on the 24th around 2300. In addition the Mass from the Basilica in Washington, DC can usually be heard. Christmas Day Mass from Washington and the Vatican as well as the Pope’s Christmas Message can be heard on the 25th. In past years, WEWN has aired a 3- hour performance of “The Messiah”. WEWN can be counted on to give extensive “pray-by-pray” coverage of any major events at the Vatican or in the Catholic Church (Papal visits, funerals etc). Most of these “birthdays” go un-noticed, but HCJB, World Harvest Radio and KTBN all began broadcasting on December 25 (Fred Waterer, Programming Matters, Dec ODXA Listening In via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. GERMANY, Frequency changes for WYFR Family Radio via DTK T-Systems: 1500-1600 on 13660 WER 500 kW / 150 deg to EaAf in English, no change 1600-1700 NF 11635 WER 500 kW / 150 deg to EaAf in Amharic, ex 13660 1700-1800 NF 11635 WER 500 kW / 150 deg to EaAf in Swahili, ex 13660 1800-1900 NF 9435 WER 500 kW / 150 deg to EaAf in English, ex 13660 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 3 via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. RUSSIA, Winter Schedule of WYFR Family Radio via TRW=TV Radio Waves: 1800-1900 on 5820 TAC 200 kW / 311 deg to WeWeEu Polish 1400-1700 on 5865 DB 100 kW / 135 deg to SoAs Hindi 1400-1500 on 5900 SAM 250 kW / 117 deg to SoAs Gujarati 1500-1600 on 5900 SAM 250 kW / 117 deg to SoAs Punjabi 1400-1600 on 5920 TCH 250 kW / 240 deg to SoAs English 1400-1500 on 5970 SAM 250 kW / 140 deg to SoAs Kannada 1100-1500 on 5995 P.K 250 kW / 244 deg to EaAs Chinese 1900-2000 on 6000 MSK 250 kW / 240 deg to WeWeEu Italian 1200-1300 on 6005 K/A 250 kW / 213 deg to EaAs Korean 1400-1500 on 6020 SAM 250 kW / 140 deg to SoAs Telugu 1600-1700 on 6070 ARM 300 kW / 110 deg to SoAs Punjabi 1100-1500 on 6115 IRK 100 kW / 110 deg to EaAs Chinese 1400-1500 on 6225 DB 200 kW / 125 deg to SEAs English, additional 1000-1100 on 7150 NVS 250 kW / 085 deg to EaAs Japanese 1100-1500 on 7165 P.K 250 kW / 263 deg to EaAs Chinese 1200-1300 on 7175 IRK 250 kW / 180 deg to SEAs Vietnamese 1300-1400 on 7175 IRK 250 kW / 180 deg to SEAs English 1400-1600 on 7175 ARM 300 kW / 110 deg to SoAs Urdu 1900-2000 on 7240 SAM 250 kW / 284 deg to WeWeEu German 1600-1700 on 7295 NVS 250 kW / 195 deg to SoAs Urdu 1900-2100 on 7300 ARM 250 kW / 290 deg to WeWeEu French 1400-1500 on 7340 IRK 250 kW / 224 deg to SoAs Nepali 1500-1600 on 7340 IRK 250 kW / 224 deg to SoAs Marathi 1800-1900 on 7345 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg to ME Arabic 1900-2000 on 7345 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg to ME English 1700-1900 on 7435 TAC 200 kW / 311 deg to EaWeEu Russian 1400-1500 on 7475 DB 100 kW / 137 deg to SoAs Tamil 1600-1800 on 7485 SMF 250 kW / 131 deg to WeAs Persian 1800-1900 on 7490 A-A 200 kW / 312 deg to WeWeEu German 1900-2000 NF 7490 KCH 300 kW / 268 deg to SoWeEu Spanish, ex 7210 NVS 1400-1600 on 7505 TAC 200 kW / 311 deg to SEAs Bengali 1300-1500 on 7535 A-A 500 kW / 094 deg to EaAs Chinese 1200-1300 on 7560 A-A 200 kW / 132 deg to SEAs Vietnamese 1300-1400 on 7560 A-A 200 kW / 132 deg to SEAs English 1400-1500 on 7560 A-A 500 kW / 121 deg to SEAs English 1300-1400 on 9310 A-A 200 kW / 132 deg to SEAs Burmese 1400-1500 on 9355 KCH 300 kW / 110 deg to SoAs Gujarati 1200-1300 on 9450 NVS 250 kW / 155 deg to SEAs Indonesian 0900-1100 on 9460 IRK 250 kW / 110 deg to EaAs English 1100-1200 on 9460 IRK 250 kW / 110 deg to EaAs Korean 1200-1300 on 9485 IRK 500 kW / 180 deg to SEAs Indonesian 1300-1400 on 9485 IRK 500 kW / 180 deg to SEAs English 1400-1500 on 9485 IRK 500 kW / 180 deg to SEAs Vietnamese 1100-1200 on 11510 A-A 200 kW / 132 deg to SEAs Tagalog 1100-1300 on 12150 A-A 500 kW / 094 deg to EaAs Chinese (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 3 via DXLD) ** U S A. WBCQ 5110, on, with World of Radio? Please check --- Area 51 show is supposed to have started today Dec 21 on WBCQ 5110, 22-24 UT. At 2325 I can barely detect a (reduced) carrier under the local noise level. Can those further east please confirm whether WBCQ is really on the air at this time, whether Area 51 is in progress ---- and Whether WORLD OF RADIO 1387 is appearing at its supposed new time of 2330 UT Friday on 5110. Thanks, (Glenn Hauser, Enid, 2327 UT Dec 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, You're there but in USB, and incredibly tinny. Not at all readable. 73/Liz (Cameron, MI, ibid.) I'm receiving regularly in AM, bad reception in USB. Real time audio clip: http://www.bclnews.it/audiodx/nam/usa/071221-5110-2340.mp3 (Roberto Scaglione, Sicily, ibid.) Area 51 is alive --- Posted at 5:06PM on Friday, December 21, 2007 in area 51 and hf and wbcq. Friday, December 21, 2007, 2156, 5110. The first broadcast in the new Area 51 block. Signal good here. 2200 Radio Morania 2300 International Radio Report 12/16/07 [CKUT] 2330 World of Radio 1387 12/15/07 [wrong date: 12/19/07 produced] (RFMA via DXLD) ** U S A. Our NEW YORK news starts downstate, with word of three more applications that were filed in that special window to create a new fulltime AM signal on 1700 for Rockland County. In addition to the application from Alexander Broadcasting's WRCR (1300 Spring Valley) that we told you about last week, the county's other existing broadcaster, Polnet, has applied for 1700 in Haverstraw to accompany its WRKL (910 New City). A former programmer of 1300, Zev Brenner's Talkline Communications, wants to put 1700 in Monsey, where it would presumably serve the community of Hasidic Jews there. And Gary Smithwick's S&B Communications applied for 1700 in Stony Point. See also http://www.fybush.com/NERW/2007/071217/nerw.html for more on the Scranton TV/FM tower collapses (Scott Fybush, Rochester, NE Radio Watch Dec 17 via DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thanks to John O`Neil, USA, for holiday greetings and a contribution via PayPal to woradio @ yahoo.com PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ NUMBER STATIONS SCHOLARLY ARTICLE Hi Glenn, The latest issue of the scholarly journal "Cryptologia" which I've just received in my real mailbox contains a very interesting article by Jan Bury, from the Polish Institute of International Affair. Titled "From the Archives: The U.S. and West German Agent Radio Ciphers" the article refers to and translates a secret Polish counterintelligence publication depicting the ciphers and the one-way radio communications patterns used by the U.S. and West German intelligence services against Poland in the 1960s and early 1970s. Keywords for this story: DFC37; DFD21; numbers stations; one-way agent radio communications and ciphers; Polish Ministry of Interior (MSW) II Department (Counterintelligence) Further informations and orders at the journal's Web site: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a782876754~db=all~order=page 73s (Andy Lawendel, Italy, Dec 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UPDATED SHORTWAVE PACIFIC ASIAN LOG ONLINE The latest database and pdf editions of Bruce Portzer's shortwave Pacific Asian Log are now online at http://www.radioheritage.net All the latest changes, new stations, new formats and much more. Thousands of SW radio stations covering the entire Asian Pacific region. Online search possibilities. Access remains complimentary 24/7 for worldwide users. This is the most comprehensive listing freely available anywhere online. Well over 23,000 data entries to make your listening easier. Some shortwave countries are close to becoming extinct, with only one entry each for places like Afghanistan, Antarctica, Bhutan, and Nepal. Others have only two or three entries. However, China has 865 current entries indicating that shortwave broadcasting remains very healthy in this growing Asian powerhouse. Whilst at http://www.radioheritage.net read our new articles and stories as well. Plenty of interest for everyone wanting to know all about radio across the region. The updated mediumwave database version is already online as well. The New Zealand @ A Glance AM database now contains 200+ stations and has also been updated. The New Zealand Low Power FM Radio Guide is updated daily. Thanks for visiting http://www.radioheritage.net, home of the Radio Heritage Foundation (David Ricquish, RHF, Dec 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) There can`t be ``thousands of SW radio stations`` in Asia and Pacific --- unless maybe each individual frequency in China and other big users counts as a ``station`` (gh, DXLD) EL MUNDO DE LA RADIO Dear friends!!!! We are really please to introduce you in a new world: http://www.elmundodelaradio.com Our site has been created with the prime purpose to giving an informative resource, for all the Radio Manager and Communication’s Students Career. Although it’s a commercial site; we’re shortly including columns about law radio world, technical reports and interviews to radio’s V.I.P. We perfectly know the important role that “Social Communication” and the other different promotional ways, had when need build any Publicity Strategy Planning. After the elaboration and selection of the best alternatives, our Commercial Manager Department, was create a “Publicity Rules planning”; available for every reader of the http://www.elmundodelaradio.com Assuming, of course, that each reader or customer certainly may have many different issues to review before give us the role of build their “Publicity Strategy Planning”, we’re capable to provide solves for any need, offering several “Benefit’s Political” Finally, we must say that all of it; is possible, because of the excellence; expertise and compromise assumed by our Staff; which leads and it’s responsible for the Creation, Foundation and Direction for the most important areas in “ELMUNDODELARADIO.COM” Staff Managers ü Christian Bravo de Laguna (Publicist & Site Development) ü Rocío González López (Commercial Development) ü Arnaldo Leonel Slaen (Moderate & Contents) (Arnaldo Slaen, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) SHORTWAVE MUSIC +++++++++++++++ KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN, SEEKER OF NEW SOUNDS, DIED ON DECEMBER 5TH, AGED 79 http://home.swipnet.se/sonoloco2/Rec/Stockhausen/13.html He experimented with many sounds. "Kurzwellen" (1968) was based on the "foreign sounds" of short-wave radio December 13, 2007 From The Economist print edition Full obituary at: http://www.economist.com:80/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10281353&CFID=2154856&CFTOKEN=e437667e6641b69f-E8F78654-B27C-BB00-0129DB8E5059D4AA When I was young - and certainly when Stockhausen was young (bodily young!) - short-wave radio was in frequent use. I don't know how many young people today come into contact with the ever-changing sounds of short-wave transmissions, since they usually tune in to local FM stations with no static and with CD-quality sound; lately even via digital transmissions. However, for us who have been around in our most recent bodies for at least fifty earthling years, the sounds of the short-wave, the Morse- signals, fragments of melodies, the static between stations, sudden emerging and retracting voices from anywhere on the planet (heavily turning over, revolving around its axis with all its forests and mountains and factories and dump trucks and people and ant mounds into new sunrises blinding you out of the east) constitute a fascinating and fantasy-triggering - even vision-inducing - quality of the auditive, mingling all cultures and religions, all political systems and all devoted causes of all points of the compass, from all walks of life, bouncing off the inversion layers of the atmosphere to our receivers in our private chambers, in a linguistic feast, a Babylonic demonstration of the dispersing of morphemes across our heavenly home, floating, turning, revolving in the remote areas of an extremity of a spiral galaxy. transmitters, receivers, transmitters, receivers - and the messages immerse us, even though only a minor fraction of them are intelligible to our limited ears, our limited knowledge. However, there is another way, other than through familiar linguistics and known morphemes, in which we can benefit from these short-wave sounds, as we can appreciate the underlying wholeness of humanity, of communication - of the static of Existence itself! It's like the background hum of the Universe, in the average 2 Kelvin of the void. It's not hard to float into states like that when you're turning the dial of a short-wave receiver! It's like being connected to the heart of the sunrise! Maybe secrets lurk there, and probably the sum of these transmissions constitute an essentially different nature and quality than simply being the sum of all the individual transmissions, the way the conscience of a human being far outruns the sum of all the cells of the anatomy. There once - in the 1960s - was a man in Sweden, in the rural town of Mölnbo, called Friedrich Jürgenson, who tampered with reel-to-reel tape recorders. He thought he caught on tape sounds from another dimension, and he was so sure about this that he insisted on the accuracy of his recordings, where you could hear faint sounds inside the buzz and hiss of the tapes rolling across the heads. Jürgenson thought he succeeded in recording events in the realm of the recently dead, in the Bardo state, to quote the "Tibetan Book of the Dead". No matter what the truth of this may be, or what people in those days thought, it's plain to see how basically unidentified sounds of static and disturbances of transmissions take on magic contours, setting forces of imagination, introspection - and maybe insight - in motion. In "Kurzwellen" Stockhausen brings up the sounds of short-wave transmissions into the artistic (and philosophical) sphere, where they take on yet another guise, that of stimuli for the players to react on, instrumentally, musically. Stockhausen says: "Imagine finding an apple on a distant star: that which is so self-understood here is wonderfully magic there". One could also mention the scene towards the end of the movie "2001", where the astronaut, after being helplessly transported in unimaginable speed into the atmosphere of Jupiter, all of a sudden finds himself in a room in a house, where, from behind, he sees a man in a suit at a table eating his lunch. The astronaut stands in his space suit in the roam, seeing this. One wonders: "Is that God, sitting over there in a suit on Jupiter, having his lunch?" Then the man turns around, and it is apparent that the man is the astronaut. When you ask the really big questions - which you start asking when you're around three years old - the answer always seem to be a - .mirror! Hearing the short-wave sounds this way makes for a very rewarding situation of exploration and beauty. Marcel Duchamp once worked with "ready-mades", trying to make people see ordinary objects apart from their function, and that soon became a whole "school". However, Stockhausen goes way beyond that initial thought, applying the "ready- mades" (the sounds off the short-wave) in a constant interconnection with the musicians, producing a sound web that is unknown to everybody - to Stockhausen as well as to the players - until the sounds are heard. There is no way of foreseeing what will come out of the loudspeakers, and the musicians' reactions are of course dependent on these unforeseeable events, in accordance with the frameset that the composer introduces. As so many times before Stockhausen in "Kurzwellen" allows for a myriad of variations of the performance, and it is astounding how he can keep this principle up in so many different ways through so many compositions, allowing for this highly creative freedom, this "heart-of-the-sunrise"-connection! The rules set by Stockhausen for the performance of "Kurzwellen" concern "HOW the players react to what they hear on the radio; HOW they imitate and then modulate it, transpose it in time (longer or shorter, more or less rhythmically articulated) and in space (higher or lower, louder or softer); WHEN and HOW and HOW OFTEN they play synchronously or alternatingly, in duos, trios or quartets; HOW they call and invite each other to hear together an event which wanders among them for a prolonged period of time, letting it shrink and grow, compressing and expanding it, darkening and lightening it, concentrating or playfully decorating it". There is a point at the beginning of this performance where the listener quite easily can follow the players' development of a short- wave phrase, when the BBC station call appears, well-known to anybody who ever used the short-wave band for their listening pleasure. It's first picked-up by the piano. This occurrence also, says Stockhausen, picked out this particular recording for release (any of the recordings that were made could have been chosen, but all sound completely different from one another). The BBC call had been present at the premier of the piece in Bremen a year earlier! It is interesting also to note that this recording is unaltered, appearing here exactly the way it was performed and recorded in 1969. Another note that should be made is that the sound is so good that it is hard to realize that the original recording took place in late 1960s. This goes for almost all of Stockhausen's recordings in this ongoing series, The Stockhausen Edition. The sound quality even of old recordings is remarkable! Another interesting (and humorously absurd) comment is that when Stockhausen works with, and records, radio static and transmission disturbances, you hear them clearly on these good- sounding recordings.! (I love that thought!) And at the end of the recording; is that Om Kalsoum [sic] appearing, out of the Egyptian timelessness? I think so. I've heard most of her songs, but cannot determine which one this might be (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ NEXT EDXC CONFERENCE, SEPT 5-7 2008: VAASA, FINLAND The voting amongst the EDXC member clubs about the next year`s EDXC Conference was finished this Monday evening. It will be held in Vaasa in Finland coincident with the 50th Jubilee of Finnish DX Association (FDXA) on September 05-07, 2008. Their website is under construction at http://www.netikka.net/edxc2008/ (Tibor Szilagyi, EDXC SG, Vaesterhaninge, Sweden, DSWCI DX Window Dec 12 via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ KDKA, WBZ'S IBOC, AND FARKLEBERRY TARTS Thanks to WBZ's IBOC, I can no longer listen to KDKA in the evenings as I drive home from Morgantown, WV to my little town of Waynesbug, PA (respectively, they are 64 miles and 47 miles south of KDKA's transmitter site in Allison Park, PA). So I emailed KDKA about the problem, and received a friendly response from Marshall Adams, KDKA's PD. His note says, "Thanks for your reception report. Waynesburg and Greene County are very important to us and clearly we want to ensure that KDKA is heard there. Our engineering staff is looking into this matter now." (I hope KDKA is hearing from many others like me!) Mr. Adams also sent some nice KDKA bling -- travel mug, pens, etc. But the real prize he enclosed is a ceramic Farkleberry Christmas ornament (numbered! #361 --- like a limited-edition art print!), commemorating the famous "farkleberry tart" gimmick created by former KDKA morning host Jack Bogut in 1971, part of the station's annual Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh on-air fund drive. I'm sure some of you old- timers remember hearing this, from back in the day when Bogut was THE morning guy in Pittsburgh radio, and KDKA had the channel all to itself (except for those 2 little daytimers in Illinois and KPOP). Memories... For more on the farkelberry tart: http://pittsburgh.about.com/b/2006/11/23/whatever-happened-to-the-farkleberry-cookie.htm (Note -- their story contains an error -- contrary to common belief, there really IS such a thing as the farkleberry plant, which has edible berries -- look it up!) (Fred Schroyer, Freelance Science Writer / Editorial Consultant Waynesburg, PA 15370, IRCA via DXLD) RADIO WORLD IBOC PRO AND CON CON: "Time for a Reality Check on IBOC" http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0044/t.10298.html PRO: "Hey, AM HD-R Critics: Got a Better Idea?" http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0044/t.10299.html Re the above, yes, I have a better idea: forget AM and FM IBOC and instead start planning for a future of IP-based content delivered via wireless broadband. Failing that, why not, ya know, try programming something new and different that people might want to listen to?? (Harry Helms W5HLH, Smithville, TX EL19, http://harryhelmsblog.blogspot.com/ Dec 20, ABDX via DXLD) This engineer [CON] understands the situation, EXACTLY. This [PRO] is an in your face guy who forgets that its not the station that runs things but the listener. The bottom line is that if you run IBOC you introduce a lot of noise on the AM band. If you make noise, and the listener hears racket that makes his head ache, you just chased off a guy to go get his IBOC, CD, MP3 player or something else. Most of them don't get it (Kevin Redding, AZ, ibid.) Mr. Poole's premise and assumption, that digital is where it is at, is the problem. What he fails to realize is there is possibility that digital may not work on AM has conceived. Certainly, it is abundantly clear that IBOC is flawed as least on AM. Anyway, analog has worked fine for the last 87 years, and the imposition of digital in the form of IBOC on AM is not making it better. He also asks for feasible and realistic alternatives. 1. Don't do anything. Just leave the band alone. That would be the most cost-effective alternative. 2. If the stations really need to go to digital go to a band where there are not the inherent problems that the AM band poses to digital. The spectrum that has been occupied by analog TV channels 5 and 6 have been suggested, and I fully realize that they have been rejected by the NAB etc. But maybe it is time to revisit this possibility (Bill Harms, ibid.) All right, I'm game. First, a couple of disclaimers before I respond: (a) I don't know what is technically feasible, I'm purely a hobbyist, I'm not an engineer (although I know many people are who are more into the engineer-side who could also be considered hobbyists, and they say it is a bad idea). (b) I'm just an under 35, who for some strange reason thinks radio still is magical. Yes, when I usually choose to enjoy popular music it is on an Ipod from tunes that I buy from Amazon and Itunes. Also, sometimes I enjoy a little dance music, comedy from XM. (I let my Sirius subscription lapse because I don't have time to listen to both anymore). However, that being said, I do still fire up the radio about 3 months out of the year (purely to get that magical hobby feeling going, not because I think what is on the air is great). So without delving into the technical problems inherent in digital, let's visit some other issues: Here is why Clear Channel, and others have a BIG problem. Clear Channel who has, by words and actions, admitted they are in the marketing business, not the good radio business, has the following problems: 1. Advertising way too much (this is what drove a massive amount of people to pay for what they could have had free). This should also be a warning to XM not to get too cozy with Clear Channel and Premiere Networks. 2. Advertising even more to get back what revenues have been lost due to a dwindling audience. (It is a downward spiral). 3. Content (what else can be said here, I'm mean really. Blues and Gospel surpass the other formats hands down on AM - in my opinion. Public radio beats the heck out of most other FM stations with content). [That is not a good thing, especially trying to reach those under age 35yrs.] 4. HD has become part of the problem, rather than the solution. Here is why: Suppose I am a business owner looking for some form of advertisement. Then I decide to advertise on radio. First, it will not take very long to realize there is no dramatic improvement in business. However, suppose I am a savvy businessperson looking for some advertisement. Am I really going to go to a marketing company that can't sell its own darn invention??? You see how silly this HD thing is when you put in that perspective. It had a terrible risk of failing, and even if succeeds not much will be gained from it. As far as risk management goes, it doesn't have a good risk to reward ratio (KD5GNN, ibid.) GARDNER, JASON R, KD5GNN (Technician), Meridian, MS (ARRL lookup via DXLD) Kevin has it right! That link to the "CON" article is so full of misleading garbage it made me sit here and do some copy and paste stuff. But that got kind of tedious and so I just stopped. I was going to do a statement-by-statement rebuttal but it got kind of long! If the fellow says they could care less about AM, then why change anything on AM IBOC? "Going digital" is not the answer. The answer is having radio delivering lively local content. Delivery by satellite, no matter how clever, is NOT the answer. Seriously over-paid executives in a remote office is NOT the answer. The fellow made other assumptions that are really ill thought out. The dramatically-reduced coverage area of a station in the IBOC mode just don't seem to have been mentioned. And then of course we have that little problem of no receivers available. On another list I pointed out that again I made a trip to local stores to try to find an IBOC receiver and found none. Zero. I then concluded that IBOC is deficient in the marketing department. They just want to take the royalties and run. I suspect those royalties are going to dry up. Especially in the case of AM, IBOC is "circling the drain." (JimTonne, ibid.) IBOC DELAYS Random stuff using the ICF-2010 and telescoping whip, date (12/16) and times UT (Central time = UT -6 hours): 1200 WOAI San Antonio, TX. Okay, not exactly DX but something interesting. As I spun the dial on the Sony, I was watching the Spurs-Nuggets game with the TV muted. I noticed what looked like a technical foul, so I punched 1200 into the ICF-2010 to find out what happened. It turns out the WOAI broadcast of the game was approximately 28 seconds behind the telecast! I listened / watched for a few minutes, and the pattern held; the radio broadcast lagged the telecast by the same amount throughout. WOAI was broadcasting in IBOC last night. I know there has been some delay in other IBOC broadcasts of live sports events, but, geez Louise, this is ridiculous! (Spurs won, BTW.) (Harry Helms, W5HLH, Smithville, TX EL19, ABDX via DXLD) Re: DRM Enters Tropical Band Of course, this can't be the greatest stupidity conceived, but it can be found in the Top Ten. What kind of market for DRM opened in the tropical areas? Do these guys really live on Planet Earth? It could have some sense if this goes among the rich nations, which by this very time aren't even able to obtain DRM receivers in their electronic stores. So, what to think about third world countries that mostly have abandoned the tropical bands. How in the world to think they will go back to the tropical bands with such expensive technology they can't easily afford, and less to think that from the listeners. It's gonna take a miracle to convince third world countries most likely broadcasting in those bands to go back over their footsteps closing down their FM outlets, that anyway it will be changed for the Internet (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, Dec 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ERO CONSULTATION ON REPLACING AM WITH DRM The European Radiocommunications Office (ERO) are holding a public consultation on replacing AM broadcasting with Digital Radio (DRM). The consultation document called "Managing the Transition to Digital Sound Broadcasting in the LF/MF Bands" says: "The key to achieving an all digital environment for sound broadcasting below 30 MHz is a rapid transition to digital broadcasting in the LF and MF bands. This is of crucial interest and importance to the major commercial and public service broadcasting networks in all countries. The objective of a rapid deployment of digital broadcasting in the LF and MF bands does, however, have to be consistent with the long established Plans for LF and MF sound broadcasting around the world." "However, there are some shortcomings in the current regulatory situation. The current Rules of Procedure are limited to DRM transmissions with spectrum occupancy 2 (9 kHz). There is no provision for increasing spectrum occupancy. Furthermore, these Rules of Procedure are provisional and as a consequence the DRM transmissions introduced using these Rules of Procedure are also provisional." "An ITU conference may need to be convened at an appropriate point in the future to revise the GE75 Agreement and the associated Plan. Such a conference should take advantage of wider bandwidth DRM modes and improved planning parameters as they become available and should aim at optimising network coverage so as to make best use of the advantages offered by DRM." Read the full consultation document ECC Report 117 at http://www.ero.dk/EE25906D-3D6C-4219-B1E6-A870F1279515?frames=no& Responses to the consultation must be submitted by 30th December 2007. The ERO consultation contact address is yurdal @ ero.dk European RadioCommunications Office (ERO) http://www.ero.dk/ ERO Active Consultations http://www.ero.dk/D697CBE5-5527-48C5-A6F6-9342C611D4AD.W5Doc?frames=no& ---- 73 (via Trevor M5AKA, monitoringmonthly yg Dec 20 via DXLD) FRANCE ADOPTS DRM UP TO 30 MHZ Radio Magazine Paris December 11, 2007 http://radiomagonline.com/currents/radio-currents-121007/ On December. 5, French Minister of Culture Christine Albanel signed a decree to confirm the adoption of Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) and Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (T-DMB) in Band III and in the L-band as the digital radio standards in France. The adoption of DRM in France is the result of long-term experiments and discussions conducted with or under the scrutiny of the regulatory and governmental bodies. The statements of industry ministers along the past years have paved the way for the decision made by the Minister of Culture and Communication. Both T-DMB and the DRM standard were named as driving technologies. The DRM and T-DMB adoption will boost the commercial launch of digital radio in France, scheduled for next year. Early in 2008, the Conseil Superieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA) will invite tenders for radio stations and program editors to broadcast digital radio. The first digital radio programs are expected to be on air in France in the last quarter of 2008 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) DRM RECEIVERS? Forget it, read this comment somewhere recently: I will go out on a limb here and and suggest that DRM for applications over multiple hop transmission paths is a total waste of time and effort. DRM HF signals do not "fade", and are either "on" or "off". Similar to digital TV. The whole DRM HF exercise is becoming a really big lemon, and I do not believe that this technology has any real future as a replacement for DSB AM HF. No wonder that manufacturers are loathe to invest in extensive design and development of DRM HF specific receivers for the consumer market. After 11 years developing in DRM mode, the user sets didn't arrive at the super market YET. The one [sic] and only sets I can recommend are 1 - the PERSEUS set "software-defined receiver" from Italy, http://www.ssb.de/amateur/englisch/perseus/perseus_e.shtml http://www.ssb.de/amateur/simplay/drmmp3_e.shtml http://www.ssb.de/amateur/simplay/mp3_e.shtml http://www.ssb.de/amateur/simplay/utilitymp3_e.shtml 2 - and Winradio G 313 - DRM ready - from Australia. http://www.ssb.de/amateur/englisch/winradio2/g313_e.shtml 73 wb df5sx (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, BDXC-UK via DXLD) This is a very interesting discussion - and one which I feel impacts hugely on our hobby - and I speak as a broadcaster of 30 years, and, more importantly (!) as a DX'er of 35 years!! Essentially, Wolfgang is right - whereas 'fading' signals are acceptable to the casual (i.e. non-DX) listener, the 'on or off' nature of patchy DRM signals are unacceptable. We all listened to Radio Luxembourg under the bedclothes in the 60's and 70's and put up with the fading and distortion. But if the audio had cut off completely during bad reception periods we'd have given up, and switched off. Interest in DRM by international broadcasters seems to be, at the moment, at an all-time high. But we must remember that it's still experimental and early days. DRM appeals to SW broadcasters because it's cheap, compared to the alternative, the Internet - don't forget that Internet 'broadcasters' still have to pay for bandwidth, and therefore the more 'Net listeners they have, the more they pay. Having said that, bandwidth costs are coming down all the time and will continue to do so. So, for the international broadcasters it's a case of dipping the toe in the water at present. To prove my point, have you noticed how interested DRM broadcasters are in getting feedback/reception reports - surely not a coincidence! DRM does have great potential for local transmission - in the UK there is a plethora of 'Gold' MW stations who would give an arm and a leg to take advantage of the 'near FM' qualities of DRM. They're losing money hand over fist partly because the average listener has become more sophisticated and expects more than 'poor' AM quality; the same listener would be served well by RELIABLE DRM coverage instead. Put simply - as I see it - it goes like this: DRM on shortwave will lose out to the Internet alternative as bandwidth prices become cheaper and as the non-availability of SW DRM receivers stalls as it is doing at present. DRM replacement of traditional AM broadcasting is a distinct possibility - given (in the UK at least) the lack of free space on DAB frequencies/ bouquets. Whether the Internet replaces both DRM and DAB remains to be seen - I suspect, rather sadly, that it will. We DX in difficult times - if you excuse the borrowed phrase. I see AM DX'ing (especially for Trans Atlantic DX) becoming hugely difficult because of horrendous DRM 'splatter' worldwide. For SW Dx'ing things may become better as international DX'ers move to the Internet but, of course, a lot of our DX targets may themselves shift to the Internet as a more reliable distribution platform. I'd be very interested in what others think - and a happy Xmas! (Simon Guettier, Dec 19, ibid.) DIGITAL CHANNELS IN SAINT LOUIS [a 5-part interchange between Will Martin, and from Germany, Kai Ludwig, on the dxldyg; gh has attempted to put them all together] WM: Hi, all! Since we've mentioned DTV issues here in the past, I'm hoping that this question isn't too far off-topic: I recently acquired a small HD DTV & use it with an indoor antenna for off-the-air DTV viewing. KL: Hello, I live in the DVB-T world (i.e. another system than ATSC is in use for terrestrial DTV here), but nevertheless some comments: Really HD? Here in Europe much abuse of the buzzword HD takes place, with fancy labels like "HD Ready" merely stating that the set can produce an image from a HD video signal but not specifying that the display is capable to reproduce the actual image quality. Usually only larger and rather expensive displays can really do that. In doubt one should look for the pixel resolution in the technical data. WM: Maybe it isn't really "HD". It *says* it is, and I distinctly note a difference in an improved picture when the on-screen blurb says it is "HD", but I may well be fooled. KL: The point is that "HD" just means that it is a better resolution than 640x480 (or 768x576 for 625 lines systems). Various formats exists (720p, 1080i, 1080p, just to mention them), and "HD" does not necessarily mean that the set is able to reproduce also the best possible quality. WM: It's not as flexible as some which have been mentioned here or in DXLD, in that, to check for the existence of digital channels, you have to let the device run its "autoprogram" process that searches for existing analog and digital channels and loads them into the TV's memory. If a channel isn't already loaded, you can punch in the explicit analog channel number and the TV will tune that, but you cannot punch in a digital channel number (like "24.1") and make it tune that if that channel isn't already loaded by the autoprogram. KL: There is a simple reason or this behaviour: These "digital channels", called Virtual Channels by the specifications, are just designators, reflecting the channel used by the existing NTSC transmitter of the respective licensee. The Virtual Channels have no technical relation whatsoever to the actual channel, the 6 MHz chunk of RF spectrum, where the ATSC transmitter is operating. WM: But some people who were quoted in an earlier DTV discussion reprinted in DXLD were talking about an RCA DTV on which you *could* punch in any DTV channel-number, even if the autoprogram search had not previously found it, and get a DTV picture if the signal was strong enough at that instant. That is how you can TV-DX a DTV signal. So some allow that. KL: But for DXing I would ask about the frequency, which is given as channel number for TV transmitters. I want to catch a certain transmitter, so let's tune the set to this frequency by punching in the channel number and see if there is something it can decode. Trouble is: Obviously both the FCC and the broadcasting industry don't want you to know the actual frequency of the DTV transmitter at all. They want you to stick mentally with the frequency (i.e. channel number) of the old analogue transmitter which is still on air in //, because this is "an important brand", thus they give anything carried on a DTV channel a "virtual channel" number which refers to another frequency. I can't find the DXLD item about the RCA set in question, but instead one that explains the whole problem behind this "branding" and "virtual channel" concept. Perhaps this helps to sort out this big mess a little bit (see under Digital Broadcasting): http://www.w4uvh.net/dxld7095.txt In the example given here it is about a transmitter on channel 39, which equals 621 MHz. This transmitter is operated by the same licensee than an analogue transmitter on ch. 9 (= 187 MHz), thus the services carried by the TV signal are "branded" as "9.1", "9.2" etc. But the DTV has no other relation to 187 MHz than being operated by the same broadcaster as another transmitter on this frequency. Btw, converter boxes as discussed in this item are the standard for digital over-the-air TV here in Germany. I think the cheapest ones meanwhile sell for significantly less than 50 Euro, thus it's no issue that analogue over-the-air TV is rapidly disappearing and will be a thing of the past in just a couple of months, away from some really special cases. WM: That's annoying -- if I had known that some DTVs allow that while others do not, I'd have not bought one that doesn't. It means that you really cannot TV-DX digital channels without that feature. Anyway, when I last ran the "autoprogram", it found all the digital channels that I was aware of here in the Saint Louis, Missouri, region, using just my unamplified inside antenna, so I was happy with that. But it also found and stored channel 26.4. This mystifies me. There's no other channel 26s here, analog or digital. The 26.4 signal never has any signal on it, visual or audio. (I saw a DXLD reference some issues back to some areas having audio-only digital signals that were something.4 but I thought that these were based on an existing DTV main channel.) KL: As explained above this is a Virtual Channel, included in the data stream of one of the received ATSC signals. For a clarification it would be necessary to determine from which multiplex, i.e. which transmitter, it originates. If the TV set does not allow to find that out: Bad luck, and one could only speculate that it belongs to a transmitter on channel 26. This would be KPLR-DT, which is shown as carrying a simulcast of analogue KPLR (ch. 11) plus a music video program called "The Tube". WM: Interesting! KPLR's "The Tube" was on the air some months ago, and I could watch it with the channel designation "11.2", but they dropped the service, and, after a week or so of nothing on 11.2 but a slide saying that "The Tube" was gone, they turned it off. So are you saying that, if I told the TV to tune analog channel "26", it would actually display what it now shows me as "11.1"? I have to try this when I get home (my computer access is away from home). KL: I would put it this way: If it is well suited for DXing it should present you what the signal of the transmitter on ch. 26 (= 543 MHz) actually carries. The whole problem is hinted in the item you already mentioned, under "Digital Broadcasting" and further on under "DTV Audio Channels" at http://www.w4uvh.net/dxld7111.txt Here they discuss an audio channel "21.7", carried by the WXXI-DT transmitter on ch. 16 (= 483 MHz). I gather from this discussion that the ATSC standard also calls for channels being flagged as "hidden", thus no "ordinary" customer will get to see them, but DXers using this magic RCA set can catch them nevertheless. Of course in theory one could also do without "hiding" such audio-only channels and use them as official radio services. That's indeed done in many countries where the DVB-T standard is in use, and on the globally (i.e. also in North America) used satellite version DVB-S this is a matter of course. The difference is that the DVB standards also provide for audio-only streams being flagged as radio, so they do not appear as fifth wheel of a TV car but as genuine radio services on their own which just happen to share a bitstream with TV stations. WM: The only other something.4 channel here is PBS, KETC, channel 9, which has 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, & 9.4 but all those are regular PBS services also in other cities. KL: And they are not on channel 9 (where the NTSC transmitter operates) but are carried by a transmitter on channel 39. And doesn't PBS take some of these four channels off air during the evenings to free up the bandwith for HD transmissions? HD requires much more capacity, simply because it are no longer just 640x480 but now 1280x720 or even 1920x1080 pixels. WM: The PBS four digital channels are all on 24 hours a day, even when there are programs labelled "HD" on 9.1, which seems to be an all-HD PBS-feature channel. I also get a blank (no audio or video, black screen) on channel 4.2, but that has an "Info" label that ties it to local channel 4 and I've contacted them and they say they have that empty channel on the air for future use. KL: http://www.qsl.net/n0uih/StLouisGuide.html says "Spare channel (to move to channel 24 when DTV transition is complete)". Maybe rather a legal than an engineering thing, nothing a European could explain ... but apparently this ATSC signal will have to move from ch. 56 to ch. 24 once analogue KNLC here has been shut down, presumably because ch. 56 is in future no longer to be used for broadcasting. WM: (They're wasting electricity keeping the carrier up for some reason, to tie this in to gh's recent comment about such empty carriers on SW! :-) KL: No, they don't. It's just something they put on the 19.4 Mbps data stream their transmitter on ch. 24 churns out. Presumably (if ATSC behaves like the DVB variants in this regard) they not even have to waste much data capacity for this. WM: So, my question is: What the heck is channel 26.4 here in this Saint Louis, Missouri area (or across the river in Illinois)? I didn't think that you *could* get an image or harmonic on digital! Info or speculation appreciated! Happy Holidays to the group! 73, (Will Martin, MO, Dec 12, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) WM: Posting the original reminded me of one other DTV-related question I have: Do all DTVs show an "Info" line with the program title when you tune in that channel? Have you noticed how often that info is just plain wrong? Where does this data come from? I had expected it to come from something embedded in the program itself, but what often happens is that the program title shown is what had been scheduled to be on at that time, but a pre-emption or schedule change has put a different program on the air at that time. Yet the "Info" display shows the formerly-scheduled title, not what's really on. So it has to be from some other data source. Where is it originated? Maybe the local station, which is generating this from some computerized time & title database that isn't updated to cope with later changes or delays? Does it come from the network for network-fed shows? 73, (Will Martin, MO, dxldydg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) KL: That's presumably EPG data, generated by the broadcaster and included in the ATSC data stream. And it looks as if nobody at the stations pays much attention on it. WM: Is there a website I can go to that tells me all this info about what old-style analog channels these new DTV channels are occupying? I would think that this data would be invaluable for DTV TV-DXing because then you could know to use an antenna cut specifically for old channel "39", say, to get Saint Louis digital channel 9.1 from further away than normal coverage. Also, you could adjust indoor rabbit ears to the best possible length for your favorite digital channel. Thanks again! Will KL: This one looks quite usable: http://home.earthlink.net/~w9wi/tvdb/index.htm GH: Seems most stations use titantv for program database, but could be zap2it or even tvguide DTV: see also MEXICO POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ BROADBAND OVER POWERLINES: ALTERNATIVE OR TROUBLE? Conformity, December 1, 2007 by Bob Josuweit Many home offices are setting up local networks using either wireless or wired technology. However depending on where you live there may be a third alternative: AC wires --the electrical wires that are already inside the home and office walls. But several powerline adapters instruction books warn against plugging them into surge protectors or uninterruptible power supplies because the signal would not be usable. This may be changing as DirecTV recently announced that customers who sign up for its new broadband service will have access to a HomePlug- enabled surge protector. Will this be a path to increase use of broadband over powerlines? The future of broadband technology may still be searching for the light at the end of the tunnel as the industry, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and others struggle to find a common path that is acceptable to all... Full article at http://www.conformity.com/artman/publish/article_230.shtml (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) BTW, some supposed to be PLC signals of S=2 level heard here locally? every 31.33 kHz today. Spread like a garden fence between 8.9 and 16.1 MHz (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, Dec 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ H A A R P [Re: previous article]: Glenn, In one short sentence, "HF signals intercept and warfare." 73, (Thomas F. Giella, KN4LF Retired Space Plasma Physicist, Lakeland, FL, USA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) HAARP, ELF FREQUENCIES & YOUR BRAIN If you read the Freedom of Information Act document on the DARPA HAARP military transmitter in Alaska http://foia.abovetopsecret.com/ultimate_UFO/Advanced/HAARPResearchAndApplications.pdf on page 10 of the document it states: "The HAARP heater, operating in the low frequency conversion mode, generates controlled, monochromatic, coherent waves between 0.001 Hz and 40 kHz. This Source has all the advantages of the natural sources and none of their disadvantages. Thus HAARP fills a long-standing vacuum in controlled electromagnetic sources, with the potential to revolutionize low frequency remote sensing and communications." There is a human organ that also operates on ELF (extremely low frequencies). It is your brain. From the National Library of Medicine Medline medical journal database here are some medical journal abstracts on ELF frequencies and you. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=17945759&ordinalpos=7&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., RMIT Univ., Melbourne, Vic. This study has investigated whether extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic fields (EMFs) can alter human brain activity. Linearly polarised magnetic flux density of 20 muT (rms) was generated using a standard double Helmholtz coils and applied to the human head over a sequence of 1 minute stimulations followed by one minute without stimulation in the following order of frequencies 50, 16.66, 13, 10, 8.33 and 4 Hz. We collected recordings on 33 human volunteers under double-blind counter-balanced conditions. Each stimulation lasted for two minutes followed by one minute post-stimulation EEG recording. The same procedure was repeated for the EMF control sessions, where the order of control and exposure sessions was determined randomly according to the subject's ID number. The rest period between two conditions (exposure and control) was 30 minutes. The results indicate that there was a significant increase in Alpha1, Alpha2, and Beta1 at the frontal brain region, and a significant decrease in Alpha2 band in parietal and occipital region due to EMF exposure. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=15887255&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus Department of Nuclear Medicine, Lawson Health Research Institute, St. Joseph's Health Care (London), London, Ontario, Canada. Ccook @ lri.sjhc.london.on.ca Continuing evidence suggests that extremely low frequency magnetic fields (ELF MFs) can affect animal and human behavior. We have previously demonstrated that after a 15 min exposure to a pulsed ELF MF, with most power at frequencies between 0 and 500 Hz, human brain electrical activity is affected as measured by electroencephalography (EEG), specifically within the alpha frequency (8-13 Hz). Here, we report that a pulsed ELF MF affects the human EEG during the exposure period. Twenty subjects (10 males; 10 females) received both a magnetic field and a sham session of 15 min in a counterbalanced design. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that alpha activity was significantly lower over the occipital electrodes (O1, Oz, O2) [F(1,16) = 5.376, P < .01, eta2 = 0.418] after the first 5 min of magnetic field exposure and was found to be related to the order of exposure (MF-sham vs. sham-MF). This decrease in alpha activity was no longer significant in the 1st min post-exposure, compared to sham (P > .05). This study is among the first to assess EEG frequency changes during a weak (+/-200 microTpk), pulsed ELF MF exposure. Copyright 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=15042628&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus The Lawson Health Research Institute and Department of Nuclear Medicine and MR, St. Joseph's Health Care (London), London, Ontario, Canada. Ccook @ lri.sjhc.london.on.ca An increasing number of reports have demonstrated a significant effect of extremely low frequency magnetic fields (ELF MFs) on aspects of animal and human behavior. Recent studies suggest that exposure to ELF MFs affects human brain electrical activity as measured by electroencephalography (EEG), specifically within the alpha frequency (8-13 Hz). Here we report that exposure to a pulsed ELF MF with most power at frequencies between 0 and 500 Hz, known to affect aspects of analgesia and standing balance, also affects the human EEG. Twenty subjects (10 males; 10 females) received both a magnetic field (MF) and a sham session in a counterbalanced design for 15 min. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that alpha activity was significantly higher over the occipital electrodes (O1, Oz, O2) [F(1,16) = 6.858; P =.019, eta2 = 0.30] and marginally higher over the parietal electrodes (P3, Pz, P4) [F(1,16) = 4.251; P =.056, eta2 = 0.21] post MF exposure. This enhancement of alpha activity was transient, as it marginally decreased over occipital [F(1,16) = 4.417; P =.052; eta2 = 0.216] and parietal electrodes [F(1,16) = 4.244; P =.056; eta2 = 0.21] approximately 7 min after MF exposure compared to the sham exposure. Significantly higher occipital alpha activity is consistent with other experiments examining EEG responses to ELF MFs and ELF modulated radiofrequency fields associated with mobile phones. Hence, we suggest that this result may be a nonspecific physiological response to the pulsed MFs. Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=16009595&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus Division of Occupational Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, Vienna A-1090, Austria. robert.winker @ meduniwien.ac.at Environmental exposure to extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMFs) has been implicated in the development of cancer in humans. An important basis for assessing a potential cancer risk due to ELF-EMF exposure is knowledge of biological effects on human cells at the chromosomal level. Therefore, we investigated in the present study the effect of intermittent ELF electromagnetic fields (50 Hz, sinusoidal, 5'field-on/10'field-off, 2-24 h, 1 mT) on the induction of micronuclei (MN) and chromosomal aberrations in cultured human fibroblasts. ELF-EMF radiation resulted in a time-dependent increase of micronuclei, which became significant after 10 h of intermittent exposure at a flux density of 1 mT. After approximately 15 h a constant level of micronuclei of about three times the basal level was reached. In addition, chromosomal aberrations were increased up to 10- fold above basal levels. Our data strongly indicate a clastogenic potential of intermittent low-frequency electromagnetic fields, which may lead to considerable chromosomal damage in dividing cells (all via Mike Peraaho, DXLD) RADIO TOWERS EAST OF EVERETT BARRED PENDING HEALTH RISK STUDY December 17, 2007 Associated Press Everett, Washington --- Two AM radio towers in the Snohomish River Valley should not be built until the potential health dangers of electromagnetic energy are analyzed, a Snohomish County official has ruled. Deputy hearing examiner Edward L. Good cited a study published by The American Journal of Epidemiology in August that found children who live within 12 1/2 miles of AM radio antennas are twice as likely to develop leukemia than those living farther away. . . http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_121707WAB_radio_towers_SW.2614fad8.html (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) More on same: http://heraldnet.com/article/20071217/NEWS01/593426555 (via Artie Bigley, OH, DXLD) THE SONY SRF-59: NOW WITH AUDIO PHASING(!) [there has been a huge thread in IRCA about this pocket-portable which is a real DX machine; we have not attempted to reproduce here – gh] Hi all: I recently purchased my second SRF-59, and it got me thinking about experiments I did as a teen in the 1970's with stereo audio sources, and how canceling the signal that is common to both channels (usually drums, lead vocals, etc.) left only those elements that were "stereo-ized" such as rhythm guitar, etc. David Hafler was also doing this in the 1970's, only he became somewhat famous for it with his surround sound circuit --- see for example http://sound.westhost.com/project18.htm -- too bad I didn`t have a patent attorney back then? At any rate, the effect is essentially audio phasing, and is accomplished by joining the negative leads of the two stereo sources (usually L and R speakers outputs from a receiver) together without connecting this union to the speaker. The two positive leads are then connected to either terminal of a single speaker (or two speakers in series). Electrically, the common voltage portions cancel each other out (i.e., the vocals have the same voltage at either terminal of the speaker's voice coil, and it is a draw, so the vocals disappear) and all you have is the audio that is NOT common to the two (the tambourine, etc. is all you hear). It makes for a neat surround-sound effect. As long as the common element (voice, etc.) is EXACTLY the same in both channels (same frequency equalization, dynamic range, etc.), it works like a champ. It got me to thinking: if I had two DX audio sources, one that had only the pest (i.e., point the antenna at a strong local and null the desired DX target) and one that has both the pest and the DX target, in essence I would have a pseudo-stereo source. By using the audio phasing technique described above, I should be able to make the pest disappear by injecting just enough of the first signal (pure pest) onto the second signal so that the pest just disappears, leaving the DX target. I tried this last year with two different receivers and it didn't work at all, because the slight difference in filters, antennas and audio signals were different enough that the pest never really went anywhere. Well, now I have two identical receivers - the SRF-59s! I sacrificed an audio patch cable in order to effect the circuit described above. Specifically, the audio leads from the two radios? headphone jacks consist of a 1/8`` mini stereo male-male audio cable cut in half, with all 3 wires bared on each half. 1, On each half-cable, twist its two positive leads together, resulting in a mono source from that receiver. 2, Next, twist the two negative leads from each cable together and isolate this union with electrical tape or whatever. 3, Now take the two positive leads from each cable (which themselves each consist of that cable`s two stereo wires twisted together per Step 1 above) and connect those to either terminal of a single speaker. Alternately, this can be fed to a pair of mono headphones or, with a mono-stereo adapter, to stereo headphones. Mine is fed to my Olympus WS-320M recorder --- same thing. 4, Plug each of the 1/8`` mini stereo male plugs into the SRF-59s, and you`re ready! First crank up the volume of the mixed pest/target signal, then slowly increase the volume of the pure pest signal to start canceling the pest out of the mixed signal. The pest will fade, and you should end up with much more, if not all, the DX target that was lurking underneath. For the first test last night, I selected my local 630-KCIS, which can be somewhat difficult to null or phase if I want to hear KXFD in Boise. I placed both of the SRF-59s into my two identical Terk loops to get some signal (again, you must have the EXACT same set-up), pointed one straight at my local 630-KCIS and one away from it --- works like a champ! KCIS essentially disappeared, and KFXD-Boise was sitting there virtually all alone! Next I applied the set-up to blowtorch 680-KNBR and, upon equalizing the volume from both barefoot units, KNBR disappeared! There was nothing else to take its place on this rather dismal night, but it was nice to have an open channel. At my QTH, beleaguered semi-local KXPA-1540 suffers from the IBOC hiss coming from 1530-KFBK. One receiver was pointed straight towards KFBK, and the other half-way towards KXPA, not quite nulling KFBK. Guess what -- the IBOC hiss was virtually gone from KXPA! KXL-750 is essentially a semi-local from Portland. Apparently because of it having both ground and sky wave components, phasing with two loops or a Quantum Phaser has never really worked. However, audio phasing on the SRF-59`s worked well enough that I could comfortably hear the conversation underneath from (I think) KOAL in Provo, Utah. KXL's audio null fluctuated a lot, but it was better than I could get with regular phasing. Yes, some stations work better than others: for instance, I couldn't do much of anything with KIRO-710 or KTTH-710 last night. Also, some stations are easily nulled or phased out of existence (remember, the SRF-59 is a great null producer) so you don`t need to go to these lengths. However, this seems to be a valuable tool for many situations when an electrical/magnetic null isn`t in the cards, and the IBOC hiss reduction is very pleasing, both aurally and philosophically. Besides, it is a great excuse to buy another $15 radio! You may not have the resources to buy two Drake R8Bs, but two SRF-59s (and maybe two Terk loops) is probably within reach of most of our pocketbooks. I can`t emphasize enough how the two audio sources have to be identical (same receiver, same antenna, etc.). For example, using one SRF-59 barefoot and the other with a Terk loop produced enough of a sonic difference that there was noticeable bleed-through of the pest; I think the Terk tightens up the audio bandwidth too much. Likewise, using an SRF-59 and my Sony 7600GR was a complete failure, given the markedly different audio characteristics of the two receivers? filters, audio circuitry, etc. One thing to watch: if you directionally null the pest too well with one receiver, it may start to flutter, or change/color its audio frequency balance, and it won`t match the other audio source very well, resulting in bleed-through of the pest. The technique seems to work best when I null the desired DX target with one receiver (not necessarily maximizing the pest, which still stand alone anyway) to produce the pest signal, and then have the other receiver with more of a mix of the two without necessarily fully nulling the pest; that way you have a similar pest audio signal in both channels, which will more nicely cancel each other out. An ergonomic tip - plugging the two audio channels into something with a balance control (stereo receiver, etc.), which then feeds into the audio phasing circuit, makes it a lot easier than constantly adjusting the individual volume controls on the two SRF-59s all the time. I wonder how this would work on canceling audio splatter on 9 kHz splits? Good luck! 73 (Kevin S., Bainbridge Island, WA, IRCA via DXLD) RADIO PHILATELY +++++++++++++++ Re 7-150, GREEN STAMPS Ah yes, Glenn (and Kraig), your reference to S&H Green Stamps brought back memories and a reminder that not all change is for the worse. Our supermarket (A&P) dealt out Plaid Stamps but it was the same general idea; I can still almost taste that awful glue as we filled up books and books to redeem for junk, but it was -- seemed -- FREE junk :-). Glenn, I hope you still have power (and heat!). Very 73 and Happy Solstice de (Anne Fanelli in just-plain-snowy Elma NY, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Anne, I could not remember the stamps offered by A&P. You are correct. My fond memory of A&P is the freshly ground coffee smell. Bugged my mom and dad until I was able to taste the coffee. Yuck! Almost as bad as tasting vanilla extract. Thinking back, were any radios or receivers offered? I don't recall. I also don't recall ever having enough stamps to actually get anything. There is probably somewhere on the net with scanned catalogs. 73, (Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, Manassas VA, ibid.) ###