DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-009, January 22, 2008 Incorporating REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING edited by Glenn Hauser, http://www.worldofradio.com Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only if full credit be maintained at all stages and we be provided exchange copies. DXLD may not be reposted in its entirety without permission. Materials taken from Arctic or originating from Olle Alm and not having a commercial copyright are exempt from all restrictions of noncommercial, noncopyrighted reusage except for full credits For restrixions and searchable 2007 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1392 **flexible times Thu 0700 WRMI 9955** Thu 1530 WRMI 7385 Fri 0030 WBCQ 7415 Fri 0730 WRMI 9955** Fri 1200 WRMI 9955** Fri 2130 WWCR1 15825 [not expected 7465] Fri 2330 WBCQ 5110-CLSB 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 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** 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: http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org ** ANTARCTICA. Expedición Antartica. Chile-based site about the continent, unclear if much about radio or communications; has link to English version which does not work: http://www.expedicionantartica.cl/index.htm (via Juan Franco Crespo, Spain, noticiasdx yg via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. Australia X-Band Current [Unmonitored] List January 2008 Narrowband Area Services 1611-1701 © Radio Heritage Foundation [www.radioheritage.net] 2008 Notes: [1] power 400w unless specified [2] this list requires local monitoring to confirm on air status as data is largely based on internet research [3] location is usually the larger urban area within which the transmitter site is located, not the actual site itself [4] a large number of additional Rete Italia outlets are planned to come on air during 2008 [5] a more detailed list of all licenced stations will be available shortly within the Pacific Asian Log © at http://www.radioheritage.net Freq: Location State Station 1611 Canberra ACT Lake Tuggeranong Secondary College [5w] Newcastle NSW Francis Greenway High School [1w] Melbourne VIC 3XX Mildura Old Gold Goondiwindi QLD Hot Country Roma Hot Country St.George Hot Country Emerald Hot Country Willetton WA Willetton State Senior High School [5w] Margaret River Vision FM [Christian network] Wagin 6GS Albany Gold Mix Esperance Rete Italia [Italian network] Devonport TAS Rete Italia Darwin NT Rete Italia 1620 Canberra ACT Rete Italia Sydney NSW 2MORO [Arabic] Toowoomba QLD Rete Italia Sunshine Coast Rete Italia Gladstone Rete Italia 1629 Canberra ACT Rete Italia Newcastle NSW Newcastle Hospital Radio [100w] Shepparton VIC Rete Italia Dalby QLD Hot Country Mackay Rete Italia Adelaide SA Rete Italia Mt.Gambier Rete Italia Albany WA Rete Italia Mundaring Rete Italia 1638 Sydney NSW 2ME [Arabic network] Melbourne VIC 2ME Hobart TAS 2ME Darwin NT 2ME 1647 Brisbane QLD 2ME 1656 Sydney NSW 2MM [Greek] Adelaide SA Willunga High School [0.5w] Perth WA 2ME 1665 Sydney NSW 2MM 1683 Sydney NSW Club AM [Greek] 1701 Melbourne VIC Islamic Voice Radio [Arabic] Brisbane QLD Radio Brisvaani [Hindi] With the departure of the Radio 2 network [bankruptcy] and with a couple of exceptions, the situation on 1611-1701 kHz is very little changed from the situation 15 years ago when ethnic formats [mainly Arabic and Greek] predominated. DRM tests are permitted on 1647 [Sydney] and 1701 [Sydney]. Unfortunately, existing commercial radio station owners have very successfully blocked the development of these frequencies to date (Jan NZ DX Times via DXLD) ** BELARUS. Re 8-008, DIGITAL BROADCASTING >> People tell me that the DRM broadcast that is provided by TDP radio from France on 6015 from 0800 to 1600 essentially prevents this station from even starting to broadcast to its local population until after it goes off at 1600 --- and guess when the Brest transmitter comes on --- from 1600 to 1800 daily, after the DRM broadcast goes off. << 6015 is not on eight hours a day; the (rather complicated) schedule can be seen at http://www.baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/drmdx/main&sort=Programme,UTC And re the Brest transmitter: I always wondered what these low power shortwave relays are good for anyway. Are there really any local audiences, listening here instead of FM or, in the case of Brest, also mediumwave (1278)? Could it be that they are rather meant for potential listeners far away, maybe even abroad? >> And I wonder just how many receivers in Belarus even have a DRM capability? Probably only some geeks who like to play around with receivers. << Just like everywhere in the world (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BENIN. TWR Benin 1566 testing heard in Portugal --- Hello, TWR is now testing on 1566 kHz with an ident in various languages + some music (Monday 21st Jan 1800 GMT) & putting in quite a good signal into Southern Portugal, above S9 on a mediumwave loop antenna. They confirm that the start of transmissions will be on the 1st February. Best Regards (Michael Hoover in the Algarve, Southern Portugal, WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I tried 1566 after 1900 and thought that some local interference bothered it, so I put radio plus headphones in a bag and my shoes on to go out into the not really dark (overcast but almost full moon) night. No, apparently nothing local, somebody on this channel must be off-frequency, quickly varying around 1565.6 ... 1565.7 or so. The only audio that stood out of the jumble was Indian music, quite badly distorted. Must have been AIR's 1000 kW, a nice catch for me since I never had it before (Kai Ludwig, at Elsterwerda, 50 km north of Dresden., Germany, Jan 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also EUROPE [and non] 22 Jan 2008, TWR Benin test program was heard on 1566 from 1754 onwards. Nulled India and Korea out with a wire antenna combination, but still bad splatters from 1557 kHz (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, WORLD OF RADIO 1392, ibid.) [non]. Thessaloniki: 1564.89, local pirate named Macedonia with signal S9, time 1932 (Zacharias Liangas, Jan 22, ibid.) Yep, I heard that pirate earlier around 1564 with a wobbling carrier and distorted audio (Jari Savolainen, ibid.) Further to my e mail yesterday thought you might be interested in this mp3 clip of the signal recorded just now in Southern Portugal. It was around 25dB above S9 on an external mediumwave loop aerial. I could hear it quite well in the car driving back from work around 1815 GMT tonight. Microphone hum at the beginning of the man talking is their end not mine! Mauno Ritola is hearing it in Finland. The station goes off air at 2000 GMT. Best Regards, (Michael Hoover in Southern Portugal, Jan 22, WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nice! Clip posted in the dxldyg files, Station Sounds folder (gh) I have heard the test broadcast of this new station here in Salamanca, Spain until at 2005 UT with African music and identifications in French and vernacular. Then fade out or switched-off. They are giving an address in Parakou (I can´t understand) and an email: 1566 (at) twr.org RX: SDR-14 ANT.: QUANTUM PRO LOOP 2 (M. Molano, Salamanca Spain, Jan 22, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 3310, Radio Mosoj Chaski, 1033-1040 Jan 21. Noted a male and female in Spanish language comments. Tuning in earlier would have been more rewarding since the signal at this time was threshold and on the point of disappearing. 4732, Radio Universitaria, 1046-1105 Jan 21. Surprised to hear this one so well since it's late. The clear signal doesn't remain for long. Noted typical and local music (flutes and drums) from tune in. At 1058 canned promos or ads. Signal has decayed from fair to threshold at this point in time and any attempt to hear more details would be futile. Noise takes over by 1105 (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4732, Radio Universitaria, Cobija, Pando noted 0930 with rtty also present. Seemed just an open carrier at 0930; music much later at 1055 recheck. 22 January. A silent look at Cobija, Pando. Bolivia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fp3k7i7RXw -Bolivia List- DX South Florida July 2007 to January 2008 3309.91 Radio Mosoj Chaski, Cochabamba 3390.16 Radio Emisoras Camargo, Camargo 4650.19 Radio Santa Ana, Santa Ana de Yacuma 4699.v Radio San Miguel, Riberalta 4716.61 Radio Yura, Yura 4732. Radio Uniersitaria, Cobija 4762.512 Radio Chicha, Tocla 4781.v Radio Tacana, Tumupasa 4796.4 Radio Mallku, Uyuni 4875.91 Radio Estambul, Guayaramerín 5580.25 Radio San José, San José de Chiquitos 5952.41 Emisoras Pio XII, Siglo Veinte 5967.80 R Nacional, Huanuni 5996.42 Radio Loyola, Sucre 6079.94 Radio San Gabriel, La Paz 6105.44 Radio Panamericana, La Paz 6134 Radio Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz de la Sierra [v: see below] (Robert Wilkner - Pompano Beach - Southeastern Florida, NRD 535D, 746 Pro, R8, R75, Elliptic Low Pass Audio Filters, Noise reducing antenna, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So what are the parameters of this list? Stations heard and measured by you personally at least once in the last six months? (gh, DXLD) 6134.80, Radio Santa Cruz, 1025-1035 Jan 22. At tune in, canned ID "Santa Cruz" and immediately into music. Condx are very poor this morning with atmospheric (QRN) noise covering the weaker stations. At 1029 a male recites a poem over music. Signal is fair (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. Radio Yatun Ayllu Yura, Bolivia last night (20/1/08) on 4717 kHz --- I often check 4717 to no avail, but last night at 2335 I heard Andean flute music. This was followed at 2337 by a short announcement that included an ID, which I recorded. SIO was 222 at this time but soon deteriorated to 121. There was more flute music and some unreadable announcements to fade out at around 0010. The ID was "Radio Ayllu Yura". There is a word before 'radio' pronounced like 'yoo-ta', but I can hear nothing that I can relate to 'Yatun'. 73s (Charles Hendry, BDXC1995, somewhere in UK? Sony SW7600GR, 25m LW SW/NE, BDXC-UK via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. BRASIL - Muito em breve, a Rádio Guarujá FM, de Guarujá (SP), também poderá ser ouvida em 9715 kHz, em 31 metros. A previsão é de que o canal seja ativado em até três semanas. As informações são de Caio Lopes, de Itajubá (MG), que conversou com o diretor-presidente da emissora, jornalista Orivaldo Rampazo. BRASIL - Com o início dos campeonatos estaduais de futebol, muitas emissoras brasileiras que não estão presentes sempre nas ondas curtas acabam ligando seus transmissores quando ocorrem jogos de equipes de suas cidades. É o caso da Rádio Brasil, de Campinas (SP). Em 17 de janeiro, a emissora tinha boa sintonia, em Porto Alegre (RS), pela freqüência de 4785 kHz, às 0035, quando o time campineiro do Guarani jogava contra o Corinthians (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX Jan 20 via WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DXLD) Of DX interest only, the above: state football championships prompt some SW stations to reactivate, such as the one on 4785. As for 9715, watch out for WYFR at 2345-01 and 04-11! (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DXLD) ** CANADA. I noticed that CBC Radio One's excellent series looking at the health care system has returned. It was a summer replacement show last year. Not sure if these are new episodes or repeats (I'm inclined to think the latter, today's show sounds familiar), but I thought it was one of the better, more relevant programs CBC has put out in some time. And I am already a fan of CBC Radio. http://www.cbc.ca/whitecoat/ podcast: http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/index.html?newsandcurrent#whitecoat (Fred Waterer, Ont., ODXA yg via DXLD) ** CANADA. The latest about RCI's "Indo-Canadian Report with Wojtek Gwiazda". As of last week the Report is now on Facebook. I'm still trying to figure out how it all works, so it's still in the initial stages. In fact, I'm the only member of the group right now. I assume (and hope) that will change soon. As some people may know, my radio column on Canada-India relations and the Indo-Canadian community started in September 2007 as part of RCI` English language program ``The Link``. In India, the Report is heard Wednesdays to Fridays at 7:10 and 21:10 (Delhi time). The Report`s website is at: http://www.rcinet.ca/icr and the Report`s Facebook page is at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7277594772 What I'm hoping to do with the Facebook group is to attract people (particularly in India) interested in talking about the issues raised in the Report (Wojtek Gwiazda, Jan 21, WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DX LISTENING DIGEST) There`s also a complete audio archive of all these reports (gh, DXLD) ** CANADA. I've been booked on Richard Syrett's show on CFRB-1010 Toronto for tomorrow evening at 10:00 pm Eastern. While their shortwave outlet CFRX is no more, they do stream on the internet; another victory for IPcasting! I look forward to bringing my message of comfort and hope to the Great White North (Harry Helms W5HLH, Smithville, TX EL19, Jan 21, ABDX via DXLD) That means UT Wednesday Jan 23 at 0300 (do they have any news? Make that 0305+??). CFRX is of course on the way back, but probably not that soon. I caught the last half until 0430; good for Harry, about ``Top Secret Tourism``, but reminds me why I dislike commercial radio so much --- must have been close to 50% commercial time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Apparently CFRX had suffered two big blows - transmitter problems and a bobcat knocking down the little tower. Not the feline type of bobcat, rather the kind owned by a landscaping company (Phil Rafuse, PEI, ABDX via DXLD) ** CANADA [and non]. CBA-1070 NB to go dark --- One of the last easily-heard CBC outlets for me is soon to leave AM. This will leave the Newfies (540, 600, 640, 990) and CBE-1550 ON I guess. None of these packs the punch of good old CBA which I have listened to for entertainment on numerous long drives over the years. The "upside" is that 1070 will be a Latin America bonanza channel at the shore with CHOK easily removable by phasing (or aurora). 1071 TA's will be much easier too. I guess that Canadians dumping out of AM en masse may be offsetting the added QRM of US IBOC. By the way, Ireland-567 is supposed to be leaving the air in March. Another one bites the dust, rides the bus, or whatever. Get 567 Spain out of the way and maybe South Africa has half a chance on that channel (Mark Connelly, WA1ION - Billerica, MA, NRC-AM via DXLD) I too have enjoyed CBA. Unfortunately this will leave 1070 open for KYW IBOC here so LAs on 1070 and TAs on 1071 just so much harder to hear. KYW IBOC has also made 1062 and 1053 just about impossible, and with WBZ IBOC, 1044, 1035, 1026 and 1017 are mostly gone. Phasing helps some but not enough. Sorry too about Ireland-567 which has been one of the most reliable TAs. I also might mention that 594 through 621 are spoiled by WIP IBOC. Oh what hath the gods wrought? (Ben Dangerfield, Wallingford, PA, ibid.) Although I will miss CBA, Argentina-1070 will be possible and it would be nice to hear KNX again also (Marc DeLorenzo, South Dennis, MA, ibid.) ** CANADA. With all the attention on the demise of CFFX-960 last week, it seems to have gone almost unnoticed that CKLC-1380 (also in Kingston ON) has also gone silent. I missed the last days of CKLC myself, and just noticed today that they were gone. Oh well, after momentarily lamenting the passing of another AM station into oblivion, I sat on 1380 for awhile around sunset, and scooped up two new ones, WSCG-MI and KAGE-MN. :-) I note that CKPC is still holding the fort on 1380, so the channel isn't yet bereft of Canadian signals (Barry McLarnon, VE3JF Ottawa, ON, Jan 21, IRCA via DXLD) Axually, 1380 demise was noticed in DXLD (gh) ** CANADA. I think that there is only one FM frequency left here in Calgary for a high power station, so I don't think that CBR-1010 and CKMX-1060 will be moving anytime soon. Speaking of 1010, have always wondered how CFRB and WINS got away with both using 50 kW as far back as 1948 when the regulations were so much stricter then they are now. Toronto and New York are not all that far apart - I well remember the problems WINS gave CFRB even 40 miles NW of the CFRB tower site, in the Orangeville area in the 70's. Of course the same for WHN and CHUM at that time on 1050 - but CHUM was a 1 kW daytimer on the late 40's, did not get 50 kW until the 60's as I recall. 73, (Deane McIntyre, VE6BPO, Calgary AB, IRCA via DXLD) I get WINS in downtown Toronto in CFRB's null. Very easy (Saul Chernos, Ont., ibid.) Saul, Is CFRB that tightly directional? Wow. How well does CFRB cover the metro area? I have heard & QSL'd them here from some years back, but CFRB is not common these days. Deane, I thought the future plan was to move almost all Canadian MWs to FM? If there are not enough FM channels open, then how is that possible? 73, (Patrick Martin, OR, ibid.) CFRB and WINS entered into a mutual interference agreement in the mid-90s that actually allowed both stations to loosen their patterns a bit. Both built new directional arrays at their existing sites, and each agreed to accept a little more incoming interference from the other. (WINS also bought and shut down the 1010 in Little Rock, and paid for WRNJ 1000 Hackettstown NJ to move to 1510, to clear the way for its signal expansion.) CFRB is located in Mississauga, west of Toronto along the Lake Ontario shore, with a pattern that aims mostly east over the city, though with enough daytime spill to the south that it's the third best daytime Toronto AM for me here in Rochester. (CHWO 740 and CJBC 860 are the best, of course.) It's actually a very good signal over most of metro Toronto, even if Saul can null it! WINS aims mostly east from its site in Lyndhurst, NJ, due west of midtown Manhattan and just south of Giants Stadium. Even by day, it has a deep null toward CFRB; I drive through it on my way from my cousin's house in Suffern NY (30 miles NW of NYC) to Manhattan all the time. s (Scott Fybush, Rochester, ibid.) In the larger markets (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal for example) the FM band is just about full as is, even with the recent decision to allow FM stations on 3rd adjacent frequencies (600 kHz apart) provided the transmitters are more or less co-located. So in these markets there will be AM stations that will never move to FM, unless the FM band is expanded downward at the expense of TV channels 5 and 6 (76-88 MHz, which are used for FM in Japan). I have a couple of portables that tune the 76-108 MHz range as one FM band. 73, (Deane McIntyre VE6BPO, Calgary AB (with seven 50 kW locals for me to listen to on my crystal set...), ibid.) Deane, I guess the plan today is to get rid of a lot of the "extra" clutter with many stations going to FM, but leaving enough to still cover the country. That is not idea [sic], but there should be one powerful CBC in every major city, especially since the CBC is tax supported. So what in the world is CBU going to some flea power FM frequency that probably won`t get 50 miles out of town? If I was a Canadian living to the Lower Mainland I would have a fit. Scott, I did not know WINS & CFRB changed their patterns back in the 90s. I used to hear CFRB every once in a while back in the 80s, but CBR was off more in those days. I think it was before the CBC AMers went NSP. Now CHWO is the most common Toronto station for me. CJBC used to be common in the 70s, but I have not heard them for a number of years. Maybe with a more generous pattern, WINS may be heard out here in time. 73, (Patrick Martin, OR, ibid.) Thanks, Scott. Even though I am about 200 and 500 miles west of both stations, I end up hearing both at the same time. At night, WINS is stronger although CFRB can be heard. In day, it's usually CFRB although WINS sometimes makes the trip. 73 de (Joe, Troy, MI, Miller, ibid.) ** CHINA. SHANGHAI RADIO DIAL 1941 Media Release, Radio Heritage Foundation http://www.radioheritage.net Radio listeners in Shanghai had forty local radio stations to choose from in 1941, the year that 'Citizen Kane' and 'The Maltese Falcon' were top movie box office hits in America, and nightclubs across Asia throbbed to the beat of Glenn Miller's 'Chattanooga Choo Choo'. The Radio Heritage Foundation has released a snapshot of the embattled city's radio dial late that year, not only listing the long forgotten radio calls of the era, but including some art work from the well known 'Call of the Orient' station XMHA. International conflict was reflected over the Shanghai airwaves, as American broadcaster Carroll Duard Alcott asked listeners to his programs on XMHA to head out of the city to avoid Japanese jamming. The Japanese themselves broadcast in Chinese and English over the most powerful transmitter in Shanghai [XOJB 900 AM], German propaganda was aired from XGRS and Vichy France programs came from FFZ in the French concession. However, 90 per cent of radio sets sold in the city were owned by local Chinese, who had already enjoyed entertainment from many local stations since the early 1920's. Chinese music and story telling was very popular. Says the Radio Heritage Foundation, 'It's important to name the names, to remember the people and organizations that are now fading fast from living memory. In Shanghai, devastated by war, the loss of early broadcasting heritage is even more poignant. Every day, as Shanghai now modernizes, heritage sites such as 445 Race Course Road, home of the XMHA studios, simply disappear before they can be recorded.' The 'Shanghai Radio Dial 1941' is part of an ongoing series relating radio broadcasting to the culture of the times. They paint the broad picture, and often lead into more detailed stories about individual stations, programs and personalities as volunteer resources permit and those with memories and memorabilia come forward. Love Lane [XQHA], 43 Ningpo Road [XMHC], 374 Haiphong Road [XLHK] are a few examples of where Shanghai's radio heritage flourished in the decade before 1941, and the 'Call of the Orient' was carried on shortwave across the Pacific to listeners in America and as far away as New Zealand. For an entertaining and informative look back at early Shanghai radio, this article is well worth the time. It's with hundreds of others at http://www.radioheritage.net Next time you listen to today's radio from Shanghai, spare a thought for those broadcasters who struggled to bring a measure of lightness into the gathering gloom that was Shanghai in 1941 (David Ricquish, RHF, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [non]. CRI, Portuguese to Brasil via Chile, or Commies via Christians, Jan 21 at 2153 on 17645, nice Chinese music, YL announcer with heavy accent; 2156 transmission schedule, but this frequency not mentioned. In a fade, I thought they said 17625, but looking up http://portuguese.cri.cn/101/2006/05/11/1@42862.htm it claims they are on 17615! 17645 was noticeably weaker at 45 degree azimuth than 17680 in CVC Spanish from the same Calera de Tango site at 0 degrees. The latter is constantly heard, sometimes very strong, just about any time during its long daily span 1100-0100 --- well, at least during daylight hours here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. Radio Casinública; You'd think I would have the best shot -- at least through local mid-late morning and afternoons -- at 5954.1, but not so thus far. I've not been able to get even a whisper of it, but will keep checking while others are doing better with this one from afar (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, Jan 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. 1. R. Martí MF is limited to 100 kW by virtue of the Rio Agreement. The US has always been very circumspect about radio treaty matters (which are, of course, the law in the US) and the Rio Agreement ("RJ-81") limits non-grandfathered MF stations to 100 kW (and only daytime) if they are class A. The definition of just what is a class A station is pretty flexible, however. All of the high power over 100 kW stations in Region II are grandfathered (and some no longer operate with high power), except for the Cuban ones, and since Cuba isn't signatory to the RJ-81 Agreement, but notifies some of their assignments to the ITU Master Frequency Register, some of them are actually sort of legal too. 2. R. Martí is limited to one MF frequency on U.S. territory by virtue of the enabling law as well. They thought about adding 530 (which is not in the MF broadcast band in Region II) but were beaten to the punch by the Caribbean bandits. It is rumored that they thought about 1610 before the official international band expansion, but were dissuaded by the striped pants types. And, of course, Martí MF was supposed to have been on 1040 but was short-stopped politically by WHO and ended up co-opting the 1180 VOA frequency and its site. 3. Martí has reportedly examined some non-US sites for MF (and there have been some DX reports of various tests, e.g., on 1020) but none have actually come into fruition (Ramón Gáspero S., Venezuela, UT Jan 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Further to what was discussed yesterday, the carrier on 1181 was there this morning - measured on Perseus at 1181.350. I've posted a screen dump from Perseus showing 1179 (a Spanish station was audible), 1180 (weak SS probably Cuba) and the 1181 carriers. There's also a much weaker carrier at around 1180.1 - I wonder who that is. The greyed area shows the filter I produced to allow 1180 audio in and remove 1179 and 1181. http://paulc.mediumwaveradio.org/images/perseus1180.jpg (Paul Crankshaw, UK, Jan 18, MWC via DXLD) No trace of 1181 this past weekend, however reliable sources had it sporadically over the past 1-2 weeks. So, I wouldn't write it off yet. I'll keep checking (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, Jan 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tuned to 1180 on the car radio and instead of the tone, we now a something swishing back and forth wildly. In fact, it's swishing through at least 1170 thru 1190 kHz, maybe more, but not making it through strong stations on 1160 and 1200. -- Mesa Mike LA de NM (Mike Westfall, Lost Almost NM, 0607 UT Jan 21, ABDX via WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DXLD) You beat me to this. It`s a real nasty and LOUD wobbler (Kevin, Gilbert, AZ, Redding, ibid.) Was anyone monitoring 1180 R. Rebelde last night between 2-4 AM EST? What was with the bubble jammer that was on that frequency last night?!? (Maryanne Kehoe, GA? Jan 21, ODXA yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DXLD) More effective jamming than just an 1181 kHz carrier (gh) "The Swisher" 1163-1195 kHz -- Those mourning the loss of "The Het" [sic] on 1181 kHz can now rejoice --- there's a new puzzle to take its place. I tuned around 1180 last night and heard nothing in several checks. This morning (January 22) was a very different story. I first tuned 1180 around 6:35 am Central/1235 UT and heard a "zwwapp, zwwapp" sounding sweep tone on the channel. I started tuning above and below the frequency and found the signal spread out from approximately 1163 to 1195; it may have gone higher but I couldn't pull anything through WOAI's IBOC sidebands and primary signal. The signal had multiple peaks and "valleys." For example, at one point it peaked on 1168, 1178, and 1191 kHz simultaneously with the signal clearly present, but at a significantly lower level, across the 1163 to 1195 kHz range between the three peaks. You could almost visualize the spectrum display of that signal as you tuned across the range. The signal was very evident in AM mode but was even more obvious using the BFO. The frequencies of the peaks shifted during my listening but always stayed within the same frequency range. I heard one of the peaks land on 1170 and it really did a number on KFAQ, Tulsa, rendering it unlistenable here. The signal sounds like a cross between the old "Russian Woodpecker" OTH radar and CODAR, but with a slower pulse repetition rate. By 6:50/1250, the Cuban on 530 had faded out but "The Swisher" was still in well. At 7:05/1305 I could hear it clearly on 1180 through KGOL in Houston. By 7:10/1310, it seemed to have finally faded out or gone QRT. OK, Radio Rangers! Let's go git 'em!! (Harry Helms W5HLH, Smithville, TX EL19, ABDX via DXLD) Harry: And the direction is . . . ? (Jim Tonne, ibid.) I didn't even attempt DFing the signal; I was trying to get a handle on what I was hearing (Harry Helms W5HLH, ibid.) Harry, I suspected that but thought I'd ask. My DF program and the ability to post results are "in the wings." My receiving situation here in Oak Ridge TN is sad so I can't contribute much except the posting of results (- JimT, ibid.) I don't know where it is but it`s one loud son of a gun here in AZ (Kevin, Gilbert, AZ, Redding, ibid.) Also noted destroying KFAQ [1170] a couple nights ago here in northern NM. Where are the reports from the east coast and south east? Mesa Mike LA de NM (Mike Westfall, Los Álamos, ibid.) ** CUBA. The Dentro-Cuban Jamming Command was asleep at the switch, wasting precious electricity needed by The People, as pulse jamming was still audible weakly on 5980 until 1428* Jan 22. R. Martí usage of that frequency ceases at 1300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Hello amigos: Thanks to all who sent so nice reports about the 11750 kHz broadcasts from 20 to 23 hours UT. Yes, you heard Arabic during the first half hour, and it was RHC!!! The Spanish language program "Revista Iberoamericana" is from 21 to 23 hours. As regards to the antenna in use, it is an HR 4, 4, 1,0 curtain array with the center of the beam to 040 degrees, and the beamwidth for the - 3 db points of the horizontal pattern should be at + and - 17 degrees or so to each side. Nevertheless, the -6 dB points are well into North America, and taking into consideration that the 11750 kHz channel is reasonably clear, the programs should be easy to pick up from Central and Eastern North America. 73 and DX, Your friend in Havana (Arnie Coro, amateur CO2KK, Host of Dxers Unlimited, Jan 21, HCDX via DXLD) Radio Habana Cuba. The new frequency of 11750 is coming in very strong here, Monday January 21 and again today, January 22 from 2000 to 2300 UT with parallel weaker 11800. 2000 to 2030 Portuguese 2030 to 2100 Arabic 2100 to 2300 Spanish (also parallel with 13760 and 9550) 11760 continues as per schedule but weaker and with splash from WHRI on 11765. 2000 to 2030 French 2030 to 2130 English 2130 to 2200 French On January 22, 11800 was having troubles; carrier on to about 2025 then off. On with Arabic shortly after 2030; off and on for about ten minutes, then stayed on (Bernie O'Shea, Ottawa, Ontario, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. Found another airing of Conozca el Ecuador, which was not on HCJB`s Spanish schedule the last I checked – Monday Jan 21 at 2230- 2300 on 12000. This show plays more folk music than talk. Started with two pieces, one vocal, one instrumental, then a feature on the craftswomen of Imbabura province. Music cut off abruptly at 2259 for several seconds, apparently antenna change, as stronger signal when it came back. Then timesignal and 2300 news. Per HFCC, this is what happens in those few seconds off: Until 2300 there is one 100 kW transmitter at 150 degrees. After 2300 there are two transmitters, one 50 kW at 157 degrees, and the 100 kW reverses angle to 330 degrees, now favoring us, spelt U-S (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. DECISION EXTENDS RADIO STATION HCJB'S SHORTWAVE BROADCASTS HCJB Global Voice in Ecuador has been granted an extension to continue using its shortwave radio antennas that are scheduled for dismantling and removal from the mission's international transmission site near Pifo, a town 18 miles east of Quito. The extension postpones, for at least six months, removals that the station agreed to two years earlier with the Quito Airport Corporation (CORPAQ) to make way for a new international airport. Once the new facility is completed, some of the shortwave station's antenna towers could obstruct the approach of landing planes. "Specifically, this means that we can continue broadcasting on two shortwave frequencies to Brazil," said Doug Weber, radio director for the Latin America Region. "Two frequencies allows us to better cover Brazil. With two, we can cover both north and south Brazil. This allows us to continue to cover Brazil well." The mission agreed that 30 towers would be removed by December 2007. The first phase of dismantling, initiated in early 2006, saw 18 towers lowered. HCJB Global's engineering staff was poised to remove 12 more towers in the second phase. But Weber was informed that CORPAQ granted the mission's request for continued use of those 12 towers, along with 18 others that will not impede approaching aircraft. "It also means we can continue with test transmissions of digital shortwave signals to Europe and other countries while opening the way to digital shortwave broadcasting to Brazil," Weber said, adding that while European listener replies to the digital broadcasts are few, the listeners report a strong signal. "We're very thankful to the Lord for letting us continue with these ministries," he said. HCJB Global Voice is conducting German-language digital shortwave broadcasts as a member of Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM), a global consortium of broadcasters, broadcasting associations, network operators, manufacturers, research institutions, regulatory bodies and others. In addition, on Saturday, Jan. 26, the pioneer missionary broadcaster will inaugurate a daily, one-hour DRM program stream in Portuguese created especially for the digital shortwave format. Weber said the programs will be recorded by staff members at the HCJB Global-Brazil office in Curitiba. Source: HCJB Global (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DXLD) ** EUROPE [and non]. [continued from BENIN]: Some other MW notes: 549: Deutschlandfunk? Forget it! Just a jumble, and nulling Thurnau- Tannfeld revealed Beli Kriz (Slovenia, // 918) as only other identificable signal. 576: SWR Mühlacker? Forget it! The frequency was dominated by a signal with muffled audio I did not bother to identify, nulling it out brought only a mixture of Mühlacker with a third station (maybe Vidin). 612: Dominated by Vilnius (RL in Belorussian). Nulling it revealed only faint traces of other signals. What about Sarajevo? I can't imagine that they are running anything close to 600 kW. 720: WDR Langenberg? Forget it! Entirely ruined by a mess of co- channel signals, including but not limited to Romania. 756: Nulling Lugoj made it possible to find out that this frequency is also in use by German transmitters, relaying Deutschlandfunk. 783: The bad 1 kHz het is still there, so Tartus is still on 782. 792: Pretty good signal of the new Thessaloniki transmitter, relaying ERA Spor. 846: Nulling Santa Palomba made co-channel Elektrostal audible, but of course the channel is basically ruined now. Thanks! 1062: The Italian transmitters here are a terrible SAH mess, with audio being slightly delayed against each other, producing a fast multiple-echo effect. 1098: No trace of Slovakia, in fact no stronger signals at all. Nitra- Jarok off air or just strange propagational conditions? [see SLOVAKIA] 1215: Bolshakovo must now take another audio source than before, since VOR German was a syllable behind // 1431 (Wilsdruff). But it's still clean, unlike the distorted audio on 1431 and 1575, the latter booming in with an almost unbelievable signal level here. 1296: AAAWH, forgot that one must turn down the volume when tuning to this frequency at night. Bad enough to let me quit at this point (Kai Ludwig, at Elsterwerda, 50 km north of Dresden., Germany, Jan 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE [non]. See GAMBIA --- well here it is, right now, neighbour! ** GAMBIA. GOV'T BANS RADIO FRANCE INTERNATIONAL Freedom Newspaper (Raleigh, North Carolina) 21 January 2008 Posted to the web 22 January 2008 Landing Badjie, Banjul The Gambia Government has resumed its crackdown on the press, as it banned Radio France International relay FM Station, which is aired on state radio, the Freedom Newspaper can reveal. The decision to ban the popular radio comes amidst a story reported by the Paris based Radio France International that the terrorists who murdered the four French Nationals in Mauritania escaped through Guinea Bissau to The Gambia. RFI'S affiliate station in The Gambia has ceased to function since the reportage of the said story. The Government of The Gambia in a statement accuses RFI of "professional dishonesty and erroneous reporting. " RFI is yet to react to the Government's accusations. . . http://allafrica.com/stories/200801220691.html (via Artie Bigley, Zacharias Liangas, WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DXLD) When, o when will these international broadcasters ever learn that the way to go is SW, which can`t be ``banned`` (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) I could not find any mention of this at http://www.rfi.fr The Banjul FM frequency of RFI transmitted the 4 1/2 daily hours of RFI English to Africa, with French filling the rest of the day. It is now falling back on the two shortwave frequencies available for each of its English transmissions to Africa. See RFI English web page http://www.rfi.fr/langues/statiques/rfi_anglais.asp Posted: 22 Jan 2008 (Kim Andrew Elliott, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** GERMANY. Re 8-008, >> Französiche Telekom? << No, they did the same than Allemagne Telecom and got rid of their broadcast distribution business, with the first 64 percent being sold in 2002 and the remaining 36 percent in 2004: http://www.francetelecom.com/en/financials/investors/news/CP_archives/041108.html And for the record here is TDF's press release about being the owner of Media&Broadcast now: http://www.tdf.fr/en/completion-of-tdfs-purchase-of-mediabroadcast/ (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 21, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREENLAND [non]. ??? 3815 USB ``Dementi`` ??? After some good glasses of ``Barbera`` wine Mr. Boing Boing living in Torino, said to have been able to listen to: KNR Groenlands Radio, at 2200-2215 hours the 13 November. However the matter is KNR Groenlands Radio is no more active on shortwaves, and in past 90 days no one has reported KNR has resumed their BC --- so question is: What has heard Mr. Boing Boing??? (Dario Monferini, Milano, Play-DX 1388, 4 Dec via DXLD) ** GUATEMALA [non?]. 4698, Radio Amistad, San Pedro de Laguna. Noticiário esportivo. Em 19/01/08, entre 2230 e 2300 UT. Sinpo: 22232. (ESCUTAS DE GEORGE, EM CAUCAIA-CE, BRASIL, RX: SANGEAN ATS 909, ANTENA MAGNÉTICA, AMPLICADOR DE SINAL (FEITO PELO DEMA), @tividade DX Jan 20 via DXLD) They keep reporting this from Brasil, but no one in North America hears it. I still think it is the Bolivian. How about getting a definite ID? R. Amistad is apparently long gone. See this in 8-008 from Robert Wilkner, FL, circa Jan 19: ``BOLIVIA. 4699.41, Radio San Miguel, Riberalta 0950 to 1000 all week long with drifting frequency. Good signal with local announcements.`` (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** GUIANA FRENCH. 15795 RFO Guyane (relayed via TDF Montsinery during a DRM test), n/d English verification letter which begins "We receive your letter and confirmation of reception with most amazement, satisfaction, and indeed pleasure." This plus a glossy French-language booklet about RFO, a couple of stickers, and an RFO Guyane tank top (! - not exactly the season to wear it, though!) in about a month for an English/French report, CD recording, and $1 (which was returned) to B.P. 7013, F-97305, Cayenne. Address on letterhead: Avenue le Grand Boulevard, ZAD Moulin à Vent, 97354 Rémire-Montjoly. v/s Herve Delannon, Responsable de Communication. Needless to say, quite a warm surprise in the mailbox on a cold day (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. AIR SPECIAL BROADCASTS - REGIONAL SW STATIONS REPUBLIC DAY Dear Friends, The following SW Transmitters of All India Radio will start their transmissions on their day-time frequencies between 0335- 0350 UTC (i.e. much earlier than usual) on 26 Jan 2008, Indian Republic Day:- 5965 Jammu, 5985 Ranchi, 6000 Leh, 6040 Jeypore, 6065 Kohima, 6085 Gangtok, 6150 Itanagar, 6190 Delhi, 7105 Lucknow, 7120 Jaipur, 7130 Shillong, 7230 Kurseong, 7240 Mumbai, 7280 Guwahati, 7295 Aizawl Frequency change between 0215-0230 UT: 7115 Port Blair, Several other stations like the ones below are already on their daytime frequencies 6020 Shimla, 6110 Srinagar, 7140 Hyderabad, 7150 Imphal, 7160 Chennai, 7180 Bhopal, 7290 Thiruvanathapuram. Other frequencies to look for are 7195 Mumbai, 7360 Chennai & 9870 Bangalore [sic]. Of special interest is the use of 6085 Gangtok which does not have afternoon broadcasts usually. This frequency is used only on rare occasions. Reception reports to spectrum-manager @ air.org.in 73 Jose Jacob, VU2JOS National Institute of Amateur Radio Raj Bhavan Road, Hyderabad 500082, India Tel: 91-40-6516 7388 Telefax: 91-40-2331 0287 Cell: 94416 96043 http://www.niar.org (via Alokesh Gupta, dx_india via WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 9525.97, VOI, *0801-0804, Jan 21, they have moved here yet again. Open carrier noted 0753 (light QRM/Cotton Tree News, which had news in English, ID "This news has come to you from CTN, Freetown", on 9525.0, with 0800*), ID "This is the Voice of Indonesia from Jakarta", into program in English, poor (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DX LISTENING DIGEST) However, did not notice it when I tuned by 9526 around 1430 Jan 21. VOI back on 9526 after several weeks` absence during the hours I am awake: Jan 22 at 1439 in Indonesian, pop music, constant hum more obvious during talk and pauses, but good strength. Transmitter dumped off the air for a fraxion of a minute at 1440, 1449, 1452 and 1458. Usual format of mostly music, 1456:30 to closing warta berita headlines, 1459 YL singing anthem until 1501:30 open carrier with increasing hum, finally off at 1504*. No sign of CRI in Russian which usually occupies the 1500 hour on 9525, altho there was a lite het from something when I first tuned in. Thought 9526 might come back on with gamelan/English ID loop from 1530 as it used to, but still off at final check 1536 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM [and non]. Form reply from HAARP: Thank you for your participation in the HAARP-LWA Moon Bounce experiments of 19 and 20 January 2008. We have received over 1500 reports from amateur radio hams throughout the USA and other countries, including Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, Argentina, Australia, Marshall Islands, Hawaii, and Japan. We apologize if we have not listed your country; we have not yet been able to review all reports. These reports will help us to understand the propagation characteristics of the HAARP skywave and lunar echoes. As we review your reports we plan to post on the HAARP website further information learned from these experiments. If you would like a QSL card confirmation of your reception, please send us your card with the reception details to our address: HAARP Research Facility, Milepost 11.3, PO Box 271, Gakona, AK 99586 (HAARP Jan 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) O nuts, I have to get a card printed, for a one-way ``contact``? These guys are really amateur snobs (Glenn Hauser, SWL) MISLEADING MOONBOUNCE INFO Re: ``The timing on your reports is important. HAARP is manipulating their beam, bouncing off different areas of the moon, such that different parts of the sky above our heads are being illuminated. So if you don't hear the signals, keep listening, and they will eventually be illuminating the space above your head`` Hi Glenn; From DXLD 8-008 the comment from NA5N falls into the "don't you believe it" category --- The moon occupies about 1/2 degree of arc so the HAARP antenna beamwidth (5 deg at 10 MHz to 15 deg at 3 MHz) is not even close to being narrow enough to point to different areas of the lunar surface. What they were adjusting was the pattern every 3 minutes to track the moon, according to their website. From my observations, the incident and reflected signals the first night were pretty consistent for the full 2 hours; but the second night brought significant differences, mainly between the 2nd half hour on 6792.5 (echoes very weak) and most of the next hour on 7407.5 when the echoes were very strong - many of them S9! It seems such an abrupt level change that I am curious to know if they did something unusual to cause this. Did others notice anything similar? For more information, see: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/mbann.html (Don VE6JY Moman, Jan 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRELAND. RTE CLOSING DOWN MEDIUM WAVE TRANSMISSIONS Glenn, It is indeed sad to hear that RTÉ have decided to close down their medium wave broadcasts from the 24th March. Indeed another end to an era. Interesting discussions on the station's own news broadcasts today and quite a lot of negative reactions. Fisherman, sailors, elderly and people living in isolate rural areas which find FM broadcasts poor where vocalising their opposition. However there has also been a lot of negative responses from the UK pointing out although the long wave transmissions on 252 is nearly universal in coverage, many find that a lot of their radios i.e. clock radios, car radios, etc., do not have LW. I understand that the 567 kHz transmissions (500 kW) have a very good reception in Scandinavia; I presume LW is similar. I was in the Oxford area last week and there was good reception for LW but there seems to be a problem - while the Tullamore transmitter roars out at 500 kW 24 hours a day, the Clarkestown 500 kW LW transmitter is turned down to 150 kW (I think) at night, reducing the LW's clear reception. RTÉ Radio national medium wave transmission goes back many years to when the transmitter (60 kW) was opened in Athlone in the 1930s (the station was known as Radio Éireann then). This was was replaced by a 100 kW transmitter in Athlone in the early 1950s which was in turn replaced by the Tullamore 500 kW transmitter in 1976. A new 100 kW transmitter was opened in Athlone in 1979 to launch RTÉ Radio 2 but this was also closed down a couple of years ago. Glenn, you questioned the need to have a 10 kW medium wave transmitter in Cork. This is mainly due to the difficult geographical conditions particularly in Cork city. This was especially the case when the service came from Athlone which also warranted a 10 kW transmitter in Dublin city. FM services were introduced in the late 1960s (known until the early 1990s as VHF). FM remained a minority choice until the very late 1980s. The local Cork and Dublin transmitters allowed opt out programmes. It is interesting to note that the new independent national Christian station due later this year will broadcast on medium wave from Athlone (Paul Guckian, Ennis, Co Clare, Ireland, Jan 21, WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Note: LW 252 carries considerably further than MW. This is especially relevant to the maritime community and the Irish community in Britain (Mike Barraclough, BDXC-UK via DXLD) 13 Responses to “RTÉ plans to switch off mediumwave on 24 March” http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/rte-plans-to-switch-off-mediumwave-on-24-march#comments (via WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DXLD) ** JAPAN. NHK CHIEF RESIGNS OVER INSIDER TRADING The president of Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, Genichi Hashimoto, said he would resign to take responsibility for an insider-trading scandal involving staff at the media group. ”The management’s responsibility for sharply denting the audience’s confidence is grave,” he told reporters, adding that two of NHK’s ten managing directors would step down tomorrow over the scandal. NHK officials said three employees - two reporters and one director - traded 1,000 to 3,150 shares last March after learning from a prepared news report that Zensho Co Ltd, a restaurant chain operator, planned to acquire shares of sushi restaurant chain Kappa Create Co Ltd. The three employees each gained profits ranging from about 90,000 yen ($842.9) to 510,000 yen from their trades, they said. The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission was looking into the scandal, while NHK said it would check all of its 11,000 employees. (Source: Reuters) More on this story: Three NHK employees accused of insider trading http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/three-nkk-employees-accused-of-insider-trading (January 21st, 2008 - 14:02 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) OK, but keep the knives away from them (gh) ** KASHMIR [non]. Hi Glenn, The transmission of Radio Pakistan Rawalpindi III (Azad Kashmir Radio Trarkhel) was monitored on January 20, 2008 at 7265 kHz via API-8 from 1150 to 1215 UT. During the transmission the National News Bulletin in Urdu was relayed from Radio Pakistan at 1200 UT. The rest of the transmission was of Azad Kashmir Radio Trarkhel. The SINPO ratings was 33432. The interference was from Radio China English service from the adjacent frequency. Mauno Ritola from Finland may also note (Aslam Javaid, Lahore, Pakistan, Jan 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KENYA. SPREADING THE WORD OF HATE UN Integrated Regional Information Networks NEWS 22 January 2008 Nairobi --- Inflammatory statements and songs broadcast on vernacular radio stations and at party rallies, text messages, emails, posters and leaflets have all contributed to post-electoral violence in Kenya, according to analysts. Hundreds of homes have been burnt, more than 600 people killed and 250,000 displaced. While the mainstream media, both English and Swahili, have been praised for their even-handedness, vernacular radio broadcasts have been of particular concern, given the role of Kigali's Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines in inciting people to slaughter their neighbours in the Rwandan genocide of 1994… http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200801220692.html (via Zacharias Liangas, DXLD) ** KURDISTAN. 6335, 1600-1720, IRAQ, 16 & 19-01, Voice of Kurdistan, Salah al Din, Kurdish (and other languages ?) Arab music, Kurdish songs, severe DRM Noise at 1600, much better at 1700: 33443 Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) But not English in particular, as recently reported at 16-17? DRM on 6335? Certainly nothing at all scheduled above 6.2 MHz. Leapfrog mixing product from two 49mb DRM transmitters? This happens with analog, so why not DRM? Please figure it out (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LATVIA [and non?]. Yesterday (on October 6) at the frequency of 9290 kHz into 08.06 of [ulbroki] was accepted relaying China Of radio Of international on English. In 08.07 they were switched to the beginning of the transfer Of Latvia of today. It is interesting. Indeed China Of radio Of international is relayed not of the Latvia, but of Lithuania (Yury Dymbovskiy, Riga, Latvia, open_dx via Rus-DX #171, via Play-DX 1392, 7 January 2008 via DXLD) all [sic] ** MEXICO [and non]. RETRASO TECNOLÓGICO PONE EN DESVENTAJA A RADIO MEXICANA Por: Cecilia Higuera | Negocios Lunes 21 de Enero de 2008 | Hora de publicación: 00:52 [I wish people would cite sources of press items; I found via Google: http://www.cronica.com.mx/nota.php?id_nota=343382 This is about concerns that US IBOC will cause interference on the Mexican side of the border, and what to do about it --- gh] El retraso tecnológico de las radiodifusoras mexicanas ocasiona que en la frontera norte del país las estaciones de radio estadunidenses “invadan” el espacio nacional en perjuicio de 20 estaciones de Tijuana que padecen interferencia de programaciones norteamericanas principalmente de San Diego, sin que hasta el momento se pueda hacer algo al respecto. El riesgo para muchas de las radiodifusoras que transmiten en la banda de Amplitud Modulada (AM) es que quedarían fuera del aire en Estados Unidos, en donde se ha estandarizado la radio digital en el estándar IBOC y se está dejando de lado la fabricación de radios análogos, en los que se escuchan en la actualidad las estaciones de radio mexicanas. Francisco García Burgos, director de Radio y Televisión de la Comisión Federal de Telecomunicaciones (Cofetel) mencionó que continúan los trabajos con autoridades y radiodifusores para definir de si se adopta el estándar estadunidense IBOC o el europeo Eureka 147, pero aún no se ha tomado ninguna decisión. El estándar In-band On Channel (IBOC), permite la convivencia de señales analógica y digital, con lo que los concesionarios no quedarían fuera del aire ya que se les otorgaría un canal “espejo” en banda FM para continuar sus transmisiones mientras concluyen su transición hacia la digitalización. El Eureka 147, ofrece en la recepción la calidad de sonido de disco compacto (CD) en un entorno de propagación donde las interferencias y los ecos sean suprimidos, sin embargo, para su adopción los radiodifusores sí deberán cambiar de banda a la que tienen asignada actualmente. Ello, porque ambos estándares “continúan su avance tecnológico” y en México se estudian esas experiencias internacionales “para tomar la mejor decisión”, con lo que estimó, la digitalización de la radio todavía llevará alrededor de un año o un año y medio y mencionó que han recibido 20 solicitudes de concesionarios de Tijuana para adoptar el estándar IBOC en cuanto la Comisión Federal de Mejora Regulatoria lo apruebe. Javier Orozco Gómez, senador del PVEM e integrante de la Comisión de Radio, Televisión y Cinematografía destacó la importancia de que México defina por el estándar el IBOC o el Eureka 147 para que los concesionarios de radio, puedan operar de manera más competitiva respecto a sus contrapartes estadunidenses. “Esa interferencia es por cuestiones naturales, por la cercanía de las ciudades y las señales no respeta fronteras” y recordó que desde hace dos años las esta estaciones de radio no han definido cuál estándar adoptarán, “el problema es que entre más tiempo pase los otros países continuarán avanzando en la digitalización y nosotros nos seguiremos rezagando”. (via Héctor García Bojorge, DF, condiglist yg via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3289.98, R. Central, 1143-1200*, Jan 22, English. Island music at tune-in with announcer between selections. "Lady in Red" followed by "You are listening to National Broadcasting Corporation..." ID at 1156. Brief music and announcer into NA at 1159. Poor. 3345, R. Northern, 1206-1213+, Jan 22, English/vernacular. Pop music by Blondie, ballad by Bette Midler with announcer in language between selections. Poor, still audible on subsequent re-checks. 3365, presumed R. Milne Bay, 1203, Jan 22, vernacular. Announcer in language with music, barely audible under band noise. 3905, R. New Ireland, 1215-1233, Jan 22, tentative English. Continuous lite pop music with announcer between selections. Tentative "You are listening to..." announcement at 1217. Fade-out after BoH. Poor w/ mild USB chatter (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH-USA, R8, R75, NIR10, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60m Dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. ELENCO DE RADIOS DE LIMA FM Y AM 2008 (actualizado 21 enero 2008) JORGE QUIÑONES A. Apartado Postal 18 - 1250 Miraflores 18, LIMA, PERU. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- FMs DE LIMA - PERU enero 21-1-2008 actualizada. - TELESTEREO 88.3 http://www.telestereo.com/ - RADIO FELICIDAD 88.9 http://www.felicidad.com.pe/ - AMARU FM 89.3 (inactiva) - RRP 89.7 http://www.rpp.com.pe/ http://www.gruporpp.com.pe/ - CPN radio 90.5 (6150 kHz 49 Metros) [inactive???] http://www.cpn.com.pe/ - RADIO SAN BORJA 91.1 http://www.radiosanborja.com/ - OKEY 91.1 http://www.okeyradio.com.pe/ - STUDIO 92 [point . what??? -- gh] http://www.studio92.com/ - RADIO RITMO 93.1 http://www.ritmoromantica.com/ - LA INOLVIDABLE 93.7 - LA MEGA 94.3 http://www.lamega.com.pe/ - RADIO MIX 94.9 (EX- Radio A ) http://www.radiomix.com.pe - RADIO ZETA 95.5 http://www.radioz.fm/ - RADIO MIRAFLORES 96.1 http://www.radiomiperu.com - RADIO CORAZON 96.7 http://www.corazon967.com/ - RADIO MODA 97.3 http://www.moda.com.pe/ - ONDA CERO 98.1 http://www.ondacero.com.pe/home.html - RADIO DOBLE NUEVE 99.1 http://www.radiodoblenueve.com/ - RADIO IMPERIAL 2 99.5 - LA Ñ 100.1 - RADIO EXCELENTE 100.5 - RADIO PANAMERICANA 101.1 http://www.radiopanamericana.com/ - BONITA FM 101.5 (inactiva ) - OXIGENO 102.1 http://www.oxigeno.com.pe/ - RADIO FILARMONIA 102.7 http://www.filarmonia.org/ - RADIO UNION 103.3 http://www.unionlaradio.com - RADIO NACIONAL 103.9 http://www.radionacional.com.pe/ - VIVA FM 104.7 - RADIO FIESTA 105.5 - RADIO MAR PLUS 106.3 - TOP FM 107.1 (EX- RADIO INCA SAT) http://www.topfm.com.pe/ - RADIO PLANETA 107.7 http://www.planeta.com.pe/ ------------------------------------------------------------------ -- AMs DE LIMA - PERU (enero 21-1- 2008) actualizada - RADIO INCA 540 - RADIO ORIENTE 560 - RADIO MARIA 580 http://www.radiomariaperu.org/ - RADIO CORA 600 http://www.radiocoraperu.com - RADIO OVACION 620 http://www.peru.com/ovacion/ - GRUPO PACIFICO 640 http://grupopacifico.org/ - LA INOLVIDABLE 660 (simultaneo con 93.7) - R. 700 700 http://www.r700lagrande.com/ - RPP 730 (simultaneo con 89.7) - RADIO MAR PLUS, 760 (simultaneo con 106.3) - RADIO VICTORIA 780 - RADIO LIBERTAD 820 http://www.radiolibertad.com.pe/ - RADIO NACIONAL 850 (simultaneo con 103.9) - RADIO UNION 880 (simultaneo con 103.3, 6115 kHz) - RADIO FELICIDAD 900 - RADIO MODERNA 930 http://www.modernaradiopapa.com - RADIO PANAMERICANA 960 (simultaneo con 101.1) - RADIO LATINA 990 http://www.radiolatina.com.pe - RADIO CIELO 1010 http://www.radiocielo1010.com - OBX40 1040 (señal en prueba) http://www.onda-medios.com/401.html - RADIO EXITO 1060 http://www.onda-medios.com/401.html - RADIO LA LUZ 1080 http://www.radiolaluz.com/ - RADIO ANTARKI 1110 http://www.radioantarkiperu.com/ - RADIO BACAN 1130 http://www.radiobacan.com/ - RADIO PANAMERICANA 1160 (simultaneo con 960) - RADIO LA LUZ 1200 (simultaneo con 1080) - RADIO ¿ ? 1250 (simultaneo con 780 Radio Victoria) - RADIO COMAS 1300 http://www.radiocomas.com/ - RADIO LA CRONICA 1320 http://www.radionacional.com.pe/programacion_cronica.asp - RADIO LA LUZ 1340 (simultaneo con 1080, 1200) - RADIO NUEVO TIEMPO 1380 http://www.nuevotiempo.org.pe/ - RADIO CALLAO 1400 http://www.radiocallao.com/ - RADIO SAN ISIDRO 1420 - RADIO IMPERIAL 2 1440 - CPN RADIO 1470 (6150 kHz 49m [inactive??]) - RADIO SANTA ROSA 1500 (6045 kHz 49m) http://www.radiosantarosa.com.pe/ - RADIO MILENIA 1530 http://www.radiomilenia.com.pe/ - RADIO INDEPENDENCIA 1550 - RADIO AGRICULTURA 1590 http://www.laperuanisima.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Recopilado En Lima - PERU; con un receptor marca : PREMIER RD-0766, antenna telescopica. Fecha (21-1-2008) Cordiales 73ssss. diexista: (JORGE JAIME QUIÑONES A., Apartado Postal 18 - 1250, Miraflores 18, LIMA - PERU, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PORTUGAL. The Caixa Postal & Dexismo show on RDPI was not heard Monday Jan 21 at previously scheduled time of 1848, as I brought up the webcast a few minutes early. Then checking that date`s program schedule at http://tv.rtp.pt/EPG/radio/epg-dia.php?datai=&dia=21-01-2008&sem=e&canal=5&gen=&time= indeed it shows only at 0845 and 1418, and not at 0030 UT Tuesday either, and also has the podcast icon, where we may also listen to it and the previous week`s show, without really making it a podcast: mms://195.245.128.30/rtpfiles/audio/wavrss/ati/41528_20699- 0801211540.wma From previous experience, there is a lot of variation from one week to the next in RDPI`s program scheduling, so who knows what will happen next Monday. At least they post advance program schedules for each specific date, which is more than can be said for many ISWBC stations. A link to the show pop-up reminds that the presenter is Isabel Flora [illustrated]. This week`s program was nothing but an interview with someone reminiscing on the phone about Emissora Nacional; no mailbag, no DX. The new season`s first show, dated Jan 14, was about the postal system, starting with a song; no mailbag, no DX. It does appear the name of the show is rather misleading (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ROMANIA. ROMÊNIA - Durante 2008, a série de cartões de confirmações da Rádio Romênia Internacional aborda as plantas e flores daquele país. As fotos foram cedidas à RRI pelo Jardim Botânico de Bucareste. Para obter os 12 cartões, os interessados devem enviar um informe de recepção por mês para a estação. Ao completar o processo, receberá o primeiro diploma do Clube de Ouvintes da RRI. A emissora conta com cinco diplomas, que correspondem ao primeiro, terceiro, quinto e décimo ano de fidelidade de sintonia da RRI. O quinto diploma é o chamado "de excelência" e seguirá ao ouvinte juntamente com dois selos de antiguidade, que correspondem ao 2º e 4º ano de atividade. Todos os detalhes a respeito do Clube de Ouvintes podem ser conferidos na rubrica Rincón Diexista, que é irradiada, em espanhol, nas transmissões dos domingos, sob a condução de Victoria Sepciu. O esquema de emissões em espanhol da estação romena é o seguinte: entre 2000 e 2100, em 7140 e 9620 kHz; das 2200 às 2300, em 9575 e 11905 kHz; das 0000 às 0100, em 5960, 9525, 9665 e 11960 kHz; entre 0300 e 0400, em 6140, 9635, 9765 e 11825 kHz (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX Jan 20 via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. 6005, VOR, 0805-0819, Jan 21, in parallel with 6155, in English, news, classical music, program of religious music performed at the Washington (DC) National Cathedral, both fair, both via Vladivostok (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. Re CUBA [non], super-high power MW transmitters, 8- 008: 1521 [SAUDI ARABIA] as well as its companion 594 are run through in-line arrays of six towers each, aiming at ca. 310 degrees. More about this in DXLD 7-051 with a subsequent explanation of 1521 running through the whole night being given in 7-057 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I've seen the in-line Duba arrays on Google Earth, and am still blown away by the signal strength found on 1521, several nights in a row on the Johannesburg DX Tuner. Similar strength was found on the Saudi/1512 signal; both Saudis were significantly stronger than any other MW from the region. 310 degrees makes sense given Euro and North American receptions, but how does that much signal "leak" from Duba in the Southerly direction, hmmm?? -- G H (Greg Hardison, CA, ibid.) ** SLOVAKIA. Almost all MW transmitters left the band --- Since January 20 2008 there are only three active MW transmitters in Slovakia: 702 kHz - Presov 100 kW 1017 kHz - Rimavská Sobota 50 kW 1098 kHz - Nitra 50 kW (F. Pl. 100 kW) Schedule (UT): Mon-Fri 0700-1700, Sat 0600-1800, Sun 0600-1900 Program: Patria (for national minorities) A swift decision made by the Slovak government in January, ceased operation of the following transmitters: 567 kHz Rimavská Sobota 567 kHz Zilina 621 kHz Horná Lehota (Orava) 864 kHz Cadca 864 kHz Snina 900 kHz Velky Slavkov (Tatry) 927 kHz Cizatice 1017 kHz Bratislava 1035 kHz Banská Bystrica (Karel Honzik, CZECHIA, Jan 21, MWC via WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DXLD) ** SRI LANKA. SLBC on 11905 has been coming through regularly here for the past few weeks with varying degrees of reception after tune in at about 1300 UT. Usually best after about 1400. Some very good reception today, Tuesday, January 22, with some fading from time to time. Always lots of local music. Time pips at 1530 followed by announcements and what sounded like a short prayer (with chimes ?). Then singing of the national anthem (yes it was, I checked) and transmission off at 1534 (Bernie O'Shea, Ottawa, Ontario, WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. SOUTH AFRICA, 15675, Southern Sudan Interactive Radio Instruction. Thanks tips, tuned in via DX Tuner Netherlands. 1405 tune in, I heard a teaching programming in English. Doorbell chime "Teacher, ask the learners to say ..." There would be a pause and the next instruction would be given with the same chime as an alert. I could not hear anything on the listed // of 15390. I also tried 15445, which is used for other transmissions, but I could not hear anything there, either. A video showing the children learning through what I believe is this radio program is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1imvMVmOeE Closing announcements said that lessons are given on M/W/F morning and repeated on Tu/Th/Sa afternoons. ID as above and off at 1430 (Hans Johnson, FL, Jan 22), Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) You don`t really need a DX tuner in Europe to hear this in OK many mornings. 15675 is not // 15390, as previously noted in DXLD --- same service, separate content (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN [non]. TAIWAN via ESTADOS UNIDOS - Pelo menos, durante alguns dias de janeiro, a programação em espanhol da Rádio Taiwan International esteve fora do ar. Conforme monitoria de Glauber Gleidson Peres, de Pindamonhangaba (SP), a estação estava levando ao ar a seguinte mensagem: "por motivos técnicos, a RTI está interrompendo suas transmissões em Ondas Curtas. Voltaremos em breve." (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX Jan 20 via DXLD) Radio Taiwan sigue con problemas; a las 0200 en 9800 continua con emisiones musicales con identificacion en frances, con muy buena señal (Hector Frias, Radioescuchas, FEDERACHI, CHILE, Jan 21, radioescutas yg, via DXLD) ** TURKEY. VOICE OF TURKEY UPCOMING FREQUENCY CHANGES Hi Glenn, Following my comments to TRT on interference, please note the following frequency changes effective 26 January 2008: Bosnian 1900-1925 UT 6055 kHz to be replaced by 6050 kHz English 1930-2025 UT 6055 kHz to be replaced by 6050 kHz 6055 kHz is currently used by China (Cërrik ALB relay) and Rwanda at these times, so hopefully this will improve reception in Europe. Best regards (Alan Holder, England, Jan 22, WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: ======================================== Message Received: Jan 22 2008, 01:08 PM From: "Sedef SOMALTIN" To: "Alan Holder" Cc: "Kıymet ERDAL" Subject: RE: TRT Reception update in UK Dear Alan, As usual your monitoring report is very much appreciated. We are changing the frequencies of both Bosnian and English from 6055 kHz to 6050 kHz effective from 26 Jan. 2008. We hope adjacent channel will work, nevertheless there is no more clear frequency in 6 MHz. Thank you very much for your cooperation. Best regards (Sedef - Kiymet, TRT via Holder, DXLD) The rest of the story: Bosnian 1900 is via the Çakirlar site, while English 1930 is Emirler, so it could be interesting to compare 6050 before and after the switch. 6050 is also scheduled for EMR at 2030- 2130, French on a different beam toward W Africa (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. ALAN JOHNSTON TO HOST BBC'S 'FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT' Alan Johnston, the BBC reporter who was kidnapped in Gaza last year, is the new presenter of From Our Own Correspondent for BBC World Service. His first programme airs this weekend on Saturday 26 January and Sunday 27 January. During his career, Alan has written a series of dispatches for the long-running BBC Radio programme from the Middle East as well as Central Asia and Afghanistan. In one of the pieces he wrote in Gaza before he was kidnapped, he admitted that the possibility of being taken hostage terrified him. During the 114 days he was kept prisoner by the Army of Islam he spent hours working out how, once free, he would tell his story on the programme regular listeners know as FOOC. And in October last year an entire edition of the programme, some 27 minutes, was given over to Alan’s story. Commenting on his new job, Alan said, “I hope that the show might benefit from having a regular presenter, and one who has both contributed to it and been a fan for many years. The structure of the programme will stay the same however – the extraordinarily successful FOOC formula would be very hard to improve.” In a world where the correspondents’ stories must often be condensed into a minute or less, or perhaps confined to a single answer to a programme presenter’s question, From Our Own Correspondent gives them an opportunity to say a little more - to provide some of the context to the stories they’re covering, to describe some of the characters involved and some of the sights they see as they watch events unfold. Tony Grant, producer of FOOC, said, “I am delighted to be working more closely with Alan. In the past most of our conversations were down crackly phone lines. He may have done loads of pieces for our programme but I never got to meet him until after his kidnap ordeal. It will be great now to work side by side with him, he’ll make a really terrific presenter.” The author and war reporter Kate Adie will continue to present BBC Radio 4’s version of FOOC, which is designed more for British listeners (BBCWS publicity Jan 21 via gh and Mukesh Kumar, DXLD) More versions of same: http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=40024&c=1 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/default.stm (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, swprograms via DXLD) The duties of presenter of this long standing and very good BBC radio programme seem to be limited to intros and outros. Perhaps there is more involved behind the scenes. Posted: 21 Jan 2008 (Kim Andrew Elliott, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** U K. THE FALL OF BBC DJ ANDY KERSHAW - BY TWO WOMEN IN HIS LIFE By ANGELLA JOHNSON - Last updated at 14:35pm on 20th January 2008 The two women in troubled DJ Andy Kershaw's life - his new partner and his sister - tell in emotional detail how he came to be imprisoned... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=509231&in_page_id=1879 The Least Edited Article In The History Of Weekend Papers (Tom Roche, DXLD) illustrated ** U K. INTERNET RADIO: ALL THE MUSIC WITHOUT THE AWFUL ADVERTS Classic FM, the UK's most popular commercial radio station, has just launched another six stations. Obviously these are not being broadcast over good old FM: the spectrum is already full up. They are internet stations, and play in a browser window (Internet Explorer only, so far)... http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/22/internet.radio?gusrc=rss&feed=media (via Kevin Redding, AZ, ABDX via DXLD) Restricted to UK IPs only (gh) ** U S A. Googling around for some clues about what is going on with KAIJ, I found this: http://www.curtislaw.net/mark.pdf ``Mark A. Castillo The Curtis Law Firm, PC Bank of America Plaza 901 Main Street, Suite 6515 Dallas, Texas 75202 Telephone: 214.752.2222 ext. 18 Facsimile: 214.752.0709 Practice Areas: Bankruptcy Reorganizations, Acquisitions, and Litigation; Debtor and Creditor Rights; Commercial Litigation; Business Law Representative Bankruptcy Engagements: Two if By Sea Broadcasting Corporation, d/b/a Kaij International Shortwave Station – represented radio-broadcast station in Chapter 11 reorganization`` This is apparently current; other items on this page mention 2006 and 2008. TIBS was previously involved in a bankruptcy proceeding concerning WHCT TV in Hartford CT in 1997y (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. I think the FCC will eventually have to do something about the under-utilization of the low-band VHF channels in the DTV era. My fear is that we'll start seeing petitions, sometime after 2009, for new digital allotments on many of those channels. DTV 2 or 4 or 5 in Boston, or 3 in Phoenix, may not be perfect - but it could still be very desirable for someone once new DTV allotments start to be granted in a few years. As for the hypothetical power reductions, believe me, I know they won't ever happen. I happen to think that the reasons why they won't happen are interesting ones. The FM allocations chess game is a very complicated mess right now, and there are maybe three or four people in the country who understand it completely. I'm absolutely NOT one of them, but I do have the privilege of knowing at least two of them, and I hope the insight that comes from that experience is interesting, if only to explain why we as DXers confront the overcrowded band that we encounter. To that end, I'm not sure I fully explained why a small power cut to class B and C noncomm FMs would create so few holes for new stations, so I hope you'll let me give it one more stab: The commercial FM dial (92.1-107.9) is allocated on a mileage- separation basis. If I wanted to put a new class A station in, say, Los Alamos, there's a table that tells me how far my station must be from any other station of various classes on the same channel, the first-adjacents, the second-adjacents and the third-adjacents. If those spacings all work, I can apply for a new allocation on my chosen channel. If they don't fit, I'm out of luck. The noncommercial dial is allocated more like AM, on a contour- protection basis. While each station is designated as belonging to a particular class (A, B1, B, etc.), stations apply for frequencies based on protecting the contours of other stations that already exist. So if I wanted to put a new station on 88.9, let's say, I would need to show that specific contours of my new station don't overlap with specific contours of other stations on the same channel, the first- adjacents, the second-adjacents and the third-adjacents. Here's what this means in practice: Take just about any larger (B or C) signal on the noncommercial dial anywhere beyond the most rural parts of the country, and it's a good bet that at some point in the last 15-20 years or so, a ring of smaller signals has popped up with contours that just brush the edge of the big signal. I'll use Boston as an example, because it's a market I know intimately - WBUR on 90.9, the big NPR news signal, touches contours with WSMA 90.5 in Scituate, WKKL 90.7 on Cape Cod, WTKL 91.1 in Dartmouth, WICN 90.5 in Worcester, WZBC 90.3 in Newton, and at least a half-dozen other signals within 50 miles of Boston. Most of those signals, in turn, touch contours with another ring of signals out beyond them, and there's now a pretty solid ring of overlapping signals beyond that, too. All that happens when you cut power back on the big signals at the middle of the ring is that the signals on the next layer, most of which are already fairly low-power class As, get a couple more miles of breathing room to expand. Creating a hole for a brand-new signal to drop in requires MUCH more spacing than would be created in most places - and then you've still got the challenge of finding a way to ensure that new signal goes to a real community broadcaster, not a satcaster. In the end, in practice, all that happens is that a bunch of people lose useful service that they've grown accustomed to. Opening new spectrum is a much more productive (and realistic!) goal. The FCC is very, very serious right now about opening up commercial FM translators for AM stations. They've already started granting a bunch of them under Special Temporary Authority, and the general consensus in Washington is that they're about to authorize them for everyone who wants them. The catch, for now, is that no new translators are being granted, so AM stations have to buy existing translator licenses or CPs if they want FM signals. I'm sure Powell knows whether or not there are any of those available in WKDK's neck of the woods. I'm not, on the whole, terribly opposed to FM translators for AM signals. The nature of the translator service (250 watts, max) means that FM translators aren't going to be commercially useful for AM stations in even medium-sized cities. So the service will be fairly limited, and will mainly benefit small stations like WKDK, which deserve all the help they can get. (Of course, there's nothing stopping EMF and CSN and the rest from starting to buy small AM stations to use as launching points for FM translator networks. That scares me a bit.) The FCC did a pretty good job, all in all, in mandating that radios sold after the opening of the X-band have the ability to tune up to 1700. I don't have very many radios left here that stop at 1600 or 1610, and it's only been a decade or so since the band expanded. I'm sure an expansion of the FM band in the downward direction would go even more smoothly, considering that a fair number of the radios coming into the country can already tune that low (thanks, Japan!) and just need a software tweak to enable it for the US market. And now to answer Kevin's point about the undesirability of low-band V for DTV: No question about it - if you have the choice between being on channel 4 or channel 30 for DTV, you take 30. But if you have the choice between not being on the air at all, and taking a shot at starting a new station on 4, there's no reason I can imagine to pass it up. The name of the game is really cable must-carry, anyway, so the OTA problems for low-band DTV are a non-issue for most viewers. The real question will be whether the established TV stations, which don't want new competition, will step in to keep new allotments from showing up on the channels that will be freed up after 2009. I almost wouldn't be surprised to see some corners of the TV industry supporting a plan to turn 5 and 6 over to radio, if only to keep it out of the hands of the competition. Stranger things have happened. No question about it - low band V isn't where you want to be IF you have a choice. But if you really want to get a new station on the air somewhere, and you can get the license cheaply and put up a minimal facility that will force cable must-carry, and then maybe turn around and sell the thing for $20 or $30 or $100 million a few years down the road, is low band V better than nothing? Sure it is. On the flip side, if you want to start a community radio station and no frequencies are available, and the FCC suddenly opens up 82-88 or 76-88 for new stations, with the promise that new radios will be required to tune those frequencies, and that you can get 100 watts on the air for the asking, what's to lose? It might be too big a risk to move an existing commercial AM to the untested band, but for community radio, it's a whole lot better than nothing. (It would be a lot of fun to DX, too, wouldn't it?) s (Scott Fybush, NY, Jan 21, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. KREX-TV Grand Junxion CO : Here is the latest on the fire from KKCO TV & KUSA TV.... http://www.nbc11news.com (Home Page) The KKCO Home page has 3 updates on the fire with Video. http://www.nbc11news.com/home/headlines/13932731.html (Article on Fire) (Slide Show of fire) http://www.9news.com/9slideshows/KREX-TV%20Fire%20-%20Jan.%2020%2C%202008/ The local Fox affiliate KFQX Was also lost during the Fire, so as of right now there is no CBS or FOX station in Grand Junction, Colorado (Paul Armani, CO, ABDX via WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DXLD) KREX/KFQX off air Haven't seen this reported on the WTFDA lists yet, and it might have some DX implications down the road: the studio building of KREX-TV 5 Grand Junction CO and its sister station KFQX 4 Grand Junction suffered a serious fire at about 8:30 MT this morning. The studios are reportedly a total loss, and the stations are off the air. KREX moved its transmitter from the studio building (which dated back to 1930) to a different mountaintop site in 2002, so presumably some sort of analog signal can be restored there (and on its satellites, KREG 3 Glenwood Springs and KREY 10 Montrose) fairly quickly, if they can get a satellite feed from CBS. Ditto for KFQX and its Fox feed. But KREX- DT 2 was at the studio location, under a low-power STA, and is toast now. Did anyone ever log this one by Es? KREX has applied for 2 as its permanent digital channel, if I'm not mistaken. I wonder if this will delay its full-power operation there? s (Scott Fybush, NY, Jan 20, WTFDA via DXLD) No, but I saw the snow one night last July when KREX and KFQX were strong. Greg Barker has also received the snow. Only *seven* [DTV] stations have been logged via Es, and two of those have been received only by Greg (Danny, Shreveport, LA, Oglethorpe, ibid.) ** U S A. CALIFORNIA RADIO DIAL 1928 It's January 1928 in California. Al Jolson's "Jazz Singer" film with sound enthralls the state, Jimmie Rodgers "Blue Yodel No.1 [T for Texas]" is about to hit the music charts, Stanford and California are still preparing for the Big Game 13 all draw later that year and there's no TV, no FM radio and barely fifty radio stations on the air across the entire state. The Radio Heritage Foundation has released a snap shot of the state's radio dial that month, not only listing many long gone radio calls, but adding some colorful art work from the stations themselves. Hard to believe but not one single station broadcast north of San Francisco, and nearly one half all the stations that were on air served the Los Angeles radio market. The two most powerful signals in the entire state were KFI Los Angeles even then at 640 AM on the dial, and KGO San Francisco at 780 AM on the dial. Says the Radio Heritage Foundation, "It's important to name the names, to remember the people and organizations that are now fading from living memory. These are the newspapers, the businessmen, the churches and the local personalities that have given rise to the hundreds of radio stations we enjoy and, take for granted every day." The 'California Radio Dial 1928' is part of an ongong series relating radio broadcasting to the culture of the times. They paint the broad picture, and often lead into more detailed stories about individual stations and personalities as volunteer resources permit and those with memories and memorabilia come forward. That January, the Santa Maria Valley Rail Road Co broadcast on KSMR, the Los Angeles County Forestry Department entertained over KFPR, and the Glad Tidings Temple & Bible Institute kept the San Francisco airwaves pulsing from KGTT. For an entertaining and nostalgic look back at a California fast disappearing into history, this fun article is worth the time. It's with hundreds of others at www.radioheritage.net Next time you switch on the radio, give a thought to those who pioneered radio across California some 80 years ago, long before the 'Morning Drive' was created. The Radio Heritage Foundation is a registered non-profit organization operated entirely by volunteers. It carries out research and publishing into connected aspects of radio heritage and popular culture across the entire Pacific region. Contact details are at http://www.radioheritage.net Media Contact: David Ricquish, Chairman. Email: info @ radioheritage.net (Ricquish, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. TODD DAUGHERTY THREATENS TO FLOOD FCC COMPUTER SYSTEM Todd Daugherty (N9OGL) who was recently warned by the FCC about his operation on 13556 kHz, has responded to FCC correspondence by threatening to flood the FCC's computer system. Daugherty posted the threat on his Blog on January 21, 2008. He laced his threat with obscenities and insults aimed at FCC agent W. Riley Hollingsworth and others, and he ended with an ominous, "or else." Daugherty is widely known as a friend and correspondent of the notorious Karol Madera, of Saanich, British Columbia. It is unknown whether or not this threat will be regarded as a denial of service attack, however, the FBI has been contacted regarding the threat (Bryan Crow, K3VR, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Dear Riley Hollingsworth, I'm writing you this letter to ask WHERE IS MY NAL??? . . . http://n9oglvoice.blogspot.com/2008/01/open-letter-to-riley-hollingsworth.html (via Crow, DXLD) ** VENEZUELA. Re 8-008, ELCOR`s 1000 kW transmitter --- Punta Tumatey site, activated on Aug 8 1995, announced power 500 kW: http://www.chowdanet.com/markc/idxd/1995/DX950906.IDX Later reports appeared about the new site running 50 kW only (which they could hardly have done with the 1000 kW transmitter, unless they did not care for burning much more electricity): http://www.hard-core-dx.com/archive/1995/msg00339.html Apparently WRTH maintained this 50 kW figure afterwards, and now 1240 is shown as inactive at all. So let's take a look along the shoreline, just in case... ha, gotcha! Two towers in an in-line configuration, guess what's the beam... http://maps.google.de/?ie=UTF8&ll=12.167481,-69.93271&spn=0.007352,0.010042&t=h&z=17&om=0 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA [non]. RNV via Cuba, 11680, Mon Jan 21 at 1509 tune-in during heavily accented English segment, about relations with Italy, FARC; 1513 back to Spanish with Chávez declaring that FARC and ELN should be considered legitimate armed forces, not terrorists; playing the hostage release for all it`s worth. Over co-channel which Aoki shows could be either BBC Arabic via Rampisham, or KCBS North Korea -- - but does not list RNV which has been there for months as originally reported in DXLD! EiBi has all of the above, but shows RNV as English during the first semihour, while that continues to be only sporadic and unpredictable. RNV, 11680 via Cuba, Jan 22 at 1506 tune-in again with heavily- accented English segment, over constant bed of drumming, about US financing of AUC in Colombia, US` double standard about terrorism, unemployment rate 6.2%, lowest since 1991. Segment called ``Informative Short News`` in typically poor translation to English, Spanish ID and I thought it was over, but resumed English at 1509 with ``Belligerence, the Only Way to Peace``, Chávez speaking and voice- over translation about FARC and ELN not being terrorist organizations, and must give up kidnapping. This was identical to what I heard the day before at about the same time; they`re getting as bad as RHC in harping on the same subjects ad nauseam, but what else would you expect? English ended at 1518. Way over the co-channel QRM (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZANZIBAR. 11735, Radio Tanzania-Zanzibar, 1802-1838, Jan 21, mostly African music and singing, brief reciting from the Qur'an, fair-poor. As other have commented on, their Spice FM news in English at 1800 is still sporadic (Ron Howard, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Dear sirs, could you by any chance help me identifying this station : 4755 kHz 10th December 2007, 0801-fade out at UT 0857 church bells, instrumental music, religious programming THE CROSS tells me they were not broadcasting in December 2007; what could this be? Much grateful for your help. Best regards, fredrik.norgrenn @ ge.com Oslo 4, Norway, member of SSA Sweden DX LISTENING DIGEST) It seems the only other possibility is R. Imaculada Conceição, Campo Grande, Brasil. It is certainly religious, but it would help if you could confirm what you heard was in Portuguese. 73, (Glenn Hauser to Fredrik, via DXLD) Sincere thanks for your reply. What I heard was in English, but since The Cross say they were not broadcasting in December 2007 I cannot figure it out. I logged from my cottage north of Lillehammer in the mountains were there is no electricity for miles around; here in Oslo shortwave listening is not good due to lots of electrical noise. I wish you a PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR. Many thanks for your reply hoping you can solve my "PROBLEM" BEST REGARDS (Fredrik, ibid.) Any ideas? (gh) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Hi Glenn, Hopefully this small amount will help you to continue your excellent activities. Thanks from the entire radio community for all the hard work and dedication over many years. Regards, (Phil Erickson, with a contribution via PayPal to woradio at yahoo.com) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ ER TING BA FANG Glenn - from a native Mandarin speaking co-worker, Er Ting Ba Fang means roughly 'listening in eight directions". It has the connotation of having an open mind, besides the more obvious (perhaps) application to radio listening. Cheers, (David Norcross, HI, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ANKER PETERSEN COMPARES 2008 PWBR, SWFG, WRTH http://www.dswci.org/specials/bookreviews/200801handbooks.pdf Best 73 (Rolf Wernli, DSWCI webmaster, DX LISTENING DIGESET) SE HABLA ESPAÑOL Huge list of DX websites, many of which are not in Spanish: http://home.tele2.it/MCDXT/SeHablaEspanol.html (via Juan Franco Crespo, Spain, Noticiasdx yg via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ RECEIVER NEWS: KWZ 50 PRICE Basic Price KWZ 50 4.307,80 Euro Option Spectrum-Display 886,55 Euro Option External Reference Frequency 235,62 Euro Prices are with Tax. For more details see http://kd-elektronik.com/index_e.html (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, USA, Jan 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) $50,000.00 - 103 INCH HDTV FOR THE SUPER BOWL See a video of perhaps the largest electronics store in the world where you might buy such a TV: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2zupb_yodobashi-akiba-the-largest-electro_tech If you watch carefully, you'll see one TV with price tag of US$60,000+. To convert Japanese Yen prices in video to approximate US$, just drop last two digits. The store is in Akihabara, Tokyo. Total of about 250,000+ sq. ft. of floor space on 9 floors. To put that in perspective, this is over 5 times the size of the largest Best Buy stores in the U.S. Each floor is dedicated to one specialty, such as video. There are no floors for ham radio; I will check next time for SWL receivers; they've gotta be there. But you need to go into training to look through the whole store. There are over 650,000 items for sale (Murray Lycan, 7J1AQH, ABDX via DXLD) CELLPHONECASTING Here is the future of broadcasting --- I've been yacking about "cellphonecasting" for a few years, and it's becoming real: http://www.hear2.com/2008/01/flytunes---radi.html If you're in broadcasting and you're not planning now for an IP-based future, you're ignoring that tidal wave on the horizon --- the one heading right for where you are (Harry Helms, W5HLH, Smithville, TX EL19, ABDX via DXLD) I agree that this may be the future, but --- How does local broadcasting fit into the picture? Can broadcasters make enough money to deliver a good product? Why even bother with broadcasting because people will have the opportunity to tailor-make what they want to listen to? So much so that the audience will be so small that it is no longer broadcasting. If people listen to their portable listening devices with their own selection of music, broadcasting [has] little place in the future (Bill Harms, ibid.) "Local" could be the biggest selling point for AM/FM broadcasters interesting in making a successful transition. If your broadcasting model is just serving as a terrestrial relay of satellite-fed programming like Rush, Dr. Laura, Sean Hannity, etc., you'll be SOOL in the new IP-based world. But a focus on local news and content could be what sets you apart from the rest of the world's broadcasters --- and in a wireless broadband world, the world's broadcasters will literally be your competition, not what can be received on your local AM/FM dial. As an example, the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper is leveraging its newsgathering capability to create a unique "station": http://signonradio.sosd.com/ Pretty soon all you will need to have your own "station" will be a PC, some software, and a broadband connection. For talented people willing to bet on themselves, this will be a godsend (Harry Helms W5HLH, ibid.) The point of my whole argument is that truly the only thing that terrestrial broadcasters can offer than IP-casting can't is local radio. The question is "is there going to be a need for local broadcasting?" Who will listen to it? (Bill Harms, ibid.) Huh?? There is absolutely nothing that prevents IP-based "radio" from being local --- absolutely nothing. The SD Union Tribune "station" I cited is a prime example. It's the content that determines whether a station is local, not the transmission mode. "Local" could definitely include music. I think there's a huge need for places where new artists can emerge and get exposure. We need to return to a time when a 19-year old aspiring singer named Elvis Presley could convince a DJ named Dewey Philips at Memphis station WHBQ to play a song he recorded called "That's All Right Mama." Remember back in the 1960s when Billboard magazine had a section titled "regional breakouts," featuring new records that were getting listener response in different sections of the country? We could be heading back to those days. ``The question is "is there going to be a need for local broadcasting?" Who will listen to it?`` That's for the audience to decide. Various regional alternative newspapers have shown there is an audience for local news and features not covered in mainstream newspapers, and I'd bet the same would be true for "radio" programming. However, it will require some creative thinking about programming, and there's the rub. There are a lot of exciting things on the horizon in broadcasting and a lot of opportunities for those willing to seize them. It's going to be an exciting time for the bold, and a very disquieting time for the easily spooked (Harry Helms W5HLH, ibid.) Live [rejecting voicetracking - except for graveyard shift] and local [complete with storefront studios] have propelled CHTN-FM [Ocean 100] and its sister CKQK [K-Rock] way to the top of the BBMs here in PEI. The competition [MBS Radio's CFCY-FM, CHLQ [Magic 93] and CJRW-FM [Spud FM] are left in the dust. All three MBS stations use a lot of voicetracking, have stale telephone weather lines, etc. MBS Radio's Hal FM [CHNS-FM] has horrible BBMs, in fact they are significantly lower than the former CHNS-AM Oldies 96. Imagine, a 10 kW AM station flips to 100 kW FM, flips format to a "consultant" recommended one, and the ratings plummet. I don't think the good folks in Canada's smallest big city hate classic rock. I think they hate voicetracking and the stupid, corny saying the computer dishes out between the tunes. For terrestrial radio to thrive, it has to do what radio does best - immediate, live, local. And every time there is a storm, people here are glued to the radio that delivers that - CBC M-F 6 am to 9 am and 4 pm to 6 pm, and Ocean 100 and K-Rock 18/7. Make that 24/7 for Ocean 100: they actually bring in a live DJ for midnight to 6 am when a storm is forecast. That's broadcasting in the public interest. It`s also just darn smart!!! (Phil Rafuse, PEI, ibid.) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: AUSTRALIA; BELARUS; ECUADOR; GUIANA FRENCH; ++++++++++++++++++++ KURDISTAN WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH DIGITAL TELEVISION? VCRs? You know, the one thing about the digital transition that I never see mentioned, is all of those old VCRs out there with analog-only tuners? My mom can easily watch DTV on her 3 TVs with a digital converter box, and I'm sure it will work fine. But her VCR that she uses to record her soap operas every day will become a big pain, since she'll have to pre-tune the converter to the channel she needs to record, and leave it there. No more changing channels automatically, to record the CBS soaps & then the ABC soaps. Now she will have to record one channel in the bedroom and another in the den. This will probably force her to either buy a new VCR or a Tivo, but the government isn't going to help her pay for that (Brian Leyton, Valley Village CA, Jan 21, ABDX via DXLD) see also USA: KREX MUSEA +++++ RADIO PENNANTS OF THE WORLD Multimedia CD in English with color reproduxions of 2800 radio pennants from 102 countries, with dimensions and year issued; each one can be enlarged. A few samples are at http://www.addx.org/pennants The CD can be ordered for US$45 or 30 Euro, postpaid. For more details contact schmidandy @ aol.com (Play-DX 1392, Jan 7 via DXLD) RADIO PHILATELY +++++++++++++++ USA 2008 RADIO RELATED ISSUE – JOHN BARDEEN Dear friends: On March 6th, 2008, USA will issue one stamp dedicated to JOHN BARDEEN. On July 1st, 1948, John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain invented the bipolar junction transistor (BJT). So, this year we are commemorating the 60th anniversary of the invention of the transistor. We find BJTs in almost all modern electronic equipment. In radio receivers, for example, BJTs act as amplifiers and oscillators. Have fun. FABIO FLOSI (via Horacio Nigro in radiostamps yg, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ The geomagnetic field was unsettled to active on 14 January with minor to major storm periods detected at high latitudes. Activity decreased to quiet to unsettled levels at mid latitudes during the remainder of the period. However, active to minor storm periods were detected at high latitudes during 15 - 19 January. A brief major storm period was also detected at high latitudes on 19 January. ACE solar wind observations indicated a recurrent coronal hole high-speed stream was in progress during the period. Solar wind velocities were variable throughout the period with a range of 533 - 763 km/sec. IMF Bz was also variable throughout the period in the + 6 nT range. IMF Bt readings were elevated during the period with a peak of 8.0 nT observed at 14/0406 UTC. FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 23 JAN - 18 FEB 2008 Solar activity is expected to be very low. No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to reach high levels during 23 - 27 January and 03 - 18 February. The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet during 23 - 31 January. Activity is expected to increase to unsettled to active levels on 01 - 02 February due to the onset of a recurrent coronal hole high-speed stream. Quiet to unsettled conditions are expected during 03 - 04 February as the high-speed stream gradually subsides. Quiet conditions are expected during 05 - 08 February. Activity is expected to increase to unsettled to active levels during 09 - 10 February due to another recurrent coronal hole high-speed stream. Quiet to unsettled conditions are expected during 11 - 13 February as coronal hole effects subside. Activity is expected to decrease to quiet levels during the rest of the period. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2008 Jan 22 1923 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center # Product description and SWPC contact on the Web # http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wwire.html # # 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table # Issued 2008 Jan 22 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2008 Jan 23 70 5 2 2008 Jan 24 70 5 2 2008 Jan 25 75 5 2 2008 Jan 26 75 5 2 2008 Jan 27 75 5 2 2008 Jan 28 80 5 2 2008 Jan 29 80 5 2 2008 Jan 30 80 5 2 2008 Jan 31 80 5 2 2008 Feb 01 80 15 4 2008 Feb 02 80 12 4 2008 Feb 03 80 10 3 2008 Feb 04 75 10 3 2008 Feb 05 75 5 2 2008 Feb 06 75 5 2 2008 Feb 07 75 5 2 2008 Feb 08 75 5 2 2008 Feb 09 75 15 4 2008 Feb 10 75 15 4 2008 Feb 11 75 10 3 2008 Feb 12 75 10 3 2008 Feb 13 75 8 3 2008 Feb 14 70 5 2 2008 Feb 15 70 5 2 2008 Feb 16 70 5 2 2008 Feb 17 70 5 2 2008 Feb 18 70 5 2 (SWPC via WORLD OF RADIO 1392, DXLD) ###