DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-021, February 17, 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 2008 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn NEXT SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1395 Mon 0400 WBCQ 9330-CLSB [irregular] Mon 0515 WBCQ 7415 [time varies] Tue 1200 WRMI 9955 Tue 1630 WRMI 7385 Wed 1230 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 ** ALASKA. KNLS op 6915 kHz, vanaf 1750 UT met holy songs mix. languages, s/off 1758, fair signal and audio. No ID, this is not the WYFR !! see WRTH 2008. Gr[eetings] (Maurits van Driessche, Belgium, Feb 17, BDX via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. QSL: CVC. Date: - 15-12-2007. Frequency: - 15270 kHz (Cox Peninsula Transmitter Site Via Darwin NT Australia, 20 kW, 4*4 Curtain Array). Time: 1000-1030 UT. Language: - English. Description: - CVC, All About Real Life! (Mukesh Kumar, Bihar, Feb 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Typo at some point, or admittedly QRP? Supposed to be 250 kW! (gh, DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. 2485, VL8K Katherine NT 1040 to 1045 noted with orchestral music and very strong signal while the other two Northern Territory frequencies were at threshold level 14 February; same 15 February (Robert Wilkner - Pompano Beach, South Florida, US, Feb 16, HCDX via DXLD) ** BANGLADESH. Just read our friends Barbour, Wilkner and Schiefelbein postings on recent DXLD 8-020 and so I can witness what I heard this local Sat. 16 morning, 1230Z, was in fact the strong Bangladesh Betar 7250 hum transmission that resembles that one from Radio Damascus. Before 1230 there was heavy splatter from adjacent 7255 VOA Indonesian playing country music. Hard to copy anything with that terrible hum, just a brief ID by woman at 1230 and nothing more. 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica. Sony ICF7600GR + T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7250, Bangladesh Betar, *1230-1259*, Feb 17, sign on with IS. Opening English ID announcements at 1230. Short bit of local music & into English news. 10 seconds of local music at 1237 and more news. Local music at 1243-1259. Abrupt sign off. Back at *1313 with IS & into listed Nepali programming at 1315. Surprisingly strong signal but hum and low, muffled audio made reception difficult & hard to understand. Occasional HAM QRM also (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELARUS [non]. CHANGES LIKELY IN POLISH BROADCASTS TO BELARUS Poland is the major funder of two stations broadcasting into Belarus. But the country faces the ire of other donors and governments after its failure to assist in broadening the reach of an international project also based within its borders: the European Radio for Belarus (ERB). The previous Polish government was more interested in supporting the two other projects, but there are signs that the new government, which is more internationalist, pro-Euro-Atlantic, and conciliatory than its predecessor, sees the value of compromise and the need to share the bulk of their initiatives’ funding with others. There is already talk of cutting the budgets of Radio Racja and BelSat by half. Transitions Online believes that the three current services could be merged into one. Unfortunately, although the article was accessible free of charge earlier today, it now requires a subscription, which costs US$44 (February 17th, 2008 - 12:04 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** BENIN. 1566 kHz: Despite generally unfavorable propagation conditions, I managed to copy the ID "...TWR dot org.." by a male voice in English. According to the TWR schedule, that was the end of an English program. It was 0459 UT and the signal was barely audible to fair changing rapidly. I had best results with the 88 degrees wire. This is my first catch of this one (Sylvain Naud, Portneuf, Quebec, CANADA, ICOM ICR75 with LF mods, 228 meters (750 feet) terminated beverage towards Africa (88 degrees), Feb 16, mwdx yg via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. Re 8-020: 4451.20 kHz, which may prove to be Radio Santa Ana, Santa Ana de Yacuma, per Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec. Heard at 2330 to 2345 with OM and list of numbers, not frequencies or dates, possibly telephone numbers on 11 Feb., noted from 1010 on the 13 with fair signal, 1050 on the 14th. The 4650.2 R S A de Y frequency has not been heard in several weeks. The 4451.20 signal *is significantly stronger* than the signal I was hearing on 4650.2 in January. 5967.80, Radio Nacional, Huanuni has not heard for over two weeks (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Flórida, Feb 17, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4716.7, R. Yura (tentative), 1047-1056 13 Feb. Weak but clear with tele-chat in Spanish, passing reference to some event "en Yura", and then possibly into Quechua (Dan Sheedy, CA R75/EF102040, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Pessoal, Hoje a partir das 00:00hs termina o horário de verão. Então não esqueçam de voltar uma hora os vossos relógios. Um abraço (Marcelo Bedene, Curitiba-PR-Brasil, Feb 17, dxclubepr yg via DXLD) So back to UT -3 in most of the country, especially coastal areas; UT -4 or -5 in extreme west (gh, DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Re-8020, Rádio Cultura na frequência da Globo em 9585 kHz - -- O delay acontece porque a transmissão em ondas curtas sai direto da emissora através de link de UHF. Nas ondas médias o áudio está saindo da emissora, viajando até o satélite que, por sua vez envia para o TX de ondas médias. Essa "viagem" provoca o tal delay. Ou seja, o áudio em condas curtas vai chegar primeiro que o de ondas médias. 73 (Luiz Chaine Neto, Limeira -sp-, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Delay satelital = 0.3 segundos, não 8... 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** CANADA. Hello, have we already realized in full that the shortwave relay of RCI plus (delayed by five minutes, presumably due to whatever conditions of the CBC's contract with Sirius) is a domestic service and not meant for listeners in the USA at all? I just went through RCI's current operational schedule, and here the target for 7310/9610/6100/9755 is specified as CIRAF zone 4, i.e. the western part of Quebec plus the eastern part of Ontario. So the situation is indeed such as I already suspected in late 2006, when RCI's shortwave transmissions to the USA were replaced by these RCI plus outlets in a night-and-fog-operation (as German saying goes): They are meant for the Montreál/Toronto area, by full intention and without any attempts being made to hide it. Quite remarkable (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [non]. Rod Hembree via WBCQ 9330, as I tuned by, UT Feb 17, 2008 at 0003 with weather warning for southern Ontario, dated Sunday June 3 around 8:30 pm --- very, very useful, now. Checking the perpetual calendar, Sunday June 3 could have been as recently as 2007! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHAD. 4904.97, RNT, 2131-2132*, Feb 16, Just caught end of transmission signing off with National Anthem. Good. 4904.97, RNT, *0430-0445, Feb 17, sign on with National Anthem. French opening announcements. Local tribal music. Afro-pop music. Fair (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4905, Radio Ndjamena, CHAD. 02-17 0430 French, sign-on with national anthem, frequencies, African pop music. 44433. Went off abruptly at 0445. 73 (Kai Willner, Munich, Germany, Lowe HF-150, Wellbrook ALA1530 active magnetic loop, used indoors, HCDX via DXLD) ** CHILE. SINTONIA INTERNACIONAL de Daniel Bustos --- Bienvenidos al programa "Sintonía Internacional", que se emite a través de Radio Imperio 99.9 FM, en Nueva Imperial, Chile. http://www.radioimperio.com/ desde las 20:00 a 20:30 hora local (0000 a 0030 UT domingo). Es un programa realizado por Daniel Bustos Aravena para los amantes del diexismo. Sintonía Internacional nos trae información relacionada con el mundo de las comunicaciones y la escucha de emisoras de radio, complementado con bellas canciones y pinceladas culturales de este maravilloso país que es Chile. Si desea ponerse en contacto con el programa lo puede hacer en: E-MAIL: darabuar @ yahoo.es o darabuar @ radioimperio.com CORREO POSTAL: Daniel Bustos Aravena Casilla Postal 102 Nueva Imperial, Chile Si por alguna circunstancia no pudo escuchar el programa a través de la emisora, lo puede hacer desde su página en Programa DX: http://es.geocities.com/programas_dx/sintoniaint.htm También está disponible cualquier día y a cualquier hora en la página principal de Programa DX: http://es.geocities.com/programasdx/ Cordiales 73 (José Bueno, Córdoba, España, Feb 17, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 7195, XPBS, Urumqi, 0132-1046 16 Feb. Caught tail-end of ID "khalk radio stanshi..", mostly yak in Uighur (listed), with occasional instrumental background music, one more ID at 0137, // 6120, 4980 (Dan Sheedy, CA R75/EF102040, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 7375, CNR-2/China Business Radio, 1215-1230, Feb 17, local pop music. Chinese talk. Quick English ID at 1223. Fair signal. Weaker on // 6065, 6155, 7130, 7245, 7315, 9810, 9820 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. Xi Wang Zhi Sheng Radio - I have heard this Taiwanese station in several odd frequencies. Most recently I heard them on 9000 kHz (parallel with 13970 kHz), around 1130 UT (sign off at 1200) broadcasting only songs (typical Chinese folkloric songs). Does anyone know more information about it? Address? Does it verify with QSL's? Thanks a lot (Marcelo Toníolo, Auckland, New Zealand, JRC NRD 545 DSP + Longwire Antenna, Yaesu FRG-7, DXer since 1978 http://www.dxnz.co.nz Feb 17, dxing.info via DXLD) Hi Marcelo. I guess you mean the Falun Gong related program, widely referred as Sound of Hope in English. These programs are jammed by continuous crash and bang music, we call Firedrake, by Mainland. The jammers usually have couple of minutes "monitoring break" at the TOH and then Sound of Hope can be heard more easily. Uses many out of the band frequencies. By googling "sound of hope" you'll find many hits. (Jari Savolainen, Finland, ibid.) And that explains the Firedrake reported recently on 9000; that may be all he was hearing, not SOH itself (gh, DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. 6010 kHz - Radio La Voz de Tu Conciencia desde Puerto Lleras, Meta, Colombia (5 kW) captada el sabado 16/02/2008 de 0030 a 0038 UT con un programa DX en español (nombre desconocido) conducido por Rafael Rodríguez desde Bogotá, donde mencionaron a Henrik Klemetz. Colocaron grabaciones de la desaparecida Radio Sutatenza de Bogotá y hablaron de la historia de esta emisora. También leyeron cartas de los oyentes con sus informes de recepción. Mencionaron que el programa se emite cada 15 días y se que se emite por Marfil Stereo 5910 (1 kW). Confirma con QSL, aunque no escuché ese mismo programa en paralelo en este mismo horario. SINPO 54344. Ambas emisoras pertenecen al mismo circuito "Alcaraván Radio" en esa misma localidad (Santiago San Gil González, Telefono +58 0424-5098620, Club Diexistas de la Amistad, Barinas, Estado Barinas, Venezuela americaenantena @ yahoo.com UT Feb 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also PUBLICATIONS. Since this was sent after 0038 UT Sunday Feb 17, I`m not sure whether the DX program was heard local Friday night or Saturday night. And so what are all the exact times for it on 5910 and 6010, Rafael? (gh, DXLD) Hadn`t heard much on 6010 lately, but Feb 16 at 0733, YL English ID as ``The Voice of Your Conscience``, then guitar music, dominating frequency, SAH maybe from XEOI under; but at 0741 HJDH to open carrier audiblizing weak music station under, presumably Radio Mil (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. 5954, ELCOR transmitter test, checked Sat Feb 16 at 2315 with nondescript music amid heavy QRM; recheck at 2335, no carrier detectable (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Item five: At the request via e-mail of several DXers Unlimited listeners here is once again, what really happens every time when I arrive at RHC Studio 6, and my sound engineer of many years now, José Costa Pupo, sets the audio frequency equalizer according to my own optimized frequency response curve. The shape of the curve is optimized specifically for my voice, so you won´t hear audio below 250 cycles per second, or above 3000 cycles per second. And sure, it does sound much better under difficult propagation conditions. Pepe, as we all here call Costa Pupo, also boosts the frequency range from 500 to 1500 kiloHertz by 6 dB over our reference, to further boost the talk power of RHC transmitters when DXers Unlimited is on the air. So what you actually hear is just your´s truly optimization of the audio frequency response to achieve the best possible reception of voice signals via short wave (Arnie Coro, CO2KK, RHC DXers Unlimited Feb 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DUCIE ISLAND. 1828-LSB, VP6DX, 1113 13 Feb. DXpedition making 160M quite a busy band; also heard on 75/40/20/17M at various times (Dan Sheedy, CA R75/EF102040, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. 11790-11795-11800 DRM, HCJB, 2352, 2/16/08. 4 kW stereo DRM broadcast in Portuguese to Brazil, just enough signal to decode station ID and broadcast data, but no audio (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. 11960, HCJB, La Voz de los Andes, 1145-1201, 16-02. Programa "Galápagos", que se emite todos los sábados a esta hora. "Galápagos, las últimas islas encantadas, maravilla viviente de la creación de Dios a las que HCJB dedica este programa". Hoy comentario sobre protección ambiental de las islas y delitos ambientales en el Parque Nacional de Galápagos, contaminación. "Laguna El Junco, en la Isla de San Cristóbal", desaparición de especies que viven en esa Isla. "En el próximo programa, nuevos e inquietantes problemas sobre este privilegiado lugar del planeta". A las 1200 fin del programa e identificación: "Seis horas, ésta es HCJB, La Voz de los Andes". 33333 (Manuel Méndez, escucha realizada en casco urbano de Lugo, Spain, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Antena de cable, 10 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ?? TC for 6 am must also have been for Our Columbus Archipelago, as it`s 7 am in continental Ecuador (gh, DXLD) ** EGYPT. Glenn: At 2256 UT on Saturday, Feb.16,2008, I noted test tones on 9465. At 2300, national anthem and "This Is Radio Cairo, broadcasting from The Arab republic of Egypt". The announcer had a nice feminine voice! After the program sked, music selection was heard after the news. By 2312 UT, another announcement was heard. Signal was fair to good at my QTH, 54434 Sinpo (Noble West, TN, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I was listening to same a bit later at 2320 Feb 16, last part of news by YL, which I assumed did not start until usual 2315. It was fairly intelligible, but modulation not up to par; went into feature program at 2325, which was much less intelligible, so moved on (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EL SALVADOR. Re 8-020, An old mystery: Log of Radio El Salvador International --- Thank you very much, Humberto (and your English is very much better than my Spanish!). It was also my impression at the time that this program originated from the studios of Radio Nacional in San Salvador, but I was unable to find any other information about the broadcast until now. The "radio wars" in El Salvador were part of a fascinating time in shortwave history. If you (or anyone else for that matter) can find any more information about this short-lived broadcast, I would appreciate hearing about it! (Larry Cunningham, Feb 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) As a matter of interest, since I was assistant editor of WRTH at the time, and since I didn't remember anything about it, I did a Google search on "Radio El Salvador International" and "Radio El Salvador Internacional" and came up with precisely zilch. I also don't remember any Media Network coverage of it, but I could be wrong. So it does indeed look like something worth researching further (Andy Sennitt, ibid.) Rings a bell with me; something might be found in printed RIBs of the era, or my published DX columns (gh, DXLD) Interesante trabajo sobre la historia de la radio en El Salvador: http://comu.uprh.edu/redrica/Los%20medios%20en%20El%20Salvador/La%20radio%20en%20el%20Salvador.pdf (José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 69 pages pdf, including lengthy chronology. Stops at 1999 tho published in 2005. But nothing when searched for ``Salvador Internacional``. R. Venceremos, Farabundo Martí get only brief mentions. How about R. Imperial, the station which was active a few years ago on 17835v? Zilch. See i.a., DXLDs 6-071, 6-029, 6-018, 5-186, 5-058, 3- 041, 3-031 (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Quizás se refiera a: 1020, 10 kW R. Internacional (YSCA) - San Salvador SV 73 JM (José Miguel Romero, Spaion, ibid.) Doubt it (gh) Following all this thread, and the absence of RIES as an official short wave broadcaster in any records, why not to think our friend Larry was that lucky guy who recorded this short lived tests transmissions that the Salvadorian AMer aborted for some unknown reason. The issue here is to ask Humberto to get in contact with that local Cuscatleca station to have word from them. 73. (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, ibid.) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 6250, Radio Nacional-Malabo, *0505-0520, Feb 16, sign on with quick 10 second announcement & into 2 minute National Anthem. Lively music at 0507. Spanish announcements with Radio Malabo ID at 0518. Afro-pop music. Fair to good (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6250, Radio Nacional-Malabo, *0536-0645 Feb 17, sign on with ballad & into Afro-pop music. Spanish talk. Euro-pop & rap music. Weak at tune- in but improved to a fair level by 0615 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6250, Radio Malabo, 02-17 0540 Spanish, Afro-pop music, song "ella no me quiere más". Time signal at 0600. 33433. 73 (Kai Willner, Munich, Germany, Lowe HF-150, Wellbrook ALA1530 active magnetic loop, used indoors, HCDX via DXLD) 6250, Guinea Ecuatorial, RN Guinea Ecuatorial, Malabo, 02/17, SS, 0604-0614 male "igualdad entre naciones y razas... el gobierno de Sudán ha condenado... delegación del GNE participa en Congo con la primera dama del 6º [sic] Conferencia de las Primeras Damas del África... integración del GNE... evento de la Cruz Roja, concierto musical religioso y torneo del fútbol entre las parroquias presbiterianas... colegas, feliz domingo!..." Very good, 44444 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil (23 33 S, 46 51 W), Sony ICF SW40, dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EUROPE. PIRATE. (Spain), Catalonia, 6311.15, Radio Barretina relaying Radio L'Arboç, 0635-0655, Feb 16, Tentative with ballads, pop music. Too weak to catch an ID (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GABON. 7270, Radio Gabon, *0759-0815, Feb 16, sign on with local music. French talk at 0800. ID. Poor. Weak (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. 177 kHz being switched to DRM mode during daytime for on- site demonstrations by Transradio: This was scheduled for Feb 15 only. The break for AM service 1000-1030 was of course meant for the sea weather forecasts, aired after the 1000 news (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Zehlendorf ** GUATEMALA. 4799.78, Radio Buenas Nuevas, 0345-0435*, Feb 16, local music. Spanish talk. Closing announcements with IDs at 0433, 0434. Fair level but weak CODAR QRM & slight het from presumed Mexico 4800 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4799.828, Radio Buenas Nuevas, 0040 to 0100 ID and R B N with nothing on 4800. 13 February (Robert Wilkner - Pompano Beach, South Florida, US, Feb 16, HCDX via DXLD) ** HAWAII. See KOREA NORTH [non] ** INDIA. Visit to AIR Soro - By Jose Jacob --- Dear Friends, Recently I visited AIR Soro in Balasore Dist, Orissa about 170 kms north of Bhubaneswar. All India Radio, Soro is technically ready since 2001-02 for commissioning but could not be commissioned for want of adequate manpower. The article can be accessed using this link. http://alokeshgupta.googlepages.com/SORO.pdf (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS National Institute of Amateur Radio Raj Bhavan Road Hyderabad 500082, India, via Alokesh Gupta, dx_india yg via DXLD) ** INDIA. BES REVIEW - SPECIAL ISSUE ON 80 YEARS OF BROADCASTING IN INDIA BES Review Jul - Dec 2007 --- The July-December issue is dedicated to '80 years of Broadcasting in India'. Articles by some of the veterans in the field of Broadcasting narrate the history of eighty years of broadcasting in India. Some of the articles from this issue include : 80 Years of Broadcasting in India - R.K. Sinha Planning of Broadcast Services in India in Earlier Days - Dr. C.S.R. Rao How Colour Television came to India - M.Y. Thote Acoustics Research in All India Radio - N.K. Trivedi & Deepak Mehrotra Evolution of various techniques for PAPR reduction in OFDM - K. Kannan & P. Rajeshwari IPTV - Wilson Francis P International Workshop on New Media Platform National Public Service Broadcasting Day Digital Cinema Revolution Workshop on HDTV BES Review Jul - Dec 2007 is available for free download from this link: http://www.besindia.com/Juldec2007.pdf BES Review is a quarterly publication containing articles on latest development in the field of broadcasting and related science. The journal is provided free to members of BES. Others can obtain a copy of the journal at a subsidized rate of Rs 50/per copy or Rs 150 for four copies published in a year. The request for BES Reviews should be sent to the Executive officer Broadcast Engineering Society (India). Broadcast Engineering Society (India) 912, Surya Kiran Building, 19, K.G. Marg, New Delhi-110001 Tel. : + 91-11- 43520895, 43520896 Fax : + 91-11- 43520897 E-mail : bes @ besindia.com (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, Feb 17, DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 4920, RRI Biak, 1356, 2/18/08. Poor signal but western pop ballad so presumed to be Biak. Faded before TOH. First ever reception here (Jerry Strawman - Des Moines, IA AOR AR7030 - Perseus SDR - 70' Inverted L - 330s Loop, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 9680, RRI-Jakarta, 1007-1028 13 Feb. KGRE mixing with (and eventually dominating) WYFR, hosts (unID guy and Maggie) presenting information on the CAC program, 2-week old report from Kupang by Augie of "KGRE-Indonesia", a couple of Aussie pop songs sprinkled through the program, closing at 1020, then partial RRI ID and Indonesian pop music (Dan Sheedy, CA R75/EF102040, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 11785.87v, V of Indonesia was off air on Feb 9th and 10th totally. But appeared again today Feb 11th in Korean on HIGH side of 11785 mess, smooth Indonesian "south sea" like music, ID in Korean at 1326 UT. Switch your receiver on USB mode and you'll overcome the co- channel mess. 0800-1500 UT. Increased condition from East Asia noted also this morning Yamata on 12000 kHz was powerhouse here at 0900 UT too. 1500-1503:40 UT Indonesian National Anthem, buzzy transmitter off at 1504:28 UT. 11785.86 from 1600 to 2100 UT. Noted 1 kHz down today Feb 12th, 11784.86 at 0800-1503 UT. But now at 1635 UT a lousy tiny signal on approx. 11784.87 kHz (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Feb 11/12 via DXLD) Re previous report: ``VOI active again, and no doubt temporarily, on 9526, Feb 16 at 1402 with Korean hour running late, brief English announcement that Korean had ended and Indonesian was starting; that also ran late with music until 1504, minute of deadair to 1505*. Not back on at 1530 check when they used to start the gamelan IS and ID 6- minute loop`` Date was wrong above: Feb 15! Sure `nuff, gone again on Feb 16 around 1440 check (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) On Feb 15th and 16th at 1600-2100 UT only on single 11784.86..87 kHz, nothing noted on 9525.98 anymore. ID today at 1755 UT "La Voz de Indonesia" in Sp. 73 (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL. SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES: NEW ARAB SATELLITE BROADCASTING RESTRICTIONS WILL AFFECT INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING "Arab governments adopted on Tuesday a satellite broadcasting charter which will entrench state control over broadcasts and curtail political expression. The document, which echoes the language found in press laws used by some Arab countries to prosecute journalists critical of their governments, was endorsed at a meeting of Arab information ministers in Cairo. . . http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=3344 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) The charter seems to be aimed mainly at the free-wheeling talk shows featured on some of the pan-Arab channels. But even in Alhurra and the future BBC Arabic news programs, soundbites of opposition leaders will be included, perhaps subjecting these stations to banishment. It requires only one technician at Arabsat to push one button, and one technician at Nilesat to do the same, and Alhurra, BBC Arabic TV, France 24 Arabic, Russia Today Arabic, etc., will be deprived of most of their audiences. Arab audiences wanting unfettered news could perhaps turn their satellite dishes towards Eutelsat. More conveniently, they could take their shortwave radios out of the closet. Alhurra could put its audio track on shortwave transmitters as an expedient. But the BBG has closed the the IBB shortwave relay in Greece, and is about to close the relay in Morocco. This will leave U.S. international broadcasting hard pressed to remain a factor in the Arab world. (Kim Andrew Elliott, Posted: 15 Feb 2008, ibid.) see also QATAR ** IRAN. 6067.45, IRIB Teheran in Arabic noted again off frequency today [Sat 16th] at 2320 UT. Scheduled 6065 at 1630-0530 UT via Sirjan site, 500 kW 295 degrees (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Feb 16, harmonics yg via DXLD) ** ISRAEL [and non]. Galei Zahal in Hebrew on 6970 kHz (new freq or drifting?) at 1630 with advts such as for "Vitamin "P". Radio REQA in Russian at 1550 UT on MW 1575 with "Let It Be" by the Beatles. In their Internet schedule is different order of the program languages. On 9390 kHz Voice of Israel 1600-1625 UT Sun-Thu in Farsi, Fri&Sat only carrier and from 1625 to 1725 UT daily in Ru \\ MW 1575 kHz, all observed Feb 1-6. Reported on Feb 6 on MW 1575 whistle maybe from the Iranian jammer here vs Radio Farda in Farsi and radio REQA also in Farsi ( \\ 9390, 9985, 7420 kHz) - it was heard at 1510 UT (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, Feb 9, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Feb 15 via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. "Korean Cultural Programming" via KWHR? The World Harvest Radio website calls the program on KWHR 9930 at 1300 Monday-Friday simply “Korean Cultural Programming”. Aoki lists it as Radio Free North Korea, while the February 4 WRTH update lists both Radio Free North Korea and Open Radio for North Korea for that time and frequency. 1300 is still a little too early for good KWHR reception at my location so, despite listening several times, I haven’t been able to catch an ID. Does anyone know which program it is now? The Korean program previously listed for 1100 was replaced by a program in English some time ago (Wendel Craighead, Prairie Village, Kansas, USA, Feb 15, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** KOREA SOUTH [non]. Re 8-020: Yesterday KBS Seoul announced that from March 1st they will have a halfhour programme in German at 1730 UT via Radio Luxemburg on 1440 kHz (Alexander Schulz-Luckenbach, Germany, Feb 17, HCDX via DXLD) ** MADAGASCAR. Audio file of RTV Malagasy, 5010, of announcer with eloquent talks at 01/28, 2237 UT here: http://geocities.yahoo.com.br/eefibra/r.tv.malagasy.t.t5010khz2237utc280108.mp3 179 kbt, 45 seconds. 73's (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil (23 33 S, 46 51 W), Sony ICF SW40, dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR. 5010, Radio Madagasikara, 2140-0200+, Feb 16-17, variety of Afro-pop, local pop music. Many different styles of music. Malagasy talk. Possible religious program at 2303. Suppressed carrier USB. Weak at tune-in but improved to a good level by 2200. On all night again. (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 11884.8, VOM, *0956-1003, 1028-1040, 1225-1232* 13 Feb. Chimes IS, multi-language IDs, "This is the Voice of Malaysia, Suara Malaysia", 1+1 pips and national anthem at TOH, then Bahasa Malaysia or Indonesian language programming; recheck at 1028 brought multi- language IDs, one pip and "warta berita" with world news items (Australia, Pakistan, USA), orchestral bridge and more IDs at 1037 into English pops. Final check at 1225 had NA, IDs, 1 pip and "warta berita" beginning until abruptly off at 1232. Signal very good to excellent, but audio somewhat distorted. WRTH has Chinese scheduled here *1000-1230*, and Indonesian *1000-1400* on 6175/9750 (neither audible here), new schedule or just a temporary change? (Dan Sheedy, CA R75/EF102040, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALI. 9635, RTM-Bamako (presumed) 0804-0910 tuneout 13 Feb. Long discussion in French/vernacular with several references to Bamako, kalimba bridge at 0814, brief "Radio Bamako" (more a passing reference than an ID) at 0828, more yak and a couple of very enjoyable local music selections with kalimba/drums/horns/vocals, past 0856 mostly vernacular yak with gongs/guitar/droning vocals to tune-out. Signal fair to very good (Dan Sheedy, CA R75/EF102040, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. Received this from Jef Jaisun: Apparently there's a new X- bander on 1700 in San Diego, CA. I picked them up several mornings ago on SRS in Manzanillo, mixing with KVNS. ID's as "The new talk of San Diego -- double X." Don't know if it's a spin-off of XX-1090, which also IDs as San Diego (even though it's in Mexico). Also, some Unid'd station that morning on 1610, playing wall to wall Irish music --- Enya-esque vocals and instrumentals that sounded like a sound track to Lord of the Rings or similar. Listened from 6:50 to 7:10 AM CST [1250-1310 UT], no breaks or IDs. Looped NW from Southern Jalisco (via Ydun Ritz, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) This is not new at all. XEPE 1700, licensed to Tecate BCN, has been on for years, tho formats change from time to time. The 1610 is more intriguing, presumably not XEUACH, which would be more like ESE, and not believed to operate in the mornings. ?? Enya is Icelandic, not Irish (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** MEXICO [and non]. RAMBLING THROUGH HISTORY! BY Mal Fuller Readers know that I find the history of radio (and by extension television) fascinating, and lucky for me, a good many readers do as well. Just how many articles I’ve written under this general topic, I couldn’t say. But no previous articles have had much to do with the actual radio stations of the past. But several stations of the 1930s had an impact on history that far outweighed the impact of most stations. If you were a radio listener during the late 1930s, the chances are very good that you listened to one or more of the stations we’ll learn about today. Our story begins with a medical doctor by the name of John Brinkley, who was from North Carolina and who began his medical practice in Milford, Kansas in 1915. By 1918, the imaginative doctor began to offer a procedure that he claimed would restore male virility and fertility. In this respect he was way ahead of today’s drug companies in recognizing a nearly insatiable market! In his procedure he would implant “goat glands” in his male patients. (You guess which goat glands and guess also where he implanted these glands!) Of course renewed virility had a price, $750.00 to be exact! For those who lacked the needed $750.00, Dr. Brinkley offered a large assortment of nostrums, tonics and elixirs that would also help restore his victim’s worn out libido it was claimed! He promoted his goods and services through newspaper advertising and responded by direct mail to any inquiries his ads generated. On a trip to Los Angeles the doctor toured radio station KHJ. Radio impressed the doctor as a media that would reach a good many more potential goat gland recipients! The doctor had bilked a sufficient number of impotent males by 1923 to provide enough funds for the doctor to build his very own radio station. The station’s call letters were KFKB, which the doctor explained stood for Kansas first, Kansas best! The station mixed local talent with medical lectures by the doctor. Listeners could write KFKB with their medical questions. The doctor would read them on the air and suggest treatments. He cleverly (and crookedly) organized local pharmacies and prescribed cures by an assigned number known only (of course) to the pharmacies he was in cahoots with! Profits from the sale of these coded “prescriptions” were shared with the doctor by the participating shysters. This activity came to the attention and displeasure of Dr. Morris Fishbein of the American Medical Association. Fishbein took action to call Dr. Brinkley’s activities to the attention of the Kansas State Medical Board, which revoked Dr. Brinkley’s license to practice medicine. He also got the Federal Radio Commission (forerunner of the FCC) to refuse Dr. Brinkley KFKB’s license renewal when it came up. The Doctor fought this action to no avail. He also ran, on several occasions as a write in candidate for governor of Kansas all to no avail. With no Kansas medical license he moved his medical practice to the Roswell Hotel in Del Rio, Texas. His move to Del Rio was part of a larger scheme, as you’ve likely guessed. The doctor applied to the Mexican Government for a radio station license for a transmitter in nearby Villa Acuña, Coahuila (now Ciudad Acuña.) He was granted a license for station XER and a 75,000-watt transmitter. (US transmitters were limited to 50,000 watts.) He resumed his radio practice, often using phone lines from Kansas or from the Roswell Hotel in Del Rio, Texas to avoid going to the station in Mexico. His radio signal could be easily heard in Kansas as well as points much farther away. Such stations, especially those to follow became known as “Border Blasters!” We now leave the doctor to bide his time while we travel north to Cincinnati, Ohio. Powell Crosley Jr, a Cincinnati industrialist, owned radio station WLW in that city. With the help of money, politicians and RCA, Powell lobbied to make WLW what he described as a “Superstation”. That there was no such thing didn’t bother Powell a whit. What he envisioned was a 500,000 (1/2 million) watt radio station. RCA built the transmitter and assigned it serial number 1 (one). On April 17, 1934 the (by then) Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted Crosley Broadcasting a permit to transmit with 500,000 watts at WLW. These transmissions it deemed experimental. The permit for this high power was good for only 6 months, after which application to continue had to be submitted again. The FCC renewed these permits until March 1, 1939, when they denied any additional high power permits to C Crosley. While other stations had applied, no other radio station was ever authorized by the FCC to exceed 50,000 watts. Do you suppose there was a link between goat glands and the Commission’s denial? During the time that WLW transmitted at 500,000 watts it could be heard all over the continent, especially at night. The station commanded big money for advertising. World famous musicians and celebrities were drawn to the “magic” of WLW, whose power was especially well suited for furthering their fame. Back in Mexico, Dr. Brinkley learned of WLW’s success. During this same period, the Mexican Government had been denied what seems to me to have been a reasonable request that they had made of the FCC. Mexico reasoned that since they had to share the airwaves with the United States that the FCC should set aside a reasonable number of clear (unassigned) AM channels for the Mexican Government to assign to their licensees. The FCC refused. Dr. Brinkley wanted, from Mexico, a license to broadcast with 500,000 watts. This likely became the inspiration for mega-powered border stations that were authorized by the Mexican Government in the future. After all, nothing makes a “clear channel” quite like 500,000 watts or more! I think the Mexican “border blaster” war and the interference and competition it provided to US stations was behind the 1938 FCC decision to curtail any thought of super power stations in the US. Dr. Brinkley’s next station XERA, transmitted with 500,000 watts! XERA blanketed the US, Canada and even went over the North Pole to Russia! There its signal was used by NKVD (later the KGB) as a tool to teach the English language to their agents! Other American businessmen were quick to license border blasters of their own and the number of such stations blossomed. Like WLW in Cincinnati, XERA attracted celebrities from all over. Nothing ever became so popular on XERA as did the Carter Family. They were a trio of husband, wife and wife’s sister who sang country music. A. P. Carter, his wife Sara and his sister-in-law Maybelle sang their way to popularity, largely over the airwaves of XERA during the late 1930s. Their voices and harmonies were, to say the least, infectious. The Carter Family received mail by the thousands from “all over” although there is no record of their having gotten any mail from fans in Russia! Some future names and voices in the country music business were listening to XERA back then. In Columbus, Georgia, 14-year old Chet Atkins was listening on his radio. Maybelle Carter hired Chet years later to join the Carters. In Dyess, Arkansas a young Johnny Cash was tuned in to XERA! It’s unlikely that Johnny could foresee that many years later he would marry Maybelle’s daughter June, who had just begun singing with the Carter Family on XERA. She was eleven years old then. XERA inspired station XERF that went on the air with 1 million watts. Its one of a kind transmitter last carried the voice of Wolfeman Jack into the Los Angeles area during the 1950s. Border blasters were doomed in the postwar period, however. Mexico and the United States had settled the “radio wars.” And, this insured no further demand for those that made these mega-powered transmitters. Border blasters faded for lack of technical support. As for Dr. Brinkley, he did his part to ruin any prospects for such high-powered stations. Before the bombing of Pearl Harbor Dr. Brinkley became a sympathizer of Nazi Germany and provided air time to Nazi sympathizers such as Gerald Winrod, Fritz Kuhn and William Dudley Pelley. An irked US Government sought and obtained Mexico’s cooperation in shutting Brinkley down. Mexico took charge of Brinkley’s station. The FCC finally gave Mexico the set of clear channel station frequencies that Mexico had requested many years earlier. Mexico slowly phased out the Border Blasters, with XERF and the voice of Wolfman Jack being the final signal from such a huge transmitter. The rest of Dr. Brinkley’s life crumbled around him also. He sued Dr. Fishbein for libel. His suit failed. He was sued for malpractice by a number of his former patients. The IRS placed him under investigation and the United States Postal Service had him indicted for mail fraud! In January 1941 he declared bankruptcy. He suffered several heart attacks before succumbing to heart failure on May 26, 1942. It was the first time in years that goats everywhere were able to get a good night’s sleep! Somewhere far off in outer space the voices of the Carter Family, messages of goat glands, the voice of Wolfman Jack and countless others are just now arriving. Yes, even a radio signal may forever be Rambling Through History! Note: The author, Mal Fuller, is now available to provide the electrical restoration of your vintage tube-type radio. Mal’s phone number is (603) 569-1946. Mal’s E-mail address is radiodoc @ localnet.com (Mal Fuller via Artie Bigley, DXLD) Artie and I think the max power of XERF was `only` 250 kW, not 1000 or even 500 kW. Anyone have any proof one way or the other? The NKVD angle also sounds apocryphal --- maybe possible, but why bother when they could pick up e.g. the BBC much more easily on MW, not to mention everything in English on SW? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** MOLDOVA. Problem with 1494 kHz MW goes on Feb 5th, observed at 1850 UT a program in Moldovian on 873 (dominated here in Sofia over local radio Stara Zagora) \\ 1494 and \\ 1477 (Mr. S. Oleyinik from MDA gives 1477.78 kHz) and rumbling in range 1473-1479 and 1466-1469 with demodulated sound on approx. 1468 kHz (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, Feb 9, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Feb 15 via DXLD) ** MONGOLIA [non]. RUSSIA/MONGOLIA: On Feb, the 6th just after the program "DX Club" of radio Voice of Russia, Worldwide Service in Russian from 1349 to 1358 UT was relayed a program of radio Voice of Mongolia in Russian with IS, ID and ending with the address: P. O. Box 365, Ulaanbaatar 13, Mongolia. Heard on 6170, 7260, 9800, 11630, 12025, 15150, MWs 936, 999, 1431, 1548 (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, Feb 9, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Feb 15 via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. 7380, Feb 16 at 2325 Indonesian talk over constant bed of music from the 20s or 30s; thought I briefly heard a hint of the RNW IS, but program continued past 2330, music having changed at 2332 to ``Winter wonderland``. This is via Madagascar, and I suppose the Indonesians must be longing for snowy Holland (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. 3935, R. Reading Service, Levin, 02/16, EE, 0753 Andean music without flute, 0756 male talks, 0757 instrumental lite music, 0800 time pips, male talks, canned anmts, 0805 pop music sung in opera style. Stronger than usual, short pieces readable; 23232 (Lucio Otavio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil, (23 33 S, 46 51 W) Sony ICF SW40 dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKINAWA. 648-AM TO RETURN TO AIR: Consolidated Public Affairs Office [original separate radio country; now JAPAN] http://www.okinawa.usmc.mil/Index.html CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa (February 15, 2008) -- American Forces Network's Surf 648-AM will be back on the air Feb. 18 after being off the air for about a year. The AM station will restore news, talk and sports-talk programming to the AFN airwaves on Okinawa and will offer an alternative to FM radio's music-based format. The new AM program lineup will feature popular programming such as National Public Radio, political talk shows and sports shows, such as Sports Overnight America, according to Master Sgt. Grady Fontana, AFN Okinawa detachment chief. "The biggest benefit is that listeners now have more options," Fontana said. "If they want music, they can tune into Wave 89-FM. If they want news and talk, then they can catch it on Surf 648-AM." AFN's new AM antenna is in the final stages of testing, and, pending any delays due to bad weather, will launch Feb. 18 at 6 a.m. with NPR. The AM antenna, located at Camp Kinser, was damaged during routine maintenance in January 2007. For full AM and FM schedules, log on to http://myafn.net and follow the links to affiliates. Select radio and Japan from the drop-down menu. From there, select Kadena, Okinawa (via Sei-ichi Hasegawa, Japan, dxldyg via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3290, Radio Central, Boroko, 1130 instrumental music, 1131 om in language, slow vocal duet om and yl till 1134, 1136 back to om briefly, 1140 to 1145 one song, 1145 Island music, 1152 back to om, 1159 orchestral music then lost signal. 14 February. Other 90 meter band PNGs present. This was by far the strongest (Robert Wilkner - Pompano Beach, Florida, US, Feb 16, HCDX via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3315, R Manus, 1313, 2/16/08, Vernacular. Typical island pop tunes with a male announcer between. Seemed to be // to 3205. Nice clear signal. Fair. 3205, R West Sepik, 1235, 2/16/08, Vernacular.Island/reggae music with male and female announcers between tunes, song by a chorus, national anthem, then after a few moments of dead air at 1301 the tunes resumed (perhaps picking up a relay of the national network). Fair with lightning QRN. I noticed that various sources label this station either R West Sepik or R Sandaun. Which is it, I wonder? (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I think each of these stations has a Pidgin `nickname` but WRTH no longer shows them (Glenn Hauser, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn & Mark, The call sign is "Maus Bilong Sandaun" http://www.nbc.com.pg/tunein.htm Also note that Alan Davies shows Kundu Network / Radio Sandaun, "Maus Bilong Sandaun" on 585 kHz, http://www.asiawaves.net/mediumwave-531.htm (Ron Howard, CA, ibid.) Viz., from the NBC site: Short Wave Stations LOCATION FREQUENCY (MHz) CALL SIGN LANGUAGE [all specified as Nighttime except 9675] Port Moresby 4890 Voice Of Papua New Guinea 9675 (Daytime) English/Tok Pisin/Motu Lae 3220 Maus Bilong Kundu English/Tok Pisin Rabaul 3385 Maus Bilong Tavuvur English/Tok Pisin/Kuanua Kimbe 3905 Singaut Bilong Tavur English/Tok Pisin Kavieng 3235 Singaut Bilong Drongo English/Tok Pisin Lorengau 3315 Maus Bilong Chauka English/Tok Pisin Buka 3325 Maus Bilong Sankamap English/Tok Pisin Kundiawa 3355 Karai Bilong Mumbu English/Tok Pisin Mendi 3275 [none shown] English/Tok Pisin Vanimo 3205 Maus Bilong Sandaun English/Tok Pisin Wewak 3335 Maus Bilong Sepik English/Tok Pisin Madang 3260 Maus Bilong Garamut English/Tok Pisin Popondetta 3345 Voice Of The People Of Oro English/Tok Pisin Alotau 3365 Voice Of Kula English/Tok Pisin Kerema 3245 Voice Of The Seagull English/Tok Pisin/Motu Daru 3305 Voice Of The Sunset English/Tok Pisin/Motu (via gh, DXLD) We can figure out what Sandaun and Sankamap mean, but how about the others? (gh) The ID of the broadcast is "Maus bilog Sundaun" [sic]. http://www.geocities.jp/ha93bcl/RadioWestSepik-3205kHz.mp3 de Y. Hasebe (S. Hasegawa, NDXC-HQ, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Quite a strong signal from Radio Light on 7325 kHz today with a relay of the News from NBC Port Moresby, 0900-0910 UT. However there was an annoying Firedrake racket on 7330 kHz causing some grief. After the NBC News, there was an announcement saying that there would be no local voices on the station for two weeks beginning (I think) on 18 February. The reason is the station is moving studio premises and automation is being used while the move takes place. Also Radio New Ireland was good on 3905 kHz when I checked at 0915 UT (Barry Hartley, NZ, Feb 17, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews via DXLD) ** PERU. 3172.7v, Radio Municipal, Panao - 11 February noted at 0920; Off the air 2300 on the 11th and 12 February. At 0930 tune in, om with"...escuchando... Radio Municipal..." ID, with stronger than usual signal on 14 February. Heard 1030 and 2353 on 15 February. [Wilkner-FL] 5005.9, Radio LTC Juliaca: Reject my previous tentative log of this, per Dan Sheedy "makes me wonder about Nepal off-freq". I would agree as no reports of the OA station in quite a while. Thanks, Dan! Best of 73s de Bob (Robert Wilkner - Pompano Beach, South Florida, US, Feb 16, HCDX via DXLD) ** PERU. Tropical Peru List --- Corrections and additions to this list are solicited! ¡Las correcciones y las adiciones a esta lista se solicitan! As correções e as adições a esta lista são dadas boas-vindas! Perú is best logged at this QTH from 0900 to 1130 and 2300 to 0300 3172.5v, Radio Municipal, Panao 3234.9, Radio Luz y Sonido, Huánuco 3329.53, Ondas del Huallaga, Huánuco 3375.1, XXX R San Antonio Papua de Callalli [Only Brazil being heard here] 4484., Radio Frecuencia VH, Celendin 4746.94, Radio Huanta 2000 Huanta Ayacucho 4774.9, Radio Tarma, Tarma 4790.1, Radio Visión, Chiclayo 4824.49, La Voz de la Selva, Iquitos 4826.45, Radio Sicuani, Sicuani 4835.6, Radio Marañón, Jaen 4857.39, Radio La Hora, Cusco 4887, Radio Virgen del Carmen, Huancavelica 4950, Radio Madre de Dios, Puerto Maldonado 4955, Radio Cultural Amauta, Huanta 4974.82, Radio del Pacífico, Lima 4990.67, Radio Manantial, Huancayo 5014.5, Radio Altura Cerro de Pasco, Irregular - heard 1100 and 0100 5039.21, Radio Libertad Junin 1000 to 1130; not heard here 2300-0200 5120.4v, Ondas del Suroriente, Quillabamba 5460.1, Radio Bolívar, Cd. Bolívar 5470.80, Radio San Nicolás, San Nicolás, Rodríguez de Mendoza, Amaz. 5486.7, Radio Reyna de la Selva, Chachapoyas 1040-1055 (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, South Flórida, US, NRD 535D, 746 Pro, 90 meter band dipole, Feb 17, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** POLAND. See BELARUS [non] ** QATAR. ARAB MEDIA CODE ‘RISK TO FREEDOM’ - Al Jazeera Al Jazeera has said a code adopted by Arab states to govern satellite broadcasting could shackle freedom of expression. Arab information ministers meeting on Tuesday in Cairo endorsed the charter, which allows host countries to annul or suspend the licence of any broadcaster found in violation of the rules it sets. The Cairo document stipulates that satellite channels “should not damage social harmony, national unity, public order or traditional values”. It says that programming should also “conform with the religious and ethical values of Arab society and take account of its family structure”. Wadah Khanfar, Director-General of Al Jazeera, said in a statement issued today: “Any code of ethics or governance for journalistic practices should emerge, and be governed, from within the profession and not be imposed externally by political institutions. Al Jazeera considers the adoption of the charter … a risk to the freedom of expression in the Arab world.” (Source: Al Jazeera) More on this: http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/arab-media-code-risk-to-freedom-al-jazeera (February 15th, 2008 - 14:59 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) See also INTERNATIONAL ** SAUDI ARABIA. Some odd BSKSA channels noted before 0900 UT on Feb 11. BSKSA 1st program on 17729.98 and 17740.00 at 0845 UT. French at 0850 UT on 17785.03 kHz. HQ service on 21494.99 and annoying BUZZY unit on 11935 kHz at 0853 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Feb 15 via DXLD) Today Feb 12 I could confirm ARS 11855v kHz already on at 0555 UT, but maybe they start a bit early. Yesterday 11785[11784.92] kHz signed on at 0945 (Mauno Ritola, FInland, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Feb 15 via DXLD) ** SINGAPORE. 6150, Mediacorp Radio, 1514-1602, 16-02, canciones en inglés, múltiples identificaciones: "93.8 Live". A las 1530 "93.8 Live headline news". Noticias por locutora, noticias de Singapore y del mundo. Más canciones. A las 1600 nueva identificación: "You are listening to Mediacorp Radio, Singapore". Interferencia de Radio Austria en 6155 kHz. 32332 (Manuel Méndez, escucha realizada en casco urbano de Lugo, Spain, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Antena de cable, 10 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 5019.93, SIBC, Honiara 1100 to 1120 UT hearing what I believe to be the SIBC with local Cuba on 5025 jamming up the signal. 11 & 12 Feb (Robert Wilkner, FL, Feb 13, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Feb 15 via DXLD) Hi Wolfgang, I have just checked today at 0900 UT and they are there with a fair signal with local music and announcements in Pidgin. There was annoying sideband splash from Cuba +5 kHz (Barry Hartley, NZ, Feb 17, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews via DXLD) On 5019.88 Feb 10, per 8-019 (gh) ** SOUTH AMERICA. Re 8-020: 6307, Radio Cochiguaz, 2300-2310, February 17, Spanish, Andean and other songs & music, many identifications in Spanish and English: "Radio Cochiguaz", 24332 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. The reception location is in historic Cornwall, Ontario with a fast moving Grundig 800 using the whip and a fifteen foot indoor long wire. Feb. 17, 2008 0024 GMT, 6055.0 kHz, 9-20 signal strength, fading in and out. Show is Radio Waves from Madrid. Radio Shows. Hey Mr. DJ., Mr. Radio. QSL offer, "Join us next week. Keep the TV off and the radio on." Followed by another show called 'From Soup to Nuts' at 0035 and 'Lights Camera Action', a repeat from Wednesday about Spanish movies and actors (Roy Berger, Cornwall, Ont. hey, see my article in Feb. Issue of Monitoring Times? page 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SURINAME. Interesting audio file of R. Apintie at 02/10, 0820 UT, male announcing ID here: http://geocities.yahoo.com.br/eefibra/r.apintie4990khz0820utc110208b.mp3 short 134 kbt, 34 seconds. 73's (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil (23 33 S, 46 51 W), Sony ICF SW40, dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TIBET. CHINA/TIBET. 4820, Xizang PBS, 2355, 2/14/08, Mandarin. A string of promos/commercials, including one that sounded like it was voiced by a child, then ID amid dramatic theme at 0000 and into a presumed newscast with M/F presenters and correspondent reports. Poor at tune-in, building to fair under CODAR and a bit of adjacent-channel SSB (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. Just found the answer re BBC Albanian while reviewing my own writings: It had been taken off shortwave effective March 4 *2007*. Serbian is gone from shortwave since May 1 2005, Romanian and Macedonian were already off shortwave in 2005 it seems. Also found that it's hardly appropriate to voice sentiments for 9410 and 12095, since 9410 backlobe from Cyprus 0300-0700 will presumably still be quite present in Central Europe while 12095 will be still on air for the Middle East from an UK site 1500-1700. On the info page about this a footnote re. DRM has now been added. Their explanations that this is a pilot project, not part of their regular service, is quite remarkable, since the BBC presentation on the DRM press conference at IFA 2005 really provided a different spin. And this info page itself appears to be a template they reuse every time they do the next cuts to their shortwave transmissions, the blahblah about this change being made in line with listener trends etc. is always the same at least since 2005 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. BBC World Service from Vermont --- Glenn, (In case you haven't heard about this from anyone else.) Just wrapping up a short visit to Montreal and am noticing that Vermont Public Radio is operating two parallel services on FM. One is mostly NPR and BBC spoken word, with jazz on weekday evenings; the other is classical. The result for Montreal/southern Quebec listeners is that BBC World Service is available on 107.9 FM during the following time slots: - Daily 0000 to 0600 (ET) - Sa-Su 0600 to 0700 - Mo-Fr 0900 to 1000 - Su-Fr 2200 to 2359 [check out Ricky`s terrific photo galleries:] http://www.zooomr.com/photos/rleong101/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/rleong101/ http://mediajct.homeip.net/railpix/ I could lie down in the grass of the wide open prairie Stare up at the stars, fall asleep to a coyote cry [Tagline] 73, (Ricky Leong, visiting Montreal, Feb 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. Classic FM schedule changes --- Glenn, Thought this might interest you as they have a new Full Works series and a 100 part history of classical music feature: http://www.classicfm.co.uk/Article.asp?id=582656&spid= If their streaming is geolocked try this site: http://www.radiofeeds.co.uk (Mike Barraclough, UK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: New Programme Schedule A host of new stars will be joining the Classic FM programming line-up this month to bring you a fresh and exciting new sounding Classic FM. New Stars on Classic FM Laurence Llewelyn Bowen, Margherita Taylor and Alex James will be joining the programming line-up and for the first time in Classic FM’s 15-year history, we are also introducing a daily jazz show. Sunday mornings herald the arrival of Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, who makes his radio presenting debut with The Sunday Spa. Starting at 9am, the programme will provide the perfect soundtrack to Sunday mornings, with two-hours of laid-back classics. After impressing with his debut on the station last year, Blur bassist Alex James returns to Classic FM for a major new 100-part series, The A-Z of Classical Music, broadcast every Sunday from 11am, the series provides the definitive guide to classical music and Margherita Taylor joins Classic FM to present the all-new Smooth Classics At Six every evening between 6pm and 9pm. The newly-extended show features three- hours of relaxing classics for the ultimate wind-down zone. Classic FM Jazz, presented by Helen Mayhew Monday to Fridays and Tim Lihoreau on Saturday and Sundays, will be broadcast every day between midnight and 2am. A new jazz channel will also be introduced to myclassicfm.com, alongside the six current exclusive classical music channels. New Weekday Programmes The new weekday schedule sees Nick Bailey, the first voice heard on Classic FM when it launched in 1992, return to Early Mornings, to present the 2am-6am programme. From 6am, Jane Jones presents Classic FM Brighter Breakfast followed at 8am by Simon Bates’s Morning Show. From noon, Jamie Crick presents The Classic FM Most Wanted, the daily chart voted for by visitors to classicfm.com then between 1pm and 3pm, Jamie throws open the doors of the Classic FM music library for Classic FM Requests. Afternoons with Mark Forrest starts at the earlier time of 3pm and includes the daily Children’s Requests feature at 3.45pm. Every weekday evening from 9pm, Classic FM underlines its commitment to playing classical pieces in their entirety, with a brand new concert programme The Full Works, presented by John Brunning. New Weekend Schedule Our brand new weekend schedule launches on Saturday 29 March when former G4 member Matt Stiff joins the presenter line-up at 2am, followed at 4am by Nicola Bonn. From 7am on Saturday and Sunday mornings, Myleene Klass presents the Weekend Breakfast show. From 9am on Saturday mornings, Mark Forrest counts down the latest classical releases in the Classic FM Chart Show, followed at noon by Classic FM Requests with Jamie Crick. At 3pm on Saturday afternoons, Katie Derham presents the all-new Full Works Hall of Fame, with two hours of complete works from the Classic FM Hall of Fame. The New CD Show with David Mellor follows at 5pm, before Smooth Classics At Six with Margherita Taylor. Lesley Garrett showcases some of the great operatic recordings in The Opera Show on Saturday evenings at 9pm. Between 10pm and midnight, Natalie Wheen presents a brand-new weekend edition of the nightly The Full Works Concert programme. On Sundays, David Mellor begins his weekly musical journey of discovery with If You Like That, You’ll Like This at the new start time of 1pm, while the two-hour arts magazine show The Guest List with Anne-Marie Minhall moves to 3pm. Classic FM At The Movies with Simon Bates moves to Sunday afternoons at 5pm, followed at 6pm by Smooth Classics At Six with Margherita Taylor. Sunday evenings continue at 9pm with the six-part preview show The Classical Brits Are Coming with Anne-Marie Minhall. At 10pm, Natalie Wheen wraps up the weekend with The Full Works. The new weekday schedule launches on Monday, February 25 and the new weekend schedule launches on Saturday, March 29. Keep checking the website for more news and details about our new presenters and programmes. View the Schedule in Full > http://www.classicfm.co.uk/Article.asp?id=582656&page=2 (via DXLD) ** U K. BRITAIN'S BIGGEST COMMERCIAL BROADCASTER AXES DIGITAL SAYING FM IS JUST AS GOOD --- Daily Mail 11 February 2008 http://www.dailymail.co.uk:80/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=513683&in_page_id=1770 GCap Media are dropping their digital radio stations after finding the medium 'economically unviable'. The UK's largest commercial radio broadcaster, GCap Media, has axed its two digital radio stations after admitting the medium had not matched up to expectations. Planet Rock and theJazz will close as GCap today said it will focus on its FM brands - including Classic FM and Capital 95.8 - instead. Chief executive Fru Hazlitt labelled digital radio as "economically unviable" and also announced plans to sell its stake in national digital radio platform Digital One. GCap has lost patience after spending £8million in the last financial year on digital radio, which accounts for 9 per cent of all radio listeners. The company has 15 million FM listeners and Ms Hazlitt said: "FM is the backbone of the radio industry and we believe it compares favourably to any of the digital platforms currently available to the consumer in terms of quality. It is also the source of the majority of our revenue." She added: "If digital is going to be viable on a local and regional level, it will have to be on a much lower cost platform." Despite GCap's exit from the market, BBC Radio and the 4 Digital consortium - which has been chosen to operate the second national digital broadcasting platform - confirmed their commitment to digital radio in the UK and are looking at ways of encouraging quicker consumer take-up. But GCap's closures come as part of a strategic view by the former Virgin Radio boss aimed at reviving the business. The group is currently at the centre of takeover speculation after rejecting a £313million takeover approach from Global Radio, an acquisition vehicle headed by former ITV chief executive Charles Allen. GCap plans to concentrate on its Xfm brand in London, and is in talks to sell its three loss-making regional Xfm stations in Scotland, Wales and Manchester. It will also boost advertising at its flagship Capital 95.8 station by reversing its previous policy of broadcasting no more than two adverts in a row. GCap said it was changing its stance to satisfy demand from advertisers, although the company added that Capital's adverts would not exceed the industry average of nine minutes an hour. The policy will add £3.6million to profits by March 2010, with the disposal of the Xfm regional stations - and closure of Planet Rock and theJazz - also increasing profits by £1.5million. The firm is also currently consulting with staff over redundancies among the group's 1,500 employees in further cost-cutting measures, although a spokeswoman refused to comment on how many jobs could go. The group said its plans would deliver annual cost savings of £8.8million a year, and increase annual profits by more than £12million. Analysts welcomed the overhaul but were uncertain whether the review would be enough to fight off Global Radio, which has until March 5 to signal its intentions towards the group (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) DAB has a poor reception Digital radios are selling well but the industry has failed to turn a profit on the millions that have been poured into new stations. Is DAB the Betamax of radio or the sound of the future, asks John PlunkettIt was supposed to be the saviour of commercial radio, but Digital Audio Broadcasting, or DAB, has created a schism instead. Its opponents think it is an overly expensive technology already overtaken by the web - the Betamax of radio. Its followers, many of whom bought new DAB radios at Christmas, think it will be the cornerstone of digital radio for a generation. Who is right? Although consumers love their new radios, there seems little doubt that the millions invested in DAB have so far failed to pay off. But there is disagreement over whether this is simply a timing issue (it's too soon to tell); an issue of content (there's nothing good to listen to); or a technology issue (why bother when you can download stuff from the web?). When the first commercial digital radio licence was awarded 10 years ago, it promised to give commercial operators a level playing field with the BBC, with bountiful spectrum in which to launch new stations in crystal clear digital sound. But radio companies are counting the cost of millions of pounds of investment with little in the way of returns. Now they have begun to take action. Two national digital radio stations, GCap Media's Core and UBC Media's Oneword, closed at the end of last year. Other radio groups, including Virgin Radio and Global Radio, have also begun to scale back their investment. A further digital retreat could be sounded today when GCap Media chief executive Fru Hazlitt announces her plans for the future of the Capital and Classic FM parent, following a £313m takeover bid from Charles Allen's Global Radio. GCap's digital operations, which cost it around £15m a year and include a majority stake in national commercial digital radio operator Digital One, could be an obvious candidate for cost-cutting. On the plus side, sales of DAB radios are booming. A record 550,000 sets were sold in December alone, taking the total to nearly 6.5m. Sales by the end of this year are forecast to reach 9.1m. The problems come with media companies trying to make money out of such sales. . . . http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/feb/11/digitaltvradio.radio (via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) Andy Sennitt comments: This is further evidence that the bubble appears to have burst for DAB in the UK. Although DAB has been relatively successful compared to other European countries, its popularity has not increased sufficiently quickly. GCap is a major UK broadcaster, and its conclusion that FM and broadband offer the greatest growth opportunities, and that “DAB is not an economically viable platform” is bound to carry a lot of weight in the industry. One problem for the UK market is that the audio quality of DAB is sometimes not even as good as FM due to the low bitrates used. So there’s no advantage, or incentive, for people to switch from FM to DAB to listen to the same stations that are already available on FM. The incentive up to now has been greater choice. If that choice is going to be reduced, the rate of DAB takeup will slow further. Having less stations crammed into the available bandwidth would, in theory, permit the remaining stations to increase their bitrate and provide better audio quality, but whether the commercial DAB stations will take this option remains to be seen, as that costs money. Clearly 2008 is going to be an eventful year for DAB in the UK (Media Network blog via DXLD) Unbelievable - two of my favourites closing - Planet Rock and The Jazz. Marks & Spencer are currently selling 'The Jazz' branded Pure One radios. We must have both quality rock and jazz programming on DAB. I hope that some other broadcaster will provide replacements. This sounds like a disaster for listeners. What is DAB going to evolve into (Richard Smith, BDXC 1952, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) If 'Gold' and similar go from DAB, this then will look disastrous. Here on Merseyside we do need DAB for Magic Liverpool especially, as MW is pretty poor in Audio Response, DAB provides the Stereo Signal, on its own for this station, I would think the BBC (DAB) Multiplex Looks safer, at least in the Short to Medium Term (Ken Fletcher, ibid.) It's important to remember to distinguish the three types of DAB mulitplex: one national BBC, exclusively used by the BBC - no threat to this that I'm aware of. Currently one national commercial - from which Gcap is now withdrawing. The second national multiplex starts later in the year, and there's no suggestion this will be cancelled. Finally, numerous regional/local multiplexes which carry different services in their respective areas, including the "Gold" branded stations as a quasi-national service (Mark Savage, moderator, ibid.) On Gold the GCap statement says: AM is fast becoming obsolete for music radio given the low quality of its transmission and we do not believe that the next generation will want to tune into AM-quality radio. GCap Media has a network of 25 Gold stations which are also broadcast online, on DAB and on digital television. Our AM transmission contracts run until between 2012 and 2016 depending on the individual licences, which is why immediate exit from AM is not an option for GCap Media. We will be lobbying vociferously for AM switch off. We have decided to scale back our investment in Gold to a level that will allow us to sustain an on-air product that remains attractive to our listeners, but which reflects that it is broadcast mainly on the declining AM medium. At the press conference Fru Hazlitt said: "We'd like to get out of DAB but we can't. So we've sold our stake in Digital One to transmission masts company Arqiva, to reduce our overall transmission costs. DAB take-up is incredibly slow - consumers are voting with their feet. FM is the backbone of radio, it's good quality for the consumer and we won't be lobbying to switch if off." They have recently improved the quality of their internet streams to 128 kbps WMA and have output on most of their stations on 7 Day Listen Again. Also today they made this announcement: "GCap Media has launched an iPhone and iPod Touch interface, with the option to listen live to a number of stations - with or without wifi coverage." Their technology team says this is a world first, more at: http://www.radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.3034.3 The full GCap statement on their revised strategy is at: http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=20080211070000P9AF4 (Mike Barraclough, ibid.) Out of tune --- DAB is inferior technology, persisting only because the BBC and commercial radio have invested money in it. In every other respect, it's history . . . http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/matt_wells/2008/02/out_of_tune.html (Matt Wells, Guardian, via Kim Andrew Elliott, DXLD) plus MANY more comments Why do they need to close e.g. Planet Rock totally? Just put it on some other platform (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. If you're looking for the VOA News blog, there is no link on the voanews.com home page. Instead, on that home page, click on VOA English. Then, on the VOA English page, go down the left column. You'll find it (though I'm not sure why) under "Programs A to Z." Or, memorize the URL: voanewsblog.blogspot.com. However you get there, it's worth a look every few days. The most recent post has data on the number of visits per country. Posted: 17 Feb 2008 (Kim Andrew Elliott, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** U S A. MARK MCKINNON'S PAST AND POSSIBLE FUTURE ON THE BBG Mark McKinnon, chief media adviser of the John McCain presidential campaign, said he would "be uncomfortable being in a campaign that would be inevitably attacking Barack Obama." Fox News, 14 February 2008. McKinnon was recess appointed to the Broadcasting Board of Governors in December 2006, but is not now on the Board. He is awaiting Senate confirmation for a regular appointment to the BBG. White House press office, 7 February 2008. "In 2005, he was nominated to fill a Democratic slot on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees American broadcasting abroad including Voice of America. After protests from Democratic senators reported by The Washington Post, the nomination was withdrawn and resubmitted to fill a Republican slot." Center for Public Integrity, 26 September 2006. Posted: 15 Feb 2008 (see http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=3350 for three linx, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. Re: "I don't think VOA broadcast much rock music in the 1950s. It's possible that RFE had such a program." http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=3309 They indeed had. I was told a story from those days where a class on vacation was listening to RFE in Hungarian for music. Their teacher was of a hardcore kind, rigorously preventing them from tuning in to western stations. However, here he did not realize what was going on. It was in Hungarian, the teacher was wondering that this station was somewhat fishy but could not figure what it was and left the kids alone. Of course the owner of the set was a radio enthusiast, thus knew about RFE. The same gentleman also still remembers the VOA relays via Woofferton using shortwave as signal source, since they often sounded horrible to an extent that they were unlistenable. Have a nice Sunday, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** USA. 9955, WRMI, 2302, 02/14/08, English. World of Radio 1395 (new timeslot?), notable mainly for the occasional, tentative on-and-off jamming heard underneath, no doubt trying to silence the beacon of radio truth that is Glenn Hauser. For some reason WRMI reception is always spotty here - must be in the skip zone. Fair (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, recent addition. Trouble is, on Wed, Sat and Sun at 2300, 9955 has Cuban exile programs, so the jammers have to be on their toes to switch off other days; why bother? (Glenn Hauser, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WWRB SHORTWAVE COMMERCIAL BROADCAST POLICY Effective: 2/16/08; To: Commercial, 'Patriot', 'take back America' broadcasters': WWRB shortwave will provide airtime to Commercial broadcasters/ 'Patriot', 'take back America' programming under the following conditions: Rate: $140.00 per hour [No discounts for multiple hour purchase]. Term: 6 month 'no escape' broadcast contract 6 month Broadcast contract is to be Paid in full and in advance to WWRB's Attorneys escrow account prior to broadcast start. NO EXCEPTIONS Broadcaster is required to provide WWRB shortwave with Insurance naming WWRB as the first named Insured: Providing coverage for the broadcasters Products Good's and services, for 'acts and omissions' and Defamation and slander'. Gold dealers et. el. must provide and maintain a current and effective surety bond or its equivalent protecting WWRB and our listeners from Non performance or Fraud. WWRB Shortwave will NOT provide any credit for broadcast missed due to: Internet outages, Internet audio breakups / buffering, Broadcast Radio networks or network / programming satellite distribution operational errors or outages. Broadcasters are required to use the WWRB shortwave broadcast contract. NO VERBAL QUOTES FOR AIRTIME ARE VALID: The WWRB web site http://www.wwrb.org published RATE CARD Prevails (David L, Frantz, WWRB shortwave, Feb 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. CVC A Sua Voz, 15410 via Chile to Brasil, UT Sat Feb 16 at 2340 with truncated classical music pieces, such as Copland`s El Salón México, introduced by hard-sell announcer. Really a strange program, off-putting to the classical aficionado who knows how long these pieces are supposed to run; outroed at 2357 as ``Sem Limites`` for Sexta-feira, then QSY announcement to 11745 and off. This appears on the sked as M-F only, but has been appearing regularly on Saturdays too: so it`s a replay of the Friday program. BTW, Limites in Portuguese is stressed on second syllable, unlike Spanish Límites (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Contrary to a recent report that New York Radio was off the air, I found it going as usual, ID Feb 17 at 0640 on 6604-USB with aviation weather for places such as Atlantic City, Pittsburgh, St. Louis; and also on // 3485 checked at 0644 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. KRCL'S NEW FORMAT http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_8263551 Public Forum Letter, Article Last Updated: 02/14/2008 06:46:36 PM MST Instead of separate shows hosted by volunteers playing music they're passionate about, community radio KRCL (90.9 FM) says they're going to hire professional DJs and adopt an adult album alternative music format in hopes of gaining more listeners ("Listeners give KRCL managers an earful for cutting volunteers," Tribune, Feb. 10). I've been in Salt Lake City for eight years, and during that time two commercial stations with more marketing dollars than KRCL failed with that format. Why does KRCL's hired consultant think it will work for them now? As a professional radio DJ for the past 18 years, I admired KRCL. I'll work for whoever will pay me, but those volunteers worked because they were experts in, and had a passion for, the music they played. Instead of playing the same songs over and over again, they introduced me to music that I would otherwise have never heard. It was a great alternative to homogenized radio. KRCL was as unique to Salt Lake as Sugar House. Now, like the new Sugar House, it will be just like any other strip mall on the radio dial. Scot Singpiel Salt Lake City (Salt Lake Tribune via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) Yeah, there's been a lot of discussion and flack about this on some of the other Utah radio boards - KRCL has long been, as he said, quite unique in its format. There's a lot of people sad to see this changing. Can't be good for a station that is LISTENER-SUPPORTED. I guess we'll wait and see what happens. Will have to give 'em a listen (Michael n Wyo (60 or so miles from Salt Lake City), ibid.) ** U S A. Is WLW-AM For Sale? --- Wednesday, February 13, 2008 http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/tv/2008/02/is-wlw-am-for-sale.asp Is WLW-AM, the city's No. 1 station, for sale? That's today's bombshell. The U.S. Department of Justice today ordered Clear Channel to sell stations in Cincinnati, Houston, Las Vegas and San Francisco in order for a group of private equity investors led by Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners to proceed with purchasing a controlling interest in Clear Channel. Cincinnati and Houston are targeted because Bain and Lee Partners control a 50 percent interest in Cumulus Media Partners, which owns stations in those markets. Cumulus owns WRRM-FM (WARM98.5), WGRR-FM (103.5) and WFTK-FM (96.5 Rock). Clear Channel owns eight stations: talk stations WLW-AM (700) and WKRC-AM (550); rock stations WEBN-FM (102.7), WKFS-FM (KISS107.1), WOFX-FM (FOX92.5) and WNNF-FM (Radio 94.1); and sports talks stations WCKY-AM (1530 Homer) and WSAI-AM (ESPN 1360). The combined audience share for Clear Channel and Cumulus stations exceeds 59 percent in Cincinnati, the government said. So the divestitures were ordered so that the new owners would not have too much control over radio advertising rates here, the government said. The government did not specify which stations must be sold here. But I'm told that Clear Channel managers here told employees Tuesday that the company could consider selling off WLW-AM and KISS107.1, or the tandem of FOX92.1 and Radio94.1 (the old MIX94.1). Selling WLW-AM isn't that far-fetched. Yes, it has the biggest audience, and probably generates the most money. But with Willie, McConnell, Jim Scott and the news staff, it likely has the highest payroll. If CC wants to get this $19-billion deal done, it could dump the Big One and KISS and move on. What other properties would be more attractive? Get braced for more radio changes in Cincinnati! Which stations do you expect them to spin off? Would they sell WEBN? Which ones would benefit from a change in ownership? And how much would you bet that former WLW owner Randy Michaels could end up with his old station again? posted by John Kiesewetter at 6:03 PM (via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. Is PBS Still Necessary? --- By CHARLES McGRATH The New York Times February 17, 2008 Television FOR the eighth straight year the Bush administration has ritually proposed taking a hefty whack out of the federal subsidy for public broadcasting. The cuts would in effect slice in half the money that public television and public radio get from the government. If we follow the usual script, this means it`s time for upset listeners and viewers to rally to the cause, as they have in the past, and browbeat Congress into restoring the budget. Every year, though, it gets a little harder to muster the necessary outrage, and now and then a heretical thought presents itself: What if the glory days of public television --- the days of ``Monty Python,`` ``Upstairs Downstairs,`` ``The French Chef`` --- are past recapturing? Lately the audience for public TV has been shrinking even faster than the audience for the commercial networks. The average PBS show on prime time now scores about a 1.4 Nielsen rating, or roughly what the wrestling show ``Friday Night Smackdown`` gets. On the other side of the ledger the audience for public radio has been growing: there are more than 30 million listeners now, compared to just 2 million in 1980. ``Morning Edition`` and ``All Things Considered,`` NPR`s morning and evening news programs, are the second and fourth most listened to shows in the country. Go figure. Who would have guessed 40 years ago, when public broadcasting came into being, that the antique medium, the one supposedly on its way out, would prove to be the greater success and the one more technically nimble. You can even download NPR broadcasts onto your iPod. Radio benefits of course from being a smaller target, and from attracting fewer political enemies. In public television especially it used to be axiomatic that attacks on the budget were retaliation for perceived liberal bias. Newt Gingrich was quite upfront about punishing PBS when he began his budgetary onslaught back in 1995. By now, though, that war ought to be over. These days the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is run by Republicans, and a few years ago, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, who was then chairman of PBS, wasn`t the least bit shy about trying to arm-wrestle stations into running a program whose host was Paul Gigot, editor of The Wall Street Journal editorial page. Unless you count occasional outbursts of hand-wringing earnestness on the part of Bill Moyers or David Brancaccio on ``Now,`` it`s hard now to see anything resembling liberal excess on PBS, if there ever was such a thing. Scanning the PBS lineup, in fact, it`s hard to detect much of a bias toward anything at all, except possibly mustiness. Except for ``Antiques Roadshow,`` all the prime-time stalwarts --- ``The NewsHour,`` ``Nova,`` ``Nature,`` ``Masterpiece`` --- are into their third or fourth decade, and they look it. Every now and then a one-off like ``The War,`` Ken Burns and Lynn Novick`s World War II documentary, the most-watched PBS series in 10 years, comes along and makes a huge splash. The broadcast of the first episode was watched by some 7.3 million people, or about as many as tune in to the ``NBC Nightly News.`` But such projects are few and far between, and they`re so overwhelming and time-consuming that for many people they mostly serve as lengthy advertisements for the boxed DVD set, which you can view at your own convenience and your own pace. More typical prime-time fare --- if you watch WNET, Channel 13, in New York, anyway --- is the weekly rerun of ``Keeping Up Appearances,`` a BBC sitcom about class snobbery that was old 10 years ago. With her permed hair, dowdy clothes and fluty accent, the main character, Hyacinth, is practically a parody of a certain strain in public broadcasting: the one that puts on airs and wants to pretend to singularity. Forty years ago it really was different. There were only three networks, and none of them were known for challenging or high-minded programming. Indeed, public broadcasting came into being out of collective despair over what had become of the airwaves. Cable has changed all that. There are not only countless more channels to chose from now, but many offer the kind of stuff that in the past you could see only on public TV, and in at least some instances they do it better. The stunning (and stunningly expensive) BBC documentary ``Planet Earth,`` for example, which in the old days would have been a natural for PBS, was instead broadcast on the Discovery Channel, which could presumably better afford it. The Showtime series ``The Tudors`` is just the kind of thing --- only better produced and with more nudity - -- that used to make ``Masterpiece Theater`` (now simply ``Masterpiece``), once the flagship of PBS, so unmissable. Now it`s so strapped for cash that it has pretty much settled into an all-Jane Austen format. If you`re the sort of traditional PBS viewer who likes extended news broadcasts, say, or cooking shows, old movies and shows about animals gnawing each other on the veld, cable now offers channels devoted just to your interest. Cable is a little like the Internet in that respect: it siphons off the die-hards. Public television, meanwhile, more and more resembles everything else on TV. Since corporate sponsors were allowed to extend their ``credit`` announcements to 30 seconds, commercials in all but name have been a regular feature on public television, and that`s not to mention pledge programs, the fund- raising equivalent of water-boarding. In a needy bid for viewers, public television imitates just as much as it`s imitated, putting on pop knockoffs like ``America`s Ballroom Challenge.`` Even though a number of surveys suggest that a large segment of the viewing population still wants the best of what public television has to offer, there isn`t as much of that as there used to be, and when it is on, it often gets lost amid all the dreck. Considering how much it costs to create new topnotch programming, the best solution to public television`s woes is the one that will probably never happen: more money, not less. Here too public radio has an edge, because giving listeners what they want doesn`t cost nearly as much. NPR has benefited, moreover, from a huge bequest from the estate of Joan Kroc, widow of the longtime McDonald`s chairman, and you could argue that it has spent its money more wisely than PBS, spiffing up existing shows rather than trying to come up with new ones. Listeners complained mightily when Bob Edwards was booted as host of ``Morning Edition`` in 2004, a month before his 57th birthday, but the change invigorated the show and ratings are up. (Jim Lehrer, 73, has been with ``NewsHour`` since 1975, so long that some of his early viewers are now in assisted living.) But by far the greatest advantage of public radio is that, by not trolling after ratings, it has managed to stay distinctive: it does what nothing else on radio does and sticks to its core: news and public affairs and the oddball weekly show like ``Car Talk`` and ``A Prairie Home Companion.`` At the same time, public radio thrives, in a way that public TV does not, from internal competition: in addition to NPR, the old standby, there is the newer, hipper PRI (Public Radio International), importer of the invaluable BBC World Service news program and distributor of innovative shows like ``Studio 360 With Kurt Andersen`` and ``This American Life,`` which NPR did not fight for. Where would we be without this stuff, gathered so conveniently at the low end of the FM dial? How would we fill those otherwise empty hours when we`re held hostage in our cars? At its best public television adds a little grace note to our lives, but public radio fills a void. (NY Times via Kim Elliott, DXLD) ** U S A. 'FREE' RADIO COSTS US IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE Gary Pettus, Jackson Clarion Ledger, February 14, 2008 Certain people are threatening our traditions. They're doing so at a great cost to taxpayers - and the government is helping them. I'm talking about the hosts of hate-talk radio and the national shame of ill-mannered conversation. What shame? Commercial radio stations are required by the FCC to serve the "public interest, convenience and necessity." Here's an example of a San Francisco talk-show host, J. Paul Emerson serving the public interest: Everyone in California, he said several years ago, "who's a taxpayer and an American can be a bounty hunter, can go out there and shoot illegal immigrants who come across the border ... ." In 2006, syndicated host Glenn Beck said illegal immigrants cross the border for one of three reasons: "One, they're terrorists; two, they're escaping the law; or three, they're hungry. They can't make a living in their own dirtbag country." Then there are our local talk-show hosts. This week a couple of them hyped a rally at the State Capitol against - who else? - illegal immigrants. Convenient. Necessary. We all know the necessity of stirring up ill will toward illegal immigrants. There's not enough being done in that field today. Service with a Heil! Several examples of radio talk-show hosts "serving" the public interest are listed at http://mediamatters.org/items/200704120010 Many serve us by attacking women, African Americans, victims of Katrina, minimum-wage earners, Hispanics ... I'm running out of room. But, possibly, their favorite is illegal immigrants. Whom they despise for not playing by the rules, for getting a free ride. How ironic. True, since deregulation in the '80s, public interest has been twisted to mean "public satisfaction." If a station is successful, the reasoning goes, the public must be satisfied. And, therefore, served. After all, this is "commercial" radio. Which brings up the irony: Commercial stations got a handout. A subsidy. A free ride in the Airwaves' Welfare Cadillac. Because, you see, when the government declared 81 years ago that commercial stations should serve the "public interest, convenience and necessity," they were paid off to do so. Their reward: free licenses. They received their frequencies for nothing. Frequencies that the U.S. Supreme Court says are public property. Frequencies worth, estimates say, from several billion to half-a-trillion dollars. Some of these frequencies no more serve the public than the potholes on Ridgewood Road. Cents & insensibility --- More irony: Tune in and you'll also hear the hosts railing against public radio. They hate it when their tax money is spent on it. As of 2003, the tax-funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting spent this much per Mississippian on public broadcasting: 67 cents. On the other hand, at half-a-trillion dollars, the government, effectively, has taken $1,666.67 from each American to subsidize commercial radio. I'm not satisfied that my share went to people who whip up hostilities and joke about murder - if that guy was joking. Someone owes me $1,666. Those who hate public radio, and just about everything else, can keep the 67 cents (via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) ** UZBEKISTAN. UZBEKISTAN mostly leaves mediumwave --- Main news to report from this visit to Tashkent is that Uzbekistan has closed almost all of its mediumwave transmitters. The only MW transmitter heard is 756 (UZR4), which is a strong local signal. Nothing else is heard, including the listed Tashkent frequencies of 576, 666 and 1062, so they are definitely off. It's harder to prove for certain that sites elsewhere in the country have closed, but that seems likely too, unless someone else can confirm otherwise. LW 162 is also definitely gone. So, another country heads to being FM only (Chris Greenway, Feb 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VANUATU. There was no sign of Vanuatu on 3945 kHz at 0915 Feb 17 (Barry Hartley, NZ, Feb 17, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews via DXLD) ** VIETNAM. 12019.6, VOV, 1140-1155 13 Feb. End of the news into "VoV Letterbox": interview with Gary Newman, visiting from the UK, e-mails read from Gavin and Michael in Australia, info on Vietnamese Spring Festivals, more letters from Bangladesh, Philippines. Closed program with VoV ID and URLs for comments/information (Dan Sheedy, CA R75/EF102040, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZAMBIA. 5915, ZNBC, 0243, 2/16/08, English/vernacular. Looped interval signal to 0250 signon, opening messages, followed by lots of Afropop music and occasional announcer commentary/talk. Otherwise decent signal pestered by strong QRM from WBOH on 5920. Abruptly off at one point in mid-song, then reappeared a few minutes later. Fair/good when in the clear (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZANZIBAR. TANZANIA. 11735, Radio Tanzania-Zanzibar, 1800-1820, Feb 16, English news at 1800-1809. "Spice FM" IDs. Swahili talk at 1809. Local music at 1814. Fair (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 0200-0215 close down on 3995 kHz in unID language talking only about Pakistan weak signal (Feb 6) (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Feb 15 via DXLD) Maybe this - mis-typed 3975 / 3995: Additionally via separate mail, API-8 (Rawalpindi III or AKR as we know it) at 0045-0215 UT 3975 kHz and 1945- 2315 UT 3975 (via Noel Green, UK, ibid.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ CLUB DIEXISTAS DE LA AMISTAD, VENEZUELA Estimados Colegas Diexistas del Mundo: Reciban un cordial saludo desde Barinas, Venezuela; en nombre del Club Diexistas de la Amistad (C.DX.A - Internacional) fundado en 1976. Estamos nuevamente activos con nuestro hobby ciencia. Muy pronto tendremos disponible nuestra página web o blog, con informaciones técnicas y la digitalización de las grabaciones de nuestra fonoteca, que tiene más de 1500 cassettes que han sido grabados desde 1976, donde inclusive disponemos de grabaciones del año 1948 hasta nuestros días. Gracias por la colaboración de los colegas: Jorge García Rangel, Freddy Gamboa Rívas, José Francisco Ocaña, Leonardo Santiago, José Elías Díaz Gómez, y otros diexistas venezolanos que quieran sumarse a este esfuerzo; por animarnos a reactivar las actividades de nuestro club. Con personas como ustedes, yo haría el sacrificio de seguir adelante, después de 10 años de ausencia a pesar de estar muy activo con mi programa de radio América en Antena. Desde Venezuela... escuchando al Mundo!!! (Santiago San Gil González, Feb 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) LISTS OF TIS STATIONS I recently came across a couple of TIS station lists on the web. These are on the website for ISS, a major manufacturer of TIS radio systems. The website has a list of the company's installations at National Parks & Recreation Areas http://www.theradiosource.com/nps-stations.htm complete with callsigns and frequencies. It's worth a mention that these wouldn't show up in the FCC website, since they're federally owned facilities. There's also a list of "alert" transmitters (those intended for emergency messages) at http://www.theradiosource.com/articles-news-ears-across-america.htm - and includes a mix of US and local government facilities. Both lists are rather interesting. There are quite a few in WA & OR that I recognize either from posts on this list or that I've heard. There are also a few I didn't know existed. The website also has a bunch of interesting technical info on its products, as well as general information about TIS stations (Bruce Portzer, WA, Feb 16, IRCA via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DAB: see UK; DRM: ECUADOR; GERMANY; UK ++++++++++++++++++++ RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ DEGEN TG39 PASSIVE MW (AM) LOOP ANTENNA REVIEW AND SHOOTOUT http://www.radiointel.com/review-degentg39.htm Regards, (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ Solar activity continues to be at extremely low levels, with no sunspots seen for a very long period. Scientists are now beginning to worry about what is really happening some 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers away from Planet Earth inside our nearest star, the SUN. According to some recently advanced criteria, the present solar cycle 23 may extend well into 2008, with the upcoming cycle 24 not really showing up its first continuous sunspot active regions until next year. At the present time solar scientists are just scrutinizing the solar disc to try to find active sunspot regions that simply are not there. Item four: Low sunspots or no sunspots are supposedly the ideal condition for low frequency Dxing, and already 160 meters band operators are trying to improve their DX entities count to make the best possible use of propagation conditions on 160 meters that won´t return until at least nine or ten more years. Although operation on the 1.8 to 2.0 megaHertz amateur band requires large antennas, during the present period of very low ionospheric absorption due to the extremely low solar activities some ham radio operators are achieving amazing results on 160 using short vertical antennas and the proverbial inverted L, the most popular antenna among the 160 meters band operators around the world. Let me add that the very good propagation conditions on 160 will continue well into the end of March, and that similarly good DX conditions will be also enjoyed by 80 meter band operators. . . Just before going QRT, here is ARNIE CORO´S HF PLUS LOW BAND VHF PROPAGATION UPDATE AND FORECAST. It seems like the tail end of solar cycle 23 is going to last for at least several more weeks; the most recent forecasts call for extremely low solar activity, rock bottom solar flux near 70 units and lower, with very few sunspots to be seen for at least six more weeks. So, again for your information, short wave propagation conditions will be limited to the lower frequency bands, with daytime propagation reaching only up to 18 or 20 megaHertz, while the night time maximum useable frequency on some paths will dip even below seven or six megaHertz, amazing as it may sound, but something typical of extremely long periods of very low solar activity. Amateur radio operators that enjoy the use of the 160 meters band will be able to work some nice DX during the rest of February and early March, something that they will share with AM medium wave broadcast band Dxers, they both will be enjoying what could possibly be described as the best propagation conditions for the AM broadcast band and 160 meters for many years to come (Arnie Coro, CO2KK, RHC DXers Unlimited Feb 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) re 8-020: 160 METER MYTHS --- On my website KN4LF 160 Meter Radio Propagation Theory Notes: http://www.kn4lf.com/kn4lf8.htm under: 5.) Coronal Hole- .....Coronal Holes occur most often on the downside of a solar cycle and their absence at the bottom of a solar cycle and at the beginning of the next, allow for the best medium frequency radio propagation conditions. Many think it's the lower solar flux values seen at the bottom of a solar cycle that accounts for improved propagation conditions but it's actually pretty much a lack of Coronal Holes and geomagnetic storming. (See definition #11. Geomagnetic/Ionospheric Storm)..... 3.) Equatorial Ring Current- .....A phenomena that acts as a repository for precipitated electrons in the vicinity of the magnetic equator. The electrons travel by spiraling around north south magnetic field lines at a frequency called the 'gyro frequency. The end result is lower latitude propagation path medium frequency transmitted RF signal blockage and absorption via the D layer. Absorption is similar to higher latitude Aurora Oval absorption and is inter-related with same..... 2.) Aurora Oval Blockage, Absorption And Refraction- .....The aurora ovals "generally" have a negative impact on medium frequency propagation. If the path over which you are communicating lies along or inside one of the Aurora Ovals, you will experience degraded propagation in one of several forms; strong signal absorption, brief periods of strong signal enhancement, which is mainly caused by tilts in the ionosphere that allow signals to become focused at your location or very erratic signal behavior in the form of strong and rapid fading, etc., caused by a variety of effects such as multi-pathing, anomalous and rapid variations in absorption, non- great-circle propagation, horizontal or side refraction and/or scatter (skewing) due to changes in electron density and polarization changes. (See definition #7. Propagation Path Skewing)..... The bottom line is that propagation conditions will vastly improve on the MF AM broadcast band, 160 and 120 meters on the upside of solar cycle 24 in 2009 and 2010. KN4LF Daily Solar Space Weather & Geomagnetic Data Archive: http://www.kn4lf.com/kn4lf5.htm KN4LF Daily LF/MF/HF/6M Frequency Radiowave Propagation Forecast & Archive Site: http://www.kn4lf.com/kn4lf6.htm KN4LF 160 Meter Radio Propagation Theory Notes: http://www.kn4lf.com/kn4lf8.htm LF/MF/HF/VHF Frequency Radiowave Propagation Email Reflector: http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/kn4lf (Thomas F. Giella, KN4LF, Lakeland, FL, USA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###