DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-029, March 3, 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 1397 Tue 1200 WRMI 9955 Tue 1630 WRMI 7385 Wed 1230 WRMI 9955 SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1398 Thu 0630 WRMI 9955 Thu 1530 WRMI 7385 Thu 2300 WRMI 9955 Fri 0030 WBCQ 7415 Fri 0900 WRMI 9955 Fri 2130 WWCR1 15825 Fri 2330 WBCQ 5110-CUSB Sat 0900 WRMI 9955 Sat 1730 WWCR3 12160 Sun 0330 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0730 WWCR1 3215 [DST starts here, one UT hour earlier:] Sun 0800 WRMI 9955 Sun 1515 WRMI 7385 Mon 0300 WBCQ 9330-CLSB [irregular] Mon 0415 WBCQ 7415 [time varies] Tue 1100 WRMI 9955 Tue 1530 WRMI 7385 Wed 1130 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 ** AFGHANISTAN. MOBILE PHONE TOWERS ARE TALIBAN'S NEW TARGET MONDAY [ 03.03.2008 - 13:40 ] March 3, 2008 (RFE/RL) -- Taliban militants destroyed a least three telecom towers in southern Afghanistan over the weekend after warning phone companies to shut down their signals at night or face attacks. Telecom towers on a hill top in Kabul, 03Mar2008 epa [caption] The Taliban claims international forces track its members using signals from mobile phones, the principal means of communication in the war-torn country. Local officials in Afghanistan's southern Helmand Province said gunmen destroyed a mobile phone tower in the Sangin district on Sunday (March 2). It follows two attacks on telecommunication towers in neighboring Kandahar Province on Friday and Saturday (February 29-March 1) after a Taliban demand that all telephone signals be turned off during the evening and overnight. Taliban militants ordered mobile phone operators last week to switch off their networks from 1700 to 0700 each day. The insurgents say U.S. and NATO forces track the Taliban through their mobile signals and then launch attacks on their hiding places. . . http://www.azadiradio.org/en/news/2008/03/6376BC80-68D1-4F1C-9D6F-ED1BB3EC7503.ASP (R. Free Afghanistan, via Kim Elliott, DXLD) Something to keep in mind before investing in SMS as a medium of international broadcasting (Kim Andrew Elliott, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AFGHANISTAN [and non]. The WTFK transmitter of Radio Andernach in Kabul operates on 107.5, according to: http://tinyurl.com/3xlcnc or, if this does not work, http://www.radio-andernach.de -> Unsere Leistungen -> Frequenzen. Nowadays Radio Andernach is always UKW. We just discussed their show on Radio Prizen, which back then still used 1377. Even earlier the Bundeswehr owned a mobile mediumwave transmitter. On some occasions Südwestfunk used this transmitter on 792, with Koblenz given as site. On other occasions they did random tests with some ARD programming as audio. In 1989 this transmitter was in use for a special maneuvre service near Ingolstadt on 909, under the responsibility of Bayerischer Rundfunk because the Bundeswehr was of course not authorized to run any broadcasting services in Germany. Even under this constellation they tried to downplay the operation of their own transmitter as much as possible, emphasizing the // 801 from the regular Bayerischer Rundfunk facilities: http://home.wolfsburg.de/elbe/deutschland.html Probably this mediumwave rig still exists, but I guess it is more likely that they scrapped it since (Kai Ludwig, Germany, March 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AFRICA [non]. RFE/RL PRESIDENT WANTS TO EXPAND "SURROGATE" BROADCASTING TO AFRICA. Answering a question from a Nigerian during his presentation to the CSIS on 14 February, Jeffery Gedmin, president of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, said: "I personally believe that there’s a very compelling case for more surrogate broadcasting. And you said it best, including in your country you know better than I, it’s not just philanthropy, it’s the strategic interest of the United States. ... And so, you know, with me you’re pushing on an open door, and if you want to give me your card and we’ll visit our board and we’ll stop by Congress and we’re ready to do business." See CSIS transcript. Oh oh. And as if this idea were not bad enough, it has also prompted me to write this commentary. Posted: 01 Mar 2008 RADIO FREE OF GOOD SENSE, COMING SOON TO AFRICA? In Washington, never underestimate the power of a bad idea to come to fruition. The notion of creating something that might be called "Radio Free Africa" starts with disinformation about VOA. During his CSIS speech, Gedmin positioned the "surrogate" stations, i.e. his RFE/RL, as well as Radio Free Asia, like this: "What we do is broadcast to our countries in their languages the news, the information, I like to say the responsible discussion, commentary, that they would have if they had a free an independent media. ... It's a big difference between us and the Voice of America. Voice of America ... has always been about us, about America, about American foreign policies, American society, culture, music, art, and sport, and theater, and politics." That's how U.S. international broadcasting is described, over and over, by its senior officials. The problem is, it isn't true. Yes, VOA does cover those American things, but it has an audience mainly because it provides audiences with news and information about their own countries. BBC World Service does this, too, in a much bigger way, and to a much larger audience, than RFE/RL. Radio France International provides this service for francophone Africa, and Radio Australia for the Pacific. The one part of the "theory" of U.S. international broadcasting that does correspond with reality is that RFE/RL and RFA, while superior in their coverage of their target countries, are dutifully deficient in their coverage of world news. To eliminate overlap, VOA could be directed to be correspondingly deficient in its coverage of target country news. But then the audience would have to tune to two U.S. stations to get all of the news. I doubt the audience would put up with such nonsense. One area where U.S. international broadcasting enjoys particular success is Africa. A big reason for this is that all the resources of U.S. international broadcasting to Africa are concentrated in the VOA’s African services. And because of this, African listeners can get African, world, and U.S. news all from the convenience of one radio station. Under Gedmin's vision, the scarce talent, resources and budget for broadcasting in languages such as Hausa, Swahili, Amharic, and Kinyarwanda/Kirundi would be split into two stations that would compete with each other and duplicate each other's outputs. In the late 1990’s, proposals for a “Radio Free Africa” were floated by some members of Congress. VOA’s then director Evelyn Lieberman responded by way of a preemptive self-amputation. President Clinton announced plans to create a Radio Democracy for Africa as part of VOA. In a rare victory for good sense in U.S. international broadcasting, the Radio Democracy for Africa idea withered and was eventually forgotten. U.S. international broadcasting to Africa remained unitary and effective. But if Gedmin remains mounted on his new African surrogate hobbyhorse, the success now enjoyed by USIB in Africa could turn into failure, just about overnight. On the other hand, creation of a new Radio Free Africa would have excellent boondoggle value. It would create a new bureaucracy, with a new director, associate director, assistant directors, senior advisors, special assistants, and presidential management interns. The distinguished fellows of Washington's think tanks (even those of the conservative persuasion) positively salivate at the prospect of a new agency and its prospects of plum jobs. VOA, RFE/RL. RFA, and the other elements of U.S. international broadcasting are very good stations. Together, they would be excellent. Combined, they could compete with the BBC and with the steadily improving media of its target countries. The safer bet is that USIB will further subdivide into more and more bureaucratic shards, dooming it to a future of irrelevance. Posted: 01 Mar 2008 (Kim Andrew Elliott, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** ALASKA. 660 KFAR AK Fairbanks. Was forced off the air 2/21 when a fire damaged its transmitter, according to Radio Netherlands’ Media Network website (thanks to Glenn Hauser for posting info on this on the IRCA listserv). First word was that the station hoped to be back on the air as early as 2/25. However, as of our 2/29 deadline the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (which first broke the story) had not reported on its return and the station’s own live webstream seems to be disabled. So, the on-air status is currently unknown to DDXD-W. (Ed.-WI) (Bill Dvorak, DDXD- West, NRC DX News March 10 via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. 11710, Japanese service heard 0930-0950 with Tango music. Surprisingly good signal 44444. 73 (Dan Goldfarb, Brentwood, England, March 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nothing in HFCC, but per Aoki, azimuth for Japanese at 09-10 M-F is 348 degrees, almost due north, while everything else on 11710, including evenings to NAm, is at 335 degrees. What?? The true azimuth of Tokyo from Buenos Aires is 280 degrees, nowhere near the azimuth of this transmission which is in fact aimed at New York! Or long path to Tokyo would be 100 degrees. Perhaps RAE didn`t think it worth the cost to build another antenna for only 5 hours usage per week, just hoping some of the signal dribbles into Japan anyway. How is reception there? Makes it to England, obviously. Maybe the beam is very broad, and hence less focused, less intense than it could be in the target area. Of course, it should be well heard by all those Japanese immigrants in Brasil (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, I was sober this morning! The audio on 11710 had the same slightly overmodulated/processed sound as found on 15345 in the evenings. Although I could only weakly confirm Japanese, the tango music on that frequency and time was clear and was definitely RAE. On Friday night conditions here were fantastic and RAE was booming in on 15345 as late as 2130. Maybe (just maybe) there might be a return to the regular South American catches (in Europe) which existed in the late 1970's/ early 1980's. 73's (Dan Goldfarb, England, DX LISTENIG DIGEST) Er, I was not questioning your sobriety, Dan (gh, DXLD) Tokyo 90/287 [sic] degrees. 348 degrees is true Washington D.C., 335 degrees via Yukatan, Oklahoma, North Dakota, i.e. all USA easterly, westerly (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. Excelente noticia: vuelve La Rosa de Tokyo --- A partir de este mes de marzo, La Rosa de Tokyo, el programa dedicado a la radio y los medios de comunicación con el cual colabora el Grupo Radioescucha Argentino, vuelve al aire de Radio Provincia de Buenos Aires. En principio, su horario será los sábados de 2300 a 2400 LU (domingos UT de 0200 a 0300).- El programa presentará muchas novedades, con columnistas fijos y rotativos, entrevistas y muchos audios. Les estaremos contando las novedades!!! !!!! (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, March 2, dxld yg via DXLD) Arnaldo, Muy bien, y ¿también en internet como antes? Pero ha proseguido el programa via WRMI, etc., ¿solo con repeticiones? ¿No está en vigor todavía la hora de verano? Según http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst2008a.html hasta el 16 de marzo (excepto San Luís, ¿porqué?) Entonces la hora 23-24 LU equivale a TU 01 a 02, los días 8 y 15. ¿Verdad? ¿O no comienza hasta el 22, con hora normal? 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Hola Glenn! Sí! Gracias! Por ahora sólo van repeticiones. La idea es sumar emisoras que retransmitan los programas que semana a semana se van a irradiar a traves de LS11 Aun esta en vigencia la hora de verano en casi toda la Argentina. Un gran abrazo (Arnaldo Slaen, ibid.) ** AUSTRALIA. The test transmission I heard at 1430 on 11995, listed as CVC Darwin, and on behalf of something called JCI --- what`s that? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ITU reference added this 20-FEB-2008: JCI = Japan Center for Intercultural Communications Additional JCI broadcasts via Darwin now ??? Google http://home.jcic.or.jp [explained as of 1997 at http://home.jcic.or.jp/en/enkaku-e.html - gh] JCI ? from Feb 22 onwards ? B07 11650 1500-1530 44NE DRW 250 3 AUS JCI CVI 13725 1500-1530 44NE DRW 250 3 AUS JCI CVI 11995 1430-1500 44NE DRW 250 3 AUS JCI CVI 13725 1430-1500 44NE DRW 250 3 AUS JCI CVI (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) 11650, 13725, 11995 and 13725 at 1430-1530 is no-signal. JCIC is an enforcement group of Furusato no Kaze on 9780 at 1600-1630 UT and Wind of Nippon / Ilubon-e Baaram on 9820 at 1700-1730 (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, Sunday, March 02, 2008 via Büschel, ibid.) Wolfgang! I checked yesterday, but no signal at all. It is supposed to be the reservation of possible time period and frequencies for A08 of "Wind of Homeland" broadcast to North Korea (Takahito Akabayashi, Japan, March 3, via Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELARUS [non]. New 7565, 1530-1600, Clandestine, 27+28-02, R. Racja, via Sitkunai, Lithuania. Belarusian news about Belarus and Minsk, ID's, songs 55555 (Anker Petersen, AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres longwire in Skovlunde, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** BELGIUM. UPCOMING CHANGES IN FLEMISH MW SCENE --- The Flemish government has approved the VRT's proposal to cease analogue transmissions on 540, 1188 and 1512 kHz. The VRT will retain only one medium frequency, i.e. 927 kHz, currently broadcasting Radio 1. The government therefore also changes its decision to allocate analogue radio frequencies on medium wave solely to the VRT. Advice has been asked to a regulatory commission to see whether this change is legal. If all goes through the three AM frequencies may be up for sale. 73 (Herman Boel, Belgium, March 2, MWC via DXLD) Andy Sennitt comments: The decision to discontinue 1512 kHz will affect expats in neighbouring countries who use this frequency to listen to Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal. RNW listeners will recall that we also used this transmitter for our English service in the late evening for a number of years. 3 David de Jong Mar 2, 2008 at 5:33 pm --- Andy, it is unknown how the 927 kHz will be used; that is less powerfull, but reaches currently the Netherlands, parts of France and Luxembourg and Germany. Currently 927 kHz is for VRT Radio 1; 540 kHz for VRT Radio 2, while 1512 kHz is for VRT-RVI 1. The French-speaking part of Belgium earlier reduced their mediumwavetransmissions, and first broadcast on the remaining one 621 kHz RTBF La Première. Currently RTBF International (a mix of RTBF La Première and RTBF VivaCité) is broadcast on 621 kHz (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** BHUTAN. 6035, *0000-0030 27-02, Bhutan Broadcasting Service, Sangaygang Dzongkha announcement, horn, intoning Buddhist monks, songs from Bhutan, exchange rates including Danish and Swedish Kroner! 34333 - heard perfectly // streaming audio at http://www.bbs.com.bt/Index.html (Anker Petersen, AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres longwire in Skovlunde, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) 6035, R. Bhutan BS (presumed), Thimphu, 03/02, Dzongkha, 0007 repetitive solo male choir, 0019 curious instrumental music with musical instrument that sounds like Scottish Pipes, followed by percussion, 0029 male announcements, 0031 female talks. 32232 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil (23 39 S, 46 52 W), Sony ICF SW40, dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6035, R. Bhutan, Thimphu, 2/3 0017 UT, Meditation music with monks, good, 33333 (Maurits van Diressche, Belgium, HCDX via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4716.69, Radio Yatun Allyu Yura; 0122-0131+, 1-Mar; M in Spanish taking brief phone calls, music between; R. Yura ID at 0129 with sfx --- sounded like a duck. Poor. 0011-0026+, 2-Mar; M&W in Spanish with mostly flute music and one band tune. Radio Yura ID at 0026. SIO=2+32+, LSB helps with SS QRM on 4717.5/USB (Harold Frodge, Michigan Area Radio Enthusiasts DXpedition, Brighton MI, Drake R8B + 500' NE unterminated bev, 65' TTFD, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 6039.60, R. Clube Paranaense, Curitiba, 2/3 0102, Full ID and nice music, weak but fair, no noise, 23332 (Maurits van Diressche, Belgium, HCDX via DXLD) ** CANADA. Radio Canada International from Sackville at 1600 UT on 9800 DRM. No Audio but station identification came up as RCI (Chris Lewis, England, March 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Target: USA RCI two-sesquiweeks-of-confusion schedule from March 9 now posted: http://www.rciviva.ca/rci/PDF/RCI-TECH-TRANS-EN.pdf See also PAPUA NEW GUINEA (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. 6160 with blues interview and music, no doubt CBC Radio One`s Saturday Night Blues on PST feed from CKZU, 0705 UT Sunday March 2, a 2-hour show starting at 0605. Odd thing was no trace at all of CKZN at this time, unlike a few nights earlier when they were equally mixing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 29.2.08 || Heilongjiang PBS is inactive on 4840 and 7350 kHz. Xinjiang PBS Chinese programme on 5960 kHz is now also carried between 0300-1200 (WRTH Monitor via DXLD) ** CLIPPERTON ISLAND. TX5C, CLIPPERTON ATOLL DXPEDITION UPDATE. The TX5C team is now heading toward Clipperton aboard the "Shogun" and has been active on the air as FO5A/mm. The team set sail from San Diego during their evening, February 27th, a day ahead of schedule. If everything goes as planned and weather permitting, the team should be active from the island March 7th for ten days. Here are the following suggested frequencies: CW - 1827, 3507, 7007, 10107, 14027, 18078, 21027, 24897, 28027, 50107 SSB - 1847, 3797, 7057, 14197/14227* , 18147, 21295, 24947, 28497, 50127 RTTY - 3577, 7037, 10127, 14077, 18107, 21077, 24927, 28077 * 14227 for U.S. Generals Their goal is to make over 100,000 QSOs, and they will pay special attention to working some of the more difficult areas like Europe and the Middle East. Pilots stations for this operation are Dave/K4SV k4sv @ yahoo.com Jean-Michel/ F6AJA f6aja @ escaut.net and Chris/DL5NAM force12 @ web.de QSL via N7CQQ, by the bureau or direct to: John Kennon, P. O. Box 31553, Laughlin, Nevada 89028, USA. The log will also be uploaded to LoTW once the official log has been certified. For more information, online log and updates, visit the TX5C Web page at: http://www.clipperton2008.org (The Ohio/Penn DX PacketCluster DX Bulletin No. 848, March 3, 2008, Editor Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW, Provided by BARF80.ORG (Cleveland, Ohio), via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** COSTA RICA. 5954.17, 2315-2329* 25-02, ELCOR transmitter, Guápiles, Limón (presumed) testing with non-stop songs in Spanish, no announcement heard, 33433 - 43433. QRM WYFR in Chinese 5950 and Voice of Turkey in English 5960 (Anker Petersen, AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres longwire in Skovlunde, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) 5955, 2243 UT, Feb. 28 08, 34433 Pruebas de un transmisor ELCOR en Guápiles, COSTA RICA (Según información del DXer Glenn Hauser, 5954.1 kHz, en el aire casi todos los días entre las 2230 y 2330, con pura música) Canción "Rayando el sol... es más fácil llegar al sol, que a tu corazón..." y se repite varias veces. (Escuchas realizadas a través del ICF-SW7600, Antena de hilo 15 mts.) (Magdiel Cruz R., Jiutepec, Morelos, México, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This page is certainly of caveat use judging by some of the station entries. Note one 40 kW listed for AWR. http://www.elcor.org/refsw.html (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, March 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. Re 8-028, KOREA NORTH [non], and MONGOLIA below: ``1100 km is not too far for 500 kW skywave! Oops: per my NGS Globe, it is about 1120 MILES from UB to Pyongyang, i.e. 1800 km`` If RFA's MW transmitter turns out to be near Ulaan Baator, then IBB's next step should be launching Radio Martí's MW broadcasts from Indiana. - Distance between Indianapolis and Havana is almost the same as between UB and Pyongyang (Sergei Sosedkin, IL, March 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. Heard brief audio from HCJB German language service on 15275 DRM with a musical program. On LCD Display, comes up as HCJB Global Voice (Chris Lewis, England, March 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Time? Presumably between 11 and 13 (gh) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 6250, 2/3 & 3/3 0530-0605, Malabo, on Sunday religious program in Spanish, on Monday Afro pops and news at 0600. Good signal, modulation a little down and some utility QRM. fair/good. Rx: TenTec GW RX321. Ant: T2FD (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italy, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA [non]. 9820, *1700-1735 clandestine, Thu 28-02, Voice of Democratic Eritrea International, via Wertachtal. Tigrinya announcement, news, talk, music from Horn of Africa, 1730 Arabic program; not on 9620 as stated in one reference. 33333, QRM Voice of Russia in Arabic (Anker Petersen, AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres longwire in Skovlunde, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** FINLAND. Are the R. G. Stair tests via Pori still on air at all? I checked yesterday and tonight, but 5990 1900-2000 was very strong BBC in Russian only (imagine how horrible it would be if this powerhouse signal would carry the European Stream of their English program...) while no strong signals at all could be found on 6120 in the 2000-2100 period, only some weak signal, unidentified, but at least I could not make out his screaming on it. And nothing anymore on former 6060 either (Kai Ludwig, Germany, March 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [earlier:] Heard February 24 at 1459 on 9595, poor with co-channel BBC World Service via Singapore. Also noted on 6060 at 2001, fair but with some adjacent channel interference (Edwin Southwell, England, March WDXC Contact via DXLD) ** FRANCE. Re 8-028, RFI March changes: Much better reception here on new 15605 at 1600 than on ex-11615, 2 March (Steve Lare, Holland, MI USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [non]. Deutsche Welle in English with Intouch program, listeners` letters and Club news, at 1100 UT on 13810 [DRM] in Stereo, Via Portugal (Chris Lewis, England, March 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [non]. ALEMANHA - Em resposta a indagação do monitor Leônidas dos Santos Nascimento, de São João Evangelista (MG), Beatriz Brücken, que trabalha nos programas em português da DW, informa que não existe movimentação com o objetivo de desmantelar as transmissões em ondas curtas. "Em muitos países africanos e também no Brasil nem todos os ouvintes têm acesso à Internet", escreveu (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX March 2 via DXLD) ** GUATEMALA. 4799.8, TGMI Radio Buenas Nuevas; 1140, 2-Mar; Band music and banjo tune; M in Spanish with call ID! at 1141. SIO=323-, swiper QRM (Harold Frodge, Michigan Area Radio Enthusiasts DXpedition, Brighton MI, Drake R8B + 500' NE unterminated bev, 65' TTFD, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** GUIANA FRENCH. Hi Brendan and All! TDF is currently considering the feasibility of a DRM transmission from MSY to Pennsylvania during SWL Fest. Please let me know what would be the most appropriate time schedule for this transmission. Thanks and 73 (Jacques Gruson, f6ajw March 3, drmna yg via DXLD) Hi Jacques, Could these transmissions be in English please? We are there from Friday morning 9 am EST to Saturday evening 1700 EST so I guess anytime that doesn't clash with HCJB or RNW would be great. I'd like to have a go at your 1 kW output on 75 meters from there too. Did your chaps ever get around to setting the DX mode up on that frequency? (Mark Phillips, ibid.) Hello Jacques! If you want to add a transmission for Kulpsville, please do so! I'm not exactly in the azimuth, but what about bridging the time period between HCJB's broadcasts: from 2100 to 0100 UT, which would be 1600 to 1900 Eastern Standard Time. That would be a good after-meeting-hours, early evening slot. I would be able to log it no matter what time (3 hours earlier here in Washington), as I use DRM Logger for automatic logs. Frequency is up to you of course, perhaps some East Coast listeners (Mark?) would have good suggestions as to that. 73, (Brendan Wahl, ibid.) Hi Brendan, Mark and All! What do you mean by "DX Mode" on 3965 kHz, may be MSC 16 QAM and r = .5 or 0.6? I will come back to you later regarding time, frequencies of our possible transmission but if you have any idea about frequency(es) from your experience, it would be much welcomed (Jacques, ibid.) 3965 from GUF? 75m should not be available for broadcasting in region 2, even DRM. Does the above imply they have already done so, or was that really from Europe? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. 'Lyngsat' branches out --- Hi Guys, I see that 'Lyngsat' has branched out to 'lyngsat-stream'. This link may help you with your radio station searches. http://www.lyngsat-stream.com/ Cheers, (Chris Martin, S. E. Queensland, ARDXC via DXLD) Not much; only includes `stations`, networks, or program sources which are already on satellite (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** IRAN [non]. Iran/Lithuania, heard also VOIRI English Radio at 1930 on the new frequency of 7565 kHz, in the clear, but fading badly as the transmission progressed. Would obliterate Voice of Korea if I could hear them (Chris Lewis, England, March 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also LITHUANIA ** ISRAEL. Israel Radio Shortwave --- Well, as of today, on the Israel Radio English news (you can hear it on the 1830 UT news), they are announcing that all Israel Radio shortwave broadcasts will cease as of March 31, 2008. As of April 1, you can continue to listen to Israel Radio live and on-demand (recordings maintained for 24 hours) at another website, which doesn't yet exist: http://www.intkolisrael.com There is nothing in print on the REKA website at this point. Of course, time will tell if it actually happens this time (Doni Rosenzweig, March 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. 11590.00, Kol Israel, S=9+10 dB at 0615 UT Mar 3, noted with two accompanied OSCILLATING spurs on 11552-11557 and 11622-11630 kHz (latter covers Vatican Radio SMG 11625). 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. 15784.7, Galei Zahal (presumed); 1545-1600+, 1-Mar; 2M in Ladino? -- sounding like mix of Hebrew & Spanish; lite music; SIO=152+, very fady till covered by tone at 1555:48 and WEWN IS at 1556:45 and English sign-on at 1600 (Harold Frodge, Michigan Area Radio Enthusiasts DXpedition, Brighton MI, Drake R8B + 500' NE unterminated bev, 65' TTFD, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** JAPAN. JCIC: See AUSTRALIA ** KOREA NORTH. The New York Philharmonic performance here is currently available on demand until March 14+ via http://nyphil.org/attend/broadcasts/index.cfm?page=broadcastDetail&broadcastKey=175 Starts with the DPRK national anthem, better than you`ve ever heard it on VOK? Plus several encores not on the published playlist (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. Re 8-028: Second update: Andy Sennitt of Radio Netherlands Media Network writes: "The new 1350 frequency is mentioned on the RFA Korean site, but not on the page you linked. It's actually mentioned here: http://www.rfa.org/korean/rfa_medium_wave/ Roughly translated by Google, it reads: 'Free Asia broadcasts in March and is more convenient since you are so deuleulsil am Free Asia broadcasts, as a medium-wave broadcasts. ... We have freedom, you have your regular radio broadcasting frequencies to Asia, now hear the poem matchusi than shortwave broadcasts can be clean and rich sound to hear the broadcast. Of course, shortwave broadcasts and the Internet also remain intact, and you can also hear it." (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Thanks, Andy. I was looking and looking for that page. The Japanese DXers seem to be taking issue with the "clean and rich." Posted: 02 Mar 2008 (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) ``Anyway, a joint use of 648 is a good example of US-Russian broadcasting cooperation. Sadly, such traditional American allies as Japan and Korea don't seem to be willing to rebroadcast the US radio programs in their neighborhood...`` An interesting question: Has the IBB ever approached KBS (or whoever would be a competent contact) for airtime on the mediumwave transmitters dedicated to serve North Korea, like 972, 1134, 1170? Or would such relays be unthinkable? Japan appears to be a bit more complicated: NHK itself does no foreign broadcasting whatsoever on mediumwave, if I'm not terribly wrong. They have a couple of high power transmitters up to 500 kW which could be suitable for serving Korea, but presumably it would be really out of question to get airtime there. 648 should by far be the best mediumwave outlet for transmissions to North Korea, besides the South Korean facilities which appear to be unreachable. It's not just 1000 kW but also an excellent antenna, a Zariya system: http://vladivostok.rtrn.ru/data/gl_img0071_razdoln.jpg Pyongyang is about 700 km away from Razdolnoye. I'm in the beam of another Russian high power transmitter (Bolshakovo, 1200 kW on 1215) with another outcome of the Russian mediumwave antenna designing (an SV 4+4), and it's really huge, local-like. An especially intriguing fact about the Razdolnoye facility is that its frequency lies next to the Kangnam transmitter on 657, the main mediumwave outlet of Pyongyang Pangsong (which is also on FM, unfortunately this network got deleted from WRTH by putting Pyongyang Pangsong into the International Broadcasting section). It is understood that registered radios in North Korea are prepared with mechanical locks on their tuning devices. But it should be about impossible to adjust these locks in a way that the prepared radio can be tuned to 657 but not to 648. Another Razdolnoye antenna, probably a ShARRT-257; longwave 243 (silent)? http://vladivostok.rtrn.ru/data/gl_img0056_razdoln.jpg And SGD-RA shortwave systems: http://www.rtrs.ru/data/bashi_p-razdolnoe.jpg It should be noted that "VLD" shortwave outlets could also originate from another site, Tavrichanka, although it appears that it is hardly in use for shortwave anymore: http://vladivostok.rtrn.ru/data/gl_img0025_ptavrich.jpg (Kai Ludwig, Germany, March 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also CUBA [non]; MONGOLIA ** LITHUANIA. The Mighty KBC --- Received from Eric van Willegen, KBC: "We have received a confirmation that the Mighty KBC will start on 6055 kHz this coming Monday 3-3-2008. Also please pay attention to our new time, 2200-2300 UT. So listen this evening for the last time on 6140 kHz, it's your last chance to go for a 6140 kHz QSL card. We hope that the new frequency 6055 will bring us the same results as our old frequencies 6255, 6265 and 6235 kHz. As soon as we know the final new frequency and time for our USA transmission, we will publish it on this forum. The reason that we are moving from 6265 and 6255 kHz is that both frequencies are used for maritime communications. Starting March 9, The Mighty KBC broadcast to USA at 0100-0159 UT [SUNDAYS ONLY] will move from 6255 to 6040 kHz. If you are listening in Canada and the USA, please monitor this frequency the coming days if it is free. Send your comment to info @ k-po.com Thanks." Eric also wants to thank you, Glenn for helping him and the station (Ydun Ritz, Denmark, March 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) By suggesting 2200-2300 instead of 2130-2230 on 6055. Not audible here at 2220 check March 3, but not for us, anyway (gh, OK, DXLD) I checked and found Sitkunai using 7565 on March 2 and only CRI on 7265. So the station must have permission to utilise oob frequencies on 7 MHz (Noel R. Green, (NW England), March 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sitkunai frequency usage 1430 5815 IRIB Ru S=8-9, back lobe into CeEUR. 1530 7565 Racja Belarus S=9+20dB 1730 7565 IRIB Ge / Fr S=9+20dB 1930 7565 IRIB En fade-out from S=9+10 dB to S=3-4 but latter maybe stronger in UK&IRL. 2030 6055 IRIB Sp S=9 to 9+10 DB 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, 2001 UT March 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 4800 tentative XERTA, 1000 to 1015 very weak signal with Latin American music. 29 February (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, República de Flórida 8-) NRD 535D, 746 Pro, R75,R7, R8, Sony 2010XA, HCDX via DXLD) ** MONGOLIA. VOM 12085: The 1530 English broadcast is announced at the end of the 0930 one, however not heard here on checks February 24 and 26, despite good conditions towards Asia on the 25 metre band. On February 26 channel also clear when checked using an online receiver in New Zealand (Mike Barraclough, England, March World DX Club Contact via DXLD) ** MONGOLIA [and non]. The reception condition of RFA is very bad, after JOER on 1350 kHz s/off at 1633 UT. Extreme QRM'ed on HLAQ (1350 kHz 10 kW). The signal is weaker than R. Aap Ki Dunyaa via Al Dhabbiya on 1539 kHz. (S. Hasegawa, Japan, NDXC, 1713 UT March 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See CUBA [non]; KOREA NORTH [non] ** NETHERLANDS. Hola: Tomen nota de este enlace: http://www.youtube.com/user/informarn Aquí está presente el espacio de Radio Nederland en Español dentro de Youtube; de la docena de videos que hay en estos momentos (aunque el canal data de enero, ha sido en la última semana cuando se han añadido casi todos), hay algunos realmente memorables y muy recomendables. Dignos ejemplos del mejor hacer de la emisora holandesa. Los tiempos cambian y las formas de "escuchar" también. Que lo disfruten. Cordialmente, (Tomás Méndez Losa, March 2, VISITE MI SITIO WEB PERSONAL EN: http://www.amarantadx.net [original font: Trebuchet MS], logsderadio yg via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. Mighty KBC: see LITHUANIA ** NIGERIA. Voice of Nigeria 15120 verified my 2006 reception report with a brand new large QSL depicting Zuma Rock in Abuja. It took 426 days to receive their reply. They also enclosed a nice sticker along with the card (T R Rajeesh, India, March WDXC Contact via DXLD) ** NIUE. NIUE TV TRANSMITTER NEEDS REPLACING Posted at 03:42 on 28 February, 2008 UTC http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=38292 After just two years, Niue’s TV transmitting equipment is corroded and needs to be replaced urgently. Engineers from the New Zealand company Kordia have been out to assess the equipment and say the wrong materials were used. The transmitter which was a gift from China was erected just two years ago. The General Manager of the Broadcasting Corporation, Patrick Lino, says he was warned that the transmitter would blow off the towers in the next tropical storm. Mr Lino says he has tried to make contact with the Chinese donors but to no avail. “We tried out best to communicate with the company involved and we are finding that very difficult with the communication and language difficulties as well. It hasn’t been good to try and communicate with them. What we’re doing at the moment is to try and facilitate a means for changing or replacing the equipment and see if we can get someone from New Zealand or Australia to replace it with something that could last a while, especially with our conditions.” Patrick Lino (RNZI news via Kim Elliott, DXLD) A transmitter on a tower? Probably a transmitting antenna on the tower. I'm sure there is a company in Taiwan that could replace it (Kim Elliott, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OMAN. Sultanate of: 15140, R. Sultanate of Oman, Muscat, 1445-1459, March 01, English, pops and arab song, announcement by female, 24332 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. New 3975.0, *0110-0215* 28+29-02 and 01-03, R. Pakistan, Rewat, Islamabad Kashmiri/Urdu Signed on in the middle of a song later that scheduled 0045. Kashmiri talks, local songs, 0200 news (?) probably in Urdu, 0210 talk and s/off in middle of a song. Some transmitter hum which disappeared at 0215* 35332 (Anker Petersen, AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres longwire in Skovlunde, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 7325, R. Wantok Light (Presumed), 1226, 3/1/08. poor with woman singing; off at 1230 as per sked; the other station on this frequency -- AIR-Mumbai -- continues past 1230. Thanks to Don Jensen for tip and Mark Taylor for further research (Jim Ronda, OK, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) But others have been presuming this heard in the following hour, and we also presume that Mumbai is not there at all; see previous DXLDs I see that RCI has now posted its two-sesquiweeks-of-confusion schedules from March 9 to 30, apparently same as the week-of-confusion Oct/Nov: http://www.rciviva.ca/rci/PDF/RCI-TECH-TRANS-EN.pdf That`s the ``technical`` schedule, but if you click on the link below to the less technical ``shortwave`` schedule, you get the one expiring March 8, just like the link immediately above it! Anyway: Indeed from March 9, 7325 is shown at 1105-1405, 277 degrees in Arabic, Spanish and Mandarin (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 4857.421, Radio La Hora, Cusco noted 2320 with good signal, does not seem to be broadcasting during 0900 to 1200. 1 March [Wilkner-FL] 4991.226, Radio Manantial, Huancayo noted 2330 drifting. 1 March (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, República de Flórida 8-) NRD 535D, 746 Pro, R75,R7, R8, Sony 2010XA, HCDX via DXLD) 5014.423, Radio Altura, Cerro de Pasco, 2320 to 2338, March 1, tune in with OM, locator [sic], "...kilohertz (laser sound)... Radio Altura.. en... Perú... todavía ..." into long series of flauta andina songs with no announcement between. Narrow filter to avoid Cuba on 5025. Strong signal! This station is seldom on the air. Best of 73s de Bob (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, República de Flórida 8-) NRD 535D, 746 Pro, R75,R7, R8, Sony 2010XA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 5014.4, OBZ4B, Radio Altura; 0029-0038+, 2-Mar; Campo tunes without announcements between; single word Altura ID over tune at 0030. SIO=2+22+, copyable only in LSB (Harold Frodge, Michigan Area Radio Enthusiasts DXpedition, Brighton MI, Drake R8B + 500' NE unterminated bev, 65' TTFD, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 5014, Perú, R. Altura, Cerro de Pasco, 03/01-02, Spanish 2352 local pop and folk selections, 0001 ID by male "R. Altura... la información exacta...". 33233 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil (23 39 S, 46 52 W), Sony ICF SW40 dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5015, 0345 UT Mar 2 08, Radio Altura, PERÚ. 2-3/3/3/2/2- 3 "Nueve de la noche con 46 minutos...", música latina (cumbias)... "Estás escuchando la programación de Radio Altura..." anuncios comerciales y música popular andina... (Escuchas realizadas a través del ICF-SW7600, Antena de hilo 15 mts.) (Magdiel Cruz R., Jiutepec, Morelos, México, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also UNIDENTIFIED ** PERU. 6173.88, R. Tawantinsuyo, Cusco, 2/3 0033 UT, About the nacional + local music and ID; fair, 23332 (Maurits van Driessche, Belgium, HCDX via DXLD) ** PHILIPPINES: (RE: DXLD 8-028: Vietnam) 6020, Vatican Radio, 1256- 1313*, March 2, in Chinese, sermon ending with "amen", organ music, IS at sign-off, good reception, very light QRM (Australia), completely different conditions than March 1. After sign-off, Australia was heard with a very weak station under them, VOV-4? Too weak for details (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also RUSSIA ** ROMANIA [non]. Re 8-028: A transmit text message gives the complete schedule for Radio Romania International in DRM mode via Kvitsøy as 1700-1730 on 7570 with German plus this 1800-1830 on 6160 with English: http://www.drmrx.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1914 Yesterday some really harsh comments about the Kvitsøy activities had been posted to the German-language A-DX list, because they now destroy at certain times not only Deutschlandfunk on 6190 but also ORF on 6155. This included a new interpretation of the abbr. DRM as Digital Radio Murderer (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I tried to Hear Radio Romania International in DRM. I was looking forward to this transmission, but it was Blocked by CRI in German. The RRI Ident came up on the screen, but no audio. BBC World Service is coming in loud and clear Via Kvitsoy, I would expect the same from RRI. Best Regards (Chris Lewis, England, March 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Crazy frequency selection by WRN in-band. I sent a reception report complaint already to CRI Beijing, WRN, NPT, VTC, and RRI. 6160 DRM Kvitsoe 65 kW 220 degrees main lobe towards West England (Blackpool, Land's End), La Coruña, Spain, Porto + Lisbon Portugal. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, March 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Additional R. Romania International, from website http://www.rri.ro RRI IS DIVERSIFYING THE MEANS BY WHICH TO REACH YOU The transmission, coming to you through the World Radio Network from a transmitter in Norway, is aimed at the UK, between 17:00 and 17:30 UTC (summer time) and 18.00-18.30 UTC (winter time), on the frequency of 6160 kHz. Starting March first, we are waiting for your feedback on the digitally broadcast RRI program. We are also resuming, under a new contract, a weekly podcast in English, with an RSS feed; the RRI program will be available on the WRN servers, but also on podcast directories, such as iTunes and Juicer. WRN continues to rebroadcast RRI programs for Europe, North America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific area via the following satellites: - In Europe, one daily 30 minute program via Eurobird 1, 28.5 degrees East, D7S transponder, horizontal polarization, reception frequency 11 585 GHz, Symbol Rate 27 500 Mbaud, FEC 2/3, MPEG2 DVB audio stream, and Eutelsat Hotbird 6, 28.5 degrees east, transponder 94, vertical polarization, reception frequency 12 597 GHz, Symbol Rate 27 500 Mbaud, FEC 3/4, MPEG2 DVB audio stream, between 19:00 and 19:30 UTC (summer time), and 20:00 and 20:30 UTC (winter time), beamed to Western Europe; - In North America, one daily 30 minute program, via the Galaxy 25 satellite, 97 degrees west, transponder 27, vertical polarization, reception frequency 12 177 GHz, Symbol Rate 23 000 Msym/s, FEC 2/3, MPEG2 DVB, between 21:30 and 22:00 UTC (summer time) and between 22:30 and 23:00 UTC (winter time), beamed to the US; the program can also be received on mobile phones, in the UpSNAP system, in the continental United States; - In Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific area, one daily 30 minute program, via Intelsat 10, 68.5 degrees East, transponder 8 (band C), horizontal polarization, reception frequency 4064 MHz, Symbol Rate 19 850 Msym/s, FEC 7/8, MPEG2 DVB, and AsiaSat 2, 100.5 degrees East, transponder 10b, horizontal polarization, 4000 MHz frequency, Symbol rate 28 125 Msym/s, FEC 3/4, MPEG2 DVB digital, A-PID = 2311 and S-ID = 10, between 11.30 and 12:00 UTC (summer time), and 12:30 and 13:00 UTC (winter time). (via Kraig Krist, dxldyg via DXLD) What about simply broadcasting to NAm via a powerful analog SW relay in the Western Hemisphere? Never tried that, and it would do wonders for their audience (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. Kamchatskaya oblast. Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. 08 February 2008 2050-2100 on 6075 kHz SINPO - 44433 Radiostation Kamchatka Rybatskayay [sic]. Russian. From 2100 - Radio Rossii. Russian (Igor Ashikhmin, Primorsky kray / "open_dx") Promorsky kray. Vladivostok. Radiostation Tikhiy Okean on MW 810 kHz and FM (Igor Ashikhmin, Primorsky kray / "open_dx" via Rus-DX March 2 both via DXLD) So both of these still exist? (gh) ** RUSSIA. Another check of 6020 on March 2. At 1355 under R. Australia, typical long Russian tune-up tones with pauses. No hum audible. At 1357-1402 I was – natch – monitoring 6074 so missed whatever was going on at hourtop on 6020 as RA was closing. At 1403, back to 6020 and did hear talk in unID language, now with the hum. I could easily believe it is Telugu. At 1422 check heard a Family Radio musical riff, as it was fading out, so now am pretty sure it`s really longpath from Samara as scheduled during this hour. Per http://www.gaisma.com/en/location/samara.html sunset at Samara today was 1820 local = 1420 UT, so quite late enough for 6020 to be propagating darkward. In fact I was hearing it right at LSS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Axually at longitude 50+ east, Samara ought to be in the UT+3 timezone, the proper eastern boundary of which is 52.5 degrees; which would make LSS 1520 UT, but still. This confusion exemplifies the folly of 1) moving timezone boundaries around, or in effect yearound DST, and double DST in summer, and 2) not simply displaying SR/SS times in UT, about which there can be no confusion (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) see also UNIDENTIFIED ** RUSSIA. RÚSSIA - A emissão em português da Voz da Rússia foi escutada, pelo colunista, em Bombinhas (SC), em 12 de fevereiro, às 2214, pela freqüência de 5920 kHz. Na ocasião, um comentário político foi apresentado por Vitali Gnatiúk, num português claro e preciso. A emissora está de parabéns pela programação e apresentadores que falam um excelente português! Nas quartas-feiras, quinzenalmente, a programação em português da Voz da Rússia leva ao ar o segmento Onda DX. Yuri Tchupin fala do mundo das ondas curtas e do rádio. As transmissões em português da Voz da Rússia vão ao ar no seguinte esquema: entre 2200 e 2300, em 5920 e 6145 kHz; das 0000 às 0100, em 5900, 7170, 7330 e 7560 kHz (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX March 2 via DXLD) ** RWANDA. 6054.50, Radio Rwanda, 0600-0615 March 3, heard various persons in French language comments, probably news. Signal was fair to poor (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Chuck, More likely BBCWS, French via Ascension, daily 0600-0630 on 6055. Per Aoki, RRR stays on 6055 after 0600 only on Sundays, which would not seem to be a good idea until 0630. And this log was Monday. But BBC 500 Hz off frequency?? Or was it on there too at 6055.00? (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Glenn, Okay - couldn't hear it very well due to splatter and QRM (Chuck Bolland, ibid.) ** SOMALIA. DETENTION OF OUR SHABELLE DIRECTOR AND RANSACK OF OUR STUDIO EQUIPMENTS. Press statement Submitted by warka on Sun, 03/02/2008 - 18:02. http://www.shabelle.net/wararka/2008-mar-02/press-statement-detention-our-shabelle-director-and-ransack-our-studio-equipment Forces from the transitional government of Somalia have forcibly and violently entered our premises in Mogadishu, whisking away our director Mukhtar Mohamed Hiraabe under the barrels of guns while also taking some our main studio equipments. "We condemn this barbaric attack staged on our radio station by some forces of the transitional government and we call on the government leaders firstly to assure the safety of our director, Mukhtar Mohamed Hiraabe and his immediate and unconditional release" says in a statement released by Mr. Abdimaalik Yusuf Mohamud, Chairman of Shabelle Media Network. "Somalia's media is facing danger which will ultimately and surely silence the freedom of speech in Somalia and the flow of information out the country if the government doesn't respect the basics of democracy on which it was formed" adds the statement also calling on the government the return of the equipment taken. Shabelle Media and media houses in the capital have suffered enough under deadly raids and shutdowns by the transitional government and many professional journalists have fled the country after some journalists were killed by the warring sides. Shabelle Media Network SOMALI TROOPS RAID THREE RADIO STATIONS By Aweys Yusuf, Sun 2 Mar 2008, 11:42 GMT http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN242073.html MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali forces closed down three radio stations during raids in search of suspected Islamist insurgents on Sunday, the stations' directors said. Troops moved against the independent stations a day after a gunfight in Mogadishu's central market between insurgents and government troops backed by Ethiopian forces killed nine people. Employees of Horn Afrik, Shabelle and Simba radios said troops took computers, cameras and radio equipment. "Government troops entered the radio station and said we must stop working. They said the radio station is closed from now on," Horn Afrik cameraman Abdi Daqane told Reuters. "We are deeply sorry that Somali journalists are still under government oppression," he added. Shabelle radio's news editor, Abdi Ismail Abdi-ud, said the soldiers took two computers and two sound mixing machines. They briefly detained the station's acting director, Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe. "They did not say we are closed but we cannot operate ... I believe the government is still showing its heavy-handedness on the free media in Somalia," he said. "It is silencing us because it does not want the radios to report that soldiers are looting properties in Bakara market." Simba, another independent station, had to shut down after government troops seized computers and microphones. "A number of government soldiers penetrated the building of Simba radio, harassing the reporters and taking three computers, three digital cameras and the radio's mixer," Simba Radio deputy director Mohamed shiil Hassan told Reuters. "They accused us of siding with and reporting the activities of the insurgents," he added. Somalia has been in chaos since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. The violence has worsened since Somali and Ethiopian troops ousted Islamists from Mogadishu just over a year ago (via Zacharias Liangas, DXLD) SOMALIA'S GOVERNMENT DENIES CLOSING DOWN THREE RADIO STATIONS By James Butty, Washington, D.C. 03 March 2008 http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2008-03-03-voa4.cfm The cabinet of the Somali Government of National Unity has met over night in an emergency session to discuss the events that led to the closure Sunday of three private radio stations in the capital, Mogadishu. Journalists from Horn Afrik, Radio Shabelle and Radio Simba say Somali government troops stormed their premises Sunday and took computers, cameras and radio equipment. Ahmed Abdi Salam is a former co-founder and director of programming for Horn Afrik. He is now the minister of information, youth and sports for the Somali transitional government. From Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, Ahmed told VOA the government did not order the closure of the radio stations. "This was not a decision by the government. As you may already know, there has been fighting in the Bakara area (Somalia’s main business center) since yesterday between insurgents and the government forces. And today there has been widespread looting of private property and businesses. Some insurgents who were wearing government uniforms went into different businesses, including some of these stations and took some equipment. And so it’s part of the investigation we are conducting," he said. Salam said the stations were forced to close because some of their equipment were stolen by looters. He said the Somali Prime Minister convened an emergency meeting Sunday during which he instructed the ministers concerned to return the stations’ equipment as soon as possible. "We’ve already asked the government forces to clarify the equipment taken from these stations and to be brought back. The Prime Minister called an emergency meeting of the cabinet this afternoon and he instructed the committee of ministers responsible to investigate this incidence and to find the way to reopen these stations and return their equipment," Salam said. Salam was co-founder and director of programming for Horn Afrik Radio, and during his tenure, the government repeatedly closed private radio stations. But he said he could not have ordered the closure of any private station. "As I said, if there had been a decision from the government it would have been from my office. What I am trying to explain to you and to your listeners is that there has been a problem today in the Bakara Market, something that brought difficulties to the people, including the radio stations. So the government has instructed a committee of ministers to investigate and take appropriate action," he said (VOA News via DXLD) So were there `troops` or `looters` or = the same? (gh) ** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. See FINLAND ** SUDAN [non]. SOUTH AFRICA, 15675, Sudan Interactive Radio; 1400- 1429+, 1-Mar; Heavy-accented M&W with English lessons -- only English phrases to 1416 "Time to do mathematics". ID at 1429. Doorbell between each item, SIO=253- (Harold Frodge, Michigan Area Radio Enthusiasts DXpedition, Brighton MI, Drake R8B + 500' NE unterminated bev, 65' TTFD, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** SYRIA. 12085, Damascus Radio, 2101-2207* Feb 24. English program closed down with news highlights followed by orchestra National Anthem. Another English program opened with ID and announcements followed by program previews and news. Various segments with regional music features between segments. Closed with 15 minutes of music before carrier terminated. Fair signal and decent enough reception although transmitter hum marred listening quality (Rich D'Angelo, PA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) So they ID as Damascus Radio rather than Radio Damascus? (gh, DXLD) ** TAIWAN [non]. NUMBER OF INDIAN LISTENERS FOR TAIWAN'S RADIO STATION GROWS RAPIDLY 08/03/02 18:44:38 http://www.cna.com.tw/cnaeng/EnglishTopNews/TopNewsDetail.aspx?TopNewsSerialnum=391&strTopNewsDate=20080302&strTopNewsID=200803020020 Radio Taiwan International executives meet Indian listeners in New Delhi New Delhi, India, March 2 (CNA) The number of Indian listeners for Radio Taiwan International has grown rapidly in the past two years with people of all ages and occupations, said Cheng Yu, president of the Radio Taiwan International (RTI), Saturday in New Delhi. Chen, along with the RTI's Foreign Language section chief Huang Chia- shan and senior business expansion specialist Hsu Ling-yi, arrived in India Feb 23 to hold RTI's "2008 meet-the-Indian-listeners gatherings," the second of its kind since 2006 in New Delhi, Calcutta, while Chennai was added to the list for the first time. "This event, which is co-organized by the local RTI listeners' club, received great attention from the Indian audience, including one coming from the northeastern region, located 1,000 kilometers from New Delhi," Cheng said, adding that "we are really moved." He noted that members of the listeners' club have grown rapidly over the past two years. For example, the number of people joining the gatherings in Calcutta and Delhi doubled from 2006 with over 60 and 20 persons, respectively, Cheng said, adding that there were more than 40 people attending the first-ever gathering in Chennai. The gatherings have attracted the elderly, middle-aged and the young, coming from all fields of society such as entrepreneurs, civil servants, teachers, engineers, and students; some have even been listening to RTI for more than ten years, he added. "Some are willing to stay up late just to wait for the programs of Taiwan music and English news," Cheng said. One of the attendants, Chakra Barty, who works in India's Ministry of Defense, said that RTI's programs have helped him better understand the economic, technological, cultural and national conditions in Taiwan. A 24-year-old Muslim Ameer Ahmad told the Central News Agency reporter that he likes the music and singing programs broadcasted by RTI. "Listening to RTI's programs is as comfortable as being with my own family," he said. Cheng said that Indian audiences have given a lot of appraisals and feedback to RTI, including suggestions to produce more programs in different time slots as well as to launch a radio program in Hindi, which he will all take into consideration. The state-funded RTI currently has programs in 13 languages, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Taiwanese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, English, German, French, Russian, and Spanish. (By Paul Kuo and Rachel Chan) (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, dx_india via DXLD) RTI LISTENER CLUB MEET IN KOLKATA Radio Taiwan International did it again! Once again RTI Listeners Club's meet was arranged at Senate 1 Hall of Peerless Inn at the heart of Kolkata on 24th February 2008 from 11 a.m. onwards. RTI Chairman Mr. Cheng Yu, Program host Mr. Carlson Wong and Senior staff Ms. Hsu Ling Yi arrived Kolkata the previous evening. Kolkata did it again! Once again the listeners Club's meet at Kolkata became the most successful and most crowd-pulling event. Yes, among all the three places chosen for the listeners club's meet in India this time, Kolkata became the leader. 66 entry passes were issued but innumerable serious listeners did not get their passes. Telephone calls came from various corners: "Can we join the meet without the pass?" The organizers were embarrassed. Such decision was taken for Chennai and Delhi meets only. But Kolkata venue could not provide even more. Well, decision was taken 6-7 persons could join the meet without entry pass. But who will be those lucky few? A good many number of listeners started for Kolkata at dawn. Some of them came to Kolkata last night and took shelter to their relatives' houses. They started entering the venue from 10 a.m. (some eager listeners came at 9 a.m.!) However, Indian Postal System saved all. A good many listeners of those 66 did not receive their passes. However, 44 listeners came with the pass and 14 without pass. This time the complete list of participants is given. Here they are:- Dipak Kr. Das, Mani Sankar, S.M. Zakir Hosain, Humayun Kabir, Sahidul Haque, Arati Majumdar, Shivendu Paul, Biswanath Mandal, Raju Majumder, Srikanta Nandi, Saifur Rahaman, Nasimul Haque, S.K. Chandra, Khokan Naskar, Gouranga Paira, Prosanta Chakraborty, Subir Basu, Chanchal Bhattacharya, Tanumoy Chakraborty, Subhasis Karmakar, Dipan Kr. Saha, Asraful Hoque, Siddhartha Bhattacharya, Nizamuddin Sk, Parvina Nasrin, Motiur Rahaman, Habibur Alam, Samim Akhtar, Matiur Rahaman, Pashupati Dey, Prasenjit Bhakat, Suvendu Show, Kamruddi Alam, Jagadish Bera, Amanul Islam, Rajdeep Das, Aspak Ahmed Chaudhury, Pranab Kr. Roy, Nasiruddin Ahmed, S.M.A. Sufian (Babu), habibur Rahaman, Rabi Shankar Basu, Mrityunjoy Bera, Swopan Chakraborty, Madhab Ch. Sagour, Jogesh Ch. Das, Nabendu Das, Md. Abizzar, Amitava Das, Hiranmoy Mandal, Bhudeb Sarkar, Suvendu Das, Foiej Kabir, Mina Chaudhury, Azizul Haque, Rajib Bandyopadhyay, Dipanjan Mukherjee and Pooshan Deb Mallick. At about 11:45 a.m. the function began after registration. Mr. Carlson Wong announced the beginning of the meet. Then the chairman Mr. Cheng Yu gave the inaugural speech welcoming all. His speech was translated into English by Mr. Carlson Wong. Mr. Swopan Chakraborty, the president of RTI listeners club in Kolkata addressed the gathering next. He promised to extend his utmost effort to promote RTI. His main job was coordination and he promised to do this effectively as he did earlier. Then Rajib Bandyopadhyay was called to give a short speech. After that Mr. Swopan Chakraborty and Rajib Bandyopadhyay received a small gift from the Chairman as a token of the service rendered to RTI. Then the listeners gave their proposals and asked questions to the Chairman. Proposals came to strengthen the signal and to make New Delhi postbox more effective. The chairman assured them to do something fruitful. But regarding the Delhi postbox, he said, RTI gets voluntary support from Mr. Alokesh Gupta and it seems he is doing his best. Mr. Rabi Shankar Basu presented the Chairman a collage of photographs collected from skeds of RTI and other sources. Mr. Carlson Wong said it will be kept in the museum of RTI. Then a quiz session began and the participants showed their acquaintance with RTI. From 1:30 to 2:15 everybody enjoyed the lunch heartily with Chinese and Indian dishes. In the post lunch session most memorable event was a Mandarin song sung by Mr. Chairman and Ms. Hsu Ling Yi. The lady greeted the audience in broken Bengali (Shubhechha Roilo). RTI caps were distributed to all and after the photo session the meeting came to an happy end with the message to meet again. One final note:- Swopan Chakraborty did it again. Once again he was elected unanimously the President of RTI listeners club in Kolkata. Sincerely Yours, Rajib Bandyopadhyay. Kolkata, India (bangladx via Swopan Chakroborty himself [note spelling], DXLD) Nice that a station would go to all this trouble and expense to meet listeners in person. And more demand than room! Can you imagine any SW station doing that in North America (other than by attending a DX convention, ANARC, MT, or SWL FEST)? Can anyone remember any SW station from abroad ever holding a listeners meeting in NAm? Of course finding any station listeners` club is also a challenge. Maybe that`s where we should start. How about an RTI Listeners` Club in any major Can/US city? Or are there some we have not been aware of? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. LA SÚBITA (PERO ANUNCIADA) MUERTE DE BBC RADIO EN ESPAÑOL De acuerdo a fuentes internas del Servicio Latinoamericano que pidieron mantenerse en anonimato, el Servicio Latinoamericano de la BBC está prácticamente cerrando su servicio de Radio. Los anuncios de recortes (que entran dentro de una llamada “reestructura”) se esperaban desde hacía tiempo, pero nadie imaginó que todo esto se empezara a notar “al aire” tan pronto. Ayer viernes 29 de febrero, fue la última edición de "Enfoque", y el programa de la mañana “BBC Mundo Hoy” termina a fin marzo. La mayor parte del resto de los programas también van a cerrarse. Lo que queda es básicamente un manojo de boletines y un programa de noticias de 15 minutos, pero con el mínimo de producción. No se conocen más detalles, según la fuente. No se cree que ya nada cambie las cosas, pero por lo menos para que el tema no quede impune pueden dirigirse mensajes de protesta y/o solidaridad a … Julia Zapata – Jefa del Servicio Latinoamericano - julia.zapata @ bbc.co.uk (escribir en inglés): Nikky Clarke, Americas & Europe Region Head - nikky.clarke @ bbc.co.uk Nigel Chapman, World Service director – nigel.chapman @ bbc.co.uk Según se informa "La moral de los empleados está por el piso, con la perspectiva de despidos incentivados y del traslado de parte del personal del sitio internet bbcmundo.com a Miami, con contratos locales, aunque estos despidos y traslados no estan confirmados, ya que siguen las negociaciones con el sindicato". Es un momento para lamentar… sobre todo por el recuerdo de tantas voces que desfilaron en 70 años… Vaya regalo de cumpleaños que le dieron al servicio... (Horacio Nigro, Uruguay, Mar 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Per EiBi, this is the only remaining BBC Spanish on SW: 1100 1200 G BBC S CAm 6095/USA-g 13760/GUF But is it still there, and will it last only till the end of B-07? I`m still trying to figure out BBCWS reasoning on abandoning Spanish, one of the world`s major languages capable of reaching dozens of countries, not only on SW, but from the above, down to nothing but a token online news service (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. RFE/RL PRESIDENT WANTS TO EXPAND "SURROGATE" BROADCASTING TO AFRICA. --- See AFRICA [non] ** U S A. VOA ADDS AMHARIC MORNING SHOW Washington, D.C., March 3, 2008 - The Voice of America's (VOA) Amharic Service has launched a new morning radio show, offering an additional half-hour of up-to-the-minute news and information to millions of VOA listeners throughout Ethiopia. The new morning show features on-the-ground news reports, the latest U.S. and world news, cultural highlights, and in-depth coverage of social, political and economic issues directly affecting Ethiopians. "We're always striving to meet the growing needs of our audience," said VOA Amharic Service Chief David Arnold. "We want to reach the widest possible audience, particularly in the rural areas where listenership has peaked," he added. The morning show airs live, Monday-Friday at 0300 UT (6:00 a.m. local) via shortwave. In addition, VOA Amharic airs a one-hour evening show at 1800 UTC (9:00 p.m. local), seven days a week. Both programs are available live and on demand at http://www.VOANews.com/horn VOA's Horn of Africa Service broadcasts 12 hours a week, in the Amharic, Afan Oromo and Tigrigna languages. More than 11 percent of Ethiopia's 76.5 million people tune in to VOA Amharic weekly (VOA press release 1627 UT March 3 via gh, DXLD) On ``shortwave``! Could you be a little more specific, or are listeners supposed to search every frequency between 3000 and 30000 kHz? Ah, more frequencies to check for jamming! Schedule now separately posted for VOA Amharic shows: 0300-0330 UTC 7220 9730 13605 [M-F] 1800-1900 UTC 9320 9860 11575 11675 11905 13870 New sites and azimuths: 7220 São Tomé 76, 9730 Sri Lanka 279, 13605 Sri Lanka 275 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. ESTADOS UNIDOS - A redação em língua espanhola da Voz da América está conclamando a todos os seus ouvintes para que mantenham em contato seja por carta ou e-mail, com o objetivo de mostrar para a direção da estação que possui audiência. Nos últimos tempos, aquela redação voltou a enviar o cartão QSL para quem remeter informes de recepção. Aqui vão as coordenadas: Voz da América, 330 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, D.C. 20237, Estados Unidos; ou ao endereço eletrônico da apresentadora Mercedes Antezana (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX March 2 via DXLD) ** U S A. WBCQ To Change Frequency --- Don't see that anyone had posted this info already: WBCQ reception notes and info: On the Friday evening (UT Saturday 0000) airing of Jennifer's "867- 5309" program on 7415 kHz, the format of that program was announced to be changed from music to being a Jennifer-and-Allan talk show and Allan also announced that, as of 1 April 08, the WBCQ upper frequency of 17495 will change to 15420 kHz. Allan mentioned the historical reference that this 15420 used to be a WRNO frequency. Reception of this program here in St. Louis, MO, on 7415 kHz was good, up until just before the end of the program around 0055 UT, when the signal abruptly nosedived into the noise. The following "Allan Weiner Worldwide" program was completely un-hearable here. The next evening at the same hour, the 0000 UT 3/2/08 "Radio Timtron Worldwide" also provided good reception here, and then the scheduled 0100 UT "Cut The Crap with A.J." program was not on -- filler music was played until 0107 with the signal weakening and noise increasing, and then what appeared to be a re-play of a recorded "Allan Weiner Worldwide" began (with the usual "William Tell Overture" music) but was buried in noise and became totally unlistenable within seconds. Evening reception here of WBCQ on 7415 kHz has been wildly variable. Most days it has dropped into the noise around the times cited above, but there are days when it is strong and clear later into the evening and even until signoff at 0530 UT. It's also been noted to disappear at the early hour and then re-appear later and be heard in the 0400 UT range. No idea how to predict when any of these will happen. As I type this, it's coming in fine at 0010 UT 3/3/08 with music and "Le Show with Harry Shearer". 73 (Will Martin, St Louis MO, March 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Under the Bush budget, PBS and NPR would lose $400 million - -- a tremendous loss to the best broadcasting in America. But he pumps untold billions into a winless civil war (Observerscope, Oklahoma Observer Feb 25 via DXLD) ** U S A. Re 8-028: Glenn: -- "The only bright spots on the band to me are Radio Disney..." -- Is this meant to be in jest?? Anything and everything Disney spews out falls anywhere between pure crap and pure evil. Or perhaps our above-quoted correspondent wishes to see an entire generation of children grow up to behave as do Britney Spears, or Lindsay Lohan (recently exposing her own fine, fully exposed regalia on the Internet, if you know what I mean). And from spending a year and a half working for them by way of merger/acquisition, I can tell you from personal experience there is no LESS- "Family Friendly" company in this part of the Galaxy. Everything Disney should be ground up and fed to hyenas; and am I the only one who laments the stable of once-classic AM stations (NYC, Atlanta, Houston, Oakland, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Seattle, Phoenix, Belleville & Miami immediately pop into mind) that are now consumed with 24/7 Disneyfluent pouring forth in all their 5 kHz-wide IBOC- laced glory?? (GREG HARDISON, CA, March 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. With all of William F. Buckley's many interests (he was, among other things, a connoisseur of peanut butter), http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/02/27/710879.aspx it should come as no surprise that there was a broadcast connection in his life even deeper than his decades as host of "Firing Line." Buckley, who died Wednesday (Feb. 27) at 82, served from 1973 to 1975 as chairman of Starr Broadcasting, which owned WNCN (104.3 New York), and what a tumultuous time that was: in 1974, Starr flipped WNCN from its longtime classical format to rock under the new calls WQIV*. Back when the FCC paid attention to stations' format choices, that flip was a big deal - so big, in fact, that the "WNCN Listeners' Guild" prodded Starr into flipping the station back to classical and selling it to GAF Broadcasting. (It was in the aftermath of the WNCN brouhaha that the FCC got out of the format-regulation business; 18 years later, GAF flipped WNCN back to rock as WAXQ without much of an outcry.) [* and weren`t those calls supposed to evoke Quadraphonic? --- gh] THIS WEEK'S BLOODBATH: CITADEL It's beginning to sound like a broken record (remember those?) - Big Conglomerate Broadcaster posts bad quarterly earnings results, and within a day or two, dozens more talented broadcasters are out on the streets, never mind how good their ratings might have been or how many years they'd been with the station. The disease seems to be working its way through all the big "C" companies, first with CBS Radio and Clear Channel earlier this year. On Leap Day Friday, it was Citadel's turn, as the company reeled from the losses that followed last year's ambitious purchase of the ABC Radio assets, which helped drag its stock down to the $1 level from a year-ago high of $10.40 per share. After posting a net loss for the quarter of $848 million, the job cuts came fast and furious at most of the former ABC Radio properties. In Atlanta, nearly the entire airstaffs at WKHX(FM) and WYAY(FM) were history; in Washington, smooth jazz WJZW(FM) and its airstaff were gone, replaced with automated "True Oldies"; in Chicago, much of the news staff at WLS was history - and in New York, WABC (770) and WPLJ (95.5) were not immune. At WABC, the cuts claimed John R. Gambling, the third-generation talk host who came to the station in 2000 after his Rambling With Gambling morning show was cancelled by WOR following an amazing 75-year run. In his place, former WABC morning host Curtis Sliwa, relegated to a 5-6 AM talk hour, will move to the 10-11:45 AM slot preceding Paul Harvey and Rush Limbaugh. But newsman George Weber, who'd been Sliwa's sidekick in the early mornings, won't join him on his new shift - Weber's out as well... [more] http://www.fybush.com/NERW/2008/080303/nerw.html (Scott Fybush, NE Radio Watch March 3 via DXLD) CITADEL'S FARID SULEMAN MUST GO By Jerry Del Colliano, Monday, March 03, 2008 This isn't personal. I don't even know the man. I know he has had an excellent career as a bean counter for Mel Karmazin, but something needs to be said. I am tired of reading news accounts of the implosion at Citadel without anyone standing up and saying what's on everyone's mind. Citadel CEO Farid Suleman must be fired. He has earned the right to get a pink slip for many, many reasons. Among them: 1. Presiding over a company that is virtually worthless to its shareholders. Over $10 a share a year or so ago and $1.10 a share when it closed Friday. I mention shareholder value first since it is the Holy Grail of consolidators. The shareholders should call for his head based on that alone. But, there's more. 2. Farid has presided over the destruction of the once proud and profitable ABC radio stations and network. He lusted after them like a true dealmaker with eyes larger than his stomach, but in the end his actions or inactions ran ABC into the ground, too... http://insidemusicmedia.blogspot.com/2008/03/citadels-farid-suleman-must-go.html (via DXLD) ** U S A. CPs ON THE AIR --- 1220, KM2XVL, TX, Huntsville - U1 170/11 at N30-43-07 W95-31-40 (AM Switch, NRC DX News March 10 via DXLD) Experimental. What`s the story here? Prison radio? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U S A. LOCAL RADIO STATION MOVES TO VEGAS By NEIL YOUNG/The Daily News Saturday, March 1, 2008 10:13 PM CST LAKE HAVASU CITY - More radio changes hit the Tri-state as K-Hits moved up the FM dial from 93.5 to 104.9. K-Hits, an uptempo or “hot adult contemporary” formatted station, was broadcast locally on KADD, licensed to Laughlin. Now KADD has moved to Logandale, Nev., “which will make it a Las Vegas radio station,” said Chris Rolando, president and CEO of K-Hits owner Murphy Broadcasting, Mad Dog Wireless and Smoke and Mirrors, based in Lake Havasu City. Murphy has moved the K-Hits format to KVAL, a new station they recently signed on. It's licensed to the small town of CalNevAri, between Laughlin and Searchlight. “There's two more moves in the chess moves that won't happen for a couple more years, but it will move a couple of more stations around in the area,” Rolando said. “This area's rather pivotal for Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles, and things that happen here affect things all the way up and down.” In the past several years, stations broadcasting on dial positions at 92.7, 102.7, 105.9 and 107.9 have been shifted from Mohave County cities to the Las Vegas area, where radio stations can charge more money for commercials and if sold, fetch a much higher price. Another station is moving south instead of north, but that won't affect its coverage area, according to Billy Williams of Cameron Broadcasting. KFLG (K-Flag Country), whose main station at 94.7 is licensed to Kingman, will change its city of license to Big River, Calif., near Parker. Its transmission site will also be moved to that area but will not affect the station's reception in the Tri-state, Williams said. “Our move is just a transmission site move, and it'll still provide a great signal to the market - in fact, better. We actually pick up population,” he said. The change will happen within the next three months, Williams said. KFLG broadcasts to the Bullhead City area at 95.9. The sale of Murphy Broadcasting to Blue Point Media is still under way, Rolando said. “This is a rather massive deal that involves radio stations all the way from Washington to Chicago and on down into this area in Southern Arizona and Southern California,” he said. “It's going to take quite a bit more time to completely stitch together.” Rolando expects the deal to close in about 18 months (source? via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) Here's how these moves really work on the ground: KADD will go to a site near Mesquite, Nevada that was carefully chosen to be terrain-shadowed from Las Vegas. (I think - but am not certain - that it's the same tower site, visible from I-15, that's already being used by several other Vegas rimshotters.) Then it will take advantage of the FCC's booster rules, which allow an on-channel booster to be located anywhere within the primary station's theoretical (i.e., not taking terrain into account) 60 dBu contour, and to use up to 20% of the primary station's ERP. So what it gets out of the deal is a 20 kW "booster" that really serves as the main Vegas-market signal, and 20 kW is plenty to cover the Vegas Valley from a decent height. There are a few markets out west that have become prime booster targets. Salt Lake City is by far the biggest - there's a site called "Humpy Peak" about 50 miles east of downtown SLC that's home to something like 8 class C licenses, CPs or apps, all of them boostered into the Salt Lake valley. (And some of them, as Michael Richard can attest, not even always bothering to operate the "primary" signal all the time!) Phoenix, Denver and Dallas all have several of these, too, and it looks like Boise may be the next market to get them. Anything to cram a few more signals onto a crowded dial! s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) Yup yup yup! You beat me to it, Scott. I figured that's precisely what they were going to do. Vegas is gonna have its own "Humpy". I'm not too keen on Vegas stations so I didn't know there were others using the same site. I know there are a couple sites visible from I-15, one of them actually right next to freeway around Logandale - you can see the bays. I know it's not that one, at least not according to where the FCC map plots KADD's xmtr site. Looks like it's further south and further toward Vegas. And no, St George is on the other side of some pretty hefty mountains. The Vegas stations don't reach St George well at all. And consequently the St George stations don't reach that area between there and Vegas either. There are a few - KREC is one of them, that have their transmitter way up on a peak near Cedar City, UT --- now THAT site does reach the open area from Mesquite to Vegas. Most of the St George FMs are on a butte in St George that's not very tall. I checked into all of this because KADD (K-hits) is what my wife and I listen to when we're down there in Kingman. Kinda bummed when I saw that it was going away. The station runs ABC Radio's Hot AC network. They are claiming they are moving the format to Calnevari. Okay. Radio-Locator shows ERP of that station to be 100 watts. Yes at the high elevation on Christmas Tree Pass it will go far but I don't think it'll reach Kingman or Havasu. I guess they probably plan on getting translators or re-tuning some of their others. It's a pretty interesting situation over there. Most of the stations in Kingman, Bullhead City / Laughlin and Lake Havasu City all serve the "tri-state area". So most have their main transmitter in one area, and have translators in the other 2 areas. That's how K-hits was. That's how KFLG is. There aren't many FMs in the whole "tri-state" area that serve just one area or one city. Take a look. Go to radio-locator and put in the calls for any Kingman, Lake Havasu City, Bullhead City or Laughlin NV station. You'll see their other translators/boosters listed at the bottom and just about all of them have some. There are also 2 AMs that do something similar. KAAA (1230) in Kingman and KZZZ (1490) in Bullhead City. They simulcast the two. It's "All Talk from A to Z" --- that's their slogan. Interesting area. I imagine back in the late 70s before Bullhead City and Lake Havasu City even existed (they weren't incorporated until the early 80s) it was a little different and Kingman had its own stations. Not really the case anymore, although 2 clusters offices ARE located there (Michael n Wyo Richard, Evanston, ibid.) Interesting, but if they want to serve Las Vegas, why not just pick transmitter site that serves Vegas? If they can find a "booster" site that serves the area, why not just put the main signal there? Why the need to play these games? (Mike Westfall, Los Álamos NM, ibid.) Blame the FCC's arcane allocations system, which allows a 20 kW booster on 105.7, for instance, atop the Stratosphere Hotel in the center of Vegas. You can't put a main signal there, though, because it would be too close to third-adjacent KQRT 105.1 (or whatever the calls are this week) Las Vegas. The booster rules were never meant to allow these sorts of things to happen, but the loophole was there and a few people got very, very rich taking advantage of it. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Because, just like up here, they have run out of small towns to license stations to in the Vegas market. It all depends on what they can trick the FCC into. They go to the FCC and say "Hey, Cal-Nev-Ari has no radio service and we want to give that town a radio service." Once they do that and get it, then they can show on a map that technically Las Vegas IS technically in the station`s main contour; however, they can't reach that part of their contour because of mountains so the FCC authorizes them to put boosters there to fill in the area that the main transmitter can't reach because of the mountains. In Utah it's the same thing. No more small towns or areas to license a station to so let`s spread out and find a small podunk town and try to get the FCC to license a station to it then put the transmitter on Humpy Peak - and the main signal will reach the COL; however from Humpy Peak, Salt Lake City metro is technically in the station's coverage area so therefore they get the boosters. Yeah don't get me started on those games. As Scott said, just another way to get more stations into a market that's already over-crowded, hurting everyone in the market and splitting up the market's advertising dollars into even smaller pieces (Michael n Wyo, ibid.) Well, it figures that FCC nonsense plays into this. So "boosters" and "main signals" have different rules regarding adjacents? (Mike Westfall, ibid.) Yes, I think boosters have different rules, because they are Class D. (Paul B. Walker, Jr., SC, ibid.) Indeed they do. A "main signal" has to meet a bunch of criteria in order to get allotted and licensed. There has to be a set of reference coordinates that designate a site where you could, theoretically, build a station that - a) is fully spaced, according to the mileage tables in 47CFR73.207, to all other licensed stations and vacant allocations b) puts 70 dBu over its entire community of license c) fulfills the FCC's mandate, under Section 307(b) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, to distribute broadcast service in a "fair and equitable" manner. (Under the FCC's current interpretation of the rule, this strongly favors "first local service" even to the tiniest of communities; at the same time, the current main-studio rules, which may be changed soon, don't mandate very much in the way of actual SERVICE to those communities of license.) For a class C signal like you'd find out west, full second-adjacent or third-adjacent spacing to another class C signal is 105 km, or about 65 miles. Interestingly, that spacing requirement is the same even for C/C1 and C/C2 spacing. Now here's the fun part. Once you've identified your reference coordinates, you don't actually have to build your station there. There's another rule - 73.215 - that allows you to build your station at what's called a "short-spaced" location, one that doesn't meet the spacing criteria in 73.207, as long as you can show that some combination of terrain shielding and the use of a directional antenna will keep your station from actually interfering with its neighbors on the first-, second- and third-adjacent channels. Enter a site like Humpy Peak, east of Salt Lake City, that's completely terrain-shielded from Salt Lake itself by higher mountains in the way. And enter the booster rules, which were meant specifically to allow terrain-challenged stations to get their signals over hills and mountain ranges to serve presumably underserved listeners in hollows and valleys and what have you. Now throw in one more fact about certain markets such as Dallas and Denver and Salt Lake: in Dallas, all the FM stations went on the TV towers that were all located some 25 miles south of town, in part because that's where the population was back then, and in part because the presence of the airport north of town restricted tall towers there. In Denver and Salt Lake, geography was destiny - the FMs and TVs ended up on one edge of the market because that's where the mountains were. (Phoenix, too.) So each of those markets had the right conditions for these second- and third-adjacent drop-ins to get built. In Dallas, when you draw that 105 km circle around the class C stations at the Cedar Hill site, you end up at the northern edge of the ever-growing Dallas/Fort Worth suburbia, halfway to Oklahoma. Stick a 2000' tower up there, and the lack of terrain means that your signal does a decent job of covering the market. In Denver, it's a 2000' tower out on the plains 50-some miles east of town, aided by boosters closer in. In Salt Lake, it's Humpy Peak, as noted earlier. And Vegas - well, that's an interesting one. Many of the class C stations in town are on a site called Black Mountain that's very close to town. It's so close, in fact, that when you draw the 105 km circle, it's too far out to make a second-adjacent rimshot or rimshot/booster combo practical. But beginning about 20 years ago, a few stations began moving to another site at Mount Potosi, about 20 miles southwest of Vegas. That site (now home to stations on 88.9, 89.7, 92.3, 93.1, 97.1, 104.3 and 107.5) is just far enough out at the edge of the market to allow a bunch of rimshots to set up on the second- and third-adjacent channels, aided by boosters. It's a pretty arcane game, and there aren't many people out there who fully understand how to make it work to their advantage. And there are dangers - if the FCC makes good on its threat to tighten up the main studio rules again, all those stations licensed to obscure places like Dewey-Humboldt AZ ("Phoenix"), Randolph UT ("Salt Lake"), Krum TX ("Dallas-Fort Worth," with apologies to the Krumudgeon) and so on would actually have to establish real studios and community- ascertainment boards in those towns, some of which have populations that barely hit triple digits. That would be an interesting turnaround... s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Which has been my number one complaint. That they are licensing stations to communities that barely even exist and certainly the stations don't give a rat's A$$ about those communities. Wonderful explanation, Scott! Thank you! MJR (Richard, ibid.) ** U S A. CRAZY EIGHTS – PART TWO: "RAIDERS OF THE LOST FREQUENCIES (THE SEQUEL)" - OR ----- POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS FOR NEW PUBLIC RADIO OUTLETS AND EXISTING ONES LIKE KGNU AND KVOD/ 88.1 ARE ON THE HORIZON, IF WE ACT SOON! We’re only two months into 2008, and for the “radio-conscious” here’s one issue in this highly-charged political year that’s still “beneath the radar”: another possible round of selling-off some of the public’s airwaves to the highest bidder. It could happen again, much like the fire sale of radio frequencies following the re-write (butchering) of the Telecommunications Act of 1994 (thanks, Uncle Newt). . . [more] http://coloradopublicradio.blogspot.com/2008/02/crazy-eights-part-two-raider-of-lost.html (CPR blog Friday, February 29, 2008 via DXLD) Main topic is expanding FM down to 82 MHz (gh) ** VATICAN. Radio Vaticana 2300 in English on 7370 DRM in English, with 125 kilowatts. Transmission is beamed to NAm but reception here in England for the most part is very stable. Best Wishes from England and 73 (Chris Lewis, England, March 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Rather 7365-7370-7375. Essentially same direxion (gh) Hi Glenn, Vatican Radio will transmit DRM to the Winter SWL Fest, from Santa Maria di Galeria. This will be 6-8 March at 1300-1400 UT, on either 15460 or 15515. I have to listen tomorrow to see which is clearer. 73 (Kim Elliott, DC, March 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) +/- 5 kHz ** VENEZUELA. Re 8-028: Voice of Hugo --- YVTO heard on 5100 Saturday (and 5000 throughout weekend) during DXpedition. Logs available in next day or two. -- HF (Harold Frodge, MI, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA [non]. All I had time for Sunday March 2 in checking Aló, Presidente, was to find that at 1428, 13750 was VG // weak 13680 and 11670; 11875 underneath WEWN, not on 11680 again instead. Big open carrier on 17750, probably WYFR instead. I heard later on BBC news that on this show, HCF announced tanks positioned on Colombian border because he doesn`t like Colombia hitting FARC across another border in Ecuador. Oh, boy (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. RADIOFORPEACE E IL CISP PER I SAHARAWI Radioforpeace in collaborazione con il Cisp, Comitato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo dei popoli, un' organizzazione non governativa italiana, propone un ciclo di trasmissione dedicate ai progetti di aiuto e solidarietà con il popolo saharawi. I progetti sono finanziati dalla Regione Emilia Romagna e altri enti locali della regione. La trasmissione, trasmessa in lingua spagnola e araba, è irradiata via satellite sulla frequenza 11541 Verticale del satellite Hotbird 8, on line dal sito di RadioforPeace e dalle frequenze in onde medie di Radio National la radio che trasmette dalla Repubblica Araba Democratica Saharawi (RASD). Per contatti e informazioni radioforpeace @ libero.it (via Roberto Scaglione, Sicily, March 1, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) Believe this previously was on IRRS shortwave too (gh, DXLD) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. ALGERIA: 6300 Radio Arabe Sahuari/Radio Nacional Sahuari; 2209, 1-Mar; M in Arabic with RAS ID. SIO=343; 2254- 2402:19*, 1/2-Mar; M in Spanish with SS Libertad song in Arabic-style. RNS ID at 2401; off after anthem. SIO=3+33- Strong roar QRM came on at 2403+ (Harold Frodge, Michigan Area Radio Enthusiasts DXpedition, Brighton MI, Drake R8B + 500' NE unterminated bev, 65' TTFD, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** ZAMBIA. 13650, CVC Christian Voice; 1522-1531+, 1-Mar; Contemporary Christian tunes; Letters, CVC ID. All in English SIO=253 (Harold Frodge, Michigan Area Radio Enthusiasts DXpedition, Brighton MI, Drake R8B + 500' NE unterminated bev, 65' TTFD, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 4965 around 2000 sounds different than before, not so religious, and with African music rather than western pop. Others please check (Chris Hambly, Vic., UT March 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Not sure whether that transmitter has been programmed from Australia, like 13590/13650, but if so maybe they have finally started feeding it from new studios in RSA, accounting for the difference. Still CVC, no doubt with religion, stealthy or not. See if the 13 MHz frequencies have changed character too. Still nothing new as promised at http://www.voiceafrica.org/radio.html (Glenn Hauser, OK, March 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZANZIBAR. English news heard today, 2 March, from Spice FM on Radio Tanzania Zanzibar at 1800 on 11735. There was no English news at 1800 yesterday, 1 March (Steve Lare, Holland, MI USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sunday and Saturday UNIDENTIFIED. 4600.235, harmonic which seems to be "a Florida thing." Possibly a Central American harmonic; 1 March (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, República de Flórida 8-) NRD 535D, 746 Pro, R75,R7, R8, Sony 2010XA, HCDX via DXLD) Time?? UNIDENTIFIED. 03-02-08 GMT 0330-0340, 5014.3, Latin +5 dB. Kenwood R- 5000, 400' L shaped longwire with 200' buried ground with 10' deep rods every 20 feet (Steve Price, Johnstown, PA, ODXA yg via DXLD) Looks like R. Altura, PERU, q.v. UNIDENTIFIED [non]. Hi Glenn, Was tuning around near the 49 meter band yesterday evening (can't remember time exact) and came across a transmission in Persian on 5750 kHz. After waiting a while, heard a station ID as VOA. I checked the VOA website and saw one frequency as 5850. Is this a punch up error at the transmitter site or is it a harmonic? The signal was fair, and the program featured music during a call in program (Chris Lewis, England, March 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Chris, Kuwait at 70 degrees is scheduled on 5750 at 1830-2030, so if it was during that time period, no mistake. However, per Aoki, languages are 1830 Pashto, 1930 Dari = same as Persian to us. 73, (Glenn to Chris, via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. RE: DXLD 8-028, 6020: Vietnam [and RUSSIA above]: Thank you for the follow up. So the only question left would seem to be whether or not it's VOV-4 under Australia from post VR/Philippines sign-off at 1313 through the start of the WYFR/Russia tones before 1400. Given the usual strength of RA, think it will be hard to ID VOV- 4. Would help if we could find a live audio streaming website, which so far I have not been able to locate. Thanks again for your input! (Ron Howard, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6074, 8GAL: for second morning in a row, not audible with V/CQ CW marker when checked between 1357 and 1402 March 2 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ In memory of Rocky. Wishing you well! (Rod Scribner, KA1RFD, Pittston ME, with a check in the mail to P O Box 1684, Enid OK 73702) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ CQOOGLE.COM Check out the new search engine for ham radio ops. It is 100% ham related. Ron, KA2BZS, states, "Google is great! 'CQoogle.com' is a 'Search Engine' design specifically for the Radio Hams. Our engineers have designed a sophisticated set of rules and algorithms to ensure only Ham Radio results are found. We hope you enjoy using our 'Search Engine' as much as we enjoyed building it." (The Ohio/Penn DX PacketCluster DX Bulletin No. 848, March 3, 2008, Editor Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW, Provided by BARF80.ORG (Cleveland, Ohio), via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) So no SWL stuff for sure (gh) WORLD OF HOROLOGY +++++++++++++++++ BACK IN SIXTY SECONDS That`s what Bob Schieffer sometimes says somewhere in the middle of Face the Nation, Sunday mornings on CBS TV. If you really have a commercial break of ONLY ONE MINUTE, bragging about it is certainly called for. But you`d better have it right. This break, March 2, easily timed on my VCR, lasted 125 seconds (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sunset in Samara: see RUSSIA CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ FUTURE RADIO From the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), a free event in Central London: Lecture | 10 March 2008 18:30 | National Radio as a medium of culture and information is about to undertake a paradigm shift. It's not that radio needs a new story, it has one already. The question is how are we going to adapt to it? Future radio offers radical new ways of engagement. The opportunities offered by high speed connectivity between portable handheld devices, the wide take up of wi-fi internet broadband, the nascent vitality of social networking sites and the inevitable process of human viral networking will increasingly define the future radio landscape. Future radio will be a multi-media, downloadable, time-switchable, podcastable, portable, interactive, international and consumer-led process. Are we ready for it? Can we afford it? Can we afford not to afford it? Do we have to let go of all we hold dear? And how do we ensure that a remarkable radio heritage is not lost in the process? At this event, a panel of experts will look at the world of Future Radio. Panel to include: Ivor Gaber, Emeritus Professor of Broadcast Journalism, Goldsmiths University of London; Andrew Philips, Channel 4 Radio, Ayesha Mohideen, Head of Speech Radio Interactive, BBC Audio & Music Interactive and Neil Gardner, Chair, Radio Independents Group Chaired by Norman Lebrecht, Assistant Editor, London Evening Standard and presenter, BBC Radio 3. In association with RIG (Radio Independents Group) and the Society of Authors. Free but pre-book at the link below, location Location: RSA, 8 John Adam Street, London, WC2N 6EZ (just off the Strand between Charing Cross and the Savoy). The audio of this event may stream online or be available later as a podcast. Booking link: http://www.thersa.org/events/detail.asp?eventID=2484 (via Mike Barraclough, uk-radio-listeners yg via Rich Cuff, swprograms via DXLD) SWL WINTER FEST DRM special test plans: See GUIANA FRENCH; VATICAN [and ECUADOR as previously published] DIGITAL BROADCASTING more DRM: see CANADA; ECUADOR; GERMANY; ROMANIA ++++++++++++++++++++ QUIT DRM TILL THERE IS AN AUDIENCE DRM for shortwave at this moment is in my opinion an absolute waste of radio station´s resources. Looking further, each DRM transmitter that is on the air using electricity generated with fossil fuels, is also, again in my opinion a very negative contribution to the preservation of the environment because it contributes to global warming. My appeal is for all DRM short wave broadcast transmissions to be stopped immediately and only be resumed on a logical basis, when radio receivers for that digital system are available, The DRM broadcasts should then only be targeted to areas where those receivers are known to exist. Please think of the damage that DRM transmissions are doing to the environment and also to other broadcasters that are suffering from interference caused by the DRM wide bandwidth , another relevant topic that should be also considered. Comments invited to : coro @ enet.cu Signed (Professor Arnaldo Coro Antich, Mass communications specialist, Habana, Cuba, Mar 3, 2008 at 4:15 pm [CET?], Media Network blog via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ SHORTWAVE CONVERTERS FOR CAR I've been a ham since 1973 and an SWLer since I got my first receiver from Spiegel's catalog in 1966. I was taking a Spanish class at the time. Being able to tune in SS broadcasts helped me quite a bit back then and it exposed me to a life-long SWL hobby. I especially like the 120 and 90 meter bands for Latin American DX on the inverted L, 30 feet up and 100 feet out, but I don't limit myself to those bands, of course. I can hardly wait for more sunspots and 21.6 mc openings! I'd like to do more mobile HF listening without exposing expensive HF equipment to parking-lot theft. Remember Electronics Illustrated magazine? That one, and others, occasionally published converter circuits that would put a couple of HF SWBC bands on the car radio. This is something I'd like to do so that I might enjoy some HF reception on my 45 minute drive to work. If any of your listeners/readers have a favorite converter circuit to pass along, I'd welcome the opportunity to build one, get it working, and report on the results (or lack thereof). My postal mailing address is on QRZ.COM and my e-mail address is jswaters @ hotmail.com 73 & good dx (Jim Swaters WB0IXI, March 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) MFJ made such a converter, feeding into 1400 kHz or so on your analog- tuned AM radio. Never worked properly for me on all the bands (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###