DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-056, May 5, 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 1406 Tue 1100 WRMI 9955 Tue 1530 WRMI 9955 Wed 1130 WRMI 9955 Wed 2300 WBCQ 17495-CUSB 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 ** ABKHAZIA. 9495, Abkhazia, Georgia. 0430 in Russian, commenting in the studio about to start the FS due to the many letters from whole world. The news in RR at 1100 now is daily from Abkhaz Radio, Sundays from the Russian troops (they called them "keepforced troops"), April. No more relay of Radio Sochi and Radio Kuban on 9495, only Radio Rossii is there, seems the transmitter is already in Sukhumi (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria, Sony 2001D, Folded Marconi 16 meters, May Australian DX News via DXLD) Date?? ** AFGHANISTAN [non]. 17700, 28/04, 1544, R. Solh para o Afeghenistão via Grã Bretanha em Rampisham, VV px mx, nx de +/-5 minutos de 15 em 15 minutos " Mustafa...", as 1700 s/off ficando apenas um sinal de 2 tons, 23322 (RENATO ULIANA, GUARULHOS-SP, BRASIL, @tividade DX May 4 via DXLD) Supposed to run until 1800. Have not been able to hear this in weeks, and check almost every morning around 1230-1430 at least (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AFRICA. Africalist Update --- Das zur Zeit etwa monatliche Africalist-Update fand heute seinen Weg ins Netz und ist wie immer unter http://www.africalist.de.ms zu finden The (currently approx.) monthly update of the Africalist database has just been finished and can be found as usual on http://www.africalist.de.ms 73 (Thorsten Hallmann, Germany, May 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. 13640, R. Tirana, Shijak. Strong from *1430, English to North America, starts with sked. Very strong on 23/4 (Craig Seager, DX-Pedition Tuckers Rocks, near Urunga NSW, May Australian DX News via DXLD) R. Tirana, 13600, in English to NAm, was just introducing final musical segment when I tuned in May 5 at 2021, until 2028* Turned out to be the only European signal making it thru on that band, SINPO 25333, so congratulations are in order. SF=68, K=3 at 21 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Solar-terrestrial indices for 05 May follow. Solar flux 68 and estimated mid-latitude A-Index 11. The mid-latitude K-index at 2100 UTC on 05 May was 3 (25 nT). No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours. No space weather storms are expected for the next 24 hours (SWPC via DXLD) ** ANTARCTICA. LRA36 Arcángel, 15476, 1912 UT May 5. Female talks about Argentina, followed by Spanish music. Noisy and poor audio. RX: Perseus, Diff. Antennas, Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No trace here same day (gh, OK) ** ARGENTINA. I have now had a chance to look thru the latest WRTH update, for which we thank them. I have not examined every single line at all, but skimmed with special attention to some possible problem areas. Starting with: Portuguese at 0000-0100 missing; days of week are wrong for all broadcasts after 0000: Tue-Sat, not M-F (Glenn Hauser, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Many more WRTH update comments to follow below LRA, R. Nacional, 15345.1, UT Monday May 5 at 0138, fair at peaks but with deep fades, apparently a dramatic dialog about singing tangos. This frequency is on so late only on weekends, not to be confused with RAE on weekdays, tho it`s the very same transmitter at General Pacheco (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. The RA DRM service from Brandon is now a permanent part of the schedule. the DRM transmissions are: 5995 kHz 1100-1200 UT bearing 010 degrees, target Papua-New Guinea 12080 kHz 1200-1400 UT bearing 080 degrees, target south-west Pacific Ocean (Solomon Islands, Vanuatu) Power for both transmissions is only 4 kW, this will be raised to 8 kW. The aerials are HR2/2/0.3 6-12 MHz dipole arrays made by TCI. Brandon is located about 60 km south of Townsville in north Queensland. Its co-ordinates are: Lat/Long - 19.55, 147.35 (South 19.55 degrees, East 147.35 degrees) The programming on both frequencies is Radio Australia's English service to the Pacific. (Nigel Holmes, RA, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA [and non]. I want to like listening to SW, but a huge percentage of what's broadcast is just boring crap. I often wonder if there's anyone out there listening to some of this stuff and thinking it's incredibly interesting. Maybe I'm just assuming that because I'm hearing something in English that I'm the intended audience. Some of the more interesting SW I used to hear regularly was a domestic call-in show from Radio Australia where they'd often discuss political issues. I liked to hear what regular Australians thought about various world political topics. Most of the "cultural" stuff is like it's been produced to entertain five year olds. Maybe that's just an offshoot of trying to make the country look good rather than painting a true picture. With "Australia Talks Back" they just broadcast what the regular bloke off the street has to say about a particular topic. It was at least genuine (Jay Heyl, FL, ABDX via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. SPECIAL BROADCAST. We have a special amateur hookup with Reg Fookes from Caringbah NSW. VH2AKY will be on air Friday 16th May at 8 pm or 1000 UT on 3550 kHz on upper sideband. A QSL card will be available from myself thru Reg. As we have never done the amateur thing it will be something different again. So all you amateurs, there is something for you! Reg is operating on 2 watts! SWLers also welcome to send in a report for a QSL card. However his sked into Cowra always works! So please listen in or make contact with Reg. Okay the address to write with a report is, John Wright, 29 Milford Rd, Peakhurst NSW 2210. Remember invention, otherwise we still would be swinging from the trees! Cheers (Johno, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** BELARUS. Radio Kultura 0330-2100 kHz / kW / Tx 1008 / 50 / Grodno 1008 / 7 / Smetanichii 1008 / 50 / Slonom 1008 / 25 / Bobruysk 1026 / 7 / Brest 1026 / 7 / Pinsk 1026 / 5 / Miory 1026 / 50 / Mogilev 1026 / 25 / Myadel 1125 / 150 / Minsk 1125 / 5 / Baranovichi 1197 / 40 / Vitebsk 1197 / 5 / Braslov 7265 / 5 / Grodno Belorusskoe Radio 0300-2100 279 / 500 / Sosnivy 1278 / 10 / Brest 6010 / 5 / Brest 6040 / 5 / Grodno 6070 / 5 / Brest 6080 / 150 / Kolodishche 6115 / 75 / Kolodishche 6190 / 5 / Mogilev 7110 / 5 / Grodno 7145 / 5 / Mogilev 0400-0700 11930 / 250 / Kolodishche 1170 / Sosnovy 1500-1700 7105 / 250 / Kolodishche 1170 / 800 / Sosnovy (Alexander Mazgo, Vitebsk, Belarus, Rus-DX May 3 via DXLD) ** BENIN [and non]. 5025 ORTB, Parakou, 2132-2136, 03 May, noisy & almost empty carrier, so this is actually my 270 m Africa Beverage beamed 145º "telling" me the signal comes from Benin; 34333, QRM de AUS. Should the Parakou transmitter be in good shape, I would not be able to get such a reception of VL8K 5025 (check AUS 5025). Viz.: 5025 VL8K, *2130-2210, 03 May, cf. \\ 4835 VL8A; 54333 (!!!), QRM de BEN (Carlos Gonçalves, SW coast of Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BERMUDA. ZBM BERMUDA: 1340 AM TRANSMITTER “ABOUT TO DIE” The Bermuda Broadcasting Company has been forced to back down on a plan to shift Everest DeCosta’s popular afternoon radio talk show to a new time slot and cut his on-air time in half following complaints from listeners. BBC programming head Darlene Ming told the the Bermuda Sun this week all programmes running on 1340 AM radio, including Mr. DeCosta’s, would be moved to ZBM FM 89 from Monday, because the 1340 AM transmitter “is about to die.” She would not comment specifically on Mr DeCosta’s show. The Bermuda Sun has been told Mr. DeCosta’s ‘The People’s Show,’ which currently runs from 12 noon to 4 pm, had been moved to new 4 to 6 pm time slot, and listeners were not amused. As a result, ZBM has quietly backed down on its original plan, and the programme will air at the usual time (Source: Bermuda Sun) (May 3rd, 2008 - 14:00 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 5952.47, Radio Pio XII, Siglo XX, 1032-1040, May 04, Aymara, local news by male (all in aymara), very nice local songs (in aymara), Talks about the autonomy referendum in Bolivia's Santa Cruz province on May 4. Reports, 44422 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 6134.8, R. Santa Cruz, 0100 5/4/08. Best ever reception peaked at S8. At least four "Radio Santa Cruz" IDs on either side of 0105, followed by small men's choral group doing a ranchero style ballad to 0108*. R. Aparecida left on 6135. Brazilian clear but very weak (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Drake R8, JRC NRD-545, 70' Inverted V http://www.radiodx.net/wordpress/ Cumbre DX via DXLD) 6134.82, Radio Santa Cruz, 0104-0108*, May 5, tune-in to Spanish closing announcements with several IDs followed by a local ranchero tune to 0108*. Good level but some QRM from Brazil on 6134.95. (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. RADIO ESTATAL BOLIVIANA ESTRENA PÁGINA WEB http://www.prensalatina.com.mx/Article.asp?ID=%7B41989B10-AAC4-4394-97BE-B572DC146D6E%7D&language=ES La Paz, 2 may (PL) En su segundo año de labores, el Sistema Nacional de Radios de los Pueblos Originarios de Bolivia y la estatal Radio Patria Nueva estrenaron una página web que multiplica su alcance a nivel mundial. El director nacional de comunicación social, Gastón Núñez, dijo a Prensa Latina que el pasado año el presidente Evo Morales inauguró dicho sistema para “darle voz a los sin voz, como parte de una política de inclusión, que prioriza a sus medios informativos”. Ahora, en la http://www.patrianueva.bo unas 27 emisoras de las comunidades indígenas y campesinas y su planta matriz en castellano y también en sus idiomas natales (aimara, quechua y guaraní) podrán llegar con su mensaje a todo el planeta, afirmó. Por su parte, Iván Maldonado, director de la radio estatal, señaló que la página cuenta con espacios de audio propios, encuestas, sitios de debate y opinión de los radioyentes. Según Maldonado, este esfuerzo de más de un año responde a la solicitud de bolivianos residentes en el exterior y que ahora cuentan con una opción más para conocer la realidad de su país y el proceso de cambios impulsado por el presidente Morales (via José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 4825, Em. Educadora, Bragança. With direct commentary from soccer match in Portuguese, 0120-0155, featured interview at 0130 at half-time, talking about a final battle, on 19/4. Not Canção Nova here - heard with ballads on 9675 at same time (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria, Sony 2001D, Folded Marconi 16 meters, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 7695 kHz, Livre Oldies Radio, nueva emisora que transmite con un transmisor valvular de 50 watts de potencia, de 0300v-1100v los viernes, sábados y domingos, desde algún punto de la región Sudeste del Brasil. Su programación estará compuesta de hits de los años 50, 60 y 70 entre algunos archivos de audio y comerciales antiguos de radio y TV; su público objetivo son los diexistas y amantes de la radio. Están preparando QSLs las que en breve enviarán a quienes le envíen sus reportes a: cidadeoldies @ live.nl (Adalberto, B, en DX Clube do Parana, B, via Marcelo Bedene, B, en SW-Pirates, 26.04.08, via Gabriel Iván Barrera, Conexión Digital May 4 via DXLD) 7695, 03/05 2025, Oldies Radio, Brasil, sequencia de musicas pop internacionais, EE cm om/yl, 33443 (Marcelo Bedene, Curitiba-PR, Philco Transglobe TT, Antena vertical aluminio 7m, dxclubepr yg via DXLD) Not per their previously publicized sked of 0300 UT; can`t be sure 2025 is UT as Brazilian DXers often lapse into local UT-3 (gh, DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 9665 with good carrier level, but just barely audible modulation, language unknown, and buzz on the sidebands if tuned a bit above or below, May 5 at 0105. I have no doubt from previous experience that this is the CRI relay via Brasília. Is Brasil collecting rent on this total joke? Serves the damned Chicom jammers right. Per HFCC it`s at 01-02 at 215 degrees, and 03-04 at 250 degrees; however it was still on at 0204 recheck; wonder if it stays on during the intervening hour, vying with North Korea for the worst signal on 9665 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Another question: Is this transmitter plant still in use for anything else besides CRI? All other foreign customers left years ago. There were quite a number of them: Deutsche Welle (started in November 1987, gone by 1996), Swiss Radio International (already running by 1990, gone by 1996), BBC apparently for some time during the eighties (explained as "left after the Ascension relay has been expanded" in 1990), around 1990 (was gone by 1993) even a Radio Suriname International, in 1990 reported as Mon-Fri only 1700-1745 on 17750, in Dutch with short news in English at 1730, frequency changes are common "but in any case they stay within the 16 mB". And the CRI relay apparently started in 1991 or very shortly thereafter. All foreign broadcasts from Radiobras (like on 15265 to Europe, which had a behaviour to fade out during the German segment between 1930 and 2050) are long gone, but are the transmitters still in use for domestic coverage? WRTH 2008 shows 5990 Mon-Fri 1000-2400, 6180 or 6190 (maybe about 1000-2400 as well?), 11780 (0900-0200) and also 11950 without a mark for "inactive". The plant in question has six or perhaps seven Brown Boveri SK 53 F3 (motorized manual tuning, plate modulation) transmitters, installed around 1975. Has its exact location already being established? It is not at the coordinates given by TDP, they refer to a point next to the Brazilia airport (which got a new lane only after the images used by Microsoft Virtual Earth had been taken). No transmitter site there or in the surrounding area (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I heard what I'm sure must have been Senado 5990 on the 4th July 2007 at 2155 UT when LUX-DRM was not on air. There was what sounded a debate and, after announcements at 2200, the start of "A Voz do Brasil". But the transmitter dropped off air at 2203. (Reported to DXLD at the time) I haven't tried for it since then - or since LUX stopped DRMing. Maybe someone in SW Europe could try at around 2200. Although I did not make a log of it, I also tentatively heard Amazônia before the frequency changes at the end of March 2008 using 6180 after RHC went off air at 0700. I don't know what else it could have been. Frequency 11780 should be audible in Europe and the Americas if it's still in use - another one to try - but I don't recall any use of 11950 by RadioBras in recent times. But maybe someone else does (Noel R. Green (NW England), ibid.) 11780 is a regular, often big signal here, day and/or night, and 6180 is often there under Cuba (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Researched and exact location established in July 2006 already: B___RadioBras Brazilia Rodeador Park Shortwave 15 36 15.09 S 48 07 49.11 W Nearby B___RadioBras Brazilia MW 980 250kW 15 37 02.38 S 48 07 03.06 W http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=-15.60515&lon=-48.130172&z=17.1&r=0&src=yh http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=-15.60515&lon=-48.130172&z=17.1&r=0&src=ggl 11 masts, 9 curtain arrays 35, 134, 215, 240, 314, 344deg HISTORY: July 1999: R Nac do Brasil (Radiobras) is the Ext sce of the state broadcaster, R Nac do Brasil. The schedule is based on monitoring research and information published by Radiobras. The broadcasts to Africa have not been confirmed. 0115-0215 Po 11780 0415-0515 Po 11765 0700-0800 Po 9745 1000-1120 Sp 9745 1200-1320 En 15445 1330-1450 Sp 15445[48.3] 1630-1750 Po 15265 1800-1920 En 15265 1930-2020 Ge 15265 1800-1920 Po 17750 1920-0000 Po 17750 Su [17753] (BBCM via NASWA, July 1999) is that the president has extinguished RadioBras, which was responsible for the transmissions. Until it is decided which government agency becomes legally responsible for them, the transmissions, even if they continue, will be precarious (Cruz- BRZ/Radioescutas/World of Radio/Hauser, July 22, 1999) German 15265 service ceased April 1999, according to Christoph Ratzer. 15445 was usually strong here in Europe (wb) Oct 1994: RadioBras has difficulties to synchronize two 250 kW txs at one frequency. Deutsche Welle relay in Spanish to S America at 2300-0050 UT is registered on 11810 kHz using two 250 kW transmitters in parallel. But one transmitter moved up to 11813.1 kHz, causing a strong interfering whistle tone (AMID - AGDX Monitoring and Information Service) Parasitical spurs from Brasília in 19 mb. RadioBras of nominal 15265 at 1630-2050 in Por, En, Ge noted with accompanied FM like spurs every 82.5 kHz on 15017.5 15100 15182.5 15347.5 15430 15512.5 (WB, Apr 1994) Sept 1998: Similar spurs of RadioBras noted in the Americas in previous years. Nominal 15445 kHz 1200-1320 in English. 15265 suffered by co-ch V of UAE Abu Dhabi [// 15310] in Arabic. Often 3 kHz off, 15448.3. (WB, Sep 10, 1998) (all via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) Actually it's one site, with separate transmitter buildings for SW and MW, but they are fenced together and share one power substation, located between them, with overhead power line coming in from southwest. So if it is unclear who is responsible for the shortwave transmitters now, I would simply blame the organization in charge for 980 kHz. Is this mediumwave outlet actually on air at present? It's missing from the frequency list in WRTH 2008 while being shown in the country section, with the power specified as 50/300, i.e. 50 kW day and 300 kW night? And I understand that the modulation of the transmissions on 5990 and 6180, as heard by Noel, is OK? Well, as long as China pays for the relay anyway (Kai Ludwig, ibid.) I followed the main power line + masts - 22 kilometers - to 15 47'24.52"S 48 02'59.51"W and came across another small MW mast [or two?] at 15 47'24.52"S 48 02'59.51"W http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=-15.789519&lon=-48.050347&z=18.6&r=0&src=ggl 73 (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, ibid.) ** BRAZIL. R. Brasil Central ID heard in passing immediately upon tuning in to 11815, May 3 at 2345, then went on to thank god for something; 25432 at best (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 15325 BRASIL: R. Gazeta, São Paulo-SP, português, 02/05 1231. Programa musical (grande parte da programação da RG é constituida de músicas brasileiras), música Elba Ramalho, YL: 'Esta é a Gazeta AM, São Paulo, 890'. // 890 kHz (logging registrado com o objetivo de esclarecer que a freqüência de 15325 kHz continua sendo usada pela Rádio Gazeta, São Paulo, Brasil), 25352 (Rudolf Grimm, São Bernardo-SP, Brasil, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Radio Gazeta sterk op 15325, 1957 met leuke Por. Muziek om 2001, ID (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, May 4, bdx mailing list via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Caros Radiescutas: Alguém sabe o que há com os 31 metros (9615 kHz) da Cultura AM de São Paulo? Já mandei um e-mail à rádio, mas não me responderam. Agradeço algum esclarecimento (Adriano Becker, PU3ADB / PX3P1193, Camaquã/RS, 30 51'S / 51 48'W, May 1, radioescutasyg via DXLD) What`s with them on 9615? It would help if you told us exactly what you have observed – they are missing? Frequently reported by other Brazilians varying or jumping to lower frequencies in the 9500s, and distorted, but I`ve yet to see any such reports from abroad. Their transmitter obviously has serious problems (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CAMEROON [non]. ALEMANIA, 9655, Radio Sauti Ya Injili, 1830-1853, escuchada el 3 de mayo en idioma fulfulde; comienza la emisión con una corta pieza musical a modo de sintonía, locutor y locutora con presentación, “..Radio..África..”, “..Radio Amanga o Amanda??”, fragmento de música interpretada por instrumentos de percusión, comentarios con referencias a “Londres y América”, locutor con entrevista a invitado, se mantiene la señal pero el nivel de audio se va desvaneciendo, a las 1842 se restablece el nivel de audio, segmento de música ancestral, cántico repetitivo acompañado de instrumento de cuerda parecido a un violín, SINPO 45343. Posible traducción del significado del nombre de la emisora, “Radio voz de ..”, no sé lo que significa Injili. Datos encontrado de una emisora con el mismo nombre en Tanzania: RADIO SAUTI YA INJILI http://elct.org/TechServ/Radio/ Address: P O Box 777, Moshi Telephone: 027-252772 Owner: Tanzania Evangelical Lutheran Church Location: Moshi (Off Arusha Road) Date of Licence Issue: 29/1/1996 FREQUENCIES Base Station (Moshi): 92.0 MHZ Moshi Booster Station: 97.2 MHZ Arusha Booster Station: 96.2 MHZ Same Booster Station: 100.4 MHZ [Later:] Saludos cordiales, la traducción de Sauti ya Injili es Voz del Evangelio. 73 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master, May 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ``Sauti ya Injili`` is certainly not Fulfulde, a West African language, but Swahili. Here`s the full entry in the WRTH May Update, where I expect JMR2 found out about this: Target: CAMEROON (CME) SAUTI YA INJILI (Rlg) kHz: 9655 Summer Schedule 2008 Fulfulde Days Area kHz 1830-1900 daily CAf 9655wer Web: http://www.lutheranworld.org So why would a Lutheran station with a Swahili name be broadcasting from Tanzania via Germany in Fulfulde? Fulfulde is not even mentioned in WRTH 2008 as a language spoken in Cameroon, just falls under ``ethnic``. SIL shows various Fulfulde dialects are spoken all the way from Sénégal and Guinea to Chad, Cameroon and CAR: http://www.sil.org/SILESR/2003/silesr2003-009.htm#map5 So does this really originate in Moshi, Tanzania? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also TANZANIA! El idioma fula (también llamado peul, fulani, pulaar, fulbe, fulfulde) es una lengua del África Occidental, hablado por la etnia fulani, que abarca desde Senegal hasta Camerún y Sudán. Es hablado entre 10 y 16 millones de personas y tiene un estatus de lengua oficial en Mauritania, Senegal, Malí, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Níger, Nigeria, y Camerún. No estoy muy seguro que la emisión que escuché fuera en suahili, pero no descarto que lo fuera (Romero, ibid.) I didn`t mean it could not be Fulfulde; after all, that is the language on the sked in WRTH UD; just that it`s odd to be coming from a station with a Swahili name (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) The frequency 9655 is not listed from Germany and I found it in no list (EIBI; aoki aso.) (Peter Vaegler, Germany, bclnews.it via DXLD) Then JMR did find it in Aoki and EiBi; and it is also in the M&B schedule updated 24 April (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) 9655 1830-1859 46S,47SE 204 180 217 1234567 300308 261008 WER 500 LWF (via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) Hi Glenn, someone may have mentioned this already, but "Sauti ya Injili" would seem to translate in English as "Voice of the Gospel". (Steve Lare, MI, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Well, I bet `Injili` is cognate to ``Evangelic``, really about the same as Gospel (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) As noticed by Jari Savolainen, the transmission in Fulfulde to Cameroon on 9655 kHz between 1830-1900 is actually by SAWTU LINJIILA, not Sauti ya Injili as in the WRTH update. Their address is: B.P. 02, Ngaoundéré, Cameroon. It still needs to be confirmed if this programme is broadcast every day or if there are other Lutheran World Federation organisations involved (Mauno Ritola, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [and non]. CHU, 7335, May 5 at 0110 with South Asian music underneath from Vatican at 98 degrees. This collision goes way back, but not strong enough to prevent using CHU for its intended purpose, which is not extended program listening. VR is currently scheduled on 7335 at 0010-0200 to India, and again 0230-0520 to Central Europe on a variety of northeastward azimuths. At least WHRI has stayed off 7335 following all the protests last summer (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. 6160, CKZN, St. John's NF, with another great signal, 2311- 2326, 03 May, English, oldies selection; 35433; \\ 9625 N Québec Service via Sackville NB was much worse (Carlos Gonçalves, SW coast of Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. I'm sure more accurate information comes from RCI themselves but I thought it was interesting this appeared in the same place as notice of changes to regular domestic AM/FM/TV stations. I don't recall ever seeing RCI notices here before. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Notices/2008/pb2008-39.htm (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, May 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) For the first time that I recall, I see an application by the CRTC to use new frequencies at Sackville NB for RCI/CBC Northern Service: Sackville, New Brunswick, Application No. 2008-0567-4 Application by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to amend the licence of the shortwave radio programming undertaking CKCX Sackville, New Brunswick. The CBC proposes to add the following three additional frequencies: 7310 kHz, 7325 kHz and 7345 kHz. The CBC advises that the frequencies will be used a few hours a day and only during certain months of the year. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Notices/2008/pb2008-39.htm Yes, Sackville does have the official callsign of CKCX but it is rarely if ever used. [each frequency used to have its own callsign and this was one of them, 15190? --- gh] I wonder why the CRTC is involved here - usually only Industry Canada is involved with regard to the frequencies used at Sackville. You can read the actual application letter here: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/public/broad/applications/2008/2008-0567-4.PDF 73, (Deane McIntyre, VE6BPO, May 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tnx; I assume this just came out? Guess what: they have already been using 7310 and 7325. Includes this: ``Public Participation Deadline for Interventions/Comments 9 June 2008 The intervention must be received by the CRTC and by the applicant on or before the above-mentioned date. The Commission cannot be held responsible for postal delays. Your intervention will be considered by the Commission, and will form part of the public record of the proceeding without further notification to you, provided the procedure set out below has been followed. You will be contacted only if your submission raises procedural questions.`` So will the public now get to object to any new RCI SW frequencies? Or was this belatedly required because these three are outside the official broadcasting bands in Region 2? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Yes: it was in today's notices. If they work like the FCC, the action happens a few days before it shows up on notice. – (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, May 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Answer to CBC 1070 --- Hi Ken, Great to hear from you. Yes, CBA was on for a few hours April 29th. We were asked to do a few tests. Unfortunately, that's probably the last you will hear of CBA. Ragards, Jean Babineau, Superviseur / Supervisor, Transmission CBC / Radio-Canada (via Ken Baird, UK, May 5, IRCA via DXLD) ** CANADA. CBC Radio: An Important Notice Regarding Your Hotsheet Newsletter --- On April 28, the database which contained your subscriber information for Hotsheet was retired. This also means that Hotsheet, in its current form, will be retiring and is officially off-line as of May 1. The good news is that we are launching a number of new newsletters which will continue to inform you of programming information on all of our services including "What's On Radio One," "What's On Radio 2," and "What's On Radio 3." You will have the opportunity to select the kind of programming information you want by subscribing to these newsletters. We will advise you as soon as this new and improved service is available. If you want to sign up now in preparation and see our new member centre, signing up is just a click away. CBC Member Centre: https://membercentre.cbc.ca/SignUp.aspx?redirecturl=http://www.cbc.ca/ We also encourage you to regularly visit www.cbc.ca to find out further information about all of our programming. CBC Website: http://www.cbc.ca/ We value your continued interest in CBC Radio. We are looking forward to serving you with more robust show-specific content specifically tailored to your interests (CBC May 5 via Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** CANADA. At 4:08 PM Monday May 5th 2008 [2008 UT], Steve Fawcett, GM of Chum Kawartha's threw the switch to turn off 1420 CKPT, Peterborough, Ontario. Thanks to Ed Crompton, one of the Engineers for help in setting up this moment. CKPT-FM is now Energy 99.3. As I was video taping, I did not get a still of the moment but here is a picture with the transmitter off. Note the RF meter in the upper right. I hope to get a Youtube posting up in this in a few weeks (Andy Reid, Ont., May 5, dxldyg and DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 7220, R. Centrafrique, Bimbo, 1013-1635, 03 May, vernacular, talks, African pops program, talks; 35443 but later under other stations, e.g. Vietnam at 1630. It was poorer the next day, Sunday 04 May, at around 1000 (Carlos Gonçalves, SW coast of Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 18180, Firedrake, China. Asian dragon festival style music, 0554, 22/4 (Phil Ireland, DX-Pedition Tuckers Rocks, near Urunga NSW, May Australian DX News via DXLD) So Sound of Hope back on 18180 ** CROATIA [non]. Re WRTH May Update: No expiration date for 7285, which has been reported here as until May 10 only (Glenn Hauser, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) BTW, I have been hearing it only on 7285, not 9925, but propagation has been rotten. Is 9925 really on? (gh) ** CUBA. Numbers/letters station logs: 9040 23/04 0937 CUB Dirección General de Inteligencia - 5LG AM 9064 23/04 0827 CUB Dirección General de Inteligencia - 5FG CWP (IVAN DIAS, SOROCABA-SP, BRASIL, RF SPACE SDR-IQ, ANTENA STONER DYMEK DA-100E, FASEADOR JPS ANC-4, @tividade DX May 4 via DXLD) ** CUBA. Asunto: [dxld] WRTH May Update comments and correxions --- Observo también la omisión del servicio en español para Europa de Radio Habana Cuba en 11750 de 2100 a 2300 UT (José Miguel Romero, Spain, May 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also UNIDENTIFIED 15340 ** CUBA [non]. R. República on 6135, 6155, 6100 are all shown in WRTH May Update as Rampisham, UK site, altho RR and VTC have never confirmed this as far as we know (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. Re 8-055: I skimmed through channel lists for Direc TV and Dish Network but could not spot TV and Radio Martí there. It is said that pirate decoders for them are rather widespread in Cuba, or were until encryption updates knocked them off. Would be quite interesting if Martí has really been put on either one or both of these services, especially if not FTA but encrypted. VOA is explicitly banned from targetting domestic audiences, but how about Martí in this regard? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECHIA [non]. Re WRTH May Update: We have pointed out repeatedly that WRMI relays R. Prague not only at the times shown, but also at 2300-2400 and 0600-0700 M-F, in English and Spanish on 9955, but this info has yet to added to the schedule. Possibly R. Prague doesn`t even know about these bonuses, but are we talking about what happens in theory or what really happens? (Glenn Hauser, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. 5009.79, Radio Cristal Internacional, 2355- 2359*, May 2, Spanish talk. Short breaks of Spanish music. Several "Radio Cristal" IDs. Poor in noisy conditions (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. 21455, HCJB, Pifo. 500 Watt experimental outlet, Spanish programming 2117, religious. Haven't heard this for a while. USB is suppressed, 21/4 (Craig Seager, DX-Pedition Tuckers Rocks, near Urunga NSW, May Australian DX News via DXLD) In own sked and HFCC as 1 kW, perhaps because can`t handle fraxions. 35/225 degrees bidirexional, Europe/S Pacific. They used to run more power here; wasn`t it 10 kW? I thought LSB was suppressed, i.e. in USB. 15m hams would appreciate that. Will have to check next time I hear it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. HCJB, 12000, Spotlight program in Specialised English, Sat May 3 at 2347, having just started. Very good signal. This is during the so-called Spanish service, and for some reason HCJB won`t show it as an English transmission, lest English speakers actually expect more English broadcasts from Quito (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EGYPT. Re WRTH May Update: French at 2030-2230 is shown on 9300, altho this only happened on one single day that we know of so far, by mistake? Then back to scheduled 9280 (Glenn Hauser, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9280, 2140-2150 02.05, R Cairo, Abis, French talk very distorted and unreadable, back from 9300, 55451 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) Noted English 1900-2030 late change on 9300 (ex 9280); nothing of French heard here at 2030 UT. Registered still on 9280, latter which is China powerhouse at my place, so no chance to check West Africa outlet underneath co-channel. But the Brazilians and Argentines should monitor that Cairo French very easily (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, May 3, ibid.) No, English at 1900-2030 was originally on 9380, not 9280; see 8-038 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EGYPT. Tho supposedly scheduled until 0300 on 6290, R. Cairo was missing at 0201 check May 5. I had been hearing its fairly strong, distorted signal in Arabic during the previous hour. Ed Insinger also heard them go off around 0200 a few nights ago. This may be why: Egypt went on DST of UT+3 April 25, tho it does not affect non-Arabic broadcasts; DST lasts until August 29, per timeanddate.com The question is, whether all of Cairo`s Arabic SW transmissions have shifted one UT hour earlier, as the domestic programming within them no doubt has (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. Re WRTH May Update: R. Africa is impossible to pin down, but saying ``irregular on 15190 at 0700-2200`` doesn`t quite cover it, as during its recent active week, it was running well past 2200 to 2230 or close to 2300 (Glenn Hauser, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5005, Radio Nacional-Bata, 2240-2256* May 3, back on the air after several weeks silence with local African music. Sign off with National Anthem at 2253. Weak but readable. Maybe 15190 will also return. 5005, Radio Nacional-Bata, 0520-0600, May 4, Afro-pop music. Spanish talk. Weak (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio Bata terug in de lucht op 5005 kHz, 1912 UT. Werd hier enkele dagen terug ook gehoord. Gr (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, May 4, bdx mailing list via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA. 6170, Voice of Tigray Revolution, *0255-0315+, May 3, IS. Amharic talk at 0259. Horn of Africa music. Weak. // 5950-poor to fair but mixing with Taiwan via Okeechobee, Florida (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [and non]. R. Ethiopia back on around 9704.3, heard May 3rd at 1800 // 5990.0, both fair with good modulation, not sure if weak signal on 7110 also in //, but I think so. External service until 1800 on around 7165.1 // 9560.2. Niger also on 9705, strong het. 55+73 (Thorsten Hallmann, Münster, Germany, DX LISTENIING DIGEST) Radio Ethiopia National Service has been heard this evening (3 May 2008) on all three of its shortwave channels. 5990, 7110 and 9704.2 kHz heard at 1830 UT tune-in with news in Vernacular; 5990 and 7110 both fair/clear and 9704.2 with usual het. 7110 blocked by CRI Hungarian between 1900-1930, but audible again with the other two outlets after 1930 with Ethiopian songs and Western pop music. Scheduled sign-off is 2100 (Tony Rogers, Birmingham, UK, AOR 7030+ / LW, BDXC-UK via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA. Hi everyone, I finally got something interesting to report, what with the solar flux being rock bottom. Radio Ethiopia 7110 at 0325 in Amharic with dance music. Moderate. 5 May (Liz Cameron, MI, http://www.geocities.com/alera1/ dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. Re WRTH May Update: V. of Meselna Delina, 1800-1830 on WHRA 17690 is now both Thursday and Friday, also as per WHR online sked, with Tes Meharenna, tho they always misspell it Meselina. But EOTH Holy Synod Radio is listed only for the Mon 1600-1700 via Samara on 17875, not the Mon 1900-2000 on WHRA 17690 as Demitse- Tewahedo which we recently reconfirmed (Glenn Hauser, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FINLAND. Re WRTH May Update: SWR, ``first day of month`` isn`t exactly the proper way to specify their schedule, even when certain hours are labeled Fri or Sat. Fri 2100 UT broadcasts are not necessarily on the first Friday of the month, but on the UT Friday preceding the first Saturday. However, this will not be a problem until Saturday November 1, 2008, when the monthly transmission will presumably start on Friday October 31 at 2200 (Glenn Hauser, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. Unidentified: Heard SINPO 45554, May 3 '08, 17630, 2131 - 2156:15 abrupt loss of carrier. Man & Woman talking in turn (news?) -- Music (with voiceover) at 2140:15 -- Men & women talking (sporting event? Heard ping-pong being played in the background) at 2141:30 -- Abrupt loss of carrier at 2156:15. This transmission not on a08 schedule. No positive ID heard. Might have been R. France Internationale (David Askine, NASWA yg via DXLD) RFI via GUF is scheduled in French on 17620 at 1700-2200, and in Spanish on 17630 at 2100-2130, so perhaps 17630 was left on a bit late; cf. my hearing 13640 at 1335 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GABON. 7270, RD.TV Gabonaise, Melen, 1017-1415, 03 May, French, live report on some women held cultural exhibition, speeches, talks; 35443; very weak at 1400. Distorted spurii noted 94 kHz above & below 7270, and while that the harmonic on 14540 was still heard (Carlos Gonçalves, SW coast of Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Please mention axual spur frequencies to facilitate searching later: so those would be 7364 and 7176 (gh, DXLD) ** GERMANY. 6004.11 odd -- 1000 Hertz tone noted continuously at 1915- 1930-sign off UT May 3. That`s not common. BBC Mahé Seychelles was on even 6005.00 at same time. I guess Radio 700 Krekel Germany checked their tiny 10 kW unit and accompanied antenna equipment on this 6005 channel (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Just tuned in to 6005 and found Radio 700 from Germany to be on again. Very strong signal here at 1930 UT May 4 with ID in German mentioning Radio 700 and something about "oldies & schlager" music. I presume this is from their own 1 kW transmitter at Kall-Krekel which I last heard with a test transmission on 20th April. The new German SW station Radio 700 is on 6005 kHz again today, heard from tune in at 0800 on 5th May with a good signal. Perhaps they have started regular SW transmissions now, though I can't see any mention of SW on their web site at http://radio700.de Further details in DX News May Communication (page 14). (Dave Kenny, Caversham, England, AOR7030+ 30m LW, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) Not 6004+? Christian Milling sent out a comment on German ng A-DX yesterday: Radio 700 Krekel on 6005 kHz 1 kW will test broadcast the whole week now, 7d/24 hrs. This is a realistic check-up of their antenna propagation into Europe. They are aware that the antenna array need further an improvement. Best reception now reported from Finland, Normandie invasion beaches and U.K. yet, - like a real flat DX propagation (Wolfgang Büschel, May 5, ibid.) viz.: Hallo Freunde des gepflegten DXens, vielen Dank für die zahlreichen Listen- und Mailrückmeldungen zur 6005. Ich möchte Euch informieren, dass die 6005 die ganze nächste Woche durchsendet (24h). Wir freuen uns auf weitere Kommentare, um mal realistisch abstecken zu können, wie die Ausbreitungswege von Kall sind um danach weitere Optimierungen an der Antennenanlage vornehmen zu können. Besten Dank, Gruss, Christian Milling, Radio 700, christian @ radio700.de (via Büschel, ibid.) Hi, Just now (today = May 5th) Radio 700, the new German "Das Europaradio" from Euskirchen can be heard on 6005 with a regular broadcast 0525-0600 UT. Bad reception, lots of noise and atmospheric problems. Better on // http://radio700.de At 0600 "Nachrichten aus Deutschlandfunk". 73 from (Björn Fransson, the island of Gotland, Sweden, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Not 6004+? ** GERMANY. Re 8-055, MV Baltic Radio Sunday 4 May 1200 on 6045: sorry, correct frequency is 6140 (Tom Taylor, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Tom. From time to time, we will appreciate you give us a chance to those of us who listen beyond the European continent. Maybe we could get a good signal on 49 m but after 2300, altho it seems rather late for your purposes. Possibly that same 1200 UT sked will work out for the American continent somewhere in the 19 mb. Hope this doesn't result asking too much. Kind regards (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I`m afraid a lot of these stations are just interested in covering Europe (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6045 belongs to Hamburger Lokalradio instead, which should tomorrow be on air via Wertachtal again as well, but already 0900-1000. MV Baltic Radio and Hamburger Lokalradio both broadcast in German, one could even start a debate whether these are domestic or foreign services. Of course there is little point in beaming German programming to the Americas. If you refer in particular to European Music Radio: They are on 6140 through the MV Baltic Radio transmission contract. This contract calls for the 1200-1300 slot on 6140, with an option for using it every Sunday instead of just monthly, and Radio Gloria International as well as European Music Radio are put on air by simply calling this option. Thus anything else would be a matter of separate arrangements. Concerning Radio Gloria International: Somebody should tell them that professional broadcast audio level are -9 dBfs and that unprocessed audio is to be fed for shortwave transmission, unless they meanwhile observe this. Last time I heard them they did not, with awfully distorted, overmodulated audio being the result (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [non]. 13660 DRM, DW, Sines. German pop song 1408 tune-in, quite stable. English news headlines embedded in stream, hovering around 16.5dB SNR, 23/4. 13790 DRM, DW, Sines. German 1511, dropping in and out, SNR around 14.0dB, stereo, 18.0 kbps, 23/4 (Craig Seager, DX-Pedition Tuckers Rocks, near Urunga NSW, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** GREECE. These must be the Mathemata Ellinikon lessons that the Voice of Greece has on Short Wave: 0100-0112 UT Daily; 0548-0600 UT Daily; 1200-1212 UT Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday; 1300-1312 UT Tuesday; and 1700-1712 UT Daily. http://www.hau.gr/?i=hauen.services_radio Modern Greek Lessons at ERA 5 ("Voice of Greece") On 22 October 2007, Modern Greek lessons from the Hellenic American Union and the Hellenic American University http://www.hau.edu.gr/index.jsp will start being broadcasted through the Fifth Program of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation ERA 5 - Voice of Greece http://www.voiceofgreece.gr/ ERA 5 broadcasts nationwide [sic], from North and South America to Europe, Australia, Japan, and Africa. Lessons are broadcasted every Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, three times per day and are intended for those that want to improve their Greek and enrich their vocabulary. Along with the broadcasts, at the website of ERA 5, one can find each lesson's audio in mp3 form as well as the complete transcript in pdf form. What are the lessons about? Each lesson aims at teaching you how to communicate effectively in M. Greek. No grammar, no rules, no "do's" and "don'ts"; just basic dialogues, short phrases, and words that you, too, will be able to use in a variety of everyday situations. The lessons present the activities in the lives of a group of young people - a parea, as they're called in Greek. These friends live in Athens and go out for a cup of Greek coffee or for a meal in a taverna, go to the shops, to the cinema or the theater, stay home and watch TV or talk on the phone, and, in general, do everything that Greeks do every day. But it's not just them that you will meet: Listen for the voice of Xenophon, a funny character, who follows them around, makes comments on what they say or do and helps you to understand better their actions. The organization of the material is more or less the same for each lesson: First, you hear a dialogue. Then, you are asked to repeat parts of what you have heard. For further practice, you may be asked to choose the right answer to a question relating to the material presented (don't worry; Xenophon always gives you the correct answer). Last, you are provided with cultural or communication tips that help you understand better contemporary Greek reality. For brief idea of what each lesson presents, scroll down to the end of the page or click here http://www.hau.gr/?i=hau.en.services_radio#MyPageAnchor0 (via John Babbis, May 5, DXLD) Altho John has run across and reported these English lessons before, how come if they have been going for 6+ months, there has been absolutely no publicity about them (in English, anyway) from VOG itself? Geez! (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUAM. 11905, Adventist World Radio, via Agat, Hindi, 02/05 1551. Programa cristão, OM: talk, canção, música instrumental, 1559 sign-off (o estilo dos programas da AWR não variam muito entre um ou outro idioma, sempre a abertura tradicional com a mesma música instrumental, por vezes a informação do idioma, 20 minutos de mensagem bíblica, oração, uma canção, o endereço e o sign-off), 25542 (Rudolf Grimm, São Bernardo-SP, Brasil, radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** GUATEMALA. Frecuencia al Día, Dino Bloisse`s DX program, which is already on SW via WRMI, WWCR and R. Cristal, 5010, DR, as well as several non-SW stations, has added another: Transmisión a través de Radio Verdad, Desde Chiquimula, Guatemala. http://www.radioverdad.org/ Viernes 0200-0230 UT por 4052.5 kHz. (This week`s promotional mailing by José Bueno, dxldyg via DXLD) ** HAWAII [and non]. With only three significant signals audible on 16m, why in the world would two of them be adjacent? KWHR, which used to prefer the 17500+ range, recently started using 17800, despite R. Australia on 17795, as both were heard May 5 at 0136. Fortunately, RA has a much stronger // frequency here, 17715 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HUNGARY. Re WRTH May Update: Contrary to the recent report here that SW broadcasts have been reduced to four hours a day, five are shown, with two of them on 3975, 0400-0500 and 2100-2200. The situation is yet unclear, with conflicting and possibly incomplete info in DXLDs 8-054 and 8-055. WRTH shows: 0100-0200 daily Eu 5965jbr 0400-0500 daily Eu 3975jbr 1000-1100 daily Eu 6025jbr 1800-1900 daily Eu 6025jbr 2100-2200 daily Eu 3975jbr (Glenn Hauser, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WRTH is right for the 2100 UT transmission (Budapest heard on 3975 ) Regards (Jean-Michel Aubier, France, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) As I said in last year: I strongly suspect that Magyar Rádió simply could not get rid of the booked airtime until now. Things like running 3975 under broad daylight were no service but merely burning up transmitter hours, similar to NRK's shortwave "service" in 2002/2003 (between eliminating Radio Norway International and managing to escape from the transmission contract). This is really the first place to save expenses, taking that the foreign language programs are dead and gone anyway. 2100-2200 already confirmed on 3975. At the same time only programming in Arabic, presumably IRIB, was heard on 6025. Info in 8-054 gave 100 kW as power for all remaining Magyar Rádió transmissions, but the modulation on 3975 rather indicated that it was still one of the domestic-made 250 kW transmitters. The Brown Boveri gear, moved from the closed Székesvehérvár site to Jászberény, can presumably not operate on 4 MHz. 5965, if on air, should aim at North America, since 0100 UT is dead of night in Europe (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes -- positive, heard opening on 3975 today at 2100 UT. Next to RTI German on adjacent 3965. RTI program is WORTH listening. I like it very much. Compared to the CRI German or English service (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST Checked for this transmission [5965] and found the frequency dominated by Radio Habana Cuba. At 0100 another co-channel transmission started, rather weak and with pronounced fading. Could indeed be Jászberény, already skipping over me (I'm just 600 km away), but it is impossible to identify it under these circumstances. Anyone else? Good night, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Kai, RHC strong here also but there's something underneath. Possibly Jaszbereny but no way to tell. 73/Liz (Cameron, MI, ibid.) Latest WRTH update shows only 5 hours of SW broadcasts left from Budapest, including 0100-0200 on 5965. Kai Ludwig in eastern Germany hears traces of something under Cuba, and now I can confirm that it is indeed Hungary. May 5 at 0124 could hear some music and talk under RHC, frequency just about zero-beat, but too much Cuba to determine language. 0155 recheck had classical music, 0157 ``Itt Budapest`` ID, 0158 IS, and off at 0159* Why in the world would Budapest choose a frequency occupied by Cuba, for broadcasts to North America, token as they may be? This is 306 degrees, to the conterminous USA, eastern and central Canada, contrary to WRTH Update which says to Europe. Could it be that the Hungarians thought the frequency was available, since as an outlaw nation, Cuba refuses to participate in HFCC? But the Hungarians are equally to blame for not knowing better, as Cuba`s occupancy of 5965 is hardly news in the SW monitoring community and all the non-HFCC references (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) And Budapest also heard this Monday morning on 5965 at 0150 with classical music and IS in many languages before closing down (JM Aubier, France, May 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Transmitter sites: Diósd http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=47.416193&lon=18.939561&z=16.4&r=0&src=yh Then switch to Google Maps. Ooops!!! Diósd opened in 1983 and had two Brown Boveri SK51F3 transmitters. The station was on air for the last time on 28 March 1999. During the A97 season Diósd even run a transmission on 11 metres, 1100-1300 on 25700. In 2005 I had it from whatever source that the facilities were not dismantled yet. Obviously this statement is obsolete now. Since 1995 the station building houses a radio museum, so it is possible that the transmitters are still there. http://www.postamuzeum.hu/english/muzeum/diosd.html All my attempts to find photos of the other two shortwave broadcasting stations in Hungary remained futile so far, and no aerial images of these sites are available either (away from coarse ones, not even sufficient for spotting the sites at all). Székesvehérvár officially opened on 23 Dec 1934 with two transmitters of 5 kW each, later upgraded to 20 kW. In 1987/1988 the site got two SK51C3-2P transmitters, one of them operating all day long on 6025. Transmissions from Székesvehérvár ceased on 30 Oct 2004. The only remaining SWBC facility in Hungary is now Jászberény, the coordinates given by TDP indicate a location closer to the small village of Jászágo for it. The station opened in 1974 with two 250 kW transmitters, made by the Budapest-based company EMV (nowadays Antenna-BHG). Meanwhile the equipment from the closed Székesvehérvár site has been moved to Jászberény, but never more than three transmitters were ever on air there simultaneously, presumably with the antenna system being the limiting factor although there are vague indications of additional aerials being set up when the ex-Székesvehérvár transmitters were installed. At present Jászberény is in use about equally by Magyar Rádió and IBB after MR has cancelled all the airtime previously used for their closed foreign language broadcasts. It remains to be seen if the now vacant capacity will find new customers, perhaps arranged by Media Broadcast, since Antenna Hungária is owned by TDF as well now (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 5, shortwavesites yg via DXLD) Hi Kai, Thanks very much for the fascinating material & research. I note that the Diósd site appears to be clearer with the MS Virtual Earth image from FlashEarth. I'm sure the Google Earth/Maps image has changed since I last viewed it, appeared similar to the YM/MS VE image from memory, which still shows one remaining tower. I am wondering about the start date of SW transmissions from the Diósd site though. You mention 1983. Someone has provided me with the date of 1950 (Excel file). Looking at my earliest WRTH, i.e. 1982 I note that the site in mentioned in there. Could you have made a typo or can you check this date? Thanks for great reading (Ian Baxter, ibid.) ** INDIA. DD, AIR SERVICE MAY BE HIT AS EMPLOYEES MULL STRIKE http://www.business-standard.com/common/news_article.php?leftnm=3&autono=321979 Work in 220 All India Radio (AIR) stations and the 68 Doordarshan kendras may be hit as more than 38,000 Prasar Bharati employees in these two set-ups are planning to go on strike. The employees, represented by several bodies, are demanding the status of government employees, better pay and filling up of the 8,000 vacant posts. The employees are demanding scrapping of the Prasar Bharati Act to make the body a government unit again, or amendments in the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990, to ensure they continue getting the current benefits. With mounting pressure from staff organisations like the Akashwani and Doordarshan Administrative Staff Association (ADASA) and the National Federation of Akashwani and Doordarshan (NAFAD) employees, the Group of Ministers (GoM) looking into the financial restructuring of Prasar Bharati has included some of these in the agenda for its next meeting. The GoM, which has met a couple of times in the past two years since it was set up, is likely to have a final meeting this month, sources say. Last month, AIR and Doordarshan employees represented by ADASA had staged an indefinite hunger strike demanding salaries equivalent to the rest of the Prasar Bharati employees. "The issue of upgrading the pay-scale of around 2,000 administrative staff representing the personnel and finance departments of AIR and Doordarshan field offices has been included in the next GoM's agenda, and we have been assured that our demands will be met within 15 days. Else, we will resume our agitation," said Sangam Thakur, secretary general, ADASA. But the other faction, NAFAD, representing the rest of Prasar Bharati, has decided to start an agitation from May 19. "We will resume our agitation from May 19 by going on a ?work-to-rule' strike. This means we will only work according to our designation and status and not do the additional work of several thousands of vacant posts," Anil Kumar of NAFAD said. According to highly placed sources, some senior officials of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) have been deputed to see that no strike or agitation takes place. "So far, the secretary and other I&B officials have managed to persuade the unions not to go on strike. An early solution to this problem is the only way forward. Else, the work of DD and AIR will suffer in coming times," said a senior I&B official (via Jaisakthivel, Chennai, India, May 5, dxldyg via DXLD) ** INDIA. ALL INDIA RADIO MAINTAINS STATUS AS WORLD'S LARGEST NETWORK Monday, 05 May , 2008, 16:40 --- New Delhi: Despite financial and infrastructural constraints, the reach of the All India Radio (AIR) is far greater than other private channels, and it is the world's largest network. . . http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14667125 . . .AIR, which started its operations in 1927, broadcasts in 24 languages and 146 dialects. In External Services, it covers 27 languages including 16 foreign and 11 Indian languages (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, Cumbredx via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 9525.98, Voice of Indonesia, 1215-1300, May 2, listed Japanese programming with talk & local music. Irregular. Weak but readable. Must use ECSS-USB to avoid a weak Poland [in English, via GERMANY] on 9525 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. What caught my attention when looking up the lists [see CUBA] was the circumstance that DirecTV carries XM channels while Dish Network has Sirius content. Are they carried at a decent bitrate? If so this would be an alternative for the hifi set at home, especially for XM (because Sirius reportedly uses quite hefty dynamics compression anyway). (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [and non]. Dear Glen[n], Just returned from a week's academic trip to Iran, visiting Tehran, and also Tabriz (NW Iran). My new Quantum Loop 2 and Eton E1 were too big for the suitcase so took my Eton E5. Nothing newsworthy other than stations already listed in WRTH. Far easier to listen to CRI than BBC or VOA across HF bands - not surprisingly given recent cuts. Long wave was completely dead in Tehran, but there were many Russian and Turkish LW offerings in Tabriz during the evenings. AM was largely populated by networked IRIB-1 on it seemed almost every AM channel, plus other synchronised state run networks. BBC WS English came in regularly overnight from Oman on 1413 kHz - just listenable, also barely listenable on 1323 kHz from Cyprus. Only notable was the VERY loud bubble jammer on 1575 kHz noted making R. Farda in Farsi 24 hr out of UAE mostly unlistenable to - in both Tehran and Tabriz, so maybe located somewhere in North West Iran? Could only hear Farda late in the evenings - both sites - by nulling it with the E5's internal ferrite antenna - rather ''funky'/electronic oriental music compared to Iranian channels. Oddly, last night 4th May and early this morning 5th May the jammer was off air so very listenable signals in downtown Tehran. Best regards (Mike Larvin, Derby UK, May 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN. 6130, IRIB (presumed), *1430-1435, May 3, in Arabic, choral Anthem, reciting from Qur'an, mixing with Laos, both about equal strength. Not heard every day (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. Re WOR 1406 summary: ``V. of Islamic Republic of Iran relay via Lithuania, English at 1930 replacing 7260 with 6000`` But probably not in force yet. When checking after 1830 I found 6000 completely empty while 7260 had a faint signal (in fact only carrier heard), creamed by much stronger Xian on 7265 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. 5860, KUWAIT-? SRI LANKA?, IBB R. Farda, 0200-0212, May 1, listed Farsi. Crash start with presumed news headlines, ID in passing at 0202 then usual format of pop-like music between IDs. Poor- fair at best. Where does this originate from? Aoki lists Sri Lanka, DX Mix sked says Kuwait (Scott Barbour, NH, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Moved from Sri Lanka to Kuwait starting April 15 (gh, DXLD) ** ISRAEL. 13850, Kol Israel, Jerusalem. Ads from domestic service in Hebrew 1358 tune-in, into Farsi 1400. Very strong and the only foreign service program left on SW, 23/4 (Craig Seager, DX-Pedition Tuckers Rocks, near Urunga NSW, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** JORDAN. R. Jordan, 11690 is certainly irregular, but in case it comes back, English is shown as 1300-1500 and French at 1500-1630. (WRTH May Update via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH. Hi folks, I'm sure this is not my imagination. But it now appears as if most, if not all, of North Korea base map is now viewable in Google Earth at medium resolution. I've had a quick look around the Kujang area, but don't see anything resembling a SW transmitter site. Perhaps others with faster broadband than myself might be interested to have a cruise around North Korea in search of some of our mystery SW sites? Regards Ian Baxter, Australia, May 3, shortwavesites yg via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH. Is that KRE outlet down on 11677.03 at 2000-2100 UT? 11680 KCBS Pyongyang 2000-1800 Korean 50 ND Kanggye KRE 73 (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, May 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11677.2, KCBS, Pyongyang. Continuous music, very pleasant, 0935. Also heard on equally strong 9665.41, 23/4 (Craig Seager, DX-Pedition Tuckers Rocks, near Urunga NSW, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. CLANDESTINE (N. KOREA) - 6003, Echo of Hope, 1224-1235 May 3. "California Dreaming," "Mona Lisa," and other pop standards, hosted by YL in Korean // to 3985 and 6348. (Wilkins-CO) CLANDESTINE (N. KOREA) - 9940, North Korean Reform R., 1314-1330* May 3. Presumed with YL and OM talks in Korean; end at 1330. Fair at best. (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** KURDISTAN. 6335, Voice of Kurdistan Iraq [sic]. In English 1600- 1700 for A-08 with news at 1602. Commentary at 1615, TC's at 1630 and 1645 and rap songs, but starting always with theme from "Love Story" at 1600. Till 1900 as FS [foreign service?] in two unID languages on 30/4. Reported with sign-on at 0340 and program in Kurdish and Arabic till fade/out at 0555 on 29/4 (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria, Sony 2001D, Folded Marconi 16 meters, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** KUWAIT. 9880 DRM, R. Kuwait, Sulabiyah. Very patchy 1356, music, Arabic talks. SNR to 12.5 dB maximum - but low bitrate of 11.64 kbps helps, 27/4 (Craig Seager, Bathurst NSW (Icom R75 modified for DRM, R&S EK890, Dream® DRM Software, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** KUWAIT. 11990, powerhouse in English 1900-2000 UT, S=9+10dB at 1938 UT May 3 (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LAKSHADWEEP ISLANDS. I have contacted AIR Kavaratti, Lakshadweep. The official confirmed that new transmitter is expected there after some time. At present they operate between 6.35 am to 8.30 pm (with breaks, relaying AIR Thiruvanathapuram) and was monitored at my present temporary location near Kochi. Yours sincerely, (Jose Jacob. Camp: Near Kochi, S. India, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) = 0105-1500 UT ** LAOS. 6130, Lao National Radio, 1415-1430, May 3, continuation of yesterday`s "Functioning in Business" language lesson, fair (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LAOS [non]. Hmong Lao Radio, via WHRI 11785, Sat May 3 after 1300, several chex hoping for rustic instrument folk music, but only heard talk; 1332 finally music, but it`s Hmong rap! Eeeew, I couldn`t listen to more than 7 minutes of it. Signal was not the usual blowtorch, poor propagation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also USA: WHRI ** LIBYA. LIBIA, 11860, Voice of África, 1950-2003, escuchada el 3 de mayo en idioma suahili a locutor con comentarios, segmento musical, cuña de identificación, sufre un ligero corte a las 1958. A las 2000 se aprecia ligera interferencia de emisora adyacente en 11685, DW en inglés, 2003 locutor con despedida y fin de emisión, SINPO 44454 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR. 5010, RTV Malagasy, 0152-0220, May 4, reduced carrier USB. Local pop music. Choral anthem at 0200. Malagasy talk at 0202 followed by local music. Fair (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 5965, Klasik Nasional FM via RTM, 1332-1354, May 3, in vernacular, DJ playing pop songs and ballads, IDs "Kasik Nasional" and "Radio RTM", good, best reception ever. QRM after 1400 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MOLDOVA. I was not expecting to hear much besides WBCQ on 7 MHz as early as 2008 UT May 5, and that was pretty poor, but there was also a US preacher with apparent Bible reading in English on 7430, at least as strong as WBCQ but with flutter. This chex out as YFR via Kishinyov, scheduled at 20-22, 500 kW, 309 degrees toward us but intended for W Europe only. SF=68, K=3 at 21 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also PRIDNESTROVYE; RUSSIA ** MONGOLIA. 12085, Voice of Mongolia. Not heard here for past two weeks and on 29/4 a big surprise - heard with stronger signal at 0930 in English, featuring news, rap song in Mongolian and program called "Discover Mongolia" etc., and repeated same program at new time 1530- 1600 (1500-1530 in B-07) on same 12085. 1500-1525 in Japanese with strong QRM (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria, Sony 2001D, Folded Marconi 16 meters, May Australian DX News via DXLD) English service with ID 1531, huge signal, very listenable, 23/4 (Craig Seager, DX-Pedition Tuckers Rocks, near Urunga NSW, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** MOROCCO. Farewell to Briech --- The International Broadcasting Bureau’s shortwave relay station at Briech, Morocco, ceased operation as an IBB facility on March 30. The IBB Office of Engineering was planning some sort of send-off. Amazingly enough, I was asked for ideas. I proposed to do a live show on March 29 at 2000-2100 UT, repeated March 30 at 0600-0700, on as many Morocco [transmitters] that could be spared. The program would interview relay station staff and experts in international broadcasting technologies, and take calls from listeners. The idea was sent up the flagpole. A "no," or merely inaction, at any of the many, many layers of USIB management means that the live show won’t happen. I never heard back, so the live Briech farewell didn’t happen. If there was a farewell event, I heard nothing about it (Kim Andrew Elliott, Kim`s Column, May NASWA Journal via DXLD) ** MOROCCO. 11920, RTV Marocaine, Breich. Fair level, clear channel, mainly Arabic vocals, 0430 5/4 (Frank Agius, Niddrie, Vic, Sangean ATS-909, 15m longwire, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** MOROCCO. RTM is shown via Nador only, no Briech, just this: 0900-1500 15340 Eu 1500-2200 15345 Af (WRTH May Update via DXLD) Maybe Briech transmissions were non-existent because they did not appear in any schedule? But maybe they are non-existent also in reality by now. Again no signal on 7135 tonight. I fear we can write it off, unless the Moroccans will revive the plant later, as they did with the old VOA transmitters at Tangiers (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [and non]. MARRUECOS, 15345, RTV Marocaine, 1630-1632, escuchada el 5 de mayo en árabe, tonos horarios y locutor con boletín de noticias, en días pasados se observo a ésta emisora sin señal, se desconoce el motivo, posibles problemas técnicos o fruto de la mala propagación, la señal era muy buena; sin embargo un chequeo posterior a las 1655 se observa que no hay señal, espero hasta las 1700 sin resultado, SINPO 55454. 9575 Radio Mediterranee Int., 1703, tentativa el 5 de mayo, sin señal. [later:] Saludos cordiales, a las 1820 se observa señal en 9575 de Radio Mediterranee Int. con emisión de música; sin embargo en 15345 se capta el servicio en inglés de la RAE, con buena señal (José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Copenhagen at 1840 UT: 9575 good as usual, and 15345 from Argentina is weak, but when I compare with the stream from http://www.radionacional.com.ar/ it is no doubt RAE (morse ID etc.) in English. Morocco seems off tonight. 73, (Erik Køie, Denmark, May 5, ibid.) ** MOROCCO. 1640 RTM-"B", site?, is still one, e.g. 03 May, 1436-1630, English, news magazine about Morocco, music and so forth; 45454; \\ 1593 Marraquech (very poor daytime reception, and almost impossible evenings), 87.9 Rabat, 94.2 Agadir, i.e. assuming the WRTH 2008 are correct at least in some points. R. Méditerranée Internationale, "Médi 1", for instance, is received on the unlisted frequencies of 87.6 & 96.7 MHz (Carlos Gonçalves, SW coast of Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. For the record, the Myanmar station was monitored by me on 22 Apr 08 on 5815 at 0000-0020. That day from around 0032 I found them on 5915. Current monitoring shows that sometimes 5915 is parallel to 5985 and some other times parallel to 5040 (Jose Jacob, Camp: Near Kochi, S. India, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, Where is Myanma Radio's SW station broadcasting from now? Have seen recent cyclone news reports about broadcasting from the new capital ("… according to a state radio station. The radio station broadcasting from the country's capital Naypyitaw). Have also read about Myanma Radio and Television having moved to the new capital at Naypyitaw, leaving their Pyay Road, Yangon/Rangoon location. The full story (Mizzima News - March 4, 2008) is at: http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/4-inside-burma/247-myanmar-radio-and-television-moving-to-new-capital So Yangon/Rangoon is no longer the capital, but has Myanma Radio finished broadcasting from there via SW? Perhaps this all has to do with: sudden change in frequency to 5985.0, which for so many years was steady on 5985.83; the appearance of the additional frequency of 5915 and the new scheduling for their English Language Service? (Ron Howard, CA, May 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tsk, new studios at an isolated location. Seems they have no interest in receiving any guests. Well, this story is about studio and office facilities. I think it is really unlikely that any transmitters move as well (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. Re WRTH May Update: I would rather see specific letters than strings of asterisks to flag certain entries, even if it take a bit more space --- this update is after all, not eating up paper, unless one choose to print it. In this case there are up to 8 in a row (I think I counted right), as when there are that many you have to count them to be sure you are looking at the right footnote. This is also annoying under Saudi Arabia (Glenn Hauser, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND [and non]. 11725: Looking for RNZI at 0600, but only heard RFI in English to Africa here and after 0630 poor signal of unID station, maybe NZ? 29/4 (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria. (Sony 2001D, Folded Marconi 16 meters), May Australian DX News via DXLD) 13840 DRM, RNZI, Rangitaiki. Feature program 0220, occasional dropouts but peaking at SNR 18 dB. News headlines in the data stream, 22/4 (Craig Seager, DX-Pedition Tuckers Rocks, near Urunga NSW, May Australian DX News via DXLD) RNZI, 13840 AM, May 5 at 0057 with ABC report from Guam, about US politix, so not to be confused with R. Australia or the US ABC. DRM buzz also audible on 15715-15720-15725. Scheduled time for exchange of modes on these two is 0158-0159, but missed it. At 0210 recheck, 15720 had indeed become AM and 13835-13840-13845 DRM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. 6024.95, R. Nigeria, Enugu. Recently reactivated, came up out of nowhere 2203 with news, then English ID, into music. Fading up and down, but strong on peaks, distorted audio, 24/4 (Craig Seager, DX-Pedition Tuckers Rocks, near Urunga NSW, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** NORTH AMERICA. UNIDENTIFIED. 6854.2, presumed N American pirate, May 5 at 0112 with some kind of rock music, including brief military ``sound off`` marching song; still audible at 0138, better at 0152, 0200, still at 0208 but fading down. Never heard any announcements, but was not listening constantly. Seemed to be on AM, or equally LSB/USB, but rather distorted and down in the noise. Looking thru past month`s logs in Free Radio Weekly, the only station reported in this area has been MAC Shortwave, usually in the 6850-6851 range (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No, must have been this: Pirate, 6854.2, The Crystal Ship, 0057-0120+, May 5, political talk. ID. // 5385.49 - both frequencies fair (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. CONSTRUCTION PERMITS ON THE AIR --- 1270 KRVT Claremore - Now on with U4 5000/1000. The new day pattern sends identical large lobes to the northeast and southwest along with smaller lobes favoring the southeast and northwest (Bill Hale, AM Switch, NRC DX News May 12 via DXLD) ** PAKISTAN. 4790, R. Pakistan. In English back again here at 1600 with news and commentary till 1614, // 9385, 11570. Not on 4835 as was announced! 27/4 (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria, Sony 2001D, Folded Marconi 16 meters, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** PALAU. Re WRTH May Update: T8BZ is shown for only three transmissions. Is this correct and complete? There are quite a lot more in HFCC and FCC, as HBN/KHBN, not including IBB relays. I am assuming this update means to give the full schedule, as in other entries, not just changes (Glenn Hauser, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3345, R. Oro, Popondetta. Booming in at 1148 with a selection of English and island songs, followed by English announcements and time check at 1155, before severe atmospheric disturbances. Still, managed an ID and announcement for “Monday Night Music” at 1205 on 14/4 (Dennis Allen, Milperra NSW, Icom R75, Dipole, May Australian DX News via DXLD) Radio Oro ID ever really heard? (gh) Current affairs in Pidgin 0933, resolved using LSB due to heavy QRM, 21/4 (Phil Ireland, DX-Pedition Tuckers Rocks, near Urunga NSW, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 7325, Wantok Radio Light, Port Moresby. Island- style music followed by announcements in Pidgin, then ID 2303, 25/4 (Phil Ireland, DX-Pedition Tuckers Rocks, near Urunga NSW, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** PHILIPPINES. 11720, Radio Pilipinas, Tinang. "The Voice of the Philippines", according to the ID at 1918, announcement in English with times and frequencies, followed by the NA of Philippines at 1919 and 1920*. Not at 1930 as in the schedules everywhere, 27/4 (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria, Sony 2001D, Folded Marconi 16 meters, May Australian DX News via DXLD) 15510, R. Pilpinas, Tinang. New frequency for English, 0235, at fair level ex-17770. Also heard on // 15285, but no sign of listed 11880, 22/4 (Craig Seager, DX-Pedition Tuckers Rocks, near Urunga NSW, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** PHILIPPINES. 9400, FEBC Iba, 1235-1259, Apr 29, Mandarin. Lengthy talk by M with brief break for W over music at 1246, choral music at 1258 followed by presumed ID and talk at 1259. Fair at best. 9430, FEBC Bocaue, 1300-1315, Apr 29, Mandarin. Various announcers shouting over music bits; W with light banter with M via remote. Fair/good (Scott Barbour, NH, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PRIDNESTROVYE. Radio PMR: Friday 2 May 2008. Nothing heard on 6040, 2215-2345 (Harry Brooks, NE England, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) So this is still Mon-Thu only? Even tho the 12135 broadcasts earlier to Europe appear to be M-F. What kind of sense makes that? Hey, who wants to work late Friday night/Saturday morning? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio PMR again heard Sunday 4 May on 6040, 2215-2345. Nothing heard on 12135 Saturday or Sunday, 1400-1700. So it would appear that the 1400-1700 broadcast on 12135 is Monday to Friday but 6040, 2215-2345 is Sunday to Thursday. Tiraspol is UT +3, according to timeanddate.com, so it would be Monday to Friday at the transmitter (Harry Brooks, May 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) So this also raises the question whether the 12135 broadcasts are repeats of the previous 6040 broadcasts, backwards as this would otherwise seem. Can anyone tell the difference? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. RUSIA, 9470, Voice of Rusia, 2050-2057, escuchada el 3 de mayo en ruso, locutor y locutora con comentarios, locutora con noticias, referencias a Rusia y Ucrania, música de sintonía, ID "Radio Moskva", SINPO 45444. Nuevo servicio? [Later:] 9470 Voice of Rusia, serbio // 7340 73 (José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9470 only scheduled 1500-2130 UT, Serbo-Croatian 2000 UT, ends at 2130 UT. So, technician at Samara site kept the transmitter on air, filled with any Russian service. 73 (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) ** RUSSIA. 9750 DRM, V. of Russia, Taldom. Very patchy, French news 1605, peak SNR 17.0 dB, but highly variable, 17.46 kbps stream, mono, 23/4 (Craig Seager, DX-Pedition Tuckers Rocks, near Urunga NSW, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. 7199.94v, Yakutsk Radio (Presumed), 1030-1118, 4/20, in Russian. Frequency varies to 7199.95, W talk, classic music, announcements, light music, M & W talk with classical music, folk songs, no clear ID heard, QRN, slow QSB, fair-good (Giovanni Serra, Roma, Italy, JRC NRD 525, AD Sloper-S, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) Daytime path? ** RUSSIA [non]. ALEMANIA, 6145 kHz, Voz de Rusia, 26-04-08, 2230- 2233. Noticias con referencias a Israel y George Bush, en inglés. SINPO 55444 (Javier Robledillo Jaén, Elche (Alicante) - España, EA5-1028, Sangean ATS909, Ant: Telescópica, Noticiasdx yg via DXLD) ?? VOR does not broadcast in English at this hour. Per Aoki, it`s Arabic: 6145 VOICE OF RUSSIA 2200-2300 1234567 Arabic 100 105 Wertachtal D 01041E 4805N VOR a08 --- Maybe there was a brief English clip to be translated? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [and non]. I've been away from shortwave for a year or so. I broke out the radios and started listening again about a week ago. I have been unable to hear the Voice of Russia 0100-0200 on 9665, 7250 and the other frequencies listed at that time. I've also listened later and to no avail. My question is, is VOR still broadcasting? The frequencies mentioned are listed on their website but I hear nothing and I have several radios so it's not a receiver issue. I'm also not aware of any propagation problems. Has Russia gone the way of the BBC? Thank you for your help (DR**, Swprograms mailing list, May 5, via DXLD) I do not know where you are but 7350 was good in Florida the last time I heard it (Joe Buch, ibid.) Joe, Which must have been before April, since 7350 is no longer in use by VOR in English to NAm. DR, Not quite sure why I am replying to someone who doesn`t even give his name or location --- oh yeah, in case it is of interest to non-secret list members: This may have been UT May 5, when I was not getting VOR on 15425 Pet/Kam, 7250 Armenia, nor after 0200 on 9480 Germany, but I think it was due to extremely poor propagation. No better on UT May 6 (Glenn Hauser, OK, swprograms via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re BRAZIL, 9665: Don't you hear VOR via Moldova at all? It also beams North America with 500 kW between 00-05 and is the only signal here in Finland at that time. 73, (Mauno Ritola, May 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Mauno, Not on this occasion. Have heard it on some nights, but I believe Europe was really not making it on 31m, or at least not eastern Europe. Unless you find that Moldova`s transmitter is like this, in which case my assumption could be wrong. 73, (Glenn to Mauno, via DXLD) See also U S S R ** RWANDA. DW, Germany in Arabic still on 15420 via Rwanda, May 5 at 1739 check; much stronger at 2004 recheck after 1900 beam change from 325 to 310 degrees (and perhaps coincidentally improving propagation). By 2056 re-recheck it was easily the strongest station on the 19m band, except for Greenville 15185. I had the BFO on to seek LRA36 (no luck) and back on 15420 discovered that the DW transmitter is unstable! One could hear a slight wavering in BFO pitch. This might have been blamed on my FRG-7 receiver, except there was no such wavering on RCI 15235, and furthermore I heard the same thing on another receiver, and further2more, the same wavering appeared on DW`s next frequency, 15205 which came on at *2059 and then into English, and further3more, the same wavering was on the // DW English frequency from Rwanda, 11865, but not on other 25mb stations. What could cause this? Perhaps an unreliable power supply at Kigali? All the frequencies were loud and clear in AM mode, and you would never know there was such a problem without the BFO on. Remember, DW Arabic at 1700-2057 is scheduled to move from 15420 to 15445 starting Saturday May 10, and all will be on the better beam for us, 325 degrees. Will WBCQ then resume 15420 as planned for A-08, ex- 17495 where we still heard it today? But there would still be a collision with various BBC sites between 1300 and 1700, not as big a problem in NAm as DW has been, and WBCQ wants to run this transmitter starting at 1300 with no frequency change for the next 10 hours (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Solar-terrestrial indices for 04 May follow. Solar flux 68 and mid- latitude A-index 7. The mid-latitude K-index at 1800 UTC on 05 May was 4 (41 nT). No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours. No space weather storms are expected for the next 24 hours (SWPC via DXLD) ** SAO TOME. IBB São Tomé Transmitting Station (IBB Estação de Transmissão) verified my reception report (for 4940 kHz) in Portuguese with US$1 after 20 days by my enclosed PFC in Portuguese, signed and stamped by Sr. Henry I. Briley III, Director Interino. Address: C. P. 522, Pinheira, São Tomé, São Tomé e Príncipe (Takahito Akabayashi, Japan, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. 15250, BSKSA, Riyadh. In English to Africa with sign- on at 0859 and 1125* and till 1000 almost in full covered by Olympic firedrake; maybe here is Taiwan or RFA? 28/4 (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria, Sony 2001D, Folded Marconi 16 meters, May Australian DX News via DXLD) English, large signal 1152, talk about Islamic/Christian relations historically. Bad transmitter hum, 23/4 (Craig Seager, DX-Pedition Tuckers Rocks, near Urunga NSW, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** SLOVAKIA. My recent e-mail to RSI: In part, it reads "From what I've heard listening to Radio Slovakia International, Pete Miller is being encouraged to retire. Please reconsider and keep Mr. Miller on Radio Slovakia International. Mr. Miller gives Radio Slovakia International its friendly voice on the air waves. Mr. Miller, in my opinion, is unique in today's radio broadcasting. Perhaps, Mr. Miller is considered "old fashioned". However, one of the main reasons I listen to Radio Slovakia International is because of him. We need more people on the radio like Mr. Miller." 73, (Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, Manassas, VA, May 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOMALIA [non]. Is this new? At least seldom reported: INTERACTIVE RADIO PROGRAMME FOR SOMALIS (IRIS) kHz: 15140, 15160, 15200, 15215, 15440, 17590, 17695 Summer Schedule 2008 Somali Days Area kHz 0545-0615 mtw.... EAf 17695mey* 0545-0615 .....s. EAf 15215dha* 0620-0650 mt...s. EAf 17590dha* 0730-0800 mtw..s. EAf 15440dha* Key: * Transmissions Periodic. 0805-0835 mt...s. EAf 15200dha* 1130-1200 mtw..s. EAf 15160dha* 1205-1235 mt...s. EAf 15140mey* (WRTH May Update via DXLD) ** SOMALIA [non]. Re WOR 1406 summary, ``IRIN, via South Africa in Somali at 1730-1745 moved from 9665 to 9735 to avoid Spain`s imaginary German broadcast`` Probably here is a misunderstanding around: 9665 is indeed on air, but no longer with German; instead it carries whatever other Spanish- language content. Or has this changed meanwhile? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. Re WRTH May Update: Despite our frequent logs lately of the Co-Official Languages segment on REE as M-F 1245-1300, old timing of 1240-1255 is still shown, 15170 via Costa Rica is missing, and the languages are in the wrong order, instead of Galician, Basque, Catalan, theoretically if they all really appeared. Or is it the 1240 segment which has been missing instead of 1255? (Glenn Hauser, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Los programas en Catalán, Gallego y Vasco de REE no se emitieron durante 2 días por problemas de enlace, en especial, con la emisora de Barcelona (Cataluña). Fueron los días de la inauguración de las instalaciones de RNE en Barcelona. Los cinco minutos en cada lengua van de lunes a viernes, de 1245 a 1300 UT. (Informacion recibida de la emisora) Quizás monitorearon estos 2 dias? Según su esquema de transmisión: Para Europa por 13720 y 15585 kHz Para Oriente Medio por 21610 kHz Para Africa Ecuatorial por 21540 kHz Para Filipinas por 11910(#) kHz Para America del Sur por 5930(*) y 21570 kHz Para America Central por 5970(*) y 17595 kHz Para America del Norte por 15170(*) y 17595 kHz (#) Desde Xian (*) Desde Cariari 73 (José Bueno, Córdoba, España, May 4, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) José, Bueno, anticipo su reanudación el lunes, pero la ausencia del catalán a las 1255 duró mucho más de dos dias, como he informado muchas veces. [missed monitoring for this on Mon May 5 --- gh] The above doesn`t really match my monitoring, checked on numerous days the past two weeks but not every day, Galician has always been there, ``Basque`` mostly in Castilian, and Catalan missing. Which two days were they all supposedly missing? (Glenn Hauser, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. 9690 REE, Noblejas. News service in English. Good with clear and stable signal, 2009 on 25/4 (John Hattwell, Rochester, Vic, Drake R8A, EWE, 20m longwire, May Australian DX News via DXLD) Another non- 9665 log ** SUDAN. Republic of Sudan Radio, 7200 at 0310+ in Arabic. Mentions of "Sudaniyya" and Omdurman. Moderate. 5 May (Liz Cameron, MI, http://radioblonde.blogspot.com/ dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. 13650, *0500-0530* CLANDESTINE, 01.05 Darfur Salaam, via Zygi, Cyprus Arabic ID: "BBC Darfur Salaam", news, comments often mentioning Darfur, s/off with jingle 35333 // 12015 (35444) (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. 9825, R. Miraya FM, Rimavská Sobota. Wedged in between strong stations on 9820 and 9830, came on at *1500. Seemed to alternate between English & Arabic news items with mentions of United Nations, ID 1508, Arabic. Did seem to improve as time went on, 23/4 (Craig Seager, DX-Pedition Tuckers Rocks, near Urunga NSW, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** TAIWAN [non]. AIRTIME EXCHANGE RTI/WYFR ENDS JUNE 30 Re 8-055 and previously: See the enclosed message: Radio Taiwan International will stop using WYFR as of July 1st. This of course explains why they want to find out if there is still interest for shortwave transmissions of RTI English to North America. Obviously a decision is still pending whether they will have done with it on June 30 or make new arrangements, and completely new ones would be necessary to continue. A possibility I could imagine would be to use Montsinéry within the airtime exchange with RFI, of course at the expense of European services via Issoudun. What also remains to be seen is whether Family Radio will quit using the transmitters in Taiwan or continue, perhaps scaled down, by way of commercially leasing airtime. Of particular interest will be the fate of the mediumwave transmissions for China (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Subject: [A-DX] RTI mit unerfreulicher Meldung 2. Mai 2008 --- Laut eigenen Angaben von Radio Taiwan International werden die Sendungen via USA/WYFR ab 1. Juli 2008 eingestellt. Der deutschsprachige Dienst muß deswegen 15600 // 7780 kHz streichen. Die RTI-Senderleitung will es so. Auch die anderen RTI-Sprachdienste sind von den Sparmaßnahmen betroffen. 73, (Paul Gager, Austria, May 2, A-DX via Ludwig, ibid.) RTI German at 2100 on 3965. RTI program is WORTH listening. I like it very much. Compared to the CRI German or English service (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Uploaded 2008_RTI_Listeners-Survey.pdf to files section of the dxld yg. Please print, fill out and mail to Radio Taiwan International, PO Box 123-199, Taipei 11199, Taiwan Republic of China. 73, (Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, Manassas, VA USA, May 4, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio Taiwan International changes frequency for South Asia --- The website of Radio Taiwan International states that “From May 4th till September 6th, RTI’s English broadcast to South Asia will be changed from 11600 KHz to 15515 KHz.” This refers to the broadcast at 1600- 1700 UTC. The parallel frequency is 11550 kHz (May 5th, 2008 - 12:01 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) 11600/15515 = relay via Issoudun, FRANCE (gh) ** TAJIKISTAN. UNID 7530 from Dushanbe, tentatively Japanese? noted at 2020 UT May 3. 7530 1900-2100 to zone 300 kW, 70 degrees. Please help to check this puzzle (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TANZANIA. [Cf CAMEROON]. Sauti ya Injili / own SW transmitter --- Maybe this has been published here already, but there's info about Sauti ya Injili at http://elct.org/TechServ/Radio/ And here's a story about their plans to build their own SW station in Tanzania: http://elct.org/TechServ/Radio/technical/shortwave/sw.htm (Jari Savolainen, Finland, May 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Including from first website above: ``You can hear programmes of the Radio Voice of the Gospel in Swahili every morning at 0600-0630 HRS EAT and every evening as part of 2015-2045 HRS EAT as Swahili programmes of Trans World Radio`` (via gh) WTFK?? and from the second: There are half an hour of programmes on short-wave in the morning and in the evening already. Those programmes are aired at TWR Manzini with 100 kW using an antenna multiplying the strength again by 1000! That is why it can be heard in the entire Swahili speaking world! But many people would like to listen "Redio Sauti ya Injili" the whole day long! Because building the FM network nationwide may still take years to come (due to financial restrains of the church), the Lutheran Radio Centre is planning to intoduce their programmes to be aired on short wave, for all the areas not beeing able to receive the programmes on FM. A transmitter and antenna for 50kWatts costs about 1 Million US Dollar! That is far beyond the financial range of the church! And paying for 200 units every hour the transmitter is on air, no one can pay ether! But God showed us another way. We made experiments, that even a low power transmitter located around Moshi can bring an audible signal to the Southern part of Tanzania, if we get the permission to use 41 or 31 meter band on short wave! Now Peter Haberzettl found in the internet , that some one is selling an used Russian short wave transmitter. We rented a minibus from the Bavarian Mission in Germany and went all the way to fetch it. During the special service to remember the 30 th year of starting the Amateur Radio Amature Club in Neunendettelsau, the guests will be asked to donate for this transmitter. We are grateful for all the people helping to disassemble the transmitter and putting its components into the container coming to Tanzania from Rotenburg! We are grateful for everyone supporting the transport! There will be a special meeting between church leaders and state officials brifing the topic of permission to operate this transmitter. This will enable so many more people to listen to the Sauti ya Injili programmes! (sic, via Glenn Hauser, DXLD) see also ZANZIBAR ** UKRAINE. Radio Ukraine International DX program in English in A-08: new edition at Sat 1920 7490 Sun 0020 7440, 0520 9445, 1120 11550 repeat from the previous week at: Sat 2120 7510 Sun 0320 7440, 0920 11550 (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria, Sony 2001D, Folded Marconi 16 meters, May Australian DX News via DXLD) But only one new edition per month! See also RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM for OTH RADAR pix ** U S S R. Re 8-055, transmitter sites: You're right, the Voice of Russia name came in force not before the mid-nineties, as far as foreign language transmissions are concerned. Until then there was a Russian-only Voice of Russia (perhaps better known in Russian as Golos Rossii), which I understand was run by Radio Rossii and entirely independent from the foreign language service, which at this time identified itself in German as "Radio Moskau International". "This time" means post-USSR. It should be possible to confine the list of possible origins for the referenced 1978 transmissions if they were clearly meant for North America. If so, and if obviously run trans-Atlantic (and not the other way round from Far Eastern sites), the candidates are Grigoriopol (Pridnestrovye), Krasne, Kopani (both Ukraine), Tbilisskaya, Taldom, Lesnoy and Kurovskaya (Russia, last three still being thrown into one "Moscow" basket today). Krasny Bor (near St. Petersburg) could be also possible, but I think has been rarely used for transmissions to North America (they have suitable antennas, but the path runs through the aurora zone), especially after the other mentioned sites got their high power shortwave equipment in the sixties. I fear the only chance to find out more would be to find somebody who still owns documents about the transmitter operations in 1978. And of course this chance is quite slim (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S S R [non]. 6660, unID in Russian, religious, not in // with WYFR, TWR, etc. with religioius programs in Russian at the same time. 1926-1932 in LSB, after 1932 in USB. Acc to M. Ritola, Finland and WRTH and Russian sources from their forum "open_dx" in yahoo, 6660 is one of the beloved pirate frequencies for ex-USSR operators, 18/4 (Rumen Pankov, Sofia, Bulgaria, Sony 2001D, Folded Marconi 16 meters, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** U A E [and non]. For the last half hour or so, I have been enjoying the funky, hip music of 1575 Radio Farda, not by something 'easy' like SW, Internet, satellite or whatever. Nope. Good old AM broadcast MW from U.A.E. beamed to Iran. Not a bad signal here in PEI on a Drake R8 and Collins R-390A tag team fed by the LF Engineering M-601C, 2 foot long active antenna remotely located out in the baby barn 22 feet from the house. On fades, it drops under the R8's noise floor, but even so it is still quite audible on the R-390A. When it recovers, its strong enough that the R8's synch detector can make it quite pleasant to listen to. Got several IDs of Radio Farda, so I made up an arrow sticker for my MW DX world map. Oh yes, I was listening to Radio Sawa 1170 before WWVA took over that frequency. Made up a second arrow sticker for the map. These are my farthest east IDed MW signals to date. My farthest west MW station for which I have an ID is KRND Fox Farm WY, a.k.a. 'La Grande'. Someday I hope to get 1566 in India (Phil Rafuse, VY2PR, Stratford, PEI, Canada, 0043 UT May 3, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. VOA in Spanish, UT Monday May 5 at 0127 closing some unnamed program with piano music, on 5890 and 6110 both jammed, and on 9885, no jamming audible. Continued at 0130 with Buenas Noches América, when the jamming disappeared. That`s because scheduled at 0100-0130, except UT Tue, is Ventana a Cuba, and we can`t have any windows opening in Cuba to the rest of the world! Hey, how come Cuba gets to speak to US audiences in English with no such blockage, even accusing us of genocide, terrorism? I would like to see a detailed program grid from VOA Spanish, but we only get generalities here: http://www.voanews.com/spanish/programas_radio.cfm (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also U A E ** U S A. VOA Hindi service's fast paced presentation, shot and edited by Rohit Kulkarni: http://youtube.com/watch?v=iRAbPtyuzGg (Alokesh Gupta, India, May 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Re WRTH May Update: AFRTS frequencies attached to ``kew`` transmitter site, even tho it`s really Saddlebunch Keys. Yes, AFRTS itself generalizes it to Key West, but since we know the real site, why not show it? Radio Martí, full schedule not checked, but 5980 shown as ending at 1200* while we axually hear it until 1230*, as reported. KVOH still listed as 0100-0300 on 9975, unconfirmed for years. It seems their transmitter is stuck on 17775 plus its spurs. The Overcomer Ministry shown with only four transmissions, all via Germany. Is this currently correct? Yes, the WBCQ relays after local midnight seem to have gone, and may never have appeared on the TOM schedule. But isn`t BS still on WWRB and M&B too? [later: still on WBCQ, and WWRB for sure] WWRB is shown as per registered schedule closing 9385 at 2300, but we have consistently monitored and reported them running until approximately 2350, to the detriment of R. Tirana on 9390. WBCQ is still shown on abandoned 18910, instead of 17495 where we just reconfirmed them (but maybe not long before back to 15420). [RWANDA] At least WBCQ and WRMI are out of order toward the end of the USA listings in the WRTH Update (Glenn Hauser, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WBCQ inaudible on 7415, May 3 at 0631 and May 4 at 0455. I suspect the Brother Scare relay is gone again, but still shows at 0430-0700 UT Sat on annotated schedule and at similar times other nights, always ending at 0700. No, BS is still there, at 0552 UT Monday May 5; not propagating previous nights or really off the air? With WBCQ one can never quite be sure (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also MOLDOVA; RWANDA ** U S A [and non]. WWRB, 9385 playing music, maybe not from TOM, Sat May 3 until abruptly off without so much as a good-bye, at 2348* uncovering weak signal from Albania on 9390, which was much better on // 7425 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 3199.41, 3230.59, WWCR spurs, 0220-0235, May 4, weak spurs from 3215. +/- 15.59 kHz. English religious programming. Program about systemic enzymes at 0230. (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Re 8-055, WWCR: Now the sked has been updated as of May 1, and it shows Into Tomorrow UT Sat 0605-0700 and UT Sun 0505-0700. I confirmed it at 0513 check Sunday May 4 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) And DX/SWL/MEDIA Progrmas has been updated with this et al. ** U S A [non]. Re 8-055, WYFR: It should be noted that these HFCC submissions originate from bureaucratic organizations at Moscow, not involved in actual transmitter operations. Thus it is possible that they do not reflect actual operational parameters. Maybe both sites indeed run a 500 kW transmitter (or one half of an 1000 kW unit) at 300 kW, but I would not take this for granted, unless Family Radio itself confirms that they have booked 300 kW (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) RTI relays ending: see TAIWAN [non] Inflation of YFR outlets in 1900-2100 UT slot these days, in French and Arabic on 25 and 31 mb. At least I noted FIVE(5) outlets on 25 mb in French language, strongest via Armavir, Russia 12060 kHz, also WER, UAE, KIG (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Extensive photo gallery of WYFR: http://picasaweb.google.com/kwinrich/WYFR (Kai Ludwig, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. On 7570, May 3 at 0630, preacher in English with squealing transmitter, WHRI? No, this time it`s WEWN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Re 8-053: WHRI - Noted your April 27 log and your comments. I did not remember any audio/transmitter problems with my reception of the same day and time. Checked today (May 3) on 11785, at 1422 and again at 1529. Both times heard nice clear, strong audio with no problems of any kind. Thanks again for all the work you do to keep us up to date as to what is happening on SW (Ron Howard, CA, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11785, WHRI, 1445-1459, May 3, tune-in to DXing with Cumbre. New day & time for this program? Saturdays at 1430? (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Here`s what we now get from the WHR online sked, searching on Marie Lamb, also with a number of changes: Angel 1: 0130 - 0200 9:30 PM - 10:00 PM Sa 7315 [UT Sun] 0330 - 0400 11:30 PM - 12:00 AM Su 7315 [UT Mon] 0430 - 0500 12:30 AM - 1:00 AM Sa 7315 1930 - 2000 3:30 PM - 4:00 PM Sa 9495 Angel 3: 1500 - 1530 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM Su 9930 Angel 4: 0500 - 0530 1:00 AM - 1:30 AM Su 11565 Angel 5: 0230 - 0300 10:30 PM - 11:00 PM Sa 5850 [UT Sun] 0230 - 0300 10:30 PM - 11:00 PM Su 5850 [UT Mon] Angel 6: 1000 - 1030 6:00 AM - 6:30 AM Su 7385 1430 - 1500 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM Sa 11785 1430 - 1500 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM Su 11785 1830 - 1900 2:30 PM - 3:00 PM Sa 11785 Angel 6?!?! Yes, they have finally started designating a sixth transmitter, and this show at least is no longer shown on any Angel 2 transmissions. Six is really the third transmitter on the air from Furman, presumably one of the old 100 kW units moved from Noblesville, altho the designations could have been jumbled up. Its target area is shown as NAm only. Now it`s Angel 6 which is responsible for 11785 with Hmong Lao Radio Sat & Sun at 1300-1400, and there is now an entry accounting for the lack of transmissions on weekday mornings: 1300 - 1600 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Mo,Tu,We,Th,Fr Off The Air For Maintenance 11.785 Mhz This page still does not mention Angel 6, and strangely enough does not give transmitter power for 1 and 2, just ERP. http://www.whr.org/Technical-Information.cfm (Glenn Hauser, OK, May 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Talking in general, not specifically about HRI --- Use of ERP in the SW realm always bothers me a bit. The numbers seem usually to be obtained by taking transmitter output power and applying some nominal antenna gain to arrive at the multi-megawatt ERPs. But antenna gains are frequency-dependent and there are always transmission line losses (Dan Ferguson, SC, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 9264.96, WINB, Red Lion, PA, *2202-2215+, May 2, sign on with ID announcements & into English religious programming. Weak but readable. Not to be mistaken for WMLK (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Hi Bill, Maybe you can help me with a quick answer about one of your locals to save me from hunting thru your past columns. --- This afternoon KTOK IBOC was off so I concentrated on what I could hear on 990. Something in Spanish, with norteña music, did not sound religious, slogan resembled Radio Seis, or phonetically similar. Most likely this would be KFCD Farmersville, but I get all kinds of conflicting info when googling it, or NRC AM Log-ing it -- latter says SS: REL. Other sources say sportstalk, and Rejoice (English religion). KRSL Kansas the only other groundwave possibility here and their website shows nothing about Spanish. So does what I heard sound familiar on 990 currently in The Metroplex? If not could I have been getting XET? Would surely expect no skywave at 1930 UT in May, and it was not fading, tho plenty weak. Tnx and 73, (Glenn, May 5, to Bill Hale, TX, via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. CONSTRUCTION PERMITS ON THE AIR --- 1020, KCKN, NM, Roswell - Remaining U4 50000/50000, KCKN is now on using a new day pattern, a standard figure-8 with equal lobes directed 154 and 326 degrees (Bill Hale, AM Switch, NRC DX News May 12 via DXLD) IIRC, barely gets into Albuquerque/Santa Fe area on groundwave over poor conductivity area, once you get out of central ABQ (Glenn Hauser, ex-NM, DXLD) ** U S A. During at least two DX sessions (11-27-2006 and again on 3- 21-2008) I encountered an unidentified transmission on 1560 kHz (definitely NOT electrical interference) continuously broadcasting audio which resembles that of the lud bussing [sic] of an electric razor. When it occurs it completely overwhelms WQEW’s 50,000-watt signal at my QTH. Unless the signal is WQEW? Has anyone else been hearing this signal? If so, will someone please enlighten me as to the origin and purpose of these transmissions? Could this be some sort of jammer? (Eric Hopkins – Ayer, MA, Musings of the Members, NRC DX News May 12, via DXLD) Seems that I remember someone on the NRC listserv mentioning that an IBOC station, perhaps WQEW, actually broadcasting a similar sound because of a switching error at the station. Perhaps someone who lives within WQEW’s pattern can confirm the times that you’ve listed, too (Paul Swearingen, KS, ibid.) ** U S A. I wonder if anyone has had any success in listening to WOR on the Internet? They say the have two new exciting streams but I can't get either of them to play. I wanted to listen to the return of John Gambling this morning but couldn't listen on 710 because WWII 720 left the carrier on all night and the noise from their audio system was causing hash on 710. That along with IBOC from WLW and a Spanish station WOR was nonexistent and Couldn't get anything on http://wor710.com either (Tom Dimeo, May 5, NRC-AM via DXLD) Tom, I just tried this and it works fine: http://www.wor710.com/pages/66346.php (Marc DeLorenzo, South Dennis, MA, ibid.) Thanks, Marc, for the direct link. That worked for me but it does seem to be the network stream and not the WOR 710 feed. The links on the WOR website are not very screen-reader friendly, in fact, they don't make any sense at all. I guess I'll just try all of the links that have "pages/xxxxx.php in them till I get the right one. Thanks again (Tom Dimeo, ibid.) ** U S A. ADAPT OR DIE: THE NEXT CHAPTER FOR U.S. PUBLIC RADIO International Herald Tribune. By Joe Nocera May 3, 2008 Just before 6 a.m. on Tuesday, in a spacious but dilapidated studio in New York, a veteran radio broadcaster named John Hockenberry put down his pages of notes, raised two fists to the sky, and shouted something that only he and his co-host, Adaora Udoji, could hear. It was a gesture that suggested triumph and energy, nervousness and impatience, all at once. Then the "On Air" button turned red, and Hockenberry, whose new show is called "The Takeaway," began speaking into his microphone, talking to listeners at the 17 public radio stations in the United States that have so far agreed to air the show. "And on this Tuesday morning," he said, "I'm just a guy in a radio studio. It's a Grand Theft Auto world, and we just live in it." Well, O.K., his opening was a little lame; the reference to Grand Theft Auto had to do with the fact that the latest version of the computer game was just out, and the hosts and a guest would be discussing it later in the show. But let's cut Hockenberry some slack. They've still got a lot of kinks to work out at "The Takeaway," which is being co-produced by WNYC, the public radio station for New York, and Public Radio International, in association with the BBC, the Boston public radio station WGBH, and (full disclosure) The New York Times, which publishes the International Herald Tribune. Tuesday was only the show's second day on the air. For now, "The Takeaway" is running live from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m., with a second hour, from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., that repeats some of the original pieces while adding new, live segments. In June, though, when WNYC moves into new studios, the show will expand to four hours, two of which will be completely live. Which means that Hockenberry and Udoji will be on the air at the same time as the mother of all U.S. public radio shows: "Morning Edition." For readers outside the United States or beyond the reach of American public radio, it's important to understand the place that "Morning Edition," along with public radio in general, holds in the American media landscape. Public radio - and its cousin, public television - are considered the thinking person's media: Their audience is educated, well-off, and more than above-average in intellectual curiosity. It is also generous: Public radio and television are largely supported by public and corporate donations. "Morning Edition" is National Public Radio's crown jewel. Nearing its 30th birthday, it draws 12.9 million listeners weekly, making it the third-highest-rated radio show in the United States. (The conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh is No. 1, in case you were wondering.) The show, which starts at 5 a.m. on the East Coast, goes for seven hours, five of which are essentially repeats of the first two with live news updates. There are public radio stations that run as much as six hours of Morning Edition. "It is an unbelievably strong program," said Ellen Weiss, NPR's vice president for news. Who can disagree? Full article at http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/02/business/wbjoe03.php (via Mike Terry, UK, dxldyg via DXLD; originally in NY Times, also via Mike Cooper) Gee, we are fortunate in OK, with KOSU carrying it, as part of their drastic anti-classical revamp; in fact, they ``filled`` with BBCWS during April until The Takeaway was ready to go. Now it`s one hour at 1406-15 UT, the second hour still BBCWS. Can`t say I eagerly tune in for it (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VANUATU. 7260, R. Vanuatu, Vila. Haven't heard them for a while, weak to fair here 0652 with ID "Radio Vanuatu, good evening...", Bislama, in the clear 25/4. Certainly much reduced strength to what we are used to from this one, which is sometimes even heard at midday (Craig Seager, DX-Pedition Tuckers Rocks, near Urunga NSW, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** VATICAN. Finally May 5 I set an alarm to remind myself to check for VR`s little English broadcast which appears on none of their schedules; is it still going in A-08? Yes! So since it continues reliably, it should be added by those keeping track of all broadcasts in English. Waiting on 9600, false-start carrier a few seconds after 2311, then back on to stay from 2311:30 with English talk, but about what I am not sure as reception was poor to fair and I had other things to check in the meantime. This lasted until 2314, into IS preceding Vietnamese eastward from Santa Maria di Galeria at 2315. So this English broadcast lasts 2.5 minutes from 2311 and a half until 2314 UT daily, or maybe a full 3 minutes from 2311 with no false start; or slightly less if you subtract ID ``Laudetur Jesus Christus`` just before IS. In the clear this date, no het from XEYU 9599.3, which has gone missing again (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VATICAN. FROM 04.05.2008 ONWARDS VATICAN RADIO CHANGE ONE OF ITS FREQUENCY 5915 KHZ INTO 9650 IN MORNING HOURS. FROM 04.05.2008 ONWARDS FOLLOWING CHANGES bgn end language freq days 0025 0040 Urdu 9650 Mo Th 0025 0040 Urdu 7335 Mo Th 0040 0100 Hindi 9650 Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 0040 0100 Hindi 7335 Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 0100 0120 Tamil 9650 Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 0100 0120 Tamil 7335 Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 0120 0140 Malayalam 9650 Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 0120 0140 Malayalam 7335 Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 0140 0200 English 9650 Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa PLEASE CHECK AND VERIFY THE NEW 9650 KHZ FREQ (K. RAJA, CHENNAI, May 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM [and non]. 7220, VOV Hanoi in English at 2030 UT, noted seldom, S=6 signal to W Africa. We noted the other day, that VTN stopped German service direct from Hanoi at 1800-1830 UT on shortwave. Both 7280 and 9730 kHz (see WRTH Update) had powerful transmissions at 1700-1800 UT in Vietnamese, then at 1800 UT transmitter switched OFF, and came back on air also from 1830 UT French, followed by English at 1900 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZAMBIA [and non]. On 3 May at 1800 checked 4965 and it was carrying Zambian and African news identifying as "Radio Christian Voice" as did the following program, too. I tried 13590 (listed for CVC at this time) but there was only Bible Voice BC audible until s-off 1830. What is the current schedule for the CVC tx2 in Zambia, please? (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski. Finland, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 05-06 9430; 06-21 13590. 73, (Mauno Ritola, ibid.) BVB via Jülich 115 degrees is now scheduled on 13590 between 1530 and 1830 in its usual extremely complex schedule depending on day of week. Gospel-huxters vs gospel-huxters! And there are several other collisions during the long hours CVC is on 13590 from Zambia (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thinking CVC Zambia was listenable on 13590, I just checked at 1600 and found a religious service in progress, so weak that doesn't invite you to stay there. Now we see BVB via Jülich is there too. What to believe? 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) CVC uses a lot of languages other than English, but this block is mostly in English, with a bit of Hebrew and Tagalog, per WRTH update. I suspect it is made up of many individual gospel huxter programs in 15 or 30-minute blox, rather than the continuous largely musical output of CVC, only in English. Anyhow, you can be sure it`s one or the other, with the same objective (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZANZIBAR. 11735, Radio Tanzania-Zanzibar, 1800-1817+, May 4, "Spice FM" ID. English news to 1811. Swahili talk at 1811. Local music at 1816. Sign off noted at 2100 with National Anthem. Fair to good (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 3390.2v, 2340, Apr 28, Spanish vocal music noted under band noise; very weak. It's been years since I've heard anything on this frequency (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R8, R75, CLR/DSP, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60M dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3 x 1130v? (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. UNKNOWN Country, Unknown Station, 15340, 2240, Language Asia, 333, May 3, YL with comments and of the air by 2300 (Stewart MacKenzie, WDX6AA, Huntington Beach, California, USA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Are you sure it`s Asian? The only thing scheduled here is VOA in Vietnamese via Tinian, but at 2230-2330 so would not go off the air at 2300. EXCEPT --- new WRTH Update has RHC on 15340 at 2200-2430: 2200 Portuguese, 2230 Guarani, 2300 Portuguese, 2330 Guarani, 0000 Quechua, i.e. what had been on 17705. 15340 is a frequency previously used by RHC but not for quite a while. I know I have heard 17705 in the past month, sometimes surprisingly well, for a broadcast aimed at deep South America, perhaps aided by sporadic E between here and Habana. However, checked May 5 at 2240, I could not hear any signal on 15340, and could detect a very weak carrier on 17705 during poor HF propagation. Possibly when SMK was checking two days earlier, RHC was testing 15340 instead; This block is still shown on 17705 at http://www.radiohc.cu/espanol/frecuencia/frecuencias-espanol.htm and is still dated to expire in March 2008 --- but as we have noted, some recent changes to it have been made such as new 11680 in Spanish evenings. Possibly WRTH has more up-to-date info on RHC than the RHC website shows, but further monitoring is required as to which frequency RHC is really using. PWBR `2008` does not show RHC on 15340, just 17705, but it does not show VOA on 15340 either (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Glenn Hauser's DXLD is another example of a "non-club" that's a lot more fun, with more timely info, than conventional clubs and their print bulletins (Harry Helms, TX, May 5, ABDX upon the seventh anniversary of that non-club, which we also congratulate) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ WRTH IS GREATER THAN PWBR Glenn, WRTH is a great organization, especially since they have been updating their publication with electronic data. They really want to make us better listeners to the bands. I don't see PBWR doing that or have I missed them doing it? (Chuck Bolland, FL, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) BAND SCANS BEING POSTED ON YOUTUBE Hi everyone, I have noticed that there have been a few people that have posted themselves conducting scans of the bands on youtube. There was one person in Arkansas who was doing AM and FM as well as other bands like CB and SW and VHF and UHF. I also found a few people in Europe and Canada doing the same, and it is quite interesting. Just search for "band scan" and you'll find quite a bit (Jeff Kenyon, May 4, NRC-AM via DXLD) SOUTH/CENTRAL AMERICAN SW TRANSMITTER SITES Hi folks, I would be interesting in hearing from any of the readers of this group who have visited any shortwave radio station transmitter sites in Central or South America. It can be either a currently operating station or a SW station that has long since disappeared. I'm attempting to source more material for a specialist DXer database of shortwave transmitter sites such as: Latitude/Longitude of transmitter sites (can be found with Google Earth or Flash Earth), commencement date of first SW broadcasts from a site & last day of transmission from a particular site, photos of tx facilities of SW stations and other such material is of interest of shortwave broadcasting stations. More information can be obtained here:- http://shortwavesites.googlepages.com/ Would appreciate receiving anything from anyone pertaining to the above. See the wanted pages. Regards (Ian Baxter, Australia, May 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: see also AUSTRALIA; BRAZIL; GERMANY; KUWAIT; ++++++++++++++++++++ NEW ZEALAND; RUSSIA YouTube: DRM+ in Kaiserslautern Two YouTube videos: Worldwide first transmission and receiving of a DRM+ audiosignal with a complete realtime transmission chain on 87.6 MHz in the field trail in Kaiserslautern (Germany) http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mSePAzw5oFA http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bgb508q4xsw Details of project (mostly German): http://www.drm-radio-kl.eu/ (Mike Barraclough, UK, May 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) LPTV & TRANSLATOR SUIT NPR had a story this morning that the trade association for LPTVs and translators is suing the FCC to stop the HDTV February deadline, since the STBs do not have an HD/analog switch, which would destroy the less than 1% market share they have. The emphasis was on community programming that would be lost, which is of course mostly a joke (my opinion) because I find it hard to consider infomercials and religious networks far from community service. The one program that the reporter mentioned that might be a real loss would be Spanish programming, which in many markets is only available on low power channels. The report also mentioned that there is one STB with the analog/HD switch, but did not mention its brand name, and seemed to indicate it is not even available in the US (so where would it be available, if not in the US?). Lining up against the suit would be all the electronics emporia which have stockpiled millions of STBs, who presumably would not wish to have to replace them with another design! I'm sorry if this is in any way incomplete. I was listening while taking a shower! (Jim Renfrew, Holley NY, May 3, WTFDA via DXLD) A VISION FOR BROADCASTING'S DIGITAL FUTURE The Radio Wave --- "Keeping Radio People in Touch" 4 May 2008 Issue #70 Ian MacRae, Editor, radiowave @ allaboutradio.net -------------------------------------------------------------- Broadcasting is set to embark on a new era of growth as it helps lead viewers through next year's digital transition, said NAB President-CEO David Rehr said in his keynote opening address at this years' NAB Show in Las Vegas. "We will leave no TV set behind," Rehr said. "And many of us believe there will be a renaissance of over the air viewing with crystal clear pictures, phenomenal sound and more channels and services. And it's free -- the way TV should be." Rehr also talked about the "romance" between listeners and radio, saying: "If you're listening to radio, you want to hear a human voice sharing that same moment in time that you are. There is power in that personal bond." (via Mike Terry, UK, dxldyg via DXLD) Hope he is right about radio! (Mike Terry, ibid.) That quote [about DTV] shows how clueless Rehr is about American broadcasting. Almost 90% of American households get television via cable or satellite; TV isn't "free" but paid for via monthly subscriptions. Americans are going to get HDTV by cable or satellite, not through over-the-air reception. Before becoming head of the NAB, Rehr was president of a beer wholesale trade association. His expertise is in lobbying Congress for favorable legislation, not in broadcasting. Keep that in mind when evaluating his remarks! ;-) (Harry Helms W5HLH, Smithville, TX EL19, ibid.) Harry, I think you should research HDTV, especially the free part. Before slamming Rehr and perhaps look up the meaning of "renaissance" too. Here is a start. http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.ca/S-Qn1kHksHEHC/learningcenter/home/antenna.html (Mel Robinson, Canada, ibid.) Mel, you do realize Crutchfield is not a neutral news source, but instead is trying to sell you something, namely a HDTV antenna system? They have a very big ax to grind, and one shouldn't take what they write at face value. As far as researching HDTV, I bought my first HDTV set in February, 2004 and have viewed HDTV via cable, satellite (Dish Network), and OTA (back when I lived in Las Vegas). It's safe to say I have some real- world experience in HDTV delivery via different platforms, and it's my opinion most people would be unable to tell the difference between HDTV signals delivered by any of those three methods. The differences I have noted have been particular to a given channel or network; for example, ESPN's HD coverage of NBA playoff games consistently looks "cleaner" than TNT's coverage of same. (TNT's HD seems to have residual graininess on other programs, like their re-runs of "Law and Order.") Yes, I know terrestrial TV stations are excitedly babbling that HDTV picture quality is better OTA than via cable or satellite, and are imagining this future where people will rip out their cable boxes and satellite dishes and return to OTA-only reception like they did back in 1968. All the annoying viewer choice that cable/satellite provides will melt away; like four decades ago, Americans will be content with just four or five channels and OTA TV profits will return to their pre-cable margins. There's not much to say in response to such fatuousness (Harry Helms W5HLH, Smithville, TX EL19 http://harryhelmsblog.blogspot.com/ dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Harry, Harry, Harry, Of course they have something to sell, that does not mean they are of no worth, and their comments are of no value. We get knowledge from books, newspapers, TV, Radio, and yes even the internet, and surprise, they all have something to sell; should we just ignore it all because of that fact? I don't think free HDTV will replace cable or dish, but the possibility of it being useful to us cannot be denied. Now were you looking in a mirror when you used that word. :>) (Mel, ibid.) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ "SEISMIC FREQUENCY SHIFTS" Glenn, I see in DXLD 8-055 [USA: KERR] that some DXers apparently still believe off-frequency operation of radio stations might be some sort of precursor to earthquakes. Ray Cole was the target of a lot of ridicule from several people --- including me --- when he first advanced his idea that there was a correlation between off-frequency operation of MW stations and seismic activity. The reason for such ridicule was because, frankly, the idea was ridiculous and Ray seemed to be the only person, whether scientist or DXer, reporting such a correlation. I have no idea whether Ray was innocently misinterpreting things or just making stuff up, but if his observations had been accurate he'd have a Nobel Prize in physics by now. There is evidence, however, that the build-up of stresses deep within the Earth's crust might trigger bursts of low frequency RF energy, and this might be useful in earthquake prediction: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/feb07/4886 (Harry Helms W5HLH, Smithville, TX EL19 http://harryhelmsblog.blogspot.com/ DX LISTENING DIGEST) FM TRANSLATORS FOR AM STATIONS Amendment of Service and Eligibility Rules for FM Broadcast Translators, MB Docket No. 07-172, RM 11338, FCC 07-144, released August 15, 2007 ("STA"). The 60dBu contour of the translator has to be within the 2 mV/m groundwave contour of the AM station as well as within the 25 mile radius around the AM transmitter. I wasn't sure if this information was posted previously, but if it wasn't here it is now. My guess is that they will try to squeeze in more translators where they couldn't put any already without interfering with any full power FM stations, which is a violation of the FCC regulations for translators (Bob Seaman, WTFDA via DXLD) I think that with translators, whether of FM's or AM's, whether regional or 'foreign', it's all about expanding coverage as much as they can simply "because they can". There haven't been reasonable rules about translators in a very long time. There has never been any real justification for out-of-market translators, period. And at some point, there needed to be some kind of a geographic and/or numerical limits on the extension of coverage by translators within a market. Translators are relatively inexpensive, and represent the only legal way to extend coverage when the bands are over-saturated as they have been, and they've been seriously under-regulated (Russ Edmunds, PA, WTFDA via DXLD) For translators with AM primaries, it's to improve nighttime coverage. (or provide nighttime coverage at all, in some cases) It's to get into buildings where computer noise makes AM reception impossible. It's to reach that part of the audience who simply doesn't listen to AM. Out-of-market translators of commercial stations aren't allowed unless someone other than the primary station foots the bill. This does happen mostly in the West for the same reason there have been TV translators - because there is little or no service from primary stations. Of non-commercial stations, I'd agree it's gotten out of hand but I think if the locals are interested enough in an out-of-market station to pay for a translator, they should be allowed to license it. IOW, the restriction on ownership of satellite-fed out-of-market translators should be reversed: it should be required that the translator is NOT owned by the primary station – (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) I agree 110% with Doug's statement. There are way too many religious translators on the air today and they are cluttering up the band. In the Twin Cities area, we have 5 K-love and 5 Air 1 translators alone, plus several other class D stations and a few more translators, for a grand total of 18 !!! Way too many! JE (John Ebeling, MN, ibid.) FOTO'S ANTENNES IN DE BUURT VAN CHERNOBYL Re 8-055: Hier is die en ik heb er nog 2 bijgezet http://pripyat.com/ru/internet_photo/chernobyl_2/ http://pix.fine.kiev.ua/egor/gallery/0000b02w http://msaid.livejournal.com/65530.html gr, (Ary Boender, Netherlands, May 3, BDX via DXLD) En naast deze foto's nog een mooi stuk uitleg gegoogled met daarin beantwoord mijn onmiddelijke vragen hoe hoog dit gedrocht dan wel niet was en hoeveel vermogen: http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/steel-yard.htm Of ik blij moet zijn dat ik dit net niet bewust heb meegemaakt weet ik niet maar het blijft een imposante creatie. Nu snap ik ook waarom ze dicht in de buurt een kerncentrale hebben gebouwd, HI. 73, (Robert Joosten, ibid.) in English DXTuners News Dear DxTuners user, Kelly Lindman has handed over the DxTuners system to Mr Ivo Smits in The Netherlands some time ago. Ivo has developed it further under a new name, GlobalTuners, you can find it on http://www.globaltuners.com Kelly's new project is called HamSphere. HamSphere is an artificial shortwave radio based on the natural laws of radio propagation. Talk with both ham operators and unlicensed users around the world with a virtual transceiver. You can find the project on http://www.hamsphere.com Membership is free on both HamSphere and GlobalTuners. Best regards, Kelly Lindman, Kelly @ HamSphere.com Sweden Ivo Smits, Ivo @ GlobalTuners.com The Netherlands (via Bruce Conti - Nashua NH, http://members.aol.com/baconti/bamlog.htm May 4, MWDX yg via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ ARNIE CORO´S DXERS UNLIMITED´S HF PLUS LOW BAND VHF PROPAGATION UPDATE AND FORECAST Solar activity is once again at extremely low level, with the solar flux at 2800 megaHertz registering an ultra low figure of 66 units, that is the lowest level registered in a long time. We are now enjoying more and more of the typical late spring and early summer sporadic E layer openings that are the delight of TV DXers, FM broadcast band DXers and of course radio amateurs that operate on the 12, 10 and 6 meter bands (Arnie Coro, CO2KK, RHC DXers Unlimited May 3, HCDX via DXLD) ###