DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-062, May 20, 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 SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1409 Wed 2300 WBCQ 15420-CUSB [or 1408] Thu 0530 WRMI 9955 Thu 1430 WRMI 9955 Thu 2330 WBCQ 7415 Fri 0100 WRMI 9955 Fri 0800 WRMI 9955 Fri 2030 WWCR1 15825 Sat 0800 WRMI 9955 Sat 1630 WWCR3 12160 Sun 0230 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0300 WBCQ 9330-CLSB [irregular, time varies] Sun 0630 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0800 WRMI 9955 Sun 1515 WRMI 9955 Mon 0415 WBCQ 7415 [time varies] Tue 1100 WRMI 9955 Tue 1530 WRMI 9955 Wed 1130 WRMI 9955 Wed 2300 WBCQ 15420-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 EDITOR`S NOTE: This is a double-issue, trying to catch up with material piled up last week. So some of the material herein predates info in 8-061. Pay careful attention to the dates of items ** ALASKA. 7355, KNLS, 1207, 05/20/08, English. A feature on Zion National Park, short Bible story, then a song from Jewel. Best reception of KNLS here in a long time. Fair/good. (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ASIA [non]. RECEPCION DE RADIO FREE ASIA EN VALLS-TARRAGONA MONITORING SIGNAL OF THE RADIO FREE ASIA APRIL / MAY 2008. RECEIVER SONY ICF 7600D. TIME UTC KHZ SINPO DATE LANGUAGE REMARKS 2145-2200 7355 43343 29.04.08 Chinese QRM Noise and Chinese music, adjacent channel. 2200-2230 7500 54454 29.04.08 Tibetan (Amdo) NOISE 2230-2300 9880 53343 29.04.08 Tibetan (Kham) QRM RTTY music and gong. 2100-2130 9770 54343 15.05.08 KOREAN Very light QRM from CHINA (Chinese programme at 9775 kHz). Several Referencies to Pyongyang and the affaire of the Nuclear Power. 2130-2200 12075 32322 15.05.08 KOREAN Comment by a female voice announcer. QRM RTTY very strong. 1500-1515 15495 55555 16.05.08 MANDARIN ¡Fantastic signal very strong! 1515-1530 13675 54454 16.05.08 MANDARIN QRN Legere (Chinese Drums and QRM from China at 13680 kHz). 1530-1545 12025 53453 16.05.08 MANDARIN QRM from the Voice of Russia, Arabic language at 12030 kHz. 1545-1600 12005 53453 16.05.08 MANDARIN QRM Very light from RTT-Tunez Arabic 1730-1800 9300 43433 18.05.08 BURMESE QRN legere, comments male and female voice about the Burmese situation. 1800-1815 13625 55555 18.05.08 MANDARIN Very GOOD signal, similar local station 1815-1830 11700 ----- 18.05.08 MANDARIN QRM TOTAL FROM CHINA in French at 11695 1830-1845 11540 32332 18.05.08 MANDARIN QRM LEGERE FROM KCBS-KOREA in French 1845-1900 9865 43433 18.05.08 MANDARIN QRM LEGERE FROM BSKSA-RIYADH in Arabic language. 1900-1915 15510 45444 18.05.08 MANDARIN Very ligh noise, similar local station 1915-1930 13625 55555 18.05.08 MANDARIN WONDERFUL SIGNAL 1930-1945 11785 54343 18.05.08 MANDARIN Legere Noise 1945-2000 11700 32322 18.05.08 MANDARIN Poor signal, QRM very strong from China in French at 11695 kHz. 2000-2015 11740 55555 18.05.08 MANDARIN Very GOOD signal. 2015-2030 9905 54554 18.05.08 MANDARIN Little splash 2030-2045 9850 32322 18.05.08 MANDARIN Poor signal, a lot of QRM in Arabic programme from R Kuwait at 9855 2045-2100 9455 54343 18.05.08 MANDARIN Legere Noise, clear channel. 2100-2115 11935 55555 18.05.08 MANDARIN ¡Fantastic signal! 2115-2130 7355 43443 18.05.08 MANDARIN With Little noise, acceptable CORDIALES SALUDOS / GOOD LUCK / (JUAN FRANCO CRESPO, STAMP JOURNALIST (AIPET), SÀLVIA 8 (MAS CLARIANA) E-43800 VALLS-TARRAGONA (ESPAÑA- SPAIN-ESPAGNE-SPANIEN), May 20, Noticias DX yg via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. We have been hearing a Greek music station since 8 pm [1000 UT] on 2368.47 and detective work here at Cataract Dam has shown Radio Symban have this frequency allocated using 1 kW from a transmitter site near Gosford (Peats Ridge). I first noted it at 8 pm local and others are also hearing it. A call to the studio just now didn't confirm either way as reception was too poor due to storms around for them to confirm the music being played, and they are going to have the technician confirm and call me back. If this is what it is then it is the first of many licences that have been allocated in this band (some up to 6 years ago) to actually come on air. Radio Symban also operates a 151 MHz subscription transmitter as well as holding various expanded band (1611-1701 kHz) licences around the country. Unfortunately the links on their webpage http://www.radiosymban.com.au are broken (Richard Jary, Australia, 1157 UT May 17, ARDXC via DXLD) Radio Symban --- Just hearing Abba. Heard a Radio Symban ID about 5 minutes ago. Seem to have ads as well - mentioned Jetset. Bit of a hum. It's all Greek to me! Strange mix of music - maybe this is the young hour. Mentioning Australia, Newcastle, Valentine Phoenix - Lake Macquarie, Western Workers, West Wallsend, Hamilton - must be for a Newcastle outlet. I think Richard had one listed. Sounds like a phone call now. For Johno earlier they mentioned Juventus and goal in the same sentence - assume they were talking about soccer (or is that football?). Now it's Star Wars theme (Wayne Bastow, Wyoming, NSW, Australia, 33 23' 44.29" South, 151 21' 11.99" East, 1053 UT May 18, ARDXC via DXLD) Radio Symban --- Hi Glenn. We have some updates and a confirmation on this one. 2368.5. Radio Symban. This has now been confirmed as the one. Initially we were hearing a test broadcast which explains the lack of announcements, and the transmitter was only fired up about 4 hours before I caught it at 0945 on Saturday 17 May. Programming now includes IDs and advertisements. It has been confirmed that it is running 1000 watts into a 20m high antenna at Peats Ridge, about 60 km north of Sydney. Reception reports will currently be verified via email only to symban @ radiosymban.com.au and the subject line must be "Reception Report". You can include an MP3 file of your reception to aid in confirming reception. Thanks to John Wright for managing to contact them and get those details. Monitoring with a professional setup - someone from the ACMA - gives it as running a fraction low on 2368.465 kHz. Cheers (Richard Jary, Sydney NSW Australia, May 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Just sent this off to Glenn Hauser who picked up the original report via Chris Hambly. From John's conversation with them earlier today looks like I get to claim "First To Find" rights on this one :-) (Richard Jary, ARDXC via DXLD) Wonder what the name means; doesn`t sound very Greek to me. Have not seen any reports yet from outside Australia, except Mauno`s trace of it (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tentative R. Symban, Gosford Peats Ridge, 2368.5 kHz, 1 kW at 33 22 36s, 151 13 24e ? 73, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, May 19, shortwavesites yg via DXLD) Richard, Not there at 1050 UT (Wayne Bastow, NSW, May 19, ARDXC via DXLD) Just got an email from Mauno Ritola in Finland that he logged this at 1950 UT. It seems to be off now. But this seems to have started some activity around the planet :-) (Richard Jary, 1151 UT May 19, ibid.) One final thing about this station, it was a great example of teamwork among the people there. Could make a short filler for the next magazine if I have a gap to fill. First logged around 0945 UT on Sunday about 4 hours after it came on air. Tried to work out what it was, signal was poor among bad static crashes from the southerly that had gone through. Thought it might have been a Latin initially as the music was hard to hear, and there was a low power inactive one listed nearby. Just lucky to have some other gurus there so went and asked Craig who came up blank. After a brief discussion John thought this was one of the 120m frequencies that had been licenced but never activated. Luckily I had a copy of the ACMA database on the work laptop which I had with me and from that we narrowed it down to Radio Symban as the most likely possibility as the music definitely had a Greek slant once it got clearer but despite a lot of listening no talk, IDs, or announcements. Looked who had the frequency licenced and what else they owned. Tried to check listed parallels (including 151.675) but none audible from our location, or at least nothing in parallel at the time. With a borrowed Telstra 3G wireless card I happened to have tried looking up the website. Found that, the links were broken but managed to get a phone number. First person I spoke to didn't speak English much so put me on to a young lady there. She asked but they didn't know about the transmission and told me they would get the tech to call back (which hasn't happened). Sunday morning - belting in now without the static but still no IDs. Sunday afternoon, Wayne gets home to Gosford which is close to the transmitter site and bingo, very strong signal now with IDs and ads. Monday, John talks to the station owner and gets details for QSLs and the transmitter site. I reckon that is a pretty good effort by all involved. I can claim kudos for being the first one stupid/bored enough to check 120m on a noisy night (just because nothing else was coming through and I was checking if one of the NT ABCs had gone down as it was late doing so on an earlier check still on 60 mb). So within 4 hours of it starting we had it heard, within 5 hours a probable station and location. Another hour later and a not helpful call to the station. 24 hours positive IDs and 40 hours QSL details and transmitter info. I think that is a pretty good effort by all involved! And now the world is listening with it being logged from Finland already. And there were plenty of other people there at Cataract who helped out, just by confirming it wasn't an image on my receivers, trying to ID the style of music, and coming up with helpful ideas. The image thing was a big suggestion, tried tuning in at home with the portable just with a whip and was getting an image of one of the MW stations at Homebush (4 km away) covering footy. Even Sam who works with this says he would have dismissed it as a spurious signal from one of the Sydney stations if he had heard it first. Probably never had so many people at one DX camp tuned into one frequency all without headphones! (Richard Jary, NSW, May 19, ARDXC via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. 15 May at 1803 noted VL8T Tennant Creek on 4910 at this time with good signal. Was in parallel with 2485 but a bit delayed (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. 11945 kHz - 1140 UT May 17 - R. Australia with English program about "happiness " and meditation SINPO 44434 ; // 9580, SINPO 35533 (Allen Willie, St. John's, Newfoundland, Yaesu FRG-100 with 100 foot random wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 3310, R Mosoj Chaskis, 1020, 05/20/08. A male announcer with some commentary, a couple of canned promos or possibly ads, then music. Poor and fading fast (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. ? Noted a signal on 4005 from 2315 to 2333 May-17, which sounds like R Virgen de Remedios, Tupiza, Bolivia; religious ceremony in Spanish, maybe from inside a church or something with that reverberation but I'm not certain if it is R.Virgen or from L.A., although checked 4111 kHz at 2325, 2340, 2349 was off. Local QRM, 22322 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, HCDX via DXLD) Renato Uliana informa a escuta de Radio Vaticano nesta frequencia, editor (@tividade DX via DXLD) Vatican is of course on that frequency earlier, with 10 kW, 340 degrees from the City itself, not extrateterrorial Santa Maria di Galeria, 1555-2215 and also 0225-0645 (gh, DXLD) Viz.: 4005, 17/05 0305, R Vaticano, Sta Maria de Galeria, SS YL OM talks "diez padres..." 23322 (Renato Uliana, Brasil, @tividade DX via DXLD) BOLIVIA? 4800 UnID (R. Virgen de Remedios, Tupiza ?), 0140-0315, May 20, no IDs R. Virgen de Remedios, Spanish, Relay R. Católica Mundial- WEWN, ID, good signal (Rogildo Fontenelle Aragão, Quillacollo, Bolivia, 17º 23' 00. 65" S / 66º 15' 49. 60" W raragaodx @ yahoo.com.br raragao @ bolivia.com Sony ICF-2001D / Lowe HF-225E DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 4754.9, 0421 25/4, Radio Imaculada Conceição with Portuguese religious talk, fair. Ident with FM frequency at 0452. Carrier often there but audio has been rare till now (Bryan Clark at Mangawhai, New Zealand, with AOR7030+ and Alpha Delta Sloper, EWE to NE and various 100 metre BOGs to the Americas, May NZ DX Times via DXLD) 4755, 0310 10 May, UNID maybe BRAZIL, Radio Immaculate Conception (C. Grande) Vernacular OM with either Spanish or Portuguese with EZL music and several Buenos Diaz’s or the Portuguese equivalent. Partial ID at 0317 with “Immaculada” heard. S5/Poor (Joe Wood, Greenback, TN USA, Eton E1, Radio Shack DX 390, Grundig Mini 100 PE. FlexTenna, 7 metre random wire, May NZ DX Times via DXLD) I scan the 60 mb just about every night around 0600, and never heard anything on 4755 until May 20, besides CODAR, of course. At 0621 music, and talk definitely in Brazilian Portuguese, so my first thought that PMA might finally have come back was quickly dashed; a bit early for them anyway, 1721 local. It was also very slightly on the low side, but I would not say as low as 4754.90. Presumed R. Imaculada Conceição as others have been reporting. Apparently all- night now, and I wonder if that is a recent expansion in hours accounting for its new audibility? However, it sounded more like a commercial station to me than a religionist. Nothing else from Brazil found on 60m except a trace of 4915; 4790 Perú however was stronger than usual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. As byproduct of looking for International Radio Serbia on 6185, I had to deal with the splatter from RHC on 6180, May 21 at 0004; 6180 itself had heavy SAH and QRM from Amazonian service, as usual. This was // clear 11780, but when I rechecked at 0021, 11780 was no longer to be heard, just bleedover from DentroCuban jamming against Radio Martí on 11775 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Re 8-061, R. Senado tentatively on 5997.6 at 0939: Glenn, Radio Senado Ondas Curtas schedule : 1000-2200 UT. From 1300 to 2200 UT relaying Radio Senado FM. 73 (Samuel Cássio, São Carlos, SP, Brasil, May 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So they would not be on the air that early, but you don`t mention any frequency offness, so I assume you imply they remain really on 5990? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** BRAZIL. BRASIL - Vamos sempre lembrar que o sinal que ocupa a freqüência de 3325 kHz, na faixa de 90 metros, é o da Rádio Mundial AM, de São Paulo (SP). Foi captada, em Porto Alegre (RS), pelo colunista, em 17 de maio, por volta de 01h20min da madrugada brasileira [0420 UT], quando era irradiada a reprise do programa Café Brasil, http://www.lucianopires.com.br/cafebrasil/ apresentado pelo jornalista Luciano Pires. Na oportunidade, o apresentador estava extremamente feliz, uma vez que o programa comemorava três anos no ar pela Rádio Mundial. BRASIL - Uma das boas opções para quem quiser fugir do programa obrigatório A Voz do Brasil é sintonizar a Rádio Gaúcha, de Porto Alegre (RS), entre 19h e 20h. [ergo this time, and others? = local, i.e. 22-23 UT --- gh] Cláudio Brito apresenta o programa Gaúcha 19 Horas, destacando as últimas notícias do trânsito de Porto Alegre e também as movimentações políticas de Brasília. Um detalhe interessante é que o programa tem muitas participações de caminhoneiros que dizem escutar o programa em cidades de Santa Catarina e Paraná por meio das freqüências de 6020 e 11915 kHz, em ondas curtas. Com isso, dá para afirmar que a Rádio Gaúcha também mantém todos os tipos de opções para os seus ouvintes, como as "velhas ondas curtas" para quem ainda não tem o tocador de MP3 ou celular, modalidades estas que terão o sinal da emissora, em FM, a partir do dia 28, na freqüência de 93,7 MHz. BRASIL - As freqüências de 6080, 9515 e 11725 kHz que até bem pouco tempo se proclamavam como Rádio Novas de Paz, de Curitiba (PR), agora, são identificadas como Rádio Marumby. Por outro lado, a freqüência de 9665 kHz que antes antes era conhecida como Rádio Marumby, de Camboriú (SC), agora, chama-se Rádio Voz Missionária. As mudanças estão sendo veiculadas nas duas emissoras, conforme monitoria de Carlos Netto, em Americana (SP). De acordo com ele, desta forma, percebe-se que os dois grupos evangélicos finalizam a transição, que iniciou em 2001, quando os Gideões Missionários assumiram a programação da emissora em Santa Catarina. O outro grupo é o Sistema Iensen de Comunicações, ao qual pertencem as três primeiras freqüências citadas (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX May 19 via DXLD) ** BRAZIL [non]. BRAZIL ON SHORTWAVE --- Radio CVC, FREQ. 15410, time 03:45, simp: 54335, Portuguese prog., Receive signal in Macau/China. Best 73, (jose, May 19, shortwave yg via DXLD) This is transmitted northeastward from Chile, but remarkable to arrive so strongly in Macau. Programming originates in Miami. It is for Brazil, not from Brazil. It is not on this frequency at 0345 UT. I assume you are using local time UT +8? That`s 1945 UT. Please report in UT or specify your timezone. And the ID is CVC -- A Sua Voz, not Radio CVC. 73, (Glenn Hauser, Oklahoma, ibid.) ** BURMA [non]. TRANS WORLD RADIO AIRING TIMELY HOPE TO THE HOPELESS IN CYCLONE-RAVAGED MYANMAR --- Tuesday, May 13, 2008 By Michael Ireland, Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service CARY, NORTH CAROLINA (ANS) -- As the beleaguered nation of Myanmar continues to suffer from the mass devastation caused recently by Tropical Cyclone Nargis, international Christian broadcaster Trans World Radio (TWR) plans to produce special radio programs offering critically needed health and social care information, emotional support and spiritual care for the hurting and hopeless. TWR's announcement to begin airing these programs to Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) is especially timely given news reports indicating that the estimated death toll is upwards of 100,000 people, with another 1 million having been displaced from their homes. A media release states that TWR's over-the-airwave assistance strategy involves offering a full year of dedicated 30-minute broadcasts that will provide biblical counseling and care five days a week. . . http://www.assistnews.net/STORIES/2008/s08050067.htm (via Bruce Atchison, AB, May 14, DXLD) Tnx. Strange how the stuff from ASSIST rarely gives such essential details. TWR is scheduled already in Burmese, per WRTH update: Burmese Days Area kHz [meaning KTWR, Guam] 1200-1235 .....s. SEA 13765twr 1200-1300 mtwtf.s SEA 13765twr They also have Sgaw Karen as also mentioned in the story, which doesn`t make clear whether the `timely hope` broadcasts go into the existing programming, but it seems likely. 73, (Glenn to Bruce, via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [and non]. CHU missing from 7335, May 19 at 0135 --- not a trace, even with BFO on, just Vatican with S Asian service; yet CHU was inbooming on 14670 and also audible on 3330, so I conclude 7335 must really have been off the air, temporarily (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Here in PEI, at 0130 UT May 20 - no sign of 7335 KHz CHU. 3330 CHU booming in (Phil Rafuse, Stratford PEI Canada, ABDX via DXLD) Indeed, CHU on 7335 seems to be off the air. No signs of it, although 14670 is being well heard, along with the weaker 3330 at 0305 UT 20 May 08 (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Raymond, We notice that 7335 has been missing last night and today. Hope this is only temporary. What`s the problem? We are pleased that WHRI has stayed off your frequency (altho Vatican continues). Regards, (Glenn Hauser to Raymond Pelletier, CHU, May 20, via DXLD) Hello Glenn, Yes we are having technical problems with that transmitter again. It should be fixed later today. We are planning some major upgrades to all the transmitters at CHU, this summer. I will be sending you details when the work gets started (Ray Pelletier, NRC, May 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Ray, Good. I was afraid something further had happened about your possibly having to close down 7335 or move. Has that been resolved so you may keep 7335 with no further threats? (Glenn to Ray, via DXLD) CHU still missing from 7335, May 20 at 1306 but audible on 14670. At 2105, 7335 was back on. Raymond Pelletier of NRC told me they were fixing some tech problems, and that all transmitters would be upgraded this summer (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CHU heard fine here in Montreal at 2100 UT May 20 (Gilles Letourneau, Montreal, Canada, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) CHU on 7335 loud and clear in Holland at 0006 GMT (David Visser, Holland, ibid.) ** CANADA. 6030, Calgary - CFVP relaying CKMX (AM 1060), 2314-2325, May 13, C&W songs, many IDs, traffic conditions, news headlines (helicopter crash), promo for winning a trip to Las Vegas, poor to fair with rapid flutter, in the clear till 2325, when started to hear R. Martí (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [and non]. I happened across Cartas @ RN, the Spanish mailbag on RN, wherein Alfonso & Jaime manage to maintain some items of interest to DXers following the abolition of Radio Enlace last year. This was UT Monday May 19 at 0145 on 9450 due west from Portugal, but a fine signal here. Jaime was just replying to a letter and explaining that for several days in March, following their sudden switch to 9430 via Sines to escape QRM from Iran, people were also hearing RN Spanish service on an unscheduled frequency, 9520 --- because RCI master control in Montreal was putting the wrong feed from Hilversum thru to Sackville, Spanish instead of Dutch. That was the 2300-2357 transmission, which is now on 9525 southwards, presumably constantly in Dutch. If human beings at Montreal or Sackville were paying any attention to what went on the air, you`d think they could tell Dutch from Spanish, even if they were Francophone or Anglophone (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. HD radio on in Canada --- Apparently CFRM-FM 100.7 in pint-sized Little Current, ON (pop. 2,700) is broadcasting in HD. (!) http://www.theislandfm.com/ Does anyone know of any other Canadian HD stations. I know that the CBC did testing in Toronto but those are long gone now (Bill Hepburn, Ont., May 19, WTFDA via DXLD) Well, that's certainly interesting --- I know of the CBC tests in Toronto (and Peterborough) but no other HD stations in Canada. I didn't think the CRTC had finalized the rules for HD yet. Maybe these people got a licence from Industry Canada & didn't bother to tell the CRTC? (maybe they assumed they could do it the same way we do in the States - just turn it on & tell the government after the fact...) Or they got the Canadian equivalent of a STA? Can you even buy HD radios in Canada? -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) ** CANADA. In the AM Switch column in the current issue of DX NEWS, CJEU-1670 Gatineau, QC is listed under "CP's On The Air" with 1000/1000 watts and "children's programming as Radio Enfant." Although I may have forgotten, I cannot recall reading any reports that anyone has actually heard this new station. Can someone near Ottawa or Montreal (hello Barry & Sheldon) confirm whether or not this station is on the air? Thanks. (Marc DeLorenzo, MA, May 19, IRCA via DXLD) Someone had an unID on the frequency and this was tentatively it (gh) This station is not on the air, and, as far as I know, never has been. If and when they appear, I'll be sure to let y'all know! BTW, while maintaining the 1670 vigil, I logged a new TIS recently: WQHS749/WQIC880 in Fairfax County VA (six possible transmitter locations). I've heard a few others too, but the calls heard don't correlate with anything in the FCC database... wish there was a more complete list of these stations somewhere! (Barry McLarnon VE3JF, Ottawa, ON, ibid.) I thought CJEU was only licensedfor like 99 or 100 Watts, not 1000? (Paul B. Walker, Jr., SC, ibid.) The Gatineau 1670 station is listed as 1000 watts in the I-C database. (I wonder where the CJEU calls came from? It's still "GATINEAU1(1)" in the database. I'm sure the calls *are* CJEU but am curious what the source is that I'm not finding!) – (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN, EM66, NRC-AM via DXLD) I must be getting my radio stations confused here; I thought I saw a new Expanded band AM in Canada that was less then 100 watts. Oh well, my mistake (Paul B. Walker, ibid.) There's one 99-watt expanded-band station in Canada right now: CHYW- 1630 Ottawa (not sure whether it's on). There used to be one in Toronto but it's no longer in the database; my understanding is they surrendered their licence. I guess once they go over 99 watts they become a Class C station and a bunch more rules apply. Deane or Saul or Barry is going to have to elaborate (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) Yes, this is correct. AM stations 100 watts or over must be licensed as regular Class A, B or C stations and all the regular rules regarding broadcasting stations including being approved by both the CRTC and Industry Canada apply. Stations under 100 watts belong to class LP (Low Power) and are required to change frequency or go off the air if their frequency is required to permit the operation of a class A, B or C station. Class LP stations which are regular broadcasting stations, including relay stations such as the CBC CPRT stations are licensed in the usual manner by the CRTC and by Industry Canada but other low power stations such as TIS operations only require Industry Canada approval to operate. See Exemption order respecting a class of low-power radio programming undertakings and for details. There is a similar class for FM stations not over 50 watts at 60 meters. 73, (Deane McIntyre VE6BPO, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** CANADA. Move of CBDS-690 Pukatawagan MB to FM approved by the CRTC The Pukatawagan MB ( a 40 watt relay of CBWK-FM Thompson MB) to FM (102.5, 200 watts) has been approved by the CRTC: CBWK-FM – New transmitter at Pukatawagan 1. The Commission approves the application by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to amend the broadcasting licence for the English-language radio programming undertaking CBWK-FM Thompson, Manitoba in order to operate an FM transmitter at Pukatawagan to replace its AM transmitter CBDS. 2. The transmitter will operate at 102.5 MHz (channel 273A1) with an effective radiated power of 200 watts. 3. The CBC indicated that the FM transmitter is intended to replace its existing AM transmitter CBDS and that recently, the Mathias Colomb Cree National Chief and Council advised the CBC that the CBDS site is contaminated and they will proceed to decontaminate it by June 2008. The CBC stated that the FM transmitter needs to be operational by this date. 4. The Commission did not receive any interventions in connection with this application. 5. The CBC further advised the Commission that there will be no simulcast period. The licensee must then cease operation of its AM transmitter CBDS Pukatawagan. Pursuant to sections 9(1)(e) and 24(2) of the Broadcasting Act (the Act), and consistent with the CBC’s request, the Commission amends the licence of CBWK-FM Thompson by deleting the AM transmitter CBDS Pukatawagan. 73, (via Deane McIntyre VE6BPO, May 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Hi Glen[n]; CHQT 880 Edmonton has a new format. According to their on-air announcement, it's an internet-driven format. I don't know what that means exactly except that they use "citizen journalists" to send them pictures as well as video. The station airs a 3 hour news cycle. Most of the coverage I've heard is local news. I tried to hear a stream but there seems to be no link. The program schedule also is in a graphical form so I can't hear it. I wrote the station about providing a text schedule and I hope they provide one for us visually-impaired computer users. Respectfully, (Bruce Atchison, AB, May 20, author of Deliverance from Jericho (Six Years in a Blind School) and When a Man Loves a Rabbit ((Learning and Living With Bunnies). http://www.bookstream.biz/cgi-bin/bookstream/bookstore.cgi?overlord=Details&store_id=132 http://www.bookadz.com/whenaman.htm DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [and non]. CBC website blocked in China again See http://www.insidethecbc.com/radio-canada-website-blocked-in-china-again But China Radio International can still use the CBC transmitters, right? I'm curious if CBC management will this time put up with it. Would have loved to discuss the situation with the CBC stuff hanging around there, but Comments close automatically after seven days. And from Vancouver: "The antiquated wood-panel Sony radio in the waiting area, for instance, which was tuned to CBC Radio One, AM 690— but in irony got absolutely atrocious reception a mere few metres from the room where the sound was being created." http://www.penmachine.com/2007/01/podcasters-impression-of-live-radio.html But don't you believe the comments about SM58's "or something very similar". The related photo gallery clearly reveals small cardioid condenser mics, perhaps AKG. And I suspect they put the windscreens (which very slightly compromise the audio quality) on them because mounting pop screens can be a hassle (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldydg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Note: the first items are catch-ups from last week, 5/14+: Special service of CNR-1 & 2 same program --- CNR -1 & 2 started earthquake special service entirely on all SW. And according to announcement of CNR SW, FM/ MW station close to the stricken area carrying special program. Chongqing-909 kHz Ajuzangzu Qiangzu Autonomous, Sichuan-1359 kHz Ganzizanzu Autonomous, Sichuan-603 kHz Kunming-1008 kHz Hangzhong, Shanxi-756 kHz Gannanzangzu Autonomous, Gansu-1035 kHz Tianshui, Gansu-756 kHz de Hiroshi [later:] Special live service of CNR1 & 2 was finished at 1000 (S. Hasegawa, Japan, NDXC, May 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9740, CNR-Sichuan PBS --- Heard with an incredible signal (at first I thought that Kunming CRI had started early) 44444 from 1700 to 1710 with heavy talk emphasis in Mandarin. I checked on Aoki and no other Mandarin is broadcast now. Heard today 17/05/2008. It seems that not only has Radio Nederland moved (from 13840) but BBC WS from Kranji has vacated this channel specially. 73's (Dan Goldfarb, England, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. I could hardly believe my ears the morning of May 19 when between 1415 and 1508 I sought in vain for any Firedrake. Not a trace of China`s lively jamming music to be heard in any of the usual places. Here`s what I found: 14410 at 1415 woman talking, seems Chinese. I first figured with FD off, Sound of Hope was getting thru, but from later reports, the Chicom just switched jamming audio from FD back to CNR-1 program, which they have used extensively before, due to the quake mourning period May 19-21. At 1435, 14410 was still weak with talk. By 1456, JBA. Nothing audible on another OOB SOH frequency 13365 or 13645 like the days before, but propagation from E Asia (and just about everywhere else beyond N America) was very poor today, as least above 12 MHz. I was still getting VOA Korean on 11740 well at 1439 via Tinang, but IBB Philippines and NMI relays always have a lower-latitude advantage over China here. 15285 at 1416, normally a big FD signal, just something else, weak. BBC Singapore the target. 12040 at 1419, Chinese with co-channel, no music. VOA Tinang the target. 11540 at 1508, SAH between two Chinese, not including Firedrake: RFA Tinian being the target. 9930 at 1418, 1440, Chinese with weak co-channel. Now I`m not sure which was on top: KWHR with SOH, or China jamming. Unfortunately, I did not think to carry out parallel chex to tell which audio was CNR-1 heard on various frequencies. 9605 at 1424, Chinese, no FD music. BBC the target. 9525 at 1423, het with VOI 9526, so I knew China was propagating on this band. 9450 at 1416, a high-power SOH frequency from Taiwan, no FD music. I posted the no-Firedrake news on the DXLD yg and Andy Sennitt suggested it could be due to mourning. Sei-ichi Hasegawa, NDXC soon explained that during the 3-day quake mourning period, Firedrake has been replaced by CNR-1 as jamming source, out of respect for the dead. I say: How about some respect for the living, too, and their right to freedom of information? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [earlier:] A morn without Firedrake Bandscanning including the usual Firedrake frequencies between 14 and 15 UT May 19 --- NO Firedrake heard anywhere! Propagation is subnormal, but some of the victims are in the clear, such as SOH 14410, or with non-musical QRM. More details to follow. Is anyone hearing Firedrake now? (Glenn Hauser, OK, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Victims, mo(u)rning. Just a thought - this could have something to do with the three days of mourning that China has begun. I would imagine the usual audio carried by Firedrake is not considered appropriate for transmission (Andy Sennitt, ibid.) Hmm, interesting idea. CBC news at 1800 said the mourning period lasted exactly 3 minutes, exactly one week after the quake, but involved the entire population of China (gh, ibid.) There was a 3-minute silence, but the mourning period is 3 days. This is what Xinhua says: CHINA SUSPENDS MOVIE SCREENING DURING 3-DAY NATIONAL MOURNING BEIJING, May 19 (Xinhua) -- China's film authority has ordered a suspension on all cinema screenings during the official three-day national mourning for victims of the May 12 earthquake, which started on Monday. The order was applicable to all cinemas, movie channels, film releasing and screening associations, and film producers, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said in a late Sunday notice. [SARFT also runs jamming! --- gh] Movie screening for both commercial and non-profit aims were suspended. During the three-day mourning which ends at Wednesday midnight, all movie channels must air disaster-relief themed programs including news reports, live broadcasting, and charity advertisements, the administration said. Movie producers must not hold any kind of film promotion activities, the notice read. Meanwhile, the country's press regulator, the General Administration of Press and Publication, ordered games producers nationwide to halt the provision of gaming services for the public during the national mourning. Promotion activities for gaming products should also be suspended, the administration said. The State Council, the Cabinet, on Sunday ordered a three-day national mourning to display respect for the dead in the devastating earthquake in southwest China's Sichuan Province. Flags are to be kept at half-mast and all public amusements will be suspended for three days from Monday. The death toll in the 8.0- magnitude earthquake rose to 34,073 as of Monday noon, according to the earthquake relief headquarters of the State Council (via Andy Sennitt, dxldyg via DXLD) http://es.noticias.yahoo.com/afp/20080519/tts-china-sismo-efe14c4.html Según la agencia de noticias China News Service, esta es la primera vez que el país observa un duelo nacional debido a un desastre natural. Incluso el recorrido de la antorcha olímpica fue suspendido durante tres días en señal de respeto. Durante tres días no habrá programas de entretenimiento en la televisión y en la frenética Shanghai las autoridades ordenaron que cines, karaokes y otros establecimientos de ocio cierren sus puertas. Los diarios y los sitios internet de toda China renunciaron al color el lunes. La portada del Beijing Times era negra, con la foto de una vela y estas simples palabras: "Día de duelo" (via Jose Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DXLD) Al respecto no se aprecia cese de emisiones de Onda Corta, sin embargo, la página web de CRI no tiene color, está en blanco y negro. http://espanol.cri.cn/ Esto sólo ocurre en la página principal, en el resto de las páginas se aprecia que están en color (José Miguel Romero, Spain, ibid.) 14410, Xi Wang Zhi Sheng SOH?? 1810-1818, escuchada el 19 de mayo en idioma chino; se aprecia locutora con comentarios, locutor con invitado con comentarios, no se aprecia emisión jammer china, locutora con comentarios acompañada de música de fondo, posible programa especial dedicado a las víctimas del terremoto, la música es funebre, semblante muy serio por parte de locutores, también de los testimonios de los invitados, SINPO 45443 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot, (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master, ibid.) No, probably CNR-1 as substitute jammer as explained below: (gh) China enters a 3-day mourning period for victims of the Sichuan earthquake from Mon. to Wed. Therefore music disappeared from Chinese broadcast, Firedrake was replaced by CNR-1. The title of Firedrake is "Fengshou luogu" http://www.nme.com/video/id/g1tL7X4PJac/search/%E8%B1%90%E6%94%B6%E9%91%BC%E9%BC%93 de Hiroshi (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) YouTube with 4 sesquiminutes` worth anyway, the percussionists having a big time especially in the final sesquiminute. Labeled as: Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra / ??? Yan Hui-chang. Now we can see some of the musicians whose art has been stolen for the evil purposes of the unelected, corrupt Chicom dictatorship to squelch freedom of information. In second day of three-day quake mourning period, still no Firedrake jamming to be heard May 20, but instead CNR-1 program feed, in some cases offset with echoes to make it more annoying. At 1306, such jamming on 7445, 6110; on 9930 at 1411, about equal mix of CNR1 and Sound of Hope via KWHR; one was dominating on the FRG-7 with longwire, the other on YB-400 with internal random wire. Same programming but not sure if // on 9450 from Taiwan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. CITIZEN JOURNALISTS AT CHINESE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER From a Chinese blog, an incredibly sad and tragic collection of photos, I must warn you. http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20080513_1.htm May be slow to load due to bandwidth issues. I do not think the world's news organizations are accurately showing just how bad the situation is there (tom roche, GA, May 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Must be hundreds of photos, some of which did not load tho `done`. Heartbreaking (gh, DXLD) ** CHINA. USA's NPR item on China Quake --- I am an avid BBC and CBC news fan and rarely find any worthy journalism on USA radio, however I urge those that did not hear the National Public Radio (NPR) item on All Things Considered (first hour, 14/5/08) regarding the China earthquake, please check it out. The Melissa Block (spelling?) item was perhaps the most powerful piece of audio journalism I have ever heard. -- (Andy O`Brien, NY, May 14, dxldydg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I believe this is the story Andy is referring to: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90447603 I heard it on the air this afternoon - extraordinary reporting. By coincidence, several members of NPR's show All Things Considered were in Chengdu when the quake hit (they'd planed a special series of shows from China starting next week), and their staff has been doing some remarkable on-the-scene journalism in the past few days (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, ibid.) There is plenty of ``worthy journalism`` on NPR! (gh) Programa de radio de ayuda psicológica apoya a chinos afectados por el sismo http://spanish.peopledaily.com.cn/31614/6414536.html Las dos principales estaciones de radio de China iniciaron un programa interactivo de asistencia psicológica para ayudar a la recuperación de las personas traumatizadas después del sismo del 12 de mayo. Radio China Nacional y Radio China Internacional transmiten diariamente el programa de 15 minutos llamado "Nuestro corazón está contigo: Acción de Asistencia Psicológica tras el Desastre", a las 22:45 y a las 13:35. [UT +8] El programa incluye una introducción sistemática a la asistencia psicológica y la interacción entre expertos y personas de las zonas afectadas por el sismo. "Una tarea importante en la reconstrucció n posterior al desastre es llevar a cabo una intervención psicológica para ayudar a las personas afectadas por el sismo a recuperar la confianza y a superar el dolor de haber perdido familias, parientes y amigos", dijo Liu Junjie, defensor del programa. Es una manera práctica de emplear la radiodifusión, para propagar conocimientos sobre asistencia psicológica ahora que existen inconvenientes de transporte, dijo Liu. Para el mediodía de hoy lunes, el número de muertos por el sismo registrado el 12 de mayo se había elevado a 34.073, de acuerdo con el cuartel general de asistencia para el sismo del Consejo de Estado o gabinete chino. (Xinhua 20/05/2008 via José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DXLD) Observations from China Tuesday, May 20, 2008 4:25 AM From: "Ron Howard" Greetings from Shanghai, Monday, May 19 was the start of 3 days of national mourning for the victims of the Wenchuan quake. At 2:30 PM local time, everything came to a complete standstill here in Shanghai, with 3 minutes of the sounds of sirens and car horns, in honor of the victims of the quake. All the news media have continuous stories about the quake. Most of the television stations have identical coverage (one exception is CCTV-9, the English language channel). Radio reception consists mostly of numerous CNR-1 relays in the SW, AM and FM bands. Have observed CNR-2/China Business Radio with 24 hour relaying of CNR-1, as heard on the normal CNR-2/CBR frequencies: 91.4 FM, 6065, 6155, 7130, etc., on May 17, 18 and 19 during various times. First noticed this when I checked for the regular "English Evening" program from 13-14 UT and found the CNR-1 relay instead. The Sichuan PBS services, broadcasting from the area of the quake, continues to be on 6060, 7225 and the new 9740, heard with a relay of CNR-1 from about 1200-1232 UT. At other times they are mostly all parallel, but on May 19 noted 9740 was not parallel to anything, so assume they actually had Sichuan PBS-1 programming at 1105. 6200 continues to relay CNR-1 for 24 hours a day. Of course I hear some stations with their own programming: on 4830, CHBC at *1200 on May 19 and 4900 // 4040 with the VOS at 1241 on May 19. Would seem logical that is massive relaying of CNR-1 will continue through at least the 21st, the last day of national mourning and will probably continue on even past that date (Ron Howard, Shanghai, China, Eton E5, May 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Shanghai PBS-SMG News channel on SW for 24 hours, including CNR-1 News relay. 3280, 4950, 9705 kHz in Chinese. ex. V. of Pujiang. http://app1.smg.cn/news/08kangzhen/index.asp de Hiroshi (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Autolaunches video and audio in color; rest of page in B&W Mourning for Wenchuan quake victims (gh) Audio file; May 20 at 0240 UT on 9705 kHz by S. Aoki http://ndxc.org/aoki/binews/ab/pjzs-20080520-0239_9705.mp3 (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, Japan, May 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4950 Voice of Pujiang (presumed), 1107-1135+, 05/20/08, Mandarin. M/F presenters in an all-talk format except for short music bridges, contrasting with previous logs here where they were mostly playing tunes and commercials. Format change no doubt due to content restrictions during quake mourning period. Listed as *1200, perhaps special extended hours? Nothing heard on // 3280, 5075. Fair/poor (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. 17490 - 1217 UT May 17 - China Radio International with English news including earthquake report; Chinese media stories SINPO 45533. [Kashi, 308 degrees] (presumed CRI ) 11750 kHz - 1155 UT May 17 with Chinese language lessons (transmission abruptly cut off at 1159 with no closing) [Sackville, 272 degrees] (Allen Willie, St. John's, Newfoundland, Yaesu FRG-100 with 100 foot random wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [non]. CRI facilitates a very unfavorable comparison between its Albanian and Cuban relay sites, by adjacenting them on 9570 and 9580 respectively for English at 0100. May 19 at 0142 check, modulation was much stronger and clearer on 9570 than on 9580. Are the Chicom really paying the Cubcom for such degraded relays, with similar problems on many other frequencies? Or do the Cubans donate their worst SW facilities out of general fraternal Commie gratitude? It`s odd that there have never been any RHC relays via China sites, which surely they could get if they wanted; guess Cuba isn`t that interested in reaching Asia (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Starting May 18th, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Special Event Amateur Radio Stations will begin activity. Five special calls, representing the five rings of the Olympic flag, will be QRV. The calls will be BT1OB, BT1OJ, BT1OH, BT1OY and BT1ON. The last letter of the callsign corresponds to the color of each of the rings of the Olympic flag - Beibei (Blue), Jingjing (Black), Huanhuan (Red), Yingying (Yellow) and Nini (Green). BA4EG will be the QSL manager for all stations. QSLs can be sent either direct or via the bureau and will begin to be answered in October. There will be a Website set up at http://www.bj2008ses.com.cn which should be up and running by May 16th. The website will include an on- line log search, and QSL card receive and sent status, along with other information. There will also be award criteria posted soon. Look for these five Olympic special event stations to be QRV through September 17th (via Southgate http://www.southgatearc.org/news/may2008/olympic_callsigns.htm via Mike Terry, May 17, dxldyg via DXLD) ** CROATIA [non]. VOC, via GERMANY, 9925, May 19 at 0138 with a `hollow` reverb sound, i.e. very slightly unsynchronized transmitters. Not really objexionable, but an interesting effect, more apparent on speech than on music. Between 0100 and 0300 three 100 kW transmitters at two sites are all running at once, two at Wertachtal aimed 240 and 300 degrees, and another at Nauen, presumably the dominant one here, aimed 325 degrees. At 22-23 there is only one Wertachtal on 9925, at 23-01 there are two Wertachtals, and at 03-05 one Nauen. 7285 remains silent, and 3985 direct from Croatia is not making it here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Now here is item seven to today's program. our listening tips section of Dxers Unlimited, today devoted to medium wave AM broadcast band listeners. At the request of many AM band Dxers that want to pick up more Cuban stations, here are several frequencies and locations of rather easily heard Cuban AM band stations. on frequency 890 kiloHertz, Radio Progreso Relay of Ciego de Ávila province, from the central part of Cuba, and on 910 kiloHertz Radio Cadena Agramonte from Camagüey now on the air with its new 25 kiloWatt transmitter and highly efficient antenna system. So if you want to add not one but two new ones to your AM broadcast band log, look for Radio Progreso on 890 kiloHertz and Radio Cadena Agramonte on 910 kiloHertz. Listeners in Central America, the Caribbean, the United States of America and Canada will surely be able to pick up these two transmitters. QSL requests can be sent to Radio Progreso, P O Box 3042, Havana, Zip Code 10300, to the attention of Chief Engineer José A. Fuentes. E-mail your QSL requests to Radio Cadena Agramonte to http://www.cadenagramonte.cubaweb.cu/camaguey/ (Arnie Coro, CO2KK, RHC DXers Unlimited May 17 via Kevin Redding, ABDX yg via DXLD) ** CUBA. The Program “DXers Unlimited” by Arnie Coro was heard over Radio Havana on April 28 from 0113 [sic] to 0148 hours in English on 6000 kHz (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DX May 16 via DXLD) Does anyone proofread, or make a correxion later? The show runs about 17 minutes, as Arnie often mentions, so the start time is probably supposed to be 0131 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. RHC 13760, May 19 at 1437 had a subaudible heterodyne of about 6 Hz. Per EiBi and Aoki, the only possibility is VOK in French to Europe, tho Aoki lacks the 11-15 UT RHC broadcast on 13760, where it has been for some months; and HFCC of course lacks both N Korea and Cuba! Monday morning, May 19, RHC did not sign off around 1500 as it normally does. Listening to 15370, they were standing by for a live press conference about US infiltration into counter-revolutionary groups inside the country. After a few seconds of music fill, cut to the live event at 1502 about terroristas y mercenarios, // 13680, 12000, 11760. Ever notice how anti-Castro forces weren`t really labeled ``terrorist`` until after 9/11? To the dentro-Cubans, terrorist simply means anyone who opposes the unelected Commie dictatorship. MEGO (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Cuba: RHC programa especial hoy 19 de mayo http://www.radiohc.cu/espanol/noticias/may08/19may/confprensa.htm Radio Habana Cuba transmitirá en vivo desde las 11 de la mañana una conferencia de prensa para denunciar actividades anticubanas del gobierno EEUU La Habana, 19 may (RHC) Radio Habana Cuba transmitirá hoy en vivo desde las 11 de la mañana una conferencia de prensa que tendrá lugar en el Centro de Prensa Internacional, de esta capital, para denunciar la política agresiva del gobierno de Estados Unidos contra Cuba. Fuentes: RHC, AIN, GRANMA, TRABAJADORES, JUVENTUD REBELDE, PL, REUTER, EFE, IPS, ANSA, AFP, XINHUA, TASS, DPA, AP (via José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxlyg via DXLD) ** CUBA [non]. ESCALATION OF ILLEGAL ANTI-CUBA TRANSMISSIONS CONDEMNED By Roberto Pérez Betancourt — Granma daily — THE U.S. government has implemented an escalation of its radio/television aggression of Cuba by increasing the vast resources that it has pumped into this interventionist exercise since the early days of the Revolution. Specialists from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) and Informatics and Communications (MIC) presented this condemnation on the Thursday edition of the Cuban radio and TV Informative Roundtable, during which they cited evidence of reiterated violations of international law and an open defiance of the island’s sovereignty. . . http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2008/mayo/vier16/transmissions.html (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) This is the Mesa Redonda summarized by Arrnie, previously referenced. Martí story, much more about the US than Cuba itself, in this issue is under: U S A [and non] ** CZECHIA. Re 8-061: Radio Prague 85th Anniversary Program I listened May 18, 2008 at 0100 UT 7345. I also listened May 18, 2008 at 1300 UT 13580. Programming different. I reported the 1300 broadcast to R. Prague for the 85th Anniversary QSL. 73, (Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, Manassas, VA USA, May 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DEUTSCHES REICH [non]. More from Kevin Alfred Strom`s ex-wife: FYI: This was just sent to me and tells more of my incredible story -- - To whom it may be of interest: This came out right before my book was published. I spoke before The Justice Department on May 6, 2003 in West Virginia. I FEEL THESE PEOPLE RAPED MY SOUL" --- AFTER 6 YEARS AWAY, REFORMED WHITE SUPREMACIST REMAINS ANGRY The Charleston Gazette/May 7, 2003 By Scott Finn . . . http://www.rickross.com/reference/alliance/alliance26.html Yours, (Kirsten Helene Kaiser, 3509 Memorial Street, Alexandria, VA 22310, 703 960 8366, May 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR [non]. Does HCJB broadcast in Ukrainian or not? See UKRAINE [non] ** EGYPT. Hi Glenn, I was just reading NASWA Electronic Flashsheet #328 and noted the info you provided on Radio Cairo Domestic Service changing to DST on 25 April. Thank you for the clarification, Glenn. I suppose as far as the Abis transmitter goes, the Engineering Department is aware of modulation/distortion problems. My reception report detailed the issues that I experienced and I asked them to kindly forward the information to the Engineering staff. Perhaps it is an issue of money for repairs/upgrades? (Ed Insinger, May 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EGYPT. EGIPTO, 9250, Wide El Nile [sic], 1655-1700, escuchada el 20 de mayo en idioma árabe a locutor en conversación con un niño, locutora y locutor con cuña, probablemente de identificación acompañada de música de fondo, se observa un silencio a las 1657 que se prolonga casi un minuto. En todos los listado se anuncia cómo comienzo a las 1700 UT. SINPO 35433 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) It`s Wadi el-Nil. As I pointed out recently, since it signs off an hour earlier than before, at 2200, now that DST is in effect, it probably starts an hour earlier than before, at 1600. This appears to confirm that, tho we would still like someone to check it at 1600 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. ALEMANIA, 13830, V. of Oromo Liberation, 1700-1705, escuchada el 20 de mayo a locutor con presentación, ID y música de sintonía, locutora con comentarios y referencias a Oromo; a las 1701 se aprecia una extraña señal muy molesta que cesa a las 1702 y se reanuda a las 1703, SINPO 43553 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) So has intermittent jamming ** GERMANY. Radio 700 Das Europaradio, 6005 kHz, verified in 1 week with QSL card, sticker and information sheet (in German); no rp. V/s Bernd Frinken. Address: Radio 700, Kuchenheimer Str. 155, 53881 Euskirchen, Germany (Fabrizio Magrone, Italy, May 13, HCDX via DXLD) ** GUATEMALA. 4052.5, Radio Verdad, Chiquimula, recibida carta con bonitos sellos, conteniendo tarjeta QSL conmemorativa del 8º aniversario de la emisora, banderín de Radio Verdad, varios calendarios y pegatinas y carta del director Edgard Amilcar Madrid, agradeciendo el informe de recepción y narrando la historia de la emisora. El informe de recepción se envió hace un mes, sin adjuntar IRC ni ningún tipo de ayuda. En la QSL se hace constar que transmiten con 650 watts de potencia. Recordad que, a pesar de su baja potencia, es una de las emisoras de las bandas tropicales que se suele escuchar con facilidad, si bien la mayoría de las veces se recibe bastante débil. La mejor hora es entre las 0500 y las 0600, en que cierra. En esa hora (0500-0600) están con su programación en ingles "Spiritual Songs", con canciones religiosas y comentarios. Y recordad también que es, es una de las emisoras de estas bandas que mejor trata a los DX-istas, sino la mejor, pues contesta siempre y rápido a los informes de recepción, enviando, aparte de la QSL, diverso material y recuerdos de la emisora. Cada vez es más raro encontrarse en el buzón con una gruesa carta como la de Radio Verdad, con sellos auténticos, no impresos y con abundante material de la emisora. Hace 30 años esto era normal, pero ahora la mayoría de emisoras tropicales, y también internacionales, no contestan a los oyentes. Dirección: Radio Verdad Apartado Postal 5 Chiquimula Guatemala (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, May 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. Dear Friends, Recently I visited All India Radio, Doordarshan TV, and Private FM stations in Cuttack area in Orissa State, East India. An article about this [illustrated] is available at: http://www.qsl.net/vu2jos/art/cuttack.pdf (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, National Institute of Amateur Radio, Raj Bhavan Road, Hyderabad 500082, India, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN. 6027, Mashhad VOIRI Arabic 1630-0530 --- I don't know whether this is a long term problem but between 2235 and 2245 on 13 May 2008 this transmitter was off frequency. I found it strange that both 6025 and 6030 were very quiet so minimal het was in evidence. In other parts of the world and at other times hets would be severe. If this is old news (Glenn) please point me towards the previous bulletin - otherwise, are others noticing this problem? 73's (Dan Goldfarb, Brentwood, England, May 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. I heard Radio Farda last night after 0300 on 7280 via Wertachtal. Not a bad signal but on a bad night overall it may not be worth our while (Sherry Paszkiewicz, WI, John 10:7-10, May 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAQ [and non]. [HFmonitors] Reach 8057 gets wx for Baghdad IAP, Kuwait, etc. 11175 kHz USB 2122z: HF-GCS Station "Andrews" wkg "Reach 8057" for phone patch to Hilda Metro (Scott AFB) for wx at ORBI (Baghdad IAP) currently and for 2300z, also ORSH (Al Sahra AAF, Tikrit, Iraq at 0200z; also OKBK (Kuwait IAP). (16 May 2008) (ALS) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MilRadioComms http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CivilAirComms http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HFmonitors http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FloridaMilcom http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SpaceCoastComms ********************************************************** (AL STERN, Satellite Beach FL, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** ITALY. Effective from the 13th of May 2008, Italian radio amateurs are authorized to use 7100 to 7200 kHz on a secondary basis, using a total radiated power not exceeding 24 dbW. (Irish [sic] Radio Transmitters Society Radio News Bulletin, May 18th 2008 via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) So are they allowed to cause interference to foreign broadcasters, or do they just have to put up with any the F.B. may cause to the hams? (gh, DXLD) ** JAPAN. I keep running across additional frequencies for the 1400- 1429 English broadcast, tho not really needed with reliable Sackville relay on 11705. May 19 at 1422, there it was on 11985, running slightly ahead of 11705, and much better today than 13630 Skelton. 11985 is due west from Yamata. NHKWRJ, 11985, fair at 1320 May 20 with Today`s Angle, i.e. one dekaminute into the 1310-1340 transmission. This is due west from Yamata, same as the 1400-1430 English broadcast recently reported (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH. KCBS, which has been varying down to 11678-11677, May 20 at 1418 was more like 11679.8, judging from the het Korean talk was making with a 11680 station, and BFO confirmed nothing on the lower frequencies. Aoki suggests 11680 should be RFA Vietnamese via Sri Lanka, or VOT in Turkish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. CLANDESTINE (No. Korea) - 9940 N. Korean Reform R. (p) 1313-1330* May 13. Low-key talks in KR; plug was pulled at exactly 1330:00. Fair signal. Listed via Taiwan (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, May 18, Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [and non]. 9940, May 20 at 1312 in Korean plus rapid pulsing jammer with pitch varying slightly. This would be North Korea Reform Radio, daily at 1300-1330 via Taiwan, per Aoki. I notice that John Wilkins in CO reported it exactly one week earlier, but no mention of any jamming. Fortunately, DPRK jamming tends to be rather sporadic (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LAOS. 6130, Lao National Radio, Vientiane. May 9 at 1400-1430. SIO33332 [sic]. News in Lao till 1414, followed by the English session program "New Dynamic English" which lasted until 1428. Thanks to Ron Howard's tip on DX Listening Digest 8-057 (Iwao Nagatani, Japan Premium via DXLD) ** LIBYA. Re 8-061: Dear Mike, About two years ago I have same experience. When I filled and sent the preprinted report back to P.O. Box 4677 Tripoli, Libya one month and 17 days later I received from them almost the same stuff again: blank log sheet, leaflet and archeological sightseeing from Libya (Tony Ashar, Depok – Indonesia, May 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 9599, Radio UNAM, (presumed) at 2145 on 5/12 with just a trace of classical music. and a few Spanish words (Gerry Dexter, WI, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) Have not heard them at all, not even as a het, for more than a week here. Must be very sporadic. When will they ever get on and stay on 24h like a real serious station? They have great musical programming, and even good modulation. My breath is unheld (Glenn Hauser, OK, May 19, DXLD) ** MEXICO. 4800, XERTA, Radio Transcontinental de América, 0532-0540, 16-05, canciones religiosas en español. Señal muy débil, audible en LSB. 15321 (Manuel Méndez, casco urbano de Lugo, España, Grundig Satellit, 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Antena de cable, 8 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Presumably same here, only music, around 0600 May 19, not so weak, and audible in AM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MOLDOVA. VISIT TO MOLDOVA, OCTOBER 2007 By DSWCI 3347 Christian Ghibaudo, Nice, France. In late spring, I did the contest organised by Radio Moldova International to commemorating tits 15th Anniversary. RMI was born in 1992. I answered all the questions, and I got the great pleasure to be the winner of the First Prize. In July, RMI told me that the first prize was a 4 days trip in Chisinau, for the Wine Festival. From October 12 to 15th 2007. So on October 12th in the morning, I flew to Chisinau via Vienna. I arrived in Moldova in the middle of the afternoon, and Violeta from the French service of RMI was at the airport to welcome me. I stayed in Hotel Villa Natali, downtown Chisinau. Soon, I made my first walk and discover the city. But the main event of my trip, is the Wine Festival (6th edition) from Saturday in Marii Square in downtown Chisinau in front of the National Assembly. Wine Festival is a great festival; all Moldovan wineries are here, with a lot of folk dances. All was Live on the television network Moldova 1. On Sunday, we visit the medieval place of Orhei some 60 kilometres from Chisinau. On Monday morning, I went to the Radio House, in Mioritsa Street for a full visit of the station. Violeta wait me, and I’m introduced to Mrs Baccalim (manager of RMI) and General Manager of TeleRadio Moldova. In front of TV camera, many gifts were given with a Welcome speech. Mrs Baccalim (left) and Violeta. [caption] I visited offices of the French service, and Radio Moldova’s studios. I also recorded the day broadcast. RMI’s offices are at the 6th floor, so with Violeta we went to the 2nd floor, where is the studio used by RMI. We meet Natalia, sound engineer. After the recording, we have lunch and follow a visit to the « small museum » made for the 75 years of the Moldovan radio (1930). [caption] Very interesting visit with old radio receivers, and lot of files from the Soviet era. I got the pleasure to found two historic pennant of Radio Moldova for my collection. But it’s time to leave Moldova and coming back in France. I enjoyed a lot this too short trip in Chisinau, and I would like to thanks Violeta Clichici for her kindness. I invite you to listen to Radio Moldova International, on the web only in French, English, Spanish, Russian or Romanian. Since 2000, RMI is no longer on short waves. Web address: http://www.trm.md (DSWCI Short Wave News – April 2008 via DXLD) ** MOLDOVA [and non?]. Country list question --- I seem to recall that the countries committee has recognized that the Voice of Russia for sometime has had issues with indicating the correct transmitter location on their QSL. Can someone be kind enough the remind me of their ruling on this matter? The reason I asked is today I received a QSL for the Voice of Russia all my reference material indicates that the transmitter site for this broadcast (6240 at 0241) is Grigoripol in Moldavia; however the QSL says Kishinyov (or something like that hard to read). I looked thru a list of transmitter sites and have not found a match as of yet. Thanks, (Mike Rohde, NASWA yg via DXLD) Mike, Grigoriopol and Kishinyov are different names for the same site in Moldova, or to be more precise, Pridnestrovye = Transnistria . 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Let me see if I can clarify GH's post, lest someone think that literally Grigoriopol and Kishinyov are one and the same place. They are, of course, not (except in some politically correct minds in Moscow). Here is the story: In the old Soviet Union era, surely into the 1970s, the USSR had transmitters throughout its territory that transmited Radio Moscow programming. One of these sites was just outside the city of Kishinev (which was how RM spelled the name of the capital of the Moldavian S.S.R., although other alternative spellings then used were Kishinyov and Kisin'ov). QSL cards from that era were issued marked as Kishinev. Sources such as the CIA's FBIS confirmed the xmtr(s) was/were located near the city of Kishinyov/Kishinev/etc. These receptions were considered as the radio country Moldavia (in today's NASWA country list: Moldova (Moldavian S.S.R.) For years, most DXers considered transmitter sites as listed on Radio Moscow QSLs to be applicable, even though, in some cases, those notations might be a bit dubious. Those cases that might be literally untrue usually were not challenged. It made things easier to simply accept Moscow's word for it, since listeners couldn't come up with the proof showing another location. But in Moldavia's case, things started to get complicated. At some point, maybe in the late 1970s, maybe sometime in the 1980s, the xmtr site near the city of Kishinyov/Kishinev (or to throw in another spelling variant, Chininau [sic] -- to use the common Roman alphabet letters -- the name by which the city is known today) was shut down. A new transmitting station was built near Grigoriople [sic], a distance of approximately 50 km. from Kishinev. The NASWA Country List Committee has not been able to establish exactly when the new transmitting station at Grigoripol [sic] was built. Several European DX sources have suggested various, approximate years, but as far as we have been able to determine, a precise date or year is not known. At some time, again unknown, Moscow shifted its transmissions from the old Kishinev site to the new Grigoriopol site. At some time, again exact dates are not known, at least one old SW xmtr was physically moved from Kishinev to Grigoriopol. Shortwave transmissions from the old Kishinev site ceased. However, Moscow QSLs continued to be marked Kishinev (and VoR cards, using the Kishinyov spelling, continue to be so marked even today) even though transmissions were coming from Grigoriopol, some 50 km away. As long as both Kishinev and Grigoriopol were both part of the same "radio country," few DXers cared much about the distinction. Then came the breakup of the Soviet Union, and the Moldavian S.S.R. became, in political reality, as well as continuing to have "radio country" status, an independent country, Moldova. BUT then a portion of Moldova, ex-Moldavian S.S.R., a part generally known as Pridnestrovie declared its own independence from the Moldova. After a period of time, some years, the NASWA Country List committee accorded this break-away "country" radio country status. And Grigoripol happened to be located within Pridnestrovie. That where, for DXers, a problem began. Apparently for political reasons, Moscow was supportive of but not willing to recognize Pridnestrovie. So VofR prefers to maintain the fiction that its broadcasts are coming from transmitters in Kishinyov, Moldova, when they are coming from Grigoriopol, Pridnestrovie, and thus continued to mark its cards incorrectly. This fiction eventually became just too apparent and too hard for DXers to ignore. The NASWA Country List committee was called upon to establish a cut off date, before which, R. Moscow/V of Russia QSL cards marked Kishinev/Kishinyov should count as Moldova (Moldavian S.S.R.) and after which, V. of Russia cards, similarly marked, should count as Pridnestrovie. Since no historically accurate or correct date could be established, the CLC chose an arbitrary point in time, December 1993, the approximate date an independent SW station, then called Radio Dniester International began operating in the breakaway "state." . This long explanation boils down to this. QSLs marked Kishinev or Kishinyov from BEFORE December 1993 count as Moldova (Moldavian) and similarly marked cards from December 1993 or AFTER count as Pridnestrovie. The correct answer may not always be the short answer. And while perhaps not the perfect answer, it does at least get everyone on the same page. Sincerely, (Don Jensen, Chairman, NASWA Country List Committee, NASWA yg via DXLD) Don goes into the long convoluted history of this which is fine, and essential if your QSLing goes back sesquidecades (even tho there are no firm answers); I was merely explaining what is currently the case. Grigoriopol is the only site currently in use, and thus the only one which can currently be QSLed, altho the Russians like to continue calling it ``Kishinev`` (however it may be spelled). In HFCC you will find only KCH listings, nothing for Grigoriopol, even tho that is more precisely where the present site is. Right? 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Glenn is entirely correct. Presently, regardless of what Moscow may put on QSLs, Grigoriopol is the only currently active site. Thus, today, one can log and verify Pridnestrovie, but not Moldova (Moldavian S.S.R.), according to the NASWA Country List The same is true for any such QSLs post-December 1993. You should be counting Moldova (Moldavian S.S.R. only if the logging was before December 1993. The rest of my post was, indeed, only citing history. My concern was that those interested in history might believe that the Kishinev and Grigoriopol sites were one and the same. They are/were not, the locations being approximately 50 km apart. –dnj (Don Jensen, ibid.) See also PRIDNESTROVYE below --- in DXLD we are not counting QSLs and countries, so if it concerns Radio PMR, it`s usually filed there (gh, DXLD) ** MOROCCO. May 15th, Nador 15340.00 tx warm-up already around 0855 UT on air. RTM program started at 0900:35 UT (Wolfgang Büschell, DX LISTENING DIGEST) MARRUECOS, 15345, RTV Marocaine, 1828-1833, escuchada el 19 de mayo con emisión de música folklórica local; se aprecia fuerte señal pero con un nivel de audio muy bajo, también un ligero zumbido. Me recuerda a muchos de los transmisores con problemas que emiten en árabe, cómo el caso de El Cairo o Damasco, locutor con comentarios, SINPO 55443. * Durante varios días ha sido imposible captar a esta emisora, ¿problemas técnicos? (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master dxldyg via DXLD Ayer la escuche "luchando" a ratos con RNA (programa tipico de fin de semana) alrededor de las 18UTC, ciertamente hoy también está a esta hora 1946 UTC con fuerte bloqueo, zumbidos y demás sintomas sin duda causados por la mezcla con la señal de RAE. Cordialmente, (Tomás Méndez, QTH: El Prat de Llobregat-Barcelona España, May 19 playdx yg via DXLD) ** NEW ZEALAND. Hi guys, Can someone help Max Van Arnhem here in Holland with this question? Regards (Dave Onley, May 19, ARDXC via DXLD) Viz.: Hi Dave, Do you know somebody in AUS/NZL who can check the exact frequency of 3935 NZ R Reading? I heard it around 1920 UT ( which is an open window towards NZ at that time) on 3934.9 music. Many times pirates are audible around this frequency. However I am very interested to know the exact frequency (Max Van Arnhem, via Onlye, ibid.) ** NEW ZEALAND. RNZI still on 13840 AM, May 21 at 0019 with news reports, no QRM audible, tho the quake jarred China into occupying this frequency where it causes QRM in the Pacific and surely Asia. We have been wondering if RNZI would move as a result. 15715-15720-15725 DRM also in with strong buzz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS. Ah, almost a month from Solstice now and we are getting late-nite HF openings. May 20 at 0609 heard Chinese on 17880, fair with heavy fading, M&W interview, only station on 16m band, // 15680 but the latter running about 1 second behind. These are Radio Free Asia, 17880 via Saipan at 310 degrees, and 15680 via Tinian at 296 degrees. No jamming audible, but Aoki says they are jammed as you would expect. I expect the higher-latitude jamming from China was not propagating as this seemed to be a rather localized opening from the NMI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTH AMERICA. Regarding your North American pirate logging on 6854.2 kHz, I can tell you that I have heard The Crystal Ship here as well. I am currently preparing this week’s issue of Free Radio Weekly and can provide you with an early preview of another logging of them this past weekend: The Crystal Ship 6854a 5/12/8 00:44 sio222, very noisy, but signal is audible, nothing on 5385, pop music that I don't recognize, "Fox on the Run", political speeches (Fansome, PA) They have been using the AM mode, but the signal is enhanced using USB mode more often than not. The station operator, John Poet, is also a good QSL’er, if you are inclined to send a report: Crystal Ship Shortwave: tcsshortwave @ gmail.com I really enjoy the show when those classic Doors songs are playing! Best 73’s, (Ed Insinger, May 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. 1640, USA, KFXY, Enid OK, sports talk, ads 0556 21/4, ident as “The Score, KFXY Oklahoma…”, first time I’ve caught this one (Bryan Clark at Mangawhai, New Zealand, with AOR7030+ and Alpha Delta Sloper, EWE to NE and various 100 metre BOGs to the Americas, May NZ DX Times via DXLD) I keep a sharp eye out for logs of this local Enid station in foreign as well as domestic DX bulletins, and I must say it is one of the most seldom reported X-banders. This is because unlike most of the others, it is direxional, NNW/SSE, in order to pump most signal into OKC and city of license Enid --- and from its night signal here, I judge that it really does cut back from 10 kW to 1 as required, unlike some other X-banders. This means right here in the COL, there is night QRM from WTNI, unnullable, almost in the same direxion from Enid, and the 1640 station most widely heard abroad, and may well run 10 kW (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. 1650, KWHN, Fort Smith AR [trasmitter site in OK] has changed callsign to KYHN in swap with 1320 kHz. Reported to be currently silent (IRCA Feb-Apr via May NZ DX Times via DXLD) I must have missed this report first time around, and had not noticed it missing, but hadn`t looked for it either. Too close to 1640 in daytime, and at margin of groundwave coverage (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. Silly me, thinking XERF 1570 might still reach here on skywave as late as 1252 UT May 20. Nostalgia music in English, ``Let`s Call the Whole Thing Off``, linguistic pronunciation debate; 1254 ``The More Icey You, the More I Want Choo``, 1257 DJ announcement in English, ``Mandy``. 1259 ID as KZLI, Catoosa-Tulsa`` and dominating frequency (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. JOURNALIST ATTACHED TO VOA TO BE NEW DG OF RADIO PAKISTAN Murtaza Solangi, a journalist currently attached with the Voice of America (VOA) in Washington, will be the new Director General (DG) of the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC), sources in the Establishment Division told The News. A summary for the appointment of Solangi as the DG Radio Pakistan has been moved by the Ministry of Information to the Prime Minister Secretariat through the Establishment Division. Solangi confirmed that he would be taking up the new appointment in two to three weeks. (Source: The News, Pakistan)(May 18th, 2008 - 11:29 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3345, R. Northern 1102-1131 May 12. News by YL in English; at 1106 she proclaimed "This news is coming to you from NBC Popondetta" (a Radio Northern ID was heard earlier); 1109-1130 announcements in Pidgin interspersed with short bursts of island music; tuned out at 1130, spot-checking occasionally - still going good at 1215 with island music; fair at 1240 UT (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, May 18, Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. I picked up what from PrimeTime SW was the Port Moresby station from PNG, but I can't find info on them. I'd like to send a reception report. 73s, (Sue Hickey, Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland, Canada, May 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Frequency and time? I don`t think Port Moresby is active on 4890, or do you mean 3290? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 7324.96, 0914 21/4 Wantok Radio Light reactivated 21/4 after some weeks` absence, with “positive, uplifting messages” in English. Best on LSB to avoid annoying Firedrake QRM on 7330. Also heard at 1925 in the clear with “Morning Light Devotions” (Bryan Clark at Mangawhai, New Zealand, with AOR7030+ and Alpha Delta Sloper, EWE to NE and various 100 metre BOGs to the Americas, May NZ DX Times via DXLD) 7325, 0727 21/4, Wantok R. Light, Fair in English, contemporary religious music, ad/promo. Not previously heard this month (Kelvin Brayshaw, Levin, New Zealand, Sangean ATS-505, Eton E-5, Indoor HF Loop, May NZ DX Times via DXLD) ** PERU. 3329.55, Ondas del Huallaga, 1035, 05/20/08, Spanish. Upbeat music and comments between songs, one mentioning "Huallaga" in passing. Best in LSB to avoid CHU on 3330. Mostly poor (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. Re 8-061, new R. San Juan, 4805: Found this information in the WEB : listed in playdx preferred links ! DATA BASE OF THE PERUVIAN GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL LIST WITH INFORMATIONS FOR EACH AREA OF THE COUNTRY http://www.deperu.com/medios/sonora.pdf AT PAGE 18 !!!!! RADIO SAN JUAN E.I.R.L., 1330 kHz. TX: FALDAS DEL CERRO QUICAPATA, SAN JUAN BAUTISTA, HUAMANGA, AYACUCHO. ADDRESS: JR. ARICA 105, SAN JUAN BAUTISTA, HUAMANGA, AYACUCHO. The Huamanga Department wants to become independent from central government, http://www.bastaperu.galeon.com/ This may explain the start of new Radio Stations in the area of Ayacucho (Dario Monferini (web searcher), DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: ESCUCHA LA HORA ETNONACIONALISTA! de Lunes a Viernes 0130 p.m.; Sabados 09:00 a.m. por la RADIO LA VOZ DE HUAMANGA OBJETIVO: ¡Convertir esta colonia en nacion! ¡Hasta la Victoria Final! ¡Web Antiimperialista! Seems to me LV de Huamanga used to be on SW, but no current or recent listings in LA-DX, DBS. And their leaders are Che, Fidel, Hugo, Evo, and === Antauro Humala. These wackos axually believe Communism would be an improvement over Imperialism! (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re 4805: Glenn, I listened for this one today, but heard only the Brazilian that's on that frequency (Chuck Bolland, FL, May 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Uma nova emissora peruana, identificada por Rogildo Aragão como Rádio San Juan, de San Juan Batista, foi captada, em Mairiporã (SP), pelo Renato Uliana, em 17 de maio, às 0507, em 4805 kHz. A estação levava ao ar músicas andinas (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX May 19 via DXLD) 4805, R. San Juan (very tentative), San Juan Bautista, Ayacucho; May- 15 Spanish, 1020-1025 folk music alternating OM talks. By tip of Rogildo Aragão, very irregular signal, fady and in battle against R. Difusora de Londrina (that's what I heard in announcements, not R Dif do Amazonas) (LOB-B). 5014, Perú, R Altura, Cerro de Pasco; May-15 Spanish 2305-2326 Andean music, canned ID by male "R Altura", OM and YL talks "servicio de empleo". Tune in with much QRN attenuated by signal enhancement along this listening, audio somewhat saturated, 33233 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, HCDX via DXLD) PERU -- 5014.26, Radio Altura, 5/20 variously from 0100 to 0502* Started noting this one weakly shortly after 0100, mostly man talking. Progressively improved during the evening. Went back to this one after Happy Hour. I had started tracking around 0100. When I returned about 0410, it had improved to a very solid signal, S6 on peaks. Many ID for Radio Altura, some canned echo "Radio Al-TURRRRR-ah!" Mentions of Cerro de Pasco. Program of mixed music, some Chicha, some very traditional, a couple of Cumbias. I think most were requests. Played a bit of Happy Birthday with announced cumpleaños. Ad strings. Slogans. A rather slick sound. Recorded a big chunk to send a CD with my report. Last report I saw had them signing off shortly after 0400. Still going strong at 0445 when I gave up on them. While I have heard this one before, I haven't every heard it at anything close to this level. But then I returned to the frequency about 10 minutes later or so and continued to listen until abrupt sign-off at 0502. Last night, Radio Sicuani on 4826+ and tonight Radio Altura at strong levels. The Radio Gods have smiled on me after weeks of frustration with the Peruvians that others in the east have been hearing (Don Jensen, WI, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** POLAND. TODAY IN RADIO HISTORY --- 18 May 1974: The Warsaw radio mast is completed, becoming the tallest construction ever. It would later collapse on August 8, 1991. http://sweetbryansbadassblog.blogspot.com:80/2008/05/today-in-history-518.html Warsaw Radio Mast, which was designed by Jan Polak, was 646.38 metres (2,120.67 ft) tall. Its construction started in July 1970, and was completed on 18 May 1974, and the transmitter that used it entered regular service on 22 July of the same year. It was located in Konstantynów, Gabin, Poland, and was used by Warsaw Radio-Television (Centrum Radiowo-Telewizyjne) for longwave radio broadcasting on a frequency of 227 kHz (before 1 February 1988) and 225 kHz (after). Because a voltage potential of 120 kV existed between the mast and ground, it stood on a 2 metre high insulator. It operated as a mast radiator, so its height was chosen in order to function as a half- wavelength antenna at its broadcasting frequency. The signals from its 2 megawatt transmitters could be received across all of Europe, North Africa and even in North America. Its weight is debated: 380 tonnes, 420 tonnes, 550 tonnes and even 660 tonnes have been cited, probably the result of inaccurate conversion of units by translators. Polish sources claim 420 metric tonnes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_radio_mast (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** PRIDNESTROVYE. Hi Glenn, I'm looking for some contact info! I recently picked the station from Moldova (Pridnestroya). Where can I email reception reports? 73s, (Sue Hickey, Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland, Canada, May 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also MOLDOVA Did you consult WRTH 2008? It says radiopmr @ inbox.ru PWBR also gives a website, http://www.president-pmr.org/radio but it doesn`t work. Looking for an answer to Sue`s question, I came upon this 9-month-old article in the Tiraspol Times, which may have been referenced before, but anyway --- Radio PMR expands int'l broadcast schedule Propaganda-station "Radio PMR" has expanded its international broadcast schedule. It now broadcasts in six languages for sixteen hours a day. The signal is reached in Africa, Australia, Asia, USA and South America. By Karen Ryan, 31/Aug/2007 The humble headquarters of Radio PMR, "the voice of the rebel republic" that broadcasts worldwide [caption] GRIGORIOPOL (Tiraspol Times) - A shortwave and mediumwave radio station which broadcasts worldwide from the unrecognized republic of Pridnestrovie has expanded its international schedule to sixteen hours a day. The move comes as the country prepares to celebrate its 17th anniversary of independence, which was declared on 2 September 1990. Pridnestrovie, which is also known under names such as Transnistria and Transdniester, is a 'de facto' independent country which meets the requirements for statehood under international law. Its state-owned international radio station, Radio PMR, uses radio infrastructure which was inherited from a propaganda radio which was established by the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. Crude in the extreme, the broadcasts at the time were unable to convince foreign listeners of the benefits of living in the "Workers' Paradise" and the Soviet Union ultimately lost its struggle with the West for the hearts and minds of listeners. Its American funded counterpart, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, is still operating. Information blockade Today, Pridnestrovie is seeking its place in the world as a country on equal terms with other states that were created out of the rubble of the dissolved Soviet Union. Antonina Voronkova, the head of Radio PMR which broadcasts worldwide on the shortwave band. [caption to a yellow-haired lady] As an unrecognized state, it faces an information blockade and is a victim of biased information from Moldova, which seeks to crush the quest of Pridnestrovie's inhabitants for independence and self- determination. By stepping up the information about Pridnestrovie which is broadcast by Radio PMR, locals hope to break through the information blockade and get their own point of view become known to the rest of the world. . . http://www.tiraspoltimes.com/node/1200 (via Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** ROMANIA. ROMÊNIA - A partir do dia 19, ocorrerão alguns cortes de freqüências nas transmissões em espanhol da Rádio Romênia Internacional. O esquema que permanece é o seguinte: das 1900 às 2000, em 11715 kHz, para a Espanha; das 2100 às 2200, em 9755 e 11965 kHz, para a América do Sul; das 2300 às 2400, em 9745 e 9655 kHz, para Caribe e América do Sul; das 0200 às 0300, em 5975 e 9520 kHz, para a América do Sul e Central (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX May 19 via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. RÚSSIA - Onda DX é o nome do programa de dexismo que a Voz da Rússia leva ao ar nas emissões, em português, das quartas-feiras. Tem a produção do experiente jornalista Francisco Pancho Rodríguez que, há muitos anos, apresenta o segmento Frecuencia RM, dentro das emissões em espanhol da Voz da Rússia. O Onda DX tem a locução de Jonas Bernardino. Você pode conferir, entre 2300 e 0000, em 7200, 7300, 11510 e 12010 kHz. A última edição que foi ao ar pode ser ouvida, na Internet, acessando http://www.news-of-russia.info/radio/dx.htm. (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX May 19 via DXLD) ** RUSSIA [and non]. FOREIGN RELAY VIA SW TRANSMITTERS OF RUSSIA AND COUNTRIES OF CIS 30/03/2008 - 24/10/2008 ================================ kHz / UTC / kW / radiostation Moscow / RUS ------------------- 7175 2200-2300 250 CRI 7200 1830-1930 500 CRI 7225 1930-2000 200 CRI 7340 1900-2000 250 YFR 9490 1900-2000 250 YFR 12085 1600-1630 (Mon-Fri) 150 BBC 12085 1600-1700 (Sat, Sun) 250 BBC 13685 0500-0700 250 VRT 13685 1700-1800 250 VRT Sankt-Peterburg / RUS ----------------------------------- 7130* 1600-1700 400 CRI 7130 1800-1830 400 CRI 12065** 1600-1700 400 CRI * 07/09/08 - 24/10/08 ** 30/03/08 - 06/09/08 Samara / RUS --------------------- 5935* 1800-1830 250 IBR 7240 1800-2000 250 YFR 7320 1900-2000 250 YFR 7320 2030-2130 500 CRI 9615 1800-1900 250 YFR 9825** 1800-1830 250 IBR 9850 1400-1600 250 YFR 11955 1600-1645 (Mon-Wed) 250 TWR 11955 1600-1630 (Thu,Fri) 250 TWR 12055 1400-1500 250 YFR 12075 1400-1500 250 YFR 13590 1400-1500 250 YFR 15530 0400-0500 (Mon-Thu) 250 FEB 15530 0400-0530 (Mon-Sun) 250 FEB [sic; means Fri-Sun? see 9840] * 07/09/08 - 24/10/08 ** 30/03/08 - 06/09/08 Krasnodar / RUS ---------------------------- 7180 0100-0200 500 BBC 7270 1730-1930 200 DWL 7320 0330-0430 200 BBC 7320 1800-1900 300 YFR 9735 1600-1700 300 YFR 9830 1430-1600 200 FEB 9840 1530-1600 (Mon-Thu) 100 FEB 9840 1515-1600 (Fri-Sun) 100 FEB 11655 1600-1630 300 FEB 11810 1700-1900 300 YFR 11825 1630-1700 250 RPR 12060 1900-2100 250 YFR 12065 1400-1600 250 YFR 12075 1500-1600 300 YFR 12100 1600-1700 250 YFR 13745 1400-1430 300 BBC 13840 1400-1500 250 DWL 15450 1330-1500 200 BBC 15460 0500-0530 (Mon-Wed) 250 BVB 15460 0500-0545 (Fri) 250 BVB 15470 1400-1430 (Tue,Thu,Sat) 300 SIR 15505 0600-0630 (Mon-Fri) 500 SIR Novosibirsk / RUS ------------------------------ 9900 1230-1315 100 VAT 11930* 1300-1545 200 TWR 11990 1300-1500 200 VOA 12045 2200-2300 200 RFI 12085** 0015-0130 200 TWR * alternative 9445, 11745 ** alternative 9445 Novosibirsk (Oyash) / RUS --------------------------------------- 9500 1400-1500 250 FEB 9625 1400-1500 250 YFR 9900 2300-2350 500 DWL 12035* 2315-2400 250 VAT 12055 1200-1300 250 IBR 12055* 1315-1400 500 VAT 13770 0300-0400 250 DWL 15490 1200-1300 250 YFR 15560 0200-0330 250 VAT * 30/03/08 - 06/09/08 Irkutsk / RUS ------------------------ 6135 1100-1500 100 YFR 7210 1500-1700 250 RFA 7215 1400-1500 250 YFR 9415 1230-1600 250 TWR 9450 0900-1200 250 YFR 9465 1200-1300 250 YFR 9615 1200-1500 500 YFR 9900 1000-1100 250 YFR 11895 1200-1400 250 YFR 12025 0930-1030 500 RFI 12035* 2200-2245 250 VAT 15635 0300-0700 500 RFA 17710 0230-0300 250 BBC * 05/05/08 - 06/09/08 Chita / RUS -------------------- 6140* 1315-1400 500 VAT 7250** 1300-1330 (Tue, Thu, Sat) 250 DEG 7320 1400-1600 500 YFR * 07/09/08 - 24/10/08 ** alternative 7260, 7350 Vladivostok / RUS ---------------------------------- 5980 1300-1330 250 DWL 7205 1030-1150 250 DWL 9900 1100-1200 250 YFR 12035* 2315-2400 250 VAT 13850 1100-1300 200 YFR 15535 2330-0030 250 RFA 15595 0000-0100 250 DWL * 07/09/08 - 24/10/08 Khabarovsk / RUS --------------------------- 5945 1115-1300 100 BVB 11830 2300-2350 100 DWL 12035* 2200-2245 100 VAT 13785 0000-0045 100 VAT 13820 1000-1100 100 RNW * 30/03/08 - 04/05/08 and 07/09/08 - 24/10/08 Komsomolsk-na-Amure / RUS ------------------------------------------- 5970 1200-1300 250 YFR 7245 1000-1100 250 YFR 11725 1100-1500 250 YFR 17525 0000-0100 250 DWL Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky / RUS --------------------------------------------------- 5910 1045-1130 (Sat) 200 BVB 5910 1015-1145 (Sun) 200 BVB 5910 1300-1400 250 RNW 7205 1200-1300 200 IBR 9865 1100-1500 250 YFR 12065 1000-1100 250 RNW Almaty / KAZ -------------------- 7410* 2345-0015 200 TWR 7430 2200-2300 500 DWL 9950 1430-1500 (Tue, Fri) 200 VOO 9985** 2345-0015 200 TWR 11520 1300-1400 200 YFR 12150 1100-1500 500 YFR 13690 1330-1500 (Sun) 200 BBC 13810 1300-1500 500 YFR * 07/09/08 - 24/10/08 ** 30/03/08 - 06/09/08 Gavar / ARM ------------------ 7510 2000-2030 300 RFK 9950 2100-2200 300 FNK 15480 1430-1530 300 DVB 15755* 1200-1300 300 FCH * alternative 15145, 13650 Griroriopol / MDA ------------------------------ 6040 2000-2200 500 RNW 7430 2000-2200 300 YFR 7460 0230-0315 500 RPD 7480 1800-1845 500 RPD 11935 0600-0700 500 RNW 13665 1500-1600 300 YFR Nikolaev / UKR ----------------------- 7520 1600-1800 250 YFR 7540* 1600-2000 500 MEZ 11530 0400-1600 500 MEZ * alternative 11530 Tashkent / UZB --------------------- 6260 0000-0400 100 CVC 6260 1400-2000 100 CVC 7370 1500-1530 100 FEB 7375 0015-0100 100 FEB 7510 1400-1600 200 YFR 9345 1400-1600 100 RNW 9365 1400-1500 200 YFR 9495 1700-1900 200 YFR 9540 1430-1500 100 FEB 9695 1230-1300 100 VAT 9975 0100-0400 100 CVC 11790 0100-0300 100 CVC 11850 1430-1600 100 VAT 13630 0400-1100 100 CVC 13680 0300-0600 100 CVC 13745 0100-0130 200 BBC 13820 1100-1400 100 CVC 15515 0300-0900 100 CVC Orzu / TJK ----------------- 7540 2300-2400 500 RFA 15755* 1330-1430 300 RFK * alternative 11560 Yangiul / TJK ------------------------ 5840 1800-1830 200 RPR 5845** 1400-1700 100 YFR 7485 1400-1430 (Thu, Fri) BVB 9350 0100-0200 200 RFA 9370 1500-1600 200 RFA 9370 1600-1700 200 RFA 9395 1330-1530 200 BBC 13830 1100-1400 200 RFA 15680* 1200-1300 (Mon-Sat) 100 QUE 17510 0600-0700 200 RFA 16 mb** 1100-1600 100 VOT * frequency + - 20 kHz *** alternative 5855 Radiostation : BBC - British Broadcasting Corp. BVB - Bible Voice Broadcasting Network CRI - China Radio Int. CVC - CVC Int. DEG - Degar Voice DVB - Democratic Voice of Burma DWL - Deutsche Welle FEB - FEBA Radio FCH - Radio Free Chosun FNK - Open Radio For North Korea IBR - IBRA Radio MEZ - Voice of Mesopotamia QUE - Que Huong Radio RFA - Radio Free Asia RFI - Radio France Internationale RNW - Radio Nederland Wereldompoep RPD - Radio Payam-e Doost RPR - Radio Prague RFK - Radio Free North Korea SIR - Southern Sudan Interactive TWR - Trans World Radio VAT - Radio Vaticana VOA - Voice of America VOO - Voice of Orthodoxy VOT - Voice of Tibet VRT - Radio Vlaanderen Int. YFR - WYFR Family Radio (Nikolay Rudnev, Stroutel, Belgorodskaya oblast, 30/04/08, Rus-DX May 18 via DXLD) ** SERBIA [and non]. Glenn, R Serbia Internatational missing tonight on 6100 kHz. No signal anymore from Bijeljina. Only the small Stubline unit on 7199.94 kHz hetting CRI co-channel. May you can check 6185 tonight. I guess RSI Belgrade suffers budget constraints again (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, May 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: 6100 RSI ? R Serbien Internat. schweigt mal wieder auf 6100 kHz. Ist das Geld für die Stromrechnung aus Bosnien aufgebraucht? Wann waren sie von Bijeljina zu hören? (Büschel, A-DX, via Büschel, DXLD) International Radio Serbia is gone again from the Bijeljina transmitter in Bosnia-Herzegovina. On May 19 and 20, Wolfgang Büschel and other European monitors were no longer hearing the European service on 6100, just the low-power Stubline unit on 7200v. So is 6185 to North America also off? Yes, no IRS, checking here UT May 21 at 0003, just XEPPM on 6185 with Mexican music, 0023 Spanish talk. Also with huge splatter from Cuba 6180. Too, see UK for discussion of suggested move to 6190, 6195. An hour later at 0105 I clicked on their website at http://glassrbije.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=36&Itemid=156 and English stream came on right away. Since they don`t have enough sense to use a clear SW frequency when it`s working, I`m glad I did listen to crystal-clear webcast, embedded autolaunching WM player, so why do they prompt a real player download?? Because I had been wondering about the Eurovision Song Contest, this year from Belgrade. Some of the features were about that; it started today with semifinals, and the finale will be May 24. Nevertheless, IRS seems to be partial to the Serbian entry! Not a good time to lose their main SW capacity again. I was looking for any word about suspending frequencies, of course not, and finally found the transmission schedule http://glassrbije.org/E/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=21&Itemid=34 which is the same one as before including 6100 and 6185. Closing announcement at 0125 claimed we could hear them at the same time tomorrow 6100 and 7240 --- but this transmission has never been on those frequencies! Geez. What`s the story on Bijeljina, Dragan Lekic? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SLOVAKIA. May 19, 2008 0100-0127 UTC 9440 kHz R. Slovakia Int with "Sunday Newsreel" and the "Listener Tribute Program". SIO 353. Glad 9440 is now propagating to my QTH as 5930 is still useless due to WWCR 5935. To see a now rare R. Slovakia Int pennant, please visit my site at http://www.kg4lac.com Scroll to Slovakia on the left hand side, click Slovakia. On the right hand side the Slovakia items will appear (if javascript is enabled). Click the link to the right of the pennant to see a larger image of the pennant. 73, (Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, Manassas, VA USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH AFRICA. Hello Glenn, I'm a regular reader of DXLD, great signal in Southeast of Brazil! 3320 kHz, 2130-2139, SABC, Radio Sonder Grense, Meyerton, May 18 Music in English, YL/OM talk's: Afrikaans, SINPO 45444. Receiver - Sangean ATS 909, Antenna - Wire 60 meters (Cleiber Andrade Junior - PY4VFO/PY3006SWL, City - Conselheiro Lafaiete MG (Minas Gerais State), Country - Brazil, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This is 100 kW on 275 degree azimuth, favorable for Brasil where there are only a handful of Afrikaners, I daresay (gh, DXLD) ** SPAIN. EL CONSEJO DE RTVE ESTUDIA HOY EL FUTURO DE RADIO EXTERIOR DE ESPAÑA --- F. ÁLVAREZ. MADRID. [more on the briefer item in 8-061; summary translation below] http://www.abc.es/20080514/radio-television-radio-television/consejo-rtve-estudia-futuro_200805140249.html La Dirección de RTVE continúa perfilando el modelo de gestión de los distintos activos que componen la Corporación. Y ahora le toca el turno a Radio Exterior, órgano dependiente de RNE que tiene encomendada la transmisión en onda corta, satélite e internet de programas para los españoles que se encuentran fuera y para los extranjeros interesados por España. El Consejo de Administración estudia en su reunión de hoy un informe sobre la situación real de la emisora elaborado por los propios técnicos de RTVE, con el objetivo de definir las líneas de futuro e intentar poner fin a las ineficiencias que se han detectado. El principal problema radica en los costes derivados de la emisión en onda corta y a través de satélite, tecnología que se ha visto muy superada por internet y que aglutina la mayor parte de los gastos de Radio Exterior. Plantilla de 72 trabajadores La plantilla dimensionada de la cadena es de 72 personas, cifra que en todo caso se mantendrá aunque se viera afectada por el Expediente de Regulación de Empleo (ERE) que atraviesa la Corporación. El órgano de gobierno de RTVE pretende encontrar una solución a medio- largo plazo, ya que la emisión en onda corta está ligada a concesiones otorgadas por distintos países, cuya vigencia habrá que respetar en todo caso, aunque la intención es facilitar la migración hacia internet a medida que vayan expirando las licencias. Radio Exterior de España conecta cada hora con los Servicios Informativos de RNE e incluye espacios dedicados al idioma, al turismo, a la música, al deporte, a la mar, a la solidaridad, a la ciencia y a la medicina, entre otros. Esta emisora está financiada exclusivamente por el erario público (RNE no incluye publicidad) y participa de los 150 millones de euros anuales que la matriz recibe en concepto de compensación por servicio público. Los contenidos se difunden en varias lenguas: español, inglés, francés, árabe, ruso, sefardí y portugués. Uno de los compromisos para los próximos años es potenciar la programación en inglés y en árabe. Además, en 2010 se pretende poner en marcha el servicio en chino- mandarín, para acercarse a un público potencial de audiencias masivas. Participación de Elena Sánchez En el orden del día del Consejo de Administración de hoy también figura la comparecencia de Elena Sánchez, recientemente nombrada defensora del espectador, el oyente y el usuario de medios interactivos de RTVE. Sánchez dará a conocer las líneas generales de actuación de su departamento y conocerá de primera mano las impresiones de los consejeros sobre una figura que tiene entre sus cometidos la protección de los menores de edad ante los contenidos que difunde la cadena pública (via José Miguel Romero2, Spain, dxldyg via DXLD) Summary translation: The main problem is the cost of broadcasting on SW and satellite, technologies which have been surpassed by internet, and which consume most of the expenses of REE. REE has 72 employees, a number which must be maintained. RTVE plans to find a solution in the medium-to-long term, since SW broadcasting is linked to concessions granted by different countries, and whose term must be respected in each case, altho the intention is to facilitate migration to internet as the licenses expire. REE connects with RNE news each hour and includes programs dedicated to the language, turism, music, sports, the sea, solidarity, science and medicine, i.a. This station is financed exclusively by the public treasury (RNE does not include advertising), and participates in the 150 megaeuro annually which the network receives in compensation for its public service. The contents are broadcast in several languages: Spanish [hmmm, they don`t say Castilian], English, French, Arabic, Russian, Sephardic and Portuguese. One of the commitments for the coming years is to beef up programming in English and Arabic, and furthermore in 2010y there are plans to start the Mandarin service, to approach a potentially massive audience. Elena Sánchez has been named ombudsperson, one of whose responsibilities is to protect children from the content of public broadcasting (by Glenn Hauser for DX LISTENING DIGEST) RTVE (Radio Televisión Española) estrena hoy nueva página web. http://www.rtve.es/ Cordiales 73 (José Bueno, Córdoba, España, May 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Finally a link near the bottom to REE, http://www.rtve.es/programas/radioexterior But that page looks like the sameold, unfriendly with no obvious link to a frequency schedule, and the program parilla does not display: http://www.rtve.es/archivos/70-9383-FICHERO/ParrillaREE_2008_VERANO.pdf (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Siguen sin actualizar las frecuencias (Nicolás Encinas Pascual, Spain, May 20, Noticiasdx yg via DXLD ** SYRIA. Since WBCQ has closed down 9330, presumably temporarily, [see U S A] now is the time to listen out for the only other station on the frequency, R. Damascus, Syria, which in CNAm at least, has always been blocked by WBCQ. WBCQ being off-frequency producing an audible het, and Syria being under-modulated have not helped. Aoki shows this schedule for daily broadcasts from Adra 500 kW, 03630E 3327N DAMAS 9330 R. DAMASCUS 0500-1600 Arabic 500 155 9330 R. DAMASCUS 1600-1700 Turkish 500 360 9330 R. DAMASCUS 1700-1805 Russian 500 360 9330 R. DAMASCUS 1805-1905 German 500 340 9330 R. DAMASCUS 1905-2005 French 500 340 9330 R. DAMASCUS 2005-2110 English 500 340 9330 R. DAMASCUS 2110-2215 English 500 98 9330 R. DAMASCUS 2215-2330 Spanish 500 278 9330 R. DAMASCUS 2330-0030 Arabic 500 278 Eibi omits the 05-16 broadcast, which I don`t recall seeing reported, and suspect is not really on air; and disagrees on exact timings: 9330 1600-1700 SYR Radio Damascus TU ME 9330 1700-1800 SYR Radio Damascus R RUS 9330 1805-1905 SYR Radio Damascus D Eu 9330 1905-2005 SYR Radio Damascus F Eu 9330 2005-2105 SYR Radio Damascus E Eu 9330 2110-2210 SYR Radio Damascus E Eu 9330 2215-2330 SYR Radio Damascus S SAm 9330 2330-0040 SYR Radio Damascus A SAm In yet another format, here is the WRTH May update of all transmissions, including MW 783 and the other SW frequency 12085: RADIO DAMASCUS (Gov) kHz: 783, 9330, 12085 Summer Schedule 2008 Arabic 2205-2320 daily NAf, SAm 9330adr, 12085adr English 2005-2205 daily Eu, NAm, Pac 9330adr, 12085adr French 1905-2005 daily Eu, NAm 9330adr, 12085adr German 1805-1905 daily Eu 9330adr, 12085adr Hebrew 1500-1730 daily ME 783tar Russian 1700-1805 daily Eu 9330adr, 1730-1800 daily ME 783tar Spanish 2320-0030 daily SAm 9330adr, 12085adr Turkish 1600-1700 daily ME 9330adr Checked 9330 May 20 at 2105, and even without WBCQ, only a trace of a carrier audible here. It could only get worse with the scheduled 2110 antenna switch from 340 to 98 degrees. The second English hour ought to be the one on the more westerly beam. BTW, no WBCQ audible on 15420-USB either (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND. R. Thailand World Service, nice chime IS and English ID on 11625, May 20 at 1415, mentioning studios in Bangkok, transmitter in Udon Thani, introducing Mandarin, and no jamming! This is the best I`ve heard them in a long time, as the entire English broadcasts just don`t make it here, whether aimed at NAm or not. 11625 is supposed to shift from 54 to 30 degrees at 1315 as languages change from Japanese to Chinese. 30 is better for us (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TIBET. CHINA. 6200, PBS-XZDT, Lhasa, 1220-1235, May 14, thanks to tip from S. Hasegawa, heard with relay of CNR-1 (// 5030), in Chinese, man and woman in conversation, series of ads and announcements, fair (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY. TURKISH SMOKING BAN PLACES REQUIREMENT ON BROADCASTERS Turkey has banned smoking in most public places starting today. The ban also includes a requirement for all national and regional TV and radio stations, including the state-owned Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), to broadcast educational shows about the harmful effects of smoking for 90 minutes monthly, with 30 minutes of this programming between the hours of 5 pm. and 10 pm. The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) will be the authorized institution to enforce this requirement. (Source: Today’s Zaman) (May 19th, 2008 - 13:59 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) I heard the Live from Turkey remarking on this last week; seemingly with mixed feelings. LfT this Tuesday unheard, webcast down (gh) ** UKRAINE. Here are some extracts from the “WorldDX” bulletin #164. To my pleasure, in the rubric “Medium Waves” I found my own contribution to OPEN-DX forum about the weird combinative frequency I observed once in the morning here in Kyiv. I suddenly heard Radio Promin, then operating on the frequency of 549 kHz, also on the frequency of 891 kHz. After uncomplicated calculation I revealed that 891 kHz was equal to 549 kHz multiplied by 2 minus 207 kHz (that is the frequency of the first channel of the Ukrainian Radio). Obviously, that was the result of the irregular functioning of the transmitters in Brovary near Kyiv. So, if you hear some weird signal, I advise you first of all to take a calculator. To my surprise, I didn’t hear the second harmonic of Radio Promin on 1098 kHz. Instead, I heard there only the station with a programme in Hungarian, but not usual Radio Regina in Slovak. As I further have known, the Slovak Radio has cancelled transmitting Radio Regina on medium waves, and the frequencies have been given to the minority services such as Hungarian, Ukrainian and others (Olexandr Yegorov, RUI Whole World on the Radio Dial May 17 via DXLD) ** UKRAINE [non]. Today I’ll give you the list of Schedule of international radio stations broadcasting in Ukrainian on short and medium wave bands in summer A08 broadcasting season via foreign transmitter’s sites. CANADA. Radio Canada International in Ukrainian is on the air for the north-eastern states of the USA on Saturdays and Sundays from 1435 to 1505 on 9515 kHz via 250 kW transmitter in Sackville, Canada, and for the central states of the USA on Sundays and Mondays from 0035 to 0105 on 6100 kHz via 250 kW transmitter in Sackville. From 1700 to 1800 on Saturdays and Sundays Radio Canada transmits its Ukrainian programmes to Ukraine via 350 kW transmitter in Hoerby, Sweden. [WTFK?] GREAT BRITAIN. Christian Vision broadcasts with Radio Emmanuil in Ukrainian on the short waves via 100 kW transmitter in Juelich from 1600 to 1700 on 11855 kHz and from 1700 to 1900 on 9750 kHz. MONACO. The Ukrainian language programmes of Trans World Radio are relayed on 999 kHz medium waves via 500 kW transmitter in Grigoriopol, Moldova, according to the following schedule: every day from 1730 to 1800; on Wednesday through Friday from 19 to 1930; on Saturday from 19 to 1915 and from 1930 to 2000. The NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS. KFBS “Radio Teos” with a religious programme in Ukrainian can be heard on 9465 kHz from 1530 to 1600 on Tuesday, and from 1545 to 1600 on Monday and Friday. A 100 kW transmitter is located on Marpi, Saipan Island. POLAND. The Ukrainian language transmissions from Polish Radio in Warsaw are on the air from 1430 to 1500 on 11755 kHz; from 1500 to 1530 on 9440 and 11800 kHz, from 1830 to 1900 on 6145 and 6175 kHz, from 1900 to 1930 on 6175 kHz. All these transmissions are carried out via 100 kW transmitters in Wertachtal, Germany. ROMANIA. Radio Romania International in Ukrainian is on the air three times a day: from 1500 to 1530 on 7210 kHz; from 1700 to 1730 on 6135 kHz, and from 1900 to 1930 on 5910 and 7205 kHz. As to HFCC A08 operational schedule, the transmission on 5910 kHz goes via 250 kW transmitter in Tiganesti, Romania, on other frequencies – via 50 kW transmitter in Tiganesti too, but as to some other sources of information, the latter transmitter is located in Saftica. The VATICAN. The Vatican Radio broadcasts in Ukrainian from 0300 to 0320 on 6185 and 7335 kHz; from 1640 to 1700 on 1611, 9585, 11715 kHz (till the 6-th of September) and on 7360 kHz (from the 7-th of September). On Sundays and on major religious holidays a special liturgy programme in Ukrainian may be heard from 0615 to 0745 on 1611, 9850 and 11740 kHz. Shortwave transmitters (100 kW on 7335 kHz, 250 kW on other frequencies) are located in Santa Maria di Galeria, Italy, and the mediumwave transmitter is located in the Vatican City. U S A. And, finally, here is the schedule of the Ukrainian transmissions of the Voice of America. Transmissions on short waves Monday through Friday can be heard from 2100 to 2130 (on Saturday and Sunday only from 2100 to 2115) [sic] via 100 kW transmitters in Biblis, Germany. [WTFK? VOA language sked shows one hour earlier: Daily 2000-2015 UTC 7230 9715 M-F 2015-2030 UTC 7230 9715 --- gh] Such are the current summer A08 season schedules of the Ukrainian language transmissions of some International broadcasters on Short and Medium Waves (Olexandr Yegorov, RUI Whole World on the Radio Dial May 17 via DXLD) But he missed HCJB, at least on the ADDX list http://www.addx.de/cgi-bin/hfp.cgi 1615 1630 EQA HCJB Quito Mo&Do 11740/G G meaning a UK relay, Monday and Thursday. Or does it really exist? This may be another case of outdated info in the ADDX by-language skeds. Aoki shows, all Rampisham G 0238W 5048N HCJB a08 VT: 11740 HCJB QUITO 1600-1615 ..3.5.. Tajik 300 70 11740 HCJB QUITO 1600-1615 .....67 Tatar 300 70 11740 HCJB QUITO 1615-1630 .234567 Russian 300 70 11740 HCJB QUITO 1615-1630 1...... Georgian 500 76 But EiBi lumps it all together as Russian: 1600 1630 EQA HCJB Voice of Andes R RUS 11740/G-r And the VTC A-08 schedule agrees. So does HCJB really vary the ``Russian semi-hour`` as above in Aoki to include other CIS languages, even Ukrainian, if not at the moment? And it`s interesting to note that they bother to use a more powerful transmitter and a slightly more southerly azimuth for the quarter-hour a week in Georgian, if it really exist. Language makeup of the daily half-hour booked on VTC may vary depending on which gospel-huxter ministries are currently wanting to use HCJB relays. HCJB does not make it easy to research accurate schedules for their relays outside Ecuador! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. BBCWS via Ascension to Africa, 21470, unexpectedly good, S9+10, May 20 at 1327, only signal on 13m band, report on how India thrives on chaos, in Global Business. Maybe was getting help on the last hop from some sporadic E (WWCR 15825 also up), and by 1405 had declined to fadey S6-S9. Checking for SERBIA 6185, May 21 at 0004, also went to the two frequencies I had suggested for them to get away from the QRM, 6190, and 6195. 6190 was still vacant, but very weak signal on 6195, which by 0025 I could tell was in English. Can`t be anything but BBCWS via Singapore, scheduled 22-01, sort of grayline well before sunset here. If BBC would not mind, it could still be used by IRS to NAm, further away from the mess on 6180 and certainly much less of a collision than with the Mex on 6185 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. BBC AND FUTURE ROLE OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING "We can afford what we decide we can afford. You know when you visit another country and you see that it spends more money on flowers for its roundabouts than we do, and you think … coo, why don’t we do that? How pretty. How pleasing. What a difference it makes. To spend money for the public good in a way that enriches, gives pleasure, improves the quality of life, that is something. That is a real achievement. It’s only flowers in a roundabout, but how wonderful. Well, we have the equivalent of flowers in the roundabout times a million: the BBC enriches the country in ways we will only discover when it has gone and it is too late to build it up again. We actually can afford the BBC, because we can’t afford not to." An excellent, intelligent and entertaining talk by Stephen Fry on the subject can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/thefuture/transcript_fry.shtml You can read it, listen to it or download it for future reference. There's also a talk by Sir David Attenborough that I've yet to read, but I'm sure is just as well presented (John Figliozzi, May 15, Swprograms mailing list via DXLD) ** U K. Gold standard --- Liliane Landor 15 May 08, 09:42 AM Last July, in the wake of Alan Johnston's release, I wrote on this blog that I felt slightly uncomfortable about the media hyping of World Service news. My point was that here in the UK, the WS usually goes unnoticed until something happens that sharply propels it back to the centre of people's attention. Well, something HAS happened this week, and happily it wasn't a hostage crisis. But this time, I am sorry that the British press has failed to hype us! At the Sony awards on Monday my department, WS News and Current affairs, won seven out of the eight awards we were nominated for. We swept the board - three Gold, three Silver and a Bronze. Hardly a mention in the British press, and even the BBC internal publication Ariel did not think we deserved more than a couple of lines. Gathering so many awards in one big swoop is totally unprecedented for the WS...not because we do not deserve it or do not do brilliant journalism, but simply because of the context of the Sonys. We're competing with domestic BBC and independent sector colleagues for the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. To overcome that hurdle and win so many awards was a major achievement. And for the British radio establishment to recognise that we in the World Service do gold standard radio, lead the field on creativity and interactivity, and possess some of the best presenters in the country gives us a ringing endorsement. Having it publicly recognised would have been the icing on the cake. But hey, I don't want to exaggerate the sense of disappointment. The fact is that the BBC World Service focuses on its audience - 40 million worldwide, including 1.35 million in this country. The programmes made in Bush House have a far larger audience than every other BBC radio station combined. The reason is that we make good intelligent radio and even if the British press hasn't noticed that fact, I am delighted that the Sony committees have. Liliane Landor is editor of World Service news and current affairs http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2008/05/gold_standard.html (BBC News blog via Dan Say, BC, DXLD) PLUS lots of blog comments ** U K [and non]. THE GREAT BRITISH TRADITION OF MEDIA PIRACY The swashbuckling plunderers who operate beyond the arm of the regulator can be a force for creative good, argues Matt Mason 19 May 2008 When a young Irish entrepreneur named Ronan O'Rahilly founded pirate station Radio Caroline in 1964, he also established a great British tradition. Not only did the actions of O'Rahilly and his fellow radio pirates force the BBC to start playing pop music, they left in their wake a great cultural legacy for everyone in Britain, a heritage we should all be proud of. They instilled in us the innate capability to become first-rate media pirates. . . http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/the-great-british--tradition-of-media-piracy-830551.html?r=RSS ** U S A [and non]. VOA Greenville, 94 degrees toward Africa, but with plenty of back-radiation to Central N America, excellent on 17895 May 19 at 2031 during African Beat music show, also interviewing in-studio guest, a Congolese/S African musician. This frequency is on air 1830- 2100, while 15410 on same beam is at 1730-2000, and suffers from CVC co-channel. 17895 should also be great for Music Time in Africa, Sat & Sun 2000-2100, but the variety of American music shows at 21-22 have to make do with 15580 Botswana (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. MISSION OF US-FUNDED BROADCASTS IN [sic] CUBA DEBATED --- By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iZCbd9OUoyDM6P8TcaPk30UWWuFwD90PG8JO0 MIAMI (AP) — Two decades after Congress established the U.S. Office of Cuba Broadcasting, lawmakers and experts still can't seem to agree on the program's mission. Should its TV and Radio Martí networks send the communist island unbiased news about Cuba and the outside world? Or should their stories only support the U.S. government's policy toward Cuba, as they mostly do now? The dispute is part of a larger debate over the U.S. government's foreign broadcasts, but nowhere is it more noticeable than with the Martís. The taxpayer-funded Cuba broadcasts, which receive $34 million annually, belong to a network that includes the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Alhurra, among others. Most are run by veterans of top media outlets who are quick to defend their journalistic principles. Still, the Martís' congressional charter states the broadcasts must be operated "in a manner not inconsistent with the broad foreign policy of the United States." The other broadcasts have similar mandates. Jeff Trimble, executive director of Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the broadcasts, says the charter calls for promoting democracy, "through the journalistic mission. You have open information. ... It's not to do the short-term policy issues of any particular administration." But Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami Republican and Martí supporter, says the broadcasts should back the president's positions. "It is not a `Let's have all this diversity of thought,'" said Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban-American. "If we were to have a change in Cuba policy come November, you will see that reflected in the transmissions. The mission is clear: It's to advance our U.S.-Cuba policy." University of Southern California professor Nicholas Cull, author of a new book on the foreign broadcasts, believes they are essential, providing news commercial broadcasters might ignore for fear of offending advertisers. He said the tension has existed since VOA's creation in 1942. "It's in the nature of a government to expect that if it's paying for a radio station, it will reflect its policy needs," Cull said. "And it's in the nature of a journalist to demand editorial independence." Yet there are clear differences between the Miami-based Martís and the other broadcasts. Except for VOA, which is charged with explaining U.S. government policies and culture, the foreign broadcasts are supposed to act as surrogates for local media in countries where a free press does not exist. For example, the English-language Web sites of Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia focus on their target countries and related world news, with few references to the United States. The Martí Web site contains numerous stories dedicated to U.S. pronouncements on Cuba, a link to the White House Web page and a section on the war on terror. Martí Chief of Staff Alberto Mascaro said Cuba is one of the most difficult countries from which to glean local news because of strict censorship. Internet access is nonexistent for most Cubans. The goal is to bring in a free exchange of ideas, he said. "You can't speak about the United States and what our policy is to the rest of the world without talking about the war on terror — in this current administration," he said. But the broadcasts don't always cover U.S. stories that would be of interest to those on the island. A political contest is underway between two Cuban emigrés in the congressional district where the Martis are headquartered, yet the broadcasts barely mention Democratic challenger Raúl Martínez, who has criticized U.S.-Cuba policy. The incumbent, Republican Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, is a Martí champion. Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., a longtime critic of the Martís and of the U.S. embargo against Cuba, recently called for an investigation into management of the broadcasts. He believes the Martís fail to show the diverse viewpoints within the United States. "I think you need to put that out for the Cuban people to understand," Delahunt said. The differences between the Martís and the other surrogates are also reflected in their structures. The Martís are the only surrogates that are part of the U.S. government. The other networks are independent nonprofit organizations funded by the U.S. That arm's length approach helps their credibility, said Radio Free Europe President Jeffrey Gedmin. The Martís are also the only broadcast with no office in the Washington area, which means they lack the same close monitoring and exchange of ideas. And the majority of their money goes to TV broadcasts, which the other surrogates do not have, except for the Arab-language Alhurra. Critics say the money is wasted because the Cuban government jams the TV signals, while the radio broadcasts generally get through. Cull and other Martí critics argue the Cuba broadcasts are part of a domestic policy more focused on retaining the votes of powerful hard- liners in the Cuban-American community than on strategic foreign policy. They point to the large funding for such a small audience. "When I headed Radio Free Europe, we broadcast to 19 countries, in 28 languages, none of which was in English, for about $75 million," said Tom Dine, president of Radio Free Europe from 1995 to 2000. And you're telling me, in one language, to one little island, they get $34 million?" (via Mike Cooper, Artie Bigley, DXLD) Here`s the Spanish version - - which would be original? SIGUE EL DEBATE SOBRE RADIO Y TV MARTÍ EN EEUU http://www.univision.com/contentroot/wirefeeds/usa/7487890.html (via José Miguel Romero2, Spain, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A. 15420, WBCQ, Thanks Al Weiner tip. Heard at 1809 May 13 with Global Spirit Proclamation program. Weak signal (Hans Johnson, Naples, FL, Kaito KA -1102, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Newsflash: WBCQ 5110 and 9330 going away I just got the word from Allan: effective 7 PM this evening (Monday, May 19, 2008 [2300 UT]) WBCQ 5110 and 9330 will be shut down until further notice. Good Friends Radio Network is leaving WBCQ, and was the primary client on these two transmitters. The station cannot afford to keep these transmitters on the air without a paying client. Sadly this means the end of the Area 51 block for now. With any luck Allan and Jennifer will give us the chance to do this again in the future. It was awfully fun while it lasted. Regards, (Larry Will, DX LISTENING DIGEST) And a couple of WORLD OF RADIO broadcasts, tho it failed to show this UT Monday anywhere after 0300 on 9330. 9330 was indeed missing UT May 20, but SYRIA [q.v.] wasn`t making it. Then we heard from Jennifer that 9330 would be on the air part of the time, including WORLD OF RADIO at 0300 UT Sunday instead of Monday (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WWRB, Morrison/Manchester TN, [NOT: McCaysville GA/Copper Hill TN --- that was WGTG, gone for years!] 3185 still audible with Brother Scare as late as 1259 UT May 20, just as Dave Frantz broke in for a legal ID, then more B.S. So I guess they kept going past 1300, but did not keep listening to find out. The FCC has now posted an updated A-08 schedule as of 6 May, with a 2 instead of a 1 at the end of the URL: http://www.fcc.gov/ib/sand/neg/hf_web/A08FCC02.TXT Its very first entry shows 3185 as 00-13 at 340 degrees. It also still shows 9385 at 13-23 at 340 degrees, but B.S. was still going there until abrupt cutoff in mid-word at 2355* May 20, so it seems FCC schedules are regarded as only approximate by some private US SW stations. After 0000 May 21, we found WWRB with B.S. on 5745, 6890 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WRMI, 9955, May 21 at 0015 with religious talk in Spanish, apparently without jamming, or maybe weak jamming underneath, could not quite decide. Altho I thought it was some private preacher, per April 1 schedule grid this would be R. Vaticano. But it still has not been updated to move the 22-23 shows to 01-03, and add the new UFO show from OKC at 21-24 weekdays (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WBAP/KSCS Fort Worth on 25.91 & 25.99 FM mode --- I have WQGY434 Fort Worth, TX with WBAP 820 on 25910 kHz and KSCS 96.3 on 25990 kHz. FCC license says purpose is "Interrupted Fold Back" (to overcome the delay of digital radio broadcasting). (William R. Hepburn, WTFDA, Grimsby, ON, CAN, http://www.dxinfocentre.com 1751 UT May 16, WTFDA via DXLD) I thought the term was Feed Back (gh) Delay is used on many talk stations, even those not using digital just in case something is said that should not be aired. The IFB would then allow cues to go to the reporters in the field. One day 15 years ago I was listening on a scanner before dawn to a Boston traffic helicopter reporter who was having problems with one of his stations being on delay but with no IFB. Fortunately he could hear another FM station on the same satellite feed from New York that was not on delay allowing him to guess when he was supposed to talk on the local station. Fun (Allan Dunn, K1UCY, ibid.) ** U S A. Was wondering why I couldn`t get KCSN to stream, one of the best stations on the web. SUSPENDED: http://www.kcsn.org/listen.htm (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WHRB Harvard Orgies, final dodekaday of May: Times and dates here are strictly UT: UT Tuesday, May 20 0200-0900 THE WU-TANG ORGY (cont.) 0900-1600 LIVE IN PARIS (cont.) 1600-2400 MASTERPIECES OF THE FRENCH BAROQUE (cont.) UT Wednesday, May 21 0000-0400 MASTERPIECES OF THE FRENCH BAROQUE (cont.) 0400-0900 THE WU-TANG ORGY (cont.) 0900-1600 CAPTAIN BEEFHEART ORGY --- Don Van Vliet 1600-2400 MASTERPIECES OF THE FRENCH BAROQUE (cont.) UT Thursday, May 22 0000-0200 MASTERPIECES OF THE FRENCH BAROQUE (cont.) 0200-0900 THE WU-TANG ORGY (cont.) 0900-1600 CAPTAIN BEEFHEART ORGY (cont.) 1600-2400 MASTERPIECES OF THE FRENCH BAROQUE (cont.) UT Friday, May 23 0000-0200 MASTERPIECES OF THE FRENCH BAROQUE (cont.) 0200-0900 THE WU-TANG ORGY (cont.) 0900-2200 PAUL ROBESON: A DISSIDENT AMERICAN, AN AMERICAN HERO 2200-2400 THE KRONOS QUARTET ORGY UT Saturday, May 24 0000-0400 THE KRONOS QUARTET ORGY 0400-0900 THE WU-TANG ORGY (cont.) 1700-2400 THE KRONOS QUARTET ORGY (cont.) UT Sunday, May 25 0000-0200 THE KRONOS QUARTET ORGY (cont.) 0200-1500 THE DON CABALLERO ORGY --- math rock 1600-2000 THE KRONOS QUARTET ORGY (cont.) 2000-2400 THE CÉSAR FRANCK ORGY UT Monday, May 26 0000-0400 THE CÉSAR FRANCK ORGY 0400-0900 THE BLUEPRINT: LISTENING TO THE SAMPLES BEHIND JAY-Z’S CAREER --- hip-hop 1230-2400 THE CÉSAR FRANCK ORGY (cont.) UT Tuesday, May 27 0000-0200 THE CÉSAR FRANCK ORGY (cont.) 0200-0900 DIFFERENT KIND OF GRIND --- punk 0900-2400 THE MOTOWN ORGY UT Wednesday, May 28 0000-0400 THE MOTOWN ORGY 0400-0900 THE BLUEPRINT: LISTENING TO THE SAMPLES BEHIND JAY-Z’S CAREER (cont.) 0900-2400 THE VLADIMIR HOROWITZ ORGY UT Thursday, May 29 0000-0200 THE VLADIMIR HOROWITZ ORGY 0200-0900 DIFFERENT KIND OF GRIND (cont.) 0900-2400 THE ERIC DOLPHY ORGY --- jazz UT Friday, May 30 0000-0300 THE ERIC DOLPHY ORGY --- jazz 0300-0900 THE JUAN MACLEAN ORGY --- fusion 0900-2400 THE ERIC DOLPHY ORGY (cont.) UT Saturday, May 31 0000-0200 THE ERIC DOLPHY ORGY (cont.) 0200-0900 NU WHIRL ORGY --- global urban 1700-2400 THE FLAMENCO ORGY UT Sunday, June 1 0200-0900 THE BLUEPRINT: LISTENING TO THE SAMPLES BEHIND JAY-Z’S CAREER (cont.) Special programming continues thru Commencement June 5, but not called Orgies. Much more detail at http://www.whrb.org/pg/MayJun2008.pdf [in local time UT -4] Streaming linx at http://www.whrb.org The above quick reference schedule also at http://www.worldofradio.com/calendar.html (Glenn Hauser, May 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WABC Rewound Schedule --- WABC will again be doing its Rewound Program on Memorial Day. Here is an advanced look at the line- up courtesy of Johnny Donovan. For those who didn't grow up with WABC, or live outside the area, you will be able to listen via WABC's web site via live streaming audio. Here is the link: http://www.wabcradio.com/article.asp?id=531472 The Schedule [EDT = UT -4] 6AM - Herb Oscar Anderson, Ron Lundy and Chuck Leonard 7AM - Chuck Dunaway 1961 8AM - Harry Harrison Top 100 of 1975 9AM - Don Imus (WNBC) 10AM - Bob Lewis 1964 (Part 1) 11AM - Bob Lewis 1964 (Part 2) Noon - Jim Nettleton 1969 Debut 1PM - Chuck Leonard Top 100 1968 2PM - Martin Block/Dan Ingram 1962 3PM - Bruce Morrow 1972, Chuck Leonard 1974 4PM - Bob Lewis on WABC-FM 1968 5PM - Dan Ingram 1963 6PM - Post Rewound Talk Show (via Pete Kemp, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. WLS would like to invite all listeners to 890AM or http://WLSAM.com on Monday, May 26th (Memorial Day) for the 2nd Annual BIG 89 REWIND radio special. ALL DAY LONG, WLS goes retroactive --- back to the days when it was the nation's music leader, The Rock of Chicago. Hear Chicago's most legendary DJ's LIVE from 5AM - Midnight on Memorial Day! This will be a true historic day in Chicago radio (via Steve Lare, Holland, MI, USA, May 20, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A. 1710 a mess! 1710 kHz has at least 4 stations fighting, including the Jewish NYC, a station IDing as Radio Español (I think), someone playing music, and I'm not sure what else. There's a het of about 100 Hz and also a 1 kHz het, so someone's on 1711. Anyone else hearing the Español? It's the strongest here in York, PA and I think I heard them a week or so ago as well. Seems too strong for one of the Boston pirates (Bruce Collier, UT May 15, NRC-AM via DXLD) Here's my 1710 observations. I usually have three strong carriers, and a host of weaker ones. The strong ones are at: 1709.967 (drifts around a few Hz) 1710.022 (also drifts a bit) 1710.042 (the most stable of the three) I believe Lubavitcher is the one on 1709.967 (or thereabouts). I've also ID'ed the 1710.022 station as Radio Soleil International, apparently in the Brockton MA area, with programming in French, mainly talk. They're listed as being on 1620 on Bruce Conti's list http://members.aol.com/baconti/bostonLP.htm but I'm not sure whether they've moved from 1620, or put an additional transmitter on 1710. BTW, they stream at http://www.radiosoleilinternational.com so that makes them easy to ID. Finally, I think the 1710.042 station is the one with Spanish, often playing music, but I haven't heard an ID that I could decipher yet. I've also noticed the het from someone near 1711, but it hasn't been strong enough to extract audio, if any (Barry McLarnon, VE3JF, Ottawa, ON, ibid.) Thanks, Barry, I have the French station // to the web stream. Radio Soleil International is a new one here I think. Just heard another pair of ads ad for "Brooklawn", but most likely "Brockton". "People's Best Care Chiropractic and Massage" and "Prestige Cargo". A singing ID for what sounded "Had Sola" at 0010. Definitely parallel, the radio signal would be be too difficult to hear this much detail (Jim Renfrew, Holley NY, May 15, ibid.) I sent a message to the link provided on the Radio Soleil web page, and got this response this morning: ``Thanks for listening. We have been broadcasting for the Haitian Community since 1990 on 1410 AM every night and on 1710 24/7. Regards Patrick`` Hmmm, most interesting. I don't know how pirate Radio Soleil could transmit on 1410 in Brockton as there is a licensed station, WMSX, on 1410 in Brockton! I believe WMSX is all Spanish with slogan "La Super X." I suspect that Mr. Patrick meant some other frequency like 1610 or 1620 (Marc DeLorenzo, South Dennis, MA, http://hometown.aol.com/midcapemarc/myhomepage/profile.html ibid.) Sounds to me like he's saying they're leasing time on WMSX at night - maybe someone within their night pattern could check? s (Scott Fybush, Rochester NY, ibid.) Unless Radio Soleil is leasing time on WMSX-1410. That would be interesting. A radio station broadcasting illegally on 1710 and legally on 1410 at the same time (Marc DeLorenzo, South Dennis, MA, ibid.) ** U S A. AUTHOR ARGUES CLEAR CHANNEL DESTROYED RADIO Miami Herald, May 11, 2008 By Richard Pachter The name "Clear Channel" became shorthand for everything wrong with terrestrial (nonsatellite) radio: Lack of diversity, repetitious music, boring programming, too many commercials, censorship, jingoism, ad nauseam. In a previous life, I was very familiar with radio, first as a record promotion man and later as a marketing executive at a trade publication for radio managers. Initially, I encountered a variety of stations, mostly independently owned or part of small chains. Few companies held more than a handful of stations, due mainly to the limitations imposed by federal law. But that all changed with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which lifted most limits for corporate acquisition of broadcast properties and allowed ownership of multiple stations in a single market. In the industry, the resulting change was called "consolidation." Writer Alec Foege's interest in the subject of radio in general and Clear Channel in particular was piqued when he became aware of the uniformity of radio stations' programming during a longish family car trip. He wanted to know why the music was so bland and over-familiar. He begins with a brief history of Top 40 radio, the company that later became Clear Channel, and its founder, Texan Lowry Mays. He knew nothing about the broadcasting business, according to Foege, but was a shrewd and opportunistic businessman who viewed radio as a unique industry with unparalleled potential for growth. As the story continues, Mays builds his business and is poised to take advantage of the sweeping pro-business trend toward deregulation. Acquiring numerous stations, he seeks efficiencies by eliminating various redundancies. Among them were physical facilities, so Foege writes about how, in markets where the company owned several stations (as in South Florida), all are based in a single building, sharing a common management team as well as administrative and engineering staff. But the downside became apparent as the cost cutting continued. Indeed, the company's nickname of ''Cheap Channel'' was earned by their elimination of incumbent talent and the promotion of lower-paid employees. At the same time, through automation and other tools, live local announcers were replaced by pre-recorded programming or "voice tracking," with the on-air content for a multitude of stations originating in a remote studio from a single announcer. The same voice and personality hosts a show in Orlando, for example, yet she's really sitting in a studio in San Antonio or Omaha. And the local news component of most Clear Channel stations had also been reduced or eliminated, with several striking examples of the absence of reporting during local disasters cited in the book. Foege also writes about other issues, such as the company's corporate culture, with the controversial practices and behavior of managers, including Randy Michaels, who came into the fold as a result of Clear Channel's purchase of the Jacor chain (owned by Sam Zell, who bought the Tribune Co. last year). This book covers a lot of ground, including the company's politics, which are more expedient than ideological, according to Foege. But ultimately, media consolidation has been a disappointment, as evidenced by AOL Time Warner and other failed mega-mergers. Clear Channel is already starting to dissemble, though as a result of this exercise, the vitality of radio as a local medium will likely never return. Right of the Dial explains how this precious cultural and economic institution was exploited and destroyed. SOURCE: Free Press http://www.freepress.net/ (via Eric Bueneman, ASWLC via Greg Hardison, DXLD) I am both amused and slightly irritated by the cool and trendy tendencies to jump on the bash-Clear-Channel-Bandwagon. Perhaps many readers are not old enough to realize that overall homogenization of U.S. commercial Radio programming has a 25-to-35 year history --- and let's note that 35 years ago (1973), Clear Channel consisted of exactly ONE station, the then-failing Country-formatted KAJA/97.3 FM in San Antonio. At that same time, one could tune to WGST/920 Atlanta, WLW/700 Cincinnati, WOAI/1200 (before being owned by CC) San Antonio, KTAR/620 Phoenix or KFMB/760 in San Diego (all "full service" Adult Contemporary-grounded outlets at the time), and hear not only the same mix of "hit" music, but identical jingles as well. Take any AM or FM Top 40 station of the era, from any top-20 market, and other than geographical references, what were the differences? Very, very little, I dare say. Popular playlists and on-air approaches have been aped constantly, city-to-city, for the past three decades. Rock, Country, Adult Contemporary and other playlists have been homogenized across much of the Country as a habit for most or all of the lifetimes of many readers and observers; the greatest resistance to the cookie-cutting was found in the various Soul/Rhythm & Blues presentations around the land. I'm not saying that Clear Channel hasn't contributed to the trend --- as has CBS/Infinity, Emmis, Entercom, Cox, Bonneville, Sandusky, Cumulus, and before them AM/FM, Jacor, ARS and Westinghouse, and much smaller companies as well such as Regent, Jefferson-Pilot (now under the Lincoln Financial banner), Beasley, Mapleton, and many many others unnamed, right down to the sameness found in 3-station-total operations such as Buck Owens Broadcasting's only cluster in Bakersfield, CA --- one top-rated AM/FM simulcast of Chart-Hit Country, and one FM featuring "Classic Country" --- which has also been homogenized to some extent. The knowledgable, objective observer will see the McDonaldization of Radio across the board, affecting all owners, formats and markets in the United States, to not-much-varying degrees. But it's easier for some to simply pin it all on Clear Channel, implying that the admittedly-largest U.S. Radio firm is solely responsible for all the woes of the product. This is at best an uneducated view; no doubt many trumpeting this view cheerfully ignore the rampant destruction of many large-market "heritage" stations by the Disney Corp., following on the heels of their acquisition of ABC, and the total destruction of what had been the Nation's finest Radio concern. No worries for Radio Disney, as they push the likes of Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and now Miley Cyrus (known for their wisened lifestyle choices, just what we wish for our pre-teen Daughters actively targeted with this crap). Hand in hand, Clear Channel along with no other company of which I'm aware, has done nearly as much as Disney to destroy the careers and aspirations of working individuals targeted for whatever egregious actions which may have been taken against them. For example, within two months of the physical and operational ABC takeover, Disney planted a listening device in the main Control Room of KABC-AM in Los Angeles; of course coincidentally this was at the beginning of intense Contract negotiations with the National Association of Broadcast Engineers and Technicians (NABET). The long- time employee who brought this to the Union's attention was subsequently harassed (falsely accused of making death threats and abuse of Computer resources), fired upon refusing Disney demands to surrender the previous year's full set of Federal Income Tax returns (unrelated to the above accusations), and then blacklisted within the industry. The Union became an eager and willing participant in this process, effectively abandoning a long-term member "in good standing", in order to appease the Disney corporate gods, to whom they (NABET) cowered in mortal fear of loss of jurisdiction (which wound up being lost anyway). But all this is perfectly good and fine, as long as it's not Clear Channel. Such hypocrisy! Yes, the 1996 Communications Act, or whatever it was called, was a massive error --- Bill Clinton admitted as much during an NAB convention in Los Angeles a few years back. Yes, the overall Radio/Employment picture has changed to the point of unrecognizability in the past twenty years. Note, that means both before AND after the '96 train-wreck. Clear Channel is certainly not innocent of charges brought forth here --- but to blame all decline and deterioration of the Radio product on Clear Channel alone is extremely simplistic at best, and borderline delusional, when charitable evaluations are removed (GREG HARDISON, CA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ``Yes, but how did Disney pick up these anti-American tactics you describe? From Clear Channel." (Bueneman reply?) I surely would have loved to have seen the Time Machine that Disney utilized in order to do that! I remember hearing horror stories about Disney from relatives in "the biz", 40 years ago --- long before Clear Channel existed; indeed years before any of the Mays family had invested one dime in Radio! Before my time, in the early 1950's, some of the "original" Disney animators felt the need to peddle genuine Disney cartoon cels out the back door, in order to prepare for some form of retirement. Anyone growing up in America in the 1960s or '70s knew the voice of Jack Wagner, a very decent guy who was "The Voice" of Disney. We're talking about the guy who did all of the "Wonderful World Of Color" off-camera announcing, and (as far as I know) all of Disney's movie trailers for more than twenty years. Jack once looked me in the eye as he stated his gratitude for his wife's keen eye for California Real Estate investments. He credited her for their ability to have any form of retirement whatsoever. To blame Disney's tactics on Clear Channel falls somewhere between fallacy and hallucination. My own young Daughter listens occasionally to Clear Channel products (mostly KIIS-FM or KHHT), with a pound of salt and no apparent ill effects. But I sure as hell don't want her paying anything but critical attention to the hijinks of Disney's darlings Britney, her little sister Jamie Lynn (pregnant at age 16), Lindsay Lohan or the newly-revealing 15 year old semi-nude Miley Cyrus. We all have our sour grapes upon which we chew, but we should honor them honestly. I have had more than my share of personal experiences with the Disney nazis, which is how and why I draw my conclusions. The same applies for Clear Channel. Perhaps your failure to secure Radio work is a result of being Blacklisted, for whatever unknown and unspeculated reason? It does happen, as Disney did just that to me. "But that's against Federal Law"...So is smoking pot, and (separately) driving 66 miles per hour, in most states. Laws against any of the three actions are about as effective as one-another, meaning, not at all (Greg Hardison, ibid.) First off, I was NEVER blacklisted --- and besides, blacklisting is against the law under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (discrimination on the basis of creed). I believe, then as now, that the broadcast job market should be open to everyone, regardless of race, sex, creed, origin (local or national), religion, or disability. The closed nature of the broadcast job market is not in tune with Twenty-First Century thinking. Radio's policies and attitudes are more Nineteenth Century (or worse, neo-Nazi) thinking. I don't think that flexibility on location should be a prerequisite for broadcast employment, either. I also don't think that "it's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know" is the right hiring policy for the Twenty-First Century. It should be based entirely on HARD WORK ALONE, through college radio and smaller stations within one's home market. Relocating for work should be an option, not a requirement to stay in broadcasting. Let me tell you one thing --- when you work for a company like Disney or Clear Channel, you're bearing credence to their propaganda. It's just like when you listened extensively to Radio Moscow during the Cold War or to China Radio International today, you're bearing credence to Communist propaganda. Your daughter, by listening to Clear Channel-owned stations, is bearing credence to Clear Channel's anti- American propaganda. When I gave up on commercial radio seven years ago, I was no longer bearing credence to corporate radio's anti-community propaganda. When I worked at WGNU 920 and WFUN-FM 95.5 when they were locally owned, their only priority was St. Louis. That's because the financial books were prepared locally, not in New York, San Antonio, Los Angeles, Indianapolis or Salt Lake City. 73 and Good DX from (Eric Bueneman Amateur Radio Call Sign N0UIH, WDX Monitoring Service Registered Monitor KDX0STL, CRB Research Registered VHF/UHF Monitor KMO0CN Hazelwood, MO-Grid Square EM48, via Hardison, DXLD) I'm not here to tell you that the Radio business is well-run. The "Who-You-Know" formula mentioned, unfortunately, indeed dictates how most hiring is accomplished; that is a fact. Companies performing along the Disney model, both in and out of media, are more concerned with the feelings of meshing-personalities, than with abilities and accomplishments. Sadly, anyone hoping to get ahead in Radio these days, who happens not to be Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern or Bubba The Love Sponge, has to be well-practiced at schmoozing and glad-handing, no doubts about it. I AM here to tell you the blame should spread far beyond simply Clear Channel. This one company alone simply wasn't and couldn't have been the sole, solitary source of grief in the Radio-employment scene, that you and others feel is the case. Yes, as I stated, Blacklisting is "against the law". You are dreaming, fantasizing, hallucinating, if you believe there's any enforcement of this alleged "law", on any level. I was "lucky" enough that a major L.A. Program Director levelled with me, about having been Blacklisted. Do you think for a minute I could have convinced this guy to testify in Court to that affect?? Two words come to mind: HELL NO! I know; I have been there, and any belief otherwise is pure Pollyanna. So relish and honor your "law"(s); meanwhile, on a personal note, please tell me what alternate economic & social reality you recommend, versus my own somewhat meager employment income (in an arm of "the biz"), while militaristically preventing my Daughter from her one or two hours weekly of listening to commercial radio?? (This after exactly seven potential opportunities, in AND out of Radio, turned into disasters, traceable to Politics [see note above about "meshing personalities"], classic dot-com meltdowns, my own proven inability to sell anything to anyone, and some lousy moves in a retail-ownership situation.) To answer my own question, I envision living on an off-ramp, while building a psych-complex in my precious Daughter that's as big as Texas, the way many of our parents did with us in the years since WW2 --- hell, in the years since Adam! Please do inform us the day Principle is able to pay the bills. Sad but true, I know, but once you edge toward starvation a few times, the sheen of High And Mighty Principle wears off a bit (Greg Hardison, ibid.) ** VATICAN. VATICANO - Em Mairiporã (SP), Renato Uliana acompanhou uma interessante emissão em espanhol da Rádio Vaticano. Foi em 17 de maio, às 0305, na freqüência de 4005 kHz. Tal emissão tem como destino a Europa (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX May 19 via DXLD) See also BOLIVIA for something unID on 4005 ** VATICAN. 11740 in Italian at 0612 May 20, so it can`t be ITALY! Except extraterratorially speaking. Yes, soon mentioned Vatican, as scheduled, at 263 degrees; however, on Sundays only from 0600 it`s Latin at 55 degrees. This was fair, but much better than Habana on 11760 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also USA, WRMI ** VENEZUELA. UNA VEZ CULMINADO EL EDIFICIO CENTRO DE ONDA CORTA SEÑAL DE RNV PODRÁ SER ESCUCHADA EN TODO EL CONTINENTE AMERICANO http://www.rnv.gov.ve/noticias/?act=ST&f=2&t=68073 El ingeniero Luis Alfredo Palacios, asesor del circuito RNV, explicó que el estado Guárico es un lugar estratégico para la instalación de las antenas transmisoras por el puesto que ocupa geográficamente en el centro del país. La comisión de contrataciones del Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Comunicación e Informaciones (Minci) y la comisión del circuito Radio Nacional de Venezuela (RNV), dieron respuesta a las inquietudes de los representantes que participaron este martes en el concurso abierto de la obra construcción del edificio Centro de Onda Corta para el Servicio Autónomo Radio Nacional de Venezuela, ubicado en Calabozo estado Guárico. El ingeniero Luis Alfredo Palacios, asesor del circuito RNV, explicó la importancia de esta infraestructura que permitirá propagar la señal y la programación de Radio Nacional de Venezuela en todo el Continente Americano. "En este momento, la programación del Canal Internacional se produce en los estudios de RNV y se transmite desde la estación de onda corta de la República de Cuba por un convenio suscrito entre ambos países", informó Palacios. Asimismo, destacó que el objetivo de este proyecto es construir una estación de onda corta propia "para que en un futuro cercano, estimamos que será un tiempo máximo de 18 meses, podamos comenzar a realizar las transmisiones internacionales desde este centro". Palacios también recalcó que el proyecto de esta estación de onda corta consta de dos fases. La primera se espera que concluya en los próximos 18 meses y abarque únicamente el hemisferio norte y la segunda tiene una duración de un año adicional con la que se logrará retransmitir la programación de Radio Nacional de Venezuela en toda Latinoamérica. Para finalizar, el ingeniero Luis Alfredo Palacios manifestó que el estado Guárico es un lugar estratégico para la instalación de las antenas transmisoras por el puesto que ocupa geográficamente en el centro del país, lo que significa que existirá una excelente cobertura y propagación de la señal del circuito RNV hacia cualquier país del Continente Americano (via José Miguel Romero2, Spain, May 14, dxldyg via DXLD) Summary translation and comments: engineer Palacios says the new SW plant under construxion is well-located for propagating to all of America, in the center of the country, at Calabazos. That`s the first time I`ve seen the axual town, rather than just somewhere in Guárico state: it`s on the only main road southward from Caracas. This is nonsense, since being in the center of Venezuela is no better than being anywhere else in Venezuela, as far as propagation to the rest of the Americas. There might be other unstated geographical advantages, such as no horizon blockage and/or on a high plain, certainly away from a big city. Palacios acknowledges that RNV SW programming is presently transmitted via Cuba according to an agreement with that country. Target date is to start broadcasting in 18 months, which would be late 2009. The first phase will be to reach North America, and it will take another year to start broadcasting to the rest of Latin America. Presumably that has something to do with priorities and antenna construxion. Of course, RNV is already heard all over N&S America, tnx to Cuba. It will merely become more self-reliant, perhaps just in time for the fall of the Castro/Castro regime (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Then we get their own English version of same: Hi Everybody, Last week I heard Radio Nacional de Venezuela on 6060 regularly with English talks on the political developments in Venezuela by a women. The broadcast starts at 1105 UT and continues until 1117 when it changes over to Spanish broadcasts. The transmitter is in Cuba. But as per the enclosed communiqué posted on the internet site of Radio Nacional they have begun the construction of their own transmitters located in Venezuela for their internacional programs which is expected to be ready within the next 18 months . . . http://www.rnv.gov.ve/noticias/index.php?act=ST&f=31&t=68171 (Ashok Bose, Mississauga, Canada via Alokesh Gupta, DXLD) While I was on their site I clicked on Frecuencias Internacionales http://www.rnv.gov.ve/noticias/index.php?pg=internacional And yes, they STILL show the initial and years-outdated schedule but sure a nice pretty colored map, not including the transmission mentioned above, which BTW, does not have any specific time for English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM [non]. TAIWAN, 7390, Little Saigon R. via Taiwan May 12 1505-1516 35433 Vietnamese, Talk, ID and address announce at 1512 (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) Seldom see reports of this from NAm or Europe (gh) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. CLANDESTINE, 1550, Polisario Front, Rabouni, Algeria, 0632-fade-out 0735, 20 May, Arabic, talks; 35443; // 6300 very good. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. Sahara: 20 mayo empieza a emitir RASD TV Diario asegura que Polisario prepara el lanzamiento de un canal de televisión http://actualidad.terra.es/nacional/articulo/diario_polisario_asegura_prepara_lanzamiento_2473281.htm El Frente Polisario prepara el lanzamiento de un canal de televisión propio que, con la denominación 'Rasd TV'. Difundirá programas por satélite, aseguró en su edición de hoy el diario marroquí 'Le Soir'. La emisión del movimiento independentista comenzará el próximo 20 de mayo y coincidirá en su horario -entre las nueve y las doce de la noche- con la programación de la televisión local de El Aaiún (capital del Sáhara Occidental) afirma el periódico, que sin embargo cita a fuentes 'saharauis' que no identifica. 'Le Soir' afirma que el canal de television cuenta con financiación argelina y de 'asociaciones españolas, fundamentalmente vascas', además de italianas y portuguesas. En cuanto a la posible sede del canal, el diario menciona por un lado Tinduf, en territorio argelino, donde están los campamentos de refugiados saharauis, y Sevilla. El director de la delegación de la televisión estatal marroquí en El Aaiún, Mohamed Lagdaf, dijo a EFE a propósito del lanzamiento del canal del que informó el diario que con ese instrumento el Frente Polisario 'no ofrecerá informaciones verídicas para la población'. 'Ofrecerá solamente propaganda contra Marruecos. Es que lo que está haciendo en su sitio de internet. Ahora pasará a la televisión, después de que nadie escucha su radio', afirmó Lagdaf. El 20 de mayo el Frente Polisario - que defiende la independencia del Sáhara Occidental, antigua colonia española que Rabat se anexionó en 1975 - celebrará el 35 aniversario de su creación con diversos actos en Tifariti, localidad situada en la parte del Sáhara Occidental que Marruecos no tiene bajo su control (via José Miguel Romero, dxldyg via DXLD) ** ZIMBABWE. 500 million dollar note --- HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's central bank introduced 500 million Zimbabwe dollar notes worth just $2 on Thursday in the latest sign of spiralling hyperinflation, only a week after issuing the 250 million bill. . . http://www.moneybiz.co.za/business_in_africa/Zimbabwe_adds_500_mln_dollar_note_as_prices_rocket.asp (Jari Savolainen, May 16, dxldyg via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Broadcast spur ID --- from the Topband list. If you can help, either with a bearing or with an ID, please contact K5BG. For those not familiar with amateur radio grid squares, "EM12" is around the Dallas area (Nick Hall-Patch, Victoria BC, May 19, IRCA via DXLD) Viz.: I am trying to get a positive ID on the BC spur centered around 1809.4. It is S9 in the early morning hours in EM12 and is to the Northwest of this location. I believe it to be in the Lubbock, TX. area. Any help with a positive ID would be appreciated so we can notify the station they seem to have a problem. Please reply off list and thank you for any help. 73, (Bob Gill, K5BG, Weatherford, TX, USA k5bg @ att.net Topband mailing list via Hall-Patch, ibid.) A ham in Weatherford TX, K5BG, reported a broadcast spur on 1809 kHz, seemingly from Lubbock area, any help on DFing or IDing it? I checked May 19 at 0635 and was barely able to hear a mushy distorted spur on 1809, Readability 0, and only on a longwire antenna so no DF possible. And again May 20 at 0642 past 0700. Mostly a mushy unreadable signal, rarely fading up a bit with some music or talk, hampered by occasional lightning crashes from Kansas (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Happened to be up so turned on the radio, and since about 0810 have been hearing something on 3345. Have only heard M speaking, seems to be religious, and seems to be English, but not quite strong enough to make out, and also some splash from the Honduran on 3340. Seems way too early for the PNG (although have also been hearing carrier on 3905 since 0730, and now also carriers on 3365 and 3385, so maybe PNG's coming in already?) Anyone know what this is? Thanx! (Alex Vranes, Jr., Harpers Ferry, WV, May 18, FRG-100B and 60-m. dipole, NASWA yg via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. SITE? 6115? Poking around the band and am hearing Merlin interval signal here at 2301 May 14, not sure when this started (Hans Johnson, Naples, FL, Kaito KA-1102, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Also here at 2312. Seems about the same signal level as R. República 6135 [Rampisham] minus the jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, ibid.) Hi Glenn, at 2327 9 to 9+20 here in south Italy, off at 2329 (Roberto Scaglione (via Hauser), ibid.) Thanks, off here suddenly at 2329 (Johnson, ibid.) Heard any further dates? (gh) UNIDENTIFIED. 7260, UNITED STATES [sic]. Sudan Radio Service (tentative) via Dhabbaya in Arabic or similar at 0410 on 5/14. M talk with occasional brief music drop-ins. A bit suspect as this site is rarely noted here. Sudden cut or abrupt close at 0430, although scheduled to 0500 (Gerry Dexter, WI, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) I don`t know what schedule you refer to, but the only thing I can find currently scheduled at 0400 on 7260 is Algeria via Skelton, UK, in Arabic, per EiBi (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ WHAT MEANS QNH IN VOLMET? This was already answered one way, but here is more detail: It´s a Q-code with no special meaning of the letters. See: http://www.auf.asn.au/groundschool/umodule3.html 73, (Patrick Robic, Austria, May 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Q-codes Note: the letters in the Q-code nomenclature have no literal significance, these are remnants of an extensive notation system from the days of wireless-telegraphy. There were some 200 three letter Q- codes each representing a sentence, a phrase or a question, for instance QRM "I am being interfered with"!. Some 30 Q-codes are still used by amateur radio / morse code enthusiasts and the four below, plus QDM (the magnetic bearing to a station), still survive in aviation. For a full listing of Q-codes try www.cbug.org.uk/allqcodes.htm. The following four codes relate to altimeter settings. QFE: the barometric pressure at the station location or aerodrome elevation datum point. If QFE is set on the altimeter pressure-setting scale while parked at an airfield, the instrument should read close to zero altitude – if the local pressure is close to the ISA standard for that elevation. However the use of QFE is deprecated and anyway, if the airfield elevation is higher than perhaps 3000 feet, older/cheaper altimeters may not be provided with sufficient sub-scale range to set QFE. QFF: the mean sea level [msl] pressure derived from the barometric pressure at the station location by calculating the weight of an imaginary air column, extending from the location to sea level, assuming the temperature and relative humidity at the location are the long term monthly mean, the temperature lapse rate is ISA and the relative humidity lapse rate is zero. This is the Australian Bureau of Meteorology method; QFF calculations differ among meteorological organisations. QFF is the location value plotted on surface synoptic charts and is closer to reality than QNH, though it is only indirectly used in aviation. QNH: the msl pressure derived from the barometric pressure at the station location by calculating the weight of an imaginary air column, extending from the location to sea level, assuming the temperature at the location is the ISA temperature for that elevation, the temperature lapse rate is ISA and the air is dry throughout the column. The Australian aviation regulations state that when an 'accurate' QNH is set on the pressure-setting scale at an airfield, the altimeter indication should read within 100 feet of the published airfield elevation, or 110 feet if elevation exceeds 3300 feet; otherwise the altimeter should be considered unserviceable. However due to the inherent inaccuracy possible in QNH, this may not be so. The difference between QFF and QNH when calculated on a hot day at a high airfield in Australia can be as much as 4 hPa, equivalent to about 120 feet. The advantage to aviation in using the less realistic QNH is that all aircraft altimeters in the area will be out by about the same amount, and thus maintain height interval separation. The Local QNH at an airfield is normally derived from an actual pressure reading, but the Area QNH used outside the airfield zone is a forecast value, valid for three hours, and may vary by up to 5 hPa from any Local QNH in the same area. Either Local QNH or Area QNH may be set on the altimeter pressure-setting scale of all aircraft cruising in the Altimeter Setting Region; which [in Australia] extends from the surface to the Transition Altitude of 10 000 feet. The cruising levels within the Altimeter Setting Region are prefixed by 'A' e.g. A065 = 6500 feet amsl. When there is no official Local QNH available at an airfield, and the site elevation is known, the Local QNH can be derived by setting the sub-scale (when the aircraft is on the ground of course) so that the altimeter indicates the known airfield elevation. The use of Local QNH is important when conducting operations at an airfield as the circuit and approach pattern is based on determining height above ground level [agl]. Note that it is not mandatory for VFR aircraft to use the area QNH whilst enroute. You may substitute the current local QNH of any aerodrome within 100 nm of the aircraft or the local QNH at the departure airfield. See 'Acquiring weather and QNH information in- flight'. The purpose of the transition layer is to maintain a separation zone between the aircraft using QNH and those using the standard pressure setting. If Area QNH was 1030 hPa there would be about 500 feet difference displayed between setting that value and setting standard pressure. The transition layer extends from the Transition Altitude to the Transition Level which, in Australia, is usually at FL110 but it may extend to FL125 – depending on mean sea level pressure. QNE: common usage accepts QNE as the ISA Standard Pressure setting of 1013.2 hPa. However another definition of QNE is the 'altitude displayed on the altimeter at touchdown with 1013 set on the altimeter sub-scale'. Also referred to as the 'landing altimeter setting'. Within the latter meaning the term is only likely to be used when an extremely low QNH is outside an aircraft's altimeter sub-scale range, and the pilot requests aerodrome QNE from air traffic services. In Australia, such extreme atmospheric conditions are only likely to occur near the core of a tropical depression/cyclone and as QNE is not listed in the ICAO “Procedures for Air Navigation Services" air traffic services would not provide QNE on request. However QNE can be calculated by deducting the QNH from 1013, multiplying the result by 27 [the appropriate pressure lapse rate per hPa] and adding the airfield elevation. For example: QNH 960 hPa, airfield elevation 500 feet, pressure setting 1013. QNE = 1013 –960 = 53 × 27 = 1431 + 500 =1931 feet [the reading at touchdown]. (via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: see also NEW ZEALAND ++++++++++++++++++++ IBOC: see CANADA DRM DISCUSSED ON ASK WWCR Glenn: Here's a message from Don Messer (ex-Chairman of the Technical Committee of the DRM Consortium) about an interview he did with Brady Murray and Jason Cooper of WWCR last week in Cary that is airing on their Ask WWCR show for three weeks (Jeff White, May 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: The interview is being packaged in 3 parts. The first part was broadcast last Saturday. You can find it at http://www.wwcr.com/ask-wwcr_276.mp3 They really took a shine to what I said Thursday just before lunch. I need to thank Mike Adams and you for stuffing me into the agenda at the last minute. The interview is all about DRM, with a focus on the US. I have no idea how many people tune in to the "ask-wwcr" show. But those who do will suffer with me 3 times -- last Saturday for what Brady/Jason decided to segment as Part 1, followed by Parts 2 and 3 on a bi-weekly basis. The actual broadcast is on Saturday evenings at 9:45 local time [0145 UT Sundays] on 5070 kHz. It's a 15 minute show (Don Messer via Jeff White, ibid.) DRM CONSORTIUM CREATES NEW POST OF PROJECT DIRECTOR Although many people are of the opinion that Digital Radio Mondiale has ‘missed the boat’, since the Chair of the consortium has been transferred to the BBC World Service in London, it has been given a new lease of life. Just days after relaunching its website, DRM is advertising the newly-created post of Project Director. Reporting to the chair of the consortium the postholder will provide leadership to the next phase of work and help the commercial take-up of the standard. An attractive salary of at least £60,000 is offered. A full description of the post is here (May 19th, 2008 - 13:50 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) 2 comments so far --- 1 Anthony May 19th, 2008 - 14:37 UTC Digital Radio Mondiale HAS missed the boat partially, thanks in no small part to the non-availability of receivers on the market to pick it up, Sangean/Roberts/Morphy Richards/Visteon/Panasonic and Technisat constantly dragging their heels in no great rush to release their multiband all coverage MW/FM/SW/LW/DAB/DRM radio sets to the consumer domain. Without receivers what is the point of transmitting DRM broadcasts on MW/LW/SW if they cannot be picked up or heard thanks to the receiver manufacturers reluctance to release the sets to receive it onto the consumer marketplace? You might as well be talking to yourself which is what the broadcasters seem to be doing by this strategy of transmitting DRM broadcasts without nothing available to hear them at all. 2 Andy May 19th, 2008 - 14:47 UTC Well, finally they have done what I said they should have done more than 5 years ago. They want to appoint someone with “a background in commercial activity or business development in a media environment.” That’s what has been missing from DRM - I have attended conferences where the DRM representatives were engineers who only wanted to talk to other engineers. Marketing was a concept none of them understood. It will be interesting to see who’s up for the challenge of taking on this job (Media Network blog via DXLD) IBOCQRM IN DENVER AREA Here in the Denver area we have 13 IBOC stations with 16 IBOC-capable. The FCC has allowed KCFC-1490 in Boulder (for example) to run IBOC from their xmtr 20.2 miles away from 1510-KCKK's in Thornton. As a result, KCFC's IBOC is heard on 1510 (with a car radio) as close as 6.5 miles away from KCKK (while driving under bridges) and at 14 miles away, KCKK's signal has so much IBOC hash that it's not usuable even though they transmit 9.5kW days. Other examples: 850-KOA vs. 870-KJMP (KOA's IBOC heard as close as 10 miles from KJMP), 1340-KCFR vs. 1360- KHNC, 1490-KCFC vs. 1470-KEPL. Regional examples (50kW): 670-KLTT vs. 650-KGAB, 740-KVOR vs. 760-KKZN, Also, 910-KPOF and 950-KKFN vs. 930- KRKY, 1040-KCBR vs. 1060-KRCN (can cover north Denver metro at least with their 50kW) and 1090-KMXA vs. 1100-KNZZ. Another conflict, 1150- KNRV vs. 1170-KJJD was resolved by KNRV turning off their IBOC. Speaking of KNRV, at night their signal is overcome by 1160-KSL hash in most of the Denver metro area. I'm not sure why the FCC would approve IBOC like this and still keep nighttime antenna patterns. It doesn't make sense. As far as KDUN vs. the power company, I was told by our local power company they only clean up small areas, because of two reasons: 1. Powerlines always (or will eventually) cause interference which leads into the next reason: 2. It's too expensive to clean up powerline noise as it is (I was told my complaint ran close to $5,000 to fix - 2 bucket trucks with crews and hardware). The cost of widespread cleanup would be very expensive and only temporary. 73 (Chris Knight, Fort Lupton, CO, May 17, IRCA via DXLD) BEST BUY CHALLENGES FCC'S ANALOG-TV-LABELING AUTHORITY --- CONSUMER- ELECTRONICS RETAILER JOINS CIRCUIT CITY STORES IN TAKING ON FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/14/2008 5:57:00 PM Best Buy has challenged the Federal Communications Commission's authority to require it to label analog-only TV sets, suggesting that major retailers are beginning to present a united front on the issue. Circuit City also challenged the commission on the issue. The two companies' filings were essentially identical in the arguments they made, saying that the FCC didn't have the authority to impose the labeling requirement in the first place, much less to impose the fines it did last month -- $280,000 against Best Buy, $712,000 against Circuit City. Wal-Mart Stores, which was fined $992,000, had not returned a call about what its plans were. . . http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6561130.html (via CGC Communicator May 20 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ Looking for SW listeners... I received this at the IRCA website e- mail: -- I am working with a group that is going to be testing a SW antenna, and need to find a few listeners in a specific area. We will need a couple of people for about 10 minutes a day for a couple of days to give us RS(T) reports, and perhaps S meter reports. We are looking for people in Omaha, Little Rock, Dallas and Amarillo, TX. I will be happy to give these people certificates of reception and participation. Kent Winrich, K9EZ/4, Raleigh, NC, BroadcastPro.Biz http://www.ab0zo.com Anyone? If interested, contact Kent at kwinrich @ gmail.com Thanks! (Lynn Hollerman, Lafayette, LA, May 19, Check out the IRCA web site at http://www.ircaonline.org IRCA via DXLD) How much for a test pattern card, or monoscope of the same? CBS 2 AUCTIONS STUDIO TREASURES IN BENEFIT FOR BROADCAST MUSEUM May 15, 2008 BY ROBERT FEDER Sun-Times Columnist A genuine piece of Chicago broadcast history can be yours for the right price. When WBBM-Channel 2 moves this summer to its new headquarters at 108 N. State (better known as Block 37), everything that's left at the CBS-owned station's historic old site at 630 N. McClurg Ct. will be put up for auction Aug. 2. From props to backdrops and from lights to logos, all will be on the block to benefit the Museum of Broadcast Communications. Bidding will be conducted in person and online. A preview will be held Aug. 1. "This is the last hurrah for a great broadcast palace," said Bruce DuMont, founder and president of the museum. Opened in 1922 as the Chicago Riding Club, the building was known as the Chicago Arena when it was purchased by CBS for $1.27 million in 1954. In addition to housing Channel 2 and its radio counterparts, the cavern on McClurg was the site of the first televised presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon in 1960. It also served as production home for such national shows as "Donahue" and "Siskel & Ebert." "This will give the public an opportunity to walk back into perhaps the most historic studio in Chicago and look at some of the memorabilia amassed over 50-plus years," DuMont said. The idea for the auction was credited to Joe Ahern, president and general manager of Channel 2, who's on the museum board. Additional information will be available on the Web site of Chicago auctioneers Rick Levin & Associates at http://ricklevin.com (Chicago Sun Times via Brock Whaley, May 15, DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ Finally some Es to channel 2 Have been leaving a TV on ch 2 long hours waiting for some Es to happen, and today some finally did, but no IDs --- Tipped by WEWN 17595 at 2108 UT May 13; normally barely audible in skip zone but now inbooming with Es from a megameter away in AL. A few days ago Spain to Brasil was audible on same frequency during same hour. 2117 something on 2 with logo in lower right and weather map, but too poor to get a clue as to provenance. Signs of skip in and out, and at 2205 a drama/soap opera featuring a very gravid woman. No audio yet so unsure of language then. 73, (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, May 13, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) STRONG SHORTWAVE TRANSMITTERS CAN CAUSE AURORA BOREALIS A group of Russian, Norwegian, German and Swedish space physicists have discovered that electromagnetic radiation from strong radio transmitters in the shortwave band can cause aurora borealis / northern lights. The discovery was made at a radio facility for space science near Tromsø in northern Norway and was confirmed by measurings both on the ground and by satellite. For the research it was of course a welcome discovery that it's possible to trigger aurora with shortwave transmitters, says Professor Bo Thidé at the institute for space physics in Uppsala to the newspaper Upsala Nya Tidning. He is a Swedish co-worker in the project that is led from the Antarctic Research Institute in St. Peterburg, Russia. With this discovery the space researchers get complete new possibilities to study those physical mechanisms behind the aurora borealis and its equivalent in the southern hemisphere. 73's de (Chris SM6VPU, Stödberg, May 15, HCDX via DXLD) Have they heard about this at Gakona? (gh, DXLD) Official Space Weather Advisory issued by NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center Boulder, Colorado, USA SPACE WEATHER ADVISORY OUTLOOK #08- 21 2008 May 20 at 10:16 a.m. MDT (2008 May 20 1616 UTC) **** SPACE WEATHER OUTLOOK **** Summary For May 12-18 --- No space weather storms were detected. Outlook For May 21-27 --- Category G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storms are expected on 21 May due to high-speed solar winds associated with a coronal hole. Data used to provide space weather services are contributed by NOAA, USAF, NASA, NSF, USGS, the International Space Environment Services and other observatories, universities, and institutions. More information is available at SWPC's Web site http://swpc.noaa.gov (SWPC via DXLD) Geomagnetic field activity was at quiet levels. ACE solar wind measurements indicated no significant activity during the period. Solar wind velocities ranged from 279 to 430 km/sec. IMF Bz was variable in the +7 to -5 nT range. IMF Bt ranged from 1 to 7 nT during the period. Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 21 May - 16 June 2008 Solar activity is expected to be very low. No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to reach high levels during 22 - 28 May and 01 - 10 June. Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be at minor storm levels on 21 May with major storm levels possible at high latitudes due to a recurrent coronal hole high-speed stream. Activity is expected to decrease to active levels on 22 May as coronal hole effects subside. Quiet to unsettled levels are expected during 23 May - 02 June. Activity is expected to decrease to quiet levels during 03 - 14 June. Activity is expected to increase to unsettled levels on 15 June as a recurrent coronal hole high-speed stream begins to affect the field. A further increase to active levels is expected on 16 June as the high-speed stream continues. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2008 May 20 2053 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center # Product description and SWPC contact on the Web # http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wwire.html # # 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table # Issued 2008 May 20 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2008 May 21 72 25 5 2008 May 22 72 15 4 2008 May 23 72 10 3 2008 May 24 72 10 3 2008 May 25 70 10 3 2008 May 26 68 10 3 2008 May 27 68 10 3 2008 May 28 68 10 3 2008 May 29 68 12 3 2008 May 30 68 12 3 2008 May 31 68 10 3 2008 Jun 01 68 10 3 2008 Jun 02 68 10 3 2008 Jun 03 68 5 2 2008 Jun 04 68 5 2 2008 Jun 05 68 5 2 2008 Jun 06 68 5 2 2008 Jun 07 68 5 2 2008 Jun 08 68 5 2 2008 Jun 09 70 5 2 2008 Jun 10 70 5 2 2008 Jun 11 70 5 2 2008 Jun 12 72 5 2 2008 Jun 13 72 5 2 2008 Jun 14 72 5 2 2008 Jun 15 72 8 3 2008 Jun 16 72 15 4 (SWPC via WORLD OF RADIO 1409, DXLD) ###