DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-080, July 13, 2008 Incorporating REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING edited by Glenn Hauser, http://www.worldofradio.com Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only if full credit be maintained at all stages and we be provided exchange copies. DXLD may not be reposted in its entirety without permission. Materials taken from Arctic or originating from Olle Alm and not having a commercial copyright are exempt from all restrictions of noncommercial, noncopyrighted reusage except for full credits For restrixions and searchable 2008 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn NEXT SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1416 Mon 0415 WBCQ 7415 [time varies] Tue 1100 WRMI 9955 Tue 1530 WRMI 9955 Wed 0530 WRMI 9955 Wed 1130 WRMI 9955 Latest edition of this schedule version, including AM, FM, satellite and webcasts with hotlinks to station sites and audio, is at: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html For updates see our Anomaly Alert page: http://www.worldofradio.com/anomaly.html WRN ON DEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 WORLD OF RADIO PODCASTS VIA WRN NOW AVAILABLE: http://www.wrn.org/listeners/stations/podcast.php OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO: http://www.worldofradsio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org ** AFGHANISTAN [non]. Re Radio Solh QSL from VOA in 8-079: Glenn: You are, of course, absolutely right regarding VOA’s tie to Radio Solh --- there really isn’t any. I totally agree with you, after all, the VOA is the organization that sent two QSLs for the same report 3 months apart, but hasn’t answered the other 7 reports in 6 months! There is an admin problem there for sure. Discussions with VOA and others have indicated that the ‘better’ way is via Radio Liberty/RFE. It is my belief that beyond going directly to Kabul to the Radio Solh office there, the easier way for a QSL for Radio Solh is via Radio Liberty. That is the way I’m going to try and get one (Dan Henderson, MD, July 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. Intruder reports excerpts concerning broadcast stations: DARC 14310.0, vt 10 06 A3E CHN/ALB R. China Intl. heard 10 13 20 (daily) 1605 - 1747, S9-signal, 2f (DARC Germany DK2OM (Wolf) / DJ9KR (Uli), Monitoring System IARUMS Region 1 Newsletter June 2008 via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) ** ANGOLA. 4949.7, RNA-Canal "A", Mulenvos, 2238-2251, 10 Jul, music dedications; 35232 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARUBA. 88.1, Mega88 FM, Oranjestad, ARUBA July/02 0014 EDT SS/Papiemento, 1 KW SS pop music and EE rock music. IDs as "Mega 88". 89.9, Canal 90 FM, San Nicolas, ARUBA July/02 0032 EDT EE 10 KW. ID as "This is the sound of ??? Canal 90 FM". in English. EE dance/rock music. SS pop music. 92.3, Latina 92.3, Oranjestad, ARUBA July/02 0038 EDT SS 500 Watts, IDs as "Radio Conseida De Or" and "Éxito Tras Éxito 92.3". jingles. Música latina. SS pop music. 93.1, R. Victoria, Oranjestad, ARUBA July/02 0052 EDT EE/SS 250 Watts, ID as "The time is now 0100 o'clock Radio Victoria" ID in EE and SS. UNI News. EE gospel music and SS gospel music. RELIGIOUS 94.1, Hit 94 FM, Oranjestad, ARUBA July/02 0057 EDT EE/SS 1 KW ID in English as "24 hours a day we blow the competition away --- Hit 94 FM". Jingles. Played "FROSTY THE SNOWMAN" REGGAE version in JULY!!! SS/EE pop music. Talk in EE/SS Papiamentu. 95.1, Top FM, Santa Cruz, ARUBA July/02 0106 EDT SS/EE ID and Jingle as "Radio Más Grande Aruba" and "95.1 Top FM". EE hip hop music. EE rock music. 96.5, Majic 96.5 Oranjestad, ARUBA July/02 0109 EDT EE 1 KW IDs as "Majic 96.5 the best ever". and "The Music you want to hear, Majic 96.5" EE hip hop and reggae music. 98.9, Cool FM Oranjestad, ARUBA July/02 0117 EDT EE 1 KW ID as "The New Cool FM 98.9" with echo voice. Hip hop and dance music (Robert S. Ross VA3SW, London, Ontario CANADA N6A5K1, July 12, Caribbean cruise, see PUERTO RICO, WTFDA via DXLD) ** BELARUS. Intruder reports excerpts concerning broadcast stations: 7089.0, 2132 01 06 A3E BLR Radio Minsk spurious from Radio Minsk 7105 7090.0, vt vd 06 A3E BLR Radio Belarus Minsk splatters of Radio Belarus on 7105 down till 7090 (DARC Germany DK2OM (Wolf) / DJ9KR (Uli), Monitoring System IARUMS Region 1 Newsletter June 2008 via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) vt = many days? vd? 29560.0 1100 06 06 BLR A3E Spurious of Radio Belarus (4th harmonic of 7390 kHz) often (USKA – Switzerland – HB9CET (Peter), ibid.) ** BENIN. GOSPEL HUXTERS PUT ON BIG DEDICATION BASH [if a story comes without headline, gh gets to write it ---] On Saturday the 5th of July the new TWR station in Benin was dedicated amidst hearts of joy and thanksgiving. “I was impressed at the incredible amount of work and care the team here in Benin had accomplished in preparation of this momentous event.” says Flora Rittenhouse who attended the ceremony. People began arriving on foot, on motorcycles and in cars throughout the morning. There were chairs set up under several canopies totaling 500, but the crowds surrounding the chairs amounted to 1200 (a conservative estimate from Garth Kennedy). When the representative to the President of Benin arrived, along with his entourage, it was like the entrance of a king, surrounded by security and splendour. The programme included speeches from TWR President, Tom Lowell and TWR West Africa Director, Abdoulaye Sangho as well as representatives from the local community of Ndali, the Minister of Communications and Technology, the President of HAAC (Broadcast Licence Authority) and the Representative of the President of Benin. The speeches included testimonies of God's faithfulness through many years of struggle to get TWR Benin on the air. The highlight of the event was the dedication prayer and ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open the doors to the new TWR Benin transmitter building. The community spirit was evident in the welcome that was given to the entire village of Sirarou to come and be a part of the celebration. While the dignitaries lunched in the room next to the transmitter, the crowds outside ate in designated areas surrounding the transmitter building. Rittenhouse says, “‘victory’ is the best word I can put on the event - God's victory as the gospel is proclaimed from the African bush of northern Benin into West Africa.” Published 07 July 2008 http://www.twrafrica.org/0150.asp (via Steve Whitt, MWC via DXLD) ** BIAFRA [non]. As expected, V. of Biafra International finally shifted to 15280 via WHRI, for the Friday-only 20-21 UT broadcast, ex- 17650 [not 17690 as in original post]. July 11 at 2000 opening with no glitches, different format than previous weeks, first Finlandia by a distinctly non-Nordic band, ID but no mention of frequency or meterband, then soprano with ``All Hail Biafra`` anthem --- I think that was the title, which lasted past 2005 when I suspended monitoring until 2057 recheck. The orator this time mentioned 19 meter-band, but still no specific frequency. WHRI phony-enthusiasm announcer did however then say 15280 as they were about to QSY to 7385. WHR generalized frequency schedule still shows 17650, and the Angel 1 specific program schedule does too, but on the other six days of the week during this hour, 9495, which may still be the case (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 3310, Radio Mosoj Chaski, Cochabamba, 12/7 2357 Speech in Spanish by female about Bolivia, from time to time strong QRM, fair 33222 4409.82, Radio Eco, Reyes, 12/7 2324 Flute music, 33222 4699.38, Radio San Miguel, Riberalta, 12/7 2336 ID "Radio San Miguel" by female in Spanish, fair 33222 6155.25, Radio Fides, La Paz, 13/7 0100 ID as "Fides" in Spanish by female and Bolivian music, poor 32222 (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, Perseus, MFJ1026, 1020C and different antennas DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 4716.19, Radio Yura, Yura 1030 with good signal, music de Bolivia y locutora, noted 13 July return to broadcasting after several days off. [Wilkner and LOB, Brasil] 4732, Radio Universitaria, Cobija, Pando, remains off the air [Wilkner and LOB, Brasil] (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, South Florida, July 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 5996.63, Radio Loyola, Sucre, 2055-2100, July 08, Spanish, press program, report, 23422. 6055.06, Radio Juan XXIII, San Ignacio de Velazco, 2102-2115, July 08, Spanish, bulletin news with local and national headlines, community news and messages: "Aviso de trabajo... necesitamos... para trabajos en merceria... presentarse en calle... muy cerca de la emisora...", Announcement and ID as: ".....para Radio Juan XXIII....", 22432 (best reception on LSB mode) (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 4974.78, Rádio Nossa Voz/Mundial, Osasco, 12/7 2232 Brazil songs, strong but noisy, no ID, 42222 4905.10, Radio Anhanguera, Araguaina, 13/7 0013 Nice Brazil songs, and talks in Portuguese by female, good 33333 (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, Perseus, MFJ1026, 1020C and different antennas DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 5870, Radio Voz Missionária, Florianópolis, SC, 2045- 2055/2145-2205, July 08, Portuguese, different religious programs, many announcements, ID as: "..transmissão da Rádio Voz Missionária da Florianópolis....", other announcement: "...Voz Missionária... estamos todos os dias....", 34433 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 9550, R. Boa Vontade, Ptº Alegre RS, 2142-2157, 11 Jul, unreadable talks; 12441; surely using a lot less than the listed 10 kW; parallel to 11895. [Havana QRM?] 9645.2, R. Bandeirantes, São Paulo SP, 0913-1115, 13 Jul, oldies program Arquivo Musical; 15331; the signal was extremely poor at the end of the observation. 11784.5, R. Guaíba, Ptº Alegre RS, 1419-, 13 Jul, football news and reports on matches, advertisements; 34443, increasing adjacent QRM. 11804.6, R. Globo, Rio de Janº RJ, 1417-, 13 Jul, football news and references to the Santos vs. Botafogo match later in the day; 24442. 11829.9, R. CBN Anhangüera, Goiânia GO, 1415- 13 Jul, football news, newscast at 1430; 34443, adjacent QRM. 11855, R. Aparecida, Aparecida SP, 1413, 13 Jul, program announcements, ads, songs; 33442, adjacent QRM, heterodyne with 11854.4. 11895, R. Boa Vontade, Ptº Alegre RS, 2143-2156, 11 Jul, unreadable talks; 14431; parallel to 9550. It's been a few years since I last logged this one (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BURKINA FASO. 12/7 0950 - 7230 kHz, R. BURKINA - Ouagadougou, Francese, mx afropop e nxs OM. Segnale insufficiente-molto buono!!! (Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, RICEVITORI R7 Drake, Satellit 500 Grundig, 2 DE1103 Degen, playdx yg via DXLD) ** CAMEROON. R. Cameroon, 6005, news in English at 1400 May 20, SIO 333 (Dzever Ishenge, Benue State, Nigeria, Sony ICF-7600G, July World DX Club Contact via DXLD) This is an intriguing logging, as no Cameroon stations are believed to be active on SW. The hour, 3 pm local, suggests the transmitter may not be too far away, altho some schedules show 6005 in use by Yemen, Sri Lanka, and Shiokaze from Japan, as an alternate frequency. BBC Ascension uses 6005 a lot, but not at this hour. Let`s consult the two major sources of info on Africa. BDXC, Africa on Shortwave, updated May 2008 says: ``Official shortwave broadcasting from Cameroon Radio and Television has ceased. The main station at Yaounde was last heard in early 2000 on 4850 kHz. The CRTV regional stations at Bafoussam, Bertoua, Buea, Douala, and Garoua are also inactive on shortwave. The CRTV website indicates that regional stations are now only on FM.`` Was there ever one on this frequency? Thorsten Hallmann`s Africalist, updated 26 June 2008: ``Cameroon: inactive on SW, last frequencies heard in 2000/2001: 4850 Yaoundé, 5009 Garoua, 6005 Buea.`` Ah yes, so if there is a reactivated Cameroonian on 6005, it should be Buea (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Believe we can eliminate Shiokaze as a possibility, as I observed them on 6005 (*1400-1430*) from April 30 to May 9, and believe this was the only time they used 6005. Before and after these dates was heard on their primary frequency of 6020. What happened with "Japan donates transmitters & studios to Cameroon Radio Television" http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/japan-donates-transmitters-studios-to-cameroon-radio-television --- any of them SW? (Ron Howard, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. 8/7 0701 - 6045, Int/signal e IDs RCI EE/FF in rotazione continua. Segnale buono-sufficiente. Tests, manutenzione tx o errore? Quale tx? Tale emissione si sentiva ancora verso le 0830!!! (Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, RICEVITORI R7 Drake, Satellit 500 Grundig, 2 DE1103 Degen, playdx yg via DXLD) 6045 is scheduled only at 0600-0629 for KBSWR relay in Spanish to Europe; periodically stays on longer like this (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** CANADA. Re 8-079, CINW case, ``Since Canadian stations are licensed to broadcast a specific format, this would seem to be a no-brainer.`` No longer true. See, for example, the following paragraph from a recent CRTC decision awarding new radio licenses to the Vancouver market (May 30, 2008): The majority decision emphasizes in paragraphs 36 to 38 the musical diversity that 6851916 Canada Inc. will provide to the Vancouver market. It is an often repeated refrain that we do not regulate format and yet the majority decision hinges on this very issue. It is a matter of course that the Commission examines the choice of format as it forms the basis of the business plan while, at the same time, *recognizing that any station can change its format as the market dictates* 73, (Deane McIntyre, VE6BPO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Re 8-079, Manitoba: Glenn, New CBDS-FM "will operate at 102.5 MHz (channel 273A1) with an effective radiated power of 200 watts" according to CRTC decision 2008-108. Old CBDS-AM is on 690 kHz. 73, (Ricky Leong, Calgary, July 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Manitoba Station List --- With the FM and TV DX season in full swing I would like to list a site that has a listing of all AM FM and TV stations here in Manitoba. It may be of some use to fellow DX'ers. The site is at: http://www.angelfire.com/mb/amandx/radtv.html I hope some of you find it of use (Shawn Axelrod, MB, ODXA via DXLD) ** CHAD. 12/7 0540 - 7120 kHz, RN TCHADIENNE - N'Djamena, Francese, discorso politico. Segnale buono-molto buono!!! (Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, RICEVITORI R7 Drake, Satellit 500 Grundig, 2 DE1103 Degen, playdx yg via DXLD) ** CHINA. Intruder reports excerpts concerning broadcast stations: 18155.0, 1059 10 06 JAM CHN Firedrake Jammer is active, report DJ9EV (DARC Germany DK2OM (Wolf) / DJ9KR (Uli), Monitoring System IARUMS Region 1 Newsletter June 2008 via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) 14010.0, 1340 5 6 CHN JAM A3E “Firedrake” 14026.0, 0915 30 6 UiMUX F7 14028.0, 0725 26 6 UiPTR F1B 14050.0, 1535 8 6 CHN JAM A3E “Firedrake” 14070.0, 1455-1755 6 6 CHN JAM A3E “Firedrake” 14075.0, 0840 26 6 UiPTR F1B 14077.0, 0725 26 6 UiMUX F7 14090.0, 1630- 8 6 CHN JAM A3E “Firedrake” (SRAL – Finland – OH2BLU (Pekka), ibid.) 14005.0, VT 9 6 CHN Fire Drake A3E BC jammer from Peking ITU member 14005.0, VT 10 6 CHN Fire Drake A3E BC jammer from Peking ITU member 14010.0, 0931 6 6 CHN Fire Drake A3E BC jammer from Peking ITU member 14050.0, 0851 6 6 CHN Fire Drake A3E BC jammer from Peking ITU member 14010.0, 1015 9 6 UiBC A3E Asiatic Music 14050.0, 1455 5 6 UiBC A3E Asiatic Music 14090.0, 1655 8 6 UiBC A3E Asiatic Music (Veron – Netherlands – PA0GRU (Dick), ibid.) VT = many days? ** CHINA. 4950, V. of Pujiang 1144-1205 Jul 9. Talk to 1155, then a selection of vocal music; pips to ToH, then then ID's by man and woman, followed by talk and maybe an ad or two. Fair in the band noise and // 3280, also fair (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R- 8, 100-foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** CHINA. 5860 at 1224 July 12, talking and singing; at 1228 I decided it was Chinese. Aoki shows this can only be V. of Jinling, Nanjing, 50 kW at 161 degrees, 1145-1430, also in Amoy. Much weaker than VOA Korean 5890 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 11/7 0944 - 13700 kHz, CNR 8 - Lingshi (Cina), Kazako, talk OM e musica kazaka. Segnale sufficiente-buono. 12/7 0518 - 7340 kHz, CNR 8 - Urumqi (Cina), Kazako, talk OM/YL e musica kazaka. Segnale sufficiente- buono (Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, RICEVITORI R7 Drake, Satellit 500 Grundig, 2 DE1103 Degen, playdx yg via DXLD) ** CROATIA. CROACIA, 9830, Voice of Croatia, 1155-1205, escuchada el 13 de julio en croata a locutora con boletín de noticias, cuña de identificació n, segmento musical, SINPO 45444. Todo parece indicar que el boletín de tres minutos en español que se anuncia de 1200 a 1203 ha sido cancelado y sustituido por emisión en croata (José Miguel Romero, Burjassot (Valencia), España, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. 5025, Radio Rebelde, 0930 July 13. Nothing heard during this period here. What's going on I wonder? Did someone die? Station is off the air. I can hear a signal from someone else which is very weak, but not Cuba. [later:] Amend my last on Cuba: There's a station there, but not the strength that Rebelde usually has. Maybe it's skipping over me since I am so close to the transmitter? As I listen at 0951, the signal is starting to fade in better. However, at 0930 it was very weak. I had checked other frequencies, and didn't find anything. So it was possible they might be off the air? Signal this morning at 0953 isn't the usual boomer that I've heard in the past. Waiting for some ID on the hour. Which comes followed with news about Cuba etc. Signal not the usual strength this morning. Only at a fair level (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) K index at 0900 was 3. Routine bandscan around 1325 found 5025 there as usual, weakening. At 2100, K=4 (Glenn Hauser, July 13, DXLD) ** CUBA [non]. RADIO REPÚBLICA includes: Spanish 0000-0200 daily CUB 9650rmp (ex 6155) (WRTH July Update via DXLD) Discovered here on 9640, or have they shifted? No, still on 9640, UT July 12, so 9650 must be WRTH typo. Also shows 9515 22-24 as rmp (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Radio República-Sackville (según Aoki), 9515 kHz. 2215 UT 11/07. Diversos comentarios y repaso a la prensa de modo sarcástico, dirección en Miami del grupo, en español, 45433 (Tomás Méndez, El Prat de Llobregat-Barcelona, España, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Usual uncertainty about transmitter site(s) for RR. Do other Europeans think it`s Sackville now, based on signal, skip distance from Rampisham? Aoki also insists WRMI is involved in these transmissions, which I assume Jeff White will deny (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** CUBA [non]. R. Martí announcing its lema, as it does quite frequently, a marvelous ode to freedom and democracy, surely objexionable only to the DentroCubans, 1229 July 12 on 5980; but Greenville modulation automatically cut off at 1230 before the motto was completely stated; open carrier and jamming continued for good measure (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CURACAO. 88.2, Variable, Rockorsou, Willemstad, July/02 1516 EDT EE/Dutch, 1 KW ID as "Rockorsou" Jingles. EE hip hop music. 93.9, Radio Korsou Willemstad, July/02 1550 EDT SS/Papiamentu?? 25 KW ID as "93.9 FM Isla Salsa". Salsa music. EE pop music. Talk in Papiamentu?? 95.1, Clazz FM Willemstad, July/02 1606 EDT, EE/Papiamentu, 500 Watts. Ads for "Freeport Duty Free in PUNDA". Ad for "El Mundo Jazz and Martinis". Gallery Alma Blau in Curacao. Into sax jazz music. 95.7, MI 95 FM, Willemstad, July/02 1610 EDT SS, 10 KW, ID as "MI 95 FM" in SS. Caribe music and instrumentals 97.9, Easy FM Willemstad, July/02 0112 EDT EE, 1 KW, IDs as "Your favorite hits are on your Easy 97.9 FM". EE pop and MOR music. 101.9, Radio Hoyer, Willemstad, July/02 1453 EDT Papiamentu, 5 KW. This is a SOLAR POWERED station!! I was able to see this station and antenna when we were on the island!!! Complete operations are powered by SOLAR POWER!! Caribe island music. Talk by male DJ in Papiamentu. Jingles Radio Hoyer (Robert S. Ross VA3SW, London, Ontario CANADA N6A5K1, July 12, Caribbean cruise, see PUERTO RICO, WTFDA via DXLD) ** CYPRUS. 21000.0, 0623 04 06 P0N CYP British OHRadar is active, 25 Hz system, location Aktrotiri, Cyprus 21010.0, 1730 16 06 P0N G / CYP British OHRadar active, 25-Hz-system 21340.0, 0848 07 06 P0N G / CYP British OHRadar active, 50-Hz-system 21390.0, 1442 08 06 P0N G / CYP British OHRadar active, 50-Hz-system (DARC Germany DK2OM (Wolf) / DJ9KR (Uli), Monitoring System IARUMS Region 1 Newsletter June 2008 via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) ** ECUADOR. 3279.91, La Voz del Napo / Radio Maria, Tena, 12/7 2348 Religious program in Spanish, poor 32222 (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, Perseus, MFJ1026, 1020C and different antennas DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. HCJB ``Galápagos`` show, 6050 with usual het from Malaysia [q.v.], July 12 at 1156. Scheduled Saturdays 1145-1200. Probably also on 11690 and 11960, no longer 21455, but not checked (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA [non?]. Conditions were not that bad to think WYFR Portuguese was what I heard at 2230, Saturday 12 on 15190, usually putting huge signals around here. There was a very low signal, hardly listenable to say if it was English coming from Radio Africa- Bata, but what else could that be? Wonder if anyone else noticed this one. 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA ECUATORIAL. 6250, Radio Nacional, Malabo, 0527- 0607, 13-07, español, programa religioso del domingo, canciones religiosas "Gloria a Dios", comentario "Dios es nuestro Padre". a las 0605 noticias "Radio Nacional de Guinea Ecuatorial, buenos días". 35433 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, escucha realizada en Friol, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600G, Antena de cable, 10 metros, orientada WSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA. Intruder reports excerpts concerning broadcast stations: 7090.0, vt vd 06 A3E ERI Voice of the Broad Masses BC heard May 08 - 14 at 0605, 1356, 1600 - 1700 - later returned to 7100 7100.0, 1549 15 June A3E ERI Voice of the Broad Masses Af tribal music, heard 01 - 30 [June], 1549 - 1718 (DARC Germany DK2OM (Wolf) / DJ9KR (Uli), Monitoring System IARUMS Region 1 Newsletter June 2008 via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) vt = many days? vd? ** ERITREA. 6/7 0526 - 8000 kHz, VOICE OF BROAD MASSES OF ERITREA, Talk OM e musica locale. Segnale sufficiente-buono. Ex tx/fx V of Sudan, di qualche anno fa? (Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, RICEVITORI R7 Drake, Satellit 500 Grundig, 2 DE1103 Degen, playdx yg via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA. Have you noticed Ethiopia 7115.xx (+ or - few dozen Hz) sometimes few weeks ago // traditional 7110 & re-activated 9704.2 (could not check 5990 that day(s)? (Vlad Titarev, Ukraine, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews June 16 via Thorsten Hallmann, DXLD) Caught the interval the signal of R. Ethiopia for the first time today, July 12, on 7115, when the frequency was relatively clear for about half a minute at 1659. Couldn't check for //s, but I think during the hour before I listened to all three mentioned above. Jepp, heute in einer kurzen Frequenzbelegungspause von ca. 30 Sek. um 1659 tatsächlich das Pausenzeichen von R. Ethiopia auf 7115. Keine zeit, // zu checken, aber zumindest kurz davor waren alle 3 anderen zu hören. 73 (Thorsten Hallmann, Münster, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 7110, R. Ethiopia, Geja Dera, 0939-1145, 12 Jul, radioplay, songs, news, talks at 1145 when very weak; 25432; parallel to 9704.2. 9704.2, R. Ethiopia, Geja Dera, 0940-1150, 12 Jul, vernacular, radioplay, songs, news, talks at 1145 when very poor + QRM de NIGER 9705; 35443; parallel to 7110 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE [non]. RFI Météo Marine service, a tad on the hi side of 13640, as compared to local KFXY-1640 on the FRG-7, July 12 at 1142. This is 500 kW, 320 degrees via GUIANA FRENCH, daily at 1130-1200. At this early hour it was the only station audible on the 21/22 mb, and the 19mb was still completely closed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Solar-terrestrial indices for 11 July follow. Solar flux 66 and mid- latitude A-index 8. The mid-latitude K-index at 1200 UTC on 12 July was 4 (57 nT). Space weather for the past 24 hours has been minor. Geomagnetic storms reaching the G1 level occurred. Space weather for the next 24 hours is expected to be minor. Geomagnetic storms reaching the G1 level are expected (SWPC via DXLD) ** GUAM. Hi all, Where is the Lincolnshire Poacher? The station seems to be dead since 1 July. Can anyone still hear its sister from Guam "Cherry Ripe"? Latest known sked for Cherry Ripe: UT Frequencies S M T W T F S ------------------------------------------------------------- 0000 14730 18865 - x x x x x - 0100 18864 21866 - x x x x x - 0500 16525 18465 - x x x x x - 0600 18465 22645 - x x x x x - 0700 20610 ? - - - - - x - Heard only once. 1000 20474 23461 - x x x x x - 1100 18864 23461 - x x x x x - 1200 18864 23461 - x x x x x - 1300 18864 21866 23461 - x x x x x - 2200 18465 24644 x x x x x - - 2300 18864 21866 x x x x x - - 73, (Ary Boender, July 13, UDXF yg via DXLD) see also U K [non] ** GUATEMALA. R. Verdad, Chiquimula, 4052.5, July 12 1126 winding up banjo version of ``Workin` on the Railroad`` which I think they play every day as a program themesong. Concludes with RR Xing bells. Still audible at 1204 with hymn (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUINEA. 7125, Guinea, R. Conakry, Conakry-Sofon. July-13 French, dialects, 0905-0915 OM talks, short marimba music, African style with pop beat music, return of marimbas which seems to be a program soundtrack, OM announcements. 24432 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUINEA-Conakry. 7125, R. Guinée, Sonfonya, 1148-1404, 12 Jul, unreadable talks, African pops heard at 1403; weak modulation; 15331 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 4970 AIR Shillong 7/12 from 1327 tune, Indian vocal music. Woman at 1334 and into local language with man and woman announcers. At 1341 into western pop medley by female to 1349.5. Woman in English to 1350 then another pop vocal by female. Heavy QSB but clear channel. SINPO 35433. This has been at much better levels here the last 2 winters (Bruce W. Churchill, Fallbrook CA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 3578.75, 7/12 unknown station here from 1149 tune with vocal music just above threshold level. At 1228 a woman was clearly heard to past 1245 - language unknown but had the sound of Indonesian. SINPO 1V25231. WRTH shows RSPK Ngada on Flores Island (Lesser Sunda Islands) in the town of Bajawa while PWBR shows RSPD Maluku Tengah on Seram Island in the Moluccas (same Island as the old RRI Ambon) in the town of Masohi. No ID's heard so anybody's guess what this really is. Either way, the power should be at or less than 500 watts. Either RSPD (Radio Siaran Pemerintah Daerah) or RSPK (Radio Siaran Pemerintah Kabupaten) would be District government stations (Bruce W. Churchill, Fallbrook CA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Bruce: QSL from the station indicates the following: Radio Siaran Pemerintah Daerah (RPD) Kabupaten Daerah TK. II Ngada. The term "Pemda" that might be indicated means "Pemerintah Daerah" - an abbreviation. This was from a reception in 1996 from the state of Washington during a DXPedition at Whidbey Island. Power is 500 watts. If you have this, then you have to try for the more powerful station - RPDKTII Manggarai 2960 kHz. I found this one louder from N. Australia than the one in Ngada, but the one in Ngada was easier to verify. RPDKTII Ngada is in the town of Bajawa on Flores. The other one you mention is Radio Siaran Pemerintah Daerah Tingkat II Sumba Timur 3578 kHz in Soe, Sumba Timur. Its power is 250 watts. This from QSL I received for logging in Australia (Darwin) in 1998. The WRTH is right re the location of the Ngada station, although the station you are listening to is probably the one from Sumba Timur; it was initially reported by the DuDXers back in the 1970's, and has been on 3578 ever since per my information. It sounds to me like the PWBR is incorrect in this instance. Incidentally, a great, and for my perspective the best, source of information on Indonesia (geographically) is a series of books (a total of 8 books in all) called PERIPLUS Adventure Guides put out by Periplus Editions, published in Singapore. My set was purchased in various stores in Australia back in the mid 1990's. You want to see detailed maps of Flores? It's in this set. You want a street map of Kupang? It's there. The books are, in my judgement, priceless, although I may be biased in this judgement. They sometimes are hard to find also, almost as hard as getting a QSL from Bali was. Hope this helps. v/r (Dan Henderson, DXplorer via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) I bow to Dan as the preëminent expert on Indonesian DX and, especially, those wonderful but mostly gone "RPDKs," that is, the various non-RRI outlets. I recall well Dan's periodic expeditions to Whidby Island. I would hang on his almost realtime reports to NU in those good old days, because I learned if certain RPDKs were being well heard in the Pacific NW, sometimes, they were at least audible here in the Midwest along the GC path extended. Thus, in a certain sense, Dan's tips allowed me a certain amount of "piggybacking." For that I am surely grateful! Thanks, Dan. The result being that during those wonderful Golden Years of Indonesian DXing, I was able to hear and verify 38 non-RRIs (plus all, or nearly so, of the RRIs), mostly the so-called RPDKs. While this must pale beside Dan's totals, it isn't too bad for a Midwesterner. Sadly, those days are long gone. I did want to expand a bit on Dan's observations, below. Pemda, indeed, is the abbreviation of Pemerintah (government) Daerah (district). Though DXers tended to simply call these "county" SW stations RPDKs (Radio Pemerintah Daerah Kabupaten, or radio of the "county" government administrative district), in reality, some of them had longer, more elaborate names, also stringing into the name change words like Khusus, (or chusus) meaning special, Siaran, meaning broadcasting, and, commonly, Tingkat II, meaning Level 2, the level within the Indonesian administrative system that included Kabupaten. One also would see Kotamadya, which means it was a municipal, not "county" station. However, both the Kotamadya and Kabupaten were at Tingkat II, the second administrative level. The first level was provincial, and Propinsi means province, another word that appeared in some station names, indicating its administrative level. A Propinsi was Tingkat I. Some of the more exotic examples of name combinations: Radio Khusus Pemerintah Daerah Propinsi Jawa Timur in Surabaya, a provincial level station. Radio Pemerintah Daerah Kabupaten Simalungun in Pematang Siantar in Sumatra. Radio Khusus Informasi Pertanian in Surabaya, (pertanian is agriculture) Radio Universitas Gajah Mada (a university station, obviously, that went by the abbreviated version, Suara Gama, meaning voice of Ga(jah)ma(da), in Yogyakarta. or how about THIS one: Radio Khusus Pemerintah Daerah Kabupaten Daerah Tingkat II Pasuran (Special Radio of the "County" Governmental District at the District Level, Pasuran) in Pasuran, Jawa Timur!!! In the glory days, the 1980s and 90s, there were 27 propinsi, 241 kabupaten and a parallel 40 kotamadya. Then there were other special stations that, for practical purposes, I lumped in to the RPDK definition, though they were not at all "county" level stations. There was R. Angkatan Udara, the Air Force station, with its great IS, the sound of an old pre-jet aircraft engine "winding up." There was a technological college station in Bandung, also fairly well heard at times. There was an agricultural SW station that also was often heard. While there were and are sub-districts within the Kabupaten, so-called Kecamatan, which would be Tingkat III (level 3), I think these were too small, hamlet level entities, to have their own radio stations. I don't recall ever hearing of any Kecamatan, Tingkat III stations. I am sure that there were many more than the several dozen "county" and "municipality" Kabupaten and Kotamadya stations that I was able to hear. Maybe Dan has a better count. Surely not all 241 Kabupaten had SW radio voices, and probably not even half, but I would suspect there may have been 60 to 80? Dan?? Today virtually all are gone. What remains? I'd guess fewer than four or five at most. That Bruce has heard at least one of them currently is a real delight to me, for it brings back happy memories!! As to maps, for years I had a wonderful, highly detailed Indonesian atlas that Ralph Perry brought back for me from his month-long tour of Indonesia. Sadly, like so many other references from my DXing past, it has come up missing. Fortunately (or, truthfully, unfortunately), I no longer need it, since there are so relatively few Indonesians on SW, RRI or RPDKs. But it is nice to know of the reference set Dan mentions, should I one day -- against all odds -- need detailed maps again (Don Jensen, ibid.) ** INDONESIA. VOICE OF INDONESIA (VOI), Revised tentative schedule Arabic 1700-1800 daily As,Pac 9526jak Chinese 1100-1130 daily As,Pac 9526jak English 0200-0300 daily As,Pac 9526jak 1000-1100 daily As,Pac 9526jak 1300-1400 daily As,Pac 9526jak 2000-2100 daily As,Pac 9526jak French 1900-2000 daily Eu,NAf,ME 9526jak German 1830-1900 daily Eu,NAf,ME 9526jak Indonesian 0300-0400 daily As,Pac 9526jak 1200-1300 daily As,Pac 9526jak 1600-1700 daily As,Pac 9526jak Japanese 1130-1200 daily As,Pac 9526jak Korean 0900-1000 daily As,Pac 9526jak Malay 1400-1500 daily As,Pac 9526jak Spanish 1800-1830 daily Eu,NAf,ME 9526jak Note: Alt. freq. 11785 kHz (WRTH July update via DXLD) NOTE: English at another new time, 1000. Thai discontinued? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, Thanks for posting this tentative schedule. So they no longer are broadcasting from 0800 to 0900, the time when they formerly had English. Off the air 1500-1600? (Ron Howard, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Best Indonesian by far, RRI Fak2, 4790, July 12 at 1130 mostly music fighting T-storm noise from Kansas, and CODAR from GKW, 1134 YL vocal. 1206 M&W news, presumably Jakarta, overmodulated and distorted. By comparison, VOI on 9526 was much weaker. At 1149 I could tell the YL was speaking Japanese slowly and clearly. After 1300, it was mostly a YL speaking, but so weak I could not be certain it was Inggeris until 1330 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9525.97v, VOI, tiny weak signal just above threshold in Germany around 1727 UT, July 12. Wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, ibid.) I can confirm English is indeed on 9526v at 1000z. I heard them at that time on Thursday, good audio with an interview about Palestine (Jerry Lenamon, Waco, Texas, July 12, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re: Indonesian 1600-1700 daily As,Pac 9526jak Indeed is some Indonesian dialect[?] today, but rather on 11785.97 kHz, July 13, 1625-1650 UT. I know Bahasa M and Bahasa I from listening and some visits to the region, but the language spoken by el locutor and la locutora is different tonight [strained myself]. [later:] 11785.97 New Hindi service from Jakarta? Listened to realtime on internet around 1658 UT and could follow an address in Hindi!! language for 1630-1700 UT. So tentatively in this time segment in Hindi language instead. VOI website schedules on various language sites has NOT been changed yet. http://en.voi.co.id/realtime/ http://es.voi.co.id/profile/1/ 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. Sangean WFR-20 and CFMZ-FM, Toronto I know at least one (and probably more) other member(s?) of this board have the SANGEAN wi fi "radio," Model WFR-20. Have just received one myself and can report that, first impressions right out of the box, I am delighted and even favorably surprised with its sound quality/acoustics with the internal speakers and overall connectability and streaming performance on the internet - though I am having "issues" with Mac OS 10.5 in configuring same for allowing the Sangean to browse its media files in "shared" folders. (Unit can see and list all shared folders on the Mac, but hangs up when it tries to scan for file names. Anyone with any recent MAC/WFR-20 networking experience ??) I am curious to know, however, why I can always readily connect to the Toronto FM station CFMZ (a.k.a. "Classical963FM.com") and listen to its streaming program feed via my Mac's web browsers, but can't ever connect to this stream with the WFR-20. The WFR-20 supports what looks to me like a more than sufficiently ample variety of 9 or so streaming/file formats, so I am assuming it's not a standards issue. Can anyone else try this station - readily findable on Reciva - and see if they have the same issues? (Mike Bryan, ODXA yg via DXLD) CFMZ appears to be using an embedded flash player on their site. Lots of commercial radio stations use them unfortunately and it makes it difficult to figure out what the URL of the actual audio stream is. The "Unplug" extension for Firefox is often helpful as is sometimes just doing a "view source" on the website. Having picked apart a number of these things over the past couple of years, those are my main "tools", but they don't always work. When I used "unplug" on the CFMZ site there are a couple of URL's pointing to ".swf" (shockwave flash) files. The trick I guess is to find out what's inside of them. Some radio stations want to "keep you" on their website while you listen to their audio streams rather than you just playing their stream in a media player...or I guess wifi radio. I can only assume this is to increase the number of eyeballs on the inevitable advertising content on the site concerned. Looking at the Wikipedia article on "swf" files, apparently Adobe has recently released some source code that allows search engines like Yahoo and Google to index what's inside swf files, so maybe there's some hope. 73 (Bob VE3SRE Chandler, http://www.ve3sre.com ibid.) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. WHEN USING THE INTERNET MIGHT BE AS ANONYMOUS AS LISTENING TO SHORTWAVE "One of the internet’s best opportunity for users to remain anonymous is Tor, codeveloped by Roger Dingle. The product was not envisioned to be an anticensorship tool. Rather, Dingle’s group was originally funded by the U.S. Dept. of Defense and designed to allow users to travel the internet anonymously. It became popular with law enforcement officers setting up sting operations and corporate interests wishing to check out the competition without leaving tracks. However, a handful of news gathering organisations like Voice of America and Internews have also provided funding so that people to view their content from countries where it has been blocked." http://summit08.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/07/10/activists-meet-the-academy-gvo-summit-day-1-session-4/ (Global Voices, 10 July 2008. Posted: 12 Jul 2008, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** IRAN. Intruder reports excerpts concerning broadcast stations: 14350.0, 1715 03 06 A3E IRN IRIB Tehran harmonic from 7175, daily 1700 - 1800 UTC 14350.0, 1726 10 06 A3E IRN IRIB Tehran S9+10dB-signal, 2f de 7175 14350.0, 1630 13 06 A3E IRN IRIB Tehran S-9-signal, - 2f (DARC Germany DK2OM (Wolf) / DJ9KR (Uli), Monitoring System IARUMS Region 1 Newsletter June 2008 via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) ** IRELAND. The illegal Irish Catholic divine radio service on 28105 and 28205 kHz has been finished. The wireless service was allowed below 28 MHz, but this range was rather crowded. So some fellows decided to abuse our 10 m-band. We got this info at the IRTS-stall on the Hamradio 2008. Many thanks to our Irish friends, who found the illegal transmitters in Dublin and stopped this business together with the Irish authorities. DJ9KR (Uli) asking EI7CD (Sean, left side) for the illegal divine service at the IRTS-stall. [caption] (Monitoring System IARUMS Region 1 Newsletter June 2008 via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) ** ITALY. Codar HF Radar on 24 MHz – location found out! During May and June I found a Codar HF Ocean Wave Radar covering the whole 24 MHz-band! The German PTT (BNetzA) took several bearings and found out, that the system is located in Naples, Italy. I am astonished. that no ham from Italy has complained of this radar! 24950.0, vt vd 06 P0N I Codar HF Radar 2 pps Codar HF Ocean Wave Radar, 7 reports 01 04 16, 18 19 20 21, location Naples, Italy, - very harmful as covering whole 24 MHz-Ham Band (DARC Germany DK2OM (Wolf) / DJ9KR (Uli), Monitoring System IARUMS Region 1 Newsletter June 2008 via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH. Intruder report excerpts concerning broadcasters: 7100.0, 1831 08 June A3E KOR Radio Korea (North) heard 1830 - 1931 (DARC Germany DK2OM (Wolf) / DJ9KR (Uli), Monitoring System IARUMS Region 1 Newsletter June 2008 via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 9/7 1846 - 6518 kHz, V OF THE PEOPLE (TO N. KOREA), Musica locale e talk YL. Segnale sufficiente-buono. Su 6600 il segnale è presente ma coperto da jamming, segnale utility o tutti e due (Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, RICEVITORI R7 Drake, Satellit 500 Grundig, 2 DE1103 Degen, playdx yg via DXLD) New frequency? Aoki implies so: ``6518 VOICE OF THE PEOPLE 1100-2100 1234567 Korean 50 ND Kyonggi-do KOR 126..E37.. VOP a08 Jun.-`` Not in PWBR ``2008``, but yes in WRTH 2008 page 488 (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) 3912, Korea South, Voice of The People (tentative), Kyonggi-do. July 12, Korean, 1020 maybe local pop music selections, from 1028 silent, carrier off at 1030. 33433. Also July 13, 0959 carrier on, 1000 started maybe a local pop selection (seems to be exactly the same selection played on July 12), 1029 silent, 1031 carrier off. No talks. From 1020 degrading, 33433. 73 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. Furusato no Kaze is an increase from 14th July. 1333-1400 9585 kHz (unknown TX site, Tainan?) M.W.F.Su. in Japanese Tu.Th.Sa. in Korean Now sked: Furusato no Kaze in Japanese 1430-1500 11775 Darwin 1600-1630 9780 Tainan Ilbon e Baram in Korean 1500-1530 11690 Darwin 1700-1730 9820 Tainan http://www.rachi.go.jp/en/index.html http://www.rachi.go.jp/jp/shisei/radio/index.html (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, July 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tainan-TWN 100 kW 2 degrees, 9585 kHz at 1330-1400 UT to zones 44E, 44W. Antenna 341 CHR(S)2/1/0.5 (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) ** LAOS [non]. Hmong Lao Radio, 11785 via WHRI, Saturday July 12 at 1334 with remarx briefly in English by a woman at some weekend outdoor public event, about what good students the Hmong children are in Hminneapolis; further evidence this is really a domestic SW service (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LATVIA. 945 kHz: Radio Nord, Riga has stopped transmissions on this frequency permanently since 1 July (Website via Mauno Ritola, ARC Information Desk 7 July via DXLD)) ** LIBYA. VOICE OF AFRICA, Revised complete schedule Arabic 1700-0300 daily NAf, SEu 1251tri English 1400-1600 daily Af 17725sab, 21695sab French 1600-1700 daily Af 15660sab, 17725sab 1700-1800 daily Af 11995sab, 15215sab Hausa 1800-1900 daily WAf 11995sab, 15215sab 1900-2000 daily WAf 11860sab, 11995sab Swahili 1200-1400 daily EAf 17725tsab, 21695sab (WRTH July update via DXLD) ** MALAYSIA. 6049.64, Asyik FM 1158-1215 Jul 11. Pop music to ToH, then news, apparently from Asyik studios and not a KL relay; back to music at 1211 with M hosting and taking phone calls; occasional jingles. Good signal (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** MALI. 4/7 1408 - 7284.5 kHz, RDT MALIENNE - Bamako-Kati, vernacolo, talk OM. Segnale sufficiente-buono 12/7 0956 - 7284.5 kHz, RDT MALIENNE - Bamako-Kati, Musica locale. Segnale molto buono!!! // 9635 (sufficiente-buono) (Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, RICEVITORI R7 Drake, Satellit 500 Grundig, 2 DE1103 Degen, playdx yg via DXLD) ** MAURITANIA. 12/7 0955 - 7245 kHz, R. MAURITANIE - Nouakchott, Canto locale. Segnale sufficiente-molto buono!!! (Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, RICEVITORI R7 Drake, Satellit 500 Grundig, 2 DE1103 Degen, playdx yg via DXLD) ** MEXICO. 4800, XERTA absent 1000 to 1030 13 July [KM~ Cedar Key, also Boca Raton] (Robert Wilkner, Pompano Beach, South Florida, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. A couple of interesting items in the FCC data base (which includes "notifications" that may only be proposals and not necessarily authorized. Two stations in Ciudad Juárez seem to have big plans. XEWG-1240 may be increasing power and moving to 1220 --- and XEJCC-1520 still has an FCC listing for 50 kW on 1520 but also a listing for a possible move to 720 with 25 kW daytime. That's pretty close to San Antonio, though, so it may be a pipe dream (John Callarman, Krum TX, July 12, who is updating his Mexican MW station lists, state by state, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MOROCCO. 15345, RTM presumed, July 11 at 2059, weak signal and modulation no match for local noise level, but I did make out a typically-late timesignal a few sex after 2100, and off at 2101, matching previous behaviour during standard time at 2200, so indeed running SW one UT hour earlier. I could then detect an even weaker carrier slightly on the high side of 15345, no doubt Argentina (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. BURMA. 5985.8, Myanma R (presumed), Yegu, 2240 (open carrier till s/on 2300)-2309, 11 July, IS on traditional instrument, vernacular, announcements; 25422. Now I am confused: do they have variable s/on times and different s/on IDs? Do they use 5985.8 *and* 5990? (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Your previous log of 5990 was suggested to be FEBC instead at 2230- 2300 (gh) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. I just spent the last hour on the phone with Deborah Rey (the former Dody Cowan). The interview will be aired on WBCQ on 7/21 at 0100 UT on 7415 kHz -- 9 PM Eastern on Sunday 7/20. Please advise anyone who may be interested in catching up with Dody (Dan Lewis, July 12, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. RNZI, back on proper 6170, July 12 at 1301 check with news instead of prolonged 9655 as the night before. One of the best signals on 49m when it opens (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGER. 9705, Voix du Sahel, 0620-0625, escuchada el 12 de julio en francés a locutor y locutora con comentarios, posible boletín de noticias, segmento musical, locutor con entrevista a invitado, SINPO 33432 (José Miguel Romero, Burjassot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. 6089.9, R. Nigeria, Kaduna, 2249-2300*, 11 Jul, Vernacular (Hausa?), talks, s/off announcements, national anthem; 34443 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. Could someone on the list please help me with a few unIDs? Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance. On 7-10-08 I had someone on 98.1 ID. as ESPN Moore, OK. Could not catch call letters. Reception from AR-TX-OK-KS at this time (Paul LaFreniere, Grand Marais MN, WTFDA via DXLD) Nothing with ESPN shown on 98.1 on 100000watts. And there aren't any translators shown in OK which would match up (Russ Edmunds, PA, ibid.) As I already posted somewhere, this list? WWLS has shifted from 97.9 to 98.1. FCC still has this as a CP: http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?list=0&facid=37435 73, (Glenn Hauser, Enid, ibid.) And correctly so - stations like WWLS-FM can, and do, operate under their CPs (with automatic program test authority) for months and even years before receiving their licenses to cover, which means this one may be showing up in listings at both 97.9 and 98.1 for a while to come. s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) WWLS-FM The Village, Okla.. Recently moved from 97.9 (which in turn moved from 97.7) in Edmond and increased power. Just the periodic reminder (grin) that facilities listed in a CP may in fact be on the air. WWLS-FM on 98.1 cannot advance from CP status without putting the 98.1 transmitter on the air. They can't file the paperwork to advance to LICensed status without being able to show the 98.1 transmitter is operating according to the permit - is making power, is delivering an adequate signal across the principal community, has confined its signal to its assigned 98.1 frequency, etc... It is routine to get Equipment Test Authority to make these measurements. Now, once the station *has* completed the paperwork, it takes the FCC a month or two (sometimes longer) to process it and issue a license. But WWLS would never have received the permit to move to 98.1 if the FCC hadn't already passed judgement on the ability of the station to operate on that frequency without causing interference. And the station is swearing (in their license application) that they've made measurements & found the 98.1 transmitter is operating in accordance with the permit. It's essentially a done deal that WWLS will in fact upgrade to LICensed status. So, it's also routine to issue Program Test Authority. This allows WWLS-FM to begin regular broadcasting on 98.1 MHz, while waiting for the FCC to finish processing their paperwork and issue the license. So in a nutshell: **Stations whose status is "CP" may well be on the air!** (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) Glenn, has WWLS-FM 98.1 The Village-Oklahoma City switched to monophonic ESPN? No stereo there any more? 73, (Brucey Elving, FM Atlas, to gh, via DXLD) Hi Brucey, Am barely able to get this here due to local translator on 98.3, but on ATS-909 with headphones plugged in, yes, stereo pilot is on during news on the hour, tho I also expect the programming lax stereo content. 73, (Glenn to Brucey, ibid.) ** OMAN. RADIO SULTANATE OF OMAN (RSO) --- The transmissions from Seeb (seb) site are currently off. The transmitter site is planned to be relocated in the near future (WRTH July update via DXLD) ** PERU. Re: 4834, R Marañón, Jaen seems silent. (Wilkner). However, a weak signal was noted on 4835.46 at 2315-0140 on Jul 07/08 with talk and music (Petersen) in DX Window 354/09ul'08: 4835.5, R. Marañón (presumed), Jaén, 2246-, 10 Jul, Castilian, talks, songs; 15241. If not this station, or Perú, then what? (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 4955, Radio Cultural Amauta, Huanta, 12/7 2244 Spanish talks by female and typical songs from Peru, fair 43222 4746.90, Radio Huanta 2000, Huanta, 12/7 2314 Talks by female in Spanish, 32222 (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, Perseus, MFJ1026, 1020C and different antennas DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PRIDNESTROVYE. Re 8-079, Radio PMR vs DMR: Dave, Actually that ID I said I heard using "D" was part of their URL not an actual ID. So maybe it was "D". I can't be sure now since it is three days ago that I heard it (Chuck Bolland, FL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PUERTO RICO. Caribbean FM DX Overview --- My Observations Hi Guys: During the first week of July, my wife and I were lucky enough to spend a week of holidays aboard the Royal Caribbean "Adventure of the Seas" cruise ship. The dates of these loggings are from June/30/08 to July/04/08. The last 2 days of the cruise I was not able to do any listening due to some health problems I experienced. This was our 2nd Cruise, but the first one that I spent a little time DX'ing the FM Band while cruising the Caribbean!! Some of these loggings were made while we were sailing; others while we were at Port. I present this list not for their phenomenal DX qualities as received by me, but rather as a "reference" for others who may be fortunate enough to receive some Caribbean DX by E-Skip. I have tried to list station ID's, Formats and other pertinent info on the stations I heard. This list is by no means complete; there are a lot of FM stations on the air in the Caribbean. Many of these stations are in Spanish, French, Dutch, and other local dialects, so at times ID'ing them was a little tougher. Most of my listening time was late at night and was of a casual nature. Usually it was at the end of a very long day, and I was quite tired!! I can't guarantee that everything I am listing here is 100% accurate, as I was limited in my reference material for stations that are on the air. So with that in mind, I present these loggings with the hopes they may be of some use to those who have logged some Caribbean DX this E-skip season, or may still log some before the Season is over. Our starting point for the cruise was San Juan, PUERTO RICO. We sailed South from there to ARUBA and CURACAO, then headed back north to SINT MAARTEN/ST MARTIN and ST. JOHN'S, US VIRGIN ISLANDS, then returning to SAN JUAN. The radio used for these loggings was the ETON E-100 ultralight using only the small built in whip for an antenna. Hope everyone enjoys this little "cruise" through the Caribbean FM radio dial --- 88.3, WRUO Mayagüez, June/30 0132 EDT SS, Radio Universidad IDs. Jazz saxophone music, SS Talk. 90.3, WVID Anasco, June/30 0137 EDT SS, 15 KW. IDs as "El Vid 90". Caribe jazz Instrumentals. drums/ percussion music. 92.9, WYQE Naguabo, June/30 1440 EDT SS, 4 KW. Romántica music. IDs as "Radio Yunque 93". 98.5, WPRM San Juan, June/30 1453 EDT SS, 25 KW. IDs as "Sal Soul Puerto Rico". Jingles. Ads Ad for Kentucky Fried Chicken "Nuevos Hotwings". 97.3, WOYE San Juan, June/30 0000 EDT SS, Listed as 800 Watts. IDs as "RIO GRANDE", mentions of San Juan. EE/SS pop music. 99.1, WUKQ Mayagüez, June/30 0008 EDT SS, 25 KW. English pop music. IDs as "KQ Cienta Cinco" In Parallel to 104.7 WKAQ San Juan which was also in well. SS/EE pop music. 100.7, WXYX Bayamón, June/30 0017 EDT SS, 50 KW. IDs as "Esta Es La X" and Jingles for "La X". EE/SS pop music. In Parallel to 103.7 WXLX Lajas which was also in well. 101.5, WKSA Isabela, June/30 0022 EDT SS, 42 KW. Spanish ballads and jingles. In parallel to 102.5 WIAC San Juan which was also in well. 101.9, WZAR Ponce, June/30 0025 EDT SS, 14 KW. Jingles "101.9" SS pop music. 102.9, WDIN Camuy, June/30 0030 EDT SS, 50 KW. IDs as "Dimensión Ciento Tres" in ECHO voice. SS pop music. 103.3, WVJP Caguas, June/30 0035 EDT SS, 28 KW. ID sung out as "Dimensión". EE/SS pop music. 103.7, WXLX Lajas, June/30 0039 EDT SS, 50 KW. IDs as "La X, La Música por....???" Space sounds. SS balada and pop music. In parallel to 100.7 WXYX Bayamón. 104.1, WERR Utuado, June/30 0049 EDT SS, 50 KW. SS Christian pop music. Jingles. RELIGIOUS station. 104.7, WKAQ San Juan, June/30 0053 EDT SS, 50 KW. ID and jingles as "KQ Ciento Cinco". SS/EE Pop Music. In parallel to 99.1 WUKQ Mayagüez. 105.1, WIOC Ponce, June/30 0058 EDT SS, 47 KW. IDs with city as "San Juan". SS pop music. IDs as "Estéreotiempo". In parallel to 99.9 WIOA San Juan, which was also in. 105.5, WFDT Aguada, June/30 0101 EDT SS, 3 KW. IDs as "Fidelity" sung out. SS pop music. In parallel to 95.7 WFID Río Piedras, which was also in well. 106.1, WRRH Hormigueros, June/30 0106 EDT SS, 400 Watts. IDs as "Renacer" sung out. SS Christian music. RELIGIOUS 106.5, WNIK Arecibo, June/30 0111 EDT SS, 25 KW. IDs as "Super K" and sound effects. SS/EE pop music. 106.9, WMEG Guayama, June/30 0120 EDT SS, 25 KW. IDs as "La Mega" and mentions of Puerto Rico and Guayama. SS pop music. 107.3, WCMN Arecibo, June/30 0124 EDT SS, 50 KW IDs as "Toca De Tu" [sic]. Mentions of San Juan and Puerto Rico. SS ballads and EE rock music. Jingles. Sports store ad. 107.7, WVOZ Carolina, June/30 1520 EDT SS, 12 KW. IDs as "Mix Ciento Siete". Spanish pop music OK Folks, that's it for this trip! I heard tons of other unID stations that I didn't stick with long enough to ID. I am amazed at the number of FM stations on the air in the Caribbean!! Even small towns have multiple stations and larger cities have a pile of stations!! Had I had more time to DX, I could have had a much larger list of stations logged. Hope this info is of some use to E-Skip DX'ers in the future and if it helps you to ID something you hear, that's great!!! Had a blast on the cruise and look forward to the next one!! 73 ROB (Robert S. Ross, VA3SW, London, Ontario CANADA N6A5K1, July 12, WTFDA via DXLD) GH fixed Spanish spelling, decapitalized numerous common nouns. Original single report has been split into countries and then organized by frequency. See also: ARUBA, CURACAO, SAINT BARTHELEMY, SAINT MARTIN, SINT MAARTEN, VENEZUELA, VIRGIN ISLANDS US ** ROMANIA. Intruder reports excerpts concerning broadcast stations: 14250.0, 0616 06 06 A3E ROU R. Romania Intl. Ge px, S8, 2f (DARC Germany DK2OM (Wolf) / DJ9KR (Uli), Monitoring System IARUMS Region 1 Newsletter June 2008 via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) ** SAINT BARTHELEMY. 88.5, RFO Radio Guadeloupe, Morne Lurin, ST BARTS July/04, FF, 300 Watts. IDs as "Radio Guadeloupe" in FF. Ad for "ATM cash machine". Promos for Radio Guadeloupe. Mention of "Trois Rivières", spot for a music DVD. 89.3, Radio Massabielle Colombier. July/04 FF, 300 Watts, RELIGIOUS. Prayers in French. Mentions of "Santa Mary" and AMEN several times. Into choir music in French. ID as "Radio MASSABIELLE" (Robert S. Ross, VA3SW, London, Ontario CANADA N6A5K1, July 12, Caribbean cruise, see PUERTO RICO, WTFDA via DXLD) ** SAINT MARTIN. 88.9, RFO Radio Guadeloupe, Marigot, July/04, French, 3 KW. ID as "Radio Guadeloupe. Ad for "La Follies" FF Talk. Ad for "Longhorn Energy Drink". Radio Guadeloupe promos. FF dance music. 91.2, RFI Radio France Marigot, July/04 FF, Radio France Int'l Programming. FF Talk. Light FF pop music. Classical piano music. 92.5, Youth Radio, Marigot, July/04 English, 300 Watts. Male DJ in English with Caribe accent. IDs as "request line for 92.5" and gave a 095 Phone Number. Into reggae music. ID as "This is YR The New Vibe, yeah baby". Into English rap music (Robert S. Ross VA3SW, London, Ontario CANADA N6A5K1, July 12, Caribbean cruise, see PUERTO RICO, WTFDA via DXLD) ** SERBIA [non]. I keep seeing reports that Serbia is in Italian instead of Serbian at 0030-0100 to North America on 6190. Could someone who can hear them check that out? Not getting anything at all 0037 July 12 here. If it`s mostly music, a language announcement may not come till near 0100. [slightly later] And then I check the webcast at http://centrala1.securesites.net:8000/listen.pls and it certainly is in Italian at 0043, but still need to be sure it`s the same as on SW. This schedule, still ``6185`` shows a gap at 0030-0100: http://glassrbije.org/E/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=34 This satellite schedule, for Friday + UT Saturday shows Italian at 02:30 local: http://www.glassrbije.org/satelit/SREDA.htm Probably the engineers in the middle of the night at Bijeljina figure it`s not worth the trouble to power down the transmitter for a semi- hour and then power it up again, just to avoid broadcasting Italian to North America (Glenn Hauser, July 12, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SINT MAARTEN. 96.3, Oasis 96.3 Philipsburg, July/04 1520 EDT, EE/DUTCH, 1 KW. ID as "Oasis 96.3" sung out. English talk, ads for Central Mix Concrete, and the "51-10 Déjà Vu Club in Sint Maarten". Male DJ spoke Dutch with timecheck and ID. 91.9, Island 92 FM, Philipsburg, July/04, DUTCH/EE, 1 KW. IDs as "Island 92, 91.9 FM, a service of Caribbean Broadcasting". English rock music. Talk in DUTCH. Station promo for "rock classics and rock and blues". Played old classic r`n`roll and blues (Robert S. Ross, VA3SW, London, Ontario CANADA N6A5K1, July 12, Caribbean cruise, see PUERTO RICO, WTFDA via DXLD) ** SLOVENIA. 917 kHz (off channel), R. Slovenija-1, Domzale, 2157- 2214, 12 Jul, German, news till 2205, songs; 53443, heterodyne with Spain 918 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN. (?) 7200, SNBC (presumed), Omdurman, 1411-1429, 12 Jul, Arabic, talks; 14341, heterodyne with Yakutsk, Russia, 7200 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. SOUTHERN SUDAN INTERACTIVE RADIO INSTRUCTION (SSIRI) Revised complete schedule English 0600-0630 mtwtf.. SDN 15215dha, 15750mey 0630-0700 mtwtf.. SDN 11905kig, 15760skn 0630-0700 m.w.f.. SDN 15530dha, 17660mey 1300-1330 m.w.f.. SDN 12070kig, 15390mey, 15760mey (WRTH July update via DXLD) ** SYRIA. R DAMASCUS 12085 kHz is inactive (WRTH July update via DXLD) ** TAIWAN [non]. We had just about concluded that most of the RTI via WYFR deletions involved Chinese dialects, and such is the case per this (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RADIO TAIWAN INTERNATIONAL (RTI) Cantonese 0000-0030 (del) daily NAm 5950yfr 0100-0130 (del) daily NAm 5950yfr, 15440yfr 0200-0230 (add) daily NAm 15440yfr 0500-0530 (del) daily NAm 5950yfr, 9680yfr French 0700-0800 (del) daily Eu 7780yfr 2000-2100 (del) daily Eu, NAm 13690yfr, 18930yfr German 0600-0700 (del) daily Eu 7780yfr 2000-2100 (del) daily Eu 15600yfr Hakka 0030-0100 (del) daily NAm 5950yfr 0130-0200 (del) daily NAm 5950yfr, 15440yfr 0530-0600 (del) daily NAm 5950yfr, 9680yfr Hokkien (Amoy) 2100-2200 (del) daily NAm 13690yfr Mandarin 0400-0500 (del) daily CAm, NAm5950yfr, 9680yfr 2200-2400 (del) daily NAm 5950yfr, 15440yfr And here are the changes in WYFR English, which has taken over long hours on 5950, 9680, 15440 previously RTI: 0400-0600 daily NAm 9680yfr (add) 1800-1900 daily SAf, WAf 6180mey, 11775skn (add) 1900-2000 daily SAf 9775dha (add) 2000-2100 daily CAf 9485dha, 9625dha (add) 2100-2145 daily NAm 13690yfr (add) 2200-0200 daily NAm 15440yfr (add) 2200-0600 daily NAm 5950yfr (add) (WRTH July update via DXLD) ** U K [non?]. Intruder reports excerpts concerning broadcasters: 14055.0, vt vd 06 A3E G BBC-World Service heard QSA5 27-30 1700-1900, // 648 kHz (DARC Germany DK2OM (Wolf) / DJ9KR (Uli), Monitoring System IARUMS Region 1 Newsletter June 2008 via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) 14055.0, 1700 30 6 UK UiBC A3E BBC World Service info, PA1SGJ (Veron – Netherlands – PA0GRU (Dick), ibid.) Does not work out as harmonic (gh) ** U K. 13675: Today came across powerful signal from Rampisham on 22 mb, BBCWS English seemingly scheduled 1700-1900 UT at 62 degrees towards Russia with 500 kW, noted here tremendously S=9+40 dB. \\ 6195, which is 1800-2000 UT slot to same target (Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Seems to replace 13865, which is no longer on the schedule, and was surprisingly good in North America. However, neither one audible July 12, propagation poor. 73, (Glenn Hauser, OK, ibid.) BBCWS update includes: English 1700-1900 mtwtf.. CAs 13675rmp (add) 1700-1830 daily SAs 11955sng (del) 2100-2300 daily NAf 12095skn (del) 2300-2400 daily SEA 11850sng (ex 11955nak) (WRTH July update via DXLD) ** U K. THOMPSON REJECTS CALLS TO CUT BBC --- BBC director general Mark Thompson has rebuffed a report which called for the corporation to slim down. The report by Yes, Minister writer Sir Antony Jay said the licence fee was "spread over too many channels". It argued the BBC should be cut back to one mainstream TV station, a speech radio service and a news department. . . Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/7503345.stm (via Dan Say, BC, DXLD) ** U K. IS IT WORTH IT? PIRATES OF THE AIRWAVES --- Documentary Thursday 10th July on ITV 1 Yorkshire from 10:40pm to 11:10pm The activities of non-licenced radio stations presently broadcasting throughout West Yorkshire, following Leeds station Radio Frequency. These latter-day pirates have fallen foul of media regulator Ofcom for their refusal to end their transmissions. Tony Blackburn, himself a radio pirate in the 1960s, offers an insight into this type of lawbreaking, with comment from a Scarborough MP who set up his own station 40 years ago. If you have Sky you can add ITV Yorkshire by entering the details below: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=25342727&postcount=2 The documentary has been uploaded to Google video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6913287523754352609&hl=en (Mike Barraclough, England, WDXC via DXLD) ** U K [non]. LINCOLNSHIRE POACHER MISSING --- What happened to the Lincolnshire Poacher? It's missing! See Simon Mason web site and Chris Smolinski's Number Station Resource web forum. The CIA's Cynthia is missing since just before the Iraq invasion in 2003. Now the Lincolnshire Poacher? You use to be able to set a clock to the Lincolnshire Poacher is was so reliable. Now missing? (Jim Caporossi, July 12, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CYPRUS; GUAM ** U S A. CLIFF MAY NOMINATED TO BBG President Bush nominates Clifford D. May "to be a Member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors for a term expiring August 13, 2009, [replacing] Mark McKinnon." And withdraws its nomination of Mark McKinnon (see previous post) "for a term expiring August 13, 2009, vice Fayza Veronique Boulad Rodman, which was sent to the Senate on January 9, 2007." White House, 10 July 2008. "President George W. Bush has nominated Clifford D. May, president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, to serve on the Broadcasting Board of Governors for the remainder of a three-year term expiring August 13, 2009. 'In this very challenging period of history, it is vital that the United States communicate with audiences abroad clearly and creatively,' said May. 'I will be honored and privileged if I can assist with this mission.'" FDD press release, 11 July 2008. See also May's "Notes and Comments" at the FDD website. "If [the BBG's] mission was not originally intended to be a purveyor of propaganda, the Bush administration has seen to it that that is what it has become. Now President Bush has made his latest attempt to further mire the agency in disgrace by nominating Clifford May to the Board. May is a former Republican National Committee communications director and the President of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, whose list of directors and advisors reads like a who's who of neocon warmongers. He is an advocate of torture abroad, the suspension of civil liberties at home, and always the supremacy of America by virtue of its military might." Daily Kos, 12 July 2008 (see http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=4435 for linx, via DXLD) May is one of the people recommended for BBG membership by Senator Tom Coburn in his 4 April 2008 letter to National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. See previous post. May has experience as a journalist, but his recent work has been more in the line of polemics. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but the BBG's work is more in the line of journalism. If confirmed, May can try to compel U.S. international broadcasting to 1) report the news, or 2) send a message. It all depends on whether he wants U.S. international broadcasting 1) to have an audience, or 2) not. 12 Jul 2008 (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) ** U S A. If one can pull away from DXing on a Saturday morning, there is great doo-wop music to be heard on Rock the Universe, from WWCR 7490 (the mighty 74-90, I call it), 1200-1300, as I enjoyed some of it July 12 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 15665, July 12 at 2157 with SAH between WHRI preacher closing his show, and WEWN already on with carrier, 2158 WEWN choir starts chanting as WHRI signs off, announcing QSY to 9615. Christians vs Christians! (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WRMI B08 Schedule KHZ UTC CIRAF KW AZI DAYS 9955 0000 0200 10-16 RMI 50 160 0 805 1234567 9955 0200 0400 10-16 RMI 50 160 0 805 129955 0200 0400 2,3 RMI 50 317 0 805 345679955 0400 1500 10-16 RMI 50 160 0 805 1234567 9955 1500 1700 2,3 RMI 50 317 0 805 1234567 9955 1700 2400 10-13 RMI 50 160 0 805 1234567 (Jeff White, WRMI, July 12, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. NIGHT OF NIGHTS: Nostalgia live: CW Maritime station from California! KPH will return to the air for commemorative broadcasts on 12 July at 1701 PDT (13 July at 0001 UTC). Transmissions are expected to continue until at least midnight PDT (0700 UTC). KPH will transmit on 426, 500, 4247.0, 6477.5, 8642.0, 12808.5, 17016.8 and 22477.5 kc. KPH operators will listen for calls from ships on ITU Channel 3 in all bands. The Channel 3 frequencies are 4184.0, 6276.0, 8368.0, 12552.0, 16736.0 and 22280.5 kc on HF. Reception reports may be sent to: Ms. DA Stoops P.O. Box 381 Bolinas CA 94924-0381 USA (via Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DXLD) Hello, KPH well heard on CW on 8642 with VVV VVV VVV CQ DE KPH KPH KPH and much weaker on 6477.5 and 4247 at 0310 UT on 12 July 2008 (Gilles Letourneau, Montreal, Canada, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) You mean UT July 13 Great reception right now on 12808.5 (the best), but also 17016.8 (also strong), 22477.5 (fair), and 8642.0 (good) with continuous CW; lots of historical stuff like the Titanic, history of radio officers on board ship, etc. All frequencies heard in parallel. Thanks to Wolfy for the heads-up! (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, 0225 UT 13 July 2008, HCDX via DXLD) Previously publicized in DXLD (gh) I'm hearing the 12808.5 transmission at S8-S9 from Southeastern AR. 17016.8 is audible but weak. The 6477.5 frequency is the lowest one I can hear, but even with the strong S9 signal there is much QRN. 8642.0 is weak, but audible (Fritze, KC5KBV, H. Prentice, Jr., Star City, AR, 0309 UT July 13, HCDX via DXLD) Excellent on 4247 at 0450 UT 7/13. S9+20!! (Patrick Martin, OR, ibid.) 426 is coming in just fine here in Victoria with a weather synopsis, with 4247 extremely strong in //, as well as 6477.5 (same extremely strong), 8642 (not quite as strong), 12808.5 (weaker still, about the same as 426), 17016.8 (stronger than 12 Megs), and even 22.477.5 (fair to good). The only channel I'm not getting is 500 kHz. Not sure why; perhaps they're not on the air as promised (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, 0645 UT, ibid.) The reason you didn't receive 500 kHz is that you were receiving 426 kHz! There is only one transmitter and it is switched to 500 kHz when ships (or coast stations) were calling them. Stations responded to calls on 500 kHz and then informed the ship that they should shift to 426/425 namely that KPH would go to 426 and the ship should go to 425 kHz which was one of the standard ship working frequencies - which were 425, 454, 468, 480 kHz. Ships also had 410 kHz for sending radiodirection finding signals as well as 500 for distress and calling and responding, as well as 512 which was used as a back up calling frequency if 500 kHz was being used for distress and calls were prohibited there because of the SOS. At 0001 UTC if they got off on time, you would have heard on 500 kHz - "CQ CQ CQ DE KPH KPH KPH = KPH NIGHT OF NIGHTS RETURNS TO THE AIR QSW 426/HF =" which would have been sent on 500 kHz and all running HF frequencies. Then KPH would shift to 426 kHz and what was being sent on 426 kHz would also be sent on HF. Of course in the heyday of marine radio, each frequency would be manned by a different operator so more traffic could be handled and more income generated: The frequencies were only simulcast during traffic lists and weather - or at night when the number of operators was cut back and propagation closed 12, 16 and 22 MHz. 73 (David Ring, N1EA, former Radio Officer, U.S. Merchant Marine =30= via Salmaniw, ibid.) Thanks, David! By the way, what power(s) were you using? (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, ibid.) ** U S A. WBT'S OLDIES SHOW DIES FOR LACK OF ADS The Charlotte Observer, By Mark Washburn, July 12, 2008 http://www.charlotte.com:80/326/story/709028.html It's the end of time for the "Time Machine." WBT-AM's (1110) Saturday night show, a throwback to radio's glorious era of the '50s, '60s and '70s, has ended its run, a victim of the times. Playing old music costs money - there's still licensing fees involved. Program director Bill White, a champion of the show, said they were facing a bill of up to $30,000 a year to spin the oldies. Music stations build those fees into the budget, but a news-talk station like WBT couldn't make it work. Advertising wouldn't cover the cost. "I understand completely," host "Boomer" Von Cannon said Friday. "As I told one of the guys, 'Hey man, that's show business.'" WBT's 50,000-watt nighttime signal covers the East Coast. In addition to listeners across the Carolinas, Von Cannon would get song requests from New England to Florida. Once a listener called in while driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Fans mailed in tapes of old radio shows from their own collections - everything from Wolfman Jack to old radio jingles to segments from their own old local stations. "Time Machine" debuted Dec. 29, 2007, and it seemed to be attracting new listeners each week, people just scanning the dial and discovering a piece of their youth, Von Cannon said. Also growing was the crowd in the studio. Old-timers who cherished the old days of radio would join Von Cannon and producer Roger Ellswick for the Saturday night live broadcast. Harold Ballard, who works in production at WBTV, brought in his music collection to bolster the content arranged by executive producer Ed Nixon. "Just a bunch of old boys hanging out," said Von Cannon, who continues doing traffic reports at WBT and sister station WLNK ("Link" 107.9). White said the show will be replaced by "WBT Saturday Night Specials" in the 9 p.m.-to-midnight slot. It will be talk-oriented, though not necessarily the political brand the station is known for. He said he wants to experiment with various hosts - some local, some from remote studios. This week it will be Doug Kellett out of Atlanta who has done fill-in work for the station (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A. Fort Myers/Naples is an odd market - NOBODY brands with their OTA channel number. The lone full-power V is WINK-TV 11, and they brand simply as "WINK." Everything else in the market is UHF or LPTV, and they all brand with their cable channels - WBBH 20 is "NBC2," WZVN 26 is "ABC7", WFTX 36 is "Fox 4," WXCW 46 is "CW6," and the My Network outlet is cable-only as "My 8." Kind of like Palm Springs... (Scott Fybush, NY, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. What Broadcasters DON'T Want THE PUBLIC to Know about July 15th Tuesday, July 8, 2008 --- Between now and next Tuesday, July 15th, you have the opportunity to make your voice heard, regarding the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC's) plan to expand the FM dial (worry about expanded receivers and such later). It's not just a question of if the FCC should allow expansion, but how expansion is delegated. Here is the FCC file number for your comments: FCC: MB Docket 07-294 ....., and the FCC website http://www.fcc.gov Consider this amazing fact: you will not hear about this proposal over the existing airwaves; existing broadcasters have conveniently left this potentially ground-breaking action alone; no public service announcements here! This is what is happening: The FCC is pondering a 20 channel expansion once TV channels 5 and 6 convert to digital broadcasting and vacate the channels 5 and 6 FM frequencies (68 to 88 FM). [sic; Channel 5 axually starts at 76 MHz] An expansion of the FM band could (with appropriate and plentiful public input) enable more community groups to start radio stations across the country. Along Colorado's Front Range, expansion could have a direct positive bearing on an existing problem for public radio listeners. Even a slight expansion of the dial -- say down to 87.7 FM (where most current FM receivers are currently able to pick-up Channel 6 audio) will enable KVOD at 88.1 to move down to 87.9 or 87.7, enabling Colorado Public Radio to file for a substantial power gain. Currently KVOD is limited to a power increase of only a few hundred watts, which will not enable it to reach much beyond listeners residing in the "303" area code. The 88.1 signal from Denver is also blocked in Fort Collins-Loveland-Greeley by KLHV, Fort Collins at 88.3 FM. Re-locating down the dial, just slightly, will make everyone happy. This is a classic example to site in your comments to the FCC. Please make your voice heard BEFORE July 15, 2008! As for expanding FM tuners, in order to pick up new frequencies from the proposed expansion, one solution would be for Congress to require FM radio manufacturers to include the new FM frequencies on new FM tuners; much the way Congress passed a requirement in the 1960's, requiring TV manufacturers to include UHF channels on new TV tuners. Whatever it takes! The important item right now requires your participation, and you comments regarding what you would like to see happen. Don't let this opportunity slip away! The airwaves are public -- we own them! (Colorado Public Radio blog via DXLD) More about Colorado below I'm afraid this may not help. Radios are just not selling anymore. The public is buying IPODS and going nuts over IPHONES and using the computer as a complete stereo system. With the industry shuffing (or trying) to ram IBOC down the public`s throat, it will all be filled up with WHINNING sounds anyhow. And last but not least just go ahead and try to mandate this expansion and watch them just not bother making the radios. This action will also make LANDFILL out of the IBOC trash that`s already been produced as those radios with IBOC do not have this expanded band. What would work with this is some existing radios that have TV audio and radios that have Japan FM band coverage but how many of these are in the publics hands ??? Also this assumes they go analog with this (Norbert, ABDX via DXLD) Obviously the FCC doesn't want anyone to know about it either. After 20 minutes of fooling with their various search engines and ECFS nonsense, I've given up in frustration after finding not even an acknowledgement that such a proceeding exists. 73, de (Nate Bargmann, KS, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, Can't find a thing on this subject on the FCC website. Found Docket 07-294, but it is a regional proceeding. Maybe the CPR website folks have the docket number wrong. Any more info would be appreciated. 12 megs more of FM broadcast would be great! Thank-You (Mark Casey, K1MAP, Hampden, MA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) When digital TV was first proposed I had the excellent idea of abolishing VHF TV stations and expanding the FM band down. But no one ever listens to me. :-) – (John Mayson, Austin, Texas, USA, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) FCC MB Docket 07-294 How does one actually comment on this? The FCC website is a madhouse. Is there some form to fill out? Certainly we all want more FM frequencies. We don't all want more of the same old NPR programming or another K-love. And do these new frequencies necessarily have to be non-commercial? (Lenny, WTFDA via DXLD) Be careful what you wish for. While we don't need more same-old NPR and K-Love, we'll very likely get more of the latter, as well as more AFR, AFA, Calvary Chapel and any number of regional religious broadcasting players. We'll also very likely get more cookie-cutter- programmed commercial stations which we also don't need. And I'm also sure we'll get more and more redundant and pointless translators. In the end we'll all be able to add to our totals of stations but from a content standpoint nothing will change. The smaller community-based organizations have neither money nor clout; the same is true for individual community broadcasters, some of whom have found a voice in LPFM. The entire issue is fueled by two things - trying to get more golden eggs from the goose and trying to somehow offset the inevitable march of satellite, iPod etc., and streaming. The latter is still going to be a losing battle over time (Russ Edmunds, WB2BJH, Blue Bell, PA, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. KVOD/KCFR 90.1 RDS, changes, and major confusion --- OK. Can someone please tell me that I'm not absolutely NUTS here?? (for the record, I might be --- but we'll just ignore that). I have logged KVOD-FM on 90.1 Denver multiple times this year. It's practically the most regular skip station I can expect when least expected. Yesterday I logged KCFR 90.1 Denver. RDS also read "hello" as KVOD did the other day on 90.1. But the message said "KCFR - News, Talk of the Nation NPR" and "WWW.KCFR.ORG" and baffled me because I knew already it was KVOD. 90.1 Denver has always read "WWW.KVOD.ORG" as a message, as I reported two nights ago (and a few times in the past month as well). So... What the heck is this?!! We have 90.1 KVOD Denver and 90.1 KCFR Denver now in a period of three days. CPR website seems to show 88.1 is KVOD and 90.1 is KCFR. Radio Locator shows KVOD as 1200 watt 88.1 Lakewood CO and now shows 90.1 as KCFR, which I swear it didn't before!! I've gotten the coordinates and info here by typing in KVOD many times this season. Either way, 90.1 always has shown "KVOD.ORG" in RDS. Ya think it's cause KVOD is their classical station and when 90.1 runs classical music, it picks up the KVOD Classical RDS? If so, well, I'm still baffled by this. What's going on here? Which is which? Did something change, like, yesterday?! (Chris Kadlec, Fremont, Mich., July 11, WTFDA via DXLD) Mr. Kadlec, It changed on July 9th. 90.1 is NOW officially KCFR. The RDS information reads "hello" on the station ID, and, at this moment the crawl reads "KCFR-News, BBC World Service (BBC)" --- or, depending on which program is currently airing, will read the appropriate one. 88.1 is NOW officially KVOD. Their signal is too weak at my QTH to determine if they are using RDS (Jim Thomas, Colorado, ibid.) It wasn't quite a straight call/format swap. Colorado Public Radio bought K-Love outlet KFDN 88.1 Lakewood/Denver, moved the KVOD calls and classical format there from 90.1 Denver, then moved the NPR news- talk format and KCFR calls from 1340 Denver to 90.1. That actually restores the KCFR calls to the 90.1 frequency where they were long resident; the KVOD calls came from the old commercial classical station on 99.5 that's now KQMT. CPR is now trying to sell KCFR 1340 Denver/KCFC 1490 Boulder. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) ** U S A. KATV, KUAR and KLRE get an 1,150 foot tower! New heights for public radio --- They announced the details today of a deal I told you about earlier that will transmit Little Rock public radio signal from KATV's new tower on Shinall Mountain. UALR NEWS RELEASE http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2008/07/new_heights_for_public_radio.aspx LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (July 11, 2008) – Dale Nicholson, president and general manager of ABC-TV affiliate KATV, and Ray Dillon, president and CEO of Deltic Timber Corp., have reached an agreement that will net UALR’s two public radio stations increased operational efficiency and expanded coverage area – an in-kind gift valued at about $2.7 million for the University. The agreement will allow KATV to build a 1,150-foot tower on Shinall Mountain west of Little Rock, part of Chenal Valley and owned by Deltic Timber. The KATV tower will include antenna space at the 500- foot mark for UALR’s public radio stations KUAR and KLRE. Once installed, the new tower will increase KUAR and KLRE’s broadcast reach and consolidate the public stations’ technical operations, which heretofore have been split between Shinall Mountain for KUAR and the Metropolitan Career-Technical Center on Scott Hamilton Drive for KLRE. In addition, television station KATV will provide equipment space in a new state-of-the-art transmitter building at the tower site and provide all maintenance and upkeep of the facility. “You won’t find many agreements like this between a commercial broadcaster and a public radio operation,” said Ben Fry, general manager of KUAR and KLRE. “It shows a real commitment from KATV and from Deltic Timber to support this community. Without partners like these, public radio’s ability to grow would be severely limited. I applaud Ray Dillon and Dale Nicholson for thinking outside the box.” Nicholson has been searching for a new site for his station’s tower since Jan. 11 when KATV’s existing 2,000-foot antenna tower in Redfield, built in 1965, collapsed. Relocating the KATV antenna to Shinall Mountain will save the station 500 feet of construction steel. When Nicholson approached Dillon about a lease, the Deltic Timber executive suggested a “win-win” solution for both the television and radio stations. “This is a classic case of killing two birds with one stone,” said Nicholson. “KATV saves a little construction steel for a taller signal, and UALR’s radio stations increase their signals by piggy backing on the taller TV tower.” Dillon is delighted in the agreement. “We have been working with UALR for a number of years now trying to find the very best way to assist the radio stations and increase their coverage,” he said. “Our agreement with KATV included adding UALR to the contract so KUAR and KLRE could benefit from the new tower construction. We are pleased to have aided in this outcome for public radio in Arkansas.” The KATV-Deltic Timber contract grants UALR an initial 15-year lease for $10 a year to broadcast KUAR and KLRE programming (via Kevin Redding, TN, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. J-History REVIEW: Everitt, _A SHADOW OF RED: COMMUNISM AND THE BLACKLIST IN RADIO AND TELEVISION_ Saturday, July 12, 2008 8:18 PM From: "Kittrell Rushing" From: dhlueker@cox.net H-NET BOOK REVIEW Published by Jhistory@h-net.msu.edu (July 2008) David Everitt. _A Shadow of Red: Communism and the Blacklist in Radio and Television._ Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2007. 411 pp. Index. $27.50 (cloth), ISBN 1-56663-575-6. Reviewed for Jhistory by Loren Ghiglione, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University Blacklisting Revisited In _A Shadow of Red_, freelance writer David Everitt contends that the blacklist of the broadcast industry in the late 1940s and the 1950s was not the morality play with rabid right-wingers persecuting idealistic innocents that many historians describe. To make his point, Everitt details the efforts of five anti-Communist blacklisters. In 1947, three former FBI agents -- John G. Kennan, Kenneth M. Bierly, and Theodore C. Kirkpatrick -- started _Counterattack_, a four-page newsletter whose purpose was to "'crush the Communist Fifth Column'" (p. 18). In 1950, they also published _Red Channels_, a list in booklet form of 151 alleged Communist sympathizers. Another of the five, Vincent Hartnett, built a business around advising broadcast companies which radio and television employees should be allowed on the airwaves. Finally, Syracuse supermarket owner Laurence Johnson pressured advertising agencies, networks, and radio and television stations to remove Reds and pinkos from broadcasting. Everitt's greatest strength is the thoroughness of his research, though the book might have benefited from also portraying a sixth anti-Communist crusader, J. B. Matthews, who kept five hundred thousand file cards on suspected citizens and funneled information to prominent media executives and columnists. Evenhandedness is also a strength of the author. He sides with historian Arthur Schlesinger and others "from the vital center" who avoided the political ideologies and caricatures, both left and right, of the time (p. xvi). Everitt applauds "those who acted as a matter of nonsectarian principle, both anti-totalitarian and civil libertarian, people who supported resistance to Soviet aggression abroad and defended fair play at home" (p. xvi). He insists that some of the witnesses who refused to answer the questions of congressional committees investigating broadcast industry subversion often had something to hide. They were not just civil liberties heroes. Everitt also argues that many of the Communist fronts listed in _Counterattack_ and _Red Channels_ were far from benign. But he also faults Kennan, Bierly, and Kirkpatrick for "an incendiary form of activism" (p. 29). The three former FBI agents took the position that any Communist sympathizer with access to a broadcast station--even a third violinist in a radio orchestra--posed a threat. "'He is sitting next to the first violinist,'" Bierly said, "'and he is going into the radio station and he is talking to the engineer and he has friends who are news commentators, and so forth and so on'" ( p. 29). The efforts of Kennan, Bierly, and Kirkpatrick to purge radio and television of Communists and Communist sympathizers failed to differentiate those subversives from well-meaning liberals. CBS, a favorite target because of its "'liberal news correspondents, led by Edward R. Murrow and its Popular Front dramatists, exemplified by Norman Corwin,'" employed people who "'at the very least are comrades of the comrades,'" _Counterattack_ charged (p. 71). Johnson, an owner of six supermarkets in central New York, pressured CBS to stop employing comedian Jack Gilford and any other "'subversive'" (p. 124). With the war against the Communists in Korea heating up, Johnson sent telegrams to network sponsors, in which he wrote: "'Why are you helping to kill our friends in Korea?'" (p. 124). Small-city radio stations resisted Johnson's strong-arm tactics, but the national networks, advertising agencies, and sponsors often capitulated. Everitt quotes a Syracuse broadcaster: "'I don't know what's the matter with those people in New York. Maybe they're so big they have to be stupid'" ( p. 133). To protect itself from being identified as a haven for Communists, CBS introduced a questionnaire that all employees and prospective employees were required to sign. The two other major networks were less docile. NBC demanded the signature only of new employees, while ABC defied the cry for what many broadcast employees called a loyalty oath. Meanwhile, from inside and out, _Counterattack_ and _Red Channels_ faced tough questioning. Bierly quit over the publications' red- baiting ridicule. And, several subjects, including CBS radio personality John Henry Faulk, decided to sue. Faulk was a favorite target of Hartnett, who proudly proclaimed himself a coauthor of _Red Channels_. In 1953, Hartnett started Aware, Inc., an anti-Communist organization with its own bulletin focused on the entertainment industry. The bulletin said that, in the 1940s, Faulk had sponsored a pro-Communist peace rally, entertained at pro-Communist clubs, appeared at Communist front activities, and addressed a "Spotlight on [Henry] Wallace" event in "'the official training school of the Communist conspiracy in New York'" (p. 232). More than one year after Faulk sued the blacklisters, CBS fired him, a move Everitt attributes to the network's "habitual timidity and panic" (p. 246). In trying to bring to life Faulk's lawsuit against Hartnett and the estate of the late Johnson, Everitt offers a conclusion or two that leave readers wondering whether the author is claiming to know more than he could possibly know. Everitt states, for example, that Faulk's lawyer read a statement from Hartnett's 1956 testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee that "had a powerful effect on the jury's perception of the defendant" (p. 274). How Everitt knows about the statement's effect on the minds of the jurors is not made clear. The jury's award of $3.5 million in damages prompted a telling cartoon, titled "Nailed," by Herblock, in which a huge hammer labeled "Faulk Case Verdict" bangs a nail through the collar of a black- jacketed burglar called "Blacklisters." Though the damages were later reduced, the 1962 verdict marked, for most, the end of the blacklisting era. Everitt ends the book with two claims that are not entirely persuasive. He refutes those who say that the blacklist kept talent from the airwaves and concludes that "at the same time the industry's hiring practices became less restrictive, television became less creative and more formulaic" (p. 324). He also argues that previous writers about the blacklist overstated the charge "that the blacklist grew out of a groundless hysteria" (p. 341). Everitt indicates that the writers argued unpersuasively that the blacklist often targeted "dissenters of all kinds" and that the blacklistees themselves were the heroes of the era, "despite the fact that many were Stalinists who had endorsed the Moscow purge trials in 1938 as well as the domestic suppression of Trotskyists in 1941" (pp. 341-342). Finally, Everitt does acknowledge the impact of the blacklisters' overblown rhetoric: "Their extremism, their eagerness to put people out of work, helped delegitimize anticommunism for many years, prompting people to associate it with vindictiveness and alarmism" (p. 344). Vindictiveness and alarmism sounds about right. Copyright (c) 2008 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For other uses contact the Reviews editorial staff: hbooks@mail.h-net.msu.edu (via DXLD) ** VENEZUELA. Re 8-079, Los veinte años de FM en Venezuela --- Thank you for the wonderful piece of historical explanation of the 20 year anniversary of "Efe-eme" en Venezuela. [thanks go to Adán González] I was very happy to see the recognition of the pioneering efforts of our client of many years, the "Unión Radio" company (actually Inversiones Bescasinas), owner of Caracas` "Éxitos Mil Noventa" and the work of my old and dear friend, the late and very much missed Sergio Gómez. It did not mention, and should have, the efforts of his colleague Enrique Cuzco, whose family are the principal owners of the company. I had the privilege of specifying the facilities of Éxitos 107 at the Conejo Blanco transmitter site, as well as most of the other Unión Radio FM sites throughout the country. And the experience surely did improve my Spanish! (I am a native of California, and although of mostly Swiss ancestry, my now 100 year old mother grew up in Lodi and wrote her UC Berkeley thesis in Spanish and made sure I was at least marginally competent in the language). (Benjamin Dawson, WA, July 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA. 92.5, Radio Nacional De Venezuela, July/01 0027 EDT, SS. IDs as "Radio Nacional De Venezuela" SS Talk. Several IDs. Not sure of city for this one?? 94.5, UNID VENEZUELA???? July/02 1601 EDT, SS Talk. Ads for The Bonaire Gift Shop and Mega Shoes. Several Mentions of BUCAMARANGA [which is in COLOMBIA]. Spot for "MI-TV". Into salsa music. 95.7, SEPT FM Trujillo??, VENEZUELA July/01 0036 EDT SS. Lively Caribe Music. EE opo/hip hop music. IDs sung out as "Sept FM". EE pop music and lively calypso music. "Trujillo" yelled out with Sept FM ID. [`Sept` seems unlikely unless in French; is this seen in print? gh] 99.5, LA SAYAH??? UNID VENEZUELA?? July/01 0121 EDT SS, Jingles with ID as "La Sayah??" EE rock music and SS pop music. ads. 107.9, MAS RUMBA, UNID VENEZUELA??? July/01 0138 EDT SS, IDs as "Más Rumba". EE pop music. Hip hop music. Lively SS pop music jingles with "Más Rumba" (Robert S. Ross VA3SW, London, Ontario CANADA N6A5K1, July 12, Caribbean cruise, see PUERTO RICO, WTFDA via DXLD) ** VENEZUELA [non]. RADIO CARACAS TELEVISIÓN LICITARÁ EN COLOMBIA POR CANAL PRIVADO http://www.eluniversal.com/2008/07/13/til_ava_radio-caracas-televi_13A1793119.shtml Bogotá. - La televisora más antigua de Venezuela, Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), que cesó su transmisión en mayo de 2007 en ese país, licitará junto a la Universidad Católica de Chile y una estación local, para hacerse de un canal privado de TV en Colombia, aseguró la prensa local. "Están adelantadas las conversaciones de tres estaciones latinoamericanas de TV para conformar una sociedad estratégica con el fin de licitar el tercer canal privado del país. Son la estación de la Universidad Católica de Chile, Radio Caracas TV y (la colombiana) Teleamiga", dijo la revista Semana, reseñó AFP. En su última edición, que comenzó a circular este domingo, la publicación añadió que estas tres empresas buscan "un segundo socio colombiano con mayor experiencia en noticias, para enfrentarse a (las aspiraciones de) Planeta, Prisa y las otras sociedades que aspiran a ganarse la adjudicación". Actualmente, las empresas Caracol TV y RCN manejan, cada una, un canal privado de TV en Colombia. RCTV es el canal más antiguo de Venezuela. Empezó a emitir en 1953 y desciende en línea directa de la primera radio comercial del país, fundada en 1930. El 27 de mayo de 2007 emitió su último programa tras la medida del gobierno de Hugo Chávez de no renovar su concesión (via José Miguel Romero2, Spain, dxldyg via DXLD) ** VIRGIN ISLANDS US. 104.3, WZIN Charlotte Amalie, June/30 1504 EDT English, 44 KW IDs as "The Buzz". EE rock music. Local American ads (Robert S. Ross VA3SW, London, Ontario CANADA N6A5K1, July 12, Caribbean cruise, see PUERTO RICO, WTFDA via DXLD) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. 6300, Algeria, Nat. R. of Sahara Arab D. Rep., Rabouni. July-11 Arabic, 2124 OM talks, 2130-2140 announcements between short music, two OM talks. Local QRM, 22432 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZAMBIA. 5915, ZNBC, Lusaka, 1914-1946, 12 Jul, Vernacular, discussion, African music; 44433, adjacent QRM. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. Re 8-079: Hello, Radio Voice of the people with a good signal here in Montreal, 0400 on 9895, very clear ID with SIO 444 (Gilles Letourneau, Montreal, Canada, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 3450v: Re 8-079: Thanks Glenn for your help. Yes, with a catholic format, not evangelic like 'Dios es amor', with sermons, etc. Only 'padrenuestro' and 'avemaria', with some songs. I will listen in the next days for an additional information. Rgds (Victor Castaño, July 11, condiglist yg via DXLD) Dear Glenn, My log on 3453 is identified with "...Radio Católica Mundial...", in Spanish Language. This is harmonic??? What frequency?? 73, (Márcio Martins Pontes, Registro - SP, Membro DXCB, July 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Márcio, With that ID it is probably relaying WEWN in Alabama, like many LA stations, so still a mystery as to which one. See if the programming is parallel to WEWN, frequency schedule here: http://www.ewtn.com/spanish/Frequencias_radio.asp 73, (Glenn to Márcio, via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Intruder reports excerpts concerning broadcast stations: 14030.0, 1702, 30 June, A3E Arabic language (Veron – Netherlands – PA0GRU (Dick), Monitoring System IARUMS Region 1 Newsletter June 2008 via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ WRTH JULY UPDATES [6 pages] http://www.wrth.com/files/WRTH2008IntRadioSupplement3_A08Schedules.pdf 73, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, July 11, MWC via DXLD) Hilites above (gh) BLACKLISTING book: see U S A LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ BAD WEEK FOR AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION [gospelhuxter FM translators] Which got an unintended result when it used an auto-replace filter to change ``inappropriate`` words such as ``gay`` in the news stories on its web site. A story on American sprinter Tyson Gay was headlined, ``Homosexual eases into 100 meter final at Olympic trials,`` and repeatedly referred to him as ``Tyson Homosexual`` (The Week, July 18, via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ Re 8-079, BIG THREAT TO SHORTWAVE RADIO, HOMEPLUGS IN UK It may not be all bad. I was given BT vision and never got the thing to work. So I slung it in the loft. As for the power plugs, these didn't work either. I plugged them into my 6way power strip which has an inbuilt filter and that stopped them working. As I run all my PCs, router and switch off this filtered power strip there was no where to plug the power plugs in. These too, are in the loft. (Dave, monitoringmonthly yg via DXLD) I got BT vision a few months ago and installed it using the power-plug network adaptors. All was fine until a tried a bit of SWL'ing ouside of my normal haunts on the HF amateur bands - the background noise fron 1.8-30MHz was s9 to s9++ with very noticiceable notches on the amateur bands. After a few evenings sleuthing around I had eliminated everything but the adaptors. I moved the home hub from my study/shack to close beside the TV and connected it to the BT vision box by cable. The shack computer is quite happy with a WiFi dongle (yes the connection speed has dropped but it's not a problem) and there is no more noise except for the usual urban s5-s7 from TV's switched mode power supplies etc. As for the adaptors they are a pain to set up and get talking to eachother and they are completely thrown by filtered power strips. As for mine - they are now in the garden shed with all that other stuff which seemed a good idea at the time! Regards to all and good luck to Kevin and colleagues at RIAT - sounds like a re-run of Glastonbury (Harry, 2E0BCF, ibid.) HomePlug Forfeited Carriers Glenn, Your July 11 DXLD Radio Equipment Forum mentioned consumer powerline carrier (PLC) systems in the home. Here's a link to an article titled "The Technology Behind HomePlug AV Powerline Communications" by Mark Hazen of Intellon, a chip design house. It appeared in the June 2008 issue of Computer, the magazine of the IEEE Computer Society. http://www.computer.org/portal/cms_docs_computer/computer/homepage/June08/COM_090-092.pdf HomePlug AV is the latest generation of in-home PLC, using OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) with maximum 1,155 carriers ("tones") between 1.8 and 30 MHz. The article states, "A firmware enabled tone mask mutes carriers that would interfere with legacy services such as amateur radio bands." HomePlug AV uses 917 carriers in practice. I was curious if the muted carriers include any other "legacy" services besides Amateur Radio. The author used the term "such as", implying that there might be others. Does this system also protect international broadcast bands? Perhaps the answer is found in another article, an interview with Mark Hazen that appeared in the trade publication EDN: http://www.edn.com/article/CA6558480.html Here, Hazen stated that 917 carriers are used "in consideration of the amateur radio community" and that "The forfeited carriers are those in the Ham bands." He noted that ARRL has endorsed HomePlug. "The signal strength of HomePlug AV on the AC wiring is extremely low, with very little radiated power," he said, "which otherwise would become a concern of the FCC." (Benn Kobb, DC, July 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Another stab in the back by ARRL, concerned only with hambands, not protecting SWBC at all, even tho that could easily be included (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) BT VISION POWERLINE ADAPTORS CAUSING INTERFERENCE TO SHORTWAVE Could I draw UK list members attention to the item in DXLD 8-079 under Radio Equipment Forum. British Telecom are supplying their customers with devices called Home Plugs (power line adapters) that send TV/data around the house using the mains wiring of that house. To do this they use the frequency range of 3-30 MHz. There are two videos on YouTube showing the effect of this in the UK: BT Vision Powerline Adaptor Interference BPL - theBTman.com http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aflYqUCktxo UKQRM Video showing the interference caused by BT Vision (4 minute video uploaded on Thursday showing interference caused to shortwave broadcast stations and action you should take if you are affected): http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=S__UBDaL-aE (Mike Barraclough, UK, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) Thanks Mike. Funnily enough, your posting came in immediately after one in my inbox from a guy who is not a BDXC member but is involved with UKQRM. He copied the BDXC board in on some of the information above. No doubt this is an issue which, like WDXC and other UK clubs, BDXC will continue to be taking a very concerned interest in for some time (Mark Savage, moderator, ibid.) THE KAITO KA1121 (A COMPLICATED B******!) I managed to snag one of these on Ebay recently (for one third the suggested list price). I have this to say for it, I have NEVER run into anything as complicated to use! Mind you, I'm not the dullest tool in the kit, having the ability to do my own income tax calculations. I also have a working understanding of relativity and quantum physics --- which hardly helps trying to figure the controls out on one of these. Anyway, enough grousing. Frequency coverage is 140-29999 kHz. AM (SSB covers 1710-29999 kHz.). FM from 70 to 108 MHz; additionally it has NOAA 162.4-162.55 MHz weather radio coverage. AM and SW were adequate, FM and Weather Band seemed fairly sensitive, I could easy get semi-distant stations. This radio seems resistant to overloading, which is a plus. The MP3 player/recorder is nice, at 32K one can record over 16 hours of broadcasts. All in all, an interesting set --- BUT you'll always need the manual with you to get anything done on it. P.S. The truncated word in the title most often refers to male children born to an unmarried mother. It seems to be a fitting appellation for this radio (Curtis Sadowski, Paxton, Illinois, U.S.A.. WTFDA via DXLD) How passé I bought the KA-1103 a year ago from Grove Enterprises. The interface is different, but not all that complicated IMO. It took me five minutes to get used to hitting the volume button and then turning the tuning knob to change the volume. But after five minutes, it was done without thinking. The selectivity on FM and MW I found to be better than average making it an excellent very portable dx-ing machine. Want to jump to a specific FM channel? Hit the frequency on the buttons at the bottom (no decimal point needed) and then the FM button. It jumps right to the frequency. Hold that FM button down, and it will scan the band. For shortwave, the basic bands are all displayed and easy to scan (or tune with the knob). Want a UTE station not in the basic shortwave bands? Then just punch in the frequency and hit the AM button. The only thing a bit more complicated in the 1103 is setting the alarms or storing in one of the 280 memories. But if I were doing that every week, that would come easy too. The 1103 is a great machine for its size and price. I have not seen that FM selectivity anywhere in any receiver except possibly a car radio. The double conversion (except for longwave) works very well as the first IF frequency is well above the shortwave bands, so there are no images (except on longwave). It is a lot of radio for its size and price, and is very portable for trips. I highly recommend it (Allan Dunn, K1UCY, ibid.) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ IBOC: re MEXICO, 8-079 Not many of us did and from the looks of things not may of us are buying it either, right now the ratio is 1 out every 10,000 persons owns one. That means that there are roughly 40 IBOC radios in Boston if evenly spread out across the country which I'm sure is not the case, but still means not many at all in Boston. WBZ: 40 goes into 50 grand how many times? Spent a lot of money for 40 listeners huh? (Bob Young, Analog, MA, NRC-AM via DXLD) I dropped in to a Radio Shack at Tacoma Mall yesterday. There were two IBOC "HD" radios for $129 and $99, reduced from around $300 and $250 respectively. The two sales people I talked to had no concept of AM HD, much less any awareness of radios which could pick of AM HD stations. Nonetheless, AM stations such as KIXI keep adding HD. This is mystifying, to say the least; it borders on masochism (Pete Taylor Tacoma, WA, ibid.) And just this morning I heard that a sell was being recommended for Citadel stock. This has to be even better than selling a bridge in New York (Tom Dimeo, ibid.) Thanks, Pete. As I have said "Nobody knows and nobody cares" about IBOC. I just wish the broadcasting industry knew that. I have talked to some that feel "IBOC" will be the saving of AM radio..Go fiqure.... I can pretty much say, there are no IBOC radios on the Oregon coast. Unless someone from Seattle or Portland drives over with one in their vehicle. As far as Clatsop County goes, KAST FM "May" look into IBOC "If" and that is a big IF is catches on. 73, (Patrick Martin, KGED QSL Manager, ibid.) Re: DTV Comments in DXLD 8-079 I don't know about the general overall availability of the couponed DTV converters. Here in Orlando, I purchased both of my Digital Stream units at Radio Shack (two different stores), and every Wal-Mart in the area seems to have scads of the Magnavox units available. (BTW, Glenn, FWIW the Digital Stream does allow direct RF channel tuning.) But, I would imagine some of the Best Buys and Circuit Citys of the world are probably playing down the converters as much as possible. They would much rather sell you a $1500 HDTV than a $50 converter. I figure by February 2009, OTA TV viewers will fall into one of five categories: -- Those who buy a converter or DTV set, get it working, and are pleased with the results... -- Those who buy a converter or DTV set, get it working, and are displeased with the results, but can't afford or don't want to try any other solution... -- Those who buy a converter or DTV set, either can't figure it out or don't get good results, and end up going cable or satellite anyway... -- Those who just cave in and subscribe to cable or satellite without even considering a converter or DTV set, and... -- Those who on February 18 will still be totally clueless and will be calling relatives, friends, or repairmen and complaining "something's wrong with my TV -- all the channels are just snow!!" Care to estimate what percentage will fall into each category? Maybe 40-20-10-10-20, respectively? Your guesses? (Stan Jones, Orlando FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) LAWMAKERS ASSAIL DIGITAL TV EFFORT 'LACK OF PLANNING' CITED IN COUPON PROGRAM FOR CONVERTER BOXES By Kim Hart, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, July 11, 2008; D01 A billion-dollar program to help consumers prepare for the upcoming switch to digital television has been mismanaged and is running out of money, key lawmakers said, prompting concerns that millions of TV viewers could be left in the dark. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an agency within the Commerce Department, is in charge of a $1.5 billion program to distribute $40 coupons to help consumers pay for the converter boxes they will need to continue watching on analog TVs. The boxes typically cost $50 to $80. Last year, the NTIA awarded IBM a $120 million contract to perform administrative duties for the program, including taking coupon orders and mailing them to consumers. But IBM's contract does not include enough funds to process and mail the recycled coupons to consumers, according to a letter sent to the NTIA yesterday by Democratic Reps. John D. Dingell (Mich.), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, and Edward J. Markey (Mass.), chairman that committee's telecommunications and Internet panel. The letter asked pointed questions about how the error occurred and how much it will cost to fix. "The NTIA's apparent lack of planning is a serious oversight, one that they must correct promptly and without dipping into the funds marked to help consumers purchase converter boxes," Markey said. On Feb. 17, broadcasters will stop airing traditional analog signals as they upgrade to all-digital programming. So consumers who rely on antennas to receive over-the-air broadcasts will need a converter box for every analog TV. Each household can order two coupons for converter boxes. The coupons expire after 90 days. Unredeemed coupons are supposed to be redistributed to other households. IBM's contract calls for the distribution of 33.5 million coupons, according to the contract's requirements found on NTIA's Web site. The contract does not account for the costs associated with recycling unredeemed coupons but does cover administrative expenses. Although demand for coupons has been high, redemption rates have been low. About 60 percent of the coupons were not redeemed within 90 days, meaning those funds are to be used for additional coupons. But according to the letter sent to the NTIA, the current contract with IBM does not include administrative funds to process and mail additional coupons. Meredith Baker, acting assistant secretary for communications and information at the NTIA, said the agency is working with IBM to address the issue. "The contract with IBM does address recycled coupons," she said in a statement. "The Program has been very successful. . . . We anticipated coupons would be recycled and prepared for it." IBM declined to comment. Nearly 20 million coupons have been requested, and about 5.5 million have been redeemed, the NTIA said. Some consumers have said they feel limited by the 90-day expiration because it does not give them time to shop around for a converter box, and some models are not yet available in retail stores. The NTIA said it is looking into whether it can reissue coupons to households that let their initial coupons expire. Several lawmakers have asked the agency to do so, but it is unclear whether the law allows NTIA to issue more than two coupons to any household. The number of requests for converter-box coupons is expected to increase as the transition date draws closer. The coupon program is divided into two phases. Until March 31, all households may request up to two coupons until the initial $990 million allocated for the program has been exhausted. The NTIA may then request an additional $510 million already authorized by Congress. During this period, coupons will be available only to households that rely on over-the-air broadcasting as their sole source of television programming. Dingell and Markey, along with their panels' ranking Republicans, Reps. Joe L. Barton (Tex.) and Cliff Stearns (Fla.), also sent a letter to the U.S. postmaster general this week asking the Postal Service to give mailed coupons priority status so consumers receive them in a timely manner. It typically takes two to three weeks for coupons to be delivered once they've been ordered. (c) 2008 The Washington Post Company (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) THE TRAVAILS OF RECEIVING DIGITAL TV BROADCASTS | The Pervasive Datacenter - CNET News.com http://news.cnet.com/8301-13556_3-9985562-61.html?hhTest=1 Summary of blog entry: Tech-savvy son helps elderly father in remote area go digital. Can you guess what happened when they got everything set up? (Curtis Sadowski, WTFDA via DXLD) This article fails to mention: Channel assignments of local stations (VHF or UHF) Type of Antenna used by the author's father (VHF, UHF, or combo) Distance from transmitters to receiving location. Brand/chipset of converter box Terrain of area Quality of analog signals currently received Some smaller and poorer broadcasters (WXVT, KODE, KEJB, many of the Equity stations) are waiting until the last minute to put on full power DTV. Once analog goes dark, the DTV signals (some of which will return to the VHF channels) should be easier to receive due to reduced QRM between analogs and DTV. Although the article is basically FUD/DTV darksiding, the cliff effect will be real for those in the deep fringe -- even for those in my home county to the south that wish to receive Little Rock DTV's. Until Transition Day, no one will know exactly how viewers in the deep fringe will be affected (Fritze, KC5KBV, H. Prentice, Jr., Star City, AR, Grid: EM43aw http://tvdxseark.blogspot.com ibid.) ANALOG DEMISE: Are you ready? - News News The Examiner Article summary - dutiful son converts elderly Mom to DTV. Results are more pleasant this time around. http://www.theexaminer.com/npps/story.cfm?ID=2276 (Curtis Sadowski, IL, WTFDA via DXLD) ``Channel surfing with the digital converter will also take some getting used to. It can take three or four seconds when you switch channels for the next one to come on, said (Brent) Morton`` Now that is something I haven't heard addressed that much: Do all of the converter boxes (particularly the DX popular Accurian and Insignia models) have long decode times? I find the AM-FM and TV (analog) digital tuners that take .5-1 seconds to lock-in and decode annoying enough! P=/ (~Kaimbridge~ M. GoldChild, ibid.) THOUGHTS ON DTV AND THE FUTURE A couple of things occurred to me recently. To keep analog sets alive, you could modulate the output of a digital converter onto old channel 3 or 4. Take the channel 3 output intended for a TV set's input and pump it up with a distribution amp. and then feed it to a channel 3/4 antenna (maybe a folded dipole.) This would be about as legal as a XM or Sirius radio. You could still use your rabbit ears to watch TV around your house. If it is on channel 3/4, who would really care at that point? I really wonder just how much luck will will have TV DXing Canada, the Caribbean and Europe. I guess DTV DX will hold on, but E-skip will be really rare with a very limited amount of possible catches. Will FM DXing and 6 meter activity gain popularity and importance? One thing I just can't figure out: 6 meter hams will DX the hell out of E-skip, but never take advantage of a big tropo opening like today's. Is this just ignorance? Also up for speculation, how strong will the "final" DTV signals be? You wouldn't believe how much money is going into the new master antenna and complete rebuild of the facilities at ESB. My family has a home in Central Michigan. Right now, OTA includes only three analog stations. 5 and 11 are CBS and 35 is a PBS translator. The operator of Channel 35 is turning the transmitter off with no digital replacement planned. They are consolidating all operations to a single site that is about 50 miles away. Channel 5 and 11's DTs are supposed to be on the air, but I don't see anything from them at all. I think OTA will be DOA in this area when the digital switch is closed. A granny box won't help you. One great thing about Channel 35. They are currently using a OTA feed of their main digital signal to feed analog 35. When the signal gets poor, the channel transmits the LG box screen saver that says "No Signal" exactly like my home LG HDTV tuner (Karl Zuk, N2KZ, WTFDA via DXLD) An electrician friend and I recently started a division of his business to install FTA satellite systems, plus CM UHF antennas for the Denver digital channels. I think that if anyone lives out in the *boonies* and can't receive any DTV channels and absolutely refuses to pay monthly fees for television, FTA satellite is going to be the only way for them to see anything. I'm not talking about the 6-12 foot C- band dishes, but the medium size (31") Ku-band dishes. If a person manages their fta ku-band satellite system with a motor, they can have upwards of 100 channels that are entertaining viewing. There are literally 1000's of channels available for free (various languages). Last summer the wife and I pulled the plug on PAY TV and only use a DTV converter box (locals) and an FTA satellite receiver on a motorized dish. We have more channels to watch than we have time for (and we don't pay a subscription to anyone). I feel sorry for the older folks in this country that won't be able to figure out what they need to do to keep watching television. The FCC estimates that there will be 21 million working analog television sets thrown in the landfills or donated to Goodwill come next February because people think they are broken (fuzzy screens - no picture). (Jim Thomas, Colorado, ibid.) Well, a few things I'd like to chime in with: 1) The U.S. implementation of DTV is one of the oldest (and therefore longest-running) in the world - and probably the least suited to the OTA viewership situation in its country. From the start, "DTV" has been inseparably tied to "HDTV". More so than cable or satellite TV, HDTV is currently a premium TV product, and will be so for a few more years. By not paying for cable or satellite TV like the other four- fifths of the population, OTA households show a LACK of interest in premium TV if anything. In many European countries, on the other hand, OTA digital TV has focused on adding available channels, so in Britain, where there were once four or five channels available to most OTA households, there are now something like 35-40 video channels and a couple dozen radio stations, all free. Granted, many of these are part-time, but most, with a few exceptions (shopping channels) are "real" channels with serious value, not "Channel 6 Skywarn Weather Radar" or a 30-minutes local newscasts repeated 40 times daily. Of course, the network system in Europe to begin with is way different than in the U.S., with most physical stations acting as nothing more than relayers of a national or regional network. But most U.S. network affiliates have a strong relationship (at least branding-wise) with their network, and FOX could put Fox News on .2, Speed on .3, etc. Of course, cable and satellite providers would probably work up a storm over this. I don't see OTA TV succeeding any time soon on offering the same programming OTA viewers are used to in high definition (Jacob Norlund, ibid.) Like many generalizations, this one has its flaws. People may have an interest in HDTV but either misunderstand it, or be unable (or perhaps unwilling) to afford it. Understand that there's an increasing portion of the population which is elderly, and may fall into either or both of these categories. In some parts of the country, cable TV is more affordable than others, and in some parts of the country you may even be able to actually purchase packages which don't include channels with objectionable content, and these facts also cause considerable variation. Here, basic cable includes all sorts of potentially-objectionable content depending on your personal feelings, and it's expensive and not always reliable thanks to Comcast's legendary high prices and poor service here in their birthplace. And for the privileges, we pay some of the higher cable rates in the US. ``I don't see OTA TV succeeding any time soon on offering the same programming OTA viewers are used to in high definition.`` Nor do I, for some of the same reasons - 1. Serious misunderstandings - including confusion of HDTV vs. DTV. 2. Potentially serious dead zones 3. Cost (Russ Edmunds, WB2BJH, Blue Bell, PA, ibid.) DIGITAL THE DEATHKNELL OF INTERSTELLAR COMMUNICATION, SETI DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-079 had a nice article about the Australian experiments with EME TV DX. It is unfortunate, but true, that as TV transitions from analog to digital, the ability to discern the presence of these signals will disappear. Digital TV has its energy spread across the channel bandwidth without the discrete video carriers used with vestigial sideband AM analog TV. This energy spread will prevent detection using narrowband techniques like listening for audio heterodynes on the carrier. The same can be said for the technology being used to discern signals from other possible civilized worlds. All the search techniques for detecting extra-terrestrial electromagnetic signals to date are based upon the idea that remote civilizations will be using the same kind of radio and TV emissions we have been familiar with for the past 80 years or so. If the evolution of other civilizations parallels our own, a 100 year window of discrete narrowband emissions is extremely short on the cosmic time scale. The more developed a civilization, the higher the probability thay will have discovered the efficiency advantages of digital techniques in terms of information theory. If you are curious, check out: The probability of detection of an advanced civilization by detecting its electromagnetic signature is reduced to something like 100 years divided by 12 billion years. That's a very small number (Joe Buch, July 12, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE SUN? Paul Leonard of our office found this interesting article, and I thought you might find it worth mentioning in the DXLD newsletter: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/11jul_solarcycleupdate.htm?friend Regards, (Ben Dawson, DX LISTENING DIGEST) NEW RESEARCH ON SOLAR CYCLE AND JOVIAN INFLUENCE I found something interesting on the web, a link has been established between the Solar Cycle and the orbits of the Jovian planets: http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/AS06018.htm One of the paper's authors has stated that due to the Jovian influence Solar activity will decrease within the next decade and remain low for twenty or thirty years (Curtis Sadowski, IL, WTFDA via DXLD) ###