DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-124, November 30, 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 1436 Mon 2300 WBCQ 7415 [reconfirmed Nov 24] Tue 1200 WRMI 9955 Tue 1630 WRMI 9955 Wed 0630 WRMI 9955 [or new 1437] Wed 1230 WRMI 9955 [or new 1437] Latest edition of this schedule version, including AM, FM, satellite and webcasts with hotlinks to station sites and audio, is at: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html For updates see our Anomaly Alert page: http://www.worldofradio.com/anomaly.html WRN ON DEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 WORLD OF RADIO PODCASTS VIA WRN NOW AVAILABLE: http://www.wrn.org/listeners/stations/podcast.php OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO: http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org ** ALASKA. KNLS, 6150, Nov 30 at 1403 playing jazzed-up version of ``If I Were a Rich Man``; is this a Jewish station? Hardly! ID and then to lure in unsuspecting listeners with initially secular segments, brief one about Pres. Sarkozy being exposed as a philatelist, and a longer one, Postcard from Alaska, Mike Osborne interviewing someone from the Alaska State Museum (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. The addition of an Internet site for Radio Tirana was most welcome news. I want to thank so much those who worked and realized this long awaited addition to Radio Tirana services. I listened all the morning from 08.30 to 11.00 hours with good results. There was some distortion on the repeat transmission but from 10.00 hours the quality was perfect! I will keep listening, also when I am working on my computer. I feel so happy about this! That's all for now. Hope you have time Drita to participate in the festivities. We expect a report on these happy events. Kind regards, (Ullmar Qvick, Sweden, via Drita Çiço, R. Tirana, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Je viens d´écouter à l´internet un entretiens avec une dame qui a racconté sur son travail au cours des années à Radio-Tirana. Elle a mentionné tout en particulier ses liens d´amities avec les auditeurs d´ondes courtes du Club d´auditeurs de l`Auvergne. L´interview s´est achevé à 20H20 TU. Malheureusement je n`ai pas tout à fair compris son nom. Après l´entretien il y a eu quelques minutes de musique albanaise jusqu`à la cloture de l´émission à 20H29. Je viens de savoir que Radio-Tirana va feter le 70ème anniversaire de sa fondation. A cette occasion je tiens à vous féliciter très vivement. Amitiés, (Henrik KLEMETZ, Borás, Suède, 26 nov, ibid.) Dear Drita, Thanks for the nice pictures, looks like it was a nice moment. I hope to be some day in Radio Tirana anniversary event. What can I say about Radio Tirana. I'm a proud listener of this radio since around 1987; I was just a 13 years old boy discovering the shortwave with a Sony radio. My friends enjoyed listening to the FM music radio stations, but my passion was the sounds behind the SW. As hard as was difficult to get information about Albania as much I felt interested in this rare country. A communist (let me say that) country isolated from the rest of the world. Then Radio Tirana was the only open window to all those who wanted to know more about. And since this moment, I was caught by Radio Tirana, and still today, 21 years later and I daily try to listen for the open carrier waiting my favorite interval signal. I still can remember how sad I felt when I saw the tragic days when Albania changed, those ships full of people looking for a better life outwards arriving in an Italian port, the fights between the people and the police when they discover that all their moneys disappear in an pyramid money system. But today Albania is a dynamic and powerful country who is changing faster that anyone can imagine, and in overall is doing it in the right direction, and Drita, let me say that this is because Albania have the best engine that a country can have, people like you, professional, hard working person, polite and always ready to help and support others. Please give my congratulations to all the current Radio Tirana staff, and to all those were part in the past, and especially for you that are a great ambassador of the great Albania. Your friend, (George, Spain, Nov 28, via Drita Çiço, R. Tirana, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear Drita: So we passed the Jubilee of Radio Tirana, no doubt joyful moments for you who have been engaged for years in the activities of this institution. Without you, we, the listeners, would be less informed and have less emotional links with Albania. The atmosphere of a country, even though radio programmes have an official character, is conveyed by radio. What is said - and what is not said! - means a lot to the listeners. I have followed Radio Tirana as closely as possible these last few days. The introduction of a webcast from Tirana is a real gift both to you and to us. And it is functioning. Yesterday I was listening on the web and can assure you that the Greek, French and Turkish transmissions came through with high quality. But I could not listen all the time yesterday, since we also went to a wonderful concert organized by the School of Culture, where Arlinda is a student outside her normal school work, in her free time. She plays the violin and participated in the festive program of the 40th anniversary of the School. The jubilee program was a panorama of the music of this period. We had the Beatles music, ABBA, the 1980'ies and 1990'ies pop, the musical "Phantom at the Opera" with very talented young singers. Arlinda and her group performed a musical fairy-tale about a boy who went to fetch flour but it was grabbed by the Northern Wind. A teacher at the school had composed the musical interpretation of this tale, and it was really modern music! You know Prokofieff and such composers, mostly Russian, who have worked in that direction... Now I slipped away from my theme, I'm sorry. But my heart is still filled with this concert. But when I returned I thought the end of a perfect day would be with Radio Tirana, to listen to the 22.30-24.00 transmission for Albanians abroad. But what a delusion! The audio quality was not miserable, it was terrible! And this was a fact both for the webcast and the short wave broadcast. And today, the morning transmission when I am writing around 9 o'clock sounds just as bad. It is a matter of distortion and "speaking inside a box" quality! At 9.30 a program about Erich Maria Remarque started, and then the quality was super! Very strange! This matter should be taken into consideration, why is the recording of programs to be broadcast later of such low quality! Because this is something I encounter from time to time. The same goes for programs from Radio Cairo - some of the recorded items from there can't be listened to, alas, and some with interesting contents. But please, the technical directors and the technicians, study this problem carefully! It is of course very important. And you can just have a listen yourselves, to make sure Ullmar isn't exaggerating but telling the clean truth! So I felt sad and started writing some poetry: Velot e mistikes se lashte u grisen ne kohen moderne Vajza e Valeve ne estrade kendon "Ring Ring" dhe "Gimme' gimme" Ismail Qemali shkon ne Bruksel per bisedime ne BE Por udhetimi i tij perfundon ne Waterloo... Dhe gjuha shqipe mbushet me Lux, Mix dhe Sex... Larg, shume larg Manastirit po linden kopilet e gjuhes! Dhe Gjergj Elez Aliaqe qe nente vite dergjet perpara kompjuterit ..... Etc., etc.! I will not torture you with the end of it! This is my method of expressing my feelings. But of course what I wrote can also be seen as bizarre humour, and Albanians love "krip" or as they say in Kosova "kryp", so I hope no hard feelings! Now a little comment about music: THE LANGUAGE OF MUSIC In the Greek language transmission from Tirana on the Day of the Albanian Flag I felt a bit surprised. After the young man had read the news of the day he started playing music (who had made the selection I don't know). But instead of something appropriate for the day the musical section was filled with Italian opera music! I had not expected that. My memory took me back to Radio Shkodra, at the end of the 1940'ies and beginning of the 1950'ies. Their evening transmission always ended with the National Anthem. But the morning and afternoon transmissions every day ended with the very beautiful "Land of Hope and Glory" by Edward Elgar! I found this fantastic and I still do! Because that music has got the function of an anthem, like "God Save the Queen" in Great Britain. So in Enver Hoxha's Albania, the hymn of "imperialist England" was played on the Shkodra radio twice a day and this went on for years!! And nobody took measures. Just imagine what would have happened if "shoku Enver" had got to know this! What would have happened? A few years later he pronounced an anathema against a program of Strauss waltzes, Vienna waltz music, which was prepared by the Symphony Orchestra of Tirana. Beautiful music, wrote Enver, sure beautiful, but you must see it in the context of the function of this music in bourgeois society, in the Austro-Hungarian empire! And what happened! For decades I never, never heard Strauss music from Radio Tirana! It was a tabu created by the killer of culture, Enver Hoxha! And you know very well what happened after the 11th Festival of Music in December 1972! I followed everything closely, the witch-hunt process against the intellectuals at the time. It was terrible! Just the verdict of the Dictator and people were destroyed, sent to prison, to camps, to do "physical labour" and so on. And cultural life in Albania for a long, long time was similar to the desert of Sahara! So the language of music is an important language. No doubt about it. Now I listen to Vera Zheji, old speaker of Radio Tirana, who talks so nicely and with wonderful technical quality. She talks about her father Spiro and so on. Zagoria is the origin of her family. And her family were in a camp in Italy for four years during the Fascist Occupation. And then she was in Kosova and speaks with love about her Kosovar teacher! How nice, how touching! Very beautiful language is used by her. So the irritation with some transmissions with poor technical quality fades away. Kind regards, (Ullmar Qvick, Sweden, Nov 29, via Drita Çiço, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. R. Australia continues to be very attenuated on the 31m band in our mornings, while for most of the previous year it was loud and clear on 9580 until 1400, and less loud but still useable on // 9590 past 1400. However, Nov 29 at 1401, I found the weak 9580 signal with news, still on the air! Has there been a schedule change here too? 9590 also audible. But at next check 1442, nothing on 9580 tho 9590 and 7240 were audible, very poorly. 7240 also has problems from big VOA Korean signal on 7235 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. Chris Hambly says to tell you DX Partyline 11750 now at 0800 UT due to complaints was at 1300 = midnight in Eastern Australia. Cheers, mate (Johno Wright, NSW, Nov 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRIA. QSL: First one this year (sadly, I've been lazy about sending reports!). Radio Osterreich 1, 1/Nov 0047 reception from Moosbrunn 7325, FD letter (including handwritten site info!) in 3 weeks for emailed report using their web-form. v/s illegible (he sure signs a lot of QSLs from MANY stations!) Now if we just get them to continue broadcasting past the end of the year! :) (Kenneth Vito Zichi, MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) See INDIA 6025 ** BELARUS [non]. New 3960.00, 1440-1730*, CLANDESTINE, 27+28.11, R Racja, via Sitkunai, Lithuania. Belarusian talks on new B08 schedule, often ID's and R Racja jingles, Belarusian pop songs, interview of a journalist from AFP about the Belarusian President, a couple of short extracts in Arabic and Farsi 55555. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4451.14, Radio Santa Ana, Santa Ana de Yacuma, 2245 to 2255 OM en español. High band noise 29 November. 4699.31, Radio San Miguel, Riberalta, 0845-0910 long discussion, into promos for upcoming events, telephone numbers repeated. 27 November. 4716.67, Radio Yura, Yura, 0920 YL with ID, exotic flutes with yipping, 0925 YL ID. 29 November. 5952.34, Radio Pío XII, Siglo XX, 1050-1055, YL with news items, co- channel splatter to the max (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Flórida, Icom 746 Pro and NRD535D, DX LISTENING DIGEST) You mean 5950 WYFR? (gh) ** BOLIVIA. 6155.30, Radio Fides, La Paz; 1045-1054 November 29, 2008. Spanish male, folk vocal by female. Clear and fair. (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. O transmissor de oc 6010 da Inconfidência está no ar desde o dia 28/11 às 14:30 [UT or DST?] Operando a penas com o transmissor reserva de 5 kW, 24hs, o transmissor titular de 50 kW está com o transformador queimado. O trasmissor de AM 880 está operando com 100 kW 24 hs. Inf. do funcionário dos transmissores, Sr. Antonio (andorinha), fone 31-33941388 SDS. Jaime por bh (Jaime Soares, Belo Horizonte, Nov 29, radioescutas yg via DXLD_) ** BRAZIL. R. Cultura SP, 9615 missing: já consegui contato com o pessoal da emissora, que informou que já foi contratado o serviço de reparo do tx de 31m. Torçamos e aguardemos (Adriano Becker, Camaquã- RS, Nov 28, radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 9999.00, Observatório Nacional, Rio de Janeiro; 2126-2130 30 November, 2008. Threshold at best, with WWV on 10 MHz and this being apparently USB + carrier. "Observatório Nacional..." by male weakly audible at the :53 mark, but nothing else making it (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) If it is accidental, strange it is .00 (gh, DXLD) ** BULGARIA. 1 December 2008, 6000 kHz, Radio Varna, Bulgarian, 0130 UT, SINPO 44444 (Andy Martynyuk, Moscow, Russia, Degen 1103, DE31MS, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UT Mondays only ** CANADA. Lately I have not been able to detect even a carrier from CFRX, e.g. Nov 30 at 1355; nor a SAH on CVC 6070 at night. CFRX yahoogroup reported that power was down to 250 watts, and modulation fix was still awaiting arrival of some tech from south of the border, but now I wonder if it is on the air at all (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. It looks like it might be the end of the line for one of the most prominent broadcast facilities in Quebec. Under a development plan now under review, the 35-year-old Maison Radio Canada, the Montreal headquarters for Radio-Canada and the CBC`s Quebec operations, would be converted into apartments or a hotel, with Radio- Canada/CBC moving its studios and offices to new buildings on the site along Boulevard Rene-Levesque. Much of the remaining land on the site would be redeveloped with new housing, office and retail spaces as part of the C$1.6 million project (Scott Fybush, NE Radio Watch Nov 24 via DXLD) More, illustrated: http://www.insidethecbc.com/big-moves-for-cbc-montreal (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** CANADA. The CRTC has plenty of work on its agenda over the next few months, with a big public hearing scheduled for January 26 in Orillia to consider a slew of new station applications and a few troublesome license renewals. Perhaps the most troublesome has been Pellpropco's CHSC (1220 [logo: ``RADIO UNO 1220 Toronto``]) in St. Catharines, Ontario, which has been in the CRTC's sights recently amidst accusations that the station had abandoned its service to its city of license on the Niagara Peninsula in favor of serving Italian-speaking listeners in Toronto. The CRTC says there's evidence that CHSC has considerably exceeded the 15% limit for "third-language" (non-English/French) programming. There are also issues with CHSC's required financial statements, missing logger tapes, and even the location of CHSC's main studio. The station lost its old St. Catharines studio in a bankruptcy auction a few months back, and has apparently been operating from a sales office in the Toronto suburb of Woodbridge (Scott Fybush, NE Radio Watch Nov 17 via DXLD) ** CANADA [and non]. I have to admit, since the flip from News to Talk to Oldies, I've still kept the radio tuned to 940 AM. While not perfect, they're the only station in Montreal that doesn't have to follow the non-hit rules making most other stations unlistenable after 7 PM. [CINW] While the programming on 940 is decent within the confines of the CRTC, I have to comment on the superior quality of their audio. I've listened to a lot of AM radio stations, and 940's audio processing is among the best I've heard out there. Compared to south of the border where most stations equalize their signal to the quality of a telephone signal for IBOC and to "make it sound louder", 940 has equalized their audio to seemingly a full 10 kHz. At home, I have a Pioneer TX-9800 from the late 70's with a wide bandwidth setting on AM. Once I flip the switch from narrow to wide, the sound rivals many of the FM stations in town. Does anyone know what sort of processing unit they use? Cheers, (Brian P. McGlynn, Nov 10, radioinmontreal yg via DXLD) The worst quality sound of any AM station I have heard has to be WYBG 1050 in Massena NY. Tuned into it for a shot of news while passing through Cornwall awhile back, and it sounded as if they were talking through a tin can! I seem to remmeber better sound quality listning from dorval back in the seventies when they played music (Neal Ford, ibid.) Sometimes, the answer is as simple as the techs keeping the lawn mowed around the stick or sticks that form the transmitter array on the grounds near the AM transmitter. An AM station's upkeep is sometimes that painfully simple. It doesn't make any difference whether the station is a small town 1,000 watt'er or CFCX shortwave; an increased water table created by an unkempt transmitter site can bring down a listening area by as much as 10%, in some cases. That can play havoc with the listenability. All the tricks which come in boxes would never have anything to do with that. I heard one AM station once that sounded sidebandy, like that teacher on the Charlie Brown TV specials, in certain parts of the listening area. Rode by the transmit site; sure enough, growth up to my waist. WSTJ-1340 uses an Orban Optimod AM 9100B, and if the owner as much as puts his fingers inside of the thing, 1340 lashes with a wet noodle. Grins. Only because he's tone deaf and never uses headsets when tweaking anything (Bob Welch, Chief Operator, WSTJ, ibid.) ** CHAD. 6165, RNT, 2225-2231*, Nov 29, hi-life music. French announcements. Sign off with National Anthem at 2230. Good level but poor to fair overall quality due to co-channel QRM & adjacent channel splatter (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Firedrake has returned to 9000 after short absence, 1526- 1529, Nov 28, // 6105. At 1607 heard Firedrake on 9000 and 7335. 4940, Voice of Strait, 1500-1525, Nov 30 (Sun.), "This is the Voice of Strait, Fuzhou, China", program in English ("Focus on China"), only broadcast on Sunday, news items about events in China this past week, music bridges between items, brief promo for China, requests listeners of Focus on China (the "weekly English program on the Voice of Strait radio station") to call in to the station or contact them at their website, no AIR QRM (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) CHINA jamming GERMANY? q.v. ** CHINA. 1 December 2008, 0115 UT, 3990 kHz, PBS Xinjiang, Uighur language, SINPO: 33333. 1 December 2008, 0130 UT, 4500 kHz, PBS Xinjiang, Mongolian language, SINPO: 43433 (Andy Martynyuk, Moscow, Russia, Degen 1103, DE31MS, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. Hola, He actualizado los datos de las emisoras en FM desde Cali, con varias novedades. Pueden visitarla en: http://yimber.blogspot.com/2008/08/emisora-fm-de-cali-colombia-26-agosto.html y para el AM pueden hacerlo en: http://yimber.blogspot.com/2008/08/emisoras-am-de-cali-colombia-3-agosto.html 73 de (Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CROATIA. 1 December 2008, 0100 UT, 3985 kHz, Voice of Croatia, Croatian, SINPO 43543 (Andy Martynyuk, Moscow, Russia, Degen 1103, DE31MS, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. RHC, 11760, Sat Nov 29 at 1406 starting Cartas a la Redacción program, announced as also airing at 10:05 pm hora de Cuba. Audio on this frequency was lo-fi and distorted, quite unlike relatively well- modulated // 12000 with which it was also out of synch. Obviously two different transmitter sites, but 11760 feed route really inferior (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Radio Havana Cuba, 9550 kHz at 0541 GMT --- Excellent reception of DXers Unlimited. Arnie discusses a DXpedition next Feb to a Caribbean island [DESECHEO, q.v.] with protected wildlife and environmental status which may have unexploded US ordinance on it, the ongoing CW contest, how to overcome front end overload on a Grundig FR-200 when using an external antenna (via antenna tuner + attenuator - or - twisting a couple wraps of insulated wire from the external around the whip without allowing the metal to touch,) and the ability to transmit microWattage low-speed CW (CRSS) half-way around the world on the 30m band (complete show): http://www.mediafire.com/?ibolnzzmzzn (Terry Wilson, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. DISCLAIMER FOR ALL LW/MW ITEMS: No portion of the below may be reproduced or redistributed by the National Radio Club, their editors or current members without expressed written permission, which will then be swiftly, and we do mean swiftly denied. Editors receiving this directly from me are excluded provided this entire disclaimer is included once, where any of the below MW items are reproduced. 1550, CUBA, bubble jammer; 1029-1031 and 1115 November 29, 2008. Fair to good, though mostly under WRHC. Pretty much atop channel at 1115. Anyone in South Florida know if the 1520 identical format bubble jammer I discovered in the Keys a couple of months ago is still active? Just happened to notice that the WRTVH-2008 still lists WRHC on formerly renegade used 1560 (in the by-frequency table only). (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. Altho I refuted the DX Mix News, Bulgaria schedule for R. República showing 0500-0600 UT Sun, Mon on 6010 via Rampisham, right next to that item as published in DXLD, at least two other DX bulletins have ignored this and published it without question. I have now checked during that hour on five different dates, including Nov 30, and *no* sign of such a transmission. The only way it got connected with República is that before it was supposedly starting, I suggested it *might* be for República as there is little other demand now for that westward azimuth from Rampisham, 285 degrees. Axually it`s for CIRAF Zone 8, which is USA E of meridian 90, not including Cuba. Who knows, something may eventually show up here, so keep checking (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CYPRUS. 6180 / 7210 / 9760, Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation; *2214- 2220 November 20, 2008. Carrier up on all channels at 2214, interval signal X 2 from 2215, Greek ID and chatter by man and woman. All channels excellent, but 7210 co-channel Radio China International in Spanish (via Albania). (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DESECHEO. KP5, DESECHEO ISLAND DXPEDITION (Updates and News)....... ........ DXpedition dates have been assigned! February 12-26th, 2009! * Team 2009 Desecheo has been updated on their Web page. The On-Island Team now includes: Ralph Fedor/K0IR, Glen Kesselring/K0JGH, Grant Kesselring/K1KD, Brad Farrell/K4RT, Bob Allphin/K4UEE, Tim Pearson/K5AC, Dick Hanson/K5AND, Gary Stouder/K9SG, George Nicholson/N4GRN, Mike Mraz/N6MZ, Mike Thomas/NA5U, Neil King/VA7DX, Steve Wright/VE7CT, Glenn Johnson/W0GJ, Jim Livengood/W0NB, Gordon Hardman/W0RUN, John Crovelli/W2GD, Gregg Marco/W6IZT, Garry Ritchie/W8OI and Jerry Rosalius/WB9Z. The Off-Island Team now includes: Asia Pilot Station Toshi Kusano/JA1ELY, Propagation Dude Carl Luetzelschwab/ K9LA (check out Carl's Propagation section on the Web page), QSL Manager Bob Schenck/N2OO, Webmaster Chaz Cone/W4GKF and Antenna Guru Paul Playford/W8AEF. Remember, for updates visit the KP5 Web page at: http://www.kp5.us * The Documentary Archive Radio Communication provides, on its Web site http://www.dokufunk.org a special coverage of the forthcoming KP5 Desecheo DXpedition: A first exclusive interview with Co-Team Leader Glenn Johnson, W0GJ, and extensive background information on this and all prveious KP5 expeditions. Further interviews before, during, and after the February 2009 Dxpedition are scheduled (The Ohio/Penn DX PacketCluster, DX Bulletin No. 886, December 1, 2008, Editor Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW Provided by BARF80.ORG (Cleveland, Ohio), via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** DIEGO GARCIA. 4319 USB, AFRTS, 1405-1510, Nov 28, CBC [CBS??] Radio Network News, "You are listening to AFN", Dr. Joy Browne call-in talk show, ID "American Forces Network", many PSA, ToH "AP News", weak but clear signal; 1427-1454, Nov 30, NPR programming, interview with Sal Paolantonio who wrote "How Football Explains America", fair (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DJIBOUTI. 4780, Radio Djibouti, 2055-2102*, Nov 29, local Horn of Africa style music. Arabic announcements. Sign off with National Anthem. Weak. Poor with strong CODAR QRM (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. EQUADOR - As emissões em português da HCJB Global vão ao ar no seguinte esquema: das 1500 às 1700, em 11705 kHz; das 1730 às 2000, em 15295 kHz. Por fim, das 2300 às 0230, em 11920 kHz. A emissora está readequando alguns horários de emissões e também alguns departamentos. O Departamento de Português, em Quito, onde atuava Eunice Carvajal, foi extinto (Célio Romais blog Nov 28 via DXLD) UT ** EGYPT. 1 December 2008, 6290 kHz, Radio Cairo, Arabic, 0200, SINPO 54353 (Andy Martynyuk, Moscow, Russia, Degen 1103, DE31MS, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA. 7205, while not fully identified, seems like VoBME here 11/30. Last reported on 7219.98 where it was reported blocked by Ethiopian jamming transmission soon after s/on. If this indeed is VoBME, as it seems, the Ethiopian failed to find it as no jamming. No signal at 0400 check. No usual IS. But at 0403 retune already into programming with news by man, later HoA type music. Program pattern and language seemed same as previously noted from VoBME when on 7100. Also as in past, signal faded out early, by 0415. 6175 much weaker, and different service (Don Jensen, Kenosha WI, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA. 6889.93, Radio Fana, 2030-2059*, Nov 30, local music. Amharic announcements. Poor to fair. // 6110 - good level but with co-channel QRM. 7110, Radio Ethiopia, 2035-2101*, Nov 30, Amharic talk. Euro-pop ballads. US pop ballads. Sign off with National Anthem at 2059. Fair signal with weak co-channel QRM. // 9704.19 - poor with QRM from 9705 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [non]. Is China jamming Deutsche Welle? -- DW director Erik Bettermann said in an RBB interview about DW's Chinese service that it would be jammed by China at varying intensity. He said that they "are playing music over it", an obvious reference to Firedrake. I never heard about DW being amongst the victims of the SARFT transmission command, so what are the experiences? I tried some of the recordings of DW Chinese currently available in IBB's RMS and found that reception of the 1030-1150 transmission was rather noisy on all frequencies while for the 2300-2350 transmission Yelizovo (Kamchatka) on 11830 was pretty good. Be that as it may, nowhere a trace of jamming, also not of co-channeling with CNR-1, since what I heard was no doubt the DW programming, judging from German takes with voice-over and various keywords. Erik Bettermann also said that those Chinese dissidents living in Germany can hardly be able to pick up the broadcasts on another way than online, because "we transmit them from Sri Lanka, thus it's not possible to receive them in Germany". Well, in particular the Trincomalee frequencies could in fact well be audible. But a more important point: These dissidents are not too unlikely to own a satellite dish, and at least two years ago (I would have to look for more recent data) all three broadcasts were on Hotbird and two of them on Astra 1E, too. And an Astra dish is certainly in no way an exotic reception method. [see below] And to summarize Bettermann's points of view: They have translated many Chinese programs (back) to German and found no any evidence for the claim that they praised the Chinese regime. It can be asked how good the journalistic work was, but these critical points do not justify the assertion that DW is a mouthpiece of China's Communist Party. External experts will be consulted to improve the quality of the programmes. DW has to keep its journalistic distance, not only from the regime but also from the dissidents. "We are no missionary station" and DW will never be a surrogate service, also not for countries with a dictatorship (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Nov 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Necessary correction: Astra 1E is of course no longer in use on 19.2 deg. East but instead on 23.5 deg. now. And DW's previous Astra arrangement has been replaced by the ARD radio mux on Astra 1H, but without channel #3. Thus Chinese should now be on Hotbird only. Another interesting detail: This whole mux is also carried in DVB-C format on German cable nets (Kabel Deutschland prefers to completely decode and reencode anything, thus all these programs are on their feed position 23.5 deg. East, too), including Deutsche Welle (Kai Ludwig, Germany, UT Dec 1, ibid.) ** GREENLAND. 3815, 2035-2113* 22.11 KNR, Tasiilaq. Greenlandic pop songs and talk, new schedule, QRM ham or utility conversation 24232 poor audio - not audible every night. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) How is it a new schedule? Regular approx. sign-off time in summer has apparently continued in winter. I guess you mean new compared to last winter (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** GUATEMALA. Dear Edgar: We are still not hearing Radio Verdad back on the air. Could you update us on the delays and how the repairs are going? And when you now expect to resume? Best wishes, Glenn Hauser (To Dr. Édgar Amílcar Madrid, Radio Verdad, Nov 29, via DXLD) Thank you, Glen for your good concern on our Station "Radio Verdad". You can imagine how sad I have felt all this time. First of all, it was a very bad lightning that destroyed the two power modules of our transmitter (the worst damage in life). I friend of mine (technitian) changed transistors to one of the modules, but, they exploded as soon as I installed the module. So, I decided to get help from somebody else. It took me a whole month to find a technitian who would do the job. He seemed to be willing. Then, it took us another month to get the power transistors from Miami (very difficult to find). Our problem now is that, the technitian has NOT put much interest in doing the repairs. First of all, he took two weeks to pick up the transistors from the dealer. And, after that, he has NOT started to fix the modules yet. We have been pleading him to do the job soon, but he has been somewhat indifferent. I think he supposes that we won't have enough money to pay his job. And, of course, we don't have much money left, but we'll do the effort to get it. Every time we call him on the telephone, he promises us to send the modules within three or four days, but he doesn't do it. So, we are just praying God that He may lead him to start the job. Very many listeners from the whole world have communicated their good concern and sadness to us for the situation, as we have been off the air for over three months. So, I am just waiting for the modules, to install them and go on the air. As soon as we get back on the air, I will inform you. We hope to be back on the air very soon (if the technitian has mercy upon us). In the mean time, you can tune our signal over Internet, even though I am sure that all DX'ers prefer Short Wave signals. Our Internet address is as follows: http://www.radioverdad.org May God bless you and thanks you for your constant concern (Dr. Édgar Amílcar Madrid, Manager and Director, Radio Verdad, 4052.5, Nov 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hmmm, let's hope the Deity (upon all deities) moves the human party to do something on this. They've said praying moves mountains, maybe Edgar, this is in need of a little pushing from all of us. 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUATEMALA. 4799.7, Radio Buenas Nuevas, 2245 with ID frequency and location, still suffering from co-channel 4800 Mexico, 29 November 1245 with IDs, as Mexico faded out. 4780 Guatemala silent this week (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Flórida, Icom 746 Pro and NRD535D, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 5010, 1530-1545 28.11, AIR Thiravananthapuram. English news from Delhi, "What is the latest from Mumbai ?" and then a live report about the situation, nationality of some killed foreigners, Pakistani Security Chief to assist Mumbai Police, advs, increased security in Delhi, Mumbai Stock Exchange rates, ID 45344. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** INDIA. 6065, AIR in Hindi, film songs, 0202 Oct 10, SIO 333 (Robin Tancoo, Fyzabad, Trinidad, Nov 1, by p-mail, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No AIR was scheduled here in A-08, but AWR in Urdu via Austria was. I wonder if Robin understands Hindustani (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** INDIA. 1 December 2008, 6155 kHz, AIR Delhi, Urdu, 0200, SINPO 32422 (Andy Martynyuk, Moscow, Russia, Degen 1103, DE31MS, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN. 1 December 2008, 6120 kHz, IRIB, English, 0150, SINPO 44343 (Andy Martynyuk, Moscow, Russia, Degen 1103, DE31MS, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. Radio Farda's huge signal from Wertachtal 13680 keeps overriding that one from Cuba, as soon as they sign-on at 1230. Good part of those 250º are really makin' it into Tikizia. Began to notice this from a couple of Sundays back, when En Contacto from RHC opens at 1335. 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I was also hearing presumed that, after 1400 Sunday Nov 30, but by then RHC was gone from 13680, like it used to do on Sundays only instead of 1500* due to Aló, Presidente, which still has not resumed anyway; see VENEZUELA [non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ITALY [non]. 15725, Nov 30 at 1428 good signal with preacher in English discussing Genesis, something which is not there other days of week. Unfortunately I was tuning elsewhere when it must have gone off, if there was any sign-off or ID, as nothing there by 1431. Is PWBR `2009` any help? Of course not! Nothing shown on 15725 except Pakistan at some other time, and this was no Pakistan. Axually it must have been IRRS/NEXUS-IBA/IPAR/EGR via Slovakia, as scheduled Sundays only 1400-1430 at 95 degrees with ``The Watchman``, per http://www.nexus.org/NEXUS-IBA/Schedules/sun.htm BTW, PWBR also misses other stations currently scheduled on 15725: T8WH, and DW DRM via Portugal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JAPAN [non]. NHKWNRJ, 11705 via Canada, Sat Nov 29 at 1410-1429* had their monthly story-telling instead of World Interactive, i.e. Tales of Genji from a millennium ago, intrigue in the palace involving relations with various women. W & M speakers delivered it, and well- produced with traditional music and sound-effects. Pre-echo from Yamata barely audible in background this time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5910, Shiokaze/Sea Breeze, *1400-1404, Nov 28 (Fri.), in English, ID, into "Today's News Flash" (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KUWAIT. Re 8-123: Nothing heard on 13600 kHz now at 1820 Nov 30. 73, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KYRGYZSTAN. 1 December 2008, 0125 UT, 4010 kHz, Kyrgyz Radio, Kyrgyz language, SINPO: 32232. RX: DEGEN 1103, Antenna: DE 31MS, QTH: Moscow (Andy Martynyuk, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LAOS. 4412.6, Sam Neua from 1100 recording start with decent carrier but no real audio until 1125 when heard some type of Laotian music program fading in and running to 1200 with man announcer. At 1200 intro instrumental music followed by man with what sounded like news program with actualities, etc. from 1201.5 to 1214. Woman and man 1214 to 1229. Woman 1229-1230. Strong but not overwhelming CODAR QRM, but otherwise low noise levels. SINPO 23442. Signal improved slightly from 1125 to 1230 end of recording (Bruce Churchill, CA, Nov 30, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Recorded from where; date? (gh) ** LAOS. Hi Martien, re DXLD 8-123: Thank you for the tip. Agree with you this must certainly be LNR, although I could not hear a positive ID. Listened on 7145, from 1307-1357, Nov 29 (Sat.): non-stop taking in French by man (could make out enough words to be sure was in French), 1321 woman in French till BoH (no music in the French segment), into English (again only able to make out a few clear words), 1342 non-stop SE Asia music and songs. The language certainly conforms to the LNR schedule (per Eibi) and the music is also consistent for them. Was poor reception due to strong adjacent stations on both 7140 and 7150, so I bounced between USB and LSB to get the best reception possible. By 1357 Ham QRM covered them. A challenging frequency! Also heard LNR today with fair reception on 6130, from 1417-1433 with an English lesson (along with Laotian translations) for "New Dynamic English" ("Hi, I am Max", "Hello my name is Kathy. Welcome to New Dynamic English. New Dynamic English is a basic English language course and an introduction to American people and culture"). In addition to their scheduled Mon. & Tue. times for English, they often broadcast English again on Fri. & Sat. (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 6025, VOM in Arabic, prayers, Kor`anic recitation, 0119 11 Oct, SIO 333 (Robin Tancoo, Fyzabad, Trinidad, Nov 1, by p-mail, DX LISTENING DIGEST) That`s rather late after sunrise for Malaysia, and besides, scheduled here in A-08 was IRIB Iran in Bengali (gh, DXLD) ** MALI. 5995, ORTM, Bamako; 2138-2156 November 30, 2008. Percussion and female vocal highlife, French man briefly, then man and woman in local language. Very good (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 6044.92, XEXQ (presumed), 0409-0429, Nov 30, best reception ever! Non-stop classical music, enjoyable till totally covered at 0429 with sign-on of AWR in French on 6045.0 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MONACO [non]. Monte Carlo Radiodiffusion --- Hello Glenn, In last edition, someone ask where are produced the English broadcasts of TWR Europe. It’s from TWR United Kingdom in Altrincham (near Manchester). By the way, here is the winter schedule for transmissions over Monte Carlo Radiodiffusion from Monaco/France. Winter 2008/2009 All times UT Centre de Fontbonne (06) : TransWorld Radio 0645-0700 : 5915 kHz Polish 0645-0700 : 7335 kHz Polish 0700-0715 : (M ,Tu,Th,F) 5915 kHz Czech 0700-0715 : (M,Tu,Th,F) 7335 kHz Czech 0745-0920 : (Sun.) 9800 kHz English 0800-0850 : (M-F) 9800 kHz English 0815-0850 : (Sat.) 9800 kHz English 0900-0930 : (Sat.) 7210 kHz Serbian 0930-1000 : 7210 kHz Hungarian 1100-1130 : (Sat.) 9440 kHz Romanian Monaco Radio (Utility) weather forecast in French & English 0730, 1303, 1830 on 8728 kHz SSB Centre du Col de la Madone (06) : Radio Chine Internationale 0800-1300 : 702 kHz French 1300-1500 : 702 kHz Chinese 1500-1800 : 702 kHz Italian 1800-2300 : 702 kHz French Radio Maria France 0500-1900 : 1467 kHz French Centre de Roumoules (04) : RMC Info 0330-2305 : 216 kHz French TransWorld Radio 2045-2315 : 1467 kHz Arabic 2315-0000 : 1467 kHz English (except 2330-0000 (Fr) in French). (Christian Ghibaudo, Nice, France, Nov 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. Bandscanning Nov 30 at 1356, all I could get on 6170 was an open carrier, maybe RNZI, or have they jumped to a wrong frequency again? But at 1412 recheck, back to normal with coastal weather forecasts (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. 6089.85, Radio Nigeria, Kaduna, 2045-2157, Nov 30, vernacular talk. Some local African music. Poor with adjacent channel DRM splatter. Completely covered by Anguilla 6090 at their 2157 sign on (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. 1580, KOKB, Blackwell. 11/20 2259 [EST]. Wrap-up of OSU- Tulsa basketball game on OSU Network; local ID at 2259:45: “You’re listening to Oklahoma State University sports on 1580 KOKB Blackwell,” with no mention of KOKP or KOSB (FM); back to wrap-up after the ID. Very likely not on 49-watt night power at this time, as they should have been (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge CO, NRC DX News via DXLD) see also USA [non?] for new `rez` stations; USA for gh`s daytime bandscan ** PERU. 3329.53, Ondas del Huallaga, Huánuco noted early sign on 0930 vocals and percussion, YL with "atenciones" heard which seem rare in 2008. 4826.45, Radio Sicuani, Sicuani, 1030 to 1040, IDs and Andean music 29 November. 4990.94, Radio Manantial, Huancayo, 1040-1050 noted with interference, 29 November. 5039.31, Radio Libertad, Junín with good signal 1016. 27 November. 5486.7, Radio Reyna de la Selva, Chachapoyas, 1016 strong signal, música andina with OM DJ, 27 November. 6173.8, Radio Tawantinsuyo, Cusco, 1015-1030, Andean music, weak signal but no co channel. 27 November. Best Regards, (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Flórida, Icom 746 Pro and NRD535D, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 6195.85, unidentified; 1057-1105 November 29, 2008. Definite Andean here and presumed Peruvian, with Peruvian-sounding Andean vocals, definite Spanish man at 1104. Relatively clear and fair via USB, but no ID. I generally pass on Peruvians so I'm not sure if Cusco 6193 variable is way up here? Is/was Radio Minería ever active? (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Where is that listed? Not that I know of (gh, DXLD) ** PERU. 6047.18, R. Santa Rosa (presumed), 0015-0051, Nov 30, in Spanish, long Catholic Mass (non-stop) church service, weak (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. 7320, R. Rossii, 0210-0233, Nov 30, surprised to find no local/regional programming for GTRK Magadan ("Govorit Magadan" - "Magadan speaking"), so seems that the local/regional programming I have recently heard from 0210-0300 is only broadcast during the week. R. Rossii programming noted parallel to the usual frequencies (5935, 6075, 7140, 7200 and 7345) (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SERBIA [non]. 1 December 2008, 6190 kHz, Voice of Serbia, English, 0200, SINPO 43343 (Andy Martynyuk, Moscow, Russia, Degen 1103, DE31MS, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SLOVAKIA. Was a repeat as confirmed during the "Listener Tribune" program of December 1, 2008 0100-0127 UT, 7230 kHz. Announcer confirmed having to unexpectedly repeat the "program of a couple of weeks ago". No further explanation given. 73, (Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, Manassas, VA USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. BACK ON 31 METRES: 9541.55, SIBC, Honiara. Reactivated here - hasn't been traced on 5020v of late. BBC "World Today" relay 0600, followed by ID 0630 "This is the National Service of the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation", followed by string of adverts in English. Local reggae-flavoured song after that, Pidgin announcements. Local news at 0700. BBC relay at re-check 1200. Also local mornings, 2000 with local news. Quite strong here, 29/11 (Craig Seager, Bathurst NSW, Australia, Icom R75, Loop Skywire, ARDXC via DXLD) Nominal 9545; Aoki has them on 9543, as last reported previously; QRM problems at least in NAm: DW DRM 9540-9545-9550 from 1000 via UK. CRI 9540 from 1100 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [later:] Craig Seager would like to recall the message, "Solomon Islands on 31 metre band" (Seager, HCDX via DXLD) Why??? (gh, DXLD) Hi, So what does that mean? Did you hear them or not? Your identification seemed pretty clean? If not, what did you hear? 73 from (Björn Fransson, Sweden, ibid.) Hi Björn, The logging is accurate – but I uploaded from the wrong e- mail address and clumsily attempted to re-send when it didn’t appear on the list after several hours. Apologies for any confusion. SIBC is very strong again on 9541.53 kHz right now (0755 UT) with Christmas carols. Rgds, (Craig Seager, NSW, ibid.) Moderation usually delays HCDX posts several hours (gh, DXLD) Well done, Craig, still nothing on 5020 kHz. I tried from Brisbane 3 weeks ago to hear the station on the MW frequencies and got nowhere. I've been hearing since 0300 30/11 SIBS from 9540 through to 9542.1 so it`s got the drifts, and as I type this seems to have settled down to 9541.5. BBC News at 0600 however beforehand had a wantok vernacular religious programme for Sunday. Yes, it`s becoming very strong. Seen news reports of SIBS having the power cut for not paying electricity bills. I even offered a special broadcast ex SIBS a couple of years ago for real money, but no reply (ARDXC via SIBS); I even enclosed reply postage, a couple of US dollars --- nothing. Looks like the country has not recovered from the pre-Ramsey crisis. But hey, it`s great that the 31 mb freq. now in use. Here ya go, Glen[n]. Chris Hambly just has rung me, he is now hearing 0622 on 9541 on his ICOM R75. 30/11 (John Wright, Peakhurst Sydney, Australia. ARDXC, Nov 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Looking for reactivated SIBC on 9541v, not a chance here before 0700 Nov 30, with RHC 9550 music splattering, but still no trace of it after RHC went off without any announcement (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 30 Nov at 1056 a station on approximately 9541.5 with talks and music. 1100 apparently English news by female. Rather weak in splatter from 9540 (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9541.50, 2008-11-30, 10:34:00 Solomon Island Broadcasting Corp. Vn, BC-AM, SLM, 211, Dirk N, mv, mx (Wellenforum logs, Germany, via DXLD) Johno & Craig, Even I that NEVER listens to analogue audio was curious enough to tune into the Solomon's! It's nice to turn on the FRG-7 every so often, the signal in Neutral Bay was strong and as Craig reported - playing Christmas Carols. OK now back to the dishes! :-) Cheers, (Mark Fahey, Australia, ARDXC via DXLD) ** SPAIN. REE: PEPA BENEÍTEZ DIRIJE LA GRAN DESCONOCIDA DE LAS ONDAS. Radio Exterior de España es como "una pequeña ONU" [with a portrait:] http://www.estrelladigital.es/ED/diario/57314.asp Pepa Beneítez es, desde hace pocos meses, la directora de REE(Radio Exterior de España), emisora dependiente de RNE cuya misión es la retransmisión de programas para españoles que vivan fuera del país y extranjeros interesados en España. Se nota en ella una cercanía y un conocimiento propio de las personas muy viajadas y conocedoras de culturas muy variadas. De hecho fue corresponsal en Jerusalén durante tres años y lleva más de veinte trabajando en RTVE. Desde su despacho en Prado del Rey en Madrid, dónde recibe e ESTRELLA DIGITAL, Pepa Benítez se muestra muy ilusionada con su trabajo y lucha por dar a conocer las emisiones de la radio que dirije. ¿Qué es Radio Exterior de España y en qué consiste su función? El problema de esta emisora que dirijo es el desconocimiento. Es la única emisora que puede ofrecer un servicio público puro. Tenemos una edición en español y otra en lenguas extranjeras, que se conoce aún menos que la edición en español. Tenemos emisión en árabe, inglés, francés, ruso ,sefardí y portugués. ¿Cómo es trabajar en tantos idiomas? Decimos que somos como una pequeña ONU. Radio Exterior está centralizada en Prado del Rey, en Madrid y luego contamos con toda la red de apoyo de la Corporación. Es muy importante que haya un 'feedback', por eso estamos siempre en contacto permanente con nuestros compañeros de Radio Nacional, Radio3 y por su puesto con los de la Clásica si es necesario. Trabajan con nosotros muchos extranjeros que viven aquí, muchos muy jóvenes, estamos renovando la plantilla. Somos una pequeña diplomacia de España a todos los niveles, turístico, cultural y político. Cualquier información se tiene que tratar teniendo en cuenta el país en el que se va a escuchar que puede ser cualquiera prácticamente. El mensaje se debe matizar dependiendo de la audiencia. ¿Qué elementos destacan a la hora de emitir? Es muy importante el intercambio de emisión en directo, de tal forma que podamos dialogar por ejemplo con una emisora de África e intercambiar información en el mismo momento de la emisión. Así podemos darnos a conocer en todas partes del mundo y las otras emisoras también tienen la oportunidad de darse a conocer en nuestro país. Ciudadanos extranjeros pueden reflejar su visión de su propio país a través de Radio Exterior de España. ¿Cómo se les puede escuchar? Se nos puede escuchar en otros países y la emisión en español se puede seguir en internet. Lo más importante es darnos a conocer, que no seamos unos desconocidos, para esto se están realizando varios proyectos como la creación de una revista. También queremos afianzar nuestras relaciones en vivo con otras emisoras extranjeras. Y luego queremos que las universidades cuenten con nosotros, porque se podrían realizar intercambios de talleres de radio con otros países. Poco a poco también estamos modernizando la radio. ¿Quienes son las caras visibles de REE? Radio exterior no es una radio de figuras, es una radio de equipo. Lo que queremos es dar la sensación de una radio sobria en los contenidos y el tratamiento de la información, pero hay que tener un lenguaje vivo y una música acorde con lo que se vive, no se puede vivir de las músicas del pasado. Somos 72 personas, pero somos ambiciosos y en un futuro nos gustaría incorporar más gente. (via José Miguel Romero, dxldyg via DXLD) Look at that! She doesn`t even mention SW as a means of reaching listeners, just Internet (gh, DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. Radio Dabanga comenzará transmisiones a partir de 1 de Diciembre, vía RNW http://www.informarn.nl/news/noticiasdeholanda/act081128-semana49 En el Centro de Capacitación de Radio Nederland, RNTC, se ha impartido un curso a periodistas de la red radial de Darfur, la región oriental de Sudán. La mayoría de ellos comenzará inmediatamente a trabajar en Radio Dabanga, que transmite desde RNTC hacia Darfur en cuatro idiomas locales. El curso duró cinco semanas y los participantes aprendieron a hacer radio en un ritmo muy acelerado. Se decidió emitir en los idiomas regionales porque estudios demuestran que los habitantes locales no entienden suficientemente el árabe oficial. Radio Dabanga comenzará las transmisiones el 1 de diciembre próximo, a través de la Onda Corta, por la estación repetidora de Radio Nederland, en Madagascar. Por el momento se transmite desde el centro de capacitación. En la primera etapa, la emisora será dirigida por la organización Press Now. La Red Radial de Darfur es apoyada por diferentes Gobiernos y ONG's (via José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DXLD) ** TIBET. 4905, Xizang PBS – Lhasa, 1630-1700, Nov 30, "Holy Tibet" program in English, promo for medical massage clinic in Lhasa, gives phone numbers, says Lasha clinic located in white building, door number 33, licensed students trained by doctors from Beijing medical massage clinic, foreign experts visit Lasha to also train the students, gives prices for foreigners, for local people a massage cost 55 Renminbi (about 8.06 USD), // 4920. Today 6200 totally covered with QRN (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. US GOVERNMENT AGENCY SILENCED HINDI RADIO BROADCASTS TO INDIA SHORTLY BEFORE TERRORIST ATTACKS IN MUMBAI --- Posted November 29th, 2008 by ted in All News, Blogosphere News, Congressional News, Country News, Delaware News, Government News, India News, Russia News, State News, US Government News, US News, Read 158 times. Voice of America, a U.S. taxpayer-funded international broadcaster, was off the air with shortwave Hindi radio broadcasts to India during the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The decision to silence these radio broadcasts was made earlier this year by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, a U.S. Government agency. The BBG had also stopped Voice of America radio broadcasts to Russia just 12 days before the Russian military attack on Georgia in August of this year and is refusing to resume shortwave transmission that could reach listeners in the conflict area. The Broadcasting Board of Governors has established a record of silencing or reducing VOA radio programs to countries without free media as well as countries vulnerable to ethnic conflicts and terrorist attacks. The BBG members who are appointed by the White House and confirmed by the Senate had previously tried to reduce radio broadcasts to Tibet shortly before major pro-human rights demonstrations there. The BBG also wanted to end Voice of America radio broadcasts to Georgia but that decision has been put on hold after the Russian attack. When given a chance to reconsider their decision, BBG officials ignored appeals from members of Congress who urged them not to terminate Voice of America radio broadcasts in Hindi to India. BBG officials insisted that short and infrequent TV reports and a VOA website will be sufficient for audiences in India. The Democrats selected for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, including Ted Kaufman who was recently appointed to be the US Senator from Delaware, joined forces with neoconservative Republicans on the Board to steer money away from Voice of America broadcasts and use them to finance highly controversial and scandal-ridden broadcasts to the Middle East, including Alhurra Television and Radio Sawa. Kaufman and former BBG chairman James K. Glassman, a neoconservative Republican who is now the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, voted to end VOA Hindi radio transmissions to India, Russia, and other countries. They were joined by other Democrat and Republican BBG members. Both Democrats and neoconservative Republicans on the BBG have been in favor of privatizing US international broadcasting. Only one Republican voted against the cuts in VOA radio broadcasts, which also included Voice of America English programs. Critics point out that the BBG has established a solid record of terminating and reducing programs to countries shortly before major wars, conflicts, demonstrations or terrorist attacks. Ted Lipien, president of a media freedom nonprofit, FreeMediaOnline.org, said that based on the BBG performance so far, the National Security Council, the CIA, and the Department of Homeland Security can study BBG decisions on program cuts to reliably predict where the next international crisis will take place (via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. SLOVAKIA: 5990, IRRS (presumed) Bible Thumping with "World Pastor" Tony Alamo which is NOT pronounced like the city -- the accent is on the second syllable. Program #712: today's rant was about women who shamelessly talk to men other than their husbands and thus get them all excited to have sex with them. I don't know about you, but TALKING to a woman never made me want to have sex with her. While true that it is usually a precursor to sex, talking has a lot of other things going for it too man! :) Anyway, no station ID, but this fits with IRRS sked, of European Gospel Radio and Pastor Tony's website (which along with the address and phone and fax numbers was announced by "Sharon" at the end of the show. Now was Pastor Tony "Talking" to Sharon? Inquiring minds want to know!) Ended with a song by Marty Robbins (?) with the wonderfully short title of "When the Road is Called up Yonder, I'll be there". Off with no ID. ALMOST as good as Aum Shinrikyo was, and I expect to hear more about these guys in the evening news! SIO 333 (USB helped) 0555-0630* 27/November (Kenneth Vito Zichi, MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) That`s ``When the roll is called…``, i.e., please answer ``present`` or ``absent`` (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) see also ITALY [non] ** U S A. Air Force MARS net, Sunday Nov 30 at 1416 on 7457.0 SSB, ``calling all stations in Kentucky``, 1419 Mississippi, 1420 North Carolina. Could not catch callsign of NCS beyond AFA-, but probably same as previous log March 16 at 1317 as in DXLD 8-035, AFA2AJ, and DST already having started, net was one UT hour earlier. Much more research on this in 8-031. Now has heavy QRM from broadcaster on 7455 I did not try to ID, but per Aoki would be FEBC Philippines in Hui, or IBB Deewa Sri Lanka in Pashto (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WHRI supposedly has a new Saturday-only Arabic broadcast at 1500-1600 on 17690, but no trace of it here Nov 29 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Have been listening all evening; not a trace of a signal on [WBCQ] 7415. Placed phone calls to about 20 + hams and no one east of the Mississippi can hear a sign of a carrier. Wonder if you are hearing anything on 7415? Sat evening 7:45 pm [CST = 0145 UT Nov 30, as his QSO show was about to start at 0200] 73's (Ted Randall, TN, Nov 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Ted, I was hearing 7415 fine during Marion`s Attic until 5 pm CST, but when rechecked around 6:30 pm heard nothing. Checked again just now at 8:05, and still nothing. However, not much else is making it on 7 MHz, and the higher bands are even worse, so maybe we are having a propagation disturbance. 73, (Glenn to Ted, via DXLD) Later: I did not find any disturbance showing in the figures from SWPC, or auroral displays. However, I did notice that MW DXers were complaining of openings abruptly closing around this time (gh, DXLD) ** U S A [non]. 7165, Harold Camping speaking from the bottom of a barrel with heavy reverb, Nov 30 at 1422; is YFR via Petropavlovsk/ Kamchatsky, 263 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. USofA: 3145, WWRB with dead air, ID and into Brother Arnold with the 'Repair of the Breech broadcast". This is a new frequency for them, banging in SIO 4+54+ 0335-0338 29/Nov. [LYQ: see below] 7505, WINB [sic] New Orleans LA with Jesus and Non-Jesus Rock into "In the Word" at 0433 from a cult, er church in San Diego reading from Bible and preaching -- much stuff about 'the last days' and Armageddon, etc. Real uplifting stuff! No ID, blew past the BoH and picked up at a weird time, but what the hey. There was a full ID at 0459 and mention that this is the end of their broadcast day, and email address, etc., by OM, SIO 444 0425-0500* 27/Nov. 7520, WHRA, Greenbush, ME with African accented woman doing a GOOD job of making Christianity sound like a cannibalistic cult. 'You MUST partake of the flesh of Jesus and DRINK HIS BLOOD, or it is an abomination to God!' No program ID heard, but station ID at 2159 as "This is radio station WHRA, Greenbush ME, USA." And into Teresa García with "For Zion's Sake" talking about relationship between Christianity and Judaism, and the US and Israel. SIO 444 2150-2205 22/Nov (Kenneth Vito Zichi, MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) ** U S A. ESTADOS UNIDOS VIA CHILE – É certo que, a partir de fevereiro de 2009, mudanças significativas ocorrerão na CVC – A Sua Voz, principalmente em relação aos cargos de direção da emissora (Célio Romais blog Nov 28 via DXLD) ** U S A. Is AM simulcasting on FM HD-2, HD-3 a bellwether for the band? Re my local KDKA-1020, Eric O'Brien posted an interesting comment on his PBRTV website http://www.pbrtv.com/blog/index.html "For what it's worth, and sometimes we're not sure it's worth much, KDKA (1020) now broadcasts on FM --- if you have HD Radio. Sister stations WZPT (100.7) and WDSY (107.9) air KDKA's content on their HD3 channels. Neither are available online. One report we received from an HD Radio owner said, "It is now a lot more enjoyable to listen to their station, especially at night." Some wonder if and or when WZPT's main signal would become "KDKA-FM". Somehow we don't think that will happen anytime soon. // Meanwhile, how many people have HD receivers? // The 50,000 [watt] blow torch [KDKA] has had some signal problems over the last year or so. Some blame the IBOC used on sister station WBZ (1030) from Boston. We also understand that the station was at reduced power for a time for repairs." http://www.pbrtv.com/blog/entry_789.php?w=my_weblog (C) 2008 Eric O'Brien d/b/a PBRTV (via Fred Schroyer, NRC-AM via DXLD) I posted the following response, which I'd like to share with list readers: "I am completely disgusted with KDKA and have given up as a listener. The combination of drivetime ground/skywave cancellation, WBZ IBOC (the worst offender), and the general rise if the noise floor when driving have made consistent listening to our grand old blowtorch impossible on my commute between Waynesburg, PA and Morgantown, WV. I could live with the cancellation, but the IBOC racket is overwhelming during much of drivetime. As more AM broadcasters migrate their audio to a local HD-2 or HD-3, they can abandon their AM sites entirely. This is how AM radio ends, not with a bang but a digital whimper. From a DX standpoint, it's a good thing: with many of the USA AMs going dark over the next few years -- either migrated to FM in some form or financially deceased -- the band will be more open to exciting foreign DX." (Fred Schroyer, Freelance Science Writer / Editorial Consultant, Waynesburg, PA 15370 (40 air mis S of Pittsburgh - 20 air mis N of Morgantown, WV, ibid.) ** U S A. LOW NOON MEDIUMWAVE BANDSCAN FROM NORTHERN OKLAHOMA MW bandscan from a quiet rural location several km N of Enid OK, a dead-end E of US 81 into the Quail Meadows addition, Nov 29, shortly after local mean noon which is 1832 UT, on Nissan caradio, nondirexional antenna, uncovered a few interesting things. This is about a week before our latest sunrise and another month before our earliest sunset. How much skywave will make it, and what are the limits of groundwave in this high-ground-conductivity area? Distances are approximate. 660, weak signal under KSKY Dallas, 1910 with talk mentioning Omaha; makes SAH of slightly under 2 Hz, counted at 116/minute. This frequency has been difficult because of WWLS-640 IBOC always QRMing KSKY, yes, on second-adjacent. Omaha NE is now KCRO 1 kW, vs 20 kW from somewhat closer KSKY. 670, at 1853, mix of two stations, no doubt KLTT Denver, 700 km, and WSCR Chicago 1100 km. KLTT is a regular weak signal here yearound in daytime. The other one was going thru some slow selective fading. At 1902 obviously KLTT with religion, WSCR with sports talk. 720, WGN at 1852, Saturday Noon Show with the immediately recognizable Orion Samuelson. Quite steady signal, so is it ground or skywave at 1100 km? At 1901, music in Spanish was overtaking WGN, 1.5 Hz SAH, no doubt KSAH Universal City (San Antonio) TX, 800 km, same station which messes up our WGN reception at night. 1918, WGN dominating again, now in Your Money call-in show. Nothing much happening on the X-band, e.g. 1690 Chicago? Just a trace of something; so do we have a low-band-only noontime skywave opening, or is this all groundwave? Per the NRC Pattern Book 2006, KSAH has different antenna patterns day and night but both have a null toward Chicago. Unfortunately, we are somewhat off that direct line and KSAH may also be out of whack. 840, at 1909, local weather by YL, Monday`s high 40; more info at http://www.kticam.com and ``840 Country KTIC`` ID. Website gives slogan instead as Rural Radio. This is West Point NE near Omaha, the closest 840 to here, 600 km, about half the distance to WHAS. Probably groundwave; see 660. KFAB-1110 is also audible any day. 850, at 1908 KOA ID in passing over music from TX station. Less than KLTT-670, KOA Denver CO barely makes it here in daytime by groundwave. 1100, hoping for WZFG Fargo if they are back to 50 kW fullpower, but instead had usual fringe daytime dominator, KKLL Joplin MO, 350 km; after instrumental excerpt from America The Beautiful, outro for program named Radio Liberty? At 1859 string of maybe a dozen legal IDs for stations in AR, MO and IL at least, with KKLL somewhere in the middle of the list. However, at 1915 there was a fast SAH, maybe sports talk under country/gospel music? Most likely KDRY Alamo Heights (San Antonio) TX, judging from 1200 definite, 720. Is the 50 kW 1100 in Louisiana on the air yet? I still have hopes for pulling WZFG by daytime skywave if not groundwave, by latching onto a N/S defacto fence Beverage around here, but that may also bring up KDRY instead. 1200, at 1858 fast SAH between two very weak signals, but at 1907 WOAI ID in passing, just barely audible, and fading. Fortunately, not strong enough to carry any significant IBOC with it, and I could still hear KGYN 1210, and TX/KS on 1190. 1540, at 1856 car talk show over a weaker signal. 1904 in ABC News, ID ``Talk Radio 1540, KNGL, McPherson`` (Kansas), local weather. I was looking for KXEL Waterloo IA, heard a few days earlier but a sesquihour later, dominating 1540 by skywave, and this faked me out with the same slogan. Other notes: IBOC from OK stations ruined the following: 630, 650, 990, 1010, 1160, 1180, 1290, 1310. A pair of deer loped by at 1914. This was a MW mini-DXpedition, but on the way back I tuned around FM, and confirmed that 99.7 is still vacant, awaiting the Mustang OK station to come on, having been hijacked from Enid/Alva as KZLS. BTW, KZLS has modified CP to be 39 kW/154 m rather than 25 kW/100 m, but still a lot less than the original station KXLS near Helena halfway between Enid and Alva, later renamed KNID, which was 100 kW ERP at 256 meters AAT. 99.7 was so vacant that I heard a couple of nice meteor bursts at 1924 and 1927 plus several weaker ones in a 5-minute period. Welcome, Geminids? (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nice list. What does a Meteor Burst sound like? How can I distinguish it from "normal" crap noise? Was surprised you couldn't get 770 KOB up where you are at (Bob Combs, NM, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Bob, The meteor burst brought a split second of audio from some FM station. Also known as meteor scatter. The signal reflects off the ionized meteor trail during its brief existence. Heard a couple of words or syllables. You have to be VERY lucky to catch something identifiable (or sometimes bursts overlap or last a few seconds, increasing chances). Just sit on a wide-open FM frequency and wait, especially when a meteor shower is in progress. This shows you don`t need a big antenna altho that would help. I have never managed KKOB on groundwave from here. Possibly I could with a beverage in daytime. Otherwise there is a lot of slop from 760 and 780, and there is the TX station on 770 too. KKOB is a little further than KOA, but doesn`t get out as well to the east across the mountains and with less ground conductivity. In the car, I believe it reaches a bit past the border into the TX panhandle but not as far as Amarillo. 73, (Glenn to Bob, via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Wow, some amazing catches from Glenn. I was especially interested in his catch of WGN for two reasons ---that's quite a haul for noon (high low or otherwise), coming all the way from CHI town into Oklahoma, but also his recognition of Orion Samuelson. I have spoken with him many times in person and, for sure, no one has a voice quite like that! On one of Samuelson's many visits to Arizona, he gave me a tip about a KDWN maintenance shut down that led to me getting a WGN QSL. ;D Rick sez (Rick Barton, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. ON THE REZ: PERMITS IN HAND FOR 29 NEW NATIVE STATIONS Originally published in Current, Nov. 24, 2008 By Dru Sefton and Steve Behrens Native American public radio stations will nearly double in number if tribes and nonprofits are able to build the 29 or more that have received FCC construction permits. There were already 33 Native- controlled stations, mostly on reservations. Sites range geographically from the Ka’u district of Hawaii’s big island, licensed to a nonprofit in Hilo, to northeastern Minnesota, licensed to a Chippewa tribal band (list below). Twenty-one of the 29 CPs are held by tribal governments, said Loris Ann Taylor, executive director of Native Public Media. Among the future listeners: Native Alaskans in dozens of tiny subsistence villages where people catch, smoke and dry salmon on the roadless tundra and where the radio plays constantly in the general store, according to Ron Daugherty, g.m. of KYUK-AM in Bethel. The Bethel station snagged seven CPs for FM repeaters to reach the villages. Taylor said last week she continues to hear of additional CPs granted, as the commission grinds out approvals following up on its first-in- years application opportunity in October 2007. Thirty-seven Native American groups filed 58 applications for stations during the free-for-all a year ago. Some found there were no unused FM frequencies available in their vicinities, especially in more densely populated areas, Taylor said. “It raises the issue of inclusion,” she told Current, noting that there are more than 500 federally recognized Native American nations. She suggested that federal policymakers take steps to bring broadband Internet service to those and other rural regions, for Native Americans and others. “When you have certain tribes that are locked out and in saturated markets,” Taylor said, “it makes a great deal of sense to make sure they are on the broadband highway.” Where reservations have stations, listeners really tune in. “They’re hearing news about who died, who was born, what celebrations are happening,” Taylor said. In the White Mountain Apache reservation of east central Arizona, she said, almost every community member listens to KNNB. [Feature on KNNB, 2002.] Daugherty, g.m. of Bethel’s KYUK — “Right now there’s four inches of snow, it’s a clear blue sky with an ambient temperature of 16 below,” he says — is pleased to offer his listeners new services. Bethel Broadcasting will use seven of its CPs for new FM repeaters, one for a new FM service in Bethel and one to replace an existing translator. Tribes from Bethel to Hawaii and across America joined forces in the campaign for FM frequencies. John Crigler, an attorney who has been working with Native radio efforts since 1981, said Native Public Media coordinated “the first effort I know of to try to organize that world.” “Tribes, like nonprofits, are generally used to working in isolation,” Crigler observes. NPM, affiliated with the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, said last week it is expanding its efforts to assist Native groups in using broadband as well as broadcast hookups. The group reassigned its director of station services, Peggy Berryhill (Muscogee Creek), to serve as director of media architecture, overseeing the expanded effort. Berryhill broke ground years ago as a Native American producer at NPR and as p.d. for pubradio stations in San Francisco; Berkeley, Calif., and Albuquerque, N.M. Camille Lacapa (Hopi-Tewa), formerly station and audience relations manager of Native Voice One, the pubradio satellite network, was appointed NPM’s network services manager. She was station manager of WOJB-FM in Reserve, Wis., from 1995 to 2005. Taylor said tribes are finding their own mixes of funding for the stations. Some will apply for Public Telecommunications Facilities Program matching grants. UNOFFICIAL LIST OF CPS RECEIVED -- The 29 construction permits tallied by Taylor so far were given to 19 organizations in these regions: Alaska and Hawaii: Bethel Broadcasting Inc., Bethel, Alaska (9 CPs); Haola Inc., Hilo, Hawaii; Hoonah City School District, Hoonah, Alaska; Kotzebue Broadcasting Inc., Kotzebue, Alaska. Midwest: Bois Forte Tribal Council, Nett Lake, Minn.; Corporation for Native Broadcasting, Sisseton, S.D.; Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Cloquet, Minn.; Native American Community Board Inc., Lake Andes, S.D.; Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Rosebud, S.D.; Santee Sioux Nation, Niobrara, Neb. Southwest [sic]: Cherokee Nation [not a rez], Tehlequah [sic], Okla.; Dine [sic] College, Tsaile, Ariz.; Navaho Technical College, Crownpoint, N.M. West: Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boy’s Reservation, Elder, Mont.; Fremont County School District No. 21, Fort Washakie, Wyo.; Karuk Tribe of California (2 CPs), Happy Camp, Calif.; Kute Inc., Ignacio, Colo.; Native Media Resource Center, Gualala, Calif. (Current via DXLD) WTFK x 29? ** U S A. Trying to stay awake after getting back home from visiting relatives in Katy, TX, for a late Thanksgiving meal, I was tuning around on my barefoot Sangean DT-400W. 27 Nov 2008, 529 kHz, LYQ, TN, Morristown - According to the RNA database, this beacon is in Morristown, but I remember some debate on this list about the exact location. Heard in the null of Cuba's Radio Enciclopedia on 530 kHz at 11:30 PM CST. 73, (Steve N5WBI Ponder, Houston TX, ABDX via DXLD) Steve, Good catch on LYQ, 100 watts from Morrison, TN. The beacon is at a private airport co-located with the WWRB transmitter facility based on the information I got when it became operational last year. Supposedly they will QSL beacon reception via the WWRB web site: http://www.wwrb.org I think I tried last year but never got anything :( (Chris Black, N1CP, Cape Cod MA, ibid.) Thanks! I remember now the rather lengthy discussion about LYQ being located in Morris, TN, rather than Morristown, as the RNA database indicates. Since the predicted thunderstorms have not arrived yet, I will listen again tonight. Maybe I'll hear them again and have some better details that would qualify for a QSL. Then I'll try the website!! Thanks!! (Steve N5WBI Ponder, Houston TX, ibid.) Where did Morris come from? They really are in Manchester, TN (Kevin Redding, ibid.) According to the WWRB website, their "Broadcaster Contact Address" is: Airline Transport Communications Inc. Broadcast Services Group 6755 Shady Grove Road Morrison, TN 37355, USA and their "Listener Services Address" is: Airline Transport Communications Inc. Listener Services Box 7 Manchester, TN 37349, USA So, both Manchester and Morris are listed. Hmmm ... I checked WWRB's FAQ and found this: "... Using a GPS or Loran with a Direct-To feature, our geographic position is N 35.37.50 W 086.00.01. ... You can also use our onsite NDB to locate the station. Its call letters are "LYQ" and it can be received on 529 kHz. Due to radio towers and other obstructions, our private airport is uncharted and will not appear on aircraft navigational charts for safety reasons. The airport's FAA identification is K43TN, and the facility is called ROSEANNE ..." One weblink that I found was http://www.globalair.com/airport/roseanne/43TN.aspx It stated that "FAA Airport Diagram Not Available." 73, (Steve N5WBI, Houston TX, ibid.) According to the website http://fboweb.com/airport/43TN.html this address is correct [Morrison as above]. It`s about 8 miles from Manchester (Kevin Redding, ibid.) Kevin, Thanks! It's interesting that they (WWRB/Airline Transport Communications, Inc.) would have links to nearby hotels/motels on that website since they CLEARLY state that they don't want anybody to land at their airstrip except for their own people. Hmmm ... BTW, I DID hear them last night, too, and got a much better log this time. So, as soon as I get the chance, I'll fire off a verie letter to them and see what happens! 73, (Steve N5WBI Houston TX, ibid.) Another LYQ thread: http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,112771.0.html (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) DISCLAIMER FOR ALL LW/MW ITEMS: No portion of the below may be reproduced or redistributed by the National Radio Club, their editors or current members without expressed written permission, which will then be swiftly, and we do mean swiftly denied. Editors receiving this directly from me are excluded provided this entire disclaimer is included once, where any of the below MW items are reproduced. 529, TENNESSEE, LQY (NDB), Manchester; 0748-0754 November 29, 2008. Very good under Radio Enciclopedia when in LSB mode (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. RADIO PIONEER BILL DRAKE DIES AT 71 --- HE HELPED CREATE THE 'BOSS RADIO' FORMAT ON KHJ IN THE 1960S The Register, By Gary Lycan, November 30, 2008 http://www.ocregister.com/articles/drake-radio-khj-2243451-top-boss Radio legend Bill Drake, who streamlined the Top 40 radio format in the '60s and turned it into "Boss Radio" on KHJ/930 AM, died Nov. 29 of lung cancer in Los Angeles at age 71. Drake's real name was Philip Yarbrough, but he chose his last name to rhyme with WAKE, a station in Atlanta where he worked in the late '50s. In 1962 he met KYNO Fresno station owner Gene Chenault and in short order they formed Drake-Chenault Enterprises. Drake is credited with using market research and ratings demographics to streamline the Top 40 format. DJ chatter was limited, and only the top hits were played. In 1965, the concept, called "Boss Radio," debuted on KHJ in April of 1965. Ken Levine, host of "Dodger Talk" on KABC/790 AM, recalled, "For any kid who grew up in the '60s, radio was a huge part of their life. You had a favorite station, knew all the disc jockeys, could sing their jingles. It was a shared experience. "And one station revolutionized Top 40. KHJ's streamlined approach and exciting presentation captured the imagination of an entire generation. Within several years there were 'Boss Radio' clones in every market in the country. "Bill Drake, along with Ron Jacobs, created that format. Drake became not only the most influential man in broadcasting but the music industry as well. Getting a record on KHJ could make a career. There by the grace of Bill Drake go the Doors, Byrds, Mamas & Papas, Sonny & Cher, and a hundred other '60s rock icons who might otherwise be making Blizzards at Dairy Queen today. "He later created automated music formats that ruled the nation's FM dial for most of the 70s. I worked for him in 1974. By then, he had left KHJ and was trying to duplicate its success on FM. His star disc jockeys from Boss Radio, Robert W. Morgan and the Real Don Steele were brought over to start K100," later to become K-Earth 101, Levine said. One of the company's best-remembered projects is the Drake-conceived 1969 52-hour radio special, "The History of Rock and Roll." An updated version in 1978 was narrated by Drake and has aired on more than 400 radio stations. Drake sold his interest in Drake-Chenault in 1983 and retired. There was no immediate word on plans for a funeral or memorial service (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) OBIT Bill Drake Bio Bill Drake, born Philip Yarbrough, grew up in Donalsonville, Georgia and began his radio career at WMGR in Bainbridge, while in high school. He went to college on a basketball scholarship at Georgia Southern in Statesboro and worked at WWNS. In the late Fifties, he moved to Atlanta and worked at WAKE, as a Disc Jockey. His name was changed to Drake because the station wanted a name that rhymed with the call letters. He later became Program Director of the station. WAKE was hugely successful and in 1961 Bartell Broadcasting transferred him to KYA, their San Francisco station, which he programmed. KYA also became number one. In 1962, after KYA had been sold, he was contacted by Gene Chenault, owner of KYNO in Fresno, California, who offered him a two station deal including KSTN in Stockton, which was owned by a friend of Chenault's. Both stations quickly became number one, with KYNO getting an incredible average share of 52% of the audience from 6am to midnight. Obviously, more than all 17 other radio stations combined. Drake and Chenault then formed Drake-Chenault Enterprises, Inc. In 1964 they went to KGB in San Diego. Drake took KGB from #14 to #1 and an average audience share of 21.8 in three months. Willett Brown, who owned KGB, had an old college friend, Tom O'Neal, who was Chairman of the Board of General Tire, which owned RKO General Broadcasting. Willett, who was also on the Board of Directors (and one of General Tires biggest stockholders) told O'Neal about his San Diego station. O'Neal flew out to Los Angeles, hired Drake-Chenault and pulled KHJ out of the RKO Broadcast Division to prevent any possible corporate interference. KHJ was called "BOSS RADIO" and was promoted as the "MUCH MORE MUSIC" station. It too was #1 in a matter of months. Next, in 1966, was RKO's San Francisco station KFRC. It also went #1 in a matter of months, knocking off KYA which Drake had programmed four years earlier. At that point, Drake was given all of the other RKO radio stations, which consisted of WRKO in Boston, WOR-FM New York, CKLW Windsor/Detroit, and WHBQ in Memphis. Drake then hired Bill Watson (Drake refers to him as "My Right Arm") to be his National Program Director and Point Man, with all the stations. Drake and what became known as the "Drake Format" was featured in numerous mainstream magazine articles including Time, Newsweek, True, Look, Entertainment World, and many other publications. By the late 60's and early 70's Drake-Chenault had become a massive organization offering Sales and Programming Consulting Services, including the famous Johnny Mann jingles and totally automated packages in six different formats, with over 350 full time radio stations (source? via Pete Kemp, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. DOES TEXAS HAVE A COLLEGE STATION THAT PROS RESPECT? I'm a broadcasting consultant with 28 years full time on-air exp. Recently began consulting a college station in So. Cal. that is dead serious about being a perfect model of a commercial station in every way. We have engaged the college of marketing at this university to sell underwriting. The underwriting ads work and sound alot like regular radio advertising while still within legal parameters. Equipment is now pro also. I have been given a commission to do research of any American college/university station striving to also act as a "perfect" model as well. Does anyone have a suggestion of a station I should visit for this research? Some station that is really pulling allll of the important aspects of good commercial radio into an effective lab for college students? If so, please advise! You may email me directly at: its909creative @ yahoo.com Yours in Crime, (Lacey Kendall, Nov 19, radio-info.com TX board via XLD) It's not the same as the station you are dealing with in California, but KSAU 90.3 FM in Nacogdoches, TX (Stephen F. Austin State University) ran a fairly tight ship. Music formats were dayparted (Jazz from 10 am to 5 p.m., AAA from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Alternative Rock from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.) News was at the top of every hour, backtiming was expected, local news included actualities, plus there was public service programming on the weekends. Airstaff was expected to cut a certain number of promos and psa's every semester. They hadn't gotten into underwriting when I was there. Also, KSHU at Sam Houston St. in Huntsville, TX actually had prepared playlists, and the student manager could fire DJs if need-be. I like what is happening in So Cal. (musicsweep, ibid.) Check out KUHF FM in Houston. It's not a "college" station, strictly speaking. It's owned by the University of Houston, the licensee, but the station is allowed to go its own way in programming to the general public. The format is NPR and local news/information and classical music, and the staff is 100 percent fulltime professionals. The news department of is made up of former commercial radio news anchors and reporters, with well over a hundred years of combined experience. They compete head to head with the Houston commercial stations in covering local news, and in winning awards from the Associated Press Broadcasters Ass'n and the Houston Press Club. Their stories and voices are heard frequently on NPR and American Public Media, which provides the Marketplace Morning and Evening Reports. Any one of the reporters and anchors could go to work at NPR and APM today. I've been told that only a small handful of NPR affiliates have news departments of this caliber. Underwriting announcements -- commercials -- are all read live by the anchors during Morning Edition and All Things Considered in the afternoon. None are recorded. A full time sales staff brings in those accounts. KUHF does very well in the money area. With a six million dollar annual budget, it recently raised 960 thousand dollars in its bi- annual 8-day on-air fundraising campaign. The goal was 900 thousand. Plans are to raise the goal to a million in next fall's campaign. Here's a link to its website. Among a lot of other arts related things, you'll find a deep file of recent news stories, complete with audio, transcripts and photographs. http://www.kuhf.org (oldradioguy, ibid.) All the pros in Houston love KACC, the Alvin Community College station. It programs classic rock, and it's fun to hear the kids talk about the music their parents enjoyed. Very professional operation. KTSU is also a great station at Texas Southern University. The only place in Houston where you can hear real jazz full-time (rip-n-read, ibid.) KUT in Austin used to be cutting edge, but for the future talent pool of 21st century radio people-go to Alvin, Texas and KACC. It is without peer (I am Josh Holstead-I approve this message, ibid.) KUT Austin is top drawer. They have cultivated a large and loyal audience. They have a full time news department. And they have invested in new technologies including HD Radio. They also have probably the best radio production facilities in the market. I would definitely say it's a college station that pros respect (Fred Cantú, ibid.) KACV in Amarillo. 100,000 watts. No NPR, prepared playlist. Lots of folks from Dallas, OKC, Reno... http://www.kacvfm.org (Jamey K, ibid.) While I'd never call KUT anything but professional, I'd also never call KUT a college radio station. True, it's on UT-Austin's campus, but I don't think they have any students on-air and precious few even working there. Indeed, that's one reason that KVRX was created, to give the students a place to learn the trade. http://www.kvrx.org (mmnassour, ibid.) As a General Manager, I have hired a number of college station grads. The kids I have hired from SFA in Nacogdoches have been pretty good. They are "technically sound," they understand the concept and how stuff actually gets on the air. It appears to me that SFA engages & encourages the student's creative side while keeping them in check about showing up on time, being respectful, and getting them to think about promotions and how to help create revenue. When I get 2 resumes and everything else is equal, someone with experience at SFA's campus station will get a closer look (B.A. "Sandy" Sanford, General Manager, Noalmark Broadcasting Corporation, El Dorado, Arkansas, ibid.) ** VANUATU. Hi Bryan, You recently reported you were hearing VBTC on 7260. It is being run by a amateur radio enthusiast; 7260 transmitter is only 400 Watts. RNZ are have been contracted to install two 10 kW HF transmitters. There have been delivery delays, but it is hoped to be on air in Jan or Feb 2009. Regards (Adrian Sainsbury, Technical Manager, Radio New Zealand International, P O Box 123, Wellington (via Bryan Clark, NZ, Nov 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA. 1240, 0050 4 Oct, Radio Nacional, Punta, car ads, jingles and singing ID in Spanish SIO 344 (Robin Tancoo, Fyzabad, Trinidad, Nov 1, by p-mail, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Robin sent a copy of his logs on the BDXC contribution form which unfortunately has no column for COUNTRY, so I have to guess at or research some of them. This is presumably YVNV, 50 kW at Punta Tumatey, as in WRTH 2008 frequency list (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** VENEZUELA [non]. When he suspended ``Aló, Presidente`` a couple months ago, would-be president-for-life Hugo Chávez Frías said he would resume after the elexions which have now taken place Nov 23. But looking for the show via Cuba Nov 30 at 1427, nothing found on previous or listed frequencies 13680, 13750, 17750(VOA), nor at 1440 on 11670, 11690, 11875. Nor at more chex after 1500, 1634. Maybe next week? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE. 3396, R. Zimbabwe, 0243-0405, Nov 30, DJs in vernacular with African high-life music and songs (a few in English – "I Call Your Name"), 0300 the usual canned ID (African drums, clear ID: "Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Zimbabwe", drums again, long list of cities with their FM frequencies given in "megahertz" (Harare 96 Mhz, Mutare 89.1 Mhz, etc.), detailed schedule for SW (gives kilohertz, meters and times), back to high-life music and vernacular, advertisement (believe for cigarettes: "100% pure", sound of auctioneer [tobacco auction?] - reminded me of ads heard in the States many years ago), T.C.'s ("18 past 5", "29 past 5", etc.), 0356 R. Zimbabwe ID and long choral Anthem till ToH, drums and into program of religious music, fair-poor/QRN. Very enjoyable high-life music program! Nothing heard on 4828, seemed to be off the air (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. via Madagascar, 11610, Radio Voice of the People, *1700-1755*, Nov 29, sign on with African music and opening ID announcements in English followed by talk in vernacular. Short breaks of African music. English talk at 1745-1754 about violence in Zimbabwe. Fair but with weak music loop jammer. Via Madagascar, 11610, Radio Voice of the People, *0401-0456*, Nov 30, sign on with African music and opening English ID announcements followed by talk in vernacular. Short breaks of African music. English at 0443. Poor. Best in ECSS-LSB due to noise on high side (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. 4880, SW Radio Africa, 0043 10 Oct, music, Afrikaans, SIO 222 (Robin Tancoo, Fyzabad, Trinidad, Nov 1, by p-mail, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Unless a very special occasion, SWRA would not be on this frequency via South Africa any time except 17-19 UT; more likely AIR Lucknow in non-Afrikaans (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 6074, 8GAL CW marker again heard Nov 30. R. Rossii, 6075 stopped modulating at 1400:05 after delayed timesignal, but carrier stayed on until 1402:30. Meanwhile, 8GAL did not start until about 1400:45 and lasted less than a minute, sending: VVV CQ CQ CQ DE 8GAL 8GAL 8GAL K. Believed to be Russian military (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Hi Guys, well, have been following that frequency 7200 kHz for a while now trying to figure out what's on that freq. to be jammed, but in vain. I'm pretty sure it's not Ethiopia jamming as ETH is using a special kind of jamming which is like a severe white noise; it's pretty obvious on 7165/7175 kHz and also on the freq. of Oromo Liberation network. Mainly on Thursdays 1600 UT on 9695 and 1700 UT on 9680 kHz; it's really a great WOOOSH on the frequency that makes it impossible to hear anything. The funny thing is, when ERI is using 6165 which is a frequency for ETH as well, they keep on jamming it. The other different kind of jamming: the usual BJ [bubble jamming] is very well heard over 7540 kHz from 1700 UT; also I can hear it around 0400 on 4885 kHz, which sounds almost similar to what we used to hear on 7200 kHz, but I still think it was a different kind of jamming. [a few minutes later:] Hello my friends, yes, there was what sounded like BJ on 7200 kHz; I can hear Radio Om Durman - Sudan - Radio Serbia and Radio Bulgaria as well on the same frequency. No clandestine to ETH or ERI, also nothing to Iran there!!!! So the jamming stopped on that frequency, but still wonder what was there!??? I made a note of that some time ago but I have noticed as well that a BJ is targeting the MOSSAD station known as E10 for those interested in number stations. For further details and audio clips you may try that blog : http://hfsurfing.blogspot.com All the best, guys (Tarek Zeidan, Cairo, Egypt, Nov 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 15255.5 SSB, Spanish 2-way, another invasion of the 19m band, Nov 29 at 1522; one side much stronger than the other (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Maybe You Belong on NPR? Mr. Hauser: For 2 straight weeks on WOR, you blew out steam against those so-called "right-wingers" concerned about the Fairness Doctrine. I didn't know you were such a flaming Democrat partisan. If you don't like the "tripe" from the right wingers, then listen to the left wingers, like you probably are. I listen to sw to avoid idiots like Limbaugh and Democrat partisans like you, if you hosted a political broadcast. So why don't you keep your partisan whining and your readings from the quasi-communist The New Republic to yourself and stick to dx reporting? Or maybe you should go work for your friends at NPR? (K.R. [Kenn Reyn] (Bronx, NY), Nov 30) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ ITU SUNSPOTS AND SITES Some new lists on ITU site, like sunspot.txt The ITU list of shortwave transmitter sites at http://www.itu.int/ITU-R/terrestrial/broadcast/hf/refdata/reftables/index.html has had some interesting additions in recent months (Wolfgang Büschel, Rus-DX via DXLD) LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ VOA BROADCASTS OBITUARY OF FORMER DIRECTOR WHO INTRODUCED SPECIAL ENGLISH === OBIT The Voice of America has broadcast a program in Special English about Henry Loomis, who died earlier this month. Mr Loomis served as director of the Voice of America for seven years starting in 1958, and played an important role in creating the Special English service. A transcript and MP3 audio of the broadcast are available on the VOA website. http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2008-11-29-voa1.cfm (November 30th - 1253 UT by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) So ``electroencephalography`` qualifies as a Special English word (gh) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: see ITALY; NIGERIA; SOLOMON ISLANDS ++++++++++++++++++++ IBOC: USA HD RADIO’S FAILURE WITH THE CONSUMER Sunday, November 23, 2008 by SDRadio. HDRadio’s reach with consumers is beyond failure; it could be to the point of no return. Stations have invested millions in antennas and transmitter devices only to have radio’s new digital reach nothing beyond a few listeners. In any economic climate, is that a good return on investment? The promise of up to three stations on the FM band is confusing owners of the radio. For example, driving and enjoying KPBS‘ classical music HD2 station is very nice — until the signal is too weak to keep it on station. Most receivers will revert to the analog signal and the confusion with the average consumer is “why do I hear news instead of classical, this radio must be broke!!?” Imagine the surprise to the store that sold the receiver that it doesn’t work right. The store, wanting the customer to return and make high-end purchase, will take the radio back and mark it defective. The station looses a potential listener, the store doesn’t make a sale, and a lot of radios are being returned. Big box stores still don’t get it. A nice display with all the stations in San Diego, yet no working radio in the store. Situation has not changed in the two years. The on-radio ads are begging you to text message for a coupon, but even that gets confusing when trying to do that. Music selection, CBS, Clear Channel and KPBS have made in-roads on the offerings. However, besides KGB, KPBS, there is no real hook into having an HDRadio. Consumers were promised that the bounty of HDRadio would give them choice. With the terrain in San Diego and the present limitation of power for the HDRadio side, those outside the immediate radius of the transmitter will not likely hear any benefit. The jury is still out on HDRadio. There’s a lot of free-ads playing about the promise of radio. It has yet to deliver from the sales and to some aspect, the programming side. Radios are coming down in price, but are still overpriced. When is the last time you went to buy a radio? Most consumers buy a device that happens to have a radio — from cars to home entertainment centers. Considering that a majority of this country gets their news, weather, sports, and music from the radio, something is lacking in the sales pitch. One bright note: Those who do venture and purchase the receivers for home and auto use are finding the second and third generation radios have dropped in price and offer MP3 and/or iPod integration. Stay Digitally Tuned (SDRadio.net Nov 23 via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ If you guys are awake, Check for Huge FM DX opening into Latin America http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,113827.0.html Someone in Indiana thinx he got Magic 96.5 Aruba pre-sunrise (gh) ###