DX LISTENING DIGEST 8-133, December 29, 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 1440 Tue 1200 WRMI 9955 Tue 1630 WRMI 9955 Wed 0630 WRMI 9955 [or new 1441] Wed 1230 WRMI 9955 [or new 1441] WBCQ is also airing recent archive editions of WOR M-F 2000 on 7415; except on Wednesday or Thursday this should be the latest edition. Latest edition of this schedule version, including AM, FM, satellite and webcasts with hotlinks to station sites and audio, is at: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html For updates see our Anomaly Alert page: http://www.worldofradio.com/anomaly.html WRN ON DEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 WORLD OF RADIO PODCASTS VIA WRN NOW AVAILABLE: http://www.wrn.org/listeners/stations/podcast.php OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO: http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org ** AFGHANISTAN. 3321, RTV Afghanistan heard at 1627 on 29 Dec with local talk in vernacular and some music. This is the 3rd harmonic of nominal 1107 kHz. This just appeared so they may be mis-tuned. VoA audio heard underneath the main audio, so it would appear that the US govt. has their fingers in this somehow. Supposedly this is 400 kW. This was very strong, so there is a very good chance those outside of Afghanistan may hear it. Well, the flu is just about gone, and I can at least walk up the stairs without wheezing. Our guesthouse generator died the other night, so there was no power and we spent the night freezing and huddled around one of the famous Afghan stoves. Thank you Johnnie Walker! Kept me warm all night. We now have a new generator and it is practically brand new. The noise and hash on the bands have been greatly reduced, (witness RRI Jambi [see INDONESIA]) and there are lots of new signals to be heard. Mediumwave is especially clear now (used to be a lot of spurious genset noise on there), and I am hoping to get some good DXing in for the New year. Best 73 de (Al Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 200m Longwire/Randomwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA. Good conditions last 2 days. Heard "Byrd Radio" on 8997 (usb) no set sked, at 0700 z and also on 13251 at 0800 z. "McMurdo" was active on 4470 as well as several other very low signals including the 9032 throughout the day between 1800 and 0900 Z. Very faint signal calling "Blue sky or Sky Blue" on 7775. I beleive to be British base camp at 0900 and again at 1000 z "Skyblue" should read "Sky Blu". The BAS hp: http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/index.php (Andrew D., NZ, ZL3DX, Dec 27, UDXF yg via DXLD) 7775.0 usb, Rabid and Bluesky in EE (UK Antarctic?) 02:30:31UTC (2008- 12-27) (riel in New Hampshire, USA on StarChat#wunclub), ibid.) 7775 :"Skyblue" Brit Antarctic Survey station with weather and coordination. Other IDs: BB, BC, VWC. USB 0011 (27dec2008) (PY1VHF) PS: Recordings: http://www.qsl.net/py1vhf/27dec2008_7775kHz_0134z_BRIT_ANTARCT.mp3 http://www.qsl.net/py1vhf/27dec2008_7775kHz_0011z_BRIT_ANTARCT.mp3 http://www.qsl.net/py1vhf/27dec2008_7775kHz_0042z_BRIT_ANTARCT.mp3 Or go to my hp and look for "Sound samples from my location". http://www.qsl.net/py1vhf I found some more info on the bases and frequencies used here (for 2007): http://www.ats.aq/documents/ie/ukpre07e.doc "BB" and "BC" are: VP-FBB: DHC-6 de Havilland Twin Otter wheel/ski aircraft VP-FBC: DHC-6 de Havilland Twin Otter wheel/ski aircraft 73, (Anderson Colla - py1vhf, Brasil, GG97cp, ibid.) ** AUSTRIA. FRANCE [sic], 1476, R Africa International, 2106 theme on boxing day in Congo on 26th (a phone-in), 2111 with African song. S 9 45544. French program and ID at 2111. Again with talks on Christmas. Dakarwan background music. Program continues with hilife music (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This transmitter in AUSTRIA is about to be closed down permanently (gh, DXLD) ** BANGLADESH. 7250, Radio Bangladesh Betar (tentative), *1227-1258 Dec 23, flute IS before muffled opening that was followed by news in English. Mixture of indigenous vocals and talks after the news. Fair carrier but threshold audio until blasted away by Vatican Radio IS at 1258 (Rich D'Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 32, Ten- Tec RX-340 and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially south for the RX- 340 and a 40-foot wire essentially north for the E1, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4781.6, Radio Tacana, 2303-2335 Dec 22, rustic vocal followed by ad string and mentions of Feliz Navidad by man program host with Spanish talk and female co-host. Many IDs and TC noted at 2326. Poor with CODAR providing severe QRM (Rich D'Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 32, Ten-Tec RX-340 and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially south for the RX-340 and a 40-foot wire essentially north for the E1, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Recent beacons, Dec 28, 08, UT: 0633 URT 235 Brazil 3,667 Miles [where, exactly?] 0733 DOU 285 Dourados, Brazil 4,503 Miles - new 0807 BHZ 520 Belo Horizonte, Brazil 4,555 Miles SDR IQ-40 ft x 50 ft E-W Flag. a smaller Superloop at 145 degrees (Roy Barstow, Cape Cod, WTFDA-AM via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. The government minister who has been pushing IBOC here has abandoned it. Discussion [in Portuguese]: http://br.groups.yahoo.com/group/radioescutas/message/46866 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 11725, 26/12 2030, R. Novas de Paz, Curitiba PP gospel suff 11765, 26/12 2020, R. Tupi - Curitiba PP folle urlante buono 11925, 26/12 2025, R. Bandeirantes - Sao Paulo PP NX suff. (Roberto Pavanello, Vercelli - Italia, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) ** CANADA. CBCNQ, 9625, back in whack, for the moment, Dec 28 at 1458 in Sunday Edition, break promo in French. Could not hear any spurs around 9640, and 9650 occupied by another Sackville transmitter, KBSWR relay until 1459*. It`s always something awry at Sackville. 9625 remained in whack with no spurs audible, but at 1419 Dec 29, NHKWNRJ relay on 11705 was overmodulated somewhat and splattering 11680-11730 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. AOP RETURNS WITH A NEW SEASON: JANUARY 5TH, 2009 Posted by Age of Persuasion on December 18 at 05:29 PM We are very pleased to announce that the new season of The Age of Persuasion debuts on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 11:30 a.m. Monday episodes will be repeated Saturdays at 4:30 p.m. We're taking over the current time slots of our friends at White Coat, Black Art. Meanwhile, we are running repeat programs in some parts of Canada. To work! http://www.cbc.ca/ageofpersuasion/2008/12/aop_returns_with_a_new_season.html#comments (via Glenn Hauser, Dec 28, DXLD) CBC Radio 1 I.e. Mondays 1532 UT +1/2/3/4 hours on webcasts; Saturdays 2032 UT +1/2/3/4 hours. Excellent show; don`t miss it! (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** CANADA. We knew this day was approaching but it doesn't make it any less sad to see it arrive (Dale Rothert, Dec 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: 38 years of Air Farce SUBMITTED PHOTO Clockwise from top, Luba Goy, Jessica Holmes, Abbott, Penelope Corrin, Ferguson, Alan Park, Craig Lauzon. Dec 29, 2008 04:30 AM Don Ferguson Special to the Star Life's about to get a lot more comfortable for satire-prone politicians when the Royal Canadian Air Farce takes its last flight Wednesday at 8 p.m. on CBC-TV. Producer Don Ferguson, who has been on board as a writer and performer since 1970, marks the troupe's milestones. . . http://www.thestar.com/Entertainment/article/558983 (Toronto The Star via Rothert, DXLD) I once met Roger Abbott in Toronto, who gave me a tour of Box 500. Tsk. Kinda lost track of them when RCAF went off SW radio – not even mentioned in the article. Hrmph (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** CANADA. USA, 6030, UNID, 0730 Dec 29, Country music format with canned announcement "Classic Country, AM 1010" then faded into the noise. Would occasionally come up again but never got the call letters or location. Obviously some harmonic or mixing product, but I can't make the math work. Possibly off frequency at 6x1005 kHz? Doubt it`s the receiver with triple conversion IF and non resonant antenna. Possibly somehow a transmitter mixing product. Will listen more(David Hodgson, TN, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi David, Must be CFVP Calgary. Slogan of CKMX is confirmed in NRC AM Log as ``Classic Country AM 1060``. 73, (Glenn to David, via DXLD) Thanks. Last time I heard the station, it was not a Country format, but that was several years ago (David Hodgson, ibid.) ** CAYMAN ISLANDS. I heard Cayman Islands last night also for my fourth Caribbean NDB country. 12/28, 0326, 415 kHz, CBC, West End, Cayman Island. New 81. Happy New Year and 73 de (Joe Miller, KJ8O, Troy, MI -- Grid EN82 --, IRCA via DXLD) ** CHAD. 4904.97, RDNT - N'djamena, in French, 12/18 1932-1944. W reading local news with correspondents; heard in USB with S9+20 of peak; moderate QSB; fair [Also] 12/26 1907-1938* Afropop songs with M DJ; then M reading listeners' messages with some mention of condolences, N' Djamena & Radio Chad etc. (1914-1928); Afropop song & drum beat; M ID and announcement at BoH; W reading local news with correspondents; sudden sign-OFF during news at 1938 (lack of electricity or XMTR problems ??); heard in LSB with S 9+15 of peak; slight QSB & almost local audio; [Also] 12/28 0613-0638. M talk & announcements (mentioned once "Mesdames et Messieurs.") between Afropop songs; heard in SSB with slight QSB; statics & rustle; from 0636 increasing QSB with static crashes cause daylight time in Chad & morning grey line here in Rome; fair/poor (Giovanni Serra, Roma, Italy, JRC NRD 525, Alpha Delta DX-SWL Sloper- S, RG 8 mini coaxial cable, JPS NIR 12 Noise & Interference Reducer- Dual DSP outboard audio filter, Intek PS-35 5 ampere feeder, JRC - NVA 319 external loudspeaker unit, Yaesu YH - 77 STA stereo headphones, Zoom Corp. H2 handy digital recorder MP3 & WAV files, Oregon Scientific radio controlled clock, Interkart framed wall board political world map (1: 46,400,000), the DX Edge-Xantek, Inc. (daylight-darkness desk world map), NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) 4905, Tchad, 2025 with hilife songs S9 44534 25-12 (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, ICOM R75, 16 inverted V, Sennheiser m@h40 headphones, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RNT back on 4905, Dec 28 at 0630 with sorta hilife music, 0636 enthusiastic announcer in French. --- No sign of RNT on 4905, Dec 29 at 0600. Perhaps they were back on 6165, but nothing much there either, poor propagation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. FRECUENCIAS AEREAS: 6640 kHz en USB, Comunicaciones aéreas y tonos selcal. Se escuchan muy bien comunicaciones aéreas en inglés y español y tonos selcal. Escuchada a las 0420 UT. Las comunicaciones en español eran entre un avión de Avianca y su centro control en Colombia. El capitán dijo estar en un vuelo Madrid-Bogotá (José Elías Díaz Gómez, Venezuela, Conexión Digital utility column Dec 28 via DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. Novedad: 29/12/2008 1345. 10770, Radio Nacional de Colombia AM. 32222 notada aquí, con relay de RFI . . . http://boxstr.com/files/4493945_vuidf/10770rnco29122008.mp3 (Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) mp3 doesn`t work; what could this be? (gh, DXLD) Muchas gracias por las observaciones. Puede escuchar el audio en mi blog, http://yimber.blogspot.com Gracias nuevamente y por si algo Un venturoso año 2009 (de Yimber Gaviria, ibid.) Hola Yimber, Todavía no funciona para mí. Después de búffering muestra ! en playlist, y se adelanta a Djibouti, que tampoco toca. 73, (Glenn to Yimber via DXLD) ** CONGO DR [non]. via Meyerton, South Africa, 11690, Radio Okapi, 0540-0558*, Dec 28, continuous French talk. Canned Okapi jingles at sign off. Fair (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CROATIA. 1134 kHz, V of Croatia, 212+ [sic] a program full of Christian songs, S9+20. Used Bolong radio for far better audio. At 2150+ there was a music from a man together with a children group including `What a Wonderful World´. Silent Night version at 2200, then a program in Spanish, S9+20, 45545, 25/12 (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DENMARK. Today the power of the Kalundborg longwave transmissions on 243 kHz was further increased in two steps to 200 watt DRM, which is an 8 dB improvement on the previous 34 watt. Listeners' reports are very much appreciated and may be sent to info at bsd.dk (Ydun Ritz, Denmark, Dec 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I wonder what small reliable groundwave range this could possibly have at either power? BTW, what became of the original hi-power LW transmitter there? Is it still in place and usable if wanted? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Glenn: The 300 kW long wave AM transmitter is kept in working order and reaches most of Western Europe, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Southern Greenland. See more on http://mediumwave.info/newsarchive_d.html 4/4-2008 (Ydun Ritz, ibid.) ** EGYPT. 28/12 0841 - 6290 kHz, test RADIO CAIRO, Arabo, talk YL. Segnale molto buono. Queste prove, come su 6860 kHz, al mattino ci sono con una certa regolarità (SWL I1-0799GE, Luca Botto Fiora, G.C. 09E13 - 44N21, Rapallo (Genova), Italia, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) Amid a buncha 48m pirate logs. Full day path of course, but not that far from Cairo (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 5005, RN Bata, 2045 man saying feliz navidad with hilife songs in background over continuous talks about families and the same. At 2244 with talk in French (!) S5 (23432) at 20++ but S9 at 22xx, 25-12 (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, ICOM R75, 16 inverted V, Sennheiser m@h40 headphones, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 6250, Radio Nacional, Malabo, 0645-0700, Dec 28, Spanish talk. Local pop music. Radio Malabo IDs. Fair at tune-in but starting to fade out by 0700 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA [non]. 5950, V. of Peace & Democracy Eritrea (Presumed), Dec 23 1444-1452*, 23432-2243, Ethiopian Pops, 1452 sign off (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium Dec 26 via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA. 7165, Radio Ethiopia, *0659-0710, Dec 28, sign on with IS on electronic keyboard. Talk at 0700. Horn of Africa music. Very weak. Threshold copy on // 9556.38v - drifting down to 9555.93 by 0708, then back up to 9556.25 by 0710. 9704.18, Radio Ethiopia, 1940-2100*, Dec 28, Amharic talk. Local Horn of Africa pop music. Possible news at 2000. A variety of Afro-pop, Euro-pop, rap, and Horn of Africa music after 2003. Sign off with National Anthem. Nice signal. Also good on // 7110. Very weak on // 5990.66 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FALKLAND ISLANDS. MORE DETAILS OF RADIO/TV PLANS At its meeting on 18 December, the Falkland Islands Executive Council (ExCo) considered a lengthy paper updating the of the BFBS TV project developments and related costs. It was noted that the digital satellite service to Camp could be available in mid-February 2009, with the UK Freeview standard transmission to Stanley coming on stream in late April/early May 2009. ExCo agreed that the project should proceed. In relation to Camp installations, ExCo was reminded of its previous “approval in principle” to pay for the satellite dish, ancillary equipment, MPEG4 decoders, delivery to Camp locations and the setting up of the equipment including the orientation of the satellite dish for those houses normally occupied for six months or more during the year. It was agreed that where an installation is provided for a tenant it becomes the property of the house owner rather than the tenant. The Government Secretary reported that he would be sending out letters to all Camp residents in the near future asking them if they wish to have a satellite installation. This letter would also make it clear that where one dish can be shared by two or more houses due to their close proximity, then this should be done. Technical details of this option will be included in the letter. It was noted that for Stanley viewers the Freeview standard will mean that any set top box or integrated digital TV (IDTV) purchased from the UK should receive and decode the services. Finally, whilst the main thrust of the paper relates to TV it also informed ExCo that as part of their contract with the Falkland Islands Government, SSVC intend to install a high power FIRS FM transmitter at Sapper Hill which will extend the coverage area to approximately 40 km and a medium power [BFBS] Radio 2 transmitter with a range of approximately 25 km. They will also install low power FM transmitters at the military mountain sites and advise the Falkland Islands Government of the options for transmission from future sites that would enhance FM coverage to the Camp. (Source: Falkland Islands News)(December 28th, 2008 - 14:58 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** FINLAND. 11720, 25/12 1050, Scandinavian Weekend R. - Virrat EE MX suff (Roberto Pavanello, Vercelli - Italia, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) suff = sufficient reception, a term we never use in English, but why not? (gh, DXLD) ** GUATEMALA. A todos nuestros amigos de Radio Verdad: (See it in English at the end.) Mis mejores saludos a todos. Seguramente usted ya se dio cuenta de que desapareció nuestro Sitio Web, pero, un amigo de México, me averiguó por Internet que TODO ESTÁ NORMAL para nuestro Sitio. Por eso, supongo que luego aparecerá otra vez. Sin embargo, para que usted pueda continuar sintonizando nuestra señal de "Radio Verdad", aquí le envío los links directos, con los cuales usted podrá sintonizarnos, aunque no esté nuestro Sitio Web. [which was: http://www.radioverdad.org –gh] Éstos son: Instrucciones = Instructions Links Para Escuchar "Radio Truth" (Radio Verdad) por Internet: Links for Listening "Radio Truth" (Radio Verdad) on the Internet: Links Directos para Sintonizar Radio Verdad, Internet (Direct Links for Listening "Radio Truth" –Radio Verdad, on Internet) Por medio de ShoutCast-Winamp: (Through ShoutCast-Winamp): *Link: http://190.57.107.115:8000 Por medio de Windows Media Player (Through Windows Media Player): *Link: mms://200.6.219.230:8080 Dr. Édgar Amílcar Madrid, Director y Gerente. ----------------------------------------------- To all our friends of "Radio Truth": Best greetings to all. Surely you have realized that our Web Site has disappeared, but a friend from Mexico has discovered on Internet, that EVERYTHING IS ALRIGHT with our Site, and it may come back soon. However, in order for you to be able to continue listening to our "Radio Truth" signal, I am sending you the direct links, with which you can tune us, even without or Web Site. Here they are: Instrucciones = Instructions Links Para Escuchar "Radio Truth" (Radio Verdad) por Internet: Links for Listening "Radio Truth" (Radio Verdad) on the Internet: Links Directos para Sintonizar Radio Verdad, Internet (Direct Links for Listening "Radio Truth" – Radio Verdad, on Internet) Por medio de ShoutCast-Winamp: (Through ShoutCast-Winamp): *Link: http://190.57.107.115:8000 Por medio de Windows Media Player (Through Windows Media Player): *Link: mms://200.6.219.230:8080 (Dr. Édgar Amílcar Madrid, Director y Gerente, Radio Verdad, Dec 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUINEA. Caros amigos, A Radio Conacry, da Guiné, está sendo bem captada aqui em Barbacena, neste instante (2348 UT) na frequência de 7125 kHz. Como informei aqui na lista, este país, sofreu um golpe de estado muito recentemente e não sabíamos com certeza se as emissoras de OC tinham voltado ao ar visto que os golpistas conseguiram tomar o poder por lá. Mas pelo visto, as ondas curtas da Guiné Nonarcry já estão no ar normalmente. Um abraço a todos, (Adalberto Marques de Azevedo, Barbacena - MG - Brasil, Dec 29, radioescutas yg via DXLD) E não falando em russo? Há alguns dias só houve Voz da Rússia em 7125 após 2300. 73, (Glenn Hauser, Oklahoma, ibid.) ** INDIA. FUTURE OF RADIO NEWS --- The main challenge before AIR news, now and in future, is and will be to woo back its listeners, writes Bibekananda Ray (The author held senior positions in All India Radio news in Kolkata, Delhi and Singapore between 1970 and 2000) Forecasting future is in the domain of astrology. Being no astrologer, I cannot predict the future of radio news but having worked in senior positions in All India Radio (News), I can cite certain challenges before AIR news, being aired from Delhi and 44 regional stations throughout day and night. Over 600 news bulletins are broadcast, every day, in various languages and dialects which are heard by some 12 per cent of India's population. Television news from Doordarshan and private channels are watched and heard by some 32 per cent people, i.e., by about 35 crore people. The future of radio news has to be seen in the context of its present status, because as TS Eliot wrote, years ago: "Time present and time past/ are contained in time future/ and time future contained in time past." . . . [much more] http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=4&id=237974&usrsess=1 (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, dx_india yg via DXLD) ** INDIA. 4865, AIR unID heard at 1610 on 29 Dec with subcontinental music, Hindi talk and booming signals. Lots of talk about Pakistan. Several IDs as "Yeh All India Radio Heh." Audio stopped at 1622 in mid talk. Dead air carrier clear through until 1742 s/off. Nothing listed in EiBi, AOKI, WRTH or AIR website. Was this 4860 that was misprogrammed? Best 73 de (Al Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 200m Longwire/Randomwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 3344.8, RRI-Ternate, Dec 23 1438-1502*, 43333-44433, Indonesian, Talk and music, Closing announce at 1501, Love Ambon, 1502 sign off. 3976.05, RRI-Pontianak, Dec 23 1358-1413, 43443, Indonesian, IS, Local News (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium Dec 26 via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 4925, RRI Jambi heard at 1558 on 29 Dec with Indonesian talk, station ID, up until s/off at 1622. First Indo regional heard by me here in Kabul. Weak, but may be the precursor to a good opening. Best 73 de (Al Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 200m Longwire/Randomwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) That`s a tough one here compared to 4750, 4790, even 4870; not surprising, since Jambi is on Sumatera, closer to you, while the others are much closer to me (Glenn Hauser, OK, DXLD) ** INDONESIA. VOI, 9526, was inaudible on Dec 27, but Dec 28 just caught it until 1501* ending Malay and opening English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Indonesie, Jakarta 9525.885 kHz, 1217 UT Dec 28, Programa in het Spaans, goed tenemen! (Maurits van Driessche, Belgium, bdx mailing list via DXLD) More language jumbling; Spanish not sked then (gh) 9526, VOI, Dec 29 at 1457 poor signal hit by perpetual het from on- frequency 9525, CRI about to start English via Kashi, but Jakarta on top, at 1500 opening its own English, mentioning 11785 which they are not using at this time, 1502:30 into news headlines, but knowing I would shortly be abandoned, to avoid frustration, I stopped listening but left a receiver with BFO on 9527, to detect how long the transmitter would stay on by mistake this time: until 1511* Ron Howard, California was listening at exactly the same time, reminds us it`s really 9525.90 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: 9525.90, Voice of Indonesia, 1502-1511*, Dec 29, today they completed the news in English, running past their more normal 1501*, QRM from 9530 (Firedrake + CNR-1) (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KASHMIR [non]. PAKISTANI ARMY IN KASHMIR WANTS RESUMPTION OF 24H MEDIUMWAVE SERVICE According to Online, run by the Islamabad-based International News Network (INN), Pakistani army personnel want Radio Pakistan to resume 24-hour broadcasting on mediumwave in the Kashmir region. Originally, broadcasts were on 585 kHz, but INN says these were jammed by open carrier transmissions from India in the border areas. So Radio Pakistan shifted the mediumwave transmissions from 585 to 1152 kHz, and in February 2003 24-hour broadcasts were introduced. But these have been terminated, and at midnight local time the mediumwave transmitter now closes down and broadcasts are only available on FM 103 MHz, which INN says has isolated frontline soldiers engaged in army missions in wilderness areas of Siachin, Kargil, and other regions of Kashmir. INN says the Pakistani Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is reported to be oblivious to the problem. It says that army personnel have strongly demanded that Radio Pakistan restarts nighttime mediumwave transmissions immediately in order to remove any sense of isolation and demoralization of troops (Source: Onlinenews.com December 28th, 2008 - 16:54 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) WRTH 2009 says 1152 is 100 kW from Rawalpindi, and 585 is 1000 kW from Islamabad. Is India jamming any MW from Pak now? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 9965, CLANDESTINE, North Korea Reform Radio via Taiwan, 1305-1220* [sic: -1320*, or -1330?] Dec 22, talk by man and woman in Korean, music fanfare into another program segment. Mainly long talks until 1329 when a woman announcer gave apparent ID and closedown announcements, Poor but steadily improving. 9965, CLANDESTINE, Furusa no Kaze via Taiwan, 1331-1357* Dec 22, open carrier until opening music at 1333 followed by a woman announcer in Japanese with ID and sign on announcements including address. Another program mainly of talks with short music fanfare between program segments. ID and contact information by the woman announcer at 1352 followed by light instrumental music to carrier termination. Poor to fair (Rich D'Angelo, French Creek State Park DXpedition No. 32, Ten- Tec RX-340 and an Eton E1, 500-foot wire essentially south for the RX- 340 and a 40-foot wire essentially north for the E1, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** LITHUANIA. 9770, Mighty KBC special transmission at 10xx and 1030+ with old pop and rocks "thanks god is Christmas' Due to relatively good signal (S9 44544) I stopped using the receiver and used the Bolong radio in order to listen to better audio. See the picture below! 26-12 (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, ICOM R75, 16 inverted V, Sennheiser m@h40 headphones, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LUXEMBOURG. Yesterday at 2100 UT, I've got an even more impressive signal than the one a few days ago from CRI (Luxembourg relay) at 1440 kHz. Listen to interval signal then full ID in French and newscast: http://www.quebecdx.com/cri_1440.mp3 (Sylvain Naud, Portneuf, QC, CANADA, Dec 28, mwdx yg via DXLD) ** MADAGASCAR. 5009.92, RTV Malagasy – Antananarivo in local language, 12/26 1836-1859*. noted on this shifted frequency, with pop song; announcements mentioned Madagascar; songs between talk; continuous local pop songs; music pause & M announcement; brief song then sudden S/OFF at 1859 as sked on PWBR 2009 (on Saturday reported till 2100); heard in SSB with fast & deep QSB; almost fair with nir 12 (Giovanni Serra, Roma, Italy, JRC NRD 525, Alpha Delta DX-SWL Sloper- S, RG 8 mini coaxial cable, JPS NIR 12 Noise & Interference Reducer- Dual DSP outboard audio filter, Intek PS-35 5 ampere feeder, JRC - NVA 319 external loudspeaker unit, Yaesu YH - 77 STA stereo headphones, Zoom Corp. H2 handy digital recorder MP3 & WAV files, Oregon Scientific radio controlled clock, Interkart framed wall board political world map (1: 46,400,000), the DX Edge-Xantek, Inc. (daylight-darkness desk world map), NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** MALAYSIA. 6049.60v, Suara Islam/Voice of Islam via RTM, at 1536, Dec 29 (Mon.), in vernacular, usual Mon. segment with news about Malaysian universities, 1539 the standard singing "Malaysia" jingle, reciting from the Qur'an, singing "Suara Islam" jingle, pop music till 1553 tune-out, fair. 7295, Traxx FM via RTM, 1620-1629, Dec 29, their Mon. program of nice jazz music (per website: "Traxx Jazz Kitchen"), poor with adjacent splatter/QRM. This replaces their former Tue. "Jazz Selecta" program (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 9750, V of Malaysia, 1356 with program in Indonesian, ID 1356. Nice signal at S7. Negaraku hymn at 1358. Possibly V of Islam at 1400, at 1405 with man chanting. At 1430 QRMed by strong DRM of S10. At 1530 retune in, played song `ala canggung' (a traditional song, in possibly its original form) and then talks in Malaysian, 26 -12 (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, ICOM R75, 16 inverted V, Sennheiser m@h40 headphones, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. Hola a todos, Hoy a las 22:00 Hrs tiempo central de Mexico, 0400 GMT les entregaremos un nuevo obsequio del baul de los recuerdos; esperamos contar con su sintonia. Saludos Fraternos (Ing. José Antonio Martínez Sánchez, XE1A, Dec 28, noticiasdx yg via DXLD) Audio autolaunches at http://www.qsl.net/xe1a/Radio/ Included Mexican and world newscast at 0405-0415, then final edition of Radio Enlace from RNW in cooperation with REE, concluding with blooper reel mentioning me several times, but I daresay the bloopers were theirs. Jaime and Alfonso broke up over `cohetes`, which literally means rockets, but also means farts, as in Fidel`s jammers (Glenn Hauser, OK, an old fart? DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. XERTA, 4800, Dec 29 at 0601, with Mexican national anthem at local midnight. If you are not familiar with it, a good chance to hear it any night, and help locate other stations, especially on MW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MONGOLIA. 4895, Mongolian R., Murun, in local language, 12/27 & 28, 2340-0001. fine local lyrical chants; M unclear talk at 2354; then music one minute later; TP & announcement at ToH; music break into possible news by W & M; heard in LSB with moderate deep QSB & slight statics; barely audible from 2359 between strong rustle splash (Giovanni Serra, Roma, Italy, JRC NRD 525, Alpha Delta DX-SWL Sloper- S, RG 8 mini coaxial cable, JPS NIR 12 Noise & Interference Reducer- Dual DSP outboard audio filter, Intek PS-35 5 ampere feeder, JRC - NVA 319 external loudspeaker unit, Yaesu YH - 77 STA stereo headphones, Zoom Corp. H2 handy digital recorder MP3 & WAV files, Oregon Scientific radio controlled clock, Interkart framed wall board political world map (1: 46,400,000), the DX Edge-Xantek, Inc. (daylight-darkness desk world map), NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** MYANMAR. 5770, Myanmar Defense Forces BS via Taunggyi, 1512-1528*, Dec 29, in vernacular, pop songs in vernacular with western pop tunes, also indigenous pop songs, usual indigenous instrumental music at sign-off, fair (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. Although Radio Netherlands no longer officially broadcasts in English to Europe, two frequencies during the current schedule period can regularly be heard here with good reception: 1400-1500 English S. Asia 9345 (via Tashkent) and 5825 (via Dushanbe) 1500-1600 English to S. Asia 5825 (via Dushanbe) Radio Netherlands still has some excellent current affairs and feature programming, well worth a listen (Dave Kenny, Caversham, England, BDXC-UK via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS ANTILLES [and non]. Hans Timmerman, PB2T, President of the European DX Foundation (EUDXF), announced on the EUDXF Web page Tuesday, December 16th (edited): "According to Dutch Prime Minister Balkenende, important agreements to secure the future of the people on the Netherlands Antilles were made. During (another) Round Table Conference held on 15th December 2008 an agreement was signed on the future of the Netherlands Antilles. In 2009 more work has to be done on the execution of the agreements made. Depending on progress a date, will be set for the implementation of the new structure. There is hope that all will be finalized in 2010. In 2005 it was agreed that Curacao (PJ2) and Sint Maarten (PJ7) will become autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands and that the islands Bonaire (PJ4), Sint Eustatius (PJ5) and Saba (PJ6) will become Dutch municipalities. DXCC wise, these changes could result in deletion of two entities (PJ2 and PJ7) and four new entities: Curacao (with status aparte [sic]), Sint Maarten (with status aparte), Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba" (The Ohio/Penn DX PacketCluster DX Bulletin No. 890, December 29, 2008, Editor Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW, Provided by BARF80.ORG (Cleveland, Ohio), via Dave Raycroft, Dec 28, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** NICARAGUA. I have uploaded the following at http://www.box.net/shared/fuue3o65ku Radio Sandino, Nicaragua-7318, July 1979 - Sandanista clandestine station heard in midst of revolution that overthrew US-backed tinpot Anastasio Somoza. Clips are in Ogg Vorbis (.ogg) format. Playable with Winamp, and should be compatible with other mp3 players. 73 (Mike Brooker, Toronto, ON, HCDX via DXLD) See also PUBLICATIONS Thanks Mike, re-Radio Sandino, Nicaragua, it's nice to listen to their outlet a g a i n after some 30 years passed off. Thanks for the UPLOAD. I came across to that revolutionary voice in mid December 1978 in Central America. Noted R Sandino for the first time on shortwave approx. 7325 kHz on my South African Barlow Wadley set. This happened during a 5 week touring journey to Cozumel, Belize, Chichicastenango, Antigua and Lake Atitlán in Guatemala. In Antigua we suffered a sudden earthquake-terremoto on an early December 1978 morning, and left the hotel sleeping room expressly. We were set down on the terrace and looked to the tall active vulcano on the horizon. I switched on the Barlow Wadley set and came across of Radio Sandino broadcast - for the very first time - on approx. 7325 kHz around 7 to 8 a.m. local Guatemala time. When back to Europe, I informed Arne Skoog at Radio Sweden DXers program broadcast from this revolutionary radio station which originate in Nicaragua and across the border at Costa Rica border district. Item appeared on Radio Sweden's SCDX bulletin # 1516 on Jan 23, 1979. North American DXers noted R Sandino around 7588 kHz in March 1979; station wandered from 7315 to 7702 kHz. See report on p604-605 in WRTH 1983 by George Wood. 73 (wolfgang df5sx büschel, wwdxc topnews http://topnews.wwdxc.de DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGER. 9705, LV Sahel, 2217 with hilife songs, OM with short timed talks in French before the next song started 25-12 (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, ICOM R75, 16 inverted V, Sennheiser m@h40 headphones, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. Radio Club Peruano, OA4O en 7100 kHz en LSB. Hemos escuchado en muy buena forma el boletén radial de los martes emisión numero 1 del año 2008. Lo comenzamos a escuchar desde las 0135 UT con calidad muy buena (José Elías Díaz Gómez, Venezuela, Conexión Digital utility column Dec 28 via DXLD) So UT Wed? #1 from 2008 at yearend?? (gh) ** PHILIPPINES. FEBC, 9430, VG signal with unpublicized bilingual broadcast, Dec 29 at 1453 OM in American English talking about grace, another tenuous theological concept, alternating with YL in Chinese, presumably consecutive translation. Bocaue, 100 kW at 345 degrees, but could have been aimed right at US. Then at 1504 found weaker but sufficient signal on 9400 saying Salaam Aleikum, Turkic language and only recognized an occasional foreign word such as druzhya, Bethlehem, all talk, still at 1518, but 1523 a bit of music; 1525 splatter de Brother Scare/WWRB 9385 worsening as 9400 faded some, wrapping up, 1528:30 mentioned Almatá, Kazakhstan, I think. 1530 Jesus-Saves IS, so it`s FEBC, and off at 1530:30*. Then looked up in Aoki to find it`s Uighur from Bocaue at 323 degrees. No trace of jamming, so the Chicom are not so worried about the gospel huxters as they are about the few secular or Islamic-influenced broadcasts on SW in Uighur (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PRIDNESTROVYE. Trans-Dniester (home of Radio PMR) article in the NY Times --- See http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2008/12/29/world/AP-EU-FEA-Ex-Soviet-Fantasy-Land.html?_r=1 and also http://www.tiraspoltimes.com/news/radio_pmr_expands_its_intl_broadcast_schedule.html (not a recent article) The NY Times article doesn't mention Radio PMR, but that broadcast does indeed originate in Trans-Dniester, or however you spell the place. You may find it interesting background while you're listening to Radio PMR, which comes in gangbusters several times per day here in Eastern PA. Nothing against Radio PMR, but it's a shame that we can get Radio PMR in rocking chair quality via shortwave, while we can't listen to the BBC World Service, DW, the VOA, or Radio Netherlands that way (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, swprograms via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. 6115, Dec 29 at 1443 with brief Russian axualities into Chinese voice-overs, somewhat distorted. If I were list-logging with PWBR `2009` I would have to conclude this was YFR in English via Irkutsk, but unseems; instead per Aoki it`s VOR in Chinese via Khabarovsk (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. Carta de La Voz de Rusia --- Hola, buenas tardes a todos: Hoy al abrir el buzón me encontré una carta de La Voz de Rusia; normalmente cualquier carta de cualquier emisora me alegra un montón, pero esta mañana al verla ya sabia a ciencia cierta lo que había y la verdad que se me puso una sensación rara en el estómago. Ha llegado entonces la QSL especial de Frecuencia RM emisión nº 1000, con los datos completos y todo eso, firmada por Pancho Rodriguez. Además del resto de cosas enviadas, hay una carta de la redacción de español que estoy adjuntando en formato pdf. Por si alguno quiere ver la QSL ya sabe dónde las suelo colocar: http://www.amarantadx.net [you have to start Flicker playing, go to full screen, pause on this one, the first at the moment, and it is still too small to make out much. In the meantime, Pancho has died --- gh] Es todo por hoy, Feliz año nuevo. Cordialmente, (Tomás Méndez, El Prat de Llobregat-Barcelona España, logsderadio yg via DXLD) ** SEYCHELLES [non]. 12045, 21/12 1400, FEBA - Dhabbaya EE predica, buono (Roberto Pavanello, Vercelli - Italia, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) Just above big signal from Turkey 12035, found English preaching with British accent on 12045, Dec 29 at 1422, mentioning believers, femininity. S9 +12 on the meter, but quite undermodulated, and flutter. 1428 closing with a P O Box 8700 address somewhere in India, and separate FEBA address. 1429:30 IS and off, but back on a few sex later, much weaker with tone or het. I had just happened upon one of the rare English broadcasts from FEBA, this one via UAE, on Mondays only, and switching from 110 to 70 degrees for Urdu following, per Aoki. I`d think the UA Emir would be in trouble with his Islamic brethren for broadcasting all this Infidel stuff; but then compared to the debauchery going on in Dubai, this is small potatoes and who`s to know where it is really coming from? Heh, heh (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 9541.52, SIBC, Dec 09 0639-0650, 45433, English, Music and news, ID at 0639. 9541.52, SIBC, Dec 11 0658-0708, 35433, English, ID at 0659, IS at 0700, News. 9541.48, SIBC, Dec 21 0705-0714, 35443, English, News, ID at 0706 (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium Dec 26 via DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. 13720 Sudan R. Service via UAE, Dec 10 0537-0547, 35433, English, Talk, ID at 0541. 13720, Sudan R. Service via UAE, Dec 11 *0500-0514, 34433, Arabic, Talk, ID at 0513 (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan Premium Dec 26 via DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. Sunday Dec 28 at 1506 could only hear VOG in Greek talk on 15650; usually there is a mix with Miraya FM, via IRRS via Slovakia, which has been colliding since the beginning of B-08, and yes, scheduled 7 days a week. So has Miraya moved? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No, Miraya did not move, and there is no need to. We use directional antennas North to South to Africa. Greece is inaudible in Sudan, where we beam to. However you may hear VOG, since they use a East to West antenna, and their intended target is the Mediterranean. Again, VOG is not affecting at all our target. 73, (Ron Norton, NEXUS-Int'l Broadcasting Association, Dec 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. BOTSWANA, 9380, Affia Darfur, Selebi-Phikwe, 1900- 1904, escuchada el 29 de diciembre en árabe, locutor con ID “Affia Darfur”, música de sintonía, locutor y locutora con titulares y boletín de noticias, referencia a Darfur, Sudan y Sudanía, sin señal en 5880, SINPO 35343 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWITZERLAND. BEROMÜNSTER TAKES ITS LEAVE OF THE AIRWAVES TONIGHT swissinfo.ch By Robert Brookes in Beromünster December 27, 2008 http://www.swissinfo.ch:80/eng/front/Beromuenster_takes_its_leave_of_the_airwaves.html?siteSect=105&sid=10126763&rss=true&ty=st VOICE OF SWITZERLAND PREPARES TO BOW OUT [illustrated; plus sidebars] The medium wave transmitter at Beromünster in central Switzerland will go silent forever on Sunday night, 77 years and seven months after it first came into service. For many Swiss, there will be more than a touch of sadness, as Beromünster was a household name they grew up with; it is without doubt an integral part of the country's radio history. Look on the dial of any decent radio from the past. Beromünster features on the far right along with other great names, for example Lyons, Stuttgart, Vienna, Berlin, Monte Ceneri (southern Switzerland), AFN and Budapest. With technology advancing to VHF and now DAB, the transmitter's days were numbered and the decision was made a few years ago to pull the plug on what finally was broadcasting a Swiss country music programme on 531 kHz. Two men who "grew up" with the transmitter, technicians Hermann Weber and Hans Moser, have been looking after it in its final years. They have each clocked up 40 years of service. "At present there are only two of us here and we do everything from being caretakers to repairing the transmitter, and we're responsible for the programme being broadcast until midnight on December 28," Weber told swissinfo. "Nostalgia" He said he would look back on his career at Beromünster with "a little bit of nostalgia, but then a new stage in life will begin - retirement - that's also nice". Beromünster is something of a misnomer because it is not actually located in the commune of the same name but in neighbouring Gunzwil. It's worth remembering that at the beginning, the radio transmitter was considered great competition for the daily newspapers and that after a struggle, the transmitter broadcast only two new bulletins a day. Then came the Second World War. There were weekly commentaries on the situation from radio legend Jean-Rodolphe von Salis, and everyone was glued not to the box but to the radio. Beromünster was respected, not just in Switzerland, as the only independent German-language broadcaster. After the war, Beromünster was as popular as ever. The programmes were not just about national events and music, but also entertainment. "At that time we only had a radio at home with medium wave, so we always had Beromünster on," Weber recalls. "Keep quiet" "At 12.30pm the news came on and we all had to keep quiet. We didn't have a television then, so in the evening we listened to the stories of [Swiss author] Jeremias Gotthelf and the whole family sat in front of the radio." Later on, Weber recalls that he had reached the "awkward adolescent age", switched off from Beromünster and tuned into Luxembourg, where there was different music. "When our parents came into the room, they used to say: 'This music is not for you'." Significant moments for Beromünster fans were also commentaries from Heiner Gautschi in New York and Theodor Haller in London. And there were concerts from radio orchestras in Switzerland that no longer exist. After 40 years working at the installation, now run by Swisscom Broadcast, Weber is still very much a fan of what the transmitter broadcasts. "Transmitter is working?" "When I listen to the radio, it's on the Musikwelle (mostly Swiss traditional music played by German-language Swiss radio from the transmitter). On the one hand it's to hear whether the transmitter is working (laughs), on the other I like the programme. It's varied and plays music I like." The transmitter will die on December 28 but there are proposals to keep the installation intact as a museum. Weber is certainly not convinced about that idea. "After the closure, I'd prefer that all the signs of the transmitter disappear. When a transmitter doesn't broadcast, it's not a transmitter anymore and there's not enough here for an interesting museum." Weber and his colleague Moser are not giving too much away about what they will be doing when midnight strikes on Sunday. But you may just find them in the control room drinking a glass to an old friend that has been with them for the best part of their working lives (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Text in German language: http://www.swissinfo.ch/ger/startseite/Mittelwelle_Beromuenster_verstummt.html?siteSect=107&sid=10080814&cKey=1230396643000&ty=st In French http://www.swissinfo.ch/fre/a_la_une/Avec_Beromuenster_s_eteignent_les_ondes_moyennes.html?siteSect=105&sid=10122605&cKey=1230376047000&ty=st In Italian http://www.swissinfo.ch/ita/prima_pagina/Radio_Beromuenster_tace_una_voce_gloriosa.html?siteSect=108&sid=10121320&cKey=1230024532000&ty=st (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Beromünster 531 kHz has been coming through quite well here this evening, with special programming for its last broadcast. It faded in here around 1430 UT and is now the dominant signal mixing with co- channel Faroes and Spain. Final closedown is at 2300 UT tonight (i.e. midnight Central European Time) (Dave Kenny, Caversham, Berks., AOR7030+ with K9AY MW loop, 2210 UT Dec 28, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) At 2328 UT now is carrying a short repeated recorded information loop in German. 73 (Steve Whitt, Dec 28, MWC via DXLD) > swissinfo.ch --- A somewhat strange article. What should the transmitter engineer do at midnight? Listening to the "retune" loop that will presumably be on air until New Year's Eve? At midnight just a song faded out and was followed by this loop. Thus I uploaded (Yahoo Group, "Station Sounds" folder) something else, two excerpts from and around the last DRS news that went out on mediumwave. Last item was the mediumwave closure. First item: "Israel's war on the Gaza strip". Already this wording says all about the neutral Switzerland. And here are pictures of the news studio in Bern, with a separate indicator "MW": http://www.beatenbergbilder.ch/home/reportage_17_mario_grossniklaus.htm (ICARO is a system for civil defence announcements.) (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY. Seref Isler of Voice of Turkey is still ripping off info from DX LISTENING DIGEST for their DX Corner program, without giving credit to DXLD. I listened to the day`s web archive of the Dec 27 broadcast, and found the DX program between 20 and 29 minutes into the file. Every single item was taken directly from DXLD 8-130. There is absolutely no doubt about this from the way things were directly quoted, some of which appeared only in DXLD. Some original contributors were mentioned, Greg Shoom and Media Network, which is a start in proper attribution, but not enough; he deleted the complete attribution at end of each item, which I make sure to put there. 1, New CINA, 1650 in Toronto, Canada 2, Lithuania – KBC Special Xmas/Boxing Day broadcasts – with all the detail of programming each hour; trouble is, that was all done with by the time this program aired on Dec 27! Duh! Wasted precious airtime. 3, Syria`s German broadcast, with satellite info, language sked on 9330 4, WWCR`s program schedule has finally been updated, ``says the person who sent this``. Gave most of the programs, times and frequencies I had laboriously extracted, compiled and arranged into easily referred- to format, but skipped some such as Latin Catholic Mass. Yes, starting with WORLD OF RADIO, but never any mention of Glenn Hauser or DX LISTENING DIGEST as the source. This blatantly violates the one simple requirement I insist on for all my volunteer work, and which is stated at the TOP OF EVERY ISSUE. ``Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only if full credit be maintained at all stages`` --- Does he think I am incapable of noticing this? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKMENISTAN. 4930, and finally the station has been heard with relatively good signal S3. Background music and YL mentioning Turkmenistan, 27 -12 (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, ICOM R75, 16 inverted V, Sennheiser m@h40 headphones, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. BBC BANGLA BLACKS OUT RESULTS OF KASHMIR ELECTIONS BBC Bangla on 28th and 29th December 08 blacked out all results of the Jammu and Kashmir elections. Besides Bangla election, transmissions were filled with news of cricket, Ghana election and violence at Gaza, Pakistan and Iraq. In the morning broadcast press review of Kolkata news paper of 29 Dec 08, BBC Bangla made no mention of the splashing headlines on the result of Jammu and Kashmir elections choosing instead to fill the review with other reports. Earlier in between September and November 2008 BBC Bangla ran a 12 part program on Kashmir which highlighted the secessionist movements in the state. The 15 minute weekly program was repeated at various times. The high turnout of in this J&K election came as a surprise and was interpreted as a blow to the secessionist movement in Kashmir. In the earlier part of the six part election, BBC Bangla was clearly under-reporting the polling percentage to the point of even contradicting the other BBC language services and World Service. I pointed them out in http://www.geocities.com/supratiksanatani [entry dated 24 October by mistake instead of 24 Nov, it seems -- gh] Later on it made only cursory mention of the election. The complete news blackout of the results of the election, which the Indian Government hails as a victory for democracy, puts BBC Bangla in a sensitive spot with some explanations to make. In BBC Bangla press review of Kolkata newspapers, the waver and faltering in the voice of the announcer was clearly evident as he read on to suppress the Kashmir headlines with minor news reports (Supratik Sanatani, India, Dec 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. PUBLIC NOTICE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 445 12th STREET S.W. WASHINGTON D.C. 20554 News media information 202-418-0500 Fax-On-Demand 202-418-2830; Internet: http://www.fcc.gov or ftp.fcc.gov TTY (202) 418-2555 Monday December 29, 2008IHF-00089 Report No. RE: APPLICATIONS ACCEPTED FOR FILING INTERNATIONAL HIGH FREQUENCY The applications listed herein have been found, upon initial review, to be acceptable for filing. The Commission reserves the right to return any of the applications if, upon further examination, it is determined they are defective and not in conformance with the Commission's Rules and Regulations and its Policies. For more information concerning this Notice, contact Tom Polzin at 418-2148; tpolzin@fcc.gov; TTY 202-418-2555. Note: At present, technical data regarding these applications is not available via internet reports. However, all IBFS technical data may be downloaded in a database format from the following web location: http://www.fcc.gov/oet/info/database/fadb.html IHF-C/P-20080603-00005 P Construction Permit George S Mock ( d/b/a Hill Radio International ) Application for Authority to Construct a New International HF Broadcast Station located in Milton, FL KTMIIHF-LIC-20081117-00006 P License Transformation Media International Limited Partnership Application for an International Broadcast Station License located in Albany, OR WINBIHF-RWL-20031209-00007 P Renewal World International Broadcasters Application for Renewal of an International Broadcast Station License located in Red Lion, PA Page 1 of 1 (via Ben Dawson, DXLD) Note the 2nd item in the public notice. This is a LICENSE application, which (I think for HF as well as for MF, FM and TV) is to be filed only after the construction authorized by a CP has been 100% completed as specifically authorized. No change in site or fundamental facilities is normally permissible in the broadcast services without an application to modify the CP (Ben Dawson, Dec 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So KTMI is in Albany now instead of Lebanon OR? These are a few miles apart near I-5 south of Salem. Plans for another US gospel-huxter SW station in the FL panhandle near Pensacola have been known for several years; so that is making progress, getting closer? Or more vaporware? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U S A. Re 11 meters: Thanks, Glenn. It was a surprise and I found it a real kick to be picking this stuff up. Recorded and put together some nice IDs for my collection. I also had KLDE in Eldorado [Texas, 25870; see 8-066] coming in. After Mark replied that it was due the e- skip, the light bulb went on. I recalled that you had some items last year about this time in DXLD. Have a happy new year. 73 (Kevin Mikell, IL, Dec 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Hi Glenn; Your interview with Dan Lewis was presented during the 2nd hour of Radio New York International this past weekend. I've archived the show at http://johnlightning.com/11LRNI/RNI-Firesale-Shows/ where it can be downloaded along with all the other programs that have been done by substitute hosts since the fire at John's last March. The filename for this show is Dan Lewis 122808 Part 2.mp3. The entire 3 hours can also be heard streaming 24/7 until Saturday at http://johnlightning.com/webcast/ --- simply locate and click on the stream URL (Steve Coletti, Dec 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thanks, Steve! The conversation with me is less than a semihour; highly recommended is the following almost-hour with Benn Kobb, discussing the prospects for DRM in various applications, especially on 26 MHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 28/12/2008 0355. 5070, WoR via WWCR, AM, USA, 32222 en inglés con la edición 1440 x Glenn Hauser (Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) What could be causing QRM at the I=2 level? Surely not another broadcaster; ute? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U S A. WA0RCR, Gateway Amateur Radio Newsletter, Missouri, 1860-AM was playing a Jean Shepherd monolog about ham radio, Dec 28 at 0808. Or was I dreaming? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 4050, KWMO, Washington, MO, 0900, 3rd harmonic with nice strength on the peaks. Country music format with frequent IDs like "The Mouth 1350 AM" and "The Mouth is KWMO, Washington". I looked up the info on this station and it transmits with a night time power of 84 watts, but you don't need much power on 4 MHz between MO and TN. I checked the fundamental and heard no trace of the signal under the wall of other stations on that frequency (David Hodgson, TN, harmonics yg via DXLD) ** U S A. 1090, WCZZ, SC, GREENWOOD, 2100 [EST] 28/12/08, "The all new WCZZ, Greenwood". Sporting News Radio with football scores at 2101. ID at 2105, with singing 'Sporting News Radio' then local ID, again, "The all new WCZZ, 1090, Greenwood, 'the ticket." Then into a discussion on how the Dallas Cowboys suck! The station has changed formats from black gospel to sports and is running day power all night long. If someone west of the Mississippi river needs South Carolina, this may be a chance to log a new one (DXer: Willis Monk, QTH: Old Fort, TN, ANTENNA: 149' long wire, RCVR: Drake R-4C, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) Willis, Tnx for tip, but how can you tell they are on 5 kW day power instead of 2.5 kW critical-hours? Of course by 2100 they should be off the air as a daytimer-only + CH (+ psra of 5 watts per NRC AM Log). Non-direxional. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) I expect the "device" used to cut power and go off has failed again, and NO one is paying attention to the station, so therefore it's at full power (Powell E Way III, some 25 miles from Greenwood, SC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, they are Non DireCTional but as far as I (and Powell) knows/knew, they don't use their PSRA or any PSSA, if they have it. They once had night power, but never used that either, and it was known, under previous ownership, it was quite likely they stayed on full day power till sign off without going to their Critical Hours power of 2,250 Watts. (Not 2500 Watts) When WCZZ was "Musical Soul Food" 1090, they would drop off in the middle of the satellite driven music, without warning or any sort of message. WCZZ 1090 was the loudest and strongest signal at my location, second only to WABV 1590 (for obvious reasons!!) (Paul Walker, http://www.onairdj.com Ord NE, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Since he was living at WABV transmitter, RF-fried? (gh) ** U S A. WOON 1240 DX Retest --- ABDX re-presents the first DX test of the season. The WOON 1240 test did not run on Dec. 21 so an attempt is being made to run the test again. Thank you to Jay Rogers and Dave Richards for running a DX test at WOON 1240 kHz in Woonsocket, RI. This test will run Sunday morning Jan. 18 at 0200 - 0300 ET / 0700 UT. WOON 1240 is mono running 1 kW NDA. You can send your reports to Dave Richards via e-mail or regular mail. WOON/1240 985 Park Avenue Woonsocket, R.I. 02895-6332 U.S.A. E-mail: dave @ onworldwide.com (note: use the station callsign as the subject line so it's not disregarded as spam). The DX test will consist of: --Morse Code ID --Voice announcement about it being a test broadcast --Morse Code ID --WOON Radio Jingle, (sung) "O-N Radio.......in Woonsocket". These four elements will repeat, in that order, for 60 minutes from 2:00 to 3:00 EST on 1/18/09. A special thank you to Jay, Ron Gitschier and others who made this test possible (Kevin Redding, ABDX List owner, And all the people at ABDX who made this possible, Dec 28, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. VICTORIA'S SECRET MODELS HIT LITTLE ROCK AIRWAVES --- TWO WEEKS LATE The CW rebroadcast of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was last night at 7:00 pm CST. Usually, The CW (and UPN previously) would air this with a one week delay, but it was two weeks this year. Better late than never, plus it was in HDTV, and while not the best HD of the year, it was far better than an attempted HDTV broadcast last year when KASN aired the CBS broadcast. KTHV refused to air the program two weeks ago (Posted by FHP-DXer at 5:39 AM Thursday, December 18, 2008 http://tvdxseark.blogspot.com/ via DXLD) ** VENEZUELA [and non?]. FRECUENCIA MARINAS: 9347.6 en USB, a las 2020 UT pude escuchar a pescadores venezolanos hablando de la situación de un barco que botó todo el combustible en el muelle, que la vaina no está muy buena con la pesca y que Güiria está vuerrrrrta verga. 7789.5 kHz en USB, Escuchados estos pescadores hablando de sus cosas y entre otras cosas dijeron que no se copiaban muy bien, que había mucho ruido en la frecuencia. Uno le dijo al otro: "el ruido te tapa" 8242.3 USB, Otra frecuencia donde se pueden escuchar a los pescadores hablando de sus faenas y de lo que han pescado. 8760.7 USB, Frecuencia de contacto de pescadores. Se pueden ecuchar en forma muy clara, los llamados que se hacen desde las embarcaciones a puerto o a otras embarcaciones y también las llamadas que se hacen a los barcos desde tierra. Frecuencia muy interesante. 8995.6 USB, Pescadores venezolanos conversando con sus familiares en tierra. Uno de ellos iba para Punta de Piedras. El hombre estaba en el mar y su mujer en casa. Escuchados a las 1440 UT. 8888.8 USB, pescadores venezolanos hablando de sus cosas diarias y diciendo que ya iban de regreso a casa. Escuchados a las 1435 UT. RADIOAFICIONADOS: Grupo al aire de Alcohólicos Anónimos 7105 en LSB. Escuchada esta programación el dia domingo a las 1300 UT; se comentaba en esta frecuencia sobre los alcohólicos anónimos y las actividades que se tienen planeado hacer, así como actividades para no caer en el alcohol y evitarlo. [if they are anonymous, do they use legal ham calls? gh] Red Nacional de Emergencia (YV5 RNE) en 7110 LSB. Hemos estado en sintonía de La Red Nacional de Emergencia en Venezuela en su Operativo Carnaval 2008. La señal por Barcelona, Edo. Anzoátegui era buena. Hora de la escucha 0010 UT. Cadena YV en los 3750 LSB: Escuchada esta transmisión en banda de 80 metros a las 0045 UT, con muy buena señal. OTRAS: 7489.9 USB: En esta frecuencia pude escuchar a varias personas llamándose por lo que me imagino son poblaciones desde las cuales transmiten, por ejemplo: San Pedro, Macagua etc. La hora de la escucha fue a las 2233 UT. 6357 LSB, Militares? Comunicaciones donde pasaban una lista con el nombre y la cédula de identidad de varias personas y palabras en clave. Para mi parecen efectivos militares por la forma como se expresaban y también por la manera de codificar las letras. Parecen venezolanos. Hasta la semana que viene, mis queridos amigos. Atte: (José Elías Díaz Gómez, Venezuela, Conexión Digital utility column Dec 28 via DXLD) ** VENEZUELA [non]. RNV CI, 11680 via Cuba, Dec 29 at 1541-1546 had segment Contacto con los Diexistas: intro and outro in Spanish but body of program by the YL with broken English. She read report from Juan Franco Crespo in Spain (who surely wrote in Spanish), and from someone in Kanagawa, then quick explanation of SINPO and UTC, formerly ``GTM`` -- Like the hoary schedule announcements, RNV keeps running these items over and over too (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** YEMEN. Re 8-132: ``6005 at 1650-1705 UT on Dec 24, Republic of Yemen R, San'a Arabic songs, announcement 1701 UT ID, 43444 (Anker Petersen-DEN, via Dario Monferini-ITA, playdx yg via dxld)`` v9780.04 missed few days now, so replaced by 6005 kHz channel in winter season permanently? (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, Dec 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. French talking with some Caribbean flava music was heard last night around 0500 on 1680 for the first time. No reference in the North American X Band Radio Stations Guide. Any hints? 73. Happy Holidays (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, Dec 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) It was too early for Raúl to have seen the answer in 8-132: WOKB Florida. I wonder it they just added the French/Kriyol recently? (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. RE 8-132, 3260v: Glenn, thanks for your tips. Dec. 26th 2314-2331 UT I listened to it again shifting up & down on 3260.90 and 3260.91 kHz, with same program format as Dec 25. At this time, in Papua New Guinea there is daylight during its late morning. First I thought to the reactivated Indonesian RRI Gorontalo on this frequency, but there is also daylight in this country when I listened to. I'll check on 1630v kHz if any Euro Pirate or other. Usually, I listened European pirate Radios broadcasting rock, folk and pop songs, and not such chants. I recorded this Unidentified Radio in mp3 format, cut into five files audio. (around 2.5 Mb for each file). The first file, named Unid Radio 3260.90v Dec. 26th 2008 at 2314, (real file name: 3260v- file001 ) is into my "Unid Radios" folder in this NASWA Yahoo Group (Files > Sounds > Unid Radios ) [later:] Dec. 27 from 1630 UT, I checked and listened on 1628.19v kHz a strong unidentified Greek Pirate, as logged on Nov. issue of Italian DX bulletin Radiorama (1630 kHz); again heard from 2023, shifted on 1628.40 kHz in // 3256.79v 3256.80v kHz . Yes, it is clearly the harmonic of the frequency on Medium Waves. 73, (Giovanni Serra, Roma, Italy, NASWA yg via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 28/12/2008 0342, 4915, R. Cora del Perú????? AM 33333, sólo con música romántica, no ID. 73 de (Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) More likely Brasil (gh) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. Emisora en 5005 no identificada. Radio Nepal? Saludos Colegas Radioescuchas y Diexistas del Mundo! Hoy 29/12/08 a las 1100 UT escuché una emisora no identificada en la frecuencia de 5005 kHz con un SINPO 25222. Será Radio Nepal? Pero el idioma escuchado creo era alemán. Alguien puede aclararme este misterio? Hace unos años en esta misma frecuencia y horario escuché a Radio Nepal y meses más tarde me confirmaron con QSL. Sé que están activos en SW y es probable que sea su señal. Pero hoy, debido a su señal débil, no pude confirmar si era Radio Nepal o no. Habrá alguna emisora emitiendo en alemán en esa frecuencia? (Santiago San Gil González, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hola Santiago, Nepal no está activa, desde hace febrero pasado por lo menos, y cierto no en alemán. Esto será imagen dentro de su receptor a 2 x frecuencia intermediada, 900 kHz menos de 5905, Deutsche Welle via Bonaire desde 10 a 12. Siempre que encuentre algo extraño como esto, debe probar la frecuencia a 900 kHz superior. 73, (Glenn Hauser, to Santiago, via DXLD) Gracias, Glenn. Sí las condiciones no están muy buenas últimamente y pudiera ser una radiación espúrea pues la transmision era en alemán. Eso era lo que no me cuadraba con que fueran las transmisiones de Radio Nepal. 73 y Buenos DX (Santiago San Gil, ibid.) Hola Santiago, No hablo de radiación espúrea desde algún transmisor sino de una frecuencia imagen que existe sólo dentro del receptor. Debe encontrar lo mismo algún otro día y verificar en paralelo con 5905, si llegue con fuerza igual. 73, (Glenn to Santiago, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 5800 kHz en AM: Pude escuchar en esta frecuencia transmisión de CW con señal muy fuerte por Venezuela; al tratar con LSB y USB, la señal desmejoraba considerablemente. Al tratar de decodificar, solo pude identificar algo como WAGIN WAGIN. Oída a las 0625 (José Elías Díaz Gómez, Venezuela, Conexión Digital utility column Dec 28 via DXLD) Cut spy numbers once again, as I keep explaining (gh) UNIDENTIFIED. 6074, 8GAL back with conventional V/CQ marker at *1400- 1401* Dec 29. Started before the 5-second-late timesignal from RUSSIA 6075 had finished (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. WWKB ON 6257 --- Glen[n], I was tuning around on shortwave and heard WWKB 1520 AM, on 6257 kHz with my Grundig G6. Using a 75 ft. Long wire. Is this a hetrodyne? Please respond back (Al Parker, Danbury CT, 2323 UT Dec 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Al, So it was parallel to 1520? Heterodyne is not the term; that means a tone caused by two carriers on nearby frequencies. You probably mean harmonic, which is an integral multiple of the fundamental frequency, and that does not fit either (1520 x 4 = 6080). Hard to say what accounts for this, maybe a pirate relay, or some other kind of mixing product in your radio or around the transmitter. What time did you hear it? I suppose WWKB does not make it to CT on 1520 in daytime, or does it? Please monitor further (Glenn to Al, via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Vanmorgen toch weer eens Solomon Isl. geprobeerd na het berichtje van gister van Maurits. Maar hier niks te horen van dat station, Deutsche Welle even hoger splattert iets teveel. Solomon moet dan wel heel zwak zijn aangezien ik zelfs met alle trucjes van de ontvanger niks kan horen. Wat wel lukte: 9555 kHz 0730 UT, RRI Makassar SIO 253 non-stop music en ann. in het Indonesisch --- Ook niet te hard maar geen zenders rondom deze freq. dus goed te volgen (Johan, PE9DX, Netherlands, Dec 28, bdx via DXLD) Hallo Johan, 9555 RRI Makassar is een lokaal station. De lokale stations zitten alleen nog op de tropenbanden (voor wat er van over is). In de Internationale banden hoor je the Voice of Indonesia. Maar die zijn ook op deze freq niet actief. Geen idee wat je dan wel hebt gehoord. 73 (Max van Arnhem, ibid.) He dat is vreemd Max, maar bedankt voor de info. Ik heb aan het eind van het programma iets van een Jakarta en Indonesië verstaan, en in een lijst die hier aanwezig is stond dat station dus vandaar ik dacht dat hij het was. Maar het taaltje wat gesproken was kon ik niet verstaan. Komende dagen meer eens wat meer luisteren daar misschien dat er nog iets anders uitkomt. Groeten (Johan, ibid.) Well, the local stations used to appear on non-trop bands in daytime, and some are still on the books like Makassar, e.g. Aoki but 9552v. Nothing scheduled on 9555 before WYFR at 0800; maybe it was another test from Sitkunai, LITHUANIA, as presumed by Wolfgang Büschel a few days ago in DXLD 8-129. Hope someone can identify it definitely --- 73, Glenn Hauser (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Vanmorgen is/was het station op 9555 trouwens weer in de lucht, maar was zwakker dan gister. Kon er vanmorgen helemaal niks van maken dus geen ID of iets dergelijks kunnen waarnemen. Ik zie in je ander mailtje van G.H. dat dit station reeds door meerderen is geh., we blijven maar eens proberen te achterhalen wie het is. Groeten (Johan, PE9DX, Dec 29, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 10200-10230, OTH radar pulses centred on 10215, Dec 28 at 1503 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Re: ``ECUADOR. HCJB, 11690, still claiming to be on 21455 as well as 11690 and 11960, in automated Spanish ID at 1429:30 Dec 26. Usual heavy RTTY QRM from 11687.5 which I find hard to believe is coming all the way from Crimea (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` I tend to agree regarding the RTTY. I've checked 11690 for any trace of it during the last four days around 1400+UT, and there has been no trace at all here. And I haven't positively heard HCJB either. So, if RTTY continues to be heard Stateside, then it isn't coming from Europe/ME. Furthermore, when Jordan was operating, and listeners in North America were complaining about RTTY, it wasn't heard then by me either during regular listening to their 11690 transmission. It needs someone in the Americas with RTTY reception capability to try to ID it - and even then, it may be encrypted. Who hears it loudest and where I wonder? (Noel R. Green (NW England), Dec 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thanks for all your efforts directed at all of us involved in the SWL hobby during 2008! Happy Holidays - Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! (Steve Foisey, KB1EWF, Stratford, CT) TINY TRAP +++++++++ ``The tiny Republic of Georgia``, said Wolf Blitzer on CNN, Dec 28 at 1738 UT, ``The Last Word in Sunday Talk`` (Clara Listensprechen, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WORLD OF HOROLOGY +++++++++++++++++ LEAP SECOND A Leap Second will be added this year on December 31st for the first time since December 31, 2005. Some of you might want to record a 61 second minute from WWV. Here is a link: http://www.timeanddate.com/time/leapseconds.html (Robert Smoak, ABDX via DXLD) Don't forget, that this will be the 61-second-long minute between 6:59 PM and 7 PM Eastern Standard Time 31 Dec, or the minute preceding 4 PM in California, etc. Nothing dramatic, just one extra tick. Don't waste your midnight HERE (North America) trying to hear it. Listen for the double ticks in the early part of each minute (the offset in tenths of a second) to change as well. Might be fun to listen to Reloj etc, see what the difference is with them vs. WWV and see if THAT gets corrected :-) Makes you wonder why, for a while it seemed there was a need for a LS almost every year, now just two in the past 10 years. Has the earth's rotation stabilized that much? (the real cause of "global warming"...) (or maybe someone tweaked the atomic clock's 50 pf trimmer..) (Bob Foxworth, FL, ibid.) LAST LEAP SECOND? According to The Times December 18: "If an international group of timekeeping experts has its way, however, this year's leap second will be one of the last. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which manages leap seconds, is proposing to abolish them in favour of adding a "leap hour" every 600 years or so. The move would have important consequences for Britain. Should the leap second be consigned to history, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) would lose its status as the zone in which local time is the same as the universal time by which clocks are set." Full article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article5361670.ece (via Mike Barraclough, dxldyg, and via Franklin Seiberling, DXLD) RADIO PHILATELY +++++++++++++++ Re 8-132: CUBA: NOT a stamp for Radio Rebelde --- Hola: LLevaba rato dándole vueltas a esta noticia porque habia algo que no me cuadraba; acabo de verla publicada en DXLD de Glenn Hauser dónde la ha clasificado como Filiatelia. A ver, todo parece indicar que se trata de la entrega de una especie de galardón a trabajadores con méritos, aquí se llama sello, cuando podría ser una placa de reconocimiento, un fin de semana en un hotel con la famila o un par de cajas de cerveza. Nada parece indicar, según mis impresiones y mi ligero conocimiento de como funcionan las cosas por alli, que se trate de un sello de correos; además en la fotografia se muestra la entrega con una especie de moneda. En Cuba los sellos de correos los llaman estampillas. Recordar que la noticia hace mención de distinciones a un grupo de trabajadores. Una respuesta por mi parte totalmente fuera del tema DX, disculpas por ello. Feliz día. Cordialmente, (Tomás Méndez. El Prat de Llobregat-Barcelona España, logsderadio yg via DXLD) Saludos Tomás, perdón por la tardanza pero se me pasó el mensaje, en efecto creo que tienes razón, es correcto tu observación, sin lugar a dudas en la noticia cuando se refiere a "sello", se están refiriendo a una especie de condecoración, placa, medalla u otra cosa, pero no a un sello filatelico; en un principio no caí en la cuenta. También tienes razón respecto a la apreciación sobre el interes DX de la noticia, quizás lo único destacable es que recuerdan que la emisora cumple 50 años, nada más; en fin, sin ser del todo DX, está publicado, que le vamos a hacer. Un saludo, Feliz Año Nuevo, ahhh, y que mejore la propagación, aquí en Valencia, el ruido es INSUFRIBLE, con mayúsculas. 73 (José Miguel Romero2, Spain, ibid.) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ 2009 WRTH ON ITS WAY My 2009 WRTH that I preordered from Amazon was shipped yesterday Dec 28 - so not as late getting to North America as we were thinking. 73, (Deane McIntyre VE6BPO, Calgary AB Canada, (home of the 100 watt powerhouse of the 49MB, CFVP 6030), Dec 29, HCDX via DXLD) MIKE'S DX ARCHIVE I've been converting some of my vintage DX cassettes to mp3's. Unfortunately some of my cassettes are now unplayable after being stored for three decades in less than ideal temperature and humidity conditions, and many of them were cheap quaility anyway, e.g. Maxell Low Noise, Radio Shack Concertape, or no brand at all. Some are so old that they have the "Compact Cassette" logo printed on the label. I have uploaded the following at http://www.box.net/shared/fuue3o65ku Radio Canada International DX Digest, July 1978 - portion of a special program hosted by Ian McFarland for the ANARC convention, held at Maison de Radio-Canada in Montreal. Radio Sandino, Nicaragua, 7318, July 1979 - Sandinista clandestine station heard in midst of revolution that overthrew US-backed tinpot Anastasio Somoza. [see NICARAGUA] Federal Radio Corp. of Nigeria, Enugu, 6025, Aug. 8, 1981 - this actually can count as Biafra. Nigerian Broadcasting Corp., Lagos, 4990, June 29, 1977 - many local ads, with prices in naira and kobo. Voice of "Free" Chile - 15150, Aug. 1977 - some sad propaganda from the Pinochet era. "Argentine Annie" - Falklands War propaganda station, April 1982 (I've long since lost my paper logbook from 1982. Does anyone remember this station's frequency?) [17715, I think or thereabouts --- gh] Radiodiffusion Nationale du Mali, 7110, Jan. 1978 WFAT-1620. Pirate station from New York area, Jan. 1, 1978 KNBI-1530, Norton, KS. DX test, March 20, 1978 WKMC-1370, Roaring Spring, PA. Sign-off with SSB, April 3, 1978 KOAM-860, Pittsburg, KS. June 28, 1977 All heard on relatively unsophisticated equipment - Panasonic RF-2200 (which I still have), using only the built-in whip, "GYRO" (externally rotating ferrite stick), or simple longwire. This project is still a work in progress. More vintage DX from the Carter and Reagan eras will be uploaded on box.net when I get the chance to listen and determine which cassettes are salvageable. Clips are in Ogg Vorbis (.ogg) format. Playable with Winamp, and should be compatible with other mp3 players. 73 (Mike Brooker, Toronto, ON, HCDX via DXLD) POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ ESCUTAS AMEAÇADAS A PARTIR DE 2009 Caros amigos: No dia 23 de dezembro o professor Ehevaldo Siqueira, um dos grandes estudiosos da comunicação e tecnologia, informou na CBN que a PLC será regulamentada em fevereiro de 2009, pela Anatel. Segundo o Ethevaldo, essa tecnologia é democrática, porque garante o acesso a todos e a Anatel, já tem posição formada a favor dessa tecnologia, após a consulta pública e outros pareceres. Será que todo o nosso empenho foi em vão? No Encontro DX dedicamos quase um programa inteiro ao asssunto e outros programas também colocaram o tema para seus ouvintes. A lista de radioescuta também fez o seu papel. Lamentavelmente vamos esperar como vai ser essa regulamentação, porque a implantação também depende da qualidade das instalações de rua que hoje em dia estão todas terceirizadas (Cassiano Macedo, Brasil, Dec 27, radioescutas yg via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: see DENMARK; MALAYSIA; USA WBCQ ++++++++++++++++++++ Re: WHAT IS IT? NEW PICTURE MODES ON HF? I also found a small program that converts normal pics into a wave- file. http://www.kiva.net/~djones/ SpectroText (335 KB Zip file) by Jean Pierre F4EYU (Kristian / Germany, UDXF yg via DXLD) I have also discovered a more ambitious one called audiopaint, which when set up correctly can produce spectrogram pictures as large as the one done by Aphex Twin. I made some huge ones with surprisingly good detail, using the whole audio spectrum 20-20k. You can restrict the bandwidth. I haven't tried making ones that would fit in 10k yet. I can't see why this would not work. http://www.nicolasfournel.com/audiopaint.htm (Hugh Stegman, UDXF yg via DXLD) "STEALTH" HD POWER INCREASES [continued from 8-132] One other point to remember is the proliferation of religious translators on the band. Here in the Twin Cities, I can get no less than FOUR K-love translators, some of which I suspect are operating at more than their legal authorized power. John E in MN (John Ebeling, Minnesota, WTFDA via DXLD) The same is true in the Philadelphia area with the Hope FM translators, many of which are regularly audible at listenable levels 30, 40 even 50 miles away. Worse yet, they're stacking two of them in one town in some cases, both with equally strong signals here on the car radio. Since I'm 7-10 miles from most of my FM local transmitters, IBOC kills a lot of channels, but those channels used to be filled with analog splatter in many cases. Some of them will still produce DX in a strong Es opening, so that's still available. I've also started trying to null some of my semilocals during Es openings to see what comes through. Bottom line, IBOC has made my FM DX situation more difficult mostly by killing a number of prime low-band frequencies for meteors, including what had been two of my best, 88.3 and 88.7. But the way things are going here, if it wasn't IBOC, there'd be redundant translators on those same frequencies to make them unusable - just another problem caused by the highly-politicized FCC (Russ Edmunds, WB2BJH, Blue Bell, PA, 40:08:45N; 75:16:04W, Grid FN20id, ibid.) Ha. Not as much denial, but maybe hanging onto hope that one day there will be something out there that saves DXing for us all. IBOC came along a year later for me because my market was IBOC free till last year. The first time I heard it was in Buffalo, and as I was in the city, it was heavy; and yes, made DXing pretty pointless and really killed it for me, except skip, which could take out IBOC and locals even. Then when I arrived back in Michigan, I found the same situation. Almost all my Green Bay stations here are under IBOC as well as all my indicator stations, not to mention some remaining open frequencies have been covered by translators that translate full power stations 10 miles from the translator!!! For me, IBOC is quickly killing FM DXing and DTV has already killed TV DXing for me. I'm old-fashioned. I like looking through snow, hearing bits of audio in and out, getting skip on Channel 2 and watching it climb to 6 and into FM. Without that, what's the point (speaking personally, my opinion only)? For a TV/FM DXer --- really, I've almost given up. Of course, if I'm watching TV or listening to the radio and conditions are super good and I hear something, I wouldn't hesitate to dive in and explore :). I think even when many DXers give up the hobby, the addiction remains somewhere deep underneath, which is probably what drives the common DXer to --- DX even when all hope is lost (Chris Kadlec, Fremont, Mich., ibid. Yep, and some of us have turned back to "old school DXing" - been working on improving my AM DX setup over the past year and even the stuff below 500 kHz. A bit noisier but has some of the same benefits to cure the DX bug. Come on over to the AM DX list, anyone who is interested! (Bill Nollman, Farmington, CT, ibid.) For all intents and purposes, FM DX'ing here in the Boston area is at a standstill, thanks in a major part to IBOC. And to add insult to injury, the over-abundance of Haitian FM pirates on 89.3, 94.9, 96.5, 102.1 and 102.9 (all of my best frequencies are gone) pretty sealed the fate of FM DX'ing in my neck of the woods. The FCC won't do a thing about it, either. Meteor scatter is nearly impossible now. In the past, I was able to snag over 100 MS catches. About the only thing left to do is wait for our local Channels 2, 4 and 5 to shutdown on 2/17. Maybe then I'll see Cuba, Mexico and Canada for a couple of more years. I've actually switched to LW NDB DX'ing now. It's not bad, really. With a small knowledge of the Morse Code and the list of non- directional beacons, you can get some amazing catches, especially from Canada. So, unless IBOC goes away (which I WISH were the case), DX'ing for me will be down in "the basement", below 500 kHz (Peter Q. George, ibid.) While FM DXing certainly isn't what it was back when I first started about 13 years ago (I had been a SW and AM DXer for several years before that) I feel its far from dead here in Hingham MA. Yes IBOC and the pirates have put a dent in things but with two antennas, the Bolin phase box and my tuners I still can grab some decent DX especially if trop is moderate to strong and E skip openings are strong. Right now I'm using two APS9B antennas but still thinking about putting up a couple of APS13's. I've also been doing more Basement Band DXing (in fact I'm doing a NDB daytime bandscan right now). (Keith McGinnis, Hingham MA, ibid.) You know, I am a bit perplexed by the talk of IBOC killing off the hobby. Now, I should say in the interest of full disclosure that I DX TV/FM merely as a sideline; I am primarily a VHF ham. But, I still dabble, and was quite serious in my younger days. The important starting point in this discussion is that DXing is supposed to be hard. If it were easy to hear an FM from the Sand Hills of Nebraska here in Memphis, there would be no point in doing it. That's why it isn't DX to listen to a web stream. If IBOC, or new translators, or DTV make the hobby harder... that's fine. It's just another challenge. It makes getting the distant station just that much more fun when you finally get it. I think I'll pass on discussing whether the FCC was right about making these decisions. I believe more choices for consumers are better than fewer. So, there is an argument that FM IBOC was a good idea, at least conceptually. Now, AM IBOC does seem a bit silly (Peter, N4LI, AG4KI, Baskind, J.D., LL.M., Germantown, TN, 901-624-5295, ibid.) I'm between Philly and New York here so there is a ton of IBOC around on the dial, but, for the most part, I'd say FM DXing here is still productive and worthwhile and with a good directional antenna and a tuner that tunes around sidebands a sizable amount of DX will overcome IBOC. My perspective however is different from many here as I didn't begin DXing with a rooftop antenna until the middle of 2005 when already quite a few stations around here were running IBOC, so in a sense I don't really know what I was missing before that. It might be a whole new ballgame though with the potential IBOC power increases, and as Russ said, a bigger threat are translators that might threaten the few good frequencies that exist here (Nick Langan, Florence, NJ, My DX page: http://www.wnjl.com/dx/ ibid.) IMHO FM IBOC *will* go away eventually. I think it's likely that as exciters fail, stations will decide their limited budget is best spent on something that's bringing revenue into the station - and not on something that costs in utility bills without adding to the ratings or the sales. It will take awhile. Some FM-IBOC stations will still be with us in 10 years. Many won't. Unfortunately I don't see the same thing happening with pirates (Doug Smith, Pleasant View TN, ibid.) Doug, Won't it be possible if FM IBOC catches on for a station to run advertising on one or more of their streams? How about some of the pirates or religious stations going for an HD subchannel rather than erecting their own antenna? (Allan Dunn, K1UCY, Dec 29, WTFDA via DXLD) There's no technical or legal reason why stations can't air advertising on HD2/HD3/HD4 channels (indeed, I seem to recall having read where at least one station has done so). But you (rightly) qualify that with "...if FM IBOC catches on...", and that's a BIG "if". In this economy it's plenty hard enough to sell airtime in the main signal that everyone's listening to. If one knows of a salesman who can sell a flight of spots for a decent rate on a HD2 channel, I want his name -- so I can refer him to our sales manager, I want him working for us! HD was having enough trouble catching on 18-24 months ago when most people (thought they) had plenty of money to spend on new radios. Today there's obviously a lot less spare discretionary cash (and what will probably hurt HD the most is the slamming of the brakes on new car sales. They'd been hoping to get HD Radios into new cars - doesn't really matter if they succeed if nobody is buying the cars!) If the economy snaps back to pre-2007 numbers by the end of 2009 I suppose it might not have much impact on HD Radio. I'm optimistic but not nearly *that* optimistic. For a lot of pirates, I think being illegal is the point(grin). I can see HD taking the place of SCA in some cases, for example for ethnic stations (indeed, one firm is already doing so). I think most ethnic pirates would already be on SCA if they were willing/able to pay the lease fees. I can see religious stations using HD2/HD3/HD4 to offer more than one channel of their own programming but I don't see K-Love being willing to place themselves on WCCC-HD3 instead of building/buying their own station – (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.) I happened to be listening to KXTR-1660 Kansas City, the once-great full-FM classical station relegated to the X-band, ID at 2158 UT Dec 28 mentioning that they are also on HD2 of KUDL-98.1, also Kansas City KS. As for the lack of usage of two or four extra DTV channels around here --- a lot, e.g. KWTV-DT-39 CBS have nothing but the main channel --- I`m convinced it`s because they don`t want to compete with themselves, cutting into their own ratings, while the ABC and NBC stations have nothing but continuous weather on -2, which no one is going to watch more than a few minutes except when it`s severe --- and then they`d be better off watching the main channel where everything will be interrupted anyway. I wonder if this vast DTV resource will continue to go to waste after The Transition (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The beginning of the end of IBOC? http://www.rbr.com/radio/12018.html THEY’RE TURNING OFF HD IN WASHINGTON, DC 25 December, 2008 09:47:00 Well, this time it’s not an anomaly or a digital exciter glitch—at least not that we can see. For weeks now the Washington, DC market has been turning off its HD Radio signals en masse. There is no longer any station in the market on AM broadcasting in HD. ESPN Deportes Radio/Red Zebra’s 730 WXTR-AM long ago shut off the signal. But now that list includes 630 WMAL (Citadel); 570 WTNT (Clear Channel); Red Zebra’s 980 ESPN Radio; and 1500 WFED-AM (Bonneville). The FM list now includes 106.7 WJFK-FM (CBS Radio); 102.3 WWMJ-FM (Radio One); 104.1 WPRS-FM (Radio One) and 107.7 WWWT-FM (Bonneville).* RBR/TVBR observation*: The most likely culprit is licensing fees. Just not worth it for some in tough economic times. Also, these FMs did not have HD multicast (HD2) signals, and two of them were broadcasting in mono—so what’s the point? For the AM side, unless you are 50,000 watts, most radios can’t pick up AM HD very far from the tower array. WFED is 50-kW, but you’d never know it because of its higher frequency—just doesn’t propagate well (via Bill Harms, Elkridge MD, Dec 29, dxldyg via DXLD) See the comments appended to the story, 4 so far: Steve Burgess on 29 December, 2008 02:54:42: I noted that WAMU had turned off its HD2 and HD3 channels over the weekend - perhaps a permanent condition? If so, it's a shame because the programming was good. Pocket Radio on 29 December, 2008 06:56:36: I love this! It's finally happening! Stations have finally figured out this HD Radio farce! Carl Marcucci on 29 December, 2008 08:51:15: WAMU is still on with both HD2 and HD3 today, but they certainly could have had problems over the weekend. It doesn't take much. [WAMU kept bluegrass format going on `HD` after banning it from main channel; I`d expect that to be the last to go --- gh] Randy Kabrich on 29 December, 2008 11:42:40 No, the reason the AMs are turning off their HD en masse is because according to tales running in Engineering Circles is that IBOC interferes with PPM encoding (which considering how the PPM encoding works and what the Digital Hash of IBOC sounds like, I can clearly see as a possibility). The information apparently first came out of Clear Channel, but most Major Market AM Engineers are now fully aware of it and HD Radio is being turned off due to this info (whether its true or not). (RBR via DXLD) What`s PPM encoding and why has this just been discovered? (gh) I like how they say 1500 in DC doesnt propogate well. How come it can be heard like a local in Connecticut and Florida at night? Writing at it's best! [sic] (Paul Walker, Ord NE, IRCA via DXLD) LOCALLY it does not (Powell E Way, SC, ibid.) Depends on where the writer is located. In some directions, and at night, his comment is true (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA ( 360' ASL ), [15 mi NNW of Philadelphia], ibid.) An engineer at a DC station, off-the-record, told me that IBOC was a piece of c##p. Another person told me it was not nice to do business on your neighbors. Maybe there is hope. I don't mean to be so crude, but there are strong feelings against IBOC in the broadcast industry. Maybe, it is just a matter of time before the wing-tip types understand also (Bill Harms, MD, ABDX via DXLD) I understand. IBOC on MW is a POS. FM, that's a bit of a different story to some extent. But it still opens a big can of worms. But there's been a lot of money paid for this to "work" , as probably in greasing palms. My comment about the system is: "Son, WHAT WERE you thinking ?!" (Powell E. Way III, SC, w4opw, ibid.) Well, as a non-insider lay person concerning this aspect of the radio industry, I would agree that a lot of money has been spent on this technology so far and one could very well argue that this is an incentive to continue. But there is also the counter-argument that with little evidence that the technology will be accepted (From what I have seen, I think it fair and objective to say that the Jury is still out, especially concerning AM, YMMV), the bean-counters may ultimately trump the marketers just because so much has been poured into IBOC with little return. From my perspective (and I was once CFO for a 16 station radio group in the Northwest), I would think it would be the profits from IBOC that would ultimately drive the decision making process going forward. Like they say in the multi-level marketing business, "Ultimately, somebody has to buy the soap, you can't just fill up your garage". Just my .02 :-) (Chris Black, Cape Cod, ibid.) How about the principle of cutting your losses? (gh, DXLD) Clear Channel-owned WHAS 840 (50 kW) turned off its IBOC on Christmas Day, giving me the Christmas gift of being able to receive WCCO (830) and KOA (850) once again! (Mike Bryant, Louisville, KY, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Both WBAP and WHAS have also apparently turned off Iblock (Thomas Anderson, ABDX via DXLD) I expect for WHAS something crashed. I doubt if they turned it off, after all it is CC and they have a lot vested in it. I wish 1530 would turn theirs off so I could get WLAC in HD. When 1530 [Cincinnati] and 1500 is off, I get it WLAC most of the time in HD when conditions are good (Powell W Way, III, SC, ABDX via DXLD) IBOC project abandoned in BRAZIL: q.v. RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ TV TOWER ANTENNA REPLACEMENT ON NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC They had a program about the most dangerous jobs in America. These guys were replacing a TV antenna during the daytime while KOLT-TV, ch. 10 Sioux Falls, SD was off the air during the middle of a daytime. It was interesting how they go about removing the old antenna and putting the new one up. Those antennas weigh a ton or two so I always imagine it was not an easy job. However, I have heard of local TV stations at times mentioning antenna replacements, but they usually do all that during the wee hours of the night while people are sleeping. TV station would sign off at 12 Midnight and be back on the air by 6:00 am. I've never seen it done in the daytime around here, unless the TV station has a backup transmitter at another location (John L., WTFDA via DXLD) KDLT 46 Sioux Falls, actually --- and yes, a great show! It all depends on how much work is involved. I wouldn't want a tower crew under my responsibility swinging an antenna around the top of a 2000-foot tower in the dark. s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) The same organization - Tower King - has been at work here in Raleigh lately: CREW CLIMBS TO 'DEATH ZONE' TO WORK ON WRAL TOWER Posted: Today at 5:00 a.m. Updated: Today at 8:04 a.m. CLAYTON, N.C. --- Shane Best considers himself part of a "special breed of people. Perched high in the air, his job as a tower rigger regularly puts him 2,000 feet off the ground. Best is part of the crew of Tower King II, a company that works on big towers. They spent Christmas week at the WRAL transmitter tower near Clayton installing a new digital antenna... http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4206508/ (via Jay Novello, Wake Forest NC, ibid.) Includes a 21-shot slide-show, no motion video (gh, DXLD) ORIGINAL FM BANDS - BEFORE 42-50 MC [sic] Found this interesting tidbit from the FCC in 1940 that officially established the 42-50 Mc FM Band --- "The bands 25,000-27,000 kilocycles and 116,000-118,000 kilocycles will not hereafter be assigned to FM domestic broadcasting". So apparently 25-27 & 116-118 MHz were experimental FM bands even prior to 42-50! wrh (Bill Hepburn, Ont., Dec 28, WTFDA via DXLD) WIZARD: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF NIKOLA TESLA, BIOGRAPHY OF A GENIUS.. Marc Seifer. Citadel (2001). 542 páginas, inglés. [...] Tesla: El primer diexista --- El libro está plagado de interminables pequeñas anécdotas sobre la vida del personaje, así que he elegido una que me impactó especialmente. Cuando estaba haciendo pruebas de sus sistemas para transmitir señales a distancia, Tesla creyó captar una señal consistente en tres pitidos cortos que se repetían de vez en cuando. Descartando que fuera de origen natural, razonó que al ser la única persona en el mundo con un poderoso equipamiento como el suyo, las señales debían provenir de otro planeta. Este fue el origen de su pasión por intentar contactar con otros mundos y de su convicción de que había vida más allá de la tierra (y tal vez incluso de cierta obsesión con el número 3). Sin embargo, las fechas en que esto sucedió coinciden con la época en que Marconi estaba haciendo pruebas de su telégrafo sin hilos entre tierra y navíos, usando una S (tres puntos en morse) como texto de prueba. Casi con toda seguridad eso fue lo que captó Tesla, ignorante de que en otra parte del mundo alguien ya estaba enviando señales codificadas tan potentes como las que él esperaba emitir y recibir. fuente: http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/libros/wizard-the-life-and-times-of-nikola-tesla.html (Gustavo Fernando Durán, Santa Fe - Argentina, http://www.flickr.com/photos/trekman http://www.jpgmag.com/people/dxtrek condiglist yg via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ GRAVEYARD ADVICE I've been trying to log some of the graveyard stations near me. Usually, I can use my loop to add some strength to a signal, but I'm finding that rather than having a weak signal, I've got a frequency with a slew of stations all mashing together. What do you guys do to try and pull a station out of the mix? (Kurt McCullum, Santa Clarita, CA, Dec 28, ABDX via DXLD) That's what the gy frequencies typically sound like at night. Some nights there will be stations that are dominant on a frequency and some nights they will sound like mush. Dominant means they will fade up to the top more often but not necessarily come in for more than a few minutes. Tonight I listened to 1400 kHz from 5:06 to 6:00 PM PST. The dominant station was KKJL San Luís Obispo. I heard several songs and a couple IDs and ads. They were dominant but when they faded up it only lasted 2-3 minutes. I did get one good ID recorded. Listen a couple hours before sunset and you will sometimes hear stations better. Also a couple hours after sunrise for some of the local CA stations. There is a yahoo group that does only GY DX. Most record the top of hour to about 6 minutes after and sometimes bottom of hour overnight and listen later. I do similar but not overnight. I've heard several stations this way. I also have an Excel file of all stations in CA, AZ, NV, UT and Baja California with formats, slogans, news networks. This is a good reference when listening. Do your homework for reference material. There are two good articles written on the subject. "Successful Long- Distance Reception on the Class-IV Channels" by Bob Foxworth. Written in 1974, most of the information still applies. And "DXing the Graveyard Channels" by Les Rayburn written in 2005. The first one is available through NRC reprints and the second one was on Les' website. I'm no expert, only 51 graveyard stations heard. It requires patience and luck but you will be rewarded (Martin Foltz, Mission Viejo, CA, ibid.) Re: There are two good articles written on the subject. "Successful Long-Distance Reception on the Class-IV Channels" by Bob Foxworth. Written in 1974, most of the information still applies. And "DXing the Graveyard Channels" by Les Rayburn written in 2005. The first one is available through NRC reprints and the second one was on Les' website: http://www.highnoonfilm.com/amdx/ (Larry Wild, ibid.) Note that the URLs mentioned in Les' article are now obsolete. The GY mailing list is now a Yahoo forum (like ABDX): http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/gydx/ Bill Hale's GY DX Achievements page is at: http://www.nrcdxas.org/GYDXA/gytotals.html (Barry McLarnon VE3JF Ottawa, ON, ibid.) And it applies only to current NRC members; any other record distances don`t count. I.e., achievements of the members, not the stations (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ###