DX LISTENING DIGEST 9-001, January 1, 2009
	Incorporating REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING
	edited by Glenn Hauser, http://www.worldofradio.com

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SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1441
Wed 0630 WRMI   9955
Wed 1230 WRMI   9955
Wed 2200 WBCQ  15420-CUSB
Thu 0630 WRMI   9955
Thu 1530 WRMI   9955
Fri 0030 WBCQ   7415
Fri 0200 WRMI   9955
Fri 0900 WRMI   9955
Fri 2030 IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS/IBA 7290
Fri 2130 WWCR1 15825 
Sat 0000 WBCQ   5110-CUSB Area 51 [or 0030?]
Sat 0900 WRMI   9955
Sat 1730 WWCR3 12160
Sun 0330 WWCR3  5070
Sun 0730 WWCR1  3215
Sun 0900 WRMI   9955
Mon 2300 WBCQ   7415 [confirmed December 22]
Tue 1200 WRMI   9955
Tue 1630 WRMI   9955
Wed 0630 WRMI   9955 [or new 1442]
Wed 1230 WRMI   9955 [or new 1442]

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. Glenn, Re. Mr. Muick's comments about observation of 
the 3rd harmonic of the 1107 kHz transmitter at Pol-el-Charkhi:

The two transmitters at this site both operate into the original 
Russian antennas, and although the antenna masts are separated by 
several hundred meters, there is some coupling between them. They 
also, of course, use the Russian design "post and frame" guy 
insulators, which have an interesting arc gap incorporated into them. 
There were some reports of arcing in some weather conditions at the 
guy insulators when the site was refurbished, and if a minor arc of 
this type occurs, it does not produce a transient VSWR condition large 
enough to trip the transmitter overload circuitry. And, of course, if 
such an arc occurs, harmonics will be generated in some amount, and 
the coupling from the other antenna can easily result in its 
modulation appearing on the radiated harmonic of the opposite antenna. 
The transmitters themselves (Harris DX-400's) are equipped with proper 
filtering, but that, of course, only prevents intermodulation from 
being generated in the transmitter itself (Ben Dawson, WA, Dec 31, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

7749, RTV Afghanistan. Must be a serious mis-tune or their harmonic 
filters are burnt through. Now being heard on 7th harmonic as well at 
0452 on 01 Jan. Pol-e-Charki located at least 20 km away from me. 

Apparently, one of my guards took a liking to the grounding cable for 
my generator for use as a battery cable in his car. This caused the 
sudden ruination of mediumwave at 2350 local on New Years' Eve. He is 
now free to repair his vehicle without the benefit of my employ. I 
have replaced the cable, but something is still not right with the 
generator as everything below 1 MHz is still essentially pfutsch! A 
replacement genset is to be delivered sometime next week, but 
mediumwave is kind of handicapped until then.

Aside from that, I've had an excellent day of DX, ranging from 
broadcast to spy stations to utes. I hope everyone else has had the 
same. I did manage to scrounge some pork and sauerkraut for lunch 
(thank you ASI International for the invite!) as well as a case of 
John Smith's ale from my friends at the British Embassy. 73s de (Al 
Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 200m Longwire/Randomwire, 
DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AFGHANISTAN [non]. 5925.00, 0320-0358*, CLANDESTINE, 27.12, R Solh, 
via Dhabbaya [UAE]. Dari ID 0330: "Radyo Solh", talk about U.S.
military operations in Afghanistan with statements translated from 
English, Afghan music, abrupt s/off in mid sentence, 35333 (Anker 
Petersen, Skovlunde, Denmark, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of 
longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD)

** ALBANIA. As I use the software defined Radio PERSEUS in past 10 
days, here are the observations of tonight: Measured exact calibrated 
against 77.5 kHz time and standard signal and Moscow 9996 kHz standard 
frequency.

Shijak transmitters are both a little low, 20 / 16 Hertz lower.
One on xxxx.980, the other on xxxx.984 kHz.

7464.980, Radio Tirana in French via Shijak transmitter site,
distorted[!] audio, S=9+20dB, strong signal though, slightly off 
frequency 19-20 Hertz. 1830-1857 UT.

6009.984, Radio Tirana in Serbian with GOOD[!] audio, seemingly from a
different recording studio. 1900-1914 UT, S=9+10dB, men`s chorus at 
1910 UT. Interval signal signature at 1912-1913 UT.

7464.980, Radio Tirana in English at 1950 UT, S=8 signal only, men`s
chorus/folk song. Nothing heard of the 11645 kHz signal tonight, 
sorry. Signal skips over my head here in southern Germany.

6154.984, Radio Tirana Interval Signal from 1959:50 UT, ID in Italian, 
S=8 signal, low modulation level. Co-channel Voice of Russia in Slovak 
ended at 1958:30 UT, followed by Kremlin chimes. TX Russia off at 
2000:10 UT.

Fade-out time at 2015 UT, despite ERT Avlis Greece from same area has 
a S=9+10 dB signal on 7450 kHz tonight.

7464.980, Very weak signal of Radio Tirana in French at 2015 UT, weak 
S=5-6 in peaks. Faded away around 2025 UT, nothing noted in German 
section at 2035 UT also.

Perseus software shows a small signal peak on 7464.980 kHz of -10 dBm 
above noise threshold around 2030-2100 UT.

7509.980, at 2100-2130 UT in English, only very weak, S=4-5 level.
9344.975, at 2100-2130 UT in English, under threshold here in Germany.
Interference by strong RTTY utility station, which is centered on 
9344.994 kHz, S=9+10 dB.

Albanian service at 2130-2300 UT, checked around 2200-2215 UT on
6004.984 kHz S=8, in peaks S=9, -75dBm.
7434.980 kHz S=5-6, weak and tiny, -95dBm.
Regards de Wolfy (Büschel, Germany, Dec 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

R. Tirana has good strong signals but the modulation, I am sorry to 
say, is often awful and this was the case during some checks Dec 31:

7435, new frequency to Eu/NAm in Albanian, Dec 31 at 2130 very 
distorted, seemed like a public speech. 2208, 7435 during music also 
with degraded modulation.

6110, Albanian to NAm at 0018 Jan 1, terribly distorted audio and 
breaking up despite S9+20 signal, both music and talk. Something has 
to be done with their studio playback and/or studio-transmitter links, 
to get a clear good-fidelity signal on the air (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

Check out the webstream: There must be some poor phone-grade line in
use. It appears that louder audio overdrives a distribution amplifier,
resulting in severe distortion. There is a considerable amount of hiss
as well, apparently unlike the program audio not limited to 3 kHz.

Where is the streaming server actually located? When outside the
studio building, at either Shijak or Fllaka, the problem is clearly
the STL, presumably traditional copper circuits. Somehow they went
bad, not too long ago the audio was definitely better.

Or is the audio so bad already at the radio house outputs? If so one
has really to wonder what went so terribly wrong with the
installations quite recently.

Anyway it appears to be a combination of three problems:

* Audio level way too high at some point in the chain, overdriving an
amplifier, resulting in severe distortion. Level again brought down
later, but the distortion is of course irrecoverable. Or an amplifier
in the chain is faulty.

* Poor audio bandwith. Wild speculation: The audio is not routed
through a phone line with Pupin coils now? They would of course have
to be removed to use the line for broadcasting purposes.

* Hiss, produced by a bad amplifier after the bandwith bottleneck.
(Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Hi everybody, all the best from Germany and a happy new year.

As a limiter is installed in the chain prior to the web stream encoder
(located at the studio site) that is capable of about +20dBu in the
input stage with a +6dBu > -10dBv converter connected afterwards, I 
also guess that the audio comes already distorted from a distribution
amplifier - or perhaps from the recording studio, because the live
programs in the morning (9-10 UTC) are without any distortion as far 
as I heard them the last days.

But also the interval signal is distorted - does this also come from a
recording studio or is it played live from the dispatcher room? When 
it comes from the dispatcher room, it will surely be a distribution
amplifier that is, as Kai said, either faulty or leveled too high. In
some old recordings of the program around the 12th December 2008 it
wasn't distorted.

Unfortunately I cannot check medium- and/or shortwave here to check if
the sound is also distorted on that way, because the English 
transmitter on 1458 kc/s makes it impossible to hear something from 
Tirana. And shortwave doesn't work well because of the man-made-noise 
around the studio building.

As I had contact to Astrit Ibro the last days, we will cross-check the
settings of the limiter next days just to be very sure, that from
thereon everything is OK. Best regards, (Christian Milling, Germany 
via Drita Çiço, DXLD)

R. Tirana, 7435 had somewhat improved modulation January 1 compared to 
December 31 when it was extremely distorted. Jan 1 at 2217 check, 
still low-fidelity during rock music, with only the lower audio 
frequencies passing, but not very distorted.

Meanwhile, the head of the Shijak (SW) and Flaaka (MW) transmitter 
sites, Lulzim Berhami has submitted his resignation from 31 Dec for 
financial reasons (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ARGENTINA. 6059.96, Radio Nacional, 1030-1045, Jan 1, Spanish 
announcements. Tango music. Local Spanish pop music. Very weak. Much 
better on // 11710.87 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

** ARMENIA. 1377, VoR Sodruzhestvo relay s/off with ID and IS at 1758 
on 01 Jan in Russian, transmitter off for 30 secs and then TWR relay 
IS into unID lang. A two-fer! Easy logging at 1000 kW for Armenia on 
mw. Very strong sigs, with some minor QRM from Iran. 73s de (Al Muick, 
Kabul, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 200m Longwire/Randomwire, Palstar 
MW-550P Mediumwave Preselector, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ASIA [non]. Dear friends: Best wishes to you and yours for this 
holiday season. This link will take you to RFA's animated holiday 
greeting which also incorporates some of the major Asian news items 
covered by RFA over the past year. 
http://www.rfa.org/english/multimedia/YearEndSlideshow2008-12182008131459.html/main.html
Peace and good health to you in 2009. 73s. AJ Janitschek, Radio Free 
Asia (via Tomás Méndez, Spain, logsderadio yg via DXLD)

A. J. Janitschek responded to my reception report of Radio Free Asia 
in Vietnamese on 5855 in 8 minutes --although it was 11 PM in 
Washington and he was on vacation! AJ does such a great job with 
interesting and varied QSL cards which are changed every month or so. 
And the transmitter site is indicated on the card for an IBB 
transmitter (Kuwait, Saipan, Biblis, Tinian, Sri Lanka, and 
Lampertheim), while Asia or Other is checked for a broadcast from a 
non-IBB site (Wendel Craighead, Prairie Village, Kansas, USA, Cumbredx 
mailing list, via DXLD)

** AUSTRALIA. RA still not making it on 9590, so have to try 7240 
instead, UT Dec 31 at 1512, but an SSB ham was using RA as his 
precisely tuned BFO, which happens all too often, and would seem to be 
self-defeating as RA is also modulating both sidebands! Apparently, RA 
does not want to operate above 7300 so we`re stuck with these 
collisions (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRALIA. 2310, VL8A, Alice Springs NT, 1957-2014, 28 Dec, program 
cf. VL8K; this and VL8T are a fraction of a second delayed relative to 
VL8K; 35433.

2325, VL8T, Tennant Creek NT, 1956-2023, 28 Dec, program cf. VL8K; 
this and VL8A are a fraction of a second delayed relative to VL8K; 
35433.

2485, VL8K, Katherine NT, 1955-2022, 28 Dec, English, ABC Overnight 
programs, news bulletin at 8 PM, music; 45433 - never this good 
(Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Jan 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRIA [and non]. Listening to the doomed SW broadcasts from here, 
13730, Dec 31 at 1356 playing song in English ``There Are No Diamonds 
in the Mine``, then interview in German to 1400* with ID as O-E-Eins, 
not O-umlaut; meanwhile bothered by noises from what should be a 
silent carrier on 13740 as CRI relay via Habana was warming up.

Later caught what is presumably the final English SW broadcast from 
Austria, via Canada relay 13675, Dec 31 at 1650, all about the late 
Jörg Heider, to leave us with a bad taste. Sackville cut it off at 
1659* sharp before the program was over, so no farewells to be heard!

If Moosbrunn SW transmissions really cease at yearend, and there does 
not seem to be any certain info about this, people looking for the 
Vienna New Year`s Concert will be disappointed. It should be live 
around 1000 UT Jan 1, when 6155 and 13730 have normally been on the 
air. 

Countless public radio stations in the US carry it at a more 
convenient time for us, 1600 UT, some in the West delay it further, 
and a few play it back in the evening. See our holiday calendar at 
http://www.worldofradio.com/calendar.html#holiday 

PBS TV carries a different version in the evening as well (Glenn 
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

I downloaded the weekend Report from Austria which was The Year in 
Review: http://oe1.orf.at/podcast/

At the end Kerry Skyring said that the ORF will continue to broadcast
programmes in English on its Youth network FM4 and that some of those
programmes will be available on the internet: http://fm4.orf.at

He concluded by saying German programmes will continue on shortwave.

There is now a new schedule up dated 1 January to 28 March, still
includes the Sackville relays: http://oe1.orf.at/service/international
(Mike Barraclough, England, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

So the frequency usage remains unchanged. Concerning the programming 
on the overseas transmissions:

17870 0600-0632 is like 6155 and 13730 a straight relay of Ö1, running
until 0632 to avoid cutting off inmidst a programme.

17855 1300-1330 is a special mixture, apparently containing material
from Ö2, too.

The 7325 and 9840 transmissions should include amongst the other stuff
a recording of a news magazine that originally runs 2300-2308.

And the Sackville transmission contains on weekdays a five hours old
recording, Mittagsjournal originally runs 1100-1156. On Sundays its
"only" four hours old (original slot 1200-1210). (Kai Ludwig, Germany, 
ibid.)

Looks like the same times and frequencies as before, but now entirely 
in German, except for 5 minutes of Spanish M-F at 2155, Tue-Sat 0000, 
0030 and 0100. The 16-17 13675 via Sackville is Mittagsjournal except 
on Sundays with some different titles. January 1, spotchecking that 
hour, it was all in German, except for yet another replay of ``There 
are no diamonds in the mine`` at 1628 -- what`s with that, a top hit 
in Austria? Then ID and unhelpful timecheck at 1629, ``O-E Eins 
International, 8 Uhr``, and older than Kai thought.

6155 at 2148 Dec 31 with novelty song in German about his Weib, ending 
with `Oy Vey`, thrice! Hmmm, maybe it was Yiddish, and who says 
Austria is still anti-Semitic? Seems like a New Year`s Eve special 
show from a cabaret. One might have listened for Jahrwechsel at 2300 
UT, except 6155 was off before 2200 in time for BBCWS hour in English.

7325 to NAm was still on at 0015 UT Jan 1, replaying the Jörg Heider 
retrospective I had heard earlier via Sackville. So maybe this was the 
final English transmission on SW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING 
DIGEST)

Yes, it was a "best of" cabaret show. I know because I was checking
out the swan song of the Bisamberg mediumwave transmitter (1476). No
farewell, no nothing, it just cut off at 2310 while the last waltz 
was still running. Quite shabby (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 1, dxldyg 
via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

It's time for the New Year's Day concert from Vienna now, so over to 
the Musikverein. BTW, I noticed that ORF via 6155 was still on air 
this morning. Greetings from Noel to All (Noel Green, NW England, 1022 
UT Jan 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Según el nuevo esquema de emisiones de Radio Austria Internacional, se 
observa la eliminación de las emisones por onda media y se mantiene el 
noticiero de Austria en español de cinco minutos. Cancelado el 
servicio en inglés para el norte de América (José Miguel Romero, 
Spain, dxldyg via DXLD) Viz.:

Esquema de programación del 1 de enero al 28 de marzo de 2009
Todos los programas en Onda Corta Horario en UTC (MEZ - horario de 
Europa Central = UTC/Tiempo Universal Coordinado más 1 hora)

EUROPA POR SATÉLITE 
0000-2400 MEZ a través de satélite ASTRA 1H
Frecuencia 12.66275 GHz, Transpondedor 115
Polarización horizontal
Velocidad de símbolo 22.000 MS, FEC 5/6

EUROPA Y AFRICA - ONDA CORTA 
0600-1800 UT  6155 kHz
0600-1400 UT 13730 kHz
2100-2200 UT  6155 kHz

MUNDO ENTERO - ONDA CORTA 
Oriente Próximo  0600-0632 UT 17870 kHz
América este     0030-0100 UT  7325 kHz
América oeste    1600-1700 UT 13675 kHz [Canadá]
América central  0000-0030 UT  7325 kHz
América sur      0100-0130 UT  9840 kHz
Asia / Australia 1300-1330 UT 17855 kHz 
(via José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DXLD)

** AZERBAIJAN [and non]. RFE CHIEF SLAMS AZERBAIJAN DECISION TO CLOSE 
FOREIGN BROADCASTS | Text of report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 
website on 30 December 

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) President Jeffrey Gedmin 
called today's [30 December] decision by the government of Azerbaijan 
to take foreign broadcasters off the air "a sad day for the Azeri 
people, who will now find themselves without access to free and 
independent media." The OSCE calls the move a "serious step backwards" 
for Azerbaijan and the US State Department says the decision "retards 
democratic reform in Azerbaijan."

In Baku today, the Azeri National TV-Radio Council formally ruled to 
ban all international broadcasters, including RFE/RL, VOA, and BBC, 
from the airwaves effective 1 January. The move essentially guarantees 
a monopoly for state-controlled media and prevents any independent 
news broadcasts from reaching the Azeri people.

Gedmin rejected Azerbaijan's suggestion that RFE/RL can broadcast 
effectively on alternatives to FM frequencies such as Internet radio 
or shortwave. "Losing our FM frequency means losing 90 per cent of our 
audience," he said. "Nevertheless, we will find ways to reach our 
listeners. Our mission of bringing uncensored news and information to 
the Azeri people is now more important than ever."

Since the announcement two months ago that authorities were 
considering this move, Azeri advocates of press freedom have joined 
the US, EU, OSCE, and international media watchdog groups in 
condemnation of the regime's efforts at stopping the free exchange of 
information in Azerbaijan.

Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website, Washington, D.C., in 
English 30 Dec 08 (via BBCM via DXLD)

I guess this strengthens the case for shortwave broadcasting, it 
demonstrates just how fragile all these local relays really are. 
Perhaps one day, the trend away from shortwave will be reversed ... We 
can but wait and see (Paul, New Zealand, HCDX via DXLD)

This keeps happening, but the anti-shortwave powers that be at IBB, 
BBC, etc., never learn their lesson (gh, DXLD)

Some analytical news on Azerbaijan's decision to stop relaying foreign 
news:
http://news.trend.az/index.shtml?show=news&newsid=1385240&lang=en
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123067777878643861.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
http://uk.reuters.com/article/mediaNews/idUKLU31737120081230
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-12-30-voa40.cfm
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/12/31/europe/EU-EU-Azerbaijan.php
(Zacharias Liangs, Greece, Dec 31, DXLD)

AZERBAIJAN GETS AN EARFUL ABOUT ITS DECISION TO BAN FOREIGN RADIO 
(updated). Azerbaijan is singled out for criticism in this instance, 
but it actually is joining a large club of nations that do not allow 
the rebroadcasting of foreign stations on their FM bands. The EU 
criticism is interesting, given that many European nations have not 
welcomed foreign (or at least non-EU) stations on their FM dials. In 
the 1980s, VOA Europe's business plan depended on such access, which 
largely was denied. VOA Europe was therefore not able to gather much 
of an audience, and went off the air in the 1990s. Posted: 01 Jan 2009 
(Kim Andrew Elliott, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) lots of stories 
linked via http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=5540 (gh)

** BENIN. 5025, ORTB, Parakou, 1842- 30 Dec, vernacular (tentative), 
talks; 45444 but this doesn't apply to audio which was hardly audible; 
it was a bit better at 2015 when in vernacular and ditto at 2200 when 
airing French program. Thanks to this, even using the Central Africa 
Beverage, Cuba's R. Rebelde is perceived in the background (it's 
mightly strong via the Central American Beverage). (Carlos Gonçalves, 
Portugal, Jan 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BERMUDA. 1450, De Fontes Broadcasting Co. 1450 AM Gold (presumed), 
Hamilton, 2319-2324, 30 Dec, English (didn't seem NAm accented), soft 
oldies (fits the format); 14441, adjacent & co-channel QRM. This is a 
very low power channel for USA stations whose number is huge - 
identification of more stations was not possible (Carlos Gonçalves, 
Portugal, Jan 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BHUTAN. 6035, BBS, 1534-1625, Dec 31, extended New Year's Day 
programming (usually 1500*), in English and vernacular, man and woman 
DJs (these are the regular announcers I have often heard on their 
weekly live call-in shows) with many on-air calls with requests for 
dedications (asked for "All Summer Long", "More Than I Can Say", 
etc.), asks caller: "Where are you?", he said "Thimphu", "Thank you 
very much for calling, Happy New Year", playing pop and rap songs in 
English, best audio level I have ever heard from them. QRM from 
strong CNR-1 on 6030 and 6035 was totally covered at 1625 by strong 
sign-on of NHK (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via 
DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Hi Glenn, Bhutan Broadcasting Service e-QSL received today from Sherub 
Tharchen ( sherubt @ bbs.com.bt ) for detailed report (on 6035 kHz 
0100-0145 UT on 28 December). This ends a long saga for me having 
heard them in English on 60mb in the early 90s.I can still remember 
the program details! I sent a report at the time and got a reply from 
a Thimphu travel agent asking me to put an ad in a local South African 
newspaper for him. In return he would get the station to QSL. I did 
this and sent him a copy but no reply. Easily heard here at this time 
with 100 kW. Even so, nice to have this one after all these years. 
Sherub also requested a posted report to: Bhutan Broadcasting Service, 
Chubachu, PO Box 101, Thimphu, Bhutan. Regards, (Graham Bell, Cape 
Town, South Africa, Dec 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BOLIVIA. 4781.57, 0125-0135 24.12, R. Tacana, Tumupasa (tentative). 
Spanish talk, 13211, CODAR QRM (Anker Petersen, Skovlunde, Denmark, on 
my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, 
playdx yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1441, DXLD)

** BOLIVIA. 5952.6, R. Pío XII, Siglo XX, 2249-2307, 29 Dec, Quechua, 
football news, advertisements, communiqués in Castilian, news 
(presumed) in Quechua at 2300; 34433, adjacent QRM (Carlos Gonçalves, 
Portugal, Jan 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BRAZIL. 4845.2, R. Cultura Ondas Tropicais, Manaus AM, 2156-2220, 
30 Dec, songs, listeners' messages in between; 45444 - needless to say 
Mauritania 4845 was off that evening though active & strong on 7245 
during the day.

4865, R. Verdes Florestas, Cruzº do Sul ("cruzeiro do sul" means 
southern cross) AC, 2303-2327, 26 Dec, rosary, church news, full 
ID+frequencies, folk songs; 34322, adjacent utility QRM.

4885, R. Difª (this is short for "difusora") Acreana, Rio Branco AC, 
2231-2245, 28 Dec, Brazilian folk songs; 32441, QRM de R. Club do 
Pará.

4885, R. Club do Pará, Belém PA, detected as early as 1846: 1846-1950, 
30 Dec, news, advertisements, "Club da Tarde", full ID + frequencies 
at 1952 when rated 35333; 15321.

5035.1, R. Educação Rural, Coari AM, was a nice surprise, 2226-2239, 
30 Dec, program "Agricultura Familiar", a government-sponsored feature 
helping small, family farming units, advertisements, sermon; 43443, 
QRM de R. Aparecida 5035. For Brazilian stations in AC & AM area, the 
Central American Beverage partly chokes signals emanating from eastern 
states.

9584.7, R. Globo, Rio de Janº RJ, 2230-2239, 27 Dec, pathetic 
religious propaganda program about miraculous healings; 25423, \\ R. 
Tupi.

9819.5v, R. 9 de Julho, SP, fair on 30 Dec at 2240.

11765, R. Tupi, Curitiba PR, 1236-1257, 31 Dec, religious propaganda 
program, rally infos, all in "Voz da Libertação"; 34443, adjacent QRM. 
(Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Jan 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Carlos` full 
report with many more Brazilians appears in the dxldyg

** BRAZIL. 9645.3, R. Bandeirantes, 2252-2303. Jan 1. Mellow pop 
tunes. Five auto time pips at 2300 during a song, were actually on 
time. Just after 2300 announcements and ID by man "Bandeirantes, a 
rádio completa para você." Fair-good (Paul Brouillette, Geneva, IL, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** BRAZIL. 11734.91, R. Transmundial, 1015-1030, Jan 1, contemporary 
Portuguese & English religious music. Portuguese announcements. ID. 
Fair. Very weak on // 9529.95 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING 
DIGEST) 

** BRAZIL. Colegas, Nesse exato momento, 1535 UT, a Rádio Globo está 
com sinal espúrio em 11955 kHz com forte portadora e som totalmente 
distorcido. 73 (Jorge Freitas, SWL1023B, Feira de Santana Bahia, Dec 
31, dxclube pr yg via DXLD) Nominal 11805

** BURKINA FASO. Not audible on 5030 or 7230 (Carlos Gonçalves, 
Portugal, Jan 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA [and non]. Hello Raymond, I am wondering exactly when you 
plan to close down the 7335 transmitter and fire up the 7850? Right at 
0000 UT Jan 1 would seem to be a bad time, as it could interfere with 
the leap-second adjustment. Regards, (Glenn Hauser to Raymond 
Pelletier, CHU, Dec 30, via DXLD)

Hello Glenn, Since we have only one transmitter and one antenna for 40 
meters, the change will occur in steps. The 7335 kHz will be shut down 
on the afternoon of Dec 31. A coil at the base of the antenna will be 
changed. The transmitter will be turned on and tuned to 7850 and the 
carrier will continue. The audio will be applied just before 00:00 
UTC. I will monitor the leap second at that time. 

The leap second is all done automatically. For any system that looks 
for the leap second information, such as NTP, should have picked up 
the leap second warning bit by now. These systems know how to do the 
leap second, once the leap bit is received, even if they lose radio 
signal.

QSL cards will be available to those who send us reception reports on 
the new frequency (Raymond Pelletier, National Research Council of 
Canada, Dec 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

I thought they were getting a new transmitter at the same time. It 
will be interesting to see if CHU encounters interference complaints 
on its new frequency 7850, which is not exactly unoccupied. It could 
be on the NTIA list of US military/government reserved channels even 
if little used.

And this ute monitoring log 
http://www.shortwavemonitor.com/05-10.htm
includes the following in the area:

7848.00  AAA      Israelian Air Force, Tel Aviv ALE/USB SOUNDING 1959 
                  27Jan08 (sw)
7848.00  DD1      Israelian Air Force, ALE/USB SOUNDING 1901 25Mar08 
7848.00  DD3      Israeli AF, ALE/USB SOUNDING 0521 13Apr08 (PPA)
7848.00  DDD      Israelian AForce, ALE/USB SOUNDING 1647 18Jan08 (KK)
7850.00  ERMES 80 IA USB 1727 06Feb08 TFC, ITA (BC)
7851.50  FAV22    CSTEI French Military Morse Training Stn, FRA CW 
                  0725 16Mar08 gra 7635,0 NR 14 M 17 08 51 33 1980 BT 
                  (BC)
7853.20  ---      Military STANAG-4285/USB 0846 02Jan08 TFC KRY (BC)
7855.50  ---      French Air Force RTTY 50/100 1004 23Jan08 TEST CECI, 
                  EST UNE EMISSION DE CALORIE DESTINE AU  REGLAGE (BC)
7855.50  FDI22    FAF Narbonne, FRA RTTY 50/100 1307 08May08 test de 
                  fdi22 (wp3)

Also, searching UDXF posts, we found this from Aug 12, 2007:

``Hi all! The full list of a new Georgian ALE radio network. In my 
opinion the player with callsign "GS2" main here. And I name this 
radio network as a "GS2-net".
Callsign: 4L1, AIR, AKH, GS2, KD1, KSI, NIK, SAK, TB1
Freq's list (all USB):
8650.0
8450.0
7850.0
7650.0  [and many more lower]

Interestingly that players "GS2" and "KD1" use tuning for frequencies
with distortion +0.1 kHz. Storm of applause.. /:-} Good luck – Marat`` 

The 2002 Klingenfuss SW frequency guide had on 7850:
``Voice of Mojahed, Iraq, 0230-0530 & 1430-1830 in Farsi, clandestine 
Iran, frequency varies.`` But this has not been reported for years. 

In the separate utility frequency list, nothing shown between 7838.7 
and 7857.4.

The third-quarter-2008 ITU monitoring file does not have anything 
between 7845 and 7855 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Re: 7335 is still on the air at 1850 UT Dec 31 (gh, dxldyg via DXLD)

Hi Glenn, they must not expect the changeover to 7850 to take very 
long as CHU still ticks away on 7335 at 2025 (Steve Lare, Holland, MI
USA, ibid.)

They are not giving it much time if they have to retune the same 
transmitter and transmitters that have sat on one frequency for all 
those years, don't like to be tampered with! I also do not hear the 
frequency change announcement. Still on at 2040 UT (Andy Reid, Ont., 
ibid.)

CHU departed 7335 sometime between 2100 and 2110 as I was listening 
to Moscow on 7330 for any New Year festivities (Steve Lare, Holland, 
MI USA, ibid.) About 2107 UT, Steve (Andy Reid, Ont., ibid.) Carrier 
came up on 7850 at about 2230, presumably CHU testing (Steve Lare, 
Holland, MI, USA, ibid.)

CHU audible at 2238 on 7850, not particularly strong in Missouri; 
ironically, still playing the frequency switch announcement in 
French/English. Now seemingly much stronger at 2241. Guess it took a 
few moments to warm up the transmitter! (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, ibid.)

On Dec. 31 I checked CHU at 2320 and found them already moved to 7850 
from 7335. So they moved early - not sure how early. They were still 
announcing the impending move with the same announcement they have 
been running for a while in English and French alternate minutes (Paul 
Brouillette, Geneva, IL, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

CHU observations before, during, and after QSY from 7335 to 7850, Dec 
31, 2008: At 1850, 7335 still running as usual. 2138, 7335 is off and 
7850 is not yet on. Keep monitoring the new frequency.

*2227, 7850 carrier comes on. 2235 recheck, has already started 
modulating with usual timesignals, and still including the frequency 
change announcements at :15 past each minute. Signal is equivalent to 
7335, but NO interference, which around this time had been coming from 
Vatican. As I outpoint in DXLD, several other utilities have been 
reported on or around 7850, from France, Georgia, Israel, so, fingers 
crossed.

2359 monitoring for the leap second, also WWV on another receiver: I 
had previously synched my watch, so did not need to count the 61 
seconds, but sure enough, the 0000 UT January 1, 2009 pip came one 
second later than 2359 and earlier. Not surprisingly, CHU and WWV were 
exactly synchronized in this.

This meant I had to miss BBCWS at yearchange, full chime of Big Ben, 
which used to be a tradition. But they don`t make it easy on SW, and 
there`s no point in listening to timesignal events on delayed 
webcasts. BBCWS had been coming in OK on 9570 via Thailand, discussing 
fireworx in Iceland at 2355 but after 0000 CRI relay via Albania was 
on 9570 as usual instead, so BBCWS probably was off before 0000 anyway 
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Nice here too; of course, I'm only about 10 km away from the 
transmitter site. :-) I thought they were switching frequencies at 
0000 UTC January 1, but they jumped the gun, and I missed the last 
moments on 7335. I'll bet it's because the changeover had to be done 
manually, and they wanted to hit the road early and get started on New 
Years festivities! (Barry McLarnon VE3JF Ottawa, ON, ABDX via DLXD)

7850, CHU, 0656 Jan 1, On new 41 meter band frequency but still 
running the announcement of the up and coming switch from 7335 to 7850 
kHz (David Hodgson, TN, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. 6070, CFRX Toronto, 1950-2000, Dec 25, English. Lynn 
Russell Xmas Special with Xmas music & comedy; 1010 CFRB IDs; local TC 
at 2000; good (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH-USA, R8, RX-350D, 
CLR/DSP, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60m Dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

CFRX, 6070, Dec 30 at 0708 talkshow interviewing someone who had spent 
more than a year of solitude in Chilean Patagonia. This was a helluva 
lot more interesting than CVC Chile itself underneath with its gospel 
rock crap, and never anything about Chile. Yes, CFRX signal was way 
over CVC this time, tho when CFRX faded a bit, CVC came up by 
comparison. For a commercial CFRB show, went quite a while without ad 
break. Referred to website http://www.bobkull.com and the show was 
Best of Holder Tonight --- ``phones are being steam-cleaned while he`s 
away, so do not call``, ha ha.

But I copied it wrong, since that website goes to some guy in New 
Jersey, nothing about solitude in Patagonia, and he is on a book tour. 
The show site does not have any guest details either:
http://www.cfrb.com/shows/576409 – Peter Anthony Holder is normally on 
live at 1-3 am ET weekdays = 06-08 UT. 

Here`s the guest`s correct site I searched out: http://bobkull.org/ 
The idea of spending a year of solitude in nature rather appeals to 
me, altho I might choose a milder climate than Patagonia. From the 
part I heard, it sounded like he was completely out of contact, not 
even a 2-way radio (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1441, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

Glenn, I see on the blog where you have stumbled across the show that 
I do on CJAD in Montreal and CFRB in Toronto.

If you are looking for information on the show that I do you can 
always go to my website which you’ll find in my signature. We are on 
live Monday through Friday from midnight to 3am (so technically, 
that’s really Tuesday through Saturday). 

It’s a live talk show. What you caught was a best of show due to the 
holidays. We did a live seven hour show for our annual New Year’s Eve 
show. There will be another best of show tomorrow night, but we will 
be back with live shows starting Monday.

CJAD in Montreal is where our show originates, but CFRB in Toronto 
only picks up the last two hours from 1 am to 3 am [0600-0800 UT]. 
You’re right in your assessment that we go long between commercial 
breaks. I usually on have breaks at the quarter hours, with news at 
the top and bottom of the hour. Too many breaks affects the flow of 
the conversation.

As for Bob Kull, he is a rather interesting guest. He was slated to be 
on for a half hour, but we went well beyond that as his story of being 
all alone for such a long period of time was rather compelling. The 
name of his book is Solitude: Seeking Wisdom in Extremes-A Year Alone 
in the Patagonia Wilderness. His website is: http://www.bobkull.org/

If you have any questions about the show feel free to ask. You can 
also find me on Facebook (Peter Anthony Holder, CJAD 800 AM, Montreal,
CFRB 1010 AM, Toronto, http://www.peteranthonyholder.com
peter @ peteranthonyholder.com http://peteranthonyholder.blogspot.com 
Jan 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Peter, Great to hear from you. Not often does a broadcaster I mention 
in my reports get back to me directly and quickly. Fortunate that you 
are now on shortwave with an additional audience. I`ll add a link to 
your site on my Monitoring Reminders Calendar and certainly keep 
tuning in as I am usually awake until 2 am (ET) or even later. Best 
wishes, (Glenn Hauser, via DXLD)

Glenn, It`s Al from Danbury. I heard CFRB 1010 AM From Canada on 6070 
between 1100-1900 UT. Signal was 5 over 9 good reception. Please check 
this for confirmation (Al Parker, Danbury CT, Dec 31, DX LISTENING 
DIGEST) 

CFRX Toronto, 0317-0354, Jan 1, phone numbers given to call in, promo 
for an event at their armory, sale with "40-60% off", talk about New 
Year's resolutions, seemed to be a syndicated talk show, 0334 clear 
CFRB ID, poor with of course moderate to heavy QRM from CVC Chile, 
surprised they made it this far west (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, 
Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Recent checks of CFRX 6070 show decent modulation, so apparently the 
transmitter is staying fixed. Heard Jan. 1 around 2200 with brief news 
and into a program on the 60th anniversary of Israel. Slight QRM in 
background from Radio Romania International. I am glad to be hearing 
them again, to get my Canada-on-shortwave fix, since RCI's evening 
English scheduled on 9755 at 0005 remains unheard here now since the 
start of B08 when they moved from 49m. Correspondence with RCI 
indicates that they continue to pass along my info regarding non-
reception to the engineering department (Paul Brouillette, Geneva, IL, 
DX LISTENING DIGEST) Noticed that RRI QRM was pretty severe here 
around 2215 Jan 1 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA [and non]. 6100, Dec 31 at 2150, RCI in French with a 
rippling SAH, so maybe a couple dekaHertz away, but no other 
modulation audible. Most likely de SERBIA [non], also in French during 
this semihour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. Glenn, December 2008 marks the 50th anniversary of CBC 
North, according to a feature I found on the CBC's website.
http://www.cbc.ca/north/features/50/
Site includes a couple of audio clips, including one from a program 
marking the first anniversary of CBC North on shortwave, recorded way 
back in 1961. 73, (Ricky Leong, AB, Dec 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. Once again, the CBCNQ Service transmitter on 9625 is way 
out of whack: Jan 1 at 2222, found R. Exterior de España, 9640, which 
is normally a loud and clear signal, suffering ratchy interference 
from off-frequency extremely distorted FMing spur which also ranged 
from 9635 to 9650. Absolutely nothing, not even a carrier, could be 
detected on 9625. At 2229 I was able to tell that the spur was 
speaking English, heard year 2008 mentioned. At 2239 with BFO on I 
could detect a weak carrier among the mess on 9637, now spreading 9633 
to 9650, stepping kHz-by-kHz on the YB-400. Next check at 2315, REE 
9640 had closed down, and now the spur was interfering with two weaker 
stations on 9635 and 9645, presumably Chile and Brasil.

This transmitter has gone in and out of whack several times in the 
last weeks, and my previous advisories about the problem to Sackville 
and Montreal have gone unanswered, and apparently unacted upon.

When this happens, the signal is completely useless, cannot possibly 
be understood in the target area, and serves only to put severe 
interference on other stations (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST, 
cc to Sackville and Montreal)

Hello Mr. Hauser, Thank-you for writing in to us; we appreciate your 
emails and encourage you to continue to file any anomalies you detect. 
First, you have my apologies for the lack of response to your emails; 
I do not understand why no one has responded to you. Second, we are 
working at solving the issue with our NQ service. Unfortunately, it is 
a stubborn, sporadic malfunction which necessitates operating the 
transmitter to troubleshoot. Rest assured our techs are aware of the 
situation and are working diligently to correct the fault. Thanks, 
(RCI Sackville, UT Jan 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. Radiowest.ca is reporting that CKBD 600 Vancouver is now 
off air: 
http://www.radiowest.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?p=12773952#12773952
(Andy Reid, Ont., Dec 31, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

AM 600 is now dark  --- Noticed this afternoon that The Peak simulcast 
on AM 600 appears to have come to an end. R.I.P. CJOR-CHRX-CKBD, you 
served us well for almost a century (Dan Sys, Maple Fridge [sic], BC, 
Dec 31, op. cit.)

It was expected to close several weeks ago when its original occupant 
moved to FM, but instead, some other programming was moved onto 600, 
apparently only temporarily. Now NW US and SW Canadian DXers are 
having a ball hearing other stuff on 600 (Glenn Hause, OK, DXLD)

** CANADA. CANADA'S POST-TRANSITION PLAN PUBLISHED! Post-transition 
DTV allotment plan published - for use after Aug 31st, 2011.
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/vwapj/DTV_PLAN_Dec08-e.pdf/$file/DTV_PLAN_Dec08-e.pdf

List of post-trans 2-6 in Canada --- A quick scan for low-banders....

No channel 2s, only one channel 3, a few 4's, looks like many 5's & 
6's remain. Remaining low-banders in mostly rural areas. Most, if not 
all, rural stations will likely flash-cut. Targets in every province 
(except NU) - so 6 Whitehorse & Inuvik remain!

Luckily Toronto-5 will stay on 20, so in my area 2, 3, 4 & 5 will be 
completely empty! 6 Paris will be my only local low-bander after Aug 
2011. Yippee! Post-Transition (2011-08-31) Canadian 2-6 DTV's...

BC
--
5 
CFJC6 100 Mile House
CKVU1 Courtenay
CFCN9 Cranbrook
CBUCT1 Crawford Bay
CJDC Dawson Creek
CH4467 Ootsa Lake

6 
CBUHT3 McBride
CBUT42 Oliver
CBUT19 Port Hardy

AB
--
4 
CITL Lloydminster

5 
CFCN4 Burmis
CBXAT7 Chateh
CFCN16 Oyen

6 
CBXFT1 Bonnyville
CBXFT2 Falher

SK
--
4 
CBKST11 Greenwater Lake
CBKT1 Moose Jaw

5 
CBWBT3 Pelican Narrows
CBKST9 Prince Albert
CBKT4 Swift Current
CBKT6 Yorkton

6 
CFQC2 North Battleford
CKCK2 Willow Bunch
CBKT8 Wynyard

MB
--
5 
CBWGT1 Jackhead

6 
CBWFT1 The Pas

ON
--
5 
CBWCT Fort Frances
CBCC Hearst

6 
CBWFT9 Dryden
CICA6 North Bay
CIII6 Ottawa (QC xmtr)
CIII Paris
CBLT7 Timmins

QC
--
3 
CHAU1 Ste-Marguerite-Marie

4 
CFTF4 Forestville
CHAU7 Riviere-au-Renard

5 
CBMST Blanc-Sablon
CHAU Carleton
CBFAT Chibougamau
CBVD Malartic
CFER2 Sept-Iles

6 
CBVT6 Beauceville
CHAU4 Chandler
CBGAT3 Grande-Vallee
CBST18 Longue-Pte-de-Mingan
CBGAT Matane
CJPM Saguenay

NB
--
4 
CIMT1 Edmundston

6 
CBAT1 Bon Accord
CBAT3 Miramichi

NS
--
5 
CBHT14 Aspen

6 
CJCH6 Caledonia
CJCB1 Inverness

PE
--
5 
CKCW2 St Edward

NL
--
5 
CBYT Corner Brook
CBNT3 Marystown
CBNT9 Wesleyville

6 
CBYT5 St Andrew's
CBNAT4 St Anthony

YT
--
6 
CFWH Whitehorse

NT
--
6 
CHAK Inuvik

NU
--
none (Bill Hepburn, Ont., Dec 31, WTFDA via DXLD)
 
This probably explains why a BUNCH of "VACANT" DTV allotments in 
Canada appeared in the FCC CDBS database a few days ago. Quite a few 
are showing up on low-band though, mostly with identical powers/HAATs 
of 2.4 kW/300m, not sure what that's about. Many (but not all) seem to 
be in places that have an analog station on the same low-band channel. 
I'm counting 27 on channel 2, plus three listed as "NEW-DT" instead of 
"VACANT". – (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.)

Since the existing Canadian analog channels had to be protected by the 
US during the US transition, those same channels are still available 
to Canadian stations for DTV after the US transition. Channels 2-3-4 
however, for the most part, are unwanted, so remain as vacant 
assignments. (The priority in Canada is 1. VHF-Hi 2. UHF 3. VHF-Lo). 
There are some new assignments though - for example, Toronto takes 
over Rochester's channel 8.

The majority of existing Canadian VHF-Hi and UHF 14-51 stations will 
remain on their present analog channels post-transition. With so few 
DTV's on the air in Canada, flash-cutting will be common outside of 
the big metros and transitional channels will rarely be used. There's 
barely enough time to built the permanent DTV facilities in time, 
never mind the temporary transitional ones.

Many repeater stations will likely go dark and never switch to DTV - 
what percentage remains to be seen. There is a loophole about analog 
stations remaining beyond 2011 in "northern areas" (similar to the US 
LPTV analog reprive). That likely means beyond 150 miles or so from 
the US border (Bill Hepburn, ibid.)

** CANARY ISLANDS. Happy New Year with RNE-Canarias. 

As in the Canary Islands the New Year starts one hour later than in 
the rest of Spain, the stations of RNE-Canarias are traditionally 
offering a special program to fill the gap between the Islands and the 
rest of Spain. This program starts usually at 2230 UT, simply fading 
out the first music played from Madrid around this time and starting 
with a RNE-Canarias ID. The program consists of funny music and 
listeners salutations. Then the countdown to the new year and more 
music until rejoining the national network (at 0015 UT). This program 
is broadcasted by all RNE stations in the Islands so it is a very good 
DX opportunity:

576 RNE-1 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 20 kw
621 RNE-1 Santa Cruz de Tenerife 600/300 kw
720 R5TN-Tenerife, Sta. Cruz de Tfe., 20 kw
747 R5TN-Las Palmas, Las Palmas de G.C., 20 kw

Happy New Year! (Mauricio Molano, Salamanca, Spain, Dec 31, HCDX via 
DXLD) Perhaps someone will search out this info in time next year (gh)

Although local T-storm QRN was terrible and conditions not the best, I 
managed to get some of the separate local programming customary on New 
Years Eve from the Canaries, which normally broadcasts the regular 
RNE-1 network, so it is hard to tell if you are receiving CNR or ESP.

621, CANARY ISLANDS, Radio Nacional 1, Tenerife, 31Dec08 2355 - Local 
Canaries New Years Eve program during the hour before their local 
midnight which is one hour later than Spain. "disfrutar de nuestra 
tierra y la excelencia del pueblo canaria" (enjoy our land and the 
excellence of the Canaries town [sic])". Also "Gran Canaria" mention 
by host in subsequent teletalk segment. - Recorded - Fair-Good, SS 
content verified by Chuck Hutton and thanks to Mauricio Molano of 
RealDX for the alert to this opportunity (Chris Black, Cape Cod, Icom 
756 Pro II, R-75, SDR-IQ, 35' x 90' E-W and 30' x 50' N-S flags, ABDX 
via DXLD)

** CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 7220 not audible, or then the very tiny 
signal detected during day time belongs to them (Carlos Gonçalves, 
Portugal, Jan 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHAD. 4904.98, 1915-1939* 26.12, R. Chad, Gredia, N'Djaména. French 
talk, Afropop, drum solo, talk very often mentioning "Le Président de 
la Republique", ex 6165. Transmitter break down - did not return that 
evening on either frequency. 45434 (Anker Petersen, Skovlunde, 
Denmark, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario 
Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD)

They were there/4905 0535-0600 28 Dec for me in Metro Vancouver; quite 
surprised at the signal (Theo Donnelly, BC, ptswyg via DXLD)

4904, R. Chad, N´djamena. December 30, French, 2225 OM talks, 2228 Hi-
Life music, 2229 OM talks on music, 2232 N.A., 2233 s/off 33333 (Lúcio 
Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, 
dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

[and non]. 4905 was active Dec 31, first noted at 2153 with French 
announcement, and had improved a lot by 2230, its normal sign-off, so 
decided to stay with RNT for the 2300 Jahrwechsel in the UT+1 zone. 
Was playing hilife music; 2254 announcement in French that 6 minutes 
were left, mixed with Arabic; 2257, `trois minutes` until the `nouvel 
an`, 2259 military band with lots of drumming right past 2300 with no 
timesignal; finally at 2300:30 to a speech in clearly enunciated 
French, by the leader? Still going at 2307, but 2309 military band 
again, 2310 announced the forthcoming `traduction en langue arabe` 
which lasted about as long; retuned at 2322 to hear the military band 
once again, probably the national anthem, and off at 2323*. Much 
better signal than grossly undermodulated Mauritania on 4845: big 
signal but barely audible with strumming at 2237 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

6165 is still being active during day time while 4905 is used at 1600 
onwards (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Jan 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Could 
barely hear something on 4905 around 2215 Jan 1 (gh)

** CHILE. 23 years of Radio Esperanza: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9IO63zQYzQ&feature=related
Temuco, Chile, which I believe is still active on 6090 kHz 
(Al Quaglieri, NY, Dec 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. 6065, CNR-2/China Business Radio, 1330-1400, Dec 30, mostly 
in English with brief segments in Chinese, program "Studio Classroom 
Worldwide" (produced in Taiwan) presented by Rachel and Esther, 
talking about stress and relaxation, gives idiom "worrywart", audio 
streaming at http://www.studioclassroom.com/sc/sc_radio.php 
This segment is a portion of the "English Evening" program scheduled 
for 1300-1400, good reception, // 6090 (fair-poor), 6155 (good), 7130 
(fair), 7140 (good), 7150 (fair), 7245 (good), 7315 (poor) and 7375 
(fair) (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [non]. 6145, Dec 31 at 2145 good signal with woman speaking 
Hungarian. I figured this was one of the few remaining R. Budapest 
broadcasts, but upon uplooking it, no, it`s CRI via France! How many 
other SW stations still broadcast in Hungarian? More than I had 
thought, according to the ADDX Ungarisch page: Vatican, TWR, Turkey, 
Croatia (R. Osijek relay), Russia, Serbia (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. 7325, CRI (via Kunming), 2340, 12/31/08, Cantonese. Male and 
female announcers going back and forth in language identifiable as 
Cantonese. Had hoped to catch one of R Vilnius's final broadcasts here 
but no trace of them. Fair/poor (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, DX LISTENING 
DIGEST)

** CHINA [non?]. 9930, PALAU, presumed T8WH-Sound of Hope, Koror, 
1238-1302, Dec 29, Mandarin. W talking with various sound effects 
throughout; M announcer over music at 1257; pips (5+1) at ToH then 
more Mandarin tho at reduced audio level; fair-poor (Scott R. Barbour, 
Jr., Intervale, NH-USA, R8, RX-350D, CLR/DSP, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60m 
Dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

I doubt that SOH has a timesignal; sounds more like CNR1 jamming that 
you heard (gh, DXLD)

** CUBA [and non]. RHC English dumped off 6000 early, Dec 31 at 0654, 
while 6060 continued; but it uncovered Harold Camping on WYFR with a 
poor signal. Per FCC B-08, WYFR is scheduled on 6000 with the 50 kW 
transmitter at 181 degrees, 0500-1000, switching at 1000-1200 to 100 
kW, 160 degrees. I must say I seldom notice QRM to RHC from WYFR on 
6000, when they are colliding 0500-0700, but 6000 is not the best 
signal from RHC, 6060 and 6140 being much better.

DentroCuban Jamming Command, 11930, blows out a Bronx cheer to the 
world as it celebrates a semi-century of repression: Dec 31 at 2205 
jamming pulses to which tones have now been added, despite being 
against nothing after R. Martí sign-off. BTW, Pres. Obama`s online 
advisors are voting on turning off Radio Martí permanently.

The big day has arrived: the fiftieth anniversary of the triumph of 
the revolution. I figured there would be something special on RHC, and 
there was, tuned in Jan 1 at 2320 on 9820, the Mesa Redonda special 
frequency, a live rally from Santiago including speeches, songs, ID as 
Cadena Nacional de Radio; the `acto central` apparently the première 
of a new film about the revolution. This was no doubt on many 
different domestic networks too. Found // on Rebelde, 5025 with best 
signal, also weaker RHC on 11760-echo, 6000, 11690, 13760, 6180; and 
at 2342 also on 9600 while 9550 was in English as usual. I then 
brought up the Cubavisión webcast, but it was so jerky I kept the 
separate Rebelde webcast going for the audio. 5-star general Raúl 
Castro Ruz began his big speech just before 0000, continued past 0030, 
and he became a stationary object on the ever-buffering video. Wrapped 
up at 0038 and back to regular programming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** CZECHIA [and non]. R. Prague relays: see U S A: WRMI; R. Bila Hora 
pirate: see UNIDENTIFIED 3333

** ECUADOR. 9745, HCJB, 0320-0340 Jan 2. Noted a program in Special 
English until about 0330. It consisted of reading letters from 
listeners usually concerning religion. The web site URL was given as 
http://www.radio.english.net At the end of the program, language 
changed to Spanish with new broadcasters giving ID as "HCJB" in 
Ecuador. This was followed with more comments in Spanish between a 
male and female. Signal was fair (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, 
NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

That of course is the Spotlight program, and the URL forwards to that, 
including a link to stations carrying it at
http://www.spotlightradio.net/tunein/ including Vozandes, but three of 
the four frequencies listed have long been abandoned and the times 
shown for 9745 are wrong. So much for that (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING 
DIGEST)

** EGYPT. R. Cairo monitoring NYE produced the usual frustrations: 
6255, Dec 31 at 2156 during English to Europe, YL talking 
undermodulatedly; 2158 several seconds of ute beeps QRMing almost like 
a timesignal. Modulation got even lower, but I could tell she kept 
talking right thru local midnight 2200 as if nothing were happening.

I quickly retuned to the Arabic frequency 6290, which as if to 
overcompensate, was strongly and distortedly modulated with music, 
soon giving way to a 10-9-8+ countdown in English! And then a 
timesignal which was 33.5 seconds late. So R. Cairo misled countless 
Egyptians [and non] about when 2009y really began. Another surprise: 
immediately after the timesignal played a few bars of the ``Happy 
Birthday`` tune, but perhaps with different Arabic lyrix.

Back to 6255 at 2239; now playing Arabic music with good modulation; 
2240 undermodulated YL with a heavy accent made a very quick English 
announcement so I could barely catch a word except ``49 meters``, 
right back to music, which had apparently been put on a mechanical 
pause button, because it restarted off-speed rather than cleanly. This 
continued until 2245, into usual post-transmission tone test.

6850, brief check of R. Cairo`s English to NAm, Dec 31 at 2350, S9+20 
signal but talk just barely modulated. O, the futility! (Glenn Hauser, 
OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 5005, RNGE/"R. Bata", Bata, 1905-1921, 28 Dec, 
Castilian, Xmas songs during some religious propaganda programs, 
talks; 45433; not parallel to Malabo 6250. This outlet was too 
distorted on 30 Dec.

6250, RNGE/"R. Malabo", Malabo, 1902-1917, 28 Dec, African pops; 
54444; off at recheck at 1923. Not parallel to Bata 5005 (Carlos 
Gonçalves, Portugal, Jan 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ETHIOPIA. 9556.13, R Ethiopia, 0659-0739, Dec 31, Somali (as per 
Aoki) opening announcement after IS, chimes into news. Had drifted up 
to 9556.34 at 0737 check. Am pretty sure this must be the "Indonesian" 
UNID reported on 9555 in DXLD 8-133 (Martien Groot, Schoorl, 
Netherlands, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

We already knew Ethiopia was on 9556v, but assumed the ``9555`` 
reports really meant 9555. In fact, Wolfgang Büschel first reported 
the unID, presumed LITHUANIA testing on registered frequency, and I am 
sure he had it on exactly 9555, not 9556 (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) See also 
SAUDI ARABIA

** ETHIOPIA. 7165, *0357-0422, Jan 1, unidentified Ethiopian 
clandestine service. Sign on with Horn of Africa music & opening
announcements. Talk at 0400 & Horn of Africa music. Poor with co-
channel QRM & jammer. Fair to good on // 9556.26v - quickly drifting
downward to 9555.95 at 0402 and then up to 9556.23 at 0405 and 9556.02 
at 0422 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

** FRANCE. RFI RUSSIAN WILL CONTINUE ON SHORTWAVE, AT LEAST THROUGH 
2011. 

Sergei S. in Moscow translates this announcement from the Radio France 
International Russian Service: "I'd like to tell you that RFI's 
Russian service had its own Christmas miracle. As reported by AFP, the 
petition to save our SW and MW radio service reached President 
Sarkozy, Prime Minister Fillon, Minister of Culture Albanel and all 
deputies of the National Council. After that out leadership 
immediately announced that their decision to shut down the Russian 
radio service was actually under 'consideration' and that in any case 
our SW and MW broadcasts will continue until the end of 2011. Now we'd 
like to ask all our listeners to be vigilant. If you don't hear us on 
our usual wavelengths at usual time, please inform us immediately. 
Also, our leadership invited us to return to our old format of two 
one-hour programs daily. Right now we have two 30-min. and one 60-min. 
broadcast. If only you knew how much we fought in the past that we 
might continue with two one-hour programs! Truly, a new broom sweeps 
very clean in order to prove that the old one didn't do the work well" 
RFI Russian, 24 December 2008. Posted: 01 Jan 2009 
(kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD)

** GERMANY [non]. 12000-12005-12010, SRI LANKA, DW DRM, heard at 0850 
on 01 Jan in German with people discussing their history as children 
with diaries. I tell ya, when you can actually receive DRM and demod 
it consistently, the experience is quite nice! Very strong signals, 
but gone at 0858. Oh well, it was a nice experience. 73s de (Al Muick, 
Kabul, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, Palstar MW-550P Mediumwave 
Preselector, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

DW via Grigoriopol QSL --- MOLDOVA: DEUTSCHE WELLE via GRIGORIOPOL, 
9380. Full-data 100 Jahre Nauen card, frequency schedule, and 2 world 
map stickers in 18 days. Address: Customer Service, Deutsche Welle, D-
53110 Bonn, Germany. This makes 41 different DW transmitter sites 
verified. (Wendel Craighead, Prairie Village, Kansas, USA, Dec 31, 
Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD)

** GREECE. Sounds like the Greeks were having a NYE party too: VOG, 
7475, Dec 31 at 2207 piano music punxuated by kazoo, sirens, the 
latter with an unfortunate connotation these weeks; different program 
on 7450 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GREENLAND. 3815, 2135-2213* 26.12, KNR, Tasiilaq (USB) Greenlandic 
news, 2137 KNR jingle, more news and reports, 2140 songs by choir and 
vocalists, 2200 KNR jingle and news and reports in Danish //
http://www.knr.gl/index.php?id=1855  
2208 song and off, 25232 (Anker Petersen, Skovlunde, Denmark, on my 
AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx 
yg via DXLD)

** GUATEMALA. NUEVO SITIO ALTERNO DE RADIO VERDAD DESDE CHIQUIMULA 

Ya está disponible desde el día de hoy un Blog por donde se publicará 
información relacionada a la Estación Evangélica Educativa Radio 
Verdad, de Chiquimula en Guatemala.

Debido a que su página web radioverdad.org está desactivada y aún no 
se han recibido las refacciones para su transmisor de onda corta, por 
lo que mientras tanto, se puede accesar al audio desde éste blog:
http://radioverdadguatemala.blogspot.com
(Magdiel Cruz Rodríguez, México, Dec 31, playdx yg via DXLD)

DOS INFORMACIONES DE “RADIO VERDAD” 

1. Ya, entre uno o dos días, volverá a aparecer el Sitio Web de “Radio 
Verdad” en forma normal. Eran problemas de conexión de Internet en el 
Servidor. 

2. Ya creamos el nuevo Blog de “Radio Verdad”, además de nuestro Sitio 
Web, y puede acceder a él en la siguiente dirección: 
http://radioverdadguatemala.blogspot.com 

Por favor, ayúdenos a divulgar estas informaciones. Que Dios le 
bendiga. Dr. Édgar Amílcar Madrid, Director y Gerente. 

TWO INFORMATIONS FROM “RADIO TRUTH” 

1. Within one or two days will appear “Radio Truth’s” Web Site again, 
in a normal way. There were some Internet connection troubles on the 
Host. 

2. We have created our “Radio Truth’s” BLOG already, besides our Web 
Site, and you can access to it on the following address: 
http://radioverdadguatemala.blogspot.com 

Please help us to make known these news. May God bless you (Dr. Édgar 
Amílcar Madrid, Manager and Director, Dec 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

** GUINEA. Re 8-133: Caro Amigo Glenn, Sobre a Radio Conacry, vou 
tentar gravar hoje novamente, pois na escuta anterior não fiz 
gravação. Será o dia em que terei tempo para fazer isso, pois amanhã 
já estarei atarefado com as festividades de fim de ano e não terei 
oportunidade de ouvir rádio. Se eu conseguir a captação da Radio 
Conacry novamente, irei te mandar a gravação (Adalberto Marques de 
Azevedo, Barbacena-MG, Brasil)

Hi Glenn, I have tried to catch R. Conakry, 7125 a couple of times 
lately. The hams have populated the "extended European" 40 meter band 
(-7200 kHz) so I cannot hear anything from Guinea on the frequency 
these days. I'd guess I should get *something* into my earphones using 
USB - but no, nothing. Has anyone any information, if the Conakry 
station is QRT on 41 metres (or is this only a short-time problem of 
propagation)? 73 de (Matti Ponkamo, Naantali, Finland (KP10AK18), IC-
718, Drake R4C, Dipole, Dec 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

This could be a propagation related issue. But frankly fellas, it's 
been a long long time since I heard a decent signal from Conakry for 
the last time. Sometimes I go with the impression that something is 
there on 7125 but I can't be so sure what exactly is. Use to check 
around 2245 but that's the time when RMI Grigoriopol invites you to 
stop trying. 73. Happy Holidays (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, Dec 30, 
dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Conakry begins to be audible here on 7125 after 2100, but, their 
modulation is very low and it's a strain to get anything usable out of 
the program, though music comes through a tad better. Decent enough 
carrier though, and with a bit of a tweak I think they'd be in good 
shape (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, USA, Dec 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING 
DIGEST)

7125, Guinea, R. Conakry (presumed). December 28, 0831-0848 same non-
stop instrumental music all this listening, slightly African style 
with repetitive theme, no talks, 24422. December 29, French, 0832 same 
music non-stop, no talks until 0858-0909 with male and female but very 
deteriorated signal from 0900, 23322. On December 30 checked time 
above, was silent but December 31 heard briefly around 0900 a very low 
signal, sounding like Conakry with music but came a abrupt s/off 
(Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 
32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

During my NYE monitoring Dec 31, checked 7125 several times. At 2154 
nothing there, no carrier audible. 2319 nothing there either altho 
Russia was audible this early previous days, and now Romania was 
making it on 7105. 2354 still nothing on 7125, but at 0016 Jan 1 
Russia/Pridnestrovye had finally come on with rock beat music (Glenn 
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

7125, R. Guinée is active at least during the day. Evening observations 
are plagued by QRM on this channel.

1386v, R. Rurale - no trace of this, just a few Greek pirate stations 
around the channel (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Jan 1, DX LISTENING 
DIGEST)

** ICELAND. 207, RÚV, Eiðar, 2342-2358, 23 Dec, talks; 23441, QRM de 
Germany (mostly) + Morocco; very good on \\ 189 Gufuskálar (Carlos 
Gonçalves, Portugal, Jan 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA. Re 8-133: Hi Al. Yes, it was Delhi on 4865 instead of 4860. 
Noted here same day at 1440 in parallel with 6045. I guess this is 
service for Pakistan in Urdu. Regards, (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, 
Finland, Dec 30, HCDX via WORLD OF RADIO 1441, DXLD)

** INDIA [non]. 7235, TWR Novosibirsk, 2330 - 0010, Dec 31, unid 
Indian language opening after Russian warm-up tones, definite ID as 
"TWR India" noted 2344. Am quite sure that what was being reported as 
"RRI Palu" in DXLD 8-128 & 8-131 is in fact them. Glenn's suggestion 
about NVS in HFCC listing was correct! (Martien Groot, Schoorl, 
Netherlands, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. Glimpse of RRI workings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QClaH3jEfAg
(Al Quaglieri, NY, Dec 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 3325, RRI Palangkaraya (presumed), 1335, 12/31/08, 
listed Indonesian. Male DJ taking a near-continuous stream of callers 
with just a few notes of southeast Asian-sounding music thrown in. 
Believe this was RRI and not Papua New Guinea after comparing notes 
with Ron Howard, who heard a similar program a few hours later. Mostly 
poor (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also INDIA above

** INDONESIA. 9526, VoI, heard at 1335 on 01 Jan with English show, 
several nice and clear IDs by YL. This is beamed at 3  with 50kW per 
AOKI, so again, I appear to be off the side of the beam, but good 
levels nonetheless. 73s de (Al Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan, WinRadio 
G303e, 200m Longwire/Randomwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. Manifestantes ocupan emisora de radio en protesta por 
ofensiva Israel en Gaza.
http://www.informador.com.mx/primera/2008/66370/6/manifestantes-ocupan-emisora-de-radio-en-protesta-por-ofensiva-israel-en-gaza.htm

Los manifestantes obligaron a la dirección de la emisora a 
retransmitir sus mensajes contra el gobierno israelí

YAKARTA, INDONESIA.- Varios cientos de manifestantes ocuparon hoy la 
emisora de la cadena estatal Radio Indonesia en la ciudad de Semarang, 
en la región central de Java, en protesta por la ofensiva militar 
lanzada por Israel en la Franja de Gaza, indicó el citado medio de 
comunicación.

Los manifestantes, la mayoría de ellos miembros de la Asociación de 
Estudiantes Islámicos de Indonesia, obligaron a la dirección de la 
emisora a retransmitir sus mensajes contra el gobierno israelí, 
después de hacerse con el control de los estudios.

Durante la retransmisión, los manifestantes también instaron al 
Gobierno del presidente Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono a llevar a cabo 
esfuerzos para ayudar a la población palestina de Gaza.

La ocupación de la emisora de Radio Indonesia en Semarang, siguió a 
las manifestaciones de protesta celebradas a lo largo del lunes en 
Yakarta, la capital, y otras ciudades de Indonesia, el país musulmán 
más poblado del mundo (via José Miguel Romero2, dxldyg via DXLD)

I have yet to see this story in English; why? Poor RRI Semarang is 
hardly to blame for what goes on in Gaza! (gh, DXLD)

** KOREA NORTH [non]. 3911.95, 1940-2102*, CLANDESTINE, 26.12, Voice 
of the People, via Goyang, South Korea. Korean talks, orchestral 
music, people shouting, opera vocals, martial music at close, 35343. 
Parallels on 6518 and 6600 had faded out (Anker Petersen, Skovlunde, 
Denmark, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario 
Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD)

** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5910, Shiokaze/Sea Breeze, 1417, Dec 30, heard 
with fairly strong jamming (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, 
dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KURDISTAN [non]. 11530, CLANDESTINE, Denge Mezopotamya, heard at 
0525 on 01 Jan playing The Internationale! Full marching band style. 
Local level sigs. I am quite surprised to hear this on a station 
supposedly looking for a "free" Iraq. I will have to check their 
political statement. 73s de (Al Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan, WinRadio 
G303e, 200m Longwire/Randomwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KURDISTAN [non]. Saludos cordiales, no sé si se ha publicado antes, 
si ha sido así se me pasó; en Youtube hay un curioso vídeo en árabe 
sobre la emisora clandestina, Radio Dengui Kurdistán Irán.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_8UUGBvVPY
73 y Felíz Año Nuevo (José Miguel Romero2, Spain, dxldyg via DXLD)
underscore between u and 8 is correct

** KUWAIT. 9855, R. Kuwait, 2220-2243. Jan 1. Continuous live Arabic 
music, with enthusiastic large crowd. Very good, but fading out after 
2330 (Paul Brouillette, Geneva, IL, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KYRGYZSTAN. 4795, Kyrgyz R., heard at 2327 on 01 Jan with KG talk 
by YL announcer and Russian/KG vocals. Excellent sigs and no QRM. My 
Kyrgyz work colleagues just roll their eyes when I mention hearing the 
station. They are not very impressed by their national radio! 73s de 
(Al Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 200m Longwire/ 
Randomwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** LATVIA. Ulbroka swan song --- Quite varying propagation for the 
last ever transmission from Ulbroka here, only 800 km away from the 
transmitter: Very weak from first check at 1245 when open carrier was 
already on, then at 1315 recheck suddenly local-like level, revealing 
that there is some hum in the audio, but soon weakening again to a 
hardly listenable level. Talk about RMRC DX camp, Robert Kipp 
reporting about Radio St. Helena etc.

Will go out now; I think it will for me anyway fade out before
close-down at 1500, around local sunset here (Kai Ludwig, Germany, 
1345 UT Dec 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

9290, Rhein Main Radio Club (via Ulbroka), 1358-1440+, 12/30/08, 
German/English. A couple of songs with German-language commentary 
including several mentions of RMRC and a mailing address, then at 1400 
switched to an English program with ID, more music, and an interview 
with Robert Kipp in German with running translation. Fair at peak, 
faded rapidly after 1430 (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Forgot to look for this; however I did pass by 9290 on a bandscan 
somewhere around 1430 and did not notice anything (gh, OK, DXLD)

** LIBYA. 17725, V. of Africa, Sabrata, 1407-1430, Dec 29, English. 
HoA-like music; announcer at 1411 with program re The Art of 
Revolution, extolling Libya`s international & African accomplishments; 
talk at 1421 re geographic locale tho I couldn't ID where; V. of 
Africa from the Great Jamahirya ID at 1426; poor-rough copy (Scott R. 
Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH-USA, R8, RX-350D, CLR/DSP, MLB1, 200' 
Bevs, 60m Dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** LITHUANIA. 9770, Britain Radio International, 1220-1300, Dec 25, 
English. Pops, Motown & Xmas music; countless BRI & Mighty KBC IDs; 
Scotland tourism & KBC electronics promos; good. 

9770, FRS-Holland, 1300-1338, Dec 25, English. Pop music; countless 
FRS-Holland & Mighty KBC IDs; acknowledgment of listener contacts for 
Nov 2nd broadcast; fair (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH-USA, R8, 
RX-350D, CLR/DSP, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60m Dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING 
DIGEST) 

** LITHUANIA. RADIO VILNIUS: LAST SHORTWAVE TRANSMISSIONS TODAY 

David Crystal from Israel phoned me at 1010 to say that he had heard
Radio Vilnius announce at the end of today`s programme that as of
January 1st they would no longer use shortwave. He said that there was
nothing special about the final shortwave programme. They would
continue to broadcast on the internet.

I went to the archived programmes on their website:
http://www.lrt.lt/archyvas/?channel=234933§ion=2&filter=7345

The most recent archived programme is for December 29; slide the 
player along to 29 minutes and you can hear the announcement. English
programmes will be broadcast live on the internet at 1900, the
programmes will also be available as podcasts and be archived online
(Mike Barraclough, England, Dec 31, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Shux, they forestalled any protest campaign (Glenn Hauser, ibid.)

Doesn't really surprise me. For over 2 years I have not had a reply
from Radio Vilnius. I'm not writing about requesting a QSL. I'm
writing about their program content, asking questions, etc.

Really gets me how broadcasters moan "no one is listening" to justify
ending SW. The other excuse for not replying, "We've got so many 
letters, etc., from listeners we don't have the time". Kinda cancels 
out the "no one is listening" excuse, doesn't it. 73 and Happy New 
Year (Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, Manassas VA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING 
DIGEST)

Kraig - You've expressed exactly my feelings also. Over the last few 
years, many broadcasters have disconnected completely from their 
listeners. First they say that no one is listening, and then if you 
try to contact them they either ignore you or claim they have no time 
to reply to "all those letters."

Whatever their reasoning, they are creating the proverbial self-
fulfilling prophecy and actually making themselves redundant by 
failing to fulfill what should be a broadcaster's objective, which is 
to prove to their sponsor that they are able to get a message and 
information out to an audience as broadly (thus BROADcaster) and 
conveniently for that audience as possible. Instead they go about 
saving money in the same way as a person saying they can cut their 
household budget by just not eating. The final result of that 
would be apparent pretty quickly!

As for listener expense and listening on Internet, I am able to do so 
with DSL, but I find that roughly 25 or 30 percent of the live streams 
I try to access from various stations just don't work. Those that do 
play, do so pretty well. However, besides the basic cost of DSL or 
other broadband, the ISP's are starting to make noises about getting 
away from the flat-rate billing and charging by the gigabyte. This 
could start to get expensive! 73 (Paul Brouillette, Geneva, IL, ibid.)

One hears that this is a sheer cost-saving measure. Lithuanian Radio
had to cut 500,000 Euro of expenses, and this forced them to sacrifice
shortwave. The mediumwave transmissions on 666 kHz have been further
reduced, too, and it is possible that in the end they will cease
altogether as well.

For the time being the production of English-language shows continues
unchanged, hence there was also nothing special about the New Year's
Eve transmission. It was just no special situation in the studio, so
to speak (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 
See CHINA: 7325

** MALAYSIA. 7295, RTM Traxx FM, heard at 1604 on 31 Dec with hard 
rock music, and English DJ hyping the New Year. Really good 
programming and good signals with medium fade, but clobbered by co-
channel WYFR in Urdu. Pity. I will try again around 0000 when there 
should be no one else on channel, according to EiBi. Happy New Year 
everyone! I hope this New Year is full of great DX and friends and 
family for each an every one of you! (Al Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan, 
WinRadio G303e, 200m Longwire/Randomwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MALI. 5995, R. Mali, Bamako. December 31, French, 0715-0725 male 
talks, outside, 0719 talks about Guinea, 0721 short music returning OM 
talks. 33333 (lob-B).

7285, R. Mali, Bamako. December 31, French/vernacular, 0753-0801 OM 
talks, instrumental music, YL on music. // 5995 until 0800, 23422 
(lob-B). 

9635, R. Mali, Bamako. December 31 French/vernacular, 0808-0816 OM 
talks. // 7285, 33433. 73 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - 
Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

7285 NO ID, idioma africano, Mali?? Saludos cordiales. 1733-1752+ , 
escuchada el 31 de diciembre en idioma africano sin identificar, 
¿hausa?, locutor con comentarios, referencias a Kandajar, se aprecia 
en colisión con otra emisora, minutos antes estaba escuchando a Radio
Mali en francés, la señal era peor, SINPO 44444 (José Miguel Romero, 
Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Hello Jose Miguel, Yes indeed, it's Mali. Vernacular talks with 
mentions of African countries. At 1758, ID in French "Vous êtes à 
l'écoute de l'Office de Radio Télévision du Mali émettant de" and 
abrupt s/off, Good signal, Regards (JM Aubier, France, ibid.)

Saludos Jean-Michel, asi es, tambien he podido escuchar la 
identificación en francés de Radio Mali; sin embargo no he podido 
identificar el idioma, posiblemente en Bambara? La emisión es de 
treinta minutos. 73 (José Miguel Romero, Spain, Happy New Year, ibid.)

** MEXICO. Sintonia de RMI --- Hola a todos, Al parecer han presentado 
dificultad para abrir la página de Radio México Internacional, y esto 
es debido a que el servidor en donde reside la página está en 
mantenimiento y por ello está abajo la página. Esto no quiere decir 
que la señal de audio esté abajo; por lo contrario no ha dejado de 
funcionar. 

Por ello les recuerdo que deben de accesar a la dirección 
http://rmi.es.mn que siempre estará actualizada con el acceso adecuado 
a la señal de la estación; la dirección http://rmi.es.mn es un 
redireccionar a la página de la estación, esto con la finalidad de que 
no tengan que teclear direcciones largas. Así que por favor si 
presentan alguna dificultad de sintonía, siempre conecten a la 
dirección que les he mencionado, http://rmi.es.mn Aprovechando este 
envío para desearles lo mejor para el año nuevo y que sus deseos y 
buenos propósitos se complan. Saludos Fraternos (Ing. José Antonio 
Martínez Sánchez, XE1A, Dec 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Anuncio de Radio Mexico Internacional --- Todos,  les recuerdo que,  
La sintesis informativa se emitira a las 13:00, 15:00, 17:30 y 21:00 
Hrs., tiempo del centro de México, 1900, 2100, 2330 y 0300 Hrs. tiempo 
GMT; espero contar con su sintonía. Hoy primero de enero de 2009 les 
prometimos abrir con otra sorpresa, el baul del recuerdo a las 15:30 
tiempo central de México, 2130 GMT, pero debido a un inconveniente 
técnico no fue posible, así que se reprograma para hoy a las 17:45 
hrs. tiempo del centro de México, 2345 GMT, y mañana 2 de enero a las 
11:00 Hrs tiempo local de México, 1700 Hrs. GMT; por favor acompáñenos 
y disculpas por el inconveniente. Saludos Fraternos (Ing. José Antonio 
Martínez Sánchez, XE1A, Jan 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MONGOLIA. 4895, Mongolian R. 1st Program, heard at 2318 on 01 Jan 
with Mongolian talk by squeaky-voiced YL and western-style music beds. 
Good sigs. // 4830. 73s de (Al Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan, WinRadio 
G303e, 200m Longwire/Randomwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NETHERLANDS ANTILLES. Radio Trans Mundial AM 800 kHz desde Bonaire 
haciendo alguna prueba? Saludos Colegas Radioescuchas y Diexistas del 
Mundo! El pasado 31/12/2008 capté la onda media 800 kHz de Radio Trans 
Mundial en Bonaire, Antillas Holandesas con un SINPO 23222. La 
transmisión era en português y escuché solo la identificación en forma 
"repetida y sin parar" entre las 0800 y las 0930 UT que decía: "Ésta 
es Radio Transmundial vía satélite desde São Paulo... La Fuerza de la 
palabra", "Ésta es Radio Transmundial, una emisora de la Fundación 
Sistema RTM de Radio y Televisión" [sic: he has translated it to 
Spanish --- gh] y luego mencionaban las emisoras brasileñas afiliadas 
con sus frecuencias en AM y FM. También mencionaban insistentemente 
las frecuencias de onda corta: 5965, 9530 y 11735 kHz, las cuales 
monitoreé y pretendí captarlas sin resultado alguno. A las 0930 
bruscamente se escuchó su emisión en español y la señal tenía un SINPO 
55555.

Revisé el portal de Radio Transmundial en São Paulo, Brasil, cuyo 
enlace es el siguiente: http://www.transmundial.com.br  Allí escuché 
en audio real la misma identificación y pude ver todas las frecuencias 
en AM, FM y SW mencionadas en esa transmisión, excepto los 800 kHz que 
indican emiten con 50 kW desde Bonaire. Según el mapa de cobertura  
http://www.transmundial.com.br/noticias lo cual me indica que reciben 
la señal vía satélite y retransmiten desde las Antillas Holandesas 
para cubrir el norte de Brasil.

Ahora bien, surge la pregunta: ¿esa "identificación prolongada" en 
português que emitieron durante hora y media sería alguna prueba que 
estaban realizando en los 800 kHz? O eso suelen hacerlo con mucha 
regularidad para dejar "ocupada" esa frecuencia? Si alguien tiene esa 
información, sabré agradecerles. 73 y buen DX (Santiago San Gil 
González, CLUB DIEXISTAS DE LA AMISTAD, Venezuela, Jan 1, DX 
LISTENKING DIGEST) Satellite feed probably failed (gh, DXLD)

** NIGERIA. VON is another station which might have had a NY 
celebration at 2300 UT Dec 31; 7255 carrier was still on at 2259, but 
I had too much else to monitor at the same time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. My local KCRC 1390 Enid has an intermittent harmonic 
problem. Looking for NYE pirates, Dec 31 at 2314 instead heard 
distorted ad for Walgreens and ESPN Radio, on 6950, the fifth harmonic 
of // 1390. But it was gone at next check a few minutes later, nor 
heard on x 4 = 5560 where I recently had it too (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** PAKISTAN. 7530, R. Pakistan, Islamabad, 1835-1900*, Dec 29, listed 
Urdu. Announcer with talk between vocal chanting/music; NA at s/off; 
very poor (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH-USA, R8, RX-350D, 
CLR/DSP, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60m Dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Random monitoring of their extended New Year's 
Day programming:

3290, R. Central, 1440-1512, Dec 31, mostly talking, probably in Tok 
Pisin, weak to begin but slowly improved, by 1457 was fair with nice 
island music.

3315, R. Manus, 1439, Dec 31, heard with pop music, not on by 1445 
check, fair-poor.

3365, R. Milne Bay, 1431-1503, Dec 31, tuned-in to hear a speech in 
English, pop songs, woman DJ seemed to also be in English, 1456 back 
to speech in English, not heard at 1503 check.

3385, R. East New Britain, 1437-past 1638, Dec 31, pop songs and 
indigenous chanting/singing, man DJ in Tok Pisin, many TCs ("10 after 
1"), wishes listeners Happy New Year, mostly fair.

3905, R. New Ireland, 1440-1525, Dec 31, this was the best reception 
for PNG, in Tok Pisin, woman DJ with dedications, playing pop songs 
(C&W song "Queen of Hearts", pop songs in English, etc.) (Ron Howard, 
Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Lucky you! No PNGs have been making it here above the noise level 
lately, and today was no exception, checking as early as 1330 (Glenn 
Hauser, OK, Dec 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PARAGUAY. Looking for a real website of R. Nacional del Paraguay, 
other than the one recently referenced, http://www.desdeparaguay.com/ 
which only has audio linx to its AM and FM as well as several other 
stations. 

Both WRTH and PWBR `2009` say http://www.rnpy.com/ but if you go 
there, it`s labeled Radio Internacional del Paraguay which appears to 
be a web station or a portal unconnected with the real government 
broadcaster Radio Nacional, so don`t you believe it. 

However, that has a crawling link at the top which goes back to the 
above page autolaunching the FM player, which as I noticed the first 
time I tried it, later in the evening, brings only loud white noise, 
accompanied by a whine. Perhaps the audio comes from an off-air pickup 
and it`s not on the air after local midnight, but they let the stream 
keep running anyway (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PERU. 4835.4, R.Marañón (?), Jaén, 2326-2337, 29 Dec, Castilian, 
talks, advertisements, music; 12431, CODAR and utility carrier QRM.

4857.2, R. La Hora, Cusco, 2250-2311, 26 Dec, Castilian, ads, slogan 
"sintonía regional de La Hora!", prorgram and frequency announcements, 
sports report at 2300; 35322 but better on 29 Dec at 2315.

4950, R. Madre de Dios, Ptº Maldonado, 2215-2227, 30 Dec, Castilian, 
Indian music; 25332, overmodulated. No trace of co-channel Angola on 
4950 these days.

5939.3, R. Melodía (presumed), Arequipa, 2305-.., 29 Dec, hardly 
perceivable audio on an almost empty carrier; 25432. The freq. fits 
R.Melodía, so if not Perú, then what?

6195.8 R. Cusco (?), Cusco, 0002-..., 27 Dec, Castilian, talks; 13431, 
adjacent QRM de BBC 6195 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Jan 1, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** PHILIPPINES. 9435, FEBC, Bocaue, 2318-2329*. Jan 1. Indonesian 
religious program of man acting-out sobbing and sickness (coughing, 
etc.), mentions "Iesus" often. Closing announcements, and abrupt sign-
off (Paul Brouillette, Geneva, IL, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PRIDNESTROVYE. 6240, Radio PMR, Grigoriopol, 2300-2327, Dec 25, 
English. IS, s/on, news re Pridnestrovie & Moldova relations; appeal 
to Ukraine re "treaty" (?) with Moldova; program credits/contact info; 
IS at 2327 into French service; fair (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., 
Intervale, NH-USA, R8, RX-350D, CLR/DSP, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60m Dipole, 
dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SAUDI ARABIA [and non]. Re Brian Alexander logs /ETHIOPIA. 
9555.000, BSKSA Riyadh's Arabic service at S=7-8 level, 1800-1830 UT. 
Noted also on \\ 9870, but also heavy interference heterodyne tone on 
9556.330 heard, latter so much down from ETH 9560? also on 9704.016 
kHz (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Dec 29, dxldyg via DXLD) 
Yes, as I also recently reported, Ethiopia varying around 9556 (gh)

** SOLOMON ISLANDS. De condities waren slecht tenoemen vanaf 0200 
middernacht. De K index waarde is dan ook weer de lucht ingegaan tot 4 
momenteel. Op de MW dus slecht, maar op 9541.520 kHz, 0940 zijn dan 
weer de Solomon Isl. tehoren (Maurits Van Driessche, Belgium, Dec 31, 
bdx mailing list via DXLD)

9541.5, SIBC, 0700, 01/01/09, English. Theme music, "Hello, good 
evening..." into a newscast with what sounded like a commercial break, 
followed by a selection of tunes with an emphasis on country music. In 
the clear, but not strong enough to pull more than a few scattered 
words out of the noise. Mostly poor (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOLOMON ISLANDS [non]. New Year`s Eve Roundup --- In years past I 
have reported on my trip around the world, via radio, noting how 
stations were marking, or not, the passing of the New Year. Many of 
these reports were reprinted by Glenn Hauser in DXLD. For some, like 
the Solomon Islands, there was an almost party-like atmosphere. 

Not this year, however. The conditions have, as previously reported, 
been atrocious and, after trying sporadically throughout the day, I 
gave up the fight, especially considering the noise levels precluded 
anything from Africa coming through on 60 meters.

I did note All India Radio on 9445 (via Bangalore) with a year end 
retrospective at 2218 on prominent Indian citizens who had passed away 
over the year.

Ironically, Radio Australia on 9580 re-appeared this morning (January 
1) with good signals at 1143 with a phone-in program where people were 
relating if they had recovered from the night before (Mark Coady, 
Ont., Jan 1, ODXA yg via DXLD)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 6175, Dec 31 at 2146 had Brother Scare mixing 
with something in French. B.S. is via Wertachtal, 100 kW, 300 degrees 
to W Europe at 21-22, while French is RFI, 500 kW, 204 degrees to W 
Africa at 21-22, but The Overcomer increases to 20-22 from Jan 1. No 
doubt some frequency managers rationalize this as a good share to 
different target areas even tho transmitted from adjacent countries. 
We can only hope that Brother Scare is getting the worst of the 
collision; the 5:1 power ratio should help (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN. REE NYE monitoring: 9640, Dec 31 at 2211 talking about uvas 
gordas, rock classics in Spanish; also on // 7275 at 2227. For the 
2300 Jahrwechsel, I was going to try to monitor this with one ear and 
Chad with the other, but 9640 went into sign-off announcement at 2255, 
saying we could keep listening on Intelsat (sorry, don`t have one 
handy), and would resume in 3 minutes on 6125, 9620, 11680 and 9535 to 
America. This hour from 2200 had also been to Africa on 5250, it 
sounded like they said, but must have meant 7270 per skeds. I then 
tuned to 6125 and found it already on the air with programming, but 
fluttery and much inferior to 9640 while 9535 was running the IS. 

At 2300 could hear full strike of some clock on 6125. At 2320 I 
noticed that 7275 was still on the air, so maybe it was unimpeded at 
hourtop (yeartop) had I been listening to it; also audible on 9620 and 
better 9535 now with big band music, playing novelty song in Spanish, 
then sounded like an antique record with `boogie` lyrix, which I take 
not to be pure Castilian. 2327 ``Mambo Rock`` with English lyrix, 2336 
a cowboy love song. 0005 UT Jan 1, 9535 still going with more novelty 
songs including mock-Hawaiian, Spike Jones? Hawaiian War Chant, 0010 
Royal Victorian Calypso; 0020 still calypso, 0028 a cowboy yodel song 
in English. Mentioned several times that this show was from Radio 3, 
also on Radio 5 and REE until 3 am local, or was it 2 am. Some quite 
entertaining music, and not what you expect from Madrid (Glenn Hauser, 
OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) QRM de CBC: see CANADA

** SPAIN. ETA: EITB TRASLADA SUS EMISIONES A RADIO VITORIA Y SU 
REDACCIÓN A UN HOTEL DE BILBAO
http://ecodiario.eleconomista.es/terrorismo/noticias/947600/12/08/ETA-EITB-traslada-sus-emisiones-a-Radio-Vitoria-y-monta-la-redacion-en-un-hotel-de-Bilbao.html

Euskadi Irratia, la radio pública vasca que tenía sus dependencias en 
el edificio volado esta mañana por ETA en Bilbao, trabaja para 
trasladar todas sus emisiones a Radio Vitoria, desde donde seguirá 
dando información y emitiendo sus programas habituales. 

En un intento por preservar al máximo la normalidad tras el atentado, 
un centenar de trabajadores de la radio vasca se han concentrado en el 
Hotel Hesperia, cercano al edificio, donde están procediendo a montar 
una improvisada redacción para seguir trabajando. 

Varios de los responsables de Euskadi Irratia, dijeron en la emisión 
de esta mañana tras el atentado, que su voluntad es mantener la 
normalidad, seguir trabajando y procurar la emisión de su programación 
habitual desde su centro de Vitoria (via José Miguel Romero, Spain, 
Dec 31, dxldyg via DXLD)

** SUDAN [non]. 13720, UAE, Sudan R. Service, heard at 0554 01 Jan in 
English with talks on the media's role in democracy until multilingual 
IDs at 0559 and transmitter off at 0600. Good sigs apparently off the 
side of the beam. 73s de (Al Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan, WinRadio 
G303e, 200m Longwire/Randomwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SWAZILAND. 6130, TWR Manzini, 2007*, Dec 25, English. TWR Swaziland 
IS loop; running past listed 2000*; fair (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., 
Intervale, NH-USA, R8, RX-350D, CLR/DSP, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60m Dipole, 
dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SWITZERLAND. 531 kHz DRS Musikwelle Beromünster, Switzerland 

Hi to all, If you tune now on 531 kHz you will hear a loop message 
that informs that DRS Musikwelle has ended its programs on 28th 
December 2008.

Translation of the message:

"From new year 2009 you will receive on this medium wave frequency 
probably another station. The programs are not coming from Beromünster 
but from a foreign country (...) You have tuned to 531 KHz medium 
wave. Till 28th December 2008 you have heard the programs of DRS 
Musikwelle. This is no more possible on medium waves. You can however 
receive DRS Musikwelle on digital radio DAB, via cable, satellite and 
internet (...).

The transmitter will close definitively on 31th December 2008, at 23 
or 24 Swiss local time.

In my website I have recorded some audioclips

The last news from DRS Musikwelle:
http://www.hb9gce.ch/20081228_2200_DRS_Ultimo%20notiziario_531.mp3
The last 30 minutes of DRS Musikwelle:
http://www.hb9gce.ch/20081228_2231_DRS_Ultima%20mezz'ora_531.mp3
The first loop message:
http://www.hb9gce.ch/20081229_080011_Messaggio%20DRS_531.mp3
The second loop message:
http://www.hb9gce.ch/20081229_DRS%20secondo%20messaggio.mp3

and a short video of DRS Musikwelle:
http://www.hb9gce.ch/Musikwelle_Video.wmv

I will add in my website also an mp3 of the definitive closing of the
transmitter on 31th December 2008. 73's de HB9GCE, Andy (Stumpf Carl 
Andreas, Switzerland, Dec 30, playdx yg via DXLD)

I notice that 531 has already been deleted from the WRTH 2009, even 
tho it was in our hands in late 2008 (Glenn Hauser, DXLD)

Re: Beromunster 531 kHz takes its leave of airwaves tonight 

Although programming from DRS Musikwelle ended at 2300 on 28th 
December, the Beromunster 531 kHz transmitter has since then been 
putting out a continuous announcement in German about retuning to 
digital, cable, satellite or internet. Still audible at 1700 on 30th 
December. No doubt it will be switched of finally fairly soon - 
perhaps at midnight local time on New Years Eve? (Dave Kenny, Dec 30, 
BDXC-UK yg via DXLD)

TopNews info of Oct 16, 2008. Here is the answer from Switzerland:

MW Beromuenster will be carry Musikwaelle til Dec 28th 2008, at 
2259:59 UT / 23.59:59 CET.

On Dec 29th, 30th, and 31st, a permanent announcement service loop 
will be carried til Dec 31st 2008, at 2259:59 UT / 23.59:59 CET. wb 
(Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.)

531 kHz DRS Musikwelle Beromünster --- Hi to all, at exactly 2259 UT 
the transmitter of DRS Musikwelle Beromünster on 531 kHz has been 
definitively turned off. Happy new year to all, (Andy, HB9GCE, Dec 31, 
HCDX via DXLD)

** TAJIKISTAN. 4765.07, 0130-0140 24.12, Tajik R 1, Yangiyul. Tajik 
announcement, beautiful Tajik folksongs, 44344, Utility QRM (Anker 
Petersen, Skovlunde, Denmark, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of 
longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via WORLD OF RADIO 1441, 
DXLD)

** TAJIKISTAN. 1503, VoR Sodruzhestvo relay, heard at 1547 on 01 Jan 
with what can best be described as Russian show tunes and occasional 
DJ chat. Heard one song which was the basis for the IS from the old 
R.Station Peace and Progress in the 70s. That brought back some 
memories! Good sigs with an occasional deep fade. This is listed as 
only 7kW. No sign of 500 kW Iran! This trend could really make me a 
happy man. 73s de (Al Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 200m 
Longwire/Randomwire, Palstar MW-550P Mediumwave Preselector, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** TANZANIA. 1377, R. Free Africa, Mwanza, 1918-1926, 29 Dec, Swahili, 
African pops; 23431, QRM de Armenia and France (Carlos Gonçalves, 
Portugal, Jan 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY. AMIGAS Y AMIGOS: EL NUEVO SITIO WEB DE LA TRT EN CASTELLANO 
HA ENTRADO EN SERVICIO PUEDEN ACCEDER A CUALQUIER INFORMACION A TRAVES 
DE LA SIGUIENTE DIRECCION : http://www.trtmundo.com (LV de Turquía via 
Tomás Méndez, Spain, Dec 30, logsderadio yg via DXLD) 

Wonder if they are going to convert all their language sites thus (gh)

La TRT, la radiodifusión pública turca, ha hecho un verdadero esfuerzo 
en internet y ya dispone de su sitio web, desde el que no sólo podemos 
escuchar las emisiones en español de LA VOZ DE TURQUIA, sino conocer 
las últimas noticias. Estos son sus dominios:
<http://www.trtworld.com/>
<http://www.trtmundo.com/>
<http://www.trtspanish.com/>

La dirección de correo electrónico de la sección española es espanol @ 
trt.net.tr  Un saludo y feliz año (Pedro Sedano, Madrid, España, 
COORDINADOR GENERAL, AER, noticiasdx yg via DXLD)

** TURKEY. Lacking any callers as usual, Live from Turkey announcer 
Dec 30 around 2005 UT on webcast was enumerating some of the coldest 
places on earth, such as Yakutsk, Russia, where it is about -50. Also 
mentioned Vostok station in Russia, where in 1983 it set a record of -
128.6 degrees. Trouble is, Vostok station is in ANTARCTICA, not 
Siberia, which she failed to realize. DON`T YOU BELIEVE ---

That`s not all: A little Googling found this page dealing with coldest 
temperatures on earth: 
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/YongLiLiang.shtml

World Book Encyclopedia. New York. World Book, 2000: A530. "Scientists 
recorded the world's lowest temperature, -128.6  F (-89.2  C), at 
Vostok Station …."

So that number was F, not C! If it had been C, that would have been 
incredibly cold. There are several other citations of this plus an 
unconfirmed record at the same place in 1997 of -91C.

VOT, 12035, Dec 31 at 1404 ending a month-by-month chronology of 2008y 
news events, ``The New Year Special Program``; then various music. The 
Letterbox normally on Wednesdays never appeared. The Dec 30 broadcast 
previewed the first-half-of-2009 program schedule, delaying start of 
Live from Turkey. I hope they now have the program schedule somewhere 
on the website rather than making us wait weeks for it in the P-mail.

Checking the one-day archive of the Thu Jan 1 1330 broadcast 
containing another Live from Turkey: it plays but nothing is heard; I 
see there is now a slide bar to advance anywhere into the 55 minute 
file rather than having to fast-forward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** UGANDA. 4750, Dunamis R, Mukono, 1840-1902*, 30 Dec, English, 
religious ballads, announcements, vernacular prior to abrupt closure; 
25332 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Jan 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** UGANDA. 4975.88, UBC Kampala, 2044-2107*, Dec 29, listed English. 
Hi-life & native music with occasional M talk over; too weak to ID 
language; pulled the plug at 2107; poor (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., 
Intervale, NH-USA, R8, RX-350D, CLR/DSP, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60m Dipole, 
dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** UKRAINE. Wondering if RUI is still on the air in 2009? Jan 1 at 
0014 good on 7440 in Ukrainian, but inaudible on 9785 if extra 
frequency to SAm is still airborne; could well be, usually above MUF 
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S S R. I may have missed this discussion many years ago, but what 
is the consensus about counting the transmitter sites which appear on 
Radio Moscow QSLs? I understand that Radio Moscow was supposedly less 
than forthcoming with transmitter locations, and that many of the 
listed sites are now questionable. Do I now "uncount" all of my 
loggings and the transmitter sites on this QSLs? My feeling is that 
DXers should count them if they appear on the QSLs, because there is 
no intent on the DXer's part to be dishonest about it (Bill Harms,
Elkridge Maryland, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Bill, It`s a hobby. You can do it anyway you want. I'd go with 
whatever was on the QSL (Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD)

Heh Bill, a really good question. As we have no reliable tx site info 
from USSR the early years (or is there any?) we can count those QSLs 
as a scrap. Locals are OK, like my Karelo-Finnish Rep or what it was 
called station somewhere around 5040 or so. Cheers, (Jari Savolainen, 
Finland, HCDX via DXLD)

Yes, what difference does it make, unless you are trying to compete 
with others in racking up totals, where standardization becomes 
necessary; and where`s the fun in that? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD)

** U K [non]. Re CANADA above, CHU: Hi Glenn, I was able to hear the 
full strike of Big Ben here on 9740 via Singapore at 0000. You are 
right, they no longer make it easy on SW. Gone are the days of a 20 
over S9 signal good enough to rattle the windows (Steve Lare, Holland, 
MI, USA, Jan 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Glenn-- I've uploaded an mp3 file of this recorded from their 
webstream (since it's no easy feat to get a good recording via SW from 
N America these days). They did indeed give an extra 'leap second' 
time pip in the runup to 0000 GMT. It's in the Station Sounds folder 
on the Yahoo group as "BBC World Service-0000UTC-010109.mp3" (Mark 
Schiefelbein, MO, ibid.)

** U S A. VOA Ukrainian stopping on SW
I've just seen on VOA website:
http://www.voanews.com/english/about/frequenciesAtoZ_u.cfm

Ukrainian (Radio broadcasts in Ukrainian will end on December 31, 
2008.) 
2100-2115 UT 5895 9715
2115-2130 UT 5895 9715 M-F  (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, 1138 UT Dec 31, 
dxldyg via DX LISTENIING DIGEST) Got an extension in August (gh)

** U S A. Glenn, DXLD 8-133 included an FCC public notice about three 
HF stations. I looked into these.

The KTMI application for license indicates that they are ready to 
begin operations. As of this writing, the station did not have program 
test authority but I expect them to receive it soon.

The frequencies on the application are 6025, 9445 and 11615, aimed in 
the direction of Mexico, Cuba, Kamchatka and Canada. The station 
address was given in Albany OR. I could not tell if it moved from 
Lebanon. The FCC online record still shows the transmitter city as 
Lebanon.

The WINB application for license renewal is not remarkable except for 
the fact that it was filed November 14, 2003, a few days after the 
license's published expiration date. The FCC finally designated this 
application "acceptable for filing" yesterday, December 29, 2008.

The applicant doing business as Hill Radio International is an 
individual, Scott Mock, WB4BFO, who plans to broadcast from his 
Milton, FL home.

He proposes to use a custom-built transmitter and a four-element 
cubical quad antenna at 90 feet AGL. He told me that this station, 
which he hopes to name WJHR, will broadcast exclusively in single 
sideband.

Thus, to the FCC application question of "rated unmodulated carrier 
power output", he answered "Zero". The stated emission type is B8E.

He conceded that SSB broadcasting is unusual, but feels that there are 
enough SSB-capable receivers now and that his content will be 
compelling.

He said the station would be a commercial operation, but would be 
funded mostly by "contributions from churches that support our 
beliefs." The programming will come from a 40-year collection of 
recordings made at Smyrna Baptist Church in Pensacola FL.

You will recall that this church received its own construction permit 
for an HF station one year ago. There are several months left before 
that CP expires, but it appears that it will not be built and that 
WJHR is a new version of that project.

In the license application, where the applicant must outline his 
"program plans and policies", Mr. Mock simply referred the FCC to that 
earlier Smyrna file "to avoid duplication." (Benn Kobb, DC, Dec 30, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

So WINB has been in limbo for 5 years and nobody noticed or cared? 
SSB? Doesn`t the FCC reject SSB-only SWBC applications out of hand? 
Or: if he has zero carrier power he can run whatever SB power he might 
like? (Glenn Hauser, to Benn Kobb, via DXLD)

Apparently not. See Sec. 73.757, "System specifications for single-
sideband (SSB) modulated emissions in the HF broadcasting service." 
(Benn Kobb, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. I am the Chief Engineer of 9 AM and FM radio stations. On of 
my stations has licenses for 3 frequencies in the 26 MHz range. One 
of them is still used all the time. The transmit end is high up on 
the hilltop where the FM transmitter is located. We use it as a 
backhaul for the VHF RPU [remote pickup unit] receiver at the site 
back to the studio. 

The carrier is on 24/7 but the only time there would be actual audio 
on it would be during a remote broadcast and you would hear the 
receiver audio from the VHF RPU receiver. We send the remote 
broadcast audio from the remote van on VHF to the transmitter site 
where it is received and retransmitted on 26 MHz. We receive the 26 
MHz signal at the studio where it is fed to the audio console and 
then sent back to the transmitter site on the 950 MHz. STL where it 
is then broadcast on the FM band.

I suppose, instead of leaving a dead carrier on it during non-remote 
broadcast times, I could send the FM receiver audio back down the 
line, which would then make it sound like a rebroadcast of our 
station to the listener. But, I haven't done it. 

We use older G.E. brand radios for the link. They work great and 
rarely (if ever) fail. I think the T.P.O. is 25 watts or so. We get 
letters about it once in a great while. It is a mystery to some. It 
has been on the air since about 1959! 73, (Paul Shinn, California? 
NASWA yg via DXLD)

Paul, So how about revealing the calls, exact frequencies, locations, 
broadcast stations relayed that you are talking about? Tnx, (Glenn 
Hauser, ibid.) 

** U S A. Dear Glenn, I monitored WBCQ on 5110 already at 0050, Dec 
29, in order to hear your interview. SINPO 25333 which was fair 
enough.

But at 0100 the station switched off the transmitter and I could only 
hear the start of Dan Lewis Show on internet. At 0115 the station had 
not yet returned, so I went to bed as it was 0215 AM here local time 
and I was nearly sleeping. Dan started by saying that nearly nobody 
listen to SW anymore, but in this case it was maybe the transmitter 
which was programmed to be off. What a disappointment! Best 73, (Anker 
Petersen, Denmark, Dec 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Did anyone else hear it, or not, on 5110? The entire three (not two) 
hours of Dan Lewis were on the webcast as scheduled, anyway (Glenn 
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

This mirrors my experience as well. The transmission seemed to 
disappear at the 0100 program start. It came back on some time later, 
and at times, reception was quite good. But the experience was 
erratic.

At the 0100 mark, I also attributed it to the transmitter being off 
air. At its best, though, it was about S9 on the Perseus with a 130' 
end fed. The program is being repeated at http://www.johnlightning.com
73, (Dan Lewis, ibid.)

Program ran as scheduled, no transmitter problems (Allan Weiner, WBCQ, 
DX LISTENING DIGEST)

WBCQ, 15420, Wed Dec 31 at 2220 with new WORLD OF RADIO 1441 in 
progress; very slightly off-frequency per BFO-stepping but nothing to 
het it. The 2000 broadcast on 7415 contained an old show from 
September; perhaps 1441 appeared this week on Thursday at 2000, as it 
did 0030 UT Friday on 7415 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Special extended broadcast of AREA 51 New Years Eve from 6 pm to 1 am 
Eastern on 5110 kHz. Lots of free radio programming. You may want to 
listen (Allan Weiner, WBCQ, Dec 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 
2300-0600 UT, probably also with the usual webcast (gh)

** U S A [and non]. More confusion from WRMI, 9955: the last I knew, 
AWR Wavescan was scheduled at 0630 UT Tuesday, but Dec 30 at 0655 I 
was hearing Spanish, La Rosa de Tokio hour-long DX program, at the 
moment mentioning LV de tu Conciencia, then wrapping up with credits; 
0658 WRMI English ID, 0659 R. Prague relay in English. Jamming pulses 
of 3 per second but sounded different than usual, with modulated tones 
as well; then at least two transmitters out of sync. Lucky Czechia: at 
0706 I was hearing another R. Prague relay on 6160, CBC Overnight via 
CKZN, no jamming.

The next night, UT Wed Dec 31, Wavescan appeared on 9955 at 0600, 
instead of 0615 Brigade 2506, and WORLD OF RADIO 1441 got its first 
airing at 0632 as scheduled; fair signal, some fading, good 
modulation, no jamming audible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

I know you have a long-standing and entirely sensible policy of not 
QSLing WORLD OF RADIO broadcasts, but it`s nevertheless possible to 
get a WOR QSL anyway. Jeff White at WRMI has designed QSLs for a 
number of the shows they carry, including WOR. It`s also surreal to 
have a ``Radio Prague`` QSL that was issued by WRMI (Mark 
Schiefelbein, MO, Dec 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Hi, Glenn! Happy New Year! (At least by the Euro-Western hegemonic 
calendar... :-)

I actually heard you on WRMI last night at 0630 UT (12/31/08) on 9955 
kHz. It's just that it's so rare that I actually *hear* WRMI (which is 
probably exacerbated by my not trying to tune it in because I so
seldom receive it -- a vicious circle there...). It wasn't a good 
reception – deep fades in and out so I maybe heard only a third of WoR 
#1441 -- but I did happen to hear my name mentioned in the middle of 
the program during one of the up-fades; thank you.

Wanted to tell you that you can completely eliminate the UT Sunday 
0500 entry for WHRI on 11565 kHz carrying "DXing with Cumbre" -- I 
tuned it in UT 12/28/08 somewhat early, when there was no signal on 
the frequency, and heard WHRI start up, but then there was a religious 
program and no sign of DXing w/C. I also checked the next half-hour
and that also was a religious program. Perfectly good listenable 
signal; too bad it was wasted on that content. That frequency went 
off-air at 0600 UT. So yet another fictitious DXw/C time/frequency. My 
hopes for an improved upcoming year! 73, (Will Martin, St Louis MO, 
Dec 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 5034.27, WWRB Spur, 0345-0355, Jan 1, fairly strong but 
distorted spur of 5050 with religious programming. Weaker matching 
spur on 5065.73 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. NAm MW stations` carriers are being detectable as early as 
1900 (!), and at 1930 I found this on the frequency providing the 
strongest signals [see BERMUDA]

1390, WEGP, Presque Île ME, 1931-1956, 30 Dec, English, talk on 
education & teaching with Jason Lewis, phone-ins; 44444, increasing 
QRM de NAm stations.

1680, WTTM, Linwold NJ, 1959-2010, 30 Dec, Castilian, talks, English 
ID, newscast in Castilian; 24331 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Jan 1, 
DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

** U S A. 1550, KFRC San Francisco "The True Oldies Channel" heard at 
0054 PST 01/01/09. Ex-KYCY. So we now have KEAR on 610 and KFRC on 
1550. This is a reverse of the situation in the 1950's when KFRC 
was on 610 and KEAR was a classical music station on 1550 (Albert Lehr 
- Livermore, CA, IRCA via DXLD)

** U S A. THE STORY OF BOOTLEG RADIO 1610
   by Robert R. Kegerreis, 12.30.2008

My interest in radio began in 1948 when my brother hooked up a long 
piece of copper wire to the antenna terminal of our family's 6-S-229 
Zenith radio. He began turning the dial on the shortwave band. I was 
five but I remember how suddenly the speaker began making strange 
sounds of squeals and whistles, and then we heard the chimes of Big 
Ben from London's BBC and English transmissions from Radio Moscow. 
Shortwave station HCJB came blasting through from Quito, Ecuador, and 
I tried to envision their station setting high atop the Andes 
Mountains.

When I entered junior high school in 1956, I purchased a NC-109 
National shortwave radio. I would sit with headphones over my ears for 
hours, listening to ham operators talking back and forth and relaying 
messages for the Armed Forces Radio Network. I would set my wristwatch 
to the change in tone broadcast from the National Bureau of Standards 
WWV. I began collecting QSL cards by the hundreds. 

Four years later I was in senior high school taking my required second 
semester of physics. Mr. Stanley, my physics teacher, told us we could 
earn extra credit if we completed a physics project. We were studying 
elementary electronics, magnetism and radio. That is when I came up 
with the idea of building an AM radio transmitter. 
  
(click thumbnail)
A line sketch of the 'bootleg radio' setup described by the author  
 
Knightstown, Ind., with a population of a couple thousand in 1960, did 
not have a station, and in my opinion, it needed one. The "cool" 
station at that time was WIBC, the 50,000 watt giant—1070 in 
Indianapolis. Knightstown was about 40 miles from Indianapolis and the 
radio station's signal would dominate every other one on the dial. . .
[much more] http://www.radioworld.com/article/72138
(via gh, DXLD)

** U S A. WLFM-LP channel 6 Chicago (licensed to Rochelle). I went to 
Chicago Tuesday, I heard WLFM-LP's audio in on my car radio out to 
about sixty miles away. In very solid with Azteca America 
programming.? This one should be strong enough to carry via Es (Curtis 
Sadowski, Paxton IL, Dec 31, WTFDA via DXLD)

** U S A. 6474, KSM, 0715, Jan 1, High seas forecast for mid Pacific 
Ocean area north of the Equator. Much detailed information about winds 
and swell heights. Very interesting to hear this on CW, kind of a 
throwback to the past, but very nice. I'd rather listen to code than a 
computerized voice any time. The code was computer generated and near 
the end of the transmission it mentioned that reception reports and 
comments could be sent to Denise Stoops, P. O. Box 381 Bolinas, CA, 
94924 0381. End of message. 

A pause then someone with a straight key came on and sent best wishes 
to all the listeners, and to join us again on Saturday, and sent 73/88 
to the OMs and Hnys. End of transmission at 0740. Signal was 599 here 
with a little QSB. The code was International Morse but there was one 
prosign we don't use in amateur radio which I heard 2 or 3 times which 
seemed to come at the end of long run of information and the beginning 
of a new one (David Hodgson, TN, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So I wonder what 
was it? (gh, DXLD) 

I did not make a recording, and don't remember the sound; but, it was 
a completely unfamiliar character and was only used 2 or 3 times. I 
found a website that gives much information on KSM: 
http://www.radiomarine.org/index.html
It turns out last night was a special night time New Year's Eve 
transmission of the facility (David Hodgson, ibid.)

MRHS test of ole marine transmitters from Bolinas California --- 
Mini Night of Nights report for 1 Jan 2009, KSM:
 6474 Cw   0339Z 569 Weather Information
           0344Z 599 Weather information
12993 Cw   0340Z 559 Weather information
           0342Z 559 Weather Information
 8453 RTTY 0345Z 579 Weather Information
12631 RTTY 0348Z 569 Weather Information

K6KPH: No contacts could be made at 0400Z. Equipment at HR1/K2LCT: 
Icom 756Pro, Dipole and Vertical ant (Dick Pache, HR1/K2LCT 
Tegucigalpa Honduras EK64JB, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VATICAN [non]. VATICAN STATE, Vatican Radio-VR, 13785, 2357, 
Chinese, 333, Dec 28, IS 2357 Bells ringing 0000, followed by a YL 
with comments (Stewart MacKenzie, WDX6AA, Huntington Beach, 
California, USA, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Even if you could get Europe on 13 MHz in California at that hour, 
unlikely, it would be just as unlikely for a European station in the 
middle of the night in the middle of winter to broadcast to China on 
13 MHz band. This is really via Far East Russia, daytime path.

HFCC says site is Khabarovsk, 100 kW, 218 degrees; Aoki says 
Komsomol`sk/Amure, same parameters, and EiBi agrees on that site. 

You got it just in time, since the VR B-08 program folder arrived 
recently in the P-mail here, and it annotates 13785 as to be closed on 
31/12, evidently with no replacement for Chinese at 0000.

Illustrated feature article in the folder this time is about VR`s 
Technical Museum. They always enclose another heavy-duty and shiny 
card showing the saints and holy days to be honored on every single 
day of the year. Jan 1 is Mother of God, for starters; a common 
epithet in Spanish if not English and dozens of other Catholic 
languages (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VENEZUELA. Interesting website on La Voz de Venezuela 1240, a 
grandiose white elephant of an idea, site now in ruins. Website has 
many photos and history of the station, which was built to broadcast 
with 1000 kW on 1240 kHz. The station never achieved its full output 
power, and operated for a very brief time, until it was turned off as 
a result of complaints from broadcasting authorities throughout the 
Caribbean.

http://vozdevenezuela1240khz.blogspot.com/
Use Babelfish to translate from Spanish.

Also a recording of the station is up at YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHApUgoYx8M
(Al Quaglieri, NY, Dec 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VENEZUELA. Re several previous reports of an unID around 6981:

Radio Joel 2.28 FM, Venezuela --- From 
http://diexismovenezolano.blogspot.com/2008/12/la-radio-misteriosa-venezolana-en-onda.html

viernes 19 de diciembre de 2008
La Radio Misteriosa Venezolana en Onda Corta… ya tiene "nombre" !!!

La historia comenzó hace unos meses cuando el colega diexista 
colombiano Rafael Rodríguez desde Bogotá, captó una estación religiosa 
no identificada en los 6981.5 kHz con "programas evangélicos" en 
español desde algún lugar de Venezuela. Al principio creíamos – según 
lo que se escuchaba en la grabación de 20 minutos que nos envió Rafael 
- que estaba en un pueblito andino llamado Santa Cruz de Mora en el 
Estado Mérida, al pié de la cordillera andina. 

Comenzamos el rastreo durante varias semanas y en una oportunidad 
Jorge García, Freddy Gamboa, Leonardo Santiago y mi persona llegamos a 
captar la transmisión con una "misa católica" que 2 semanas después 
pudimos precisar que se trataba de radiación espúrea generada por 
algún transmisor de Radio Martí desde los Estados Unidos. También la 
monitorearon otros diexistas, entre ellos el colega José Elías Díaz 
Gómez en Barcelona Estado Anzoátegui nos informó que Antonio Contín en 
Cabimas decía que esa emisora emitía desde el Estado Zulia.

Nuevamente volvimos a escuchar la grabación, una y otra vez para 
tratar de obtener alguna pista que nos condujera a resolver este 
misterioso caso. Fue así como escuchando las "cuñas" o anuncios 
comerciales de la estación, precisamos un número telefónico que nos 
dio una pista y contactamos una joven quien nos aclaró el horizonte. 
Gracias a Maribel Ferrer, pudimos dar con el nombre de la estación, 
sus números telefónicos y todos los detalles que nos hacían falta 
saber. Nuestro eterno agradecimiento Mary y discúlpanos tantas 
molestias.

Pues bien, llegó la hora de revelarles "el nombre de la misteriosa 
radio venezolana de onda corta". Se trata de RADIO JOEL 2.28 FM cuyos 
estudios están ubicados en el sector Nueva Lucha, Kilómetro 27, 
Carretera Vía a El Moján, en la población de Santa Cruz de Mara, 
Estado Zulia, ubicado al noroeste de Venezuela, (zona limítrofe con 
Colombia). El correo electrónico de la estación es 
joel228fm@hotmail.com y sus líneas telefónicas son: 0262-4938437 y 
0416 - 8233146. Su director es el Pastor Tulio Ávila y el Sub-Director 
el Pastor Niezer Ríos – quien es la persona que se escucha en la 
grabación y además es Radioaficionado!

Radio Joel 2.28 FM forma parte del Circuito Luz del Mundo 
Internacional cuya emisora matriz está en Guanare Estado Portuguesa y 
cuentan con 74 estaciones afiliadas a nivel nacional y 4 emisoras en 
otros países. Su página Web es: http://www.circuitoluzdelmundo.com

El señor Ríos nos atendió amablemente por teléfono y nos indicó que la 
transmisión escuchada fue una emisión de prueba con un equipo de 
radioaficionado de 50 vatios de potencia!!! Se mostró sorprendido por 
el informe de recepción y agradece futuros reportes los cuales serán 
respondidos personalmente con la Carta de Verificación de la estación. 
También nos indicó que tramitarán ante CONATEL una frecuencia 
autorizada para operar bien sea en la banda tropical de 60 o la banda 
internacional de los 41 metros, para lo cual me ofrecí a prestarles la 
mayor colaboración en el logro de éste objetivo ya que desean que 
Radio Joel 2.28 FM se escuche en Venezuela y el mundo .

En la actualidad solo transmite esporádicamente una sola emisora en 
onda corta desde Venezuela como lo es Radio Amazonas Internacional en 
4940 kHz, ya que por lo general muchas emisoras comerciales 
abandonaron las frecuencias asignadas en las ondas cortas y dudamos 
mucho que regresen. Por otro lado, Radio Nacional de Venezuela aun no 
habilita sus transmisores desde el "Centro de Ondas Cortas Simón 
Bolívar" en Las Mercedes, Estado Guárico; puesto que su Servicio 
Internacional se emite a través de los transmisores y antenas de Radio 
Habana Cuba desde La Julia. De allí que si Radio Joel 2.28 FM solicita 
una frecuencia para operar en onda corta sería muy importante pues es 
la única forma de volver a ocupar canales disponibles que no están 
siendo operados por emisoras venezolanas. El Club Diexistas de la 
Amistad apoya ésta iniciativa de recuperar la onda corta!!!

Bienvenida Radio Joel 2.28 FM a la Onda Corta !!!

Ing. Santiago San Gil Gonzalez, Editor del Blog 

[following is my edit of the Babelfish translation - AQ]

Friday 19 of December of 2008
THE VENEZUELAN MYSTERIOUS RADIO IN SHORT WAVE… ALREADY HAS "NAME"!

History was made a few months ago when my Colombian DX colleague 
Rafael Rodriguez from Bogota caught an unidentified religious station 
on 6981.5 kHz with "evangelical programs" in Spanish from someplace in 
Venezuela. We initially believed - according to what we heard in the 
20 minute recording that Rafael sent us - it was in an Andean pueblito 
Santa Cruz de Mora in Merida State, at the foot of the Andes. 

We begin our tracking for several weeks and in an opportunity Jorge 
Garcia, Freddy Gamboa, Leonardo Santiago and I got to catch the 
transmission with a "Catholic mass" that 2 weeks later we suspected 
might have been a spurious product generated by some transmitter of 
Radio Martí from the United States. It was also heard by other Dxers, 
among them José Elías Díaz Gómez in Barcelona,  Estado Anzoátegui, who 
told us that Antonio Contín in Cabimas said that transmitter had 
broadcast from the Zulia State.

Again we returned to listen to the recording, time and time again to 
try to obtain some clue that would lead to us to solve this mysterious 
case. We also listened to the "cuñas" or commercial announcements of 
the station, perhaps to hear a telephone number that it we could 
track, and we found a young lady - Maribel Ferrer - who could take 
that number and give us the station name and details. We're eternally 
grateful to Mary for saving us so much trouble.

The time had come to reveal "the name of the mysterious Venezuelan 
shortwave station." It was RADIO JOEL 2.28FM, whose studios are 
located in the Nueva Lucha sector, Kilómetro 27, Carretera Vía a El 
Moján, in Santa Cruz de Mara, Estado Zulia, located in northwest 
Venezuela, near the Colombian border. The electronic mail of the 
station is joel228fm@hotmail.com and their telephone lines are: 0262-
4938437 and 0416 - 8233146.  The director is Pastor Tulio Ávila and 
the Assistant Director is Pastor Niezer Ríos. They were the people we 
heard on the recording, and in addition both are radio hobbyists!

Radio Joel 2.28 FM is a part of the network Luz del Mundo 
Internacional, headquartered in Guanare, Estado Portuguesa, which has 
74 affiliates nationally and four transmitters in other countries. Its 
web page is: http://www.circuitoluzdelmundo.com

The amiable Mr. Rivers told us by phone that the monitored 
transmission was a test broadcast with ham radio equipment using 50 
watts of power!!! He was surprised by the reception report and is 
eager for future reports which will be responded personally with the 
station's QSL card. He also noted that they've asked CONATEL for an 
authorized operating frequency, either in the 60 meter tropical band 
or the 41 meter international band; I offered my assistance to help 
Joel Radio 2.28 FM be heard in Venezuela and around the world.

At present there's only a single sporadic shortwave broadcaster from 
Venezuela: Radio Amazonas Internacional on 4940 kHz; generally, most 
commercial stations have abandoned their assigned shortwave 
frequencies, and we doubt many will ever return. On the other hand, 
Radio Nacional de Venezuela doesn't count, because while claiming it 
transmits from not yet qualifies its transmitters from the "Centro de 
Ondas Cortas Simón Bolívar" in Las Mercedes, Estado Guárico, the 
International Service actually transmits via the transmitters and 
antennas of Radio Habana Cuba from La Julia. Thus it would be 
significant were Radio Joel 2.28 FM to reactivate a Venezuelan 
presence on the shortwave bands. El Club Diexistas de la Amistad 
supports this initiative to return to short wave!!!

Welcome Radio Joel 2.28 FM to short wave!
Ing. Santiago San Gil Gonzalez, Publisher of the Blog

(submitted by Al Quaglieri, NY, WORLD OF RADIO 1441, DXLD)

OK, OK, what`s Joel 2:28 say? RSV, googled: "And it shall come to pass 
afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and 
your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and 
your young men shall see visions.`` What ageism! (Glenn Hauser, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** VIETNAM. On March 10, 1967, there was an engagement (Air Force) 
that we are trying to get between two aircraft that were involved in 
the Tai Nguyen Steel Mill in North Vietnam. Would you have such 
transmissions? Our purpose is in an attempt to obtain the MOH for one 
of the pilots involved in a tremendous rescue effort. If not, do you 
have suggestions for us to pursue? I do know that we had people 
listening to the aircraft transmissions, such as Red Crown. Thank you,
(Lew Ross, lewross1 @ gmail.com Dec 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VIETNAM. 7220, V. of Vietnam, Son Tay, 1232-1250, Dec 30, Russian. 
W talking; Vietnamese ballad at 1241; back to talk at 1245; f/out by 
1250; poor (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH-USA, R8, RX-350D, 
CLR/DSP, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60m Dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. 6300, R. Nacional de la RASD, good in Spanish 
shortly after 2300 Dec 31, and at 2351 recheck during music; 
intermittent ute pulse QRM. Another one I wish I could have monitored 
at imminent Jahrwechsel, but trumped by a leap second. Where to find 
this in the WRTH 2009? Not under ALGERIA, MOROCCO, or WESTERN SAHARA 
in the domestic or international sexions, but on page 498 of C&OT 
under W (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ZAMBIA. 5915, R. Zambia/R. One, 0146-0217, Jan 1, Mark Schiefelbein 
and I coordinated our listening for this extended schedule for New 
Year's (usual sign-on about 0240). Heard with man DJ in vernacular, 
call-in program along with high-life music and unusual hymn-like 
singing, after ToH into a segment of many on-air calls with African 
drums and high-life singing between each call, mostly poor. It was 
back on Jan. 1, 2007 that this program was well heard and I keep 
tuning in with the hope of good reception again, but no such luck. 
Noted QRM at 0159 from CRI sign-on (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, 
Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

5915, ZNBC, 0345, 01/01/09, Vernacular. Continuous hilife music and 
some slower hymn-like songs with no announcer chat or IDs noted, 
including at the hour - perhaps nobody felt like rolling out of bed 
early on New Year's Day? Finally some talk around 0423 w/fading 
signal. Heard a carrier here in checks around 0000 and 0130, so 
suspect they may have run all night. Nice clear signal in LSB 
w/minimal splatter from 5920. Fair (Mark Schiefelbein, MO, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** ZANZIBAR. Hi Glenn, Do you know if R. Tanzania, Zanzibar, and/or 
Spice FM has a website? I've looked and looked and flopped. With 
thanks, and Happy New Year, (Eric Bryan, WA, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Not that I know of. The Media Network hitlist has nothing under 
TANZANIA, or ZANZIBAR: 
http://www.radionetherlands.nl/features/media/links/hitlist/radio_afme.html
In the WRTH there are some e-mail addresses, but if you try to make 
those domains into websites, no go (gh, DXLD)

** ZIMBABWE. 3396, 0120, Jan 1, Radio Zimbabwe playing high-life type 
music, with ID in passing by announcer at 0135. Good audio fair 
strength. Signal slowly increased in strength over the next couple of 
hours. Noticed CW just a kHz down frequency and found it to be a ham 
about 15 miles away putting out a spurious signal. Will let him know 
(David Hodgson, TN, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. I logged the following, but without identifying the 
station, which was the only one audible on the band after 1430 EST:

1310 kHz, Radio Canada International in French from 1440 to after 1500 
[1940-2000+ UT] and in Arabic from 1538 to after 1600 EST [2038-2100+ 
UT] on Dec 27. Starting around 1600, CIWW Ottawa and WDTW Dearborn, MI 
took over the frequency. There are only two Canadian stations listed 
for this frequency, CIWW in Ottawa, and another station in Alberta. It 
is not CIWW because it was interfering with the RCI station. It is not 
likely to be the Alberta station because it is listed as C&W, and 
would not propagate to Ontario at that time of day.

One thought, thanks to Niel Wolfish, is a mixing product from 
Sackville, but the programming does not match the program schedule for 
the shortwave transmissions. Anyone have any thoughts what station 
this might be? Logged in Kirkland Lake, ON using a barefoot Sony SRF-
59 (Jim Orcheson, Dec 29, ODXA yg via DXLD)

Yes, it does match the RCI sked on 9610, per Aoki:
9610 R. CANADA INT. 1805-2005 1234567 French 250 277 Sackville CAN 
06419W 4553N RCI b08-Mar.7 
9610 R. CANADA INT. 2005-2105 1234567 Arabic 250 277 Sackville CAN 
06419W 4553N RCI b08-Mar.7 

And at RCI itself:
http://www.rciviva.ca/rci/PDF/2008Fall/RCI-TECH-B08-ENG.pdf

Since RCI has been repurposed to be Radio Canada Internal, it would be 
very interesting if they really now have a MW frequency somewhere. 
Perhaps the SRF-59 is subject to images on MW from very strong SW 
signals? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. At 1702 UT Dec. 31st, 2008. 3333.0 kHz LSB, signal 
strength a steady 3. Bandwidth 6.0. I'm listening for Radio Bila Hora 
which Monitoring Times says is a Pirate Radio station that may appear 
on shortwave 3333 kHz on December 31, 2008. Radio Bila Hora from the 
Czech Republic might be active from 1500 UT on 3333 kHz on 31st of 
December 2008.

What I'm getting is a set of tones; Nine high pitched tones like a 
time signal followed by a set of nine squelches then nine tones again 
then nine low pitched ticks then a set of four rapid pulses then nine 
high pitched tones again. During some of the quieter picking periods 
the ticking periods a voice too faint to hear saying the same thing 
over and over again. Only on the lower side band. Maybe the words are 
English, I can't tell. At 1717 the signal changed to total white noise 
at a strength of 3 followed by heavy static at 7. The pattern 
continued to 1720 where it was replaced by white noise with a steady 
strength of 3. The earlier signals of tone sets are then found on the 
upper side band. The voice is a little clearer but I still can't tell 
what it says or what language. Maybe it is a time signal station. Then 
I had to leave and go to work. Everyone have a drink for me. I'm using 
a Grundig 800 off the whip in Eastern Ontario. Happy New Year to 
everyone. Thanks, Glen. Keep your ears close (Roy Berger, DX LISTENING 
DIGEST)

Hi Roy, Surely what you describe is CHU, the Canadian timesignal 
station from Ottawa on 3330. We hear it well here, also on 7335 
(changing to 7850 tonight) and 14670, but I suppose they all mostly 
skip over you, too close. A pirate really in Europe certainly would 
not make it to North America on 3 MHz in the morning. Regards, (Glenn 
to Roy, via DXLD)

Radio Bila Hora --- Hello, every year a Czech pirate is on air for one 
hour. Today´s broadcast from 1600 to 1700 hours UT on 3333 kHz. see 
http://rbh.czechian.net/ Happy new Year (Peter Vaegler, Germany, 1444 
UT Dec 31, bclnews.it yg via DXLD)

Hi, at the moment 1630 UT is the Czech pirate radio Bila Hora on 
3333.3 kHz. Huge Signal here in Germany. vy73 Abo, BDXC-UK via DXLD)

Czech pirate station Radio Bila Hora heard with good signal here in
Letchworth Garden City, UK from 1925 tune in on 3333.3. Has broadcast
in previous years on New Years Eve, station website:
http://rbh.czechian.net
(Mike Barraclough, England, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Hi Mike, any idea what time they plan to shut down? (Steve Lare, 
Holland, MI USA, ibid.) I last heard them December 31 2006 and they 
were on to past 0000 (Mike Barraclough, ibid.)

Here in eastern Germany the modulation is just barely audible on
signal peaks. Frequency appears to be rather 3333.25, as far as I can
tell. What's actually intended, 3333, 3333.3 or even 3333 1/3?

Btw, the M7s mic is a Gefell, sometimes also known as "Neumann-East".
They ceased to use the Neumann brand during the GDR years. Then the
company was called VEB Mikrofontechnik Gefell, a too German name, thus
removing VEB was not enough and they renamed themself into Microtech
Gefell (Kai Ludwig, 2055 UT Dec 31, ibid.)

UNIDENTIFIED. 5010, something there with lowly-modulated talk, Dec 31 
at 2246. Suspect it was Madagascar on late, as the signal did not 
improve as it should have in the following hour if it were Dominican 
Republic. 2311 detectable but very poor (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. Op 5790 kHz is de afgelopen dagen een station v/d BBC 
opgedoken in de Russische taal, ik heb ze gehoord tussen 1700-1800 UT. 
Komt nergens in de lijsten voor, maar op de Russische side staat er 
iets over te lezen, is wel in die taal. Bij 't begin en 't eind is 
iets in de ID te horen van de BBC en ook al een paar keer radio 
Swobodan (Johan, PE9DX, Dec 30, bdx via DXLD)

On 5790 kHz is a drive in recent days v / d BBC have emerged in the 
Russian language, I have heard them between 1700-1800 UT. Komt nowhere 
in the lists, but on the Russian side there is something about it, is 
in that language. At the beginning and end to something in the ID to 
hear the BBC and even a few times Swobodan radio. Johan (google 
translation via WORLD OF RADIO 1441, DXLD) 

Svoboda = R. Liberty. Online skeds still lack any such transmission, 
just DRM from Woofferton on 5785-5790-5795 at 1500-1700 (gh, ibid.)

UNIDENTIFIED. Also no dice on 6257. I guess it was my long wire that 
caused that. Happy New Year (Al Parker, Danbury CT, Dec 31, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST) Heard WWKB there

UNIDENTIFIED. 7690, Spy Station with YL repeating "Echo Zulu India" 
over and over at 0433 on 01 Jan. Slightly clipped English accent. 
Rumor has it this is Mossad. Fair sigs and no QRM. Finally went into 
"Message, Message" and gave encrypted message in apparent 5-letter 
groups. Thought these days were over. Transmitter in RCSSB yet audible 
on both USB and standard AM. Message ended at 0445 and bubble jammer 
appeared on 7692. Too little, too late, guys. 73s de (Al Muick, Kabul, 
Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 200m Longwire/Randomwire, DX LISTENING 
DIGEST)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS
++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thanks to Franklin Seiberling, IA, for setting up another convenient 
link to the latest DXLD: http://www.dxld.org

Thanks to Rodney Scribner, Pittston ME, for a check in the mail ``in 
memory of RFPI``.

Hi Glenn: Thanks for all the great work you do on behalf of shortwave 
radio and its listeners. Best wishes for the New Year (David Goren, 
with a donation via PayPal to woradio at yahoo.com)

Hi Glenn: Thanks for all the news regarding all things rf - Happy New 
Year 2009! Regards, (Mike Beu KD5DSQ Austin, Texas, with a donation 
via PayPal to woradio at yahoo.com)

Please accept all the best wishes for the year to come, and may you 
keep on with the wonderful work you do in favour of Radio !!! 
Greetings from Portugal (José Pedro Turner, Portugal)

Caro Amigo Glenn, Espero que tenha passado ótimas festas de Natal 
neste 2008 e desejo um 2009 maravilhoso e contamos com tua magnífica, 
e imprescindível participação, neste novo ano de se iniciará em breve. 

Sabe que é muito bom poder te escrever assim, em português, sabendo 
que você irá entender tudo. Saiba que foi o seu DX Listening Digeste 
que me levou a fazer um curso de inglês, pois antes eu utilizava os 
tradutores on-Line da Internet. 

Você teve uma grande parcela de "culpa" e eu te agradeço por isso, 
pois me levou a aprender um pouco mais de um novo idioma além do 
português e do espanhol; hoje consigo me fazer entender, também em 
inglês. 

Um grande abraço e meus sinceros desejos de um 2009 repleto de 
maravilhosas escutas e muita felicidade pessoal, o que é mais 
importante, pois com paz pessoal, temos condições de suplantar as 
interferências e ruidos e captar o que mais importa. 

Teu exemplo pessoal, tua maneira de se manifestar nas listas e que me 
fizeram pendsar assim. Um grande abraço e Feliz 2009, (Adalberto 
Marques de Azevedo, Barbacena-MG, Brasil)

Says he is glad he can write to me in Portuguese and be understood, 
but DXLD has also led him to learn to read English (gh)

WORLD OF HOROLOGY see also CANADA: CHU; UK: BBCWS
+++++++++++++++++

THE LEAP SECOND: WHY 2008 SEEMS JUST A LITTLE LONGER
Tonight's 'Leap Second' Is Hot Tocking Point
By Dan Zak Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 31, 2008; C01

This weary/manic/glorious/tragic/bizarre year will last one second 
longer than you think. As 2008 circles the drain, here comes the pithy 
news item about the "leap second." It's exactly what it sounds like. 
Tonight, timekeepers will slide an extra second into the world's 
clock. Tick tock tick tock TICK TOCK. . .
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/30/AR2008123003255_pf.html
(via Mike Cooper, DXLD)

I heard the leap section insertion on WWV on 2.5 MHz, essentially an
"unticked" second. Interestingly, my computer which is synced to time
standards via the NTP protocol inserted the leap second properly. My
LaCrosse "atomic" clock did not insert the second even though I have 
it set to GMT. I presume it will sync itself with WWVB at some point 
(it timed out a bit ago) and all will be well. 

[later:] So the clock sync'ed by 00:09 and it was spot on again for 
the 00:10 minute. I guess I'd call the clock "reactive" rather than 
"predictive". 73, de (Nate Bargmann, KS, HNY, dxldyg via DX LISTENING 
DIGEST)

In UTC, it's 2009!! --- Well, everyone posting here tonight sends a 
signal that they were too (poor, chicken, tightwad, sensible, or ??)
to go out tonight. As for me and wife Pat, we had a honey glaze ham, 
sweet potatoes and some champagne, and green tea.

I was curious as to what my $30-dollar Atomic Wall Clock would do when 
the leap second came. I bought it at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Though 
there is no "lock" indication, it seems to stay sync'ed well. It has a
stepped second hand. At 6:59:59 it ticked up to show :59 seconds. At 
6:59:60 it advanced to 7:00:00 Then at 7:00:00 it advanced another 
HALF SECOND to show :00+ on the seconds scale. Then at 7:00:01 it 
advanced another half second to show 7:00:01. I would never have
thought the mechanism would let it do that. Now I may have to wait 5 
more years to test it again. At least that's what I thought I saw. 
(should have videotaped it). Each step of the second hand occurred at 
1 sec. intervals, as always.

I remember when I bought the clock, it would auto-set once it was 
happy with the received data stream and the hands would spin rapidly 
until reading correctly. I was not watching it when DST ended.

I have another atomic clock, a cheapie travel alarm I bought from an 
oil company promo flyer. It shows HH-MM-SS digitally but only "honors" 
the four time zones in the USA and won't show UTC, and only shows 12 
hour format. As luck would have it, it was unlocked at 7PM (the icon 
of a radiating tower was off, which is used to show lock) and it had 
drifted 2 seconds fast so I can't report on what that clock would have
showed during the leap second. Anyone else try this? 73 (Bob Foxworth, 
Tampa FL, Dec 31, ABDX via DXLD)

PUBLICATIONS
++++++++++++

WORLD RADIO TV HANDBOOK 2009 

Our review of the latest edition of WRTH is now available online. As 
the review says, with the value of the pound having fallen to an all-
time low, the cost in real terms to most overseas readers has actually 
fallen this year, so if you don't buy the WRTH every year, this is a 
good time to make the purchase.
http://www.radionetherlands.nl/features/media/wrth.html
(Andy Sennitt, Media Network newsletter via DXLD)

ARMY SECURITY AGENCY

If anyone ever wondered what nutjob DX'ers like myself did during 
their national service, here's a Wikipedia page dedicated to the Army 
Security Agency. Finally, some recognition!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Security_Agency 
Just don't take too much to heart the personal diatribe of the person 
that wrote the lengthy part about the personnel department. 73s de (Al 
Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan, WinRadio G303e, 200m Longwire/Randomwire, 
DX LISTENING DIGEST)

DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: see GERMANY [non]; UNIDENTIFIED 5790
++++++++++++++++++++

Poor Conditions --- what very disappointing late afternoon sunset SW 
DX'ing attempt this late afternoon. Conditions are absolutely horrible 
with one of the worst DX sessions I have had, ever in this solar low. 
Last year this time it was much better. I actually wondered if I had 
my antenna connected, or the past days of high winds blew it down.

Anyway, I went over to medium wave broadcast band only to find 
another disaster. A number of frequencies had their audio BURIED 
down in IBOC hash. They are as follows at 2230 GMT: 650, 670, 690, 
720, 800, 820, 870, 100, 1020 KDKA, 1040, 1050, 1070, 1090, 1200 
kHz. 

The transmission on these nominal frequencies were emitting 90% or 
more IBOC hash with very little audio or NONE being heard. I did not 
listen any longer than about 3 seconds each. This was noted on the 
nominal frequency, not on the sides. Unbelievable.

During my days of DX'ing as a kid and teenager in the 70's and 80's, 
I guess just didn't know how good I had it. All time low here in the 
shack. However, Algeria, Morocco, Ireland, and France were decently 
heard on Longwave (Steve Price, Johnstown, PA, 400 foot "L" longwire, 
200 foot buried ground counterpoise, Dec 30, ODXA yg via DXLD)

Couldn't agree more. I've been a ham for 22 years and an SWL for 42 
and have never seen conditions this bad for this long. Last winter was 
pretty rotten but hey, you get that at solar minimum. What you usually 
don't get is a second winter even worse than the first! My evening CW 
traffic nets are like navigating through radio fog; signals appear and 
disappear at random and it's just no fun -- it's very different from 
ordinary fading. I enjoy listening to Russian Int'l Radio on 7125 in 
the evening (for the music; my Russian is pitiful), and the ol' 500-kW 
blowtorch was S7 on the TS570 tonight with noise. In happier times, I 
have to shut off the preamp. And on MW it's even worse, thanks to the 
scourge of IBOC. I have the Propfire utility on the monitor here, and 
every time you see SSN:0 you just want to scream. Maybe once a month 
the the sun burps and you think "at last, it's over." Then the solar 
flux dips below 70 again. Hopefully, 2009 will be better for us all. 
Happy New Year and 73 de (Anne Fanelli in Elma, NY, ibid.)

IBOC - I acquired a refurbished Accurian HD radio from Radio Shack - I 
was curious about IBOC even though I'm none to fond of the racket it 
generates. It works beautifully on FM IBOC with the local NPR outlet 
some ten air miles or so from my home. On AM it has been unable to 
decode any station using the RS passive AM loop I have hooked it up 
to. Of course, NH isn't exactly a hotbed of IBOC but I would have 
liked to have had a shot at the AM in Keene, under 26 miles from where 
I live. Once I get the LF inverted Vee back up I'll give it a shot on 
AM with that, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Thus far AM IBOC 
has proven to be nonexistent as a listening mode here (Lee Reynolds, 
Dec 29, IRCA via DXLD)

Re 8-133: The Beginning of the End of IBOC?
 
Glenn asked: ``What`s PPM encoding and why has this just been 
discovered? (gh)``

Without any context to be sure, I would bet it means "Personal People 
Meter". A ratings related technology that monitors what an individual 
listens to and replaces the old "diary" method. It has been 
controversial as many minorities claim it undercounts listeners in 
those demographics. PPM uses some identifying information in the 
broadcast signals.

As to Larry C.'s question: ``Any opinions as to whether an HD tuner 
would be worth getting for FM stations? I've seen HD tuners on sale on 
Amazon.com for less than $75, which is almost reasonable.``

That's a personal decision depending on your listening habits. If the 
improved audio quality is worth it to you and a local station uses HD 
to broadcast something you like, then perhaps it is (ignoring any 
distaste you may have for the side effects of the technology itself).

Go the HD radio web sites and survey what is available in your area 
then go from there (Rob de Santos, Columbus, OH USA, dxldyg via WORLD 
OF RADIO 1441, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Even so, when one market abandons IBOC, that is a cause for 
celebration. I just can't see IBOC for talk radio. I can see why an FM 
music station might want to try it, and I can see why an AM music 
station might be tempted to try IBOC too. But, it doesn't make sense 
on AM for so many reasons, including the poor coverage. 

The only good thing about IBOC on AM is that some AMers dabbling in it 
upgraded their sites to accommodate it and these very same upgrades 
would make CQUAM work nicely once the IBOC was turned off for good 
(Phil Rafuse, PEI, ABDX via DXLD)

But there's a point when you have to stop pouring good money down a 
drain, and I think stations are finally at that point with IBOC/HD.

All of the major radio conglomerates --- Clear Channel, CBS, Cumulus, 
you name it --- are hemorrhaging cash at an alarming rate with no 
prospects for improved results in the near future. Many are also 
facing large debt obligations which will have to be repaid or 
refinanced (good luck with either!!) in 2009. All must cut costs now, 
and one obvious place is to look at the licensing fees being paid to 
Ibiquity. They are finally asking the question, "Why are we spending 
so much just to reach that couple of hundred people in our market who 
own HD radios??"

I would love to know what Ibiquity's financials are like. Their 
investors have been the same radio conglomerates that are now 
struggling along with, ever worse, automakers like GM. Ibiquity was 
supposed to go public in 2004/05, but that didn't happen and I can't 
imagine how their investors could afford to put more money into the 
company even if they were so inclined. My fearless prediction is that 
Ibiquity will shut down in 2009 due to cash shortages.

IBOC/HD may have had a better chance if it had been an open, non-
proprietary standard, developed by someone like the NAB or IEEE, which 
didn't involve stiff licensing fees for stations or receiver 
manufacturers. Ibiquity's whole business model was premised on the 
assumption there was this huge, pent-up demand for "digital radio" and 
listeners would rapidly switch once "digital radio" was available. 
But, as Ibiquity discovered to their regret, most people are very
reluctant to pay a lot more for just a little better.

IBOC/HD may not be dead yet, but it's begun its death spasms. This 
week's dropping of IBOC/HD by various stations is the start of the 
administration of the last rites (Harry Helms W5HLH, Corpus Christi, 
TX EL17 http://harryhelmsblog.blogspot.com/ ABDX via DXLD

Re: turning off HD in DC article

Not to rain on anybody's parade here, but this article appears to be
jumping the gun a bit. I just checked a second ago and WJFK-FM has 
their HD back on, and while WWMJ-FM's HD is off, there are still 
strong, 100% quiet (on my F1HD) sidebands on 102.1 and 102.5. The 
latter has been this way for months; not knowing too much about the 
broadcast side of things, I'll assume that's a problem with the HD 
portion of the transmitter. I don't think I've ever actually decoded 
their HD transmission since I got the Sony last July.

I wouldn't be surprised, though, if WJFK just turned HD off 
altogether. Being so close to WWMX in Baltimore (106.5) they have 
problems even with analog in the eastern suburbs of DC, and being a 
talk station with no subchannels I always wondered what the point was, 
anyway.

Some of these stations' HD broadcasts have been switching on and off 
for a while now. I noticed WPRS a while ago, since 103.9 and 104.3 are 
now clearly audible (Frederick and Baltimore, MD, respectively). Maybe 
that one is done for good.

I'm not too sure what goes on in HD AM land here -- it always seemed 
as if WTNT and WMAL cut off HD at night, and last I checked there was 
still a lot of noise on 720. I suppose that is from WOR and not WXTR
(Claudio Leite, KB3RMJ | Washington, DC (FM18mv), WTFDA via DXLD)

D.C. 1500 - can't speak as to the daytime, but I spend a lot of time 
on third shift in a truck listening to AM radio as I drive in endless 
circles. 1500 out of D.C. comes in very nicely all night long - I 
particularly enjoy listening to the couple of hours of The Twilight 
Zone they put out on Sundays from 0000 to 0200 [EST = 0500-0700 UT] 
(Lee Reynolds, Dec 29, IRCA via DXLD)

CLASSICAL HD STATION IN PHILLY/HD QUERIES

USA: WNUW (97.5) in Philadelphia (aka Now 97.5), a soft-rock station 
competing with WBEB (101.1, known as B-101) for ratings, now has a 
classical format on its HD-2 channel.

We know that HD Radio is available as desktop units or in your car, 
but I wonder if we will soon see an HD radio that you can take with 
you (i.e. portable)?  That would be as cool as having to take an XM 
satellite receiver with you, something that came into being a few 
years ago.

Another thing I notice is that some stations have started a third HD 
channel -- an FM station in New York CIty has WCBS Newsradio 880 on 
its HD-3 channel, for instance.  

So, how about asking some public radio stations (such as WHYY-FM, 90.9 
in Philly) to provide us with a third HD channel, which could make it 
possible for us to hear music or something else on HD-2, and some BBC 
World Service and/or WRN content on HD-3?  That would be a good 
alternative for many who don't want to pay $13 a month on Sirius/XM--
and can provide us with a round-the-clock BBC channel that we can 
hear, not a part-of-the-day service, such as what WHYY provides only 
during the day on weekdays, with almost nothing on weekends (all they 
had, as I recall, was "The Ticket" on Saturday mornings).  This may 
require more donations from listeners, but it might be worth 
considering. [Later:] The 10am ET/1500 UT block on Saturday, on WHYY 
90.9 HD-2 in Philadelphia has BBCWS' "The Strand" entertainment 
program (ex-The Ticket). (Joe Hanlon, NJ, Jan 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Cramming another HD channel onto the signal means reducing the 
coverage of the main and other channels (Glenn Hauser, DXLD)

Re: DTV transition article on msn.com [could not find reference -gh]

The article was pretty good, but did not mention that many LP's will 
still be transmitting analog. Also, they mentioned a bill going 
through Congress that would require broadcasters to continue analog 
for an extra 30 days with only a message announcing the transition to 
DTV. This could be a real problem for stations that will be using the 
old analog channel assignments. I don't think our lawmakers understand 
what is about to happen on Feb 17 (Mike Glass, Indy, Dec 30, WTFDA via 
DXLD)
 
The bill you mention has passed both houses and been signed by the
President. 

It does NOT, however, *require* stations to participate. Participation
is voluntary. It also specifically excludes any station whose 
continued analog operation would interfere with anyone's post-
transition digital operation (for example, stations that are using 
their current analog assignments for their post-transition digital 
operations) It also excludes stations whose analog assignments are 
above channel 59 - whose continued operations would interfere with 
land-mobile operation in 60-69.*

Indeed, an attached list of facilities that are considered 
automatically eligible contained only 310 stations.

I wouldn't doubt the writer passed up the post-transition analog -LP
thing on purpose. If I'd written the article I probably would have. It
has to be horribly confusing to most "civilian" readers. 

* somewhat to my surprise it *doesn't* preclude post-transition analog
operation in 52-59. I suppose that spectrum hasn't been auctioned yet
(Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, ibid.)

See also CANADA: Post-transition low-band DTV channels

RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM
+++++++++++++++++++++

'SHHH! GADGET RACKET THREATENS PULSAR RESEARCH'

GREEN BANK, W.Va. (AP) — Of all the threats to scientific research
Wesley Sizemore has stymied over the years, satellites and cell phone
towers don't stick in his memory quite like the possessive old hound
and its treasured heating pad.

Sizemore is an interference hunter, vigilantly pursuing stray 
electromagnetic signals that bedevil researchers at the National Radio 
Astronomy Observatory, which sits on 13,000 square miles tucked away 
in the nation's only radio-free quiet zone. Radio observatories need 
interference-free zones like optical observatories need clear night 
skies.

Though buffered by ridgetops in a West Virginia mountain valley, 50 
miles from the nearest town of any size, the Green Bank observatory is 
under an audio [sic] assault unlike any it's faced in the 50 years 
since Congress created the quiet zone. Wireless computers and other 
gadgets are cluttering the same frequencies occupied by signals from 
neutron stars. . .  The rest of the story at: 
<http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jEo8vtopItcRg9keMQCAwJA7FOGAD95DM2880>
(via Mark Schiefelbein, MO, dxldyg; and via Kim Andrew Elliott, DXLD)

ULTRALIGHTS

When an "ultralight" is mentioned -- are you fellers DXing while 
piloting a lightweight aircraft? I'm thinking that's not the case and 
maybe you're talking about a model of radio. Thanks, (Ron Gitschier, 
Palm Coast, FL, WYHI 1570, Serving you with Broadcast RF Signals from 
2005 - Present in Flagler County, Jan 1, ABDX via DXLD) who has been 
out of touch for a while

Ron,  An ultralight is a new class of radio. It`s like a Sony ICF-MK10 
or M37, a Sangean DT200V or DT400W, its a little tiny radio like the 
CCRadio SWP or Radio Shack DX399. It has to fit in a pocket to be an 
ultralight (Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD)

But, as I understand it, they take these pocket radios and "hop" them 
up with custom filters, an external loop stick the length of Rhode 
Island, and other enhancements, the end result being they are as DX 
capable as any tabletop receiver. (Not that there is anything wrong 
with that). It's like having a speed contest with golf carts, but you 
can drop in a Ford V-8 if you want :) (Chris Black, Cape Cod, ibid.)

PROPAGATION
+++++++++++

SPORADIC E REACHES 175 MHZ IN AUSTRALIA

175.25 MHz - Rare Band III Es noted here in Bombala NSW from MVQ-6 
Mackay QLD (creating heavy deep sounding beat bars against WIN-6 from 
Bega, some 80 km away). Signal lasted around 5 minutes. 

This came on a day where Es had been very intense most of the day and 
2-Es had been noted from both East - West directions - from American 
Samoa to Bunbury WA. 30 December 2008 around 13:30 AEDST [0230 UT] 
(Geoff Wolfe - Bombala NSW Australia - Icom PCR-1500 - FM Broadcast 
dipole used for band 1 & 3 DXing, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

Very good - what is the distance to MVQ-6? That video frequency 
happens to correspond to American channel 7 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

Hi Glen[n],
Bombala - Mackay = 1751 km
Bombala - Bunbury = 3064 km
Bombala - American Samoa = 4670 km
(Geoff Wolfe, Bombala NSW, ibid.)

GEOMAGNETIC SUMMARY NOVEMBER 26 2008 THROUGH DECEMBER 30 2008
Tabulated from email status daily.

  Flux A K Space Wx

November
26 68 12 2 no storms
27 68 11 2 no storms
28 68  7 2 no storms
29 67  5 2 no storms
30 68  2 1 no storms

December
 1 68  1 0 no storms
 2 68  0 0 no storms
 3 69  0 0 no storms
 4 69  5 1 no storms
 5 70  7 1 no storms
 6 69 13 3 no storms
 7 69 20 1 no storms
 8 69  7 1 no storms
 9 69  2 0 no storms
10 69  0 0 no storms
11 71  2 1 no storms
12 70  4 1 no storms
13  x  x x x
14 70  1 0 no storms
15 69  0 0 no storms
16 69  1 1 no storms
17 69  4 2 no storms
18 69  5 1 no storms
19 68  1 1 no storms
20 69  4 1 no storms
21 69  2 0 no storms
22 69  2 1 no storms
23 68  4 2 no storms
24 69  7 2 no storms
25 69  8 1 no storms
26 69  3 1 no storms
27 x   x x x
28 x   x x x
29 70  1 1 no storms
30 70  0 0 no storms
(via Phil Bytheway, IRCA DX Monitor Jan 3 via DXLD)

Geomagnetic field activity was at mostly quiet levels at all latitudes 
on 22-25 December. Isolated unsettled activity was observed during 
this period, with a single active period observed at high latitudes 
late on 23 December. This activity was due to a co-rotating 
interaction region, followed by a recurrent coronal hole high-speed 
stream. The geomagnetic field returned to quiet levels at all 
latitudes on 26 - 28 December. ACE solar wind measurements began the 
period with a speed of 299 km/s, reached a high of 578 km/s at 23/1419 
UTC, and ended the summary period at 312 km/s. The Bz component of the 
IMF ranged between a low of -10 nT (22/1545 UTC) and a high of +9.8 nT 
(22/1626Z). 

FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 31 DEC 2008 - 26 JAN 2009 

Solar activity is expected to be at very low levels. No proton events 
are expected at geosynchronous orbit. The greater than 2 MeV electron 
flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to reach high levels during 
02 - 06 January. Normal levels are expected 31 December - 01 January 
and again on 07 - 26 January. Geomagnetic field activity is expected 
to be at quiet to unsettled levels during 31 December - 03 January due 
to a recurrent coronal hole high speed stream (CH HSS). Activity is 
expected to decrease to quiet levels during 04 - 17 January. Activity 
is expected to increase to unsettled levels during 18 - 19 January due 
to a CH HSS. Activity is expected to decrease to quiet levels during 
20 - 26 January. 

:Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt
:Issued: 2008 Dec 30 2152 UTC
# Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction 
Center
# Product description and SWPC contact on the Web
# http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wwire.html
#
#      27-day Space Weather Outlook Table
#                Issued 2008 Dec 30
#
#   UTC      Radio Flux   Planetary   Largest
#  Date       10.7 cm      A Index    Kp Index
2008 Dec 31      70           8          3
2009 Jan 01      70          10          3
2009 Jan 02      70          12          3
2009 Jan 03      70           8          3
2009 Jan 04      70           5          2
2009 Jan 05      70           5          2
2009 Jan 06      70           5          2
2009 Jan 07      70           5          2
2009 Jan 08      70           5          2
2009 Jan 09      70           5          2
2009 Jan 10      70           5          2
2009 Jan 11      70           5          2
2009 Jan 12      70           5          2
2009 Jan 13      70           5          2
2009 Jan 14      70           5          2
2009 Jan 15      70           5          2
2009 Jan 16      70           5          2
2009 Jan 17      70           5          2
2009 Jan 18      70           8          3
2009 Jan 19      70           8          3
2009 Jan 20      70           5          2
2009 Jan 21      70           5          2
2009 Jan 22      70           5          2
2009 Jan 23      70           5          2
2009 Jan 24      70           5          2
2009 Jan 25      70           5          2
2009 Jan 26      70           5          2
(SWPC via WORLD OF RADIO 1441, DXLD) 

May I take this time to wish everyone on the list a Happy New Year. It 
promises to be quite a bit different as far as TV & FM DXing is 
concerned and, no doubt, present new obstacles for all. I expect that 
FM DXing will now be more difficult due to the lack of low band TV Es 
openings, which usually leads to the FM band opening. Anyway, HAPPY 
NEW YEAR!! (John Ebeling, Bloomington, MN, WTFDA via DXLD)

?? One could take this to imply that without loband TV stations, the 
Es opening may not reach FM! I am sure he only meant there would not 
be TV stations to tip off that the MUF is rising (gh, DXLD) ###