DX LISTENING DIGEST 9-030, April 5, 2009 Incorporating REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING edited by Glenn Hauser, http://www.worldofradio.com Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only if full credit be maintained at all stages and we be provided exchange copies. DXLD may not be reposted in its entirety without permission. Materials taken from Arctic or originating from Olle Alm and not having a commercial copyright are exempt from all restrictions of noncommercial, noncopyrighted reusage except for full credits For restrixions and searchable 2009 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1454 Thu 0530 WRMI 9955 Thu 1900 WBCQ 7415 Fri 0000 WBCQ 5110-CUSB Area 51 Fri 0100 WRMI 9955 Fri 1130 WRMI 9955 Fri 1900 WBCQ 7415 Fri 1930 IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS/IBA 7290 Fri 2030 WWCR1 15825 [or 2029] Sat 0800 WRMI 9955 Sat 0800 IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS/IBA 9510 [except first Sat] Sat 1630 WWCR3 12160 Sun 0230 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0630 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0800 WRMI 9955 Sun 1515 WRMI 9955 Mon 0500 WRMI 9955 Mon 2200 WBCQ 7415 Tue 1100 WRMI 9955 Tue 1530 WRMI 9955 Tue 1900 WBCQ 7415 Wed 0500 WRMI 9955 [or new 1455] Wed 1530 WRMI 9955 [or new 1455] Wed 1900 WBCQ 7415 [or new 1455] 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 or http://schedule.worldofradio.org or http://sked.worldofradio.org 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://podcast.worldofradio.org or http://www.wrn.org/listeners/stations/podcast.php OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO: http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org ** ABKHAZIA. 9494.73, Abkhaz Radio, Sukhum, stronger than usual today S=7 at 0525 UT, but that sudden frequency hop to 9495.51 at 0635 UT, which always puzzles me (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AFGHANISTAN. FORMER BBG CHAIRMAN WANTED ADDITIONAL AM STATION IN AFGHANISTAN Kenneth Tomlinson, Chairman of the US Broadcasting Board of Governors from 2002-2007, says that in 2005 he tried to get funding to install an AM facility near the eastern Afghanistan city of Khost and line-of- sight FM transmitters on mountain peaks that could reach people throughout the region. Separate news and programming would have been focused on the interests of the Pashtuns who dominate the region. The decision came about from a trip to the country with Illinois congressman Mark Kirk who, according to Mr Tomlinson, has “an encyclopedic knowledge of Afghanistan and of broadcasting there.” Mr Kirk told him that “You are broadcasting there on shortwave - but that’s no longer the primary medium of the region. I was up [in the Northwest Frontier Province] late last year, and I got out of my vehicle and went from car to car, truck to truck. Everyone was listening to a radio - AM or FM radio.” Read Kenneth Tomlinson’s article in the Weekly Standard http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/363dzfuf.asp Official inspection report of BBG broadcasts in and to Afghanistan (2006) (PDF) http://oig.state.gov/documents/organization/104128.pdf (April 4th, 2009 - 10:17 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) 1 comment so far 1 Kai Ludwig April 4th, 2009 - 13:12 UTC 621 kHz, 200 kW. So is this project dead now? However, the “separate news and programming [...] focused on the interests of the Pashtuns who dominate the region” indeed exists now, although on shortwave and maybe some local FM transmitters only. That’s the VOA-produced Deewa Radio, launched in September 2006: http://www.voanews.com/english/About/2006-09-29-deewa.cfm (ibid.) ** ALASKA. By 1502 April 4, not much from Asia was left on 40m, but on 7355, fair signal, praise music, 1506 YL ID in Russian as KNLS, IS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. R. Tirana, English at 2005 UT April 1 on 13640. Good signal, some deep fades, peaking S9+18, discussing joining NATO. Fairly good modulation level for no strain listening even with computer noise. Not audible on // 7465 for Europe. R. Tirana, 13640 to NAm, April 2 at 1848 good signal, fair modulation but lacking in highs, news about topic A - joining NATO (are they sure about that?), 1853 Focus on Albania feature about lakes, including the largest one in the Balkans, over already at 1856 goodbye, a bit of music to 1857* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See USA: WHR ** ALBANIA [and non]. Radio Tirana on 6030 confirmed tonight after 2100, carrier at good strength but very low and distorted audio, as if the faulty distribution amplifiers is about to break down completely now. There was also some splash from superpower Grigoriopol with RNW Dutch on 6040. At the same time another, not // Dutch programme from RNW was on 5970, via Issoudun to western Africa, overriding co-channel Ukraine almost completely. Is such a frequency selection really necessary? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, April 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) R. Tirana, 9344.98 at 2303 to NAm in Albanian. Fair. // 7424.99 poor. 3 April (Liz Cameron/Michigan, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALGERIA [non]. FRANCIA, 7495, Radio Algeriene, Issoudun, 2114-2116, escuchada el 1 de abril con canto del Cor`án, emisión en paralelo por 5875, SINPO 45544 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5865, TDA Algiers Arabic program via Issoudun site at 0400-0600, and 7295 kHz at 0500-0700 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA. Re 9-028: RN Arcángel, LRA36, 15476 kHz, 1935 UT 31-3 - -- Dear Glenn, inside the e-mail recording from yesterday (see above) of 1minute and 10 seconds, full ID by male. LRA36 are good the past 14 days, but not always on the air, and sometimes troubles with the transmission and audio. Antenna is the Marconi, receiver the Perseus SDR Greetings from Belgium (Maurits Van Driessche, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So had been on since mid-March, altho I had not seen any reports of it; tried April 1 and 2 but no signal here vs the local noise level which has risen lately (Glenn Hauser, OK, ibid.) ANTARTIDA, 15476, LRA 36 Radio Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel, Base Esperanza, 1955-2023, 03-04, canciones latinoamericanas, canción "Si se calla el cantor" de Horacio Guaraní. A las 2002 identificación por locutora: "Transmite LRA 36 Radio Arcángel San Gabriel, en la frecuencia de 15476 kHz, banda de 31 metros, desde Base Esperanza, Antártida Argentina". Comentarios y más canciones, "Canción del Mariachi" de Antonio Banderas. A las 2020 nueva identificación: "De Esperanza al mundo". 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Antena de cable, 8 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio Nacional Antartica [sic] --- I see this station is appearing on logs these days on 15476. Any advice on a set-up to hear this contact? Do I need to break out the 300 ft wire? What is the power output of the transmitter? Any thoughts or advice appreciated. Is this the only regular SW transmitter on Antartic? Thanks, (Mike Rohde, April 3, NASWA yg via DXLD) Mike, 15476 kHz, LRA36, Radio Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel at the Argentine military establishment, Base Esperanza in Antarctica is, as you may imagine, a really tough station to log, particularly in the midwest. Jerry Strawman in Iowa reported it with weak signals at 2005 on March 27. Thank to Jerry's email, I tuned in shortly after and heard what likely was the same station, just popping above the noise floor on signal peaks, but it was soon gone. Years ago, they were easier to hear here and were pretty good about verifying. The other station on Antarctica, at McMurdo was even a tougher log, but has been long gone. It probably is a matter of tuning on the right day, when conditions are optimal, rather than having a 300 ft. antenna. Tune every day around 1900 to 2000 or so and maybe with luck (Don Jensen, Kenosha WI, ibid.) Don and Mike, Mc Murdo was on 6008 kHz or close. At first Radio Nacional Arcangel San Gabriel was also on 49 meters with a second frequency. Does anyone remember this? 73s (Bob Wilkner, FL, ibid.) I remember the fact, though not the frequency. By the way, I think Mike asked about the power of LRA36. I think Passport says 2/10 kW, and I'd guess it is a lot closer to 2 than 10 (Don Jensen, ibid.) Hi Mike, I suggest you try a half-wave dipole for 19 meters first. I've heard several low powered Europirates on 15 MHz with such an antenna, including a 100 milliwatt test from Radio Black Arrow in the Netherlands. On my 43 meter dipole, these stations were barely audible. Back in 1999, a special late evening transmission of LRA36 was arranged for DXers, and it was widely heard. If you have Real Audio installed on your computer, you can hear my reception here: http://home.att.net/~curious.george/files/LRA36-2-20-99.ram And this is what the 100 mW Black Arrow sounded like on the 19 meter half-wave dipole: http://home.att.net/~piratedx/audio/RadioBlackArrow-QRPtest-100mw.mp3 73 (George Maroti, ibid.) Don, 6030 sticks in my mind. It may be on their original QSL cards from long ago (Bob Wilkner, ibid.) Found my copy of the 1987 edition of "Radio Database International" (predecessor of "Passport to World Band Radio"). It shows Radio Nacional-LRA36, Base Esperanza, on 6029 kHz with a power of 1.5 kW and 15473.7 also with 1.5 kW. AFAN McMurdo is listed at 6012 kHz with 1 kW (Bob Coomler, Cloverdale, CA, ibid.) LRA36 was first listed in the 1981 WRTH on 6030 with 1.2 kw, future plans were two other outlets of 1.5 kw, same entry in the 1982 Handbook. In the 1983 Handbook LRA36 is listed with three frequencies, 6030 11955 and 15476, all 1 kW. In the 1984 Handbook just 6030 and 15474 are listed, note the change in the 15 MHz channel. Same listing in 1985. 1986 and 1987 Handbooks just list 15474 (Mike Barraclough, England, ibid.) Thanks, to everyone for the great responses and, George, nice recording. I know this station will be a challenge but then that is why we are in the hobby isn't it. Think I will try a tuned dipole and see how that works. Of course my largest logistical issue is that I work during the day. I'll monitor the conditions and when they seem favorable I take a day or two of vacation. Best to everyone, Thanks, (Mike Rohde, ibid.) ** ARMENIA. 4810, Voice of Armenia, Yerevan-Gavar, 1823-1827, escuchada el 3 de abril, probablemente en armenio con emisión de música folklórica local, cánticos con coros acompañados por intrumento de percusión, SINPO 24432 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also KOREA NORTH [non] ** AUSTRALIA [and non]. I continue to be amazed by the VL8 stations making it thru on 120m even when not much else is happening trans- Pacifically on 105, 90, 75 or 60 meters. April 1 at 1246, 2485 was peaking at S9+10 as they were talking about the new Israeli PM; much stronger than 2325, barely audible modulation, and 2310 only a carrier. Only signal audible on 90m, with music, was 3385, which would be RENB Rabaul, PNG, at 1249. Today`s sunrise in Enid was 1217 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1454, DX LISTENING DIGEST) log same time: 2485, VL8K Katherine NT, 1240-1301+ Apr 1. Man chatting; program note at 1245 for something on "105.7 FM in Darwin;" a long interview followed, continuing past ToH; economy was the subject. VG signal, best in a long while (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. 15400, HCJB Kununurra, 1204-1220, March 31, English. "Spotlight" program in slo-English re elephants; program ID & URL at 1213; "HCJB Global Voice... Queensland, Australia.." ID at 1219 followed by presumed language lesson in English & Mandarin; poor-fair. Been a long time since I last logged this one (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, NH-USA, NRD-545, RX-350D, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Qsld? I thought they operated out of Melbourne, or rather Kilsyth, Vic.; transmitter in WA. Slogan is V. of the Great Southland, maybe what you heard? (gh, DXLD) ** AUSTRIA. R 9-028: Perhaps they did not mention that ORF management maintains its plans to get rid of shortwave, as reported at http://apa.cms.apa.at/cms/content/news_detail.html?rangeCount=0&doc=CMS1237562229589 But devil is in the details here. It's not as simple as terminating a transmission contract (Kai Ludwig, Germany, April 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELARUS. Maintenance day or budget problems? Maybe Belarus Radio is OFF shortwave relay of national radio programmes BR1 and BR2 totally, due of budget problem, as of April 1st. When checked 7135 BR1 Mahiljou Mogilev this morning in new ham radio band, nothing heard so far. Was on air yesterday March 31. Scheduled for 7235 in A-09, in A-08 was on 7145 kHz. Also 6010, 6040, 6070, 6080, 6115, 7265 und 7280 kHz BR channels were silent this morning, when checked between 0700 and 0900 UT. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I'm afraid Wolfgang is right; Only the External service is heard on SW today. If local SW in Belarus is gone for good, that would mean the end of the most exotic SW service in Europe. Both stations, the First Channel and Culture Radio Channel, provided an excellent public service to Slavic speakers in the region. For now LW 279 kHz is still an option for First Channel + 1170 in the mornings. Culture Radio Channel has good AM stations. The First channel presumably maintains powerful SW relays towards Russia. Hopefully Belarus-based DXers can find out what's going on (Sergei S., Moscow, ibid.) Not all the frequencies are off! For example, now I here BR-1 on 11930 kHz and yesterday I heard them on 7255 kHz (not R. Belarus, but exactly BR-1, somewhere about 1615 UT). 73! (Alexey Zinevich: a DXer from Minsk, Belarus, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thanks, Alexey! I guess I didn't word myself well. I meant to say that at the daytime (from UT noon) only R. Belarus was heard on SW. As I mentioned in my email, I presumed that BR-1 was still maintaining its powerful SW relays towards Russia. Obviously from DXers' point those two broadcasts aren't as much fun as exotic low-power channels. What I like about the evening transmission though is that it contains relays of the regional stations from 15.05- 16.00 Mon.-Sat. (Minsk - R.Stolitsa, Vitebsk, Mogilyev, Brest, Grondo and Gomel). I understand those regional relays aren't carried on national BR-1 (279 kHz). Right? 73, (Sergei S. ibid.) This is the schedule of the powerful BR SW relay: 6080 0300 2104 29SE,39NE MNS 150 130 7210 1100 2300 27 MNS 75 270 7255 1500 1700 37N MNS 250 255 7255 1705 2300 29 MNS 250 75 7390 1100 2300 27,28 MNS 150 250 11930 0400 0700 28 MNS 250 75 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Subject: Re: Low-Power SW Belarus off? At 1250 check I found 7210 and 7390 on. No trace of any signals on 6080 and 6115. So it remains to be figured out in detail what they are still using, besides the 250 kW transmitter that obviously continues without changes (other than the seasonal frequency changes). Some notes on their shortwave equipment: The 250 kW transmitter is quite new, perhaps the same Vyuga model than installed at Rimavská Sobota. 6115 (now off?) and 7210 are each blocks of 15 pieces of 5 kW transmitters that were until 1988 used for, well, purposes opposite to program distribution. 7390 should be an elder transmitter, a more or less unique design (no series model) rated at 150 kW that had been shut down around the early nineties but reactivated a couple of years ago. Other frequencies, if on air at all, would be old 100 kW transmitters (two ones could exist there). (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) And check out the programming on 7210 // 7390: It's not BR1 they carry at present, instead before 1400 there was a closing announcement for Radiostantsiya Belarus, Belarusskaya Sluzhba, and the new hour opened with what I think what as mention of this hour being in Russian. So is BR1 still relayed on shortwave at all? (Kai Ludwig, ibid.) Thanks, Kai, this is helpful. Personally, I was always skeptical of those old or "unique design" transmitters being real 100 or 150-kW rigs. I guess their antennas weren't so great, either. Any ideas if they were omni-directional or what? (Sergei S., ibid.) Kai, it's been already confirmed that BR-1 is on. 11930 0400-0700 28 MNS 250 75 7255 1500-1700 37N MNS 250 255 The first hour on 7255 is usually devoted to relays of regional broadcasters Mon. thru Sat., right after BR-1 news bulletin. Both 7210 and 7390 are R.Belarus' frequencies. Curiously, the External service doesn't have an access to Belarus' best 250-kW transmitter, as it's used only for relaying BR-1 towards Russia. (Sergei S., Russia, April 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Actually only these are BR relays: > 6080 0300 2104 29SE,39NE MNS 150 130 > 7255 1500 1700 37N MNS 250 255 > 11930 0400 0700 28 MNS 250 75 but even this doesn't seem to be correct any more: the 6080 kHz relay seems to have been dropped. 73, MR (Mauno Ritola, Finland, April 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) On reading the mails concerning BLR - I could not detect any of the low power units today (April 2), nor the bigger one on 6115. 6080 is permanently obliterated here in DRM racket. But 11930 was on until 0700 UT and with a very good signal today - this x 7170 since Sunday. Now at 1510 UT I hear a good signal on 7210 with slight sidebands, but 7390 is not quite as good, and with muffled low audio. I hesitate to identify what the language is - other than "sounds like Russian". BTW - where were the low power (and two higher power on 6080 and 6115) meant to serve? I would find it difficult to believe that the locals would tune to SW when there was an FM outlet available. But perhaps that wasn't what they were for. So where is Ukraine operating at 1300-1700 - it's RNW on 7530 as reported. There's nothing on 7490 or 5840 that I can hear. The signal audible on 7520 is poor here, but I think it's VOA at 1500+. 73 (Noel R. Green (NW England), ibid.) 2 April at 1545 BR 6080 and 6115 seem to be on // 279 (Jari Savolainen, Finland, ibid.) Right, I can also hear both now, although no sign of them a couple of hours earlier. Let's see if others return (Mauno Ritola, 1617 UT April 2, ibid.) ID seems to be Radio Stalica, or are these just promos (Jari Savolainen, Finland, 1624 UT, ibid.) It's Russian indeed. The language scheme for Radio Belarus is as follows: 1100-1400 Belarusian (with Russian segments) 1400-1600 Russian 1600-1800 Polish 1800-2000 German 2000-2200 English 2200-2300 Russian By this hour (1600 UT) all three frequencies from Belarus (including 7255 carrying home service relay) have become inaudible in Moscow due to overskipping and QRM. BR is heard on 279 & 1170 kHz, the latter heavy QRMing with V.of Russia in Turkish via Tbilisskaya. I guess they were intended mainly for Belarusians living in or visiting neighboring countries. -- 73! (Serghey Nikishin, Moscow, Russia, ibid.) And thanks Serghey for this, and the sched of 7210 / 7390. I can also hear 6115, and I think I can also hear traces of 6080 in the racket. 7255 is badly affected by DRM spreading 7250 - 7273. 73 (Noel Green, 1701 Ut, ibid.) At 1710 6010 seems to be on, faulty transmitter with occasionally distorted audio. Also 6070 is on, but mainly with carrier, only faint audio at times. And at 1738 also 6040 audible. All these back, it seems (Jari Savolainen, Finland, April 2, ibid.) Great news, Jari! I'll try to monitor those tomorrow (Sergei S., ibid.) Just before 1800 UT I heard all of their 49 mb outlets except Mahiliou on 6190, but the latter maybe skipping over me. The best was Brest on 6070, although low-modulated. On 6190 DLF is heard with Xinjiang PBS on the background. 73! (Serghey Nikishin, Moscow, ibid.) 6190 was also on the air around 1800 (Jari Savolainen, ibid.) Right now (checked out around 2020) 7255 carries Radio Belarus in English, // 7210, 7390 and also 1170. However, the signal is remarkably weak here in eastern Germany, making me wonder if they left the transmitter on the Moscow-aiming antenna. There is rather bad co- channel interference as well, probably from China. You asked about the antennas: I vaguely recall that at some point in the nineties a modification of the antenna used on 7210 had been reported. In the past Radio Minsk foreign service relied to a big part on relays from elsewhere in the USSR anyway, including mediumwave from Bolshakovo (usually 1215, I have a vague reference to 1143, too) and shortwave to North America via Tbilisskaya, in one transmission block with Radio Vilnius. Relays via the Ukraine remained until about ten years ago, and when they ceased the editors of the German service said that the charges for both the airtime and the audio circuits were out of all proportions to the rather mediocre signal quality in Central Europe, thus Radio Minsk decided to pull the plug here (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) Belarus Radio domestic relays via the 9 low powers are OFF AGAIN on April 3rd at 0500-0800 UT. Only high power 11930 kHz noted as registered, but due of VERY LOUSY condition very poor this morning, April 3rd. Weak 4-7 UT today. (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) That's right, they were off. Belarus is apparently running a truncated schedule from April 1, and it seems to be an energy-saving measure. I checked these outlets today as around 1450 UT, and there was open carrier on 6080 & 6115 while Brest on 6010 & 6070 was already on with BR-1, as well as Hrodna on 7265 with BR-2 (Kanal Kultura, heavily QRMed)... At approx. 1458 UTC on 6080 & 6115 there was a program announcement for BR-1, and from 1500 there was Radyjo Stalica (Capital Radio) from Minsk while Brest on 6010 & 6070 had begun to carry its local programme as usual... (Hrodna and Mahiliou weren't heard...) At 1500 By (Sergej Nikishin, Moscow, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7135: I think it's an obvious error and they'll switch Mahiliou transmitter to scheduled 7235 very soon - 73! (Serghey Nikishin, Moscow, ibid.) 3 Apr 1515 on 7135 again strong Belarus sounding station (Jari Savolainen, Finland, ibid.) Radio Belarus only high power 11930 kHz noted as registered, but due of VERY LOUSY condition very poor this morning, April 3rd. Weak 4-7 UT today (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Belaruskaje Radyjo in the new A09 season Translated literally: --- In open_dx@yahoogroups.com, "Sergey V. Alekseychik" wrote: hello everybody _____________________ 11.00-23.00 Radyjostancija Belarus 7390 kHz (75 kW) 7210 kHz (150 kW) ____________________ Belaruskaje radyjo-1 15.00-21.00 6080 kHz (150 kW) 6115 kHz (75 kW) 7255 kHz (250 kW) (this transmitter works until 23.00) _____________________ Kanal Kultura 15.00-21.00 1125 kHz (150 kW) Sergey Alekseychik, Hrodna, Republic of Belarus 73! (via Serghey Nikishin, Moscow, Russian Federation, dxldyg via DXLD) UT? Thanks, Serghey, this is helpful. Clearly, the schedule is incomplete, as it omits a morning 250-kW transmission on 11930, as well as those on 1170 and 279. I believe BR-1 uses 7255 from 16 to 18 UT. It's unfortunate that BR-1 gave up on its daytime SW relays. They provided the best reception in the neighboring areas. Those at night are of less value due to QRM (Sergei S, Moscow, ibid.) I heard 7255 opening at 1500 UT on Friday. Unfortunately I missed hearing what the ID was but it wasn't parallel 7390 & 7210. Yes, 11930 is active until 0700, but 1170 is impossible at my location due co- channel, and 279 hadn't faded in at 1500. 73 (Noel R. Green, UK, ibid.) On Friday you should have heard a relay of Hrodna regional programme there (btw, R. Hrodna verifies reception, but I don't remember the address where reports should be sent to). On weekdays the hour 1500- 1600 on 1170 & 7255 kHz is devoted to relaying regional programmes while each regional station carries its own programme. This concerns SW, too: between 1500 & 1600 on 6080 & 6115 you'll hear R. Stalica (Capital Radio) from Minsk, on 6010 & 6070 - R. Brest, on 6040 & 7280 - R. Hrodna, on 6190 & 7135 - R.Mahiliou˘. (That's if these SW relays won't be switched off altogether what is highly possible). -- 73! (Serghey Nikishin, Moscow, ibid.) BIELORRUSIA, 7210, Radio Belarus, Minsk-Kalodzicy, 2030-2034, escuchada el 4 de abril en inglés a locutor con comentarios, música de sintonía, locutora con ID, anuncia frecuencias, SINPO 44433. 7255, Radio Belarus, Minsk-Kalodzicy, 2040-2043, escuchada el 4 de abril en inglés, locutora con ID, se aprecia en colisión con emisora emitiendo música, intuyo sea el servicio en ruso de China Radio Int, emitiendo en la misma frecuencia, SINPO 43443. 7390, Radio Belarus, Minsk-Kalodzicy, 2100-2103, escuchada el 4 de abril en inglés, música de sintonía, locutor con presentación, ID, boletín de noticias, SINPO 34443 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Today between 1600 and 1700 BR1 was on 6010, 6040, 6080, 6115, 7135 and 7255. No trace of them on 7110 and 7265. 6070 and 6190 need more checks, but are probably no longer in use, too. I checked out what happens with 7255 at 1700: On the hour sharp the audio input has been switched from BR1 to Radio Belarus. Three seconds or so later the carrier went off and returned about a dozen Decibels stronger at 1701 without audio, then off again after about 40 seconds, then definitely back on at 1702, followed by modulation after about ten seconds. So obviously they switch at 1700 antennas from one aiming at Moscow to another one aiming at Central Europe. Herewith the current frequency schedule of Radio Belarus could be 1100-2300 on 7210 (15 x 5 kW block) and 7390 (150 kW tx with shallow modulation), 1700-2300 also on 7255 (250 kW tx, beam West), 1900-2300 also on 1170 (Kai Ludwig, April 4, ibid.) Thanks Kai, your observations are very valuable. 6070 (Brest) is on, and 7110 (Hrodna) has been replaced by 7280. I also heard 7265 (Hrodna 2.5 kW) with BR-2 "Kanal Kultura" on April 3, but the signal was very weak. I presume the schedule given applies only to Kalodzischy transmitting centre near Minsk, and the schedule is incomplete, but the trend it shows is apparent: from April 1 all SW relays of BR-1 (except those on 11930 & 7255) are run 1500-2100, as well as MW & SW frequencies of BR- 2 "Kanal Kultura". (In practice Brest with 6010 & 6070 switches on a bit earlier than 1500). Regards, (Serghey Nikishin, Moscow, Russia, ibid.) ``I also heard 7265 (Hrodna 2.5 kW) with BR-2 "Kanal Kultura" on April 3, but the signal was very weak.`` Here in eastern Germany it often caused a very fast SAH to co-channel Rohrdorf that was not very frequency-stable. At times even its modulation cut through. But I think I have recently not heard it anymore, although the frequency is clear now, and yesterday I could not even find any traces of the carrier. Perhaps some changes have been made to the installations? (Kai Ludwig, April 5, ibid.) 7255, Radio Belarus, 2000-2100, April 4, English news. Local music. IDs. Fair level but muffled audio difficult to understand. Announcement at 2056 giving address, e-mail address & website. Covered by Nigeria 7255 at their 2100 sign on. Much weaker on // 7390, 7210 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELGIUM [and non]. 13685, Tentatively VRT Brussels towards Belgium and Dutch national pensionists in southwestern Europe and Canary Islands back on SW relay Moscow at 0600-0700 UT with morning bulletin. But fluttery weak signal today. So, still a puzzle. Maybe signal will increase later this summer season (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) MW 927 Wolvertem-BEL / 13685 VRT Brussels in Dutch --- BELGIUM / RUSSIA / UK. 13685 VRT Brussels program \\ to MW 927 kHz same VRT program in Dutch approx. 2.5 seconds later via Moscow relay on 13685 kHz 1700-1800 UT. Poor signal on 22 mb in spring early April, but will be stronger in coming months. Towards holidaymaker and pensionists around the Mediterranean coast and Canary Islands. This April 3rd morning via Moscow 13685 also at 0600-0700 UT, tiny signal in Germany. Also scheduled at daytime via VTC facilities at Skelton or Rampisham in U.K. 13675 or 13685 at 1000-1100 and 1400-1500 UT. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BHUTAN. 6035, BBS, 1342-1425, April 5. Assume in scheduled Dzongkha with live phone calls; played some pop songs; gave out phone number to call in to the show; after 1400 adjacent QRM; into what seemed to be English; 10 minute talk before the start of the news with the usual BBS musical bridges between items; back to phone calls and pop songs in English. Today had just the one male announcer doing all the calls and reading the news. Best reception before 1400 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BIAFRA [non]. Radio Biafra - 12050 kHz --- Station IDing as Radio Biafra heard on 12050 kHz from 1900 to 1955 UT today (31 March) in English. Several clear IDs as "Radio Biafra, Enugu" or "Radio Biafra, broadcasting live from Enugu, our capital city". Signed off at 1955 and said they will be back tomorrow "at 8 pm Biafra time" [i.e. 1900 UT] On Sunday I heard something African-sounding on 12050 kHz around 1950 UT which I thought was in vernaculars rather than English. Though reception was very poor, it was probably the same station. I expect 12050 is a relay, possibly via a UK site? Not sure if there is any connection with the Radio Biafra / Voice of Biafra which is relayed weekly via WHRI (Dave Kenny, Caversham, UK, AOR7030+ 25m long wire, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) In VTC list: 12050 1900-2000 smtwtfs VTC Skelton 300 160 English W AF HR 4/2/0.3 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Via Skelton, United Kingdom, 12050, Radio Biafra, 1900-1959:30*, April 4, English programming with discussions about struggles in Biafra & corruption in Nigeria. IDs. Some local African music. Several announcements as “This is Radio Biafra, coming to you live from London.” Fair to good signal. Thanks to tips from Dave Kenny and Glenn Hauser (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BIAFRA [non]. Checked the WHR website for latest scheduling of V. of Biafra International, April 3 and it shows a change: Angel 1 at 2100-2200 Friday on new 11885. Just in case the time changed again, I also looked for it at 2000 on 11885, previous frequency 15665, or 17650 as in another schedule, but nothing. Standing by on 11885, on it popped at *2100 with standard WHRI sign-on giving this frequency, then to VOBI program, with two IDs as ``The Voice of Biafra International broadcast, coming to you from Washington, DC, with matters of interest to Biafra``. Then played instrumental version of ``Finlandia``, which I always find incongruous, but I expect the Biafrans do not think of Finland when they hear it. Then to soprano performing ``All Hail Biafra``, which among the lyrix claims to be the ``land of the rising sun``, more incongruity, but I am sure the Biafrans do not think of Japan when they hear it. This took until 2107, another ID, and another speaker with ``Let Us Pray``. This is all in English but the prayer is more heavily accented. He goes on and on for 5 minutes about how this is ``the year to claim our freedom. . . after wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.`` Immodestly claims positive God-given traits for his people, implying that the Nigerians lack such. This is one of those prayers obviously directed to the listeners and not really to God, who already knows what he is going to say, anyway. Is he ever going to mention J.C.? Only at the very end, so not completely ecumenical. 2112 another ID and yet another speaker begins the news. I listened carefully to all this to hear what frequency would be announced, but none ever was, as they have done in the past, usually incorrectly. No doubt because at recording-time they had no idea what new frequency they would be on! Maybe next week they will catch up, if it hasn`t changed again. In mid March the program moved an hour later from 2000 UT to start at 2100, but on the same frequency, 15665, always called ``15.67 MHz``. A lower frequency is surely called for at that late hour to propagate better into the 10-11 pm local nighttime period. The website http://www.biafraland.com/vobi.htm claims yet another frequency, 15280 at 2000 UT. God help the poor Biafrans in finding when and where their uplifting and hopeful broadcast really is. Speaking of Biafra, other transmissions in ``Ibo`` are on some versions of the WHR schedule, Monday-Friday 1800-2000 on WHRI 17520. So was expansion planned, or by some competing clandestine service? Nothing was heard on 17520 just before 2000 April 3, inconclusive. 11885 is a good change for those of us off the back in NAm, with a shorter skip zone, and the signal was inbooming into OK, while 15 MHz had been problematical (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11885, U.S.A., Voice of Biafra International (via WHRI, Cypress Creek, SC), 2102-2135, 4/3/2009, English. Identification by man and instrumental anthem, followed by same identification and vocal anthem in English by woman. Prayer at 2107. News at 2112. Local vocal music at 2120. News analysis at 2124. Change to a dialect of Biafra at 2135. Good signal (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, TenTec RX-340, Drake R8B, Eton E1, Sony ICF-SW7600G, Random Wires (90' and 200'), Eavesdropper Dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. Correction to my log from March 28: ``PERU``. 5952.49, Radio Pio Doce, Siglo Veinte, 0150-0234*, March 28, Spanish talk. Some Peruvian music. ID at 0225. ``River Kwai March`` signature tune at 0232 & Spanish announcements to sign off. They seem to always play the River Kwai March at sign off. Poor, very difficult copy with strong splatter from WYFR 5950. This is actually BOLIVIA. Not Peru. Sorry about that. Thanks to Dario Monferini & Glenn Hauser for bringing this to my attention (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. Florida group logs in band scan 2330 to 0000 from Pómpano Beach, Boca Ratón and Cedar Key: 4451.06, Radio Santa Ana, Santa Ana de Yacuma 4554.25, tentative, Radio Virgen de Remedios, Tupiza 5580.2, Radio San José, San José de Chiquitos 73s (de Bob Wilkner, April 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also PERU ** BOLIVIA. 3310, 0020-0040, R. Mosoj Chaski, Cochabamba, 03/04, Quechua, mostly YL talks with mentions of Cochabamba and Andean music in the pauses, also local Bolivian song at 0032 and tentative "echo" ID at 0034 – fair-good (Mikhail Timofeyev, with Alexander Beryozkin, DXpedition near St. Petersburg, Russia, Icom R75, Antennas: some directional ones beamed to the North, North-East, South-East and West, complete list of logs: http://dxcorner.narod.ru/DXpedition_April_02-03_2009.html HCDX via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4409.83, Radio Eco, Reyes 0000 to 0030; 0130 pulsating signal here, makes OM "en español" difficult to copy. This pulsation noted for last year; of local origin-ute also present? 4 and 5 April 4451.2v, Radio Santa Ana, Santa Ana de Yacuma, 0000 to 0030 time period noted on very irregular basis; various Florida locations. 4554.16 tentative, Radio Virgen de Remedios, Tupiza noted at 0010; 0000 3, 4, 5 April with very weak signal, Voice ute occasional issue. Not noted 1000 to 1100 if them? 4716.64, Radio Yura, Yura 0100 to 0130 with CP music, YL with fair to good signal; also 1000 to 1030 with varied sign on times 2, 3, 4 April (Bob Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Florida, US, NRD 535D modified; Drake R8 reconditioned by Drake, Sony 2010 modified, various antennas, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 9818.94v, 1953-2010, R. Nove de Julho, São Paulo, 02/04, Portuguese, religious program with OM sermon in the church, also choral singing at 2001-2004 - fair-poor because of too strong VOA signal on 9815 (Mikhail Timofeyev, with Alexander Beryozkin, DXpedition near St. Petersburg, Russia, Icom R75, Antennas: some directional ones beamed to the North, North-East, South-East and West, HCDX via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. BRASIL, 9819.8, Radio 9 de Xulho [sic], São Paulo, 0859*- 0919, 05-05, inicio de transmisión, locutor, identificación: "Radio 9 de Xulho, Sao Pulo, Brasil, bon día". Comentario religioso. 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, Escuchas realizadas en Friol, Lugo, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Antena de cable, 10 metros, orientada WSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Manuel corrected his report from 9818.9 to 9819.9, altho the above one was closer to 9818.9 (gh, DXLD) ** BULGARIA. R. Bulgaria, 15700, peppy folk music at 1347 Friday April 3; good signal but occasional audio dropouts. One can expect a good variety of music from day to day on this transmission (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [and non]. RCI`s A09 morning frequency is 7325, but April 1 at 1227 roughly equal level of RCI Spanish about Guatemala, and CRI in Japanese, zero-beat so no SAH; same situation at 1335, a bad collision. RCI would be better off back on 7310 as in B-08. Now, RCI is at 1105-1405, and CRI in Japanese 1200-1400 on 59 degree azimuth from Jinhua, which carries on toward NAm. 9515, RCI with the harmonica music filler we used to hear for a minute or two, but April 2 at 1744, this went on uninterrupted until cut back into French programming in progress at 1817. We enjoyed that CD when they would play different trax, but this was one single track in a loop over and over; I think it was one of Brahms` Hungarian Dances, with piano accompaniment, not something you really want to hear for 33 minutes straight. I didn`t really listen to it continuously, as evidenced by all the other logs in this report, but kept a second receiver on it low, and made a point of checking periodically, especially at 1804-1805 when there is normally a program transition. Just the harmonica music. They must have lost the feed and defaulted to this. Noble West in TN was hearing the same earlier in the day at 1400, but says there was French on the frequency at 1800, which I certainly did not hear when I checked at 1800 in case of a break then. At 1904 in Arabic, no harmonica again yet (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RCI Loop --- Hello all, Been listening to 9515 KHz RCI frequency since 1500 UT and all there is ...is a repeat loop of the same song over and over... Wonder if they are having some kind of feed problem at the Sackville Site. It's 1555 UT and loop is still going on (Gilles Letourneau, Montreal, Canada, April 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Gilles: I turned on my radio, and sure enough, 9515 has music on it reminding me of ORF's type of music, or what used to be on Swissinfo's old external service before quitting shortwave. Not unusual for RCI to systematically do this for no reason. Once I heard an example tape with Gordon Redding's announcement that they were having "Technical Problems" with the program in progress. This was in the 80's! Maybe they'll play Fred Rubenstien's "OH, CANADA!" interval signal instead! 73's, (Noble West, TN, ibid.) Glenn: I just checked 9515 after a break and earlier it had a "Music Loop" with no announcements at around 1400 UT, then checked again at 1800 RCI in French on this channel (Noble West, Tennessee, ibid.) As a harmonica-player, could not get enough of the Claude Garden harmonica loop on RCI on 2 April!!) (Saul Broudy, Philadelphia, PA, USA, ibid.) ** CANADA. SAVE UKRAINIAN RADIO ON R. CANADA INTERNATIONAL: PETITION http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/ucc The Ukrainian Canadian Congress requests your intervention in what we consider an unconscionable decision by CBC Radio Canada International to permanently shutdown the Ukrainian Section of Radio Canada International (RCI) effective this week after 57 years of service to Canada. Tell the CBC to keep their Ukrainian RCI broadcast. From the Ukrainian Canadian Congress: Winnipeg, March 26, 2009 – The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) calls upon CBC Radio Canada International (RCI) to overturn their decision to permanently shutdown the Ukrainian Section of RCI effective this week after 57 years of service to Canada. “We understand that the Ukrainian Section of RCI is the only foreign language department to be terminated,” stated Paul Grod, UCC National President. “Such a decision is unconscionable and is out of line with the Government of Canada’s commitment to Ukraine as one of its top strategic bilateral partner countries.” Canadians should write to: http://www.ukrcdn.com/2009/03/29/tell-the-cbc-to-keep-their-ukrainian-rci-broadcast/ (both via Daniel Say, March 30, alt.radio.networks.cbc via Mike Cooper, DXLD) too late : see below ** CANADA [non]. NEW TRANSMISSION TO EUROPE / NOUVELLE ÉMISSION POUR L'EUROPE RCI is pleased to announce that, as of 3 April 2009, we will be reintroducing an English broadcast to Europe on shortwave. The broadcast will be aired on Saturdays from 1700 to 1759 UT on 5850 kHz. Listeners can hear the "Maple Leaf Mailbag" in this time slot. This airing of the "Maple Leaf Mailbag" will also be available on the RCI-3 channel via the HotBird satellite. Updated versions of our broadcast schedules will be posted shortly on the Schedules and Frequencies page of our website at http://www.rciviva.ca/rci/en/horaires.shtml We wish you good listening. +++++++++++++++ Nous voulons informer nos auditeurs en Europe que nous ajouterons une nouvelle tranche horaire en ondes courtes pour l'Europe en français, à partir du 3 avril 2009. Nous diffuserons en français le vendredi et le dimanche du 1700 à 1759 UT sur 5850 kHz. Le vendredi, on peut écouter la première heure de l'émission «Tam-Tam Canada.» Le dimanche, on peut écouter «Le Courrier mondial.» Ces émissions seront également diffusées à la chaîne RCI-3 sur le satellite HotBird. Nous afficherons bientôt des nouveaux horaires mis à jour à la page « Horaires et fréquences » de notre site Internet à http://www.rciviva.ca/rci/en/horaires.shtml Nous vous souhaitons une bonne écoute de cette nouvelle transmission. (via Chris Lewis, England, DXLD; José Bueno, Spain, dxldyg via DXLD) The rest of the story: these replace the just-cancelled Ukrainian service, still on the pdf technical schedule April 4; via Sweden: 17:00-17:59 FRI-SAT-SUN HB 5850 350 110 HR 4/4/0.5 28 UKRAINIAN But will the aim be changed toward France and UK? Now where are they going to find a Cantonese broadcast to cancel? If really Mandarin, there are a good many hours of that, mostly to ``USA`` (Glenn Hauser, April 4, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) On April 5, the pdf technical schedule had been changed to show English and French instead of Ukrainian (gh) Glenn, I listened to 'Maple-Leaf Mailbag' yesterday (on the "new" 5850 kHz) and heard them speaking about the Cantonese segment of RCI Chinese service (in conjunction with cuts), so Cantonese really existed on RCI. -- 73! (Serghey Nikishin, Moscow, Russia, ibid.) Thank you for finding out what's really behind this revived service to Europe! And what about the other two hours of Hörby airtime per week? Concerning Cantonese: I meanwhile received a vague hint that these programmes had been launched quite some time ago, when Hong Kong was still a British colony, originated from the CBC studios in Vancouver and were distributed via a mediumwave station in Hong Kong. Nothing has been heard about this project since. So all that happens at RCI are the cancellation of the remaining broadcasts in Ukrainian, a service they wanted to eliminate already five years ago, and the end of some insignificant Hong Kong project? I do not trust the peace. For years we heard that the CBC would love to eliminate RCI altogether, and now they leave it almost untouched while introducing rather severe cuts elsewhere? Hard to believe (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) I was listening to Maple Leaf mailbag at 1500-1600 on 9515 on April 5. They announced that there would be another transmission of the broadcast, a repeat of the Sunday broadcast. It will be Saturdays at 1700-1800 on 5850 to Europe. This is filling a timeslot previously filled by their Ukrainian section. Sincerely - (Dean Bonanno, Durham, Connecticut, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Rather than a prepeat? (gh) ** CANADA. 6069.98, 0335-0403, CFRX, Toronto, 03/04, English, many OM/YL reports on various subjects (Canadian soldiers, Ontario and Toronto news, Taliban, etc.) with mention of CFRB at 0358, 0400 news - strong signal, but fair only due to DW on 6075, best in LSB (Mikhail Timofeyev, with Alexander Beryozkin, DXpedition near St. Petersburg, Russia, Icom R75, Antennas: some directional ones beamed to the North, North-East, South-East and West, HCDX via DXLD) See also NEWFOUNDLAND ** CHAD. 6165, RNT, *0430-0459, April 4, sign on with National Anthem. Opening French ID announcements at 0432. Afro-pop music at 0433. Weak but readable. Very weak co-channel QRM. Covered by a strong Radio Nederland 6165 at their 0459 sign on (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHILE. CVC A Sua Voz closing down its Brazilian SW service at Aprilend: see USA [non] ** CHINA [and non]. CRI in English: at 2300 5990 weak, 6145 very good, 7350 poor, hit by Prague 7345; at 0000, 6020 good, 9570 very good (Bob Thomas, Bridgeport CT, March 29 by p-mail, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7350 is Kashi, the others [non] ** CHINA [and non]. The Eurafricans have cleared out of 7100-7200 pretty well; I hear nothing around 0530-0630, but some Asians are still intruding in the expanded hamband. April 1 at 1336 I had weak music on 7105; at 1413 music, seemingly two stations on 7130; also at 1337 and still at 1409 music, collision on 7185, with fast SAH. At 1410, 7165 some AM talk. 7200 with music at 1337, probably Yakutsk, Russia per Ron Howard (altho Myanmar has just moved from 7185 to 7200, per Alokesh Gupta, but that`s only in their mornings). Per S. Hasegawa`s bandscan from Japan on March 29, 7105 is Nei Menggu PBS; 7130 is Taiwan vs CNR-1 Mainland jamming after 1400; 7165 is Nei Menggu PBS; 7185 is also Taiwan vs CNR-1. I do not claim definite IDs on any of these, but just observing that some broadcasters are dragging their feet on getting out of the hamband. Possibly hams have not been specifically authorized 7100-7200 yet in the countries concerned. 13760, Chinese echoing and cutting out, April 2 at 0535, much better signal than VOR 13775 to North America, altho 13760 is CNR1 jamming against R. Free Asia in Mandarin via Saipan, hardly intended for NAm at all. I thought Voice of Korea might be in there, but altho they use 13760 a lot, not at this hour. Then I tried 19m, and found the only signal audible on the band was 15130, April 2 at 0536, not // 13760. This is CRI via Beijing site, 150 kW at 95 degrees; strangely enough, IBB Tinian is also scheduled on 15130 at 250 kW, 317 degrees with RFA in Mandarin. So that takes care of blocking two of RFA`s frequencies in China, and no doubt the others are too: 15615 15635 17615 17880 21550 21690. What a loss of face for China! Won`t let its greatest trading partner get a free word into China; can`t risk anything contradicting the Party Line. Meanwhile, CRI in English and Chinese is unimpeded all over the SW dial in USA, even relayed by domestic stations. Another check of the 7100-7200 range, April 2 at 1255 found only one frequency occupied by broadcasters, the China/Taiwan collision on 7185. Haven`t heard Firedrake on 8400 lately, so I suppose Sound of Hope has moved. April 3 at 1305 there was FD on 9000 and 9300 with fair signals. CRI English via Sackville, 9650, normally a VG loud and clear signal here on 240 degree beam, but April 4 at 1310 there was co-channel talk underneath. Could not make it out, but most likely RNW Dutch via Tinang, Philippines, 200 degrees at 1300-1327, and indeed not heard during the second semihour. RNW now has a number of such Dutch transmissions of only 27 minutes, in addition to longer ones. Another check April 5 at 1312, pretty sure the language under CRI was Dutch. However, there is another co-channel 9650 Dutch-like broadcast --- Afrikaans from Radio Sonder Grense at 0800-1600, but what I was hearing did disappear by 1330 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [non]. What`s up with Voice of Strait? 1319 + 1348 + 1436 + 1453, April 1. All three frequencies off-the-air today. 4900 totally clear of anything; 4940 AIR Guwahati heard in the clear; 5050 AIR Aizawl heard underneath Guangxi FBS (// 9820) (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Ron, maybe they have moved to their higher frequencies? I heard a Chinese ID on 7280 kHz, it could have been from them. 73, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, April 3, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Hi Mauno, April 2 and 3, all three frequencies continue to be off-the- air, so you must be right. Would certainly seem to indicate a real change. Per their website http://www.vos.com.cn/introduction/gbpl.htm they are on 9505 and 4940; 7280 and 5050; 4900 and 6115. So checking now on 6115, 7280 and 9505 would be a good bet. This Sunday’s English program “Focus on China” will most likely be on 9505 from 1500 to 1530. Thanks for your assistance (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Voice of Strait. I am still unable to hear them on 4900, 4940 nor 5050. Mauno Ritola suggested they had moved to their higher frequencies, but have been unable to hear them on 6115, 7280 nor 9505. Did hear assume R. Free Asia in scheduled Cantonese from 1400 to 1500, on 7280, effectively blocking that frequency, but otherwise nothing else heard. Has anyone heard them after April 1? I had been able to hear all three everyday (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, April 5, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 7620, Voice of Zhonghua (CNR-5), Beijing --- I heard this station (presumed) at 1000 UT. SIO=222. I am in Southeastern PA USA. Radio is an FT-757 GXII amateur transceiver. Antenna is only 10 foot of wire running around the bedroom floor!! This seems rare to me. Or is this a regular station heard in the Eastern USA? TNX (John ---, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) It is so regular over here and // 9410. Also only using 21 feet of thin wire strung along curtain rail. Naturally it is well into the red (Robin VK7RH Harwood, Norwood, Tasmania 7250, ibid.) It`s usually audible morningly here, but weak; stands out as not much else above 7600 (gh, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. At 1300-1330 UT slot observed a powerful Mandarin language news service from China mainland at 1300-1312 UT instead of Firedrake jamming, all same program against 17705, AIR Mandarin from Bangalore-IND, CHN S=9+10dB 17560, still on wait status for VoTibet Madgascar, CHN S=9+30dB 17515, BBC Zyyi CYP in Uzbek sce, CHN S=9+10dB 15330, BBC Zyyi CYP in Uzbek sce, CHN S=9+20dB 13855, BBC Rampisham UK in Uzbek sce, CHN S=9+30dB. (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CONGO DR [non]. 11690, Hirondelle Foundation via Meyerton AFS relay site, 0400-0600 to CeAF in French and Vernac? S=6-7 here in Europe (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio Okapi (gh) 11890, Radio Okapi, 1648-1656, escuchada el 2 de abril en dialecto africano sin identificar a locutores con comentarios, referencia a la Democracia, segmento de música folklórica local, locutor con comentarios, referencia al Congo, “Congo camina.. Luanda..”, a las 1853 locutor en francés con comentarios, SINPO 44433 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CROATIA. 3984.82, odd channel Croatian Radio at 0445 UT, scheduled 2030-0500 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CROATIA [non]. /GERMANY: Croatian R, 7375 at 2227 with news in English. Local QRN but otherwise strong and clear signal. 3 April (Liz Cameron/Michigan, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Heard 7375 tonight just before 2330 booming in. Yes, it's Slavic but not Russian, Polish or Czech (which I recognize on good days :-). Caught a "Glas Hrvatski" (V. of Croatia) ID at 2331 after what sounded like a wx report, followed by sked and frequency info. Wish they broadcast in English as well as Croatian, even if only a few minutes a day; I seem to remember a three-minute English news bulletin when they were on 9830, but I always used to miss it. 73 de (Anne Fanelli in Elma NY, April 4, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Different panorama this UT Sunday 5 at 0200 checking. Voice of Croatia was in English, maybe with that short news bulletin, they use to follow with Spanish and other language. Now that you mention it Anne, "Glas Hrvatski" was what I heard from the announcer last night, but wasn't aware that was Slavic or something alike. 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. RHC, Arnie Coro wrapping up his newscast on the half hour, April 2 at 0538, quite undermodulated on 6000 but quickly checking 6060 and 6140, modulation was at normal level; on two receivers I did also notice that 6060 and 6140 are synchronized, but an echo apart from 6000, from a different site. Then into weekly mailbag presented by Isabel García. Another SNAFU: 9550 on the air at an hour it should not be, 1748 April 2, Spanish talk about Cuba, but audio cutting off and back on a few times as of 1750. Did not find any // on the air, checking 25 and 31 meters. Sometimes for a special event they do put some transmitters on at mid-day (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. Since I heard jamming and Spanish on 9545 the night before, I was standing by for it April 1: Nothing as early as 2200. At 2258, jamming already going, and R. República carrier popped on atop it at about 2259:50, brief sign-on without mentioning frequency, then Encuentro Informativo. The audio was sticking/skipping a bit as if it had something digital in the feed chain. Jamming seemed to be building up bit by bit and/or the Sackville(?) signal was fading bit by bit. At 2301, could hear RHC IS inverted bleeding over from 9550 opening English hour, tsk2. Meanwhile some jamming was still running on ex- 9810 against nothing, just in case. Still need to confirm how long 9545 runs and whether R.R. changes to any other frequency before finished in the evening. Also DentroCuban jamming against nothing (except maybe the wailing Brazilian preacher David Miranda) on 9565, April 2 around 0600, not only grinding and pulsing, but with faux-Morse-code-like intermittent tones; same at 1317, still against nothing. But when there was jamming against something on 9565, R. Martí at 1743, no such tones. Checked 9545 for R. República at 0103 April 3, but only jamming audible; however on 9810 a bit of talk was audible under the jamming there, so perhaps R.R. via Sackville is on 9545 at 23-01, and back to 9810 after 01? VOR originally planned to use French Guiana on 9810 to South America in Spanish at 00-02 in A-09, but apparently is not doing so. We have the dentro- and fuera-Cubans to thank for messing up 9545, and also 9541.5 Solomon Islands, since the jamming runs long past the few hours R.R. is using it; April 3 at 0539 the jamming was still audible on 9545, plus much stronger phony-CW jammer on 9565, both against nothing. Worth noting that the 9565 signals were much stronger than RHC in between on 9550. See also JAPAN 9805, DentroCuban Jamming Command, with heavy grinding and pulsing, April 5 at 1318, but could not hear any R. Martí, and Greenville is currently scheduled 1000-1300 only. I could make out some soprano singing underneath, which was definitely not // RM on 11845, audible there mixed with DCJC; 1329 the music station cut off leaving jamming only on 9805, against nothing. The collateral victim was KSDA Guam in Japanese as scheduled after 1300. Listened to RHC`s Spanish DX program En Contacto, Sunday April 5 1335- 1350 on 13680 et al. Mentioned that the Sunday afternoon show Revista Iberoamericana had been replaced by something else using archival material, and consequently, the secret repeat of En Contacto since March is heard at a different time, approx. 2242 or 2245, on 11800, 9550, 13760. Ha --- checked at 2248, and there was En Contacto on 13760 repeating that very announcement, and I had missed a fourth frequency, 11750 --- but the other three were really in distorted Creole, only 13760 with Spanish DX program! See also VENEZUELA [non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. En los 1620 kHz pude escuchar una transmisión en español que para mi era de Cuba, ya que estaban hablando de las cosas de la revolución. Hay algun colega diexista que haya escuchado alguna emisora cubana en los 1620 kHz? Un fuerte abrazo para todos (José Elías Díaz Gómez, Barcelona, Venezuela http://sintoniadx.spaces.live.com/ April 5, Noticias DX yg via DXLD) A few weeks ago in DXLD we had reports of Cuba 1620, and the general conclusion was that they have put a transmitter there to block WDHP USVI which carries some Cuban exile programming (gh, DXLD) ** CYPRUS. 5930 NF, Cyprus Broadcasting Corp, 2235-2244:30*, April 3, ex-6180. Tune-in to Greek talk. Abruptly pulled plug at 2244:30. // 9760 - good. // 7210 - good level but mixing with China. Schedule: Fri, Sat, Sun at 2215-2245 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECHIA. R. Prague, English to NAm at 0100, good on 6200, fair on 7345 (Bob Thomas, Bridgeport CT, March 29 by p-mail, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also GREECE, 9415 QRM to 9420 CZECH REPUBLIC. 11600, R. Prague, *2130-2156*, 4 April, English news and other features. Local electrical noise on the low side avoidable by de-tuning 2 kHz high, but otherwise very good. // 9410 much weaker, though improving throughout the half hour (Paul Brouillette, Geneva, IL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. 4814.98, R. Buen Pastor, Spanish religious pop-like misoc. Accurate TCs by M between songs occasionally. 1034 ID mentioning FM by M at end of ad/promo block. Another canned ID at 1050 between songs which sounded the same as the one at 1034. Great signal this morning but ruined by horrible QRM from ute below and of course the CODAR. Faded after 1050 but still in at 1102. 73 (Dave Valko, JRC NRD-535D, Hammarlund HQ-129X, Eton E1, T2FD, Windom, Dunlo, PA, USA, HCDX via DXLD) 4815, Radio El Buen Pastor, 1045-1100 April 5, With a program of steady MOR music, it could be religious too? At 1050 heard a canned ID, but missed it. Again at 1053, a short canned ID by a female as just, "Radio Buen Pastor". At 1100 canned promos and ads with another ID using the echo effect. Signal was good during the period (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, WATKINS JOHNSON HF1000, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. HCJB, 11960, Saturday April 4 at 1407, Alen Grajan in mailbag show mentioning that from May there would be a new feature the first week of every month on Aventura Diexista, ``Radio Guía Internacional`` from two Venezuelan DXers. But then 11960 cut off the air and did not come back until 1418. It`s unusual for HCJB to have such breakdowns. Meanwhile, much weaker 11690 vs RTTY was still on the air at 1409 check. I did not bother to try 21455, which HCJB insists in its automated IDs two or three times an hour is still on the air {And it is correctly absent from HCJB`s issued A-09 schedule. If you hear anything on 21455, it`s WYFR!} (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EGYPT. Have noticed over the past couple of days that R. Cairo English at 0200 has been skipping between 7535 and 7540. Tonight, 03 April, they are on 7540 with very good signals. Last night they were on 7535 and on the night before they were on 7540. Maybe trying out a new frequency? Doesn't seem likely as either 7535 or 7540 provide the same signal. More likely some error at the transmitter (Steve Wood, South Yarmouth, Mass., Drake R8B, 30 x 70 flag antenna, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 5005, Radio Nacional-Bata, 2220-2301*, April 4, Euro-pop music. US pops/ballads. Sign off with National Anthem. Poor to fair with occasional utility (RTTY & 2-way radio) QRM (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6250, group singing hilife-like music, April 3 at 0543 with usual pulsing ute QRM on the side. Presumed RNGE, Malabo, as previously heard irregularly, the best time of day to catch it here when active (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6250, Radio Nacional-Malabo, *0527-0640, April 3, abrupt sign on with continuous local African music. Spanish announcements at 0603. Possible news at 0609. Mentions of Malabo. Radio Malabo ID. Poor to fair with occasional rtty QRM (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA ECUATORIAL. 6250, Radio Nacional de Guinea Ecuatorial, Malabo, 2016-2020, escuchada el 3 de abril en español a locutora con noticias, se aprecia fuerte interferencia de señal digital, comentarios y anuncios, “..se recuerda ..una misa en la Parroquia..”, emisión musical, SINPO 22432 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A- 108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6250, Radio Nacional-Malabo, 2010-2250+, April 3, on late with Spanish talk. Afro-pop music. Hi-life music. “Radio Malabo” IDs. Possible radio-drama after 2200. Heard past 2250. Gone at 2307 check. Very weak at tune-in but improved to a fair level by 2045 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190.02-.03, 1512-1516, R. Africa, Bata, 02/04, English, OM religious talk – fair (it seems their modulation is not good), also at 1528, 1553 and 1601 when the signal was slightly better (Mikhail Timofeyev, with Alexander Beryozkin, DXpedition near St. Petersburg, Russia, Icom R75, Antennas: some directional ones beamed to the North, North-East, South-East and West, HCDX via DXLD) 15190, Radio Africa, 0705-0710, 04-04, inglés, locutor, comentario religioso. 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Antena de cable, 8 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi, now (4 April 09, 2043 UT) I am probably hearing Radio Africa on 15190 kHz, with what sounds like a sermon, in English, previously religious music ("Thanks to the Lord"). Lousy reception, fading in and out of the noise. 73 (Eike Bierwirth, Rx: Perseus, 100ft wire ant, Boulder, CO, USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15190, R. Africa cut off one gospel huxter, and started another at 2156 April 4: Tony Alamo show #320, into lecture about homosexuality. His tape was slightly less distorted than the preceding one (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA. VoBME Asmara, 2nd channel (tentative), March 30th 1630- 2001*, now heard with strong signal and extended programming in the evening, in the clear when jamming stops at 1700/1730, mostly in Arabic, "Huna Asmara" or similar at 1727, March 31st also till after 1900 at least. March 30th probably two ERI transmitters followed by two noise jammers until 1700; the noise remained on 7165 and 7170 while ERI-7175 was clear. 73 (Thorsten Hallmann, still in Münster, Germany, http://www.africalist.de.ms DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7175, Voice of Broad Masses 2, Asmara-Selae Daro, 1805-1812, escuchada el 3 de abril con emisión de música folklórica local, locutor en idioma sin identificar con comentarios, probablemente en árabe, locutora, SINPO 34433 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ERITREA. It seems Ethiopia is not more jamming their programs as was observed on 5100 7175 and 7210 kHz (5100 \\ 7175 kHz was) 0500-0600 on March 20th (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Mar 27 via DXLD) ** ERITREA [non]. 15350, Voice of Asena, 1740-1744, escuchada el 3 de abril en tigrilla a locutor con comentarios, segmento musical, se aprecia un fuerte ruido de fondo, DRM??, SINPO 22432 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. Today, April 3rd, also 6090 Amhara Regional State Radio heard, very strong and clear on upper side until after 1800, and Radio Fana, but 6110 only. 9559.6 had Voice of Peace and Democracy of Eritrea. 73 (Thorsten Hallmann, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) R. Ethiopia s/on on 7110 around 1740 on March 30th, //s unheard. Even stranger on March 31st: Only External Service on 7165 heard around 1730/1830, no 5950, 5990, 6030, 6890, 7110, 9560 or 9704! Another listener in Germany has reported 7110 much later in the evening. April 1st Ethiopian transmitters were back on 5950, 5991.2, 6030, 7110, 9559.3 and 9704.2. Others unconfirmed. 73 (Thorsten Hallmann, still in Münster, Germany, http://www.africalist.de.ms DX LISTENING DIGEST) R. Ethiopia, 7110 at 0305 in Amharic with HOA music. Excellent signal, only one on 7100-7200. Just after tune in, loud buzz heard over music. By 0309 buzz and music both went off air for split second. Only buzz heard after that, and at 0318 recheck. 2 April. 73/Liz (Cameron, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) R. Ethiopia domestic service, presumed, on 7110 at 0541 April 3 HOA music, 0548 brief announcement in Amharic? More music. Fair signal with deep fades down to nothing and back up, still audible at 0600. I assume it must be this, lingering in the hamband; frequently reported from NAm around 0400. Aoki B-08 had this taking a break at 0500-0800 M-F (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST 7110, Radio Ethiopia (Gedja Jewe), 0412-0425, 4/5/2009, Amharic (per schedule). Horn of Africa music with short announcements by man and woman. Talk by man and woman at 0417 with short musical segments. Good signal with some fading. No parallels noted (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, TenTec RX-340, Drake R8B, Eton E1, Sony ICF-SW7600G, Random Wires (90' and 200'), Eavesdropper Dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio Ethiopia 7110 at 0355 in Amharic w/talk, HOA music. Fantastic signal. Heard nightly-they don't seem to be in a hurry to change freq. Presumed VOBME as per EiBi on 7165 at 0401 in Amharic. Jamming at 0403. VOBME not heard on this freq in the past couple of days. Nothing else on 7100-7200. 4 April. 73/ (Liz Cameron, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7110, Radio Ethiopia, *0259-0333, April 5, sign on with electronic keyboard IS. Talk in listed Amharic at 0300. Some Horn of Africa music. Fair to good. // 5991.14 - not on the air until 0322 with a fair signal but a little adjacent channel splatter. Only a threshold signal on 9704.19 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ETIOPÍA, 7165, Radio Etiopía, Addis Ababa-Gedja, 1806-1810, escuchada el 2 de abril, probablemente en somalí a locutor con noticias, referencias a “Afganistán y Parlamento”, música de sintonía, SINPO 25432 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) HORN OF AFRICA CONFLICT DISRUPTS "NEW" 40M BAND http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?t=198426 Quote: Originally Posted by VK2BVS First afternoon in the expanded 7.100 to 7.200 MHz 40 metre band. At 1740 UTC there were 6 short wave broadcast stations between 7.100 to 7.200 MHz. 7110 kHz Radio Ethiopia in Addis Ababa 59 7125 kHz s/off at 1808 UTC 7145 kHz Radio Hargeisa in Somaliland. (East Africa) 7165 kHz music and foreign language very strong S9. 7170 kHz music and foreign language very strong S9. 7180 kHz music and foreign language very strong S9. At 1906 UTC there were 4 short wave broadcast stations between 7.100 to 7.200 MHz. 7100 Voice of Korea, Pyongyang, North Korea (North East Asia). 7110 Radio Ethiopia, Addis Ababa (East Africa). 7175 Voice of Broad Masses of Eritrea (Voice of the people of Eritrea) (East Africa). 7110 Radio Ethiopia, Addis Ababa (East Africa). Sign off at 2100 UTC Radio Ethiopia on 7110 continues to be strong here from s/on at 0300Z until fade-out around 0700Z. Last evening North American time, 0400Z Monday morning, a strong white noise was heard, centred on 7165, wiping out the band from 7155 to 7175. Monday evening N American time (0340Z Tuesday), strong unmodulated carriers simultaneously appear on 7165 and 7175. Approx 0350Z, Ethiopian sounding music starts up on 7175. Frequent announcements, apparently in Tigrinya, able to regognise frequent mentions of Eritrea. 0358Z, Sounds like Ethiopian music on the 7165 station. 0400Z, Jamming starts up on top of 7175 station. The 7175 station QSY's to zero-beat the 7165 station. Simultaneous modulation from both stations clearly audible. After about 5 seconds, the jamming starts up on top of 7165 frequency, covering up both signals. Approx 0410Z, jamming briefly stops, both signals still clearly audible. Jamming starts up again. Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea are virtually in a state of war with each other. The US State Dept has issued a warning urging Americans to avoid travel to Eritrea at this time. Foreigners in Eritrea are restricted to the city limits of Asmara. Requests for permission to travel outside the city limits must be submitted 10 days before the proposed travel. All persons are advised to stay away from the Eritrea-Ethiopian border. Troops are reportedly amassed along this border, and Eritrean troops are amassed along Djibouti border, reportedly crossing into the territory of Djibouti. Ethiopian troops are actively fighting in Somalia. For foreigners, travel to Mogadishu is said to be virtual suicide. Just a few years ago Ethiopia and Eritrea, two of the poorest countries in Africa, fought a border war over some empty and useless desert territory. Although the conflict was supposedly settled, things are heating back up again. It sounds like Ethiopia is jamming the Eritrean station on 7175, so it moves to 7165, on top of the other station, and the jamming follows it there and covers both stations. I was able to recognise the sound of the music and languages, having lived in Eritrea for 3 years during the late 60's, although I cannot understand the language. Last edited by K4KYV; 03-31-2009 at 04:56 AM. Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Middle TN, 50 mi NW of Nashville (via DXLD) CHESTER, DONALD B, K4KYV (Extra), WOODLAWN, TN 37191 (ARRL via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. Do you know if R. Freedom via ERITREA is still on? I heard Arabic today at 1750 on 7175 kHz. Best regards, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15350, Ginbot 7, 1700-1703, escuchada el 2 de abril en amárico, comienza emisión con sintonía, locutor con cpresentación, locutora con comentarios, se aprecia emisión en paralelo por 17870, SINPO 34433. 15350, Voice of Meselna-Delina, 1730-1735, escuchada el 2 de abril en tigrilla, sintonía, locutora con presentación, ID “...Delina”, locutor con comentarios, segmento musical, SINPO 34433 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A- 108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EUROPE. PIRATE. 6870, Radio Playback Int, 2215-2230, April 5, techno-pop music. Oldies pop music. Canned ID at 2226. Weak but fair level on peaks (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FALKLAND ISLANDS. QSL recibida/received de/from Falkland Is., 530 FIRS --- Recibida hoy, 3 de abril Received today Apr 3. Enlaces para las imágenes: Links for the pics: http://i40.tinypic.com/2llem9v.jpg http://i39.tinypic.com/fedr9i.jpg (Horacio A. Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 530, FIRS sintonizada em São Bernardo-SP --- Amigos, Ontem decidi colocar a FIRS (Falkland Island Radio Service, 530 kHz) em objetivo de sintonia, que durasse o tempo que fosse. Apliquei uma configuração no equipamento que supus ser a melhor e que talvez me desse o resultado, e em // fiquei atualizando um material no computador próximo do rx. De início, entrou a La Voz de Las Madres [Buenos Aires], muito fraca por sinal, o que me deu animo para aguardar uma possível subida de sinal da FIRS. Pois às 0155 UT o sinal da FIRS ali estava. La Voz de Las Madres por um bom tempo totalmente fora, dando chance a entender a comunicação de estúdio e demais segmentos de programa em cerca de 15 minutos sucessivos da FIRS, além da menção à BBC. 530, FALKLAND ISLAND: FIRS, Stanley, English, 05/04 0156. OM: talk, música instrumental, time pip, YL: boletim de notícias (?) (súbito QRM de LVDLM, 30 segundos apenas), a ID foi cortada pelo fading acentuado apenas ouvi bem: ‘This is.....’. Às 0224, OM: talk de estúdio, entrevista com outro OM, menções à ‘BBC’. (Notei que o inglés falado era o que bem conhecemos das transmissões da Inglaterra), 1/2 – 4 – 4 – 2 – 1/2 . 73, (Rudolf Grimm, São Bernardo, SP, BRASIL, Rx: Kenwood R-1000, Faseador MFJ-1026, Ant. principal: loop de quadro MCJ 80 cm, Ant. auxiliar : horizontal 22 m (cordoalha), dxclubepr yg via DXLD) ** FINLAND. Finlandia for real on now --- Hello, Scandinavian Weekend Radio starting first summer time broadcast 2009, 2100 UT this Friday evening. Programes of quaranted [?] SWR Finland style whole 24 hours long. Stay tuned.... Web: http://www.swradio.net/index2.htm Forum: http://www.swradio.net/forum/ and program/frequency schedule: http://www.swradio.net/schedule.htm Greetings, (Alpo Heinonen, Scandinavian Weekend Radio, April 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. SINDICATOS DE RADIO FRANCE LLAMAN A LA HUELGA EL 7 DE ABRIL http://www.univision.com/contentroot/wirefeeds/world/7921580.html 02 de Abril de 2009, 06:01am ET PARIS, 2 Abr 2009 (AFP) - Los sindicatos de la radio pública francesa Radio Francesa lanzaron este jueves un llamado a una huelga de 24 horas para el 7 de abril, en protesta contra el proyecto de la dirección que según ellos cuestiona la convención colectiva. Según los siete sindicatos que formulan el llamado, que implica a Radio France y Radio France Internationale (RFI), el "Estado inicia su plan de destrucción del servicio audiovisual público". El 17 de marzo, la dirección de Radio France había anunciado haber informado al comité central de la empresa sobre la "perspectiva de una próxima disolución" de la Asociación de Patrones del Servicio Público del Sector Audiovisual (AESPA) y del "cuestionamiento de las convenciones colectivas que podría ser la consecuencia". La AESPA es una cámara patronal creada en 1974 después del desmantelamiento del Organismo de Radio y Televisión Francesas (ORTF), el ex monopolio estatal del sector audiovisual francés. La AESPA reúne al conjunto de las empresas cuyos asalariados estaban implicados por las convenciones colectivas del sistema audiovisual público: France Télévision, Radio France, Radio France Internationale (RFI) y el Instituto Nacional del sector Audiovisual (INA). Los sindicatos "exigen que se mantengan las convenciones colectivas del audiovisual público", "el mantenimiento de todas las actividades y protecciones sociales actuales", "el respeto de la independencia y el pluralismo y el rechazo al control político del audiovisual público", y el "rechazo a los despidos". Este llamado a la huelga se produce cuando según diversas informaciones de prensa, la Presidencia francesa debería dar a conocer este mismo jueves el nombre del candidato que propone para la presidencia de Radio France (via José Miguel Romero, Spain, April 2, dxldyg via DXLD) ** FRANCE. RFI A-09 Español 0100-0130 9750 1000-1030 9825, 5970 1200-1230 13640 2100-2130 17630 Francés 0400-0500 7265, 9790, 11700 0500-0600 7265, 9790, 11700, 13695 0600-0630 13675, 15300 0600-0700 11700, 13695 0630-0700 13675 0630-0700 15300 0700-0800 13695, 15170, 15300 0700-0900 17850 0700-1130 15300 0800-1000 17620 1100-1200 17525 1200-1300 17850 1200-1400 17620 1200-2000 15300 1600-1700 17620 1600-1800 17850 1700-1900 15300 1700-2000 13695, 17320 1800-2000 11705 1900-2000 9790 2000-2100 11700 2000-2200 5895 Hausa 0600-0630 9805, 11995 0700-0730 11615, 13685 1600-1700 15315 Inglés 0400-0430 9805, 11995 0500-0530 11995, 13680 0600-0630 9765, 11610, 15160, 17800 0700-0730 13675 [above broadcasts are M-F only, NOT so specified, as previously discussed in DXLD; could that be true of any other languages? --- gh] 1200-1230 21620 1600-1700 15605, 17605 Lao 1100-1130 15680 L a V Mandarin 0930-1030 7325, 11875, 12025 2200-2300 1098, 12045 2200-2400 603 2300-2400 9955, 11665 Persa 1430-1500 15360, 17850 1700-1800 11695 Portugués 0600-0700 11830 1600-1800 15530 Ruso 1300-1330 15160, 17805 1500-1530 13625, 15215 1800-1900 9805, 11715 Vietnamita 1400-1500 7380 1500-1600 1296, 9565 Parte Meteo Marine 1130-1200 6175, 13640, 15300, 17800 (via José Miguel Romero2, Spain, April 4, dxldyg via DXLD) ** GERMANY. ALEMANIA, 6005, Radio 700, 1838-1850, escuchada el 3 de abril en idioma sin identificar, probablemente alemán u holandés a locutor con posible ID “Radio...”, emisión de música pop de los años 70, SINPO 24422 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. 6005, 0815-0835, R. 700, Krekel, 02/04, German, OM commentary and weather forecast, German and Italian pop songs including “Felicità” by Albano & Romina Power and “Gloria” by Umberto Tozzi – good till ~ 1228, then fair (Mikhail Timofeyev, with Alexander Beryozkin, DXpedition near St. Petersburg, Russia, Icom R75, Antennas: some directional ones beamed to the North, North-East, South-East and West, HCDX via DXLD) ** GERMANY. MV Baltic Radio - New time slot for summer 2009 MV Baltic Radio is back on the air this Sunday the 5th of April at 0900 to 1000 UT on our normal channel of 6140 kHz. We wish you good listening and good reception! 73s Tom M.V. Baltic. Information: MV Baltic Radio relay service Schedule for summer 2009 1st Sunday – MV Baltic Radio 2nd Sunday – Bluestar Radio 3rd Sunday – European Music Radio 4th Sunday – Radio Gloria International (Tom Taylor, April 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. 17770, in English at 1419 April 1, lively discussion, but it`s just stealth evangelizer CVC on new A-09 frequency via Jülich, to Sudan and vicinity at 14-21, ex-15545 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) And a regular in the mornings here, one of better signals on 16m, nowhere near Sudan (gh, OK) ** GERMANY [non]. Dear Hardcore DXers! Please spread important news on the changes at RADIO JOYSTICK: The first change at RADIO JOYSTICK is not that new and already known to some of you: Since 2009 RADIO JOYSTCK uses the help of NEXUS International Broadcasting Association in Milano, Italy to be heard via the transmitting facilities in Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia - every first saturday each month between 10 and 11 hours CE(S)T on 9510 kHz! [0800 UT pre-empting WORLD OF RADIO] But another actual change is not famous yet: As DJ Charlie Prince is moving to the south german spa town Kreuznach (Rhineland-Palatinate) on 9th of April 2009 the address of RADIO JOYSTICK is changing also (eff. 2009-04-09): RADIO JOYSTICK Postfach (Post Office Box) 23 31 55512 Bad Kreuznach ALLEMAGNE Last but not least: Everyone who writes in via snail mail will receive on of the very new RADIO JOYSTICK all-weather-stickers, 7 x 5 cm small, 4coloured, showing the movie set "Popeye Village" on Malta - and the new address! -- Kind regards / Vy 73s, (DJ Charlie Prince Radio Joystick Postfach 23 31 55512 Bad Kreuznach, ALLEMAGNE Fax: +49 1212 511301202 Cell.: +49 179 3615394 http://www.myspace.com/djchapri http://www.radiojoystick.de April 5, HCDX via DXLD) ** GERMANY [non]. 15265, Saturday April 4 at 1449, good signal from DW in Russian via Rampisham, UK; the Muzprosvet avant-garde music show has been canceled, replaced by something about Turkey, bits of German with voice-overs, ``Türkische Hund``, sound effects, clips of old (Nazi?) broadcasts, and 1456 into language lesson focusing on vorlesen (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GHANA. GERMAN EMBASSY, MINISTRY DISCUSS DIGITAL BROADCASTING http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=159886 Accra, Mar. 31, GNA - Mrs Sabah Zita Okaikoi, Minister of Information on Tuesday held discussion with the Deputy Head of Mission at the German Embassy on the digital migration of broadcasting equipment in Ghana from analogue to digital. The digital migration programme is a global call for all countries to transfer existing television and radio transmission device from analogue to digital device by 2015 since digital broadcasting is a more efficient way of transmitting sound and data by turning them into computerized data. Ghana is one of the first countries that has accepted the challenge to migrate all existing analogue broadcasting equipment, the project has started with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. Mrs Okaikoi said the first phase of the digital migration programme is expected to be completed in June in Accra and Kumasi. Mr Hans Christian Winkler, Deputy Head of Mission, said he was happy that a German Organization was helping Ghana with the processes involved in the digital migration and expressed the hope that with time all media organizations would be involved. He advised that the technicians handling the project would maintain the possibility for people to receive programmes recorded with analogue equipment as well as digital ones. He said the embassy would be at the service of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and pointed out that the embassy had a long standing partnership with the Ghanaian media. Mr Winkler announced that Deutsche Welle, the German broadcasting medium would be partnering media houses especially in the regions to air programmes of interest to the Ghanaian public and noted that a German organization would also sponsor at least one Ghanaian journalist to cover the German elections in September this year. 31 March 09 (Source : GNA) (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, dxldyg via DXLD) DRM? I suppose, if DW involved (gh) ** GREECE. Voice of Greece, Radio Filia programme in English now on 11645 0600-0700, strong on clear channel March 30 (Mike Barraclough, England, April World DX Club Contact via DXLD) [and non]. This is the A-09 Czech Short Wave Schedule from March 29 to October 25, 2009. Note the use of their 9415 kHz.: In French 2200-2227 to North America, English 2230-2257 to North America, and Spanish 2300-2327 to South America. This causes much interference in this area to Voice of Greece's 9420 at 2200-2257 and some interference to 9420 at 2300-2327. Regards, (John Babbis, MD, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re 9-028: When checking after 2200 Radiophonikos Stathmos Makedonias on 7450 was free of audio bleed-over from ERA 5. However, the modulation suffered from some non-linear distortion, reminiscent to the days when these transmissions went out from the old VOA facilities at Perea (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Apr 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7450, beautiful a cappella singing, April 5 at 0545, from ERT, cut off abruptly at 0555* I figured it was for Palm Sunday, but the Orthodox are a week behind the other Christians, with Easter not until April 19, 2009. Maybe just a regular Sunday service (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREENLAND. 3815-USB, 2041-2111* KNR Nuuk, 02/04, Danish, OM talks, three pop songs, 2100 OM short news and YL interview with some OM, then final pop song – poor, periodical CW QRM (Mikhail Timofeyev, with Alexander Beryozkin, DXpedition near St. Petersburg, Russia, Icom R75, Antennas: some directional ones beamed to the North, North-East, South-East and West, HCDX via DXLD) ** INDIA. AIR A09 PG (Scanned copy) --- Now all of you access the original scanned copy of All India Radios' Home Service and External Service programme schedule in the following link. http://adxc.wordpress.com/2009/04/03/air-external-service-a09/ http://adxc.wordpress.com/2009/04/02/air-a09-pdf/ (Jaisakthivel, Chennai, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 3927.64v, 1407-, AIR, Gorakhpur, 02/04, Nepali, OM talk – fair and still out of its nominal frequency of 3945 (Mikhail Timofeyev, with Alexander Beryozkin, DXpedition near St. Petersburg, Russia, Icom R75, Antennas: some directional ones beamed to the North, North-East, South-East and West, HCDX via DXLD) The only Indian outlet on 75m, used for both domestic and external services (gh) ** INDIA. AIR A09 Monitoring --- March 29, 2009 (Sunday) AIR-Guwahati noted on 4840 kHz at 0049 UT (instead of 4940). During afternoon also on 4840 kHz. I found at least two All India Radio Stations broadcasting on their usual old frequencies around 0720 UT on 41mb on March 29th. AIR-Lucknow was on old frequency 7105 kHz AIR-Shillong noted on 7130 kHz; heard AIR Shillong's announcement, i.e. the programmes of North Eastern Service of AIR on 7315 around 0729 UT, but it was broadcasting on old frequency of 7130 kHz. AIR Imphal was noted on new 7335 kHz at that time. AIR Bhopal was noted on 7430 during afternoon but didn't listen to their frequency announcements, etc. 73, (Gautam Kumar Sharma (GK), Abhayapuri, Assam, via Alokesh Gupta, March 31, dx_india yg via DXLD) ** INDIA. 4850, AIR Kohima (presumed), 1428-1433* and 1456-1518, April 5. Surprised to hear this one, as this transmitter is usually only used for special occasions. Playing pop songs in English (“Shadow Dreams”, etc.) and off. Re-checked later to hear program in assume Hindi with dedications (reading list of names) for subcontinent songs; “Bridge Over Troubled Water” instrumental till switched over to the network news in scheduled Hindi at 1515. Signal strength about the same as when I last heard them. 4970, AIR Shillong, during my monitoring today (April 5) they were noticeably absent. Off frequency? 5050, AIR Aizawl (presumed), 1434 + 1506, April 5. Faintly hear what sounded like the news in English underneath Guangxi FBS; 1506 clearly playing subcontinent songs; very weak, but without the Voice of Strait here now, this has the possibility of reception (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Earlier: 5050, AIR Aizawl, 1338-1503, April 1. This frequency regularly has Guangxi FBS mixing with the Voice of Strait, but with the absence today of the VOS, I could hear a weak AIR Aizawl underneath Guangxi FBS. EZL songs; BoH news in English; 1435 A.I.R. ID; into assume Hindi with subcontinent music. Mostly poor, but with some improvement till lost after 1500. A rare event for me to hear them (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3 Apr, 1620 UT on 7115 assumed AIR in Farsi with that (again) somehow faulty modulated transmitter. Strong. PS. While typing this they went off at around 1626 (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 3976.06, RRI Pontianak, 1255-1311 Mar 31. Sub- continental music; man with local ID at 1259, followed by a drama or play, with animated dialogue. Good signal but ham QRM. 4789.97, RRI FakFak, 1248-1302 Mar 30. Vocal music, YL announcer; 1259 SCI, then Jak news relay. Good signal but CODAR QRM worse than usual (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** INDONESIA [and non]. Checking 9680 again to see if RRI is still clear of the China Radio War: April 1 at 1300 indeed no co-channel, but badly squeezed by 9675 which at 1255 was playing an ``Alleluia`` hymn. I see no such station listed; after 1300 it`s CRI in Russian. And from 9685 before 1300 CRI in Russian, at 1300 CRI IS, and into Vietnamese. Perhaps RRI will dominate over the adjacents on a better day. Anyhow, we had VOI in English stronger and clearer on 9525 with elexion news at 1305 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1454, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9680, RRI Jakarta, 1301-1317, April 1. Per Glenn’s observations in DXLD 9-028: there has indeed been a significant change in the Taiwan/RTI schedule here. Seems they are only on-the-air from 1100- 1300 (ex: 1100-1700). The CNR-1 jamming (heard with pronounced echo), which is used to block Taiwan, was heard at 1113 and 1255- 1301*, after which RRI Jakarta was clear of any direct QRM, but had splatter from a strong 9675, so the reception was only poor to fair. Still this is a vast improvement in RRI reception (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9680, RRI Jakarta, 1157-1205 April 3. This frequency is crowded at this hour with Chinese language, but we are interested in Indonesian. Noted a signal struggling to be heard of popular Indonesian music. At 1159 noted the theme music for RRI Jakarta. Time ticks and ID in Indonesian by a female. News about the G20 is presented. Heard Obama mentioned often. The interference from China continues. It's a real shame that China can't find an open frequency somewhere else. RRI Jakarta continues to be heard well. After 1300 a recheck revealed that China had cleared out (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9524.98, Voice of Indonesia, 1301-1402, April 3, English programming with IDs. News at 1303. ``Indonesian Wonders`` program at 1331. Local pop music. Closing English announcements at 1400 with IDs, address, e- mail address, website. Announced next program was in Malay & into Malay at 1402. Fair signal but poor reception after 1358 due to co- channel QRM from 9525 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM [non]. Pirates--- Mars Warning Station: 6924.8/AM, 2034-2035:10*, 1-Apr; Do not return warning message. SIO=3+53, jumped abruptly to 6950.6. 6924.85/AM, 2100-2106:52*, 1-Apr; repeated warning message. SIO=3+53. 6950.6/AM, 2036-2043:01*, 1-Apr; repeated message, "...Remember this warning. Do not return to Mars. Do not come here. We can and will destroy you, or wipe out your planet if you do not heed us..." SIO=3+33 w/ute pulse (PSE QSL Frodge-MI) 6950.6/AM, 2111-2114+, 1-Apr; repeated Mars warning. SIO=3+53 w/ute pulse (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN. 7235, IRIB, 0145, 4/3/09. English language " V. of Justice" program. Commentary through TOH. News about G20 summit and many mentions of Obama. Several IDs, email and postal addresses given. Signal improved until audio out at 0227:45 (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Perseus SDR, AOR AR7030 Plus, Icom R75, Wellbrook ALA-100 Loop, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN. 15085, VIRI at 1801 April 2, fair in fluttery German as scheduled 1730-1830, 500 kW, 310 degrees from Kamalabad, so also usward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 13750, IRIB Sirjan site, S=9+20dB signal in Bosnian Serbian. But only WEAK 10% modulation level (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [non]. LITUANIA, 5945, Voz de la Rep. Islámica de Irán, Sitkunai, 1832-1837, escuchada el 3 de abril en francés, canto del Cor`án, locutora con presentación, locutor con comentarios, SINPO 45544 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9770 powerhouse S=9+40dB, IRIB Tehran Italian 0630-0727 UT via Sitkunai, LITHUANIA relay (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. MOLDAVIA, 7480, Radio Payem e-Doost, Kishinev- Grigoriopol, 1800-1805, escuchada el 2 de abril en persa, música de sintonía, locutora con ID, locutor con presentación, comentarios acompañado de música de fondo, locutor y locutora con comentarios, referencia a “Irani”, SINPO 45544 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. Radio Farda, Persian/western pop music, April 1 at 1420 on 17670, better than // 17755, and a reverb = few milliseconds apart; during this hour, 17670 is Wertachtal and 17755 is Biblis, GERMANY (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio Farda schedule updated from RL/RFE website April 3. Note some overlapping of times/frequencies. Persian (Farsi) 0030-0300 5860 7280 7295 0233-0530 5860 0233-0400 7280 0233-0330 7295 0330-0900 15690 0400-0500 9635 0500-0600 15255 0530-0900 21715 0600-0900 17845 0845-1400 15690 0845-1000 17845 0845-1200 21715 1000-1400 7435 1200-1500 17755 1400-1500 11520 17670 1445-1529 11520 17755 1445-1500 17670 1500-1529 15410 1530-1700 11520 15410 1530-1600 17755 1600-1700 7340 1633-1700 7340 15410 1633-1730 11520 1700-1745 7580 9760 1730-1745 9855 1800-1900 5820 1800-2000 5830 7580 1900-2000 9505 1945-2029 5830 7580 9505 2030-2130 5830 7580 9505 (Bernie O'Shea, Ottawa, Ontario, April 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [and non]. Iranian Press TV unveiled a new design for its website at http://www.presstv.com/ Looks better than before. At least, it doesn't mimic BBC anymore. You can switch back to a "classic look" and compare. I turned Press TV on earlier today and caught a surreal picture of this Iranian channel interrupting its regular programming to run Obama's speech in Prague live. The US President was reading his elaborate speech off the teleprompter with no Czech interpreter in sight. Less than a quoter of Czechs speak some English. I doubt that people in the crowd got much from Obama's speech but they applauded when they heard Czech Republic mentioned, anyway. There was a bit of unexpected applause when Iran was mentioned, too. Obama's speech was run live with two versions of Russian translation by Russian-language Euronews and Russia's news channel Vesti (Sergei S., Russia, April 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRELAND [non]. 6220, 04/04 1935, AFRICA DO SUL, RTE Radio 1, EE, desde Meyerton, com 250 kW, OM e YL Talk em meio a mx, ocasional QRM de radioamadores [sic], encerramento às 2027 UT por YL que se estende até as 2030; essa escuta foi devido a uma informação do Glenn Hauser, gravado, 34333 (Jorge Freitas, SWL1023B, Feira de Santana Bahia - Brasil, DX LISTENING DIGEST) SOUTH AFRICA via Meyerton 100 kW true north towards all Africa. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) ** ISRAEL [and non]. GZ, 6973 at 0053 under jammer with usual music, Hebrew. 3 April. 73/Liz (Cameron, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Liz, Are they usually jammed? Could you describe what kind? Of could it be some other type of interference. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) This is the first time I've heard them jammed. Sorry I can't post audio. It's just a series of up and down popping tones, for lack of a better term. Don't know the names for all the jammers. 73/(Liz, ibid.) In the morning there's an unidentified Chinese station on Galei Zahal's 15785. If that's a jammer I'm sure they are trying to jam something else - not a 10-kW Hebrew station out of Israel. After 0700 UT Chinese QRM is gone and GZ is heard quite clear throughout E. Europe. The question is: Who is the intended audience and what's the purpose of those broadcasts? Are they really beamed to Europe, as WRTH seems to suggest? (Sergei S., Russia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Never heard jamming of Israel's Hebrew broadcast, the Forces Galei Zahal relay via SW 6973 and 15785 kHz. Maybe Liz noted an UTE station in this 42 mb slot. Galei Zahal Forces Radio noted this morning April 3: 6973.00 S=2 weak at 0515 UT, and later at 0625 UT 15785.00, jamming free. China mainland usually jams the nearby AIR Delhi Chinese sce on 15790 kHz 1130-1315 UT still and in past decade. BUT, CRI registered these Chinese/English transmission in A09 season: Xian 500 kW powerful beast 15785 0100-0200 towards SoEaAS in English. 15785 0300-0500 English, 0500-0700 UT Chinese, towards zones 32 and 33W at 354 degrees. Aimed towards Mongolia, Ulanbataar and Irkutsk, Siberian Russia target (Wolfgang Büschel, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Oddly enough, I was chatting with one of the other moderators of the AM 740 yahoo group. He was born in Israel and does a show from Toronto on an Israeli internet station. He mentioned to me that Galey Tzahal as he put it, is broadcasting a 5 hour program about Cliff Richard tonight Friday, from 5-10 pm Eastern, 2100-0200 UT. If it`s audible in North America tonight as per Liz's report that may help you identify it (Fred Waterer, Ont, ibid.) After listening to Uganda UBC Friday nite music show on 4976 until 2100 UT I tuned to 6973 and indeed after brief news the Cliff Richards show starts. Checking the Galei Tzahal MW frequencies at the same time, all listed 1224/1287/1305/1368 audible here, but no armchair listening (Jari Savolainen, Finland, 2211 UT April 3, ibid.) 1287, Galei Zahal, Ramle (31 50'N 34 50'E) MAR 25 0246 - Instrumental music; poor to fair at times, parallel 6973 kHz (Roy Barstow, Teaticket MA; SDR IQ, SuperLoop at 63 , NRC IDXD via DXLD) 6973.00, Forces Radio Galei Zahal in Hebrew, S=2 weak and noisy, fade out 42 mb at 0515 UT. 15785.00 then at 0625 UT much stronger, jamming free (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Galei Zahal, 6973 at 2330+ with Cliff Richard special. Fabulous reception, in the clear unlike last night. This is probably the most of Cliff Richard anyone usually hears over here. 3 April (Liz Cameron/Michigan, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15785, 04/04 1755, R Galei Zaal, em hebreu, desde Tel Aviv-Yavne, com 5 kW, px de música classica, confirmação da escuta via link http://glz.msn.co.il/Video_galaz.asp --- volta a aparecer depois de um tempo sem propagação dela por aqui, gravado, 35333 (Jorge Freitas, SWL1023B, Feira de Santana Bahia - Brasil, Degen 1103, Antena Dipolo de 16 metros e balum 4:1 em toroide. Direção Leste/Oeste, HCDX via DXLD) ** JAPAN [and non]. The 0000 R. Japan relay on 6145 via Sackville has the RJ Focus show until 0015, then there is a short J-pop feature with snippets of popular songs, as noted 3/31; this also applies to the 2200 broadcast on 13640 for Oceania (Joe Hanlon, NJ, April 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) NHKWNRJ announced last week that World Interactive, the mailbag et al. show would be moving from Saturday to Sunday, so what`s on Saturday? April 4 at 1410 on 11705 via Canada, Pop-Up Japan, the J-pop music magazine with hyper hosts full of phony enthusiasm (or, what are they on?). An immediate turn-off, and a waste of airtime, IMO. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) NHKWNRJ`s Russian service at 0530-0600 is now inbooming on 11715, 35 degrees from Yamata toward E Siberia, and onward to NAm, as noted April 3 at 0537, but also on weaker // 11760 at 330 degrees, and no trace of RHC which had been occupying the frequency until 0700 but not always propagating this late at night. RHC`s online schedule http://www.radiohc.cu/espanol/frecuencia/frecuencias-espanol.htm as usual out of date, ``hasta marzo`` does show 11760 in English at 0500-0700 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JORDAN. UNIDENTIFIED. Who knows what Arabic language station broadcasts every day about 0700 UT on 11960 kHz? There is still no such a station in Aoki database. It is interesting for me because SINPO here is always 55555 and so I wonder where their transmitter is located. ------ 73! (Alexey Zinevich: a DXer from Minsk, Belarus, April 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Alexey, Probably Jordan, aimed your way. I believe there was a recent report they had reactivated a transmitter. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Yes Alexey, Jordan is what you are hearing on 11960. It has been on air daily since the 29th of March, and had (presumably) been testing for a couple of days in the week previous. Listen for six pips on the hour at 0700 (they never quite manage to be completely accurate though) and their ID that includes the words Amman, Mamlaka, Urdoniya and Hashemiya. News follows, and close down is at around 0710. There's a parallel channel 11810, but this is beaming eastwards, and always weak at my location - maybe yours too. There's another transmission on 15290 from around 1045 (often comes on earlier) until around 1130 which is not yet on the Aoki list - also parallel 11810. Time pips, ID and news is heard at 1100. 73 (Noel R. Green (NW England), ibid.) JORDAN, 11960 [alt. 11775] to W Europe, 350 degrees, Radio Amman \\ 11810 at 94 degrees, NE/ME/AS till 0715 UT. And also later the day 1030-1130v on 15290 kHz and 9830 at 1745-2000 towards Spain, NW and W Africa. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) ** KOREA NORTH. 9665, Saturday April 4 at 1507, nice revolutionary music show from KCBS, preferable to but weaker than VOK in stilted, brainwashed English on 9335. In Monitoring Reminders Calendar I have an ancient entry for this at 15-16 UT Sunday, so it`s also on Saturday, and I am not at all sure of its exact scheduling. Who knows, maybe every day, and I am sure there is a lot more of it elsewhen on KCBS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH. Re 9-028: Some excerpts from North Korean TV can be found on Youtube (Kai Ludwig, Germany, April 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. Shiokaze on new 6120, Wed April 1 at 1411, W talking, but too little signal and too much noise to be sure of language, accented English, or Japanese/Korean? We can`t expect decent reception of it this far east in summer on 49m (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn – Was in English, with the usual strong accent (Ron Howard, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) CLANDESTINE - 6120, Shiokaze, *1400-1430* Apr 4. Usual format, with talks in Korean. Good signal but noisy band. Tnx to Ron Howard for locating them on this frequency, after they vacated 5985. (Wilkins-CO) CLANDESTINE - 9965, Furusato No Kaze, 1550-1557* Apr 4. Last part of program in Korean; 1555 closedown routine, including mention of website http://www.rachi.go.jp and noted what sounded like a hybrid Korean/Japanese ID as "Ilbono bangsong Furusato No Kaze"; transmission ended at 1557, followed by instrumental music to 1559, then a World Harvest ID and off at 1600. Guess this is via Palau? (Wilkins-CO) CLANDESTINE - 9780 Fususato No Kaze? *1600-1630* Apr 4. Opening routine, including music from "Sakura." followed by Japanese talks; closedown routine at 1625, including the same website mentioned above; never did catch an ID, though. Shiokaze also reported here (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list, via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. ARMENIA, 7530, Radio Free North Korea, Yerevan- Gavar, 2000-2005, escuchada el 3 de abril en coreano a locutora con comentarios, probablemente con boletín de noticias, referencia a Washington, SINPO 34433 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Missile DX -- Observations on the reaction to the DPRK's missile test. ** KOREA NORTH. Voice of Korea, April 5, 1300-1400 UT, 9335 kHz. I/S, NA. News by OM & YL. The missile, er, satellite, launch was not mentioned until the third headline, and even then it was a direct quote from the Korean Central News Agency, complete with technical stats of the rocket and satellite. Other features included a reading from the Condensed Bio of Kim Il-Sung, some anecdotes from the Kims, messages of praise from foreign listeners, an item on farming, and lots of music. Good, with some QRM from a religious station on 9340 kHz (Jon Pukila, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA SOUTH [non]. KBS W/R, Sackville, April 5, 1200-1300 UT, 9650 kHz. Not a lot of details about the missile launch. News featured condemnations of the launch from the South Korean and U.S. governments, arguments that the launch violates a UN Security Council resolution, and meetings over what to do next. Surprisingly, no missile-related news after an ID at 12:05. K-pop music programme, "K- Pop Interactive" went on as scheduled from 1210 onwards. Good (Jon Pukila, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Music From North Korea --- The scanner scum finally have some programming to listen to. Get those 470 MHz antennas out. Here is an excerpt from the North Korean press release: "The satellite is going round the earth along its elliptic orbit at the angle of inclination of 40.6 degrees at 490 km perigee and 1,426 km apogee. Its cycle is 104 minutes and 12 seconds. "It is sending to the earth the melodies of the immortal revolutionary paeans 'Song of General Kim Il-sung' and 'Song of General Kim Jong-il' and measured information at 470 MHz. By the use of the satellite the relay communications is now underway by UHF frequency band`` (Joe Buch, FL, April 5, Swprograms mailing list via DXLD) Er, but, the US et al. are quite certain no satellite was really launched. If something is axually heard on 470, what next? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KUWAIT. 11990, R. Kuwait English service, April 2 at 1829, music with heavy beat, 1830 accurate 5+1 time signal, news theme and news by YL; unfortunately I was trying to hear it on the lunch table`s DX-390 with inside reel-out antenna only, and that was not enough; just occasional words at fadeups, and by 1839 when I got back to the FRG-7 with external longwire, news was done and back to rap. Who needs that all the way from Kuwait? By 1901 it had faded to just barely audible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11675, R. Kuwait in Arabic 0300-0700 rather weak to different target, but \\ 13650 much better level of S=9+10dB (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LAOS [non]. CLANDESTINE - 11785 Hmong Lao R. via WHRI (presumed) 1320-1329 Apr 5. M in presumed Hmong, followed by quaint Hmong vocal music. Clear until 1327, when a Chinese-language station came on the frequency (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** MALAYSIA/SABAH. Recent log: RTM Malaysia from Kota Kinabalu in MW 1475 kHz broadcasting in Pilipino/Tagalog from 1100 to 1330 UT (Henry Umadhay, location unknown, but in SE Asia? April 2, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** MALAYSIA. 7295, Traxx FM. 1335-1400 Mar 30. Presumed with vocal music, YL announcer in English; at 1245 a ten-minute talk by man on unknown subject; back to music at 1355; usual 2 pips at 1400, then possible news. Fair signal but hard to understand in QRM. SARAWAK, 7270.02, Limbang FM via Kuching, 1400-1422 Mar 29. "Limbang FM" ID a few seconds past ToH, then apparent news to 1408, followed by another Limbang ID and soft vocal music to 1420 tuneout; unsure if they switched to Wai FM sometime during this period. Good signal, and has been good/very good for the past several days around this time. Either Nei Menggu is no longer on this frequency or they are being totally dominated by Kuching (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 7270, April 1 at 1338 with Indo/Malay YL DJ talking as much as she was playing music, ranging from country to march to romantic, still at 1409; presumed RTM`s Wai-FM network, via Kuching, Sarawak, as reported almost daily by Ron Howard, CA, but rarely heard here, and still with QRhaM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5964.92, Klasik Nasional FM via RTM, 1335-1359, April 4. Woman DJ playing wide range of songs (Bee Gees with “How Deep Is Your Love”, Middle Eastern type songs, etc.); usual singing “Klasik Nasional” jingle; covered by strong CRI sign-on (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sarawak FM and Radio Rossii via Yakutsk, 7200: See RUSSIA ** MALI. 7285, Radio Mali, Bamako, 1425-1437, 05-04, canciones africanas, identificación por locutor y locutora: "Radio Mali", comentarios, vernáculo. 34333. En paralelo con 9635, con mejor señal en 31 metros. 45444 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, Escuchas realizadas en Friol, Lugo, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Antena de cable, 10 metros, orientada WSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5995, RTVM, 0745-0801*, April 5, local rustic tribal music. Flute IS at 0800 along with closing French ID announcements. Fair. Scheduled to switch to 9635 at 0800 but only heard a threshold signal on that frequency. 7285 covered by a strong DRM signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. Contrary to the recent item, the times for SINTONÍA LIBRE, Radio Educación`s DX program, per its March 2009 grid, http://www.radioeducacion.edu.mx/ONDAMARZO.pdf here converted to UT days and times now that UT-5 DST is in effect: Wed 0200-0230, Thu 2303-2330, Sun 0345-0415. This is on the SW-only 6185 schedule when programming separates from MW 1060, 2300-0500. However, 6185 transmitter stays on air another four sesquihours relaying MW for which there is a separate grid available; both of them have lots more very good programming, MW also webcast (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6185, Radio Educación, México D. F., 0847-0910, 05-04, música clásica, identificación por locutora a las 0855: "Radio Educación, 1070 Amplitud Modulada, transmite con 100.000 watts de potencia", anuncios de programas de la emisora, canciones caribeñas. 34333 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, Escuchas realizadas en Friol, Lugo, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600 G, Antena de cable, 10 metros, orientada WSW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. AUSTIN ANCHOR FRED CANTÚ RUNS ONLINE MEXICO MEDIA DIRECTORY By Omar L. Gallaga, AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF, Tuesday, March 31, 2009 http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/other/03/31/0331domains.html If you regularly watch Austin anchor Fred Cantú on KEYE-TV 42's news, you probably don't realize you're looking at a Web pioneer. Back in 1994, before most people had e-mail addresses (or knew what to do with them), Cantú was already starting his first Web site, a listing of radio and TV broadcasters in Mexico. In Internet years, 1994 is something like the stone age. Remarkably, in about 15 years, the site, mexicoradiotv.com, hasn't changed that much visually — Cantú keeps a spreadsheet of information and copies that onto his Web site software. It still functions as a comprehensive list of TV and radio stations south of the border. Today, it features links to audio feeds for the radio stations available online and organizes the information by state. We spoke to Cantú about the Web site and Mexico's TV and radio scene: Your site started in 1994? That's extremely early — how did you learn the skills to create a Web site at that time? Anyone remember AOL Press? It was a Web-based publishing program. It created some very basic stuff. But most of my site was tables so I was off to a good start. AOL Press even predates the Geocities.com publishing tools. How often do you update the information on the site and where do you get that information? I update the site as often as new information comes in. I started the site with data from the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes or SCT. That's the Mexican equivalent of our Federal Communications Commission (FCC). As people in México discovered the site, they would update me on changes in their areas. All my updates come from the broadcasters themselves and from radio fans in general. Since I break down the stations state by state and market by market, the broadcasters want to make sure I have the latest info. Some even trust me enough to give me advance notice of changes so that I'll have the correct slogan, logo and Web links from Day One. I do not charge the stations for the listing, so they're eager to get a free plug. What are your favorite broadcasters that are listed on the site? Are you able to find time to listen to any of the radio stations? I have in-laws in Monterrey, so I'm partial to the stations there, especially the Multimedios group. They are a very cutting-edge communications company and operate 15 radio stations, two TV stations and a cable TV system, among other things. Musicwise, I like Spanish pop. But I also love variety, and you never know what you'll hear when you click on a university radio station. I started this site as a service to the listeners, and it continues as such. For Mexicans abroad, there's nothing like a voice from home. What tools do you use to maintain/update the site? Do you do everything by hand or do you use any software to do the Web site? I'll have to confess that my software choices are not cutting edge. But they do what I need them to do. I use Frontpage 2002 to maintain the site and Excel 2000 to maintain the station database. I do a lot of copy-and-paste between the two. I use Photostudio 5 to grab images from a Web page when the station doesn't provide me a logo. That often shames the station into sending me a clean logo. I just checked and found I have collected 2,679 Mexican radio station logos over the years. I also just added Google Adsense to help with the costs of running the site. Every little bit helps. Do you have a sense of who your audience is? Do you get lots of e- mails/feedback from readers? My site serves three very different audiences: 1. Fans of the radio stations at home and abroad. 2. The broadcast industry. This serves as their most up-to-date station directory. 3. DXers. These are a tech- savvy group trying to identify radio signals they are picking up from hundreds or even thousands of miles away. I used to do this when I was young, and this was my original impetus for starting this Web site. What differences do you see between how Mexican radio and TV stations operate and broadcast versus their U.S. counterparts? Mexican stations have some very strict rules to abide by. There are a fixed number of public service announcements and programs they are required to carry. Also, news is very important to radio stations in Mexico. The music-oriented stations often carry the newscasts of a sister station. Another difference is in Mexico you will find a lot more news and talk stations on FM. In Mexico City, one-fourth of the FM stations offer talk programming. Has radio/TV gone through a rough digital transition in Mexico the way it has here? Hybrid Digital Radio, or HD Radio, is just getting started in Mexico. It's only approved for the northern region along the U.S. border. But I don't think anyone has made the leap yet. Digital TV is well- established in the large cities of Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey and along the U.S. border. But no Mexican stations have yet turned off their analog signals. And they won't have to for a while. Their digital cutoff is not scheduled to be completed until 2022 (via Alan Furst, RR TX, ABDX via DXLD) ** MONACO [non]. Longwave Radio Monte Carlo 216 kHz in Roumoules, France is OFF at present, day 1500, night 900 kW. Anti transmitter emission activists and a court in Aix en Provence France forced down the transmission two days ago (Ralf Radermacher, DL9KCG via martin Elbe, A-Dx Apr 1 via Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Reportedly (I can't hear it here in eastern Germany) 216 again came on this morning at 5 AM (0300 UT), the scheduled sign-on time. It is unclear so far what was up. It could have been a scheduled maintenance of which somebody made an April fool's joke about a temporary if not permanent closure. There is also a conspiracy theory: Let's see how many people complain, and if there are little complaints let's get rid of this expensive beast. Anyway co-located 1467 was on also yesterday, as quickly checked before 2200. And it seems that the Roumoules site is indeed subject of a conflict about electromagnetic radiation. It is said that some people in France want to keep this as low profile as possible to protect the Allouis transmitter (France Inter on 162) from getting in trouble, too. Would need some more research, but I fear I have no time for looking up the matter further. [Later:] Meanwhile a couple of reports indicate that 216 is apparently run at only a fraction of full power, some observers guess only a tenth (which would be about 150 kW). I have too little experience with this signal for an own judgement. Anyway there are no signs for reduced power on 1467 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, April 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MONGOLIA. Voice of Mongolia in English heard on March 21, 2009 on 12085 kHz at 1041 UT, S-I-O 3-3-3 (Henry Umadhay, location unknown, but in SE Asia? April 2, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** MYANMAR. 5985.0, Myanma R., 1530-1545, April 1. English ID with frequencies; news (newly accredited ambassadors from Sudan, Sri Lanka and Indonesia today will present their credentials to members of the State Peace and Development Council, etc.); weather; music program. Posted an audio file at “Files > Station Sounds”, at dxldyg. Probably the best I have heard their English segment (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR [and non]. 7200.09, Myanma R, 0030-0041, April 02, Bamar opening announcement, etc. as in DXLD 9-028. Off frequency by 90 Hz as was former 7185. So (un?)fortunately they did move, thank you to Alok Dasgupta for alerting me to this. Around the same time SLBC presumed the open carrier on 7190.10, apparently still there (Martien Groot, Schoorl, Netherlands, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. Salutations, Glenn. I have a reception report. From 0410 to 0427, I was able to listen to Radio Nederland on 5975. The broadcast was in Dutch and was discussing business news, including the Bernie Madoff case and the US stock markets. They signed off at 0426 with the Netherlands national anthem. SINPO was 44344. A surprise to say the least. Hoping you and your tuning conditions are well. -- (Brian Eagen, from New Jersey, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, surprisingly, RN still broadcasts in Dutch to Mexico and Central America via Bonaire. This one starts at 0400 after Turkey finishes with 5975 (gh, DXLD) See also CHINA [non] 9650 collision How true may be that RNW Spanish service on 7325 is via Sines [PORTUGAL]. I caught them closing on that channel at 0157 this Sunday 5 but just for a couple of seconds the DW IS cut transmission abruptly. A late minute change, according to their A-09 Spanish scheme? Spanish 0000-0157 C+SAM 6165bo 7325si 9450si 73. (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) No, I think it`s still Sines, but program feed routed thru DW, which operates the Sines site (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RNW 4/4 2015 not in English --- I'm hearing presumed Arabic now, rather than English to West Africa. Uninterrupted talk by M. Punch-up error at Issoudun, schedule change or QRM? 11610 -- not as good as 17810 used to be from Bonaire, but.... 73 de (Anne Fanelli, WI2G in Elma NY, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. HAPPY STATION: Hi Everyone, The server I use to upload shows after they air developed a problem, but it’s fixed now. 0100 UT March 26, 2009: http://www.radio4all.net:8080/files/kperron@gmail.com/3101-1-happy_station_03:26:09_0100utc.mp3 1500 UT March 26 and April 2nd 0100 UT and 1500 UT, 2009: http://www.radio4all.net:8080/files/kperron@gmail.com/3101-1-happy_station_03:26:09_1500utc.mp3 If any of you run into a problem please let me know. Regards, (Keith Perron, Happy Station, April 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The shows for April 8th are about to be recorded. 0100 to 0155 UT: This show will make many people happy who feel maybe I talk too much. LOL. Mind you some are saying I don't talk enough. LOL! Lots more music this time, plus a song by Tom. This week`s messages come from Canada, US and Malaysia. 1500 to 1555 UT: I'll be joined on the show with Frank Ifield who had such hits as I Remember You, Wayward Wind, Summer Is Over and others. The conversation we had or fireside chat as he put it was over 2 hours. So I've been cutting down to fit into 55 minutes. Now an update for the April 22nd shows. On this date Happy Station will ONLY be at 1500 UT. The reason for that is United Nations Radio [sic] is presenting a special two-hour program for Earth Day. So make note on April 22nd we will only be at 1500 UT. May 6th we will be back at both 0100 and 1500. A few days ago I informed you that Radio Miami International needed to install a new web server. The latest is it will be up and running in a few days. So for those outside the Americas will be able to listen at http://www.wrmi.net (Keith Perron, Taiwan, April 5, thehappystation yg via DXLD) ** NEWFOUNDLAND. 6160, 2017-2040, CANADA, CKZN St. John`s, 02/04, English, OM dialogues by phone (an interview), then some other OM/YL reports with one at 2032 with final words "CBC Saint Johns" after the correspondent's name - fair-poor for this very unusual propagation time and best in USB, QRM from R. Rossii (Arkhangelsk) on the same channel, also later at 2114-2120 with one report about the biggest Canadian airport in Toronto and some other news subjects (fair), and at 2334-2338 with YL/OM talks on soya agriculture (good signal - and it was the first time within my recollection for any Canadian local stations on 49 m.b.) (Mikhail Timofeyev, with Alexander Beryozkin, DXpedition near St. Petersburg, Russia, Icom R75, Antennas: some directional ones beamed to the North, North-East, South-East and West, HCDX via DXLD) see also CANADA: CFRX ** NEW ZEALAND. Sign of things to come in summer: RNZI coming in with good signal on UT-4/3 at 0140 on 15720, during "Dateline Pacific" current affairs program. Also heard RNZI on 4/1 on 11725 before 2051, fair/poor, with features up to birdcall IS and off (Joe Hanlon, NJ, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. Hi Glenn, I send you my last logs from Lünen for your DXLD. [including:] 675 kHz, 1905 30.03.09, Broadcasting Corp. of Oyo State, Ojeowode, English Talk (OM/YL), African Music 22222. 73, (Friedhelm Wittlieb, QTH: Lünen / NRW (near Dortmund), Germany, Grundig Satellit 700 with regenerative loop antenna, member of the addx and medium wave circle uk, http://www.wittlieb-online.de DX LISTENING DIGEST) 25 kW, `irregular or inactive` (WRTH 2009 via DXLD) ** NIGERIA. VOICE OF NIGERIA’S NEW STATION SHOULD BE READY BEFORE 1 OCTOBER The Nigerian Minister of Information and Communications, Prof Dora Akunyili, expressed optimism on Monday that the 5 billion Naira transmitting station of the Voice of Nigeria (VON) would be ready before independence celebrations on 1 October. Akunyili who spoke while inspecting the project at Lugbe, Abuja, expressed delight at the progress of work on the station in the last two years. She promised to ensure that the station’s studio complex at the Central Area in Abuja, was built and operational within three months. “We need to have the studio close to Yar’adua Centre at the Central Area ready, but the place is still under contention. We believe that very soon we will start putting up something there, because we need to shut down the transmitting station in Lagos for renovation,” she said. Malam Abubakar Jijiwa, the station’s Director-General who conducted the minister round the site, said that it would be inaugurated in August. The project, which started in 2007 on 120 hectares of land at Lugbe, is said to be the first of its kind in sub-Sahara Africa. Jijiwa told newsmen after the tour that construction had reached 98 per cent completion while the civil works were 100 per cent ready. “This is going to be the most sophisticated transmitting station in Africa. We have three new transmitters being installed and they are almost ready. We have begun test transmission and latest by August this year, we will be ready for the president to come and commission this project,” he said. The Director-General said that on completion, the project would produce a radio station with capability to broadcast in digital and analogue systems on the short wave band. He explained that the new transmitters would expand the international coverage of the station to be heard worldwide. He added that the station has the capability of a rotating antenna that could send signals to any part of the world. Jijiwa said that the project was faced with two major problems: electric power supply and an unresolved land dispute with the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA). “We need a 33KV line to power the station and I plead with the minister to take this up with her colleague at the energy ministry. The other challenge is that while this station is ready, the connection to the studio complex at Central Area, Abuja cannot be ready, because the land was taken away by the FCDA.” “The equipment and the antennae system to be installed at the site that was already configured for this purpose are lying idle at the transmitting station in Lugbe. We need that land back because even if another land is given to VON for the studio complex, it means the antenna systems will be re-configured at the factory and that is not necessary,” Jijiwa said. (Source: Daily Triumph) Related story: New Voice of Nigeria transmitting station in Abuja ready in Q1 2009 (April 2nd, 2009 - 10:12 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) 2 comments so far: 1 loujosephs April 2nd, 2009 - 15:52 UTC Do you really think after all this time this station will have any listeners? Watching Nigerian international TV is a serious joke. Will the radio be any different? 2 Victor Goonetilleke April 2nd, 2009 - 22:17 UTC Good programmes with a good signal will always have an audience. Mediocre programmes even wih a good signal will not have many listeners. So if the new station can put out a good signal and produce good programmes, it will succeed. Or else will be a waste of money (ibid.) ** NORTH AMERICA. Listening now 0143-0200 UT to pirate station Voice of Doom on 6925 kHz with commentary on a computer game he is playing while broadcasting. Good signal into Petaluma CA SINPO 43344 (Fritz Swackhammer, UT April 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see INTERNATIONAL VACUUM ** NORTH AMERICA. U.S.A. Pirate. 6925 USB, Voice of Doom, 0215-0224*, April 5, constant talk by man. Too weak to understand what he was talking about but did catch an ID at sign off. U.S.A. Pirate. 6925 USB, Blue Ridge Radio, 2330-2345, April 4, bluegrass music. ID. Weak. U.S.A. Pirate. 6923.47 USB, KPR, *0231-0250, April 5, sign on with Mr Sandman song. “KPR, we rock the Rockies” IDs. Music by The Beatles, Shangri-La’s, Ritchie Valens, Beach Boys & others. Fair signal. U.S.A. Pirate. 6925 USB, Dead Cat Radio, *0643-0734*, April 5, sign on with “Lonely Boy” song. Pop/rock music by Eagles, Ted Nugent, Belinda Carlisle and others. Cat meowing & ID at 0734 sign off. Strong, Very good signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. Quite by chance I discovered a new FM station in Enid. At 1625 UT April 2, as I was bandscanning in a store parking lot, came upon WECS on 97.7. WECS??? Turned out to be a loop repeating every 75 seconds, and no, Brucey, I failed to note whether it was in stereo. WECS stands for the Voice of Emmanuel Christian School as per ID also giving frequency. All voiced by kids, having trouble reading the script, which included: please return your report cards, US population in 1860, happy birthday greetings to several individuals in the week of March 30-April 4, citing Titus II: 7-8. Turned out this was from the closest thing in Enid to a mega-church (a kilo-church?), Emmanuel Baptist, in the same block. Signal was noisy and at first I thought it was adjacent channel slop from 97.5, but as we drove closer the noise was still there, so apparently being broadcast that way. We spotted a ground plane on the roof, seemingly flanked by loudspeakers, but could not hear any audio by compression aeronautical propagation in the parking lot. The antenna looked to be a bit higher than several lightning rods elsewhere on the extensive roof, which may mean ``WECS`` is blessed by God. It really must be very low power, as range on the caradio is about one km, not including the nearest intersexion with RF-noisy traffic lights. Cannot detect it on a portable at home several times that distance, but instead a spur or mixing product from licensed gospel-huxter translator on 98.3. Per FCC FM Query, the REAL WECS is: WECS 211 A FM 90.1 MHz LIC WILLIMANTIC CT US BMLED-20060227AEK - 18298 0.43 kW 116. m EASTERN CONNECTICUT STATE COLLEGE I had never heard of Enid`s `WECS`, tho I confess to not reading thoroughly the extensive religious news pages in the Enid Eagle, where coverage of local broadcast media is spotty, to say the least. And searching their archive on the call turns up nothing. The kids had a strange accent, from excessive non-public schooling or perhaps transplants from the East where they would think a faux W-call is what they should come up with in K-land (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. KOKC, 1520, Oklahoma City, no longer a dominant nighttime signal here in Enid, scarcely 150 km away; in its infinite wisdom, the FCC has authorized many stations to operate at night on 1520, mostly less than 1 kW and somewhere east of OK, west of NY. But all this crud adds up to make 1520 sound like a regional channel, as 0549 April 4 in Midnight Radio Network. Not only co-channel rumble, but SAH from what must be the strongest interferer, plus IBOC hash from WLAC-1510, which was also audible against KSTP-1500. Yet KOMA ought to do better against all this if it is really running 50 kW direxional covering the western half of N America. I strongly suspect they are not, perhaps on the backup 5 kW(?) as has happened before; and/or non-direxional accounting for making it to Europe under WWKB recently (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. Brief Tulsa radio update --- KAKC-1300 apparently has turned *off* their IBOC QRM generator. First noted about 3 weeks ago. KRMG-740 now simulcasting on 102.3 FM. Again, first noted about 3 weeks ago. ID at TOH now "KRMG FM 102.3 Sand Springs and KRMG AM Tulsa" with new slogan as just "News Talk KRMG" (Bruce Winkelman, Tulsa, OK, April 4, ABDX via DXLD) ** OMAN. 15140, Radio Sultanate of Oman, 1427-1445, April 4, Presumed. Tune-in to pop music. Usual theme music & English news at 1431. Heard their usual theme music at various times during the news broadcast but too weak to hear a real ID. Threshold-very weak signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. TRIBESMEN RIOT AFTER SUSPECTED TALIBAN DESTROY RADIO STATION PESHAWAR: Hundreds of tribesmen in South Waziristan’s Wana headquarters ransacked government buildings in the area hours after suspected Taliban blew up a two-room state-run FM radio station on Friday. Talking to Daily Times, eyewitnesses said authorities deployed security forces several hours after the attack. “Suspected Taliban destroyed the station during the early hours of Friday after taking away the equipment in it,” local administration officials in Wana said on condition of anonymity. A tribal journalist in Dera Ismail Khan also confirmed the destruction of the radio station. “Hundreds of tribesmen took away everything they could get their hands on, including the bricks of the radio station, construction material and office equipment,” the eyewitnesses added, saying no government forces had attempted to stop the people from doing so. However, they said army and paramilitary forces were deployed in the area several hours later and took control of Wana’s Rustam bazaar after local residents shuttered their shops. “Nothing was left on the ground,” said one resident. “I saw people taking broken bricks and office chairs,” he added. Suspected Taliban attacked the building at 2am on Friday. In the third attack on the station since its establishment in 2004, they removed all the equipment and then blew up the building. Local residents said the station had stopped airing music after being threatened by Taliban and had been broadcasting commentary on development projects, sports news and Islamic teachings for the past two years. The station had been airing six hour of programming daily, they added. According to eyewitnesses, the attackers allowed two security personnel guarding the station to leave. The tribal journalists, meanwhile, said the motive for destroying the station was still unknown. The federal government had set up a number of FM stations in different tribal regions where Taliban or Al Qaeda-linked militancy had made it difficult for independent journalists to do their jobs (Daily Times via Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DXLD) FM, but WTFK?? (gh) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3905, R. New Ireland 1221-1300 Apr 4. Presumed with island and choral vocal music, occasional M in Pidgin. Program ended around 1300; carrier went off around 1310 per re-checks. Fair signal, ham QRM (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100- foot RW, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** PERU. 4774.97, 0202-0208, R. Tarma, 03/04, Spanish, OM/YL and talks with mention of "Tarma' and "Buenas noches", folk music – fair with QRM from some unknown signal near 4775 like a distorted bird song (Mikhail Timofeyev, with Alexander Beryozkin, DXpedition near St. Petersburg, Russia, Icom R75, Antennas: some directional ones beamed to the North, North-East, South-East and West, HCDX via DXLD) CODAR! ** PERU. 3329.59, Ondas del Huallaga, Huánuco 1020 to 1040; 0000 to 0030 noted every day in April with weak signal troubled by CHU. Good Peru music noted; need IF notch or very narrow filter. 4805, Radio Rasuwilca, 1035 noted with strong signal and CODAR absent, "CP flauta andina", om brief ID, back to music. 1053 CODAR faded back in and dominated. 5 April. 73s (Bob Wilkner, Pompano Beach, Florida, US, NRD 535D modified; Drake R8 reconditioned by Drake, Sony 2010 modified, various antennas, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4805, R. Rasuwilca. Usual campesina music at 1008, 5 April. 1011 short canned ID by animated M "?? ??do R. Rasuwilca, 4805 kHz onda corta", and back to campo music. Best since heard with ID the last time. Has a very distorted carrier and impossible to zero-beat. Listening in AM is a must (Dave Valko, JRC NRD-535D, Hammarlund HQ-129X, Eton E1, T2FD, Windom, Dunlo, PA, USA, HCDX via DXLD) ** PERU. Florida group logs in band scan 2330 to 0000 from Pómpano Beach, Boca Ratón and Cedar Key: 4990.8v, Radio Manantial, Huancayo 5460.1, Radio Bolívar, Cd. Bolívar 73s (de Bob Wilkner, April 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also BOLIVIA ** PERU. 9719.99, Radio Victoria, Lima, 0425-0510, April 4, Spanish religious talk. Phone talk. Government required National Anthem at 0500:30. Lite instrumental music at 0503. Very weak. Much better on // 6019.35 - but with adjacent channel splatter (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. PBS (Philippine Broadcasting Service) 6170 kHz relay of MW 1278 kHz in Manila, DWRM Radyo Magazine from 0000-0400 UT, PBS Radyo ng Bayan Network. ``Recent log`` from (Henry Umadhay, location unknown, but in SE Asia? April 2, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** PRIDNESTROVYE. Hi Glenn, After a few days looking for Radio PMR's summer frequency, came across it at 2226 on 9665 kHz. I guess it is 2215-2230 English 2230-2300 in French and German. Voice of Russia, I presume is carried 9665 khz from 2300 onwards, which comes in really well, with good audio too, both PMR and VOR. Best Wishes (Chris Lewis, UK, April 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Or you could have read about it already in DXLD 9-028 J (gh, DLXD) ** ROMANIA. RRI English to NAm: 2200, 9675 hit by French on 9665 [PMR], 9790 poor; 0000 6135 fair, hit by 6140 RHC; 9580 good (Bob Thomas, Bridgeport CT, March 29 by p-mail, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Aren`t you hearing co-channel Serbia on 9580? (gh) R. Romania Int 0000 UT 9580 kHz is having severe QRM from an unidentified broadcaster also on 9580. Makes listening difficult to impossible when I listened April 1, 2009. 6135 kHz not much better. 73, (Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, Manassas, Virginia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) As I have been reporting, it`s Serbia on 9580, which we are trying to get to move elsewhere, and apparently it will; see SERBIA (gh, DXLD) ** ROMANIA [and non]. 11970, April 2 at 1816 a collision between a station with Farda-like song, and some romance language. Looking it up later, I see we have Bible Voice Broadcasting via Jülich, GERMANY in Persian at 100 degrees, and RRI in Romanian at 285 degrees, a `share` that may look OK on paper, but crossing beams are not likely to be interference free in the target-areas either. However, I thought I heard ``Family`` and ``Oakland`` mentioned, so really YFR instead of BVB? At 1900 RRI was alone, VG with news in Romanian (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ROMANIA. There was A-09 schedule of RRI with Macedonian service instead of Aromanian. Here we see Aromanian language again. I've already checked twice: at the beginning of the program they call the language somehow like [armaneshti], which probably means Aromanian. ----- 73! (Alexey Zinevich: a DXer from Minsk, Belarus, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ROMANIA. 11810, R. Romania International, 2045-2056*, 4 April. Classical music by the Romanian Engineers' Orchestra. Tourism feature on a historic region. Good, but CCI BBCWS Ascension which was not much bother, being far weaker (Paul Brouillette, Geneva, IL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [and non]. Strange goings-on at Montsinéry relay: UT-3/31, 7395 was all in Russian at 01-05; on 4/1 I heard VOR in Spanish at 0115 on this same channel. What happened to the VORWS relay that was promised? A schedule had suggested it would be using 9735 at 03-05. Heard warmup tones from FE site before 0200 on 15425, since VORWS in English goes on-air at that time; SIO varied between 242/343 but signal faded out after 02 when programming started (Joe Hanlon, NJ, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. 12065, April 1 at 1311, VOR as scheduled in A-09, translating something from Russian into English, and then discussing Gogol`s ``The Inspector General``; fair with flutter. Could be Chita site. I hope it`s working better on the west coast, but the only frequency now on the VOR English to NAm schedule between 0400 and 0600, 13775, was inaudible the first night I tried; April 2 at 0534 it was just barely audible with music, and I could recognize the voice of a VOR announcer, but that`s it. This is from a Far East site, listed as Vladivostok, a far cry from the abandoned Montsinéry. VOR, 9850, Saturday April 4 at 1508 in English talk about the bicentennial of Gogol this year, which explains why they keep talking about him; evidently the 11-minute news-on-the-hour is a pastthing from VOR. This was originally planned to be Samara site, but at this hour I thought Far East more likely (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. Voice of Russia on 9890 kHz from 0200 to 0300 UT in English Received this broadcast on both April 1st and April 3rd. However, it is not listed on the VOR A09 schedule posted at: http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&w=129&p= or on the VOR A09 schedule supplied by Alokesh Gupta to dxldyg on March 27th. Those schedules indicate that VOR's English language 9890 kHz broadcast occurs from 2200 to 0200 UT only. Reception of the 9890 kHz, 0200-0300 UT broadcast was good on both days and // with 9665 kHz. The 9665 kHz broadcast is listed in the VOR A09 schedules and has a target of Central and South America (Bill Hodges, Atlanta, GA, Kenwood R-2000, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tonight I found VOR was on 7285 while checking before 0300 and RMR was coming equally strong on 7270, but went off at TOH. Where have they gone? BTW, another powerful signal on 7375 I couldn't identify in something sounding like Russian too. 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, UT April 4, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7375 = CROATIA via GERMANY ** RUSSIA. Voice of Russia DRM --- As someone suggested, I wrote to VoR about their DRM broadcasts to Europe, and got the reply as quoted below. However, today, 15-16 UT, 12040 is in AM! 73, (Erik Koie, Copenhagen, April 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Dear Mr Koie, Thank you for your letter, it was nice to hear from you again after a long time and know that you keep tuning in to the Voice of Russia's broadcasts. Your complaint, along with those of other VOR listeners, about the deterioration of reception quality of the VOR transmissions to Europe will be forwarded to the Head of the VOR Technical Department. I truly hope the frequency schedule will be revised as a result. In the meantime, I am sending you my very best wishes and hope to hear from you again. Sincerely yours, Elena Osipova, Letters Department, World Service, Voice of Russia (via Køie, ibid.) ** RUSSIA. RUVR A09: a question --- Does someone know whether there is Hungarian Service of RUVR on shortwave in this season? It was not mentioned in the list of SW-cancelled services but there is no new schedule on their website either. 73! (Alexey Zinevich: a DXer from Minsk, Belarus, April 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Unfortunately, VOICE OF RUSSIA CANCELLED RADIO XMISSIONS IN HUNGARIAN. It is now a web-only service, with only of 6,7 minutes of mp3 audio, available on website. That audio contains is a news update, uploaded only once per day. 73 (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, ibid.) ** RUSSIA. LA VOZ DE RUSIA SERVICIO INFORMATIVO EN ESPAÑOL MARZO 29 / 2009 - OCTUBRE 24 / 2009 Estimado oyente: Nuestro servicio en castellano transmite diariamente, un programa de una hora a partir de las 2000 para España (hora UT). Las emisiones para América Latina se realizan entre las 0000 y las 0500 UT. FRECUENCIAS DE EMISIONES PARA ESPAÑA UTC 2000-2100 7440 7310 5920 FRECUENCIAS DE EMISIONES PARA AMÉRICA: UTC 0000-0100 11510 9880 9810 7300 0100-0200 11510 9810 9880 9945 7300 7395 0200-0300 9880 9945 7300 7395 0300-0400 9880 9945 7300 7395 0400-0500 9880 9945 7395 A través de Internet Ud. puede escucharnos sin interferencias las 24 horas al día en Real Audio. En nuestro Website Ud. encontrará el horario de las emisiones, varias fotografías de nuestro colectivo, el resumen de los programas con breves características de cada uno, así como los anuncios de las ediciones más interesantes. Además de cartas electrónicas (E-Mail), Ud. puede enviarnos sus preguntas y sugerencias con ayuda de cartas sonoras (Voice Mail). EMISIONES EN ONDA CORTA PARA AMÉRICA Y ESPAÑA: [NOTE: times after 0000 are presumably the next UT day, i.e. local days in Américas, as presented in this order, but not positively so] Lunes 2000 Noticias, El Mundo Al Dia, Crónica, Encuentros Con La Música, Noticias 0000 Noticias, El Mundo Al Dia, Crónica, Del País Del Abedul 0100 Noticias, Programa Juvenil, Encuentros Con La Música, Enfoque Iberoamericano, Noticias 0200 Noticias, El Mundo Al Día, Crónica, Del País Del Abedul 0300 Noticias, Programa Juvenil, Encuentros Con La Música, Enfoque Iberoamericano 0400 El Mundo Al Día, Crónica, Del País Del Abedul, Noticias Martes 2000 Noticias, El Mundo Al Dia, Crónica, Correo, Noticias 0000 Noticias, El Mundo Al Dia, Correo, Crónica 0100 Noticias, Moscú Y Los Moscovitas, Enfoque Iberoamericano 0200 Noticias, El Mundo Al Día, Correo, Crónica 0300 Noticias, Moscú Y Los Moscovitas, Enfoque Iberoamericano 0400 El Mundo Al Día, Correo, Crónica, Noticias Miércoles 2000 Noticias, El Mundo Al Dia, 20 Minutos En Rusia, Noticias 0000 Noticias, El Mundo Al Dia, Crónica 0100 Noticias, 20 Minutos En Rusia, Enfoque Iberoamericano 0200 Noticias, El Mundo Al Día, Crónica 0300 Noticias, 20 Minutos En Rusia, Enfoque Iberoamericano 0400 El Mundo Al Día, Crónica, Noticias Jueves 2000 Noticias, El Mundo Al Dia, Linea Abierta, Noticias 0000 Noticias, El Mundo Al Dia, Correo, Linea Abierta 0100 Noticias, Del País Del Abedul, Panorama, Enfoque Iberoamericano 0200 Noticias, El Mundo Al Día, Correo, Línea Abierta 0300 Noticias, Del País Del Abedul, Panorama, Enfoque Iberoamericano 0400 El Mundo Al Día, Correo, Línea Abierta, Noticias Viernes 2000 Noticias, El Mundo Al Dia, Moscú Y Moscovitas, Noticias 0000 Noticias, El Mundo Al Dia, Moscú Y Los Moscovitas 0100 Noticias, Panorama, Enfoque Iberoamericano 0200 Noticias, El Mundo Al Día, Crónica, Moscú Y Los Moscovitas 0300 Noticias, Panorama, Enfoque Iberoamericano 0400 El Mundo Al Día, Crónica, Moscú Y Los Moscovitas, Noticias Sábado 2000 Noticias, El Mundo Al Dia, Linea Abierta, Revista Cultural, Noticias 0000 Noticias, El Mundo Al Dia, Revista Cultural 0100 Noticias, Linea Abierta, En El Mundo De La Ciencia, Enfoque Iberoamericano 0200 Noticias, El Mundo Al Día, Revista Cultural 0300 Noticias, Línea Abierta, En El Mundo De La Ciencia, Enfoque Iberoamericano 0400 El Mundo Al Día, Revista Cultural, Noticias Domingo 2000 Noticias, Resumen Informativo De La Semana, Correo, Revista Cultural, Noticias 0000 Noticias, Resumen Informativo De La Semana, Revista Cultural 0100 Noticias, Enciclopedia De Rusia, Enfoque Iberoamericano 0200 Noticias, Resumen Informativo De La Semana, Revista Cultural 0300 Noticias, Enciclopedia De Rusia, Enfoque Iberoamericano 0400 Resumen Informativo De La Semana, Revista Cultural, Noticias (Voz de Rusia via Juan Franco Crespo, Spain, April 2, corrected and tidied up by Glenn Hauser for DX LISTENING DIGEST) What`s an Abedul? ** RUSSIA [and non]. April Fool's Jokes and Memories Russia's Ren-TV announced in its newscast today a bold financial initiative for G20 summit: switching of the world reserve currency from the US dollars to Zimbabwean ones. This controversial tradition of placing goofy news items into serious newscasts or publications on April 1 affected the USSR for the first time in 1988 or 1989. The first joke run by venerable Izvestia daily was about an open admission to the Soviet space exploration program. According to that news report, from now on every Soviet worker could apply to become a cosmonaut. The only requirements were a satisfactory health report prepared by a prospective cosmonaut's local clinic (poliklinika) and a good recommendation from the local trade union section (profsoyuz). The story was immediately picked up by China's Xinhua news agency. Next morning it was carried by China's domestic radio service. At that time much of the Chinese-language radio output (local Chinese radio services, R. Beijing, BBC, VoA, R. Australia, VoFC, RCI, etc.) was carefully monitored by the Soviet "radioperekhvat" service in Khabarovsk. The important news from Moscow was quickly translated back into Russian and carried to "radioperekhvat" subscribers in the upper echelons of the Soviet government. As always, one copy of the report went to the program director of Radio Moscow Chinese Service. After some investigation the Xinhua news was proved to be an echo of the Soviet joke and people at RM Chinese Service enjoyed a good laugh. As a volunteer at the Service, I heard of that curious development, too. Actually that's how I found out that there were those daily radio monitoring reports :) Later, the elderly program director graciously allowed me look over some of them. I wasn't allowed to read though, as every report had an inscription: Top Secret! Today I got a good laugh from watching this funny video of Hitler's views of ham radio. I guess, some of those jokes apply to DXers, too. If you speak German I guess it's better to turn the sound off and just read the captions. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiVlvciPZx4 (I hope the vid won't hurt anyone's sensitivities). And if you feel a bit nostalgic, listen to this recording: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKOii0JRiEk Most likely, the recording is from 1987 or 1988. Yes, it's Vasily Strelnikov' Listeners' Requests Club. Note the announcement of RMWS broadcasting on 1040 AM for listeners in the US! Cuba isn't mentioned. Has anyone managed to QSL that? :) Cheers, (Sergei S., Moscow, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [non?]. Radio Mayak on SW! Booming in right now on 7520 kHz (Sergei S., Moscow, 1342 UT April 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Oops! Transmitter on 7520 went off abruptly at 1344 UT. A very short transmission, indeed. I listened to it for less than 10 minutes. A powerful signal and good modulation. Could that have been a rough test from Ukraine? Yesterday there was RUI with a huge signal on 7530 from 13 UT but I didn't hear it today. Nothing was on 5840, either. Ukraine's home service on 5970 gets in well. A few minutes after Mayak went off, I discovered an open carrier on 7530. I guess RUI will start at 14 UT towards Russia (Sergei S., ibid.) And in which city do you here it? (Here, in Minsk, nothing on 7520 kHz - 13:56 UTC.) 73! (Alexey Zinevich: a DXer from Minsk, Belarus, ibid.) OK, it's Radio Netherlands to SE Asia in English on 7530 from 14 UT via Tashkent (Sergei S, ibid.) And now it is on, very weak here but presumably them, beaming away to eastern Siberia. Btw, they are using only one frequency at once but RRT runs them with two transmitters alternately. So for the frequency/beam changes the new frequency can well be already on with open carrier while the old one is still running (Kai Ludwig, ibid.) ** RUSSIA [and non]. 7200, R. Rossii via Yakutsk, 1246 + 1333, April 2 and 3. Heard with a fairly good signal and only some ham QRM. Was checking on Bob Padula report via Cumbre DX that Sarawak FM is now on 7200 (ex 7130). I heard Sarawak FM on their last day on 7130 (March 30). The next day they were gone from that frequency and for several days I scanned the 41m band. I can understand now why I didn’t find them, because if Sarawak FM is on 7200, they are covered by R. Rossii. April 2 and 3 only hear R. Rossii, with no hint of Sarawak underneath. Both are scheduled through 1700. The other stations that carry R. Rossii programming on 5920, 5940 and 7320 all sign-off at 1300, but not Yakutsk (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [and non]. 7200, R. Rossii via Yakutsk, 1403-1420, April 4. Still looking for Sarawak FM here. Did hear a very weak station under R. Rossii, but am almost positive it was not Sarawak, as it was not parallel to 5030, where I was hearing Sarawak FM under CNR-1. When 5030 went to music, the unidentified station under R. Rossii continued with talking. Do not know if it will ever be possible to catch Sarawak here under R. Rossii, so for now 5030 is the only frequency that works for me (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [non]. Re: UNIDENTIFIED. 11945, with a bad collision, April 2 at 1812, music and talk, but hard to make out details. Apparently during this hour we have NHK in Japanese via Issoudun, France, and CVC in Russian via Jülich, Germany (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CVC definitely was there booming in. I didn't even notice any co- channel. --- 73! (Serghey Nikishin, Moscow, Russia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, excellent signal in Moscow up to 20 UT on 11945. Programming: a live relay of an online X-Radio out of the city of Tambov http://xradio.su It's a formerly pirate station. E-mail given on the air: xradio(at)cvc.tv. X-Radio announces that its SW broadcasts are sponsored by CVC. Previously published schedule: 1200-1600 on 11770 JUL 100 kW / 060 deg, not yet active 1600-1800 on 13640 JUL 100 kW / 060 deg, not yet active 1800-2000 on 11945 JUL 100 kW / 060 deg, not yet active (Sergei S., ibid.) And on their website (in Russian) they announce that they are interested in knowing the demand for shortwave programs in Europe and Russia, and to a forum question by Mr. "Dx-Line" they replied that they will reply to reception reports "not only with a [QSL] card". The broadcasts coincide with the 2nd anniversary of the station. Their boss (nickname ProtivZla, which means "Against evil") seems to be into the radio hobby. So if you hear them, let them know! Address: ul. Polynkovskaya, 156 392 028 Tambov Russia Email: xradio (at) tmb (dot) ru 73, (Eike Bierwirth, CO, ibid.) I heard them yesterday: 1310 UT - 11770 kHz - SINPO in Minsk: 45554. They called their name (Iks-Radio), their sponsor (CVC) and then there was a game, something like: "Win iPod by answering a question: "What are you afraid of in your life?"" They also said that they are broadcasting in 22 and 25 metrebands. ------ 73! (Alexey Zinevich: a DXer from Minsk, Belarus, April 5, ibid.) Eike: On the air XRadio only announces an address in Moscow, a P. O. Box run by CVC. I think it's better to go through CVC channels with a possible copy to Tambov people. It's really up to CVC if those SW test broadcasts will continue (Sergei S, Moscow, ibid.) Yes, correct 11770 1200 1600 29N JUL 100 60 13640 1600 1800 29N JUL 100 60 11945 1800 2000 29N JUL 100 60 and English to East Africa too, proper signal noted even in southern Germany last week. 17770 1400-2100 47E,48W,53NW JUL 100 145 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) More about 17770 under GERMANY (gh) ** RUSSIA. Re: Voice of Russia German screwed up On Wednesday or Thursday (April 1/2) 693 (Zehlendorf) has been switched to another feed with VoR German and Mezhdunarodnoye Russkoye Radio, and today I had an opportunity to verify that it now indeed carries Polish between 1700-1800, // 1143 from Bolshakovo. However, 1323 (Wachenbrunn) is still "all English, all the time", contrary to all published schedules I have seen so far. Around 1650 I noted VoR English on 11755 if I recall correct (I was out in the countryside and did not take notes). Signal not bad but not a full-blown powerhouse, so could be for another target area like Africa (Kai Ludwig, April 4, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. RMR 7270 remain on the air after 0200, but with weaker signal tonight, seem from a different transmission site. 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, UT April 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) While tuning the 41m ham and broadcast band this Sunday morning (April 5) I found a weak and extremely fluttery signal on 7200 at around 0645 UT. It slowly improved, and by 0700 I was able to ID it as Radio Rossii, and parallel with 12070 from 'Moscow', although 7200 was slightly behind. From almost nothing at 0645 the signal reached about S4 to 5 by 0710 - still very fluttery - and it was possible to hear that 7200 had a different programme to 12070. I assume this is still Yakutsk, and that at 0710 they might have a local Sakha programme. 7345 was a similar fluttery signal, but weaker. And yet another fluttery signal was audible on 7320 - Magadan I assume - but weak, and with only a trace of audio. 7200, 7320 and 7345 are usual winter signals, and less common - at this hour - at this time of the year. (Noel R. Green (NW England), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) "MEDIACOM DIGEST" # 253, 5 April 2009 Editor : Pavel Mikhaylov, Moscow, Russia ---------------------------------------------------------- RUSSIA. Moscow. Voice of Russia. Russian. A09. Europa : 0600-1500 - 999 0800-1000 and 1200-1300 - 9730 DRM* 1300-1400 - 9750 DRM* 1600-1800 - 999, 7310 1700-1800 - 630, 999, 1431, 1575 1700-2000 - 11630 1800-1900 - 1494 1800-2000 - 7310 1900-2100 - 1215 2000-2300 - 999 2100-2200 - 630, 693, 1323, 1431, 1575 Moscow 1900-2000, 2100-2200 - 612 Australia and New Zealand 1200-1400 - 12030, 15660 Central America 0100-0300 - 7260 Asia 0200-0400 - 15735 DRM* 15585, 15755 1200-1400 - 1143, 1503, 9745, 12030 1300-1400 - 12055 1500-1600 - 1251, 12055 1500-2000 - 1503 Southeast Asia 1200-1300 - 7390 1200-1400 - 15660 Near and Middle East 0100-0300 - 972, 1503 0100-0400 - 648 0600-1100 - 864, 1377 1100-1200 - 648 1200-1400 - 864, 1143, 1377 1200-1500 - 13755,13870 1200-2000 - 1503 1300-1400 - 15540 1400-1500 - 11985 1400-1600 - 1170 1500-1600 - 1251 1700-1800 - 15540 1700-1900 - 1170 1700-2000 - 648 1800-1900 - 11610 1900-2100 - 12055 2000-2100 - 1170 ??? The Baltics 0700-1500 - 1170 1700-2000 - 11630 Belarus 0700-1500 - 1170 1600-2000 - 7310 1800-2000 - 1413 Ukraine and Moldova 0600-0800, Sat - Sun : 0800-0900, 0900-1500, 1600-1800, 2000-2300) - 999 1200-1500 - 1548 The countries of the CIS in Central Asia 0100-0300 - 972, 1503 0100-0400 - 648 0200-0300 - 7410 0500-0700, 0900-1200 - 972 0600-0800, 1100-1200 - 648 1200-1400 - 1143, 15660 1200-2100 - 1503 1300-1400 - 1251 1300-1700 - 12055 1400-1800 - 9800 1600-1900 - 1026 1700-1800 - 5925 1700-2000 - 648 ??? The countries of the CIS in region of Caucasus 0300-1500 - 1377 1200-1500 - 13755, 13870 1400-1800 - 1089 1400-1500 - 11985 1400-1900 - 1170 1800-1900 - 11610 1900-2000 - 1089, 12055 2000-2100 - 1170, 12055 Mezhdunarobnoe Russkoe Radio Europa 0200-2200 - 621 1200-1500 - 630, 693, 1323, 1431, 1575 1500-1800 - 1494 1700-1900 - 7300 1900-2100 - 630, 693, 1431, 1575 2100-2300 - 1215 Central America 0100-0300 - 7250 0300-0400 - 9480 Near and Middle East 0100-0900 - 801 0300-0500 - 1170 0300-1200 - 1314 1000-1200 - 1323 1100-1200 - 801 1400-1500 - 15540 1500-1700 - 801, 15430 1700-2200 - 5925 1800-1900 - 1323 1800-2200 - 1143 2000-2200 - 1314 2100-2200 - 864 The Baltics 0000-0400 - 1170 1500-1800 - 1494 Belarus 0000-0400 - 1170 0800-1000 - 1215 1200-1700, 1800-2100 - 1143 Ukraine and Moldova 0200-2200 - 621 Central Asia 0100-0900, 1100-1200, 1500-1700 - 801 1000-1200, 1800-1900 - 1323 2300-0200 - 1026 Caucasus and Transcaucasia 0200-0400 - 1089 0300-0500 - 1170 0300-1200, 2000-2200 - 1314 1400-1700 - 15540 1700-2200 - 5925 Internet : http://www.ruvr.ru (via RusDX via DXLD) ** SAINT HELENA [non?]. Re 9-029, reported heard in Uruguay, maybe it was really Grigoriopol, on 1548 kHz? Horacio admits it could have been Horácio, Monitorei a frequência de 1548 kHz agora há pouco, entre 0320 e 0420 UT. Havia o tempo todo uma leve portadora e uma voz feminina em inglês surgiu as 0350 durante alguns segundos. Certamente não se tratava de Radio Sawa do Kuwait (o sol esta já bem alto neste horário e opera so' em arabe) e acho pouco provável também o tx moldavo de Grigoriopol, pelo sotaque e porque a ultima schedule da VoR não confirma transmissões neste horário. Alguns anos atrás escutei a Radio Islam, Africa do Sul nesta frequência, aqui no Rio. Acho que esta escuta pode ser possível nesta temporada na nossa madrugada, enquanto o sol já surgiu nas localidades das duas emissoras dominantes que acabei de mencionar, e a AFS ainda está na escuridão. A propagação da noite era favorável para a Africa, com sinais nos 567 e 657 bastante bons. A TWR Benin nos 1566 era forte também, depois do s/on das 0255. Não havia sinais da Europa e os mais comuns do Oriente Medio eram muito fracos. Taiwan era presente nos 1503 e 1557, mas so' na hora do por do sol. Tenho a gravação desta voz feminina em inglês: não se trata de um sotaque clássico BBC English, mas pode bem ser do WS, que usa normalmente vozes masculinas e femininas "locais" nos seus programas para a Africa. Nesta altura tudo pode ser, também se continuo achando difícil uma recepção de Sta Helena no nosso continente até os amigos dxistas da Africa do Sul não ouvirem a estação com a relativa facilidade devida a curta distancia. Vou entrar em contato com eles e vou continuar monitorando o canal. No mesmo tempo, te pediria Horacio de conferir o outros canais mais comuns da Africa, como aqueles que mencionei. Não existe dxismo magico em onda media sem um pattern de propagação bem definido, te garanto. Escuto radio há 35 anos, as ultimas duas decadas so' em onda media. Não pode entrar Sta Helena num ultralight sem que pelo menos o Benin nos 1566 - interferências locais permitindo - esteja presente também com os seus 100 kW (Rocco Cotroneo, Rio de Janeiro, April 1, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Monitorei a frequência de 1548 kHz nas ultimas trés noites aqui no Rio de Janeiro para tentar esclarecer as duvidas sobre a presumida escuta de Radio Sta Helena pelo nosso colega uruguaio Horacio Nigro. Primeiramente uma anotação sobre as condições de propagação. Nestes dias a hora do por-do-sol está oferecendo aqui no Rio alguns sinais da Africa e da Asia. Nos 1548 a potente emissora moldava de Grigoriopol traz o programa da Voice of Russia em italiano ao redor das 21 UT. Porem no horário que nos interessa neste discussão (0300-0400), a situação não è tao favorável. Somente o Benin nos 1566 chega a níveis de compreensibilidade enquanto nada aparece da Europa se não algumas portadoras. Situação bastante normal nesta época no ano aqui no Sudeste do Brasil. Mesmo assim, nos 1548 alguma coisa interessante acontece. A portadora ganha força depois das 0315-0320, entram algumas vozes com longo fading e depois tudo some depois das 0400. Exatamente o que observou Horacio. O que escutei (mal) nestes trés dias foram trechos de musica clássica e algumas vozes: uma vez em inglês, outras vezes numa língua eslava, provavelmente russo. E' interessante observar um mapa da greyline: è exatamente nesta media hora que o sol surge na Moldávia. Trata-se do fenômeno chamado "dawn enhancement", bem conhecido nas ondas medias. Pode causar aumentos consideráveis nos sinais de longa distancia por curtos períodos, em pratica è a greyline no lugar do transmissor. Existe uma literatura sobre o fenômeno, que posso mandar para quem estiver interessado. E' bom lembrar que quando a propagação è favorável, 1548 Grigoriopol, aqui no litoral, pode chegar a níveis de emissora local. O Samuel Cassio já a escutou varias vezes neste horário também. Eu acho que è exatamente o que tem acontecido com Horacio em Montevideo: o que ele achava Sta Helena era um trecho em inglês da Voice of Russia. Bate com o "dawn enhancement" e com o fato, por ele assumido, que nunca tinha escutado nada de transoceanico da casa dele. Faz sentido, digamos, que esta longa espera tenha sido quebrada pela emissora mais potente da Europa e mais escutada no Brasil, do que por uma Sta Helena de 100 watt. Os tres amigos da Africa do Sul que interpelei nestes dias me confirmaram que a emissora não aparece por aí desde 2005, e que antes disso so' tinha sido escutada na década dos 80. Apesar na distancia relativamente curta, e do fato que eles esticam antenas de centenas de metros exatamente naquela direçao, para captar a America do Norte. Falta uma confirmação, que a Voice of Russia (ou alguma outra emissora que use o tx de Grigoriopol) esteja realmente ativa neste horário nos 1548. A ultima schedule no site deles não bate, nem em inglês nem em russo, mas no passado os transmissor de Grigoriopol realmente começava o programa as 0300. Na semana que vem estarei na Itália e não vai ser difícil, se eu conseguir acordar as 5 da madrugada, conferir a frequência (Rocco Cotroneo, RJ, April 3, radioescutas yg via DXLD) A propagaçao no ha dado nenhum resultado nos 1548 nos ultimos dias por aquí. De acuerdo a su monitoreo nas melhores condicoes das minhas, vc tem maiores chances. Vamos a acordar de agora em mais que o a ID de RSH foi una criacao de minha imaginacao. As condicoes de escuta eram muito boas excepcionais, mais nao fico teimoso o cabeça-dura. Foi um momento de gran exitaçao e nao teve o mais importante... a gravaçao. Fico atento a futuros monitoreos (Horacio A. Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, ibid.) ** SAUDI ARABIA. Saut ul-Buzz, which I normally hear starting around 1500 on 15435, was still going with strong signal at 1754 check April 2, overriding the Arabic modulation which is presumably the exclusive intent for transmission; off at 1801 recheck (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 17729.85, BSKSA Riyadh in Arabic, 'swimming' carrier, slightly buzzy, S=4-5 at 0630 UT. 17740 much stronger of \\ BSKSA here 10 kHz up (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) On March 21st noted three frequencies with effect "buzz": at 0800 on 9715 kHz, 9713-9718 with "buzz" and 9719-9726 with "buzz" (as on 11855 kHz). On 11855 kHz with second program: 11849-11851 broom, 11852-11860 "buzz" type. At 1250 UT was common prayer on Main program and Holy Qur`an, but "buzz" on 21495-21497 and strong "buzz" in range 21498- 21509 kHz. There is a transmitter which they are using on 17730, 17805 and 15435 with horror effect on the other frequencies. I wrote them but they don't answer me. For the past 3 years I sent there reception reports but without any answer (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, March 27, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews April 4 via DXLD)) 11784.89: Hi dear Mauno, a question to solve the puzzle, old problem, as in previous 2008 year. 11785 kHz channel, noted V. of Indonesia today on 9524.94v at 1600-1700 UT, but could also note a tiny Arabic signal at same time on 11784.89 kHz on a otherwise very clean channel - no IBB signal, no Firedrake signal, just 11784.89 BSKSA Jeddah ?? 50 kW station, which is scheduled on 11855 at 0600-1700 UT. Or is 11785v Arabic a spurious of fundamental 11855 channel? (wb, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Apr 3) Hi Wolfy, I checked it at 1000 UT and I think it is Riyadh after all. Jeddah was only present with only a carrier trace on 11854.9 kHz, but this was clearly stronger. But this is definitely weaker than other Riyadh transmitters, maybe perfectly off-beam from us or transmitter running on lower power? (Mauno Ritola, Finland, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Apr 4 via DXLD) Observed the ARS BSKSA Riyadh BUZZ transmitter on 21505 at 1200-1500 UT, 1st program news, \\ 21640 kHz totally crystal clear quality. HQ at 1300 UT on 17895 and 21600 kHz, no buzz at all. 73 (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11820, BSKSA, 2114-2117, 4 April. Arabic talk by man. No positive ID. This is listed as Holy Kor`an Service and the male speaker had the tone of a teacher, and mentioned Allah quite a lot. Strong signal, but distorted audio (Paul Brouillette, Geneva, IL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SERBIA [non]. 6100, BOSNIA, International Radio of Serbia, Bijeljina, 2105-2120, March 30, English. W with news re IMF and Serbian loans; 1998 war crimes; ID at 2107; report re Serbian organized crime; sports news re 2010 World Cup; music program at t/out; poor-fair at best; just enough to glean a few details (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, NH-USA, NRD-545, RX-350D, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6100, Radio Serbia, 1900-1906, escuchada el 3 de abril en español, sintonía, locutora con presentación, locutora con boletín de noticias, se aprecia en colisión con otra emisora no identificada, SINPO 43443 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SERBIA [and non]. Re 9580 kHz at 0000 UTC towards northern America. RRI ENGLISH 0000-0100 N. Am. 6135 9580 The problem is, that Serbia International don't take part on any HFCC conferences anymore. After the US NATO airfighter strikes in Kosovo war against Serbia, the country left in the poor and has no proper budget to take part on international meetings. On the other hand, if the Romanians had a keen monitoring, they could avoid that clash very easily using for example either 9495 or 9675 kHz. 73 (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Since Serbia runs until 0130, it won`t help for RRI to move off 9580, as 9580 is also occupied by CRI via Habana for many years after 0100. Can someone find one clear 31m frequency 0000-0130 for IRS? (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Dear DXers, Today I phone-called the technical director of the International Radio Serbia, and he told me THEY WILL MOVE the North America segment 0000-0130 UTC from 9580 kHz most probably to a new frequency of 9675 kHz. But, the change will take in effect in 7-10 days (by 15. April), when the technical director will arrive at BIJeljina, Bosnia shortwave center. Many 73s! (Dragan Lekic from Serbia, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SLOVAKIA. RSI, English to NAm at 0100, 5930 spanked by DGS on WWCR 5935; 9440 [to SAm] fair (Bob Thomas, Bridgeport CT, March 29 by p- mail, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOMALILAND. Re 9-030: Sam Voron (Australia) has noted good reception of Radio Hargeisa on 7145 kHz (ex-7120) from tune in at 1740 UT till s/off at 1858. http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?t=198426 I have not tried this myself yet, but on 7120 kHz it was VERY difficult to catch them here in Germany (Harald Kuhl, Germany, DXplorer Mar 30 via BC-DX April 4 via DXLD) His post linked above is a comprehensive survey of broadcasters still monitored in Sydney NSW 7100-7200. And this about Hargeisa: 7145, Radio Hargeisa in Somaliland in the Somali language. News at 1852 UT followed by station identification. Somaliland national anthem at 1856, Sign off at 1858 (via Glenn Hauser, DXLD) R. Hargeysa heard both March 30th and 31st on 7145 until 1900; wonder since when they are actually using this frequency! Signal almost as strong as Asmara 7175, but definitely weaker than Ethiopia 7165. Have a nice day, 73 (Thorsten Hallmann, still in Münster, Germany, http://www.africalist.de.ms DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thanks to a tip from Sam Voron via Harald Kuhl on the DXplorer list, Radio Hargeisa (Somaliland) heard with fair signal at 1659 UT tune-in on 7145 kHz. This is a new frequency ex 7120 kHz, now free of interference since most international broadcasters have left this portion of the 41m band. Harald reports that Hargeisa signed off 1901 UT yesterday with national anthem (Dave Kenny, Caversham, England, AOR7070+ 25m long wire. March 31, bdxc-uk yg via DXLD) Radio Hargeisa, Somaliland, con buon segnale nel pomeriggio su 7145 kHz fino al sign off alle 1900 UT. Musica e talks. Nessun disturbo visto che qui sono rimaste solo poche radio locali o domestiche. La segnalazione l'ho vista sulle liste DXLD, BDXC e Cumbre. Ciao (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Itallia, March 31, playdx yg via DXLD) 7145, Hargeisha? 1630+ with talks by several people, one per instance in Arabic or a local of the same. 1636 with a song by a stringed instrument, 1639 a song by pupils followed by short comment by YL, then 1640 with a cappella song by several people, again cut by same YL. Echoed talks at 1644. Signal S8 35432 due to low mudulation (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, 1st April, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7145, Radio Hargeysa, Hargeysa, 1748-1752, escuchada el 3 de abril, probablemente en somalí, locutor con comentarios, SINPO 24442 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) RADIO HARGEISA BACK ON SHORTWAVE WITH HIGHER POWER Radio Hargeisa, the national radio of Somaliland, has resumed regular broadcasts on shortwave, apparently from a new transmitter. Radio Hargeisa was established in 1948, but first started broadcasting in December 1951. However in 1988, it was destroyed by the forces of Siyad Bare, the last Somali dictator. For the past year, it has been undergoing some major improvements to its services and reception. On Monday, Somaliland students in Yemen were able to listen to Radio Hargeisa for the first time in many years, while on Wednesday it was received in Japan for the first time on 7145 kHz at 1759 UT [Other reports say that tests started a year ago on 7120 kHz]. On Friday, Somaliland students studying in neighbouring countries were able to listen to Radio Hargeisa. The station broadcasts Somali music, news and other current affairs, mainly broadcasts in the Somali language. (Source: SomalilandPress) Andy Sennitt adds: Radio Hargeisa has been reported sporadically on various 7 MHz frequencies in recent years, but apparently from a low power transmitter. The headline in this report from SomalilandPress was “Radio Hargeisa goes global”, which indicates that a new higher powered transmitter is now in regular use (April 4th, 2009 - 16:15 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) 1 comment so far: T. R. Rajeesh, India April 5th, 2009 - 9:41 UTC I heard this reactivated station on 7415 [sic!] with excellent reception on 4th April 2009 at 1710 UT. Seems that they use a high power transmitter. A male host reading news items on Hargeisa noted. Good that one station returned to shortwave (ibid.) ** SOUTH AFRICA. 3320, Radio Sondergrense (Meyerton), 0431-0450, 4/5/2009, Afrikaans. Tuned in to hear their usual excellent pop music and found classical Strauss waltz music with occasional talk by man and woman. Good signal (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, TenTec RX-340, Drake R8B, Eton E1, Sony ICF-SW7600G, Random Wires (90' and 200'), Eavesdropper Dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH AFRICA. Channel Africa A-09 http://www.channelafrica.org/portal/site/channelafrica/menuitem.55105713e14905292aca35505401aeb9/ Chinyanja 1200-1300 9625 Francés 1600-1655 15235 Inglés 0300-0355 6135 0300-0459 3345 0500-0759 3345 0600-0655 15255 0800-1200 9625 1400-1559 9625 1700-1755 15235 Portugués 1900-2000 3345 Silozi 1300-1400 9625 Suahili 1500-1555 15660 (via José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DXLD) According to the Sentech schedule the 0500-0800 English is on 7230 not 3345? (Dave Kenny, UK, ibid.) Which is right? (JMR2, ibid.) ** SPAIN [and non]. Amigos de la Onda Corta es un programa semanal de Radio Exterior de España de 25 minutos de duración, que dirige y presenta Antonio Buitrago. Es un espacio informativo sobre temas del mundo de los medios de comunicación y el diexismo. Se emite por onda corta, satélite e Internet: Emisión del SÁBADO 0505-0530 UT Europa: 12035 kHz - 9780 DRM Oriente Medio: 11895 kHz América del Sur: 5965 (*) kHz América Central: 3350 kHz (*) América del Norte: 6055 kHz - 9630 (*) kHz Emisión del DOMINGO 0005-0030 UT América del Sur: 6120 (*), 11680, 15160 y 9620 kHz América Central: 15160 y 9535 kHz América del Norte: 6055 y 9535 kHz (*) A través del Centro Emisor de Cariari (Costa Rica) INFORMES DE RECEPCION: Dirección postal: Radio Exterior de España Apartado de Correos 156202 Código postal 28080 Madrid, España. Dirección electrónica: amigosdx @rtve.es Se puede escuchar en directo por Internet en: http://www.rtve.es/programas/radioexterior En la página web del programa, se puede escuchar este último así como los anteriores: http://www.rtve.es/programas/amigosdelaondacorta Además desde "PROGRAMAS DX", en cualquier día y a cualquier hora: http://es.geocities.com/programasdx/amigosondacorta.htm Si desea escuchar otros espacios diexistas en español lo puede hacer en: http://es.geocities.com/programasdx/ (José Bueno, Córdoba, España, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) For a few weeks since program shuffle, it had been at 0605 UT Saturdays and on different frequencies, but kept announcing as being at 0505 UT. Now the A-09 program schedule shows it at 0505 and that is finally true. The other broadcast evidently has stayed at 0005 UT Sundays, unchecked yet. Amigos de la Onda Corta, the Spanish DX program on REE, which is less and less about shortwave, confirmed at new time of 0505 UT Saturday, April 4. This is the time they had been announcing, but for the past few weeks it had actually been airing at 0605. Listened to most of it on webcast, then confirmed it on 6055 direct, followed by 0530 mailbag show on // 3350 via Costa Rica. As for CR-5965, all I could pull was the timesignal at 0530 underneath Vatican which had just ended English broadcast. Last item on the DX program was about identity of the Radio Tirana theme music/IS, as previously discussed in DXLD (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. Ya está disponible la Parrilla de Programación y Frecuencias de REE A09: http://www.rtve.es/programas/radioexterior (José Bueno, Córdoba, España, April 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) But it`s questionable, as M-F at 1230-1300 it does NOT show the News in Lenguas Cooficiales. Every season we get contradictory schedules from REE, howcum? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. 12015, under heavy RTTY I detected some Spanish at 2208 Saturday April 4, soon IDed as REE by // 15110. Trouble is, this is registered only until 2200, and in one version of the REE A-09 schedule, 12015 is shown at 1900-2100 only, in French and Arabic to ME. Maybe there was a silly ballgame extension altho I don`t think it was play-by-play at this late hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN. 7200, Radio Omdurman, Al Fitahab, 1956-2000, escuchada el 2 de abril en árabe a locutor con boletín de noticias, referencias a “Sudán y Sudania”, locutora con comentarios de despedida, música de sintonía y fin de emisión, SINPO 35443 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7200, Radio Omdurman (Omdurman), 0354-0405, 4/5/2009, Arabic. Man and woman with short talk segments separated by musical bridges. Mentioned countries in Africa and the Middle East. Upbeat traditional music at 0358. Rather quiet time pips at 0401:30 followed by identification by man and fanfare. Talk by man to 0405 tune out. Good signal with some low side amateur radio interference (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, TenTec RX-340, Drake R8B, Eton E1, Sony ICF-SW7600G, Random Wires (90' and 200'), Eavesdropper Dipole, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. SAO TOMÉ, 4960, Affia Darfur, Pinheira, 1827-1830, escuchada el 3 de abril en árabe a locutor con comentarios, referencias a Sudán, música de sintonía, locutor y locutora con comentarios, segmento musical nombrando a Darfur, fin de emisión, SINPO 24432 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. 11500, Radio Dabanga, 1642-1648, escuchada el 2 de abril en árabe en árabe a locutor en conversación con invitado con referencias a Darfur y Sudan, locutor con ID “Radio Dabanga”, cuña musical de ID “Radio Dabanga, Radio Dabanga”, referencia a Internet, emisión en paralelo por 13730, SINPO 44444 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A- 108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Via Wertachtal, Germany, 13730, Radio Dabanga, *1529-1727*, April 3, sign on with ``Radio Dabanga`` jingles. Talk in local language. Many IDs. English news at 1721-1726:30 about Sudan & Darfur. Surprised to hear English on this station. Fair to good signal. // 11500 - via Madagascar - poor in noisy conditions at sign on but improved to a fair signal by 1700. Noticed 11500 running about 1 second ahead of 13730 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. via Slovakia, 15650, Miraya 101 FM, *1459-1513, April 3, sign on with local African music. Time pips, IDs, & English news at 1501 about Sudan. IDs as ``Miraya 101``, ``Miraya FM`` and ``Miraya 101 FM``. Mentioned website. Into Arabic at 1513. In the clear with a fair signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWEDEN [and non]. 7395, MADAGASCAR, R. Sweden Talata-Volandry, 2033-2045, March 31, English. Talk re Easter travel; local weather; news re Swede youth violence & bullying; huge poultry recall due to broken glass found inside frozen chix; R. Sweden promo at 2044 for Twitter, Facebook & every other hot new medium of the day; I'm sure SW was mentioned right after I tuned out; fair (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, NH-USA, NRD-545, RX-350D, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) George Wood has always been a too-early adopter. 15735, R. Sweden, English with George Wood et al., fair signal at 1346 April 3. So on a good day we can still hear R. Sweden in the mornings, tho beamed elsewhere (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SYRIA. 12085, R. Damascus, April 2 at 1808 with big S9+15 carrier, hum/whine, modulation just barely audible, but sounded German as scheduled in this hour. If also on 9330, blocked by WBCQ. At 1857 on 12085 nothing but open carrier audible, or rather accompanied by clix and hum/whine; 1859 a YL was JBA in French saying `bonsoir`, 1900 choral anthem(?). If it were decently modulated, this would have been quite listenable, better than Kuwait on 11990 or Iran on 15085 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 12085, Radio Damascus, 2110-2200*, April 5, tune-in to English news. Local pops/ballads. Short news brief at 2158. Weak modulation & with strong hum. // 9330 - with weaker modulation & distortion (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SYRIA. Dear Radio friends, An interesting and informative website of the Spanish section of Radio Damascus (Radio Damasco) : http://cobaq10.iespana.es/damasco/index_es.html Hopefully the Spanish section of Radio Damascus (and all the other language departments) will have their daily program online soon at : http://www.rtv.gov.sy/index.php?m=541 With thanks to : Jerónimo Zamora, SJR, QRO, México who provided me with this information (Kris Janssen, Belgium, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TATARSTAN [non]. 9690, Tatar Radio via Samara relay 0545-0700 UT, S=9+10dB, much much better audio quality these days (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND. TAILANDIA, 9680, Radio Thailand, 2035-2044, escuchada el 3 de abril en inglés a locutor y locutora con noticias, ID “Radio Thailand News”, locutor anunciando dirección de Internet, música de sintonía, se corta de forma prematura la emisión, SINPO 45554 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9455, R. Thailand *1400-1429* Apr 4. One chime, quick English ID and right into English news by YL, followed by more talk and commentary; transmission ended at 1429 with chimes. Fair signal (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbre DX via DXLD) RADIO THAILAND, WORLD SERVICE BROADCAST SCHEDULE --- For listeners in all parts of the world, on short-wave (SW), relayed over transmitters in Ban Dung, Udon thani, and Northeastern Thailand as stated below: (Effective March 29, 2009 AT 0800 UTC AS PER A-09 SEASONAL CHANGE) http://www.hsk9.com/Schedule.html 0000-0030 Inglés 15275 0030-0100 Inglés 15275 0100-0200 Thai 15275 0200-0230 Inglés 15275 0230-0330 Thai 15275 0530-0600 Inglés 17655 1000-1100 Thai 11870 1100-1115 Vietnamita 7260 1115-1130 Khmer 7260 1130-1145 Lao 6030 1145-1200 Burmese 6030 1200-1215 Malaysian 11870 1230-1300 Inglés 9890 1300-1315 Japonés 9455 1315-1330 Mandarín 9455 1330-1400 Thai 9455 1400-1430 Inglés 9455 1800-1900 Thai 9680 1900-2000 Inglés 7570 2000-2015 Alemán 9680 2030-2045 Inglés 9680 2045-2115 Thai 9680 (via José Miguel Romero, España, April 3, dxldyg via DXLD) So has 15275 really replaced the others at 0000, 0030, or added? (gh) ** TIBET [non]. A very strong Heterodyne 2 kHz tone noted on 15410.00 CVC Santiago in Portuguese, at 1300-1400 UT today. Noted an unID program in Mandarin like on 15412.00 EVEN, seemingly former 11608 kHz outlet, tentatively Voice of Tibet opposition radio via Tajikistan. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany April 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY [and non]. VOT/TRT, Ankara, English at 0300: 5975 to NAm very good; 7325 just audible; 6165 with R. Nederland in Spanish (Bob Thomas, Bridgeport CT, March 29 by p-mail, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, RN at 290 degrees from Bonaire, while 6165 from Turkey is 138 degrees for Asia anyway; CVC Zambia may also be on 6165 during this hour (gh, DXLD) 7325 via Canada, VOT still in English for a second night running April 2 at 0312. Unless there are more mixups, no further reporting about this should be required. But if anyone notices this transmission in non-English again, please say so! 11835, very good S9+18 signal with tango music, but lyrix in Turkish(?), April 2 at 1814, concluding VOT`s German service from 1730, as per sign-off at 1822, IS until 1824*. Better signal than the English service on 9785, only P-F at 1845. 11835 is on the 310 degree beam from Emirler, same as for NAm at 2200 on 9830 among other transmissions (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9830, Voice of Turkey; 2237-2245+, 31-Mar; English election feature on Live From Turkey. SIO=544, USB cuts out Cuba splash on 9820 in Spanish (Harold Frodge, Midland MI, USA, Drake R8B + 125 ft. bow-tie; 85 ft. RW & 180 ft. center-fed RW, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9830, Voice of Turkey, *2200-2210, 4 April. Interval signal and ID. Male announcer in English with schedule and news. I notice they take some trouble to mention which of their programs is live and which is pre-recorded, noting twice that the current one is pre-recorded. This new frequency for A09 has very good strength, but it's right on the same channel as RTTY which often dominates. They could shift 5 or 10 kHz either way and be in the clear (Paul Brouillette, Geneva, IL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [Re 9-029] Dear Ms Boratav, Many thanks for the explanation. And for finally getting the problem with Sackville fixed. I was glad to hear the English program once again the last two nights (April 1 and 2) after at least a month of Turkish instead. I would be curious to know what the correct satellite parameters really are now? TRT has several transmitters at Çakirlar, so they are all no longer usable? I know that some of them had been having modulation and spurious radiation problems. Are there plans to move some that work to Emirler? Regards, (Glenn Hauser to Elvan Boratav, via DXLD) Dear Mr. Hauser, There are five transmitters (3 x 250 kW + 2 x 500 kW) at Çakirlar, but they are quite old. The head of our department has plans to move one 500 kW to Emirler, but the general opinion is that it won't be possible to put it back into operation after the re- installation. We are also planning to carry the rotatable antenna from Çakirlar to Emirler, but this is not yet settled, either. Çakirlar is still operational, but for the time being there won't be routine transmissions there. I did not receive any answer from Canada yet, but I also learned that the English is back. Have a nice day. Best regards (Elvan Boratav, TRT CE, April 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re 9-029: Whoops, these are quite extensive cuts. Gone from shortwave are now Albanian, Bosnian, Croatian, Georgian, Greek, Hungarian, Macedonian, Romanian and Serbian (some of them were cancelled already during the recent months). Also Turkish to Europe has been considerably reduced and now ends at 1600. Good-bye to 5980 that used to be an evenings/nights standard. Pictures of the Çakirlar site, situated in the northwestern outskirts of Ankara (the name does not refer to its geographical location): http://www.panoramio.com/photo/3771647 http://www.panoramio.com/photo/2146121 http://www.panoramio.com/photo/445746 Check out also the ortho images. Noteworthy there, besides the antennas and the transmitter building (it's not a standard installations from a turnkey project), also the outdoor transformer plant (Kai Ludwig, Germany, April 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) On DX Corner April 4, Seref denies strongly that there is or will be any Japanese service from VOT, following numerous inquiries from Japan about it, some from listeners who had tried to hear it at the scheduled time without success. This probably resulted from tentative info we had in DXLD. He failed to acknowledge, however, that such a service had really been planned but subsequently canceled, as already covered in DXLD (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UGANDA. 4750, 1745-1810, R. Dunamus Shortwave, Mukono (tentative), 02/04, mostly pop songs, 1806 OM in unidentified language – weak, blocked by some utility station in USB in Balkan-like language at 1758-1802 (Mikhail Timofeyev, with Alexander Beryozkin, DXpedition near St. Petersburg, Russia, Icom R75, Antennas: some directional ones beamed to the North, North-East, South-East and West, HCDX via DXLD) ** UKRAINE. 7440, RUI English to NAm at 0300 on 7440: excellent (Bob Thomas, Bridgeport CT, March 29 by p-mail, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Have been wondering if Olex Yehorov`s Whole World on the Radio Dial was still being broadcast by RUI, as there has been only one program a month, then repeated over and over, altho he said he had left the station in February. Yes, April 5 at 0317 on webcast and 7440, there he is, as heard before, recounting how Ukrainian domestic transmitters have been reduced as of 1 February, etc. Ended earlier than before at 0326 into mailbag with musical bridge. I suppose these repeats and consequently the existence of the DX program on RUI are about to end (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UKRAINE. [see RUSSIA [non]] And now I see that the RUI change 11550 -> 7530 is scheduled for 1500: 29 March 2009 - 20 September 2009: Time(UTC); Freq.; Tx; Azimuth; Beam 0000-0500; 7530; Kharkiv; 055; Russia 0500-0800; 9945; Kharkiv; 290; W. Europe [r. 9950 on March 29] 0800-1300; 11550; Kharkiv; 277; W. Europe 1300-1700; 7530; Kharkiv; 055; Russia 1700-2000; 7490; Kharkiv; 290; W. Europe 2000-2400; 7510; Kharkiv; 290; W. Europe 2300-0400; 7440; Lviv; 303; N. America No trace of RUI on 11550 right now, I hear only some presumed IBB service for the Afghanistan region. Are they on at all? (Kai Ludwig, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yesterday's broadcast of RUI at 13 UT on 7530 was clearly a mistake (Sergei S., Russia, April 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Your RUI schedule looks different from mine! You seem to have a better info than I do. My schedule stated that RUI is on 9950 before 13UT and 5840 - after. I don't hear RUI in Moscow on 7530 today. Only 5970 from Ukraine's home service. Sergei S., ibid.) ``and now I see that the RUI change 11550 -> 7530 is scheduled for 1500``: No, 1300! [as above]. No trace of RUI on 11550 right now, I hear only some presumed IBB service for the Afghanistan region. Are they on at all? (Mauno Ritola, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Here in Finland RUI is audible, although RNW is stronger. 73, (Mauno Ritola, ibid.) Thanks Mauno, now it's clear that Kharkiv is simply skipping over Moscow. - 73! (Serghey Nikishin, ibid.) Your schedule looks quite strange ;) It's neither B08 nor A09. The schedule given by Kai proved to be valid... at least until today. It's hard to figure out what exactly happened. It may be a transmitter fault or a frequency change to avoid co-channel Radio Netherlands (but then what's the new frequency?) -- 73! (Serghey Nikishin, Moscow, Russia, ibid.) Thanks Mauno, and I hear RUI now under Pakistan`s carrier at 1655. 73 (Noel Green, England, 1701 UT, ibid.) Ukraine on 7510 --- Awwwh, this happens when being in a hurry; I was about to leave to take advantage of the pretty nice weather. But now a real observation: 7510 is correct, found it on air at 2045 with scheduled programme in German, interviewing somebody from Germany about how we can learn from the Ukrainians to improvise etc., etc., etc. Quite good signal, much stronger than just barely audible UR1 on 5970 which got splashed by CRI via Albania on 5960 (the Chinese- operated shortwave transmitters have usually audio broad like a North American non-IBOC mediumwave transmitter). (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) 9945, Ukrainian Radio Kharkov relay, fair S=9+10 dB today, 0500-0600 UT English segment (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. BBC World News succumbs to tabloidism: the half-hour TV News version via KCET we get on the OETA OKLA channel at 2130 UT weekdays has been giving excessive coverage to the Austrian incest story. The last straw on April 2, where it was still the lead story ahead of G20 and everything else going on in the world of real importance. BTW, I initially concluded this `cast was anchored by a YL, from Washington, but the regular OM anchor does not appear to be in Washington; he could be anywhere, even London (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. BBC STRIKE CALLED OFF --- Tomorrow's 24-hour walkout by NUJ members over compulsory redundancies averted after progress in talks. Leigh Holmwood, guardian.co.uk, Thursday 2 April 2009 14.43 BST http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/apr/02/bbc-strike-called-off (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. I thought it was a bit odd that the BBCWS internet program grid showed Friday Documentary on Thursday at 1905 ---- but Docus do repeat on other days of the week and there`s not much point in designating them by day of week anyway. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/schedules/internet/wsradio_weekly.shtml But then I see for Friday April 3, 1330 Football, 1400-1700 Sportsworld! That`s got to be really Saturday programming, not Friday. So it looks like the whole schedule is displayed one day off, at least as seen on my monitor. Which means I`ll have to do over the BBCWE listings in Monitoring Reminders Calendar. Are others seeing the same, one day ahead? (Glenn Hauser, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Perhaps it's a very clever computer and accounting for where listeners live? So just how the sched appears wrongly in Glenn's computer remains a mystery! 73 (Noel R. Green, UK, ibid.) They look fine on my computer. Sportsworld at 1400 on Saturday; the 3rd column over from the left, time of day is the first column, Friday the second column, Saturday the third column. I wonder if there was some anomaly when you happened to visit, Glenn? Certainly odd. For what it's worth, Deutsche Welle's on-demand programming has been out of whack all week -- "Cool" and "World In Progress" have been the programs playing when wanted to listen to Newslink on demand (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Perhaps Glenn's problem would be solved if he set his browser's options/preferences to use a proportional font (like Monaco), or reset the font size?? (Saul Broudy, Philadelphia, PA USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I am already using a proportional and resizing won`t funxion in IE; enlarging it in Firefox does not help either. But checked since my initial report, and many times more, the problem disappeared, altho some programs don`t line up exactly with the time column. Entire columns were headed with the wrong day, and repeated every two hours. I think it is/was a bug in the wonderful new BBCWS website. Why is leaving well enough alone never the choice? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. Re: BBC on 15245 kHz at 1638-1700 UT in English --- Since the English language broadcast occurred again today, apparently this is a programming change and not a programming error. I received 15245 kHz today from 1600 until signoff at 1700 UT and it was again an English language BBC broadcast. Just before 1600 UT, 15245 kHz was a Russian language BBC broadcast. From a selfish perspective, I hope this 1600- 1700 UT broadcast continues since it is the best English language BBC shortwave signal I receive during this time period. Later in the day, from 1700-1900 UT, 13675 kHz via Rampisham also provides a good BBC signal here (Bill Hodges, Atlanta, GA, Kenwood R-2000, April 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I've just taken a listen to IBB Monitoring website recordings. It is still scheduled with BBC Russian 16-17 UTC 15245 kHz, so Woofferton have had a wrong feed: 03/29 BBC Russian 03/30 BBW English 03/31 BBW English 04/01 BBW English -- http://europe.ibbmonitor.com/RMS_Data/Sounds/2009_03_29/RUSS/BBC/KRAD/0903291609@KRAD15245BBCRUSS.MP4 Recorded: 03/29/09 16:09 UTC Location: KRAD [=Krasnodar, Russia] Frequency: 15245 Broadcaster: BBC Language: RUSS Relay Stn: WOF -- http://europe.ibbmonitor.com/RMS_Data/Sounds/2009_04_01/RUSS/BBC/KRAD/0904011609@KRAD15245BBCRUSS.MP4 Recorded: 04/01/09 16:09 UTC Location: KRAD Frequency: 15245 Broadcaster: BBC Language: RUSS Relay Stn: WOF -- When you choose BBC/ALL/ALL/1600/1700/ALL (or 03/29-04/01) on http://europe.ibbmonitor.com/rmsweb/ui/sound_query.php and than click to listen, and then on GRAPH, you can see which relay station is carrying these broadcasts, in this case WOF (Woofferton) (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, ibid.) ** U S A [non]. Re: RL/RFE A-09 schedule --- Glenn, I just noticed that the RL/RFE A-09 schedule that I copied from their website and which appeared in DXLD 9-029 was for some strange reason incomplete. The entries for the early times UT, e.g. 0100 to 0600 were missing and the Radio Farda schedule is somewhat different to that now on the website. The schedule from Alexey Zinevich that also appeared seems to be complete except for some minor differences for R. Farda. They must have added and/or changed things after I copied the schedule. For accuracy's sake I thought I should mention it. Sorry about that. 73 (Bernie O'Shea, Ont., April 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See IRAN [non] ** U S A [non]. [Aoki A-09 under construction] helped me to find out that I forgot one service when creating RFERL A-09 sked from their site. So, in order to add: Azeri every day 7480 1500 - 1600 every day 15565 1500 - 1600 73! (Alexey Zinevich: a DXer from Minsk, Belarus, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. 9945 with open carrier Friday April 3 at 1340, tone test at 1350. What`s this? 1400 VOA jingle and opening music show. It`s on the schedule for Indonesian via Tinang, PHILIPPINES, but may not be daily. 15725, good signal in S Asian language April 3 at 1432. Scheduled as VOA`s Urdu service a.k.a. Radio Aap ki Dunyaa, at 1400-1500 via KUWAIT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. 15090 kHz, VoA/R. Ashna, in Dari, listed on VoA site from 1530 UT onwards noted here, as I write this post, since 1507, in progress, with several phone talks, likely listeners calling. ID at 1515z and also at 1530, with tune in music bridge, ID, and news briefs. Site? Fair/good signal (José Pedro Turner, Portugal, April 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Kuwait, 70 degrees (Dragan Lekic, ibid.) ** U S A. IBB Greenville transmitter goes haywire again: April 4 at 1402, R. Martí, 13820, accompanied by distorted FMy spurs plus and minus 50 kHz on 13770, 13870; but they were fully readable if one cared to put up with this self-infliction instead of DentroCuban jamming on 13820. At the moment with report on a delegation of eight congressional Democrats visiting Cuba for five days; 1405 Resumen Semanal. Recheck at 1417, the spurs, but also the fundamental were slightly weaker, and I could tell St. Petersburg was underneath on 13870, getting creamed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WWCR is booming in on 5935. Nothing unusual in itself, but the sermon is "accompanied" by audio of a country-music radio station, as if Mrs Scott's cleaning team had their radio on next door, but the same sermon is on 6090 via Anguilla, without the Country music, so it must come from the WWCR site rather than the church. Can someone closer to TN check which station that is? It's a bit far for me. 73, (Eike Bierwirth, Boulder, CO, USA, 0011 UT April 6, HCDX via DXLD) ** U S A. 9317.4, woman singing hymn with piano, April 2 at 1745, weak signal. Must be a spur. Is it // 9370 WTJC? No. But it IS // 9385 WWRB, so is there a match on the other side, plus 67.6 kHz? Yes, there it is, equal strength on 9452.6. And at 1752 check all three with Brother Scare after a musical respite. WWRB spurs from 9385 audible again April 3 at 1306 with Brother Scare on approx. 9317 and 9453. Checking for WWRB 9385 Brother Scare spurs again April 4 at 1353, but none audible around 9317, 9452 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WTJC 9370 at 2240 with preacher. So overmodulated that it's nearly unreadable. Not able to fine tune but something like 9369.85 or so. // WBOH on 5919.94 with clear modulation. 3 April (Liz Cameron/Michigan, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WRMI, 9955, Thursday April 2 at 1500 with Happy Station, a few minutes later Keith Perron mentioning my report of jamming at 0100, and also from someone in Cuba about the jamming. Good now, no jamming heard. Unfortunately, I had to go out, and WRMI stream is down, so will have to pull show from archive like last week`s. WRMI is still off the air in the afternoons, weekdays 16-24 UT when it would otherwise be filling unsold time with WRN relays, as noted April 2 at 1846. Our condolences to Jeff White whose mother died last week, and so he has been away from Miami. WRMI, 9955, Saturday April 4 at 1510 with English preacher, poorer reception than on weekdays and maybe on SSE SAm/Carib antenna instead of NW to NAm. Less than 1-kHz het on low side was more bothersome than lite DentroCuban jamming. Probably from Tainan, Taiwan transmitter with Family Radio, altho Palau is also listed, and/or ChiCom jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 15420, 1705-1735, WBCQ Monticello, 02/04, English, "The World of the Spirit" program, long YL monotonous talk, 1728 YL with address in New Mexico – very good, best in USB. 73! (Mikhail Timofeyev, with Alexander Beryozkin, DXpedition near St.Petersburg, Russia, Icom R75, Antennas: some directional ones beamed to the North, North-East, South-East and West, HCDX via DXLD) ** U S A. 7390, WHR ID April 4 at 0559, into French Bible reading show, very strong. According to the WHRI Angel 2 program schedule http://www.whr.org/customcf/dsp_schedule_read.cfm?Search=Angel2 7390 is in use only on Saturdays at 0500-0800, English religion except for 0600-0615 ``La Voix Des Eaux Vivantes``. This is contrary to the FCC A-09 schedule http://www.fcc.gov/ib/sand/neg/hf_web/A09FCC01.TXT showing the only 7390 as WHRA, daily at 0500-0700, 75 degrees to Iberia and N Africa 7390 0500 0700 WHRA 250 75 37-39,46-48 1234567 290309 251009 We were concerned that this would interfere with Radio Tirana in Europe, which broadcasts daily from 0630 in Albanian on 7390, but WHRI is presumably aimed somewhere else. Or is it? How many Quebeckers might be listening at 2 am? [see ALBANIA] Noel Green in England was also monitoring this and found heavy QRM to Tirana from WHRI, which went off just before 0700. Besides, there is competing French ``Le Bible Parle`` from WYFR to Eurafrica at 0600 on 9340, 9355. These were very good here, while other WYFR on 9680 and 9715 were weak, and nearby WTJC 9370 JBA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) As predicted, interference this Saturday morning from WHRI on 7390 was very bad at my location in NW England between 0630 and 0659:42 UT when WHRI closed down. It was very difficult at times to tell which station was which. That's a shame, because both stations were providing a useable signal. Although I am not within the WHRI target area their signal was good enough for me to listen. There was no audible signal from WHRI on 7365 today at 0630 and so I assume this to be the same transmitter on 7390 on Saturdays that has been operating on 7365 all week = WHRA? Why is there any need to shift frequency on Saturdays? Hopefully George is able to suggest something to avoid this next weekend. Greetings and Regards from (Noel Green, to R. Tirana, via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. WYFR, 15770, in stilted but Brazilian Portuguese sermon, April 1 at 1417, music from RDPI Portugal barely audible underneath. The day before, RDPI was on top, but that was before 1400. WYFR is scheduled in Spanish until 1400, Portuguese until 1500, both on 160 degree beam to SAm. So why are they putting S9+20 signal into OK? (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. I suggested to Jorge Freitas that he inquire of CVC Portuguese service whether their station in Zambia on 4965 now broadcasts in African language at 2000, an unID he heard, not just English. They couldn`t help with that, but instead he got this bombshell reply (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CVC vai encerrar tx em português em OC Colegas, Ao enviar um e-mail para CVC perguntando sobre uma possível transmissão em idioma africano na frequência de 4965 kHz eu recebi como resposta o seguinte e-mail: "Em resposta ao seu pedido de informações, queremos de dizer o seguinte: A CVC realmente tem um novo serviço em inglês, na África do Sul, que está expandindo bastante. Não temos informações que nos permitam dizer se eles estariam usando algumas de nossas frequências, ou até nossos transmissores, localizados no Chile. Mas o que sabemos é que já faz mais de 6 meses que não transmitimos mais em Ondas Curtas, em Português, entre as 02:00h e as 10:00h UTC. Além disso, a partir do final deste mês de abril, CVC-A Sua Voz não transmitirá mais em Ondas Curtas para o Brasil. Apenas pela Internet e emissoras afiliadas. De acordo com nossa direção geral, esse corte é resultado de medidas de cortes de despesas. Obrigado por suas preciosas informações e Deus o abençoe. Néa Silva, Assistente de RDS CVC a Sua Voz" Infelizmente é mais uma que se vai. 73 (Jorge Freitas, SWL1023B, Feira de Santana Bahia - Brasil, April 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST and HCDX via DXLD) I.e. after cutting the overnight Brazilian service more than 6 months ago, they are totally closing down the SW service after the end of April, to save expenses, but to continue on internet and via affiliate stations only. Currently on 15410 only for long hours, plus two hours of DRM. So much for dedication to SW broadcasting, let alone DRM. Now I wonder if similar plans are in the worx for their Spanish service, on 17680/9635/6070? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. 7176-SSB, The Rocky Mountain RV Service Net, after 1300 UT Thursday April 2, good signal from NCS Rob, W2EMA in Tucson using the facilities of N4YWR while his own were unavailable. Interrupted at 1307 by a call from JH3NGD, who I doubt had any real interest in RVs in the Rockies, but courteously contacted, after several tries at copying his call correctly, and barely audible here. The closest I could find to this in Nets To You, which was last updated two years ago, showing winter and summer UT timings, are: 1400 1300 7263 WBCCI RV SERVICE ROCKY MOUNTAINS HOUR 1 Mon-Fri 1500 1400 7268.5 WBCCI RV SERVICE ROCKY MOUNTAINS HOUR 2 Mon-Fri But nothing at all listed on 7176. There are several other such nets for different regions on different bands at different times. WBCCI is: Wally Byam Caravan Club International, Inc. http://www.rvweb.net/club/wbcciarc/index.html where the net info page http://www.rvweb.net/club/wbcciarc/RV%20Net%20Times%20&%20Managers.htm is also out of date: ``Rocky Mountain Net, W2EMA, George “Robby” Robinson, 5324 1st St. #278, Tucson AZ 85711, (520) 293-6652, robw2ema @ msn.com 0700-0900 MST [1400-1600 UT] 7263 (first 1-½ hr) 7268.5 (last ½ hr)`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Jewish Pirate in L.A.? --- My kids' school had an early dismissal today, so I had to run out to pick up carpool & take them back home. My son started fiddling with the radio, because he had heard about a new Jewish station on the air. He went up and down the dial, and couldn't find it. His friends pitched in on the dial locations to try, but no luck. Once I dropped them off at home and headed back to work, I started looking myself. I finally found it at 92.1. The signal is pretty lousy here in the east end of the San Fernando Valley. They are playing music that would appeal only to the Orthodox end of the Jewish spectrum, chanting of the Psalms in Hebrew (with a distinctive Sephardic style), and minimal talk. I did a Google search, and found a blog posting from September announcing the station: I got this email: Shalom, It`s with Great pleasure to announce the "Launching of the First Ever Jewish FM Radio station in Los Angeles!" It`s Live 24/6, covering West LA to Fairfax in Los Angeles. This is not a commercial radio and is strictly for the JEWISH COMMUNITY! Spread the word! Live programs will BEGIN this week.. Listen now online on http://www.ateretisrael.org May Heshem bless us in the New Year and shower us with His kindness... Truly, Ateret Israel. 310-274-2526 The web site they linked to has nothing about the station except for a link to the audio stream. Searching on fccinfo.com, I can only find 2 stations listed within 200 km. One is 580 W KSOQ in Escondido, and the other is 2 kW KPSL in Bakersfield. I must say that if I was looking for a good spot for a pirate, that would be a pretty good choice - the only real source of interference is KHHT at 92.3. Ateret Israel is a school and synagogue in the Pico Robertson area of Los Angeles, so if they are transmitting from there, that would pretty well explain their claim of coverage from West L.A. to Fairfax - except that they are obviously getting out much better than they expected. I sent them an email, asking about technical details. I'll let everyone know if I hear anything back (Brian Leyton, Valley Village, CA, March 31, ABDX via DXLD) Here's a bit of an update on the Pirate. I was out and about yesterday after work, and this station was coming in pretty reliably all around Burbank and Hollywood. I had a short meeting just before 6:00 PM, and when I came back, they had an open carrier. That lasted about 1/2 hour, and then they were back again. I called my wife to ask her to try for it on her car radio, but she had no luck - she can't tune the JVC by steps - it just searches for the next signal, and it would not stop on 92.1. When I got home, I tried the JVC car radio, and then a couple of my other radios. I came away with great appreciation for the Blaupunkt Digiceiver. None of my other radios picked up the pirate. They were overwhelmed by KHHT-92.3. At one point I could barely get the pirate under KHHT on my DX-398, but it was far from listenable, while the Blaupunkt picked it up just fine. So it appears that my comment about 92.1 being a good choice only applies when you have a very selective receiver. As far as most potential listeners are concerned, this station will have a very small range. Even so, I suspect that they are putting out substantial power, if they can make it over the hill into the Valley (Brian Leyton, Valley Village, CA, April 1, ibid.) ** U S A. Radio-Info BOARDS>OTHER LOCAL MARKETS>Cleveland> WTAM coverage problem (Read 228 times) So how much coverage does one emergency need? I just read FCC rule 73.1250 and come away that you can use your day facilities ONLY if other coverage is not happening. From listening on the Web I can hear that Fargo has 2 AM stations covering it using what they have licensed, and the FM's are still all on and a lot are simulcast with either WDAY or KFGO, then there is TV. So what gives with WZFG providing what is very clearly at least 3rd coverage of this event and screwing WTAM to the wall like is happening here? FCC 73.1250(f) ... Because of skywave interference impact on other stations assigned to the same channel, such operation may be undertaken only if regular, unlimited-time service, is non-existent, inadequate from the standpoint of coverage, or not serving the public need. http://www.hallikainen.com/FccRules/2009/73/1250/ (Footsteps of Fessenden) It sounds as though WZFG has been coordinating its operation with WTAM, dialing back power somewhat to avoid more interference than is needed. The area affected by the latest phase of the disaster up there, the blizzards, is quite extensive - there are road closures up and down the interstates, in areas with little to no local radio coverage. WZFG can probably make the case that its 50 kW (or even its 25 kW) can better serve that area than KFGO or WDAY's 5 kW. And in any event, it's hard for me to have a surfeit of sympathy when a station like WTAM receives incoming skywave interference, so long as it's running nighttime IBOC and creating skywave interference to stations on its adjacent channels (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) Is use of day facilities like this new? Will stations that have day coverage over an area that is issued a flood warning start doing this all across the country now? (Footsteps of Fessenden, ibid.) No, this rule has been on the books for decades and stations have been using its provisions for decades (Doug Smith, W9WI, ibid.) I agree with w9wi. This rule has always been around as far as I can remember. It applies to daytime only stations also. They are allowed to operate after sun down if their is a local emergency. Growing up in Lake County I can remember WELW back when it was a day timer only remaining on after sign off time when there was a local emergency such as flooding or a blizzard (swful, ibid.) from the North Dakota board: ``if a Fargo station is covering OHIO, isn't it "Over Kill" for flood coverage in Fargo?`` Yes and no. No, there's no reason why Ohio listeners need to be hearing local flood coverage from Fargo. Yes, there's a need for fairly wide-area coverage of North Dakota and Minnesota, because the area endangered by the latest round of blizzards up there is quite broad and not very densely populated, and the floods are causing road closures for many miles beyond the Fargo-Moorhead metro, such as it is. WZFG has dialed back to 25 kW most nights to avoid putting more interference in WTAM's direction - but here's the thing: medium-wave signals travel by skywave at night, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it. This is a useful reality check for certain AM IBOC boosters who believe skywave can be safely ignored, and that it's impossible for adjacent-channel digital noise from a distant station to impinge on local-area reception of another station. If WZFG on 1100 can create audible interference to WTAM well within the Cleveland market, how can anyone credibly argue that WTAM itself, with its digital hash on 1090 and 1110, isn't creating interference to WBAL and WBT within their home markets? At least WZFG's interference is temporary, and taking place for a greater public good (Scott Fybush, NY) (all via Artie Bigley, OH, DXLD) Artie: The first CP for the station was KKFL. It was then changed to WZFN by the party that held the CP and constructed the facility. When it was purchased by the current owner the call was changed to WZFG. I don't know how they got it changed to a "W". I've been told that some stations have just applied for a "W" call where it should be a K and the FCC approves it. I'm not certain that is true, but it's what I've heard. The FCC rule provide that a station operating under 73.1250 may operate at full daytime facilities during nighttime hours without further authority, which means no need to ask permission. All that is required is that the FCC be notified upon ending emergency operation and a showing provided as to why it was necessary. Our owner did however inform the FCC informally of our action the day after we began. Also as a courtesy we communicated with WTAM and we agreed that 25kw was sufficient to cover the geography needed. Your comment that ND is a pretty rural state is accuarte and the Red River runs from the SD border to the Canadian border. WTAM was more than cooperative and understanding (Jim Offerdahl, WZFG CE, April 2, via Artie Bigley, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. KIRO-710 Format Change --- KIRO in Seattle ended its AM-FM simulcast yesterday around noon. After airing a Mariners exhibition game in the afternoon, the AM started running a continuous loop of promo announcements. Some of them are for the new AM Sportstalk format, the others remind listeners to tune 97.3 FM for the legacy newstalk programming. The new Sportstalk format, "ESPN 710", will take effect Monday morning. It'll be interesting to see how well KIRO and KJR do in head-to-head competition. Or for that matter, how well KRKO survives as the market's #3 sportstalk station. Never mind #4, KHHO, which mostly simulcasts with KJR (Bruce Portzer, WA, April 3, IRCA via DXLD) Hey Bruce: I gotta believe someone is going down, maybe KHHO. With KRKO boosting its power, it stands a better chance, although with KIRO as an ESPN competitor with the Mariners, who knows - KRKO may become redundant? Having 4 sports stations in a market that is a lukewarm sports town (what was that basketball team's name - the Sominex?) seems excessive, even though KHHO and KRKO are technically in Tacoma and Everett, respectively. At any rate, I stand a pretty good chance of QSLing the new KIRO, even though I am a little over 10 miles from its transmitter. Poor you, some 20 miles away, their 50,000 watts may not reach you (Kevin Satya, Bainbridge Island, WA, ibid.) ** U S A. "Praise 980" SOLVED --- I went back through this string, making a check list and found that we had eliminated all of the likely candidates except for Fallon, NV, the former KHOS transmitter in Sonora, TX and KICA, Clovis (northeastern [sic]) NM. I tried to find a website for KICA, with no luck, but when I went to the owner's website (Tallgrass Broadcasting outta Illinois), I found a link to GRACE 980, KICA, Clovis, NM: http://www.3592.com/onlinedb/kicaam/docs/stream_kicaam2.html They broadcast Country Gospel, 24/7 and stream it on the web. It is still pre-dawn here and I was able to // the stream with the live. It`s them, all right; the dulcet tones of Loretta Lynn cut right through the rest of the sludge down on the noise floor! Here are the IDs that I heard from 1040 until 1100, on-line. "GRACE 980" by that male announcer "GRACE 980, A POSITIVE WAY TO START YOUR DAY" and at 1058: "THE SPIRIT OF THE HIGH PLAINS, KICA, CLOVIS" and the women singing "TALLGRASS BROADCASTING" and at 1104 "GRACE 980, IT`S AMAZING" I mis-heard the "Grace" as "Praise" but a normal google search wouldn't have kicked it up, even as Grace 980. The funniest thing is the commercial that I heard and thought might be for "californiaraisens.com" erh, ah, it was actually for "californiapsychics.com". The psychics are apparently their only sponsors, at least overnight. Its amazing how much easier it is to understand things when you can actually hear them :>) And, I gotta tell you, KICA is not broadcasting at peak efficiency or anywhere near it. I'd guess that they produce so little income that upgrading the ground system or replacing feedlines, etc. is just outta the question. I bet that a third of the smaller stations in the country are in that situation. So: we determined that XEMF has moved from 780 to 980, but that XENR, also in Coahuila, is still on the air on 980, AND we've IDed KICA. Now about those two XEs that sign off from 980 at 0800. WELL DONE, GUYS! Thanks to Bill Block, Chris Knight, Bruce Portzer, Martin Foltz and the Kaz! I hope that several of you added to your log. If you like Old Tyme Gospel, which I do if I'm in exactly the right mood, KICA plays a pretty darn nice mix. Hey, Cowboy Gospel is a more purely American art form than are Jazz and Bluegrass, no kiddin' (John Bryant, Stillwater OK, April 1, IRCA via DXLD) As a side note, KICA was very loosely connected to the career of singer Buddy Holly. His producer, Norm Petty, worked at the station, as did a couple of people who sang back up on some of Buddy's songs, and at least some (maybe all) of his recordings were made at Petty's studio down the street from KICA. At least, that's what I discovered when I Googled the call letters. A bit OT, but I thought I'd mention it for the music junkies in the group (Bruce Portzer, ibid.) IIRC, a few years ago KICA had an application for a major upgrade to 50 kW, but nothing about that now in FCC AM Query (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Actually KICA has a pretty nice facility, never completed. They run 1.4 kW using a Harris 2.5 solid state transmitter about 5 miles east of the Texas-NM border. They are located there as they had a CP to go 50 kW that they let expire. They moved to this site as it was to be a 3 tower array. They only built one tower. The proposed pattern would have put a city grade signal (5 mv) over Amarillo 100 miles away. They recently changed from an "Americana" country format to country gospel; too soon to gauge the success (Jerry Kiefer, Roswell, NM, IRCA via DXLD) Ha, so it`s a Texas station now! That doesn`t go over well in eastern NM where there are all kinds of encroachments by Tejanos (Glenn Hauser, OK, DXLD) ** U S A. ``Deleted`` stations --- I heard WJCC 1700 in French with a TOH ID in Spanish this morning and there seems to have been reports of it recently by other UK DXers. WJCC was deleted by FCC as I recall due to the expiry of their test transmission licence. Barry McLarnon lists them as “deleted but still on” – which would indeed seem to be the case. Can anyone please explain what is happening with this station? Thanks (Andrew Brade, UK, April 4, MWC via DXLD) I was wondering about KHOS. Although their license was cancelled, there are still a lot of references to them on the net, showing them on the air with religious content. It wouldn't be the first time a deleted station remained on the air... one current example is WJCC- 1700, heard a few days ago by Chris Black. And I think there's one in Michigan, but the call and frequency escape me right now (Barry McLarnon, Ont., IRCA via DXLD) The Michigan station was WOLY-1500 Battle Creek. According to a 12/29/08 document on the FCC website, the Commission lowered their fine from $10,000 to $5,000 but otherwise re-re-reaffirmed the decision to revoke the station's license (Bruce Portzer, WA, ibid.) There are, in a sense, two categories of "deleted" stations. WJCC 1700 (formally "DWJCC" in the FCC's database at the moment) is actually broadcasting legally, notwithstanding its cancelled license/deleted callsign status. That's because it applied for Special Temporary Authority back in June 2006 to remain on (or perhaps return to?) the air as the FCC reevaluated its failed attempt to use the X-band to winnow out stations (like WNMA 1210, WJCC's parent station) that were significant causes of interference on the "standard" AM band. While that STA expired on 12/1/06, WJCC's application to renew it remains in FCC limbo, and as long as the FCC avoids acting on it, WJCC can continue to operate as though it were still a licensed station. WOLY, on the other hand, was never granted an STA --- indeed, it was explicitly denied an STA when it applied, and was later ordered (and re-ordered) off the air. From what I can find about KHOS, it was never granted an STA, either, after its renewal app was dismissed in 2005. If it's operating now, it's doing so illegally, best I can tell. There's a pretty easy way to tell which status is which. I use FCCinfo.com to search the FCC's database - and when I plug "DWJCC" into the AM call search box, it returns results. Plugging in "DWOLY" or "DKHOS" doesn't return anything, UNLESS I check the "include archived records" box beneath the callsign search box. Once the records are archived, the station is gone; or at least it's supposed to be gone. s (Scott Fybush, NY, April 1, ibid.) Adding some detail for what it's worth, 1700 WJCC Miami Springs, was last noted on the air 10/28/05 in a post hurricane Wilma band scan. Some time after that it left the air, first noted off 02/26/06. On 6/6/06 it was again noted back on the air briefly for testing. A few days after that they resumed regular broadcasting and continue to do so now (W. Curt Deegan, Boca Raton, (southeast) Florida, USA, ibid.) This fits with what was happening at the FCC around that time - their departure from the air in late 05/early 06 would have marked the five year point since the X-band facility was licensed, at which point the owner had to decide which license to keep, the parent station (WNMA 1210) or the X-band (WJCC 1700). There was a petition for rulemaking in early '06 by a bunch of X-band licensees challenging the FCC's rationale for imposing that five-year rule, and while the FCC still hasn't acted on the petition, the mere filing of it served as a stay of execution for the X-banders. That's why we haven't seen more X-banders (or their parents) leaving the air, and why a few stations that went off, like WJCC, were allowed back on under STA. It's my understanding that the X-band is a very sore subject at the FCC, and they'd really like to wash their hands of it completely; which goes a long way toward explaining why we also haven't seen a window for new X-band apps, for instance. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) ** U S A. WINZ RADIO GOES ALL SPORTS FRIDAY AT 6 P.M.; AIR AMERICA OUT Posted by Tom Jicha at 12:17:01 PM The long rumored format switch at WINZ (AM 940) from Air America to all sports will finally happen Friday at 6 p.m. The new station will feature all nationally syndicated hosts. The only local presence on the station will be Miami Heat basketball. Also Florida Gators football and basketball, if you consider that local. . . http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/tv/2009/04/winz-radio-goes-all-sports-friday-at-6-pm-air-america-out.html (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) WINZ apologetically explains why they are dropping progressive for sports: http://www.am940southflorida.com/pages/Change.html (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** U S A. LUTHERAN CHURCH-MISSOURI SYNOD SEEKS TO SELL KFUO [99.1] BY Sarah Bryan Miller POST-DISPATCH CLASSICAL MUSIC CRITIC 03/28/2009 http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/stories.nsf/stage/story/07E5DF654DBF11F686257587000D91D0?OpenDocument The station's call letters stand for "Keep Forward, Upward, Onward," words that represent the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's 85-year commitment to spreading the gospel via radio broadcasting. But now the Synod's board of directors is quietly working to send KFUO-FM onward in a different direction: On Feb. 19, its members appointed a special committee with authority to sell St. Louis' only classical music station. A sale would almost certainly mean the end of classical music broadcasting in this region. Most buyers would convert such a purchase to a more-profitable format, like sports, rock or country. There are now just about 20 commercial classical stations in the United States, and approximately the same number of public ones. The board committee has acted in near-secrecy in its plans to sell "Classic 99," now in its 61st year. (The original AM station, with the same call letters, is devoted to strictly religious programming; it is not presently for sale.) They have even refused to share their terms with at least one group of potential buyers. "I feel betrayed," said Noemi Neidorff, chairman of the KFUO Radio Arts Board and the station's "Circle of Friends." The Friends …' the major donors include such names as Neidorff and her husband Michael, chairman of Centene Corp.; Regional Arts Commission chairman Donna Wilkinson; the Fox Theatre's Mary Strauss; and Pris and Sandy McDonnell …' have raised more than $800,000 for the station in a little more than two years. "I feel they have a certain responsibility to the community," Neidorff said. She is interested in forming a not-for-profit corporation to buy and run the station. However, Wilkinson said, the committee is stonewalling them. "They won't sit down and talk with us. They won't even give us a term sheet" that would set forth what the Synod would require of potential buyers. The chairman of the special committee is Kermit Brashear, an Omaha- based attorney and former speaker of the Nebraska Senate. According to his website, he has experience in mergers, divestitures and "managed asset dispositions." Brashear declined to comment for this story. The Synod's president, Dr. Gerald B. Kieschnick, refused several requests for an interview. Thomas Kuchta, the Synod's vice president for finance and treasurer, was more forthcoming. "I don't care about 85 years (of broadcasting)," he said. "I care about right now and carrying on our mission and ministry." The Synod's website reports that its revenues are "lagging behind by almost $4.9 million" this fiscal year. "Essentially, the FM station is a break-even operation," said Kuchta, who noted that advertising income has decreased. "If the FM station is operating at break-even, could we, as a church body, generate more income, by having the value of that radio station in investable assets that would yield more than break-even? The answer is yes." The LCMS almost certainly won't get as much money for this asset as its board may hope: The economy has been as hard on radio stations as it has been on real estate. John Beck of Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications said, "We're not interested, and there aren't a whole lot of companies that are. The market in radio is a whole lot like real estate now. Financing is tough, and value isn't very high because there aren't very many buyers." Last year, KFUO-FM was appraised at $24 million. Now, industry sources estimate its value at under $10 million. Because both KFUO-AM and FM operate on the campus of Concordia Seminary in Clayton, the real estate and buildings would not be included in the purchase. The board committee is reportedly asking $20 million for the FM station. (The AM station, which broadcasts from dawn to dusk, is thought to be worth under $1 million.) Likely buyers are uncertain. Salt Lake City-based Bonneville International, owned by the Mormon church, has several stations in this market. It was actively interested in acquiring KFUO several years ago. It has no current interest, according to Craig Haslam, director of public affairs for Bonneville. There is also talk of interest from a "Christian lite" network. Reactions to the potential sale from influential members of the Synod have been divided. Most of those who live within KFUO's broadcast range in the St. Louis region seem to be opposed to selling. Thirteen of 15 voting members of the board of directors live in other parts of the country. The Synod's chairman of the board, the Rev. Donald Muchow, said in a telephone interview from his home in Buda, Texas, that he has "no idea of what the value or appraisals are. That's in the hand of a smaller group." Muchow said he had no problem with allowing a small group to make the decision unilaterally, without input from the entire board. "We're trying to reach 100 million people with the gospel by 2017, and the board is looking at ways to do that." One out-of-towner who opposes a sale is Paul L. Maier, a professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. Maier, who listens to KFUO through Internet streaming, is the second vice president of the LCMS. His father was among the founders of KFUO, which was begun by the Lutheran Laymen's League and the Walther League in 1924. Maier believes it would be unethical for the Synod to sell the station and keep the proceeds: "It has contributed less than 1 percent of the station's income over its history." He also questions "the clandestine nature" of the proposed sale, and suspects it's to dampen a public outcry. "Not to talk to the Friends — I find that shocking." Arts-minded St. Louisans are concerned about the possible loss of classical music broadcasting here. "It would be a real hit to the city if it went away," said Fred Bronstein, president of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. "We have lots of rock stations. We need classical music stations." (via Will Martin, Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** U S A. CBS' 'GUIDING LIGHT' TO END IN SEPTEMBER Los Angeles Times By Meg James April 2, 2009 CBS is turning off its "Guiding Light." After nearly three-quarters of a century on TV and radio, the serial drama about the intertwining lives of fictional families from different classes in the bucolic but placeless town of Springfield, will end its run in September. It is the latest example of the fragmentation of television. Created as a 15-minute radio show in the grip of the Great Depression for a sponsor to sell soap to housewives -- hence the name "soap operas" -- "Guiding Light" struggled in recent years as its audience grew older, smaller and, for advertisers, less desirable. Show producers recently tried to revamp the program to give it an edgier, reality-show hipness, but the makeover couldn't stop the ebb of viewers. "Talk about a grand old oak falling in the forest," television historian Tim Brooks said. "But there's not much forest left." Once a mainstay of TV and one of the industry's most reliable and profitable genres, daytime dramas have slowly been getting scrubbed out of the network picture. Gone are a playbill of soaps with evocative names such as "Another World," "Santa Barbara," "Sunset Beach," Port Charles" and "Passions" – all victims of a redrawing of the American workforce and the makeup of the daytime audience. . . http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-guiding-light2-2009apr02,0,9413.story (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** VATICAN [and non]. 9900, VR IS, April 2 at 1314-1315*, `Laudetur` and to open carrier for a while. This is conclusion of the half- sesquihour in Chinese via Novosibirsk, RUSSIA at 111 degrees. 15235, at 1353 April 2, song in Vietnamese, 1355 talk, with lotsa mentions of ``kilosik``, 1357 VR IS. This is conclusion of the half- sesquihour in Vietnamese direct from SMG at 72 degrees; both way off- target here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, what is a "kilosik"? Thanks, (Liz Cameron, MI, dxldyg via DXLD) Hi Liz - Believe kiloxich is Vietnamese for kilocycle (Ron Howard, CA, ibid.) ** VATICAN [non non]. 4004.75, Vatican Radio from Vatican State garden log-periodic antenna, at 0450 UT in French (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA [non]. 11670, RNV via CUBA, April 4 at 2209 caught my ear as announcer mentioned Calabozo, Estado Guárico, which is the site of their own SW centre under construxion, but soon on to another topic. Fair signal, low modulation, Usual Sunday morning check of Alo, Presidente frequencies, April 5 at 1429 and still 1441, found nothing on 13750 or 11875, and 13680 was still running mainstream RHC // others, while on Sundays they switch it to A,P aimed south if there is any such show. Hugo was either late or no-show this week, but apparently the DentroCubans knew about it so did not even start broadcasting the sesquihour of prelude material. Too busy to recheck until 1803 and nothing then either (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM [non]. UK. 11840, Voice of Vietnam relay via Skelton, 2117- 2129*, 4 April. Woman in Vietnamese in long talk with lots of mentions of China (Jong Kuo) and Vietnam. Pop tune. ID at close. Fair signal (Paul Brouillette, Geneva, IL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZANZIBAR. 11735, RTZ Dole, 2014-2100*, March 30, listed Swahili. Hi-life & Arabic-style music with M between selections; NA at 2059; good music audio but poor vox audio; almost non-existent (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, NH-USA, NRD-545, RX-350D, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. I stopped listening to clandestines because I did not get any QSLs from them, but today, 15 March, 2009, I received a QSL letter from SW Radio Africa, so I shall resume listening to them, on 11745 kHz from 1700 UT. [now 12035] Their phone number in our handbooks is an answer line but the number given in this QSL letter may give a two-way conversation. The signature is computer simulated (which I take to be Jackson, ed) and her first name is Gerry and not Jerry. The envelope gives their street address. I think this is a rare QSL and deserves a full display in CONTACT Magazine. The QSL Letter verifies reception on 12035 kHz on various dates in October 2008, as follows (times are all UT): 3rd: 1700-1807, 4th: 1700-1753, 6th: 1700-1807, 8th: 1700-1809, 9th: 1711-1750, 13th: 1818-1825, and 14th: 1700-1802 (David Crystal, Israel, April World DX Club Contact via DXLD) ?? How many of us would listen to a station only if it has QSLed for us? Especially clandestines which have their intrinsic attraxion. TEHO, but cart before horse, IMHO (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. Zimbabwe Community Radio --- I keep forgetting to check Zimbabwe Community Radio (Zicora) at 2000-2100 to see if its new frequency (5995) is better heard than its previous one (5935). Has anyone else heard it? The website - http://www.zicora.com/download.html - is now offering downloads of previous programmes, although at the time of writing the most recent one available is that for 25 March. However, the download works well and you get the whole hour-long programme very quickly. The placing of the English segment varies (Chris Greenway, England, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) OK here in Finland, much stronger than Mali. Best regards, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, April 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) EMIRATOS?? 5995, Zimbabwe Community Radio??, 2006-2011, presuntamente escuchada el 3 de abril en idioma sin identificar; se aprecia a locutor con comentarios en idioma africano, señal muy pobre, SINPO 14421 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 2959.97 heard 1251-1304 Apr 4. Scraps of audio (soft- voiced YL) to ToH, then bits of voice and music; quickly deteriorated. Weak and impossible to determine language - Indonesia? (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list, via DXLD) That close to 2960, more likely domestic 2 x 1480 (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 4965: Os que puderem me ajudar na ID da emissora abaixo eu agradeço. Tem a gravação no link "Escutas" listado abaixo na assinatura. 73 e boas escutas, 4965 01/04 2003 UNID, mx e idioma estilos africanos, OM Talk, eu já venho acompanhando essa emissora a algum tempo sem conseguir identificá-la e hoje com a falta de energia elétrica o sinal ficou muito bom, gravado, 34333. (Jorge Freitas, SWL1023B, Skype jorge.freitas.fsa April 1 Blog: http://www.ipernity.com/blog/75006 Escutas: http://www.ipernity.com/doc/75006/home?t=74925&c=6&s=uploaded Feira de Santana Bahia - Brasil, Degen 1103, Antena Dipolo de 16 metros e balum 4:1 em toroide. Direção Leste/Oeste, HCDX via DXLD) Jorge, Segundo Aoki, http://www.geocities.jp/binewsjp/bib08.txt 4965 CVC INTERNATIONAL 1500-0500 1234567 English 100 ND Lusaka ZAMBIA 02815E 1530S CVC b08 Ainda em a09, certo. 73, (Guilherme Glenn Hauser, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Glenn, Eu uso essa lista, mas o idioma informado é em inglês e eu a tenho escutado em um claro idioma africano conforme pode ser ouvido na gravação que fiz em http://www.ipernity.com/doc/75006/4497720/ sempre por volta desse horário. 73 (Jorge Freitas, ibid.) Jorge, Yes, it certainly sounds African. But since CVC operates a 100 kW transmitter there and no other Africans are listed or would be likely to go on the same frequency, I still think it`s CVC Zambia, which would have added some non-English broadcast. Unfortunately there are no such details on their website and apparently no live streaming available to compare, unlike most other CVC services. If you can hear it later in the evening, perhaps it would be in English, or do you have QRM from Brasil or elsewhere? No doubt CVC would have the answer, perhaps thru their Portuguese service. 73, (Glenn Hauser, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, Particularmente também acho que seja uma transmissão da CVC em idioma africano, mas também não achei nada em seu site. Nesse dia o sinal estava muito bom e eu fiz essa gravação. Nesse horário ela não aparece mais, somente em horário próximo ao por do sol daqui de Feira de Santana e amanhã tentarei ouví-la novamente. A transmissão em inglês da CVC eu a tenho conseguido escutar aqui e até já a loguei diversas vezes. Bem, eu enviei um e-mail com a gravação para a CVC e aguardo uma resposta que tão logo chegue eu lhe informarei. Muito obrigado, (Jorge Freitas, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [Logo:] Glenn, Enviei um e-mail para a CVC perguntando sobre se eles tinham uma tx em idioma africano na frequência de 4965 kHz, mas não responderam sobre a tx e ainda informaram que vão deixar de transmitir em português no final desse mês em OC. Hoje a emissora não apareceu e as portadoras em OT aqui estão com muito ruído (Jorge Freitas, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See USA [non], in Miami they know nothing about what is going on in Zambia and thought he was talking about Chile being on 4965 (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 6264.27, NA Pirate?? Nothing but Techno music, 2107- 2116:23* 28 March. Even had a remake of the "Axel F" theme originally by Harold Faltermeyer, and "Popcorn" originally by Hot Butter. Off at 2116:23 without announcements. Strong. Much too strong to be a Europirate at this early time. Nothing was reported anywhere, not even in the FRN Grapevine. Guess it'll go down as one of those strange UNIDs no one else hears (Dave Valko, JRC NRD-535D, Hammarlund HQ-129X, Eton E1, T2FD, Windom, Dunlo, PA, USA, HCDX via DXLD) Dave, Very similar report one week earlier in DXLDs 9-026 and 9-027, Channel Z. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 11945, with a bad collision, April 2 at 1812, music and talk, but hard to make out details. Apparently during this hour we have NHK in Japanese via Issoudun, France, and CVC in Russian via Jülich, Germany (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CVC definitely was there booming in. I didn't even notice any co- channel. -- 73! (Serghey Nikishin, Moscow, Russia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also RUSSIA [non] UNIDENTIFIED. 15390 with open carrier and brief tone test, April 4 at 1447, most likely Greenville testing long before later Creole broadcast, off at 1448* uncovering a much weaker station, presumably something from Issoudun (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Glenn, Thanks for your radio work. Martin Gallas Jacksonville, IL, with a donation via PayPal to woradio @ yahoo.com WORLD OF RADIO 1454 PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ DX/SWL/MEDIA PROGRAMS updated for A09: http://www.worldofradio.com/dxpgms.html (Glenn Hauser, April 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) FCC HF Frequency Schedule for A09 season is now available for download: http://www.fcc.gov/ib/sand/neg/hf_web/seasons.html Direct Link : http://www.fcc.gov/ib/sand/neg/hf_web/A09FCC01.TXT (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, April 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Usual proviso that these entries represent maximum authorized frequency usage, and not necessarily real usage at present. Also includes stations that have been inactive for years such as WMLK, or not yet on the air, if they ever will be, such as KTMI (gh) A09 Aoki database - already exists!!! Here - http://www.geocities.jp/binewsjp/userlist.txt [Later:] Oh, it appeared that this file is not just A-09, but an awful mixture of B-08 and A-09 frequencies. Anyway, it's rather useful now, when it is the only new frequency database 73! (Alexey Zinevich: a DXer from Minsk, Belarus, dxldyg via DXLD) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ RADIO KITCHEN BLOG POST ABOUT THE FEST For those who have never been to the Winter SWL Fest, this writeup by a first-time Fest participant is a very good read and helps to capture some of the intangible aspects of this gathering with a 22-year (!?) history behind it. See the URL below. Rich Cuff / Allentown, PA Very nice post about the fest by the Radio Kitchen's Professor. http://www.theradiokitchen.net (via David Goren, swlfest discussion list via Rich Cuff, swprograms via DXLD, and also David Goren direct) Quite a long and illustrated writeup. But who is this guy? The Professor seems to be anonymous. It`s mystifying why so many bloggers tell us absolutely everything about what they think, but not their real name. I see he has a link to World of Radio; tnx (gh, DXLD) DX PEDITIONS ++++++++++++ Video of latest South African DXpedition Great professional video by my DX pal Gary John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa Hi Folks, A video production of our latest dxpedition to Seefontein, South Africa has been uploaded to You Tube. Apart from various scenes of the DX location, the footage includes: the guys behind their respective receivers, a simple and speedy BOG set-up, barefoot ultralight reception, highlights from previous visits, remarkable reception from the Sony SRF-M37V and FRG 7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XLVRfFB28M 73, (Gary Deacon, Fish Hoek, Cape Peninsula, South Africa, http://www.capedx.blogspot.com DX LISTENING DIGEST) DIGITAL BROADCASTING: DRM See BELARUS; ERITREA; GHANA; MALI; RUSSIA; +++++++++++++++++++++++++ USA [non] CVC. IBOC: MEXICO; OKLAHOMA; UKRAINE; USA WTAM DIGITAL BROADCASTING: DTV +++++++++++++++++++++++++ NON-COMMERCIAL FM, TV-6, AND THE DIGITAL CONVERSION Existing FCC regulation 73.525 requires non-commercial FM radio stations in the 88-92 MHz band to protect the service areas of full- power channel 6 TV stations. The limitations can be pretty strict. (reportedly they would have prevented the construction of a Class B station on 88.1 in Madison, Wis., in order to protect the channel 6 TV station in Milwaukee 80 miles away -- a station *nobody* in Madison watches. (because Madison has its own network affiliates, thank you!)) With the pending demise of analog TV, most of these TV-6 stations will be going away. A number of applications had been filed for new 88-92 FM stations that would not comply with 73.525. Some contained a statement that the station, if granted, would not go on the air until the TV-6 station went dark. Others contained an agreement from the TV- 6 station to accept any interference that might result from the FM station's operation after the analog TV station goes dark. (of course, there would be no such interference as there would be no analog signal to interfere with and the digital signal would be on some completely different channel not affected by 88-92 FM) The FCC has issued a Public Notice indicating that they will not accept such applications. They state accepting them would be unfair to prospective licensees who held off on filing, waiting for the TV-6 stations to go off. It would also be unfair to applicants who filed for lower power and/or directional antennas to protect TV-6. (such applications would be likely to serve fewer listeners, and thus would be less likely to succeed in the comparison process) A new non-commercial FM filing window will be opened at some point after the analog TV shutdown. http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-09-744A1.txt (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, WTFDA via DXLD) Family Radio has an FM station in Milwaukee on 88.1 MHz. However, in order to operate they MUST have their antenna on WITI-TV's Ch. 6 tower. They cannot or could not have the transmitter anywhere else in Milwaukee, it strictly had to be on the WITI-TV tower, no exceptions. Now that WITI-TV will turn off their analog transmitter on June 12th, anytime after that Family Radio could, if they wanted to, move their FM transmitter anywhere they want. But what about a DT operation on ch. 6??? Are there any cities in USA who have DT operation on ch. 6? So if they have a 88.1 FM station near by that could cause a problem, especially if they never had a analog on ch. 6. Surely you won't have red wavey lines on the screen but could impact how the signal is received, either a signal or none. (John L., Muskego, WI, ibid.) There are at least eight full-power stations planning on using DTV channel 6 post-transition. WUOA Tuscaloosa, AL WEDY New Haven, CT WABW Pelham, GA WCES Wrens, GA KBSD Ensign, KS KWNB Hayes Center, NE WRGB Schenectady, NY WPVI Philadelphia and possibly KTVM Butte, MT - I can't really tell whether they plan to use 6 or 33 post-transition. Yes, I would presume all eight/nine will receive some protection from NCE-FM. The FCC will be working that out; they haven't decided how 73.525 will be affected by digitalization (Doug Smith W9WI, ibid.) POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ STRONG DOUBTS ON BPL IN THE TRADE PRESS Amateur Radio NewslineT Report 1651 - April 3 2009 It's encouraging to say the least that finally, the telecomms industry is admitting that Broadband over Powerlines has a multiplicity of issues in deployment. According to the (3 March 2009 issue of the US industry journal Network World, it is now recognized that BPL doesn't really cut the mustard against alternative internet delivery technologies in under- served rural areas. The three key points that publication makes are: BPL networks have to be run jointly by an Internet Service Provider and an electricity utility; neither knows each other's business. BPL is actually yet to be demonstrated working in a widespread deployment; a number of high-profile plans and installation trials over recent years have fallen through. BPL has technological issues ranging from interference ingress and egress, power line noise and multiplexing problems. Hardly a glowing endorsement of the technology! Want to check out the Network World article? Its internet address is http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/031309-broadband-fiber-wire.html?page=1 I'm Jim Linton, VK3PC. -- B-P-L still has a few big name industry supporters but by and large those who used to be its biggest boosters are now championing other ways to get on the net. (Spectrum Digest & Amateur Radio Victoria via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ NEW RANGE 7100 - 7200 KHZ STILL VERY BUSY WITH BROADCASTERS Dear friends and contributors, thank you for your valuable help. I have summarized all reports received. See the list attached! Please hit http://www.iarums-r1.org for a wealth of information. Will you please continue listening and report also to your National Telecoms. Authorities for an International Complaint. Thank you for your good work! 40-m-Band (new range 7100 – 7200 kHz) 7100 Stimme Koreas (Nord), KRE 7105 Radio China [sics], Nei Menggu PBS, CHN 7105 Sound of Hope, TWN 7105 All India Radio (AIR) Lucknow, IND 7110 Radio Ethiopia, ETH 7115 Radio China, Nei Menggu PBS, CHN 7115 All India Radio, Port Blair (?), IND 7120 Radio China, Xinjian PBS, CHN 7125 Radio China, Xizung PBS, CHN 7125 Radio Conakry, [GUINEA] 7130 Radio China, CHN 7130 RTM Sarawak, MLA 7130 Sound of Hope, TWN 7130 Hainan Firedrake Jammer, CHN 7135 Belarus Radio 1, BLR 7140 Stimme Koreas (Nord), KRE 7145 Radio Farda 7145 Radio Hargeisa, SOM 7150 unid BC 7155 Radio China, Xinjian PBS, CHN 7160 unid BC 7165 Radio China, Nei Menggu PBS, CHN 7165 Radio Ethiopia, ETH 7165 Voice of the Broad Masses, ERI 7170 Radio China, Xizang PBS, CHN 7175 Voice of the Broad Masses, ERI 7175 unid BC, Programm in arabischer Sprache 7180 Stimme Koreas (Nord), KRE 7180 Radio China, Programm in englischer Sprache, CHN 7185 Myanma Radio, BRM 7185 Sound of Hope, TWN 7185 Radio China, CHN 7185 Hainan Firedrake Jammer, CHN 7190 RTT Tunis, TUN – hat mittlerweile die QRG nach 7345 gewechselt [und Morgens 7335 – gh] 7190 SLBC Sri Lanka, CLN 7195 Radio China, Xinjiang PBS, CHN 7195 Voice of the Broad Masses, ERI 7195 Radio Bulgaria, BUL 7195 Radio Uganda, UGA 7200 Radio Omdurman, SDN Erklärung: unid = unidentifiziert Regards, (Uli Bihlmayer DJ9KR, http://www.qrz.com/dj9kr Coordinator of German Bandwatch and Vice Coordinator of all Intruder Watches in Region 1, April 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7200 kHz really is the limit. So, using 7200 *USB* could be accepted (hi). Many European countries are now allowing hams to use the widened amateur band. But the 7100-7200 kHz seems not to be *very* popular due to two facts: Older factory made ham transmitters sold here do not operate on the 7.1-7.2 MHz spectrum (without modification) and there is lots of interference coming from non-amateur sources. Also, some broadcasts using very wide bandwidth create lots of scratches and splashes, even if the nominal ("center") AM frequency is more than 5 kHz away. Why should all amateurs be polite and stick to the rules (e.g. 2.8 kHz SSB bandwidth) and honour the band limits while some more or less official broadcasters spread their signal how and wherever they like? 73 de (Matti Ponkamo, Naantali, Finland, Cumbre DX via DXLD) another bandscan: see SOMALILAND OFCOM GETS PUFFED OUT OVER WIND TURBINES http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/03/ofcom_wind/ (I guess this could affect microwave links for Broadcasting stations, such as those used for Outside Broadcast links to the studio - Mike) The Register. By Bill Ray Posted in "Wireless", 3 April 2009 UK regulator Ofcom has been looking at the way wind turbines affect microwave radio transmissions and radar signals, and has concluded that we just have no idea if it would be safe to put more turbines near radio connections. There are around 40,000 microwave links in the UK, generally operating over line-of-sight connections, and used for everything from mobile- phone backhaul to internet connectivity and corporate connections. But while the connections might be line-of-sight, a turbine doesn't have to be anywhere near the direct path to screw up the signal - so at the moment such things are simply not allowed to exist. Microwave connections, generally operating between 3 and 20 GHz, have something called a Fresnel Zone, within which any physical clutter causes problems. The best way to imagine the Fresnel Zone is to consider two dishes, a couple of miles apart, and then imagine an enormous, fat cigar shape with the ends just touching the centre of each dish. The Fresnel Zone isn't quite as fat as you're imagining it - it shouldn't touch the ground at its fattest point - but anything in that zone will cause reflections and refractions that interfere with the intended signal. There is a lot of maths in calculating the Fresnel Zone, and a certain amount of clutter is admissible - indeed, in urban installations it's unavoidable as the Fresnel Zone scrapes building tops and spires, but those things are largely static and predictable, while a wind turbine is dynamic and ever-changing. The BBC provides a site where developers can estimate how many people are going to suffer TV interference from a proposed wind farm. It creates a rough estimate, based on much lower frequencies than the microwave connections now being examined, but serves to demonstrate how wide an area can be affected by a wind farm. Not only do wind turbines have an annoying habit of spinning round, but the blades also change pitch depending on the conditions, which is good for efficiency but a pain when trying to calculate the radar cross section - essential in working out how much interference they're going to create. Ofcom hired Aegis Systems and ERA Technology to do some field experiments and see how big the problem is. The companies chose three wind farms in Cambridgeshire where clumps of turbines could be relied upon to generate a range of profiles and enable decent testing. The finished report (pdf) takes some reading, but for those interested in radio propagation it's worth going through, even if the conclusion is only that more research is needed. 40,000 microwave links, each with its own no-wind-turbine zone, makes a significant chunk of the country in which wind turbines can't be used, but it seems it's going to take more research to establish exactly how effectively microwave communications and wind power can live together, and to decide which we value more (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Could this have been something affecting WBCQ? If you've followed Allan's on-air discussions about life at WBCQ, you will recall his installation of a wind turbine there for supplemental power. You should also recall how he ranted repeatedly about how poor the satellite-provided Internet link was before he recently upgraded to a T1 line. Could the presence of the wind turbine have had an unexpected side effect on the reliability of the data link? Don't those use microwave frequencies? I wonder if people in remote locations that rely on wind-turbine power have satellite-TV reception problems that they don't realize might be caused by the wind turbine, even if it's away from the satellite-dish view of the signal from above. 73, (Will Martin, MO, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ PACIFIC DUCT LONGEVITY [VHF/UHF, HI-CA] After some 50 years of amateur ('read 'Ham') use of this system, we can with reasonable accuracy say the following: (1) The ducts seldom are short lived - six hours would be short, 24 + would be more normal - plenty of time to check the K6QXY (and other) reports on the web site given and make a travel decision; (2) What DOES vary is where they 'point' - San Francisco for example rather than LA but the odds are around 3 to 1 the STRONGEST ducting will be south of San Francisco and in some cases limited to the area south of LAX (down into Mexico); K6QXY has monster antennas and incredible skills, yet he is inland (NE of San Francisco) away from the coast by nearly 100km/60 miles so when HE is detecting ducting it will 90% of the time be FAR stronger on the coast than for him. He has equipment for the ham bands at 50, 144, 220, 432, 906, 1296 MHz all in the top one percent category (meaning very few have better equipment - or skills). When he uses phrases to report signal levels (such as 'strong', '579 to 599' - both CW terms that indicate very strong signals) it would cause me to drop everything and "go" - NOW! If they are THAT loud for him, and 4-6 hours have elapsed since he first reported signals - that would be a major clue to "head to the beach". What I would suggest be done pronto is for someone to do a side by side comparison on the Hawaiian FM band channels/frequencies to the California stations from LA to San Francisco - to work out where the possible "holes" might be, of course dependent upon how well shielded your chosen Highway 1 location might be to drop out the 'local' signals. One last thing - Saul mentioned Catalina (Island) which while off the coast (west of LA) and easily reachable, everyone who has been there reports MONSTER signals from deep down the Baja California (Mexico) coast to San Francisco and above. Catalina ("26 miles in a leaky old boat!") would be like DXing from a major metro market with perhaps 500 "local signals" (Bob Cooper in New Zealand, April 1, WTFDA via DXLD) DEEP SOLAR MINIMUM Sunspot null is now even deeper than it was. Still not as bad as 100 years ago according to NASA http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/01apr_deepsolarminimum.htm?list1287824 (via Ted Randall, DXLD) The article reference by Russ (from NASA) included this statement: "2008 was a bear. There were no sunspots observed on 266 of the year's 366 days (73%). To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go all the way back to 1913, which had 311 spotless days." For anyone who has NOT already googled Maunder Minimum (which starts off with "The Maunder Minimum is the name given to the period roughly from 1645 to 1715, when sunspots became exceedingly rare, as noted by solar observers of the time.") I urge you to do so - NOW. The Wikipedia entry on this topic is fine for a first time reader although the links will keep an enthusiast busy for hours. It also notes: "During one 30-year period within the Maunder Minimum, astronomers observed only about 50 sunspots, as opposed to a more typical 40,000-50,000 spots in modern times." That works out to fewer than two per year! The links will explain how during this period the earth became very significantly cooler (the glaciers moved south (and north) with gusto). For our hobby purposes, the keys here are no/very few sunspots for extended periods of time and parallel large reductions in the many varied forms of solar rdiation (which the links explain). Selfishly as a 6 meter/50 MHz DXer for 50+ years I was very much looking forward to "one more solar cycle" to complete (I was hoping!) to collect my 50 MHz Worked All States Award #4 (having done it from California, Oklahoma, Turks & Caicos Islands) - another 9 states to go from New Zealand! Having said that, the Maunder Minimum lasted 70 years - coincidentally my age! I don't wish to start a "run on the bank" here but during Maunder's peak years the River Thames froze over annually for months (they held Ice Fairs on it as a regular feature) and ice bergs (chunks of Glaciers that broke off) drifted south into the Azores and as far south as the Florida coast. Happy reading! (Bob Cooper in New Zealand, WTFDA via DXLD) Yeah, I got nervous when I noticed that the last two solar cycles (taking SC23 to be basically finished) had a "double peak" pattern, not a distinct single peak like, for example, cycles 18 and 19. The last time the cycles had definite double peaks were the last two cycles before the Maunder Minimum. My hopes of intercontinental TV DX after US analog shutdown are placed on multi-hop sporadic-E. At any rate, wasn't it fortunate that cycles 18-21 coincided with the "golden age" of VHF Band I television and 6-meter amateur radio? For me, however, as the Poni-Tails sang about, I was "Born Too Late" :-( (Robert Grant, ibid.) SOLAR MINIMUM IS A BIG EVENT Space Weather News for April 2, 2009 http://spaceweather.com SPOTLESS SUNS: Yesterday, NASA announced that the sun has plunged into the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century. Sunspots have all but vanished and consequently the sun has become very quiet. In 2008, the sun had no spots 73% of the time, a 95-year low. In 2009, sunspots are even more scarce, with the "spotless rate" jumping to 87%. We are currently experiencing a stretch of 25 continuous days uninterrupted by sunspots --- and there's no end in sight. This is a big event, but it is not unprecedented. Similarly deep solar minima were common in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, and each time the sun recovered with a fairly robust solar maximum. That's probably what will happen in the present case, although no one can say for sure. This is the first deep solar minimum of the Space Age, and the first one we have been able to observe using modern technology. Is it like others of the past? Or does this solar minimum have its own unique characteristics that we will discover for the first time as the cycle unfolds? These questions are at the cutting edge of solar physics. You can monitor the progress of solar minimum with a new "Spotless Days Counter" on spaceweather.com. Instead of counting sunspots, we're counting no sunspots. Daily updated totals tell you how many spotless days there have been in a row, in this year, and in the entire solar cycle. Comparisons to historical benchmarks put it all in perspective. Visit http://spaceweather.com for data (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) TIMO NIROMA: THE CYCLICITY OF SUNSPOTS a.. An influence by Jupiter? b.. The Jupiter influence graphically c.. A 105 Year Oscillation in spots and climate? d.. A 211 Year Cycle in Sunspots? e.. Doubly smoothed sunspot cycle (graphics) Image Courtesy of SOHO/EIT. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA. If you want to go (back) to the index: Astronomical Aspects of Mankind's Past and Recent Climate An Influence by Jupiter on the Sunspot cycle? Analysis by Timo Niroma It seems that during the Jovian perihelion the sunspot number is always low. This means that if the sunspot cycle maximum coincides with Jupiter's perihelion, the maximum is either delayed, making that cycle long, or it is very low, as in 1810's. Actually, there is an average rise of 10 in the Wolf Number at exactly the perihelion and the lowest values prevail two years before the perihelion. There is nothing mystical about the relation between the solar activity and the Jupiter's orbit. Most easily the relation is explained by the Standard Model of Physics so that Jupiter is surrounded by a relatively powerful magnetic field that moves inside the Sun's still more powerful magnetic field that reaches beyond the trans-Neptunean areas. Jupiter is not the primary cause behind of sunspots but it twists the solar magnetic field in ways that affects them. Jupiter has a relatively great eccentricity which causes that distance between Jupiter and Sun vary greatly in 11.86 years intervals. Now it can be shown by a simple statistical analysis that Jupiter is near the Sun, the number of sunspots is in average lower than when Jupiter is at a longer distance. Actually it is the nearness that matters. When Jupiter is near its heliocentric perihelion (nearest point to Sun) it causes the sunspot activity to drop. . . [much more, illustrated] http://www.tilmari.pp.fi/tilmari6.htm (via Dario Monferini, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) AP, some others: THE SUN’S SPOTS STAY SCARCE, NASA AND ASTRONOMERS SAY, AGAIN. AND THAT’S PROBABLY GOOD. http://ksjtracker.mit.edu/?p=9006 (via Dan Say, DXLD) Probably not, if you are an SWL (gh) ###