DX LISTENING DIGEST 9-036, April 27, 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 1457, April 22-28 Wed 0500 WRMI 9955 Wed 1530 WRMI 9955 Wed 1900 WBCQ 7415 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 2030 IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS/IBA 7290 [not 1930 as previously listed] 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 1458 starting here?] Wed 1530 WRMI 9955 Wed 1900 WBCQ 7415 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 ** ALBANIA [and non]. Memories of foreign broadcasts in Albania. Interview with Ron Kubati, Albanian writer and journalist, about the late 1980s in Albania: "You got information from foreign media? Kubati: Yes, we listened a lot to the Voice of America and we watched Italian TV. We had radios running on our only brand of batteries, 'Iliria'. We took our radios to the beach in Duress in the afternoon, when the beach was empty, and we tried to tune in to the foreign channels and get information about what was going on. We hoped everything would change. Albanian TV continued with the regular rhetoric." http://www.osservatoriobalcani.org/article/articleview/11062/1/404/ Osservatorio Balcani, 20 April 2009. Posted: 21 Apr 2009 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** ANTARCTICA. 15476, 22/04 1910, (ATA) ANTARCTICA, R N San Gabriel, Spanish, desde San Gabriel, com 10 kW, pop music Argentina e entre a music OM e YL com ID, ocasional QRM de jamming tipo “pica pau”, sinal degradando a partir das 1930 UT, #gravado# 34333 (Jorge Freitas, SWL1023B, Escutas: http://www.ipernity.com/doc/75006/home?t=74925 Feira de Santana Bahia - Brasil, HCDX via DXLD) I seriously doubt anyone is deliberately jamming LRA36, let alone a woodpecker, but some incidental QRM may have sounded like that. The clip is all music until about 75%, then announcements, shortly followed by some pulse bursts, not like the original OTH radar Soviet woodpecker. It`s at Base Esperanza; I don`t think San Gabriel is a place name; it`s named for some archangel for some reason (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Glenn, Não há motivo para se imaginar que haja uma QRM proposital a LRA, muito menos do antigo jamming "pica-pau" russo, mas a QRM é "semelhante" ao antigo jamming "pica-pau" e ocasionalmente ela é audível na gravação. A partir do minuto 04:48 da gravação o OM anuncia a ID, os dias da semana e a frequência de 15476 kHz e logo após YL continua com a programação. 73 (Jorge Freitas, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn and other colleagues. See the important information of Mr Thiago de Brasília: Esse QRM é muito provavelmente de um OTHR dos EUA (Over The Horizon Radar), eles normalmente ficam alternando entre várias frequencias no espectro HF e no caso da gravação do Jorge ele estava numa frequência próxima. Ou seja, não classificaria como jamming. 73's!! QRA: ThiagoPM [PY2002SWL], QTH: Brasília-DF, Brasil [GH54XC] http://bsbdx.blogspot.com (via Freitas, ibid.) Really? Does USA operate OTH radar on HF now? Source? (gh, DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. Diexismo: Radiodifusión Argentina al Exterior categorias: Sociedad - Internacional Como cada jueves, los diexistas de La Opiñón nos traen una nueva columna. Esta semana conoceremos un poco más sobre la Radiodifusión Argentina al Exterior. Por Óscar Díaz Mateluna Queridos amigos, reciban un cordial saludo un jueves más; junto a ustedes y aún el verano que no nos quiere abandonar, por ello hoy viajamos allende a los Andes para conocer a RAE y con ella también Radio Nacional que en el país es LRA 1 quienes comenzaron sus emisiones el 6 de Julio de 1937 en el entrepiso de el Palacio de correos y telégrafo en las calles Madero y Corrientes en el gran Buenos Aires y en dicha ceremonia actuaron el cuarteto Pro-Arte, la soprano Mina Spani, los pianistas Roberto Locatelli y Raúl Spivak. En el año 1946 pasa a entregar el servicio oficial de Radio y cambia su frecuencia a los 870 kHz AM. Sus transmisores eran de 100 kW los que fueron cambiados el año 2006 donde se renovaron los equipos y el los años 90 se muda a su actual edificio en calle Maipú 555 y así queda Radio Nacional y nace RAE quien fue fundada por un 11 de Abril de 1949 por el entonces presidente Juan Domingo Perón transmitiendo las 24 horas en 7 idiomas, y con el golpe de estado autodenominado “Revolución Libertadora” en septiembre de 1955, que derrocó a Perón, la SIRA (Servicio Internacional de la República Argentina), su antiguo nombre fue desmantelado, así en 1958 reanudó sus transmisiones bajo el nombre de RAE (Radiodifusión Argentina al Exterior), siendo una dependencia de Radio Nacional. Su programación está centrada en noticias sobre la actualidad en Argentina, su cultura, geografía e historia, entre otros temas, como también la música argentina, principalmente el tango y folclore. Además, RAE transmite como mencionábamos en 7 idiomas, Español, Portugués, Italiano, Inglés, Alemán, Francés y Japonés lo que también permite que los Argentinos que se encuentran en el exterior estén interiorizados de lo que ocurra en el interior del país y como es de destacar sobre el Fútbol Argentino, ¿no es así? Bien queridos amigos, como siempre esperando que de éste tema sea de vuestro agrado y por ello mismo esperamos opiniones, sugerencias y críticas del texto antes mencionado y por lo mismo nos encontraremos con otro texto el próximo jueves , pues bien cordiales 73, 51 y 88 para todos. Oscar Díaz M, Edición; Héctor Pino P, Redacción P.S. Amigos, el presente texto es muy interesante, y quiero agregar que sus locutores María Dolores López y Luis Barassi son unos excelentes exponentes de la realidad argentina y muy buenos amigos; espero sus comentarios. Héctor Pino, Casilla 84, Temuco - Chile (via Dino Bloise, FL, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. 11710.75, RAE, 1045-1105, April 24, tune-in to Japanese talk. Local Argentine music. IS & Spanish/English IDs at 1100. Into Portuguese at 1102. Poor to fair with occasional QRM from Voice of Korea 11710 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Programa diexista de RAE --- "Actualidad DX" es un programa de radio en español de Gabriel Iván Barrera, que está dedicado, especialmente, a los amigos diexistas del mundo "Actualidad DX" es uno de los programas que R.A.E. (Radiodifusión Argentina al Exterior) emite para los oyentes aficionados a la escucha de emisoras lejanas de Onda Corta y noticias de telecomunicaciones. Se emite todos los martes con un suplemento los viernes. Los horarios y frecuencias de transmisión de RAE en español son: 1200-1400 UT por 11710 kHz 2200-0000 UT por 6060, 11710 y 15345 kHz (José Bueno, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Pero ¿a qué horas exactas? Lo último que conozco es: 1220 (¿ó 1245?), y 2250. Igual los martes y viernes? 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) La última información del martes a las 2250 UT, el viernes lo ignoro. Ya pregunté a Gabriel Iván Barrera el horario correcto, cuando lo conozca lo informo. Un saludo (José Bueno, ibid.) ** ARGENTINA. 1660, Radio Esperanza, Virrey del Pino (Partido de La Matanza), B.A. Relaying FM88.3 QTH calle Volta, entre Vesalio y Dubalia, Virrey del Pino. Tel: +(02202) 49-3745. Music programming by now, with scarce IDs. An Argentinian DXer in Neuquén (Patagonia) has tentatively heard them under another co-channel with an SRF 37 (Arnaldo Slaen & Marcelo Cornachioni, Argentina, Condiglist YG, via Nigro, Uruguay, Apr 24, IRCA via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. Among several signals, mostly in Chinese audible in the middle of the night on 16m, April 24 at 0558 was something weak on 17830. Per Aoki, this must be CVC Darwin, 250 kW, 340 degrees, 0400- 1000 in Chinese. Also had RA weakly in English on 17750, 0601 April 24 with news from USA, // better 15240. 17750 is Shepparton, 100 kW, 329 degrees at 2330-0800 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11660. Radio Australia (Brandon), 2156-2158, 4/22/2009, English. Pop music. Talk by man at 2157 followed by "Waltzing Matilda", identification, and announcements by man and woman. Gone at 2158. Poor signal. Brandon site is per Aoki, while Eibi indicates Shepparton. Also noted at very poor level from Shepparton on 11650 with same program details, but not 100% in sync with 11660 (Jim Evans, Germantown TN, Eton E1, Eavesdropper Dipole in Attic, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio Australia from SHP at 06-08 UT S=5-6 propagate on 15160 kHz now. But definite stronger on 11945 kHz S=8-9 from 0700 UT. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA [and non]. Hi Glenn, Thanks for the top bill plug on WoR re the RA interference problem here in Peterborough. Appreciate it. I hope something comes of it - HAH! It is the funniest thing. Had you asked me about a month ago, I would have told you that the problem was under control. I'd almost swear CRI was broadcasting from another site. The 9570 signal was clean and so 9580 was also in the clear. Today, right now, it is a real mess again. As l emailed John Figliozzi recently, it is quite obvious CRI cannot keep this transmitter within spec. I just wish they would find another frequency for it. 6020 is a good alternative here but during the summer months, it fades out after 12 UT. a (Andy Reid, Ont., April 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. The ABC Radio National program "360" has a well-produced and quite interesting program about radio, including several references to shortwave radio in a sound documentary entitled, "Listening to Ghosts". Unfortunately, the air dates for the broadcast have passed; but fortunately it's available on demand: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/360/default.htm Highly recommended (John Figliozzi, Halfmoon, NY, April 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. 4910. ABC Northern Territory Service (Tennant Creek), 0817-0838, 4/23/2009, English. While tuning an almost dead 60 meter band (except for Rebelde and WWCR), found Aussie accented English on 4910. Initially talk by man and woman, then pop music at 0822. More talk at 0827, possible a listener's call-in. News by woman at 0830 past scheduled close. Gone at 0838. Poor signal with significant fading. Found parallel on 4835 (Alice Springs) with slightly stronger signal plus CODAR. 4835 went off at 0830 (Jim Evans, Germantown TN, RX-340, 200' Random Wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BAHRAIN. 6010, R. Bahrain, 18th April, 1918, medley of songs, Bill Withers: "lean on me", "Crying in the rain" Everley brothers, generally good and ID at 1919 (David Norrie, AOR 7030 on Ewe antennae from Mangawhai, 120kms north of Auckland, North Island New Zealand on 18th April, Thanks to Bryan Clark for tips and DX location, April 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BANGLADESH. Bangladesh Betar Domestic Services Relay on 7250 kHz: Forwarding message from Mr. Gautam Kr. Sharma, Avayapuri, Assam, India. Thanks to Mr. A. M Bain of Durg, Chattisgarh, India also for this info. Swopan Chakroborty, Kolkata, India ---------- It`s my pleasure to inform you I heard Bangladesh Betar's Domestic Services Relay on 7250 kHz around 0215 UT onwards on April 23rd. Initially, hum like sound was there as observed by me & however later the sound was not heard louder i.e. it became somewhat faded. I recorded its audio around 0215, 0216, 0220, 0245 & 0310 UT perhaps. And while checking around 0319, I didn't find its signal there on 7250 kHz. And slight noise i.e. QRM from a radio station on 7240 could be found during my monitoring period i.e. 0215-0310 UT. And I identified the station from its contents & language of broadcasting i.e. Bengali. But the signal varied from fair to poor in strength not strong as heard during their previous shortwave frequency i.e. 4750 kHz. On April 24th, after several checking on 7250 from 0200, the signal was very weak & initially around 0200 onwards hum sound was there. On April 24th morning, the signal was too weak to copy & the hum sound was there. 73 & 55 Gautam Kumar Sharma (GK), Abhayapuri(Assam) (India) (via Swopan Chakroborty, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELARUS. 7255, Radio Station Belarus, 2129-2202 April 26, 2009. Tune-in to clear and good copy with stiff English announcers, lots of ("dear listeners"), lame smooth jazz filler music, into Belarussian rock and folkie vocals. ID, schedule, URL and email address from 2158, into Russian from 2200. The only audible parallel was 7210, which was clear but weak (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, April 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BIAFRA [non]. New 12050, 1915-1959* CLANDESTINE, 15.04, R Biafra, via Skelton. English political comments, ID: "You are listening to Radio Biafra from London", 1920 instrumental music, discussion about Biafra, 45444 (Anker Petersen, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) Some VTCommunications changes: Voice of Biafra International in English to WeAf: 1900-2000 on 12050 SKN 300 kW / 160 deg Daily, additional frequency [12050 is NOT VOBI! IDs as Radio Biafra, from London, as above --- gh] 1900-2000 NF 17520 HRI 250 kW / 087 deg Fri, ex 21-22 on 11885 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) Only had time for a quick check on the portable of 17520, Friday April 24 at 1952, and could barely detect a signal there, presumably still V. of Biafra International for the third week in a row via WHRI. Not on 15665 or 11885, anyway (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re Comments and Correction: [12050 is NOT VOBI! IDs as Radio Biafra, from London --- gh, dxld, Apr 27] This is wrong as I think these are two complete separate services, one from London and one from Washington DC. I think it should read: Radio Biafra, London in English/Igbo to WAf 1900-2000 on 12050 SKN 300 kW / 160 deg Daily - NEW STATION Voice of Biafra International, Washington DC in English/Igbo to WeAF: 1900-2000 NF 17520 HRI 250 kW / 087 deg Fri, ex 21-22 on 11885 (Dave Kenny, BDXC-UK Apr 27 via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4835, R. Virgen de Remedios (tentative), Tupiza. April 25, Spanish, 0315 out male and studio female in religious talks, "está escuchando Informe Católico Mundial", "yo soy católico mas no demasiado", 0335 religious music "está escuchando Radio Católica Mundial", 0356 abrupt sign off. It could be R. Maranón but by modulation characteristics, massive religious content, the mentioning of R. Católica Mundial already heard in other Virgen de Remedios transmissions, my choice goes to V.R.. Despite after 41 minutes of religious content, I don't hear a definitive ID. At peaks the signal was so good that it could be listenable outside L.A., 34333. [Later:] I heard more two times the 4835 in the morning and night of April-25, and sincerely increased my doubts if it really is R. Virgen de Remedios. It's because the content wich appeared, is something different than the usual; I don't heard in any time that religious ceremony from inside of a church like always, and don't the news program Bolivia en Contacto too, like others programs without religious content. The only ID heard on 4835 was "Radio Católica Mundial"', and always religious content programs. 73's (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)[ Dear friend Lucio, Radio Virgen de los Remedios fue reportada en Marzo /April 2009 en las frequencias 4111.6v & 4554.1v. 4111.602 BOLIVIA Radio Virgen de los Remedios (R. F. Aragão 9 March 2009 ) ex 4545.396 4554.16v BOL R Virgen de Remedios, Tupiza [2240-0010+] (4.25-5.0) Apr09 A http://lasw.blogspot.com/ http://www.mcdxt.it/LASWLOGS.html For this reason I guess you have heard another station on 4835v --- probably Radio Marañón from Perú. Please try again on 4835 kHz to ID. 73's (Dario Monferini, April 25, playdx yg via DXLD) Yes, but VdR jumps around a lot, so why not 4835 too? (gh, DXLD) 4835, Bolivia, R. Virgen de Remedios, Tupiza. April-26, 27 Spanish at tune-in 2312 a religious ceremony with that reverb from inside of a church; finally, after the ceremony, a definitive ID by male at 0014 "R. Virgen de Remedios". I heard until 0018, after much religious talks this week end. Sometimes much noise but getting stronger 24322 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Whenever you hear Radio Católica Mundial on a tropical frequency, you should see if it matches a WEWN channel: http://www.ewtn.com/radio/freq.htm And you can also find their Spanish program schedule. Altho that may not help to identify the relay. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** BOLIVIA [and non]. 2310 to 2330 both of the following have been logged in several location in Florida: 4834.93, Bolivia, R. Virgen de Remedios, Tupiza. 4835.42, Perú, Radio Marañón, Jaen 73s (Bob Wilkner, FL, April 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 6155.26, Radio Fides, La Paz, 0150-0205+, April 24, Andean music. Spanish talk. Spanish ballads. ID at 0201. Weak. Poor with adjacent channel splatter (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 6164.99v, (presumed), R Logos, Santa Cruz *1009 - transmitter on 6164.97 at sign-on and drifting upward. Very poor but slightly improving by 1015 with low-key talk by man in Spanish, audio faded by 1030 as signal faded. Drifted up to 6164.995 kHz by the time R Nederland Bonaire signed on with IS at 1058; 4/17 (Brandon Jordan - Memphis, TN, USA, bcdx.org @ gmail.com - http://www.bcdx.org Perseus SDR - Wellbrook ALA330, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 2380, 20/04 0825, BRASIL, R Educadora de Limeira, *presumida*, Portuguese, desde Limeira SP, com 0.25 kW, programa de música sertaneja “sertanejo Educadora”, 25322 (Jorge Freitas, Escutas: Feira de Santana Bahia - Brasil, 12º 15' 1.57" S 38º 58' 40.30" W, Degen 1103, Antena Dipolo de 16 metros e balum 4:1 em toroide, direção Leste/Oeste, HCDX via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Informações sobre a Radio Guarujá de Florianópolis nos 5980 kHz. 73 Marcelo Bedene Prezado Marcelo, a nossa OC está fora do ar desde de sexta feira dia 17 de abril, por determinação da justiça porque a mesma estava interferindo nos serviços de comunicação do aeroporto Hercilio Luz. Em breve estaremos no ar. Um forte abraço. Carlos Alberto Silva/Exec. de contas (via Bedene, April 22, dxclube pr yg via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Colegas, Há alguns dias não escuto o sinal da Rádio Inconfidência em 6010 kHz, alguém a ouve? 73 (Jorge Freitas, SWL1023B, Brasil, April 22, dxclube pr yg via DXLD) Rádio Inconfidência - 6010 kHz 49m --- Em contato com Marcus, eng. eletrônico da emissora, responsável pelo transmissor de ondas curtas, a informação que obtive foi de que o transmissor está em manutenção, a fim de migrar dos 5 kW para os tradicionais 25 kW. 73 (Luiz Chaine Neto, Limeira sp, April 23, ibid.) Olá Luiz, Obrigado pela informação e fico contente em saber que a potência irá aumentar. Gosto muito da programação da R Inconfidência. 73 e boas escutas (Jorge Freitas, ibid.) Just what we need: more QRM on 6010 besides Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, Sweden, etc. (gh, DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Many thanks to Pastor Scott for opening a 2+ hour window on 6090 kHz, allowing me to get a good log of Amhara State Radio. Anguilla was back at 0406, by which time Ethiopia had faded to poor levels. No sign of R Nigeria Kaduna at listed 0400 sign-on. 6089.95, (tentative), R. Bandeirantes, São Paulo, 0211 4/24, Anguilla off leaving Bandeirantes, poor with non-stop Portuguese, alone on channel until Radio Amhara [see ETHIOPIA] signed on at 0254 and overpowering Brazil by 0300 (Brandon Jordan - Memphis, TN, USA, http://www.bcdx.org Perseus SDR - Wellbrook ALA100, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 8004, 19/04 1353, BRASIL, Radio Livre no Brasil, *pirata*, *tentativa*, Porguguese, trecho de uma música de Cazuza, sinal desvanecendo e sumiu poucos segundos depois, ouvia-se uma locução, mas a gravação não consegue distinguir devido aos ruídos atmosféricos, 25222 (Jorge Freitas, Escutas: Feira de Santana Bahia - Brasil, 12º 15' 1.57" S 38º 58' 40.30" W, Degen 1103, Antena Dipolo de 16 metros e balum 4:1 em toroide, direção Leste/Oeste, HCDX via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. A Rádio Senado Ondas Curtas, de Brasília (DF), prossegue sendo captada em ondas curtas, em 5990 kHz. Recentemente, a emissora e a sua direção foi alvo de uma campanha difamatória e irresponsável de quem não conhece o seu trabalho. Para quem deseja entrar em contato com a emissora, o endereço é o seguinte: Rádio Senado, Praça dos Três Poderes, s/n ‹, Brasília (DF), CEP 70165-900. O e-mail do apresentador José Carlos Sigmaringa Seixas é: sigma @ senado.gov.br BRASIL – A Rádio Cultura Brasil, de São Paulo (SP), continua enfrentando problemas técnicos na freqüência de 9615 kHz. O sinal da emissora tem chegado ao Sul do Brasil abafado. BRASIL - Duas emissoras de Porto Alegre (RS) que transmitem na faixa de 25 metros continuam inativas em suas freqüências. A Rádio Guaíba sumiu dos 11785 kHz, enquanto que a Super Rede Boa Vontade desapareceu dos 11895 kHz (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX April 26 via DXLD) ** BRAZIL [and non]. Re 9-035, 11925: Glenn, Sobre a escuta do comentário de azimute da frequência de 11925 kHz (Rádio Bandeirantes), e a emissora que a interferia, a DW, foi uma escuta do dia 28/03, acho que ainda dentro do período B08. Gosto das indicações de azimute da lista Aoki, mas não tenho idéia de onde eles pesquisam e sei que podem conter erros, mas ainda assim é fonte de referência para as nossas escutas. Mais uma vez obrigado por seus oportunos comentários as minhas escutas, 73 (Jorge Freitas, Brasil, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BULGARIA. New schedule of BNR's EURANET in English (only) from April 18: 0900-0930 on 11900 SOF 050 kW / 306 deg to WeEu in DRM mode, Sat/Sun only. All other transmissions are cancelled! (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) ** CANADA. 6070, CFRX, 18th April, 0544, generally good, ID as "newstalk 1010 CFRB" , good to hear them back on air, no sign of Chilean (David Norrie, AOR 7030 on Ewe antennae from Mangawhai, 120kms north of Auckland, North Island New Zealand on 18th April, Thanks to Bryan Clark for tips and DX location, April 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Because Chile cut back to 23-02 UT only on 6070 (gh) ** CANADA. The application for a new AM station in Calgary AB on 700 kHz, 50 kW day, 20 kW night, (the old CKRD-700 Red Deer AB frequency) has been approved by the CRTC: Christian music AM radio station The Commission approves an application for a broadcasting licence to operate an English-language commercial AM radio station in Calgary, Alberta. The application 1. The Commission received an application by Touch Canada Broadcasting (2006) Inc. (the general partner), and 1188011 Alberta Ltd. and Touch Canada Broadcasting Inc. (the limited partners), carrying on business as Touch Canada Broadcasting Limited Partnership (Touch) for a broadcasting licence to operate an English-language commercial AM radio programming undertaking in Calgary. 2. Touch is ultimately controlled by Mr. Charles R. Allard. 3. The station would operate at frequency 700 kHz with a daytime transmitter power of 50,000 watts and a night-time transmitter power of 20,000 watts. 4. The proposed station would offer a Southern Gospel and Inspirational music format and would draw a majority of its musical selections from content subcategory 35 (non-classic religious), as defined in Public Notice 2000-14. In each broadcast week, the station would also broadcast 37 hours and 44 minutes of spoken word programming, including news, weather, sports and business reports as well as community updates. In addition, 28 hours would be devoted to religious programming each broadcast week. Touch committed to broadcast balance programming as defined in Public Notice 1993-78. 73, (via Deane McIntyre VE6BPO, Calgary, April 24, DXLD) Thx for the info. Will be a new target for me. Do you have a link to info about day and night patterns? Also I wonder what kind of a beating this will give to KXLX Spokane? 73 KAZ near Chicago (Neil Kazaross, IL/WI, IRCA via DXLD) I have put the 0.5 mV contour maps on my website: Day: Night: (night pattern must of course protect WLW with deep null) 73, (Deane McIntyre, VE6BPO, ibid.) ** CANADA. The applications to the CRTC for new AM stations in Markham ON (960 kHz, 1kW day, 175 watts night) and Scarborough ON (1350 kHz, 1kW day, 87 watts night) have both been denied by the CRTC: Both are part of the Toronto market. Ethnic-language AM radio stations to serve Scarborough and Markham The Commission denies applications for broadcasting licences to operate commercial ethnic radio programming undertakings in Scarborough and Markham, respectively. The application of CJNL-1230 Merritt BC to move to FM (101.1 MHz, 200 watts) has been approved by the CRTC. The transmitter will however remain on the air as a relay of CHNL-610 Kamloops. CJNL Merritt – Conversion to FM band and CHNL Kamloops – New transmitter at Merritt The Commission approves the application by Merritt Broadcasting Ltd. for a broadcasting licence to operate a new English-language commercial FM radio programming undertaking in Merritt to replace its AM station CJNL. The Commission also approves the application by N L Broadcasting Ltd. to amend the broadcasting licence for the radio programming undertaking CHNL Kamloops in order to operate a transmitter at Merritt using the technical parameters currently authorized to CJNL, effective the end of the simulcast period granted to Merritt Broadcasting Ltd. Introduction 1. The Commission received an application by Merritt Broadcasting Ltd. (Merritt Broadcasting) for a broadcasting licence to operate a new English-language commercial FM radio programming undertaking in Merritt, British Columbia to replace its AM station CJNL. 3. The Commission also received an application by N L Broadcasting Ltd. (NLB) to amend the broadcasting licence for the radio programming undertaking CHNL Kamloops in order to operate a transmitter at Merritt. NLB proposed to operate the CJNL transmitter at Merritt that is presently owned by Merritt Broadcasting, a corporation controlled by NLB. NLB indicated that the transmitter would operate at 1230 kHz (Class C) with a day-time and night-time transmitter power of 1,000 watts, which are the technical parameters currently authorized to CJNL. 4. NLB noted that CJNL has been broadcasting programming from CHNL and submitted that the addition of the AM transmitter would ensure that CHNL’s programming continues to be available in Merritt. CJNL Merritt – Conversion to FM band 6. The Commission approves the application by Merritt Broadcasting Ltd. for a broadcasting licence to operate a new English-language commercial FM radio programming undertaking in Merritt to replace its AM station CJNL. The terms and conditions of licence are set out in the appendix to this decision. Simulcast period and revocation of AM licence 8. As set out in the appendix to this decision, the licensee is authorized to simulcast the programming of the new FM station on CJNL for a transition period of three months following the commencement of operations of the FM station. Pursuant to sections 9(1)(e) and 24(1) of the Broadcasting Act and consistent with the licensee’s request, the Commission revokes the licence for CJNL effective at the end of the simulcast period. CHNL Kamloops – New transmitter at Merritt 9. The Commission notes that Merritt Broadcasting, which owns the transmitter in Merritt that NLB is proposing to operate, is controlled by the applicant NLB. The Commission also notes that CJNL is already broadcasting programming from CHNL and that the addition of the AM transmitter would ensure that CHNL’s programming continues to be available in Merritt. 10. In light of the preceding, the Commission approves the application by N L Broadcasting Ltd. to amend the broadcasting licence for the radio programming undertaking CHNL Kamloops in order to operate a transmitter at Merritt using the technical parameters currently authorized to CJNL, effective the end of the simulcast period granted to Merritt Broadcasting above. 12. The Department has advised the Commission that given that the transmitter will operate under the same technical parameters as those authorized for CJNL, the technical requirements have already been met. However, the issuance of a broadcasting certificate is still in order. The station will operate at 101.1 MHz (channel 266B1) with an effective radiated power of 200 watts. The application of CKDH-900 Amherst NS to move to FM (107.1 MHz, 18.7 kW)has been approved by the CRTC: CKDH Amherst – Conversion to FM band The Commission approves an application for a broadcasting licence to operate an English-language commercial FM radio station in Amherst, Nova Scotia, to replace the AM station CKDH Amherst. Introduction 1. The Commission received an application by Maritime Broadcasting System Limited (MBS) for a broadcasting licence to operate a new English-language commercial FM radio programming undertaking in Amherst, Nova Scotia, to replace its AM station CKDH Amherst. 2. The applicant proposed to operate the new FM station at 107.1 MHz (channel 269B) with an average effective radiated power of 18,700 watts. 9. In the light of the above, the Commission approves the application by Maritime Broadcasting System Limited for a broadcasting licence to operate a new English-language commercial FM radio programming undertaking in Amherst, Nova Scotia, to replace its AM station CKDH. The terms and conditions of licence are set out in the appendix to this decision. Simulcast period and revocation of AM licence 10. As set out in the appendix to this decision, the licensee is authorized to simulcast the programming of the new FM station on CKDH for a transition period of three months following the commencement of operations of the FM station. Pursuant to sections 9(1)(e) and 24(1) of the Broadcasting Act, and consistent with MBS’s request, the Commission revokes the licence for CKDH effective at the end of the simulcast period. 73, (ALL via Deane McIntyre VE6BPO, Calgary, April 24, DXLD) ** CHAD. (assumed) 6165, RNT, 18th April, 0454, excellent signal in French with domestic news (David Norrie, AOR 7030 on Ewe antennae from Mangawhai, 120kms north of Auckland, North Island New Zealand on 18th April, Thanks to Bryan Clark for tips and DX location, April 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHECHNYA [non]. Re: x-Chechnya Svobodnaya / Program Kavkaz closed down? Kavkaz's streaming is back online (Sergei S., Russia, 1224 UT April 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Jamming from China to PEAK soon! This year marks the 20th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown and the authorities in China are getting ready. The State Administration of Film, Radio and Television (SAFRT) has already sent out a memo to CCTV (Central China Television), CNR (China National Radio) and CRI (China Radio International) as well as the thousands of local provincial radio stations to inform them about the “special measures” that will be in place from May 18th to July 31, 2009. The strictest order from SAFRT was directed to CRI. During this period CRI is not under any circumstances to do any live programming on its external and domestic service. News programs like CRI News & Reports must have clearance from two censors instead of one which is normal. Programs on the domestic side which are mainly music must be recorded 72 hours prior to broadcast so Li Pei Chun, Lin Shao Wen, Li Yun and other managers can check the programs. Jamming during this period will also be stepped up. So if you tune to the SW dial starting on or around that date, the very popular FIREDRAKE will be heard just about everywhere and anywhere in the world. As many of you might know, Firedrake does not just interfere with signals beamed to China, but also with signals beamed to other regions. CRI’s master control room located on the south side of the 3rd floor is the main switching center for this. On the left side is the master control for each of CRI’s languages, on the right side another control room with the word “interference for broadcasts (translated)”. This room controls the over 20 jamming sites located in China. Some of them are: Hainan Island (main jamming center) Shunyi (just outside Beijing) Ho Hot (Inner Mongolia) Dandong, Dalian Province (on the DPRK (North Korean) border) Ningbo (between Hangzhou and Shanghai) And many others. A while ago I did an interview with Mark Fahey in Australia who discovered that the signal use to feed FIREDRAKE to the various sites is Chinasat 6B. The signal is found on the same carrier as used by CNR8 Voice of The Minorities. Read more here: http://www.satdirectory.com/firedrake.html Some may be asking how did China acquire so many transmitters and antennas for this. In 2002 China bought some SW radio equipment from Thalès Broadcast Multimedia, a French company. Well, China being China, in no time copied the technology. Now the official reason given by the government for buying this equipment is for broadcasting domestically on SW. Hummm! Makes me wonder what is the point of putting Beijing Traffic Radio on SW. As China also uses domestic stations to jam. Over the past 8 years I have heard some very funny stations on SW which only seems to pop up during the National People’s Congress, National People’s Consultative Congress and of course around June 4th (or June 3rd in China). Stations I’ve picked up during these times on shortwave are: Beijing Traffic Radio on 4 frequencies Hangzhou People’s Radio on 2 frequencies Shanghai Children's Radio on 11 frequencies Shanghai Traffic Radio 6 frequencies And many many more During this period listening on SW in Beijing is impossible! As Firedrake and all these local stations fill up the dial from 5.9 to 26 MHz. Even stations that are on a frequency targeted to let`s say, India or Africa are also affected. And just to be on the safe side, the Great Fire Wall of China increases to the point where it is also impossible to listen to online radio unless it’s a local Chinese station. They use ALLISS antennas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALLISS and copied them after buying two. There is an old saying in Beijing. Why buy a microwave? All you need to do is put your food outside and it will cook in no time. I’ve attached a clip of Radio Beijing (CRI) from June 3rd, 1989 some of you may remember. The newsreader in this clip is still in jail. Regards, (Keith Perron, Taiwan, April 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I saw this info from Keith Perron. Is he talking about Li Dan? (Bruce MacGibbon, OR, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Does Keith Perron have any evidence for this? I heard several years ago the newsreader concerned was then working for a satellite TV station in Hong Kong (Dave Kenny, UK, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) "Programme" content of the "Firedrake jamming network" changed last weekend, all acc to observations of Ron Howard-CA-USA in dxld. Only FOUR REAL Firedrake dragon music jammers noted here in Europe remained on air since Apr 19: 15150 approx. 0400-0600 15635 1300-1400 15820 approx. 0400-0600 15840 1000-1200 Formerly also on 13970, and 15900 kHz against Xi Wang Zhi Sheng SOH- Sound of Hope service from Taiwan. Somebody in the Pazifik, Far East, or South Asia should monitor the shortwave bands in the 0000-0500 UT portion. "Firedrake" jamming service now changed the format, -- continuous playing of dragon music stopped now. Few and between advertising talk [Howard and Hauser said China National radio 1st program relay] and music jammer but rather lyric Chinese love songs played now, even Elton John sung in between. Some 3 to 4 very fast echos of few transmitters appeared as 'new sound'. Modern Chinese and international smooth love songs in between. Is full in action like in past weekend log, - frequencies against transmissions in Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan, Uighur, Nepali etc., noted here in Europe on 45 shortwave channels, like on additional which monitored today: 15265 0300-0600 IBB UDO, echo 15490 0300-0600 IBB IRA, echo 17615 0300-0700 IBB TIN, echo 17635 0300-0700 IBB Irkutsk Russia, echo 17735 0400-0600 IBB UDO, echo Keith Perron. What a character --- Who is Keith Perron, from Taiwan? Is a real character or an outlet of a western intelligence service? (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Apr 22, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hehe. I'm sure he's both :) Why else would he move to Taiwan and listen to SW?! :) His previous assignment was with China Radio International in Beijing. That's what he wrote in 2002: "I host a national daily music show called The Keith and Li Qian Show, and I host China's only weekly national jazz show, Jazzbeat." Here's what Keith Perron says about himself on Voices.com: "I have over 15 years experience reading news and doing voice over work for films and television. My jingles can be heard on 11 radio stations in the US, 2 in China, and 2 in the Netherlands. Accents: English, German, Dutch, Swedish, South African, French." You can also read this announcement about his Happy Station Project where he is described as an "experienced Canadian broadcaster": http://swling.com/blog/?tag=keith-perron Note that he didn't list his Canadian accent on voices.com! Suspicious, eh? Keith seems to be recruiting new operatives through his account on Facebook: http://en-gb.facebook.com/people/Keith-Perron/524612270 (Sergei S., Moskva, ibid.) This is an important detail in regard to the question if this report about the "special measures" is trustworthy. However, confirmation by a second source is still lacking. Concerning jamming: Is there any real division between CRI/CNR program distribution and jamming facilities? I assume that the transmitter sites are seamlessly used for both, no matter that the jamming command has a separate bureau (no surprise, since what they do is something else than routing audio and supervise the transmission quality). It's proof enough that this bureau is in the radio house at all. http://www.tdp.info/chn.html already lists 45 transmitters of 500 kW each, 10 from Continental and the remaining 35 from what belongs again to Thomson now. The last update is from 2005, so perhaps even more equipment has been added since then. Furthermore Continental delivered 20 transmitters of 100 kW. So altogether China imported at least 65 shortwave transmitters. Of course the Chinese BBEF company delivered a substantial number of 100/150 kW transmitters (with the design taken from the Continental equipment) to SARFT, too. And so they certainly have more than 100 shortwave transmitters now, for both program distribution and the contrary purpose. Another aspect: Does anybody in former "East Bloc" countries remember a special programme from CCTV with the "truth" about the events on Tiananmen Square, about all the crime about soldiers etc.? This programme had been broadcast in East Germany, I think with a couple of repeats, after it had been ordered from high up to make a German version (with rough voice-over) at shortest notice. Those involved in producing it later said that they are not exactly proud of this, and it is widely considered as the darkest hour of Deutscher Fernsehfunk. Surprisingly professional research so far completely misses this event. This dedicated dossier http://1989.dra.de/themendossiers/ddr-fernsehen/berichterstattung/tiananmen-massaker.html does not mention it at all. Either Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv considers it as irrelevant, or they do not mention it simply because CCTV has the copyright, preventing them from selling copies to producers (which is obviously the primary goal of the whole 1989.dra.de site). So did TV stations in other countries broadcast this piece of heavy propaganda as well? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, April 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I thought a lot of the jamming racket came via a site on Dongfang Island, as well as other sites, which may, or may not, account for the "echo" effects we hear. But there is no listing for Dongfang in the TDP, but perhaps I should add "well there wouldn't be". Whoever owned the BBC relay site at Tsang Tsui made sure that it was demolished when the British left, so Firedrake et al doesn't come from there (Noel R. Green, April 24, ibid.) Is there a real source for the Dongfang, Hainan, version? I seem to recall that it had been brought up by ham radio bandwatch circles after some DFing attempts, when they dealt with Chinese jamming in ham bands. I believe that there is no difference between jamming and program distribution facilities because the jamming consists of program audio, broadcast with professional audio processing and in good quality. Another strong indication is the fact that the music loop known as "Firedrake" is on the very same program distribution system than regular CNR/CRI programming. Thus I think that Chinese jamming can (and presumably indeed does) originate from any shortwave broadcasting site in China. And recently on satellite images a set of south-beaming antennas had been spotted at the Urumqui shortwave plant, "presumably for transmissions that do not appear in any HFCC files" as an insider put it. Dongfang is known for the 1200 kW mediumwave transmissions on 603 and 684, also used for programming of airtime exchange partners. It's well possible that shortwave equipment has been installed at this new transmission facility, too (Kai Ludwig, April 25, ibid.) SARFT SW sites only used for jamming: DOF Dongfang: 150, 5 x 500 kW NAN Nanchang: 6 x 100 kW QIQ Qiqihar: 6 x 100, 1 x 500 kW xxx Quanzhou: 150 kW (Nagoya DX Circle Japan Apr 10 via Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DXLD) SAFRT? (gh) From DXLD 5-146 August 25 2005: CHINA. RADIO BEIJING TIANANMEN SQUARE BROADCAST Last month`s feature of Vladimir Danchev`s Radio Moscow English service broadcast about Afghanistan made me recall a similar maverick broadcast made on Radio Beijing`s English service on the 4th June 1989 after the Tiananmen Square massacre which said: "Please remember June the Third, 1989. The most tragic event happened in the Chinese Capital, Beijing. Thousands of people, most of them innocent civilians, were killed by fully-armed soldiers when they forced their way into the city. Among the killed are our colleagues at Radio Beijing. The soldiers were riding on armoured vehicles and used machine guns against thousands of local residents and students who tried to block their way. When the army convoys made the breakthrough, soldiers continued to spray their bullets indiscriminately at crowds in the street. Eyewitnesses say some armored vehicles even crushed foot soldiers who hesitated in front of the resisting civilians. Radio Beijing English Department deeply mourns those who died in the tragic incident and appeals to all its listeners to join our protest for the gross violation of human rights and the most barbarous suppression of the people. Because of the abnormal situation here in Beijing there is no other news we could bring you. We sincerely ask for your understanding and thank you for joining us at this most tragic moment." The rest of the broadcast took place as if nothing unusual had happened that day. Except, perhaps, for a tune played later in the program called "Ambushed From All Sides." Radio Beijing broadcasts were curtailed for several days thereafter, playing mostly Chinese classical music. The item was reportedly written by Wu Xiaoyang, the son of Communist Party of China Central Committee member, former Chinese foreign minister and vice premier Wu Xueqian. He was removed from the English Department of Radio Beijing. According to TV news anchor Feng Xiaoming, the announcer was not permitted to go abroad to study, as previously planned. The son of the minister was still in police custody when Feng Xiaoming left China in August 1989. ``The Lost Voice of Radio Beijing`` produced by Jack Urso and available online at http://www.albany.edu/talkinghistory/arch2001jan-june.html (link still active) is a 3 and a half minute audio feature including a full recording of the broadcast in very good quality. Mr Urso came across the broadcast and recorded it whilst working the overnight shift at an AM newstalk radio station in upstate New York. I put Wu Xiaoyang into Google and found a December 9th 2004 report by James Borton on AsiaTimes online on the "spectacular rise of the Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV Channel, headed by a well-connected former Chinese colonel." It said that they "heed the regulations that do not permit any references to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, the Falungong spiritual movement, abortion as a family-planning measure, and other human-rights and some political issues." "Phoenix is innovative, but they also know where the boundaries are," Professor Hao Xiaoming, an expert on Chinese media who is on sabbatical at the University of Wisconsin at Madison Journalism School, said. Further the article says that "Liu Changle (the channel`s chief executive) cannot deny that guanxi - personal, political connections - plays a role in Phoenix Satellite's success; surrounding himself with key well-connected senior management like Wu Xiaoyang, director of business development and the son of former Chinese foreign minister and vice premier Wu Xueqian, does not impede business. This comes at a time when foreign-owned media corporations still face some barriers to break into China's heavily regulated media." Research for this article came from webpages Lies in Ink, Truth in Blood, Linda Jakobsen, Harvard University, H.L. Hiew, Perth University and archives of Kim Andrew Elliot's VOA Communications World (Mike Barraclough, Sept World DX Club Contact via DXLD) (all via Barraclough, April 22, 2009, dxldyg via DXLD) Wolfgang & Ron, I just now drove my dish across to Chinasat 6 to see if there had been changes to the Firedrake transmitter feed. And I can report yes there has! The circuit that carried Firedrake is right at the moment carrying what sounds like a drama with some intervals of Mongolian Throat Singing, just as I started typing they have gone to commercials and now at the top of the hour the feed has gone silent. I will stick with this channel to night and see if I can find some parallels on HF. It maybe that they have reorganized some circuits, and what I am hearing is not feeding the jammers - anyway within a day or so I should have it worked out. By the way, do a Google search on Keith Perron - he is one of the most colorful shortwave broadcasters out there - ex CRI, CNR, Radio Havana and now The Happy Station. Cheers, (Mark Fahey, Sydney, Australia, http://www.satdirectory.com/firedrake.html April 22, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Keith also worked at Radio Canada International "Internal" back in the 90's before the changes took place.73's (Noble West, TN, ibid.) Firedrake / Echo jamming - transmitter hardware in use there, - and target broadcaster. All the same. 73 (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, but for reasons best known to the ChiCom, there are two basic different types of jamming audio sources – Firedrake which is music only, and CNR-1 network (or maybe some other network) regular programming. When we hear Firedrake, we report it as such, so what`s the point of deleting the distinxion? And Firedrake is the preferred jamethod against Sound of Hope, less so for the other targets (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Real Firedrake music noted Apr 22 at 0440 UT on 15150 and 15820 kHz. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Firedrake, which is the name for the raucous music-only jamming, not any other audio source of Chinese jamming, is still being heard regularly here in the mornings: April 22 at 1307 on 8400, much stronger than on 9000. Firedrake check April 25 at 1315: yes on 9000, no on 8400. Firedrake, very good, and equal level on 8400 and 9000, April 24 at 1321 check, so I `enjoyed` the music for a while. At 1400 monitoring 9000, as usual went to open carrier; 1421 recheck both still going but weakening. On other occasions when both frequencies are on, one has been much weaker than the other, so something must be changing dynamically as to sites, powers and/or azimuths (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Observed 0215-0245, April 23: Firedrake (non-stop Chinese music jamming): 17300 and 18320, both parallel and against SOH. CNR-1 (assumed) distinctive echo jamming, all parallel: 11830 and 11925 (both against VOA), 17730 (against R. Free Asia) and 17765 (against VOA). Assume the echo programming was CNR-1, due to the absence of a known non-jamming CNR-1 to check these with during this time period (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Logs of Apr 24: Puzzle. REAL FIREDRAKE music jammer noted close-down at 0700 UT on 15150 kHz. Scheduled is VOA Mandarin UdornThani 0000- 0200 UT only. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Wolfy, Probably the return of jamming against SOH, see DXLD 7-054. Probably Firedrake started up again at 0705, as they usually are off- the-air for 5 minutes at the ToH (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, USA, ibid.) - - - - - - - DXLD 7-054: ** CHINA [and non]. 24 hrs type Firedrake. Now operating on 9200, 10300, 13970, 15150 (ex. 14500) and 18160 kHz. Cf. Bi List A07 * mark: http://www.geocities.jp/binewsjp/bia07.txt de S. Aoki (S. Hasegawa, NDXC, UT May 7, 2007 DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: 15150* VOICE OF AMERICA 0000-0200 1234567 Chinese 500 30 Udon Thani THA 10245E1725 IBB a07 15150* Xi Wang Zhi Sheng SOH 0000-2400 1234567 Chinese 10 325 Tanshui TWN 12125E2511 SOH a07 May 5, 2007 . . . (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Seems Chinese jammer on 15150 is now a 24 hrs operation, thanks to Ron Howard. Also CNR echo word program jammer (3 times time shifted by half second or so ...) noted on other channels. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, May 7, 2007 DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15425, Firedrake Dragon, 1310 UT 25 de abril; se desconoce a qué emisora intenta interferir, posiblemente algún servicio de Xi Wang Zhi Sheng SOH (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Aoki list shows 15425*VOICE OF TIBET 1300-1330 Chinese 100 131 Dushanbe-Yangiyul TJK VOTi a09 15422-15427 15425*VOICE OF TIBET 1330-1400 Tibetan 100 131 Dushanbe-Yangiyul TJK VOTi a09 15422-15427 Log of Apr 25: SOH and FIREDRAKE music today 25.4. at 0930 UT on 13970 and 18320, and tiny weak here in Europe on 17300 and 15820. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Wolfy, Undoubtedly the return of jamming against SOH, which was last heard here in 2007 (see DXLD 7-053 and -054). Firedrake (non-stop Chinese music jamming) heard on April 26 from 0345 to 0400*; off-the- air for 5 minutes, which is a regular feature of Firedrake against SOH; *0405; // 17300 and 18320. At 1352 heard Firedrake along with CNR-1 program jamming (echo); // 5030. At 1400 both Firedrake and echo CNR-1 off-the-air. Not as often now that they use both of these on one frequency. Thanks for the tip (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, USA, ibid.) Hi Guys, Our friends in Beijing seem to have done a major reorganization of their satellite transmitter feed circuits on Chinasat 6B. Where Firedrake use to be it now seems to be a CRI feed, Firedrake now has its own stereo circuit labeled "ZY18 Stereo" - the program still seems to be in mono, though. What is new is that now the CNR (China National Radio - Domestic) and CRI (China Radio International) circuits are combined in same group of channels. Previously I had to access one satellite for the CNR feeds (Chinasat 6B) and another (Intelsat 8) for the CRI feeds. At the moment on Chinasat 6B there are 50 separate stereo program transmitter feed channels operating. CNR circuits are named "ZY xx" and CRI are named "GJ xx". Perhaps one or more of the more sleepy of the Firedrake jammer transmitter sites are yet to catch up with the changes and at time "accidentally" putting the old Firedrake circuit to air instead of the new Firedrake feed of ZY18 Stereo. Cheers, (Mark Fahey, Sydney, Australia, UT April 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hello, can you receive the C-band of Intelsat 10 (the former Panamsat 10) at 68.5 deg East, too? Here a multiplex with CRI feeds is listed on 4.085 or 4.087 GHz, not any video but indeed exclusively 30+ audio channels (perhaps even dual-mono? then the figure would even double). Word is that these are the feeds to Europe and Africa, a dedicated channel for every single relay transmitter since CRI does not want to rely on its partners in this regard. An aspect of particular interest would be if the program line-up for the Pori transmitter, as shown at http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/china-radio-international-now-relayed-via-finland-on-mediumwave is on Intelsat 10, too. This concerns especially the Estonian and Lithuanian broadcasts, since they appear to be produced in Finland (Kai Ludwig, April 23, ibid.) In reply to Kai: Alas, Intelsat 10 is a tiny bit too far west for my dish; the lowest I can see is 75.8 East (which has all the DPRK outlets). Another favourite set of radio feed circuits for me is on Telstar 18, this has all the BBC World Service studio feeds for the Asia Pacific region. On Intelsat 8 there is also an interesting audio circuit which is from the BBC World News (TV) studio control room - you can hear the behind the camera team setting up camera switches, rolling cued stories and then counting down into and out of breaks. There is a lot of this "hidden audio" out there above us free-to-hear, I quite enjoy tracking these circuits! Cheers, (Mark Fahey, NSW, April 24, ibid.) ``Another aspect: Does anybody in former "East Bloc" countries remember a special programme from CCTV with the "truth"`` No, I don't remember that. My memories are that back then the Soviet media presented a rather objective and even pro-student picture of the events. It's important to remember that starting with the early 1960s and through 1984 or 1985 the Soviet propaganda presented PRC as an enemy state similar to the US. Actually, a much greater number of the Soviet people were afraid of being attacked by PRC than by US. (There were very real military skirmishes at the Sino-Soviet border.) For decades, the extensive Soviet broadcasting into PRC worked at fermenting some kind of popular protest there. So when something actually happened I guess many people in the Soviet propaganda machine felt that their efforts are finally bringing about some fruit. Back in 1989, Gorbachev's visit to Beijing was presented in the USSR as a direct catalyst for a Chinese student pro-democracy movement. It was actually already the third day of a student hunger strike on Tiananmen Square when Gorbachev arrived to Beijing. His official welcome at the Square had a to be canceled. Quite an embarrassment for the Chinese authorities, considering it was the first Sino-Soviet summit since 1959. According to Wikipedia: "Some students and intellectuals believed that the reforms had not gone far enough and that China needed to reform its political system... This group had also seen the political liberalization that had been undertaken in the name of glasnost by Mikhail Gorbachev, so they had been hoping for comparable reform... The Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 were in large measure sparked by the death of former Secretary General Hu Yaobang." It will be interesting to see how the Russian media report on this sad anniversary. I guess there won't be much coverage and most of it won't be very sympathetic towards students. The success of the Chinese economy today is routinely presented in Russia as the best proof that the Chinese leaders made the right choice by cracking down on the protesters in 1989 (Sergei S., Russia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Found back a reference, online just by chance: http://sk.dra.de/grape/euro7.htm "GDR TV, program direction, report about program week 26", "very good works", third position: "The quick ingest, preparation and airing of 'The counterevolutionary rebellion in Beijing on 3 and 4 June 1989' (Aktuelle Kamera, international program exchange, program direction)" Aktuelle Kamera was the TV news, they had to produce the German version of this programme. To my memory it was rather hardcore propaganda, reporting the massacre on the young soldiers (yes, this way). I should have mentioned that I did not think of the USSR here, especially not in 1989. And speaking about Mikhail Gorbachev visits: How was the USSR-side coverage of his trip to Berlin on October 6 and 7? And since we just raised the famous Radio Beijing news about the Tiananmen Square events: Have I already told about what was presumably the most significant one of such incidents on GDR radio? It was on 19 November 1988, on the afternoon magazine on DT64, when some very frank remarks about the ban against the Soviet "Sputnik" magazine had been made, starting with "today a sputnik crashed" and continuing with "it could trigger some engaged debate that from today we have one magazine less to get informed" and sarcastic references to an earlier edition that had already been hold back, "of course we can not afford such an irregularity". Presenter Silke Hasselmann got almost fired for this, which would have forced hear to take some other, unqualified job. But finally she could keep another position at GDR radio. Editor Achim Gröschel even could stay at DT64 and was only banned from further mic work. Here one must know that "security" was almost unbelievably lax. Live call-ins were done routinely, even a programme existed on which listeners questions about current affairs had been discussed, with a semi-head of the official ADN news agency as a regular guest, often giving answers with stereotypes like "I think", "I could imagine that" etc. that were quite different from the products of his house. Basically so much was possible because audience research provided hard evidence for GDR radio being at serious risk to broadcast into nowhere and losing the younger audiences almost completely (Kai Ludwig, ibid.) ** CHINA. 4980, Xinjiang PBS, Urumqi, 1745-1800*, 19 Apr, Mandarin, light westernised songs, talks, ID+TS; 34433, utility QRM. \\ 3950. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 6937, Yunnan PBS (presumed), 1233-1241 Apr 20. YL in non- Chinese language (Minorities Service); signal was undermodulated, as usual, so not much copyable (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** CHINA. New unregistered frequency of China Radio International in German: 1800-1957 NF 7395 KAS 500 kW / 308 deg, instead of registered 9755 \\ 11650 URU 500 kW / 308 deg and 11775 KAS 500 kW / 308 deg (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. 6009.97, HJDH - LV de tu Conciencia, 1020-1115, April 25, Spanish radio-drama. Short English ID announcement at 1049 with mention of call letters & frequency. Spanish inspirational music. Instrumental music. National Anthem at 1058 followed by local Spanish ballads. Fair at tune-in but slowly deteriorated to a poor signal by 1110 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CROATIA. 3984.87, Croatian Radio-Voice of Croatia, 0200-0214, April 25, English “Croatia Today” news & current affairs program. Sports news. Weather. Interesting feature on local escargot dishes. A popular food in Croatia that is sometimes eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Yum, yum!! Poor-Weak signal. Very good-strong on // 7375 - via Germany (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Nueva página Web de Radio Habana Cuba: http://www.radiohc.cu/index.htm 73 (José Bueno, Spain, April 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) A pesar de la fecha actual, la página de frecuencias presenta info muy atrasada, varias frecuencias fuera de uso desde hace varios años. Por ejemplo 13660, 9550, 15230, 11875, 9505. No debemos creerla: http://www.radiohc.cu/espanol/c_frecuencia/frecuencias.htm A retener el horario recién actualizado! Que han suprimido desde: http://www.radiohc.cu/espanol/frecuencia/frecuencias-espanol.htm Existe ya como Google cache que retengo caso no reaparezca. Pero que apareció en DXLD 9-033, solo inglés y espanol, http://www.w4uvh.net/dxld9033.txt y en completo por: http://www.bclnews.it/a09schedules/habana.htm [luego:] Perdón, en realidad el esquema en bclnews.it también es errónea --- porque como expliqué en DXLD 9-033, RHC puso una mezcla de frecuencias y horas en una sola línea. Hay que desembrollarlas con mucho cuidado. Por ejemplo dice así: 11.00-13.00 9600 / 13680 Chicago 13.00-15.00 9600 / 13680 Chicago Pero lo que pasa en realidad es que 9600 dura hasta las 13, y después el transmisor se cambia a 13680. No hay las dos frecuencias a la vez. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Rechecked April 26 at 2145, the `new` frequency page above is still displaying a long-outdated schedule. Whoever redid the website (and credits are at the bottom) pulled up an out of date schedule instead of the latest one on the `old` website. Who knows, who cares? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Saludos cordiales, querido amigo Glenn. Saludos cordiales queridos amigos diexistas. De las frecuencias aquí indicadas solo he copiado a Radio Habana Cuba en mi reciente monitoreo en la frecuencia 9550 kHz en español entre las 2100 y las 2300 UT. Quiero informarles que he monitoreado a Radio Habana Cuba entre las 1100 y las 1200 en las siguientes frecuencias: 6000, 6180, 11760, 12000, 13760, 15120, 15360, y low 15600 kHz. Y entre las 1200 y las 1300 en las siguientes frecuencias: 6000, 6180, 11760, 12000, 13760, y los 15360 kHz. Un fuerte abrazo para todos. Atte: (José Elías, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ?? I don`t think 9550 has been in use at this hour since at least April 13. 15600? Surely you mean 15360 like in the following hour. O, that`s another mixing product I had not noticed since 15120 and 15360 are not too strong here, another 240 kHz up (gh, DXLD) Ahora me entero que es aun otro caso de mezcla, 15120 saltando sobre 15360 a 240 kHz mas. Hasta ahora no la he captado, por la falta de fuerza de las fundamentales dirigidas al sur. 73, (Glenn, ibid.) ** CUBA. DISCLAIMER FOR ALL LW/MW ITEMS: No portion of the below may be reproduced or redistributed by the National Radio Club, their editors or current members without my expressed written permission, which will then be swiftly -- and we do mean swiftly -- denied. Editors receiving this directly from me are excluded, provided this entire disclaimer is included once, where any of the below LW/MW items are first reproduced. 1140, Radio Musical Nacional, unknown site, 0120-0130 GMT April 25, 2009. Orchestral scores, often over co-channel Rebelde's baseball coverage. Parallel much stronger 590 Musical. Also there at the same level April 27, 0048. 1620, Radio Rebelde, somewhere near Pilón, Granma, 0101-0115 GMT April 25, 2009. Fair with baseball coverage, parallel all others. Estimated site per Paul Zecchino LOBS readings (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, April 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. 9840, Radio República, 2128-2141, escuchada el 27 de abril en español a locutora en conversación con invitado, referencias a Cuba, cuña de ID, cuña del programa “Barrio Adentro”, SINPO 44444. Frecuencia no listada en Eibi ni en Aoki, ¿nuevo servicio?, ¿desde donde transmite? (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, it`s new. As soon as I saw this, at 2355, I checked 9840 and nothing there, nor jamming, but R.R. still going on 9545 with jamming at this hour. How was reception on 9840, strong enough in Spain to be UK? Any jamming audible? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CYPRUS. 5930, Cyprus Broadcasting Corp. *2214-2244* April 24, 2009. Carrier up at *2214, into interval signal, Greek ID, talk, Greek vocals from 2218, more discussion and music until interval signal at 2244, off. Excellent, relatively recent ex-6180. Parallel equally excellent 9760, with 7210 excellent but co-channel China Radio International (via Albania) in Spanish (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, April 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CYPRUS. Here are the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation radio frequencies. Click "Padiofono" and then "International Programmes" to get to Programs for each day of the week.. http://www.cybc.com.cy/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=296 (John Babbis, April 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also LANGUAGE LESSONS ** CZECHIA. [continued from GERMANY] Another longwave note: Since recently the Topolná transmitter on 270 uses new audio processing. The old Tesla LK 12 with its classic warm AM sound and I think even less compression than on FM (where Cesky Rozhlas uses really hard compression) has been replaced by some rather aggressive processing with hefty presence boost (Kai Ludwig, Germany, April 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DJIBOUTI. 4780, Radio Djibouti, *0300-0330, April 26, sign on with National Anthem. Local flute & vocals followed by Qur`an at 0301. Arabic talk at 0311. Horn of Africa music at 0330. Fair but with CODAR QRM (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4780, R. TV de Djibouti, Doraleh, 1902-2102*, 26 Apr, vernacular, news (presumed), songs prior to 2100, announcements+ID followed by national anthem; 45433, weaker & fluttery at 2100 (Carlos Gonçalves, Porgugal, April 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sawa 1431: see U A E ** ECUADOR. New schedule of HCJB Global in Spanish and German in DRM mode: 2000-2200 on 15275-15280-15285 QUI 004 kW / 043 deg, ex 1100- 1300 on same, not 11625 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) ** EGYPT. 9360, 19/04 2224, EGITO, R Cairo, Portuguese, desde Abu Zaabal, com 250 kW, modulação regular dando para entender as falas do OM; será que finalmente houve um reparo? Notícias esportivas, 45444. 73 e boas escutas (Jorge Freitas, Escutas: Feira de Santana Bahia - Brasil, 12º 15' 1.57" S 38º 58' 40.30" W, Degen 1103, Antena Dipolo de 16 metros e balum 4:1 em toroide, direção Leste/Oeste, HCDX via DXLD) ** EGYPT. NEW FM STATION STARTED TRANSMITTING IN CAIRO. RADIO MASR Hello DXers, A new FM station started transmitting on 25/4/09 on 88.7 MHz FM band all over Cairo; you recall that I reported some time ago a test station playing a loop of an old Egyptian song 24/7 for almost a month. The station started transmitting on 25/4 which is a national holiday here in Egypt -- the Liberation of Sinai day. According to the peace treaty with Israel, Egypt got the last city occupied by Israel in Sinai on that date. The name of the station is "Radio Masr". Masr is Egypt in Arabic. So Radio Egypt is another state owned station to join the rest of the list, transmitting 24/7; according to some sources, it's part of the News sector of ERTU. So far they are mixing New Generation Arabic music - Radio Sawa style - with local news and news details around 15:00 Cairo local time. I just wonder as we have a station called News Radio transmitting on 91.5, so what's the point of having another semi news station?? Gotta keep a closer ear to it and see. Will keep you posted. All the best (Tarek Zeidan, Cairo, Egypt, April 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tarek, good news! Cairo is such a huge and vibrant city. But you would never guess that by listening to its FM band. So few stations, it's unbelievable. Are they all state-run? Cairo's daytime AM band isn't very crowded, either. But that's quite typical for eastern hemisphere cities these days (Sergei S., Russia, ibid.) Hi Tarek, Can you confirm that this is their website? http://www.radiomasr.com Regards, (Dave Kernick, ibid.) Hello DXers, I gotta tell you that website http://www.radiomasr.com has got nothing to do with the station I mentioned; that url is for an internet radio station owned by an announcer for another FM network called "Nougoom FM", that's Star FM, one of the main two semi- governmental stations on the FM band here in Cairo, Nougoom FM on 100.6 and Nile FM on 104.2. I tried checking the website of ERTU to see if I can find anything about the newborn station but in vain. All the best (Tarek Zeidan, Cairo, Egypt, April 26, ibid.) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 6250, Radio Nac, Malabo, 0548-0605, April 25, Afro-pop music. Euro-pop music. Radio Malabo ID. Spanish talk. Fair but occasional RTTY QRM (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, presumed R. Africa, Bata, 2052-2103, April 23, English. Preacher with usual bible talk until 2100; minute of open carrier right into "?? Bible Broadcast" at 2101; poor-fair (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH-USA, NRD-545, RX-350D, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA. 7175, Voice of the Broad Masses [of Eritrea], Asmara, 1753-1829, 19 Apr, Arabic, interviews, phone-ins; 45444 (!).73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA [and non]. 7175 / 7165, Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea (Asmera), 0353-0405, 4/24/2009, Amharic. IS and recorded announcements, repeated. Jammer cranked up at 0359, tonight with about 10 seconds of loud music, then the usual jamming signal. VOBME switched to 7165 and was in the clear for 2 minutes with opening announcements by woman, and talk by man with short musical bridges. Jammer switched to 7165 at 0402. VOBME signal was stronger than usual tonight and could be heard under the jammer. Only it and Radio Ethiopia on 7110 heard here in late evening local time in the 7100- 7200 frequency range (Jim Evans, Germantown TN, RX-340, 200' Random Wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. Many thanks to Pastor Scott for opening a 2+ hour window on 6090 kHz, allowing me to get a good log of Amhara State Radio. Anguilla was back at 0406, by which time Ethiopia had faded to poor levels. No sign of R Nigeria Kaduna at listed 0400 sign-on. [Continued from BRAZIL]: 6090, Amhara State Radio *0254 4/24, initially poor, but strengthening rapidly from 0300 to good levels by 0310, dominating co-channel R Bandeirantes with Anguilla off. Very nice popular Ethiopian instrumental and vocal selections with woman announcer in unID language between most songs. A couple mentions of Amhara then Radio, 3 time pips on the top of the hour over currently playing musical selection, by which time signal had faded significantly. This is listed as being in Oromiya which is surprising as Amharic is the language of Amhara State. No "Radio Amhara" ID heard, ID's appear to be "Amhara ..... Radio" with a word or two between. Anguilla back at 0406, darn. Many thanks to Pastor Melissa Scott for allowing this nice window to Africa! (Brandon Jordan - Memphis, TN, http://www.bcdx.org Perseus SDR - Wellbrook ALA100, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 6110, R. Fana, Addis Ababa, 0303 electronic music, ethnic vocals, female speaker between selections in language, with low level, distorted audio. Electronic music bridge at the top of the hour then Radio Fana ID by man, then possible news. Poor to good signal, alone on channel; 4/21 (Brandon Jordan - Memphis, TN, USA, bcdx.org @ gmail.com - http://www.bcdx.org Perseus SDR - Wellbrook ALA330, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. 7110.01, R. Ethiopia, Geja, *0256 - transmitter cut-on with programming in progress, possible news at top of the hour into magazine type news program, inter-spaced with electronic music bridges, occasional electrified Ethiopian afropop vocals. Identification and frequencies just before the top of the hour, 3 bells, Ethiopia Radio ID by woman; 4/17 (Brandon Jordan - Memphis, TN, USA, bcdx.org @ gmail.com - http://www.bcdx.org Perseus SDR - Wellbrook ALA330, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7110, Radio Ethiopia (Gedja Jewe), 0356-0410, 4/24/2009, Amharic. Horn of Africa music. Announcements by man at 0359. Talk by man at 0400 More music music at 0405. Good signal, audible here almost every night. Only this station and the Voice of the Broad Masses on 7175 / 7165 heard here in late evening local time in the 7100-7200 frequency range (Jim Evans, Germantown TN, RX-340, 200' Random Wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7110, Radio Ethiopia, 0330-0350, April 26, talk in listed Amharic. Horn of Africa music. Local pop music. Good signal. Fair on // 9704.19. Very weak on // 5990.63 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5990.8, R. Ethiopia, Geja Dera, 1817-1846, 26 Apr, Vernacular, radioplay (?), talks; 45444; \\ 7110 very good, 9704.2 just fair. 7110, R. Ethiopia, Geja Dera, 2046-2100*, 25 Apr, Vernacular, Horn of Africa music, news at 2055, some announcements and national anthem; 45433 (Carlos Gonçalves, Porgugal, April 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. ETIOPÍA, 7165, Voice of Peace and Democracy?? Addis Ababa-Gedja, 1809-1821, escuchada el 24 de abril en tigrilla a locutor con comentarios, emisión en paralelo por 9560, segmento de música folklórica local, SINPO 35443. Existe cierta confusión con este servicio entre Aoki y el EiBi de vu. En el Aoki se presenta cómo servicio en Somalí de Radio Etiopía, sin embargo en Eibi cómo Óbice of Peace and Democracy (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A- 108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. Some Media Broadcast frequency changes: Voice of Oromia Liberation Front in Oromo to EaAf: 1600-1630 NF 11975 JUL 100 kW / 130 deg Sun/Tue/Thu, ex 15670 \\ 11760 JUL (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. ALEMANIA, 13830, Radio Oromiyaa Liberatión, Juelich, 1730-1733, escuchada el 24 de abril en idioma oromo, comienza emisión con sintonía, locutor con ID, segmento musical, la señal es pobre, a las 1731 comienza emisión extraña señal, ¿jammer?, la emisión queda totalmente atorada, SINPO 21331 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. BELGIUM [non]. TDP change effective Apr. 26: Addis Dimts Radio in Amharic: 1600-1700 on 15195 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg to EaAf Sun, cancelled (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. RUSIA, 15350, Radio Xoriyo Ogadenia, Samara, 1700- 1704, escuchada el 24 de abril en somalí, comienza emisión con música de sintonía, locutor con presentación e identificación, anuncia Internet, a las 1702 comienza emisión de extraña señal, ¿jamming?, en paralelo por 17870, SINPO 22332. 15350, Voice of Meselna-Delina, Samara, 1735-1738, escuchada el 24 de abril en idioma tigrilla a locutora con comentarios, segmento musical, tema étnico africano con cánticos e intrumentos de percusión, SINPO 24432 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EUROPE. 6870, 26/4 1831, Radio Playback International, music, very nice! IDs. QRM utility on 6873 till 1836 then perfect, I used AM. 73 (Giampiero Bernardini, Rx: Yaesu FRG-7, Icom R71E, SDR-14, Grundig Satellit 208/transistor 6000, Ant: T2FD, QTH: Milano city, Italia, SW Blog: http://radiodxsw.blogspot.com/ dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Pirate QSLs: see also NORTH AMERICA ** FALKLAND ISLANDS. Amigos, Um QSL um tanto especial recebido hoje: 530 kHz, FIRS (Falkland Islands Radio Service), Stanley, 16 dias. Recebido: cartão QSL da emissora (paisagem de uma praia de uma das ilhas e o mapa da região), adesivos e o schedule da semana (programação diária). Emissora sintonizada em São Bernardo-SP, em 7 de abril às 0156 UT, enviado um e-mail no dia seguinte ( CBishop@firs.co.fk ), tendo recebido resposta um dia após com informação de que iriam me confirmar por cartão QSL. No verso do cartão, a mensagem: “Dear Rudolf, I am writing to confirm your reception report, Falkland Islands Radio Service, 530 kHz, 5th April 2009, 01:56 UTC), Kind regards, Corina Goss, Station Manager’ Talvez um dos mais especiais QSLs que recebi até aqui, desde que iniciei no rádio em meados da década de 70! Incentivo a quem ouvir esta transmissão (na ausência do sinal da La Voz de Las Madres, 530 kHz), enviar um IR em EE, que respondem com seu cartão QSL, ou quem ouviu e não enviou o seu IR, que pode ser enviado por e-mail. 73, (Rudolf Grimm, São Bernardo, SP, April 23, dxclubepr yg via DXLD) Amigos, Ontem uma propagação muito fechada em MW. As emissoras que chegaram já tinham sido em sua maioria captadas antes, apenas uma ‘nova’ (730 CBN Goiânia), e de novo o sinal da FIRS (Falkland Islands) no ar. Vez por outra no meio da recepção desta a La Voz de Las Madres tenta interferir no sinal, mas a FIRS nas ‘descidas’ de sinal da LVDLM se evidencia. O mesmo diálogo de estúdio, um EE britânico, no mesmo horário em que a ouvi em 7 de abril e que reportei e recebi o cartão de confirmação deles (jóia rara!!!, veja na abertura da RadioWays a imagem da confirmação recebida da FIRS, http://www.radioways.cjb.net 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), April 26, ibid.) ** FRANCE [non]. During a time when TDF was to be testing DRM for Mexico City (DXLD 9-035), I found RFI Musique with strong AM signal on 17545 from 2340 UTC Apr 22 to abrupt shut off at 0050 Apr 23. This was to have been the sign-off time for 15525 in DRM, so I assume 17545 was also from French Guiana, but why was this on? TDF was to have used 17545 for DRM from 14-16 and 21-2300. RFI Musique feed included normal time check at the top of the hour. Great signal, again illustrating how RFI could cover the Americas if it wanted to. Surprisingly strong for this high a frequency, as well (Mike Cooper, GA, Apr 23, DXLD) ** GABON. 9580, Africa No. I with fair signal, Program in French - and African songs too. 0500-0600 slot on Apr 22. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GABON. VOA STRINGER IN GABON IS GOLDMAN ENVIRONMENTAL PRIZE WINNER VOA stringer has won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize Washington, D.C., April 23, 2009 - Marc Ona Essangui, an occasional reporter for the Voice of America's (VOA) French Service in Gabon, has won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for exposing government contracts that could damage the country's environment. "I have brought to light contracts for exploration and exploitation of the country's minerals, lumber and oil," said Essangui, who was in Washington to accept the $150,000 prize, along with five other winners. Essangui, who founded Brainforest http://www.brainforest.org a non- governmental organization, exposed a contract between Gabon and the Chinese company, CMEC, to allow for the mining of iron ore. The project, signed without an environmental impact statement, could have affected a large section of the Ivindo National Park, part of the Congo Basin Rainforest. Additionally, CMEC began constructing a road through the park. Essangui's efforts have helped lead to a renegotiation of the contract and the cessation of some activities. Essangui, paralyzed and wheelchair-bound since he contracted polio when he was five, has been harassed and jailed during his career. He started his journalism career at a radio station in Libreville, Gabon's capital. He also writes for a newspaper and publishes articles on his website(VOA press release April 23 via DXLD) ** GEORGIA. 9494.76, Abkhaz Radio, S=5-6 at 0510 UT Apr22. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. [continued from POLAND] Same situation than here in Germany for ten years now, since Königs Wusterhausen was shut down in 1999. I already saw disgruntled comments about "153 kHz is on air now and then", because the Donebach transmitter is infamous not only for its muffled modulation (presumably caused by poor antenna bandwith) but also for long maintenance breaks, often lasting a number of complete daylight periods in a row. Btw, here is a photo of 1946 vintage longwave transmitter in transmitter building 3 at Königs Wusterhausen: http://www.funkerberg.de/fbb/ It's to the right in the second photo, during an event in 2008 when this hall was open to the public, as it will be again on May 3. Behind it is the control cabin (I guess no 20 degrees had been kept in this large hall in winter). In the extreme left are parts of another longwave transmitter that had been modified for utility use below 150 kHz after the Zehlendorf site opened in 1959. On the empty space behind it sat a 100 kW shortwave installation, in addition to the Sneg's in the cellar of this building. The bumper it carried around 1996, when I was there during an open house day and could walk through the cabinet, was indeed one of Deutsche Welle. How unsuitable (Kai Ludwig, Germany, April 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) see CZECHIA and CHINA ** GERMANY. Some Media Broadcast frequency changes: Bible Voice Broadcasting Network (BVBN): 0030-0045 9815 WER 250 kW / 075 deg to SoAs Bengali Sat/Sun, cancelled 1400-1500 NF 17805 WER 250 kW / 090 deg to SoAs English Sat/Sun, ex 15680 ISS 1530-1600 17650 ISS 100 kW / 120 deg to EaAf Tigrinya Wed, cancelled Adventist World Radio (AWR): 0300-0330 NF 7270 WER 250 kW / 135 deg to EaAf Oromo, ex 9845 from Apr. 25 WYFR Family Radio, additional transmissions: 1400-1500 on 15715 WER 500 kW / 090 deg to SoAs in English from Apr 21 1800-1900 on 13830 WER 250 kW / 180 deg to WCAf in English from Apr 28 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) ** GERMANY [non]. Frequency and time change of BBC/DW in English from Apr. 16: 1400-1700 on 5790 WOF 100 kW / 114 deg to WeEu in DRM mode, ex 15-17 1400-1600 NF 15640 SIN 090 kW / 040 deg to WeEu in DRM mode, ex 15780 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) ** GREECE. Apr. 27, 0408z, ERA Voice of Greece with pop music: 7450 kHz AVLis 100/323 excellent reception, 7475 kHz AVLis 100/285 very good but with slight RTTY QRM (Dragan Lekic from Subotica, SERBIA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also LANGUAGE LESSONS ** GUIANA FRENCH. That buzz you hear on 13m may not be just your computer or the nearby powerline. TDF now has a lengthy DRM transmission on the schedule: M-F 1300-2100 on 21615-21620-21625, 150 kW at 320 degrees to NAm. Is it getting thru? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also FRANCE; DIGITAL BROADCASTING - DRM below ** GUINEA. -Conakry, 7125, R. Guinée, Sonfonya, 1804-1841, 19 Apr, French & vernacular, football; 34433 but deteriorating, sporadic amateur QRM; noisy carrier, weakish audio. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HONDURAS. 3339.98, HRMI Comayagüela, 0935-1005, April 20, Spanish. Easy-listening ballads; announcer over music at 0958 with ID; back to music; fair (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH-USA, NRD-545, RX- 350D, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ICELAND. 207 kHz, RÚV, Eiðar, 2232-2249, 24 Apr, Icelandic ballads; 24431, QRM de MOROCCO; \\ 189 Gufuskálar (Carlos Gonçalves, Porgugal, April 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 6775 kHz, 2130 UT, 25 Apr, speech, terribly distorted, unable to ID language (possibly European). Any ideas? [later posted at 2224:] Some music was finally played prior to 2200, then announcements and a sudden frequency shift to 6773 (then to 6772), and I managed to confirm it was Indian accented English by the intonation. The next step was to try some AIR outlet, like 7410. They matched. I had said "distorted", well, it's perhaps more than that, and noisy too. Besides, 7410 is noisy, like AC current noise. Maybe this is some external mixing spur from their frequencies. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sorry dear Carlos, it was 5 minutes too late tonight, to check here at my location. AIR Delhi close time is 2230 UT. Next time check also symmetrical 8047/8048 kHz, in addition to 6772/6773. Delhi transmitters often splatter and have spurious outlets too. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Dear Wolfgang, Thanks for indicating those other two AIR spurii: I shall try them too and see whether the modulation is as bad as on 6775v. I recall the GBC Accra spurii on 90 m, and at least the modulation level & quality were enough for one to actually identify the stn. In some details, this 6775 even resembles those badly modulated Greek pirate stations airing signals whose frequencies we can't even zero beat exactly. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, ibid.) ** INDIA. On 22.4.09 on 9425 kHz via Bangalore, instead of National Channel programs, Vividh Bharati programs were broadcast. I noted it first at around 1600 UT. At that time it was parallel to 9870 kHz. Then later when I checked at 2130 it was still broadcasting Vividh Bharati program. I don`t know if it was a test or error. 73 (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, National Institute of Amateur Radio, Raj Bhavan Road, Hyderabad 500082, India, dx_india yg via DXLD) ** INDIA. 11620, All India Radio (Bangalore), 2151-2205, 4/22/2009, English. Indian pop music followed by identification on the hour and news by woman. Good signal with less than normal fading. Parallel noted on 9945 with almost identical signal. No other parallels heard. Still unable to hear more than one site at a time this year, but at least two frequencies were audible today (Jim Evans, Germantown TN, Eton E1, Eavesdropper Dipole in Attic, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. Does anybody have an email address for All-India Radio that actually works? They announced gosdepair@yahoo.co.in in their listener feedback program, but that, and permutations like gosdepair@yahoo.com.in and gosdepair@yahoo.com all get bounce messages. (Ted S., Swprograms mailing list via DXLD) Are you sure there is `dep` in the middle of it? For department? I would not think so, after S for Service (gh) ** INDONESIA. 3976.06, RRI Pontianak, 1208-1241 Apr 25. Jak program to 1227, then local programming with filler music to 1230, then ID and local news/announcements by M in Bahasa Indonesia. Fair signal (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. Hi Glenn, My name is Chrissie Cochrane, and I've written to you before and you were kind enough to let us run "World of Radio" on ACB Radio Mainstream. Well, I'm leaving ACB Radio as managing Director and have started a new station called "The Global Voice," with a number of colleagues. I should like your permission to run World of Radio at the following times: Thursday 2130 to 2200 UT, and Friday 0630 to 0700 UT. We hope to start official broadcasting on 1 May at 1200 UT. We will have a full schedule up on the website by then, but at the moment it is pretty rudimentary but being worked on. Some information about "The Global Voice". Our slogan is "Helping the World's Blind and Sighted Communities see eye to eye, and the programming will be a mixture of music and talk - no automated music at all. The idea is based on what shortwave stations do, in other words, have repeat programs for different target areas - I haven't listened to shortwave radio for years for nothing *smile*, and we already have programs like "Network Europe" that will be run. I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that ACB Radio mainstream will still be carrying your program. Thanks very much for putting each weekly show together. I really do enjoy them and they're very informative (Chrissie Cochrane, General Manager, The Global Voice, Helping the World's Blind and Sighted Communities see Eye to Eye, April 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Chrissie, Sure, that would be fine. Please confirm when you are starting, with website info, etc. Could you confirm the current World of Radio times on ACB, and whom should I contact about it from now on? Regards, (Glenn to Chrissie, via DXLD) HI Glenn, The times on ACB Radio are: first airing Friday at 0100 UT and repeated every 2 hours throughout the broadcast day. I will let you have full website details when the site is up and running properly; however you can view the site at http://www.theglobalvoice.info Our official launch is at 1200 UT on Friday 1 May so our first "World of Radio" will be at the times I gave in my last message, the following week. Thanks very much for permission to air (Chrissie, ibid.) Last info we had about WOR on ACB Radio was that times had changed to UT Fridays: 0300, 0800, 1300, 1800, 2300; so back to 0100, 0300, 0500, 0700, 0900, 1100, 1300, 1500, 1700, 1900, 2100, 2300 ? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. RADIO BUFFS TUNE IN TO JUPITER Irene Klotz, Discovery News Tuning Into Jupiter | Discovery News | April 20, 2009 From his place in New Mexico, Thomas Ashcraft recently took in a live show -- even though it unfolded some 390 million-plus miles away on Jupiter. All he needed was a few antennas, some short wave radios and a recorder to document the event. Listen to a recording of Jupiter's sounds here, courtesy of Thomas Ashcraft. http://www.heliotown.com/Jiob20090411_1514utAshcraft.mp3 It turns out Earth's big brother can belt out a tune ... well a few notes anyway. The radio waves come to Earth in two varieties: long bursts and short ones. They appear when particular parts of Jupiter are aligned with Io -- its closest and most volcanically active moon - - and receiving stations on Earth. . . http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/04/20/jupiter-radio.html (via Benn Kobb, DXLD) It`s the Heliotown guy, whose exhibit we saw last year in Santa Fe. The clip of noise could easily be mistaken for random QRN, from INTERNATIONAL VACUUM [non]. How does one KNOW it is Jove? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** IRAN. 15085. VOIRI (Kamalabad), 1734-1740, 4/21/2009, German. End of Kor`an recitation followed by talk by woman. Identification, schedule, and address by man at 1737. Instrumental music at 1738 with talk-over by man. Surprisingly good signal with some fading. No parallels noted. VOIRI used to be at least marginally audible on this frequency, but has been missing for over a year. Also heard on 4/22 at same level (Jim Evans, Germantown TN, Eton E1, 200' Random Wire on Fence Top, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. MOLDAVIA, 7480, Radio Payam e-Doost, Kishinev- Grigoriopol, 1800-1804, escuchada el 24 de abril en farsi, antes de empezar emisión y cuando aún no había terminado el servicio en georgiano de VOA comienza tono de llamada, la emisión empieza con música de sintonía y locutora con ID, a continuación una pieza musical interpretada por una cantante, me parece entender “Moisé Moisé”, comentarios, SINPO 45544 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. Apr. 26, 1847-1900z, 9855 kHz, WERtachtal, Germany, 250 kW, 105 degrees, RFE/RL ID loop instead of R Farda in Persian. Excellent reception. Apr. 27, 0705z, Radio Farda with music: 15690 kHz IRA 250/315 very good 17845 kHz IRA 250/316 good to very good 21715 kHz UDO 250/296 fair to good (Dragan Lekic from Subotica, SERBIA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. 15784.81, Galei Zahal in Hebrew rather strong this morning, S=9+10dB at 0430 UT, Apr 22. At same time Radio Rossii Moscow 12070 forced the needle to twist at S=9+40dB. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH. 6250.5, PBS, Pyongyang, 1823-, 24 Apr, Korean, songs; 23441, adjacent QRM de GNE 6250 & EGY 6255; \\ 6398.8 (Carlos Gonçalves, Porgugal, April 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. Some VTCommunications changes: North Korea Reform Radio in Korean to North Korea: 1300-1330 NF 9950 TAI 100 kW / 002 deg, ex 9795/9940/9965 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) ** KURDISTAN [non]. UCRANIA, 11530, Dengue Mezopotamya, 1711-1714, escuchada el 24 de abril en idioma kurdo a locutor con comentarios, posible boletín de noticias, SINPO 25432 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KURDISTAN [non]. PROFILE OF RADIO YEREVAN’S KURDISH ANNOUNCER KEREME SAYED One of the longest-serving but probably least-known international broadcasters is profiled in Today’s Zaman. 70 year-old Kereme Sayed has been delieverinng the Kurdish news on Radio Yerevan for 49 years, and is still broadcasting. The article mentions that Radio Yerevan has one of the most important archives of Kurdish music, a collection it takes great pride in. More than 15,000 songs that were recorded at the station are still being stored. What distinguishes Radio Yerevan from other radio stations such as Radio Urumiye and Baghdad is that it broadcasts Anatolian- style music containing traditional Turkish instruments that Kurds in Turkey are more familiar with, whereas other stations broadcast music played on Middle Eastern and Arab musical instruments. Read the profile: http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=173539&bolum=100 (April 26th, 2009 - 11:14 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** LAOS. Re: Lao National Radio's website, which used to stream one of the capital's FM services, has disappeared. Their former URL http://www.lnr.org.la now points to the Lao Academy of Social Sciences. Bizarre! (David Kernick, UK, April 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) It is up and running again with live audio from 103.7 MHz. Wonder if that frequency also carries English at 0800 and 1330 UT? We'll have to wait to find out. Their English on-demand audio seems to be from Sept. 3, 2008! 73, (Erik Køie, Copenhagen, 0730 UT April 22, dxldyg via DX LISTENNG DIGEST) When I first became aware of this feed last October I listened extensively at the International Service times for any foreign- language content, but with negative results. This feed is LNR's Vientiane FM1 service; it's the FM2 service which relays the International Service (according to WRTH). (Dave Kernick, ibid.) Dave Kernick reported the loss of the Lao National Radio's website and audio stream in DXLD 9-035. Dave, you can [paste] this URL in your audio player (such as WinAmp) to listen to the stream. http://203.110.64.28:5999 The LNR website may be gone (or misbehaving) but the audio server is still running as per normal when you know the direct URL of the stream. :-) Cheers, (Mark Fahey, Sydney, April 22, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I was on holiday in Laos in January and can confirm that the International service is carried on the FM2 service on 97.25 MHz. I monitored the English service at 1330 UT (20.30 local time) via 97.25 MHz, and although they announce on air that you can listen via the web, I have never found a link to that feed on their website - just the FM1 service on 103.7 MHz (Alan Roe, Teddington, UK, April 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tried stream at 1541 UT April 25: some very low level audio with hiss; off-air pickup of something else after-hours? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** LIBERIA. 6070, ELWA, Monrovia, 2255-2301*, April 25, weak under CFRX 6069.97 with contemporary Christian music. Brief announcement at 2259. Sign off with National Anthem at 2300 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LITHUANIA. 6055, 26/4 2140-2230* Big L, nice songs and great IDs, also "Big L International" superstrong signal. Off at 2230. 73 (Giampiero Bernardini, Rx: Yaesu FRG-7, Icom R71E, SDR-14, Grundig Satellit 208/transistor 6000, Ant: T2FD, QTH: Milano city, Italia, SW Blog: http://radiodxsw.blogspot.com/ dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) LITUANIA, 6055, KBC Big L, *2130-2230*, 26-04. Inicio del programa a las 2130. Inglés, locutor, identificación: "This is KBC International, Big L, broadcasting on 6055 kHz short wave". Música pop, comentarios, "Roger Davis", e-mail: studio @ bigl.co.uk , anuncio "KBC Import, K- PoWR 2100 World Receiver". Cierre a las 2230. 45444 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, Grundig Satellit 500 y Sony ICF SW 7600, Antena de cable, 8 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR. 5009.94, RTV Malagasy, 0345-0358, April 26, Presumed with African choral music. Talk. Poor with low modulation. Full AM mode. Not in reduced carrier USB (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 5964.91, Klasik Nasional FM via RTM, 1437-1455, April 23. Good reception of woman DJ in vernacular; frequent IDs, singing “Klasik Nasional” jingle. Have posted an audio file to “Files > Station Sounds”. Malaysian stations are among my favorites due to their enjoyable music programs and also due to their consistent reception. 7295, Traxx FM via RTM, 1455-1505, April 23. In English; pop songs; gives the Fri. (April 24) schedule for road closures related to the 2009 Jelajah Malaysia cycling race; 2 pips; news from the RTM News Center at Kuala Lumpur; fair (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7295, Traxx FM via RTM, Kajang, 1549-1615, 26 Apr, English, pops, ID prior to 1600 TS, newscast, more pops; 34433, but better at 1700+ (Carlos Gonçalves, Porgugal, April 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. SARAWAK - 7270.01, Limbang FM, 1322-1425 Apr 26. MoR vocals to 1330, then talk segment to ToH; Limbang FM ID at ToH, followed by news by YL, not KL relay; another Limbang ID at 1407 was followed by more vocals, including a touching Malay remake of Skeeter Davis' "End of the World". Good signal, slowly losing steam after 1400 (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** MALAYSIA. RTM BEGINS BROADCASTS IN THREATENED KENYAH LANGUAGE The Kenyah language, which is the spoken language of about 100,000 Orang Ulu in Sarawak, can become extinct if no efforts are made to preserve it. Baram member of parliament Datuk Jacob Dungau Sagan said the language was increasingly being threatened by assimilation and the wide use of more dominant languages like Malay and English, especially among young Kenyahs, one of the ethnic groups of Sarawak’s Orang Ulu community. Speaking to reporters after launching the Kenyah radio broadcast at the RTM station in Miri, he said there were already signs of declining use of the language among the younger generation of Kenyahs. He said this had also resulted in Kenyah folk stories and songs being narrated less and less within the community. He commended RTM for initiating the Kenyah radio broadcast as he saw it as the right move to ensure the survival of the language. He said the radio broadcast would enable the Kenyahs, especially those in the remote areas and not proficient in Bahasa Malaysia, to understand current national and global issues better. Meanwhile, deputy director-general of Broadcasting (Strategic Broadcasting), Datuk Norhayati Ismail, said RTM started the Kenyah broadcast on 1 April using the 7270 kHz shortwave frequency and 98.0 MHz FM. She said by using the shortwave frequency, the broadcast could be heard almost throughout the country including areas across Sarawak’s difficult topography which could not receive the FM frequency. Sarawak acting director of Broadcasting, Monshi Abdullah, said that for a start the Kenyah broadcast would be for one hour of news bulletin and radio messaging service, but it could be extended to include other programmes in future. (Source: Bernama)(April 27th, 2009 - 16:16 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) WTFK? is answered above! But not what time; oh, well, the press can never present too little info (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** MALI. 9635, RTV du Mali Apr 24 *0800-0845. Gangbusters signal out of Mali. YL had sign-on announcement in French with IS of guitar and drums. OM took over with non-stop talk in a vernacular until 0810 when polished and well-produced recording of tribal music came on. More music with a YL DJ giving "Ici Radio Mali" IDs in between tunes. OM back with talk in vernacular at 0828 until tribal music returned at 0845 tune-out (Bruce Barker, Broomall, PA. Equipment: NRD535D with an Alpha Delta DX Sloper, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9635, RTVM, *0800:30-0830, April 24, sign on with flute IS and opening French ID announcements. Vernacular talk at 0801. Local rustic guitar music at 0810. Tribal vocals at 0812. “Radio Mali” IDs. Fair signal with low noise level (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS. You may recall that a couple of months ago I said that we would be publishing a tribute page to the late Pete Myers, who would have been 70 this month. Unfortunately pressure of work has prevented me from getting this online in time for the actual birthday, which was 17 April. We will still be publishing a tribute, but this will now have to wait till our new website is up and running, which is currently scheduled for the beginning of June. In the meantime, Jonathan Marks has published his own tribute to Pete, which you can read here http://criticaldistance.blogspot.com/2009/04/happy-birthday-pete-myers-70-today.html (Andy Sennitt, Media Network newsletter April 23 via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. Re religious programming heard on 7325, UT April 10: Subject: Re: 7325 Sines mixup? Me parece que fuera esto: http://www.informarn.nl/sociedad/act090409-jesus-semana-santa 73, (Glenn Hauser, to RNW via DXLD) Hola Glenn! Gracias por tu reporte. Sí, yo también considero que el amigo oyente brasileño escuchó a RNW pero con la transmisión del programa VOCES en el que se trataron dos temas relacionados con la religión, iglesia y fe cristiana. Eso tuvo que ser. Además cuando él dice... "às 02:00 UTC (ela transmite das 01:00 às 02:00 ao que me pareceu), um locutor disse que a emissora iria deixar de transmitir em algumas freqüências que vinha usando e que passaria a transmitir em outra"... se asemeja mucho a la forma que utilizo para el cierre de emisiones. Esto es lo que digo en la grabación. 0156.30 UTC DESPEDIDA --- Comunicamos a nuestros oyentes que nos sintonizan por onda corta por los 9450 y 7325, que en breves instantes dejaremos de operar por esas frecuencias, recordándoles al mismo tiempo que diariamente emitimos a partir de las 23 TU por los 9450 kHz. Por onda corta reanudamos la emisión dentro de dos minutos - hacia el Caribe, Centroamérica y México por los 6165 kHz. 73! (Jaime Báguena García, Director Artístico, Departamento Latinoamericano, RADIO NEDERLAND WERELDOMROEP, http://www.informarn.nl April 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. QUERIDOS AMIGOS EN EL MONITOREO QUE HE HECHO, ESTAS SON LAS AMISORAS QUE HE PODIDO SINTONIZAR: ENTRE LAS 1100 Y LAS 1200 UT : RADIO NEDERLAND 5645-6165 KHZ (José Elías Díaz Gómez, Venezuela, April 24, condiglist yg via DXLD) Saludos JE, 5645?? La única emisión de RN en español entre las 11 y 12 según su esquema es: 1059 1127 BON 6165 320 29-03-2009 25-10-2009 250 RNW Spa 1234567 CAR/Florida 5645 se explica así: una mezcla por saltar 6195 sobre 5905 a 260 kHz menos, en esta emisión: 1000 1200 BON 5905 180 29-03-2009 25-10-2009 250 DWL Ger 1234567 CAR 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. Skelton lost feed for RNW Dutch --- Today, 24. April, 0600-0800 UT SKN/250kW/110deg instead of RNW Dutch continuously played VTC `cello instrumental music. Regards, (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. JOHNNY MANN, LEADER OF THE JOHNNY MANN SINGERS TO BE ON HAPPY STATION Hi Everyone, Legendary composer, arranger, conductor and entertainer Johnny Mann will be on the May 21, 2009 edition of Happy Station. Many of you may at some point have or still do hear his singers on radio stations. He has recorded jingles for over 500 stations in the US, Europe and Asia dating back to the early 1960s and continues to do so today. During his career he has recorded over 30 albums and won his first Grammy in 1962 for the Liberty release Great Voices Great Band with Si Zenter and His Orchestra. Other highlights are: Musical director for AFR (Armed Forces Radio) Musical director for The Joey Bishop Show Host and musical director for Stand Up & Cheer Musical director of the NBC Comedy Hour Musical director for Alvin & The Chipmunks Show, also the voice of Theodore Nominated for 5 Grammy’s and won 2 I’ve attached a sample song of the singers. This was a cover version of The Fifth Dimensions Up, Up & Away. The version from the Johnny Mann Singers kicked the original version out of the charts in the UK (Keith Perron, Taiwan, April 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see CHINA for discussion of Keith ** NEWFOUNDLAND. 6159.986, CANADA, CBC St. John's, 0912 monitoring from 0330 4/17 with carrier only, finally hints of audio beginning 0912 with song Sam I Am as signal suddenly started strengthening rapidly to a very nice peak. Labrador Morning program with Tony Dawson, "17 and a half minutes past 6'oclock" TC. Marine Weather forecast for Labrador waters; seems they have lots of blowing snow to look forward to. Starting to rapidly fade from 0920 and audio disappeared around 0945. Vancouver on 6159.975 never strengthened enough for audio; 4/17 (Brandon Jordan - Memphis, TN, USA, bcdx.org @ gmail.com - http://www.bcdx.org Perseus SDR - Wellbrook ALA330, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Well, after a bunch of phone calls I finally got to CKZN. I was surprised how many folks did not know what CKZN was or where, even folks that were with in 20 miles of the transmitter site. I think I am good now; I talked to the engineer, a very friendly fellow and he was pleased that I could hear his transmitter here in Ohio. Of course I am hearing the back pattern of the antenna as he is beaming east from his site. The phone # for CKZN is 1-709-576-5082. Karen Tucker is the gal that does the QSL's: Karen.tucker @ cbc.ca Dxing, it's not just a hobby; it is an adventure! (Mike Rohde, OH, April 24, NASWA yg via DXLD) ** NEW ZEALAND. A bit late, but I noticed RNZI had flipped AM and DRM around 0400Z 24 April. DRM was on 15720 -- AM on 13730 -- because of coverage of the Oceania under-17's soccer: http://www.rnzi.com/pages/football.php (Theo Donnelly, BC, ptsw yg via DXLD) ** NEW ZEALAND. 11725, RNZI, Rangitaiki, 0624-0658*, 23 Apr, Business Report, other reports from the Pacific, frequency announcement and IS prior to transmitter shut down; 35533. At 0659, they moved to 6170, rated at 55433 (Carlos Gonçalves, Porgugal, April 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. ZL, (Island Names To Be Decided!). New Zealanders are being asked what they would like to call their two main islands, currently North Island and South Island. The BBC News reports: "The country's Geographic Board, which assigns and approves place name changes, has announced consultations on alternative English and Maori names. The move follows the discovery that the geographically correct names, used for 200 years, were not legally registered." The Maori names are Te Ika a Maui (the fish of Maui) for the North Island and Te Wai Pounamu (the waters of greenstone) for the South Island. Read the complete story at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/8011846.stm (The Ohio/Penn DX PacketCluster DX Bulletin No. 906 April 27, 2009, Editor Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW, Provided by BARF80.ORG (Cleveland, Ohio), via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) I see references to Northland and Southland rather than - Island (gh) ** NIGERIA. 9690, April 24, 0810-0830, Voice of Nigeria with laryngitis this morning. Hideous modulation wrecked any opportunity to pick out anything intelligible as OM talked in Hausa. Got so bad the signal actually sounded almost like SSB, but a quick check showed that sure enough a carrier was present and the modulation continued to be way too hot. Tune-out at 0830 because signal was too annoying to continue trying to copy (Bruce Barker, Broomall, PA. Equipment: NRD535D with an Alpha Delta DX Sloper, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. 6089.85, Radio Nigeria, Kaduna, 2150-2215, April 24, talk in listed Hausa. Tribal chants. Religious recitations at 2202. Strong but must use ECSS-USB to avoid DRM mess on low side. Covered by Anguilla at their 2215 sign on (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTH AMERICA. North American Pirate Logs: 6925 USB, Blue Ridge Radio, 0015-0026*, April 25, Bluegrass music. ID. Very Weak. 6925 USB, Dead Cat Radio, 0110-0123*, April 25, pop/rock music. ID. Fair to good signal. 6925 USB, Radio Josephine, 0054-0115, April 26, Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”. The Bangles’ “Walk Like an Egyptian“. IDs. Poor. Weak with t-storm static. 6925 USB, Swine Flu Radio, 0119-0124, April 26, hard rock music. IDs. Strong (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) One of the great advantages of piracy, being able to respond immediately to current events! (gh, DXLD) Swine Flu Radio at least deserves applause for its name. As for the others, if you are going to go on air and just replicate stuff from "legal" radio, why bother? (Andy O`Brien, NY, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn: Re Andrew Yoder's comments about pirate QSLs (DXLD 9-034). My experience has been the same as Andrew's. In the last month, I have logged and reported to over 40 pirates (7 American shortwave, the rest European SW and MW). (I've posted some of my logs on alfalima.net, if anyone is curious.) All but 4 pirate stations (2 from each area) have responded with eQSLs or have replied saying cards are on the way via post. I have received postcards, pictures and the nicest letters with most of my QSLs. This compares with only 3 replies from 14 reports to regular stations, and one of these was former pirate KBC Radio. I haven't looked forward to going to the post office this much since I was a young novice listener. I even like email now! If you are looking for stations that still care about their listeners, you can't beat pirates! (Terry Toope, Newfoundland, Canada, JRC 525, 75m long wire, April 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS [and non]. Spring is here --- middle of the night opening on 16 meters from R. Free Asia in Chinese, April 24 at 0557 on 17640. At first I figured it was ChiCom jamming with the CNR1 program, which is certainly in use, but then I found two // frequencies, except they were 1 or 2 seconds displaced, typical behavior of the IBB sites to even out power consumption. And no echoes on any single frequency. At 0601 April 24 on 17880, same Chinese program as 17640 but stronger and about two seconds ahead of it. Emboldened by such propagation, I headed for 13 meters even tho it was around local midnight. And was rewarded by yet another signal, on 21550. Quite weak but // 17880 and 17640 altho displaced, about one second ahead of 17880. What does PWBR `2009` say? Nothing anywhere at any time shown on 21550. Per Aoki listings here is what I was hearing: 17640, RFA Tinian, 0300-0600, 295 degrees starting April 24! It is not yet on RFA`s own schedule: http://www.rfa.org/english/about/frequencies.html 17880, RFA Saipan, 0300-0600, 310 degrees [but on later] 21550, RFA Tinian, 0300-0700, 304/303 degrees But all are jammed. I am fairly positive in this case I was hearing the NMI transmitters, and because of much higher latitude path, the jammers were not making it here. As if to compensate for this, 16m was late opening after sunrise April 24: still almost dead at 1252, with trace of Chile on 17680; 1328 starting to pick up with only poor signals from that plus 17595 Spain and 17800 Portugal. Nothing unusual at 0600 per SWPC, unless a SF hitting a hefty 71 made all the difference. More pertinent is the increasing summer sun in the northern hemisphere. Solar-terrestrial indices for 23 April follow. Solar flux 71 and mid-latitude A-index 1. The mid-latitude K-index at 0600 UTC on 24 April was 1 (8 nT). The mid-latitude K-index at 1200 UTC on 24 April was 1 (9 nT). No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours. No space weather storms are expected for the next 24 hours. RFA Tinian, 17880 was audible again in nightmiddle, April 27 at 0520 in Chinese, // 17615 but not 17640, which was in use on April 24 --- only? Could also detect a carrier on 21550, on YB-400 only with internal wire antenna during storm (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. RADIO PERSONALITY ARRESTED ON LEWD CONDUCT COMPLAINT Apr 22, 2009 8:52 AM Apr 22, 2009 9:08 AM News9.com OKLAHOMA CITY -- A metro radio personality is among four people arrested for lewd conduct at Lake Hefner. Calvin Wright of the Radio Oklahoma Network was arrested last night after police say he approached an undercover officer and exposed himself at Hobie Point area of the lake. The charge is a misdemeanor. Griffin Communications is the parent company of the Radio Oklahoma Network and NEWS 9 (via Brock Whaley, DXLD) This was a big story on KFOR-4! But they did not mention this guy as being a fellow broadcaster, or anyone by name, tho they slideshowed the mugshots. He was among 16 men caught in this sting (gh, DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. As in 9-028, the Tulsa-area relays of KOSU were off the air as of March 31 due to a lightning strike. They were STILL off April 23 as checked when I was in the region. This is all the website says as of April 25: ``KOSU's Northeast Oklahoma Signal Knocked out by Lightning --- KOSU's Nowata transmitter has been struck by lightning affecting our signal in the northeast Oklahoma and southeast Kansas areas. Engineers and tower climbers are on-site working to resolve the problem and will have KOSU back on the air as soon as possible. Continue to check kosu.org for the most recent updates.`` The translator in Tulsa proper on 107.3 is not only off the air, but removed from the header at http://www.kosu.org/ --- so is it not coming back once 107.5 to feed it is resumed? They could have kept much of their Tulsa audience by feeding it directly from KOSU 91.7 Stillwater in the interim (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. Enid cleared of adjacent interference [to KCSC 90.1] Hi Brad, In case you are not aware of this: Altho you never did anything to protect the KCSC signal from the gospel-huxter translator which appeared several years ago in downtown Enid on 90.3, it is now off the air. I assume this is permanent, having been displaced by the new non- translator of another gospel-huxter in Fairview, KHEV on 90.3, which is only 490 watts and not a problem in Enid for KCSC (and I have not yet confirmed whether it is really on the air yet altho FCC says it is LIC). This is exactly what I was expecting/hoping when I read of the Fairview CP last year. It remains too bad that places like McAlester are worthy of a KCSC translator, but Enid which has NO local public (non-religious) radio stations, is not. Not even a translator from any of the other OK public radio stations. The LPFM stations here are rock music playthings if not religious. Anyhow, so now we can hear KCSC better on 90.1, and back to the primary problem being above-normal reception off the back from KHCC in Kansas, as we will be getting more of that now that the weather has warmed up. Regards, (Glenn Hauser, Enid, to Brad Ferguson, GM of KCSC, April 25, via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. You may have heard that a tornado hit Enid, around 0300 UT Sunday. Actually North Enid. We`re fine in another part of Enid, but bracing for another possible storm moving in from the SW. We have a tornado shelter cellar, but haven`t gone into it yet. Looks like it may be a long night. Despite some flickers, have not lost power here. Closed down the computers and antennas during the worst of it, back up now briefly during a lull. At 0335 UT I checked local radio. KNID 107.1 and KXLS 95.7 and KCRC 1390 co-owned in // with continuous storm coverage. Their other station KFXY-1640 continued with Sporting News Radio network. The only other AM station, KGWA 960 was and is off the air. It`s on the NW side of Enid, power outage at least. Their KOFM 103.1 was open carrier when first checked at 0335, no carrier half an hour later. Various local LPFM and translators were in regular programming of music, etc.: 91.1, 92.1, 94.3, 98.3, 104.7. On the scanner, Garfield County Sheriff has been on top of the situation, and also quoted by the TV and radio stations. Apparently KNID does not stream, but OKC TV stations are covering the Enid situation heavily, especially KOCO-5 and KFOR-4. Also KOKH-24, KWTV-9. At 0420 UT hearing thunder again, time to close down. [Later:] Recheck at 0505, KGWA-960 was back on with local storm coverage by news director ``J. Curtis Huckleberry`` mixed with relays of KWTV-9. At 0535 he said that their FM, KOFM 103.1 was at low power, so try to hear KGWA instead. However, 960 was not strong enough here to overcome T-storm noise, and at 0552 check, 103.1 was still open carrier only. They must have a hard time getting signal from studio to transmitter about a mile away; and it shouldn`t be that hard to run a 1 kW AM transmitter with emergency generator. Next check at 1602, 960 had dead air, but this was only a normal temporary foulup which are extremely common on this station, during network news. At least the put up a lot of pix, more so than the newspaper: http://www.audiostream.net/KOFM/Photos.html (Glenn Hauser, UT April 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. 15100, R. Pakistan opening procedure with a 1000 Hz test tone around 0450 UT, Apr 22, scheduled 0500-0700 UT. 11565/17835 doesn't propagate? (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The Pakistan outlet on 15100 at 0500-0700UT was the new API-9 in B-08, and, although the signal is heard only now and then, and not very strongly at my location, transmission does sound to be without distortion. But at 0830-1100 then I think it's still the old 250kW plus distortion. 73 from (Noel Green, England, April 22, ibid.) 15100/17835 couldn't trace at 0700-1004 UT today Apr 24; maybe the Islamabad team joined the Friday prayers mosque? 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Hi Glenn, In relation to Brandon Jordan's observations: ``3235.0, NBC R West New Britain - reggae flavored songs. Poor-fair`` Actually traced this one to 3234.994. ``3314.998, NBC R Manus - // Talkback program. Fair-Good`` Must be irregular. Not noted in New South Wales for a few nights. And one NBC outlet he apparently didn't hear: Rabaul on 3384.995, 0800+ UT. Also worth noting, thanks to Cattermole tip [NZ], PNG's Wantok Radio Light, traced to 7234.927, 0700+ UT. I actually think this one would make it Stateside (24 April, David Sharp, FT-950 +ICF-2010, NSW Australia, April 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA [non]. Re: DXLD 9-034 and 035: 2410 - see UNIDENTIFIED below. ** PERU [and non]. 2310 to 2330 both of the following have been logged in several location in Florida: 4834.93, Bolivia, R. Virgen de Remedios, Tupiza. 4835.42, Perú, Radio Marañón, Jaen 73s (Bob Wilkner, FL, April 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 5030, 19/04 2313, R Virgem de La Alta, *tentativa*, Spanish, YL Talk, 23332 (Jorge Freitas, Escutas: Feira de Santana Bahia - Brasil, 12º 15' 1.57" S 38º 58' 40.30" W, Degen 1103, Antena Dipolo de 16 metros e balum 4:1 em toroide, direção Leste/Oeste, HCDX via DXLD) Full name is Virgen de la Alta Gracia, per WRTH 2009, 2.5 kW from Huamachuco, but has this been confirmed on the air? (gh, DXLD) ** PERU. 5059.35, tentative LV de las Huarinjas, Huancabamba, 2353- 0005, April 23, Spanish. Rough copy with talk by various announcers; short music bit at 0000 with W and talk; brief flute music bit at 0003 into M announcer; very poor under band QRN; still there at 0022 re- check (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH-USA, NRD-545, RX-350D, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. 9700, Monday April 27 at 1325 weak audio but a big het; seems like one carrier is on the low side. 1328 audio improved; not helped by SSB intruder around 9696. 1330 sounds like Vietnamese, anyway with ``phat-thanhs``. Per Aoki this is FEBC, 50 kW from Iba site due west in various minolity languages between 1300 and 1400 in a convoluted schedule depending on day of week. On Mondays supposed to go from Muong to Cham at 1330. Eibi says it`s Eastern Cham. Could the het be jamming? Per online listings, nothing else is intentionally scheduled on 9700 at this hour, except maybe Sofia in DRM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** POLAND. Re DXLD 9-035: 198 kHz in Poland >>> But does that mean the 198 kHz transmitter will be closed down permanently or just rented out to something else? <<< In theory the latter. However, in practice this makes no difference: Who should have any interest in a longwave outlet that can operate from 8 AM to 6 PM only? (198 kHz in Poland is the world's only daytime-only allocation on longwave I'm aware of.) Here is a report on this topic: http://press.pl/newsy/pokaz.php?id=17872 Says that Radio Parliament will continue online and "on the Cyfra+ platform" only. The latter would refer to a Hotbird satellite transmission where Radio Parliament is so far not listed, neither FTA (like the other Polskie Radio services) nor encrypted. The story involves also Radio Euro and possible program changes there, but here it is not possible to make out more from machine translations. Discussions at http://new.radiopolska.pl/forum/index.php?showforum=15 point out another aspect: The Raszyn transmitter also still functions as an aux for 225 kHz and was used as such as recently as in last autumn when extensive antenna work at the Solec Kujawski site took place. People from Warsaw wrote that it was "like in the old days" (the Konstantynów transmitter was just 70 km away from Warsaw while the distance to Solec is close to 200 km), and there are also discussions of the different modulation (no Optimod, as generic term for audio processors, is in use at Raszyn) and the overlap during the hand-overs, resulting in an echo effect for some minutes (Solec is fed via PR's internal signal distribution on Eutelsat W3A but Raszyn presumably still via terrestrial circuits). But all this will be no more from August and 225 just be off during any maintenance or failure at Solec. Same situation than here in Germany for ten years now, since Königs Wusterhausen was shut down in 1999 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, April 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Continued at GERMANY ** POLAND [non]. Some Media Broadcast frequency changes: Polish Radio Warsaw [sic] in English: 1700-1800 NF 9790 ISS 100 kW / 025 deg to NoEu, ex 9555 \\ 7265 WER 040 kW / 300 deg to WeEu DRM mode (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) ** ROMANIA. NEWS ON THE LIVE TRANSMISSION ON THE INTERNET http://www.rri.ro/art.shtml?lang=1&sec=8&art=20866 Dear friends, here is some news about the live transmission on the Internet. From now on, you can listen to the RRI programmes on the http://www.rri.ro site in several formats, with various data transfer speeds, therefore with various sound qualities. We thus try to diversify the means by which you can access the RRI broadcasts as much as possible, meeting your expectations. Our programmes are available in Windows Media Audio format (WMA) at 64 and 128 kilobits per second respectively, in MP3 format at 64 and 128 kilobits per second respectively and in AAC+ format at 48 and 64 kilobits per second respectively. Every single stream has a capability of 3000 listeners. I suggest listen to AAC+ stream, because it has the highest fidelity, and with lower kbps. Direct streaming links of R Romania International: RRI-1 AAC+ 48 kbps: http://stream2.srr.ro:8054/listen.pls RRI-1 AAC+ 64 kbps: http://stream2.srr.ro:8056/listen.pls RRI-1 MP3 64 kbps: http://stream2.srr.ro:8050/listen.pls RRI-1 MP3 128 kbps: http://stream2.srr.ro:8052/listen.pls RRI-1 WMA 64 kbps: mms://stream1.srr.ro/romania_international1_64 RRI-1 WMA 128 kbps: mms://stream1.srr.ro/romania_international1_128 RRI-2 AAC+ 48 kbps: http://stream2.srr.ro:8064/listen.pls RRI-2 AAC+ 64 kbps: http://stream2.srr.ro:8066/listen.pls RRI-2 MP3 64 kbps: http://stream2.srr.ro:8060/listen.pls RRI-2 MP3 128 kbps: http://stream2.srr.ro:8062/listen.pls RRI-2 WMA 64 kbps: mms://stream1.srr.ro/romania_international2_64 RRI-2 WMA 128 kbps: mms://stream1.srr.ro/romania_international2_128 RRI-3 AAC+ 48 kbps: http://stream2.srr.ro:8074/listen.pls RRI-3 AAC+ 64 kbps: http://stream2.srr.ro:8076/listen.pls RRI-3 MP3 64 kbps: http://stream2.srr.ro:8070/listen.pls RRI-3 MP3 128 kbps: http://stream2.srr.ro:8072/listen.pls RRI-3 WMA 64 kbps: mms://stream1.srr.ro/romania_international3_64 RRI-3 WMA 128 kbps: mms://stream1.srr.ro/romania_international3_128 Enjoy! (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, April 24, dxldyg via DXLD) ** RUSSIA [and non]. VOR`s only A09 frequency in English to NAm at 0400-0600 is 13775. Mostly it had been inaudible to just barely audible here, but April 24 it was finally propagating, as I tuned in just before closing: fairly good at 0556 with music, 0558 perky YL with sorta British accent signing off NAm service, to return at 2200 on 31 meters. Service to Europe and Australia would continue now; just gave meter bands and in the case of Europe, Mwavelengths. What century are they living in? Or is their target audience the dwindling number of people with old radios calibrated only in meters? And I use the term `calibrated` loosely, as such terminology is quite inaccurate. This reception led me to check 15, 17, and even 21 MHz with positive results; see NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS. As for 13775, the original VOR A09 sked showed it in English only at 0400-0600, as does EiBi, but Aoki now shows it at 0100-0600, all 250 kW, 50 degrees via Vladivostok-Tavrich site at 131-54E, 43-20N. So is 13775 really on air now from 0100? RUVR`s own schedule at http://www.ruvr.ru/files/shedule/VSA_NorthAmerica.xls still shows 13775 as 04-06 only, but there were reports that VOR would be adding more SW frequencies due to numerous listener complaints. However, this version of their schedule, checked 1700 UT April 24 http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&w=129&p= shows 15425 has been added at 0200-0400; would also be from the FE: North America 9890 2200-2300 9665, 9890 2300-0200 15425 0200-0400 13775 0400-0600 For the full picture we must also check the English frequencies nominally for C&S America: 9665 2300-0000 9665, 9480 0000-0300 9665 0300-0400 Where we see 9480 once again appears, but is it really on the air, and whence? HFCC shows Wertachtal, GERMANY at 0100-0400, 250 kW at 300 degrees to NAm, and if on it should be very good here, better than 9665 or 9890. EiBi shows 9480 Wertachtal as in English 01-03, then an hour of RIR Russian, and preceded at 0000 by an hour of English via Moscow site (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn: If memory serves me correctly, the YL you are referring to is Estelle Winters, VOR announcer on the North American Service. She has a charming voice. Far better to hear than the dull drabby sound of Lucy Pravdina from the old RMWS days. 73's, (Noble West, TN, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) This has been an unofficial policy at VoR/R. Moscow WS for a few decades now - not to give out its frequencies on the air. That used to make sense before (too many channels to announce) but not anymore. Well, even VoR people don't necessarily know all VoR's frequencies. I guess we should be happy that the station posts its frequency schedules online :) (Sergei S., Russia, ibid.) Looking for V. of Russia English to the Americas, UT April 25. Not much making it after 0100 --- trace on 9890, not 9665, and no 9480 which is on some skeds, presumably intended to be German relay like A- 08. After 0200, 9480 not heard either, but there was a trace on 15425, couldn`t be sure it was VOR English, presumably from FE site, and much weaker than RTI via WYFR 15440. It would help if VOR/RUVR would put up accurate, complete and non-contradictory skeds on its own website. By 0600, unlike the night before when even 21 MHz had a signal, everything above 10 MHz was dead (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGESTS) ** RUSSIA [and non]. Frequency change for Voice of Russia in Spanish from Apr. 16: 0100-0500 NF 9735 GUF 250 kW / 318 deg to CeAm, ex 7395 Additional frequencies for Voice of Russia in German to WEu in AM 1500-1900 on 7330 KLG 120 kW / 245 deg \\ 12010 SAM 240 kW / 285 deg (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. New 9470.00, 1500-1700* 17.04, R Rossii, Central Programme, Russian talk, opera, 1600 Two ID's, news, dramatic reading. New frequency, ex 9410 which had Chinese QRM, 55444 (Anker Petersen, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) see also TATARSTAN ** RUSSIA. RUSIA, 7325, Adygeyskoye Radio, Krasnodar, 1721-1728, escuchada el 24 de abril en adigués, a locutora con comentarios en programa musical, emisión de música pop melódica, SINPO 33443 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. Re 9-035: ``RUSSIA. Re 9-034: Glenn, Concerning the Russian TV report on the history of Soviet/Russian broadcasting, I think it is incorrect to say that the external service first identified as 'Radio Moscow'. I seem to remember hearing a 1930s recording of the English service identifying as 'Radio Centre, Moscow'. I think this was the original ID, at least in English, rather than 'Radio Moscow'. Perhaps somebody could confirm this (Roger Tidy, UK, April 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` Confirmed on page 76 of Jerry Berg's On the Shortwaves 1923-1945 which is on Google Books preview http://tinyurl.com/cvrfkq From the letters on the 25th anniversary of the Voice of Russia World Service: I first heard Radio Centre Moscow on May 7th, 1938. The QSL card I received from you then featured the Palace of Labour. During World War Two I was a prisoner of war in Germany and was liberated by the Russian Army. I’m 84 years old now and have enjoyed DXing most of my life. I continue to listen to your programs, as they keep me up-to-date with world news. Douglas Giddens, Auckland, New Zealand http://www.vor.ru/English/25/letters.html According to Briggs History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom Page 436 they were still called Radio Centre Moscow in 1948: http://tinyurl.com/cevueu 1937 QSL card: http://pl703.pairlitesite.com/QSL_SW/R_Centre-1937.jpg (via Mike Barraclough, England, April 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [non]. ALEMANIA, 11770, Xradio Tambov (CVC), Juelich, 1205- 1225, escuchada el 24 de abril en ruso a locutor con comentarios y conversación con invitado en programa musical, posible ID, emisión de música pop rock, larga entrevista a invitado, SINPO 45544 Emisión en paralelo por Internet por http://sradio.tv/live/23530 La web de esta emisora que emite por FM es: http://xradio.su/ Anuncia emisiones por Onda Corta con horario de Moscú (UT +4??): 1600-2000 11770 2000-2200 13640 2200-2400 11945 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ALEMANIA, 11770, Xradio Tambov (CVC), Juelich, 1225-1232, escuchada el 25 de abril en ruso con emisión de música pop sin pausa, locutor con ID “X Radio..”, comentarios en ruso, tema rock duro, SINPO 45533 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [non]. KAZAKHSTAN, 9950, V. of Orthdoxy, Apr 17 *1430-1455, 43443-44444, Russian, 1430 sign on with IS, ID, Chorus music, Opening announce, Talk. Tue and Fri only (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium April 24 via DXLD) ** RUSSIA [and non]. The situation Trans World Radio faces in Russia Subject: Feed Spiritually Hungry People in Russia There is nothing more painful for a broadcaster than to be told your programs are being taken off the air. And when the canceled broadcasts have been providing the gospel to millions of spiritually needy and searching people, it’s more than painful. It’s heartbreaking. This is the situation Trans World Radio faces in Russia, where we were recently taken off the national network in an apparent attempt to minimize foreign influence. Our programs were a spiritual lifeline to many people, and we are hearing from distraught Russian listeners asking, “Have you forgotten us?” The answer, of course, is no. For some months, Trans World Radio has been looking for ways to replace these canceled broadcasts --- and God has provided a marvelous opportunity to begin that process. We have been given permission by Tartu Radio, a Christian broadcaster in eastern Estonia, to upgrade their medium wave AM transmitter from 100,000 to 200,000 watts. This will enable us to reach Western Russia, where most of the people in this huge nation live, with the gospel... (TWR mailing list April 25 via Dino Bloise, FL, dxldyg via DXLD) TWR was taken off R. Mayak and Yunost in the end of 2007. So I wouldn't use the word "recently" to describe that event. At the same time Mayak switched to a "trash talk" format. (Listeners are still complaining about that.) Before taking TWR off the air R.Mayak did say that TWR format wouldn't fit its new programming style. And I believe they were honest about that. IMHO, TWR never provided a good format fit for R.Yunost which is mostly a pop-music station. Most programming (if not all) for network relays was produced in St.Pete and Moscow by Russian nationals (Sergei S., Moscow, ibid.) ** RWANDA [and non]. RWANDAN MINISTER SAYS SUSPENSION OF BBC PROGRAMMES "COULD BE INDEFINITE" | Text of unattributed report entitled " BBC suspension 'could be indefinite'" published in English by Rwandan news agency RNA Kigali, 27 April: The return of BBC Kinyarwanda programming will depend on whether the broadcaster believes the concerns of government are anything to go by, the information minister, who took the decision to block the Great Lakes Service, said. "The suspension is temporary, but that entirely depends on the BBC Great Lakes Service otherwise it could be indefinite", Louise Mushikiwabo maintained in different interviews. The way the program is conducted has nothing to with free speech, she said, but a deliberate campaign to "intoxicate" the people of Rwanda with information that does support the reconstruction process. Tough- talking Mushikiwabo said government is not ready to live with "any radio station which promotes the notion of double genocide". The BBC signal relayed via FM and local station Radio 10 went off five minutes prior to the first broadcast at 0700 hrs when the regular one- hour Saturday Imvo N'Imvano programme was to start. However, the normal BBC programming returned after 0800 hrs. It again went off as the re-broadcast was to start at 1000 hrs. In the programme, controversial former Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu says he will "never kneel before Tutsis seeking for forgiveness". However, his comment is largely taken out of context because he spent about three minutes emphasizing that he encourages any ''Hutus'' who wronged ''Tutsis'' to seek forgiveness individually before saying that he would never do that "on behalf of Hutus". Other exiled politicians also made comments suggesting that though Tutsis were killed, Hutus also died in much more bigger numbers, than is commonly believed. They all called for prosecution of alleged crimes "against Hutus committed by the RPF". Mr. Boniface Rutayisire, another out-spoken critic of Kigali said RPF rebels killed people and threw their bodies in rivers the moved them to lake Victoria. The places where these people are buried are called "Ibuhutu", he said - loosely translated as 'Hutu area'. Government is working with Uganda to have about 20,000 people given a decent burial from places in central Uganda - as part of activities to mark the 15th anniversary of the mass killings. Minister Mushikiwabo said the comments carried in this latest segment were a climax from long history of the BBC - "using Rwandan journalist living abroad" to undermine the progress the country is making. She said government has communicated regularly "in writing, verbally and all ways available" to the editors of the programme but to success. The BBC, however, said the minister was invited to the programme to which she declined. A government ban remains standing against officials giving any interviews to the Kinyarwanda programme, as well as a similar one on VOA. Source: RNA news agency, Kigali, in English 0843 gmt 27 Apr 09 (via BBCM via DXLD) I guess BBC is still on SW to Rwanda, as is VOA (gh, DXLD) Tonight also reported by BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8019398.stm And a follow-up from AFP: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hLjUgGHuT0ndDGc2YxSQUqhkskVg I have some doubts about the description that they just “suspended all BBC programmes in Kinyarwanda”, of course referring to the BBC’s FM frequencies in Rwanda. Do they really censor the feed selectively? I suspect it is more likely that the transmitters have been shut down altogether (Kai Ludwig April 26th, 2009 - 22:01 UTC, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** SAIPAN. Re DRM test from KFBS: Recebido somente até a FAC da emissão DRM da FEBC, Far East Broadcasting Company, situada em Saipan, uma das ilhas Marianas (do norte) antigamente conhecidas como "Islas de los Ladrones", no oceano pacifico oeste. Com feixe de 20 kW dirigido para o Japão, em 11650 kHz, às 0615 local [0915 UT]. 73 de Roland. [Later:] Agora sim copiei o audio digital ! por alguns minutos. A emissora é a KFBS, e a transmissão era em 22.14 kbps EEP AAC+ P- Stereo. Como qualquer transmissão digital, audio com qualidade de CD, sem ruidos, chiados etc... e a mais de 19000 km de distancia, praticamente nos antípodas, e em ondas curtas !!! Em AM, nem uma transmissão local tem essa qualidade, além de não ser estereo... ! A tela do receptor com mais dados está aqui, no final do artigo: http://www.qsl.net/py4zbz/hamdream/rxdrm.htm (Roland M. Zurmely, Brasil, py4zbz April 23, radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** SAO TOME. VoA Sao Tomé: 11957.554 kHz, und damit ja wohl ziemlich weit ab vom Schuß. Ist wohl jemand gegen den VFO gerutscht, auch die Modulation ist nicht so toll. In Portugiesisch. Und ja, auch eine ID. 73 (Nils, DK8OK, Schiffhauer, A-DX April 26 via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) 1700-1800 SAO in Portuguese, 11960 100 kW 335 degrees, noted in northern Germany on Perseus measuring system --- heavy odd frequency signal ! 73 wolfy (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) SÃO TOMÉ, 9827, Voz de América, Pinheira, 2115-2125, escuchada el 27 de abril en francés a locutor en conversación con invitado, noticias de Dakar, locutora con ID, locutora anunciando E-mail y dirección web, música de sintonía, SINPO 45444 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) IBB SAO, you have a problem (gh) ** SAUDI ARABIA. 15380, with Qur`an, poor but no buzz, April 24 at 1329. This is the Holy Qur`an Service, at 12-14, 500 kW, 310 degrees from Riyadh (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. BUZZY transmitter at BSKSA Riyadh without a real carrier - difficult to measure exact frequency, next to 17729.70v kHz, today 06-09 UT on air. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, April 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. Apr. 27, 0707z, BSKSA Arabic, 17730 kHz, RIYadh, HEAVY BUZZ. I really don`t understand why the hell they simply don't turn that transmitter OFF, since probably it can't be repaired, and because of strong buzz, the audio is unreadable. Here is the "schedule" of the RIY buzz transmitter, which I have been monitoring between 0600 and 2300 UT in past weeks: 0600-0900 17730 295 degrees 0900-1200 17805 295 degrees 1200-1500 21505 295 degrees 1500-1800 15435 320 degrees 1800-2300 11915 295 degrees -- Best regards & many 73s! (Dragan Lekic from Subotica, SERBIA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SERBIA. AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL URGES NATO TO PROBE DEADLY SERB TV BOMBING Amnesty International has called on NATO to launch a “war crimes” investigation into its 1999 air strike on a Serbian television building that killed 16 media workers. ”Ten years after NATO forces bombed the Serbian state television and radio building in Belgrade, no one has been brought to justice for this serious violation of international humanitarian law,” Amnesty said in a statement. “As reports of ongoing violations by NATO forces persist in Afghanistan, Amnesty International is calling on NATO and its member states to ensure independent investigations, full accountability and redress for victims and their families,” said the London-based human rights group. The victims, mostly technicians, were killed early on April 23, 1999 when the building of the broadcaster RTS in downtown Belgrade was hit during NATO’s 11-week bombing campaign on Serbian forces over a violent crackdown in Kosovo. NATO had deemed RTS a legitimate target because of its “propaganda function” but gave “no specific warning of this particular attack” despite knowing civilians were inside, Amnesty said citing NATO officials from the time. “The bombing of the headquarters of Serbian state radio and television was a deliberate attack on a civilian object and as such constitutes a war crime,” the statement quoted Amnesty’s Sian Jones as saying. ”Ten years on, no public investigation has ever been conducted by NATO or its member states into these incidents,” said Jones. At 2:06 am (0006 UTC) on Thursday, family and colleagues of those killed in the bombing laid flowers and lit candles in a sombre ceremony marking the exact moment the missile hit the RTS building, which still stands in ruins (April 23rd, 2009 - 16:14 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** SERBIA [non]. New summer A-09 schedule of International Radio Serbia from Apr. 13 1800-1828 on 6100#BIJ 250 kW / 310 deg to WeEu Russian 1830-1858 on 6100#BIJ 250 kW / 310 deg to WeEu English 1900-1928 on 6100#BIJ 250 kW / 310 deg to WeEu Spanish 1930-1958 on 6100#BIJ 250 kW / 310 deg to WeEu Serbian Sun-Fri 1930-2028 on 6100#BIJ 250 kW / 310 deg to WeEu Serbian Sat 2000-2028 on 6100 BIJ 250 kW / 310 deg to WeEu German Sun-Fri 2030-2058 on 6100 BIJ 250 kW / 310 deg to WeEu French 2100-2128 on 6100 BIJ 250 kW / 310 deg to WeEu English 0000-0028 NF 9675*BIJ 250 kW / 310 deg to NCAm Serbian Mon-Sat 0000-0058 NF 9675*BIJ 250 kW / 310 deg to NCAm Serbian Sun 0030-0058 NF 9675*BIJ 250 kW / 310 deg to NCAm English Mon-Sat 0100-0128 NF 9675*BIJ 250 kW / 325 deg to NoAm English # co-ch Radio Bulgaria in Bulgarian 1800-2000 to WeEu and ME * ex 9580 to avoid RRI in English 0000-0056; CRI in English from 0100 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) As already in DXLD ** SEYCHELLES [non]. Some VTCommunications changes: FEBA Radio in Bangla to SoAs: 1500-1530 NF 7395 TAC 100 kW / 131 deg, ex 7370 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) ** SLOVAKIA. 7290, IRRS, 2035-2101*, April 24, tune-in to Glenn Hauser’s World of Radio. Closing IRRS ID announcements at 2100 and off with Italian National Anthem. Poor in noisy conditions (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I had been listing this airing as 1930 under mistaken assumption that it had shifted one UT hour earlier for European DST like the other airing, Sat 0900 to 0800 (gh, DXLD) ESLOVAQUIA, 9510, IRRS Milano, Rimavska Sobota, 0810-0830, escuchada el 25 de abril en inglés con el informe DX de Glenn Hauser; a las 0828 sufre un corte de unos cinco segundos, locutor despidiendo emisión, ID “IRRS Milano”, cuña y música, SINPO 45544 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A- 108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 9541, R. Solomon Islands BC, Honiara. April 24 0635-0650, English pop music selections, 0645 English announcements by YL, short music, OM talks. Some fading but good signal maybe by the proximity of gray-line there, at peak 44333 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Embu SP Brasil - Sony ICF SW40 - dipole 18m, 32m, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH AFRICA. 17570, 0810-0900*, Sunday 19.04, South African R League, via Meyerton. English radio amateur news, e.g. from California, propagation forecast, interview on satellites, 45444, but from *0858 QRM stronger RCI in Chinese with end of English language lesson, ID and news (Anker Petersen, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** SOUTH AFRICA. 7285, R Sonder Grense, 18th April, 0533, weak in Afrikaans on forthcoming election news, no ID (David Norrie, AOR 7030 on Ewe antennae from Mangawhai, 120kms north of Auckland, North Island New Zealand on 18th April, Thanks to Bryan Clark for tips and DX location, April 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN [non]. 15170 via Costa Rica, reconfirmed REE is still carrying news in co-official languages, as Friday April 24 at 1254 concluding news of Basque country presented in Castilian. Should be M- F 1240-1255 in Catalan, Galician and Basque [really mostly Castilian as a security measure?], despite this schedule http://www.rtve.es/files/70-14142-FICHERO/Parrilla_marzo_2009.pdf showing something called ``Fuero Propio`` in the 1230-1300 semihour. My dixionary says Fuero means a compilation of laws or a municipal charter, so possibly this an oblique way of referring to the legal obligation to air token broadcasts in minority languages? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. Information from mailbag programs in 0000 UT hour on Sunday April 26: REE - Will start sending QSL cards again as soon as they are printed. Take Care - (Dean Bonanno, Durham, CT, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA. Government accuses BBC of bias: see U K ** SUDAN. 7200, SNBC, Al-Aytahab, 1908-1922, 19 April, Arabic, talks, references to Iran, seemingly during some newscast; 44433, co-channel & adjacent QRM. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7200, R. Omdurman, Al Fitahab, 0222-0305, April 23, Arabic. Talk with up-beat wind instrumental; somber-toned M until presumed Call to Prayer beginning at 0230, sounded "live" with occasional response, break for announcer at 0240; presumed radio drama from 0251; martial- like music and "Huna Omdurman..." ID announcement at 0300; presumed news headlines followed by music bit; single pip or tone of sorts; brief fanfare & presumed nx in detail; good, clear signal. It's logging stuff like this that keeps me excited about DXing (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH-USA, NRD-545, RX-350D, MLB1, 200' Bevs, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7200, Radio Omdurman, Al Fitahab, 1740-1744, escuchada el 24 de abril en idioma árabe a locutor con comentarios, referencias a Sudan, SINPO 35433 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7200, 26/4 0200, Radio Sudan, starting with Holy Kur`an, ID, talks Arabic, good. 73 (Giampiero Bernardini, Rx: Yaesu FRG-7, Icom R71E, SDR-14, Grundig Satellit 208/transistor 6000, Ant: T2FD, QTH: Milano city, Italia, SW Blog: http://radiodxsw.blogspot.com/ dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7200, 26/04 0301, Sudan RTVC, in Arabic, OM makes an emphatic reading of what appears to be the Kor`an, at 0300 OM says the time and start a news program with reference to Obama. Confirmation by the link http://www.sudanradio.info/media/ degrading signal, 24332 (Jorge Freitas, Feira de Santana Bahia - Brasil, HCDX via DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. 17585, 1705-1725, CLANDESTINE, Tue 21.04, Darfur Salaam, via Zygi, Cyprus. Arabic news, Darfur often mentioned, interview, 25433. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. Glenn: In my usual routine bandscan, I came across an UNID station testing on the frequency of 13730 at 1600 UT. Not sure about this one. It seems that it might be from Europe or possibly Africa. Any Guess as to the location of this one? Let Me know. 73's, (Noble West, TN, Sangean ATS818ACS, Antenna: RS Pocket Reelout 23 feet, April 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Noble, Must be Wertachtal with Radio Dabanga service from Netherlands for Darfur, Sudan, as scheduled in http://www.radionetherlands.nl/features/media/090329-rnw-shortwave-schedule where they spell it Darbanga. 1529 1727 WER 13730 150 29-03-2009 25-10-2009 500 PNW Mul 1234567 Darfur --- but lost feed (Glenn to Noble, via DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. MADAGASCAR, 11500, Radio Dabanga, Talata-Volondry, 1715-1720, escuchada el 24 de abril en dialecto sudanés sin identificar a locutora con comentarios, ID “Radio Dabanga”, conversaciones con corresponsales, referencias a “Darfur, Sudanés”, SINPO 44444 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. 22.04.2009, 1610 UT, 11770 kHz, Sudan Interactive Radio, in Arabic, via Meyerton, talk, songs, nice signal http://narod.ru/disk/7970080000/MIC-2009-04-22_20h32m18s.mp3.html (Ivan Lebedevsky, Pushkin, Russia, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. EMIRATOS ÁRABES, 9590, Sudan Radio Service, Dhabbaya, 1705-1710, escuchada el 24 de abril, probablemente en idioma Shiluk a locutor con comentarios, referencias a “Sudan, Darfur, Obama y ¿Guinea?”, SINPO 44444 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SYRIA. Próximamente: Radio Damasco en Español ¡por Internet! 20 de Marzo de 2009. La Organización General de Radio y Televisión de Siria comenzará a publicar, dentro de un par de semanas en su sitio web oficial, los programas grabados de Radio Damasco destinados a las audiencias extranjeras. Los archivos de audio estarán codificados en el formato ASF - Windows Media Audio, y podrán ser descargados o escuchados en línea. De esta manera, todos los idiomas en los que transmite Radio Damasco estarán presentes en Internet: Alemán, español, francés, hebreo, inglés, ruso y turco (Vicent Marí, April 23, noticiasdx yg via DXLD) Aquí Damasco --- Estimados amigos: Escuchar Radio Damasco ha significado siempre para nosotros acá en el cono sur de América un gran atractivo DX, pero al mismo tiempo ha significado muchas horas de intentar escuchar sus emisiones debido a la dificultad que presenta su transmisión. Hace pocos días, precisamente le escribí a la Sra. Amelia Puga del servicio en español de Radio Damasco y me respondía que agradecían mi correo y que informaría a la sección de ingeniería. Pero sus buenas intenciones hasta este momento no ha resultado, comentario este retificado por otros radioescuchas chilenos que presentan las mismas dificultades que yo. Hoy buscando en internet, llegué a una dirección de podomatic con la programación en español con una calidad de audio espectacular, como nunca la escuché. La dirección, la comparto con aquellos oyentes que deseen sintonizar la estación; es verdad muy bueno el audio. Espero tengan éxito. http://aquidamasco.podomatic.com/player/web/2009-04-22T16_45_01-07_00 (Héctor Frías, CE3FZL, Radioescuchas FEDERACHI, CHILE http://www.federachi.cl April 23, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) That must be the link for the particular April 22 broadcast only (gh) Radio Damascus comments --- Dear Radio Friends, I will be visiting Syria once again in 2 weeks from now and will stay there one month. A visit to Syria is always combined with a visit to my very good friends at Radio Damascus. Here is an excerpt of a letter a sent them today. "... something about the technical side of Radio Damascus. As enthusiast as I applause you and the whole team of Radio Damascus in bringing us every day this excellent mix of news and feature programs, unfortunately the technical problems do persist: a) The modulation of the signal on the shortwave transmitters has been reduced to almost zero, making it practically impossible to listen to Radio Damascus on shortwave. As I also asked in my former letter : "I really wonder if nothing can be done to repair the shortwave transmitters at Adra station as the modulation problem has been going on for years. I am sure you must be getting these same reports from listeners from other language sections from all parts of the world too. Is it a problem of financing, getting funds to buy spare parts for the transmitters (tubes...)? Is upper management aware of the problems at Adra? " b) Although RTV Syria has now an English website, "Syria Online", at http://www.syriaonline.sy there is NO link whatever to the audio recording of Radio Damascus' foreign language programs. There is even, after all this time, still no (English) link to these recording on the general Arabic RTV Syria site at http://www.rtv.gov.sy c) Besides the English and German program recordings the other language recordings (French, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, Hebrew are still not online. When will these recordings come online? d) For the last couple of days the RTV website and audio recordings have been extremely slow to download. The "Syria Online" website on the other hand is loading very fast. This makes me to conclude that the two websites, RTV Arabic and "Syria Online" in English is coming from two different servers. Please ask the IT-department to speed up the RTV website server and please put a link in English on the RTV Syria AND "Syria Online" homepage pointing to the daily audio recordings from Radio Damascus. e) It looks that the good people of the Spanish section of Radio Damascus got tired of waiting as they launched their own unofficial website with the daily audio recording (in excellent quality!) of the Spanish program. You can find it here : http://aquidamasco.podomatic.com Why doesn't the internet and IT department of RTV Syria make work of making a real professional Radio Damascus website with the audio recordings of all the different language sections? f) The good news on the technical front is that the satellite feeds are working well. It is a great pleasure to listen to Radio Damascus through the Hotbird satellite here in Belgium in digital audio quality. Please please, keep these satellite feeds on the air!" Greetings (Kris Janssen, Belgium, April 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio Damascus : better modulation - maintenance operations - more audio recordings Monday, April 27, 2009 12:18 PM (a) better modulation levels of Radio Damascus' shortwave transmitters planned by the engineering department (b) short break in shortwave for maintenance operations at Radio Damascus' shortwave transmitters (c) audio recordings for all language sections of Radio Damascus online Dear Radio Friends, The audio recording of the daily program of Radio Damascus is now online for all language sections (English, German, French, Spanish, Turkish, Russian and Hebrew). Before only the English and German programs were available but since today the other language sections followed. You can find all the recordings by going directly here : http://www.rtv.gov.sy/index.php?m=541 The German program can also be downloaded on the Radio700.info platform on this location : http://www.radio700.info/index.php?country=start (choose the country "Syrien" from the drop down menu on the left side) And the Spanish section has an alternative download site here : http://aquidamasco.podomatic.com And I have some other great news. I received today an email from my dear friends at Radio Damascus that the engineer in charge of the shortwave transmitters is aware of the terrible modulation problem and will take measures to raise the modulation level with priority. My friends at Radio Damascus also informed me that starting April 28th, there will be a short break in the shortwave transmissions from Damascus to perform some maintenance work on the transmitters (maybe this is related to the modulation operations). They will try to keep the interruption of the shortwave transmissions as short as possible, so it should only take a short while! If the shortwave transmitters are down, you can still listen to Radio Damascus through the audio recordings on the internet or in digital audio quality on the different satellite feeds : Hot Bird at 13.0 E : 12380 Mhz Nilesat at 7.0 W : 11823 Mhz Badr / Arabsat at 26.0 E : 12054 Mhz Here once again the full schedule of Radio Damascus : 1600-1700 UTC/GMT Turkish daily 9330 Khz, 12085 Khz and satellite 1700-1800 UTC/GMT Russian daily 9330 Khz, 12085 Khz and satellite 1800-1900 UTC/GMT German daily 9330 Khz, 12085 Khz and satellite 1900-2000 UTC/GMT French daily 9330 Khz, 12085 Khz and satellite 2000-2100 UTC/GMT English daily on satellite 2100-2200 UTC/GMT English daily 9330 Khz, 12085 Khz and satellite 2200-2300 UTC/GMT Spanish daily 9330 Khz, 12085 Khz and satellite 783 Khz Mediumwave : 1600 - 1830 UTC/GMT Hebrew 1830 - 1900 UTC/GMT Russian The Radio Damascus staff does highly value when you write to them with your commentaries about the programs or reception reports about the transmissions and you will get in return a nice postcard to confirm the reception (QSL-card) and a program schedule. Their address is : Radio Damascus P.O. Box 4702 Damascus Syrian Arab Republic http://www.radio-damascus.net email : radiodamascusenglish @ yahoo.com http://www.radio-damascus-listeners-club.tk or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/radio_damascus http://www.rtv.gov.sy (RTV Arabic Website) http://www.rtv.gov.sy/index.php?m=541 (audio recordings) http://www.syriaonline.sy (RTV English Website) Greetings (Kris Janssen, Belgium, April 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN. RTI 9735 spurs were back on April 22 at 1305, bothering CRI on 9730 and BBC on 9740 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TATARSTAN [non]. 11925, *0910-1000* RUSSUA, 20.04, GTRK "Tatarstan", via Samara. Tatar ID´s, songs, musical comments, interview, closing ann and time pips, 45444 (Anker Petersen, on my AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 metres of longwire, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) RUSIA, 11925, Radio Tatarstan, Samara, 0834-0840, escuchada el 25 de abril, probablemente en tátaro a locutores con comentarios en programa musical, emisión de música de opera, posible ID o dirección E-mail, “Radio...Radio...”, lo repite dos veces, nuevo tema de opera, SINPO 45444 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND. 15275, R. Thailand, *0000-0233, April 17 & 23. General format: *0000 to 0029, in English with live “News Hour” with local TC’s; open carrier while they changed the antenna; 0030 continued with the news, better reception after the antenna change; 0102 into Thai; from 0159 to 0200 open carrier while they again changed antenna; 0200-0230 a relay/repeat of the first half of the earlier one hour news program in English; 0230 into Thai (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND [and non]. UNA EMISORA DE RADIO PARA PERROS EN INTERNET miércoles 22 de abril de 2009 Un empresario de Bangkok acaba de inaugurar una radio para perros en Internet: Dog Radio Thailand. Parece que dicho empresario, llamado Anupan Boonchuen, observó que curiosamente los perros que acudían a su escuela de peluquería canina se ponían “más contentos” al escuchar música. Así que, ni corto ni perezoso, se le ocurrió poner en marcha tan brillante idea. . . http://yimber-gaviria.blogspot.com/2009/04/una-emisora-de-radio-para-perros-en.html (via Yimber Gaviría, DXLD) ** TIBET. COMMUNISTS IN TIBET REPLACE SATELLITE RECEIVERS By Qiao Long, Radio Free Asia Apr 26, 2009 http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/15977/ Beijing has implemented another measure in Tibet to cut off the information flow through electronic media. In Maqu County, Gansu Province alone, the regime replaced 170 satellite dishes. Residents can only receive China Central TV (CCTV) signals and no longer have Internet access. A Tibetan overseas pointed out this completely violates the right to media freedom in the regime’s recently announced Human Rights Action Plan. Kongbo Dangzha, a member of the Tibetan Language Research Center in Norbu-glingka, Dharamsala, India, told RFA, “In both metropolitan and suburban areas in Quma County, all computers were cut off because there isn’t Internet access. The 170 new receivers from the government only get signals from CCTV News, CCTV-1 and CCTV-2.” Kongbo said that the authority started to replace the receivers on April 10 and finished on April 23. “In the last couple of days, all the receivers cannot be used, we can’t listen to RFA now.” The RFA reporter called many Internet cafes in Quma, but the phones were not answered. The reporter then called the Office of Religion in Quma but the staff refused to talk about it.” Gesang Jiansen, member of the Tibetan Congress in Dharamsala, gave the authority’s reason for switching satellite receivers, “Since March 2009, Tibetans in Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, and the Tibetan Autonomous Region installed their own satellite receivers. Now the authority claims secret agents from the Tibet independence movement installed them and hence confiscated all of them and reinstalled official ones.” Gesang explained that the Tibetans used to be able to watch news from India and neighboring countries and could listen to overseas news. “Now they can’t listen to RFA or VOA,” said Gesang. Gesang believes the authority is trying to block all information channels, which is against the right to know in its Human Rights Action Plan. “The authority says one thing and does another.” The reporter also noticed that Lhasa Evening News online and Tibet Daily online became unavailable recently (before the new receivers were installed). ---- (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TIBET [non]. 15422, V. of Tibet, Apr 19, 1315-1325, 24332, Chinese, Opening music, Opening announce, Talk (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium April 24 via DXLD) ** TURKEY [and non]. Apr. 27, 0345z, 6165 kHz Voice of Turkey in English, EMR 500/138, fair to good reception, but with slight QRM from RNW Spanish(?) via BONaire 250/290 (Dragan Lekic from Subotica, SERBIA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Au contraire ici (gh, OK) ** TURKEY. Frequency change for Voice of Turkey in Azerbaijani from Apr. 26: 1530-1627 NF 7290 CAK 250 kW / 087 deg, ex 9530*EMR 500 kW / 090 deg * to avoid Radio Liberty in Russian (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) ** UGANDA. 4750, Dunamis R (presumed), Mukono, 1842-1900*, 26 Apr, Vernacular, songs, some talks; 25332; transmitter off at 1901 (Carlos Gonçalves, Porgugal, April 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UKRAINE. Information from mailbag programs in 0000 UT hour on Sunday April 26: Radio Ukraine - program changes - adding Famous Ukraines and book program, dropping 15 year running DX program ("All things must come to an end" was the single hint for a reason). Take Care - (Dean Bonanno, Durham, CT, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U A E. 1170, R. Sawa, Al-Dhabbiya, 24 Apr, 2212-2227, Arabic western music, newscast 2215-2225 when parallel to 1431 DJIBOUTI, then same sort of music as 1431 DJI kept the same menu of Arabic music; 44433, QRM de BLR. Didn't they use to carry exactly the same program on every channel? There is nothing in http://www.radiosawa.com/english.aspx indicating there are different programs, just that there are studios in Washington DC and in the UAE as well as bureaux in the ME. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, April 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) They have had a few different programs for quite a while now, since the Arabs look down on each others` dialects (gh, DXLD) ** U K. BBC, or the British Broadcasting Corporation is renowned for their deliberate and biased misrepresentation of facts and events during its history of news reporting. It is true that human beings are not perfect and susceptible to "human - mistakes". But apparently the reporters and editors of BBC seem to have a knack for deliberately misinforming the events without due diligence. During the last decade, the reports and news items carried by the BBC in the mass media including its official news web, are ample proof of the unethical, unprofessional and conscious misrepresentation of facts and events across the world. A closer view shows that the news items are always more or less biased towards the attitudes of the reporter or the editor. Despite the mounting proof that BBC has been falsifying current events, the BBC always hides behind a veil of a piece of legislation called the "Freedom of Information Act". They say, that the act provides them "immunity" to publish any item, irrespective of whether it is verified, accurate or not and whether it has been soundly investigated and factually correct as they are not compelled to divulge the source of information. The fact that BBC is in dire need of funds to maintain its operations have also made it susceptible to biases when reporting. Details story on http://www.defence..lk/new.asp?fname=20090422_08 [sic; see below] (ADXC, Chennai, India, dxldyg via DXLD) Maybe, but this site has its own axe to grind, i.e. the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, and the correct URL is: http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20090422_08 Also gets into alleged bias in coverage of Venezuela, Israel, Turkey, Queen, etc. Is there really a ``Freedom of Information Act`` in the UK protecting the BBC? It`s certainly not like the FOIA in the USA, where citizens may force government agencies to disclose information (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) http://www.bbc.co.uk/foi/ (Andy Sennitt, dxldyg via DXLD) ... which is basically the same as the FOIA in the USA. This is another story than press freedom and the right of expression. And when lashing into news organizations over allegedly biased reporting, one should really try to get his own facts correct and to understand the backgrounds. Otherwise such accusations will backfire. You do remember the end of the BBC relays via FM transmitters in Sri Lanka and how it developed into a harsh controversy between the SLBC and the BBC? This MoD piece is apparently just a follow-up on this (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) ** U K. BBC TO SLASH MARKETING BUDGET BY 25 PER CENT The BBC is understood to have cut its marketing, communications and audiences division's budget of around £100 million by an initial £20 million for the new financial year, at the start of April. The reduction will increase over the next three years to 25 per cent until the end of the current licence fee period in 2012-2013, according to a report in The Guardian. The budget affects the BBC's on-air promotional campaigns, print and billboard advertising, cinema advertising and corporate events. Earlier this month, Campaign revealed the BBC put the launch of an ad for BBC Radio 1, created by Fallon, on hold because of fears of a backlash from licence-fee payers. Current TV ad campaigns for the BBC include an ad for BBC Blast, "fashion advice" by Fallon, featuring an animated robotic dog, and an on-air promotion of the BBC iPlayer featuring the strapline: "Making the unmissable unmissable." (ADXC, Chennai, India, dxldyg via DXLD) Any non-commercial public service broadcaster should spend ZERO on ``marketing`` (gh, DXLD) Bravo! The money ought to go to more serious and useful purposes. That's not to say that there isn't any place for measured promotion and marketing of the BBC and its programming, but the effort has been more appropriate to commercial enterprises. While the BBC has a commercial arm, it is still at its core a public service organization and its efforts should reflect that fact (John Figliozzi, NY, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. REHABBING KERSHAW ON R4 On Radio 4 this week in the "On The Ropes" series. Tuesday morning 9 am repeated 9:30 pm. [0800 and 2030 UT April 30] This week on Radio 4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00jxb02 John Humphrys talks to successful people who have weathered storms in their careers. Andy Kershaw talks about rebuilding his life and career after losing his BBC radio show and spending time in prison for breaking a restraining order. Andy has enjoyed a highly successful broadcasting career, winning a brace of Sony Radio awards and receiving critical acclaim for his reports from Rwanda, Angola, Haiti and Iraq. However, his outspoken opinions led to him being dropped by Radio One; he openly attacked Bob Geldof over his stance on Africa and in 2007 his personal life began to suffer. He was arrested trying to break into the home of his former girlfriend and was found guilty of drink driving. A restraining order was placed on Andy, and his Radio 3 show was taken off air. In 2008 he breached this restraining order in an attempt to see his two children and ended up in jail. He is attempting to rebuild his life and career (via Tom Roche, DXLD) ** U K. The BBC has updated its tours page. The tours available are BBC Broadcasting House, BBC Television Centre, CBBC Experience at BBC Television Centre, BBC Birmingham, BBC Manchester, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, BBC Radio Cornwall, BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, BBC Radio Lancashire, BBC Radio Lincolnshire, BBC Newcastle, BBC Radio Northampton, BBC Northern Ireland, BBC Nottingham, BBC Scotland at Pacific Quay, BBC Scotland River City, BBC South West in Plymouth, BBC Radio Stoke, BBC Radio Suffolk, BBC Tees, BBC Wales in Cardiff. Full details at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/tours/tours.shtml (Mike Barraclough, April 23, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD) ** U K. BBC RUSSIAN SITE RELAUNCHED http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2009/04/090421_russian_site_launch_story.shtml The website for the BBC's Russian service, http://BBCRussian.com has become the latest of the 33 World Service language sites to relaunch. The page is now over 20 percent wider, giving more space - a full 214 extra pixels, in fact - to showcase the very best of the BBC's Russian language output. In particular, a new Rolling News index has been added - which allows users to see the latest news stories as they are published onto the site - a first for the BBC language services. "We are publishing six to eight short stories an hour to reflect the news as it comes in," explains Dmitry Shishkin, editor of BBCRussian.com. "This is another feature very popular in the Russian market where the audience clearly needs it. We tried to boost the video and interactive presence as well as keeping a very significant amount of news stories and analysis on the front page." Perfect platform As a result, there is now more video available than ever within a single click on the site. This will soon be followed by new indexes for all of the Russian radio programmes. "We always distinguished ourselves as being the only news site in Russian which gives the user the ultimate multiplatform experience. When a big story breaks the user reading our text story is also able to watch an embedded video, a picture gallery, to read and/or contribute to a forum on the issue, to listen to the radio discussion, and to comment on a blog," says Dmitri. "The new site is a perfect platform for this task." It follows the BBC World Service sites for English, Vietnamese, Spanish, Persian, Urdu and Portuguese. "It was always our great disadvantage that the old site looked really different in comparison to the competitors' sites," Dmitry adds. "We simply looked unusual and rather dated, the site was too compact in Russian terms - the market there is used to very long front pages. So we wanted to address that when we discussed the redesign." (via ADXC, Chennai, India, dxldyg via DXLD) How self-deprecating (gh) BBC re-launches exhibition area at Moscow Library of Foreign Literature with live debates [April 28-29] Date: 24.04.2009 Category: World Service The BBC re-launches its exhibition area at the All-Russian State Library of Foreign Literature, named after M I Rudomino, in Moscow with two major debates which will be broadcast live on radio and online on the new-look website http://bbcrussian.com The renovated BBC exhibition area now showcases the revamped multimedia website, bbcrussian.com, with particular emphasis on its Learning English content. It also allows library visitors to sample a range of BBC resources, including the BBC's international 24-hour news and information channel BBC World News and the international news site, bbc.com/news. . . http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2009/04_april/24/russia.shtml (via DXLD) ** U K. Apr. 27, 6115 kHz, RMP 500/140, very good reception: 0359z BBC interval signals, and then BBC Arabic starts, but with audio feed breaks every half second! Terrible. Still breaking at 0405z. Rechecked at 0417z: finally fixed (Dragan Lekic from Subotica, SERBIA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. It seems that someone at Meyerton has got the message from Wolfgang concerning use of 12105 instead of 12015 for BBC English at 0600-0700 UT. This Friday morning I heard 12015 in use, as it should be. 73 (Noel R. Green (NW England), April 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Noel, since BBC was perched on 12015, did you hear anything on 12105? (Bruce Barker, ibid.) Mo, 12105 was a clear channel here at 0600-0700. And now that I look at the Sentech sched and EiBi I see that they list 12105, but the HFCC lists 12015. So whatever the original intention, it was 12015 today! (Noel Green, ibid.) Noted BBCWS in English to West Africa back on nominal 12015 kHz via Meyerton site (ex 12105) 12015 0600-0700 daily BBC Meyerton 250kW 328deg [340degr minus 12 slew] English WeAF antenna HR 4/4/0.5 Apr 26 at 0610 UT feature of ANC matter, signal S=7-8-9 deep fades and fluttery. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) ** U K [non]. Frequency changes of BBC: 1500-1700 on 7385 MEY 500 kW / 005 deg English, x 1500-1900 1700-1900 NF 7385 MEY 250 kW / 005 deg English, x 7385* 1800-1830 NF 17660 ASC 250 kW / 070 deg French, x 17640# * to avoid CRI in Chinese 1730-1827 # to avoid CVC in Portuguese in DRM (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) ** U S A. FEDERAL EMPLOYEES VOTE BBG AS WORST AGENCY TO WORK FOR The latest Federal Human Capital Survey, conducted by the Office of Personnel Management, has been published in Washington. In a poll of employees in 37 US federal agencies, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) came in last place in three of four categories - leadership and knowledge management, results-oriented performance, and talent management. The broadcasters did manage a 36th-place showing in job satisfaction. To make matters worse, the agency dropped in each of the categories from the previous survey. Read more in the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/23/AR2009042304188.html (April 24th, 2009 - 15:52 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network b log via DXLD) BBG is indeed a bad place to work. I had fond hopes of a foreign service career at VOA, but I managed to get myself into trouble (in retrospect, I believe I know the individual [in personnel] who black- balled me). Also, in retrospect it turned into a better thing staying here in Eastern North Carolina for my family. My two years at IBB/VOA Delano (CA) were two years of alternating hell and heaven. When I contracted cancer, I requested a hardship transfer back to IBB/VOA Greenville (NC). Was encouraged by middle management --- but my dear friend in personnel blocked my transfer. So I had to pay for my moving expenses back to NC. $3,000. 73 from (Charles A. Taylor, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. CONGRESS PROCLAIMS APRIL 25 "WILLIS CONOVER DAY" HONORING VOA JAZZ --- The jazz program host introduced America's musicians to listeners behind the Iron Curtain and around the world Washington, D.C., April 23, 2009 - "Willis Conover Day" is April 25 under a congressional proclamation that honors the legendary Voice of America (VOA) jazz program host who introduced America's musicians to listeners behind the Iron Curtain and around the world. Conover will be honored during the "Big Band Jam" on the National Mall. The congressional resolution, sponsored by Rep. John B. Larson, D-Conn., recognizes VOA and Conover for their "joint contribution toward spreading the language of jazz and American cultural diplomacy around the world over a span of more than 35 years." Born in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1920, Conover joined the VOA in 1955, hosting the first in a series of jazz programs that ultimately claimed millions of listeners round the world. "At the height of his career, [Conover] was producing 17 shows per week, including Music USA, Jazz; Music USA, Standards; Music with Friends, and Willis Conover's House of Sounds. These programs included interviews with popular artists including Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and many, many more," said John Stevenson, chief of VOA English. "Every emotion - love, anger, joy, sadness - can be communicated with the vitality and spirit that characterize jazz," Conover once said. He died in 1996. "People used to say that Willis Conover single-handedly felled the Iron Curtain," said Harry Schnipper, major organizer of the "Big Band Jam." The jam helps educate students about America's jazz heritage and brings jazz bands to Washington, D.C. (VOA press release April 23 via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. VOA Indonesian, 9945, Saturday April 25 at 1405 with rapid DJ, bits of interview with a female pop artiste in English, before voice-overs in Indonesian, still past 1430 and at 1432 a bit of Sousa. Per Aoki this is Thu-Fri-Sat only: 9945 VOICE OF AMERICA 1400- 1500 567 Indonesian 250 200 Tinang PHL 12037E 1521N IBB a09 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also SAO TOME ** U S A [and non]. Frequency changes of IBB, with kW / deg: 1200-1230 NF 17730 IRA 250 / 334 x 11780 BIB RL Kyrghyz 1200-1300 NF 9585 LAM 100 / 085 x 17730 LAM RL Russian 1200-1300 NF 9490 SAI 100 / 320 x 11625 SAI VOA Korean 1400-1500 on 5835 TIN 250 / 279 additional frequency RFA Cantonese 1400-1500 NF 7550 PHT 250 / 200 x 13620 PHT VOA Indonesian Thu-Sat 1400-1600 NF 7545 PHT 250 / 270 x 7430 TIN VOA English 1400-1500 NF 13645 RMP 500 / 085 x 11735 BIB RL Russian 1500-1600 NF 9485 PHT 250 / 349 x 9590 TIN VOA Special English 1500-1530 NF 12075 BIB 100 / 063 x 11760 BIB RL Tatar Bashkir 1530-1600 NF 9405 IRA 250 / 299 x 11760 IRA VOA Persian 1600-1630 NF 11600 BIB 100 / 075 x 11790 BIB RL Tatar Bashkir 1700-1730 on 15390 GB 250 / 174 additional txion VOA Creole Wed only 1700-1730 on 17565 GB 250 / 174 additional txion VOA Creole Wed only 1700-1800 NF 9840 UDO 250 / 300 x 5860 UDO VOA Persian 1730-1800 NF 5820 BIB 100 / 105 x 7235 BIB VOA Azerbaijani 1800-1900 NF 5820 BIB 100 / 063 x 9820 LAM RL Russian 1800-1900 NF 9855 WER 250 / 105 x 5820 LAM RL Radio Farda Persian 1900-2000 NF 9780 UDO 250 / 316 x 9670 UDO VOA Special English New schedule of VOA Deewa Radio in Pashto from Apr. 19: 1200-1800 on 7495 IRA 250 kW / 340 deg, ex 1300-1900 1200-1230 on 9310 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg, ex 1300-1900 1230-1300 on 9310 UDO 250 kW / 300 deg, ex 1300-1900 1300-1700 on 9310 IRA 250 kW / 334 deg, ex 1300-1900 1700-1800 on 9310 KWT 250 kW / 078 deg, ex 1300-1900 1200-1800 on 9380 UDO 250 kW / 311 deg, ex 1300-1900 1200-1500 on 9780 IRA 250 kW / 340 deg, ex 1300-1900 1500-1700 on 9780 UDO 250 kW / 300 deg, ex 1300-1900 1700-1800 on 9780 WER 250 kW / 090 deg, ex 1300-1900 New schedule of VOA Aap Ki Dunyaa in Urdu from Apr. 19: 0000-0100 on 7460 KWT 250 kW / 086 deg, ex 0100-0200 on same IRA 0000-0100 on 9515 IRA 250 kW / 332 deg, ex 0100-0200 on same UDO 1300-1400 NF 11835 UDO 250 kW / 300 deg, ex 1400-1500 on 7480 KWT 1300-1400 on 15725 UDO 250 kW / 300 deg, ex 1400-1500 on same IRA (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) ** U S A. Per FCC info, WEWN has made some changes: 9340, which bothered V of Korea 9335 including English at 13 UT, has been replaced by 11530, at 1200-1500 in English but now it`s at 40 degrees instead of 335, whew. This makes it even harder to hear V. of Kurdistan, which hasn`t been making it here anyway on 11530 since winter. Meanwhile, WEWN Spanish on 11520 at 11-17 has been replaced by 12050 for the 11- 15 portion, then still 11520 at 155 degrees. The WEWN sked has been updated to reflect this, altho still dated as starting March 29 (Glenn Hauser, OK, April 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WEWN has made a number of frequency changes, mostly upwards for summer, altho they claim that the current schedule at http://www.ewtn.com/radio/freq.htm went into effect March 29 --- not true! For example, new 12050 in Spanish // 11550, April 27 at 1315 with religious discussion (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Frequency changes of WEWN: 1100-1500 NF 12050 EWN 250 kW / 155 deg to SoAm in Spanish, ex 11520 1500-1700 on 11520 EWN 250 kW / 155 deg to SoAm in Spanish, ex 11-17 1200-1500 NF 11530 EWN 250 kW / 355 deg to SEAs in English, ex 9340 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) ** U S A. No sign of WORLD OF RADIO on WWCR-3, Saturday April 25 at 1635 check, first on webcast, where only some weak preacher was audible, nor on 12160 which was open carrier, but maybe preacher on there too under the noise level, only bleedthru from another transmitter? Back to the webcast at 1640, and suddenly at 1644, WOR 1457 started at full modulation level. Continued to conclusion at 1713, running almost a quarter hour late. So our advice must be reiterated: if you don`t hear us at the scheduled time, stay tuned (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Re DXLD 9-035, Mormon Media Timeline: "The timeline includes the 1962 purchase of private shortwave station WRUL (later WNYW), adding that the station was "unreceivable in the USA." Actually, I and many other shortwave listeners in the United States tuned in WNYW during the 1960s. Posted: 20 Apr 2009 (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.)" Glenn, I remember as a kid listening to WRUL from the 50 kW transmitter in Scituate, Mass. when I lived on Long Island, NY in the 1950's. As I remember, they were in the 17 MHz band so the propagation mode was likely either sporadic E, coastal tropo refraction [on 17 MHz??? gh], or backscatter as I would have been in the skip zone for the F layer mode. The programming was directed to South America. They had CBS News on the hour back when CBS still had the "Murrow Boys" doing the news. I distinctly remember a commercial sponsor was the Latin American edition of Time magazine. That is the only sponsor I remember hearing but there were probably others. There was also a shortwave station out of Salt Lake City sometime in the late 1970's I think. I seem to remember it had LDS connections as does almost everything in Utah. The frequency was around 7500 kHz. [That was ``Superpower`` KUSW, on 7505, which was rock music, but may have had a Mormon program here and there as per previous discussion in DXLD; later transformed into non-Mormon KTBN, and now defunct. What`s super about 100 kW on SW? Quite a common power and far below the max - but hey, snow the listeners with a Big Lie -- gh] The LDS has long had another very robust media connection including ownership of 50 kW KSL, which I also heard on the family Silvertone floor console radio with the green tuning eye, from Long Island back in the days when clear channel stations really had a clear channel. Their ground field at the edge of the Great Salt Lake greatly enhanced the efficiency for both ground wave and sky wave propagation. That station syndicated the tape distribution of The Mormon Tabernacle Choir program weekly free of charge to other stations which usually included the program in their Sunday morning religious programming block. I was forced (actually I got paid $3 per hour) to listen to it as a weekend fill-in engineer at directional KIOT in Barstow CA in the early 1970's. The program always concluded with a short, well- delivered message to us heathens. Today they have the LDS' Brigham Young University TV as one of the "public interest" channels on DISH Network. The channel features LDS propaganda in addition to BYU basketball and is free to all DISH Network subscribers. The highlight of the BYU-TV programming in my opinion was/is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performances from that acoustically marvelous inverted ellipsoid tabernacle building on the LDS campus in Salt Lake. I heard/saw a demonstration there once where a guy stood at one of the foci of the ellipsoid and ripped a piece of paper in two. The sound was clearly heard near the other focus of the ellipsoid hundreds of feet away. Brilliant architecture, no doubt divinely inspired (Joe Buch, April 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. Please note the following changes (effective 22 April 2009) to the WYFR A-09 operating schedule: Del 9340 kHz 0445-0900 UT 87 Degrees Zone 46 Add 9385 kHz 0445-0900 UT 87 Degrees Zone 46 Please note the following change, effective 22 April 2009, to Family Stations, Inc. Myanmar transmission via Taiwan relay: Del 11560 kHz 1200-1300 UT Add 11570 kHz 1200-1300 UT (Evelyn Marcy, WYFR, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I guess due to something from WRN via Tajikistan now on 11560 during that hour; but isn`t Pakistan active on 11570? Had been scheduled in Chinese (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Frequency change of WYFR Family Radio in Arabic / French / English: 0500-0845 NF 9385 YFR 100 kW / 087 deg to WeAf, ex 9340 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) see also GERMANY ** U S A [non]. ESTADOS UNIDOS VIA CHILE – A direção da CVC – A Sua Voz ainda não bateu o martelo pelo encerramento das transmissões em ondas curtas, que estavam previstas para o final de abril (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX April 26 via DXLD) ?? ``has not yet hit the hammer``, I guess means the closure is not yet certain? Or maybe ``the gavel has not sounded`` (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U S A. Tribute to Bob Guthrie, WOAI newscaster, retiring at age 75, with clips: http://radio.woai.com/pages/BobGuthrie.html (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** U S A. Hampton Roads VA Format Change --- Since I know this one is a frequent trop visitor to a lot of us on the east coast, thought I'd mention that 100.5 WXMM in Norfolk, the former Rock "Max FM", is now running all instrumental oriental music, calling it Chinese Classic Hits as "Kung Pao 100.5". I did a double take when I heard it scatter in here earlier this evening. Speculation is that it's a stunt to a flip to Classic Rock format as "Beer 100.5" as a domain under that name has been registered. Just in case anyone thinks they might have found some long hop E-skip, lol -- (Nick Langan, Florence, NJ, My DX page: http://www.wnjl.com/dx/ April 24, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. BRIEF: Radio station WARM 590 AM back on the air Thursday, April 23, 2009; Posted: 06:44 PM AVOCA, Apr 23, 2009 (The Times-Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- CTDB Nearly one week after a transmitter problem forced it off the air, radio station WARM 590 AM is broadcasting today. While there had been reports that the long-running AM station was off the air permanently, federal officials said they never received official word from Citadel Broadcasting, the station's owner. WARM had posted a notice on its Web site that a transmitter problem had interrupted its service. "As far as we're concerned, they never filed anything with us," FCC spokesman David Fiske said of the station's situation. Check back for updates and read more in Friday's The Times-Tribune. http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2288627/ (via Kevin Redding, April 24, ABDX via DXLD) There were transmitter problems that forced WARM 590 off the air. They were back on the air as of Thursday April 23rd after the transmitter was repaired (Bob Seaman, Hazleton, PA, April 25, WTFDA-AM via DXLD) So all the talk about their closing permanently was nonsense --- or stirred up so much reaxion, owners figured it was worth reviving after all? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U S A. As I tuned past 1290 tonight, I noticed local WRNI had their HD Radio off. First time I've seen that in a long time. I hope it's permanent. They also did sound a lot better. Full 10 kHz bandwidth. Maybe on a backup transmitter. I think I'll call them tomorrow and compliment them on their better audio. (grin) Will also check for it later (Craig Healy, Providence, RI, April 26, IRCA via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. WJR Detroit downtime opens 760 for DX The big news: Bill Carney passes along the following tidbit.... WJR DETROIT PLANS EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE DOWN TIME Lee J Freshwater from Ocala FL (and of amlogbook.com) says that in a conversation with WJR Chief Engineer Kevin Holley he learned WJR "PLANS" TO BE OFF AIR this Sunday AM 0100 to 0400 for some tower work [EDT = 0500-0800 UT] Lee suggests "Folks in the mid west may want to check the frequency." Harold Frodge adds, "Do we know for sure that it's Sunday morning, or might it be Monday morning? I guess tonight will tell." (well actually tonight would be Saturday AM .... TOMORROW night will tell Harold! :) and then passes along the following 760 kHz targets over 1 kW during WJR's downtime KFMB San Diego CA; 50 KWN, Talk radio with personality KKZN Thornton CO; 1 KWN, Boulder's progressive talk WLCC Brandon FL; 1 KWN, Mexican WEFL Tequesta FL; 1.5 KWN, ESPN KGU Honolulu ... yeah, sure KTKR San Antonio TX; 1 KWN, The Picket WORA Mayagüez PR; 5 KWN, Uno Radio Grupo CFLD Burns Lake BC; 1 KWN, The Peak He then takes the word right out of my mouth by adding: "Of course, you know what we're all going to log --- Cuba (Ken Zichi, ed., MARE Tipsheet UT April 25 via dxldyg in advance via DXLD) KKZN caught dominating signal with ads and ID as Boulder's Progressive Talk Radio before local sunset here in Victoria until 7:50 PDT [0250 UT] when signal disappeared and was replaced by San Diego. As local Colorado sunset happened two hours earlier I would say that the Boulder/Denver Station is on day power of 50 kW after LSS and going down to their night power of 1 kW, two hours into darkness. Can anyone in that area verify this procedure and speculate if they are delaying their day-night operation? Thanks (Bill Kral in Vic BC, UT April 25, IRCA via DXLD) Hi Bill, KKZN-760 (Thornton) has run day power past local sunset before as late as 10:00 PM. Although this is not their typical operating procedure, it's not a surprise either. Great catch! (Chris Knight, Fort Lupton, CO, ibid.) Throughout the time WJR 760 was off I heard many 'Radio Nacional' IDs which may have been from the Colombian on frequency. I did hear KKZN ID at 2:05 AM ET (0605 UT) as it briefly faded up during the news. WJR brought their transmitter up at about 3:53 AM ET (0753 UT), seemingly did some testing, (a lot of 'white noise'), and resumed programming at 4:20 AM ET (0820 UT). A lot of thunderstorms in the area, which put quite a damper on reception (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. TIS comment deadlines --- Glenn, the FCC has opened deadlines for comments and replies on changes to TIS. http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-09-901A1.txt It will be interesting to see if the FCC ends up proposing only conservative or expansive changes to TIS, and whether broadcasters will effectively oppose new developments in this service (Benn Kobb, April 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Another channel 6 audio: MEGA MEDIA GROUP, INC., SIGNS A MULTI-YEAR LEASE FOR WDCN TO BROADCAST PULSE87 IN THE WASHINGTON, D.C. MARKET NEW YORK, NY--(MARKET WIRE)-- Apr 13, 2009 -- Mega Media Group, Inc. (OTC BB:MMDA.OB - News) http://www.megamediagroup.com announced that it has signed a multi-year air lease agreement for the WDCN-LP 87.7 frequency with Signal Above, LLC. Under the terms of the agreement, revenue will be shared between the parties with certain minimum lease fees paid by Mega Media Group, Inc. Pulse87 will start broadcasting on WDCN during the 2nd quarter of 2009 to the Washington, D.C. market. Commenting on the announcement, Alex Shvarts, CEO, stated, "This is another milestone for the growth and expansion of our Pulse87 brand. Washington, D.C. is the #9 radio market with annual billings in 2008 of $310 million. The diversity of the Washington, D.C. Market will work well for our unique lifestyle music format. . . http://megamediagroup.ir.stockpr.com/news/detail/193/mega-media-group-inc-signs-a-multi-year-lease-for-wdcn-to-broadcast-pulse87-in-the-washington-d-c-market (via Benn Kobb, April 27, DXLD) ** U S A. 1670, GEORGIA, WFSM, Dry Branch, 2258-2302 GMT April 24, 2009. I didn't notice this one changed calls and presumably format (it at least once was XE Spanish). Tune-in to sports programming, non- legal male canned "WFSM, Fox Sports, Macon" into Fox Sports Radio sports news. Very good. FCC dB shows call sign change effective March 2, 2009. [See CUBA for disclaimer] GULF COAST TROPO (on the 2004 Chevy Impala stock radio): 100.3, LOUISIANA, KLRZ-FM "The Ragin' Cajun" Larose. Tune-in to promo for some event at Central Lafuge (sp?) High School, then canned "The Ragin' Cajun" slogan and into a Professor Longhair song at 5:25 ET. How I wish this was my local station. Presumably the same one after 6:30 pm ET with high school baseball coverage (Marlins vs. Mustangs) and local ads for mom-and-pop businesses along the Louisiana coast. No ID well past the 7 pm hour. "State Bank and Trust - where Cajun banking is serviced daily" being one of the best advertiser lines (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, April 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) April 26 also date of reception? (gh) ** U S A. Some regional tropo brought in TVDX from The Metroplex, the morning of April 22. We are still in the transitional period from analog to DTV-only, and I must say DXing DTV is much less satisfying than analog. With DTV all you can do is sit on a channel and wait for enough signal to build up to decode (maybe), rather than watch an analog signal fade up and over the interference. This was around 1345 past 1400 UT, as I hurriedly tuned thru UHF via the Zenith set-top- box. Plenty of channels had some signal but not enough to decode. The poor ST box is confused by such things as KERA-DT in Dallas which is on RF 14, but remaps to 13.1. Trouble is, we already have KETA-DT in OKC which is not only RF 13, but also remaps to 13.1 and 13.2. Does KERA have a .2 channel? Not that I could get, only going back to KETA 13.2 as I stepped up. Per unreliable Titan listings, maybe KERA really does not provide anything but .1? Scandalous! DFW still has some analog channels on air, and with tropo up, clashing with OKC, such as RF 27 which is KFOR-DT, 4.1 and 4.2. With analog passthru I could see analog on 27 which must have been the DFW station, and also causing some breakup on KFOR when I tuned to DTV 27. But I was also getting KDFI on RF 36 remapping as 27.1. Among the other DFW stations IDed in the 400+ km range were: KTXA on RF 18 remapping as 21.1. KMPX on RF 30 in Spanish remapping to 29.1. W9WI says that is nothing but infomercials. KXAS on RF 41 remapping to 5.1. KDTN on RF 43 remapping to 2.1. And Telemundo Dallas in analog on 39; did not find the corresponding DTV. It`s KXTX 40 as uplooked later, blocked by OKC KAUT-DT. As for VHF, I had Rachael Ray after 1400 UT on DTV 11 which checks for KTVT (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. NBC AFFILIATE'S BEGINNINGS ROOTED IN GIMMICKS, INGENUITY By Tom Kacich Wednesday, April 22, 2009 11:54 AM CDT Fifty years ago today, television viewers in Champaign-Urbana (unless they had a big outdoor antenna) had just three TV station choices: WCIA (CBS), WILL (educational programming) and WTVP (ABC). Under the best circumstances, they might be able to pick up the weak signal of WDAN-TV in Danville, an NBC affiliate. Oddly, that situation didn't change much even after WCHU-TV, an NBC affiliate based on the second floor of the Inman Hotel in downtown Champaign, went on the air April 24, 1959. The station's signal, which was relayed from WICS-TV in Springfield, apparently was so poor that station officials had a sort of second grand opening in September. A Sept. 13 headline in the Champaign- Urbana Courier said: "WCHU begins in earnest." Such were the days of early television in central Illinois. . . http://news-gazette.com/news/local/2009/04/22/nbc_affiliates_beginnings_rooted_in (via Curtis Sadowski, Paxton, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. 35 MiND is definitely WYBE Philadelphia. This is their brand, Media Independence TV. Many hours of programming of viewer supplied 5 minute or less clips. No longer a PBS affiliate (John Zeis, Exton, PA, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. NY MAN SENTENCED TO 5 YEARS FOR BROADCASTING [sic] HEZBOLLAH TV A Pakistani man was sentenced in New York yesterday to more than five and a half years in prison for broadcasting the Hezbollah television channel Al Manar and selling it to US customers. Javed Iqbal, a 45- year-old Pakistani citizen living in New York, was charged with supporting Hezbollah in 2006. He pleaded guilty to the charges in December. “I did not make a profit off of broadcasting Al Manar and it cost me my life.” Iqbal’s lawyer, Joshua Dratel, read out in a prepared statement on behalf of Iqbal which included an apology to the judge before he was sentenced to 69 months. “I am a human being and human beings make mistakes,” Dratel said on behalf of Iqbal, who owned a small satellite television company, HDTV Ltd. The US Treasury branded Al Manar a terrorist organization in March 2006, saying it supported Hezbollah’s fund-raising and recruitment activities. Prosecutors said Iqbal, who moved to the United States more than 26 years ago, provided transmission services to the Beirut-based channel in return for payment between 2005 and 2006 and then sold the channel to US customers. “He was, in a very real sense, Hezbollah’s man in New York City,” prosecutor Eric Snyder said during the sentencing hearing, adding Hezbollah used the channel to recruit new members. But Iqbal’s defence lawyer, Joshua Dratel, said Iqbal had no ideological support for Hezbollah and sold the channel to make money as part of his satellite television business that also included Christian channels and adult entertainment. Iqbal was broke and the charges “had devastated him and his family,” including his pregnant wife who sat behind him in court and five children, Dratel said. He also suffered from anxiety and depression. “This is someone who made bad judgments for a reason that had nothing to do with terrorism or supporting terrorism and he paid a very high price for it,” Dratel said after the hearing. He added he believed it was the only terrorism case in the US courts that had been brought against a person providing satellite services. A second man, Saleh Elahwal, who also worked for the company, has also pleaded guilty. (Source: Reuters) April 24th, 2009 - 16:18 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) 3 comments so far 1 SRG April 25th, 2009 - 17:23 UTC I wonder if the guy even speaks Arabic. Note that Al Manar is still freely available in the US online. Usually its live streaming isn’t fast enough but all the video files are easily downloadable. When will the US Internet providers get their jail terms? The search engine owners should be punished too. 2 Kai Ludwig April 26th, 2009 - 12:54 UTC You are surprised that no internet filtering is in place yet? Here in Germany things at present develop at breath-taking pace. It started with blocking access to child pornography, now at a conference in Cologne the next guys already demanded to block sites with copyright violations and illegal gambling as well. 3 Mark Fahey April 27th, 2009 - 4:43 UTC The Australian Government had Al Manar removed from a Sydney based ethnic direct to home satellite service some time ago. The signal was being downlinked on the Optus D2 satellite. The D2 satellite is Australian licenced, in an Australian orbit location, and hence the Australian Government were successful in having the broadcast shut off. BUT, it didn’t take too long for Al Manar to respond! Al Manar now can be seen free-to-air in Australia via the Palapa C2 satellite which is owned by Indonesia. The Australian Government has protested to Indonesia, but it looks like the service is there to stay! I think technically it is illegal to watch Al Manar in Australia due to their designation terrorist organization here, however I sure there is a core group of viewers down under (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** U S A. HAM RADIO MAILING ADDRESSES "Licensees who are concerned about their residential address appearing in the amateur service database may use, among other alternatives, a post office box, a business address, the address of another property the licensee owns, or the address of a friend or relative as the mailing address." -FCC letter. http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-09-890A1.doc (CGC Communicator April 26 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) ** VATICAN. Frequency change of Vatican R. in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, English: 0200-0330 NF 9310 SMG 250 kW / 086 deg, ex 9545 \\ 12070 SMG 250 kW / 098 deg (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) See also DIGITAL below ** VENEZUELA. PDVSA CONTRIBUYE CON EXPANSIÓN DEL ALCANCE DE RADIO NACIONAL DE VENEZUELA Pariaguán, estado Anzoátegui, 23 Abr. ABN.- Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) facilitó a Radio Nacional de Venezuela (RNV) las instalaciones de su estación de telecomunicaciones Moriche Solo, ubicada en el municipio José Gregorio Monagas del estado Anzoátegui, para que instale una repetidora que le permitirá expandir su señal a gran parte de la Faja Petrolífera del Orinoco. . . http://www.abn.info.ve/noticia.php?articulo=178889&lee=2 (via Yimber Gaviría, Colombia, DXLD) Not concerning SW. See also PUBLICATIONS ** VENEZUELA [non]. Another Sunday with no trace of Aló Presidente via Cuba on new listed 12010, or any of the other frequencies, at 1600 UT check April 26 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM [non]. 15670, Que Huong R., Apr 16 *1200-1213, 35433, Vietnamese, 1200 sign on with opening music, ID, Opening announce, Talk. Also Apr 17 *1200-1210, 35433, Vietnamese, 1200 sign on with opening music, ID, Opening announce, Talk (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium April 24 via DXLD) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. 6300, 21/4 2303, National Radio of Saharui, News in Spanish, good (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italy, while testing an old dusty Yaesu FRG-7 (antenna T2FD), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) La Voz de la RASD, 6300 via Algeria, not heard here in some time; seems it does not sign on until a few minutes after 0600; April 22 at 0627 it was coming in well with music. 6300, LV de la RASD, via Algeria, April 24 at 0608 with chanting, which certainly sounds Qur`anish, but quite unlike what we hear from closer to Mecca; is such variation allowed? By 0611 had finished that and started an exhortative speaker. 6300, R. Nacional de la RASD, already on at 0600 April 25 with anthem by amateur/military band, 0601 sign-on in Arabic, but modulation just barely audible, then into its peculiar version of Qur`aning at full modulation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ARGELIA, 6300, Radio Nacional Saharaui, Rabouni, 1745-1750, escuchada el 24 de abril en idioma árabe o hasanía a locutor con comentarios, referencias a “Saharaui y Ameriquía”, posible boletín de noticias con titulares separado de segmento musical, SINPO 35433 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZAMBIA. 4965, 19/04 1929, CVC, *presumida*, em o que parece ser africâner (?), OM e YL Talk, diversas claras menções a Deus e a Jesus Cristo, um claro sermão religioso, (parece que a identificação dessa emissora é realmente a CVC em africâner ou outro idioma ou dialeto africano, apesar de não constar nas listas e o departamento português não ter informação dessa transmissão) 34333 (Jorge Freitas, Escutas: Feira de Santana Bahia - Brasil, 12º 15' 1.57" S 38º 58' 40.30" W, Degen 1103, Antena Dipolo de 16 metros e balum 4:1 em toroide, direção Leste/Oeste, HCDX via DXLD) Jorge, Didn`t you see the info in DXLD 9-031 from CVC HQ in UK about the four African languages they now use on 4965? Not including Afrikaans which is a European language closely related to Dutch. Altho the Afrikaner immigrants` descendants like to think of themselves as ``Africans`` (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Glenn, thanks for the information. This is a further identified. Your newsletter really brings updated information of the world HF. 73, (Jorge Freitas, Brasil, ibid.) ** ZAMBIA. Updated A-09 for Christian Voice via LUS=Lusaka: English and local Bemba/Tonga/Lozi [sic] to South and Central Africa 0600-1700 on 6065 LUS 100 kW / non-dir, ex 0600-1600 1700-0600 on 4965 LUS 100 kW / non-dir, ex 1600-0600 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) ** ZAMBIA [and non]. 5914.99, ZNBC Radio 1 Lusaka *0244-0405 Sign-on with Call of the Fish Eagle IS until 0256 then singing with drums. Off frequency BBC Meyerton on 5914.98 kHz at 0257 spoiling signal. Audible under BBC with enthusiastic male speaker in [unknown] language from 0400. Re-tuned at 0328 as BBC left the frequency leaving ZNBC with nice Hi-life type vocal, talks by excited DJ between musical clips. DW Rampisham sign-on at 0400 at equal levels. ZNBC dominant over DW from shortly before 0415 Lusaka sunrise until 0450 or so when DW became dominant. Lively announcer talking with other speakers. Poor to fair signal; 4/13 (Brandon Jordan - Memphis, TN, USA, bcdx.org @ gmail.com - http://www.bcdx.org Perseus SDR - Wellbrook ALA330, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZANZIBAR. 11735, 26/4 1800, Radio Tanzania Zanzibar, news in English from Spice FM, fair/good. 73 (Giampiero Bernardini, Rx: Yaesu FRG-7, Icom R71E, SDR-14, Grundig Satellit 208/transistor 6000 Ant: T2FD, QTH: Milano, Italia, Blog: http://radiodxsw.blogspot.com/ dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. via Madagascar, 9895, Radio Voice of the People, *0400-0455*, April 26, sign on with opening multi-lingual ID announcements, including English. Vernacular talk at 0402. Short breaks of African music. Many IDs. Mentioned _www.radiovop.com_ http://www.radiovop.com website. Contact information. English at 0441- 0455 with news about human rights, violence and the judicial process in Zimbabwe. English difficult to understand due to accents. Fair to good overall signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. REINO UNIDO, 12035, SW Radio África, Rampisham, 1751-1754, escuchada el 24 de abril en inglés a locutora con entrevista a invitado, referencias a Zimbabwe, SINPO 44444 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. Some VTCommunications changes: Zimbabwe Community Radio in Ndebele/English/Shona to Zimbabwe: 2000-2100 NF 5950 DHA 250 kW / 210 deg, ex 5995 to avoid R. Mali in French/Arabic?? (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 2410, from 1315 to 1354, April 22 & 23. First day heard an Asian station in what sounded like possibly Korean; poor. Next day had better reception; clearly heard two Asian stations mixing together; fairly sure one was in Japanese, the other in Japanese or Korean. Mostly talking, but also played some music. Checked this after seeing Chuck Bolland’s log (PAPUA NEW GUINEA - DXLD 9-034 and 035). Thanks Chuck! (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Since there appeared to be a mix of Japanese and Korean on 2410, I have been looking at about 16 NK frequencies below 5 MHz for possible mixing products, but haven`t found anything that fits. Could be a B minus A from something on 9 and 7 MHz bands 2410 kHz apart (gh, DXLD) I'm not sure what Chuck Bolland heard on 2410 kHz, but it wasn't Enga. In fact, I've heard NOTHING on that frequency with regular monitoring. Whatever he heard, I doubt it was from this side of the world. (Interesting to note that the frequency list on the NBC website, copyright 2007, has Enga missing.) (24 April, David Sharp, FT-950 +ICF-2010, NSW Australia, April 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6160, 1001 4/17, station turning transmitter on at 1001 UT exactly co-channel CBC Vancouver on 6159.972, but much stronger and drifting upward. Despite moderate signal level, only threshold talk by man heard until audio faded completely by 1010. Drifting to 6160.0 by 1013 and up to 6160.03 by 1058 when powerhouse R Nederland Bonaire signed on 6165 kHz. This could possibly be R Rio Mar? Last reported at LA SW Logs on July 08 (Brandon Jordan - Memphis, TN, USA, bcdx.org @ gmail.com - http://www.bcdx.org Perseus SDR - Wellbrook ALA330, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Then LA SW logs missed some reports of it since then in DXLD. I have long suspected LA SW logs is not fully sourcing DXLD reports, tsk2! See 9-004 for an 8 Nov log of Rio Mar [BRAZIL], and 9-033 for April 11 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DGIEST) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. 6937, Radio Nacional de España, 2040-2045, escuchada el 24 de abril emisión de dos emisiones, una en español y no es Radio Exterior de España al menos en su servicio en 7275 y otra emisión de música, ¿se trata de algún extraño producto de frecuencias? Nunca me había pasado esto. Muevo el dial para arriba y para abajo y no consigo hacer desaparecer la emisión. Identifico una de las emisoras, se trata de Radio Nacional de España en paralelo por 558 Mw, la otra parece una emisora en árabe, no se si alguien más puede captarla. [Luego:] Sin lugar a dudas es un extraño producto ya que estoy escuchando a la Radio Algerienne en 7495 y una emisión de Radio Exterior de España, una vez cesa la emisión de Radio Algerienne en 7495 a las 2058 desaparece la emisión de 6937. Supongo que se me ha producido en mi aparato (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Es decir, 558 desde el transmisor en Valencia que debe encontrarse muy cerca. 7495 menos 558 = 6937. Debido a receiver overload. También muy fuerte Argelia via Issoudun, Francia al sur, 500 o 1000 kW en 7495 (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 9233 approx., SSB net in American English. Only one station was occasionally readable, mentioning knots, and ``loading fish``, 0555-0600+ April 22. 9+ MHz propagation was better than usual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. April 23, 2010z, 9347 kHz, AM mode, very good reception, male announcer in English: ``358 358 358 000`` reading these numbers over and over again. Stopped at 2215z, then open carrier only. 73, (D. Lekic, Subotica, Serbia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 11665, Arabic station at tentative 0500-0530 UT, Apr 22. Has gone at 0540 UT. Old R Solh frequency! Re: Puzzle UNID Arabic 0500-0530 UT [compare:] Darfur Salaam 12015CYP 13650CYP Dabanga 13800DHA 13840MDG Sudan radio Service 13720DHA - still in service? Needs further check. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Some Media Broadcast frequency changes: UNIDentified station to SoAs: 1600-1700 on 11885 WER 125 kW / 090 deg Sat from Apr. 25 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 27 via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 17850, *0559 April 24 Chinese talk over ``Diamonds`` commercial theme music, while I was getting R. Free Asia, NMI and Australia on other 16m channels, 17850 with a better signal than any of them. Nothing listed here in the online schedules, nor on 17845 or 17855 in case I misread frequency on FRG-7 analog dial, which has a parallax problem in this range, but I don`t think so. Could be CNR1 jammer against unknown target (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ ITU CORPORATE ANNUAL REPORT 2008 RELEASED ONLINE FOR FREE OF COST The ITU Corporate Annual Report 2008 reviews the activities of the Union for 2008, in the context of its overall Strategic Plan. The Report describes how ITU is fulfilling its seven strategic goals in progress and achievements. The message from the Secretary-General considers how Members' needs are changing and how ITU's work programme has been reviewed, in light of the financial crisis. ITU Corporate Annual Report 2008 is available online free of charge. http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-s/opb/conf/S-CONF-AREP-2008-PDF-E.pdf (Jaisakthivel, Chennai, India, http://www.dxersguide.blogspot.com dxldyg via DXLD) Fred VanVoorhees QSLs on eBay Hello Glenn, You're probably tired of hearing from me about these, but someone has posted a great deal of QSLs from Fred VanVoorhees on eBay, many stations that I've never heard of. One letter from the Bahamas mentions Ernie "Lefty" Cooper. Might be worth a look at some history. Thank you as always! (Eric Loy, Champaign IL, April 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) VENEZUELA DX, NUEVO BLOG DEL C.DX.A INTERNACIONAL dedicado al pasado y presente de la radiodifusion venezolana. Cordiales Saludos, Colegas Radioescuchas y Diexistas del Mundo. En atención a las críticas y sugerencias constructivas de nuestros lectores, con respecto a nuestro blog principal "DIEXISMO VENEZOLANO" en el cual según nos manifestaban que estaba muy sobrecargado y tomaba mucho tiempo abrirlo para ver las informaciones DX allí publicadas, decidimos buscar la solución a este problema. Para solventar esta situación, creamos dos blogs adicionales enlazados entre si al blog principal, puesto que no queríamos borrar archivos allí publicadas por considerar que los mismos son muy importantes y que además son temas de consulta por parte de personas que ingresan por primera vez al blog del C.DX.A = Internacional. Un blog lo llamamos "DIEXISMO" que está dedicado a los aspectos teórico-prácticos de nuestra afición que ustedes ya han visitado y el nuevo blog creado lo denominamos "VENEZUELA DX". "VENEZUELA DX", estará dedicado única y exclusivamente al Pasado y Presente de la Radiodifusión Venezolana. El mismo que aun está en fase de construcción, incluirá reseñas históricas, QSles, Cartas de Verificación, Calcomanías, banderines, etc. El diseño gráfico de presentación estuvo a cargo del colega Yimber Gaviría de Cali, Colombia; a quien agradecemos su colaboración. Sin más preambulos, los invitamos a visitar nuestro nuevo blog y recibiremos con agrado toda la colaboración que puedan prestarnos para enriquecer su contenido y que sirva de referencia para las futuras generaciones. http://venezueladx.blogspot.com Desde Venezuela..32 Años, escuchando al mundo. CLUB DIEXISTAS DE LA AMISTAD (Ing. Santiago San Gil Gonzalez, Editor DX C.DX.A = INTERNACIONAL, April 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) GEOCITIES DOOMED For those with Geocities host pages, the end is near. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8016211.stm Page last updated at 10:50 GMT, Friday, 24 April 2009 11:50 UK Yahoo pulls the plug on GeoCities --- Yahoo is to close its personal web hosting site GeoCities later this year. In a statement, the firm says it will no longer be accepting new customers and will focus on helping "customers build new relationships online". Yahoo bought GeoCities for $3.57bn at the height of the dotcom boom in 1999. At its peak, GeoCities boasted millions of active accounts, but it has since fallen out of fashion, with users migrating to social networking sites. Yahoo says that existing GeoCities accounts will remain live for now, although it stresses that users should start looking for alternative sites. "You don't need to change your service today, but we encourage anyone interested in a full-featured web-hosting plan to consider upgrading to our award-winning Yahoo! Web Hosting service," the firm said in an online post. The closure of GeoCities spells the end of Yahoo's free hosting, although other services - such as e-mail accounts - remain unaffected. Rupert Goodwins, editor of the ZDNet website, said the closure of GeoCities was the end of an era. "I think GeoCities was the first proof that you could have something really popular and still not make any money on the internet. "It was a fascinating experiment in the pre-industrial era of the internet, but after the initial exuberance on what the web could do, it turned out to be more complicated than just giving them free hosting. "You need to give users tools to actually do things and make things simple, one of the reasons sites like Facebook and MySpace are so popular," he said. The current copy on Geocities landing page reads: Current GeoCities customers: After careful consideration, we have decided to close GeoCities later this year. We'll share more details this summer. For now, please sign in or visit the help center for more information. "If Morrissey says not to eat meat, then I'll eat meat; that's how much I hate Morrissey" ~ The Cure's Robert Smith [tagline] (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W Visit my "Florida Low Power Radio Stations" at: http://home.earthlink.net/~tocobagadx/flortis.html or: http://www.geocities.com/geigertree/flortis.html DX LISTENING DIGEST) At least we shall no longer have to hear Allen Graham pronouncing Geocities as if it were a Spanish word (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) RADIO PHILATELY +++++++++++++++ IRC NEWS Just a reminder for those who like to stockpile International Reply Coupons (IRCs)-- the current IRC will expire at the end of year. Unlike the old style coupons, the current types all have an expiry date, giving them a maximum life of 3 years. If you purchased a current IRC today, they will still expire on December 31, 2009. Ken, ZL2HU, advises us on the following information from International Postal Union in Geneva: "The current issue (Beijing 2) IRC may be exchanged up to 31 December 2009 (date printed on coupon). In principle, Beijing 2 coupons will no longer be sold from 31 August 2009. The new international reply coupon (Nairobi model) is due to go on sale from 1 July 2009, and will be valid for exchange until 31 December 2013." Ken states, "So make sure you aren't holding any of the Beijing 2 coupons at the end of this year." To see what the new IRC looks like, go to: http://www.upu.int/news_centre/2008/en/2008-08-08_irc.shtml (The Ohio/Penn DX PacketCluster DX Bulletin No. 906 April 27, 2009, Editor Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW, Provided by BARF80.ORG (Cleveland, Ohio), via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ GREEK LESSONS IN ENGLISH Here is your chance to learn Greek. The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) offers the unique opportunity of learning Greek through the Internet for English Speaking listeners. A total of 105 lessons (audio files) are offered online: http://www.cybc.com.cy/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=233 Regards, (John Babbis, MD, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ NEAR FEST May 1-2 It`s 20 miles East barely North of Manchester, NH. Where Granite and Lake streets meet uphill downhill, take Elm street North a mile or so. Get onto Hooksett road only a little while before Whitehall road goes East through 5 road name changes. Signs take you to Candia, Route 43, and Stage Road where the Near-Fest is. $10 tosses you into the game for Friday, Friday night, and Saturday. Sleeping or camping in the nearby woods Thursday night is free. This must be way better than Kulpsville would be (Frederic Jodry, April 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Fred again speaks in riddles; Googling finds this, a ham radio fest: http://www.near-fest.com/ (gh, DXLD) DEUTSCHE WELLE GLOBAL MEDIA FORUM 2009, 3-5 JUNE 2009, BONN, GERMANY Digitalization, on-demand services, blogs and Web 2.0: The world of multimedia is in transition. The second Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum will primarily highlight the rapid technological development in the world of media and debate the ensuing questions related to modified usage. In light of these changes, the conference will examine the future of content delivery, especially for topics pertaining to peace and security. Do the changes in technology and user profiles influence the way in which the media report on conflicts - or do they directly influence the way in which a war is fought? What about the impact on peace- building processes and conflict prevention strategies? What are the main challenges for the international media during this technological revolution? How have the expectations of viewers, listeners and users changed, and what is the best way to reach them in the digital age? Deutsche Welle's Global Media Forum 2009 will bring together media users and producers, peace building and conflict prevention specialists, representatives from the fields of media technology and security, public relations, the military, the arms industry as well as members of government and political parties to network and discuss the challenges and solutions for the future. Detailed information about the 2009 conference and video promo: http://www.dw-gmf.de/ (via Sergei S., Russia, April 25, dxldyg via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DRM See BULGARIA; ECUADOR; FRANCE; GERMANY; ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ GUIANA FRENCH; NEW ZEALAND; NIGERIA; PHILIPPINES/ POLAND / SAIPAN/ UK April 21, 2009, HCJB via Quito, Ecuador. 2023 UT, 15280 DRM. Programming in Spanish to Europe. Frequent audio dropouts. DReaM shows "HCJB Global". April 21, 2009, Vatican R. via Sackville, Canada. 2028, 9800 DRM. YL giving contact info, signoff, music. Studio quality audio. DReaM shows "Vatican Radio". April 22, 2009, China R. International via Sackville, Canada, 0100- 0157, 6080 DRM. News, "Stories making news in Chinese media", "In the Spotlight". Very slight audio dropout around 0130. Studio quality audio. Listening to 1/2 hour of news at 9 PM (local Eastern time) was making me very sleepy ... zzzzz. DReaM shows "Radio China". 73, (Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, Manassas, Virginia, USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I've been listening to DRM shortwave almost daily during the past two months or so. In the United States, for DRM reception, we are mostly limited to the transmissions during the day of Radio Canada International via Sackville, New Brunswick, on 9800 kHz. It's mostly audible, but drops out a bit too often. At 2300-2400 UT, the stereo music transmission from Sackville is usually unsuccessful. At 0100- 0200, China Radio International DRM via Sackville on 6080 is usually 100% receivable. The Vatican Radio DRM transmission all the way from Santa Maria di Galeria, Italy, at 2300-2330 was usually heard on when it was on its 7 MHz frequency, but, since 29 March, when it moved up to 9755 kHz, they have generally been inaudible (Kim Andrew Elliott, DC, kimandrewelliott.com 24 April via DXLD) DRM test to Mexico City [see 9-037] 17540-17545-17550, TDF Montsinéry, French Guiana, 2248-2259 24Apr09, DRM, RFI music in French to Mexico City. With multimedia picture of transmitter site and Michel Penneroux DRM-CC. SNR 20-21 db. 15520-15525-15530, TDF Montsinéry, French Guiana, 2310- 24Apr09, DRM. News in Spanish. ID 2312 Radio France Internationale SNR 20-21db 2325 freq drop outs SNR 11-14 db. The 292 azimuth is a little south of my location in Los Ángeles. I am about 302 from Montsinéry. It was really fun to get the pictures by SW (George Herr, Playa del Rey, CA, Win Radio G303 with DRM, 40' long wire, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Did they really say Mexico City? Why? They were just testing for NAB Las Vegas, now concluded. BTW, these point-to-point transmissions should be in the fixed bands (Glenn Hauser, April 26, DX LISTENIING DIGEST) DRM at NAB Las Vegas Pictures : http://www.drm.org/news/detail/news/drm-made-its-presence-felt-at-nab-las-vegas/ NAB presentation : http://www.drm.org/uploads/media/NAB_presentation_panel_discussion.pdf Regards, (Alokesh Gupta, India, April 24, dxldyg via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING - IBOC See USA: WRNI +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ AN END-RUN TO ACHIEVE 10X FM IBOC POWER? National Public Radio has done a detailed study to determine if and by how much FM IBOC power can be increased before protected analog service is disrupted, whereas iBiquity's study was cursory and failed to take multipath into account when looking for interfering effects. Watch this proceeding like a hawk. IBiquity is pushing for a 10X IBOC power increase for all FM stations whereas analog must be protected. Analog is a simple, effective and time-tested transmission mode and the heart of an FM broadcaster's income. Name withheld (letter to the editor, CGC Communicator April 26 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING - DTV see also USA: The Metroplex TV DX ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Flint prepares for DIGITAL SHUTOFF! On the evening of 4-23, a mild tropo opening allowed me to log WFUM-DT for the first time since it moved from channel 52 to channel 28 (the channel on which the Flint PBS affiliate, also known as "Michigan Television" had operated it's analog transmitter since it's start in 1980). It would appear I logged it just in time. The next day I learned that the University of Michigan would no longer support WFUM, which, operating at a considerable loss, will, as a result, shut down. Flint cable viewers will still get PBS from WDCQ near Bay City, but most OTA viewers will need a good antenna at considerable height to get PBS from WDCQ and/or WTVS. The news comes on the heels of many in the Flint government seriously proposing to condemn and tear down most of the city, and move everyone who has not already left the city into hew high-density housing built adjacent to downtown, surrounding the city with a huge toroid park. As for WFUM, I suspect it will not leave channel 28 clear for DX, but will probably be sold to a religious organization that does not sell commercial time, like Daystar (for example only). (Robert Grant, location unknown, April 25, WTFDA via DXLD) What would Michael Moore say? (gh) POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Government response to petition 'SaveShortwave' Hello, Here is the Government's response to the recent SaveShortwave petition: You signed a petition asking the Prime Minister to "Immediately ban power line adaptors of the type currently supplied by BT." The Prime Minister's Office has responded to that petition and you can view it here: http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page19025 Prime Minister's Office Petition information - http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/SaveShortwave/ (James Welsh, Birkenhead, Merseyside, April 21, BDXC-UK via DXLD) With reference to the 'rejected' petition, it seems that the only thing now is to 'resort to law'. Unfortunately, DX Clubs and the like, are in no position to do this; however I wonder will the Radio Society of Great Britain at least consult its lawyers regarding this. Perhaps I am being 'ignorant', but it seems possible, to me, that there may be implications 'under' the Freedom of Information Act (Ken Fletcher, CH43, ibid.) BDXC supports UKQRM which is the best forum for pursuing this - http://www.ukqrm.org They have already had these devices independently tested and, as expected, they failed emissions tests, despite the fact that they bear a CE marking (apparently self-certified by the manufacturers). RSGB is supportive to some extent but their main focus is protecting the amateur bands which already have nulls on many of these "Homeplug" devices. In practice RSGB tends to overlook the SW broadcast bands. Resolving individual cases of interference seems to be Ofcom's preferred way forward, rather than banning these devices outright. The problem is that many short wave listeners are not aware that help is available or are reluctant to report their own interference problems to Ofcom. BDXC actively encourages any members suffering from this interference to report it to Ofcom and UKQRM. In most cases it can be successfully resolved (Dave Kenny, ibid.) IMPORTANT UPDATE: Dear all, Thanks to those of you who have signed up to our petition. Please be aware that it is the stated aim of the web master at number 10 to remove any signatory who adds anything more than a simple first and second name. Please do not add call signs or comment as it may very well be removed. I have protested this but in the meantime there is nothing I can do about it. Please pass this on to other radio groups. Regards (Mike, http://www.ukqrm.org Save world band radio from PLT http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/SaveShortwave2/ Have your say today and don't let those that would block this freedom win! April 27, HCDX via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ Google Doodle Celebrates Samuel F. B. Morse's Birthday Google celebrates Samuel F. B. Morse's birthday today by running a new look for its main page at google.com. I'm not sure if that applies to all countries, though. Morse was born on April 27, 1791 in Charlestown, Massachusetts (Sergei S., Russia, April 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Also on .it (Roberto Scaglione, Sicily, ibid.) MORSE CODE MAKES A COMEBACK Here's a real surprise for those who think that Morse Code is dead or dying. It is reported that the number of Morse Code ("CW") logs submitted for the 2008 CQ World Wide DX Contest exceeded the number of voice ("SSB") logs for the first time in more than 20 years. A total of 5013 SSB logs and 5272 CW logs were submitted. Adapted from Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1654 for 4/24/09 (THE CGC COMMUNICATOR CGC #901 April 26, 2009 via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Complaints to Google, "the long and the short of it"! Google has everyone confused --- if you have not seen Google spelled in “morse” go to Google. They are getting complaints by the thousands… People have no idea why there screen is broken up, and it does not read right! I hope they never get stranded on an island with just a flashlight! …. ._ …. ._ _ _ … …_ _ (Ted Randall, TN, DX LISTENING DIGEST) For some reason, the G G and E are on one line, the O O and L on a second line. And in Ted`s message above, MS Word insists on combining the first three dots of H, separate from the fourth dot! And the three dots in 7 and 3 also are combined into that single 3-dot character. As am example, I have not tired to circumvent it (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) DON'T MEASURE ME, BRO --- WHY BROADCASTERS FEAR ACCURATE AUDIENCE RATINGS [as in Portable People Meters] --- Tim Cavanaugh | May 2009 http://www.reason.com/news/show/132662.html (via Harry Helms W5HLH, Corpus Christi, TX EL17, ABDX via DXLD) NEWSMAX GIVING AWAY `WORLD BAND` RADIOS Due to ``terrorist threat level``, with a trial subscription to their far-right magazine, per an ad seen of all places, toward the end of MSNBC`s Rachel Maddow show UT April 24. This ``emergency radio`` has a crank, obviously a crummy piece with an analog slide-rule dial ``covering all major frequencies``. The ad appears periodically on MSNBC and I suppose other nets (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) GEEKS RULE! The Honolulu City Council gave final approval to Bill 4, a measure to ban talking on a cell phone while driving unless a hands-free device is used. The measure is aimed mostly at stopping activities such as text messaging and video-game playing, but a blanket ban was needed to make the measure enforceable, law enforcement officials said. Under the bill, a police officer would only have to see a driver using a hand- held device, not determine what was being done, to issue a citation. Most of those who showed up to testify on the measure during the hearing process were amateur radio operators, who successfully lobbied for an exemption allowing them to use their equipment when at the wheel (Honolulu Star-Bulletin April 23 via Brock Whaley, DXLD) Ha! Come on, pull me over! Adjusting an HF SSB rig while trying to pull out weak signal DX certainly is not as dangerous or distracting as texting or video games. "Officer, I'm sorry I hit the pedestrian, but it was Tunisia on 40 meters, for Christ sakes." The glare from the pocket protectors on cable access coverage of the hearing was overwhelming (Brock WH6SZ Whaley, HI, April 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Log radar HF Ciao a tutti, ecco un log di segnali decisamente particolari che ho ricevuto stamattina, ore 10:00 locali qui a Ginevra. Si tratta di Radar HF che si possono visualizzare bene usando un ricevitore SDR, io uso il Perseus. Per chi non li ha mai ricevuti puo' dare un'occhiata a questa pagina: http://www.mediasuk.org/iw0hk/segnali_hf.htm Dove ci sono dei segnali sia in forma audio che in forma di visualizzazione grafica. Ecco quello che c'era stamattina: 19570 khz - Sweep di 20 khz, segnale forte - Radar HF di Cipro probabilmente 19713 khz - Sweep di 10 khz, segnale intermittente 18778 khz - segnale "multiforme", sweep e toni digitali 17197 khz - segnale "multiforme" - penso sia una ionosonda o qualcosa di simile, il segnale e' come questo: http://www.mediasuk.org/iw0hk/hf_2.jpg 16603 khz - sweep di 10 khz, segnale basso 12679 khz - Sweep di 10 Khz, segnale forte - - Radar HF di Cipro probabilmente 12485 khz - Sweep di 10 khz, segnale abbastanza basso 73 de (Andrea Borgnino IW0HK - HB9EMK http://www.mediasuk.org/iw0hk http://www.mediasuk.org/archive http://www.biciurbana.org http://iwohk.tumblr.com/ bclnews.it via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ KO6BB/B now QRV on 28.2915 MCs (CW Beacon) Today I did the final programming of the keyer and tweaking things and we're QRV on 28291.5 kHz (coordinated frequency). 12 Watts to a A-99 vertical (with radials) about 18 feet above ground. Pictures of the keyer construction and installed transmitter may be seen here: http://ko6bb1.multiply.com/photos/album/16 Will be on the air 24/7. Hey guys (and gals), the spring "E's" season is here, so even though the sun doesn't have any freckles you still stand a good chance of either hearing it or other 10M beacons between 28.2 and 28.3 MCs. I DO QSL SWL reports for reception reports containing the correct (or nearly correct) text of the transmitted message, no return postage required. 73 de (Phil, KO6BB, Atchley, http://ko6bb1.multiply.com/ (My OTR Blog) http://www.qsl.net/ko6bb/ (Web Page) DX begins at the noise floor! RADIO/Antennas: Yaesu FT-2000, Two Modified Mini-whips. Homebrewed 6Hz Filter, Modified MFJ-1040C Pre-Amplifier. Merced, Central California, 37.3N 120.48W CM97sh, April 21, swl at qth.net via DXLD) Folks laughed at me and my 10 Meter beacon. . . Hi, Well, it seems that there IS some propagation taking place on 10M, but nobody realizes it because they don't listen. . . I wasn't surprised when my beacon, running 12 Watts CW on 28291.5 was heard well in Los Baños, approximately 30 miles or so (ground wave), and barely surprised when it was weakly heard at roughly 60 miles (probably about the limits of ground wave for my antenna height of 18 feet). However, when it was heard by WJ50 in Alabama at 1988 miles on the 23rd April, definitely too far for ground wave and most likely not "E's", I was quite surprised! Bill (the 10M beacon coordinator who coordinated the frequency for me) said it took some digging but he was able to get definite IDs on it. THEN, today my beacon showed up on the DX Summit as being heard in New Zealand by ZL2IFB with the note "Not listed by G3USF" (who runs a list of Ham Beacons). Again, not likely to be "E" propagation (the spring "E" season hasn't really opened up yet), so I'm sure it's our old friend, "Transequatorial Propagation". Still, not too bad for the NO SUNSPOT conditions. I sure wish the sun would get a sunburn and develop some "freckles" ;-) 73 de (Phil, KO6BB, April 26, ibid.) DXER UNLIMITED'S HF PLUS LOW BAND VHF PROPAGATION UPDATE AND FORECAST Si amigos, yes my friends, oui mes amis --- the spring and summer Sporadic E season seems to be already in progress, and 10 meter band operators where the first one to find out about the presence of those elusive patches of very high ionization that move fast at altitudes of between one hundred and one hundred and fifty kilometers above the Earth. One way of knowing that a sporadic E propagation event is in progress is by monitoring the segment of the ten meters amateur band that is used by beacon stations, that transmit automatic Morse Code identification of their callsigns and locations. Those of you that own amateur transceivers with a scanning function, can simply set the low end of the scan from 28.1 and the high end to 28.5, so as to maximize the probability of finding activity of the band, not only from the beacons, but also from hams that operate digital and single side band voice modes from 28.1 to 28.5. When the 10 meters band is open by means of the sporadic E skip, the distance that can be reached is shorter than when the band opens via the much higher altitude F2 layer, but anyway, it is certainly nice to hear the band open for DX! Now our next item, also related to the already in progress E skip signal, this time it has to do with TV and FM broadcast band DX. TV DX from stations located in the United States of America will change totally when the analog blackout takes over, and only digital TV signals will be on the air from the USA. TV DXers that already are learning about digital TV from far away locations, have told me that the digital signals are not as enjoyable to watch because of the very nature of the transmission mode. The digital TV signals are seen OK maybe for a while, then the picture freezes up, then it just vanishes, and there is no intermediate condition; in other words, it is quite different from analog signals that slowly fade in and out, without those on and off switching that is present with the digital TV DX. FM broadcast band DXers will continue to enjoy the analog stereo the way it is, but in the future a new FM band broadcast standard may replace it, something that like in the case of digital TV will require totally different new receivers. Solar activity once again back to extremely low levels, after the very short life of the high latitude sunspot of cycle's 24 magnetic polarity. The E skip season is now picking up, and that may lead to some nice short skip contacts on 20 meters, plus longer range QSO's on the 10 and 6 meter bands. Expect a fast drop in the maximum useable frequency about two hours after sunset your local time, with the later arriving signals coming from the West and Northwest of your location. Posted by Arnaldo Coro (blog April 25 via José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DXLD) SWPC SURVEY Dear Colleague, You are invited to participate in a survey of stakeholders – both customers and partners – of the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), which is part of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) of the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS). This survey is being done to inform a review of NCEP that is being undertaken by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research at the request of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The review is intended to assess the productivity, quality, relevance, impact and effectiveness of the operational products and services and scientific activities of each of the NCEP Centers. Of particular interest is how well the Center collaborates with other parts of NCEP, as well as the effectiveness of each Center’s activities and plans for transition of research to operations and the support of research by program elements within NOAA and outside entities. Your opinions of the value of the Space Weather Prediction Center’s activities, products and services, as well as your ideas on directions the Center should be taking in the future, are very important to the review. We have created a Web page dedicated to collecting your input. Please go to http://survey.ucar.edu/opinio/s?s=4722 where you can answer a few questions we have devised to organize stakeholder input, and enter and submit your comments and suggestions. Please provide your input by 11 May 2009. Please be assured that all comments and suggestions from everyone who chooses to participate in this process will be considered. Everyone’s opinion matters to us. Please also be assured that the information provided will be kept in confidence, and only statistical summaries and anonymous versions of comments and suggestions will be used in the review. We are interested in receiving input from as broad as possible cross- section of the Center’s partners and users, so please feel free to share the URL with your colleagues. Thank you. Sincerely, (Rick Anthes, President, UCAR; Fred Carr, University of Oklahoma, and Jim Kinter, COLA; co-chairs of NCEP Review, April 23; also via Dario Monferini, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ETA AQUARIDS METEOR SHOWER For those that like to DX the meteors, here's the scoop: Shower - Eta Aquarids Duration - April 19-May 28 Peaking - May 6 Position in sky: Right ascension 22:32; Declination -01 Speed of meteors - 66 km/s (Fast - don't expect 'trains') Average hourly pings - 60 Meteor shower rating - Strong Peak time - 1200-1700 UTC Antenna orientation - NE-SW; E-W MARK YOUR CALENDARS - JULY 12TH! You may want to stay home. It will be a Sunday. Five average meteor showers in their own right, are collaborating on July 12th for the summer show stopper performance. This is truly a rare event. Get your tickets now. Here's the act to follow: The Kappa Aurigids, averaging 20 pings per hour on the 10th, which will be winding down with 15 per hour on the 12th; the Alpha Orionids, peaking on the 12th and featuring 50 pings per hour; the Nu Geminids, also peaking, with 60 pings per hour on the 12th; the Lambda Geminids, peaking with 30 pings per hour on the 12th; and the Beta Cancrids with 20 pings per hour, also peaking on the 12th. And the meteor scatter hits just keep on coming. July 12th could potentially peak at 230 pings per hour at times. Not all of these showers coincide at the same time, so the day will be busy, not to mention if eskip and tropo are doing their things also. It will be at least worthwhile keeping the recorders running. Grab a brew, grab a brat, and grab that fm radio dial! BTW, visit the WTFDA website, as the May, June, and July meteor scatter charts should be appearing there soon. [Later:] May-June-July meteor scatter charts have been posted... http://www.wtfda.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=111&Itemid=58 (Jim Thomas, wdx0fbu, Milliken, Colorado (40 miles north of Denver), April 23, WTFDA via DXLD) July 12 --- That`s also the date for those analog TV stations running the Nightlight Service to end and by July 12 the last of the analog TV transmitters will be shut down (-John L., Muskego, WI, ibid.) VHF Propagation Map For those that weren't already aware, the VHF Propagation map is working again. http://www.mountainlake.k12.mn.us/ham/aprs/path.cgi?map=na Today it's all lit up on the east coast, with paths from NC to FL, and some shorter action north of that. Is anyone getting anything good? Seems like this would be one of those days where Roy is seeing FL on UHF! (Jeff Lehmann, Hanson, MA, WTFDA via DXLD) WHISTLER RECEIVER ONLINE Our planet is a natural source of radio waves at audio frequencies. An online receiver at the Marshall Space Flight Center is playing these songs of Earth so anyone can listen. Whistler Receiver Online Hear a NASA Project INSPIRE receiver in near-real-time from Huntsville, Alabama. Lots of sferics, including tweaks and occasional whistlers, should be audible, particularly in the hours just before dawn at the receiving site. Listen to the receiver through the SpaceWeather INSPIRE page http://www.spaceweather.com/glossary/inspire.html and get more background on whistlers and related phenomena from this NASA news headline http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast19jan_1.htm?list43215 (LWCA http://lwca.org/ via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) TIPS FOR RATIONAL LIVING ++++++++++++++++++++++++ MORE ATHEISTS SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS By LAURIE GOODSTEIN, Published: April 26, 2009 CHARLESTON, S.C. — Two months after the local atheist organization here put up a billboard saying “Don’t Believe in God? You Are Not Alone,” the group’s 13 board members met in Laura and Alex Kasman’s living room to grapple with the fallout. The problem was not that the group, the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry, had attracted an outpouring of hostility. It was the opposite. An overflow audience of more than 100 had showed up for their most recent public symposium, and the board members discussed whether it was time to find a larger place. . . http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/us/27atheist.html (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ###