DX LISTENING DIGEST 9-065, August 30, 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 1475, August 26-September 1, 2009 Wed 0700 WRMI 9955 [new] 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 1430 WRMI 9955 Fri 1900 WBCQ 7415 Fri 2028 WWCR1 15825 [15820 or 15830 experimental] 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 0700 WRMI 9955 Wed 1530 WRMI 9955 [or new 1476 starting here?] 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 ** AUSTRALIA. 2310, VL8A Alice Springs NT seems always weaker than 2485, but 2325 Tennant Creek NT often covered by local noise. 2485, VL8K Katherine NT strongest signal 0950 to 1050 for last fortnight. 2368.50, Radio Symban, 0900 to 1100 listening. Not being heard here or in Cedar Key, or Boca Ratón (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Florida, U S, Aug 30, Drake R8, NRD 535D Gilfer, Sony 2010 XA, Noise reducing antenna, 60 meter dipole, long wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BIAFRA [non]. via Skelton, U.K. 12050, Radio Biafra, *1900-1959*, Aug 30, sign on with English ID announcements and into a mix of English & vernacular talk about politics in Biafra & Nigeria. Many IDs. Fair signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** BOLIVIA. 4781.52, presumed R. Tacana, Tumupasa, 0034-0102*, Aug 26, Spanish. Continuous Spanish music; sounded "live" at times; with occasional W announcer; M announcer at 0101 with announcement of sorts; tho no discernible ID noted; pulled the plug at 0102*; fair at best (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, NH-USA, NRD-545, RX-350D, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 3309.98, Radio Mosoj Chaski, Cochabamba, 1000 and 0000 noted on 27 August and other days. 4781.51, Radio Tacana, Tumupasa, 2300 to 2325 with strongest signal logged here, OM with "... transmite Radio Tacana ...onda corta ... Bolivia..." much stronger than 4699, 4716 and 4796 on at same time. 27 August Band Scan by Time 2300 to 0030 (23-28 August) Pómpano-Cedar Key- Clewiston-Coral Springs-Boca Ratón, Florida, 50 to 49 m 4409.8, Radio Eco, Reyes 4451.2, Radio Santa Ana, Santa Ana de Yacuma 4699.32, Radio San Miguel, Riberalta 4716.64, Radio Yura, Yura 4781.49, Radio Tacana, Tumupasa 4796.49, Radio Lipez, Uyuni 5580.2, Radio San José, San José de Chiquitos 5952.42, Pio XII, Siglo Veinte (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Florida, U S, Aug 30, Drake R8, NRD 535D Gilfer, Sony 2010 XA, Noise reducing antenna, 60 meter dipole, long wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 2379.88, Rádio Educadora, Limeira, SP, 1000 to 1030, Portuguese program with weak signal 23 and 24 August. 3255, Rádio Educadora 6 de Agosto, Xapuri, AC, 1000 to 1030 each morning with Portuguese programming. Occasional ID, mention of events Band Scan by Time 2300 to 0030 (23-28 August) Pompano-Cedar Key- Clewiston-Coral Springs-Boca Ratón, Florida, 50 to 49 m 4805, Rádio Difusora do Amazonas, Manáus 4894.91, Rádio Novo Tempo, Campo Grande PR 4905.01, Rádio Anhanguera, Araguaína (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Florida, U S, Aug 30, Drake R8, NRD 535D Gilfer, Sony 2010 XA, Noise reducing antenna, 60 meter dipole, long wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. CIAO - 530 kHz - Brampton, ON - 0654z, 25 Aug: Reliably hearing AM530 Multicultural Radio in the wee hours, reliably weak with 250 overnight Watts, 300 miles away. South Asia/Punjabi/Hindi content for the overnight hours makes a nice substitute for the All India Radio I don't receive this time of night. QRM remains a problem, but no IBOC interference, thank Wuluwaid. http://www.mediafire.com/?ltdlztatztz (Terry Wilson, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. CIGM AM 790 is still on air --- There have been conflicting reports on different news groups of the closure of CIGM AM 790 Sudbury, in light of the launch of their new FM station, Hot 93.5. CIGM AM remains on air. I just heard the calls and the new logo; Hot 93.5 at 0022 UT. They are airing the new FM signal that carries modern rock. Though seemingly, not as strong as in the past, CIGM is still on the air (Andy Reid, Ont., Aug 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Canadian Data --- Does anybody know where the Canadian Government moved their broadcast database? I used to get it at http://strategis.ic.gc.ca but that seems to have vanished sometime during the past two weeks (Girard Westerberg, http://www.DXFM.com Lexington, KY, Aug 29, WTFDA via DXLD) http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/sp_dgse-ps_dggs.nsf/eng/gg00026.html (Wm. R. Hepburn, Grimsby Ont., ibid.) ** CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 7220, R. Centrafrique, Bimbo, was still audible this morning, i.e. 30 Aug (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Beibu Bay Radio - multilingual ID's --- Re Glenn's DXLD 9- 064 and note about Chinese (presumed Mandarin) / Cantonese / Thai / Vietnamese / English toh ID's. I can only pick out Mandarin / Vietnamese / English on this toh ID: http://www.intervalsignals.net/sounds/chn-guangxi_pbs_bbr_250809.mp3 - can anyone else hear different? (David Kernick, UK, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Can you please provide the time of this recording? Thanks, (Ron Howard, ibid.) 1300 UC, if I recall correctly (Dave Kernick, ibid.) Hi David, Thank you for the time information! I could be wrong, but it seems to me they have two different multi-language ID formats. One is as you have it, in three languages. When I first checked their audio streaming online at about 0700 UT (pre-SW sign-on), August 25, I heard this type of ID used quite frequently. The audio I posted to dxldyg (“Files > Station Sounds”) does not compare in any way with the great quality of your recording, but perhaps you and others could listen and give your opinion about the following: 00:06-00:16 IDs in three languages. 00:24-00:34 IDs in more than three languages? Five? Thanks for any additional insights you might have! (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, USA, ibid.) I can still only make out three languages there, but it's hard to be sure due to reception (David Kernick, ibid.) 5050, Beibu Bay Radio, 1335, August 29, start of the show “Top Music” (mentions these words in English several times), in Vietnamese with pop songs. Today AIR QRM not a factor to almost fair reception here (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also UNIDENTIFIED 4965 9820 Beibu Bay Radio (ex Guanxi Foreign Broadcasting Station), 2300- 2308, August 30, Chinese, Music, announcement by female, news by female, 24432 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Since this was posted at 0455 UT Aug 30, I can only assume the correct date was UT Aug 29, altho it was 30 in Beibu Bay (gh, DXLD) ** CHINA. No Firedrakes found on higher frequencies Aug 29, but good signals about equal at 1332 on 9000 and 8400, also at 1356 on 10210 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CONGO ** CONGO. LA REPUBLICA DEL CONGO VA A TRANSMITIR EMISIONES CHINAS DE TELEVISION Y RADIO. . . http://french.cri.cn/781/2009/08/28/303s199612.htm (Fuente: China Radio Internacional, 28.08.2009) (Enviada por Gabriel Iván Barrera, via Yimber Gaviría, Noticias de la Radio, DXLD) not SW ** CUBA. Radio Habana Cuba-RHC, 13790, 2333 Spanish 333 Aug 23 Group with vocal music and then a OM with comments (Stewart MacKenzie, WDX6AA, Huntington Beach CA, swl at qth.net via DXLD) This hour is supposed to be in English and last time I checked a few weeks ago it really was, but RHC has converted, at least sporadically, some other scheduled English frequencies to Spanish, so further chex needed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Re 9-064, inaccurate schedules from RHC: Okay - at this time wrong details, or outdated information reached Keith in Taiwan. BUT the Cubans send their - technicalwise powerful - message in front of the US doorsteps. It's so easy for - let's say - a group of 4-5 DXer fellows from NASWA, ODXA or something else - to monitor the Cuban schedule the year around. Even IF the Cuban technicians confuse the feeder or tx lines, to put the wrong language on channel etc. etc., a conclusive RHC schedule could be compiled twice a month or so, latter to tell the DXers scene worldwide. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I started working on that back in May, to fix the problems with the RHC data in my combined sked spreadsheet derived from the RHC website. Got distracted by the need to find and clean up a lot of local noise, and the need for some trips this summer to take care of family matters. So much going on I only got to southern Maryland once to pick crabs! And the noise is still a problem, but a little less so with the return to incandescent bulbs in the house (Dan Ferguson, Member: North American Shortwave Association Web: http://www.naswa.net ibid.) My almost daily log reports contain lots of data correcting RHC imaginary schedules, but I already spend too much time paying attention to what this hostile and incompetent outlet is doing, and am not about to monitor them 168 hpw (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) The frequency department is the floor above the English service and there was always the problem of information never reaching the language sections. I remember a few times when I was there a new schedule would come out and each time would get the frequency list as much as 7 months later. Manolo told me a funny story a few years back, that for two days the Spanish service was on air, but no one was listening. Why? The frequency department didn't inform master control and no one fed the switch to the transmitter. The frequency list he sent me is what was sent to him a few months ago. As I mentioned to you, he told me the schedule means nothing. You know, left hand, right hand! LOL (Keith Perron, Taiwan, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. HCJB - 9745 kHz - Quito, Ecuador - 0320z, 25 Aug: Again caught Special English program Spotlight, this time copying web address. Announced url "radio dot english dot net" redirects to "spotlightradio dot net" with archive of past shows, among other things. Didn't see archived the program I'd last heard, about the history of scientific prediction of volcanic eruptions in Mexico. http://www.mediafire.com/?2jxwlnznohm (Terry Wilson, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3220, HCJB, Pifo remarkable consistent signal 0900 to 1000 3279.6, La Voz del Napo, Tena, 1000 to 1030 each morning, good music and strong signal hear and more rural Cedar Key (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Florida, U S, Aug 30, Drake R8, NRD 535D Gilfer, Sony 2010 XA, Noise reducing antenna, 60 meter dipole, long wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EUROPE. PIRATE. 7550.04, Radio Amica, 2310-2355, Aug 28, Presumed with continuous Italian talk. Fair signal. 7550.04, Radio Amica, 2314- 2340, Aug 29, lite pop music, Euro-pops/ballads. Italian IDs at 2316, 2320. Poor to fair (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** FRANCE [and non]. On monitoring R. France Internationale again this morning (Aug. 29) I found that their listed Portuguese transmission via Meyerton on 11830 at 0600-0700 UT was actually in French. So the conclusion is that Portuguese is aired Monday to Friday (as it was) and French on Saturdays and Sundays (as it was last weekend). The next listed Portuguese is at 1600-1800 on 15530 - I wonder if it will be. And incidentally, French at 0630-0700 this morning had a different programme on 13675 and 15300 to what was going out on 11700, 13695 and 11830 - or at least it did for the first 5 minutes or so of listening when I discovered that all were then in parallel. At 0700 all 11700 13675 13695 15300 and 17850 via ISS and 15170 via MEY were carrying the same programme. MEY 11830 and 15170 are slightly behind (Noel R. Green (NW England), Aug 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. The planned move of BFBS Germany from Herford to Bergen- Hohne, as mentioned in http://www.w4uvh.net/dxld9013.txt has meanwhile been carried out: http://www.bfbs-tv.com/pages/extranet/bfbs-germany-moves---dur-53-i-2042.php (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Aug 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [non]. Re 9-064, DW in Russian via Rwanda: DW has been using Kigali for Russian broadcasts for what seems to be several years now. At 1445/1500+ I hear 15620 at good strength (peaking up to S9 on the meter) - and I've heard similar previously. A south to north path always appears to work when some other paths are attenuated. If their schedule has not changed, here are the Russian transmissions via Kigali --- 0400-0530 on 13780 1400-1600 on 15620 1600-1700 on 11915 (Noel R. Green (NW England), DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HONDURAS. 3250, Radio Luz y Vida, San Luis, neat station with calliope music sometimes at 0000, signs on 1100 and stays in 1200 in Florida. English Spanish gospel translations. Las Palabras de Dios (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Florida, U S, Aug 30, Drake R8, NRD 535D Gilfer, Sony 2010 XA, Noise reducing antenna, 60 meter dipole, long wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 4970, AIR Shillong, 1405, August 29, nice program of jazz; 1415 local ID and into subcontinent music. Not that often I catch a good jazz program on SW. Was disappointed last year when Traxx FM (Malaysia), on 7295, dropped their long standing weekly jazz program. 5050, AIR Aizawl, 1230, August 28 heard mixing well with Beibu Bay Radio (in Vietnamese); with the news in English; recheck at 1339 found non-stop EZL pop songs in English and still causing QRM for BBR; tuned out at 1355. August 29 they were only heard very faintly. 9425, AIR Bengaluru - National Channel, 1430, August 28 (Fri.) news and stock market bulletin in English; normally would have continued in English with the full National Channel ID and the regularly scheduled (Mon., Wed. & Fri.) “Vividha” program, but instead heard Hindi at 1435. Looks as if this needs to be revisited to find the current “Vividha” times (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 3325, RRI Palangkaraya, 1220-1236+ Aug 28. Jak program to 1228, then into local talk. Fair today. 3976.06, RRI Pontianak, 1151-1302+ Aug 24. YL talk in Bahasa Indonesia; music bridge near ToH, then more talk through the hour and past 1300 per re-checks. Fair but slowly deteriorating (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Aug 30, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 3325, RRI, Palangkaraya, Borneo, 1943-1957, 29 Aug, Indonesian, music; 15321. 4925, RRI, Jambi, 1911-1946, 29 Aug, Indonesian, prayer until about 1918, light songs, announcements, music; 45333 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4925, RRI-Jambi (presumed), 1454, August 29, with non-stop reciting from the Qur’an; 1500 changed the person who was reciting; weak and fading out, but still heard at 1520. Running late for Ramadan. Earlier when I passed by here I noted them with a fair signal. 9680, RRI Jakarta (presumed), 1422, August 29, surprised to find this actually much stronger than the CNR-1 jamming of Taiwan. Non-stop reciting from the Qur’an and seemed to sign off about 1500. Running late for Ramadan (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9524.9. VOI, 1241, 8/29/09. Pop music ballads. Best signal this week, steady S6 (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Drake R8B, PAR SWL random wire, Wellbrook 1.1 meter loop, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [and non]. 4045-USB, Lakeland, Florida with sailing vessels. 9-15 [what do those numbers refer to? --gh] Recession seems to have cut back on sailing, Bel Ami sends out contacts to less vessels. Interesting frequency for logging different Caribbean island; Haiti. 73 de (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Florida, U S, Aug 30, Drake R8, NRD 535D Gilfer, Sony 2010 XA, Noise reducing antenna, 60 meter dipole, long wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN. Voice of Justice - 9495 kHz - Kamalabad, Iran - 0218z 25 Aug, Very good reception of news in English, but I still don't care about anything they're saying. http://www.mediafire.com/?omymeazmnlx (Terry Wilson, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. MOLDOVA - Radio Payam-e-Doost - 7460 kHz - Grogoriopol, Moldova - 0244 UT Aug 25, presumed, with weak signal buried in band hash. Bothered by Ham and RTTY, with no guess as to whether talk is scheduled Persian/Farsi. http://www.mediafire.com/?wvmobemz3dn (Terry Wilson, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. 6973. Galei Zahal, 0050, 8/30/09. Good signal on peaks. Mostly 60s pop music covers. IS at 0100 and presumed news headlines (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Drake R8B, PAR SWL random wire, Wellbrook 1.1 meter loop, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JORDAN [and non]. 9830, R. Jordan, 1833, 8/29/09. Presumed the one with Arabic vocals and comment between OM & YL. Signal fair to good with fading (Strawman-IA). 9830, TURKEY. VOT, 2208, 8/29/09. English news. Mention of http://www.trtenglish.com Good signal (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Drake R8B, PAR SWL random wire, Wellbrook 1.1 meter loop, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) So no RTTY QRM for either? (gh, DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH. VOK transmitters --- This week was having a chat with Bob Zanotti. I'm not sure how many of you are aware of this, but did you know that after SRI closed, Swisscom the company that operated the SRI transmitters sold them to the DPRK. The North Koreans jumped on them right away. But the DPRK is not doing as good a job as the Swiss to maintain them as the Swiss did (Keith Perron, Taiwan, Aug 28, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) This partially explains why, Voice of Korea transmitters are, in my opinion, a "DX menace" in Australia. Pyongyang, along with CRI, and to a lesser extent WYFR, are very common here. Usually, whether CRI (or another Chinese xmtr) is on a frequency, is the deciding factor, as to whether DX can be heard. With the VoK, you don't even have to look for them. It seems they can be heard on all bands, just about all the time. (As opposed to Radio Korea, which has a far smaller presence on shortwave.) So, another question: since there's a power generation problem in DPRK (even to the point of satellite photos showing few city lights at night), where are they getting the juice for all these xmtrs? (Maybe that's why the towns/cities have so many power cuts, LOL, so VoK can stay on the air.) Really -- many of the xmtrs sound to me like they are every bit of 250 kW and perhaps 350 kW. Unrelated sidebar: if the Soviets had had DRM technology during the cold war and used it to jam Western broadcasts-- I doubt anything would have made it through the Iron Curtain! It's a TERRIBLE noise generator and constitutes "HF pollution" to non-DRM radios. 73s (David Sharp, NSW Australia, ibid.) Re: AGING. The former SwissCom transmitters which moved to KRE are now approx. 44 years old ! History: Here is the answer from SRI/SwissCom technical management. station number product kW power opening closing disassembly fate Sarnen 1 BBC 250 1972 1995 1995 demolition of 17 Sept 1973 Beromuenster 1 BBC 250 1965 1993 1995 Korea D.P.R. < 1 BBC 250 1965 1995 1995 Korea D.P.R. < opened 14 Aug 1959. 3rd 250kW tx of 6 Nov 1983. Schwarz'burg 1 BBC 250 1966 1993 1993 Korea D.P.R. < 1 BBC 250 1966 1994 1995 Korea D.P.R. < 1 BBC 250 1976 1998 1998 AWR Italy 1 ABB 250 1993 1998 1998 AWR Italy 1 ABB 100 1986 1998 1998 AWR Italy 1 Marconi 250 1978 1998 1998 demolition of 6 May 1939 Lenk 1 BBC 250 1974 1998 1999 demolition 1 BBC 250 1974 1998 1999 demolition of 7 Oct 1974 Sottens 1 ABB 500 1990 still in sce [til Oct 30, 2004] of 7 May 1972 (Ulrich Wegmueller-SRI-SUI, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Nov 2, 2000 !! ) 10 x SW txs for foreign services. At present Voice of Korea uses 8 txs on curtain antennas, estimated power of 100/200/250 kW, depends also on main power limitations. Also 2 x 50 kW txs on non-dir antennas are in use. Curtain azimuths like Ce/SoAM 28 degrees FE RUS 28 JPN 109 SoEaAS 238 CHN 271 SoAF 271 ME/AF 296 EUR 325 19 x SW txs for feeder service to other KRE TX locations and for domestic services, incl. South Korea, RUS, JPN and CHN target to Korean nationals. Estimated power is 5/15/50 kW (all according Aoki Nagoya list). 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Actually only some old ones, as Wolfgang already posted. It is believed that one of them is in use on 6070/6100, an outlet that appeared after this deal had been made and had originally stable frequencies as well as differing modulation characteristics. But judging from a recent observation by Glenn this transmitter appears to be quite defective now. And if you find this surprising: The Pyongyang subway relies exclusively on old trainsets from Berlin. Some of them have been modified for 3 kV catenary operation on regular railways, specifically small profile cars known as Gisela. On Flickr I already saw a Gisela in Sinuiju. Btw, the old Switzerland list raises another question: What became of the transmitters bought by AWR? They were designated for a new transmitter site in Italy (a much more powerful replacement for Forlì) that has never been built. Do these transmitters still exist or have they been sent to some scrapyard? [Power generation priorities:] Apparently this is indeed the case. The often mentioned power cuts are obviously no failures but the result of intended switches, done within the load balance management. This goes to a point where the power for a certain railway line is off for days, thus a train with coal can not leave, thus the consignee has to shut off whatever he runs with the ordered coal. Perhaps it is even a thermal power station. At the same time it seems that there were in recent years hardly any disruptions of shortwave transmissions. Not that it would help too much to shut them off, it would save some megawatts which are really peanuts. But it shows that foreign broadcasting must be a priority when they keep it up while cutting power to private homes, industrial plants, railway power substations. Btw, somewhere I also read what is done with central heating for apartment buildings when a need for savings arises in winter: In this case the systems are run to keep the temperature indoors at 12 Celsius degrees in Pyongyang and at 5 degrees elsewhere. Makes me wonder if this applies to broadcasting studios as well. And do people in South Korea really want a reunification? Do they really, seriously believe that their economy would survive this? (Kai Ludwig, ex-Germany East, ibid.) ** KOREA NORTH. RADIO PYONGYANG, NOT OFTEN IN THE NEWS, IN THE NEWS "Talks between South Korean and North Korean Red Cross chapters are scheduled to take place this Wednesday through Friday at Mt. Kumkang. Experts on North Korea are calling these talks a 'surprise offensive' or attempt by North Korea to realize a shift in the state of inter- Korean relations. ... This apparent resolve from North Korea was also demonstrated clearly in Tuesday reports on Radio Pyongyang, the nation’s international broadcasting service. In a program on South Korea-related issues Tuesday, there were no traces of abusive epithets such as 'traitor' and 'gang of rebels' that it customarily deploys when referring to the Lee administration. Some observers say this indicates that North Korea may be complying with a request by South Korean authorities that it stops slandering President Lee as a precondition for restoring inter-Korean relations." The Hankyoreh (Seoul), 26 August 2009 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Actually, the North Korean international radio service is these days calling itself Voice of Korea. South Koreans can just as easily hear North Korea's domestic radio broadcasts. Posted: 30 Aug 2009 (Kim Andrew Elliott, ibid.) ** KOREA NORTH [and non]. The discussion of Korean antennas [RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM] reminded me to ask about Korean frequencies. While in North Korea last week I asked one of our guards (they called themselves guides) about North Koreans watching South Korean TV near the border. They said North Koreans wouldn't be interested in watching South Korean TV or listening to their radio. As I recall the south uses NTSC and the set in the hotel in the north was PAL. Of course, if anyone had an antenna pointed south they would probably be shot but there certainly must be tropo at times. TV in the north was interesting to watch. Pretty strange. We did have access to BBC in the hotel but, of course, not anything American or South Korean. We learned about the death of the former South Korean president on BBC. When we asked the guards what they thought about it they said they were unaware. North Korean TV was too busy doing stories about pot holes being filled and a bridge being repaired. We are in Mongolia now and have only watched BBC and CNN (Dave Pomeroy, 30 Aug, WTFDA via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5910, Shiokaze Sea Breeze via Yamata, 1403-1415, August 28. Heavy jamming; today was the first non-English Friday that I can remember in a long time (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KURDISTAN. CNN INTERNATIONAL WEATHER MAP REAPS WHIRLWIND "Upon receiving thousands of emails and letters, CNN International realized how serious its mistake was and apologized for showing the fictitious map on Campbell Brown's program on 20 August 2009 where large swaths of Turkey and her neighbors were labeled 'Kurdistan'." Turkishny.com, 28 August 2009. Posted: 30 Aug 2009 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** LITHUANIA. 6110, Mighty KBC, 0220, 8/30/09. Good but fluttery signal. Playing Beach Boys off "Pet Sounds" album. Splatter from 6100 by 0229 (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Drake R8B, PAR SWL random wire, Wellbrook 1.1 meter loop, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) This is UT Sundays only, 02-03 (gh, DXLD) ** MADAGASCAR. From around 1745 till 1757 UT on August 29 2009, I heard a broadcast signal on 14790 kHz. It was clearly from Washington (mentioned a few times), but in an unknown to me language. I do not know if it was a VOA, RL, RFE/RFA or other IBB program, nor do I know whether this was a harmonic or a spur. If this is a regular, chances are it will be present from 1700 through 1757 every day, giving people more of a chance to ID this signal (Rik Van Riel, NH, harmonics yg via DXLD) Aoki list aus Nagoya: 2 x 7395 to Zimbabwe: 7395 R. VOICE OF PEOPLE 1700-1757 daily En./Shona/Ndeb. 50 kW 265 degr Talata-Volondry MDG RVP (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) ** MADAGASCAR. 5010, RTV Malagasy Antananarivo, 0304-0315, Aug 28, vernacular. Rustic vocal music; program intro at 0309 followed by W hosting interview; outro music at 0314, into different announcer talk; fair (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, NH-USA, NRD-545, RX-350D, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 11884.8v, V. of Malaysia Kajang, 1149-1202*, Aug 29, Mandarin. Pop ballads; brief announcers at 1154; 1+1 pips at ToH followed by ID; presumed Indo news until pulled the plug at 1202*; fair at best in noisy conditions; tough to pinpoint exact frequency; R. Howard, CA-USA, logged them on 11884.44v during same time/day (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, NH-USA, NRD-545, RX-350D, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. SARAWAK - 7130, Sarawak FM . Missing for the past few days in the 12-14 UT period. R. Taiwan International on 7129.88 has also been missing. SARAWAK - 7270 Wai FM 1300-1315 Aug 29. Usual two pips, then news in Bahasa Malaysia by YL. A "Wai FM" ID at 1310 was followed by regional vocal mx. Good signal but mixing with Nei Menggu, also good (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Aug 30, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** MALAYSIA/SARAWAK [and non]. 7130, Sarawak FM. For the past 4 or 5 days I have been unable to hear their signal here, as of August 29. In the recent past had been very regular. Still nothing on 7235. Did hear Sarawak FM on 5030, under CNR-1, with non-stop reciting from the Qur’an from 1422 to 1453, August 29. 7270, Wai FM (presumed), 1422, August 29, with reciting from the Qur’an; 1445 into pop music show; poor under China QRM (// 9750) (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 11884.44v, Voice of Malaysia, 1158-1202*, August 29 with pop music (assume ending their Chinese service); 1 + 1 pips; into Bahasa Indonesia audio feed till off; nice V.O.M. ID (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. RN still has a secret 3-minute English broadcast never appearing on their schedules, 1327-1330 UT on 9650, as heard again Aug 29, a few words of YL in English recognizable underneath CRI via Sackville. This follows the Dutch broadcast at 1300 via IBB, Tinang, PHILIPPINES, which we also heard in clear with IS and Dutch opening at 1259 during less than one-minute Sackville break after KBSWR and before CRI. RN relay is supposedly scheduled until 1327 only, but IBB always leaves the transmitter on another two sesquiminutes, cutting to a feed of RN in English. Is no one paying attention in Hilversum, Washington, or Tinang? Well, they are in Enid! Speaking of paying, perhaps this is because RN is buying 31 minutes and they are entitled to get them all, not just 28 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. The Ham Band on Happy Station --- This week on The Happy Station show my guests will be Andrew and Lissa of The Ham Band. A few years ago they recorded a CD called Seek You Amateur Radio Songs. Airdate: September 3, 2009 Time: 1500 UT North America edition Frequency: 9955 Also September 5, 2009 Time: 1000 UT New Zealand Frequency: 88.5 fm webstream: http://www.worldfm.co.nz Also starting September 3rd the FM relay for New Zealand and Indonesia will be in stereo. For the transmission at 0100 UT I will make the announcement for the new Happy Station Contest. The transmission for 0100 UT on September 3, 2009 will include the birthday book, letters and more. Talk about planning in advance, but the Happy Station Shows for December 31, 2009 will be two hours each. I'm looking for some listeners around the world who would like to take part in the special program. If you`re interested in helping the Happy Station ring in 2010, send me an email for more details pcj.happystation @ gmail.com Listeners who take part in this program will receive a gift you will surely enjoy. Regards (Keith Perron, Taiwan, Aug 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST and dxldyg via DXLD) ** NEWFOUNDLAND. CANADA, 6160.9, CKZN, St. John's NF., 0840-f/out 0955, 29 Aug, English, songs, CBC news bulletin at 0900, ballads, talks; 25321 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGER. 9705, LV du Sahel, Niamey, 2100-2259:30*, Aug 28, vernacular talk. Tribal chants. Afro-pop music. Qur’an at 2254-2257 followed by short announcement, flute IS, and choral National Anthem at 2257. Short test tone at 2259 & off. Poor to fair with occasional hum in audio. 9705, LV du Sahel, Niamey, 2100-2200*, Aug 30, French and vernacular talk. Qur’an at 2154-2157 followed by short announcement, flute IS, and choral National Anthem at 2158. Short 15 second test tone at 2200 & off. Poor in noisy conditions. Niger is normally scheduled to sign off Mon-Sat at 2300 and at 2200 on Sundays (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** NIGERIA [and non]. Channel Africa [SOUTH AFRICA] was an excellent signal today in English on 15255 with sports news at 0650. But Voice of Nigeria 15120 was weaker, and generally under CRI in Chinese co-channel. CRI is HFCC registered as 15120 0600 0700 31,32 BEI 500 322 and is often audible, though not always as strong as it was today. VoN is not registered at all (Noel R. Green (NW England), Aug 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. Re 9-064, R. Pakistan resumes Balti; SW? --- Hello Glenn, These language services were broadcast on shortwave via Islamabad- Rewat, and transmitter API-8, but had been deleted from their A-09 schedule. I think the last frequency used was 6065. But it seems that API-8 has not been on air - at least, not via 4790 with Azad Kashmir. Currently I can't make contact with the RP Frequency Manager, for whatever reason, but it is obvious that the Rewat station is gradually failing, and that only three transmitters are/have been operational. The latest casualty seems to be either API-5 or 6 - one of the 250 kW transmitters. It is API-5 that has obviously been "in trouble" for some time now. I'm only hearing one of them on air currently. As far as I'm aware, the new ones at Karachi-Landhi are not yet operational, and the other "new" one API-9 at Rewat is no longer listed. 73 from (Noel Green, England, Aug 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3204.5, Radio West Sepik, Vanimo, 1030 to 1040 on 25 August, some audio. Was in most of the week (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Florida, U S, Aug 30, Drake R8, NRD 535D Gilfer, Sony 2010 XA, Noise reducing antenna, 60 meter dipole, long wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 3329.53, Ondas del Huallaga, Huánuco, difficult to hear, need narrow filter and good opening. 1030 to 1040 on 26 August. Band Scan by Time 2300 to 0030 (23-28 August) Pómpano-Cedar Key- Clewiston-Coral Springs-Boca Ratón, Florida, 50 to 49 m 4746.98, Radio Huanta 2000, Huanta, Ayacucho 4774.9, Radio Tarma, Tarma 4790, Radio Visión, Chiclayo 4824.49, La Voz de la Selva, Iquitos 4857.4, Radio La Hora, Cusco (Bob Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Florida, U S, Aug 30, Drake R8, NRD 535D Gilfer, Sony 2010 XA, Noise reducing antenna, 60 meter dipole, long wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [and non]. The 12000 transmitter at Khabarovsk is still in very bad shape, Aug 29 at 1311 with VOR Chinese service singing ``Moscow Nights`` in Russian, then Chinese announcement. The carrier is motorboating, unstable, and the modulation distorted. After we kept pointing this out, RHC moved off 12000 months ago, without a word of thanks, but still keeps announcing it as one of their morning frequencies, while in reality their own distorted signal is on 11800 instead! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAIPAN [and non]. 11650, Aug 29 at 1300 noted about equal level mix of CRI opening ID in Chinese, then into Esperanto; and something in Russian. Per Aoki, CRI is via Beijing site, and Russian is KFBS, overlapping during this entire hour, the second semihour on Sats being in Kazakh, then Kirghiz. The beams cross somewhere over China (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH AFRICA. When is Channel Africa easiest to hear on SW in North America? Hi - am updating Easy Listening for the September Journal, and I want to include suggestions as to when Channel Africa is easiest to hear here in North America. What works best for you? Thanks (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, Aug 28, NASWA yg via DXLD) Summer Schedule 2009 English Days Area kHz 0300-0400 daily EAf 6135mey 0300-0500 daily SAf 3345mey 0500-0800 daily SAf 7230mey 0600-0700 daily WAf 15255mey 0800-1200 daily SAf 9625mey 1400-1600 daily SAf 9625mey 1700-1800 daily WAf 15235mey (WRTH A-09 update via DXLD) None are very good here, but 15235 ought to make it, a time when I am not usually monitoring. I recall some of their B-season frequencies work better for us (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** SRI LANKA. 11905, SLBC Colombo-Ekala, 0054-0121, Aug 29, Hindi. Familiar format with W announcer between pop-like, Hindi music selections; fair-good; a regular at my locale the past two weeks (Scott R. Barbour Jr. Intervale, NH-USA, NRD-545, RX-350D, MLB1, 200' Beverages, 60m dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN. Miraya FM has web streaming in MP3 format, 24 kbps, 22 kHz, mono: http://69.64.69.62:8080/listen.pls There are also available news bulletins in English and Arabic for download, each 2 MB large, encoded at 24 kbps: http://www.mirayafm.org/images/stories/audio/news/english.mp3 http://www.mirayafm.org/images/stories/audio/news/arabic.mp3 (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, Aug 30, dxldydg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. via Wertachtal, Germany, 13730, Radio Dabanga, *1530- 1727*, Aug 29, sign on with ID jingles and vernacular talk. Fair but weak high pitch tone on frequency. Weak on // 11500 - via Madagascar (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** SUDAN [non]. via Sines, Portugal, 17745, Sudan Radio Service, *1459-1527, Aug 29, sign on with opening English ID announcements and contact information, “Let`s Talk” program at 1501 about human rights in Sudan. Arabic talk at 1527. Weak. Poor in noisy conditions. English on Sat & Sun only according to WRTH (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** SWITZERLAND. Disposition of former SRI SW transmitters: KOREA NORTH ** TAIWAN. 9540, Xi Wang Zhi Shi, (Tentative), 1025-1040 Aug 29, Noted a female and male in Chinese language comments. At 1030, noted a NA, but whose it is, is the question? This leaves me with a question, would China or Taiwan broadcast a NA on the half-hour? Following the NA, more comments from a male. At 1035 a female talks. The above ID is taken from AOKI's database which was recently (yesterday) upload. At 1038, things are starting to get complicated since a second Chinese Language signal begins to fade in on this frequency? Signal remained fair. UnID, 9540, 1038-1045, Noted a Chinese language broadcast with a male in comments. Signal was poor and under Taiwan on the same frequency (Chuck Bolland, FL, Watkins Johnson HF1000, 26.37N, 081.05W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Aoki shows Sound of Hope = Xi Wang Zhi Sheng on Sat and Sun only at 09-11 with 100 kW, 325 degrees via Tanshui, Taiwan site, and of course *jammed. As I have pointed out time after time, we are more likely to hear ChiCom jamming than SOH itself, over here as the jamming is surely more powerful and less direxional than SOH even when the latter is running 100 kW rather than 1 kW. Just because the jammer is represented in Aoki only by a single asterisk does not mean it is not the primary signal on most such frequencies! So your two logs above, unless you understand Chinese a lot better than I do, could more likely be reversed. Lacking that, one should be able to find some CNR1 frequencies to // which are NOT jammers and thus sort out which is which you are hearing on the frequency in question. If you don`t recognize it, how can you be sure it`s a national anthem rather than some other piece of martial music? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN. SARAWAK - 7130, Sarawak FM . Missing for the past few days in the 12-14 UT period. R. Taiwan International on 7129.88 has also been missing (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Aug 30, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** THAILAND. 6765.1-USB, Bangkok Meteo, 1224-1244+ Aug 25. Usual IS, then man with ID: "This is Bangkok Meteorological Radio," with sked, then weather in English; IS & weather followed in 2 other languages, presume Thai and Khmer; back to English at about 1240, so one cycle lasts about 15 minutes. The English weather was by a man, the other two by a woman. Fair/good signal and // 8743-USB, fair and improving (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Drake R-8, 100-foot RW, Aug 30, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** THAILAND. 11870. R. Thailand, 1211, 8/29/09. Malaysian service listed. Arabic influenced music. Off at 1215 with no announcement. Good signal (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Drake R8B, PAR SWL random wire, Wellbrook 1.1 meter loop, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY [and non]. 9830, VOT, 2208, 8/29/09. English news. Mention of http://www.trtenglish.com Good signal. JORDAN, 9830, R. Jordan, 1833, 8/29/09. Presumed the one with Arabic vocals and comment between OM & YL. Signal fair to good with fading (Jerry Strawman, Des Moines, IA, Drake R8B, PAR SWL random wire, Wellbrook 1.1 meter loop, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) So no RTTY QRM for either? (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. Re IBB/HCJB DRM 15475, 9-064: Hello Glenn! ``I listened a while after 2100. Near-`perfect` reception but a few dropouts around 2131, I assume on the DRM rather than the Schaafeed.`` Yes, Signal was not bad to something about 20 to 10 PM UT or so [2140]. I live at the very northwest of Germany and autumn seems already to show up in reception. The higher bands close more early from day to day at my location. I heard from another OM who lives in the south of Germany that he had no problems with the signal fading away at the end of transmission yesterday. I attach a little screenshot made with DRMLogPlot, a freeware program which reads out the Dream Log Files. I don't know if you know this software?! The red line shows the Signal-Noise Ratio over the time and the blue one shows how audio was working at a given time. ``This is a bit surprising, with low power and low-gain antennas across the pond.`` Yes, indeed! It's really amazing that even low power can get along these distances. But - for me - it`s very interesting that this path from Greenville to Ostfriesland (northwest germany) (8 kW) seems to be very different than the path between Pifo and Ostfriesland (4 kW, rhombic, too these days because the steerable antenna is already gone). The Greenville Signal is much more unstable over the time than the typical Pifo signal?! ``Are you using a super-receiving setup?`` My receiver setup is not very high-end. I use a very simple SDR Radio which is made by myself (hardware) and my brother (software) called "Pappradio". It uses a serial Port for tuning the frequency and the PC or Notebook Soundcard as "IF-Input" (0 - 48/96/192 kHz, depending on the ability of the soundcard). The only special thing might be the "19m full wavelength wire loop" outside which is built in north south direction which gives quite nice signals from the Americas. So the complete receiver with antenna should be worth less than 50 €. I think this is quite cheap. :-) ``Didn`t care much for the music on Friday. Assuming it`s the same as on some analog SW frequencies such as 15580 Botswana, my favorite days for VOA Music Mix at 21-22 UT are Tuesday with American Gold, and Wednesday with Classic Rock, altho I have not reconfirmed`` Hmm, I hope VOA will send more of their variety of music programmes. I heard from some other folks that they would like to hear some other music programmes on that transmission, too. I wonder how long will this test be on the air?! They didn't say something about an end-date or so. 73, (Stephan Schaa, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WTJC, 9370v, again with large filthy distorted FM spurs, during music, Aug 29 at 0506 peaking approximately 9395-9400 and 9340- 9345 and covering some 15 kHz each. The higher one was even bothering BBC on 9410 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WRMI, 9955, fair signal but not bothered by jamming for once, UT Sat Aug 29 at 0510 with very nice mix of mostly Latin- influenced music, including Andean, Brazilian, Mexican; 0530 Sandunga on marimba, classical guitar, Up2 and Away by Fifth Dimension, etc. No announcements at all until 0559 ID and into R. Prague English. Great going, Jeff, really enjoyable to hear such a musical interlude on WRMI; let`s have more of them! But this was instead of La Rosa de Tokio DX program from Argentina as in latest received program grid dated Aug 8; LRT itself is padded with a lot of musical interludes and could be over in a semihour if it kept to the subject. Midnight propagation on 9 MHz band varies widely from night to night, sometimes little audible from NAm, no WRMI, not even WYFR on 9355, 9385, 9680, 9715, 9985, other occasions like this, inbooming as were WTJC and its spurs. Also monitored WRMI 24 hours later when 9955 reception was about the same, 0550 UT Sunday Aug 30, QSO With Ted Randall, sounds like more interview with Wayne Green, this time about Hiram Percy Maxim`s contributions to ham radio [see below] being only a tiny fraxion of his accomplishments, as ham was barely mentioned in his long newspaper obituary. QSO is supposed to be a two-hour show at 05-07 UT Sundays, but cut off in mid-interview at 0559 for World Baseball Today promo, ID, and 0600 into more infomercialling from Cheetah Radio, Your World Your Way (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn: Wire Light has purchased 0600-0800 UT Sunday and Monday, cutting QSO back to the first hour only. But we haven't received any new QSO programs for a number of weeks now I believe. What you heard was actually fill music from our automation system, since there was a technical problem with the Rosa de Tokio program. I think I have resolved the technical problem, so La Rosa de Tokio should be in this spot in future (Jeff White, WRMI, Aug 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Jeff, Well, your automation really knows how to pick good tracks, a nice mix instead of one straight CD side. You might consider letting it do that intentionally now and then (not during WOR times of course!) rather than just as problem fill (Glenn to Jeff, via DXLD) Glenn: I'm in the process of going through all kinds of CD's that I've picked up in various parts of the world and choosing a representative song from each country, artist or genre to include in the automation fill mix. It will probably play from time to time when there's a problem with an audio file, such as happened with La Rosa de Tokio, but usually will just fill for short periods when programs run short of allotted time (Jeff White, WRMI, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn: In regard to the entry for WRMI, on a bandscan at 1701, I checked 9955, and yes, The DCJC has overtaken the channel hostage with its pulses! This was during the intro of a show in English sounding like "Timtron" from WBCQ, but with disco style music announcements and Cuba's jamming right underneath but heard the signal go up and down in modulation along with the jamming. Could Arnie Please turn that thing Off? We hobbyists would like to hear Jeff White's station in the clear for once! (Noble West, TN, 1724 UT Sunday Aug 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Per the Aug 8 WRMI sked grid, it`s Wire Light (i.e. Cheetah Radio, Your World Your Way, etc., infomercials) at 16-20 UT on Sundays, BTW switching from N to S antenna halfway thru at 18, and just the opposite switch on Saturdays (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. via Jülich, Germany, 11730, Cheetah Radio, *1600- 1659*, Aug 29, English programming with ID as “Your world, your way… Cheetah Radio”. Two women discussing time management, skills needed for getting a job, technology skills, Poor in noisy conditions. Sat only (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) ** U S A. A large number of stations from the US will add /140 to their callsigns on 2-9 September to celebrate the 140th anniversary of the birth of Hiram Percy Maxim, W1AW (1869-1936), co-founder and first president of the American Radio Relay League. Information on the event and the relevant certificate can be found at http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/08/17/11025/?nc=1 (29 August 2009 A.R.I. DX Bulletin No 956, 4 2 5 D X N E W S *** DX INFORMATION **** Edited by I1JQJ & IK1ADH, Direttore Responsabile I2VGW, via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) ** U S A. Consistency now? (WWCR sked change 13845) --- Hello Glenn - I hate to tempt Murphy's law again, but I think there is now a consistent schedule on WWCR re: the broadcasting of University Network and "the Overcomer". It seems that the pattern that has emerged is for Brother "Scare" to run from 13845 opening [1200] until 2000 UT daily, then the switchover to University Network. This seemed to hold up, at least, for this past week. 73 and good listening! (~Rick in Arizona Barton, Aug 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WWCR announced tonight on ASK WWCR that starting Sunday at 1100 UT they'd be switching to 15830 kHz to see if the squealing het reported in DXLD by listeners in the 'north and midwest' was a mixing product. Reception reports were strongly encouraged. Sorry if posted elsewhere, but when I try to search this Yahoo group, I can't get any hits more recent than last March. Glad to see Yahoo is screwing up more than just my webmail (Terry Wilson, MI, Aug 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, we have been confronting this March cutoff for searching the group since --- April? if anyone knows how to get yahoo to migrate a group so that the searching is restored to full to-date funxionality, please let me know. Was this Ask WWCR #299? If so, it`s not a new one but repeat of the one from Aug 14 which said the same. In the meantime they have really been on 15820, but I neglected to check today Sunday whether they were on 15830 now. Missed the airing last night, and the mp3 file of 299 is STILL Unfound at http://www.wwcr.com/ask-wwcr_299.mp3 and ditto if you change it to 300 which is not yet linked anyway (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Indiana station files for 87.9 --- WJCF-FM Morristown, Indiana has filed to move from 88.1 to 87.9 and substantially increase power, to 25 kW. My reading of the rules suggests this application is not grantable, because 73.501 says 87.9 is only available to Class D stations. I suppose the disappearance of TV-6 stations in the area leaves WJCF believing a waiver is possible -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, 29 Aug, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. FRANKEN FM ON 87.9 MHZ TERMINATED BY FCC Ever since the June 12 DTV conversion, the digital signal of WRGB-TV, CH-6, Schenectady, NY has included an analog "Franken FM" (unauthorized) signal on 87.9 MHz. Now, the FCC has reportedly ordered the FM off the air. Here are the details, first from Inside Radio: http://www.insideradio.com/Article.asp?id=1470117&spid=32060 http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/radio-1265823-span-11pt.html (CGC Communicator Aug 29 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) ? Previous story said WRGB closed it down before being `ordered off` (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. Re 9-064, KXTR 1660 Kansas City downtime: Re: [IRCA] KXTR will be back on Sept 1 --- Just checked and KXTR 1660 is now back on the air (Mac, KR0I, K.C., MO, 2336 UT 28 Aug, IRCA via DXLD) I live a short distance from their tower. They're loud and clear here (Jason Brose, On the KS/MO State Line, 2334 UT, ibid.) Jason, are they off after 7 pm like their website says? (Paul B. Walker, Jr., NE?, ibid.) Right now (1942 CST [sic]), they have a T-Bones game on, so I'd say they're still going (Jason Brose, 0045 UT Aug 29, ibid.) Like gh heard ** U S A. Long distance + low power catch --- Heard during our latest Jongensgat DXpedition: 25th August 2009. Sunrise was 0502z 1670 kHz, 0500z, "WFSM" Dry Branch GA, "Fox Sports 1670" a 1 kW station 13,200 km away. And: 1500 kHz, 0400z "WAKE" Valparaiso IN, "CNN Radio" at only 25 watts nightime power, 13,900 km away (near Gary Indiana and Lake Michigan). RX Icom IC-7600 with 350m beverage on ground My previous best low power catch was: 1410.00, 0139 04/10/04, WKKP, MCDONOUGH, GA USA 58 watt nighttime power John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa South 33 d 47 m 32 s, East 20 d 07 m 32 s Icom IC-7600, ERGO software Drake SW8. Sangean 803A, Eton E100 Sony 7600D, GE SRIII, Redsun RP2100 Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro Mk II, Datong AD-270 Kiwa MW Loop. http://www.dxing.info/about/dxers/plimmer.dx (John Plimmer, RSA, Aug 28, mwdx yg via DXLD) John, If anyone could pull in a 25 watt MW station at such a distance, you could, but still, you seem to be accepting on face value that a station`s legal nighttime power rating is actually being fulfilled, while closer to the stations it is obvious to NAm DXers that many stations do run day power/tower at night, either thru negligence or willing to risk lax FCC enforcement in trade for better local coverage, or sometimes for authorized emergency/notified equipment problem reasons. Unless you get a sworn statement from such stations that they were really running night power when you heard them, there will unfortunately always be a cloud over such claims of power vs distance, which is one reason I think it`s better to avoid making them. DXing the stations at such a distance is still a great accomplishment even if on day facilities. That said, I don`t know whether WAKE or WKKP have been caught or suspected of cheating, but that`s for you to research. Regarding WAKE 1500, it`s not clear whether you heard their own ID, or is that what you mean by quotation marks? I certainly hope you did, as it is not the only CNN affiliate on 1500; notably WFED, the 50 kW in Washington DC, per the 2009 NRC AM Log just published (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. No more BBC W/S at 1480 WGVU? DXmidAMerica reports:- 1480 WGVU Kentwood, MI now OLD, was EDU 8/28 (Barry :-) Davies, UK, MWC via DXLD) I've heard WGVU a couple of times in past few days - but just at toth. Still mentioning 'public radio' mentioned but didn't hear BBCWS (Paul Crankshaw, Troon, Scotland, Aug 28, ibid.) Hi Barry, et al: WGVU-AM has gone "all oldies" but is still a non- commercial "public" radio station. It is still owned an operated by Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, a public, state-owned institution. The station also operates FM and TV services. The AM is reportedly the first public station in the U.S. to adopt an all-oldies (defined by WGVU as music from the 1950's and 60's) format. I believe that they still plan to carry NPR newscasts at the top of the hour. I'm in Kalamazoo, Michigan, 50 miles south of Grand Rapids, and work at the public radio station run by Western Michigan University. We heard about this through the "grape vine" late last week. 73, (Andy Robins KB8QGF, Kalamazoo, Michigan USA, ibid.) ** U S A. Radio Revival: WATO Back On --- John Becker, 8 hrs ago http://news.google.com/news/search?pz=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=radio&cf=all&start=20 A high school football game marked the return of a community radio station silenced by a storm for more than a year. In March 2008 a storm knocked out the tower for WATO in Oak Ridge and quieted what had been a voice in that community for decades. The station traces its roots back to 1948. New owners Ann and Larry Walden bought the broadcast license back in May and pledged to return the same community sound to the air waves. They kept their promise and kicked-off the station's revival by broadcasting the football game between Oak Ridge and Farragut (via Kevin Redding, TN, Aug 29, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. Saul "Format Flipper" Levine strikes again --- I turned on the radio this morning to find that KGIL [1260, Los Ángeles] has once again changed formats. The line-up had changed significantly just a couple weeks ago when the Laura Ingraham show was pulled in preparation for its move to KFWB, but at least the format had remained conservative talk during the day and music in evening drive and the rest of the night. When I tuned in this morning I heard Mike Sakellarides, formerly of KOST-FM, playing soft hits. I don't get good enough reception on this station to listen to music on it, so I changed the channel right away. It's hard to imagine this station can retain any kind of listenership with all the radical format flips that have occurred. At least I'll give them credit for putting live, local talent on the air (Jay Heyl, CA, Aug 28, ABDX via DXLD) If you actually enjoy this stuff, then you might try 540. For the first time I can remember, the format on 540 switched at the same time as 1260. They are calling themselves "Retro 1260" (I didn't listen to 540 long enough to see if they had a "Retro 540" promo - my guess is that they don't). When I went out at lunchtime today it was an almost continuous jukebox of 60's-70's Easy Listening type music interspersed with promos from Mike Sakellarides. The only commercial I heard was for Mike Diamond, the "Smell Good" plumber. Otherwise they just had a couple of promos for their weekend talk shows that featured the old slogan "News/Talk 1260". "Retro 1260" is probably a good slogan, since the station now reminds me of the KGIL of the early 70's that my mom always had on in the car, but without the personalities. Mom is in her 80's now, and while she will probably enjoy it, I can't imagine that many people under the age of 70 will. Anyone care to take bets on what the next format will be? (Brian Leyton, Valley Village, CA, ibid.) I way okay with the music I heard this morning, it's just that I can't imagine listening to music on AM anymore. And I'm still a good ways south of 70. I actually was listening to 540 this morning. The 1260 signal doesn't carry very well to here in central Orange County. The 540 signal is almost always better. Plus, I get to hear those hilarious public service announcements. "Remember to wash your hands...every day... with soap and water." It's like they're addressing the three-year-olds in the audience. I hear that and can't help but think, "EVERY DAY? With soap AND water? Okay, Mommmmmmm." (Jay Heyl, ibid.) Hopefully he'll use his HD license and broadcast the format in stereo on his 540 and 1260 stations. He confirmed that he does have an iBiquity license for his two AM stations (Darwin Long, CA, ibid.) ** U S A. A DAY TO REMEMBER: THE FIRST RADIO COMMERCIAL AIRS http://www.radioink.com/Article.asp?id=1476428&spid=24698 August 28, 2009: In 1922, there were just 30 radio stations in the U.S., and receivers were in about 60,000 households. Still, on August 28 of that year, the U.S. Census Bureau notes, the first radio commercial was broadcast. The spot, on WEAF/New York, advertised a group of apartment buildings in Queens, and the advertiser paid $100 for 10 minutes of airtime. The Census Bureau provided the info as part of its Public Information Office's "Profile America" service. There's a daily, ready-to-air "Profile America" short segment available; visit http://www.census.gov and click "Newsroom." (via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) Umm, that's a durable myth, but it's a myth all the same. I'm puzzled by the way this item from Radio Ink is written (and I am querying the editor); the Census bureau was mainly involved with studying the population. It might have kept tabs on what percentage of Americans owned radios, but I find it hard to believe they were paying attention to who aired a commercial on a radio station. If they were, perhaps they were reading too many corporate press releases. But either way, the date is not accurate. Other stations had broadcast paid advertising already, most notably greater Boston's pioneering station WGI, which had broadcast several ads from a local car dealer in April 1922; but the Dept. of Commerce sent the radio inspector to tell AMRAD (the company that owned WGI) to stop. Herbert Hoover (later president), then chair of the Dept. of Commerce, was vehemently opposed to "direct advertising" and a couple of other stations also tried and failed to persuade the DOC. Interestingly, the WEAF experiment in "toll broadcasting" (as it was called) was allowed, but even so, direct advertising did not catch on for another couple of years. And in August 1922, there were waaay more than 30 stations in the USA. Count 'em--I counted over 300 http://jeff560.tripod.com/1922am.html (Donna Halper, ibid.) ** VENEZUELA [non]. 11705, RNV via Cuba scheduled 1200-1300, still going well past the hour with last bit of music and a few sex of open carrier until 1305*. Fortunately, next occupant, NHK does not start until 1315 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM. VOICE OF VIETNAM LAUNCHES EAST SEA BROADCASTING SERVICES Radio the Voice of Vietnam (VOV) officially launched its East Sea broadcasting project yesterday at the VN1 transmitter station in Hanoi’s Son Tay town. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung pressed the button to start the transmitter. Now that the project has been put into operation, fishermen and soldiers operating offshore or living on islands will have a channel providing accurate, timely, trustworthy and round-the-clock information on domestic and foreign affairs, economics, cultural, and social events, and especially forecasts about extreme weather, search and rescue work at sea to minimise loss of life and property caused by natural disasters. Speaking at the launching ceremony, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung praised the VOV’s effort in putting the first phase of the project into operation while the country is celebrating the 64th anniversary of the August Revolution and National Day and the 40th anniversary of implementing President Ho Chi Minh’s testament. To better implement the project, PM Dung urged the VOV to make full use of infrastructure, machinery and staff to improve the quality of broadcasts on the East Sea. He emphasised the importance of the project to maritime economic activities, natural disaster prevention and rescue efforts. PM Dung asked the VOV to work closely with relevant ministries and departments, such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of National Defence to receive and transmit information about fishing grounds, weather, and rescue work. He urged the VOV to make a greater effort to become “a trusted and loyal friend” of fishermen and soldiers operating offshore or living on islands to protect the country. PM Dung agreed that the Government will continue to finance the second phase of the project to provide high-quality news updates for Quang Ninh, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Kien Giang and central coastal provinces throughout the day, especially at night. He authorised the VOV to research and implement sub-projects to improve the quality of East Sea broadcasts. On behalf of the VOV deputy general director Dao Duy Hua briefed attendees on the project’s implementation process. The first phase of the project has been completed in 8 months with coverage reaching out 3,500km from the coast, including all Vietnamese territorial waters and most offshore fishing areas. (Source: Voice of Vietnam) Andy Sennitt adds: No frequency information is given in the report, but with coverage up to 3,500 km from the coast this surely has to be a shortwave service. Does anyone have the schedule? (August 30th, 2009 - 13:07 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) East Sea? Are they really talking about Beibu Bay, and this in response to China`s new/renamed service, q.v.? (gh, DXLD) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. 6297.12, LV de la RASD, 2120-2200, Aug 30, slightly off nom. 6300 with Arabic talk. Local music. Good signal (Brian Alexander, PA, DX Listening Digest) UNIDENTIFIED. UT Aug 30 around 0418 on the caradio I was hearing a steady het on 1280 kHz of somewhere between 200 and 300 Hz, estimating, no way to measure or tell which side. Has anyone pinned down what station is so far off-frequency? The 6-month-old list at http://www.myradiobase.de/mediumwave/mwoffset.txt shows nothing further than 130 Hz off. And it`s probably domestic, or at best, Mexican. 73, (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Also heard this last night around 0330Z. Only heard with the phaser enhancing to the south. Used Argo and found a carrier at 1279.98 +/-. The alignment on the R8 is a bit off on the MW band so can't be real sure beyond that second decimal (Bruce Winkelman, Tulsa, OK, R8, Quantum Phaser, 2 - 50 foot wires, Aug 30, NRC-AM via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. 1395, 2251-, 22 Aug (Saturday), was again audible & observed. Yesterday, Sat. 29 Aug, 2125, rated 34443 at best, and the IDs heard were roughly "AM 1395." This is surely from IRELAND (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Not fully identified: WRTH 2009 does not have any MW list for Ireland in the domestic sexion, nor any 1395 in the frequency sexion; Pirate? (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 4965, Chinese military/spy? 1311-1315*, August 28 with man reading a series of numbers in Chinese. Seems a strange frequency to choice for this activity. Sei-ichi Hasegawa of Japan comments: “I heard your audio file. I was able to hear the reading of numerals in Chinese. Probably seemed to be Chinese Army or Chinese fishery”; first time I have heard this; weak (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA, Etón E1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Time Tone 5158 kHz at 1245+ Anyone know where this is coming from? It seems to have a good signal here, Aug 29 (Chuck Bolland, FL, Watkins Johnson HF1000, 26.37N, 081.05W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) What do you mean by ``time tone``?? Are there ticks exactly every second, and/or a marker exactly on the minute, but no voice announcements? Is it in CW mode or not? Possibly YVTO reactivated nominal 5000 along with spur? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ EL MUNDO DE LA RADIO INVITACIÓN --- Gente: Los invito a visitar mi página web haciendo click en: http://www.elmundodelaradio.com El wébmaster de la misma es mi amigo Christián Bravo de Laguna y yo me estoy haciendo cargo de las actualizaciones. También pueden colaborar con los siguientes blogs: http://lacomunidad.elpais.com/elmundodelaradio/posts (en el periódico El País, de España) y http://blogs.clarin.com/elmundodelaradio/posts (en el periódico Clarín, de Argentina) (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, Aug 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) First link has general media news in Spanish, mostly from the press, mostly about Argentina or South America, and not concerning SW (gh) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ AN AMERICAN IN SOUTH KOREA, OVERWHELMED Chris, what about Korean DXing? We would be interested to see what tropo & skip are like in that part of the world. Even if you just use rabbit ears (Bill Hepburn, Ont., WTFDA via DXLD) I've been asked about Korean DX before --- and there are some constraints for me here. First, electronic shopping -- very different here. I was at the electronics market in Yongsan today (a part of Seoul, houses the US military base as well). This is a LARGE place. Basically an entire neighbourhood that is ONLY electronics stores. The common sight is no pricetags and so much, but never what you want it seems. They'll charge a foreigner whatever the heck they want - they pick a price from their head, and you can go from a good price to twice the price just within 20 feet walking distance. Second, there are so many different brands and stuff, all beside each other, that it's overwhelming. I can't really say I saw more than just a few radios all day, nothing striking me as DX material. I dunno where they are, and I've never seen rabbit ears in Korea even. I can't even find a freaking MP3 player. There are about 100 in a single glass case haha - and you can't compare prices since they don't show em. Been looking for weeks for one, but get overwhelmed and give up. So, certainly I'm looking for a radio to play with. Or anything, 'cause my radio here, which I DO have, has no antenna. The wire is cut off and hanging, connected to nothing (I am not good with electronics). Not sure where to buy one, but could hang it out the window. One day I'll put it beside the window and hang the wire out. See what happens. At the moment, I have ONE station on the whole dial. I'm within earshot of Seoul stations - 50 miles away. The car gets a lot of stations, a car of which I do not own. If anyone has a makeshift antenna idea that would fit with having a wire hanging from the radio, like some material I can buy that will make an antenna cheaply (kinda like the tin can antennas we use at GTGs), like a piece of metal connected to it or whatever, let me know (Chris Kadlec, Icheon, Korea, ibid.) Hey, Chris -- Hopefully you'll be able to get a DX set-up together. Under tropo you'd be in earshot of Shenyang (China), southernmost Siberia and western Japan (Fukuoka Prefecture) and, during Es, depending on the direction, in earshot of Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Taiwan and the Philippines (wow!) I didn't mention North Korea because I don't know if they have any FM stations at all. Given the poverty there and the frequent blackouts, I doubt you'd have many FM pests there. I say save up the dough and order an XDR-F1HD. It may cost a bit to have it shipped to Korea but worth the cost (Aaron Reed, from Brockton, MA, (21 miles south of Boston), ibid.) Hi Chris, I think you could safely buy just about anything by Sony, Panasonic or JVC and not have to worry too much about it being able to get stations in. Also, in markets like that they'll toss out a figure fully expecting that you won't pay that. They like to haggle on the price. Just set a figure for what you think the thing is worth, and go with that. If they don't like it, tough. Also, you may have some luck getting someone to buy you a radio from the Base Exchange, assuming whatever you're doing there has nothing to do with the Base. ALSO, you may do well printing out a picture of the model you want, and showing it around the market. Sony has a really, really hot MW DX receiver, the ICF-EX5. That one you could probably resell for a profit back in the States, they usually go for about $150 here. No idea what they go for your way (Curtis Sadowski, IL, ibid.) Chris's Antenna in Korea The point is, apparently, the radio he has or uses or sees has a single piece of #XX wire protruding from the rear cabinet and THAT is the antenna. 90% of all FM radios out of SE Asia and sold in the Pacific do this - there is NO way for a novice (as Chris said he is) to connect a balanced or even unbalanced antenna (as in twin lead dipole for 300 ohm, or single wire dipole - 31" as Bill suggests) to a SINGLE piece of wire dangling from the rear of the case. My suggestion is to add to the dangling wire in some multiple of 31" - such as 62, 93 or so on and then dangle the longer wire wherever it might function to pick up distant signals. Oh yes - there is a caution in that the Japanese FM band is 76-90 MHz (done to prevent import radios competing with their own Sony folks!) and a Japan sourced receiver will not be much use for the rest of the world where 87.5 to 108 or something like that applies (Bob Cooper in NZ, ibid.) Exactly, it says FM ANT and has a little black wire coming out of it just sorta dangling. You know, it's actually about 31" or so. I don't have a ruler here - I live on the bare minimum since I'm temporarily living here for a year or two and can't exactly bring every little thing, but it's a tad longer than an arm-length for me. I do see (now that I actually look!) that it also has something labelled "EXT. ANT" - obviously for an external one - a tiny white connection with two little prongs, and right below it, "AM Loop" - but it must be referring to the same thing, since there is only that one connection. The radio is a Sanyo, no DXing tuner for sure, but virtually anything will work for DX during tropo I would believe, as I've showed with my own basic equipment that picks up stuff almost as well as some of your true DX setups on many days. That's all --- a Sanyo, tape deck, CD player, speakers, radio tuner. I forgot about Japan's different frequencies. We're pretty close to Japan - Korea is a small place, close to Russia and China as well. We're about 70 miles south of North Korea. I'm sure as far as FM goes, the North is well within earshot of the South. Seoul (about 10 million people) is just under 30 miles south of the DMZ/border. I was at the border a few weeks ago --- which is kinda a non-event. Didn't think to bring a radio, which I don't have anyway. You can only ID so much with the lack of proper resources, other DXers to talk to in English, and language difficulties. As for shipping radios here, I'm avoiding that, for one reason. I get a good tuner, then I can't bring it home. It's expensive to ship and may get rattled up a little too much, and the alternative, bringing it on a plane: you're not allowed to transport radio equipment on the planes. Obviously too similar to a bomb, so they're forbidden. I'm kinda poor too. ;) But I'll certainly keep an eye out for an external antenna that will fit those two little prongs, and then we'll see (Chris Kadlec, Muskegon, Mich., ibid.) VERTICAL VERSUS HORIZONTAL POLARIZATION Subject: Official WTFDA Club Website: KZGM anyone? We launched KZGM (KZ88) in April of this year. So far we haven't received any DX reports from anyone (and we have QSL cards ready!) Since we use vertical polarization I'm wondering how many dxer's use vertical antennas for searching for stations such as ours. There seems to be quite a few stations restricted to vertical polarization across the country. Just curious! (Myron Jackson, Aug 29, myron @ kz88.org to WTFDA website via webmaster Mike Bugaj, WTFDA via DXLD) No DXers use vertical polarization, do they?? I didn't realize there was so much vertical polarization around (Mike Bugaj, ibid.) Anyone with a vertical stack will get up to 3 db of vertical gain, depending on the spacing (Rick Shaftan, NJ, ibid.) And we are all supposed to know all about KZGM, including frequency, location, power? FCC FM Query: KZGM 201 C3 FM 88.1 MHz LIC CABOOL MO US BLED-20090326ADT - 172919 12.5 kW 135. m REAL COMMUNITY RADIO NETWORK, INC. Clicking on the calls or facility number, http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?list=0&facid=172919 we find details, yes, including antenna spex under the Vertical column only. Doesn`t polarization become random anyway once a signal is propagated by the ionosphere or even the troposphere? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I have a vertical log periodic that I can switch in if I want (this is the antenna I used to get the 800 mile Weatheradios which use vertical polarization). I find the beam isn't as narrow on FM as my horizontal, plus I just seem to catch more overall on the horizontal. Bill H. (William Hepburn, Grimsby Ont., WTFDA via DXLD) With a preponderance of FM radio listening now done from a vehicle, KZGM's decision to be "vertical" is understandable. Here in NZ we have been using circular polarization (see http://www.swr-rf.com FMEC 2 bay) with superb results. It creates vertical, horizontal and anything in between and for our rugged, hilly terrain the system has provided us with FAR better coverage along the winding New Zealand roadways than either Hz or Vt. As far as I know we are the only such FM broadcasters in the country but a 250 watt transmitter feeding one of these two-bay arrays is easily the equivalent of 1-2 kW feeding just one (or the other) "linear" polarizations. We also have several 1 watt rebroadcast relays (think translator) taking our off air feed and there we use the $89.95 circular polarized array from http://www.fmexperts.com for retransmitting and in some cases for receiving as well. This antenna has one major disadvantage - it covers around 90 degrees in two directions, with very deep pronounced coverage nulls off the end of the elements. However, two of these joined with a power splitter-coupler immediately creates 360 degree coverage. I have used one of these on a rotor (for the directional thing) for receiving for some years and can report it works very well although there is NO front to back since each "flat side" is "open." So yes - there is something the DXer can do to pick up 3 dB more signal - create two separate antennas joined by a splitter used as a combiner, one Vt and one Hz, or go for the full results of circular using something such as the fmexperts antenna (Bob Cooper in NZ, ibid.) I'm caught again away from my copy of the regulations but if my memory serves --- In the U.S., FM and TV stations are (with an exception to be noted shortly) *required* to use horizontal polarization. Stations may optionally choose "mixed" polarization, with both horizontal and vertical components. The vertical power may not exceed the horizontal. In practice, the vast majority of FM stations have elected mixed polarization. VERY few TV stations have done so (I believe there were only two mixed-polarization TV stations in Tennessee in the analog era, and one of them (my station!) went horizontal-only for digital). The exception to the horizontal requirement is non-commercial stations like KZGM. These have been allowed to use vertical polarization to mitigate interference to TV-6 stations. I'm not entirely certain which TV-6's KZGM would be protecting but would imagine WPSD (Paducah, Kentucky), KEMV (Mountain View, Arkansas), and KMOS (Sedalia, Missouri) would be candidates. Also permitted in these cases is the use of mixed polarization but with higher vertical power than horizontal. Yes, all three of those stations are no longer on channel 6 (their DTVs are elsewhere) but the FCC has indicated they will not accept FM modification applications that would violate the TV-6 protection rules until a filing window is opened. The filing window gives everyone a fair chance (Doug Smith, TN, ibid.) LOS ANGELES TRANSMITTER FARM THREATENED BY WILDFIRE Figured this may be of some interest to the list. Thought about emailing earlier today, but just got an email from Bryce, former SoCal resident, discussing it. Living in Pasadena, and I have a clear view of Mount Wilson from my apartment. If I walk around the corner, I have a clear view of a 20,000 acre fire that exploded this afternoon. Wx conditions should improve, not so much tomorrow, but likely by Monday, so my feeling is they'll get a handle on this before it hits Wilson, but; in the meantime, here's the towercam view from atop the mountain: http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/towercam.htm You can see just how close this thing is getting. Still about 2-3 miles away, but the fire rapidly expanded by a few miles today, so anything is possible. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/08/la-canada-flintridge-fire-quaruples-in-size.html [`quaruples` sic in URL, but latest update says triples, avoiding spelling problem --- gh] "Evacuation zones included a hilltop subdivision just across a canyon from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The fire broke out on Wednesday afternoon and was just 5 percent contained as of early Saturday, according to Los Angeles County Fire Department Captain Mark Savage. Firefighters were trying to keep the blaze from reaching Mount Wilson, which houses key television and radio transmitters, as well as towers that handle emergency services dispatches." Not sure what the logistics are if that area gets hit, but that would certainly lead to interesting DXing; though this is one of the few times I'm not rooting for the DXing to improve. We'll see (Matt Lanza, Pasadena, CA, Aug 29, WTFDA via DXLD) FIRE APPROACHING MT. WILSON! A forest fire is approaching Mts. Wilson and Harvard, the primary broadcast sites for Los Angeles. Engineers have been asked to vacate the mountains by fire officials. Live Web-cam images from the Mt. Wilson Observatory are currently available at: http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/towercam.htm#imagetop (CGC Communicator Aug 28 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) THE "STATION FIRE" NEAR MTS. WILSON AND HARVARD The "Station Fire," as it is called, is apparently still some distance west of Mts. Wilson and Harvard as we go to press. According to InciWeb's Incident Information System (viewed at 1 PM today), "Friday [fire] behavior was very active to extreme, with rapid rates of spread and flame lengths up to 80 feet. There is a potential for Saturday's fire behavior to be similar to Friday...." Before workers return to Wilson/Harvard, they must consider not only the likelihood of the fire spreading to Wilson/Harvard, but the availability of escape routes. Mt. Wilson is served by only one road: Wilson Red Box Road. According to an e-mail posting from one TV station at 1:30 PM PDST Saturday, "Mt. Wilson has two hot shot crews staged at Skyline park [on Mt. Wilson], The Mars and DC-10 have been approved to start dropping [retardant]. It currently looks like Mt. Wilson may be ok but Red Box and Mt. Disappointment [are] in serious danger." http://inciweb.org/incident/1856/ http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_13231111 http://tinyurl.com/WilsonFireProspect http://www.holub.us/090829fire.htm ABOUT THE MT. WILSON WEBCAM The Mt. Wilson Webcam (URL below) is located atop the Solar Observatory tower on Mt. Wilson and is currently keeping an eye on the broadcast complex that is located west of the solar tower. If the camera is still pointing west when you view this URL, you will see the tall KCBS-TV tower on the far right (the orange and white tower and the only tower that is lit at night). The tall mountain behind and just to the left of the KCBS tower is probably San Gabriel Peak, and behind it (hidden from view) is Mt. Disappointment. San Gabriel Peak is about 2.5 miles from Wilson. Live Webcam: http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/towercam.htm#imagetop Wilson at a dark hour. Smoke in the background, local lights (not fire) in the foreground: http://earthsignals.com/add_CGC/Images/towercam9.jpg (archived) (CGC Communicator Aug 29 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) I just received an e mail from a friend in So Cal that the fire fighters have been evacuated from Mt. Wilson (LA) and that the transmitter sites will start to burn by 7 PM [0200 UT Monday] by a huge forest fire, so it does not look good for TV & FM for LA. 73, (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, 0110 UT Aug 31, NRC-AM via DXLD) It's important, I think, to understand what that site is like up there. The core of the tower farm, the area known as "Mount Alta," has no vegetation and has some pretty decently-sized fire breaks to separate it from the areas that are burning tonight. That's not to say that there won't be damage, and that stations won't be knocked off the air, but there's some talk on message boards of the towers all melting and such, and I think - I hope! - that that's a little bit of overkill. We shall see... s (Scott Fybush, NY, 0126 UT, ibid.) Scott, I am watching the KTLA 5 news right now (6:30 PM [0130 UT]) and the wind is hitting 35-40 MPH and fire is all around the area. The problem is the hot temps & high winds. The fire has doubled in size today alone, 35,000+ acres already has burned. The pictures look very bad. Fires all around ranches. As KTLA just sad "This fire is really a bad one". A beautiful ranch just burned to the ground. This fire is completely out of control according to KTLA! Lancaster and Palmdale the sky is black (Patrick Martin, ibid.) FCC TO POWER COMPANY: DON'T LOOK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS TO PAY YOU FOR LOCATING AND CORRECTING RFI: http://www.fcc.gov/eb/AmateurActions/files/Duque09_08_07_5108.pdf (CGC Communicator Aug 29 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- IBOC +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ HD RADIO INTERFERENCE DISPUTE BETWEEN KFMB(AM), SAN DIEGO, AND KBRT(AM), AVALON, GOES BEFORE THE COMMISSION: http://radioworld.com/article/86140 (CGC Communicator Aug 29 via Kevin Redding, ABDX via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING --- DRM See KOREA NORTH; U S A ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PROPAGATION +++++++++++ UNDERSTANDING TROPOSPHERIC PROPAGATION [continued from 9-064], DUCTING ``It was a true DUCT, where there are three air layers, a "slow" layer of air near the ground, a "fast" later above the ground later, and another "slow" later above the second.`` With such a duct, a radio wave can only get into the duct at some distance from where the duct starts (unless the signal is transmitted from a tower or hill where the antenna is actually inside the second layer), and cannot get out until it reaches the other end of the duct where the duct breaks. DXers in between will see/hear nothing unless they can get their antenna into the second layer (e.g., on a hill like those near Dunkirk, NY). I encountered such a duct on 8/17/2006, I had KARK-4 and KATV-7 in Little Rock and KCRG-9 in Iowa, but none of the obviously closer stations that should have drowned them (WTTV, WTVW, WGN) were in at all. On this more recent ducting event, I got nothing noteworthy on 8/24- 25. I was getting tentative CKCO2, CIII4 and CKVR, but nothing on UHF at all. Semi-local CBET-9 (which can benfit from local tropo) looked somewhat weaker then average. 8/25-26 was productive, but with very unstable conditions. Many DTVs were IDed only through the use of PSIP. I did get a new personal longest Temperance DTV tropo (tie- KWQC 36[6] and WQAD 38[8}, transmit from the same tower at 355 miles), strongly suspect WHBF 4 was in (too much noise here to lock), and several other newies in Chicago area and Southern Ohio. Reception was very choppy - anything that was beyond the usual summertime tropo enhancement range only faded in for brief spurts (Rob Grant, N8NU (EN81fs), WTFDA via DXLD) I remember reading about your reception. I had 104.9 Hope AR in that 2006 duct. It was weak but I got multiple IDs and such, for a couple of minutes. I was stunned - transfixed - and couldn't move the dial for awhile. Anyhow, absolutely nothing else unusual was noted. I went mobile to my Snowball site just nw of Toronto after seeing a red blob from Little Rock AR to Kitchener ON on the tropo map, Is Bob Seybold still DXing? I did wonder the other night what conditions would have been like from his spot at Dunkirk (NY). He would have bested any and all of us up here, no doubt about that. And by a long shot (Saul Chernos Ont., Aug 29, ibid.) MUF AND OCCURRENCE OF "THREE KINDS OF TROPO" The recent Kansas to Québec super duct, and how different DXers had different results with it, has made me think of the nature of tropo, a phenomenon I have used and read about for 30 years. I haven't looked over all of my logs, run everything through a supercomputer, or sent a hundred radiosondes into the air. All of this is off-the-cuff, from memory, so ideas and comments, especially critical, are actually most welcome. Keep in mind the basic physical nature of all tropo - the speed of light, which is slower in air than in free space, and is far slower in water or glass than it is in air, is slower in air that is cooler and/or more humid than it is in air that is hot and/or dry. When two kinds of air with different speeds of light (actually, it is called refractive index) meet, a radio wave will be bent, just as a ray of light will be bent by a glass prism, a lens, of a glass of water. I think I can break tropo into three categories: 1) Terrestrial tropo enhancement. Cause: stagnant air near the surface can be so humid as to be "slower" then the dry air above, even though the dry air is cooler. Waves are bent back towards Earth when they reach the "faster" air. Times of occurrence: Endemic over land during summer, especially between 3 hours after sunset and 3 hours after sunrise - rare during hot afternoons. Can occur, more rarely, any time of year. Frequencies: usually affects ALL VHF/UHF channels, but with more signal loss on the lowband channels, to the point where 6m and channel 2 never seem strong. Distance: Usually minimal, but longer openings do occur. Distant stations not protected from closer ones in the same direction. 2) Marine tropo enhancement. Cause: warm air settling over a cooler lake or sea develops a distinct cooler and more humid (and thus "slower") layer of air above the water. Waves are bent just above the water and follow the curve. Times of occurrence: Depends on the combination of warm air and cold water, so strongly favors late spring and early summer (Great Lakes) or early spring (Gulf of México). Usually happens on unseasonably warm days, but can continue into the night. Frequencies: Seems to STRONGLY favor UHF (perhaps the zone of diffraction is too shallow for the larger VHF waves?), though can sometimes affect highband VHF as well. I've never had lowband or FM tropo over a lake that was not accompanied by good tropo over land as well. Distance: Often limited only by the size of the body of water itself, plus any land tropo or line-of-sight that may exist before or after passing the body of water. Distant stations are protected by the fact that there are no TV or FM stations in the lake itself (maritime mobiles will be workable on ham and marine radio bands, and a station on an island can block stations on the opposite shore). 3) Tropospheric ducting. Cause: a layer of "slow" air with "fast" air above and below it, forming a "sandwich", usually high above the ground. Times of occurrence: FAR more rare than the other two, so I'm not really sure when it is likely to occur. It seems to happen at late night when occurring in summer, but in the day when occurring in the fall or winter. Frequencies: Actually seems to favor VHF. Again, I've seen too few openings of this type to be a good judge. It may be prone to favor VHF if it occurs in the summer, but allow UHF as well as VHF if it occurs in the winter. Distance: GREAT distances are possible. Distant stations are often present with no interference from more nearby stations that are in a direct line between the station and the DXer (sometimes, however, closer stations do appear to a varying degree). A DXer can be in the middle of a duct path, and have no DX at all (Robert Grant, Aug 29, ibid.) I agree with your classifications Rob, but I might argue that "marine" is just a cause (like "high pressure subsidence" or "frontal") and that you can get both enhancement and true ducting over marine bodies. The main 3 I see in the simplest terms are.. Scatter - always there in varying degrees Enhancement - refraction - gradual bending of waves across an inversion boundary Ducting - super-refraction - bending of waves to the point where it surpasses the critical angle resulting in the signal bouncing off the tops & bottom of the inversion like a true duct (the bottom may or may not be the ground depending on whether the duct is surface or elevated at any particular point in the path). The classifications of types of inversions (or even types of fog) could be applied to tropo. These are causes but also have their own characteristics. Marine tropo. Subsidence tropo. Frontal tropo. Nocturnal tropo. Advection tropo. (example: warm air moving over cool surface like snow) etc. So there really are 2 angles to look at things. Maybe these could be considered the types of tropo; and the scatter/enhancement/ducting could be classified as the severity of tropo, although scatter doesn't need an inversion - just dust & haze and vapour particles is enough. We can also add "Chinook tropo" to that list. Warm dry winds blowing down the mountainsides overrunning cool humid air (Bill Hepburn, Ont., meteorologist, ibid.) Robert, this is a great resource for those who are curious of how things work, which I am. I do at least have to speak up on the marine tropo enhancement as my experiences have differed somewhat from what you mentioned, and that's only *my* experience and those who I talk to on the opposite side of Lake Michigan on those days... I think in the Great Lakes, the best and strongest tropo mostly occurs in mid to late summer. In spring, the air, at least over Lake Michigan or the larger lakes, is far too unstable with the seasonal changes (for instance, the water on the north end of the lake is much cooler because it's deeper, so the temperature of that marine layer changes compared to the southern end, so, unlike summer when it's more uniform throughout and less fog likely, the signals have more bouncing around and instability when they reach land -- Lake Huron and Superior would be similar I think; Erie and Ontario, different). Tropo can be good in spring, but it's a mess and in and out and all about, even when the air has a large temperature difference and seems stable. The problem with that in spring is that the air becomes calm without a lake breeze pushing ONTO land, so you get mirages of the other side of the lake and such, but the signals are too unstable and come in for seconds at a time and bits and pieces of signals you can't ID, like tropo scatter. In the mid-summer though, the lake breeze seems to really fuel the tropo (as opposed to the calm conditions in spring), making all the air uniform within that layer and blowing things across, where you get local-like 200+ mile reception from 8 am sunrise to 10 pm sunset, with the stations barely even fading for a moment and even wiping out the locals 10-20 miles away, as my logs pretty much confirm over the years. July 23rd almost every year seems to be the ultimate peak of the lake tropo season in my location. On multiple years I've gotten giant openings, probably coincidentally, on and around that exact day. Last summer it was accompanied by a monster mirage; but no land tropo. My UHF setup was never all that good, but lake tropo events in West Michigan always exploded on VHF, while UHF was seen a lot less. That by no means is saying UHF didn't have some seriously awesome days on the strongest openings, but they were mostly limited to regional enhancement combined with lake tropo openings at night. Daytime openings that were lake-only would bring in WGN 9 in solid like it was down the road and override my local completely, while T 44 in Chicago would be barely there, if at all, for example. Most of my tropo over the lake was indeed VHF (I will say I was mostly mobile, so I didn't have a UHF setup on the beach --- it may have just faded out after it hit land so I never could receive inland at home, so could be inaccurate), but was almost never accompanied by over-land tropo. This is just my location though --- so I won't discredit what you wrote, aside from my experiences (anyone else have experiences that were opposite mine, please tell me - I'm personally invested in your thoughts as you know this is my main DX concentration! ;)). Gulf of Mexico is totally different due to the size and warmer climate - Randy would know about that. All my stuff is still at http://www.beaglebass.com/dx - my lake tropo site, but many of my logs are still not there, yet you can compare the weather graphs with the loggings I have there. It's been neglected since I've been in Korea. Aside from just that little bit, what you wrote is absolutely fantastic. Thanks for sharing this!!!!! (Chris Kadlec, Muskegon, Mich., [but currently in] Incheon, Korea, ibid.) Gotta love that maritime tropo enhancement! In the late 70s, first in Oct. 1977 and again during summer of 1978, I got treated to "foggy morning tropo" in Machias, Maine (30 or so miles from the Canadian border) with various CBC and ATV channels filling mostly the VHF High band, and giving me my first TV reception of Nova Scotia :D ... Then last year in September, I experienced on FM good maritime tropo enhancement in Portland, with Boston, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia popping in good. Mike B. had similar results and also claimed a couple of CT stations made it to his South Portland QTH that same weekend :-) In mentioning "foggy morning tropo", under which of your descriptions would this kind fit? Some heavily foggy mornings here in southeast Mass. (in autumn) have yielded tropo DX as far out as NYC and South Jersey; while, in northern West Virginia (Clarksburg) last September during a cool morning with minor fog, at least one station (95.5 WHOK "The Hawk") from the Columbus, OH market slipped in (Aaron Reed, aka "Man Child" (hear me whine!), from Brockton, MA, (21 miles south of Boston), ibid.) UPWARD LIGHTNING FLASHES A group of scientists has documented lightning flashes going upward from the top of a thunderstorm into the ionosphere. I can't say I've ever heard of such a thing before. http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/824/1 The article doesn't say what effect, if any, this phenomenon might have on radio propagation (Bruce Portzer, WA, Aug 29, IRCA via DXLD) TIPS FOR RATIONAL LIVING ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Atheists say that NASA is violating separation of church and state "SPACE MISSIONARY" MEMENTO IS INAPPROPRIATE CARGO ON LATEST SPACE SHUTTLE FLIGHT, SAY ATHEISTS An Atheist-First Amendment public policy group charged today that NASA is violating the separation of church and state by permitting a "space missionary" memento on the latest Discovery Space Shuttle Mission. On board the shuttle is a piece of an airplane that crashed in Ecuador in 1956 that carried members of the Missionary Aviation Fellowship. One of the shuttle astronaut contacted the Idaho-based group proposing that the item be taken into space as part of a government-funded exploration project. The event has re-ignited enthusiasm by religious groups for "space missionary" proselytizing. "This is an inappropriate and unconstitutional use of resources," charged Dr. Ed Buckner, President of American Atheists. NASA is a scientific and exploratory agency that is funded by taxpayers. Its mission should not include religious grandstanding, or efforts to use outer space as a pulpit for religion." Coincidentally, Dr. Buckner's late father, Rev. James C. Buckner of St. Christopher's Episcopal Church in League City, Texas, collaborated with Apollo 8 astronaut Cdr. Frank Borman to insert religion on the first lunar orbital mission in 1968. That mission included a Christmas Eve religious service as the spacecraft circled the Moon -- and prompted an unsuccessful lawsuit by American Atheists founder Madalyn Murray O'Hair. Ed Buckner stressed that "I loved my father, though I disagreed with him then and of course now. I did not reject my father when I rejected theism nor became an Atheist out of rebellion. I became an Atheist because theism ceased to make any sense to me." Dave Silverman, Vice President and Communications Director for American Atheists said that in addition to being inappropriate and illegal, using NASA to promote sectarian religion "could fuel international tensions and resurrect images of American-sponsored proselytizing in the Middle East and elsewhere." "This is supposed to be a 'new era' for international respect and cooperation," said Mr. Silverman. How do you think the non-Christian peoples of the world react when they see Americans pushing Christianity even in outer space?" AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a nationwide movement that defends civil rights for Atheists; works for the total separation of church and state; and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy. American Atheists, Inc. PO BOX 158 Cranford, NJ 07016 Tel.: (908) 276-7300 Fax: (908) 276-7402 AMERICAN ATHEISTS, INC. http://www.atheists.org http://www.americanatheist.org Aug 29, 2009 For more information, please contact: Ed Buckner, President 908-499-9200 (cell) or 770-803-5353 (office/fax) Dave Silverman, Communications Director 732-648-9333 (via DXLD) ###