DX LISTENING DIGEST 2-120, July 29, 2002 edited by Glenn Hauser, wghauser@hotmail.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 HTML version of this issue will be posted afterwards at http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldtd02.html For restrixions and searchable 2002 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 WORLD OF RADIO #1141: (ON DEMAND) http://www.wrn.org/ondemand/worldofradio.html (DOWNLOAD) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1141.rm (STREAM) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1141.ram (SUMMARY) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1141.html NEXT RFPI BROADCASTS: Wed 0100, 0700 on 7445-USB, 15038.6 NEXT WWCR BROADCAST: Wed 0930 9475 UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIAL Hi Glenn, Thanks for your attention! [re missing issue]. Now I have got them all - and I really enjoy reading your bulletins! Thanks a lot for keeping them coming! 73 from (Björn Fransson, Sweden) ** ALBANIA. Perhaps the most dramatic evolution of a radio station has occurred at R. Tirana. In the 70s this was the voice of the hardline Enver Hoxha regime. For the size and wealth of the country, it had an enormous broadcasting output --- one of the last of the Stalinist regimes, extremely hostile to almost everyone! Albania was the darling of the folks in the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) who looked to Albania and saw the fulfillment of the Marxist ideal. (Most of us just saw a poor backward country with a despotic government --- to each his own.) Once proclaimed the first atheist state in the world, many evangelical ministries broadcast today from Albanian transmitters. It was amusing to hear the station after the fall of the communist regime. A whole generation had grown up thinking in terms of Marxist rhetoric, jargon and slogans. While discussing affairs in the now multi-party parliament, the announcer used phrases like ``the broad masses of the `x` party manifested a demonstration``. I`m listening to a broadcast from Tirana as I type this. Gone are the rhetoric and the jargon. In essence the religion of communism has been replaced with nationalism. This is true in many countries in the region, the most blatant example being the former Yugoslavia. Albania faces many ethnic and financial challenges. The music one can hear, via R. Tirana`s English broadcasts and the nightly Albanian broadcasts, is fantastic. The R. Tirana webpage http://rtsh.sil.at/index.html is very out of date. The most up to date items included links to programs dated 1999 that don`t seem to work. Perhaps it is a product of short staff and short budgets. Not much at all in English (Fred Waterer, St. Catharines, ON, Programming Matters, July ODXA Listening In, retyped by gh for DXLD) ** ANGOLA [non]. ALEMANHA - A Rádio Ecclésia, emissora católica de Angola, que transmite via Jülich, está de sítio novo, na Internet, de acordo com o Coordenador do DXCB, Caio Lopes. Anote: http://www.recclesia.org (@tividade DX July 28 via DXLD) It`s not been via Germany for months, but via South Africa (gh, DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. In response to Dave Hochfelder's comment: my analogy of Tokyo Rose? What about the Argentines'? The interview makes it clear that they intentionally used her as a model, whether she was real or imaginary. But thanks for de-bunking this legend, which has become a stereotype for psychological warfare by radio. And thanks, Glenn, for the translation (John Cobb, Roswell, GA, July 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. A Rádio Cultura, de São Paulo (SP), está de volta na faixa de 16 metros. De acordo com Denis Zoqbi, o pessoal da manutenção está alinhando o transmissor. Segundo ele, "a Cultura estará no ar várias horas por dia" até normalizar totalmente as emissões. A Cultura transmite em 17815 kHz (Célio Romais, @tividade DX July 28 via DXLD) Some reports of it recently in NAm until about 0300* (gh, DXLD) BRASIL - O governo do Estado de Goiás poderá ter uma emissora de rádio em ondas curtas. De acordo com o sítio da Câmara Federal http://www.camara.gov.br o projeto que concede o canal de radiodifusão está tramitando desde setembro de 2001. Atualmente, está na Coordenação de Comissões Permanentes. A concessão sairá em nome da Agência Goiana de Comunicação - AGECOM. A agência é responsável pelas notícias que envolve o governo estadual goiano e publica o sítio http://www.noticias.go.gov.br (Célio Romais, @tividade DX July 28 via DXLD) QEAFK? BRASIL - A Rádio Educadora Seis de Agosto, que emite desde a cidade de Xapuri, no Acre, continua sendo ouvida no Sudeste do Brasil. A emissora transmite em 3255 kHz. Foi captada, em Salto (SP), por Júlio Baldim, em 23 de julho, às 0940. De acordo com ele, a identificação é a seguinte: "Radio Seis de Agosto, Xapuri, Acre, transmitindo em ondas médias de 820 kHz e ondas tropicais de 3255 kHz, com estúdios à Rua Pio Nazário, 31, Xapuri, Acre, Brasil. Rádio Educadora Seis de Agosto, pronta para o novo milênio!" (Célio Romais, @tividade DX July 28 via DXLD) BRASIL - O Departamento Técnico da Rádio Brasil Central, de Goiânia (GO), está de parabéns. O radioescuta venezuelano José Valdes, de Caracas, informa que a emissora está sendo captada, durante os últimos dias, com sinal excepcional, naquela localidade, na freqüência de 4985 kHz, por volta de 2230 (Célio Romais, @tividade DX July 28 via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 2480, 20/7 2257, R. Arapongas, Arapongas PR, "Arapongas a R. do povo", PRIMEIRO HARMONICO 1240 X 2, 24322 SDP/WR. 2460, 20/7 2156, R. Novo Tempo, Governador Valadares MG, programa religioso da "Rede Novo Tempo, 1230 X 2 = 1o. Harmonico - o harmonico entra muito forte! 44444 SDP/WR. DX-PEDITION de Sérgio Dória Partamian (SDP) e Wilson Rodrigues(WR) a zona rural da cidade de Itaitiaiuçu-MG-Brasil, de 21 a 25 de julho de 2002; Receptores utilizados: Sony ICF 2001-D, Sony ICF SW7600G, Yaesu FRG7, Auto Rádio Pioneer, modelo KE - 2850QR. Antenas: Longwire, Beverage 100 m, Loop 1 m., RGP-3, e K9AY, 25 metros cada triângulo (2 triângulos) (radioescutas via DXLD) Mais: Colegas, Em recente visita a Itatiaiuçu-MG, com o colega Wilson Rodrigues, entre as diversas emissoras interessantes que foram ouvidas esteve a R Novo Tempo em 2460 kHz. O sinal era extremamente forte e durante 3 dias estive tentando indentificar sua procedência e consegui; não é uma nova emissora de ondas curtas mas sim o 1o. harmônico da Rádio Novo Tempo, da cidade de Governador Valadares, MG (1230 X 2 = 2460 kHz). "Novo Tempo" é a denominação dada uma rede evangélicos adventistas que, conforme pudemos certificar, além de Governador Valadares MG, inclui uma outra "Rádio Novo Tempo" de Cariacica, ES. 73 a todos (Sérgio Partamian, radioescutas via DXLD) 2 x is called the second harmonic, not the first (gh, DXLD) ** BURKINA FASO. Em mensagem por e-mail a Rádio Burkina enviou a seguinte direção postal: RTV Burkina Boîte Postale 7029, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso V/S: Taheré Ouedraogo, Chef de Service des Programmes. (Ivan Dias, Sorocaba, SP, @tividade DX July 28 via DXLD) ** BULGARIA. Uma das agradáveis surpresas da programação, em espanhol, da Rádio Bulgária, é o programa Espacio DX-ista. Os últimos programas versaram sobre a captação de sinais de rádios à longa distância em FM e TV. Também as notícias apresentadas são interessantes. Confira aos domingos, na emissão entre 0100 e 0200, nas freqüências de 9500, 9700 e 11600 kHz (Célio Romais, @tividade DX July 28 via DXLD) At the end of the hour? We shouldn`t have to listen to the entire hour to find it (gh, DXLD) ** CANADA. [AMFMTVDX] TORONTO SPECIAL FM STATIONS FOR WORLD YOUTH DAY Get them while they're on. I hauled my Eskip-deprived FM radio down to Toronto -- used a car radio actually -- and -- like fellow Toronto DXer Niel Wolfish a few days ago -- noted all but 2 of the 10 frequencies applicant Gary Hooper received permission for had programming. Niel listened in last Wednesday evening. I was there Saturday night. All stations were simulcasting the same World Youth Day events, mostly music intermingled with religious (Catholic, the Pope is in attendance) exhortations. My official loggings started at 2220 with signals heard -- in order – on 104.9, 102.7, 101.7, 90.7, 98.7, 91.9 and -- with some difficulty - - 99.5. Nothing at all was heard on 89.9 (Buffalo NY and Sunderland ON stations present) and 96.9 (Buffalo). I drove up to the site at Downsview, a large park near Keele and Sheppard streets, and drove around the site perimeter. I am convinced there are / were no stations operating on 89.9 and 96.9 because 99.5 did come in at times, whereas nothing at all appeared even when I nulled the pests on 89.9 and 96.9. WDCX, a Christian station, probably made 99.5 hard to hear for some attendees. The others did quite well at the site and some could be heard a few miles away (104.9, 90.7 were perhaps the best, followed by 102.7 and 91.9 and even 103.9). Signals were mono and, to my understanding, 10 watts. The idea was to broadcast in different languages on each of the frequencies, but all I heard was live music from the site, and some English announcements and speeches. I did hear some Spanish on 90.7 earlier in the day while driving down a nearby highway en route to Toronto, but did not have an opportunity to go to the site at that time. I may head there tomorrow, the final day, to try to determine the language accorded each frequency. I heard seven of the nine stations downtown last Tuesday doing open carrier with the sound of equipment banging around in the background. I am of the opinion that I will only count these stations once, despite the fact that they have obviously operated from two different locations roughly 15 miles (I'm guessing) apart. There was no sign of the stations downtown, tonight... (Saul Chernos, July 27, amfmtvdx via DXLD) I-C [Industry Canada] database lists three sets of applications on these frequencies: "CNE" 43-38-00N/79-25-07W 11m EHAAT "DOWNSVIEW" 43-44-33N/79-27-56W 27m EHAAT "QUEENSPARK" 43-39-45N/79-23-35N 17m EHAAT Best I can tell all three sites were eventually authorized. They were, in fact, authorized for 10 watts, circular polarization (unlike many Canadian LP stations which are often either horizontal-only or vertical-only). I would imagine they were assigned VF#### calls at some point but right now I don't see them (Doug Smith, W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), http://www.w9wi.com WTFDA via DXLD) For what it's worth I listened for a few minutes on my Sangean ATS 909 on Saturday evening from a house in the west end of Toronto (Etobicoke). The only signal I could hear at all was on 90.7. At the time they were simulcasting what ever event was taking place up at Downsview Park. The hymns/singing were exactly in sync with the TV audio from CBC Newsworld, but whenever they spoke the 90.7 had German translation. I thought I may have heard some German on 90.7 the other day too. Interesting since Saul thought he had heard Spanish on 90.7 earlier (Niel Wolfish, Toronto, amfmtvdx via DXLD) ** CANADA. CBC Previews for July 29-August 2 at 9:05 PM local: IDEAS. All this week on Ideas, a re-broadcast of "The Scapegoat: Rene Girard's Anthropology of Violence and Religion. Girard believes that human societies have always needed to focus their hostilities on a victim, a scapegoat, an evil one against whom the community could unite. Ideas producer David Cayley explores the thought of Rene Girard on Ideas at 9:05 (9:35 NT) on CBC Radio One (via Joe Buch, swprograms via DXLD) ** CANADA. A REBEL'S QUEST TO TRANSFORM CBC RADIO 'WE CAN'T AFFORD NOT TO CHANGE' [by] Sarah Scott, National Post CBC Radio runs the risk of being "perceived to be a white anglo network," says Adrian Mills, the new head of programming who is introducing radical changes to the morning lineup. On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Adrian Mills, the man in charge of CBC Radio programming, was still learning how to handle his imposing new job. Mills had come from children's TV to transform the sound of CBC Radio, but he was clearly an outsider in the public radio service, the jewel in CBC's crown. Mills had never worked in radio, or in radio news. So that morning, six weeks into the job, Mills was still in listening mode. At 9:30 a.m., Mills was talking with a CBC drama executive when a secretary interrupted the meeting to tell him the twin World Trade Center towers in Manhattan had been struck by planes. Mills turned on the TV. All the major networks showed the same horrifying image -- the two towers on fire. He turned on CBC Radio to listen to This Morning, the national show that aired every weekday from 9 a.m. to noon in each time zone across the country. Mills was dismayed at what he heard. "I think it was a discussion of softwood lumber," he says. He was listening to a discussion that had been broadcast live an hour earlier to the Maritimes, and was now being repeated, on tape, in the Eastern time zone. That morning was Mills' "baptism by fire." Not only did it reveal some technical barriers to responsiveness within the CBC, it would also give Mills some ideas about how to make the most radical change to the morning lineup in 30 years. But at that precise moment, the one thought running through his mind was: We should have been live on the air. "I don't believe in doing people's jobs," he says, "but I knew, even coming from children's TV, that this was a story we should be covering." Not in half an hour -- right then, as the World Trade Center towers were burning and hell was breaking loose in Manhattan. The immediate question was, do you interrupt This Morning and local morning shows in Western Canada with the biggest breaking story on the planet? New to the job, Mills called people in News and Current Affairs. "They were upstairs planning the most efficient way to go live." At 9:40 a.m., the news executives stepped into Mills' office with their answer: They would wait until 10 a.m. "The next point we could go live cleanly was at the top of the clock," Mills says. "It took me well past September to understand it." There was a technological issue: CBC could not just flip a switch and cut into the local morning shows that were still going on west of Ontario. Each station had its own switch. Moreover, the network did not want to offend the regions. "If we decided to go at 9:45 a.m. or whatever, we ran the risk of cutting people off in mid-sentence. So we chose the option that we were used to taking, that was tidier and cleaner. But in fact it turned out that going live, as untidy as it would have been, would have been a better option." And so, while CBC Radio fretted, a third plane hit the Pentagon; the White House and the Pentagon were evacuated; airports were shut down; and planes were diverted to Canada. Firefighters and police were streaming into the towers as thousands of people were trying to escape. One of the World Trade Center towers collapsed. "So," I ask Mills, "CBC Radio waited another 20 minutes because it's impolite to cut people off?" "I think that's a reductionist way of looking at it," Mills replies, then pauses. "I thought, this is 2001," he says, finally. "This is the information age, and I want information now." - - - Nearly one year later, Mills thinks the infamous 9/11 time lag has given him, the new boy on the block, considerable leverage in his quest to transform morning radio. "I don't scream blue murder. It's not my style. I just made it very clear what my expectations were. It's pointless baying for blood. It's about understanding why decisions are made and putting systems and processes in [place] to make sure it doesn't happen again." For one thing, Mills has made it a lot easier for the network or the regions to break into regular programming with hot breaking news. He has loosened the reins of central control. But the experience also led him to challenge the traditional morning weekday format, in which local shows yield to a national one from 9 a.m. to noon. It has been like that for a generation. That three-hour slice of the day was presided over by the legendary Peter Gzowski, who hosted Morningside from 1982 to 1997. Then, when This Morning was created to fill that time slot, it was hosted by Michael Enright and Avril Benoit and, most recently, Shelagh Rogers. Now Mills has proposed an entirely new morning set-up, in which local shows will pass on the torch to a national 90-minute show starting at 8:30 a.m. That show, which is supposed to start on Nov. 18, will have Anna Maria Tremonti as its host. It will be "driven by news stories of the day -- a proactive place where we start to define the nature of stories," Mills promises. Then at 10 a.m., CBC will switch to another new show, to be hosted by Shelagh Rogers. That show, yet to be named, will debut in October. When I ask him for details, Mills draws a series of boxes on the blackboard to illustrate its architecture. "It will have very, very different content [from This Morning]," he says. For one thing, the content will be created by production teams across the country, not just in Toronto. Rogers will be in the chair, but not all the time. The set-up will be modelled somewhat on 60 Minutes. "One thing I learned in children's TV," says Mills, "is that you can own a brand and still lease it to someone else. I think Shelagh, because of her strengths, will be able to own territory and give it up sometimes to other people." That description of the morning shows does not reassure the skeptics at the CBC. By now, they say, we should know exactly what these shows will be. Yet Mills' concept does not go much further than setting the time slot. During a two-hour talk with Mills, I do not detect any deep thinking about the content or the approach of the morning shows. It is as if he is making a picture frame and leaving it to the creative types at the CBC to decide what the picture will be, and how to draw it. As a practitioner of the art of managing creative people, Mills would think this is a good thing. Yet it exposes him to the criticism that he is transforming morning radio without a clear idea of what he wants it to be. For a man thus poised to transform the landscape of CBC Radio's prime real estate -- a move that will cost a tidy sum he will not disclose -- Mills seems remarkably relaxed. At 43, his hair greying a little, Mills is neat and casual, polite, careful in his selection of words as he sips a cup of hot lemon water. "I was always one to challenge convention," he says. Growing up in Winchester, an ancient city in southern England, he used to look for little ways to rebel: "Whenever I went to a fancy dinner party, I would always use the wrong fork and knife, just on principle, just to annoy people." Mills laughs at the memory. "That shows the kind of rebel I am ... with a certain lightness of touch. I don't steamroller in and do the big bravado thing." As a teenager, Mills says he skipped the sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll phase. "I was very boring. I would go to orchestra practice [he played French horn in a youth orchestra] and choir practice. I was a bit geeky." He studied child psychology at Lancaster University and ended up at the BBC before following a friend, a doctoral student in Russian history, to Canada. His friend, he says, "couldn't stand it and went back to England, and I stayed." Mills loves Toronto. "It's an amazing city that more people should appreciate." He loved it from the moment he came to Toronto about 15 years ago with Ron Reagan Jr., the former president's son, to film a show about the Guinness World Records. "Canada can always be relied upon for crazy world records," he says. "We found the world yo-yo spinning champion and the world's fastest yodeller." The yodeller, from Brampton, Ont., did his thing in under a second -- he was the world's fastest -- but Mills had seven minutes to fill. "So we took him to the top of the CN tower and made him the fastest and highest yodeller at the same time." At TV Ontario, Mills won an international Emmy for devoting a whole day to shows for kids and produced by kids. There, Mills learned how to manage creative people and then moved to CBC TV as the head of children's, youth and daytime programming, before switching to CBC's English Web site. Then about 18 months ago, Alex Frame, vice-president of CBC Radio, invited him for coffee and offered him the big job of running the radio programming. "It was out of the blue, completely unexpected," Mills says. Frame and Mills spent a lot of time talking. "CBC Radio had a very clear sense of where it had come from and where it was, but I wouldn't have said it had a clear sense of where it was going." But wasn't that a sensitive issue for CBC Radio stalwarts? After all, why should they change what they saw as a good thing? Mills is very careful when he answers that question. "It wasn't so much that something was wrong with it," he says. "But the world is changing so quickly we can't afford not to change. I don't believe in change for change's sake," he adds quickly. "But I think the communication and media world is so volatile, so unpredictable, that in order for anyone to be able to function effectively in that world, it needs to be flexible enough to be able to move." That explanation sounds a little vague to me, so I ask him to explain. Mills runs through the usual argument about how the big media players are ganging up and threatening to block out smaller voices. But, I interrupt, hasn't convergence run its course? Mills switches to Reason No. 2: "Canada is changing," he says, "and society has changed, so CBC Radio needs to make sure it is as relevant to future generations as it was to previous ones." OK, now we're talking. As immigrants have flooded into cities, the face of Canadian cities has changed. Does CBC Radio reflect that? Mills chooses his words with caution: "I would say that most people who work in different parts of the country would say, well actually, not as well as we could, as we should." A little later, he puts it more bluntly: "I was concerned we could be perceived to be a white anglo network." The young people in CBC's focus groups saw CBC Radio as "radio for older people," Mills says. "They felt we were perhaps not as intriguing or interesting as they would like." The numbers put it in a more brutal way: Only 6% of the 35-49 audience tuned into This Morning this spring, down one percentage point from a decade ago. Overall, This Morning captured 13% of the English-speaking listening audience over age 11 in the spring, but that is because so many of its listeners are older Canadians. In the past 15 years, Mills notes, CBC Radio's audience has aged faster than the Canadian population. Fifteen years ago, just over one-half of CBC Radio's listeners were over 50. Now that figure is nearly 70%. "That in itself is not a bad thing," Mills says. But he wants CBC Radio to include younger people along with older Canadians. The target market is, after all, curious people between age 35 and 64. One thing Mills promises not to do is design programs specifically for the 35-49 set. He learned that lesson in children's TV: "Once you target young people, they'll have no interest at all," he says. Well, maybe they would like a little more variety. Listening to CBC now, one is rarely surprised. When Mills started his job, he listened carefully to the shows: "All the programs were consistently good. When I came to CBC, I knew exactly what I was getting. Tonally, the programs exist within a narrow bandwidth. The programs are gently rolling from one to the other. What I'd like to do is broaden that emotional range, that bandwidth, and try to get more peaks and valleys in terms of texture ... more colours and variety and tone in the programs." It has been a steep learning curve, with some setbacks along the way. Mills' plans for an eight-hour live show on Saturdays has been put on ice because it would cost too much. He is not sure yet what to do with Saturday mornings, but he learned quickly, when he tried to cancel The House, that well over 400,000 Canadians actually like to listen to a show about politics on Saturday morning. It is not always easy to change a big and well-established institution. "Getting people to be open about finding new and different ways to achieve their goal -- that is sometimes a challenge," he acknowledges. How will Mills know if the new weekday morning shows are working? He will look at the audience numbers, of course. "But if in a year, one doesn't increase the number of people under 50, that's fine, too." So how will he know he is on the right track? "At the end of the day, it's gut," he says, one hand gently punching his chest. "It's instinct. Mine. The producers'. Shelagh's. The hosts'. Public broadcasting comes from here, from somewhere inside." Do you mean from the heart? "Yeah. It sounds twee, doesn't it? It's an internal something people in broadcasting have." http://www.nationalpost.com/review/story.html?id=EA17EAD2-C351-46FA-83F3-B09AD39F7C8A © Copyright 2002 National Post (via Bill Westenhaver, Mike Cooper, DXLD) twee??? ** CANADA. Radio Canada International - "CyberJournal" Yesterday I got my usual mailing from RCI of programme schedule, sticker and a card about this new service so I looked at http://www.rcinet.ca and here are the details: "Welcome to RCI's CyberJournal. Once you sign up for this free and valuable service, you'll receive via e-mail a daily summary of the top Canadian and international news stories. The RCI CyberJournal provides a user-friendly link with Canada for people living or travelling abroad. It takes only a few minutes to catch up on the latest Canadian news. As well, the CyberJournal includes sports and business news, the daily weather forecast, and a brief outline of the top international news. Each morning at 04h30 UT, we send the CyberJournal out to Canadians and non-Canadians around the world who need to know what's going on in Canada. It's free and comes with no obligation. The CyberJournal is sent via e-mail and is designed to be easily and quickly downloaded and read. (We know how valuable your time is!) For travellers who might not have access to their e-mail accounts, there is an easy way to stay in touch with Canada. Simply ask your hotel concierge to subscribe to the RCI CyberJournal and to print you up a copy each morning. That way, you won't miss a single edition! It costs nothing to subscribe to the RCI CyberJournal, and you can cancel your subscription any time. And RCI guarantees that its electronic mailing-list will not be distributed to any other person or company. So sign up now. It's easy! " Needless to say I have signed up. Good DX (Mike Terry, UK, July 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. == LIST QUESTION OF THE WEEK == "If you were given the authority, how would you reform the AM band? Before answering, define what reform means to you, and why it is necessary." From a Canadian perspective: Reform of the AM band would mean trying to do something -- anything! -- to try and stem the tide of migration to FM. At the current rate, only Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and a few other major markets will be left with AM stations. But I don't think that is possible, short of the Canadian government offering financial compensation to AM broadcasters who claim they're losing money hand over fist unless they move to FM. For the AM stations that remain: require local ownership and local programming - even if it means a proliferation of brokered-time religious or ethnic stations with virtually no programming in EE or FF. Canada does not need any more stations regurgitating Dr. Laura, Art Bell, Sporting News Radio, and other satellite-fed U.S. junk. FCC-type rules requiring a legal call letter ID at the top of the hour would be a good idea too, particularly in the Toronto market (home of Fan-590, Mojo-640, Team-1050, Prime Time-740, 680 News, Edge 102, Q107, Kiss 92, Energy 95, Easy rock 97, Mix 99, etc.) 73 (Mike Brooker, Toronto, ON, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** CUBA [non]. Professor Arnaldo Coro CO 2 KK, Radio La Habana DXers Unlimited: From my correspondence contact to Arnie: he has travelled to Germany twice in past decade easily, and was invited by both Radio Deutsche Welle officials at Cologne and Berlin, as well as by the German Ham radio society (wb df5sx, WWDXC BC-DX via DXLD) Glenn, This may help explain why Arnie Coro had trouble with his visa application: (Ivan Grishin, Ont., DX LISTENING DIGEST) But, but.. Arnie would be the last to defect, he likes Communist Cuba so much, and it was the Canadian government keeping him out, not the Cuban government preventing him from going. Still... (gh, DXLD) CUBANS ASK FOR ASYLUM --- Pilgrims defect after mass By TOM GODFREY, TORONTO SUN July 29, 2002 More than a dozen young Cuban pilgrims are being hidden in city safe houses after defecting to Canada following the World Youth Day mass in Downsview Park yesterday. The Cubans were spirited to freedom in a precision rescue mission by members of the Cuban community in Toronto. Members of the Cuban Canadian Foundation (CCF) said great secrecy and planning were required to identify and split the defectors from their 200-member World Youth Day delegation and spirit them off the site of the papal mass. Cuban pilgrims were watched by Cuban security police. The defectors will claim political asylum at Toronto immigration offices this week, said CCF president Ismael Sambra. Federal immigration officials had planned for a hike in refugee claims from pilgrims from Third World countries who won't be returning home. Department officials expected more than 200 pilgrims to file claims after WYD wrapped up but as of yesterday morning the total was around 10. Most will claim they'll be persecuted for their religious beliefs if they return home, according to immigration lawyers. Citizenship and Immigration spokesman Rejean Cantlon said refugee application hearings are now being scheduled for August and early September. A decision on their claim would be made in three business days. Sambra said dozens of Cuban pilgrims may stay in Canada, rather than return to Fidel Castro's communist regime. "The young people who defected are afraid," Sambra said. "They are afraid for their families back at home." He said the defectors are being housed by community members in city safe houses. He refused to identify the defectors. "We expect more to stay behind," he said. "In Cuba they cannot express their freedom of religion." Sambra said most of the delegation was to return to Havana today, with others travelling to Montreal. Cuban activist Alberto Benítez said community members were approached by pilgrims who sought to remain here (via Ivan Grishin, Ont., July 29, DXLD) ** EGYPT. Cairo Contesta é o nome do programa onde o Departamento de Língua Espanhola da Rádio Cairo responde as cartas e relatórios de recepção dos ouvintes. É levado ao ar, nas segundas-feiras, às 0115. A apresentação é de Verónica Banderas. Confira em 9475, 9740 e 11715 kHz (Célio Romais, @tividade DX July 28 via DXLD) ** INDIA. Friends, The AIR External Service to Pakistan in Sindhi at 0100-0200 on 5990 is now using Panaji transmitter. The funeral of the late Vice President of India is taking place today Sunday. AIR is broadcasting a live running commentary of the event from 0925 UT (2.55 pm IST). All stations of AIR will be relaying it (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS Box 1555, Somajiguda, Hyderabad 500082, India, dx_india via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. In fact you are paying Sky if you have Sky satellite. We are paying a licence fee for the BBC, we are paying for ITV in one sense because it is supported by advertising which costs money, which can only be recouped by the public paying the companies for their products, so when you buy something there is always a hidden advertising cost in it anyway. You are paying for The Hop and Radio Voyager because I think that when you buy a Worldspace set they get a percentage of the purchase price, part of which goes to fund their own channels. Worldspace has gone through $1 billion and from a business point of view their immediate objective must be to cover their operating costs. Radio Caroline relies on voluntary presenters and, I believe, a small number of paid programmes but they still have costs to cover. It is a station not controlled, as many are, by large corporations. The money for Worldspace and Radio Caroline has to come from somewhere, I don`t see any real problem with them offering a subscription service; whether people choose to take it up is their choice. Their target market is people who could probably be described as "anoraks" and expatriates who have bought Worldspace sets to listen to the BBC, CNN, NPR etc. and may wish to supplement their listening by subscribing to a type of music they cannot get from their domestic channels. Whether it will work or not is a different matter but I don`t think people can complain about subscription based radio. Worldspace has introduced some subscription based channels in Asia I believe and, if you read the posts in recent DXLD's about the lack of variety, until quite recently, in Indian Radio you can see why some would be prepared to pay for an alternative service. I think the point also needs to be made that Worldspace was set up to be an educational channel and fight the devastating spread of AIDs in Africa which is causing the life expectancy in many countries to be less than it was at the start of the last century. If Worldspace can get some much needed income from those of us lucky enough to live in the developed world by charging us a small amount to listen to Radio Caroline and thus keep both Worldspace and Caroline on the air, fine. I find that a much better use of my money than giving it to Rupert Murdoch (Mike Barraclough, UK, July 26, BDXC-UK via DXLD) ** IRAN [non]. 13420, 21/7 0435, R Voice of Mojahed, em farsi com discursos anti Irã, mudando de freqüência a cada 2 minutos na medida em que era perseguida por um Jamming; frequencias utilizadas: 13420, 13440 e 13460 kHz. 33433 (DX-PEDITION de Sérgio Dória Partamian (SDP) e Wilson Rodrigues(WR) a zona rural da cidade de Itaitiaiuçu, MG, Brasil, radioescutas via DXLD; see BRAZIL for equipment) ** IRELAND. From http://www.radiowaves.fm/news/index.shtml SATURDAY 27th JULY 2002 CARY PLANS NOVA RETURN Chris Cary is planning to relaunch Radio Nova on 252 kHz, Ireland's long wave frequency. Cary, who changed the face of Irish radio in 1981 with the original Radio Nova, now lives on the Isle of Man and wants to base the station's studios in Douglas. "Everything I can possibly do to bring back Radio Nova on 252 LW is being done," he says. "This has got to be the biggest minefield of negotiations ever. Everyone agrees that it's right - but no one will say 'yes'. It's not about money. It's just bloody-mindedness. It's very frustrating." UK sports station TeamTalk 252 replaced Atlantic 252 on the famous frequency at the start of this year, but have failed to attract listeners. Ironically, back in the mid-eighties with the internationally-assigned frequency lying idle, Cary himself was the first to broadcast from Ireland on long wave when he ran tests (via Mike Terry, BDXC-UK via DXLD) So much for my intention to file these under UK [non] (gh) ** ISRAEL. Kol Israel, July 28 *1625 on 15615 with IS, could not tell language until fadeup 1635, definitely English today, unlike previous days; don`t know about the other frequencies. French followed at 1645 UT, starting with a timecheck for 1845 local, immediately corrected to 1945... (Glenn Hauser, OK, DXLD) 17545 was also in English at 1630 today. The 1630 UT Kol Israel English shortwave broadcast on 15615 and 17545 is working properly as of today. For some reason, for the past week, they were broadcasting Romanian on the English frequencies (Doni Rosenzweig, NY, July 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) If you haven't noticed, the http://www.israelradio.org site has been updated with the latest Kol Israel schedule changes. Also, notice that the 1030 UTC broadcast is now 1015-1030 UT (6:15 AM ET, 1:15 PM Israel Time from Reshet Alef) - some of the earlier schedules didn't note that change. Direct URL for the schedule: http://www.israelradio.org/sw.htm The direct URLs for the graphical Kol Israel schedules - from the Chief Engineer at Bezeq are: MS PowerPoint format: http://www.bezeq.co.il/Download/A02list.ppt PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format: http://www.bezeq.co.il/Download/Pop.pdf [Later:] I've been told that accessing the URLs directly doesn't work: You can reach both PowerPoint and PDF formats at: http://www.bezeq.co.il English->About us->Shortwave Program schedule (Daniel Rosenzweig, July 28-29, DX LISTENING DIGEST Kol Israel English pgm back on 17545 and 15615 at 1630 today! (7/29) I did not get a chance to check yesterday so I do not know if they fixed their problem then or not (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA/SINGAPORE. Hi Glenn, Exceptional conditions towards Singapore and Malaysia today Sat July 27th. I could easily hear all the Singaporean and Malaysian frequencies mentioned in WRTH: 7170 SINGAPORE in TAMIL SIO 444 1515 UT 7235 " in MALAY SIO 444. Very lively px, really loved it! 1515 UT. 6150 SINGAPORE in English SIO 343 1520 with sign/off 16 UTC. 6000 Singapore`s Chinese px with s/off 16 UTC. SIO 232. MALAYSIA: 7295 R MALAYSIA /HS with nx in EE 15 UT. SIO 343 9750 SUARA MALAYSIA in Bahasa Malaysia (?) 1510 UT. SIO 333. To hear these Far Eastern stations on SW means our short summer is coming to its end. No summer after August. Extending our summer in December in Fortaleza, Brazil!!! 73`s (Jouko Huuskonen, Turku FINLAND, July 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS [and non]. RNW Flevoland. Tx #4 at Flevo is still off the air following the fire two weeks ago. Latest information is that the transmitter is being tested on dummy load, but before the engineers give the OK for it go back into normal operation, further tests have to be completed. Meanwhile, the 100 kW reserve is providing backup. My technical colleagues also inform me that our Madagascar relay station has resumed full operation, so the 1630-1725 UT txion in Dutch to South Africa on 6020 kHz is now once again from MDG rather than Meyerton (Andy Sennitt, Holland, in RNMN Newsletter Jul 27 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** PAKISTAN [and non]. PAKISTANI PAPER REPORTS PRO-AL-QA'IDAH WEB SITES UNAVAILABLE | Text of report by Rahimullah Yusufzai entitled: "Two web sites of Usamah, Al-Qa'idah shut down", published by Pakistani newspaper The News web site on 29 July Peshawar: Two Arabic-language web sites supporting Usamah Bin-Ladin and Al-Qa'idah have been shut down while a third one is now operating from a new address. The web sites, www.jehad.net and www.jihad-online [domain name as received], could not be accessed on Friday and Saturday [26-27 July]. The message simply said the page cannot be opened and that it was forbidden. The two web sites were a major source of information on Usamah and Al-Qa'idah. They also carried news, views and comments about other Islamic movements and highlighted the achievements and sacrifices of the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and like-minded groups in Israeli-occupied Palestine, the Chechens fighting Russian troops in Chechnya, and Taleban and their supporters resisting the US and its allied forces in Afghanistan. However, another pro-Usamah web site, alneda, is still functional. Meaning "the call", alneda can now be accessed on the address, www.66.132.29.71 It has struggled to remain online in the face of efforts to track and close it down. It is a fairly resilient web site and has emerged as a leading source of information about happenings in Afghanistan and the Arab world. Its addresses have changed from Malaysia to Venezuela and then to Columbia. For a while it claimed to be operating from US President George W. Bush's home state, Texas. The alneda web site has been striving to put together whatever information it can regarding Usamah Bin-Ladin, Al-Qa'idah and other Islamic leaders and organizations. It also displays past Usamah interviews and statements. Information about Taleban is also available on the web site. The exclusive Taleban web site, www.alemarh.com is also functional. It is in Arabic and Pashto languages and provides information about Taleban Islamic Movement and its founder, Mola Mohammad Omar. It still is not clear who is operating these web sites. Source: The News web site, Islamabad, in English 29 Jul 02 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3325, BOUGAINVILLE, R. Bougainville, 1133 July 27, OM in EG/Vern, Vern pops, fair after Guatemala fadeout (Jerry Lineback, KS, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) This one had just been reported off for non-payment of electricity bills (gh) ** PARAGUAY. Dear Friend Thord Knutsson: To share with you an update on our transmitter plant construction project: We are now broadcasting, 24-hours-a-day on 15185 kHz, 19 Metres, on an experimental basis. This frequency began operation, today, Friday, 19 July, and presently has continuous, classical music. On Saturday, 20 July, we will begin rebroadcasting the regular programming of Radio América, in Spanish and in Guaraní. This frequency uses an omnidirectional antenna, of the 5/8ths Wavelength type, with a theoretical gain of 8,84 dBi. The initial transmission power is low: 5 Watts. We will be increasing power as soon as possible. To my knowledge, this is the first time in about 40 years that Paraguay has used 19 Metres. Tests continue on 7300 kHz, 41 Metres, and on 1610 kHz, Medium Waves, but are sporadic. This is due to the need to rebuild equipment, in order to strengthen it against power supply variations, and other, unpleasant surprises. The frequency 7300 kHz remains beamed at 184 degrees, from Magnetic North, using an antenna system with 25 dBi gain. The frequency 1610 kHz feeds an omnidirectional antenna, 125 Metres tall, of the 5/8ths Wavelength type, which provides 8,84 dBi of theoretical gain. Any DX reports will be most welcome at ramerica@rieder.net.py or at radioamerica@lycos.com or via FAX: 595 21 963 149. Correct reports will be verified, immediately, by E-Mail or FAX. With best regards to Inger, Björn and yourself! Greetings from Paraguay! Dom Mur (Ha en bra sommar! 73:s, via Thord Knutsson, SW Bulletin July 28 via DXLD) ** PORTUGAL. O fado é uma canção popular deste país, triste e fatalista, de linha melódica simples, acompanhada do som de guitarra ou acordeom. Para conferir esse tipo de música, nada melhor do que acompanhar a Rádio Portugal. A emissora possui um programa especial sobre o tema: A guitarra portuguesa e o fado, levado ao ar, nos sábados. É apresentado por Luís Sarmento, entre 1805 e 1900 e 1905 e 2000, em 21655 e 21800 kHz (Célio Romais, Brasil, @tividade DX July 28 via DXLD) ** SINGAPORE. See MALAYSIA ** SOMALIA. Hans Johnson`s recent interview on Somalia's Puntland station (Cumbre's spare parts aid) this week on http://roi.orf.at/intermedia/ Wolf Harranths's [OE3WHC] Media program audio on demand klick Intermedia aktuell 25 mins. mp3 file download dx[1].mpga 5776 kB Map of Somalia on http://roi.orf.at/intermedia/im_aktuell.html http://roi.orf.at/intermedia/im_somalia.html or broadcast via shortwave Sun July 28, 1630-1655 UT on 13730 kHz. 73 de wb df5sx (Wolfgang Bueschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA. CORRECTION: A couple issues ago there was a logging of Sri Lanka by Rich. The frequency should have been 9770, not 9970. Sorry (NASWA Flashsheet July 27 via DXLD) ** TIBET. 6130, 27.7 1640, China Tibet People's Broadcast Co. with greetings "to Mr Ullmar Quick in Norrköping and all the members of the Shortwave Bulletin". I wonder if anybody was listening? 2-3 CB (Christer Brunström, Sweden, SW Bulletin July 28, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DXLD who adds:) (Ullmar Quick is still around and was a well known MW DX-er some 20 years ago specialised in and was very familiar with the situation in Albania.) ** TIBET. English transmission at 1100 UT on 9490 kHz is being heard with very weak signals. On 7/20 I caught the female announcer giving a postal address and "I hope you all have a nice weekend" at 1113; continued in presumed Chinese. On 7/27, tuned with instrumental music from 1050, ID at 1100 included "...Tibet...", talk to 1112. My monitoring is restricted to Saturdays only. This will probably improve in eastern North America by September when near-grayline conditions will exist. Best on LSB to avoid splatter from 5 kHz up. 73, (John Cobb, Roswell, GA, July 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY. OZGUR RADYO BANNED ONCE AGAIN | Text of report by German- based Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Politika web site on 28 July "Ozgur Radyo" ["Free Radio"], which began broadcasting in 1995, just cannot escape from being closed down for punitive reasons. Ozgur Radyo, which was put off the air for a year for having included, during the course of its programming, a musical piece entitled "Nurhak", will come into contact with its listeners once again on 30 July. But following six days of broadcasting, the radio will once again be forced to stop broadcasting for six months, this time in connection with a comment made regarding Rauf Denktas, the leader of the Turkish sector on Cyprus. The broadcasts had been halted due to the musical piece entitled "Nurhak" played on 9 June 2000. The Supreme Board for Radio and Television (RTUK), in a ruling of 23 July 2000, had punished the radio station with a suspension of one year for having broadcast in violation of section G of article 4 of Law Number 3984. Officials of the radio station, stating that cassettes and CD's [compact disks] of the musical piece cited as the basis of the offence are in fact sold within the borders of Turkey, had then appealed to the Administrative Court. But the Ankara Administrative Court Number Two, on 20 December 2000, gave a negative response to the motion of the radio station officials because "No situation contrary to the law has been determined in the actions taken by the plaintiff administration". Thus Ozgur Radyo, which has been closed for the past year for this reason, will reach its listeners again on 30 July. But the radio station, after broadcasting for only six days, will once again be obliged to suspend its broadcasts for six months, this time on account of a comment regarding the leader of the Turkish sector on Cyprus, Rauf Denktas. The station will thus close on 5 August for a six-month period. Fusun Erdogan, the manager of the radio station that will thus have been obliged to maintain silence for three years and nine months out of seven years, in commenting on whether or not the radio will broadcast during the six-day period between the two suspensions, spoke as follows: "We have no choice. We want to turn on our microphones and give our listeners the message that 'We are here.' And this will also be a response to those who are seeking to silence us unjustly. Consequently, we will indeed be together with our listeners on the 95.1 [FM] frequency starting on the night of 30 July." Source: Ozgur Politika web site, Neu-Isenburg, in Turkish 28 Jul 02 (via BBCM via DXLD) How odd! One suspects freedom of speech is not exactly a priority in Turkey. Since this was reported by a Kurdish exile group, does that have something to do with the suspensions, not mentioned in this story? And what`s the deal with `Nurhak`? (gh, DXLD) ** UKRAINE. Glenn, Radio Dial, on Sunday July 28 2120 (perhaps postponed from yesterday by the Lviv air disaster), announced that RUI's current Real Audio server, located in Sweden, can only serve 20 listeners at a time. They are looking at alternatives to serve more listeners. 73, (Ivan Grishin, Ont., DX LISTENING DIGEST) I doubt Ukraine is using 1000 kW. It gets a decent signal into NAm, but 100 kW can do that job. By the intermittent nature of reception, I would venture a guess that this is all they're generating (John Figliozzi, NY, swprograms July 28 via DXLD) Re 12040 at 21, 00, 03 Well, I *was* attributing RUI's web-site. And down here in the Catskills, I get a much stronger signal from Radio Ukraine than I do from Radio Bulgaria, which would lead me to believe that the former is using a stronger transmitter. Also, using a 1000 kW transmitter would help explain why they get knocked off the air for nonpayment of electric bills. The intermittent nature of their reception (at least for me) isn't due to good reception vs. bad reception on certain days, but clear reception vs. no signal whatsoever. I could be wrong, of course; it certainly wouldn't be a first :-) (Ted Schuerzinger, ibid.) ** U K [and non]. HOW AUNTIE`S RADIO KILLED BAIRD VISION From http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/index.cfm?id=813132002 Sun 28 Jul 2002 [by] TOBY MCDONALD RADIO killed the video star. The son of Scottish TV pioneer John Logie Baird has blamed the BBC`s obsession with radio for his father`s failure to capitalise on his invention. Malcolm Baird, in a major new biography of his father, accuses BBC bureaucrats of squandering a 10-year lead in television technology handed to them on a plate by the inventor. It allowed competitors in the US to dominate the market and led ultimately to the failure of Baird`s company, according to his son. Baird died in 1946, aged 57, having also invented infra-red night sights and helped to develop radar, but he never received the knighthood given to many fellow scientists. The new evidence of Helensburgh-born Baird`s battles with the BBC are contained in John Logie Baird - A Life, to be published next month. The book is co-authored by Malcolm IH Baird, 67, a professor of chemistry in Ontario, who has uncovered new material on the negotiations between the corporation and his father. "My father has not been recognised by history as he should have been," said Baird. "He was bitter about the way the BBC - which even then was a huge bureaucracy - failed to grasp the future of television. "His company, Baird Television, was starved of investment for experiments - they even had to pay for their own broadcasts on BBC equipment - and they fell behind in technology as the negotiations dragged on." The first director-general of the BBC, the "domineering and puritanical" Sir John Reith, was wary of television - first demonstrated by Baird in 1926 - and his technical staff took their lead from the top, Baird said. "By 1936, when the BBC held a competition between my father`s company and the American-backed rival to decide which system they would adopt, his company had fallen behind. "The lead had been lost, and the US won out. I`m afraid he was quite bitter - he felt the BBC should have been much more willing to co- operate." Baird, a son of the manse born in 1888, studied electrical engineering at the Royal Technical College in Glasgow and at Glasgow University. Early commercial enterprises included socks treated with a powder to absorb moisture to keep feet dry and an unsuccessful year making jam in the West Indies. On his return to Britain, he moved to Hastings, Sussex, and in his small lodgings began tinkering with an idea he first had in Helensburgh - television. "He was able to scrounge money and equipment from various sources and succeeded in building a TV apparatus almost entirely from scrap materials," said Baird. The breakthrough came in the autumn of 1925 when he was able to send recognisable black and white pictures of a human head from one room to another. A public demonstration for members of the Royal Institute in 1926 put the new technology on the map and a company was formed. The following year, Baird sent pictures from London to Glasgow and then topped that with a transatlantic transmission. But the major problem he faced in exploiting the new technology and selling TV receivers was the BBC`s monopoly on public broadcasting. With the BBC rooted in radio culture, corporation chiefs were sceptical about TV`s future. According to Baird, his father experienced severe difficulties in persuading the BBC to back him with the necessary funds. "We have minutes, notes from BBC files and notes from one of the directors of the Baird company which reveal a series of tortuous negotiations," Baird said. Test transmission began in 1929 but Baird claims the BBC didn`t take it seriously. He added: "The television signals were being put out in the late evening, after 11 pm, after the regular broadcasting had finished." The BBC also made the fledgling Baird company pay for the use of the transmitters. "That was a sore point as well," Baird said. "But the company was trapped - they simply had to have someone broadcasting before they could sell any receivers." Frustrated by the BBC`s lack of interest, Baird set up a US subsidiary. But by 1936 his company, starved of funds, had slipped behind newcomer RCA, which had entered into a leasing deal with US electronics giant Marconi/EMI. Unfortunately for Baird, Marconi/EMI`s 405-line system produced a better quality picture than his 240-line system and the BBC eventually switched to the Americans`. By February 1937, the Baird company was no longer transmitting, but it had a good line of receivers. "For a short time it looked as if the company was going to prosper," said Baird, "but with the outbreak of world war it went into receivership." His father`s technical talents were quickly recognised and he was drafted into secret work, developing radar and infra-red night vision for pilots. But his contribution to one of the great inventions of the 20th century was overlooked and he never received the honours given to his scientific peers. Baird believes his father paid the price for patriotism and his desire for his work to be exploited first in his home country. " The BBC said his system was not up to the Americans` and he said that was because he had no funding to develop it. It was the old chicken and egg situation and he was most upset when the system the BBC adopted was not his." (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** U K. THE `FIVEMEGS EXPERIMENT` STARTS THIS WEEK -- From RSGB The Radio Society of Great Britain is pleased to announce that permission has been granted by the Ministry of Defence and the Radiocommunications Agency for the allocation of five spot frequencies in the range of 5250 to 5450 kHz. The purpose of the experiment is to carry out propagation and antenna investigations aimed at improving the understanding of Near Zenithal Radiation or NVIS - Near Vertical- Incidence Skywave - communications via the ionosphere. The frequencies assigned are 5260, 5280, 5290, 5400 and 5405 kHz. These will be made available in the form of 3-kHz bandwidth channels by way of a Notice of Variation to the amateur radio licence. In the first instance, NOVs will only be issued to Full Class A licence holders. It is hoped to relax this ruling as the experiment progresses. As this is a controlled experiment, applicants will be required to report their findings and results to the RSGB. The RSGB is tasked with providing both the Radiocommunications Agency and the Ministry of Defence with reports on findings as the experiment progresses. Full licence holders interested in taking part in the 'Fivemegs Experiment' can obtain an application form and further details from the RSGB website. The first NOVs are expected to be issued by the Radiocommunications Agency on or around the 1st of August. It is anticipated that the experiment will run for a period not exceeding four years (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** U S A. Recently revamped schedules for VOA French make no reference to Roger Guy Folly, longtime host of daily and weekend music-mailbag shows. He was no Georges Colinet (veteran host of music-request shows on both VOA in EE and FF), but I'm surprised to see that such a high-profile (for VOA) personality is apparently no longer on the air. Anyone know anything more about his disappearance? (Mike Cooper, July 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WILLIAM PIERCE (Filed: 25/07/2002) http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/07/25/db2503.xml William Pierce, who has died aged 68, was America's leading white supremacist and author of The Turner Diaries, which inspired Timothy McVeigh, perpetrator of the Oklahoma bombing that killed 186 people in 1995. This novel, which the FBI regards as "the bible of the racist Right", was privately published under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald in 1978, to little notice. However, half a million copies have now been sold, following the discovery of seven pages from it in the getaway car from the atrocity. The book depicts the violent overthrow of the American government by a small group of white supremacists who finance their activities by counterfeiting and bank robberies. Both the fictional and the real bombings involved a truck which is left outside a federal government building and explodes at 9 am. Pierce's success stemmed from the growing exasperation with the liberal agenda which has mushroomed with political correctness; and he was clever enough to keep out of police hands by eschewing any direct links with acts of violence. When asked about the book's influence he had little to say; and members of his National Alliance who got into trouble with the police received no help from him. He shrewdly used the profits to embark on other ventures. There was another novel, Hunter (1984), which abhorred mixed race marriages and was dedicated to a serial killer, a comic book and translations of material into German, Russian, French and Swedish; Pierce claimed personal links with European Right-wingers but was disappointed that he could never obtain permission to visit Britain. In addition to a newsletter, he also made broadcasts on local radio stations, and owned Resistance Records, which produces CDs and a magazine promoting what is claimed to be a new industry - white power music. William Luther Pierce was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 11 1933. He obtained a PhD in Physics, and taught at Oregon State University in the mid-1960s. But exasperation with the civil rights movement led him to give up his tenured post, and join the John Birch Society. As his political views grew ever more radical, Pierce moved to Washington, DC, to become an associate of Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party. When Rockwell was assassinated in 1967, Pierce became a principal founder of the National Socialist White People's Party, though he abandoned this to found the National Youth Alliance, which wanted to enlist students to "smash" liberal causes on campuses. Inevitably, Pierce and his co-leader Willis Carto fell out, and he formed the National Alliance with those who supported him. At first he held weekly meetings to attract new members, near Washington, while formulating the philosophy of "cosmotheism" which stressed the superiority of the white race and its unity with nature. But recruitment in the nation's capital proved disappointing. In 1985 he moved to a 346-acre farm in rural West Virginia, which he named the Cosmotheist Community Church. Pierce rebutted suggestions that the $95,000 price was paid for by bank and armoured car robberies. But he failed to gain tax exemption on the grounds that the alliance was an educational body and its buildings were used exclusively for "religious purposes". Pierce could be interviewed in the two-storey trailer block, with a corrugated iron roof behind a barbed wire fence, which served as his headquarters. He would be surrounded by piles of papers, with Hitler's Mein Kampf at his side and George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman on a shelf behind him; his Burmese cat Bradley would perch on a computer or squirm seductively round his neck. While abhorring multi-culturalism and all its associations, he would carefully deny advocating violence - then denounce Jews as blood- sucking ticks. The engineers of America's discontents were the media bosses, he would declare: the feminised, judaised wimps needed to be removed from government, media and educational institutions in favour of "real white men". In an occasional moment of introspection, he would admit that this would be "a tough job." Pierce's death on Tuesday evoked varied reactions, but even his opponents admitted that he was "one of the brightest stars intellectually in the hate world". He was reported as having children, but unmarried at the time of his death. © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2002 (via Bill Westenhaver, DXLD) ** U S A. Something`s going on with WRR-FM, Dallas` classical music station. Ads (billboards?) around Dallas indicate its frequency 101.1 will become some new format, hip-hop?, and swap frequency with some other station (Mark Sills, TX via George Thurman, July 28, DXLD) Nothing found about this at http://www.wrrfm.com or the inconvenient http://www.dallasnews.com as of July 29 (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. WWJ-AM's Sonny Eliot performs his afternoon gig: Finding a few rays of sunshine regardless of actual weather conditions [caption] THE WEATHER'S ALWAYS WACKY WITH SONNY --- MEDIA LEGEND SONNY ELIOT HONORED WITH SPOT IN BROADCASTING HALL OF FAME By Michael H. Hodges / The Detroit News... http://detnews.com/2002/entertainment/0207/27/c01-546018.htm (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. WWLG in Baltimore, formerly 5 kw on 1360 w/separate day/night transmitter sites has moved to 1370 with 21 kw day, 6 kw night. It's a new 6-tower array 10 miles east of Baltimore along I-95 in Edgewood and it all goes east/northeast in the daytime. The daytime signal in Baltimore so far is awful --- much worse than 1360 was --- maybe they're still tweaking it, I don't know. If not, they have screwed up in a BIG, expensive way. Don't know how the night signal is --- I'm home by that time, and I'm not sure where the night signal goes either. Does anyone know of a website for AM siganl patterns? Kodi's site no longer provides the patterns, just station info. 73 and good DX! (Bruce WB3HVV Collier, July 29, IRCA via DXLD) This is the station previously mentioned here pretending to be ``WLG`` (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. Glenn, As I was driving to work today I was tuned to WCBS 880 AM to hear the latest news and weather as usual. After the "traffic and weather on the 8's" at 8:28 a commercial began that startled me. "December 7th, 1942 Pearl Harbor ... July 20th, 1969 man walks on the moon ... " The ad begins. The ad continues to explain that you can hear these things as they happen from thousands of correspondents all over the world, 24 hours-a-day on shortwave radio with Grundig. It mentions Grundig at Radio Shack. I don't think I've ever heard a commercial radio station on the AM or FM bands ever say "Shortwave Listener". I did today! Hope it makes a difference. (No mention of the BBC either :-) (Pete Costello, NJ, July 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. I wrote to WSHB to point out that their TX on 13770 at 22:00 on Sunday is obliterated here in W Europe by a Chinese TX on the next channel up; but they say they are happy about it and will not be shifting (Jonathan Kempster, UK, July 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. 7310, MADAGASCAR, Radio Voice of the People, 0333- 0403 Jul 24, English interview with female Zimbabwean singer, talk of her record label, performances of some songs. Male interviewer with ID - "you are tuned to Radio Voice of the People" Interview over at 0400 and into political commentary on Zimbabwe. Fair signal degrading after 0400 (John Beattie, CA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 4873v, 1.7 0100, unID LA, 4872.7, very hard to get any indication of location. Lousy audio. July 2 they were on 4873.5 at 0000 and one hour later found on 4873.25. Maybe after all one of the many Peruvian pirates getting lost and found in the 60 mb? QSA 1-2. WIK (Rolf Wikström, Sweden, SW Bulletin July 28, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Glenn, I have a new station (New to me) on 6105 kHz using Oriental language. It could be Chinese. Sounds like a upbeat type format with man and woman in comments. Some music which I can't identify as type - definitely oriental however. Heard this broadcast between 1000 and 1100 UT. Signal was at good level. Any ideas? I looked everywhere I could think of to find some help but nothing matched. The station is still audible here and active at 1120 (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston Florida, July 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) You must not have checked the new Shortwave Guide, which shows 6105 at 1000-1400, two hours each in Hakka, Cantonese from the CBS Dialect Network, Taiwan, 250 kW (gh, DXLD) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PRIME TIME SHORTWAVE A new Shortwave Frequency Sort is now available on the new improved Prime Time Shortwave website, http://www.triwest.net/~dsampson/shortwave/ Also available are schedules sorted by time or by country. A DX media program guide is available too along with links to some of the best radio related websites and international broadcasters. Your comments on the improvements are always appreciated. Good listening, (Dan Sampson, DXLD) ###