DX LISTENING DIGEST 3-039, March 9, 2003 edited by Glenn Hauser, ghauser@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/dxldtd3c.html [note change] HTML version of February issues: http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldtd3b.html HTML version of all January issues: http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldtd3a.html For restrixions and searchable 2003 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html For restrixions and searchable 2002 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid2.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 NEXT AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1172: RFPI: Sun 1830, Mon 0030, 0630, 1230, Tue 1900, Wed 0100, 0700, 1300 on 7445 and/or 15038.6 WBCQ: Mon 0545 7415 WJIE: Mon 0700, 1300, Tue 0700, 1300... 7490 WWCR: Wed 1030 9475 WRN ONDEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO: Check http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html [Low] (Download) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1172.rm (Stream) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1172.ram [High] (Download) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1172h.rm (Stream) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1172h.ram (Summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1172.html ** AFGHANISTAN. NEW "VOICE OF AFGHAN WOMEN" PROGRAMME LAUNCHED BY UNESCO | Text of report by Afghan radio on 8 March A new radio channel named "Voice of Afghan Women" commenced broadcasting on International Women's Day, 8 March 2003. The Voice of Afghan Women, broadcast on FM, is financed by UNESCO, and its programmes will be on air from 1600-1700 hours daily. Source: Radio Afghanistan, Kabul, in Pashto 1330 gmt 8 Mar 03 (via BBCM via DXLD) NEW VOICE OF AFGHAN WOMEN RADIO STATION IS OFFICIALLY INAUGURATED | Text of report by Afghan television on 8 March The inaugural ceremony of the first independent Voice of Afghanistan Radio was held today. Bakhtar Information Agency reported that Afghan women have been through a period of tension. After the establishment of the interim administration and the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan, for the first time the country's women have succeeded in setting up an independent radio station. They managed to do this after succeeding in publishing dozens of newspapers and magazines on the basis of the freedom they have attained. The deputy minister for publication affairs, Abdol Hamid Mobarez, attended the inaugural ceremony of the independent Voice of Afghanistan Radio. He called the establishment of the Voice of Afghan Women radio station a significant step in securing the rights of women in the country. He said how pleased he was that the Voice of Afghan Women radio station had been set up. Mobarez said that the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan supported women's rights, but problems still existed in the provinces, and women in the provinces were still being subjected to prejudice and restrictions. He hoped that Afghan women could bolster their movement across the country and achieve their rights. Mobarez thanked UNESCO for its assistance in establishing this radio station. Later on, the Minister for Women's Affairs, Habiba Sorabi, and a representative from the UNESCO [Kabul] office, Mr Martin [Hadlow], talked about the establishment of the Voice of Afghan Women radio station. They said it was a substantial step towards promoting awareness among Afghan women. Jamila Mojahed, who is in charge of the Voice of Afghan Women radio station, in her short talk, said the Voice of Afghan Women radio had been established with the financial backing of UNESCO. She said that the radio station will broadcast from 1600 [local time, 1100 gmt] until 1700 [1200 gmt] on 91.6FM. She said the radio's programmes would cover education, law, health, and social sectors. She expressed a determination to expand the radio broadcasts in the next few weeks. It is noteworthy that over the past two years, dozens of public organizations and communities have been set up to develop awareness among women. Women have with doubt played a key role in establishing those organizations and also in setting up the Voice of [Afghan] Women radio station. Later on, Dr Habiba Sorabi and Abdol Hamid Mobarez jointly inaugurated the radio station. Source: Afghanistan Television, Kabul, in Dari 1530 gmt 8 Mar 03 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. 1680, Radio Getro, Lanus Oeste, Buenos Aires, 02/03 0030, diversas identificações: "...comuníquese con Radio Getro 4875-2074... AM 1680 Radio Getro... desde Buenos Aires, transmite 1680 Radio Getro... Radio Getro, excelencia en radio...". 25532 (Nota: A banda extendida de ondas médias não se mostrou muito favorável nas noites, ouvindo-se apenas a Radio Getro e por vezes a 1630 AM La Plata, já reportada anteriormente). Receptor: Sony ICF SW7600G, antenas: telescópica (FM), DZ45 (ondas médias) e longwire 30 metros (ondas curtas). Um forte 73 a todos, (Rudolf W. Grimm, São Bernardo, SP - Brasil, radioescutas via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. RAE - RADIODIFUSION ARGENTINA AL EXTERIOR HORARIOS Y FRECUENCIAS - TIMETABLES & FREQUENCIES A-03 30/03/03 al 26/10/03 6060 KHz Banda de 49 metros 11710 KHz Banda de 25 metros 9690 KHz Banda de 31 metros 15345 KHz Banda de 19 metros U.T.C. IDIOMA PROGRAMA FRECUENCIA DESTINO 0900-1200 CASTELLANO PANORAMA NACIONAL DE NOTICIAS 6060-15345 AMERICA 1000-1200 JAPONES *PROGRAMA JAPONES 11710 LEJANO ORIENTE 1200-1400 CASTELLANO *PROGRAMA CASTELLANO 15345 AMERICA (Micro: Lenguas aborígenes) [detalles???] 1800-1900 INGLES *PROGRAMA INGLES 9690 15345 EUROPA 1900-2000 ITALIANO *PROGRAMA ITALIANO 9690 15345 EUROPA 2000-2100 FRANCES *PROGRAMA FRANCES 9690 15345 EUROPA-N.AFRICA 2100-2200 ALEMAN *PROGRAMA ALEMAN 9690 15345 EUROPA-N.AFRICA 2200-2300 CASTELLANO *PROGRAMA CASTELLANO 6060 11710-15345 EUROPA-N.AFRICA 2300-2400 CASTELLANO *PROGRAMA CASTELLANO 6060 11710-15345 AMERICA- EUROPA (Micro: Lenguas aborígenes) [detalles???] 0000-0200 PORTUGUES *PROGRAMA PORTUGUES 11710 AMERICA 0200-0300 INGLES *PROGRAMA INGLES 11710 AMERICA 0300-0400 FRANCES *PROGRAMA FRANCES 11710 AMERICA - Transmisión LRA 1 Radio Nacional Buenos Aires, AM 870 Khz.- * Transmisión de Lunes a Viernes (Mondays to Fridays).- ** Transmisión Sábados Fcias.: 6060 y 15345 KHz de 2000 a 0230 / Frec. 11710 de 2000 a 2200 Domingos Fcias.: 6060 y 15345 KHz, de 1800 a 0300 señal Radio Nacional AM 870 KHz / Frec 11710 de 1800 a 0100 On the air Saturdays on 6060 & 15345 KHz: 2000 & 0230; 11710: 2000 & 2300 Sundays on 6060 & 15345 KHz.: 1400 a 0300: signal Radio Nacional AM 870 KHz. 11710 1800 & 0100. Telefax RAE 54 11 4325 6368 Casilla de Correo 555 - C1000WAF Buenos Aires -Republica Argentina Correo electronico: rae@radionacional.gov.ar barrera@arg.sicoar.com (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. STREET FM`S PIRATE IMAGE, 06 Mar 2003 Melbourne based dance station Street FM is branding itself with a pirate image as it expands its narrowcast services. The station is now broadcasting in Melbourne and on the Gold Coast at FM 87.6 and plans to expand to Sydney, Perth, Darwin, Port Douglas and Maroochydore. ``We have produced a series of posters containing the following Pirate Flag image... posted around Melbourne's streets. At Street 87.6 FM we are harnessing the cohesion between likeminded, industry involved enterprises. Dance venues and Dance radio have 3 very telling things in common: music, dj's, dancers,`` says General Manager Simon Slieker. EXTERNAL LINKS http://www.streetfm.com.au (Radio Info March 6, via Tim Gaynor, DXLD) So are these really unlicensed?? (gh, DXLD) ** BENIN. 5025, 27.2 1900, Radio Parakou med franska nyheter. Parakou-info (meddelanden) 19.13. QSA 3. JE (Jan Edh, Sweden, SW Bulletin via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. Saludos desde Suécia en Europa del Norte! Ahora es posible escuchar la radio emisora en su país Radio Constelación en Guanay (La Paz) en la frecuencia 4760 kHz en la banda onda corta aquí en Suécia y porque me pregunto si es posible para Uds. informarme la dirección electrónico o la dirección postal al Señor Director de la Programación de Radio Constelación, Radio Guanay? Una contestación de Uds. es muy apreciado ! Atentamente (Roffe A. Wicstrom wicstrom@swipnet.se via Mike Dorner, DXLD) Current listing: 4761.70 BOLIVIA R Guanay, Guanay [0936-1035/2245-0215](.3-.7) Dec 02 X Quechua (a)R Constelacion? http://www.sover.net/~hackmohr/newsw.htm (LA DX, Mark Mohrmann, via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Hi All- I could use a bit of help on the below -- BRAZIL? 2460 ? 1002 with Mass. Had my mind set on a harmonic, but was very surprised to hear an announcer in Portuguese at 1029. Just too many static crashes to catch an ID at this time. First guess would be the shortwave station here, Radio Alvorada, but I guess we shouldn't rule out a harmonic since I didn't hear any ID. Does anyone know if Alvorada carries a Mass at this time? I tried the next day (Mar 8) to tune in, but reception was very poor in comparison to the 7th (Hans Johnson, Tallulah, Louisiana, USA Drake R8, 100 ft long wire, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Hello Hans, I was verifying your Log and I verified that only a Brazilian radio station exists in 2.460 KHz, it is to Rádio Alvorada, located in the city of Rio Branco that is the capital of the state of Acre, in the north of Brazil. She transmits with 1 KW of potency and it is difficult of being captured to for the Brazilian dexistas. As it is a small, same radio being of a capital, I advise if you will order reception Report, to send a together IRC. Her address is: Av. It will Have dinner, 2150 69.900-970 Rio Branco - Acre, Brazil a hug, (Adalberto, Barbacena, MG via Hans Johnson, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Let`s hear it for machine translation!!! (gh, DXLD) Hello Hans, I don't speak English and I used like this a computer program (Translator For 6.2) to write the E-mail and only now in your answer observed that he translated the name of the street of the address, correct like this the address that is: Rádio Alvorada Av. Ceará, 2150 69900-460 - Rio Branco - Acre, Brasil (Adalberto, Cumbre via DXLD) ** BULGARIA. LOCAL RADIO STATIONS MUST CLOSE The Communications Regulation Commission (KRS) has decided to annul the licenses of 25 local radio stations throughout Bulgaria, "Sega" reported on 27 February. The decision follows a ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court, according to which the stations' licenses were granted as a result of procedural mistakes. The stations affected by the decision include, among others, Sofia University's Radio Alma Mater. ("RFE/RL Newsline," 27 February via RFE/RL Media Matters March 7 via DXLD) ** BURKINA FASO. Hi Glenn, Don't know if this old hat, but I heard an African station on 4815 at 0615z. No ID heard, blocked by strong signal of Spanish sailors talking. I suppose this is Radio Burkina Faso re-activated on 'original' frequency. (March 8). Cheers, (Piet Pijpers, Netherlands, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. CBC GETS EXTRA FUNDING -- Last Updated 2003-03-07 TORONTO - An extra $60 million will be added to the CBC's $1 billion operating budget, Heritage Minister Shelia Copps confirmed Friday. Copps told reporters that the top-up funds will be in the 2003-2004 fiscal framework. CBC has been granted the $60 million in extra support in each of the past two years. "The reason it wasn't in the previous estimates is it's kind of the bureaucratic way they table money issues," said Copps, who spoke to the press after a meeting with representatives of Ontario's artistic and cultural communities. FULL STORY: http://cbc.ca/artsCanada/stories/copps070303 (CBC.ca News via Bill Doskoch, Toronto, CAJ-list via Ricky Leong, DXLD) Wonder how this money is being dispersed? This is almost 4 times RCI's budget!!! --- (Ricky Leong, DX LISTENING DIGEST) COPPS CONFIRMS EXTRA $60M FOR CBC http://makeashorterlink.com/?C3E125DB3 (Toronto Star via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** CHECHNYA [non]. Re: cf. WRTH, which has a typo though: 12065 instead of 12025: Some confusion here I think. 7365, 12065, 12005, 5895 is the usual Krasnodar transmitter with R Rossii. It is still operating on 12065 late mornings with the midday frequency being 12005 as listed by HFCC. 12025 is a different transmitter, seemingly Lesnoy 250 kW, and appears not to be used for RCS on other frequencies. The 0730 s/on seems to indicate a usage on another frequency until 0700, but apparently this is not true. The carrier signs on late (0712 noted) on 12025, while a normal frequency switch requires 'only' 7 minutes or so. 73 /(Olle Alm, Sweden, March 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) A correction to my notes above: The evening frequency of the Krasnodar R Rossii transmitter currently is 9490, not 5895. 5895 has the VOR Sodruzhestvo service in the early evening. Later the frequency is empty. /(Olle Alm, ibid.) That's right, I messed up the schedule, 12065 in WRTH is not a typo. I checked Rudnev's schedules once again, and I saw that this was not the only mixup, I hope I will put it right this time. The supposed schedule of Tbilisskaya 100 kW in B02 acc. to Nikolai Rudnev was: 0200-0500 on 7365 0530-0900 on 12065 0930-1600 on 12005 1630-2200 on 9490 (since 1 March, replacing 5895). 73s, (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re the website of Chechnya Svobodnaya: I cannot find any mention of the radio transmissions there, so it is certainly meant for audiences outside Chechnya. Of course this website is related; it contains many audios and is produced by Voice of Russia (Kai Ludwig via Bernd Trutenau, DXLD) And info@chechnyafree.ru confirms reception reports for the "Radio Chechnya Svobodnaya" broadcasts. And I think that this 9490 from Tbilisskaya is the actual reason why the Suxum transmitter in Abkhazia moved up 5 kHz to 9495 recently... 73s, (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. MORE HOURS OF BROADCASTING FROM CRI PROMISED Hi, Daniel, how are you? Summer, [Xia JiXuan, VP of CRI], forwarded me a letter of yours dated on January 30, in which you suggested we produce more hours of program. Well, we are working on that and hopefully you'll be able to hear the second hour in two or three months. I'll let you know when we are ready. China's National People's Congress is underway. As a matter of fact, at this moment, the outgoing premier Zhu Rongji is delivering a government report. Lin Shaowen and two others are at the Great Hall of People doing the simultaneous cast. Regards. (Li Ping, [Chief Announcer] [Head, English Section, China Radio International] via Dan Say, BC, March 6, swprograms via DXLD) Gotta keep up with Taiwan, which has had a 2-hour English broadcast for a long time (gh, DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. NATIONAL AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY SAVED BY A MIRACLE Colombia`s national Amateur Radio Society has received a reprieve from extinction. At least a temporary one. We have this in-depth look at what happened and what`s being done to save the LCRA. Colombia`s national ham radio society remains on the brink of being dissolved and you may soon hear very few of that nations hams on the air. This, according to Fred Laun, K3ZO in a report that originally appeared in a number of DX newsletters. The reason? The economy. According to Laun, his old friend Beto Rojas, HK3DDD, in Bogota informed him that postal rates in Colombia were doubled as of January 1st. That it now costs the equivalent of $2.00 US to send a letter to the United States. And as a result Colombian hams would have to pay the equivalent of 13 cents per QSL to send outgoing cards through the bureau. That 13 cent fee would not be to bad except for the fact that the bureau probably won`t be available much longer. This, because the Colombian IARU member society -- the Liga Colombiana de Radioaficionados -- LCRA -- was to meet on Saturday, March 1st to dissolve itself. The problem is that LCRA membership is down. It now only has 200 paid members. It also had the equivalent of 8000 United States dollars in debt. Its leaders felt that it could no longer stay in business. But says Laun, a miracle actually happened. At the meeting one of the members donated $7000 to pay off most of the current debt. So, LCRA will continue to operate as Colombia`s national society for at least the next three months. During that time the leadership will try to figure out what went wrong and see if they can get the organization back on an even keel. In a note to Amateur Radio Newsline, Laun says that several Colombian hams were apparently moved by the messages they received from around the world and have vowed to try to rescue their almost 70 year old society from the brink of oblivion. Even so, HK3DDD tells Laun that many Colombian hams have stopped calling CQ and some have even terminated all high frequency operations. This is because they can no longer afford to handle the economic consequences of the demand for QSL cards. Also says HK3DDD, some Colombian DXers who are still on the air are simply listening, searching and pouncing on rare ones these days. Instead of being the DX, they are selectively looking for new countries for themselves. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I`m Norm Seeley, KI7UP . The bottom line to all of this? HK prefix hams may soon become very rare on the HF ands and those whom you work may never be able to QSL. (K3ZO) (Amateur Radio Newsline March 7 via John Norfolk, DXLD) Sounds like they are under huge pressure to QSL. I thought that was optional... (gh, DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. Podría algún colega informarme que ha pasado con Radio Patria Libre, si la han escuchado recientemente o fué cerrada definitivamente o si cambió de frecuencia. Y radio El Pueblo Responde, qué ha pasado con estas señales. Existe acaso otra radio de este tipo, por los lados de Colombia, en qué se frecuencia se encuentran, ya que tengo tiempo que no oigo a ninguna. En internet en cierta oportunidad, vi una lista grande de estas emisoras, pero no se oyen por ningún lado. Muchas gracias por adelantado a los colegas. Atte: (José Elías, Venezuela, Conexión Digital via DXLD) Hola José, La Radio Patria libre hace varios años fue decomisada y al paracer el ELN tiene como también tiene las Farc emisoras de FM en varios lugares. El Pueblo Responde hace años no transmite; nunca fueron claros los responsables de esta emisora, ya que si fue del Ejército no entiendo por qué no la volvieron a encender en fechas recientes cuando se ha reportado la Voz de la Resistencia. Hace poco un colega panameño a través de DXLD reportó a la Voz de la Resistencia en onda corta pero yo no la he escuchado desde hace varios meses. Actualmente me encuentro de vacaciones y voy a viajar a conocer Loma Linda en el Dpto. del Meta desde donde se emite la Voz de tu Conciencia. Esta zona es de influencia guerrillera así que es probable pueda escuchar alguna de las estaciones en FM de las Farc; además me comenta Martin Stendal que por estos lugares hay otras estaciones que sin ser clandestinas operan sin autorización. Confio en reunir un buen material para compartirlo con los amigos de la Lista (Rafael Rodríguez, Bogotá, Conexión Digital March 7 via DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. 2879.97 harmonic, Radio Reloj, Tuluá. Feb 27 2003 - 1100 UT. I have seldom heard a harmonic with such a strong signal. With the news cast "Alerta Valle del Cauca" and "Radio Reloj Tuluá" IDs. Harmonic from 1440 kHz (2 x 1439.98). (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, March 8, SW Bulletin, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Comandante Ernesto "Ché" Guevara de la Serna founded Radio Rebelde on February 24, 1958 in Altos de Conrado in the Sierra Maestra mountain range, eastern Cuba. http://www.granma.cu/ingles/feb03/jue27/8rebelde-i.html (via Jilly Dybka, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** DENMARK. Hi DX friends, Today afternoon a team from TV2, Denmark was here, making a ``live interview`` with me in my small radio room, about Radio Tikrit and Clandestine Radio. It will be sent on Sunday, March the 9th at 1900 hours UT in the programme ``Dags Dato`` and also via Internet. So, this is information for those of you who are able to and interested in this matter. 73 from (Björn Fransson on the island of Gotland, Sweden, March 8, hard-core-dx via DXLD) Björn, Congratulations on all the press attention you are getting.... Since you tell us about this in English, does that mean the TV interview will be available in English? 73, Glenn (via DXLD) Hi Glenn, Yes, what a big thing about a small thing, but I think that I can make a lot of good P R for our devoted hobby by being hospitable, so I haven't said "No" although things have taken too big proportions. So TV now - what's next? They interviewed me in Danish and I answered in Swedish (Gotland belonged to Denmark once, so we understand quite good each other), so probably there is nothing in English. But they are going to talk to other persons as well (BBC Monitoring maybe and an old CIA man), so if you can watch it on the Internet (they said it was possible), maybe it's worth it. Have a nice weekend and 73 from (Björn Fransson, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DEUTSCHES REICH [non]. "ZUNDEL MUST STAY IN JAIL 'ON SECURITY GROUNDS'" http://www.canada.com/stcatharines/story.asp?id=B88A6C8C-CCE1-40B5-9A9F-A1A685EC7F7B For security reasons, Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel was ordered to remain in the Niagara Detention Centre Friday. The controversial man, who is seeking refugee status in Canada, was refused release from the Thorold jail "on security grounds," said Charles Hawkins, an Immigration and Refugee Board spokesman. That decision was made by Immigration and Refugee Board member Ken Thomson following a 21/2-hour detention review hearing at the board's Niagara Falls office. Federal government lawyer David MacIntosh argued Ottawa has reason to believe Zundel is a security concern and should be detained. Zundel represented himself. Friday's hearing was Zundel's second since he was turned over to Canadian immigration officials Feb. 19 after being deported from the United States. Zundel has been locked up at the local jail since arriving in Canada. The Crown and Zundel also agreed Friday that future hearings will be open to the public. The next hearing is expected to be held next Friday. "On consent of both parties, the Immigration division member decided that Mr. Zundel's matters before the immigration hearing would be public," said Hawkins. The Canadian Jewish Congress has said allowing public scrutiny of Zundel's efforts to remain in Canada might end up playing right into his hands. "We have to balance the public's need to know ... with Ernst Zundel's absolute fetish for publicity and the oxygen that feeds that publicity," Bernie Farber, executive director of the Ontario division of the congress, said earlier this week. Zundel was arrested Feb. 3 at his Tennessee home for overstaying a visitor's visa. The German citizen was returned to Canada because he entered the U.S. from Ontario. If Zundel is deported to Germany, he will face charges of suspicion of incitement of hate. Those charges, filed earlier this month, stem from material on his Web site, which denies that the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis during the Second World War ever took place. Zundel's American-based Web site said he sought "political asylum" in Canada. Zundel immigrated to Canada as a teenager in 1958. During the 1980s, he became a notorious figure known for holding news conferences wearing hardhats or skull caps, or strapped to a crucifix. He twice attempted to obtain Canadian citizenship. In the late 1980s, he was convicted of the little-known charge of spreading false news, but the decision was overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada. In the late 1990s, the issue was whether his Toronto Web site disseminated hate. Before losing that battle, Zundel moved to the United States. © Copyright 2003 St Catharines Standard (via Fred Waterer, DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. On Sunday, March 9, 2003, a test program of Voice of Ethiopian Medhin will be broadcast on shortwave from 1800- 1900 UTC on 7520 kHz. The broadcasts in Amharic originate from The Ethiopian Medhin Democratic Party and are directed towards Europe (Ludo Maes, TDP Mailing List, Belgium, March 9, 2003, also via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** FIJI. RADIO BROADCASTING IN FIJI - THE EARLY YEARS Back more than a quarter of a century ago, I made my first itinerary across the Pacific, travelling from California to Australia. We as a family visited four different island groups in the one day, and ended the day with a speaking appointment at the Adventist College near Suva in Fiji. Next morning on the way to the airport, I made a brief stop at the studio building of Radio Fiji. I asked the official about the old transmitters that were in use before the Pacific War, mediumwave ZJV and shortwave VPD2, indicating that these were two very valuable historic units. He said: "Yes, they are valuable, but they are too large and cumbersome. We have no room for them here at Radio Fiji and there is no room for them in the national museum. If you want one, you can have it", he said, pointing to the large transmitter in the foyer. No, there was no way that I could accept his offer and transport the huge old AWA transmitter on the plane. The islands of Fiji are located in the South Pacific, north of New Zealand and out from Australia. There are more than 800 islands in the Fiji group, made up of mainly volcanic outcrops and coral ridges. The two main islands are Viti Levu (VEE-TEE LEE-VOO), meaning "Big Fiji" and Vanua Levu (VAH-NOO-a LEE-VOO) meaning "Big Land". The total land area is a little more than 7,000 square miles and the capital city is Suva which is located on the largest island. The total population of Fiji is less than one million people, made up mainly of Fijians of Melanesian descent, and descendants of Indians brought over from India during the colonial era. The official language is English, though Fijian and Hindustani are widely spoken in the ethnic groups. In its early history, the Fijians were cannibals. However, in the year 1871, Chief Cakobau (CACK-a-BOE) united most of the islanders, and with the aid of the king of Tonga, brought peace to the islands. Three years later, Chief Cakobau invited the English to make the islands a British crown colony, and 100 years later, in 1970, Fiji was granted independence. The story of wireless and radio in Fiji goes right back to the early days. Immediately prior to World War 1, three spark wireless transmitters were installed at three different locations in Fiji. One early report indicates that these were German units, and therefore made probably by Telefunken. These three transmitters were given abbreviated callsigns as was the custom at the time, though soon after the war these were changed according to the recently introduced international prefixes. Here now is the list of the three early wireless stations, together with the old and new callsigns: Suva SVA VPD Lambasa LBA VPE Tavenui TVA VPF In the early 1920s, new valve transmitters were installed at each of these wireless stations, and a new station, VQL, was installed at Savu. These four wireless/radio stations were in use for inter- island and ship to shore communication, though at times there was an attempt at experimental broadcasting. The main station in this network of radio stations in Fiji was VPD, located on the edge of the capital city, Suva. Interestingly though, the callsign VPD was also in use at the same time for a shortwave broadcasting station located at Doveritz, near Berlin in Germany. A new radio facility was installed near Suva by AWA in 1930 and the transmitter power was probably around 200 watts. Although this was primarily a communication facility, occasional program broadcasts were made from this transmitter. On one occasion, station VPD broadcast a special relay to VK2ME in Sydney with the Fijian segment of the famous "South Seas Broadcast" of 1933. Another special broadcast from VPD was a relay from Sydney of the Royal Wedding in London, in November 1934. Regular program broadcasting on shortwave was carried out from that time onwards. The familiar mediumwave station with the nostalgic callsign ZJV went on the air in March 1936. During this era, three different QSL cards were issued for stations VPD & ZJV, from both Sydney & Suva. The original QSL card from VPD was a color map of the Pacific and the second card showed a coastal fishing scene. The QSL card from ZJV showed a Fijian village scene (Adrian Michael Peterson, AWR Wavescan March 9 via DXLD) ** GERMANY. SILVER ANNIVERSARY FOR DEUTSCHE WELLE BUT INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTER WORRIES THAT BUDGET CUTS COULD MEAN FEWER PROGRAMS AND MORE LAYOFFS --- By Peter Sturm, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle marks its 50th anniversary this year, though few employees feel like celebrating. More budget cuts, which would likely mean layoffs, are feared... http://www.faz.com/IN/INtemplates/eFAZ/docmain.asp?rub=%7BB1311FCC-FBFB-11D2-B 228-00105A9CAF88%7D&doc=%7B19E0261C-0CEC-45BC-B997-29098CB42BBB%7D (via Jilly Dybka, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** GUATEMALA. 3299.98, Radio Cultural, Ciudad Guatemala. Feb 2003 - 0200 UT. Reactivated and I don`t think I have heard the station earlier on this frequency. Strong signal and at 0300 in English . Religious all the time with male locutor. At one occasion TV-audio relay (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, March 8, SW Bulletin, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL. To see a world map overlaid with all MWARA frequencies go to: http://www.ute-monitor.org/aerolist/maps/HFAERO.jpg Caution! Map is 1.3 MB, very large (Robert Ellis, March CIDX Messenger via DXLD) ** IRAQ [non]. Glenn. Here's the latest update for American Psyops transmissions out of Kuwait. Only the times have changed (with MORE hours of transmission time): 690 (1500-2000 UT) 756 (1500-0900 UT) 9715 (24 hours, multiple platforms) [what does that mean?] 11292 (1500-0900 UT) 100.4 (1500-2000 UT) (Tim Lemmon, WK4U, Bahrain, March 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAQ [non]. Mail from Cairo, Egypt: V. of Iraq Liberation on 4025 SW, 1206 MW, seemingly a US Propaganda station using same channel. The Kurdish station on 4025 kHz used to have the Identification "Voice of the People of Kurdistan" transmitting from Sulaymanyah - Iraqi Kurdistan. [V. of People of Kurdistan 4024.85 IRQ 1444-1502 UT] Now changed the ID to the "Voice of Liberation of Iraq" in Arabic 'Sout Tahrir al Iraq'. I'm tuning in to them 1930 UT on 4025 kHz with strange messages to the Iraqi soldiers. "Please don't attack the collation forces which mainly getting here to liberate you all from the dictator Iraqi regime. So don't listen to the Iraqi regime and never fight these forces, another message, please. Surrender to the collation forces, drop your arms we will treat you very will and will let you keep your personal stuff with you, otherwise you'll be treated as a POW and will have a justice trial !!! Strange Identification and strange messages! Also there was some readings of reports. MAINLY from the Washington Post nx paper!! It's 2000 UT and they are still on with these slogans and reports (Tarek Zeidan, Egypt, SU1TZ, via BC-DX March 7 via DXLD) Hi xxxx, as promised here's my report about 4025 kHz V. of Iraq Liberation: The station signed on around 1825 UT with classical patriotic music, around 1830 ID, we transmit twice daily on 9.30 A.M and P.M Baghdad Time (that's 0630 and 1830 UT) on two frequencies 1206 kHz mediumwave MW and 4025 kHz shortwave. After the ID they started the program with a Call to the Iraqi soldiers, O sons of the armed forces of Iraq, the decisions of Sadaam led to civil terrorism and losing the wars you participated in as the leader of the armed forces though he never served in the Army. Furthermore he got all his relatives to the high ranks of the army, with his decision to assassinate the leaders of the anti war civilians and soldiers, or pushing them to jail, the only language that dictator knows is the language of terror and killing. Now it's time to crash that dictator and kicking him off IRAQ, don't shoot your brothers or those who came to help to liberate you, join the coalition forces to get rid of the dictator, your main mission now is to free Iraq and building a new democratic nation to get Iraq back to its natural position in the international arena. Followed by an Iraqi song, then another call to the national guards, same stuff. Then a report about Iraq after the war, talking about dividing Iraq to THREE areas South, Central, and North. North and south areas will be ruled by an American general and the central area will be ruled by Iraqi ruler. Another song, then a report from the Daily Express, the British news paper, and CIA spokesman stating that the war will be around the 17th of March!!! Another call to the armed forces soldiers, followed by a report about women and human rights in Iraq. ID, followed by a report from the UN about the UK+USA+Spain new UN resolution against Iraq and stating again that the 17th of March will be the end of diplomacy and the arms will begin to talk!!! Song, another message to the Iraqi soldiers: don't listen to the orders of the dictator, don't shoot those who came to liberate you, you went through so many wars according to his orders, used chemical weapons in Kurdistan and killed the rebels in north and south of Iraq after what happened in Kuwait. Look forward to a bright and happy future of Iraq, Iraq with no wars, mass distraction [sic] weapons, tears, homeless, POWs, gather all your forces to kick Saddam out, end dictatorship and replace it with democracy. A report from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan about the moves of the US soldiers all over North Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Another call, my dear soldier brother, you have a great future in Iraq after Saddam; don't let your hands be covered with Iraqi blood ... liberate from dictatorship. And by 2023, here we come to the end of our transmission and we will meet again at 0930 hours on our next transmission, ``Huna sout tahrir al Iraq``. Signed off around 2025 UT. Well, I was really hoping they would give out any contact details. Or web site ... but nothing at all. All the credit goes to Mr. Mika from http://www.dxing.info as he's the one who told me about that station (TAREK ZEIDAN, Egypt, SU1TZ, via BC-DX March 8 via DXLD) Viz.: VOICE OF IRAQI LIBERATION NEW ON 4025 KHZ SHORTWAVE A new clandestine radio station identifying as the Voice of Iraqi Liberation ("Sawt al-Tahrir al-Iraq" in Arabic) has been discovered. According to information obtained by DXing.info, the station broadcasts twice daily, at 0630- and 1830-2030 UTC on 1206 and 4025 kHz. Programming is directed at the Iraqi military, especially at the elite Republican Guard forces. The station has been heard identifying as follows: "This is the Voice of Iraqi Liberation, the Voice of Democracy, equality, liberation, living together and civil rule" as translated by Tarek Zeidan in Egypt. The Voice of Iraqi Liberation is urging Iraqi soldiers to defect to the coalition forces "who are coming to liberate Iraq and to get rid of the Iraqi regime". It has also told the Iraqi public that the coalition forces will not harm civilians, but "are here to help you". According to the Voice of Iraqi Liberation, Osama bin Laden and his supporters kill innocent people for no reason, just like Saddam Hussein and the members of his regime. The Voice of Iraqi Liberation was first heard by Mika Mäkeläinen in Finland on March 6 signing off at 2031 UT. According to subsequent monitoring by Tarek Zeidan, the Washington Post is mentioned as source in most of the news reports read on the air. However, the Voice of Iraqi Liberation has not announced any contact information or given any direct indication of its political affiliation. It uses the transmitters of the Voice of the People of Kurdistan, but its programming is clearly separate. For example in the evenings the transmission of the Voice of the People of Kurdistan ends at 1800 UT, followed by a break before the Voice of Iraqi Liberation begins broadcasting. The transmitters are located in Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq. Voice of the People of Kurdistan is the mouthpiece of Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). A sample station identification of the Voice of Iraqi Liberation and of the Voice of the People of Kurdistan can be found in the DXing.info audio archive, and more information on the Iraqi radio scene is available in the article Monitoring Iraq: War of the Airwaves (DXing.info, March 8, 2003 via DXLD) ** IRAQ [non]. SUMMARY OF RADIO TIKRIT BROADCAST BETWEEN 1900 AND 2100 GMT 6 MARCH [Reception very poor to worthless in parts] 1. Announcement: Huna Radio Tikrit: This is Radio Tikrit - which is repeated several times. "Huna Radio Tikrit for the whole of Iraq and all the Iraqis, Radio Tikrit." 2. Programme preview 3. Readings from the Holy Koran 4. Religious lecture on the importance of performing all the Islamic rites. 5. News bulletin starting with news headlines: a. US State Department started campaign against Iraqi diplomats in a number of countries. b. US Central Command said allied aircraft carried out raids against targets in southern Iraq. c. British diplomatic efforts reportedly under way to give more time to Iraq to achieve disarmament. d. Iraq has destroyed more Al-Summud missiles. e. Chinese foreign minister said his country supported German, French and Russian stance on Iraq. f. Russian foreign minister and Colin Powell agreed to hold meeting in New York tomorrow on sidelines of UN Security Council's meeting. 6. Review of the press. 7. Weather forecast. 8. Item, with an Iraqi song, expressing best wishes to Iraqis to live a decent life . 9. Programme summary: a. Britain preparing to put forward compromise to draft resolution on Iraq. b. Arab foreign ministers' delegation meets UN secretary-general in attempt to avert war on Iraq. c. Commander of US forces in Gulf region said his soldiers fully prepared to move in case of Bush's decision to wage war on Iraq. d. USA asks a number of world states to expel Iraqi intelligence official working under cover of diplomatic staff. e. Colin Powell said Iraq hiding equipment for manufacturing Al- Summud missiles. f. Kofi Annan said Canadian proposal on giving extra time to Iraq was good foundation for solving problem. 10. Item wondering where all the millions of dollars which went to European banks are, whereas the Iraqi people were deprived of these funds. The item recalls the suffering of the Iraqi people and their bad living conditions. The item says it was high time that people recovered their rights and dignity and lived like all people in the world, without weapons and without hearing the sound of bullets. The item says that this time is close God willing. 11. Item says that Iraq has rich water and other resources and is living in drought conditions and an ordeal at the same time because of Saddam's security measures. The operation of drying the marches and the forced deportation of people are recalled. 12. Iraqi songs. [Reception became worthless for a few minutes]. 13. Songs 14. Announcement: Huna Radio Tikrit: This is Radio Tikrit - which is repeated several times. "Huna Radio Tikrit for the whole of Iraq and all the Iraqis, Radio Tikrit." 15. Music 16. Item presenting the story and biography of an Iraqi staff colonel born in Baghdad who became court president. [Reception very poor to worthless during this item]. 17. News summary [See news summary above]. 18. People were proud to serve in the army before the advent of the Ba'thist regime in Iraq. The item condemns the actions carried out by the army against people after the uprising following the Gulf war. After Saddam has rejected all peaceful proposals, there is no hope to avert the ordeals of war. Many people in Iraq will be seeking revenge against those who killed their relatives. After their lifelong ordeal, these Iraqi people do not deserve a harsh response from the army officer in the Republican Guard or other forces. The UN will be present in the battleground and will record all deliberate killings of Iraqi civilians, use of banned weapons, destruction of homes and other war crimes which would lead those who commit them to international punishment. [Call to army officers:] Our brothers, the officers need to think a thousand times in every step they make and in every order they are asked to implement as Iraq will be different from today's Iraq and its laws will be different. Source: BBC Monitoring research in Arabic 6 Mar 03 (via DXLD) ** IRAQ [non]. STRIDES IN TECHNOLOGY MAGNIFY INFO WAR POTENTIAL By Anick Jesdanun, AP, 2/28/03 NEW YORK -- Imagine Iraqi commanders getting misleading text messages on their cell phones. They appear to contain orders from Saddam Hussein but are actually sent by the U.S. military in disguise, directing Iraqi troops to a trap... http://digitalmass.boston.com/news/2003/02/28/wartech.html (via Jilly Dybka, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. LAPID PLANS TO SHUT DOWN ULTRA-ORTHODOX PIRATE RADIO STATIONS --- By Debbie Berman March 7, 2003, Israel Insider http://web.israelinsider.com/bin/en.jsp?enPage=ArticlePage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enDispWho=Article%5El2054&enZone=Politics&enVersion=0& Justice Minister Tommy Lapid plans to propose legislation to shut down pirate radio stations serving the ultra-Orthodox and right- wing public. Outraged station operators say they provide quality programming suited to their audience's needs and do not intend to cave in to Lapid's demands. Despite governmental protests, as many as an estimated forty illegal Israeli pirate radio stations have cropped up in the past decade. Most of the illegal stations serve an ultra-Orthodox audience and are often referred to as the "holy channels." The stations include Kol Ha'emet, Radio 10, Kol Halev and Kol Hahessed, all of which offer Jewish music, Torah classes and religious programming. Another popular, though not legally licensed radio station is the right-wing Arutz 7, which broadcasts from a ship outside Israeli territorial waters, providing news and commentary on daily events in Israel and the territories. Arutz 7 also has broadcasting facilities near Beit El. Political sources say that one of the top priorities for Justice Minister Tommy Lapid of the secular Shinui party is the dismantling of Israeli pirate radio. Lapid, a veteran of the communications industry, is planning to push for legislation to shut down the illegal stations, something that was not done by his predecessors, due primarily to political considerations. Broadcasting officials say that the pirate radio stations pose a security problem and blame them for interfering with the signals of air traffic control directing the landing and takeoff of planes at Ben-Gurion International Airport. The Airports Authority has warned that a potential aviation accident could result from continued interference. Popular ultra-Orthodox radio personality Shmuel Ben-Atar, who was listed in the seventeenth slot on the Shas Knesset slate in this year's election, stressed the importance of the radio stations to their ultra-Orthodox audience. "Our audience does not have television, theater or light entertainment. We're not even allowed to bring secular newspapers into our homes because of the despicable pictures displayed. So what's left? Only our own radio stations." Ben-Atar responded angrily to reports of Lapid's plans to target pirate radio, "So what do they want, to lock us in cages? Not allow us to listen to anything, not Sephardic music or words of Torah - only their worthlessness, replete with Tommy Lapid's arguing?" Rabbi Yosef Ben-Porat, an ultra-Orthodox presenter on Radio 10, points to the exclusion of the ultra-Orthodox from mainstream Israeli media. "Since the establishment of the state, the ultra- Orthodox and religious public have had no access to the media. All the radio announcers and producers are secular; there is not even one ultra-Orthodox person represented. It is not coincidental, and the result is that we cannot circulate our words of Torah and faith," Ben-Porat said. Previous attempts to shutdown the pirate radio stations have proven unfruitful. In the past, police and Communication Ministry official raids on residences where pirate radio stations were broadcasting usually sparked a quick fundraising drive to replace confiscated equipment and allow broadcasting to continue. One of the most prominent supporters of the ultra-Orthodox pirate stations has been former Shas leader Aryeh Deri, who hosts a talk radio program on Thursday nights on Jerusalem's Kol Hanishama station. As a minister, Deri worked to secure governmental approval for pirate radio stations, attempting to attain legal status for the stations without subjecting them to standard monitoring and scrutiny. Communications analysts accuse Deri and his supporters of using ultra-Orthodox radio stations as a political tool during election campaigns and throughout Deri's trial and prison term. Opposition from Shas, a party that wielded substantial political power and clout in recent government coalitions, blocked government initiatives to shut down operation of the stations. With Shas out of the current government, political sources predict that Lapid will act quickly to shut down the radio stations. However, the National Religious Party and the National Union, mandated to represent the interests of right-wing voters, are expected to put up a fight against any such action, to protect their own Arutz 7 as well as the ultra-Orthodox stations. Ben-Atar vehemently stated that he had no plans of allowing anyone to take him off the air, "Let's hope that Tommy Lapid and his friends give up on their dreams. If not, let it be clear: We will not get off the air and will continue to broadcast for the good of all of Israel, especially our public, who are thirsting for words of Torah in the style we offer. Nothing anyone does will stop that." (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** JAPAN. 3259U, NHK Fukuoka has become a regular here for the moment. While it is the weakest of these SSB stations I am hearing (3373.5 and 3607.5 are the others), I do hear it most days. It is a real help that the PNG Radio Madang on 3260 is either off or simply not propagating here, something that always made NHK Fukuoka impossible when I tried in Wyoming (Hans Johnson, Tallulah, Louisiana, March, Drake R8, 100 ft long wire, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** KYRGYZSTAN. Comments regarding 4050 R Bishkek: I was just reading thru SWB 1504 on the web and noted some interesting about 4050 station. There were 2 logs of 4050 R Bishkek. Well, this 4050 transmitter has been on for several months, but I haven't so far heard any Kyrgyz Radio IDs, and haven't seen any positive loggings of that kind of ID. The station is on the air v1600-1900 UT (also reported around 0300) and normally has non-stop pops (Central-Asian and English) with occasional "Hit Shortwave" or "Hit music on shortwave" ID's. At 1800 on weekdays there is about 25 minute long Farsi language Christian program (origin or name of the program unknown so far). The "Hit Shortwave" has also been reported on 4940, but rarely. In the same SWB bulletin there was also reported an e-mail QSL from Kyrgyz Radio on 4050. I wonder if that reflects the fact that these transmission really originate from Kyrgyz Radio or is the v/s just unaware of the sw frequencies used by Kyrgyz Radio? The 4050 channel was used by Kyrgyz Radio in the past and the propagation formula seems to back up the idea that the transmitter is situated in that part of the Central Asia. Hopefully we get some more information about this "station" in the near future from some source. Best 73, (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, SW Bulletin March 9 via DXLD) ** KYRGYZSTAN. Radio EXTOL works on the frequency 1467 kHz 1200- 1800 (UT). 75 kW transmitter is used for broadcasting, with non directed aerial, located in Bishkek. There are popular songs of western and Russian singers on the air and also the daily releases of TWR prepared in the Alma-Ati studio I. Releases of TWR programs appear in blocks every half-hour in 1530-1600 and 1630-1700. The address of the station AM1467@hotmail.com Technical management of the station is interested in reception reports and asks to send them to the address timskar@pisem.net Timur Karimov. The reports about the reception of the programs, broadcasting on frequencies 4940 kHz 1300-1600 and 4050 kHz 1600-1900 are also possible to send to the same address. It is desirable to mention in the letter that you would like to receive QSL-card as confirmation. (Alexander Polyakov, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Rus-DX March 8 at hard- core-dx via DXLD) ** MEXICO. 2390, Radio Huayacocotla, my background music as I started typing these logs up. Nice reception Mar 8 from 1302 till about 1335 then fading fast (Hans Johnson, Tallulah, Louisiana, USA Drake R8, 100 ft long wire, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** SWEDEN. Received a package from Teracom in Sweden for the report sent to them during the Radio Sweden tests on 9400 while still broadcasting on 9445 at 2030 in English to Australia during January, they sent a full data signed full colour card showing the control room at Hörby Shortwave Station. They also sent a Radio Sweden schedule and a medium sized colourful blowup beach ball with Teracom printed on it, thanks very much to the guys at Teracom! (Michael Stevenson, Port Macquarie, N.S.W., Australia, EDXP via DXLD) ** TURKEY. I don`t know if this station has been reported recently. Meteorological R., Ankara or Meteoroloji Sesi Radyosu on 6900 kHz has been heard here in a couple of days with decent signal and strength while using the narrowest 2.0 kHz filter of my AOR 7030+ receiver with synchronous-detection and PBS +0.5 improving reception. On the other bandwidths there is reception destroying noise level. Programme consisting of non-stop Turkish music without IDs or any other breaks around 16 UT. Signal strength at peaks S9 after 1630 UT. Sign-off at 1635 without a word a after a period of an hour of listening! What about these other SW-Turks WRTH is listing? Is there somebody who has heard these stations lately? Many years ago I was lucky to hear Polis Radio on 7370 kHz. 73´s (Jouko Huuskonen, Turku, FINLAND, hard-core-dx via DXLD) ** U K. I see BBCWS has pre-empted Sunday's "In Praise Of God" for a "Newshour: When Is It Right To Go To War?" -- as if we needed yet more news programming. I guess the message is that God should be one of the first things to go during wartime (Mike Cooper, Mar 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Was 1300-1400; repeated on WILL at 1800+ (gh) ** U K. THE BBC HAS BECOME AN OPEN OPPONENT OF AMERICA'S POLICIES By Barbara Amiel (Filed: 03/03/2003) Television reporting of the Middle East can be rated in a hierarchy descending from bad to worst. America's Public Broadcasting System (PBS) is better than most. The PBS anchor stations may have a philosophy that sits comfortably in the pages of the Guardian, but that doesn't prevent them from remembering that journalism in Western society traditionally stands for values including fairness and objectivity, and they attempt to honour them - if sometimes only in the breach. Further down the slope come networks such as CNN, which maintain a sham of objectivity in order to hide a news agenda that veers between generalised antipathy to American positions on most issues and a particular dislike of George W. Bush. The BBC's News and Current Affairs doesn't bother honouring values of even-handedness. It has become an undisguised opponent of American policies and of Britain's insofar as they coincide with America's. This is especially true of Middle East policy, though it also covers the spectrum of issues on which America has taken a position at odds with the BBC, from the Kyoto Accords to the International Criminal Court. One has only to take a look at the reports of the BBC's chief correspondent in the Middle East, Orla Guerin. Her December 21 account from Bethlehem of how "the Israelis have stolen Christmas" is a classic of the genre. "Israeli tanks have gnawed away at the pavement," she reports. There is not a mention in her account of the Palestinian gunmen who occupied the Church of the Nativity earlier that month, held its priests hostage and turned the church into a pigsty before the Israelis ended the terrorist sit-in. BBC News resorts to a number of familiar tricks to pay lip-service to objectivity, beginning with its po-faced determination to present all sides of an issue even when one side may lack all merit. The merit of suicide bombers, for example, simply cannot be equated to those trying to stop them. Debating this is like pairing off an astronomer discussing rocks on the moon and a person who believes the moon is made of green cheese. The current fad in British television news analysis is to conduct competitive "debates" over key issues. Serious people opposed to the BBC agenda do get on the air, but only in a programme format where any thought is pulverised between at least four or five other debaters and one important new participant - the audience - which votes in the winner. One is reminded of the Greek dramatists' use of a chorus. The BBC audience doesn't speak in unison, but it performs the same function, echoing whatever the main theme is that the programmers wish to leave with the viewer. But if the ordinary BBC news service has departed from any pretence of objectivity, the very bottom rung is occupied by the BBC Arabic Service, funded by the Foreign Office, which is to say the British taxpayer. No one would want the BBC to turn into a Radio Free Europe or Voice of America. That approach to broadcasting, while legitimate, is the tool of a specific political agenda. But given the censorship in the Arab world, one would hope for a BBC approach similar to its glory days in the Second World War - truthful information in areas denied the listeners by their own media. This is not what they get. The BBC Arabic Service appears to rule out any criticism of Arab leaders or their regimes. Apart from some cryptic and occasional references in news reports, there is no critical discussion and analysis of public policy issues such as human rights, health, housing and illiteracy. There is no discussion of government priorities, government corruption or the activities of the security forces and police. When Saddam Hussein was "re-elected" with a 100 per cent vote, the election was reported as if it were a perfectly normal exercise in democracy. The very rare exceptions to this often carry anti-West motives: a programme last December 10 included a member of the Iraqi opposition, Hamid Al-Bayati, but the interview with him was turned into an attempt to prove that the opposition was created by foreign enemies of Iraq. The British report on human rights problems in Iraq, released last December, was reported in the context of its having been written to justify an attack on Iraq. (An exception was a programme broadcast a few days after the release of the report, which contained genuine criticism of human rights in Iraq. The moderator, however, was firmly pro-Saddam and began with a quotation attributed to a British newspaper that threw doubt on the veracity of the whole report.) On the other hand, there is no shortage of detailed reports about failings of Western systems. There have been lengthy programmes on Palestinians held without trial in Israel, Muslims held by America in Guantánamo Bay and British treatment of asylum seekers. These may be appropriate topics for the Arabic Service, but not in the context of silence about related issues in the Arab world. The BBC's Arabic Service has also kept listeners up to date on scandals at the Department for Education, the Home Office and even in the life of Prince Charles. Meanwhile, people in the Arab world may have little idea of how the political and economic systems in the West operate, what values lie behind them and what the relationship is between Church and State, media and government, stock market and investor, ordinary people and their police. Before the flaws are explained, the system needs to be understood. Unsurprisingly, the BBC Arabic Service is consistently hostile to peace between Israel and Palestine, which puts it at odds with the Foreign Office and the Government. Anti-Israel remarks are thrown into topics gratuitously. Almost two years after the UN certified that Israel had withdrawn from Lebanon, BBC Arabic Services still told listeners that Israel was in occupation. Officials of the Palestine Authority and various Palestinian organisations are frequently heard, but rejectionist voices (those against any peace settlement) are favoured. Prominent moderates such as Sari Nusseibeh are rarely heard. Legitimate journalism may have a Left-wing prism or a Right-wing one. The Guardian or the New Statesman are not any the less legitimate a journalistic enterprise than The Daily Telegraph or The Spectator. One may disagree with a point of view, but that is not the complaint here. The complaint against the BBC's Arabic Service is that, in its news analysis, it has abandoned the normal traditions of Western journalism and is embarking on exactly the same exercise as the controlled press in Arabic dictatorships, except it does so under the imprimatur of the BBC and at the expense of the British taxpayer. Telling the truth might mean that the service loses some of its Arab contributors. It might even be jammed. But it would gain respect, and possibly even listeners. We would all be the better for it © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003 (via Bill Westenhaver, DXLD) Sir - We totally repudiate the slurs levelled against BBC News and BBC World Service in Barbara Amiel's extraordinary and contradictory piece. The BBC is committed to scrupulously impartial, fair, accurate, balanced and independent coverage of events in the Middle East that encompasses a wide range of opinion. We reviewed all the programmes she cited and could find no evidence for any of her charges. Amiel lambasts Orla Guerin as biased for a report on Bethlehem last December that did not fully rehearse all that had happened there previously. In fact, Guerin, who is highly respected, alluded to the Israeli rationale for the curfew in that report. Amiel clearly does not expect the BBC Arabic Service to operate as a serious and independent BBC news operation. She mistakes robust but fair questioning in interviews as an expression of a BBC view on issues. Amiel accuses the BBC Arabic Service of failure to criticise Arab leaders - and of failure to interview those who criticise them. In the past couple of weeks alone, the BBC Arabic Service has carried reports and programmes about human rights violations in Egypt, Syria and Algeria, and has reported on allegations of corruption in Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait and Morocco. Recent research in the Middle East consistently reveals that the BBC is the most trusted international broadcaster in Arabic, because of its values of impartiality, accuracy, fairness and its range of opinion. Of course we welcome scrutiny, but we must respond when it is as selective and unfair as this. From: Mark Byford, Director, World Service and Global News, Richard Sambrook, Director, BBC News, London WC2 http://opinion.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2003/03/06/dt0604.xml (Daily Telegraph Letters to the Editor, March 6, via Bill Westenhaver, DXLD) Barbara Amiel is the arch-conservative wife of press magnate (and Daily Telegraph owner) Conrad Black, so her idiocies are well-known to Canadians, who used to read her in his papers (and also in Maclean's magazine). 73- (Bill Westenhaver, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. Another 7 days gone, and almost time for another Sunday of LaserRadio.net on 5935 and 9330 kHz and the Net. Tomorrow's programmes are: Europe - 5935 kHz [Latvia] 1500 European Music Radio (LaserRadio.net Relay Service) 1700 Julian Clover with some great music 1800 Paul Goodwin and his musical journey 1900 England's England (repeat) 2000 The Media Show - with Julian Clover, guests and contributors 2100 Closedown North America - 9330 kHz [WBCQ] 2000 The Media Show - with Julian Clover, guests and contributors 2100 Julian Clover with some great music 2200 Paul Goodwin and his musical journey 2300 England's England (repeat) 0000 Closedown All programmes also available on the net and all repeated (apart from the relay service(s)) until 0100 the following Tuesday via http://laserradio.net Happy Listening (via Mike Terry; Geoff Rogers, via Andy Cadier, shortwavelistening yahoogroups via DXLD) ** U S A. EFFORT TO 'SELL' U.S. POLICY TO MUSLIMS FALLING SHORT from All Things Considered, Saturday , March 08, 2003 The U.S. State Department's troubled advertising campaign to "sell" America to Muslims stumbled again recently with the resignation of ad executive Charlotte Beers. Hear NPR's Lynn Neary and Steve Silver, co-author of the Journal of Business Strategy article "Selling Brand America." http://discover.npr.org/rundowns/segment.jhtml?wfId=1186953 (via gh, DXLD) ** U S A. Glenn, Heard it this morning before I saw it posted in yesterday`s DXLD, figure I'll pass it on none-the-less. WBOH, 5920, 1416-1428, Female announcer with test loop, request for reports to the FBN, Newport, NC, USA address. Good signal here in the mountains of NH (Scott R Barbour Jr, March 8, NH-USA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, WBOH Newport NC heard here in Wales UK with equipment tests (IDs and tones) around 2245 UT 8 March on 5920. Address for reports given as FBN, 520 Roberts Road, Newport, North Carolina 28570 USA. Regards, (Jim Parker, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WBOH heard with tests at 0820 on March 8th. A female announcer says... "This is WBOH conducting equipment tests on five nine two zero kilohertz. If you would like to send a reception report of this test write to FBN, 520 Roberts Road, Newport, North Carolina 28570, USA. The address again . . . . . . .This is WBOH conducting equipment tests on five nine two zero kilohertz". Broadcasts a continuous tone between announcements. The actual frequency is closer to 5919.8 and signal strength fairly good, peaking to 5 on my meter, compared to WTJC 9370 which is peaking 7. 73s, (Noel R. Green, Blackpool, UK, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) 5920 WBOH: I spoke with these folks and they seem to still be having some trouble with this unit. They spoke of still testing it, but I don't recall seeing any logs of this one as of late (Hans Johnson, Tallulah, Louisiana, March 7, Drake R8, 100 ft long wire, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) WBOH --- FBN is in the midst of setting up the second shortwave station in Newport, N.C.. The goal is to reach Central and South America with programming in English, Spanish, and Brazilian. The call is WBOH (Worldwide Beacon Of Hope) and the frequency is 5920 kHz. WBOH started testing on 5920 kHz in September 2002. US DXer Ralph Brandi was the first to log the station on September 30, with the low test power of 30-40 watts. Final operation power is 50 kW. Lots of pictures at http://home.ec.rr.com/fbn/Projects.htm Address: Grace Missionary Baptist Church, 520 Roberts Road, Newport, N.C. 28570, USA. Website: http://www.fbnradio.com/ Emails: fbn@clis.com Phone: (+1) 252-223-4600 Fax: (+1) 252-223-2201 (hcdx newsdesk via DXLD) 5979.78 [sic], WBOH, 0048-0053 9 March, Test tone and canned ID/frequency, report request to FBN Newport NC, announcement by Woman about every minute "...This is WBOH conducting equipment tests on 5920 kHz". Very strong signal, S-30. Audio seemed a little muffled. They better get their frequency adjusted (Dave Valko, PA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Dave, I presume you meant 5919.78? That's where I heard them last night (Walt Salmaniw, BC, ibid.) ** U S A. 2559.48, WWCR heard at 1220-1259 for about a week now, but this is the first time I have heard it this late to where I could ID it. Is this something being generated by my Drake R8? The programming heard was // to WWCR's 5070 frequency (Hans Johnson, Tallulah, Louisiana, March, Drake R8, 100 ft long wire, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** U S A. 13595, WJIE, no luck hearing them here; best I have been able to do is just an open carrier on 13597.3 at 1352 Mar 8 (Hans Johnson, Tallulah, Louisiana, Drake R8, 100 ft long wire, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** U S A. I was reading Doug Pifer's Forum in Reid Wheeler's column in DXM 40-23. The news of Lowry Mays' grilling by a Senate committee was all over the press, even on the AP wire. I also agree that Clear Channel is so impersonal these days, unfortunately, so is the rest of corporate radio. For that reason, I stopped sending for AM and FM veries in 2000, and was one of several reasons why I stopped looking for on-air work in commercial radio in 2001. I've pretty much stopped listening to commercial radio, preferring to listen to non-commercial and shortwave broadcasters. I would like to encourage all IRCAns to write their elected officials, and express opposition to further deregulation of the commercial media. The current wave of deregulation has been destructive for commercial radio: nearly 13,000 jobs have been lost, the legitimate, "play by the (FCC) rules" DJs have been replaced with illegal, sex- driven and bloodthirsty "shock jocks" of dubious talent, the talk radio scale has been tipped to the extremes, commercial radio program quality and listenership have declined (they've allowed NPR and PRI to pass them up in program quality), fewer owners, increased employment discrimination (especially against people with disabilities), increased negative attitudes on the part of station management (in other words, station management should be willing to try talent new to commercial radio, even those who are currently working in, or have worked in, public radio, instead of shutting new talent out of the field altogether), and far fewer chances for homegrown talent (born, raised and/or trained for the radio business in the city a particular station is in) to be successful in the radio business at any level. Worst of all, AM and FM are being desecrated by IBOC-DAB, an unproven technology that is incompatible with our current analog radios (proven by the nighttime IBOC tests in November 2002). We have lost a lot of our freedoms since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 took effect. Further deregulation would complete the transformation of the U.S. media system from an independent and impartial system into more of a Soviet-style media system, but with only the rich in control, and only one view disseminated. Therefore, we will lose whatever freedoms on programming choice, as far as AM and FM are concerned, we may have left. The only winners, if the commercial media is further deregulated, are the illegal media monopolies like Clear Channel. Who will lose from further deregulation? One segment of the population that will lose is the DX community, which has already lost a lot of representation in commercial radio since Deregulation was implemented, will stand to lose even more from further deregulation, as fewer and fewer of our fellow hobbyists are still working in commercial radio. More and more stations will refuse to verify reports from distant listeners (a group that is larger than many radio stations think). Ethnic minorities (such as African- Americans, Asian-Americans and even Arab-Americans), which have already been hurt by the current wave of deregulation, will be almost totally shut out of ownership and have their chances at employment hurt. The largest minority, people with disabilities, already totally shut out of station ownership opportunities, already have very little representation in the commercial media. They will be hurt most by the proposed reckless moves of Powell's FCC. Further deregulation will most likely eliminate the remaining radio workers with disabilities (even those with minor disabilities). Musicians, which have already lost a lot in the current wave, will lose even more in a less regulated and more hostile environment. Many struggling musicians in certain genres are shut out of commercial radio airplay by the renewed use of payola by corporate broadcasters, not to mention standardized playlists which have homogenized radio programming. "Play by the (FCC) rules" DJs will also be severely hurt; further deregulation would mean that the DJs that do radio that's safe for our children would be fired at a more rapid rate, and result in an increase in illegal "shock jocks" like Howard Stern, Bubba "The Love Sponge" and Don and Mike. Most of all, it will hurt the listener, who will be looking for alternatives. I don't think XM and Sirius satellite radio provides much of an alternative; the only other alternative available is shortwave radio. Reregulation will bring discipline back to a business that has been lacking in it in recent years. Ownership limits, taking the illegal "shock jocks" off the air forever, balancing out the politics of talk radio, ending discrimination, improving existing technologies, and returning control of playlists to the local level are just a few of the things that I believe will return discipline and sanity to commercial radio. I have been one of those hurt by the current wave of deregulation, having lost my commercial career four years ago. Further deregulation will cost more people the careers that they have worked so hard for. I've already contacted my elected officials, asking them to oppose further deregulation of the commercial media. 73 and good DX from (Eric (N0UIH) Bueneman, Hazelwood MO, IRCA Soft DX Monitor March 8 via DXLD) ** U S A. from Northwest Broadcasters site: Media executives and consumers gathered at an FCC hearing in Seattle yesterday to discuss media consolidation of TV/radio stations and newspapers ... and included links to these stories http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/134648766_fcc080.html and http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/111625_fcc08.shtml (Eric Flodén, BC, IRCA via DXLD) ** U S A. Here's notice of some upcoming DX tests... PLEASE NOTE: Even if you don't hear a test, be sure and drop a card, letter, or e-mail to the station personnel, thanking them for going to the trouble to run a test! Thursday, March 13, 2003 - WKWN-1420 Trenton, GA will conduct an DX test from 12:00 am to 1:00 am ELT [0500-0600 UT]. Per the engineer, there will be "very distinctive" music played and he will try to include modulated CW IDs as well as possibly RTTY at 45.45 baud/170 Hz shift and PSK31 IDs for those who may be able to copy these modes; the engineer running these tests is also an amateur radio operator and says he also might try SSTV pictures of the stations using Scottie DX mode. He says phone calls to the station during the test are welcomed - the station phone number is 706-657- 7594. The test will run at a power of 2.5 KW, non-directional. Reception reports may be sent to: Phil Patton, Chief Engineer, WKWN-AM, P.O. Box 829, Trenton, GA 30752 (Arranged by Phil Patton) --------------------------------- Thursday, March 20, 2003 - WEPG-910 South Pittsburg, TN will conduct a DX test from 12:00 am to 1:00 am CLT [0600-0700 UT]. Per the engineer, there will be "very distinctive" music played and he will try to include modulated CW IDs as well as possibly RTTY at 45.45 baud/170 Hz shift and PSK31 IDs for those who may be able to copy these modes; the engineer running these tests is also an amateur radio operator and says he also might try SSTV pictures of the stations using Scottie DX mode. He says phone calls to the station during the test are welcomed - the station phone number is 423-837-7577. The test will run at a power of 5 KW, non- directional. Reception reports may be sent to: Phil Patton, Chief Engineer, WEPG-AM, 105 Ash Ave, South Pittsburg, TN 37380 (Arranged by Phil Patton) Also, if you hear a test, PLEASE, PLEASE let me know, via either e-mail or in rec.radio.shortwave! And if you send a reception report to a station, please remember to include return postage with your report (Lynn Hollerman, IRCA, amfmtvdx via DXLD) ircamember@ircaonline.org Visit the IRCA Web site at http://www.ircaonline.org ** U S A. 50 STATE TARGETS [best bets on mediumwave] Summarized from Broadcast Technology in the May 2003 edition of Popular Communications magazine: ALABAMA 1550 WLOR Huntsville during critical hours 1700 WEUV Huntsville relay of 1600 WEUP and 1190 WHIY ALASKA Low band clear channel stations; Newsradio 650 KENI Anchorage with Coast to Coast AM Outlaw 700 KBYR Anchorage with hot country music 750 KFQD Anchorage-Eagle River. ARIZONA [also see below] News/Talk 660 KTNN Window Rock [and Navajo language] ARKANSAS The Gospel Voice of the South 1090 KAAY Little Rock 1650 KWHN Fort Smith relaying 1320 KYHN with Coast to Coast AM overnight CALIFORNIA 640 KFI Los Angeles The expanded band with a station on every frequency except 1700 COLORADO 850 KOA Denver (still promotes nighttime listenership in 38 states) Radio Disney 1690 KDDZ Arvada CONNECTICUT 1080 WTIC Hartford Sunrise or sunset skip on the high-end clear channels; 1500 WFIF Milford 1530 WDJZ Bridgeport DELAWARE Newsradio 1450 WILM Wilmington (DX tests) 1150 WDEL Wilmington FLORIDA Mystic 1580 WSRF Fort Lauderdale 1680 WTIR Winter Garden (24-hour tourist information) Voz Cristiana 1700 WJCC Miami Springs "South Florida's only Newsradio" 610 WIOD Miami GEORGIA "The first radio station in the South" 750 WSB Atlanta 1630 WTEL Augusta relay of News/Talk/Sports 1480 WRDW 1670 WRNC Warner Robins relay of The Light 1280 WLCG and 102.5 FM La Que Buena 1550 WAZX Smyrna HAWAII 900 KNUI Kahului represents an interesting target with distinctive traditional Hawaiian music, a real treat if you can get it. Otherwise the islands are erupting with 10 kW signals for transpacific DXers. IDAHO News/Talk 670 KBOI Boise with Midnight Cowboy Trucking Network overnight 1140 KGEM Original Hits 1620 KBLI Blackfoot (Mexican music) ILLINOIS Omnidirectional clears; The Score 670 WSCR News and Talk 720 WGN Newsradio 780 WBBM News/Talk 890 WLS INDIANA CBS radio pioneer 1190 WOWO Fort Wayne 1070 WIBC Indianapolis 1620 WDND South Bend IOWA Newsradio 1040 WHO Des Moines 1630 KCJJ Iowa City-Coralville-Cedar Rapids 1650 KDNZ Cedar Falls 1700 KBGG Des Moines KANSAS 860 KKOW Pittsburg "It's all you need to know" 1660 KXTR Kansas City (classical music) KENTUCKY 840 WHAS Louisville "Depend on it!" LOUISIANA 870 WWL New Orleans Fox Sports 1130 KWKH Shreveport MAINE 780 WTME Rumford relaying 1240 WCNM Lewiston during critical hours Portland coastal stations; Newsradio 560 WGAN, and Hot Talk 970 WZAN MARYLAND "Maryland's most powerful broadcast voice" 1090 WBAL Baltimore Heaven 1580 WPGC Morningside 1690 WPTX Lexington Park (CNN Headline News) MASSACHUSETTS Newsradio 1030 WBZ Boston, "in 38 states and the best provinces of Canada" MICHIGAN The Voice of the Great Lakes 760 WJR Detroit. Grand Rapids urban contemporary rapper 1680 WJNZ Ada MINNESOTA 830 WCCO Minneapolis 1500 KSTP St. Paul MISSISSIPPI 1180 WJNT Pearl during critical hours MISSOURI 1120 KMOX The Voice of St. Louis, "heard in 44 states, Canada and Mexico" MONTANA 790 KGHL and 970 KBUL Billings 1180 KOFI Kalispell NEBRASKA Rural Radio 880 KRVN Lexington 1110 KFAB Omaha The Zone 1620 KOZN Bellevue (ESPN Radio) NEVADA "The most powerful AM radio station in southern Nevada," Talk Radio 720 KDWN NEW HAMPSHIRE 720 WQTH when it signs on the air relaying WNTK Newsradio 610 WGIR and 1370 WFEA Manchester 900 WOTW Nashua NEW JERSEY Radio Única 1660 WWRU Elizabeth 1680 WTTM Princeton (Asian) NEW MEXICO 1020 KINF Roswell Western Indian Ministries 880 KHAC Tse Bonito NEW YORK New York City clears; 660 WFAN sports talk IBOC digital test outlet 710 WOR America's number one talk station 770 WABC The new home of Yankees baseball Newsradio 880 WCBS Radio Disney 1560 WQEW NORTH CAROLINA 1110 WBT Charlotte has "a north-south nighttime signal which reaches from Canada to Key West" DXer-friendly AM Stereo 560 WGAI Elizabeth City La Favorita 1070 WNCT Greenville NORTH DAKOTA Star 1660 KQWB West Fargo "The Red River Valley's Information Radio" 1080 KNDK Langdon during critical hours OHIO The Big One 700 WLW Cincinnati (Truckin' Bozo) Newsradio 1100 WTAM Cleveland (Coast to Coast AM) 1530 WSAI Cincinnati OKLAHOMA 740 KRMG Tulsa 1170 KFAQ Tulsa 1520 KOMA Oklahoma City OREGON 750 KXL and 1190 KEX Portland dump most their signal strength over the ocean at night to protect inland co-channel stations Radio Disney 1640 KPBC Lake Oswego [now KDZR] PENNSYLVANIA Pioneer 1020 KDKA Pittsburgh 1060 KYW Philadelphia (all news) 1210 WPHT Philadelphia RHODE ISLAND 630 WPRO Providence The Radio Ranch 1180 WJJF Hope Valley sunset skip 1590 WARV Warwick (often logged in Europe) SOUTH CAROLINA 730 WSCC Charleston "WSC" 1550 WBSC Bennettsville 1580 WDAB Travelers Rest SOUTH DAKOTA 570 WNAX Yankton (farm news, Coast to Coast AM) TENNESSEE The Grand Ole Opry station 650 WSM Nashville Newsradio 1510 WLAC 1580 WLIJ Shelbyville sunrise skip TEXAS News/Talk 1620 WTAW College Station 1630 KNAX Fort Worth (Spanish) The Ticket 1700 KTBK Sherman UTAH Newsradio 1160 KSL Salt Lake City 650 KMTI Manti 1640 KBJA Sandy 1660 KXOL Brigham City VIRGINIA "Serving Virginia and the nation since 1925," 1140 WRVA Richmond Radio Disney 1650 WHKT Portsmouth VERMONT 620 WVMT and 1390 WKDR Burlington 1380 WSYB Rutland WASHINGTON News/Talk 1510 KGA Spokane (often received in the east) 1000 KOMO Seattle has good north/south coverage WEST VIRGINIA The Jamboree USA station, 1170 WWVA Wheeling 1550 WMRE Charles Town sunset skip WISCONSIN Milwaukee's Radio Disney 1640 WKSH Sussex 1670 WTDY Madison WYOMING 1030 KTWO Casper The Spirit of Wyoming 1630 KKWY Fox Farm-Cheyenne "KWY" http://members.aol.com/baconti/bamlog.htm (Bruce Conti - Nashua NH, NRC-AM March 7 via DXLD) Here's what to try for in Arizona.... 550 KFYI Newstalk 580 KSAZ SSS Nos 620 KTAR Newstalk 660 KTNN Navajo 710 KUET SSS and cheats a lot! 830 KFLT SSS Rel stuff. 1060 KDUS SSS the ultimate cheater of all time from AZ. 1100 KFNX SSS cheat early and cheat often. 1360 KPXQ SSS Rel stuff. 1510 KFNN SSS cheater but not as bad as in the past. 1550 KUAZ SSS Daytimer widely heard, goes off every night. 1580 KMIK Disney with a big signal. Heard often in Australia. There ya go Les, give 'em hell (Kevin Redding, Mesa, Arizona, NRC- AM via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. FREE RADIO WEEKLY for 2003-Mar-08 Covering Free Radio activity - MAIL DROPS- ^Basel: Box 510, CH-4010 Basel, SWITZERLAND ^Belfast: Box 1, Belfast, NY 14711 ^BRS: Box 109, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214 ^Bremen: Box 334, Bremen, IN 46506 ^Elkhorn: Box 69, Elkhorn, NE 68022 ^English: Box 332, English, IN 47118 ^Huntsville: Box 11522, Huntsville, AL 35814 ^Manomet: Box 1464, Manomet, MA, 02345 ^Merlin: Box 293, Merlin, Ontario NOP 1W0, CANADA ^Moline: Box 88, Moline, MI 49335 ^Pittsburgh: Box 25302, Pittsburgh PA 15242 ^Providence: Box 28413, Providence, RI 02908 ^Sierra Madre: Box 1073, Sierra Madre, CA ^Ventura: Box 5617, Ventura, CA 93025 ^Wellsville: PO Box 422, Wellsville NY 14895 ^Wuppertal: Box 220342, D-42373, Wuppertal, GERMANY ^Ytterby: C/o SRS News, Ostra Porten 29, S-442 54 Ytterby, SWEDEN ------------------------------------------------------------------- -- -Electronic Mail Addresses for Stations- ^Blind Faith Radio: blindfaithradio@yahoo.com ^Buckwheat Radio: buckwheatradio@hotmail.com ^Captain Ron SW: captainronswr@yahoo.com ^Ground Zero Radio: gzrsw@usa.net & gzrsw@emailx.net ^Jolly Roger Radio Int'l: JR_Radio@hotmail.com ^KIPM: kipm_outerlimits@hotmail.com ^KMUD: vlfradio@triax.com ^KRMI Radio Michigan Int'l: KRMI6955@yahoo.com ^Laser Hot Hits: hothits@radiolink.net ^Radio Alfa-Lima: info@alfalima.net ^Radio Free Euphoria: captainganja@pot.com ^Radio Nonsense: radiononsense@yahoo.com ^Radio Omroep Zuid Roz.am@iae.nl ^Seattle Free Radio: seattle4166@yahoo.com ^Shadow Radio: the_shadow6950@hotmail.com ^United Patriot Militia BINGO: yahwehradio6925@yahoo.com ^Undercover Radio: undercoverradio@mail.com ^Voice of the Angry Bastard: pigmeat_voab@yahoo.com ^Voice of Capt. Ron: captainronswr@yahoo.com & captainron6955@hotmail.com ^Voice of the New World Order: vonwoun@yahoo.com ^WHYP: whyp6925@yahoo.com ^WMOE: wmoe6955@yahoo.com ^WPAT: brewmaster66@hotmail.com ^WPN World Parody Network: wpn_sw@yahoo.com ^Z100: bigz100fm@yahoo.com ----------------------------------------------------------- EDITOR: Niel Wolfish (FRW March 7 via DXLD) ** U S A. FCC WAIVES $10,000 FINE GIVEN BERKLEY RADIO OPERATOR CHRISTY STRAWSER, March 07, 2003 [Detroit, MI area] BERKLEY - Like a character from the wild west, Thomas Brothers fought the law ... and the law won Listeners in a 10-mile radius heard the independent musical stylings Brothers sent out from his parent's tidy Berkley house - if the waves bounced just right and they stood at a perfect angle near a powerful radio. He provided an interesting, and illegal, radio choice for a large fan base of south Oakland listeners on 88.3 FM the last five years. But a long fight with the Federal Communications Commission ended when the government agreed to drop a $10,000 fine against him for operating a radio station without a commercial license. In exchange, Brothers agreed not to pursue another amateur radio license until 2007. "It's ridiculous," Brothers said Wednesday morning. "It's broadcasters like the National Association of Broadcasters that fought against legalizing small stations because they think it's competition and they would lose money. "It's ridiculous to think a 100-watt station run by me is a big threat to them." Brothers, in his early 20s and one of at least a half-million licensed amateur radio operators in the United States, sees himself as a sort of David fighting the Goliath of massive commercial FM radio outfits. His small station provided an alternative to the homogenous choices on the FM dial, he said. The FCC saw him as a lawbreaker. It's rare for an unlicensed radio station to operate for long, an FCC spokesman said. They've shut down about 1,400 "pirate" stations since 1967. "Obviously it's not something that we believe should happen. We are very supportive of people who get into amateur radio, but we hope they follow the FCC rules and keep the hobby as pleasant as possible for everybody," said Jennifer Hagy, media relations director for the American Radio Relay League, the organization that supports amateur radio operators. Brothers' amateur license had legally entitled him to operate on a few ham frequencies allocated by the government and accessible only to amateur radio operators. The station he actually operated required commercial licensing from the FCC, which would have cost thousands in fees and equipment upgrades, Brothers said. He also would have had to submit a detailed program plan to the FCC, like all licensed stations, and the government would have monitored his content for obscenity and ensured his station didn't overlap with anyone else's spot on the dial. Brothers' station operated under call letters KC8CRI and ran on just a small transmitter, cell phone and computer. On busy weekends, he said the station got hundreds of e-mails and phone messages from fans. "I would get call after call anytime I gave out the number," he said. "People really liked the station." FCC sources say the Detroit Field Office first became aware in 1998 that Brothers was operating a station without a license. The FCC sent several warning notices after agents used direction-finding gear to track the signal to his house. The FCC said Brothers stopped his broadcast after the notices, but apparently went back on air. He got more warning notices after the FCC tracked the signal to his house again in 2000 and 2001. Finally in January 2002, the FCC issued a Notice of Apparent Liability, which carried a $10,000 fine. Brothers responded with a notice for reconsideration, where FCC agents said he didn't dispute that he "willfully and repeatedly" violated the law. He asked the FCC to cancel the fine because he couldn't afford it. The Detroit office turned it over to Washington and after a year of consideration, they decided on Valentine's Day to forget the fine if Brothers relinquished his amateur license until 2007. He's been a radio enthusiast since he was in his teens, Brothers said, and it's tough to be off the air. "It started as a hobby because I'm into electronics," he said. "I got into ham radio first, then I found the illegal radio station and it just went from there." Cases like his are rare, the FCC said, but they do exist: a Minneapolis man had his 20-watt transmitter confiscated when he broadcast from his house without a license in 1996; a Berkeley, Calif., man broadcasting community news went through a long court battle before the FCC successfully shut him down in 1996. Brothers wants the laws to change on radio pirating or "micro- broadcasting" to allow space on the dial for low-power community radio stations like his and licensing without high cost. The issue pits large radio stations with millions in ad revenue and thousands of watts against small fry looking for an independent niche on the dial. "You cannot get a license for low power, even if you're just broadcasting down your street, and it's wrong," Brothers said. "There should be space for that." http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7296261&BRD=989&PAG=461&dept_id=140309&rfi=6 (Daily Tribune March 8 via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** VIETNAM [non]. ROYCE PUSHES NEWS IN VIETNAM Friday, February 28, 2003 Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton, on Thursday introduced a bipartisan measure that would overcome what he called communist Vietnam's "concerted effort to bar the free flow of news and other information into the country." Royce wants to boost U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia radio broadcasts to Vietnam by providing a stronger transmitter and extra airtime. http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=27606§ion=LOCAL&subsection=LOCAL&year=2003&month=2&day=28 (via Jilly Dybka, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Here's another Spanish medium wave station I need help with. Logged last night, March 8, at approx. 0600z. 1180 kHz over R. Rebelde, Cuba, which sounded like it was running a baseball game at the time. This station was playing easy, pop, Spanish hits, not the typical ranchera music. This is not Rebelde, which had faded down and this one came up over. Will try to grab another ident on the tape, but for now, this is the best I have: http://members.aol.com/j999w/DX/1180khz_unknown_8MARCH03_0600z.wav (8bit, 8k, mono .wav file, 302kb) THANKS ! (John Wilke, WB9UAI, Milwaukee, R71a, phased vert vs EWE, UT March 9, hard-core-dx via DXLD) About all I could make out was ``frecuencia súper... para una noche sensacional`` and ``punto siete``. There are several Colombians on 1180, but none apparently with the Súper network; `punto siete` likely refers to an FM frequency this is simulcasting (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Here's all the clips I have of my unknown Spanish station logged 8 March, 2003, 0600z, on 1180 kHz, WHAM phased. I have one more short one, but ran out of server space. It's a clip with Rebelde, my unknown, and a second unknown Spanish station under those two. All clips 8k, 8bit, mono .wav files. Any help appreciated! Clip #1: Same as my first post. R. Rebelde, Cuba can be heard in the background with a baseball game. Clip #2: R. Rebelde is on top with the baseball game, under is the unknown station running dance music and quick ident. http://members.aol.com/j999w/DX/1180khz_unknown2_8march03_0600z.wav (203kb) Clip #3: A longer clip. Sounds like reading of requests, or listener names. Rebelde under with the ball game. Some kind of canned "hora hora ??" at the end. 2 min 45sec. http://members.aol.com/j999w/DX/1180khz_unknown3_8march03_0600z.wav (1,338kb) Thanks and 73 ! (John Wilke, WB9UAI, Milwaukee, R71a, phased vert vs EWE, hard-core-dx via DXLD) The first thing I would do with an unID Spanish on 1180 is check Radio Martí on SW to see if it matches. At 0600 they are on 6030, 7405, 9805, 11775. Clip #3 seemed to be Cuban, and if it`s not Rebelde, it`s likely Martí. They mentioned Sevilla, and Fajardo, I thought, which is a place in Puerto Rico, but no PRs on 1180. Mentioned `la mujer cubana` in talk about International Women`s Day. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) I think the mention of Fajardo is not related to Puerto Rico. As I hear it (bad ears and all), that segment says "y al cuerpo de enfermidad del hospital Fajardo". The Hospital Fajardo is the most famous in Cuba. The rest of the tape has (amongst other things) mentions of las mujeres de Sevilla, Casablanca and Cuba due to "Dia de las Mujeres". There is a Casablanca in Cuba, but no Sevilla. However, one of the biggest hotels is the Sevilla. I'm out of touch with Martí's programming and schedule, but this seems to be them as Glenn suggested (Chuck Hutton, WA, hard-core-dx via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 3218.8, 7.3 1930 OID med Mellanöstern/Nordafrika- musik. Sparsamt med prat och omöjligt tyda. Hörbar i AM-läge (QSA 2), däremot ej på SSB och omöjligt få exakt frekvens. Bäst på Afrika-antenn. JE/RFK (Jan Edh, SW Bulletin March 9 via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 4890: I read the comments from HK. I have heard Radio Bethel in Arequipa at the same time as 4890 kHz so probably not that one if not a new transmitter is purchased. Bethel can be heard on 5940.14 kHz with religious program. But TENT. As I have not waited for any ID. When it comes to the QTH it seems pretty reasonable that it is Peru and in that case southern Peru. The signal is far too stable to be from Bolivia, a country very difficult to log with good signals here in Quito. I have also got a mail from Bill Smith living near Dallas in Texas and there is absolutely nothing on the frequency which indicates a northern signal. I have only a small thing to add to this mysterious station continuing to be heard as it seems all day and night. During a revival meeting the preacher said he should be working in Lima for a week between Feb 25 and March 2: "....me voy al congreso de..." plus a word probably ending with "....as". So if you know of any religious get together in Lima that week maybe we have the solution for the religious organisation behind (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, March 8, SW Bulletin, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ RECEIVER NEWS +++++++++++++ 2-WAY RADIOS WON'T LEAVE YOU FEELING CUT OFF By Marc Fisher, Thursday, March 6, 2003; Page B01, Washington Post When we go to Code Red -- and isn't it a bit chilling that people say "when" rather than "if" -- some foreign companies have already informed their Washington employees that their family members will be evacuated to their home countries. How nice for them. On the other hand, when WMAL talk host Chris Core asked Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld the other day whether he has equipped his home with duct tape, plastic sheeting and a stock of water, SecDef paused uncomfortably and said, "I'd like to say I did . . . but I do have a miniature dachshund named Reggie who looks out for us." I sense a Fox special coming: "When Itty-Bitty Animals Repel Terror." It's good to know that people in high places are taking this whole Impending Doom thing as seriously as we have at the old homestead. Of course, Rumsfeld has an Official Saddam Brand Bunker to escape to, whereas I have the basement futon, which we share with the crickets. I'm relieved to hear that when the Airborne Toxic Event occurs, the secretary will not be marching down from the Pentagon parking lot to lead a flotilla of kayaks into the Potomac. When Don DeLillo introduced us to the terror of the Airborne Toxic Event in his brilliant 1985 novel "White Noise," some critics derided his invention of a cloud of doom as a B-movie fantasy. Now, we can read the book for household tips. The real terror in "White Noise" -- and in real life -- is the not knowing. What is the agent? How dangerous? Where? It's unnerving to think about disappearing into an information vacuum if an attack knocks out power and cell phones overload. Even if you didn't fall for the duct tape hysteria and your inner Martha Stewart doesn't fancy repapering the walls with plastic sheeting, there is a nifty $25 move you can make to be assured that you'll know what's happening. Bill Adler, a Washington writer who has penned books on "Outwitting Squirrels," "Outwitting Toddlers" and "Outwitting Neighbors," has figured out how to outwit a communications blackout. He has set up the D.C. Emergency Radio Network, which is a fancy way of saying he is getting the word out about those funky new two- way radios you see people using in parks and parking lots, on the beach and outside shops. After heavy lobbying by Radio Shack, the federal government set up the Family Radio Service in 1996 to give people a way to talk to each other through handheld radios with much better range than old-fashioned walkie-talkies. The radios require no license, have a range of up to a mile, and retail for as little as $25 a pair. Since they run on batteries and offer multiple channels, they'd work when other communication tools don't. "We've used them to keep in touch with the kids on the beach and at Disney," says Adler, who thought up the emergency network http://www.dcradio.org during the recent Code Orange alert. He is organizing a citywide test on March 16 to see how the radios can be used to spread word about a disaster. The goal is to create a decentralized but virtually seamless web of radio users who can move information around a city without phones, computers or electricity. Working through neighborhood online bulletin boards and e-mail lists, he has already found hundreds of people who see the advantage in being able to check in with neighbors even if you're hiding in the basement. "This is something people can really do for and by themselves," Adler says. "It will work a little bit like a relay; information will filter through the network from one block to the next." Sure, the information might be less than reliable. But it's better than being alone and clueless. "Duct tape didn't solve a problem," Adler says. "The radio solves the problem of finding out what's going on if there's a loud boom, the Internet gets clogged and Dan Rather appears on your screen and then goes dark. "I am a very optimistic person, but with this war coming, I'm getting nervous," Adler says. "The radio lets me feel a little more free about my day-to-day activities. With the radio, you're not alone." (c) 2003 The Washington Post Company (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ###