DX LISTENING DIGEST 3-109, June 18, 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 later at http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldtd3f.html For restrixions and searchable 2003 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn FIRST AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1187: Wed 2200 on WBCQ 7415, 17495-CUSB Thu 2030 on WWCR 15825 Fri 1930 on RFPI 15039 Sat 1731 on WINB 13570 WRN ONDEMAND [from Fri]: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO: Check http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html [from early UT Thu] [Low] (Download) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1187.rm (Stream) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1187.ram [High] (Download) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1187h.rm (Stream) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1187h.ram (Summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1187.html WORLD OF RADIO VIA TELEPHONE Someone is putting recording of latest WORLD OF RADIO [complete?] on a phone line at (206) 333-5096 (George Thurman, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So they are, no permission from me, tho the more platforms the better, I suppose. That`s in Seattle. I wonder if Alex has something to do with this, as he used to provide ours and other DX programs via http://members.rogers.com/alexsradio/dxprograms.htm but that no longer works. If anyone knows or can find out who is doing this, please let me know (gh) ** AFGHANISTAN. The penultimate item on the Wed June 18 SOUNDS LIKE CANADA from CBC Radio 1 is: ``Afghanistan Radio -- Radio Rabi'ah Balkhi is located in a two-room apartment on a dusty, commercial street in northern Afghanistan. The purpose of the station is to bring Afghan women back into public life. The project is funded by a Canadian charity called the Institute for Media Policy and Civil Society. Tina talks to Jane McElhone, the project director.`` But it seems there is no audio archive, tho they will be glad to sell you a tape. It might be on the BEST OF show, at 8:05 pm local, the original airtime having been 11:32-11:43 am local as heard on CBW. Started with a recording of station; I never heard a frequency mentioned! (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. 4835, VL8A Alice Springs, 0825, June 18, Current events program until 0830, then a station promo mentioning "ABC Territory Radio" Fair to good copy (David Hodgson, TN, June 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRIA [and non]. ADIÓS A RADIO AUSTRIA... Gracias a la coalición centroderechista del gobierno austríaco y a la desidia de algunos dirigentes "eurocentristas", el próximo 30 de junio nos quedamos sin nuestra querida Radio Austria Internacional. Ya el mismo error lo cometieron varios países. Por ejemplo, Radio Budapest - en 1991- decidió suprimir sus emisiones en español gracias a la "borrachera" de ciertos personajes gubernamentales magiares, al "descubrir" que ya América Latina no les interesaba. La moda era "integrarse" al capitalismo salvaje y a lo que "vendía", y como el español no "vendía", lo eliminaron. En el caso de la ORF, la metida de pata es de dimensiones cósmicas: eliminar todo el servicio exterior de radio es la "moda". Eso no "vende". ¡Patético! Si algunos despistados aún se preguntaban cuál era la diferencia entre la derecha y la izquierda, ¡bingo!, hemos topado con una de ellas. A ciertas tendencias políticas no les interesa el internacionalismo y ¡mucho menos! la integración. Y no me hablen de dinero. Allí está el caso argentino: a pesar de la grave crisis económica de 2001, la Argentina todavía mantiene su servicio exterior de radio. ¿Entonces? Un adiós para Radio Austria que se convierte en un ¡hasta siempre! (Adán González Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA, June 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOTSWANA. In today's mail a returned reception report from Radio Botswana, mailed January 21st 2003. The address I used was: Mr.T. Makgekgenene , Director, Radio Botswana, Private Bag 0060, Gaborone, Botswana. This is the recent PWBR address as well as the address used on recent replies listed on the QIP. The envelope was marked "undeliverable" by the Botswana Postal Service. Try again, any ideas? 73's. (Joe Talbot, AB, June 17, Cumbre DX via DXLD) It is possible that the person you wrote to may no longer works there. According to the Commonwealth Broadcaster directory the current acting director of broadcasting is Mr Habuji Sosome Its probably best not to send reports to named individuals - just use the job title. 73s (Dave Kenny, hard-core-dx via DXLD) ** CANADA. I checked yesterday and today for CFRX on 6070 at around 1500. Not heard here, I'm not sure if they are off, though even in poor propagation conditions I can usually hear them, nothing at all here. (Steve Lare Holland, MI, June 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Hi Glenn, Don't know if you're aware, but on June 11, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage came out with a massive report on Canadian broadcasting (872 pages)called "Our Cultural Sovereignty" and among its 97 recommendations, one that RCI be strengthened. Details at: http://www.geocities.com/rciaction/HeritageCttee20030611.html What's a bit strange is that neither CBC, nor our own management has informed staff. This morning (Wednesday, 18 June) they'll get the news from the RCI Action Committee. If you need any details, don't hesitate to get in touch (Wojtek Gwiazda, RCI Action Committee - Comité d'action de RCI http://www.geocities.com/rciaction DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS MORE RESOURCES FOR RCI Ottawa, 11 June 2003 - In a massive report on broadcasting in Canada called ``Our Cultural Sovereignty``, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage described RCI as ``an essential international service.`` Among its 97 recommendations the Committee called on the ``appropriate department [to] review the mandate of Radio Canada International, with a view to identifying the necessary resources required to strengthen its services.`` In the two and a half pages devoted to RCI, the Heritage Committee reported that ``Two groups, the RCI Action Committee and the Canadian International DX Club, made passionate submissions to the Committee.`` Quoting from the brief of the RCI Action Committee, the Heritage Committee wrote: ``The RCI Action Committee told the Committee that the government`s support for an international service: ... must go further than just a general statement to ``provide an international service``. The Broadcasting Act must outline RCI`s mandate to ``attract an international audience`` and develop ``international awareness of Canada`` [the CBC`s Corporate Policy No. 14]. It must specifically oblige RCI to prepare such programming in both official languages, English and French. There should be sufficient guidelines in the Act to ensure most regions of the world are covered, and to ensure RCI broadcasts in major foreign languages, and any others deemed important or useful. Without necessarily enumerating each region and language, these directives must be strong enough to prevent anyone but Parliament from being able to change the mandate of RCI. At the moment, there is very little that prevents the CBC from cutting services back radically. This despite the fact that all of RCI funding comes from the Canadian Heritage Department.`` The Heritage Committee has requested that the government respond to its report. The entire report is available on the Heritage Committee`s Website LInk http://www.parl.gc.ca/InfoComDoc/37/2/HERI/Studies/Reports/herirp02-e.htm The text on RCI is in Chapter 7, in the section on International Services. http://www.parl.gc.ca/InfoComDoc/37/2/HERI/Studies/Reports/herirp02/08-Ch07-e.htm#3 [The Committee regards Radio Canada International to be an essential international service through which Canadian perspectives can be shared with the world. It agrees with the recommendation made by the Senate Committee and for this reason: RECOMMENDATION 7.6: The Committee recommends that the appropriate department review the mandate of Radio Canada International, with a view to identifying the necessary resources required to strengthen its services] DIFFICULT TIMES AT RADIO CANADA INTERNATIONAL The Committee`s recommendations come at a time when Radio Canada International is increasingly losing control over services, as it is integrated into the domestic service, CBC/Radio-Canada. Offices are being given away to personnel from the domestic service. There are even days were RCI conference rooms are so booked, that RCI personnel has to meet elsewhere. The master control room that coordinated all broadcasts coming in and out of RCI, has been dismantled. Broadcasts are now routed through the central control of the domestic service. Technical, adminstrative and support services are now all part of the domestic service. Production staff is still working with reduced resources, and a number of permanent positions have not been filled. RCI ORDER IN COUNCIL CHANGED On a legislative level, the Order-in-Council that defines RCI`s existence was changed in March of 2003 (for the first time since 1968). It has been shortened, is less specific in describing RCI`s mandate, eliminates the role of RCI`s Executive Director in dealings with the government, and is vague in the obligations of the domestic service CBC/Radio-Canada. CBC RCI BOSSES SILENT ON COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION Although the domestic service was quick to praise the Heritage Committee`s recommendations about its services, it was silent on the recommendation for increased resources for RCI. And even though RCI management was aware of the recommendation, it has not communicated the information to staff. Staff was informed today (18 June 2003) by the RCI Action Committee. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions to help us, please contact the RCI Action Committee at rciaction@yahoo.ca (via DXLD) ** CANADA. "GO AHEAD, TOUCH THAT DIAL" --- CRTC TO HOLD HEARINGS ON APPLICATIONS FOR NEW STATIONS IN EDMONTON. NINE NEW STATIONS VIE TO SHAKE UP LOCAL RADIO SCENE Edmonton's FM dial will soon be substantially more crowded if proponents of an aboriginal network, a 24-hour urban outlet and various modern-rock formats have their way. Starting Monday, nine potential newcomers to the local radio scene will make their pitches to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The hearings, at the Shaw Conference Centre, are open to the public. . http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/story.asp?id=789C11BA-C75F-46BC-8AE2-8FEEA7F4912A 73- (via Bill Westenhaver, DXLD) ** CHANNEL ISLANDS. Press Release received from Nick Creed re Island Sport, "high power RSL" on Guernsey 105.3 and Jersey 101.3 for Island Games 22 June - 4th July: PRESS RELEASE 2,500 COMPETITORS, 23 ISLANDS, 1 RADIO STATION Guernsey is gearing itself up to host the 2003 Natwest Island Games. Held every 2 years since 1985, the Games can best be described as an "Olympics" for Islands and have grown into one of the biggest multi- sports event in the world. From the 28th June, Guernsey will welcome around 2,500 athletes and their supporters from 23 islands all around the world, including Greenland, The Falklands, Bermuda and Rhodes. Following the 2001 Games, which were held in the Isle of Man, Guernsey's commercial radio station, Island Fm applied to the Radio Authority to run a special high power RSL (Restricted Service License) radio station to cover this year's event. After two years of planning, 'Island Sport - The Games Station' is ready to begin broadcasting. It will be a non-partisan, 24 hour a day service that will immerse itself in the events and become the soundtrack of the Games. A team of around 35 are needed to run the station and as well as using local freelancers, Island Fm is drafting in staff from other stations in the Tindle Group. "Island Sport has been an exciting project to be involved with" said Nick Creed, Managing Director of Island Fm. "This is the biggest event in Guernsey's history and we wanted to be a part of the action. The geography of the islands dictated that low power FM would not achieve the coverage required, so we are delighted to be able to broadcast a 'full power' service!" He added "There is a huge amount of interest both here in the Channel Islands and around the world and our mission is to reflect the fun and spirit of the Island Games." Island Sport will be broadcasting on 105.3 FM in Guernsey and 101.3 FM in Jersey. It will also be available online through the NatWest Island Games Website http://www.guernsey2003.com As well as results, news and travel information, Island Sport will broadcast essential information for those taking part. Each competitor will be receiving an FM radio in their welcome pack when they arrive in Guernsey. The station will begin broadcasting a preview service on 22nd June and continue until the Games closing ceremony on 4th July. ENDS 16th June 2003 For further information contact Nick Creed 01481 242000 (via Alan Pennington, BDXC-UK via DXLD) So what is the definition of ``high power`` or ``full power``? (gh, DXLD) ** CHINA. Today I received a reply from China Huayi Broadcasting from an address in Jiangsu. The envelope contained a nice-looking folder, of which I think it is NOT a QSL but just some advertisement for CHBC. It's entirely in Chinese and there also some restaurant coupons attached to it. Anybody with a similar reply or possibly with a genuine QSL? Anyway, I will try to have the text translated. Best 73's (Hans-Dieter Buschau, Hildesheim Germany, June 18, hard-core-dx via DXLD) I got a "real" nice looking QSL card from the station. On the backside half of it was in Chinese, not written in, and half of it was a printed QSL text in English with all details included and signed by Qiao Xiaoli. He also wrote "2003. No 3" in the upper right hand corner. 73 from (Björn Fransson, the island of Gotland, Sweden, ibid.) ** CHINA. Re Harris: Glen[n], This url appears to be wrong: http://www.bc.harris.com/product_portfolio/prod_media/dx200.pdf Did you check it out? I can't get it to work (Ben Dawson, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No, but I just did: it must be: http://www.broadcast.harris.com/product_portfolio/prod_media/dx200.pdf Just about the specs, not where they have been installed. The wrong URL probably caused by BC-DX`s insistence on replacing the cumbersome word ``broadcast`` throughout the text by ``bc``. Unfortunately, we copied the wrong URL also under ROMANIA and SAUDI ARABIA in last issue (gh, DXLD) ** CHINA. Continuous Chinese instrumental music (presumed CRI) heard June 18 as follows: 1500 on 15680, 15510, 15265, 13690, 13835, 11945 and 11765. 1600 on 15680, 15510, 15265, 13690, 13715, 11945 and 11795. 1700 on 15680, 15510, 13690 and 11945. Reception best throughout above periods on 13690 (Roger Tidy (UK), DX LISTENING DIGEST) You mean distinct from the crash-and-bang jammer service? (gh, DXLD) ** CUBA. 1900 kHz, (2 x 950), R. Reloj, 0750 June 18, 2nd harmonic from one of their outlets on 950 is still making an appearance right in the middle of the 160m amateur band. Both voice and Morse code ID. Good copy (David Hodgson, TN, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Yo también capté la Radio Rebelde esta mañana entre 1005-1008 UTC por 5025 kHz con fuerte interferencia de 5030 kHz, y además, con un heterodino. Tanto la interferencia como el heterodino desaparecen usando detector sincrónico, y entonces la calidad de la escucha es buena, SINPO=44444. Pero noté que el detector pierde el ancla regularmente; posiblemente está intentando anclar en la señal del heterodino y en Radio Rebelde cuando el fading hacía más fuerte una o otra señal. El programa era el mismo "Haciendo Radio". ¿Cuánto dura este programa? Para la escucha usé el 7600GR conectado a una línea telefónica fuera de uso. Saludos (Elmer Escoto, Honduras, June 18, radioescutas via DXLD) Me alegra saber que estás captando a Radio rebelde en la frecuencia de los 5025 kHz, pero a mí me sucede lo mismo que a tí: en esa frecuencia hay demasiada interferencia de otras emisoras. Mañana debería tratar por los 11655, por donde se está copiando muy bien; lo que me extraña es que ningún otro colega la reportado. En cuanto al programa "Haciendo Radio" ellos dicen en sus promociones que empieza a las 5 de la mañana y termina a las 9 de la mañana, aunque a veces por los 11655, la señal se extiende un poco más y se puede escuchar parte del siguiente programa. Yo la comienzo a sintonizar luego de las 7 de la mañana (1115 UT) luego de dejar a mi hijo en el liceo. Por tu correo personal, te haré llegar archivo de audio para que tengas una idea de como la copio por aquí. Recibe un fuerte abrazo y los 73 cordiales. Atte: (José Elías, Venezuela, ibid.) ** CUBA. Si amigos! This is the mid week edition of Dxers Unlimited coming to you from Havana, and now I want to ask those of you living in the Pacific Coast area of North America for a signal report of our new antenna array. It is now on the air on the 9820 kiloHertz frequency from 05 to 07 UT, that is from 9 pm to 11 pm Pacific Standard Time [sic]. Again, reception reports of the new 9820 Pacific Coast of North America antenna will be most appreciated, send them to arnie@r... [truncated] [By] the way, we start using 9820 kHz every evening at 00 UT in Spanish, with our Central North America beam, then at 01 UT we switch to English with the same antenna and operate until 05 UT with it; finally at the end of our broadcast day, we switch to the Pacific Coast of North America new curtain array until 07 UT. We do receive reports of the Central North America beam from the Pacific Coast, but everyone does seem to observe, as expected, a significant increase in signal strength when the beam is switched at 05. With the new antenna, I expect that the signals received in Northern Mexico, the Rocky Mountain States, California, Oregon, Washington state and British Columbia should be much better, but only you there can really say the last word!!! Send your signal report to arnie@r..., [truncated] or VIA AIR MAIL to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba (RHC DXers Unlimited June 17 via Bob Chandler, ODXA via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. CLANDESTINE from NORWAY? to EUROPE. 7520, Voice of Ethiopia. Checked a number of Javaradios in Europe during the 2000 hour on Sunday June 15. Couldn't hear this one for this listed service in English for Europe; is anyone else hearing them? Last audio file on their website is from June 1 (Hans Johnson, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. DJ TURNS THE DIAL BACK TO THE '60S ONLINE Boredom with current radio trends and nostalgia for early top 40 programming led Richard Kaufman to create his own Web-based radio station. By DAVE SCHEIBER, Times Staff Writer, © St. Petersburg Times published June 16, 2003 http://www.sptimes.com/2003/06/16/Technology/DJ_turns_the_dial_bac.shtml As a kid from New Jersey in the 1960s, Richard Kaufman spent countless hours tuning his AM transistor radio to rock 'n' roll. He loved the music, and the rapid-fire shtick of DJs like Big Dan Ingram and Barnie Pip. They inspired Kaufman to become a radio DJ, too. But he never made the impact or had the kind of free-wheeling fun he dreamed of as a youth. That is, until he traded a home on radio for a home online. On the Web, Kaufman morphs into Ricky the K and brings the '60s alive again. Kaufman's Solid Gold Time Machine site http://www.60sradio.com features old-school DJ chatter, more than 3,000 songs from 1955 to 1971 and classic commercials and jingles from the '60s. That vintage, reverb-heavy radio format faded from the dials with the advent of '70s album rock, and the trend toward more music, less talk FM stations. But now Kaufman, 52, who paid his dues in Florida, Georgia and Oklahoma, is trying to revive the long-gone sound. He's poured his energy and resources into a nostalgic venture beaming '60s radio to baby boomers over the Internet. Kaufman says he draws listeners from across the United States, Canada, England and Australia who pay a subscription fee of $12.95 a month or $119.40 a year. Operating from his home in Dallas, the native of Livingston, N.J., declines to reveal how many paying customers he has, but adds, "I'm making a good living. And it's only getting better." Clearly, Kaufman is targeting the truly hard-core oldies lovers with his play-for-pay site. "In order to make it on the Internet, you have to do something different than, better than and cheaper than (your competition)," he says. "Cheaper than, I cannot do. So instead, what you do is superserve a niche audience. I'm doing that with an audience that is not being served by traditional radio." Kaufman launched his '60s music project in 1998 at the advent of the Internet's popularity. But e-commerce hadn't evolved enough to make subscription payments convenient, and media player technology wasn't as advanced. Listenership was limited. Today, he uses the PayPal online billing system to process subscriptions. With faster computers and high-speed connections commonplace, Web radio links abound, and Kaufman says his station has thrived since last year. Still, making a radio network succeed on the Internet is no easy task, says Larry Magne, publisher of Passport to Web Radio: Music, Sports, News and Entertainment from the Hometowns of the World. "It's very much oriented to a part of broadcasting that's been ignored: the narrow, super-niche market," he says. "For that, it might work. You find a dozen stations can work this way and eke out a living." Magne says the biggest challenge is convincing listeners to shell out more than $100 a year for a subscription. "You can get an awful lot of stuff through cable for 40 bucks a month," he said. "But for one station - unless you've got your slicked-back, Wild Root hairdo - paying $10 or so a month is a lot when there's so much out there for free." As a Webcaster, Kaufman has to pay a fee to the recording industry, ASCAP and BMI, but he builds that cost into his subscription rates. He had thought about pitching his endeavor for radio syndication but wanted to maintain full control. "I didn't want to have it watered down," he says. "If I'm going to be the last dinosaur on Earth, I didn't want to be in a situation of dealing with radio people," he says. "These are the people who messed radio up. I wanted to go directly to the audience." To do so, Kaufman dons one of his many Hawaiian shirts and goes to work in his home studio. He records three five-hour shows - 15 hours of programming - and changes the files once a week. "This way it's convenient for anybody in any time zone to listen," he says. "You just download it when you want. And with all the songs in my library, I don't repeat a song for 12 weeks." Kaufman has gone to painstaking lengths to re-create the feel of the 40-year-old format. He uses much of the same sound equipment employed in the '60s: an RCA 77-DX mike (like the one adorning David Letterman's desk) that provides a big bass boost; tube compressor- limiters, refurbished with parts from 1964, that create a warm, dense sound free from digital distortion; a distinctive "plate" reverb setting; and 31 bands of equalization per channel. "Put it all together and that's the sound of '60s radio," he says. Well, part of it. The rest comes from Kaufman's frenetic, looney approach, which he learned as a youngster by listening to DJ heroes such as WABC's Ingram in New York and Pip of Chicago's WCFL. One of his ongoing routines, inspired by a Miami DJ, is a faux dialogue with Tonto (the late Jay Silverheels) of the Lone Ranger TV show. Kaufman dubbed hundreds of Tonto lines from Lone Ranger tapes to create a Tonto quip for virtually any situation. He recorded them onto separate cartridges and pops them in on the fly. "I have five boxes of Tonto carts, all by category," he says. "To do this kind of radio, you have to be able to find this stuff in about five seconds or less." Then there are the time-warp ads: some 200 old cigarette spots, dozens of soft drink and beer jingles (Reingold, Ballentine, Shaeffer), and movie promos from The Ten Commandments to The Graduate. Kaufman says it takes a lot of effort to do the job right, but he's having a blast as Ricky the K. Though he worked as a radio DJ, starting in 1968, he never thought he reached his true potential. "I wanted to be great, but I was always very average, and I never knew why at the time," he says. Kaufman attributes it to the direction radio moved in the late '60s and '70s, de-emphasizing the role of mega-personality music DJs. "There were maybe about 20 who were really good," he says. "It was very hard to do well, you had to talk about 45 times an hour, but in short bursts, and you needed a quick mind to make it all work. "Then a guy named Bill Drake came along and invented this format that keeps the music moving, and it kind of became the McDonald's of radio: The DJs would only talk over the intros to the songs and outros to commercials. It basically made radio mediocre. Even a great DJ would sound mediocre in a Drake format, and a bad DJ would sound mediocre, too, because less is expected." Kaufman worked at stations in Fort Walton Beach and Atlanta, but left radio disenchanted. He moved to Dallas to write jingles for seven years, producing some for KOMA in Oklahoma City, a 50,000-watt station heard at night in more than 30 states. The program director liked Kaufman enough to hire him as a DJ in the mid-1990s. He worked there for 2-1/2 years, adopting a more rambunctious style, and was encouraged by the response. That's when the idea dawned on him to create his '60s show. "The typical oldies station plays the same 300 songs over and over, and can't sell advertising to anyone over 49," he says. "So if you're over 49, you don't count. Most oldies stations aren't even playing any oldies pre-1968 now. "I play the real oldies, thousands of them. And I make it entertaining like they did when I was a kid." (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. FCC ASKED TO SPURN MURDOCH --- By Frank Ahrens, Washington Post Staff Writer, Wednesday, June 18; Page E04 News Corp.'s purchase of a controlling interest in the DirecTV home satellite service should be blocked because it will mean higher prices and could lead to collusion between News Corp. and cable companies, DirecTV's biggest competitor said yesterday. . . http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7152-2003Jun17.html At this point why would FCC care? Especially, after recent FCC decision. 73, (-.. . Kraig Krist, KG4LAC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. Myanmar TV International (MRTV3) has begun parttime service on Telstar 5 Ku for North America. It is located on the Pitcomm MUX at 12177GHz, 23000 s/r, 2/3 FEC VID= 4081 AID = 257. MRTV shares the channel with VTV4 Vietnam. (This same PITCOMM MUX is home to WRN and Voice of Turkey-TRT.) (T. Wood, June 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN. In case anyone's interested --- I was interviewed by the folks from VOIRI this week, it will be broadcast Sunday (not sure what time but they usually broadcast to N America and Europe 0030-0230 [UT Mon], they woke me up at 1 in the morning, my time!!! later, 73s, (Sue Hickey, Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland, Canada, June 18, GRDXC via DXLD) ** IRAQ. GIVES WITH ONE HAND, TAKES AWAY WITH THE OTHER By Rohan Jayasekera, Index on Censorship June 11, 2003 http://www.indexonline.org/news/20030611_iraq.shtml Iraq's all-powerful civilian chief L. Paul Bremer III will not tolerate 'hate speech' from Iraq's newly freed media. To prove it he has assigned himself absolute power over the Iraqi press. Freedom of expression is in his gift and only the 'responsible' may enjoy it. Rohan Jayasekera comments. To the average Iraqi, almost nothing the Americans do makes sense. Each one is a schizophrenic beast, as likely to smile and hand out a sweet to a child as it is liable to open fire on a street protest or club a careless driver. The contradiction is in the mission; the US military came to Iraq to win a war, not wage a peace. The majority of US troops believe they came to Iraq as liberators. The Iraqis tend to think differently. The US authorities think their problem is their failure to get their message across. The Iraqis already get too many messages from the Americans, and almost all of them are contradictory. What kind of message did the US military send to the Iraqis when it seized "editorial control" of Mosul city's only TV station because of its "predominantly non-factual/unbalanced news coverage" - meaning the re-broadcasting of Qatari Arab satellite network al-Jazeera? "We have every right as an occupying power to stop the broadcast of something that will incite violence," Major General David Petraeus told reporters after being alerted to the offending broadcasts. "Yes, what we are looking at is censorship but you can censor something that is intended to inflame passions." According to a Wall Street Journal report, a US army major was relieved of her duties and removed from the base when she argued that the order contravened principles of free speech. After all, these are principles guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, which every US soldier must "solemnly swear" to "support and defend". But these contradictions fly everywhere. Having invested $20 million dollars over three months in the rebuilding of Iraqi state TV & radio, renamed the Iraqi Media Network (IMN), the US officials in charge of the contract began balking at the new network's news output immediately it went on air. Managers were told to drop the readings from the Koran, the 'vox-pop' man-in-the-street interviews (usually critical of the US invasion) and even to run their content past the wife of a US-friendly Iraqi Kurdish leader for a pre-broadcast check. The station rejected the demands and dug in their heels. "As journalists we will not submit to censorship," Dan North, a Canadian documentary maker training Iraqis at the station, told Reuters. US civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer III, in charge of the occupying powers' Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), was said to be infuriated by the conflicting strategies in place at the IMN, which has two TV stations, a brace of local and national radio stations and two newspapers under development. Even more annoyingly for the US chief, the country's Shi'a broadcasters had made much more use of much less extensive support from Iran to get their networks on air, for more hours with more news. Almost all of it was hostile to the US-British occupation forces. A daily drip feed of increasingly embittered media coverage is turning into a flood, with every political faction in the new Iraq opening up new newspapers in Baghdad, and using them to voice popular frustration at the rising crime rate and failing public services on the Americans' watch. Every day brings new allegations and abuse. The papers representing political parties hostile to the US post unattributed reports of all kinds, accusing the western forces of gang rape, robbery and numerous 'insults to Islam'. One of Baghdad's scores of scrappy publications has begun printing clips from the so-called 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' - the anti-Semitic Russian Tzarist-era forgery that purports to reveal plans for Jewish world domination. But now the US authorities have declared 'enough'. Bremer wants tough new rules governing the Iraqi media to sort the mess out. All Iraqi media must now be registered. Licences will be revoked and equipment confiscated from media sources that break the rules. Individual offenders "may be detained, arrested, prosecuted and, if convicted, sentenced by relevant authorities to up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine". Appeal is to Bremer only, and his decision is final. His nine point list of "Prohibited Activities" include incitement to racial, ethnic or religious hatred, advocating support for the banned pre-war Ba'ath party, and publishing material that "is patently false and is calculated to provoke opposition to the CPA or undermine legitimate processes towards self-government". Officials say the order is intended to stop 'hate speech' - the kind of hot language they say could trigger violence between Iraqis and westerners, or possibly Iraqi Sunni and Shi'a or Arab and Iraqi Kurd. "There's no room for hateful and destabilising messages that will destroy the emerging Iraqi democracy," former IMN official Mike Furlong told the Associated Press in June. "All media outlets must be responsible." This is a long way from the stand made by Furlong's IMN colleague Don North the month before. "This whole idea (IMN) was about starting the genesis of an open media," he said at the time, "so we will not accept an outside source scrutinising what we produce." No more. And Bremer's order was only the start. It also marks a transformation for the IMN - from independent broadcaster driven by First Amendment principles to something else again entirely. The IMN is to be transformed into a mini-ministry to replace the old Iraqi ministry of information, made world famous by wartime Saddam propagandist minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf. Bremer will "reserve the power to advise" the IMN on any aspect of its performance, "including any matter of content" and the power to hire and fire IMN staff. Thus the man in absolute authority over the country's largest, richest and best equipped media network is also his own regulator and regulator of his rivals, with recourse to the US Army to enforce his rulings. Under the direction of former Voice of America chief Robert Reilly, the IMN was created in April 2003 by US defence technology giant Scientific Applications International Corp (SAIC) under contract to the Pentagon. SAIC's relevant speciality is what it calls "Information Dominance/Command and Control" - a nine point programme, according to its website, that begins with 'Battlefield Control' and ends with 'Information Warfare/Information Operations'. This kind of seamless link between military command and media management was what the Pentagon had in mind when it issued the contract to SAIC. A successor to the fuzzy TV broadcasts from USAF EC- 130E 'Commando Solo' psyops (psychological operations) planes and the radio broadcasts beamed from US army transmitters mounted on Humvee jeeps. It was the Pentagon that objected loudest to the resignation of the politically conservative Reilly as the director of the Voice of America, and welcomed his appointment as chief of the Defense Department's media programme in Iraq. Reilly fell out with the VOA board of governors over his 'ideological' views on what he and the Defense Department thought was the VOA's duty, to tell America's story to the nations it opposed. He famously called the fighting in Afghanistan a "war of ideas," with the VOA "on one side in that war". With Reilly gone the VOA joined a 'coalition of the unwilling' with the Pentagon in Iraq. "We are not in the psychological operation or propaganda business," VOA middle east chief Norm Pattiz told the Christian Science Monitor, citing the Pentagon initiatives. "Without the credibility of balanced, reliable, and truthful news, we would have no audience." "Under the last regime, it was illegal to criticise the government," Bremer told Iraqi journalists. "Now you are free to criticise whoever, or whatever you want." But, he added, "with freedom comes responsibility". Reilly says he hopes IMN will evolve into a "PBS-style" responsible public broadcaster. Even the censorious paratrooper Petraeus told the Washington Post that Iraq needed "something akin" to the Communications Regulatory Agency set up in Bosnia "to establish standards and procedures for cases in which those standards are broken." The issue is whether Reilly, and the IMN - a media network sired by Pentagon contract out of US Army psyops, soon to be Iraq's largest, most powerful and only truly national media corporation, topped by L. Paul Bremer III, a man with absolute power over its activities and its rivals - have taken the right route to these destinations. If Iraq needs media regulation, it should be independent. If it needs media at all, it should be more independent than this. (Index on Censorship Jun 11, 2003 via N.Grace-USA for CRW via DXLD) see also QATAR ** ITALY [non]. Volevo comunicare che da domenica 6 luglio, nella prima parte della trasmissione in lingua italiana di AWR - Adventist World Radio, irradiata dalle ore 0900 alle ore 1000 UT sulla frequenza di 11880 kHz (da Julich, Germania), andra' in onda, con cadenza settimanale, un programma di 20 minuti dedicato ai BCL, SWL e radioamatori dal titolo "Studio DX", da me curato e presentato. Tutti i rapporti di ricezione corretti saranno confermati con cartolina QSL speciale. Indirizzo e-mail : studiodx@e... . [truncated] Indirizzo postale : AWR, Viuzzo del Pergolino 4, 50139 Firenze. Buon ascolto, Stefano Mannelli, IZ5ENH (KC9AJF) http://www.smscluster.org http://www.awr.org http://www.rvs.firenze.net (BCLnews via DXLD) ** KOREA SOUTH. QUIZZES FOR PRIZES ON RKI It is the 50th anniversary of RKI and they have some quizzes, sent to regular emailers, (I have their complete CC which they stuck in), and on their web page. Email survey about RKI shortwave, and Webpage about AudioOnDemand and such. http://www.rki.kbs.co.kr (Daniel Say, BC, June 17, swprograms via DXLD) ** LAKSHADEEP ARCHIPELAGO. Details of my latest AIR QSLs received AIR KAVARATTI (Lakshadeep) 1584 kHz 1 kW. Full data verification letter received in 1 month from Mr. R. Periasamy, Asst. Station Engineer, AIR Kozhikode who is in charge of this station. It`s my 101st AIR station to be verified. The Lakshadeep archipelago is a Union territory of India and these coral Islands lie in the Arabian Sea on the South Western part of India, off the coast of Kerala. Of its 36 islands only 10 are inhabited. Kavaratti is the capital which is only 3.6 sq km in area with about a population of 7000 (1987). It seems that it is counted as a separate radio country in some bcdxing circles also like in Amateur Radio. (If so mine is the first known qsl from this radio country). It is about 400 km away from my native place in Kerala and use the same mother tongue of mine i.e. Malayalam. The native people are Muslims who originally came from our state of Kerala. Special permission is needed even for Indian citizens to visit these islands. I used to monitor AIR Kavaratti whenever I go home every year. At first they had some local programs but now a days they relay AIR Thiruvanatapuram, the capital station of our Kerala State which broadcasts in the same language. They have local IDs at sign on and play some music also then. AIR Kavaratti started on January 1, 1994 and I picked up the inaugural broadcast by chance and was trying for its QSL till now by sending several reports to them. This time I contacted them on telephone and the in charge told me that the Station Engineer of AIR Kozhikode is in charge of their station and to try for the verification through him which ultimately worked. AIR Kozhikode by the way has daily broadcasts in the evenings for these Islands. Incidentally, I had visited Kavaratti by ship in 1989 and stayed there for 45 days taking part in the VU7 Ham Dxpedition. At that time this station was not there. Then I visited the 10 watt solar powered TV stations and LW Radio Beacons there at Kavratti & Minicoy Islands. The present monitored schedule of AIR Kavaratti is: 6:40-9:45 am (Sun 8.30 pm) IST [= UT +5.5] 12:00-3:00 pm 5:00-8:30 pm Reception Reports of AIR Kavaratti may be sent to Station Engineer, All India Radio, Kozhikode 670032, Kerala. It’s a difficult catch outside South India as many other AIR stations are also using the same frequency (Jose Jacob, dx_india via DXLD) ** LEBANON [non]. CLANDESTINE from CIS to MIDDLE EAST. 11645 (Presumed), Voice of Liberty (via Javaradio Sweden), 1603 June 16, fair signal, well produced program, but I didn't catch an ID. All in Arabic, mostly short items, such as one about a rocket attack on a television station in Lebanon, and plenty of music. Tuned out at 1630 (Hans Johnson, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** MADAGASCAR. I heard the tests from the Radio Netherlands relay mentioned in DXLD 3107, that is yesterday, 17 June, at 0400 on 4930 and at 1630 on 3215, and today at 0400 on 6040. There's still one more to come: tonight at 1630 on 4930. Programming appears to be continuous unaccompanied choral singing (I only did brief checks, not listen to the whole thing). The 4930 test was noticeably weaker than the signal at the same time from Radio Madagascar on nearby 5010 (Chris Greenway, Nairobi, Kenya, June 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I also checked the 6040 broadcast, and it was quite marginal here (gh, Enid, DXLD) ** MAURITANIA. ATTEMPTED SEIZURE OF STATE RADIO CRW with wire reports [Jun 8] Attempts to seize Radio Mauritania by Islamist soldiers seeking the overthrow of the drought-stricken West African nation's president appear to have failed. With intense fighting between the kalashnikov-toting rebels and pro-government troops breaking out in the capital city the radio station has largely remained off the air and is believed to have been looted. Its absence from the airwaves suggested to wire journalists - most of whom were reporting from neighboring countries - that state-run radio and television had been seized early on Sunday, June 8. An announcement by the mutineers, in fact, had been expected. When Radio Mauritania returned Sunday morning, however, it stated that Nouakchott was still "under the enlightened guidance" of the president and urged residents to "remain calmly in your homes." Forty five minutes later, Reuters dispatched, the station was again silent. An Agence France Press (AFP) stringer placed a call to Radio Mauritania's main telephone line and reached someone claiming to be a pro-government soldier. "There is no problem now," he said. "We are from the presidential army unit. The premises have been pacified." Residents, meanwhile, told AFP that the state radio and television compound and education ministry were "ransacked" by looting prison escapees whose guards had fled. Mauritanian President Maaouya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya is considered a pro-Israel U.S. ally in Saharan Africa who has come under fire from Islamist and pro-Arab forces inside his country that rejected his support for Operation Iraqi Freedom and crackdown on Islamic extremists (N. Grace, USA, Jun 8, 2003 for CRW via DXLD) ** MOLDOVA. 5960, R Pridnestrovia has just verified my reception report from December 2002 on their English broadcast. They wrote: ``The Direction of the Radio DMR has received your letter and is glad to learn that our English program is listened in Europe. We thank you for having given a detailed description of the edition heard by you. It is very important for us to learn that the Radio DMR has found its listeners in Europe and raised their interest. We have received letters from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. We will be glad to get new letters from you. Feel free to express your opinions and wishes regarding our program. Best regards, Director of the Radio DMR : Arkady D. Shablienko Editor-in Chief and author of the English program : Antonina N. Voronkova Editor and translator : Ernest A. Vardanean And the narrator : Vadim A. Rudomiotov`` Their address is: Radio Pridnestrovia, ul. Rozy Luksemburg 10, 3300 Tiraspol, Republic of Moldova. They broadcast in English Wednesdays at 1600-1630 on 5960 (A. Petersen, Denmark, Jun 9, 2003 in DXplorer-ML via CRW via DXLD) ** QATAR. AL JAZEERA: "FAIR," "BALANCED," AND BOUGHT: IT TURNS OUT THAT THE ARAB TV NETWORK WAS ON SADDAM'S PAYROLL. SURPRISE! by Stephen F. Hayes, The Weekly Standard, May 28, 2003 http://www.weeklystandard.com/content/public/articles/000/000/002/736nibie.asp AS FIERCE FIGHTING in southern Iraq claimed the lives of coalition fighters in early April, Ali Moh'd Kamal, the marketing director for al Jazeera, defended his network's willingness to show British and American soldiers captured by the Iraqis. "This is the first time the Arab media have had the upper hand on the western media," he told the Mirror, a London newspaper. He was right, of course. On Tuesday, when al Jazeera fired its director general, Mohammed Jassem al-Ali, the world was reminded once again of one significant reason --- Saddam Hussein's regime infiltrated media outlets throughout the region, including al Jazeera. According to a dispatch from Agence France Presse, hardly a pro- American outlet, al-Ali was canned after the Sunday Times of London reported earlier this month on documents uncovered linking him and two other al Jazeera employees to Saddam's regime. Al Jazeera has confirmed the report of Al-Ali's dismissal, but denies that he was let go because of suspicions about his ties to the Iraqi regime. On May 11, 2003, the Mirror's Marie Coyle wrote: "A document headed 'Presidency of the Republic, Mukhabarat Service,' indicates apparent contact between the intelligence agency and Mohammed Jasim Al-Ali, the station's managing director." While Coyle reported that there was not yet evidence that al-Ali had been paid off, the documents directly implicated two other al Jazeera employees. According to one document, authored by an Iraqi operative working in the regime's embassy in Qatar, an al Jazeera employee Iraqi intelligence referred to as Jazeera 2 passed letters from Osama bin Laden to Saddam Hussein. "[Jazeera 2] has a distinguished stand in the co-operation with us, continuously providing us with the information we request. I made him aware of the appreciation of his efforts. He has been presented with a set of gold jewelry for his wife." The documents also stressed the importance of keeping quiet the contacts between al Jazeera and the regime for fear that any disclosure of the relationship could cause Iraq to "lose [Al-Jazeera] as an instrument employed by us." These revelations support claims in a CIA document first reported by The Weekly Standard earlier this month. That report, "Baghdad's Propaganda Apparatus," offers a detailed analysis of the regime's efforts to co-opt Arab journalists with cash and gifts. It also named Rahim Mizyad, a close associate of Uday Hussein, who coordinated Iraqi media, as one of the agents working for al Jazeera: "Saddam's son Uday . . . assigned a writer, closely associated to him, Rahim Mizyad, as the correspondent to the al-Jazirah satellite television channel. Mizyad also is head of several weekly newspapers in Iraq and General Press Coordinator of all Iraqi governates, but Uday oversees his work." The efforts of the regime to win propaganda were hardly limited to al Jazeera. The CIA report, along with firsthand accounts from Arab journalists, paints a troubling picture of the Arab media coverage --- or, as important, lack of coverage--of the Iraqi regime. The Iraqi Ministry of Information, under the guidance of Uday and Tariq Aziz, "focused on determining the stories to be pushed, and assigning Iraqi resources overseas to conduct media operations." The Information Ministry coordinated its efforts with the Iraqi Intelligence Service (the Mukhabarat), which, according to the CIA report, "participates in the internal decision-making process, recruits media and other assets, delivers propaganda material and instructions to them, and provides payoffs. A variety of reporting indicates that journalists in the Middle East and Europe have been recruited to assist Iraq." Some of the transactions were obvious --- like cash handouts to journalists at the Iraqi Embassy in Amman, Jordan. Others were hidden. Saddam "would award big contracts to newspapers in Jordan to publish all sorts of stuff, like Iraqi schoolbooks and other things," says Salama Nimat, a Jordanian journalist who investigated connections between the Iraqi regime and politicians and journalists in Jordan. "The contracts were worth millions, and no one ever found out if they ever printed the books. No one cared." These practices are not new. They were covered both before and after the first Gulf War. "For years, the Iraqi leader has been waging an intensive, sometimes clandestine, and by most accounts highly effective image war in the Arab world," wrote Wall Street Journal reporters Jane Mayer and Geraldine Brooks in an exposé published on February 15, 1991. "His strategy has ranged from financing friendly publications and columnists as far away as Paris to doling out gifts as big as new Mercedes-Benzes." Curiously, as the American press struggles with questions about its own credibility, editors here have taken a pass on what one might think is a major story overseas. The New York Times ran a 98-word item on the al Jazeera firing on May 28, and it got a brief mention on MSNBC. It may be that the news about the dismissal broke too late to include it in newspapers out Wednesday. But the broadcast networks have largely skipped the story and only a handful of reporters followed up on the previous reports of collusion between the Iraqi regime and al Jazeera. Will this time be different? (Weekly Standard May 28, 2003 via N. Grace, USA for CRW via DXLD) ** QATAR [non]. AL-JAZEERA OPENS BAGHDAD STUDIO NAMED AFTER KILLED REPORTER Qatari Al-Jazeera satellite TV announced the opening of a new studio in Baghdad during the 17 June episode of its daily Iraq After the War programme, broadcast from Baghdad. At the beginning of the programme, presenter Muhammad Kurayshan said: "Dear viewers, greetings and God's peace and blessings be upon you. We welcome you to the penultimate episode of this programme which has a special flavour. With this episode, we inaugurate, with God's blessings, our new Al-Jazeera studio in Baghdad. This is the first studio our TV station has outside Doha. Out of loyalty and gratitude, Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel has named this studio after martyr Tariq Ayyub, our colleague who fell here in the Iraqi capital as the martyr of freedom and truth more than two months ago [following US shelling of the Al-Jazeera offices in Baghdad]. Martyr Tariq Ayyub studio was built by an enthusiastic group of Iraqi and Qatari young people under the daily and direct supervision of producer Farid al-Jabiri and supported by our Baghdad Bureau Director Waddah Khanfar." The programme then went on to discuss the plundering of Baghdad Museum, particularly focusing on stolen and retrieved artefacts. Appearing as guests on the programme were the director-general of research at the General Institute of Antiquities and Heritage in Iraq, Dr Doni George, and Iraqi archaeologist Dr Bahnan Abu-al-Suf. Source: Al-Jazeera TV, Doha, in Arabic 1605 gmt 17 Jun 03 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. 7437A, R. Krishnaloka (Tentative) (via Javaradio Sweden) 0218 June 18 with music, hard to describe. 0223 man talking over music plus he had a bit of echo. Not really sounding like Russian to me but hard to tell with the echo and music. 0227 slight break and more of the same over some New Age type music. Whole thing reminding me of the Falun Gong broadcasts. 0235 more music, chorus of men, but sounding more Middle Eastern than 'Krishna' to me. 0240 more talk, much easier to recognize as Russian. Another talk starting at 0247 with signal improving at this time, although there were still some deep fades. 0255 Singing by woman and then going instrumental. 0301 fast announcement by woman, I heard the word "radio" but nothing sounding like Krishnaloka. Another instrumental, dead air at 0304, pulled plug a minute later (Hans Johnson, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** SOMALILAND. Radio Hargeysa must have replaced its transmitter over the past few months. Earlier this year it was more-or-less on channel (7530) and operating USB with a carrier, so OK to listen to in AM mode. Now it is on 7530.6 or so and the carrier is so heavily suppressed that listening in AM mode is impossible. Even in USB mode the audio sounds very rough. A pity, as the signal strength is reasonable. Regards from a rather wintry Nairobi, (Chris Greenway, Kenya, June 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ? How can it be wintry on the Equator? (gh) ** SWEDEN. RADIO SWEDEN--Coming up on Radio Sweden: Thursday: In "HeartBeat" -- a mother's cure for skin disease and Doctors Without Borders Friday: Midsummer Eve Special on food, religion and culture in the Nordic region Saturday: "Spectrum" visits two plays Sunday: "SONO" goes wild at an art exhibition and rapper Timbuktu has a bone to pick with the Prime Minister (rerun) We reported last time about our DRM broadcasts from Canada, and mentioned that we'd have our own test broadcasts from Sweden soon. Well, soon is now, as those broadcasts began on June 13. We're using a 10 kW transmitter in Hörby mornings local time on 6065 kHz. As these are tests, the schedule is irregular, and we're trying different directions (Anders Backlin, Radio Sweden) (SCDX MediaScan June 18 via DXLD) ** SYRIA [non]. CLANDESTINE from CIS to SYRIA. 12120, Arabic Radio (via Javaradio Sweden), 1500 June 18, with at least six time pips. Music, and then ID's with slogan of "Free Arab Syria." Sked given as 1500-1600 on 12120 and 12085 and 0430-0530 7510. Lots of comments, decent signal, some deep fades. Much weaker on 12085. No sign of any jamming. All in Arabic (Hans Johnson, Cumbre DX via DXLD)) ** TAIWAN. At http://www.cbs.org.tw/French/index.htm - -- A compter du 1er juillet, Radio Taipei International devient Radio Taiwan International pour les émissions en langues étrangères de CBS. Text: A compter du 1er juillet, Radio Taipei International devient Radio Taiwan International pour les émissions en langues étrangères de CBS. Le 1er janvier 1998, Central Broadcasting System change de statut, et Radio Taipei International représente alors la radio de Taiwan à l`international. Durant ces cinq ans, des auditeurs de différents pays ont appris à mieux connaître et comprendre Taiwan, et nous ont contacté, nous permettant de nous rapprocher d`eux dans le monde entier. Mais nous avons découvert dans les lettres des auditeurs que certains avaient du mal à associer ``Taipei`` à ``Taiwan`` ; beaucoup estiment par ailleurs préférable d`utiliser directement le nom de ``Taiwan``. C`est pourquoi à partir du 1er juillet 2003, les émissions diffusées dans les douze langues étrangères de Central Broadcasting System le seront désormais sous le nom de Radio Taiwan International, remplaçant ainsi l`appellation Radio Taipei International. Nous espérons que ce changement gagnera le soutien des auditeurs de RTI. Central Broadcasting System No.55 Pei An Road Taipei, Taiwan. R.O.C. http://www.cbs.org.tw (via Daniel Say, BC, DXLD) Naming for the country rather than the city would certainly be in order, but one excuse above is that dumb listeners are having a hard time making the connexion between the two! Interesting that we are still awaiting a report of this in English (gh, DXLD) Hola Glenn, Saludos desde Catia La Mar, Venezuela. El pasado sábado 14/06 (domingo universal), la locutora Bonnie Cheng (si mal no recuerdo) anunció que a partir del 1ero. de Julio del presente año, Radio Taipei Internacional pasará a llamarse Radio Taiwan Internacional. Creo que la idea no está nada mal. 73's y buen DX (Adán González, Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA, June 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAJIKISTAN [non]. We are looking for someone that can translate from Tajik to English. This is a part time job. 15 20 hours a week from home. All work it to be done at your home and email docs to us (Chris Stallings 757-548-4959 cstallings@theresumezone.com June 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TIBET. 7385, Xizang PBS, 1645 June 13, 44423 English program Holy Tibet [started at 1630?]. Over the previous 4 days I was in a journey for the 'Holy Spirit vacations' on the Mount Kerkini - Belles- 80 km NE from Thessaloniki for some relaxing as well as tripping across the area. Kerkini is one with fishes under preservation. We stayed in the very small village Ano Poroia, 900 m above sea , about 5 km from the Kerkini lake. The radio I used is Kchibo CC300 cassette sized PLL with digital readout and its own telescopic antenna. This radio shows good sensitivity across the upper bands (9, 11 13 and 15 MHz so that antenna needed not to be fully unfolded , but for lower bands full unfolding is necessary. Please notice that images can be heard in several bands. More info on this radio on my web page http://www.geocities.com/zliangas/ (please look at kchibo.pdf) (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TOGO [non]. CLANDESTINE from CIS? to TOGO. 12125, Radio Togo Libre (via Javaradio Sweden) 2001 June 15 with IDs and talk by man in French. Perhaps it was news, but I didn't hear any place names. Fair signal, bad QRN. After some music, gave a number of ID's at 2020. No joy in hearing them via Javaradio Sweden at 1305 on 21760 today Jun 16 (Hans Johnson, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** U S A. http://www.winb.com/DxPgms.htm (Hans Johnson, June 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Glenn: Information about the WLC HF e-mail service for the Great Lakes is available at http://www.marinenet.net/WLC.htm I hope this isn't an old un-updated site. 73 (Kim Elliott, DC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) And also other MarineNet stations, frequency lists, etc. (gh) ** U S A. Hi. I thought the following might be of interest to some on the SWL list. While this came over the NDB list (longwave) they will also be using some shortwave frequencies. 73 de Phil, KO6BB DX begins at the noise floor! Merced, California 37.18N 120.29W CM97sh -----Original Message----- NDB List Information Page: http://www.beaconworld.org.uk/info.htm Hi All, Here's a chance to hear the loudest MF station in California. You may want to brush up on your 20 WPM code copying speed beforehand :O) GL de Mike KB6WFC --- Richard Dillman ddillman@igc.org wrote: To: KPH-OTA@mindspring.com, MF_Monitors@yahoogroups.com Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2003 21:46:58 -0700 Subject: [MF Monitors] KPH On The Air - Night of Nights IV HISTORIC MORSE CODE RADIO STATION WILL RETURN TO THE AIR Stations KPH and KFS To Be Heard Once Again In the fourth annual event that has become known as the "Night of Nights" historic Morse code radio station KPH will return to the air in commemoration of the last commercial Morse message sent in the United States. KPH, the ex-RCA coast station located north of San Francisco, will return to the air for commemorative broadcasts on 12 July at 1701 PDT (13 July at 0001 GMT), 4 years and one minute after the last commercial Morse transmission in the US. These on-the-air events are intended to honor the men and women who followed the radiotelegraph trade on ships and at coast stations around the world. Transmissions are expected to continue until at least midnight PDT (0700 GMT). For this fourth annual Night of Nights one frequency for equally historic coast station KFS will also be activated. Veteran Morse operators, including many former KPH and KFS staff members, will be on duty at the receiving station at Point Reyes, CA listening for calls from ships and sending messages just as they did for so many years before Morse code operations were shut down. The transmitters are located 18 miles south of Point Reyes in Bolinas, CA at the transmitting station established in 1913 by the American Marconi Co. The original KPH transmitters, receivers and antennas will be used to activate frequencies in all the commercial maritime HF bands and on MF as well. KPH will transmit on 4247.0, 6477.5, 8642.0, 12808.5, 17016.5 and 22477.5 kc on HF and on 500 and 426kc on MF. KFS will transmit on 17026.0 kc. These frequencies have been made available through the generous cooperation of Globe Wireless, the current owner of the KPH and KFS licenses. Many of the transmitters will be 50s vintage RCA sets. Power output will be 4 to 5 kW. The transmitting antennas include a Marconi T for MF, double extended Zepps for 4, 6 and 8Mc and H over 2s for 12, 16 and 22 Mc. Operators will listen for calls from ships on 4184.0, 6276.0, 8368.0, 12552.0, 16736.0 and 22280.5kc on HF and 500kc on MF. KPH and KFS will send traffic lists, weather and press broadcasts and commemorative messages, many of which will be sent by hand. At other times the KPH and KFS "wheel" will be sent to mark the transmitting frequencies. Reception reports may be sent to: Ms. DA Stoops, P.O. Box 381, Bolinas CA 94924-0381 USA Members of the public are invited to visit the receiving station for this event. The station will be open to visitors beginning at 1500 PDT (3:00 pm). The station is located at 17400 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and is on the route to the Point Reyes lighthouse. Watch for a cypress lined driveway on the right about a mile past the entry to Coast Guard station NMC. KPH is operated by the Maritime Radio Historical Society in cooperation with the Point Reyes National Seashore, part of the National Park Service. Further information may be found on the Maritime Radio Historical Society Web site at http://www.radiomarine.org or by contacting Richard Dillman at +1 415-990-7090 (email: ddillman@igc.org) or Tom Horsfall at +1 510-237-9535 (email: wa6ope@hotmail.com). VY 73, RD Richard Dillman, W6AWO Member of the Maritime Radio Historical Society http://www.radiomarine.org Collector of Heavy Metal: Harleys, Willys and Radios over 100 lbs. (via Phil Atchley, swl at qth.net via DXLD) ** U S A. PLAN TO CLEAR THE AIR FOR POLICE RADIOS HITS SNAG By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY A proposed swap of airwaves to cut cellphone interference with dozens of police and fire radio systems nationwide has been held up by a less complex proposal from others in the industry. The rival proposals have vexed and divided the staff of the Federal Communications Commission as few issues have, in part because each plan would in some ways benefit the party proposing it. The impasse threatens to delay resolution of a problem that has been hampering emergency response capabilities since the mid-1990s. The FCC appeared headed toward approval of the airwave swap -- proposed last December by Nextel Communications and a coalition of public-safety agencies -- until Motorola and a group of wireless companies stepped in with an alternative plan last month. The root of the interference problem is that frequencies used by public safety agencies, Nextel and other mobile radio services are interlaced. As a result, the far more numerous antenna towers Nextel uses for its cellphone service sometimes drown out public-safety radios, resulting in ''dead spots'' in coverage in several dozen cities, including Seattle and Miami. In fall 2001, Nextel first proposed giving up spectrum that would allow creating an interference-free public safety block. In trade, Nextel would get contiguous airwaves in a band now reserved for satellite phone services. Nextel agreed to pay $850 million toward costs for public safety and private carriers to reprogram equipment or buy new gear. But mobile phone carriers say the plan unfairly hands Nextel prime spectrum that otherwise could be sold at auction by the FCC for billions of dollars. Critics of the Nextel plan also say the spectrum swap would disrupt about half the nation's 2,200 public-safety agencies, even though interference incidents are isolated. In addition, it would take nearly four years to complete, and it might not fully eliminate the interference. Last month, Motorola, which makes most public-safety radios, told the FCC it has developed a device that can filter out Nextel's signals while still receiving public-safety transmissions. ''We think there's a technical solution,'' says Motorola's Steve Sharkey. Public-safety agencies can get the device when they upgrade to new radios, which could take years, or they can retrofit existing radios. A group of wireless firms backs that plan in tandem with stronger interference protections. But the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials calls the proposal ''reactive'' to interference events. And it's unclear who would pay for the upgrades under the alternative plan. ''You've got to fix the underlying problem,'' says Nextel's Larry Krevor. He says interference is more widespread than critics say, and it's growing. He says only a swap can cleanly address all the causes. Some observers suggest Motorola may be opposing a swap because that could open its market to rival radio makers. But others say Motorola would benefit from equipment upgrades in either case. (c) Copyright 2003 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. WARNING: EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM FULL OF HOLES SAFETY EXPERTS PRESSING FOR HIGH-TECH UPGRADES --- By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY A truck transporting a toxic substance turns over on a highway near your house. A terrorist's radioactive ''dirty bomb'' goes off blocks from your downtown apartment building. A line of tornadoes is bearing down on your church. How will you be warned right away and told what to do? Chances are you won't. The nation's emergency alert system is broken. And despite frequent warnings from federal officials that terrorists could strike again -- possibly with chemical, biological or radiological weapons of mass destruction -- little has been done since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to fix it. As a result, many Americans risk not knowing about a potentially dangerous situation until it's too late to do anything about it. ''If you get warned, it's as much luck as anything else,'' says Kenneth Allen, executive director of the Partnership for Public Warning, an organization of government emergency managers and industry executives. The partnership is raising concerns about the lack of a unified, coherent warning system. Most Americans have heard the three test beeps associated with the Cold War-era Emergency Alert System (formerly the Emergency Broadcast System) on their radio or TV. But experts say that system is functional in only a handful of states -- and outdated even where it works. It relies on television networks and radio broadcasters voluntarily turning over air time to government officials in an emergency. But decades after it was created, the system is hobbled by outdated equipment and lack of local participation. If the president needed to warn the nation of an impending nuclear attack, he would have access to thousands of TV and radio stations to do so. But for state and local emergencies, the system is spotty at best. Even if the president were to activate the system nationally -- something no president has done -- he would reach only those people tuned in to a TV or radio network. ''We live in a much more complex, diverse, mobile society, and we face threats that our grandparents never faced,'' Allen says. ''They didn't have chemical-truck spills or nuclear accidents or terrorists.'' His organization and members of a Federal Communications Commission advisory committee say the nation should turn to high-tech solutions to warn people about emergencies and suggest how to respond. Information could be delivered by telephones, cellphones, pagers and computers. Computer chips could be embedded in TVs and radios to make them turn on automatically when warnings are broadcast. ''We have the technology. We can do it,'' says Craig Fugate, director of Florida's Division of Emergency Management and chairman of the public-warning partnership's board. He says chips could be installed in all new TV sets for about 50 cents per chip. But that has never been done because industries worry that they would be held liable if the chips failed. Technological advances would make it possible to alert small groups of people to an emergency, such as those living in a 10-block area or on a suburban cul-de-sac. Warning just those affected would reduce panic that might be caused by a broad-scale alert. Weather radios that turn on automatically to broadcast tornado warnings are popular in some parts of the country. But less than 10% of the population owns them. By Wednesday, the FCC advisory group will vote on suggestions for a new high-tech system. Ira Goldstone, the Tribune Co. technology coordinator who heads the panel, says he hopes the issue will pick up momentum. But no federal agency has taken the lead. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has expressed support for a new national warning system, but it has yet to become a top priority. Michael Brown, the undersecretary for emergency preparedness and response, says the department isn't going to ''jump in with both feet.'' He says the public will rely on news media for information during major disasters. But he says new technologies will lead to better regional warning systems. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., who is running for president, says that's not good enough. The current system ''depends on television and radio that most people won't hear in the middle of the night when an attack could come,'' he says. ''Public warnings save lives, so we have to make sure they get to every American.'' The Senate tried to include $10 million toward that end in this year's budget -- a small amount by federal government standards but more than enough, experts say, to develop a decent public-warning system. But the money was stripped out of the budget. Some wonder whether the nation needs a new warning system in an age of 24-hour news coverage. On and after Sept. 11, for example, stations broadcast information from officials around the clock. ''If there was a national crisis, chances are that most radio stations and TV stations would put (the president) on,'' the partnership's Allen says. ''But if you're watching TNT (Turner Network Television) or the shopping channel, you might never know there was something going on. I've got 130 channels on my cable network. How many would broadcast a presidential alert? Maybe 10.'' Even if most channels broadcast government warnings, Fugate says, ''if there's a chemical spill in the middle of the night in your neighborhood, you're probably not going to be watching CNN.'' (c) Copyright 2003 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. BROADCAST BAND UPDATE by Greg Hardison THE OBVIOUS: By now, I don't have to tell YOU that the FCC orchestrated their historic ownership vote on June 3, etc., etc. The original Radio de-reg proposal would have allowed the mega-group owners to possess up to 10 stations in one market. The most significant radio-development was the move allowing Arbitron to define what constitutes a "market", in the bloodshot eyes of the FCC. It's been a while since I was thoroughly familiar with such flotsam, but ARB recognizes at least two markets in each area...the internal, primary example, and the "TSA", or Total Survey Area...which in the case of Los Angeles, extends out to beyond Lancaster and Victorville. (The TSA designation is based on areas of basic Television service, as recognized by marketing-types circa 25 years ago. In central Texas, for instance, the Dallas/Ft. Worth TSA used to extend some 250 miles southwest toward San Angelo, and on beyond south toward I-10 --- as WFAA-TV (Ch.8), KTVT (Ch.11), and KERA-TV (Ch.13) were relayed via microwave to most Cable systems in that part of the state, well into the 1980s. Similarly, the Los Angeles TSA at least used to extend to the Nevada and Arizona state lines.) The June 3 vote now legalizes the NBC arrangement in Los Angeles, for example, spotlighting common ownership of KNBC-TV Channel 4, with Spanish-language TV outlets KWHY-TV Channel 22, and KVEA Channel 52. Firms in the "largest" markets (certainly NYC, L.A. and Chicago) can now own as many as three TV stations in one of these markets. Locally, Infinity no longer has to sell KFWB in order to remain sanctioned, and common (Tribune Co.) ownership of The Los Angeles Times and KTLA Channel 5 will go on as planned. Richard Wagoner writes an excellent weekly Radio column in the South Bay (Calif.) Daily Breeze. A brief sample of his thoughts from the June 13 column reads thus: "You can blame the FCC, but it really was Congress that started the whole problem with the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. That is the act that opened the way for three large group owners to control an estimated 50 percent of radio listening in America. And it was Congress that formed rules forcing the FCC to evaluate media regulations every two years under an order to drop or change any regulations that couldn’t be defended on a competitive standpoint. So it`s humorous to watch members of Congress trample over themselves to be the first to condemn the FCC on its latest action, loosening rules for cross-ownership and ownership caps for television stations and newspapers." -- Indeed, the surplus of ignorance among those who are designated to "lead", arguably stems from an overabundance of book-learning, without any real expertise in the ways of Real Life. Some of us remember (without fondness) the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, which prohibits U.S. residents from even tuning in frequencies used for Cellular operations --- despite the existence in 1986, of Digital- cellular technology. The Digital touch by design would prevent anyone except intended recipients from making any sense out of cellular transmissions. Ironically, this Digital technology was put into widespread use in the past five years (and remember, the actual technology dates back to around 1980), which means the 1986 bill was ALWAYS completely unnecessary for privacy, from the git-go! The original '86 bill would have prohibited use or possession of receivers capable of pulling in those high-UHF frequencies --- which happen to fall between Channels 74 and 83, on the U.S. UHF-TV band. Geez, that would have meant that 75% or more of the TV sets in use at that time (capable of tuning past Ch. 69) would have been illegal to own! (I've fantasized many times over what the collection/confiscation procedures would have entailed - -- they probably would've resembled the "Morlocks dinner call" scene from "The Time Machine", either the 1961 or 2002 versions!) Obviously, the bill was amended, but actual communications receivers which tune those same frequencies lost FCC-type acceptance (meaning approval for domestic sales), in the first quarter of 1994. Sound familiar? Think back to the days of the Cold War, when folks in the Soviet Bloc faced criminal sanctions for listening to Radio Free Europe or Radio Liberty. Some legislative model, no?? More news on the overall subject now, from All Access http://www.allaccess.com another superb source of info: - "Rep. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT)'s bill to overturn the FCC's new media ownership bill is coming to the House on THURSDAY (6/12), and the Congressman told a VERMONT State House press conference that "what we are seeing now are people from across the political spectrum coming together and saying that American democracy means the flourishing of ideas, differences of opinion, and not a centralized media controlled by a handful of large corporations." The RUTLAND HERALD also reports that Rep. MAURICE HINCHEY (D-NY), a co-sponsor of SANDERS' bill, also plans to introduce a re-regulation bill in the future." -- Apparently, there is some thoughtful attention being paid to this mess by at least SOME members of Congress. The questions remain: who will pay off whom to overturn this effort, and will we ever know?? DIGITITIS: For the true Radio Phreaks among us, this marks the 70th year of the National Radio Club --- a splendid non-profit organization specializing in long-distance AM reception, and of course, covering many related topics. While I'm sharing a few of My Favorite Things (helluva song title, no?) with you, here's one more: Leonard Kahn's answers to AM technology. An article written by NRC member Fred Vobbe of Ohio, and published in the NRC'S "DX News" (volume 70, #26, page 22) summarizes some of Mr. Kahn's latest hijinks. His system is called Compatible AM-Digital, or Cam-DO for acronymic purposes, and is set to restore full 15 kHz audio response (equal to FM), to AM signals. (Several years ago, the National Radio Standards Committee arranged for all U.S. AM stations to roll-off the sound at 10 kHz, in an effort to reduce adjacent-channel interference. Those of us with Wideband AM receivers could definitely tell the difference --- age-related hearing losses notwithstanding!) Those using standard low-pass AM receivers would notice markedly improved sound under the Kahn setup; others with these Wideband rigs would jump for joy. Of course, the functional need for such receivers would be addressed by the development and marketing of Digital-AM sets, delivering CD-quality sound with full frequency response. The Kahn group is arranging tests, mostly on stations in the Midwest, to be conducted during both daytime and nighttime conditions, in order to evaluate the effects of fading, and other generally distance-related issues. Additionally, Kahn Communications Inc. filed a petition for rule-making with the FCC in January, which would require the agency to appoint a blue-ribbon panel of experts, who would be charged with revising review procedures involving new Broadcast technologies. The goal: to remove undue corporate/pork- barrel influences, from the FCC-approval process in general. One can dream, can't one? SIGN UP TODAY! A shameless plug for the aforementioned NRC follows: a one-year membership is available for U.S. addresses, for $28 ($38 in Canada and $52 elsewhere); just send check or money order to: RON MUSCO, P.O. BOX 118, POQUONOCK, CT 06064-0118 --- again, this is a wholly non-profit organization; their annual convention takes place each year over the Labor Day weekend. This time around, in Dallas, Texas. Until the next, Peace and Prosperity! (--GREG HARDISON, June 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1680, KTFH Seattle WA, P/d letter and business card in 7 days. Says they came on the air 5/21 at noon. Says the programming is Hindi from 1200 to 2400 and // with KKMO in SS from 2400 to 1200. [UT -7] V/s Monte Passmore, CE (Griffith-CO) expanded band QSL #40 2003 QSL #19 (Patrick Griffith, N0NNK CBT CBNT Westminster, CO, USA NRC AM via DXLD) ** U S A. WPTR TRIBUTE SITE: I stumbled across the below 1540 WPTR (Albany, NY) tribute website yesterday. I grew up listening to this station in the '70's and spent a nostalgic few minutes checking out airchecks, photos, music surveys, etc. Anyone remember screaming Shotgun Johnny Ringo? He DJ'ed at this station in the mid to late 70's. http://www.fifteenforty.com/ Regards, (Peter Jernakoff, Dupont Titanium Technologies, Wilmington, Delaware, NRC-AM via DXLD) I remember Shotgun Johnny Ringo; he sure was a standout. I listened from Lowell, MA. The 1540 signal practically burned my radio.... He aired lots of callers from the "counter-culture", straight from a Cheech and Chong casting call --- wished I airchecked his shows. They were different. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but the playlist gave me more of the impression they were AOR-leaning than Top 40. Or maybe they just played the AOR crossovers... it was cool for this early teen to listen to nonetheless. Led Zepplin and Deep Purple on AM radio... you gotta love it. Thanks WPTR. Thanks, Peter for posting the URL. There probably are a few folks who weren't aware of the WPTR tribute site. I found it from an earlier mention (Ron Gitschier, Palm Coast, FL, ibid.) ** U S A. TNN SAYS RULING IS COSTING IT MILLIONS Reuters Wednesday, June 18, 2003; Page C07 NEW YORK, June 17 -- Media giant Viacom Inc.'s TNN network told an appeals court today it had lost nearly $17 million since film director Spike Lee blocked the cable channel last week from changing its name to Spike TV. . . http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7719-2003Jun17.html 73, (-.. . Kraig Krist, KG4LAC, DXLD) ** U S A. DOWNS STILL HAS PLENTY TO SAY --- By HEATHER RUTZ LIMA - Though he's no longer paid for it, Hugh Downs couldn't resist a little commentary Tuesday afternoon. After emceeing his 65th Shawnee High School class reunion, the Emmy-award winning broadcaster had plenty to say, especially about his own business. "Appalling," Downs said about Monday's Federal Communications Commission ruling easing rules governing ownership of newspapers, television and radio stations. The changes allow companies to own TV stations reaching nearly half the nation's viewers and to own newspapers and TV and radio stations in the same city, according to the Associated Press. Critics are already challenging the changes, saying they will lead to a few giant companies in control of the media. Downs, 82, who used to offer commentaries as part of his hosting duties on ABC's newsmagazine 20/20, was quick to agree. Downs said he ended his career partially because network lawyers had begun nitpicking his words while on the air. "It's not good for the public, which has trouble enough getting unbiased news," Downs said. Clear Channel, which controls 1,200 radio stations across the country, provided a recent example of how large companies control what information people receive, Downs said. "No matter what you think about the Dixie Chicks, a giant radio corporation, Clear Channel, banned them (after the band made anti-war statements)," Downs said. "Imagine a merger between AOL and Disney, and pretty soon there would be a big sign over the Capitol building. Then you get what these giants want you to hear." Downs' family moved to Lima when he was two years old. An Army veteran of World War II, Downs started in broadcasting at Lima radio station WLOK. He logged a 64-year career in broadcasting, including hosting the Tonight show, the Today show and 20/20. Downs retired in 1999 and now splits his time between Arizona and New York. These days, Downs is writing more books, lecturing and giving speeches. His latest book, Letters to a Great-Grandson, will be released in the fall. The book is for the public, as well as his own great-grandson. "What I wouldn't give for a document like that from my grandfather or great- grandfather," Downs said (via Fred Vobbe, Lima OH, June 15, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. TOWER WORKER DIES IN NEBRASKA Goehner, Nebraska (AP) -- Authorities in Nebraska say a faulty piece of safety equipment may have led to the death of a worker who fell 12- hundred-feet from a television transmission tower. The Seward County sheriff says Carlos J. Muñoz of West Monroe, Louisiana, was attached to the tower through a harness system moments before he fell. The sheriff says a piece of the harness system apparently hooked to the tower was found bent at what was termed ``a disturbing angle.'' Munoz was one of five employees of SpectraSite Broadcast Group of Irving, Texas, who'd been working on the 15-hundred-foot tower 30 miles west of Lincoln, Nebraska for the last two weeks. A spokeswoman for Cary (North Carolina)-based SpectraSite says the company is working with federal and local authorities to investigate the incident. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is being asked to help with the investigation. It was Nebraska's fourth death involving a tower accident in the last 14 months (via Bob Carter, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) What`s the station?? A 22-year-old man was killed yesterday afternoon when he fell 1,200 feet from a television transmission mast in Nebraska, USA. The man, who was working as a technician, fell from the mast and died immediately. The mast is used by KOLN/KGIN. The man was not employed by the station and the fall was witnessed by several fellow crew members. The fatal fall comes more than a year after a worker was killed working on a Nebraska Educational Television Network mast. Tim Culpepper, 29, was killed after being struck by falling debris when a hoisting rope snapped on top of a 1,524-foot mast in April 2002. His body dangled nearly eight hours before rescuers could reach him. Two Illinois workers died in September last year when a 1,965-foot tower collapsed (From Waveguide 18 June 2003 via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** U S A. Today is Idaho's 50th TV Anniversary; it was 50 years ago today KFXD-TV first signed on as Idaho's 1st TV station. It only lasted about 3 months, being one of the shortest lived stations in the US. On 7/12 KIDO (now KTVB) came on the air and they usually claim they were first (Frank Aden, Boise, June 18, NRC FMTV via DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLICATIONS +++++++++++++ FIRESIGN THEATRE RE-RELEASES Back in March you (I think it's you) wrote: ``Sony Music/Columbia has done absolutely no followups to last year`s (or year before last--it`s hard to me to remember) CD reissues, which means that my favorite Firesign albums, ``The Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra`` and ``Everything You Know Is Wrong`` remains unavailable. Laugh.com has reissued these on CD; see http://store.yahoo.com/laughstore/firtheatsket.html And while has another DVD,``The Firesign Theatre`s All Day Matinee, Martian Space Party and The Yokes of Oznard`` in their computer, every time I try to order it it comes back as being unavailable. In case it is, the UPC number for that is 688321202527 (John Norfolk, OKCOK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` This has been axed, but will probably come out eventually (Brian Westley, firesigntheatre.com webmaster June 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RECEIVER NEWS +++++++++++++ RDS SCROLLING Although scrolling text is broadcast in England I do not get it on my DX-398. My daughter has a Roberts R9917 which I assume is a badge engineered Sangean and it does do AF, TA and Station ID but not scrolling. In England scrolling seems largely relegated to car radios and Home Stereos but more and more portables are appearing with RDS features such as the Roberts R9917. Virtually all cars here have RDS radios (except the very, very cheapest-I have only seen one car without RDS). When I lived in Germany stations used more in the way of scrolling. I certainly do not use all the RDS features of but I do use the TA and AF functions in addition to station ID as they can be most helpful on journeys. On Sunday we went across England and listened to Classic FM (our first national commercial station) even though this meant several changes of frequency we did not have to adjust the car radio and traffic reports came in as they were broadcast even though they might be on another station. Somehow I think the `Bottom Line` (I must confess that this brings up the vision of a posterior :-0) would improve if people did not have to retune frequency, were able to get traffic reports whilst listening to their favourite station and knew what the station name was. ``Thar is gold in them thar hills``. For a good description of RDS go to http://www.rds.org.uk/rds98/whatisrds.htm (Brian Millson in Sunny England, DX-398 yahoogroup via DXLD) DRM +++ RECEIVER NEWS - THE "2010" LIVES [sic] Mayah Communications of Germany has introduced a DRM portable with an USB interface for firmware upgrades. Visit http://www.mayah.com "This DRM Receiver is the 2nd generation receiver for the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) standard. It is the result of a joint development effort of MAYAH, Coding Technologies and AFG. The receiver is based on standard components and different to the first generation, it is smaller and lower cost. A DSP module performs all the DRM specific decoding functions. The software of the DSP module can be updated via the USB interface. The USB interface also provides the data from data application for further processing with a PC. The receiver can decode mono and stereo audio signals. The full stereo signal is available at the headphone outputs. The display indicates station name, used frequency, field strength and the number of service components of the received DRM signal. Additional information transmitted will be displayed if available. The station can be selected by directly entering the frequency using the numeric keypad. Beside the DRM standard the receiver also supports reception of analogue AM programs in the MW, LW and SW bands as well as FM programs." (T. Wood, June 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PROPAGATION ++++++++++++ BLACKOUT I was just listening to a station (WYFR) in the 19 meter band when it took a sudden dive and disappeared about 2250 UT. Checking WWV on the various frequencies shows absolutely nothing from either WWV or WWVH. This on both the SP-600 and Yaesu VR-5000 receivers and both antennas. At 2310 the SP-600 is starting to show some life from WWV on 15MHz. While it's understandable on the SP-600/HC-10 combination, it is "just discernable" on the VR-5000 (with the DSP off). 73 de (Phil, KO6BB, Atchley, Merced CA, June 17, swl at qth.net via DXLD) There was an M6-class flare at 2255Z June 17, 2003. That is quite a flare. Knocked out HF on the sunlit side of Earth... 73 de (Tomas, NW7US (AAR0JA/AAM0EWA) Hood, swl at qth.net via DXLD) Talked with a ham today. He was working 2 meter E-skip to quite a wide area yesterday evening (6-16). Mainly NM, Mexico, AZ, TX and NV. While talking on 2 meters with Las Vegas, they decided to try 220 mHz. They CONTINUED to talk on 220 MHz until around 2300 MDT! Anybody see/hear any of this on FM/TV? BTW, 6 meters was open to Honduras, Japan, and east coast of Canada (Bill Frahm - Boise ID, June 17, AMFMTVDX mailing list via DXLD) [This may have nothing to do with propagation, but timing is close:] I was trying to listen to the BBC African service on 15400 kHz at 2200 UT on 6/17/03 and encountered an odd sort of noise that made listening very difficult. I was wondering if others heard it too and if anyone could identify it. I realize that this is listening off the back of the antenna, but usually that transmission at that time is fairly clear, even though somewhat weak, and definitely understandable here in St. Louis, MO. It's often better than reception in mid-morning of the Americas service on 15190! Anyway, what I was hearing was a sort of whining motor-like noise that accompanied the program audio. It wasn't present on other nearby frequencies, which were either clear with the usual atmospheric noise at a low level, or just about perfect reception of a strong signal on 15410 kHz. So I'm wondering if this is a known type of transmitter defect producing this machine-noise effect? If so, is there a standard term to use to refer to it? I suppose the closest I can come to describing it is like you were trying to listen to a radio while a lawn mower was running at about an equal sound level; the desired signal's understandability varied with time. The female announcer's voice came through much clearer than the lower-frequency male's voice. Thanks for any comments or explanations! 73, (Will Martin, MO, swprograms via DXLD) OUR EXCLUSIVE AND NOT COPYRIGHTED HF PLUS LOW BAND VHF PROPAGATION UPDATE AND FORECAST Solar activity may switch again into high gear, with former sunspot region 365 now well in sight. Many solar flares, and a huge coronal hole will certainly have an impact upon HF propagation during the next three to five days. As a matter of fact, it is expected that more aurora borealis and aurora australis events will occur during this week. Solar minimum is still expected to happen sometime between 2005 and 2007, with the most likely YEAR OF THE QUIET SUN happening circa 2006. Forecasters are predicting a solar minimum sunspot count of around 6 to 8 during the bottom of cycle 23, and as always they are expecting that sunspots from the new cycle are likely to appear very soon, perhaps by the very early months of 2004 (Arnie Coro, CO2KK, RHC DXers Unlimited June 17 via Bob Chandler, ODXA via DXLD) Major geomagnetic storm conditions this morning with estimated kp index of 7. Heavy auroral flutter on signals above 6 MHz. As is often the case with such conditions, there seemed to be an enhancement of lower band signals form the tropics. Thankfully, static crashes were at a fairly low level for this time of year (David Hodgson, TN, June 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) e.g., AUSTRALIA; CUBA FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 18 JUNE - 14 JULY 2003 Solar activity is expected to range from low to high levels during the period. For the first half of the period Region 386 will have the potential for M-class and X-class activity. On 27 June, Region 375 is due to return and may have M-class potential during the second half of the period. A greater than 10 MeV proton event is possible early in the period because of the potential for a major event from Region 386. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux is expected to reach high levels on 21 – 23 June, 30 June – 03 July, and again on 06 – 07 July. The geomagnetic field is expected to range from quiet to major storm levels during the period. Unsettled to major storm levels are possible early in the period and again on 29 – 30 June due to coronal hole high speed streams. Minor storm levels are possible on 18 – 20 June, 25 – 26 June, and again on 03 - 07 July due to more high speed streams. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2003 Jun 17 2211 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Environment Center # Product description and SEC contact on the Web # http://www.sec.noaa.gov/wwire.html # # 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table # Issued 2003 Jun 17 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2003 Jun 18 125 30 5 2003 Jun 19 120 30 5 2003 Jun 20 120 25 5 2003 Jun 21 120 20 4 2003 Jun 22 120 20 4 2003 Jun 23 125 20 4 2003 Jun 24 130 30 5 2003 Jun 25 130 25 5 2003 Jun 26 120 25 5 2003 Jun 27 120 15 3 2003 Jun 28 120 15 3 2003 Jun 29 120 30 5 2003 Jun 30 120 30 5 2003 Jul 01 115 25 5 2003 Jul 02 115 15 3 2003 Jul 03 125 20 4 2003 Jul 04 130 25 5 2003 Jul 05 135 25 5 2003 Jul 06 140 25 5 2003 Jul 07 145 25 5 2003 Jul 08 155 20 4 2003 Jul 09 150 15 3 2003 Jul 10 145 12 3 2003 Jul 11 135 20 4 2003 Jul 12 130 20 4 2003 Jul 13 120 15 3 2003 Jul 14 120 20 4 (http://www.sec.noaa.gov/radio via WORLD OF RADIO 1187, DXLD) ###