DX LISTENING DIGEST 3-233, December 28, 2003 edited by Glenn Hauser IMPORTANT NOTE: our hotmail accounts are being phased out. Please do not use them any further, but instead woradio at yahoo.com or wghauser at yahoo.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.w4uvh.net/dxldtd3k.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 NEXT AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1213: Mon 0515 on WBCQ 7415, webcast, 5105-CUSB Wed 1030 on WWCR 9475 Mon 0430 on WSUI 910, webcast WRN ONDEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO [also for CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL]: Check http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html WORLD OF RADIO 1212 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1213h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1213h.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1213.html (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1213.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1213.rm CONDOLENCES I don`t normally publish notices of the deaths of relatives of people in SW, but I feel compelled to make an exception this month, and offer my deepest sympathy here, as well as previously in private. To Will Martin, St. Louis, on the death of his wife Beverly, Dec. 13. She had had a series of heart problems. To Rachel Baughn, editor of Monitoring Times, on the death of her mother, Dec. 22. Rachel had been working from home while taking care of her. (Glenn) UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIAL I for one enjoy your newsletters as I don`t get whole lot of magazines and they give info I don`t always see on line (Larry, n6hpx/du1, maritime mobile, Pacific) ** ALBANIA. UnID, 7270.15 1507-1515 Dec 21. Talks by YL in unID lang. Tirana on grayline? Poor at tune-in after RTVM signed off and deteriorating (John Wilkins, CO, DXplorer Dec 21 via BC-DX via DXLD) Sure, yes indeed the off frequency is typical for Shijak, Albania outlet. Great Greyline reception over there, approx. 9500 km distance. But surprisingly non-dir antenna registered !!! Heard ham operator call sign N6 from California yesterday at noon on 40 mb (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX Dec 21 via DXLD) Radio Tirana, III-rd channel Broadcasting Program in Albanian during the Winter Season B 03 (26 0ctober 2003 - 27 March 2004) Time-UTC Tx/ Pwr-kW Frq-khz Wave Beam Europe 0900-1000 Cerrik/100 7110 OND Fllake/500 1395 33 deg 1500-1800 Shijak/100 7270 OND Fllake/500 1215 OND 2130-2300 Cerrik/100 7295 350 Fllake/500 1458 338 deg Yes, the "off frequency" means it will be Tirana which is heard with a wobbly carrier daily here from sign-on 1500. The lang is Albanian, and sched shows Shijak 100 kW OND at 1500-1800. RTM Kuching 7270 was tent. the one heard here with chanting at 1450 on Dec. 18 at good strength, but with ALB carrier spoiling reception. No signal heard from them since then (Noel R. Green-UK, Cumbre Dec 22 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** ANTIGUA. BBC, 6245, BBC World service ID at 0000, Which transmitter location would this be? 24 December (Bob Wilkner, FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Looks like Antigua, 5975 mixing with 6110 (Spanish), 135 kHz apart (gh, DXLD) Hi Glenn, Might be mixing product. There were several pirates that evening and it seemed to be mixing with a woman singing. On your suggestion will try this again, same time when I get a free evening. Thanks! (Bob Wilkner, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. 5049.99, ARDS Humpty Doo, from Darwin at 0921 with Aboriginal Christmas story in Aboriginal language punctuated with lots of hymns, weak signal (27th December), thanks to Paul Ormandy for help, seems to have moved up a little from the original. Verifier Dale Chesson dale @ ards.com.au within a few hours by e mail (David Norrie, AOR 7030, Whitford Forest, Auckland, fence post antenna, New Zealand, Dec 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. HCJB-Australia will have a new broadcast schedule starting on 4 January 2004. Proposed Schedule (B03HCA-02 HFC 16-Dec-2003 HCA) +------+------+------+--------------+-------+ FREQ STRT STOP CIRAF ZONES POWR LANGUAGE +------+------+------+--------------+-------+ 15560 0100 0300 40,41,49,5 75 ENGL 15560 0300 0330 40,41,49,54 75 URDU 11750 0800 1100 51,56,60,62,63 50 ENGL 15405 1230 1330 40,41,49,54 75 ENGL 15405 1330 1400 40,41,49,54 75 URDU 15405 1400 1415 40,41,49,54 75 HIND 15405 1415 1730 40,41,49,54 75 ENGL (via Alokesh Gupta, Swopan Chakroborty, India, Dec 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 4722.85, 17.12 2335, unID Spanish. Bad modulation with pretty good strength (QSA 2-3). Somewhat strange music. Yura drifting? It was not on its normal frequency. BM in Quito also noted the same station. JE/RFK (Jan Edh/Ronny Forslund, Sweden, SW Bulletin Dec 28, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4722, 22.12 2315, Radio Uncía, Uncía, Potosi, a completely new Bolivian station with good strength, also heard by BM who helped with the correct ID. Ads and musica variada KO (= Kenneth Olofsson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Dec 28, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4722.86, 27.12 2240, Radio Uncía with QSA 3, nice ID (``Radio Television Uncía``) and promo for a Christmas contest. Seemed to send live. Had some transmitter trouble for a while, but fixed it. Strange music mix and American pop, Bolivian rap, tango etc. Must be a perfect example how new stations are booming in as long as the transmitter is new, and later ``die`` away. JE/RFK (Jan Edh/Ronny Forslund, Sweden, SW Bulletin Dec 28, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4722.86 kHz, Radio Television Uncía/Radio Uncía "105.3". I have a new recording from last night of 4722.86 kHz. After listening to this recording I agree with Henrik Klemetz that the name of the station is "Radio Uncía" from the town with the same name. IDs and ads from the town of Uncía with telephone numbers: 5 9825 2 80 and "terminal de buses": __31 3 36. ID: "Radio Televisión Uncía... regional... radiodifusión... Radio Uncía en su nueva onda 4700 kilociclos, banda de 60 metros onda corta". When giving this ID at the same time the OM- DJ said the name of a church. Just one DXer has given his opinion about my first recording: Henrik Klemetz. The new recording with better "Uncía" I have sent to Henrik and also to SWB: http://homepage.sverige.net/~a-0901/. Bolivian town-names you find at Global Gazetteer: http://www.calle.com/world/bolivia/Un.html (Björn Malm, Ecuador, SW Bulletin Dec 28 via DXLD) Radio Uncía per [4722.86 kHz unID Bolivia 17/Dic/2003 - 0000 UT Björn Malm discovery], 4722.83, Radio Uncía, 1010-1015 "Time check by om, music with om talk over" 23 December; Radio Yura poor on 4716.73; 23 December (Bob Wilkner, Icom R-75 ~ NRD 535D ~ Drake R 7 ~ Noise Reducing Antenna, Pompano Beach, Florida, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Glen[n]: Do you have anything new about what is on 4815 kHz? Last night (2302 UTC 27 Dec) I heard a man with a very slow and deliberate speech in Portuguese. This went on until 2327 except for a brief musical interlude around 2317. He made several mentions of São Paulo and a possible mention of Benjamin Constant. At 2327 there was a brief hymn and then a string of rapid fire ads and promos. I didn't notice an ID but audio and the signal were both very poor and I had to use USB to reduce the ute that is there. After that I had to give it up as my ears were ringing from the poor audio and the ute. Londrina and Benjamin Constant/Tabatinga are both listed on this frequency. The reference to São Paulo could have been São Paulo de Olivença which is close by to Benjamin Constant whereas São Paulo is in a different state from Londrina (Mark Coady, ODXA EGroup Co- Moderator, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Mark, No, I don`t; we`ll have to see what others come up with. I will say that unless otherwise specified, any mention of São Paulo on a Brazilian would refer to the country`s largest city, and would be of no help in tracking an unID. 73, (Glenn to Mark, via DXLD) ** CHINA. Today at 0900 I noted the Vienna waltzes on 11640, 13615, 13650 and 15515, all three with synchronized audio. At 1030 I noted 11640 and 12040 (the buzzer) and after 1100 7365 and 6045 (the buzzer). As the buzzer, which we first heard testing, is now used as a jammer, I feel that the others are also likely to be from the same site (Olle Alm, Sweden, BC-DX Dec 19 via DXLD) I found them on 21570 just after 0800 in clinch with Spain. Both strong, but becoming weaker. This was the very buzzy tx. The 13 meter band is full of unused freqs, and they still have to select one of the rather few that is already occupied? No waltzes on 11635/40, 13615, 13650 and 15515 today (Olle Alm, Sweden, BC-DX Dec 24 via DXLD) Nothing heard from Kashgar tests these days. Much poorer signals of the FireDrake type at 1800-2000 UT 15510, 13670, 13625, 11790, 9875, 9455, 9355, 7540, 7455. At 1500 UT FireDrake too: 17565, 15510, 15385, 15285, 13745, 13670, 9680 (Wolfgang Büschel, Dec 26, BC-DX via DXLD) Re 21570 0500-0600, CHINA'S BUSINESS RADIO: Resistance against propaganda. Ian, that's a IBB/VoA Sri Lanka relay channel for U.S. state propaganda broadcaster carrying VOA Tibetan program at 0400-0600 UT. And as all external Broadcaster Tibetan broadcasts worldwide are subject of China mainland jamming. The Chinese state security authority uses available local domestic Chinese radio programmes, sometimes using Dragon Dance [Fire Dragon] jammer, and sometimes carrying western classical radio programmes, heard. Nervy. Mostly up to 3-4 jamming transmitters are used at one frequency, and one of these slowed in time by a half second to produce an echo effect, to 'to get on a person`s nerves'. These jamming services to counter foreign propaganda have NOTHING to do with CRI authority and their programs, so the reply from Peking is correct (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX Dec 23 via DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. 2980.00 harmonic, Radio Garzón, Garzón 28/Dic/2003 1050 UTC. SWB MICROINFORMATIVO! Quito 28/Dic/2003 10:08 local time. Music from Ecuador, Perú, México and Colombia in a program called "Amanecer campesino". A good frequency for harmonic-DXing; I have earlier heard 2979.99 harmonic, Em. Punto 5, SF de Bogotá (Colombia); 2980.00 harmonic, Radio Unión, Esmeraldas (Ecuador) and 2980.00H unID "Radio Pampa". 73s (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, SWB América Latina, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA/COLOMBIA. BBCMundo.com: C. Rica: arrestan sospechosos Note: The slaying of Medina who was with Radio Monumental was covered extensively by WOR during the second half of 2001. See DXLD 1-105 (Henrik Klemetz, DX LISTENING DIGEST) EN COSTA RICA DETIENEN A SOSPECHOSOS POR ASESINATO DE PERIODISTA COLOMBIANO http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/hi/spanish/latin_america/newsid_3352000/3352025.stm (via Henrik Klemetz, DXLD) ** FINLAND. 6170, 0750-0810 25-12, Scandinavian Weekend R, Virrat, English/Finnish Special Christmas program, Finnish pops // 11690 24333. 11690, 0800-0810 25-12, Scandinavian Weekend R, Virrat, Finnish Special Christmas program, Finnish pops // 6170 25333. QRM R Afrique International via Juelich 11690 until-0800* (Anker Petersen, Denmark, @tividade DX via DXLD) ** GERMANY. I was looking at the Shortwave Report website (see ITALY in 3-232) and came across this page http://www.outfarpress.com/outfarpress/restoreDWsw.html undated, no doubt a few months old now, but still of interest: Margot Forbes DEUTSCHE WELLE ENGLISH SERVICE Tel.: +49 221 389 4144 Fax: +49 221 389 4155 E-mail: margot.forbes @ dw-world.de Website: http://www.dw-world.de Dear Margot, I'm glad to get a response about DW cancelling its shortwave service. While you list several ways to hear DW on NPR etc stations, the truth is that no radio stations are airing Newslink here in Northern California (including KMUD which is the only one listed that I can receive). Very few people listen to satellite or have high- speed internet connections. I feel that this decision is very short-sighted and a serious loss to the tens (or hundreds) of thousands of US shortwave listeners. As I pointed out in earlier emails, the only DW SW signal I can receive now using professional equipment is at 11945 at 0400, and the sound is too weak to be useful on the Shortwave Report which has hundreds of thousands of listeners in the US and Canada. As I also pointed out, when the BBC dropped its transmissions to N America, its C American, African, and Asian transmissions are strong enough to receive well on portable SW radios. The purpose of international radio using SW bands is to improve global understanding using a simple, low tech method. If, in fact, public radio stations were rebroadcasting Newslink, then it would not be a problem --- but they are not at this time and, based on my 15 years experience in public radio, I doubt that it will ever become widespread. (Believe me, I wish it would, but many stations already air the BBC and feel that they have therefore presented a worldview.) In a way I could say they the timing of DW's cessation to N America could not be worse (though only future history can determine this.) The BBC is quite propagandistic in covering the invasion of Iraq and wherever the war spreads to. (As they routinely are when covering the African continent.) The US media has expressed extreme bias against the German government and people for not jumping on the "Coalition." How are the American people to understand the intelligence behind the German resistance to this and other wars? (And where else can they find anything close to "Man and Environment," "Insight," or the invaluable Press Reviews?) Certainly not through radio broadcasts that do not exist. For months I have been saying on the Shortwave Report that DW is the best source for an objective view of the world situation. I am sure that some money is being saved by not transmitting SW to N America. But I doubt that it is a significant portion of the DW budget. If you could just return one hour of broadcast to us between 0100 and 0600, you would be warmly appreciated by hundreds of thousands of listeners in Canada, the US and Mexico. Otherwise I fear that DW`s impact on global news reporting will remain unheard, despite the fact that many public radio stations said they would rebroadcast according to your website --- because they are not doing it. Please reconsider your untimely decision. The US is not a country where everyone has a high-speed internet connection, nor are people familiar with listening to radio on their computers. Nor is it a country saturated with public radio stations that rebroadcast even the BBC, let alone DW. Please restore your SW transmissions. Sincerely, Dan Roberts http://www.outfarpress.com/ home of the Shortwave Report LISTEN GLOBALLY! Please help me express this to your government officials! WE IN THE USA NEED TO HEAR YOUR PERSPECTIVE AT THIS CRUCIAL TIME! Thank You Dan Roberts (via DXLD) ** GERMANY. It seems the locals have won the battle to close Holzkirchen, and it will be interesting to note the IBB frequency schedule in the New Year to see where the current frequencies have been shifted to. And also what happens on 15185. The IBB should have some spare capacity when the various language services they intend to close go off, but their transmitters haven`t been so busy since the days of the cold war. Maybe more countries will be willing to rent them their facilities - and there's always four transmitters becoming available in Norway. The four Continentals at Holzkirchen date back to 1981 [according to TDP] so should still have some life left in them. I wonder if they will go to Poro [to replace the 1964 50kW Gates] or join the twelve 250's at Tinang? The TDP shows 2 x 15 kW, 2 x 35 kW and 2 x 100 kW also at Poro, but I think these are all off (Noel R. Green, UK, BC-DX Dec 26 via DXLD) Space --- that's not the problem, I guess. The transmitter power should fit with the antenna characteristics and enough available main power access. So, seemingly 250 kW beasts in good shape, would NOT fit the 35-100 kW antenna electrical cross-settings at Poro (Wolfgang Büschel, Dec 26, ibid.) UMSTRITTENER SENDER IBB WIRD ENDE 2003 ABGESCHALTET VON STEPHAN KIPPES Valley Aus dem Holzkirchner Merkur, gefunden auf http://www.sender-freies-oberland.de/ Seit vielen Jahren sendet das amerikanische International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) vom Valleyer Ortsteil Oberlaindern (Kreis Miesbach) aus, und seit damals kaempften die Buerger gegen eine gesundheitliche Gefaehrdung durch den Sender. Der beharrliche Protest hat sich gelohnt: Offiziell zum 31. Dezember verstummt die "Stimme der Freiheit". "Ein schoeneres Christkindl haetten sich die Valleyer nicht wuenschen koennen", freute sich die Bundestagsabgeordnete Ilse Aigner, und Ober- Gegner Georg Paul von der Initiative "Sender-freies Oberland" dankte fuer die "freundschaftliche Geste zu Weihnachten". Im Muenchner US- Generalkonsulat wurde der Aufhebungsvertrag offiziell unterschrieben, denn eigentlich lief der Pachtvertrag noch bis 2005. Generalkonsul Matthew Rooney wuerdigte bei der Unterschrift die "verdienstvolle Geschichte" des Senders, der 50 Jahre - damals noch fuer Radio Free Europe - unzensierte Nachrichten in die Krisenregionen der Welt ausgestrahlt habe. Auch Brian Conniff, Director des Broadcasting Board of Governors, dem IBB untersteht, hob die Verdienste hervor. "Die Sendungen waren fuer unsere Zuhoerer ein Rettungsanker der Hoffnung." Doch durch den Einsatz moderner Technologien verloren Kurzwellensender wie in Oberlaindern immer mehr an Bedeutung, so Conniff, der damit auch den vorzeitigen Ausstieg begruendete. Die standhaften Proteste - unter anderem vor dem Auswaertigem Amt und einer Klage in den USA - haben aber ihren Teil dazu beigetragen. Das wollte Heinz Walker, Regierungsdirektor des Muenchner Bueros der Bundesvermoegensverwaltung und damit Eigentuemer-Vertreter, gar nicht bestreiten. Die Verhandlungen ueber die Zukunft des Senders seien "politisch sehr hoch gehaengt worden". Der Verkauf an die Gemeinde Valley, die auf dem Gelaende einen Golfplatz errichten will, werde vielleicht noch dieses Jahr ueber die Buehne gehen, kuendigte Walker an. Den angeblichen Kaufpreis von sieben Millionen Euro wollte er nicht bestaetigen. Die Kosten fuer den Abbruch (600 000 Euro) trage der Bund, formal uebernehme die Massnahme die Gemeinde. Bis zum 30. Juni 2004 sollen alle Sendeanlagen abtransportiert sein. Drei der vier Kurzwellensender werden kuenftig auf den Philippinen zum Einsatz kommen. Zum Abschied wurden alle Beteiligten noch einmal richtig wehmuetig. Conniff lobte die gute Zusammenarbeit mit Bundesrepublik und Freistaat: "Wir haben stets versucht, gute Gaeste zu sein." Man verlasse die Region "mit einem lachenden und einem weinenden Auge". Auch Valleys Buergermeister Josef Huber dankte den Amerikanern, "das werde ich auch noch schriftlich tun. Wir werden das feiern, aber es wird keine Siegesfeier sein, sondern ein Freudenfest." Holzkirchner Merkur, 18.12.2003 (via Christian Bruelhart, Switzerland, A-DX Dec 23 via BC- DX via DXLD) ** ICELAND [and non]. Listening to American radio via AFN-AFRTS is very tiring to my ears due to the speed of presentation. Items follow one another without hardly a pause for breath. I'm more used to BBC speed, or else I'm getting old! (Noel R. Green, UK, BC-DX Dec 23 via DXLD) 13855 was very strong in past month especially in our morning/noon. Came across that frequency every day, when checked for the Kashgar-CHN classical station. Registered both on same place Kevlavik, both 10 kW usb, and 7590 non-dir, but 13855 with 180 degrees!! I'm not eager to listen to, because we have two AFN local outlets in town, in order to serve the 14.000 US personnel at Stuttgart. So these outlets are more comfortable to me. AM Hirschlanden 1143 10 kW, and FM 102.3 MHz 75 kW from DTK T-systems Stuttgart telecommunications tower, some 1.5 kilometers away, boost into all electrical equipment here at home. My only favorite is the Latin American music hour Sundays 1000 local (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX Dec 25 via DXLD) 7590U, 27.12 2115, AFN Keflavik now here. QSA 3. JE/RFK (Jan Edh/Ronny Forslund, Sweden, SW Bulletin Dec 28, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) 13855U, 27.12 1330, AFRTS, Iceland with "sign/on" on this QRG. The time when switching in this QRG varies for different days. Sometimes an hour later. Good reception. 4+ BE (Borge Eriksson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Dec 28, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA, RRI Makassar (formerly Ujung Pandang) was heard around 0800 UT, on Dec 21/22 on reactivated 9552.10v. 15125, RRI Jakarta domestic program relay on SW, noted around 0730 UT. 4874.60, Sorong irregularly noted with evening program at 0924 UT, Dec 22 (Roland Schulze, Pangasinan, Philippines, BC-DX Dec 22/27 via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. WorldSpace Asia service Hey fellers, Today I received a letter from the WorldSpace informing me about the fact that they are changing into a subscription service. The letter said that the yearly subscription package for all the channels (and I'm not very clear about what this 'all' means) is Rs. 1200 (about 25 US $). The good news is that this will only be enforced on the NEW customers presently. The OLD customers (the ones who have been listening to WorldSpace) would have time till Dec 31, 2004 to decide whether to subscribe or not. Till then, they can receive all the channels for free. This is looking good. I hope new channels like Radio Caroline are included in this wholesome package. Looking forward to hearing your views... Cheers, Dr. Kay (Krishna Kumar via Mike Terry, Dec 27, BDXC- UK via DXLD) ** IRAN. Re: Rundbrief zum Jahreswechsel 2003-2004 Sehr geehrte Mitarbeiter von IRIB Tadio Teheran, Deutschsprachige Redaktion, Redaktionsleiter Herrn Mohammad Akhgari, Hoererpostbearbeiterin Frau Ursula Zangeneh. Mit grosser Betruebnis habe ich Ihren neuesten Rundbrief ueber die Ereignisse im Zusammenhang mit einem unheilvollen Beschluss der Ausserbetriebnahme der Aussendungen ueber die starken Kurzwellensender in Kamalabad, Mashad, Zahedan, und Sirjan gelesen. Man kann doch diese mindestens 32 starken Sendeanlagen der Firmen BrownBoverie und Telefunken nicht einfach verschrotten, das ist sinnlose Vergeudung von iranischen Volkseigentum. Andere Laender waeren froh, wenn man ueber solch moderne, starke Sendeanlagen und vorzuegliches technisches Ingenieurpersonal verfuegen wuerde. Seit Montag 22.12.2003 konnte ich die deutsche Aussendung auf 15084 und 21770 kHz hier in Stuttgart nicht mehr aufnehmen. Sie haben ja die "Gruende" augenscheinlich in Ihrem Rundbrief geschildert, ich brauche nichts zu wiederholen. Durch Fuehrungskraefte beim Technischen Dienst von IRIB sind ohne Zweifel falsche Schluesse ueber die Moeglichkeiten den Staat IRAN im Ausland publizistisch darzustellen, getroffen worden. Dies trifft ja in noch hoeherem Masse fuer die Ziellaender in Zentral-Asien, Caucasus, Nah-Ost und Nord-Ost-Afrika zu. Bei der BBC London, oder generell im Westen, wuerde man solche offensichtlichen Fehlentscheidungen mit der schnellsten Entbindung/ Rausschmiss[Sack] des verantwortlichen Mitarbeiters vom Job ahnden. Oder ihm eine Informationsreise in die Ziellaender zur Eruierung der technischen Moeglichkeiten fuer den Hoerer und einer reellen Entscheidungsfindung spendieren. Leider haben bei der iranischen Funk- und Fernsehanstalt mit Beginn der Wintersendeperiode 2003/2004 ernste Initiativen zur Ausserbetriebnahme der Kurzwelle fuer die europaeischen Auslandsprogramme dieser Station begonnen, die auch jetzt im Gange sind und bestimmt auch nicht mit dem Jahresschluss enden werden. Sei es, dass der Betrieb von Kurzwellenaussendungen im Verhaeltnis zur Satelliten- und Internettechnik nicht mehr rentabel zu sein scheint, sei es, dass neue Perspektiven des digitalen Weltempfangs wirken - die Kurzwelle wird wohl frueher oder spaeter zum "alten Eisen" muessen, und weder wir noch unsere Hoerer werden diesen Trend auf die Dauer entgegentreten koennen. Es liegt auf der Hand, dass momentan weder Internet noch Satellitenempfang als reelle Alternative fuer das Medium Kurzwelle angesehen werden koennen, schon der Unbeweglichkeit, Umstaendlichkeit und oertlichen Gebundenheit der Geraete wegen. Doch auch viele andere Gruende sprechen dafuer, nicht zuletzt rechtliche und finanzielle. Daher waere die Ausserbetriebnahme der Kurzwelle fuer die Aussendungen des Auslandsprogramms von IRIB unter den gegebenen Umstaenden ein faktisch ersatzloser Verlust fuer unsere auf dieses traditionelle Medium angewiesenen Hoerer. (...) Zuverlaessig ist somit de facto nur die Ausstrahlung ueber Satellit Hotbird 3, 13 degr Ost auf 12.437 GHz und ueber den Audiostream des Internet. Es trifft einfach nicht zu, dass ein entsprechend technisch ausgeruesteter Hoerer sich vor das feste Computer-Geraet mit Anschluss zum Internet setzt, und den Aussendungen der IRIB zuhoert. Selbst in der reichen westlichen Welt, auch schon wegen der entstehenden fixen Kosten und der Unbeweglichkeit. Ich will die IRIB Programme im ganzen Haus, auf der Terrasse, im Garten, in der Freizeit, auf Reisen, am Strand, in den Bergen, also mit portablen, tragbaren Geraeten, sowie im Autoradio mit Kurzwellenteil usw. hoeren koennen. Hier in unserer Eigentumsanlage von 181 Wohnungen sind selbst Satelliten-Empfangs-Spiegelantennen strikt NICHT ERLAUBT. Keine Chance, jemals wieder die Stimme des iranischen Volkes ueber IRIB Tehran hoeren zu koennen. So Sorry. Koennen denn die Hoerer in Israel die sehr wichtigen >EBRI< Programm- Aussendungen, oder die Palestinenser die "Voice of Islamic Palestinian Revolution" / "Voice of Islamic Revolution of Iraq" Programme ueber Satellit hoeren?, und sind sie dafuer ausgeruestet???? Mit vorzueglicher Hochachtung, (Wolfgang Bueschel, Deutschland - Germany - Europe. (Dec 25), BC-DX via DXLD) ** IRELAND [non]. I was listening to RTE on 13640, Sunday Dec. 28 from 1830 to 1900. All that was transmitted was an audio loop detailing that RTE would cease their half hour shortwave broadcast as of January 1, 2004. However, RTE would expand to 2 hours on WRN. There was an offer to Africa for free radios for satellite (?) broadcasts. They mentioned a technical bulletin at http://www.rte.ie/radio that covered what I mentioned above. However, I could not locate it on the web page. Thought you might want to know about this if you had not heard. Their homey, quirky broadcasts will be missed here. Sincerely, (Dean Bonanno, Durham, Connecticut, USA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. GOVERNMENT APPROVES BILL PROPOSAL LEGALIZING ARUTZ 7 By Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent Last Update: 28/12/2003 15:22 The government on Sunday approved a bill legalizing Arutz 7 radio broadcasts, the settlers' radio station. Industry and Trade Minister Ehud Olmert raised the issue in coordination with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The bill, formulated over the past few months, states that the government will be able to establish a designated radio channel that will cater for different sectors in society, such as new immigrants and religious Jews. The High Court of Justice in March 2002 ruled unanimously that the amendment to the Bezeq Law that enabled Arutz 7, the right-wing pirate radio station, to broadcast, is illegal since it violates the Basic Law on Freedom of Occupation. Minister from all parties supported the bill, except for Shinui ministers, most of whom abstained. Interior Minister Avraham Poraz was the only minister who objected to the bill proposal. "Legalizing Arutz 7 will be a trophy for delinquency and for those who have broken the law for years," Poraz said, and added that when he was chairman of the Knesset Economics Committee, he offered Arutz 7 managers several solution, which they turned down. Shas chairman Eli Yishai congratulated the government decision, but attacked the government ministry for discriminating against other religious-oriented radio channels and called on the Communications Ministry to take action regarding these channels. Labor MK Ophir Pines vowed that the opposition would make every effort to prevent the Knesset from passing the law, which would legalize a radio channel that has been operation illegally for seven years. http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/376852.html (via Mike Terry, Doni Rosenzweig, DXLD) "ARUTZ-7 NOT YET LICENSED" 16:40 Dec 28, '03 http://www.arutz7.net/news.php3?id=55218 Contrary to headlines on other Israeli media outlets, the Cabinet did not "legalize Arutz-7" today (Sunday). It rather approved legislation, which must still be passed in the Knesset, to grant national radio station licenses for designated public sectors. Arutz-7 will be eligible to take part in the public tenders for the new stations. Only Interior Minister Avraham Poraz of Shinui objected to the proposal, saying that it was unfair to the existing regional radio stations. The proposal, raised by Ehud Olmert in his capacity as Communications Minister, stipulates that three special-interest radio stations will be established for "various special public sectors." The press release issued today by the Ministry of Communications does not mention Arutz- 7 or any other station, but rather states that the stations will be of "unique characteristics, such as language or culture, or one that is chiefly aimed for a particular sector within the populace... The government will determine the types of stations, giving consideration to the needs of the population sectors, and will provide expression for various sectors that today do not have such in the existing media." Arutz-7 hopes both that one of the designated stations will be for "Judea, Samaria and Gaza" or the like, and that it will win the tender for that slot. Arutz-7 stopped broadcasting two months ago after ten of its broadcasters and directors were found guilty of operating an unlicensed radio station. The conviction was handed down despite the fact that the station had spent millions of dollars on purchasing and operating a ship from which to broadcast outside of Israel's territorial waters. In addition, its hundreds of thousands of listeners were an indication of the public's acute need for its broadcasts. The "Arutz-7 Ten" will be sentenced tomorrow (Monday) in the Jerusalem Magistrates Court. The prosecution has asked for active jail terms for up to four of the defendants, as well as hundreds of thousands of shekels' worth of fines for each of several of them. No one has ever been jailed in Israel for operating a radio station without a license. Women in Green and other grass-roots organizations will be demonstrating outside the Jerusalem Magistrates Courthouse in the Russian Compound in downtown Jerusalem tomorrow at 1:30 PM on behalf of Arutz-7. The organizers wrote to the defendants, "You are our courageous heroes, and we thank you for supplying us with the relevant news and commentary for the past 15 years. You have given us responsible free speech, and supplied us with the kind of views and Jewish orientation of our tradition and heritage that resulted in pride in ourselves and love of our country." (via Doni Rosenzweig, Mike Terry, DXLD) ISRAELI CABINET APPROVES 'SETTLER RADIO' Israel's cabinet approved a proposal on Sunday to create three public radio stations directed at specific populations. News sources reported that Arutz-7, known as the voice of Israelis living in the West Bank and Gaza, would be one of them, but the news network itself denied the claim. "Arutz-7 hopes both that one of the designated stations will be for 'Judea, Samaria and Gaza' or the like, and that it will win the tender for that slot," stated an article on Arutz-7's website. Two radio stations run by the rabbinically-controlled Shas party, would also be endorsed if the proposal becomes law, according to the Israeli daily Ma'ariv. All three stations had operated illegally in the past. Ten Arutz-7 staff members were recently convicted of illegal broadcasting because they operated the station from a boat within Israeli territory for several years. The radio station has not been in operation for two months as a result, but the multimedia website is functional. Israel's Knesset (Parliament) must approve the bill before the three chosen stations will be licensed. http://themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=4243 By The Media Line Staff on Sunday, December 28, 2003 (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** ITALY [non?]. Radio Tre, again 6310 on 28th with steady level of S8 on 2x16 m dipole at 1714 UT (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA [non]. Dec 26 at 1140, V. of Africa via Issoudun [France] heard with talk, ID in Arabic, News in English, ID, News in French on MW 711 and 1251 as well as SW 17695 (SINPO 55555), 21485 (34333), 21675 (34433), 21695 (44444) (Robert Scaglione, Sicily, BCLNews.it via DXLD) ** MALI. 4784.4, R. Mali, Kati, observed on 24 Dec at 1935- airing some talks in Vernacular; the audio level was extremely low, to a point that readability was consequently very poor, so the SINPO rating 54433 reflects the RF signal quality only; their \\ 4835 kHz outlet was off the air, and I'd bet 5995 was also off at that time, only that I couldn't ascertain that due to the severe adjacent QRM, but was noted on well after 1935. At nearly 2300, just 4784.4& 5995 are on the air and, again, both with extremely weak audio. Another observation on 25 Dec at 1923 shows the same audio mess as yesterday, 24th, and 4835 is not audible either. 4835 kHz R. Mali, Kati, noted silent again today 25 Dec ca. 1930 UT while 4784.4 kHz was putting an even weaker audio, to a point the broadcast must be useless even locally (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, BC-DX Dec 16/25 via DXLD) RTM Bamako Mali was poor as always on 11960 with Saharan music at 0800-0835 UT, but parallel 9635 outlet checked twice this morning, couldn't trace even any carrier, so this unit OFF today I guess (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, BC-DX Dec 26 via DXLD) ** MEXICO. 4722.86, Radio Insurgentes "San Cristóbal de la Casas" from Mexico, mentioning figures ... 51280 ... and heard also Machine Gun audio clip. Heard Dec 21, 24, and 25th (Roland Schulze, Pangasinan, Philippines, BC-DX Dec 27 via DXLD) [no time given, so far, wb.] !! Exactly same frequency as Uncía, see BOLIVIA. Mixed up with that? (gh, DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. TV Guide editions consolidated: see PUBLICATIONS ** PERU. 4427.78, Radio Bambamarca, 26 Dec 1040. "las cinco en la mañana... Radio Bambamarca ...radio Bambamarca" (Bob Wilkner, Pompano Beach-Florida- NRD 535D, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 4890.15, 23.12 2347, Radio Macedonia. Preaching with distorted audio. QSA 2-3 JE/RFK (Jan Edh/Ronny Forslund, Sweden, SW Bulletin Dec 28, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PORTUGAL. Heard RDP on unpublished 17710 in Portuguese at 0845 today; // was 11875. Is this new frequency? Possibly Sat/Sun, will try to check again tomorrow (Ray Browell, UK, Dec 27, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** SRI LANKA. LTTE PLAN TO EXPAND BROADCAST SERVICES In a move which will come as political embarrassment to Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) have decided to expand their broadcasting services to the eastern province, and to re-start their television service suspended more than 13 years back. President Kumaratunga, whose opposition to the granting of an FM radio licence to the LTTE by her government has already caused a political crisis in Sri Lanka, currently heads both the defence and the media ministries. Thamil Anban alias Javan, head of the Voice of Tigers (VOT), said that the LTTE plans to install two relay stations in the LTTE-controlled areas in Batticaloa. Under the existing licence issued by the ruling United National Front late last year, any such a move must be approved by the Defence Ministry, the Media Ministry and the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission. But given that the President currently heads the two ministries, and her opposition to the LTTE, it seems unlikely they will bother to go through the formal procedures. This means that Voice of Tigers would again become an illegal broadcaster. (Source: Gulf News) # posted by Andy @ 11:54 UT Dec 28 (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** SURINAME. Radio Apintie Booming in --- 4990, Radio Apintie, 1012- 1020 Dec 28. Noted MOR music with song titles by a man after each tune. Signal is armchair at this time. All QSL collectors take note. I put a sound bite of Radio Apintie this morning. There's 31 seconds worth [Dec 28 at 1010] at http://www.orchidcitysoftware.com/IMAGE2.HTML Look at the bottom of the page for the wav file. if you are interested? (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hope you can get another recording with a clear ID on it (gh, DXLD) ** SYRIA. REPÚBLICA ÁRABE DA SÍRIA, 13610 kHz - R. Damasco, Adhra, Síria. Recebido cartão QSL, postal, folheto, em espanhol, "Síria, la cuna de la civilización", adesivos e carta pessoal noticiando que os informes são respondidos no ar, nas segundas, dentro do programa "Nosotros y El Mundo". 45 dias. V/S: Marian Galindo (Programas en Español). QTH: Apartado Postal 4702, Damasco, República Árabe da Síria (Célio Romais / Porto Alegre - RS, @tividade DX Dec 28 via DXLD) ** TURKEY. Today, I find two TRT frequencies off air - 9460 and 11955. Maybe for maintenance, as they certainly need it. Hopefully, if they come back, they will sound much better than previously. The Voice via DRW was audible in English on 11955, but much weaker than RA via SHP on 11880 (Noel Green, UK, Dec 26, BC-DX via DXLD) Yes Noel, re-your 11955 TRT item: TRT Çakirlar on 11955 at 5-17 in very bad shape these days; audiowise, they need new final circuit power tubes! (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX Dec 26 via DXLD) ** U S A. NPR LAUNCHES NEW RADIO CONCERT SERIES IN COOPERATION WITH CARNEGIE HALL, NONESUCH RECORDS; CREATORS AT CARNEGIE BEGINS JAN. 2004 12/23/03 6:56:00 AM To: Entertainment Reporter NEW YORK, Dec. 23 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Beginning in January 2004, NPR takes listeners inside Carnegie Hall for concerts by artists from across the musical spectrum, from John Adams to Caetano Veloso, from Kronos Quartet to Emmylou Harris. This new thirteen-part series from NPR, called Creators at Carnegie, is sponsored by Smith Barney, a division of Citigroup Global Markets Inc. The series features performances from this year's inaugural season of Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall's brand-new "third stage" underground performance space, as well as performances from its renowned Isaac Stern Auditorium. The programs will be drawn from Carnegie Hall's new Nonesuch at Carnegie series -- a partnership between Carnegie and Nonesuch Records that features a diverse line-up of the label's acclaimed artists in more than twenty concerts during the 2003-04 season. Creators at Carnegie will be hosted by NPR's Fred Child, with contributions from music hosts at New York-area NPR member stations WNYC, WFUV, and WBGO. The series is being produced by NPR in cooperation with Carnegie Hall and Nonesuch Records. Creators at Carnegie begins in January 2004 and will continue through January 2005. "This genre-busting series will present some of today's most adventurous and compelling artists from the world of classical, jazz, country, and world music, as they perform in America's premier concert venue" said NPR's director of music, Benjamin Roe. "Many of these artists have already been featured on NPR's award-winning newsmagazines and music programs. Creators at Carnegie gives us the opportunity to focus on their artistic excellence in a longer form." Creators at Carnegie also will have a major online component at http://www.npr.org as well as on Carnegie Hall's site http://www.carnegiehall.org/creatorsatcarnegie and a new site: http://www.creatorsatcarnegie.com featuring material from NPR, Carnegie Hall, and Nonesuch Records. The January program features John Adams, who holds The Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall, and includes excerpts from the first Zankel Hall concert, curated and conducted by Adams; a selection of this Pulitzer Prize-winning composer's works; an interview with Adams about his creative process; and a preview of the rest of the series. Subsequent programs in the first season of Creators at Carnegie will include Nonesuch artists Emmylou Harris and Randy Newman, as well as Tony Award-winning singer Audra McDonald, guitarist Bill Frisell, Kronos Quartet, Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour, soprano Dawn Upshaw, gypsy band Taraf de Haidouks, Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso, and violinist Gidon Kremer. Other artists chosen for inclusion in the series are Steve Earle, Patty Griffin, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, and Buddy and Julie Miller (schedule follows). The Creators at Carnegie series features performances from Carnegie's Isaac Stern Auditorium and Zankel Hall. 2004 Creators at Carnegie Schedule On the first Friday of every month, NPR will provide its member stations with a new Creators at Carnegie show, which can then broadcast the program any time within that month. Consequently, air days, dates, and times will vary widely across the country. Local broadcast details are available at http://www.npr.org/programs/creators/where.html January -- John Adams February -- Randy Newman March -- Bill Frisell April -- Kronos Quartet May -- Youssou N'Dour June -- Emmylou Harris Future programs will feature: Gypsy sounds, Caetano Veloso, Gidon Kremer, Audra McDonald, Dawn Upshaw Contact: Jenny Lawhorn of NPR, 202-513-2754, jlawhorn @ npr.org or Ann Diebold of Carnegie Hall, 212-903-9750, publicaffairs @ carnegiehall.org or Melissa Cusick of Nonesuch Records, 212-707-2912, melissa.cusick @ nonesuch.com Smith Barney is the proud sponsor of Creators at Carnegie. http://www.usnewswire.com/ -0- /© 2003 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ (via Current via DXLD) ** U S A. WMLK has completed installation of 250 kW Brown Boveri transmitter obtained from Italy in 2000, per Nov 2003 Sacred Name Broadcaster, now in a shakedown test phase. No indication if it will replace or supplement nearly 20-year-old 50 kW (Bill Matthews, OH, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Keep an ear on 15265 daytimes, long registered (gh) ** U S A. EXPANDED BAND 5 YEAR PERIODS Glenn, Would you remind your correspondents that the 5 year period for operation of the "original" station associated with an expanded band station dates from the grant of the LICENSE for the expanded band operation? The license date can be obtained from the FCC's CDBS website utility. There was a dandy legal case about this and if I remember correctly it was Salem Broadcasting that won the clear ruling about the commencement of the 5 year clock. The Commission often takes months or even more than a year to grant licenses, allowing operation during the interim on Program Test Authority, as there is most often no particular urgency for license grant (Benj. F. Dawson III, P.E., Hatfield & Dawson Consulting Engineers, LLC, 9500 Greenwood Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98103 USA, Dec 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. KPLS-830 ORANGE, CA STUNTING THIS AFTERNOON Noted on the car radio this afternoon -- They were running LOUD tape loops in Spanish promoting their 50kW power and their new Spanish talk format which begins at 5 am on Monday. The slogan appears to be "La verdadera radio hablada". http://www.inetworld.net/halls/dx/index.html All dates/times mentioned in my reports are Eastern Local Time for US/Canadian stations and GMT for all others. 73, (Tim Hall, Chula Vista, CA, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) ?? You mean PST in this case? 2 a.m. an odd time to début (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. Re WBZ IBOC: || Bottom line: For now I see no threat to AM broadcast DXing from IBOC, at least the hybrid version, and while limited to daytime only. Side-band splatter is replaced by digital noise; no big deal (Bruce Conti, NH, NRC-AM via DXLD) || It all depends on your location and the signal strength of the station. Some areas the digital noise on the side bands is so bad that it has made DXing on the adjacent channels useless where at one time you could null out the splatter enough to listen to the adjacent channels (Bob Carter, Operations/Engineering--Max Media Radio Group/NC Division WGAI-NewsRadio 560 AM Stereo, ibid.) That's easy to say when you're far enough from the Boston stations that you can null the noise. If you were within 10 miles or so, it's be a different story (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA, ibid.) I beg to differ. First of all, IBOC is not limited to "daytime only". Operation is allowed from 6 am to 6 pm local time. At the present time, that period starts more than a sesquihour before sunrise here, and it ends more than a sesquihour after sunset. In other words, it makes a complete mess of SR/SS DXing. Secondly, you're extrapolating the impact of hybrid IBOC from one special case. I gather that WBZ is a local or semi-local for you, so with or without IBOC, you have to null them to hear much on the adjacent channels. Because WBZ is so strong, you don't have the luxury of being able to null the dominant stations on 1020 or 1040 and get stuff underneath them, since you have to use your nulling capability on WBZ. But that's not true for everyone. Here's a counterexample: at around 1715 today I tried listening to 1020. In pre-IBOC times, it was quite feasible to DX 1020 by nulling KDKA and looking for weaker targets underneath them. If it was a problem, slop from WBZ could be avoided by using LSB. Today, noise was noticeable on KDKA, even though they were comparable in strength to WBZ. I could tell there was a station under KDKA, but when I nulled them, it was all noise, all the time. USB was a bit better than LSB, but no matter what I did, I could not get anything intelligible out of the weaker 1020 station because of the IBOC noise. Game over. This is "no big deal"? Hmpf. Lastly, it's a mistake to equate analog splatter and IBOC sidebands. With splatter, you at least get some relief, and a chance to hear something on the adjacent channel, during pauses in speech, etc. Or maybe you'll get lucky and get some open carrier when the automation goes awry or some such. IBOC sidebands, on the other hand, are unrelenting - there is *never* a pause of any sort. Sure you can null them, but in many cases, it means you're nulling something that you never had to null before. That means you've lost an important capability, the possibility of nulling on-channel stations. In essence, every station that goes IBOC puts two new stations on the air, each one a potential pest. This is a very big deal (Barry McLarnon, VE3JF, Ottawa, ON, ibid.) Then WBZ must be running IBOC in exceptionally low power levels. My experience in NE Georgia in WMLB's null (that's the 1160 in Atlanta that's running IBOC --- was that out in Dawsonville, some nearly 80 miles away and in the null, that's BTW, substantially LESS than when the 50 KW signal was all analog, the signal is barely useable, but the 1150 is messed up so bad that a perfectly listenable signal from Chattanooga is no longer useable, with 1170 gone. As I drove through the main lobe and out I-20 to Carrollton, the 2 adjacents were just blown away. Even on the DX-398, at 50 miles away the 1150 and 1170 were just blasted. A critical listening to the analog was most depressing. The audio was just not anything I'd want to listen to. They run a MOYL format, and it sounded just plain muffled. Even after listening to the racecar talk show and tuning back to WSB, WSB sounded bright. The radio is a Ford stock AM FM cassette in a 1996 Ranger, that's FAIRly decent sounding on FM. While close in and in the main lobe, I tried the handy-dandy Masterwork 8 transistor radio I paid $2.00 at a thrift store. It's actually AS or more sensitive than a CC Radio, and audio is better. It's a bit wider than the CC radio, but not a super wide radio. The analog audio on WMLB was phone quality and where there was some extended high frequency content in music, it sounded horrid. I could also hear the IBOC noise in the analog. In fact (LOL!) I could hear it on the Ford radio, but there was some dead air and I turned the radio UP. More on the new radio later (Powell E. Way III, ibid.) We have similar conditions here in the NYC area. WOR produces lots of noise with its IBOC signal. In addition mid town NYC and near by North Jersey is lousy for DXing. Is the same true for other cities? I'm thinking of Boston, Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles. My question has to do with the very difficult DX conditions we've always have in NYC nothing to do with digital broadcasts (Luis Guerra, ibid.) I have had problems with WOR but they have only IBOCed days and there has been no threat to TAs. But WBZ is doing this well after sunset and both 1044 and 1035 were affected tonight. I have to phase out WBZ to get Spain and Morocco on 1044, both of which were in early this evening (Ben Dangerfield, Wallingford, PA [SE cor PA], ibid.) See REF ** U S A. PIRATE RADIO IN DC? Today while sitting in my car while my wife shopped for after- Christmas bargains, I discovered an apparent pirate on 93.5 MHz right in Washington, DC, presumably within a few miles of FCC HQ. I was on the rooftop parking level of the Pentagon City Mall in Arlington, VA, just across the Potomac River from downtown Washington, and tuning through the FM band I came upon non-stop Caribbean steel-band music which I happen to like very much, so I kept the dial there. It was 93.5, which was somewhat curious since the station usually heard here on that channel is a C&W outlet in Southern Maryland. After well over an hour of non-stop Caribbean music the station did identify itself as WEFM and 93.5 FM, and gave a 202 area code phone number (which is DC's area code) which I have not been able to get in several tries because the station is heavily over-deviated. Music is not badly affected but speech comes through highly distorted. In researching on Google I find that the real WEFM is in Michigan on 95.9, but there is a station in Trinidad on 96.1 which identifies itself as WEFM and presumably Trinidadian immigrants to this country would be familiar with that station, so the use of that call coupled with the Caribbean music makes sense. After returning to my home which is 8 miles south-southeast of the White House as the crow flies, I find I can receive "WEFM" here weakly when I point my antenna at DC, but the over-deviation bothers my Denon tuner even more than it does the Honda car radio. So I have still not managed to come up with the magic 202-723-???? phone number. Regards, (Fred Laun, K3ZO, Temple Hills, MD, Dec 26, WTFDA via DXLD) ** VIETNAM. 5034.6, 21.12 2345, Xuan Mai H`mong Service, I had to hear this one after the article from BEFF in latest Eter Aktuellt. A station with exciting music. Closedown 0000. Q2-3 HR (Hans Östnell, Sweden, SW Bulletin Dec 28, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 1630: Today at 1330 EST I noticed for the first time a one kc. type het on about 1629. This in addition to the continuing o/c on 1630 from the Philadelphia Airport TIS which hasn't broadcast any verbal info for months; just open carrier. Whatever this is, it must be somewhere in or near Pennsylvania (Ben Dangerfield, Wallingford, PA [SE cor PA] Dec 27, NRC-AM via DXLD) Russ, You may be right on the money; I checked again tonight and asked my daughter (who has perfect pitch) "what note is that tone?" She said "A" (which is 440 Hz), so I ran another Argo plot. The result is at: http://users.adelphia.net/~bdsaylor/1630kHz_2248EST_12-27-2003.jpg Compared to the plot from Christmas day, the "dirty" signal at 900 Hz is gone (it *did* have a TVI quality to it), but the same dominant tone heard that day showed at about 437 Hz, with another that faded in and out at 439 Hz, as seen in this more detailed plot: http://users.adelphia.net/~bdsaylor/1630kHz_2244EST_12-27-2003.jpg Based on tonight's observations, and looking at some of the other plots from the past nights, I'm inclined to believe that the sound heard here is actually the one around 440 Hz. This is supported by Fred's original report of an "A" tone. I tried to draw a bearing on the signal and get about 150/330 degrees. Since Fred, Russ and I live "relatively" close to each other, we could use someone further west and/or south of Pennsylvania to try to try to get another bearing (Brett Saylor, PA, NRC-AM via DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ Re: DXLD TOO MULTILINGUAL? Hi Glenn, The extensive comments on this subject in DXLD 3-232 beggar belief, because the problem was solved ages ago. If everybody would use Unicode encoding in their software, problems like this would go away. The problem is a lack of interest in foreign languages amongst computer programmers working for the big software companies, most of them American. Internet Explorer does support Unicode (when viewing a page with unreadable characters, select view - encoding - Unicode (UTF8). But most major software packages still don't. Unicode was devised to solve precisely the problem your reader complains about. The home page is at http://www.unicode.org/ As the organisation itself says: "Unicode provides a unique number for every character, no matter what the platform, no matter what the program, no matter what the language." I would have thought you ought to be an advocate of such things, Glenn :-) 73, (Andy Sennitt, DXLD) Sure I am TV GUIDE EDITION CONSOLIDATION Starting with the Dec 6-12 edition, the OKC and Tulsa editions were consolidated. Glad to see the Tulsa listings back in the edition I get, as was the case many years ago. OKC also included KTEN-10, KXII- 12, KWET-12, KFDX-3, KAUZ-6, KSWO-7, KJTL-18. The new Oklahoma State edition also has KOET-3 (why not, totally duplicated on 3 other OETA outlets), but this one is listed under TULSA, like KOED-11, which really is in Tulsa! Still missing is KRSC-35. I wonder if this `independent` noncommercial couldn`t afford to get in TV Guide? BTW, what do you all think of their new expanded grid listings? I find myself skipping them, and using the regular primetime listings. I might find a few more items to mark for possible viewing, but there is so much duplication, and I am trying to spend less time planning my viewing and listening! And for M-F daytime, where there is no longer any alternative, the grids are a pain to use, with only the movie/premium channels getting specific daily titles. Thanksgiving was a mess with NO INFO on the numerous specials departing from regular weekday programming, but they added some Xmas pages. There is also a lot of wasted space in the grids with duplicated listings for different stations on the same network. BTW2, I finally decided this year not to renew my TVG subscription, as it often lacks info on the shows that interest me most, the slick pages have been dumbed down to tabloid/fan crap, and there are more timely free online sources (including TVG itself) I can check if I really need to. So I let my sub lapse in September. Three months later, I`m still getting TVG with my Sep expiration still showing. Per one or more mailers I got, they really hate to lose me after all these years. But if I relent and renew now, I expect it`ll be backdated to cover all these `free` issues I wasn`t expecting to get. But I sure wouldn`t want to pay the exorbitant single-copy price. 73, (Glenn Hauser, OK, WTFDA via DXLD) SHORTWAVE BROADCAST SCHEDULES The 2003-Dec-27 version of Daniel Sampson's shortwave broadcast schedules is now available in PalmOS, MobileDB-based format. http://www.bobfelton.com Happy listening! (via Mike Terry, DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ TERK AM1000 ADVANTAGE ANTENNA After hearing St. Kitts and Norway last night with no external antenna at all, I can't wait to see what I will get with one, so I ordered The Terk AM1000 Advantage Antenna, for $40, it should arrive Tuesday. Anyone else have it? Opinions? Is it worth the $40 I spent or will I have a nice paperweight? (Jason Koralja, NRC-AM via DXLD) It works well. It won't beat the more expensive stuff, but since the Radio Shack loop is discontinued, this will do. I found it equal to the Radio Shack loop (Powell E. Way, ibid.) SEWER LINE RFI ON 60 METERS I have some interference from about 4725 to 5105 kHz. I seldom listen in the area of the sixty meter band due to other commitments when the frequency is most active here. I had the usual racket this afternoon. If others were hearing it, perhaps there was a problem here in my vicinity. I had heard neighbors talking about what they thought was a strange looking radio tower of some kind about a hundred yards south of my street on the main road. Nobody had a clue what it was. I called a friend of mine on the police force and asked if he knew what it was. He had seen it, but did not know what it was either. But he said he would call a friend who was on the county road commission to see if she knew anything about it. It turns out that it is a sewer line monitoring station that has sensors inside the main sewer line to keep track of the flow rate and so forth. It transmits the data by radio to a county wide receiving station that feeds it into the computers there. Any accumulation of methane, reduction of the flow rate, blockage and so forth sets off alarms at central dispatch. They have closed circuit TV inside these main lines and can actually see what is going on, to an extent. Our tax dollars at work! I am calling the people responsible for maintaining these stations tomorrow to see if they can reduce or eliminate the RFI being transmitted. Who would have thought a sewer monitor was interfering with my reception! I 'might' get some reduction in this RFI and be better able to hear in the sixty meter frequency range. But knowing how county administrative procedures work, I will also pursue some filtering on my own to see if I can eliminate the problem, now that I know what it is. Maybe I should get somebody to take a digital photo of this oddity and make it available to others with an unexpalined interference issue. There may be one, or more, of these things in your neighborhood (Duane W8DBF Fischer, Flint MI, swl at qth.net via DXLD) THREE CELLPHONE COMPANIES OFFER WALKIE-TALKIE PHONES http://wizzer.advance.net/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?f0063_BC_WSJ--TheMossbergSolut&&news&newsflash-financial By WALTER S. MOSSBERG The Associated Press 12/24/03 8:57 AM The Wall Street Journal The world is about to get a whole lot noisier. If you find cellphone gabbers annoying -- the type who spill out their side of a phone call loudly enough for anyone within 15 feet to hear -- then get ready for widespread distribution of a type of phone that could be your worst nightmare: walkie-talkie phones. Instead of hearing just one person's side of the conversation, these phones let you hear both participants as they shout back and forth on built-in speaker phones at volumes that can't be ignored. Sprint and Verizon have started rolling out these devices. They are cellphones, but in addition to the ability to make cellular calls, they have a large button on one side of the phone that, when pressed, can immediately open a line of communication with another phone. In this walkie-talkie mode, the normal practice is to hold the phone away from your mouth, broadcasting what is essentially a speakerphone call. For years, the small cellphone carrier Nextel has sold such phones to businesses for use by truck drivers, construction crews and other groups of employees who needed to stay in touch quickly and easily, even having group conversations. Now, Verizon and Sprint, with their much larger reach among general consumers, are pushing the walkie-talkies, too. My assistant Katie Boehret and I have been testing walkie-talkie phones from Nextel, Sprint and Verizon so that we could try to understand how they tick. The experience is something like Instant Messaging on a computer -- you don't have to fuss with the formalities of polite conversation such as greetings, goodbyes and other niceties. Instead, you simply connect to another phone, ask a question, and get back to work. That can be handy. But as we found out, this type of communication is also just another way for the rest of the world to interrupt your personal life, with even more immediacy than a regular phone call. Now, instead of receiving a call that you can choose not to answer, these walkie-talkie-like phones allow an actual voice to call out from your phone -- "Walt, it's me, are you there?" Each phone company has a different term for this form of communicating -- Sprint calls it PCS Ready Link, Verizon calls it Push to Talk, and Nextel uses the term Direct Connect. You can connect only with others who have capable phones and use the same service as you. Nextel naturally has more of these phones to choose from. We found nine different Direct Connect-capable devices on the Nextel Web site and tested one of the newest models, the $299 Motorola i730 color- screen flip phone. Neither Sprint nor Verizon has as many phones to offer as Nextel. Sprint sells three and Verizon sells only one. Katie and I each used a different Sprint phone; each costs $299. I took the Sanyo RL 2500, a silver flip phone with a color screen, while Katie used the chunky, blue Sanyo RL 2000, which is a candy bar (nonflip) style phone that also has a color screen. We each also tested Verizon's Push to Talk phone, the $199.99 Motorola V60p, which is a monochrome flip phone. Using each phone, Katie and I connected back and forth, with interesting results. The Nextels had the fastest connection, with only about a second of latency, or time passed between when I pressed the side button to speak and when Katie actually heard what I said. Verizon was a few seconds slower, and Sprint seemed about the same as Verizon, if not a bit more delayed. The process of connecting was simple. We selected a name from the phone's address book, and then briefly hit the large circular button on the left of the phone, which sends a short chirp that alerts the other person of your connection request. If you want to be really rude, you can just press and hold down the button and start speaking without first alerting the other party. These conversations are a throwback to the military-style walkie- talkie world. Only one person can speak at a time, and you have to remember to hold down the talk button when you want the floor. This can get confusing, though Sprint's system helpfully reminds you on the screen when you have the floor and when you don't. Overall, these walkie-talkies made for brusque, impersonal conversations. And that's on top of the other big problem: In public places, they can expose your conversation to everyone around you, and intrude on other people who may not appreciate hearing you and your caller. The phones do have a function that cuts off the speakerphone aspect, but in our experience, few people use it. Another problem: Even when regular cellphone service is available, the walkie-talkie service, which is separate, may not be. On more than one occasion, the Verizon phone that we used showed a message telling us that the Push to Talk network was unavailable. One of the major differences among the three services is related to group chatting, or how many people you can talk with simultaneously. Nextel's original network was created to establish communication among large groups of people, such as those on a construction site, and so they allow for three to 25 people to chat at once. Nextel places the participants into what they call a Talkgroup, using each participant's Direct Connect number. These numbers are 10- to 12-digit codes that each contain two asterisks, and are used instead of a person's cellphone number. Verizon and Sprint, on the other hand, stick to the same cellphone numbers for calling and instantly connecting, which is simpler. Verizon allows up to 20 people to talk together, but Sprint allows for only five. Another important difference between Nextel and the others is that while Verizon and Sprint allow nationwide group talking, Nextel allows group talking only within your local area. If you have a business purpose or other special reason for using one of these phones, we like Nextel. But for regular conversations, this type of device is impractical and just too rude to use, especially in public. -- With reporting by Katherine Boehret (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) THE NRC IBOC DEBATE CONTINUES [from 3-231] David Gleason wrote: ``Nearly no station cares about any market outside the home market.`` While that is true for a lot of stations and formats, David, please consider the following: There are advertisers on AM stations that need the clear 50 kW signals to hit their audience. Specifically, sports teams that make six and seven figure time buys, or stations that ante up for rights fees. These three hour "infomercials" of play-by-play are used to sell tickets and merchandise. And since many teams are regional teams, they need to hit an audience well beyond the diary return area of most stations. Networks help, but there are still holes in a regional coverage. Witness WBZ, with three small network affiliates, as it airs Bruins games. For example, WEPN-1050 has two Long Island based teams making time buys. The Islanders especially like our coverage to the outer reaches of Suffolk County, some 100 miles from New York City. A KYW-1060 IBOC signal hash would probably obliterate our coverage not only in Suffolk, but parts of Nassau County. You bet the Islanders would be peeved, especially with the money they pay us. Baseball teams want people to follow them on the radio, especially when they go on vacation to the next state. They'll be hearing the advertisers they might support while away from home. (Sports teams sell that to their advertisers - BIG selling point.) And if you doubt that, check out the letters, emails and phone calls of complaint from Tigers and Phillies fans. WXYT cannot compete with WJR, and WPEN cannot compete with WPHT. A 50 kW clear channel (not the corporation) IBOC station might have less coverage than a 50 kW station on a regional with the digital hash. There are far too many analog radios out there for such a quick turnaround. Even if, David, your projection of a fast market penetration of IBOC radios is achieved, there will still be a few years of AM band pandemonium, we would lose huge chunks of money, and AM may lose listeners it may never get back. And this - a number of regional advertisers, say, a group of northern New Jersey Chevy dealers (just picking any name) pool money for advertising. A dealer in western New Jersey would be raising a red flag if its spots were clearly heard in its area before IBOC but then could not during the (possibly long) conversion. Additionally, some FM's in New York make significant money leasing their sub audible carriers. It would take years to get that back, if they ever do. So, you're looking at a seven, possibly eight figure drop in ad revenue. What corporate suit would keep his or her job? (Bob Galerstein, WB2VGD, Morris Plains, NJ, Nov 22, NRC-AM via DXLD) If I recall, The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are PAID by WFLA for the rights to broadcast the play by play. I think you will find it that way most places, now (Paul Smith, W4KNX, Sarasota, FL, ibid.) It would be interesting to know the split. Most deals I know of are either brokerage or split revenue. In the former, the team buys the time and resells it to advertisers; in the second case, the team gets the major sponsors and the stations get local avails. There seems to be a decrease in the number of pure rights deals, although plenty still exist. One reason for this is that in some sports and markets, stations won't pay big rights deals --- look at the Dodgers in both English and Spanish in LA, where a game is a sure way to cut the audience in half. So, in these cases, the team buys time and does their own selling, often on second tier station (David Gleason, CA, ibid.) The majority of NFL and MLB teams are able to sell their rights - most NBA and NHL teams, and a majority of colleges, are time buys. Either way, the principle is the same - the play-by-play is an infomercial for the teams to push tickets and merchandise (Bob Galerstein, WB2VGD, Morris Plains, NJ, ibid.) In the case of the Phillies, as Bob mentioned, there has been a lot of loud complaining among the fans all year over the team's move from WPHT-1210 to WPEN-950. WPHT's signal isn't the greatest, but it's approximately as good as KYW's in some directions and better in others, and they're the only two 50 kW stations here. None of the regionals here have solid signals throughout the extended Philadelphia area, although WFIL-560 comes close. WPEN, by contrast, has one of the worst signals in the market, and runs MYL. (WDAS-1480 is probably the worst). Neither the signal nor the format are the most compatible with the Phillies, but WPHT's price was simply too high --- they preferred to go with their national and local talk hosts which brought them more revenue. It will be interesting to see what happens when this deal is over and if the new ballpark and locally-hoped-for competitiveness of the team will change the equation next time. Or maybe a sale and/or format change at WFIL? (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA (15 mi NNW Philadelphia) 40:08:52N; 75:15:58W, Grid FN20ID, ibid.) In LA, both Angels and Dodgers buy; the ratings are so poor that stations want the guaranteed money. Yankees and Giants in NY buy time for Spanish; don't know about English (Gleason, ibid.) WCBS paid such a high fee to the Yankees to pry them away from WABC (and by extension, WEPN) that they almost use it as a loss leader. Not sure about the Giants and WFAN. With the Iraq war in the spring, WCBS' numbers were about the same. WABC's went up (Bob Galerstein, WB2VGD, Morris Plains, NJ, ibid.) OK. I'm putting my DX'er hat aside for a moment here. I've already said there was little on the AM band content-wise of interest. So what is AM these days? Yes, there are some good, strong all-news operations. There are also a lot of all-talk stations. Maybe they're tele-talk, maybe they're religious, maybe they run sports-talk or maybe the syndicated guys. But those fall into two basic categories --- first the tele-talk stuff is not much more than a bunch of wanna-be's getting their 5 minutes of so-called fame. Second is most of the rest of the all-talk --- reminds me of a bunch of carnival barkers trying to sell the marks on their snake-oil: whether their particular brand was a physical product or an idea doesn't matter much. It's the same game --- gather the marks around and start your spiel and anyone who's too lazy to think for themselves will stay with you while you laugh to the bank. And there are increasing numbers of varied ethnic stations on AM, which is fine if their audiences support them. There's even a little music left, but not much. When I look at IBOC, I simply don't see a commercially viable concept in and of itself, nor do I see a technical wonder sufficient to resurrect the AM audience. Sure, radio listening may not have diminished over the years (although the figures being that stable over that many years is a bit fluky to me), but AM listening surely has. And the median age of the English-speaking AM listening audience is increasing (just as it is in the hobby). The IBOC platform has major faults, primarily interference created and cannot hope to succeed without decimating a large number of stations. Some have suggested that if they're going to fail anyway (which is not improbable), what's the difference if the process is accelerated? Someone else has pointed to all of the small stations out there which would drop out, along with their owners and audiences as who will be hurt. As a businessman, I review various business plans and other documents of that nature regularly, and I'm making decisions daily about which firms to commit to and which ones not to -- using my employer's money. So as far as evaluating things like this, I didn't exactly fall off the turnip truck last night, but I also make no claims to being 100% correct or close to it. But from that standpoint, and given that there's no programming change involved, I view IBOC as a bigger gamble than I'd want to take with either my own or someone else's money right now. I very honestly don't think the odds on it are all that good. I might even go so far as to suggest it could turn out to be a desperate gamble given the way things have played out. And then I put my DX'er hat back on and I don't feel so bad.... (Russ Edmunds, PA, ibid.) Subject: I balk at IBOC --- My two cents: Want more listeners? Spend money on content. Develop and maintain artistic and journalistic talent. Expand newsrooms. Support investigative and analytical coverage. Broaden the musical base and playlists. On a local, regional, national, and international basis (all of these). Provide access to the community to participate and observe. Open- format studios that face the street work. (CITY TV and a couple radio stations in Toronto have this, and it's quite a magnet for attention). Offer community access programming, even if it's during the less- profitable hours. And hire talk show hosts who actually listen to their callers and don't put them down if they don't agree with the host. Get more involved in the local community. I don't mean booths at the county fair, to hand out bumper stickers. I mean get INVOLVED in spotting and developing local talent, helping local non-profits (hospitals, animal shelters, seniors' facilities, whatever), etc... When you've indicated that you actually care about the listener, and that you're prepared to contribute to the community in exchange for very low-cost access to the airwaves, then we can seriously consider all the options for improving your signals. If all you want to air is low-cost, automated drech, then you can take your IBOC and shove it where the sun don't shine. As for DXers, we are the proverbial canary in the coal mine. Collectively, we're listening in just about every area of the continent, at just about all times, and many of us can tell pretty quickly when something is or isn't working. Maybe the NRC could be an effective voice here if there was a way to fit into the process. (We would need to distinguish between damage done to signals within their coverage areas, and damage done only to DX, though this often overlaps). Bottom line is that broadcasters are being asked to spend a fair bit of money on technology. I wonder how many will buy IBOC without putting it into their business plans. Just another ill-considered departmental expenditure. I feel the same way about RDS on FM. As a DXer, I love it, but the listeners don't need to see what station they're listsning to -- they usually know that already. The value-add is in the text messaging of song titles, weather, contest info, station hotlines, perhaps even advertiser info such as store locations..., etc..., and stations need to plan a rollout that suits their individual needs. My advice: Shop around, consider ALL your options, and think outside the box. Maybe there are other, more productive ways to boost your listenership, and keep current listeners satisfied (Saul Chernos, Ont, ibid.) Saul --- Your statements sounds like the most sane thing about this discussion so far. Of course all the techno-weenie IBOC lovers will have a thousand "reasons" why what you propose could never work. HMMM.... seems to me that your way was the way radio used to be! (Larry N4SEA Fravel, Shinnston, WV, ibid.) This is, maybe, not DX related, but we often hear of DXers who miss the formats on AM we had in the 60's and 70's. Radio has been very, very stable in audience levels in the last 5 decades. When we speak of getting more listeners, it means taking share from other stations. There are exactly 100 shares to be divided up. Stations will spend on programming only as much as is necessary to differentiate themselves from competitors. Spending on news is great for a news or talk station, and, even, for some country and A/C stations in certain dayparts. But most stations do nothing by adding news and features except frustrate the expectations of listeners who came for what the station is famous for. With the number of signals available in most top 300 markets so much greater than in the 60's, there is a listener expectation to find each station specializing in something, and an expectation that this promise will be fulfilled on tune-in. If you read The Broadcaster, you know that the last 20 years of Canadian radio were awful; most stations lost money and the government finally decided to try to eliminate AM in all but the biggest markets. The US, as Scott mentions, has far too many bad AM signals. The allocations plan was developed before suburban sprawl and fluorescent lights and dimmers. Most stations do not cover their markets, and will, in the end, probably die. Docket 80-90 so added to the dial in smaller US markets that many markets can not afford any news coverage. Talk on AM is an entertainment format. It is not intended to resolve local or international problems. That is why hanging up, joking and generally lunacy often prevail; it is what people listen to. Sidewalk studios are downright dangerous, and I would not put my staff at such risk, even in a quiet, small market. I thought they were cool, too, until I heard of Radio Reloj in Medellín taking an RPG hit in the sidewalk studio, at the loss of 4 lives. New York or Toledo are not immune from crazies who want to shoot up a radio station, either. Longer playlists are a virtual guarantee of lower ratings. I have a classic rock station I program that plays 400 songs; a competitor came on with over 1,500 songs. They never got over a 1.8 share and changed format, while we kept our 16 share and never dipped. There are hundreds of stories like this, all showing that people like to tune in to the very best music, not the biggest variety of lesser liked songs. There are lots of stations that are live 24/7 (I work with 60 of them) and the percentage that are fully automated is no greater than in the early 70s', for example. Automation generally fits stations that have very music based, non-personality formats or stations in tiny markets where there is not the revenue to sustain full live operation. RDS is becoming popular in LA so listeners can ID song titles and artists, one of the common listener requests. It also helps ID the station more clearly, since not everyone knows what they listen to --- fully 12% of Arbitron diaries contain listening where the listener could not ID the station correctly. RDS is a potential solution to some of that lost listening (David Gleason, ibid.) David, you say radio audience numbers have been stable for the past few years, and new stations are drawing listeners away from existing ones. To me, this means there is a segment of the population that simply does not listen to radio. Maybe more people would listen if there was content that wasn't conventional, top-ten-hits-or-bust, dumbed-down-to-the-lowest-common-denominator drech (Saul Chrenos, Ont., ibid.) I didn't exactly say that. Two parts to the issue: First, except for a peaking in the late 80's, radio listening per person has been about the same for 5 decades. So, since it is evident that there is a finite usage, determined by commute times, leisure times and other pastimes, stations compete against each other by taking or losing audience from that relatively stable pool of listeners. In most larger markets, there are relatively few new stations, although, to a listener, a new name and format IS a new station. Also, the percentage of people who don't listens to radio is a constant --- at about 5% of the population. Another 3-5% listens very little, although the BBM in Canada believes this percentage consists of people who just can't listen for a time, like at time of death of a family member, illness, vacation, etc. Radio stations spend huge amounts of money finding out what listeners want and where there is a new opportunity. Where I work in the US, we spend well into to the mid-7 figures on research; research is, of course, another name for asking listeners what they want. Every US radio company in competitive markets does the same. If there were new formats, opportunity for longer playlists of different music mixes, they would have been found. Like Kevin, you may be in the 5% that terrestrial radio can not satisfy, and never has. Radio does not do a good job with teens and over-55 listeners as there is no profit in doing so. And it can't do a good job on unconventional niche formats, as that is not the purpose of the medium. Remember, with 1 million subscribers, each XM channel only averages around a few thousand listeners at any one time --- that is the audience size of a station in Traverse City. And most NY FMs individually have weekly listener bases (cume) greater than the total subscribers of XM nationally. I'll give you an interesting finding from having moderated one-on-one listener interviews with maybe 5000 people in the past few years: when asked how often they wish to hear their favorite song, the universal answer is, "once an hour." Most folks want to hear the big hits and their favorite songs, not unknown music (David Gleason, CA, ibid.) Powell E. Way III, W4OPW wrote: ``David, the way you have talked about IBOC is very insulting to a lot of us`` Well, I guess I can see that, but it's not insulting to me. I'd rather hear an informed opinion about how things are happening, and may continue to unroll, than to be shielded from potentially unhappy news. David, I continue to enjoy your comments (Eric Flodén, Vancouver, where it finally might be good enough conditions to hear more than KGO at night, ibid.) I'll second that. It's easy for us as DXers to get emotional about this --- but all our emotions about the "loss" of our hobby won't do one thing to change the way broadcasters deal with the arrival of IBOC. And there's every reason to expect that the advent of IBOC receivers will lead to some interesting new DX challenges. Our TV brethren have already faced such a challenge with the coming of DTV. It's made a mess of the band for some of us --- but at the same time there's a whole new spectrum of signals out there to try to catch. Contrary to Powell's assertion, there *has* been a successful reception of DTV via E-skip (Gerry Westerberg's reception of KOTA-DT 2 from South Dakota to Kentucky in July), and many of us are pulling in some impressive loggings of DTVs via trop. It's a different challenge from the way TV DX used to be, but it's not an impossible one. So it will be when IBOC comes to AM. Who'll be the first to log KFI's digital signal from the East Coast? s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) That may be true, but it destroys the LOCAL signal. ``Who'll be the first to log KFI's digital signal from the East Coast?`` That will never happen (Powell E. Way, III, ibid.) I see apples and oranges here. Most of these DTV's are on different channels from their analog counterparts, and thus can be counted by hobbyists as separate stations. No such thing will occur for either AM or FM IBOC, so for a DX'er there's really no positives. And if I can't hear KFI's analog signal anymore (thanks to WWJZ's many year presence), I sure won't hear their digital one, and I doubt many others (if any) will either (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA, ibid.) Won't be me! I've got enough receivers now, don't need to buy another one just for some marketing ploy (Gerry Bishop, Niceville, FL, ibid.) And until the dust settles one way or the other with IBOC, I'm probably not going to invest much in receivers primarily for BCB DX use anyway, as if it succeeds there won't be much to hear on an analog receiver. Although a good-condition slightly-used ICF-2010 at a good price might be able to tempt me (Russ Edmunds, PA, ibid.) I agree with Powell on this one --- it simply will never happen. AM IBOC was not designed to work over skywave, but that's not the real problem. You can get useable audio from an AM signal even if it is well below co-channel interference. During a quiet pause on a strong station, it's quite possible to ID a weak station underneath them. You may not even need the quiet pause if there is something distinctive in the audio of the weaker signal. This does not happen with a digital signal. The digital signal must have a positive signal-to-noise ratio (probably in the 5-10 dB range, and likely significantly more on a fading channel), or you will get absolutely no audio from it. Now add to this the fact that a digital sideband from KFI would be roughly 20 dB lower in power than their AM signal, and it will be on 630 or 650. So you're trying to receive a 500 W signal from the west coast on one of those channels, and it's got to be, I would guess, at least 10 dB stronger than anything else on that channel, or you hear zilch from it. I'd bet a bundle that it can't be done on today's AM band. As far as DXers are concerned, there is absolutely no upside to the AM IBOC scheme (Barry McLarnon, VE3JF, Ottawa, ON, ibid.) Thanks Barry, your explanation is on the mark. I am a DXer. I can't even remotely understand why a station would want to spend as much as $250,000 to put IBAC on a station and not be able to use it at night. Its the craziest thing I ever heard. I can't imagine people will be pleased when they have to replace all their radios. I am not against digital radio at all. I think that done correctly, it would be a great idea. Iy belongs on UHF. I think that IF the station owners quit programming crap and ultra tight play lists on FM and have full service on AM that covered local events in the news it would go a long way towards getting the listenership up. I just know that when people hear the racket from IBOC on all the stations on the AM band, they are gone to XM after they hear the same buzz on FM. These listeners are never going to come back. Once I get my first XM radio, putting out the cash outlay, I will only DX AM or FM and that`s it. Hell, I am almost there with the terrible programming out there now (Kevin Redding, Mesa, Arizona, ibid.) David Gleanson wrote: ``And it can't do a good job on unconventional niche formats, as that is not the purpose of the medium.`` Saul replies: In fact, it is not the purpose of the radio BUSINESS. The business exists purely to make money for its owners. The medium of radio is simply the vehicle for making profits. In fact, the medium of radio is completely suited to all kinds of creative activities. But the almighty dollar prevails. David: ``once an hour." Most folks want to hear the big hits and their favorite songs, not unknown music.`` Saul: Again, this is a business issue. If radio was not driven by the dollar, the percentage of people who would turn to radio to hear new music would have options. Right now, except for campus-community stations, private business could give a rat's (expletive) what they want. The same attitude applies to news and information. We live in a supposed democracy where we vote, and sometimes express political opinions and agitate for what we believe, without anything close to adequate information. The citizenry are fast becoming politically illiterate peasants (if they're not there already). We need more digging into George 'Dubya' Bush and Paul Martin, and less into Michael Jackson and Celine Dion. As someone said on an e-list for Canadian journalists, journalism is dead. Perhaps that's true for radio, too. Rather, I think there's still a fighting chance if people turn up the volume in a serious way (Saul Chernos, Ont., ibid.) If in fact more people wish to hear their favorite song once an hour, and it only takes 16 songs an hour, then that's a very tight playlist, but it certainly is consistent with playlists restricted to 50 songs or so. But you're both missing something. It is true that only a minority wants to hear unknown music, but there's something in between the top hits of the day and unknown music --- and that's the difference between a very restricted playlist and an expanded one. There are a good number of stations which do quite well working that middle ground along with the hits, but there are fewer of those (and they tend to be other than the larger corporate owners). People today seem to want more fantasy ( translate that celebrity entertainers and jocks) and less depressing reality. People are alienated from their government as much now as ever. The problem is that the type of journalism you're speaking of is cyclical, and is now unpopular. You're certainly not going to get that kind of journalism from a government-run network (CBC). Nor are you going to get it from the US Networks if that's not what people want and not what sells. So who is going to support (economically or audience-wise ) that kind of journalism today? (Russ Edmunds, ibid.) CBC TV, through investigative shows such as Fifth Estate, are supplying this kind of investigative journalism. CBC also does other good work, year after year winning awards from organizations such as the Canadian Association of Journalists. CTV (show: W5) and Global have been a distant second and third but have sometimes done impressive investigative pieces, as well, so it can --- and is --- being done, even by privately-owned news orgs. I used to enjoy PBS' Frontline but have lost touch with that program because I watch very little TV these days (I mainly DX it). Russ: ``So who is going to support that kind of journalism today?`` Saul: Good question. CBC as public broadcaster at arms-length (relatively speaking) from the government is one model. PBS and NPR (fundraiser model) are another. Campus-based media, or low-power community-owned media (small towns, or neighbourhoods in larger cities, etc...), with formalized ways of ensuring diversity of views over an entire broadcast spectrum, are another model. There are lots of models. BTW, I'm not arguing that we should abolish top-10 radio, or coverage of celebrities. These have their place. But if societies such as Canada and the U.S. want to really be democracies, and in many cases evangelical about it, then we need to lead by example and open the flow of information and communication. I do think the kind of radio we have now, which is limited by spectrum space, is bound to lose relevance as new models based on Internet-type communications come to the fore. There will be various power struggles as this all evolves, but I do believe that a technologically-open system will ultimately work against forces that want to limit and control the free expression and diversity of ideas and artistry. In fact, I think the future of radio will serve everyone from the individual who wants to hear the same Christine Aguilera song 10 times a day, to the person who wants to be exposed to previously unknown modern experimental music; and from people who want the lurid details of Michael Jackson's soirées to those who want to know about connections between campaign financiers and the beneficiaries when a government goes to war. Yes, I think the power struggle will be ... interesting. You know, even as we sit here and fret about what IBOC might or will do to DXing AM, consider that the advent of technology might well spell the eventual demise of the use of the current broadcast spectrum (530-1700 kHz, 50-108 MHz). In 25 years, our QSLs could be as antiquated as arrowheads. Oh, we'll find other things do do... ;-) Now what was that about spending $200,000+ on IBOC. Sound business decision? Hmmm... (Saul Chernos, Ont., ibid.) PBS and NPR are viewed as one-sided in many quarters, and that undermines what they do to some extent. I can pretty much guarantee that if there were an analogue to CBC in the US, it wouldn't be doing that kind of reporting. The others you mention have neither the budgets nor the audiences to do much. I disagree that radio is limited by spectrum space. Radio is limited by the model. The economic stakes have become so high that there's far more playing it safe. Concentration of ownership works in that direction also. I'm not sure what you mean by 'technologically open', but IMHO the constraints are economic and political, and therefore it's all about relative power, which precludes the possibility of getting where you're aiming (Russ Edmunds, ibid.) SAUL: You're absolutely right - I should have included COST. One can get currently get radio onto the Internet without much expense or bureaucracy as it would take to go on AM or FM. But the Internet really does open up the spectrum for additional broadcasters, especially in markets such as mine (Toronto) where the bands are truly filled up. (Unless we remove powerhouses and replace them with low- watt stations, then it creates many more opportunities). RUSS: ``IMHO the constraints are economic and political, and therefore it's all about relative power, which precludes the possibility of getting where you're aiming.`` SAUL: Which is what I said, in a sense: People / organizations in a position of relative power will usually (if not always) try to keep the rest at bay, to secure their standing. Power can be economic, it can also be yielded through force. Like I said, there are always forces which have power, and those which seek power. Even if many people can't or won't be bothered changing their circumstances, some will go to significant lengths. As technology to a significant degree changes the rules, or opens up new possibilities, things will get interesting. I don't foresee radical changes in the next three to five years, but after that, who knows. It would make sense to me, however, that changes will be GRADUAL, already underway in fact -- happening every time an AM or FM or even SW pirate (or community station etc...) also webcasts to a wider audience online. These are early adopters. If I were on the board of a campus/community station as I used to be (at CIUT 89.5) I would want dedicated staff or volunteer effort in this direction. From a purely business / spending point of view, I do think plans for an online, interactive environment should take precedence over fly-by-night scams such as IBOC (Saul Chernos, Ont., Nov 23, NRC- AM via DXLD) Thus concludes this thread, held over a month until editing could be completed and space available for it. In the meantime, there have been subsequent discussions of IBOC-related matters, including in this issue under USA (gh) IBOC RECEIVERS TO DEBUT AT 2004 INTERNATIONAL CES Columbia, MD - Dec 22, 2003 - Ibiquity Digital and its major industry partners including Texas Instruments, Phillips, Kenwood, JVC and Panasonic, will introduce the first commercially available IBOC radio receivers during the 2004 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2004). Ibiquity's branded IBOC technology, called HD Radio, will also introduce of a number of new services designed to transform the radio broadcasting industry for the digital era. These services include interactive features supporting the on-demand delivery of audio and data programming, automated store-and-recall capabilities and NPR’s Tomorrow Radio project, a Supplemental Audio Programming (SAP) service that will allow two programs to be broadcast on the same channel. During CES 2004, manufacturers such Alpine, Delphi, Fujitsu/Eclipse, Harman Kardon, JVC, Kenwood, Onkyo, Panasonic, Sanyo and Visteon will showcase a variety of IBOC receivers, some of which will be commercially available in 2004. Simultaneously, the first IBOC tuner, a Kenwood KTC-HR100, will hit store shelves with stations in more than 100 markets. The formal event will take place at CES 2004, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2004, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Ibiquity Digital booth, #4619 (Radio Currents online via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ 27 - DAY MAGNETIC ACTIVITY FORECAST, DEC 25 TO JAN 20 http://www.spaceweather.gc.ca/forecast27days_e.shtml (Propagation outlook from Ottawa via gh, DXLD) ###