DX LISTENING DIGEST 4-032, February 22, 2004 edited by Glenn Hauser, http://www.worldofradio.com Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only if full credit be maintained at all stages and we be provided exchange copies. DXLD may not be reposted in its entirety without permission. Materials taken from Arctic or originating from Olle Alm and not having a commercial copyright are exempt from all restrictions of noncommercial, noncopyrighted reusage except for full credits For restrixions and searchable 2004 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 1220: Mon 0430 on WSUI 910, webcast http://wsui.uiowa.edu [last week`s X-45] Mon 0515 on WBCQ 7415, webcast http://wbcq.us Tue 0400 on SIUE Web Radio http://www.siue.edu/WEBRADIO/ Wed 1030 on WWCR 9475 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 1220 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1220h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1220h.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1220.html WORLD OF RADIO 1220 (low version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1220.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1220.rm DX/SWL/MEDIA PROGRAMS --- John Norfolk has updated Feb 22 and made the formatting more user-friendly: http://www.worldofradio.com/dxpgms.html ** AFGHANISTAN. RADIO PROJECT TO INCREASE COVERAGE AREAS IN AFGHANISTAN Internews is launching a project to increase the strength of radio signals at stations in Afghanistan. Internews plans to send Chris Holleman, an American wireless network specialist, to Kabul to train Afghan technicians. He will help them catalogue the strength of radio coverage in the country using "signal strength meters." Holleman told the Citizen-Times, a newspaper based in North Carolina, that the project's goal is to maximize radio coverage across Afghanistan. Working with four Afghan technicians, Holleman will map out radio coverage areas using the Geographic Information System, providing information that will help them distribute FM radio transmitters throughout the region. Internews designed the project to help provide a regional and national voice and encourage unity among the different Afghan regions. "By increasing media coverage nationally, regionally and locally, it will draw people toward a national identity," Holleman told the Citizen-Times. Once the new radio infrastructure is established, Afghans will be responsible for all the programming content. Broadcasts will focus on news coverage, but also will include shows on women's issues, special interests and music. The U.S. Agency for International Development is funding the Internews project, which is expected to take two years to complete. Fuente: Lista Creative Radio. (via CLAUDIO MORALES, Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA, Conexión Digital via DXLD) ** ANGOLA. 7216.8, Rádio Nacional Angola has been heard regularly from about 2100 to 2300 with varied programming in Portuguese. Channel clear, though usually a weak signal, today it was coming in with a fairly strong signal from 2200 to 2300. Announced at 2200 as "Rádio Luanda" rather than Radio Nacional - possibly relaying local program (Tom Sliva, NYC, Feb 21, using a Grundig 800 with 75 foot wire on roof, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARMENIA. 9960, VOICE OF ARMENIA, via Gavar, in English at 2050 2/7, good signal, s-9, answering letters, no QRM. Off the air at 2058 (Muehling, NH, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) Feb 10, 2050, YL in English. 2051 talk about historical Armenian monuments in the present territory of Turkey. 2053 about genocide against Armenians in 1915 (Field-FCDX, ibid.) ** AUSTRALIA. ADRS, Humty Doo. Glenn: 5050.0 (tentative) ADRS, Darwin - Humty Doo. How could I resist trying to pick up a station from "Humty Doo"? (That's what ILGRadio says; or should it be "Humpty Doo"?) I have tried several times and now believe that I have heard it; 400 w from Australia to San José is pretty good! Heard on 02/21/04 from about 1135 to 1145, with mostly lyrical, nostalgic-sounding female vocals, and one male vocal; announcing between records, and during break at 1143-4 I am almost certain the language was English but could make out only a word or two; at least cadences were English- like. 'Grinding' noise in background with heavy hash, though signal was fairly steady and heard better with USB. Guangxi from Nanning is on that frequency but supposedly in Vietnamese, // 9820 -- and I believe I heard different programs on 9820 and 5050, so this helps corroborate ADRS. Not likely to be AIR Gauhati, either, also at that hour. Rx: R75; antenna: 350 ft. dipole. Best, (Steve Waldee - retired broadcast engineer, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ILG gets it wrong again: Humpty Doo is the only way I`ve seen it. I`d want to be a bit more sure it was not one of the other 5050 stations... (gh to Steve) I checked ILG for stations on/off the air at that freq. The most likely one was, as I recall, Guanxi, also on at 9820, both supposedly in Vietnamese. But 9820's weak program was NOT the one I was hearing on 5050. I don't think the music that I heard was at all like what I've heard innumerable times on AIR. And AIR Gauhati was not listed as being in English. I checked the bands and could hear no other AIR transmissions anywhere. I then looked at all the stations from 5000 to 6000 in the Italian pdf file. No stations at EXACTLY 5050.0 other than the ones in ILG. So, I make a tentative ID based on a word or two of English that I *thought* I heard; and the character of the music - much more western-like than SE Asian or Indian or Latin American. Odd music, though: slow and nostalgic sounding, nothing recognizable or heard before. I assume from the name of the station that it is a "reading service"; if so, why weren't they READING anything? Does this mean that they read various things for the blind? Was the music a filler, or does this indeed imply that it was another station, not Darwin? If I had six dB more RF strength it would have all been very clear and unmistakable. I have tried 5050 many times and this is the only time I've ever heard a trace of an intelligible signal there. I guess, if ILG is correct, that the Humpty Doo station is 400 watts; but since I can regularly receive R. Wamena -- 300w, I think -- it surely might be possible if the antenna system is appropriate. I'll keep checking this one. (Maybe I should say, "I'll keep this shrimp on the barbie"?) (Steve Waldee, ibid.) It`s not for the blind, but as an info service for a certain Aboriginal group, partly or mostly in their language. They have been reported with music and variety of programming before, and I would not be surprised if there is preaching, since it`s run by a religious organisation. It had been reported slightly off, like 5049.9. At this weak signal level, lacking anything really identifiable, I suppose you also need to rule out all the North American 1010 stations which might be putting out a 5th harmonic :) (Glenn, ibid.) Well, there IS one here in the Bay Area; but it's sports-talk. Actually, I've never heard anything higher than the third harmonic of the San José stations that are near me though my old Magnavox tube radio was prone to cross-modulation when KLOK - five miles away - was running day pattern and 50 kW (at night I believe they're five, or maybe ten); I do check for mixing products and xtalk and harmonics since there are some known ones that fall in various places in the range from 2 to 5 M on the Icom. Of late, I suspect that KLOK has either not been switching pattern, or is running high power illegally at night, for they are sometimes 20 dB higher in RF level than the two other nearby SJ 5 kW stations. I have once faxed them a letter of complaint and -- wouldn't you know it! -- the next night they were at legal power. Maybe they're slipping again. But as a matter of fact, I did check against KLOK and the others last night to make absolutely certain it was not any of them. I run a BC band high pass filter on my dipole anyway; but this does not attenuate the harmonics above 2M, of course (SRW, ibid.) ** BHUTAN. BBS INCREASES AIRTIME, RE-TIMES ENGLISH -- 21 February 2004 The Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS) has added another hour to its broadcast. BBS will now broadcast 15 hours on radio daily. Managing Director Mingbo Dukpa said that this is being done to help people especially in the remote areas gain more access to news and information. He said that BBS hopes to feature greater coverage of news and programs including current issues, development support programs, music, sports, art and culture. At present the BBS FM network covers 13 dzongkhags. The service can be partially heard in Trashigang, Trashiyangtse, Mongar and Samdrup Jongkhar, besides the shortwave service. The Bhutan Broadcasting Service started as an amateur radio station by a group of youth volunteers in 1973. The Radio NYAB then broadcast 3 days a week. Monitoring by Alok Dasgupta confirms that the evening programme in English is now an hour later, commencing at 1500 UTC on 6035 kHz, and now suffers strong co-channel interference from the BBC in Urdu. Times of other English transmissions are being checked (DX Asia via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. Hi dear friends! I'm with my friend Marcelo Cornachioni in Chascomus, the "Argentina DX paradise". Yesterday, we head a new Bolivian station on 4763.3 kHz called Radio Television Chicha, from Tecla, in Nor-Chicha province, Potosí Department. They announced on air in 4760 kHz and 100.5 MHz. The first transmission day was February 20, 2004. Reported from 2240 to 2400 UT. At 0000, s/off. SINPO: 34433. In a few hours more, I am going to Buenos Aires and send you a new message with more information about this new station. 73's (Arnaldo Slaen, Feb 22, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Nueva emisora boliviana en onda corta!! Hola amigos!!! Estamos en Chascomus, el "paraíso diexista argentino" con el amigazo Marcelo Cornachioni. Más allá de los detalles que brindaremos a nuestro regreso, queremos informarles que hemos podido captar, gracias a Marcelo, quien la encontró imprevistamente, una nueva emisora boliviana de onda corta. Se trata de Radio y Televisión Chicha, que transmite desde Tecla, en la provincia Nor Chicha, Departamento de Potosí. Reportada entre las 2240 hasta cierre de transmisiones a 2400 UT con excelente SINPO: 34433 Varias identificaciones y musica boliviana, mencionando que la estación transmite en // a 100.5 MHz, en FM y que próximamente lo hará en televisión. Se trata del segundo día de transmisiones ya que anuncian que el pasado viernes 20 del corriente fué el primer día que salieron al aire. 73 (Marcelo Cornachiooni y Arnaldo Slaen, Chascomus, Argentina, Feb 22, Conexión Digital via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4722.83, R. Uncía (presumed), 21 Feb., 1018 Nice campo music, 2 men announcers hosting. 1012 both men again with clear TC, mention of casa, possible mentions of radio, and "ciudad de ??". 1025 back to music. 1029 men again with TC, talk. Fading badly by 1040. UTE QRM at times. Most readable since first appearing last Fall (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 4722.85, Radio Uncía, Uncía, 2353-0021, Feb 18/19, Spanish, musical program, Direct information from the soccer match Bolívar vs Boca Juniors, Request reception reports for their transmission on shortwave, ID ``aquí en Radio Uncía``, 34333 (Nicolás Eramo, Villa Lynch, Prov. Buenos Aires, Argentina, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4723, 17.2 2235, Radio Uncía with international music. Difficult to hear the spoken details. 2 CB (Christer Brunström, Sweden, SW Bulletin Feb 22, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4722.8, 13.2 2225, Radio Uncía, the first time for me. Groovy music: ``Honda Honda``. S 2-3 and utility-QRM. BEFF (Björn Fransson, ibid.) 4903.94, 22.2 0339, Radio San Miguel, Riberalta, extended transmission with various local locutores who wanted a finger in the program. Never heard that strong for a long time! 4 RÅ (Roland Åkesson, ibid) ** CANADA. A Sobering Thought --- With the recent untimely deaths of Andy Rugg and Eric Conchie, I fear that I am the only active AM DXer left in Eastern Ontario (with a population of greater than 2 million). If there are any others, they are certainly maintaining a low profile. AM DXers have, literally, become one in a million --- or perhaps even rarer than that. Canada's population is roughly 32 million, and I seriously doubt whether there are as many as 32 active AM DXers in the country. It gives one pause, doesn't it? (Barry McLarnon, VE3JF, Ottawa, ON, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** CHINA. Re CRI in Beijing 24h on new 846 and 1008 kHz: Maybe intended as jammers for co-channel RTI, Taiwan (Olle Alm, Sweden, ARC Information Desk 16 Feb via DXLD) ** CUBA. Glenn: 5025.0 Radio Rebelde! What a shock -- I was tuning in vain during a night of bad tropical and lower band propagation, barely hearing LA stations that normally come in fine; but going above WWV, I encountered not the usual mush around 5015 through 5025, with fragments of faint carriers leading up to a weak, swizzly Radio Rebelde -- but instead heard the LOUDEST damned thing on the shortwave dial: a bit over-squashed but impressively powerful, rich audio with Cuban music. "Hmmm," I thought, "is Arnie Coro trying to have his revenge on me for my article trashing recent Cuban broadcasting quality?" The signal was like no other ever received from Cuba.) I listened for a long while earlier and heard no Rebelde ID; but I did hear them mention the USA, George Bush, and "Martí" several times (perhaps they were commenting on Radio Martí, but my Spanish isn't good enough to interpret such rapid-fire stuff as they speak on Rebelde, typically.) At 1100 I did hear a specific Radio Rebelde ID. I am amazed. This is like the old days, with loud, clear reception of Cuba. The RF signal here is 20 dB over S9, which I have not received from Rebelde at this frequency (though the 31M frequencies sometimes hit that level.) Perhaps Rebelde has been on a low power transmitter for the past several months at 5025; at any rate, it's STRONG now! And the modulation level is pretty staggering --- none of the other Cuban SW frequencies have been this loud for at least a year or longer (Steve Waldee, San José CA, retired broadcast engineer, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nueva antena de Radio Rebelde. Saludos colegas diexistas. Espero que todos pasen un Domingo Felíz. Acabo de escuchar a través del Programa En Contacto de Radio Habana Cuba, que el colega Manolo Hernández, está muy contento con la cantidad de informes de recepción que están llegando a Radio Rebelde, reportando la frecuencia la de los 5025 kHz. Todo se debe a la nueva antena que está empleando Radio Rebelde para esta frecuencia; igualmente informó Manolo, que la frecuencia de los 5025 kHz está activa ahora las 24 horas del dia. Atte: (José Elías Díaz Gómez, Venezuela, Feb 22, Conexión Digital via DXLD) Just a new antenna, not a new transmitter? Sometimes ``antenna`` is used loosely to mean a transmitter or a combination (gh, DXLD) ** CUBA. Recent scripts of DXers Unlimited now starting to appear at http://www.radiohc.cu/ingles/dxers/dxersmenu2004.htm Most recent is February 10 (John Norfolk, February 21, DXLD) ** DJIBOUTI. This picture was taken by David Pinion (one of the H&D partners) from a location about 0.6 km west of the IBB Djibouti antenna system. It shows the terrain and (lack of) vegetation quite clearly! http://www.ydunritz.com/photodjib.htm (Ben Dawson, Ydun`s MW News via DXLD) ** ECUADOR [and non]. This week`s DXPL audio not yet up on the DXPL site as of 2300 UT Sun Feb 22; checking Alex`s DX programs page, he does have a new audio file from Australia, but it starts with a disclaimer that they couldn`t get a new show due to `satellite` problems, and were playing an old Rich MacVicar backup. Was this also the case on HCJB itself and WWCR? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR [and non]. The first rain drops fell down after more than 3 months and this is very positive for Ecuador, as well as for my listening – the earth connection works much better now! As a 100 % beginner I have started up my own site on the Internet. Very hard for a beginner with HTML editor, codes, FTP Clients and Web-hosting. With an enormous effort I managed with this, yes, almost. When I uploaded the files with the FTP Client at "StartLogic" in Arizona USA, they were placed in the wrong map [directory?]. Luckily we have TN in the club. He checked my curious ways and found the wrong files and now it works perfectly. Thanks Thomas! My aim is that this should be a simple and easy navigated site with short recordings of radio stations. The address is: http://www.malm-ecuador.com Who is "Marco Antonio Solís"? Yes, he has been around since 1993 in Guatemala and is my big favorite in LA music. Just like a bunch of other good singers he comes from Mexico (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, SW Bulletin Feb 22, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUATEMALA. 5955 (PRESUMED), R. Cultural in Spanish. 0226. 2/20. Poor with extreme adjacent QRM. M with insirational talk (mentions of "Dios" and "Espíritu"), classical/LA music bridges. No ID heard but copy was poor - had in USB with notch and narrow filter working overtime to pull this out from under Taiwan [WYFR] on 5950 and Japan [RCI] on 5960 (Clar, NY, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** INDIA. 9820, All India Radio being heard here regularly with a powerhouse signal at sign off of their program in Sinhala from 1300 on (Tom Sliva, NYC, Feb 21, using a Grundig 800 with 75 foot wire on roof, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAQ [and non]. IN IRAQ, GOING FOR THE UPBEAT Radio & TV: David Folkenflik Originally published Feb 18, 2004 Newscasts on Baltimore County-based Sinclair Broadcast Group stations are reporting and airing stories this month that, under ordinary circumstances, would send viewers scurrying to the fridge. Their journalists are describing school construction and consumer sales and energy infrastructure. They're talking about people getting their first mortgages and the unemployed desperately looking for their first jobs in years. All in all, it's what would normally be considered mundane fare. But Sinclair's Jon Leiberman and Mark Hyman are reporting from Iraq. And they are presenting what they say are the positive, "untold stories" that the "liberal media" don't recount during constant coverage of the attacks against U.S.-led forces and simmering political unease during the occupation of Iraq. "What's really fascinating to me is the optimism that so many Iraqis have," Hyman says by satellite phone from Baghdad. And, contrary to what the rest of the media says, he finds they are brimming with good cheer toward Americans. Hyman, Sinclair's vice president for corporate relations and editorialist, has been contributing commentaries from Iraq, while Leiberman, its Washington bureau chief, has reported stories. Much like Fox News Channel, Sinclair positions its centralized news programs as running counter to the conventional media wisdom. In Washington, Leiberman's regular feature is titled "Truth, Lies & Red Tape" - suggesting an institutionalized skepticism toward government as bureaucracy. In his editorials, Hyman has railed against government regulations. In Iraq, however, Hyman and Leiberman paint a picture of a world where the United States - largely through the presence of troops - has improved the lives of millions, in ways large and small. They have shown soldiers rebuilding and painting a school. Military doctors giving checkups to children. Soldiers raising money for social services from friends back home. Transcripts are available the Sinclair news Web site, http://newscentral.tv Before their arrival in Baghdad, Hyman says, even Sinclair stations - including flagship WBFF-TV in Baltimore - had failed to provide balanced coverage, because of reliance on mainstream outlets for developments from abroad. Hyman says he hears the same refrain from U.S. troops and officers: Major American media outlets fail to balance the bad news with the good. A similar charge was recently leveled against NBC by Bob Arnot, a medical reporter turned foreign correspondent for the network. His contract was not renewed this winter. And, in an e-mail memo disclosed by the weekly New York Observer, Arnot wrote to NBC News President Neal Shapiro to complain that the network disdained stories that publicized the successes of the American-led occupying government in Iraq. Arnot told the Observer that his coverage from Baghdad offended Shapiro because it "was just very positive." Shapiro could not be reached for comment yesterday, but told the Observer that he rejected Arnot's claim, pointing to stories that he said reflected well on the American military. While U.S. officials have complained that network anchors have failed to appear in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad, which would bring greater attention to the country, NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw just spent last week in Afghanistan and Pakistan. His trip was an effort, Brokaw told USA Today, to remedy the absence of coverage of the rebuilding of Afghanistan since the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Reese Schonfeld, a news veteran who served as the founding president of CNN, says the lament of Hyman and Arnot is timeworn, familiar to those who covered Vietnam and every conflict since. "There are good things the U.S. always does," Schonfeld says. You can read scripts of the Sinclair reports from Iraq at http://www.foxbaltimore.com/news/redtape/iraq/index.shtml 73 (via Kim Elliott, DXLD) The NY Observer piece is still missing, and no reply from author Joe Hagan as to why, or where else it may be found (gh, Feb 21, DXLD) ** JORDAN. Radio Jordan: at 2020 UT tune in on Sat. 21 Feb. Radio Jordan was booming in on 9830 in Arabic. Phone in show with presumably popular mid-east music (possibly requested by callers). Reception 20 over 8 or better. Parallel 11810 also heard but much weaker. At 2045 9830 was obliterated by splash from BBC in Russian on 9825 resuming transmission. They must have had technical problems because they normally broadcast from 2000 to 2100 Monday to Saturday. At 2100 BBC off on 9825 and nothing heard on 9830. Radio Jordan on 11810 continued with improving reception until abruptly off at 2300 with no announcement (Bernie O'Shea, Ottawa, Canada, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH. 9335, Voice of Korea. Being heard during their English program from 1300, but signal is only fair and difficult to follow commentaries (come to think of it, these are difficult to follow even with excellent reception) but also much choral and martial music to listen to (Tom Sliva, NYC, Feb 21, using a Grundig 800 with 75 foot wire on roof, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LATVIA [and non]. EMR FROM EUROPE TO THE WORLD EMR VERIFICATION CARD EMR INFORMATION SHEET EMR STICKER ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 31 METRES MUSIC POWER European Music Radio The sound of alternative radio on shortwave with hit music and IDs Dear EMR listener, Thank you for your interest in EMR and for sending us a reception report to our European and world service on 31 metres. Listener response is an important factor for any radio station to survive, your E-mails – letters - phone calls and text messages are very important to us. European Music Radio was first heard on the air in 1976 with test transmissions and finally started regular transmissions on the 3 rd Sunday of every month in 1977 with hit music and information to Europe. EMR added a 41 metre service to improve reception in Europe quite successfully in 1978, and in December 1979 EMR made a successful test to the United States of America with the power of 10 watts on 6235 and 7315 khz with a good response. Regular monthly transmissions successfully carried on until October 19 th 1980 when EMR was raided and all equipment was lost, after this raid EMR continued with relays via the Free Radio Service Holland until the 12 thof June 1983 when EMR closed down. EMR finally returned to the air for a period of six months with Roger Tate in the mid 1980’s, You may recall his voice on the mailbox programme in the mid 1970’s, he sadly passed away in 2001. EMR was not heard until 1996 when a few test transmissions where aired, and in 1997 a 4 hour Birthday celebration programme was transmitted in English - French and Dutch on 6275 Khz. In January-February-March and April 1998 EMR transmitted a 24 hour Saturday night to Sunday night broadcast in English - French - German and Dutch to see what type of listener response would be for a monthly schedule. The response was only fair. EMR aired more transmissions in 1998-99 and finally closed down in February 2000 due to lack of response. In 2001 EMR tried a new idea under the name of London archive, The programme consisted of very old recording from the London landbased radio stations of the 1960’s -70’s and 80’s, even this stunt did not pay off as the response was even lower. In February 2002 the station returned once again, and in November that year EMR started Legal transmissions via the Italian Radio Relay Service on 13840 khz, also in February and March 2003 EMR was heard with relays from Laser Radio in Latvia. In August more transmissions via the IRRS were made this time on 5775 khz. On the 30th of November 2003 European Music Radio restarted transmissions via the relay service in Latvia with a power of 100 kw on 9290 khz with a very good response and continued in to 2004. Broadcasts would be in English with music and International IDs to Europe and the world. Thank you for your support and please Email or write again to EMR (via Antonio Schüler, PE, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) European Music Radio just started at 1400 UT Sun Feb 22 on 9290 / Latvia. 55444 in Belgium (DXA375-Silvain Domen, Antwerpen, Belgium, Sony ICF-SW7600GR + 10 Meter longwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re: The 9290 relay schedule for the coming weekend will be as follows: Sat 21 February: 1600-1700 Radio Geronimo Since we have begun to receive 'pre reception reports' for this broadcast it seems an opportune time to point out that the short wave broadcast mentioned above has absolutely no connection with the original Radio Geronimo. The true spirit of Radio Geronimo lives on at http://www.radiogeronimo.co.uk where several members of the original team continue to contribute studio quality archive recordings as well as providing the webcast testing with an eclectic mix of music at http://www.listen.to/radiogeronimo New programmes are currently being made, and a short promo trailer for a Geronimo television documentary is available at the website (Chris Bent, Radio Geronimo, Feb 20, BDXC-UK via DXLD) Radio Geronimo 9290 kHz --- As reported, Feb. 21st from 1600 on 9290 kHz has been heard Radio Geronimo via Euronet in Ulbroka-Latvia. The station played rock songs from Australia and New Zealand. The speaker announced the postal address of SRS Sweden but an old street number. Perhaps an old tape? The new QTH of SRS Sweden is Ostra Porten 49 (no more 29) - SE-44254 Ytterby and it would be useful to know if we must use it to send reports also to R. Geronimo. E-mail address was not announced (Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo, Italy with R7 Drake, Satellit 500 Grundig, Dipole 49m, Longwire 20m, MFJ1026 and Mizuho AT2000, BDXC-UK via DXLD) ** LITHUANIA. 7560, R. Ezra via Sitkunai, 1900-1930, Feb. 15th, English; the speaker announced the one of the Feb. 22nd as the last transmission, Very good (Luca Botto Fiora, Italy, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** MALAWI. In a recent letter to Finnish DXer Jyrki Hytönen, Mr Abraham E. Nsapato, Controller of Transmitters, Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, mentions some major changes/additions compared to WRTH- 2004: Kasungu 1278 kHz 1 kW, Chitipa 1404 kHz 10 kW, Matiya (Zomba) 1422 kHz 10 kW. 540 and 756 kHz are on 1 and 10 kW, respectively, due to transmitter problems (via Jarmo Patala via Mauno Ritola via Olle Alm, ARC Information Desk 16 Feb via DXLD) see also UNID 3380 ** MEXICO. Mexican radio jingles --- This is interesting... about a dozen Mexican radio jingles for your listening pleasure: http://www.masterradio.com.mx/ 73, (Tim Hall, Chula Vista, CA, Feb 21, corazon DX via DXLD) ** MEXICO. Mexico log updates from my Houston trips [see also USA] Note we have another 10 kW graveyard station on 1340! 550 XEKL -VER "Romántica 5-50 AM" 630 XEFB -NL "F-B Romántica" 640 XENQ -HDGO "N-Q, la número uno" 690 XEN -DF "La 69" 710 XEMP -DF "Radio 7-10 la Mexicana" 820 XEBM -SLP "La Ranchera, la mera mera", //XHBM-FM 990 XEID -VER "Radio Cañón", 10kW 1090 XEHR -PUEB 24h, "Radio ACIR" 1100 ZETGO-ZAC "Radio Alegría, el poder de la radio" 1120 XEPOP-PUEB 5 kW 1140 XEMR -NL "Radio Alegría" 1170 XEUVA-AGUA "La rancherita", 10 kW 1170 XERT -TAMA "Radio Rama Tamaulipas", 5 kW 1210 XEPUE-PUEB "Mexicana 12-10" 1260 XEL -DF "La 12-60" 1290 XEDA -DF "Radio Trece, la nueva generación de las noticias" 1290 XEFAC-GJTO "La mera mera" [what means that? Mera = mere, lit.] 1300 XEXV -GJTO "Radio capital, la estrella grupera" still // 88.9 1330 XEAJ -COAH "Imagen 90.5" 1330 XEWQ -COAH "W-Q la superestación" 1340 XELU -PUEB "Radio Esmeralda", 10 kW 1340 XEMT -TAMA "Magia 13-40" (not "Mágica") 1350 XEZD -COAH "La más buena en la frontera" 1370??XEMON-NL "Mariachi estéreo" (can't confirm this on their web site but I always seem to hear them using this slogan lately) 1390 XEXO - "La súper buena" 1410 XEBS -DF "La más perrona" 1410 XEAS -TAMA "La Tamaultipeca", // XHAS-FM 1450 XEJM -NL "94.1 FM, la caliente" 1470 XEHI -TAMA "H-I" 1490 XEMS -TAMA "La superestación de Matamoros" 1530 XEUR -DF "Frecuencia positiva" 1560 XECHZ-CHIA "Radio Lagarto" (spelling per IMER web site) 1560 XEMAS-GJTO "Más 15-60" Mexican (or Spanish US) UNIDs from my Houston trip --- Does anyone recognize any of these? 590 "5-90, siempre con actitud" 710 "La rancherita" 940 "El rey" 970 "Radio Ranchito, para servirle a usted" 1250 "La inolvidable" 1260 "La (Ke?) Buena" 1270 "La rancherita" 1280 "Radiofónico 12-80 AM" 1310 "XE_M, la Mexicana, la tuya" 1330 "13-30 la diferencia" 1350 "La tremenda" 1370 "Radio zeta" http://www.inetworld.net/halls/dx/index.html 73, (Tim Hall, Chula Vista, CA, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) ** PERU. 4960.55v kHz, unID Radio "La Habana"(???), Provincia de Cusco 2004, 1000 UT. UNDER CONSTRUCTION: http://www.malm-ecuador.com Amigos DXistas, aquí viene SWB MICROINFORMATIVO! Quito 21/Feb/2004 15:34 De nuevo viene información sobre la emisora no identificada en 4960.55 kHz. He tenido este "problema" durante bastante tiempo, es muy apasionante! Aprecio muchísimo si Ustedes puedan escuchar esta última grabación mía en esta dirección en internet: http://www.malm-ecuador.com (183 kb 69 segundos) He comenzado a construir mi propia página de web, la primera vez, y falta mucho trabajo hasta que sea lista. Va a contener audio clips de radiodifusoras de América Latina. 1: Según la locutora transmite en onda media y onda corta banda de 60 metros. 2: QTH según su ID es "Provincia de Cusco". 3: ID en Quechua: ".....Arichuco, Radio "La Habana(???)". 4: Creo que "...50..." sea una parte de la dirección.. Mencionaron Provincia de La Convención, Quillabamba, Vilcabamba, y Provincia de Cusco. Creo que no sea una de las emisoras conocidas de Cusco como por ejemplo Radio Santa Mónica, Radio Cusco o Radio La Hora. 73s (Bjorn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, SWB América Latina, Feb 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The ID at :43 into the clip, along with flute, sounds to me very much like ``Radio La Hora`` (not Habana)… (Glenn) WRTH 2004 listed on 4856v Amigos DXistas! Jose Hernández/España, Glenn Hauser/USA and Christer Brunström/Sweden all have the same opinion: the unID LA I have on 4960.55 kHz is "Radio La Hora". I have listened once again on the recording and it could be Radio La Hora! Thank you VERY much for your mails! 73s (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, SWB América Latina, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [Later:] PERU 4855.87 kHz Radio La Hora, Cusco 2004 - 0130 UT. Amigos DXistas, aquí viene SWB MICROINFORMATIVO! Quito 21/Feb/2004 21:39 4960.55 kHz: This unID(?) station is on the air only in the mornings with very weak signal. Drifting almost every morning. 2-3 times I have found the station on 4649.7v kHz for a short while, then returning to 4960.55v kHz. 4855.87 kHz: Radio La Hora, Cusco with good and very stable signal in the evenings and I will check if the station is there also in the mornings. So I`m asking: if both stations are the same "Radio La Hora, Cusco" I think they are using 2 different transmitters, one bad in the mornings and the good one in the evenings. Visit my homepage and listen to a recording I made 30 minutes ago: http://www.malm-ecuador.com (108kb 39 segundos) (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, SWB América Latina, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [Later:] 4856.15 // 4960.55 kHz Radio La Hora, Cusco 1051 UT 2004 Amigos DXistas, aquí viene SWB MICROINFORMATIVO! Quito 22/Feb/2004 6:55 I´m glad to see that my homepage is working. Christer Brunström, José Hernández and Glenn Hauser solved the "problem" after listening to my recording at http://www.malm-ecuador.com I checked the two frequencies this morning: 1035 UT Radio La Hora, Cusco started with good strength but nothing on 4960.55 kHz. 1051 UT I heard the station also on 4960.55 in // with 4856.15 kHz. 73s (Björn Malm, Quito, SWB América Latina, ibid.) ** PERU. Hello all of you SWBers! The last 2 nights I have heard Radio Naylamp, Lambayeque on the frequency of 5115.80 kHz with very good audio and also very frequency stable. This station is wellknown to be "drifting around" both here and there with lousy audio. I wonder how long they are staying on this new frequency (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, SW Bulletin Feb 22, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. For those who might want more information about the Tagalog and Filipino languages, please visit http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Tagalog_mainpage.htm The origin and development of languages have always appealed to me, and the story behind the languages spoken in the Philippines could hardly be described as trivial. -- (From the world's northernmost DX-er Bjarne Mjelde, Berlevag, Arctic Norway, 71N, 29E, http://www.kongsfjord.no RealDX via DXLD) ** POLAND. to continue with the matter of Poland: || Well, you are so close to Poland, most of it skips over you || -- Warsaw and herewith the Leszczynka transmitter site are about 450 km away from my location (however, indeed only the first 80 km are still within Germany), so the situation is roughly equal to other Central European sites. During daytime reception is no problem, for the 1230 German broadcast 9525 even performs better than 6095 would also without being co-channel with the DRM from Junglinster, similar to 9545 from Nauen that booms in at Frankfurt or Cologne. At night 49 metres indeed completely skips in winter but still propagates well in summer, but even then most transmissions suffer from interference. Last year TPSA at least used a frequency above the 49 metre band, but now they try at 2030 two 41 metres channels with the adjacents being occupied. The situation could of course be different in western Germany, but all I heard so far is that one can forget about the evening releases there, too. I was told (by Matthias Gatzke) that Radio Polonia also used 75 metre frequencies in the old days. This would be a solution, if it is still possible at all, since Bernd reported that a considerable amount of the antennas was already removed from the Leszczynka site (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** POLAND. 11710, R. Polonia, strong distorted spur from 11820, English program about oil, 1310 UT (Tim Bucknall, Congleton, UK, Feb 22, Roberts R808 portable, harmonics yahoogroup via DXLD) ** RUSSIA [and non]. Re ``Here`s an explanation why VOR suddenly dropped its webcasts in English and other languages --- because of and until the presidential elections in March, a rather flimsy excuse.`` -- Herewith they apparently also affected the schedule of Zehlendorf 603. As already discussed VOR maintains two satellite feed channels to Germany, one for Zehlendorf and the other one for Wachenbrunn, and it was so far the 603 feed that T-Systems at Usingen also streamed. It appears that 603 was for the time being switched to the other feed, i.e. runs always // 1323 at present. Concerning flimsy excuses: Never expect VOR to admit that some problem on their side caused a loss of modulation on the feed circuit. Best regards, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH AFRICA. 15265, Channel Africa consistently giving good listenable signals during its 1800 to 1900 English program (Tom Sliva, NYC, Feb 21, using a Grundig 800 with 75 foot wire on roof, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH AFRICA. Amateur Radio Mirror International A04 From 30 March Amateur Radio Mirror International will be transmitted on Sunday at 0800 on 17815 kHz and 9750 kHz and from March 31 the Monday transmission will move one hour later to 1900 but will continue using the 3215 kHz (from the web site of South Africa Radio League via Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo, Italy, BDXC-UK via DXLD) ** SOUTH ORKNEY ISLANDS. Henry, LU4DXU is expected to go QRT as AY1ZA from the "Orcadas" base on Laurie Island on 21 February (425 DX News Feb 21 via Dave Raycroft, ODXA via DXLD) ** SRI LANKA. 9770, SLBC, Colombo, noted with good signals with variety show/musical requests and information with man and woman announcers from 01 to 02 GMT. Clear channel. Enjoyable level until 0200, when Radio Moscow signs on - 9765 - and wipes out most of the signal (Tom Sliva, NYC, Feb 21, using a Grundig 800 with 75 foot wire on roof, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND. 9810, Radio Thailand giving consistent good reception with their morning program in English from 1230 to 1300. Much news about virus outbreaks and efforts to contain it (Tom Sliva, NYC, Feb 21, using a Grundig 800 with 75 foot wire on roof, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The 0030 broadcast on 13695 caught just as it was ending at 0100 Feb 22, rather fluttery but better than usual. Eight gongs for 8 a.m. local, time check in English, anthem, pause, and into Thai (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UKRAINE [and non]. US-FUNDED RADIO LIBERTY PRESIDENT BLAMES UKRAINE PRESIDENT FOR RL CUT --- By TIM VICKERY Associated Press Writer KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- The chief of U.S.-funded Radio Liberty accused Ukraine's president on Friday of influencing a broadcaster to pull the network's news programs off the air, calling it part of a coordinated effort to stifle independent media ahead of this year's presidential elections. Radio Svoboda, the Ukrainian-language service of Radio Liberty, was canceled Tuesday by Radio Dovira, a private station that had rebroadcast the network's shortwave programming onto more-accessible FM frequencies for five years. Radio Dovira claimed Radio Liberty had failed to make format changes. Thomas Dine, president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, said "it was the government at very top levels that wanted us off the air." President Leonid Kuchma's office had "made it very clear" to Radio Liberty for at least five years that "they don't appreciate forthright, accurate news and information," Dine said. Dine claimed the cancellation was politically motivated because Radio Dovira had refused to discuss its demands with Radio Liberty. He said that Radio Liberty news programming had increased Radio Dovira's listenership by 30 percent last year. Radio Dovira reportedly issued a statement Wednesday calling pressure by domestic and western politicians to restore Radio Liberty "attempts to interfere" with the station's right to creative self-determination and "barefaced censorship," according to the Ukrayinska Pravda Internet news agency. Visiting former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright told The Associated Press that reducing Radio Liberty's audience in Ukraine was "a sign of deterioration" of democracy. Radio Liberty's FM band broadcasts will continue on four smaller affiliates, but executives say they reach only a fraction of the radio's approximately 5 million listeners in Ukraine. Negotiations are underway to find alternative stations, but Dine said he's unsure whether Radio Liberty will be back on the FM airwaves before August. The election is scheduled for October. Kuchma's administration has come under increasing criticism from Western governments, human rights groups and journalists who accuse him of muzzling the press. Ukraine's media climate has been tense since the 2000 death of Heorhiy Gongadze, an Internet journalist who crusaded against high-level corruption. His decapitated body was found in a forest outside Kiev. Opposition groups allege Kuchma was involved in Gongadze's killing, but Kuchma denies that (APws 02/20 0726 via Mike Cooper, DXLD) The IBB operational schedule shows RL Ukrainian on 1188 since Feb 18, one day after Radio Dovira kicked them off. Anyway I now can confirm both slots. A recording from yesterday at 1800, starting with the abrupt cut-over from the Belorussian program (announcing 1188, apparently still for the upcoming hour) to the Ukrainian service: http://www.radioeins.de/_/meta//sendungen/apparat/040221_a1.ram RFE/RL's own coverage: http://www.rferl.org/specials/dovira/ Meanwhile an occurence of jamming was reported from Kiev on Feb 19. Target was Radio Kontynent (FM 100.9) during a Deutsche Welle relay: http://www2.pravda.com.ua/en/archive/2004/february/19/news/1.shtml It appears to be an educated guess that someone was aware of the upcoming content since this should have been a recording rather than a live relay; there is another satellite-only transmission of DW Ukrainian alongside the 0530-0600 one (999, 5980, 7200), but acc. to http://www2.dw-world.de/static/language/ukrainian/ukr_program.pdf already at 9 AM local time (and probably it is merely a replay of the MW/SW broadcast anyway). DW report in German: http://www.dw-world.de/german/0,3367,2989_A_1118842_1_A,00.html The Ukrainian authorities tried to close Radio Kontynent already in 2001. Statement made by VOA then (Radio Kontynent relays DW, VOA, BBC and Radio Polonia programming): http://www.voa.gov/index.cfm?tableName=tblPressReleases&articleID=10029§iontitle=Press%20Releases More DW reports on Radio Kontynent (all German): http://www.dwworld.de/german/0,3367,2993_A_1038716_1_A,00.html http://www.dw-world.com/german/0,3367,2989_A_1018031_1_A,00.html http://www.dw-world.com/german/0,3367,2989_A_825414_1_A,00.html http://www.dw-world.com/german/0,3367,2989_A_586583_1_A,00.html http://www.dw-world.com/german/0,3367,2989_A_355688_1_A,00.html (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. TWO THE POWER --- It's not just Europe's most popular music station, it's also the most influential one in Britain. Paul Flynn spent a week in the studios with BBC Radio 2's presenters, including Jonathan Ross and Terry Wogan, to find out how the once-derided institution found its cool... http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4861502-111639,00.html (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U K. WHEN FIVE LIVE BECOMES 10 Sunday February 22, 2004 The Observer Radio Five Live has managed to prove its middle-class doubters wrong. But the future is cloudy, says James Robinson Marking the tenth anniversary of Radio Five Live gives the beleaguered BBC a much-needed opportunity to celebrate the success of one of its most well-received innovations. But when the station launched as the corporation's first rolling news and sport channel, it was greeted with howls of derision from the middle classes, who feared that it would herald the destruction of Radio 4 as they knew it. . . http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1153176,00.html (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U K. BBC CONTROL OF LICENCE FEE 'ABSURD' David Smith and Gaby Hinsliff Sunday February 22, 2004 The Observer The BBC should lose its stranglehold over the licence fee, the Government's digital television adviser, Barry Cox, will argue this week. The BBC's privileged access to state funding, he suggests, is becoming 'more and more absurd' as the nation switches to digital, allowing households to choose between many more channels. . . http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4864205-102279,00.html (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. IRAQ: SHI'I-BACKED RADIO SAYS AL-HURRAH TV PART OF "US WAR MACHINE" | Text of report by Iraqi Shi'i group's Iran-based radio station Voice of the Mujahidin on 21 February The United States' advocacy of democracy and openness for our people and countries does not mean that it is in harmony with its other democratic practices. In launching an official US satellite channel and calling it Al-Hurrah [the free one], for its owners are not confident about its credibility, the United States is following the example of the totalitarian countries' media. There is nothing secret about this TV channel; it is an official US attempt to improve the image of the US administration and to convince the Arab and Islamic peoples that the United States is a benevolent entity that offers these peoples nothing but welfare, democracy, and human rights. Yet the main reason for the failure of this ongoing attempt is not the station's programmes or staff, but the US policy itself. No TV station in the world, whether Al-Hurrah or any other station, can convince any Arab, Muslim, or objective person that the United State is a benevolent power. The failure of all the public affairs campaigns has nothing to do with the technical capabilities or finances of the official US satellite stations. The failure stems from the contradiction with the evident daily feelings of all people. Any beautification of the image of the United States will be of no avail in light of the occupation and killing which it is practising against Iraq and its people. Those who send their armies to violate the sovereignty of other countries and to humiliate the dignity of other people cannot convince anybody of their good intentions. Whether through dialogues, friends, or so-called friends, the station cannot convince the Arab and Muslim citizens that the United States is a democratic country. What could any satellite channel do before the scenes that show the US Army occupying Iraq, pointing its weapons at people, and ruling them in a colonialist manner that is as brutal and repressive as that of the Zionist entity? What media language would the officials of the US State Department use given the strong alliance between the US administration and the Zionist entity, which exists at the expense of the Palestinian people's right in their lands and the blood of their sons? The US station is trying to say, through some of the dialogues that it has carried, that the United States supports the Arab peoples' right to democracy. The station hosts those who talk about these peoples' suffering at the hands of their regimes. Such talk loses credibility for the simple reason that it comes from the US administration and its official TV, because occupation is the highest degree of repression and dictatorship. The country that occupies Iraq, and supports the occupation of the other Arab territories in Palestine and Syria, cannot convince the peoples of these countries that its heart is breaking over the way their regimes are repressing them. Whether by the simplest or the most complicated standards, the worst repressing Arab regimes are far much better than the US way of rule in our Arab and Islamic arenas. The occupation cannot be judged according to the extent of press freedom or the presence of parliaments, for the occupation deprives people of everything they have. It deprives citizens of their lands and sovereignty, and subjects them to the force of arms and the domination of the US enterprises that are in synchronized partnership with the US Army. The army destroys and these enterprises rebuild, and the assaulted country and the rich friends of the United States pay for the financing of both. The overall result is attaining the goals of political extremism and pushing forward the wheels of the US economy. The paradox here is that the democracy that the United States is advocating for the region stipulates, for example, that the media should be free, rather than one sided, and that governmental intervention should stop. The new US satellite channel, however, reinforces the concept of governmental media, and in the final analysis is only a more dynamic form of the media that proved their failure in our Arab world. This is evident in the Arab newspapers and TV stations that used to be, and for some still are, preoccupied with the official activities and the receptions of leaders and ministers. Consequently, the official US media that is directed to the peoples of the Third World is playing the same role, but in a more contemporary manner that is mixed with fashion shows and musical soundtracks. The final result is that this station comes from the same fruitless school and which became a media prison from which people were only saved by the emergence of different satellite televisions. The US channel is not an objective or innocent mean of information; it is, rather, part of the US war machine against the oppressed people, as it is concerned with justifying occupation and killing. It is also part of a radical machine that includes armies, intelligence, and political and economic hegemony. The US satellite channel, however, is captive to a policy that lost its credibility in the Arab and Islamic world. It will always be judged as a tool for cultural influence on these peoples. It attempts to portray the US soldier as a reformist, and to portray those who fall by his gunfire as killers, criminals, and terrorists even if they were defending their country. Source: Voice of the Mujahidin, in Arabic 0813 gmt 21 Feb 04 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** U S A. Latest schedule of DXing With Cumbre posted by WHR shows that the Sunday 1530 WHRA airing on 17650 has been replaced with Sunday 0830 on 7580 (John Norfolk, February 21, DXLD) ** U S A. WSHB Days are Numbered --- What will become of the WSHB frequencies when WSHB signs off for the last time in March 2004? (Sean Travers, DX LISTENING DIGEST) They will become available for other stations to use. I would not be surprised if this has already been arranged at the recent A-04 HFCC meeting in Dubai (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. UNIDENTIFIED. On 20851.6 AM, as I scanned around, a broadcast signal really stood out, Sat Feb 21 after 1500 UT. Mostly music, some talk, screaming. Deep fades, from no signal to peaks over S9, when I could see some flutter on the S-meter tho I could not hear any. Finally rolled tape at 1516 and caught the end of the broadcast, mentioning ``sights and sounds far beyond anything you`ve tested``, ``last house on the left``, ``Keep repeating, It`s only a movie``, ``the most terrifying form of evil is that which lurks within the human mind``, ``Asylum, the ultimate horror --- where few enter and none return``, ``filled with stark, raving terror, from Robert Bloch, author of `Psycho``` -- so evidently movie trailers. ``Mars needs women``. At 1519, ``Because of men like you, all must be destroyed`` thrice, --- then signal disappeared and did not come back in next semihour. Evidently a pirate, Euro? Please QSL (Glenn Hauser, P O Box 1684, Enid, OK 73702 USA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, I was listening at the same time you were; however I was listening to 6950.44 kHz. I think you heard the 3rd harmonic of a pirate known as WBST. There are a few posts on FRN.net today. At the time of my reception, I checked for the 2nd harmonic, but nothing was heard there. I didn't realize those were movie trailers, but I also heard the "last house on the left". They had a very quick ID at 1521, then carrier went off at 1523 UT. I can e-mail you a brief audio clip if you want to confirm we were listening to the same program. 73 (George Maroti, NY, DX LISTENING DIGEST) George, Thanks! Everything almost fits; I should have thought of a possible harmonic. I guess the 3 x 6950 +/- range would be a good hunting ground for such. I`ll go back to my tape and see if there is an ID at end (Glenn to George) Here's the clip I saved, with the ID. The movie trailer was just before this segment. 73 (George Maroti, ibid.) Seems my reception faded out (I thought cut off) just before your recording started. Sounds similar, but none of that on my tape, which I left running for half an hour. Probably the same, anyway, since you heard some of the same phrases. Here are some of the FRN Grapevine posts re (Glenn Hauser) 6950am 1430-1445utc sio343 WBST Fleetwood Mac, ID'd as WBST Salem MA. (Beans) Not sure if this is the same station that I'm hearing now at 1502 UTC. AM mode on 6950.4 kHz with a radio drama. SINPO 34444 in NY. Song by AC/DC at 1515 UTC. Then a snippet of a movie trailer, "The Last House on the Left". (Thanks to Glenn Hauser's post on the pirate topica list, he identified these as movie trailers. Also, he heard the 3rd harmonic of this station, on 20851.6 kHz). ID at 1521, "At this time WBST comes to the end of another broadcast real fast", followed by atmospheric music with laughter. Carrier off at 1523. Please QSL. [This message has been edited by curious george (edited 02-21-2004).] (George Maroti, NY) It`s still on. This is a strange one, that has been coming on for the past 20 years. I don't think I've ever heard a QSL address, just WBST Salem, MA. Good production, good signal but what a odd one, maybe once or twice a year (Beans) Admin Didn't realize this was a rare one. There's nothing on Alex's Pirate Archive about this one. Recording some audio for him (George Maroti) ID as "666 on your dial WBST" 6950 AM 2/21/04 SIO 232, 1450-1523 humorous songs about monsters. "Riders on the Storm" by the Doors. laughter and suddenly lost signal at 1523. PSE QSL (W. Smith, PO Box 52823, Knoxville, Tennessee 37950, ibid.) Thanks George for the clip! Here's the clip [unrestricted]: http://www.piratearchive.com/wbst_02-21-04.m3u (via Alex Draper, ibid.) Alex: I've got in my possession, one of the few QSL's this station ever sent out. Back in the late 80's this station would only come on once a year at Halloween. I heard them in 88 I think. They were notorious for not answering QSL request. For some reason they answered mine (Pat Murphy, ibid.) ** U S A. STATEMENT OF REC NETWORKS REGARDING FCC REPORT TO CONGRESS ON LPFM INTERFERENCE REC supports the FCC's report to Congress today stating that LPFM stations can safely operate on third adjacent channels utilizing the interference resolution procedures established in the original LPFM rules. REC agrees with the FCC that the second study on the economic impact on incumbent broadcasters due to LPFM stations is completely unecessary based on the extremely unlikely expected cases of LPFM interference. Arizona-based REC applauds our own John McCain for embracing the FCC's statement and we hope he will help expedite legislative relief of the third adjacent channel restriction. Once third adjacent channel relief is achieved, REC feels that those applicants who were originally deadlocked due to the change of the law and who still desire to construct an LPFM station should be given the opportunity to reinstate their application while not being required to protect translator applications filed during the Great Translator Invasion. REC will continue to support the LPFM service and we look forward to any positive changes this report to Congress may result in (REC Networks Feb 21, DX LISTNEING DIGEST) ** U S A. DEFINING A NEW ORAL TRADITION --- AMERICAN INDIAN RADIO IN THE DAKOTAS Bruce Smith & M. L. Cornette, University of South Dakota As the camp newscaster and bulletin board wrapped into one, the eyepaha of a traditional Lakota Sioux community was the person who circulated through the camp sharing information about the day's plans. This oral tradition continues today through the operation of community radio stations owned and operated by American Indians. Michael Krauss, director of the Alaska Native Language Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, once likened western media to cultural nerve gas, destroying the cultural identity and language of indigenous communities. For generations, powerful AM stations from distant communities were the radio voice that reached the rural areas where many Natives lived. They transmitted English language programming together with western culture and values into Indian homes; little was related to Native culture or Native concerns. The first Native-owned radio stations began appearing in 1971. Today, there are more than two dozen Native American stations on the air across the United States, and one or two new stations are launched each year. In the Dakotas alone, there are six community radio stations representing Indian reservations. KINI, KILI, and KLND-FM all speak to the Lakota Sioux while KSWS-FM serves a Dakota Sioux reservation. KMHA-FM represents the three affiliated tribes of the Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa nations and KEYA-FM serves a Chippewa reservation. On the air since 1983, KILI-FM is a typical Indian radio station in the Dakotas. It broadcasts to the Lakota people on the Pine Ridge Reservation, a large territory (50 by 100 miles) in central South Dakota. "The Voice of the Lakota Nation" is the slogan that motivates KILI's small paid staff of six and a dozen on-air volunteers. The station programs ambitious coverage - often live - of major events on the reservation, including tribal council meetings, powwows, government hearings, and sporting events. KILI considers itself an important partner in the preservation of language and offers much of its programming in the Lakota language. Sometimes two cultural contexts are presented together, as depicted by the announcer of the "Morning Wakalyapi (coffee) Show", for example, who uses Lakota more than half the time, English the rest of the time, but offers an entirely Native American programming blend of music and information. "To be master of one's media is to be master of one's fate." The history of the Plains makes KILI's location a symbolically significant site for the affirmation of local culture. It is only a few minutes north of Wounded Knee, site of the 1890 atrocity by the US cavalry against a band of 350 men, women, and children of the Minneconjon Sioux. More than half the Indians were massacred. The Plains Indians never again offered serious armed resistance to the colonizers until the siege in 1973 by the American Indian Movement (AIM). AIM was founded in 1968 in Minneapolis to protect traditional Indian culture, hire legal counsel, and assist Indian communities with issues relating to treaty and aboriginal subsistence (hunting and fishing) rights. AIM's seizure of Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1973, raised awareness of the power of radio and television among Indians. The group's leaders became convinced that Indians needed their own media voices. Canadian researcher Marianne Stenbaek addressed this goal of indigenous broadcasting when she wrote, back in 1980, "To be master of one's media is to be master of one's fate." Leonard Bruguier, Director of the Institute of American Indian Studies at the University of South Dakota, says the value of Indian radio is that it ties back into the big family. It not only informs people, it helps to maintain and validate Indian language and culture. Bruguier says Indians have a strong oral tradition, and American Indian radio has become the new "voice of the people." All six stations in the Dakotas serve the role of eyepaha, binding listening communities together with their stories of the day's events. While appropriating modern technology, the indigenous people of the Dakotas are adapting community radio consistent with the oral traditions of the people it serves. Who's who? The states of North and South Dakota are part of the vast prairie that occupies the north-central part of the United States. They are home to many Native Indian nations who occupy reservations or tribal territories that are largely self-governing. The largest indigenous population is made up of Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota Sioux Indians. They represent most of the indigenous population in South Dakota. North Dakota has a more diverse population of Indians, including Mandan, Arickara, Hidatsa, and Chippewa, as well as Lakota Sioux. Fuente: Lista Creative Radio. (via CLAUDIO MORALES, Buenos Aires, Conexión Digital via DXLD) ** U S A. MANAGER'S PUSH FOR LARGER AUDIENCES WAS PART OF HIS DOWNFALL AT WYSO, BUT NOT ALL OF IT --- Antioch University has named two alumni to address problems at its public radio station, WYSO, which became a lightning rod for controversy during the tenure of manager Steve Spencer. The manager resigned in January... http://www.current.org/radio/radio0402wyso.shtml (Current Feb 18 via DXLD) ** U S A. Someone asked about a slogan for KRVA-1600 --- what I'm hearing now during the late morning and mid afternoon appears to be a format change to S:REL, with some music but a lot of religious talk. When I've listened, it's using the oft-mentioned slogan "Radio Restauración." I get very little signal at night from KRVA, so I'm not sure if it's dayparted ... and I haven't checked TOH to see if KRVA is still the call. This makes three religion-oriented Spanish speakers on AM in the Dallas-Fort Worth market. KTNO-1440 continues to be "Radio Vida" and has not yet moved its transmitter site. KNAX-1630 is not parallel to KTNO, and has a slogan that I can't quite decipher. It appears to be "Radio Año" or "Radio Á Dío." The latter sounds more logical, but the emphasis is on the "A" as if it's one word: "Ádio." "Radio Year." Ah, 100000watts shows "Radio Ayo" which my SS-EE dictionary translates "Radio Tutor" and "Radio Restoration," which is English for "Radio Restauración." I'm guessing that we who don't pay too much attention to our D-FW locals won't scoop the 100000.watts founder! KTNO, by the way, appears to have the sloppiest signal in our area. Even a mile or more from the transmitter site, I hear KTNO spurs on every open frequency from about 1200 to 1700 on either car radio in South Denton. I can't check weak signal stuff above 1200 when I'm on the way to the doctor's office, located a half mile from the KTNO transmitter site. When Scott, Garrett and I took our Denton-area tower tour last year, we were surprised (or at least I was) at how shabby the KTNO site was ... it still had a rusty old sign up identifying the station as KDNT, a one-time full-service local station for a university town of 70,000 population. One other note ... when I've tuned KAHZ-1360, I'm hearing the Radio Fórmula slogan but at least some of the programming appears to be locally-produced. If U.S. stations reach permanent agreements to relay XERFR-970, that's really going to confuse us XE-DX'ers. Qal R. Mann, Krumudgeon (John Callarman, KA9SPA, Family Genealogist, Krum, Feb 20, NRC-AM via DXLD) Haven`t we discussed this before? Seems to me ``Ayo`` could really be ``A y O`` as in Alfa y Omega, a Christian buzzphrase. If so, it would be pronounced ``ah--ee--oh``. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) I don't recall such a discussion, but it could have occurred during one of the times I unsubscribed do to extended trip. "A y O" as in Alfa y Omega does make sense, though I would expect a three syllable "AH-ee-OH" pronunciation rather than the two syllable "AH-yoh" I'm hearing. Some working day, I might call to see if someone in the front office of the station can shed some light on the matter (John Callarman, KA9SPA, Family Genealogist, Krum TX, ibid.) We probably have; I do recall this. But this is one of a tiny few x- banders in the Central time zone I still need to log, so this is a good reminder. The slogan almost sounds like a Yodel, so maybe it's a partial Swiss format? Or maybe it has Jewish programming and an "Oy" slogan to complement the Christian content ... ;-) I can't say I've ever even heard a hint of Spanish on 1630, but ya never know (Saul Chernos, Ont., ibid.) I don't think KNAX gets out that well. They used to blast in when they first came on (not switching for a few days) but now seem weaker than other Texan X-banders when using nite power. Your best bet may be when they are on day power via sunset skip. The beginning of March should be a very good time to try. 73 KAZ near Chicago (Neil Kazaross, ibid) ** U S A. Log updates from my Houston trip [see also MEXICO] 600 WREC-TN "News radio 600" 610 KILT-TX "Sports radio 6-10, Houston's only all-sports radio" 640 KTIB-LA "News, weather, sports, and great oldies, oldies 6-40" 710 KEEL-LA "News radio 7-10 Keel" 710 KCMO-MO "Talk radio 7-10" 910 KRIO-TX "Radio Esperanza" 920 KYST-TX "Radio Deportes" 960 KROF-LA "We play the music Acadiana loves, 9-60 AM, the gator" 980 KRTX-TX Tejano, "Puro tejano 9-80 AM", announcers speak fluent "Spanglish"! 1050 KCHN-TX ETH (SS:/Asian), "Radio El Sol 10-50" when Spanish 1070 KKHT-TX REL, "The Word" 1090 KAAY-AR GOS + old radio, "Your 50,000 watt Gospel voice" 1140 KYOK-TX "The very best in Gospel music" 1170 KFAQ-OK "Talk radio 11-70" 1210 WTCK-TN "The music of your life station" 1230 KQUE-TX SS:RAN, "Radio Ranchito 12-30" 1240 KTAM-TX "Radio Alegría 12-40 AM" 1260 KSGF-MO "News talk 104.1 FM and 12-60 AM" 1260 KWNX-TX "Austin's sports leader" 1280 WODT-LA "Sports radio 12-80, New Orleans' sports monster" 1300 KVET-TX "Vet sports 13 hundred, we're talking sports" 1320 KXYZ-TX SS:VAR, "A Multicultural Radio station, Radio Sol 13- 20" (not // KCHN-1050), ex-Única. Relays Mexican national hour on Sunday night [0400 UT Mon] 1340 KRMD-LA "Super talk 13-40, a Cumulus radio station" 1340 KAND-TX "The legends of country" 1340 KOLE-TX TLK//KRCM-1380, "Fox News 13-40 and 13-80" 1340 KRNX-TX "Real country AM 13-40" 1350 WSMB-LA "Talk radio 13-50" 1360 KWWJ-TX GOS, "Gospel 13-60", "Keep Walking With Jesus" 1370 KJCE-TX "Talk radio 13-70 AM, Austin's conservative voice" 1380 KRCM-TX TLK // KOLE-1340, "Fox News 13-40 and 13-80" 1390 KULP-TX Classic country, "Community radio 13-90" 1390 KBEC-TX "Classic country 13-90" 1410 WDSK-MS "The talk of the Delta" 1420 KPEL-LA "Sports radio ESPN 14-20" 1440 KEYS-TX "News talk 14-40 Keys" 1450 KSIG-LA "Oldies 14-50" 1450 KIKR-TX REL:AC, 24h, "The new 14-50, the light" 1450 KMHT-TX "The best in Southern Gospel music", "Southern Gospel music connection" 1480 KLVL-TX "La original de Houston" 1490 KDMO-MO "Tri-state community radio" 1490 KLNT-TX Back to NWS/TLK, "The new KLNT, Laredo's news talk 14- 90 AM" 1490 KWUD-TX OLD, "Oldies radio 14-90" 1510 KVCI-TX "The voice, we're here to help" 1510 KROB-TX "K-Rob" (daytimer is frequently staying on at night) 1510 KQHN-TX "The premier radio station in the Golden Triangle" 1530 KGBT-TX "La tremenda 15-30" 1540 KGBC-TX Catholic (English days, Spanish overnight) 1540 KZMP-TX "El gato grupero" //104.9. 1560 KILE-TX ETH/VAR brokered (daytimer is frequently running programs to 4 hours after sunset, and often leaves their transmitter on overnight) 1570 WTRB-TN "Playing one great song after another" 1580 KIRT-TX "Radio 15-80 la fabulosa" 1600 KRVA-TX "Radio restauración 1600" 1600 KOKE-TX "La mejor en música mexicana, la raza 104.9" (// KXXS- 104.9) 73, (Tim Hall, Chula Vista, CA, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) ** U S A. Here's the results of the most recent DX test that have been received here: Sunday, February 15, 2004 - WQMA-1520, Marks, MS tested 12:00-2:00 am CST: This test was heard throughout a large part of the US and Canada - many times, it was the code that got thru. Many DXers reported hearing the test; the station had said they were giving an award for the longest distance reception, but I have been unable to find that information on their log page. From the information I have received here, it appears that the farthest reception reported was in Seaside, OR, by DXer Pat Martin on a Drake R8 with terminated 1500' Eastern beverage, followed by Saul Chernos in Burnt River, ON, and Jeff Falconer in Clinton, ON. Also reporting hearing this test were: Ken Wilson, Central, KY John Hunter, Rossvile GA (near Chattanooga) Dave Hochfelder, Highland Park, NJ Mike Hardester, Jacksonville, NC Patrick Griffith, Westminster, CO Jim Myrick, Meridian, MS Earl Higgins, St. Louis, MO Steve Francis, Alcoa, TN Michael Procop, Bedford, OH (near Cleveland) Gerry Bishop, Niceville, FL Bruce Winkelman, Tulsa, OK Bill Dvorak, Madison, WI Les Rayburn, Helena, AL (near Birmingham) Curtis Sadowski, Paxton, IL James Niven, Moody, TX Mike Oswald, Houston, TX Ward Jones, Dallas, TX Most reported hearing code with QRM from KOMA-OK, KRHW-MO, WSAI-OH, and WLAC-TN; some recounted the music and/or announcements played. However, there were some, mainly in the West, that tried for the test but weren't able to receive it; these included Vaughn Martin in Helena, MT, Nick Hall-Patch in Victoria, BC, Don Kaskey in San Francisco, CA, Art Peterson in Richmond, CA, Frank Aden in Boise, ID and Gordon Bell in Troy, NY - he is not far from WWKB, a 50 kW station. Many reported how much they enjoyed the test; many thanks to WQMA! (Lynn Hollerman, LA, IRCA, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) Hello Everyone: This is Paul Walker, Assistant Program & Music Director for Q1520AM WQMA Marks, MS! I wanted to send a personal note to all of you and sincerely thank you for staying up into the wee hours of the morning taking a chance on reception of America's last remaining full time/stand alone AM Top 40 Station! I have counted approximately 10 responses on the NRC list alone. A few people on Radio-Info, and a few "non members" of either. I`m estimating anywhere between 10 and 20 letters. I`ve already gotten 5, two from Florida, one from Wisconsin, one from Pennsylvania and one from Ohio and I`m DEFINITELY expecting more! So, with that said, PLEASE don't forget to mail them. I'm anxiously (seriously) awaiting your reports. If at all possible, include 2 or 3 stamps for a reply, as I intend on sending a nice little packet of info for all that request a veri letter. An audio report on a cassette or CD would be a helpful tool but certainly isn't necessary. Trust me guys, even at 20 years old, I'm a DX'er and know what it's like to get a letter in the mail! We will be awarding a prize for the furthest away listener, and as not to handicap the chances of anyone, I will not announce the winner or potential winner for 2 months, just to give everyone plenty of time to send the reports in. Sound fair, right? Once I have received what I believe to be ALL of the reports, I will submit a report to the IRC/ NRC, Radio-info.Com DX board and Bruce Conti's column in Popular Communications. For more information, check out our website at: http://www.q1520radio.com 73's, Sincerely, Paul B. Walker, Jr., WQMA-AM 1520, 1820 West Marks Road, Marks, MS 38646 [Later:] I spoke too soon.... I got 10 more letters in the mail today from DX'ers concerning our test here at WQMA!! (NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A [no] Power Reduction at night --- Speaking of stations failing to reduce power... this posted on R&R yesterday. Maybe there aren't a lot of mentions for this one from DX'ers, because it's basically a south directional. KFNX is on 1100: ARIZONA AM FINED FOR NIGHTTIME POWER VIOLATIONS North American Broadcasting Co. was fined $4,000 in January 2003 for failing to reduce KFNX/Cave Creek (Phoenix), AZ's 50 kw operating power to 1 kw at night, as required by the commission. The FCC received no response from North American to its initial Notice of Apparent Liability, but the company filed a petition for reconsideration of the FCC's forfeiture order issued to North American that sought a reduction or cancellation of the fine based on the company's poor financial health. While North American says it had filed for bankruptcy, the FCC did not receive any tax forms to back up the company's claim. The FCC also refused to consider North American's assertion that the violation was not "willful." (via SuperCFL, amfmtvdx via DXLD) Several times Kevin Redding in Mesa mentioned that these guys were blatantly cheating at night, but I could here no trace here since they beam so much southward. I can get XENAS on 1100 on good nights that favor the American SW but no trace of KFNX (Neil Kazaross, Barrington IL, ibid.) KFNX is not cheating tonight but KFNN is [1510]. They should be running 22.5 kW days and 100 W nights. KFNN has to be running 22.5 kW right now. I wish Bill Zears at the San Diego [FCC] office was here to read this stuff. KDUS must have a bad tube because they are loud and splattery as hell. Phoenix radio SUCKS (Kevin Redding, Mesa, Arizona, ibid.) Thx for the tip Kevin. I don't need these guys since I catch them via SSS sometimes and sometimes they switch late or are caught cheating like this. Fair and clear peaks here thru WLAC phase null and occasional QRM from Colorado. Had Bruce Williams (usually they have financial stuff), then ID's prior to the hour into CNN/FNN news. Prior to strolling 100 yards out to my R8A in the car in my field, I tried inside with the R8B and Kiwa Loop and had only traces in WLAC's null. Their day pattern has a good lobe towards my direction. 73 (KAZ Barrington IL with endlessly boring mediocre cx, ibid.) ** U S A. A good opening from USA on 040205 1600 khz 0352 utc WWRL New York, NY, 5 kw night power (Afro-American news on presidential primaries) 1660 khz 0400 utc WWRU Jersey City, NJ, 10 kw power 1540 khz 0409 utc WPTR Albany, NY, 50 kw (12,770 kms away) All above with very clear ID's. Local sunrise was at 0404 so it was already quite light! 1570 kHz, 0404 UT, WISP Holy Spirit Radio, Doylestown, PA, (Next to Philadelphia) 0.9 kw night power. Catholic radio reciting the rosary. This station was not ID'd, but a web search showed this to be the only Catholic radio station and its sched confirmed they were reciting the rosary at 11.00 p.m. EST (0400 UT). FCC site confirms the antenna beam is to the South East, that is towards South Africa John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa South 33 d 47 m 540 s, East 20 d 07 m 541 s. RX Drake R8B, SW8 BW XCR 30, Braun T1000, Sangean 818 & 803A. Hallicrafters SX-100, Eddystone 940 GE circa 50's radiogram Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro, Datong AD-270 Kiwa MW Loop (MWDX Yahoogroup via DXLD) ** U S A. DID YOU HEAR ABOUT CLOSED CAPTION? http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/18489.htm February 21, 2004 -- THE U.S. Education Department has cut the money for captioning nearly 200 TV programs, setting off a firestorm among advocates of the deaf. Among the shows cut off from government funds: MTV's "Cribs," Disney Channel's "Lizzie McGuire," reruns of "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie," and Fox's "Malcolm in the Middle." The government says it is following a 1997 mandate from Congress only to pay for captioning of "educational, news and informational" programming. But advocates for the deaf like Kelby Brick, associate executive director of the National Association of the Deaf say: "The department wants to ensure that over 28 million deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals are not exposed to any non-puritan programming." The vast majority of the affected shows are either on cable networks or PBS. Few first-run, broadcast network prime-time shows are affected. - Post wire services (via DCRTV via DXLD) ** U S A. My NWR List updated (but unimproved) I just updated the NOAA Weather Radio list on my webpage --- 26 new stations on the air since the last update in October, now 888 US stations listed! http://members.cox.net/mcsnwr/nwstable.htm The biggest change was that I removed the lat/lon data from my page. Some time ago I received an e-mail from NWS asking me to remove the information off my page, in the interest of national security. At that time I wrote back asking if I could simply list estimated locations based on the coverage maps they supply on the web page (I just eyeball them and guess using DeLorme's Street Atlas USA software). At that time the response was "let me check on that"... and I never heard any more from them. In fact, my contact (now retired) at NWS had no problem sharing all the lat/lon details with me, but now that he no longer works there things seem to have changed in the last year or so. Now the NWS page has gone so far as to begin changing their station coverage maps to remove the transmitter site, leaving just a class A/B signal areas emanating from a mystery tower site. An example appears at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/mo/kansascity.gif So that technique will be a bit more error-prone. Rather than wait for another e-mail, I thought I'd be proactive and remove the data to avoid the hassle; I'm all for increasing national security --- but I see problems with this approach: 1) older NWR web sites have the lat/lon data on it 2) the data have been published in PopComm at least once (maybe more?). Presumably any library would have this info right on their shelves for the public's eye (the older stations anyway, which serve the larger cities --- the more likely targets I would think for sabotage of some kind). 3) individual NWS offices often give descriptions of tower locations on their web sites, and in those cases where they are co-sited with TV and FM stations, just head over to fcc.gov and get the lat/lon information. I'll certainly abide by their wishes to keep the information off limits, but I question the level of effort they're undergoing to hide something that can't really be hidden (after all, those radio towers are fairly obvious). If NWR is used as the flagship of the "All Hazards Network", does that mean TV and FM/AM aren't that important, and their tower locations shouldn't be hidden from the public? Anyone care to comment? (Matthew C. Sittel, Bellevue, NE, Feb 21, WTFDA via DXLD) I'm not terribly surprised --- last year the Department of Homeland Security had the State of Illinois collect up (and destroy) a batch of CD-ROMs it had distributed detailing Illinois water treatment systems. Anyone willing to hazard a guess as to how long information will remain on the web about the "Presidential Access Point" system of clear channel medium wave stations? (Curtis Sadowski, IL, ibid.) I'm all for doing anything the federal government says to do, or refrain from doing as the case may be, where it has the potential to affect national security in a significant way and doesn't threaten our civil liberties in so doing. We live in an open society that is both information-rich and target-rich. You can't close every loophole, but you CAN "put up speed bumps", so to speak, to make current information harder to get to. Let's say a hurricane is closing in on Miami. Any terrorist (their cause or reason isn't important for this discussion, so I'll refrain from examples) could make it his business to disable as many Miami- area NOAA weather radio transmitters as possible, thus decreasing the free flow of timely information at a time when people need it and need it quickly. It would be taking advantage of a natural disaster to make whatever point the terrorist wanted to make --- "taking responsibility", as it were. It's much the same as weather forecasts and radio song requests being banned during WWII. The former helps the enemy, and the latter could be a signal --- "set off the bombs when WLW plays 'Take the A Train' on the afternoon of June 27" (just making that up off the top of my head). Sadly, there is some government information, germane to the radio hobby, that could be helpful to those who wish us harm, and we have to take measures we would never have thought of in years past (David Austin, Columbia SC, ibid.) Wouldn't such a terrorist be able to decrease the flow of timely information even more effectively by disabling the transmitters of WIOD, channels 4/6/7/10/23/51, and so on? Should the information on the location of those transmitters also be withheld as a result? If the problem you're trying to prevent is the disabling of a transmitter, the solution is to make the transmitter site more secure, not to try to conceal information about its location. As Matt points out, that information is already out there and is hard to hide anyway. My local NWS transmitter is at Pinnacle Hill, and anyone who was on the WTFDA convention tour last summer knows how futile it would be to try to hide THAT location. It's not the same thing at all. For one thing, it's not 1945 anymore, and any theoretical "enemy" has access to far more detailed weather forecasts from any number of international sources than anyone, friend or foe, had back then. Likewise, there are any number of more useful ways for an "enemy" to communicate. As I type this, I'm looking at the Fall 1944 issue of White's Radio Log. It has a big "V" on the cover, to be sure, but the information it contained was otherwise unaffected by the war that was then raging around the world. No, it didn't contain exact coordinates of transmitter sites (what listing did, in those days, other than the FCC's own license files?) - but there's certainly plenty of information in here that a more paranoid government could easily construe as harmful to national security. How did the broadcasters of the time respond? The most important transmitter sites - WLW, WBT and the like - were protected by National Guard units. WBT still has the huge rotating aircraft beacon mounted above the door of the transmitter building. I'm told there were sharpshooters stationed atop those transmitter buildings with orders to shoot to kill. It doesn't matter how precisely you know the location of a transmitter, after all, if there's a guy with a gun standing on the roof to keep you away from it. Maybe we should add NWS transmitters to 100000watts... :-) s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Hey Scott, I'm inclined to think that an unscheduled transmitter visit during a national emergency will still result in a sudden case of lead poisoning --- take a gander at this: http://www.fema.gov/pdf/library/1550_2.pdf Page #66 has a list that is of interest to any DX'er who may have wondered why some 50 KW stations seemed to have a bit more oomph than others (Curtis Sadowski, ibid.) I can't help noticing that the author of the FEMA manual can't spell the city the WLS-AM transmitter is located in correctly. It's Tinley Park, not as written. Also can't help thinking that any sudden attack causing the activation of the EAS and associated systems will be implemented by some poor sap who, despite many a drill, will be looking up Appendix C to do it by the book. And I can't imagine too many folks on the other end hanging around to respond to the roll call. Finally, the notion by someone at NWS or elsewhere in the government that it would be a good idea to "hide" a list of NWS transmitter lat/lon locations to keep the bad guys off balance is an overreaction. Last time I looked, you could find any NWS office - which feeds the transmitter and is sometimes co-located - in the phone book. Why not hide that if you're hiding a potential target? (Or the address of the local FBI office, for that matter.) Nobody ever said a government policy had to be well thought out. Kudos, though, to Matt for keeping up with 888 different stations. Wow, what a task! (Tim Cronin, Worth, IL, ibid.) Indeed, it is usually not difficult to find the location of a broadcast transmitter even without knowing the coordinates. The larger the station (the more important to keeping people informed) the more obvious the tower. Taking the coordinates of the WSM tower offline certainly won't make the tower hard to find! || WBT still has the huge rotating aircraft beacon mounted above the door of the transmitter building. I'm told there were sharpshooters || So does WSM. FWIW, after 9/11 new shortwave antennas appeared at several of the major AM transmitter sites. Reports have it these are for FEMA emergency data circuits. -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66, ibid.) ** UZBEKISTAN. 9715, Radio Tashkent noted daily with very good strength signing on at 1230 GMT with I.S. and into Urdu program. Unfortunately, Radio Nederland in Bonaire typically covers the 1200 to 1230 English broadcast and the signal strength is much weaker by the 1330 English program (Tom Sliva, NYC, Feb 21, using a Grundig 800 with 75 foot wire on roof, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA. Glenn: 5000.0: Observatorio Cagigal, Caracas: clearly heard giving time checks, alternative frequency tones, under WWV. ID heard each minute during the period of 0744-50Z on 02-21-04. Could have listened longer as signal stayed audible (but perhaps you can understand that I found the program *very* boring!) Odd that this was heard, the only time I've picked it up, on a night of abysmal propagation with few signals received below 5 MHz, aside from XERTA and R. Guyana (Steve Waldee, San José, CA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) It seems to me Cajigal is the preferred spelling; at least that`s the way I first became acquainted with it. The two are pronounced exactly the same, and even the Venezuelans can`t decide: Google search on ``Observatorio Cajigal`` gets 157 hits while ``Observatorio Cagigal`` gets 284. I see WRTH goes with G, possibly because of this almost 2:1 ratio (Glenn Hauser, Oclajoma, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE. 4828, R.Z./ZBC, As I suspected other frequencies may come back on line, found this one first noted around 0010 with talk by M, Hi-life music. George Maroti and I discovered this was carrying the same program as 3306 but with a 1:40 second delay (tnx George!!). Very short announcement at 0022, more music, with very short live announcements. Went over 0100 ToH with just music. 0159 unreadable canned announcement by M over music. Started getting some nasty local QRM after 0210. ID at 0259 by M in English, W promo in African language Mentioning FM. Choral NA at 0300. Noted both this and 3306 playing NA at 0301, but they weren't //. This was up to an S-6 strength by 0300. 21 Feb. Of course sweeper QRM (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 4828, ZBC, Gweru, 0206-0220, Feb 20, Vernacular, man announcer, musical program (very nice African music), mention Gweru several times, ID ``ZBC`` noted in // with 3306, 34333 (Nicolás Eramo, Villa Lynch, Prov. Buenos Aires, Argentina, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, Two separate ZBC services are now being relayed on shortwave. Heard during the local evening of 21 February on 3306 with Radio Zimbabwe and on 4828 with National FM. They may link up later for a single overnight service. As I'm now back in Nairobi, we need someone closer to Zimbabwe to confirm what's happening during the daytime. At this time of year the midday sun is directly over the middle of the Zimbabwe-Kenya path, ruling out any reception on the lower SW bands. This revived SW activity may be the result of assistance to the ZBC from Iran, the start of which was reported last year (Chris Greenway, Kenya, Feb 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) And Mugabe is beefing up his external broadcasting to counter negative publicity (gh, DXLD) Zimbabwe BC audible here at moment (1925 UT 20 Feb) on both 3306 and 4828 kHz. 4828 carries English channel of mainly Afro pops. Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation mention heard in promo at 1928. SIO 242. 3306 is vernacular talk and suffers a lot of utility QRM here. SIO 222. (thanks to tips from Chris Greenway and in DXLD) (Alan Pennington, BDXC-UK, Caversham, UK, AOR 7030+ / longwire, via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. At 1830 past 1900 UT Feb 22, African-sounding language on 3380, USB only, no carrier, very weak. Possibly MALAWI reactivated? (Chris Hambly, Victoria, DX LISTNEING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED SPUR or IMAGE?? 4997v, Have been noting a signal here in the mornings in the 1000-1030 time period. Moves around quite a bit requiring retuning often. Audio is extremely weak and doesn't help much in providing any clues. One morning it was strong enough to copy an alternating M and W at 1030. As Rebelde had just increased their signal strength, I thought it might be a spur from them, but it wasn't //. Doubt Andina, as they're pretty stable in the evenings (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 5851.97, LA??, 1058 21 Feb. Have heard this occasionally throughout the DX season around this time. Lively LA music, M announcer several times but couldn't copy anything. Fady. Wonder if this is the spur of 6030 Martí heard on 5833 last September. This doesn't seem to be drifting or varying very much (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Should be easy to parallel (gh) Ref your query about Radio Martí on 5851+ - ? I had a spur from Radio Martí on 5795 kHz just a little while ago, but not on 5851. I have a listing of Radio América, Perú on 5854 kHz on 10/10/01 and Radio Central, Ecuador on 5850 on 9/7/02. Just a couple of ideas (Chuck Bolland, FL, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. Big Noise!! Anyone have any idea what the noise is between 11615 - 11645+? I noticed it there around 2030 Feb 21 and it is still there now past 2100. No chance for India, and conditions are just fantastic around the world right now. Sounds like someone has a bad transmitter fault. I'm near Edmonton using a Collins HF-2050 and a 7-30 MHz Log Periodic. I would be interested in knowing who else is hearing this mess and at what strength. [Slightly later:] Great timing. The noise stopped at 2114. India now in the clear on 11620. Sorry for any inconvenience. I hope that stays away. 73 (Mick Delmage, AB, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ Better AM for the a.m. --- Tyler Brûle FT.com 20 Feb 2004 (travel section) Tired of waking up alone? Worse, being stirred from blissful slumber by a voice you don't even recognise? For those who like to jump-start their day with a bit of news and intelligent banter from a trusted source, there's a glaring gap between hotel mattress and bedside table, calling out for a new approach to morning radio. If finding Deutsche Welle or the BBC World Service wasn't quite so fiddly, a short-wave radio might be the answer. Finding your favourite station on the web is an option but is equally cumbersome because not all laptops or hotel rooms are created equal. Moreover, internet radio just isn't sexy. For those of us who spend at least three out of five working days confined to the 25 sq metres that passes for a suite, television is supposed to be the stand-in. News channels try to ease viewers into their day, but CNN's Richard Quest is far too abrasive to deal with first thing and the BBC lacks a sense of both pace and urgency. With the rise of digital broadcasting and the platform potential of mobile handsets, there must be some clever engineers working on a project to get the perfect mix of information and music to our ears via a tiny pair of speakers and a mobile. At the same time, we can only hope that there's an equally smart broadcaster out there who sees the potential in transmitting the right type of programming to people who spend their lives pinballing around the world... http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1075982700545 (via Kim Elliott, DXLD) The rest of his column is, to say the least, off-topic (gh, DXLD) POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ BPL IN ALLENTOWN PA Checked with my friend that works in IT in Allentown. The word so far on BPL there is that expansion of BPL is at least temporarily on hold. There are problems with not just interference but also with it working at the speeds/reliability desired. Last he heard PPL wasn't going to expand the program beyond Emmaus for a while. He is going to check again for me in the next two weeks (Eric Breon, Middletown PA, Feb 21, NRC-AM via DXLD) I thought I would pass these two articles along about BPL which should be of interest to everyone. The first one is the most disturbing... EARTHLINK INVESTS IN POWERLINE BROADBAND Go to: http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3315881 I may be wrong, but I think Earthlink is the second largest ISP. Read the headline again! This means if you have an Earthlink email address, your money is supporting BPL. Get it? Also on the BPL hit parade: FCC CHAIRMAN ASSURES CONGRESSMAN ON BPL STUDIES Go to: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2004/02/20/101/?nc=1 ************************************************************** Ulis R. Fleming Radio Amateur: K3LU (ex: WB3LUI & TI5NW) Home Page: http://www.radiointel.com Maryland USA ************************************************************** (Ulis Fleming, Radio Intel and swl at qth.net via DXLD) Yes, especially as the way the article is worded it makes you think the FCC has "approved" BPL and "warmly greeted it", not just put out a proposed rule making. Earthstink makes it look like it's a "Done Deal" though they are just in a testing phase. And yes, these things are supposed to be low power, but at HF frequencies it doesn't take much power to transmit a gazillion miles when the bands are open. I recall a couple summers back when lowfers were experimenting with some low power (about 50mW) beacons in the 13 MHz band and met "license free" requirements. They nicknamed them "hifers". Even though one in North Carolina was only running about 50mW (that's .05 Watts) into a simple antenna I had good copy on it here in California and have the QSL to prove it! So, if you get a few thousand (or million) "license free" part 15 devices operating in the HF/Low VHF bands it's going to raise the entire noise floor everywhere anytime the bands are open. Yes, they might shift "frequency" in close proximity to a ham who is complaining, but what about when the bands are open and that same ham is hearing things from halfway across the country? So, write your congressman, write your senators, heck, write your mother if it'll do any good |grin|. 73 from the "Beaconeers Lair". (Phil, KO6BB, Atchley, ibid.) UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Note: Glen[n]: Thanks for the great source of info that you provide with WOR! (Michael Beu, Austin TX, with a PaPal Contribution) Note: Thanks for keeping on keeping on. Your efforts are certainly appreciated. For some reason, a picture of you chewing on a glass of ice just popped into mind. I'll explain why sometime when I'm not typing in a space restricted box (Dan Srebnick, with a PayPal contribution) Dan, Thanks a lot. Now, about the ice? (gh) I used to have a habit of drinking Coca Cola with a lot of ice. Toward the end of the glass, I would chew on the ice as it melted. I mentioned to you a couple of years ago that a friend of mine, Ludwig Schieffer, went down to Knoxville to visit you in 1981 after staying at my place in Staten Island for a week or so. Apparently, you were observed doing something similar, which is probably not an uncommon thing to do anyway. However, Ludwig noted this as some strange American custom, and about a year later, when I next saw him, he brought it up. I was towards the end of a Coke, chewing on the ice, and he started asking me about this "custom" that he had observed. I was a little confused by the whole thing, not making much of the behavior. After about five minutes, it turned out that his observation was based upon the two of us. I had not thought about this in probably 20 years, but when I was filling in your address on the Paypal for, it suddenly came to mind. 73, (Dan Srebnick, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, I realize I have done this, but did not think we had met so you would know that! It also gives the gums and teeth some exercise, altho I have read somewhere that the urge to chew ice may be a symptom of some vitamin(?) deficiency. If the soft drink is served cold in the first place, as it usually is from dispensers, I now avoid the ice dilution, especially if I am saving a refill for later (Glenn) ###