DX LISTENING DIGEST 4-187, December 19, 2004 Incorporating REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING 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 1257: Sun 2000 WOR Studio X, Momigno, Italy 1584 87.35 96.55 105.55 Sun 2030 WOR WWCR 12160 Sun 2100 WOR RNI Mon 0330 WOR WRMI 6870 Mon 0400 WOR WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0430 WOR WSUI Iowa City IA 910 [1256] Mon 0530 WOR WBCQ 7415 Mon 0900 WOR R. Lavalamp Mon 1700 WOR WBCQ after hours Mon 2200 WOR WBCQ 9330-CLSB Tue 1000 WOR WRMI 9955 Tue 1700 WOR WBCQ after hours Tue 2200 WOR WBCQ 9330-CLSB Wed 1030 WOR WWCR 9985 Wed 1700 WOR WBCQ after hours MORE info including audio links: http://worldofradio.com/radioskd.html WRN ONDEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO [also for CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL]: WORLD OF RADIO 1257 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1257h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1257.rm WORLD OF RADIO 1257 (low version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1257.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1257.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1257.html WORLD OF RADIO 1257, mp3 in the true SW sound of 7415: (stream) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/worldofradio_12-15-04.m3u (d`load) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/worldofradio_12-15-04.mp3 ** ANGUILLA. Re 4-186: Caribbean Beacon on 690 was originally 2 x 50 kW transmitters, and remains authorized for 100 kW. Before Dr. Scott bought it, station had deteriorated to the point where parts from one of the 50s had to be used to keep the other one going, and has been running 50 kW since, not 15. Gets out very well in the Caribbean with tall tower (diplexed with 1610, which is currently at much lower power), low frequency and surrounded by water. While 690, 6090 and 11775 are nothing but University Network, 1610 does have some separate programming before local noon (1600 UT). Radio Anguilla, the government station on 1505, moved to FM with an Elcor transmitter some years ago following storm damage. There are now a few private FM stations on Anguilla, and taxi drivers are no longer motivated to listen to off-island stations for something less boring than R. Anguilla (George McClintock, TN, who has visited Anguilla several times, Dec 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. Radio Australia Holiday programming notes As is usually the case, Radio Australia`s schedule will see significant seasonal alterations in December and January as several programs take summer breaks. Specifically, at Christmastide, Radio Australia will be taking a feed from 1500 UTC on December 24th from the Local (Metropolitan) Radio network, not Radio National as is normally the case. However Radio Australia news will be maintained where it is currently scheduled. This change also means that cricket will be heard on all available short-wave frequencies instead of the special ``sports`` frequencies. Their format will be similar to previous years with religious specials, Christmas music, Christmas stories and talkback with Australians as they celebrate Christmas Day. Each Australian state will likely contribute a couple of hours to the broadcast. (courtesy of John Figliozzi and Roger Broadbent) In general, expect a higher concentration of live cricket between December 24th and January 16th, when the regular Radio Australia schedule returns. This also means that live webcast access will be blocked when live cricket airs. Other programs that will definitely be on hiatus during that stretch include The World Today, Life Matters, PM and Australia Talks Back. A more detailed list will be provided in the NASWA Flashsheet once Radio Australia has sorted out the details of their summer break (Richard Cuff, Easy Listening, Dec NASWA Journal via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. AUSTRALIAN X-BAND AT A GLANCE DECEMBER 2004 COMPILED BY DAVID RICQUISH, WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND Maximum licensed power: 400 watts, omni-directional antenna. Postal codes are for transmitter location only. Currently: 80 stations stated to be on-air 1611 Radio 2 Brocklehurst 2830 NSW (Dubbo) MOR Radio 2 Cowra 2794 MOR NTC Radio 16 Grafton (South) 2460 News/Talk/Country (5) 2RF Rete Italia Griffith 2680 Italian Radio 2 Lismore 2480 MOR Radio 2 Port Macquarie 2444 MOR Radio 2 St Mary’s 2760 (West Sydney) MOR NTC Radio 16 Tamworth 2340 News/Talk/Country (5) 3XX 16-11 Double X Hoppers Crossing 3050 VIC (Melbourne) // FM Alive Radio/Top of the Dial Mildura 3550 Christian/Oldies Radio 2 Portland VIC 3305 MOR Radio 2 Bowen 4605 Q MOR (8) 4KZ Croydon 4871 // 531 AM (10) Radio 2 Dalby 4405 MOR 4DB Country Music Network Emerald 4720 Country 4DB Country Music Network Goondiwindi 4390 Country Radio 2 Mt Stuart 4813 (Townsville) MOR (8) Radio 2 Pialba 4655 (Hervey Bay-Maryborough) MOR 4DB Country Music Network Roma 4455 Country 4DB Country Music Network St. George 4487 Country Radio 2 Whyalla 5600 SA MOR 6AY Albany 6330 WA MOR Radio 2 Broome 6725 MOR Radio 2 Esperance 6450 MOR Radio 2 Kalgoorlie 6430 MOR AM 1611 Margaret River Radio Margaret River 6284 MOR Radio 2 Alice Springs 0870 NT MOR Radio 2 Darwin 0800 MOR Radio 2 Cygnet 7112 TAS (Hobart) MOR Radio 2 Quioba 7310 (Devonport) MOR 1620 Radio 2 Bimmil Hill 2551 NSW (Eden) MOR 2MORO Homebush 2141 (Sydney) Arabic Radio 2 Moama 2731 (Echuca VIC) MOR 2MAX Narrabri 2390 // 91.3FM 1RF Rete Italia Queanbeyan 2620 (Canberra) Italian (1) Radio 2 Queanbeyan 2620 (Canberra) MOR (2) Radio 2 Shoal Bay 2315 (Newcastle) MOR Radio 2 Wagga Wagga 2650 MOR Radio 2 Bayswater 3153 VIC (Melbourne) MOR Radio 2 Cairns 4870 Q MOR (8) Radio 2 Caloundra 4551 (Sunshine Coast) MOR Radio 2 Gladstone 4680 MOR (8) Radio 2 Manly 4179 (Brisbane) MOR Radio 2 Mermaid Beach 4218 (Gold Coast) MOR 4KZ Taylors Beach 4850 (Ingham) // 531 AM Radio 2 Toowoomba 4250 MOR Radio 2 Old Noarlunga 5168 SA (Adelaide) MOR g ( ) Radio 2 Balcatta 6021 WA (North Perth) MOR Radio 2 Geraldton 6532 MOR 1629 NTC Radio 16 Brocklehurst 2830 (Dubbo) News/Talk/country (5) Radio 2 Grafton (South) 2460 MOR Radio 2 Murrumbateman 2582 (Canberra) MOR NTC Radio 16 O’Connell 2795 (Bathurst) News/Talk/Country (5) 2HRN Hospital Radio Network Sandgate 2304 (Newcastle) MOR Radio 2 Tamworth 2340 MOR 3RF Rete Italia Shepparton 3631 Italian Radio 2 Williamstown 3016 (Melbourne) MOR Radio 2 Cremorne 4740 Q (Mackay) MOR (8) 4DB Country Music Network Dalby 4405 Country 4RF Rete Italia Mango Hill 4058 (Brisbane) Italian (1) Radio 2 Mango Hill 4058 (Brisbane) MOR (2) (8) Radio 2 Compton 5291 SA (Mt. Gambier) MOR 5RF Rete Italia Regency Park 5010 (Adelaide) Italian (1) Radio 2 Regency Park 5010 (Adelaide) MOR (2) Radio 2 Collingwood Heights 6330 WA (Albany) MOR Radio 2 Eaton 6230 (Bunbury) MOR Radio 2 Mundaring 6073 (City & East Perth) MOR 1638 NTC Radio 16 Armidale 2350 News/Talk/Country (5) 2ME Concord West 2138 (Sydney) Arabic 3ME South Morang 3052 (Melbourne) Arabic NTC Radio 16 Long Pocket 4068 (Brisbane) News/Talk/Country (5) (8) (9) 1647 NTC Radio 16 Kaleen 2617 (Canberra) News/Talk/Country (4) (5) 1665 Radio Symban Canberra 2601 Greek 2MM Marrickville 2204 (Sydney) Greek 1683 Club AM Woden 2607 (Canberra) Greek Club AM Lakemba 2195 (Sydney) Greek 1701 NTC Radio 16 Belconnen 2614 (Canberra) News/Talk/Country (5) NTC Radio 16 Silverwater 2141 (Sydney) News/Talk/Country (6) Radio Brisvaani 17 Mile Rocks 4073 (Brisbane) Hindi Vision FM Rockingham 6168 (Perth) Contemporary Christian (3) Notes: (1) Rete Italia definitely still operating here according to local monitoring reports. (2) Radio 2 not heard here but listed to be on-air according to R. 2 (3) listed operator, tests heard south of Perth end of May; (4) NTC Radio 16 replaced 2ME from this site from the last week in June 2004 and tested here for about 10 days before ending transmission in early July. Returned to air late August.. (5) NTC Radio 16 former relays and new outlets coming on air after earlier bankruptcy of satellite delivery company TARBS in early July. New program distributor or arrangements in place. (6) NTC Radio 16 originating station returned to air in mid-August. (7) Radio 2 claims to have 45 transmitters on air at August 27. Local monitoring reveals this is not necessarily the case. As at August 29, it’s believed all the transmitters (excluding those sharing same locations as Rete Italia) were technically ‘on air’ for varying periods to comply with a government directive. On site monitoring in Queensland in October 2004 reveals that about 50% of the transmitters are actually silent, and anecdotal evidence suggests that individual transmitters are ‘on and off’ irregularly. (8) Silent during on-site monitoring in October 2004. (9) Reported returned to air November 22 2004 (on-site monitoring) (10) This location is subject to confirmation. 4KZ previously held a license for Karumba in the same region which, according to our records, was relinquished. However, it may have been reinstated using 70 watts according to reports. © Radio Heritage Foundation 2004 David Ricquish, Wellington (NEW ZEALAND DX TIMES PAGE 40 DECEMBER 2004 via DXLD) ** BIAFRA [non]. Tuned in 7380 Sat Dec 18 at 2156, just in time to hear V. of Biafra going from a tonal African language to closing in English mentioning the frequency and 41m; good level via South Africa (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 17814.7, R Cultura, São Paulo, SP, 1251, Nov 27, Brazilian oldies; 14441; drifted to ~.8 at recheck at 1448 when airing contemporary music. Also observed 2302-2326, Nov 27, 25433, with // 9615 inaudible (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DSWCI DX Window Dec 14 via DXLD) ** CANADA. 6030, CFVP, Calgary, Dec 16, at 1303, in English, sports news and weather forecast, clear ID for AM 1060, CKMX, poor, QRM/ China. Long time since I have heard this one on a day other than when it`s in the clear on Monday (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Radio Canada International / CBC Holiday programming Listen in on Christmas Day for special programs in English and French consisting of greetings (many tearful) between Canadian Forces personnel serving abroad and their families. Lots of kiddies sending greetings to Mummy or Daddy overseas. This has been heard many times on RCI over the years (Fred Waterer, Programming Matters, Dec ODXA Listening In via DXLD) The ODXA`s Fred Waterer along with John Figliozzi, have assembled the following notes on what to expect from the CBC: As It Happens, especially on Christmas Eve, produces a special annual program. Each year, the program contacts members of the Canadian Armed Forces serving with the UN, NATO, NORAD and those serving in the far north. Each unit has 3 or 4 people speak for those serving with the unit. They send Christmas greetings to loved ones at home and describe how they are celebrating Christmas where they are. At the conclusion of the greetings, the units are each invited to sing a verse of a Christmas carol. In past years, the units have served in such diverse locations as Canadian Forces Base Alert (Arctic), Colorado Springs (Norad), Germany, Cyprus, Golan Heights, Bermuda (!), the Persian Gulf, Somalia, Bosnia and Croatia, and Kosovo. No doubt there will be greetings from the task force in the Gulf. It is a really nice program. It also has its moments of humor, such as the time the Canadian naval personnel stationed in Bermuda tried to claim they missed the Canadian winter real bad! (via Fred Waterer/ODXA). In general, As It Happens has had its own tradition of storytelling during the week or so leading up to Christmas. (via John Figliozzi) Also, last year, listeners in the United States and the Caribbean heard Holly & Maple on Christmas Morning from 1300 to 1600 UT. This year, since Christmas is on a Saturday, the air time for such a special would be 1400 to 1700 UT. Later that day, listeners in the United States and the Caribbean heard Winter Stories from 2300 to 0100 UT; with the new schedule, an analogous program would air in the 2000- 2300 UT block, or possibly in the 0100-0300 UT block. Holiday Soirée: A Christmas Homecoming was heard on Boxing Day in Southeast Asia and China from 0000 to 0100 UT December 26th and once again from 1200 to 1300 December 26th. Listeners in India heard Holiday Soirée: A Christmas Homecoming on Boxing Day from 1500 to 1600 UT (via RCI / Bill Westenhaver) (Richard Cuff, Easy Listening, Dec NASWA Journal via DXLD) ** CANADA. CBC Adrian Shuman --- CBC Toronto originates a program called Fresh Air which is carried on Sunday mornings from 7 to 9 AM local time (1200-1400 UT in winter) on CBC North Quebec on 9625 kHz. For the past ten years Adrian Shuman has occupied the guest chair after the 7:30 AM local news break to present a very interesting program of vintage popular music. Listeners would send in some obscure lyric or clue and Adrian would research the song and dig out a copy from either his own personal collection or the CBC archives. He presented the songs with accompanying comments as to the origin or significance in the time it was popular. For example today's program included the tune "The D-Day Dodgers" written by Major Hamish Henderson of the 51st Highland Division in response to an ill considered, 1944 comment by Lady Astor, in the House of Commons, accusing Soldiers in Italy of "dodging D-Day". I have enjoyed his segment of the program for about 10 years. Today Adrian Shuman announced at the end of his segment that he would no longer be presenting his unique take on vintage music on Fresh Air. I will miss him and "Adrian's Music". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Learn more at: http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/personality/index.jsp?personality=Shuman%2C+Adrian&program=Fresh+Air Adrian Shuman - Fresh Air (Toronto) Adrian himself will tell you his "great passion in life is the pursuit of vintage music on record." Or in plain words, Adrian is a hopeless record collector. Coming from a prior career in Ontario public libraries, Adrian joined the CBC in August of 1988 as a freelance programmer. He worked on such radio shows as Stereo Morning and Arts National. In the spring of 1993, Adrian joined the staff of the CBC Music Library where he turned his passion for collecting vintage recordings into a full-time career. "I'm extremely proud to be part of such a magnificent resource, and I feel privileged to be able to contribute to its ongoing development." In 1994, Adrian joined CBC Radio One's Fresh Air as its music archivist and he's never looked back. "I'm having the time of my life," Adrian says. "Can you imagine what I'm learning from the requests of our wonderful listeners?`` he adds. "I love getting lost in books and archives." When Adrian is not rooting around at flea markets and garage sales, he's likely online looking for goodies and rarities on eBay and other internet sources. From time to time, Adrian does manage to get outside, where he enjoys photography. Copyright © CBC 2004 ~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-., (via Joe Buch, Dec 19, Swprograms mailing list via DXLD) -*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^ ** CANADA [and non]. CKBD-600 Vancouver to FM? from the Northwest Broadcasters site: The Jim Pattison Broadcast Group has applied to the CRTC for approval to convert its existing CKBD AM 600 Vancouver to FM identifying as The Breeze. If successful, programming would move to 93.1 MHz to serve Vancouver with a repeater for Abbotsford, Mission and Chilliwack at 99.9 MHz. Additional information see http://www.breezevancouver.com/ -------------- I had thought the FM band here in Vancouver was full, but when I look at the listings, there does seem to be a big gap around 93.1 . . . ef (Eric FLoden, Vancouver, Dec 16, NRC-AM via DXLD) I would be surprised if the CRTC would OK it, as KISM-Bellingham is on 92.9 and KUBE-Seattle on 93.3. I would think KISM does serve the Lower Mainland rather well as I remember (Patrick Martin, NRC-AM via DXLD) Good point, Patrick -- it is funny how little interest I have in FM, I never tune across the dial. I did last night after your note (CC Radio+) and Bellingham 92.9 booms in to my location, 2 km from downtown . . . I have to agree with you and wonder how they could OK use of 93.1 (I do have an FM tuner next to my main MW/SW radio, but it is hooked into cable, so it is of no use to check out the local dial positions...) (Eric Flodén, BC, ibid.) Welcome to the border, 21st-century style! As both sides try to cram the dial as full as possible, there was a mutual agreement a few years back to completely abandon any cross-border protection of FM signals. So as long as a Canadian signal doesn't interfere with a U.S. signal on U.S. soil, or a U.S. signal with a Canadian signal on Canadian soil. Ironically, this means that some of the strongest cross-border signals are the most likely to get co- or adjacent-channel neighbors. F'rinstance, the 102.1 Toronto signal from the CN Tower booms into western New York, just across the lake. So how could the FCC allow a class A (6 kw) 102.1 signal in Albion NY, just south of Lake Ontario? Simple - it's BECAUSE 102.1 Toronto is itself so close to the lakeshore and so strong. No matter how much signal Albion throws across the lake, it'll always be overpowered on Canadian soil by Toronto. The Canadians see no interference to their signal on Canadian soil from the U.S. signal, so it's OK under the treaty. Now as you might imagine, the U.S. signal suffers some pretty severe interference from Canada, and it's nearly unlistenable within a few miles to the north and west of its tower - but its owners seem to feel that some signal is better than none at all. The same situation applies, in reverse, to 92.9 Bellingham vs. 93.1 Vancouver. The 92.9 signal is close to the border and it's a flamethrower. The Vancouver signal would be a class A facility that wouldn't put very much signal out at the border at all (especially if they use a directional antenna). Would it be a mess on Canadian soil? Sure it would - but the key is that the Vancouver signal wouldn't interfere with Bellingham's protected contour within the U.S., and that's all that matters these days. (Note that this is all true only for FM; international treaties still provide protection for AM signals across the border.) s (Scott Fybush, NY, NRC-AM via DXLD) Thanks. Now this could really be a mess in Vancouver. The question is, would KISM block out the 93.1 signal in the Vancouver area running only 6 kW? It does seem enough to do well. 73s, (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, KAVT Reception Manager, ibid.) A lot would depend on where the 93.1 transmitter goes. If they put it up on Mount Seymour, where most of the Vancouver FMs are located, it would be relatively distant from downtown Vancouver and would probably be subject to a fair amount of interference in the city. Their best bet might be to get it on top of one of the taller downtown buildings, from which even a class A signal would put something like 100 dBu over downtown and would throw a 70 dBu signal out 10-15 miles. Within that radius, it should sufficiently overpower the KISM signal to dominate most radios, thanks to simple capture ratio. (My best guess is that KISM puts about 55-60 dBu over most of Vancouver.) South of town, in areas like Richmond, it'll be a dogfight. KISM should dominate in Victoria even after 93.1 Vancouver comes on, though. The change of protection rules across the border is quite the wakeup call for many stations like KISM that depended on cross-border audiences, as they discover that they have absolutely no signal protection over those audiences. (Another good example, also on 92.9, is WEZF Burlington VT, which is dealing with recent Industry Canada tests of a signal right on 92.9 in Montreal, about 100 miles to the north.) s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) An article in today's Vancouver Sun indicates that there are several 'applicants' after this same frequency in the lower mainland, not just the Jimmy Pattison group. Perhaps theirs is the first formal application (Steve McDonald, VE7SL, ibid.) More than anything, I think it reflects a difference in the way the two bands behave. We DXers know better than anyone that MW signals like to propagate, and that the effects of interference are cumulative. 250 watts at night on 940 in, say, Webster MA could have a seriously deleterious effect on the reception of Montreal's 940, even on Canadian soil. Even if the received signal from Montreal is very strong, the hypothetical Webster night signal could still produce objectionable chatter underneath. And if there were then night signals on 940 from, say, Brookfield CT and Lebanon PA and Charleroi PA and Lima OH and so on, it would all add to the interference received in Montreal. FM is different in two ways - first, the signals are usually (though not always, of course) line-of-sight, so there's no way that Boston's 98.5, for instance, would put any perceptible signal into the protected contour of Montreal's 98.5 (absent a nice trop opening, of course). And the capture effect of FM means that even if the Boston signal did happen to duct into Montreal, it would still be at a significantly lower level than the local signal and wouldn't result in any perceived interference on most radios. So in practice, the area of concern for FM is really only 80-100 miles from the border in each direction. For AM, it's pretty much the whole country. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Is that true at night? Just off the top of my head I'd think that the US can use Mex/Can clear channels as long as the US station doesn't radiate anything toward the Mexican or Clear Channel protected stations, within their respective borders, on The AM broadcast band. The old 1570 (A Mexican Clear Channel) Fernandina, FL change to Orange Park, FL city of license had originally 7.7 kW at night aimed at fishes from the southwesterly Jacksonville suburbs. Would that blank out XERF for a certain distance at night in/around Jacksonville, yes. But it's in the US. ??? Ever Curious, (Ron Gitschier, Palm Coast, FL, ibid.) Scott, Yes, this I know being an FM DXer at times, but what surprises me that the CRTC would OK 93.1 knowing KISM on 92.9 blasts into Vancouver as a local. I think they are like 50-60 KW from a mountain not far from the border. KISM does get out well. I remember driving around Vancouver and tuning across the dial and noting KISM being as strong as the Mt. Seymour transmitters. I wonder how the 93.1 can do though. It would be interesting to talk to the CE at KISM to see what he thinks. I am sure he has a comment. hi. 73s, (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) And I bet it's not printable in a family newspaper, either. The CRTC doesn't care one way or another, and therein lies another quirk of Canadian broadcast regulation. Unlike here in the States, where the FCC both issues licenses and regulates the technical aspects of broadcasting, Canada has two separate agencies that handle those aspects of broadcasting. The CRTC decides who's qualified to be a licensee and what they can program, but another agency, Industry Canada, handles all the technical details and tells the CRTC whether a frequency proposed by a licensee is acceptable for use. In recent years, Industry Canada has been willing to approve a lot of facilities that are just as questionable as the Vancouver 93.1 would be. In particular, they allowed the former CIAM 960 in Cambridge, Ontario to move to 92.9, co-channel with superpower (91 kW) WBUF 92.9 in Buffalo, less than 60 miles to the east. The interference was - surprise! - so bad that the station eventually applied to change frequency again, going to 107.5. Another example was the move of the old CHNR 1600 Simcoe ON to 106.7, first-adjacent to 106.5s in Buffalo and Cleveland. It got slaughtered on that channel, too, and eventually moved to 98.9. (And yet several other would-be licensees, desperate for ANY space on the dial, have already applied to reuse 106.7 in the Brantford-Kitchener-Waterloo area.) If nothing else, it's a sign of the stigma that AM seems to have in much of Canada now - I'm sure the CKBD folks know that they get out far better on 600 than they would on 93.1, but they're apparently willing to take that risk. (Hmm...maybe KISM should add IBOC in retaliation...) s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Hi Scott, Now that is indeed a real possibility, KISM going IBOC. Several Seattle stations use it now on FM. That would really cream 93.1. But you may be right, CKBD may end up moving from 93.1 to some other frequency in time too. I just don't see them working out on 93.1. Not with KISM on 92.9. KUBE-93.3 would be weaker being Seattle, so that probably is not much of an issue. But time will tell. I heard too that there are several apps for 93.1, so it may be a while if the CRTC does allow the frequency. P.S. CKBD is quite listenable down here day and night. 73s, (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) Here in Toronto there is Aboriginal Voices Radio Network (CFIE, though you will never hear them give a call letter ID) on 106.5, the same frequency as a Buffalo station. I can only imagine how badly they get creamed outside of the 416 area code/Megacity of Toronto. 73 (Mike Brooker, Toronto, ON, ibid.) The techie I talked with there when they were before the CRTC didn't care about outside Toronto. Stupid, cause they get QRMed even in the city in spots. On the other hand, they're sometimes the strongest 106.5 at Burnt River, 100 miles away, better than Owen Sound ON and Buffalo NY. I know this is an AM list so we're probably getting off- topic, so I'll make a desperate bridge here: We haven't seen this on AM frequencies in Canada because they're all wanting off AM, heh! So when someone picks (often deservedly) on the stupid FCC, please consider the CRTC and Industry Canada included (Saul Chernos, ibid.) ``(Note that this is all true only for FM; international treaties still provide protection for AM signals across the border.)`` Hmmm... are you sure about that, Scott? I browsed the Canada-US AM agreement (signed in 1984), and as far as I can tell, the philosophy is the same as for AM. It says (in para 4.10.4.1, to be exact): "No station has the right to be protected beyond the boundary of the country in which the station is established". Am I missing something? (Barry McLarnon VE3JF Ottawa, ON, ibid.) Barry, That sure does not sound right. Then why do the US or Canada have to protect the signals if neither country has any rights beyond the borders? (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) ** COSTA RICA. TIRWR has been missing from 9725 for at least two weeks, it seems; wonder what`s wrong now? (Glenn Hauser, OK, Dec 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. 6105, R Universidad de Costa Rica just sent me confirmation by letter (heard in July 2003 as mentioned in DX-Window no. 224). They sent me also a sticker, for the 55 "aniversario", reporting frequencies 96.7 MHz and 870 kHz MW, but nothing about short waves, as nothing on the letter (Massimo Cerveglieri, Alessandria, Italy, DSWCI DX Window Dec 14 via DXLD) ** CUBA [non]. Caught part of R. Martí`s announcement at 0000 UT Dec 19 on 6030; said its hours on 102.5 FM from Florida are 6 pm to 6 am. Since Cuba and Miami/Washington are on different timezones now, and R. Martí sometimes gives double timechex, one must be careful to figure out which zone they are referring to: 2300-1100 UT local, or 2200-1000 UT in Cuba (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. Dirección de Radio Clarín --- Hola Glenn, envié un informe de recepción a Radio Clarín, Apartado 205-2, Santo Domingo, República Dominicana, y me fue devuelta la carta, con una nota que dice: "Apartados cerrrados". Esta dirección es la que figura en el WRTH 2005 (que me acaba de llegar), lo mismo que en las anteriores ediciones y era su dirección de toda la vida, pues ya la tenían en los años 70 cuando transmitían en onda corta, en 11700 KHz. Un abrazo y Feliz Navidad (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, ibid.) Puedes intentar simplemente: Radio Clarín Ave. Prolongación México, esquina Clarín Santo Domingo, D.N. República Dominicana Creo que esa es la dirección que utilizamos cuando yo tenía mi oficina en el edificio de Radio Clarín en los '80. Saludos (Jeff White, Miami, ibid.) Muchas gracias Jeff. Probaré con esa dirección y ojalá que la carta no pase por las manos del mismo personal de Correos por las que pasó en la R. Dominicana. Me explico: La carta contenía un informe de recepción en un folio papel A4, una carta, y en medio de ello, de forma que resulta muy dificil de ver desde el exterior,aunque sea puesto a través de un punto de luz brillante, 1 dolar USA, para ayuda del sello de retorno. Pues bién, la carta que me fue devuelta, venía rota por un lateral, le rompieron un trozo sin ningún tipo de precaución, y venía el informe y la carta dentro, pero ni rastro del dólar. No se pararon a despegarla con cuidado, simplemente le arrancaron un trozo al sobre. Una vez más surge el debate de si a estas emisoras, de determinados países latinoamericanos, que son las más dificiles de confirmar, se debe enviar algún tipo de ayuda para el retorno o no. Y a mi, también, siempre me surgió la pregunta de en que parte del camino se quedan esas cartas y a donde van a parar los dólares que llevan detro. ¿Desaparacen en manos de los trabajadores de correos de esos países, en manos de trabajadores de la emisora a la que van, sin llegar a su servicio técnico o llegan al servicio técnico de la emisora y esta no responde? Yo creo, algo de experiencia en esto ya tengo, que puede pasar cualquiera de las tres cosas. Descartado que la carta se extravíe en España o en cualquier país de la Unión Europea (aquí se envía por carta dinero, mucho más valor que un dólar, p. ejemplo para pagar cuotas de clubes DX, se reciben libros y objetos de valor y nunca faltó nada. Yo acabo de recibir de Inglaterra el WRTH 2005 y me llegó, lo mismo que en años anteriores por correo ordinario, sin certificar, y nunca se pierde). Pues bién, imaginemos una emisora tropical de un determinado país, y que por cualquier motivo el cartero sabe que las cartas que van a la emisora son candidatas a conter dólares. Creo que parte del problema ya estaría ahí. Y lo más probable es que cuando las rompen, las hagan desaparecer, lleven o no lleven dinero dentro. Es curioso que mi carta fuera devuelta completamente rota y no fuera a parar a la basura. Otras llegarán a la emisora, pero serán manipuladas por alguien ajeno al servicio técnico y éste sabrá que muchas llevan dólares dentro. En fin y otras llegarán a quien corresponde, y simplemente no responderán. Así se explica el bajo número de confirmaciones de estas emisoras, que estará en un 5 ó en un 10%. Un dolar apenas significa nada en Europa o en Estados Unidos, pero si bastante en algunos países latinoamericanos en donde la mayoría de la gente gana unos pocos dólares al mes, y en donde la corrupción está instaurada a casi todos los niveles. A pesar de todo esto, yo creo que si se debe enviar algún tipo de ayuda a esas emisoras. Si uno tiene, digamos un 10% de posibilidades de que respondan de esta forma, creo que sin ayuda, las posibilidades de reducen considerablemente. Debemos de pensar que lal mayoría de estas emisoras apenas sobreviven, tienen como estudio unos barracones, y les resulta imposible poder afrontar los gastos de envío de las confirmaciones. Si yo quiero conseguir, digamos, una QSL de Radio Pio XII, etc. debo pagarme el sello de retorno, pues está claro que ellos no lo van a pagar. Un abrazo (Manuel Méndez, ibid.) O aún: No molestar las emisoras con nuestros informes DX, que no son de valor real, sin o con dólares; quedarnos satisfechos sabiendo que sí captamos la emisora (talvez con grabación), y no importa si la emisora misma lo sepa, ni responda (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Manuel: Yo sé lo que dices. Es un dilema siempre. Puede haber sido alguien del correo que tomó tu dólar en este caso; eso es común. Aunque tengo que decir que un dólar hoy en día en la Rep. Dominicana no tiene el valor que tenía hace 20 años. Los precios de todo se han dolarizado mucho. En su época grande, cuando Rodolfo Espinal estaba encargado de la onda corta, Radio Clarín contestaba toda la correspondencia de los oyentes. Mas luego, cuando yo estaba allí, yo ví cajas de cartas de oyentes, pero tenía la impresión de que nunca se contestaron. ¿Y la gente que enviaron dólares? Mi sospecha fue que la mujer que era gerente de la estación los quitó de todos los sobres antes de meterlos en cajas (Jeff White, Noticias DX via DXLD) Hola Manuel, un dolar no es nada pero yo despues de perder mas de 200 dolares en mi vida Diexista, tome la decision de no enviar ni dolares ni IRC´s, ya que la emisora que quiere mandar QSL te la manda con o sin Dolar, yo siempre pongo como ejemplo a RADIO ETIOPIA, que es el pais mas pobre de la tierra y me verifico sin ninguna contribucion, pues a partir de ahi no tienen derecho moral ninguna emisora a pedirte ni un puñetero Euro, ya que los demas la renta percapita de cualquier pais o emisora es superior al de Radio Etiopia. Saludos desde (Cartagena de JOSE HERNANDEZ MADRID, Spain, ibid.) ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. 1640 HI.. R. Juventus Don Bosco, address: Apartado Postal 4848, Santo Domingo (Hasse Mattisson, ARC News Des, Dec, via editor Tore Lasson, DXLD) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. I've read that Radio Bata is back on 5004. Was it for only a one hour/day broadcast? no signal here. Bonne journée (Eric Cordier, http://radioafrique.site.voila.fr dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. Dejen Radio --- The website http://www.ethiopiancommentator.com/links.html shows 'Dejen Radio at 41 meter band or 7590 kHz, Saturday at 2 PM Ethiopian time'. Last report I have seen on this one was 12120 * 1700 1800 * Sats (in Sep 2004.) Anyone know if this is new or old info? (F. Krone, Denmark, Dec 14, 2004 in DXplorer-ML via CRW Dec 15 via DXLD) ** FRANCE. RFI PLACE LA MUSIQUE AU CŒUR DE SON DÉPLOIEMENT INTERNATIONAL --- LE MONDE | 17.12.04 | 14h07 Antenne d'information avant tout, Radio France Internationale, qui touche 40 millions d'auditeurs dans le monde, met aussi les artistes au centre de ses programmes. --- Bamako de notre envoyée spéciale C'est avec a volonté d'utiliser la musique comme vecteur de déploiement international que depuis 1981, Radio France Internationale (RFI) décerne, chaque année, son prix Musiques du monde, consacré à des découvertes et à des jeunes talents. A Bamako, au Mali, début décembre, un jury présidé par la chanteuse malienne et ex-lauréate Rokia Traoré a couronné le vétéran malien Idrissa Soumaoro, 55 ans et peu de reconnaissance médiatique, avant qu'un grand concert ne réunisse les stars de l'Afrique francophone et la haute société bamakoise. Le bluesman des bords du Niger recevra 6 000 euros, plus une bourse d'aide de développement de carrière de 12 500 euros allouée par le ministère des affaires étrangères, et bénéficiera d'une campagne de promotion sur les ondes de RFI et de ses radios partenaires. . . Créé en 1999 par Jean-Jacques Dufayet, alors responsable des productions musicales, à la demande du ministère des affaires étrangères, le site http://www.rfimusique.com est aujourd'hui devenu un magazine quotidien de l'activité musicale ainsi qu'une palette complète de biographies de chanteurs de la zone francophone, de Rachid Taha à Charles Aznavour, en passant par Marcel Azzola. En quelques années, le site est devenu un outil d'information précieux, pour tous les internautes comme pour les professionnels des radios associées au groupe public. . . http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3236,36-391357,0.html (via Dan Say, DXLD) ** GABON. Radio Gabon on 4777 is quiet irregular, with sometimes carrier and no audio, or no signal at all (Eric Cordier, Dec 19, http://radioafrique.site.voila.fr dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUIANA FRENCH [and non]. 5055, R.F.O. Guyane, Matoury, is definitely off the air on SW as well as on MW (1070 kHz). I checked these two frequencies several times from Cayenne and Sinnamary (110 km to the west) without hearing anything. Furthermore I passed five times Matoury which is located 9 km south of Cayenne and saw only the R.F.O. FM- and TV transmittermast on a hilltop. When departing by aircraft after sunset I noticed that this mast was clearly lit with a red light whereas no other masts were seen lit within several kilometres. Furthermore local people confirmed to me that only FM and TV is transmitted from Matoury. 1060 MW, R.F.O. Guyane, St. Laurent du Maroni, at the western border was checked from Sinnamary 150 km away, but never heard. Previously it only used 50 watts of power, thus I cannot say for sure that it also was off the air. I heard the following French speaking FM-stations while listening in Cayenne and Sinnamary: 88.1 Mosaique, Cayenne (24 hr) 88.7 Merci seigneur, Cayenne (rlg.) (daytime and evenings) 89.7 Cool, Kourou (daytime and evenings) 91.0 R.F.O., Cayenne (24 hr) heard // 92.0 and 94.0 (ex 91.5) 91.6 UNID, Cayenne (24 hr) heard // 92.2 92.0 R.F.O., Kourou (24 hr) heard // 91.0 and 94.0 (ex 95.2) 92.2 UNID, location unknown (24 hr) heard // 91.6 92.5 UNID, Cayenne (24 hr) 94.0 R.F.O., Sinnamary (24 hr) heard // 91.0 and 92.0 94.4 UNID, Cayenne (classical music) (24 hr) 95.3 UNID, location unknown (24 hr) 96.9 R 2000, Cayenne (24 hr) 97.7 UNID, Cayenne (rlg) (24 hr) 98.3 UNID, Cayenne (rlg) (24 hr) 98.7 RFI-7, Cayenne (24 hr) 99.3 UNID, Cayenne (24 hr) 99.6 Nostalgie Guyane, Sinnamary (24 hr) 100.6 UNID, Cayenne (24 hr) 102.0 France Inter, Cayenne (24 hr) heard // 104.0 102.2 UNID, maybe St. Laurent du Maroni (not 24 hr) 102.5 UNID, Cayenne (24 hr) 102.9 Vinyle Radio, Cayenne (24 hr) 103.3 RTM, Cayenne (24 hr) 103.7 UNID, Cayenne (24 hr) 104.0 France Inter, Sinnamary (24 hr) heard // 102.0. These Portuguese speaking FM-stations to immigrants from Brazil were heard in Cayenne: 95.0 UNID, Cayenne (rlg) (24 hr) 96.2 UNID, Cayenne (rlg) (24 hr). The TDF international SW relay station at Montsinery located 42 km west of Cayenne was fully operational and heard several times with relays of RFI, CRI and R Japan. (Petersen) The following Guayanese MW-stations were inaudible 06-12 at 0840 before sunrise: French Guiana 1060 and 1070 kHz. Guyana 560 and 760 kHz. Suriname: 600, 725, 820 and 914 kHz. If operational, they must be low powered. NB: During daytime the MW-band was completely empty in both cities even when listening away from buildings! (Anker Petersen, visiting French Guiana, DSWCI DX Window Dec 14 via DXLD) ** INDIA. 4850, AIR Kohima. This is my favourite AIR along with Aizwal 5050. They are very different from the rest of India and play some great devotional music especially in the South Asia mornings at 0030- 0100 slot. Sunday mornings extends a bit beyond that (Victor Goonetilleke in Dxplorer, Dec 05, via DSWCI DX Window Dec 14 via DXLD) 4990, AIR Itanagar. I got a very nice full data QSL Verification letter directly from P. K. Bez Baruah, Asst. Station Engineer. He states that "I, on behalf of AIR Itanagar express my heartiest happiness and thankfulness to you for your valued reception report on the programs transmitted by our station. It is great pleasure for us that sitting of a far off place and without knowing our language of this region you have monitored the program and send the valued report". The details of programs I heard was also described in the letter shortly and beautifully. It seems to be a very good time to verify AIR Itanagar also. So send your report directly to the Station engineer. (T. Ramachandran Rajeesh, Kerala, DSWCI DX Window Dec 14 via DXLD) ** JAPAN. 3259, NHK Fukuoka (USB), 0900-1300*, Nov 15 and 16, Japanese program heard // 3607.5 Tokyo (USB), 3970 Nagaoya (USB) and 6005 Sapporo 1 (AM). However 3607.5 was off the air at 0930-1000 and on Nov 17 off at 1110. 6005 signed off earlier than 1300. 3373.5, NHK, Osaka 2 (presumed), 0900-1300*, Nov 15 and 16, own program in Japanese. 5428, NHK, Osaka 2 (presumed), 2205-2300, Nov 17, Japanese programs, 2255-2300 English lesson, 2300 TS and ID. 6130, NHK, Kasuga (presumed) (USB), 2205, Nov 17, Japanese program. 6175, NHK, Tokyo 1 was not heard when checking at 2205, Nov 17. Strong QRM from Chinese speaking station. 9181, NHK, Osaka 2 (USB), *0327-0426*, Nov 15 and 16, Japanese ID, Show, 0341-0400 German lesson with Daniel Kern and Gudrun Albrecht, 0400 TS, ID and news in Japanese, 0407-0410 Chinese, 0410-0420 Pushto (?), 0420-0426* French with abrupt s/off. 9535, NHK, Sapporo 1 (presumed), 0225 (fade in) -0330*, Nov 15, 16 and 17, Japanese. 9535, NHK, Fukuoka (presumed) (USB), *0415-0430, Nov 15 and 17, Japanese, new sign on time. 9550, NHK, Kasuka (presumed) (USB), *0415-0430, Nov 15 and 17, Japanese. At 0430-0730* heard // 9535. Maybe our Japanese DX-friends are able to provide more details on these schedules? (Roland Schulze, Mangaldan, Philippines, DSWCI DX Window Dec 14 via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH. 2349.78, KCBS, Sariwon Bangsong, 1000-1230, Nov 13, Korean heard // 2850, 3350v, 9665.4 and 819 MW. 3025.5, Frontier Soldier R, Channel 2 (presumed), 0958 (fade in) - 1030v*, Nov 13, 14, 15 and 16, Korean songs by large choir, military commands! S-meter up to 5. 6100, KCBS, Kanggye (presumed), 0825-0830v*, Nov 12, 13 and 14, Korean heard // 9665.4 and 11679.9 which continued after 0830. However on Nov 13, 11679.9 first signed on at *0830! On Nov 13 it signed on again at *1230 with QRM KFBS Guam (Roland Schulze, Mangaldan, Philippines, DSWCI DX Window Dec 14 via DXLD) ** KUWAIT. IBB-Kuwait verified with QSL letter. QTH: Kuwait Transmitting Station, c/o American Embassy-Bayan, P. O. Box 77, Safat, 13001 Kuwait, Kuwait. (CF DXW no. 259) (Masato Ishii, Shibata-shi, Japan, DSWCI DX Window Dec 14 via DXLD) ** KYRGYZSTAN. 6030, Hit Shortwave, Bishkek, 1600-1627, Dec 12, Farsi (presumed), brief talk by female after run-up tones, into 15 min segment of religious songs by same group, first one had lots of Hallelujahs in refrain, dominates co-channel CNR-1, but wiped out when BBC appeared 1627. I have been hearing this since SWR closed down here last Oct but remained a mystery until Mauno Ritola (via Noel Green) IDed this for me, ex 4050?, poor (Martien Groot, Netherlands, DSWCI DX Window Dec 14 via DXLD) ** MALDIVE ISLANDS [non non]. A brand new island is born, Hulhumale, Maldives. Can a DX-pedition be far behind? No reports of a radio station, yet (Pete Costello, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: NEW MALDIVES ISLAND RISES FROM THE DEPTHS -- MANMADE ATOLL BUILT ABOVE SHALLOW LAGOON An aerial view reveals the newly built Hulhumale Island and the Male airport, situated on a neighboring island in the Maldives. [caption] Updated: 9:22 p.m. ET Dec. 17, 2004, HULHUMALE, Maldives - Life can be cramped when you live on a remote cluster of tiny coral islands in the Indian Ocean, so the Maldives has plumped for a novel if seemingly extreme solution -- build a new island from scratch . . . http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6712832 (via Pete Costello, DXLD) ** MALI. No signal from Radio Mali on 4835 for nearly 10 days. Still broadcasting on 4787 (weak signal) despite being recently heard on 4783 (Eric Cordier, Dec 19, http://radioafrique.site.voila.fr dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also FRANCE ** MAURITANIA. 783 MW, R Mauritanie, Nouakchott, 1855-1903, Dec 01, Vernacular; 33432, QRM Portugal 783; 4845 was off. 7245, R Mauritanie, Nouakchott, silent in the morning of 03 Dec, like it was in the preceding evening on 4845. I wonder if the locust plague affecting this country, northern Senegal and at least part of Mali too is also causing problems on the transmitter sites, like invading the cooling systems for instance. hi! (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DSWCI DX Window Dec 14 via DXLD) ** MEXICO. XEPE, 1700, La Romántica, Tijuana, IDs at :04 and :34 past the hours (Tony King, Dec NZ DX Times via DXLD) ** MEXICO. 4810.0, XERTA (Presumed), Dec 13 (Monday), tuned in at 1254, pop song, 1255* off in mid-song with no ID, poor with CODAR QRM. (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) That presumably ended its weekly weekend-only appearance (gh, DXLD) ** MOROCCO. 9575, Radio Médi Un at 2110-2125 and 2151-2203 Nov 5 [correct] with a program of beautiful Arabic music, both vocals and instrumentals, with announcements in Arabic; 2151 pop music, French announcements, 2200 singing ``Medi Un`` ID, fanfare, ``Ici Radio Médi Un``, into Arabic news; fair to good. According to their website, the entire hour of music is called ``Musique du Monde``. Some people think this should be classified as Tangiers, which is a radio country in its own right. Studios are in Tangiers but the transmitter, which is the all-important factor, is in Nador [Spanish Morocco NASWA radio country] (Mark A. Coady, Ont., Dec ODXA Listening In via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS. Radio Netherlands Holiday programming Last year, instead of Newsline on Christmas Day, Radio Netherlands aired Snow, presented by Anne Blair Gould. Snow was a lyrical celebration of snowmen, snowflakes and wintry wonderlands. This year, with Christmas on a Saturday, the pre-emptions will be to Amsterdam Forum: two editions of Classic Dutch, about Dutch classical music and composers, will replace two editions of Amsterdam Forum, probably the two scheduled to air Christmas Day and New Year’s Day (Richard Cuff, Easy Listening, Dec NASWA Journal via DXLD) ** NIGERIA. VON zero-beat and about equal level with WYFR on 9690, Dec 18 at 2300 going from Hausa to brief Arabic(?) announcement at sign- off, NA, whilst WYFR went from English to Spanish. Looks like 9690 has become VON`s main (only?) frequency, whatever the consequences to other stations (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. Topic: OKC Disc Jockey Unloads On Air! Oklahoma City residents who listened to a metro-area radio station Monday morning were surprised to hear a popular disc jockey launch into an extended, profanity-laced tirade before she was forced off the air. According to a police report, co-host Lisa Mirick, of "The Lisa and Ron Show," left her position at BOB 96.9 FM after an extended segment filled with cursing and criticisms of her colleagues and employer. In the report, an employee said that prior to the incident, Mirick went into the audio booth and said she was going to "unload on the world" and quit her job. According to the report, Mirick allegedly threatened to stay in the studio until police arrived. However, police said Mirick had left the building on Monday morning before officers arrived at Citadel Communications' Oklahoma City broadcasting facility. In the police report, two employees said Mirick appeared to be "intoxicated" at the time of the incident. Several police officers said they heard the tirade on the air as they drove to the station. Sources close to the incident told Eyewitness News 5's Mark Opgrande on Monday that the morning-drive show was off the air for more than 20 minutes after the incident unfolded. Citadel Communications officials have refused public comment about the incident. The future status of the show was not immediately clear on Monday evening. Police said Mirick would not be charged with any crimes. Eyewitness News 5's attempts to contact her Monday afternoon were unsuccessful (via Jeff Brown, Dec 13, intruderalert.com via DXLD) ** PAKISTAN. Broadcasts in English from Radio Pakistan are reported between 0045 and 0115 UT mixed up with a vernacular [Assamese] on 9340 and 11565; at 1400, at 1600 and at 1730 on 5080 kHz; at 0800 UT on 7395; at 0800 and at 1100 on 15100 and 17835; at 1600 on 4790, 5027, 5080, and 11570; on Saturday at 1530 on 4790 and 5080. QSL address is: Radio Pakistan, P. O. Box 1393, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DX program Dec 17 via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) ** PERU. 4965, R. Santa Mónica (Tent.), Dec 17, at 0122 The Voice (Zambia) dominated here with talks in English about Christianity and some Christmas songs in English, but under that, Peruvian music and vocals. By 0135 both about the same level and Peru went on to be the stronger (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. 9480, Test of R Tikhiy Okean, received a very nice f/d QSL card and letter in English from Alexey Giryuk (Technical Dept. Engineer), indicating ``In the nearest future we are planing to be in the air regulary``. Address: TGTRK ``Vladivostok``, 690950, Vladivostok, Uborevicha st, 20-A, Russia. In 7 weeks, for e-mail and hard copy of Russian report/$2. Web site is: http://www.ptr-vlad.ru (Ron Howard, Monterey CA, DSWCI DX Window Dec 14 via DXLD) ** TATARSTAN. RUSSIA, 12015, On Tatarstan Wave verified with QSL card. V/s: Lidus Ibatullin. QTH: QSL Manager, P.O.Box 134, Kazan Tatarstan 420136, Russia. Lidus knows Japanese, and added confirmation message on it (Masato Ishii, Japan, DSWCI DX Window Dec 14 via DXLD) ** TRINIDAD. NEW STATE BROADCASTING ENTITY TO REPLACE NATIONAL BROADCAST NETWORK | Text of report by Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) news agency on 17 December Port of Spain, Trinidad: The Trinidad and Tobago government has announced the creation of a new broadcast company that will take over the functions of the state-owned National Broadcast Network (NBN) when it closes by mid-February next year. Information Minister Dr Lenny Saith said that the Caribbean New Media Group (CNMG) would be formed six months after the closure of NBN. "NBN will go off the air when the employees have all accepted termination and gone home. At that time, NBN will have a board of directors appointed to wind up that company and pay off its debts," Dr Saith told reporters at the end of the weekly cabinet meeting on Thursday [16 December]. Dr Saith said that the an enhanced Voluntary Separation Employment Package (VSEP) would be offered to the more than 200 NBN employees, who last month lost their legal challenge to the original offer. Dr Saith said that 71m TTD [Trinidad and Tobago dollars] (11.8m US dollars) would be used to establish the new entity, including using 50m TTD (8.3m US dollars) to purchase new equipment. He said the total cost of the severance package to NBN workers was 32m TTD (5.3m US dollars). Dr Saith that the new company would be a 100 per cent state entity but the ownership structure would be reviewed at the appropriate time. The new board of directors would consist of the present NBN board, with three additional members with persons skilled in business, finance and technology. Source: Caribbean Media Corporation news agency, Bridgetown, in English 1435 gmt 17 Dec 04 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** U K. BBC World Service --- The BBC is no stranger to holiday programming; the following schedule is pretty much already in place: Friday, December 24th, 1502, repeated Christmas Day, 1301: The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is a long standing tradition. Airing once again from King’s College in Cambridge, the Festival is a celebration of the birth of Christ in readings from the Bible and beautiful choral music. It features traditional favorites such as Once In Royal David’s City as well as new music specially composed for the occasion. Two Saturdays, beginning December 25th, 0406, repeated 1306 and Sunday 0006: Pick of the World features a two-part roundup of the best of 2004, as presented by Sportsworld’s Russell Fuller. He’ll be featuring a mixture of sport, drama, music and documentaries that have been aired on Pick Of The World during the year. Saturday, December 25th, 1505: The Queen’s Christmas Message to the Commonwealth is another annual tradition, lasting just 10 minutes but a highlight from year to year. [times???] Thursdays 1506 and 2206 plus Fridays, 0206, beginning December 30th: The One Planet program block features Adventures In The Tourist Trade, a four-part series which reports from holiday destinations round the world, looking at the impact of this colossal business has on the lives and environment of local people and at trends in holidaymaking. Friday, December 31st, 1406, repeated Saturday 0106: Sports International has a year-end review edition. Tunisia won the African Cup of Nations in front of their home fans; Greece supplied one of the greatest of all stories with a sensational victory at Euro 2004 in Portugal; and no sooner had the Greek celebrations subsided than we were off to Athens for the Olympic Games. Colin Maitland jogs our collective memory (Richard Cuff, Easy Listening, Dec NASWA Journal via DXLD) ** U S A. Voice of America Holiday programming notes Last year, VOA News Now featured a Special Christmas program called "The 12 Hours of Christmas". It is a syndicated program from Kris Eric Stevens Productions. The show featured Christmas classics from yesterday and today plus holiday features and vignettes. This program ran from 0000 through 23 hours UT on Christmas day. I am not sure if this will be re-run this year; keep an eye out for it. Kim Elliott (formerly of Communications World) will again be hosting Talk to America on January 1st. The future of international broadcasting – noting the loss of Radio Vlaanderen International and Swiss Radio International – will again be Kim’s subject. Talk to America now airs at 1600 UT – not 1700 UT as before. As was the case last year, hearing the VOA on shortwave at that time of day isn’t easy in North America; frequencies targeting Africa may be your best bet: 13600, 15240, 15445 and 17895 kHz. A live webcast is also available at the VOA website. Last time I checked, Talk To America was not archived for on-demand listening (Richard Cuff, Easy Listening, Dec NASWA Journal via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. PR MEETS PSY-OPS IN WAR ON TERROR Wed Dec 1, 7:55 AM ET By Mark Mazzetti Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON — On the evening of Oct. 14, a young Marine spokesman near Fallouja appeared on CNN and made a dramatic announcement. "Troops crossed the line of departure," 1st Lt. Lyle Gilbert declared, using a common military expression signaling the start of a major campaign. "It's going to be a long night." CNN, which had been alerted to expect a major news development, reported that the long-awaited offensive to retake the Iraqi city of Fallouja had begun. In fact, the Fallouja offensive would not kick off for another three weeks. Gilbert's carefully worded announcement was an elaborate psychological operation — or "psy-op" — intended to dupe insurgents in Fallouja and allow U.S. commanders to see how guerrillas would react if they believed U.S. troops were entering the city, according to several Pentagon officials. In the hours after the initial report, CNN's Pentagon reporters were able to determine that the Fallouja operation had not, in fact, begun. "As the story developed, we quickly made it clear to our viewers exactly what was going on in and around Fallouja," CNN spokesman Matthew Furman said. Officials at the Pentagon and other U.S. national security agencies said the CNN incident was not an isolated feint — the type used throughout history by armies to deceive their enemies — but part of a broad effort underway within the Bush administration to use information to its advantage in the war on terrorism. . . http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2026&u=/latimests/20041201/ts_latimes/prmeetspsyopsinwaronterror&printer=1 (via Nick Grace, CRW Dec 15 via DXLD) ** U S A. Re 4-186 under Anguilla, discussion of Dr. Gene Scott: what you hear on the radio is normally tapes from the studio, not live services. I have been to his services in the cathedral; they can be several hours long. The cathedral has a dramatic aura, full of old Bibles, which are probably quite valuable. The congregation loves to be part of that. DGS in person has a lot of charisma, a captivating speaker, sure of himself, a master salesman so you want to accept whatever he says; and he has a certain aura (I don`t mean that in the religious sense) (George McClintock, TN, Dec 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. City [Richmond VA] to get 'community' radio station BY DOUGLAS DURDEN, TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Dec 14, 2004 Don't call WRIR a public radio station, says Chris Maxwell, president of the organization that's launching Richmond's first low-power FM station. When WRIR (97.3 FM) goes on the air by Jan. 1, it will be a community radio station. And here's the difference, according to Maxwell, president of Virginia Center for Public Press. "A community radio station makes an explicit outreach effort to bring the community into actually creating the shows. Public radio may or may not, but that's not its primary goal." "We call ourselves radio for the rest of us," says Liz Skrobiszewski, WRIR's director of development and communications. "We feel like there are huge gaps on local radio. There's music that's not heard on other stations, talk shows that aren't heard on other stations." Maxwell has been interested in launching a radio station since the 1990s. His window of opportunity came in 2000 when the FCC created a low-power FM service. The service is designed for nonprofit organizations that can't afford to launch a full-power FM station. Instead of the expense of broadcasting at thousands of watts, the level of power is limited to a 10-watt or 100-watt transmitter. Five years later, Maxwell's dream is about to become reality. In fact, the station has already been on the air for tests. Maxwell says that WRIR, also known as Richmond Independent Radio, can be heard from Fulton Hill in the East End to Willow Lawn in the West End - making it the largest low-power FM service in the country in terms of population coverage. It's also one of the few such stations in any kind of urban area, according to Maxwell. And it's the only low-power FM station in the country to be granted permission to air NPR programs, including "Talk of the Nation" and "Living on Earth." WRIR was to include NPR's "Tavis Smiley Show" as well. But Smiley announced last month that he was discontinuing his radio series. WRIR also plans to carry Pacifica Radio Foundation's "Democracy Now," which provides "access to people and perspectives rarely heard in the U.S. corporate-sponsored media," according to its Web site, and "Free Speech Radio News," which bills itself as the only daily half-hour progressive radio newscast in the United States. Maxwell expects the station's mix to be two-thirds music to one-third news and talk, with emphasis on local programming. The Virginia Center for Public Press has raised approximately $20,000 for its radio station, said Skrobiszewski. Because WRIR is a nonprofit station, it's dependent upon donations. It helps that both a satellite dish and most of the station equipment were donated. Maxwell points out, however, that there's only one studio, which hampers the production of local shows. "We are ready to go. Everything is operational and the equipment works. It's just a matter of organizing the minutiae," said Skrobiszewski, adding that the station should start more live testing this week. Meanwhile, WRIR is still available on its Internet site, http://www.wrir.org (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** U S A. Paul Aronsen, Wallacetown NZ, reports no loggings, just listening, but a QSL from KVNS on 1700 sent from John Muñoz, IT Manager, Engineering Assistant. E-mail DX @ KVNS.net John asks that the following info be distributed. Snail Mail to 901 E. Pike Blvd. Weslaco, TX 78596 USA. http://www.newstalk1700.com --- John also gives this list of stations in the group KBFM - FM, KTEX - FM, KVNS - FM, KHKZ - FM, KVNS - AM, KQXX - AM. KVNS operates with a power of 8.8 kW during the day, and 880 watts at night when we hear it! (Dec NZ DX Times via DXLD) ** U S A. I believe WLAC-1510 has adopted IBOC. Noted severe noise clobbering 1490-1530 which promptly disappeared at sunset yielding a decent KOKC-1520. This becomes the second Nashville station to adopt the noise mode - the first being WQZQ-102.5. -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66, http://www.w9wi.com Dec 18, NRC- AM via DXLD) More importantly, if this is correct, it means that the upper sideband of WLAC's IBOC on 1520 will be right on top of the lower sideband of WSAI's IBOC. Both stations are easy nightly copy in the Memphis area, and probably plenty of other places. It will be interesting to see if one of the elite few who have an IBOC-capable receiver will notice a reduced coverage area for WSAI's digital signal in the evening once skywave kicks in. My guess is that they will notice it (Adam Myrow, TN, ibid.) More on IBOC below, RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM! ** VIETNAM [non]. Hi Glenn, I've been doing daily checks for the new clandestine service broadcasting to Vietnam via a transmitter in Uzbekistan, Radio Que Me, at 1200-1230 UT on 15385 kHz, and can confirm that it is only aired on Saturdays. After opening with a song reminiscent of George Gershwin's "Summertime, when the living is easy", the ensuing announcement in Vietnamese gives a frequency in kiloHertz and then apparently goes on to mention "satellite" and announce a MHz frequency. You can hear this for yourself on the Interval Signals Online website at http://www.intervalsignalsonline.com Regards, (Dave Kernick, Dec 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. CLANDESTINE, 1550 MW, Polisario Front, Tindouf, Algeria, 2303-2401*, Nov 26 and Dec 02, Spanish, ID as ``Rádio Nacional Saharáui``, playing western pops followed by a history program, sign-off after national anthem; 54544, QRM from Moroccan jammer, which has simply been inaudible when monitoring this station in Lisboa, which was not the case that day. The // 7460 outlet and short-lived 700 MW outlet remain silent (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DSWCI DX Window Dec 14 via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. December 19, 0345-0430 on 1710 kHz. English with long talks about "Jewish identity" and "Hasidic Jews" with Jewish-type music bridges. No IDs at 0400 or 0430, into a preaching-style program after 0430. No hint as to location either. Heard with a fair signal here in Delaware but with occasional fades. Any ideas? Pirate? (John Cereghin, Smyrna DE, YB400PE and DX-150B, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) That`s the so-called ``Lubavitcher`` pirate in Brooklyn NY. You can find a lot of previous reports about it by searching that word in the DXLD index, or google searching site:worldofradio.com for 1710, Lubavitcher (gh) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ SOUND AND NOISE One thing we all share in common as lovers of radio is an appreciation of sound. Unfortunately, the program which is the subject of the short essay you can read by clicking on the link below is not available on-demand. I was fortunate to catch the program purely by accident (I call this "serendipitous") because I was in my car, have Sirius Satellite Radio, was tuned to the PRI World stream and it happened to be playing CBC Radio One's "Ideas" program. ("Ideas" is one of my all time favorite programs and its addition to the PRI World line-up reinforced my conviction that I made the right decision when I went with Sirius as my satellite radio service provider.) Maybe something in this essay will strike a "responsive chord" in you. Enjoy! http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/features/noise/index.html And Merry Christmas (John Figliozzi, Halfmoon, NY, dxldyg via DXLD) I heard that program (we listen to Ideas too) and I found it was certainly food for thought. I know this isn't directly related to SW, but one of my favourite pieces is a Renaissance piece in 40-part harmony by a 16th century English composer. It's absolutely gorgeous live of course...but a Canadian artist staged an installation called "40 part motet" where she sets up 40 speakers in a room. You walk through the room and each speaker is playing one of the parts. AND she won $50,000 US in an international art exhibition for this!! (My friend Alistair, who has a choir that sings this piece, said it would be nice if someone gave his choir that amount of money to do it. And his group consists of real human beings, not speakers!!!) Anyway I know it's not about SW but it relates to the essay you suggested! BTW I've also been listening to "Jonathan Thomas and his Christmas On The Moon" on CBC, anyone familiar with this old-time radio piece at all??? (Sue Hickey, Forum editor, the Messenger, CIDX (Canadian International DX Club, GRDXC via DXLD) THE SOUND OF IBOC Could I have one of you technical types explain to me why there is a background rumble on both WOR and WKDL while they are running IBOC? This is distracting to listen to and sounds the same on both stations (Bill Harms, NRC-AM via DXLD) Rather than fire off a quick reply to Bill's question, I decided to prepare a mini-tutorial on what you should hear when you encounter an AM IBOC signal with a standard (analog) receiver. Paul, if you want to drop this in DX News, help yourself. It could be called... The Sound of IBOC --- To start with, we need a picture. Take a look at this diagram: http://topazdesigns.com/iboc/IBOC-AM-Mask-v2.jpg This shows the full spectrum of the hybrid AM IBOC signal. You'll see that the digital signal is deployed in three pairs of sidebands, located at 0-5, 5-10, and 10-15 kHz from the AM carrier frequency, and called the tertiary, secondary and primary sidebands, respectively. Each of these sidebands has a different power level (and different digital modulation types too, but we won't get into that level of detail here). In addition to the three sidebands, there is also a pair of reference subcarriers, located at +/-182 Hz from the AM carrier frequency. More about those later. As shown in the diagram, the analog AM signal has been tightly filtered so that it has very little energy outside of the +/-5 kHz region. The diagram depicts IBOC signal as it would look on a spectrum analyzer (hence the Y axis is power spectral density, assuming a 300 Hz resolution bandwidth). Oops, the jargon alarm just went off! More importantly, it also shows the total power in each digital sideband. Note that the iBiquity IBOC specifications have two different power levels for the secondary and tertiary sidebands. I believe that the current operations all use the lower power levels. Yes, that's right - the interference levels could get even worse in the future! If you're wondering what "dBc" is, it refers to the power with respect to the AM carrier power, so for a 1 kW AM station, -16 dBc would be 25 Watts. Now, let's assume that you're using a receiver with reasonably narrow IF filtering, so that it doesn't respond significantly to signals that are more than 5 kHz from the tuned frequency. Suppose you tune to a first adjacent channel. If you're using the standard AM detector, you'll be picking up two sidebands from the IBOC station - one primary, and one secondary sideband. What you'll hear is that rushing or hissing noise that has become familiar to most of us (by the way, each digital sideband is composed of 25 separate modulated subcarriers, packed closely together, which is why the signal sounds essentially the same as broadband noise). Now, if you switch to an SSB mode, you'll be getting only one of the digital sidebands. You should see a noticeable difference between LSB and USB, since in one case you'll get a primary sideband, and in the other case you'll get a secondary sideband, probably at 13 dB lower power. This is worth remembering, since if you're trying to listen to something on the first adjacent of an IBOC station, you'll get less digital noise if you use SSB mode (or an AM-sync mode that uses only one sideband) instead of AM, and you select the sideband *closest* to the IBOC station. The fact that the analog audio signal has been filtered down to less than 5 kHz means that you shouldn't hear any analog splatter here, just digital noise (again, assuming the use of a narrow filter in your receiver). Here's where it gets interesting. What happens if you tune to the IBOC station itself? Now you have the tertiary digital sidebands directly under the analog signal. Each of them has a total power that is 30 or 34 dB (probably the latter, at the moment) below the AM carrier power. Assuming that the station is fairly strong, that's certainly high enough that you should hear them, especially during a quiet pause when there is no analog audio to mask them. But if you use a standard AM detector, you probably won't hear the digital noise. The reason is that a trick is employed in the way the subcarriers in the tertiary sidebands are modulated: each one is in "phase quadrature" with its counterpart in the other sideband. If you don't know what that means, don't worry about it - the bottom line is that when you add up all the digital signals in the 0-5 kHz region, you get a signal with a constant envelope. When you run that composite digital signal into a conventional AM envelope detector, you get, in principle at least, no output. So, you get the analog signal without the digital noise. It's essentially the opposite of an FM receiver, where the FM detector responds to the frequency variations in the desired signal, but suppresses the amplitude variations caused by noise. This suppression of the digital noise is a balancing act - it depends on reception of both sidebands, and being properly tuned. If you tune away from the carrier frequency of the station, the balance is disturbed, and digital noise should start to creep in. And if you use an SSB mode, the balance is destroyed completely, and you'll hear noise (from one sideband, of course). Lastly, we have the question of why you hear a "rumbling" noise in this case, as opposed to the rushing or hissing noise you get when tuned to a first adjacent channel of an IBOC station. This is where those reference subcarriers come in - they are at a considerably higher power level than the subcarriers in the tertiary sidebands, so they tend to be the dominant source of digital noise, and since they are only 182 Hz away from the carrier, they produce a rumbling low frequency audio noise when you use SSB mode. That's my take, anyway. That's about it... any questions? Class dismissed! (Barry Mclarnon, Ont, NRC-AM via DXLD) FORECASTERS FACE LOSING KEY TOOLS By Alex Kirby, BBC News website environment correspondent Meteorologists fear they are losing one of their essential forecasting tools - microwave frequencies uniquely able to "see" through clouds from satellites. They say commercial applications, for example mobile phones and collision avoidance systems, are ruining them. The use of the bands in this way causes interference and contaminates the data from the satellites, making it useless. Not only weather forecasting is put at risk, but also a better understanding of how climate change is developing. Progress in both forecasting and climate studies depends on observations from space of the Earth's surface and atmosphere. Unequal competition Many of these observations depend in turn on using microwave frequency bands, which are increasingly in demand for terrestrial use. We're in a David and Goliath situation, arguing to the ITU for the safety and humanitarian uses of frequencies against some applications with very strong financial backing Dr Steve Foreman, Met Office [caption?] Examples include mobiles, wireless networking, other long-distance radio communications, and remote triggering devices. New military communications technologies are reported to pose another threat. Dr Stephen English is manager of the satellite radiance assimilation group at the UK Met Office. He told the BBC: "Microwave observations are vital because they see through cloud - this is not possible in any other frequency band. "We only need a few narrow-frequency bands for Earth remote-sensing, but most of these are unique, so there is no alternative. Gone already "These bands are primarily used for temperature, water vapour, sea ice, clouds (ice and liquid), and rainfall and snowfall estimation. "We use them as well for monitoring surface snowpack, soil moisture and sea surface temperature." A meteorologists' working group on frequency management says protecting key regions of the microwave spectrum for passive remote-sensing is "a dramatic challenge", because of "the huge pressure of the commercial and military telecoms". Two important bands (6.8 GHz and 10.7 GHz) have been lost already for use over land, but in the next few years the threat is likely to spread to other bands. There is particular concern about protecting the 23.6-24 GHz band, which has the unique property of being sensitive to water vapour but not to liquid water. Dr English said: "There is no other frequency where this occurs. But car 'radars' will now be allowed to broadcast in this frequency band." Data lost An instrument called the advanced microwave scanning radiometer, carried on Nasa's Aqua satellite, monitors rainfall as it "sees through" the cloud above the rain. Land and sea look very different at this frequency (in the image, right, taken in mid-October, the ocean appears black where it is not raining, and magenta or blue where it is). Blobs of red and yellow over the main urban areas show radio frequency interference (RFI), which is much hotter than actual surface or atmospheric temperatures over the UK in October. Dr English said: "The 'hot spots' are easy to spot, but more worrying is the fact that smaller variations may be RFI, or they may be due to rain. "The truth is we can't tell. Therefore the channel is rendered useless not only in the hot spots but everywhere, because we can no longer uniquely interpret the variations in terms of rainfall. "Of course, over the ocean man-made signals are limited, so we still regard this channel as useful over the ocean, but it's no longer useful over land." Experts say this band should not be jeopardised under any circumstances, and all emissions able to cause interference should be prohibited. The UN body which is the final arbiter on frequency use is the International Telecommunication Union. Dr Steve Foreman of the Met Office told the BBC: "We're in a David and Goliath situation, arguing to the ITU for the safety and humanitarian uses of frequencies against some applications with very strong financial backing." Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/4104355.stm Published: 2004/12/17 18:11:32 GMT © BBC MMIV (via Dan Say, DXLD) TFK! POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ I just got done reading this, and there is a lot to digest. If anyone else is following the BPL saga.... http://www.nrcdxas.org/articles/Summary_BPL.doc (Frederick Vobbe, Publisher, NRC DXAS, NRC-AM via DXLD) Heads up if you're thinking about printing this now, reading later: It's 51 pages :-)) (Mark Durenberger, ibid.) But the good news is that BPL is specified as not emitting radiation below 1705 kHz so we (AM BCB listeners) can listen to IBOC interference without any BPL noise....... (Chuck Hutton, ibid.) MAJOR ISP TELLS FCC BPL NOT A "COMMERCIALLY VIABLE ALTERNATIVE" TO CABLE, DSL From - http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2004/12/16/3/?nc=1 December 16, 2004 -- Officials of Internet service provider EarthLink told the FCC that broadband over power line (BPL) cannot compete with the dominant cable or DSL technology today or in the near future. EarthLink President and CEO Garry Betty and other company officials met November 16 with FCC Chairman Michael Powell and Commission attorney Aaron Goldberger to deliver an ex parte presentation on several Wireline Competition Bureau and Common Carrier Bureau proceedings. "EarthLink discussed that it has invested in and is in trials with several potential 'third wire' broadband transmission paths to the home, including WiFi, WiMax, MMDS and broadband over power lines," EarthLink Counsel Mark J. O'Connor informed FCC Secretary Marlene Dortch in a November 17 letter. "However, EarthLink pointed out that cable and DSL still account for virtually all consumer broadband connections and that none of these alternative technologies offer a commercially viable alternative today or in the near future." An EarthLink analysis indicated that BPL is the most expensive of the broadband technologies it evaluated. In a chart titled "Next generation broadband," EarthLink said that wireless and BPL "are not likely to be competitive in cost and performance with cable and DSL over the last mile to the home." The company's judged as "not successful" one unspecified BPL technical trial using Amperion equipment in a "wireless/BPL combo." In discussing other trials using Ambient and Current Technologies equipment -- one of which EarthLink had invested in -- the ISP's assessment was that the high cost per household passed -- $125 in both instances -- would require a better than 15 percent market penetration to attain a competitive cost. EarthLink said its assessment determined that ADSL2+ technology is the "best option" and can offer VoIP as well as high-speed broadband (at 6 to 10 MB per second) and video over copper wire and using on-premise consumer equipment. The company also indicated that it plans to invest in ADSL2+ technology (via Kenneth Kopp, dxldyg via DXLD) Ambient Press Release: Ambient Responds on Behalf of Industry to Recent ARRL Statement BOSTON, MA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 12/16/2004 -- Ambient Corporation (OTC BB: ABTG), a leader in Power Line Communications (PLC) responded today to a recent statement by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) that questions the prospects for Broadband over Power Line (BPL) technology. The ARRL, who is the leading opponent of BPL in the US, claims that EarthLink, one of the top Internet providers, recently presented a pessimistic assessment of BPL and other third wire technologies to the FCC. "The release by the ARRL clearly takes the statements of EarthLink's attorney out of context and conveniently ignores many developments in the industry that contradict ARRL's conclusions," stated John J. Joyce, CEO of Ambient. "Although we have worked hard to accommodate the concerns of ARRL, we cannot allow such an erroneous assessment of BPL's future to go unchallenged." Among the important factors to be considered are: -- The contention that BPL will not be competitive in the near future is misleading and incorrect. The document referenced by ARRL suggests that BPL needs 15% penetration to be economical. Although we do not necessarily agree, it must be noted that a key feature of Ambient's system design is a targeted build-out, aimed specifically at those portions of the utility system where successful penetration will be highest. A 15% or higher penetration is therefore not unreasonable. -- The ARRL perception of BPL's economics fails to consider that consumer broadband is only one application for a BPL-enabled utility system. Specifically, there are many utility and other industrial applications that will contribute to, and may even be the primary source of, BPL's favorable economics. -- The FCC meeting in question was apparently devoted to EarthLink's desire to maintain access to customers over cable and telephone lines owned by others. It is therefore natural that the parties focused on cable and DSL and stressed the importance of those two mediums in the future of broadband. And, since both technologies will be major forces for quite some time, that focus seems appropriate for that meeting. -- The projects with which EarthLink has worked with Ambient are pilot ventures intended to verify and refine our equipment. As demonstration projects, they were never intended to be competitive installations. In fact, they are in no way representative of BPL economics, including equipment costs, installation costs or startup and testing costs. -- EarthLink continues to work with Ambient on two active projects and, to the best of our knowledge, has not yet reached any definitive conclusions from those efforts. -- Ambient continues to refine its system and equipment design for cost efficiencies. Furthermore, all production to date has been in relatively small quantities. We expect further cost reductions as manufacturing processes are optimized and leveraged for larger quantities. Joyce stressed that Ambient and its partners believe that BPL will be a highly competitive choice. "There are many positive factors that are coming together for the industry, and they promise to make 2005 the year of BPL," said Joyce. "We will continue to work with our partners and other stakeholders to be a successful part of this exciting, emerging industry." About Ambient Corporation Ambient Corporation (OTC BB: ABTG) is a development stage company engaged in the design, development and marketing of equipment and technologies that utilize existing electrical power medium voltage and low voltage distribution lines as a medium for the delivery of broadband and other communication services. The use of an electric power distribution system as a high-speed communication medium is commonly referred to as "power line communications" or "broadband over power lines." Visit us at http://www.ambientcorp.com This press release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements may differ materially from actual future events or results. Readers are referred to the documents filed by Ambient Corporation with the SEC, including the company's most recent report on Form 10-KSB and 10-QSB, which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Ambient is a trademark of Ambient Corporation registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Media Contacts: Ambient Corporation Anna E. Croop, Project & Marketing Manager (617) 332-0004 anna.croop @ ambientcorp.com SOURCE: Ambient Corporation (via Kenneth Kopp, dxldyg via DXLD) ARRL UPDATE: MAJOR ISP TELLS FCC BPL NOT A "COMMERCIALLY VIABLE ALTERNATIVE" TO CABLE, DSL NEWINGTON, CT, Dec 17, 2004 [UPDATE] -- Officials of Internet service provider EarthLink http://www.earthlink.net/ told the FCC that broadband over power line (BPL) cannot compete with the dominant cable or DSL technology today or in the near future. A BPL industry spokesperson subsequently criticized the ARRL apparently for reporting the company's statements. EarthLink President and CEO Garry Betty and other company officials met November 16 with FCC Chairman Michael Powell and Commission attorney Aaron Goldberger to deliver an ex parte presentation http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6516883843 on several Wireline Competition Bureau and Common Carrier Bureau proceedings. "EarthLink discussed that it has invested in and is in trials with several potential 'third wire' broadband transmission paths to the home, including WiFi, WiMax, MMDS and broadband over power lines," EarthLink Counsel Mark J. O'Connor informed FCC Secretary Marlene Dortch in a November 17 letter. "However, EarthLink pointed out that cable and DSL still account for virtually all consumer broadband connections and that none of these alternative technologies offer a commercially viable alternative today or in the near future." An EarthLink analysis indicated that BPL is the most expensive of the broadband technologies it evaluated. In a chart titled "Next generation broadband," EarthLink said that wireless and BPL "are not likely to be competitive in cost and performance with cable and DSL over the last mile to the home." The company's judged as "not successful" one unspecified BPL technical trial using Amperion equipment in a "wireless/BPL combo." In discussing other trials using Ambient and Current Technologies equipment -- one of which EarthLink had invested in -- the ISP's assessment was that the high cost per household passed -- $125 in both instances -- would require a better than 15 percent market penetration to attain a competitive cost. EarthLink said its assessment determined that ADSL2+ http://www.aware.com/products/dsl/adsl2plus.htm technology is the "best option" and can offer VoIP as well as high-speed broadband (at 6 to 10 Mbps) and video over copper wire and using on-premise consumer equipment. The company also indicated that it plans to invest in ADSL2+ technology. ARRL's reporting of EarthLink's November submission to the FCC apparently struck a nerve at Ambient, with which EarthLink has a business relationship. In a classic case of shooting the messenger, Ambient CEO John J. Joyce took the League to task http://cbs.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/newsarticle.asp?guid=%7bABFA5879-0DB7-43C3-BA02-94071FAECC3D%7d&siteid=mktw&dist=nbs&symb= on the CBS MarketWatch.com Web site on behalf of the BPL industry. Calling ARRL "the leading opponent of BPL in the US" and his own corporation as "a leader on Power Line Communications (PLC)," Joyce seemed to suggest that the League itself had provided the EarthLink information and was spinning the company's remarks to advantage. "The release by the ARRL clearly takes the statements of EarthLink's attorney out of context and conveniently ignores many developments in the industry that contradict ARRL's conclusions," Joyce said. Among other things, Joyce said that "the ARRL perception of BPL's economics fails to consider that consumer broadband is only one application for a BPL-enabled utility system." he said there are other industrial applications that may augur in BPL's economic favor. He also emphasized that the projects with which his company and EarthLink have collaborated were demonstrations "never intended to be competitive installations" and are "in no way representative of BPL economics." He said Ambient "continues to refine its system and equipment design for cost efficiencies." ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, said the League stands by its account, which Joyce characterized as a "claim" on the ARRL's part. Sumner also chided CBS MarketWatch.com for reporting Joyce's comments on Ambient's behalf but not referring readers to EarthLink's publicly available submission to the FCC, to which the League account includes a link. "ARRL's report on the document was accurate in every way, and we stand by our report," Sumner said. "The conclusions given are not ours, but EarthLink's. Anyone who wishes to do so can read the submission for themselves." (via Kenneth Kopp, dxldyg via DXLD) THE BPL WAR: FCC IMPOSES RESTRICTIONS ON AZ BPL PROGRAM The FCC has imposed a novel restriction on Electric Broadband LLC, which is running a Broadband Over Powerline field trial in Cottonwood, Arizona. The company has to maintain contact with a local Amateur Radio club if it wants to keep its BPL system in operation. According to the ARRL, the Commission granted Electric Broadband a Part 5 Experimental license with the call letters WD2XMB for the company`s BPL pilot on November 19th. The ARRL earlier this year asked the Commission to withdraw its authorization for the operation. Instead the FCC stipulated that the licensee must establish and maintain a liaison relationship with the Verde Valley Amateur Radio Association. The Commission also required Electric Broadband to respond to interference complaints in a timely manner. System operators indicated earlier this fall that they would notch amateur frequencies, including 60 meters but some interference is still being experienced in the 60 meter band. None the less, Verde Valley Amateur Radio Association BPL Committee Chair Robert Shipton, K8EQC, believes it might be the first time the FCC has ever imposed such a requirement before BPL to get the go ahead from the FCC (ARRL via ARNewsline December 17, 2004 via John Norfolk, dxldyg) THE BPL FIGHT: W3KD TALKS TO QCWA The ARRL`s General Counsel has spoken out on the BPL issue at a recent Holiday Luncheon for a QCWA Chapter held in Vienna, Virginia. Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, has more: Speaking before an audience of about sixty, ARRL General Counsel Christopher D. Imlay, W3KD, termed Broadband over Power Line as being ``Public enemy #1.`` He calls it an idea that should never have gotten started in the first place. W3KD had high praise the FCC`s Technical Staff. He said that it is made up of good engineers, noting they know what is an interference source and what is not. Imlay noted that these engineers didn`t invent the idea of BPL nor did they propose it on their own. Rather, W3KD points to FCC Chairman Michael Powell belief that the key to economic success in this country is broadband access for everybody. Also, that the key to affordable access is competition from a variety of broadband service providers. Why BPL? Simply, more marketplace competition. FCC Chairman Powell believes that if it worked for cellular telephones, it should work for broadband access as well. But Imlay notes that BPL has deployment has problems that make it less cost-effective, even in rural areas. He also says that the ARRL will fight BPL, all the way. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I`m Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF. Don. Imlay notes that the current Bush administration holds as a policy objective providing broadband access for everyone by 2007. Imlay says that the die was cast because the FCC was told by the administration, to make this happen (QCWA, WQ4L via ARNewsline December 17, 2004 via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ "100 JAHRE FUNKTECHNIK IN DEUTSCHLAND". Gerd Klawitter (publisher): [100 years of radio technology in Germany] - Funksendestellen rund um Berlin - [Radio transmitting centres round of Berlin] 3rd edition, 2004, 340 pages, 300 pictures, 14 tables, 33 project maps. Price EUR 29.80 ISBN 3-936124-65-5 Co-editors are Wolfgang Behnke, Klaus Herold, Peter Manteuffel DG1RPM, Guenter Nitsche, Hartwig Thiel and Fritz Traxler DM2ARD. Publishing house: Funk Verlag Bernhard Hein e.K., Elisabethstr. 16 b D-06847 Dessau, Germany. Order fax +49 - 340 - 541 22 17, Order Email: info @ buch-hein.de Features include: Nauen Grossfunksendestelle. - main short wave transmitting centre. Koenigs Wusterhausen Hauptfunksendestelle. - main transmitting centre on LW, MW, SW. (DS - Deutschlandsender I, Radio Berlin International, Radio GDR, Bizim Radio, Voice of Truth[Radiofonikos Stathmos I Foni Tis Alithias] and others) Zeesen (DS Deutschlandsender II) Olympiasender 1936, Germany's short wave transmitting centre. Reparation unit, moved to the USSR after WW II in 1945. Herzberg (DS Deutschlandsender III) The world's first 500 kW LW transmitter. Rehmate/Zehlendorf (Oranienburg) - main GDR Long Wave transmitting centre. (DS Deutschlandsender, Voice of GDR, now long wave DLR Berlin 177 kHz and Voice of Russia 261/603 kHz) VLF Sender Goliath Kalbe-Milde. - Submarine boat radio communication sender of Deutsche Kriegsmarine on very long wave in spring 1943 until 1945y. Also used for commercial contact between Berlin and Tokyo- Japan. Variable adjustable on 15 ... 60 kHz; 5 to 20 km band. Total 18 masts, 3 x 204 meters, 15 x 170 m height. 300 kW: CW 16.55 kHz. 1000 kW: Facsimile 30 kHz, AM 45 kHz. Distance to NY 7000 kms, to Cape Town 9800 kms. Oebisfelde - Foreign radio short wave transmitting centre until 1945. Leipzig Wiederau - MW & SW transmitting centre Leipzig. (MDR Sender Leipzig, Radio Moscow 1945-1988, Radio GDR, Radio Berlin International, Bizim Radio, Messewelle Leipzig - Trade Fair Radio) Wilsdruff - MW transmitting centre Dresden. (Radio GDR, Berliner Rundfunk, Radio Vltava, communist propaganda radio of Warsaw treaty states, during occupation in CSSR 1968-1969) Burg near Magdeburg - High powered main LW & MW transmitting centre Magdeburg, technically leading centre in the ex-GDR. (DS Deutschlandsender, Voice of GDR, West Germany's Communist Party clandestine radio station Deutscher Freiheitssender 904, anti- Bundeswehr - West Germany's army clandestine radio station Deutscher Soldatensender 935, Radio Volga LW 261, radio of Soviet occupation troops in the ex-GDR) Wachenbrunn - MW transmitting centre near Suhl Hildburghausen. (V of GDR, Radio GDR, Berliner Rundfunk, Radio Moscow / Voice of Russia relay from 1988, now highpowered Voice of Russia relay site, 1323 kHz 1000 kW) Woebbelin - MW transmitting centre Schwerin. (DS Deutschlandsender, V of GDR, RIAS Berlin, DLR Berlin) SFB Berlin/RBB Berlin - Their tx sites within West Berlin. Details about BFBS Berlin and Radio FFB (French Forces Radio), too. RIAS Berlin - MW-, LW-and SW-transmitters at Berlin-Britz. Now used by DLR Berlin. Details about AFN Berlin, too. Koepenick - High powered MW-broadcast centre within East Berlin. Funkanbindung Berlin - The wireless communication links betwen West Germany and West Berlin during the times of the cold war. Communication stations Torfhaus, Gartow and Clenze (WeGermany) and Heckeshorn/Wannsee, Nikolassee, Schaeferberg and Frohnau (WeBerlin) !! Note that this book is written in German language totally. !! - - - - in German: Hallo, Freunde der Funkgeschichte ! Da ist sie nun, die dritte Auflage des Bandes 1 von "100 Jahre Funktechnik in Deutschland". Lange war das Buch vergriffen, lange haben Sie darauf gewartet! Unsere Autoren haben sich sehr viel Muehe fuer Sie gegeben. Der Umfang ist um 100 Seiten erweitert worden! Einige Kapitel sind voellig neu, andere wurden erheblich erweitert oder ueberarbeitet. Viel neues, bisher unbekanntes Bildmaterial wurde ausgegraben und ins Buch integriert. Auch das neue Umschlagbild vom Museumshaus in Koenigs Wusterhausen wird Ihnen sofort ins Auge fallen. Das sollten Sie haben, ein Standardwerk der Funkgeschichte auf 340 Seiten in bester qualitativer Verarbeitung und das zu einem unschlagbaren Preis von 29,80 EUR. Berlin. Es beginnt 1897 mit den ersten Funkversuchen an der Heilandskirche in Sacrow nahe der Glienicker Bruecke. Es schliesst sich die Grossfunkstelle Nauen an, die von der Telefunken-Gesellschaft als "Versuchsanlage zur Erzielung groesster Reichweiten" errichtet worden war und noch heute in Betrieb ist. Detailliert beschrieben werden ausserdem: die Hauptfunkstelle Koenigs Wusterhausen (Deutschlandsender I), Zeesen (Deutschlandsender II, 1936 Standort des Olympiasenders, zu DDR-Zeit Standort des MfS-Auslandsfunks - STASI), Herzberg/Elster (Deutschlandsender III), Rehmate/Zehlendorf bei Oranienburg, die Rundfunkevolution Leipzigs in Wiederau, der legendaere Laengstwellensender Goliath in Kalbe/Milde (diente im 2. Weltkrieg zur weltweiten Fuehrung der U-Boote), Oebisfelde, Burg (Deutscher Freiheitssender 904, Deutscher Soldatensender 935), Wilsdruff, Wachenbrunn (Standort eines 1000-kW-Mittelwellensenders), Woebbelin, die SFB- bzw. RBB-Sendeanlagen, die RIAS-Sendeanlage Berlin Britz, und der Sender Berlin Koepenick. Darueber hinaus wird der Oeffentlichkeit erstmals ausfuehrlich die Funkanbindung West-Berlins an das Bundesgebiet mit Hilfe der Richtfunkstellen auf Berliner Gebiet (Heckeshorn, Nikolassee, Schaeferberg und Frohnau) und auf Westgebiet (Torfhaus, Gartow und Clenze) vorgestellt. Alle Standorte werden in ausfuehrlichen Texten auf ueber 340 Seiten mit mehr als 300 - bisher weitgehend unbekannten - Bildern, Zeichnungen und Blockschaltungen beschrieben und dargestellt. Ein wertvolles Dokument der Technikgeschichte. 3. Auflage 2004, ISBN 3-936124-65-5 Erhaeltlich in jeder Buchhandlung oder direkt vom Funk Verlag Bernhard Hein e.K., Elisabethstrasse 16 b, 06847 Dessau. Telefon (0340) 5 41 22 10, Telefax (0340) 5 41 22 17 e-mail info @ buch-hein.de (April 2004) (via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) ###