DX LISTENING DIGEST 5-005, January 5, 2005 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 1259: Thu 1700 WOR WBCQ after hours Thu 2130 WOR WWCR 9985 [15825 from March] Sat 0955 WOR WNQM Nashville TN 1300 Sat 1130 WOR WWCR 5070 Sun 0330 WOR WWCR 5070 Sun 0400 WOR WBCQ 9330-CLSB Sun 0430 WOR WRMI 6870 Sun 0730 WOR WWCR 3210 Sun 1030 WOR WRMI 9955 Sun 2030 WOR WWCR 12160 Mon 0330 WOR WRMI 6870 Mon 0400 WOR WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0530 WOR WBCQ 7415 Mon 1700 WOR WBCQ after hours Tue 1000 WOR WRMI 9955 Tue 1700 WOR WBCQ after hours Wed 1030 WOR WWCR 9985 Wed 1700 WOR WBCQ after hours MORE info including audio links: http://worldofradio.com/radioskd.html Hi Glenn, Sorry to hear about your computer misfortunes. I have an MP3 copy of your 1259 show broadcast today on WBCQ, via the station's webcast. I've uploaded it to radio4all.net so others can access it as needed. The direct URL is http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=10770 or just surf to radio4all.net and search for 'wor' or 'hauser'. Best regards, (Larry Will, Jan 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) An unusual situation this week due to computer problems and delivery problems caused by weather: WOR 1259 is phoned in to WBCQ, WWCR and WRMI and will air at the usual times, but will not be available for download until next week (we hope). Stations requiring downloaded WOR should play Extra 53 which is already available on our website. Next week, we plan to reverse the situation, with each station playing whichever show was not played this week. NEXT AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO EXTRA 53: Fri 0200 WOR ACBRadio Mainstream [repeated 2-hourly thru 2400] Sat 0000 WOR Studio X, Momigno, Italy 1584 87.35 96.55 105.55 Sat 0900 WOR WRN1 to Eu, Au, NZ, WorldSpace AfriStar, AsiaStar, Telstar 12 SAm Sat 1928 WOR WPKN Bridgeport CT 89.5 Sat 2030 WOR R. Lavalamp Sun 0930 WOR WRN1 to North America, also WLIO-TV Lima OH SAP Sun 0930 WOR KSFC Spokane WA 91.9 Sun 0930 WOR WDWN Auburn NY 89.1 [unconfirmed] Sun 0930 WOR KTRU Houston TX 91.7 [occasional] Sun 1100 WOR R. Lavalamp Sun 1400 WOR KRFP-LP Moscow ID 92.5 Sun 1500 WOR R. Lavalamp Sun 2000 WOR Studio X, Momigno, Italy 1584 87.35 96.55 105.55 Sun 2100 WOR RNI Mon 0900 WOR R. Lavalamp 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 Extra 53 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/worx53h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/worx53h.rm WORLD OF RADIO Extra 53 (low version, without the WOR opening): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/com0408.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/com0408.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/com0408.html WORLD OF RADIO Extra 53 mp3 in the true shortwave sound of 7415: (stream) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/worldofradio_01-05-05.m3u (d`load) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/worldofradio_01-05-05.mp3 TSUNAMI ITEMS: ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS, AUSTRALIA, INDIA, INTERNATIONAL, NETHERLANDS, SRI LANKA, SWEDEN, UK ** ALBANIA [and non]. CRI presented their friends in Albania with a little gift for the new year and moved away from 7120 for the period 2200-2400 (Spanish), new frequency 7250 [via Urumchi-CHN, wb.]. Now R Tirana is well heard on 7120 at 2230-2300 in English (Olle Alm-SWE, BC-DX Jan 4 via DXLD) ** ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS. Ciao, vi segnalo che ieri sera ho ricevuto, alle 15:30 sui 4760 Khz AIR Port Blair dalle isole Andamane, che trasmetteva le news nazionali AIR in inglese. Questa emittente aveva interrotto le trasmissioni nei giorni precedenti il maremoto del 26 Dic (Auroville, India -- Andrea Borgnino, IW0HK, Jan 5, BCLNews.it via DXLD) eMail from AIR Port Blair --- Hallo, nachdem ich erst im November einen sehr freundlichen QSL-Brief (siehe Homepage) vom Stationsingenieur von AIR Port Blair bekommen habe, hatte ich vor ein paar Tagen eine Mail auf gut Glück geschickt. Heute kam die Antwort von Herrn Venkateswarlu. Zumindest in Port Blair scheint ja gottseidank alles halbwegs in Ordnung. Hier die Mail: Dear Sir, Thanks for the concern you have expressed in your mail. My family is safe at Chennai & I am fine here at Port Blair. The town of Port Blair has been rocked by the quake. Effect of tsunami is very little in the Andamans. Major loss of life has occurred in the southern group of islands, the Nicobar group and Little Andaman. It would take some time before life returns to normal. The sea level in southern islands and South Andaman has gone up while the same has gone down in the North Andaman. There are aftershocks that keep the people awake in the nights. We are all hoping that everything returns to normal at the earliest so that tourists can come back to these beautiful emerald islands. My station has done 18 hrs and 30 mts of broadcast ever since 26.12.2004 to 2.1.2005, carrying messages to people stranded in the affected islands. Over 10,000 messgaes have been passed on during the period some bringing joy & some bringing sadness. Thanks once again for the concern & joining us in prayer, seeking return to normal life. Affectionately, K S Venkateswarlu (via Rudolf Sonntag, Gilching, Germany, http://www.RudolfSonntag.de A-DX, Jan 5 via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) ** ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS. HAM RADIO OPERATORS BECOME LIFELINE FOR TSUNAMI-STRICKEN INDIAN ISLANDS By Anjana Pasricha, New Delhi, 5 January 2005 000 Source (with real audio links) -- http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-01-05-voa24.cfm Ham radio operators all over India are helping to reunite families and assist in relief operations in the wake of the tsunami disaster. The work is especially vital in the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which suffered widespread devastation, and where as many as five thousand people are still missing. On December 26, the world collapsed for Calcutta resident, Sanchita Saha, whose husband runs a tiny cloth shop in India's distant Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The tsunami had struck, and communication links with the islands had snapped. Mrs. Saha imagined the worst. She says for days her desperate household did not eat, did not sleep, and did not know what to do. Then her brother-in-law read in the newspaper that ham radio operators had linked up all over India to provide information about missing or separated families. He went to a ham operator in Calcutta and within a day the household was smiling again. Mrs. Saha learned her husband was well and living in a camp, although his shop on Port Blair was destroyed. In the days after the disaster, for countless families, ham radio operators became a lifeline as they helped locate hundreds of people separated from their families. There effort was particularly important for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where telephone links are still not working properly. The low-lying islands, 1,500 kilometers from the Indian mainland, were right in the path of the massive waves triggered by an earthquake near Indonesia. The effort to reunite families on the islands was led by a New Delhi housewife, Bharati Prasad. She was visiting the islands' capital, Port Blair to set up its first ham radio station when the disaster struck, and the chain of 570 islands was cut off from the world. But within hours, Bharti Prasad put up her radio with the use of a hotel generator, and reached out to other ham operators. Soon she and six colleagues were conveying thousands of messages to and from the islands. "We have collected all the messages from the mainland, and we have made a big list with the telephone numbers of the local people and then we have conveyed their messages to the local people, what is their welfare, what are they doing, and is there any help required from the mainland," she said. "When I am giving a call to a local man, they felt so happy." The army and government have stepped in to help the ham operators with batteries and other gear. They have now established seven radio stations on the islands. For people scattered on the three dozen inhabited islands, the radio has become the only hope for tracing relatives. Many families were separated after the disaster as rescued people ended up in separate shelters. And many people had friends or relatives living on separate islands. Taking a cue from the ham operators, the state radio in Port Blair also is using the airwaves to convey messages from a steady stream of people who turn up everyday, desperately trying to reach their loved ones. The station director at Port Blair's All India Radio, K. Rajan, says they have cancelled all regular programming and are focusing on helping families communicate. "By broadcasting the SOS we are helping all the people, people are very anxious to know the whereabouts of their relatives, who are either employed or living in far-flung islands," he said. Hundreds of messages go out everyday - a school boy tells a father he will take the first boat to fetch him, a Catholic priest urges his family to leave a devastated island as soon as possible. Hams are also helping out in other parts of India stricken by the tsunami. In the hours after the disaster, Sandeep Shah and a group of volunteers in Bangalore packed their radio equipment, pooled some money, and came to the southeastern coast where thousands of families are homeless. Mr. Shah is helping local authorities streamline relief operations in Cuddalore district in Tamil Nadu state. Mr. Shah says with telephone landlines down in remote areas and mobile phones often jammed by heavy traffic, it is not always possible to know what is needed where. He and other ham radio operators try to help. "We see to it that it reaches the required area. We have two thousand food packets required in certain places," he said. "We have messages of missing child found, three new bodies found, number of damaged boats, all types of messages we pass across both ways from many, many locations." It is not the first time ham operators are putting their hobby to use in an hour of need. Four years ago, when Gujarat state was devastated by an earthquake, they also reached to help - but the scale of the operation is much bigger this time because people are affected in remote regions (via Ken Kopp, Amateur Radio - KKØHF, DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. RADIO AUSTRALIA CHIEF SAYS STATION RECEIVED NO TSUNAMI WARNINGS Jean-Gabriel Manguy, General Manager of Radio Australia, who is anxiously waiting for contact from his older brother in southern India, says that greater transmission capacity for Radio Australia would not have helped the station warn people of the tsunami, because no warnings were received that could have been broadcast. But the availability of more transmission hours would have been useful in the aftermath and during rescue and relief operations. Until 1997, Radio Australia had a 24-hour shortwave service audible in Indonesia and other parts of Asia. But its budget was cut by half in 1997 - currently A$13.5 million - and now has a staff of just 76. Shortwave services were partly restored in 2000, and Radio Australia is also available through 155 FM stations in Asia. Thirty of those are in Indonesia and reach an estimated seven million listeners. # posted by Andy @ 10:13 UT Jan 5 (Media Network blog via DXLD) RADIO HAD NO WARNINGS OF KILLER WAVES Wed, Jan 05, 2005 By Nick Higgins http://www.bordermail.com.au/newsflow/pageitem?page_id=873394 An around-the-clock transmission capacity would not have helped Radio Australia warn people of the tsunami, the broadcasters head said yesterday. Mr Jean-Gabriel Manguy, who divides his time between homes in Melbourne and Bethanga, said there had been no warnings to broadcast. "It took everybody by surprise ... although I understand that in some reports people in India were aware of the tremor and expected a tsunami," Mr Manguy said from Bethanga yesterday. Mr Manguy is anxiously waiting for contact from his older brother, Jacques, who was in southern India when the tsunami struck. Until severe budget cuts in 1997, Radio Australia had a 24-hour shortwave broadcast to Indonesia and other parts of Asia. The shortwave service was partly restored in 2000 and there are now daily nine-hour shortwave broadcasts throughout Indonesia. Mr Manguy said the shortwave broadcasts were supplemented by Radio Australia being available through 155 Asian FM stations, which broadcast in English, Thai, Indonesian, Cantonese, Japanese, Vietnamese and French. Thirty of those stations are in Indonesia and reach an estimated sevenmillion listeners. Mr Manguy said the disaster had shown 24-hour transmission would have been valuable in the aftermath and during rescue and relief operations. "Natural disasters and political violence are difficult to predict or forewarn but as soon as they happen people need to know what is going on and local coverage is often censored," he said. Just hours after the tsunami Radio Australia journalists spoke to the Indonesian Vice-President, Mr Jusuf Kalla. Budget cuts in the late 1990s resulted in a halving of Radio Australia`s staff, which now number 76. Radio Australia`s annual budget is $13.5 million but in 1997 it was twice that amount. A transmitter near Shepparton broadcasts to eastern parts of Indonesia and Pacific Ocean countries while a transmitter at Darwin broadcasts to Indian Ocean regions. http://www.bordermail.com.au/newsflow/pageitem?page_id=873394 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Someone who had written into the BBC News website from Chennai (used to be Madras) stated they heard about the quake from shortwave but no one made the connection between the quake and that an Indian ocean tsunami would result (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA, swprograms via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. RA's Science Show & Sked I note from John's recent RA schedule posting that the RA summer schedule changes and hiatuses will last until mid-to-late-January. Anybody know if "The Science Show" is actually off the air on Australian domestic radio too, or is it just not being carried on RA right now? I wasn't too surprised to not hear it over the actual holiday weekends but I suppose we'll be deprived of it for a while now. When should we resume trying to hear it on the US Sunday mornings timeslot? John, do you know if the RA schedule will resume largely as it was when this interruption ends or if they plan on any changes? Do you think that it is a good time to lobby RA to either resume letting the 9580 kHz transmission continue later (instead of cutting it off abruptly in mid-word at 1358 UT each day) parallel with 9590 kHz, or cut off 9590 at that time instead of 9580, since the latter is better and stronger? Is that due to a different transmitter power level or a different antenna? 73, (Will Martin, MO, Jan 5, dxldyg via DXLD) 9590 is aimed further north than 9580, which is more or less toward us (gh, DXLD) Will: Science Show is running on ABC Radio National and has been. Check http://abc.net.au/ra and click on "Schedule" for when to listen or go to the Science Show webpage and listen on-demand. Currently, AEST is 16 hours ahead of EST, 17 ahead of CST, etc. There has been talk of significant changes to the RA schedule once things start returning to "normal" later this month. But nothing concrete has been announced as of yet (John Figliozzi, Halfmoon, NY, ibid.) ** BENIN. 5025, Rdif. Nationale Parakou on Jan 2 at 2035 UT. English news but heavily QRMed by jammer, whoever that was for. Faint signals of other station on the frequency. Very short music between news items. At 2039 ID as 'National Service of Radio Benin'. Continued in English, but jammer-QRM very heavy (Finn Krone-DEN, BC-DX Jan 2 via WORLD OF RADIO 1259, DXLD) R Parakou 5025 0500-2000 (0500-0600 Su-Th, 0845-1200 Fr-Sa, 1400-1600 Tu/Fr-Sa). (wb, ibid.) ** BRAZIL. BRASIL - Depois de um breve período de inatividade, devido a problema no seu transmissor, a Rádio Inconfidência, de Belo Horizonte (MG), voltou a emitir pela freqüência de 6010 kHz, em 49 metros. Foi captada, aqui em Porto Alegre (RS), em 5 de janeiro, a partir de 0455 UTC. O sinal era excelente. A emissora apresentava módulos musicais com intérpretes brasileiros como Boca Livre, Cassiano, João Bosco, entre outros. Um locutor fazia a apresentação: "Na Rádio Inconfidência, maravilhosas recordações! Memória Nacional!" 73s! (Célio Romais, Porto Alegre, Brasil Jan 4, radioescutas via WORLD OF RADIO 1259, DXLD) ** CANADA. 6160 at 1648-, CKZU on Jan 2. CBC Vancouver's SW relay must have a transmitter fault. Distorted audio (I thought originally it might have been a North Korean!). Still decipherable, but this is the first time I've heard a distortion on a CBC transmitter. Hope this doesn't cause any major headaches for them (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, DXplorer Jan 2 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** CANADA. Re SW numbers docu on The Current, CBC: Old NPR story --- google.sh "matt cowan" shortwave 7:48 minutes on the NPR sites found (Dan Say, BC, via Eric Flodén, ibid., DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC [non]. Johno here at Peakhurst, Sydney. Heard 9590 R Bangui 1900 UTC this morning in French ID. But horribly stuffed modulation tried AM USB, filtering (Johno Wright, Jan 5, ARDXC via DXLD) Place holder entry: 9590 1700-2300 37E,38W,46E,52 ISS 500kW 156deg 261104-270305 Francais F NEW TDF (BCDX via WORLD OF RADIO 1259, DXLD) By that he means that it may not really be at Issoudun. There still appears to be some doubt whether 9590 is via France, or Gabon. I should think Europeans close to France in the skip zone could decide about this (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1259, DXLD) Hallo, R. Centreafrique hat anscheinend endlich den neuen Sender in Betrieb genommen. Ist seit 1700 UTC auf 9590 zu hoeren. Sie haben anscheinend noch Probleme. Manchmal verschwindet der Ton voellig, manchmal hapert's mit der Modulation. Daher O=2-4, je nachdem (Henri Winzer-D, A-DX Dec 29 via BC-DX via DXLD) Nein Henri, das ist hoechstwahrscheinlich einer der 16 x 500 kW Sender in Issoudun in Frankreich, der genutzt wird. Also nix neuer Sender, sondern nur neues Programm via Frankreich. Nur das Audiosignal ist bescheiden wie original in Bangui CAF, mit Unterbrechungen, wie Du schreibst. Von Frankreich suedwaerts gerichtet auf 156 Grad, hast Du den besten Empfang bestimmt in Sizilien, Tunesien, Marokko und Kanaren (wb, BC-DX Dec 29, ibid.) ** CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC [non]. Radio Centrafrique émet toujours de 1700 à 2300 TU sur 9590 kHz via un émetteur de 500 kW situé en France. Si le signal est puissant, la qualité audio est assez médiocre et les coupures ne sont pas rares. On entend alors le programme de RFI à la place (informations issues de http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jm.aubier via DXLD) ** CHINA [and non]. CHINA/TAIWAN An interesting piece on the LA Times Web site on the Great Cross-Straits Radio Struggle: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-propaganda5jan05,0,3416401,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines [see TAIWAN] ** CONGO. RTV Congolaise, 5985, Scheduled 0430-2300 UT, (English 1835- 1845 Fr-Sa, 1900-1915 Su-We, 1930-1945 Th). (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX Jan 5 via DXLD) Those times do not match WRTH 2005, which says: SS 1835, Mon-Thu 1900, Fri 1930 (gh, DXLD) ** ECUADOR. UNIDENTIFIED. 3019.4 emisora no identificada de Rafael Rodriguez: Hola Rafael! Esta mañana miércoles estuvo tu em. no identificada por la primera vez quí en Quito con buena señal en 3019.41 kHz. Escuché 1120 - 1210 UTC una emisora Ecuatoriana retransmitiendo el noticiero "24 horas" de "TeleAmazonas Canal 4" sin ninguna identificación local. Radio Net, Ambato?? Felíz Año Nuevo! 73s (Bjorn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, Jan 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hola Colega Björn, Gracias por la información; solo la he vuelto a escuchar una vez más pero en horas de la tarde, siempre con música. Como señalas también puede tratarse de Radio Net, aunque esta señal me llega en 1510.5. Hay que continuar con el monitoreo (Rafael Rodriguez, Bogotá, Colombia, condiglist via DXLD) ** EGYPT. Les 2 et 3 janvier, de nombreuses émissions ont pu être entendues sur les fréquences de Radio Le Caire, tendant à prouver que les réductions ne sont pas encore entrées en vigueur. Mais dans un quotidien egyptien daté du 30 décembre, le ministre des médias a annoncé qu'il avait pris la décision de réduire les langues du service pour l'outremer. Sur les 35 langues, il n'en restera plus que 11 seulement et ce, à compter de "la semaine prochaine". Parmi les Langues entendues les 2 et 3 janvier, citons l'anglais, l'allemand, le français, l'albanais, le turc, le russe, l'italien, l'haoussa, le thai, le malais. Certaines ne devraient logiquement pas subsister parmi les 11 retenues (informations issues de http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jm.aubier via DXLD) ** FRANCE. 1584 kHz, RMC INFO, NEW TX from STRASBOURG --- Bonjour, A propos de RMC info sur 1584 kHz, ce matin, je suis allé écouté, et bien ici aussi le signal est bon, j'ai pu suivre le programme normalement. J'ai envoyé un message aux services techniques de RMCinfo via leur site web, pour savoir si la puissance avait été augmentée? Et bien, j'ai déjà reçu la réponse: ils me confirment que j'ai entendu le nouvel émetteur en service depuis le 3 janvier 2005 de STRASBOURG ! Il me dise que la puissance est plus forte que Metz, mais ils ne me disent pas la puissance? La personne qui m'a répondu s'appelle F. Fricot son e-mail est technique @ rmcinfo.fr 73's (Christian Ghibaudo, France, Jan 5, via Dario Monferini, DXLD) ** GERMANY. All Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg programs sent no modulation between 1200 and 1203. Some programs from other public broadcasters went silent for up to one minute. All commercial and the majority of the public stations here in Germany just broadcast something they considered as suitable to reflect that "we observe the silence". (Kai Ludwig, Germany, 01.05.05 - 1:19 pm Media Network blog via DXLD) ** GERMANY. First successful SW broadcast transmission from Zeesen Germany to USA 80 years ago, on Jan 31, 1925. DLR Berlin LW177, 6005 kHz, at 0350 / 1045 hrs UT; DLF LW153 & 207 kHz, 6190, 0805 UT: Das Deutschlandradio erinnert am 31. Januar 2005 in seinen beiden Programmen an die erste erfolgreiche Rundfunkuebertragung ueber Kurzwelle aus den USA nach Deutschland vor 80 Jahren. 0350 / 1045 Uhr UT im Kalenderblatt beim DeutschlandRadio Berlin, um 0805 UT beim Deutschlandfunk Cologne (Dr. Hansjoerg Biener-D, ntt Dec 30, BC-DX via DXLD) Special commem program re (gh) ** INDIA. All India Radio via Delhi domestic service feeds heard on Dec 30 via 15260 and 15185 at weak to fair strength with extensive news in English from 0830 [following on from local language(s)] until at least 0900. Most of the news concerned the Tsunami damage on the Indian east coast and in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands as well as other 'official' statements (Noel R. Green-UK, BC-DX Dec 29 via DXLD) 4910, AIR (Jaipur) on Dec 30 at 1600 UT with adverts for bungalows in India in English (if they're too close to sea, probably not a good idea to advertise right now). Since about 1400 UT almost all listed tropical Indians came through here though not ID'd, many in mix with the usual Chinese stations on many of same frequencies. Even Chi on 3280 was readable here at this bad DX site (Finn Krone-DEN, BC-DX Dec 30 via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL. ANALYSIS: WORLD'S BROADCASTERS' HELP ASIAN DISASTER RELIEF | Text of editorial analysis by Peter Feuilherade of BBC Monitoring Media Services on 5 January The 26 December earthquake and tsunami in South and South-East Asia was the biggest natural disaster radio and TV broadcasters have had to cover. The hundreds of thousands of victims included many journalists and media workers. In Indonesia, for example, about 100 staff members of Serambi Indonesia, the only daily newspaper in the hardest-hit province of Aceh, were believed dead after the tsunami destroyed its offices in Banda Aceh, although the paper resumed publication within six days, according to the Associated Press. The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union cited Indonesia's public broadcasters, Televisi Republik Indonesia and Radio Republik Indonesia, as saying that more than 30 of their staff were missing in Aceh province. Both TVRI and RRI reported severe damage to transmitters and other equipment. India's public TV broadcaster, Doordarshan, reported that several TV transmitters on Car Nicobar, the northernmost of the Nicobar Islands, had been badly damaged. But other broadcasting installations away from the coast escaped damage, including Deutsche Welle's Sri Lanka relay station in Trincomalee. Tourists' video footage shows scale of disaster Within hours, reporters around the six worst affected Indian Ocean countries were sending compressed video back to newsrooms via satellite, videophones and laptops connected to the internet. And as footage captured on thousands of video cameras operated by tourists in towns and resorts hit by the tsunami found its way to TV viewers around the world, the scale of the calamity became clearer. The http://www.broadcastengineering.com web site reported on 3 January: "Because of the ubiquity of the footage, there was little competition for good pictures, with the television operations from Reuters and The Associated Press finding themselves awash in video feeds from the region. All of the major broadcast networks, as well as CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, subsequently aired the footage on their newscasts." Regional media "a lifeline" The region's media, especially radio broadcasters, quickly took on the role of a lifeline to people seeking lost relatives or trying to get details of relief aid. In India's remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where phone communications were badly disrupted and shipping links cut, the local office of state-run All India Radio (AIR) broadcast hundreds of messages from islanders concerned about missing family members. "Even in normal circumstances, the radio is critical to islanders to know about ship movements, weather, etc," K.D Shukla, a programme officer at All India Radio, told Reuters news agency. "But today it is the lifeline, the only link to the outlying islands," he added. Another AIR official, programme executive Ashok Srivastava, told the French news agency AFP: "The archipelago's total population of 350,000 are our listeners and since the tsunamis struck there is not one radio set which is not tuned in to our medium or short-range message transmissions." Local broadcasters also provided support to rescue and relief missions across the region. Mumbai-based Star News set up a relief fund just two days after the tsunami struck. AIR launched an internet helpline to provide information and assistance to the public. AIR also laid on special broadcasts and helpline services from its Tuticorin station in the southern state of Tamil Nadu to assist victims in India and also in nearby Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka itself, where the death toll topped 30,000, public broadcaster SLRC mounted a major relief operation for victims of the tsunami, sending more than 200 lorry loads of food, clothing and medicine to badly hit areas in the island's north, east and south in less than 72 hours. Victor Goonetilleke, an internationally renowned radio ham who is also president of the Sri Lanka amateur radio society, mobilized his contacts to support the authorities in establishing communications with afflicted remote areas. Burma's state-controlled media were slow to announce any casualty figures from the earthquake of 26 December, but took the unusual step of reporting the incident (two days later) and of inviting foreign journalists to an official news conference for the first time in 15 years, according to journalist Ludu U Sein Win. The journalist, quoted by the Democratic Voice of Burma on 31 December, said such developments should be welcomed. Blogs and internet main source of information As in other recent calamities in South and South-east Asia, such as the October 2002 Bali bombing, victims, relatives, relief workers and volunteers all moved swiftly in setting up web sites and internet blogs to share information and contact details. SEA-EAT, the South East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog, quickly emerged as the leading online clearing house (http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/). "The internet is being used more and more by the families of victims because it is faster and the communication is much more effective," said Ankit Gupta, one of SEA-EAT's volunteers based in New Delhi. "One always comes across red tape no matter what in our third world countries." In Thailand, the authorities also turned to the internet, constantly updating lists of injured foreigners, and their location, on the government's disaster response web site. Many government hotlines and official communication channels, meanwhile, were either inaccessible or slow to react, while language barriers also hindered the quest for information. International media help aid efforts International TV networks initially responded to the tsunami disaster "with a news operation described as one of the biggest in peace-time history," the London-based Press Association said on 2 January. The BBC, Sky News and ITV used over 150 people to cover the story from Asia. Some radio broadcasters, like the BBC's Tamil, Thai and Indonesian language services, produced extra programmes for audiences in the affected region. Sandy MacIntyre, director of news at Associated Press TV News (APTN) in London, told the New York Times that "this was one of the most geographically and logistically challenging stories to cover in a generation because of the sheer scale of it". Television coverage of the tsunami included more graphic images of dead and distressed victims than during previous disasters or conflicts, reflecting both the huge death toll - in excess of 150,000 - and the nature of the tragedy, which affected countries around the world. Roger Mosey, head of television news at the BBC, said he was "very conscious, based in London, that some of our correspondents are seeing very traumatic events". Organizations such as the Brussels-based International News Safety Institute and the Dart Centre for News, Media and Trauma in Australasia say that the demands of news coverage will see media staff witness and endure emotionally draining scenes and situations in the short term. But they caution that journalists, along with all relief and emergency workers, are vulnerable to emotional effects from working in settings of death, destruction and despair. And they note that because so many victims were children, the impact on media workers may be even stronger. Now, 10 days after the disaster, broadcasters around the world are turning their attention to how they can play an appropriate part in helping the aid effort. Radio Netherlands is to set up a number of emergency radio stations in Indonesia, which will later be developed into permanent stations. A fundraising programme on Germany's state-owned ZDF channel on 4 January raised 40m euros for the tsunami victims, a day after another German channel, Sat.1, raised over 10m euros. A telethon organized by Greece's state-run radio and TV broadcaster ERT had raised over 12m dollars by 5 January, while Portuguese state television RTP said it would a similar event on 7 January, which will be shown in mainland Portugal as well as in Lisbon's five former African colonies. And US television network NBC will screen an hour-long fundraising special featuring musical performances and celebrities on 15 January. In the UK, the Disasters Emergency Committee, the group of charities overseeing the relief response, has called on broadcasters to try to coordinate any fundraising events. The idea of a Live Aid-style concert that would be televised is being discussed. Source: BBC Monitoring research 5 Jan 05 (via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL. Re 5-004: The cutting of radio before when we may actually need it the most --- Kevin. I've been interested in many of the issues you wrote about for a long time. For many years I was a pessimist. More recently, I have become somewhat more optimistic, but I still worry that we're headed down a path that can't be maintained. As a society, we seem to be banking on the fact that technology will save us from the problems that we have created for ourselves. In most cases, it was through technology that those problems developed in the first place !!! So far we've been VERY lucky. There are those that believe that at some point our reliance on technology and its ability to bail us out will come up short. There is a very healthy subculture out there composed of people who are trying to wean themselves from reliance on technology and of a complicated lifestyle. I'm not referring to the survivalist types either. I suggest that you do a Google Search on Voluntary Simplicity and or Simple Living. Its an eye-opener. You might also want to check out the work done by the Rocky Mountain Institute in general and Avory Lovins in particular (Mike Wolfson, swprograms via DXLD) ** ITALY. Re: ``RAI SW Site and other land is for sale. (gh, dxld Jan 3)`` --- or they move 90 kilometers to northwestern MW site location? (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX via WORLD OF RADIO 1259, DXLD) ** ITALY [non]. Re: ``IRRS A-05 freq selection. Why not cooperate with HFCC?? It might get out where your relay transmitter site is ? (gh, DXLD Jan 1)`` May RBU organization is doing the job for legal IRRS relay in Bulgaria via Kostinbrod-Sofia site? (wb, BC-DX Jan 3, BC-DX via DXLD) RBU meaning R. Bulgaria? ** KOREA NORTH. 6100.26, at 1641-, KCBS on Jan 2. I was wondering who was causing such a loud het above 6100 kHz. It's KCBS from Pyongyang with Korean female vocal with orchestral support. Not the usual strident revolutionary music I'm used to hearing. No other \\ heard at this late hour (Walt Salmaniw, BC, DXplorer Jan 2 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** KURDISTAN [and non]. IRAN/IRAQ [Kurdistan] Having some time left over the next few days, decided to do a band scan, and did as follows: band scan 3850-4600 kHz between 1455-1530, then 1540-1615 same range (I know some can have been missed, but don't think so) to find out what to tune to. What I found was a great number of jammers in the first search and almost none in the second indicating that there might be stations we do not know much of. My friend Pankov, is it as impossible there as here? First round 1455-1530: 3856, 1455 enormous jammer, no station noted underneath 3865, 1455 same 3871, 1457 revolutionary songs under heavy jammer 3912, 1448 Korea (I believe) 3930, 1450 sounded the Korean, but I had a very strong Italian amateur on top 3966, 1451 enormous jammer 3970.2, 1453 V. of Iranian Kurdistan, heavily jammed. Farsi YL, ID at 1503 4023.9, Kurdish YM about Kurdistan, dare now say which station, cf. below 4161.9, 1507 nothing listed here to my knowledge at this time - either V. of Independence (not reported recently) or V. of Conservative Party. Nothing 1605. 4230, 1512 very heavily jammed - nothing noticed underneath 4255, 1513 very heavily jammed - nothing noticed underneath 4267, 1514 bubble jammer heavy, no program underneath? 4270, 1515 very heavily jammed - nothing noticed underneath 4312, 1516 very heavily jammed - nothing noticed underneath 4367, 1517 very heavily jammed - but with YL talking underneath 4375, 1518 seemingly the 4367 station and its jammer moved at the same time to here 4565, 1523 very heavily jammed - nothing noticed underneath second round 1540-1615: 3856, 1544 very heavily jammed - nothing noticed underneath 3860, 1545 very heavily jammed by other type of jammer (bubble) - nothing noticed underneath 4023.8, YL talking, seemingly not jammed 4230, very heavily jammed - nothing noticed underneath 4255, very heavily jammed - nothing noticed underneath 4565, 1615 very heavily jammed - nothing noticed underneath Another explanation might be that they have a surplus of jammers somewhere? hi. But seemingly almost all shut down around same time, i.e. around 1530. Only had time to search this little part of the bands (Finn Krone-DEN, BC-DX Dec 30 via DXLD) 3880v, 4380v, V. of Communist Party of Iran with usual intro procedure of IS and IDs until program began at 1630 with 'the Internationale'. ID as 'In seday-e Hezb-e Komunist-e Iran'. Fair. Moved around a bit (4375-4380, 3870-3881). 3930, V. of Komala (presumed, but many mentions of Komala) under heavy jamming 1710. Again 1740 when in Farsi. Gone at recheck 1850. 4027.0, UNID 1635-1657 in Arabic, many songs and missed closing ID at sign off 1657, only heard the closing music. I thought that was it but then I passed the frequency again 1720 and there was clear Arabic programming and at 1800 caught ID for V. of the People of Kurdistan. Now, is this one or two different programmes? (Finn Krone-DEN, BC-DX Dec 29 via DXLD) 3930.1, expect R Voice of Komala Dec 31 0420 in Farsi but exactly missed ID before sign off music 0430. Jammed heavily. 3985.3, UNID in Kurdish, heavily jammed 0400-0425 tune out, in Kurdish. Reverted frequently, but no chance to ID because of jamming. 4860, Voice of Iranian Kurdistan Dec 31 0415, still active 0432 but gone at recheck 0503, so believe s/off is 0500. 4025, Voice of the People of Kurdistan Dec 31 0423 Arabic, ID exactly at tune in. 4160, Jammer and very faint male talk Dec 31 0503. Expect Voice of the Conservative Party of Iran. 4280, UNID with music under very heavy jamming, This is new to me. Jamming heavy, and still active at 0615. 4375, Voice of the Communist Party of Iran is listed here Dec 31 0435 very heavily jammed. Both station and jamming gone at recheck 0505. Absolutely nothing on other frequencies between 3800-4810 kHz neither stations nor other jammers, so it seems that the clands are not that active in the morning or have turned to other frequency ranges (all Finn Krone-DEN, BC-DX Dec 31 via DXLD) ** MALI. Surprisingly strong open carrier on 4787 after 0700 UT Jan 5, when nothing else from Africa was audible on 60m, I suppose Mali, or was it some closer ute? Could not detect any audio (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. Much to my surprise, an ID from XHLGT-2 was recorded via Es at about 1630 CT, while I was not at home. Strong Es (at times) was mixed with fairly strong tropo from KPRC-2 Houston between 1600 and 1700 [Jan 4]. The only other ID was from XEZ-2 San Miquel de Allende (lower left, 1620). The XHLGT ID was upper right and looks like this: LEON GUANAJUATO. XHLGT-TV CANAL 2 TELEVISA. (Danny (Shreveport, LA) Oglethorpe, Mexico/Latin America TV ID tips: http://www.geocities.com/doglethorpe WTFDA via DXLD) New high-power VHFs in Mexico --- While working on the new Station Guide I've noted two Coahuila UHFs which appear to have moved to VHF channels. XHPNG-TV Piedras Negras seems to have moved from channel 28 to channel 6. XHSDD-TV Sabinas seems to have moved from channel 59 to channel 5. I list XHPNG as an Azteca 7 relayer. I've no programming data for XHSDD. Both stations are listed as 100 kW. – (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66, http://www.w9wi.com ibid.) Thanks for the information! Here is a link to XHSDD-5's small website: http://www.prodigyweb.net.mx/sab02/canal5.htm (Danny, Shreveport, LA, ibid.) According to the website, the station is 1 kW, not the 100 kW listed. But, fortunately, "nuestra señal radiada es muy buena y limpia," or "our broadcast signal is very good and clean." So, I guess that's something (Peter Baskind, J.D., LL.M., N4LI, Germantown, TN/EM55, ibid.) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. Subject: Special Broadcast on January 06 Dear All, we kindly would like to inform you about a very special one time broadcast of Radio 555 from Netherlands regarding the flood disaster in South East Asia. Technical data: January 06 2005 only, Radio 555, target Europe: 05:00 - 06:00 UTC, 6.045 kHz 06:00 - 08:00 UTC, 6.110 kHz 08:00 - 17:00 UTC, 6.015 kHz 17:00 - 20:00 UTC, 6.010 kHz 20:00 - 23:00 UTC, 6.045 kHz Radio 555 is a one time alliance of several Radio Stations in Netherlands to help the people in South East Asia. Please be so kind and forward this information to as much as possible listener. Any report is highly appreciated to the following address: alexander @ talparadionederland.nl Best regards from Juelich Ralf Weyl T-Systems Regional MediaBroadcast Cologne MediaBroadcast Address: Merscher Hoehe, 52428 Juelich Phone: +49 24 61 697-340 Fax: +49 24 61 697-371 Mobile: +49 171 56 13 207 E-Mail: ralf.weyl @ t-systems.com Internet: http://www.t-systems.com (via Michael Bethge, WWDXC and Kai Ludwig, DXLD) Radio 555 has its own Website --- The special one-day Dutch radio station Radio 555, which operates tomorrow to raise money for the Tsunami disaster fund, has its own Website at http://www.radio555.nl with programming information and details of how to donate money. The site, which is in Dutch, mentions that the studio will be shown live on the Nederland 2 television network from 0500-1600 UT. Today, radio stations in the Netherlands observed a 1 minute silence at 1100 UTC. On TV and in most public places, a 3 minute silence was observed. Most countries in the EU also observed silence for 3 minutes, with the exception of Denmark which already held its own silent period on Sunday. Watch the 40-second TV commercial promoting Radio 555 (Windows Media) # posted by Andy @ 15:05 UTC Jan 4 (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** NIUE [and non]. In the week beginning Feb. 7, I will begin my stay in Niue in the South Pacific. I will be in Niue for 8 weeks from that date. This remote independent country is about 95 sq. miles in size (little larger than area of Seattle) and is located 335 mi SE of Samoa, 230 miles E of Tonga and 1440 miles NE of New Zealand. I will be taking with me a Kenwood Ham station including a Steppir BiggIR 25 foot tall remotely tunable vertical antenna that has continuous coverage from 6.9 to 54 MHz. Besides being useful for the Ham bands, the antenna should work well for SWL bands within its frequency range. I will also be taking a Quantum QX Pro. As time allows, I will be exploring what can be heard/worked from this fairly remote and, I hope, electrically quiet coral rock in the Pacific. I will also be accessing my email almost everyday. If anybody has anything in particular they would like me to listen for, please let me know. This will be quite an experience being on the other side of the radio waves. As far as I know, Niue itself has only a couple of FM stations and a TV station; no AM or SW. I have my WRTH and Passport 2005 books already packed. Regards, (Murray Lycan, VE7HA, #301 - 9633 Manchester Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia V3N 4Y9 Ve7ha @ arrl.net IRCA Soft DX Monitor Jan 8 via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA [and non]. KGOU's Live Coverage for Thursday and Friday : Hello Glenn Hauser, Attorney General Judiciary Hearings --- KGOU will provide NPR`s `live`, anchored coverage of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary's hearings on the nomination of The Honorable Alberto R. Gonzales, to be the Attorney General of the United States. The Hearings are scheduled Thursday and Friday, January 6 & 7 and possibly Monday, January 10. Frank Stasio will host NPR's coverage of the Gonzales hearings. Nina Totenberg will join him in the studio. Coverage begins at 8:30 am (CST) [1430 UT] and live streaming will also be available online at http://www.kgou.org The hearings are expected to run through most of the afternoon (with a break for lunch). (KGOU E-mail notification via DXLD) & presumably on many other public radio stations (gh) ** PERU. Quito 5/1 2004 *** Wednesday edition: *** Recording of 4485.95 kHz, Radio Frecuencia VH, Celendín. There has always been a group of three Peruvians close together here and active all the time all three. Frecuencia VH is still active but 4420 R. Bambamarca, Bambamarca and 4461 R. Nor Andina, Celendín are both inactive I already have this station on the list, made with analog recorder and my old receiver so why not a new recording with digital recorder and my new DSP receiver Ten-Tec RX 350D. Funny things re happening in the studio of Frecuencia VH - listen! Comments and recordings at: http://www.malm-ecuador.com 73s (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, Jan 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. SAUDI RADIO TO LAUNCH PILGRIMAGE BROADCAST | Text of report in English by Saudi News Agency SPA Jedda, 5 January: Saudi Arabia's Pilgrimage Enlightenment Radio (PER) will launch its seasonal pilgrimage broadcasting on Monday [10 January], the first day of Dhul-Qi'dah [12 or 13 December 2004], and will continue until the end of the month of Dhul-Hijjah 1425 [9 or 10 February]. The programmes will be broadcast in 10 languages Arabic, English, French, Persian, Turkish, Hausa, Indonesian, Urdu, Bengali and Pashto. The programmes will be aired 24 hours a day. Bengali and Pashto have been added for the first time this year in keeping with the efforts of Ministry of Culture and Information to broaden its base of listeners, officials said. PER will transmit its programmes on two medium wave [frequencies] on 594 kHz for the listeners in Mecca, the pilgrimage sites and Jedda. The other is on 1017 kHz for its listeners in Medina and its vicinity. It also transmits on two FM waves [frequencies] on 94 MHz for the entire area covering the Holy Sites and on 101 MHz for Mina and its vicinity. The Pilgrimage Enlightenment Radio (PER) will have an initial transmission time of 18 hours daily but will be extended to 24 hours a day at the start of the month Dhul- Hijjah [11 or 12 January]. Aside from the Ministry of Information and Culture, at least seven other agencies are taking part in producing PER programmes the Ministry of Pilgrimage, the Ministry of Water and Electricity, the General Presidency of Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques and the Noble Prophet's Mosque, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Institute for Pilgrimage Research, the Saudi Red Crescent Society, the General Motorcars Syndicate, the Saudi Boy Scouts Society and other subscribers. The multiparty contribution is in addition to the religious and enlightenment programmes produced by the Ministry of Culture and Information and the live coverage of the five-day pilgrimage such as the noon and late afternoon prayers at the Namirah Mosque, the Id prayers from the Holy Mosque and the Tashriq days in Mina. The Ministry of Culture and Information will continue airing its own live programme "With You on Air" which provides live coverage of various pilgrimage activities and the pilgrims themselves as well as other topics like hygiene, safety measures and the traffic situations. Interviews will be made with specialists on related issues and the pilgrims themselves. The programmes will be enlivened with contests that offer cash prizes earmarked by the Ministry of Culture and Information. Added to these activities are news bulletins and news briefs, the weather and temperature in the two holy cities and the holy sites to be broadcast night and day. The increase in the daily transmission time from the initial 18 hours to 24 hours reflects the deep concerns of the minister of culture and information, Dr Fu'ad al-Farisi, and Prince Turki bin Sultan Bin-Abd- al-Aziz, the deputy minister. The Pilgrimage Enlightenment Radio seeks to provide the pilgrims with a concentrated dose of enlightenment in the fields of religion, health, sanitation, environment and security, aside from traffic movements, safety, weather condition and other pieces of information that would benefit the pilgrims. Source: Saudi News Agency SPA, Riyadh, in English 5 Jan 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) ?? We already had news of this a month ago, starting in December; note confusion on dates at the beginning (gh, DXLD) ** SLOVAKIA. Voici un extrait de la lettre reçue de la part de Radio Slovaquie au sujet de l'avenir de la station: "A ce jour, nous sommes dans une totale expectative. Fin de première décade de décembre, le Parlement a rejeté les trois propositions de budget pour la Radio nationale, présentées aux députés. Cela signifie que nous allons commencer l'année 2005 sur une dotation budgétaire provisoire. La situation devrait normalement se régulariser au cours des premiers mois de l'an prochain mais, dans l'état actuel des choses, nos informations, si des moyens financiers nouveaux que ceux de l'Etat ne sont pas trouvés par notre Direction, il est plus que probable que les émissions en ondes courtes de RSI disparaissent de la grille au changement d'horaires fin mars. Seules resteraient les transmissions via WRN et sur Internet. Des que nous aurons des informations nouvelles et sûres, nous vous informerons immédiatement " (Tania Minarovicova -Radio Slovaquie Internationale via Roland Paget) (informations issues de http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jm.aubier via DXLD) ** SLOVAKIA. Fotos fiesta en Radio Slovakia Internacional --- En la web de RSI, zona español. Clicando Santa claus podeis ver las fotos informales de la fiesta de navidad de la emisora eslovaca. http://www.slovakradio.sk/rsi/info/spa/txt/mikulas04.html Interesante: no todas las emisoras nos muestran escenas del "otro lado del micro". (EDUARD BOADA I ARAGONES, Noticias DX via DXLD) ** SRI LANKA. Nessun segnale invece dalla Deutsche Welle sui 1548 Khz dall'impianto di Trincomalee in Sri Lanka che si trova in una delle zone piu' colpite dal disastro. Saluti, (Auroville, India -- Andrea Borgnino, IW0HK, Jan 5, BCLNews.it via WORLD OF RADIO 1259, DXLD) 6170, at 1650-, Deutsche Welle on Jan 2nd. Thought I'd do a check of their Trincomalee site, and sure enough I'm hearing them at s6 to s7 strength in English, with a song 'One night stand'. Also \\ to equally strong 7225 (also Sri Lanka), and 11695 (poor level, direct from Wertachtal at 500 kW). The two SL transmitters are slightly out of sync. My understanding is that this is to avoid over taxing the power supply to the station. 6170 is beamed directly my way. Both transmitters cut suddenly at about 2 mins to the hour, leaving Radio Tunis audible with Arabic music on 7225 (Walt Salmaniw, BC, DXplorer Jan 2 via BC-DX via DXLD) Victor Goonetilleke's house is about 10 km in-land from Mt. Lavinia beach, south of Colombo capital. Visited him in 1974 (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX via DXLD) VICTOR GOONETILLEKE SAYS AMATEUR RADIO SAVED LIVES IN SRI LANKA Media Network correspondent Victor Goonetilleke, 4S7VK, who is president of the Radio Society of Sri Lanka, believes that "uncomplicated shortwave" radio saved lives. "Ham radio played an important part and will continue to do so," he said in an e-mail. Until 28 December the Radio Society of Sri Lanka operated a shortwave radio link between Hambantota and the Prime Minister's disaster management office, and government offices in the stricken area. "We closed the link after the police got a communications link up in Hambantota," Victor said. "We went in because the District Secretary's office only had a satellite phone and communications were difficult." The Hambantota station was operated by Asantha Illesinghe (4S7AK), Dimuthu Wickremesinghe (4S7DZ) and Kusal Epa (4S7KE). However, there was one major problem: batteries were running out, and there were no generators to recharge them. Radio amateurs used to be the only line of communication to disaster struck areas in the past. But Victor says the amateur community in Sri Lanka is not getting enough young blood to keep it going, partly because getting an amateur radio license is a tedious process, requiring defence clearances, in addition to an examination and licensing by the telecommunications regulatory authorities. However, Victor feels that the presence of radio amateurs inside the Prime Minister's official residence shows how the authorities in Sri Lanka value the services of the amateur radio community. # posted by Andy @ 10:31 UT Jan 5 (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** SWEDEN. Heard coming on 11560 at 1129 Dec 29, very weak, but built up quickly and was fairly good (but fluttery) by 1157 when they went into IS/ID sequence until closing at 1159. They switched to 11550, IS/IDs there at 1159 and opened at 1200, pretty decent and improving. All Swedish, mentions of Thailand. Extra broadcasts to catastrophe areas 1130-1200 11560 kHz, 1200-1600 11550 kHz 'until further notice'. This change will affect previous broadcasts to e.g. East Asia and North America (from Radio Sweden website Dec 28, 2004) (Finn Krone-DEN, BC-DX Dec 29 via DXLD) 7420 at 1733-, Radio Sweden on Jan 2. Weekly 15 min program in Kurdish can be heard at a good level from Hoerby at 350 kW, with a beam almost 180 degrees from my QTH. This I expect to be only audible for the next few weeks, before the days get too long for propagation to be possible (Walt Salmaniw, BC, DXplorer Jan 2 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** TAIWAN [and non]. CHINA/TAIWAN An interesting piece on the LA Times Web site on the Great Cross-Straits Radio Struggle: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-propaganda5jan05,0,3416401,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines I can recall hearing the Fujian Front Station (now Voice of the Strait) broadcasts during the Cultural Revolution, and the announcers *were* really over the top in their delivery (Chuck Albertson, Seattle, Wash.) 50-YEAR WAR OF WORDS --- Tactics shift and ideology has softened, but China and Taiwan still blast each other with radio propaganda 24 hours a day. By Mark Magnier, Times Staff Writer, 5:24 PM PST, January 4, 2005 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-propaganda5jan05,0,4760345.story?coll=la-home-headlines/ TAIPEI, Taiwan — The radio show called "Special Communications" was an unlikely hit, given that it consisted of announcers reading strings of numbers for 15 minutes. Taiwan used the mind-numbing program in the 1980s to send coded messages to its spies in mainland China. But like many Taiwanese propaganda broadcasts, it could also be picked up locally. To the surprise of many at the government-run Radio Taiwan International, the show soon developed a cult following among Taiwanese. Listeners, particularly former soldiers, started sending fan mail saying how much they enjoyed it, how it made them feel like secret agents and how they'd deciphered the code. "I'd think, how absurd," said Chen Hsiao-Ping, a 25-year veteran at the station. "Here I am reading this stuff, and I don't even know what it means. How could they possibly understand?" The glory days of "Special Communications" may be over, but Chen and her colleagues at Radio Taiwan still have plenty of work, as do members of the propaganda team at China's Central People's Radio Station, which is busy beaming programming the other way. Last year marked the 50th anniversary of mainland radio propaganda broadcasts into Taiwan and the 55th for Taiwan in the opposite direction. Over the decades, the weapons have changed, the tactics refined, the ideology softened. Shows on investments, popular culture and tourism have largely edged out biting criticism and political dogma. But, like two old soldiers locked in a wrestling grip, the broadcasts press doggedly on, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, outlasting even North and South Korea's loudspeaker battle across their tense demilitarized zone. "This isn't just a broadcast," said Cheryl Lai, president of Radio Taiwan International. "This is war. China sees it as a hot war. We see it as a cold war. But it's still a war." Chen, the broadcaster, grows animated as she recalls her early days at the station. Recruited in 1978 at age 18, she was tested, her family and friends screened and her ideology reviewed for any hint of communist sympathy before she got a job as "professional political warfare agent," as presenters were then called. For most of the 1950s, '60s and '70s, propaganda airwaves in both directions were filled with hard-core screeds, slogans and denunciations. Around the time Chen joined, however, the Taiwanese intelligence service had a new psychological weapon against China — Theresa Deng, a Taiwanese singer known for her gentle love songs. A new program mixed Deng's music with soft-sell messages about the island. The show, which lasted a decade, proved hugely successful among mainlanders battered by the tumultuous 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, and even inspired a catchphrase among them — "I like the little Deng, not the big Deng" — a suggestion that the diminutive singer's popularity rivaled that of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who briefly served as vice premier under Chou En-lai at the time. Taiwan even floated balloons in China's direction that were equipped with timers that, once set off, would burst the balloons, raining down leaflets and Deng cassettes. "Unfortunately, it was quite dependent on the wind," said Hsiao Yu-Jeng, a Taiwanese propaganda scriptwriter. Another Taiwanese show during this period, dubbed the "Black Hole Program" by staff members, was so hush-hush that regular announcers weren't even supposed to know of its existence. Eventually word leaked out that the project was producing fake "mainland" broadcasts, designed to trick Chinese listeners into thinking they were generated from Beijing, even as their content subtly undermined the Chinese regime's messages. A few hundred miles across the Taiwan Strait, the Central People's Radio Station in Beijing also was working overtime to score points, shape minds and reach Taiwanese listeners with its worldview. For about a decade after the national service began broadcasting on Aug. 5, 1954, Taiwanese listeners who tuned in heard Communist Party summaries, production statistics and bitter denunciations of the Taipei government. Broadcasts encouraged Taiwanese to go on strike, rise up against their "American toady" government and renounce capitalism before a worker's revolution swept Taiwan. Mainland planners were also careful to include softer programming as well, particularly during big holidays such as the mid-autumn Moon Festival, to help temper the martial music and angry political attacks. Any hint of softness vanished with the advent of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, however, as broadcasters were swept up in the social turmoil. "The tone was so incredibly harsh that even mainlanders didn't want to listen, let alone the Taiwanese," said Chen Guoxiong, a 40-year veteran of Taiwan propaganda at Central People's Radio Station. Chinese Premier Chou En-lai started to realize how severe the mainland's propaganda broadcasts sounded to Taiwanese ears, and on Aug. 15, 1972, he initiated two key changes. Weather reports started to include Taiwan, and programs signed off with, "We wish you a good night, our Taiwan countrymen." "This was a huge turning point," said Wang Xuemei, a radio professor with China Media University. "Not only did it send the message that we care about you. It was also very useful given that many Taiwanese live off the sea." The change was welcomed not only by Taiwanese listeners but some mainland announcers as well. "It was a real relief, like having a conversation rather than shouting through a bullhorn," said Liang Jihong, a senior editor in Beijing for China's Taiwan service. "You still had your voice at the end of the day." On the Taiwanese side, announcers were required to carefully enunciate every word exactly as written, given the likelihood they were being heard on cheap Chinese radios far from transmission stations. News voices on both sides had to be strong and serious. Feature voices could be softer. Music also was carefully chosen, with symphonies used for criticism and pop music for feature programs. Sweet female voices for shows aimed at soldiers. "Soldiers are strong and manly, so they need soft things to move them," Liang said. Sappy, wavering or seductive voices were unthinkable. In 1979, a Taiwanese anchor read a news broadcast in a highly emotional voice and was summarily fired. "Our voices represented Taiwan," Chen said. "If they were shaky, someone might think Taiwan was shaky." Occasionally the broadcasts took on an ironic tone. After the 1969 American moonwalk, Chinese were very upset because, according to their ideology, capitalism was supposed to be collapsing. Playing off this insecurity, Taiwanese propaganda scriptwriter Kuo, who declined to give his first name, wrote an ironic drama called "Mao Tse-tung Lands on the Sun." "A moon landing isn't such a big deal, we'll have Mao land on the sun," one of Mao's aides says. "How can he do that given the high temperature?" the other asks. "It's all right, he'll land at night," the first one counters. It is difficult to assess the number of hearts and minds converted over the years by either side through these various campaigns. Nor has much scientific effort been expended trying to do so. Occasionally, however, there were big propaganda coups. From the early 1960s through the early 1980s, both sides used radio broadcasts to lure fighter aircraft and ships across the strait with promises of glory and gold. Taiwan was generally more aggressive and cumulatively threw more money at the program — paying out more than 2 1/2 tons in gold bars. Periodically, it broadcast a menu of rewards that included the number of gold bars, based on what machine the defector arrived in; how the purse would be divided if two soldiers came together; and what job was guaranteed in the Taiwanese military — always at a promotion over current Chinese rank. Both sides lured more than a dozen aircraft and several ships. The record reward on the Taiwan side went to mainlander Sun Tianqin, who received 770 pounds of gold for flying over in a MIG-21 jet in 1972. "Whenever a defector came over, all of Taiwan got excited," broadcaster Chen said. "We were especially proud and felt we were on the front lines of a war without missiles." One of the biggest purses for traveling the other way went to Taiwanese pilot Huang Zhicheng, who arrived in the mainland's Fujian province in 1981 in an F-5E, for which he earned the equivalent of $800,000 at today's exchange rates. As China started reforming after 1978 in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution and its gradual opening to the outside world, the character of the broadcasts on both sides started to change dramatically. The tone softened. And there was a growing emphasis on service programming, including shows on tourism, changing business regulations, shared Chinese culture and links with relatives on the other side. Today, people-to-people contact across the strait has exploded, leading to a huge increase in the number of Chinese women married to Taiwanese men and of Taiwanese businessmen living on the mainland. Still, relations at the governmental level remain tense, part of the reason each side continues to spend millions annually on propaganda. Broadcasters on both sides say they're working to connect with a younger, more affluent "me generation" in a world where listeners have less time and more entertainment options. "We've made our programs more diverse; we're releasing news much faster, have more cultural programs and are adopting a milder, more service-oriented approach," said Han Changjiang, head of the Taiwan Center at Central People's Radio Station. At Radio Taiwan headquarters, security guards have replaced soldiers at the gate, although the old guardhouse remains in place with its foot-thick walls. In Beijing, two People's Liberation Army soldiers vigilantly block the entrance to the Central People's Radio Station. But once inside, the atmosphere is relatively relaxed. Both sides say they expect broadcasts to continue for years to come. Radio retains its advantages over other propaganda media, they say, because it can slip across borders in ways newspapers and television cannot. "This will endure at least until the two sides are unified," said the mainland's Chen Guoxiong. "No one can replace us. We are doing something glorious, something that is pleasing to our ancestors." (via Harry Helms, Mike Cooper, Bruce MacGibbon, DXLD) ** TURKS & CAICOS. Is RVC running a syncro? It sounds as if RVC on 530 is running some sort of syncro operation. There is the unmistakable sound of two slightly out-of-sync stations running RVC's Spanish religion on 530. Either RVC is running a syncro somewhere, or CIAO is relaying RVC on the same frequency. Does anybody else hear the syncro echo and no what's up? (Adam Myrow, Memphis, TN, Jan 4, NRC-AM via DXLD) Only the simulcast off 1330 in NY and the two frequencies in the DR, 1330 in Santo Domingo and 660 in Santiago. They feed 530 via a satellite subcarrier; maybe that's what's inducing the echo effect. (Jerry Kiefer, Port Orange, FL, ibid.) I heard it last night around 11:00 PM ELT while trying for CIAO. It definitely sounded weird, like an echo (Chris Black, Cape Cod, ibid.) ** U K. BBC three-minute silence at 1200 Wednesday --- This seems a lot of effort just to broadcast three minutes of total silence. Would it not be a cheaper option to simply transmit a sufficiently low level of 'white noise' with intermittent bird singing just to keep those lazy transmitters awake? I just wonder how many listeners would be in a position to hear and appreciate this wall of total solid silence anyway. The important thing is providing the time for reflection, sorrow, sympathy and respect (Andy Cadier, BDXC-UK via DXLD) The BBC, at 1200 UT on January 5 had a very poignant recognition of the victims of the tsunami disaster in Asia. They announced 3 minutes of silence in Britain just prior to 1200, saying the three minutes of silence in Britain begins in London with Big Ben at 12 Hours GMT, followed by the full sequence of Big Ben, then, ``As the sound of Big Ben fades, Britain pauses to remember the victims of the tsunami disaster,`` then after a moment`s silence, ``If you have just joined us, this is three minutes of reflection, as Britain joins in recognition of the victims of the tsunami disaster.`` Then silence for about another minute. Then at 1203, into financial news. This was, I believe, nearly unprecedented. It brought home to me, and I am sure many others worldwide, the tremendous loss to so many in so many countries. In this age of near instantaneous communications and images we have all seen and heard in recent days, this moment to pause, whether in prayer, meditation, or just reflection was very emotional, important, meaningful, and appropriate. Thank you, BBC (Roger Chambers Utica, New York, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. BBC dawn transmissions on disaster update http://www.agencyfaqs.com/media/media_newslet....Media/3529.html [sic] Media release, December 28, 2004 London The BBC Tamil Service, which has its primary target audiences in these two regions, will broadcast special 15-minute dawn transmissions from Monday, Dec 27th, to Saturday , January 1 to provide additional information on the breaking news. The special dawn program can be heard between GMT 0030 and 0045 (0600 and 0615 hrs am Indian Standard Time (6.30 am and 6.45 am Sri Lankan Time) on SW meterbands 49 (6040) and 25 (12045). The programme can also be heard live on its website http://www.bbctamil.com For more information contact: T. Manivannan Head of Tamil Service BBC World Service Bush House Strand , PO Box 76, London WC2B 4PH Ph: 00 44 20 7 5570377 Fax: 00 44 20 7 4970297 email: thirumalai.manivannan@bbc.co.uk Media newslets index page http://www.agencyfaqs.com/media/media_newslets/index.html http://www.agencyfaqs.com/media/media_newslets/Media/index_0.html (via Frederick Noronha, India, Jan 5, dx_india via DXLD) A bit late getting to us, but perhaps extended? (gh, DXLD) ** U K. BBC Shuffles Feature Programs --- Hi, all! Hope this isn't duplicative info. The BBC has shuffled some of the feature programs from one day to another as of this new year. I think that this was triggered by the termination of the John Peel show, the timeslot for which is now filled with "Music Review". Here is what I gleaned from comparing older and current weekly BBC schedule grids: Note -- the days referred to are the UT days for the Americas stream morning broadcasts in the 1400-1600 UT range. The UT days will shift forward and back depending on the time of broadcast or the particular stream you hear. (Of course, I guess you can pull all of these off the net at any time you want, but I only listen on SW so this is what I am describing.) This is what is repeated in the US evenings at 0100-0300 UT the following UT day. The following are all the features aired at 1532 UT following the 1505 UT science block weekdays. Monday: Was "Light Entertainment" (like "Quote, Unquote" or "Just A Minute", for example); now "The Word". Tuesday: Was "Music Review"; now "Everywoman". Thursday: Was "The Word"; now "Sports International". Wednesday's and Friday's split half-hour of "Westway" and the following "Heart & Soul" and "What's The Problem?" remain unchanged. The 1400 UT hour on Friday changed from "Sports International" and "John Peel" to "Global Business" and "Music Review". The other varying features during that hour thru the week remain as-was. It would have been nice if the BBC had made some on-air announcements of these changes, especially since "On Air" magazine no longer exists to tell listeners about this. I didn't see any specific program-lineup changes mentioned on the website, but noticed the differences when listening and then compared printed-out weekly sked grids to determine this. Did anyone see or hear any notices of these changes in advance? 73, (Will Martin, MO, Jan 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Richard Rael Dies --- Richard Rael, a broadcast production director and special English announcer at the DC-based Voice Of America, died on 1/3 of injuries he received in a bicycle accident that occurred on 12/24. His family will be receiving friends and colleagues on Saturday, 1/15, from 12:30 PM until 2 PM the Hotel Tabard Inn, 1739 N Street, NW, DC (DCRTV Jan 5 via DXLD) ** U S A. Radio Free Asia Guild Unit – News Dec. 23, 2004 TENATIVE AGREEMENT! (FINALLY) The Guild and RFA management Wednesday, December 22, 2004 reached a tentative agreement on a three-year contract that would be retroactive to October 1, 2004. The agreement came after nearly 15 months of bargaining, and more than a year and a-half after RFA employees voted overwhelmingly to be represented by the Guild. Most of the details of the contract will be provided a little later, but the final agreement calls for a restructuring of the Broadcaster job classification as of October 1, 2005. Under that restructuring, the seven current Broadcaster grades will be condensed into three. The lowest level Broadcaster will have a starting annual salary of $43,000 (compared to the current $37,148) and a top of $51,389. The middle level will start at $49,895 and top out at $59,629. The top level will start at $54,884 and end at $65,591. Under the restructuring, no Broadcaster can be moved to a lower salary. Dozens will receive raises of 3% or more next October. Broadcasters who are currently at Grades 4 and 5 will get at least a 3% pay raise. Anyone who does not get at least at 3% pay raise will be eligible for a one-time performance based lump-sum payment of 3% of the their salary. The October 1, 2004, step increases will be paid retroactively, and all employees will receive a 3.5% pay increase as of January 1, 2005. This agreement must be approved by the members, and a vote will be scheduled for early January. We also will schedule a membership meeting to go over the details of the agreement prior to the vote. This tentative agreement is the result of the strong support of the members in the language services but especially due to the hard work and dedication of the rank-and-file bargaining team: Karma Zurkhang, Liu Hong and Poly Sam (RFA Guild Unit via DXLD) ** U S A. NEW YEAR BEGINS WITH AGENCY PLANNING MASSIVE RIF Dateline: Washington, 01/04/05. The Agency informed the Union today that it will release an email announcing the final buyout opportunity. The purpose for the buyout is "to reduce or avoid the disruptive effects of: 1. the earlier programming reductions in Bulgarian, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Slovene, Romanian and Armenian for employees who cannot be placed; 2. anticipated reductions in Worldwide English broadcasts from 19 to 14 hours and; 3. anticipated reductions in the staffing of the Office of Engineering's Greenville Transmission Station on Agency operations and accomplishment of mission and to mitigate the impact on affected employees." This is an incredible waste of resources. We encourage all employees in the English Division and the Greenville Relay Station to contact their Senators and Representative as soon as possible and demand that they do something to keep VOA English radio broadcasts on the air (AFGE Local 1812 via DXLD) ** U S A. Here`s another gullible client of the DX Radio Network, which is giving ``DX`` a bad name --- http://www.gospelbroadcastingmission.org/heard.html The Christians' Hour: Worldwide in English COUNTRY SHORT & MEDIUM WAVE DAY LOCAL TIME [with our comments] Indonesia 1164/1594 Sunday 8:00 PM [neither is on the 9-kHz plan!] Peru 4165 Sunday 8:00 PM [no Peruvian on 4165!] Columbia 4770 Sunday 8:00 PM [Colombia? None on 4770!] Bolivia 4890 Sunday 8:00 PM [no Bolivian on 4890!] Venezuela 4995 Sunday 8:00 PM [no Venezuelan on 4995!] Paraguay 5010 Sunday 8:00 PM [no Paraguayan on 5010!] Russia 6165 Sunday 8:00 PM [no Russian on 6165!] Russia 7425 Sunday 8:00 PM [no Russian on 7425!] Russia 9450 Sunday 8:00 PM [FEBA Novosibirsk? Probably coincidence] Russia 11890 Sunday 8:00 PM [no Russian on 11890!] Brazil 9465 Sunday 8:00 PM [no Brazilian on 9465!] India FEBA shortwave Friday PM/English West Indies Radio Rhemaa/Joy FM Russia and South America DX Radio Network Internet http://www.OnePlace.com How convenient they are all at 8 PM --- in Russia, now which timezone would that be? If DXRN were to provide the frequency of an actual station, it might be possible to check it out, even if not named! No doubt frequencies are made up only when pressed for them. Another gullible client is satisfied with generalities, no details about countries, stations, SW frequencies they think they are on: http://webminister.com/growth01/p0504i.htm (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Just a reminder that the WFIL [560] DX Test will take place this coming Saturday morning between 0200 and 0330 AM [EST = 0700-0830 UT]. I'm sorry that the time of this test is so late/early (choose one, depending on your perspective); but it was the only time I could get it scheduled around paid programming. The test will be similar to the WNTP [990] test we did last month in format. The biggest difference is that I will be spending more of the time with the sweep tones, and will be shortening the Morse IDs to just the call letters, rather than call letters and city of license. You will also be hearing a few old classic WFIL PAMS jingles that I have managed to locate in our basement storage room, including the well-known Top of the Hour jingle from the 1972 "Philadelphia Story" package, and some Series 27 and other stuff. A word to those whom I still owe QSL's from the WNTP test. I was out of the office over the holidays between 12/22 - 1/3. I received your reports Monday when I came back to work and hope to get the QSL's out either today or tomorrow, now that I'm done playing catch up. 73, René F. Tetro, Chief Engineer WNTP - 990 kHz / WFIL - 560 kHz 117 Ridge Pike Lafayette Hill, PA 19444-1901 Phone: (610) 828-6965 Extension 41 Fax: (610) 828-8879 Work Emails: rene @ wntp.com; rene @ wfil.com Personal Email: rtetro @ pobox.com (Forwards to both home and work) Personal Licenses: General Radiotelephone: PG-2-16913 Business Communications: WPXU288 (464.55 mHz) GMRS: WPXG816 Amateur Radio Service: N2GQL, General Class Member: SBE, AES, ARRL, RSGB, NRC, IRCA (NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. WLAC's IBOC [1510 Nashville TN] --- I finally got around to spending a little time checking out the effects of WLAC's IBOC --- and was pleasantly surprised that ONLY the adjacent channels were completely jammed with IBOC artifacts. To be fair, they were almost equally loaded with audio slop before, so I don't really consider the change to be all that great. There's a probability that when skywave conditions kick in, 1500 and 1520 will be useless when the IBOC is on --- but neither of those frequencies was very productive with the analog-only signal. As far as second adjacents, there's a graveyarder on 1490 that didn't seem to be bothered; likewise for a very weak groundwave signal from WSAI on 1530. Unlike the reports I've seen stating that the IBOC hash killed signals as much as 30 or 40 kHz on either side of the center frequency, my initial impression was that it really didn't seem to be much worse than analog. On the topic of sidebands --- some AM stations (not IBOC) seem to have very different-sounding sidebands than they did a few years ago. WSM is a good example; and it's hard to describe. Rather than the previous high frequency slop with lots of "crashes", it now sounds more like listening to a badly tuned SSB transmission in mono. I hope that makes some sense. My guess is that the change is probably something in the audio processing, but I'm not really sure (Tom Bryant / Nashville, WTFDA-AM via DXLD) My experiences with WBZ are like this. I'm just south of Springfield, MA. You would think far enough away from WBZ. But just tonight, around 5pm, their IBOC was covering everything from about 1015 to 1045, but WINS 1010 and WEVD 1050 weren't bothered. When you are as close to the station as you are, slop is slop, no matter how it is caused and you wouldn't hear the adjacents either way. But if you were 30-40 miles away from WLAC, you'd most likely be complaining about the adjacent freqs being useless and covered with hiss. I just hope they don't let these stations use it at night (Mike Bugaj, CT, ibid.) Even out here near Buffalo, WBZ's IBOC is fairly bad. Lots of noise on 1020 and 1040, though CFRB-1010 and CHUM-1050 do not seem to be affected. I didn't know what IBOC was until recently; I just thought those frequencies were noisy but cleared up at sunset! WHAM's is pretty bad too, ruining 1170/1190, and also being audible on 1160 and 1200 but not ruining everything (Greg Coniglio, NY, ibid.) ** U S A. The company I worked for in Tennessee still speeds up records on two of their stations there: WXBQ-FM (country) and WAEZ-FM (CHR). Whenever I installed new Denon 951 CD players, before putting them in the studios I had to reset the speed. The speed up, though, was just 1.6% -- a lot slower than the 5% we used to do on stations back in the 70s. It was just enough to give the music some "punch" or "excitement" (the PD's terminology) but not really noticeable unless you were looking for it (René F. Tetro, Chief Engineer WNTP - 990 kHz / WFIL - 560 kHz 117 Ridge Pike Lafayette Hill, PA 19444-1901, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** ZANZIBAR. TANZANIA, R. Tanzania Zanzibar heard on 6015 kHz, Nov 20th signing on at 0257 UT, IS, Nat Anthem, 5 pips at 0300, opening annmt and Qur`an. Swahili talk until 0310 tune out, very good signal but splatter from 6010 (John Wilkins-CO-USA, Cumbre VIA bc-DX via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 6310 wav=Radio Roj? Hallo, As far as I can catch this language, which sounds to me Kazakh; I can understand something as Aja(tajik=inja?), Radio Roj dengi ... besh kilohetrz ( ...5 kHz) Yesterday 4. Jan, I have heard for more than 2 hours starting from 1350 fade in (S0 and below) the station playing for at least 15+ with clearly Turkish / Kurdish songs instead of the region which is different. As for example at 1420 there was a Turkish replica of a Greek song, then a Kurdish song on 'Irani'. At 1445 I found a short but different ID of 'Radio Roj' by the same speakers followed by clearly Turkish songs and once again short announcement (80 secs) by YL with more Turkish/Kurdish songs to follow. I think that after 1530 or 1600 the songs were more eastern. My question comes now: if this Radio Roj has a relationship with Roj TV, a Kurdish satellite TV program that transmits via Hotbird. I am to upload a file on my web site with the ID from the 1445 soon. For the moment there is a server error (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, Jan 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I would think the ID sounds like "Azad Radyo Roja" / "Radyo Roj". The letter "j" is pronounced "zh" in Kurdish. "Roj" means "Sun" in northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) and is an important word for the Kurdish identity, the sun is a central motive in the Kurdish national flag. There are a number of Kurdish massmedia outlets named this way, like for example Roj TV in Denmark (which is the former Mezopotamian Radio & TV which a.o. leased airtime via TDP some years ago): http://www.roj.tv --- the Belgian company Roj NV which produces the radio station Dengê Mezopotamya, or the German-Kurdish Internet provider "Roj online". 73s, (Bernd Trutenau, via WORLD OF RADIO 1259, DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DRM +++ DRM Propagation is different today. I don't know if there is a technical/propagational explanation for it, but it is one of those days when signals appear to "splash" and "splatter" more than usual. Pori 9560, for instance. And DRM on 5990 was about 30 kHz wide HF, and from 5965 upwards there was no break in DRM between 5975 and 5990. Hash from 7265 was audible as low as 7210 and up past 7300 - I measured S9 on 7275/7285. This phenomenon has been noticed many times and I don't think is in any way connected with the broadcasters themselves. [same hit me, when local area is snow covered all my receivers note QRM of nearby TV tower - 1200 meters away, especially around 9580 to 9600 kHz, wb.] There was a loud digital signal on about 9677 - 78 at 0830 UT which was QRMing RL 9680 and BRZ 9675. And this also was sending out hash either side (Noel R. Green-UK, BC-DX Dec 28 via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ ART DECO RADIOS I offer a site featuring 'Art Deco Radios'. Lot's of eye candy here for Bakelite and Catalin radios plus information about the resins used to create these plastic cabinets and other information as well. Find it at: http://www.decoradios.com/. Until the next column I wish everyone good health and the very best of DX! 73 de DX de NY, (Ray Bauernhuber, Website Wanderings, IRCA Soft DX Monitor Jan 8 via DXLD) A DUMMIES` GUIDE TO WORKING WITH WALL WARTS By John H. Bryant, with Bill Bowers I`ve often been frustrated by my lack of understanding of the simplest electronic device that any of us possess: the ubiquitous ``wall wart`` plug-in power supply. I must confess that when I have co-authored technical articles in the past, the emphasis is very much on the `co.` In such projects, I generally perform as scribe, editor, graphic artist and all-around cheerleader, while relying on my partner to supply the essential technical expertise and applied creativity. Thus, when faced with a continuing need for small external power supplies of specific voltage or RF cleanliness, I have been at the mercy of the rather insanely high prices charged for such things at Radio Shack or other electronic parts outlets; all the while, I was accumulating a whole drawer full of spare wall warts, orphaned from various long- forgotten consumer and hobby devices. . . http://www.dxing.info/equipment/wall_warts_bryant.dx (via DXLD) I, for one, am less likely to read something aimed at ``dummies``. Speak for yourself. That said, it`s a useful article (gh, DXLD) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ READING INTERNATIONAL RADIO GROUP NEW VENUE These meetings are an opportunity for UK international radio listeners to meet together. They have been held regularly since 1976 and are still proving to be very popular. The next meeting will be on Saturday February 5th at a new venue, Meeting Room 1 at the Reading International Solidarity Centre (RISC), 35-39 London Street, central Reading. Meetings have also been booked for April 23rd and June 11th. RISC operates a cafe/bar (RISC Global Cafe) and shop (The World Shop) in London Street, the meeting rooms are at the back, the entrance is via a small passage just beyond the RISC shop, or ask for directions in the shop or bar. It is about 10 minutes walk from Reading station, just south of the main town centre and on several bus routes. RISC has a web site including directions (see Where are We?) at http://www.risc.org.uk We will be in the RISC global cafe/bar at 1400, moving to the meeting room itself at 1430. Mobile calls on the day can be made to Dave Kenny on 0775 4377661. The meetings last about 2 and a half hours followed by an optional drink and curry at a local Indian restaurant. For further information email mikewb@dircon.co.uk, phone 01462 643899 (Mike Barraclough, BDXC-UK via DXLD) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES / PROPAGATION +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SPACE WEATHER WEEK 2005, APRIL 5-8, BROOMFIELD, COLORADO The Space Weather Week conference this year will take place April 5-8, 2005, just outside of Boulder at the Renaissance Suites in Broomfield, Colorado. The conference will cover several interesting areas including space exploration and necessary space weather support; the radiation environment near Earth; problems with navigation, communication, and ground-induced currents; airline issues; agency activities; research models and data; and weather-space weather connections. We anticipate that representatives from industries affected by space weather will attend as well as vendors serving those industries. Researchers and funders of research will be eager participants as well. While Space Weather Week starts on Tuesday morning, there will be a few meetings on Sunday and Monday, April 3-4, 2005. These meeting will include a space weather tutorial (everyone welcome),an ISES meeting (closed), and an Airline Team meeting (closed). The tutorial is expected to draw quite a few attendees; the cost is subsumed in the conference fees, so just check the box when you register for the conference. Space Weather Week 2005 is co-sponsored by the NOAA Space Environment Center, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the NSF Division of Atmospheric Science, and the NASA Earth-Sun System Division. The conference will be held in Broomfield at the Renaissance Suites Hotel just off highway U.S. 36 (the diagonal between Boulder and Denver). Some will recognize the area as the Flatiron Crossing shopping complex. The site gives attendees access to plenty of places to eat, shop, and view movies, all on foot or with the aid of a shuttle bus. You can even walk the trails behind the complex. Those who stay at the hotel can use its very nice workout rooms, too. Airport access is quick and easy via shuttle vans, and the only event requiring transportation away from the conference is the Reception in Boulder. Carpooling will accommodate anyone without personal transportation. So renting a car at the airport is optional if you stay at the shopping complex. Conference Details The structure of the conference will be much the same as last year. There will be plenary sessions throughout the conference, 2-hour poster sessions for the first 3 days with all the posters up throughout those days, and a reception on Wednesday evening. Further details regarding the meeting agenda and travel details will be posted on our Web site in the near future: http://www.sec.noaa.gov/sww ... http://www.sec.noaa.gov/user_notes/UN47.html (Jan SEC User Notes via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ Hi, I thought some here might find the following post interesting. 73 de Phil, KO6BB, Merced, Central California, swl at qth.net Subject: [QRP-L] SUDDEN IONOSPHERIC DISTURBANCES Gang, There have been some episodes over the past week of some very strange Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances, or SIDs. These have not been caused by solar flares or the like, but rather from GRBs ... Gamma Ray Bursts, from very distant objects, like several hundred light years away. The biggest recent event was on December 27, 2004 when a massive gamma ray burst hit the earth about 2130 UTC from a Magnetar called SGR- 1806. This GRB was so powerful that it was able to ionize our ionosphere, just like a solar flare, and cause ionospheric absorption down to the VLF frequencies. This indicates a GLE, a Ground Level Event, meaning the ionizing radiation from the GRB penetrated our atmosphere, all the way to ground level. There are amateur astronomers of sorts who monitor the signal strength from high powered VLF transmitters, such as the Navy stations NAA, NPM, NLK, etc. At VLF, signal strengths are fairly constant, varying a bit during day and night. Some of these amateur stations show a sudden absorption of signals at VLF due to the arrival of the GRB's. Some of their plots can be seen at: http://aavso.org Click on the "GCN #2932" button for the SID plots. Very interesting. For the real neophytes out there, http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn3_archive.html This is the clearinghouse for all observatories and satellites doing GRB monitoring and/or observing. A little on the heavy side, including several reports about the observing we're doing at the Very Large Array (VLA) radiotelescope on SGR-1806. Our normal observing schedule has been interrupted to observe this strange phenomenon. The VLA has found SGR-1806 and is making images of it daily right now. It's not clear yet what SGR-1806 is, or was, other than something that possibly blew up big time, perhaps a collapsing pulsar, that has spewed debris and electrons out into space, traveling from 0.3 to 0.7 times the speed of light. It was the initial explosion, on Dec. 27th, that showered gamma rays into the Earth`s ionosphere. This is an explosion that occurred 200+ years ago, and the shockwave of gamma rays is so powerful, it was able to ionize our E and F layers, and absorb VLF propagation. Pretty impressive. If you look at the above link, "signal strengths" of the radio energy is measured by scientists by "flux density," using units of mJy ... milli Jansky's. For example, current VLA detected flux density of this event is about 100 mJy at L-band (1 GHz) and 30 mJy at C-band (8 GHz). 1 Jy (1 Jansky) = 1.7 x 10EE-23 mW. 1 mJy = 1.7 x 10EE-26 mW. Figure out what the dBm is of that. Now THAT is QRP! I noticed some complaining on qrp-l for several days after Dec. 27 about weird propagation and how some couldn't hear a "peep" on 80M, 6M, etc. Now you know why. 72, Paul NA5N PS - I work at the NRAO Very Large Array (VLA), the world's largest radio telescope, in Socorro, NM. However, I am posting this information from observatory information as a private individual ham radio QRP kind of guy. This is not an official observatory press release. It's not an official anything. You don't even have to believe it. And, I'm not using my work computer that tax payers bought me. So for those 3 individuals that have gotten a kick out of contacting my employer over my past solar/propagation posts, save your breath. I am not representing the NRAO in any way shape or form in this post or using tax payer stuff. For the rest of you, I hope you enjoy and find the info interesting (via Phil Atchley, swl at qth.net via DXLD) GEOMAGNETIC INDICES Phil Bytheway - Seattle WA - phil_tekno@yahoo.com Geomagnetic Summary December 16 2004 through January 5 2005 Tabulated from daily email status Date Flux A K SA Forecast GM Forecast Aurora Index 12/16 89 5 2 x x x 17 90 10 3 no storms minor 6 18 90 17 x x x x 19 91 10 2 no storms no storms 6 20 94 5 2 no storms no storms 5 21 94 4 3 x x x 22 101 10 1 minor no storms 8 23 99 18 x x x x 24 96 5 2 no storms no storms 4 25 97 5 2 no storms no storms 5 26 93 14 2 no storms no storms 6 27 92 10 2 no storms no storms 7 28 97 7 3 no storms no storms 5 29 105 13 4 no storms no storms 8 30 99 21 3 minor minor 8 12/31 100 18 3 minor minor 4 1/ 1 99 2 2 minor minor 4 2 99 15 x x x x 3 100 25 3 minor minor 7 4 94 21 2 minor minor 7 1/ 5 88 19 3 no storms no storms 8 ********************************************************************** (IRCA Soft DX Monitor Jan 8 via DXLD) ###