DX LISTENING DIGEST 5-168, September 25, 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 2005 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 1288: Sun 1730 WOR WRN1 to North America (including Sirius Satellite Radio channel 115 [from October 2, channel 140]) Sun 1900 WOR RNI Mon 0300 WOR WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0330 WOR WSUI Iowa City IA 910 Mon 0415 WOR WBCQ 7415 [usually closer to 0418-] Mon 1600 WOR WBCQ after hours Mon 1800 WOR RFPI [repeated 4-hourly thru Tue 1400] Tue 1600 WOR WBCQ after hours Tue 2330 WOR WBCQ 7415 [usually but temporary] Wed 0930 WOR WWCR 9985 Wed 1600 WOR WBCQ after hours Latest edition of this schedule version, with hotlinks to station sites and audio, is at: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html WRN ON DEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO [also CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL]: http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org WORLD OF RADIO 1288 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1288h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1288h.rm WORLD OF RADIO 1288 (low version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1288.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1288.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1288.html WORLD OF RADIO 1288 in true SW sound of Alex`s mp3 (stream) http://www.dxprograms.net/worldofradio_09-25-05.m3u (download) http://www.dxprograms.net/worldofradio_09-25-05.mp3 WORLD OF RADIO 1288 downloads in studio-quality mp3: (high) http://www.obriensweb.com/wor1288h.mp3 (low) http://www.obriensweb.com/wor1288.mp3 WORLD OF RADIO PODCAST: www.obriensweb.com/wor.xml (1282, 1283, Extra 59, 1284, Extra 60, 1285, 1286, 1287, 1288) SPECIAL ENGLISH VERSION OF WORLD OF RADIO Perhaps a totally stupid idea but --- I could make a "special English" version of World Of Radio (a la VOA) where Glenn's voice is delivered at a 40% slower rate. I tested it , and it sounds quite good. Before I add to the traffic of my web site, I wonder if there is any interest in this format? It does make it easier to copy down frequency information and URLs. Perhaps there are people who have English as a secondary language and would find a slower speaking Glenn easier to understand? If you want to hear a minute or so of what it sounds like, here is a link --- http://www.netsync.net/users/obrienaj/wor.mp3 (Andy K3UK O`Brien, NY, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hello DXers, well, I think Mr. Hauser is the only one who has the right to answer that Q --- but if you ask me, I'd say a GREAT idea. All the best (Tarek Zeidan, Cairo, Egypt, ibid.) Since I am incapable of speaking that slowly, and I know I am too fast for some tastes or comprehension, that`s --- fine --- with --- me! (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTIGUA. It has been reported in a couple of postings to the A-DX mailing list that Deutsche Welle headquarters at Bonn recently sent out QSL cards for reception reports mailed to the Antigua station prior to its closure, in the hope for a direct reply of course. Apparently they recently cleared out the offices of the dead station. Wonder what will happen with these facilities? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Sept 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. Saludos cordiales, emisora no identificada en 7875 USB emitiendo en inglés con música pop, escuchada desde las 1950-2006, locutor en inglés. SINPO 33322 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sept 23, dxldyg via DXLD) No doubt ABC Western Australia relay as others have been reporting (gh) Ya escuché esta transmisión hace dos días. He oído algunas identificaciónes. Se trata de los programas de la emisora ABC Perth, Australia (720 AM), pero quien está transmitiendo estos programas, no es claro. This is a transmission of the program of ABC Perth, Australia (720 AM) according to an ID I heard two days ago. Is it already clear who is transmitting these signals? (WUN president Ary Boender informed me that the Australian Navy is 1.5 kHz lower in frequency). (Max van Arnhem, Holanda, HCDX via DXLD) The program is from ABC Radio, from Western Australia, 6WF Perth on 720 AM. There actually was a local ID at 2005 UTC after the regional weather forecast. However, the transmitter site remains a mystery. I'm trying to find out more info on this one, and will post it at http://www.dxing.info/community/viewtopic.php?t=1865 and if this proves to be a new shortwave station, also on the front page of DXing.info. 73 (Mika Mäkeläinen, condiglist via DXLD) Viz.: Coming in with good reception quality. Have listened to the station for a few hours now. Programming follows the schedule at http://www.abc.net.au/perth/schedule.htm although hosts of the shows don't always match. Identifies as "720 ABC Perth and local radio WA". Still no idea of the transmitter location and purpose (Mika, as above, via DXLD) After reading tips from David Hodgson (DXLD 5-165) and Jari Savolainen and (and others) (DXLD 5-167) I tuned into the ABC Western Australia relay on 7876 kHz usb last night at 2227 UT. Fair strength clear signal at first using just my portable Sony 7600 GR with its telescopic aerial. Still audible but weaker and fading out when I tuned out around 2305 UT. Programme included ABC Regional News at 2230 ("half past Six") promos for "ABC North West - the Best Part of Western Australia" and chat on the breakfast show about the upcoming (Australian Rules Football) "Grand Final" - Eagles v Swans. Also a promo for "Midsomer Murders" on TV! Western Australia was referred to as "WA". Nice to hear some local radio on shortwave! (Alan Pennington, (on location in Longton, Preston, Lancs, UK), Sony 7600 GR with inbuilt telescopic aerial, ibid.) Ah, I remember the good ole days of VLX and VLW on 6140, 9610 and 15425 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This station is coming in well now at 1610 UT Saturday. I measure the frequency as 7875.0 kHz in upper sideband. Just identified as "Overnight on WA" (Dave Kenny, Caversham, Berks., Sept 24, BDXC-UK via DXLD) Re Australia on 7875 USB - this one was already giving a good signal at my location in NW England at tune in 1730 on the 23rd. The programme was 'Overnight Australia', a phone in show. I didn't hear an ID but there was a time check which gave zonal times in Australia and another announcement which MIGHT have been the beginning of an ID shortly before 1800. But this was interrupted by the well known theme music used to introduced the ABC news on the hour. I tried again this morning between 0630 and 0700 for any possible signal via the long path but heard nothing. Perhaps not surprising if the transmitter is located in Western Australia = UT +8. Max van Arnhem, Holanda reports ``WUN president Ary Boender informed me that the Australian Navy is 1.5 kHz lower in frequency.`` I also notice that Christmas Island [Australian] - the one near Indonesia - rebroadcasts programmes from ABC Perth while the Cocos [Keeling] Islands further to the south-west also relays the ABC according to the WRTH. 73 (Noel R. Green, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ABC on 7875U --- hi, it was on at 1155 UT with Grandstand Sport then the news at 1200 followed by Saturday Night Country. Signal only weak here (Wayne Bastow, Wyoming, east coast Australia, Sept 24, ATS-909, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7875 USB, ABC, 1215 Sept 24, Noted today directly parallel with audio from Radio Australia on 6020 and 9580. Previously, I have heard only ABC Local Radio never the general ABC feed. The program was called "Saturday Night Country Music." Clear signal (David Hodgson, TN, DX LISTENING DIGEST) September 24 listening to ABC News and Weather Report at 1305 UT on 7875.05 kHz USB with S9 signal strength. Really good reception and nice programming, too (Jouko Huuskonen, Turku, Finland, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7875 USB, ABC Western Australian Territory, 1622-1632, en inglés, escuchada el 24 de sep a locutor con entrevista a invitada, relato acompañados de piano y coro, 44333 (José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7875 kHz, 1930 UT 24.09.2005, ABC Perth usb mode, 35343. Details: Program Englisch rock music, voice by Announcer, ID by lady announcer (De Berti Paolo, HE9UAK, Switzerland, JRC 545 - RF Dx one antena, blcnews.it via DXLD) Anche in questo momento, 2105 UT, su 7875 kHz in USB sta arrivando ABC, servizio interno australiano ritrasmesso da Perth, Western Australian Territory. Segnale discreto. Alle 21 annuncio e ABC News. Arrivava anche ieri sera, ma mi sono dimenticato di postare il tip. Sorry. Rx EKD 315 + t2fd, Ciao (Giampiero Bernardini, Sept 24, bclnews.it via DXLD) Yes, I can hear it also in Italy, this evening, with fair to good signal, on 7875 kHz. On the hour at 21 and 22 UT "ABC News". Now at 2215 Italian opera: Libiam nei lieti calici, from La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi. Also yesterday I heard some Italian music as a song of Mina, great Italian singer. (RX: EKD 315 + r2fd) Ciao (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italy, Sept 24, BDXC-UK via DXLD) ABC, Perth, Western Australia, 24-09, 2215-2230 UT on 7875 USB, poor with QSB in English, talks and music "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" from the "Traviata" by G. Verdi (Francesco Cecconi, Italy, HCDX via DXLD) 7875U, ABC Western Australia SSB. Sept. 25. 1356-1445+ Noted with the program 'Speaking Out' with host Karen Dorante at tune-in, noted to 1400 then relay of the ABC National News. 1409 Sports Report which afterwards followed with the program called 'Sunday Night Talk' with John Clearly. Tonight's topic was about hope, with call-in phone number of 1-300-800-2222. One ID was caught at 1420 as 'ABC Western Australia' and other at 1435 as 'On Sunday Night, right here on ABC Western Australia'. Signal was Very Good+ on the loop, at this time period (Edward Kusalik, Alberta, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Audible here Sept 25 at 1358 on 7875-USB, very weak, and comparing to RHC 11875 on the FRG-7 seemed to be slightly off 7875.0; 1400 ABC News sounder occurred about 2 seconds ahead of RA on 9590, but then the news was not //. Fade-out into the noise level by 1405 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ABC on 7875U has been audible here the past few days. Any idea who is putting this relay on and why? ABC itself? Transmitter site? (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, dxldyg via DXLD) Seems this transmitter may be located at Northwest Cape in WA. An Australian Defence Force transmitter. Regards (Tony Magon VK2IC, Sept 25, dxldyg via DXLD) This is a relay of ABC Western Australia. Well heard here on the WCNA. My guess is that it's the Australian Defence Forces Radio, which did broadcast on SW a number of years back now. Great information, Tony. I did a Google search for the ADFR and didn't come up with anything. Source for your information? Any transmitter info? My guess is 10 to 40 kW, as the reception is very good here on the WCNA (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, Sept 25, ibid.) Ciao! in questo momento 1600 UT 24 Settembre sta arrivando con buona comprensibilità qui a Milano, su 7875 kHz in USB. Ricordo che è il servizio ABC da PERTH del WESTERN AUSTRALIAN TERRITORY, che da noi era un bel po di tempo che non si sentiva sulle onde corte. http://www.abc.net.au/perth/ Address: 30 Fielder St (cnr Royal) East Perth, Western Australia GPO Box 9994 Perth, Western Australia, 6848 Nella loro OTTIMA pagina WEB hanno pure un formulario per inviare rapporti di ascolto! http://www.abc.net.au/perth/contact.htm (Dario Monferini, Italy, playdx via DXLD) But I`ll bet they don`t even know about this at ABC HQ in Perth and will refuse to QSL 7875. WA is not a territory, but a state (gh, DXLD) ** BELGIUM. RTFB Selects Thalès for DRM. Radio Television Belge de la Communauté Français (RTBF) recently contracted Thalès for the supply of a fully automatic DRM 100 kW shortwave transmitter type TSW 2100D. As DRM front-end, RTBF chose the latest generation Thalès Skywave 2000 DRM Multi-Program Multiplexer CIRRUS (TXW 5125D) and the DRM Versatile Modulator / RF Exciter STRATUS (TXW 5126D). The equipment will be installed at the existing station at Wavre. Beginning March 2006, RTBF intends to service Southern Europe with the new DRM transmitter. Programs will include regular analog shortwave as well as DRM tests. "We had to buy a new transmitter to go on with our shortwave transmissions, and of course to go digital" explains Mr. Fantuzzi, head Manager of the RTBF RF Department. "Our existing transmitters are very old. Some of them have been installed in 1952!" Thalès was the best technical choice. Their TSW 2100D allows RTBF to start very rapidly DRM transmissions. But we foresee an analog simulcast in the beginning, so as not to disappoint our many listeners. Besides, Thalès will help us to repair some of the curtain antennas on our Wavre transmission site, which will appreciably improve our coverage", adds Mr. Fantuzzi. RTBF had stopped its shortwave transmissions in 1990, but it came back on air after a few years. "The Belgian French speaking public broadcaster has to be heard outside Belgium. We received a lot of congratulations and encouragements when we started again", says Mr. Francis Goffin, Head Director of the RTBF Radios. "We want to keep contact with all Belgian people who are on holidays or live in Southern Europe, but we also broadcast for all French speaking people. Many of them write us to tell us, that they like our programs. And now we intend to be among the first broadcasters to operate in DRM. In a few months, our listeners will be able to listen to RTBF International with an FM-like quality!", concludes Mr. Goffin (THALES Radio News Autumn 2005, Issue 20. via wwdxc BC-DX Sep 20) More Thales: R.E.F. ** BRAZIL. Brasil entra na era do rádio digital http://www.estadao.com.br/tecnologia/telecom/2005/set/23/131.htm [additional IBOC testing stations: WTFK??? The Brazilians are being fed the same HD hype as the Americans; hope they don`t fall for it; see also DIGITAL BROADCASTING below] No próximo dia 26, várias emissoras brasileiras, entre as quais a Rádio Eldorado, farão os primeiros testes com a nova tecnologia em São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre e Curitiba. São Paulo - A Rádio Eldorado, o Sistema Globo de Rádio, Bandeirantes, Jovem Pan e RBS começam os testes de transmissão digital no próximo dia 26 de setembro, em São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre e Curitiba. A autorização para a experiência foi concedida pelo Ministério das Comunicações, por um período de seis meses. Pelo novo sistema será possível ouvir emissoras AM, como se elas fossem FM e estas com qualidade de CD. Ele permite também distribuir o áudio com informações no formato de texto, como autor e intérprete de músicas, previsão do tempo, trânsito e manchetes. Tudo será mostrado no visor dos aparelhos que devem estar disponíveis aos consumidores dentro de 30 dias. Segundo Edilberto de Paula Ribeiro, presidente da Associação das Emissoras de Rádio e Televisão do Estado de São Paulo (AESP), a tecnologia adotada aqui foi a Iboc, sigla de In Band On Channel, que permite difundir os sinais analógico e digital na mesma faixa, sem a necessidade de alocar novos canais para a digitalização. José Inácio Pizani, presidente da Associação Brasileira de Emissoras de Rádio e Televisão (Abert), citado pelo jornal O Estado de São Paulo, disse que a transmissão digital, que já existe nos Estados Unidos, México e Canadá, é uma tendência mundial irreversível e representa uma nova era para o rádio brasileiro. "A nova tecnologia deve permitir um renascimento da música na rádio AM", afirmou Pizani. João Magalhães (via Carlos Felipe, radioescutas via DXLD) ** CANADA. RCI missing from 13655, normally its best morning frequency here, as Sunday Edition was beginning at 1311 UT Sept 25, but audible on 9515 and, mixed with DW, on 17800. Recheck 1538 UT, still missing from 13655 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. Martí-530 tonight --- A no-show. Presume -- as with the downtime circa Hurricane Katrina – flight plans were cancelled as a precaution and/or due to potential PANG deployment due to Hurricane Rita. All bets are on for next week (unless Rita returns to the Gulf of Mexico as a low, as five models currently forecast). (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, 2214 UT Sat Sept 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also VENEZUELA [non] ** CUBA. Last year DST lasted all winter but this year, per http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst2005b.html Cuba is scheduled to go back to UT -5 on October 30 at 0500 UT, same date as US! So it will no longer be in step with the Bolívarian Republic of Venezuela (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. Radio Ambiente, 96.7 MHz, QSL-letter in 89 days for RR+1$, v/s Pedro Carlos Guerrero, Director general. Addr.: Sánchez Esq., Mella (Altos), Bani, Prov. Peravia, República Dominicana. Tels.: Office 522-3555, Studio: 522-3498 Fax: 522-7148 (Sergey Kolesov, Kyiv, Ukraine, Signal Sept 24 via DXLD) Where did you pick them up? Surely not in Kyiv (gh, DXLD) ** ECUADOR. 4910, Radio Chasqui del Norte, Otavalo, 25/09, 1000, 322, Andean music, MA in Spanish with ID: "Nueva Radio Chasqui del Norte con música Ecuadorísima", Inviting listeners to write to its e-mail "...esperamos nos escriba a chasqui @ hotmail.com ", more music (Fernando Viloria, Guacara - Carabobo State - Venezuela, Rx: Icom IC- 720 transceiver, Antenna: 1/4 wave Sloper, Antenna tuner: MFJ - 956 (passive), DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 5005.00, Radio Nacional, Bata; 2245-2300* Sept. 24. Clear and very good with highlife vocals, Spanish M 2256 with closing announcements, band anthem from 2257, then another anthem from 2258-2300, immediately off (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EUROPE. Today and tomorrow a Dutch pirate radio music station (Alfa Lima International) is transmitting several hours each day on 21805 or 21860 kHz this weekend; keep trying, also they might be on 48 mb between 6.2 and 6.3 MHz. Contact them by: web http://www.alfalima.net email info @ alfalima.net mailling adres: (Alfa Lima International, pobox 663, 7900AR Hoogeveen, The Netherlands, Sept 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. / USA: I think there were reports about attempts by BBG chairman Tomlinson to prevent National Public Radio from bidding for FM 87.9 at Berlin. They were not successful: NPR filed an application for this frequency, as VOA did. But there are also bids from various German broadcasters, and so it is possible that neither VOA nor NPR will be on 87.9 after April 2006, although I have an impression that the MABB council prefers a continued American presence on this frequency (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Sept 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also ANTIGUA ** GERMANY [and non]. Re 5-167, GREECE: ``they were talking about Indonesia, and at 1348 ``Nachrichten aus der Budesrepublik Deutschland`` --- could that be a relay of some other station as ERT is known to do in some of its Fremdsprachenaussendungen?`` To a native German this seems to be simply an announcement of the following items of news from Germany. By the way, transmissions and programmes/broadcasts are just Sendungen. The term Aussendung has a somewhat different meaning and is rather uncommon in Germany, contrary to Austria and perhaps also Switzerland. ``Is the term BRD used much any more since there is only one Germany?`` No. And in fact the western side considered ``BRD`` as evil term and insisted on ``Bundesrepublik Deutschland`` not being abbreviated, instead people were supposed to speak about ``die Bundesrepublik`` (which one, Austria?). The actual matter here is the circumstance that many people think there was always only a single Germany and a break-away part had just to be brought back to it. It seems that some remarks on this matter in the very last programme of RBI`s English service found some attention at the time. I saw it already transcribed in full, but can in a hurry just find some excerpts: http://www.ee.nuigalway.ie/mirrors/ftp.funet.fi/pub/dx/text/NEWS/SCDX/scdx2116.txt http://www.nic.funet.fi/index/dx/text/NEWS/SCDX/scdx2115.txt Just to make sure: RBI is a representative example (Kai Ludwig, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I was not really asking about the abbr BRD as opposed to the full name, but about the full name itself, which I abbr`d (gh, DXLD) ** GREECE. See GERMANY ** GUAM. Barrigada Hill has always been a communications site because of its central location and high ground. Here is what there in the way of HF sites. There are also a number of AM and FM broadcast stations in the area. In 2001 the Navy has returned property back to the public that was appropriated in 1944. Naval Communications Station, Guam NCTAMS WESTPAC (Guam) XMTR Site Radio Barrigada RCVR Site Finegayan NPR and AFRTS has been transmitted from USN XMTRs at Radio Barrigada. 13362.0 & 5765.0 kHz CAMSPAC NRV Guam XMTR Site Radio Barrigada RCVR Site Finegayan US State Department HF Facilities XMTR Site Radio Barrigada RCVR Site Finegayan Shortwave Broadcasters KSDA - Adventist Broadcasting Service KTWR - Trans World Radio Pacific XMTR Site Radio Barrigada This URL will explain Doris for you: [invisible but previously referenced in DXLD] (RICH WA6KNW McClung, Sept 24, antenna discussion group via Larry Fields, DXLD) ** GUYANA. 3291.14, Voice of Guyana; 2306-2335 Sept. 24. Perfectly clear and alone, low modulation but slowly improving with local sunset. Heavily-accented English M, whiney English W, oldie pops (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. KGRE (Kang Guru Radio English) program via RRI Jakarta (Cimanggis) noted on 9680.0, both on Sept 18th (Sun.) and Sept 21st (Wed.), with the 18th at 1000-1020 and the 21st at 1002-1022, both days carrying the identical program. Web page http://www.kangguru.org/englishradio.htm has recently been updated (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, RX340 + T2FD antenna, Sept 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9680.0, KGRE via RRI Jakarta, Sun Sept 25, 1002-1022, Kang Guru jingle; opening ID something like: Do you Like English? Yah! Are you studying English? Yah! Would you like some help with your English? Yah! Well Kang Guru Radio English can help you, from Jakarta every week tune into program for FM 92.8, M wave 1332 or S wave 9680, every Sunday and Wednesday at 6 o’clock in the afternoon; Kevin and Rachel with a different program than last week; gives several riddles; interviews a singer/model; address to write in for their August 2005 KGRE Magazine (IALF, P.O. Box 3095 Denpasar 80030, Bali); reception not as good as last week but still enjoyable listening (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, RX340 + T2FD antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. Glenn: -- "...internet must be involved before or after the satellite feed, or WHRI is not using the satellite for this..." You are ostensibly correct, Sir! The stream has been consistently running 1-2 minutes behind reality, and is down completely as we speak (9/24 at 0900 UT), which may account for some SW silent periods. You'd think the Huxter bux could pay for a C-Band receive dish in S. Carolina! 73z - (GREG HARDISON, CA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also USA Would appreciate technical details of WWL Radio relay on AMC-3, as I have not seen any reference to this satellite feed elsewhere. WWL-TV has been available on satellite AMC-5 since Katrina, but there is no WWL Radio audio there (Mike Cooper, Sep 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS. 6125.00 USB, Radio Maluumaati/Information Radio, Gulf of Oman; 2352-0200 Sept. 24-25. Monitoring the channel from 2335+, nothing until 2352, when mid-east vocals popped up (not sure it truly appeared at 2352, but nothing present prior to that here). From 2352 till 0200, continuous mid-eastern flutes/vocals, brief talk occasionally by M, seemingly in Dari/Pashto (not Arabic or Farsi). One clear "Radyo Mal-U-Ma----" by M at 0038. Blocked from 0158 by Radio Exterior de España carrier (flutes still making it through), but lost from 0200 when Spain programming began. Signal began dropping down slowly from 0045. Great reception, in the clear, absolutely no QRM until 0158, USB mode. This cannot be 250-watts, how about 5 kW+! http://www.me.navy.mil/marlo/default.htm (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Coalition Maritime Radio One, 6125 kHz --- I suspect that the station has increased transmitter power rather recently. I heard the station last night on 6125 kHz USB until 0200 UT, when REE signed on on the same frequency. Although the signal was rather weak, the reception quality was actually pretty good, because there was no interference. Local mx with pre-recorded announcements promoting the website http://rewardsforjustice.com (Mika Mäkeläinen, Finland, Sept 25, dxing.info via DXLD) Were they not also planning to get time on a major SW relay site? (gh, DXLD) ** IRAN. VOIRI, 11860 kHz in English at 2015 tune in with a report on the alcohol and tobacco use throughout the World. Abrupt off at 2028 UT. Poor, 242 (Mick Delmage, AB, Sept 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAQ. R. Dar as-Salam from Baghdad was heard at 1930 on 1115.952 kHz. Signed off at 2006 (mwoffsets - Mauno Ritola, Joensuu, Finland via Signal via DXLD) ** IRAQ. AL BAGHDADIYAH CHANNEL OBSERVED ON HOTBIRD | A new Iraqi channel, Al Baghdadiyah, has been observed on the 13 degrees east Hotbird 3 satellite. Broadcasting in Arabic, the channel offers promotional trailers supporting general programmes and news bulletins. The channel is carried on frequency 12380 MHz vertical, transponder 84, with a symbol rate of 27,500 and a forward error correction 3/4. Source: BBC Monitoring research in English 25 Sep 05 (via DXLD) ** LIBERIA. 5470, Radio Veritas ora 2245 UT, benissimo!!! Con musica africana. È venuta anche la mia figlia grande con una sua amica africana nostra ospite a sentire la musica!!! Ciao (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italy, Sept 24, bclnews.it via DXLD) ** LIBERIA [non]. 9525.0, Star Radio (via ASCENSION ISLAND?), Sept 23, 0826-0900*, English and vernacular; program ``Meet the Candidates,`` in depth interview with a member of the Labor Party, who is a candidate in the upcoming October elections; fair-poor (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, RX340 + T2FD antenna, dxldyg via DXLD) Ascension Island Relay, 9525, Radio Star [sic], Liberia, 0810-0900. Noted a series of features and news during period. Much of the program was in English with IDs by a woman as, "This is Star Radio, your news and information radio station." At 0815 a program of messages from and to relatives. Later music presented. At about 0845, language changes to vernacular. As the signal gets worse at 0855 they close by 0858. So the quality was good at beginning of the hour and it deteriorated to poor by the end of the hour. Hope the indicative information is correct (Chuck Bolland, September 24, 2005, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, DIPOLE, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LUXEMBOURG. Some additional thoughts on Luxembourg 7145. Traditional AM transmitters either use "plate mod" of the final stage or have a linear output stage with "low level" modulation. Personally have always thought that plate modulated transmitters sounded better with less "muddy" audio. So what has this to do with ODFM? Luxembourg is running DRM mode B which is 205 OFDM carriers. DRM OFDM modulation is "low level" modulation with a linear output stage. Any non-linearity in the output stage with show up as "hash" and "phantom" carriers outside of the 10KHz channel. Filtering will be difficult as need a flat frequency response across the 10KHz channel. Other DRM stations have been noted recently in this band including RMC on 7160 and Radio France on 7135. As amateurs are secondary users of this band it is difficult to complain, however using the band may discourage the broadcasters adopting this band as a "DRM band". Personally like Luxembourg and actually listen to them quiet often, good to see some decent programming on DRM (G8JXA, Sept 16, SW Magazine yg via DXLD) ** MALAYSIA. 5964.94, Nasional FM via RTM, Sept 23, 1337-1419, in Malay; program of SE Asia music, on-air phone call (``Hello, hello, hello`` before person answered, caller spelled his name: Wahte); several ``Salaam Alaykum`` greetings; frequent and distinctive IDs (spoken IDs, short singing jingles for ``Nasional FM`` and even a few longer station jingles), 1405-1415 announcer on the phone with someone talking/ reporting about Indonesia. Good reception. Believe that Nasional FM was formerly Radio 1/Radio Satu (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, RX340 + T2FD antenna, dxldyg via DXLD) ** MYANMAR [and non]. 5040 - Radio Myanmar. When it is on the air alongside with AIR, 400 Hz heterodyne whistle occurs. On 23 Jul, for instance, only Indian audio was heard at listening start at 1300, but the het was already there. Myanmar transmitter went off at 1513 (that was the time of het disappearance). 24 Jul: no signal (= no propagation ) until about 1255, then 400 Hz tone appeared, audio showed up at 1317. There was no AIR signal at 1350-1401, and I noted the Burmese speech, though it was weak. Myanmar went off at 1512. There was no Myanmar audio at all on 25 Jul, but the het disappeared (i.e. Myanmar transmitter signed off) at 1503. 5040 - AIR. Good reception after Myanmar sign-off. But I cannot hear any local IDs, because most Indian regional stations finish their own broadcasting at 15.15, passing the mic to New Delhi (15 min of Hindi news, then 15 min of English news, followed by talks and music from the capital till 1730). (open_dx - Vladimir Kovalenko, Tomsk, Russia via Signal Sept 24 via DXLD) 5985.83, RM, Sept 24, 1431-1447, commentary in English; seemed to be about cultural understanding and mentions national development and different nationalities; poor, at times heavy QRM from 5985; 1440 ID ``You are listening to Myanmar Radio from Yangon`` (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, RX340 + T2FD antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Is anyone routinely copying Myanmar Radio on the east coast of the USA? That would be a new one for me, will have to try for it (Andy O`Brien, NY, ibid.) ** NEW ZEALAND. 9520, RNZI, Rangitaiki, observed on 23 SEP 1220-1400* (listed 1259 in their current schedule) (believe co-ch VoA via GRC closes at 1200, but I couldn't observe the frequency at this time), English program, R. National feature with phone-ins; 25432, QRM de CEY (noted the usual SLBC tune after start of program, but cannot find this frequency in DXAsia's webpage) at recheck 1330 when QSA=3. 9630, RNZI, Rangitaiki, audible on 21 SEP 1840-1850*, English, news in several Pacific islands Vernaculars, frequency announcement prior to some music & IS; 32431, QRM de adjacent channels + BBC Africa in English (presumably via SEYCHELLES). 9885, RNZI, Rangitaiki, heard on 23 SEP 1041-1059*, feature about NZ postage stamps in "Night at R. NZ", frequency announcement and abrupt s/off and shift to 9520 (blocked by VoA via GRC); 35433 (Carlos Gonçalves, Lisboa, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The 9520 log explains why I was not hearing 6095 at the very same time; did not think to check for 9520 on late instead (gh, DXLD) I tried 9520 kHz again today, and it seems the interfering station is R. Veritas Asia via PHL (address in several places were announced, ID & Tamil 1400). I would swear, nevertheless, that the tune heard yesterday, 23/9, at 1330, was that of the SLBC, Colombo, unless my memory's playing tricks --- or then 2 Asian stations are actually using this channel for some time along with RNZI. I could not observe RNZI's sign-off time today, 24/9, but shall try again tomorrow (Gonçalves, Sept 24, ibid.) ** NIGERIA. This morning, Sept. 25, 0730-0758*, French Service to Europe, back on regular 15120 after five weeks or so. Good overall quality (Thorsten Hallmann, Münster, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3350, Radio Northern. I just got this reply from Joe Mendoza at the NBC regarding the signal I heard on 3350 khz. "Hi, My name is Joe Mendoza, and my job with the NBC is mainly on the transmission, I support the provincial technician to maintain their transmitters and if funding permits I travel to give them technical assistance. "Unfortunately Radio Simbu has been off air for some time due to operation funding, however they broadcast from time to time with a reduce time. Station you have heard is Radio Northern on 3345 kHz. I notice that during my monitoring season here in Port Moresby, Radio Northern is on 3345 but they come in stronger on 3350 khz. Unfortunately they went off last week and we are sending one of my staff to restore the service (this is one of our station that is not manned; it operated by time switch.) "Thanks for the information, 4890 the National service operating in the night while 9675 is our National service daytime frequency. They are suppose to be operating on 100 kW, but due to funding we operate them on 40 kW. Thanks, Joe Mendoza" So apparently 3350 was Radio Northern, although I still feel a bit of doubt. The carrier of the signal I heard was exactly on 3350. It wasn't that it was on 3345 and "sounded" stronger on 3350 like Joe hears. But, Joe is the person who would know. I find it interesting that Northern uses a timer. Now we know why some of the PNGs stay on the air for 5 and 10 minutes after programming has ended!! I received another e-mail from Joe Mendoza [NBC] today. Joe was kind enough to answer a few more questions. He confirmed that they do indeed use only one transmitter for both 4890 and 9675 operating at 40 kW. They use 9675 during the day and 4890 at night, switching at 1700 and 0800. He didn't say if that was UT or local, but I believe that's 1500 UT when they switch to 9675 and 0600 to 4890. He also says that some stations are off the air due to land disputes and operational funding. Apparently we'll never hear Radio Enga (2410 kHz) again as the station and equipment was damaged due to tribal fighting and a land dispute. So we have to consider ourselves lucky that there are as many PNGs on the air as there are (Dave Valko, PA, Sept 22, Jihad DX via Oct NASWA Listeners Notebook via DXLD) ** PERU. 5015, Radio Altura, Cerro de Pacso, 24/09, 1027, 322, Andean music in program "Misceláneas Andinas", MA in Spanish with greetings to listeners, ads: Bayer, 1er. Festival Turístico Industrial (inviting Miguel Atencio, City Major). ID: "Son las 6 de la mañana, Buenos días amigos oyentes de Radio Altura", más música (Fernando Viloria, Guacara - Carabobo State - Venezuela, Rx: Icom IC-720 transceiver, Antenna: 1/4 wave Sloper, Antenna tuner: MFJ - 956 (passive), DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. 1179, DYSB Bacolod - RGMA Bacolod was heard 3 September with call-sign DYSB. Has been listed in sources & WRTH-05 with callsign DYCK, and in some listings on 1341 kHz. 1512, DZAT Lucena City - End Time Mission / Pentecostal Missionary Church of Christ 4th Watch (PMCC), 1512 kHz 10 kW in Lucena City, Quezon Province - operating since Oct 2004 acc. to their website. The Angel Radyo network has been re-branded as Sunshine Radio. It's announcing all the frequencies marked 'an' in WRTH-2005, and additionally DXBL (listed on 801 kHz --- I thought the announcement said 810, but either it or I could be wrong) and new DXAQ Davao City 1404 kHz. DXAQ 1404 is confirmed - I heard it on 3-4 September (Alan Davies, Indonesia? ARC Information Desk Sept 12 via DXLD) ** SERBIA & MONTENEGRO [non]. Re ``cancelled`` language services of RSCG (the station formerly known as Radio Yugoslavia): This concerns only the shortwave transmissions. On the RSCG website these language departments still publish current stuff, just as the whole station did when the Bijeljina transmitters were entirely off (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Sept 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOMALIA [non]. Re 5-167: http://www.horyaal.com --- this site goes to a software company! (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Should be http://www.horyaal.net (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** SPAIN. Spanish Foreign Radio`s English to NAm at 0000-0100 on 15385 is getting covered completely by China jamming VOA. People should write to REE and tell them they`ve got to go to 11 or 9 MHz in the fall (Joe Hanlon, NJ, Sept 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Same thing was happening last spring (gh, DXLD) ** SUDAN. Implements M2W. --- The state-owned national broadcaster Sudan Radio & TV Corporation (SRTC) has contracted Thalès for the supply and installation of four latest generation 50 kW M2W medium wave transmitters. One of these transmitters will be factory equipped for automatic DRM operation, using the Thales Skywave 2000 front-end DRM Encoder/Modulator ALTO-STRATUS. SRTC is expanding and modernizing its network to improve national coverage. The new equipment is scheduled to go on air beginning 2006 (THALES Radio News Autumn 2005, Issue 20. via wwdxc BC-DX Sep 20) SUDANESE LEADER UNVEILS PLANS FOR MORE RADIOS IN SOUTH | Text of report by Sudanese newspaper Al-Hayat al-Siyasiya on 24 September The deputy leader of the government of the South, Dr Riak Machar, has inaugurated the round table conference for Southern Sudan journalists' and civil society in Rumbek. A large number of representatives of media agencies and civil society attended the session. Speaking at the inaugural session, Machar reiterated the importance of the media in informing of steps in the implementation of the peace agreement. He further reiterated the government's interest in improving the performance of the broadcast and broadsheet media. He said there were plans to set up radio stations in all southern states in addition to private stations and newspapers. Source: Al-Hayat al-Siyasiya, in Arabic 24 Sep 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** SWEDEN [non]. Dear Glenn, re 5-165 of 23 SEP '05 "Sweden [non]", news like "good news, RCI is kindly extending our current DRM tests to Europe (...)" does sound like BAD news to many, yours truly included - probably even to you, hi! DRM on the BC bands reminds me the powerful eastern block jammers (Carlos Gonçalves, Lisboa, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWITZERLAND. NEWS WEBSITE MOVES CLOSER TO SECURE FUTURE | Text of report in English by Swiss Radio International's Swissinfo website on 22 September The House of Representatives has taken a key step towards securing the future of swissinfo, voting in favour of maintaining government subsidies. As part of a debate on Thursday [22 September] on reforms to Switzerland's radio and television law, the House said the government should reinstate financing for the internet service. Parliamentarians voted 97-63 in favour of the motion, reinstating the traditional financing model which divides the cost evenly between the government and the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). The vote overturns a previous decision by parliament which called for an end to federal funding as of 2007 as part of moves to reduce the federal deficit. "I'm pleased with the outcome," SBC Director-General Armin Walpen told swissinfo. "If the Senate follows suit [later this year] then it will affect the decision we took in March," he added. "swissinfo will remain a multilingual service and we will not have to go ahead with the proposed job cuts as originally planned." Faced with a funding shortfall, the SBC announced earlier this year that it had no choice but to reduce swissinfo's multilingual service from nine languages to one - English. Swiss abroad Chiara Simoneschi-Cortesi, a representative of the Christian Democratic Party, spoke during the debate of the importance of swissinfo for the more than 600,000 Swiss living abroad. She said swissinfo was essential for "maintaining links to the Swiss abroad and their children". Simoneschi-Cortesi reminded parliament that the Swiss abroad not only had the right to vote but also to be "well informed". A spokesman for the radio and television parliamentary commission, Peter Vollmer of the Social Democrats, said the government's proposal to provide half of the funding but only "in principle" would have amounted to an "incomprehensible weakening of the voice of Switzerland". Max Binder of the right-wing Swiss People's Party led the opposition to reinstating government funding, but did not dispute the importance of the internet service. Positive sign "The vote confirms that there is a demand in Switzerland for our journalistic presence," said swissinfo director, Beat Witschi. "We're very satisfied - it is a positive sign," said Rudolf Wyder, director of the Organization of the Swiss Abroad. "I'm counting on the Senate making the same decision in December," he added. The House of Representatives voted in favour of awarding four per cent of radio and television fees paid to subsidize the SBC, the country's public broadcaster, to private radio and television stations. It also upheld a ban on political and religious advertising for private broadcasters, and extended the ban on alcohol advertisements from public to private radio and TV. Source: Swissinfo website, Bern, in English 1556 gmt 22 Sep 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** SYRIA. Radio Damascus, 9330 at 2030 UT in English. Poor modulation during talk but music was nicely copied. Mostly Mideast music after ID at tune in. Some sort of information program about ancient cities mixed with musical sound bits at 2035 UT. 343 (Mick Delmage, AB, Sept 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TANZANIA. 5050 - Radio Tanzania. On 17 Jul signed off at 2101 after ending procedure, ID and National Anthem. On 28 Jul checked the signal against Zanzibar outlet on 11735 kHz at 1714, and found that both were parallel. On 29 Jul audio went off at 2100, but carrier was there until 2110 (open_dx - Vladimir Kovalenko, Tomsk, Russia via Signal Sept 24 via DXLD) ** U S A. Re report of VOA`s hip-hop show being expanded to an hour, that must be old info; I`m pretty sure it has been an hour since last November, Sat 1900-2000, no news on hour (Joe Hanlon, NJ, Sept 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) NPR or VOA or ??? in Berlin --- see GERMANY ** U S A. 3210 kHz, WWCR, Nashville TN, observed on 20 SEP 0721 to fade-out 0740, program in English; 35332 (Carlos Gonçalves, Lisboa, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So you should have at least as good reception of WOR Sundays at 0630 (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. Sighting of Rod Hembree --- Those of us who have heard Rod Hembree's SW programming under the heading of "Good Friends Radio", including Radio Weather, may find this of interest. I actually saw Rod Hembree on TV on 9/23/05. I happened to tune by a program on a local independent broadcast TV station with a religious theme (KNLC, channel 24, St. Louis, MO) called "Quick Study" and there was Mr. Hembree, with his easily-recognized voice, delivering a talk. He was one of several participants, each of whom spoke in an outdoor setting. Later on, he also gave a short Canadian history lesson on the RCMP. The program had to be recent enough in production that it had a later segment referring to the Katrina situation, and it also had a short reference to shortwave, announcing the programs that were hearable on that medium. A promo showed pictures of SW transmitters and listed ONLY these three SW frequencies: 13595, 13570, 7490. There was no reference to the call letters of the stations using those frequencies and (surprising to me) no mention of WBCQ and its frequencies (where I'd think they are spending most of their SW broadcast budget). This also referred to the goodfriendsradio and thestreamtv.com websites. One interesting note: A slide giving address info listed the same Canadian address we've always heard on SW, but also listed a US (Murrysville, PA) address which I had never heard on SW. Since snail mail from the US to Canada is so overpriced, I wonder why that address hasn't been given on SW for their religious material, QSL requests, etc.? I would think that giving only the Canadian address would discourage US correspondence (& subsequent donations). By the way, Mr. Hembree is a rather burly guy with a mustache. Sometimes the appearance of someone who you only knew from their voice on the radio is surprising, but he did sort of fit with what my impressions had been. 73, (Will Martin, MO, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) A photo of Hembree can be found at http://www.ctvn.org/news/images/rod_hembree_05.jpg (John Norfolk, ibid.) ** U S A. FLORIDA, 7811.00 USB, AFRTS relay (via US Navy NAR facilities), Saddlebunch Keys; 1450-1500 Sept. 24. "Focus On Racing Radio On Westwood One." Excellent/local level, parallel local level 5446.5 USB. Still highly amused -- after all these years -- that everyone who logs these chose to ignorantly list the site as "Key West." (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CUBA [non] ** U S A. On Friday, 9/23/05, when I was tuning in URBONO on 15285 around 1430 UT, it was practically undetectable under a combination of BBC Singapore and the Chinese jammer. (I re-checked at 1500 UT and heard the BBC ID.) I don't recall this weakness of WHR in comparison with that BBC relay here in the central US being mentioned before, aside from gh saying that WHR normally overwhelmed the Chinese jammer. So was this an unusual propagation timeframe, with that BBC signal coming in unusually strong just that day & time? Later that afternoon, 15285 was nice and clear until it was cut off at 2000 UT. That was unfortunate, as I was planning to take an SW radio with me so that a friend, someone who had lived in New Orleans before and to whom I had loaned a good MW radio so she could hear WWL on 870 in the evenings, could hear the SW relay. But they cut off the signal just the time I was going to meet her and the rest of the group for going out to eat. 73, (Will Martin, MO, Sept 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I had mentioned this clash long before 15285 started carrying URBONO, but then (and when URBONO has been missing with other programming instead), the WHRI beam is/was 174 degrees, as I recall, so not very strong out here compared to 315 degrees. When you are getting the FE stuff you know propagation is quite good. Well, 2000 is the scheduled closing time for URBONO on 15285. Totally contrary to the schedules at http://www.whri.com/index.cfm/fa/wwl and http://www.wwl.com/article.asp?id=114239 URBONO was again to be heard, UT Sun Sept 25 at 0542 on 5835, and at 1435 on 15285 but not on 11785 before 1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also INTERNATIONAL VACUUM ** U S A. KFSG history serial continues / WWL New Orleans on SW Radio heritage website http://www.radioheritage.net adds new material. Part 3 of the KFSG Story has now been added. This Los Ángeles station opened some 80 years ago at a cost of $25,000 and became the pulpit for famed female evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson and her Four Square Gospel [KFSG] Church. The opening attracted the who's who of LA society, the broadcast stage was designed by Charlie Chaplin, and the station was soon heard across the USA and as far away as New Zealand. Noted US radio historian Jim Hilliker continues his well researched story of Aimee, her engineer boyfriend and the now silent KFSG. Also now on-line is the latest monthly column from Indiana based broadcaster and radio historian, Adrian Peterson. In his commentary, Adrian looks at the impact of Hurricane Katrina on WWL New Orleans, and its recent shortlived [sic] return to shortwave relays to provide a service for residents and to help other New Orleans stations. Adrian adds a fascinating historic angle to these recent WWL shortwave broadcasts and this very topical item is well worth reading. There's always something new at www.radioheritage.net, so visit often and also check out the on-line store with great radio book deals and exclusive merchandise featuring images from the on-line exhibition the Art of Radio (c) Japan. Warm regards (David Ricquish, Radio Heritage Foundation, Sept 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. How WWL Stayed on the Air http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6257813.html?display=Feature&referral=SUPP Very good read. (Don W8SWL (ex-N8TAV) Hosmer, dxldyg via DXLD) Yes, it is, but not about WWL! It`s only about WWL-TV. Geez, even ``Broadcasting & Cable`` doesn`t know the difference between TV and radio! (gh, ibid.) ** U S A. ``I'm listening to KIOL online right now, they're still in music what stations are business as usual, and which ones have gone wall to wall?`` I know this much since I've been pretty much living at Camp Cox since yesterday: KTHT has been simulcast on KKBQ since 6:00 last night. All the Cox stations have been doing news and info for the past two days, playing songs only when the jocks are tired and need a break. KKBQ/KTHT/KHPT/KLDE will simulcast KPRC-TV after 7:00 when the building locks down. When the KPRC simulcast will end depends on the condition of the facility. I'm hoping for the best, and it looks like they're prepared. As for my day job, we're hoping the roof stays on the factory and the power stays on afterwards. I've never been through something like this, so I just don't know what to expect. Being on the air today was one of the most emotionally draining things I've ever done. You feel helpless when you're talking to someone who has been stuck at a rest area since 4:30am with no food, no water, and no gas. Those are the people who are going to keep me awake at night for the next couple of days. According to the crawls, KTSU, KXYZ, and KMNY/Dallas are running KPRC audio. KHJZ/KILT-FM/KIKK along with KRBE will run KHOU-TV. I was surprised that KHOU wasn't mentioning KILT-AM 610 as a simulcast partner. Are they running something else on Sports Radio or did someone at KHOU forget that there's a KILT-AM? Stay safe guys. I'm off to take a shower and then fill the tub (John Davis, Sept 23, radio-info.com Houston board via DXLD) KUHF-FM 88.7 has teamed with ABC-13 KTRK and has been wall to wall coverage for the last 30 hours or so while all the other stations in town have been playing music. Our web site is at http://www.kuhf.org - -- the web site for ABC-13 is at http://www.ktrk.com (Jockey John, Sept 23, ibid.) Well, after 0000 UT Sept 24, KUHF stream had extended NPR ATC instead of its cinema music show (gh, DXLD) Presumed KKGM Fort Worth, Texas (no local call heard on way to work) carrying KTRH AM 740 Hurricane Rita coverage. Pretty dramatic stuff, one of the calls was to a power company official in the strike zone; he talked about his situation there up on the 12th floor of an office building. Some of the windows up there were blown out by the storm. (Curtis Sadowski, Paxton, Illinois, WTFDA-AM via DXLD) [Later:] Well, amazingly enough, it's KCJJ Iowa City, Iowa. They're carrying this until 7 A.M. CDT (Curtis Sadowski, IL, Sept 24, WTFDA-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. A stray item I forgot to send, discovered last Sunday: FLORIDA (PIRATE), 90.9 MHz, unidentified, Tampa. Noted a new Haitian Kreyol operation on September, 18th. Stereo. Audible through downtown Tampa on the Crosstown Expressway and south. Still audible in Brandon, though poorer with adjacent channel splatter. Kreyol DJ, kompas, and later with a preacher (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, Sept 25, Visit my "Florida Low Power Radio Stations" at: http://home.earthlink.net/~tocobagadx/flortis.html DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. PIRATE RADIO FALLS SILENT KMHS Pirate Radio is off the air - the 250-foot-tall transmission tower that broadcasts the station's signal, fell Wednesday morning and is now cut up and in a pile. The tower is off of E Street in Eastside. Martha Schroeder, in the background, works for Pacific Pulmonary Services in the nearby building and said if she had not stopped off for breakfast Wednesday, the tower would have fallen on the company van that was parked where the truck is now. When the tower fell, it hit the top of the building near the left corner. The tower leaning on the building has been cut up and removed from the structure and piled where it is now. World Photo by Lou Sennick [caption] By Carl Mickelson, Staff Writer Around 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, a core group of personnel at a local radio station heard something terrible cut across the airwaves. Dead silence. "That is not the sound you want to hear at a radio station," said Steve Walker, the station director for Pirate Radio, KMHS 1420 AM, which broadcasts from a small building just west of Marshfield High School. At first, the station's managers - high schoolers from Marshfield and North Bend - thought the station had just temporarily gone off the air as it has done from time to time. But then someone drove the mile or so over to the 400 block of E Street in Eastside where the station's broadcast tower is and noticed something strange. The 250-foot red and white tower was nowhere to be seen. . . http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2005/09/23/news/news01.txt (via Curtis Sadowski, WTFDA-AM via DXLD) This is (was), a real licensed station, in Coos Bay OR, so why would they call themselves ``Pirate``? Is nothing sacred? This is not Quintana Roo! (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. KRND-1630 off frequency --- 1630, KRND, Fox Farm, WY, "La Grande" heard at 0901 UT 09/22/05 on 1629.8822 kHz (Albert Lehr, Livermore, CA, Allied A-2515 receiver, Homebrew external sync detector, frequency measurement system, MWC via DXLD) ** U S A. Surprised to hear James Ronda, University of Tulsa professor appearing briefly on the Lewis & Clark series today, at 1619 UT on KGOU. The same as the DXer Jim Ronda in Tulsa? Probably will show up again in the 13-week series, of which this was the second ep (Glenn Hauser, OK, Sept 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** URUGUAY. 9620.6, SODRE, Montevideo, 1345-1350, September 18, Spanish, classic[al] music // 650 kHz (I could listened the transmission in the two frequencies), 44544 in 31 meters (Arnaldo Slaen, listened from Gualeguaychu, Entre Rios province, Argentina, bclnews.it via DXLD) ** URUGUAY. The 2005 DST table at http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst2005b.html has removed the Sept 18 entry for Uruguay, which Horacio said was wrong, and replaced it with Oct 9 at 0500 UT. That would be UT -2 instead of UT -3 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA [non]. Checking out the Sunday relay via RHC, Sept 25 at 1403 on 11875, the RHC announcer was giving out the frequencies, ``11670, 11870, 13680, 13750, 17750`` and repeated them a minute later, both times saying 11870 instead of the correct 11875. That was best here tho with a lo het; 11670 mixing with WYFR, 13680 weak, 13750 with heavy QRM from another Cuban transmitter on 13740 for China, 17750 totally blocked by WYFR with hymns. Believe he implied ``previo`` programming would last most of the morning (therefore until 1600 UT), before Pres. Hugo Chávez Frías would actually say ``Aló``; starting as usual with weekly news review ``Mundo Siete`` at 1408 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CUBA ** VENEZUELA. ESCÁNDALO EN LA TELEVISORA DE CHÁVEZ. ¿Dictadura en Venezolana de Televisión? Un nuevo caso: ``Llamado Waltergate`` Waltergate: El periodista Walter Martínez asegura que dio ``donde duele``. Sus programas, en VTV y Radio Nacional, siguen fuera del aire, mientras lo invitan a que aporte pruebas de sus denuncias de corrupción --- Laura Dávila - Tal Cual Anoche Chávez, en una llamada telefónica al programa La Hojilla, dijo que había que ser más responsables con lo que se decía por televisión. Cachicamo diciéndole a morrocoy conchúo [caption??] Walter Martínez subraya su condición de ``soldado de la revolución``, pero dice que primero es periodista, y ``cuando afirmo que hay funcionarios con boinas rojas que roban, es porque tengo las pruebas``. Excluido de la programación de VTV por emitir opiniones que no gustaron en Miraflores y obligado a retractarse, el productor de Dossier sostiene que la suya es una lucha de resistencia. ``Vamos a ver quién aguanta más``, señala en declaración que pide sea discreta, pero termina convirtiéndose en dominio público luego de la insistencia de los medios. Con más de 25 años de ejercicio profesional y una convicción ideológica que asegura ``no hipoteca a nadie``, Walter Martínez se muestra airado y sostiene que con el veto a Dossier, quien pierde es el canal del Estado: ``pierde credibilidad y prestigio``. Con respecto a las expresiones de solidaridad de televidentes a las puertas de VTV y algunos graffitis que la presidencia de la televisora ordenó borrar, aclara que nada tiene que ver. ``No le he pedido a nadie que vaya a protestar y, de hecho, he tratado de impedir que lo hagan``. Desmiente la información según la cual el presidente Chávez le habría ordenado al titular de Comunicación e Información, Yuri Pimentel, que como condición para que Dossiervolviera al aire, Martínez debía retractarse de los comentarios emitidos jueves y viernes de la semana pasada. Se molesta porque la presidenta del canal no ha dado la cara. ``Un ejecutivo de menor rango``, a quien no quiso identificar, fue quien le dijo: ``por orden mía el programa no irá al aire``. Pero Walter Martínez jura no tener miedo. ``Si esto sigue así, voy a tener que desafiar en debate público, en vivo y directo, ante las cámaras, y con los empleados del canal en el estudio, al ministro y a la presidenta del canal``. Martínez insiste en que no es él quien incumple el contrato porque, ``junto con mi equipo, todos los días voy a VTV y grabo el programa, pero no lo sacan al aire``. La explicación que le dan es: ``si usted no rectifica, no irá al aire``. Para el periodista no hay dudas: ``con esta actitud el canal 8 está violando no sólo la Constitución sino que me está cercenando a mí y los empleados el derecho al trabajo``. Destaca las contradicciones de VTV en el comunicado emitido ayer por el Ministerio de Comunicación e Información, en el que ``invitan`` a Walter Martínez a cumplir con el contrato, ``el cual establece la obligatoriedad del uso del espacio para fines de información periodística y de opinión``. Pues bien, precisa, ``lo que dije en Dossier es una opinión``. Martínez recuerda que el contrato establece en una de sus cláusulas que es él, el ``único`` que dicta la línea editorial de Dossier. Corresponsal de guerra en distintas épocas, Martínez dice sentirse como un soldado: ``espero instrucciones de la línea de mando``, refiriéndose a las órdenes que provengan del Presidente. ``Cuando yo digo que hay quienes juegan a un chavismo sin Chávez, lo digo desde el fondo de mi compromiso absoluto con el proceso``. Respecto al impasse con la viceministra para Norteamérica, aclara: ``yo no me molesté porque Maripili Hernández fuera a la ONU``. De hecho, la misión venezolana quería que ``yo fuera con mi equipo a cubrir el intento de deformación que EEUU intentaría``. Pero la arremetida de Walter Martínez no termina, y sostiene que por cada bolívar que el canal 8 gasta en Dossier, el programa le devuelve siete al canal, ``y eso que lo venden mal``. Así que la razón para su salida no tiene que ver con dinero. En cuanto a su programa en Radio Nacional, explica que prefirió sacarlo del aire, ``porque no tiene sentido que me censuren en un canal del Estado y pueda continuar en el otro``. Así que pidió licencia a la directiva de la radio y a los patrocinantes para no salir hasta que se aclaren las cosas. Deja pasar los minutos, y se molesta tanto que enfatiza: ``me sacaron del aire porque les di donde duele``, refiriéndose a la ``cuerda de sinvergüenzas que están aislando al Presidente``. Aseguró haber estado en tres salas situacionales donde ha hecho análisis escritos que nunca le han llegado al jefe de Estado. Incluso, ``en uno de los viajes del Presidente a Uruguay, Chávez me pidió que lo acompañara, pero en el avión nunca me dejaron hablar con él``, y Martínez debía entregarle en ese momento ``tres informes gravísimos, dos del área militar, y no se los pude entregar``. Ayer en la noche, las manifestaciones de apoyo a Martínez siguieron en las puertas del canal 8. Chávez, en una llamada telefónica al programa La Hojilla, dijo que había que ser más responsables con lo que se decía por televisión. ¿Le bastará eso como respuesta a Walter Martínez? La Cosa pica y se extiende: Dictadura Dos narradores de VTV suspendidos Por no querer leer el comunicado en que el canal 8 y el Ministerio de Información y Comunicación exigían a Walter Martínez, conductor de Dossier, llevar sus denuncias de corrupción a la Fiscalía, fueron suspendidos de sus cargos por la directiva de la planta televisiva. José Manuel Coa y Fabiana Ochoa, dos narradores de VTV Noticias, el noticiero de Venezolana de Televisión, se encuentran actualmente suspendidos aunque continúan siendo empleados del canal. ¿Dónde quedaron las palabras del ex ministro de Información y Comunicación, Andrés Izarra, cuando criticaba a los medios de comunicación privados por supuestamente censurar el trabajo de los periodistas? Mayor información aquí: http://www.noticierodigital.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28522 Nota: No sé porque me da la impresión que todo esto es un teatro, para tratar de distraer la atención nacional acerca de la invasión de tierras por parte del gobierno, violando así la propiedad privada. Siendo el Hato ``La Marqueseña`` el icóno de todo, y que por cierto esta situado a sólo 12 Kms de mi casa acá en Barinas. Su dueño Carlos Azpúrua tiene hasta el miércoles para desalogar la finca´. El programa ``Aló Presidente`` supuestamente se transmitirá desde esa finca el domingo. Walter Martínez aunque reconozco que es un excelente periodista, también fué asesor de imagen de Chávez. Todo es muy sospechoso. ¡Ya veremos! (Jorge García Rangel, Venezuela, Sept 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. (yes, "AOE" may probably stand for "África Occidental Española", or probably not), 700 kHz Polisario Front (which site, Tindouf [ALGERIA] too, like on inactive 1550 kHz?) noted this morning, 23 SEP 0605-... with talks in Arabic; 14331, co-channel QRM de --- LAm stns (!), all this via my raised K9AY. Well, I believe I logged R. Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina, on 22 SEP 0601-0614, unless it was some other LAm stn, but the accent did sound very much Argentinian to me. // 7460 kHz with adjacent QRM de USA. The evening patter is completely different: after dark, 700 kHz do provide a good signal here. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Lisboa, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. Voice of the People (VOP) from Madagascar, 7120, 1700-1800 daily. Monitored here in Zimbabwe with moderate jamming, still listenable (David Pringle-Wood, Zimbabwe, Sept 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 5085, heard 28 Jul at 1713, 29 Jul at 1415, 30 Jul at 1700. It probably was temporary frequency shift of Pakistan (normally on 5080 kHz). (open_dx - Vladimir Kovalenko, Tomsk, Russia via Signal Sept 24 via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Re 6175, 5-168: Madagascar? This is a long shot, but there used to be (ca 1997) an independent shortwave station in Madagascar called Tsioka Vao, operating on 6075 kHz. At least proving there was a renegade 49 mb transmitter in town. Here's an old email from Mahendra Vaghjee (whatever became of him?) TSIOKA VAO a private station in MADAGASCAR broadcasting on 6075 KHz from 0600 to 2200 Madagascar Time, that is from 0300 to 1900 UT in Malagasy and in French with Pop musical program - The Director`s name is Detkou Dedonnais [a malagasy] ADDRESS: R T V - TSIOKA VAO P. O. BOX 315, TANA PHONE: 261 [2] 217 49 Cheers, (Al Quaglieri, NY, Sept 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Re: Como siempre mantenerse al día sin morir en el intento Prezado Henrik Klemetz. Concordo inteiramente com o amigo e não é por o Glenn Hauser fazer parte desta Lista mas o Mundo das Telecomunicações e da Radio em particular, não seria o mesmo sem o Glenn. Quando daqui a 100 anos alguem fizer a história das ondas curtas o Glenn Hauser é figura incontornavel. Todos nós devemos muito a ele pois como vc, eu proprio crescie escutando e lendo os seus reportes. DO FUNDO DO NOSSO CORAÇÂO OBRIGADO Glenn Hauser POR EXISTIRES. (João Costa, Almada/Portugal, Sept 21, radioescutas via DXLD) Blush PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ PACIFIC ASIAN LOG UPDATED Bruce Portzer's Mediumwave Pacific Asian Log [PAL] has been fully updated and is now available to download on-line at http://www.radioheritage.net These are the Frequency, Country and combined pdf versions and contain major changes to New Zealand, Philippines and several other country lists. The latest fully searchable version is also available. Over 4000 mediumwave stations from across Asia and the Pacific are included, plus Alaska and Hawaii. The PAL Guide is the only current and free list of its kind available on-line. Radio stations, listeners and regulatory agencies are invited to check all listings for accuracy, and advise me of any changes for the next update in October. The Pacific Asia Log is available exclusively at www.radioheritage.net, and currently covers mediumwave stations only. Shortwave and FM versions are currently in development. Warm regards (Bruce Portzer, Editor-in-Chief, Radio Heritage Foundation, [actually David Ricquish], DX LISTENING DIGEST) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ DRM: see BELGIUM, LUXEMBOURG, SWEDEN [non] MAIS INFORMAÇÕES SOBRE RÁDIO DIGITAL, IBOC [see also BRAZIL] Olá amigos, Postei há alguns dias uma pergunta semelhante, e como não obtive resposta, retomo a mesma: Alguém conheçe algum site que permita o download de um software que, acoplado à um receptor (levemente modificado) possa receber o IBOC, a Rádio Digital Pois acredito que a maioria dos amigos aqui, não têm o RECEPTOR para tal; sei que existe essa possibilidade no DRM, mas não sei no IBOC, alguém pode me ajudar? Este é um momento hitórico do rádio brasileiro, seria interessante podermos participar e tirar nossas conclusões.. :o) GRATO (Fernando Silva Pucci - PY4SKY, Monte Santo de Minas - MG, radioescutas via DXLD) Fernando, parece não haver ainda. Pesquisei por "SDRadio", "PowerSDR" e "GnuRadio" + IBOC e não há nenhum demodulador por software nada pronto ainda. Entretanto, o PowerSDR possui um analisador de espectro que consegue mostrar as bandas laterais que carregam o IBOC, veja aqui http://mail.flex-radio.biz/pipermail/flexradio_flex-radio.biz/2005-August/001917.html (há links abaixo para imagens). Se você conhece e gosta engenharia digital e de sinais, você pode usar o GNURadio e escrever seu próprio demodulador :) --hg (Huelbe Garcia, ibid.) Oi Renato, Tens noticia se ja existem receptores aqui no Brasil para a recepção dos sinais IBOC? Buscando no Google li que ja exitem nos USA receptores maravilhosos tais como : Boston Acoustics Polk Radio Radiosophy Rotel HD Yamaha HD Para mim o Polk Isonic HD é o mais completo , preço US 599 O mais barato e charmoso é o Radiosophy, preço US 259 P.S. Por acaso , conheces alguem que está acostumado ha importar ou comprar radios nos USA. Agradeço as informações (Junior PY2BJO Torres de Castro, ibid.) More Brazilian stations get IBOC testing permission: see BRAZIL Fernando, Que eu saiba não existe versão software. Primeiro porque o sistema é fechado, ao contrario do DRM que é aberto, e royalties teriam que ser pagos por cada licênça vendida. Segundo porque o sistema, pelo menos no início, está voltado para ondas médias e ouvintes ao volante. A maioria dos artigos que vi sempre menciona rádios para carro. Naturalmente as coisas podem mudar, mas essa é a situacão no momento nos EEUU. Aliás o artigo menciona que o Canadá também está testando o IBOC; não li nada a respeito. Se alguém souber qual/quais as emissoras favor informar. O rádio digital que está disponível no Canadá funciona em outra freqüência. Pouquíssimas pessoas possuem os receptores. Ano passado a Radio Shack estava dando um desconto substancial na compra do receptor mas nem assim a coisa decolou. No caso do DRM basta fazer uma conversão da FI original para 12 kHz e usar o software open source. Existem várias modificações disponíveis na web além de esquemas de receptores de freqüência única bem simples de serem construidos. Abraços (Vince Ferme, Ottawa, ON, Canada, ibid.) IBOC DXING One of the things I have wondered about with nighttime IBOC is what the effects of fading, and other similar atmospheric phenomena, will have on the IBOC signal. Will the distortion of the IBOC signal caused by such things effectively limit nighttime coverage? With high power and medium power AMs, what about areas where skywave and groundwave tend to overlap and cause canceling or phasing effects? And, of course, the old favorite question, what about nighttime skywave interference from adjacent IBOC stations within a station's protected contour? Suppose 880 WCBS in New York turns on IBOC, and so does 890 WLS in Chicago. These stations have strong enough skywave signals within the other's "protected groundwave contour" that severe interference is likely, if not guaranteed. IBOC proponents are very big on telling us (DXers and others) that you have no "inherent right" to listen to stations outside of their interference free contour. OK, there's nothing new there. This has always been true --- you get what you get outside of that contour, even with analog. That simple understanding is, in fact, the basis of our hobby. What can we receive that we shouldn't normally be hearing? Isn't that the purpose of DX? So, what the proponents say on "protected contours" is really old hat. BUT, I would suggest that what is really going to do in IBOC is when stations start losing nighttime coverage within their protected contours due to the 8-15 kHz sideband activity of the IBOC signal from distant stations. Bottom line: as has been said before, "The emperor has no clothes." IBOC (or more appropriately, IBAC) is bad technology that, in so far as nighttime AM is concerned, will only work well in the lab, or in extremely controlled circumstances. In the real world of 10 kHz spacing and nighttime skywave, it's a no-brainer. It will, I predict, never take hold and will meet the same fate as AM stereo. 73, (Rene' Tetro, Lansdale, PA , USA, Sept 18, dxhub yg via DXLD) Rene`, a lot of what you suppose will in fact occur. Generally what will happen when you listen to digital receivers is that, when you reach a certain "threshold" the audio simply chops off; maybe pops back, chops off etc. The receivers will reach that threshold whenever one (or more) of the following happens: Signal fade Co-channel interference from another station Sideband interference from adjacent stations Poor sideband symmetry such as in a null from a directional station or where the station signal's being "re-radiated." Noise (though noise; especially electrical noise, will usually affect digital FAR less than it does analog) As you know, unlike analog, you won't hear anything changing in the digital audio, until you hit that "threshold"; then it totally crashes. As long as you can stay above "threshold" the digital signal should be solid, with no deterioration. As we all know, analog AM fades in and out with varying levels of noise mixed in. But digital receiver audio will simply be there...or not. Yes or no. 1 or 0 :-)) You can see a similar effect in TV signals today (though the problem is usually only from signal fade). The "fix" in a video receiver is that it 'holds' the last frame of video and waits for a renewed signal. We see that "freeze" on a lot of TV signals --- especially when it's raining at the satellite receiver. I'm not sure what the IBOC equivalent of the video frame-grab is going to do to the radio program quality. But I doubt the "blend" solution is going to be a practical solution. Yes, the cat is still in the bag with a lot of AM broadcasters who don't realize how much their secondary (or even protected primary) coverage areas are going to be affected. Many of the big guns should find a digital signal more consistent, but in a smaller area, though probably still well beyond their rated metro coverage area, and that's important if you're playing the pragmatic's game. The fact is that many of those bigger stations today have become just "metro" stations anyway, so it's probably no great loss, as long as they're solid in the counties where the ratings books appear. The sad thing is that there ARE some stations still faithfully serving multiple states with relevant information, and it's their constituents who are going to suffer. But don't look for a terrific amount of brou-haha from the affected stations --- until after IBOC has become almost a fait accompli. Today, when you report to a station that it can no longer be heard way out there in daytime due to interference from an adjacent digital signal, they typically yawn and say "thanks, but we've got more important issues before us." That indifference and lack of a unified response to the potential problems is, in my opinion, why Ibiquity is taking the position with the FCC that "interference issues can be resolved individually." Divide and conquer, ya know. But I'll bet if you could educate, say a roomful of 50-kilowatt broadcasters all at the same time (and you held their attention because you explained the problems clearly), you might actually find the beginnings of industry consensus that more work needs to be done before the FCC authorizes AM IBOC. Enough rambling. I do have an open mind about this, and I wish there was a good solution. I also have a lot of respect for Tom Ray and others who are trying to make this work, but I'm afraid someone's going to have to change the laws of Physics to make the conversion to AM-IBOC worth the potential loss of coverage. I don't know...is DRM the answer? Cam-D? Stay tuned. And thanks for reading! (Mark Durenberger, ibid.) Unlike "normal" digital radio, which you supposedly either hear just fine or you don't hear at all (not true of a lot of digital cell phones, though), IBOC (or at least iBiquity HD Radio) is supposed to blend into analog mode if the signal drops below the level at which the digital portion of the receiver functions as intended. This feature supposedly does work on HD car radios, at least in some driving situations --- even on MW --- but I've never seen a discussion of how well "blending to analog" may or may not work with the rapid fades that often characterize DX reception --- particularly at the high end of the AM band (Dan Strassberg, ibid.) I'd like to do a quick followup on my previous notes about the current IBOC receivers. One of my colleagues has a Kenwood receiver (KDC-MP628) like my stepson's rig, but with the IBOC adapter. Had a chance to try it briefly yesterday. The fidelity change is noticeably better over the bandwidth-limited analog signal. Not exactly the night and day difference, but still there. An older full-bandwidth AM and good wideband receiver probably would not have been much different. We easily got the local WHJJ-920 and WBZ-1030 signals. The WBZ signal has an 8 second time difference between digital and analog which makes it unlistenable in fringe areas. The switching back and forth garbles the audio beyond intelligibility. I'm told they do that as they don't want the delayed audio on the analog signal while so few digital receivers are out there. Their (bad) choice. One thing we did do is try to get the WOR-710 signal. Analog audio was perfectly good in the parking lot in Providence. The digital never did decode, not even briefly. I'd guess they have maybe a .1 to .3mv/m signal. For comparison, WCBS-880 has a .5 mv/m signal over Providence per my previous field strength measurements. In conversation, I asked my friend to listen at dusk on a non-local channel to hear what skywave he can decode, and if his experience parallels that of my other colleague with the Panasonic rig. He would get short bursts of audio much like meteor scatter. I'm curious to see if the two decoder brands react the same or not (Craig Healy, Providence, RI, Sept 22, IRCA via DXLD) Well, the neighborhood has really gone to the dogs from 590-660 here in Philly. In addition to WIP running IBOC on 610 (and consequently fouling up 590-630), now WWJZ is running IBOC on 640 (fouling up 620- 660). So, we have an entire 70 kHz section of the AM Broadcast band that in Philadelphia that is now solid noise and whistles. You should hear the area between 610 and 640 on the dial. It's like listening to FM white noise. And forget trying to hear WFAN 660 from NYC in some parts of town --- even though it is within WFAN's 0.5 mV/m primary contour. As Bette Davis once said, "What a dump!" 73, (Rene' Tetro, Lansdale, PA, USA, Sept 23, IRCA via DXLD) I don't think a 0.5 contour is primary. The primary is 5 mvm, I believe and the city grade is 25 mvm if I remember the definitions correctly. In most urban areas, a 5 mvm contour will not produce much listening; consensus is that it takes about 10 mv/m or better to generate AM listening (David Gleason, CA, ibid.) I also noted IBOC on KCVR 1570 Lodi CA. I was tuned to 250 KW HLAZ Korea 1566 kHz looking for India behind them. It may have been there, as there was a station behind the Korean, but too weak. I had to phase the IBOC noise to hear 1566, but it did work quite nicely. According to the CE of KCVR, IBOC can use up to 10% of the transmitter power. So the IBOC hash on KCVR is 500 Watts. The station power is 5 kW (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) Hi Patrick - Uninformed questions re IBOC power. Are IBOC mitters separate from analog? Either way, are HD signals pulse-like? If so, would peak power be much higher than average? No doubt many explanations for listener reports indicating high power despite claims to the contrary. Mixing apples with kumquats by comparing with radars such as FPS-35, in which pulsed 50 kW amplitrons produce 5 MW out. Canaveral lift-offs were detected from Thomaston, AL and Manassas, VA despite low-average transmitter power. Peak power carried the day. If IBOC sigs pulse-like, would this explain much higher level of received noise despite claimed low average power? If interference nil and HD power trifling --- as some claim --- why would anyone bother? =Z.= (Paul Vincent Zecchino, ManaAmplitron Key, FL BT, ibid.) Yes, basically the IBOC transmission is separate from the analog running up to 1/2 power. The IBOC signal is full of carriers. That creates the noise on the adjacents. 73, (Patrick Martin, OR, ibid.) IBOC is accomplished by a separate audio chain and RF generation set. See http://www.nautel.com/products/index.php?group=23 for a description of one manufacturer's gear. A lay explanation is at http://www.ibiquity.com/technology/hdradio_how.htm and the iBiquity site has a number of white papers, which, despite the obvious bias towards the system, do describe the technical aspects well and correctly. AM stations combine the two signals, analog and digital, and they are, in a manner of speaking, diplexed on or into the same antenna system. The digital signal is about 10% of the analog signal in power output to the transmitter. However, as several on the NRC reflector have posted, the way the digital signal is constructed makes it "appear" to have more power, and, because it is digital, it will cover in usable fashion as much and sometimes more usable geography than AM. At KTNQ [1020 LÁ] we have found that the IBOC signal is usable in a number of areas where the analog signal is overcome by objectionable noise or interference (David Gleason, IRCA via DXLD) I would agree that analog and digital coverage may well equal out for the normal listener. DXers will put up with a lot more degradation of the signal than the average CUME denizen. When I was listening to WOR on the Kenwood HD Radio, the analog was perfectly listenable to me. If there was noise, I couldn't notice it. The digital just wouldn't decode. Again, I'd guess WOR has maybe .1-.3mv/m over Providence. Way outside their Sphere of Influence. The jury on the usefulness to DXers of HD Radio isn't even chosen yet, let alone deliberating (Craig Healy, Providence, RI, ibid.) The problem is going to be with the IBOC signal is fading and distortion at night. When I lived in Hillsboro OR, 25 miles West of Portland, still very much in the DMA, some of the Portland stations that had their transmitters on the East side of Portland, 40 miles from me, the signals would fade a bit with skip cancelation at night. Now that will be an issue with IBOC (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) Re Gleason above about the contours: Quoting from the FCC regulations (47CFR73.182, "Engineering Standards of Allocation"): "The groundwave signal strength required to render primary service is 2 mV/m for communities with populations of 2,500 or more and 0.5 mV/m for communities with populations of less than 2,500." If you can provide a reference showing a consensus that 10 mV/m is required, I'd love to see it. This may be true for downtown Los Angeles, but it certainly isn't true in general. If you haven't already done so, I urge everyone to read the 2002 report about the Clear Channel tests with WTOP and WARK in the DC area. It's an easy read, just a few pages. You can get it at http://www.nrscstandards.org/DAB/doccitedinamiboc.asp - it's the first document listed on the page. In their tests, they had good reception of WARK on a variety of radios with a field strength of only 0.2 mV/m, even with a much stronger first adjacent signal present from WTOP (0.8 mV/m) - provided that WTOP wasn't running IBOC, of course. The report also says "listening is quite acceptable on an average car radio well beyond the 0.5 mV/m contour". Then, of course, there's the concluding remarks about AM IBOC being "profoundly deleterious". Clear Channel would probably like to disown this report now, but it's out there, and it speaks the truth: that AM IBOC is an appalling travesty (Barry McLarnon, VE3JF Ottawa, ON, ibid.) David, I would suggest you check out the FCC Allocation Rules. Most radio stations are protected to their 0.5 mV/m contour. Class A stations - like WABC, WCBS, etc - are protected even more - out to their 0.1 contour. 0.5 mV/m is, and always has been considered to be a station's "primary" coverage area, and is the contour used on most coverage maps. This, of course, does not mean you're going to get a perfect signal at these levels; it means that no other stations are allowed to cause interference within that contour. (We are, of course, talking daytime. Nighttime is a whole different ball game). Read FCC rules section 73.182 at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/12feb20041500/edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2004/octqtr/47cfr73.182.htm City grade contour is something entirely different. A station is required to put 5.0 mV/m over their city of license. Most put much more, and under the old rules a signal of 25 mV/m was required over your downtown area. 73, (Rene' Tetro, ibid.) Yes, I was wrong on the terms. It has been a while since I built an AM, and I did not remember. The fact is that in larger urban areas, meaning the roughly 250 rated markets, anything under 10 mv/m may be hearable but is not, by the listener, listenable. This shows up in analysis of Arbitron diary returns for work and home ZIP codes. The fact that stations are protected does not mean they are listenable. Even in the 70's when I did build an AM (rebuild, actually) I considered that less than a 5.0 mv/m signal would not get listened to, and that influenced the decision on transmitter relocation. For the next 5 or 6 years, we got nearly zero listening outside to 5.0 contour, proving this contention. Today, noise levels are higher, and receivers are worse in quality. Except for rural areas, the listenable signal needs to be above 10 mv/m, and in some markets, above 15 (LA can be seen to support this with real listening). (David Gleason, ibid.) US AMs' daytime primary contour is still 0.5 mV/m, although iBiquity and the FCC have apparently generated some revised wording in the FCC rules that suggests otherwise. Because of this wording, which I have heard about but not seen, IBOC proponents have been insisting that the daytime primary contour is now 5.0 mV/m -- the required daytime contour over the CoL. However, if this is so, AM owners should organize and bring suit because their licenses have been modified not merely without their consent but without their even being officially notified. The 25 mV/m groundwave contour no longer has any significance, except in the third-adjacent-channel overlap rule. The nighttime primary contour is the NIF, which for most Class B AMs (except for a handful of very old stations) and all Class C AMs is greater than 5 mV/m. The highest NIFs I've seen in recent applications to add night service have been 95 and 75 mV/m (WADK and WNTK, repectively). Aside from the aforementioned handful of legacy Class Bs, only Class A AMs are protected to groundwave contours of less than 5 mV/m. Most Class US As are supposed to receive nighttime protection to their 0.5 mV/m groundwave and 50%-skywave contours. Whether any US Class A AMs actually receive such protection any longer is an interesting question because interference from stations outside the US has become quite severe. (And this does not even take into account the interference from all of the US Class Bs on Class A channels that conveniently forget to switch to night facilities at sundown) (Dan Strassberg, ibid.) Several posters have mentioned incorrect powers for the MW HD Radio digital sidebands. My understanding is that the combined power in the two digital sidebands is not supposed to exceed 1/16 (6.25%) of the nominal power of the analog carrier. Each digital sideband is allocated half of the total digital-sideband power or 1/32 (3.125%) of the nominal analog-carrier power. As someone else stated, each sideband contains multiple carriers, each carrying 16-QAM modulation. The envelope detectors used in most AM receivers apparently make this form of modulation sound a lot louder than you would expect based on the relatively low digital-sideband power. I think the exaggerated loudness occurs because the modulation index of the digital sidebands is much higher than the average modulation index of the amplitude modulation on the main carrier. In analog AM, the sideband power is variable and more power goes into the analog sidebands as the signal gets louder. I believe that QAM (like FM) is a form of modulation in which the sideband power is constant (and therefore always maximum). If anything I've said in this message is incorrect, please set me straight. (Dan Strassberg, ibid.) I was one of the culprits by missing a zero. I was trying to avoid going into db, and should have said "100" instead of "10" in the fraction. The HD signal on FM is about 20 db down from the main carrier, which would be about 1/100th the power. Example: KLVE in LA, with roughly 28 kw ERP, has 285 watts of HD signal (that station uses a separate HD transmitter and antenna). With AM, the difference is a bit more complicated due to the core and outside carriers, but is also way down in power. On AM, the power is off frequency --- if you look at the spectrum, it looks like someone is giving you the finger, with the analog signal in the middle and the individual digital channels on each side, separated by a guard band, like tiny folded fingers. The digital energy is constant, while on AM, the analog varies, as we know, in amplitude. Of course, the AM can carry one roughly 24 kbs audio band, with limited and relatively slow data add/ons, while the 96 kbs FM signal can carry, with the current algorithm, two stereo HD channels and quite a bit of data. Hope that makes sense... from the home of HD KSCA, KLVE and KTNQ (David Gleason, CA, ibid.) Well, you need to differentiate between the different digital sidebands, which have different power levels and different modulation types (not all 16QAM). For the real skinny on this, see my page at http://topazdesigns.com/iboc/AM-IBOC-Parameters.html (Barry McLarnon, VE3JF Ottawa, ON IRCA, ibid.) Not really. The AM part of QAM tells you that AM is part of the equation. With xxQAM (in the case of IBOC, 16QAM), there are two axes used in the modulation: phase and amplitude. By the way, the AM part of the QAM is what is responsible for part of the bandwidth inefficiency of IBOC: in order to keep it from being even louder than it already is with an envelope detector, 4 of the 6 digital sidebands are what are called "complex conjugates". In simple words, this means that the sidebands see-saw: if the upper tertiary sideband is transmitting an amplitude of x+y then the lower tertiary sideband transmits x-y. As a result, the envelope is constant and nothing is detected. I tried to keep this short. I can hear the snoring (Chuck Hutton, IRCA via DXLD) The CE I spoke to last night, I asked what is the IBOC power used. He just set one up. The maximum is 10% of your carrier power. You can use less if you want, but if you have a 50 KWer, then you cannot have more than 5 KW of IBOC power. KEX does sound like about 5 KW in IBOC hash here on the coast. 73, (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ RADIO SHACK Have you checked out what SW radios they have lately? At a NJ store, they were trying to clear out the Grundigen, with the YB 400 at $129.97 and the 300PE at $59.97. Also have the early version of the S- 350 which drifts, and two new Etón models. I saw an ad in USA Today that Etón/Grundig have been giving windup radios to those in need of them on the Gulf coast (Joe Hanlon, NJ, Sept 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) SHORTWAVE ARRAY ANTENNAS. CUSTOMIZED SOLUTIONS. [Thalès promotion] What makes shortwave antenna arrays so attractive is the fact that they are available in an extraordinary variety of designs. Depending on requirements, optimal antenna array solutions can be engineered for a very wide range of site specific conditions. If a shortwave antenna array comes into question for your station, the desired specific radiation characteristics and beam slewing performances of the system will depend greatly on such important design parameters as -- number and arrangement of dipoles and -- the layout of the antenna feeding. Consequently, an essential question arising in connection with the choice of a new antenna system is: Which type of dipoles are suitable for a specific antenna array? Thalès provides two basic solutions to help customers make the right decision: -- The use of half-lambda dipoles (the length of one dipole in portions of wavelength of the design frequency is lambda/2). -- The use of lambda dipoles (the length of one dipole in portions of wavelength of the design frequency is lambda. Defining Dipoles. The ITU defines array antennas as follows: AHR m/n/h (Aperiodic Horizontal Reflector), whereby the number of dipoles in each horizontal row is m. However, m counts the number of lambda/2 components in one row, so one lambda-dipole can be seen to be consisting of two lambda/2 elements. Another way to look at it is to consider one (center-fed) lambda- dipole as two end-fed lambda/2-dipoles. Comparing Solutions: lambda/2 Alternative Both dipole versions have their advantages. In case maximum frequency range and a minimum electrical main-beam slewing are requested, the choice should be made for the lambda/2-dipole. In addition, a lambda/2-dipole can be realized as a so-called folded dipole. In this case a static ground connection can be applied, giving an additional margin of reliability especially under certain atmospheric and weather conditions. Thalès has excellent results using this version of dipoles in its rigid array antenna technology without any insulation in structural parts. Using Full Wave Dipoles. In case a highly economic solution is preferred and limited slew are required, the lambda-dipole is an appropriate choice. The use of full wave dipoles does not necessarily limit the frequency range of operation. However it does reduce the azimuthal slew range to about a quarter of the range of half-wave dipoles. This is above all due to the occurrence of the so-called grating lobes. The antenna's feed system will be simpler as the number of dipole feeding points is reduced by 50%. Less hardware, less weight and therefore less mechanical loads applied on the structures make it possible to design the system under economically optimized aspects. Customer's Choice. A comparison of the slewing capability of an antenna AHRS 4/4/0.5 with a frequency of 6-12 MHz equipped with lambda/2-dipoles and an antenna of the same type equipped with lambda-dipoles show significant differences for higher slewing angles, especially when looking at the side lobes. The decision which dipole type will be suitable for a specific array antenna system depends on specific customers needs and requirements with respect of performance, coverage and/or budgetary limits. Thales antenna engineers are happy to assist customers in making the best possible choice for their system. THALÈS THALÈS SUISSE SA Broadcast & Multimedia Spinnereistrasse 5, CH-5300 Turgi, Switzerland http://www.thales-hm.ch THALÈS Broadcast & Multimedia 1, Rue de l'Hautil, F-78702 Conflans Ste. Honorine, France http://www.thales-hm.com THALÈS BROADCAST & MULTIMEDIA GmbH Ohmweg 11-15, D-68199 Mannheim, Germany http://www.thales-hm.de (THALÈS Radio News Autumn 2005 Issue 20 via wwdxc BC-DX Sep 20 via DXLD) CHANNEL 37 Greetings. I was surprised to see that you have quoted my article about Channel 37 (in its entirety) in "DX Listening Digest 5-156". I haven't seen it in print myself yet, but I'm looking forward to it. If you would like to see the original text (with illustrations and footnotes, which were omitted from the TV Technology web version), see http://www.akdart.com/37 Have a great weekend! (Andrew K. Dart, CSTE Duncanville, TX, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ Solar Activity --- Here's a NASA link which discusses the current solar activity as we approach a, supposedly, period of minimum activity. Interesting and easy to understand: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/15sep_solarminexplodes.htm (Mike Hardester, IRCA via DXLD) Actually the more large solar flares we see as we approach solar minimum the sooner we arrive at solar minimum. Why? Because solar flares at this point in the sunspot cycle (cycle 23) accelerate the shedding the magnetic polarity related to cycle 23. Cycle 24 sunspots are already occurring but are of an opposite magnetic polarity. 73 & GUD DX, (Thomas F. Giella, KN4LF, ibid.) ###