DX LISTENING DIGEST 6-029, February 12, 2006 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 2006 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 For latest updates see our Anomaly Alert page: http://www.worldofradio.com/anomaly.html NEXT SW AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1304: Sun 2230 on WRMI 7385 Mon 0400 on WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0515 on WBCQ 7415 Wed 0030 on WBCQ 7415 Wed 1030 on WWCR 9985 Full schedule, including AM, FM, satellite and internet, with hotlinks to station sites and audio: 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 PODCASTS: www.obriensweb.com/wor.xml ** AFGHANISTAN [non]. Wolfgang Büschel was wondering if R. Solh, US PsyOps service via UK, was still going. Yes, 15265 there as usual, Sat Feb 11 at 1410 with M&M talk, a phone interview, frequent mentions of Afghanistan, 1413 some music with produced announcement, 1414 wailing, but really too much talk and too little music during the next semihour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALASKA. Re 6-028, REW`s 1240 Alaskan --- Here's what I came up with, though no call signs are listed (all power is 1 kw): NEW AM 1240 kHz ND2 Daytime B C APP GALENA AK US VOICE FOR CHRIST MINISTRIES, INC NEW AM 1240 kHz ND2 Nighttime B C APP GALENA AK US VOICE FOR CHRIST MINISTRIES, INC NEW AM 1240 kHz ND2 Daytime B C APP ANCHORAGE AK US FRED R AND EVELYN K MORTON NEW AM 1240 kHz ND2 Nighttime B C APP ANCHORAGE AK US FRED R AND EVELYN K MORTON NEW AM 1240 kHz ND3 Daytime B B APP FAIRBANKS AK US THOMAS SWEENEY NEW AM 1240 kHz ND3 Nighttime B B APP FAIRBANKS AK US THOMAS SWEENEY NEW AM 1240 kHz ND3 Critical Hours B B APP FAIRBANKS AK US THOMAS SWEENEY Search Link: http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/amq.html (Mike Hardester, Jacksonville, NC, IRCA via DXLD) Interesting. If you click on the link at the bottom of Curt's post, and then click on the link that says online license data, you get another listing that says PERMIT CANCELLED. Also, the FCC`s AM query doesn't show any current listings for Seward on this frequency. Even more interesting, DX Listening Digest 3-115 June 28, 2003 http://www.worldofradio.com/dxld3115.txt has a rather long story about the owner of KWVV facing imminent license revocation and a $140,000 fine for operation of its translators. Google lists several references to this story on the FCC website and other places. However, Radionewsweb June 2005 http://www.radionewsweb.com/2005-06.html reports the Commission has had to withdraw its revocation of a number of Peninsula Communications licences in Alaska following a change in the law that specifically prohibited Peninsula "from being '. . . fined or subject to any other penalty, forfeiture, or revocation for continuing to operate notwithstanding orders to the contrary." In its ruling the FCC notes that Peninsula's licences for authorized full-power stations -- KWVV-FM, Homer and KPEN-FM, Soldotna -- were being revoked because of it their operation in conjunction with seven unauthorized translators --- See RNW June 20, 2003 http://www.radionewsweb.com/2003-06.html#FCC16 It and adds that because of the change it is ordering the initial judicial decision to be vacated, the request to re-open the record filed by Peninsula is granted, and that the responses to the initial decision by Peninsula are now moot. 1240 was empty when I was in Seward last summer, so this station is a new development. Is this 1240 operation legit or is someone pushing the FCC's envelope, so to speak? If we dig deeper, it may get even more interesting (Bruce Portzer, WA, Feb 10, IRCA via DXLD) The former CP shown earlier for Seward by KFSH is listed as "Permit Cancelled" on the FCC records. Caveat #1 - The FCC records are often out of date and not infrequently incorrect. Caveat #2 - If the FCC data are correct, and KFSH is on the air, it wouldn't be the first time a station has come on the air with an expired or cancelled permit. The process is sufficiently cumbersome and has enough paperwork 'drop dead dates' that missing something and getting it cancelled isn't all that rare. The listed CP owner for the 1240 Seward facility is "Northwest Television", which may or may not be related to Peninsula. I didn't dig that deep (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA (360' ASL ), ibid.) ** ARGENTINA. 1660 KHz, NO ID en prueba. Se trata de una nueva emisora en la banda ampliada argentina con una programación musical de tipo religiosa evangélica, reportada desde el pasado sábado sin ningún tipo de identificaciones (Marcelo Cornachioni, Lomas de Zamora, Argentina, Conexión Digital Feb 12 via DXLD) ** ARMENIA. Voice of Armenia appears to have a new schedule in operation, heard 3rd and 4th February at 1915 in Arabic, 1930 French, 1950 German, 2010-2030 English followed by an unidentified language. All on 9965 which used to sign off after the English service at 1945. (Edwin Southwell, Hampshire, UK, World DX Club via Mike Barraclough, DXLD) Voice of Armenia English programme now 2010-2030 on 9965 to Europe, // 4810 to Middle East, ex 1925-1945, as heard on 5th February, 9965 was strong but badly distorted making copy difficult, 4810 was fair and in the clear (Mike Ford, Staffordshire, UK, World DX Club, ibid.) ** ASCENSION ISLAND. US military blamed as Britain kicks out islanders Antony Barnett, Sunday February 12, 2006, Observer http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,5397631-102285,00.html It is a row about human rights, the British Empire, a top-secret US military base, global oil and green sea turtles. At its centre are hundreds of British subjects living on British-owned Ascension Island - a small volcanic outcrop in the South Atlantic. Although many islanders have been born there, they are allowed to remain only as long as they have jobs. In 1999 the British government pledged this would change, but has dramatically gone back on its word. This weekend, the islanders accused Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, of betraying them and said they were considering taking legal action against the government. On Wednesday, a House of Commons debate led by the Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable, will bring the scandal to the heart of Westminster. The focus of Ascension, which lies about 1,000 miles off the oil-rich east African coast, is the top-secret US airbase known as Wideawake Airfield. Leased from the British government in 1956, it is now one of the Pentagon's most important military communications hubs and is also used for troop deployment. The BBC and Cable & Wireless also have interests on the island. The population has expanded to service these organisations and there are now 1,100 people living on Ascension, most of them British citizens from the island of St Helena, 750 miles away; the rest are either Britons or Americans. After the Human Rights Act was adopted by the government in 1998, then Foreign Secretary Robin Cook published a white paper with the aim of bringing democracy to the island, as well as establishing a right of abode and full property rights for residents. The future looked bright. A local council was formed after Ascension's first general election in 2002 and went on to create a national park on the extinct volcano at the island's heart. There were big plans to encourage small-scale eco- tourism to take advantage of the unique plant and seabird species - the reason for Charles Darwin's visit in 1844. It also hosts up to 10,000 breeding green sea turtles a year. Islanders bought shops, hotels, bakeries and other small businesses. But last month Foreign Office minister Lord Triesman wrote to them saying there had been a change of plan and they would not have a right of abode or a right of tenure. Lawson Henry, an island councillor, describes the 'outrage' felt over a 'terrible betrayal': 'We are British citizens and have been dealt with like animals. Our expectations have been raised for nearly six years then smashed in days. Some people have invested their life savings in ventures that could now be worthless.' The Foreign Office is accused of covering up the true reason for its change in heart. Many blame the Pentagon for pressuring Britain. They believe the US wants to expand its military operations on the island and objected to plans to increase tourism. Washington does not want its activities to be subject to unwanted scrutiny. The east African coast has become of increasing strategic interest to the US, with discoveries of oil that have turned countries such as Equatorial Guinea into wealthy trading partners. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006 (via Dan Say, DXLD) What an eye-opener. Listening to a SW relay from Ascension will never be the same again. Too bad Guardian thinx it is off East Africa instead of West Africa! Kinda reminds me of Diego Garcia which IS east of Africa (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGST) ** AUSTRALIA. Re 6-028: I think I speak for all of us, Andy, in thanking you for your insight into how the programs go from studio to transmitter and to us. I had no idea that the program producers had those extra responsibilities (Mark Coady, ON, ODXA yg via DXLD) Noticed in Digest 6-028 about the switching problems with Radio Australia. Lately Shepparton was down for maintenance at various times. The matrix at Shepparton on Thursday last was the latest problem, with some of the programmes off air till 0500 UT. The matrix had rectification and maintenance in general. There may have been a problem within the schedule and someone pushing the wrong buttons. Roger Broadbent may not have known about the work going on at Shepparton, as Nigel Holmes was at a meeting in Sydney 500 miles away. John Smith from Brisbane has been monitoring some of the transmissions and advising Nigel of any problems. Keith Glover's passing is sad for this club, as I have some of his scripts for DXers Calling, that were made for his segments and also the promotion he gave to the hobby and the ARDXC. But still in today`s world, for Radio Australia, still to be alive today is a miracle, to a very overworked, underfunded and dedicated staff, who still put together programmes that are relayed throughout the world. Regards (John Wright, Australian Radio DX Club, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BAHAMAS. Yet again today -- second day in a row -- 810 ZNS3 Freeport, Bahamas, remains off the air. 1540 ZNS1 Nassau, is coming in well -- usually second best after 810 kHz. Seemed to be having some problems for a while with touchtone sequences and station IDs playing over program content. 1240 ZNS2 Nassau, normally the weakest of the three, is operating normally and coming in well with some splatter from 1230 WBZT West Palm Beach (W. Curt Deegan, Boca Ratón, (southeast) FL [Ten-Tec RX-320D; LFE H-800; GAP DSP], Feb 11, IRCA via DXLD) ** BELARUS [non] Re WTFK: 1080 kHz, already used by the old Radio Racja, as PAP put it. However, the transmitter is not located near in Warsaw but at Koszecin near Czestochowa. This station is equipped with two 750 kW Tesla transmitters (presumably DRV750 model, like Topolna 270 kHz and Tipaza 252 kHz) but already in the early nineties run only 350...375 kW anymore. There used to be a mediumwave transmitter near Warsaw as well, Wola Rasztowska on 819, but apparently this facility is not available anymore. Cf. http://radiopolska.pl/portal/staticpages/index.php?page=wykaz-archiwum-am http://radiopolska.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?p=11053 However, "in Warsaw" would be almost true if they intend to use shortwave, specifically the Leszczynka site near Warsaw. By the way, both Leszczynka and Koszecin can be spotted on a map posted at http://www.emitel.pl (click Glówne Obiekty), but what a pity that no details and pictures for these objects were posted yet. All the best, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELGIUM. RTBF is indeed on NSS-7, but on a C-band transponder (WTFK? French mux on 3.650 GHz) which requires a sizeable dish. Actually this service is of interest only for listeners who already subscribed to the pay TV services on this transponder. Nice, but I would not dare to sell it as an equivalent substitute for shortwave. All the best, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELGIUM. Hi Glenn: In view of the recent discussion on VRT/RVI transmissions on medium waves, I thought it appropriate to send you the following information received on January 27: "Very nice you could hear our local sportschannel on 927 kHz, and thanks for the detailed report. The transmitter is located in Wolvertem and runs at the moment only 100 kW into a vertical antenna. If I can ask you a favour, we are particularly interested in the reception possibilities of our long range Medium Wave transmitter located at the same site on 1512 kHz running 300 kW before 8:00 AM and after 18:00 PM. Daylight operation is only 20 kW. Another AM transmitter of 540 kHz is located in Waver [sic] and operates 6:00-25:00 [sic]. If possible I would appreciate comparative reports from these three stations during a period of time. You would do us a great favour sending us reports on reception of these in Sweden. Pedro Wyns" The times given are no doubt UT. Personally I am surprised how difficult it is to hear the Waver transmitter on 540 kHz, where Budapest is really dominating, whereas the 1512 kHz transmitter is a real powerhouse, very seldom affected by bad conditions. For those who, like myself, are interested in doing some monitoring work for Pedro, his E-mail address is: Pedro.WYNS @ VRT.BE (Ullmar Qvick, Norrköping, Sweden, Feb 12, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. Radio Yura [4716] announces the following electronic address radioyura @ hotmail.com and requests them to write to the same one. Perhaps be an opportunity to verify this radio station. 73s (Nicolás Eramo, Argentina, Feb 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 6537 kHz, 0200 UT, Tentativo "La Voz del Campesino", Bolivia, YL comentarios gremiales en español (Alfredo Locatelli, Durazno, Uruguay, Conexión Digital Feb 12 via DXLD) Fecha? ** BOTSWANA [and non]. VOA Relay, 13710, 16 Dec 05. Received a letter confirming reception, and a 55 page VOA program guide in 55 days for an English report, applause card and $1.00. The return envelope had 13 very nice Botswanian stamps of various denominations. V/S, Thomas R. Powell, Transmitter Plant Supervisor. Station address: International Broadcasting Bureau, Botswana Transmitting Station, Private Bag 0038, Selibe-Phikwe, Botswana (Joe Wood, TN, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) ** BULGARIA. I just noted that the WRN press release about their DRM service from Bulgaria mentions a DRM power of 50 kW. This can not be achieved with an 100 kW (AM carrier power) transmitter, so the site in use appears to be Padarsko north of Plovdiv rather than Kostinbrod. http://www.wrn.org/about/pressroom/press_release.php?SelectedStoryID=00000188 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) But there is one 250 kW transmitter at Kostinbrod, per http://www.tdp.info/bul.html and more of the 100 kW could have been upgraded too. BTW, I understand that the WOR DRM broadcast Sat at 0900 on 15735 did not happen due to some encoding problem; maybe from next week (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Ah, this appears to be rather new information. So far I was aware only of older, less specific data, mentioning only 50/100 kW transmitters for Kostinbrod. Gossip had it that they would be very old, but obviously this is not true. Wonder why never any "Sofia" frequency with 250 kW appeared in schedules? Actually the question still remains if WRN DRM uses Kostinbrod or Padarsko, or did I miss further specifications of "Bulgaria"? Just to remind on these nice pictures: Padarsko -- http://www.predavatel.com/bg/3/plo.htm#pad And these unattributed pictures presumably portray the Kostinbrod antenna field: http://www.radiopanam.com/Station%20Stuff/EGR/EGRbeam1.jpg http://www.radiopanam.com/Station%20Stuff/EGR/EGRbeam4.jpg (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 12, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WRN says they are definitely using Kostinbrod for DRM, whatever your suppositions. Hmm, the last two links originate with Pan American Broadcasting, the Cupertino CA broker, and EGR must stand for European Gospel Radio, a.k.a. IRRS/NEXUS-IBA, tying them all in with Bulgaria (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Here are the presumed Kostinbrod pictures in their context: http://www.radiopanam.com/europe.htm They refer to IRRS transmissions, and Olle Alm identified the antenna systems as Russian designs, so we believe that these pictures are authentic. Perhaps IRRS sent them out for presentation purposes. Mathias Krause ("Radio 73") just booked airtime at IRRS for his monthly program and talks about Milano as site, so apparently they still tell people that they transmit from Italian soil (Kai Ludwig, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. CBC Radio One announces that it has Olympic Reports at 6 minutes before the hour in the mornings and afternoons. I see on the Ottawa schedule for Sat that these run from 5:54 am thru 4:54 pm ET. If this is `breaking news`, do they run live across Canada and thus at shifted local times? This would be inconvenient, as certain programs are truncated and others not. Could anyone bear to have 4-hour-old Olympic news? Or at the beginning and the end do new updates go out only to the zones where the local times fit the above pattern? Anyhow they are unavoidably also on RCI when relaying such CBC programs, e.g. at 1654 UT Sat on 13655 after a curtailed Quirks & Quarks (but not at 1554 since Vinyl Café, another year-old rerun, came from CBC Radio 2). Also heard CKZN 6160 in the clear, Feb 11 at 0700 with CBC news, and 0705 into WRN overnight. It must have been CKZN instead off CKZU since this starts at 1:05 am local, still two hours off in PST (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANARY ISLANDS. Looking thru EiBi B-05 for something else, I notice the Korean church broadcasts from here are still listed: 6715 1100-1230 Su CNR Full Gospel Las Palmas K NAO 6715 1900-2030 Su CNR Full Gospel Las Palmas K NAO 6715 2030-2200 We CNR Full Gospel Las Palmas K NAO 6715 2200-2400 Fr CNR Full Gospel Las Palmas K NAO So this is as good a time as any, or better, being winter, to ask anew whether anyone can hear this. I see it`s not in WRTH 2006 if it ever was and not in PWBR `2006` either. I guess NAO means target area of North Atlantic Ocean. Last mention of this in DXLD was 4-166, Nov 1, 2004, when people looked for it and were not hearing it even then (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. CRI, 17970, 0918 20 Dec, in English on earthquake and tsunami, Maldives, SIO 444 (Keith S. Knight, Msex., Feb BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) Maybe another of those 16mb mixing products. EiBi does have various CRI broadcasts on 5990 but not at this time (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [non]. CLANDESTINA, 11765, Sound of Hope, 1600-1610, escuchada el 11 de febrero en chino con sintonía y locutor con ID y presentación, comentarios con música de fondo, locutora con comentarios, SINPO 44444 (José Miguel Romero, EA5-1022 Burjasot (Valencia), España, YAESU FRG-7700 SANGEAN ATS 909, Antena RADIO MASTER A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. La Voz del Guaviare, 6035 with impressive signal but with a sudden fading at 1146 with splatter from Radio Martí 6030. Local adds for funeraria, Veterinaria El Gran Campeón, Motos Honda agency followed by "La Voz del Guaviare, 1180 AM...RCN". Back to news bulletin with the Colombia-Ecuador border conflict (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, Feb 11, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. This is Radio Havana Cuba, the name of the show is DXers Unlimited, and amigos I am very happy to say that we have now completed the test period of six of our new 100 kiloWatt shortwave transmitters; currently operating during our nightly broadcasts with five of them, on 11760, 9600 and 9550, 6060 and 5965 kiloHertz. You can still send the signal reports requested by our Chief Engineer to me, and I will relay them to him and to our transmitting station staff for them to enjoy. Send your signal reports and comments about the audio quality too to arnie @ rhc.cu, again arnie @ rhc.cu or VIA AIR MAIL to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba (DXers Unlimited Feb 11 via ODXA via DXLD) Acaban de anunciar en el programa En Contacto de Radio Habana Cuba, que el próximo domingo 19 de Febrero va a haber un programa especial con motivo de un nuevo aniversario de Radio Rebelde. Los colegas diexistas que reporten este programa especial de En Contacto, estarán recibiendo a vuelta de correo la tarjeta QSL de Radio Rebelde. Así que a estar pendientes el próximo domingo para escuchar En Contacto de Radio Habana Cuba y reportar la emisión del programa para recibir la QSL mencionada. En Venezuela Radio Habana Cuba muy bien a las a las 1330 UT del Domingo. Atte: (José Elías Díaz Gómez, Feb 12, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. 9505, Radio Rebelde, 1142-1147 12 February. Clear but rather weak, and except for the usual 5025 transmitter, not parallel any other shortwave frequencies. RHC Spanish on 6000, 9550, 11760, 11805, 12000 and 15230 at the same time (Terry Krueger, Clearwater, FL, Tocobaga DX Feb 12 via DXLD) ** CUBA [non]. CLANDESTINA, 7160, Radio República, 2300-2330, escuchada el 10 de febrero en español con cuña de identificación y el programa "Despierta Cuba", locutor y locutora con comentarios y canción con Placido Domingo; el programa trataba sobre "Tecnología, Internet y las Computadoras", SINPO 54544 (José Miguel Romero, EA5- 1022 Burjasot (Valencia), España, YAESU FRG-7700 SANGEAN ATS 909, Antena RADIO MASTER A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Via RMI via DTK/T-Systems Nauen, Germany (gh) ** EL SALVADOR? 17838.2, Radio Imperial?; 2120, 8-Feb; Weak het at 17838.2 and barest hint of talk and music audio. Anybody further south detecting anything? (Harold Frodge, MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. GUINEA ECUATORIAL, 5005, Radio Nacional Guinea Ecuatorial, 0548-0610, 12-02, Locutor, programa religioso, español: "Jesucristo está con todas las personas enfermas", cancionesy también comentarios en vernáculo. Todos los domingos, esta emisora tiene un programa religioso entre las 0530 y las 0600. A las 0600 noticias en español, locutora: "Señoras y señores, bienvenidos a la sección de noticias de Radio Bata. 34333. Las transmisiones de Radio Bata a veces están fuera del aire, y no son muy regulares. Por ejemplo, ayer sábado resultaba imposible escucharla a esta hora, mientras hoy se recibía perfectamente (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, escuchas realizadas en el caso urbano de Lugo Grundig Yacht Boy 400, antena telescópica, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EUROPE. MYSTERY RADIO: the program on 6220 on 18 Sept 2005 was made by DJ Andy Walker. It was a two-hour show 1500-1700 UT. Andy mentioned it was ``the first official broadcast`` of Mystery Radio ``from Southern Europe``. I sent a message to the address mentioned, mysteryradio @ googlemail.com to check that I heard correct e-mail address and to say that they were well-heard. Here`s a reply just received: ``Hi Jari, Thanks a lot for informing us. Nice to see that the signal was fine in Finland, too. Unfortunately, we do not have QSL at the moment. Stay tuned and all the best M.R.`` (Jari Savolainen, Finland, HCDX message 10029 via Barry Henshall, Feb BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) Also replied to Ciao Francesco [sic]: ``E-QSL from Mystery Radio --- Thank you very much for sending us this nice audio reception report. It is always nice to have some listeners sending in audio files, which is always better than the SINPO code, which is depending from personal opinions and not very reliable to quote a signal. Unfortunately we cannot send you a proper QSL, because we do not have one, so let me say just thank you again and hope you will stay tuned. Tanti aguri e grazie, Mystery Radio (HCDX QSL page 7 via ibid.) ** EUROPE. UNID 6878 kHz --- Hi all, Who knows anything about my UNID "Power FM", heard on 6878 kHz at 2300 UT last night (Feb 10th). Nonstop music played, but also some professional jingles in English. Good reception! 73 and thanks in advance for any help! (Björn Fransson, DX-ing on the island of Gotland, Sweden, HCDX via DXLD) This was discussed a while ago at least in DXLD. Here's what Roberto wrote: ------ It's an italian pirate station, you can contact the operator Adriano to piratemusic @ hotmail.it (Roberto Scaglione, Sicily, ibid.) ------ Also audible here in Finland with Power FM relays. 73 (Jari Savolainen, ibid.) ** GABON [and non]. Africa Number One: see LIBYA [and non] ** GREENLAND. 3815, 05+09/2, 2105-2210* KNR, Groenlands Radio, Popular Danish songs, YL ID, 2152, interview YL-YM, at 2200-2210 has news in // 243 kHz. Irregular digital ute interferences, makes at times very hard the listening. On 05/2 QRM started at 2158. 0= 2-3 (DARIO MONFERINI & GIAMPIERO BERNARDINI, BOCCA DI MAGRA (LA SPEZIA), RX: AOR 7030, DRAKE SPR-4, RF SPACE SDR-14, CIAO RADIO H101, DEGEN 1103, SANGEAN ATS 909, GRUNDIG SAT. 500, ANT.: WELLBROOK LFL 1010, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. "Tired of hearing the same oldies over and over again? If so, you've come to the right place. The Oldies Project stream plays 24/7 non stop classic songs from the sixties and seventies, most of which have been long forgotten or are simply ignored by radio stations and DJ's worldwide. Looking beyond merely the American and European charts, Oldies Project also offers you original versions of famous songs, typical Radio London hits (see Feature) and Northern Soul classics. No fuzz or format and devoid of all pretence, just oldies... enjoy! Tune in with your favourite player and please sign our Guestbook." Listen at http://www.oldiesproject.com/ you won't be disappointed. (via Mike Terry, UK, dxldyg via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. WRN and other stations to change EPG numbers on Sky --- Attention: WRN Listeners on Sky Digital Channel number change from 28th February: 0122 will be WRN's new home. If you are listening to WRN on Sky Digital then please note that on February 28th 2006 WRN's channel number is changing from 872 to 0122. This is part of a wholesale change to all the radio and TV channel numbers on the Sky platform. This also includes changes to the genre listings. From the 28th February all the radio channels will move from the "Music and Radio" genre to their own "Radio" genre which will head the second page of the EPG. If WRN on channel 872 is selected as one your "Favourites" the channel change to 0122 will occur automatically. If you have any questions about this change please do not hesitate to contact us at info @ wrn.org (WRN Newsletter via Mike Terry, BDXC-UK via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. By the way, RFI is still gone from the Ku- band spot beam on West Africa, at least according to Lyngsat. Back in last year Canal Horizons removed them from their multiplex on request of the government of Ivory Coast. So much about the freedom of speech European media outlets are fighting for. All the best, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN. 7320, VOIRI, 1953-2007, Feb. 6, English, Anti-US/European rhetoric re Mohammed cartoon. Commentary re 27th anniversary of Islamic Revolution. Fair (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH-USA, R75, 200' Beverages, MLB-1, DTS-4, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7320, Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Sirjan; 1944-1956 12 February. Very good with English service, female commentary, EZL fill music, weather ("40% chance of rain... high of 67) for various Iranian regions, with all temperatures given in Fahrenheit, then URL and address (Terry Krueger, Clearwater, FL, Tocobaga DX Feb 12 via DXLD) ** IRAN [and non]. When Radio Farda was new, one at a time of their SW frequencies, especially 15290, was jammed by a bubble jammer in the morning. This ceased after some months, and since then I have not noted any jamming of their SW frequencies. If jammers are used, they have to be local, low power rigs. 1575 Is being jammed at certain times by a strong bubble jammer on the lower side (Olle Alm, Sweden, Feb 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RE: [dxld] Is Farda jammed? Has it ever been? "As part of its efforts to control the news Iranians receive, the Iranian government acts against foreign broadcasting. The annual government budget includes an item of nearly $2 million titled, Protection against Cultural Invasion. According to an annual report published every year in the government's official newspaper, most of that money goes to the technical cost for producing "parasites" against foreign radio and television-that is, to efforts of various sorts to block the broadcasts." Source: Miscommunication between Iranian Society and the West on Iran's Nuclear Program http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=2442 (via Andy Sennitt, dxldyg via DXLD) There is evidence for jamming of Radio Farda on mediumwave, unless we will doubt monitoring reports from the region. Back in last year they said at Prague that they already had to abandon a frequency due to jamming, apparently referring to 1593. But what about shortwave? And I saw never any explicit mention of the "third satellite" quoted in the BBG press release from June 2005. All the best, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Review of Farda, etc.: see U S A 1575, 05+06/2, 1601-1630 R. Farda, relay UAE, Al Dhabiya, in Persian. + Jamming bubble (Iran ??) + RAI 1 (partly looped) suff/poor. On 05 Feb. the bubble jamming drifted to 1570 kHz !!!! (Dario Monferini & Giampiero Bernardini, Bocca di Magra (La Spezia), RX: AOR 7030, DRAKE SPR-4, RF SPACE SDR-14, CIAO RADIO H101, DEGEN 1103, SANGEAN ATS 909, GRUNDIG SAT. 500, ANT.: WELLBROOK LFL 1010, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [and non]. BLOCKING OF BBC PERSIAN WEBSITE SAID TO HAVE BEEN LIFTED IN IRAN | Text of report by Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) website Tehran, 12 February: The deputy head of the public relations office of the Information and Communications Technology Ministry has reported that the filtering of the BBC site has been lifted. Speaking to ILNA's reporter, Engineer Mas'ud Fateh added: The site can currently be accessed by all users throughout the country. It should be added that the BBC's Persian website was being filtered by the Communications Technology Company (Data) from a little while ago and other Internet service providers were also blocking the site in line with this company. But from a few hours ago, users have been able to access the site. Source: Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA), Tehran, in Persian 1237 gmt 12 Feb 06 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** ITALY [non]. Whatever your interest, or lack thereof, in the winter Olympics, be sure to catch the opening montage of NBC coverage, at least in prime time. Terrific views of Torino and the mountains. Perhaps there will be variations on subsequent nights. Too soon it goes into jingoistic concentration on American hopefuls --- but back to the scenery before the 6-minute piece is over. The opening ceremonies also had some fantastic visuals. In the almost endless parade of nations, Bob Costas reprised his role of providing dumbed- down thumbnails of each country for ignorant non-SWLing Americans. Later, watching a bit o`lympic iceskating, I am compelled to add to my earlier remarx objecting to all the gab interfering with the musical accompaniment. Besides the gab on NBC, the music is tinny and echoey, because they are picking it up from the PA in the hall! This always seems to be the case with iceskating. No doubt the music was recorded in a professional studio with excellent acoustix, if not electronically produced in the first place, so why degrade it this way? It would be extremely easy technically to run the original music track straight onto the TV soundtrack. O, but then we could not hear audience reaxion. Fine! Any applause interrupting music is disrespectful to it, and in a concert situation usually has nothing to do with the music per se, but with the audience applauding itself for recognizing what is being played. There is plenty of opportunity for applause at the END of the performance, NOT overlapping the last few notes either! whether it be straight music, or music accompanying some athletic or other visual event (Glenn Hauser, OK, UT Feb 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also BULGARIA; CANADA; MEXICO {Also, for such a world-class event, it seems really cheapo to depend on recorded music rather than having a live orchestra play it! That`s because the athletes are not flexible enough to accomodate even the slightest variation in tempo they have rehearsed to.} ** LIBYA [and non]. New 17680, 1325-1415, CLA ? 10-02, Sawt al-Amal (?) Arabic, non-stop Arab songs, 1343 talks, deep fades 25232 AP-DNK Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) Sat Feb 11 from 1355, found 17655 with African hilife music, apparently covering Al-Amel, as only a SAH could be detected; nothing on 17660, 17665, 17670, 17675, and on 17680 nothing was heard but Voz Cristiana during a modulation pause for a few seconds (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Solar-terrestrial indices for 10 February follow. Solar flux 75 and mid-latitude A-index 3. The mid-latitude K-index at 1500 UTC on 11 February was 3 (25 nT). No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours (SEC via DXLD) Chequeando Al-amel 11 Febrero 2006 --- Saludos cordiales, resultado del chequeo de Al-amel y emisoras musicales en frecuencias adyacentes. 17655: Al-amel, 1240-1400, escuchada en árabe, locutora con comentarios y segmentos de música árabe, se aprecia fuertemente interferida, SINPO 42322. Por una parte en 17650 a Radio Internacional de China en francés con un SINPO 55544 y en 17660 emisión de música árabe, jammer de Libia con un SINPO 55544. Ésta situación se mantendrá hasta las 1357; un chequeo rápido por las frecuencias de 17670, 17675, 17680 y 17685 para comprobar alguna retransmisión, pero sin éxito, la emisión de música afro-pop no se escucha por ningún lado. A las 1300 por la frecuencia de 17670 AWR en vietnamita [vía Madagascar] con SINPO 34343; ésta transmisión no se ve afectada en ningún momento por jammer de Libia y en 17680 no se a apreciado en ningún momento a la Voz Cristiana. Sin embargo a las 1357 termina el servicio en francés de R. Int de China, la situación de Al-amel mejora y puede escucharse el final de la programación con ciertas garantías; sin embargo empieza a percibirse una música de fondo. El estilo es inconfundible, se trata de la emisión de música afro-pop. A las 1400, la emisión de música árabe en 17660 termina y Al-amel en 17655 también, entonces irrumpe con fuerza por ésta frecuencia la música afro-pop, se establece con SINPO 55444. Cuando son las 1530 ésta transmisión se corta bruscamente sin terminar la pieza musical que estaban emitiendo. Ninguna identificación al comienzo, ni durante la transmisión, ni al finalizar (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, SANGEAN ATS 909, Radio MASTER A-108, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Quihúbole José: esta ha sido mi experiencia del sábado 11. De acuerdo a lo que reportas, entonces nada de Al-amel por acá si como dices estuvo en 17655. Lo que sí empezó a llegar a las 1200 en punto fue la emisora árabe en 17660 con señal de regular para mala, que sí parece ser el jammer de Libia. Debo acotar aquí que Voz Cristiana ha salido con retraso a su cita en los 17680, pues a las 1200 no había nada en la frecuencia. Pero ésta aquí es como una local a lo largo de todo el período diurno. Sí me llamó la atención que también escuché a la AWR en vietnamita con señal débil y sin interferencia. En honor a la verdad ninguna colisión en estas frecuencias. Lo que si me viene "ahuevando" es la DW cayéndole encima a Africa N.1, la mejor señal que obtenemos desde el Africa durante nuestra mañana. ¿Desde cuándo le fue concesionada 17630 a DW? Ocurre literalmente lo mismo desde las 1400 con CRI. Vale que a las 1600 no hay quien la interfiera en los 15475. He venido obteniendo también buenas señales de Gabón en 9580 desde las 2100, aunque esto parece se cosa del A-06. 73s y Un abrazo (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, Feb 11, ibid.) 12/02/2006 --- Saludos cordiales, la situación de Al-amel y frecuencias adyacentes hoy ha sido de la siguiente manera: 17655, Al-amel, 1300, en árabe con un SINPO 52342, se escuchaba de fondo la transmisión de música afro-pop, no parecía afectarle mucho; sin embargo la retransmisión de Radio Int de China en francés en 17650 y la transmisión de música árabe en 17660 le hacían mella. Sin embargo a las 1338 la emisión de música afro-pop irrumpe con fuerza atorando a Al-amel, también a R. Int de China en francés por 17650 y a la emisión de música árabe en 17660. 17650, R. Int de China, 1300, en francés con SINPO 54444, no parece sentirse afectada a esta hora; sin embargo chequeada a las 1338 se apreciaba fuertemente interferida por transmisión de música afropop. 17660, NO ID, 1300, música árabe con SINPO 55544, sin problemas hasta las 1338 que emisora NO ID en 17655 con música afro-pop irrumpe con fuerza; a las 1400 termina su emisión. A las 1400 UT terminada las transmisiones de R. Int de China en francés en 17650, Al-amel en árabe por 17655 y la NO ID 17660, irrumpe con mas fuerza por 17655 la NO ID con música afro-pop y con SINPO 55544; cuando son las 1446 aun sigue emitiendo (José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re the African music station on 17655 - this was heard, plus other co-channel, from before 1155 and it's still on air at good strength at 1430+. So far the language used in the songs has defeated me, but during a childrens rap 'song' at 1432 I believe they are using French. Did anyone else hear it? A scan of 17 MHz reveals this one to be the strongest signal audible - by far. The next best is Saudi 17895 and then Kuwait 17885. All others audible are much less. There is no trace of Africa #1 17630 but something very weak in English - perhaps CRI as reported by Glenn. All 'Libyan' activity today was concentrated on just 17655 - three stations heard before 1200 - and 17660 where just just Ozma was audible opening at 1200 with anthem. 73s (Noel R. Green (NW England), Feb 12, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) So the implication is that 17655 may be the missing ANO 17630 transmitter. From a propagational standpoint, I could believe that too, as the African music station is consistently stronger here than Sawt al-Amal or the other Libyan jamming. The question is, how could Libya get ANO to do this job for them? Of course, ANO has strong connexions with TDF in France, which already relays overt Libyan SW broadcasts, as I pointed out when all this began, suggesting that some of the jamming could be coming from France itself. Did not monitor closely today Feb 12, but from 1425 tune-in, only heard the music on 17655, and it went off circa 1530 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hello DXers, I agree with Mr. Green about the non stop African music station on 17655 kHz; I sometimes hear French songs with African accent --- but never English at all. Now it's almost 1645 UT and I'm tuning in to Voice of Africa in French on both 17840 and 17870 kHz. I noticed that the songs they play are somehow really close to the same type of music we get on 17655 kHz over Voice of Hope - saut al amal. That'd lead me to what I heard today 12/2/06 on saut al amal. As I was tuning in around 1155 UT and around 1200 they went on the air with no ID or anything, just a program (repeated program about a lady fighting for freedom in Libya). Around 1214 UT they started the whole thing in a proper way with that musical intro followed by an ID and then the holy Qur`an recitation. The program content is the same since 10/2/06. All the best, guys (Tarek Zeidan, Cairo, Egypt, Feb 12, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LITHUANIA. 9710, Radio Vilnius, 0856-0940, 12-02, Identificación entre las 0856 y las 0900: "This is Radio Vilnius from Lithuania"... "This is Radio Vilnius from Lithuania". A las 0900 programa en lituano y a las 0930 programa en inglés. 34333 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, escuchas realizadas en el caso urbano de Lugo Grundig Yacht Boy 400, antena telescópica, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. Historic achievement for SABAH FM deejays http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Sunday/NewsBreak/20060212135319/Article/index_html Jaswinder Kaur KOTA KINABALU, Sun: BRAVING strong winds and plunging temperatures, SABAH fm deejays made history today after transmitting "live" from Mount Kinabalu. Eleven deejays accompanied by technical and support staff, aired regular programmes "live" from Laban Rata at 3,314 metres above sea level, making it the first radio station in the country to do so from such a height. The 24-hour Bahasa Malaysia station broadcast its programmes from a "mini studio" at the Laban Rata rest house between 3 and 6 pm yesterday and 2 to 10 am today. In total, deejays transmitted programmes for 11 hours. Laban Rata is the last resting point before climbers make the final journey to the summit at Low's Peak (4,095.2 metres). (via Zacharias Liangas, Greece, Feb 12, DXLD) I thought they already had FM and TV transmitters at the summit, anyway (gh, DXLD) ** MEXICO. Sat. 11, 1030, Rafaella Carrá ending her 70s hit "Fiesta" followed by short ID ..."Radio Mil A.M." Next, Los Hermanos Carrión with 60s hit "Las Cerezas". Well, they seem to have this oldies program before dawn. Regular to poor signal and no interference this time from La Voz de tu Conciencia, that seemed to be off the air (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, Feb 11, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6010 ** MEXICO [and non]. Hola Glenn: ayer pude monitorear el jamming en 6010 kHz de las 0130 a las 0200 y al parecer, al menos aquí en México D.F., no era perceptible. No sé si tuviste oportunidad de escucharlo. Por otro lado se sigue escuchando con buena presencia a XEXQ 6045 kHz; en estos momentos 1635 la escucho con un SINPO de 4. Ayer escuché un poco a Radio Insurgente [6000v]; su señal era un poco mas débil que los anteriores dos viernes, Have a nice weekend !! 73's (Julián Santiago Díez de Bonilla, DF, Feb 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO [non]. Since I have not had much success hearing the reactivated XEXQ on 6045 in the mornings, I tried at 2148 Feb 10, but found instead Rai in Arabic. Fortunately, this went off at 2150, but still nothing audible from San Luís Potosí. Is it still reactivated? Yes, says Julián Santiago, Feb 11 at 1635. The 2200-2300 period ought to be a good window, anyway, here with the lowering sun, but no sign of it either Feb 11. I should also have checked for Insurgente a few minutes earlier Friday on 6000v (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. In the Feb 4 issue of the freebie bilingual newspaper El Latino American, there is a half-page display ad for the new WKY 930, never mentioning those gringo call-letters. Includes a coverage map showing 105.3 FM as a circle centered on Canadian county, which is the one south of Kingfisher, so is the tower actually that far away from the COL? It barely surpasses the eastern edge of Oklahoma County, and does not quite reach Enid. One can barely hear it here on a portable, if the antenna is just right, squeezed between adjacent stations. But surrounding it is the much larger but uncalibrated coverage map for 930, which is rather irregular, boundaries shown as just W of the TX panhandle border, missing only Greer County at the SW corner of OK, and extending southward into TX indeterminately, ditto northward into KS. To the east, the irregular boundary runs just west of the eastern edge of Osage County, SSE right thru Tulsa, to the W corner of Haskell County, then SSW thru Pittsburg, Atoka and Bryan counties, E of Durant. Here is the complete text of the ad: ``PORQUE USTED LO PIDIÓ! Ahora puedes sintonizar LA INDOMABLE en el 930 AM conviertiéndola en la estación con mayor cobertura en Español. Debido a la gran demanda del publico fuera del área metropolitana LA INDOMABLE 105.3 se complace en anunciarles que ahora también pueden sintonizarla simultáneamente a través de LA INDOMABLE 930 AM, siendo la estación regional Mexicana con mayor cobertura en el Estado de Oklahoma y la región. Ahora pueden escuchar su música preferida y sus locutores favoritos las 24 horas del día llegando tan lejos como Kansas al norte y Texas al sur. El personal de LA INDOMABLE agradece a todos por su apoyo y lealtad y espera que todos sus radioescuchas los sintonicen por todo el Estado. Para mayor información comuníquense al (405) 460-1053 ó a través del correo electrónico jaime@laindomable.com Deje que LA INDOMABLE 105.3FM Y LA INDOMABLE 930 AM ayuden al crecimiento de su negocio! Si quiere anunciarse llame al (405)848-0100 LA INDOMABLE 930 AM + 105.3 FM`` [sic] Strangely, most of the accented letters came out in bolder type than the letters next to them. This Spanish is almost correct, but misses an accent on público; misplaced capitalization such as Mexicana --- but capitalizing proper adjectives is an increasingly common mistake, no doubt as influenced by English; nor should español be capitalized. The ad is two-color, with green for the KINB coverage area, and pink for the WKY; but in the logo in the corner, the colors are reversed! As for the beginning of the blurb, it is not my familiar ability to tune it in on 930 that makes it the station with largest coverage in Spanish. Merely putting that programming on the existing 930 transmitter accomplished that. Now that it`s mostly music, WKY ought to revive C-QUAM AM stereo, which it ran during a previous musical incarnation. I assume it has not, as there has been no such promotion, altho I ought to dust off and hook up my AM stereo receiver to be sure. Legal ID at 1659 UT Feb 11 was in Spanish, but pronounced the call letters WKY as in English, so we still don`t know their preference for pronouncing W, which has three different options in Spanish, and Y, which has two (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 930 WKY Oklahoma City. This station recently changed format to Spanish, but still carries Oklahoma City Blazers CHL hockey in English (Steve Sprague, Coffeyville KS, DDXD West, NRC E-DX News Feb 13 via DXLD) ** PAKISTAN. R. Pakistan, Islamabad, 17835, news in English at 1100 Jan 1 // 15100, SIO 444 (Tony Rogers, Birmingham, Feb BDXC UK Communication via DXLD) also 1102 Jan 1, news to 1105, // 15100, poor modulation, SIO 544 (David Morris, Dorset, ibid.) Also political talk in English at 1100 20 Jan, 333 (Nicholas Vaughan-Baker, Essex, ibid.) ** PETER I [and non]. 3Y0X FORUM --- Robert Chudek, K0RC, has established an open forum http://groups.yahoo.com/group/3y0x for the exchange of information about the DXpedition to Peter I. It is intended as a tool for worldwide amateur radio operators to communicate and exchange information as a community during the expedition, while the primary source of up-to-the minute information from 3Y0X is http://www.peterone.com [TNX K0RC] (425 DX News Feb 11 via Dave Raycroft, ODXA via DXLD) Quoted from the 3Y0X yg: "From: Don Greenbaum Date: Fri Feb 10, 2006 4:28 am I'm not sure many of you guys can top this; last year, 90 year old W1BIH sold his house and moved to a retirement community so all his beams/towers amps gone. He has been licensed for over 75 years and due to travel and such missed 3Y0 on past DXpeditions. So, I picked up John today and brought him to my station. After about 30 minutes he made it. It was country nr. 390. Back on top of the honor roll. 390!!!!!!! You should have seen the smile on his face. I have it on videotape and when I convert it tomorrow to digital format we'll put it on the website. 73 (Don, N1DG/3Y0X pilot, Greenbaum, Duxbury MA via Horacio A. Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, Feb 11, DXLD) Anoche pude escuchar a 3Y0X, la expedición más cara de la historia --- 500,000 dólares, operando desde la isla Peter I. 7066, trabajando europeos y sudamericanos en split qsx 5 a 10 kHz arriba. Aprovechen a escuchar este radiopaís. Info en http://www.peterone.com/ (Horacio A. Nigro, Montevideo Uruguay, Feb 11, condig list via DXLD) Still looking for 3Y0X here; Feb 11 at 1441, PA6W was calling CQ Contest on 14193. How convenient a contest is running during the expedition! Nothing around 18145. 14m was open at least to somewhere in the W2-call area. Another check around 2208 Feb 11 on so-called 17m even tho it is shorter than the 16m broadcasting band, and all the metric equivalents in the small hamband are certainly well within the 16-meter range: Pileup not on one frequency, but everywhere from at least 18150 to 18157 --- countless stations giving nothing but their callsigns over and over every few seconds. I NEVER heard 3Y0X mentioned as the station being called. Is this any way to conduct legitimate contacts? I can only assume that was the purpose of the pileup with 18145 the nominal frequency for 3Y0X, where nothing could be heard here except an occasional stray N-call (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The 3Y0X team arrived at Peter I on 5 February at 21.35 local time (0135 UT of the 6th). It was foggy and windy, and they had to wait for the weather to clear. The first helicopter load landed on the island at 1830 UT on 7 February; most of the team and 80% of the gear were flown ashore and 3Y0X became active in the early UT morning of 8 February. The rest of the gear and the remaining three team members (NP4IW, K3VN and N4GRN) had to be transferred onto the island a few hours later, but the weather deteriorated and at 2330 UT of 9 February they were still on the ship. The suggested operating frequencies are: BAND SSB CW Digital --------------------------------------------- 10 28475 28023 28092 (listening up) 12 24987 24893 24928 (listening down) 15 21295 21023 21102 (listening down) 17 18145 18073 18108 (listening down) 20 14190 14023 14084 (listening up) 30 - 10103 10135 (listening up) 40 7093 7023 - 80 3750 3523 - 160 1842.5 1822.5 - The latest information from the team, released at 1830 UT of 10 February, is that they now have four stations QRV around the clock, while weather and visibility conditions are still the same. The first logs (13,067 QSOs QSOs through 10 February at 16 UT) are now available at http://www.peterone.com/ QSL via N2OO. 12 Feb, 0110 UT: Just to bring you up to date, yesterday morning at 0230 UT the helicopter began flying again and brought ashore 8-9 loads and our three orphaned Team Members. Starting again at 0900 UT, he starting bringing the final 5-6 loads and finished around 1500. At that time we finally had a full complement of people, equipment and supplies. In the last load was the Job Johnny (outhouse) which was very gratefully received! Here's a rundown on the antennnas in operation now: Battle Creek Special for 160 Wire antenna for 80 Wire antenna for 75 Two 40M verticals 20M vertical 17M two-element vertical 30M vertical Two SteppIR 2El yagis for 10-20M Tomorrow we'll have another 30M vertical and the two remaining SteppIR 2el yagis up. We presently have six stations on the air and tomorrow afternoon will have all eight. Today we had beautiful views of the Mountain; hopefully the weather will continue to clear. Note: We are presently adding the rest of the computers to the LAN so there will be some delay in getting the logs uploaded; please be patient with us. The main web page always indicates the latest logs available so that should be your trigger to check to see if you're in it. 73 from the Peter I Team! (peterone website via DXLD) ** PHILIPPINES. See LANGUAGE LESSONS below ** PORTUGAL [and non]. 17680, Noted Radio Diff Portugal and Voz Cristiana mixing it up, both with good signals here in Clewiston, Florida. Radio Diff Portugal presenting mellow vocal Portuguese Jazz while Cristina playing Spanish Rap music. What a mixture! Cristiana gives ID followed by promos at 1959 (Chuck Bolland, Sat Feb 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, 17680 was a new frequency from Dec 1 for RDPI, as in 5-218 from Observer, Bulgaria: M-F 1700-2000 Af/SoAm 17680 21655 Sat-Sun 1700-2100 Af 17680 So it must have been colliding with VC for over two months, but first time reported here; I rarely tune around 16m myself during those hours, and might not notice it anyway with the super-signal from Santiago. It must be awful in most of Latin America (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. 5960, RS Tikhy Ocean, *0935-1000*, Feb. 7, Russian, Same format as previously logged/reported with IS, OM with presumed ID then YL with talks and music bits. Interview(?) at 0945. OM at sign-off. Poor with the same signal strength I've been logging this winter; audible enough to log but not strong enough to detail (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH-USA, R75, 200' Beverages, MLB-1, DTS-4, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. St. Petersburg 828/1188/1440 --- Enclosed an excerpt from RUS-DX with full details for the already discussed changes at St. Petersburg: 828 (Radio Liberty) and 1440 (RFI) went dark on January 1st due to expired licences. Radio Liberty referred listeners to FM 71.24 and seems to have done with it. RFI is now at times relayed on 1188, previously used by Deutsche Welle exclusively. Wonder who took the initiative for this arrangement; RFI, DW or perhaps RTRS (the transmitter operator)? Anyway neither involved station gave the circumstances special publicity, at least I did not note any news releases etc. This is quite different to the big fuss about 693 in Moscow (nobody seems to care for BBC and RFI in Moscow anymore since the DW transmissions on 693 are restored, by the way). All the best, (Kai Ludwig, Feb 12, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: "RUS-DX" # 151 - B Broadcasting of Russia, countries of CIS and Baltiya Sunday / 12 , February 2006 Information bulletin of Russian DX League Sankt-Peterburg --------------------------- From 1 January 2006 : Since January, 1, 2006 relayings "Radio Freedom" on 828 kHz are stopped and the International French radio on 1440 kHz. RFI now divides Frequency 1188 kHz with "the German wave". Transfers on frequency 1188 kHz (Saint Petersburg, 10 kw) go under the following schedule (UTC). 03.00-04.30 DW. Russian. 04.30-05.00 RFI. Russian. 05.00-06.00 DW. Russian. 06.00-07.00 DW. German. 07.00-08.00 DW. Russian. 08.00-10.00 DW. German. 10.00-12.00 RFI. French. 12.00-14.30 DW. German. 14.30-15.00 RFI. Russian. 15.00-19.00 DW. Russian. 19.00-20.00 RFI. Russian. 20.00-21.00 DW. Russian. 21.00-23.00 DW. German. Relay via 684 kHz (via Radio NERRS, Sankt-Peterburg, 10 kW) 04.30-04.57 Radio Slovakia International 05.00-05.27 Radio Prague 05.30-05.57 Radio Polonia 06.00-09.00 Radiogazeta Slovo 12.00-13.00 TWR 13.00-13.57 China Radio International 14.00-15.00 TWR 15.00-18.00 Pravoslavnoe Radio Sankt-Peterburg 18.00-20.00 Radio Radonezh 20.00-20.30 Radio Canada International 20.30-22.00 Radiogazeta Slovo 22.00-23.00 Radio Svobodnyy Golos (Alexander Berezkin, Sankt-Peterburg) (via Kai Ludwig, DXLD) ** SINGAPORE [non]. RUSSIA, 7480, 1530-, AWR Samara Feb 12, 'This is Adventist World Radio, the Voice of Hope'. Fair strength in the clear. New frequency from 1 Feb into Wavescan program. Too weak to copy much, so I'll try again at 1600 from KSDA. GUAM, 9585, 1600-, KSDA, Feb 12, 'From the regional headquarters in Singapore, this is Wavescan'. Not a great signal at S7 with much deep fades, but readable. 6th edition of the program. Is this program available yet for download like in the old days? Improving nicely during the program to SIO 4-4-4. and 5-5-5 by the end of the program. NEW ZEALAND, 11980, 1632-, RNZI Feb 12, Looking for the listed KSDA Wavescan broadcast I instead hear RNZI with a national weather forecast, cochannel over a weaker station, which might be KSDA. National Radio ID at 1633 (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 5020 / 9545 --- Adrian Sainsbury has just visited SIBC and tells me that 9545 kHz will become a DRM transmission in the future for relay by remote SIBC relay stations in the Solomons (Barry Hartley, NZ, wwdxc BC-DX Feb 11 via DXLD) ** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 9885, at 1151 13 Jan, WWRB (WNJC), USA, Overcomer Ministry, English, SIO 555 (Tim Ritchie, Felixstowe, Suffolk, Feb BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) ??? WWRB has never used this frequency; WEWN uses it later in the day, but in Spanish. WNJC is a brokered 1360 MW station in New Jersey. Is that on the Overcomer network? Yes, per http://www.overcomerministry.org/content/blogcategory/22/42/ and only at 6:30-7 am M-F, = 1130 UT, and indeed this was a Friday. So B.S. probably mentioned being on this station during that semihour, but neither broadcasts on 9885! The same page shows BS via Jülich on 9845 at that hour, which is about as close as we can get (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND. 9705, Radio Thailand, Udon Thani; 1402-1416 12 February. Very good with English female newscast, lots of references to rain conditions in various parts of the county, man at 1408, "This is Radio Thailand English language service" and back to news topics (Terry Krueger, Clearwater, FL, Tocobaga DX Feb 12 via DXLD) Must be a recent change from 9725, which had QRM (gh, DXLD) ** TIBET. CHINA, Xizang PBS, 5 Feb: Chinese service on 4820 as 34323 with S9 signal and songs, adverts at 2203, then commentary in Chinese. Tibetan service on 4920 (34433/S7), 4905 (34333/S5), 5240 (32532/S9) with easy listening music that passes 2200 (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. BBC website unblocked: see IRAN ** U S A. US BROADCASTERS "NOT UP TO CHALLENGE" OF PUBLIC DIPLOMACY WITH IRAN - EXPERT Mehdi Khalaji*, a visiting fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says that the US government's international broadcasts to Iran are not up to the challenge of breaking the information barrier between the US and the Iranian people. Of the VOA's Persian service, Khalaji says that "With low ratings (below 5 percent of those who listen to foreign radio broadcasts, which most Iranians do), an aging staff, and an image of being the official voice of the US government, it can have at best only a modest impact." Khalaji welcomes the expansion of the VOA's Persian television service, but adds that "VOA Persian television does not have as much strategic vision and journalistic professionalism as it might." As for Radio Farda, he says that it "has the potential to have a substantial impact. However, as currently run, Radio Farda suffers from management problems recently made worse by management turnover. Its production has dropped both in quantity and quality. A major overhaul is needed to make it a more effective means of public diplomacy with Iran." The Persian-language website, too, comes in for strong criticism: "The translations on the website leave much to be desired. The terms used are more typical of prerevolutionary Iran; the language lacks the dynamism and standards of contemporary Persian as spoken in Iran. There is considerable difference between the language on the website and that of the Iranian press. It would be useful to find journalists and translators better in touch with modern Iran." On programme delivery, Khalaji believes that Radio Farda should add a second mediumwave transmitter, and also suggests a number of FM transmitters inside Iraq near the border with Iran. *) Mr Khalaji has worked for the BBC Persian Service the Prague-based Radio Farda, as well as the Persian-language service of the US government's Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. At Radio Farda, he produced news, features, and analysis on a range of Middle Eastern, Iranian, and Islamic issues. Read the full article: http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=2442 # posted by Andy @ 11:30 UT Feb 12 (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** U S A. I sent WWV a reception report for the leap second heard on December 31, 2005 at precisely 23h 59m 60s. I received a QSL on February 4 which did not list the leap second, nor in any way verified it. Rats. Today, 10 February I received a letter from the NIST, apologizing for the oversight. They sent me an address label typed "leap second" to affix to my QSL. The sticker didn't list the second. I am still astonished that the government apologized for something. Interesting collector's item (Liz Cameron, MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) ** U S A. I had almost concluded that Saddlebunch was off the air again when I tuned for AFN 12133.5, Feb 11 at 1502, but shortly a very weak and unreadable SSB signal faded in (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 18980, WYFR, Okeechobee FL; 1738-1800+, 7-Feb; EE Bible thumping, but not H. Camping. Sez that 2011 is the next date to watch out for. ID including call, QTH & frequencies at 1758. Continued in English at 1800. SIO=2+22+, buzzing QRM (Harold Frodge, MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) oh oh oh -- we need to offer to buy WYFR for a dollar effective in 2012. Anyone interested in making a purchase offer????? :) (Ken Zichi, MARE ed., ibid.) ** U S A. More gospel-huxter-caused confusion about which station is which: happened to tune to 13570, which everyone knows is WINB, at 2200 UT Feb 11 just as Rod Hembree was IDing as ``You are listening to Good Friends Radio on WBCQ``. Why can`t this major consumer of US SW time keep his affiliates straight? He just doesn`t care, or he`s not as smart as he would have us believe (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Re 6-028: KCKN-1020 back on the air --- 1020 KCKN NM, Roswell in English with ID "KCKN, Roswell" at 1950 PST 02/10/06 behind KTNQ (Albert Lehr - Livermore, CA, Allied A-2515 receiver, Homebrew external sync detector, frequency measurement system, Two 35 ft. Ewe antennas at 218 and 293 degrees, 6 ft. outdoor loop, IRCA via DXLD) They're on at 2242 PT, apparently stunting with a metronome interspersed with clips of music from the 50s-70s. Solid ID of "KCKN 1020 Roswell" at 2240 PT (Dave Williams, Redmond, OR, ibid.) That metronome really gets out. Anyone who doesn't have this station should give 1020 a try. Also heard: "The new AM 1020- KCKN- Roswell" at 0000 PT. Thanks for this tip Dave. 73 (Doug Pifer, Albany, OR, ibid.) Hello, Just heard "The new AM 1020- KCKN- Roswell" S-9+35 db playing bits and pieces of different songs. Ticking of the clock between songs. 0910 UT, Spanish station underneath. Thanks for the tips fellows. 73, (Dennis Vroom, Vancouver, WA, JRC 545, High Performance Active Whip, ibid.) Well I wouldn'ta thunk it if I hadn'ta heard it. I thought STUNTING and TEASING was something they only did in big cities. Then again I think Roswell IS considered "large market" in New Mexico. Anyways, take a listen if you dare. They're playing a continuous loop. It goes something like this: "tick tock tick tock tick tock... then a piece of an oldie... then tick tock tick tock tick tock... then a piece of an instrumental... tick tock tick tock tick tock... piece of a country song... tick tock tick tock tick tock..." and on it goes on and on. No clue what the new format is going to be. They HAVE indeed taken back the old KCKN call letters that they had before the KINF days. And when they were KCKN, it was "KiCKiN Country 1020 KCKN". I remember listening in the late 80s to them. Is that a clue? No idea. I guess we wait and see and meanwhile so goes me and Mike Westfall's chance at KDKA. I tried and tried anyway and never could get anything but KTNQ and KOIL (Michael n Wyo Richard, ABDX via DXLD) Managed to hear the metronome around 0605 UT Feb 12, but 1020 mostly dominated here by KDKA, altho KOKP in nearby Perry OK is usually an obstacle (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I'm good friends with the engineer who did the work getting 1020 back on the air. He said the real programming starts Monday, the weekend is just a tease. According to him, the station came back on the air Friday (Paul B. Walker, Jr., http://www.walkerbroadcasting.com NRC-AM via DXLD) Let's hope it's just a tease! All day long, wood blocks going, "TICK tock, TICK tock, TICK tock.." into a piece of a song, more Tick tock, a piece of another song, lather, rinse repeat. Then, "It could happen in a few days, maybe even in a few hours. The launch of something long overdue. (sound effects) The new AM Ten -Twenty, KCKN Roswell." BORING! So, classic country off the bird is something "long overdue", eh? -- Mike Westfall, N6KUY, WDX6O Los Alamos, New Mexico (DM65uv) Well, I couldn't be much closer to the center of their maximum directional power (it's at 315 degrees, I'm at 314 degrees from Roswell), so I'm glad I've had KDKA a number of times this Winter. KCKN was really booming in here last night, well over LA and Moses Lake (Dave Williams Redmond, OR, Feb 11, IRCA via DXLD) It was not KCKN then, but still legally KINF, as explained above (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. LICENSE CANCELLED/CALL LETTERS DELETED --- 1620 KBLI ID Blackfoot - In a move opposite the trend, the owners have decided to turn in the 1620 license and retain their 690 facility (Bill Hale, AM Switch, NRC E-DX News Feb 13 via DXLD) e-dxn's AM Switch, posted today, brings the unwelcome news that KBLI- 1620 in Blackfoot, Idaho has been deleted. An AM query under "Blackfoot" on the FCC's site indeed turns up only the 690 station. This is the *last* x-bander I would have wanted to see deleted. No Idaho here in nearly a third of a century. Guess I can retire that fantasy about a DX test with code and sweeps! (Steve Francis, Alcoa, Tennessee, Feb 11, IRCA via DXLD) Come to think about it, I have not heard KBLI 1620 for sometime. I just checked and not a peep off the Eastern beverage, just WA and CA noted. 73, (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, NRC-AM via DXLD) Radioandrecords.com say station group has been sold. So may come back under new ownership? (Barry Davies, UK, IRCA via DXLD) Nope - the license has been surrendered, and at the moment, the FCC has no interest in issuing new X-band licenses. Until that changes (and it appears to be right at the bottom of the priority list), 1620 Idaho is simply gone. (The license surrender was part of the transfer of ownership - with the five-year deadline looming for a decision on whether to keep 690 or 1620, there was no point paying the filing fees and so on to transfer a license that was just going to expire a month later, anyway. Same deal with 1470 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which is going away, if it hasn't done so already, as part of the sale of a cluster of stations there.) s (Scott Fybush, IRCA via DXLD) Does anyone know if any X Band stations have listeners? Do any make the ratings? With the demise of KBLI of late, I am wondering if anyone listens to X Band stations other than the DXer? (Patrick Martin, ibid.) There are a handful of X-banders that show in the ratings. WTDY 1670 in Madison is one, 1660 in Kalamazoo is another. WRDW 1630 Augusta GA and KCJJ 1630 Iowa City do OK as well. 1660 in West Fargo just signed the Ed Schultz show, and should do well with that in his home market. As with anything else on the AM dial, it's all in the programming and promotion. Give listeners something they want to hear and put effort into making it sound good and letting the public know it's there, and the ratings will follow. There are certainly enough receivers out there now that the "new" nature of the band is far less of a factor than it used to be. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) ** U S A. INVESTMENT FIRM BUYS OHIO RADIO GROUP Thursday, February 09, 2006 Percy Squire`s Ohio radio group has a new owner. D.B. Zwirn Special Opportunities Fund, a global investment firm, was the successful bidder at a Jan. 26 bankruptcy-court auction. The sale is pending any appeals and FCC approval. Zwirn, which was owed at least $15.6 million by Squire’s group, used $12 million of that debt as its winning bid. Squire’s radio group, Stop 26 Riverbend, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year. Stop 26 owned Spanish-language station WVKO-FM (103.1) and gospel station WVKO-AM (1580) Columbus and three stations in Youngstown (via Chuck Adkins, Voice Corps, WOSU-FM reading service, DXLD) ** U S . TOCOBAGA DX #78 12 February, 2006 CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, USA E-mail: tocobagadx @ earthlink.net For the only definitive listing of unlicensed and low power FM, pirates and TIS stations within Florida and occasionally beyond, visit my "Florida Low Power Radio Stations" at: http://home.earthlink.net/~tocobagadx/flortis.html and http://www.geocities.com/geigertree/flortis.html © 2006, Terry L Krueger. Retransmit or quote all or any portion only with full credit given to TOCOBAGA DX and any attributed source(s). All frequencies are in kHz, times/dates in GMT unless otherwise stated Some of the below logs were made while to/from the Orlando ham radio convention at the Central Florida Fairgrounds on SR-50, with Gerry Bishop on 11 February. Later this day, we linked up with David Crawford for the ethno-pirate DFing war games. 600, LOUISIANA WVOG, New Orleans; 1834-1906 12 February. Great signal for only 1 kW, early afternoon local. Tune-in to "The Hour of Decision" gospel program with male preacher, TX address, ending with remake version of Frank & Nancy Sinatra's "Something Stupid (Becuase I Love You)" then male canned promo for a 10:30 a.m. weeday program. Quick canned "WVOG, New Orleans" into network news till 1905, more broker gospel stuff. Alone and good. (Krueger, Clearwter, FL) 780, FLORIDA (TIS) "Florida State Fair Information Radio" KAZ5520, Tampa; definitely silent as we passed the Fairgrounds 11 February, mid-morning local -- this being the third day of the Fair -- and no blue signs along I-4 any more (albeit, lots of construction and new road embankments in the process of being installed) (Krueger/Gerry Bishop) 810, FLORIDA, WEUS, Orlovista; no trace of this in Hillsborough County while driving I-4 eastbound, 1430+ 11 February. Recheck in SW Orlando, strong with canned Scott Shannon "double shot" 60's-70's oldies (Dave Clark 5, John Lennon, etc.), none of which were actually two-set songs by the same artists. Canned ID by man just before 1700. Amazingly tight pattern, presumably to protect WMGG, Largo, Florida on 820, and just maybe as an afterthought, ZNS3, Freeport (Krueger/Bishop) 1300, FLORIDA, WTIR, Cocoa Beach; No trace of it on 11 February in the Orlando area, if active, though at least two blue "Tourist Info" signs for 1300 spotted still standing on I-4 (Krueger/Bishop) 1420, FLORIDA (PIRATE), "Radio Godgive" Orlando; noted mid-afternoon local on 11 February, but antenna no longer located at the building Crawford DF'ed it to a while back (just off Lancaster on Winegard). The station seems to be further west now, judging from the signal. Terrible weather and lack of time prevented re-DFing this one to the new location (Krueger/Bishop/David Crawford) 1500, FLORIDA, WKIZ, Key West; 1200-1212 12 February. Tune-in to instrumental Cuban music (end of brokered Spanish? Or just filler?) then man "This is WKIZ, 1500 A-M, broadcasting from Key West, Florida. The following is a paid advertisement program." Into snake oil joint lubricant infomercial. Very strong on sunrise peak (Krueger, Clearwater, FL) 1620, (PIRATE) "Radio Keenanm" [sic] Orlando; also noted mid-afternoon local on 11 February, so we decided to pay a visit at their studio just off of the South Orange Blossom Trail on 45th Street. But, as Crawford previously detailed, we did not receive a warm greeting upon entering the unlocked office where the station originates (upstairs), and high-tailed it out of the neighborhood. Photographed the antenna on the way out (Krueger/Bishop/Crawford) 1620, (TIS), FLORIDA, Florida DoT multiple sites on I-4, Polk County; 11 February, mid-morning local. The transmitter located in the median near Exit 28 (which has been in this approximate location for many months) remains active with a short, fast-cycling male loop, referencing DoT Highway Advisory Radio and I4polk.com. Big signal for a few miles eastbound. Another transmitter was spotted near the overpass at Exit 48, east side, but inactive. A third near Exit 55 is also active with man and woman loop, short DTMF tone, mentioning highly useful traffic updates for the period of December 4-18 (2005). Actually, I [Terry] spotted at least a couple of other transmitters along I-4 in Polk, also inactive, but didn't log the exit locations (Krueger/Bishop) 89.5 MHz, FLORIDA, (PIRATE) unidentified; not active on the way to Orlando on 11 February, mid-morning local, but active when passing back to Clearwater on I-4 around Exit 64A and 64B (roughly the US-192, Kissimmee area) with poor signal briefly. Fifties and early 60's bubblegum pop, thus suspect "Old Town Radio" (ex-95.9 MHz, which operates at the tourist shopping complex). Also, the same format as formerly active "Rare 60's Radio" on 87.9, 89.3 MHz, and "Old Town Radio" of 660 kHz fame, circa 1993 (Krueger/Bishop) 91.7 MHz, FLORIDA, (PIRATE), unidentified ethno-Haitian, Orlando; a konpa music station with no announcements here, as first discovered by Crawford earlier this day, 11 February. Quickly DF'ed this to just a couple of blocks from the former "Radio Godgive" site. Located at a run-down duplex at Lancaster and Lee Lan (or Lee Ann, depending on which city street sign is the typo). The stick is poorly secured (typical Haitian craftsmanship) to a dead pine tree. Stereo, but very bassy. Photographed the antenna from a rundown mercado parking lot located next door (Krueger/Bishop/Crawford) 96.3 MHz, FLORIDA, (PIRATE), unidentified ethno-Haitian, Tampa; 2355+ 11 February. On the way back to Clearwater, located this new one in stereo, but only a marginal signal with nonstop Kreyol talk show, male host, occasional calls patched through and most with bad caller radio feedback. Signal remained about the same until lost just after the Howard Frankland Bridge approach, westbound. No Kreyol operations previously detected on this channel in Hillsborough County, though could be any one of the many other unidentifieds that have briefly popped up on other frequencies previously, or simply a new one (Krueger/Bishop) 96.3 MHz, FLORIDA, (PIRATE), "96.3 FM" St. Petersburg; the reggae pirate is back on after at least a couple of weeks untraced. Noted 12 February, 1258+ with the usual automated reggae/ska format, stereo, fair in Clearwater (Krueger/Bishop, Clearwater, FL) [all: Tocobaga DX Feb 12 via DXLD) ** U S A. POPULAR BROADCASTING LOBBYIST IS SIGNING OFF By Alicia Mundy, Seattle Times Washington bureau Editor's note: Letter from Washington examines the culture of politics and power in the capital. WASHINGTON -- Wednesday night marked the passing of an era in D.C. with the retirement of one of the city's most formidable lobbyists and one of the few gentlemen in the sport: Eddie Fritts, the outgoing president of the National Association of Broadcasters. His organization represents television and radio stations across the country and used to represent the major TV networks. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., once called the broadcasters "the most powerful lobby in Washington," and he wasn't smiling. Their key weapon was Fritts. . . http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/2002798252_aliciacol11.html (via Dan Say, DXLD) We have Fritts to thank forgranted things (gh) ** VATICAN. Re 6-028, VR in English until 2400 on 5885: But multi language scheduled to Europe on FM and MW-DRM mode German, English, Italian 2310-2400 UT EU 93.3 1530DRM mode 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See if this analog keeps up (gh, DXLD) ** VATICAN. RADIO VATICANO CUMPLE 75 AÑOS Y EL PAPA VISITARA SUS INSTALACIONES Radio Vaticano celebra el domingo 12 de Febrero de 2006 sus 75 años, recordando el primer mensaje radial emitido por el Papa Pío XI en 1931 a través de la emisora, realizada, por en cargo del Pontífice, por el mismo Guglielmo Marconi, el inventor de la radio. Para celebrar la ocasión, el 3 de marzo visitará las instalaciones el Papa Benedicto XVI aunque aún se desconoce si el Pontífice enviará como hizo Pio XI un mensaje. También Juan Pablo II pocos días después de ser elegido realizó una visita a la emisora pontifica. El Papa, que será recibido por el actual director general de la radio, el Padre Federico Lombardi, dio su primera entrevista tras su elección a la emisora En el 2001, el Papa Juan Pablo II celebró los setenta años de Radio Vaticano concediendo una audiencia a todos los dependientes que trabajan en la emisora. Para la ocasión el correo vaticano emitirá una estampilla especial que resaltará las bodas de diamante que cumple la emisora y que será el símbolo de las celebraciones que se darán durante todo este año. La estampilla presentará el número 75 y la inscripción: "Inauguración de Radio Vaticano". También para celebrar este aniversario, el Centro Televisivo vaticano y la Radio Vaticana han producido un video que reasume la historia y la actualidad de la radio. Radio Vaticano nació después de la firma de los Pactos de Letrán, entre la Iglesia y el Estado Italiano, (1929). Pío XI encargó a Guiglielmo Marconi, inventor de la radio, la realización de una estación de radio, dentro del nuevo Estado Vaticano, que le permitiera comunicarse con el mundo entero. El primer mensaje del Papa fue en latín. Decía: "Oíd, Oh Cielos, lo que estoy por decir, escuchad tierra la palabra de mi boca... oíd y escuchad oh pueblos lejanos". Eran exactamente las 16 horas 49 minutos del 12 de febrero de 1931. En estos momentos Radio Vaticano emite en cuarenta idiomas, durante más de sesenta horas en todas las regiones del mundo. Además de emitir en onda corta, onda media y frecuencia modulada, ha comenzado a lanzar su señal a través de dos satélites -INTELSAT 62 Est (Indiano), INTELSAT 325,5 Est (Atlántico)- con dos canales cada uno. Además, cuenta el sitio Internet http://www.radiovaticana.org desde donde se pueden escuchar sus programas en directo o diferido, así como acceder a un gran archivo con la voz del Papa. La página más polémica de la historia de Radio Vaticano fue la condena del director general de Radio Vaticano, padre Pasquale Borgomeo, y el presidente del comité de gestión de la cadena, el cardenal Roberto Tucci por la contaminación electromagnética producida por las antenas de la emisora en algunas zonas de Roma (extraido integramente de http://www.elmundo.es via Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, Noticias DX via DXLD) ** ZAMBIA. Poor but clear signal with slight fading on 4910 from 0330. Usual format with hi-life music in local language. English MA at 0340 mentioning P.O. address in Lusaka and more greetings. After 0400 some local ads in their local language. What this could be? Fading comes around 0500 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, Feb 11, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Remember to check OOB 4500 for Zambia, reported once lately; maybe the other program? (gh, DXLD) ** ZANZIBAR. Finally monitored RTZ, 11735, Feb 10 at 1800 and did hear an ID for Spice FM, and news in English, but modulation rather muddy and signal not really strong enough to be fully intelligible. One item mentioned Kofi Annan, and then there was a dateline of Zanzibar (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11735, 1816-, Radio Tanzania Zanzibar, Feb 11. Excellent reception this morning with signals S9 + 10 in presumed Swahili. Many mentions of Zanzibar. Also heard Nigeria mentioned at 1817. Darn, I must have just missed the English program, Spice FM! 11735, 1717-, Radio Tanzania Zanzibar, Feb 12. Just a wonderful station to monitor. Lovely African music and Swahili talk, with lots of mentions of Dar Es Salaam and Zanzibar. A 4-5-4 signal. I'm recording this one with Recall-Pro for listening on my MP3 player (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11735.00, Radio Tanzania, Dole; 1956-2016 12 February. Very good copy with Swahili man hosting short local instrumental and vocal music tracks. Five long, one short time sounder 2000, Swahili woman ID, talk (Terry Krueger, FL, Tocobaga DX Feb 12 via DXLD) ** ZIMBABWE. Radio Zimbabwe, 6612, very strong harmonic of 3306 heard at 1800 this evening from within Zimbabwe. Obvious transmitter mismatching as 6612 is a powerhouse signal and 3306 weaker (David Pringle-Wood, Harare, Zimbabwe, Feb 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6612, 08/2 0017-0019, ZBC, Gweru, Afro pop, barely audible. O= 0-2 (DARIO MONFERINI & GIAMPIERO BERNARDINI, BOCCA DI MAGRA (LA SPEZIA), RX: AOR 7030, DRAKE SPR-4, RF SPACE SDR-14, CIAO RADIO H101, DEGEN 1103, SANGEAN ATS 909, GRUNDIG SAT. 500, ANT.: WELLBROOK LFL 1010, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [and non]. STATE MUST JAM PIRATE RADIOS The Herald (Harare) OPINION February 10, 2006, Posted to the web February 10, 2006 By Tichaendipi Chuma, Harare Reports about alleged jamming of pirate broadcasting stations by the Government of Zimbabwe have been doing the rounds in the media for some time and have recently surged because of the arrests of the Voice of the People (VOP) directors and reporters by the police for violating the Broadcasting Services Act. . . .The third and most available option for Zimbabwe to deal with pirate broadcasting is to invoke Section 27 (5) of the Broadcasting Services Act, which reads: "If the minister has reason to believe that a broadcasting service is being provided from within or OUTSIDE (my emphasis) Zimbabwe in contravention of this Act, he may direct any person having the technological means to do so at any time to use that means to stop, scramble, obliterate or interfere with the transmission or reception of the broadcaster concerned." It is the above provision that allows the Government of Zimbabwe to jam all broadcasting transmissions that are in violation of its laws. . . http://allafrica.com/stories/200602100690.html (via Ulis Fleming, dxldyg via DXLD) Good grief (Fleming, ibid.) This is the biggest load of venomous garbage I have seen for some time (Barbara Goss, Australia, zimbabwenews yg via Scott Morgan, DXLD) Mr. Hauser, this is unbelievable (Scott Morgan, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Ulis, thanks for finding this `article` and posting it to the group. It really made my day !!! I live in Harare but missed buying yesterday's only Zimbabwean newspaper --- rather, I always miss buying the daily Herald newspaper. I somewhat wish I was a Herald journalist --- then I could also distort the facts to suit my article. Somewhere along the line, Mr Tichanendipi Chuma of the Herald newspaper has forgotten the exact difference of meaning of "in" and "into" when gospelling off the Broadcast laws of a state, etc. The rest of the ``article`` should be sent to your recycle bin asap or kept for a decent laugh. 73 (David Pringle-Wood, Harare, Zimbabwe, Feb 12, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE. GOVERNMENT MOVES TO SILENCE RADIO STATION - Worldpress.org Ambrose Musiyiwa, Leicester, Britain, February 10, 2006 Security agents in Zimbabwe have charged seven trustees of that country's sole independent news production company, the Voice of the People (VOP), with broadcasting without a license. Section 27 of the country's Broadcasting Services Act, prohibits possession or use of radio transmission equipment without a license. If found guilty of contravening the Act, VOP chairman David Masunda, Isabella Matambanadzo, Millicent Phiri, Lawrence Chibwe, Nhlahla Ngwenya, Arnold Tsunga and John Masuku could face up to two years in prison... http://www.worldpress.org/print_article.cfm?article_id=2383&dont=yes (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) VOP REMAND HEARING POSTPONED TO END OF MONTH In Zimbabwe, the remand hearing of the six trustees of Voice of the People (VOP), due to take place yesterday, has been postponed to 28 February since the prosecution was not ready with its case. The State also dropped the weekly police reporting condition, which the trustees were ordered to adhere to when they were arrested at the end of January. The trustees are being charged with broadcasting without a licence, which carries a potential two-year prison penalty. They deny the charge, as the transmissions come from the Radio Netherlands Madagascar relay station. (Source: Zimbabwejournalists.com) # posted by Andy @ 11:20 Feb 12 (Media Network blog via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 1701.3, 09/2, 2030-2032*,2339- Galaxias amatori, UNID pirate Greek, testing and "fighting" with another one clobbering same frequency... madness... very good 1706.5, 05/2, 1639-1644 UNID Greek pirate, with Sirtaki sounds no stop. good 1708.8, 05/2, 1635-1659 Madedonska Radio, Pirate, UNID country interfered by Pireus Dekafonis very good 1718.6, 05/2, 1615-1619, UNID pirate, UNID country, folk songs... good 1725.8, 09/2, 2040-2044, Podgoriza Radia Studio Nesto, UNID pirate, folk music, sending greetings to listeners. Good 1752.5, 05/2, 1750-1752, UNID pirate, Unid country but Balcan area, very bad modulation underground tomb. Good 1765.9, 05/2, 1753-1954, UNID Skopiera area ?? UNID pirate, transmitter going up and down +/- 12 kHz ....horror... STRONG That's all folks !!!!! wishing to you good dxs !!!!! (Dario Monferini & Giampiero Bernardini, Bocca di Magra (La Spezia), RX: AOR 7030, DRAKE SPR-4, RF SPACE SDR-14, CIAO RADIO H101, DEGEN 1103, SANGEAN ATS 909, GRUNDIG SAT. 500, ANT. : WELLBROOK LFL 1010, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Many more like these in the 1600s, but I have picked out only those above 1700 (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Possibly pirate, 4920.72. 0625-0636* 12 Feb playing samba/chacha songs. Signal up to S9, quite steady to quote it coming from Quito, rated as 35343, relatively slow fading and sharp audio (Zacharias Liangas, Thessaloniki, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 5010.00, 0355-0430 12 February. Weak with soft music (unable to really tell if African or something else), no time sounders at 0400, but language man talk till quick filler music at 0412, more talk, back to music. Slowly faded out by 0430. Not the reactivated Dominican, which signed off earlier in the evening and is on the lower side of 5010. Madagascar rarely manages to hit the exact frequency when active, so if not them, who? (Krueger/Bishop at Clearwater, FL, Tocobaga DX Feb 12 via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. A Chinese station on 7280 with three signals delayed by a sesquisecond. This happened after 1200. Good signal and no fading. From time to time only one remained and in a few seconds was doubled. Different paths or transmitters? (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, Feb 11, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) This is an increasingly common and annoying jamming technique. I expect something perceived to be hostile has moved on there; EiBi and original B-05 NDXC schedules do not show any IBB transmissions. EiBi has V. of the Strait going off 7280 at 1200, while NDXC had it continuing after 1200 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 17655, African music as jammer for LIBYA: q.v. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ I sure found that I like CONTINENT OF MEDIA a LOT (Kevin Redding, AZ) DX-PEDITIONS ++++++++++++ Latest DX adventure story from Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia --- DXing from Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia during January, February 2006 Apocalypse Now Darwin, shit, I'm still in Darwin. Every time, I think I'm going to wake up back on a DXpedition in the jungle. When I was home over Christmas in South Australia after my first tour it was worse. I'd wake up and there'd be no DXing. I hardly said a word to my wife until I said yes to another DX mission. When I was here, I wanted to be there. When I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle. I'm here in a Darwin hotel a day now, waiting for a DX mission, getting softer, getting normal. Each time I looked around, the walls moved in a little tighter. I'd lost interest in the real world, I wanted a DX mission. They finally gave me one, brought it up to me like room service. It was a real choice mission... visit http://www.dxing.info/dxpeditions/nhulunbuy_2006_01.dx (Craig Edwards, Nhulunbuy (Gove), Northern Territory, Australia, MWDX yg via DXLD) Beware: longwave sexion is R?-rated (gh) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ CHINA TO HOST HIGH FREQUENCY COORDINATION CONFERENCE The fourth Global Shortwave Coordination Conference, to be held in Sanya, Hainan Island, China from 13 February, is expected to address the frequencies for more than 7,200 daily shortwave broadcasts for the new season which commences at the end of March 2006. Hosted by RTPRC- China, the five-day event will bring together more than 150 shortwave radio frequency managers representing around 87 percent of the world’s international radio broadcasters. The biennial global conference enables frequency managers of the world’s international radio broadcasters to organise and rationalise their shortwave radio transmission frequencies to reduce radio interference among the shortwave radio services. This considerably reduces the number of shortwave broadcasts that become unintelligible because of interference and thereby prevents wastage of hundreds of thousands of dollars on such broadcasts. The three international broadcasters’ groups that are driving this process are the High Frequency Coordination Committee, the ABU High Frequency Coordination Group (ABU-HFC) and the Arab States Broadcasting Union Coordination group. The ABU-HFC drives the shortwave coordination process within the Asia- Pacific with the participation of those shortwave broadcasters who either broadcast from the region or into it. For more details on the ABU-HFC and its activities, please click here: http://www.abu.org.my/public/compiled/p384.htm (Source: Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union) # posted by Andy @ 13:54 UT Feb 10 (Media Network blog via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ Re: The broadcasts will be demonstrated at the DRM Stand (Hall 5.3, L120) on the latest consumer radios by Roberts, courtesy of DRM member RadioScape... Interested consumers will be able to order DRM-capable radios online in the coming months. Consumers are advised to stay tuned to http://www.drm.org as well as DRM`s national Web sites including http://www.drmfrance.com for product availability bulletins and ordering information (DRM Press release, 9/2/06) I found the following statements in my folder of DRM press releases, etc.: DRM receivers are expected to be available in shops in 2004 (DRM press release 15.9.2003) RTL intends to make sure there are two million DRM receivers in Europe by 2007. "This is going to happen," he said. Sony will be producing receivers with both DAB and DRM capability (Michel Penneroux, DRM Commercial Committee, May 6th 2004, USA DRM group meeting) "Cheap DRM receivers will be out by Christmas" (Adil Mina, Continental Electronics, May 6th 2004, USA DRM group meeting) One million DRM receivers are expected to be in the marketplace by 2006 (Peter Senger, US DRM meeting, November 8-12 2004) DRM capable consumer products are heading for the shops for Christmas 2005 (Peter Senger quoted in DRM press release, 4th September 2005) Receivers need to be in shops, not demonstrated, showcased, introduced or expecting those interested to "stay tuned" (?!) to websites (Mike Barraclough, UK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, LUXEMBOURG -- Legendary DJ Benny Brown said today (2-11-06) on Radio Luxembourg that the new DRM receivers will be available by next month in the UK. He didn´t say what brand but he stressed that they won´t say "DRM" on the front but instead "DR." He added that customers should ask their sales rep. for a DR radio when looking for one so that they can tune Radio Luxembourg (Marty Delfín, Madrid, Spain, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DRM: see also BULGARIA, SOLOMON ISLANDS, VATICAN RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ IF QRM --- By Perry Crabill, W3HQX A 10 kW transmitter near Hagerstown, MD, is transmitting digital signals on 454 kHz using FSK. These signals are getting into the 455 kHz IF of many AM receivers not only in the immediate area, but at some distance further away. This transmitter is at the site previously used for the Ground Wave Emergency Net (GWEN) and uses a 300-foot antenna tower. The digital signals are corrections for GPS receivers to provide greater position and elevation accuracy, similar to those operating in the 285-325 kHz marine navigation beacon band. Stu Benner, W3STU has provided a Web Page with more details at http://ve3hls.tripod.com/noise/stu-458.html This reference mentions another such installation operating at 458 kHz at Hawk Run, PA. The designers of this system apparently did not give adequate consideration to the interference potential of the frequencies selected (NRC E-DX News Feb 13 via DXLD) SOVIET MANUFACTURED SHORTWAVE RADIOS Glenn, I was working in Riyadh Saudi Arabia in the late '80s. During that period a large consignment of Soviet manufactured radios suddenly showed up in some of the Radio Souks in the old Batha Souk area in downtown Riyadh. These were similar to the old Zenith Transoceanics of the 1970's with out the fold down map and frequency charts. The performance was also Transoceanic like except for a tendency for the AGC to go into oscillation with a very high signal levels. They were also 220 vac operation only. They were very inexpensive, I think around $40 equivalent USD. I can't recall the brand name (Dave Penney, Shiloh IL, Feb 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RADIO PHILATELY +++++++++++++++ New Vatican Radio 75th anniversary commem: see VATICAN LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ LANGUAGE LESSONS FROM THE PHILIPPINES Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the February 12, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (Let us relieve ourselves of this week's tensions and relax instead on the following non-political and non-controversial discussion of some familiar errors that can be corrected without a legislative investigation.) AT the risk of sounding superior or as an officious fault-finder, I make the well-meaning suggestion that the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas exert some effort to correct the English grammar and pronunciation of some of our television and radio newscasters. These persons are heard by thousands of their audience every day who are likely to be misled by some of the common language errors of the broadcast media. . . http://news.inq7.net/opinion/index.php?index=2&story_id=65897&col=61 (via Andy Sennitt, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ QUESTION NUMBER TWO: It came from a listener in the US state of Iowa. Mark wants to know how the short wave bands will behave from now on, after he heard that the solar cycle was coming near to its minimum. Well amigo Mark, to make a long story short, we are all now watching how the higher frequency amateur bands are now just be good for local work, 10 and 12 meters are be behaving most of the time like the two meters VHF band, and 15 and 17 meters will be opening up for DX less and less frequently as the solar cycle reaches its bottom activity sometime between the second half of 2006 and the end of 2007 according to recent forecasts, while other scientists now believe that the cycle will end a bit earlier than expected... So, be have those long wire antennas ready, as most of the DX activity will be concentrating on frequencies spanning form 2 to 10 megaHertz, and sometimes the maximum useable frequency curve will barely reach 6 megaHertz during the local evening hours !!! OUR EXCLUSIVE AND NOT COPYRIGHTED HF PLUS LOW BAND VHF PROPAGATION FORECAST And now amigas and amigos, just before going QRT here is our exclusive and not copyrighted HF plus low band VHF propagation forecast. Solar activity is very low, and will almost surely continue at a very low level for the next several days. Solar flux number to be used for short term HF forecasting using propagation analysis software is around barely 80 units. Expect very good DX conditions on the AM broadcast band, the Tropical Bands on 120, 90 and 60 meters and the international short wave broadcast band on 49 meters. Radio amateur operators will enjoy nice DX on 160, 80 and 40 meters during the local evening hours. VHF openings via sporadic E if any, will be almost non existent, and if they happen they will be very short lasting (RHC DXers Unlimited Feb 11 via ODXA via DXLD) ###