DX LISTENING DIGEST 6-035, February 24, 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 1305: Sat 0900 on WRN DRM 15735 Bulgaria Sat 1700 on WWCR 12160 Sun 0330 on WWCR 5070 Sun 0400 on WBCQ 9330-CLSB Sun 0730 on WWCR 3215 Sun 1500 on WRMI 7385 [tentative new time] Sun 2230 on WRMI 7385 Mon 0400 on WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0515 on WBCQ 7415 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 ** ANGOLA. See PORTUGAL [non] ** AUSTRALIA [and non]. Sendeplan und neue Anschrift von CVC. Einer meiner Empfangsberichte aus dem April 2005 wurde noch im vergangenen Jahr mit einer QSL-Karte von Voice International mit der Adresse in Buderim bestaetigt. Jetzt kam eine weitere Karte auf einen Empfangsbericht aus dem Mai 2005 ueber eine Reaissendung ueber Tashkent. Es war eine neue Karte von CVC mit einer neuen Adressangabe: CVC Network LTD. International English Broadcast P. O. Box 6361 Maroochydore BC Queensland 4558 Australia e-mail enquiries @ CVC.tv URL http://www.CVC.tv Phone +617 5477 1555 Fax +617 5477 1727 Plan fuer Sendungen in Englisch: Richtung Indien 0100-0300 UTC 7355 kHz via Tashkent 0300-0600 UTC 13685 kHz via Tashkent 0600-0900 UTC 15335 kHz via Darwin 0900-1100 UTC 11955 kHz via Darwin 1100-1800 UTC 13635 kHz via Darwin Richtung Nigeria 0500-0700 UTC 9430 kHz via Darwin/Wertachtal? 0700-0900 UTC 15640 kHz via Darwin/Wertachtal? 1500-1800 UTC 15680 kHz via Wertachtal 1800-2000 UTC 9765 kHz via Wertachtal 2000-2100 UTC 7285 kHz via Darwin/Wertachtal? Richtung Sued- und Zentralafrika 0515-1545 UTC 9555 kHz via Meyerton Mir sind die Sendungen Richtung Nigeria neu, auch der Einsatz des Relais Wertachtal (Peter Boeck-D, wwdxc BC-DX Feb 18) CVI Wertachtal deg kW 9430 0500-0559 46,47 180 WER 125 CVC 9430 0600-0659 46,47 180 WER 125 CVC 15640 0700-0900 46,47 180 WER 125 CVC 15680 1500-1759 46,47 180 WER 125 CVC 9765 1800-1959 46,47 180 WER 125 CVC 7285 2000-2059 46,47 180 WER 125 CVC (BCDX Feb 25 via DXLD) ** AUSTRIA. Even if XEPPM 6185 does not have adjacent channel interference during the 0600 UT hour, it does have co-channel from Vatican, worst in winter. Instead, we can depend on some classical music, weaker but clear from Vienna on 6155 (Glenn Hauser, OK, Feb 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AZERBAIJAN. Re V. of Justice, 9677v: According reliable information is Azeri lang to Azeri people in Armenia. See item in WRTH 2006 on page 120, under Other Stations, schedule, operation days and address given (Wolfgang Büschel, BCDX Feb 25 via DXLD) Wolfgang: it corresponds my regular observations in the past they were (in EU mornings) on Wed/Sat and sign-off time varied slightly 0630- 0638 UT (-1h in summer? can't recall exactly hm.) QRG stability & audio quality was always just like you've described (Vlad Titarev, Ukraine, DXplorer Feb 22 via BCDX via DXLD) ** BANGLADESH. See UZBEKISTAN ** BELARUS [and non]. Re R. Belarus via Russia, 6-034: 1170 kHz transmitter location Sasnovy on Belarus soil - powerful directional unit towards central Europe, the other powerful MW at Tbilisskaya on Caucasus. 5940 is a 250 kW unit at Moscow at 265 degrees from 1500 UT onwards (Wolfgang Büschel, BCDX Feb 25 via DXLD) ** BELARUS [non]. Radio Ratsya The Times February 24, 2006 By Roger Boyes http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2055898,00.html The dissident Opposition to Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarussian President dubbed Europe's last dictator, has been boosted by a new radio station that is broadcasting from Poland into his police state. Radio Ratsya began transmissions on Wednesday, providing news, interviews with opposition supporters and contemporary music banned by the Belarussian leader. If the station catches on it could help to stir resistance to Mr Lukashenko before presidential elections on March 19. No one doubts that the President will claim victory but there is a chance that the result could stoke unrest in the manner of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. "We have already broadcast an interview with the Belarussian opposition candidate for the presidency, Alexander Milinkevich," Nikola Markevich, a founder of the radio station, said. The editorial team is made up of Poles and Belarussians, fed by correspondents in Belarus. The transmitters are in southern Poland and Lithuania, ensuring that most of western and northern Belarus will be able to listen. There is little doubt that the new Polish Government is committed to engineering democratic change in Belarus. The opening of the station - financed by the Polish State with about £180,000 a year - was attended by Adam Lipinski, the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff. Journalists banned by President Lukashenko often find jobs across the border. Outlawed bands record in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Books are printed in Poland and smuggled to Belarus (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** BHUTAN. 6035, BBS, 23 & 24 Feb. 0058-0150, opening and talks man and woman. Maybe news. Later also some music and other talks. Poor to fair signal, with some real good peaks (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italy, RX used: CiaoRadio H101 (It's an Italian low cost SDR receiver) with T2FD 15 m. long, HCDX via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4760.82, Radio Guanay, Tentative, 1016-1030 Feb 24. Noted a man and woman in Spanish comments. Caught part of TC. Signal was down in the band noise so very threshold and could only make out language type. No actual details. Checked a couple of prior R. Guanay loggings found on the internet and no one heard this exact frequency for Guanay before, so very tentative on ID (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. Re 6-034, R. Illimani QSL: Hola Manuel, enhorabuena, me das una envidia de la leche, ya que no te conformas con escucharla; es que tienes suerte y te la verifican. Yo sin embargo si pillo algo, que llevo en blanco con Sudamerica ya casi un año, le mando el informe y lo espero sentado; no sea el caso que me canse, ya que lo más seguro es que no me llegue nada. Saludos y enhorabuena, amigazo Pepe (José Hernández Madrid, Spain, Noticias DX via DXLD) Muchas gracias Pepe. No era el primer informe que enviaba a esta emisora, y luego de tanto tiempo, no contaba que me llegase, así que fue una grata sorpresa cuando ví la carta en el buzón. Las bolivianas no son precisamente buenas verificadoras. Entre otras, envié, también, varios informes a Radio Fides (ya hace varios años) y Radio Pio XII y, como tu dices, estoy esperando sentado. En cambio una emisora boliviana que verifica bien es Radio Santa Cruz, en 6135 kHz. Lástima que la hora en que, esporádicamente se podía captar por aquí era sobre las 2330 y ahora está Radio República en la misma frecuencia, que hace imposible su escucha. Un abrazo (Manuel Méndez, Spain, ibid.) Hola Manuel, llevas razón --- la única emisora que verifica con regularidad es Radio Santa Cruz; por suerte a mi me verificaron, a la primera. Ahora ya es imposible su captación; ya sé que Bolivia es muy mala verificadora, ya que no sé si el sistrema de correos seguirá allí, como hace años que cada uno tenía que ir a buscarse sus cartas a la oficina de correos. Me supongo que eso ya no pasara, pero siguen sin verificar, ya que ILLIMANI, PIO XII y LA CRUZ DEL SUR, no sé cuántos informes les mandé sin obtener respuesta alguna, todos ellos con su IRC o en algunos caso 1$, pero nada de nada. Bien, Manuel, lo dicho felicidades y a disfrutar de ese lugar privilegiado para la escucha. Un abrazo. Pepe (Hernández, ibid.) Hola, Arnaldo, parece ser que tengo mala suerte con algunas emisoras; no discuto que sea buena verificadora pero yo no me acuerdo ya los informes enviados y nunca he tenido éxito; posiblemente tenga las Qsl´s algún cartero corrupto, que en este país mío también los hay. Saludos (JOSE HERNADEZ MADRID, ibid.) ** CANADA. High Definition - CBC Radio One --- Just noted this, it looks fairly interesting. Fred Waterer Tune in to CBC Radio One this Saturday for the debut of High Definition. It's a new show that explores our relationship with popular television and what it says about the wider world around us. It is hosted by actor, director, screenwriter and avid TV watcher Don McKellar, who is known for such films as Exotica, The Red Violin and Childstar. To kick off the series, host Don McKellar will aim for the top with the goddess of television herself. After all, it's the 20th anniversary of The Oprah Winfrey Show. High Definition looks at the campaign to nominate Oprah Winfrey for the Nobel Peace Prize and asks whether the TV host is actually saving the world. That's High Definition, Saturday morning at 11:30 (noon NT) on CBC Radio One. http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/program/index.jsp?program=HIgh+Defnition 3. HIGH DEFINITION: This week on High Definition, CBC Radio's new show about television, host Don McKellar explores why we don't see more poor people on TV. Don talks with Francois Avard, creator of Quebec's hit show "Les Bougon," which follows a family of social misfits as they try to scam the system. And he checks in with Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys. That's High Definition, Saturday morning at 11:30 (noon NT) on CBC Radio One (CBC Hotsheet Feb 25 and 26, 2006 via Fred Waterer, DXLD) Actually, this programme has been running for several weeks now -- two, I think. This Saturday's show will be the third. I haven't heard it myself, as the shows showcased thus far have held no interest for me. But the idea of doing radio show on a TV show is interesting. 73, (Peter Bowen, ON, swprograms via DXLD) ** CHINA. CNR 1 on 17310. Today Feb 20th came across of some strange signals of CNR1 program. Noted still on former VoA Tinian Mandarin freq 15375, as a jammer, twice signals hit each other, like an additional echo signal behind, of approx. 1 second delay later. But VOA left that freq on Jan 31, due of IBB budget cuts ?? 17310 still a puzzle for me noted in 0700-0800 UT range, bcs CNR1 program, but like a "second later delay" than most of the 15 and 17 MHz \\ CNR outlets. Only EXACT \\ delay heard on 15390 and 17580 kHz - both LIN=Lingshi CHN 36N52 111E40, ... and on 15375 kHz. Is 17310 a 'real' frequency or a spurious mixture? Any idea? (wb, wwdxc BC-DX Feb 20) I've only just read your message concerning 17310 at 0920 and on tuning I find that I can hear it at weak to fair level. There doesn't seem any point in operating so far out of the band when there are clear channels available within it - but then, it is China after all! I can hear some "distortion" or possibly a co-channel? during fades - is it jamming some station we don't know about? I've tried various computations on my calculator but have not been able to work out anything 'sensible'. I have also been hearing the jamming 'mix' on 15375. I thought this was a Taiwan frequency? I can't find 15375 in either the current RFA or VOA scheds that I have, but they may not be completely up to date. Maybe of interest, 17690 has a very nice echo effect today - via Jinhua 150 degrees to the Pacific. And there seems to be a co-channel with this one too (Noel R. Green-UK, wwdxc BC-DX Feb 20) 17310 strong at 1030, with at least two transmissions. Must be intentional jamming of some unknown signal, maybe a VOA spurious signal? Still no change in the jamming on the freqs vacated by the VOA on Feb 1. (later) The audio on 17310 went off at 1200, but the carrier stayed on for some time (Olle Alm, Sweden, wwdxc BC-DX Feb 20) ** COLOMBIA. R. Líder has been missing from 6140v again for maybe a week; Feb 24 after 0600, DW English was in the clear. LV de Tu Conciencia, 6010v, also seems to be missing; R. Mil, México programming dominating 6010 in the 0600 hour Feb 24. Also missing, 5910v, Marfil Estéreo. What`s going on in Loma Linda? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. All // everything, Cubans get the WORD. Big doin's on the sandbar. No idea what. All channels // on the "Word of Fidel (or at least some dude)" and powered up to the max. R. Rebelde, R. Progreso, R. Metropolitana, R. Surco, all preempted on 620, 630, 660, 680, 690, 770, 910, 930, 1180, 5025, 6000, 6060, 9550, no doubt others covered for me by locals. Only 590 R. Musical Nacional; and 570, 820, 860, 870, 950, 960 R. Reloj channels seemed to escape. Wobblers on over excited 590, 620, 750, 770, 870, 930. Bubbles all over 9955 and 6135. Silence those who dare speak! I doubt a Watt was left for the communal light bulb (W. Curt Deegan Boca Raton, (southeast) FL, 2224 UT Feb 24, IRCA via DXLD) I thought it was all over by then: I was monitoring only SW, tune-in 6000 at 2146 UT hoping to hear the tail end of Mexican clandestine R. Insurgente --- I have a hard time remembering to check it an hour earlier every Friday, and my chances are dropping as every spring- approaching week goes by. But RHC was already on, and I expect that if on, this week Insurgente was blown away by Cuba, which previously had seemed to be avoiding a collision on 6000, in a rare sign of mutual respect, inspired no doubt by political sympathies. I then found RHC all over the place in // with a speech which I first thought was Fidel, but not so hoarse as he has been lately, and later identified as Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada. Occasion was the 111th anniversary of the ``inicio de la guerra necesaria en la isla``, which would be 1895, the beginning of José Martí`s revolt against Spain, I guess. It was taking place at the Tribuna Anti-Imperialista José Martí frente a la Sección de Intereses de EE. UU. This is the rapidly- constructed mass of flagpoles across from the US Interests Section in Habana, trying to block from view of the impressionable Cuban masses, the uncensored messages of the US Government on a big streaming electronic sign, which so incensed Fidel. It was also the 30th anniversary of the Socialist Constitution. In the next quarter hour I tried to study which frequencies were synchronized with each other and which were slightly delayed, indicating a different feed path, whatever that may mean: 15230 11875 and 6000 were slightly delayed compared to the others; 5965 6060 9505 9550 9600 11760 11800 seemed to be in synch, tho I didn`t get to some of them until ``Viva la Revolución`` music, a live band for a change? was playing after 2152 and it was harder to tell. At 2158 there were campanas (chimes, bells), music and more of them at 2200. This was the Cadena Nacional de Radio, which announced regular programming was resuming at 2202. I then found RHC programming continuing only on 9550 and 11800 in Spanish. Running open carrier at least briefly thereafter were 6000, 6060, and I heard 11760 turning it off. 11875 was already off, had been under WYFR. 5965 went to French. 17705 was in Portuguese as scheduled. R. Martí and R. República were on as usual, oblivious of all this, along with the usual dentrocuban jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EGYPT. R. Cairo was heard today (Feb. 24) at 1800-1900 on 9988 kHz with bad modulation causing interference with a scratching noise to AIR on 9950 and R. Taiwan International on 9955 kHz. This noise (spur) was heard in the range from 9945 to 9955 kHz on 3 different receivers. At 1900 R. Cairo was back on 9990 (Juergen Lohuis, Luenen, Germany, harmonics yg via DXLD) And then the noise vanished? (gh, DXLD) ** EUROPE. Sligo European Radio - Test Transmission Hi everybody. Sligo European Radio will be making a test transmission on Sunday 26th February 2006 between 0800 and 1000 GMT on 9330 kHz in the 32 metre short-wave band. E-mail reception reports are actively encouraged and a QSL card will be sent as soon as possible after the transmission. Send your reception reports to: sligoeuropeanradio @ hotmail.com If you wish to make an MP3 recording of our test transmission and send it to us at the same address, these would gratefully be received. Many thanks to everyone who listens on Sunday and happy listening From the crew at Sligo European Radio (via HCDX Feb 23 via DXLD) Is this a pirate station? http://www.geocities.com/sligoeuropeanradio/ (Reijo Alapiha, Joensuu, Finland, ibid.) Sez they have bought their own transmitter, as R. Blandengue, South America, relay deal fell thru; they have already planned broadcasts thru Xmas 2007! http://www.geocities.com/sligoeuropeanradio/programmes.html (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FALKLAND ISLANDS [non]. Calling the Falklands to be scrapped BBC TO SCRAP RADIO LINK AFTER 62 YEARS Owen Gibson, Friday February 24, 2006, The Guardian Calling the Falklands, the twice-weekly BBC World Service programme that became a lifeline for the islands during the 1982 war, is being axed after 62 years. The corporation plans to announce today that in an age of satellite TV and the internet there is no need for a dedicated programme bringing news and personal messages from Britain to the remote Atlantic islands. Instead the BBC has agreed on a package of measures to support the islanders' local radio service, including the supply of World Service content and a two-year subscription to syndicated commercial programming. http://media.guardian.co.uk/radio/story/0,,1716725,00.html (via Mike Barraclough, DXLD) Registration required. Does the story give any hint of when the last broadcast will be? Could even be today Feb 24, or Feb 28, scheduled Tuesdays & Fridays only 2130-2145 on 11680, masked here by BBC French Guiana 11675 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) There aren't many sensible decisions to cut services made by the Beeb and other broadcasters, however I believe the decision to cut Calling the Falklands *is* the correct one. After all, it isn't as if the Falklands has no radio link with the UK. They have after all BFBS on 550 kHz and FM, as well as FIBS, presumably with good satellite links to London (PAUL DAVID, Wembley Park, United Kingdom, ibid.) I believe the BBC decision to cut Calling the Falklands, if confirmed, *is* a right and proper decision to make. After all, it isn't as if the Falklands is short of direct links to the UK these days, what with BFBS on 550 kHz. I wonder how many Falklanders tune into the programme these days. I would suspect not very many, given the number of clearer audio (and video) options available to them, unlike 1982 (PAUL DAVID, Wembley Park, United Kingdom, swprograms via DXLD) Just found this link on the BBC News site including this: "the BBC decided to end the programme last year to help finance a new Arabic television channel." The final broadcast will be 31st March: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4746718.stm (Mike Barraclough, ibid.) The agreement includes: The continued supply of BBC World Service programming, free of charge, for rebroadcast by the Falkland Islands Radio Service (FIRS) A fund to support training and development of FIRS staff to build capacity in the media sector of the islands The provision of technical advice in the areas of broadcasting and transmission to aid the future technical development of the Falklands' media sector A two year subscription to BBC Worldwide Radio International's package of 160 hours of annual programming (100 hours of spoken word and 60 hours of concert/pop programmes) to assist the transition to develop more original Falkland-based programming Closer cooperation between the Falkland Islands' media and appropriate counterpart BBC local services in the UK and Channel Islands Chris Simpkins, Chief Executive of the Falkland Islands Government says: "Calling the Falklands has become something of an institution and will always have a special place in the memories of Islanders since it has reported on all significant events in the modern history of the Islands. But the time has come to move on. The Media Trust is to be congratulated on its achievement in securing a new agreement with the BBC which will see a step change in programming and the future development of our community broadcasting station." Richard Sawle of the Falkland Islands Media Trust says: "Whilst all of us here in the Falklands will be sad to hear the last broadcast of Calling the Falklands, it is a positive sign that the Falklands is maturing both as a nation and also more specifically in media terms. We used to have to place reliance on programmes such as Calling the Falklands to tell us what was happening in the outside world – where the threats were coming from, who our friends were, and any other news that might be of relevance or interest to us. "Calling the Falklands was our link to outside realities. Time moves on though, and now we have instant news via the radio and television, a fully independent and locally produced newspaper and finally, of course, access to the internet and satellite TV stations," he says. "The agreement we have reached with the BBC is an exciting one. We will be taking part in a full programme of training and looking at what modern technology might have to offer us. The radio station staff will have on-going training courses with the BBC and there will be more BBC programming made available to us. The Media Trust and everyone at FIRS are very grateful indeed for the support of Calling the Falklands in the past and for the increased support and real partnership that we will now be having with the BBC for the future." Nigel Chapman, Director BBC World Service said: "This new agreement builds on the strong historical ties between the BBC and the Falkland Islands' broadcasting sector; and will help the development of media on the islands. We'd like to thank the teams who have worked on Calling the Falklands over the years. But we believe this agreement will better serve Islanders in the multi-media age and will help speed the Falkland Islands Radio Service's growing maturity as a vital home grown element in the wide ranging Falklands' media sector," he says. # posted by Andy @ 09:44 UT Feb 24 (Media Network blog via DXLD) Calling the Falklands scrapped - PM programme feature BBC World Service is scrapping its Calling The Falklands programme. Last broadcast is March 31st. Story on the BBC News site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4746718.stm Interesting 3 minute piece on today`s PM programme including some recordings of the service, will be on Listen Again until Monday. Advance the player to 53:38, thanks to Ian Kelly for spotting this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/pm/ Not everybody is happy about the decision; some quotes from an article in today`s Times: Norma Edwards, an islander who served for 20 years as a councillor from 1985, said: "It will be greatly missed. We may have television now, but still a lot of people tune in. During the conflict it was the mainstay of the people — it's where everybody got their information from." Islanders, though, are unhappy that the decision to end the programme was taken without any public consultation, although the World Service has been in secret negotiations with the Falklands government over the change. One of the few who had been consulted in advance said: "I am really annoyed, however, at the fact that this is being presented as a fait-accompli and something that is actually `good news'." Andrew Rosindell, the Conservative secretary of the all-party Falkland Islands group, said: "For the tiny amount of money saved, this decision will be interpreted in Buenos Aires as a sign that the British Government does not believe it is important to maintain links with the Falklands." Mr Rosindell said that he would be writing to Mark Thompson, the BBC Director-General, asking him to attend a meeting of the all-party group, to explain the reasons for the decision. Full article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2056162,00.html (Mike Barraclough, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Calling the Falklands heard here on 11680 at 2130 s/on. Transmission was preceded by the Bow Bells interval signal. Best in USB to avoid BBC via French Guiana on 11675 (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, USA, Feb 24, ibid.) As usual, could not pull it past 11675 here. The R4 piece included a clip of when CTFI was on 12.04 MHz, long ago (gh, OK, DXLD) ** FINLAND. YLE Radio Finland :: old music --- Hi all, I remember one night in the mid-1990s when I was tuning around on my old radio in Minehead, West Somerset (England) and I came across an English broadcast on what turned out to be MW 963 kHz. The station was YLE Radio Finland, broadcasting in English to Europe. They finn-ished (finished - hehehe) that broadcast with an announcement that ran something like: "You're listening to YLE Radio Finland. Thank you for joining us today. For listeners in Northern Europe we are now available on 558 and 963 kHz MW..." That announcement was given against a background of music played by an orchestra. I then never found the time for a couple of years to listen in to YLE Finland until I managed to purchase a newer Shortwave radio in 1999. Sadly, by that time, they had changed the music used. Does anyone recall the music I am referring to and, if so: a) does anyone have a recording of it? (either live or otherwise) or b) does anyone know what the piece of music was, where it came from? I really miss hearing it and would be glad to get hold of it again if I can. Many Thanks for any help on this one (Dave Harries, Bristol, United Kingdom, Feb 22, HCDX via DXLD) ** GABON. Heard on 4777 between 0445-0500, in French, I believe (Christopher Lewis, England, Feb 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GABON. Re 6-032: "But all this after 1401 UT, when Al-Amal closes, is totally unnecessary and just causes collateral damage to innocent bystanders such as VC. Evidently, the African music jammer, surely Gabon, stays on another sesquihour just for the sake of appearances, to seem uninvolved in jamming -- if that is the case, why aren`t there any announcements or IDs?" Sorry, I don't agree with that: - the afrojammer has reported on 17655, 17660, 17665, 17667, 17670, 17680, I can't believe that's just testing in groupdynamic environments. - in two cases I heard the afro-jammer at the same time as ANO on 17630. In both cases, the afro-jammer was much stronger. So if both was Gabon, it must have a much more northern beam than on 17630 for West Africa. In that case, one should believe that the afro-jammer would not be stronger in North America than ANO could be expected. Is that the case? (Thorsten Hallmann, Germany, Feb 19, not found until UT Feb 24 since it was sent to my seldom-checked Hotmail acct, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Subsequently I and others have also heard Af music jammer on at same time as reactivated ANO 17630, but we still suspect the same site, different transmitters. I`d say the strengths are about the same here. Also Feb 24 at 1513, 17630 ANO, which was also on before 1500; and 17675 African music, which I had not noticed before 1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear Wolfy and Glenn, Just a small observation related to the debate on Moyabi transmitters being used for other tests: 4890, RFI via Moyabi which used to be heard well here in Denmark with their French broadcast 0400-0500, was off the air this morning, Feb 24 when checked at 0430-0535. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DX LISTENING DIGEST) And today Anker Petersen tells me that Gabon 4890 kHz was not audible at his location. It seems that some monitoring of RFI and NHK transmissions will need to be done to find out exactly what is coming our of Gabon currently. I've tried several days to hear the listed RFI English on 11725 at 0700-0800 but it is not audible. Algeria was good this morning on both 17755 and 11915 before 0800 UT. ANO had not come onto 17630 by 0810 UT, so they seem to take their time to change freqs! (Noel R. Green-UK, wwdxc BC-DX Feb 24 via DXLD) Libyan Jam. AfroPop-Cuban station from Gabon? at present on 17675. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, 1331 UT Feb 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Solar-terrestrial indices for 23 February follow. Solar flux 75 and mid-latitude A-index 4. The mid-latitude K-index at 1500 UTC on 24 February was 4 (44 nT). No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours (SEC via DXLD) See also LIBYA [and non] ! ** GERMANY [non]. Radio Rasant this weekend Hello, As seen on the website of the German school project Radio Rasant, their next international broadcast will be heard this weekend via IRRS with the following schedule : - on sat Feb 25 at 0800-1000 UT on 13840 kHz, - on sun Feb 26 at 2100-2300 UT on 5775 kHz (repeat). The programme will be for the first time co-produced with a French school, and will be bilingual (German/French) during the second hour. Both schools have already broadcast the programme on their local FM relays. Sources: http://www.radiorasant.org (new design of the site since Feb. 2006) and Reinhard Marx, chief of Radio Rasant. Regards, (Stephane Veron, France, Feb 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE. IBB CLOSING KAVALA AND RHODES RELAYS The history of U.S. international broadcast transmitting stations in Greece stretches back to the early 1950's and is deeply rooted in the atmosphere of mutual cooperation and respect between our countries. During the Cold War, the shortwave broadcasting stations in Greece served as the central focus for our network operations to key regions. These important broadcast transmitting stations clearly helped end the Cold War and to shape the world that we live in today. Over the past decades there have been tremendous changes in communications, broadcast media and technology. Our transmitting stations in Kavala and Rhodes rely primarily on shortwave and medium wave radio transmission, formats that are expensive to operate. Although shortwave was the focus of international broadcasting for many decades, shortwave broadcasting stations have declined in importance as traditional audiences have shifted to more popular local media such as FM radio, the Internet and television. The realities of funding, technology and audience preferences have made it impossible to continue our shortwave and medium wave radio transmissions from the facilities in Greece. We have informed the Government of the Hellenic Republic that we plan to terminate our Agreement for the operation of the transmitting stations in Greece. With deep regret, the BBG will lose the services of many valued and skilled employees as a result of this action. All affected BBG employees will be treated with respect and dignity in accordance with existing U.S. Embassy compensation agreements. This is a very difficult time for each of us, and we are taking these actions with the greatest reluctance. The employees and staff of the IBB transmitting stations in Greece have provided outstanding service to international broadcasting and the BBG is deeply indebted to them. George Moore, Director, Office of Engineering and Technical Services (via Kim Elliott, Mike Drudge, Feb 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The news comes as no surprise, as a number of the languages broadcast from the Greek facilities are being eliminated in the proposed schedule effective in October 2006. VOA's broadcasting presence in Greece began in 1948 with an agreement that established a radio relay station at Thessaloniki in northern Greece. Under subsequent agreements, the Kavala and Rhodes Relay stations were constructed. The first broadcasts were transmitted from Kavala on April 17, 1972. The Kavala Relay Station is a dual mediumwave/shortwave facility, one of the largest in the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) network. The relay station provides coverage to Eastern Europe; the Commonwealth of Independent States (former Soviet Union); Middle East; South Asia; and North and East Africa. The Rhodes Relay Station is a dual mediumwave/shortwave facility that delivers VOA programs to the Middle East and Northeast Africa. VOA broadcasts from the Rhodes Relay Station were first heard on May 19, 1964. # posted by Andy @ 15:02 Feb 24 (Media Network blog via DXLD) What on earth? Does this mean that the Voice of Greece will be forced to curtail its transmissions of their round-the-clock music programmes? (Marty, 02.24.06 - 5:41 pm, ibid.) As via Delano, Greenville, not really 24h. Probably, tho it`s unclear what kind of a deal has been in force. I suppose IBB would continue them if ERA paid all the costs. Can you enlighten us, Dan Ferguson, now on the dxldyg list? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) GREEKS EVERYWHERE FOR THIS SATURDAY? Glenn: This is on VOG's web site. http://www.voiceofgreece.gr/en/omogeneia_ekpompes.asp?catid=148 (John Babbis, MD, Feb 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ``This Saturday``, it says, but unless an axual date be specified, and it seldom if ever is, we don`t really know whether the info be current. It seems the producer is not allowed to update that page on a timely basis in advance of the broadcast. See if the content match at 15-16 UT Sat Feb 24 on 9775 via Delano; 15630, 12105, 9420 direct (Glenn Hauser, subjunctively, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE. Hello Glenn, ERA 3 Macedonia Radio station has English "News In Brief" at 1255 UT, on 9935. Previous logs of the station was recorded when I was not there, but monitored it recently (Christopher Lewis, England, Feb 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Cf 6-034 for variability ** GREENLAND. KNR Groenland via Ammassaliq ist heute sehr gut (S= 5/7) auf 3815 USB zu hoeren, derzeit 2130 UT laeuft die Nachrichtensendung, bevor sicher die Samstagsabend-Disco (fuer die Diskobucht) kommt. Da freut sich das Walfangboot Sonja (Christoph Ratzer-AUT OE2CRM, A-DX Feb 18 via BCDX via DXLD) ** HUNGARY. RADIO BUDAPEST INTERNATIONAL SERVICE HAS A FUTURE NOT SO MUCH GOOD --- Hi folks! Today 23 February in the Italian program of Radio Budapest International 1730-1759 on 3975 kHz & 6025 kHz Mr. Stefano Cobino the speaker in a commentary said the next Thursday will be 2 hours strike (Alert strike) of all workers of Radio Budapest cause govern want to cut drastically the budget next year and among future decisions also to CLOSE all foreign programs of Radio Budapest International (Dario Monferini, Italy, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. February 17 at 2115 hours on 4875 kHz was heard the Interval signal, and at 2130 the announcement ``Radio Kang Guru, Sorong, Irian Barat, Indonesia,`` followed by news. The town of Sorong is located in the western part of New Guinea, which is the Indonesian province West Irian. The QSL address is: R.R.I. Sorong, Jendral Ahmad Yani Street 44, Kotak pos 146, Sorong 98414, Indonesia (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DX Feb 24 via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) Irian Jaya was renamed Papua, to add to the confusion, a few years ago (gh, DXLD) ** JAPAN. Who says 21 MHz is useless here at solar min? NHK Warido in English with music break, nice signal on 21670 // 17825 Feb 24 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Solar-terrestrial indices for 24 February follow. Solar flux 76 and estimated mid-latitude A-Index 4. The mid-latitude K-index at 2100 UTC on 24 February was 1 (8 nT). No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours (SEC via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. ["JAPAN"] - 5890 Shiokaze (via Irkutsk) at *1359-1458* UT on Feb 21. Carrier on at 1359, then piano music to 1400 ID sounding like "Kochirawa Shiokaze" and opening comments, including frequency announcements and 2 more ID's; transmission in Japanese ended at 1429 with the same piano music, followed by EG transmission at 1430 and this ID: "This is Shiokaze, Sea Breeze, from Tokyo, Japan. This is a radio program...?..." followed by more opening comments and mentions of North Korea and a couple more ID's; at 1433 launched into The List, apparently the same list on the website noted in Feb. 5 RDXP. Is each transmission is exactly the same, i.e. reading this same list? Fair at 1400, but slowly losing ground and almost gone by 1458 transmission end. Carrier went off at 1501 UT (John Wilkins-CO-USA, DXplorer Feb 22 via BCDX via DXLD) Too many clandestines broadcast the same programs over and over; but they are, after all, combatting jamming. Keeps produxion and distribution costs down and their message, especially in this case, can perhaps be summed up in one semihour or two (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** LIBERIA. ELWA MONROVIA - ETERNAL LOVE WINNING AFRICA Introduction Radio ELWA is a Christian radio station operating from Monrovia, Liberia, West Africa. It presently broadcasts on FM 94.5 and SW 4760 kHz (60 meters), with a transmission power of 1000 watts (1 kilo watt). History The History of Radio ELWA goes back to the vision and challenge of SIM that all may hear the propagation of the tenets of the Christian faith by means of broadcasting. In 1952, the Government of Liberia granted a permit for broadcasting. A frequency was assigned and the call letters "ELWA" (Eternal Love Winning Africa) were designated for what was soon to be Africa's first Christian radio station. Committed to the challenge, on January 18, 1954, Radio ELWA aired its first program with the hope that millions would be blessed spiritually. ELWA Radio continued in its commitment until July 1990 when the station was silenced due to the civil war in Liberia that caused massive destruction to the station. In 1992, SIM with its compassionate concern and commitment to reaching the un-reached and helping to mend broken and shattered lives by means of broadcasting took the challenge to resurrect ELWA Radio. Unfortunately, however, ELWA Radio was again silenced and, like other institutions, suffered greatly during the renewed fighting in 1996. Following the 1996 crisis, national staff regrouped and purposed to start this ministry. SIM for the second time made a commitment to help rebuilt ELWA Radio on the condition that the vision, initiative and management remain on the hands of the nationals. Objectives The objectives of ELWA are to minister and encourage believers as well as to witness to the unsaved and outreached with the gospel message by spoken word, drama and music. It also aims to educate, rekindle hope and help to mend broken and shattered lives by means of radio through Christian programming Programs ELWA's current schedule of roughly eight hours of English broadcast per day and one and one-half hours of Liberian Language broadcast in Grebo, Kru, Gola, Bassa, Kpelle, Kissi, Dan, Krahn and Loma, is supported almost entirely by local funds. Roughly seventy-five percent of ELWA Radio's income to date has resulted in charges from public service announcements, requests, donations, and local program producers, and from pastors and churches that sign up for airtime to broadcast their programs. ELWA Radio would echo thanks to a fellow partner in the major change in 2003. HCJB International provided most of the resources for short-wave broadcasts from a unique transmitter and antenna, which they developed and installed. Finances ELWA Radio, which the Lord has used to touch so many lives through its transforming programs, continues to face financial challenges. However, few Liberians have come to assist through benefit concerts and some donations for the smooth operation of the station. They are still trying to identify additional sources of income both local and abroad. Efforts are currently being made to get Liberian churches involved, including individuals and groups, to support ELWA Radio. Vision With the coming of the short wave on 60 meters, there is a need to include other Liberian languages not on the air, such as Mandingo, Bandi and Vai. The growth of the vernacular broadcasting, the amplification of the FM signal, and the need for local provision of power all entail technical, financial and administrative challenges. This expansion brings in another facet of need. There is now the need for a building that accommodates the growing staff. ELWA is looking forward to having a new studio and office building, where the staff will work closely together. Challenges ELWA is facing several challenges some of which includes A. Lack of equipment and tools for executing programs and points effectively. B. Inadequate funding to meet their budget. C. The absence of resource materials, especially Christian books, videos, and audio tapes that address contemporary communication strategies. D. The uncertainties in ministering in a volatile environment. Contact information: Mr. Moses Nyantee, Manager, Radio ELWA, Box 192, Monrovia, Liberia E-mail: moses.nyantee @ elwaministries.org radio.staff @ elwaministries.org Web: http://www.elwaministries.org References: Radio ELWA Website, Serving in Mission (SIM) website, World Radio TV Handbook (Compiled by T. R. Rajeesh for February 2006 edition of World DX Club Contact Magazine, via DXLD) ** LIBYA [and non]. Significant frequency deviations: Nominal 1250/1251: 1249.5 = WKBR NH, off channel for at least a week now. Oldies format. 1250.0 = usual North Americans including CJYE ON, WARE MA, WMTR NJ, WEAE PA, WDVA VA. 1251.0 = Libya. All three "channels" above were at approximately the same strength 23 FEB 2006 at 2222 UTC. There was a characteristic 3-pitch beat note (500, 1000, 1500 Hz) resulting (Mark Connelly, NRC IDXD Feb 24 via DXLD) ** LIBYA [and non]. Today an Iranian bubble jammer has been active on 17680 from at least 1200, joining the many other strange signals in the region (Olle Alm-SWE, wwdxc BC-DX Feb 20 via DXLD) That's really interesting, and I thought I could hear some sort of 'other' transmission. It's still continuing and now fair to good and peaking to S9 at 1140. The 'second' transmission is now not so obviously audible and so I assume one of them has improved in strength but not the other? The signal compares well with that on 17635 (Noel R. Green-UK, wwdxc BC-DX Feb 20 via DXLD) Hello, 17690 Sawt Al-amal, 1334-, árabe, 55544 17675 mx Afro-pop. 55544, Issoudun, France??, 55544 (José Miguel Romero, Spain, Feb 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [later:] 24 Febrero: 17690, Sawt Al-amal, 1334-1400, árabe, locutor y locutora con programa habitual y constantes cuñas de identificación, SINPO 55544. 17675, NO ID, 1334-1420, con música afro-pop, sigue la duda de su transmisión, pero la música que emiten es muy parecida a la música que emite La Voz de África en Hausa, vía Issoudun, Francia. 17660, Sin emisión a las 1334, desconozco si hoy ha emitido y a cortado antes para permitir a Radio Waaberi emitir. Por otra parte chequeando a Libia he observado lo siguiente: 1700-1800 Francés 11860-15220-15615 Árabe 9590, a las 1731 boletín en Hausa. 1734 boletín en Inglés. 1738 boletín en francés (José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also GABON ** MALAYSIA. 18 FEB, 0747 UT, 4725 KHZ BLS, Kota Kinabalu, Malasia. Inglés. Reporte meteorológico, en voz sintetizada, para Sabah. Fuerte. Calidad excelente (Adan Mur, Ñemby, Paraguay via Arnaldo Slaen, condig list via DXLD) That`s 1547 LST, a bit early; maybe a volmet station further east mentioning KK? (gh, DXLD) ** MEXICO. Hola Glenn: Te comento que en la pagina de internet http://www.wradiousa.com/ ya aparece en el logotipo el indicativo completo de la emisora. Atentamente, (Roberto Edgar Gómez Morales, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal, MÉXICO, Feb 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, says XETRA in big bold type; I believe the last time I looked at the same it said XTRA (gh, DXLD) ** MONGOLIA. 7260, Khekh Tenger (HS-2), at *2159 on Feb 14 after CRI Arabic sign-off at 2157, this one heard sign-on with IS of sol-mi-re- do-re-mi-do-sol on chimes several times. Announcement by man in presumed Mongolian, another announcement by woman, choral anthem ending at 2203. VOA also came on at 2200 in Khmer, mixing with Khekh Tenger and soon making a mess of things; not helped by splatter from grossly overmodulated Nigeria on 7255. VOA has dominated the frequency every day since then, with only a weak subaudible het indicating the presence of Khekh Tenger till VOA goes off at 2228, leaving the frequency clear for a steadily deteriorating Mongolia. Also someone on 4830, but much too faint to tell if \\ 7260; could also be the Chinese station (Bob Hill-MA-USA, DXplorer Feb 19 via BCDX via DXLD) ** NEPAL. Re 6-034, R. Nepal 5005.0 with good audio: Also noted here on 5005.0 23rd February 2316 with local chanting, male talk then local wind instruments 2319, fair on clear channel and fading up, good audio (Mike Barraclough, Letchworth Garden City, UK, Feb 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5005.0, R Nepal, Khumaltar, 2315-0200 fade out, Feb 22-23, back on the air probably with the 100 kW transmitter and no longer on 5005.4 kHz! Mixed choir singing, 2320 announcement and ID in Nepali: "Yo Nepal- ho", instrumental music of flutes and drums with native songs, 2338 long talk followed by beautiful Nepalese songs by choir accompanied by conch shell. Between the songs the presenter mentioned Nepal several times each minute! 0035 talk about media and broadcasting in Nepal, 0050 ID: "Radio Nepal" and phone-in programme with an excited man mentioned "Danimark", probably referring to the Mohammed cartoons! (There are about 800,000 Muslims in Nepal.) 0115 time signal and ID: "Yo Nepal-ho" and news in Dzongkha mentioning Nepal. 0129 ID: "Radio Nepal". Strong and steady signal 35333, but deteriorating after 0140 due to local sunrise. Bhutan on 6035 was also strong this night at 0105-0120 with 34333. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, Feb 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Acabo de recibir en mi teléfono celular un mensaje de texto de Nicolás Eramo, quien está haciendo un DX Camp en solitario en Chascomus y me acaba de confirmar la escucha de Radio Nepal, Katmandu, después de las 2330 UT, en 5005v! No olviden que siempre fue una excelente verificadora! 73 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, Feb 23, radioescutas via DXLD) 5005, Radio Nepal, 24 Feb., 0007, with fair signal and better modulation than usual, just on real and round 5005 kHz, as noted also by other DXers. Talks by man, but suddenly off around 0015. This strange off was also noted by Roberto Scaglione in Palermo, Sicily. It is possible to think about test. A new transmitter? (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italy, RX used: CiaoRadio H101 (It's an Italian low cost SDR receiver) with T2FD 15 m. long, HCDX via DXLD) Radio Nepal --- According to a mail conversation with their technical department this is not a new transmitter. Tune up procedures have been made: This is their reply from some hours ago: "Yeah! We are glad to receive the news from you about Radio Nepal's coverage there. We have not been able to renew the transmitter, but just maintain it for its optimum performance. Look forward to receive from you, Thanking you, Engineering Section Radio Nepal Ka[t]hmandu" Best regards (Göran Norstedt, SM7IYM, Feb 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. Domestic Radio Nigeria, heard at 0500 on 4770, good signal but slightly distorted audio (Christopher Lewis, England, Feb 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. Every afternoon for the last few weeks Voice of Nigeria have been booming in here on the east coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia) on 15120, with some interesting programmes although audio sometimes not up to par. Anyone else getting good results with this station? (Ray Kelly, Feb 23, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sometimes; Feb 23 during the 20 hour I noticed a signal there, but too squeezed and lowly modulated to be useful (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15120, Voice of Nigeria, Lagos, 1816-1821, February 19, English, afropops. Music programme conduced by male. Identification: "...Voice of Nigeria..", 35443 (Arnaldo Slaen, Villa Elisa DX Camp, Argentina, Noticias DX via DXLD) Re 6-032: "Does this mean 7255 is no longer used at all before 0800? Used to be so reliable here from before 0500, English (gh, DXLD)" No, most definitely not, I tried several times. 15120 is very unreliable here before 0630, so I sometimes thought they might be using another frequency in the early morning, but found none. 15120 is quite well modulated at the moment, but as it's used in European winter darkness mainly, only the French transmission at 0700 and Arabic at 1630 + maybe one hour of the English broadcast can be heard very well (Thorsten Hallmann, Germany, Feb 19, delayed, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. QSL recibida --- 7120. Wantok Radio Light, P. O. Box 1273, Port Moresby, N.C.D., PNG. QSL Card full data in 5 months. The QSL front is a beautiful picture with a typical house and two men and a boy with a receiver in his hands. Personal letter with very interesting information about the station too. V/S Sarah Good (her husband is Alan Good, the Station Engineer) (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, Noticias DX via DXLD) Received today full data (full color) QSL card and letter from Wantok Radio Light, 7120 kHz, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. V/S: Sarah Good. 109 days. Sarah says on her letter that they are amazed with the number of reports they have been receiving from all parts of the world (Marcelo Toníolo, Auckland, New Zealand, Feb 24, dxing.info via DXLD) ** PERU. 6019.65, R. Victoria (Tentative), Feb 24, at 0640 usual preacher. Are they really this low? Usually they are about 6020.2 (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, RX340, with T2FD antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PETER I [and non]. 3Y0X DX-peditioners have been waiting aboard ship since QRT Sunday, for the weather to clear enough so the chopper can ferry all the stuff back to the ship before they can depart. Finally: 24 Feb 2006 1859 UT: The final helicopter load from the island is complete and the Captain advises we'll be underway to Deception Island within the hour! The Team is jubilant and elated that the 2006 Peter I DXpedition was such a success. We're now on the final legs of this journey and eager to get home. Several of the Team Members have indicated that they'd like to stay a day or so on King George Island (making contacts from the Bellinghausen station) before returning to Chile and home. We'll keep you posted -- and there'll be more pictures uploaded to the website over the next few days. Stay tuned! 73 from the Peter I Team! (from http://www.peterone.com/updates.htm via DXLD) ** PORTUGAL [non]. Radio nostalgia. Para os curiosos sobre a radiodifusão no ultramar português, sugiro as págs. ss.: (To those who'd wish to learn more about the broadcasting stations in the Portuguese overseas territories, I'd suggest the following pages:) http://telefonia.no.sapo.pt/africa.htm donde poderá derivar-se para a parte mais completa, que versa a actividade em Angola (then click on the most detailed page, viz. on Angola): http://www.geocities.com/dpmonteiro/ uma interessante página sobre as estações de Angola, incluindo os primeiros passos, por particulares, no campo das emissões televisivas na década de 60 (that's an interesting page on the Angolan stations, including the first attempts at TV broadcasting in the 60s, which were halted by the authorities as the RTP had the monopoly of TV broadcasting over the entire national space, from the European part of Portugal to that in Oceania, i.e. Timor) Daí, abrir "Fotografias"... muito material interessante. O ainda activo centro emissor de Mulenvos, nos arredores de Luanda, lá aparece. (There's plenty of interesting stuff in the "Photo Gallery", which depicts the still active Mulenvos site, used by the then Emissora Oficial de Angola.) Nessa mesma galeria da secção Radiodifusão em Angola, há uma que me chamou a atenção - a do edifício e torres do RCA-Rádio Club de Angola, em Luanda: mesmo com a aquela minha idade, embora já com interesse pelas coisas da rádio, sempre me intrigou ver as torres dentro da cidade! (In that same photo galery of the "Radiodifusão em Angola" section, there's one that caught my attention - that of the building & antenna towers of the RCA, in Luanda: despite my age at the time, but already taking a keen interest in all things radio, watching those towers almost in the middle of Luanda always intrigued me!) Para mim - e indubitàvelmente e muitos outros! -, todo este material tem um sabor, um sentido e um significado particularmente especial e mais abrangente que jamais será esquecido. (To me, and certainly to many a reader, all this material has a particularly special, wide, and, above all, everlasting meaning) Apreciem! (Enjoy!) 73 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Feb 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) With his own parenthetical translations. Believe this is the same site we referenced a number of months go; includes gallery of personnel, B&W photos perhaps clipped out of old WRTHs whose listings are also reproduced (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** RUSSIA. Mixing product 5032 kHz. Some months ago we had a discussion about the mixing product on 5032. 5905 minus 873 = 5032 kHz. At that time I didn't hear anything on 5905 plus 873 = 6778 kHz. Last couple of days I've observed both 5032 and 6778 audible when 5905 is active. Last noted on 23 Feb at 1655 UT (Jari Savolainen, Finland, wwdxc BC-DX Feb 23 via DXLD) Samara region (wb, ibid.) ** SLOVENIA. Radio Slovenia International being received nicely at 2130 on 918 kHz, with a three minute newscast. Best Regards (Christopher Lewis, England, Feb 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) In English, then German, per WRTH which puts this in the domestic sexion (gh) ** SWAZILAND. TWR Manzini schedule, 25, 35, 50, and 100 kW. 3200 0300-0330 53,57 MAN 35 3 NEL/ENG 3200 0400-0500 57 MAN 25 233 GER/ENG 3200 1700-2045 57 MAN 50 233 ENG 3240 0300-0345 53 MAN 25 3 SHD/NDC 4760 1600-1700 53 MAN 50 3 TSC/TSO 4775 0340-0355 57 MAN 50 3 NGL 4775 0400-0900 57 MAN 50 233 GER/ENG 6070 1515-1545 53 MAN 100 3 SHD 6070 1545-1630 53,57 MAN 100 3 NEL/ENG 6070 1630-1700 53 MAN 100 3 SHD 6100 0400-0500 53 MAN 100 5 NYJ 6110 0300-0345 48,53 MAN 100 5 SWA 6120 0500-0900 57 MAN 50 233 ENG 6130 1600-1715 53W MAN 100 5 NYJ/Bem 6130 1750-2020 52 MAN 100 313 Umb/CJK 7315 1425-1555 57 MAN 50 5 POR/Mak 9475 1702-1817 48,53 MAN 100 13 SWA/Kim 9500 0500-0900 53 MAN 100 5 ENG 9500 1730-1900 48,53 MAN 100 5 ENG 9525 1905-2020 47,52 MAN 100 343 LIN/FRN 9585 1440-1525 53 MAN 100 53 MAL/FRN 15360 1400-1415 40,41 MAN 100 43 URD (BCDX Feb 25 via DXLD) Nothing but gospel-huxtering, but a succinct sked to help sort out unIDs and exotic languages, if you can figure out the abbrs. But I suspect there are day-of-week variations, not spelt out here with all the merged languages per transmission (gh, DXLD) ** TAIWAN. Radio Taiwan International`s We've Got Mail! will broadcast Friday: We've Got Mail! will be broadcast on Friday February 24, so that RTI may air a special program on the 228 Incident on Tuesday, February 28. We apologize for any inconvenience, and hope you enjoy the special 228 program! (RTI Website via MD. AZIZUL ALAM AL-AMIN, RAJSHAHI, BANGLADESH, Feb 23, DXLD) What`s this all about? A bit of Googling, such as to Wikipedia, tells me that the 228 Incident was a massacre in Taiwan in 1947, where the KMT killed about 30,000 civilians in a riot which started over mistreatment of a woman street vendor. Ill feeling between the native Taiwanese and the Mainlanders who were taking over the island to make it the bastion of the ROC. The affair was hushed up for some 50 years, but now it`s acknowledged and marked by an annual holiday, Feb 28. Yes, the mailbag was heard around 2230 on 9355 via WYFR Fri Feb 24 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKMENISTAN. 4930-CLSB, Turkmen Radio (Miras, HS-3), at 2208 on Feb 14, man declaiming in presumed Turkmen, then vocal by man with orchestral accompaniment sounding like a curious mix of ME, C. Asian, and subcontinental. Fanfare at 2214 and more emphatic talk with mention of Turkmenistan; seemed into an interview at 2217. Fair with boomy, bassy speech audio at times and increasing QSB. This transmitter is carrier plus lower sideband. Different program being carried on 5015 kHz (Bob Hill, MA, DXplorer Feb 19 via BCDX via DXLD) ** U K. RECORD FOR BBC RADIO AS 17m HOURS ARE LISTENED TO ONLINE by Heydon Prowse, Brand Republic, 27 Feb 2006 London The BBC has reported a record amount of traffic on its radio websites with 8.2m visitors in January alone. BBC Radio 1's website pulled in more than 3m users while Radio 4 contributed around 1.5m. The month beat the previous record of 8.1m, set in November 2005. BBC Radio Five Live showed the biggest increases, with the main site tipping the million mark, helped along by host Jeff Randall's lengthy chat with media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. Offshoot sites 606 and Sportdaq also showed huge growth. Drama on BBC Radio 4 continued to attract a massive audience with more than 1m on-demand requests. 'The Archers' remained the most requested programme while Radio 4's Afternoon Play saw more than a quarter of a million people tuning in through the site. With the BBC expanding its audio podcast trial, the site also generated a record 1.9m MP3 downloads. In all, more than 17m hours of live and on-demand radio were consumed through the BBC's radio websites last month. The most viewed videoclip on the website was a spoof fitness video featuring radio DJs Scott Mills, Chris Moyles and Colin Murray. http://www.brandrepublic.com/bulletins/digital/article/543268/record-bbc-radio-17m-hours-listened-online/ (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Strange how `m` is commonly understood to mean million in British usage, while m axually means milli (one thousandth) and M means million. Best avoided altogether, as M/m can also mean thousand as well as k. Usage no doubt arose thanks to journalists who don`t know a whit about math, physics (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. Media Release - Radio Jackie Finessse - unprocessed MP4 stream Radio Jackie - Ahead of the Field MEDIA RELEASE 20 February 2006 World First - RADIO JACKIE FINESSE STREAMED AUDIO Hi-Fi enthusiasts, audio purists and record producers will be excited by the latest internet streaming innovation from 107.8 Radio Jackie, The Sound Of South West London. The station has now added a Finesse stream, which preserves the studio output quality even more faithfully. Radio Jackie already has a range of superior quality advanced MP4 AAC+ streams and the new Finesse stream will appeal to those who want to experience the full dynamic range of the music. Radio stations process their audio to improve the sound clarity for listeners in cars and noisy work or home environments. If you have large loudspeakers or are in a quiet room you may prefer to hear music as the producer intended. This world first, Jackie's Finesse stream, provides exactly that. The name Finesse was chosen to describe this new type of streaming for its meaning of distinction, refinement, grace and delicacy of performance. For Jackie Finesse just click Listen Now at http://www.radiojackie.com 107.8 Radio Jackie is licensed by Ofcom and broadcasts live 24 hours a day to South West London and North Surrey. Radio Jackie engineering is by Trevor Brook and streaming is provided by http://mouselike.org Enc: Jackie Listen Now.jpg Caption: Finesse and the range of other streams on Radio Jackie's website. Radio Jackie 110 Tolworth Broadway Surbiton Surrey KT6 7JD http://www.radiojackie.com For more information contact: Peter Stremes, MD 07710 041662 peter.stremes @ radiojackie.com (Surrey Electronics, Feb 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RADIO JACKIE ENGINEERING The new Finesse unprocessed MP4 audio stream gives a superb quality signal and is claimed to be a world first! There are details today at Media Network http://medianetwork.blogspot.com/ I was very pleased to discover that Radio Jackie engineering is by Trevor Brook. Trevor for many years ran the successful and innovative Radio Fax, the shortwave specialist station that sadly was denied a licence by the UK authority (the UK don't licence private shortwave stations). Brilliant engineering Trevor, great to hear an old pirate in such high quality (somewhat better quality than when I heard them on Sunday mornings in Surrey, then the antenna was a piece of wire slung between trees or the like and the transmitter on AM was car battery powered)! Do have a listen at http://www.radiojackie.com/ and send them a message to say you are listening. They have been legal for some years now but still retain some individuality. They deserve continued success (Mike Terry, UK, Feb 21, BDXC-UK via DXLD) Mike Barraclough wrote: http://www.radiojackie.com:5873/listen.pls The aacPlus Finesse stream is excellent here using the vlc player under Linux. I am really enjoying it (Rick Kunath, Michigan, USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UNITED NATIONS. UN-RADIODIENST FÜR NORDAMERIKA Am 1. November 2005 hat UN-Radio mit einem neuen Nachrichtendienst begonnen, der die Präsenz von UN-Themen auf dem nordamerikanischen Radiomarkt erhöhen soll: UN Radio News/USA. Nach Angaben von Susan Farkas können sich Radiosender kostenlos bei nicht editiertem Material bedienen und so ihre eigene Berichterstattung zusammenstellen. Zusätzlich produziert Jerry Piasecki Nachrichten und Features, die den US-Markt im Blick haben. Diese Segment können dann entweder in Nachrichten oder in Informationsprogramme eingebaut werden. Bisher sind die Beiträge nur in Englisch. Geplant ist auch Spanisch (Radio Journal 12/05 via DXLD) ** U S A. Re 6-034: Feb 24 Talk to America, billed as open-phones on any subject, maybe not necessarily about VOA`s sad 64th anniversary: http://www.voanews.com/real/voa/english/ttam/ttam1605a.ram This is apparently the daily archive; there would be a different URL for the monthly archive, if any. There is also an mp3 version of this and other recent shows at http://www.voanews.com/english/Webcasts.cfm I haven`t had a chance to listen yet (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. OpEd: MUFFLING THE VOICE OF AMERICA "While abandoning VOA as a 'relic of the Cold War' and ignoring nearly 50 years of reputation and good standing among Middle Eastern audiences (some of whom get VOA on local AM or FM relay broadcasts, as well as shortwave), the White House is casting about for ways to connect with Islamic audiences globally when the answer is just 10 blocks away at the VOA headquarters." So says John J Schulz, dean of the College of Communication at Boston University. Schulz worked for VOA as a news writer, foreign correspondent, and then as a senior news executive in the period 1975-1995. Writing an OpEd in today's Boston Globe, he says "News of events and developments related to new propaganda-funding plans would be laughable if it weren't so costly and downright tragic." Read the OpEd http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/02/24/muffling_the_voice_of_america/ # posted by Andy @ 10:08 UT Feb 24 (Media Network blog via DXLD) Also via Artie Bigley. see also GREECE! ** U S A. The union representing VOA workers has finally come to life: POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK Dateline: WASHINGTON, 02/24/06. On February 6, 2006 the Broadcasting Board of Governors announced that it would be closing all radio broadcasts in Albanian, Bosnian, Croatian, Georgian, Greek, Hindi, Russian, Serbian, Thai, Turkish, and its global English service. Although presented as a choice between broadcasts to the Middle East and these language broadcasts, it is really a choice between many radio broadcasts and a few television broadcasts. The cuts mentioned above will be used to fund upgrades to the BBG's television production facilities. According to BBG Chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, those who support shortwave radio broadcasts "are kind of like the people who wanted to preserve...horse-drawn buggies." However, it is Tomlinson who sounds like he is stuck in the past. He supports replacing the radio broadcasts with television broadcasts as if television is some sort of brand new technology. Television has been commercially viable since 1949. People back then predicted that television was the wave of the future and that it spelled the end of radio. Almost sixty years later radio is still alive and thriving. The problem with television broadcasting for this Agency has not changed. It is easily interdicted. This is not a new lesson for this Agency. It has been dealing with this issue since TV Martí went on the air. It has recently been reinforced with the problems of the television broadcasts to Uzbekistan and Indonesia. Where television is blocked shortwave radio can get through. The old BBG television/buggy folks refuse to see the obvious. The future of broadcasting is the Internet where audio, video, and text can all be combined. There is no need to sink more and more money into the black hole of television broadcasting in multiple language services. And as to tight budgets, does the BBG really care about saving the taxpayers of this country money? Their budget requests have gone up every year. Even the FY 2007 budget request is an increase over the previous year. The BBG is just spending the money unwisely. The money spent on televison should be consolidated. What the BBG should do is one television satellite broadcast channel with CSPAN type programming interspersed with occasional newscasts in limited strategic languages. The bedrock of the VOICE of America is English and the VOA should broadcast news and information in English 24/7 globally on shortwave. This can be supplemented with AM and FM affiliates and as many other language broadcasts as possible. The money now being poured into television projects should be redirected to an Internet product which could be vastly improved and made world class. So BBG members, put away your horse and buggy television shows and concentrate on getting America's message out to the world in the most effective and cost efficient manner possible (AFGE Local 1812 via DXLD) ** U S A. Hi, Here's the latest on the effort to save VOA Bethany, Ohio. It was in Sunday's Cincinnati Enquirer, I spotted it after reading Kim Elliott's web page. DREAM OF NATIONAL VOA MUSEUM STILL ALIVE By Jennifer Edwards | Enquirer Staff Writer WEST CHESTER TWP. - Efforts to repair the crumbling Voice of America Building and convert it into a national museum are creeping forward. This week, a volunteer group working to restore the building hired a consultant to attract tourists. Township officials also agreed to spend about $100,000 to replace the boiler and other repairs. The Voice of America building is the last remnant of a once-sprawling antenna field that was used to broadcast U.S. government-sponsored news and editorials in multiple languages to nations all over the world. The West Chester site relayed signals from broadcasters in New York and Washington, D.C., from 1944 to 1994. "It played an important part in getting and preserving world peace from the day it opened up to the day it was decommissioned," said Township Trustee Catherine Stoker. Hundreds of Cub Scouts, family groups, and other organizations per year already tour the facility. The idea is to make even more school and tourists aware of the place, including people visiting nearby Paramount's Kings Island. The federal government gave the building to the township with the understanding that its rich history would be preserved as a museum. Veterans Voice of America, a group of about 100 volunteers that recently spent about $60,000 on the first phase of heating system repairs, decided Monday to pay a consultant $5,000 to form a three- year marketing plan. First Financial Bank has pledged $15,000 to the township as a corporate sponsor, which will help pay for more improvements, Township Administrator Judi Boyko said. The VOA building houses some township offices including the parks department, radio artifacts and several non-profit groups. But the township's restoration plans were iced after voters rejected a 2003 park levy and federal grant requests in 2004 and 2005 were denied. Then, late last year, Stoker announced that the building must see at least $1.2 million in immediate repairs to its electrical and heating system - or it may need to be torn down. At the time, some township officials disputed the direness of the situation. But Jim Fearing, a Mount Adams architect who lives in West Chester and volunteers his time restoring the building, says the need remains urgent. "They will eventually have to close it," he warned. "Water leaks through the building now. It comes through the walls, travels horizontally down concrete slabs and then comes down. It hurts everything. It rusts out the electrical outlets. It has destroyed plaster ceilings." Township officials say they hope to get the building on a national registry list this spring to finally qualify for a federal "Save America's Treasurers Grant" from the National Park Service (via Dale Rothert, KA8KOD, DXLD) ** U S A. WEWN, 17595, with pronounced and quick echo, Feb 23 at 2021 and still at 2037 recheck, in English. It was roughly one syllable or less behind. In round figures, a SW signal at the speed of light going all the way around the world, 40 Mm, would take 40/300 second, or about .13 second. A one-hop satellite delay would be roughly twice that, since geosynchronous orbit is about 40 Mm up and another 40 Mm back down, i.e. about .26 second. Since WEWN is only about 1 Mm away from OK in AL, that leaves 39 Mm for the long path route. Nothing similar was noted on other frequencies at this time in the 16m band. WYFR, twice as far away as WEWN, had much stronger signals on several frequencies due to much more favorable single-hop skip distance, and if they also had any long-path echoes, were masked by the short path signals. Another possibility would be backscatter, but the delay in that case would be considerably less, and I think that is often what is happening when we hear a ``hollow`` sound or reverb on a signal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Hearing WHRI harmonic on 15040 (2 X 7520) at 1315. 24 Feb. 2006 (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15040. Not even a tiny whisper heard here in EUR. But noted AIR in Sinhala on nearby 15050 kHz 1300-1500 (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, 1331 UT Feb 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1680, Maryland, Fort Meade TIS here running NOAA Weather from BWI (Baltimore International Airport) since 2/17. Located the transmitter site near the Baltimore Washington Parkway - MD 32 interchange. Pretty good signal, heard clearly at least 10 miles from Fort Meade (Bill Harms - Elkridge, Maryland, Feb 23, IRCA via DXLD) ** U S A. Heh, heh: On MSNBC Countdown Feb 22, Keith Olbermann referred to lottery winners as ``ham operators`` --- sorry, they just work(ed) at a meat-packing plant (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. John Roberts, Anchorman, not CJ, the Canadian who once appeared to be a good candidate to succeed Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, and had frequently substituted for him, has apparently concluded he has no future at that network, with the EN handed over to the aging Bob Schieffer more or less permanently. I suspect CBS honchos figured he was just too young and good-looking to be taken seriously, much like Peter Jennings` early years at ABC. I`ve been spotting Roberts now on CNN the last several nights at least during the 00 UT hour of the pompous Situation Room, billed as ``Senior National Correspondent``. Can more than one person hold such a title at once? It`s vague enough to seem so. I am liking Schieffer less and less as I learn of his hobnobbing with political, even admin figures (Glenn Hauser, UT Feb 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** URUGUAY. 9621, SODRE, Montevideo, 1835-1840, February 19, Spanish, classic music//650 kHz, 35443; 6125, SODRE, Montevideo, is off air (Arnaldo Slaen, Villa Elisa DX Camp, Argentina, playdx yg via DXLD) URUGUAI, 9620, 02/02 1921, Rádio SODRE, Montevidéu, identificação: "En 9620 kHz, SODRE, Montevideo, República Oriental del Uruguay ...", 44333 9650, 03/02 1547, Emisora Ciudad de Montevideo, Montevidéu, anúncio comercial da escola infantil Travesia, 45444 (Célio Romais, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, BRASIL, Escutas realizadas em Veranópolis, Rio Grande do Sul, Receptor: Sony ICF SW7600G, Antena: Loop Blindada by ADS – Alexandre Deves Sailer, Base de dados: Passport 2006 e http://www.eibi.de.vu/ radioescutas via DXLD) ** URUGUAY. Returns from UT -2 to UT -3 hours on March 12 at 0400 UT (Horacio A. Nigro, Uruguay, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UZBEKISTAN. It seems that Radio (oops, Internet) Tashkent, posts a mailbag show script about once a month, and another has just come up: http://ino.uzpak.uz/eng/letters_eng/letters_eng.htm (gh, DXLD) February 24, 2006 WE LOOSE [sic] OUR LISTENERS Unfortunately, due to the cut-off of short-wave broadcasting of RTI we have lost many our listeners. There are only few who are able to listen to our programs in Internet. Therefore this fortnight we received few e-mail messages. They are from Spain, Morocco, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan. On February 21 people in little [sic] country Bangladesh celebrated International Mother Language Day. Our listener Mr. Ashik Eqbal Tokon from Bangladesh in his letter told about the tradition of celebrating this day in Bangladesh. Here is what he writes: ``February 21st "The Martyrs Day" is a remarkable day in our history for sacrifice of blood for our Mother Tongue. The UNESCO has proclaimed February 21 as the International Mother Language Day to be observed globally in recognition of the sacrifices of the martyrs for establishing rightful place of Bangla in the year 1952. After this proclamation of the UNESCO, the sacrifice of all the martyrs for championing the cause of their mother tongue have received now a glorious recognition by the people of the world. We, the Bangalee (Bengali Nation) celebrate the International Mother Language Day with a great feeling. Usually people wake up very early. Men put "Pajama" (slacks/trousers) and the "Punjabi" (a kind of Loose and long shirt) and women wear white "Sari" with black borders. Black Badges are worn to mourn the day. People walk barefoot and go to the "Shaheed Minar" (the Statue of Martyrs) of the locality to pay homage to the martyrs, singing together the song "Amar Bhaiyer Rokte Rangano Ekushe February, Amee Ki Bhulite Pari..." (February 21, coloured by my brothers' blood, Can I forget it). They also offer flowers. Special prayers are held at home and different places to pray for the salvation of the martyr's soul. Would you please give a glimpse over your mother tongue and its history? Dear Mr. Ashik Eqbal Tokon, thank you very much for such interesting information. We gladly tell you about mother tongue in Uzbekistan. This is Uzbek language. Uzbek is a Turkic language spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia. Its closest relative, in vocabulary and grammar, is Uighur. Persian and Russian have had significant influences on Uzbek. It was written using the Cyrillic alphabet before 1992, but now a Latin script is used in Uzbekistan; According to Source Word translations Uzbek speakers in China write it using the Arabic alphabet. The Uzbek language has many dialects, varying widely from region to region. However, there is a commonly understood dialect which is used in mass media and in most printed material. Our listener Mr. Abdelkarim Najim from Morocco in his letter asked to send him our program guide or post cards of RTI. Dear Mr. Abdelkarim Najim, our correspondence section sends postcards only to those who send us their reception reports on listening to RTI in Internet. Therefore we are looking for your reception report. Besides, lately we do not send any program guides to the listeners. Hope to hear from you soon. We were glad to receive a letter with reception report from our permanent listener Mr. Narendra Singh from India. Thank you very much for your devotion to our country and radio station. We wonder how you manage to listen to us on short waves. Our devoted listener Mr. Manuel Mundez [sic] of Lugo, Spain, continues sending us his letters where he complains on loosing the RTI wave. It is so bad luck that he cannot visit our web-site. As usual, we thank our permanent listener Mr. Mukesh Kumar from India for his letter where this time he wrote about FM radio news in India (via gh, DXLD) Sure he can ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. ALGERIA [CLAND]. 1550: Polisario Front's outlet is being announced as \\ to 700 and 7460 according to the text of my audio clip translated by our esteemed DX colleague Tarek Zeidan in Cairo Egypt (via Wolfgang Bueschel); as recently reported, the frequencies announced at the beginning of the program in Castilian are 1550 and "74.70", meaning they actually seem to know very little or even nothing of what they're talking about (Carlos Goncalves, Portugal, wwdxc BC-DX Feb 20 via DXLD) ** ZAMBIA. Hola colegas: Today I could listen to Radio Zambia 1 with a 15 minutes news bulletin in English at 1800 on 4910. Then, what I suppose is Lunda [language] (as listed EiBI last edition). Good signal with SIO/454. Paz y Dx (Ignacio Sotomayor, Segovia, Castilla, España, Feb 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Is there any station in Arabic on 4675 at 1730? Or is it a mixture of other frequencies? Medium signal with SIO/353. Thanks in advance; Paz y Dx (Ignacio Sotomayor, Segovia, Castilla, España (40º57'00''N-4º07'10''W), Rx: ICOM R-75; SONY ICF -SW7600, Ant: Hilo largo de 20 metros y Balun; KIWA Pocket Loop, Feb 24, dxldyg via DXLD) Not that I know of; maybe Kurdish/Iraqi clandestine? UNIDENTIFIED. 11915, something fairly strong in French, under WWRB and with a SAH of about 6 Hz, Feb 23 at 2027. Can`t find anything listed; a recent change or error? Not // RCI 17835, nor VOA 11985 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Your drivel continues (Bob Padula) ?? DX and DX related activities are, in some way, also related to languages too, and I can only congratulate your option for including tips on the matter in DXLD, which is simply rare or typically unavailable in similar DX bulletins, be they electronic or otherwise. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Feb 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ About this issue of LANGUAGE LESSONS in 6-031: ``SPANISH IS NOT CASTILIAN BUT CASTILIAN IS SPANISH`` No, no, Castilian is a LANGUAGE, nor simply a mere dialect or a an accent of what’s ordinary termed as ``Spanish``! The name derives from Castile, that`s correct, and, as explained, being the most widely spoken language in Spain because of historical reasons (political rule imposed to other regions and kingdoms that are no more), with time, it began to be called ``Spanish``, so everybody incorrectly refers to it as such. Like an author in one of the suggested webpages puts it, ``Spanish`` can be as ridiculous as referring to ``British`` when meaning the English language. In Spain itself, and probably in the areas where only Castilian is spoken, people make the same mistake when referring to ``español`` while actually meaning ``castellano``. Conversely, those other regions that have their own languages may usually refer to or use that (wrong) term, even if this is a mistake. In those other regions, ``castellano`` may perhaps not be regarded as a foreign language solely because it as imposed upon them for centuries, but Galician, Catalan, Basque are indeed, and ``technically`` speaking, as ``foreign`` as my own language, Portuguese, regardless the similarity among some thereof. A parallel can therefore be established in the British Isles where English is widely spoken simply because it was imposed by the rulers, to a point that those other (Celtic) languages were even prohibited, pretty much like the Spanish monarchs did (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Feb 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ HD Radio DOA I heard one of these thirty second spots on the radio in the DC market yesterday and said who in their right mind allowed these spots to air. Listen and you'll understand what I mean. If you remember AM stereo and what a joke it turned out to be, HD is heading down that same path. http://www.hdradioalliance.com/commercials.php posted by lou josephs | 3:22 PM Feb 21 (medianetwork blog via DXLD) Radio World Articles - Night HD not likely, etc.; 23 0200Z FEB 06; PVZ http://www.rwonline.com Jerry Smith compares 970 WFLA HD failings to Kahn advantages. He notes Orlando 950 and 990 lost Tampa - Sarasota audience to WFLA slop. Team HD's pious nonsense re 'you must not listen to out of contour stations' has at last worn thin. Losing audience displeases broadcasters. Avaricious schemes promoted with moralistic fables ooze irony. HD is no exception. Smith illustrates HD's jamming power is woefully inversely proportional to its overblown non-ability to overcome interference. Pre-HD, WFLA overrode Tampa Trolley noise. Kahn gets through. HD doesn't. Wasn't HD supposed to penetrate areas 'obsolete' AM couldn't? Another false tale it seems. Surprising? No. ClaqBOC's parsonical shifting stories and hostility to routine questions long ago belied HD's concealed faults. Smith notes industry concern re HD's 'artifact' problems, suggesting IT whiz-kinderen first learn about that which they gratuitously seek to reinvent. Smith notes Wall St. backers will still reflexively blat the iBLOC kazoo while astute broadcasters choose superior alternatives. Ironically HD is increasingly seen as long obsolete, superseded by worthy innovations. Comparing 'obsolete AM' to the horse and buggy is further irony. AM is viewed as bedrock augmented by sound innovation. This squarely qualifies HD as Radio's Edsel. Smith's article along with others and letters to the editor indicate HD is in trouble on all fronts. Of interest to DX'ers, Smith reveals the obvious truth which none dare speak - nighttime HD is DOA. Smiths' write-up is significant by its presence. For quite some time, trade pubs dared not criticize almighty ClaqBOC. Articles such as Smith's are increasingly frequent. This is good news for the industry, DX'ers, and radio lovers in general. Bad news for conniving oleaginous fecalithic greaseballs who seek to profit by destroying that for which they've no talent. =Z.= (Paul Vincent Zecchino, Managreaseball Key, FL BT, Feb 22, IRCA via DXLD) Fybush goes HD... ...at least for a while. I wasn't about to spend $300 of my own cash on a Recepter, but if someone's gonna loan me one, I'm not going to say no. :-) Just brought it home and will have a full report shortly! (Or at least as full as possible, considering - we have very little HD FM here yet, and no multicasting AFAIK.) s AM IBOC (semi) successfully DXed! It's not audio (yet) - but I just turned around and looked at the Recepter, which was tuned to WBZ, and I'm getting enough HD signal to bring up the text display, which reads "WBZ." No lock on the audio. Craig, Kent, or anyone else who's played with this - have you guys managed to get even this far yet? s Some HD Radio clips from Rochester If you can handle some very large .wav files and want to hear what HD sounds like on AM here in Rochester, I've put up a few clips here: http://www.fybush.com/hdradio.html Check out the WLGZ file to hear how music sounds on HD AM. Even in the big markets, there aren't too many AMs doing music, so this is a chance to hear what might have been... s (Scott Fybush, Rochester NY, Feb 23, IRCA via DXLD) The maximum distance for AM digital audio that I'm aware of is about 450 miles daytime without adjacent ground/skywave interference. Since you've probably got too much adjacent interference in upstate NY from 1020 KDKA and 1040 CJMS/WYSL, DXing WBZ digital with audio would be quite an accomplishment. When you've got the WBZ display, what does the audio sound like? Are you hearing WBZ analog, digital noise, or is it muted? (Bruce Conti - Nashua NH, ABDX via DXLD) CJMS is not a factor here. There's almost no groundwave from KDKA, either, though by this time of day there's considerable skywave from them. WYSL is a local, but thankfully it's at almost a 90-degree angle from WBZ. When I had the display, it was accompanied by analog audio. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) This is interesting news as I had assumed that if the signal was enough to give an indication on the readout, it would also be good enough to decode HD. Now it is apparent that there is a different threshold for those conditions. I wonder if this is also true for FM HD. A possible explanation is that the display data is at a much lower bit rate, and the signal is just good enough to decode at that rate, but not higher (Bob Foxworth, FL, ibid.) WBZ: The text does lock in way before audio appears. I can get Artist/Title info pretty consistently out of WMKI-1260 in Boston, but seldom audio. My best so far is a minute or three of audio from WOR- 710. I have tried for WHAM-1180 at sunset but no joy. Likewise when WOWO-1190 lift the fire burning all night a month or two back I listened for a long time. Nada. The adjacent channels really trash it. The conversation has been pretty much how the IBOC will interfere with the analog. What we are seeing is the reverse. WBZ IBOC is hit hard by the 1020 and 1040 adjacents. That may really limit night IBOC coverage to line of sight of the towers (almost) (Craig Healy, Providence, RI, IRCA via DXLD) Enjoyed Craig's wry analysis re 'nighttime HD dx limited to line of sight of towers. HD has made the great leap from tragedy to farce. =Z.= pvz mk fl bt (Paul Vincent Zecchino, FL, ibid.) I also listened to all 3 of the clips. When listening to the whtk clip i noticed what seemed to be slight distortion near the beginning shortly after the analog to digital switch. It almost sounded like what I call the brick wall affect. Anyone who has worked with digital production software knows that if you over modulate just a little the audio goes into distortion. Maybe the board opp wasn't watching his levels. It didn't sound like they were using much compression or limiting in the digital mode. Scott thanks for posting the clips (Dave Marthouse, RTT radiolist via DXLD) I certainly wouldn't spend more than $100-$150 on it. It's very selective, which is good, but not at all sensitive. It takes my outdoor Yagi antenna to pull in HD signals on a couple of the local rimshot FMs, for instance, which is fine for geek purposes but would never fly if this were the radio on my bedside table. (But with that rooftop antenna, it can separate out first-adjacent analog FM signals that it usually takes the narrow filter settings on my good FM tuners to hear.) I don't care for the audio from the built-in speaker system at all. Way too bassy, even after finding the menu setting to reduce the bass boost. Sounds better fed through the stereo system in my office, where it's currently hooked up. It's a very easy radio to use - the display is clear and bright, and very intuitive in the way it handles HD2 signals. It locks on to HD quite quickly, too. I don't know how to explain the distortion you and Dave heard in the WLGZ clip. It was there on the feed coming out of the radio. Maybe some clipping on their STL path? I don't recall how they get audio from the studios out to the tx site, which is about a 20-mile haul. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Some food for thought - IBOC-related I'm gonna pick at two points in this long list of issues (not that I don't agree and disagree with others) because they are the ones that nobody seems to be addressing even though they ARE the 800 pound gorillas in the room: "Average Joe" listener doesn't complain about interference: he just tunes away or finds a stronger signal carrying the same satellite program, or (more likely) tunes to FM. You WON'T find an AM station that get a QRM complaint from anyone who doesn't know what QRM means, I'd bet serious money on it. So since we can't track complaints, the only thing left is to track listenership, and that gets tied up with item 2: Craig H obviously has an insider's view that I no longer have (since I've been out of the 'biz since the mid 80s officially altho I still dabble as a hobby!) but I've been saying this since the 70s (when I WAS in the biz). Like Realty, the three most important things are the Programming, the programming, and oh yes, the programming. Put up Rush L or Silly Jessie R and watch the five-ten folks who want that find a stronger signal that carries the same program. Talk about a loser of business plan, that would be it. Spend some money on local content that they can't get anywhere else, and you might get some complaints about signal quality (or actual listeners!). I'm in the Mid-Michigan market, and we have ONE count 'em ONE (and if you are generous .5) radio station in Lansing and ONE in Jackson that have local news staffs [the .5 is the local (daytime only) NPR affiliate which does have a SMALL news staff (2 people?). BUT, when I called about a correction to a story they did about an election (they said someone had lost who had won!) told me 'gee -- well, whoops, I guess, but we won't issue a correction because we weren't planning on carrying the story again anyway. Sorry.'] Neither of the fulltimers have local over-night on-air staff, and neither have 'beat' reporters -- they cover the fires, crashes and 'bleeders' but try to get a story about city budgets or community fund-raisers or the like in, and they will tell you 'don't have the staff to do that' or 'nobody wants that'. BULLoney -- the bottom line is they don't have support from the station owners to spend the kind of money it takes to do the job right, so they abdicate to TV (which has its own issues!) and the newspaper (singular!) and rip and read most of what they do, or worse -- just tie in with local nets and satellites. And we wonder why people don't listen? PUL-eaze Father St. George -- the program director of Vatican Radio in an interview with the New York Times in the mid-1970s said "A radio station without an audience is just an exercise in piety." I don't know what happened to that guy, but he was 100% correct then, and he's 1000% correct now. What makes someone take the earbuds out of the iPod long enough to listen to a radio is LOCAL programming. Period. ANYthing else they can get better from the Internet or XM, or whatever new and exciting thing comes next. 'Save money' by cutting local staff and you are, in effect, "amputating at the neck" in an attempt to save the patient. It won't work, and ultimately leads to death. Now, how do we get that message to the program directors and station owners, and more importantly, will radio re-invent itself like it did in the 1940s with the War, the 1950s with competition from TV or the 1970s with the move to FM AoR and remain relevant to society? (Kenneth Vito Zichi, MI, Feb 23, RTT radiolist via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ TOUCH LAMP NOISE Greetings; I was given a Christmas Present a touch lamp. Yes, even a DXer gets something other than what they want. However, this was an interesting gift, as I would never buy one myself, but it gave me a chance to check one out in the house. I first thought with it off, it would not present any problems, as I never heard any noise from it, so I thought. At full brightness, the noise was low, but in the middle positions, it is very noisy. It is a bed stand lamp. So I thought, I would just use it to get into bed and turn it off to listen to the radio. I listen to KKOH or KGO generally at night. Well, all has been fine the last 2 months, until today I noticed on the R8, the complete other side of the house, this terrible carrier from 1565 to 1585. Completely wiping out KCVR-1570 and KGAL-1580. This carrier was S-7 or 8. It seems I have heard a bit of noise there anyway, but I had not noticed much, until today. Well, I hooked up my signal generator as my transmitter to rebroadcast 1570 and grabbed the S350, and tuned in the signal. I went to the bedroom to check out the touch lamp, thinking it might be it. I touched the lamp and the pitch of the carrier changed. I reached behind the bed and unplugged the lamp, and immediately the carrier was gone. In fact the overall noise level in the house dropped. There seemed to be some sort of low level hash behind some weak stations during the day I could not put my finger on. Well, the touch lamp is in the closet on the shelf and the regular old bed lamp with the regular bulb is back. I have it a chance. It is a nice lamp too. It is shame they put out so much garbage. 73, (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, Feb 22, IRCA via DXLD) Re: RADIO SHACK ON THE BRINK OF COLLAPSE As a former technical writer/editor back in 1979-1981 at Radio Shack's national HQ in Fort Worth, I've been following their recent (mis)fortunes with great interest and sadness. Their main problem is that their former target customers have either disappeared or migrated elsewhere. Electronic hobbyists are now a niche market best served by internet retailers (Ocean State, All Electronics, etc.), customers for high-end electronic items shop Best Buy or Circuit City, and people needing connecting cables for their home entertainment systems, fuses, batteries, speaker wires, etc., go to Wal-Mart. There isn't the same "need" for Radio Shack as there was 30 years ago --- what's for sale at RS today that you can't get (often at a lower price) elsewhere? RS has long been locked into small, cramped stores that discourage casual browsing --- if you have claustrophobia, you'll get a panic attack in some of those RS stores! RS also has a lot of stores in non- prime retail areas, and cutting back on the number of retail stores is a step that should've been taken years ago. RS management problems go back a lot further than the current regime, back to the 1980s when then-CEO John Roach stacked the RS board with his golfing buddies from Texas Christian University. They sat and watched Circuit City, Best Buy, etc. implement their "big box" store strategy and did nothing until it was too late; when they finally responded with their "Incredible Universe" stores, the result was an unmitigated disaster. They've done no better with their web site, as less than 1% of their sales come through radioshack.com. And they've also missed the move into more profitable services (Circuit City's "Geek Squad" is turning into a real revenue machine for them). It's almost as if the RS managers decided back in 1985 they liked the way their world looked and vowed to never change. RS's growth in its "traditional" areas --- electronic parts/kits, test equipment, consumer electronics, etc. --- has been largely stagnant since the mid-1970s. Its corporate growth received a huge boost from the CB radio boom of the 1970s, then from the first personal computers (this was when I was there), and then from cell phones. But that last revenue stream has dried up, especially after they switched from offering Verizon to offering Cingular last year. They had to eat a huge bunch of inventory on that one. It's not clear where the next "miracle revenue" stream is going to come for them, as consumers are going elsewhere from HDTVs, TiVos, video games, and other high margin items. I see someone remarked in a earlier message that RS had a $2 billion profit last year, but that's gross profit --- subtract out the cost of goods sold and operating expenses, and RS's net is considerably, considerably less. When the RS board cover offer financial analysts no guidance last week for the rest of the year, that was the board's way of saying "we have no clue what's going to happen the rest of the year; your guess is as good as ours." That explains the stock meltdown over the past few days, and makes it all the more likely that RS will eventually be acquired by another company or even go into eventual bankruptcy. Given the changing nature of technology and their customer base, maybe nothing could've been done to head off RS's eventual decline. But it was a fun place to work when I was there, and I made some friends there I still have today. I wish their story could have a happier ending (Harry Helms W5HLH, Smithville, TX EL19 http://futureofradio.typepad.com/ Feb 22, ABDX via DXLD) ###