DX LISTENING DIGEST 6-051, March 25, 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 NEXT SW AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1309: Sun 0330 on WWCR 5070 Sun 0400 on WBCQ 9330-CLSB Sun 0530 on WRMI 9955 Sun 0730 on WWCR 3215 Mon 0400 on WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0500 on WRMI 9955 Mon 0515 on WBCQ 7415 Wed 1030 on WWCR 9985 Full schedule, including AM, FM, satellite and internet, with hotlinks to station sites and audio: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html For latest updates see our Anomaly Alert page: http://www.worldofradio.com/anomaly.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 ** AFRICA. On February 22 - March 08 our German member Gerhard Werdin was on holidays in Gambia and checked the local DX-scene. We thank Gerhard for his excellent tips. But unfortunately they confirm that also in Westernmost Africa, several domestic SW-stations are disappearing from the bands! Gerhard wrote me: "The decline of SW in the third world truly is lamentable, more so because the need for it is still there. The main reason in my opinion is lack of funds. I have seen it clearly in Tanzania, where I spent some time a few years ago, and I am convinced it is the same in all those other countries. The governments are notoriously short of money if not bankrupt (look at Malawi; they hardly have money to feed their people), the IMF advises them that broadcasting should be a private sector business, so they stop the government-funded radio stations. And the private sector invests only where there is money to be made, which is in FM stations in the big cities only. Those who are left behind are the vast majority of the rural population. In Tanzania I have been to many places where there was no coverage of the country's radio stations at all, neither on SW nor on MW, not to talk of FM, not even in the evenings." (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window March 22 via DXLD) ** ALASKA. Hi Glenn, The KNLS English website shows the languages assigned to the frequencies from 0800-1000 are switched from that which Eric noted on their Chinese website, i.e. 0800-0900 11765 25 English 0800-0900 11870 25 Mandarin 0900-1000 11765 25 Russian 0900-1000 11870 25 Mandarin and then everything continues as in 6-050 (Alan Roe, England, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So which are we to believe? ** AUSTRALIA. 6020, Radio Australia; 0957-1056+ 3/20. Thanks to tip from Harold about Cyclone Larry, I tuned around and found RA relaying ABC Local Radio Queensland on 6020. 9580 had full Commonwealth games coverage. 6020 had coverage of the cyclone's damage, but kept switching to the Commonwealth games for important races that Australia was expected to win. One person reported that all the banana trees are down. Still going at 1315 with an official cyclone bulletin. Cyclone Larry downgraded to category one. 3/21 0900 6020 Start of Tok Pisin service. Announced 5995, 6020, 9710. 9710 heard but weak (Larry Russell, MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) R. Australia, 11750, 1459 March 25 with commercial for Gardening Australia, an ABC publication, into ABC News. NO R. Australia ID at all. Seems RA is losing its identity with all these domestic relays. Much better signal here via CVC Darwin to S Asia than on 9590, Shepparton to Oceania, and 11750 was running about a second behind 9590 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA [and non]. CVC International, Christian Vision, Christian Voice from March 26, 2006, website doesn't give transmitter sites but unless they changed this should be correct. CVC International Germany 0500 - 0600 Af 9430 Germany 0600 - 0900 Af 15640 Germany 1500 - 1800 Af 15715 Germany 1800 - 2000 Af 13820 Germany 2000 - 2100 Af 9765 South Africa 0515 - 1545 Af 9555 Christian Vision Uzbekistan 0100 - 0300 As 7355 Uzbekistan 0300 - 0600 As 13685 Australia 0900 - 1100 As 11955 Australia 1100 - 1800 As 13635 Christian Voice Zambia 0000 - 0600 Af 4965 Zambia 0400 - 1500 Af 6065 Zambia 1500 - 2400 Af 4965 (Christian Vision website, via Daniel Sampson, Prime Time Shortwave, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Do all their English programs now originate in Australia? (gh, DXLD) ** AUSTRIA. Osterreich 1, A06 English schedule combining the info on the website and the info from José Miguel Romero Romero. 1205 - 1220 As,Oc, M 17715 1245 - 1300 As,Oc, M 17715 1205 - 1230 As,Oc, Sa-Su 17715 1235 - 1300 As,Oc, Sa-Su 17715 1215 - 1230 As,Oc, Tu-F 17715 1245 - 1300 As,Oc, Tu-F 17715 1205 - 1220 Eu, M 6155, 13730 1205 - 1230 Eu, Sa-Su 6155, 13730 1235 - 1300 Eu, Sa-Su 6155, 13730 1245 - 1300 Eu, Tu-F 6155, 13730 0115 - 0130 LA, Sa 9870 0035 - 0100 LA, Su-M 9870 0105 - 0130 LA, Su-M 9870 0113 - 0130 LA, Tu-F 9870 0043 - 0058 LA, Tu-Sa 9870 0505 - 0520 ME, M 17870 0505 - 0530 ME, Sa-Su 17870 0535 - 0600 ME, Sa-Su 17870 0545 - 0600 ME, Tu-F 17870 1505 - 1520 NA, M 13775ca 1545 - 1600 NA, M 13775ca 1505 - 1530 NA, Sa-Su 13775ca 1535 - 1600 NA, Sa-Su 13775ca 0133 - 0200 NA, Su-M 9870 1515 - 1530 NA, Tu-F 13775ca 1545 - 1600 NA, Tu-F 13775ca 0143 - 0158 NA, Tu-Sa 9870 (Daniel Sampson, PTSW, http://www.primetimeshortwave.com dxldyg via DXLD) ** BELARUS. 7125, R. Belarus, *2030- in English. I checked all the frequencies of R. Belarus given in WRTH 2006. This was the "best" frequency. Second best was MW 1170 kHz with QRM by R Sawa, UAE and R Capodistria from Slovenia in Italian. 7440 kHz was very, very poor. One could hardly detect the language, English. On 7340 kHz there was an Arabic speaking station, IBRA R. from from Jülich, says my Passport. Overall reception from R. Belarus was very poor both on SW and MW! Date is March 24. 73 de (Jouko Huuskonen, Turku, FINLAND, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELARUS [non]. Summary of recent research about broadcasting to Belarus: For some reason most of the German media did not note that special broadcasts for Belarus are not new but done already for decades [since when exactly? was not able to find a start date] by RFE/RL, broadcasting eight hours a day, by far exceeding the volume of all other dedicated stations. European Radio for Belarus: Consists primarily of the single-hour "Window to Europe" programme, relayed in the morning via Vilnius 612 (very same outlet used by RFE/RL). ERB is 24/7 on Eutelsat Hotbird, but during the remainder of the day broadcasting not much more than music and news headlines. Media Consulta, the agency responsible for ERB, praises the availability of their station on FM, but of course this is a rather limited coverage: There is a relay via Radio Znad Wilii in Vilnius, running // 612, presumably reaching only a small region around the border near Vilnius. Another relay runs already at 04:40 CET on Radio Dla Ciebie, the Warsaw regional station of Polskie Radio. RDC uses also a high power transmitter near Siedlce, certainly reaching Brest but again not much beyond. The Hotbird feed of ERB is of a ridiculous AM quality, inappropriate for FM relays but indeed used for this purpose. Media Consulta CEO Zulauf mentioned in an interview FM relays from the Ukraine as well, but no such transmissions exists. Deutsche Welle: Since December and until May a mediumwave relay of DW Russian via Lithuania (after the switch to CET on Sunday 1700-1800, 1557 from Sitkunai) runs in addition to the transmission via Grigoriopol on 999, so their Belaruskaya Khronika programme is available not only on shortwave (Media Consulta's CEO dismissed the Deutsche Welle programme by saying "shortwave, that's there you always have this funny noise, actually nobody would voluntarily listen to it"). When checking out the 1557 relay a week ago I noted an announcement "vypusk i russkom a belorusskom yasiku", prominently put into the opener of this programme, indicating that Deutsche Welle produces Belaruskaya Khronika now in both languages and wants to emphasize this circumstance (Kai Ludwig, Germany, March 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Originally DW was to broadcast to Belarus only in [red] Russian, an incredible situation (gh, DXLD) ** BENIN. ORTB, 5025, 2230-2302* March 18, poor under Cuba with French talk, variety of Afro-pops, French pops/ballads. 2301 sign-off with NA by local band (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BIAFRA [non]. CLANDESTINE, 7380, Voice of Biafra International, 2115-2120, March 19, English, Identification by male as: "...Voice of Biafra International broadcast...", talk by male, 24442 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, HCDX via DXLD) ?? March 19 was a Sunday. This is supposed to be on Saturdays only (gh, DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 5680.69, ¿Radio San Rafael, Cochabamba?; ¿La Voz del Campesini [sic], Sipe Sipe?, 0940-1040, March 24, Aymara, Andean songs and some huaynos in spanish. I heard an Andean Argentine song too. Short announcements in Aymara by male. Greetings. Local ads (all in Aymara), 24432 at 0950 UT and 34333 at 1010!!! Low signal at 1030 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, HCDX via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. R. Aparecida, 6134.89, 0200-0216* March 17, Portuguese talk, ads, jingles, lite music, ID. Abrupt sign-off. Good, but not audible until DW signs off at 0200 on 6135. Weak // 9630, 5035 (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BULGARIA. RADIO BULGARIA ENGLISH PROGRAM GUIDE http//www.bnr.bg/RadioBulgaria/Emission_English/scheme.htm Updated on March 23, 2006 at 1213 PM BG. Radio Bulgaria's programmes are broadcast as follows Programmes in English UTC kHz local time 0200 9700, 11700 Washington 2200 0630 9500, 11500 London 0730 1130 11700, 15700 London 1230 1730 9500, 11500 London 1830 2100 5800, 7500 London 2200 2300 9700, 11700 Washington 1900 [the time in Washington is of concern to only <1% of US population] UT Sunday 0200-0300 News. Views Behind the News. Keyword Bulgaria. Answering Your Letters. (Time Out for Music). 0630-0700 News. (News Briefs). DX Programme. Time Out for Music. 1130-1200 News. (News Briefs). DX Programme. Time Out for Music. 1730-1800 News. Views Behind the News. 2100-2200 News. Views Behind the News. Folk Studio. (Keyword Bulgaria). Walks and Talks. (Folk Studio) 2300-2400 News. Views Behind the News. Folk Studio. (Keyword Bulgaria). Walks and Talks. (Folk Studio). UT Monday 0200-0300 News; Views Behind The News. Folk Studio. (Keyword Bulgaria). Walks and Talks. (Folk Studio). 0630-0700 News. Answering Your Letters. (Time Out for Music). 1130-1200 News. Answering Your Letters. (Time Out for Music). 1730-1800 News. Events and Developments. Sports. 2100-2200 News. Events and Developments. Sports. Keyword Bulgaria. Time Out for Music. 2300-2400 News. Events And Developments. Sports. Keyword Bulgaria. Time Out for Music. UT Tuesday 0200-0300 News. Events And Developments. Sports. Keyword Bulgaria. Time Out For Music. 0630-0700 News. Folk Studio. (Walks and Talks). 1130-1200 News. Folk Studio. (Walks and Talks). 1730-1800 News. Events and Developments. 2100-2200 News. Events and Developments. Magazine Economy. Keyword Bulgaria. Time Out for Music. 2300-2400 News. Events and Developments. Magazine Economy. Keyword Bulgaria. Time Out for Music. UT Wednesday 0200-0300 News. Events and Developments. Magazine Economy. Keyword Bulgaria. Time Out for Music. 0630-0700 News. Keyword Bulgaria. (Time Out for Music). 1130-1200 News. Keyword Bulgaria. (Time Out for Music). 1730-1800 News. Events and Developments. 2100-2200 News. Events and Developments. The Way We Live. Keyword Bulgaria. Time Out for Music. 2300-2400 News. Events and Developments. The Way We Live. Keyword Bulgaria. Time Out for Music. UT Thursday 0200-0300 News. Events and Developments. The Way We Live. Keyword Bulgaria. Time Out for Music. 0630-0700 News. Keyword Bulgaria. (Time Out for Music). 1130-1200 News. Keyword Bulgaria. (Time Out for Music). 1730-1800 News. Events and Developments. 2100-2200 News. Events and Developments. History Club. Keyword Bulgaria. Time Out for Music. 2300-2400 News. Events and Developments. History Club. Keyword Bulgaria. Time Out for Music. UT Friday 0200-0300 News. Events and Developments. History Club. Keyword Bulgaria. Time Out for Music. 0630-0700 News. Keyword Bulgaria. (Time Out for Music). 1130-1200 News. Keyword Bulgaria. (Time Out for Music). 1730-1800 News. Events and Developments. 2100-2200 News. Events and Developments. Keyword Bulgaria. DX Programme. Time Out for Music. 2300-2400 News. Events and Developments. Keyword Bulgaria. DX Programme. Time Out For Music. UT Saturday 0200-0300 News. Events and Developments. Keyword Bulgaria. DX Programme. Time Out for Music. 0630-0700 News. (News Briefs). Keyword Bulgaria. (Time Out For Music). 1130-1200 News. (News Briefs). Keyword Bulgaria. (Time Out for Music). 1730-1800 News. Views Behind the News. 2100-2200 News. Views Behind the News. Keyword Bulgaria. Answering Your Letters. (Time Out for Music). 2300-2400 News. Views Behind the News. Keyword Bulgaria. Answering Your Letters. (Time Out For Music). There is no explanation as to why some titles are in parenthesis (). (via and edited by John Norfolk, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Re reception of RCI in Australia: G'day, I take it that's the SE Asia service on 11700 KUM 0000 to 0057 that can be heard in Australia? 73 (Tim Gaynor, Qsld., DX LISTENING DIGEST) Only got a QSL from RCI the other day, the SE [Asia] Service actually isn't that good; it`s audible but not strong at all. Your best bet to hear RCI is via the following. 19-1959 UT 13650 beamed to Africa en français, (normally Africa heard really early morning, and also Channel Africa can be heard late afternoon in the 25 MB) 21-2259 15180 might work, RCI tends to be picked up best via its Sackville transmitter in NB for some strange reason, even if it`s not directed to Haiti. [soon to be replaced by 17765 at 20-22] And normally we get good signals of RCI when it broadcasts to North America, also like Voice Of Russia which you can hear at about 0300 GMT. 23-2359 might work, but that seemed to be weak. If you are up night I know we can get the English service to India, QSLed 9635 at 1509 UT, so the 15-1557 on 9635 is most likely and even possible 11975. Hope this helps (Robb Wise, HRi Radio, Tasmania, March 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Info soon to be outdated ** CANADA. Americans, Break Out Your Best Champagne! And mark this day on your calendar -- 3/25/06 -- as The Day That The Vinyl Cafe read a story on the Story Exchange written by a guy in Huntington, Michigan!! You can knock me over with a feather -- finally, an American member of the audience is at long last recognized!! Now I feel like I can write to the CBC without the message getting immediately canned. Yeeehaaa! Till now I figured "stuff happens" at the CBC when it comes to American mail. But later in his program, when thanking producers and such, Stuart thanked the inn owner for "making stuff happen". So you see, this is an unusually remarkable program for more than one reason -- RARELY is a person EVER thanked when "stuff happens". I'm just glad that when it came to one American member of his audience, stuff didn't happen to his story (Clara Listensprechen, March 25, shortwavebasics yg via DXLD) ** CANADA. The application of CKEC-1320 New Glasgow NS to move to FM (94.1 MHz, 36.68 kW) has been approved by the CRTC: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2006/db2006-87.htm The AM station will go silent three months after the FM transmitter becomes operational. The application of CHTN-720 Charlottetown PEI to move to FM (100.3 MHz, 33 kW) has been approved by the CRTC: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2006/db2006-88.htm The application of the only other Charlottetown PEI AM station, CFCY- 630, to move to FM (95.1 MHz, 73.3 kW) has also been approved by the CRTC: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2006/db2006-89.htm Both stations will continue to operate on AM for three months after their FM transmitters are operational, after which they will go silent. When these stations do go silent, the number of AM stations in PEI will be exactly zero. Better log PEI soon if you have not done so, as the only hope left would be the two 20 watt TIS stations in Prince Edward Island national park (CBPP-1490 in English and CBPP-1 -1280 in French). 73, (Deane McIntyre VE6BPO, March 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I have enjoyed listening to both of these stations over the years and am very sorry to see them go. Before WOR-710 went IBOC, I could get 500-mile distant CHTN-720 all day long on a car radio. I really enjoyed listening to their "Island Weather" and other local items during breaks from the satellite-fed oldies format. Goodbye old friend! (Marc DeLorenzo, Cape Cod, MA, IRCA via DXLD) Deane, Thanks for the update on PEI. I have been trying for 720 for years now. Without any luck. Zero. Their pattern must be quite tight to protect WGN. I'll keep on it. Maybe I will have some luck. I'll keep my fingers crossed. I wonder if we could get a DX Test for 720 before it is gone? 73, (Patrick Martin, OR, IRCA via DXLD) ** CANADA. Hi, Glenn. Re 6-049, the item about R. Chalom is credited to me through the CIDX Yahoo Group. It was actually posted on the Radio in Montreal Yahoo Group, not the CIDX group. Not a big deal, but for accuracy's sake (Sheldon Harvey, QC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Hello Glenn, Found this QSL for sale on eBay, of "Amateur" AM station 10-BQ of Ontario, that evidently was on 1200 kHz. Wonder how many more of these "10" call station QSLs are out there... http://cgi.ebay.com/1932-Canada-QSL-Radio-Card-Free-Shipping_W0QQitemZ6614627462QQcategoryZ38031QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Take care! (Eric Loy, Champaign IL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This is not to promote E-bay business, but so people may save the jpg of it if they like; in fact, I snatched my own QSL card that way (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** CATALUNYA. R. Liberty antenna demolition, aftermath: SPAIN ** CAYMAN ISLANDS. Only one standout signal on 14m, March 24 at 1504 was from some guy on 21305, who refused to give his own call, only partial calls of stations calling him, and the briefest possible contacts, with 59 readings, 73 and on to the next one, as if this were a contest. Seemed to be working only Europeans --- Spain, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, Italy. Did mention QSL manager a couple times, W6VNR, and finally after silence a couple minutes, at 1511 his own call, QRZ? ZF2AH, which Googling confirms has such a manager. Meanwhile, on 13m, BBC 21470, 21490, Spain 21570, 21610, were audible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [non]. Commies vs Commies! One more time before this collision goes away with A-06: 15230, March 24 at 1408, CRI in English via Sackville at about equal level with RHC Spanish, as has been the case thruout B-05 (and B-04). Ditto at 1426 check March 25. CRI Loud and clear on 13675 via Canada instead, for Listeners` Garden, Sat show March 25 including at 1451-1454 previews of the following week`s feature programs (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA [and non]. Hallo! Hector Arboleda has compiled another special edition of the media and broadcasting news from Colombia, you may see it visiting Playdx WEB page : http://www.playdx.com/files/medellin76.doc (Dario Monferini, DX LISTENIING DIGEST) Somehow also gets into Stern vs CBS, and R. Liberty as brainwasher; see also SPAIN (gh, DXLD) ** COSTA RICA. Over the weekend, I was reminiscing about Radio Impacto in Costa Rica during the late 80s with the most unusual song (that I heard anyway) was a Spanish translation of Don McLean’s ‘American Pie’. Some of you may have seen this already in Monitoring Times, but in 1992 Don Moore wrote an excellent article of the station’s history, and it’s sudden death in the early 90s. It can found at: http://www.swl.net/patepluma/central/costarica/impacto.html (Joe Miller, MARE Tipsheet March 23 via DXLD) Ah yes, excellent article I just reread, but nowhere in it is our own Raúl Saavedra mentioned. And I am trying to remember if I visited or photoed TIRI during my one visit to Costa Rica (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. 11870.18, University Network (presumed); 1733, 19-Mar; Dr. Gene "lives" on. SIO=222, heavy QRM de Cuba on 11875 (Harold Frodge, MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) that would be the Sunday-only Venezuelan relay; have noted het on 11870 at other times such as 1445 March 24, but not tried to measure. Had been on the low side (gh, DXLD) ** CUBA. Yay, another essay contest on RHC! Fidel`s 80th birthday is coming up, as announced on 9550 at 1452 March 24, so try to say some nice things about the bloody dictator (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. DRM buzz heard on 15365-15375, Friday March 24 at 1406. NO such transmissions are listed currently in any of the three online DRM schedule versions; what did you expect? One of them, however, had HCJB here back in Oct-Nov, so I guess they are testing again, but why? Not heard the next day, March 25 at 1422 check (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EGYPT. EGYPTIAN RADIO & TV UNION (ERTU) BROADCAST ENGINEERING STARTING 26/3/2006 TENTATIVE PROGRAM SCHEDULE (A 06) UTC KHz MB PROGRAM TARGET AREA 0000-0300 12050 25 GENERAL PROG N AMERICA & EUROPE [Arabic] 0030-0430 11950 25 ARABIC E N AMERICA 0045-0200 7270 41 SPANISH N AMERICA 0045-0200 11755 25 SPANISH C AMERICA 0045-0200 9415 31 SPANISH S AMERICA 0200-0330 7270 41 ENGLISH N AMERICA 0700-1100 15115 19 GENERAL PROG W AFRICA [Arabic] 1015-1215 17775 16 ARABIC M EAST & AFGHANISTAN 1145-1230 15810 19 MALAY S E ASIA 1215-1330 17835 16 ENGLISH S ASIA 1230-1400 15810 19 INDONESIAN S E ASIA 1300-1600 15365 19 ARABIC W AFRICA 1330-1530 15490 19 PERSIAN TADZHIKSTAN 1330-1345 17835 16 BENGALI S ASIA 1430-1600 15670 19 PASHTO AFGHANISTAN 1500-1600 13660 22 HINDI S ASIA 1500-1600 9765 31 UZBEKI UZBEKISTAN 1530-1730 17810 16 SWAHILI C& E AFRICA 1545-1600 11760 25 SHONA C& S AFRICA 1600-1700 15155 19 AFAR E& C AFRICA 1600-1800 13660 22 URDU S ASIA 1600-1800 6230 49 TURKISH TURKEY 1600-1800 9990 31 ALBANIAN ALBANIA 1600-1800 11740 25 ENGLISH C & S AFRICA 1700-1730 15155 19 SOMALI E & C AFRICA 1730-1900 15155 19 AMHARIC E & C AFRICA 1800-1900 6145 49 RUSSIAN W RUSSIA 1800-1900 9988 31 ITALIAN EUROPE 1800-2100 9465 31 HAUSA W AFRICA 1800-2330 11665 25 VOICE OF THE ARABS C & E AFRICA 1900-1930 15375 19 WOLOF W AFRICA 1900-2000 9990 31 GERMAN EUROPE 1915-1930 15425 19 FULANI W AFRICA 1945-2000 15375 19 BAMBARA W AFRICA 2000-2200 7210 41 ARABIC AUSTRALIA 2000-2115 9990 31 FRENCH EUROPE 2000-2130 15375 19 ENGLISH W AFRICA 2030-2230 9735 31 FRENCH W AFRICA 2100-2115 9465 31 YORUBA W AFRICA 2115-2245 9990 31 ENGLISH EUROPE 2215-2330 11785 25 PORTUGUSE S AMERICA 2300-0030 11885 25 ENGLISH E N AMERICA 2330-0045 9735 31 ARABIC S AMERICA 2330-0045 11755 25 ARABIC S & C AMERICA (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Note no changes for the English broadcasts, including 2300 on 11885. Fortunately, WYFR is leaving this frequency for A-06! So we should be able to denigrate R. Cairo modulation less impeded (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FALKLAND ISLANDS [non]. A reminder that only two more airings of Calling the Falklands remain. Though no frequencies or times were mentioned in today`s broadcast I would expect them to remain on the same frequency (or not?). And the time will shift 1 hour earlier, or remain the same? Currently (B05) at 2130-2145 on 11680, Tuesdays and Fridays (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, March 24, dxldyg via DXLD) Time for this never shifts. A shame to change frequency for the last two, losing even more listeners (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Per VT sked posted here [?] earlier today, it's [A-06]: 11720 2130 2145 ..t..f. Rampisham 500 209 English S AM df (Dan Ferguson, SC, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE [non]. RFI, 17860 via GUIANA FRENCH, Friday March 24 at 1345 was certainly in French, not Kriyol; I had previously heard Kriyol on a Sunday during this semihour, and found that WRTH 2006 showed Kriyol as daily, with no French listed on this time and frequency; and the RFI website itself has a totally erroneous listing for its own Creole service! Now I think Kriyol is really on Sundays only, with French other days of the week --- and indeed this is implied in PWBR `2006` with an ``other`` broadcast shown on Sundays (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GABON. R. Gabon, 4777, *0459-0515+ March 19, sign-on with French opening announcements. 0500 NA, 05091 ID followed by possible news; fair (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GAMBIA. GAMBIA FOILS COUP ATTEMPT: RADIO http://english.people.com.cn/200603/23/eng20060323_252868.html The Gambian government had foiled a coup attempt by a group of military officers and arrested six of the suspected plotters, according to a radio report from Banjul Wednesday. Citing government sources, the radio report said Col. Ndure Kham, chief of staff, was behind Tuesday's plot which had been discovered before it could be carried out. Authorities had detained six high- ranking officers, including a military spokesman, the report said. President Yahya Jammeh, who was on a three-day visit to Mauritania, cut short his trip and returned to Banjul Tuesday night. The situation in Banjul was well under control, and police had tightened security throughout the capital, including checking vehicles in the main streets, the report added. Jammeh came to power in a bloodless coup in July, 1994 and won the elections in 1996. He was re-elected in 2001. The tiny West African state is a thin sliver of land with an area of 10,380 square km and a population of 1.5 million. Source: Xinhua - (via Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DXLD) See also AFRICA; GUINEA ** GREECE [and non]. Glenn: If everything shapes up like last year, this is how the English and foreign languages will be starting Sunday, March 26, on the Voice of Greece. ENGLISH 0905-1000 Sunday 9420 12120 15630 – It`s All Greek to Me (Musical Program in English) 1400-1500 Saturday 9420 9775-DL 12105 15630 --- Greeks Everywhere 1830-1900 Every Day #7430 -- Orientation Program (News in English) #ERA Interprogram Orientations, 30-Minute Foreign Language Programs: Every 1300-Arabic 1430-Spanish 1600-Serbo-Croatian 1730-French Day: 1330-German 1500-Romanian 1630-Bulgarian 1800-Polish* 1400-Russian 1530-Turkish 1700-Albanian 1830-English *(Except Sat and Sun) (John Babbis, MD, March 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) But on Sat March 25 at 1500 on 9775, Greek talk and music, no Hellenes Around the World, as G.E. is also known. Eight+ hours earlier, when 9775 is also on via Delano to Pacific, at 0647, I was hearing what seemed to be another Orthodox service with wonderful singing, even tho this was a Saturday; previously heard on UT Sunday during this hour. Is this reliable every Sat and Sun? Or was this a special occasion? [see below] Trouble is, may be edged out from next week due to DST shift, with whatever program this is from the domestic service appearing a UT hour earlier, while the transmission will still not start until 0600 on A-06 channel 15190. Reception here may deteriorate anyway, as 9775 itself was much weaker than usual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Independence Day and the Feast of the Annunciation (Evaggelismos) March 25 --- On March 25, 1821 the Bishop of Patra, Germanos, began the uprising that started the War for Independence. Today it is celebrated with military parades in most major cities. Independence Day also coincides with the religious Feast of the Annunciation, so it is also a religious festival. This is the reason why Katerina Thanasoula's "Greeks Everywhere" program was not heard on at 1500-1600 UT this Saturday on Voice of Greece (John Babbis, MD, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Excuses, excuses ** GUAM. A periodic check of KGUM, 567 kHz streaming, still lo-fi, noisy with hum, but adequate for talk, to reconfirm Jim Bohannon, UT Fri March 24 at 1850 found Bill O`Reilly instead! But Jimbo started at 1901, skipping CBS News. The half-hour break then came at 1922, but instead of 3 minutes long, it was filled by an string of ads, promos, PSAs and featurettes, with JimBo rejoined in progress before 1928. But that ran out at 1952, cue tones ignored, and we got 6 minutes of dead air. Back on schedule at 2000 sharp with CBS News, and another hour of JimBo at 2006. Obviously their automation or unlikely overnight human operator, needs some tweaking. Schedule via http://www.k57.com/ converted from UT+10 to U times and days still shows the 5 weeknight Jim Bohannon shows bunched up on the weekends, with only one of them really live, nominally starting at 7 past the hours: UT Fri 18-21 [but not 3/24: see above] UT Sat 03-06 [live, but during DST, show will be live at 02-05, and KGUM will probably keep it at 03-06 with the first hour last? Guam does not observe DST] UT Sat 14-17 [had been 13-16 the last I checked] UT Sun 08-11 UT Sun 14-17 In any event, the K57 streaming of JimBo gives us a chance to hear him at some times which may be more convenient on the mainland. However, the guest during the 18 UT Fri hour, Kendra O`Konsky (sp?) about impending water shortages, held over into the next hour, did not match listings for Thursday March 23 at http://www.jimbotalk.net/page1234.html but this may have been incomplete, accounting only for one of the other hours. At least someone is now trying to give us an advance guest lineup each week for the Jim Bohannon Show, subject to change. I checked K57 again at 0358 UT Sat March 25, and found Dan Abrams was wrapping up that hour – but this was the JimBo show with Abrams from MSNBC substituting, as announced at 0406 when the second hour started live. Newstalk K57`s own program schedule also shows that they relay local TV news from ABC-14, M-F at 18-19 local = 08-09 UT. And they have a number of local talk shows on a variety of topix (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUINEA. SHORTWAVE IS STILL ALIVE AND WELL - IN GUINEA! Amid all the depressing news of shortwave cutbacks, some people still depend on it. I noticed a VOA report on the confusion over the health of the President of Guinea: "European radio reports stated that Mr. Conte was surviving on a respirator were contradicted by Guinean diplomatic officials in Geneva, who said the president's condition was improving. The confusion led to unease in Guinea, where residents in Conakry lined up to buy short-wave radios to follow the latest developments." It's a pity the report doesn't reveal which stations the residents tuned into when they got their radios! (Andy Sennitt, Holland, March 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) "residents in Conakry lined up to buy short-wave radios to follow the latest developments." http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-03-24-voa45.cfm (Kim Elliott, VOA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) My, are they in for a surprise when they turn those radios on (John Figliozzi, NY, dxldyg via DXLD) ** HAWAII. According to an e mail I just got from Dale Park in Honolulu, he asked Salem about 870. Yes, they are still operating from Molokai but with only 1 kW directional West. He said a good signal on the East side of the city but a bad signal West of the city. So it looks like the towers are still up. No wonder I rarely hear the station now. Probably no more than a few hundred watts to the NW, if that. 73, (Patrick Martin, OR, March 24, IRCA via DXLD) Used to be 50 kW KAIM, HI`s most powerful station, taken down to allow Salem`s California station on same frequency to be less direxional --- as if QRM from 4 Mm away would be much of a problem (gh, DXLD) ** HUNGARY. Summer A-06 schedule for Radio Budapest: English to Eu 1500-1528 Sun 6025 9690 1900-1928 Daily 3975 6025 2100-2128 Daily 6025 English to SoAf 2100-2128 Daily 9525 English to NoAm 0100-0128 Daily 9590 0230-0258 Daily 9795 German to Eu 1200-1258 Sun 6025 7220 1400-1458 Sun 6025 7160 1700-1758 Sun 3975 6025 1730-1758 Mon-Sat 3975 6025 1930-1958 Mon-Sat 3975 6025 French to Eu 1600-1628 Daily 6025 9860 2000-2028 Daily 3975 6025 Hungarian to Eu 0400-1058 Sun 6025 0400-1558 Mon-Sat 6025 1100-1158 Sun 6025 1300-1358 Sun 6025 1800-1858 Daily 3975 6025 2100-2158 Daily 3975 2200-2258 Daily 6025 Hungarian to NoAm 0000-0058 Daily 9770 0130-0228 Daily 6040 2000-2058 Daily 11695 Hungarian to SoAm 2200-2258 Daily 9850 12030 2300-2358 Mon 9850 12030 Hungarian to AUS 1100-1158 Daily 21590 1800-1858 Daily 11840 Hungarian to SoAf 1700-1758 Daily 15335 Italian to Eu 1630-1658 Daily 3975 6025 2030-2058 Daily 3975 6025 Russian to Eu 0300-0328 Daily 3975 6025 1530-1558 Sun 6025 9690 1700-1728 Mon-Sat 6025 9560 1930-1958 Sun 3975 6025 Spanish to Eu 0330-0358 Daily 3975 6025 2130-2158 Daily 6025 7250 *relay HS-1 Kossuth Radio (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, March 24, via DXLD) ** HUNGARY. 6 & 40 METRES ---> Effective 29 March amateur radio operators in Hungary can start using the 50-52 MHz band on a secondary, non-interference basis. All stations holding a CEPT- equivalent licence are automatically granted access: the power limit is 10W ERP and mobile operations on 6 metres are not allowed. Hungarian amateurs have also gained access to the 7100-7200 kHz segment on 40 metres. [TNX HA5X] (425 DX News via Dave Raycroft, ODXA via DXLD) ** INDIA. Re 6-050: Dear Glenn, The unID stations on 3365 seem to be Delhi & 3390 Gangtok at 1545 (Jose Jacob, India, DX LISTENING DIGEST) And still not moved from 90 to 60m (gh, DXLD) ** INDIA. Dear Friends, Here are the changes of All India Radio for the A-2006 period starting on 26 March 2006: Home Service: 9470 Aligarh 250 kW Now only at 1320-0043 (Delete 0130-0530, 0930-1230) External Service: 1000-1100 English 13695 Bangalore (Ex 13710) 1000-1100 English 15410 Bangalore (Ex 15235) 1115-1215 Tamil 13695 Bangalore (Ex 13710) 1215-1245 Telegu 13695 Bangalore (Ex 13710) 1215-1315 Burmese 11620 Delhi (Ex Aligarh) 1515-1615 Swahili 13605 Bangaore (Ex Aligarh) 2300-0000 Hindi 13795 Bangalore (Ex Aligarh) 0000-0045 Tamil 13795 Bangalore (Ex Aligarh) The A-2006 schedules of AIR is available as follows: Complete schedule in Frequency Order: http://www.qsl.net/vu2jos/sw/freq.htm External Service in Time Order: http://www.qsl.net/vu2jos/es/time.htm External service in Language Order: http://www.qsl.net/vu2jos/es/time.htm 73 (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, National Institute of Amateur Radio, Raj Bhavan Road, Hyderabad 500082, India, March 25, dxldyg via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 4874.6, Radio Republik Indonesia with "warta berita" at 2130 UT. Isn´t that news in Bahasa Indonesian? I didn´t hear any RRI- ID b/o [?] pretty poor reception. Signal level was even S7. What´s the QTH I wonder. 73 de (Jouko Huuskonen, Turku, FINLAND, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sorong and Wamena both vary around 4870; yes, that means news. A quick search of the DXLD archive found 4874.6 reported as Sorong, in 1-135, from a band survey 8/28-9/3/2001 by Roland Schulze, then in Philippines, and also reported as presumed Sorong on 4874.62 in 1-145, 8 October 2001. Strange there have been no reports since then, however (Glenn Hauser, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Not "too strange" as it was reported in 2005. Rw (Robert Wilkner, FL, HCDX via DXLD) The DSWCI consolidated log for all of 2005 and early 2006 at http://www.dswci-sw-logs.dxer.info/download/logs.pdf shows: 4870.0 1030 INS 26.07.05 RRI Wamena Bahasa Indonesia BW-USA 4871.1 0930 INS 20.01.06 Radio Republik Indonesia Sorong Bahasa Indonesia 24332 ALS-ARG 4874.6 PRU La Voz de la Selva, Iquitos RS-PHL Searching all logs in the NASWA database starting 1998 at http://www.naswa.net/logs/logs.php for 4874 +/- 2 kHz, skipping the Latin Americans, we don`t get any 2006, 2005, 2004 or 2003 logs for Sorong but we do get some from 2002 as the most recent: 4874.6 1115 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Lineback-KS Apr 28, 2002 4874.6 1120 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Lineback-KS Jul 12, 2002 4874.6 1104 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Lineback-KS Jun 8, 2002 4874.6 1134 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Lineback-KS Mar 26, 2002 4874.6 1200 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Lineback-KS Feb 11, 2002 4874.6 1158 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Lineback-KS Jan 31, 2002 4874.6 1144 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Line-KS Sep 8, 2001 #4874.6 1126 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Line Aug 4, 2001 4874.6 1139 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Line-KS Mar 28, 2000 4874.5 1142 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Line-KS Mar 5, 2000 4874.5 1159 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Line-KS Dec 3, 1999 4874.5 1220 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Line-KS Apr 6, 1999 4874.5 1140 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Line-KS Feb 22, 1999 4874.5 2059 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Hill-MA Dec 19, 1998 4874.4 1150 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Nove-NC Oct 30, 1998 4875 1201 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Line-KS Oct 3, 2001 4875 1055 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Line-KS Jun 28, 2000 4875 1042 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Line-KS Jun 4, 2000 4875t 1100 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Line-KS May 1, 2000 4875 1158 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Line-KS Feb 2, 2000 4875 1154 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Line-KS Jan 8, 2000 4875 1159 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Line-KS Nov 1, 1999 4875 1157 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Line-KS Oct 3, 1999 4875 1045 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Line-KS Sep 9, 1999 4875 0941 IRIAN JAYA RRI Sorong Smit-TX Feb 7, 1999 4875 1213 INDO RRI Sorong? Line-KS Sep 17, 1998 4875 1122 IRIAN JAYA Sorong Line-KS Jul 18, 1999 4875 1052 IRIAN JAYA Sorong Line-KS Jun 21, 1999 4875 0945 IRIAN JAYA Sorong Ripp-VA May 25, 1999 4875 1125 IRIAN JAYA Sorong Line-KS May 3, 1999 So, Bob, would you like to share the details of the 2005 log of it on 4874.6? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Get a life :-) (Robert Wilkner, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I have quite a nice one, a very small part of which involves trying to solve such little mysteries with the resources available, thank you; and you? Your rude remark makes me suspect you think I was contradicting you. Not at all. Quite possibly it was reported on 4874.6 sometime in 2005, especially since it seems to have returned there now. Since you asserted it was there I merely asked you to cite the log, which would be further confirmation of the move. It may be lacking from two major databases, not to mention DXLD, but we can`t catch everything significant as it goes by, and may have only been reported in the closed groups you are so fond of, perhaps even by yourself (gh to Bob, via DXLD) Glenn/Jouko, Here in SW Germany, RRI Sorong is a common catch at the indicated time. The Song of the Coconut Island IS usually precedes the national news at the top of the hour. At the time you indicated (2130 UT), there is sometimes a local IS and a local ID, also followed by news. I understand too little Bahasa Indonesia to judge if this is national news or local. If you would need the local IS to get an 100% ID, I must have it somewhere on an audio file. Just let me know if it would help you. Regards, (Aart Rouw, Bühl, Germany AR7030 + 20m longwire/MLB, HCDX via DXLD) I suspect a number of the logs accumulated did not actually get a definite Sorong ID, but relied on listings (gh, DXLD) Dear Jouko, RRI Sorong was regularly heard by various DX-ers throughout 2005 on 4874.6 kHz with a few trips to 4871.1 kHz. Please have a look at http://www.dswci.org/tbm Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, Editor of DBS and TBM, HCDX via DXLD) ** IRELAND. Hello everybody. Sligo European Radio will be making their March broadcast this Sunday 26th on 9330 kHz in the 32 metre short- wave band, 0800 and 1040 GMT. [previously for only a few minutes each] Sligo European Radio is an unlicenced radio station playing golden oldies right across Europe from its studios in a lonely farmyard a few miles outside Sligo Town in the North-West of the Irish Republic. Reception reports are as always gratefully received and will be rewarded with an SER QSL card. Reception reports should be sent to sligoeuropeanradio @ hotmail.com and if you can make a recording of our output as an mp3 file please attach a copy of it to your reception report e-mail. To find out more about Sligo European Radio you can log on to our website at: http://www.geocities.com/sligoeuropeanradio Good luck and happy listening from all the crew at Sligo European Radio (SER, March 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. Kol Israel A06 sked is now available: http://israelradio.org/sw.htm (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, USA, March 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ITALY. RAI Italy English 26 Marzo 2006 al 29 Ottobre 2006 A-06 0055-0115 11800 North America 0445-0500 6015 7235 Spain, Portugal and Occidental North Africa 0445-0500 6110 Oriental North Africa 1935-1955 5960 9845 Europe 1700-1800 5985 Oriental North Africa *NEW ENGLISH BROADCAST-ds 2025-2045 6010 11875 East Africa 2205-2230 11895 Japan (RAI website, via Daniel Sampson, Prime Time Shortwave, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dan, I don`t know what page you were looking at, but at http://www.international.rai.it/radio/ondecorte/zone/i.shtml the 17-18 is shown as Italian, (and also on 11970). Perhaps I for Italiano and I for Inglese got confused somewhere. It would also be a momentous occasion if Rai were to expand any English broadcast to a full hour. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) On this page: http://www.international.rai.it/radio/ondecorte/zone/e.shtml the language is indeed shown as "Inglese", but clearly that's a mistake. In the "guide for programmes in Italian only for various areas" the transmission at 1700-1800 is listed on 5985, 7175, and 9845 kHz to North Africa, 15385 kHz to Central Africa, and 11970 kHz to East Africa (Andy Sennitt, ibid.) Full A06 RAI International schedule [and many others] is available on http://www.bclnews.it (Roberto Scaglione, ibid.) ** LEBANON. US DESIGNATES AL-MANAR AND AN-NOUR RADIO AS TERRORIST ENTITIES The US Department of the Treasury has issued an Executive Order naming as a "specially designated global terrorist entity" al-Manar, a satellite television operation owned or controlled by the Hezbollah network. Additionally designated were an-Nour Radio and the Lebanese Media Group, the parent company to both al-Manar and an-Nour Radio. With the Treasury Department designation, Americans now are prohibited from transacting any business with Hezbollah's media subordinates, including providing banking or other financial services. Moreover, the US government is empowered to freeze all of the assets that these organizations have within US jurisdiction. Al-Manar is one of the satellite TV stations recently banned in the Netherlands. In a Department press release, Stuart Levey, Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said that "any entity maintained by a terrorist group – whether masquerading as a charity, a business, or a media outlet – is as culpable as the terrorist group itself." # posted by Andy @ 13:18 UT March 24 (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** MEXICO. 6000v, Radio Insurgente 2045 to 2050 with Cuba absent. Music, good on all three antennas, better signal in South East Florida than in the past. 17 March (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach, Japan Premium March 24 via DXLD) Fridays only; anyone hear it on 24 March? ** MEXICO. INTERNET RADIO: TUNING IN TO LOCAL CULTURE --- A CANADIAN TEAM IS HELPING A REMOTE TRIBE IN MEXICO PRESERVE ITS HERITAGE TERRENCE BELFORD, Special to The Globe and Mail Two Canadian musical buffs, an international aid group and the state government of Chihuahua, Mexico, have been struggling with a high-tech version of the philosophical puzzler: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? They've decided to go with the digital equivalent of the chicken -- in this case, an Internet radio station. The unlikely team has launched http://RadioTarahumara.com aimed at bringing modern technology and communications to a remote Indian tribe in the mountains of Mexico's Chihuahua State. This despite the fact that, for now, there are only 12 computer-equipped sites in the entire region that can tune in to the Internet radio station; many of the Tarahumara Indians live in small adobe houses or caves. . . http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060323.TWMEXICO23/TPStory/Business (via Kim Elliott, DXLD) The audio link shows as: http://streams.radiofreenetwork.ca:8000/rth.m3u but the winamp player mp3 stream info box shows it is axually: http://streams.radiofreepeterborough.ca:8000/rth with when I checked some rather exotic music trax were playing, from drumming to jews harp. BTW there is already at least one AM station for the Tarahumaras, dontcha know. Isn`t that really a better low-tech approach?? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS ANTILLES. Transmitting on the wrong frequency Glenn, reading interesting Mr. Taylor's memories from his work at IBB Greenville (cf. DXLD 6-050, U.S.A.), I couldn't avoid thinking about what might have happened at the Bonaire transmitting site to make Radio Nederland transmit Spanish on 15315 kHz instead of 15310 (cf. Netherlands [non], DXLD 6-045). By the way, it does not seem to have happened again. I have checked the 2300 UT Spanish service several times but it was always on 15310 kHz. 73s, (Moisés Knochen, Montevideo, Uruguay, March 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OMAN. RADIO OMAN A06 (From 26/03/06 to 29/10/06) FREQ STRT STOP CIRAF LOC PWR AZI SLW ANT LANG 6000 0200 0400 39N,40W SEB 100 320 0 141 arabic 6085 2000 2200 39SW,48 SEB 100 240 0 146 arabic 9515 0400 0600 39N,40W SEB 100 320 0 141 arabic 9760 0000 0200 28,39N THU 100 315 0 218 arabic 13640 0600 1400 39N,40W SEB 100 320 0 141 arabic 15140 1400 1500 28,39N THU 100 315 0 218 english 15140 1500 2200 28,39N THU 100 315 0 218 arabic 15355 0200 0300 48,53 THU 100 220 0 205 arabic 15355 0300 0400 48,53 THU 100 220 0 205 english 15355 1800 2000 39SW,48 SEB 100 240 0 146 arabic 15355 2200 2400 28,39N THU 100 315 0 218 arabic 15375 1400 1800 39SW,48 SEB 100 240 0 146 arabic 17590 0400 0600 48,53 THU 100 220 0 205 arabic 17630 0600 0800 28,39N THU 100 315 0 218 arabic (Salim Al-Nomani via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, March 25, DXLD) ** PAKISTAN. Re 6-050: I find the assertion that a broadcast that you cannot comprehend as one that is "well worth a listen" quite bizarre. I tuned in this morning, strong but totally incomprehensible. On what basis is it worthwhile for me to listen to this dreadful racket? Certainly Pakistanis or others interested in events in the region living in the UK would, I suggest, be far more inclined to be listening to BBC Asian Network, Sunrise Radio or a whole host of other local Asian stations. How many people in Western Europe are there struggling every morning to decipher this mess? Are we supposed to celebrate because it is a new shortwave service regardless of the quality? It also seems to be merely Government propaganda, not free media. If the Pakistani Government were serious about this service, they could hire airtime from Merlin or T-systems or use Spectrum Radio and/or World Radio Network to get on Sky Digital and cable and in future DRM, if sets eventually become available. As Chris Greenway reported quite recently some of Radio Pakistan's scheduled broadcasts are not on the air and some that are, are barely intelligible even if you are just down the road from the transmitter site (Mike Barraclough, England, DX LISTENING DIGEST) "Good Morning Pakistan" was heard here in Feltham this morning on both frequencies; the station was nowhere to be heard on either Monday or Tuesday though I did not check yesterday or Wednesday. Both channels seem interference-free although the signal fades regularly with 17835 being marginally stronger. But are there no radio engineers or decent audio processing equipment in Pakistan? The distortion on voice is appalling and makes an otherwise strong signal incomprehensible much of the time. Unless they are not monitoring their output, I really cannot understand how this transmission got to air. At least the occasional music could be enjoyed though. Here's hoping for better listening in days to come, to keep the many "Pakistanis' residing in Western Europe apprised about government policies and promote the soft image among the comity of nations." [sic]. Eh? What is the 'soft image' of Pakistan among the 'comity of nations' all about then? (MARK Savage, Middlesex, via BDXC-UK March 25 via DXLD) Forget they are replete with Taliban sympathizers, home of UBL, nuclear power with unstable undemocratic government, etc. (gh, DXLD) ** POLAND. Radio Polonia ENGLISH SECTION FROM MARCH 26 TO OCTOBER 29 2006 --- SHORTWAVE 1200-1259 UT 9525 and 11850 kHz 1700-1759 UT 7220 and 7265 kHz (Radio Polonia website, via Daniel Sampson, via PTSW, http://www.primetimeshortwave.com dxldyg via DXLD) ** QATAR. AL-JAZEERA INTERNATIONAL SAYS LAUNCH MAY BE DELAYED The Middle East Times reports that the launch of Al-Jazeera's English- language channel may be delayed until the summer. It quotes Al-Jazeera Satellite Network Director General Wadah Khanfar as saying that the delay is for "technical reasons". However, the same report quotes Al- Jazeera International director Nigel Parsons as saying that the launch may still take place in May as planned. Parsons confirms that the network is waiting for technical installations to be completed. Tests, which started a few days ago in Europe on the Astra and Hot Bird satellites, are in 16 x 9 wide screen format, unlike the Arabic service which is 4 x 3. This could be the cause of the delay, but we've also seen reports that the station has so far not been able to agree satellite distribution in North America. More on this: Al-Jazeera International testing on Hot Bird, Astra http://medianetwork.blogspot.com/2006_03_19_medianetwork_archive.html#114286237134083557 # posted by Andy @ 13:55 UT March 24 (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. 5960, Radio Tikhy Okean, Vladivostok, 0932-0937, March 24, Russian, news by female, Identification by male as: "Govorit Radiostancia Tikhy Okean....", 35433 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, HCDX via DXLD) Previously reported on 6960, no doubt a typo, but not corrected and quoted as such elsewhere (gh, DXLD) ** RUSSIA. According to my monitoring in March, GTRK-Kamchatka broadcasts its own local program on 180/6075 kHz as follows: Everyday 2210-2300 Su-Th 1830-1900, 1910-2000 Mo-Fr 0110-0200, 0610-0700 Sa,Su 0010-0100 Local news is at every 30 minute in its own local program. Local programs produced by Palana were monitored on 6075 as follows: Mo-Fr 0110-0130 in Russian 0610-0630 in Koryak/Russian irr 2210-2300, 1930-1940 in Russian Basically, if 'Palana' is carried on 6075 kHz, 'Kamchatka' is carried on 180 kHz at the same time. Sample of announcement in Koryak is uploaded at http://tomsk-7.hp.infoseek.co.jp/index_e.html (Kenji Takasaki, Japan, Japan Premium March 24 via DXLD) ** SINGAPORE. 40 & 80 METRES ---> David, 9V1RH would like to remind readers of 425 DX News that "since September 2005 9V1 amateurs may use the band 7.0 to 7.2 MHz. So if the QRM below 7.1 MHz is too heavy, calling CQ Contest listening 7110 may get an easy contact. For 9M2, 9M6, 9M8, 9V1 and YB/YC the 75/80 metre band runs from 3500 to 3900 kHz, so it is possible to work split with us above the DX window" (425 DX News via Dave Raycroft, ODXA via DXLD) ** SINGAPORE [non]. USA(non), Summer A-06 for Adventist World Radio's "Wavescan" every Sunday: 1130-1200 on 15435 SDA 100 kW / 255 deg to Indonesia and Malaysia 1200-1230 on 15365 DHA 250 kW / 085 deg to NE India and Bangladesh 1530-1600 on 15225 DHA 250 kW / 075 deg to Nepal and Tibet 1600-1630 on 11640 SDA 100 kW / 285 deg to South India 1600-1630 on 11680 SDA 100 kW / 285 deg to Central India 1630-1700 on 11975 SDA 100 kW / 300 deg to North India 1730-1800 on 9385 SDA 100 kW / 300 deg to Middle East 2130-2200 on 11850 SDA 100 kW / 315 deg to West Japan and South China 2230-2300 on 15320 SDA 100 kW / 255 deg to West Indonesia (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, March 24, via DXLD) Perhaps that last one will be best for us in NAm, ex-11655 (gh, OK, DXLD) ** SLOVAKIA. Saludos cordiales; Radio Eslovaquia Internacional estrena hoy nueva página web; se puede ver el nuevo formato en: http://www.slovakradio.sk/inetportal/rsi/index.php Hoy en Radio Eslovaquia Internacional sección en español, han realizado una entrevista con un miembro del actual Consejo de la Radio Eslovaca. En él se ha tratado el futuro de las transmisiones internacionales en onda corta; una grabación de la entrevista completa puede escucharse en: http://valenciadx.multiply.com/music (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, March 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Seems that the law requiring RSI to broadcast externally does not specify that this must be on SW. There is no way to confirm the number of SWLs to RSI; letters from listeners are not a reliable indicator. But they think SW is more efficient than internet. It`s 5:22 long (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The fact that they sent out a schedule means that it should be a few more months before we hear the next reports of a possible closure of their shortwave broadcasts. :-) To North America: 0100-0127 UT, 5930 and 9440 kHz To Europe: 1600-1627 UT, 5920 and 6055 kHz 1830-1857 UT, 5920 and 6055 kHz To Australia: 0700-0726 UT, 9440 and 15460 kHz (Ted Schuerzinger, Swprograms mailing list via DXLD) ** SOUTH AFRICA. 702 TO MOVE TO FM http://entertainment.iafrica.com/news/987319.htm Staff reporter Fri, 24 Mar 2006 Talk Radio 702 has been given the go ahead to officially move to an FM frequency after a ruling by the regulatory body, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). In a letter to the radio station's mother company, Primedia Broadcasting, ICASA said it had granted the application for the amendment of 702's commercial licence to allow the station to migrate to frequencies 92.7 MHz in Johannesburg and 106.0 MHz in Pretoria - the frequencies 702 applied for in its original application. The regulatory body also granted 702 a 12 month period of "double illumination", which means the station is allowed to continue broadcasting on both the AM and FM frequencies for a year. When station management broke the news to staff on Thursday there were scenes of jubilation. "It is a historic announcement and the best news we've had in 702's 25 year history", station manager Pheladi Gwangwa said. [jumping for joy photo via Media Network blog:] http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4657/259/1600/702celeb.jpg CEO Terry Volkwyn said an announcement will be made in the next few weeks as to exactly when 702 will migrate to FM. "It could take between four and six months. Our FM equipment will be ordered this afternoon" (via Zacharias Liangas, DXLD) 702 transmitter was disabled by fire, went to 540 temporarily, back to 702, and now. . . (gh, DXLD) ** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. Still missing from the WBCQ schedule http://www.zappahead.net/wbcq/index.php at any time at all, but he`s back --- Brother Scare heard around 0615 UT Sat March 25 on 7415, as I believe Will Martin noticed a week earlier. But what is the total span of BS on WBCQ now? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. RE: Pals, las antenas de Radio Liberty. Aunque yo tenga mi residencia demasiado alejada de la mítica Playa de Pals, coincido con mis colegas españoles que bien hubiese valido la pena mantener una historia visible que derribarla para siempre. Claro, para nosotros que hemos sido parte de esa historia y que llenamos horas enteras escuchando las emisiones de Radio Liberty en una etapa muy particular de la política mundial, nos cuesta aceptar esta decisión (también política) porque vivimos inexorablemente el ocaso de la onda corta internacional. Los finales duelen, tienen olor a muerte... y un poco nosotros también vamos olfateando nuestra propia muerte en la afición. Caen las antenas de Playa de Pals y sin ellas -por ahora- sólo quedan nuestros recuerdos, después ¿Quién lo sabrá? (Rubén Guillermo Margenet, Argentina, Noticias DX via DXLD) Perhaps we should point out that altho this is a sad and momentous occasion, 1) R. Liberty had not used these antennas for 5 years, so it is not like the station now suddenly disappeared from SW; and 2) R. Liberty lives on with numerous services via other transmitter sites!! (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) While conservative editorialists are unaware that RFE/RL still exists, none other than China Radio International called on RFE/RL's Jan Maksymiuk to help analyze the demonstrations in Belarus against the recent election results (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Estimado Colegas Diexistas, ¡Sin lugar a dudas! La demolición de las antenas de Radio Liberty en Pals tiene un carácter político. Por algo de allí durante muchos años salieron las señales que mantuvieron informados a los europeos y asiáticos que bajo el manto opresor "Rojo Comunista" de la desaparecida Unión Soviética y del resto de sus países satélites que conformaban el llamado Pacto de Varsovia, con todo la "interferencia provocada" (Jamming) no pudieron acallar la verdad de lo que ocurría en el mundo durante el período de La Guerra Fría. Lo que son las cosas de la vida, en los años 80 les escribí varias veces a Radio Liberty enviándoles informes de recepción para tratar de obtener la QSL aérea del complejo de antenas de Pals. ¡Nunca lo logré! Sí bien sí, recibí la de sus transmisores en Alemania y en Portugal. ¡Por cierto! ¿Qué paso con esos centros emisores? ¡Que tiempos aquellos! En esa época siempre estaba pendiente de sus emisiones, sólo para escuchar cómo los transmisores soviéticos trataban de aplicarles jamming en determinadas frecuencias. ¡Saludos! (Jorge García R., Barinas, Venezuela, Noticas DX via DXLD) Hablan con simpatía de los comunistas y nacionalistas que volvieron del destierro político, la mención de la Estación Pirinaica les hace sonreír. Despotrican contra Bush. Son los que aplauden cuando se tumban las antenas de la Playa de Pals. Pero qué van a saber ellos de ese "símbolo de la guerra fría"? Si entre nosotros, en una lista especializada para radioaficionados, también somos pocos los que distinguimos entre RFE y RL, qué van a saber entonces estos políticos? Será cuestión del cambio generacional. Yo conocí la España de Franco, pobre pero digna. Las antenas de Pals las ví por vez primera en 1963. En Cataluña a nadie le llamaba la atención el tema. Además casi nadie sabía de qué iba. Algo de la CIA, quizás, pero si ya se estaba levantando el país. Primero con la ayuda Marshall, luego con el turismo. Eso era lo que importaba. Ahora todo ha cambiado. España ya no "es diferente" como rezaba la propaganda turística de entonces. Ahora ya no se habla de "la Europa verde" (la de más allá de los Pirineos). Pero que conste que los que han querido ocultar el pasado con este acto iconoclasta, son los que ahora llevan la batuta, no los del otro bando. --- "Españolito que vienes al mundo..." (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, Noticias DX via DXLD) Estoy totalmente sorprendido por las imágenes y lo que es peor de la risas al momento de la explosión --- considero que es un acto de impulso total y es ahí donde la lógica y la razón no pueden competir y algo de lógica deseo agregar a este punto. Diría que hubiera sido rentable alquilar la infraestructura a otras radios, usarla como relay station y así obtener algo de dinero, o a lo mejor RNE podía usarla, pero NO. Se impuso el impulso el enemigo de la lógica. Es el Monumento a la soberbia ya que por aquí en América Latina CUALQUIER país DESEARIA tener parte de la infraestructua --- que se compensaria con enlaces satelitales y listo. Imaginen una radio que nace en un contienente y lo retransmite otro --- en fin fue solo una idea. Un abrazo muy especial a todos Ustedes Hermanos DX! 73 (Alfredo - DXSPACEMASTER Cañote, La Molina, Lima, Perú, Noticias DX via DXLD) Hola a todos, amigo Alfredo, cualquier país que hubiese tenido esa infraestructura la hubiese aprovechado, pero mi país, no sé en qué está pensando, se ha subido al carro de las nuevas tecnologías (en la cual siempre vamos en el vagón de cola) y ha querido matar la onda corta con unos explosivos en cada pata de antena. Esto es realmente lamentable, que los políticos que te gobiernan no tengan ni idea del poder de este medio; también le echo mucha culpa al gobieno catalán que siempre está con el tema de su idioma, y desde esta estación, si hubiesen sido listos, hubiesen hecho una radio autonómica para el mundo. Acaban de perder la oportunidad de tener en el aire RADIO CATALUNYA INT, pero qué puedes pensar de unos señores que están viendo que se van a cargar RADIO 4, la radio en catalán de RNE y no están haciendo mucho por mantenerla. Parece que los políticos españoles tienen serrín en la cabeza en vez de cerebro, lamentable pero cierto. Luego se darán golpes de pecho defendiendo su idioma y cuando tienen una infraestructura para difundirlo van y la dinamitan, muy pero que muy lamentable. Saludos desde (Cartagena, España de JOSE HERNADEZ MADRID, ibid.) RFE/RL: Yes, they are quite widely considered as propaganda outlet. I think this results from the circumstance that RFE/RL is heavily associated with the Cold War, as it can be once again found in the recent press reports quoted by Kim. The image of VOA here in Germany doesn't appear to be any better, although it is my impression that in this case it is not so much a matter of the past but rather the result of VOA being directly associated with the current administration. Much more could be written about this matter of course (Kai Ludwig, Germany, March 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) La Historia de Radio Liberty --- Para aquellos diexistas más jovenes que no conocen muy bien la historia de esta emisora propagandística estadounidense, mayor información la consiguirán en el siguiente website: http://www.portalmundos.com/mundoradio/desaparecido/radioliberty.htm ¡Saludos! (Jorge García, Barinas, Venezuela, Noticias DX via DXLD) ** TAIWAN [and non]. RTI A06 (REVISED) (Mar 26 - Oct 29, 2006) (Revised as on 23rd Mar 2006) ** Changes/Additions Time(UTC) Days area kHz Site kW Mandarin 0000-0500 daily CHN 11885 TWN 100 0000-0500 daily CHN 11640 TWN 100 0000-0400 daily CHN 15245 TWN 100 0000-0300 daily CHN 9660 TWN 100 0100-0200 daily SAm 15215 WYFR 100 0100-0200 daily SAm 17845 WYFR 100 0200-0500 daily CHN 15290 TWN 250 0400-0500 daily CHN 1008 TWN 600 0400-0500 daily SeA 15320 TWN 100 0400-0500 daily wNAm 5950 WYFR 100 0400-0500 daily CAm 9680 WYFR 100 0400-0600 daily CHN 15270 TWN 100 0500-0600 daily CAm 9505 WYFR 100 0900-1000 daily SeA 11635, 15525, 11520 TWN 100 0900-1000 daily NeA 11605 TWN 250 0900-1000 daily AuAs 11715 TWN 250 0900-1100 daily CHN 9415 TWN 100 0900-1400 daily CHN 6150 TWN 100 0900-1500 daily CHN 6085, 1422 TWN 300 0900-1600 daily CHN 11665 TWN 300 0900-1600 daily CHN 603 TWN 1000 0900-1800 daily CHN 7185 TWN 100 0900-1800 daily CHN 1008 TWN 600 1000-1200 daily CHN 1503 TWN 600 1000-1400 daily CHN 9780 TWN 100 1100-1200 daily AuAs 11715 TWN 250 1100-1500 daily CHN 11780 TWN 300 1100-1800 daily CHN 9680 TWN 100 1200-1300 daily NeA 11605 TWN 250 1200-1300 daily SeA 15465 TWN 100 1200-1800 daily CHN 1521 TWN 400 1300-1321 daily CHN 1503 TWN 600 1300-1400 daily SeA 15265 TWN 250 1300-1500 daily SeA 7445 TWN 100 1300-1800 daily CHN 1098 TWN 250 1400-1800 daily CHN 7130 TWN 100 1400-1800 daily CHN 6145 TWN 100 1600-1700 daily CHN 1503 TWN 600 1600-1800 daily CHN 7365 TWN 300 1900-2000 daily CHN 9955 TWN 250 1900-2000 daily Eu 17750 WYFR 100 2200-2300 daily EU 3965 Issoudun 250 2200-2400 daily CHN 11710 TWN 300 2200-2400 daily CHN 11885 TWN 100 2200-2400 daily CHN 6105 TWN 100 2200-2400 daily SeA 11635 TWN 100 2200-2400 daily eNAm 5950 WYFR 100 2200-2400 daily WNAm 15440 WYFR 100 2300-2400 daily CHN 15245 TWN 100 2300-2400 daily CHN 9660 TWN 100 2200-2400 daily CHN 6150 TWN 100 Hokkien [a.k.a. Amoy] 0000-0100 daily NwAm 15440 WYFR 100 0000-0100 daily SeA 11875 TWN 100 0500-0600 daily SeA 15580 TWN 100 0500-0600 daily CHN 1008, 1422 TWN 100 1000-1100 daily SeA 11605 TWN 100 1200-1300 daily NeA 11715 TWN 100 1300-1400 daily SeA 15465 TWN 100 1300-1400 daily SeA 11635 TWN 100 2100-2200 daily eNAm 3695 WYFR 100 Cantonese 0100-0200 daily SeA 15290 TWN 250 0100-0200 daily eNAm 5950 WYFR 100 0100-0200 daily wNAm 15440 WYFR 100 0200-0300 dialy SeA 15610 TWN 100 0500-0600 daily SeA 15320 TWN 100 0500-0600 daily cNAm 9680 WYFR 100 0500-0600 daily wNAm 5950 WYFR 100 1000-1100 daily SeA 15525 TWN 100 1000-1100 daily SeA 11635 TWN 100 1000-1100 daily AuAs 11715 TWN 250 1000-1200 daily SeA 15270 TWN 100 1200-1300 daily CHN 1206 TWN 100 ** 1200-1300 daily SeA 11915 TWN 250 1200-1300 daily CHN 6105 TWN 100 2200-2300 daily Eu 11565 WYFR 100 Hakka 0000-0100 daily eNAm 5950 WYFR 100 0200-0300 daily wNAm 15440 WYFR 100 0300-0400 daily SeA 927 TWN 400 0300-0400 daily SeA 15610 TWN 100 1100-1200 daily CHN 15465 TWN 100 1100-1200 daily SeA 11635 TWN 100 1300-1400 daily SeA 15175 TWN 100 1300-1400 daily SeA 11915 TWN 250 ** 1500-1600 daily SeA 11875 TWN 250 ** English 0100-0200 daily NeA 15465 TWN 100 0100-0200 daily SeA 11875 TWN 250 0200-0300 daily cNAm 9680 WYFR 100 0200-0300 daily eNAm 5950 WYFR 100 0300-0400 daily SeA 15320 TWN 100 0300-0400 daily SAm 15215 WYFR 100 0300-0400 daily wNAm 5950 WYFR 100 0700-0800 daily wNAm 5950 WYFR 100 0800-0900 daily SeA 9610 TWN 250 1100-1200 daily SeA 7445 TWN 100 1100-1200 Thurs CHN 747 TWN 250 1100-1200 Thurs CHN 927 TWN 400 1200-1300 daily NeA 7130 TWN 50 1400-1500 daily SeA 15265 TWN 250 1600-1700 daily CHN,SAs 11815 TWN 100 1700-1800 daily Af 15960 Issoudun 500 ** 1700-1800 daily CHN 6170 TWN 300 ** 1800-1900 daily wEU 3965 Issoudun 250 2200-2300 daily EU 15600 WYFR 100 French 0700-0800 daily Eu 7520 WYFR 100 1900-2000 daily wEu 6045 Skelton 250 2000-2100 daily Eu 13695 WYFR 100 2000-2100 daily eNAm 18930 WYFR 100 2000-2100 daily Eu 9955 TWN 250 2100-2200 daily Af 9365 Issoudun 500 ** Spanish 0200-0300 daily SAm 15215, 17845 WYFR 100 0400-0500 daily CAm 11740 WYFR 100 0600-0700 daily CAm 5950 WYFR 100 2000-2100 daily Eu 5975 Nauen 100 2300-2400 daily SAm 15130, 17805 WYFR 100 German 0600-0700 daily Eu 7520 WYFR 100 1800-1900 daily EU 9955 TWN 250 1900-2000 daily Eu 6185 Skelton 250 2100-2200 daily Eu 18930 WYFR 100 2100-2200 daily wEU 3965 Issoudun 250 ** Russian 1100-1200 daily eRUs 11985 TWN 100 1300-1400 daily wRUS 15195 TWN 250 ** 1600-1700 daily wRUS 9760 Wertachtal 125 1300-1400 daily wSib 15195 Issoudun 500 ** Japanese 0800-0900 daily NeA 11605 TWN 250 1100-1200 daily NeA 11605 TWN 250 1100-1200 daily NeA 7130 TWN 50 1300-1400 daily NeA 9635 TWN 250 1300-1400 daily NeA 7130 TWN 50 Vietnamese 0900-1000 daily SeA 15270 TWN 100 1100-1200 daily CHN 1521 TWN 400 1300-1400 daily CHN 1206 TWN 100 1400-1500 daily SeA 9695 TWN 250 ** 2300-2400 daily SeA 9785 TWN 250 Thai 0600-0700 daily SeA 15270 TWN 100 1400-1500 daily CHN 747 TWN 250 1400-1500 daily CHN 927 TWN 400 1400-1500 daily SeA 15465, 11635 TWN 100 1500-1600 daily SeA 7445 TWN 100 1500-1600 daily SeA 1503 TWN 600 2200-2300 daily SeA 1503 TWN 600 2200-2400 daily SeA 7445 TWN 100 2300-2400 daily CHN 927 TWN 400 Indonesian 0400-0600 daily CHN 927 TWN 100 1000-1200 daily SeA 11520 TWN 250 1000-1200 daily SeA 11550 TWN 250 ** 1200-1300 daily CHN 927 TWN 400 1200-1300 daily SeA 11635 TWN 100 1200-1300 daily SeA 7445 TWN 100 1400-1500 daily SeA 11875 TWN 250 Code for Area and Countries : Af - Africa CHN - China CAm - Central America RUS - Russia Eu - Europe TWN - Taiwan NAm - North America Nem - North East America [sic; really NeA = Northeast Asia] ME - Middle East SAm - South America SAs - South Asia SeA - South East Asia RELAYED VIA: WYFR, USA; Skelton, UK; Issoudun, France; Juelich, Germany [also Wertachtal, Nauen: see above!] AM: KEBAR [sic] AM 1210 kHz, Sacramento CA, USA [really = Family Radio`s KEBR in Rocklin] Mandarin: 2000-2300, Cantonese: 2300-2400, local time [03-07 DST UT] DRM English stream: 9770 kHz, Friday UT 1500-1600 via Rampisham, UK (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, March 24, dxldyg via DXLD) not Sat? The other 9770 weekly DRMs are on Sat (gh, DXLD) ** UKRAINE. Summer A-06 schedule for Radio Ukraine International: (1) March 26-September 16 and (2) September 17-October 28, 2006 0000-0500 on 7530(1) and 5830(2) KHR 100 kW / 055 deg to RUS 0500-0800 on 9945(1) and 7420(2) KHR 100 kW / 277 deg to WeEu 0800-1300 on 15675(1) and 9950(2) KHR 100 kW / 277 deg to WeEu 1300-1700 on 7530(1) and 5830(2) KHR 100 kW / 055 deg to RUS 1700-2400 on 7490(1) and 5830(2) KHR 100 kW / 290 deg to WeEu 2300-0400 on 7440(1) and 5810(2) SMF 500 kW / 314 deg to NoAm English 0000-0100 on 7440(1) and 5810(2) to NoAm 0300-0400 on 7440(1) and 5810(2) to NoAm 1100-1200 on 15675(1) and 9950(2) to WeEu 2100-2200 on 7490(1) and 5830(2) to WeEu German 1700-1800 on 7490(1) and 5830(2) to WeEu 2000-2100 on 7490(1) and 5830(2) to WeEu 2300-2400 on 7490(1) and 5830(2) to WeEu Ukrainian transmissions on all other times and frequencies (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, March 24, via DXLD) ** U K [and non]. More BBCWS SW CUTS Hi, Glenn -- Info on the BBC's website seems to differ from the A-06 Schedule in DXLD 6-048. It appears that ALL the frequencies to Central and South America have been axed, and the Caribbean beams have been slashed. There is a note on the frequency link page: "Please note: there are no longer services to Central and South America on short wave." It also appears the 10-11 UT block on 6195, the 23-01 and 02-04 blocks on 5975, and the 12-14 on 15190 are gone. So the chops continue. I would bet that the Caribbean frequencies will disappear in the next year or two. Gonna have to listen harder for those Africa beams, or the East Asia stuff. When I first started listening 40 years ago, there were seven or eight BBC frequencies that provided fine reception from late afternoon to late evening here in Texas, and numerous other frequencies at other times of day. Oh, well, time and technology march on -- time to make sure the hotkeys for the BBC streams are set up on my computer (Stephen Luce, Houston, TX, March 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Some of the European frequencies may be useful on the East Coast during the mornings into mid-afternoons as well. Perhaps we can do some collaborative listening Sunday and Monday and report what we're hearing (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA, swprograms via DXLD) I was expecting this. A couple of weeks ago, Radio Netherlands received a rather brief message informing us that the BBC no longer required the 1200 UT transmission from Bonaire. No explanation was offered, and my colleague Leo van der Woude asked me if I had seen anything to indicate that they were making more cuts, as he wondered if they had moved the transmission to another site. Apparently the BBC made this decision at fairly short notice. They presumably wanted to avoid the controversy they had when they cut North American shortwave services a few years ago (Andy Sennitt, RN, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I suppose the single remaining relay via WYFR, not that it has been of any use here, to CAm at 12-13 on 9605, may also be gone, altho had been in the A-06 schedules (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Andy & Glen[n], Quoting from a BBC internal memo that was forwarded to me by my friend working at BBC. Quote ....... ----- Original Message ----- Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2006 3:54 PM Subject: Cessation of BBC shortwave in South America Hi Alokesh, I came to know yesterday that BBC is stopping its shortwave transmission in South America. There will be a shortwave hour reduction to Caribbean, Europe and Asia. BBC is also stopping its English Learning programmes except for services to China. Regards, .......Unquote Regds (Alokesh Gupta, India, March 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. BBC RUSSIAN SERVICE CELEBRATES ITS 60TH ANNIVERSARY Sarkis Garjarian writes: The BBC Russian Service has posted a page dedicated to its 60th anniversary, which is today. My feeling is that too much emphasis is given to the early years, whereas I personally couldn't find any substantial info on the Cold War years and the mostly 70s and 80s - what really interested me! Andy Sennitt adds: The anniversary section appears to be still under construction. If you go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/russian/in_depth/2006/russian_60/default.stm and click on the main heading at the top of the page, you just get a "page not found" message. But some sections are working, so if you understand Russian it's a page worth checking. # posted by Andy @ 11:16 UT March 24 (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** U S A. R. Liberty discussion: see SPAIN ** U S A. R. Martí spur from Delano 15330, tentatively on 15185v mixing with a fundamental, March 24 at 1411. I could almost detect bursts of audio // with 13820, but not completely certain. Previously heard around 15190 and 15195. Nothing audible on other side, 15475 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. No signal on 7385 around 1340 UT Friday March 24, so WRMI off the air? Hope they are back 24 hours later for WOR (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) We may well have been off of 7385 this morning because I know there was a guy from the FAA at our transmitter site and they were doing some measurements. Apparently a harmonic of 9955 is interfering with some FAA frequency, and they're trying to filter it out. [Later:] I think they've got it about fixed (Jeff White, WRMI, March 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Did not check until after 1400 Sat, but 7385 was on so hope WOR was aired at 1330; however, 9955 was still missing at 0625 UT Sat, so another airing of WOR missed; no jamming heard, but RTTY around 9960 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Again this Friday, March 24 on 9330-CLSB, heard Christian Media Network in French to Québec, from tune-in 1422. Same woman as before with American accent, reading text full of initialisms such as UMS-13, the Salvadorian gang, CFR, CAFTA. Is program ``Prophécie Québec``, pausing at 1431 for CMN English ID, mention being on C-band. 1432 resuming P.Q. in French (not Quebecois accent); she mentioned that this was a translation of the writings of James Lloyd (who else? The CMN honcho); http://www.christianmedianetwork.com on Galaxy 11, Tr. 14, 7.71 and 7.38(?) audio, and on ``WBCQ 7415``, which of course is never on the air this early. I came back at 1457 for another wrapup when she was talking about LSD, and her name was something like Maria Piacintini. Motto: ``La grande tribulation nous approche``. No WBCQ ID whatsoever around hourtop; 1500 continued CMN in English with a `live broadcast` of Apocalypse Chronicles, ``good afternoon to the east, good morning to the west``, obviously NOT live, recorded on Tuesday afternoon. If he lies to us about something so obvious, how can we have any confidence in Mr Lloyd`s prophecies? This early broadcast on 9330-CLSB may be Fridays only; definitely nothing there several other days, tho last week`s French show mentioned being on Wednesday. That may have just been when it was really recorded. I find no mention of any such French program or announcer on either of their schedules at http://www.christianmedianetwork.com/bschedule.html or http://www.cmri.tv/bschedule.html which also show presumably inaccurate SW schedules on WBCQ, WRMI and (unnamed) WWCR. Oddly enough, even tho I first reported it last week, this French show still does not appear on the WBCQ schedule. Strange how WBCQ`s actual program scheduling has to be pulled by monitoring, rather than being pushed from Monticello. Brother Scare is back too: see SOUTH CAROLINA [non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Michael Ketter is still in a coma. He's getting better slowly but surely. Physically he is in good condition, but he is still out of it. He's in for a long recovery, it seems, but who knows? He may pop out of it at any time. WBCQ is still running his shows on Saturday night and will do so for the forseeable future (Larry Will, March 23, WBCQ Forums via DXLD) ** U S A. WEWN Effective March 26 2006 - October 29, 2006 Horario vigente el 26 marzo 2006 al 29 octubre 2006 UTC NAm English LAm Spanish Eur/Afr English 0000 5035 13615/7540 *5835 0100 5035 13615/7540 *5835 0200 5035 13615/7540 *5835 0300 5035 13615/7540 *5835 0400 5035 13615/7540 *5835 0500 5050 9885/7540 *5850 0600 5050 9885/7540 7570 0700 5050 9885/7540 7570 0800 5050 9885/7540 7570 0900 5050 9885/7540 OFF AIR 1000 5050 9885/7540 OFF AIR 1100 5050 13615/9885 OFF AIR 1200 5050 13615/9885 OFF AIR 1300 5050 13615/9885 OFF AIR 1400 9955 13615/9885 OFF AIR 1500 9955 13615/9885 OFF AIR 1600 13615 15745/9885 OFF AIR 1700 13615 15745/9885 15220 1800 13615 15745/9885 15220 1900 13615 15745/9885 15220 2000 13615 15745/9885 15220 2100 13615 15745/9885 15220 2200 9975 13615/9355 15745 2300 9975 13615/9355 15745 *= * Secondary service to Europe during this time - signal strength marginal (modified table from EWTN website, via Daniel Sampson, Prime Time Shortwave, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Let`s see if they revise it every few days as they did at the beginning of B-05. Note new 5035 --- another trop band frequency bites the dust, but will FEMA reclaim it too? 9355 at 2200: coincides with RTI via WYFR migrating to 15600 for summer, as above (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. ORCHESTRAS SEEK CLASSICAL REVIVAL WITH DOWNLOADS By Jeffrey Goldfarb Fri Mar 24, 1:04 PM ET LONDON (Reuters) - Universal Music on Friday unveiled new concerts for sale that aim to return live orchestral performances to the wide audiences they once enjoyed and usher classical music further into the digital age. Two labels, Deutsche Grammophon and Decca Music, will initially release an average of four downloadable concert recordings a year each from the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with plans to add major European orchestras shortly. Concert attendance in the United States and CD sales have been declining, but classical music is disproportionately represented at online stores because its older fan base is more apt to buy downloads than younger music fans who often swap pop hits without paying for them. Orchestras around the world, however, have been slow to capitalize on their most popular asset -- live performances -- in the modern age of digital music, with few offering Internet streaming of concerts, because of musician demands to be paid for them and unresolved concerns about sound quality. Most orchestras once enjoyed large radio audiences for their concerts around the world, but those have diminished considerably over the years. "Downloading is the relevant channel for music distribution in the 21st century," said Esa-Pekka Salonen, music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. . . [more] http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060324/en_nm/media_classical_dc (via DXLD) ** U S A. What station plays classical / relaxing music on 1660? It's like in 4th place of the jumble I am hearing on 1660 and know I will never hear an actual voice ID. I have never heard this before. Catching it on my western mini-bev phased against inverted vee (Russ Johnson, Lexington NC, K3PI, March 21, NRC-AM via DXLD) KXTR Kansas City, KS, licensed X Bander (Paul Walker, ibid.) Thanks Paul. Seemingly playing non stop for over an hour now. Must ID rarely - unless I am missing them in fades (Russ, ibid.) They do ID fairly regularly and maybe every hour between +10/-10 of the top of the hour. Another factor is that they have not been programmed locally for a number of years, probably since they left FM for 1250 kHz AM and finally 1660 kHz. And they are NOT the dominant station here in Topeka at night; in fact, they rarely surface at all ... so nice catch when you do manage to bag an ID. Ironically, they're owned by Entercom. Wonder if I could bribe someone to play a little Berlioz for me, hi (Paul Swearingen, Topeka, ibid.) I verified them a few years ago but with the NJ station there all the time and Michigan regular on the K9AY west loop, I managed them only once with an ID. The CE was gracious enough to send a CD of the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra with the QSL and we had an e-mail or two back and forth discussing the decline of classical music stations on the radio (John Sgrulletta, Mahopac, NY, ibid.) You have to remember about classical music that it’s not exactly clock-friendly. If I`m playing an hour-and-fifteen-minute Mahler symphony (or the Berlioz ``Romeo and Juliette`` which is about an hour and 10 minutes!), I’m not gonna interrupt it at the straight-up top- of-the-hour to do a damn KSMU legal ID -- the normally ``genteel`` classical listeners would have my head on a stick. That`s one reason the FCC`s TOH ID rules say top of hour OR the first convenient break in the programming. The idea is to get the ID as CLOSE to the TOH as you can manage. I don`t listen much to KXTR, but I have a feeling they`re one of those stations that programs the classical ``greatest hits`` (lots of short pieces, Baroque music etc.), in which case they can probably hit TOH ID posts most of the time! Randy Stewart, classical Luddite at KSMU, Springfield MO, ibid.) As a matter of fact, I just heard them ID at 17 minutes before 2 pm CST: "This is Classical 16-60, KXTR" and again at 14 'til, in the middle of a commercial break: "Classical 16-60, KXTR", and one more time, after a local promo/spot, at 12 'til: "The Classical Station, 16-60, KXTR" (Paul Swearingen, Topeka, ibid.) ** U S A. Glenn, You probably haven't seen a real shit kicker web site lately: KCKN - Home Page http://www.kckn1020.com/default.htm Only been back on the air 5 weeks and the competitors are ready to run us out of town (Jerry Kiefer, Roswell NM, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Including http://www.kckn1020.com/coverage.htm day and night maps: day should give that strip of TX west of El Paso back to NM! Night pattern is pulled in toward LA and Perry/Pittsburgh. Closest thing to a program schedule is at the Staff link; also has Listen Live link which does not work, but I guess streaming is planned. Claims to cover all of Mexico at night, which is a slight exaggeration (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UZBEKISTAN. My log indicates I first received R. Tashkent on October 15, 1978 at 1200 UT on 15460 kHz. SIO 343. I remember all the reports, I believe 10, needed to obtain a R. Tashkent pennant. I have one. I was also a member of their listener's club. Maybe the pennant is rare? If so, perhaps this will fund my retirement by selling it on eBay :) Didn't comedian Steven Wright say, "What if we invented a time machine, went into the future and were nostalgic?" I'm feeling this way with all the SW stations leaving. R. Tashkent was challenging reception. Interesting programming and interesting music. They, in addition to many others, are missed. 73, (Kraig Krist, KG4LAC, Manassas, VA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re Radio Tashkent: Over and out --- at the time of writing, 1213 UT March 24, the English program is heard via "INO1". The URL seems to be: http://mtrk.uz/r_ino1.htm 73, (Erik Køie, Copenhagen, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Andy Sennitt comments: It seems that Radio Tashkent International was doomed from the moment it switched off its shortwave transmissions on 1 January. In a remarkably frank statement on its English website, the station says "Unfortunately, due to the cut-off of short-wave broadcasting of RTI we have lost many [of] 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." That statement was date 24 February, but suggests that the staff already knew the situation was grim. In fact, the audio streams linked from the English home page http://ino.uzpak.uz/index.html are still working - but for how much longer? # posted by Andy @ 11:11 UTC March 24 (Media Network blog via DXLD) When I checked at 0336 UT March 25, both were playing, but silently, perhaps because nothing was scheduled for transmission at that time (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio Tashkent: It appears that their audio streams can be opened on some systems but not on others. I still have no luck, either by allowing the plug-ins on their website to run or by means of the mentioned links, extracted from the source code. Looks like they shot themselves in their own knees, locking out potential listeners not only by using WMA (to my knowledge officially available only to Windows systems) but further by a complicated set-up. But perhaps this doesn't matter now anymore, since the bottom line is the editorial staff expecting the service to be closed on March 31 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, March 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA. ¡ Muy buenas noches, compañeros DXistas ! Les informo que YVKE-550 estaba mejorando de mucho la calidad del sonido de la transmisión sobre el Internet. Para escucharla, pueden ir al sitio siguiente http://www.gobiernoenlinea.gob.ve/miscelaneas/radio_yvke.m3u En el pasado, el sonido fue muy distorcionado, pero ahora es bastante claro sin mucho ruido. ¡Felizmente es así porque en algunos momentos la música está linda! ¡Con mucho cariño, yo deseo a todos ustedes compañeros DXistas y no- DXistas un feliz fin de semana lleno de suerte, alegría y captaciones bonitas! ¡Reciben todos mis saludos cordiales! "La jalousie est un grand pieux dans l'évolution spirituelle!" (Bogdan Alexandru Chiochiu, QC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA [non]. RNV heard at 2030-2130 via Cuba on 11760 (Chris Hambly, Vic., March 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) That would be new sked; but no signal when checked sometime during that hour March 24 (gh) ** ZIMBABWE. 6612, ZBC-Gweru (3306 x 2), 2108-2112, March 19, Vernacular, afropops, short announcements by male, 24432 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, HCDX via DXLD) Cf. recent report of 6613 instead ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ JKDI! (Pete Bentley, NY, lost in FL, with a check) Hi Glenn, Brilliant website and always an interesting read and gives me a chance to download the latest "World of Radio" (Mike Grant) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ WRTH AND ME I was on the World Radio and TV Handbook web site the other day; while thinking about the WRTH, I thought back to my first use of the book and how it illustrated how "addicted" to SWLing I was. I first encountered WRTH is the early 1970's, I think via the library at the Electrical Engineering Dept at Imperial College in London. I guess I could not afford to buy the book back then, because, from that moment, every time I went it to a library or bookstore I always checked to see if they had a copy of WRTH (Usually "no") . A serious sign of radio-listening preoccupation (a symptom of addiction) was when I visited the USA for the first time (NYC). The first thing I did after getting off the plane was scan the radio dial, the second thing was to head to a large bookstore and look for WRTH. I had noticed , in the UK, that WRTH was published by Doubleday (if my memory is correct), so I went to a Doubleday book store. Alas, no WRTH. Eventually I moved to the USA. A few years later, I visited Washington DC. Now, the average person visiting Washington for the first time heads for the White House or Capitol Building, right? Not me. I had heard about the Library of Congress, and was told it held every book published in the USA. So my first stop was at the Library of Congress, a huge serious looking place with book shelves seemingly up to the ceiling. It was true, they did have every book published --- INCLUDING WRTH. So, while first visitors to Washington are usually touring the White House, I was scribbling down frequencies to try, and reading radio receiver reviews! I eventually settled in the DC area, a short distance from a store that stocked the WRTH (EEB). I don't know if other radio enthusiasts read that book the way I did? I would read every page, hundreds of times. After reading the important things like new receiver reviews, The BBC WS listings, and some of the new trend articles, I would read every page on every listed country. There were times, when I had read everything else, that I would read just the sections about how many radio or TV sets there were in each country. Remember the countries that had no TV stations, no TVs, and maybe just a couple hundred radios? After doing that a few times, I would sometimes just read the station addresses, look at the station manager's name and imagine what it might be like to be Mr. Manunga Guzumba in whateverland. So, while I seem to recall never really being able to afford the book, when I did spend the $$$$, what a bargain. I can't imagine a book with more cents-to-page value. Looking back, I can't figure out why I never just ordered the book rather than go to bookstores in every city I visited hoping they would have it. Now, in the age of Amazon.com and Internet publishing, the info found in WRTH is readily accessible. It is rather nostalgic though, thinking back to the days of early WRTH (Andy K3UK, Fredonia, New York. Skype Me : callto://andyobrien73 Also available via Echolink dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ A SPECTRUM MARKER FOR 500 KILOCYCLES --- Radio Buffs Lobby to Make Historic 500 kHz a 'Memorial Frequency' --- by James Careless For almost a century, 500 kHz was a lifeline for ships worldwide. Better known as 500 kilocycles, it was the spectrum reserved for ships and the shore stations that communicated with them in Morse Code (sometimes referred to as CW, for continuous wave). If you're a real radio old-timer, you might refer to the frequency as 600 meters. . . http://www.rwonline.com/reference-room/special-report/2006.03.29-07_rwf_500_khz_2.shtml (via Future of Radio blog via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ DRM is mentioned in this issue above under: ECUADOR; PAKISTAN; TAIWAN POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ LEAGUE VIEWS BPL MANUFACTURER'S INTERFERENCE ABATEMENT EFFORTS WITH INTEREST Newington, CT March 22 2006 A demonstration at ARRL Headquarters of DS2 BPL equipment suggests the manufacturer is working to minimize -- if not altogether eliminate -- interference from its products on amateur bands... (more at http://www.arrl.org/ ) (Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD That`s nice; now what about protecting the SW broadcast bands, dammit! Why do hams have more clout than international broadcasters and their legions of listeners! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ E-SKIP AND TROPO PROPAGATION PREDICTIONS BY MONTH Some time ago there was a posting to ABDX about when we could start to expect good E-skip and/or tropo propagation on the FM and VHF bands. That triggered my memory about 2 websites that I had bookmarked that gave a month-by-month breakdown of propagation. I finally found them: http://www.dxfm.com/Content/calendar.htm http://members.aol.com/fmdxweb/expectations.html Kudos to the authors of these web pages! They are both excellent resources to keep handy! 73 and GREAT DX! (Stephen Ponder N5WBI, Houston TX USA, ABDX via DXLD) For daily trop prediction maps, go here http://home.cogeco.ca/~dxinfo/tropo.html This is by Bill Hepburn who is a weatherman with Environment Canada (Kevin Redding, ibid.) ###