DX LISTENING DIGEST 6-069, May 2, 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 SHORTWAVE AIRING OF WORLD OF RADIO 1313: Wed 0930 WWCR 9985 FIRST SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1314: Wed 2200 on WBCQ 7415 Wed 2300 on WBCQ 18910-CLSB Fri 2030 on WWCR 15825 Sat 0400 on WRMI 9955 Sat 0800 on WRN DRM Bulgaria 13865 Sat 1430 on WRMI 7385 Sat 1600 on WWCR 12160 Complete schedule including non-SW stations and audio links: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html For 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 DX/SWL/MEDIA PROGRAMS May 2: http://www.worldofradio.com/dxpgms.html ** ALBANIA [and non]. I have something to share that is really cute, thanks to Drita Cico, technical director at Radio Tirana in Albania. She sent me this little ditty from Ullmar Qvick, veteran radio listener in Sweden. ``Women of radio I adore you! You lovely creatures, I assure you To be a listener is a case of leisure Yours is the effort, ours the pleasure But sure your words are not said in vain Your kind attention makes us listen again! A friendly voice, an encouraging word Makes the radio’s message better heard! So keep up the good work, our dear friends Over oceans and continents we give you our hands...`` ``Hard-working, often underpaid women keep the broadcasts going... Yes, there are men there too, but I am sure they are often in the best positions and better paid. Here I am writing about the general situation; how it is in Belarus in this case I don’t know. But on the whole, radio work is not well paid in this world. Anyway, I have given you my tribute as a grateful listener, and I am sure you will appreciate it!`` (Sue Hickey, NF, CIDX Forum, May Messenger via DXLD) ** ALBANIA. Re 6-068: - I sent this report to Drita, confirming José's observations: Dear Drita. Here is some info from the evening of Wednesday, Apr 26: 1810 UT: I tune in to German on both 1458 AND 6225 kHz! 1845 UT: English on 7465 kHz. Forgot to check 9920. 1901 UT: French on both 9920 AND 6225(best!)!! 1931 UT: Just a carrier on 7465 kHz 1937 UT: The German news came suddenly on. 2000 UT: English OK on 7465 kHz. All the best from Copenhagen, (Erik Køie, May 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Saludos cordiales, hoy 1 de Mayo he podido escuchar el comienzo de Radio Tirana. En 6225 a las 1900 comienza la emisión en italiano, la locutora se identifica y da el horario y la frecuencia de emisión, 6225 a las 21:00; me imagino que hora local. Por otra parte compruebo en 9920 la emisión en francés de Radio Tirana, fuertemente interferida por la BBC emitiendo por 9915 en su servicio en árabe; para poder escuchar a Radio Tirana con ciertas garantías hay que templar a 9921 e intentar evitar la emisión de la BBC. SINPO 33443. Por otra parte la emisión en italiano de 6225 con un SINPO 45433. Se desprende pues que la transmisión de Radio Tirana en 6225 en francés del pasado día 29 de abril fue accidental (José Miguel Romero, Spain, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS. MY LATEST TRIP TO ANDAMAN Dear friends, I am back from Andaman Is. today after a 2 week trip to attend the VU4 Hamfest & DXpedition. It was my third trip to there and the others were in 1987 and in 2004/5, all for Amateur Radio DXpeditions. It was a unique experience this time with dozens of Top Foreign Hams along with Indian Hams operating using all sorts of antennas and equipments from this rare DXCC Radio Country for a week from 18-24 April, 2006. I could manage to make about 2000 contacts only. Details about the event can be found in: http://www.niar.org http://www.qrz.com/vu4an http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/04/27/1/ http://www.dx-pedition.de/andaman2006/index1.html http://www.dl7df.com/vu4/index.html http://www.darc.de/g21/ http://www.160m.de/ http://www.qsl.net/dl7afs/ http://www.f5cwu.net/ As usual, I visited AIR Port Blair studios / offices / transmitters once again. Here are the details of changes observed since my last visit there in 2004. The SW transmitter was running at 7 kW only when I visited but was told that they normally operate with 8.5 kW. I have monitored extensively and there was no spurious (near 4743 kHz) of the 4760 kHz frequency reported by by some DXers. (It must be some other AIR station) The new 100 kw Thomcast MW transmitter which was having problems during my last trip was serviced and in regular use now on 684 kHz. The old 2 x 10 kW transmitters are on standby on 684 kHz but tested regularly. The 10 FM Nautel transmitter on 100.9 MHz which was testing during my last trip is in regular use now from 5.25 am to 11.00 pm with an interesting schedule as follows [IST = UT +5.5 hours]: At 5.25 am they have sign on announcements in parallel to 4760 & 684 but without mentioning 100.9. Then at around 5.27 am they quickly change over to relay of National Channel and from 5.57 am Vividh Bharathi programs are relayed from Mumbai. There are no local programs on 100.9 MHz but a new stereo studio is under construction for it. The Station Engineer now is Mr. V. M. Ratna Prasad and the Asst. Station Engineer is Mr. Natarajan who both attended the Hamfest function. I also visited the tiny TV station in the nearby Havelock Island which operates on Channel 11 with only 10 watt. The equipment consists of 2 nos. of GCEL 126 transmitters (one is standby) which relays DD 1 programs from Delhi from 5.00 am to about midnight. They run on solar power. 73 (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, National Institute of Amateur Radio, Raj Bhavan Road, Hyderabad 500082, India. Tel: 91-40-5516 7388. Telefax: 91-40-2331 0287. EchoLink: Node No. 133507 VU2NRO http://www.niar.org May 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also BANGLADESH ** ANTARCTICA. Glenn, while at my Caravan site on Friday 28th April I heard reactivated LRA36 R. Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel in am+usb On 15476 at 1915 UT with ID and frequency announcement. HF150 with 20m wire, Atu. Not heard the following Monday at home (Stuart Austin, Blackpool, England, May 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Stuart, Very good; first confirmation I have seen of reactivation, but evidently still irregular (Glenn, DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. 530 kHz, La Voz de las Madres, Buenos Aires, Spanish, 01/05 0246, canção local, YL: ``Desde Buenos Aires, República Argentina, transmite 530 AM, La Voz de las Madres, la primera a la izquierda...``. 35443 RWG/MCJ 1690, R. Apocalipsis 2. 30/04 0021, SS, ID, programa religioso. 25422 RWG/MCJ 1710, AM 1710 Capital Federal, Buenos Aires com identificação 30/04 0026. 25222 RWG/MCJ (Rudolf W. Grimm (São Bernardo-SP) / Martim Carlos Jenny (Santo André- SP), Local: Bairro Maracanã, Jarinu-SP, a 70 km de São Paulo, sentido norte. Localizador: Lat 23 6’ 12S, Long 46 43’ 41W, Altitude: ~ 930 m., Rx: Kenwood R-1000, Sony ICF SW7600GR, ant.: vertical 6 m + acoplador (reostato + capacitor), T-51, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. Radio Provincia, La Plata, segunda armónica en 2540 kHz, escuchada muy frecuentemente con buena señal, a veces mejor que la fundamental, incluso a primeras horas de la tarde local. Sin embargo no la encontré para escuchar "La Rosa de Tokio", teniendo que recurrir a la frecuencia fundamental :-) Radio Baluarte (tent.) 6215 kHz escuchada a diferentes horas a lo largo del día con buena señal, siempre con audio bastante malo y programas religiosos en español y en portugués (Moisés Knochen, Captaciones realizadas en Cuchilla Alta, Uruguay Sony ICF-7600DS + hilo de 15 m, condig list via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. 6214.1, R. Baluarte (no ID heard though), Ptº Iguazú, 2150-2209, 29 Apr, Spanish, preacher, songs which then changed to a Brazilian one as if indicating the start of the Portuguese program at 2200; distorted audio; 45432 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, May 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. 11710, RAE, 0100 Martes 2 Mayo. Encontrándonos en América todavía en 1 de Mayo, celebración del Día del Trabajador, transmisión más bien festiva desde Bariloche con referencias históricas a personalidades del tango como Héctor Varela y Osvaldo Pugliese. La propagación está muy rica, SIO 353, al grado de que para obtener claridad en el sonido, puedo desintonizar el ICF 7600GR hasta 11713. No hay heterodino perturbando a esta hora (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, May 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Should be in Portuguese at this hour; was it in Spanish for the holiday? (gh, DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. 11131 LSB. Radio Continental, temperatura 14 grados, humedad 47 %... ``hoy no es feriado en los Estados Unidos``; inicio de programa con charlas sobre orientación sexual, no pude copiar el nombre, pero sí el tema de hoy: ``el clítoris``, esa sensible maravilla de la anatomía femenina tan olvidada por el hombre, tratada exhaustivamente en todos sus pormenores. Colegas: ésta es la primera vez que recibo un feeder argentino con tanta claridad y rica señal, SIO 353, muy por encima del habitual 15820 durante el día. Ya apunté que la propagación está magnífica desde el Sur del continente esta noche. Lo que no hemos logrado saber con claridad es la potencia manejada por estos (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, May 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. STATION NEWS --- 1440 Adelaide. Sorry to say that DRM has been blasting into Adelaide on this frequency, quite strong, and a day I was hoping would never come, a total bloody pest, for one of our few clear channels, have not checked out how long this will be on, not long I hope (David Vitek, May ADXN via DXLD) 1386 Wollongong is supposed to be a DRM test channel as well. d.o. (David Onley, ed., ibid.) ** AUSTRALIA. 4910, ABC Alice Springs. Cuando ya despuntaba el alba en la banda tropical hacia 1020 UT pude escuchar a 4910 ABC Alice Springs, singular escucha de esta emisora con una calidad fenomenal. Según las guías WRTH 2006 y PWBR 2006 en este canal se encuentra la ABC Tennant Creek pero en otro horario. Con un programa musical y a las 1030 "ABC news" mencionando página web y promos de otros programas. [Luego:] 1018-1050 Mayo 1. Excelente señal de esta emisora en un horario no registrado en WRTH 2006 ni en el PWBR 2006. Con programa musical presentando soundtracks y otros géneros. A las 1030: "the time 8 O`clock, ABC news..." Resumen de noticias locales e internacionales. "You are listening [to] ABC Alice springs", mencionan página de Internet http://www.abc.net.au (Rafael Rodríguez R., Bogotá D.C., COLOMBIA, Rx: WINRADIO G303i pc receiver. Con antena Hilo Largo Wire 30 metros; Sony ICF 2010 con antena hilo largo 25 metros, Noticias DX via DXLD) {Oops, 4910 is Tennant Creek; maybe relaying Alice? (gh)} ** AUSTRALIA. 8093.5, VJQ750. Discussion on bio diesel fuel between two OM ops, one located at or near Cunnamulla, the other in a city or large town. Heard at 0730. This net often heard on this main frequency. Other allocations are 5925, 12180 & 14971. License is held by Areawide Communications, the only address given is a box number for Brookside Centre 4053. Station location is given as Kyle Communications site at Ocean View. Kyle Communications is radio equipment supplier, Amateur, CB, Commercial etc.) of Burpengary, north of Brisbane, may even be a suburb. Unlike the VKS737 & VKE237 networks which are licensed to specifically designated user groups, it has not been possible to ascertain just what this group is about. HF RADIO CLUB. ARDXC member Bruce Battis of Tenterfield, NSW has been kind enough to pass on more information about this club which is a chapter of the Campervan and Motorhome Club of Australia (CMCA) and the aim is, as we assumed, is for communication between members. Bruce advises that Mr Ray Lawson was instrumental in founding the group and he is mostly based at Casino (UTILITY DX EDITED BY ALLEN FOUNTAIN, PAKENHAM VIC 3810, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** AUSTRIA. Three signals from Austria, not usually well heard in the month I've been surveying the 31 m.b., were found at good level: 9520, R. Canada Intl., Moosbrunn, strong in Arabic with story on John Kenneth Galbraith`s death 0305 5/1; noted // 7230 relayed by Wertachtal. One of three Austrian signals with unusually strong reception this night. 9870, R. Oesterreiche Intl., Moosbrunn, strong and 100-percent readable 0038 5/1 during Sunday night (U.S.) English transmission with news on bank scandal and 20th anniversary of Chernobyl Disaster. 0054 Murray Hall began ``The Post Box`` program. Sign-off and carrier off 0059. Had heard this one barely audibly two weeks earlier. 9895, Adventist World R., Moosbrunn strong 0344 5/1, man speaking slowly and 100-percent readable (if I knew Farsi). Guitar solo began 0556 for brief announcement by different man, guitar continued until carrier cut 0358:40 (John Callarman, Krum TX, NRD-525, 80-foot long wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AZORES. 1503 MW, AFN, Base Aérea das Lajes, Terceira, audible after quite a number of months, 2112-2121, 28 Apr, English, talks, music; 32431, QRM de 2 RNE R5 stations (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, May 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BAHAMAS. See UNIDENTIFIED. 1540 ** BANGLADESH. As I was very busy with the Hamfest and DXpedition activities I could not find much time for BC DXing there. However in Port Blair I noted the following of great interest (not reported else where it seems. Pardon me if it was already reported by others). Radio Bangladesh Home Service on 17 April 2006 on 7250 kHz with Cricket Commentary in Bengali and on 20th April on 7315 at around 0730-0815 also in Bengali with lot of ads. At 0800 there was news and they had disappeared by 0815 when I checked. WRTH 2006 says that their HS transmitter is to be back on air by now and maybe it was some tests that I heard. 73 (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, National Institute of Amateur Radio, Raj Bhavan Road, Hyderabad 500082, India. Tel: 91-40-5516 7388. Telefax: 91-40-2331 0287. EchoLink: Node No. 133507 VU2NRO http://www.niar.org May 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELGIUM. Test RTBF, 30 Abril. 9970, RTBF Emisión en francés. 0605, Boletín de noticias: Cumbre en Cuba entre Venezuela, Bolivia y Cuba. Manifestación contra la guerra en Irak. Fútbol. SINPO 45554 1108, Programa de música con canciones pop en francés presentado por joven locutor. Música disco. SINPO 45444 1418, Cuñas publicitarias con música de fondo. Locutores con programa deportivo, repaso a resultados de fútbol. SINPO 45554 2101, Locutor con boletín de noticias, Irak conexión con corresponsal femenina. Elecciones legislativas en el Congo. Nepal, Asamblea Constitucional. SINPO 45554 2114, Señal sin emisión, continuo a la escucha hasta las 2130, sin cambios. En resumen, la transmisión de hoy ha sido excelente, con muy buena señal, libre de interferencias y ausencia de fading; desconozco el motivo del corte de emisión (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, SANGEAN ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9970 RTBi test transmission --- altho seems regular programming --- heard again at 0435, Monday May 1st, playing the Otis Redding classic ``The Fa Fa Fa Song``, among other French ballads. This time, signal wasn`t so good as I first pointed last Sat. 29. It is 0410 Sat. April 29 and my ICF 7600GR is on 9970. Bob Marley & The Wailers singing ``Get Up, Stand Up`` mentioned by this female announcer in French. Next, French ballad, more comments by this lady. So, it seems the announced tests from RTBFi for April 29 had begun per Priscille Cazin, as this sked is not posted on WRTH, which shows regular use of this frequency from 0700. Slight static noise with no interference. Clear channel for RTBFi. They must be aiming to Africa with this one (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Apparently they are not publishing a detailed test schedule showing azimuths, transmitter, etc., in order not to influence reception reports; or maybe it`s all ad-hoc, switching around on the spur of the moment (gh, DXLD) 9970, RTBF Home Service program, Wavre. Fair to good signal 0406 5/1, happy-voiced lady in French, light rock song ``After Midnight`` in English; more English and French pop vocals; 0419-0427 had several voice comedy bit in French, lots of laughter, live and canned (John Callarman, Krum TX, who misses OTC and ORU, NRD-525, 80-foot long wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. A real rare one and first time for me on 4717, Radio Yatun Ayllu Yura. Friday, April 29, 2340. One of those stations that makes you feel on Altiplano Andino with only local Indian language. Poor but in the clear with distant T-storms. Give it a try (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 4545 kHz. Estación boliviana con programación religiosa católica. Escuchada el 29 de abril desde 2243 UT retransmitiendo WEWN, con un retraso de entre 1 y 2 segundos respecto a WEWN 9355 kHz (típico retraso satelital). Sale de la retransmisión durante algunos intervalos. 0029 había desaparecido. Escuchada nuevamente hoy 1 de mayo alrededor de las 0000 con señal muy fuerte y audio distorsionado (45433), con transmisión de una misa. 0019 se identifica, pero el audio es bastante malo, "Radio Vi... de ... te acompaña, en frecuencia modulada 89.5, desde ... Bolivia". Allí se cortó la transmisión. La distorsión del audio no pemite escuchar con mayor claridad a pesar de la intensidad de la señal. Indudablemente es la misma emisora que reporta Rafael Rodríguez como Radio Virgen de Remedios, Tupiza (tent.) La FM es coincidente con la de dicha emisora y lo poco que se puede entender de la ID también . ¡Gracias Rafael por tu reporte coincidente y permitirme así identificarla, yo ya no podía sacar más nada de la grabación! 73, (Moisés Knochen, Captaciones realizadas en Cuchilla Alta, Uruguay Sony ICF-7600DS + hilo de 15 m, condig list via DXLD) Viz.: 4545.4, tentativo, RADIO VIRGEN DE REMEDIOS. 0002-0030 Mayo 1. Transmision de la Misa en vivo. En los avisos parroquiales mencionan Tupiza. luego de las 0010 retransmitiendo WEWN Radio Católica Mundial en // 13615 kHz; fuera del aire sin cierre a las 0030 (Rafael Rodríguez R., Bogotá D.C., COLOMBIA, Rx: WINRADIO G303i pc receiver. Con antena Hilo Largo Wire 30 metros; Sony ICF 2010 con antena hilo largo 25 metros, Noticias DX via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 2380: Radio Mineira do Sul, Passa Quatro-MG (1190 x 2), 29/04 2120, programa ``Sabadão Sertanejo``, OM: comunicação de estúdio, música Daniel, ads de Minas Gerais, ID. Há dias divulgou-se pela Radioescutas que a Radio Educadora de Limeira havia reativado os seus sinais pelos 120 m e que fora sintonizada. Quando o sinal foi captado, pensamos em principio se tratar da Educadora, porém numa // com 1020 kHz, o que se transmitia pela Educadora por ondas médias não batia. Quando anunciou-se uma loja de Passa Quatro, inclusive com endereço e telefone, verificou-se não ser de fato a Educadora. Numa // com 1190 kHz, confirmou-se de que se tratava mesmo da Radio Mineira do Sul, também pela identificação dada pela mesma no ar. Novamente; 2380 = 1190 x 2. Portanto, a Educadora não está de retorno aos 2380, não pelo menos por esta época. Temos sim, um sinal harmônico dos 1190 kHz. Fading muito acentuado. 35422 RWG/MCJ 4885: R. Difusora Acreana, Rio Branco-AC, PP, 29/04 2215, YL/OM: programa de aconselhamentos médicos, distribuição de alimentos, ID ``Difusora Acreana``, postos de saúde em Rio Branco. Leve QRM da R. Clube de Belém 4885. Esta emissora andava bastante sumida ultimamente, e o sinal chegou em Jarinu com qualidade boa, durando estes por mais de duas horas seguidas (check constante do sinal). 34543 RWG/MCJ 9550: R. Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre-RS, Português, 30/04 1142, OM: talks, programa religioso (LBV), música de Natal (???). QRM: VOV 9550. 44544 RWG/MCJ (Rudolf W. Grimm (São Bernardo-SP) / Martim Carlos Jenny (Santo André- SP), Local: Bairro Maracanã, Jarinu-SP, a 70 km de São Paulo, sentido norte. Localizador: Lat 23 6’ 12S, Long 46 43’ 41W, Altitude: ~ 930 m., Rx: Kenwood R-1000, Sony ICF SW7600GR, ant.: vertical 6 m + acoplador (reostato + capacitor), T-51, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9550 is listed in WRTH 2006 as R. Boa Vontade (RBV) --- name change? (gh, DXLD) 9550, R. Boa Vontade, Ptº Alegre RS, 2207-2216, 29 April, songs; 22531, adjacent QRM de DW 9545. 11785, R. Guaíba, Ptº Alegre RS, 2243-2302, 28 Apr, A Voz do Brasil, chamber of deputies news, station newscast 2300; better on USB due to the B stn on 11780 (!); 44433 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, May 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Subject: RE: [radioescutas] Retorno da Rádio Guaíba em 25m 11785 KHz Considero a Rádio Guaíba a mais eclética do Sul em ondas curtas, pois é precisa nas notícias com jornalismo detalhista e, por ter áudio muito bom nas ondas curtas, tanto em 49m 6000 kHz, quanto em 25m 11785 kHz, transmite músicas de altíssima qualidade, o tradicional Música da Guaíba. Mas tem uma agravante para nós do Sul/Sudeste: sua frequência está muito colada com a da rádio Nacional de Brasília, 11780 kHz (-5 kHz) que, por ter uma potência maior, provoca espúrios na QRG da Guaíba, impedindo quase por completo sua audição por aqui. Quanto aos testes de DRM em 25885 kHz, não há propagação (zona de silêncio) para o Sudeste. Esta frequência só atinge grandes distâncias. Nunca mantive contatos com Brasília nessas frequências, mas em 40m ou 80m, QRG's mais baixas, é possível com facilidade. É o que há. Forte 73 e até mais... (Luiz Chaine Neto, PX2J0044, LIMEIRA -SP- Sudeste do Brasil, May 1, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Guaíba 11785 kHz MUDANÇA DE FREQUENCIA ALõ Luís Chaine! Já fiz três reclamações para a ANATEL sobre a má distribuição de frequencia máis a resposta é sempre a mesma: "A FREQUENCIA DE 11780 FOI LIBERADA DENTRO DOS PARAMETES LEGAIS.`` PEDÍ A ALTERAÇÃO PARA 11795 MAIS, PELO MENOS ATÉ AGORA, NÃO TEVE JEITO. QUEM TIVER INTERESSE NA GUAÍBA COMO EU EM 11785, ASCESSE http://www.anatel.gov.br clik em fale conosco e reclame. Quem sabe, fazendo uma corrente, ajude (ISAAC ROSA - CRATEÚS - CEARÁ, ibid.) ** BULGARIA. 9300, R. Varna (presumed) Fair to good 0250 5/1 with U.S. tune, woman in a Slavic language, Tom Jones` ``Cuando, Cuando, Cuando`` and more pop music; at top of the hour five short pips, one long one; woman with short announcement; and carrier off 0300:20 (John Callarman, Krum TX, NRD-525, 80-foot long wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. MORRIS SORENSEN --- I just returned from almost a month- long trip in China and Thailand, and in reviewing posts here was shocked to read of the death of Morris Sorensen. A couple of years ago I made it a point to get together with Morris while visiting former CJOB co-workers in Winnipeg, and we spent over two hours (does it really take that long to eat lunch?) visiting, mostly about AM DXing. What a genuinely nice fellow. I was so glad I'd taken the time to set up the rendezvous. Now, I'm regretful that I didn't find time to contact him when I was in Winnipeg last year. Guys like Morris don't come along every day, and our hobby has lost not only a devoted DXer, but a good person. He will be remembered with fond admiration (Tom Bryant / Nashville, TN, May 2, WTFDA-AM via DXLD) ** CANADA. CFHA (103.5 Saint John NB) is changing calls and formats. It seems that a 50-watt all-comedy station couldn't quite make it in the third-largest municipality in the Maritimes (we're stunned, too) - and now the station's becoming CJEF, "103.5 the Pirate," with what Milkman UnLimited says will be a mix of new rock and urban programming. And Barrie's CJLF (100.3) wants to put a relay transmitter up in Iqaluit, Nunavut. It would run 250 watts on 105.5 way, way, way, way up north in that territorial capital (Scott Fybush, NE Radio Watch May 1 via DXLD) ** CANADA. It might be worth noting that Industry Canada has a representative on the NRSC committee --- and at the last meeting in Vegas, he wasn’t saying anything negative and, in fact, stated emphatically that testing on FM in Canada of the iBiquity system was imminent. Read between the lines gents (Tom Ray, WOR, New York, May 1, NRC-AM via DXLD) There's more between those lines than you know. Obviously, a foreign government representative isn't going to stand up in a forum like the NRSC and say negative things about the host country's technology. A number of countries are evaluating IBOC technology, but that doesn't mean that they're going to adopt it - especially the wretched AM system (Barry McLarnon, VE3JF Ottawa, ON, ibid.) ** CROATIA [non]. Hi Glenn and all, By accident I came across 9925 kHz at 2235 UT on Sat 30 April 2006 and heard La Voz de Croacia, in Spanish [via Germany]. Nothing special about this, but still I must reflect upon the fact that such a broadcast really takes place. One can wonder how many listeners this program has on a regular basi. The (rather old?) male news reader had a very deep voice, talking distinctly and slowly, and I think I could a detect a faint La Plata accent. Soccer and waterpolo results, local weather forecast. Small country, odd language to spend money on it. Even so more : I heard Radio Moldova Internacional in Spanish ... [q.v.] 73 (Johan Berglund, Trollhättan , Sweden. AOR AR70 30 m lw, May 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Well, there seems to be a Croatian diaspora in Argentina; e.g. DXer Emilio Pedro Povrzenic (gh) ** CUBA. CUBFUSION --- May 1, RHC had special programming. At 1451 on 12000, an apparently live Fideldiscurso, plus English translation voice-overs by M&W. All the other frequencies I checked had it in Spanish only: 11760, 11805, 11875, 15230. Primero de Mayo special was still going at 1953 when someone else was speaking on 11875 in Spanish, while the other frequencies were open-carrier only, warming up for their usual opening. During the very few seconds I monitored each, I had the distinct impression the thrust of the occasion was anti-American! O, how tiresome. I have been trying to confirm what language RHC is really carrying on 17705 at 0000-0030, Arabic having been reported, despite the scheduled Quechua. Signal is rather weak and have not checked it every day, but on UT May 2 at 0025 they were definitely in --- Portuguese! closing transmission with dedication of a song to a listener in --- Lisboa. The confusion is not at all allayed by consulting Portuguese at http://www.radiohc.cu/espanol/frecuencia/frecuencias-espanol.htm which is still labeled with B-05 dates! América del Sur 17705 / 15230 16 / 19 22 – 22:30 / 23 – 23:30 23 – 24 Caribe 11800 25 20 – 20:30 Now can anyone figure out why the first line has two frequencies and three times, two of which overlap, and which goes with which? And why are they broadcasting Portuguese to Caribbean? No stranger than Arabic, I suppose. Anyway, 0000 is not included. Possibly the May 1 broadcast was further mixed up due to Mayday festivities (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Cuba in Arabic? Castro speaking (coded) to sleeper cells in the US? Notify the al-umam al-muttaHida!! - (Bob Foxworth, Tampa FL, ABDX via DXLD) And I thought this was going to be about Cubs baseball (Jay Heyl, ibid.) My first thought was Cub Scouts (Brian Leyton, Cubmaster, Pack 613 Valley Village, CA, ibid.) ** ECUADOR. More discussion of DRM occupied most of this week`s DX Partyline April 29, the first 24 minutes in fact, with everything else blown away except for, you guessed it, Tip for Real Living. Doug Weber was there again, this time backed up by Brent Weeks [sp?], design engineer on Quito operations team and Jeff Hoystra [sp?], director of engineering and radio services for LA region, all with host Allen Graham. [my own remarks are interspersed thus --- gh] Last week`s DRM test got good reception reports from NAm, but not much from the NAB convention itself in Las Vegas, NV. Maybe people there are too busy and haven`t been heard from yet, but part of the problem is the metal roof, impeding good reception [so why didn`t they put up an external antenna?? --- gh]. [Contrary to last week`s info, playing CDs from transmitter site --- gh], they used two mono lines to do a stereo link to the transmitter site. Parametric stereo doesn`t` cost more than mono in terms of bits, in higher rates. Tendency is to want to do stereo. Learned that DRM signal goes farther than expected from propagation models, indicating a tough time getting to Nevada, but reception reports even came from Sweden, where not even aimed. During midday hours operated at lower bit rate just over 11 kbps, like streaming audio on internet, more robust [11 kbps is almost unacceptable now, and a great many streams are much higher than that --- gh]. Later in afternoon, and evening, switched to higher quality. Power only 4 kW [but what is the ERP? They revealed before they were using their highest gain antenna, so transmitter power is not what really counts. 15365-15375 was often quite strong here in OK --- gh]. Those who did pick us up were using quite sophisticated antenna systems, so not typical of what an ordinary receiver would get. Someone at NAB could not even pick us up with his portable outside the building. DRM is more complicated than analog. What was the signal routing from studio to transmitter? Analog has everything in chain set up to optimize what we are doing, processors multi-band, compression, optimized for AM signal a bit less than 5 kHz bandwidth, mono only. DRM moves up to stereo, and bandwidth 12 kHz audio available. So no processor on chain, none optimized for it available. Content server does the final audio bandwidth limiting. Signal leaving transmitter is mono, right? Neither mono nor stereo, as in analog. Transmitter acting more like computer modem, ones and zeroes with complex digital modulation scheme. Depends on how digital signal is composed. Person receiving signal is getting true stereo? There are three possible modes: simple mono; stereo with less compression, and the other is parametric: for very small amount of total signal sent, includes very efficient info about differences between left and right. Don`t get as good replication of stereo at other end, but is very good. Throws away a lot of things, but still sends relevant things to fool ears. Programs prepared in raw audio, wav format and stereo, except for last week`s DXPL, generated from mono into a stereo signal but with no difference between channels. What do terms like 16 qam and 64 qam mean? Quadrature amplitude modulation. Is used in digital satellite transmission, and now DRM too, to encode a number of bits. Looks both at phase and amplitude of carrier, and from that can gather 16 or 64 data points. At higher rate, get more info packed into one single carrier. In DRM mode contrary to analog, many many carriers going out on same transmitter. Why ever use 16 qam? Gets easier definition, square divided into 16 pieces. If divided into 64 pieces, if there is noise, you start getting confusion. What difference does it make to end user? Noise comes thru as dropped out signals, silence or garbles. Use 16 when there is more noise in atmosphere, or doing farther distance. But at 16 qam, cannot do stereo broadcasting. Looking for more opportunities to do test transmissions. Can only do on highly linear Siemens 10 kW transmitters. At Pifo also are 100 kW transmitters designed almost 20 years ago; want to retrofit those for DRM, working with Elkhart engineering center to do so. Waiting to see how DRM really takes off, especially in Latin America. Hope to participate in more tests, perhaps in conjunxion with some other broadcasters. Also upcoming tests for NASB in mid-May. Two websites to learn about DRM: http://www.drm.org the main one, and http://www.drmrx.org for those who have DRM receivers with some great forums, a fun site. Or even if you don`t have a receiver. [Never addressed, was why anyone would WANT to listen to HCJB, with the wacky creationist evangelical programming it provides, on DRM, stereo or mono, let alone in analog??? Will using DRM somehow make HCJB programming content more palatable, even Rational? Will adding phony stereo advance that either? Hardly --- gh] (HCJB DX Partyline April 29, notes by Glenn Hauser for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. 960, HCNC1, RADIO COSMOPOLITA "La Pantera" Quito. 0510- 0530 Mayo 1. Semanas atrás reporté esta emisora pensando que se trataba de una nueva emisora o un cambio de nombre, pero ahora sé que "la Pantera" es el slogan utilizado por la emisora Radio Cosmopolita desde Ecuador, vuelta a escuchar con música romántica "...960 kHz en amplitud modulada Cosmopolita... comunícate con La Pantera 2638009..." Luego de cada mención de "la Pantera" se escucha el ruido propio de este animal (Rafael Rodríguez R., Bogotá D.C., COLOMBIA, Rx: WINRADIO G303i pc receiver. Con antena Hilo Largo Wire 30 metros; Sony ICF 2010 con antena hilo largo 25 metros, Noticias DX via DXLD) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, R. East Africa, Bata. US-accented evangelist 0815, devotional song 0816 with call and response of ``higher`` repeated several times; real toe-tapping Southern Gospel style. Weak signal and audio very thin, so no ID possible, 29/4 (Craig Seager, Bathurst NSW, Icom R75, Dansk Radio RX 4000, horizontal loop, May Australian DX News via DXLD) ** EUROPE. EUROPirate: 3910, Reflections Europe, IRL, 2116-..., 30 Apr, English, religious program Moments of Inspiration; 55333 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, May 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GABON. Hi all, This evening (May 1st 2006) at 1855 UT I found Africa No. 1 from Gabon on 19160 kHz (2 x 9580). Signal was very weak, but in // with 15475. vy 73 de (Juergen Lohuis, Germany, harmonics yg via DXLD) ** GAMBIA. RADIO GAMBIA - "LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION"! On 30 July 1981 there was a left-wing coup attempt against the government of President Dawda Jawara, which lasted less than a week before being thwarted by the intervention of Senegalese troops. The plotters had managed to gain control of the whole country for those few days though, including state broadcaster Radio Gambia, which they, in the usual fashion, described as "the voice of the revolution". Swedish radio enthusiast Goran Carlsson has donated an audio clip of the rebels on the air in English, with the usual "Long Live the Revolution" and "Long Live the Struggle" sloganizing and urging the population to "gather behind the Supreme Council of the Revolution". This can be heard on the Interval Signals Online website at http://www.intervalsignalsonline.com (Dave Kernick, UK, HCDX via DXLD) ** GERMANY. DW WORLD DX MEETING WILL GO TO PODCASTING: DW World DX Meeting will soon be included in Podcasting. Go to the DW website http://www.dw-world.de Click DW RADIO, RECEPTION and DX PAGES. (MD. AZIZUL ALAM AL-AMIN, RAJSHAHI, BANGLADESH, May 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Meanwhile, I found it easily by following the instruxions in DX/SWL/MEDIA PROGRAMS: %WORLD DX MEETING (Wolfram Hess, Uwe). Monthly on last Sunday and UT Monday on DW. Mostly about ham radio and propagation. On demand for at least a week following, roughly 42 to 52 minutes into the Mailbag file at http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,1595,4703,00.html# (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE [and non]. According to recent observations of IBB Kavalla site, all SW IBB transmissions ceased Apr 21, and moved to other broadcast sites. 792 IBB MW Kavalla seems on air still til Oct 28th[?]. Schedule 0330-0500, 1800-2000, 2130-2200 UT. 792 ERA Kavalla still on regular schedule, 0900-1700, 1730-1800, 2000-2130, 2200-2300 UT. ERA SW via Kavalla on air til Oct 28th[?]. 7430 1400-2000 9375 1800-2400 11645 0700-0900 12105 1100-1800 15650 2000-0600, 1100-1400 17520 0200-0700 21530 0600-0900 Confirm also ERA on 15650, 17520, and 21530 towards East Asia, noted today May 2nd 100% but weak signal in Europe (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, wwdxc BC-DX May 2 via DXLD) ** INDIA. Dear Glenn, I am back from Andaman [q.v.] 2 hours after an interesting Ham DX pedition. About CRPF mentioned in DXLD 6-068, the full form is Central Reserve Police Force (Jose Jacob, Hyderabad, DX LISTENING DIGEST) GH wrote: "I suppose every Indian knows what CRPF stands for, but how about the rest of us. Let us guess: Commando-Ready Peace Force?" Not quite, but half right. We carried the same item in the Media Network Weblog on 23 April and I had the same question. After checking on Google it turns out to be "Central Reserve Police Force". (Andy Sennitt, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN. 9795, VOIRI, Sirjan Good signal 0224 5/1 with man talking in (listed) Kazakhi; Surprised to hear, during sign-off announcement 0225:30 by woman, web address ``IRIB-dot-com`` given in English. Symphonic theme began 0227 and carrier cut 0227:30. 9905, VOIRI Kamalabad, Fair in Spanish 0059 5/1 man with announcement over music, then commentary on trabajadores in E.U.A. (John Callarman, Krum TX, NRD-525, 80-foot long wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. 9775, GREECE, R. Farda, Kavala (if IBB hasn’t moved it during current shake-up) Very strong 0201 5/1 with usual news in Farsi and lively musical program. S7-9, solid copy, but even stronger on the // Moroccan transmitters on 9805 and 9865 (John Callarman, Krum TX, NRD-525, 80-foot long wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. SHIOKAZE / SEA BREEZE. 5890 --- I wanted to catch their English segment on Tuesday and I found it very moving. I tuned in at 1431 and heard the announcer say, "who may have been adducted by North Korea." There was then a list of name read with the name and year given (I guess that is when they were born). I think they started out with people born in the 1930's and went in order. At 1445 they were only up to 1953! (Hans Johnson, FL-USA, Apr 4, 2006 in JihadDX-ML via CRW via DXLD) via DX Tuner??? ** MALAYSIA. 5965, Nasional FM (RTM), May 1, 1343-1400, in assumed Bahasa Malaysia, woman DJ, on-air phone calls (DJ with ``Hello Nasional FM``), pop songs, totally covered at 1400 with CRI sign-on. Fair-good (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALI. 4834.9, R. Mali, Kati, (reactivated, but for how long?), 2125-2146, 30 Apr, Vernacular, Malian songs, interview; extremely weak audio; // 5995; 53433, utility QRM. 7286.4, R. Mali, Kati (reactivated: surely the same transmitter for 4835v), 0940-..., 01 May, French, music & songs; audible at 1220 but useless; 35332 Note: most of the utility QRM on 60 m mentioned was not RTTY, CW, SSB of similar, but something pesting the band in the evening and which is similar to the "shhhh" noise emanating from DRM signals as one detunes the frequency, i.e. not as strong as on the centre frequency, which then sounds like a reactor. R. Mauritania, one the strongest 60 m band stations here, was also affected by it. Maybe spurii emanating from the not so distant (75 km to the north) DW station? That was especially felt on the 4800~5000 kHz range (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, May 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. OC mexicana? Hola Julián, ¿Puedes actualizarnos sobre qué acontezca en la OC mexicana?? R. UNAM --- ¿todavía demoras? ¿R. Mil? XEXQ -- ¿de vez en cuando? XERTA -- ¿ausente? ¿de qué lugar? R. Insurgente -- ¿todavía todos los viernes? ¿Otras? 73, (Glenn to Julián Santiago Díez de Bonilla, April 28, via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hola Glenn: perdona la demora en contestar. Te diré cómo veo las cosas: 2390, Radio Huayacocotla, la capto muy bien en Cuernavaca y muy ocasionalmente aquí en la Cd. De México. 4810, XERTA -- No me he comunicado con el amigo que me da informes; con tantos cambios de localización de su antena no sabría decirte ahora dónde está. Ocasionalmente escucho un ruido en esta frecuencia. 6000, Radio Insurgente, prácticamente la he escuchado todos los viernes antes de las 15 horas locales y hasta las 1550 horas locales (Central Time) [2000-2050 UT]. Este viernes no estuve en casa y no la pude monitorizar. 6010, XEOI, Radio Mil, la más constante y presente las 24 horas del día; lástima de la insoportable interferencia de LVTC a pesar de los "cambios" que dice Martin Stendal realizaron para no interferirnos 6045, XEXQ, Radio U SLP: Haciendo grandes esfuerzaos sale al aire. Hoy por ejemplo unas horas se escuchó y luego desapareció. Muchos problemas con su vetusto [ancient] transmisor pero con deseos de estar al aire en sus 6045 kHz. Cuando está al aire, la escucho aceptablemente aquí en la Cd. de México. 6185, Radio Educación sigue saliendo de las 18 horas locales a las 6 horas locales (Central Time) [2300-1100 UT] con importante interferencia a ciertas horas 9600, Radio UNAM, en las últimas semanas no he hablado con el Ing. Mejía; prometo buscarlo esta semana. La última ocasión que nos comunicamos, al parecer antena y transmisor estaban listos y solo faltaba la colocación de algunos cables de alta tensión; desconozco si hay algún problema burocrático. En verdad que he esperado mucho para que vuelva al aire y con su nueva potencia. Y nada más; no tengo noticias de la de Tapachula [XETS 6120] que está autorizada. Hace unos años los busqué y prácticamente no me dieron ninguna información concreta. Espero haber respondido tu pregunta. Un gran saludo, (Julián Santiago Díez de Bonilla, DF, April 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. {R. Insurgente, 6000v} Not on when I check at 1935, but it was on at 1952 when I rechecked. I should have just sat on it; I would like to see if they open with the multi-language ID sign every time. I think Terry had them fading up as it got a bit strong at 2000. Having said that, it was weaker than it has been in the past, I could only hear it on my 240 degree antenna, nada on the 180 or the Wellbrook. Same female announcer I have heard before. I also checked the Mexican on 6045, but could only get a carrier there. It ain't Immokalee, I'll promise you that, that would be in my skip zone :) My money is on Chiapas. At least Radio Habana, Cuba wasn't on early today, messing the channel up (Hans Johnson, FL-USA Apr 14, 2006 [Fri] in JihadDX-ML via CRW via DXLD) ** MOLDAVIA. [continued from CROATIA] Even so more: I heard Radio Moldova Internacional in Spanish on 1593 kHz medium wave about seven years ago, sent a reception report and got a very nice QSL-letter from a couple of Moldova chicks pleading me to write again. I did not, because I never heard the station again. 5 kW according to list available at the time. Voices in the wilderness ? I think so. 73 (Johan Berglund, Trollhättan, Sweden. AOR AR70 30 m lw, May 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MONGOLIA. Noticias desde Chile: Voice of Mongolia in English Estimados amigos: Reciban mi más cordial saludo. Por razones de trabajo estuve en la ciudad de Valdivia, un bello puerto fluvial (el único de Chile), donde estuve en un curso intensivo de postgrado. A pesar del exceso de trabajo, igual hice unas pocas escuchas, y lo más relevante, es que recibí "Voice of Mongolia" en inglés; ésta la he podido recibir entre las 1000 y 1030 UT en los 12085, con una calidad promedio de 22222. Me llama la atención que haya sido recibida en Valdivia (39 48' S; 73 14' W), pues esta transmisión según las bases de datos está dirigida al sur de Asia. Si Dios quiere, en estos próximos meses, espero viajar por trabajo más al sur de Valdivia, y espero poder recibir esta radioemisora. Así es que, creo que en una de esas, tal vez algunos amigos radioescuchas sudamericanos, y en especial del norte de la Patagonia, podrían recibir esta radioemisora. Para informes de recepción, la dirección es: The English Section The Voice of Mongolia C.P.O. Box 365 Ulaanbaatar 13, Mongolia Los informes de recepción deben enviarse con un (1) cupón IRC (en Chile se le llama "cupón de canje internacional" y cuenta aproximadamente dos dólares). Agradeciendo su atención y consideración, les saluda con un gran abrazo desde el sur de Chile (Patricio De los Ríos, Doctor en Ciencias (UACH), Universidad Catolica de Temuco, Facultad de Recursos Naturales, Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas y Químicas, Casilla 15-D, Temuco, CHILE, Noticias DX via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. Podcast - Ian McFarland interviews Dick Speekman --- Part one in a series of podcasts where RCI (NHK and BBC) SWBC retiree Ian McFarland interviews Dick Speekman of Radio Netherlands and Radio Australia. 12 minutes - 5mb - MP3 - Mono http://www.dxer.ca (Colin Newell in Canada, May 2, HCDX via DXLD) ** NIGERIA. 4770, R. Nigeria, Kaduna, 2131-2138*, 30 Apr, English, religious songs, then sudden switch off; normal audio this time; 55433; back on when checked at 2211, but with bad audio during speech. 7255, V. of Nigeria, Ikorodu, logged 1417-1450, 29 Apr, English, talks, music; 24443, but improving (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, May 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OMAN. 9760, Radio Sultanate of Oman, Thumrayt Very strong 0145 5/1, Middle Eastern music with man and woman in Arabic, lots of mention of Omaniyah; brief stringed music just before carrier cut at 0158:35 (John Callarman, Krum TX, NRD-525, 80-foot long wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. Just a little check on 60m. provided me reception from Radio Nor Andina de Celendín 4485, at 2330 Friday, April 28, with that usual Andes Heights flavor of doing radio, local music and community messages. Poor signal but copyable (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 5071, (tentative): R. Ondas del Suroriente, Quillabamba, Spanish, 29/04 2234, OM: transmissão esportiva direto de um ginásio. Comentários, ads, ``Equipo de Três de Mayo... goooooollllllllllllllllllllllllll de Salinas para el Deportivo...``. Os sinais não foram perturbados pela 5070 WWCR, que a estas horas já são captados. A tese de potencia mais elevada quando das transmissões desportivas continua valendo. 25422 RWG/MCJ (Rudolf W. Grimm (São Bernardo-SP) / Martim Carlos Jenny (Santo André-SP), Local: Bairro Maracanã, Jarinu-SP, a 70 km de São Paulo, sentido norte. Localizador: Lat 23 6’ 12S, Long 46 43’ 41W, Altitude: ~ 930 m., Rx: Kenwood R- 1000, Sony ICF SW7600GR, ant.: vertical 6 m + acoplador (reostato + capacitor), T-51, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5070.7, ONDAS DEL SURORIENTE. Quillabamba, 2250-2304 Abril 29. Transmisión deportiva. Anuncios de Gobernación provincial de la Convención. "...usted está escuchando Ondas del Suroriente amplitud modulada..." (Rafael Rodríguez R., Bogotá D.C., COLOMBIA, Rx: WINRADIO G303i pc receiver. Con antena Hilo Largo Wire 30 metros; Sony ICF 2010 con antena hilo largo 25 metros, Noticias DX via DXLD) ** PORTUGAL. As explained below, the RDPi amended the following: Europe, 11905 kHz replaces 15555 as from 29 Apr. 73, Carlos. Viz.: Subject: Alteração de frequência de transmissão para a Europa Exmo. Sr. Carlos Gonçalves, Informamos que a partir de amanhã, dia 29- 04-2006, a frequência de 11905 kHz irá substituir a frequência de 15555 kHz nas nossas transmissões para a Europa. Com os melhores cumprimentos (Teresa Beatriz Abreu, Gabinete de Tecnologias de Transmissão e Difusão, April 28 via Carlos L. R. de A. Gonçalves, May 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Or is it just a test, and what are the correct times?? That second timespan below is surely wrong; means maybe 14-21? (gh, DXLD) Re 6-068: Test transmissions, RDP Int. Radio Portugal from Apr. 27: 1600-1900 Mon-Fri NF 11905 LIS 100 kW / 045 deg to WeEu, ex 15555 1400-1200 Sat/Sun NF 11905 LIS 100 kW / 045 deg to WeEu, ex 15555 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, April 28 via DXLD) Glenn, It seems every time I report on our RDPi, other news from the people behind the now called "DX Mix News", in Bulgaria, also surface, usually duplicating or then explaining the same but in different wording. My news on the RDPi were exactly as per the RDP message. Since the now dropped 15555 kHz to Europe was used M-F (1600-1900) but also Sat+Sun (1400-2000), the new 11905 will be used the same way. Yes, the "1400- 1200" time span on Sat+Sun in Bulgaria's "DX Mix News" is wrong, but was surely a typing mistake: it's -2000 instead. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, May 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ROMANIA. Algo totalmente distinto se ha experimentado en la emisión en español desde Bucarest entre 0000-0100, producto del avance de esta temporada, poniendo linda señal en 11970 SIO 343, comparada con la pobre // 9760, 9775 (con barbas de Radio Budapest en húngaro) y 11935. Esta vez el audio estuvo en buen nivel, presentando música rock local hasta antes del cierre (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, May 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11970, Radio Romania International Galbeni. Fair signal but fully readable 0138-0154 04/30 during ``Network Europe`` program with cooperative features on nuclear power issues in English from several European broadcasters (John Callarman, Krum TX, NRD-525, 80-foot long wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. That new 9765 for Radiostantsiya Tikhy Okean is behaving much better than ex-5960 in B-05, SINPO 35443, Sat. April 29. In fact, is the only Russian signal I can get by 0830 on 31 m, sometimes rivaling that one from Radio Australia on 9580 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9765, R. Tikhiy Okean (R. Station Pacific Ocean), May 1 & 2, *0835- 0900*, chimes IS, Russian programming (news, interviews, etc.), Russian songs (ballads, pop, etc.) many IDs, mentions phone number, fair-good. Now // 12065 (a former frequency) but considerably weaker than 9765 (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. "FRECUENCIA RM" HOY!!! La Voz De Rusia presenta su programa Diexista, de comunicaciones y de la onda corta, FRECUENCIA RM. Cada semana, damos un vistazo a la actualidad en el mundo de las telecomunicaciones y su historia en sus más diversos aspectos. Apoyado en la profesionalidad de su productor Francisco Pancho Rodríguez altamente comprometido con nuestro pasatiempo Diexista. "FRECUENCIA RM" sale al aire cada Martes (Miércoles UT) entre 0120 y 0135. Tiene actualmente 15 minutos de duración. Para este martes, Frecuencia RM ofrecerá una entrevista con el locutor y realizador de En Contacto, Manolo de la Rosa, con motivo del 45 Aniversario de Radio Habana Cuba. Junto con dar un vistazo a la historia de RHC, Manolo cuenta que su programa En Contacto está realizando programaciones especiales relacionadas con el aniversario y que con este motivo tienen QSL especiales. Otro tema es el de la preparación tecnológica de los países del mundo en relacion a la era digital, tema preparado por Dino Bloise. Horario de Transmision: Martes 0120-0135 UT por los 9830 kcs para América Central y por 12010, 11510, 7330, 7300 kcs para América del Sur. En internet podrá escucharse haciendo "click" en: http://www.vor.ru/Spanish/world.html Ademas puedes escuchar su grabación a cualquier hora o cualquier día desde "Programas DX" http://es.geocities.com/programasdx/ La Voz de Rusia Programa "FRECUENCIA RM" Redacción Latinoamericana Calle Pyatnitskaya 25 113 326 Moscú, Rusia. Pagina Web del programa: http://www.vor.ru/Spanish/Frecuencia/Pancho.html Nuestro correo electrónico: cartas @ vor.ru o bien, pcortes @ orc.ru Cordiales 73 (Dino Bloise, FLORIDA, EEUU., May 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENIING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. 9870, BSKSA Riyadh Fair 2216 4/30 with men in two-way Arabic conversation, lively musical stingers; signal picks up strength and, after ID 2236, continued with Middle East vocal music, segued, to abrupt carrier cut 2359:10 (John Callarman, Krum TX, NRD-525, 80-foot long wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH AFRICA. CAPE TUNES IN TO TOURISM RADIO May 01 2006 By Jo Steele http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14&click_id=417&art_id=vn20060428103345189C519413 It's the first of its kind in South Africa and is described as "like having a local person in your car". Tourism Radio has been launched in the city, giving tourists a guided tour in their rental cars along with weather and travel reports. It is the country's first dedicated tourism radio station. Founder Mark Allewell said: "Initial feedback has been very positive. Tourists are saying they like the idea." It works through a global positioning system, placed under a car's bonnet, which tells a computer where it is and broadcasts relevant local information. Tourists tune in to Tourism Radio on 90.2 FM to access the information. If they drive past the Castle, for example, information will be given about its history. If they detour to another area such as Kirstenbosch, information will switch to the botanical gardens. Allewell, an ex-tour guide, said: "It is like having a local person there in your car. We have pre-recorded shows, which are interrupted if the tourist drives through an area of importance to give them information about that area." He said the pre-recorded shows focus on questions a tourist wants to know about Cape Town, local music and typical South African slang. "We also interrupt shows with up to date travel and weather reports." His next idea is for tourists to SMS topical queries. This article was originally published on page 4 of Cape Argus on April 28, 2006 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Some ``radio station``. Since it only works in rental cars, I expect the info is stored in the car audio system and merely ``broadcast`` within the car as prompted by the GPS. Not from a real fixed external radio station, which would hardly work if more than one car were in use at a time in different places! Perhaps the same type of modulator/transmitter causing all the complaints in North America about satellite radio (doesn`t anybody listen to anything but Howard Stern?) overriding real FM stations on neighboring caradios. Or maybe it is both a fixed 90.2 real station, with the local overriding as prompted. It talks about ``pre-recorded shows which are interrupted``, but those must be more pre-recorded shows, just from a different source. For current weather there would have to be a real central transmitter (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** SRI LANKA. Dear Friends, SLBC Sri Lanka noted sign on in English at 0100 on 6005 9770 & 15745. Earlier they used to sign on half an hour earlier (Jose Jacob, India, May 2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. 15515, CLANDESTINE [sic] (Sudan). Darfur Salaam, BBC- produced Arabic-language program for Darfur, loud and clear on 15515 at *1700 19/4, // 17585 barely perceptible. Many mentions of BBC, Darfur, interviews, times and frequencies given at 1712. Off at 1716*. Some of this may have been in Somali or similar, not sure all Arabic. This has apparently been on since Jan; earlier transmissions were supposed to be via the Cyprus transmitters, but this sounded more like UK or Ascension (Jerry Berg, Lexington MA, USA, Drake R8 & Eton E1-XM receivers; 19, 41 & 90 mb dipoles, May ADXN via DXLD) I doubt Somali is spoken there on the other side of Sudan (gh, DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. 12060, R. Nile via Madagascar. Noisy signal, speaker not readable, // 15320 drowned by Taiwan. Years back these two outlets presented religious material in Swahili and Sudanese Arabic and offered interesting listening but not in recent months, 0430 22/4 (Charles Jones, Castle Hill NSW (Icom R75 and 7m vertical antenna, May Australia DX News via DXLD) Beautiful 4+ reception. *0400 with long soccer discussion, scores, and reggae music. Further ID at 0428 "Good morning, this is Radio Nile." Frequencies announced were 9905 and 12060. 9905 not heard. Off at 0458, 15/4. Anybody have an address for this one? (Alex Wellner, Bondi NSW, JRC NRD-535, Dipole, ibid.) UT Monday, May 1st, Radio Nile from Madagascar is coming well on new 9905 after 0400, altho slightly strong[er?] on // 12060, in English with occasional references in vernacular language. SINPO 25342. Sudan Radio Service, 17660 at 1600 with characteristic musical ID in various languages. WRTH says is relayed from U.K. but not shown on this frequency, where EiBi mentions is relayed via Wertachtal. So, who to believe? [EiBi does not say it is Wertachtal. It says G-w which means Great Britain/Woofferton. Wertachtal would be D-w. Do not assume EiBi`s abbrs correspond to any other listings; a full key is at the bottom of the schedule in time order, not frequency order --- gh] Heard this one too at 0400, starting 2006 on 7120, but splattered by powerhouse Russkoye Mezhdunarodnoye Radio on adjacent 7125 with that delightful deep bassy sound supported by Grigoriopol 500 Kw (?) (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SYRIA. Radio Damasco anda de mal en peor. Lo que percibí hace un par de semanas con audio de buen nivel sobre su fuerte portadora en 12085, fue lo que en Tiquicia llamamos ``un alegrón de burro``, pues una vez más lo que podemos ``disfrutar`` es de su apabullante portadora, y apenas un hilo de audio, que difícilmente nos permite enterarnos de que es español. Peor todavía en 9330, en donde tiene que rivalizar con WBCQ y aunque ésta sólo opera en SSB con 50 kW, Radio Damasco ni mella le hace con todo y sus 500 kW que dicen tener (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, May 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U A E. QSL received today for my 10/30/05 reception of Radio Farda on 1575 kHz from the UAE. The postage meter stamp shows it was mailed from Prague; the picture on the reverse is of a glass window at the entranceway with the RFE/RL logo. There is a reflection on the glass of buildings with "Patria" (horizontal) and "Oracle" (red; vertical) on them. At about 12,000 miles, I rather doubt I will ever hear anything further away. Now if I could only pick up something from Kansas (Pete Taylor, Tacoma, WA ICF2010 + Kiwa air core loop DX398; Palomar loop IRCA via DXLD) Pete, very nice, but could not possibly be 12 kilomiles away. That would be almost antipodal, but both of you are well into the Northern Hemisphere. 73 (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) You're probably right, of course, but I just fed the respective coordinates into one of the distance programs and that's what it spit out. I'd certainly welcome other means of determining distance (Pete Taylor, Tacoma, WA ICF2010 + Kiwa air core loop DX398; Palomar loop, ibid.) That's what DX Atlas says here, Pete. Could there be a mixup of kilometers and miles somewhere here? Antipodes would be more like 20000 km away (12500 miles). Fortunately, none of us are sending probes to Mars. Best wishes, (Nick Hall-Patch, ibid.) It's right at 12,000 km from my location near Pete so I suspect we had the going-to-happen-every-now-and-then units issue. A nice catch regardless. It's not only a long way, it's almost right over the north pole from here (Chuck Hutton, ibid.) From Astoria OR to UAE is 7582 miles (Patrick Martin, ibid.) ** U K. Dear Friends, some of you may be interested in the following - -- A paste from the radiotimes website. TUESDAY 09 MAY Tinker, Tailor, Composer, Spy 1:30pm - 2:00pm BBC Radio 4 [1230-1300 UT] Kenneth Shenton presents the remarkable story of how composer Elizabeth Poston led a secret life, sending coded musical messages into occupied Europe during World War II under the cover of a staff job in the World Service. Best wishes always (Phil Attwell, MWC via DXLD) ** U S A. PASSING OF DARYL ROCKER I am sad to announce the unexpected passing of Daryl Rocker, 58, of Herkimer, New York on April 27, 2006 from a massive heart attack. Daryl was a long time ham and short wave listener, and attended DX camps from the early 1990s in Rochester area, and he was a major catalyst in starting the annual Mohawk Valley Shortwave Club DX camps at Camp Aldersgate back in the early 1990s. His preparation for the camps with copies of the latest frequency changes off the various Internet DX sites and knowledge of frequencies was phenomenal. His sense of humor (and role as official coffee maker) really kept us going on those long nights DXing, and sharing the specs on the newest radios kept us all up to date on latest shortwave radios on the market. His humor was an important fixture as well at the Clay, New York annual radio hobbyist picnic the weekend after Labor Day. He also contributed items to Glenn Hauser`s World of Radio from time to time. Daryl was an Air Force veteran, serving in England during the mid 1970s. In recent years, driving a van for the DAV to get veterans to appointments in Rome was a very important part of his life. As a veteran, he is being buried with full military honors in Alder Creek, New York on May 2. There were some nice radio related pictures on display at the funeral home, including ones with Rich McVicar, and other friends from the DX camps and Clay Picnic. Rest in peace, dear friend. Without your humor and joking around, our DX camps and Clay Picnics will never be quite the same (Roger Chambers, Utica, New York, May 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Roger, we join you in great sadness at Daryl's passing. His support of the DX hobby was very evident and much appreciated (Harold Sellers, Ont., ODXA via DXLD) Yes (gh) ** U S A. WWCR AND WNQM BEGINS ONLINE BROADCASTING PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release May 01 2006 POC: Eric Westenberger, General Manager PHONE: 504-831-6941 WWCR / WNQM is pleased to announce a new service to our broadcasters. Programs will be broadcast simultaneously on radio and internet. Live programming is available using Windows Media, Real Media, and Streaming MP3 Players. Online broadcasting is a much-awaited desire of WWCR and its listeners. Until recently the technology was not available to cost effectively and reliably provide this service. Nashville based AmeriListen Networks was hired to design and implement the audio encoding and distribution system. AmeriListen Networks has experienced great success in providing service to large broadcast operations. F.W. Robbert Broadcasting will be rolling out this audio service over all the stations in its group (WVOG New Orleans, LA – WNQM Nashville, TN – WMQM Memphis, TN – WLRM Memphis, TN – WITA Knoxville, TN). Be sure to keep an active watch on http://wwcr.com for more updates. PICTURE OF WWCR AND WNQM ENCODING HARDWARE http://www.wwcr.com/press_releases/pr20060430.pdf (via Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) But when? ** U S A. Now that we have exposed WWRB`s off-frequency operation on 11918, we find them back on 11920.0, May 1 at 1954 check while RBN was pushing --- what else? Gold (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WHRB Presents The WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART ORGY This May, WHRB brings you the world's only broadcast of the complete works of Mozart in our Mozart Orgy. Join us as we celebrate this Mozart year, the 250th anniversary of his birth. The MOZART ORGY is WHRB's longest-ever project, and will run continuously, around the clock from Monday, May 8 to Thursday, May 18. See complete listings in our Spring Orgy Guide: WHRB's Program Guide is always available at http://www.whrb.org A formatted version of the current guide is available here: Formatted Guide: http://www.whrb.org/pg/MayJune2006.pdf A text based version of the guide is also available: Line-by-Line Guide: http://www.whrb.org/pg/MayJune2006.html LISTEN TO A LIVE RECORDING OF HARVARD PRESIDENT LARRY SUMMERS' RESIGNATION SPEECH AND THE SPECIAL ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION WITH EXPERTS ON THE SUMMERS' ISSUE! Click Here for audio of Summers' Address http://www.whrb.org/speech.mp3 Click Here for audio of the WHRB News Special about Larry Summers' resignation and the future of Harvard http://www.whrb.org/Summersspecial.mp3 (WHRB website May 1 via Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. MORMON TABERNACLE CHOIR RADIO BROADCAST Hello Glenn, WDWS used to run this show every Sunday morning up until the mid-1990's, when local paid programs took over the time slot. The show came down from the CBS Network at the time, and always mentioned KSL as the originating station. With Westwood One now running those channels, I don't know where the current feed comes from, but it's a good bet KSL still is the flagship. Thanks! (Eric Loy, WDWS, Champaign IL, May 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) A Mormon show I enjoyed more was The Auditorium Organ, a weekly half- hour we used to get on tape at some stations where I worked. This was not from SLC, but the ``Reorganized Church of LDS`` faxion, in Independence MO. As I recall, there was very little if any proselytizing in it. Am trying to remember the name of the organist and host. After a long run, he and/or the show were retired a number of years ago (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Emmis Communications may be looking for a new home for its three NEW YORK stations after yet another shooting outside the Hudson Street studios that are home to WQHT (97.1) and its two sister stations. "Hot 97" has been a magnet for hip-hop rivalries that have ended in gunfire, with two incidents before last week's shooting, in which rapper Jamaal "Gravy" Woodward suffered a grazing wound to his posterior. Now the carpenter's union that owns the building at 395 Hudson Street says it wants the stations out. It's meeting with lawyers today; Emmis says there are no grounds for an eviction. There have been no arrests in the shooting. The battle over that controversial WFUV (90.7 New York) tower in the Bronx ended with a whimper early last week. Now that WFUV is on the air from its new site at Montefiore Hospital, Fordham University officials acted without any publicity at all to take down the never- completed tower that stood on the edge of the Fordham campus, overlooking the New York Botanical Garden. It's always nice when these things end happily, and all sides are now satisfied - the Garden has its view back (not that we ever found the tower all that ugly!), and WFUV has a better signal from the Montefiore site than it ever would have had from the Fordham tower, had it been completed. On the AM dial, there's still no firm confirmation of the well- reported rumor that Inner City Broadcasting will LMA WLIB (1190 New York) to Randy Michaels when the current deal with Air America Radio expires in August. Michaels has been investing in progressive talk programming in recent years, and it's expected that WLIB would become a flagship for the Ed Schultz show, among others, if Michaels takes over. It's not clear whether WLIB would continue to clear some Air America programming, or whether the network would seek to lease its own outlet elsewhere in the market (Scott Fybush, NE Radio Watch May 1 via DXLD) ** U S A. AIR AMERICA DEFLATES --- Glenn, A friend forwarded the following link, which is to an article describing Air America's plunge in the ratings. Of course, they don't mention the decline of conservative hosts, such as Rush, who is being booted off WBAL, Baltimore, at the end of May. From what I read and hear, people want local hosts and lighter fare. . . http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon2006-04-29ba.html 73, *John Wesley Smith, KC0HSB, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Two things. In most places, the ratings I've seen indicate Air America does about as well as Salem's conservative talk AM stations -- you know, the ones with Bill Bennett, Michael Medved, Dennis Praeger and Hugh Hewitt. Wonder why no one ever talks about Salem's AM stations tanking? Could there be some axe-grinding here? Secondly, about Phoenix, KXXT-1010 was sold to a religious broadcaster, which I believe was Communicom of Florida. Both the public and Air America's cofounders financed its return through a Local Marketing Agreement on KPHX-1480. It returned just a month and five days after leaving the air. To its credit, the new owners of KXXT let the new local AA affiliate's managers purchase its automation at a very low price, according to the new management. I'm not out and about much, but all I can say is that in Phoenix I heard Air America plenty in cabs, and on radios at supermarkets. After it briefly left the market, my mailman, who knows I've been in broadcasting, asked me if I knew what happened to it. I'm not at all claiming that's anything like scientific research, but Phoenix isn't exactly known for its liberal politics, and I don't wear political T-shirts or anything that would single me out. I do disagree with some of AA's decisions, especially putting on Jerry Springer, (which seems to be cleared sparsely, if at all, in the West.) But it was and is listened to in Phoenix, and in my view, the more perspectives we have on the airwaves, the better off our country is (Rick Lewis, AZ, May 1, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. PHIL HENDRIE RETIRES FROM RADIO --- Premiere Radio Networks' syndicated host announced today that he will retire from his daily nationally syndicated radio show to pursue his acting career. The final live broadcast of The Phil Hendrie Show will take place June 23. "I have taken my show as far as I can in the present climate of terrestrial radio," said Hendrie about his pending departure. "I've been doing these characters for 16 years, and I believe it's time for me to take them from behind the microphone and present them in front of the camera." Hendrie is currently featured on NBC-TV's sitcom Teachers as cynical history teacher Dick Green. He has also appeared as Judge McCarthy on the sitcom A.U.S.A. and made his motion picture debut in 2004 in Trey Parker's and Matt Stone's Team America: World Police as the voice of I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E. and a terrorist character. In addition, Hendrie has performed numerous character voices on episodes of the animated television shows King of the Hill and Futurama (R&R via Pete Kemp, April 29, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. KTRB San Francisco, CA [sic], 860 kHz. Detailed verification letter, sticker and info sheets from v/s Steve Dresser, Chief Engineer, 1192 Norwegian Avenue, Modesto CA 95350 for US$ rp. Letter stated they are planning a move to San Francisco where they will be 50 kW day and night as opposed to 50 kW day and 10 kW night like now. In Modesto they will have a new station KPMP on 840 kHz with 5 kW day and night by the end of the year (Craig Edwards, NT, May Australia DX News via DXLD) ** U S A. SPANISH-LANGUAGE STATIONS ARE A GROWING FORCE ON UTAH'S RADIO DIAL --- MAKING WAVES By Ellen Fagg The Salt Lake Tribune SOUTH JORDAN - José Libardo Rivera pushes the hold button and greets the caller with a ringing "Buenas tardes," then asks her opinion about a proposed national Latino boycott on Monday. On this Saturday afternoon in late April, the phone lines are ringing off the hook during Libardo's "Nuestra Gente," a two-hour call-in show at South Jordan's KBJA 1640 AM, one of the valley's five leading Spanish-language radio stations. As you'd expect, what listeners want to talk about is immigration politics. . . http://www.sltrib.com/arts/ci_3766939 (via Bill Westenhaver, DXLD) Plus sidebar listing other such stations ** U S A. A couple of choice QSLs to report: WNAX-570, Yankton, SD. Nice f/d card. THRILLED to get this one, as they have been on my most- wanted list for 20 years! And, even though I'm a month late in posting it, nice QSL card from WJTO-730, Bath, Maine for the DX test a few months ago. Click on the links below to view these QSLs: http://www.geocities.com/jdstephens_99/qsl/wnax.jpg http://www.geocities.com/jdstephens_99/qsl/wjto.jpg 73, (J. D. Stephens, Hampton Cove, AL, IRCA via DXLD) "Programmed Locally with Pride" --- that's the most honest statement I`ve ever heard. Everything on WJTO comes from Bob himself, no satellite service and NO consultants (Paul Walker, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. I went back to Durham, NC last weekend for a college reunion (Duke) and then went to Williamsburg, VA. Not a whole lot to report. 610, KNJR841, VA, Hampton Roads. This identifies specifically as being in Hampton Roads. The TIS log notes them in Newport News and Norfolk. I did not discern any echo so they must move it around. In any case, this is one of the strongest HARs I have ever heard. Listed as 40w ERP. Very audible driving around. (PT-VA 4/24-28) In both Seattle on the way out and at Raleigh-Durham Airport on the way home, security people pulled out the LW and MW Palomar loops after viewing their scanned images. No questions, just careful scrutiny (Pete Taylor, Visiting in Williamsburg, VA, ICF2010 + Palomar loop, IRCA via DXLD) ** VATICAN. 9610, R. Vaticana, Santa María di Galeria, 0220 4/30 found in Spanish with usual low key religious programming, giving several frequencies at 0225, starting IS at 0227, when carrier was cut. This frequency not listed in ILG, EIBI or HFCC. Fair signal (John Callarman, Krum TX, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi John, Tnx for the report. Reason it is not in the skeds is that this has been on 9605 and is still scheduled there. Wonder if they shifted, made a mistake, or are you quite sure it was not 9605 on this occasion? 73, (Glenn to John, April 29, via DXLD) Radio Vaticano in Spanish definitely zero beats on 9610 tonight (UT 5/01) 0103 tune-in. Suspect it's moved up 5 kHz to escape severe adjacent channel QRM from RHC on 9600. I needed narrow filter and USB to escape Cuban QRM tonight (John Callarman, Krum TX, ibid.) May also apply to English at 0250, tho Cuba supposedly finishes with 9600 at 0200 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9610, Vatican Radio, Santa María di Galería. Fair 0220 4/30 in Spanish, // 7305; IS began 0227. Rechecked 0103 5/1 with woman in Spanish, zero beat on 9610, presumably up from 9605 to escape RHC-9600 adjacent channel QRM, which bothered it some even 10 kHz away. By 0313 during English to North and Central America, suffered heavy co-channel QRM from BBC in Swahili to east Africa from (listed) SEYCHELLES. Vatican back in Spanish 0320 and, after BBC left at 0330, a weak signal remained under Vatican, Iran likely in Arabic to Middle East and North Africa (John Callarman, Krum TX, NRD-525, 80-foot long wire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** YEMEN. My neatest e-mail response so far: The technical guy in Sana`a, Yemen, e-mailed me to say he had gotten my reception report for a satellite pick-up of the Aden program of Yemen Broadcasting from Aden, and that he`d be sending a Q.S.L. by post! We`ll see. Otherwise, I printed out the e-mail, so at least, I`d have that in one of my albums! (Allan Loudell, DE, CIDX Forum, May Messenger via DXLD) ** ZIMBABWE [and non]. SW Radio Africa, 3230, 1700-1900, via Sentech, South Africa) ends its short return back on Shortwave, May 2 --- without being jammed by the Government of Zimbabwe since March 5. Thank you all, 73 (David Pringle-Wood, Harare, Zimbabwe, May 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Last report on this was in 6-046; here are the items we have been saving up: 3230, SW Radio Africa, via Meyerton (presumed), *0300-0350, Mar 17 and 18, reactivated with accented English and frequent mentions of Zimbabwe. Opened with song "Africa - Africa" and ID in English: "This is SW Radio Africa serving you on mediumwave between 5 and 7 am [0300- 0500 UT/AP] every day and on the internet at http://www.swradioafrica.com ". DJ playing Afropop and gospel songs. Talk in English discussing Zimbabwe elections, brief musical interludes between political discussions. Finally caught a couple of IDs around 0325. A man began talking to political figure via a phone line around 0330. Abrupt s/off 0338* on Mar 18 in mid song, but back with news at 0400. Strong signal, but heard best in LSB due to utility station, 33343. None of the previous // SW frequencies were audible. Not yet found by the Zimbabwean jammer! (R. D'Angelo-USA and A. Petersen-DNK Mar 18, 2006 in DXW 294 via CRW via DXLD) 3230, SW Radio Africa, 0305-0418+ Mar 18, English language talks about Zimbabwe and elections with brief musical segments between segments. Ids and address information during 0329 break. Interviews over telephone. News at 0400. Poor to fair (R. D'Angelo-PA-USA, Mar 18, 2006 in DXplorer-ML via CRW via DXLD) SW Radio Africa, 3230, *0300-0330+ March 19, sign-on with ``Africa`` jingles and opening English announcements with ID. Talk about Zimbabwe politics, local music, 0325 religious program. Poor in noisy conditions (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) SW Radio Africa: *1700-1900*, Mar 20, seems to be on this frequency also in the evening with fair signal (J. Savolainen, Finland Mar 20, 2006 in DXW 294 via CRW via DXLD) Listening on DX Tuner in South Africa, nice signal. Simply announcing being on in the mornings from 5-7 AM. I didn't not any mentions of shortwave frequencies. No sign of any jamming. Gave an email address of talk @ swradioafrica.com (Hans Johnson, FL-USA, Mar 21, 2006 in JihadDX-ML via CRW via DXLD) SW Radio Africa on 3230: On Mar 20 the morning broadcast was replaced by this evening broadcast. From Mar 26 it will be retimed to 1600-1800 until the burned MW transmitter is repaired (Anker Petersen, DSWCI DX Window March 22 via DXLD) Was it really burned?? (gh, DXLD) I believe they announce at 1700 only mediumwave (but not the frequency) 5-7 AM and internet. Maybe just to keep the jammers away as long as possible (J. Savolainen, Finland, Mar 22, 2006 in JihadDX-ML via CRW via DXLD) 3230, SW Radio, via Meyerton, 1813-1900*, Apr 15, English programme with native songs of Zimbabwe, like "I am on my way", political comments on phone about Zimbabwe "with its illegal, totalitarian government of Mugabe", ID's 1833 and 1837. QSA 4 at start, but fading out to QSA 2 at 1900 when Family Radio took over the transmitter with its boring answers in English to phone-in questions. 34333 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window April 19 via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 1540, ESTADOS UNIDOS (tent.): 01/05 0432 Transmissão de um px religioso em EE por uma YL, sinal concorrendo fortemente com 1540 R. Difusora Oeste. Graças à T-51 (Valdemar Scaquetti) foi possível ouvir a emissora em EE sem dificuldades, durante mais de 20 minutos. RWG/MCJ (Rudolf W. Grimm (São Bernardo-SP) / Martim Carlos Jenny (Santo André- SP), Local: Bairro Maracanã, Jarinu-SP, a 70 km de São Paulo, sentido norte. Localizador: Lat 23 6’ 12S, Long 46 43’ 41W, Altitude: ~ 930 m., Rx: Kenwood R-1000, Sony ICF SW7600GR, ant.: vertical 6 m + acoplador (reostato + capacitor), T-51 (para ondas médias à muito boa!!!, permitiu abrir freqüências em várias emissoras de uma forma bastante produtiva, especialmente 1540 kHz, dividindo a Difusora Oeste com uma emissora dos Estados Unidos), DX LISTENING DIGEST) Rudolf, Maybe, but don`t forget ZNS, Nassau, Bahamas, which is in English, includes a lot of religion, and I think has a favorable antenna pattern for you. 73, (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thanks Glenn, Firstly I think on Texas, according to WRTH 2006, but your reference is a good shot. Unfortunately, during this time, no ID. It was a lady preaching in slow English (not so normal), a prayer and after a choir song. After this, the signal is gone. But I listened to this signal from 0432 until 0450. Thanks, Glenn, for your support. It was an amazing experience in Jarinu last two days (specially 'two nights'). (Rudolf Grimm, ibid.) Rudolf, I have now had a look at the NRC antenna pattern book, and see that ZNS 1540 has a huge lobe in your direction, roughly southeast, the opposite of the direction to Waterloo IA (KXEL) from Nassau, which it protects. The Galveston TX station also has a lobe to the SE but it is very low powered by comparison (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 1565.2 MW, silent carrier noted 2117-2129, 29 Apr; DF indicates S/SEast: TWR, Parakou, BENIN? If so, why then not 1566 kHz? 44433, occasional QRM de G. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, May 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) By `G`, I guess you mean the two UK stations listed on 1566 with less than 1 kW? (gh, DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ DXERSCALLING IS BACK G'day, Dxerscalling is back. Bringing you the best DX and SWL programs including the master himself, Glenn Hauser and World of radio, Marie Lamb and Dxing with Cumbre, Allen Graham and Dx Partyline, Ragnar and Pirates week. Occasionally I may present a DX program or media program. http://www.shoutcast.com/directory/?s=dxerscalling or http://www.geocities.com/nri3 Thanking you (Tim Gaynor, Australia, NRI via DXLD) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ MEDIUMWAVE DIRECTIONAL PATTERN MAP PLOTTING PROGRAM Gents: I am a "lurker" on some of the groups and tend to keep my mouth shut unless something just *has* to be said! I am recently retired and have been porting over to winnder$ some of my olde DOS programs. One that is really kinda fun and certainly of interest to the AM radio listener has just now been posted. It is a program wherein you enter your home location and the program then plots a map of the area, centered on your home location. Size of the map is adjustable in steps. Then enter an AM frequency and it plots all of the stations with their directional patterns. The size of those patterns is also adjustable. So if you are listening to the radio and tuning in weak signals on a given frequency and are curious as to who they might be, use this program and it will give you a headstart on revealing who/where they are. One fellow said it was "kind of addictive" but at least in this case it`s legal! It is simply for very serious fun. The downloadable install routine is here: http://tonnesoftware.com/bcmap.html Since this is a just-released program, there may be spots where it is "rough around the edges" and so I am asking any of you who do download, install and use it to give me feedback and suggestions. Cheers! (Jim Tonne, WB6BLD, April 28, IRCA via DXLD) MUSEA +++++ CHINA RADIO MUSEUM - ZHONGSHAN CITY Courtesy of The Radio Intelligencer Scrapbook http://www.radiointel.com/scrapbook/sentin/sentin1.htm The China Radio Museum officially opened its doors in January 2006. This is the first radio museum in China. The museum’s collection has about 2,000+ antique and modern day radios that began with a donation by Zhongshan citizen and radio collector Qiu Jianqiu. Due to space considerations the museum is able to display only about 1/10th of the collection at a time. The museum has plans to build a larger hall which can display all the 2000 plus radios and pavilions as well displaying radios made in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Many US, European and Japanese brand radios were made in Hong Kong during the late 1960s to early 1980’s, including but not limited to GE, Sony, Sanyo, Philips, Motorola, etc. The most advanced and sophisticated made in Hong Kong at that time was the Philips D2999. Paul points out that Zhongshan City is in southern China Guangdong province. The city is northwest of Hong Kong and south-west of Guangahou (Canton). From HK to Zhongshan by car at normal speed (50 KM/hr) it takes about 2.5 hours. So it is about 125 kilometers from Hong Kong. You can view a collection of photographs taken at the museum on the web page indicated above (via Michael Rochon, May CIDX Messenger via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ 49 METER IMAGES ON X-BAND, AGAIN Here's my band scan log from trip from Miami to Dominican Republic, Virgin Islands and Bahamas. Any help with ID'ing my questionables is appreciated. Radio was RS DX-440 propped up in the window. DX-440 won`t do splits so missed a few there too. Best regards - Dave [including:] 16-Apr-06 STATION LANG 1700 R HAVANA CUBA SP (David J. Twiggs, April 27, NRC-AM via DXLD) Dave, I guess it`s too late now as you are probably back from the cruise, but I have a DX-440 and it tunes in 1 kHz steps on MW. 1700, Radio Habana Cuba?? Could you provide full log details on that? Could be an image from SW. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) I touched on this in my Monitoring Times column a few months ago -- I strongly suspect loggings of Radio Havana Cuba on 1700 kHz are indeed the result of spurious responses in receivers (this is by no means the first such logging) Technical explanation follows: Let's assume your radio's intermediate frequency (IF) is 450 kHz. This is a very common figure. When tuned to 1700, the radio's local oscillator operates on 1700 + 450 = 2150 kHz. The 2150 kHz local oscillator signal mixes with any signal that may actually be present on 1700 to yield four results: 1700 KHz 2150 KHz 2150 + 1700 = 3850 KHz 2150 - 1700 = 450 KHz The IF amplifier selects just the last result, which is amplified, demodulated, and sent to the speaker. So far, so good. But any oscillator generates "harmonics", signals on multiples of the intended frequency. For a 2150 kHz oscillator, on 2150 x 1 = 2150; 2150 x 2 = 4300; 2150 x 3 = 6450, etc., etc. These harmonics, just like the desired 2150 kHz signal, are mixed with signals from the antenna. Let's consider the x3 ("third") harmonic, and a hypothetical shortwave signal on 6000 kHz. The four results are: 6000 KHz 6450 KHz 6450 + 6000 = 12450 KHz 6450 - 6000 = 450 KHz The magic 450 figure is back. Any hypothetical shortwave signal on 6000 KHz would be fed to the IF amplifier, demodulated, and sent to the speaker. The IF amplifier just sees 450; it doesn't know whether that was the result of 2150-1700 or the result of 6450-6000. The shortwave signal on 6000 is NOT hypothetical. Radio Havana Cuba broadcasts on 6000 kHz. They do so, in English, from 0100 to 0700 UT, 9 pm-3 am Eastern time. And of course, propagation from Cuba to the eastern U.S. is usually quite good. So, I think this is how people are hearing Cuba on 1700 (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66 http://www.w9wi.com ibid.) The same process causes the 6030 signal to show up at 1710 kHz, which is what is usually reported. A better radio will eliminate this problem by using a dual conversion scheme. Converting up to 55 MHz (or so) makes it easy to filter out the spurious responses due to local oscillator harmonics, since any such signal would be way outside the band of interest. Hardly any car radios use dual conversion (probably none) (Mike Westfall, N6KUY, WDX6O, Los Alamos, New Mexico (DM65uv), ibid.) A much simpler way to look at this, and to quickly find the original frequency is: triple the frequency you are hearing (3 x 1700 = 5100), and add twice the IF (2 x 450 = 900). Bingo, you have 6000 kHz. Since you have a receiver with this defect, you could also easily draw up a chart of other equivalencies, in addition to R. Martí 6030 showing up on 1710. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ DRM: see also AUSTRALIA; BRAZIL; ECUADOR; MALI GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH DRM ON SHORTWAVE I received a very interesting letter from Don Smith, Deniliquin NSW, with his logs, and I hope he doesn’t mind if I quote some his observations: ``I have only just recently taken possession of the Winradio 303e, and thought that I would take the DRM option as well. The DRM package was about $70 and was on a CD registered in my name. I didn’t hold out great hopes for it over here, it all seems to be centred on Europe, and enquiries at WinRadio also held out little hope, more about luck than anything else! I received the package and it took time for me to get conversant with it, a little bit more advance than a tuning knob, RF and AF gain and a band switch! The DRM is dead easy, just tune to the frequency, and wait. The signal is a band of what looks like noise, just above the normal noise level. It has a bandwidth of 10 kHz, whether one is looking at that or it occurs later on is anyone`s guess. There are three stages for full audio reception, shown by three buttons on the display. 1. Sync. This takes some time to react, almost as though it is free running and is eventually pulled in. At the same time a further indicator shows a s/n ration of about 4dB. 2. Data. When this button lights up the screen shows the name of the transmitting station, language used and other information. This is at about s/n 8. On some stations a second channel is also available with more information. 3. Audio. The great moment arrives! Usually at about 12 to 15dB s/n. Above about 17dB is reliable audio, sometimes in stereo, perfectly clear with no hiss or fading – magic!! I clicked on the second channel of DW on 7265 and got a list of frequencies for ``Season A06``. It lists times and frequencies ranging from 3995 to 21820 kHz.`` Good to see members experimenting with DRM. Digital shortwave may well die a natural death in the end, but even the major international stations’ DRM services are legitimate DX catches here currently. You’ll certainly hear the signal, but resolving audio is somewhat more challenging (Craig Seager, ed., May Australian DX News via DXLD) DIGITAL RADIO COVERAGE AND INTERFERENCE ANALYSIS PROJECT See the website for further info on deadlines, procedure, etc.: http://www.cpb.org/grants/radiointerferenceanalysis/ This project is a technical analysis of public radio HD radio coverage problems and the loss of analog and digital coverage due to the interference caused by co- and adjacent channel HD stations. The purpose of this research study is to determine the longer-term implications for public radio and the potential impact on listeners due to the introduction of HD radio. CPB is concerned with the disenfranchisement of listeners due to the loss of services public radio currently provides to them and the underperformance or lack of HD service (i.e., technical availability) when the conversion of public radio stations to HD is complete. The project is expected to be complete in one year. Please download the Request for Proposals for detailed information about this fund, including proposal requirements. Request for Proposals 605KB Project Parameters There are two parts to this research project. Applicants are requested to submit individual price quotes for each part. Part 1: Coverage Study at least 50 of the largest public radio markets in the U.S. and 25 smaller markets where significant service is provided by public radio stations located outside or at the periphery of the market. The service to locations within these markets will be provided by transmitters where the signal strength is above 50 dBu and at or below 66 dBu. For the markets selected, provide individual public radio station coverage analysis. Develop conclusions, backed by research, as to the extent of public radio audience coverage difficulties on a nation-wide basis. Provide practical technical solutions, including that which could help extend the HD signal range to that of the current analog coverage. Part 2: Interference Calculate the impact on public radio listeners of a robust HD radio environment. How many existing public radio analog listeners will lose analog service because of interference caused by HD radio? What, if any, are the common distinguishing factors of the disenfranchised listeners? What markets and stations are most vulnerable? Considering our existing NCE allocation system, what will be the interference impact on HD coverage of the eventual lighting up of HD carriers on all (or most) NCE stations? What are the service implications of public radio analog translators in an HD environment where reception must come cleanly from primary stations located at great distances and where the transmitter output powers are small? How does the level of anticipated HD interference in the non-commercial educational FM band differ from that expected in the commercial FM band (where the allocation system differs)? What is the long-term impact of continued urbanization on the HD signal? How does the problem differ between fixed and vehicular listening? Question Period The Question Period has been extended one week. Please submit questions to DigitalRadioRFP @ cpb.org by May 8, 2006. Deadline May 23, 2006 Contact CPB Submit your questions to Lynn Chadwick, Senior Director, Media Technologies at DigitalRadioRFP @ cpb.org (via Glenn Hauser, DXLD) While this may look like a golden opportunity to document the problems with HD radio, it isn't. Since in nearly all markets, the public radio stations are located only in the 88-92 MHz portion of the band, and that in any one market, there is standard spacing in between stations. In order for one HD signal to create interference for another station in the market, .8 MHz spacing likely won't provide it, so the only negative impact would be on out-of-market signals (DX!). And since many are still operating in hybrid mode, there will be little disenfranchisement of listeners due to inability to receive the analog signal. That problem will become readily apparent once hybrid mode is abandoned. Such a study would have to consider the number of current public radio listeners who have either no plans nor insufficient means to convert when the time comes. Even so, I'd love to be able to take a year or so off to participate in this - but that's not happening :-{ (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA, ( 15 mi NW of Philadelphia ), Grid FN20id, Yamaha T-80; APS-9B at 15', DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nowhere in that proposal is there any concern for interference to CH 6 audio from an 88.1 allocation. Nor has there (apparently) been any study on the impact to aircraft interests from a 107.9 HD system. Was there anyone who thought this out? (Craig Healy, Providence, RI, WTFDA via DXLD) I guess I'm of the impression the FM HD rules are pretty much a done deal. As I understand it the only thing still in the air is nighttime HD on AM, and I'm reading a final proposal is on the Commissioners' desks and will be voted on any day now (with little doubt as to how the vote will go!) I might guess that aviation interests have long ago learned not to put anything critical too close to 108 MHz . As for TV-6, there are some pretty strict regulations already in place protecting cheap TV sets from NCE-FM problems, I think they're probably more than adequate to protect from HD. Stations anywhere in the reserved band within 154 km (about 95 miles) of a TV-6 station face power restrictions. I think the real sleeper in the FM HD deployment is the FCC's pretty pessimistic opinion of station coverage. A LOT of listeners are going to be very surprised to learn their favorite station is too weak to listen to and always has been. (that is the dilemma the Commission faces: how much signal do you require to provide protected service? Set the threshold too low, and you limit the number of stations possible; listeners with cheap sets will have fewer choices. Set the threshold too high, and listeners with good sets lose access to potentially better-programmed distant stations.) -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66, http://www.w9wi.com ibid.) Quite a few proponents for regular analog FM stations for the upper part of the band in Canada have been told to find more suitable frequencies lower down (Saul Chernos, ON, ibid.) see also CANADA PROPAGATION +++++++++++ Re 6-068: 19 METERS AFTER DARK Same outstanding reception conditions happened five hours earlier on Sat Apr 29 and Sun Apr 30th on our European post towards the West: Many American stations had tremendous signals on 15 MHz between 2100 and 2400 UT, like RHC on 15230 kHz, and the strongest powerhouse were CVI Chile on 15340 kHz. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) NEW RADIOWAVE PROPAGATION YAHOO EGROUP: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/radiowavepropagation This eGroup will be the home of my radiowave propagation outlooks, a place to discuss LF/MF/HF radiowave propagation theory and observations, as well as a repository of propagation related website links. While the primary emphasis of this eGroup will be on LF/MF and HF radiowave propagation, discussion of any propagation mode from DC to daylight is permitted. Questions and requests for assistance concerning radiowave propagation for new and old hams alike is allowed and encouraged. --... ...--, Thomas F. Giella, KN4LF Lakeland, FL, USA Grid Square EL97AW kn4lf @ arrl.net PODXS 070 PSK31 Club Member #349 Feld Hell Club Member #FH141 National Veterans Ham Radio Club Member Radiowave Propagation Yahoo eGroup: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/radiowavepropagation Digital Radio Modes Yahoo eGroup: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradiomodes Feld Hell Yahoo eGroup: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/feldhell National Veterans Ham Radio Club http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NVHRC KN4LF Amateur & SWL Radio History: http://www.kn4lf.com KN4LF 160 Meter Propagation Theory Notes: http://www.kn4lf.com/kn4lf8.htm (Giella, IRCA via DXLD) ###