DX LISTENING DIGEST 6-138, September 15, 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 AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1328: Sat 0800 WRN 13865 DRM via Bulgaria Sat 1230 WRMI 9955 Sat 1430 WRMI 7385 Sat 1600 WWCR3 12160 Sun 0230 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0630 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0800 WRMI 9955 Sun 1530 WRMI 7385 Mon 0300 WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0415 WBCQ 7415 [time varies] Wed 0930 WWCR1 9985 Latest edition of this schedule version, with hotlinks to station sites and audio, is at: 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 DXLD YAHOOGROUP: Why wait for DXLD? A lot more info, not all of it appearing in DXLD later, is posted at our yg. When applying, please identify yourself with your real name and location. Here`s where to sign up http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dxld/ ** AFRICA. AFRICALIST MOVED --- The newest version of africalist has been uploaded to http://www.muenster.org/uwz/ms-alt/africalist/ because of ftp-problems with the coolfreepage-server. The address www.africalist.de.ms will be redirected and remain operational. Please change your bookmarks and links. Happy listening! (Thorsten Hallmann, Münster, Germany, Sept 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALASKA. KNLS has already posted their B-06 schedule, and look at the new frequencies in the 6.9 MHz area, so maybe they will be without co-channel: KNLS Broadcast Schedule Starting October 29, 2006 Time kHz M Language 0800-0900 6150 49 English 0800-0900 7355 41 Mandarin 0900-1000 6150 49 Russian 0900-1000 7355 41 Mandarin 1000-1100 6150 49 English 1000-1100 7355 41 Mandarin 1100-1200 7355 41 Mandarin 1100-1200 6150 49 Russian 1200-1300 6915 49 English ***** 1200-1300 6150 49 English 1300-1400 7355 41 Mandarin 1300-1400 6890 49 Mandarin 1400-1500 7355 41 Mandarin 1400-1500 6150 49 English 1500-1600 7355 41 Mandarin 1500-1600 6150 49 Russian 1600-1700 6915 49 Mandarin 1600-1700 6150 49 Russian 1700-1800 6915 49 Russian 1700-1800 6150 49 Mandarin (from http://www.knls.org/English/ksched.htm Sept 8 via Joe Hanlon, WORLD OF RADIO 1328, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Anybody hearing them these days at 08 UT on 11870 kHz in English? They have disappeared here in Copenhagen. 73, (Erik Køie, Denmark, Sept 9, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Not a whisper in NW England either - I haven't heard them for ages. Frequency 11765 is occupied by the BBC-ASC until 0800 but then nothing there either. 73 (Noel R. Green, UK, ibid.) ** ALASKA [and non]. I phoned KICY this morning and I found out KICY is running 25 KW ND from one tower. Their 50/10 KW U10 setup burned up last year and two of the three towers had to be taken down because of the permafrost. They are using a 1959 tower in the same place as their original tower that fell back in the 60s when they were 5 KW. Next June they break ground for the new set up. The two towers are laying on the ground and will be reinstalled next Summer, once the ground melts enough to do the work. The new set up should be completed by Sept 1, 2007. When operational, it will be U10 at 50/50 KW. The time they will be directional is from 11 PM to 4 AM, Nome time which is in the evening in Siberia, Primetime for listeners. The rest of the time they will run 50 KW ND. They go to Russian at 11 PM. 73, (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, Sept 11, IRCA via DXLD) Russian sked ``11 pm-4 am`` matches that at http://www.kicy.org which admits that the operation is run by the Evangelical Covenant Church. Timeanddate.com says Nome is on DST of UT -8, so in winter it`s UT -9, same as most of AK, tho at Nome`s longitude of 165-24 W, it ought to be on UT -11! (11 x 15 = 165). So in summer they are on triple-DST, and in winter really on double-DST. U10? Here`s how the NRC AM Log defines that: Non-direxional day and night, but a single direxional pattern during Critical Hours, which in this case means the external service to Siberia. Shouldn`t that be based on the DST dates in Russia, not US? O well, in winter that would be equivalent to 08-13 UT. However, the NRC AM Log 2006 says the DA hours are 03-07 ``ELT``, only a 4-hour span, so equivalent to 07-11 UT in summer, 08-12 in winter. One wonders how much difference it would make anyway during the Midnight Sun. Perhaps some residual ionization remains due to low solar angle. Over water/ice path for surface wave should help. Can one think of any other US MW station which has a skywave external service and direxional antenna to match? Quite a number of US stations in the northern tier of states are direxional northwards or into Canada at night, but that is more of a consequence of having to protect US stations in other direxions, than a deliberate desire to serve sparsely-inhabited Canadian rural areas. WTOR 770 Youngstown NY for Toronto, would be a good example but is daytime-only on groundwave, and I bet they still have to pretend they are serving their city of licence, unlike KICY which is admittedly broadcasting trans-oceanically, not just trans-lakally, across time zones, dateline, language, national and continental boundaries, using the ionosphere. I can`t think of any US MW station which is directly and deliberately skywaving toward Mexico at night, with the possible exception of KGBT- 1530 which looks to have more nighttime coverage in Mexico than the US, but they have to protect Cincinnati. Cuba is quite another matter, of course. Several S Florida stations have big lobes day and/or night toward Cuba, but again, being in one far corner of the US were probably engineered that way originally to protect other US stations, and were not even in Spanish when they started, e.g. WGBS 710, now ``Wacky`` WAQI, Radio Mambí causing the dentroCubans to try to block it (Glenn Hauser, DX ISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, Being a Christian station, they want to get their message out and being so close to FE Russia, it is an opportunity to do that. Now, the question is, are their listeners in FE Russia? They think so I guess. 73, (Patrick Martin, IRCA via DXLD) ** ALBANIA [and non]. Re ´´Trans World Radio is planning probably to replace SW transmissions with DAB; this could be as early as the B-06 season, for reaching the British Isles, at least.´´: It is certainly significant that they will abandon the Radio Tirana transmitters, for both MW and SW I understand. So what will happen: Shortwave transmissions in English to the UK will be cancelled (not only via Shijak but also via Fontbonne and Jülich), the other services will be moved to elsewhere, for mediumwave to Grigoriopol? All the best, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Sept 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. B06 TWR 01-sep-2006 TWR via SHIJAK-ALBANIA 100 kW upload time: 01-sep-2006 10:56:50 FILE : B06TWR_U.TXT / 08:53 +-------+------+------+-+-----+----------+---+---+---+-----+-+-----+- FREQ STRT STOP CIRAF AZI SLW ANT DAYS FDATE TDATE MOD LANGUAGE ----+----+----+------------------------------+---+----+-------+---+-- 6235 0615 0630 28 350 0 141 1234567 291006 250307 D POL 7355 1545 1630 28 350 0 141 1234567 291006 250307 D POL 7375 1633 1703 29S,39N 100 0 216 23456 291006 250307 D ARM 7375 1715 1830 30S,40 90 10 216 1234567 291006 250307 D PES 7380 0615 0630 28 350 0 141 1234567 291006 250307 D POL 7380 0630 0645 28,29 350 0 141 23456 291006 250307 D SLO 7395 1633 1703 29S,39N 100 0 216 23456 291006 250307 D ARM 9785 1715 1830 30S,40 90 10 216 1234567 291006 250307 D PES 9945 1633 1703 29S,39N 90 10 216 23456 291006 250307 D ARM 9960 1715 1830 30S,40 90 10 216 1234567 291006 250307 D PES 11615 1442 1557 28-30 33 0 146 1234567 291006 250307 D RUS/BEL 11865 0745 0920 27 310 0 146 1234567 291006 250307 D ENG (via Drita Cico, R. Tirana, DXLD) D MOD = AM/analog Time running out to hear TWR via Albania, as mentioned in 6-134, but I guess this means it will not end yet with A-06 (gh) ** ANTARCTICA. 15476 --- L'altra sera 13/09 ho notato su 15476 R. Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel, Antartica, con buon segnale alle 1925. Canzoni latinoamericane romantiche. Pare stiano provando un nuovo trasmettitore. Rx: Winradio G33EM Ciao (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italy, Sept 15, playdx yg via DXLD) ** ARMENIA. Voice of Armenia / Public Radio of Armenia : new website http://int.armradio.am/ Many links are not working. Regards (JM Aubier, France, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Seems like they only have news 'on demand', not the rest of the program, or a live feed. 73, (Erik Køie, Denmark, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) En la nueva web se puede escuchar los diferentes servicios bajo demanda; se identifica, "Radio Pública de Armenia", "Noticias Radio Pública Yeverán", también cómo "Están sintonizando la transmisión en régimen de internet de la Radio Pública de Armenia". Los diferentes servicios son en inglés, francés, alemán y español. El resto de los servicios no funcionan, el ruso, el georgiano, árabe, turco. etc. (José Miguel Romero, Spain, ibid.) Sección en español: http://int.armradio.am/spa/ (Romero, Noticias DX via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. ABC-NT relay is finally gone from 6080; see SINGAPORE. Silly me, jumping to conclusion on the basis of what I hear or don`t hear. Sept 13, as I reported, Shepparton was certainly missing from 6080 when checked at 1250-1300, but the now unnecessary ABC-NT relay was back on 6080 the next day, Sept 14, and colliding as before with R. Singapore International, way underneath ABC, at 1302 during some Aussie storytelling, not news (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Shepparton 11880 is off this Friday Sep. 15 for ABC's 105.7 F.M. Darwin when checked at 0400. Brandon 12080 is running regular Radio Australia English service //15515 // 13670 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11880, Darwin 105.7 was a very nice signal when I tuned at around 0630 UT. Perhaps off for maintenance? I keep trying for 12080 - it has been heard in the past - and there might be something there but impossible to ID for sure (Noel Green, England, ibid.) I woke up at 5.15 my local time --- getting ready for work altho is Independence Day here --- 1115 UT, to check what was going with ABC NT on 6080, but this time only Radio Singapore was there with splatter from Family Radio in Spanish 6085. Now, I don't have WRTH in hand at this moment, but 6080 is only Shepparton? (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, Sept 15, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, but probably not in WRTH as this just started in May (gh, DXLD) I've checked 6080 between 1250-1300. RSI was stronger than ABC NT (with sports commentary, as 2485). There was a strong signal on 6085 through, causing a bit of sideband splash on 6080 (Yogesh, Hong Kong, Sept 15, ibid.) ABC NT via Shepparton still going on 6080, Sept 15 at 1325 with Aussie sports atop poor RSI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA [non]. CVC still going on 17860 in English via Jülich, Sept 14 at 1338 with football discussion during ``The Edge``; fair. This was in the schedule in 6-106: 1200-1400 17860 JUL 100 kW / 105 deg to WeAs English till Aug. 31 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AZERBAIJAN. Radio Dada Gorgud lives! --- I was briefly in Baku earlier this week and can report that Radio Dada Gorgud is still on the air - just. I heard it at various times, including the sole daily English transmission at 1700 on both 1296 and 6111 (approx). The MW transmitter is now on-channel (ex 1295) but audio quality is poor and the signal was surprisingly weak. In the evening, it was suffering interference from the IBB transmitter in Afghanistan. Signal strengths on 6111 were also poor, though that might be because I was in the skip zone. It is worth noting that the Dada Gorgud ID is still being used. The ID in English was "Radio Dada Gorgud, the Voice of Azerbaijan". Overall though, the poor signals and audio quality meant that station was not properly monitorable in its own capital city. Some other Baku observations in brief: As per WRTH, 1296 also relays RFE at times, in parallel with 1530 (the latter much stronger in Baku). Of the other MW channels listed in WRTH, 549, 801 and 891 were heard (all in parallel) but there was no sign of listed Baku 612. The 801 transmitter carries Azeri Radio, not BBC as in WRTH (BBC is on 103.3 FM). (Chris (now back in the UK) Greenway, Sept 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELARUS. RADIOSTANTSIYA BELARUS EXPANDS GERMAN LANGUAGE PROGRAMMES Radiostantsiya Belarus has expanded its broadcasting in German. It is now heard daily 1800-1900 h UT on 1170, 7105, 7390 and 7440 kHz. The following English programme is broadcast on the same frequencies. According to Ruslan Prokhorov, deputy director general of Foreign Broadcasting Division of the Belarusian Radio, the internet site of Radio Belarus will also get a German version. Currently, http://www.tvr.by presents news, audio files of programs, and additional information in Belarusian, Russian and English. 23.08.2006 Press release New season on the channels of the Belarusian Radio On September 1 the channels and radio stations of the Belarusian radio will open new broadcasting season. It means that the air will be filled with new interesting programs and the old ones will get some new features. (...) Radio Station "Belarus" will expand its broadcasting hours by 2 hours a day. The total broadcasting time in the new season will be 17 hours: 7 hours of airtime plus 10 hours of English-language online-casting in a real-time format. It is planned to expand airtime hours: the German language service up to one hour a day (previously, one day a week), the English language service up to two hours a day (previously, 2 hours 30 minutes a week). The call signs of the radio station will be available on short and medium waves from 19:00 to 02:00 (0000 UT [sic]). This is the primetime. Thus, the Belarusian language service will be on from 19:00 to 21:00, the German language service from 21:00 to 22:00 (1800-1900 UT), the English language service from 22:00 to 24:00 (1900-2100 UT), the Russian language service from 00:00 to 02:00. Also news editions in the Polish language will be available three times a week. Russian-language projects "Night Hour with Radio Belarus" (main news, relevant commentaries) and "Military Panorama" (army, development of domestic military-industrial complex, co-operation within the Union State) will appear. Also new English projects will hit the air: "Construction Site" (history, traditions, modern designing and original solutions of Belarusian architects, national housing policy, rural revival plans) and "Private Sector" (private business development, government SME support). (via Dr. Hansjoerg Biener, Sept 11 via Kai Ludwig, dxldyg via DXLD) The Radio Belarus web site - at least, the so called "official" one that I checked - has at last been updated and this is what appears: Radio Belarus daily transmissions are on air from 16 till 23 hours UT on the frequencies of 7440, 7390, from 1720 till 23 hours UT 7105 kHz and from 19 till 23 hours UT on the frequencies of 1170 kHz (Kai Ludwig, ibid.) As monitored, transmissions are in Belarusian until 1800 and from 2100. As Kai states German is at 1800-1900 and English 1900-2100 and all daily. However, I can hear 7105 on air before 1600 - tentatively it's there after 1400 but due to local noise I have not yet verified the ID for sure at that hour - and it's definitely on air when Radio Farda fires up co-channel at 1700. Possibly 7105 is carrying another service before 1720??? And they are still heard with a transmission until 0700 on 11930. This is registered with the HFCC as: 11930 0400 0700 29,30 MNS 100 75 and I think in Russian - but I'm open to correction on the language! (Noel R. Green (NW England), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) The language of Belaruskaje Radyjo programs is actually a mix of Belarusian and Russian. Typically announcers use Belarusian, and interviewed persons, etc. speak Russian -- 73! (Sergey Nikishin, Moscow, Russia, ibid.) It appears that 7105 is on air with a beam towards Moscow 1500-1700 and after a break for antenna switching again from 1720, aiming at Central Europe then. These transmissions to Moscow are supposed to contain BR 1, with various regional stations in the 1500-1540 window, each day another one. This still appears to be the case, at least I found recently after 1500 7105 to be not // 6115 (Minsk feed of BR 1 with Radio Staliza instead of "true" local programming). I understand that these Moscow-beam transmissions, including 11930 in the morning, are run by the same 250 kW transmitter than the western beam transmissions on 7105, but it is possible that things have changed due to the Family Radio relays in the evening (are they still on at all?). The details given about the 1170 usage are confirmed by my recent observation that German after 1800 was on shortwave only (7105, 7390, 7440) while 1170 had some other program. I did not check out what it was, but Voice of Russia in Czech (1745-1830) and Slovak (1830-1900) should still be on during this hour (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) So Europe now gets a daily 2-hour block in English on SW --- but what about NAm, which has been getting non-daily half-hours at different times. Finding anything about SW on their website is a problem (gh) ** BELARUS. Made a point of checking out 7105 today before 1540. Sure enough it was // 6040 and 7110 this time, so no doubt carrying Radio Hrodna/Grodno. Looks like the rota scheme for relays of local stations on this frequency is still in force as it was a few years ago: Mon Homiel/Gomiel, Tue Viciebsk/Vitebsk, Wed Mahiliou/Mogilyov, Thu Brest and Fri Grodno as just confirmed, all 1500-1540/1600 on 7105 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Sept 15, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also UNIDENTIFIED 12080 ** BOLIVIA. 1030, R. Orinaca (R. Patria Nueva), Orinaca, Oruro – new station [source:] abi 1030, R. Patria Nueva, Riberalta, Beni – new station [source:] SITTEL 1030, R. Independencia (R. Patria Nueva), Provincia de Ayapoya, Cochabamba – new station with 3 kW. abi 1050, R. Sabaya (R. Patria Nueva), Sabaya (Oruro) – new station SITTEL (ARC SOUTH AMERICAN NEWS DESK 11/9 2006 edited by Tore B. Vik, Norway via Tore Larsson, ARC, DXLD) Looks like RPN is deliberately occupying the central part of the band (gh) ** BOLIVIA. Re R. Andina: Still "excited and happy" with Torolf Johnsson´s audio clips, Radio Andina manager in another email says that as from now the station will "permanently" greet the two of us in their request show between 2000 and 2200 hours Bolivian time. As the Bolivian "nightingale" Luzmila Carpio was on the show Torolf recorded, there will be more of the same in conjunction with the daily greeting from one continent to another. For info in English on this Bolivian artist, including an audio and video sampler, see http://lcmgmt.online.fr/html/luzmilacarpio.html The program is in Quechua, but the greeting will supposedly be aired in Spanish (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, Sept 13, dxing.info via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Re. this report of mine "11749.8 R. Marumby, Florianópolis SC, 2100-2120, 08 Sep, fq ann., prgr "Voz Missionária" at 2111; 23441, QRM de CHN (t)." I've got info from Isaac Rosa in Cratéus, Ceará, Brazil, saying that the transmitter on 11750v is currently putting just half of its nominal 1 kW power (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Sept 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Radio Nacional da Amazônia is back on 11780 since Tuesday Sep 14 [sic, means 12?]. Noted while checking around 2230. Seems they care less from splatter from Radio Martí from Greenville 11770 around 0200, than that other one from too close WHRI 11785 between 1300 to 1500, that even produces a het while RNA was on 11783 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, Thu Sept 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 15325, Rádio Gazeta, São Paulo, SP, 1507+, September 09, Portuguese, short news, announcement about Lula´s governnment, 35343 (Arnaldo Slaen, et al., Villa Elisa, B.A., Argentina, playdx yg via DXLD) Only Brazilian active on 19m, I think, a rarity here (gh) ** CANADA. CBA Moncton not co-located with RCI Sackville --- Hi Glenn, After catching up on some back issues of DXLD, I wanted to correct one of your comments from DXLD 6-131. CBA is NOT presently located at Sackville, and hasn't been since sometime in the early 1970's. It was built at Sackville in the late 1930's, and was joined at that site by RCI. However, CBA 1070 was moved at some point in the early Seventies, perhaps around the time that RCI was expanding the number of transmitters in service. (I haven't yet come up with the exact date.) Current geographical coordinates for the 1070 transmitter are 46 02'02" North, 64 41'10" West. The Sackville coordinates, per the WRTH, are 45 53' North, 64 19' West (Bill Westenhaver, RCI Montreal, Sept 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) O, I should have realized, since we never hear any SW-MW mixing products 1.07 MHz from RCI SW frequencies. Seems to me CBA was originally identified with Sackville rather than Moncton. Identity with Moncton instead may have coincided with the axual site change (Glenn Hauser, OK, ibid.) RCI on Sirius: see INTERNATIONAL VACUUM ** CANADA. Remember the excellent series ``O`Reilly on Advertising`` which ran a year ago on CBC? Now Terry O`Reilly is back with a new series on a related subject: TERRY O'REILLY AND THE AGE OF PERSUASION: This morning on CBC Radio One, Terry O'Reilly continues his exploration of how marketing and advertising have permeated almost every aspect of our lives. This week, Terry examines ways in which marketing insinuates itself into our language and even changes the ways we communicate. He'll explain why only rookies order "small" coffee at Starbucks, how dress sizes have shrunk eight sizes since the 50's, and how a fast-food slogan helped sink a U.S. Presidential candidate. Then he'll demonstrate how today's 'language of persuasion' goes beyond words. That's Terry O'Reilly and the Age of Persuasion, this morning at 11:30 (noon NT) on CBC Radio One. ***repeated Saturday at 4 p.m. on CBC Radio One*** (CBC Hotsheet via Glenn Hauser, DXLD) `This` morning being Thursday Sept 14 at 1430 UT +1/2/3/4 hours across the timezones, the repeat Sat Sept 16 at 1900 UT +1/2/3/4 hours. From wording of the above it started a week or two ago, but failed to appear on the CBC Online schedules which are still showing `TBA` in lots of blox such as this! Under the program site only the Saturday airing is mentioned and nowhere does it show how many episodes there are. The Thursday airing is also on SW, RCI 9515, 13655, 17800 at 1531:30 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O'Reilly_on_Advertising also http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=0660195445 (Dan Say, ibid.) ** CANADA. SECOND LIVE STREAM FOR CBC RADIO TWO There appears to be an unadvertised CBC Radio Two audio stream available for listening. If you go to http://cbc.ca/montreal and click on "audio/video" at the top of the page, you get a listing that includes "CBC Radio Two Montreal." When the Windows Media Player window pops up, the high- and low-bandwidth streams have unique addresses from those offered on the main CBC site [i.e. Toronto]. 73, (Ricky Leong, Calgary, Sept 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) O yes, I think it has been there for some time, and PublicRadioFan.com has it linked; I wonder if there are any others hiding like it, preferably in other timezones? (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** CANADA. Re 6-137: I caught - I think for the first time - a positive ID for CJWI Montreal on 1610. It was the close down announcement at 0500 UT. Recording: http://tinyurl.com/zg3g6 (Paul Crankshaw, Troon, UK, Sept 10, MWC via DXLD) I listened to this clip, and the callsign is clearly announced as "C- P-A-M", about 20 seconds into the recording. 73 - (J. D. Stephens, Hampton Cove, AL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CPAM is more of a slogan or alternative station name, or abbr., as it is not in Bolivia; but they may well use it more than the real callsign CJWI, which is also in this clip immediately before ``CPAM``. To add to the confusion, `CRTC` is also mentioned earlier (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [and non]. Here is an example of IBOC causing trouble for local reception in the Detroit area. WRDT 560 Monroe-Detroit now runs IBOC digital broadcasting during daytime hours. CKWW 580 Windsor (that also targets the Detroit market) is only 20 kHz away, and WRDT`s digital signal puts that sort of digital white noise on top of CKWW during the daytime, really degrading the sound on CKWW. I imagine CKWW only has to be protected in Canada, so they probably have no valid complaint with the FCC. CKWW's ratings have tanked since they younged up their music. I bet they switch to a Windsor oriented format. Is there a Canadian syndicated sports network they could pick up? (Jim Nahirniak, MI, MARE Tipsheet Sept 10 via DXLD) ** CANADA. DX ALERT - UPCOMING RADIO EVENT There will be a special five-hour "DX Program" from CKDO Oshawa Ontario on its new frequency of 1580, from 2100 EDT Thursday 5 October to 2 AM EDT Friday 6 October [0100-0600 UT]. This program is timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the station, to the exact date. CKDO first signed on October 5, 1946 with 100 watts on 1240. (CKDO = Durham and Ontario counties). The calls became CKLB on Dec. 19, 1949, when ownership changed to Lakeland Broadcasting (ckLB). Calls later became CKAR, and a few years ago reverted to the original CKDO. The station moved to 1350 on Dec. 31, 1955. Thus with its recent official move on Aug. 14 to 1580, the station concluded more than 50 years service on 1350. For those who do not realize, 1580 was one of the clear channels allocated to Canada in the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement of 1941, and CBJ Chicoutimi QC operated on that frequency from March 22, 1942 until it moved to 93.7 in 1999. [also cc for Mexico, e.g. XEDM Hermosillo, but not cc for USA -- gh] There will be a special toll-free number given out over the air, and phone calls from distant listeners will be encouraged. It is anticipated that some former DJs from over the years will be participating. The 1580 frequency uses the same directional pattern day and night favouring east and west, at 10,000 watts. The programming has been organized by Wayne Plunkett (long-time DXer) and Douglas Kirk (owner of Durham Radio Inc.). All written reception reports will be answered. Send reports to Attn: Special DX Program, CKDO, 1200 Airport Blvd., Ste 207, Oshawa Ontario L1J 8P5. Let's hope for good conditions so this program can be heard coast-to- coast in North America, and maybe beyond! (Saul Chernos (who won't have trouble hearing it at either Toronto or Burnt River ON), Sept 8, IRCA et al. via DXLD) ** CHILE. CVC La Voz, 17680 was JBA instead of inbooming, Sept 15 at 1315; 17625 CRI relay was inaudible. CVC via Germany, however, English on 17860 was good. After 1400, 17680 had picked up enough to confirm it was in Spanish news. Really strange propagation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. 6050, PBS Xizang Sep.14 2210-2221 UT. Chinese exalted talk by M, during all listening period. 35343. Acc.to EiBi this is Baoji with 100 kW. 6130, PBS Xizang Lhasa (presumed), Sep. 14, 2227-2240 UT, Tibetan songs non-stop with fair signal. 7335, China Business R., in Chinese, 2305-2315 UT, noted under CHU Ottawa, weak but readable in the gaps of CHU. That's all. Greetings from Portugal (José Turner, Sept 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. 9780, Voice of China Reborn (tentative), from Taiwan, 1410+, September 09, Chinese, talk by male (QRM UNID with Chinese music), 23432 (Arnaldo Slaen, et al., Villa Elisa, B.A., Argentina, playdx yg via DXLD) ** CHINA [and non]. VOA`s major relay frequency in English via Philippines, 9760, continues to have CCI from China, at 1332 Sept 15. VOA was listenable atop talk in Chinese and music, but quite an annoyance. Will this collision finally be resolved in B-06? I doubt it. Currently it`s Kunming beamed SE at 135 degrees, roughly toward Philippines, nose-thumbing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake, presumably against Sound of Hope, still keeping out of 20m band: Sept 13 at 1330 FD on 14600 // stronger 13970, and also // 9780 vs Taiwan. Firedrake still sticking to 13970, and stronger here than // 14600, outside the 20 m band, as checked at 1325 UT Sept 14. Ergo, Sound of Hope appears to be complying with ham intruder complaints to avoid hambands, so far. One more day with Firedrake near but outside the 20m band, 13970 much stronger than // 14600, Sept 15 at 1322. But I suspect some MARS or other military nets find 13970 a problem (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re: Amateur Radio Societies Want Broadcasters to Take their Battle off Ham Bands The response to the Sound of Hope stinks of "Victim Blaming" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victim_blaming I wonder where they were when the USSR was jamming Europe? Remember the USSR OTH Woodpecker? Should we "victim blame" ourselves for building weaponized rocketry? NO! The blame should fall squarely here: Jacques Chirac, on visit to Beijing, taxed about sales of French company Thalès equipment to jam foreign broadcasts into China http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=11567 Thanks to transmitters, antennae and other equipment supplied by the French company Thalès, the government has been able to improve its jamming capabilities and can now effectively block shortwave broadcasts by foreign radio stations based in Europe and central Asia. http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=14716 In China, the "broadcasting Great Wall" had new victims, with Voice of Tibet, the BBC, Sound of Hope and Radio Free Asia among the radio stations jammed by the regime with equipment from the French firm Thalès... http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16088 ...the Chinese authorities have improved their jamming capabilities. Installed above all in the far northwestern city of Kashi, they are used to jam international radio signals. Radio Free Asia broadcasts on 10 different frequencies in an attempt to get round the censorship, but they are all systematically jammed by diffuse noise or music. The authorities recently installed new jamming towers in Pemba (in the Chamdo region) and since then residents have been unable to get Voice of America... http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=14312 The government has spent a lot on keeping its monopoly of broadcasting (CCTV) and the news agency Xinhua. The building of a "broadcasting Great Wall" to jam reception of foreign radio stations has been stepped up, with erection of special antennae all over the country with the help of the French firm Thalès... http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15851 (tribby2001, Sept 14, dxldyg via DXLD) ** CONGO DR. Radio Kahuzi, Bukavu. On 11 Sep at tune in 1653 there was a station with talks and religious music on 6209.6 (.66 to be exact). Mainly chorus music until closing announcement, a short tuner melody and off at 1706. I guess language was Swahili or similar. I talked to Mauno Ritola and by chance he had heard the same station at the same time. We both sent reception reports to R Kahuzi and today 13 Sep received verification e-mails from Bukavu with a promise of printed QSL from home office in California. E-mail was signed by Richard and Kathy McDonald. They give sched as 0900-1300 1400-1600 1800-1900 Mondays and Fridays. I guess this is Bukavu time (UTC+2) But sign-off times seem to be variable (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CONGO DR [non]. R. Okapi, 11690 via South Africa, 0455-0600* Sept 8, tune-in to French talk, ID jingles. Some Afro-pops but mostly just continuous talk. 0600 ``Okapi`` jingle and off. Weak at tune-in and very weak by sign-off (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. For a while when WRMI had non-exile programming overnight, 9955 was not jammed, but it sure is now, when checked Sept 14 and other nights around 0500: nothing but heavy jamming audible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. Air Martí up at exactly 2300 GMT, 530 kc/s of course. Not very good, slightly better than last Friday. And again LOBbing, east of Habana on the Scotka loop (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, Friday Sept 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also ALASKA ** DIEGO GARCIA. AFN 12759 USB is quite good here at 1455 UT, close to its QSY. 73, (Erik Køie, Copenhagen, Denmark, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) So far I have not caught it on 12759 at several different times tried (gh, OK, DXLD) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA ECUATORIAL. 5005, 2023, RN Guinea Ecuatorial Sep 11 Spanish male. 23232 (Jeroen Kloppenburg, Deventer, the Netherlands, with a Phillips D2999PLL and homemade passive magnetic loop antenna, Sept 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EUROPE. After 1700 a transmission with music nonstop on 6220 caught my attention. The signal strength made me believe that it is a distant professional station, but a search for "6220 site:www.worldofradio.com" promptly revealed that it must be a pirate, called Laser Hot Hits. The item included in DXLD 6-128 suggests that they run this frequency only at low power anymore, but what I heard tonight sounded certainly like 1...2 kW, hardly less (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Sept 15, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) But LHH got raided August 22, as you would have found in further searching, and supposedly gone from SW. Don`t forget there is another pirate in Italy using 6220, which must be pleased (gh, DXLD) ** FRANCE. RFI using 11700 had a distinct "echo" after 0700 today (Sept.15). Their HFCC registration shows only one sender: 11700 0700 0800 37W,46W ISS 500 204 but a schedule I received earlier this year shows two from ISS. One of 250 kW at 155 deg and one of 500 kW at 200 deg so I don't know which is correct. However, this sounded like a "real echo" and not a delayed feed to one transmitter. Whichever beam is in use the path is a very interesting one to result in this effect (Noel R. Green (NW England), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. EMR This Sunday 17th of September: Shortwave Broadcast on 6045 kHz at 1200-1300 UT + Internet stream. Internet Repeats at: 1500- 1600, 1800-1900, 2100-2200 UT. Good Listening, 73s (Tom Taylor, Sept 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WHERE on the internet? European Music Radio ** GERMANY. Deutsche Welle to stop all German broadcasts to North America in November --- Die Deutsche Welle had revived its German programs from 12 to 16 UT about a year ago, but now they announced that these and the evening broadcasts would cease because listeners in N. America were abandoning shortwave for the Internet. Wie Schade (Martin Gallas, Jacksonville, IL 62650, Sept 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tsk. I think there was no revival needed as those German programs never went away (gh, DXLD) ** GERMANY. - HISTORY --- Nicht ohne Stimme [not without voice] von Achim Becker / Hans Canjé aus "Junge Welt"; Berlin, 21.08.2006 Am Tag des KPD-Verbots hatte der »Deutsche Freiheitssender 904« Premiere Freitag, 17. August 1956, 20 Uhr MEZ. Amtliche und nichtamtliche Rundfunkhörer machen auf der Mittelwellenfrequenz 904 einen neuen Sender aus. Über die Anfangstakte von Beethovens »Freude schöner Götterfunke« verkündet eine unpathetische, aber sich Aufmerksamkeit verschaffende Stimme: »Hier ist der Deutsche Freiheitssender 904 – der einzige Sender der Bundesrepublik, der nicht unter Regierungskontrolle steht.« Sprecher dieses Textes war der »Donnerer«, wie Wolfgang Heinz, Schauspieler und späterer Intendant des Deutschen Theaters, hinter vorgehaltener Hand von seinen Kollegen genannt wurde. Gefragt, ob er bereit wäre, diese Ansage zu sprechen, antwortete der von den Faschisten verfolgte Kommunist, ein über den deutschsprachigen Raum hinaus anerkannter Charakterdarsteller, ohne Zögern mit Ja. Von nun an war seine Stimme zur Eröffnung der Sendezeit zu hören. Vollständiger Artikel unter http://www.kominform.at/article.php?story=20060821100447228 (via H. Meixner-AUT Aug 23, 2006 in A-DX-ML via CRW via DXLD) The article says, coauthor A. Becker was one of the first coworkers at DFS 904, also H. Canjé has been working for DFS 904. The article also mentions the Magisterarbeit 'Der Deutsche Freiheitssender 904' by Christian Senne, published in May 2003 in Berlin (M. Schöch-D Aug 28, 2006 for CRW via DXLD) ** GERMANY EAST. Some details on Vltava and OPS clannie operations: Vltava went out from studio K3 where they set the limiter for the purpose to 12 db compression for a maximum reach of the AM transmissions. Spoken items were prerecorded individually and played out alongside the music, so the whole thing had been put together live but all speech was canned. OPS originated from either K1 or K2, apparently indeed live in this case. One announcer who spoke typical American English was probably a native, at least he was a friendly black gentleman (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Sept 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [and non]. When tuning around after 1700 I got confused by an ongoing transmission on 6015: What's this, religion in Dutch? It took me almost a minute to realize that it was not Dutch but Lower German and so to remember that this is simply HCJB via Wertachtal. The irony here is that HCJB most likely offers more programming in Lower German than any other broadcaster. Otherwise I'm aware of only some broadcasts from Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Lower German, but much less than HCJB's half hour every day. And to my knowledge the every-day usage of Lower German in northern Germany is diminishing at a worrying speed (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Sept 15, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) So are there more Low German speakers outside Germany than inside now? No doubt primarily for isolated immigrant groups in Latein Amerika, Mennonites, etc. (gh) ** GREECE. Babis: Avlis 3 has been missing from 9420 for the last few days. Have you moved to a new frequency, or are you having technical problems with the transmitter or antenna? (John Babbis, Silver Spring MD, Sept 14, to ERA, via DXLD) And still missing UT Fri Sept 15 ** GUAM. I am back here on Guam and went by to visit the Barrigada antenna site. I ran into some people who work on the site; they mentioned that the antennas are coming down in the next few months and they plan to install new ones in their place. They did confirm to me that these are being used by the US Navy and the USCG; this is where they broadcast their weather info to mariners. They mentioned the site has been in service since 1970's and they are planning to upgrade the system. 73's from (Larry Fields, n6hpx/kh2 Guam, island, Sept 14, swl at qth.net via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 9525, Voice of Indonesia, 0919-0930 Sept 13. At tune in, noted usual music with comments from a man between tunes. Language listed for this time frame is Malaysian. Signal was fair. 9680.14, RRI Jakarta, 1035-1050 Sept 13. Had this on speaker since 0930, but the signal was poor. At latest period, noted a man and woman in Indo comments over music. Signal was fair during this time (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) You missed this if you were`t listening at 1000: (gh, DXLD) 9680, RRI Jakarta, Sept 13 (Wed.), 1000-1020, KGRE program in English; author Dewi Lestari talked about her book and spirituality; gives info about KGRE staff members. Good signal but problem with the audio, very mushy and hard to make out. Good to have RRI back on the air, as they had been off for about 3 days. VOI on 9525 also has returned with a big signal. Thanks to Noel Green for tip they were back on (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) As others have noted, VOI resumed Sept 12 after a few days missing. Sept 13 at 1305 found 9525 back with fine signal, ID, warta berita; 1324 the usual American English ID during otherwise Indonesian language hour. Rechecked at 1409, they had axually turned off the 9525 carrier allowing CRI in Russian to be heard without interference. Gone again! No Suara Indonesia on 9525, Sept 14 during the 1300 UT hour checked 2 or 3 times. What is it that causes this to be so unreliable? 9525 still missing at 1305 and other checks during this hour Sept 15 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 4604.97, RRI Serui, 1050-1103 Sept 13. Noted MOR until 1059. At that time man comments in Indo, followed by theme music at 1100. Then into the news. Signal was poor during entire period (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. Question about jammers --- is there some site with for example soundsamples from the various jammers? I have been following 4880 for a while already (I think I got it from a Swedish log...) and noticed it being jammed, yesterday and the day before I noticed they were jamming 5 kHz lower. But as I am unaware of what type of sound is associated with what jammer I have a bit difficulty to make exact determinations (Jeroen Kloppenburg, Deventer, the Netherlands, Sept 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. RCI now available 24/7 on Sirius in the US For reasons unknown (no official announcement has been made), Sirius Satellite Radio sent out an update to all its American subscribers' recievers last night which unlocked a number of channels that until now had been available only on Sirius Canada. Most importantly, this means that Sirius Canada's "Radio Canada International Plus" channel is now available to U.S. listeners on Channel 188. RCI+ is an amalgam of RCI programming from all nine of their language services. A current schedule is available at: http://www.rcinet.ca/rci/PDF/A06_RCI_Plus.pdf For those interested, the other Canadian Sirius channels now available in the U.S. are: The Weather Network - Channel 185. Continuous Canadian weather, largely indistinguishable in format from The Weather Channel in the U.S. Hardcore Sports Radio - Channel 186. Canadian-oriented sports news and talk. InfoPlus - Channel 187. The CBC's French all-news radio service. Rock Velours - Channel 192. All-Canadian adult contemporary/soft rock music in both English and French. Énergie2 - Channel 193. Canadian and international pop, rock, alternative and urban music, in both English and French (Aaron Dickey, Sept 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Not to my older receivers, though. My two Audiovox and Kenwood PNPs have not been updated. OTOH, my newer Starmate Replay had the Canadian channels from the day I activated it in July (John Figliozzi, NY, ibid.) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM [non]. Space Shuttle support traffic heard Sept 9 during the 1315-1400 period [prior to latest launch], all USB: 10780, Cape Radio working Liberty Star 4992, Cape Radio working Liberty Star & Freedom Star (NASA SRB recovery vessels) 10780, Cape Radio working King 2 5810, Cape Radio working King 2 (USAF aircraft) (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. [Cf 6-137] New station for Iranian youth --- Yesterday they featured a new station on the 6 pm news on public TV station Netherlands 1. It is Radio Zamaneh which apparently have been broadcasting over the Internet for about a month by now, and is oriented towards the youth in Iran, which according to the item makes up 70% of the total population (up to 27 years-old). People from the station explained that receiving the station over the Internet is very hard in Iran. Therefor they cooperate with Radio Netherlands now, and broadcast on shortwave 6245 kHz as well. The station has a website at http://radiozamaneh.com/ (Jeroen Kloppenburg, Deventer, the Netherlands, Sept 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) R. Zamaneh: Re Glenn's comment "FSU probably, or is R. Nederland involved? Not mentioned by Media Network blog." I had never heard of Radio Zamaneh until I read about in DXLD. We have in the past worked with Press Now (for example you may recall our shortwave relays of B92 in Belgrade for a brief time) but I have seen or heard nothing to indicate that RNW is involved in this. [Later:] Further to my previous message, just to be absolutely accurate, a colleague has informed me that Radio Netherlands did give some technical advice to Radio Zamaneh and put them in contact with the Russians who are providing the shortwave transmissions. But they are now in direct contact with the Russians, so we don't have any involvement in the day-to-day operations of Radio Zamaneh (Andy Sennitt, Radio Netherlands, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn! 6245 kHz, Radio Zamaneh in Farsi logged on Sept 13th at 1730 UT with a news broadcast. Strong signal, but they seem to have a transmitter problem. There were a lot of breaks, sometimes only the carrier was audible, sometimes completely off. 73, (Patrick Robic, Austria, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RUSIA, 6245, Radio Zamaneh, 1700-1716, escuchada el 14 de Septiembre en idioma farsi con música de apertura y locutora con presentación, segmento musical y locutora con entrevista a invitada, SINPO 44333. [Luego:] Saludos cordiales, respecto a la nueva emisora en farsi, Radio Zamaneh que opera por los 6245 desde Rusia con horario de 1700 a 2100 UT, según se ha publicado, está aún en el aire cuando son las 2115. Con excelente señal desde Valencia en España, SINPO 55544. 73 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, SANGEAN ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) How do you know it`s Russia?? Andy`s remark about the Russians does not necessarily mean the transmitter site be in Russia rather than somewhere else in the FSU, e.g. Moldova, whence they like to broadcast to such target areas. It seems that many of the sites for sale in other FSU countries are still brokered thru Moscow (gh, DXLD) Radio Zamaneh which started broadcasts on SW to Iran on 11 September (daily 1700-2100 on 6245 kHz) was heard with very strong signals here in Denmark 12 September around 1930 with Farsi programming. I have added link to their web-site on http://krone-web.dk/ - go through 'most recent changes' (Finn Krone, Denmark, Sept 14, HCDX via DXLD) Ik heb nu (1920) op 6245 een snoeihard signaal van een Arabisch [sic] klinkend station. S9+40. SINPO 55555. Om 1923 UT een id gehoord. Inderdaad R. Zamaneh (Ary Boender, Netherlands, Sept 12, BDX via DXLD) ** IRAN [non]. Re 6-137 Iran 4044 item. Checked this today 14 Sep after 1600. It was jumping 4025, 4050, 4060 to avoid jamming. Around 1635 on 4050 couple of Kurdish IDs for Voice of the Struggle of Iranian Kurdistan (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [and non]. Islamic Republic of / LITHUANIA: 7540, Voice of Islamic Republic of Iran via Sitkunai transmitter site, 2033+, September 09, Spanish, Identification, announcement of QRG´s & QTR´s, bulletin news in Spanish, 25432 (Arnaldo Slaen, et al., Villa Elisa, B.A., Argentina, playdx yg via DXLD) Just to reconfirm it: IRIB again noted tonight from 1730 with German on 7540 via the Sitkunai transmitter, this time strong enough to even note a slight background hum, in modulation pauses muted by a gate somewhere in the audio chain, reminiscent to some other radio station years ago. // 11855 from Sirjan (the huge Telefunken-built plant in Iran) tonight suffered from intermittent audio distortion while 15085 was almost faded out by this time. Autumn is approaching at fast speed it seems (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Sept 15, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Axually at normal speed, I bet (gh) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 9485, Shiokaze via Taiwan, 1303-1317, Sept 12 [Tuesday], English, Contact info at tune-in, OM re N. Korean nukes and other news reports. ID at 1316 followed by "Special Message" though signal rapidly deteriorating at this time. Fair/poor (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, 200' Beverages, MLB-1, DTS-4, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Shiokaze, 9485 via Taiwan was very poor Sept 13 at 1303 and 1327 checks; as far as I could tell it was in Korean, rather than English as had been the practice the past several Wednesdays, but this week English was on Tuesday. Question is whether English will still be on Friday. From the wide variations in reception of this one, while other EAs signals are not so variable, I am beginning to wonder if something else is responsible such as power or antenna changes at the transmitter site(s?) Shiokaze, 9485 via Taiwan, Thu Sept 14 checked at 1306 and 1328 appeared to be in Korean along with the piano music. Shiokaze-2, 9485 via Taiwan, good signal this Friday Sept 15, and yes, once again in English; at 1304 ending intro and starting to read names and years; 1329 outro in English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA [non]. V. of Africa, 17610 via France, good signal in Swahili at 1340 Sept 14, but usual big hum to go with it. As for English at 14-16, see 6-070: this should since Sept 3 be back on 21695 ex-17725, // 17850 tho 17725 had been missing before Sept 3. Swahili at 12-14 also supposed to have returned to 21695, tho its // 17725 had already shifted to 17610 as above (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA [and non]. MOLDAVIA, 17610, Sawt Al-amal, 1310-1400, escuchada el 14 de Septiembre en árabe con fuerte interferencia de emisora jammer con música afro-pop que se prolongó hasta las 1530, SINPO 42342. 17615, Sawt Al-amal, 1220-1257, escuchada el 14 de Septiembre en árabe a locutor con entrevista a invitado, se identifica a las 1240, SINPO 45444 17675, Sawt Al-amal, 1215-1302, escuchada el 13 de Septiembre en árabe a locutor con comentarios, segmento musical y cuña de ID, SINPO 45433. 17680, Sawt Al-amal, 1331-1400, escuchada el 13 de Septiembre en árabe con fuerte interferencia de emisora jammer con música afro-pop, SINPO, 32432 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, SANGEAN ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 7295, Traxx FM, 1048-1100+, Sept 11, English, Phone banter between DJ and callers re "What do you think?" (About what, I don't know) between pop ballads. ID in passing at 1050. Pips at 1100 followed by presumed news. Poor/fair at best (Scott Barbour, NH, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. I note a het of roughly 200 Hz on 6049.8 with something on 6050.0, Sept 15 at 1326. The low one is likely Kajang, Malaysia, as reported by Alan Davies; could the high one be Sibu really on the air in evening, or something else? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 6049.65, Suara Islam (RTM), Sept 13, 1400-1420 religious program starts with choral anthem, many Suara Islam FM IDs, reciting from the Qur`an; 1605-1659:30*, segment with on-air phone calls (``Hello. Assalam aalaikum``), BoH news, variety of music (ballads, pop, etc.), reciting from Qur an, off with choral anthem. Fair, but fading out to poor by sign-off. Believe the recent info submitted by Alan Davies had a typo: should be 1400-1700 for Suara Islam, as has been observed on a number of occasions, including today, instead of 1500-1700; with Asyik FM (RTM) actually going to 1400, not 1500 (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, RX340, with T2FD antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA/SARAWAK. 7130, Sarawak FM (RTM) (presumed), Sept 13, 1336- 1353 + random checks, music program under QRM (CNR-2/China Business Radio with English Evening program till 1400, then changes to CNR-1), clearly // 5030 (under CNR-1). Brief periods of being fair, but mostly poor, due to strong China QRM (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, RX340, with T2FD antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 15295, Suara Malaysia (RTM), Sept 13, 1715-1742, YL DJ playing pop songs and ballads, BoH news about RTM, with items about Nasional Malaysia, Suara Islam, Asyik FM, RTM Center, Kula Lumpur, etc. Good reception at start but fading out to poor (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, RX340, with T2FD antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALI. RTM, Bamako, 4835.39, 2345-0003* Sept 7-8, French talk, Afro- pops. Sign-off with march-style NA. Poor, weak in noisy conditions. But weaker on // 5995 with splatter from Cuba on 6000 (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MAURITANIA. 4845, 1915, R. Mauritanie, Sep 10, Music and male, Arabic. This station comes through here almost every night. 23132 (Jeroen Kloppenburg, Deventer, the Netherlands, with a Phillips D2999PLL and homemade passive magnetic loop antenna, Sept 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. Pues con respecto a la interferencia en 88.5 MHz. No se escuchó ésta ni el lunes, ni martes, ni miércoles de esta semana. Por otra parte, ¿quién sabe si continúa transmitiendo todavía "La Democrática" o "Radio Democrática". Saludos cordiales, (Roberto Edgar Gómez Morales, DF, Sept 14, Noticias DX via DXLD) ** MONACO [non]. Voici quelques infos sur RFI à Monaco. Emissions tests, depuis le Col de la Madone, 702 kHz, avec 600 kW: 1800-2200 TU. Les tests se termineront aujourd'hui mercredi 13 septembre. Adresse: Monte Carlo Radiodiffusion 10-12 Quai Antoine 1 MC- 98000 MONACO Fax: +377 97 97 47 07 E-mail: mcradiodiffusion@ mcr.mc ou herve-pichat@ mcr.mc Voilà pour aujourd'hui, 73's Christian Ghibaudo. Nice France (via Dario Monferini, bclnews.it via DXLD) I heard the 702 kHz RFI transmission while in eastern France last week. Strong signal on small Sony portable radio. Everything I heard was in French. I was wondering about the transmitter site/station (Mike Cooper, Sep 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND [and non]. RNZI at 1302 Sept 13 was already going in DRM on 6090-6100, but no analog to be heard on 7145, altho it was there much later in the hour; maybe late making QSY from 9870. RNZI was 14 minutes late making its frequency and mode switch Sept 14. At 1301 I was still hearing DRM on 7140-7150, and it lasted until 1313. Meanwhile, nothing on 6095, and analog was still on 9870 until 1313 when it finally switched to 7145, and DRM to 6090-6100 in the middle of a program which at 1304 on 9870 was about broadcasting in Fiji. Besides inconveniencing listeners, both analog and DRM, it is not a good idea to stay on 9870 past 1300, because CRI in English is there; fortunately, here, underneath RNZI. CRI is 200 degrees from Xi`an. Axually, the original A-06 registration for RNZI had 9870 staying on until 1315, so that may explain it, tho their own posted schedule shows the switch at 1259. I assume other odd scheduled frequency change times such as 1651, 1751, 2138 are to do so without interrupting programming, theoretically. Unlike the day before, RNZI made its QSY more or less on time Sept 15; checked at 1304, 7145 was already on in AM, and 6095 in DRM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. RNZI tentative B-06 in analog: 1645-1800 9440 or 9870 1745-1900 11675 1945-2245 17675 2245-0400 15720 0745-1100 9885 1100-1300 13840 1300-1700 5950 Note there are gaps 0400-0745 and 1900-1945; unclear whether this is intentional; exact frequency change times will vary (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTH AMERICA. NORTHWOODS RADIO --- Many thanks to The Jackpine Savage at Northwoods Radio for an impressive QSL package. The package, for a report of July 8th's broadcast, included a full-color, full data "Playing in Traffic" QSL #26, a CD of the show containing songs about and on the road, a letter relating some of the station's plans for future shows, and a lifetime membership card to the "Traffic Cone Preservation Society." Many thanks, Northwoods Radio (John Sedlacek, NE, Free Radio Weekly Sept 11 via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. UNMASKED --- Commercial AM radio is on its deathbed and one of the main reasons is the switch to talk shows hosted by people who would make a KKK Wizard sound sane. No one is worse than Tulsa`s Michael DelGiorno on KFAQ (1170 AM) --- his rightwing bluster is loaded with racism and hate. He`s the radio equivalent of Bill O`Reilly. One of his constant rants has been against the evils of gambling and especially against Indian casinos and Indians specifically. Typical extremist hypocrite, he has been caught on film [tape? digital media?] at an Indian casino stealing chips! He has also been accused of filthy language aimed at a casino female employee. When the Tulsa World sought to interview him, he lied, saying he was unfamiliar with the incidents. When he was told the theft of chips was filmed, he referred the matter to his employers (Frosty Troy, Oklahoma Observer Sept 10 via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA [and non]. Laurel: to CNN [HN]`s conservative talk show host Glenn Beck who said Oklahoma GOP Sen. James Inhofe`s opposition to [the veracity of] global warming makes him ``either a nut job or you`re clearly in bed with big oil, and thus you should have no credibility.`` (Frosty Troy, Observerscope, Oklahoma Observer Sept 10 via gh, DXLD) He said this TO Inhofe? (gh) ** PERU. R. Melodía, Arequipa, 5939.29, 0710-0745+ Sept 10, variety of OA folk music, Spanish ballads, pops. IDs after every couple of songs. Poor reception with adjacent channel splatter (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Presumably DGS/WWCR 5935 (gh) ** RUSSIA [and non]. Re VOR English on 9665: ´´The audio is now cleaner, more distinct, no longer sounding as if the presenter has a thick blanket between them and the microphone.´´: I also noticed that their English programs are sounding better now. It appears to me that German has improved a little bit as well, but it sounds still terribly muffled. This whole thing is related to their new studios, and I still wonder what they have set up; searching for pictures so far brought up only views of the now decommissioned old studios, the ones with Oktava mics (mostly MK219's) being adressed from a considerable distance (hardly less than a half metre), resulting in the famous reverb. By the way, 9665 is indeed ´´Russia [non]´´: It's Grigoriopol, like 7125 which carries Russkoye Mezhdunarodnoye Radio. Re ´´New Russian Radio --- following a today's posting in a Russian DX list, I found my way to a new Russian radio network, Radio Zvezda ("Radio Star"). It has a website http://tvzvezda.ru/radio/ which is, however, very slow and gives a timeout error.´´ Some time ago I had no trouble to reach their website. This is in fact the former Radio Slavyanka which to my knowledge used in the early nineties also transmitters in Kaliningrad area (Bolshakovo-1143 I think), at Grigoriopol and in Tajikistan (I think they had slots on 60 metres there) but was in recent years broadcasting only on 990 kHz in Moscow area, via a transmitter on a military compound if I recall correctly. The name change is apparently related to the launch of TV Zvezda, and it also looks like the radio station is only the small brother of the TV outlet (rant on: as it is always the case with such constellations). (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Sept 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SCOTLAND [non]. A reminder that since it`s the Thursday after the second Saturday, to listen from 1900 to 2000 UT on 5775, which six claims is a transmitter in Milan, Italy, rather than Bulgaria, or on webcast via http://www.radiosix.com/listen_menu.html ``19:00 (9.00pm CEST) Saturday Sounds Tony Currie with new releases, your letters and plenty music. (First broadcast on Sept 9) 19:40 (9.40pm CEST) Letter from America - Judy Gruber in our Washington D.C. studio with another observational essay on life in the capital of the USA. (First broadcast on Sept 9) 19:50 (9.50pm CEST) DXtra - A new programme of news and views from the world of shortwave listening, including your letters, emails and Reception reports. (First broadcast on Sept 9). 20:00 (10.00pm CEST) Close Down`` (Glenn Hauser, hours in advance on dxldyg, via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [Later:] I debated whether to include the 1900 entry from their program schedule; I should not have since in fact so far as of 1920 upon spot checks, it is just more ``random-play`` rock music as introduced by a long series of jingles at hourtop. Let`s hope they don`t forget to run Letter from America and DX-tra, anyway (Glenn, ibid.) [Later2:] Waste of time. Just kept playing music, even tho this specific date is given for the programs. I am asking Tony Currie if he will schedule LfA and DXtra at least, at some other time this weekend on the webcast – preferably make them available ondemand (Glenn, ibid.) It was heard as scheduled here: Saturday, Sept. 9, at 0920 UT 9310 (next airing: Oct. 14) + webcast Sunday, Sept. 10, at 0750 UT 9310 (next airing: Oct. 15) Thursday, Sept. 14, at 1950 UT 5775 (next airing: Oct. 19) + webcast They discussed, a.o. things, the "value" of BUYING QSL-cards... 73, (Erik Køie in Copenhagen, Sept 15, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Which means the webstream was NOT the same as what was on SW Sept 14 (gh, DXLD) Hi, Glenn. Although DXtra did go out on 5775 kHz, a programming glitch meant that it was absent from the webstream. Apologies for disappointing our listeners. To compensate, the entire segment (SATURDAY SOUNDS/LETTER FROM AMERICA/DXTRA) will additionally be carried on our webstreams only as follows:- Saturday 16th September 1700 UT Sunday 17th September 1900 UT We don't currently have server capacity to make the show available on demand, but we'll see what can be done for future editions. Regards (TONY Currie, rsi, Sept 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tony, Tnx, it`s nice that you are so responsive to compensate for such a problem (gh, DXLD) ** SERBIA. Re 6-137, Fox TV in Serbia, Will this just be in English?? ANSWER: Well, dear Glenn, of course it will not be just in English. FOX series and movies will be titled in Serbian, and they promised excellent news programs, and many show programs... (of course in Serbian) This station is Fox Serbia, but the official name will be "FOX TELEVIZIJA" (Fox Television). Best regards! (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, Sept 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Only thing worth watching on Fox is The Simpsons (gh, DXLD) ** SINGAPORE. RSI finally in the clear on 6080 after 3.5 months of blockage by Australia`s temporary 105.7 Darwin relay via Shepparton, Sept 13 at 1250 in English about SE Asian affairs, // much weaker 6150 which also had some QRM. 1259 RSI IDs, jingle, TC, news. This is the external service scheduled 11-14 on 6080, 6150. 6080 is so much better here, when unimpeded, because it is non-direxional, whilst 6150 is aimed 320 degrees, both 250 kW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Never mind: tho ABC-NT relay was missing Sept 13, it was back on 6080 Sept 14, 15. See AUSTRALIA ** SLOVAKIA. Many of the former RSI SW frequencies have been coordinated for the B-06 season, at least on a contingency basis, so that is not an obstacle; we are still uncertain whether external broadcasting has really been `guaranteed` resumption and whether it will include SW, and whether it will include foreign languages (Glenn Hauser, Sept 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SLOVAKIA. Eslovaquia. Entrevista a José Miguel Romero Saludos cordiales, Radio Eslovaquia Int ha colocado una entrevista de siete minutos que me realizarón cuando estuve de visita en Eslovaquia; se puede escuchar el audio en: http://www.slovakradio.sk/inetportal/rsi/core.php?page=showSprava&id=3282&lang=6 Atentamente (José Miguel Romero, Spain, Sept 13, dxldyg via DXLD) Muy buena, José Miguel, sobre todo la extraordinaria defensa que haces de las ondas cortas; ojalá y repercuta favorablemente en los que tienen la decisión definitiva. Ya la tengo en mi archivo. Cordialmente (José Bueno, Córdoba - España, Noticias DX via DXLD) Food talk first Jose Miguel, se puede hablar más fuerte, pero no más claro de lo que pensamos los diexistas sobre la desaparicion de RADIO ESLOVAKIA, muy bien por tu parte, por la gran defensa de la Radio en Onda Corta, y has sido claro y conciso, sobre lo de la escucha de las emisoras internacionales por internet, muy bien por tu parte y muy claro lo de que LAS EMISORAS POR INTERNET NO LAS ESCUCHA NI LAS RATAS. Chapeau, Amigo Jose Miguel. Un saludo. Pepe (José Hernández Madrid, ibid.) Saludos cordiales, acabo de recibir un mensaje de la redacción en español de Radio Eslovaquia, comentan sobre una reunión que han tenido para hablar de su futuro, parece ser que el problema de RSI no es problema sólo de caracter político, según comentan algún alto cargo de la radio está poniendo trabas, a continuación el mensaje: ¿Qué tal, José? El lunes tuvimos una reunión con el director de programa Machaj donde nuestra jefa Mikleova ha citado algunos de tus argumentos expresados durante tu estancia aquí. Muchas gracias de tu ayuda!!! Parece que él que no nos quiere no es el estado o gobierno sino alguien de casa... :-(( Hay que luchar todavia, porque nada es seguro! Abrazos, Ladia (Ladislava Hudzovicova, RSI via José Miguel, ibid.) ** SOMALIA [non]. Radio Waaberi, 17550, heard here at 1330-1400 in Somali. Transmission is via Jülich, Germany, and is apparently only on Fridays. After Radio Waaberi signed off, it seemed as though another clandestine was there, Voice of Tibet. At 1408 the Chinese 'Firedrake' jammer came up on the frequency (Steve Lare, Holland, MI USA, Sept 15, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOMALIA. SOMALIA STATION SHUT DOWN FOR LOVE SONGS By SALAD DUHUL, Associated Press Writer, Sun Sep 10, 10:34 PM ET Islamic militants controlling much of southern Somalia shut down a radio station Sunday for playing love songs and other music, the latest step to impose strict religious rule which has sparked fears of an emerging, Taliban-style regime. Since sweeping to power over much of southern Somalia, including the capital Mogadishu, in June, the Islamists have banned movie viewing, publicly lashed drug users and broke up a wedding celebration because a band was playing and women and men were socializing together. The group closed Radio Jowhar because the programs were un-Islamic, Islamic official Sheik Mohamed Mohamoud Abdirahman said. It was the only radio station in Jowhar, some 55 miles from Mogadishu. "It is useless to air music and love songs for the people," Abdirahman said. Said Hagaa Ahmed, Radio Jowhar's director, confirmed the station had been closed but declined further comment. The Islamic militants have brought a semblance of order to Somalia after years of anarchy. But the United States accuses the Islamic leaders of harboring al-Qaida militants responsible for deadly bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Jowhar resident Ali Musse said closing the radio station was a violation of freedom. "This directive is like the Taliban," Musse told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "It is censorship against independent media and freedom of expression." The hardline Islamic Taliban rulers of Afghanistan banned secular music, art, television, and education for girls before they were overthrown by a U.S. invasion in late 2001. Somalia has not had a police force or judiciary for 16 years since the warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, carving much of the country into armed camps ruled by violence and clan law. Somalia has a weak transitional government set up two years ago with U.N. backing, but it has been unable to assert its authority beyond Baidoa, 150 miles northwest of Mogadishu, and could only watch helplessly as Islamic militants seized the capital in June (via Al Quaglieri, NY, Sept 11, DXLD) WTFK? (gh) If only we could do this to Delilah (Al Quaglieri, DX LISTENING DIGEST) SOMALI ISLAMISTS LIFT RADIO BAN A Somali radio station has resumed broadcasting after it was closed down by Islamist leaders for playing local love songs. However, Radio Jowhar is no longer playing any music, even jingles. . . http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5334258.stm (via Zacharias Liangas, DXLD) ** SPAIN. 13m conditions are looking up a bit; for first time in months, heard REE 21610 and 21540 at 1337 Sept 14 amid Nuestro Sello, but much weaker than // 17595, with Piazzola, Pavarotti, Addinsell (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA. SLBC, 15745, with South Asian music, only fair but nice to hear this trans-polar now that it`s on in the local evening, Sept 15 at 1318. And no QRM from WEWN, which is currently using this frequency only between 14 and 22 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWITZERLAND [and non]. Hi Glenn. I trust this finds you well. This is a heads-up to tell you that Bob Thomann, Ian McFarland and I have just had a 1-hour recorded chat via Skype, that will become the latest addition to the Two Bobs section of SIS. We look back on a long tradition of friendship and unique cooperation, and discuss Ian's new double CD project, featuring station IDs and interval signals going back nearly 40 years. It is a fund-raiser for Ian's favorite charity, a local "food bank". I will be packaging the new audio item over the weekend, and expect it to be uploaded and available Monday. 73, (Robert "Bob" Zanotti, Founder and Editor, Switzerland in Sound "radio on demand" http://www.switzerlandinsound.com Sept 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also TURKEY ** TURKEY. Live from Turkey, Thu Sept 14 on 15450: taking a music break when I tuned in at 1300; David Crystal from Israel came on at 1308. Hosts tried to get him to comment on the bombings in Diyarbakir and he finally responded that he was against them and such bombings should be prevented if possible. He really wanted to talk about ``permitted radio listening``, in WW II, when hams were no longer allowed to transmit, and contrasting in the FE where American soldiers were free to listen to Tokyo Rose, and many did; and in Europe where people`s radios were confiscated and replaced with sets which would only get the local Axis transmitters. Also mentioned Arthur Cushen, MBE in New Zealand who monitored Japanese broadcasts for POW info and sent postcards to families with news of their loved ones. He was done by 1314 so hosts then talked about Christopher Lewis, UK, who had apparently just visited Turkey as a guest of VOT. Seems he had a great time, except for the weather which in late summer he still found unbearably hot; he`s a vegetarian chef so was especially interested in Turkish food. Christopher is expected to appear on next Tuesday`s Live from Turkey, i.e. Sept 19 at 1850 on 9785. Wrapped up this show early so got to hear VOT piano variations IS for some 5 minutes until 1325* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY. VOT B-06 in English, all from the Emirler site, azimuths: 1330-1430 11735 85 As 1330-1430 12035 310 WEu 1930-2030 6055 310 WEu 2130-2230 9525 105 As 2300-2400 5960 310 NAm 0400-0500 6020 360 NAm 0400-0500 7240 138 SAs Some Turkish frequencies toward Eu/NAm/SAm for B-06: 0500-0800 9460 313 (Çakirlar) 0800-1500 15350 294 (Çakirlar) (-1400 from Jan 1) 1800-2300 9840 242 2300-0200 7300 325 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY [and non]. Re ´´According to Sedef, 9460 kHz cannot be broadcast from Emirler, as the ABB units are only programmed to operate in the "official" broadcasting bands.´´: Remember the shake-around with Swiss Radio International frequencies when Montsinéry was struck by fire years ago? They used 9905 from Montsinéry, and TDF was not able to run this frequency from Issoudun because the software prevented them from tuning a transmitter there to this frequency. Jülich got no clearance from the German authorities for anything above 9900, thus could not provide cover either. So 9905 ended up at Sottens and Issoudun took over the scheduled Sottens frequency 9885 instead (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Sept 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes ** TURKEY. 13760 kHz, Voice of Turkey, full data QSL-card (tx-site mentioned: EMR). Card shows K. Atatürk in 1921. No V/s. The envelope contained nothing else. In 34 days for a report in German to deutsch @ trt.net.tr (sent a PDF file). (M. Schoech, Eisenach, Germany, September 14, 2006, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UGANDA. 4976, 2001-2054, R. Uganda, Sep 11 Male and female voice, can not make out what language, sounds some African type language, mixed with music (pop/easy listening/afro-style). 2054 sign-off. 13122 (Jeroen Kloppenburg, Deventer, the Netherlands, with a Phillips D2999PLL and homemade passive magnetic loop antenna, Sept 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UKRAINE. Radio Ukraine International confirmed with German after 1700 on new 5830. Really poor signal, even outdoors providing only noisy reception. Either they are running the transmitter at grossly reduced power (say, 20 kW or so), or the performance of the antenna is really bad. A couple of years ago the signals from this site were not so sorry but rather what one would expect from 100 kW facilities (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Sept 15, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7490 kHz, 'Wellenbummel' (name of the DX-program produced by the 'Wellenforum') (part of the German DX-program of Radio Ukraine International), full data computer-printed QSL-letter (excl. tx site), letter shows a picture from the Krim [Crimea], v/s Dietmar Birkhahn. The In 40 days for a report in German with 1,10 EUR in German stamps to Dietmar Birkhahn, Wellenforum, Am Lindenkreuz 2, 51789 Lindlar, Deutschland (M. Schoech, Eisenach, Germany, September 14, 2006, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. CHAMPION OF MUSIC, CLEANER OF FLOORS John Tusa Friday September 8, 2006 Guardian The death of John Drummond, former head of Radio 3 and the director of the Edinburgh International Festival, at the age of 71 was announced yesterday. He is remembered here by his friend and former colleague. John Drummond listed one of his hobbies in Who's Who as "conversation". On one occasion, at least, I think "talking" would have been a more apt description. We had just finished an exhilarating 48-hour broadcasting marathon live from the twin cities of Minneapolis/St Paul. It was a typical Drummond "big idea" to turn a powerful cultural, broadcasting spotlight on two little known mid-western cities that were springing into cultural maturity. We were seated together on the return flight and Drummond started talking as the wheels left the runway. He never stopped until - five hours later - we made landfall over Ireland. The adrenaline could not stop pumping. He was a great companion too. He guided Sir John Pritchard, then conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and my wife and I through the churches of Kolomonskoye and the towering onion spires of the Novodevichy monastery in Moscow. We explored the newly yawning gaps in the Berlin Wall when Radio 3 created another of his celebrated "City Weekends". We laughed a lot, as when we were locked out of an eccentric country hotel in Wilton on a church crawl weekend. He could laugh at himself too: "As I was cleaning the kitchen floor the other day, I thought 'I bet George Harewood or Peter Diamond never had to clean their kitchen floors when they were directors of the Edinburgh Festival!'" And he used humour to make his point: "What is this Radio 3 programme called Mainly for Pleasure?" he exploded. "Why not say what you really think and call it Really for Pain." Asked about the "Radio 3 audience" on a radio phone-in, Drummond explained: "There isn't one Radio 3 audience, there are several early music, modern music, jazz and so on. You must understand that each group hates the others and all of them hate organ music!" On one occasion a certain conductor, when asked what kind of composer he liked, replied that he "quite liked Zemlinsky". Drummond seethed: "There are too many conductors around who 'quite like' the composers they play." He wanted others to give the passion and commitment that he did. On one occasion he pursued people sitting in a Prom box who seemed more interested in drinking and leching than listening to the music. Drummond was an excellent cook who fitted giving dinner parties into what was in any case an exhausting schedule. While he offered - and drank - a generous amount of wine, he was not a passionate inquirer into vines and vintages. And after a dinner party, in his dark basement flat in Kensington, which he always called "The Tomb", he always did his own washing up - without wondering if Harewood - a close friend - ever did so. Once he had got over the shock of realising that people with his BBC background were dismissed by the Birtists as "tainted by experience" Drummond wore it as a badge of pride. He even used it as a defiant title for his candid and revealing memoir. But as he observed, candidly, the Birtists had the last laugh. All those labelled with the "experience" tag were driven out. He was one of them Sir John Tusa, managing director of the Barbican Centre, is a former head of the BBC World Service --- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006 (via Dan Say, DXLD) OBIT RADIO 3 CONCERT TO HONOUR EX-CONTROLLER David Ward Friday September 8, 2006 The Guardian http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1867550,00.html The BBC's concert marking the 60th anniversary of Radio 3 later this month is to be dedicated to the memory of Sir John Drummond, its former controller, who died on Wednesday night at the age of 71. Sir John, ebullient, opinionated and often controversial, also directed the Proms and the Edinburgh festival during a long career in which he was a staunch promoter of contemporary music. Sir Harrison Birtwistle's saxophone concerto Panic, which Sir John commissioned for the Proms and included in the last-night programme when he relinquished control in 1995 after a 10-year stint, caused uproar when it rubbed shoulders with Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory. Sir Harrison said: "He was a great ally of mine." Sir John was described by John Birt, the BBC's former director general, as "tainted by experience" and used the phrase as the title of his autobiography. He in turn described violinist Nigel Kennedy as "a Liberace for the 90s" and Alan Yentob as "a prat", and said Melvyn Bragg was "irritating but ultimately not significant". Sir John was "a passionate defender of excellence," said Jenny Abramsky, director of BBC radio & music, Nicholas Kenyon, controller of the Proms, and Roger Wright, controller of Radio 3, in a joint statement yesterday. The BBC's chairman, Michael Grade, said: "He was a showman and impresario with exquisite taste." Sir John made many films for television, including one devoted to the ballet impresario Diaghilev, of whom he wrote: "Where, today is the energy, the knowledgeable commitment and impeccable taste that characterised his personality?" (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. Re. ´´VOA Croatian as of today, September 11, 2006 ... Breakfast show 0430-0500 UT without changes.´´ But according to earlier reports no longer via 1458, thus ending VOA's usage of the Fllaka transmitters altogether. Will try to check it out tomorrow, but I fear I will forget about it when getting up around this time (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Sept 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Glenn: My best guess for Radio República's B06 schedule right now would be [on WRMI 9955]: 0300-0500 UT Sun, Mon 0600-0800 UT daily (7 days) 1100-1300 UT Mon-Fri 1600-2200 UT daily (7 days) The Radio Prague transmissions should just switch UTC times, remaining at the same North American local time (Jeff White, WRMI, Sept 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WBCQ, 9330, presumably within one of Rod Hembree`s produxions, Sept 14 at 1327 happened to have a Mission Network News feature on the 75th anniversary of HCJB, medical and missionary broadcasting service. But it was over in a minute (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. We are excited about the initial reception we have received from our newest service, the internet only "Radio Free Veronica" (RFV), featuring progressive and independent talk 24/7. Thanks for continuing to air your programs on both Veronica-FM and RFV. As a follow up to my previous email, we have run into a few technical glitches getting the new Veronica-AM on the air, but that should be up and running early this autumn. Finally, we are getting back to our musical roots with yet another service called "The Underground." This is now on the internet and will soon become a second FM service in our community. The all music format features just what the name says: what we called "Underground" music in the 60s and early 70s. It's the music of an era, featuring a blend of album music and classic songs of the late 60s and early 70s, in a style that many of us who came of age in that era remember. Music includes artists like the Grateful Dead, Tom Paxton, Jimi Hendrix, Leonard Cohen, Judy Collins, The Blues Project, The Mothers of Invention, Phil Ochs, and many others. Occasionally mixed in are some classic comedic cuts from Robert Klein, Firesign Theatre, Cheech and Chong, George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, and other alternative voices from the period. So, if you are looking for something a little different to listen to, give it a try. Go to our website at http://www.radioveronica.us and click on Listen Live Microphone for "The Underground." Take care (Rene' Tetro, Radio Veronica US, Sept 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. AIR AMERICA TO DECLARE BANKRUPTCY from a non-conservative source: http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/13/air-america-bankruptcy/ Air America Radio will announce a major restructuring on Friday, which is expected to include a bankruptcy filing, three independent sources have told ThinkProgress. Air America could remain on the air under the deal, but significant personnel changes are already in the works. Sources say five Air America employees were laid off yesterday and were told there would be no severance without capital infusion or bankruptcy. Also, Air America has ended its relationship with host Jerry Springer. The right wing is sure to seize on Air America’s financial woes as a sign that progressive talk radio is unpopular. In fact, Air America succeeded at creating something that didn’t exist: the progressive talk radio format. That format is now established and strong and will continue with or without Air America. Indeed, many of the country’s most successful and widely-syndicated progressive talk hosts — Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller, for instance — aren’t even associated with Air America. Radio giant Clear Channel is so committed to progressive talk radio that, this week, it will announce a partnership with the Center for American Progress, Jones Radio, and MSS Inc., to conduct a nationwide search for the next Progressive Talk Radio Star. Some reactions here http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2508456 (via Craig Seufert, Sept 13, DXLD) ** VENEZUELA. R. Amazonas, Puerto Ayacucho, 4939.67, 0915-0940+ Sept 8, Spanish announcement, Latin vocals, romantic ballads, Spanish talk. 0927 ID. Irregular; fair level but somewhat distorted audio (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** WALES. SWANSEA PARK PROM FAKEOUT --- The BBC Proms Player http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/proms_promo.shtml has Proms in the Park, from Swansea, Wales, but trying to listen to it I only heard silence as it started to play with the timer running. I let it go while listening to something else on another player, and it finally started about 50 minutes into the file. So you can skip ahead 15-15- 15-5 minutes if you want to listen to it. Strangely, the 50 minutes of silence do not seem to have contained any of the concert, as the audio starts in the introduction, and the first piece is Copland`s ``Hoe- down``. Regional park proms coincide with the Last Night from Royal Albert Hall, joining together by TV during the finale. These files will expire one week after the LNOTP, Sat Sept 16 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Re 12080: Dan, Are you sure it couldn`t be Belarus from 6040? There were some recent reports of 6040 being heard in Germany, and I seem to recall those transmitters are harmonic-prone (Glenn to Dan Goldfarb, via DXLD) Glenn, I think the YM when talking on the mystery station used a more gutteral language. Belarussian is as soft in its rhythm and sound as Russian is. Also, I am much too far away from Grodno for there to be any readable DAYTIME signal on 6040. Much less, a possible harmonic - although this would be fully disproved by the inaudible 3306 yet often heard 6612 for Zimbabwe. I'll try to keep monitoring during our afternoons and will see if it appears again. The last time I heard it was a good week ago. Perhaps Kai or other German monitors would be better placed to pick up the harmonic if it is now appearing? Regards and 73's (Dan Goldfarb, Brentwood, England, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Since the harmonic would propagate independently of the fundamental, and is twice the frequency, it may well be that you could hear 12080 but nothing on 6040. This is one of the great things about harmonic DXing, and to be expected if the fundamental and harmonic are far apart (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) see also BELARUS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTMONIALS +++++++++++++++++++++++ Thanks for your time and work. Boy, has a lot changed in this hobby since I last practiced it in 1992! The Internet shows its usefulness especially in fields like these where sheer speed of getting information is crucial. Greets, (Jeroen Kloppenburg, Deventer, the Netherlands, Sept 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ The EiBi skeds have been updated as of 13 September: http://www.eibi.de.vu (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, USA, Sept 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Someone was wondering: Eike Bierwith => EiBi RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ GRUNDIG G5 TO BE AVAILABLE AT RADIO SHACK Radio Shack may be trying hard to get its other shortwave radios off its shelves, but they plan to make the new Grundig G5 receiver available in its stores; the radio, which is very much like the Etón E5 but in a black finish, will sell for $149.99. This was noted on the radioshack.com website (Joe Hanlon, NJ, Sept 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ETON E1 OWNERS MANUAL !!! Hello Glenn: Etón Website has posted the E1 Owners Manual. Large file and very detailed, even a block diagram of sorts, but no schematic (darn !!) From (Thomas Moyer in Bowmanville, Ont. Canada, Sept 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ACOUSTIC ENERGY INTERNET ``RADIO`` Have a fantastic new radio that receives thousands local FM and AM stations from all over the world in digital stereo, near CD quality! - this is the way of the future I'm sure. I used one of these radios for a few weeks and loved it so much that I have just got hold of enough for my weekend home. It is way cool, just like the good old days of short-wave, but no fading!! Have a look here: http://www.ccrane.com/radios/internet-radios/acoustic-energy-wi-fi-internet-radio.aspx The website mentions 2,700 stations; the channels available now way exceed that! Seriously, this is very very cool. I will do a review for the next magazine. Also have a look at http://www.satdirectory.com --- the satellite scene is very busy at the moment. Cheers, (Mark Fahey, Australia, ARDXC via DXLD) TINY TENNA SOAP BOX Re 6-131, ``Not sure what article he refers to, but OK`` I'm wondering if this might have originally come from something I wrote a long time ago, about portable SWLing -- walking around with an SW radio and the antenna problems related to that (snagging a whip, etc.). I think I mentioned using a TinyTenna but with a caveat that the exposed amp circuit board might be damaged when using it outside, or crammed in a pocket or backpack, etc. Richard's solution *would* answer that, and you could put in a strain-relief in the soapbox wall to keep the antenna wire from being stressed at the board connection. Maybe not; it just came to mind as I read that item. 73, (Will Martin, MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) HOME-MADE PASSIVE MAGNETIC LOOP Dear Glenn, As conditions seems to be improving I have some new logs which might be interesting for to consider including into your services. Both have been made with my new selfbuilt passive magnetic loop, 1.20 meter diameter. initial experiences made me very enthusiastic about this new antenna. It is far less vulnerable for interference from electrical equipment here and close to the house, and the directional capabilities made it very useful in identifying stations as well! I've ordered a mini-whip from PA0RDT which also works on magnetic field component and I am very, very curious how it will perform in my soup of interfering signals. All loggings made in Deventer, the Netherlands, with a Phillips D2999PLL and homemade passive magnetic loop antenna (Jeroen Kloppenburg, Sept 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ANNIVERSARY WATCH --- OPTIMOD AT BBC The BBC introduced the Optimod audio processing system into all broadcasts emanating from Bush House at exactly 0759:30 UT on 14 September 1980. This was designed to improve the audibility of broadcasts, especially in the crowded short-wave bands. It certainly gave them more bass, which was quite noticeable on medium-wave (Paul David, UK, Sept 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Does this mean that they first installed the Optimods in Bush House? Is this configuration still in use or did BBC/Merlin/VT move the audio processing to the transmitter sites since, as it is standard for AM transmission? As an example see five pieces of the fat Optimod 9105A at http://people.freenet.de/Alexanderplatz/radio/nauen31.jpg (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.) STEREO, WHO CARES? Re KMFA: ´´I`m afraid this demonstrates how little attention most people pay to stereo, if I am the first to notice this and complain.´´ I had a similar experience years ago when I noticed that the MDR program Jump was mono: Out of curiosity (not that I would care at all for this crap) I called up MDR engineering where they only started to take it seriously when I got into talking about ´´stereo pilot is there but definitely no left-right separation´´. It turned out that this was going on already for days (!), caused by a malfunction of their almost brand-new studio console. Nobody noticed, neither a listener nor they themself in the studio (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Sept 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: see NEW ZEALAND. IBOC: see CANADA ++++++++++++++++++++ PROPAGATION +++++++++++ CIENTISTAS DESCOBREM ORIGEM DA AURORA BOREAL http://noticias.uol.com.br/ultnot/efe/2006/09/08/ult1809u9170.jhtm Pequim, 8 set (EFE).- O brilho da aurora boreal não se deve aos ventos solares, como se achava até agora, mas às ``subtempestades`` magnéticas, revelou hoje um cientista chinês que participou de uma pesquisa conjunta com Estados Unidos e Europa. ``Descobrimos que as auroras causadas por ventos solares são muito fracas e mal podem ser vistas a olho nu. As esplêndidas e coloridas auroras que vemos são causadas na realidade pelas subtempestades magnéticas``, disse Cao Jinbin, do Centro de Pesquisa Espacial. A descoberta foi possível graças aos dados recolhidos pelos quatro satélites da Agência Espacial Européia (ESA). Segundo o cientista chinês, o próximo passo será instalar um sistema de controle das auroras, capaz de prever e analisar seus movimentos. A aurora, que deve seu nome à deusa romana do amanhecer, ocorre quando velozes fluxos de prótons e eléctrons vindos do Sol são guiados pelo campo magnético da Terra e se chocam com os átomos e moléculas atmosféricos. Suas diversas formas, cores e estruturas têm fascinado durante séculos o ser humano. O fenômeno é mais visível normalmente de setembro a outubro e de março a abril. Conhecida como ``boreal`` no norte e ``austral`` no sul, a aurora não é um fenômeno exclusivo da Terra. Outros planetas, como Marte e Saturno, são iluminados também pelo seu brilho (via Marcelo Bedene, Lista Curitiba DX via @tividade DX Sept 10 via DXLD) Note: `controle` above means not only control in English, but checking or monitoring, and I think the latter sense is intended (gh, DXLD) CONNECTION FOUND BETWEEN THE EARTH AND SPACE WEATHER September 12, 2006 Researchers have found a connection between weather here on Earth, and the weather in space. The connection comes from the ionosphere, a high-altitude region of the Earth's atmosphere formed by solar X-rays and ultraviolet light. NASA satellites found that regions of the ionosphere become more dense above areas of thunderstorm activity in the lower atmosphere. This is a surprising discovery because the ionosphere and the lower atmosphere are separated by hundreds of kilometres. . . http://www.universetoday.com/2006/09/12/connection-found-between-the-earth-and-space-weather (via Mike Terry, DXLD yg via DXLD) As VHF DXers have long suspected. The word ``sporadic`` appears nowhere in this article (Glenn Hauser) So are the moon and the Earth's tides separated by a vast difference. Lots of factors would seem to be at play, and I am glad to hear there is this kind of research going on. We should establish contact with these researchers, and let them know we exist, what we do, etc. (Saul Chernos, WTFDA via DXLD) ###