DX LISTENING DIGEST 6-168, November 11, 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 1335 Sun 0330 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0730 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0900 WRMI 9955 Mon 0400 WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0515 WBCQ 7415 [time varies] Latest edition of this schedule version, including standard timeshifts, and AM, FM, satellite and webcasts 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 WORLD OF RADIO SUMMARIES, new one added normally by 0600 UT Fridays: http://www.worldofradio.com/wor2006.html ** ALASKA. 6915, KNLS, Anchor Point, *1559-1601, Nov 04, many IS, ID at 1601 in Chinese, 24422 (Franck Baste, St. Bonnet de Rochefort, France, DSWCI DX Window Nov 11 via DXLD) ** ALBANIA. The General Director of ARTV, elected yesterday (Friday, Nov. 10) in the evening, is economist, with mainly vice-management experience at movies area till '90s at Kinostudioja "Shqiperia e Re", then at TVSH of ARTV, around 2000 year at several private TV stations in Tirana. He won 6 of 6 votes of the ARTV new Council against the Candidate - Electronic Engineer with many years ARTV technical management experience!!! So, we expect that ARTV would be 'for rent' in the coming years (Drita Çiço, R. Tirana, Nov 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. Transatlantic DX now starts rolling in here by 2000 UT, 3:00 p.m. Eastern time, with Albania especially strong on 1215, 1395, and 1458 kHz. Local dusk is primetime for transatlantic DX, before regular signals from France, Spain and the UK settle in for the night. 1215, ALBANIA, CRI relay, Fllakë (40 57'N, 19 40'E), NOV 3, 2215 - Good; Asian music, accented woman in unID language, Asian operatic female vocal; Serbian program per EMWG and WRTH. 1395, ALBANIA, TWR Fllakë, NOV 8, 2140 - Good; monotone talk by a man, 2145 folk instrumental interlude, 2158 inspirational English vocal, then sign-off announcement by a woman, one cycle of music box interval signal and off. 1458, ALBANIA, CRI relay, Fllakë, NOV 8, 2058 - Announcement by a soft-spoken woman, into signature Chinese orchestra music leading to the top of the hour; signal fading below the noise floor (Bruce Conti, Nashua NH; R8B, MWDX-5, 15 x 23-m terminated corner-fed broadband loops east and south, NRC IDXD Nov 10 via DXLD) ** ALBANIA. 7530, Radio Tirana. Nov. 3 at 2100(IS)-2110 in English. SINPO 34333. IS & ID at 2100, followed by news. But very poor modulation (Iwao Nagatani, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) ** ALBANIA. R. Tirana 0245-0258* UT November 10, 2006. Neither 6115 nor 7465 kHz begin on time at 0245. After few seconds 7465 is joined in progress. 6115 doesn't start. Finally at 0245:25 6115 is joined in progress. 6115 is a powerhouse signal of peak S9 +60dB. Unfortunately there is a buzz in the signal. Audio is low. Terrible to waste a strong signal on poor audio. The buzz on 6115 is fixed at 0246. Now there is static on the spoken words and some audio distortion. 7465 is peak of S9 +20 dB with some echo in the audio. No static on the spoken words or audio distortion like 6115. Female announcer says, "Recent developments in Albania… News first." Female also says, "R. Tirana with the news". At 0251 7465 notice static on the spoken words similar to 6115. "Focus on Albanian economy", "Focus on Albania" and female announcer says "Goodbye from Albania". With strong signals, no QRM on either frequency. 73, (Kraig Krist, KG4LAC, VA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALGERIA [non]. Is anyone still hearing the relays via UK? And if so on what schedule, presumably changed from A-06? E.g. I was not hearing 7260 at 0607 Nov 10. O, that was only sked till 0600 anyway, in 6-090: Some changes of VT Communications Relays from June 12/19 --- RTA Radio Algeria again on short waves 0400-0600 on 7260 RMP 500 kW / 190 deg to NoAf Arabic 0400-0600 on 9540 WOF 300 kW / 160 deg to NoAf Arabic 1900-2000 on 9765 RMP 500 kW / 190 deg to NoAf Arabic 1900-2000 on 11810 WOF 300 kW / 160 deg to NoAf Arabic 2000-2100 on 9765 RMP 500 kW / 190 deg to NoAf Arabic 2000-2100 on 12025 WOF 300 kW / 160 deg to NoAf Arabic 2100-2300 on 7150 RMP 500 kW / 190 deg to NoAf Arabic 2100-2300 on 9710 WOF 300 kW / 160 deg to NoAf Arabic (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, June 21 via DXLD) as already revealed here (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Saludos cordiales, Glenn; acabo de chequear las posibles frecuencias de R. Argel [9765, 11810]. No hay emisión alguna. Esta emisora entraba con fuerza por Valencia (España) 73 (José Miguel Romero, 1908 UT Nov 10, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear Glenn, I just checked 7150 and 9710 at 2245 on Nov 10 and nothing was heard from this station here in Denmark. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. 13363.5 LSB, R. Continental, Nov 02 0502-0513 33443- 32442 Spanish, Talk and music, ID at 0503 (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. Changing season providing good openings from Southern hemisphere lately. Got a one-of-a-kind signal after 0000 11/11, when this feeder on 15820 is normally off the air, putting a clear and strong signal with Radio Continental and what would you think was the issue? --- 1,2,3 all together now: FÚTBOL! BTW, RAE 15345 was booming too when I tuned around 2244 with a program about their folk music (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. 6215, R. Baluarte. 0054 on Nov 11, reactivated, heard prayer with talk in Portuguese or Portunhol. Reactivada, hrd [sic] con predicador con sermon en Português o Portunhol (Horacio Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, dxldyg via DXLD) Since this was posted at 0058 UT November 12, I assume that was the correct UT date? (gh) ** AUSTRALIA. Planned Australian SW Sites --- Hi folks, I'm not sure if this is OLD news or not, so please excuse me if this is a repeat of previously announced news. There's a guy in NSW (Craig Allen), Australia who now has 7 domestic HF broadcast licences, all for use on 2355 kHz throughout various locations in Australia. SW TX Site Locations are: Fannie Bay, NT Townsville, QLD Craigeburn, VIC St. Helena Is. (Brisbane region), QLD Parolowie, SA West Swan, WA and St. Mary's, NSW According to a recent news release on the aus.radio.broadcast newsgroup Craig intends to establish a SW digital service in Sydney in 2007. This would be from the St. Mary's site (an outer western suburb of greater Sydney). I would be surprised if it does happen that soon (Ian Baxter, shortwavesite yg via DXLD) Not exactly HF; MF (gh) ** AUSTRALIA. Strangeness from RA as I was tuning around Nov 10: on 6020, interesting program about how the Blackfeet in Montana have banned tobacco from public places was rudely interrupted by Waltzing Matilda at 1358. Tuned down to 5995 and at 1359 Roger Broadbent was mentioning Australian Express, maybe a promo, since the 1330 program was I thought scheduled to be All in the Mind. During this minute there were two RA transmitters on 5995, the other also running W.M. After 1400, when I went back to 6020, it was off. Now why did they need to chop off a program to run IS there? Earlier at 1342 Nov 10 on 9475 I paused on some English lessons, for Chinese speakers including Jacko! To illustrate ``the kookaburra is a bird`` (not an insect) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. Brandon incredible 10 kW on 12080 was booming back again after several nights poorly or off the air. This was around 0400 just in time to open their sports transmissions. Caught my attention this time they mentioned ABC Sports in // with RA 15515 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Azimuth 80 degrees, which without checking I guess is rather toward CR (gh, DXLD) ** AUSTRIA. Nov 11 at 1503 checked 15150 in case Indonesia was there as well as 9525, but instead heard good signal from program in Turkish, with Chinese-sounding music in background. This must be AWR in Turkish as scheduled via Moosbrunn. Iran no longer using 15150 at this hour? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRIA [non]. Ö1 in English via Canada, 13675, Nov 11 at 1607 had annoying co-channel in French. Duh! RFI Issoudun is scheduled with 2 x 500 kW transmitters here to NW Africa. Another triumph of propagation over theory (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BANGLADESH. 4750.0, Bangladesh Betar, Khabirpur, 1530-1545, Nov 01, English news, ID at 1537 "This is Bangladesh Betar", 24432 (Franck Baste, St. Bonnet de Rochefort, France, DSWCI DX Window Nov 11 via DXLD) See also INDONESIA ** BELARUS. 7235, R Mahilioú verified with QSL card after 2 and a half years. V/s: Yury Kurpatin QTH: nep. Kommunisticheskey 1, 212030, Mahilioú, Belarus (Masato Ishii, Shibata-shi, Japan, DSWCI DX Window Nov 11 via DXLD) So they still name streets after communism, or is a nep. something else? (gh) ** BELGIUM. Dear Mr. Hauser: I was wondering if you knew of an archive for the English-language version of Radio World on RVI Belgium. There was one Radio World broadcast in particular I wanted to find. It was broadcasted July 29, 2003. If you knew where I could find these today archived somewhere, I would appreciate it. Best wishes! (E. Taylor Connor JR., Nov 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I don`t know of any and I doubt the Wayback Machine would help, as when they were posting scripts, it was only the latest replacing the previous one, but we`ll see if any reader can help. If it was something significant, possibly we quoted it in DXLD at that time (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** BELGIUM. The DRM test from Belgium on Nov. 7 via 5925 around 0800 was enormously strong at my location and causing much disturbance to adjacent frequencies. Prague using 5930 was inaudible unless I turned to USB, and even then there was a loud buzz. 73 (Noel R. Green, England, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) This was not supposed to be on at 0800, but at 10-12 or 10-13. So it looks even more likely what I heard as early as 0709 as in 6-167 under CUBA, was Belgium`s DRM. Would it be too much to ask for them to publish an accurate time schedule for this? Any inband DRM testing such as this is bound to impact other stations in analog (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I think I got the time of my logging wrong on this one - Prague was in German on 5930 and that concludes around 0757, and so I actually heard the DRM on 5925 before 0800. Almost certainly that's what you'd hear in Enid, as signals are coming the other way to us. I checked several times during the day and heard this loud DRM buzz and so I doubt that two stations were involved. 73 (Noel R. Green, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5925 DRM was not heard on Nov 10 (Wolfgang Büschel, BCDX via DXLD) Was it one day only? (gh) ** BULGARIA. Click here for more about English Section's DX programme and its history and an interview with Dimiter Petrov, LZ1AF http://www.bnr.bg/RadioBulgaria/Emission_English/Theme_70RB/Material/DXpetrov.htm (R. Bulgaria DX Nov 10 via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) ** CANADA. Status of CFRX 6070 --- CFRB-CFRX QSL Manager, Steve Canney, writes: "A little update that you can pass along. I was at the transmitter site yesterday, Friday [Nov. 10], and the CFRX transmitter has been taken apart for repairs. Ian [the engineer] is obviously in the middle of repairs seeing there was test equipment, schematics and sections of the transmitter wide open, so it could be a while before it`s back on. I'll keep you posted. "Also, if people want a more direct route to get a QSL card for CFRB or CFRX, they can send their reports directly to me at: receptionreports @ yahoo.ca That should work fine." (Via Harold Sellers, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. 14670, CHU at 1930 with time. Sometimes in French they say "UTC", other times "temps universal coordiné" (Liz Cameron, 27 October, Brighton, MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) ** CANADA [and non]. The new frequency of Radio Prague via Sackville at 1500 on 15160 was putting a fine S9 signal into NW England today (Nov. 9) with no QRM or sidebands noticed. I could also hear RCI in English via 17820 and 13655 at fair strength, but not as strong as 15160. There was "something" on 9515 but in too much local noise to ID. This same transmission [The Link #2] could be heard a few seconds behind via Nauen 11870, but there was no trace of the two Chinese relays on 9635 and 11975. 73 (Noel R. Green, NW England, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [non]. Re the RCI 0100-0157 English broadcast to SAs relayed from Europe: now that we`ve found out what the real azimuth of the frequency 5840 via Sweden is, 95 degrees, as corrected on the RCI tech schedule, how about the only // 5970, still listed as Nauen at http://www.rcinet.ca/rci/PDF/RCI-TECH-B06-en.pdf HBY 5840 350 95 HR 4/4/0.5 39-41 7 DAYS NAU 5970 250 90 HR 4/4/0.5 40,41 7 DAYS How can 5970 be on the air with DTK also broadcasting R. República 5 days a week from 23 to 04 UT on 5970 instead of 5910? We`ve already concluded that RCI and DW are no longer exchanging relays, so is there any replacement for this 5970? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) It can be on air by Radio República now originating from Wertachtal instead, running 125 kW. The RCI transmissions are presumably planned by Deutsche Welle and booked through their contract, so probably the RCI transmission indeed went by unnoticed when 5970 had been selected for Radio República. Can somebody please confirm if indeed in the 0100-0157 hour both RCI from Nauen and Radio República from Wertachtal are on 5970, more or less clashing with each other? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also CUBA [non] ** CANADA [and non]. It`s amazing how little respect the CBC Northern Québec service gets on its one and only frequency 9625. Lots of other stations come and go on that frequency, apparently believing that all SW broadcasts only go to their specified target, and who cares about remote northern Québec? I thought there was a special relationship dating back to WW II between Canada and Netherlands, but now RN Bonaire in Dutch is on 9625 at 0600 (ex-9630 in A-06), despite the fact that CBCNQ runs past 0600. Nov 10 at 0605 I tuned in to hear Dutch overriding `O Canada`, the anthem which RCI never plays on its broadcasts. 0606 CBC into tone test briefly. While they mixed, there was a fast SAH ripple indicating one or both are a good many Hz off-frequency. With RCI running less and less from CBC, the NQ service becomes more important for CBC listeners below, but of course we don`t count, right Raúl? The situation could worsen next week (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. ODXA Perspectives --- This month's ODXA Perspectives (on DX Partyline) is a bit of a departure. It's a quick profile of what may be Canada's smallest radio station. I had a chance to visit CJAI in August. It's one of Canada's newest community radio stations, serving Amherst Island --- a short ferry ride from Bath, Ontario (just west of Kingston). The station broadcasts at 93.7FM, currently with 5 watts. They have a "developmental" licence, and plan to upgrade to a regular community licence and about 200 watts down the road. Former ODXA'er and retired broadcaster Peter Truman has a program there and the station manager is a former colleague from Global, Terry Culbert. I interviewed Terry and Tom Richmond, president of Amherst Island Broadcasting. One of the unique things about the station is that it's located, literally, in a barn. Looks can be deceiving, as they actually have the old dairy shed portion of the barn fixed up quite nicely to accommodate the station (the antenna is on the silo!) You can check out that station at http://www.amherstisland.on.ca/AIR They now stream on-line. As with many community stations, it isn't overly polished, but is an excellent example of grass-roots community-access radio! According to the Media programs column in the latest LI --- DX Partyline can be heard at these times: [deleted since most of them are wrong. See http://www.worldofradio.com/dxpgms.html DX/SWL/MEDIA PROGRAMS] Also on-line at http://www.hcjb.org/mass_media/dx_ partyline/dx_partyline.html 73, (Greg Schatzmann, ODXA via DXLD) ** CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 7220, R Centrafrique, Bangui, 0608-0640 fade out, Nov 07, French news already in progress, item on "produits agricoles" to 0613, then continued in French (possibly Vernacular too?). Frequency is clear after R Liberty s/off 0600. First heard Oct 31 and have checked this every day since. Do not despair, if you cannot hear anything at 0600, transmitter was not switched on until 0626, Nov 03. RFI seems to be registered here too for Hausa 0600-0630 but fortunately this has not materialized (yet) and this is quite definitely Bangui, poor (Martien Groot, Schoorl, The Netherlands, DSWCI DX Window Nov 11 via DXLD) ** CHINA. 13970, Crash & Bang Chinese music jammer; 2159, 4-Nov; Who are they jamming here? (Harold Frodge, MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) Sound of Hope, as reported here for months (gh, DXLD) ** CHINA. – Update - 9820, Guangxi Foreign BC Station, Nov 11, at 1320 and 1340, heard // 5050, in Chinese (Cantonese listed). Seemed to be a station under Guangxi, but very weak, possibly AIR-Panaji. Checked parallel for CBR/CNR-2, to see if I could detect them under Guangxi, but the weaker station did not seem //, so Guangxi completely dominates now at this time period (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also GOA ** CHINA. 6065, CBR/CNR-2, Nov 11, 1302-1355, ``English Evening`` presented by Alan & Joy, with examples of Amer. slang, reads lyrics for Kat Stevens new song ``Heaven, Where True Loves Goes``, 1331 into ``Studio Classroom Online`` with Vickie & Steve, program ``Star Power`` about celebrities helping after the 2004 tsunami --- http://studioclassroom.com/sc/sc_radio.php has audio available. Under ``My location: North America`` click on ``11`` for today`s program. Fair (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 6090, Central People's Broadcasting Station, Geermu, 1045- 1100 Nov 11. Noted two men and a woman in Chinese comments. At 1055 canned promos over music. This frequency is usually blocked by Caribbean Beacon at this hour, so hearing China is a rare opportunity at this QTH. No sign of Caribbean Beacon. It is either off the air or skipping as it sometimes does during the morning. CPBS's signal was at a good level (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No, 1000 UT is the nominal time for CB to switch from 6090 to 11775 (gh, DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. Someone reported recently that 5910 and 6010 were // and I agree, Nov 10 at 0622 with a hymn in English, about equal reception and not much QRM for a change on either. That would be Marfil Estéreo and La Voz de tu Conciencia, but did not stay with it long enough to find out which station ID would be used (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CROATIA [and non]. 1134, Glas Hrvatske, Zadar (44 06'N, 15 15'E), NOV 9, 2321 - Excellent; in English, "...a look at international news" with attention signal between items, 2323 "You're listening to Croatian Radio, the Voice of Croatia" with fanfare, then sports and weather, parallel 7285 kHz (Bruce Conti, NH, R8B, MWDX-5, 15 x 23-m terminated corner-fed broadband loops east and south, NRC IDXD Nov 10 via DXLD) So exactly when are the English and Spanish segments now on all the SW relays via GERMANY? (gh, DXLD) ** CUBA. RHC not yet running 6180 until 0700, as nothing there when checked at 0617 Nov 10 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. This older information [4th paragraph] re-posted and via Wolfgang Bueschel's BC-DX newsletter #781 - still makes interesting reading. New to me was the name Titán which is applied to the name of Radio Habana Cuba's number 3 SW transmitter site. This is the one site that has been located via Google Earth. To the best of my knowledge sites of the number 1 & 2 centers at Bauta & Bejucal have not been found with Google Earth from our group members. At least nothing seen anyway that I'm aware of. I would be interested to know which RHC transmissions emanate from which transmitter sites. Does anyone have this information??? Perhaps some of this information could be speculated from the azimuths given in the recent RHC schedule reposted in BCDX #781 & DXLD & from GE photos if we also had views of the antennas from Bauta & Bejucal. Item of bc-dx #668, April 2004: This article in Granma International gives details of improvements in their transmission systems: NEW TRANSMITTERS WILL ALLOW RADIO HABANA CUBA TO RECOUP AUDIENCE. With respect to short wave (a basically international radio service), Justo Moreno Garcia, technical director of RADIOCUBA, announced that this year, six transmitters located in international transmission center No. 1 in Bauta + west of the capital + are being automated. This will allow Radio Habana Cuba (RHC) to recover the spaces that this station had lost in diverse regions of the Americas where its signal used to reach. . . . Full article at: http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2004/abril/lun26/17transmi-i.html BY LILLIAM RIERA - Granma International staff writer - (Granma International, Apr 26 - 2004, via Alan Pennington-UK, BrDXC-UK and via Sergey Sosedkin in swprograms mlist; Bernd Trutenau-LTU, DXplorer Apr 27, 2004 via BCDX via Ian Baxter, shortwavesites yg Nov 12 via DXLD) ** CUBA [non]. Radio República is adding yet another broadcast next week, UT Tue-Sat 0200-0500 on 9630 via Sackville. That will inevitably draw jamming, and it`s only 5 kHz from 9625, CBC Northern Quebec service from same site, one south, one north. In addition to the jamming, won`t they interfere with each other? More bad news for those of us to the South who would like to hear CBC, but we don`t count. I fear also that people in the North, target area, will also find reception degraded, but they are so few in number that they don`t really count either. It`s customary to avoid putting two transmissions from the same site only 5 kHz apart, anyway. Is this a mistake? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. Almost a fortnight into B-06, R. Martí still hasn`t updated their SW schedule grid from summer, http://www.martinoticias.com/frequencies.htm so I attempt to put together info on Greenville and Delano transmissions known to be for Cuba, tentatively: 00-03 G 11775 00-04 G 7365 03-07 G 7405 04-05 G 9805 07-13 D 5980 10-12 D 6030 11-14 G 5745 12-14 G 7405 13-24 G 11930 14-1930 G 13820 14-20 G 15330 1930-24 D 13820 20-22 G 9565 22-10 G 6030 Dentro-Cuban Jamming Command, please turn them all OFF outside these hours on each frequency! (Glenn Hauser, Nov 10, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Strong buzzy jamming pulses on 11845 against nothing, Nov 11 at 1515. R. Martí hasn`t used this frequency since A-06 ended, but the DentroCuban Jamming Command just wants to be sure to demonstrate its own incompetence for all to hear (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECH REPUBLIC. See BELGIUM; CANADA ** EGYPT. The FM band in Cairo is back to normal right now. The cultural program which used to transmit on 88.7 MHz till that technical problem occurred in al-Mokatam transmitters sometime ago, is now on a new frequency of 91.50 MHz from 15 till 01 UT; on the MW frequency of 1341 kHz the transmission starts from 1700 UT! (Tarek Zeidan, Cairo, Nov 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FINLAND. 6170, SWR, Virrat, 1100-1505 fade out, Sa Nov 04, Finnish programmes of pop music with a few ann and ID’s in English, 33333 – 13111, covered by DRM Noise from 6175 until 1100*. 11690, SWR, Virrat, 0815-1200*, Sa Nov 04, Finnish programme // 6170, 35444-31331, best 1000-1030. 11720, SWR, Virrat, 1730-1800 fade out, Sa Nov 04, Finnish ID, pop songs, deep fades, 25323. Covered by QRM until 1600* (Anker Petersen, Skovlunde, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Nov 11 via DXLD) Scandinavian Weekend Radio, monthly only on the first Saturday, for 24 hours starting at 2200 UT on the preceding UT Friday (gh, DXLD) ** FRANCE. Agence France Presse reports that the current RFI strike was to end on Friday morning, but a new strike was to begin at 2300 UTC Sunday and continue through Friday morning. The latest AFP story recaps reasons for dissatisfaction at RFI -- the smallest budget increases of any of the public French radio channels during the past 10 years, a shifting of emphasis to the France 24 television channel, a desire by the Foreign Affairs ministry to have RFI concentrate on Africa, the Middle East and emerging countries, and a cut to broadcasts in Polish (Mike Cooper, GA, Nov 10, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RFI has not yet updated their .pdf program-frequency schedules to reflect the new season. However, RFI posted an article on its Web site last week http://www.rfi.fr/radiofr/articles/083/article_47247.asp in which Francis Ayrault (said to be in charge of RFI's broadcasts) calls shortwave the most expensive transmission method and one that is only used when there is no other choice. "That said, RFI still broadcasts on shortwave to rural areas in Africa and a little in Asia." I haven't yet determined if this means that shortwave broadcasts in French and Spanish for the Americas have been cut back or eliminated (Mike Cooper, GA, Nov 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Well, I am still hearing Spanish on 17630 via Guiana French, at 1600 and at 1807 check Nov 11, as well as at 2115 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn: I see RFI Spanish page has been updated with new winter frequencies. It doesn't appear to be a reduction from previous, maybe the two or three remaining half-hours in French have been cut -- not sure. But found the RFI article about shortwave being antiquated technology distressing (Mike Cooper, ibid.) RFI's 1200-1230 English confirmed on 15275 (Ascension) and 21620 (France). Quite a long delay on the 15275 channel. Good reception on both frequencies here today Saturday 11 Nov (Dave Kenny, UK, AOR7030 + 80ft long wire, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GABON. African music jammer against nothing, 17660, good Nov 11 at 1455, equivalent signal to ANO fundamental 17630. Africa No. One harmonic, 19160 = 2 x 9580 again audible Nov 11 at 1452 with a bit of audio, fading S5 to S8; not audible at 1601 recheck (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The time here to receive Africa # 1 on 19160 harmonic is after 2000. But what I heard this Sat. 11 was a stronger sawmill type noise, even louder than their usual audio from 9580. Why to think someone was jamming them. It may be self produced (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. Jülich at night --- See these pictures, especially the first one (page includes thumbnail link to another photo, made some 30 minutes earlier): http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/cat/1336/display/6015744 http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/cat/1336/display/5582279 What a pity that I never drove by Nauen at night when the old curtains still existed. It must have been a stunning view, too. Just on Monday I was once again on business at Hoyerswerda, and it so happened that it already started to get dark when I completed a late lunch. So I got to see the new FM tower at night, see the picture I made in a hurry and just put into the DXLD yg since the Cottbus studio with the associated Hoyerswerda transmitter are covered there anyway. All the best, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Nov 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GOA. AIR Sinhala service, 9820, Nov 11 at 1447 was going from talk into the usual chanting at end of transmission, but today there was also squealing from the defective transmitter, unlike my other logs of this the past several days. No sign of China co-channel (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CHINA ** GREECE. Hellenes Around the World, weekly hour in English from VOG, confirmed Sat Nov 11 at 1425 in progress on 9420, Katerina interviewing someone on phone about Greek-American community, churches; G signal but QSB; recheck at 1450, another interview about chivalry, Mary, but now there is a bad echo, long/short path. Altho Americans are often featured on this show, it is not broadcast to NAm any more, as this is apparently the only airing in B-06. At 1545 checked the only //, 17525, and found a poor signal, made worse and unusable by undermodulation; at least there was no chirping utility QRM this time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Katerina: Tuned in late to your "Greeks Everywhere" show which aired today (Saturday) at 1400-1500 UT on 17525 with SINPO 35343 beamed with an azimuth of 105 degrees. It was too early to pick up anything on 9420 even though it has a better azimuth of 323 degrees and more kws. The Voice of Greece live radio site on the Internet was loud and clear (John Babbis, Silver Spring, MD, via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREENLAND. [Re CANADA, now that local CHTN has closed down] ``I was listening to 720 Greenland on the car radio, and then again on my Zenith Trans-symphony (Phil Rafuse, PEI, ABDX via DXLD)`` Greenland... I hate you, I hate you, I hate you... Really I don't, but I am very jealous (Kevin Redding, AZ, ABDX via DXLD) You can't imagine my surprise that it was so easy to catch Greenland. I thought I'd need to use the fancy stuff, but there it was on my car radio! The key is time of day. Later they were gone and it was all WGN. Of course Kevin, you get stuff I can't. Western stuff. You can DX KEVA [WY] - I haven't although I'll keep trying... Plus, you get the grand tour of PEI if you come here on vacation. We're used to lots of Arizona license plates here. Heck, even summertime can be good for MW DX here. Bag some TAs and LAs plus some east coast stuff while gorging on lobster and the best potatoes if you like the stuff. 720 Greenland was playing some weird Danish or whatever C&W. It sounded like wolf howling in the background. Maybe its a musical style, maybe they left the mic pot up and one of the sled dogs was excited. Before that there was yacking in a couple languages - one sounded a bit like German the other a bit like an Inuit language. I suspect that Danish and Inuit language are both used, but I better Google Greenland and educate myself. I picked my not quite 4 year old daughter up from the sitters and we were listening on the way home. She asked what I was listening to and I said Greenland. She then did her best wolf howling and I chimed in. We walked into the house howling like some of Powell's canine friends and my wife thought we were both nuts. Which we are. Now pass another nutdriver, Lauren! (Phil Rafuse, Charlottetown, ibid.) Nice story, Phil! Greenland 720 should be loggable along the New England coast I'd think, although I think it would certainly be 2 hops to there. Nearly 30 years ago I had some Xmas carol on 1425 from the long gone Thule AFRTS station, off the back end of my Bevs in RI. To my knowledge no one ever got anything of the lower band Greenland stations in N.E. but I don't think there was anything on 720 pre CHTN. Greenland 720 typically rolls in our SE Nfld DX spot up to 3 hours prior to sunset. 73 KAZ (Neil Kazaross, IL/WI, ibid.) Thanks Neil - the timing sounds dead on! I caught them an hour before sunset and I supect they would be readily available earlier. I grabbed this from Wikipedia: --- Most Greenlanders have both Kalaallit (Inuit) and Scandinavian ancestry, and speak Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) as their first language. Greenlandic is spoken by about 50,000 people, which is more than all the other Eskimo-Aleut languages combined. A minority of Danish migrants with no Inuit ancestry speak Danish as their first language. Both languages are official with the West Greenlandic dialect forming the basis of the official form of Greenlandic. So, my language prediction wasn't too far off! (Phil Rafuse, ibid.) Location3 (gh) ** GUAM. Thu Nov 9 at 1332 came upon 9615 which was just going from Chinese, into English lesson presented entirely in English for those already semi-fluent, as the teacher admitted she did not speak much Chinese. Woman went on and on for five minutes of introduction --- does she do the same in every broadcast of this program? And at 1337 finally got to the first expression to be explained, ``the die is cast`` which has nothing to do with death. Fair signal but clear. At first I guessed it was KNLS, which has used 9615 before, but axually it`s listed as the AWR Mandarin service from KSDA. Must be the same program previously reported in 6-156 at 1355 Oct 20 on 12105 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUYANA. 3291.20, 0540- Nov 10, Voice of Guyana. Surprisingly good reception all this evening with BBCWS programming. Nothing strong, but clearly audible. Normally this station's reception has been at threshold or just above. I'm listening right now using the R390A along with the SE3 with audio recovery at least as good as my 7030+ or Icom 756Pro2, and perhaps a bit better (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. AIR B-2006 schedules in official site Dear friends, The latest B-2006 schedule of All India Radio (Home & External Service, MW FM SW) valid from 29 October 2006 to 25 March 2007 is now available in their official site given below: http://www.allindiaradio.gov.in/schedule/fqsch.html The following are the new stations of interest. Jammu & Kashmir: Drass 1485 kHz Kargil A 684 Kargil B 1584 Tiesuru 1602 Gujarat: Himmat Nagar 1584 kHz In the External Service section I noticed that the new 7195 Mumbai is unlisted for Urdu External Services (They may correct the entry soon). 73 (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, National Institute of Amateur Radio, Raj Bhavan Road, Hyderabad 500082, India Nov 10, dx_india via DXLD) ** INDONESIA [and non]. RRI Makassar, Sulawesi, 4750 at 1150z – 1205z, Nov 10. Domestic service, talk (male & female voices) and music. Into news at 1200z, including a mention of President Bambang Yudhoyono (using the English "President"). Passport and EiBi show sign off at 1600 but yesterday morning they went off at 1402. When listening yesterday there was no interference but this morning over an interfering station. I wasn't able to listen long enough to make a positive ID of the interference. I believe that Bangladesh is on this channel with a new transmitter but the station underneath sounded more like Chinese (Jerry Lenamon, Waco, Texas, Drake R8B with T2FD, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also BANGLADESH ** INDONESIA. It`s been a couple weeks since we found the frequently- announced RRI website http://www.rri-online.com to be missing. Rechecked Nov 9 at 2352, it still is (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA [and non]. Checking VOI 9525, Nov 11 at 1450, usual open carrier, but no hum this time. At 1522 found CRI Kashi in English also on 9525 mostly under the carrier, 1530 into mailbag. Seemed like there was a third station in the mix, too. Unlike several previous dates, Suara Indonesia did not go into gamelan orchestra loop with English IDs, but OC continued. 1557 recheck no audio from either; was CRI already finished? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN. B 06 of the Arabic section of VOIRI SW: 1630-0530 6065 0530-1630 15545 0230-0430 7350 0230-0430 9895 0430-1430 13790 0430-1430 13800 MW 0330-1630 576 0000-0000 1224 1630-2130 1161 1630-0230 1080 0430-1630 612 1330-0330 765 0330-1030 765 FM 0130-0330 88.6 0430-1330 88.6 1830-2130 99.3 0000-0000 99.3 source the Arabic page of http//www.irib.ir (Tarek Zeidan, Cairo, Nov 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISLE OF MAN. Is the future of the IOM 279 project in doubt? Take a look at KAT News at http://www.crossedfieldantenna.com/ This suggests a lack of funds has caused the withdrawal of the provision of their crossed field antenna (Andy Cadier, UK, Nov 9, BDXC-UK via DXLD) Of course IOMIB has their own view: http://www.iomib.com/news.html (Mark Hattam, ibid.) Viz.: ISLE OF MAN INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING PLC SAYS ANTENNA PROBLEMS SOLVED --- Isle of Man International broadcasting plc, which is planning to broadcast to the UK on 279 kHz longwave, has posted the following press statement on its website: ``In 2005, IMIB signed a contract with KAT for the supply of a Crossed Field Antenna and a deposit of 50% was paid for this item, costing £300,000 sterling. Despite KAT claims that the antenna was completed, we have not received the necessary documentary evidence and the device has not been made available for independent testing. We must protect our investors and so have refused to make further payments demanded by KAT, including disputed licence fees for periods not used. Our view is that the level of these ‘licence fees’ is exorbitant, and that the principle of levying them is unprecedented in the broadcast industry. Negotiations for the supply of a CFA from another source have now been completed and we have made an initial payment for use of the technology to the patent holders. IMIB is considering what action to take to retrieve the advance payments made to KAT under the unfulfilled contracts`` (November 10th, 2006, 10:40 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) Will it ever come on or not???? this has been going on now for about 7 Years, these probs. could be solved by looking at a mix of some of more contemporary means of transmission, DAB, FM, Freeview, Sky, NTL (+ITV?), Net, etc. I know that Paul R[usling] disagrees with me, but I feel long wave should be largely reserved for non commercial public service use. I do also have some (now considerably diluted) misgivings about 279 kHz. Somebody pointed out recently that many radios now no longer have LW; this will increase with the spread of other technologies (which will also apply in the next five years or so to AM-medium wave which I think will be largely replaced by MW/DRM. I know Paul R hopes that 279 can one day become DRM; I would have thought this diminishes long wave radio ownership drastically further. In my view, this project needs now a big re-focus (Ken Fletcher, BDXC- UK via DXLD) Is it me, or is the top item in KAT News complete cobblers?! I'm no engineer but it reads like one of those nonsensical ads that try to blind you with science, whilst actually talking utter b.... sorry, rubbish. And the diagram seems highly suspicious, too. Yes, a narrow band antenna will filter the transmitted power, but how is this, usually jettisoned part of the signal recombined within the transmitted bandwidth? In addition, my (limited) understanding of digital multiplexes tells me that, by the very nature of the beast, the entire waveform must be received prior to demodulation. The entire concept behind this piece seems, to me, flawed on many levels. So how can this antenna be saving 'millions of pounds in DAB in 2006'? DAB? Have I missed something, here. Regards (Martin Peters, ibid.) Well said, Martin; personally I believe the people engaged in constructing Britain's DAB network are more than qualified to produce suitable 200 MHz transmission antennas and I can't see KAT having any serious input to this. Looking back at those faded copies of Shortwave Magazine I can see articles written as far back as 1999 mentioning Music Mann 279 and them using a crossed field antenna. Granted this was initially going to be a land based project, but was to use a CFA just the same. I am not in the business of slagging of anyone, particularly those that bold enough to do something to rectify the dismal radio situation that at present exists. However even the most senile anoraks must surely be scratching their little grey cells as to why almost 8 years later this antenna deal has not been sorted. If you had developed a revolutionary antenna and having secured the appropriate patents --- you would be keen to have a high profile customer use your product. As if this were a success it would be a wonderful running example of your product and almost certainly lead to a full order-book. Instead all information in the provision of this CFA is surrounded in secrecy, now being obtained from an anonymous source as if it were some sort of weapon of mass destruction. It seems inconceivable that 279 defended their station against objectors in court, when at the time their all important crucial contracted technical arrangements, which depended entirely on a CFA, had not been properly tied down. It is no wonder that people that were once ardent supporters are beginning to consider the whole thing to be a never ending dream, so perhaps they can be excused from emitting the odd yawn from time to time (Andy Cadier, ibid.) Well, I've had a look at the KAT website. One of the first things I noticed was the claim that "CFAs help DAB" due to the supposed improved bandwidth of Crossfield antennas. What total garbage! The audio quality of DAB is limited by the system bandwidth, and how many stations are squeezed into that bandwidth - not by the antenna's ability to radiate that signal. Antenna bandwidth can sometimes be a factor on long wave or the lower end of medium wave, where the required signal bandwidth is a significant proportion of the operating frequency, but not on the VHF frequencies where DAB is used. Such patent nonsense as this causes one to suspect everything else claimed on this site, including Professor Kabbary's "scientific" papers with "correct" Maxwell equations. As for the IOM project, I am just amazed that this lame duck has not been put out of its misery ages ago. In the years that this has been rumbling on, we just seem to have excuse after excuse after excuse, and not a minute of programming via any medium, least of all on LW. Supposedly, a platform was being erected at sea. So where is it? Was construction ever started, or even contracts signed to build it? Does the supposed LW transmitter actually exist? Then the station's launch was happening any day now from a CFA mounted on the MV Communicator. Well, all I can hear on 279 is the Chiltern beacon. Now we've got all these stories about being let down by KAT (the supposed supplier of the antenna). Ever feel that your intelligence is being insulted? From a technical point of view, it would have been interesting to see if anyone actually could radiate half a megawatt on LF from an overgrown oildrum with a shuttlecock in the top. It would have been an interesting idea, but I'm just astounded that anyone is daft enough to keep funding this long-running fiasco. Doubtless, Mr Rusling will, as usual, rush to give us all (yet) another explanation for the delay. But I'm sick and tired of excuses - I want programmes, not fantasies :0( (Mark Palmer, ibid.) ** ISRAEL. Respecting this time (something uncommon) their new B-06 sked for English at 0430, Kol Israel was heard on 7530 // 9345 with good signals, but listed 11600 was silent (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ITALY [non]. Hi, IRRS-Shortwave will be testing on Sunday Nov. 12, 2006 according to the following schedule: TEST #1: 12 Nov 2006 (Sunday) 1100-1200 UT, 9310 kHz to Europe TEST #2: 12 Nov 2006 (Sunday) 1500-1600 UT, 5775 kHz to Europe TEST #3: 12 Nov 2006 (Sunday) 1800-1900 UT, 5775 kHz to Europe We appreciate all reception reports to: reports @ nexus.org for the above test broadcasts, and we will confirm by email or QSL. Thanks and stay tuned! 73s de Ron (Ron Norton NEXUS-Int'l Broadcasting Association email: ron @ nexus.org http://www.nexus.org ph: +39-02-266 6971 - Toll free: 1-888-612-0039 fax: +39-02-706 38151 DX LISTENING DIGEST) Presumably all via BULGARIA; will other clients be back too? (gh, DXLD) ** JAPAN. In ``World Interactive`` of R Japan on Sats Nov 11 and 25, Toshimichi Ohtake is going to report in English from the recent EDXC Conference in St. Petersburg. The Japan SW Club is going to issue a special EDXC QSL card for correct reports on this programme. Please send them by ordinary mail together with one new IRC or one U.S. $ bill to JSWC, P. O. Box 29, Sendai Central 980-8691, Japan. Some of their current, audible frequencies are: Saturdays 0510-0600 5975, 6110 and 7230 1010-1100 6120, 17585 and 17720 1710-1800 9535, 11970 and 15355 Sundays 0010-0100 6145 1510-1600 6190, 7200, 9505 and 9875 Mondays 0110-0200 6030, 11935, 17560 and 17825 (Ohtake and Petersen, DSWCI DX Window Nov 11 via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH. Re 6-165: Hi Glenn! Here's the "VOK fan from Berlin" at last to help fill the void about the missing "rest o' th' world" VoK B06 schedule. As you know a lot about me, tell me this: how can I publish the correct VoK schedule which came into effect on Nov. 6 as early as Nov. 1 when I have no official printed schedules or any other source from VoK itself, and announcements were made in foreign languages only, NOT KOREAN, eh? ;-) Well, have read your interesting entry about my A-DX posting under http://www.worldofradio.com/dxld6165.txt and was bemused to learn such a lot about me. To help out ("How about the rest of the schedule besides Europe?") here's the English edition in general: http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~caplabtb/dprk/NK_misc.htm see links under the headline which will open my Word-formatted lists sorted either by language or time. I will also submit them to you separately including lists with either beam info OR feeder QRGs. So enjoy incorporating them into your very interesting "WoRadio" website. Please inform me if you wish further schedule amendments as they become available (i.e. A07 schedule when known). 73s, OM (Arnulf Piontek, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UTC Language Frequencies Beams Target [gh added feeder frequencies 3560 and 4405 from a separate schedule] 00 Chinese 13650 238 151 238 4405 SEAs 00 Korean (PBS) 7140 ND 9345 ND 9730 ND 3560 NECHN 00 Spanish 11735 28 13760 28 15180 28 CAm, SAm 01 English 7140 ND 9345 ND 9730 ND 3560 NEAs 01 English 11735 28 13760 28 15180 28 CAm, SAm 01 French 13650 238 151 238 4405 SEAs 02 Chinese 7140 ND 9345 ND 9730 ND 3560 NECHN 02 English 13650 238 151 238 4405 SEAs 02 Spanish 11735 28 13760 28 15180 28 CAm, SAm 03 Chinese 13650 238 151 238 4405 SEAs 03 English 7140 ND 9345 ND 9730 ND 3560 NEAs 03 French 11735 28 13760 28 15180 28 CAm, SAm 07 Japanese 621 ND 3250 ND 7580 109 9650 109 J 07 Korean (PBS) 7140 ND 9345 ND 4405 NECHN 07 Russian 9975 28 11735 28 3560 FE 07 Russian 13760 325 15245 325 Eu 08 Chinese 7140 ND 9345 ND 4405 NECHN 08 Japanese 621 ND 3250 ND 7580 109 9650 109 J 08 Russian 9975 28 11735 28 3560 FE 08 Russian 13760 325 15245 325 Eu 09 Japanese 621 ND 3250 ND 6070 109 7580 109 9650 109 J 09 Korean (KCBS) 7140 ND 9345 ND 4405 NECHN 09 Korean (PBS) 9975 28 11735 28 3560 FE 09 Korean (PBS) 13760 325 15245 325 Eu 10 English 6185 238 9850 238 3560 SEAs 10 English 6285 28 9325 28 CAm, SAm 10 Japanese 621 ND 3250 ND 6070 109 7580 109 9650 109 J 10 Korean (PBS) 7140 ND 9345 ND 4405 NECHN 11 Chinese 7140 ND 9345 ND 4405 CHN 11 French 6185 238 9850 238 3560 SEAs 11 French 6285 28 9325 28 CAm, SAm 11 Japanese 621 ND 3250 ND 6070 109 7580 109 9650 109 J 12 Japanese 621 ND 3250 ND 6070 109 7580 109 9650 109 J 12 Korean (KCBS) 6185 238 9850 238 3560 SEAs 12 Korean (KCBS) 6285 28 9325 28 CAm, SAm 12 Korean (PBS) 7140 ND 9345 ND 4405 NECHN 13 Chinese 6185 238 9850 238 3560 SEAs 13 English 7570 325 12015 325 4405 WEu 13 English 9335 28 11710 28 NAm 13 Korean (PBS) 6285 325 9325 325 Eu 14 French 7570 325 12015 325 4405 WEu 14 French 9335 28 11710 28 NAm 14 Korean (KCBS) 6185 238 9850 238 3560 SEAs 14 Russian 6285 325 9325 325 Eu 15 Arabic 9990 296 11545 296 3560 ME, NAf 15 English 7570 325 12015 325 4405 WEu 15 English 9335 28 11710 28 NAm 15 Russian 6285 325 9325 325 Eu 16 English 9990 296 11545 296 3560 ME, NAf 16 French 7570 325 12015 325 4405 WEu 16 French 9335 28 11710 28 NAm 16 German 6285 325 9325 325 WEu 17 Arabic 9990 296 11545 296 3560 ME, NAf 17 Korean (KCBS) 7570 325 12015 325 4405 WEu 17 Korean (KCBS) 9335 28 11710 28 NAm 17 Russian 6285 325 9325 325 Eu 18 English 7570 325 12015 325 4405 WEu 18 French 71 271 11910 271 SAf 18 French 9975 296 11535 296 3560 ME, NAf 18 German 6285 325 9325 325 WEu 19 English 9975 296 11535 296 3560 ME, NAf 19 English 71 271 11910 271 SAf 19 German 6285 325 9325 325 WEu 19 Spanish 7570 325 12015 325 4405 WEu 20 French 7570 325 12015 325 4405 WEu 20 Korean (KCBS) 6285 325 9325 325 3560 WEu 20 Korean (KCBS) 71 271 11910 271 SAf 20 Korean (KCBS) 9975 296 11535 296 ME, NAf 21 Chinese 7180 ND 9345 ND 3560 NECHN 21 Chinese 9975 271 11535 271 CHN 21 English 7570 325 12015 325 4405 WEu 21 Japanese 621 ND 3250 ND 7580 109 9650 109 J 22 Chinese 7180 ND 9345 ND NECHN 22 Chinese 9975 271 11535 271 3560 CHN 22 Spanish 7570 325 12015 325 4405 WEu 22 Japanese 621 ND 3250 ND 7580 109 9650 109 J 23 Japanese 621 ND 3250 ND 7580 109 9650 109 J 23 Korean (KCBS) 7180 ND 9345 ND NECHN 23 Korean (KCBS) 7570 325 12015 325 3560 WEu 23 Korean (KCBS) 9975 271 11535 271 4405 CHN (Arnulf Piontek, via DXLD) All times in UT, all frequencies in kHz, subject to change at short notice. Programs last 47 to 57 minutes. Data based on announcements and schedules of the Voice of Korea and own monitoring. KCBS = Korean Central Broadcasting Station (Choson Jungang Pangsong) PBS = Pyongyang Broadcasting Station (Pyongyang Pangsong) Compiled by Arnulf Piontek, 12359 Berlin, Germany Please feel free to publish this schedule by mentioning the source: (Arnulf Piontek, Berlin, Germany, Nov 2, HCDX via DXLD) Hello everyone! VOICE OF KOREA, the external broadcasting service of the DPR Korea (North) from Pyongyang uses a new rendition of the National Anthem from today (09 Nov 2006) at the beginning of each programme after the interval signal ("Song of General KIM IL SUNG") and station announcements. The new rendition sounds more solemn and lasts a little longer while the old one was slightly more forceful. The Korean programming (Korean Central Broadcasting Station [KCBS] and Pyongyang Broadcasting Station PBS]) still use the old version as they are independently organised. Enjoy listening! 73s (OM Arnulf Piontek, Berlin, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Amended below Hi Arnulf, Tnx for all the VOK info. Yes, of course, I would like any further updates, such as the item about the anthem you already sent. I did include a link to the pdf version already. So do you compile these schedules only from monitoring the announcements in the various languages? 73, (Glenn to Arnulf, via DXLD) Hi Glenn! Tnx for your help, answer and interest. I'll keep you posted on the latest schedules and developments on VoKorea and North Korean broadcasting in general as soon as new information becomes available. As you may have noticed already VoKorea is not changing their schedules at dates most international broadcasters do, but on the first Monday, 0700 UT in May and November. There was just one exception in recent years when they started their Winter schedule a month later than usual, i.e. on 1 Dec 2004 with schedule amendment effective from 1 Jan 2005. They usually don't adjust frequency within a broadcasting period even if it should prove necessary because of severe interference or changing propagation conditions. So, as I'm constantly monitoring their programmes for any changes or announcements especially from the Wednesday before their schedule changes come into effect, I am one of the first to know about this. They usually start announcing their frequency changes in their foreign languages programmes on the Wednesday before they come into effect whereas I have to wait till Friday for their announcements in both Korean programming (i.e. Korean Central and Pyongyang Broadcasting Stations) which is very short notice indeed when taking the changing propagation conditions into account. This makes it sometimes very hard for me to monitor their announcements. I have begged them time and again to start their announcements earlier but until now to no avail. The exciting moment comes when I have monitored their first announcements and compare them with last year's schedule. (I usually listen to the German and English announcements only + Korean 2 days later because they cover most of the schedule broadcasting pattern for other languages to most target areas as well. The two white spots which usually remain are the Korean and Russian broadcasts to Europe and FE Russia at 7, 8 and 9 UT plus all Japanese programmes). When it is obvious that there aren't any changes at all I start compiling my own transmission schedules. There are usually no amendments necessary once you have understood their way of action over the last few years and I kept listening since 1973! On the Monday their schedule changes come into effect I start monitoring and this time found that I was completely right about their new schedule as early as 1 Nov. though I heard no Korean announcements before 3 Nov. A few weeks later I get some or all foreign language schedules from VoKorea itself by mail but NEVER in Korean because I'm not the official target audience, hence no schedules. This is Asian thinking and I had to write time and again to ask them for schedules other than German! This works now. I always send my schedules to them and I know that they get them. Lastly, to amend my National Anthem info from yesterday I have found out that they DID also switch to the new rendition in their PYONGYANG BROADCASTING STATION programmes. This makes sense as this is solely intended for Korean audience in South Korea and abroad (as the foreign language programmes are also intended solely for audience abroad) whereas KOREAN CENTRAL BROADCASTING STATION programming is the home service relayed abroad. One can only speculate about their reasons but perhaps the new and more solemn version is intended for demonstrating their national pride now that they are a member of the nuclear club. Hope this explains chronologically how I usually fetch their new schedules. 73s, (Arnulf Piontek, ibid.) [Re 6-165]: You're right, most of the songs are in praise of Dear General KIM JONG IL or Eternal President KIM IL SUNG and a few about the Motherly Party (i.e. WORKER'S PARTY OF KOREA"). Less than few are non-political folk songs modernised "to suit the modern aesthetic taste of the people". But I have never heard such gentle propaganda music as the North Korean's. I grew up in "free" West Berlin and we could watch East German TV or listen to their radio programmes. Ideological music was always sounding stupid and the melodies dull and simple. But North Korean interpretation is so smooth and pleasing that this was actually the reason for starting to listen to their programmes. There are of course brass music, marches and the like but when you listen to their programmes nowadays they mostly play electronic "easy listening" music North Korean-style. The one you probably referred to was a song from the POCHONBO ELECTRONIC MUSIC ENSEMBLE which was formed together with the more dance-music like WANGJAESAN LIGHT MUSIC ENSEMBLE back in 1988 to modernise their music scores. I have piles of CDs from them (over 200 all told) and many others with different music (opera-like or children's or film music etc.). Old North Korean chorus songs (especially female choruses) remind me a lot of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Weird, eh?! Well, p'haps this has helped you a little? 73s, (Arnulf Piontek, Nov 10, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. Re 6-167, Shiokaze (Sea Breeze) Hi Glenn, They list two new frequencies: Shiokaze One: 9645 at 2030-2100 UT [5:30 AM - 6 AM JST] (ex 9785) [Broadcasting in Japanese] Shiokaze Two: 9730 at 1300-1330 UT [10:00 PM - 10:30 PM JST] (ex 9485) [Broadcasting in Japanese, Korean, Chinese and English] New schedule located at both http://chosa-kai.jp/index.html and http://senryaku-jouhou.jp/shiotsuu.html (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) With the timeshift in CNAm, I am less likely to be hearing Shiokaze at 1300, but I was wondering whether they had made a B-06 schedule change. Finally Nov 9 I checked at 1325 and heard nothing on 9485 where it had been for some months, including English once or twice a week. Ron Howard looked at their websites http://chosa-kai.jp/index.html and http://senryaku-jouhou.jp/shiotsuu.html and found that this has moved to 9730 while the 2030 broadcast in Japanese has moved from 9785 to 9645 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Shiokaze 2, 9730, covered by CRI in English, Nov 9, 1300-1330. Was readable, sometimes quite nice, on 9485. QSL-card arrived in 10 days for an email report (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Henrik, total different reception in southern Germany. Logged the station at same time, Nov 9, 1300 UT. Shiokaze dominated the channel totally [about 95%] in Germany. The Chinese station from Beijing site at 193 degrees, 9730 1200-1400 to zone 49 SE Asia, 54 Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore did not interfere. Latter 5% signal portion only. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Interesting, Wolfgang. Thanks for your comparison. I shall be checking the channel next week to see what happens. 73, (Henrik Klemetz, ibid.) 9730, Shiokaze (Sea Breeze), Nov 9, noted on their new frequency, *1300-1308, sign-on under a strong CRI in English, usual piano music, sounded Japanese or Korean. Will have to see how much can be understood whenever they broadcast in English (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Friday Nov 10 tuned in 9730 at 1328 and heard CRI in English. May have been too late to assess how Shiokaze is doing against it, but it`s safe to say it`s a total loss both here and in Asia. It should have been no surprise that CRI was already here, 500 kW southward from Beijing. Who`s picking Shiokaze`s frequencies? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 3985, Echo of Hope, Seoul, South Korea. 9 Nov, 2006 at 1545-1600 in Korean. SIO: 233. Very Strong Jamming (Yasuhiro Kubo, Kobe-city, Japan, Amateur Radio Receiver: IC-706MK2GM, Antenna:145/435 Dual Band Gland Plane, HCDX via DXLD) ** MADAGASCAR. Hi All, I enclosed my holyday log from Reunion Island. I used an ICF-SW760GR with internal antenna for LW/MW and a wire packed with the radio for SW. Conditions were good enough to hear some DX on MW and also on SW (more easy). 73 de Vincent ---------- REUNION ISL. TRIP 23/10 - 04/11/2006 VINCENT LECLER F5OIH vlecler @ wanadoo.fr LOCATOR: LG78OW 326.0 VSJ MAHAJANGA, MDG 2212 24/10 630.0 RNM1, Antananarivo 433 1823 31/10 // 5010 3288.0 R Madagascar, Antananarivo 333 1545 25/10 // 5010 5010.0 R Madagascar, Antananarivo 555 1544 25/10 6135.0 R Madagascar 344 1400 23/10 7105.0 R Madagascar 344 1400 23/10 // 6135 (Vincent Lecler, Réunion, back in European France, Nov 10, dxldyg via DXLD) Vincent posted many more logs in the yg, but here we are concentrating on confirming activity of Madagascar outlets, semi-local to Réunion. Presumably the .0 readings are an artifact of some logging program and not actual measurements; e.g. 3288 is usually reported somewhere in the 3287s (gh) ** MEXICO [and non]. Checking 6185 for XEPPM, Nov 10 at 0617, I found a strong open carrier blocking another station whose language I could not determine. So one was Vatican, and the other R. Educación, but not sure which. Vatican was in English on 7250 at same time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. The 690 XETRA ring-bound "Media Kit" is entitled "XETRA 690 AM Station Information / W Radio 690 AM." Therefore claims that the callsign is XERA or XEWR are incorrect. XERA reports are based on the indistinct pronunciation of the announcer in one of the legal IDs (Richard E. Wood, Keaau BIHI, NRC IDXD Nov 10 via DXLD) ** MOLDOVA. 6235, R. DMR, Nov 01 *1700-1721 33333-23332 English, 1700 sign on with opening music, Opening announce, News, 1703 and 1705 and 1715 news theme music (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) 6235, R. DMR, Nov 02 *1700-1742* 22332-33333 English and French, 1700 sign on with opening music, 1702 ID and opening announce, News, ID at 1719, IS at 1720, 1742 sign off (Kouji Hashimoto, ibid.) 6235, Radio DMR, Nov. 2 at 1700-1720 in English. SINPO 24332. Chime & opening music at 1700, followed by ID & news. Chime again at 1720, followed by French program. Thanks for Kouji Hashimoto's tips on Kageyama's website (Iwao Nagatani, ibid.) If this is really running a megawatt, it should be an interesting challenge to DX at local noon in ENAm as solstice approaches. At least this frequency should be clear of broadcast QRM (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR [non]. QSL - S.H.A.N. (Shan Herald Agency for News) for their broadcasts via Democratic Voice of Burma (15480-Yerevan, 9490- Wertachtal and 9455-RFA-Tinian), partial-data letter in 26 days; says this is the first time they have received "feedback from any real outsiders and we do appreciate your taking the time and trouble to let us know," and asks for more feedback. Letter is signed by Khuensai Jaiyen, Director. Report was sent to P. O. Box 15, Nong Hoi P.O., Chiangmai, 50007 Thailand (Wendel Craighead, KS, DXplorer Nov 6 via BCDX via DXLD) News that they have ever used RFA Tinian site? IBB sites are not normally available to non-official non-US clandestines. Or was it merely a program on the RFA Burmese service? (gh, DXLD) ** MYANMAR. 5985.83, Myanma R, Yangon, 1356-1426, Nov 07, kids choir with alternating singing/reciting, ann, Burmese vocal music to 1426, at which time RCI signed on 5985 and ruined reception. Prior to 1426 pretty good signal (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge CO, DSWCI DX Window Nov 11 via DXLD) ** NEW ZEALAND. Coming on strong, RNZI on 15720 at 0400 with something like Pacific Dateline (?). Change of frequency came at 0600 this time, not 0659, to keep strong and clear presence on 9870, listed as DRM on PTSW (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGER. 9705, LV du Sahel, 2142 27 Oct, SIO-433, English program with Sahel ID, into language at 2145 (Karl Racenis, Brighton, MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) That was a Friday (gh) ** OKLAHOMA. Re: [mwc] KFXY 1640 network --- Glenn, your extreme sacrifice is very much appreciated. I do hope it does not have a lasting effect! (Andrew Brade, UK, MWC via DXLD) If someone does sort out which network Sporting News is associated with, or neither, let us know (gh, DXLD) Glenn, I`m at library and don't have any reference material with me, but I believe the X-bander on 1640 carrying ESPN is WTNI in Biloxi, Mississippi, which puts in a good signal here in eastern West Virginia just about every night. I've been trying for the Enid station, but no success yet (Alex Vranes, Jr.- Harpers Ferry, WV, Nov 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Couldn`t say from here, but I thought those hearing ESPN had ruled out the much more frequently heard WTNI as carrying non-sports programming. But formats are very subject to change. If you are sure WTNI is now with ESPN, that could be the answer (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** PERU. 6535.95, La Voz del Campesino, 0055-0120 Nov 11. Heard some music before the hour. At 0059, canned ID by a woman followed with Spanish comments from a man. Signal was fair at start of listening period, but collapsed to nothing by 0120 (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 4965.81, R. Santa Ana, 0926-1002 8 Nov. Already on this morning with tinkly OA harp campesino music. Canned shouted announcement during song by M mentioning Peru. Promo at 0927 with roosters and cuckoo clock. Nice huayno 0932, live M announcer in Aymara who made a baby crying SFX!!! Disney-like song at 0944. 0947 another canned promo by M with laser shooting [see my previous remark --- gh] and cuckoo clock SFX. Mention of Santa Ana. "Música" promo by M at 1000 with song clips and nice ID (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) Ex-R. Santa Mónica, it seems, still listed as the latter in PWBR ``2007``. There may be a story here about one patron saint battling another to victory over the masses. Also, I was wondering if this was really Aymara, or Quechua, if Dave could tell them apart, so googled ``Aymara language range`` and found this fascinating article, altho it did not really answer that question; seems we cannot take timechecks in Aymara at face value! --- BACKS TO THE FUTURE AYMARA LANGUAGE AND GESTURE POINT TO MIRROR-IMAGE VIEW OF TIME By Inga Kiderra | June 12, 2006 . . . http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2006/june/06_12_backs.asp Trying again, I found this at http://www.losapushotel.com/index2.php?option=content&task=view&id=34&pop=1&page=0 ``Language --- Peru has two official languages: Spanish, spoken by 73 percent of the population, and Quechua, spoken by 24 percent. The Ayamara [sic] language is also spoken, in an area on Peru’s high altiplano on the border with Bolivia. There are also some 50 Amazon languages, including Ashaninka, Aguaruna, and Machiguenga.`` So Aymara is not official in Perú and very much in the minority overall, but Cusco is in the area where it would be heard. Now I wonder if on the Altiplano it is the number 2 language or even number 1 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** POLAND [non]. Hi all, I have been listening to BBC programs at 2100 and 2200 UT on 9660 for a couple of days now. While listening to nov 8th, broadcast at 2200 UT on 9660 heard this interval signal underneath BBC and it was Radio Polonia. Has been many years since I've heard them here! (Gilles Létourneau Montreal, Canada, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) As we have pointed out, this is an unacceptable collision, BBC via WHRI and Polonia via Guiana French. How much longer? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** SAINT HELENA. 11092.5 USB, R. St. Helena Nov. 4 2230-2310, 33333. Talk and music in English. ID at 2310 as Radio St. Helena. cf: Infomation from Mr. OHTAKE Toshimichi, JSWC (Kyosiro ISHIZAKI, Japan Premium via DXLD) 11092.5, Radio St. Helena. Nov. 4 at 1950-2206 in English. SINPO 35333-25222-35333. Pops & ID in English till 2000, then fanfare, opening music & ID. Announcement of Governor of St. Helena, interview with Robert Kipp, Ohtake, etc. Signal strength got weaker around 2100, but became stronger at 2130 (Iwao Nagatani, ibid.) 11092.5 USB only, R St. Helena (1000 watts), *1800-0100*, Nov 04-05, seven hours "Revival Radio St. Helena Day" live broadcast hosted by the Station Manager of R St. Helena, Ms. Laura Lawrence and Robert Kipp, but with many other voices heard, live or recorded beforehand. As announced, the broadcast consisted of four different segments directed towards New Zealand, Japan, Europe and North America in that sequence and with various genres of music and songs in between. The signal of course was weak, but the channel clear, and this broadcast was picked up by DXers in most parts of the world! During the broadcast the station received 330 e-mails and about a dozen phone and fax calls including from Anker Petersen and Bruce Churchill. The reception here in Skovlunde was stable throughout the seven hours with good modulation. The signal strength was slowly increasing from 2-4 S-values at 1800 till 3-6 S-values at 0100. There was much ionospheric noise and some fading throughout, but no interference was heard at all when heard with the most narrow bandwidth! SINPO: 25232 improving to 25434. Particularly during the European transmission, Robert used nearly one hour on highlighting the 50th Anniversary of the DSWCI, including interviews recorded in Vejers in May of Tibor Szilagyi, Toshi Ohtake (played during transmission towards Japan) and myself. At 2312 all eight names of our General Board was mentioned and at 2221 and 2325 Robert played our AGM-melody "Det var en lørdag aften" !! But after all: A marvellous experience not at least for DSWCI-members! Thank you so much, Robert! We look forward to R. St. Helena Day in 2007 which will celebrate 40 years of broadcasting on St. Helena and be the tenth SW broadcast! The first 61 letters with reception reports and return postage have already been received for the DSWCI QSL! (Anker Petersen, Skovlunde, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Nov 11 via DXLD) ** SERBIA [non]. 6100, Radio Serbia, 2022, escuchada el 9 de Noviembre con la sintonía de la emisora; ha sido necesario templar a 6102. La escucha se ha hecho muy difícil por encontrarse en esa frecuencia una emisora emitiendo en árabe, además el fuerte ruido producido por emisión en DRM (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Arabic I suppose CRI Kashi, and DRM of course Luxembourg 24 hours on 6090-6100. 6100 is a traditional frequency for Serbia under whatever name going back sesquidecades well before the Bijeljina site was built; and RS is probably not disposed to change it, no matter what the QRM (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** SOUTH AFRICA. Channel África B-06 BROADCAST FREQUENCIES 29 OCTOBER 2006 TO 24 MARCH 2007 TIME UTC FREQ kHz METRE BAND STUDIO CHANNEL TARGET AREA LANGUAGE MORNING PROGRAMMES 03h00-03h55 6120 49 2 East & Central Africa Swahili 03h00-03h55 7390 41 1 East & Central Africa English 03h00-04h59 3345 90 1 Southern Africa English 04h00-04h55 7305 41 2 Central Africa French 05h00-05h55 9685 31 1 West Africa English 05h00-06h59 7240 41 1 Southern Africa English 06h00-06h55 15255 19 1 Far West Africa English 07h00-08h00 9620 31 1 Southern Africa Chinyanja 09h00-10h00 9620 31 1 Southern Africa Silozi DAY TIME PROGRAMMES 10h00-12h00 9620 31 1 Southern Africa English 12h00-13h00 9620 31 1 Southern Africa Chinyanja 13h00-14h00 9620 31 1 Southern Africa Silozi 14h00-15h59 9620 31 1 Southern Africa English EVENING PROGRAMMES 15h00-15h55 17780 16 2 East & Central Africa Swahili 15h00-15h55 17770 16 1 East & Central Africa English 16h00-16h55 15235 19 2 West Africa French 17h00-17h55 15235 19 1 West Africa English 19h00-20h00 3345 90 1 Southern Africa Portuguese 20h00-22h00 3345 90 1 Southern Africa English (via José Miguel Romero2, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. Sat on 17810 Sat Nov 11 from 1458 waiting to see just when TDF Montsinéry would turn on the transmitter; previously it had been well before the scheduled hour. But this week nothing until abrupt *1459:30 with service music in progress, initial preaching by someone other than Brother Scare. Ran past 1600 but I don`t know for how long (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Brother Stair Numbers, 6925 usb, 11/10/06 2100-2103: 23050 11805 14152 00106 06091 20901 20050 42309 00802 31513 13011 40405 18022 11414 25151 82302 14251 51801 18052 30500 Be right with god. SIO 333 (Ragnar Daneskjöld, http://www.piratesweek.info FRW via DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. 15205, South Sudan Interactive R, via Al Dabbiya, *0630-0655, Nov 03, opening announcement in English including ``...broadcasting from Monday to Friday``, mainly talks, chimes were often heard during the program. 35443-25332 (Nobuya Kato, Fujisawa- city, Kanagawa / Katsurashima, Miyagi, Japan, DSWCI DX Window Nov 11 via DXLD) ** SWEDEN. Hello DXers, Re B 06 of Radio Sweden, I noticed that they will start transmitting in Arabic: 1730-1800 ME/EaAF Sa/Su 5850 I tried to pick that one up on 4/11/06 around 1730 but VOA Persian was dominating that frequency. It was impossible to hear SR in Arabic. I checked the Arabic page on SR website but it had only FM frequency for Stockholm and the Nordic countries so I decided to send them an e mail and I got the following reply : Hi Tarek! Thank you for trying - the frequency we broadcast in is 7420 kHz, though. You should also be able to pick up the English program on frequency 6065 kHz. All the best from Stockholm, V Padin Radio Sweden 105 10 Stockholm I'm checking them now as I'm writing this e mail on 7420 kHz and I could hear Swedish P1 domestic section \\ 6065 kHz with heavy QRM from the Arabic section of VOIRI. I think 7420 will replace 5850 in B 06 schedule (Tarek Zeidan, Cairo, Nov 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND. 9805, Radio Thailand; 1934-1959:18*, 8 Nov; M&W Radio Thailand News; Several RT News promos. 1948 Wonders of Asia & Upcoming Events. 1956 Weather Flash. Close info & chimes IS. All in English. SIO=333, intermittent buzz QRM; LSB helps a little. Not on web sked checked yesterday, noted as "Updated", but titled A06; indicated 9835 at this time, but nothing there. No mention of Ken Alexander arriving in the country (Harold Frodge, MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) We already had the B-06 schedule including this in DXLD, unconsulted (gh) ** TURKEY. VOT`s Live from Turkey, Thursday Nov 9 started at 1348 with its theme music, this time hosted by a M&W. Gave phone number only twice at the outset; I think it was 90-312-411-896. Started listening on 12035, but then found 11735 had a much more solid signal, however with the usual WYFR Spanish QRM from 11740. Mentioned that tomorrow would be a holiday commemorating Atatürk with sirens. At 1355 another M talked about doing voice-over for documentary on Turkey`s Red Crescent aid to tsunami victims in Aceh and Sri Lanka, for which Turkey does not get the credit it deserves, but instead one hears about its shortcomings. Did not get the names of the presenters, but once thought I heard Sedef mentioned, so maybe one of them was Sedef Somaltin, a.k.a. frequency manager. At 1405, break for a song in Turkish, followed by discussion of US elexion results. Never heard any callers, not even David Crystal. 11735 is supposed to be 95 degrees to Asia, and 12035 at 310 degrees to Europe (and NAm further on in same direxion), both from Emirler site. See my previous speculation about why 11735 is putting a better signal in here than 12035, the opposite of what would be expected. Have they swapped antennas for these two? Or is reception at this hour better by long path than short path? Also, since we have had two reports recently of Emirler transmitters producing leapfrog mixing products, we ought to look for VOT during the 1330 hour in English also on 11435 and 12335 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11735, Voice of Turkey. Nov. 2 [Thu] at 1334-1350 in English. SINPO 34333. News, Review of Turkish press, Live from Turkey. The parallel frequency of 12035 was not heard (Iwao Nagatani, Japan, Japan Premium Nov 10 via DXLD) ** U K. BBCWS in English on another unexpected new frequency, 11820, Nov 11 at 1514 giving phone number for listener participation in Sportsworld. This is Skelton at 15-17 due east for Europe (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. Higher quality webstream of BBCWS is available from WKSU 2 in Ohio, most days at 01-13 UT, than the 16 kbps from BBCWS itself; in AAC+ format, 32 kbps, and others. Check it out at http://www.wksu.org/ and click on icon News adjacent to Now Playing icon (Rich Cuff, Easy Listening, Nov NASWA Journal via DXLD) They now have BBCWS 01-10 UT weekdays, 01-11 weekends; may shrink as WKSU2 come up with other programming. Real Player runs at 44 kbps. Checked at 0206 UT Sat Nov 11, it was Assignment, which is the BBCWS main webstream as on the European service, not the American stream with ``Wednesday [sic] Documentary`` scheduled then, but which is no longer on SW most of the time, and which is no longer webcast directly either. But why isn`t WKSU2 taking the American stream? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) They probably have the PRI stream -- As far as I know, that's what all US FM stations take. Kevin Kelly's PRF http://www.publicradiofan.com/ website is a good resource to highlight the differences. I know of no USA FM stations that take the Americas stream (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA, swprograms via DXLD) Then why even bother to have an American stream, except for the 4 hours a day left on SW. Maybe a few FM stations in Latin America are broadcasting it? O, per PRF it`s the one on XM, is that right? The PRF streaming link to wm via yahoo hasn`t worked for a long time. The playlist cannot be made (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. VOA French on 9480 at 0607 Nov 10, so strong it must be Greenville; yes, and // 5890, with sports scores, then feature on Veterans` Day. Later found on 7265 too but not synchronized, via Morocco (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. VOA English, 11890 with item on deaf issues, Nov 11 at 1516, not // special English on 9760. 11890 is Lampertheim eastward during this hour only. Also in African English on 17715, Nov 11 at 1602 with news of southern Sudan, Zimbabwe, 1605 ending headline news with VOA ID. This is Botswana, northward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. Os horários de transmissão do Radio DX são os seguintes [via CHILE]: Sexta: 13:32 (Brasilia) 1532 UT [Fri 15410] Sábado: 9:00 (Brasilia) 1100 UT [Sat 15410] Sábado: 24.00 (Brasilia) 0200 UT de domingo [Sun 11745] Domingo: 22:00 (Brasilia) 0000 UT de segunda [Mon 11745] Agora sim. Abração, (Alvaro Andrade, CVC, Nov 9, via Célio Romais, radioescutas via DXLD) ** U S A. Glenn -- Here's a KAIJ reception report: 11/Nov/06, KAIJ 9340 kHz, 2237-2308 UT, SINPO 35433 (but getting stronger as time went on). Audio sounded like it was heavy on the midtones and light on bass and treble, making it a little more difficult to comprehend. Equipment: Kenwood R-5000, 70-foot randomwire antenna Program details: [. . .] I have checked 5755 off and on over the last several nights and never had more than very weak audio; I wonder if southwest Missouri is in the skip zone for whatever transmission KAIJ is doing. If the "old" KAIJ cards are the Paul Revere and radio towers design, I think I have one of those already...so if they'd like to send me one of the new ones and give someone else one of the last of the old cards, that's fine with me. Best, (Mark Schiefelbein, Springfield, MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Altho I didn`t make this clear, I have the impression KAIJ is more interested in reports on the new frequency 9340 than the old one, 5755 (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. PYE CHAMBERLAYNE, 68; UPI RADIO CORRESPONDENT By Joe Holley Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, November 7, 2006; B07 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/06/AR2006110601076_pf.html Pye Chamberlayne, 68, a longtime radio correspondent whose distinctive baritone voice was familiar to listeners around the world, died Oct. 21 at his home in Calmes Neck, Va. He died of a heart attack brought on by coronary artery disease. A journalist for more than a half-century, Mr. Chamberlayne was best known for his work with United Press International from 1962 to 1966 and then from 1969 until his retirement in 1999. Broadcasting once an hour to millions of radio listeners, he covered the White House during his first stint with UPI and then covered Congress and national politics. He reported on every presidential election from 1964 through 1992 and was at Andrews Air Force Base on the evening of Nov. 22, 1963, when the body of President John F. Kennedy arrived from Dallas. "Pye Chamberlayne, a young UPI radio reporter with an untamable wiry moustache, emerged over drinks as an expert on the Dark Side of Congress," Timothy Crouse wrote in his classic "The Boys on the Bus," which covered the 1972 presidential election. "He could tell you about a prominent Senator's battle to overcome his addiction to speed, or about [Sen. Hubert] Humphrey's habit of popping twenty-five One-A-Day Vitamins with a shot of bourbon when he needed some fast energy. But Pye couldn't tell his audience." He was known among his media colleagues as "quite a character," said Gene Gibbons, executive editor of Stateline.org and an old friend. "He was a broadcast version of Hunter Thompson. In fact, he and Hunter Thompson were friends." Gibbons recalled an evening in the bar at a Best Western Hotel in Americus, Ga., shortly after Jimmy Carter had been elected president. Mr. Chamberlayne strolled in and sat down at a table where TV journalist Barbara Walters was holding forth. Alluding to a lucrative contract she had just signed with ABC, Mr. Chamberlayne insisted on referring to her as "million-dollar baby." She was not amused, Gibbons recalled. "He had a knack for picking up on things no one else would notice," Gibbons said, recalling an interview Mr. Chamberlayne did with a man who trudged about the country carrying a full-sized wooden cross on his back. Mr. Chamberlayne, noting that the cross was equipped with a wheel, wanted to know how often he had to replace it. As a broadcaster, "he had a way of putting things very succinctly," Gibbons said. "He taught me a lot." "There are a lot of Pye Chamberlayne stories out there," said his wife, Mary Meagher Chamberlayne, "but the fact is, he took his work very seriously. He was interested in everything." Edward Pye Chamberlayne Jr. -- "Pye" is a Welsh family name – was born in Fredericksburg and started his journalism career as a stringer covering police in Charlottesville for the Richmond News Leader. He received a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Virginia in 1960. After graduation, he moved to Paris, where his father had once been the Herald Tribune's bureau chief. He worked for Agence France-Presse and then for the Associated Press in Milwaukee before moving to Alexandria and covering the White House for UPI. He retired in 1999 and moved to Calmes Neck, a tiny Clarke County community inside a bend of the Shenandoah. Whenever news intruded on his rural neighborhood -- a dump truck that flipped over on the gravel road near his house, for example -- he covered the incident for the Clarke County Times-Courier. He also maintained a chatty Web log that included photos of bears, foxes and rattlesnakes in the surrounding woods, home-remodeling projects and news from the Chamberlayne family. In addition to his wife of 37 years, of Calmes Neck, survivors include a son, Army Maj. Edward Pye Chamberlayne III, now on his second tour of duty in Iraq; and two grandchildren (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) OBIT ** U S A. BTC DX TEST QSL Procedure --- Received an inquiry from a DXer today, who wanted to know exactly how we went about handling verifications/QSL's when the Broadcast Test Coordinator is handling reception reports for a DX test. It's a fair question, so here goes: Our process works like this --- I review the reports (and hopefully recordings) and try to determine if the station was in fact heard. If I cannot confirm the reception, I inform the DX'er of that. They can then "appeal" this to Brandon Jordan, who acts as an independent "check and balance". He can overrule me and issue the card, or agree with me --- in which case, it's an unconfirmed logging. We never do QSL's or verifications without the permission of the station, but they usually do not review the reports directly. We always send the station a summary of the loggings, and sometimes we'll send out a CD of the recordings that we've received. Most stations don't have the time, or resources to handle verifications, so they're happy to have us do them. In many cases, tests would be impossible to arrange otherwise. I would encourage you to develop the ability to record your loggings. Using a computer, it's easy and cheap (free) to record things directly to MP3 these days. It makes reports much easier to verify --- most of our question marks come from "paper loggings". I have only a minimum amount of details about the WWNH test, for example --- so I have to piece meal a log together from recordings of others and then check the paper logs last. It's time consuming ---- In those cases, were I am able to record the test directly or get detailed logs from the stations, the whole process is much easier, but in many tests, I have to construct a time line of the test based on the recordings of others. That makes "paper logs" very difficult to check and I do them last. The most valuable item in my shack is a software program called "Total Recorder", which costs $11 bucks, and can completely automate your overnight DXing. Many DX'ers record the TOH period using this software, on each hour, and then review their recordings the next day. I've added over 100 stations to my log using this method. http://www.highcriteria.com You can also use its scheduling function to record a DX test automatically and save it to MP3. Others have complained that having the BTC verify the reports makes them "less valid" or desirable than those from the station. I defend the practice in two ways: A. If it makes getting a test possible, then it's worth it. Any test is better than no test, including those who do not or cannot QSL at all. B. I've personally worked at two radio stations and one TV station. I've seen Chief Engineers open reception reports and send out verifications without ever listening to the recordings or checking log details. They literally "rubber stamp" them, because that is the least trouble for them. That's one of the big reasons why you have coast to coast receptions of Part 15 stations, or other nearly impossible DX feats going on. These DX'ers often receive verifications of their receptions! In our case, we actually do listen to the recordings, check the log times and descriptions against program content, etc. We've denied dozens of reception reports this season alone --- how many CE's are taking that kind of time and trouble to protect the integrity of the QSL? Hope this helps everyone to better understand how we're going about all this. 73 & Good DX! (Les Rayburn, N1LF, NRC/IRCA Broadcast Test Coordinator, Please call anytime 24/7 if your transmitter will be off the air for maintenance. 253-4867, ABDX via DXLD) More in weeks to come, but only test tonight is another in the weekly series from WODI 1230 Brookneal VA at 0500-0505 UT Sun Nov 12. See http://www.dxtests.info/2006/09/wodi-1230khz-brookneal-va-dx-test.html for details and blog with previous reports of it (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. 'KDVS GM EDWARD MARTINET told the BEE that he is skeptical of KFBK's explanation, charging that "it would have to be some amazingly egregious negligence to not notice it for two minutes." ' Hi Glenn, Actually, unfortunately, it is very easy for this to happen. Some of the current EAS tech isn't the best, and glitches happen a lot. We at WDWS have had remote-triggered EAS' from other stations where music was played thru the announcement, or the announcement was cut short because the EOM was sent too early. My guess is that KDVS has it wired where their on-air signal is "taken over" by the EAS, and is at the mercy of whatever is being sent in the message until the EOM is sent. There are ways to override this, and if they have one of these and didn't use it, then KDVS would be negligent as well. Take care, (Eric Loy, Champaign IL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VATICAN. VATICAN RADIO B-06 SW: Glenn, I have tried to simplify the schedule by deleting FM and MW frequencies and abbreviations after the SW frequencies. Apart from H = Holyday I haven't a clue what the other abbreviations mean (see website) so I deleted them all. Hope the list is still useful and accurate. 73 (Bernie O'Shea, Ottawa, Ontario, Nov 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The removed letters refer to sectors on the great-circle map of coverage areas, which I recall seeing in the hard copy. What site are you referring to? (Glenn to Bernie, via DXLD) http://www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/en1/palin_ing.asp Glenn. This is the website I was referring to. I Can't find any maps on this site (Bernie, ibid.) viz.: Vatican Radio B-06 Shortwave only. From website Nov. 9, 2006 Frequencies marked with an asterisk are broadcast in DRM. America Programmes 0030 PORTUGUESE 7305 9610 0100 SPANISH 7305 9610 11910 0145 SPANISH 7305 9610 11910 0230 FRENCH 7305 9610 0250 ENGLISH 7305 9610 0320 SPANISH 7305 9610 1000 PORTUGUESE 21850 1130 SPANISH 21850 1200 FRENCH 13750* 1200 ITALIAN 13750* 1210 ITALIAN 13750* 1230 MUSIC 13750* 1235 MUSIC 13750* 1945 ENGLISH 9800* 2300 ENGLISH 7370* 2330 MUSIC 7370* Africa Programmes 0230 FRENCH 7360 0300 ENGLISH 7360 0330 KISWAHILI 7360 9660 0345 SOMALI 7360 9660 0400 AMHARIC, TIGRIGNA 7360 9660 0430 FRENCH 7360 9660 0500 ARABIC 9645 11715 0500 ENGLISH 7360 9660 11625 0530 PORTUGUESE 7360 9660 11625 0600 FRENCH 7360 9660 11625 0630 ENGLISH 7360 9660 11625 0630 MASS IN LATIN 9645 15595 0700 ITALIAN-FRENCH-ENGLISH 9645 15595 0745 ARABIC 61855 9645 15595 0930 GE'EZ LITURGY 15595 17765 1100 ANGELUS 15595 21850 1130 MASS IN ENGLISH 15595 17765 1300 ITALIAN 15595 21850 1600 KISWAHILI 11625 13765 1615 SOMALI 11625 13765 1630 AMHARIC, TIGRIGNA 11625 13765 1630 ARABIC 9635 11935 1700 FRENCH 11625 13765 1700 FRENCH-ENGLISH 9635 1730 ENGLISH 9755 11625 13765 1800 PORTUGUESE 9755 11625 13765 1900 SPANISH 9755 11625 2000 ENGLISH 7365 9755 11625 2030 FRENCH 7365 9755 11625 2140 ARABIC 5885 7250 Asia & Oceania 0000 CHINESE 13785 0025 URDU 5915 7335 0040 HINDI-TAMIL-MALAYALAM-ENGLISH 5915 7335 0200 HINDI-TAMIL-MALAYALAM-ENGLISH 12070 0500 ARABIC 9645-H 11715 0630 MASS IN LATIN 15595 0700 ITALIAN-FRENCH-ENGLISH 15595 0745 ARABIC 15595 1100 ANGELUS 15595 17765 1130 MASS IN ENGLISH 15595 17765 1230 CHINESE 6020 7340 15235 1230 MASS IN CHINESE 6020 7340 15235 1300 ITALIAN 15595-H 1315 VIETNAMESE 6140 15235 1330 RUSSIAN 6110 9695 1415 URDU 11850 13765 1430 HINDI-TAMIL-MALAYALAM-ENGLISH 9310 11850 13765 1530 MASS IN ENGLISH 9310 11850 13765 1630 ARABIC 9635 11935 1700 FRENCH-ENGLISH 9635 1940 ROSARY 7365 2100 RUSSIAN 5910 7370 2200 CHINESE 6145 7300 9600 2315 VIETNAMESE 7300 9600 Europe 1st Programme 0330 SLOVENIAN 4005 0350 CROATIAN 4005 0410 CZECH 4005 5885 0425 SLOVAK 4005 5885 0440 HUNGARIAN 4005 0500 POLISH 4005 7250 0520 GERMAN 4005 7250 0540 FRENCH 4005 7250 0600 ENGLISH 4005 7250 0630 MASS IN LATIN 4005 6185 7250 9645 11740 15595 0700 ITALIAN-FRENCH-ENGLISH 4005 6185 7250 9645 11740 15595 0710 RUMANIAN LITURGY 7250 9645 0745 ARABIC 7250 0830 MASS IN ITALIAN 7250 0915 PAPAL AUDIENCE 5885 1100 ANGELUS 5885 7250 9645 11740 15595 17765 21850 1100 ITALIAN 5885 1200 FRENCH 5885 1300 ITALIAN 7250 9645 11740 15595 21850 1400 SPANISH 7250 9645 1415 PORTUGUESE 7250 9645 1500 GERMAN 5885 6060* 7250 9645 1515 POLISH 5885 6060* 7250 9645 1530 ITALIAN 5885 7250 9645 1530 MUSIC 5885 7250 9645 1600 VESPER 5885 7250 9645 1630 ITALIAN 7250 9645 1700 FRENCH-ENGLISH 4005 7250 9645 9635 1730 SLOVENIAN 4005 7250 1750 CROATIAN 4005 5885 7250 1810 HUNGARIAN 4005 5885 7250 1830 CZECH 4005 5885 7250 1845 SLOVAK 4005 5885 7250 1900 POLISH 4005 5885 7250 1920 GERMAN 4005 5885 7250 1940 ROSARY 4005 5885-FG 2000 ITALIAN 4005 5885 2020 ESPERANTO 4005 5885 2030 FRENCH 4005 5885 7250 2050 ENGLISH 4005 5885 7250 2120 SPANISH 4005 5885 7250 2140 ARABIC 4005 2200 ITALIAN 4005 5885 2230 ITALIAN 4005 5885 2250 ESPERANTO 4005 5885 Europe 2nd Programme --- Frequencies marked with two asterisks are effective from 04/03/2007 till 25/03/2007. 0310 ARMENIAN 6185 9645 0330 RUSSIAN 6185 7335 9645 0400 UKRAINIAN 6185 7335 0420 BYELORUSSIAN 6185 7335 0440 LITHUANIAN 6185 7335 0500 LATVIAN 6185 7335 0520 RUMANIAN 6185 7335 0540 BULGARIAN 6185 7335 0600 SCANDINAVIAN 6185 7335 0715 UKRAINIAN LITURGY 9850 11740 0930 ORIENTAL LITURGY 11740 15595 17765 1330 RUSSIAN 6110 9695 1650 ARMENIAN 7365 9585 1650 ARMENIAN* 9585** 11715** 1710 RUSSIAN 6185 7365 9585 1710 RUSSIAN * 7365** 9585** 11715** 1740 UKRAINIAN 6185 7365 1740 UKRAINIAN * 7365** 9585** 1800 BYELORUSSIAN 6185 7365 1800 BYELORUSSIAN * 7365** 9585** 1820 LITHUANIAN 6185 7365 1820 LITHUANIAN * 7365** 9585** 1840 LATVIAN 6185 7365 1840 LATVIAN * 7365** 9585** 1900 RUMANIAN 6185 7365 1920 BULGARIAN 6185 7365 1940 ROSARY 7365 1940 SCANDINAVIAN 6185 7250 2000 ALBANIAN 6185 7250 2020 ESPERANTO 6185 7250 2020 ITALIAN/ENGLISH 6185 2100 RUSSIAN 5910 7370 (VR via Bernie O`Shea, DXLD) ** VIETNAM. THREE AMERICANS CONVICTED OF TERROR IN VIETNAM The three Americans accused of trying to take over radio airwaves and call for an uprising against the communist government in Vietnam were today convicted on terrorism charges. The Americans and four co- accused Vietnamese were sentenced to [sic] to 15 months in prison, with credit for time served. They all are expected to be freed within one month, and the Americans required to leave the country within 10 days of their release (November 10th, 2006, 15:13 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 4885, Muslim station, *0230-0300, Nov 03, female voice with monotonous songs under R Clube do Para - resembled Islamic prayers in Arabic - followed by Arab music, no ID was caught (Theo van Rompaey, Aartselaar, Belgium, DSWCI DX Window Nov 11 via DXLD) Egypt? (DSWCI Ed,) Let`s see, wasn`t there a subharmonic or mixing product reported here a while ago? Can`t seem to find it. Wasn`t there a Kenyan service here, inactive for some time? (gh, DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ QSL-CALENDAR 2007 JUST PRINTED Hello Glen[n], The Rhein-Main-Radio-Club, Frankfurt and ADDX proudly present the 2nd edition of the unique QSL-Calendar 2007. The new calendar is available now. The full colour art print calendar offers real treasures from our historical QSL archives, covering QSL cards from the 1930's to present. The calendar is in English and costs 15 Euro or US$15 including shipment world wide. We will give *DXers, DX Clubs, DX-Broadcasters and DX Organisations 20 percent*, ordering 20 copies or more. The calendar is a beautiful marketing instrument, it is rare, unique and a special gift to business partners dealing with radio business. All details at our website http://www.rmrc.de (Harald Gabler, RMRC CEO, DrGabler @ t-online.de DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sent me review copies of the 2006 and 2007 calendars. 2006 was in portrait, and 2007 in landscape. Excellent high-quality reproduction and printing, full color. Each month presents two QSL cards. With two more on the cover, that makes 26. Many of them are from stations which no longer exist, e.g. ZNB Mafeking, while some are contemporary. In 2007, I recognise only one from my own collexion, DW, altho in a different color. Most have artistic or cultural merit, or at least interesting antique graphic design. Only the obverse sides are shown, so in most cases the actual verification info is not visible. The publication would be more useful as a calendar if a little more of the black space were taken up by a weekly date grid as we are accustomed to, instead of just a string of numbers across the bottom edge. The only way to get your bearings is from Sundays being printed in a different color than the rest of the days, and then you will be counting back and forth from Sundays. But the calendar funxion is very much secondary to the QSL art (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ DRM: BELGIUM; FINLAND; ISLE OF MAN; NEW ZEALAND; SERBIA/ VATICAN PROPAGATION +++++++++++ ARNIE CORO'S HF PLUS LOW BAND VHF PROPAGATION UPDATE AND FORECAST A minor geomagnetic storm reaching the G1 level happened during Friday UT day, but for all practical purposes its over by the time you are hearing this program. Predictions for November 12 are 95 solar flux units and the A index at 12, and one day after on November 13th the solar flux is expected to continue near 95 units, but the A index should go down to around 8 units. The solar activity was very low and is expected to remain so, as the big isolated sunspot continues its slow decay. Nevertheless, an occasional C flare could still occur in that lonely active region. Optical sunspot count on Friday was 12, and as I said before there is just one lonely but rather large sunspot on the solar disk. Expect much better HF propagation during the next two or three days, and then things will take a downward turn as there will be very little ionization of the upper atmosphere due to the very low solar activity (Arnie Coro, RHC DXers Unlimited Nov 11, via ODXA via DXLD) SOLAR WIND BUFFETING THE EARTH From our friends at spaceweather.com we learn: SOLAR WIND: A solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field, sparking beautiful Northern Lights over parts of Scandinavia, Canada and Alaska. High latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras on Nov. 11th and 12th and DXers should watch for possible auroral conditions (Mark Coady, Editor, Your Reports/Listening In, ibid.) ###