DX LISTENING DIGEST 6-185, December 16, 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 Extra 73 Sun 0330 WWCR3 5970 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 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 ** AUSTRALIA. 5050, ARDS heard 12/12 with strange propagation into So CA from 0855 tune to 0916 sudden disappearance. Man announcer (could not discern languahge) to 0905, two indigenous Aborigine vocals to 0915 then man ann again until the signal dropped. At 0940 some indigenous music popped in for about a minute at a better S2 level, then abruptly disappeared as fast as it came in at 0941 (approx, as I did not note the exact time). Not bad signal level at S2 with moderate fading. Never heard here at loggable level before - usually their signal is at threshold at best. I also tuned DX Tuner at Broome WA but the signal there was barely, if at all audible. Part of the reason for this may be in an e-mail reply I got from Dale Chesson dale.chesson @ ards.com.au The station manager in mid-Nov in response to an 11/12 reception report from DX Tuner Broome (about 700 mi West of the Humpty Doo transmitter site); to quote Dale's very interesting information: "As we are a Domestic broadcaster and our target area is to the east, then Broome to the West will not receive much signal. We installed a 1 kW transmitter in July but it ran a fault on start up and we are still waiting for the US manufacturer to respond to us to see if they will fix it under warranty!" (Ed. They are using their old 400 W transmitter as explained in the following e-mail quote): "[we are operating] 400W from a solid state Tx that was originally with Air Services Australia (Civil Aviation) as a HF (SSB 1 kW PEP) Transmitter. We run it at 400 W full AM. They are able to operate from 500 kHz to 30 MHz depending upon the exciter used. Our antenna is a directional dipole to maximize coverage in our target area some 400-700 km (200-350 nm) east of the transmitter site. As a domestic broadcaster we are not to have a signal out the back (toward Indonesia). We have a mix of traditional music (clapsticks and didgeridoo), religious contemporary (mainly guitar with some keyboard) and also contemporary (e.g. Yothu Yindi band) and others. There is also some traditional music from around the world. Humpty Doo is 30 km east-southeast of Darwin. I live in Nhulkunbuy [sic] which is 700 km east of Darwin." The ARDS programming center at Nhulkunbuy sends program feeds to the Humpty Doo site via satellite. On 11/12 I had heard ARDS from 0806 to 0906 from DX Tuner Broome with an improving signal as the period progressed, from threshold to S3 fade-ups by tune-out - this was local sunset for Broome so the improving signal made sense - from Dale's comment, it's a wonder I heard anything at all, and since then, the ARDS signal has been largely non-existent at Broome during this time period. Anyway, very pleased to get the 21 min recorded that I heard on 12/12 (Bruce W. Churchill, CA, DXplorer Dec 13 via BCDX via DXLD) ** AUSTRIA. Program tip for next weekend Dec 23-24: Ö1 English service will have expanded Post Box reading more letters than usual, plus Xmas music, instead of a week in review segment (Joe Hanlon, Sea Isle City beach NJ, with new G5 receiver and whip only, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BAHRAIN. Re 6-184: Jari: I have been noting Bahrain on 9745 AM/U lately at significantly improved levels (S-4 to 4+) on DX Tuner Sweden in the 2130 time frame, with no hint of the former co-channel stas V. of Han or HCJB. A few months ago it was hard to dig Bahrain out of these co-channel occupants. Of course this channel is continuous Arabic music, so programming much different than 6010. Seems like they might be using full 60 KW power now, whereas before using only lesser output - maybe a revival all around with Bahrain?! (Bruce Churchill, CA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Definite ID: "You are listening to Radio Bahrain" at 1805 on 6010.11 kHz with pure AM, equal audio on lower side. I remember vaguely hearing the sound of the low het, but didn't pay attention to it then. I don't think this has been here very long. Thank you for the tip. 73, (Mauno Ritola, Joensuu, Finland, ibid.) Hi Glenn, I hear Radio Bahrain on 6010.10, very good reception after 1900 China International closing transmission and the frequency was clear, nice program with popmusic (hardrock). Signal and audio are verry good 44333. At 1925 time signal, Arab station, QRM. Best with EKD300, nice and very good filters (prof.), antenna LW100m. +LW25m. Gr (Maurits Van Driessche from Belgium, member dxAntwerp and BDXC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. Hi all, including all of you that have tried to help me, Henrik Klemetz has listened to my cassette recording and found out that they say: ``Radio San Miguel, la voz del vicariato apostólico de Pando``. There was also a program for listeners in the districts around, such as "Madre de Dios, Acre y Pando". So the problem on 4695.1 kHz is surely completely solved! Now - what about 4785.05 kHz? (Björn Fransson, Sweden, Dec 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4694.54, Radio San Miguel (Tentative), 1030-1040 Dec 16. Noted a woman in Spanish comments until 1038. At that time music presented. Signal was poor at 1030, but by 1040 had faded to threshold and couldn't hear details anymore. This was reported as San Miguel, Bolivia earlier in the week by another, Björn Fransson, in the SW Bulletin and DXLD. No ID heard today before conditions got bad (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 5580.28, Radio San José, San Jose de Chiquitos, 2345-2349, December 14, Spanish, romantic songs and announcements by male, 24432 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. R. Bandeirantes, São Paulo, 6089.95, 0550-0610+ Dec 8, Portuguese talk, ID, promos, ads. Good signal with Anguilla off the air. But had to use ECSS-LSB due to noise on high side [DRM Luxembourg 6090-6095-6100]. // 9645.16 good and // 11925.02 weak (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BULGARIA. Aviso y Felicidades de Radio Bulgaria --- Estimados amigos: A partir del 1 de enero proximo se producirán ciertos cambios en algunas de las frecuencias de Radio Bulgaria. Esperamos que ello no impida la fluidez de nuestra comunicación mutua. Agradezco a todos los que nos dirigieron sus emotivos saludos y felicitaciones por las fiestas navideñas y de año nuevo. Reciban todos nuestros mejores votos de felices pascuas y prospero, venturoso y pacífico 2007. Me permito invitarles a atender nuestros conciertos de Navidad y Año Nuevo (19 y 26 de diciembre en Correo del Oyente). Cordiales saludos, Ludmila Petra, Radio Bulgaria en Español (via Dino Bloise, FLORIDA, EEUU, dxldyg via DXLD) ** CANADA. Alan Maitland's reading of The Shepherd is indeed on Friday Dec 22 during As It Happens. However, this year, there is an added bonus, an interview with the author of the story, Frederick Forsythe. (Announced on As It Happens by Barbara Budd, Dec 15) The 12 hour Christmas Concert from around the world, Joy to the World 2006 is indeed on Dec 17 on CBC Radio 2. Much more Xmas info here: http://www.doghousecharlie.com/christmas-programming/ (Fred Waterer, ON, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. CRTC RELEASES REPORT ON THE FUTURE ENVIRONMENT FACING THE CANADIAN BROADCASTING SYSTEM http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/NEWS/RELEASES/2006/r061214.htm Hundreds of pages... (Saul Chernos, ON, Dec 14, WTFDA via DXLD) But worth a read. A section discusses the status of DTV development in other countries; I found information on seven Mexican DTV stations I wasn't aware of (plus XETV-DT and XHAW-DT) and two in Guatemala (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66, WTFDA, via DXLD) CRTC News release - Phil's synopsis: Can-Con funding, Can-Con levels, applications for new stations in smaller markets, trying to save Eureka 147 L Band digital radio! --- December 15, 2006 CRTC announces results of its commercial radio policy review: Increases funding for Canadian content development OTTAWA-GATINEAU — The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued today three public notices flowing from its review of its Commercial Radio Policy 1998. The first notice, entitled Commercial Radio Policy 2006, deals with a number of issues, including Canadian content and French-language vocal music. The second focuses on the treatment of radio applications in small markets and the third sets out certain changes to the Commission's digital radio policy. New regulated and unregulated technologies for the distribution of music to consumers have emerged in recent years. These include MP3 players, iPods and other personal media devices, Internet music services and radio streaming, such as streaming over wireless broadband, podcasting, peer-to-peer file sharing and downloading, cell phone radio and satellite radio. "The key challenge facing the radio industry is to remain relevant in a marketplace characterized by rapidly changing technology and consumer behaviour," said Charles Dalfen, Chairman of the CRTC. "We are confident that the measures announced today will enable commercial radio broadcasters to contribute effectively to the achievement of the objectives set out in the Broadcasting Act, while operating efficiently in an increasingly competitive environment." The establishment of a new approach to Canadian content development (CCD), financed by the contributions of broadcasters, will place an emphasis on the creation and promotion of audio content for broadcast through the development of Canadian musical and spoken word talent, including journalists. This approach should help to increase the amount of high-quality Canadian music and spoken word material, and promote emerging Canadian talent. Under the new approach to CCD, the Commission proposes to establish a basic contribution system based on a radio station's revenues, rather than on the size of the market in which it operates. Stations with comparable revenues will make comparable payments. This basic contribution system will take into account the unique circumstances of small stations, regardless of the size of their markets. It will also automatically adjust for changes in the financial situation of radio stations. Broadcasters will continue to make contributions to support FACTOR and MUSICACTION, which assist in the development of a variety of Canadian artists, including new and emerging artists. Broadcasters acquiring existing stations will also continue to make contributions to the Radio Starmaker Fund and Fonds RadioStar. The Commission estimated that, if the new CCD system applied to the 2005-2006 broadcast year, total contributions from radio broadcasters would have risen by between $3.5 million to $4 million when compared to the previous year. The Commission considered the possibility of increasing the minimum level of Canadian popular (category 2) musical selections from 35 per cent to 40 per cent. It determined that such an increase would not be appropriate at a time when the commercial radio industry must respond to the challenge of competing with new unregulated sources for the delivery of audio programming. However, the Commission proposes to set a minimum level of 25 per cent for Canadian concert music (subcategory 31) and of 20 per cent for Canadian jazz and blues music (subcategory 34) aired during each broadcast week, which would replace the current minimum regulatory level of 10 per cent for these two subcategories. In addition, radio licensees will be asked to make specific commitments to provide airplay for and to promote emerging Canadian artists. Calls for radio applications In a second public notice issued today, the Commission modified its policy concerning the issuance of calls for radio applications in response to the challenging environment faced by broadcasters in smaller radio markets. When the Commission receives an application to operate a new radio station in a small market, where the population aged 12 and above does not exceed 250,000, the Commission's staff will assess this market's economic state in order to determine its ability to sustain a new radio station. Should its preliminary analysis indicate that the market in question is unable to support a new radio station, the applicant will then have the opportunity to either withdraw the application or submit additional information. This step will provide greater transparency and help prevent overlicensing in smaller radio markets. Digital radio The Commission, in a third public notice also issued today, set out its revised policy for digital radio broadcasting. In order to enhance the prospects of digital radio broadcasting offered in the L- band, licensees will be free to develop whatever broadcast services they believe will be of greatest interest to the listening public. The CRTC is an independent, public authority that regulates and supervises broadcasting and telecommunications in Canada. Reference documents: Broadcasting Public Notices CRTC 2006-158, 2006-159 and 2006-160 Broadcasting Notice of Public Hearing CRTC 2006-1 Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC 1998-41 - 30 - MediaRelations, Tel: 819-997-9403, Fax: 819-997-4245 General Inquiries: Tel: 819-997-0313, TDD: 819-994-0423, Fax: 819-994-0218 Toll-free # 1-877-249-2782 TDD - Toll-free # 1-877-909-2782 Copies of today's documents are available through our Internet site http://www.crtc.gc.ca or by contacting the documentation centre of any CRTC office. These documents are available in alternative format upon request (via Phil Rafuse, PEI, ABDX via DXLD) And, if you have actually taken the time to read all this, may you get at least three extra new loggings for your time! (Phil Rafuse, ibid.) Regarding digital broadcasting, I heard a brief item on CBC News Dec 16 that since L-band has failed, stations will be free to try IBOC from South of the Border (gh, DXLD) Viz.: Digital Radio in Canada --- The CRTC has just released its new policy with regard to digital radio in Canada: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Notices/2006/pb2006-160.htm Note that digital radio in Canada at present uses part of the L-band, 1452 to 1492 MHz. It has been adopted in the largest markets such as Toronto and Montreal but as this report notes its rollout has stalled. The report considers the introduction of IBOC on the AM and FM bands in Canada. The reasoned response of the CBC is contained in paragraphs 21 to 23 of this report: 21. Before permitting the use of IBOC technology in Canada, the CBC suggested that actions and measures should be taken to ensure that IBOC will not create harmful interference to existing Canadian services. 22. The CBC noted that the AM IBOC system requires the reduction of the audio bandwidth by half (4.5 kHz) of the bandwidth of all existing AM stations, not just the ones adopting the system. This would create a serious degradation in sound quality for existing AM stations. Even with these measures, the CBC submitted that the fact that the IBOC data resides precisely on the carrier frequencies of first adjacent stations to which skywave protection is not afforded means that IBOC transmission at night is not practical. 23. Likewise, on the FM side, the CBC argued that implementation of the FM IBOC system would require additional first and second adjacent channel coordination. Furthermore, the insertion of the IBOC digital component within the FM band would make it difficult to coordinate the CBC’s network operations. I will not repeat here the response of iBiquity (paragraphs 28 and 29) or the views of the CRTC (paragraphs 51 to 57 of the Report). 73, (Deane McIntyre VE6BPO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. STAMPS: Glenn: If it helps, I found the following info: Philatelic products are available at postal outlets and through authorized stamp sales agents across Canada. Customers may visit the Stamps & Gifts Online store at: http://www.canadapost.ca/collecting Philatelic products are also available through the National Philatelic Centre mail order service. NATIONAL PHILATELIC CENTRE CANADA POST 75 ST NINIAN ST ANTIGONISH NS B2G 2R8 1 800 565-4362 from Canada and the United States of America 1 902 863-6550 from other countries. Regards (John M. Kapinos, Dec 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHAD. RNT, N`Djamena, 6165, 2210-2230* Dec 8, French talk, African hi-life music. Sign-off with NA. F-G; slight co-channel QRM from a weak Croatia (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHILE [non]. La Rosa de Tokyo para este domingo LA ROSA DE TOKIO" (( LS11 RADIO PROVINCIA )) Con la conducción de Omar Somma y Juan M. Natale, sale al aire cada semana LA ROSA DE TOKIO, su programa de DX y comunicaciones de LS11 Radio Provincia, La Plata, Argentina. ESTE DOMINGO 17 DE DICIEMBRE EL PROGRAMA ESTARA DEDICADO A ANALIZAR EL TRATAMIENTO QUE LAS RADIOS CHILENAS DIERON AL GOLPE DE ESTADO DEL 11 DE SETIEMBRE DE 1973 QUE DERROCO AL GOBIERNO CONSTITUCIONAL DE SALVADOR ALLENDE. ADEMAS, SE REVISARA EL PASADO Y PRESENTE DE VARIAS DE LAS EMISORAS MAS REPRESENTATIVAS E INFLUYENTES DE ESE MOMENTO Y LA COBERTURA QUE LAS RADIODIFUSORAS INTERNACIONALES DE ONDA CORTA DIERON AL SINGULAR ACONTECIMIENTO. NO SE PIERDAN LAS GRABACIONES HISTORICAS QUE SE DIFUNDIRAN DURANTE LOS 60 MINUTOS DE LA ROSA. La temática que se desarrolla cada semana consiste en la investigación y análisis de la situación radiofónica en un país. Se revisa su historia, su actualidad política y social y, por supuesto, se revisan y analizan sus emisoras de radio y TV más representativas. Con la participacion activa del Grupo Radioescucha Argentino y colaboradores como Arnaldo Slaen, Guillermo Margenet, Marcelo Arias en Argentina y desde los Estados Unidos con Dino Bloise. Horario de Transmisión por Radio Provincia: Domingo 1600­1700 UT por 1270 kHz Internet, en: http://www.radioprovincia.gba.gov.ar Horario de Transmisión por WRMI Radio Miami: Domingo 0700­0800 por 9955 kHz Internet, en: http://www.wrmi.net/ Horario de Transmisión por Frecuencia 9 FM: Domingo 2100­2200 UT por 91.1 MHz. Internet, en: http://www.frecuencia9.com.ar/ Horario de Transmisión por La Voz De Rusia [fragmentos]: Martes 0220 en: 9945, 7570, 7330, 5945, 5900 se dice en http://www.vor.ru/Span_LA.htm [miércoles TU] Internet, en: http://www.vor.ru/Spanish/new/ Su página Web: http://es.geocities.com/programasdx/larosa.htm Su correo electrónico: dxradio@argentina.com (Dino Bloise / Estados Unidos, Omar Somma/Argentina y Arnaldo Slaen/Argentina) : 07/12/2006 (Arnaldo Slaen, Noticias DX via DXLD) ** CHINA. 5040, Fujian PBS, Fuzhou heard 12/13 from 0216 tune-in, to sudden disappearance at 0231 - again, seems a propagation anomaly, similar to my experience with ARDS, with recent ionospheric storm activity. Strange trans-Pacific doings on 60 meters these days! M&W announcers, no music. This is a low power station (10 kW, I believe) but usually heard fairly well here [over darkness paths]. I recorded this to 0301 but never heard Fujian come back after 0231 UT (Bruce W. Churchill, CA, DXplorer Dec 13 via BCDX via DXLD) 0216-0231 UT = 1016- 1031 local time; I assume no DXtuner involved this time (gh) ** CHINA. 9680, Firedrake, 1138-1200, steady Chinese music as noted previously. Checked other freqs where Firedrake had been heard, and found parallel Firedrake on 10400 with poor reception. Signal on 9680 was excellent blocking Indonesia. I wonder where else this scourge will raise its ugly head? (Chuck Bolland, December 15, 2006, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. LV de tu Conciencia, Puerto Lleras, 6009.49, 0215-0235+ Dec 10, Spanish religious sermon, Spanish announcements, lite Spanish music. Strong but must use ECSS-LSB to avoid QRM from R. Sweden via Canada on 6010. Better on // 5910.01 (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. 6120, R. Rebelde, Dec 14, 0358-0431; from 0348-0356* listened to Channel Africa (SOUTH AFRICA), in African language (Swahili listed), with no sign of R. Rebelde before 0358. On with open carrier, started programming about 0411, which was // 5025. Enjoyed their various music till t/out at 0431. Seems schedule is approximately 0400-0500 (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. RHC spur, 6295, 0200-0240+ Dec 8 --- I`m still hearing this weak spur. Separate English and Spanish broadcasts mixing together on 6295. English on 6000, 6180; Spanish on 5965, 6060, 6140. I tried to find other Cuban frequencies, but no luck (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. RHC, 6000, 0615-0620+ Dec 8, English, mixing with WYFR- Okeechobee, FL in English. WYFR slightly weaker than Cuba (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Gotta admit, Ed Newman (Neuman?) of RHC English fame is becoming quite the comic. He is doing some great impromptu remarks during the newscasts, such as today's "Weekly Review" program. This guy might be a good writer for Letterman's show. Will we ever know Eddie's real name? (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, Dec 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. Dec 15 at 1330, WEWN 9955 was being jammed! Such are the risks of sharing a frequency with WRMI, which of course at this hour was really on 7385 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Brock Whaley has been scanning and sending us jpgs of various pages from the 1959 NRC Pattern book, of especial interest concerning pre-revolutionary Cuba when they protected US stations by international agreement (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Attached is a copy of the 1959 pattern for 690 CMBC in Havana, along with other SE stations on 690. Dark patterns are for the evening, or day and night if the station uses the same pattern. Light patterns are day patterns or daytimers. Remember, this is a 1959 pattern book, so I would imagine most patterns were accurate as of 1958. The point is to show pre-revolution Cuban directional patterns under the treaty that Castro ignored, and continues to ignore (Brock Whaley, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CMBC 690: a lopsided pattern covering western and central Cuba, with two deep nulls toward New Orleans and Jacksonville, same day and night. CMBL 860: had a major lobe ESE along the island (which should make sense for any Habana station), and a minor lobe in the opposite direction; nulls toward Clearwater FL and also to the SW (against anything?) (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. Just what I was suspecting came to reality last night, 0330, 12/13, Radio República with VG signal and slight bubble jammer on 6100, as I went to check, hoping to hear that awful sound from Planet Rock. So, was the anticipated bubble jammer on 6100, dentrocubans smelling what was about to erupt? A different RR broadcast was going on 9630 which didn't gave the impression it was delayed or ahead from 6100. Ironically at TOH, ID mentioning Radio Miami Internacional 9955. How come that? 73s (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, Dec 14, dxldyg via DXLD) I think RR had been on 6100 a few days before the feed switched by mistake to Planet Rock. Yimber Gaviria first logged it as RR (and so did the DentroCuban Jamming Command.) For reasons best known to themselves, RR programming is always referring to WRMI, even the versions carried on other transmitters, which it seems they seldom acknowledge on air even only by time or frequency, and I see their website http://www.radiorepublica.org/ STILL hasn`t been updated, showing outdated A-06 frequencies and nothing about 9630; sites never given, anyway. Perhaps they take the original recordings aired on WRMI and recycle them on feeds to other sites, which means that RR programming which may be heard at the same time on WRMI, Canada, Germany and UK is not // (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** CUBA [and non]. Cadena Habana-530 loud & clear & alone on channel 2254-2300 UTC with radio drama and clear ID at 2300 . Oddly,no trace of RVC-530 at this time. 2 days ago I heard Cuban R. Rebelde-530 // 600 at 2255 UTC and, again, no trace of RVC which is normally local- like here on the Cape. Interesting. (Marc DeLorenzo South Dennis, Cape Cod, MA, Sat Dec 16, IRCA via DXLD) RCH would be on to block weekly airborne broadcast of R. Martí on 530, if that is still happening (gh, DXLD) ** CUBA [NON]. US BROADCAST EFFORTS IN CUBA WORTH THE COST? ASKS CHICAGO TRIBUNE http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/?p=6794 ``After 20 years and more than $530 million, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting operates a radio station that by the US government’s own estimates has suffered a precipitous drop in listenership and a television station that may never have been seen by anyone in Cuba for more than a few minutes at a time.`` So writes Andrew Zajac, national correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. Zajac continues ``Cubans who manage to tune in to Radio or TV Martí hear or see programming that is sprinkled with vulgarity, presents one-sided programming as news and omits stories critical of the Bush administration and Miami`s Cuban exile community, all in apparent violation of federal broadcast standards, according to recent US government quality-control reviews of OCB offerings.`` In a Special Report, one of the longest and most detailed articles we have seen about Radio and TV Martí in the popular press, all aspects of the operation are looked at, and a fair amount of space is given to those defending the operation. December 16th, 2006, 11:17 UTC by Andy (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** DOMINICA. I now have realized that DBS Dominica changed frequencies from their old off channel frequency. As I stated in the log, there was hardly a het from (what I now know) is (not) Dominica. There was barely a het there and I unfortunately thought of it to be Dominica presumed --- my bad (Steve Price, Johnstown, PA, Dec 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) That raises the question of whether there may be some other station in the Americas on 595, if by het you mean some carrier, or could it have been a TA on 594? (gh, DXLD) ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. 5009.8, R. Pueblo, heard at 1100-1200 on Dec 12; all fast- moving Spanish talk from 1100, interrupted for some ads every few minutes, mentions. of Dom.Rep. towns; maybe an ID at 1130, but it was hit by a noise blob at precisely that moment. I tried again at 1100 Dec 13 and they were there. I'm not sure just when they come on they were not there on some earlier checks so they are not on all night. Same talk and ads, into upbeat music at 1130, finally a definite R. Pueblo ID, somewhat in the mud, at 1135, into more talk. Telco-ish signal (Jerry Berg, MA, DXplorer Dec 12 via BCDX via DXLD) Heard here too from 1100 with lengthy talk segment by man and ads, promos thrown in. Seemed to go into another talk after music theme 1136. Many repetitions of "hasta mañana" but only one reference to R. Pueblo. Tuned out at 1150 after going down and onset of local noise. Muddy modulation but signal fairly good (John Herkimer, NY, Dec 13, ibid.) See also UNIDENTIFIED ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. Radio Bata QSL: I just sent some reception reports to the address that is listed in PASSPORT. The return address on the envelope has the station name and the exact Apartado as in PPWBR. The V/S is completely illegible, not even able to make out the first initial letters. It is just a plain-jane f/d letter in Spanish, which I would not have cared if they wrote it on a napkin (Steve Price, Johnstown, PA, Dec 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EUROPE. 15071, pirate, Stupid Radio, 09 dic 12:30, 34333, Melodic music, ID spelling (Juan Carlos Perez, DX CAMP en Santa María la Real de Nieva, España, DX LISTENING DIGEST) You mean they spelt it out as STUPID instead of CUPID? (gh, DXLD) ** FINLAND. Tried for YLE to SAm at 2200-2230, 240 degrees on 5970, but not audible Dec 16; wonder if it can be heard in Costa Rica? This could be YLE`s final SW broadcast on Dec 31, 2006 (Joe Hanlon, Sea Isle City beach NJ, with new G5 receiver and whip only, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GABON [and non]. Re PROPAGATION, 6-184: I think José Miguel Romero is onto something. From a very different vantage point, I compared signals on 16m, Dec 14 at 1444-1454. 17660, African music jammer (or distraxion) had flutter on the signal, i.e. rapid fading, something you don`t normally get from equatorial sites, but from high-latitude paths during ionospheric disturbances. 17630, surely Moyabi, with Africa No. Un, was quite different: no flutter, but slow random light fading as usual. 17725, Issoudun, France relaying Libya, just open carrier and hum instead of English, had similar flutter rate to 17660. 19160, ANU harmonic of buzz, did not flutter, but was weak around S5. 17595, Noblejas, Spain, was a strong signal as normal here, beamed this way, but with some flutter on it like 17660 and 17725. Therefore, while 17660 African music may have come from Moyabi previously, it now does seem to be coming from Europe, most likely Issoudun. Observations from other points of view would be very welcome, especially locations even closer to Issoudun than Valencia (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Saludos Glenn, creo que la transmisión en 17660 con música afro-pop ha venido a reemplazar a la emisora musical que meses antes transmitía por esa frecuencia y que transmitía música árabe; es muy probable que entonces esa emisora árabe sí que transmitía desde Francia, pero la emisión de música afro-pop entonces sí que es posible que transmitiera desde Gabón. En aquella época a esa emisora sí que se apreciaba que las perturbaciones le afectaban; sin embargo a la emisión en árabe no. Sin embargo ahora la emisora musical árabe no transmite y sí la afro- pop, curiosamente en la misma frecuencia que lo hacía aquella emisora; también me ha llamado mucho la atención que RFI haya dejado de transmitir en 17620. La señal que percibo ahora de esa emisora afro- pop es muy fuerte, siempre imperturbable. Yo apuesto más por la transmisión ahora desde Francia. Por cierto acabo de chequear en 15355 a NHK Radio Japan, vía Gabón a las 1840, el SINPO 35333. Idéntica señal y el mismo problema de ruido que todas las transmisiones que vienen de la zona de África. Al menos tanto ayer cómo hoy Dec 14 (José Miguel Romero, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I have finally checked the ITU monitoring report at http://www.itu.int/ITU-R/terrestrial/monitoring/files/pdffiles/312.pdf and find this item in the huge document by frequency: AUT WIEN 17660.00 07 07 1500 1542 50.0 G BC 10K0E A3E 290 B That means July 7, 2006 at 1500-1542 UT, 50 dB field strength, UK administration responsible for it, broadcast type of station, 10 kHz occupied bandwidth, A3E type of emission (standard AM), bearing 290 degrees from Vienna, B-level accuracy of bearing (as opposed to A, presumably better). There are a number of blanks not filled in, such as the coordinates of the transmitter and the name of the station! So where does 290 degrees from Vienna get us? Across southern England, between Woofferton and Rampisham; as for France, it`s way north of Paris, while Issoudun, in west-central France, would be about 269 degrees from Wien. In any event, this bearing was nowhere near Gabon, Moldova, or Russia for that matter. (290 degrees hits Region 2 near Habana, which is not likely significant.) There are no other relevant logs in the 17600-17700 range, nor in the 4th quarter report so far at http://www.itu.int/ITU-R/terrestrial/monitoring/files/pdffiles/312.pdf This doesn`t mean what we are hearing on 17660 is coming from England now, but it`s an intriguing possibility that VTC Merlin is involved in this, besides TDF. England being considerably farther than France from Spain, it would also account for the strong signal José gets in what is theoretically a skip zone from France, but not from UK (Glenn Hauser, Dec 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. Dec 16 at 1441 on 7385, I came across some guy with a heavy Oz accent saying that from Jan 1, the Wertachtal site would be owned by CVC. Don`t you believe it. CVC is buying Jülich, and Wertachtal is supposedly closing down as DW transfers most of its broadcasts to Nauen or external relay sites. Are we certain Wertachtal will really go dark promptly at the end of 2006? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. Bayerischer Rundfunk is planning a new radio program aiming at young listeners for about a year now. It was subject of a rather controversial debate during the recent months whether the FM network of the classical music program Bayern 4 Klassik should be used for the new youth station; the "taz" newspaper commented that the discussion got out of hand to a point where it became a clash of the cultures, youth vs. friends of classical music. Now the council of Bayerischer Rundfunk brought an end to this debate by deciding that the new youth station is to be launched in next year "on all available distribution platforms except FM". I did not see an explicit confirmation for it so far, but some observers say that they indeed mean *all*, thus also mediumwave. At present BR's mediumwave transmitters on 801 and 729 simulcast Bayern 1, with the exception of some rare special broadcasts. This would not even be the first case of an ARD institution putting its youth program on mediumwave: In 1994 Norddeutscher Rundfunk carried its just launched N-Joy also on AM, and even earlier in 1992 Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk had to put DT64 (later renamed into MDR Sputnik) on 1044 after they lost all FM frequencies effective midnight on 30 June 1992. A TV report about DT64 leaving FM, with footage of their typical Nalepastraße studios, can be watched at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4_Uqs_Oz8o The piece ends with an unedited shot of the control room during these minutes, with some voice-overs during the last song. Scary stuff, somebody even commented that it was more than he could take, even today, 14 years later. It should be explained that after midnight a piece otherwise used as talkbed had been played until 00:01 because one minute was provided for bringing the program on 1044 for whatever reason (in practice it appeared there after some 30 seconds of open carrier); at the very end of the TV piece one can just barely see how the sound engineer prepares to fire up an ID jingle and open the news studio mic. What I found even more scary: The Wiederau transmitter on 102.9 still carried all of this until it had been finally switched off at 00:03 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also DIGITAL BROADCASTING ** GREECE. Did VOG miss another English hour? Sat Dec 16 at 1451, 9420 was playing Greek music, and also when rechecked a few minutes later (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. AIR Bhopal verifies back log reports! Hello DXers, Within a few days after receiving my QSL of AIR Bhopal new frequency 4810 kHz, I got yet another confirmation from the Station Engineer for a back log report dated 12 October 2004 for the old 3315 kHz! So if you want to verify the old frequency this is the best opportunity. The current Station Engineer Mr. Sudhir Sodhia seems to be crazy with reception reports and verify the backlogs from dustbins! Further all verified reports are forwarded by the station engineer to Spectrum management division at New Delhi for an excellent AIR QSL Card!! So if you are holding some backlogs why not use this opportunity (T. R. Rajeesh, Kerala, India, Dec 16, HCDX via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 7289.8, 0809 11/11, RRI Nabire in the clear with ident for `Radio Republik Indonesia`. Closed abruptly at 0825 (Bryan Clark at Mangawhai with AOR7030+ and Alpha Delta Sloper antenna, Dec NZ DX Times via DXLD) Dear OM. We monitored RRI-Nabire on Dec. 10 to 14. +0700-0815v* on 7290 kHz *0815v-1400* on 6125.3 kHz, QRMed CNR-1 (*1000-) *2030v-2300+ on 6125.3 kHz, QRMed CNR-1 , BBC (*2055-) Jakarta News at 0800, 1100, 1200, 1300 and 2200. Local News (Berita Daerah) at 1000-1015v. Audio file DL: http://bcl2isid2jp.cocolog-nifty.com/bcl2isid2jp/files/061210_1859_6125L.rm Local News signature (bamboo drum) and local ID on Dec. 10 at 0959. Recorded by Mr. S. Yamamori (A. Ishida, S. Aoki and S. Hasegawa. NDXC-HQ, controler: S. Hasegawa, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Unusually good conditions towards Asia today, Dec 15, in our local UT morning and afternoon. Highlights, albeit reception at threshold level only: 6125.31, RRI Nabire, could definitely hear Love Ambon prior to 1356 carrier off. Hets CNR -1 on 6125.00. Too poor for any significant program details (Martien Groot, Netherlands (TenTec RX340), Dec 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6125.29, RRI-Nabire, Dec 13, 1223-1239, 33443-34443, Indonesian, Jakarta news relay and music, ID at 1232, Thanks for tip from Kiyota via Kageyama BCL Communication Page BBS (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. MediaLine Radio: Internet Censorship (16 December - 29 December 2006) The next edition of MediaLine Radio now available on-demand at http://medialineradio.com features an interview with Ronald Deibert, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto. He joins us to talk about government censorship of the Internet and the development of software designed to counter this. Plus, another episode from the comedy-spy series, Garson Krebs: Private Eye. MediaLine Radio airs via IRRS http://www.nexus.org/radio.htm and WorldFM http://www.worldfm.co.nz More information about Garson Krebs can be found at http://www.rrca.com Information and audio from MediaLine Radio can be found at http://medialineradio.com (Henry Brice, MediaLine, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. XM satellite has 5 channels of Christmas music (XM 103-107) and will be adding a channel of Hanukkah music (XM108) tonight 12/15. http://www.xmradio.com/holiday/index.xmc (via Bill N1VUX) much more Xmas programming info here: http://www.doghousecharlie.com/christmas-programming/ (Fred Waterer, ON, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I wonder what got bumped from those 6 channels to make way for this? (gh, DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [non?]. MARLO on 9133 --- Dear Mauno Ritola, As per your suggestion yesterday I check on 9133 lsb at 1710 UT and I found an OM mentioning coded text messages just like "Foxfort, India, Yankee``, etc. At 1713 a lady voice came on air and mentioned some words or message in English for a while and I think she mentioned "U. S. Navy" during the short message. The usual format resumed soon by OM and at 1721 heard another OM comment asking for clarification or some short announcement. I think I monitored U. S. Navy Fifth Fleet in International waters but couldn't obtained any IDs like Nov 4th. The reception condition were generally poor, but the 9133 channel was free from QRM. I shall continue monitoring and let you know more about reception of MARLO. Used to note your name in WRTH as Contributing Editor. By the way just visit http://www.incredibleindia.org and http://www.keralatourism.org in order to know more about India and our state Kerala! Yours Truly (T. R. Rajeesh, Kerala, India, Dec 16, HCDX via DXLD) ** IRAN [and non]. VOIRI audible at 1930 Dec 16, on 6010, but not on Lithuanian relay 6250, due to power, azimuth? (Joe Hanlon, Sea Isle City beach NJ, with new G5 receiver and whip only, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Well, as in 6-180, the 1930 broadcast changed to 6255 (gh) ** IRAN [non?]. Listening on 1206 kHz LSB gives a strong heterodyne. I found a station, weak, female and male talks, UNID language, on 1205.3 varying to 1205.15 kHz. Does somebody know which this station this is? (Max van Arnhem, The Netherlands, Dec 15, MWC via DXLD) Hi Max, Have you ever heard of the Euro-African Medium Wave Guide? It is a quite modest and apparently in medium wave circles relatively unknown guide about long and medium wave stations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. And what do you know, every so many days it even gets updated! The very complex url is: http://www.emwg.info Well, the answer is right there. EMWG says Iran based Radio Payam has been noted on 1205.15 kHz. That of course does not necessarily mean that this was the station you heard, but at least there is a good chance, wouldn't you say? So go and check the EMWG! P.S. Sorry for the sarcasm (Herman Boel, ibid.) Is Herman sure, as in EMWG, this is based in Iran? My Times Atlas does not show any locality there named Payam. There happens to be a SW station which has been mentioned several times in DX Listening Digest, such as most recently 6-175, 6-161, 6- 155; don`t you guys read that? http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html Could this be related? If so, you can see it is actually on behalf of the Bahai, who are unwelcome in Iran, and probably based outside Iran. However, their website http://www.bahairadio.org/ apparently does not mention any MW. Nor is this listed in WRTH 2006 under Iran: target broadcasts, so it is debatable whether it is clandestine or merely a religious program. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** IRAN [non]. 7480, Radio Payam-e Doost, 1800-1805, escuchada el 14 de Diciembre en farsi, con sintonía, cuña de identificación, locutora con presentación y comentarios, SINPO 35333 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Antena Radio Master A- 108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7480, R. Payam-e Doost, Dec 05, *1800-1811, 45444, Farsi, 1800 sign on with opening music, ID, Talk and music (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) via Grigoriopol-Maiac, Moldova (Wolfgang Büschel, BCDX via DXLD) ** IRAN [non]. Under YFR co-channel: 7435, 1758 UT 07-Dec location??? R Dem Shorayee Farsi, communist "Internationale" hymn 21221, still a mystery. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. 6225, R. International, Dec 07, *1730-1733, 45443, Farsi, 1730 sign on with opening music, ID, Opening announce, Talk (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. 6985, Kol Israel; 1905-1940+, 11-Dec; M&W commentary an phone interview with vocal & instr'l music breaks. Heard tentative mentions of Shabele & Mogadishu but then heard clear Kol Israel ID at 1935. All in unknown language; sounds somewhat like Arabic. Assume this is the Somalia/Unknownia heard last week- end on 6985. SINPO = 3+4233-, one brief clatter burst. Not // 7545 with M&W in Hebrew (Harold Frodge, MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) ** KASHMIR. Radio Kashmir actually broadcasts on 4950 kHz. It is also a part of All India Radio Network and calls RADIO KASHMIR SRINAGAR and not AIR Srinagar, just because of a treaty between the King of Kashmir and Indian Union during the joining of the state in India. They decided to stand alone and after an invasion by Pakistan tribes and army they decided to join in India. The operation by Indian forces liberated 2/3 part of Kashmir and they decided to join Indian union. (The area occupied by Pakistan is known as Azad Kashmir and from there Azad Kashmir radio operates on 5102 kHz!). They retained many rights including partial autonomy and hence got the right to retain Radio Kashmir instead of All India Radio. There are three SW stations in Indian part of Kashmir-Srinagar 4950, Jammu 4830, and Leh 4760. All India Radio New Delhi relays are carried by Radio Kashmir also (T. R. Rajeesh, Kerala, DXindia Dec 13 via BCDX via DXLD) ** KASHMIR [non]. 5102, V. of Jammu Kashmir Freedom, Dec 08, *1259- 1310, 44444, Kashmiri, 1259 sign on with opening music, ID, Kor`an, Opening announce, Talk (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) ** KAZAKHSTAN. Who needs Borat when you have newspaper advertisements? On 12 December, the Embassy of Kazakhstan ran a half page ad in the Washington Post, under the headline "Who Needs Borat? Here's the Kazakh President." Typical of newspaper ads purchased by foreign governments, it is full of small-point text. The introduction states, "In this exclusive article, Nursultan Nazarbayev presents a different picture of his homeland to the caricature of Sasha Baron Cohen's film. It is thriving, optimistic nation. We like!" For previous ads from Kazakhstan (and eventually this one), see Diplomatic Traffic.com http://www.diplomatictraffic.com/washington_post_reports.asp (kimandrewelliott.com Dec 16 via DXLD) ** LAOS. Unusually good conditions towards Asia today, Dec 15, in our local UT morning and afternoon. Highlights, albeit reception at threshold level only: Tnx to Glenn & Steve Lare for drawing my attention to this. 7145.00, Lao National Radio, Vientiane, 1250 snippets of unID SE Asian language, might have been Khmer as scheduled here 1230-1300. Clear frequency until co/channel RNZI DRM appeared 1258 ruining everything. Nothing there when I rechecked 1400. Tentative, was wondering if anyone else has heard this?? 73, (Martien Groot, Netherlands (TenTec RX340), Dec 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LATVIA. The shortwave relay service on 9290 kHz will return to the air with 100 kW during the Xmas holidays. License holder is the company SIA "RNI Radio", owned by Raimonds Kreicbergs and local investors. On 7 December, the Latvian Radio & TV Council (NRTP) issued the license to this company. The company would like to point out that the relay service has *no* connection with the website http://www.rni.fm which promotes a service called "RNI / Radio Neptun International". Since early 2006, this website incorrectly claims that its allegedly planned service is based on a license for shortwave transmissions from Latvia; however, the Radio & TV Council did not issue such a license (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, Dec 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) We await specific details (gh) RADIO JOYSTICK - Funky Sounds 4 Central Europe =================================== Es geht weiter mit Ulbroka! Raimonds Kreicbergs von RNI Radio hat die Details fuer eine zukuenftige Zusammenarbeit bekannt gegeben. Wir haben den erneut um 13 EUR erhoehten Preis Zaehne knirschend hingenommen und damit auch fuer 2007 monatliche Sendungen, ausgestrahlt mit 100 kW auf 9290 kHz, ermoeglicht. Fuer uns liegt die Schmerzgrenze bei dreistelligen Stundenkosten; also drueckt uns fuer 2008 die Daumen :-) RADIO JOYSTICK 2006 auf der Kurzwelle, 9290 kHz: show fuer/Sendedatum KW/Vanessa Gatt aus Malta singt ---------------------------------------------------------------------- November 2006/23. Dezember 2006/"Turn On The Radio" Dezember 2006/30. Dezember 2006/"I Believe I Can" Dezember 2006/06. Januar 2007/"I Believe I Can" -- Mit freundlichen Gruessen / Kind regards (Charlie Prince, RADIO JOYSTICK, Postfach 10 08 12, 45408 Muelheim an der Ruhr, ALLEMAGNE, Fax: +49 69 15395537962, Cell.: +49 179 3615394 http://www.myspace.com/djchapri http://www.radiojoystick.de Listen to us every First Sat on 9290 kHz! Hoeren Sie uns jeden 4. Fr auf 92.9 MHz (106.2 MHz)! HCDX via DXLD) ** MEXICO. 620 = XESS - licensed to Ensenada but really located outside of Tijuana. This station still operates their old format on their old frequency of 1450. The 620 outfit is seemingly unaffiliated with the 1450, beyond using their calls and CP. Same situation exists on 1030/920 with XESDD. 670 is almost certainly XESOS "Radio Uno" - they run day power a few hours after dark every evening. 73, (Tim Hall, CA, IRCA via DXLD) ** MONGOLIA. Hi Glenn: Here comes something truly unusual - I must say its THE event this year in my DX hobby: The Voice of Mongolia is a very nice station and their Mailbag editor Densmaa Zorigt is very keen on contacts with listeners. When perusing my old log book from the late 1940'ies a couple of months ago, I stopped at Radio Ulanbator heard on 8400 kHz several times late 1949 and early 1950. I never got a verification, in spite of good reception reports. Now I sent a follow-up and today arrived a letter with three different old (yellowish!) QSL cards from Radio Ulanbator and a modern card for a fresh report on the Voice of Mongolia. These QSLs confirm my reception 57 YEARS AGO! I just wonder if anybody beats the record. You can imagine my feelings of pride and pleasure! The Voice of Mongolia will remain one of my favourites, not only because of this but also due to nice programs and excellent communication with DXers (Ullmar Qvick, Sweden, Dec 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. No doubt you've been wondering why you haven't been hearing the Voice of Nigeria on your shortwave radio. Employees of the international broadcaster and other Nigerian government broadcasting entities remain on strike. http://somalinet.com/news/world/Africa/5739 SomaliNet, 13 December 2006. Posted: 15 Dec 2006 (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Viz.: JOURNALISTS` STRIKE CONTINUES Wed. December 13, 2006 09:31 am. Hajarah Kizza (SomaliNet) Nigeria`s government owned media is [sic] still facing problems after its employees decided to stop working last week. Nigeria`s government owned media comprises Radio Nigeria, Voice of Nigeria, Nigerian Television Authority and News Agency of Nigeria. The journalists desire payment of the allowances that were promised by Nigeria`s government but have not been received for the past three years. Nigeria`s government promised to pay its staff housing and transport allowances three years ago. However, to date, the journalists have not received a penny. Some of the employees took the strike a little bit too far when they destroyed machinery belonging to radio Nigeria. Nigeria`s Information Ministry confirms that there were delays in the payment of the journalists since the allowances were approved a year ago (via DXLD) ** NIGERIA. answering my own questions, I can confirm that they are active --- Voice of Nigeria not heard on 7255 or 15120 on several of the past days, but today Dec. 14th as follows: 7256.0 (Yes), 0756 carrier, 0759 short announcement in unID language, then a few seconds of interval signal and directly into Hausa service news with their typical opening tune. Carrier still there at 0900. 9690 0754* unID: traditional flute music, most likely African. Just caught a very short bit of that. 73 (Thorsten Hallmann, Münster, Germany, Dec 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [Later:] 14.12, 7256, 1636-1703* Voice of Nigeria, Hausa, News + music, ending with national anthem and test tone, off schedule and off nominal frequency, but easy to hear in USB, quite strong and clear though strong signals on 7255. 73 (Thorsten Hallmann, Münster, Germany, http://www.africalist.de.ms Dec 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORWAY. Re. DXLD 6-183, ``I should point out that for twice the power you get nowhere near twice the coverage, so it shouldn`t cost twice as much`` --- First-hand experience from the DT64 service on 1044, mentioned under GERMANY: The Wilsdruff transmitter reduced its power from 250 to 150 kW to cut operational costs. In advance there were lots of concerns about the coverage, but after the power reduction it had been observed with quite some surprise that simply no difference could be noted as far as the actual coverage is concerned. Only obvious change: The rather frequent trips that had plagued the transmitter were gone. Apparently the 40 years old (by then, of course) rig churned away much happier when not driven so hard. The other side of this medal: It results in a loss of just 3 decibels of fieldstrength when cutting the power by half, thus the power consumption by not much less, thus the power bill by not much less. Just note how many 500 kW transmitters on shortwave are now run at reduced power or even replaced by 100 kW units (Wertachtal). Of course the extra boom of a half megawatt is nice to have, but certainly only if operational costs are not an issue (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PALAU. Palau 1584 kHz QSL === Hi everyone, T8AA Koror 1584 kHz. Finally verified Palau on MW after many attempts over the past 2.5 years. Friendly response from Missy Kinto, an announcer at the station who in her reply dedicated a couple of songs to me over the air and she also sent her photo. Sent the station a CD recording at Box 279 Koror, Republic of Palau 96940 along with a US$, received in ~2 months. Cheers (Craig Edwards, Nhulunbuy (Gove), Northern Territory, Australia nutritionandsports @ bigpond.com http://www.dxing.info/dxpeditions MWDX yg via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Still no sign of them on 4890 kHz at 0845 UT 15 December. Could it be due to outstanding electricity bills, like those that cause regional stations grief at times? Regards, Barry Hartley, NZ, Dec 15 via Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 4774.97, Radio Tarma, 1045-1110 Dec 16. Huaynos music at tune in. At 1055 man in live SP comments. At 1102, canned ID by a man, "... Transmite, Radio Tarma ...". More music but band goes bad at 1106 and that's it for the day. Signal was good until then (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 5460.38, Radio Emisora Bolivar, La Libertad, 2350-2354, December 14, Spanish, tecnocumbias, short announcement by male, 24432 5486.68, Radio Reina de la Selva, Chachapoyas, 0005-0010, December 14, Spanish, tecnocumbias; identifications: "...en la Reina de la Selva..." and "...por las ondas de Radio Reina de la Selva....", music, s/off, 24332 5939.31, Radio Melodía, Arequipa, 0720-0725, December 16, Spanish, news program, ID: "...a través de Radio Melodía...", 22422 6535.98, Radio Difusora Comercial, Huancabamba, 2355-0000, December 14, Spanish, tecnocumbias, local ads by male & female in Spanish, ann.: "....transmitiendo para todo el departamento...", 24432 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. Dear DXers, From December 17, 2006, Radio Veritas Asia, Filipino, 1500-1600, will replace 9615 with 9620 to Middle East. Happy Hunting (Ashik Eqbal Tokon, Rajshahi, Bangladesh, Dec 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. Voice of Russia What`s New http://www.vor.ru/English/Exclusives/what_new.html [Add a sesquiminute to all times listed below] JAZZ SHOW (on the air as of Monday, December 18th). Traditionally in early December Moscow plays host to the ``Jazz Voices`` festival. This time it was the 12th such festival. Back in 1994 the festival was launched by the president of Moscow`s jazz art club Alexander Eidelman. The Voice of Russia next ``Jazz Show`` edition is dedicated to this year`s festival and will tell you about the way it was held and about the participants. We invite you to tune in Monday at 1630, Wednesday at 0730 and 2030, Thursday at 0830 and Friday at 0930 and 2130 UT. FOLK BOX (On the air as of Tuesday, December 19th). The upcoming edition of the program will feature songs as performed by the ``Don Cossacks`` male choir, which was set up by the Don Cossack and soloist of one of Moscow`s opera houses Vladimir Kouleshov back in 1992. The choir comprises 16 singers who are, besides, of long-standing Cossack descent. The ``Don Cossacks`` choir has been trying to revive the best of traditional Cossack choir singing by performing Russian Orthodox music, folk and military songs and Russian romance. So, to have an idea of the ``Don Cossacks`` choir singing, tune in to the next edition of ``Folk Box`` and visit the choir`s own web site at: http://www.don-cossaks.com Do tune in on Tuesday 0330 and 0830, Thursday 0530, 0930 and 2130, Friday 1830 and Saturday 0730 UT (via John Norfolk, dxldyg, via DXLD) ** RWANDA. R. Rwanda, Kigali, 6055, 2040-2101* Dec 7, Afro-pops, some US pop music. English and vernacular talk with phone call-in show with dedications and greetings. IDs. Abrupt sign-off. Fair-good, nice signal (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6055, Radio Rwanda (tentative); 2046-2059, 12-Dec; M commentary in French to tentative RR ID by W at 2049, then non-Afro pop & reggae tunes. Disappeared at 2059; 07 Passport shows a target shift at 2100. SIO=252, USB best; should have improved toward ToH, but didn't (Harold Frodge, MI, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) No, you must have been looking at the line just above it which is Romania from 2100. Rwanda does go off around 2100. One really needs a straightedge --- not supplied --- to read PWBR `blue` pages properly (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) RRR, 6055 audible after Turkey closed at 2025 until 2100* Dec 16, then Romania on frequency (Joe Hanlon, Sea Isle City beach NJ, with new G5 receiver and whip only, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SCOTLAND [non]. Radio six international at Xmas: In addition to our already advised broadcast on Monday December 25 (0600–1000 UT on 9290 kHz – 100 kW [Latvia]) we will also be on the air on Sunday, December 24th between 1200 and 1300 UT on 9310 kHz (150 kW) via IRRS [Bulgaria]. The programme at that time will be ``CHRISTMAS IN THE LIVELY LOUNGE``, our series devoted to pop instrumental recordings (TONY CURRIE, Dec 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SERBIA [non]. 6100, Radio Serbia, 1958-2000 Dec 14, escuchada la sintonía de la emisora justo en el espacio libre que las transmisiones de Radio Internacional de China lo permite; hay que templar a 6102 para alejarse del terrible ruido que deja la transmisión en DRM. Sin embargo una vez comienza CRI en árabe, Radio Serbia desaparece, SINPO 22231 (José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST ** SOMALIA. Government shuts down Radio Warsan in Baidoa. Thu. December 14, 2006 12:16 pm. Mohamed Abdi Farah (SomaliNet) The only remaining local independent FM Radio Warsan in Baidoa city, southwest of Somalia has been shut down on Thursday by the interim government authority - amid growing pressure on free press in the areas controlled by transitional federal government, Reports say. . . http://somalinet.com/news/world/Somalia/5774 (via Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. 15215, Sudan R. Service (via UK?), Dec 08, *0600-0616, 34433, Vernacular, 0600 sign on with Drums, ID at 0601 and 0610, Talk (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) ** TIBET. 4905, 1643 20/11, XPBS fair in English with male vocalist, a little scratchy // 5240, 6200 the same –(Cliff Couch, Paraparaumu, ATS 803A, 60m horizontal loop, Dec NZ DX Times via DXLD) 4905, 1645, Lhasa very good level 4/11 with heavily accented English talk about Tibetan culture and tourism. Presumably the listed ‘Holy Tibet’ English language feature sked 1630-1700. Into Chines at 1700. Also audible on 4920 under India, 5240 weak under utility, 6130 & 7385 both weak (Bryan Clark at Mangawhai with AOR7030+ and Alpha Delta Sloper antenna, Dec NZ DX Times via DXLD) 4905, 1647 4/11, Lhasa in English with history of garment industry, fair to good at times 4/11 (David Norrie, Mangawhai with Bryan Clark, AOR 7030 100m wire on ground, Dec NZ DX Times via DXLD) After 30 days I received a full data QSL card from China Tibet PBC (7385 from 1630 to 1700 UT in English). Nice motive of the Potala palace. 1 $ return postage. http://www.tibetradio.cn Greetings from the Baltic coast of Germany (Peter Vaegler, Dec 14, bclnews.it via DXLD) ** TURKEY. 15350, TRT from Çakirlar in Turkish, 0800-1500 UT Dec 15. Very distorted audio, spur splatter all over the place, approx. from 15303 to 15397 kHz (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, harmonics yg via DXLD) UnID broadband carrier BUZZ noted in 15265 ... 15270 kHz range around 0930-1000 UT, today Dec 16. Wideband splatter from 15244 to 15286 kHz. Re: 15303-15397 report: Sedef Somaltin from TRT Turkey sent me this answer immediately: "Thank you for your e-mail. I immediately contacted with the transmitters and they checked. They informed me that everything is normal now: could you please check it again if the problem continues or not? Thank you for your cooperation." Regards (via Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. FIFTY YEARS OF TRANSMITTING AT BBC WOOFFERTON 1943 - 1993 Thanks to Dave Porter for the alert: "Fifty years of transmitting at BBC Woofferton 1943 - 1993" covers the social and technical history of this major transmitting station. It is probably the most extensive history of a short wave station that is presently available. Jeff Cant started it in 1990 at the request of BBC Transmission management and an earlier version was issued at the time of the station's 50th anniversary in 1993. In his retirement, Jeff has developed it much further (including 90 pictures) and I am delighted to say that he has contributed it for publication on this web site. It is a 75 page PDF document in which Jeff weaves technical, personal and organisational issues together and paints a very interesting picture of life at the station. Website: http://www.bbceng.info/ (via Mike Barrraclough, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U K. BBC ADDS NEW MORNING BROADCAST IN SPANISH ON SHORTWAVE Frecuencias BBC español Onda Corta http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/tuning_in/newsid_4294000/4294086.stm FRECUENCIAS DESDE EL 15 DE DICIEMBRE DE 2006 Diario: 03:00 a 04:00 GMT y 10:00 a 12:30 GMT Centroamérica y Caribe 6110, 7315, 7325 [meaning above frequencies both morning & evening at all times? Why no sites given for these? At 0300, 6110 has been CC, and 7325 UK; but 7315, presumably also CC, is also on list below, so how can it be `otra`? --- gh] Otras frecuencias disponibles desde el sábado 16 de diciembre: 1000-1100 GMT, 9790 kHz desde Montsinery 1000-1230 GMT, 7315 kHz desde Cypress Creek 1100-1230 GMT, 13760 kHz desde Montsinery 1000-1230 GMT, 6140 kHz desde Greenville Y desde el lunes 18 de diciembre cambian a: 1000-1100 GMT, 9790 kHz desde Montsinery 1000-1100 GMT, 7315 kHz desde Cypress Creek 1100-1230 GMT, 13760 kHz desde Montsinery 1000-1230 GMT, 6140 kHz desde Greenville (via José Bueno, Spain, Dec 16, dxldyg via DXLD) This is a remarkable reversal, since until now, BBC Spanish on SW had been reduced to only one hour, 03-04, on two frequencies! Suddenly they add a 2.5 hour morning broadcast on a bunch of frequencies and sites. But why should they do a new schedule on Dec 16 only to change it two days later? The only change is reducing CC on 7315 from 1100-1230 to 1000-1100 only. So WHR may have other obligations for 7315 on weekdays at 1100-1230; what about next weekend? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. BBCWS to S Africa via Ascension, 21470, is usually good here all morning from sunrise until 1800 at least. I have entered feature program times during this block, most of which differ from Eu or NAm streams, in MONITORING REMINDERS CALENDAR, as well as other SW broadcasts to W, C and SAf which are audible in NAm (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. BBC 7 Newsletter for the Week of Dec 15 - Dec 22 2006 Sue Perkins Christmas Comedy Stocking Sue Perkins presents the first installment of her favourite comedy crackers from radio Christmases past. Her festive nibbles are: Radio Active's Christmas Turkey 20/12/1983; The Masterson Inheritance Christmas Special 25/12/1995; Lines from My Grandfather Christmas' Forehead 24/12/1971; Tony Hawks' Twelve Days of Christmas 26/12/2001; I'm Sorry I Haven't a Christmas Carol 25/12/03. Saturday Dec 16 at 9am, 8pm and 3am [latter meaning Sun Dec 17?] The Clitheroe Kid: It's A Gift Young Jimmy Clitheroe tries to raise enough money to buy his mother a Christmas present. But is he a little more scheming than he appears? Originally heard in 1967, this classic comedy also stars Peter Sinclair, Patricia Burke and Danny Ross. Sunday Dec 17 at midday, 9pm and 4am [latter meaning Mon Dec 18?] The Goon Show: A Christmas Carol The gang are in festive mood as Charles Dickens's classic Christmas tale takes a bashing from Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe. Originally broadcast in December 1959. Monday Dec 18 at 8am, 12pm and 7pm Hancock's Half Hour: Bill and Father Christmas It's Christmas Eve in East Cheam and Bill's belief in Father Christmas is destroyed when he discovers Hancock dressing up. He is so distraught he promptly falls into a strange coma and it appears only his friends recreating his childhood Aussie Christmases will snap him out of it. Tony Hancock is joined by Bill Kerr, Sid James and Kenneth Williams in this epsiode first heard in 1958. Tuesday Dec 19 at 8am, 12pm and 7pm Christmas Night With Dr. Evande Hinge and Dame Hilda Bracket It's Christmas night in the Hinge and Bracket household, and as the ladies relax in a mood of peaceful wellbeing, a stream of unwanted guests arrive to disturb the tranquility. An evening of humour, song and gentle innuendo ensues. Tuesday Dec 19 at 2pm and 6am [the latter meaning Wed Dec 20?] Take It From Here: Christmas With The Glums Christmas at home with the Glums consists of Ethel explaining cracker jokes to dopey Ron whilst Pa Glum becomes increasingly merry. Writtten by Frank Muir and Denis Norden and starring Jimmy Edwards, Dick Bentley and June Whitfield, this episode was first broadcast in 1958. Friday Dec 22 at 2.30pm and 6.30am [latter meaning Sat Dec 23?] A Miracle In No-Man's Land It's December 1917 on The Western Front. At a Court Martial, Soldier Joseph Taylor maintains he was commanded to lay down his weapons and walk away from the the war by a vision of Jesus Christ in No-Man's land. This powerful and moving anti-war drama, broadcast for the first time here on BBC7, was written by and stars Alex Jones. Originally heard on Radio 4 in 1997, it was produced by Sue Wilson. Saturday Dec 16 at 1pm and 1am [latter meaning Sun Dec 17?] Ladies of Letters Make Mincemeat A festive helping of correspondence between bickering pen penpals Vera Small and Irene Spencer. Confusion reigns as Vera's son has turned vegan and Irene's daughter is due to arrive somewhat unexpectedly from Australia. Patricia Routledge and Prunella Scales star. Monday to Friday at 11.30am and midnight Twas The Night Before Christmas There's another opportunity to hear this festive BBC7 commission, first broadcast last Christmas. Five innovative writers add their own twist to the opening lines of the much loved Christmas poem 'Twas The Night Before Christmas' in a diverse collection of stories. From ancient folk lore to contemporary tales of office mayhem, this is a charming build up to the festive season: It Never Happened, by Arthur Matthews, read by Robert Webb Working on Christmas Eve is no fun, especially when your eccentric boss acts even more oddly than usual! Gifts by Garry Kilworth, read by Joe Armstrong Cold, wet and hitching a lift on Christmas Eve, a student gets both a lift and a rare gift from some unusual travellers. Silver Hoof, The Goat, by Carlo Gebler, read by David Kelly and Hannah R Gordon. Old Gregory adopts young orphan Maggie and her cat Edmund for company. The Emergency Visit, by Domininc Holland, read by Philip Jackson As Dr Robert Johnson begins his busy shift in A&E, he is about to encounter a patient he'll never forget. Not A Word Of A Lie by Philip Ardagh, read by James Fleet Christmas is magical to Philip; on Christmas Eve he has an encounter which confirms that it is a truly miraculous time. Monday to Friday at 11.45am and 12.15am [latter meaning Tue-Sat?] http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/ Note: ALL BBC programs are available for 7 days online after their broadcast times. BBC Times are UK Times. [= UT] BBC World Service Radio usually has Kings College Chapel, (Cambridge) Festival of 9 Lessons and Carols on XMas eve (repeated UTC XMas morning for Americas' Eve). BBC (domestic) Radio 4 & 5 list it this year, so it probably goes out on WS again also. I've caught it on local FM WS affiliates and Shortwave in years past; this year I may catch it on XM131, if I can't catch the Caribbean service. http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/advent/ninelessons.shtml (via Bill N1VUX) much more info here: http://www.doghousecharlie.com/christmas-programming/ (Fred Waterer, ON, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. SB QST @ ARL $ARLB030 ARLB030 FCC TO DROP MORSE TESTING FOR ALL AMATEUR LICENSE CLASSES ZCZC AG30 QST de W1AW ARRL Bulletin 30 ARLB030 From ARRL Headquarters Newington CT December 16, 2006 To all radio amateurs In an historic move, the FCC has acted to drop the Morse code requirement for all Amateur Radio license classes. The Commission today adopted a Report and Order (R&O) in WT Docket 05-235. In a break from typical practice, the FCC only issued a public notice at or about the close of business and not the actual Report and Order, so some details -- including the effective date of the R&O -- remain uncertain. The public notice is located at, http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-269012A1.pdf Also today, the FCC also adopted an Order on Reconsideration, in WT Docket 04-140 -- the "omnibus" proceeding -- agreeing to modify the Amateur Radio rules in response to an ARRL request to accommodate automatically controlled narrowband digital stations on 80 meters in the wake of rule changes that became effective today at 12:01 AM Eastern Time. The Commission said it will carve out the 3585 to 3600 kHz frequency segment for such operations. Prior to the long-awaited action on the Morse code issue, Amateur Radio applicants for General and higher class licenses had to pass a 5 WPM Morse code test to operate on HF. The Commission said today's R&O eliminates that requirement for General and Amateur Extra applicants. "This change eliminates an unnecessary regulatory burden that may discourage current Amateur Radio operators from advancing their skills and participating more fully in the benefits of Amateur Radio," the FCC said. The ARRL had asked the FCC to retain the 5 WPM for Amateur Extra class applicants only. The FCC proposed earlier to drop the requirement across the board, however, and it held to that decision in today's R&O. Perhaps more important, the FCC's action in WT Docket 05-235 appears to put all Technician licensees on an equal footing: Once the R&O goes into effect, holders of Technician class licenses will have equivalent HF privileges, whether or not they've passed the 5 WPM Element 1 Morse examination. The FCC said the R&O in the Morse code docket would eliminate a disparity in the operating privileges for the Technician and Technician Plus class licensees. Technician licensees without Element 1 credit (ie, Tech Plus licensees) currently have operating privileges on all amateur frequencies above 30 MHz. "With today's elimination of the Morse code exam requirements, the FCC concluded that the disparity between the operating privileges of Technician Class licensees and Technician Plus Class licensees should not be retained," the FCC said in its public notice. "Therefore, the FCC, in today's action, afforded Technician and Technician Plus licensees identical operating privileges." The wholesale elimination of a Morse code requirement for all license classes ends a longstanding national and international regulatory tradition in the requirements to gain access to Amateur Radio frequencies below 30 MHz. The first no-code license in the US was the Technician ticket, instituted in 1991. The question of whether or not to drop the Morse requirement altogether has been the subject of often-heated debate over the past several years, but the handwriting has been on the wall. A number of countries, including Canada, no longer require applicants for an Amateur Radio license to pass a Morse code test to gain HF operating privileges. The list has been increasing regularly. The FCC said today's R&O in WT Docket 05-235 comports with revisions to the international Radio Regulations resulting from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Radiocommunication Conference 2003 (WRC-03). At that gathering, delegates agreed to authorize each country to determine whether or not to require that applicants demonstrate Morse code proficiency in order to qualify for an Amateur Radio license with privileges on frequencies below 30 MHz. Typically, the effective date of an FCC Order is 30 days after it appears in the Federal Register. That would mean the Morse requirement and the revised 80-meter segment for automatically controlled digital stations would likely not go into effect until late January 2007. The ARRL will provide any additional information on these important Part 97 rule revisions as it becomes available. NNNN /EX (via Brock Whaley, DXLD) (FCC press release also via Bill Smith, Dave Alpert, DXLD, Ken Kopp, dxldyg) Some had wondered how the FCC would handle current Codeless Techs. Would they remain at current privileges, or, essentially, become Tech Pluses. That has been answered clearly: "[t]herefore, the FCC, in today?s action, afforded Technician and Technician Plus licensees identical operating privileges." This means that Codeless Techs -- of which there are at least a few in WTFDA -- will have limited HF privileges (including 200 Kc of phone on 10m) once the Order is final. If you are one of these folks, go buy a used Radio Shack HTX-10, or something, and throw up a dipole (just ~16' of wire). Fun on the cheap. Find full text at: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-269012A1.doc Happy Chanukah to all interested parties (Peter Baskind, J.D., LL.M. N4LI Germantown, TN/EM55, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. KENNETH TOMLINSON'S ETHICAL PROBLEMS DON'T PREVENT REAPPOINTMENT --- BUSH CRONY RE-NOMINATED AS CHAIR OF THE BROADCASTING BOARD OF GOVERNORS --- by Bill Berkowitz http://www.dissidentvoice.org December 15, 2006 On November 14, in a move indicative of President Bush's intention to continue to surround himself with political cronies with questionable ethics records, Kenneth L. Tomlinson was re-nominated by the president as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors -- the agency that supervises the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, the Arab-language Alhurra, Radio Marti and other government radio and television operations that are heard by an estimated 100 million people worldwide. Tomlinson, a close friend of Karl Rove, has a decidedly spotty record in government service, having been previously forced to resign from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting over charges that he tried to politicize that agency. In early August, The New York Times reported that Tomlinson had barely survived an effort by fellow Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) members to remove him from his post. . . http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Dec06/Berkowitz15.htm (via kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** U S A. 89.5 MHz "Swan Lane Christmas Radio", Safety Harbor; [slogan is my designation] confirmed active on a December 15, 2006 drive-by. The address is 2121 Swan Lane. Transmitter brought up at 5:55 p.m. EST, a few minutes after the "tune to" sign lights were turned on, with nonstop Christmas music; stereo. Two handmade signs with electric lights border are on the property. Truly Part 15: the signal just covers the small corner lot, and is lost after about 600 feet. In the St. Petersburg Times, December 11, 2006: "Bob and Maggie Morrison decorate their house and yard with lights and lighted displays, featuring more than 10,000 lights, all set to music. Ten songs are programmed to the lights, and visitors can listen either on the Morrisons' speakers or by tuning their car radios to 89.5 FM. Two of the most popular songs are Winter of Wizard and Christmas in Sarajevo, "which really make the lights dance," Bob Morrison writes. A computer controls 48 plug-ins connected by more than 4,000 feet of extension cords. Lights are on from 6 to 10 p.m. through Friday [December 15th] and from 6 to 11 p.m. thereafter. Santa will make an appearance from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Christmas eve." Signs were photographed, of course. (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, Visit my "Florida Low Power Radio Stations" at: http://home.earthlink.net/~tocobagadx/flortis.html or: http://www.geocities.com/geigertree/flortis.html DX LISTENING DIGEST) Numerous little towns in OK have their Xmas lite shows as big attraxions (and wastes of electrical energy); wonder if some of them do the FM thing. Haven`t heard of any (gh, Enid, DXLD) ** U S A. More Air America threads: Quad Cities: http://www.qctimes.net/articles/2006/12/15/opinion/letters/doc4581d18852d70672407869.txt Columbus: http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,57299.0.html San Antonio: http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,57423.0.html Madison editorial: http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/index.php?ntid=111267&ntpid=0# (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) 'FUNERAL PROCESSION' FOR PROGRESSIVE TALK PLANNED March to Clear Channel set Wednesday --- By Kevin Lynch Efforts to resuscitate the progressive talk radio format of "The Mic" WXXM-FM/ 92.1 have failed so far. Concerned listeners now plan a "funeral procession" as the Jan. 1 end of the format nears. The march will begin at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Brittingham Park near the intersection of South Park Street and West Washington Avenue and head down Fish Hatchery Road to the Clear Channel Madison offices. A 420-page petition of more than 5,500 signatures to keep "The Mic" on the air will be delivered to Jeff Tyler, Clear Channel vice president of marketing, by activists Valerie Walasek, Gary Tipler and businesswoman Barbara Wright. . . http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/topstories/index.php?ntid=111481&ntpid=1 (via Artie Bigley, Dec 16, DXLD) ** U S A. NEW EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT RADIO STATION ON THE AIR By Krista D. Black, Los Alamos National Laboratory, December 18, 2006 http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home.story/story_id/9547 Los Alamos County has a new emergency alert radio station that broadcasts important safety advisories about emergencies in the area, weather information, community events, and public service announcements. The station, AM 1610, WQFJ 525, does not air commercials or entertainment material. "This is strictly a tool to disseminate information to the public," said Phil Taylor, Emergency Management Coordinator for Los Alamos County. "This new station provides the county with yet another means to get emergency information out to citizens." This station also will help the Laboratory report emergency information to the public. The Lab's Emergency Management and Response team is coordinating with county emergency management so that the Lab can broadcast emergency information via this radio station, explained Doug Tuggle of Response Services (ER-RS). The Los Alamos Emergency Management Radio was purchased with a Homeland Security grant and has been broadcasting information since November. The station is audible in most of Los Alamos, White Rock, and much of the Laboratory. For more information about the radio station, contact Taylor at 663- 3511 or write to philmont.taylor @ lacnm.us by electronic mail, or contact Emergency Management and Response at 7-6211 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A. Report on Montana "Big Sky" DX Test QSL INFORMATION =========================================== Electronic QSL's (E-QSL's) were all e-mailed out on December 14th. If you submitted a report and expected a QSL and have not received a reply. Please re-submit your original report (including the recording, if available) with a note letting me know that you did not receive a reply. Les @ highnoonfilm.com Postal QSLs should be mailed out by week's end, with any luck. Believe it or not, I continue to receive reception reports (two or three per day) despite the fact that the test was almost a month ago. I wonder why DX'ers don't receive their QSL cards --- The Montana "Big Sky" DX Test turned out to be one of the most popular tests with DX'ers in some time. Our thanks again to the ABDX List, Engineer Ron Huckeby, Tony Mulligan, Todd Clark, Steven Dow, Michael Richard of KEVA, and the staff of these stations for all their efforts to make this test possible. We'd also like to thank Brandon Jordan for his wonderful web site which has become a real tool for DX Tests and Joe Miller who designed all the QSL cards for the test. Without their support, it would be impossible to get these tests organized. Regular readers will note that this edition of the report is abbreviated. It was simply impossible to edit all the reports received here and hope to get this edition out in any reasonable amount of time. A full Microsoft Word version of this test has been produced, and is available on Brandon Jordan's web site: http://www.dxtests.info So, if your name isn't mentioned here, I apologize in advance. The full report contains the unedited reports of each listener who sent one in. Electronic QSL cards were e-mailed out on December 13th. We hope to get postal requests out next week. Please be patient. Postal reports (of which there were over 60 reports) will not be reproduced in the full report or here. Simply takes too long to transcribe all that text into electronic form. I keep preaching, but we all need to join the "Information Age". . . (Les Rayburn, AL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Glenn, 97.1 Charlie FM, Portland, Oregon will start a morning show on January 8, 2007 at 1300-1700 UT with DJ's Doctor Doug and Skippy. Doctor Doug and Skippy were previously DJ's on the Afternoon Show of 105.1 FM The Buzz in Portland, OR. See http://www.myspace.com/drdougandskippy They will be the first DJ's for Charlie FM since they came on the air in Portland, OR with the advertising slogan "We Play Everything" http://www.charliefm.com Take care, (Bruce MacGibbon, Gresham, OR, Dec 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Is this a pirate? If not, what are its call letters? (gh, DXLD) ** URUGUAY. 770, CX12, Radio Oriental, Montevideo, está promocionando en su tanda de avisos comerciales su nuevo trasmisor de onda media de 100 kW de marca "Nautel". 770, CX12, Radio Oriental, Montevideo, is promoting in their current adstrings, their new 100 kW MW transmitter, "Nautel" brand (Horacio Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, Dec 15, playdx yg via DXLD) ** VIETNAM. 4739.75, R. TV Son La, Dec 13, 1255-1305, 35343, Vietnamese, Folk music, 1300 Theme music, ID at 1301 (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) ** VIETNAM [non]. 7115, Degar Voice, Dec 09, *1300-1310, 43443-44444, Vietnamese, 1300 sign on with IS, ID, Opening announce, Talk. 7195, Degar Voice, Dec 07, *1300-1311, 43443-44444, Vietnamese, 1300 sign on with IS, Opening announce, Talk (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) So did 7115 replace 7195 between Dec 7 and 9? (gh, DXLD) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. CLANDESTINE, Polisario Front's 1550 kHz outlet via Tindouf, Algeria, offers better audio than on \\ new 6215, ex-7460. Observed it 15 Dec, 2300 so as to know exactly which frequencies the Spanish speaking announcers would mention, but nothing of the sort, just program announcements. Their usual sign-on tune seems to have been replaced by a more informal program start (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE. ZBC, Gwero, 3396, 0130-0215+ Dec 9, English, vernacular announcements. Afro-pops, local African folk music. Mentions of Zimbabwe. Poor-weak (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Also heard here on beach with G5 and whip only, Dec 16 around 2130 (Joe Hanlon, NJ, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Now - what about 4785.05 kHz. Maybe it was the Bras after all. They have Indian languages there too. The programme was with a priest with prayers and solo song about "Ave Maria". Any other suggestions? Thank you for your attention. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, 73 from (Björn Fransson, Sweden, Dec 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 5010: Didn't get a chance to listen yesterday, but heard again today 12/15. Had receiver tuned to 5010 while on computer, and came on withouout fanfare about 1101. Measured 5009.8. Same non-stop talks, but signal again not very strong, same as two days ago. Hoped to get ID at BOH, but went into music instead. But 1133 did give ID but too weak to make out, only heard "Radio" then "AM" several words later. Word after Radio seemed 2 syllables, so maybe "MI" was what he said. Checked 3340 but nothing there. But did check '06 WRTH, and R. Misiones Internacional's AM side is listed *1100, so maybe is the Honduran. After music went back into non-stop talks again. Between 1140-1145 could make out few words here and there, and heard mentions of "Presidente de la República," "Evo Morales de Bolivia," "Dominicano," "Puerto Rico," and "El Salvador." Still barely hanging in there 1205 (Alex Vranes, WV, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dominican Republic, 5009.71, R. Cristal International, Santo Domingo, 1130, Dec 13, presumed, no ID, male speaking in Spanish. Fair to poor...almost inaudible when checked 15 minutes later (David Goren, Brooklyn, New York, Drake R8-B, Wellbrook 1530 antenna, HCDX via DXLD) Definite IDs: see DOMINICAN REPUBLIC ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Glenn, Thank you for all the hard work you put in to each DXLD. It is always an informative and quite enjoyable read. I also applaud your ethics and thoughts relating to the recent 1610/1020 kHz tests. You, Glenn, don't keep information to yourself, you share it with us all. I need three things to enjoy my DX hobby; A radio. A good antenna. And DXLD. Regards, (Brock Whaley, with a PayPal donation) LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ Re DXLD 6-183: And now decide for yourself which Wikipedia language version you will trust: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umlaut#Artikulation_im_Finnischen Note also the explanation of German ä, ö and ü: They are in fact replacements for ae, oe and ue. Thus Jülich becomes Juelich when no ü is at hand (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ Radio host, George Jones' wife clash [Re: FCC Meeting in Nashville] "Radio host, George Jones' wife clash" To view this article on The Tennessean web site, go to: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006612130461 FYI: a Schism in the upper echelons... (via Greg Hardison, Mike Cooper, DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ THE END OF THE SANGEAN LINE? http://cobaltpet.blogspot.com reported December 12th that a user on the rec.radio.shortwave newsgroup relayed part of a thread from avsforum.com. In the thread, a Sangean employee made an unofficial announcement about Sangean shifting its focus from shortwave: No, Sangean will not release a new Shortwave radio. The closest thing to it will be our DRM-40, featuring DRM, Digital Radio Mondale, digital shortwave. The reason being that we have over the past 5 years seen a 50% reduction in the shortwave category. People unfortunately are not interested in SW. Item is 12-04-06, 06:52 PM here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=754059&page=1&pp=30 (Mike Barraclough, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) A digital radio with short wave for £2.99? DM-906 Review http://www.mwcircle.org/blog/2006/12/13/a-digital-radio-with-short- wave-for-%c2%a3299/ (Tony, MWC via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING IBOC: CANADA; DRM: BRAZIL; LAOS; SERBIA ++++++++++++++++++++ DIGITAL BROADCASTING, DVB-T, re DXLD 6-184: ``To my knowledge all European countries are using the same system, DVB-T. It's similar in many aspects to our ATSC`` --- I can't say how similar to ATSC / 8VSB it is, but at least it's the same as DVB-S, the digital satellite transmissions also dubbed as "MPEG digital" or something like this, with the difference just being the other modulation scheme. A version of DVB for cable nets exists, too, called DVB-C. ``The frequency allocations may differ; to my knowledge all European countries *are* going all-UHF.`` --- Not so in Germany. Indeed the Band I channels (2, 3, 4) were / will be abandoned, but the Band III channels (5 to 10 or 11, with 12 being taken aside for DAB now) are still in use for DVB-T. In fact DVB-T has been rolled out by shutting down the analogue transmitters and immediately bringing on DVB-T on the very same channels. "Immediately" meant within as few as 40 seconds in a particular case, on other occasions a few hours at night. We just went through this procedure here were I live last Tuesday (Dec 12): The analogue transmitters at Calau were scheduled to go off air for good at 00:30 CET, DVB-T had to be up and running by 06:00. In fact nobody of us here at Elsterwerda was able to monitor the event because all equipment we had for over-the-air TV reception had been scrapped years ago, but probably I witnessed the event indirectly when the 95.1 FM transmitter went off at 00:43. Sure enough all other Calau FM's were off as well, apparently because they had to do some work like disconnecting the old TV transmitters and connecting the DVB-T rigs or whatever, at least something where the 50 kW of RF from the FM equipment had to be off. My neighbour was finally able to check with an old B&W set (a tiny one with a 12 cm tube) at least what had happened to our local 2 kW transmitter on ch. 45 we considered as a mere waste of money already when they set it up in the nineties: Only open video and audio carriers (or rather a black image) anymore, lacking the ch. 23 signal from Calau it had relayed. No idea when somebody finally bothered to switch this useless thing off. ``In general, in the States a given TV "station" is expected to cover its entire service area with a single high-powered transmitter. In Europe, a TV "station" is expected to use dozens of smaller transmitters to reach their service area.`` --- Specifically in the US a "station" is designated by a transmitter. Under European principles a "network" (in US terminology) would instead be a "station" on its own, using a more or less great number of transmitters, mostly high power ones as well (up to 1000 kW ERP in analogue, usually produced with 20 kW rigs). This of course suggests to create single frequency networks, something which is to my knowledge impossible with 8VSB. (Same story with IBOC vs. Eureka-147 or using DVB-T for radio distribution, by the way.) ``I'm not 100% certain there is any broadcast HDTV in Europe`` --- There is, but only very little at present, and to my knowledge via satellite and cable only. Engineering departments of small public broadcasters are just scared by the costs of HDTV equipment, since it becomes really expensive when it is about a complete production chain and not just playing out some stuff from some HD-CAM VTR's. ``Looks like multicasting is the reason for going digital over there.`` --- Absolutely correct, and this is done because nobody was content with the "core service" of just three TV programs anymore. Here in southern Brandenburg the market share of over-the-air TV reception had dropped to a mere two percents, so low that the public broadcasters considered it as no longer justifiable to pay for a rather expensive transmitter network when nobody is watching anymore. So they replaced the analogue signals with DVB-T, offering ten TV programs now. The alternative would have been to simply switching the transmitters off and having done with a terrestrial TV service altogether. Indeed exactly this will happen at New Years Eve in northern Brandenburg because a terrestrial TV service in this sparsely populated area is considered as a mere waste of money now even in the digital variant (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ NOTE: as you may have noticed, we have been going thru a major geomagnetic storm, complete with blackouts, aurorae, etc. We are not reproducing all the short-term info about this here --- gh A index 42 sleep in! Last night was the deadest night I have ever witnessed in my 35 years of overnight, bedside, AM DX listening. Nothing below 1500 was audible at all, except for a short window around 2315 local time when CKAC Montreal on 730 faded up to about 10% of normal strength right at the end of the hockey broadcast (fortuitously!). When I say "dead" I mean dead. Not even groundwave. Never seen anything like it before. I did NOT check 1390 for WEGP, but I'd be amazed if it wasn't missing also. None of the usual groundwave/skywave suspects was detectable at all. I'm sure the auroral oval must have encompassed my area and prevented stuff from practically any azimith, and any angle. I was hearing weak stations above 1500, but that was all. Using the 2010 barefoot on a lazy susan. (Brent Taylor, VE1JH, Doaktown, NB - Grid FN66wn, 60 mi inland from Northumberland Strait, R-75, ICF-2010 (2), ICF-7600GR, R390A/URR, Large Pennant, Dipole, RS Loops, Quantum Phaser, Dec 15, IRCA via DXLD) STORM SIGNALS [Trying to file each item under a different country or [non] really doesn`t make much sense in this case, so here we go, anyway] I understand that R. Martí ignored the priority of TIRWR Costa Rica, registered for 24h on 9725, in changing to 9725 from 11775 at 0000- 0300. Ironically, 11775 had been neatly shared between the OCB and DGS Anguilla with no overlap. Dec 15 at 0033 I checked 9725 and believed I could barely hear a het under Martí which was probably TIRWR if they choose to waste their watts and continue asserting their claim to the frequency. No jamming was audible at the moment, tho there has been at other chex. Martí 9725 and VOA Spanish 9480, both from Delano across us, spelt U.S., were the only significant signals audible on 31m at 0033 Dec 15 during geomag storm. VOA // 11840 was poor with flutter; Equadorial HCJB on 11700 and 11970 were G with no propagation problems. 13, 15 and 17 MHz were dead. At 0038 I checked the other bands: 7505 KTBN was strong but with heavy flutter, 7415 WBCQ was JBA, 6165 RN Bonaire with flutter, unusual for a signal from that latitude. Also flutter on US stations, WEWN 5810, WWCR 5070, 3215. At 0041, two different Spanish programs from Cuba on 6000 and 6180, plus mixing product on 6300, with audio from 6060 dominant. Mauritania 4845 was still on at 0043 with good carrier if not modulation, and not much flutter. I was away and not trying to do any monitoring most of Dec 15, but UT Dec 16 around 0300-0500 I could not get any listenable SW signals on the car radio. On main rig at 0537, RHC was inaudible on 6180 --- wiped out by aurora that far south, or off the air? On 6060 there was only a wobbly carrier. At 0538 Dec 16, the only good clear, strong signal on (or around) 6 MHz band) was KAIJ 5755; and on the 7 MHz band, only KTBN 7505. MW was not exhibiting the traditional auroral conditions, as e.g. WTAM 1100 Cleveland was inbooming. However, KOKC 1520 OKC, which normally owns the channel here, at 0704 UT Dec 16 was mixed with 2 or 3 other stations, tho slightly dominant over them. Sounded like a regional instead of clear channel. None of the others seemed to be in Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###