DX LISTENING DIGEST 7-004, January 9, 2007 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 2007 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html For restrixions and searchable 2006 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid6.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 FIRST SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1343 Wed 2300 WBCQ 7415 Thu 0000 WBCQ 18910-CLSB Thu 1430 WRMI 7385 Fri 2130 WWCR 7465 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 DX/SWL/MEDIA PROGRAMS Jan 9: http://www.worldofradio.com/dxpgms.html ** AFGHANISTAN. R Solh /R Peace on 6700? 9 Jan at 1550 noted a station on 6700 with programs that sound exactly the same as was earlier heard on 9345 from R Solh, Bagram, Afghanistan. Last time I heard them on 9345 was around 1300 some 2-3 days ago. NF, additional channel or evening/night channel? (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, WORLD OF RADIO 1343, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANGOLA. 4950, Radio Nacional, 01/04/07, 0135. Good strong signal tonight with pop music until ToH, 4 time pips then "Radio Nacional Angola" ID by a man and into probable short news clips with music in between, woman at 0207 with "Radio Nacional Angola". Thought Latin American at first --- does not sound African. Signal strength running same as 3396 Zimbabwe, though. Language was Portuguese (Jim Fedor, Wells, Nevada. Icom R-70, various longwires, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** BAHRAIN. 6010.1, 0405 05/01, Radio Bahrain, pop songs non stop, (QRM Belarus 6010//279) Poor (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, tips made in Bocca di Magra (La Spezia) Italy, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELARUS. New evening schedule of External Service of Radio Belarus from Jan. 1 1500-1700 on 7360, 7390 in Belarussian 1600-1800 on 7255 in Belarussian (different program \\ on low power frequencies of HS) [so you mean NOT parallel, right? ---gh] 1700-1800 on 7360, 7390 in Russian 1800-1900 on 7360, 7390, 7420 in Russian 1900-2040 on 7360, 7390, 7420 in German 2040-2100 on 7360, 7390, 7420 in Polish 2100-2300 on 7360, 7390, 7420 in English 2300-2400 on 7360, 7390, 7420 in Russian (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 9, via DXLD) 7360, 2109 1 Jan. Radio Station Belarus in English, SINPO 23322. // 7390 with SINPO 23322 and 7420 with SINPO 55545 (ROBERTAS POGORELIS, Belgium, visiting Lajes do Flores, Flores, Açores, SONY ICF SW-7600 GR and 15 m OUTDOOR LONG WIRE, WORLD OF RADIO 1343, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Noted a logging last week on 4755 for R. Educação Rural, Campo Grande, and noted it is no longer known as R.E.R.: It's now known as R. Immaculada Conceição, and it's actually slightly off- frequency on 4754.90. If you go to website, http://www.milicia.org.br and click on the left on R. Immaculada Conceição, you get a little drop-down list. It actually still says R. Ed. Rural, but if you click on that, it takes you to a page that says it was formerly known as R.E.R., but now R.I.C. It even has a little picture of the front of their building, which has a sign on the front that says Rádio Immaculada Conceição. Hope this will clear up any confusion people might have that actually read recent loggings, and might think they still use R.E.R. ID's (Alex Vranes, Jr., Harpers Ferry, WV, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. I know DXers in SW BC and NW US experienced difficult conditions throughout December, letting up (for me anyway) for only two days on the 30 and 31 Dec.; but is it at just my location that RadioBras 11780 seems to have disappeared since the New Year started? No sign of 'em on 6180 either (Theo D, Burnaby, BC, Jan 7, ODXA via DXLD) Both 11780 and 6180 work here at the Home Office in beautiful downtown Bridgenorth (Mark Coady, ON, ibid.) I too have found 11780 often missing without noting and checking out the times it should be, or formerly was, on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. BRASIL – É boa a sintonia da Rádio Gazeta, de São Paulo (SP), pela freqüência de 15325 kHz, em 19 metros. Foi captada, em Porto Alegre (RS), pelo colunista, em sete de janeiro, às 1847, quando emitia músicas sertanejas. BRASIL – Desde seis de janeiro, o sinal da Rádio Globo, do Rio de Janeiro (RJ), voltou a ser captado em 11805 kHz, em 25 metros. Em Porto Alegre (RS), o colunista acompanhou a emissora, às 1210, quando o apresentador Loureiro Neto falava a respeito da situação política do Brasil. Também em Porto Alegre (RS), Huelbe Garcia notou que o sinal da emissora apresentava alguns problemas técnicos (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX Jan 7 via DXLD) ** CANADA. CBA MONCTON CONVERSION TO FM APPROVED http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2007/db2007-8.htm The application by the CBC to move 50 kW CBA-1070 Moncton NB to FM (106.1 MHz, 69.5 kW) has been approved by the CRTC: CBA Moncton – Conversion to FM band === The Commission approves an application for a broadcasting licence to operate a new English- language FM radio station in Moncton to replace AM station CBA. The application 1. The Commission received an application by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) for a broadcasting licence to operate a new English- language, FM radio programming undertaking in Moncton to replace its AM station CBA. The applicant proposed to operate the new FM station at 106.1 MHz (channel 291C1) with an effective radiated power of 69,500 watts. 2. The CBC stated that the FM station would continue to broadcast programming received from its national Radio One network as well as approximately 15 hours in each broadcast week of local programming originating in Moncton. 3. In support of its application, the CBC stated that CBA is the last remaining AM station in the Moncton market. The CBC submitted that CBA`s share of listening in the Moncton market has been declining, dropping from 18% in the spring of 2000 to 12% in the spring of 2006. 4. The CBC confirmed that it would ensure that the area currently covered by CBA would be served by the proposed new transmitter, or by one of its existing FM transmitters that currently serve the Moncton area, namely CBAA-FM Newcastle and CBAE-FM Campbellton, New Brunswick. 10. Accordingly, the Commission approves the application by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for a broadcasting licence to operate a new English-language FM radio programming undertaking in Moncton to replace its AM station, CBA. 11. The licence will expire 31 August 2007, the current licence expiry date for CBA. The licence will be subject to the conditions set out in the appendix to this decision, including a condition authorizing the licensee to simulcast the programming of the new FM station on CBA for a transition period of three months following the commencement of operation of the FM station. 12. The licensee requested that the Commission revoke the licence for CBA Moncton at the end of the simulcast period. In accordance with sections 9(1) (e) and 24(1) of the Broadcasting Act (the Act), the revocation will be effective three months from the date of commencement of operation of the FM station. 73, (via Deane McIntyre, VE6BPO, DXLD) The CBC didn't respond to three interventions opposing the conversion (Ricky Leong, AB, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Interventions 5. The Commission received interventions in support of this application as well as an intervention in opposition by Mr. Fred Whalen of Sussex, New Brunswick and comments by Mr. Andrew MacKenzie and Ms. Heather Kemp, both of whom are residents of the United States. 6. Mr. Whalen opposed the application because, in his view, the AM band is more suitable for the programs broadcast by the Radio One network. He also maintained that the AM band provides a signal that is subject to less interference from other stations, and that is more reliable for listeners who are travelling. 7. Mr. MacKenzie and Ms. Kemp commented that many people in the northern New England area of the United States, who enjoy listening to CBC radio, would no longer be able to receive CBA’s signal if it moved to the FM band. 8. The CBC did not respond to the interventions (via Harry van Vugt, Windsor, Ontario, Canada) Hmmm, (tongue firmly in cheek) does that mean they've somehow got an FM rig that will hit me here in metro-Boston with the same beautiful S9+50 signal that CBA-1070 cranks in here on any non-auroral night? I do enjoy CBC programming, especially when they're spotlighting Canadian music showing Celtic, British-folk, or indigenous-peoples influences. CBA was a regular button when I used to do a lot of long night drives to and from Cape Cod. If the FM doesn't make the 300-mile trip (and I seriously doubt that it will), that means the CBC Newfies (540, 600, 640, 990) are my last hope. None of these is quite as strong or interference-free as good ol' CBA though. Bummer. Oh yeah, someone will say "listen on the Internet". A few of you may have WiFi or cellular hookups that would allow you to do this in rush-hour traffic, but I'm not there yet. Maybe I have to get XM or Sirius. And so one more free entertainment option is removed from the listening public. Like all those oldies and big-band stations that converted to extreme political talk and foreign languages. Someone please set the wayback machine to about '67. Boy do I sound like a total geezer! (Mark Connelly, WA1ION - Billerica, MA, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** CANADA. The application by CFWB-1490 Campbell River BC to move to FM has been denied by the CRTC: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2007/db2007-13.htm CFWB Campbell River – Conversion to FM band The Commission denies an application for a broadcasting licence to operate a new English-language, commercial FM radio programming undertaking at Campbell River to replace AM station CFWB. 73, (via Deane McIntyre, VE6BPO, Jan 9, DXLD) ** CHINA [non]. See SPAIN ** CONGO DR. 5066.38, 0420 04/01, La Voix du People, Bunia, Afro songs, talk in vernacular, ID in French at [04]29, Fair (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, tips made in Bocca di Magra (La Spezia) Italy, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CROATIA. V of Croatia email address? Anyone a valid email address for the V. of Croatia? Both the one in the 2007 WRTH and the one at Croatian Radio website http://www.hrt.hr/hr/glashrvatske/ bounced back. Thanks (Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, dxld yg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) HRT seems to have a (temporary) problem with its mailservers. I tried a number of hrt.hr addresses today including Voiceofcroatia @ hrt.hr and glas.hrvatske @ hrt.hr and all of them bounced, producing multiple error messages. If I read the lines correctly, mail to these "general" addresses is forwarded to addresses of individuals at HRT, and it is this forwarding which currently doesn't work properly (some forwarding addresses are no longer valid, others are said to be over quota). 73, (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, ibid.) ** CUBA. Radio Rebelde. Heard on 17555 (under WYFR English) from after 1700 to 1900 UT Monday Jan.8. Parallel with 15570 and 11655 (under R. Nederland). Fair signals. Not sure if 17555 has been reported before. I will keep checking (Bernie O'Shea, Ottawa, Ontario, WORLD OF RADIO 1343, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Re: A message to be read and analyzed by the list members Hello, amigo Arnie: I took my time to think over your dilemma. We, here, with the ODXA took the bull by the horns, some time ago, and volunteered to be QSL managers for both CFRB/CFRX and AM740. Steve Canney and Brian Smith do the job of checking reception reports and making out the QSL cards. The stations themselves are responsible only for the printing of the cards and allowing Steve or Brian access to their logs for verifying reports. This saves the two stations considerable time and labour costs. Perhaps something like that could be possible in Cuba if fellow hobbyists were to volunteer to assist the various networks and stations in handling their QSLing. I'm sure that if someone were to ask you if you could do with some help in that regard, with Radio Havana Cuba's QSLing, the answer would be a resounding "Yes, thank you." But someone who demands that you help them get a QSL card, or two, or seven, is placing quite unreasonable demands on your valuable time. I would completely forget about it. Life is too short to have to worry about upsetting someone like that (Mark Coady, Jan 7, ODXA via DXLD) YES, Radio Havana Cuba provides listeners that ask for them with nice QSL cards, verifying reception reports, and for those of you that send your requests to my own arnie @ rhc.cu e-mail account, I autograph the QSL cards that will form part of your collection of station verifications. But sorrily many short wave broadcast stations have stopped from sending QSL cards, usually saying that cost reduction measures require that their staff dedicated to opening up the mail, reading it and then answering the listeners requests be cut off from the payroll... AND WHAT A BIG MISTAKE. Yes amigos, what a big mistake it is for an international broadcaster to cut the vital feedback from listeners. Of course that stopping the QSL service means more than saving part of the station's budget in the form of salaries paid and the cost of printing QSL cards and letters with a nice letterhead. In actual practice it means that the station loses its one and only link with its listeners, so operating the station's program department without this vital broadcaster to listener relation operational is the equivalent of driving a car looking backwards, or flying an airplane without windows or navigational instruments. As any mass communications researcher knows, the mass media can not operate in an "open loop" environment, because the content that you are offering to your public must be the one that the people accept and like; and with today's enormous number of mass media options available, the need for a personalized attention to listeners is, in my opinion, an essential part of running an international broadcast station. QSL, QSL, QSL... those three letters are part of the Q code used by old timers that communicated only using Morse Code radiotelegraphy; originally it simply meant, do you acknowledge reception of my signals, a traffic that was sent with the three letters QSL followed by a question mark sign. If the other station was copying OK, it came back with the same three letters, QSL, but without the question mark and that completed an exchange between the two stations. But QSL also became, by extension, the name of the postcards sent by radio amateurs to others with whom they communicated confirming the two way contacts, and also it became the abbreviation used by international broadcast stations to tell listeners that the signal reports sent agreed with their program content, frequency of operation and time. An international short wave station must not send a QSL card, or letter, verifying reception without been sure that the report received from the listener is correct. But let me say now, that regretfully many world international broadcast stations are no longer verifying reception reports, that is they are not QSLing; something that I personally consider as a very serious mistake, and also an indication that those managing the stations are not very capable persons as mass media managers --- because listeners feedback is essential to the proper operation of an international broadcaster. Local AM and FM stations are another completely different story as related to QSLs and QSLing, because station managers do have a constant flow of listeners feedback that even includes independent sophisticated audience research procedures. So for local stations, receiving a request from a distant, casual, listener asking for a QSL is of little meaning --- and that's why many local AM and FM stations, as well as Tropical Band stations that aim at a regional audience have very little incentive to QSL, especially if one takes into consideration the cost of AIR MAIL postage in many nations around the world !!! (Arnie Coro, DXers Unlimited, Radio Habana Cuba, Jan 6, via ODXA via DXLD) ** CUBA [non]. Re 6-188, R. Martí via ``wacky`` WAQI, 710, one hour a night at 0500 UT for six months --- in case the price RM is paying for this, $182,500 did not ring any bells, I now notice this works out to exactly $1000 an hour, assuming 6 months = 365/2 = 182.5 days! Is that the going rate for an hour at midnight on such a station, or are we the US taxpayers --- spelled u-s --- getting gouged for this like everything else in the RM budget? (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1343, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CYPRUS TURKISH. Re 7-003: I was rather skeptical, too. But now, back from a few day in my quiet DX location far off Milano and her terrible noises, I'm a believer. No kidding, Bayrak International is alive and kicking and its programs are quite enjoyable, at that. I logged it last January 5 in the early morning, after 05.00z. Curiously, Gene Scott is alive and kicking as well on the same channel from Costa Rica according to Eibi, but his sermons couldn't make it against Bayrak nostalgic soul and pop sound. A few IDs, time checks, some later program announcements and headlines. Only frequencies mentioned were the station's two FM outlets (87.8 and 105). So, best time to try for it in Western Europe could be around 05, slightly off frequency (6150.04 or so, and I tuned it on LSB, in spite of Scott's being lower than that to reduce splatters from 6155), but last night I've heard them starting from 03 UTC. If Anker or others care to hear a few samples of this reception, please refer to: http://www.radiopassioni.it/html/bayrak.html 73s (Andy Lawendel, Italy, Jan 7, WORLD OF RADIO 1343, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECHIA. Prompted by a remark on the UT Jan 6 Extension 720 from WGN, topic the oddities of language usage, that Czechia is the preferred name of the country, I czeched out the website of R. Prague, http://www.radio.cz and found the word totally missing from the home page, also when I converted it to text-only. They consistently use only the official long version ``Czech Republic``, but why? If anyone knows of R. Prague axually discussing this matter, please reference. Meanwhile, searching on Czechia, we naturally find pro-Czechia material, such as http://www.czechia.org/ saying Czechia should be commonly used except on official documents. I may as well add before it also comes up that spelling it CZ in English usage is totally nonsensical, since it is not spelt that way in Czech (!), German, Russian, or any other language I am aware of, and no common purely English nouns are spelt cz-; and we have a perfectly good digraph for the ``ch`` sound, namely CH. Furthermore, the only other common word in English spelt this way, czar, is not even pronounced the same way but as if it were zar (while it should really be tsar, as sometimes spelt and pronounced), but never in the sense of a semi-high-ranking US government official, which must be spelt czar, despite the seemingly obvious Russian provenance, where of course it applied only to the very highest- ranking government official (cognate: Caesar), not the mere head of a cabinet department or something subordinate to that. Further2more, in the original classical Latin the C is always hard, (cognate German Kaiser), but this was already lost in transition to Russian (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Presumably Cz is meant to be a transliteration of C with caron (the character rather than the sound)? And Germans were officially instructed by the federal government about the name of the country being Tschechien but not Tschechei. Well, not exactly, but it was an annoying example of practicizing political correctness how this creation was promoted here (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Well, the spelling of course depends on the language. But I think this clarifies the situation: http://www.czechia.org/ Czechia is the official one-word name of the Czech Republic. In 1993 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic in its memorandum to all Czech embassies and diplomatic missions recommended to use the full name "Czech Republic" only in official documents and titles of official institutions. In all other cases, the one-word name Czechia should be preferred (Andy Sennitt, ibid.) Yes, that`s exactly what I was referring to. On the R. Prague Czech language home page we of course don`t see a single-word country-name either, but Ceská Republika. The problem with this is that the actual name of the country becomes merely an adjective modifying Republic, same problem with Dominicana, which also leads to having to alphabetize it under R instead of D (in Spanish). There are many other countries with Republic in their official name, but never used in ordinary reference (e.g. Turkey). The effort is to come up with a noun-only country name (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ITU name: CZE Czech Republic En Tchèque (République) Fr Checa (República) Sp Czech: Ceská republika Cesko [shabby, not recognized] German: Tschechische Rep. Tschechien (Austrian style, not used 1930 til 1993) Tschechei (in Nazi era used, still widely used also today) http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tschechei http://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chequia_-_%C4%8Cesko (Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECH Republic. R. Prague 6200 kHz *0200-0227* with "R. Prague News", "Weekly Sports Report" and an interview. SIO 444. QRM from 2 unID stations and occasional digital comms on 6195. One station in English. EiBi shows BBC via Cyprus at this time on 6195. 73, (Kraig Krist, KG4LAC, VA, UT Jan 9, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) R. Prague Christmas 2006 Competition results From the R. Prague website http://www.radio.cz/en/html/christmas06_results.html If you have got all the answers correct the following question has been revealed to you: WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT CZECH CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS? We have received a total of 146 correct answers, of which we have selected the 20 most interesting. The authors will receive prizes. WINNERS: The following get a pop-up history book by Lucie Seifertova: Rustam Sabanchev, Russia Rafael de Grassa Aramendia, Spain Josef Satny, Czech Republic Evelyn Coviello, USA Radiant Didla, Lithuania Kraig Krist, USA Renata Koch, Germany Silvie Bouynat, Australia David Eldridge, Great Britain Marcel Goerke, Germany The following get a CD of Christmas carols: A. Robert-Nicoud, Switzerland Fabien Battesti, France Helmut Schaffrannek, Germany Vanessa Hünkemeier, Germany Günther Juba, Germany Richard Chen, Trinidad and Tobago Hervé Brien, France Oscar Castillo Cabrera, Peru Monique Perottino, France Jana Berkova, Czech Republic 73, (via Kraig Krist, dxldyg via DXLD) ** CZECHIA. Radio Bila Hora - a pirate station from the Czech Republic (3334 kHz) has a new web site: http://rbh.czechian.net/ It contains photos, copies of reception reports and a text on history of this station (in Czech). The station has been on the air always on the last day of the year (Karel Honzik, the Czech Republic (Czechia), Jan 9, HCDX via DXLD) ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC [and non]. 1680, 0057 Jan 3, two stations simultaneously, SINPO 23312 for both. Radio Senda (Dominican Republic) - slow Spanish songs, ID by female, long non-stop sermon after 0125. Interference from a US station transmitting in Spanish, announcing telephone numbers starting with ``407...``- indicates a location in Florida (WLAA?). (ROBERTAS POGORELIS, Belgium, visiting Lajes do Flores, Flores, Açores, SONY ICF SW-7600 GR an 15 m OUTDOOR LONG WIRE, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. I recorded part of the HCJB Xmas special on 11700, about their first day on the air. I planned to offer you the tape, if you wanted it. First propagation was bad, it faded out toward the end, and it started at 2330, not 2300, as I had suspected. Secondly, and worst of all, it was boring. Lost of talk, mixed in with a silly little drama about a girl in the hospital who was listening to HCJB when her dad had to leave her alone. I thought and hoped that there might be some historic recordings, but, there weren't, at least not in the part I was able to hear. So, I bulk erased the tape (Tim Hendel, AL, Jan 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FINLAND. First SW transmission in 2007 from Finland starting today Dear listeners, First private Scandinavian and now THE ONLY ACTIVE SW- station from Finland starts its 24 hours transmission today 5th of January 2007 at 22 hours UT. Here are our program and frequency schedules: e-mails to: info(@)swradio.net and letters (with 2 IRC/2 Euro/2 US$) to: SWR/reports P. O. Box 99 FI-34801 VIRRAT FINLAND Please tune in! Program Schedule (times local Finnish time UT +2h): 00-02 TrickyTrevs Rock Hours a mixture of some classic rock music. 02-04 SWR crew - open studio 04-06 It's going crazy. Hot music by Madman 06-07 Juice Leskinen trilogia, osa 1. Madman 07-08 Juice Leskinen trilogia, osa 2. Madman 08-09 Juice Leskinen trilogia, osa 3. Madman 09-10 Kantoaaltoa Suomirokilla höystettynä by Esa 10-11 SWR crew - open studio 11-12 Radio news by Rick Random 12-13 SWR crew - open studio 13-14 World Radio Roulette by Madman 14-16 TrickyTrev revisits the 60's once again to replay some of those great hits (not to be missed) 16-17 Progressive rock and other strange things by Esa 17-18 SWR crew - open studio 18-20 Getting in the groove Saturday night Party time with TrickyTrev 20-21 SWR crew - open studio 21-22 Saunan lämmitys - Warming up the Sauna by SWR crew 22-23 SWR crew - open studio 23-24 Closing ceremony by SWR crew ***SCANDINAVIAN****WEEKEND******RADIO********************************* Time- and frequency schedule B-06: MW 1602 kHz: Fri. 22 - Sat 22 UT 48 mb: Fri-Sat. 22-17 UT 6170 kHz Sat 17-19 UT 5980 kHz Sat 19-22 UT 6170 kHz 25 mb: Fri 22-23 UT 11720 kHz Fri-Sat 23-08 UT 11690 kHz Sat 08-14 UT 11720 kHz Sat 14-17 UT 11690 kHz Sat 17-19 UT 11720 kHz Sat 19-22 UT 11690 kHz ********************************************************************** (Alpo Heinonen, Scandinavian Weekend Radio, Jan 5, in advance, dxldyg, via DX LISTENING DIGEST) For the record, now Alpo`s own home page, including some philately and QSLs: http://personal.inet.fi/koti/alpo.heinonen/ (via HCDX via DXLD) 11690, Scandinavian Weekend Radio, 1440, 1/6/07, in accented English. With woman playing oldish pop/rock. Sudden mention of "SWR" at 1458, then more of same. Hearing this was sheer luck. I had tried the previous late afternoon before we went out but, as expected, found nothing and left without remembering to go back to WPR's FM music channel. Next morning when I turned the E-1 on again unexpected sounds caught my attention (Gerry Dexter, Lake Geneva, WI, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) A rare capture of this in NAm (gh) ** GABON. Jan 8 at 1523, Afropop music on 17650 for a change, off abruptly about 1530:30. Wasn`t paying attention and missed my chance to measure how long it took to come up with ANO on 17630. But it was already going when I retuned at 1532 to find two programs in French mixing, seemingly both from same Moyabi transmitter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. 6171v, 0504 04/01, VOA (Biblis Germany?) reports, out of frequency! Fair (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, tips made in Bocca di Magra (La Spezia) Italy, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6170 0500-0530 Mo-Fr USA Voice of America Ukrainian EEu /D-b (EiBi via DXLD) ** GERMANY [and non]. More about longwave --- Indeed I forgot the tiny 10 kW transmitter at Caltanissetta, but now it reminds me on another aspect: Longwave transmitters that never were. Actually Italy holds a Geneve schedule allocation for high power operation while other countries even secured longwave frequencies but never built any transmitters. Spain, Morocco, Egypt are those I can remember right now. I did not count the VOA transmitter at Erching near Munich because it was replaced by a new facility in 1989. As well-known this transmitter carried VOA programming (at times also RIAS) on 173 kHz until it had been mothballed in the early seventies. In the Geneve schedule the new frequency 209 kHz had been allocated to this transmitter, and at the same time Deutschlandfunk became interested in using the Erching transmitter, probably due to the circumstance that the Donebach transmitter had now to operate co-channel with the 1200 kW facility in Romania. So an agreement had been made that provided the German side with access to the Erching transmitter but stipulated that they had to hand it back to the US side everytime if requested. The first inspection was a shock for the postal office employees: A real monster of an old transmitter with the Doherty modulation system they had never seen before, but by far the biggest obstacle: Designed for 60 Hz power supply from generators, impossible to run from the German 50 Hz power grid! Nevertheless Deutschlandfunk transmissions via Erching on 209 kHz started in 1979, for the time being between 5 AM and 7 PM only because a directional antenna is required for nighttime operation on this frequency (gain reduction towards the Ukraine). A magazine article stated that the postal office was able to make this possible only by throwing away many of its bureaucratic principles and discussed possibilities to get rid of the expensive diesel engines: Ask Continental if they can modify the transmitter for 50 Hz power supply, install 50/60 Hz converters or just install a new transmitter and this way also avoid possible trouble with the old transmitter. Finally they went even beyond the third variant and decided to build an entirely new site at Aholming near Deggendorf. This is the construction site at Aholming in 1986 (note the ground grid): http://www.aholming.de/luft_aho18.jpg And the finished site in 1989: http://www.aholming.de/luft_aho19.jpg First transmitter tests at Aholming started in summer 1988, the final switch of 209 kHz (now 207 kHz) from Erching to Aholming took place in January 1989. Today the antenna at Erching is gone but aerial pictures still show the transmitter building and reportedly people are still banned from entering the plain meadow which was once the antenna field. The website of the Aholming municipality once also contained a page about the transmitter, but apparently they throwed it away, so only these traces are left: http://web.archive.org/web/20041205091404/http://www.aholming.de/VERSCHIEDENES/Sender/ (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. ALEMANHA – Quer ganhar um tocador de MP3 ou um receptor de ondas curtas? Então, fique atento à dica do monitor da DW Leônidas dos Santos Nascimento, de São João Evangelista (MG)! A Seção de Língua Inglesa da estação alemã quer saber quantas vezes aquele país já dirigiu a União Européia: uma vez, duas vezes ou três vezes? As respostas devem chegar na emissora até o dia 31 de janeiro, escritas em um postal, remetido para: DW, English Service, 53110, Bonn, Alemanha. E-mail: newslink @ dw-world.de (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX Jan 7 via DXLD) ** GERMANY [non]. DW, 6140 AM in English, Jan 8 at 0650 with music feature; 0700 IS and news in English as another hour starts. This has been on the schedule, but I don`t recall hearing it so well (or at all) recently. Perhaps the switch from Jülich to Woofferton has inadvertently made a big difference in reception here, even tho it is now aimed due east at 0600-1000. Meanwhile DRM on 6125-6130-6135 which is now also Wooferton at 0700-0900 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [non]. RUSSIA. DRM changes for Deutsche Welle 1200-1400 NF 11615 MSK 035 kW / 260 deg to WeEu in German, new txion 1900-2100 on 5920 MSK 035 kW / 260 deg to WeEu in German, cancelled (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 9, via DXLD) ** GERMANY. Some DTK T-Systems changes: Hamburg Local Radio from Jan. 7 till Feb. 25: 1000-1100 on 6045 JUL 100 kW / non-dir Sun to WeEu in German Universal Life (UNL) from Dec. 30/31: 1230-1300 on 6045 JUL 100 kW / non-dir Sat to WeEu in German, deleted 1200-1300 on 6045 JUL 100 kW / non-dir Sun to WeEu in German, deleted 1900-1930 on 7105 JUL 100 kW / 115 deg Sun to WeAs in English deleted 0100-0130 on 7260 WER 125 kW / 090 deg Sun to SoAs in English deleted CVC International from Jan. 1: 1200-1500 on 15715 JUL 100 kW / 115 deg to WeAs in Arabic, deleted 1500-1700 on 11830 JUL 100 kW / 140 deg to WeAs in Arabic, deleted 1200-1500 on 13830 JUL 100 kW / 060 deg to EaEu in Russian, deleted 1500-1700 on 11705 JUL 100 kW / 060 deg to EaEu in Russian, deleted Polish Radio / Radio Polonia from Jan. 1: 1530-1600 on 7180 WER 100 kW / 030 deg EaEu in Russian, ex Ukrainian 1600-1630 NF 6035 WER 100 kW / 075 deg to EaEu in Esperanto, ex 6050 1600-1630 NF 7170 WER 100 kW / 060 deg to EaEu in Esperanto, ex 7285 1630-1730 NF 6140 JUL 100 kW / 070 deg to EaEu in Polish, ex 6050 (from Jan. 15) 1900-1930 NF 5935 WER 100 kW / 090 deg to EaEu in Esperanto, ex 7290 WYFR (Family Radio) from Jan. 1: 1600-1700 5900#WER 250 kW / 120 deg WeAs Persian \\ 7430 SMF 250 kW 1700-1900 5905*WER 250 kW / 060 deg EaEu Russian \\ 7435 A-A 200 kW #strong co-ch Radio Bulgaria in Bulgarian *strong co-ch Radio Rossii in Russian and RFI in Russian from 1800 !!! Radio Reveil Paroles de Vie: 1830-1845 on 11840 JUL 100 kW / 160 deg Tue/Thu to SoAf in French, ex 1830-1900 Thu Bible Voice Broadcasting Network (BVBN) 0915-0930 5945 JUL 100 kW / 290 deg Fri WeEu in Punjabi, deleted from Jan. 12 1900-1945 6015 JUL 100 kW / 060 deg Sat EaEu in English, ex 1900-2015 0430-0530 NF 9615 WER 100 kW / 120 deg Sat EaAf in Amharic, ex 11640 0430-0500 NF 9615 WER 100 kW / 120 deg Sun EaAf in Amharic, ex 11640 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 9, via DXLD) ** GREECE. ERA Athens 15630 Foreign service: 15630 Today Jan 8th I checked the ERA Athens foreign service in 0700-1000 UT slot. Noted English 0700, French 0800, Spanish 0900 UT, news and magazine feature, like international news, weather report for tourists, of 60 minutes duration each. I guess only MW 665/666 and FM channel announced. I'll check the 0600- 0700 slot[Greek??] and remaining time from 1000 UT onwards more carefully in coming days. Transmission had bad audio feeder, which suffered by 20% Greek audio UNDERNEATH, or an audio mixture at Avlis Greece transmitter site occurred?, of \\ Greek service, which is powerhouse on 9420 and 12105 kHz at same time (Wolfgang Büschel, Jan 8, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1343, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE. Glenn: I just read your January 7 DXLD report about Voice of Greece having English at 1138 to 1200 UT Sunday with Angelika Timms on 9420 and 17525. After the 0000 UT Monday sign-on, I got busy around the house and did not come back until about 0045 when propagation improved and I suddenly heard an American-type English-speaking lady introducing popular Greek songs of the 1920's etc. era. She finished up with that ever-popular "Miserlou" at 0100 sign-off. What a treat! Perhaps this is the replacement for the repeat version of "It's All Greek To Me"-a big improvement; I will look forward to listening to it next week (John Babbis, Silver Spring MD, Jan 8, WORLD OF RADIO 1343, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUATEMALA. 4780, 2320 24 Dec, Radio Cultural Coatán, SINPO 34323. After 2330 interference from spy numbers station ``CIO2``. At 2357 SINPO 35333. In vernacular, with clear ID in Spanish. I cannot believe this station is only 1 kW, as listed in WRTH --- must be more; it is the most powerful SW station from Guatemala (ROBERTAS POGORELIS, Belgium, visiting Lajes do Flores, Flores, Açores, SONY ICF SW-7600 GR an 15 m OUTDOOR LONG WIRE, WORLD OF RADIO 1343, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HAITI [and non]. For those of you who have followed the R. Haïti- Inter saga, it would be interesting to note that Michèle Montas, 61, former director of the Port-au-Prince station (closed since February 2003) and widow of Jean L. Dominique (who was assassinated in April 2000), has recently been appointed official spokeswoman of Ban Ki- moon, the new United Nations Secretary General. By the way, a movie (The Agronomist), directed by Jonathan Demme, about Dominique`s story and events in Haïti, was released in 2003 (Victor C. Jaar, QC, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** HUNGARY. Frequency changes of Radio Budapest from Jan. 1: English to NoAm 0200-0228 NF 5980 JBR 250 kW / 306 deg, ex 6110 to avoid RAI Italian Hungarian to NoAm 0100-0158 NF 5980 JBR 250 kW / 306 deg, ex 6110 to avoid RAI 0130- Italian to Eu 1730-1758 NF 6025 JBR 100 kW / 225 deg, ex 7145* re-ex 6025!!! 2130-2158 NF 6025 JBR 100 kW / 225 deg, ex 5970, re-ex 6025!!! *to avoid DW in Russian (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 9, via DXLD) ** ICELAND. Re 6-189, thought I would check out the website with the RUV SW schedule, http://www.textavarp.is/247/1.html --- Why am I not surprised that it is still there, and with the current date and time, tho SW has supposedly been off the air since 2006y. Can`t say I have looked for it this year, but I bet it really is off as planned (Glenn Hauser, OK, Jan 8, 2323 UT, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. Hello Glenn: Rare reception here of Air India English broadcast on 9690 from 1330 UT on several mornings lately. Signal starts off S7 to S8 perfectly audible but usually deteriorates after 1400 (sked 1330-1500). However, on one morning last week signal was readable S4-S5 right through to 1500. Not even audible on // 11620 or 13710 most days. 73 from (Thomas Moyer, Ontario, Canada, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9690 is fairly reliable here (gh, DXLD) ** INDIA. AIR Guwahati seems to be moving from 4940 to 4900 from day to day with out rhyme or reason! Heard Wed. 1/3 with nice signal on 4900, probably best signal I've ever heard from them, from tune-in 1148 to as late as 1251, which is about the latest I've ever heard an AIR station on 60-m.b. hang in there in our local morning here. Lots of nice traditional Indian music, almost always a W announcer, and possible local news at 1200, with ID just before TOH. However, heard Sat. 1/6 back on 4940, with fair signal but not as good as on 4900 on Wed., from 1147 to 1210, with same type programs. But this station suffers moderate QRM after *1200 of Chinese station, listed is V. of Strait, Fuzhou, News and Political Channel to Taiwan ('06 WRTVH says winter only). AIR station goes back into music around 1206/1207 after possible news, and this day mixing badly with Chinese station by 1210. Also heard yesterday, Mon. 1/8 on 4940. Popped on air *1143 without usual ritual of AIR stations of OC, tone, then 2 minutes of IS before sign-on. Just suddenly appeared with W speaking, then into music. I sent e-report to Delhi yesterday for the 1/3 and 1/6 receptions, and tried to cc all 3 addresses listed for Guwahati on the AIR website, but all 3 bounced back! airgau @ sancharnet.in came back invalid, airworks_ghy @ sify.com as inactive, and error message for airddgne @ sancharnet.in was "over quota," whatever that means (afraid I'm not quite that computer-proficient yet; is that like "mailbox full?"). [Yes – gh] '06 WRTVH had one, guwahati@air.org.inn, so I tried guwahati @ air.org.in which I figured was actually correct, in a forward of original report, and apparently that worked O.K. I also recommended in both e-mails that a change to 4900, at least for the winter, might be a good idea to avoid QRM from the Chinese station. Now today, Tues. 1/9, noted back on 4900 when tune-in 1150, with again slightly better signals than when on 4940, and no QRM after 1200, and again with program of very nice traditional Indian music. Maybe they took my advice, hi! ;-D Doubt it. CE probably just flipped a coin and decided to go with 4900! (Alex Vranes, Jr., near Harpers Ferry, WV, FRG-100B and 200-ft. dipole, Jan 9, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1343, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. Re 7-003: Hi Steve and Alex, From my location I have not had a chance to heard RRI Nabire, as CNR-1 (listed as Shijiazhuang / Hebei) dominates on 6125 around 1200–1300+, noted // 6030 and 5030 (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) The schedule of RRI-Nabire is confused with instability I could receive 6125.3 and 7290 at the same time at 0800 of Jan. 1, 2007 and was able to confirm that two transmitters operated. On 6125.3 kHz broadcasted a local program and 7290 relayed pro-tiga of Jakarta in all time. I was not able to receive 6125.3 on Jan. 2 - 6. On 7290 from +0700 to 1500+ relayed Jakarta pro-tiga, // 11860 kHz, on Jan. 2 - 8. And now on 6125.3 kHz received at +0700-0800v* The monitoring report of RRI regional service is reported in "N-1 communication" (in Japanese, partly English). http://wave.ap.teacup.com/n1hp/ (S. Hasegawa (NDXC), Jan 9, WORLD OF RADIO 1343, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 15150, V. of Indonesia noted in Korean, at 1213 UT, with long talks by female, but I've lost the signal at 1218, until it comes back at 1251 now with long Korean talks by male announcer! At 1254 UT they presented an Indonesian song, at 1255 ID and web address, followed by piano music until 1259 UT off the air. SINPO 25342 (Greetings from Portugal, José Turner, Jan 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN. Frequency changes for VOIROI/IRIB: 1300-1327 NF 9650 SIR 500 kW / 060 deg Japanese, ex 9640 \\ 9510 1430-1527 NF 7380 KAM 500 kW / 100 deg Bengali, ex 7295 \\ 5910, 7330 1730-1827 NF 6205 SIR 500 kW / 320 deg German, ex 6200 \\ 6255, 7380 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 9, via DXLD) ** IRAN [non]. Very good reception in BUL for Radio International in Persian: 1730-1830 on 6225 SMF 500 kW / 129 deg (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 9, via DXLD) ** IRAN [non]. BELGIUM(non), Radio Democracy Shorayee in Persian via TDP from Dec. 28: 1700-1800 Tue/Thu/Fri/Sun NF 7470 (55555), ex 7435 to avoid WYFR in Russian (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 9, via WORLD OF RADIO 1343, DXLD) ** IRAN [non]. 3880, 0425 05/01, Voice of Communist Party, Iranian Clandestine, starting bc, Farsi, Good (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, tips made in Bocca di Magra (La Spezia) Italy, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRELAND. I have just received word that RTE are to switch off their MW transmitters from the end of 2007. This would mean the end of 567 and 729 and basically the death of high-power MW in the Republic of Ireland. Instead, there would be quasi-national AM Christian services for which applications have currently been received at the BCI http://www.bci.ie 73 - Herman - (From Herman Boel on EMWG Yahoo Group Sun Jan 7, 2007 12:49 pm via Dave Kenny, BDXC-UK via DXLD) Depends on your definition of high power; among the frequencies offered by the BCI in July 2006 for the new quasi national Irish religious AM service, for which there have been five applicants, is Athlone on 612 with 200 kW as well as four other 100 kW ones. Is RTE actually relinquishing the frequency and if so why could it not now be used for the Irish national AM religious station? Full details available for download at: http://www.irtc.ie/newsinformation/press91.html (Mike Barraclough, ibid.) The five applications for the Irish "quasi-national Christian and religious service" submitted in October 2006 can be viewed in detail at: http://www.bci.ie/licensing/radio/commercial_apps.html Two of these mention RTE's 567 kHz ceasing at the end of 2008 after which RTE would like the channel to be left dormant for a period of time. (The five applicants (CCN Ireland, R Maria, Spirit R, UCB Ireland & Yes R) put forward a variety of proposals in the "Transmission Options" sections of their applications, including using 612 kHz from the existing RTE site at Tullamore, using 549 kHz from Co Monaghan, etc., etc.) RTE's Guiding Principles 2006 (dated November 2006) also shows "Close Radio 1 MW" (ie 567 kHz) in the final quarter of 2008. http://www.rte.ie/about/guidingprinciples2006.pdf If the closure of 567 kHz has now been bought forward by a year as suggested by Herman Boel's report, then it too could become available for this new service, though I'm not sure why RTE would change the timing of this so soon after publishing their Guiding Principles document above, though they do have Radio 1 on longwave still of course? (Alan Pennington, ibid.) RTE to close MW - or not? --- From Herman Beale [sic] via the EMWG list: Hi all, I just got the following interesting answers from RTE: 1) Yes we do still broadcast RTE Radio 1 on 729 kHz with an ERP of 10 kW. 2) RTE has no plan to shut down either 567 or 729 at this point in time. 3) RTE has no plan to shut down LW on 252 kHz at this point in time, and of course we are looking at DRM as a possibility among others. - Herman - http://www.hermanboel.eu http://www.emwg.info (PAUL DAVID, Wembley Park, United Kingdom dxldyg via DXLD) So what about the denial they sent out? Lack of internal communication or perhaps just weasel wording (no plan to shut down mediumwave "at this point")? Anyway this decision is remarkable in as far as 567 kHz was off from July till early November 2004 for a reconstruction of the transmitter. One has to wonder why they did such investments, only to decide two years later that they will virtually throw them away. Actually one has even to wonder what in fact happened during these almost four months at Tullamore? (Kai Ludwig, ibid.) I don't think they will necessarily "throw away" Tullamore. RTÉ will probably be replaced by a commercial station which will take over the facility. In the UK, many former BBC frequencies were taken over by commercial operators. The fact is, with the funding they get, they can't afford to run two high power facilities (567 + 252) carrying the same programme. 252 is preferred by RTÉ because it covers a large part of the UK as well as Ireland (Andy Sennitt, Netherlands, ibid.) ** JORDAN [and non]. 11810, Jan 8 at 1402 going from Qur`an to Arabic talk; 1511 Arabic music, lo-fi; wasn`t sure what this was till I looked it up, as Amman. Above-average reception from there, as at 1408 I also found 11690 English pop music at about equal mix with HCJB in Spanish. At 1509 recheck after HCJB quit, Jordan was OK with even more pop music, flutter, but RTTY evitable by side-tuning a bit high without narrow filter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LAOS. Hi Glenn, I hear station on 4677.80 kHz, date 6/1, time 0022 UT. I think this is Laos LNR Sam Neua. I hear Asian talking, I try today, only signal, and very poor audio, time was now 2300. Many thanks and 73, and all the best for 2007. From (Maurits Van Driessche from Belgium, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA [and non]. Dear all, The same UNID Afro-pop station reported by OM J.M. Romero was active now on 17640 kHz, from 1330 UT, interfering with BBC WS then after BBC s/off at 1400 with SIO=454 with nonstop Afro-music, no ID. 73-s from Romania, (Cristian Mocanu, Jan 7, bclnews.it via DXLD) Saludos cordiales Cristian, alguna teoría de la procedencia de esta emisora NO ID, África??, Europa???, la señal se recibe muy fuerte para ser de África, aunque quizás venga de allí; sigue siendo un misterio. (José Miguel Romero, Spain, ibid.) Hola! Tampoco pienso que sea desde Africa. Marcel, nuestro amigo francés, piensa que se trata de VOA Marruecos; pero creo que no corresponde al formado de una emision VOA. Ninguna ID, ni otro segmento hablado. Es simplemente música africana (yo diría centroafricana, congolesa) sin interrupción. Y el hecho de que esta "navigando" de una QRG a otra. Puede tratarse de un programa clandestino haciendo transmisiones de prueba? La señal es muy fuerte de verdad, una QRM bastate "incomoda" por la BBC WS... 73-s desde (Deva, Rumania, Cristian Mocanu, ibid.) Saludos Cristian, es una emisión jammer contra la clandestina para Libia Sawt al-Amal, música afro-pop aunque también música latina con canciones en español; se comenta la teoría de que transmite desde Gabón, posiblemente anteriormente sí, ahora lo dudo, señal muy fuerte, simpre muy estable, no padece ni fading ni problemas de propagación. Un misterio (José Miguel Romero, ibid.) 8 Enero: A las 1404 se observa en 17650 la emisora afro-pop con un SINPO 45444; por otra parte en 17630 no se capta a África Nº 1 vía Gabón ni tampoco el servicio de CRI en inglés vía Malí, tan sólo ruido. Un chequeo por la banda de 16 m, tan sólo se sintoniza a la Voz de Grecia en 17525 con un SINPO 55555 y en 17830 a la BBC vía Ascención con un SINPO 34343. En 17895 a BSKSA HQ con un SINPO 54444. Se percibe pues unas muy malas condiciones de propagación (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Radio Master A- 108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Saludos cordiales, hoy 9 de Enero e chequeado con Yaesu FRG-7700 desde Valencia a las 1520 a la emisora afro-pop en 17620 con emisión musical, dando S 7, SINPO 35433; al mismo tiempo he chequeado a esta emisora vía DXTUNER ubicado en Suecia, con S 9 40, SINPO 55555. Curiosamente en 17630 desde DXTUNER se capta a CRI en Inglés vía Malí, con SINPO 33443, sufre interferencias de la emisora musical; desde Valencia no se capta a CRI, tan sólo ruido. También he realizado un chequeo rápido con el Ten-Tec, se escucha con buena señal a la emisora afro-pop, SINPO 35443, sin embargo a CRI en 17630 apenas imperceptible, SINPO 24232. Desde Valencia se ha podido escuchar a Sawt al-Amal en 17615, 17625 y 17630, la emisora afro-pop ha ido cambiando de frecuencias buscándola e intentando atorarla (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Radio Master A-108; Ten-Tec RX 320 Newton, Massachusetts; DXTUNER (Suecia), Jan 9, ibid.) See also GABON ** MADAGASCAR. 5010, 2325 03/01, R. Nasionaly Malagasy (presumed), extended sched, music, talks Good (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, tips made in Bocca di Magra (La Spezia) Italy, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALDIVE ISLANDS [and non]. MAJOR CHANGES AT MINIVAN RADIO By Minivan News January 8, 2007 http://www.minivannews.com/news/news.php?id=2801 Minivan Radio, the country’s only independent radio station, launched a new, interactive website on Monday aimed at giving listeners more choice over in the way they access news and information. The new site, http://www.minivanradio.net offers listeners not only the usual one hour Dhivehi language programme but also the option of listening and downloading particular segments of the hourly show. To coincide with the launch of their website, the Minivan Radio team have also added content to their daily programme, including new sections such as ‘listener’s comments’ and ‘breaking news’ as well as news in English. The radio station also plans to increase the variety of its content with new progammes focusing on women, young people and the arts. ``We hope the changes will prove popular with our listeners,`` said Minivan Radio editor Fathimath Shaheeda. Minivan Radio was set up in exile in late 2003 by Ahmed Naseer, who was a political refugee based in Britain at that time. The station shifted operations to Sri Lanka in 2004. Following the raid on its Colombo offices on December 28, 2005 – after Maldivian Police Chief Adam Zahir told Interpol Minivan Radio employees were gun-running, a claim Sri Lankan detectives subsequently found to be baseless – Minivan Radio moved to the Maldives. Fathimath Shaheeda took over as editor. Although based in the Male’ for over a year, the government still refuses to grant the station a broadcast license, so programmes continue to be aired from short wave radio transmitters in Europe and over the internet. Minivan Radio shares a brand name with this website and the Minivan Daily newspaper. In practice, however, the three news outlets are separate companies with separate editorial policies. ``For us, our independence from any political party, and any other news service, is paramount,`` Shaheeda said. ``Minivan Radio must remain true to its name `Independent Radio` and serve the needs of all Maldivians.`` Shaheeda was recently awarded a place on the US State Department`s international visitor fellowship programme. As part of the prestigious programme, Shaheeda will attend a six week investigative journalism training course based in Washington, DC (via Zacharias Liangas, DXLD) ** MEXICO. POLITICAL TURMOIL HITS MEXICAN AM AND FM Striking teachers supported by students and leftist organizations in Oaxaca, Mexico, hijacked and operated two AM stations in the second half of 2006, XERPO on 710, La Ley del Pueblo (ex-Radio Variedades) and XEUBJ on 1400, Radio Universidad, "mil watts de potencia proletaria y popular". Earlier, the striking teachers had been making their voices heard on an FM station, Radio Plantón, "poniendo ideas en tu conciencia", on 92.1 MHz. Reportedly, this station was later seized by the authorities. In their opposition of the local government, the strikes were joined by Zapatistas and other leftists in a group called APPO, Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca. On Oct. 26, the El Financiero newspaper reported the appearance of an FM station on 99.1 supportive of the governor of Oaxaca state. The station, called Radio Ciudadana, La Voz de Oaxaca, was using a news format resembling that of the oppositional station on 710, said the news report. By that time the 710 station had been returned to its legal owners. The University station remained on the air with its inflammatory speeches until local jamming made reception impossible. By early January it seems that things in Oaxaca are back to normal. La Voz de Oaxaca, Radio Universidad and Radio Plantón, can be found on their usual web sites, but not on the band. And there is no longer any Radio Ciudadana on the dial apart from one in the nation´s capital, which is operating on 660 kHz with 50 kW. It supersedes La Candela, sabor tropical (WRTH 2006 has the name and slogan wrong). (Henrik Klemetz (using internet information and an audio file submitted to the RealDX yahoogroup by Jim Pogue), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: This station heard in Spanish at 0327 UT on 660 kHz. Any help from our Spanish-fluent friends? Regards, (Jim Pogue, TN, with a clip on the RealDX yg, via DXLD) Jim: There's a call letter ID for XEDTL and an ID that to me sounds like Radio Ciudadana - not their listed slogan but that's what I hear. Power of 50 kW and "Mexico, Distrito Federal" are mentioned (Chuck Hutton, ibid.) Radio Ciudadana, una emisora de servicio público, change of name (slogan) of the listed Mexico City station. Callsign, power and address same as before (Henrik Klemetz, ibid.) I don't think this is XEDTL, though I've been known to be wrong before. :-) Recorded at 0401z 9Jan07. I believe there is an ID before they slide under WFAN completely, but I can't pick it out. There seems to be mentions of Colombia at :49 and 1:26. http://topazdesigns.com/ambc/audio/unid-660-2301-8jan07.mp3 (Barry McLarnon VE3JF Ottawa, ON, ibid.) I wonder when this change of format and name came about. Is it listed in the 2007 edition of the WRTH? There was a pro-governmental clandestine FM transmitter in Oaxaca calling for the establishment of law and order operating on 99.1 until Dec 12 says http://www.annalisa melandri.it/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=68 At that time the local unrest waned. The station name Citizens´ Radio, Radio Ciudadana, with its appending slogan, a public service station, una emisora de servicio público, was perhaps worthwhile keeping, and so the federal government swiftly changed the format of the existing station on 660. I may be wrong, but that is what I think. At http://www.imer.com.mx/EstacionesIMER/RadioCiudadana/index.php one finds the coverage area of this station, and Oaxaca is mentioned, just for the record?, at the end of the list (Henrik Klemetz, ibid.) ** MOROCCO. Radio Medi 1 with Arabic vocals and announcements. Blasting in, very strong and alone on 171 kHz. Must be on early/late for holiday, 0300 UT Jan. 10, 2007. A real surprise. Very steady signal. A new longwave country for me here. Still strong at 0315 (Brock Whaley, Lilburn, GA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS ANTILLES. The Netherlands Antilles are scheduled to be dissolved by 1 July: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/03/europe/EU_GEN_Netherlands_Antilles.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_Antilles http://www.britannica.com/nations/Netherlands-Antilles SW-related, Bonaire will get the status of a "city" within the Netherlands (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, Jan 9, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Interesting! Especially that Curaçao will be a new radio country, as it will be a separate political entity. St Maarten has been separate for geographic reasons anyway, but will be separated from Saba and St Eustatius. Bonaire, Saba, and St Eustatius seem to become parts of the European Union then. They will surely retain their status as radio country just as Martinique and Guadeloupe do, in spite being part of France proper. So the Dutch islands should then make up the following 5 radio countries, instead of 3 (Aruba, ATN, Leeward Isl.) so far: ARUBA, autonomous territory since 1986 BONAIRE, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands CURAÇAO, autonomous territory Leeward Islands: ST MAARTEN, autonomous territory SABA AND ST EUSTATIUS, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Eike Bierwirth, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. RADIO NZ INTERNATIONAL --- THE SHORTWAVE FUTURE Long time listeners to Radio New Zealand International may remember a number of times when the 'quiet voice of the Pacific' was silenced through funding cutbacks and bureaucratic and political ignorance and indifference. Since 1990, when a new 100 kW AM transmitter was inaugurated from a new transmission site in the central North Island, RNZI has steadily regained listeners in its main Pacific target areas, and beyond. The introduction of a second 100 kW [DRM] transmitter in 2006 has further improved RNZI's capability to deliver core services such as 'Dateline Pacific' to local rebroadcasters across the region. Recent arrangements for Radio Australia and the BBC to carry key programs have broadened the reach of RNZI even further, both stations operating networks of local FM relay stations that now carry RNZI content. RNZI's use of DRM [digital radio] is unusual, being designed to deliver point to point FM quality signals directly to designated local radio stations at specific times of the day. The signal starts the day beamed at French Polynesia, and moves westwards across the Pacific as dawn breaks, thus allowing local stations to carry RNZI programs during peak morning listening times. The installation of DRM capable receivers at a growing number of radio stations across the Pacific allows FM quality reception at key local listening times, and has built the local RNZI audience into the largest of any broadcaster in the region. Expansion continues with facilities to house two more shortwave transmitters planned for the existing transmission site. A second antenna system will allow greater flexibility for directional delivery of programs and the use of additional frequencies. Now that the technical delivery of programs to local stations is assured, more stations can be added to the DRM receiving network. At the same time, local broadcast hours of RNZI sourced content are expected to increase across many stations. As DRM capable radios gradually become available at an affordable price, more local listeners will also be able to listen direct to RNZI services with FM quality signals. The AM transmitter provides a complementary service across the wider region, filling in the DRM drop out signal spots, cyclone season emergency broadcasts, and also entertaining listeners beyond the Pacific target zone. Increasingly, RNZI reflects an emerging Polynesian society and culture from within New Zealand itself, and these common links in turn make both domestic and RNZI programs more relevant to local listeners in the islands. Radio New Zealand's latest annual report highlights RNZI services specifically via shortwave as being of strategic importance to its ability to meet its core public broadcaster charter obligations. In a region of increased political, social and economic instability and tension, the 'quiet voice of New Zealand' is now being heard far more strongly. Perhaps finally achieving what was originally intended when it first began weak test transmissions on shortwave 60 years ago in 1947. RNZI listeners from Papéete in the eastern Pacific to Díli in the western Pacific and northwards into the former US Trust Territories south of Japan increasingly have a new FM quality source of Pacific oriented programs on their local radio dials. And RNZI listeners further afield in Asia, the Americas and Europe, are able to continue to enjoy the AM broadcasts as reception conditions permit, and 'eavesdrop' on what's happening in New Zealand's Pacific backyard. Recent Christmas season messages to listeners in French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian languages also acknowledged the growing popularity of RNZI well beyond the Pacific. At a time when major European shortwave broadcasters are reducing or ending decades of broadcasts in favor of internet or satellite only broadcasts, it's refreshing to know that the 'new world' of the Pacific-Asian region continues to see a place for the innovative use of shortwave radio in a world of contemporary entertainment and information. The Radio Heritage Foundation produces regular radio heritage documentaries about Pacific broadcasting issues for RNZI's 'Mailbox' program. It has also been commissioned to produce material for the 60th anniversary of shortwave broadcasts from Radio New Zealand in September 2008. For a full description of the original shortwave broadcasting objectives of Radio New Zealand [as it was known in 1947], visit http://www.radioheritage.net and read the story 'Radio NZ Signs On' that can be found under 'other stories' or a simple site search. Looking back almost 60 years, it's interesting to see how little has really changed. The 'Mailbox' program must now be one of the longest running listener programs on shortwave radio. Australian listeners commented back then 'It comes in just like a local station', and with DRM signals in 2007, Australian listeners will probably continue to offer the same view. Listeners worldwide can also hear RNZI streaming at www.rnzi.com as well as find more information about programs, shortwave frequencies and more news about the 'quiet voice of the Pacific'. ___________________________________ Radio Heritage Foundation A registered non-profit organization Web: http://www.radioheritage.net Email: info@radioheritage.net (David Ricquish, RHF, January 2 2007, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NICARAGUA. 2139.9 kHz, Radio Chontalena [sic], 1155-1200, 1/4/2007, Spanish. 2 x 1070 harmonic. Lively Latin American music. 1157 Clear identification by man followed by man and woman talking with music in the background. 1200 Identification by man followed by what appeared to be an advertisement, and more music. Moderate signal (SINPO 34333). My first log of Nicaragua since 2002 (Jim Evans, Germantown, TN, RX- 340, R8B, 90' random wire, LFE H-800, 65' PAR EF-SWL, LFE H-800, NASWA Flashsheet via WORLD OF RADIO 1343, DXLD) BTW, no such station is listed on 1070, or anywhere else I can find, in the WRTH 2006 or 2007. However, a Google search does find references to a Radio Chontaleña, in Chontales on the AM band, but no frequency mentioned (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1343, DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. Jan 8 is inauguration day in OK, and the PTB make a big deal out of it on the Capitol steps in a midday sesquihour ceremony. I found myself watching the historic occasion on OETA which offers full coverage, unlike the commercial OKC TV stations, except KFOR-4 which picked up the OETA pool feed. Various state officials took the oath, wherein they all must pledge not to take bribes, climaxed by Gov. Brad Henry, into his second term, just before noon, inconvenient for the other stations` *12:00 newscasts. OETA promoed that they would also be webstreaming on this occasion, not checked. These Okies have absolutely no concept of the Separation of Church and State, as there were repeated references to Christian religious stuff, with prayers and hymns galore. Really stomach-turning. But imagine this: the oath does not conclude with ``so help me God``! Nor did I hear anyone muttering that under their breath. I couldn`t see whether left hands were touching Bibles, but most probably were. Add to that the military band and you have everything that`s wrong with the priorities in this benighted state. Enid`s own Leona Mitchell sang the NA, which axually started with ``America``, and apparently the conductor could not hear her, as they had a hard time staying in synch, or had not bothered to rehearse. Speaking of which, OETA, received OTA here, did not get the sound synched with the lips in this live broadcast. MC was some beauty queen (complete with crown/tiara, how tacky, but it was too cold for swimwear), who had a very hard time reading her script and pronouncing unfamiliar words like ``Tempore``, in her cutesy-cutesy voice. High point was Dr. N. Scott Momaday reading his new poem for the occasion, and he was not the only Indian involved; some dancers in full regalia were featured. At least the current rulers pay lip service to the previous occupants of the land, which is grand. Whew, they got a rabbi in to do the benedixion, as if that covered all bases; at least his prayer had the class to be oecumenical, tho unabashedly monotheist. Gov. Henry`s inaugural speech was as always, ceaselessly upbeat, and unspontaneous. BTW, this is OK`s centennial year as a United State, and a USPS stamp will be issued in a few days (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. R. Veritas Asia, Paluig noted Jan. 8, in Tagalog from 2305 to 2327 UT on 9720 with a long talk by OM and YL announcers interspersed by some song excerpts. Nice version of "What a wonderful world" at 2316. ID jingle at 2317 and same kind of program until 2325 when seemed a news summary followed by ID and out of air at 2327 UT. SINPO 44343 (Greetings from Portugal, José Turner, Jan 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PORTUGAL. A programação da RDP Internacional também abre espaço para o dexismo. Nas segundas-feiras, transmite o segmento Caixa Postal/Dexismo no seguinte esquema: às 0910, em 12020 e 21830 kHz; às 1045, em 12020, 15575 e 21830 kHz; às 1747, em 11905, 17680 e 21655 kHz. Também é reprisado nas terças-feiras, às 2330, em 13700 e 15295 kHz. A apresentação é de Isabel Flora. Confira! (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX Jan 7 via DXLD) ** ROMANIA. ROMÊNIA - O tradicional concurso anual da Rádio Romênia Internacional enfoca a cidade de Sibiu que, ao lado de Luxemburgo, foi designada capital cultural européia em 2007. O grande prêmio consiste numa estada na zona de Sibiu para duas pessoas, excluindo o transporte entre a cidade do vencedor e a Romênia. As perguntas que devem ser respondidas: 1) Desde que data há a primeira menção documental a Sibiu? 2) Quais são as duas cidades designadas em 2007 como capitais culturais da Europa? 3) Qual é o lema do programa Sibiu 2007? 4) Nomeie alguns atrativos históricos, culturais e turísticos de Sibiu. As respostas devem chegar ao Departamento de Espanhol da emissora até 31 de março de 2007. Endereço: RRI, Seção Española, 60-62 Calle General Berthelot, Bucareste, Romênia. E-mail: span @ rri.ro (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX Jan 7 via DXLD) ** RUSSIA [and non]. Tonight it was very interesting to compare the coverage of the events around the "Druzhba" oil pipeline. German news: Chancellor Angela Merkel sharply critizes Russia for stopping the oil delivery without any consultations, says the Russians used to be a reliable partner even during the cold war. Voice of Russia: Chancellor Angela Merkel sharply critizes the disruption of the oil pipeline without any consultations and emphasized that the Russians were always reliable partners, even during the Cold War. Not said, but no doubt meant: The disruption by Belarus. In case somebody comes across one of the many German references to the "Drushba-Trasse": This is *not* the oil pipeline in question here. Instead this term referred to the construction of a gas pipeline through the Ukraine which is actually called Soyuz: http://www.lindebox.de/images/POSTK.jpg Thought I should mention it here since I already had to find both things being messed up (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 9, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. 5960, R. Tikhiy Okean, again with R. Rossi program relay, 0948-1000* Jan 8, M & YL with radio drama, nice Russian ballads, ID’s for R. Rossi at sign-off, good, // 7330 poor and // 6075 (which continued past 1000) fair. 5960 and 7330, R. Tikhiy Okean, 0954-1000* Jan 9, resumed their own programming again. Walter Salmaniw notes that Jan 7 was Orthodox Christmas, so they probably had the day off, hence the R. Rossi programming on Jan 8 (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. Some changes for Voice of Russia: 1600-1900 on 5920 S.P 200 kW / 215 deg to WeEu in Arabic, additional 1900-2100 on 5920 S.P 200 kW / 215 deg to WeEu in French, additional 1800-2100 NF 5950 KLG 150 kW / 245 deg to NoAf in French, ex 6030 to avoid BBC DRM changes for Voice of Russia: 0700-0800 NF 11615 MSK 035 kW / 260 deg to WeEu in English, ex 11635 0800-0900 NF 11615 MSK 035 kW / 260 deg to WeEu Russ. Inter. Radio, ex 11635 0900-1000 NF 11615 MSK 035 kW / 260 deg to WeEu in English, ex 12060 1000-1200 NF 11615 MSK 035 kW / 260 deg to WeEu in German, ex 12060 1500-1600 on 5920 MSK 035 kW / 260 deg to WeEu in English, cancelled 1600-1700 on 5920 MSK 035 kW / 260 deg to WeEu in German, cancelled 1700-1800 on 5920 MSK 035 kW / 260 deg to WeEu in French, cancelled 1800-1900 on 5920 MSK 035 kW / 260 deg to WeEu in German, cancelled (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 9, via DXLD) ** SAO TOME. Nice reception from VOA's Pinheira site on Jan. 6, at 1704-1715 UT in Portuguese, on 11775 with interview about Mr. Kofi Annan's role in Africa. SINPO 35343. Also from S. Tomé, at 1915-2000 on 4940, with "news in special English", followed by a tale about "Joey and the pipe". SINPO 45444 (Greetings from Portugal, José Turner, Jan 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SEYCHELLES [non]. Frequency change of FEBA Radio: 1400-1515 NF 7150 NVS 250 kW / 195 deg, ex 7190 English/Urdu/Balti 1600-1630 NF 11875 KIG 250 kW / 030 deg, ex 11750 Afar (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 9, via DXLD) ** SLOVAKIA. R. Slovakia International, 7230 kHz, *0100-0127* with "News" and the "Monday Edition of Slovakia Today". SIO 454 (Kraig Krist, KG4LAC, VA, UT Jan 9, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. 6125, CRI Beijing in English via REE Noblejas relay today Jan 7th from 2100 UT on air again. Powerhouse S=9+20 dB in Germany. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Still distorted feed? Did not realize they had been missing (Glenn, ibid.) Mauno asked me yesterday on this matter. Due of special weekend schedule of REE with some sports live coverage and shifted En/Fr to 6125 kHz 2100-2257 UT, CRI was missed yesterday. But CRI was back tonight Sunday 2100-2200 UT. Off now at 2208 UT. [so CRI seems Mon-Fri 2100-2257 UT, Sat/Sun 2100-2200 UT]. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Don't they have sports coverage every weekend? Nothing was carried yesterday between 2100-2300 on 6125 kHz. Between Mon-Fri I have checked this only once and then CRI signed off at 2200 as also today. 73, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, Jan 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. Acabo de escuchar a Españoles en la Mar, desde REE, aunque en línea en vez de las frecuencias de OC, ningunas dirigidas a Norteamérica a esta hora. Sintonicé tarde, a las 1640 TU del lunes 8 de enero, y así todavía no sé si comiencen el programa con código Morse. Duró sólo hasta las 1655. Es probable que este programa diminuido comenzó alrededor de las 1630, porque sí a las 1605 salió el programa El Vestuario, que según el esquema publicado comparte la hora con EELM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA. SLBC (presumed). Heard a few times in the past week between 1540 and 1600+ UT on 11750. Very strong signal on Sunday Jan. 7 for about 20 minutes before fading out. Music sounded S Asian. No English or IDs heard. Listed on eibi website as from 1535 to 1845 in Sinhala (Bernie O'Shea, Ottawa, Ontario, Jan 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I checked again today, Jan. 9, for SLBC on 11750 but could only hear a noise that sounds to me very much like a bubble jammer. Any ideas where this is coming from? Seems unlikely that the Tamils would have a jammer (Bernie O'Shea, ibid.) Bernie, R. Martí appeared on 11750 once (maybe ONLY once), and Cuba has been jamming it ever since. 73, (Glenn, via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. Re my recent report of Sudan Radio Service on 9660 during the 1400 UT hour, I belatedly looked up the previous items we had on this, and found that in 6-182 of December 9 there was an announced schedule reported, including Wed only at 14-15 on 9565, according to Alan Pennington and Edwin Southwell, BDXC-UK. It was indeed a Wednesday, Jan 3, when I heard them on 9660, so this would be a change for that. Why in the world don`t they update the schedule on their website? Back further on Nov 17 in 6-171, we had this, showing daily from 14: ``9840 1400-1700 38,47 MSK 200 190 1234567 RUS MNO GFC (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX / A-DX Nov 16 via DXLD)`` (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1343, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY. Voice of Turkey. Heard in English, 1930 to 2020 UT, Tuesday Jan. 9 on what appears to be a new frequency of 7205 to Europe. Still announcing the former frequency of 6055. Maybe they forgot to change frequency after the transmission in German listed on 7205. If it is new. 7205 is a poor choice as it clashes with Libya (Arabic) and Iran (Russian), both on the same frequency. Turkey was the stronger most of the time and there was a lengthy discussion on Iraq and the Kurds (Bernie O'Shea, Ottawa, Ontario, DX LISTENING DIGEST) That would be the Live From Turkey call-in (or non) since it was Tuesday; surely a mistake as I have also caught them failing to change frequency at 1430 after Thursday LFT (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) La Voz de Turquía en 9865 a las 0245 UT con excelente señal por Venezuela, con la lectura de titulares de noticias y cierre de emisión, indicando ademas que emiten en directo desde Turquia en 9780 en este mismo horario. Atte: (José Elías, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Confundido: 9780 es la frecuencia a las 1730-1800 (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** U K [non]. VT Communications changes from Dec. 18: [all these via DHA DELETED:] Radio Mustaqbal 0600-0630 on 15455 DHA 250 kW / 240 deg to EaAf Somali Mon-Thu/Sat 0635-0705 on 15455 DHA 250 kW / 240 deg to EaAf Somali Mon-Thu/Sat 0710-0740 on 15455 DHA 250 kW / 240 deg to EaAf Somali Mon-Thu/Sat 0745-0815 on 15455 DHA 250 kW / 240 deg to EaAf Somali Mon-Thu/Sat Southern Sudan Interactive Radio Instruction 0630-0730 on 15205 DHA 250 kW / 240 deg to EaAf in English Mon-Fri Open Radio for North Korea 1400-1500 7390 NVS 200 kW / 110 deg to KRE Korean, additional txion 2100-2130 9795 TAI 100 kW / 002 deg to KRE Korean, cancelled (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 9, via DXLD) ** U K [non]. New transmission of BBC in Hausa to WeCeAf: 0630-0700 on 12015 RMP 500 kW / 189 deg 13740 MOS 300 kW / 195 deg 17560 SLA 250 kW / 260 deg New schedule of BBC in Spanish to CeAm and Caribbean from Dec. 18: 0300-0400 on 6110 HRI 250 kW / 188 deg 7325 SKN 300 kW / 260 deg 7325 RMP 500 kW / 285 deg 1000-1100 on 6140 GR 250 kW / 205 deg 7315 HRI 250 kW / 152 deg 9790 GUF 250 kW / 305 deg 1100-1230 on 6140 GR 250 kW / 205 deg 13760 GUF 250 kW / 305 deg [we already found 5835 replaced 7315 at 1000. The misleading BBC webpage about this is still unchanged as of Jan 8 --- gh] Frequency change of BBC in Uzbek and Russian to CeAs: 1600-1630 NF 7335 MSK 250 kW / 117 deg in Uzbek Daily, ex 7225 1630-1700 NF 7335 MSK 250 kW / 117 deg in Russian Sat/Sun, ex 7225 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 9, via DXLD) ** U K. Glenn, Tnx for BBC Big Ben info. For the record, XM did carry the 00:00 chimes [2006-2007 Jahrwechsel], with no interruption, crystal clear. NO guarantee they'll do it next year, but they might (Tim Hendel, AL, Jan 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. Here is some DX Info for your Program. BBC Bengali New Additional Morning Transmission from January 11, 2007: BBC Bengali is going to start a new additional morning transmission of half hour duration from January 11, 2007. The additional morning transmission can be audible on 11995 kHz in 25 metre band & also on 9560 kHz on 31 metre band from 0130 UT. This transmission can be also heard in Dhaka (Bangladesh) & its nearby areas on FM Band on 100 MHz (via Gautam Sharma, DXLD) Viz.: BENGALI SERVICE NEW TRANSMISSION Dear listener, you may have heard from our programmes that we are going to launch a NEW dawn transmission from Thursday January 11, 2007. This will be a half-hour programme, with news and current affairs, live contributions from Dhaka, Delhi and Kolkata, press reviews, sports, culture etc. The new dawn will be broadcast at 7am India time [0130 UT], on 31 metreband (9560 kHz) and 25 metreband (11995 kHz) on the shortwave. Please let the listeners' clubs, your friends, neighbours in your locality know of the new transmission. Also, on Jan 8, 9 and 10, we will be testing the two frequencies . The English news will be broadcast for half an hour on the above two frequencies at 7am-7.30am, to see how effective they are. Would it be possible for some listeners in West Bengal, Assam or Tripura to monitor these test tranmissions on those three days? Please request them, and pass on the feedback to me immediately afterwards. Regards, Amita Pal, BBC WS Marketing, Communications & Audience, New Delhi http://www.bbc.co.uk/ (via Alokesh Gupta, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A. Greetings from Bangladesh! I am pleased to inform you that yesterday we had a wonderful LIVE discussion about international broadcasting with Dr. Kim Andrew Elliott, VOA Audience Research Analyst, on VOA’s Talk-to-America. There were many topics including digital broadcasting. Dr. Kim has sharing his views and thoughts about international broadcasting, which was excellent. Mr. John Figolozzi was also on the show. [and Richard Cuff] My main questions were: (1) ``In addition to SW, Jamming is also happened in Digital Broadcasting. But I see most of the broadcasters said digital broadcasting is interference-free reception. If there jamming possible, how they claimed interference-free reception?`` (2) ``We know Marconi first transmitted wireless signals over a distance of 3 KM more than a century ago. And since a long time SW was dominated but due to the digital revolution in broadcasting technology SW is facing its uncertain future. Before 1960s there were only two main ways for broadcasting-AM and FM. In early 70 the invention of IC and microprocessor has brought widespread adoption of digital technology. How you optimist about this migration of broadcasting technology?`` It was really an excellent discussion and I am very happy to join the LIVE show on Talk-to-America. Kindest regards, Yours truly, (MD. AZIZUL ALAM AL-AMIN, E-65, GOURHANGA, GHORAMARA, RAJSHAHI-6100, BANGLADESH, Jan 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) VOA, Mon Jan 8 at 1417 with Kim Elliott on Talk to America, now hosted by Erin Fleming (sp?), audible on 17895, 9760 and best on 11655; 1433 John Figliozzi and Rich Cuff on the phones. Reception not so good so I will listen to the whole thing on the audio archive when I get a chance (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. VOA CALENDAR 2007: The Voice of America has released its 2007 Calendar (usual type-like previous years). This time it has featured America's Waterways, i.e. Rivers, Lakes & Coastlines. One can send his request for a copy via e-mail at letters @ voa.gov or by usual postal mail address of VOA. Voice of America 330, Independence Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20237 (USA) 73 & 55, Yours Faithfully, (Gautam Kumar Sharma, Abhaypuri (Near Police Station), PO Abhayapuri (Assam), PIN 783384 (India), DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. Additional transmission for Radio Liberty in Turkmen: 1800-2000 on 7425 KWT 250 kW / 070 deg (tent.) (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 9, via DXLD) As previously sleuthed in DXLD ** U S A [non]. Some changes of WYFR Family Radio via RUS/CIS txs: 1300-1400 NF 5865 DB 100 kW / 135 deg English, ex 7100 NVS 250 / 180 1400-1700 NF 5865 DB 100 kW / 135 deg Hindi, ex 7100 NVS 250 / 180 1400-1500 NF 5880 ERV 100 kW / 125 deg Hindi, new additional 1400-1600 on 5900 SAM 250 kw / 117 deg Punjabi, ex 1500-1600 1400-1500 NF 5970 SAM 250 kW / 140 deg Gujarati, ex 5900 1400-1500 NF 7475 DB 100 kW / 175 deg Malayalam, new languege 0900-1100 NF 9460 IRK 250 kW / 110 deg English, ex 9450 1100-1200 NF 9460 IRK 250 kW / 110 deg Korean, ex 9450 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 9, via DXLD) ** U S A. Frequency change of World Harvest Radio: 0100-0600 NF 5835 HRI 250 kW / 315 deg, ex 5860 via Angel 1 Mon-Fri 0600-0900 NF 5835 HRI 250 kW / 072 deg, ex 5860 via Angel 2 (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 9, via DXLD) ** U S A. Another SW transmitter site has revealed itself recently in detailed resolution: WHRI Cypress Creek - Furman. Coordinates are: 32 40 54N, 81 07 48W. Many angels there to be seen. Reference: http://www.whri.com/index.cfm/fa/techinfo Regards (Ian Baxter, shortwavesites yg via DXLD) ** U S A. WRMI still has a project for a second 50 kW transmitter in the works, allowing them to broadcast N and S simultaneously, Jeff White mentioned in an interview on HCJB`s DX Partyline Jan 8 at one of its many new times on WRMI, Monday Jan 8 at 1412 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Re 7-003, Pastor Scott: In Detroit, Pastor Scott is offered on WADL-38 Mt Clemens (Indy/ACN/Word) during Prime Time (2000?) and she's also offered on WPXD-31 Ann Arbor (I) at around 2300 [EST = UT - 5]. The times I've seen her, she's worn the clerical collar (Light blue) and black pantsuit. And with the way she keeps running back and forth between dry-erase boards, I've said that she should also invest in a pair of roller skates. Personally, I wish they'd carry Dr. Gene and drop Pastor Melissa -- Dr. Gene was always quite a bit more entertaining! (And, the added benefit was he'd always teach you something -- I've fallen asleep several times trying to watch Pastor Melissa.) And on Comcast, the WADL showing is listed on the Onscreen Listings as "Melissa Scott Ministries," while WPXD is listed as simply "Pastor Scott." (Eric Berger, MI, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. The USPS' proposal in the Federal Register cited by Bruce MacGibbon in DXLD 7-003 is startling, as it appears to propose the elimination of international surface mail, requiring us to pay air- mail rates for all package shipments, even when speed of delivery is unimportant. Currently, surface parcel-post rates are about half of the air-mail rate. With all the paranoia about aircraft cargo security, you'd think they'd be happy that some postal patrons are content to let their heavy package take a leisurely boat ride instead of burning jet fuel, increasing global warming, etc. (Mike Cooper, GA, Jan 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VATICAN [non]. Frequency change of Vatican Radio in Russian: 1330-1400 NF 6070*SAM 250 kW / 058 deg, ex 6110 to avoid Brother Stair TOM *strong co-channel Radio Minsk HS in Belorussian (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Jan 9, via DXLD) ** VENEZUELA. 5000/4900/5100, Time Signal Station YVTO (Caracas), 1/6/07, 0235. Heard with nice signal under WWV on 5000 kHz, with Spanish time announcement and IDs every minute. Also fairly strong spur on 5100, and weaker spur on 4900. All three heard just about every night now (Alex Vranes, Jr., Harpers Ferry, WV, Yaesu FRG-100B + 200-ft. Dipole, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** ZANZIBAR. 11735, Radio Tanzania-Zanzibar, 1753-1816, 1/7/07. Man with Swahili talk until end of program at 1758 when another announcer gave two IDs. Drums at 1759 until 5+1 time pips at 1800 followed by a man with the news in English from Spice FM. At 1809 end of news with ID ``That's the end of the news from Spice FM.`` Swahili rap music was next (Rich D'Angelo, Wyomissing, PA, Ten-Tec RX-340, Drake R-8B, Eton E1, Lowe HF-150, Alpha Delta DX Sloper, RF Systems Mini-Windom, Datong FL3, JPS ANC-4, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) Tanzania. Voice of Tanzania, Zanzibar. Exceptionally good signal during the past week on 11735. Usually comes in after 1700 UT and continues with increasing strength to sign off with national anthem at 2100. News in English (usually heavily accented) at 1800, for 10 minutes, from Spice FM. The last hour usually has lots of local music which came in like a local station on Jan. 6 and 7. Still very good today Jan. 8 (Bernie O'Shea, Ottawa, Ontario, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Heard strong station with music and talk on 3335 from 1115 to 1245 UT today (1/8/07). Noise level at my QTH prevented ID of station or even language. EiBi has only PNG on that frequency, but PPWBR also has Bolivia and Brazil listed. Would appreciate learning what others are hearing on that frequency during that time frame. Thanks, (Steve Bass, Columbus, Ohio, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) That`s awfully late, propagationally for Brazil or Bolivia. Should be well after summer local sunrise even at 1115. 73, (Glenn, ibid.) Hi Steve and Glenn, Good possibility it is Radio East Sepik, as recently reported by myself (please see below) and also by Steve Lare, in Holland, MI, in Dec., who noted their 1309*. You might see if you can hear their sign-off about 1300, which might help confirm it is them (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: ``** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3335, Radio East Sepik (presumed), Nov 30, 1006-1021, in assume Tok Pisin, news till 1012, short music selection, mostly talking, poor-fair. It is rare for me to hear this one (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` UNIDENTIFIED. 4635, 2253 24 Dec, unID station playing Afro-Arabic music, SINPO 25222. 0001 slow talk in Arabic. Didn't sound like Dushanbe (ROBERTAS POGORELIS, Belgium, visiting Lajes do Flores, Flores, Açores, SONY ICF SW-7600 GR an 15 m OUTDOOR LONG WIRE, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Re 7-002, 4865: Es possible que sea R. Centenario de Santa Cruz, Bolivia que ha sido reportada anteriormente con programas religiosos en Alemán en ese horario (Miguel Castellino, editor, Sintonizando el Dial, Conexión Digital Jan 7 via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 5025, 2141 1 Jan, unID US religious station, SINPO 22322, under Radio Rebelde (Cuba). Not received on other days. Nothing on 5935 --- not an image?? (ROBERTAS POGORELIS, Belgium, visiting Lajes do Flores, Flores, Açores, SONY ICF SW-7600 GR an 15 m OUTDOOR LONG WIRE, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6045, 0849-0905, 1/2/07. continuous EZL orchestral, piano, flute music; no discernible ID at 0900; music did have a Latin American flavor; might this be R. Universidad with an extended holiday schedule? (Jim Ronda, Tulsa, OK, NRD-545, R-75, E-1 + Eavesdropper (and occasionally an E-5), NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) 6045, UNID. 0919, 1/6/07. With jazz group and clarinet solo. Weak with buzz, more jazz and another clarinet solo at 0928. Continued past 0930 with no voice breaks (Gerry Dexter, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, NRD 515, NRD 545, Eton E-1, ibid.) XEXQ seems unlikely as they don`t even broadcast a full day of programming normally (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Glenn, There's no point in whipping a dead horse is there? However, that station on 6165 is still broadcasting and today it sounds like Vietnamese is the language to me again? A very upbeat format with a song and comments. Every once in a while, a canned "number four" or "number three" as if they were counting down the hits which started at "number 10". All of the music is in the station's language not English or some other non local language. 6165 1000-1159, Language, Signal was good. As scheduled, Radio Nederland comes on at 1055 with their carrier and at 1059, their signal, and blocks everything (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, Jan 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ DXLD is an excellent compendium of radio news from around the world. Its only drawback is the large size - issued nearly every day! (Jim Renfrew, Byron NY, WTFDA-AM, NRC-AM) while quoting info about Denmark LANGUAGE LESSONS see CZECHIA ++++++++++++++++ DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: GERMANY; IRELAND; NEW ZEALAND; RUSSIA ++++++++++++++++++++ ANOTHER CAUSALITY OF HD IBOC ON MW STATIONS I bet at one time or another in our youth, we all built a simple crystal set. You know, just a coil and capacitor for tuning, a galena or IN64 diode for detection, and high impedance magnetic headphones, or better yet, a high impedance crystal earphone. Curiosity got the better of me, so I built one to hear what an HD IBOC signal sounded like on such a set. They are not very selective, but their frequency response can't be beat. I recall that the Miller company even sold crystal set tuners in a nice small box specifically for high fidelity AM reception in the 1950s. And who didn't own a "rocket" shaped crystal set as a toy. My local IBOC HD stations (just two, lucky me) are WAEC on 860 and WWWE 1100. They are a few miles from me, so I must admit I "cheated" and had to build a series of wave traps in the antenna circuit ahead of my simple crystal set, to trap out 50,000 watt WSB on 750, and my closest local, WPLO on 610. I was able to pick up both HD IBOC stations, and while weak, the noise from the IBOC was just as strong at their audio. In fact, to my ears, their audio modulation was buried by the IBOC noise. They sounded awful. Remember, the simple crystal set is not very selective, so the IBOC carriers were loud, clear, and full of hiss. And this was not just because of the crystal set. Audio from other locals (610, 680, 750, 790, 920, 1310, and so on) were just fine. I had to adjust and use wave traps for some of them as well, but once they were tuned in, and "alone" in the crystal earphone, there audio was crisp and clear, as were my strongest pests, WSB and WPLO. In fact, WSB sounds great. Full and rich in tone. If you live close to an AM HD IBOC transmitter, and have a crystal set handy, or have the time and parts to build a simple one, I would be very interested in what your reception sounds like from your local HD IBOC station. You could even hook up a diode detector and a high impedance headphone to the high impedance tuned portion of a loop antenna, if you are close enough to an IBOC monster. The first radio I built was a crystal set, and then a "foxhole" set using pencil lead and a razor blade as a detector. These "foxhole" sets always amazed non radio types who saw it, and the listened to voices out of the air from a razor blade. Has AM HD IBOC radio ruined that "foxhole" radio magic? (Brock Whaley, WH6SZ/4, Lilburn, GA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WWWE local in GA? Yes, there is now a Georgia station on 1100 called WWWE; what a coincidence (gh, DXLD) FM HD RADIO I have experience hearing HD in the car, using the internal antenna. Found reception good within the 70 dBu contour, but absent in tunnels. It took about 8.5 seconds after leaving the tunnel for audio to come back. Watch for my article that has been accepted in "Radio World" newspaper. That paper goes out to radio stations, especially chief engineers. The article may later appear online. It is perhaps the first rather thorough article written about HD radio from a listener's standpoint, and will include a digitally-transmitted picture of my [temporary] automotive receiving apparatus (Bruce Elving, FM Atlas Publisher, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ EXCLUSIVE AND NOT COPYRIGHTED HF PLUS LOW BAND VHF PROPAGATION UPDATE AND FORECAST Abnormal tropospheric ducting, totally out of the usual tropo DX season is happening in the Northern Hemisphere due to the unusually high temperatures registered during this winter. Here in Cuba we have seen tropo ducting earlier than at any previous year, as early January brought a wide reaching tropo opening to the Gulf of Mexico. Now the HF update. Less than 50 percent probability of Class C solar flares expected during the next three days The geomagnetic field is expected to be QUIET Solar flux will be very near 90 units and the A index or planetary geomagnetic disturbance indicator is expected to remain at very nice and low levels, making possible good propagation conditions on the lower frequency bands during the next three days The estimated Catania, Sicily solar observatory WOLF sunspot number has increased to 61; and the smoothed sunspot number is now around 35, and that is the figure, 35, to use for making your HF propagation forecasts using the typical software programs for that purpose (Arnie Coro, RHC DXers Unlimited Jan 9, HCDX via DXLD) Geomagnetic field activity was at quiet to active levels during 01–05 January with periods of minor to major storming observed at high latitudes (a brief period of severe storming also occurred at high latitudes on 03 January). ACE solar wind data indicated this activity was associated with a recurrent coronal hole high-speed solar wind stream. Solar wind velocities began to increase on 01 January and remained enhanced until 07 January with a peak velocity of 720 km/sec observed at 03/1340Z. Maximum interplanetary field variations associated with the high-speed stream occurred on 01 January with maximum total field intensity of 15.8 nT at 01/2240Z and maximum southward Bz of -10.2 nT at 01/2258Z. FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 10 JANUARY-05 FEBRUARY 2007 Solar activity is expected to be at very low to low levels until 14 January. Very low activity is expected during 15–24 January. Very low to low activity is expected for the rest of the period. No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at high levels during the period. The geomagnetic field is expected to be at quiet to unsettled levels through 15 January. An increase to unsettled to active levels is expected during 16–19 January due to a recurrent coronal hole high- speed solar wind stream. Quiet to unsettled conditions are expected during 20–28 January. Activity is expected to increase to unsettled to minor storm levels during 29–31 January due to another recurrent coronal hole high-speed solar wind stream. Quiet to unsettled conditions are expected for the rest of the period. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2007 Jan 09 2054 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Environment Center # Product description and SEC contact on the Web # http://www.sec.noaa.gov/wwire.html # # 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table # Issued 2007 Jan 09 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2007 Jan 10 90 8 3 2007 Jan 11 85 5 2 2007 Jan 12 80 5 2 2007 Jan 13 80 5 2 2007 Jan 14 75 8 3 2007 Jan 15 75 8 3 2007 Jan 16 75 15 3 2007 Jan 17 75 15 3 2007 Jan 18 75 15 3 2007 Jan 19 75 15 3 2007 Jan 20 75 10 3 2007 Jan 21 75 5 2 2007 Jan 22 75 5 2 2007 Jan 23 75 5 2 2007 Jan 24 75 5 2 2007 Jan 25 75 5 2 2007 Jan 26 80 5 2 2007 Jan 27 85 5 2 2007 Jan 28 85 5 2 2007 Jan 29 85 15 3 2007 Jan 30 85 25 5 2007 Jan 31 85 15 3 2007 Feb 01 85 10 3 2007 Feb 02 85 5 2 2007 Feb 03 85 5 2 2007 Feb 04 85 5 2 2007 Feb 05 85 10 3 (http://www.sec.noaa.gov/radio via WORLD OF RADIO 1343, DXLD) ###