DX LISTENING DIGEST 7-050, April 29, 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 NEXT SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1356: Mon 0300 WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0415 WBCQ 7415 [time varies] Mon 0530 WRMI 9955 [tentative] Mon 0930 WRMI 9955 [tentative] Tue 1030 WRMI 9955 [tentative] Wed 0730 WRMI 9955 [tentative] WORLD OF RADIO, CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL SCHEDULE: 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 WORLD OF RADIO PODCASTS VIA WRN NOW AVAILABLE: http://www.wrn.org/listeners/stations/podcast.php OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO [also CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL] http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org DX/SWL/MEDIA PROGRAMS Apr 28: http://www.worldofradio.com/dxpgms.html ** ALBANIA. Further chex of R. Tirana`s new 13 MHz daytime broadcasts to NAm, April 27: at 1300 on 13750, signal a bit weaker than before S9+10 with deep fades into local TVI swish. Seemed to be playing same program as monitored Thursday at 1300, which was a replay of Wednesday at 2000, i.e. press review about Minister of Foreign Affairs resigning, playing ``Hear My Plea`` song again; 1320 Focus on Albania. The 2000 broadcast April 27 on 13720 was too far down in the noise to monitor (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALBANIA. R. Tirana apparently needs to close down one of its transmitters earlier than the other. April 29 the 2300 Albanian broadcast on 9410 went off at approx. 0027:30 before the music was over, while // 7425 stayed on until it finished at 0028*. In another matter of precise timing, new 6120 in English at 0145 goes off close to 0158, just as REE is starting IS on 6125. 6115 in English at 0230 starts just as Italy/Ascension is ending on 6110, so in both cases Albania has elbow room on both sides now. The 1300 broadcast on 13750 was inaudible April 28 due to propagation disturbance, preventing anything from Europe making it at that time on 13 or 15 MHz. It was barely audible 24 hours later (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Solar-terrestrial indices for 27 April follow. Solar flux 83 and mid- latitude A-index 14. The mid-latitude K-index at 1200 UTC on 28 April was 4 (60 nT). Space weather for the past 24 hours has been minor. Geomagnetic storms reaching the G1 level occurred. Space weather for the next 24 hours is expected to be minor. Geomagnetic storms reaching the G1 level are expected (SEC via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. I was just listening to Actualidad DX, April 17 edition via http://es.geocities.com/programas_dx/actualidaddx.htm which was recorded off the air with static crashes (there being no webcast from this backward station), and was surprised to hear them say that all the stations to be mentioned broadcast in Spanish! Then proceeded to take a lot of logs from Japan Premium of 6 April, such as Chinese domestic services heard by Ron Howard, admitting they were in Chinese, English, etc.! (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. Amigos, estou nesse exato momento ouvindo a Rádio Nacional da Argentina. A estou ouvindo na freqüência de 6280 kHz e com razoável sinal. Alguém sabe algo a respeito? Não consta no EIBI e nem no HFCC A07. 6280, 28/04/07 2129, Rádio Nacional, Buenos Aires, OM, mx local, anúncios "Banco da [sic] Província de Buenos Aires", SS 45243. 73! (Rubens Ferraz Pedroso, Bandeirantes - PR, Receptor: Kenwood R600, Antena: LW de 12 metros, radioescutas via DXLD) Only even MW harmonic fundamental would be 1570 but no such station listed there. Not in SSB? If so could be another LTA relay. Was it // 870, 6060 or any other known LRA frequency? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. I haven't seen any previous reports about Radio Australia using 13690. Perhaps it's a replacement for the previous 13670 which is/was scheduled to the Pacific at 2300-0700? 13690 was heard April 27 with a fairly good signal at tune in around 0645 until close down at 0659 after a minute or so of playing Waltzing Matilda. Yes, this seems to confirm it... via EiBi: 13690 2300-0700 AUS Radio Australia E WOc and via Aoki files: 13690 R. AUSTRALIA 2300-0700 1234567 English 100 353 Shepparton AUS 14525E3620 ABC a07 It doesn`t feature in the HFCC files at all. I heard the announcement that 15515 was going off and that 13630 was coming on (the latter could be heard mixing with another - Christian Voice I assume) but I missed hearing mention of 13690 - if there was one. And today (the 27th) 9710 was pretty good when it came on at 0700, and I could also hear both 15160 and 15415 at fair strength too - these are a rarity currently - but no trace of 15240 if that's still in use. Neither of the Brandon frequencies (12080 and 9660) were making it though - and I didn't hear any DRM bzzzzz instead (Noel R. Green (NW England), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. Enjoying a lack of local noise-producers, just atmospherics, April 29 at 0052 I was pleased to hear some Andean music and Spanish talk on 4716.6. Must be R. Yura on its distinctive frequency. Yes, they soon mentioned Yura two or three times in passing, apparently calling listeners in various places including Argentina. Best SINPO 35243, and 0100 had dual timecheck for 2101 or 9:01 pm; then at 0101 what I think as an axual ID followed by a neigh. Steadily lost out to growing atmospheric noise level and gave up at 0109 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4716.8, presumed R. Yura, 0014-0037, Apr 26, Spanish. Continuous YL talk interrupted for brief musical bits. Poor (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, 200’ Beverages, MLB-1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5579.97, R. San José, 0055-0108, Apr 26, Spanish. Ballads and brief announcement at ToH. Solid ID at 0103 then music thru tune-out. Poor. The RFI I have been dealing with since last October has either disappeared, been resolved or taken a break this weekend. I'll contact my local utility rep tomorrow and see what he knows about it. Whatever the case is, it's nice being able to DX again from the comforts of home. I am also the winning bidder on Ebay for a Drake R8! Looking forward to delivery via UPS later this week (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, 200’ Beverages, MLB-1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 3310, Radio Mosoj Chaski, Cochabamba, 0140-0201*, April 28, local music, ballads, Quechua talk. Weak (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 4875.58, Radio Difusora Roraima, Boa Vista 1000 to 1045 noted for last week, Portuguese OM, ID's; romantic series of songs 18 April (Robert Wilkner, FL, SW Bulletin April 29 via DXLD) ** CANADA. NEW CHAIRPERSON FOR CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION The Honourable Beverley J Oda, Canada’s Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women, has announced the appointment of Montreal-born Timothy W Casgrain as Chairperson of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). . . http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/?p=7848 (April 28th, 2007 - 8:58 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** CANADA. Getting CHU`s frequency back: see U S A: WHRI ** CHILE. 11585, CVC leapfrogging spur, 0240, April 28, Weak spur from 11745 leapfrogging over 11665. Portuguese programming. 12275, 11360, CVC leapfrogging spurs, 0245, April 28, Strong 12275 spur from 11665. Weak 11360 spur from 11970. Spanish programming. 305 kHz separation between each frequency (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Brian Alexander`s logs prompted me to make another check for the CVC mixing products around 25m. Sure enough, on 12275, CVC La Voz in Spanish with ID at 0129 April 29, so strong it could easily be taken for a fundamental, S9+10. Matching spur on 11360 was considerably weaker, S4 to peaks at S9. These are leapfrogs of the two intentional Spanish frequencies over each other, 11665 and 11970, both of which were much stronger still. Portuguese on 11745 was rather weak and did not hear the further mixes with each of the Spanish frequencies I reported before, even tho that was with a portable in the park, and this was with the home rig on longwire (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. Complaint by Uli Bihlmayer DJ9KR, German DARC Ham Radio Bandwatch, today Apr 25. To: Mr. Yue Chen Sound of Hope Listener's Service Department Taiwan Dear Mr Chen, Since yesterday April 23rd, 2007 the "Hainan Music Jammer" from PR China has been transmitting his awful music to jam your program. This took place from morning to evening only with short breaks from full hour plus 5 minutes. The purpose is to jam the program of SOH. Your program AND the Hainan Music Jammer are causing extremely harmful interference to the Amateur Radio Service which has a Frequency Allocation on 18068 - 18168 kHz. I ask you very urgently to contact your headquarters with the Frequency Management Officers to leave the frequency 18160 kHz and to look for a new frequency outside exclusive Amateur Radio frequencies. The Radio Amateurs of the World have the right to use their frequencies without the interference of Taiwan and PR of China. I should like to read your answer soon on my screen. Thank you for your help! Yours very truly, (Ulrich Bihlmayer, Vice Coordinator of IARU MONITORING SYSTEM ITU Region 1 (Apr 23), BCDX April 27 via DXLD) More discussion of Firedrake under ZIMBABWE ** CHINA. 5050, Guangxi FBS 1140-1204, April 29, in Vietnamese till ToH playing pop songs, ToH music (no time pips), into Chinese (Cantonese) programming, probably the best I have heard this one, clearly // to 9820 (poor) (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. 5910 y 6010...señales espúreas en Bogotá ?? Hola Yimber, Mi nombre es José Luís; estoy en Bogotá y también me interesa la escucha. Sólo quería confirmar si desde tu ciudad captas las armónicas o espúreas de 5910 (Marfil Estéreo) y 6010 (La Voz de tu Conciencia) sobre 6110, 6210, y hacia abajo en 5810. Aquí en Bogotá con varios [receptores?] hemos podido apreciar el fenómeno; sin embargo, sería interesante conocer un reporte de un sitio más apartado (José Luís, HK3ORT, via Yimber Gaviria, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hubo varios informes incluso desde EE UU en DXLD de las espúreas en 5810v y 6110v. Mejor buscar en su archivo de DXLD sobre 5809 y 6109. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) 27 abril 2007, estuve monitoreando 5810, 6110 y 6210 kHz, pero no escuché algún armónico o espúreo. Sin embargo le comenté a Rafael Rodríguez y me dijo: "sí (6010-5910: 100) por transmisores en el mismo lugar, y cruce de líneas de alimentación antenas" ... entonces queda así: para Marfil Estéreo 5910 - 100 = 5810 para LV de Tu Conciencia 6010 + 100 = 6110, también 6010 + 200 = 6210 Gracias, Rafael por la aclaración. 73 (Yimber Gaviria, Colombia, playdx yg via DXLD) ** CROATIA. Note to Glenn: In WOR #1356 you pronounced Deanovech. That's wrong. The correct pronunciation of Deanovec is Deanovets (Dragan Lekic from Serbia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tnx; usual lament about the lack of accents making this clear; so stress is penultimate, on the O? (gh, DXLD) ** CUBA. Spanish commentary on 710 at 0208 April 29 with an echo. Must be the Dentro-Cubans ganging up on ``wacky`` WAQI, but also making R. Rebelde a pain to listen to if one should really want to (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. Updates from INDOTEL: 1650 RADECO, Santiago 1660 Fundación Lama, Santo Domingo 1700 Iglesia Bíblica del Señor Jesucristo, Santo Domingo (INDOTEL April 2007 via ARC Central American News Desk via Tore Larsson, DXLD) Update covers the entire MW band, but gh excerpted only the x-band entries; are any of these on the air? WRTH 2007 shows 1700 as a CP for Radio Eternidad, and also mentions the other two, along with 1640 and 1680 which we know to be on the air and DXed (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. Re 7-049: Saludos cordiales Glenn: Parece ser que los Martes emiten en paralelo por 11640 y 15260 según EiBi y Aoki. EiBi.de.vu : 11640 1630-1700 Tu,Fr CLA Radio Huriyo Ogadenia SO EAf /D-j 15260 1600-1700 Tu CLA Radio Huriyo Ogadenia SO EAf /RUS-s Aoki: 11640 Radio Xoriyo 1630-1700 ..3..6. Somali 100 130 Juelich D 15260 Radio Xoriyo 1600-1700 ..3.... Somali 200 188 Samara RUS 73 (José Miguel Romero2, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EUROPE. EURO-PIRATES. (Holland), 6265.19, Cupid Radio, 2345-0020, April 28-29, pop music, ID. Netherlands address. Poor to fair. (Holland), 6310, Radio Borderhunter, 2345-0020, April 28-29, rock music, pop music. ID. Poor to fair. (Scotland), 6400.03, Weekend Music Radio, 2345-0020, April 28-29, pop music. Canned ID & "WMR" ID. Poor to fair with utility QRM. Reception would have been much better without the utility QRM on frequency (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HONDURAS. 5010.0, 0155-0315 fade out, 26 and 27-04, R Misiones Int., Comayagüela (presumed), Spanish (religious ?) talks, hymns at best 24333 CWQRM AP-DNK (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, Italy, playdx yg via DXLD) Dominican Republic ruled out? That usually signs off earlier. Anything on RMI`s usual frequency 3340, of which 5010 is the sesquiharmonic? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 9525, VOI, 0836-0845, April 29, English segment, YL acknowledging reception reports from USA, Malaysia, etc., says they will send schedule, but did not hear any mention of sending QSL card, wants 4 IRCs with reception report, poor-fair, re-checked at 1138 & 1304, but not on the air. 9680, RRI Jakarta, 1001-1021, April 29 (Sun.), KGRE program #5302 in English, same program as heard back on Nov 1 (Wed), explanation of "of course," Chuck Berry's song "Route 66," vocabulary contest (truck, small bus, helicopter and motorbike), song "Sh-Boom" from the movie "Cars", fair (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL. I was wondering... VOA & BBC relay sites Glenn, this afternoon I was wondering something I asked myself for a while. Is there available (and I think that, if it exists, you're the one who could have it) a list of all the BBC and VOA relay stations? As for the former, I'm aware just of Ascension Island and Kranji (SNG), but I think there are other ones. Concerning the latter, I walk in the darkness. I remember, in the past, I've seen something about Morocco and Europe on QSLs, but I think it's all outdated info. Grateful as always for your help, and happy to contribute with my logs to DXLD I thank you in advance. Ciao! (Chris Diemoz, Italy, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Chris, Good question, and not an easy one to answer, now that international broadcasting is so complex and integrated. Yes, there certainly are a great many other sites carrying VOA and BBC transmissions. Trouble is, there are some sites that are only in very minor use and may be rented from other organizations. I can`t think of a succinct list of all such sites currently in use, and there does not seem to be one in the World Radio TV Handbook. But it seems like I have seen one somewhere? You may however look up most of the sites for any particular frequency at any particular time in online lists such as EiBi, Aoki and HFCC, which are referred to frequently in DXLD. Are you aware of these? They are very useful references, not just for finding out sites. They could also be sorted by site if you have the proper software. Regards, (Glenn to Chris, via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. Protect Listeners' Right to Music Diversity on Internet Radio From: "Live365 CEO" listensupport @ live365.com Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 15:17:13 -0700 (PDT) April 27, 2007 Ask your Representative to cosponsor the Internet Radio Equality Act! Dear Live365 Listener, The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) recently denied webcasters' requests for a rehearing on its ruling of unfairly high new royalty rates -- a stunning 300 to 1200 percent increase -- for Internet radio for period 2006-2010. Internet radio is singled out from all other radio, burdened with fees not paid by AM or FM stations, and at rates at least 3-4 times paid by satellite and cable radio. The ruling even included absurd minimum of $500 per station per year to penalize the smallest webcasters with the highest rates. Should this ruling stand, many of your favorite stations will be silenced. You will find Live365's 260 genres reduced to the same meager, homogenized list carried on AM/FM radio, because the unfair rates would drive webcasters in niche genres with unique content unavailable elsewhere out of business. You can, however, help protect your favorite tunes of your favorite DJs from being silenced. The Internet Radio Equality Act (HR 2060) has been introduced in Congress by Representative Jay Inslee (D-WA). A simple phone call to your Representative to ask for their support on this Bill will go a long way toward ensuring your right to diversity and choice in radio. Better yet, please also write and fax to show how serious you are. They need to know how much your music means to you. Click here for the number of your Representative. Call NOW! Sincerely, Mark Lam, CEO, Live365 ------------------ To learn how your single call can make the difference, visit http://www.live365.com/choice and the SaveNetRadio Coalition we formed with listeners, webcasters, artists, and labels: http://www.savenetradio.org 950 Tower Lane 4th Floor Foster City CA 94404 Copyright © 2007 Live365.com (via Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. Radio JOVE: Not a radio station - however radio related and a search on NASA's site at http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/ revealed some interesting information about this project (Mike Terry, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) WTFK? 20.1 MHz = 20100 ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. TAMIL TIGERS TV STILL ACTIVE ON INTELSAT Despite the widely-reported statement by Intelsat that it has switched off National Television of Tamil Eelam from its satellite, we received a report stating that the channel was, in fact, still being seen on the Intelsat12 satellite (45 E) as of 26 April. Update 29 April: D Prabakaran in India says “Since, I am living in India, I checked Indian beam only. Just a few seconds back, they start morning transmission too.” So the station is still active. Mr Prabakaran sent us the screenshots below. . . http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/?p=7850 (April 28th, 2007 - 15:09 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) See also the comments following! (gh, DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [and non]. Frozen for a good cause Most national Dutch radio stations broadcast from Hilversum or Amsterdam, with well-equipped and easy-to-reach studios. But on 23 April, the team that produces Michiel Veenstra's programme on public network 3FM moved out of their cosy surroundings and started broadcasting from the North Pole - literally! It's all part of Michiel's personal mission to inform his listeners about the effects of climate change. My RNW colleague Willemien Groot spoke to him last week just before he set off for the journey north. . . http://www.radionetherlands.nl/features/media/0704263fm [Excerpts:] For the whole week of 23-27 April, the 'Met Michiel' programme has been broadcasting under the name Noordpool FM (North Pole FM) direct from the frozen north. For the first part of the week, the programmes originated in a hotel room in Spitsbergen, but on Friday the show will actually be from the geographic North Pole. The programme --- On the website http://www.noordpool.fm you can follow the transmissions via four different webcams. The broadcast is at 1700-2000 UT on the Dutch 3FM network, and on the website the programme continues for a further hour, with answers to listeners' questions (via Media Network newsletter via DXLD) I watched and listened to some of it. Video / webcam was a loop of previously recorded material. Occasional `live` web-fed-sounding reports from Pole, but mostly music from studio including Pink Floyd (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. 6255, LITHUANIA, VOIRI relay, 2104-2130*, Apr 27, Spanish. YL with news and OM interview re America, Palestine and Iraq. IS from 2127-s/off. Fair (Scott R. Barbour Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, 200’ Beverages, MLB-1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. FRANCE, Radio Democracy Shorayee to Iran via Samara?, Issoudun?, 12120. Weak on Sunday 22 April, but could hear several clear IDs by a man at 1700 opening. Mostly talking by men with occasional brief Iranian music. Communist anthem "The Internationale" by chorus from 1757 to 1800 close. About 8 hours after I sent an e- mail to info @ radioshora.org I received a friendly partial-data verification. No signer. Confirmed schedule as listed on TDP website: 1700-1800 Tue, Thur, Fri, Sun, 1700- 1800 (Wendel Craighead, KS, DXplorer Apr 23 via BCDX via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. 6972.15, Galei Zahal Apr 22 1551-1602 25342 Hebrew, Talk and news, 1559 Theme music, 6972.97, Galei Zahal Apr 21 1554-1604 25342 Hebrew, Talk and music, SJ at 1559, News (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) When IBA is audible on 15760 here during the daytime, such as 1355 April 27, I look for GZ on 15781-15785v but don`t hear it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JAPAN [and non]. Working on updating DX/SWL/MEDIA PROGRAMS, I`ve yet to find a grid showing R. Japan`s PROGRAM schedule in English, but there is a page giving the programs and the times they are on: http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/onairradio_e.html including: ``World Interactive Sat. 14:10 - 15:00 [sic, haven`t fixed the shorter duration yet] (repeat) 19:10, [Sun.] 2:10, 9:10, 12:10, 20:10, [Mon.] 0:10, 10:10 [times here are JST = UT +9!] A mailbag show connecting listeners from around the world to NHK World. Each week we introduce mail from our listeners, as well as have phone interviews with them. We also periodically feature foreign guests to share their experiences living in Japan. The show offers DX information, Haiku lessons, and a Japanese culture segments twice a month -- giving you a look into present day Japan, and Japan of the past.`` Audio file linx show the exact positions and durations of each topic, for a total time now of 15 and a half minutes. And no DX news in this one! http://www.nhk.or.jp/rjweekly/english/wi/index.html Another show is now scheduled to start on the half hour (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [Later:] I thought I had R. Japan`s new program schedule figured out in order to update DX/SWL/MEDIA PROGRAMS listings, i.e. World Interactive cut to 15 minutes and 32 seconds starting at 10 past certain hours, same as before, instead of 45 or 50 minutes, with another show scheduled to start at :30. But no! Axually monitoring, UT Sunday April 29 at 0547 on 6110 via Canada, I found W.I. was running, begging for listeners` haikus with addresses; and BTW, the highest temp ever recorded in Japan was 40.8 in Yamagata Pref. W.I. ended at precisely 0549 and into ``A Song for Everyone``. So is W.I. still longer after all, or is it axually starting at :30, :32:28 or what? The W.I. show page http://www.nhk.or.jp/rjweekly/english/wi/index.html does not tell you when to hear it! But the second-by-second summary for those demanding it shows this week`s show as only 12:44 long. This page http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/onairradio_e.html shows various programs, including W.I. originally airing at ``1410- 1500`` JST Sat, but immediately below it, Pop Up Japan, Sat at 1430- 1450 JST. Not all the other repeat times match the second part of W.I. Could W.I. perhaps be in two different versions, one long and one short? What we need are grids showing the exact times of each program on each transmission. Is this it? http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/world2_e.pdf No! That only concerns TV. We eventually find the grids for SW radio, but they are split up into ten target areas, such as: http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/freq/n_america_hawaii_e.pdf Finally the answer: On UT Sat, WI airs at 0510-0530, and PUJ at 0530-0549. On UT Sun, WI airs at 0530-0549, and PUJ at 0510-0530. So here is the full sked for World Interactive, NAm service only: Sat 0510 6110 Canada Sat 1010 6120 Canada Sat 1710 9535 Sun 0010 6145 Canada Sun 0110 17825 Sun 0530 6110 Canada Sun 1030 6120 Canada Mon 0030 6145 Canada Mon 0130 17825 The bottom line is that WI has been cut more than in half but repeated twice as often. No doubt the same applies to other target areas if one wants to hunt thru 9 more pdf schedules accessible via: http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/radioguide_e.html (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 9485, Shiokaze - Sea Breeze via Taiwan, 1300- 1330, April 27 (Fri.), in English. Again noted with change to their format. YL with sign-on announcements ("This is Shiokaze, Sea Breeze, from Tokyo, Japan. This program is broadcast twice a day for a half hour"), YL with details about abductees (name, date of birth, date of abduction, location of abduction, if employed, unemployed or student, height [cm & ft] & weight, if they used eye glasses, had scars, etc.). Unusual not to hear the background piano music, which was not heard till the 1326 sign-off announcements. Certainly a more varied program than their usual stark list of names. IDs during the program: "This is Shiokaze, Sea Breeze, from Tokyo, Japan". Mostly fair. A few seconds after Shiokaze ended, Radio Free Chosun (presumed) immediately started with orchestra music (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [presumably 9485 too:] TAIWAN, Shiokaze/Sea Breeze *1300-1330 Apr 27. Cancel my previous comment about Shiokaze no longer using "Sea Breeze" in their ID's. Noted today (Friday) in English with details on selected abductees, such as place and date of abduction (all in the early 1970's in this program), physical description, what they were doing when abducted, etc.; occasional ID's as "Shiokaze Sea Breeze from Tokyo, Japan". Today's program was presented by a female announcer, whereas as Monday's English program, the standard chronological list, was by a male announcer and the only ID's were "Shiokaze Two". As usual, went right into Korean program at 1330 (John Wilkins, CO, DXplorer Apr 27 via BCDX via DXLD) ** KURDISTAN. 4845, 0245-0300, Clandestine, 23-04, Voice of Iranian Kurdistan, Kurdish political talk about Iran by man and woman, short fanfares, song 35444. The Iranian jammer stayed on 4870 this morning! Transmitter on 3970v was also off the air this morning. AP-DNK (Anker Petersen, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, Italy, playdx yg via DXLD) ** KUWAIT. 9750 with the last part of its English programme at 0750 April 28 (this is heard for varying periods of time which depend upon when the transmitter is switched on). Pop music was heard at fair to good strength with ID before the time pips on the hour, and then usual Farsi. There was at least one co-ch (two sets of time pips out of sync on the hour) but it couldn't be IDed - usually it is NHK, but Malaysia and Nei Menggu are also listed (Noel R. Green (NW England), dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LATVIA. 9290 relay this weekend Sat April 28th Latvia Today 1000-1100 UT (interview with Robert Maloni, Italian who lives in Latvia with group Bonoparti) Radio Casablanca 1100-1200 UT Sun April 29th RWE 1400-1500 UT Latvia Today 1500-1600 UT Good listening (Tom Taylor, April 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) One of the stations you can hear tomorrow on 9290 kHz is Radio RWE: April 29th RWE 1400-1500 UT. Send your reception reports to SRS Deutschland - Radio RWE - Postfach 101145, 99817 Eisenach, Deutschland. Please write your reports in English and do NOT send any stamps or coins as return postage (please use USD-notes instead). yours (Martin SCHÖCH, Eisenach, East Germany, QSL Information Pages : http://www.schoechi.de/qip.html HCDX via DXLD) ** LIBYA. Voice of Africa --- I just got an email, several actually, from the Voice of Africa, "in the Great Jamahiriyah." They were responding to a snail mail RR I sent in early March. Each had a QSL of sorts as a .jpg attached. The strange thing was, the file name was in Arabic, which my computer didn't recognize. If you hear from them, or someone else who sends e-QSLs like this, save the .jpg's, then change the arabicname.jpg to something meaningful like libya.jpg, and it will be readable in Irfanview [?] (Dan Malloy, New England? April 26, ODXA via DXLD) Voice of Africa A07 [sic:] Dear Listeners:- The Voice Of Africa Wishes You the best times and presents to you the timetable of its English/French /Hausa /Swahili /Arabic transmission and the Frequencies at which you may receive our broadcasts at the international time UTC. Central and South Africa. Timing UTC Language Frequency 14:00-16:00 14:00-16:00 English 17725 - 21695 MHZ 16:00-17:00 17.00-18.00 16.00-17.00 17.00-18.00 16.00-17.00 17.00-18.00 French 15220 MHz 11860 MHz 15660 MHz 11965 MHz 11965 MHz 9885 MHz 18:00- 20:00 Hausa 9885 MHz 11965 MHz 12:00- 14:00 Swahili 17725 MHz 21695 MHz 17.00-19.00 19.00- 22.00 24:00- 22.00 Arabic 7215 MHz 7205 MHz 7320 MHz We hope that we'll receive your comments on the clearness of our transmission. As for the Listeners who want to correspond with us through ordinary and electronic mail we welcome your message and give them the necessary care. Contact The Voice Of Africa through our postal address: Voice Of Africa Tripoli - Libya ,The Great Jamahiriya. P. O.BOX {4677} OR {2009} OR {4396} E- mail : info (@) voiceofafrica.com.ly With the best wishes of the Department of Listeners researches and study affairs. The Voice Of Africa From the Great Jamahiriya. Researches and studies section, Listeners affairs (via Dan Malloy, KA1RDZ, ODXA yg via DXLD) Dan, Could you line up the times and frequencies in text, as the way this comes over from the original tables(?) one can`t tell which times go with which frequencies. It`s wrong anyway, since 17725 has not been heard recently in English at 1400-1600; instead 17870. Seems they do not know the difference between kHz and MHz either. 73, (Glenn Hauser to Dan, via DXLD) Glenn, I did my best with their e-mail to get it into meaningful columns, and I think it works. However - I agree with you. As I was doing this, I cross checked these times with EiBi's sked and there were mismatches. 73, (Dan Malloy, KA1RDZ, Everett, MA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dan, This still makes little sense to me. There are numerous time lines with no frequencies on them. Probably some of the frequencies given apply to some of the time lines above (or below?) them. I was hoping this would be clear on the original if there were lines dividing the fields. We know English is at 14-16. So are the six lines of 16-17, 17-18 all applying to the six French frequencies below (some of which are duplicated), and which ones go with which lines? Is Hausa only at 18-20? Also at 12-14, I think. So are these all Arabic? 17-19, 18-22, 24-22 (surely that last one is wrong). One of the three 7 MHz frequencies each, or what? If subsequent entries are understood to be the same as entries above them, the first ones, not the last ones, need to have the pertinent info. 73, (Glenn to Dan, via DXLD) Glenn, It's pretty messed up as I look at it, too. Missing data is a poor way to set up a database, as it could be read as anything, and comparing it to EiBi (what I have easily available) there are mistakes, omissions, and frequencies not listed there. I'll do my best to re-construct this from the lines in EiBi: 1200 1400 LBY LJB Voice of Africa SWA EAf 17600/F 17715/F 21695/F 1400 1600 LBY LJB Voice of Africa E EAf 17715/F 17600/F 17870/F 21695/F 1600 1700 LBY LJB Voice of Africa F WAf 17870/F 17695/F 15660/F 1700 1800 LBY LJB Voice of Africa HA WAf 15660/F 17870/F 17695/F 1700 1900 LBY LJB Voice of Africa A NAf 11615/F 1800 2000 LBY LJB Voice of Africa WAf 15660/F NAf 11835/F 1900 2200 LBY LJB Voice of Africa A NAf 9590/F 2200 2400 LBY LJB Voice of Africa A NAf 7320/F I checked with other databases (the ones used in SW Log) and I still don't know what language is on from 1800-2000 to West Africa (Arabic? French? English? Hausa?). The /F is the transmitter at Issoudun, France. I hope I cleared up their messy email message to me. 73, (Dan Malloy, DX LISTENING DIGEST) OK, but the latest schedule from EiBi does not bear much resemblance to what VoAf sent you. I was just trying to get straight the schedule they were sending out, even tho it is certainly wrong in some if not many respects. And it is by no means certain that any or all of these are still via France, as has been discussed at some length in DXLD. English at 14-16 is never reported on more than two frequencies at once, currently 21695 and 17870, not 17715 and 17600 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) e.g.: FRANCIA [sic], 21695 kHz, LJB Voice of Africa, 27-04-07, 1507-1509 UT. Locutor con comentarios sobre la democracia en el continente africano, en inglés. SINPO 45444 (Javier Robledillo Jaén, Elche (Alicante), España, EA5-1028, Rx: Sangean ATS909, Ant: Telescópica, Noticias DX via DXLD) ** LIBYA. 17870, Voice of Africa, 1537-1557*, April 28, Tune-in to English news, ID, Afro-pops. Must have had a late sign on. Nothing heard during checks between 1400-1430+. Poor to fair in noisy conditions. // 21695-poor (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 7295, Traxx FM (RTM), 1339-1450, April 29, DJs (Double D, Radio Man, etc.) at live concert of pop/rock/rap music, 1355 back to studio, ToH "The 10 PM news update from the RTM News Center", back to live concert, at end of concert had a Happy Birthday sing-a-long (was a Traxx FM anniversary concert), back to studio for DJ Najee's music program, fair. Very enjoyable program. Their website is suddenly back up after being down for over a week (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15295, Suara Malaysia/Voice of Malaysia (RTM), 1648-1703, April 28, in Arabic till ToH playing pop songs, 1657 choral anthem, followed with: "This is the Voice of Malaysia", Middle Eastern type music, ToH into assume Malay, choral anthem again, poor-fair (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. Mexico TV ID changes --- Changes that I'm aware of can be found here: http://www.geocities.com/doglethorpe/index.html The main focus of these pages has shifted to local logos. You can only say so much when it comes to supered text IDs. In order to see text IDs, simply watch the corners, top, and bottom of the screen closely. And then you still might not be able to read the ID when it appears for a few precious seconds. If you can read it, be very thankful! I've dropped some educational station logos due to the low powers of the stations. Those logos look pretty on Fred Cantú's pages, but most government (educational) stations on the low-band are running under 1 kW (Danny Oglethorpe, Shreveport, LA, April 25, WTFDA via DXLD) ** MEXICO. E-mail to XERTA/Radio de Transcontinental America. Hi John, Your best bet is to e-mail a reception report to Hermano Rubén Castañeda Espíndola (Director General de la XERTA/Radio Transcontinental de América). Am sure he would be very happy to hear from you. Today I have confirmed that this is still an active e-mail address for him: rubencastaneda @ hotmail.com They have a good looking QSL card. Good luck! (Ron Howard-USA to John Wilkins, DXplorer Apr 26 via BCDX via DXLD) ** NORWAY. HFCC Table new entry [religious broadcast via Kvitsoe, Norway in DRM mode]: BROADCAST.TXT REFERENCE TABLE; 11 APR 2007: add SKK Senter for Kristen Kringkasting Of British C4CB "Centre for Christian Broadcasting" project http://c4cb.co.uk (history) CHRISTIAN DRM BROADCASTS FROM NORWAY PLANNED. "Fellowship of European Broadcasters" News Snippets March 2006. The newly formed Centre for Christian Broadcasting in the UK has contracted with Norway to transmit two new DRM digital Radio Stations (max power 500 kW), for 15 years, beginning in the next few months. The two Stations aim to cover the UK, Ireland and most of Western Europe with "live" transmissions on DRM digital radio. They are already searching for Programming and Partners. The first Station will provide Bible-based radio and the second will provide News & Current Affairs from a Christian viewpoint. For more information contact office @ c4cb.co.uk (via Dr. Hansjoerg Biener-D, wwdxc BC-DX Mar 3, 2006 via BCDX April 27, 2007 via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. KGYN 1210, which has to stay in Guymon, tsk2, continues to forget to switch to night pattern protecting Philly. UT April 29 at 0147 Patsy Cline, Walking After Midnite, was inbooming at S9+20. Turned out to be in the syndicated-sounding ``Cody`s Classic Country Countdown``, which later paused for some local ``high plains`` weather. So once again easterners have a chance to DX this station on day pattern (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. WQCL-720, The TIS at Great Salt Plains State Park, NW of Enid on 1610 kHz is still running the same loop as first heard a last July 18, as we went up for the adjacent NWR`s annual festival April 28; including breaks for current robotic NWS weather relays. {see DXLD 6-104, 6-140 for full text, 6-142} Strangely enough, tho one of its stated purposes is emergency info, nothing heard about the mysterious vials dug up by a kid a few days ago at the selenite crystal excavation area, believed to contain mustard gas or some other toxic agent left over from WW II training grounds, causing the area to be put off limits, while army experts were to be on site this very day to investigate and identify them; just the usual spiel about the crystal digging area being open to the public from April 1 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OMAN. Radio Sultanate of Oman (RSO) A07 Effective from 25/03/07 to 28/10/07 Updated :27-April-2007 FREQ STRT STOP CIRAF LOC PWR AZI SLW ANT LANG ------------ --------- --------- --------- ----- 6085 0200 0400 39N,40W SEB 100 320 0 141 arabic 6085 2000 2200 39SW,48 SEB 100 240 0 146 arabic 6190 1800 2000 39SW,48 SEB 100 240 0 146 arabic 9515 0400 0600 39N,40W SEB 100 320 0 141 arabic 9760 0000 0200 28,39N THU 100 315 0 218 arabic 13640 0600 1400 39N,40W SEB 100 320 0 141 arabic 15140 1400 1500 28,39N THU 100 315 0 218 english 15140 1500 2200 28,39N THU 100 315 0 218 arabic 15355 0200 0300 48,53 THU 100 220 0 205 arabic 15355 0300 0400 48,53 THU 100 220 0 205 english 15355 2200 2400 28,39N THU 100 315 0 218 arabic 15375 1400 1800 39SW,48 SEB 100 240 0 146 arabic 17590 0400 0600 48,53 THU 100 220 0 205 arabic 17630 0600 1000 28,39N THU 100 315 0 218 arabic Regds (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) As usual, this is their theoretical schedule. English at 0300 on 15355 has not been reported or confirmed for several years. English at 1400 on 15140 appears to be quite irregular, and sometimes partly in Arabic during this hour. BTW, in another context, transmitter sites, RSO = Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. 17835, Radio Pakistan Islamabad, buzzy distorted signal in 17829 to 17841 kHz range, at 0740 UT on Apr 26th (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, Apr 26, BC-DX via DXLD) ** PAKISTAN. Hoy 26 de Abril estoy escuchando a Radio Pakistán desde las 1820 en 9373 en su servicio en Urdu, locutor con comentarios en programa de música folklórica local. Se aprecia buena modulación; parece que el problema que arrastraban lo han solucionado, en Valencia con un SINPO 34433. (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 4746.91, Radio Huanta 2000, Huanta, 0145-0209*, April 28, Continuous Spanish talk. Sign off with National Anthem but pulled plug midway through anthem. Poor with CODAR QRM (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. 9380, FILIPINAS: Radio Pilipinas, EE, 28/04 1922. OM: talks, canções antigas. Elvis Presley, rock’n roll da década de 60, The Carpenters. Id: “... Radio Pilipinas...’, 35543 (Rudolf Grimm, Brasil, radioescutas yg via DXLD) This is officially a Tagalog service at 1730-1930. Were they speaking English at any length? (gh, DXLD) ** POLAND [non]. Polish Radio External Service's website is showing a change to the 1200-1259 transmission in English: 1200-1259 5975 9525 (5975 in place of 11850) Their current schedule in English is available at: http://www.polskieradio.pl/zagranica/czestotliwosci.aspx?id=10 (Mark Coady, Ont, April 28, ODXA yg via DXLD) So they want to make absolutely sure it cannot make it to North America. No doubt still via one of the German sites which they are too embarrassed to mention. Incredibly, just below the schedule in grid form is this entry, with wrong times and wrong frequency! : ``SHORTWAVE 13:00 - 13:59 UTC kHz5925 kHz (50mbs) and 9525 (31mbs) 18:00 - 18:59 UTC kHz 6015 (49mbs) and 7130 kHz (42mbs)`` (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PORTUGAL. Glenn, I checked the RDPi webpage so that I could record this week's "Caixa Postal/DXismo", and could only find out it was aired on Mon 23 Apr 0910-0930, then Tues 0030-0050. [meaning UT Mon 2330 UT, right?] Then I checked the week 29 Apr-05 May... nothing, and ditto the following week, 6-12 May. There's no info explaining whether it's supposed to be twice or once a month... or whatever for that matter, and that's what I believe should be detailed in the respective window once you click on that feature, but it's typically empty apart from depicting the program name, and that's all (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, April 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [and non]. VOR in Russian heard 4/26 with fair level on 15425 from Petropovolsk-Kamchatsky site at 0140 // 9860-Vatican relay which had a one-second delay; 15425 continued with Russian past 0200 while 9860 went to VOR English at 02 (Joe Hanlon, NJ, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [and non]. Re the various mentions of transmissions "via TRW" made by Radio Bulgaria [DX Mix News]: Some organizational changes are under way in Moscow, more or less bringing an end to what was so far known under the HFCC abbr. GFC. The organization designated as TRW now takes care of frequency management and related matters for certain shortwave transmission services, but they are not the actual transmitter operator. In Russia it is RTRS --- also non under the English abbr. RTRN; they have a website at http://www.rtrs.ru --- in other CIS countries they are the respective transmission companies as well; RRT in the Ukraine etc., etc. Have a nice Sunday, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, April 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. 15250. Heard on April 21st on 15250 kHz with programs in English "Political Week" from 1212 UT, followed from 1222 with "The Kingdom In Focus", etc., till close down at 1257. The ID was "Radio Riyadh" and not BSKSA or else (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, wwdxc BC-DX Apr 24 via DXLD) ** SAUDI ARABIA. This is certainly not enough to claim a definite log, but it was fun to hear a 1 kHz het on the hi side of KOKC 1520 which has a strong night signal here, UT April 29 at 0146 and for several minutes thereafter. I suppose the superpower Sa`udi on 1521 is very likely the source (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN [and non]. You never know which station in the three-way collision on 15345 will be dominating. April 27 at 1924 check it was Castilian Spanish atop a rapid SAH, so that`s REE. Meanwhile, nothing audible on 15330, 15335, 15340, 15350 or 15355 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA [non]. See INTERNATIONAL VACUUM: LTTE ** SUDAN. The schedule of Radio Omdurman from Sudan remains unchanged for the moment. I monitored from 0300-0515 (f/out) on 7200 under Radio Bulgaria and from 1500-1930 also on 7200. 1800-1930 CRI Arabic and Romanian is dominating this frequency. I don't know if there is another fq for Radio Omdurman. 9505 is not used (Udo Krueger, Germany, April 16, wwdxc BC-DX Apr 27 via DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. Sudan Radio Service on 5985 kHz (presumably via Kigali, Rwanda) heard at *0300-0330* UT on 27 April 2007. Sign-on with contact details and ID, then announcement about immunisation, regional news (main item about Ugandan Govt-LRA talks), music, further ID, then programme called 'Education for Development'; all in English. Fair reception, presumed Family Radio weaker in background. HFCC A-07 for 5985 kHz between 0300-0330 indicates Kigali, Rwanda, 250 kW, 0 deg, Mon-Fri, to ITU Zones 47E, 48W. Registered as 'USA MNO MER' (Tony Rogers, Birmingham, UK, AOR 7030+ / LW, BDXC-UK via DXLD) Little chance of that here, with WYFR 5985, tho only 50 kW beamed south (gh, DXLD) ** SURINAME. 4990, Radio Apintie, 0949-1000 April 29. Initially music was being broadcast. At 0950, a female talks in Dutch for about 5 minutes then back to music. Signal varied between poor and fair (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, WR-G305E/PD, NRD545, Preselector w/plug- in Toroidal High 'Q' Coils, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN. Radio Taiwan International English Broadcasts to Australia & New Zealand. Starting May 1st, RTI's regular broadcasts to Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines on 9610 kHz from 0800 to 0900 UT will be changed to 11715 kHz. The new frequency can be heard from 1100 to 1200 UT. Finally they are acting on my suggestion for a later broadcast for improved reception here in Australia. Sure hope it delivers the intended results (Ian Baxter - Australia, April 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UGANDA. Re Dunamis Shortwave, 4750: After reading this tip in HCDX I tried for Dunamis Shortwave and indeed today (April 25) from tune-in at 1800 till s/off at 1901 UT (yesterday April 24 s/off 1902). I heard a weak signal from a station playing typical African pop music and announcements every now and then. Too weak for a definite ID though, so it is at least a presumed. No QRM on the frequency (from 1900 UT USB voice traffic though). (Harald Kuhl, Germany, hcdx Apr 25 via BCDX via DXLD) ** U K. 9870 at 0700-0800 UT KBS Korean via Skelton had a much wide signal and splatters of 26 kHz wide (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, Apr 26, BC-DX via DXLD) ** U S A. BUSH NOMINATES NEW BBG CHAIRMAN --- JAMES K GLASSMAN President Bush yesterday nominated magazine publisher James K Glassman as the new Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees US government international broadcasting. Glassman, a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington, will replace embattled chairman Kenneth Y Tomlinson, who resigned in January. Bush had renominated Tomlinson to continue as chairman on 14 November, after Republicans lost control of both houses of Congress. The nomination stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate on the basis of a report by the State Department’s inspector general, which had been released in August 2006. It said Tomlinson had misused government money for two years as Chairman. Tomlinson disputed the allegations but finally told Bush he would continue only until the President could find a successor. Glassman is publisher of The American magazine and was a syndicated financial columnist for The Washington Post from 2001 until 2004, according to a biography on AEI’s Web site. If confirmed by the Senate, Glassman would serve the rest of Tomlinson’s term, which expires 13 August, and a full three-year term ending in 2010. (Source: Newsday via Media Network blog April 26 via DXLD) One Response to “Bush nominates new BBG Chairman” 1. John Figliozzi Says: April 26th, 2007 at 14:15 e More of the same. Congress should roundly reject this nomination and insist that the Administration nominate an international broadcasting specialist instead of another political hack. (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. HOW IMPORTANT IS INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING? The following caught my eye in a teaser on the website of Foreign Policy magazine. Joseph S Nye Jr, writing on the subject of “A Smarter Superpower”, observes that “The United States spends about 500 times more on the military than it does on broadcasting and exchanges [exchange programs] combined. The United States cut shortwave, English language broadcasts to save the equivalent of less than half an hour of the defense budget of the United States.” Put in those terms, it does appear that the US government attaches a very low priority to its international broadcasting efforts. It would be interesting to compare the amounts other major countries spend on international broadcasting relative to their military expenditure. Are we, as international broadcasters, guilty of exaggerating our own importance? I’d be interested to hear what readers of this Weblog have to say. (April 27th, 2007 - 8:58 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** U S A. VOA Greenville tune-up. Re 7-049: "Suddenly at 2019 some adjacent QRM cropped up from a strong carrier on 13725 with a tone test. The carrier remained on until 2029:30, but unmodulated after the brief tone. The QRM could be avoided by slight side-tuning. This was no doubt VOA Greenville tuning up/warming up for the Creole broadcast on 13725 which does not start until 2100. Is this really necessary? Why not do it starting at 2049?" Glenn, Probably having trouble with the transmitter doing the broadcast. I don't know which one. 13-MHz frequencies are a problem on many of the old transmitters because they are between the old 11 MHz and 15 MHz design centers. Generally seem to tune like a 15-MHz frequency, but more "iffy." 26 minutes of test time is outside of the tune-time limits, unless 13725 happens to be assigned as a "test" frequency (a frequency on which Greenville may test on an antenna rather than the dummy antenna) prior to 2100 Creole. Both Delano and Greenville are very cavalier about tuning their transmitters on the antennas for the next operational frequency when the previous broadcast ends. Not supposed to, but often the characteristics of the dummy (which is a flat 52 ohms) often is far from the characteristics of the assigned antenna. Conservatism. "If we tune the transmitter on the dummy, then when the 15-minute tune time comes up we may have problems when we retune the transmitter on the assigned antenna." Too bad: FCC can't do a thing. But if another broadcaster complains, then they will probably tune up +/- 10 kHz. Don't worry. In a few years, you won't have to put up with QRM from either site. PS: Don't tell anyone, but I tuned the 5995 evening transmitter on 6,000 kHz a few times. Whoops! Did I just QRM RHC. Aw, shucks! 73, (Charles A Taylor, WD4INP, Greenville, North Carolina, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. Thru an intermediary we hear that WHR has refused to move off 7335, maintaining that CHU is a secondary service (despite the fact it has occupied that frequency for a great many years). From the WHR website here are some of the programs occupying 7335. LeSEA produxions and IRN `news` are not included. You might want to try complaining to the programmers, who may not yet be aware that their voices are blasting away Canada`s only timesignal station. (Or maybe of more concern to them, their voices are being interfered with by beeps.) UT EDT 0600 Su 0200 0230 AM Call to Worship -- Bernie Timmerman 0600 Mo-Fr 0200 0215 AM Truth Light and Life -- Daniel Rodes 0615 Mo-Fr 0215 0230 AM Midnight Cry -- C. Parker Thomas 0630 Su 0230 0300 AM Prayerline Presents -- Patty Ellis 0645 Mo-Fr 0245 0300 AM Voice of Praise -- Kenneth Ivey 0700 Sa 0300 0330 AM Day of Decision -- Paul Groman 0730 Sa 0330 0400 AM Prayerline Presents -- Patty Ellis 0800 Su 0400 0430 AM Desencadenados! -- Pacific Garden Mission 0830 Su 0430 0445 AM La Biblia Dice 0845 Su 0445 0500 AM Enfoque A la Familia -- James Dobson 0900 Tu-Sa 0500 0600 AM TruNews -- Rick Wiles 0900 Su 0500 0515 AM Abundant Life (Span.) David & Isabelle Dawson Linx to program websites: http://www.whr.org/index.cfm/fa/links Let me remind you that altho WHRI is presently using 7335 only at 0600-1100, they are registered for it 24 hours a day! Help head this off now. You could also complain to the FCC, which could order WHRI off 7335. They have ordered other private US SW stations off many other frequencies where there were no audible collisions. Try this: tom.lucey @ fcc.gov (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Subject: WHRI on CHU Frequency 7.335 Could you please move WHRI off 7335. That Frequency is currently used by Canadian Time Station CHU (``Sean Taverse``, 26 April to fccinfo @ fcc.gov with cc to DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. KAIJ 9480, noted back on the air after power outage, at 1845 check April 27 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Answering my own question about KJES, April 27 at 1922 I was able to hear a very weak signal in Spanish on 15385, obscured by a much stronger WEWN on 15390, currently scheduled 17-20, 40 degrees in English to Europe. Not a good idea to find your 50 kW station 5 kHz away from 500 kW WEWN, whatever the target differences. Spain also uses 15385 at certain hours, but not at this time; only KJES is in HFCC, or in FCC: 15385 1900 2000 KJES 50 270 55,58,59 1234567 250307 281007 15385 2000 2100 KJES 50 100 11 1234567 250307 281007 BTW, WEWN`s online sked at http://www.ewtn.org/radio/freq.htm STILL has them on imaginary 5010 at 0000-0500 in English to Europe. BTW2, title line of the above page is also wrong (Glenn Hauser, April 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, Sorry it took me awhile to respond. KJES comes in fine here, so you're in their skip zone. 7555 is never good here. Poor signal and tons of QRN. At any rate, you're not missing a thing. The station gives me the creeps. 73/Liz (Liz Cameron, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Re 7-049, Florida pirates: WHAT? The FCC site on SR 84 was closed many years ago and the grounds are now filled with condos, strip malls and the like at what was once the edge of the Everglades (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida USA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Mountain Lake Public Broadcasting == WCFE TOWER COLLAPSE Press release here: http://www.mountainlake.org/NEWS/PR_4_20_07_Tower_Update.pdf Excerpt: PLATTSBURGH, NY – Mountain Lake PBS is still dealing with the aftermath from the collapse of its transmission tower. The collapse occurred during the morning of Wednesday, April 18th. The 400 foot tower collapsed completely, and partially damaged the transmitter building at its base. The full extent of the damage to the operating equipment situated on the tower, and within the transmitter building itself, is still unknown. It is believed that an increase in ice and snow build-up due to the nor’easter storm that passed through the region on Sunday and Monday is the primary cause for the destruction. However, forensic engineers have yet to draw any conclusions as to what the actual cause may have been. Video here: http://www.mountainlake.org/mlpbs.asp (via Ricky Leong, Calgary, Alta., April 29, DXLD) I think this is how the Montréal area gets PBS. Question arises whether there would be any point in rebuilding their analog service which will have to be closed down in 22 months anyway (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. On This Day in History April 26, 1931 Down Home Humor --- by Brooklyn Eagle published online 04-26-2007 MANHATTAN - "And now, let's see what's going on down in Pine Ridge." That phrase was heard by radio fans for 22 years beginning with the first broadcast of Lum and Abner on April 26, 1931. . . http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=23&id=12525 (via Mike Terry, UK, DXLD) The Golden Age of Radio was on its way out by the time I started listening around 1954y, but I don`t recall hearing L&A, just missed them, nor Amos `n` Andy. However, L&A were running in the 70s? on KMAG FM out of Fort Smith (site atop Mt Magazine), which I could pull in on my big antenna before the band got clogged up. A fun show, and without the baggage of (even imaginary) blackface. Wish WBCQ or some SW station would rerun that original series now (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** URUGUAY. Heard this evening 9620.77v, 27/4 2240, Emisora del Sur, Montevideo, talks serious in Spanish, then songs poor, one ID at 2253. Stopped at 2258 by sign-on of REE. Rx: Winradio G33EM. Ant: Long Wire 30 m. Ciao (Giampiero Bernardini, Milano, Italy, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA. SINDICATO DE RCTV DENUNCIA TERRORISMO LABORAL... Estimado Glenn, Saludos desde Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA. El asunto de RCTV pica y se extiende; Marcel Granier, quien tanto habla de la libertad y la democracia, persigue a los trabajadores de su empresa que claman por sus justos derechos laborales. Aquí está la PRUEBA. 73s y buen DX (Adán González, Catia La Mar, Estado Vargas, VENEZUELA P.D.: El video está disponible en http://www.aporrea.org DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sindicato de RCTV denuncia terrorismo laboral de Marcel Granier Por: Diario VEA / VTV / Aporrea.org Caracas - Al presentar el registro legal del Sindicato Bolivariano de trabajadores del canal privado de televisión –RCTV- (Sintratv) los voceros laborales denunciaron el ambiente de tensión existente en dicha empresa por la arremetida patronal ejercida desde la Gerencia de Recursos Humanos. En tal sentido se pronunció el presidente de Sintratv, Ernesto Pacheco, quien aseguró que RCTV aplica una feroz campaña de desprestigio contra su sindicato legitimado. “Están haciendo una campaña para desinformar a los trabajadores, al país y al mundo sobre la decisión del gobierno bolivariano de no renovarle la concesión. Nosotros tenemos claro que esto no es cierre, la empresa seguirá operando en otras modalidades como por cable por ejemplo o produciendo telenovelas y otros programas para comercializarlos a escala internacional, ante la situación planteada nos hemos unido para defender nuestros derechos si pretenden vulnerarlos” dijo. Por su parte el abogado Rommel Villarroel, asesor jurídico laboral, confirmó el ambiente de miedo existente al interior de la empresa de televisión. “Percibimos de los trabajadores que asesoramos muchas preocupaciones por las presiones y discriminaciones de que son objeto para que se alejen del sindicato Sintratv, pero desde aquí les decimos que denuncien cualquier violación a sus derechos para hacerlos respetar con las acciones sindicales y jurídicas” señaló. Sintratv agrupa a trabajadores de Radio, Cine y Televisión del Distrito Capital de Caracas, fue creado el 2 de abril de 2007 y en los pocos dias de existencia ya afiliamos cerca de trescientos compañeros en la empresa televisora RCTV, hemos acordado una alianza con los compañeros de los demás canales televisivos y de radio y prensa en Venezuela para hacer frente a cualquier intento de socavar los derechos laborales y constitucionales argumentando la medida del gobierno nacional relativa a la no renovación de la concesión cuyo vencimiento está previsto para el 27 de mayo a las 12 de la noche, indicó el jurista. Nelson Urdaneta, vocero laboral de la televisora Venevisión, propiedad de Gustavo Cisneros, expresó la solidaridad de todos los trabajadores del canal 4 a los colegas de RCTV. “Les pedimos que no sientan miedo, aquí estamos junto a ellos y hemos sellado un acuerdo para protegernos mutuamente, a lo cual también contaremos con la solidaridad de otros canales como VTV, de la radio y la prensa” indicó (via Adán González, Venezuela, April 27, DXLD) MOST VENEZUELANS OPPOSE TV STATION CLOSURE - POLL Almost 70 percent of Venezuelans oppose the imminent closure of an opposition television station but worry more over the loss of risqué soap operas than free speech, a pollster said yesterday. Leftist President Hugo Chávez has vowed not to renew the concession of the openly anti-government RCTV when it expires on 27 May, sparking heavy criticism that the socialist leader’s self-styled revolution is curbing media freedoms. The opposition accuses Chávez of muzzling dissent as he rules by decree and forges a single ruling party, but supporters say he is the OPEC nation’s first leader to use burgeoning oil wealth to tackle rampant poverty. A survey conducted this month by pollster Datanalisis found just over 69 percent of respondents in 2,000 households said they opposed the closure, with only 16 percent in favor and around 14 percent declining to respond. Datanalisis Director Luís Vicente León said Venezuelans largely reject the shut-down out of love for RCTV’s signature comedy sketch shows such as “Radio Rochela,” with 81 percent saying RCTV had a positive impact. “The rejection of the closure of RCTV has nothing to do with the violation of freedom of expression,” Leon told reporters. Many of those polled complained the measure would reduce the variety of programming, Leon said. The survey had a 2.2 percentage point margin of error. (Source: Reuters)( April 27th, 2007 - 9:32 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** VENEZUELA [and non]. YVTO active at the moment on 5000. Propagation permitting, one may quickly notice the higher-pitched pips along with WWV/H. The voice announcements are timed so as to clash, but I heard the word ``Caracas`` in a momentary pause by WWVH, April 29 a few seconds before 0552. CODAR was also running just below 5000 and as I tuned slightly to the side, I noticed that the CODAR pulses were exactly one second apart as if they were time signals too (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENZUELA. YVTO, Juan Manuel Cagigal Naval Observatory YVTO is the callsign of the official time signal from the Juan Manuel Cagigal Naval Observatory in Caracas, Venezuela. The content of YVTO's signal, which is a continuous 1 kW amplitude modulated carrier wave at 5 MHz, is much simpler than that broadcast by some of the other time signal stations around the world, such as WWV. The methods of time transmission from YVTO are very limited. The broadcast employs no form of digital time code. The time of day is given in Eastern Standard Time, and is only sent using Spanish language voice announcements. YVTO also transmits 100 ms-long beeps of 1000 Hz every second, except for thirty seconds past the minute. The top of the minute is marked by an 800 Hz tone. http://www.diexismo.8m.com/dix00006.htm http://linkage.cpmc.columbia.edu/QSL/pages/YVTO-Venezuela-0001.html (From Wikipedia via SW Bulletin April 29 via DXLD) !! Another reason not to trust Wikipedia. Why in the world would YVTO give time in EST (UT -5) when local time is AST (UT -4)? If they can`t even get that right, how can we depend on any of the other details? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. MEDIA STATEMENT FROM SABC & SW RADIO AFRICA’S RESPONSE Press release from the South African Broadcaasting Corporation (SABC): Restriction to SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe website not the fault of the SABC Johannesburg, Wednesday 25 April 2007: The SABC would like to set the record straight in reference to the article by Tererai Karimakwenda on SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe News (23 April 2007). The article insinuates that the SABC has deliberately blocked access to the website for SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe and tries to link this to the alleged ‘blacklisting’ and gives the impression that the SABC is trying to block views which oppose the Zimbabwean government. This in fact is not true. The fault does not lie with the SABC but rather with SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe. According to the SABC’s Internet access and usage policy, users of the SABC Internet services may not access streamed audio or video files from external sources unless this is directly related to their business responsibilities. This particular radio station’s website opens with streaming of a video on their home page, and therefore our system automatically blocks it. Other websites allow users to access their home page and then strategically places the streaming links elsewhere. With regard to Radio 702, access is given to the site but when we tried the Tune In link, which is a video streaming link, access was denied. Also with Radio Veritas, access is given but when having to access the streaming link, software needs to be downloaded and staff is not allowed to download software without the consent of our Internet Security Authority. SW Radio Africa responds To determine whether SABC were specifically blocking access to the SW Radio Africa website we carried out a number of tests. First we asked a contact within SABC to try to access http://www.swradioafrica.com whereupon he received a message to say that the site could not be accessed owing to SABC policy. Our contact then sent a screen grab to demonstrate that the site was being blocked. It was asserted by SABC that the content of the SW Radio Africa home page contained various links to streaming audio and streaming video that are prohibited by SABC policy. This statement did not explain why SABC employees are able to access other web sites that contain links to streaming content, like Radio 702, Radio Veritas and others. To test this theory we sent a link to a page http://www.swradioafrica.com/news200407/Woza210407.htm of simple text within the http://www.swradioafrica.com domain. This too could not be opened, again suggesting the content of the web page was not the issue. To confirm that SABC was blocking the domain http://www.swradioafrica.com and not the links to streaming content within the web page, we carried out a further test. The webmaster saved the exact same home page to another server with a different domain name, http://www.mwradioafrica.com (notice the letter ‘m’ rather than the initial ’s’). In this test our contact in SABC was able to access the site even though it contained all the same links to streaming and archived audio files. The home page of SW Radio Africa does not open with streaming of a video as claimed by Kaizer Kganyago above, nor has it ever done so. We consider these tests to prove positively that SABC has in fact blocked access to the SW Radio Africa domain. Andy Sennitt comments: I access the Home Page of SW Radio Africa daily, and to my recollection it has never incorporated a streaming video. If there has been a genuine misunderstanding within SABC, the simplest solution is to unblock the domain and allow SABC journalists to access it. If SABC is not prepared to do that, it will only add to the belief that there is another reason for the blocking (April 26th, 2007 - 17:26 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. CLANDESTINE, 11810, SW Radio Africa, 1850-1900, April 26, English, talk and interview, announcement and Identification by female in ?????, announcement by speaker of frequencies and hours, ann. webpage, song by female, s/off, 34333 //12035 with 24332. I couldn´t hear the station in the other frequencies in 25 meter band (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11975 Kvitsoe was off today April 26. I guess, the test series is over now? 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) SWRA 11975: I heard it during the initial test period, but very faintly, just barely sufficient to find that it was // the other frequencies (Kai Ludwig, Germany, April 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 12035, SW Radio Africa, *1700-1720+, April 28, Sign on with opening music & opening English announcements. IDs. "Callback" interview program at 1703. Good. // 11810-very weak. 11775 blocked by Gene Scott on frequency (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Subject: [dxld] Re: Question about Chinese jamming ``Jammed by CHN mainland. Also... Chines. Jamming also at Mugabe land Zimbabwe. ... 9765 at 04-05[Zimbabwe jamming] (Wolfgang Büschel) So Firedrake has been heard on this frequency? This would be remarkable, since so far it was only known that China has provided Zimbabwe with equipment and know-how. The infamous Firedrake as modulation would be a strong indication for jamming against Voice of People now originating from Chinese soil. Are there any such observations for the evening transmission of VoP or the SWRA and Studio 7 outlets? I wouldn't be surprised about such a development. Still it would mean that the next level has been reached, so to speak. (Kai Ludwig, Germany, April 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I suspect Wolfy merely meant that Chinese-supplied equipment was doing the jamming from Zimbabwe (gh, DXLD) Kai, Not sure what Firedrake jamming sounds like. As a monitor of numerous jammed frequencies, almost daily, for several years of SW Radio Africa, VoP and VOA's Studio 7 to Zimbabwe, all these have been jammed by the Zimbabwean authorities and continues to be so. There is an archived audio file of jamming of SW Radio Africa on this list; perhaps this could be of use if the issue is uncertain (David Pringle-Wood, Zimbabwe, ibid.) David, Surprised you haven`t run across Firedrake. It is Chinese music, extremely lively with lots of percussion, so far used only against external broadcasts in Chinese. I doubt this would be employed by Zimbabwe, even with assistance from China. Isn`t all the jamming of broadcasts into Zimbabwe employing some kind of noise, or at most domestic ZBH services? (Glenn, ibid.) How about that repeated "music-box" jammer I can hear most days on 4880 against SWRA? Can we call it "Zimdrake"? (Jari Savolainen, Finland, ibid.) Jari and Glenn, Jari you are most welcome to name this type of "music box" jammer heard on 4880, Zimdrake jamming. A few different types of jamming have been heard over the years but this particular one is now in use on 4880 SWRA, 9765 VoP and 909 VOA Studio 7. Certainly not extertainly [?] musically (David Pringle-Wood, ibid.) Firedrake --- on 40M hams hear what we call "pots and pans". My guess it`s the same thing (Rick ( N6NKN ) Zolla, dxldyg via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. I've uploaded mp3 audio of an unID signal on 1287 kHz, heard APR 27 0240 UT. It begins with the end of a pop vocal, then at about 0030 into the clip a man announces what was presumably the song and artist followed by a possible ID. Go to http://dxclipjoint.com/loco_the_dx_cat and click 1287 unID to listen. Any thoughts appreciated. Thank you. (Bruce Conti - Nashua NH, BAConti @aol.com http://members.aol.com/baconti/bamlog.htm MWDX yg via DXLD) Hi Bruce! My mother tongue is French. I've tried very hard to, at least, understanding one word. Very tough. From the beginning of the clip, the jingle type music sounds "European" then, the male voice maybe French. I'm not sure. Some input from Michel in France? (Sylvain Naud, Portneuf (near Quebec City), Quebec, Canada, Nice work your website Bruce, ibid.) SENEGAL !!!!!!!!! I was so obsessed, I got to search on GOOGLE and I share your insight with you! It is in FRENCH after all with an accent way different from Parisian French! I will give a listen tomorrow, as I'm too tired right now. Nevertheless, it appears to be something astonishing !!! Good Luck and may the good DX be with you! Tomorrow, the first listen in the row! (Bogdan Alexandru Chiochiu, QC, ibid.) Sylvain, Thank you for listening. I thought it was French at first, but after listening again it's definitely not. I now have a good idea what it is, but will await more feedback before sharing my own thoughts (Bruce Conti - Nashua NH, ibid.) Bonjour, hi from n-w France, heard your file about unid 1287. I agree with aurel [Bogdan]. It's French with an African accent. Incomprehensible FM station ID is given. The music style correspond. RTS Senegal seems to be the station. Regards (Michel ---, ibid.) WRTH 2007 does not list any Senegal station on 1287, nor does EMWG! Looking thru the website http://www.rts.sn/ I don`t find anything but FM frequencies for the various networks, and regional stations, except 965 kHz AM for Matam (under St. Louis; and that would be a split frequency, which EMWG has as the ONLY MW in Senegal, at 0600-2400 in Arabic, 1 kW.). Nor did a Google search of the above site for 1287 turn up anything. So on what basis do you think it is Senegal? The only [possibly French speaking] 1287 possibilities in EMWG are low- powered outlets in Algeria and Mauritania (gh, DXLD) Dear friends, I made a DX-pedition to Senegal in March 2006 and there is no station broadcasting on MW in the country. I checked very carefully and 965 kHz is quiet. Banjul in Gambia on 648 kHz is the nearest MW-station on the air. Best regards/ (Bengt Ericson, Sweden, mwdx yg via DXLD) Subject: Re: [RealDX] 1287 unID --- That's a tricky one. It is difficult to say with the audio bandwidth being so narrow. I am not sure if there is an ID in there but I wondered if I could hear a "... (something) Forces Radio" at 37 seconds. Anybody else hear this? Not much help I'm afraid (John Faulkner, UK, RealDX yg via DXLD) It is tricky. It could be "..FM ... medium wave" at 37s, but equally it might not be. I can't make anything of the speech at 45s. I think it is British English, but I can't be sure. The most likely station if it is English would be Garrison Radio, which would be a fantastic catch I should imagine in New Hampshire (Andrew Brade, UK, ibid.) I was thinking the same thing, Andrew! It sounds more English than anything else but I was reluctant to say anything because the Garrison stations are such low powered. Fantastic catch indeed (Bill Harms, Elkridge, Maryland, ibid.) Thanks to all for the help. I believe it is Israel. At the time I was listening, APR 27 0240, it initially sounded like French, but with replay a day later I decided that it was something more exotic. It was only then when I started to look at Israel and South Africa as possibilities. On APR 28 the geomagnetic conditions had deteriorated enough that even receiving Spain on 1287 was a challenge, but I did listen to a clear signal from the Israel 6973 kHz parallel which was loud and clear and had the same announcer as heard on 1287 the previous night. Furthermore, announcements in Hebrew were peppered with English words, in a manner somewhat similar to Spanish with some English words often called Spanglish. So I'm entering it in the logbook as 1287 Israel. In the meantime I'll continue to check 1287 during Israel transmitter site dawn, and relisten to the recording with everyone's suggestions in mind. Israel is a new country for my New Hampshire home base! 73 (Bruce Conti - Nashua NH, April 28, REALDX yg via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. There has been a resounding lack of interest in the extremely distorted spur on 7312v, which I have now reported thrice and asked others to check out. Not a single observation from anyone else has reached me. So I keep working on it. On April 26 I managed to tune in earlier than before, at 0457 to find a chirping noise around 7312. At 0459 RN Flevo came on, opening in Dutch. The spur could be avoided by tuning to the low side of 7310, but RN QRMing the spur could not be avoided by tuning to the hi side of 7312. It was not until 0506 that some program audio came from the spur, a march, probably an anthem. If we can get a recording of this, it should be possible for someone to identify. 0507 opening announcement in French, but could only make out an occasional word such as ``ce matin`` (this morning). Continued with a mix of music and talk, seemingly in French. In all probability this is coming from Francophone Africa, so what are the possibilities on the 7 MHz band? Since I haven`t listened for it earlier, I cannot be sure it does not sign on earlier than 0500, but assuming that is the case, consulting http://www.muenster.org/uwz/ms-alt/africalist/africalist.pdf Listed to sign-on at 0500: 7105 Madagascar 7160 ICDI, CAR, M-F only, alt to 6030 [AFAIK no one has confirmed ICDI at any time on 7160] Listed to sign-on at 0600: 7125 Guinea [which has been missing again lately] 7220 CAR, irregular Probably inactive, no times: 7205 Lubumbashi, or 7435? 7210 Benin I would say Madagascar is a long shot, because the spur holds up past 0600, and also because it would be the most distant. There are a few more which aren`t supposed to sign on until much later, but who knows, schedules may have changed along with a change from the intended frequency to this badly mistuned one. It so happens that I did not look for this on UT Sat or Sun, but if it was missing then, that would be a clue for ICDI which operates M-F only (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I don't know if this has anything to do with GH's unid, but: 26 Apr at 1725 there was extremely distorted audio on around 7311. Buried by adjacent channels at 1730. As they say "needs more monitoring" (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, HCDX via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Another check of the extremely distorted spur(?) April 27: this time it was centered a little higher around 7314, making it easier to separate from RN Flevo in Dutch on 7310.0, but if tuned to 7312 or so one could hear the variable squeal of the spur beating against Flevo. Tuned in at 0459 and it was already on with repetitive music, 0504 French talk, and no anthem(?) as heard the day before, then music. 0517 another talk segment, a monolog. 0528 music and change announcer to what seemed like a commercial, political? mentioning ``partie``. 0529 into a drumming session for a few minutes, and when rechecked at 0535 a speech was being broadcast in very proper French. This was a little clearer, and a native speaker might be able to make something of it. I was listening for clues, and thought I heard ``Afrique Centrale`` and ``Bangui`` mentioned. 0552 choral music; 0557 7310 switched to DW IS with stronger signal than Flevo and more of a QRM problem to the spur. Still going at 0612 when my tape ran out. Monitoring during the 05-06 hour over the weekend may not be possible here since WHRI is scheduled to use 7315 at 03-06 ``Sat & Sun`` instead of 5835 during this time period, but I`m not certain whether they really mean UT Sun & Mon. Europeans may well hear this at other times, such as until blocked at 1730 as Jari Savolainen, Finland told me (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The extremely distorted spur(?) around 7314v was still heard, UT April 28 from tune in around 0450, when it was interfering with a station in French on 7310.0, which would be Channel Africa. Listened intently past 0500 but could not make out anything resembling an ID on the hour. No sign of Flevo after 0500 this date, as hi-latitude paths were outwiped, K=5 by 0600 as below. UT Sun April 29, WHRI stayed on 7315 past 0300, so the next chance to work on the spur during this time period should not be until UT Tuesday May 1 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Solar-terrestrial indices for 27 April follow. Solar flux 83 and mid- latitude A-index 14. The mid-latitude K-index at 0600 UTC on 28 April was 5 (114 nT). Space weather for the past 24 hours has been minor. Geomagnetic storms reaching the G1 level occurred. Space weather for the next 24 hours is expected to be minor. Geomagnetic storms reaching the G1 level are expected (SEC via DXLD) 7105 Madagascar is very unlikely, as reported exactly on freq. recently, according to Peter Beck, being the old Rohrdorf [Germany] transmitter. Benin 7120 listed in WRTH signing on 0500 MF, 0600 SS; if not there tomorrow would not be really a clue for ICDI. Nothing heard at 1530 but I will try again later... 73 (Thorsten Hallmann, Münster, Germany, dxing.info via DXLD) You mean 7210 nominal for Benin, right? (gh, dxing.info via DXLD) Benin 7210 of course. Nothing heard in the evening at 1630, 1800, 2200, 2300. So signing on already before 0500, probably off in the evening and probably somewhere in central Africa. Bangui reported with sign-on at 0430 in the past, but 24 hrs on FM according to WRTH. Others with nominal sign-on at 0430 in the region: Chad, Congo- Brazzaville, Cameroon. Wonder if I manage to get up earlier tomorrow. 73 (Thorsten Hallmann, Apr 27, ibid.) Got it at 0450 this morning. Caught some pieces in French including "afrique" before sign-on flevo on 7310 at 0455 made it impossible to catch more details. Main impressions: - too strong to be a small transmitter from central Africa - French didn't sound African. If I just came across that signal in "normal" quality, I would have assumed RFI or BBC. But maybe I'm right? 73 (Thorsten Hallmann, Apr 29, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. Contrary to my expectations, I was again able to monitor the extremely distorted spur on UT Sunday April 29. WHRI was indeed on 7315 until 0600, as is the case only on UT Sun & Mon, but the spur had shifted down to about 7311, so it was still separable, and causing a variable squeal as it beat against 7315, checked at 0533, with unintelligible talk, just M&W alternating in French. Once again, RNW Flevo 7310 inaudible due to high K-index. At 0557 DW IS via Portugal started on 7310 so the spur was then beating against that, and WHRI went off shortly later (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Solar-terrestrial indices for 28 April follow. Solar flux 85 and mid- latitude A-index 27. The mid-latitude K-index at 0300 UTC on 29 April was 5 (83 nT). The mid-latitude K-index at 0600 UTC on 29 April was 4 (64 nT). Space weather for the past 24 hours has been minor. Geomagnetic storms reaching the G1 level occurred. Space weather for the next 24 hours is expected to be minor. Geomagnetic storms reaching the G1 level are expected (SEC via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. The carrier-oscillating jammer (?) was again heard on 9735v, April 27 at 1357, bothering BBC Singapore 9740 unless one tuned to the high side of it. No other signal detectable on 9735 for it to be jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ BROADCASTS IN ENGLISH - A07 Edition The Summer 2007 edition of Broadcasts in English is now available from the British DX Club. It was compiled by Dave Kenny and includes details of all known international broadcasts in English on shortwave and mediumwave for the A07 schedule period, as well as selected domestic English-language broadcasts on short wave. As usual, the 32- page booklet is in time order and covers all target areas. Transmitter sites are included wherever possible, plus schedules of DX programmes, Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) and World Radio Network services in English to Europe. Copies are available at the following prices (includes postage): United Kingdom - 2.50 pounds sterling Europe - 5 Euros or 6 IRCs Rest of World - 7 US dollars or 7 IRCs Sterling payments by cheque/postal order to "British DX Club" or via Paypal. Dollar or Euro payments by cash or Paypal. Orders to: British DX Club, 10 Hemdean Hill, Caversham, Reading RG4 7SB, UK Email: bdxc @ bdxc.org.uk Web: http://www.bdxc.org.uk (Dave Kenny, BDXC-UK, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) STEVE WALDEE WITHDRAWS AGAIN http://home.earthlink.net/~haggisizing/srw-swl/glenn.htm Seems this page has been removed again? No apparent references to anything more recent than from 2004 at http://home.earthlink.net/~haggisizing/srw-swl/index.html either (Kai Ludwig, Germany, April 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Can`t say I am surprised (gh) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ THREATS TO MEDIA FREEDOM The Broadcasting Board of Governors and Freedom House invite you to a conference on 21st Century Threats to Media Freedom May 1, 2007 8:30 a.m. -- 1:30 p.m. Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC (News release from Radio Free Asia via April NASB Newsletter via DXLD) FINAL PLANS FOR NASB ANNUAL MEETING The 2007 annual meeting of the NASB is almost upon us. It will take place together with the annual meeting of the USA DRM Group on May 10 and 11 at the HCJB Global Technology Center in Elkhart, Indiana. Several speakers will be from HCJB itself, including Charlie Jacobson, who will talk about various DRM receivers that he has been testing. Herb Jacobson will talk about how to convert existing shortwave transmitters to DRM digital modulation. Brent Weeks of HCJB's Quito office will give an update on the mission's operations in Ecuador, including the DRM tests that are being conducted. John Brewer from HCJB Asia Pacific will talk about radio planting in Indonesia and about a DRM mediumwave station that is planned for that country. Other speakers on the agenda include Rev. Allan McGuirl from Galcom International in Canada, who will talk about the fixed-frequency radio receivers that his company manufactures. Galcom has a new two- frequency shortwave receiver, and they are working on a new digital shortwave transmitter as well. Volker Behling of T-Systems in Germany will give a presentation about his company, which relays many international shortwave services in both analogue and DRM. Dr. Kim Elliott of the Voice of America will explain "Why Shortwave Still Matters" in the world today, and George Ross of NASB member Trans World Radio will talk about their shortwave station KTWR on the Pacific island of Guam. Adrian Peterson of Adventist World Radio will give a presentation about the world's oldest radio and QSL cards from 1901 to 1945. Andrey Nekrasov of NASB associate member Beth Shalom Center Radio will present two DVDs about his stations in Moscow and New York. During the two days of meetings, there will also be tours of the HCJB Global Technology Center itself, and of LeSEA Broadcasting headquarters in nearby South Bend, Indiana. Northern Indiana is Amish country, and the Friday May 11 conference dinner will be at an Amish village near Elkhart. The Thursday and Friday dinners will both be sponsored by Continental Electronics, TCI International, Thomson Broadcast and WMLK Radio. Lunches on both days are being provided by HCJB, and coffee breaks are being sponsored by Comet North America. If you would like to attend the NASB annual meetings, registration is free of charge. Participants pay their own travel and hotel expenses. If you'd like more information, e-mail us at info@wrmi.net (April NASB Newsletter via DXLD) This does not make clear, but previous releases have, that the meeting is open to the public without charge, but reservations are necessary. More below (gh) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ CHRIS MACKERELL'S MORPHY RICHARDS DRM REVIEW NOW ONLINE RE 7-047, DIGITAL BROADCAST RADIO TECHNOLOGIES Chris Mackerell in NZ has this website http://www.digitalradio.co.nz/ including info on DRM. He has reviewed the Morphy Richards DRM rx, not very favorably in the April NZ DX Times, and perhaps will eventually put the review on his own site (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Now at: http://www.owdjim.gen.nz/chris/radio/DRM/MorphyRichardsReview.php (Mike Barraclough, April 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DRM: see also AUSTRALIA; NORWAY; CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES above SPECIAL DRM TESTS FOR NASB ANNUAL MEETING In conjunction with the annual meetings of the NASB and the USA DRM Group in Elkhart, Indiana May 10 and 11, at least three stations will be carrying out special DRM test transmissions, with the following schedules: CBC Radio-Canada in Sackville, New Brunswick will broadcast 12 days of DRM transmissions with programming by NASB members from May 1 to 12 at 2200-2230 UT on 9800 kHz at 268 degrees azimuth. HCJB in Quito, Ecuador will be testing in DRM daily from April 30-May 26 on the following schedule: 1500 - 0100 UT 15680 kHz at 355 degrees with 4 KW 0100 - 0400 UT 9915 kHz at 355 degrees with 4 KW And Vatican Radio will do two special trans-Atlantic DRM tests during the meeting on May 10 and 11 at 2000-2100 with music and announcements about the meeting on 15525 kHz. Our thanks to CBC, HCJB and Vatican Radio for arranging these special DRM transmissions (April NASB Newsletter via DXLD) THE DRM CONSORTIUM WELCOMES THE NEW TN 1000 TRANSMITTER OF HITACHI KOKUSAI FOR THE 26 MHZ BAND Las Vegas, Nevada – Long time DRM consortium member, Hitachi Kokusai Electric will introduce and publicly present at the NAB show in Las Vegas a brand new transmitter, named TN 1000 for use in the "26 MHz" Band broadcast transmissions in the Digital Radio Mondiale ® system. The DRM Consortium, as a developer of the Digital Radio Mondiale ® system welcomes the introduction of the new device, which is expected to facilitate a smooth transmission to the possibilities of local digital radio broadcasts in the "26 MHz" band. The DRM consortium recognises the importance of the broadcasting service band from 25 670–26 100 kHz (called the "26 MHz band"), which is rarely used for traditional long range cross-border reception broadcasts. Recent tests conducted for DRM transmissions in this band proved that this broadcasting method will, in time, provide many administrations with another means to serve its citizens with high quality radio broadcasts, and also the possibility for private local commercial radios to broadcast their local programmes. Hitachi Kokusai Electric’s new TN-1000 transmitter is operating with 300W output on "26MHz" band, which is appropriate for DRM transmissions, and it is optimal for local broadcasts that use a comparatively narrow-band for covering one city. At their booth in the NAB show, Hitachi Kokusai Electric will show live demonstrations of DRM broadcast using the new TN-1000 device offering all the necessary information for broadcasters and network providers interested in broadcasting in the "26 MHz" band. Hitachi Kokusai welcomes all interested companies and individuals at their booth in the Central Hall at Las Vegas Convention Centre, booth nr. C5017. Basic features of the new device will also be presented each day of the show from 16th to 18th of April during the seminar sessions of the DRM Consortium in the North Hall of LVCC, booth nr. N7706 (hosted by Continental Electronics). (via April NASB Newsletter via DXLD) INTERNATIONAL CO-ORDINATION OF DRM AND AM TRANSMISSIONS http://www.hfcc.org/pro/DRM-AM_HFCC_Co-ordination.pdf The General Assembly of the DRM Consortium, held at the end of March 2006, reported that nearly 40 radio stations have already started with regular DRM broadcasting directed to many parts of the world, bringing the total daily amount of DRM transmissions to almost 700 hours. This is still a small part of the total of over 16000 hours that are co- ordinated each season on shortwaves. DRM frequency requirements are regularly entered into the HFBC global databases. The HFCC/ASBU association is encouraged by the increase in the public awareness of shortwave co-ordination. At the same time the results of our activity are also increasingly under the public scrutiny. It is not surprising therefore that the HFCC has received several complaints in regard to the DRM interference to AM transmissions - some of them quite recently - prior to the co- ordination conference in China in February 2006. DXers and radio hobbyists in particular have appealed to us and suggested that the available spectrum should be separated between the two modes. Quite a number of frequency managers and co-ordinators active in the HFCC come from among the radio hobby and DXing community, We are therefore fully aware of the differences between the two systems as well as of the dangers of mutual interference. On the other hand we cannot ignore the present dissatisfaction with the quality of AM, its excessive power consumption, and the fact that at least some broadcasters have been loosing interest in AM transmissions. It is unthinkable that the whole spectrum internationally allocated to and used by AM broadcasting is left out from the present trend towards highquality sound reproduction and digitalisation. Unfortunately - especially in regard to shortwaves - the amount of available spectrum is severely limited. Shortwave bands below around 10 MHz have not been substantially enlarged for decades. The HFCC is now a sector member of the ITU in the category of international and regional organisations. It has prepared a document in the run-up to the World Radiocommunication Conference next year with the aim of rallying support for the spectrum enlargement. It is based on the statistics showing that due to the congestion, only around 50 percent of all broadcasting requirements in this range can be received without serious interference. The Conference results are uncertain, and anyhow, the possible spectrum enlargement would be very slow in coming. The suggested separate allocation of a portion of the present existing frequency space exclusively to DRM has been considered within the HFCC/ASBU association. If implemented, it would severely narrow the already congested low-frequency spectrum available for AM broadcasting on shortwaves. However we are aware of the DRM/AM mutual intereference problem: DRM frequency requirements are already graphically highlighted in the co-ordination schedules for example, and frequency co-ordinators pay special attention to them in their discussions of incompatibilities. In addition, the Steering Board of the HFCC/ASBU association has recommended to members not to submit the DRM frequency requirements at random but rather to cluster them together with the aim of reducing interference to adjacent AM transmissions. A recommendation on a more stricter spectrum separation between AM and DRM transmissions is not ruled out later after a further increase in the amount of DRM frequency requirements - especially in the higher frequency bands that are less overloaded. Last but not least we should mention an important principle that is imbedded in the Articles of Association of the HFCC in regard to all co-ordination procedures. The Association does provide the tools, representation and services to facilitate the resolution or minimisation of mutual interference but its management does not enter the bilateral or multilateral co-ordination negotiations and it is not an arbiter of their solutions. In other words, the participants of frequency "collisions" themselves are responsible for the measures taken against the incompatibilities detected by the co-ordination software. At the same time we pay every attention to what listeners and shortwave hobbyists have to say about the quality of shortwave co- ordinaton, and we always pass relevant information to the members concerned. April 2006 (via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ ONKYO RELEASES SATELLITE COMPATIBLE RECEIVER ONKYO is now shipping a audio/video receiver that is the company's first to include compatibility with both XM and SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO broadcasts. The 7.1-channel receiver is compatible with both XM and SIRIUS tuners, allowing subscribers of either network to enjoy programming in their theater room and external zones. The receiver also features a high-quality terrestrial AM/FM radio tuner and features 40 presets for AM, FM, XM, or SIRIUS stations (allaccess.com via Brock Whaley, HI, DXLD) Even CEO Can't Figure Out How RadioShack Still In Business April 23, 2007 | Issue 43•17 FORT WORTH, TX — Despite having been on the job for nine months, RadioShack CEO Julian Day said Monday that he still has "no idea" how the home electronics store manages to stay open. . . http://www.theonion.com/content/node/60924 (via Russ Johnson, K3PI, NRC-AM via DXLD) PETITION FOR RULEMAKING TO FORBID "STREAMING" AND REQUEST FOR AN INQUIRY OF A 07 VIRGINIA MASSACRE DEFENSE STRATEGY ... wrathofkahn.org: Where the Truth Comes First NEWS FLASH Before the Federal Communications Commission Washington, DC 20554 URGENT PETITION FOR RULE MAKING )) DOCKET NO. _______ REQUEST FOR NOTlCE OF INQUIRY ) Prof. Engineer Leonard R.Kahn, 35th Floor 767 Third Avenue New York, NY 10017 Ph (212)-9834765 F (212)-983-6432 Patent Agent Dated: April 22, 2007 . . . See: http://www.wrathofkahn.org Mr Kahn manages to wrap up all of his well-founded(?) peeves into this long petition (gh, DXLD) Somebody has to say it, so I will: Leonard Kahn has lost all powers of reasoning and seems to have a tenuous, at best, hold on objective reality. I felt sorry for Kahn when I read that convoluted rant. He's lost it, absolutely lost it (Harry Helms, W5HLH, Smithville, TX EL19 http://topsecrettourism.com ABDX via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ ASIA/PACIFIC HIGHER-FREQUENCY PROPAGATION RESULTS On 4/26 RA-15515 was not audible at all per 0230 check, while Russia (as explained earlier) and North Korea (15180) came in at fair levels elsewhere in 19 mb. On 4/27 RA did reappear with good signal at 0245 on 15515; also good signal from RNZI on 13730 at same time, while Russia and DPRK did not come in at all. Shows you that propagation on higher bands does vary on a day-to-day basis (Joe Hanlon, NJ, April 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) SUN 3-D PICTURES HELP WARN OF SOLAR FLARES The first three-dimensional images of the Sun from a pair of spacecraft orbiting the planet were released yesterday, and can begin helping scientists predict when and how hard dangerous solar storms will hit, the US space agency NASA said. Such storms can disrupt satellites, communications and sometimes the electricity supply, and may endanger astronauts in Earth orbit as well as commercial airline flights. The twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, or STEREO, satellites can create more accurate, real-time views of these storms, called coronal mass ejections, project scientists said. "The improvement with STEREO's 3-D view is like going from a regular X-ray to a 3-D CAT scan in the medical field," said Michael Kaiser, STEREO Project Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The STEREO spacecraft were launched in October and have now been maneuvered into their orbits, one slightly ahead of Earth and one slightly behind. "Just as the slight offset between a person's eyes provides depth perception, the separation of spacecraft allow 3-D images of the sun," NASA said in a statement. Solar storms are a conglomeration of charged gases and magnetic forces. When they hit the Earth's magnetic barrier they cause the auroras, the dramatic Northern and Southern lights. But they can also disrupt satellites, radio communication, and power grids. The radiation they carry is a danger to astronauts. The orbiting SOHO observatory is providing some information, but the two STEREO spacecraft will be able to triangulate with SOHO and give a much better view of these bursts as they bud off the sun's surface, NASA said. "In the solar atmosphere, there are no clues to help us judge distance. Everything appears flat in the 2-D plane of the sky. Having a stereo perspective just makes it so much easier," said Russell Howard of the Naval Research Laboratory. "Knowing where the front of the coronal mass ejection cloud is will improve estimates of the arrival time from within a day or so to just a few hours," Howard added. "STEREO also will help forecasters estimate how severe the resulting magnetic storm will be." More details are available on NASA's website http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/main/index.html Source: Media Network, Reuters via Southgate (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Also this week we saw some of the early 3-D images from the NASA STEREO satellites. To view in 3-D, you need those paper glasses with a red filter covering the left eye, and cyan filter over the right eye. You can see the images at, http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/news/stereo3D_press.html They also have info on where to find the glasses. I found mine for well under a dollar at Science, Art and More, a shop that sells products for science education in my neighborhood. I must admit I was a little disappointed, but only a little. At the distance these solar images are taken, the depth effect of the sun shows it as very close to a perfect sphere, in my estimation. Perhaps I was hoping for detailed looks at the surface with exaggerated three-dimensional effects that would enhance the perception of depth and detail. But I have no doubt that the images shown on that page are probably accurate, more so than what I had imagined (Propagation Forecast Bulletin 18 ARLP018 From Tad Cook, K7RA Seattle, WA April 27, 2007 To all radio amateurs, via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) NEXT SOLAR STORM CYCLE WILL START LATE -- Experts Split Over Intensity FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 25, 2007 http://www.sec.noaa.gov/SolarCycle/SC24/PressRelease.html The next 11-year cycle of solar storms will most likely start next March and peak in late 2011 or mid-2012 – up to a year later than expected – according to a forecast issued today by NOAA’s Space Environment Center in coordination with an international panel of solar experts. Expected to start last fall, the delayed onset of Solar Cycle 24 stymied the panel and left them evenly split on whether a weak or strong period of solar storms lies ahead, but neither group predicts a record-breaker. The Space Environment Center led the prediction panel and issued the forecast at its annual Space Weather Workshop in Boulder. NASA sponsored the panel. “The Space Environment Center’s space weather alerts, warnings, and forecasts are a critical component of NOAA’s seamless stewardship of the Earth’s total environment, from the Sun to the sea,” said retired Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. During an active solar period, violent eruptions occur more often on the Sun. Solar flares and vast explosions, known as coronal mass ejections, shoot energetic photons and highly charged matter toward Earth, jolting the planet’s ionosphere and geomagnetic field, potentially affecting power grids, critical military and airline communications, satellites, Global Positioning System signals, and even threatening astronauts with harmful radiation. These same storms illuminate night skies with brilliant sheets of red and green known as auroras, or the northern or southern lights. Solar cycle intensity is measured in maximum number of sunspots – dark blotches on the Sun that mark areas of heightened magnetic activity. The more sunspots there are, the more likely it is that major solar storms will occur. In the cycle forecast issued today, half of the panel predicts a moderately strong cycle of 140 sunspots, plus or minus 20, expected to peak in October of 2011. The other half predicts a moderately weak cycle of 90 sunspots, plus or minus 10, peaking in August of 2012. An average solar cycle ranges from 75 to 155 sunspots. The late decline of Cycle 23 has helped shift the panel away from its earlier leaning toward a strong Cycle 24. Now the group is evenly split between strong and weak. “By giving a long-term outlook, we’re advancing a new field—space climate—that’s still in its infancy,” said retired Air Force Brig. Gen. David L. Johnson, director of NOAA’s National Weather Service. “Issuing a cycle prediction of the onset this far in advance lies on the very edge of what we know about the Sun.” Scientists have issued cycle predictions only twice before. In 1989, a panel met to predict Cycle 22, which peaked that same year. Scientists met again in September of 1996 to predict Cycle 23—six months after the cycle had begun. Both groups did better at predicting timing than intensity, according to Space Environment Center scientist Douglas Biesecker, who chairs the current panel. He describes the group’s confidence level as “high” for its estimate of a March 2008 onset and “moderate” overall for the two estimates of peak sunspot number and when those peaks would occur. One disagreement among the current panel members centers on the importance of magnetic fields around the Sun’s poles as the previous cycle decays. End-cycle polar fields are the bedrock of the approach predicting a weak Cycle 24. The strong-cycle forecasters place more importance on other precursors extending over a several-cycle history. Another clue will be whether Cycle 24 sunspots appear by mid 2008. If not, the strong-cycle group might change their forecast. The first year after solar minimum, marking the end of Cycle 23, will provide the information scientists need to arrive at a consensus. NOAA and the panel decided to issue their best estimate now and update the forecast as the cycle progresses, since Space Environment Center customers have been requesting a forecast for over a year. “The panelists in each camp have clear views on why they believe in their prediction, why they might be wrong, and what it would take to change their minds,” said Biesecker. “We’re on the verge of understanding and agreeing on which precursors are most important in predicting future solar activity.” NOAA’s Space Environment Center is the nation’s first alert of solar activity and its affects on Earth. Just as NOAA’s hurricane experts predict the upcoming season of Atlantic storms and forecast individual hurricanes, the agency’s space weather experts issue outlooks for the next 11-year solar cycle and warn of storms occurring on the Sun that could impact Earth. Both the National Hurricane Center and Space Environment Center are among nine National Centers for Environmental Prediction, part of NOAA’s National Weather Service. The Space Environment Center is also the world warning agency of the International Space Environment Service, a consortium of 11 member nations (NOAA via DXLD) Re: Forecasters disagree on intensity of next sunspot cycle in 2011-12 On the website http://www.sec.noaa.gov/SolarCycle/SC24/PressRelease.html they said the following: "The first year after solar minimum, marking the end of Cycle 23, will provide the information scientists need to arrive at a consensus". ----- In science you cannot have a consensus. Something either is or isn't. The statement points to how politics has entered the world of Science whether it be forecasting a solar cycle or global warming. My forecast for cycle 24 is for it to begin in June 2007 and peak at a smoothed SSN of 105 in 2012. Recently there have been a number of predictions calling for solar cycle 24 to be very large if not the largest since solar cycle 19. Not only do I think that those hyped forecasts are incorrect and have stated so on a number of propagation email reflectors, my forecast for cycle 24 is for it to be weaker than solar cycle 23. As a ham radio operator and SWL I hope I'm wrong but we won't know either way for a number of years. 73, (Thomas F. Giella, KN4LF, Lakeland, FL, USA kn4lf @ earthlink.net KN4LF Solar Space Weather & Geomagnetic Data Archive: http://www.kn4lf.com/kn4lf5.htm dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Many people sent links to articles about this. Frank Donovan, W3LPL of Glenwood, Maryland sent a couple of links, including one with a graphic representation of a range of predictions at, http://www.sec.noaa.gov/SolarCycle/SC24/ssn_predict.gif Also check http://www.sec.noaa.gov/SolarCycle/SC24/ for other info, including PowerPoint presentations. If you don't have PowerPoint, you can find a free PowerPoint viewer to download for Mac or Windows by searching for the two words PowerPoint Viewer in Google, or any other search engine (Propagation Forecast Bulletin 18 ARLP018 From Tad Cook, K7RA Seattle, WA April 27, 2007 To all radio amateurs, via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) Some unusual 6 meter Es backscatter propagation --- Observed by Bill Van Alstyne, W5WVO of Rio Rancho, New Mexico on April 21. I'll let Bill describe it: "Greetings from New Mexico, DM65. Just finished a very unusual opening off of a pre-season Es cloud in northern Mexico, approximately 2315-0100z. Many central Mexican stations in XE1/XE2 with 59++ sigs, but the real news was the amazing strength of the backscatter signals coming in from Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Texas, and California, all peaking with the beam pointed due south. Was able to work a couple of new close-in grids in AZ, as well as many other grids I already had. Strongest backscatter signals were from Bob, W7UT, in southwest Utah; Bud, N7CW, in Prescott, AZ; and Tommy, W7RV, in Scottsdale, AZ. All were consistently 56/57 until the propagation began to weaken around 0030z." Bill continues, "This is by far the strongest backscatter I've ever heard on 6M. As a rule, Es clouds (due to their very thin, flat architecture) are very poor backscatter producers; the only previous backscatter I've ever worked off of 6M Es was extremely weak. This backscatter propagation was ragchew quality, and lasted virtually without QSB for over an hour." (Propagation Forecast Bulletin 18 ARLP018 From Tad Cook, K7RA Seattle, WA April 27, 2007 To all radio amateurs, via Dave Raycroft, ODXA yg via DXLD) This is Dxers Unlimited’s weekend edition and here is ASK ARNIE, the most popular section of the program. Listeners Harry and Claude from Iowa and South Carolina in the USA want to know if backscatter propagation can happen during solar minimum, and the answer is that unless extremely high transmitter powers are involved, backscatter ionospheric propagation is not going to happen during extended periods of very low solar activity. So again, HF backscatter propagation is a phenomena strongly associated with periods of high and very high solar activity, which are a few years away from now (Arnie Coro, CO2KK, RHC DXers Unlimited April 28, ODXA via DXLD) TIPS FOR RATIONAL LIVING ++++++++++++++++++++++++ GOD IS NOT GREAT: HOW RELIGION POISONS EVERYTHING This week Slate is publishing three excerpts from Christopher Hitchens' new book. There are four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum of servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking. . . http://www.slate.com/id/2165033/entry/2165035/ (via Harry Helms, DXLD) ###