DX LISTENING DIGEST 2-114, July 17, 2002 edited by Glenn Hauser, wghauser@hotmail.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 HTML version of this issue will be posted afterwards at http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldtd02.html For restrixions and searchable 2002 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn WORLD OF RADIO #1140 [available by early UT July 18]: (DOWNLOAD) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1140.rm (STREAM) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1140.ram (SUMMARY) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1140.html FIRST WBCQ BROADCASTS: Wed 2200 on 17495, 7415; UT Thu 0415 on 7415 FIRST WWCR BROADCASTS: Thu 2030 on 15825; Sat 0500, Sun 0230 on 5070 FIRST RFPI BROADCASTS: Sat 0130, 0730, 2400 on 7445-USB, 15038.6 ** AFGHANISTAN/UK. RADIO VOICE OF AFGHANISTAN TO STOP BROADCASTING FOR THREE MONTHS The founder of Radio Voice of Afghanistan, Sayd Jamaloddin Afghan, has announced that the radio's broadcasts will stop for three months. In an unscheduled speech on the radio which replaced the 1330 gmt news bulletin, he said that during a recent visit to Afghanistan he saw "painful" scenes which are even "difficult to explain". He said the radio was not able to broadcast "the truth" and report what was happening in Afghanistan because of "the current conditions governing the country". He expressed the hope that the country's situation would improve in three months and the radio would be able to resume its broadcasts. The radio began broadcasting around eight months ago from London. The following is the text of a recording of Sayd Jamaloddin Afghan's speech broadcast by London-based Radio Voice of Afghanistan on 14 July: In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Respectable brothers and sisters of the Muslim nation of Afghanistan, peace be upon you. About eight months ago Radio Voice of Afghanistan was inaugurated and started [its broadcasts]. I hope that the radio - by broadcasting independent, neutral and your favourite programmes - has served the respectable listeners properly. To start the radio, our only aim was - with the help of professional and specialist workers without any ethnic, regional or political affiliations - to broadcast the current affairs and related problems, information, reports, news, interviews and independent broadcasting. A few days ago I went to my dear country Afghanistan. I spent more than one week there and visited several provinces and met different people. I saw painful scenes and unbearable attitudes and incidents which are even very difficult to write about freely on a piece of paper [sentence as heard]. As everybody knows, the duty of an independent and neutral radio is to broadcast everything independently without any censorship. I don't want to worsen the situation by pointing out the problems of a country which is passing through a very sensitive period. Without a doubt, the situation is practically not suitable for broadcasting. On the other hand, the Radio Voice of Afghanistan cannot keep silent about these injustices and sinister actions. Esteemed listeners and compatriots! I don't want to say that Mr [Hamed] Karzai [head of the transitional government of Afghanistan] is responsible for this distressing situation. But I think that all those people who are in power, all groups and all of us Afghans are responsible for these incidents and the present situation. I believe that the influential people want to utilize their influence in the government for their personal, regional and tribal benefits. It should be mentioned that during the Afghan jehad [holy war against the Soviet Union] and for the sustaining of national unity all the Afghan groups like Tajiks, Pashtuns, Uzbeks, Tukmens and Hazaras made countless sacrifices. Esteemed compatriots! For the unity, independence, peace and security of the Muslim nation of Afghanistan all groups [political parties] and opposition groups need to be patient, tolerant, and should end their selfishness and take quick steps to serve the suffering Afghan nation. They should not be allowed to divide Afghanistan into small states and have their own police, army and customs. There should be a police and national army which obey the elected head of the government and they should keep in mind the national interests of the country and they should prevent Afghanistan from becoming involved in a dirty war by shunning personal, tribal and military interests. Afghanistan is the mutual home of all Afghans and all Afghans have equal rights to decide its fate. Any group should not consider itself superior to others and should not give itself the right to decide the destiny of Afghanistan. All the people of Afghanistan like Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras and others should have equal part [in Afghanistan]. We should not condemn each other for this or that reason. Such nasty behaviour should vanish from the Afghan culture. Every Afghan - without any racial, linguistic or regional discrimination - should have the right to fulfil his responsibilities and duties. Now is not the time for settling accounts, now is the time for passion, forbearance and forgiveness. By taking revenge we cannot relieve our dear Afghanistan from poverty and adversity and cannot improve the living standards of the Afghan people. We should not waste the sacrifices of our mojahedin. Only by giving a hand to each other we can forget our sorrows and pains. Let us dress the wounds of the people. Due to this, I decided to stop the broadcasts of the Radio Voice of Afghanistan for three months temporarily and let Mr Karzai's government overcome the difficulties and solve the problems of the people of Afghanistan. Because, as a free and national radio, Voice of Afghanistan cannot remain silent about the pain and suffering of the people of Afghanistan and not broadcast the voice of the people. Dear compatriots! I beseech God Almighty for the complete resolution of our dear country's problems in three months when we shall resume our broadcasts of the Radio Voice of Afghanistan and for peace and stability to return to the country. I wish that every Afghan could live in peace and tranquillity. Source: Radio Voice of Afghanistan, London, in Dari and Pashto 1330 gmt 14 Jul 02 (via BBCM via DXLD) This was the one via Austria 17870 at 1330-1430 (gh, DXLD) ** AFGHANISTAN. Having recently returned from a trip to Kabul and Herat, the Afghanistan page of the Interval Signals Archive has been modified with several new and updated audio files of Afghan radio stations, such as Radio Herat, Radio Kabul and Radio Turkiyem. There is also a link to another page with photos of Radio Afghanistan and Kabul. All this is at http://www.intervalsignals.net Regards, (Dave Kernick, July 16, hard-core-dx via DXLD) ** AFRICA. Back from a short trip to Cape Town, here`s my short report of what I heard on the short waves. I only had a cheap portable receiver with me and not spend so much time listening, so no surprise that I did not hear any real rarities. Also I did not spend my time logging those dozens of Chinese (many of those only continuous music as we know it from 7530 etc), Indian and other Asian stations that crowded the bands from late afternoon onwards and complicated the search for the weaker African stations. To mention only one of them: Listening to 7185 Radio Bangla Desh was no problem throughout the afternoon. But now back to Africa: No signals from July 5 to July 10 from Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon (RTV), Kenya (?), Lesotho, Malawi, Moçambique, Uganda (!!!), and many countries from Northern and Western Africa. The others from southern Africa: Angola: 3375: RNA External Service, quite weak in the evening, 2100 English 4950: RNA Canal A, much stronger, from late afternoon into the night 7215/7217: Radio Ngola Yetu?, only heard in the afternoon, Vn... No External Service heard on 41 meters or anywhere else but the weak 3375. 11955: RNA Canal A, strong, always some heterodyne, morning to early evening, off at night No sign of any regional stations on shortwave Botswana: 4820: early afternoon till 2200*: mostly very strong and // 7255 7255: very strong during daytime, sometimes also evening, but seemed to be off from 1700 on some days. Congo DR: Only tentative/unID but most certainly African: 6210 Kahuzi (early evening), 7435 Lubumbashi (dto.), 9550 Okapi (late evening), 9770 RTVNC, 1600. Congo Rep. of: 5985: inaudible (off) or very strong... 9610: 0700- fair signal in the morning, fading in again in the afternoon till 1700* Equatorial Guinea: 5003: no trace 6250: tentative, weak, during the evening Kenya: only tentative on 4935, late afternoon Madagascar: seems to be back to its normal SW schedule or even less... 5010: *1500-1900*, fair/good all others not heard at all Namibia: 3270: not heard at all 3290: only tentative: English service in the evening, but not very strong 6060: NBC, very strong during daytime and into the evening, but not heard after 1900 or so. 6175: NBC, English/German: mainly heard in the morning, much weaker than 6060, not heard in the evening South Africa: Radio Oranje very strong and according to known schedule. Tanzania: 5050: Daressalam, fair signal during the evening 11734: Zanzibar, better... not heard on 5985 or 7280 or any other Zambia: 6165: ZBNC II, English, very strong, early afternoon till 2200* 6265: ZBNC I, Vn/English, see above. Zimbabwe: 5975: ZBC, Vn, very strong all day and evening, but some breaks 6045, ZBC, VN, not // 5975, else see above Nothing else from this station VOP: did not try... 6145: SWR, very strong, from 1600, starting with English broadcast Northern/Western Africa Benin: 5025, Parakou? Tentative, weak signal in the late evening 7210 not heard Burkina Faso: 5030 very strong during the evening Ghana: 3366: not heard 4915: fair/weak all evening 6130: tentative around 1600/1630 Mali: 4835 heard in the evening, but weak. Nothing else Mauritania: 4845 sometimes quite strong in the evening. Nigeria: 6090: Kaduna? weak, tentative at 0650, 1750, 2200 with African music No sign of the other Nigerian regionals 7255: VON, if Botswana was on, audible under that in the evening, strong signal when Botswana was off 15120: mainly heard in the morning till 1200* 11770: still seems to be off Miscellaneous: Apart from TWR, AWR, Channel Africa, BBC, VoA, Deutsche Welle is very present. I could listen to the German programme at any time; in the evening at least four frequencies can be easily heard: 6075, 7185, 9545, 9735. Also Bavaria on 6085, Radio Sweden 6065, Radio Finland 6120 cannot be missed (Thorsten Hallmann, back in Germany, July 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) It will be a bit tedious to cross-reference all the countries mentioned, so we have decided to keep this report intact under AFRICA. Remember that if you need to look something up futurely. We shall include them all in the contents index at http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html (gh, DXLD) ** ANTARCTICA. TERRITORIO ANTARTICO. Sobre la noticia del esquema de LRA36 Radio Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel, cabe señalar que el esquema correcto es: Lunes a Viernes en 15476 khz de *1800-2100*. La emisora emite con 10 KW de potencia, aunque actualmente está saliendo con menos potencia que la mencionada. 73's GIB (Gabriel Iván Barrera, Argentina, Conexión Digital via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. Alice Springs was off both frequencies for a couple of days, they told me due to a transmitter cooling problem, but they are back now (Chris Hambly, Victoria, UT July 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. As I plow through the backlog of Radio Australia reception reports that had to be neglected due to illness, I am seeing quite a few that give the frequency 5 kHz off. While I do not have an encyclopaedic knowledge of receivers, I think that most, if not all, relevant are capable of some sort of synchronous AM detection. With my own receiver, IC-R75, I have seen it lock on to an adjacent frequency in the absence of a carrier on the displayed frequency. However, the R75 is hardly a good example of sync' detection. I wonder if this is a trap for the unwary. Any comments? Regards (Ian Johnson, ARDXC via DXLD) Well, I haven't found a R. Australia frequency yet that doesn't bleed well outside of the international standards. 5 kHz bleed either side of freq. Is the norm for R. Aust. Often found it well beyond 5 kHz even. Try the advertised freq. and then start tuning above and below - -- it is quite a shocker. It is the only major SWBC that I have this problem with. Am waiting on replies from overseas contacts regarding this, will advise all when data to hand. 73 Tony Smith ARDXC / WEWN / EDXP / CQ SHORTWAVE NEWS / DX-394 GROUP, Rockhampton Qld. Australia, ibid.) Sure it`s not just a funxion of proximity, ideal skip distance? WEWN could be accused of that around here! (gh, DXLD) ** BOUGAINVILLE. Radio Independent Makumui: a wav file from Don Moman, Alberta of 3850 drew these comments from Bill Smith, TX: Don, you should be assessed an 8 dBi penalty for the 4-element Yagi. Heh Heh. Nevertheless, jolly good show. Impressive signal to noise ratio. Mr. G, I was just jesting with Mr. Don ... he was using his 4-element 80-meter rotatable Yagi to log and tape record RIM. The Yagi is a decided advantage ... at least 8 dBi gain over a dipole ... and listening to his tape wav, he had plenty of readable signal over the noise...a very nice recording of a reported 80 watts of AM. 73 amigo de (Bill Smith, TX, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3850, R. Independent Makumui, Bougainville. Good at 1020 w/PNG pops, ID. In full AM, several IDs 1105, off abruptly 1112 on 14/7. Also noted on Dx-Pedition to Limekilns [NSW] on 10/7 0845-1032, though definitely in LSB on that occasion and I thought I heard a "Radio Free Bougainville" ID 0906, but need to review the tape to be 100% certain. Signal strength is much stronger than when the station was previously heard a couple of years back and now armchair level from home most evenings, noise notwithstanding (Craig Seager, Australia, ARDXC July 15 via DXLD) So that raises the question whether it is really much more than 80 watts now (gh, DXLD) 3850, 1028- July 16, Radio Independent Makumui. First tuned in at 1023 with a barely audible signal in AM, not LSB as reported elsewhere. Mostly music, with short announcements. Seemingly gradually fading up. A tentative, but presumed logging as I can't see who else it could be. Many thanks to Don Moman motivating me to get up at this early hour to monitor this most interesting station (fabulous audio clip from yesterday morning). Minimum static crashes today. Serious fade down by 1054, so peaked here about 1045. No ham traffic at all. Carrier but not much else at 1102. Gone when rechecked at 1114. Seems to me to have been very much more difficult in past years when it was Radio Independent Bougainville. Perhaps they have a better antenna and/or transmitter now vs in the past, as they seem to be widely heard. Best here using K9AY antenna (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also PAPUA NEW GUINEA ** CANADA. Hi Glenn, Markham is in the Toronto area -- therefore those two applications for 1610 in Toronto are competing ones. P.S. That would wash out 1610 Montreal, wouldn't it? Regards, (Ricky Leong, QC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Seems to me Toronto and Montreal are far enough apart at top of band for groundwave --- and who cares about skywave? (gh, DXLD) ** CANADA. CRTC Quebec City decisions http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/NEWS/RELEASES/2002/r020716.htm OTTAWA-GATINEAU — The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is releasing three decisions today pertaining to the Greater Québec City area. The first decision awards Cogeco Radio-Television Inc. a licence to operate a new FM radio station in Québec City. The second decision renews the licence of CHOI-FM Québec for a two- year period, attaches a number of conditions to the renewal, and will monitor the licensee’s respect for the conditions and its conduct during this period. Finally, the third decision reiterates that the licence granted to CKNU is intended to serve the residents of the Portneuf region. In light of the circumstances with respect to this application, the Commission denies Genex Communications Inc. the permission to move its main antenna in order to access the Greater Québec City area market (via Ricky Leong, July 17, DXLD) ** CANADA. Even Glenn Hauser would have enjoyed today's CBC broadcast of Inside Track. They presented the history of silly ball games on the radio with lots of sound bites from as early as 1927's first broadcast of a football (soccer) match by the BBC. From Marconi and Fesenden to BBC 5 Live, they showed how radio can present a unique word picture of the action on the pitch (field). They contrasted the radio coverage with TV, highlighting radio's strengths at painting a picture in sound. It was a great documentary on the evolution of broadcasting silly ball games. ~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-., (Joe Buch, DE, July 14, swprograms via DXLD) I heard this show too, by accident (I disregarded the program previews this weekend as my time was not going to be my own), and was delighted. Speaking as someone who is mostly NOT a sports fan, I thought the show was delightful & will be waiting for it to be replayed. It certainly highlighted the way radio can excel in so many ways (Eric Floden, Vancouver BC, ibid.) ** CANADA. Old CBC antenna tower on Toronto's Jarvis Street to be dismantled http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/GIS.Servlets.HTMLTemplate?current_row=1&tf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.html&cf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.cfg&configFileLoc=tgam/config&encoded_keywords=dismantling+a+cultural+landmark&option=&start_row=1&start_row_offset1=&num_rows=1&search_results_start=1 From globeandmail.com, Wednesday, July 17, 2002 DISMANTLING A CULTURAL LANDMARK Photo exhibit salutes the CBC-TV tower and marks passing of analog era to digital technology JAMES ADAMS, NATIONAL ARTS CORRESPONDENT It has never achieved the iconic status of the CN Tower, or enjoyed the kind of literary immortality that Hart Crane bestowed on the Brooklyn Bridge. Still, when workers begin to dismantle the 45-storey CBC-TV tower in downtown Toronto next week, Canada will lose one of its most important cultural and technological landmarks, a poignant reminder of the Golden Age of Electricity when CBC ruled the airwaves and Juliette, Wayne & Shuster and Hockey Night in Canada were touchstones of English-Canadian identity. When it was erected in 1952, the transmission tower was, at more than 150 metres in height, the tallest free-standing structure in the Ontario capital. It was more than capable of holding its own, signal- wise, against what was emanating from Buffalo. On Sept. 8 of that year, English-language Canadian television essentially got its start at the tower, beginning at 7:15 p.m. with a transmission of a weather report, followed by a puppet show starring Uncle Chichimus and Pompey. The inaugural broadcast evening ended about two hours later with a concert by an all-female choir, then a news broadcast by Lorne Greene, who would soon become a staple of CBC-TV's Sunday evening programming playing Ben (Pa) Cartwright in the network's rebroadcast of NBC's Bonanza. A mass of approximately 1,000 iron girders held together with 10,000 bolts, the CBC-TV tower rose from a base of 5.9 square metres located between the old Havergal Ladies College, which CBC bought for about $120,000 in 1944-45, and historic Northfield House built in 1856 on Jarvis Street north of Carlton. The tower is coming down to make way for two condominium towers, collectively called Radio City, and the new headquarters, parking space, residences and studios of the National Ballet School. The actual dismantling and demolition are expected to take five weeks. A crew of seven will start at the very top, taking it down section by section, much like lumberjacks slicing off sections of tree trunks. There was talk of using a helicopter to haul off pieces, stage by stage, but this was scotched when it became clear that it would be too time-consuming to secure air rights for such a tight space and forest firefighting might limit the number of available helicopters. One man who recognizes the piquancy of it all is J. P. (Jim) Shea, who has lived in a condominium across the street from the tower for the past eight years. He has spent the past two years photographing it in all its moods, in all kinds of weather, at all times of the day. An exhibition of 14 of his photographs opens tomorrow evening at Northfield House at 372 Jarvis St. The show's title, "Eiffel on Jarvis," is taken from a description of the tower in a Toronto newspaper in 1952 calling it "a little like the Eiffel Tower in Paris" -- although the Eiffel, opened in 1889, is more than twice its height. Mr. Shea, 41, knows that the transmission tower never came close to that stature. For one thing, visitors couldn't climb its orange- and-white girders to various observation decks (although this didn't stop a Quebec nationalist from scaling it in the early seventies to plant the Quebec flag.) The site also lacked sufficient "breathing space" to achieve true monumentality in the urban topography. When it came time to paint the tower -- it usually took two weeks each summer -- brushes were used instead of spray-cans to prevent orange paint from splattering passersby, cars and apartments. Still, it had "a certain presence" in the Jarvis/Carlton/Wellesley neighbourhood, Mr. Shea observed, and, from his balcony at least, a sort of majesty. The CBC stopped using the tower and switched to the CN Tower in the late seventies (it also transmitted for Radio-Canada; the Ontario Education Communications Authority, the precursor to TVOntario; and Ryerson University's CJRT). The tower's demise appeared likely in 1993 when CBC left Jarvis Street to merge its broadcast operations under one roof; it became inevitable in 2000 when Heritage Minister Sheila Copps announced plans to sell half of the Jarvis site to the ballet school for $1. "Now that it's going, I feel this need more than ever to capture its image," Mr. Shea said. His pictures, all shot with a digital camera, are at once a salute to "a very ordinary, yet extraordinary urban industrial structure" and a meditation on "the passing of the analog era by the onset of digital technology." Eiffel on Jarvis is at Northfield House, 372 Jarvis St., Toronto, Friday 1-7 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 1-4 p.m. both days. (via Mike Terry; also John Grimley via Saul Chermos, amfmtvdx via DXLD) ** CHILE. 6090, Radio Esperanza, Temuco. 0902-0930. July 14. Spanish transmission. Christian programme conduced by two male. Greetings: "saludos a todos quienes nos escuchan". Gospel music. ID as: "...estamos en su Radio Esperanza". 34433. Past July 10, at this hour, in this frequency I only head to World University Network, from The Valley (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentine, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No Luxembourg here in Oregon through 1139, but did catch a nice signal from R. Esperanza on 6089.96. After s/off of R. Japan in Korean (at 1131), R. Esperanza was "exposed," SP, reading a list of listeners in Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and US, with frequent mentions of Temuco and into local music program with long commentary by man between. Nice "rolled R" R. Esperanza ID at 1144 and into local music. Not heard by me before (Don Nelson, OR, DX-plorer via DXLD) 6089.91, me-tooing Don's log, heard this one at surprisingly good level at 0800 Jul 14, program "Noche de Esperanza," mix of light Christian vocals and religious talk, finally at 0858 a complete ID with frequencies. QRN, and QRM from Bandeirantes-6089.96, but Chile dominant almost all the time. Surprised to hear this so well, and no sign of Gene Scott (Jerry Berg, MA, DX-plorer via DXLD) ** CHINA. This week`s edition of Wavelength will look at English radio in Shanghai. Also a tribute to longtime Canadian broadcaster Gord Sinclair (Wave-Length, China Radio International, Beijing, China Attention: Lu Feng & Keith Perron e-mail: wavelengthcri@yahoo.com website: http://www.cri.com.cn/english DX LISTENING DIGEST) That`s 0045 UT Friday, or is it 0040, via webcast and ondemand until UT Monday during the one-hour file (gh, DXLD) ** CONGO. 9610, Radio Congo / Brazzaville. Good Reception at 1545-1630 July 16 with African Songs, announcements, ID and news and commentary in French and in vernacular (Mahendra Vaghjee, Mauritius, hard-core-dx via DXLD) See also AFRICA ** CONGO DR. Dear Glenn, A report on the UN IRIN's web site - http://www.irinnews.org - gives the current SW freqs for Radio Okapi as 6030, 9550 and 11690 (i.e. not 10690 as reported by Radio Netherlands). Regards, (Chris Greenway, Kenya, July 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Well, it was the MONUC website as cited in DXLD 2-111 that claimed 10690; I saw it myself, but rechecked July 16 that had been corrected to 11690. So have you heard it, Chris, and for that matter 6030 or 9550 lately either? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CONGO DR. Details of Radio Okapi's eight FM relays published; four more planned | Text of report by UN regional information network IRIN on 15 July Nairobi, 15 July: Radio Okapi, the network operated by the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC), has expanded its service to the northwestern town of Gbadolite, broadcasting on 93 FM. Gbadolite becomes the eighth location in the DRC to have a local relay, the others being Kisangani (94.8 FM) in the northeast; Goma (105.2 FM) in the east; Kalemie (105 FM) in the southeast; Kananga (100 FM) in south-central DRC; Mbandaka (103 FM) in the northwest; Kindu (103 FM) in east-central DRC; and the capital, Kinshasa (103.5 FM), from where all broadcasts originate. In addition to FM relays in the major cities, a shortwave transmitter site is under construction in Kinshasa and is due to be completed in early September. Meanwhile, Radio Okapi is already operating on shortwave using three 100-watt transmitters at frequencies of 6030, 9550 and 11690 kHz. A joint initiative of MONUC and the Swiss-based Fondation Hirondelle, Radio Okapi was launched on 25 February to coincide with the convocation of the inter-Congolese dialogue in Sun City, South Africa. It broadcasts 24 hours per day, seven days per week in French, Kiswahili, Lingala and Tshiluba. In the coming months, additional FM stations will be opened in Beni (east), Bukavu (east), Bunia (northeast), Lubumbashi (southeast) and Mbuji-Mayi (south-central). The material broadcast by Okapi is made available to other local media free of charge. Radio Okapi enables Congolese to talk to each other across the country's political divides, the organizers say. The radio's transmitting stations are guaranteed freedom from censorship under agreements with the various authorities in the DRC, and broadcast from UN military mission bases, guarded by UN troops. Currently, no medium in the DRC has the capacity to broadcast nationwide, although the government has announced its intention to establish one. Few politically independent broadcasters exist, although Radio Amani in Kisangani, and Radio Maendeleo in Bukavu have managed to survive as independent news broadcasters, and have operated intermittently over the past three years. Their reach is very limited, however. Source: UN Integrated Regional Information Network, Nairobi, in English 15 Jul 02 (via BBCM via DXLD) UN-RUN RADIO OKAPI TO BE ESTABLISHED SOON IN NORTHEASTERN TOWN | Text of report by Congolese rebel-controlled radio from Bunia on 17 July Ituri Provincial Governor Jean-Pierre Molondo Lofondo yesterday at his official residence in Quartier Mulunge held talks with the chief of Radio Okapi, Mr David Smith. Mr Smith had gone to inform the Ituri provincial governor of the establishment of Radio Okapi in Bunia [town in northeastern DRCongo base by Uganda-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy - Liberation Movement] in the near future. Radio Okapi, which is run by Monuc [UN Mission in DRCongo], broadcasts in all the languages... Source: Radio Candip, Bunia, in French 0515 gmt 17 Jul 02 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** CZECH REPUBLIC. R. Prague in English is on 21735 at 1300-1327, \\ 13580, July 2 and earlier. There is a strong station on 21745 and R. Prague moved away (David Crystal, Israel, for CIDX, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. Offshore Echo's have recently updated their website to include a very extensive section on Radio Normandie, the French station which broadcast widely listened to commercial radio programmes in English to the UK before the Second World War. The URL is http://www.offshoreechos.com/radionormandie/RadioNormandy01.htm On an IMac the site was rather slow in loading on Mac IE5 and the arrows at the bottom right, which link you to the next or previous page, do not always appear, no problems however using Netscape 4.71 Mac. If you have problems, the page URLs go 01.htm, 02.htm, 03.htm, 04a.htm, 04b.htm, 05.htm, 06.htm, 07.htm, 08.htm, 09.htm, 10.htm, 11.htm and 12.htm (Mike Barraclough, Letchworth, UK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE [and non?]. 7135, 0432 8/6, UNKNOWN, RFI to Africa in French, multiple broadcasts of the same program slightly delayed from each other – KAB (Ken Baird, Christchurch, NEW ZEALAND DX TIMES JULY 2002 via DXLD) This used to be via South Africa. By `multiple` do you mean at least three?? (gh, DXLD) ** GEORGIA. There are no doubts in regard to the location of the SW transmitter in Sukhum (9490 and earlier frequencies). The QTH Sukhum for this tx was confirmed in a QSL-letter to Jerry Berg by the deputy director of Abkhaz State Radio already in 1996. You find a scan of that letter at: http://www.qsl.net/yb0rmi/abkhazia.htm. Quote: " We inform you that shortwaves transmitter on frequency 9495 is in Abkhazia - in her capital, Sukhum." The relays from Sochi (R. Rossii and regional program from Krasnodar/Sochi) are picked up unauthorized from FM as the deputy vice chairman of Sochinskaya GTRK explained to Mauno Ritola earlier this year: "9490v: I just received a nice verification letter in Russian for my follow-up report from Sochinskaya GTRK by e-mail. Mr. V. K. Glazunov, the company vice chairman says: " We are very pleased that our programs can be heard by such far-away listeners. We confirm that such a program of R Sochi went on the air at the given time. Our transmissions go on the air on 71.93 MHz, but you received a relayed transmission of our program through the Abkhazian Republic Radio, which is situated in the town of Sukhum (Zvanba street 8), the capital of the autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, which belongs to the Republic of Georgia. For us it is a foreign state, and there isn't any official agreement about co-operation with our Abkhazian colleagues. So we can't officially confirm operation of our radio on the frequency of 9490 kHz." (Mauno Ritola-FIN, BC-DX May 15)" 73s, (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, July 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. DEUTSCHE TELEKOM BOARD APPOINTS NEW HEAD | Excerpt from report by German news agency ddp on 16 July Bonn: The Deutsche Telekom board of governors has appointed Helmut Sihler as new chairman of the board of directors for an interim period of six months. This was announced by board chairman Hans-Dietrich Winkhaus in Bonn on Tuesday evening [16 July]. Sihler, who has been a member of the Telekom board of governors since May 2000, succeeds Ron Sommer, who announced his resignation before the end of the extraordinary meeting of the Telekom board of governors. Sihler's deputy will be Gerd Tenzer, who has been head of the technology sector up to now... Source: ddp news agency, Berlin, in German 1736 gmt 16 Jul 02 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** GUAM [and non]. Re AFN USB transmissions: Charlie, I have talked with AFN on this subject numerous times. These broadcasts are feeder only. They may or may not be up depending upon transmitter needs at the associated NAVCOMSTA they are being broadcast from. In other words they are second fiddle. I have spoken with three Navy personnel directly involved with the project and most recently with Journalist Chief Foutch at the Navy Media Center who stated: "I endorse AFN skeds over NPR skeds. In all matters. Not in just the schedules listed. v/r, JOC Foutch" This response was in regards to a query I made concerning the discrepancies between the AFN skeds on the NPR website and those posted on the Navy Media Center website. My message is below. AFN Website: Guam Upper Sideband 13362 kHz 5765 kHz I know for a fact the 5765 freq is a good one. I just recently monitored it myself. That would indicate that Guam's old 4 MHz freq (4319) is probably gone. The 13 MHz frequency is probably a replacement for their old 10320 which now seems to be used by Pearl Harbor and Keflavik Iceland. Given that these schedules come directly from the source of programming I am NOT inclined to pull any of our listings from the shortwave freq directory in MT until I can confirm personally from the Navy directly that they have ceased these broadcast from Guam or any other site. Below are the two current schedules. It is quite obvious that the Navy contacted NPR and got them to change their skeds finally. Current Shortwave High Frequencies Keep checking this web page for the posting of new frequencies and transmitters when they become available. Location Band Daytime Nighttime Diego Garcia Upper Sideband 12579 kHz 4319 kHz Guam Upper Sideband 13362 kHz 5765 kHz Key West, FL Upper Sideband 12689.5 kHz 12689.5 kHz Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Upper Sideband 10320 kHz 6350 kHz RR, Puerto Rico Upper Sideband 6458.5 kHz 6458.5 kHz NPR has a website http://www.npr.org/worldwide/shortwave.html that shows the AFN stuff as follows: [Note: presented in a different order than above, but changed by gh to same order here for ease of comparison; plus Iceland here, not there] Transmitter Location Band Daytime Evening Diego Garcia Upper Side Band 12579.0 kHz 4319.0 kHz Guam (Barrigada) Upper Side Band 13362.0 kHz 5765.0 kHz Key West, FL Upper Side Band 12689.5 kHz 12689.5 kHz Pearl Harbor, HI Upper Side Band 10320.0 kHz 6350.0 kHz RR, Puerto Rico Upper Side Band 6458.5 kHz 6458.5 kHz Keflavik, Iceland Upper Side Band 10320.0 kHz 6350.0 kHz Given the nature of these broadcasts, the current dismal summertime props we are experiencing (typical), and the general decline in sunspot numbers right now, I don't feel I can trust any field reports over the schedules we receive directly from the Navy. 73 Larry Van Horn, N5FPW ATC (AW) USN (Ret) Grove Enterprises Technical Support Department Monitoring Times Assist Editor, Fed File/Milcom Columnist Telephone: V-828-837-9200/F-828-837-2216/800-438-8155 (Reply to inquiry from MSG USNS SUMNER, via DXLD) ** HAWAII. 1460 kHz has held some interest for me with reception of Honolulu and Salinas. The Hawaiian station has an illegal ID at TOH as: "This is AM1230 Radio Korea KYPA Los Angeles" !! Cheers (Chris Martin, Australia, July 16, ARDXC via DXLD) ** HONG KONG. DISNEY RADIO PLANNED FOR HONG KONG Walt Disney International plans to launch its first Asian radio channel in Hong Kong to boost brand awareness ahead of opening a theme park in the territory. Jon Niermann, Disney's Asia-Pacific chief, told the South China Morning Post that discussions were underway with local radio stations to create a Radio Disney franchise ahead of the park's 2005 opening. The company is working to secure a deal with one of Hong Kong's two commercial stations - Metro Broadcast and Commercial Radio. If the deal goes through, the round-the-clock radio channel would be Disney's fourth, partnering transmissions in the US, Latin America and Britain, the report said. In addition, the company is also planning to beam its Disney Channel to Hong Kong cable viewers. The 24-hour channel is currently available in eight Asian markets (AFP via RN Media Network 15 July 2002 via DXLD) ** INDIA. I received the message below from a U of Florida doctoral candidate. If you have any information about All India Radio's program content (comments, personal opinions on AIR's programs, etc.), please respond to him directly, off-list. 73 (Mike Brooker, Toronto, ON, Canada, dx_india via DXLD) Original Message ----- From: "Gatorlink User" amclark@ufl.edu To: aum108@idirect.com Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2002 8:46 AM Subject: All India Radio Hi, I came across your web page during an Internet search and wonder if you can help me. I'm writing a dissertation on the use of international broadcasting by regional powers and one of the stations I'm focusing on is AIR external. I'm having trouble picking up its broadcasts, and finding any detailed information on its programming content. Do you have any information on the content of the programs broadcast, any contacts that might be useful, or any tips on when the best times to listen are? Thanks, Andrew Clark, Doctoral Candidate, University of Florida (via Mike Brooker, dx_india via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS. As for Radio Caroline, I was a big fan when it had atmosphere, could be heard over east, south-east and central areas of England in the car or at home and played a decent range of music. The musical choice on the station which now calls itself Radio Caroline has narrowed and the atmosphere has evaporated. Caroline's ship and part of the organisation slipped into the hands of neither the commercial big-guns, who could develop the idea, or well-funded die-hard law breakers. The ultimate selling points, the marine location, the unique free-style music and hoisting two-fingers at the law have gone. I wish it would end and we could cease the pretence. How about a final week at high-power for charity in international waters? If it gets raided then what a fine way to go. If it lasts the week, all the anoraks could say a proper goodbye, flash their car lights, listen to Johnny Walker on AM, have a final over-modulated play of the Fortunes, a test-tone, instructions on how to retune to BBC Radio 2, silence, static and a funeral wake at Frinton .... please! (Chris McWhinnie, UK, BDXC-UK via DXLD) ** IRELAND. Oneword for 252 LW? 16 July 2002. UBC Media, owners of Classic Gold and digital service Oneword, have confirmed their interest in acquiring Teamtalk 252. Simon Cole, the chief executive of UBC Media has told Inside Radio: "We are always on the lookout for interesting acquisitions," and added, "we are already the owner of more AM assets in the UK than any other broadcaster." Teamtalk launched in March following the closure of Atlantic 252. Online betting operation UKbetting announced their intention to buy the Teamtalk media group in May, when the group announced it would be put up for sale. 60 redundancies at Teamtalk were announced last month, and UKbetting is expecting the sale of Teamtalk to be agreed shortly. If the radio service were bought by UBC, it's expected that digital station Oneword would broadcast on the longwave frequency (insideradio.co.uk via Mike Terry, DXLD) I would like to know why Ireland is hardly ever mentioned in connexion with the 252 kHz facility, whoever may run it now and in future. The heading above was provided by gh. Is the separation and independence of the Republic of Ireland from the UK pretty much a fiction in practical terms? (gh, DXLD) ** ISRAEL. A02 schedule change effective from 21st July [I guess this info is `backwards` due to original Hebrew?? And includes what would have been time shifts from October 6 -- gh] DELETE: 31.3-20.7 fren 300 315 27.28.6-10 515 500 17545 31.3-20.7 fren 300 330 27.28.6-10 5:15 5:00 15640 6.10-31.10 fren 300 330 27.28.6-10 5:15 5:00 15640 6.10-31.10 fren 300 315 27.28.6-10 6:15 6:00 17545 31.3-20.7 ENG 300 315 27.28.6-10 16:30 16:00 17545 6.10-31.10 ENG 300 315 27.28.6-10 17:30 17:00 17545 ADD: 21.7-6.10 fren 300 330 27.28.6-11 4:30 4:15 15640 21.7-6.10 fren 300 315 27.28.6-11 4:30 4:15 9435 6.10-31.10 fren 300 330 27.28.6-11 5:30 5:15 15640 6.10-31.10 fren 300 315 27.28.6-11 5:30 5:15 9435 21.7-6.10 ENG 300 330 27.28.6-10 16:45 16:30 17545 6.10-31.10 ENG 300 330 27.28.6-10 17:45 17:30 17545 21.7-6.10 ENG 300 315 27.28.6-10 16:45 16:30 15615 6.10-31.10 ENG 300 315 27.28.6-10 17:45 17:30 15615 21.7-6.10 SPAN 300 330 27.28.6-10 17:15 17:00 17545 6.10-31.10 SPAN 300 330 27.28.6-10 18:15 18:00 17545 21.7-6.10 SPAN 300 315 27.28.6-10 17:15 17:00 15655 6.10-31.10 SPAN 300 315 27.28.6-10 18:15 18:00 15655 TEL: +97236264562 FAX: 97236264559 (Moshe Oren, ISRAEL- Frequency manager, BEZEQ-engineering & planning division, July 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Here is the list of Kol Israel -frequency- changes, which start July 21. I haven't spent too much time studying it -- or any time modifying it. It looks like, for English, at least, it's just a time shift of the 1600 UTC broadcast to 1630 UTC (12:30 PM ET) (as previously mentioned) with the same frequencies (15640 and 17545). This list is from Moshe Oren, the Frequency Manager. (Daniel Rosenzweig, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ITALY [non]. Distinti Signori, la presente per invitarVi all`ascolto della trasmissione RADIOMAGAZINE prevista per il giorno 21.7.02, dalle 11,00 alle 1200 ora legale italiana (dalle 09.00 alle 10.00 UTC) su 11.880 kHz via Deutsche Telecom, su satellite SIRIUS, e dal sito INTERNET european strem (real audio): http://www.europe.awr.org Si ricorda che il programma RADIOMAGAZINE continuerà ad essere irradiato per tutto il perido estivo. I prossimi appuntamenti saranno per i giorni 4 e 18 agosto, 1, 15 e 29 settembre. Cordiali saluti, Dario Villani RADIOMAGAZINE 21.7.02 Intervista telefonica con Manfredi Vinassa De Regny (Sestri Levante/Genova). De Regny, che si occupa di radioascolto da diversi anni, racconta di come si avvicinò all`hobby. In un secondo momento ebbe un incontro con Mondadori, uno dei massimi editori italiani, e per lui realizzò ``I segreti della radio``, uscito in Italia in più ristampe sotto la collana degli ``Oscar Mondadori``. Tale libro, che stabilì un vero e proprio record di vendite nel settore radiantistico, ha rappresentato per alcuni anni un punto di riferimento per tutti gli ascoltatori delle onde corte. A patire da quella esperienza, De Regny ha pubblicato numerosi altri libri, sulle stazioni di utilità (emittenti marittime, radiofari, etc.), sulla Banda Cittadina, e il radioantismo in generale, raccogliendo sempre grande successo di pubblico. Nell`intervista a Radiomagazine, De Regny parla di questa sua avventura letteraria, rispondendo anche a quello che può essere il futuro della radio, in relazione all`avvento delle nuove tecnologie. L`intervista si conclude coi nuovi progetti editoriali che l`autore ha in cantiere. Durata: 15`00 COMUNICATO STAMPA Per questioni di carattere organizzative dal dicembre dello scorso anno, la AWR Europe ha dovuto chiudere l`impianto trasmittente di Forlì, peraltro vetusto e di debole potenza. Tale decisione, rientra nell`ottica di un più ampio e fruttuoso utilizzo di altri e più potenti impianti ad onde corte, quali quelli della Deutsche Telecom a Juelich, Radio Nederland/Madagascar, Sentech a Meyerton (Sud Africa) e più di recente dagli Emirati Arabi Uniti; mentre continuano le trasmissioni dall`unico centro di proprietà della AWR a GUAM, regolarmente registrato presso la FCC americana. Il nuovo assetto delle trasmissioni, ha visto un ridimensionamento delle trasmissioni in Italiano su onde corte, che di fatti sono irradiate solo il sabato e la domenica da Juelich. Continuano però ad essere sotto responsabilità di AWR tutte le trasmissioni acquisibili quotidianamente dal satellite SIRIUS e ritrasmesse sul sito INTERNET www.awr.org in real audio, in onda dalle 1100 alle 1200, dalle 1400 alle 1530 e dalle 2200 alle 2230 ora legale italiana. Il programma ``Spazio 3600`` della AWR Europe, continua ad andare in onda ogni domenica, e a settimane alterne anche il programma ``RadioMagazine`` condotto da Dario Villani. Radiomagazine si rivolge agli appassionati del radioascolto, ed abbraccia vari argomenti inerenti il mondo dei media, INTERNET, comunicazione e radioantismo in generale, attraverso notizie, interviste, interventi esterni e sondaggi. Tra i servizi offerti dalla trasmissione, oltre al testo del programma, anche una serie di diplomi per tutti gli appassionati. La seconda domenica di ogni mese, ``Spazio 3600`` ospita anche la ``Casella Postale`` con in studio Stefano Losio e Marco Conte che prendono in esame le lettere degli ascoltatori e i loro rapporti di ricezione, offrendo loro numerose cartoline QSLs e gadget della AWR. AWR attualmente trasmette in oltre 53 lingue differenti, lo schedule completo è disponibile in Redazione. Ecco gli orari: AWR/Adventist World Radio Europe Programma italiano Dalle 1100-1200 ora legale italiana/ Su 11880 kHz /Onde Corte Solo il sabato e la domenica via Deutsche Telecom Juelich Lo stesso programma viene ripreso via satellite (SIRIUS e Hot Bird) e ritrasmesso dalle stazioni a Modulazione di Frequenza della Voce della Speranza/Chiesa Avventista del 7 Giorno e in real audio sul sito: http://www.europe.awr.org Per eventuali ulteriori informazioni si può visionare il sito web: http: www.awr.org mentre gli indirizzi sono i seguenti: e-mail: europe@awr.org AWR Europe Casella Postale 383 47100 Forlì Italia Altri programmi radio ``avventisti`` dal sito: www.avventisti.org ---------------------------------------------------- Dear Sirs, the present for anticipate that for the day 21 July 2002, we broadcast a special interview with Mr. Manfredo Vinassa De Regny, writer by Mondadori ``I segreti della radio``. Radiomagazine continue in the summer to broadcast at this appointment/rendezvous: august 4 e 18, september 1, 15 and 29. The special will broadcast in the course of the Italian programme of the AWR/Adventist World Radio Europe, on the air from 09, 00 to 10, 00 UTC/ 11, 00 / 12, 00 Italian Time, on the frequency of 11880 kHz/Short Wave (via Deutsche Telecom/Juelich). The programme is on the aire also from the SIRIUS satellite and Hotbird (news about the reception from the web site awr.org). In real audio on INTERNET, european strem from the site: europe.awr.org. Yours sincerely Dario Villani E-MAIL darioxvillani@hotmail.com Dario.Villani@poste.it Dario.villani25@libero.it (via Michael Bethge, WWDXC via Wolfgang Bueschel, DXLD) ** JAPAN. Radio Tampa, JOZ2, 6055 kHz had fair to good signal tuned at 0955 UT with Tchaikovsky symphony, ID in JP 0959 and into jazz show with man and laughing girl over bumper music. Weaker \\ 3925 JOZ had ham QRM. 73, (John Cobb, Roswell, GA, Icom R75 and 80-foot Windom w/tuner, July 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. There goes another one, converted to gospel-huxtering as the new website implies; we listened for a few seconds and confirmed it was insipid gospel-rock in Spanish. Not that it has ever been anything more than a curiosity on SW, with extreme technical problems. This article is on the website at http://www.misionradio.com/articulos.htm México D. F. a 05 DE ABRIL de 2002. NUEVA ESTACION SURCA EL CUADRANTE MEXICANO Por: Samuel Ortigoza Una nueva radiodifusora de cobertura internacional, nació en la ciudad de México, XE-RTA Radio Transcontinental de América ubicada en la calle de Ayuntamiento esquina plaza San Juan dentro del centro histórico de la capital Mexicana. Resurge el concepto radiofónico que dará promoción a música cristiana evangélica, integración familiar, valores humanos y éticos, culturales e históricos de México. El atractivo de la emisora consiste en que tiene cobertura continental a pesar de transmitir con 5,000 vatios via ionosfera- onda de cielo. RESPIRO A LA ONDA CORTA Para algunos especialistas del tema, es positivo el surgimiento de XERTA porque le dan un respiro a la onda corta tan desatendida en México ya que en nuestro país está muy atrazado en este hámbito, no así en otros paises. Incluso en Latinoamérica en algunos países donde no había sido exitosa la onda corta al pasar a ser administradas por organizaciones cristianas se convierten en exitosas así es el caso de ¨VOZ CRISTIANA¨ en el país de Chile o HCJB de Quito, Ecuador. A la fecha en México sólo hay siete emisoras de onda corta; una de ellas es XE-RTA en la frecuencia de 4810 khz.... (via Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS. Flevo Update: Cleanup Still in Progress Rocus de Joode visited the Flevo site on 12 July, and reports: "as it looks now, transmitter # 4 will be under repair for at least one more week. Today (Monday) a special team is cleaning the transmitter hall, since there were a lot of particles, dust etc flowing around in the hall. Cleaning the transmitters is no use before the hall has been cleaned. After the cleaning, the engineers hope to rebuild the transmitter. Then intensive tests are needed to check if everything works fine." We've added some photos take by Rocus on 12 July to our photo page http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/html/flevo020708.html (© Radio Netherlands Media Network 15 July 2002 via DXLD) ** NEW ZEALAND. NZ ELECTION: On Saturday 27 July New Zealand goes to the polls. RNZI will have full coverage of the NZ Election, results at 0700-1100 UT [1900-2300 NZST]. Sean Plunket hosts a Radio New Zealand News special with results and comment as the vote count continues. Programme scheduled to run until 2300 NZST. Listen on short-wave to 9885 kHz or via the Internet. RNZI's real audio live stream will be available from http://www.rnzi.com Regards (Adrian Sainsbury, Technical Manager, Radio New Zealand International (via John Figliozzi, DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3905, 1112- July 16, Radio New Ireland. Absolutely great reception this morning with news in Tok Pisin. Same YL followed by a very brief ?ad, then talk about schools, islands. Mentioned phone number 9821746 at 1130:40. A bit of hash on the upper side. ID for Radio New Ireland at 1132, then good night, and into music. A real treat having so many PNGs back! Every bit as strong as 4890 (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also BOUGAINVILLE ** PERU. Radio Nacional ya NO transmite por los 850 kHz... razones... DESCONOZCIDAS. Llamo por fono y NO saben dar razón... más importancia le dan al lado virtual: http://www.radionacional.com.pe tanta prioridad que NO existe un link en el cual ver qué frecuencia usan en tal o cual ciudad peruana... Ahora lo hace (SIN AVISAR PREVIAMENTE, CLARO ESTÁ) por los 1320 kHz, frecuencia perteneciente a Radio La Crónica, emisora pertenciente al aparato estatal... Lo mejor para Ustedes 73s (Alfredo `spacemaster` Cañote, Perú, July 16, Conexión Digital via DXLD) ** SAMOA AMERICAN. WDJD 585 in Samoa has tentatively been reported in recent days by Nev McKenty from Napier. Nev first heard the station on June 15 with no call sign ID but mention of ``the family station``, modern style hymns, ads for the internet, books and a religious message at 1059. Early in July I heard the station again. The programme was in Samoan with mainly modern style hymns in Samoan. There were a couple of western style but could only guess at one being called ``Victory for Jesus.`` Very good signal on peaks lasted from 1030 pm to 1100 pm local time [1030-1100 UT]. There was no ID given last night.`` Paul Ormandy has kept a look out for the station too, and says Ruatoria is on top at that hour for him but there are two others underneath ! (NEW ZEALAND DX TIMES JULY 2002 via DXLD) Glenn, You may already be onto this, but just in case: ``WDJD-AM Tafuna, American Samoa. Authorized for 585-kHz, operating on 580- kHz. This part of the globe uses 9-kHz spacing, but I guess they discovered that all the radios with 10-hKz steps couldn't get them, so they took it upon themselves to change frequencies.`` (via Geoff Fairbairn, Broadcast Engineering Manager, World Radio Network, July 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Interesting; source? ** SAUDI ARABIA. US STUDY SAYS SAUDI CENSORSHIP OF INTERNET "WIDESPREAD" A study by researchers in the United States has revealed the widespread nature of internet censorship in Saudi Arabia. Researchers at the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at Harvard University [web site: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/] found that a special government body which operates the high-speed data links that connect Saudi Arabia's internet services to the rest of the world blocked out not only pornographic web sites but also those on religion, women, humour, health, education, human rights, entertainment, swimsuits and even lingerie. The researchers said that when internet users in Saudi Arabia try to access blocked sites, a message pops up on the screen explaining that the action was taken to preserve the country's Islamic values. Source: BBC Monitoring research 17 Jul 02 (via DXLD) ** SLOVAKIA. Radio Slovakia International provides a terse look at upcoming programming at its website. The current week (July 15th-21st) highlights are at this URL: http://www.slovakradio.sk/rsi/ang/program.html Here's an example: 15.07.2002 Monday - News, Topical Issue - A story about the development of archeology in the territory of Slovakia & its meaning today ... - Enviromental News 16.07.2002 Tuesday - News, Topical Issue - A profile of the Slovak Recycling Fund - Sport News 17.07.2002 Wednesday - News, Topical Issue - The Scientist of the Year 2001 - awarding the best scientists in Slovakia - Business News - Currency Update 18.07.2002 Thursday - News, Topical Issue - The music festival "Under a Diamond Arch" in Kremnica - an interview with the Oscar awardee for the music to the film "Limelight" by Charlie Chaplin - Culture News 19.07.2002 Friday - News, Topical Issue - An interview with the Slovak ambassador to Poland about Slovak- Polish relationships - Back-Page News 20.07.2002 Saturday - News - Insight Central Europe - a joint programme of Radio Slovakia International, Radio Austria International, Radio Prague, Radio Budapest & Radio Polonia 21.07.2002 Sunday - Sunday Newsreel - Listeners´ Tribune By the time we hear these programs in North America, it's the next UT day, so the Monday programs will be heard in the Tuesday 0100 and 0200 UT broadcasts. [?? I thought it was only at 0100 --- gh] Since I probably won't always be able to post this information, you might leave yourself a weekly E-mail reminder (see http://www.memotome.com for an example) to visit the Radio Slovakia International website if you would like this information (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, July 15, swprograms via DXLD) ** SOMALIA. GOVERNMENT RADIO HEARD AGAIN The radio station operated by the Transitional National Government (TNG) of Somalia - which calls itself "Radio Mogadishu, Voice of the Republic of Somalia" - was heard again by BBC Monitoring on 15 July for the first time since 3 July. (According to a report published on the Ruunkinet web site on 6 July, the TNG had been in dispute with two businessmen over the supply of generators for the radio station, which may have led to its temporary closure. See our item published on 9 July entitled "Somalia: Government radio off the air, apparently as result of business dispute".) Source: BBC Monitoring research 15 Jul 02 (via DXLD) WTFK?? ** SOUTH CAROLINA. Brother Stair: The two dropped charges (according to S.S.) were the two criminal breach of trust charges. The two remaining charges are the C.S.C.s. The judge said he'd hold another hearing on or after July 29 on the question of release on bond. B.S. seems to think there's a good chance those charges also will be dropped (Robert Arthur, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN. Radio Taiwan publishes a map of their transmitter links that might be of interest http://www.cbs.org.tw/english/images/2002_espflow.gif (Daniel Say, BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes; goes by microwave to transmitter sites in Taiwan. Elsewhere, the first step is by undersea cable to Family Radio in Oakland; then by one satellite link to Okeechobee; by another, also including an internet link, eventually to a Merlin transmitter at Gerrards Cross, England on 3955. Never heard of that place; I assume it is better known by another name (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** TIBET. 9490, 1102- July 16, Tibet PBS. Fair to good signal in difficult to follow English. YL proceeded to talk about dimensions of some structure or another, though she mentioned a monastery. This is the end of this program at 1111:45, and also mentioned Holy Tibet. Into a Tibetan (or Chinese?) vocal song. Very much a tourist sounding program. Unable to hear any other parallels at this time (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. WORLD SERVICE GETS LESS THAN REQUESTED From The Guardian, John Plunkett, Monday July 15, 2002 The BBC has welcomed a £48m boost for the World Service - even though it is only two-thirds of the funding hike it requested. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown announced the increase in the Commons today (MON) as part of the Government's spending review until 2006. The increase, to be spread over the next three years, will coincide with a "rigorous programme of efficiency" at the Bush House broadcaster over the same period. BBC World Service director Mark Byford said: "The settlement is a strong endorsement... at a time when the global appetite for international news and analysis has increased. "It is recognition that the need for our values - of impartial, authoritative and editorially independent journalism - is greater than ever." The extra cash - equivalent to an annual funding increase in real terms of 3.4% - will be ploughed into recently extend BBC services in the wake of September 11 and the war on terror, in Afghanistan, south Asia and the Arab world. It will be used to develop landmark radio programmes on issues like global security, democracy and Islam, and on flagship programming for Africa, China and Europe. The cash will also be spent boosting World Service availability on FM and online. BBC Chairman Gavyn Davies added: "We feel the Government has justifiably recognised the importance and impact of the World Service by providing substantial new investment." The World Service broadcasts in 43 languages and is listened to by around 150m people every week (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** U K. Potentially Interesting Potential Time Waster: From the Ratio [sic] Times (UK): Fancy writing a sitcom about some cleaners? Of course you do. And now you can, along with five other budding writers and the aid of modern technology (the intercyberweb). A new show is being crafted and honed on the net, with the BBC seeking a team of writers to work together and make it into a worldwide success. The sitcom is about a group of late-night office cleaners and will be written online, with plotlines and characters being discussed in a virtual writers' room... but for once, the public will also be able to chip in with their own ideas and viewpoints on gags and storylines... Info is available on http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/ so start thinking up your hygiene-based jokes now... (via Tom Roche, DXLD) ** U K [non]. From laserradiolimited laser@ukmail.com laserradio@yahoogroups.com Sunday, July 14, 2002 11:01 PM Just a few lines to say a big Thank-you to all of you who either posted here or e-mailed us with your reception reports. The results look promising and once we enter the fall things should improve further! We shall be back again on July 21 - Our program director tells me he is even considering allowing a microphone in the studio for the next broadcast ...... (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** U S A. GLOBAL CONCERT TO SAVE WEBCASTING ON 22 JULY The International Webcasting Association (IWA) has teamed up with TV Worldwide.com, an Internet broadcaster and streaming media service provider, to produce a global Webcast promoting the IWA's campaign to save the Internet radio industry. The Webcast, to be carried live from State Theatre in Falls Church, Virginia, will start at 2330 UTC on 22 July. TV Worldwide.com will provide a link for simulcast transmission via Internet radio stations around the US. The event is being held in response to the growing effort to assist Internet Radio webcasters who are being forced out of business after a decision from the US Librarian of Congress regarding royalty rates paid to performers. These performer royalties, which are not paid by conventional radio stations for terrestrial broadcasts, are based on a per-listener structure rather than percent of revenue basis, resulting in royalties far in excess of the total revenue some Internet radio sites generate. The onerous nature of these rates and their retroactive enforcement are causing many Internet-only radio stations to go dark. "Webcasters recognize there is a cost to do business. What they cannot accept is a fee that restricts their ability to stay in business," commented Susan Pickering, Executive Director of the IWA. "Without a percentage of revenue structure, there is a barrier to entry for all but the largest webcasters. Webcasters provide an outlet for new artists and their music, and a source for listeners who are looking for audio entertainment not available on terrestrial radio." The Save Internet Radio Concert Webcast event will be available live and archived for later viewing at http://www.webcasters.org http://www.tvworldwide.com and through other Internet radio stations to be named shortly. Participants should have the free Real Player installed and should log on 15 minutes prior to the event at 2330 UT on 22 July (© Radio Netherlands Media Network 15 July 2002 via DXLD) ** U S A. CLASSICAL MUSIC: TUNING UP FOR THE 21ST CENTURY Radio stations balance quality with capitalism Joshua Kosman, Chronicle Music Critic Monday, July 15, 2002 ©2002 San Francisco Chronicle. Travel to just about any American city these days, and the odds are you'll have to work harder than ever to find the music of Bach, Brahms or Stravinsky on the radio dial. From Florida to California, classical stations look more and more like an endangered species. Major markets such as Detroit and San Diego, as well as San Jose and Fresno closer to home, have been without a commercial classical station for years. And the trend only seems to be getting worse. A recent Arbitron survey found that 34 of the nation's top 100 radio markets didn't have a classical station. Earlier this year, Miami's classical station, WTMI, became the latest casualty when its new owner, Cox Communications, switched it to a dance format. New York's public radio station, WNYC, has slashed its music programming in favor of more news and talk. At this rate, classical radio may soon be a thing of the past. That, at least, is one version of the story. Another version, championed most forcefully by the Bay Area's KDFC (102.1 FM), has it that classical radio has simply begun to join the 21st century. "Classical radio spent a long time imitating the concert hall experience," says Bill Lueth, the station's operations and programming manager. "That no longer works, because that's not how working-aged people listen to radio. "As classical stations figure this out and try to learn more about what their radio audience actually wants, their potential is still alive." From a business perspective, the station's success is hard to argue with. KDFC's ratings are consistently among the Bay Area's highest, a rare accomplishment for a classical format. According to Lueth, in the past three years KDFC has ranked in the top six out of 127 radio signals in the Bay Area almost every quarter and No. 1 twice. When Bonneville International Corp. of Salt Lake City took over the radio station in 1997, KDFC was 16th in the winter ratings. "Only two other major classical stations make the top 10 ever, hovering around seventh to 10th," Lueth said. "They are WCRB in Boston and our sister station WGMS in Washington. Most others rarely make the top 15." Earlier this month, the National Association of Broadcasters nominated KDFC for major-market station of the year, competing against stations from all formats. But that financial and ratings success has come from adopting conservative, marketing-driven programming, with an emphasis on short, soothing pieces -- sometimes one-movement excerpts -- drawn almost exclusively from the 18th century. For listeners looking for more adventurous fare, the KDFC formula is a mixed blessing at best. "Anybody can make money," says Bill O'Connell, a former KDFC program director who is now vice president and program manager for WCLV in Cleveland. "If you're willing to take the temperature of your audience and play only what focus groups say you should play, that's certainly a way to go. "But another way to go is the situation where the station is not owned by a large company but by a local company that feels a responsibility to the classical music aficionados of their market -- and to potential classical music partisans -- to play a wider range of styles and textures than the stations that are under financial pressure." The debate over how far classical radio can or should adapt its offerings to the changing marketplace has been fiercely fought in recent years, with charges of "pandering" and "purism" being bandied about. But there is agreement that money has indeed changed everything. Since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 deregulated radio ownership, large media companies have been buying up radio stations for enormous sums -- and then trying to make that money back with steeper profits than classical stations can ordinarily provide. "The number of classical radio stations is declining not because they were abysmal performers, but because owners need to recoup their investment," says Mario Mazza, vice president of programming at WCRB, Boston's only commercial classical station. "Classical doesn't do that. It makes money, but the margins may not be as large as they want. That doesn't mean there's a problem with the format, though." Where classical stations have changed hands, the result has been either a more populist programming approach, like that of KDFC, or a wholesale change in format. And for local owners, the lure of a big sale price can be hard to resist. Mazza cites the case of WNIB-FM in Chicago, whose owners bought the station for $8,000 in 1956 and sold it last year for $156 million to Bonneville -- which immediately changed the format to classic rock. "If you're an owner and get offered lots and lots of money for your property, it's hard to say no." One holdout is Saul Levine, the owner of Los Angeles' successful classical station KMZT-FM (K-Mozart). He bought the frequency in 1958 for next to nothing, and recently, he says, has been offered as much as $400 million for it. "That's more money than I need -- what would I do with it? I buy two suits a year and drink a bottle of good wine every couple of days. We keep going because we're dedicated to the format." In the Bay Area, though, Levine has had more difficulty keeping his hand in the classical game. He briefly tried to resuscitate the old KKHI call letters in the mid-1990s; more recently, his station at 1510 AM, also with the call letters KMZT, was offering a broad range of classical music. But last month, Levine switched the station to country -- prompted, he says, by the fact that since the demise of KYCY ("Young Country") the Bay Area had no country station. "I'm a broadcaster, not a guy who only likes to listen to classical music." ©2002 San Francisco Chronicle. Page D4 (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. I haven't heard Chinese music on the California station on 1620; they run EWTN programming, which generally alternates between recitations (Hail Mary etc.) and egregious "discussion" programs where unskilled hosts clumsily butcher even the simplest truths of the Bible night after night. (Pretty painful stuff if you enjoy studying the Good Book -- Even goofy Art Bell is probably right more often than these guys, which ain't saying much :) ) 73, (Tim Hall, CA, amfmtvdx via DXLD) ** U S A. THE CGC COMMUNICATOR CGC #523 Tuesday, July 16, 2002 Robert F. Gonsett, W6VR, Editor Copyright 2002, Communications General Corporation (CGC) ------------------------------------------------------------------ SPECIAL REPORT Human exposure to radiofrequency signals is in the news again as the FCC conducts a surprise inspection on Mt. Wilson. The issues uncovered will apply to many smaller communications sites, so sit back and read this entire Special Report. The views expressed in the following Letter to the Editor are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of CGC. The author is an experienced broadcast engineer known to CGC, and his or her name has been withheld upon request. ****************************************************************** MT. WILSON - FCC TAKES HUMAN EXPOSURE TO RADIO FREQUENCY MEASUREMENTS Today [Friday, July 12, 2002], the FCC, in an unprecedented move, shut down every Los Angeles FM and TV station operating from Mt. Wilson in a surprise RF hazard inspection. The situation seems to have started a few weeks ago with the attempted installation of a new antenna for station KDOC, CH-56. KDOC is located in the ground floor of the building known as the "Post Office." The KDOC antenna was to be mounted on a 150' pole [actually a 226' pole - Ed.] directly West of the Post office. KDOC engineers had calculated the stations that needed to reduce power and had sent out requests. When it came time to climb the pole, the tower crew found that the RF levels were still too high. They eventually found that the offending signal was from an FM station that was not on the KDOC list of stations that needed to reduce power. The station's engineer was called and asked to reduce power to 80%. He was willing to comply but was overruled by a corporate engineer saying, "I can't reduce power while everyone is listening to my morning man!" (Note that the FCC order obliges stations to comply with requests to lower power as a safety matter and without regard to ratings or revenue issues. The corporate engineer may not have known that he was exposing his company to many thousands of dollars in fines.) The FM station, after a week of negotiating, finally agreed to cooperate. Yesterday, a team of six FCC "agents" arrived at Mt. Wilson. Their first step was to perform a field intensity survey of their own. They located a site that, according to their instruments, did not meet the safety levels for public access. The site is the KMEX driveway as it rises up behind KBIG and until it reaches the KMEX building. Since there has been considerable construction in that driveway over the past few years, the gate has long since disappeared. Since there is no gate, the driveway is publicly accessible and therefore in violation. It would not have been a violation if there had been a chain across the driveway and a "No Trespassing" sign. Today, the FCC showed up ready to find out who was responsible for that hot-spot in the driveway. They had called the Chief Engineers of every station to meet at Mt. Wilson at 12:00 noon.... They set up their meter at the hot-spot and then asked each station to shut down completely, one-by-one, just long enough to make another measurement. Most stations were off for from 20 seconds to 40 seconds. This process actually took hours to complete as communications was difficult between each transmitter and the man taking the measurements. The Fox- lot stations were then asked to do the same thing for another hot-spot over there. After all of the measurements were done, everyone met at the Mt. Wilson Pavilion to discuss the situation. The agents said that they were not able to review the measurements in the field. Once they were reviewed at the office, there would be Notices of Violations and Notices of Liability (fines.) Many of the Chiefs felt that the stations exceeding the limits would probably be a handful of close-by FMs. The agents then spent a considerable time explaining the rules and the FCC's expectations. They said that the rules have been in place for several years now, and that they were no longer warning people, but enforcing the law. There was also a Q&A time. There was also considerable talk about a group of stations joining to have a new, comprehensive field study done by a qualified engineering firm. Such studies are required for licensees under the new rules. The last time this was done was in 1998 by Hammett & Edison. While some stations have shown little interest in joining the group, there is clearly a cost and accuracy benefit in having as many stations as possible join the group. Perhaps this incident will change the minds of the stations that show little interest. They are still looking for bids and there is not yet a cost estimate. The contact is Steve Colley: Steve.Colley@nbc.com or 818-840-3375. An FCC agent then explained that they were there on a regular inspection and not as a result of some incident. Most observers there did not buy this. The agents seemed to have arrived poorly prepared for the inspections, as though they had been called to Mt. Wilson at the last minute. According to some who had spoken to them on Thursday, they were very well aware of the KDOC incident. Perhaps they did not want to pursue the KDOC incident but just make a statement that was loud and clear. If so, their statement was indeed loud and clear. In any case, this incident should alert us to the fact that we have a new responsibility that cannot be ignored any longer. ****************************************************************** RESPONSE FROM READERS An advance copy of the above Letter to the Editor was circulated to a few broadcast engineers for their comments and opinions. The opinions received are divided into two groups, as follows. ****************************************************************** ABOUT THE MT. WILSON/FCC INSPECTION I think (the above story) pretty much sums things up. It will be very interesting to see what comes of this. The inspector would not give any indications of exactly what (the FCC) might do. - Radio Station Engineer ____ Perhaps this is a technical point, but there has never been a gate at the KMEX driveway as far as I know (back to at least 1984). There's always been a chain there with a RF warning sign on it, and there is another warning sign on the side of the KMEX-TV building. But alas, (when the FCC arrived) the chain was unlocked and down. And the sign was laying flat on the ground. It probably wasn't the KMEX folks that dropped the chain, rather the tower folks dealing with KDOC. That's only my guess. The chain was up and locked the day before. I (check the chain) every time I can. - TV station engineer ____ The fact that the FCC made a surprise inspection is not really a surprise. They have stated this would likely happen on several occasions during that past 12 months. Most recently, at the IWCE convention in Las Vegas, in April, one of the FCC's Enforcement Officers stated that we should not be surprised to see the issuance of Notices of Violation and Notices of Liability during the remaining part of the year as the FCC was gearing up to illustrate some examples of violations of their RF rules. The FCC did this last year on Lookout Mountain west of Denver. - Consulting Radio Engineer ****************************************************************** ABOUT GENERAL HUMAN EXPOSURE TO RF ISSUES ON MT. WILSON Seems that a few broadcasters are not very enthusiastic about human exposure to RF compliance issues. When asked to reduce power to facilitate tower work on Mt. Wilson, these excuses are sometimes heard: "I'm unavailable that day" - "I'll be on vacation then" - "How about if we reduce power from, say, 1 to 4 a.m.?" Since multiple stations may be involved in power cut backs to permit tower work, sometimes it's a miracle any work gets done at all. One tower maintenance company complained that after a power reduction was finally accomplished on Mt. Wilson, a TV GM ordered his engineer to RESUME FULL POWER operation immediately. Full power operation was resumed, without warning, and with climbers on the tower structure! Obviously, too many people do not understand the absolute necessity of cooperating and complying when it comes to human exposure to RF signal issues. Compliance with the FCC's exposure rules is the law, and failure to comply could lead to serious liability consequences, to say nothing of FCC sanctions. Much more could and probably should be said on this topic, and we hope you will send us your thoughts. ****************************************************************** YOUR COMMENTS ARE INVITED Written comments from broadcasting professionals on any of the above issues are welcome, and invited. Names will be withheld if you ask us to do so. This forum is to identify problems and look toward solutions in a generic sense, without pointing fingers at specific individuals, stations or companies. All meaningful comments (please be concise) will be published together in an upcoming Special Edition of the CGC Communicator. Let's pull together, learn from the Mt. Wilson incidents and move on. __________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------------------------------------------ The CGC Communicator is published for broadcast professionals in so. California by Communications General Corporation (CGC), consulting radio engineers, Fallbrook, CA. Short news items without attached files are always welcome from our readers; letters may be edited for brevity. E-mail may be sent to: rgonsett@ieee.org or telephone (760) 723-2700. CGC Communicator articles may be reproduced in any form provided they are unaltered and credit is given to Communications General Corporation and the originating authors, when named. Past issues may be viewed and searched at http://www.bext.com/_CGC/ courtesy of Bext Corporation. (via Dennis Gibson, DXLD) ** U S A. House Radio Bill http://www.mail-archive.com/cypherpunks-moderated%40minder.net/msg01671.html Dave Emery (N1PRE)'s outstanding review of the radio reception provisions in the Cyber Electronic Security Act passed by the House on Monday, July 15. "In effect this removes a safe harbor created during the negotiations over the ECPA back in 1985-86 which ensured that first offenses for hobby radio listening were only treated as minor crimes - after this law is passed simply intentionally tuning a common scanner to the (non-blocked) cordless phone frequencies could be prosecuted as a felony for which one could serve 5 years in jail. ..." And there's more, including changed provisions related to the publication of material heard by radio. http://www.newsignals.com http://www.spectrumfinder.net (Benn Kobb, July 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. FALLING RATINGS: BITTER MEDICINE FOR DR. LAURA? By JAY KRALL, The Associated Press, 7/15/02 8:45 AM The Wall Street Journal Recent ratings have been as hard on radio star Dr. Laura Schlessinger as she can be with the callers she sets straight on her nationally syndicated show. In the past three months, the "Dr. Laura Show" has been dropped in Boston, Chicago, Milwaukee and Charlotte, N.C. The show, based in Los Angeles, was canned in New York and Philadelphia last year... http://wizzer.advance.net/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?f0028_BC_WSJ--LauraSchlessinge&&news&newsflash-financial (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. -------------------- Static At ESPN Radio ------------------ KORNHEISER SUSPENSION LATEST IN PERSONNEL SHAKEUP By KEVIN CANFIELD, The Hartford Courant, July 17, 2002 With the recent firing of four producers and a popular on-air personality and the suspension this week of perhaps its best-known talk-show host, ESPN Radio is bordering on disarray. Tony Kornheiser, the longtime Washington Post columnist who hosts a midday show on the network and co-anchors a 5 p.m. free-for-all on ESPN's TV side, is off the air for a week after management took umbrage at some of his comments. Kornheiser's suspension follows the firing last month of Jason Jackson, who had been with ESPN for nearly seven years as a television and radio host. Jackson, a source close to the Kornheiser show said, was fired for allegedly making unwanted and suggestive comments to a female colleague. ESPN's radio unit has been an increasingly powerful force in recent years, annexing drive-time slots at stations across the country and consistently netting the best guests, from Michael Jordan to then- President Clinton. But it has been a summer of chaos at the Bristol headquarters of the sports broadcasting powerhouse. About a dozen staffers, including Eric Schoenfeld, general manager of ESPN Radio, have been let go or given time off for violations of company policy. Schoenfeld, a source said, was suspended for allegedly threatening a co-worker. Mike Soltys, an ESPN spokesman, said the network would not comment on personnel matters, and neither Kornheiser nor Schoenfeld could be reached Tuesday. It is clear, though, that this has not been an ordinary month or two for ESPN Radio. According to a source, after Jackson's firing, management looked at e-mail sent by a number of its employees. Though the e-mails were not directly related to the Jackson matter, they did contain profanity. This, the source said, led to the suspension of five employees and the firing of four producers. Two worked on the radio network's afternoon offering, "The Dan Patrick Show"; the other two worked on Kornheiser's show. The firings - particularly that of his show's senior producer, Denis Horgan Jr., whose father is a columnist at The Courant - upset Kornheiser. Kornheiser discussed the firings of Horgan and associate producer Kelvin Álvarez several times on the show. "I would do just about anything to get them back," he said on a recent broadcast. "Denis' contributions to this show were enormous. All the funny, creative things were Denis', just about." ESPN management apparently asked Kornheiser to stop talking about the matter on the air. He did but continued to discuss it on commercial breaks, which until recently were broadcast over the Internet. The network stopped broadcasting the commercial-break banter between Kornheiser and his producers about three weeks ago, and Kornheiser, who reportedly makes $500,000 a year, was notified late last week that he would be suspended without pay for a week. Meanwhile, Keith Olbermann, a former host of the network's "SportsCenter" who left ESPN in a highly publicized parting five years ago, recently hired Horgan to help write the commentaries he delivers daily for ABC Radio. "Denis is just one of the funniest, one of the brightest guys, one of the most loyal, one of the best workers I've ever worked with," Olbermann said. "If you've got rules that force you to get rid of a decent guy like Denis Horgan, there's something wrong with your rules." Copyright 2002, Hartford Courant (via Bill Westenhaver, DXLD) ** U S A [non]. VOA affiliate stations: - an up-to-date list can be found at their site: http://sds.his.com:4000/fmds_z/schedules/cur_freqsked.txt IBB website: http://monitor.ibb.gov/ (Jens Soendergaard, Randers, DENMARK, hard- core-dx via DXLD) Sorry, no, I mean the *affiliate* stations on FM and MW like R Free Africa etc. They relay VOA for part of the broadcasting time, like R Free Africa in Tanzania. There is a sample of Greek stations on http://www.voa.gov/greek/greekaff.html with a link htttp://www.voa- afl.gov but it doesn't lead anywhere. 73, (Mauno Ritola, Kiihtelysvaara, Finland, ibid.) ** U S A. KGEM, 1140, Boise, ID, is FINALLY operating non-directional daytime. They had been running with their night DA all the time because of problems with the daytime matching network. July SR is 6:15 am MDT and SS is 9:30pm. It gets dark here well before local sunset by the end of July (Bill Frahm - Boise ID, amfmtvdx via DXLD) Would you like to rephrase that? And I assume the point is that KGEM could now be heard eastward around sunset whilst non-direxional. KGEM was my first (and only) Idaho MW catch for many years back in the sixties. Still the same call, even more remarkable (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTIENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Legal Stuff saying that no one can stop you from installing an antenna: http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html Found this link on Winegard's web site. Enjoy, (Bill Nollman, July 16, WTFDA via DXLD) The subject line of the Bill's e-mail is a bit broad. While it is true that under the R&O, an owner/dweller has a right to install an antenna for TV use, that is about all it means. The Rule was written to infer a Rule of Reasonableness. Now, as anyone who has gone to law school would tell you, such rules are nothing if not vague. But, I think it is clear that the Rule is intended to allow a resident to install an antenna suitable for everyday viewing. DXing, a court would most likely find, is NOT everyday viewing (really, by definition). Of course, I can imagine that a reasonableness rule is location- dependent. Here in Germantown, TN, the type antenna allowed might be significantly smaller than someone in rural Nebraska might be allowed, as transmitters are very near my home. In short, if I attempted to install a 7' UHF dish 12' above the roof line, I would get my butt enjoined. And I should get it enjoined -- I would have gone well beyond the spirit of the Rule. The same sort of Rule applies in PRB-1, the rule that requires municipalities to "reasonably accommodate" Ham antennas. Courts will be wrestling with that definition for a while, and that will only get worse if PRB-1 is extended to CCRs. The jury is still out on this one (Peter Baskind, J.D., LL.M./AG4KI, Germantown, TN/EM55, ibid.) Good points, Peter. Luckily, my neighborhood has to get a majority of people to go to court to fight anything they don't like. Task #1 when I moved in was to make darn good friends with the neighbors, which is also good for day to day stuff as well! I also made every effort to "hide" my FM antenna behind the peak of the roof, which clears the peak by a few feet but isn't terribly visible from the street. Of course, the 7ft CM dish and VHF yagi are both in the attic :-( (Bill Nollman, ibid.) Peter, all of this is subject to a few variables, one of which is where you're located, another, as you've pointed out, is how 'extreme' you get with your antennas, still another is the jurisdiction, and still another has to do with the size of your property and where the antenna is on it relative to potential aggrieved parties. There is still a requirement that the person suing you has to demonstrate some minimum level of harm. Actually, there are some within the ham community who argue that PRB-1 guarantees every ham who owns his/her own property not within an airport's flight path to erect a tower - and a big one. We all know that ain't reality. At least those of us who are DX'ers and hams can put up two kinds of antennas :-} But, finally, for some of us, the question of a tower or how much/what antennas not infrequently comes down to a different authority - one's spouse! ===== (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA, ibid.) ** URUGUAY. Otra radio uruguaya online---- http://www.cx4radiorural.com/ 610 CX4 Radio Rural, Montevideo (Horacio A. Nigro, Montevideo - Uruguay, July 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM. VOICE OF VIETNAM CHIEF FIRED Tran Mai Hanh, Director General of Radio Voice of Vietnam, has been fired in a purge of senior party officials linked to a corruption scandal. Hanh is accused of having sought an early release from custody for gang leader Truong Van Cam, who was charged with murder, gambling and fraud. "We must pay a very painful price for the free lifestyle of a number of degenerate cadres who have failed to maintain their political standards and ethics,'' said party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh. The Voice of Vietnam's Web site lists the new Director General as Vu Van Hien (© Radio Netherlands Media Network 17 July 2002 via DXLD) ** VIETNAM [non]. Que Huong QSLs (from John Durham). The following is extracted from their QSL (verbatim): Monitoring of our broadcasts is important for the technical information we receive, as well as for information about our audience. Additionally, the stories of our listeners augment dimension of our transmissions , putting a ``face`` at the leading end of the short wave. As background, you should know that Que Huong Radio is a private Vietnamese Broadcasting Corporation mainly serving the Vietnamese American in Northern California, United States since 1994. Que Huong Radio is the only 24 hour daily, all Vietnamese radio station outside Vietnam. We are broadcasting on 1120 AM frequency. On shortwave program which mainly broadcasted to Vietnam, we are trying to promote freedom and human rights for all Vietnamese people in Vietnam. If you have any friend who is a shortwave listener, please encourage him to send reception reports to us at above address. Reports can be in English and Vietnamese. Signed Nguyen Khoi, Manager of Que Huong Radio. Addr: 2670 S. White Rd, Suite 165, San José, CA 95148. URL: http://www.quehuongmedia.com/ E-mail: quehuong@quehuongmedia.com Sked via KWHR: Apr 02: 1300-1330 9930 kHz (NEW ZEALAND DX TIMES JULY 2002 via DXLD) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QSL INFORMATION PAGES 6000 Thanks to the help from old and new contributors and to an exchange agreement with another DX Club (BDXC-UK) the QSL Information Pages [QIP] for BC-DX er's at http://www.schoechi.de/qip-indx.html have been updated several times in the past days. Now QIP presents QSL logs from more than 6000 BC stations from 226 radio-'countries'. Even the zip-files have been updated in order to provide you with all the logs when you are 'offline'. All comments, QSL-logs and design-advices are very welcome. But please do not send pictures to me (only pictures of Clandestine Radio Stations) Martin Schöch --------------------------------------------------------- Martin Schoech - PF 1136 - 06201 Merseburg - Deutschland --------------------------------------------------------- E-mail: schoechi@gmx.de Website: http://www.schoechi.de +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PROPAGATION +++++++++++ Space Weather News for July 16, 2002 http://www.spaceweather.com A remarkable sunspot is crossing the face of the Sun. The large active region stretches 15 Earth-diameters from end-to-end and poses a threat for powerful flares. Indeed, on July 15th, twisted magnetic fields above the spot erupted. The explosion sparked an X-class solar flare and hurled a coronal mass ejection into space. As a result, sky watchers on Earth might spot auroras on Tuesday or Wednesday night. Visit spaceweather.com for more information and updates. (via Russ Edmunds, NJ, amfmtvdx via DXLD) At 1958Z, a major flare began. At 2008Z, it was at an X3.0 on the scale. This is a MAJOR event. Most HF is degraded - no propagation. More info follows. One may see the current level at http://www.sec.noaa.gov/rt_plots/xray_1m.html And other info at http://prop.hfradio.org/ 73 de (Tomas, NW7US // AAR0JA swl July 15 via DXLD) PROPAGATION WARNING: Conditions could become pretty Rough for a short time within the next 48 Hours. More likely on 17th and 18th July 2002. This is due to 2 'X' Solar Flares and maybe concurrently the effects (Now diminishing) of an old Coronal Hole. which may have rotated into a partially Geoeffective Position, by to-day, 16th July 2002.. (Ken Fletcher, UK, 1820UTC=1920UTC+1 16th July 2002, BDXC-UK via DXLD) Product: Weekly Highlights and Forecasts Issued: 2002 Jul 16 2212 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Environment Center # Product description and SEC contact on the Web # http://www.sec.noaa.gov/weekly.html # # Weekly Highlights and Forecasts # Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 08 - 14 July 2002 Solar activity was at low to high levels. Activity rose to high levels on 11 July due to an M5/2b flare from Region 30 (N19, L = 013, class/area Fkc/780 on 14 July). Region 30 also produced isolated low- level M-class flares on 08, 11, and 13 July. All of these flares were unremarkable in radio aspects. Region 30 grew steadily in size and magnetic complexity and developed multiple magnetic delta configurations by the close of the period. Forecaster's note: Region 30 produced an X3/3b flare and halo CME on 15 July. Details will be provided in next week’s edition. Solar wind data were available from the NASA Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft for most of the summary period. Solar wind speeds were elevated during 09 – 10 July with peaks to around 530 km/sec, likely due to a negative- polarity coronal hole. Speeds were also elevated during 12 – 13 July with peaks to around 600 km/sec, likely due to a positive-polarity coronal hole. A greater than 10 MeV proton event ended at geo- synchronous orbit at 08/0620 UTC (the event began at 07/1830 UTC following a long-duration event near the Sun’s southwest limb). There were no proton events during the rest of the period. Greater than 2 MeV electron fluxes at geo-synchronous orbit were at normal to moderate levels through 11 July, then decreased to normal levels for the rest of the period. Geomagnetic field activity was at quiet to active levels during 09 and 12 July, likely due to coronal hole effects. There were also brief minor storm periods at high latitudes on 12 July. Quiet to unsettled conditions prevailed during the rest of the period. Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 17 July - 12 August 2002 Solar activity is expected to range from low to moderate levels during most of the period. Isolated low-level M-class flares are possible throughout the period. Region may produce additional isolated major flare activity before it rotates out of view on 23 July. There is a chance for a proton-producing flare from Region 30 before it rotates out of view on 23 July. Greater than 2 MeV electron fluxes at geo- synchronous orbit are expected to be at normal to moderate levels for most of the period. Geomagnetic field activity is expected to increase to active to minor storm levels during 17 – 18 in response to the halo CME observed late on 15 July. Active periods are possible during 20 July; and during 02, 05, and 08 August due to recurrent coronal hole effects. Quiet to unsettled conditions are expected during the remainder of the period. Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt Issued: 2002 Jul 16 2211 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Environment Center # Product description and SEC contact on the Web # http://www.sec.noaa.gov/wwire.html # # 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table # Issued 2002 Jul 16 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2002 Jul 17 180 20 4 2002 Jul 18 185 20 4 2002 Jul 19 185 12 3 2002 Jul 20 185 15 3 2002 Jul 21 185 10 3 2002 Jul 22 180 10 3 2002 Jul 23 160 8 3 2002 Jul 24 150 7 2 2002 Jul 25 145 7 2 2002 Jul 26 145 10 3 2002 Jul 27 145 10 3 2002 Jul 28 145 10 3 2002 Jul 29 145 10 3 2002 Jul 30 145 7 2 2002 Jul 31 145 7 2 2002 Aug 01 140 12 3 2002 Aug 02 135 15 3 2002 Aug 03 135 12 3 2002 Aug 04 135 10 3 2002 Aug 05 140 15 3 2002 Aug 06 150 12 3 2002 Aug 07 155 10 3 2002 Aug 08 160 15 3 2002 Aug 09 165 10 3 2002 Aug 10 170 8 3 2002 Aug 11 175 8 3 2002 Aug 12 175 8 3 (from http://www.sec.noaa.gov/radio via DXLD) ###