DX LISTENING DIGEST 2-202, December 24, 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 1161: WWCR: Wed 1030 9475 RFPI: Wed 0700, 1300 on 7445 and/or 15039 WJIE: M-F 1300, daily 0400 -- maybe; Sun 0630, Mon 0700, Tue 0630 7490 WORLD OF RADIO 1162: [High] (Download) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1162h.rm (Stream) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1162h.ram [Low] and (Summary) not yet available as of early UT Wednesday FIRST AIRINGS of WORLD OF RADIO 1162: WBCQ Wed 2300 on 7415, 17495-CUSB WWCR Thu 2130 on 9475 RFPI Fri 1930 on 15039 HOLIDAY MONITORING REMINDERS I have just completed compilation of a great number of holiday specials, mostly on webcasting US public radio stations, but also WGN, CBC, BBC and some others, for Dec. 24 and 25 into UT Dec. 26. Enjoy: http://www.worldofradio.com/calendar.html (Glenn Hauser, swprograms via DXLD) And further updates at least a day ahead at a time UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS Quite a compilation, Glenn! I don't know where you find the time, but I-- for one--are very glad you do. Thanks for another year of consistent and faithful service to the radio loving and listening community. Warmest best wishes for the Holidays, as well (John Figliozzi, NY) Glen[n], hope you can take some time out over the next couple of weeks to enjoy the season. Thank you for another wonderful year of DX news, and the help you have personally given me in identifying stations. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (Mark Coady, Ontario) Glenn, you've put in countless hours of effort and thought into the column over 2002, and I just wish to say 'thank you' for giving so much back to our hobby. Radio as a hobby touches us in so many ways, from DX to QSL, from technical to enjoying music, news and sports, and from windows on other cultures and beliefs to education and inspiration. From antique radios to the latest gizmo, from learning languages to collecting station promotional material and airchecks, politics, art and even genealogy these days as people look back at radio history to find family links and so much more. Your regular 'warts and all' roundup reflects well on all contributors, and is a wonderful mystery grab bag each time from which we readers can pick and choose as we each enjoy our own world of radio. Well done, have a happy holiday season, and looking forward to more in 2003 (David Ricquish, NZ DX Times) ** AFGHANISTAN. PAPER CONDEMNS INSTALLATION OF FOREIGN RADIO TRANSMITTERS IN AFGHANISTAN | Text of report by Afghan newspaper Payam-e Mojahed on 19 December The Ministry of Information and Culture has violated the press law by permitting the installation of foreign radio transmitters in the country. After the establishment of the transitional government, BBC radio, Voice of America and Radio France received permission from either the minister or deputy minister of information and culture to install their transmitters inside the premises of [Afghanistan] radio- television and embark on broadcasting their programmes received via satellites. The first paragraph of the fourth article of the press law considers broadcast of radio-television programmes as the privilege of the citizens of Afghanistan. It is worth reminding that the 1343 [1964y] constitution that is now in force (except for chapters referring to the king and the national council) radio and television broadcasting is the monopoly of the government. It seems that the Ministry of Information and Culture, which had drafted the press law, has not taken the articles of 1343 constitution into account. Therefore, the installation of foreign radio transmitters on the soil of Afghanistan is contrary to the constitution and the press law. The Justice Ministry and the office of attorney general are duty bound to take necessary actions in case of violation of the law. It is worth mentioning that so far the foreign radio stations are broadcasting on FM which has a short range. However, according to another agreement that was signed recently by the minister of information and culture with the president of the Voice of America in Washington, the Voice of America will be permitted to install a mediumwave transmitter in Pol-e Charkhi for broadcasting its programmes. The main problem will arise when foreign countries embark on broadcasting their television programmes in the country which will inflict cultural and social harms on the society that could not be compensated. It is worth reminding that the Ministry of Information and Culture has undertaken these agreements unilaterally and without consulting with the cabinet or the head of state, otherwise, this explicit infringement of law would have been pointed out in the cabinet. It is to be added that the government of Afghanistan has no control over the content of programmes that are disseminated by foreign radio stations, and in many respects the contents of the programmes of these radios are contrary to the government policy, religious values, and the customs and traditions of our Muslim people. A point worth mentioning is that the minister of information and culture has signed a similar agreement for rebroadcasting Iranian radio programme, but fearing the reaction of the Western countries he is dragging his feet to implement it. Source: Payam-e Mojahed, Kabul, in Dari and Pashto 19 Dec 02 (via BBCM via WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. Direct from Roger Broadbent of Radio Australia, we have this program note and addition/correction to this week's e-mail newsletter: "On Christmas Day we will be joining forces with the ABC's Local Radio Network which brings together Metropolitan and Regional stations across the nation. We will join them after the news at 1905 UT on Tuesday [which of course is Christmas morning here in Australia] and stick with them until 1500 UT on Wednesday [Boxing Day morning here]. There will be RA news at the top of each hour." To all, Warmest Greetings of the Season! (via John Figliozzi, RA Previews via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. UNIDENTIFIED 15065.05, 0728 Dec 22 relaying Radio Australia's programme on Helen Duncan, then into "discussions on archaeology" with Patrick Green (some sort of harmonic of RA??) (David Norrie, NZ, hard-core-dx via DXLD) Find two RA frequencies on the air at that time on the 15 MHz band, at the proper separation producing mixing product here (gh, DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Em 1º de janeiro, o presidente eleito do Brasil, Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva, toma posse. As rádios Nacional AM, de Brasília (DF), e Nacional da Amazônia, em ondas curtas, estão anunciando cobertura completa do evento, a partir das 0800. A Nacional da Amazônia pode ser ouvida em 6180 e 11780 kHz [via WORLD OF RADIO 1162] BRASIL - A rádio Canção Nova, de Cachoeira Paulista (SP), está mudando de direção. Pedro Roberto, que também apresentava o programa Além Fronteiras, voltado para os radioescutas, vai comandar uma emissora da Rede Canção Nova localizada no Vale do Paraíba, no estado de São Paulo. O Além Fronteiras continuará a ser emitido, aos sábados, às 2100, com apresentação de Eduardo Moura e Antônio Kosta (Célio Romais, @tividade DX Dec 23, via DXLD) ** CANADA. The advert was published on Thursday. It does include the shortwave facilities in Sackville and you can rule the world via shortwave into kings' presidents' ears! Linkname: Coordinator's Communique # 30 URL: http://www.cbucc.org/cc2002/cns30.htm ______________________________________________________________________ December 19, 2002 Transmitters We were today advised that the RFP (request for proposals) may be going out to potential third party suppliers of transmitter servicing as of late tomorrow (Friday, Dec 20, 2002). Apparently CBC intends to give the union a copy of this RFP, and some information on the bid by Corporate Directors and Managers to take over this work. We were advised that although no decision has been taken, there are 122 CEP members potentially affected, and CBC would consider this as an outsourcing under article 41 of our agreement. This means that regardless of whether members take jobs with a new company, they would get a full 4 weeks per year severance. As well, should they not want or get jobs with the new company, they have full national bumping and redeployment rights, including the right to turn down redeployments in favour of bumps. These significantly enhanced rights were part of the negotiated settlement during our strike in 1999. And of course our practice has been that maintenance techs can redeploy to other maintenance positions and write the exams some months later, if they are not currently qualified. In addition the exams themselves have not been kept up to date, so we have been routinely waiving the writing of exams. If this outsourcing goes forward, we foresee significant impacts on the Radio and Television operations. Once we have a copy of the information we will be deciding whether it meets the test of the collective agreement. We will be consulting with legal counsel and with transmitter technicians about this information early in the New Year. In Solidarity, Mike Sullivan, National Representative, CEP (via Daniel Say, BC, DXLD) CEP is the techs` union ** CANADA. Hello, This week, [Sat Dec 28], we have a special feature on Quirks & Quarks: The Quirks Question Show. Yes - it's another edition of the award-winning Question Show, where we answer your scientific queries. Find out why snow is white, why bugs are attracted to light, whether dinosaurs had ears, and what would happen if the sun suddenly went out. All these and many more questions, Saturday right after the noon news on Radio One (Bob McDonald, Host, Q&Q mailing list via DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. 760, HJAJ, RCN Barranquilla, Dec 23 0057 - With canned local ID "En el Atlántico, H-J-A-J, 760 kilohertz, RCN Barranquilla", then RCN promo with man saying that this network attracts 75% of the Caracol listenership; a modern version of the "RCN, La radio de Colombia" jingle; followed by "Tiempo de Noticías Banco Popular, Banco Popular --- lo último en suceso" with a report from a narcotraficant in Cartagena and the "Policía de Bogotá". Building signal strength from poor to quite good. + Dec 23 0200+ Very good to fair, in WJR null with Phillips radio pointed at south, with talk-show about Colombia (presumably a part of the "Navidad de (Tendicos?) program); some splash from next-door WABC on 770. Heard this while walking in my Edward Higgins street! + DEC 23 0246 - On the Wootside street noted this excellent with absolutely no interferences at all in a very solid WJR null with a nice X-mas song by a younger child, then man in Spanish mentioning the program "Navidad de (su hijos?)", "tendicos?" or whatever that word is and talking a bit about the competition between various children`s singing Christmas songs from all over Colombia and winning various prizes, then another child song that sounded more like a speech than like a song. About that time, I tuned down to 530 kHz to hear music of more quality! The passants were looking very briefly to us, while hearing Spanish gospel on that radio (from Radio Vision Cristiana, of course; I don't think they knew this either) + Dec 23 0301 good, but quickly lost with signal fading down in strength, with anti drug aid with a child"...jugar" then strong man with "Prevenir consuma, compromiso de Colombia contra la droga", then lost to clutter and WABC-770 het/slop and weaker remains of nulled WJR Detroit; at the time I was glimpsing a coline on the Cérez Park while seeing a Ms with 2 dogs, one of the dogs jumping to Tom (our German shepherd dog) was down near the balanseories (Bogdan Chiochiu, QC, hard-core-dx via DXLD) ** COSTA RICA. [RFPI-Vista] Vista-Online Christmas 2002 December 24, 2002 Dearest RFPI Supporters and Listeners, 2002 has been a year full of challenges and difficulties for RFPI, perhaps the hardest year it has experienced in its existence. However, due to the commitment of our listeners and supporters, RFPI has made it through the year and is now able to enter 2003 in better shape than we would have thought possible. 13 years ago, RFPI was visited by Doctor Harry Bury (a long time peace activist) who helped us plan our vision for our young radio project. He asked us to map out our vision for the first year, the first five years and the first ten years. This we did; by the end of the 10 year plan we wanted to have our own offices and studios (we were based in an area little bigger than a closet at the time) and a high powered shortwave transmitter capable of providing a quality signal with 24 hour programming to our listeners. As we sit today in our offices up on the mountain, with the volcano in the far distance, listening to our 24 hour a day programming, we realize that we are living and operating the vision proposed a decade ago. 2003 promises to be a milestone year and the beginning of the next 10 year vision, some of which has already started and we will build on from 2003. The new Peace Journalism and Progressive Media Through Radio course will be starting on January 27th and running throughout the year. RFPI has trained over three hundred peace journalists in the last 15 years and is becoming a center of excellence for the training of independent international journalists in the areas of human rights, social justice and environmental reporting. Besides supporting the station through funds raised, it creates a trained network of independent journalists who contribute to the station and other independent outlets in the rest of the world on an ongoing basis after completing their training. RFPI has been asked in the past to train indigenous people here in Costa Rica to enable them to make use of the frequencies set aside for their use by the Costa Rican government and is hoping to gain funding to allow us to do this in 2003. RFPI will also run courses for Costa Ricans as part of the push towards facilitating the setting up of other community radio stations here and world-wide. We have long-term expertise in setting up radio stations and managing them on little money, as well as technical knowledge regarding production, transmitter-building, etc which we want to share with independent organizations who want to set up their own radio stations. We recognize that we are living through times where the battle of information, and access to it, information output and control is a critical tool of contemporary political struggle with independent media at its core and we want to play a very active part in dealing with that reality. Within the next two years, RFPI will bring back its Progressive News Network, which was a popular Monday-Friday RFPI-produced world news program, unhindered by corporate involvement. RFPI will work towards the establishment of a Latin America-based independent news agency, (as called for by the McBride report many years ago now, commissioned by UNESCO, identifying the coming "New World Information and Communication Order" as a cause for grave concern and advocating amongst other things, greater support for independent media and the establishment of such news agencies in continents other than North America and Europe.) Directly connected to this, in 2003 RFPI plans to launch a campaign directed at UNESCO which will assess and criticize its failure to fully implement the McBride Report .One World, Many Voices,. culminating in an open letter and report to be signed by independent media all over the world and submitted to UNESCO with proposals for their future role in supporting democratic communications for the new century. Stay tuned for more information on this. RFPI will be adding to our current line up of programming with more independent programs sourced from a wider variety of countries and independent producers from all over the world. We will also be increasing our in-house productions and beginning our Spanish language programming again. Amongst planned RFPI in-house productions will be a history and personal stories from indigenous people in Costa Rica and recordings of the indigenous language local to the area where the radio station is based which is currently dying out, to be shared in projects with local schools, a regular Migration report, as well as a regular report on events in Colombia and the activities of peace movements there. We also plan some innovative programming made by children for children all over the world. RFPI will be on the cutting edge of radio production by bringing you internet interactive radio, thus bringing listeners into the radio show en masse for the live exchange of ideas from one side of the world to the other. We hope to have our 24 hour web-casting service fixed again early in 2003 and are struggling through red tape and bureaucracy in order to make this happen once again. We ask all our members to help support this vision by contributing your own ideas as well as financial assistance. None of these great projects can be achieved without you, and we would not be here today if you had not given us such strong support over the years. This year we ask you to support us as much as ever in this new stage of RFPI`s history and to stay with us and watch the unfolding of our collective dream. Please contact us here at RFPI if they have any questions or comments about Vista Online, our programming, or the station in general. If any of you have comments or ideas on how we can improve our service to you, or you want to send us a donation, enquire about the Peace Journalism course or volunteering with us, please send us a note via e-mail or traditional mail. Email: info@rfpi.org or rfpiradio@yahoo.com Mail: Radio For Peace International PO Box 75 Cuidad Colon, San Jose, Costa Rica Central America Tel. +506 - 249 1821 Fax. +506 - 249 1095 For information on how to make a donation via Pay Pal, check out our website at www.rfpi.org and click on the Pay Pal icon. We wish you a peaceful holiday on behalf of all the RFPI staff. _______________________________________________ RFPI-Vista mailing list RFPI-Vista@boinklabs.com http://www.boinklabs.com/mailman/listinfo/rfpi-vista (via DXLD) ** CROATIA [non]. Hi Glenn, Happy holidays. I was delayed in sending this, but here it is: Radio Croatia International 12/22/02: 7285, 0300-0400 GMT, SINPO 24333. Rebroadcast started 0401 following for Western North America. Announced as "a special two hour broadcast." Broadcast in several languages (including Spanish), a long segment presumably in Croatian dialect of Serbo-Croatian. English ID and Croatian news in English 0345-0350 and 0410-0415. Schedule as announced: (times were announced in local time) [gh rechecked 0400 UT Dec 25 announcement, viz.:] 9925 9:00 PM-11:00 PM Argentine 0000-0200 UT to S. America 7285 9:00 PM-11:00 PM EST 0200-0400 UT to E. NAm 7285 8:00 PM-10:00 PM PST 0400-0600 UT to W. NAm 9470 7:00 PM- 9:00 PM Wellington 0600-0800 UT to New Zealand 13820 7:00 PM- 9:00 PM E. Aust. 0800-1000 UT to Australia This was not a frequency I could find for them published for B 02, although I might just have missed it. None the less, it was coming in well (Mark Taylor, Madison, WI, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, 7285 booming in here at 0310 Dec 25 in Croatian, lots of mentions of Hrvatska anyway. English news around 0340, and 0358 recheck had them reciting schedule in Spanish. Cut off at 0359:30 or so for beam switch, back at 0400 with weaker and much flutterier signal, aimed toward west coast, and now adjacent SSB hams could be heard, no doubt pissed at this new affront. 7285 replaces 9925, where nothing remains after 0200, all presumably still relayed by DTK Germany, and outdating the schedule published recently in DXLD 2-199. The Europeans just won`t stop invading the North American hamband. You`d think DTK would know better, if not HRT. Intruder Watch Alert!! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. "Radio Reloj desde Habana Cuba" heard Dec. 24 under the BBC 6195 until that closed at 0759:30 and then in the clear. A good signal until off (noted c0840 re-check). Rolling news read by two male voices - seconds ticks - TC's every minute accompanied by a short burst of CW - ID most minutes including various announcements. Detailed weather forecast noted 0811. Last heard briefly December 16th until off at 0804 (Noel R. Green, Blackpool, NW England, Dec 24, Cumbredx mailing list via WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DXLD) ** CUBA. Hi Glenn: I've noted in DXLD the discussion about where RHC is for the 2030-2130 broadcast. I've just been listening to a good signal on 11670. They were announcing 13660 and 13750, but of course neither of those were heard. Season's Greetings! (Harold Sellers, Newmarket, Ontario, Dec 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, seem to have settled on 11670, also noted here, at 2030-2130, but STILL awaiting completely updated new schedule (gh, DXLD) ** CYPRUS TURKISH. An addendum to my report to you yesterday: After going back and reading George Maroti's report about Radio Bayrak from Dec. 7th (DXLD 2-193), he had heard the Supremes song 'Baby Love' at 2201 on 6150. That is exactly what I heard yesterday (12/22) at the same time, 2201, and at 2206 I heard the song 'Sounds of Silence'. I'm wondering if they have part of that program 'canned', or whether they just have a small supply of records? Best wishes, (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, Dec 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. Glen[n], Gerry Bishop's logging on 5009.8 is definitely Radio Cristal. They do, however, relay Radio Pueblo (HIBL 1510) often during our late afternoons and evenings. From my January column, "Your Reports" in "Listening In" - the monthly magazine of the Ontario DX Association - I was fortunate to log them on November 25 at 2257 with lively Latin American dance music, canned Radio Pueblo ID at 2300 followed by a musical interlude, a mention of "Noticias e Informativo" then another ID at 2302 followed by what sounded like "por Radio Cristal, onda corta". (Mark Coady, Ont., Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FINLAND. NA-test: As informed also earlier SWR's 25 mb beam is now directed towards North-America. This direction is on from 10 PM to 06 AM UT. Please listen and let us know if you can listen this test! Our number for calls and SMS's is +358 400 995 559. Our schedule (25 mb): 10PM to midnight UTC 11720 kHz, 00-02 AM UTC 11690 kHz, 02-09 AM UTC 11720 kHz. Frequencies might change without notice, so please try both ones! Best Regards, Alpo, Scandinavian Weekend Radio, Dec 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. Every year, DW's German Service offers a special selection of Christmas programming that--due to a generous use of music and the station's unsurpassed reception quality--is easily accessible even to those who don't understand German. Tune around through the major shortwave bands and you will undoubtedly come upon the station broadcasting to your area during prime listening hours. Good Listening! DEUTSCHE WELLE GERMAN SERVICE SPECIAL PROGRAMMING FOR CHRISTMAS DW works to an 0600-0559 UT daily cycle. For our purposes, the new day starts at 0600. Heiligabend (Christmas Eve) 2205, 0205 - Der Bunte Teller (The Multicolored Palette): Geschichten und Gedichte (Stories and Poems to the Celebration). 2305, 0305 - Christmas Carols 0005, 0405 - Funkjournal (RadioJournal) 0035, 0435 - (A documentary featuring the voices of the homeless) 0105, 0505 - Weihnacht-Gottesdienst kath. (Christmas Service-Catholic) - aus dem Dom zu Munster, Bischof Reinhard Lettmann (from the Cathedral of Munster, Bishop Reinhard Lettman, Principal Celebrant) Weihnachtstag (Christmas Day) 0605, 1005, 1405, 2205, 0205 - Weihnachts-Pop (pop Christmas music) 0705, 1105, 1505, 1905, 2305, 0605 - DW-Weihnachtskonzert 2002 (DW Christmas Concert 2002): St. Gereon, Koln, Weihnachtsmusik des italienischen Barock mit Chor Accentus Concerto Koln (from St. Gereon Church in Cologne, Italian Baroque Christmas music with the Accentus Concert Choir of Cologne). 0905, 1305, 1705, 2105, 0105, 0505 - Was ihr Wollt (What You Want) - (Presumably a Christmas music request program). 26 December (Day After Christmas) 0605, 1005, 1405, 2205, 0205 - DW prasentiert Alfred Brendel: Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven (Classical Concert). Seasons Greetings, (John Figliozzi, NY, ODXA via DXLD) Should be more specials for Sylvester and Jahrwechsel (gh) ** GERMANY. Holzkirchen moved to KUWAIT? q.v. ** HAITI. As reported in a recent Newfoundland DXpedition, Radio Ginen, 1030 (nom. 1050) Port-au-Prince, noted here 12/21 at 1745 EST [2245 UT] with OM in Creole giving a sermon(?) to an audience. As usual reception only good for about 10-15 min. with heavy QRM from the SS station in the Orlando area, nonetheless still there for those who hear something "strange" on 1030 (Greg Myers, Clearwater, FL, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** INDIA. INDIAN STUDENTS CLAIM THE AIRWAVES From The BBC: Friday, 20 December, 2002, 14:37 GMT By Ayanjit Sen, BBC reporter in Delhi The Indian Government is to allow colleges and universities across the country to set up their own radio stations. The decision has been welcomed by many universities as well as students - previously unable to get licences. The government will not charge any licence fees for the new radio stations which will be created at a time when India is opening up radio frequencies for the private sector. Radio broadcasting in India began in 1927 - but it is now seen to be time for the country's university students to tune into something closer to their hearts. Many people argue the time is right for new programmes, more listeners and new presenters - who would be starting their careers while they are young. The university stations will be amongst a number of FM radio stations which are soon going to be launched with educational and entertainment programmes. The Indian Information and Broadcasting Minister, Sushma Swaraj, said all universities, Indian Institute of Management, Indian Institute of Technology and residential schools would be granted permission. Apart from educational programmes... we will also be interested to air traditional and folk songs of the country. She said programmes in local language would help to tap into young talent, who would then get a chance to produce programmes. These FM stations would be set up with half a kilowatt of transmission power which would be able to broadcast in a range of five kilometres. These projects are expected to cost between $8,000 and $16,000. Professor SM Sajid, from the project in Delhi's Jamia Milia Islamia University told the BBC they have already sent a proposal to the government regarding the setting up of an FM station. "Apart from educational programmes like academic discussions, we will also be interested to air traditional and folk songs of the country," said Mr Sajid. He said the idea is to use the radio station as a supplement for academic inputs as well as provide entertainment. Although there will be no licence fee the government said rules for running such stations will be outlined soon. District authorities will keep a watch on programmes broadcast from these FM stations, which would be in accordance with the programming code of the state-run All India Radio. A senior Delhi University official, Shyam Menon, said the university is in the process of preparing a project to set up a station. He said, if implemented, the university will use it as a social medium where students can communicate with each other as well as an educational medium. A Delhi University student, Reshma Thakur, said students will now be able to get news about what is happening in the campus. One of the most famous Indian radio presenters, Ameen Sayani, told the BBC he expects these FM band stations to be very successful. "Since these programmes will be without commercials, it will attract more listeners who are already tired of too many advertisements broadcast on radio," he said. According to estimates, there are radio sets in about 105 million households in the country (via Mike Terry, DXLD) About time; how many people per household? ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. From http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk/news.htm TEMPORARY TRANSMISSIONS. Our satellite signal is being currently carried on Hotbird 6. Listeners with motorised dishes can tune to : 13 Degrees East. Transponder 94. 12597 GHz. Vertical Polarity. Symbol Rate 27.5 FEC 3/4. We do not suggest that those with fixed dishes go to the trouble of attempting to get this signal. PERMANENT NEW CHANNEL In the early days of Jan 2003 we will be taking a full time long term channel on a 28 degree satellite. Those currently having dishes pointing at 19.2 should shift them to 28 and use the following information to hear out signal. 11661 GHz. Horizontal Polarity. Symbol Rate 27.5. FEC 2/3 Anyone possessing ' Sky ' equipment will simply have to select the ' other channels' menu and enter the above settings (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. Hello Mr. Hauser, Firstly, let me send you and your family all the very best for Christmas and the new year 2003. I am writing to let you know that there are a number of interesting channels available on Worldspace digital satellite radio. I assume that you have already studied this, but I recently purchased one of these receivers and found it to be most interesting and entertaining. The unit itself is a Hitachi KH-WS 1 and is using an outdoor yagi antenna, manufactured by a company in Bombay, India, whose name escapes me. Worldspace makes all its channels available on it, and features Radio Prague, Polish Radio, etc. I am actually receiving the Afristar beam, that covers Europe, Mideast and Africa. Thought that you would be interested in knowing about this. Happy holidays (Christopher Lewis, UK, Dec 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. The future of radio is here. I've been listening to something called satellite radio for the past month and I'm convinced that everyone should give it a try. Satellite radio involves getting a special receiver for your auto or home that picks up signals beamed down from outer space. The reception is digitally enhanced and the quality of the programming is superb.... http://www.sun-herald.com/NewsArchive2/122302/np4.htm?date=122302&story=np4.htm (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS. Two Newsflashes - POLICE RAID THEN LEAVE ARUTZ 7 SHIP AT SEA From http://www.arutzsheva.org/news.php3?id=36057 13:53 Dec-24-02, 19 Tevet 5763 Israel Police Raid Ship, Close Down Arutz-7 Radio At 1 PM today, Israel Police raided the Eretz HaTzvi ship at sea, and closed down Arutz-7 radio broadcasts. Internet broadcasts are not affected. Arutz-7 officials noted that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of the Likud is the only Prime Minister to ever have given an order to close Arutz-7. Left-wing Prime Ministers Rabin, Peres, and Barak did not see fit to give such orders. 14:20 Dec-24-02, 19 Tevet 5763 ISRAEL POLICE LEAVE ARUTZ-7 SHIP, BROADCASTS RESUME Arutz-7 broadcasts were stopped for over an hour this afternoon when Israel Police raided the Eretz HaTzvi ship at sea. The raid began at 1 PM, the hour of Arutz-7's daily newsmagazine. The police left the ship at around 2:15, and broadcasts resumed (via Mike Terry, DXLD) OFFSHORE : ARUTZ SHEVA EQUIPMENT NOT CONFISCATED DUE TO LOGISTICAL PROBLEMS By Efrat Shalom and Nadav Shragai, Ha'retz Correspondents and Ha'retz Service, Tuesday, December 24, 2002, http://www.haaretzdaily.com/ Police and Communication Ministry officials on Tuesday raided the "Eretz Hatzvi" ship from which the Arutz Sheva pirate radio station broadcasts, though no equipment was confiscated and no arrests were made due to logistical and technical difficulties. The officials, who had search warrants, documented the station's activities, questioned the ship's captain, and recorded his personal details. The captain was warned that he was taking part in a criminal offense. The station's broadcasts were renewed one hour after the raid, the police said. In a deliberation on election propaganda that took place several days ago, the chairman of the Central Elections Committee, Judge Mishael Cheshin, instructed police to check whether elections propaganda was being broadcast on pirate radio stations. According to police claims, the raid was not linked to Cheshin's instructions, but was part of ongoing police handling of illegal Arutz Sheva broadcasts, following a Communications Ministry complaint filed in 1997. The "Eretz Hatzvi" ship is situated off of the Tel Aviv coast, outside Israel's territorial waters. However, the broadcasts originate in the West Bank settlement of Beit El, and the ship serves as a relay station. This is the first time police have raided the ship at sea. The ship had been raided while docked at the Ashdod port, and since then it has not anchored at ports in Israel. In the past, police raided the station in Beit El, and findings were transferred to the Attorney General. The police intends to continue the investigation, and at its conclusion, all findings will be presented to a court. The National Union - Yisrael Beiteinu party says Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is "shutting the mouths of the only broadcast station trying to avert a disaster in the state of Israel." During the raid, the Yesha Council called on Public Security Minister Uzi Landau to immediately renew Arutz Sheva broadcasts, which it claims serve as a "national and patriotic shofar." (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ARUTZ-7 SHIP RAIDED, WARNED NOT TO BROADCAST http://www.israelnationalnews.org/news.php3?id=36073 24 December 2002 Israel Police and Communications Ministry personnel raided the Eretz HaTzvi broadcasting ship of Arutz-7 Israel National Radio this afternoon, halting the station's signal for over an hour. The ship's captain was warned not to resume transmission of the broadcasts. The raid began at 1 PM, just as the news magazine hour was about to begin, and ended approximately 2:15. The police photographed equipment and workers, but confiscated nothing. Reports on Israel Radio that the police found only one person on board - the captain - are groundless, and in fact there were close to ten crewmembers on board at the time. Arutz-7 broadcasts from outside of Israel's territorial waters in order to circumvent legislation that prohibits privately-owned radio stations from airing nationwide. A law duly passed by the Knesset granted Arutz-7 a broadcasting license was recently nullified by the Supreme Court. Arutz-7 management noted that this was the first time in the history of Israeli off-shore broadcasting - including 22 years of Abie Natan's Voice of Peace ship, and 15 years for Arutz-7 - that police had ever made such a raid. "Not under the governments of Yitzchak Rabin, Shimon Peres, or Ehud Barak were police ever sent to raid a ship broadcasting from sea," the station said. "Only under Ariel Sharon did this happen. Could it have something to do with our opposition to a Palestinian state?" Condemnations of the apparent blow against freedom of speech came only from the right-wing. Communications Minister Ruby Rivlin of the Likud said today that he was "furious" at the raid, citing in particular its timing during an election campaign. While the raid was underway, the Council of Jewish Communities in Yesha called upon Public Security Minister Uzi Landau - ministerial supervisor of Israel Police - to renew at once the broadcasts on Arutz-7, "which, especially during this period, is a national and patriotic mouthpiece for the struggle on behalf of the Land of Israel." A spokesman for Minister Landau told Arutz-7 that he did not know of the raid in advance, and that it was initiated by the Communications Ministry a while ago. He preferred not to comment on the political aspects of the raid. National Union party leader MK Avigdor Lieberman said that the raid is "nothing more than political scheming, based on election-campaign considerations and as revenge for Arutz-7's clear policy against a Palestinian state." His party colleagues also commented: MK Tzvi Hendel said that this is a case of "political persecution on the eve of elections," and demanded that Communications Minister Rivlin open an immediate investigation into how this occurred. MK Uri Ariel said that the raid is an attempt to "shut mouths." MK Benny Elon said that the authorities of the Supreme Court - which put a freeze on a duly- passed Knesset law legalizing Arutz-7 - must be curtailed "in order to prevent it from making a mockery of Israel's democracy." Blame for the raid is already being freely apportioned. The police say that the Communications Ministry ordered the raid as part of its efforts against unlicensed stations. The Communications Ministry, however, says that the raid came in response to Elections Committee head Hon. Michael Cheshin's call to ensure that unlicensed stations do not broadcast election propaganda. Arutz-7 announced in response that it is more careful not to allow its interviewers and interviewees to speak on behalf of specific parties than are Israel's public stations. Arutz-7's management released the following statement: Announcement By Arutz-7 Management "For 15 years, the State Prosecution and the police have waged a campaign to harm Arutz-7 by "hitting us in our pockets." On two previous occasions, police have smashed and confiscated our state-of- the-art broadcasting equipment, under the pretext that the station's broadcasts are against Israeli law. No court has ever ruled that this is the case, but Arutz-7 has had to pay top lawyers' fees in order to defend itself against these allegations. Police raids like the one today are aimed solely at portraying the station as illegal, thus bringing about an immediate decrease in advertising income. "The Prime Minister, Communications Minister, and Public Security (Police) Minister all denied prior knowledge of and involvement in today's attempt to silence Israel's only radio *voice opposing the establishment of Palestinian state. How, then, did it happen? Raids of this sort happen under right-wing governments because extremist left elements control key government institutions, including the police, the State Prosecution, the courts, and the Israel Broadcasting Authority. They are largely behind the systematic attempts to financially cripple and harm the lone nationalist voice on Israel's airwaves. We turn to our listeners and internet readers to fight this trend in whatever legitimate manner is available. Please speak out, write letters and faxes, and support the station in its continual struggle to survive these blows against our right to champion the Jewish Nation's right to in the Land of Israel." (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** IRAN. IRAN BLASTS BUSH BROADCAST ON RADIO FARDA Iran has responded to last Friday's speech by US President George W Bush marking the inauguration of Radio Farda, the new US international radio service for Iran. Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Assefi described the speech, in which Bush told Iranians of his support for their "quest for freedom", as "a fruitless and interfering act intended to create divisions between the Iranian people and officials." He added that "the Iranian people have not given Bush the authority to express his opinion as their spokesman." (© Radio Netherlands Media Network 24 December 2002 via WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DXLD) ** IRAN [non]. USA/IRAN: US GOVERNMENT SHUTS DOWN IRAN NEWS AGENCY OFFICE IN WASHINGTON | Text of report by Iranian radio on 21 December On the instruction of the American government, the bank accounts of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Interests Section in Washington and the local office of the Islamic Republic News Agency [IRNA] in that city were closed down. According to a Central News Unit report from New York, a number of unofficial reports indicate that the closure of the bank accounts of the Iranian offices is related to a recent American court order against Iran. Source: Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Tehran, in Persian 1030 gmt 21 Dec 02 (via BBCM via WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DXLD) ** IRAQ [non]. USA STARTS INVASION OF IRAQ Some purists might object to the headline atop this column, for a couple of reasons. At column deadline time for this month`s issue of The ACE there has still been no actual invasion of Iraq by United States military troops. Further, prior to now, aggressive military invasions of other countries had been lumped into a pejorative category formerly occupied by the former Soviet Union (who invaded a variety of countries over the years), the Nazi regime in Germany (who invaded several adjacent countries in the 1930`s and 1940`s), and similar governments. It has therefore baffled your editor about why it has suddenly become a good thing for the strongest country in the world to formulate and execute plans to militarily invade countries who have not attacked that country. In another comparison, about ten years ago it was considered a terrible thing when the military of Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait. Countries simply do not have a license to aggressively invade other countries. That is, all countries except for the United States are covered by this principle, since being the strongest country in the world entitles the United States to invade anybody they want to at any time that they see fit. I have been baffled by this obvious bit of illogic. I expressed this bafflement to some other ACE members, from whom I received an explanation. I will leave the name of the person who provided me with the explanation anonymous in the column this month. But, here is the explanation: ``When the big dog wants to eat, you get out of the way.`` I was not very reassured about this new principle of international organization, which in fact is not really new, since empires throughout history have been big dogs that decided to eat at various times. Other political entities had to get out of the way of military aggression when those dogs started to develop an appetite. That`s it for the political analysis of the current situation this month. From a clandestine radio perspective, the United States invasion of Iraq has already begun. On or about December 15 the Unites States government cranked up its clandestine broadcasting effort. Its usual mobile radio transmissions from Commando Solo, previously made famous from his widely heard Information Radio broadcasts to Afghanistan and other countries, is on the air once again. USA aircraft dropped leaflets on Iraqi soil announcing the new broadcasts. Both Artie Bigley and Clandestine Radio Watch picked up this story virtually immediately. The station, according to the leaflets and various press accounts, was operating in mid-December on 9715 and 11292 kHz shortwave between 1500 and 2000 UT. In addition, it is using two medium wave frequencies on 692 and 756 kHz. Further, a channel on 100.4 MHz FM is being used for the broadcasts. On DXplorer, Paul Ormandy in New Zealand quickly noted a logging of the station on 11292 kHz at 1846 UT on December 17, although he had a weak signal and did not copy much in the way of programming except for Middle Eastern Music. Obviously all DXers will want to stay up on the latest information about this new operation. The best place to do this is the http://www.clandestineradio.com web site. A copy of the USA leaflet announcing the broadcasts is posted up on this web site. Clearly, even during the winter, these times and frequencies are a little less than wonderful for North American DXers. But, on a good opening to the Middle East, it is conceivable that either of these frequencies might poke through across the Ocean, especially to listening locations in eastern North America. So, if you have not tried to hear this one yet, you ought to turn on your receiver and give it a try, perhaps around 1900 UT or a little later. I have tried for it here in Cleveland, but so far I have heard nothing. Of course, if Saddam Hussein sent airplanes to drop leaflets over Florida announcing his new clandestine transmitter on 11292 kHz, we could expect that J. Eager Heaver would not be the only FCC employee assigned to counter this aggressive act. A full force of the USA military would be quickly deployed and war would be immediately declared. So, as you see, the USA invaded Iraq over the airwaves in mid-December (George Zeller, Clandestine Profile, Jan The A*C*E via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. Arutz-7 raid: see INTERNATIONAL WATERS above ** KUWAIT. This is the snail mail address of VOA Kuwait as requested: Attn. Station Manager IBB, U.S. Embassy P.O. Box 77, Safat 13001, Kuwait Regards, Kuwait Master Control (via Ruud Vos, Netherlands, BC-DX Dec 23 via DXLD) ** KUWAIT. Olle drew my attention on a statement regarding the new 1593 kHz transmitter in Kuwait which can be also read at http://www.dxing.info/community/viewtopic.php?t=653 Well, on the Lampertheim sightseeing tour I also asked about the closed mediumwave transmitter at Holzkirchen and was told that this is a Continental, rated at 150 kW (i.e. not a higher rated unit running reduced power) and of the same age than the shortwave transmitters (they were installed in 1981). This perfectly matches what was stated about the just installed transmitter at Kuwait, also without considering the use of the very same frequency which is just coincidence of course. So I think there is a very good chance that Radio Farda now in fact uses the old Holzkirchen transmitter (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 23, WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LEBANON [non]. Despite the shrill language in this column so far [IRAQ non], all of the clandestine activity on shortwave is not concentrated only in Iraq. On DXplorer, Ed Kusalik noted a logging of Voice of Freedom/Free Patriotic Movement of Lebanon on 11515 kHz for an hour at *1600 UT on December 21. Ed heard a patriotic anthem at sign-on, with multiple announcers talking about Middle Eastern politics. If Ed can hear this one in Alberta, it certainly is worth a check at your own QTH. Ed notes that this one has a web site, in case you would like more information about the station. CRW #121 noted the appearance of this one with a test broadcast, but we don’t know a great deal about it yet. CRW notes that http://www.radio@tayyar.org is an apparently valid e-mail address for contact with the station (George Zeller, Clandestine Profile, Jan The A*C*E via DXLD According to their web site, Clandestine Voice of Liberty (FPM) testing period has ended on Dec. 22. Programs are scheduled to restart on the 6th of January 2003. Off air today Dec. 23, I heard *1600-1700* on 11515 an hour of Chinese music! (Mahmud Fathi, Germany, Dec 23, Cumbre DX via WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DXLD) ** LITHUANIA. On 19 December, the transmitting centre in Sitkunai conducted a second test transmission on 1557 kHz (150 kW, ND) in cooperation with Radio Baltic Waves International (Vilnius), in order to determine the coverage area. The programme aired was a Chinese language broadcast of China Radio International at 1800-2000 UT. (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, Dec 20, MW-DX via WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DXLD) ** MYANMAR. 4725 went off abruptly in mid-sentence at 1230 yesterday (23 Dec), and programme continued on 5040.6. 5985.0 was heard with main sce before 1230 with English lang. lesson, so 3 SW frequencies carrying Myanmar Radio were on simultaneously. 6570 Defence Forces station was heard as usual from 1330 (Alan Davies, Sengigi, Indonesia, Cumbre DX via WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DXLD) BURMA, 5040.58, Radio Myanmar, 1202 Dec 24m talk in presumed Burmese, music; // 4725; pretty much faded out by 1245 (Ralph Brandi, AOR AR- 7030 Plus, 250-foot mini-Beverage antenna, Tinton Falls, New Jersey, USA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS. 6307.37, Radio Piepzender, 0043 Dec 25, ID spelled out phonetically at 0043 tunein, crazy Dutch schlaeger-like music, address and another ID in English with phonetics @ 0055, e-mail address, web address http://www.piepzender.nl lots more music, lots more IDs (Ralph Brandi, AOR AR-7030 Plus, 250-foot mini-Beverage antenna, Tinton Falls, New Jersey, USA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** NIGERIA [non]. JAKADA RADIO INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF HAUSA BROADCASTS | Text of report by Nigerian newspaper The Daily Trust web site on 23 December The Jakada FM which was denied licence in Nigeria by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) is to commence broadcasting in Hausa language today from Spain. In a telephone conversation with chairman of Jakada Radio, Ambassador Yusuf Mamman, Daily Trust gathered that the radio will transmit on 125 kHz 25 metre band on shortwave and could also be accessed from the Internet at http://www.jakadaradio.com [as published - the Jakada Radio web site gives the frequency as 12125 kHz.] The Hausa service which commences today will run from 8.00 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. [1900-1930 gmt] daily on weekdays. Ambassador Mamman stated that the radio station has signed a friendship agreement with the federation of Hausa radio listeners in Africa to enable the programme achieve its desired purpose and reach the target audience. The Jakada Radio which started transmission in Nigeria some time ago ran into trouble waters when the national regulator, the NBC, disowned it, saying it had not granted licence to any station by that name in the country. The commencement of broadcasting activities by the station from Spain has probably brought to a halt the face-off between the station and NBC. [Jakada Radio was first observed broadcasting on shortwave on 1 May 2002. Although programming is reportedly produced in Spain, it is believed that the radio hires airtime on a shortwave transmitter elsewhere in Europe. The Jakada radio web site states that: "Jakada Radio International (JRI) is owned by Oscar Mariano Benjy Inc., a legally registered media company in Europe with offices in London, Madrid and Frankfurt. It is made up of international broadcasters and broadcast investors led by a distinguished Nigerian international broadcaster and Diplomat, Ambassador Yaro Yusufu Mamman. Jakada Radio International is registered with all the relevant broadcasting bodies in the world and has fulfilled all the requirements for the issuance of shortwave broadcasting licence." Mission Statement The web site states that "Jakada Radio International is a non- religious, non-political, commercial radio station. It does not represent any political or ideological tendencies or manifestations. We are committed to fundamental human rights, democracy, rule of law and pluralism. Although African in perspective, we are global in our belief in our committed to the highest level of radio broadcast professionalism and ethics. We have a team of some of the best Africans, Africans in diaspora and other in radio journalism. "Our objective is to air views and opinions that will advance peaceful co-existence among people and NOT to preach hate or promote views and opinions that undermine peaceful co-existence and public peace. As professionals, our team will endeavour to accommodate and give balance, report and account at all times. Our listeners have right of reply, but the station reserves the right to reject comments or expressions inciting violence or that fall short of acceptable language. "We will provide you with news, sports and interviews across the African continent and beyond. Another area that JRI will also promote is the situation of woman and children in Africa. Additionally, we are committed to public awareness on the scourge of HIV/AIDS in the continent of Africa, and the environment. Finally, we would like to always have the comments and views of our listeners on all aspects of the programme aired. Please send us your letters by e-mail to: jakint2002@yahoo.com " Sources: The Daily Trust web site, Kaduna, in English 23 Dec 02; Jakada Radio International web site in English 23 Dec 02 (BBC Monitoring via WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DXLD) ** NIGERIA [non]. JAKADA RADIO TO BEGINS HAUSA TRANSMISSIONS TODAY Jakada Radio International commences regular broadcasts in Hausa today (23 December). The broadcasts will be on 12125kHz shortwave and on the Internet at http://www.jakadaradio.com at 8:00 pm to 8:30 pm (1900- 1930 UT) Mon-Fri. Test transmissions were first heard in May 2002, and airtime is arranged through the Belgian company TDP. According to the TDP Web site, the station was last scheduled at 0600-0630 UTC Mon-Fri on 15695 kHz, but has been on a "temporary break." HFCC frequency registrations for the current broadcasting period indicate that the transmitter site used is Armavir in Russia. Jakada Radio International describes itself as a non-religious, non- political, commercial radio station. It says it does not represent any political or ideological tendencies or manifestations, and is committed to fundamental human rights, democracy, rule of law and pluralism. The station's chairman, Yaro Yusufu Mamman, is a former Nigerian ambassador to Spain. He is a former chairman of the Nigerian political party Alliance for Democracy. He has also worked as a journalist with the Broadcasting Company of Northern Nigeria and the Nigerian Television Authority (© Radio Netherlands Media Network 23 December 2002 via WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DXLD) ** NORWAY. Hi Glen[n], I noticed the following today. BBCWS on Radio Norway's frequencies, presumably Merlin Communications testing, December 24, 2002. 1700 to 1730 UT on 18950 1800 to 1830 UT on 15705 and 13800 1900 to 1930 UT on 13800 All were relays of the Europe stream on 9410 and 6195 and followed by Radio Denmark for the following half hours. At 2200 UT Radio Norway was back as usual on 7530 and 7470. 73 (Bernie O'Shea, Ottawa, Canada, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. Most nights, KOMA 1520 blows the doors off of 1510 and 1530, which brings me to this question: Is KOMA REALLY running 50 kW? This is a blowtorch that is stronger than anything that Kansas City or Des Moines can serve up. I thought I'd once heard that KOMA was fined for running more than their allotted power, perhaps as much as 59 kW. I suspect that they may be up to their old hijinks again (Rick (I need Buffalo!) Dau, Omaha, Nebraska, Dec 22, NRC-AM via DXLD) They`ve always had an outstanding skywave; 59 vs 50 kW would be hard to distinguish; what`s the tolerance allowed on this, anyway? (gh, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I don't think KOMA is supposed to throw much signal towards the NE at night. From what I've observed from here near Chicago, I am convinced that they often switch back to day pattern late at night like this and especially on weekends. 73 (Neil Kazaross, IL, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. Enid`s only local TV station, KXOK, ch 32 (cable 18) is showing some signs of life again, besides constant Dr Gene Scott. On Monday old movies were back, not sure from America 1 or what, along with constant advertising crawlers, but after heavy snow it was back to DGS, even tho their dish was obviously full of ice, and the picture struggled to refresh. For hours on end, mostly it was virtually a freeze-frame, and fuzzy at that, tho his audio kept on going. This made his appearance even less vieworthy, to say the least. We are supposed to visit the KXOK website and register for Big Prizes, but the site (or forwarding to it from `Tuvalu`) is not working: http://www.kxok.tv which forwards to http://www.tv/en-def-f6ab2b906d73/cgi-bin/glob.cgi?domain=www.kxok.tv (Glenn Hauser, OK, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. 5080v : see UNIDENTIFIED below and previously ** PARAGUAY. Dear Mr Glenn Hauser: Please accept my sincere wishes for a Happy Christmas and Peaceful New Year! Radiodifusión América has Special Progamming, on 7737 KHZ, and a Special QSL to accompany it. Your reports will be most welcome. With Holiday Greetings, from Paraguay (Adán Mur, Radiodifusión América, Asunción, Paraguay ramerica@rieder.net.py Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. As announced by Mikhail Timofeyev, Radio Gardarika at present broadcasts on 5920 again, noted tonight with excellent audio/modulation but a somewhat weak signal. A report about a station visit can be found on the website of a German school: http://igs- norderstedt.lernnetz.de/schule/projekte/medien/deutsch/gardarika.htm Best regards, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. 4625 KHZ BUZZER STATION REVEALED Have you heard the buzzer station on 4625 kHz? Here is the full scoop on this military signal. Have a look and a listen at UVB-76. http://www.geocities.com/uvb76/ (DXing.com Newsroom via WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DXLD) a long file, saying it is 40 km west of Moscow (gh, DXLD) ** RWANDA. 6055, DEC 22, 2100 - caught end of anthem for a brief time after Slovakia signed off. DEC 24, 2104 - Christmas carols "Joy to the World" and "Silent Night", man and woman speaking in French in between selections, more talk over the music as 2130 approaches. Weak but steady, with buzzing static. Thanks to the tip from George-MA the other day, that this stays on later on Christmas Eve (Jim Renfrew, Byron NY, Drake R8, 1000' beverage west, 1000' beverage nw, 100' longwire sw, Cumbredx mailing list, via DXLD) ** TAIWAN. CLANDESTINE - 8300, New Star Broadcasting Station, 1400- 1416 Dec 24. S/on routine with YL announcer and some traditional Chinese music, then to the numbers at 1404. Transmission ended at about 1416, but the carrier stayed on. Same sequence at 1500. Checked their former frequencies but no parallels found (John Wilkins, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Drake R-8, 100-foot random wire, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** TURKEY. Nothing on 9890, but brought up VOT`s webcast at 1942 UT Dec 24 for the live Xmas eve call-in, or call-out. First contact was David Crystal in Israel, who only wanted to comment about reception at 0400 on 7240, which had been blocked by Russia, but lately VOT has been on top. They kept trying to get him talking about Xmas, even after he pointed out that he is Jewish and doesn`t celebrate it! It seems Moslem Turks often go to church on Xmas to honor the Christian minority. Second caller was Greg Fisher, Lacrosse WI, who won a VOT trip to Turkey in 1988. There were supposed to be about 16? People lined up, but they only had time for about half of them, with repetitious comments about Xmas, desires for peace, etc. Some other names I recognized were Alokesh Gupta in India, who had to explain that he is a Hindu and doesn`t do anything special for Xmas; and Henry J. Michalenka --- a once active DXer in Rhode Island whose name has not come up in a long time. In an attempt at ecumenism, the host perhaps unwittingly shut out rationalist non-believers (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UKRAINE. Hello WWDXC topnews, From 1 January 2003 RUI will change its two frequencies: 6020 ---7420 (az. 290 deg.) 9810 ---7375 (az. 314 deg.) (Alexander Yegorov, Kiev, Ukraine, Dec 23, BC-DX via Wolfgang Bueschel, WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DXLD) A lonely on SW Ukrainian commercial radio company "ALEX" in Zaporizhzhia has launched into the air its transmitter on 11980 kHz. On December 22 at 10.12, I heard it with transmission of the Ukrainian National Radio channel UR-1. Bad modulation, weak signal (the power presumably is only 250 W). The frequency was shifted around +300 Hz or so. SINPO was 24342. From 1200 CRI began to broadcast on 11980 completely jamming "R.ALEX" (Alexander Yegorov, Kiev, Ukraine, Dec 23, BC-DX via Wolfgang Bueschel, WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DXLD) ** U K [non]. BBC via NORWAY: q.v. ** U K [non]. LATVIA, 5935, Laser Radio, 2253-2300* Dec. 23. Just managed to catch this one just before sign-off. heard musical selections, to anthem played at 2256. ID by male speaker at 2258 with closing words, then musical jingle and some more music played. Music to 2259 whereas I heard the distinctive sound of laser effects prior to sign-off. Signal was gradually building up in strength as I noted this one as early as 2152 with a carrier, but as usual didn't [get] to the receiver in time to get much more details (Edward Kusalik, Alberta, Canada, Dec 23, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Dec 23 was Monday. Station is supposed to be on Sundays only. Did you mean to say Dec 22? (gh, DXLD) LATVIA, 5935, Laser Radio, 1915 Dec 22, The Romantics "What I Like About You", Jefferson Starship "We Built This City", ID with web address http://www.laserradio.net and phone number at 1939, Eddie & the Hot Rods, "Only Want To Be With You", another ID at 1956, Elvis Costello "Pump It Up" at 2000, Ian Dury "What a Waste"; // MP3 stream at http://158.223.1.15:12690/listen.pls (Ralph Brandi, AOR AR-7030 Plus, 250-foot mini-Beverage antenna, Tinton Falls, New Jersey, USA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** U S A. Hi Glenn, You may have caught this: Kim Elliot was not on Main Street (VOA) this week. He was on DX Partyline (HCJB) so I guess he traveled to Quito. He mentioned that he will be on VOA with some special programs News Years Day. He will be on 17-18 UT as guest host and 14-15 UT with interviews with radio station big wigs. This will be repeated at 22-23 UT (Wm. "Bill" Brady, Harwood MD, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The Talk to America, that I will guest-host on January 1 at 1700-1800 UT, will have two extra frequencies: 9775 (Greenville) and 17635 (Delano). 73 (Kim Elliott, DC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear friends, Hello from Washington. I miss doing Communications World and our e-mail correspondence. However, this is to let you know that I will back on VOA News Now on New Year's Day, January 1, as guest-host of Talk to America, 1700-1800 UT. In addition to taking calls, I will also *make* calls -- thus saving you some long-distance telephone charges. If you would like me to call you on January 1 between 17 and 18 UTC, please send me an e-mail with your telephone number. If you record any interesting New Year's Eve radio listening, please send excerpts via e-mail, and I'll try to include it in the program. Here's the transmission schedule for Talk to America: To Europe, Middle East and North Africa 1700-1800 UT 6040 9760 15205 To Africa 1700-1800 UT 909 13710 15240 15445 17895 To East and South Asia 1700-1800 UT 1143 1575 5990 6045 9525 9795 11955 12005 15255 To the Americas (special frequencies for January 1): 9775 (Greenville) and 17635 (Delano) RealAudio: http://www.voanews.com/real/live/newsnow.ram Also on Worldnet/VOA-TV, if you can receive it! In addition to Talk to America, I am preparing a program that will be broadcast on VOA News Now between 1400 and 1500 UT. This will consist mostly of interviews with directors and other managers of international radio stations. Here's the transmission schedule for 1400-1500: To Europe, Middle East and North Africa 1400-1500 UT 1197 15205 To East and South Asia 1400-1500 UT 1143 6110 7125 9645 9760 11705 15395 15425 This program will be repeated at 2200-2300 UT (which is actually the morning of January 2 in East Asia): To Africa 2200-2230 UT 909 1530 6035 7415 11655 11975 13710 To East Asia 2200-2300 UT 7215 9770 9890 11760 15185 15290 15305 17735 17820 (+1575 after 2230) RealAudio: http://www.voanews.com/real/live/newsnow.ram I hope you will be able to tune in on January 1. All the best, Kim Kim Andrew Elliott (ex-)Producer and Presenter Communications World Voice of America Washington, D.C. 20237 USA Telephone: +1-202-619-3047 E-mail: ke@voanews.com Website: http://www.trsc.com/cw (via WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Again this year, Kim has talked me into doing a SW YEAR IN REVIEW, which used to appear on COMMUNICATIONS WORLD --- this time on his Jan. 1 specials (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DXLD) ** U S A. Radio Farda has attracted a bubble jammer - noted on 13680 [KAVALA] c0830. The 21475 [IRANAWILA] outlet seemed unaffected (Noel R. Green, Blackpool, NW England, Dec 24, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Another note on Radio Farda: The RFE/RL tape loop after a Radio Farda transmission heard by Glenn as well as the use of a RFE/RL server for the audio stream http://www.rferl.org/realaudio/c21.ram seems to indicate that the console stands at Prague, so to speak, i.e. it appears that the output originates from the RFE/RL radiohouse, unlike Radio Sawa (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also KUWAIT ** U S A. WRMI has filled daytime Sunday on 15725 with this new show at 1500-2100, as well as earlier that UT Day, Sun 0500-1000 on 7385. From http://wrmi.net : (gh, DXLD) Solid Rock Radio - Welcome to the new home of Solid Rock Radio! We have a lot in store for you in the future, and look forward to hearing from you. WSRR Internet radio was established to accommodate aspiring music artists of the future with a marketing tool for self-promotion. Allowing only unsigned and Indie label musicians to participate, the station provides an Internet location where platinum albums of the future can be heard and visitors to the site can discover these artists. The station features a top-20 list of rising stars and other forms of programming. In 1992, Solid Rock Radio aired its first radio program over several international radio stations, The program was called America's Best Unsigned and ndie Label Artists. Because of the demand from listeners around the world to hear more, Solid Rock Radio increased its programs, then expanded to the Internet. On December 12, 1999, WSRR considered the possibility of giving back to the city of Buffalo, New York by entering into a joint venture with the Pratt Willert Community Center to establish a program for kids that would produce confident children in the community with entrepreneurial skills and the proper attitude and aptitude for business. Because of the increase of students wanting to enter the radio program, we now have moved to the Delavan Grider Community Center. Today we broadcast live over the Internet and FM 104.9 MHz. And don't forget our International Shortwave Broadcast on 7385 kHz from 12 midnight-5 a.m. Eastern time Saturday night (that's 0500-1000 UTC Sunday), and on 15725 kHz from 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (that 1500-2100 UTC). We target our broadcast to supporting record companies and to all classes of people in in life. We are always looking for new demo from unsigned and Indie label music artists. Contact us for more information. Mailing Address: c/o WRMI, P.O. Box 526852, Miami, FL 33152. E-mail: beebop@solidrockradio.net A new schedule is dated Dec. 15. What else? We now have an explanation of a previous new addition, UT Sun 0130-0145 on 9955: La Hora de Chibás - ``Un programa semanal del Partido Ortodoxo Cubano en el exilio, presentado por Mario Jiménez. Dirección: La Hora de Chibás, c/o Mario Jiménez, P.O. Box 451132, Miami, Florida 33245-1132, USA.`` Until now, 7385 had only been used on the NW antenna, but now the first half hour of that, 0300-0330 is specified to Carib and Latin Ameica, i.e. the beam normally used on 9955. So it should be interesting to observe what change in signal and/or break in transmission there be at 0330 between R. Prague in Spanish and then in Czech. Excerpted are non-huckster, non-far right programs: (gh) WRMI Schedule/Horario Effective December/Diciembre 15, 2002 Days are local days in the Americas; times are UTC. Días son días locales en las Américas; horas son UTC. MONDAY-FRIDAY/LUNES-VIERNES To the Caribbean and Latin America on 9955 kHz/Hacia el Caribe y Latinoamérica en 9955 kHz: 1100-1130 La Voz de la Junta Patriotica Cubana (español) 1130-1230 Entre Cubanos (español) 1230-1300 Viva Miami (English/español) Note: This transmission from 1000-1300 UTC is temporarily not aired on Tuesday and Thursday. To North America on 15725 kHz/Hacia Norteamérica en 15725 kHz: 1400-1600 Music [usually classical!, sometimes R. Prague at 1400] 7385 kHz to North America (except as noted)/7385 kHz hacia Norteamérica (excepto donde anotado): Note: The following are Tuesday-Saturday UTC. Los siguientes son martes-sábado UTC. 0300-0330 Radio Praga (español; hacia el Caribe y Latinoamérica) 0330-0400 Radio Praha (Czech) 0400-0430 Radio Prague (English) SATURDAY/SABADO To the Caribbean and Latin America on 9955 kHz/Hacia el Caribe y Latinoamérica en 9955 kHz: 1000-1030 Viva Miami (English) 1130-1200 Wavescan (English) 1200-1230 Viva Miami (English/español) To North America on 15725 kHz/Hacia Norteamérica en 15725 kHz: 1300-2300 Music [what kind? Keep forgetting to check on Sat – gh] 2330-0000 Wavescan (English) To the Caribbean and Latin America on 9955 kHz/Hacia el Caribe y Latinoamérica en 9955 kHz: The following are Sunday UTC. Los siguientes son domingo UTC. 0000-0100 Foro Militar Cubano (español) 0100-0130 Conversando entre Cubanos (español) 0130-0145 La Hora de Chibás (español) 0200-0300 Radio Revista Lux (español) 7385 kHz to North America (except as noted)/7385 kHz para Norteamérica (excepto donde anotado): 0300-0330 Radio Praga (español; hacia el Caribe y Latinoamérica) 0330-0400 Radio Praha (Czech) 0400-0430 Radio Prague (English) 0430-0500 Viva Miami (English/español) 0500-1000 Solid Rock Radio (English) SUNDAY/DOMINGO To the Caribbean and Latin America on 9955 kHz/Hacia el Caribe y Latinoamerérica en 9955 kHz: 1000-1100 Foro Militar Cubano (español) To North America on 15725 kHz/Hacia Norteamérica en 15725 kHz: 1300-1400 Viva Miami (English) 1400-1430 Wavescan (English) 1500-2100 Solid Rock Radio (English) 2200-2230 Wavescan (English) 2230-0000 Viva Miami (English) To the Caribbean and Latin America on 9955 kHz/Hacia el Caribe y Latinoamérica en 9955 kHz: The following are UTC Monday. Los siguientes son UTC lunes. 0000-0100 Radio Revista Lux (español) 0100-0115 Radio Vaticano (español) 0130-0230 Radio Oriente Libre (español) 0230-0300 Conversando entre Cubanos (español) 7385 kHz to North America (except as noted)/7385 kHz para Norteamérica (excepto donde anotado): 0300-0330 Radio Praga (español; hacia el Caribe y Latinoamérica) 0330-0400 Radio Praha (Czech) 0400-0430 Radio Prague (English) 0445-0500 Radio Vaticano (español) (WRMI website Dec 24 via gh, DXLD) ** U S A [non]. ESTADOS UNIDOS VIA CHILE - O primeiro dia do ano de 2003 também será importante para a rádio Voz Cristã. A partir desta data, a emissora passará a emitir durante as 24 horas no idioma português. Significa que a emissão, em 11745 kHz, que antes terminava às 0400, vai se estender até às 1100. O programa Altas Ondas, que vai ao ar, nas sextas e sábados, às 1600, em 21500 kHz, lançou um desafio a todos os seus ouvintes: quem enviar 4 gravações interessantes de captações nas ondas curtas poderá ter o seu trabalho escolhido como a vinheta de início do programa. Ela será veiculada durante um ano e o ouvinte que mandou as gravações terá o crédito registrado sempre. As gravações devem ser enviadas, em CD, para o seguinte endereço: rádio Voz Cristã, programa Altas Ondas, Caixa Postal 2889, Miami, Flórida, 33144, Estados Unidos da América (Célio Romais, @tividade DX Dec 23 via DXLD) ** U S A. Couldn't sleep this morning and curiosity made me check 1710 and sure enough an early Christmas present with Lubavitch Radio [NYC] heard with English(!) initially 0433 EST [0933 UT], male announcer with religious talk, mentions of "Holocaust", "Gaza" and "exodus". 0459-0510 Male with talk in presumed Hebrew. Some fading but to good brief peaks on a relatively quiet frequency. No sign of the data QRM usually noted in the early evenings here. A very nice surprise (Greg Myers, Clearwater FL, Dec 23, NRC-AM via DXLD) Actually, I think this would be more properly classified as a late Chanuka present (:-)# (Brian Leyton, Valley Village, CA, ibid.) Congrats. I think you have the furthest US logging of them, now. I've had them here 35 miles NW of Chicago, but Clearwater is much further away. 73 KAZ (Neil Kazaross, IL, ibid.) Now that's a band opening, since they are using something like an LPB or radio systems carrier current type transmitter out of a house somewhere in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I can sometimes hear them here in NJ, about 45 miles away. They are not running a lot of power. Every time I`m in that area I try and find them. I know I'm very close. If I had a DF receiver with a loop, I would have found them already. I've got within several blocks of them (Neal Newman, ibid.) ** U S A. George, did WMQM 1600 *really* go on the air, fullpower 50 kW daytime as planned, Sat Dec 21? Haven`t been able to hear it here around sunrise or sunset, but there is a lot of QRM (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Went on the air Saturday. Sounds very good in Memphis (George McClintock, TN, Dec 22, WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. AROUND THE DIAL THE RADIO AS RABBIT HOLE: ALICE COMES TO KCRW By Steve Carney, Special to The Times, December 21 2002 The premise sounds as nonsensical as anything from the pen of Lewis Carroll: a storybook's extraordinary illustrations prompting the creation of a play for radio. But the contemporary art by DeLoss McGraw in the 2001 edition of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" made the book so popular among listeners when KCRW-FM (89.9) gave it away as a premium last year that station management decided to stage a dramatic reading of the classic children's story. The two-hour trip down the rabbit hole will air from 2 to 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and at the same time on New Year's Eve. "Given the kind of station we are, we thought it was a suitable Christmas offering. It's edgy. It's unconventional. It's arch and it's playful," said KCRW general manager Ruth Seymour. "There's no sentimentality about this. It's just very crisp. It's mad." Seymour said it was a daunting undertaking. "After all, you're taking on a classic," she said, and "many of us have not looked at it since we were children." She said director Louis Fantasia and his star-studded cast have created an "Alice" meant to appeal to both children and adults. "I think children will read it naively, in the best sense of that word," said Fantasia, who also reviews theater for KCRW. Meanwhile, adults may appreciate not only the fantastic situations but also the subtle, acerbic humor. Harry Shearer, who among many other pursuits has hosted "Le Show" on KCRW for 20 years, narrates the tale. "It's a perfect Harry Shearer story. He has that humor himself," Seymour said. "He's such a wonderful storyteller, and he's got that great radio voice." Alice is played by 26-year-old Vinessa Shaw, who has appeared in such movies as "40 Days and 40 Nights," "Corky Romano" and "Eyes Wide Shut." Seymour said the actress ensures that the title character comes across as youthful but not childish. "Alice is a very sophisticated little girl," Seymour said. "Alice is a skeptic, and she constantly gets into situations where she's appalled by the people around her." Fantasia said he wanted an independent Alice, on a trip of self- discovery. "In the more traditional reading of the story, she seems to be the good girl doing what she's told." He said he also took care not to make the production overly broad or surreal, instead letting the wordplay and curious situations speak for themselves. "We have alienated a lot of the Lewis Carroll fan club. It's not English enough," he said. "I didn't want to make the English garden variety again." "That's precisely why I was interested in being part of it," said actor Michael York, who plays the Red King. "The perfect BBC version - - we've seen all of those." To further set it apart, Fantasia said he consciously featured a cast heavy in Americans, which also set up a collision between York and the other Britons in the royal court and Alice, who, he said, doesn't "surrender to English propriety." The rest of the cast includes Joe Spano as the March Hare, Héctor Elizondo as the Mad Hatter, Rhea Perlman as the Dormouse, Julia Migenes as the Red Queen, Malcolm McDowell as the Gryphon, Orson Bean as the Mock Turtle and John Rubenstein as the White Rabbit. "I'd listen to the thing just to hear Elliott Gould play the Cheshire cat," York said. "Simpsons" actors Yeardley Smith (Lisa) and Dan Castellaneta (Homer) play the Mouse and the Dodo, respectively. Even KCRW public affairs host Warren Olney gets a line. Seymour said the story was the biggest selling point in attracting performers. "Everybody saw it as an opportunity to play, but to play with a great deal of intelligence," she said. "There's not a facile word in all of this. That's why it's lasted all these years." Full of dichotomy, the story plays with relativity and upends notions of time and space. It's "complex and simple at the same time," York said "It's a children's story for children of all ages," he added. "It's a nice little gift to give at this time of year." (LA Times, Harry`s favorite rag, via Brock Whaley for WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DXLD) We have some additional times for this in MONITORING REMINDERS (gh, WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DXLD) ** U S A. Story from ZDNET. WHY UNCLE SAM MIGHT BUY YOU A TV David Coursey, Executive Editor, AnchorDesk, Friday, December 20, 2002 Talk back! How would you like Uncle Sam to help you buy a digital television? Would a $500 government rebate be enough to get you into the store? A TV industry analyst believes that, for many Americans, it would, and that tax credits may be the very best way to solve the chicken-and-egg problem that has stymied acceptance of next-generation digital TV. YOU MAY THINK it odd that the federal government would even consider paying for a hunk of your new TV set. After all, it's not like the government doesn't have other things to do with the money. But money is precisely what this is all about. When the feds authorized digital television, they assumed that existing television stations would abandon their old analog frequencies for the new digital channels. But that hasn't happened, and the 10-year timetable envisioned for the transition is now out the window. It's digital, it's got television... ...but it's not digital TV. HP's Media Center PC is the nicest PC I've used in a while. That's a problem, because the government has already spent the money it raised by auctioning off the frequencies that were to be vacated by the TV stations. They auctioned off those frequencies, in part, to telecom companies who were going to use the spectrum to offer new digital services. Now, we could talk about what a lunatic idea frequency auctions are, and how they haven't worked out nearly as well as proponents promised. But the fact remains that $16 billion in auction proceeds are already included in federal budget projections. IT'S UNLIKELY that money will be in the federal coffers as soon as Congress hoped. Until broadcasters give up their chunks of spectrum and switch to digital, the auction bidders aren't likely to pay up. If digital television adoption doesn't speed up soon, there's the possibility the transition from analog to digital won't be complete for another 20 years. It was supposed to be over and done with by the middle part of this decade. Phil Swann, editor of TVPredictions.com and a frequent guest on my radio program, is the force behind the $500 rebate idea. He thinks it's better to convince people to buy new televisions than to force digital TV tuners on them. That latter plan is just what the FCC has ordered consumer electronics manufacturers to do, beginning with big- screen TVs in 2004. Like many people, I sort of gag on the idea of tax dollars being used to help people buy television sets. I'd rather see the money do something useful, like feed hungry kids or provide decent mental health care. Of course, I'm not the idiot who linked the federal budget to getting people onto digital television, so I'm clearly out of step. OF COURSE, $16 billion isn't much --- especially spread out over several years --- when the federal budget deficit has been predicted by some analysts to top $200 billion (plus the cost of whatever happens in Iraq). But every little bit will help when we're talking about either raising taxes or cutting programs. Should any of that $16 billion be used as rebates to get people to switch to digital TV? Well, at $500 a set, a million digital televisions would cost a half-billion dollars. Twenty million sets --- which you'd think would be enough to jumpstart the transition --- would cost $10 billion. I can't imagine we'd actually spend that much, but the math illustrates just how expensive this program could be. In the digital age, the government could have important new roles to play beyond protecting our shores and delivering the mail. But should paying for television sets be one of them? In order to protect much- needed --- and already budgeted --- revenue, it may have to be. We'll see. Bob Ulm (via Fred Vobbe, NRC FMTV via DXLD) ** U S A. In today`s Tampa Tribune in the weekly Business and Technology, there is a full pager on eye-bock (can your kill-file parse THAT ??) It is THIRTY column-inches and a 5x7 photo. It is slugged back to the Associated Press with NO by-line. It is quite similar to a story that ran about a month ago, which I did not comment on. Today's piece ran the same photograph as the previous story. This is interesting. The pix caption says "In the sound room of his company, iBiquity Senior Vice President Jeffrey Jury holds up digital audio equipment that will replace the comparatively large box at his side". The new piece of equipment is a circuit board that appears to measure 5 x 7 cm, (perhaps a bit less than 2 x 3 inches) with what are apparently two ASIC chips and a bunch of typical surface-mount components. There appears to be some sort of edge connector on one edge of the board, similar to a PCI bus interconnect on a PC card. The photo res isn't good enough to tell more. The equipment that it "will replace" is a complete receiver shown with the top cover removed. I would estimate it to be about 18 x 15 x 4 inches. Inside the receiver are several circuit boards, at least two shielded assemblies, a number of interconnects with small coax and ribbon cable. On the rear panel of the device is what seems to be a 4 inch thin ferrite rod antenna. The whole thing looks like a 1980's vintage tuner, perhaps a Harmon-Kardon or similar. The whole story has to me, all the earmarks of a plant, with no independent verification of anything presented. There is no mention of any of the technical issues we discuss on this list, for one. I will leave it to others to discuss the ethics of saying a Circuit Board will replace a Receiver, along with a photograph of 'our Best-Case' vs. 'old technology Worst-Case'... Ahhh, Life Goes On (Bob Foxworth, FL, Dec 23, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. There is a program on the US History Channel on Dec 26 as outlined below. There is a webpage, with a number of links, that looks quite interesting. http://www.historychannel.com/saveourhistory/ Many times these shows end up on Canadian TV eventually. SAVE OUR HISTORY: SAVE OUR SOUNDS Thursday, December 26 at 8pm / 7CT Within the collections of the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress are tens of thousands of sound recordings that chronicle the history of America. There is music recorded by legendary artists of the past, speeches of Presidents and other historical figures, news reports that chronicle now historic moments as they were happening. There are slave narratives, cowboy songs, and man-on-the-street interviews recorded on thousands upon thousands of cylinders, disks, and tapes—national treasures, which are rapidly deteriorating. Save Our Sounds chronicles the enormous efforts being undertaken by these two national institutions to preserve these treasures before the sounds of history are lost forever (via Fred Waterer, ODXA via DXLD) ** U S A. ELVING DELIVERS POLITE BUT FIRM REPLY TO AFR Here's the text of the message I sent today to the American Family Network. It seems I have succeeded in getting the FCC to believe what they are doing is illegal. Bruce F. Elving, Ph.D. FM Atlas PO Box 336 Esko MN 55733-0336 (218) 879-7676 FAX (218) 879-8333 FmAtlas@aol.com Patrick J. Vaughn, General Counsel American Family Assn. PO Drawer 2440 Tupelo MS 38803-2440 December 24, 2002 Dear Mr. Vaughn: Thank you for writing and taking note of my e-mails to John Riley. It is not my intention to slander or discredit in any way the AFR ministry. I was rather surprised that my messages had such an impact on you and on certain pastors in Jamestown ND. I understand that one pastor was to have brought up the matter of K214BX *90.7 Jamestown not properly identifying at a ministerial meeting. I was not at any such meeting, nor did I call back and encourage him to discuss the matter. This can only be a partial answer to your letter, since the FCC is studying my charges. Specifically, Trang Nguyen of the audio division, media bureau, spoke to me at length Dec. 23, mentioning that "a lot of stations aren`t doing what they are supposed to do" with regard to identifications, and she said she knows you and tried contacting you, but got the message your office is closed to Dec. 26. She`s asked that I fax my complaint to the enforcement bureau regional office. A person from the Chicago field office may then call me. This could lead to a visit to your translator site to inspect the identification mechanism, the translator output power, and other parameters. Your identifying policies on that translator are clearly deficient. Trang Nguyen, in fact, on Dec. 24 called back and said "obviously this is a rule violation." I pray that you will voluntarily improve the operation, both locally and on your "network," by the expedient of rescheduling the break for local community announcements to immediately follow or precede the WAFR Tupelo MS station identification --- rather than covering that ID. Thus the audience would better know it is a rebroadcaster of a licensed FM station rather than a pure network feed they are receiving. It appears now that Pastor Scott, at First Baptist in Jamestown, is "hijacking" your signal with fill music hourly, even when there is no community announcement. And I`d appreciate your supplying some information about the equipment used to encode the local ID, like is it a Morse code ID done three times daily, or an AM injected signal done hourly? And how might one perceive this signal? Hey, I think we can still be friends. I enjoyed listening, and I believe with a few modifications in your method of identifying, everybody will be pleased. Do let me know if there are to be any corrections in how your translator(s) identify. I do not wish to conduct a vendetta against your fine organization, but do resent any threat to muzzle my freedom of speech. Save your money and don`t write back using certified mail! Sincerely, (Bruce Elving, MN, Dec 24, cc to DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA. For obvious reasons our main concern in Clandestine radio at the moment is related to Iraq and the United States. But, in my judgment, an even bigger political crisis is taking place right now in Venezuela. The continual political turmoil directed against President Chávez is having a direct impact on the world price of oil, as well as an enormously destabilizing impact in Venezuela itself. Currently there is no clandestine radio activity directed toward Venezuela. As I write this column at 0100 UT on December 23 I am trying in vain to hear the licensed Ecos del Torbes on 4980 kHz. The days when we could hear several Venezuelan domestic broadcasting stations on 60 meters every night are long since gone. So, at the moment, shortwave radio is a medium that appears to have almost no direct impact on the coverage of the political situation in Venezuela (George Zeller, Clandestine Profile, Jan The A*C*E via DXLD ** ZIMBABWE. For about the last two weeks I did not notice Zimbabwe on any frequency. This week it reappeared on 5975 with excellent signal, and heard as late as past 0000, so probably a 24 hr. operation. In 0spite of frequent checks, I'm not sure which service it is, only "ZBC" heard mentioned. Mainly in a vernacular, mostly phone-ins and Afro pops. ToH is usually ignored by the presenters (Vaclav Korinek, RSA, DX-plorer via WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Re the item from Hans Johnson - frequency 5080 was recommended to the PBS [PBC?? -- gh] as a replacement for 7105, due to severe QRM on that frequency. I haven`t heard anything positive at my location, but if it is PAK, the service will be Current Affairs at 1300-1800, and possibly also at 0200-0400. Transmitter API-4 Islamabad 100 kW (Noel R. Green, Blackpool, NW England, Cumbre DX via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 11734 or 11735? Hello, Everybody! Great Christmas for all!! First of all - you the professionals in area DX, therefore probably also I ask to help me. Yesterday December 22 near Moscow with SINPO 34533 since 1938 UT I listened to radiostation, where till 2000 UT music non-stop, namely was transmitted Phil Collins, duet man and woman "Fall in love ...", others songs on English. After 2000 UT similar there was news, and at 2009 music, but already on a national language has begun to sound. Why I ask to help, business that I can not precisely determine frequency of broadcasting of radiostation at all, not that what even to identify it, as Passport 2003 gives on this time three stations, and I in this connection have got confused in its definition. Someone can all the same is capable me to help, and will call precise frequency of broadcasting and title of radiostation, to which one I listened. Thanks!! Yours faithfully, (Vlad ---, Russia, Dec 23, hard-core-dx via DXLD) I myself was listening to Zanzibar in the 2000+ hour the other day, on 11734, a dead giveaway if you can measure the frequency, but they were not playing Western music. Nothing was audible on 11735 at that time. Before 1900 the Methodists are on 11735 via Germany (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PROPAGATION +++++++++++ GEOMAGNETIC INDICES phil bytheway - Seattle WA - phil_tekno@yahoo.com Geomagnetic Summary November 25 2002 through December 15 2002 Tabulated from email status daily Date Flux A K SA Forecast GM Forecast Etc. 11/25 137 14 3 no storms no storms 5 26 142 12 5 no storms minor 9 27 143 16 3 no storms minor 9 28 140 15 2 no storms minor 5 29 141 12 3 no storms minor 9 11/30 146 15 2 no storms no storms 7 12/ 1 150 14 2 no storms no storms 3 2 146 11 3 no storms minor 7 3 149 10 3 no storms no storms 7 4 149 11 3 minor minor 5 5 149 8 1 no storms minor 3 6 148 7 2 no storms no storms 8 7 151 15 3 no storms no storms 8 8 154 10 2 no storms no storms 5 9 156 5 2 no storms no storms 4 10 161 7 3 minor no storms 5 11 152 6 1 no storms no storms 6 12 153 6 2 no storms no storms 2 13 167 4 1 no storms no storms 5 14 186 10 3 no storms no storms 7 12/15 203 6 2 no storms no storms 5 ********************************************************************** (IRCA Soft DX Monitor Dec 28 via DXLD) FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 25 DECEMBER 2002 - 20 JANUARY 2003 Activity is expected to be at low to moderate levels. Regions 224, 226, and 230 have the potential to produce M-class activity. Region 224, 226, and 230 are due to rotate beyond the west limb on 25, 25, and 30 December respectively. Low-level activity is then expected until these regions return to the visible disk around 08 January. There is a slight chance of a greater than 10 MeV proton event during the forecast period. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geo- synchronous orbit is expected to reach event threshold on 30-31 December due to recurring coronal holes. The geomagnetic field is expected to be at quiet to active levels during the forecast period. A weaker recurring coronal hole is expected to return on 27-29 December resulting in unsettled to isolated active conditions. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2002 Dec 24 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 Dec 24 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2002 Dec 25 145 12 3 2002 Dec 26 140 10 3 2002 Dec 27 140 15 3 2002 Dec 28 145 25 5 2002 Dec 29 145 15 3 2002 Dec 30 145 12 3 2002 Dec 31 145 10 3 2003 Jan 01 150 8 3 2003 Jan 02 150 10 3 2003 Jan 03 150 15 3 2003 Jan 04 155 10 3 2003 Jan 05 155 8 3 2003 Jan 06 160 8 3 2003 Jan 07 155 8 3 2003 Jan 08 155 8 3 2003 Jan 09 165 8 3 2003 Jan 10 170 8 3 2003 Jan 11 180 10 3 2003 Jan 12 185 12 3 2003 Jan 13 185 12 3 2003 Jan 14 180 12 3 2003 Jan 15 175 25 5 2003 Jan 16 175 15 3 2003 Jan 17 170 10 3 2003 Jan 18 165 10 3 2003 Jan 19 160 10 3 2003 Jan 20 155 12 3 (from http://www.sec.noaa.gov/radio Dec 24 via WORLD OF RADIO 1162, DXLD) MORE TRANS-EQUATORIAL LONG-HAUL FM DX +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ FREQÜENCIA MODULADA BARBADOS 95.30 16/12 0026 Hot FM, advs. Direct TV, MRP 98.10 17/12 2340 Liberty FM, mx "Talking to me", EE, MRP ILHAS VIRGENS AMERICANAS 97.90 0230 WGOD mx, EE MRP MONTSERRAT 95.50 10/12 0115 ZJB Radio Montserrat, comentários sobre economia, EE, MRP PORTO RICO 92.50 15/12 0132 WORO, mx instrumental, SS, MRP 93.70 24/11 0052 WZNT, advs do px "Lo mejor de jazz tropical", SS, MRP SANTA LUCIA 94.50 10/11 0043 The Wave FM, ID "This is The Wave. Ninety four point five and ninety three point seven FM", EE, MRP 97.30 17/09 0234 Radio Saint Lucia, mx reggae, EE Além dessas emissoras, também estou captando outras ainda não identificadas, em 100,10 MHZ e 105,60 (ambas transmitindo em inglês) e em 88,50 MHZ (transmitindo em língua semelhante ao francês ou talvez no próprio idioma francês). MRP (MRP - Márcio Roberto Polheim da Silva, Jaragua do Sul- SC, Brasil, receptor Sony ICF SW7600 G, @tividade DX Dec 23 via DXLD) DESPEDIDA +++++++++ I wish you all a safe, peaceful and joyous holiday and a sensational, DX-intensive New Year. May the white noise you hear next month be from falling snowflakes... (Pete Taylor, Tacoma, WA, NRC-AM via DXLD) ###