DX LISTENING DIGEST 2-203, December 25, 2002
        edited by Glenn Hauser, wghauser@hotmail.com

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WORLD OF RADIO 1162:
[High] (Download) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1162h.rm
       (Stream)   http://www.k4cc.net/wor1162h.ram
[Low]  (Download) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1162.rm
       (Stream)   http://www.k4cc.net/wor1162.ram
(Summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1162.html [from Thursday]

WBCQ: Wed 2300 on 7415, 17495-CUSB, Mon 0545 7415
WWCR: Thu 2130 on 9475, Sat 0700, Sun 0330 5070, Sun 0730 3210, Wed 
1030 9475
RFPI: Fri 1930, Sat 0130, 0730, 1330, 1800, Sun 0000, 0600, 1200, 1830, 
Mon 0030, 0630, 1230, Tue 1900, Wed 0100, 0700, 1300 7445 and/or 15039 
WJIE: M-F 1300, daily 0400 -- maybe; Sun 0630, Mon 0700, Tue 0630 7490
WRN:  rest of world Sat 0900, Eu only Sun 0530, NAm Sun 1500

UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIAL

Thanks Glenn for another year of unbelievably fine DX News and 
shortwave information. I have long appreciated you and what you can 
amazingly do. Merry Christmas and have a fine New Year (LeRoy Long, 
OK)

** ANGOLA. 4950 Radio Nacional, Angola 2311-2339 12/25 . While 
scanning the 60m band I rechecked 4950 to find Angola with a nice 
signal. Music program, in Vernacular, with easy-listening ballads 
including Dire Straits, in English, "So far away from me". "Radio 
Nacional" ID at 2328 during talk. Hope you had an enjoyable Xmas, 
spent with loved ones.Here in NH we are in the grip of the snowstorm 
that is making the national news, snow piling up fast and furious 
(Scott R. Barbour, Jr., NH, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

** ARGENTINA. 15820-LSB, FM Hit, Buenos Aires, \\ 105.5 Mhz. 1933-
1940. Romantic music in Spanish. Program conduced by female. 44444.- 
At same time, in this frequency, on USB mode, communications between 
Argentine military staff in Antarctic region with their family in the 
continent! (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentine, Dec 25, hard-core-dx via DXLD) 

** BULGARIA. At 0030 UT I heard unID station playing some hits like 
Happy New Year by ABBA. Frequency was 5796. Any idea which station it 
was? Thanks for the reactions! 73! (Ruud Vos, Utrecht, Holland, Dec 
25, hard-core-dx via DXLD) It's the 7th harmonic of fundamental 828, 
of national service "Horizont" from Bulgaria (Roberto Scaglione 
http://www.bclnews.it ibid.)

** CANADA. There are over a thousand news and current affairs radio 
and TV clips at the CBC Radio & Television Archives Web site at 
http://archives.cbc.ca/

The site is searchable by keyword or browsable by categories. 
Categories include sports, life & society, conflict & war, and people. 
Click on a category and you'll get several topics. Topics under life & 
society include Christmas, Marshall McLuhan, and a 1984 Papal visit. 
Pick a topic and you'll get several clips with thumbnail stills. Each 
item contains a brief note as to what it's about, as well as the media 
type (radio or television) and the running length. It looks like the 
clips play in Windows Media Player format.

The breadth of clips offered here is pretty amazing. You can listen to
Churchill's "Chicken" speech or see a story about the Cabbage Patch 
Kid mania. You can follow the devastation of Hurricane Hazel or check 
out the punk rock movement in Canada. Very interesting (Mike Terry, 
UK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** COSTA RICA. 9724.9V, University Network; 1411-1420 Dec. 24, 
presumed the transmission source. The usual Dr. Gene Scott babble, Los 
Angeles phone number by the voice-over man and black gospel bumper 
music. Frequency varying all over the place between 9724.8-9725.05.  
Very good (Terry L. Krueger, TOCOBAGA DX #67 - 25 December, 2002
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, USA, via DXLD)

** CUBA. Just before my sunrise most Americans got weaker, and instead 
of that I got a fantastic signal from Radio Rebelde on 1180 kHz, 
peaking far above the S9 mark for several minutes around 0740 UT.
Never heard them so strong before. I checked the parallel frequency of 
5025, but that was inaudible (!). So, nice signals, totally against 
what I expected because of the active magnetic field. Mediumwave, an 
interesting band! (Dick van der Knaap, Holland, Dec 23, BDXC via DXLD)

Radio Rebelde from Cuba came in again on 1180; today it started
somewhere around sunrise. I first came across them at 0810, and the 
signal disappeared at 0823. There was a lot of echo on the signal; so 
maybe some kind of ducting/multipath signal. Heard this before on 
their signal, which is rather interesting (Dick van der Knaap, 
Holland, Dec 24, BDXC via DXLD)

When I searched the band for Americans I came across an talkstation on
950 kHz. First I thought it was an Canadian, but --- then I heard them 
talking --- Spanish!!!!!!! They probably do not speak that on Canadian 
radio. Hmmmmmmmmmm interesting

While listening at this station I found out that I was listening to 
Radio Reloj from Habana, Cuba!!!! Well, the station was there for only 
a few minutes, and then disappeared for good.

I decided to check the 2 frequencies on which I recently heard other 
Cubans. On 890, Radio Progresso had a fine signal, but with some 
European interference. On 1180 I could hear Radio Rebelde in, but it 
was suffering heavy interference from the station on 1179.

On 1470 I heard a station playing non-stop Carribean/Latin-music, with
no news on the top of the hour. Maybe Venezuela??

I kept listening to Radio Progreso on 890, with slow fading on the
signal it came in fine. Then around 0742 the signal rose up to well 
above the s9!!, and peaked at SINPO 34444 levels for a short time.
Around 0745 the signal started to get weaker. After 0750 the signal 
was there all the time, but slowly fading up and down. At 0835 it 
disappeared into the noise.

Meanwhile the transmitter on 1179 had switched off/or reduced power, 
and Radio Rebelde produced a fine signal. It got slowly weaker, and 
became more echoed and fluttery. At 0840 UT this one disappeared.

Earlier this weak I discovered the sunrise peak on Radio Rebelde 
around the same time. The Cubans seem to peak for a few minutes 
somewhere around 10 minutes before my sunrise. (DX-tip???)

Have a nice X-mas, and have fun on the magic-mediumwave band!
(Dick van der Knaap, East Holland, Dec 25, Benelux DX Club via DXLD) 

** CUBA [non]. Treasury bureaucrats forget which side of the Straits 
they live on

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/101289_cuba24.shtml

U.S. THREATENS TO FINE MAN WHO POSTED CUBA NEWS  --- Seattleite didn't 
have federal permission to promote meeting of 'sister cities' group  

Tuesday, December 24, 2002 By SAM SKOLNIK SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER 
REPORTER

Retired Seattle plumber and World War II veteran Tom Warner says he's 
been a proponent of the Cuban revolution and the country's president, 
Fidel Castro, since "he came down from the mountains."

Recently, as secretary of the Seattle/Cuba Friendship Committee, 
Warner, 77, supported developing a "sister-city relationship" between 
King County and Cuba's Granma Province.

Even though there are tight federal restrictions on traveling to and 
conducting business with Cuba, Warner never thought he would run afoul 
of the law by posting on a Web site information about a meeting of the 
U.S. Cuba Sister Cities Association in Havana. But that's what has 
happened.

Treasury Department officials, saying that Warner lacked a "specific 
license" to promote the conference, are threatening to fine him up to 
$55,000 if he doesn't tell them everything he knows about the 
conference and the organizations involved.

Treasury officials also contacted King County Councilman Dwight Pelz, 
D-South Seattle, and Alice Woldt, head of the Church Council of 
Greater Seattle, who unlike Warner actually attended the conference. 
Warner has hired a lawyer to argue that the demand for information 
violates his constitutional rights of free speech and due process. He 
and several supporters in the civil liberties community held a press 
conference yesterday to publicize his plight.

"All he did was post information on the Internet and they threatened 
him with fines," said Neil Fox of the Seattle chapter of the National 
Lawyers Guild. "This is a serious escalation of the assault on civil 
liberties in this country. It's outrageous."

On Oct. 16, an official with Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets 
Control wrote Warner about the Web posting that appeared in January 
regarding the Havana conference the following month.

"OFAC did not issue a specific license to you to organize, arrange, 
promote, or otherwise facilitate the attendance of persons at the 
conference in Cuba," the letter said. It went on to require that 
Warner give a "full explanation" of his involvement with the 
conference, including providing all relevant records.

Warner's attorney, Lynne Wilson, wrote in response that Treasury "has 
no authority under the U.S. Constitution (or federal regulations) to 
interfere with someone's rights to post information on the Internet 
about a conference in Cuba."

Treasury Department spokesman Rob Nichols declined to comment 
specifically on the Warner case. But when department officials are 
presented with information of possible violations of the 40-year-old 
embargo, he said, "we have to follow up on it."

The reason to enforce the embargo is plain, said Nichols: "The Cuban 
government violates internationally accepted, basic standards of human 
rights."

The department has not yet decided to fine Warner, Nichols said; that 
decision will come after he has had a chance to present his case. 
Though individuals can be fined up to $55,000 per infraction, the 
average penalty is $7,500, he said.

After an impassioned debate, the County Council voted 7-6 in late 
October to reject the plan for a sister relationship with the Cuban 
province. U.S. veterans spoke out on both sides of the issue.
About a dozen U.S. cities, including Tacoma, already have sister 
relationships with cities in Cuba. © 1998-2002 Seattle Post-
Intelligencer (via David Crawford, DXLD)

** CYPRUS. 
 8464 Lincolnshire Poacher CYP 21-12-02 1600 id 98426 USB 3 
10426 Lincolnshire Poacher CYP 21-12-02 1600 id 98426 USB 3 
11545 Lincolnshire Poacher CYP 21-12-02 1400 id 50699 USB 3 
12603 Lincolnshire Poacher CYP 21-12-02 1500 id 69078 USB 3 
13375 Lincolnshire Poacher CYP 21-12-02 1500 id 69078 USB 3 
14487 Lincolnshire Poacher CYP 21-12-02 1300 id 29372 USB 3 
15682 Lincolnshire Poacher CYP 21-12-02 1300 id 29372 USB 3 
16084 Lincolnshire Poacher CYP 21-12-02 1300 id 29372 USB 3 
(Ary Boender, Netherlands, BDXC via DXLD)

** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. 5009.78, Radio Cristal Internacional/Radio
Pueblo 15-10, Santo Domingo; 2104-2323 Dec. 23. Per Gerry Bishop's 
request, I checked to see how this one is currently IDing. Turned it 
on at 2104 and had a weak carrier (probably just missed the s/on at 
about 2100), nonstop Spanish news by M&W coming up but threshold level 
till about 2130, then slowly improving. Recheck 2249, a clear canned
"Radio Cristal Internacional" ID and into the usual bachata-type 
canned music format. Abruptly into this weird techo/synth loop from 
2302 for a couple of minutes, then "Noticias... Radio Pueblo [no "15-
10" tag] en Santo Domingo, y Radio M(?)--- y onda corta" followed by 
newscast by M, telco-ish audio. Presume the techno music was filler 
while they patched Pueblo back in. News item on Fidel Castro's bum 
leg, end of newscast at 2316 and into a long ad block. They key has 
always been: music and brief announcements (rarely commercials) is 
Cristal canned prorgamming, but live news and commercials is usually 
Pueblo. But when you are going to hear either, I can't say (Terry L. 
Krueger, TOCOBAGA DX #67 - 25 December, CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, via DXLD)

** INDIA. Recently while TWR Sri Lanka on 882 kHz was off air for some 
days, I could hear AIR Imphal there which is usually blocked by TWR. A 
reply to my email report to AIR Imphal has just been received stating 
that on November 17, 2002 they have commissioned a 300 kw transmitter 
replacing the old 50 kw one on this frequency. The Station Engineer 
has asked me to inform other DXers about this and he appreciates 
Reception Reports which must be sent to:

R. Narasimha Swamy 
Superintending Engineer, 
All India Radio, 
IMPHAL, 795001 
Manipur State, India 
email: narasimhaswamy@yahoo.com [not truncated!!]

As TWR Sri Lanka is using the same frequency, it is a difficult catch 
for those in South India. DX listeners please note that this station 
also operates on SW 4775 at 0030-0215 & 1030-1700/1730 and on 7150 at 
0230-0430/0530 & 0630-1030 with 50 kw and the above address can be 
used. Info on any feedback received is welcome. 73 (Jose Jacob, India, 
Dec 21, dx_india via DXLD)

Early this morning at 2.00 am IST (2030 UT) while checking the MW 
bands, I heard test tone with extremely strong signals on 648 kHz. 
This continued till 5.53 am (0023 UT) when the tuning signals and ID 
of AIR Indore was given.

Enquiries with the station officials confirmed that it was tests by 
their new 200 kw French made transmitter which is being used from last 
week. This replaces their old 100 kw transmitter. 73 (Jose Jacob, 
VU2JOS/AT0J, Hyderabad, Dec 24, dx_india via DXLD)

** INDONESIA. 11784.83, Voice of Indonesia; 2046-2102* Dec. 23, tune-
in to English W host, Indo vocals with flutes, ID at 2056 into news 
summary on (mostly) Indo-related international policy issues. Closing 
ID at 2059, filler music and abruptly silent just past 2100 and 
carrier off at 2102. Fair via LSB (Terry L. Krueger, TOCOBAGA DX #67 - 
25 December, 2002 CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, USA, via DXLD)

** INTERNATIONAL. Here's a great site if you have a broadband 
connection: http://tv4all.com/portal.htm

It lists about 570 TV stations from a bunch of countries and their 
streaming speeds. They make for some very interesting watching at 
times, and video @ 300k is pretty decent, IMO (Jacob Norland, Dec 23, 
WTFDA via DXLD)

Hey, you found a great site! I'm at a music video site in Sydney 
Australia called the basement http://www.thebasement.com.au where 
right now they are playing music on the audio and for the video they 
have a camera (or webcam) on a bus as it makes it's route and the 
camera checks out the people going on/getting off, the stores, points 
of interest, etc. It drove past a Mobil station but too fast for me to 
check out the gas prices. What a cool concept! I do the same thing 
when we go to NYC on the bus. (The music is pretty good also.) Thanks 
Jacob! (Mike Bugaj - Enfield, CT USA, WTFDA Circulation, ibid.)

** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [non?]. According to a story on the 2200 GMT 
Kol Yisrael English news, Israelnationanews.com/A7.org was off the air 
for an hour after complaints that the pirate was carrying election 
propaganda. The police did a search and took pictures but did not 
confiscate any equipment. According to the story on the INN/A7 
website, the captain was warned not to resume transmissions.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=36073
Hmm - Kol Yisrael said the ship is inside Israeli territorial waters
whereas the story on the INN/A7 website said it is outside. Apparently
you can have private stations in Israel but NOT national ones. There
was a law giving them a license but it was nullified by the Supreme
Court.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1040703242951
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=244681&contrassID=1&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=0 
(Joel Rubin, NY, Dec 24, swprograms via DXLD)

** IRAN [and non]. IRANIAN "PRO-REFORM" JOURNALISTS WRITE TO US 
COUNTERPARTS AS NEW YEAR

The following "message" from Iranian "pro-reform journalists" is 
addressed to "American journalists" in Persian and English is 
published on the web site of the Iranian newspaper Aftab-e Yazd on 25 
December 

[This is the text in English] The Christian New Year starts in a few 
more days. Reformist Iranian journalists wish a happy new year for 
their colleagues all around the world with an aching heart though. 
Various members of the benevolent, alert and cultured Iranian society 
were saddened when they found out about how the US Immigration and 
Naturalization Service (INS) has mistreated their compatriots. 
Iranians have no time in history supported the use of violent and 
illogical measures against unarmed people. They have indeed every way 
possible rejected cowardly acts. The latest case in point is the 
Iranian nation's condemnation of the 9/11 terrorist operations which 
claimed many innocent lives.... http://www.aftabnews.net/payam/en.pdf
(via BBCM via DXLD)

** IRAQ [non]. RE: 11292: There seems to be something wrong with the 
modulation on this frequency. I hear a strong carrier on exactly 
11292.00 [1525 UTC ?], but only occasional snatches of very faint 
modulation, which does indeed sound like Arabic music. With the hash 
from 400 computers and God knows how many fluorescent light tubes, 
this place isn't electrically quiet enough to hear anything 
intelligible (A. Sennitt, RN, Holland, Dec 18, 2002 for Clandestine 
Radio Watch via DXLD) 

** ISLE OF MAN. Hi, I am currently having one of my best Christmases 
ever as just yesterday we got some excellent news (its embargoed until 
January but you can probably guess what it is!) Hope you are also 
having a wonderful holiday and that 2003 is a wonderful year for you. 
Merry Everything (Paul Rusling FellowAnoraks@longwaveradio.com 25 
December 2002 11:41 via Mike Terry, DXLD)

** KOREA SOUTH [non]. Voice of National Salvation: As I promised I 
have tried to make scanned copies of a letter and a "QSL-card" (so 
they say, but it is a program schedule) from Voice of National 
Salvation. I heard it on 4450 kHz. The address used was: National 
Democratic Front of South Korea, Grenier Osawa 107, 40 Nando-cho, 
Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan (B. Fransson, Sweden, Dec 20, 2002 for CRW) 
It`s up on the CRW Clandestine radio gallery in a few days (Martin 
Schöch, Clandestine Radio Watch via DXLD) 

** KUWAIT. R. Farda: On Medium Wave it is on 1593 kHz from Kuwait with 
a power of 150 kW. I would be interested in any reports on this 
particular frequency because I just spent three months in Kuwait 
installing that transmitter (smile). It is an old Continental 318.5D 
series working into a two tower 1/4 wavelength array. The transmitter 
in Kuwait is using an Orban Digital Optimod limiter/processor. There 
is another medium wave transmitter with only 60 kW on 1539 (I think) 
at Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates  (Gaines Johnson, Dec 18, 
dxing.info via DXLD)

Gaines, This transmitter on 1593 kHz has even been heard in North 
America. We heard this from the coast of Newfoundland on November 5th 
and 6th during a DXpedition. The signal was fairly strong but it was 
getting chewed up by interference from Romania, Ireland and Egypt. It 
was interesting that the MW signal was a couple of seconds ahead of 
the parallel programming on 9680 kHz. (Jean Burnell, Halifax, Nova 
Scotia, Canada, Dec 20, ibid.)

Hi Glenn, American propaganda station R. FARDA, 1593 kHz, has been 
regularly heard with Farsi programming around 1730 UT. Reception is 
fair to good even with my indoor loop antenna. RX: AOR 7030+ 
ANT: Wellbrook ALA 1530P-active loop. PS. MERRY X-MAS and HAPPY NEW 
YEAR to all!! 73´s (Jouko Huuskonen, Turku, FINLAND, Dec 25, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST) 

** LAOS [non]. Hmong Lao Radio: Heute kam auch mein Brief an 
ULMD/Hmong Lao Radio (Box 2426, St. Paul, MN 55106) zurück. Auf dem 
Brief findet sich allerdings ein Hinweis "try St. Paul MN 55102-1139". 
Ich weiß allerdings nicht, ob das nur ein Hinweis für einen 
POstbeamten ist, und der Brief schon dort war. Ich werde es auf jeden 
Fall noch einmal mit diesem ZIP Code versuchen (P. Robich, Austria, 
Dec 16, 2002 for CRW via DXLD) see also USA non

** MALDIVE ISLANDS. The URL you were asking for - Voice of Maldives - 
is at http://www.vom.gov.mv/ Happy Holidays (Pentti Lintujärvi, 
Helsinki, Finland, Dec 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Webmaster of 1000 Lakes DX Page
http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Park/3232/dx.htm
and dxlinks.info http://www.dxlinks.info/
and Finnish DX Association http://www.sdxl.org/

Launches wmp automatically; nothing else is there (gh, DXLD)

** MALI. 5995, RTV Malienne, 2252-2258 12/25. Music program, in 
French, featuring love songs. Cover of Elvis' "Cant stop falling in 
love with you". Announcer with several mentions, "love". Crushed at 
2258 by CRI 5990 s/on (via Cuba). Switched to // 4835 fair // 4783 
poor (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., NH, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

** MEXICO. 11770.17, Radio México Internacional; 1616-1644 Dec. 24, 
noted a big carrier here around 1310+, no audio making it through.  
Rechecking at 1616: Spanish M&W chatter, ID, classical music fills 
from 1636. Extremely low modulation, easy to pass up if not for the 
het. Their transmitters must be about ready to be curbside trashed.  
And on Dec. 25th: tune-in at 1735 to French programming. Very bad 
FMing audio on this channel, and weak modulation on 9704.97, took a 
few minutes to actually confirm it was French, with W continuously 
talking except for classical, opera and flute fillers. Indeed French 
is listed (albeit the timing has shifted) per their schedule, which is 
at http://www.imer.gob.mx/programacion/rmi.pdf in Acrobat format 
(Terry L. Krueger, TOCOBAGA DX #67 - 25 December, 2002 CLEARWATER, 
FLORIDA, USA, via DXLD)

** NETHERLANDS. Re Piepzender website, 2-202: Beware: Music lanuches 
automatically obliterating whatever you are already listening to on 
real player!!! I hate websites that do this. Bezoekers, BEWARE (Glenn 
Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PAKISTAN. PBC on new 5080 is no doubt the News and Current Affairs 
programme ex 7105. The morning transmission remains on 7105 (though 
currently close to 7106). This transmitter often has a problem with 
the frequency exciter and produces a loud howl with the audio barely 
audible. When this happens, the "carrier" consists of several 
subcarriers that interfere with each other. Both frequencies are 
equally affected (Olle Alm, Sweden, Dec 25)

** PARAGUAY. 7737.3, Radio América, Villeta, 1006-1015, Diciembre 25. 
Charla religiosa en español. Música cristiana. 24442/1. Inaudible en 
2300 y 9983 kHz (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentine, Conexión Digital via DXLD)

** PERU. 6956.65, 0745 Radio La Voz del Campesino, fair sig on Xmas 
day with chicha music. PWO (Paul Ormandy, Oamaru, Host of The South 
Pacific DX Report http://radiodx.com Dec 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST)  A 
time, I suppose, when they are not normally on the air. Check again NY 
Eve if not sooner (gh, DXLD)

** PERU. 9720.4 Radio Victoria, Lima, 0048+, Diciembre 25. Reporte de 
la hora: "7 y 48 de la tarde". Anuncio: "seguimos con el pastor 
internacional.....Morais". Charla religiosa en español. 24432. No pude 
escucharla en su frecuencia de 49 metros (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina)

13565.6, Radio Ondas del Pacífico, Ayabaca, 0106+, Diciembre 25. 
Música tropical andina. Muchas ID's: "Radio Ondas del Pacífico......
categóricamente superior...."; "Siempre contigo, Radio Ondas del 
Pacífico"; "Radio Ondas del Pacífico......su mejor compañía"; "Radio 
Ondas del Pacífico es la radio que nació para usted". 34443 (Arnaldo 
Slaen, Argentina, Conexión Digital via DXLD)

** PUERTO RICO. A Puerto Rican station has applied for a "unitary 
license" - a permit to operate four transmitters on the same channel 
under a single license.

WSTE channel 7 Ponce is licensed for a site about 6 miles northeast of 
the city. In 1986 they licensed boosters at San Juan, Mayaguez, and 
Arecibo. (WSTE-1, WSTE-2, WSTE-3) At about the same time, they 
licensed an auxiliary ("backup") transmitter in Ponce proper.

Puerto Rico is a mountainous place. The documents indicate the station
decided no single site could provide a decent signal across all the 
island, even though island-wide coverage *is* predicted by the 
formulas. 

So, with FCC consent, WSTE shut down their main transmitter (which 
would interfere with the boosters) and began running their Ponce 
backup transmitter and the three boosters instead. 

However, boosters can only operate if there's a primary station to 
relay, and only if the boosters are located within the (predicted) 
Grade B contour of the primary station. So WSTE has been required to 
maintain an operational transmitter and antenna at the main site. 

This transmitter has not been used since 1992.

Basically, WSTE's request is to make this arrangement permanent. All 
four transmitters (the Ponce auxiliary and the three boosters) would 
be covered by a single license. So would four DTV transmitters, all on 
channel 66, at the same sites. The main transmitter would be closed 
and removed. 

Correct ERPs and coordinates for the three boosters appear in my 
database. The HAATs are 332m at San Juan; 366m at Ponce; and 28m at 
Arecibo. The Ponce auxiliary is not in the FCC database. (this is not 
unusual) It's 100 kW at 81m, at 18-01-46N / 66-38-09W. 
-- 
(Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66, 
http://www.w9wi.com Dec 19, WTFDA via DXLD)

** ROMANIA. RRI, the best heard in a long time, good modulation and no 
QRM tho a bit fluttery, on 9510 at 0646 Dec 25 with news in English 
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. Radio Gardarika of St. Petersburg, is again on SW. It will 
be on the air since December 20 to 31, 2002 from 2000 to 2300 UT on 
5920 kHz in Russian/English from 200 kW transmitter beamed to Western 
Europe. The station also identifies itself as Radio Studio and Radio 
Nevskaya Volna (i.e. Radio Neva Wave). It verifies reception reports 
with QSL cards. Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all members of 
EDXP! (Alexander Beryozkin, St.Petersburg, Dec 24, EDXP via DXLD)

** RUSSIA [non]. MOLDAVIA: 7125 kHz Voice of Russia. Kishinyov.
Tarjeta QSL (mencionando sitio transmisor en Kishinyov, Moldavia), 
tarjeta navideña, carta personal de agradecimento por el detallado
reporte de recepción firmada por Tanya Stukova (Mrs.), boletín de 
horarios y frecuencias y folleto de participación del concurso de 
celebración de los 60 años de la resistencia del Ejército Rojo en 
Stalingrado frente a las tropas nazis. Demora de 22 dias. Es el 
radiopaís número 138 (Marcelo Toníolo, NY, Conexión Digital via DXLD)

But is 7125 really Moldova? PWBR `2003` says it is in the 0100-0600 
period, but B-02 HFCC registrations show 4 other sites, depending on 
the time, which you did not mention:

7125 1330 1600 44,45,64 TCH 250 120 1234567 271002 300303 RUS VOR GFC 
7125 1600 1900 28NW EKB 240 281     1234567 271002 300303 RUS VOR GFC 
7125 2030 2230 17,27N S.P 250 268   1234567 271002 300303 RUS VOR GFC 
7125 2300 0600 17 ARM 500 310       1234567 271002 300303 RUS VOR GFC 

TCH = Chita, as if the way it`s transliterated into French were 
relevant; EKB = Yekaterinburg, as if the initial Y- in Russian were 
insignificant (and I have been informed there is no soft-sign in 
Yek... as I had been putting); S.P. must be St. Peterburg; and ARM the 
catch-all Armavir, also known by other names, none of which could be 
confused geographically with Moldova. 

Just because Moscow QSLs it as such does not make it so. VOR/R. 
Moscow/RMWS have an awful track record in specifying sites which are 
incorrect or downright lies held over from Soviet-era deceit and 
paranoia. But HFCC registrations are often falsified, too. So 7125 
could really be Moldova; I believe the experts have discussed this 
before and hope they will refresh us briefly on this. Altho Marcelo 
was upset at a previous contradiction and may have given up reading 
DXLD. Nothing personal, I would assure him (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** SRI LANKA. The Civil Administration in Thamil Eelam -An American 
Academic - A US Academic, who spent several months in Thamileelam 
during a three year period (1994 - 1996), on his return to the US in 
1996 sent this special report to the Tamil Voice. In this report he 
outlines his observations on the LTTE administration of the north 

I spent a total of one sesquiyear in the northern province of Sri 
Lanka since early 1994, as a volunteer working with farmers and 
educators. During this period I came to know the LTTE administrators 
and their administration of the Northern Province areas under their 
control. My observations below are based on that experience.... 

Communications: The north has no telecommunications link with the rest 
of the island or world. In total about 100 computers were in use 
before the October 95 offensive. The Sri Lankan radio and television 
programs are received in certain parts of the north with a tall 
antenna. International radio stations are the main source of reliable 
news. The LTTE operates an FM station for a few hours each day. 

[excerpt of only brief graf of relevance in very long article about 
all aspects of LTTE governance of area under their control]

(via D. Prabakaran, Tamilnadu, CRW via DXLD) The entire document is in 
CRW #123, to be issued Dec. 31 (gh, DXLD)

** TAJIKISTAN. Higher harmonics do propagate even if the fundamental 
is too low for the given time of the day! 21 Dec at 0936, heard Tajik 
Radio on 28980 kHz (343) - it's the 4th harmonic of 7245. Even the 3rd 
harmonic, 21735 kHz, was audible, but much weaker (O=1...2). As per 
WRTH, 2nd domestic program must use the frequency during the daytime 
(Alexei Kulinchenko, Kazan, Russia, Signal Dec 24 via DXLD)

** U K. UK FREQUENCY ALLOCATION TABLE PUBLISHED
   From http://www.radio.gov.uk/ 20 December 2002

The Radiocommunications Agency has today published the UK Frequency
Allocation Table (UKFAT) on its website at
http://www.radio.gov.uk/topics/spectrum-strat/uk-fat/uk-fat2002.htm

The UK Frequency Allocation Table, until recently a classified 
document, now covers the whole radio spectrum from 9 kHz to 275 GHz. 
It also identifies the responsibility for management of those 
frequency bands or services where management has been agreed, showing 
whether they are managed by the Radiocommunications Agency, the 
Ministry of Defence, or another Government department. Its publication 
responds to a recommendation of the independent Review of Radio 
Spectrum Management. The publication of the UKFAT will contribute to 
greater transparency about the use of the radio spectrum and help to 
identify further opportunities for sharing between civil and military 
users.

A printed version of the UKFAT will be available from the 
Radiocommunications Agency shortly. Those wishing to receive a copy 
should contact the RA library on tel: 0207 211 0502/05 (via Mike 
Terry, Dec 23, BDXC-UK via DXLD)

** U K. Glenn, You can watch the Queen's Xmas message at the BBC news 
website, but only after 1500 today (Ivan Grishin, Ont., Dec 25, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST) And for how long afterwards, I wonder. Specifically 
via: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2604079.stm  (gh)

** U K. MEMORIES OF A WORLD SERVICE CORRESPONDENT
   Friday, 20 December, 2002, 22:28 GMT 

As the BBC World Service celebrates its 70th birthday, former
correspondent Mark Brayne reflects on what the station means to him. 

There were many times in my foreign journalistic postings through the
1970s and 1980s when I was aware of the impact around the world of the
BBC World Service - and perhaps the most dramatic was in China during
1989. 

Students and workers were demonstrating in their hundreds of thousands
on Tiananmen Square, but it was from the foreign radio stations that
most were getting their information. 

At the height of the protests, so bloodily put down by the Chinese 
army a few days later, one group of students paraded through Beijing 
with a banner reading "Thank you BBC". 

In the middle of the following night I was reminded dramatically of 
the responsibility that goes with reporting for the World Service. A 
BBC colleague telephoned from the Square with rumours there that 
China's then supreme leader, Deng Xiaoping, had resigned. 

Scarcely having slept for weeks, I allowed my professional judgement 
to slip, and broadcast a despatch without further corroboration. 

Literally within minutes, the word on the Square was not that Deng's
resignation was just rumoured. It had now been confirmed, by the BBC 
no less, a source impeccable above all others. 

Unfortunately for me, it was not true, and was quickly corrected. 

But it was a healthy reminder how at so many critical junctures in the
past 70 years, it has been the World Service to which the world has
turned. 

Serious values 

We do not always get it right. 

We do, though, take accuracy and credibility very seriously, and our
listeners' trust and admiration rubs off on the journalistic mortals 
who provide the reporting. 

Again and again, as I travelled Central Europe as BBC correspondent 
for the region in the early 1980s, I would be met with, "Are you THE 
Mark Brayne?" 

It was a comment flattering to the ego of a correspondent greenhorn, 
but of course it was not about me. 

Every BBC correspondent has a rich store of such anecdotes, although
since the fall of Communism, the World Service has been playing a
different role for many of its traditional audiences. 

Informative role 

Today we aim to bring explanation, understanding and the highest
journalistic standards to countries now deluged and confused by
information of their own. 

And of course we bring music, and art, and literature, and
companionship. 

Whenever I wonder whether the World Service gets the right mix, I
remember the words of one of the Western hostages held in Lebanon in 
the 1980s. 

During his six-and-a-half-year captivity, Thomas Sutherland had a 
small receiver in his cell. 

Listening to the BBC, he said, had kept him sane. 

And if someone were to begin with a blank sheet of paper and devise 
the world's best possible radio station, he observed, what would they 
would end up with? 

The BBC World Service. 

Mark Brayne spent nearly two decades reporting Cold War Europe and 
China for Reuters and the BBC, with postings in Moscow, Berlin, Vienna 
and Beijing (BBCWS website via Kim Elliott, Dec 24, DXLD)

** U K / U S A. The moaning and groaning about Byford and the BBC on 
this list is becoming tedious.

Follow the money. BBC makes money from selling its programming to 
Sirius, XM Satellite Radio, and Public Radio International. Why do you 
expect them to compete with themselves by giving their product away 
free on shortwave to the North American audience?

Get over it. The BBC will not be back on SW beamed to NA.

I find that between 15.190, 12.095, 9.410, 6.195 and 5.975 I can hear 
BBC well enough at most any time of day or night. Granted, I live in a 
part of the USA that enjoys good SW reception from the UK direct or 
the relay facilities in Antigua. But then so does 80% of the US and 
Canadian population. If you can't hear them, I suggest you get a 
better antenna.

I live over 100 miles from Washington DC and Philadelphia, PA yet I 
can hear an hour of BBC on FM at 5 AM, via WSCL, Salisbury, MD and a 
half hour of BBC World TV news via BBC America on Direct TV at three 
different times in the morning and at 6 PM in the evening. I also get 
an hour of BBC on the FM radio at 9 AM via the New Jersey public 
broadcasting network At 5 PM I get a program jointly produced by BBC 
and WGBH, Boston via WSCL. That totals up to 5 hours a day of BBC news 
without ever turning on my shortwave or satellite radio.

And I live in the boondocks. Me thinks thou dost protest too much. 
"Aye, aye. Full power to the deflector shields. Brace for incoming 
photon torpedos."

~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,
Joe Buch, DE, Dec 20, swprograms via DXLD) 
-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^ 

No torpedoes, but I've done a little research. Here's the skinny as I 
have it:

1. BBC gets nothing from Sirius or XM. It's a straight barter 
arrangement, if one can call it that. BBC gets an outlet; Sirius/XM 
get (differing, btw) programming. Agreement has a shelf life (no one 
will say how long) and will have to be renegotiated at some future 
date.

2. PRI affiliates do pay...a flat fee regardless of how much BBC 
content they use. PRI also gets a cut of each affiliate fee.

3. Shortwave was never a factor in either negotiation, say my sources. 
BBC is free to distribute any way it wishes --- including DRM if they 
want.

4. If one only measures BBCWS hourly news availability, then BBCWS 
presence is up via FM in the US. There has been near zero success in 
getting PRI affiliates to relay other programming and more longer form 
news programs. (There is some churn....stations cancel or reduce 
output; others sign on and add.) Rich Cuff could check this with his 
sources, but I am told that there is disappointment at Bush House on 
this score, though their concern is much more with brand recognition -
- raw numbers that say they have heard a BBC ID in the last month.

To be perfectly frank, I find the concept that public pressure (due to 
loss of shortwave availability) will push PRI affiliates to add more 
BBC content to be preposterous. Equally so for an argument that 
potential to hear BBCWS will drive sat radio subscriptions. It just 
ain't happenin'.

Joe's attempt to inject some logic into this subject is most welcome. 
Quite honestly, I think the whole thing is getting tedious as well. 
Yes, some frequencies still work somewhat. But it was a boneheaded 
decision, as much for how and when it was done, as what was done--and 
it sticks in the craw.

I also don't think the Beeb's management should be let off the 
hook -- even at this late date-- for laying this egg. Furthermore and 
curiously, it was they that chose to bring it up all over again on 
Byford's Talking Point appearance. Obviously and oddly, *they* still 
think it's an issue! Even Coke relented and went back to its old 
formula when it received enough complaints!

The part of this that's even more tedious is the willingness of the 
BBC to beat this dead horse (if that is truly what it is) itself on 
its own dime!

PS: Sorry, Joe; but there's always the delete key. :-) Odd, though, 
isn't it that more PRI stations don't use more BBC content given that 
they pay the same whether they run 5 minutes of news or the full 24 
hour schedule? The economics would appear to compel a different 
approach. My PD at the local public radio outlet says there's a limit 
to the audience's tolerance for foreign content. Evidently that 
ceiling is quite low (John Figliozzi, ibid.)

I hate to say I told you so (not that anybody at the BBC was 
listening when I said the same thing back in 2001!) but public radio 
stations that play a "news/talk" format have certain things that they 
play that are well-established and are not going anywhere. No US 
public radio station that carries All Things Considered for two hours 
(and many do) is going to change to playing 1 hour of ATC and one hour 
of Newshour from the BBC. Ditto for Prairie Home Companion, Car Talk, 
This American Life, Fresh Air, Marketplace, etc. Whoever convinced the 
folks at the BBC that stations would cut back programs like this to 
air BBC content did a fabulous sales job!!

Interestingly enough, I have no idea if this is still the case, in the 
mid 1980s when I lived in Durham, NC, I heard the BBCWS for top of the 
hour updates on WCPE from Raleigh. This station played classical music 
and they got their BBCWS feed via shortwave. (At one point they were 
trying to put in a bigger antenna to get better reception.) I believe 
they felt that a membership in NPR wasn't cost effective since they 
were all music, and getting BBC on shortwave allowed them to have an 
hourly newsbreak without signing up for NPR. But that's just my hunch 
(Kyle Barger, Dec 21, swprograms via DXLD)

WCPE recently had to drop BBC news (long since via satellite, not SW) 
as costs are going way up for rights, sewn up by PRI (gh, DXLD)

If the BBC's intent is to drive more of the audience to alternative 
delivery modes including DRM, then cancellation of the North American 
and South Pacific targeting on analog SW will certainly work to that 
end. Once the audience is transitioned to these alternative modes, 
then the BBC will be in a better position to negotiate carriage 
renewal contracts or charge subscription fees. Think of the current 
arrangements as loss leaders with long term revenue possibilities. 

I think there is also a fear of British accents distorting the image 
of a station. To those of us who have been enjoying the BBC since we 
were kids, the British accents are no big deal but to most Americans, 
British accents sound haughty and aloof, just the image public radio 
is trying to move away from. That is why the two most carried programs 
on USA NPR/PRI outlets (The World and World Update) use an American 
hostess in one case and co-production by WGBH announcers in the other.

I remember the first time I heard Estelle Winters' British accent on 
the Voice of Russia. She sounded really snooty. I was very surprised 
to find she was quite pleasant and friendly when I met her at the SWL 
WinterFest a few years ago. That just shows me how one might form an 
incorrect image of a person or a radio station based on accents. By 
the same token, many people from the southern part of the USA sound 
stupid to my yankee ears. You don't hear many southern accents on the 
radio north of the Mason-Dixon Line unless they are trying to 
cultivate a folksy radio image. (People in southern New Mexico told me 
I had a New York accent, but I don't think I did because I learned to 
talk in Indiana and had not lived in New York for 25 years.)

I do know of one FM station in Carmel, California that was running the 
entire BBC stream 24 hours a day when I visited there a few years ago. 
That is a very upscale area with lots of rich, educated people. It is 
hardly representative of mainstream America. In this case the BBC 
programming certainly set the station apart from the rabble in a 
community where many of the people think of themselves as above 
average in affluence and lifestyle. Here the BBC seemed to fit right 
in. I would be interested to hear from other readers who know of other 
stations relaying BBC during prime time for extended periods. Maybe we 
can make some inferences based on where those stations are located.

~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,
(Joe Buch, Dec 21, swprograms via DXLD)
-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^ 

Remember, too, that not all public radio stations -- even those who 
take NPR programming -- are PRI members. For WDIY-FM here in 
Allentown, the PRI membership alone would be $17,000 per year. Money 
they don't have. Then there's the fees for the BBCWS programming on 
top of that (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, ibid.)

[Listener support:] What's being suggested here is changing the 
funding model of an international broadcaster. And y'all thought that 
getting a station to reverse a mere policy was difficult! :-)

Read my lips |g| --- The BBCWS feels that, via FM and the internet, it 
is already getting its broadcasts to the people they feel are 
important to its purposes. You heard Byford mention Boston, New York 
and Washington, as well as "opinion formers". You could add another 
handful of cities to that list, but not much more. That is the message 
from Bush House, I'm afraid. The fact of the matter is: they don't 
much care if they're heard in Sheboygan (sp?) or Ypsilanti (sp?) (or 
even Toronto, apparently). If they can be heard there (or by 
secondary shortwave frequencies), it's a "value-added" situation as 
far as the BBC is concerned --- and not something for which they are 
willing to pay extra --- such as that $700,000. We may not agree with 
the approach (and I don't, fwiw); but we really don't have a say. And 
if the dissidents are right and Byford is wrong, the WS will suffer 
some consequences from that approach.

If you really want to hear them well and often and ON A RADIO, then FM 
is the main game and Joe's plan is the way to go. As Scott said, 
"Think local".

I enjoy this discussion because it calls into play the purpose of 
international broadcasting, the viability of the public service 
broadcasting model and the future (or lack thereof perhaps) of them 
both --- not because of the declining importance of shortwave radio 
(what someone referred to as "nostalgia"). Shortwave is simply a means 
to an end for an international broadcaster and has not been the only 
such means for the better part of a decade now. It stands to reason 
that a broadcaster would want to deploy a range of distribution 
options to best effect. Where I disagree with the BBCWS most is in its 
attempt to target something called an "opinion former". Their model, 
in this regard, assumes a certain stasis in that definition. One need 
only to look at what it is happening in the world today to understand 
that today's "opinion-former" can be tomorrow's "nobody" (and vice-
versa) in a heartbeat. With that in mind, one would think that a 
station would gladly want to serve anyone who finds something of value 
in what the station is doing --- especially those who have recognized 
that value over time.

(Personally, I think the folks that run many of these stations and 
services lack an essential understanding of the nature of their 
enterprises and how they differ from other broadcasting ventures; and 
are surprisingly ill-equipped for their tasks. But that's only an 
opinion (one informed by some knowledge, I hope) and I fully 
understand that times do change. Nonetheless, I do feel we are 
experiencing a serious loss in some respects and I regret that.)

As far as changing Byford's mind, that horse ran a long time ago. 
(Actually, it's dead and has been pulverized nearly into dust at this 
point.) But I still think it's fun to talk about (John Figliozzi, 
ibid.)

I believe that for Byford, it's *not* about getting the greatest 
audience numbers. It's about getting to those "opinion formers", 
average people be damned. In this case, letting people to listen to 
things such as "Saturday Sportsworld", "Westway", or any of the 
classical music programs isn't necessary. As long as they get the news 
and information parts of the stream out, that seems to be all they're 
looking for.

The impression Byford gives is that he believes shortwave in North 
America is only for a) people who believe in the black helicopter 
conspiracies, and b) people who care about tractor production in 
Albania (Ted Schuerzinger, ibid.)

I was not an opinion former when I first heard the BBC. I must have 
been less than 8 years old because World War II was still in progress. 
In 1943 my family moved from Indiana to Long Island and the old man 
rented a house next to Mrs. Baxter. Mrs. Baxter had the habit of 
playing her radio pretty loudly with her windows open. Mrs. Baxter was 
a transplant from the UK who used the BBC to keep up with the war 
news. I asked her one day after hearing the chimes of Big Ben what 
that was she was listening to. She invited me in to listen to her big 
console radio with the green tuning eye. I was impressed. 

We had a Silvertone console in the living room as did most families of 
that era. I never knew it had any use except to listen to the Lone 
Ranger and Captain Midnight. I used that radio to tune in the BBC and 
other shortwave stations. I was hooked at an early age. 

As I grew in education and mental capacity I came to respect the BBC 
as a great source of news and, in those days, comedy. My sense of the 
world and my sense of humor were irreparably warped. I became an 
opinion former. But because the BBC was not only targeting opinion 
formers in those days, I was convinced as a very young person that the 
British had ideas I could learn from and funny stuff that could make 
my life richer. Today, I vote and like most people on this list, I am 
not shy about sharing my opinions. I do so often in print, in 
broadcast talk radio, or on the internet. I consider myself an opinion 
former whose opinion of the UK and its culture was formed long before 
I became an opinion former of others.

The BBC can learn a lot from the Catholic Church or the Church of 
England. Get them young and brainwash them while they are 
impressionable. The BBC did that to me. (The Catholic Church tried but 
failed.) The BBC should not target only opinion formers but folks like 
me whose opinions can be molded over decades of intelligent radio 
listening. In my now-formed opinion they can best do that by targeting 
everyone via as many different media as possible and over time the 
opinion formers will evolve, understanding the UK's view of the world 
and respecting the UK's contribution to civilization. Nudge, nudge, 
wink, wink, say no more!

The BBC on SW beamed to North America should not be a dead parrot, but 
it is as far as the BBC budget is concerned. So we do what we have to 
do. We listen on FM or the internet or on SW with a slightly better 
antenna than we needed before. 

Someplace out there is a pimple-faced kid surfing the internet who 
stumbles across the BBC web pages and the cycle begins again. Some day 
he or she may even may even stumble across the Universal Radio web 
site and jump to the next level of evolution. Or is it devolution?

~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,
(Joe Buch, ibid.) 
-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^ 

Last words from me on this: As you know, I disagree vehemently with 
the point that the difference (between public and commercial) doesn't 
matter and that it's all "inside baseball". NBC TV (stateside) prides 
itself on excelling in attracting a particular demographic (age and 
income) even though its gross numbers may be lower than another 
network's. Understandable because what you're really trying to do is 
sell soap --- the programming is just an intro to the ads --- and 
you'll sell more soap if you target those who have the money and are 
more easily convinced to buy. Others want large raw numbers and 
program to the lowest common denominator as a result. (NBC just 
programs to the lowest common denominator of its prime target 
demographic.)

Public service broadcasting --- in its "purest" sense --- has an 
entirely different orientation. The programming is the point and the 
audience for each offering is almost always a minority one. (Of 
course, these are gross generalizations to illustrate the contrast, 
but the contrast is clearly identifiable and not at all illusory or 
subtle.) It may be true that some (many?) wish to blur the 
distinctions because it serves their own agendas. 

And I'm not saying that numbers don't matter at all. But Star TV (and 
CNN) is one thing; the BBC (at least traditionally) is another. The 
standards and measurements applied to each should be different to 
recognize these distinctions. But if public has to measure up to 
commercial (and, therefore, presumptively compete with it), then the 
public will, indeed, begin to resemble the commercial more and more 
until the distinction becomes illusory. 

That is what is going on with public service media, in my view. 
Instead of a Byford standing ground and insisting on a recognition of 
the difference (as some former BBC DGs and MDs have done), he blurs 
the distinction while insisting that the BBC is superior (to Star or 
CNN). Oddly enough, that's only true as long as that public/commercial 
distinction can be maintained because it is that distinction that 
earned the BBCWS its stature. But what point will the "commercial 
popularization" of the WS erase that distinction entirely and its 
reputation with it? 

Put another way, two items may be fruit, but one is an apple and the 
other is an orange. Telling me you're handing me an apple because it's 
the same thing as an orange may serve a marketing purpose, but it 
doesn't change reality. ("It's all fruit! Most people don't care 
whether they eat an apple or an orange!") Maybe (as the consumer) I'll 
shake my head yes and accept your apple as an equivalent to the orange 
I originally asked for --- but that only acknowledges your marketing 
skill or your force of will, not your knowledge of fruit or my skill 
at getting you to give me what I wanted in the first place.

If the only kind of programming that is deemed worthy of seeing the 
light of day is the one that will produce the most eyeballs for an ad 
campaign, then so be it. But don't tell me there is no important 
difference between programming produced primarily for commercial 
imperatives and that produced for primarily social benefit (in the 
eyes of the producer) or artistic imperatives. That's just not so and 
it's a tremendous disservice to the public service foundations of our 
broadcasting system in the US, as well as that of the BBC, to 
perpetuate that new myth. Peace (John A. Figliozzi, NY, ibid.)

** U K. BBCR3 WORLD MUSIC DAY 1/1/2003
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/wmdday2003.shtml
Streaming available via web-embedded RA player. (You need to have RA
installed in one form or the other.) Digging through my web cache I 
find:
rtsp://rmlivev8.bbc.net.uk/farm/*/ev7/live24/radio3/live/fmg2.ra 
(Joel Rubin, NY, Dec 21, swprograms via DXLD)

** U K O G B A N I. NORTHERN IRELAND CLANDESTINE GETS TEMPORARY 
LICENCE 

Radio Failte /Triple FM, Teach Na Feile, 473 Falls Road, Belfast, 
Northern Ireland BT12 6DD. Tel: +442890319150 E-mail: feile@iol.ie 

The Irish Nationalist station "Radio Failte" based in Belfast has got 
a temporary 28 day licence from the UK radio authority despite 
broadcasting illegally in Belfast for several months now. Most of R 
Failte's (Failte = "Welcome") programming is in the Irish Gaelic 
language it broadcasts on 107.0 MHz FM. The only other clandestine 
known to have broadcast in NI in recent years has been the nationalist 
"Radio Equality" in Portadown which broadcast during the Durmcree/ 
Garvaghy riots in July however during the 1970's there were a lot of 
broadcasts from various Nationalist and Loyalist (pro British) 
factions (M. Byron, Great Britain, Dec 20, 2002 for Clandestine Radio 
Watch via DXLD)

** UNITED NATIONS [non]. 15495, United Nations Radio (via BBC, 
Skelton); 1732-1745* Dec. 24, English M&W with UN news. A mere 15-
minute transmission, listed as Monday-Friday 1730-1745 (Terry L. 
Krueger, TOCOBAGA DX #67 - 25 December, 2002 CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, USA, 
via DXLD)

** U S A. 540, WPDI548, CO Denver - 12/24 0900 - Noted with a full 
length Christmas song inserted into the usual  parking and telephone 
number info loop. This is at Denver International Airport 15 miles 
east of me. (PG-CO) (Patrick Griffith, Westminster, CO, Drake R-8 and 
Kiwa loop, NRC-AM via DXLD) Used to be on 530; I heard in Kansas on 
groundwave; or maybe that was another Denver TIS. 540 ought to get 
creamed at night by XEWA, CBK, etc. (gh, DXLD)

** U S A [and non]. Re Bruce Elving`s message to the American Family 
Network: It's a fine letter, perfect in spirit and content.

And I don't agree with those who feel that you are tilting uselessly 
at windmills, Bruce. Your application and use of your citizen's right 
to free speech is something that I take very dearly to heart, and I 
can think of no better use of it than to better the DX'ing hobby, not 
to mention attempting to correct an illegal practice by a large 
religious organization whose bullying tactics are way out of place, 
especially at this time of the year. I see posted gripes from those 
who whine about the ineffectiveness of the FCC too often; I'd MUCH 
rather see a post detailing action helping the FCC to correct 
problems. You are to be congratulated for your efforts (Paul 
Swearingen, Topeka, KS, amfmtvdx via DXLD)

Many thanks, Paul, for your heartfelt comments. I hope I can continue 
to uphold the right of DXers to expect the finest of the broadcast 
stations they DX (Bruce Elving, ibid.)

Subject: [AMFMTVDX] Bruce Elving, AFR and deregulation

Bruce Elving has touched on a broader issue affecting not only the 
broadcast industry but the public: The deregulation of the airwaves.

The airwaves are public property -- like the sidewalks, streets, 
national parks, and town squares. Furthermore, they are a vital form 
of communication, by citizens, and a foundation of our democratic 
political and social system.

Thus, the airwaves themselves more than just a business. Businesses do 
use the airwaves for broadcasting, but so do government and non-profit
civil-society institutions. No one outside of the state, representing 
the public, owns the broadcast spectrum or space on that spectrum. We 
the people -- so to speak -- do.

Government agencies like the FCC, the CRTC, and their counterparts 
around the world exist to regulate the airwaves. In democratic 
societies, these agencies are supposed to be accountable to the 
citizenry. Citizens include those whose primary interest is business 
and religion, but these groups are among many interest groups in 
society.

However, broadcast deregulation has in effect turned these agencies 
into -- at best -- paper pushers. Traditional anti-interference 
regulations and other measures have, for the most part, gone out the 
window. The result is chaos. IBOC and the whole introduction of 
digital broadcasting is a classic example of what we can expect from a 
government when that government chooses to serve and represent 
particular interest groups, or specific parties within larger interest 
groups.

If IBOC continues as we are currently experiencing it, broadcasters 
will be able to use IBOC to obliterate each other. Like a bad game of 
splatterball. Deregulation means stations will be able to identify 
however they choose, if and when they want. They will be able to sell 
their broadcast licences to other parties without public input. They 
will be able to freely air racist language.

I'm currently fighting an Ontario station that used the term 'wop' to
describe an Italian scientist -- actually it was the U.S.-based Phil 
Hendrie Show, which runs on CKTB in St. Catharines. The CRTC no longer 
handles these complaints; I've been handed off to the Canadian 
Broadcast Standards Council, an industry-run voluntary compliance 
outfit. They passed me onto the broadcaster, whose spokesperson says 
we should just agree to disagree.

I wouldn't personally put my energy into Bruce's cause, and my 
methodology might differ from his, but I do wish him every success. We 
all have the right to know very specifically who the tenants are on 
public property.

This is not a DX issue, to me. DXers don't have any special 
privileges. If there is room to make the spectrum more crowded, and in 
return increase the variety of programming and people who have access 
to the airwaves, then that is ultimately more important than having 
channels that can be easily DXed. Not to say I don't experience some 
mild disappointment when new locals take to the air (Saul Chernos, 
Ont., amfmtvdx via DXLD)  Well! Put!! (gh)

** U S A. SPECTRUM WANTS TO BE FREE -- NEVER PAY FOR PHONE, CABLE, OR 
NET ACCESS AGAIN --- Issue 11.01 - January 2003 VIEW By Kevin Werbach

A revolution is brewing in wireless. In an industry speech in October, 
FCC chair Michael Powell expressed support for a radical idea called 
open spectrum that could transform the communications landscape as 
profoundly as the Internet ever did. If it works, you'll never pay for 
telephone, cable, or Net access again. 

Open spectrum treats the airwaves as a commons, shared by all. It's 
the brainchild of engineers, activists, and scholars such as wireless 
gadfly Dewayne Hendricks, former Lotus chief scientist David Reed, and 
NYU law professor Yochai Benkler. The idea is that smart devices 
cooperating with one another function more effectively than huge 
proprietary communications networks. The commons can be created 
through distinct, unlicensed "parks" or through "underlay" 
technologies, such as ultrawideband, that are invisible to licensed 
users in the same band....
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.01/view.html 
(via ??, DXLD)

** U S A. TV DXING IN A DIGITAL WORLD

It's a safe bet to say that most of us in the WTFDA have access to a 
computer now and that most of have visited eBay at least occasionally, 
if not daily. It's also a safe bet to say that if we do any TV DXing 
at all we would also like to DX the DTV channels. But our options are 
few since a good DTV set-top box will set us back around $400 and most 
of us either can't or won't pay that price. 

If we can't afford a Samsung DTV converter the next best option might 
be a Hauppauge Win TV-D Card for our computers. Prices on these cards 
have come down on eBay to the point where you can purchase a new card 
for $130 or less. In one instance a WTFDA member recently bought one 
for only $115!

2003 will be another huge year for digital television. At this time 
the CEA reports that there are over 600 DTV stations on the air with 
another large batch ready to hit the streets on or soon after January 
of 2003. What this means is that analog TV DXing will be harder to 
accomplish than it already is. 

With all this in mind, what do we do? Do we stay with our analog TVs 
and hope we can log something new or do we just take down our antennas 
and say adios to TV DX or do we try to adapt to the new technology, 
which means purchasing a converter or a computer card.

I went with the computer card. I really didn't want to give up on 
something I enjoy. The price was right and others have done it 
successfully and were there for support if I needed it.

Watching TV with the Hauppauge DTV card is an eye-opener. Channels I 
thought were empty are not. Sure I could guess about a couple of 
stations, but others came as a real surprise. The "snow" I saw on 
channels 10 and 11 is a perfect WTNH and WWLP DTV picture. The same 
goes for channels 33, 34, 36, 39, 45, 46, 55 and 58. That stretch of 
channels from ch 30-40 that looked so empty on my Sanyo analog TV 
is not empty at all. 

DXing the digital channels should be interesting. However when one is 
accustomed to looking for weak, snowy signals as tropo indicators, a 
little re-thinking of the methods used needs to take place and I'm 
still in the re-thinking phase. 

As you all know, with DTV DXing you won't see a weak snowy picture. 
You'll see a black screen or a perfect picture or you might see a 
broken up picture with part of it out of place or digitally garbled. 
How do you know when the tropo is up? 

Luckily at this point we still have analog channels on the air. My 
best bet, I think, is to keep using my analog set to look for signs 
of tropo on those channels I still have use of. Or better yet, use my 
FM equipment to look for signs of trop. Next I have gone to 
Antennaweb.org on the internet and downloaded channel listings for 
Boston, NYC and other places, to get an instant grasp of what DTVs are 
actually on the air, and on what channels. And I also keep my VUDs 
handy for Doug's TV News columns. Then, all that is left to do when 
tropo shows is to find out where it's coming from, point my dish into 
that area and then check the available DTV channels. 

It's a strange feeling to watch a black screen…not at all like 
watching snow and the familiar audio hiss that goes with it. Watching 
a black screen is unnatural, if you ask me. But that's what we'll have 
to do if we want to do any TV DXing in the future. Right now we still 
have our old familiar analog stations to help ease the transition 
and provide some comfort, but when those have gone and the digital 
stations are the only ones left, will we still get any satisfaction 
out of staring into the black nothingness, hoping for a picture to 
appear? Each of us will have to answer that.

Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Yes, you can. Can a veteran 
analog DXer learn new digital tricks? No doubt about it, but the 
question is will the veteran analog DXer want to learn them.

Time will tell. (Mike Bugaj, CT, Jan WTFDA VHF-UHF Digest via DXLD)

** U S A. A CANADIAN HEARD ON HIGH
http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20021224/FASS24/Features/features/features_temp/2/2/3/

PRINT EDITION SOCIAL STUDIES
A DAILY MISCELLANY OF INFORMATION BY MICHAEL KESTERTON
Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ont.) Tuesday, December 24, 2002 - Page A20  
 
At 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve, 1906, a dozen or so wireless-radio
operators in the Caribbean began to hear faint, ghostly music. One
said to his shipmates, "Listen, I hear an angel's voice on the
microphone, and music and singing, too." But it wasn't an angel. It
was Canadian-born inventor Reginald Aubrey Fessenden, called by some
the Father of Radio. A few notes:

Mr. Fessenden's target audience, crews sailing aboard the banana fleet
of the United Fruit Co., were told only that there would be a special
broadcast on their ship-to-shore telegraph systems. They expected it
would be Morse Code dots and dashes from the equipment the company had
purchased from Mr. Fessenden. Instead, they heard a short voice
announcement, followed by the Edison-Bell recording of Handel's Largo.
A woman sang some carols and Mr. Fessenden scraped out Oh Holy Night
on his violin. He sang the last verse and remarked: "If anybody hears
me, please write to Mr. Fessenden at Brant Rock" in Massachusetts. He
had just become the world's first music deejay, by devising a
successful AM transmitter.

Mr. Fessenden disagreed with Marconi's theory that radio transmissions
were brief electrical whiplashes. The inventor himself believed
broadcasts were like water ripples that moved in continuous waves, in
widening circles, and that voice and music might be carried on them.
Thomas Edison, his one-time employer, had told Mr. Fessenden that
wireless speech was about as likely as a man jumping over the moon.

The Christmas Eve broadcast was Mr. Fessenden's first announced
transmission over long distances. In 1900, he had sent the first
voice-only message, a distance of one mile: "Is it snowing where you
are, Mr. Thiessen?"

The man once called "the greatest wireless inventor of his age"
accumulated more than 500 patents in his career. (He might have done
his inventing in Canada if McGill hadn't turned him down when he
applied for a professorship.) Many of Mr. Fessenden's ideas were
widely adopted -- without his consent -- during the First World War.
In 1928, the U.S. Radio Trust paid him $2.5-million in recognition of
his contributions to the medium. Source: Social Studies, 1996 (via 
Daniel Say, swprograms via DXLD)

** U S A [non]. BEWARE OF FORKED-TONGUE WARRIORS
   By Ian Urbina, San Antonio Current, December 12, 2002

Wedged between a rack of 99-cent cheese crisps and a display of pork 
rinds stood a life-sized cardboard cutout of a buxom blonde in a red 
miniskirt. Resting on her inner thigh was a frosty bottle of Miller 
Genuine Draft. "That's essentially what we do," an army major 
remarked, pointing to the stiletto-heeled eye-catcher. "But we don't 
sell beer."

The scene was a recruitment barbecue conducted by the U.S. Army's 11th
Psychological Operations Battalion ("Psy-ops," for short), held 
recently at Andrews Air Force Base outside of Washington, D.C. Amid 
the Cheetos, cheesecake, and a sweaty game of softball, there was 
casual chit-chat about the workplace challenges faced by these 
fatigue-wearing PR execs.

Part ad men and part ethnographers, these specialists, some of whom 
are just back from Afghanistan, are dispatched regularly to front 
lines in the Middle East for hearts-and-minds campaigns aimed at 
undercutting the enemy's military morale and winning over civilian 
support. Many are waiting eagerly for a call to Iraq. With the U.S. 
military deploying in every corner of the globe, demand is booming in 
the psychological warfare industry these days, and Psy-ops is 
especially eager to recruit outsiders who have experience or interest 
in the Middle East. Hence, the barbecues, accompanied by war stories - 
actually, psy-war stories.

Although invited, I am a reporter, so recruiters and guests wouldn't 
speak to me for attribution. They did, however reluctantly, share some 
yarns.

"Much of the time on the ground," one private recalled about a tour of 
duty in the Middle East, "is spent driving around the desert in 
Humvees mounted with nine speakers, each blasting a thousand watts of 
noise. Tank treads, helicopter propellers, huge guns - we broadcast 
anything that'll scare the shit out of 'em." When music is chosen, the 
playlist tends to be short: Beach Boys, AC/DC, and Jimi Hendrix's 
shrill "Star-Spangled Banner," repeat ad nauseam until the enemy 
submits out of sheer annoyance. Other psy-opers parachute in and then 
remain stationary, setting up the army's equivalent of a battlefield 
copy shop to churn out agitprop handbills in the millions. 

Some operatives are airborne aboard Commando Solo, an Air Force cargo 
plane converted into a $70 million flying radio and TV station, 
beaming news, tunes, and an occasional bit of disinformation to the 
enemy.

"We just deliver the goods," quipped the major who played host to me. 
"The guys down South drawing the cartoons are the ones paid six 
figures to know that because bananas are a delicacy in Iraq, they 
should get drawn into the picture with an enticing feast scene."

Headquartered at the 4th Psychological Operations Group in Fort Bragg,
North Carolina, the psy-op artists typically rely on cartoon 
animations to convey their messages. But it is psy-op history itself 
that belongs in a comic strip: Its collection of harebrained schemes 
is sometimes almost too colorful to believe, though all of the 
following tales have been covered in the press at one point or 
another. One such plan initially investigated by the Air Force before 
Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait entailed the projection of a 
holographic image of Allah floating over Baghdad and instructing Iraqi
civilians to overthrow Saddam. The idea was promptly dropped after
scientists informed the Pentagon that it would require a mirror a 
square mile in area, not to mention the added problem that no one 
knows what Allah looks like. Furthermore, since divine portrayals of 
any kind are strictly forbidden in Islam, the hologram would surely 
have elicited a reaction, but probably not the one intended.

Framing an understandable message is always tough. When using comic 
strips, captions need to be as concise and simple as possible. Yet, 
even in small amounts, the use of text raises questions. One has to 
wonder, for example, whether it was really effective to drop millions 
of text-based leaflets on Afghanistan, where barely 30 percent of its 
27 million people can read. In all cases, well-crafted animations are 
a must, and for the highest quality drawings, the 4th at Bragg 
sometimes opts to contract out. In 2000, it hired DC Comics to produce 
special versions of Superman and Wonder Woman comic books, in the 
languages of the Balkans, Central America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, 
to educate locals on the dangers of land mines. But even Superman can 
be confusing at times: Although widely understood in some contexts, 
thought bubbles appearing above a cartoon character's head left some 
readers, especially rural ones, completely baffled, according to press
accounts.

Often more confusing than convincing, psy-ops can suffer hugely from 
the smallest graphical errors. A T-shirt used in Cambodia to try to 
deter kids from entering certain unsafe zones featured a boy squatting 
over a mine that he was poking with a stick. The silk-screened shirt 
was yanked from production, according to one account, when angry 
villagers kept asking why American personnel were distributing images 
of kids defecating over land mines. The squatting boy was eventually 
redrawn.

Bigger mistakes mean bigger consequences. Leaflets dropped in Somalia 
in 1992, prior to the U.N. troop arrival. were meant to assure the 
populace of the mission's humanitarian intentions. Unfortunately, of 
all the personnel the U.S. initially deployed in the country, only two 
were native speakers, and one turned out to be the son of the 
country's bloodiest warlord. Pamphlet proofreaders, needless to say, 
were in short supply, and the result was sometimes quite embarrassing. 
Instead of announcing help from the "United Nations," the pamphlets 
spoke of help from the "Slave Nations," and as anyone who has seen the 
movie Black Hawk Down can certainly attest, neither the blue helmets 
nor the boys with stars and stripes were welcomed with open arms when 
they eventually landed ashore.

The backflow of misinformation can also be a serious problem. Although 
the Pentagon and the CIA are barred by U.S. law from propaganda 
activities in the United States, during the mid 1970s increased 
scrutiny of military intelligence operations revealed that programs 
planting fake leaks in the foreign press had resulted in false 
articles running back through the U.S. media. But sometimes the false 
articles are intentional. When the American public seemed to be 
developing weak knees about the Nicaraguan contras, the Office of 
Public Diplomacy, part of the Reagan-era State Department, quickly 
leaked fake intelligence to The Miami Herald that the Soviet Union
had given chemical weapons to the Sandinistas.

Distribution of misinformation overseas can be trickier. In 1999, 
during the NATO air war in Yugoslavia, more than 100 million leaflets 
were to be dropped on Kosovo. But at the designated time, there was 
too much ground-to-air fire for planes to fly lower than 20,000 feet. 
Swept by strong winds, many leaflets landed in the wrong country, 
according to military reports.

Sometimes, the packages land in the right place, and the enemy is 
quite happy about it. During World War II, the Japanese utilized the 
standard tactic of telling American soldiers that their girlfriends 
were getting busy while they were away from home. But on the air-
dropped handbills the Japanese illustrated their point a little too 
well, using graphic pornography that was otherwise tough to come by on 
the front lines. According to military historian Stanley Sandler, "Our 
guys loved it. They'd trade them like baseball cards ... five for a 
bottle of whiskey."

But there are also some psy-ops success stories. In Vietnam, U.S. 
planes sprinkled enemy territory with playing cards, but prior to 
carpet bombing, they dropped only the ace of spades. Before long, the 
Pavlovian technique took hold, and just the dropping of aces was 
sufficient to clear an entire area. During the Persian Gulf War, many 
Iraqi soldiers surrendered with U.S. leaflets in hand. Throughout that 
war, American forces also cleverly floated 10,000 bottles with 
intimidating notes in the gulf toward Iraqi shores. According to 
subsequent interviews with captured Iraqi soldiers, the bottled 
messages effectively increased concerns in Baghdad over the 
possibility of a massive amphibious landing. No such landing took 
place.

On occasion, enemy psy-opers have gotten it right, too. The North
Vietnamese peppered American soldiers with leaflets using anti-war 
slogans from the States. "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill 
today?" was a particular favorite appropriated by Vietcong 
leafleteers. When American soldiers finally came home, many commented 
that the printed reminders of stateside opposition to the war really 
wore down morale. Last decade, the Iraqis made occasionally smart use 
of disinformation, often disseminated through their old enemy, Iran 
(making it more believable). According to U.S. military sources, 
leaflets were circulated in Bangladesh citing a Tehran radio report 
that U.S. troops had opened fire on Bangladeshi troops who refused to 
join the military strike on Iraq. The incident, allegedly leaving 
hundreds dead, was a complete fabrication.

Less than an exact science, psy-ops is a clumsy art that has seen few 
real innovations over the years. In the 4th century B.C., Alexander 
the Great ordered his metalworkers to craft giant helmets to fit men 
the size of 20-foot monsters. His soldiers would then leave the 
helmets strewn about in conquered villages, hoping to inflame the 
wildest imaginations of enemy armies passing through the area. More 
recent psy-op folklore has it that along the same lines, though 
pitching at a slightly lower angle, American psy-op specialists in 
Vietnam left foot-long condoms along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, presumably 
to preoccupy the enemy soldiers with hiding their wives and daughters.

The laundry list of actual psy-ops bloopers is certainly long and 
dirty, leaving some in the U.S. military skeptical of whether the 
American forked-tongued brigades are keeping up with the enemy. A May 
2000 report by the Defense Science Board Task Force, an advisory panel 
to the Defense Department, concluded, "While the United States is 
years ahead of its competitors in terms of military technology, in 
terms of psy-ops there are already competitors on par with, or even 
arguably more sophisticated than, the U.S." But in other circles, 
confidence is unwavering. At a recent press conference, Defense 
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, "If Saddam were to issue such an order 
to use a chemical or biological attack, that does not necessarily mean 
his orders would be carried out." Rumsfeld's oblique speculation 
rested on the dubious hope, gaining popularity on Capitol Hill, that 
psychological operations might just do the trick on Saddam's key 
weapons handlers. But as one unnamed senior defense official pointed 
out to USA Today, the men in charge of the supposed Iraqi chemical or 
biological weapons and missile forces are likely Saddam's most loyal 
soldiers. In fact, if our psy-ops people are left to their old 
devices, the Iraqi commanders might just hit those red buttons all the 
faster.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=6343127&BRD=2318&PAG=461&dept_id=484045&rfi=6 
(via Nick Grace, USA Dec 17, 2002 for CRW via DXLD)

** U S A [non]. CIA SPY MASTER TED SHACKLEY DIES AT 75
By Carol Rosenberg, Miami Herald, December 13, 2002
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/4733339.htm

Theodore ''Ted'' Shackley, a legendary spy master and Cold War figure 
who ran the CIA's huge Miami operation during the height of U.S. 
tensions with Cuba during the 1960s, has died of cancer in Maryland. 
He was 75.

Nicknamed ''The Blond Ghost'' because he hated to be photographed, 
Shackley was an exacting, intense, elusive covert operator. As Miami 
station chief during Operation Mongoose, an interagency U.S. effort to 
topple Fidel Castro, he ran about 400 agents and operatives during a 
period that included the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962.

The Miami assignment was only one of the many powerful posts he held 
during a 28-year counterinsurgency career that spanned the globe.

The places where he worked as a senior CIA officer -- Berlin, Saigon, 
Laos -- served as signposts in the global struggle between the United 
States and Soviet-backed communism.

In Miami, he directed an ambitious anti-Castro propaganda and 
paramilitary campaign, and as a sign of its significance, Shackley 
would later say that he commanded the third-largest navy in the 
Caribbean -- only the United States and Cuba had more vessels than the 
CIA station chief's flotilla.

Thirty-year friend Tom Spencer, a Miami attorney, described Shackley
Thursday as "the master spy chief, a strategist, tactician, a 
brilliant man, a chess player -- a person who could read tea leaves 
and watch things which ordinary people could not see or pick up.''

Added fellow CIA retiree E. Peter Earnest, now director of Washington,
D.C.'s International Spy Museum: "He had a keen sense of discipline, 
and was very goal-oriented. He found himself periodically in 
situations where there was chaos, and he could pull some order out of 
that.''

RETIRED IN '79

Shackley retired from the Central Intelligence Agency in 1979 and set 
up a D.C.-area consulting firm that offered security strategy to 
corporate executives.

But for nearly three decades before that, including 17 years overseas, 
he served as a CIA officer who recruited and handled agents, hatched 
plots and gathered intelligence in Cold War settings.

From May 1976 to December 1977, he served as associate deputy director 
of operations, the No. 2 position in the clandestine operations 
branch. He held the job first under CIA Director George H.W. Bush, 
then under Adm. Stansfield Turner, who relieved him of his title in a 
late 1977 shake-up.

At issue: a Carter administration decision to fire thousands of secret
agents and informants, notably in the Middle East, and dismantle Cold 
War spy networks.

Shackley, said Spencer, soon ''left in disgust,'' retiring from the 
agency he had joined straight from Army duty in 1945 in Europe. 
Besides consulting, he also wrote a primer on counterinsurgency in 
1981 called The Third Option.

Shackley was Miami station chief from 1962 to 1965, running his vast 
spy network out of the University of Miami South Campus, now the 
Metrozoo. It was the largest CIA hub outside of headquarters in 
Langley, Va.

''When I got there, the mission was to implement an intelligence 
collection program and clean up the residuals of the Bay of Pigs,'' he 
told retired Herald journalist Don Bohning in April 1998 in 
Washington. "As we got into the intelligence program and 
restructuring, we started detecting Soviet buildup in the context of 
all that, how to bring about change in Cuba.''

IN MIAMI

Some of his Miami activities, he told Bohning, included  
''psychological warfare pressure on Cuba,'' including infiltrations, 
radio propaganda and ties with a paramilitary, anti-Castro movement.

The only full-fledged CIA station in the continental United States, 
its code name was JM-Wave.

After Miami, he moved on to another Cold War hot zone, Southeast Asia,
where he was a top CIA officer in Laos and Saigon in the late 1960s 
and early '70s.

AUTHOR RECOLLECTS

''In Laos, Shackley helped run a secret war using local tribes people, 
and at the end of that campaign the tribe was decimated,'' said David 
Corn, author of the 1994 book, Blond Ghost: Ted Shackley and the CIA's 
Crusade.

''Shackley was in some ways the archetype of the Cold War covert
bureaucrat. He took orders from above . . . running secret wars,
undermining democratically elected governments, compromising 
journalists and political opponents overseas . . . and made them a 
reality,'' Corn said.

Shackley also ran Latin American operations out of CIA headquarters in 
1973 when Gen. Augusto Pincohet led a coup in Chile that toppled the 
elected government of President Salvador Allende.

''He was not the mastermind of the clandestine operations of 
presidents and CIA directors. He was the implementer,'' Corn said. 
'And in doing so, he avoided the moral questions that accompanied such 
actions and embodied the `ends justify the means' mentality of 
America's national security establishment.''

Fellow former CIA agent Mo Sovern, who said they were colleagues for 
45 years, summed up Shackley's management philosophy this way: "Screw 
up and you'd hear about it. Screw up twice for the same problem, and 
you're gone."

He could be a controversial figure, said Sovern, chairman of the 
Central Intelligence Retirees Association.

"A lot of people absolutely hated him. A lot of people thought he was
marvelous. But he got the work done."

LAST DETAILS

He cited this example of Shackley's micromanagement style:

After receiving last rites on Sunday, he had his wife summoned a 
funeral director to their suburban Washington home and he picked out a 
casket, negotiated the fee and asked to be buried in West Palm Beach, 
where he was raised and educated before going to the University of 
Maryland. He died Monday. Burial will be next week in West Palm Beach. 
Visitation is scheduled for today in Washington. Mass will be said 
Saturday in Bethesda, Md. (via U. Fleming, USA Dec 14, 2002 for CRW 
via DXLD)

Ted Shackley's involvement in CIA-run clandestine radio stations 
includes Radio Swan, Radio Américas and Union of Lao Races (which 
supported the Hmong tribes in Laos).
(N. Grace, USA, Dec 14, 2002 for CRW via DXLD)

** URUGUAY. 6155.08, Banda Oriental, Sarandi del Yi. 0139+, Diciembre 
25. Apertura de transmisiones. Himno Nacional del Uruguay. ID completa 
por locutora: "A partir de este momento, inicia su transmisión, CWA155 
Banda Oriental, en la frecuencia de 6155 khz, con estudios ubicados en 
calle Sarandí 328, Sarandí del Yi, Durazno, Uruguay. Nuestro correo 
electrónico es: norasan@a..." [truncated]. Luego, continúa una 
selección de música popular uruguaya. 44444 con algo de interferencia 
de Radio Fides, Bolivia (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, Conexión Digital 
via DXLD)

** ZANZIBAR. (TANZANIA) 11735, 08/12 1906 Voice of Tanzania, Zanzibar. 
OM en Swahili con programa noticioso y mencionando en reiteradas 
ocasiones: "Dar es Salaam". Fin del programa informativo a las 1916 
cuando comenzo otro programa con el Cor`án y música de estilo 
africano. A 2000 "bips" (5 "bips" con el mismo tono y el sexto más 
agudo) seguido de la identificación(?) por OM. 34333 (a las 1906) pero 
con SINPO 23322 (a las 2000). (Marcelo Toníolo, NY, Conexión Digital 
via DXLD) Actually 11734+

** ZANZIBAR. [TANZANIA] Radio Tanzania-Zanzibar, 11734.13, 2002-2059 
Dec. 25. Possibly the one, after seeing the report of something here -
- stating that it didn't quite seem to fit RT-Z -- program-wise. Tune-
in to unID language (it did sound Swahili or similar), woman with 
possible news until 2006. She continued after 2006, but alternated 
with instrumental music (piano-type stuff, mostly). Nothing I could 
hear was particularly "Islamic" so-to-speak. At 2059, a man babbled a 
bit, but I had to depart briefly to answer the door (pesky neighbors). 
At 2108 recheck, they were gone (the station, but not the neighbors). 
Not even a carrier. Timing (closing just after 2100) and approximate 
frequency would fit my many past RT-Z logs. Despite a little line 
noise, signal at times peaked to a pretty fair level, just as RT-Z has 
sometimes done in the past here (Terry L. Krueger, Clearwater FL, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** ZIMBABWE. ZIMBABWE JOURNALIST ACCUSED OF SPYING FOR BBC: REPORT

(See 4th & 5th paragraphs! Andy.)

HARARE, Dec 22 (AFP) - The Zimbabwe government has accused a local
journalist of spying for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), 
the state-controlled Sunday Mail reported.

The paper, which reflects government views, said Lewis Machipisa, a
Zimbabwean correspondent for BBC radio, was being hired by Britain's
Foreign  Office to also film and write stories for BBC television.

The BBC has been officially banned from the country, but Machipisa, a
Zimbabwean national, has been able to continue working here for the
broadcaster.

A senior BBC official quoted in the Sunday Mail denied the allegations
against Machipisa and also said the BBC was not behind an exiled radio
station  broadcasting into Zimbabwe from London, as the government had
suggested.

The permanent secretary in Zimbabwe's Information Ministry, George
Charamba  told the BBC in a letter quoted in the Sunday Mail that the 
BBC's denials of  these charges were not accepted or believed.

The charges against Machipisa come ahead of the December 31 deadline
set by  the government for all journalists working here to be 
registered, turned down or de-registered under tough new press laws
(AFP rt/ss Zimbabwe-media via A. Sennitt, Holland, Dec 22, 2002 for 
CRW via DXLD)  

UNIDENTIFIED. 4790, 0046-0102 12/23. After listening to a presumed 
AIR, Chennai with Hindi music and talks, s/off at 0045, I could hear 
Arabic? style singing and chanting, reminiscent of the Kor`an. Brief 
talk at 0055 and more chanting until 0100 when pips, presumed ID, and 
more talks where heard. Weak tho audible. I'd like to think this was 
Pakistan, Azad Kashmir Radio (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., NH, DX LISTENING 
DIGEST) 

UNIDENTIFIED. 16 Dec, 2100 UT - 5025 kHz. A very weak talk in presumed 
English. Too severe conditions because of bothering utility pips. 
After YL talk music began. At 2105 Radio Tashkent started preparing 
its transmitter, cutting off the possibility to listen to anything 
else. After 2200 frequency was completely clear. 2100 was too early 
for Australia, it must switch to 5025 kHz at 2130 (per WRTH)... 
(Dmitry Puzanov, Kustanay, Kazakhstan, Signal via DXLD)

As Chris Hambly has frequently informed us, the switchover times by 
the Northern Territory service are quite variable and unreliable. 
Sometimes they stay on the day frequency well into the night, or vice 
versa (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 23000, Over-the-horizon-radar 21-12-02 1349 very loud 
(Ary Boender, Holland, BDXC via DXLD)       ###

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

TRANSMITTER NEWS
++++++++++++++++

GEE-WHIZ WEAPONS COULD POSE RISKS - FOR U.S.
  BY SCOTT CANON, Knight Ridder Newspapers
  KANSAS CITY, Mo. - KRT NEWSFEATURES

(KRT) - Imagine the effect of an electromagnetic burst over an Iraqi
military hub - a radar station, an infantry command post or a
Republican Guard bunker.

That pulse of energy could wipe computer memories blank, fry telephone
lines and radar circuits, zap tank ignitions.

Defenses rendered instantly defenseless. The connected become the
detached. High-tech turns obsolete.

Best of all, the weapon aims to kill gear, not humans.

Analysts say Iraq could end up the first testing ground for this next
generation of GI gee-whiz weaponry. For now, though, much about
high-powered microwave weapons remains classified.

The very potential of these directed-energy weapons - the possibility
that they could flip the "off" switch for a 21st century army - could
keep them under wraps.

That is because no military relies so heavily on electronics as the
U.S. military does.

U.S. troops depend increasingly on arms made ever more precise and
lethal through electronic brains. "Network-centric warfare" -
precisely choreographed battlefield movement and communication - sits
at the core of the Pentagon's idea of a modern military.

"The main reason why we keep this technology classified is not because
it's so complicated, but because we want to conceal the degree to
which we are vulnerable to what it could do," said Loren Thompson, a
defense analyst at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va., who has
just completed a study on directed-energy weapons.

Meantime, much remains to be seen about these untested weapons, which
could range in form from an unconventional missile to a supercharged
antenna.

What is publicly known, for instance, suggests their performance in
the laboratory can only roughly predict field tests.

So what happens in the chaos of shifting battlefield conditions? Can
microwaves effectively conk out enemy electronics? And would they
indeed spare living things, or, if their power settings proved hard to
control, would they cook a person from the inside out?

Among the greatest risks comes if they perform perfectly, in which
case using them holds at least a potential to backfire against
America's high-tech military.

Directed-energy gadgets are already a fixture on the modern
battlefield. For years lasers have been key to aiming everything from
rifles to tank cannons to bombs.

There is evidence as well that they can be used not only to aim
something, but also to inflict their own damage. In April 1997 a
Canadian helicopter near Puget Sound hovered above the Russian trawler
Kapitan Man, which was suspected of hunting for an American submarine.

An American adviser on the chopper and a pilot reported severe eye
pain. Photographs taken during the encounter suggested the Russian
ship directed a handheld laser at the helicopter.

Although lasers have yet to be fully developed as combat weapons, they
represent one form of a technology widely believed to hold a range of
warfare applications.

Already microwaves temporarily jam enemy radar - a tactic now routine
in American air assaults.

It all starts with electromagnetic energy - from light to infrared to
X-rays to the radio waves with lower frequencies and longer
wavelengths at the far end of the spectrum. They batter you and all
the electronics around you.

High-powered microwaves shoot to concentrate, for just an instant, a
burst of energy in the same part of the spectrum as the target.
Lightning bolt-style, the energy overdose blows the circuits to
transform a computer or radar into scrap metal.

That power was seen from atomic bomb tests in the Pacific Ocean in the
1940s that sent out an electrical burst trashing phone lines in
far-off Hawaii.

The challenge now is to harness that effect without splitting atoms,
and to point it in the right directions.

Tests have begun on some weapons that look like modified radar dishes,
like antennas or, to focus the transmission of energy, like horns.

"These things are supposed to be directional," said Philip Coyle, a
senior adviser at the Center for Defense Information. "The idea is to
beam the energy at your target."

He said the microwave weapons faced several hurdles on their way to
perfection. They seem vulnerable to their surroundings, he said,
penetrating physical barriers unpredictably and seemingly influenced
by the weather or other radio signals. And they pose the problem of
how to fry someone else's electronics without crashing your own
motherboard.

"We don't want to zap ourselves in the foot," Coyle said.

In part because microwave weapons are believed to still be in need of
fine-tuning, experts say their first use could come from a cruise
missile or an unmanned vehicle. That way no U.S. troops would run the
risk of their electronics melting down while delivering a blast.

Instead, a remote-controlled blast might be rigged to convert the
chemical energy of high explosives into an electromagnetic burst. In
such a design, the effects would blanket an area rather than zoom in
on a single target.

What is unclear is the level of control over that burst of energy. Too
little energy, and electronics escape unharmed. Too much, and not only
do computers sizzle, but flesh burns, too.

An article in Jane's Defence Weekly in August quoted an unnamed
scientist who the publication said was familiar with the effects of
the weapons and what the most powerful varieties could do to people.

"All the fluid in their body cells would instantly vaporize into
steam," the scientist told Jane's. "It would happen so fast, you
wouldn't even be aware of it.

"If, on the other hand, you were caught ... by a weak reflection of
the main beam off a metal surface - which could easily happen in a
city - you could probably suffer terrible burns as well as permanent
brain damage."

In fact, work is under way on microwave weapons for crowd control to,
say, keep marauders from overrunning an American Embassy. They would
make water molecules just beneath the skin vibrate violently, creating
an intense burning sensation. Military officers who have experienced
the effect said it creates instant panic.

Thompson said he thought humans would not feel the effects of the
weapons.

The greater military risk rests in unleashing a genie that could
bedevil American equipment in later conflicts, Thompson and other
analysts said.

Thompson noted that recent efforts to modernize the military led to
the purchase of ever more sophisticated computers and other
electronics from the civilian marketplace. While that makes for
greater sophistication, he said, it also blends into the U.S. arsenal
electronics that aren't hardened against attacks.

And new forms of aircraft designed to avoid radar detection - the B-2
stealth bomber, the F-117 stealth fighter and the planned Joint Strike
Fighter - have bodies of synthetic materials rather than metal. That
makes them less visible to radar but lacking a built-in protection
against microwave weapons.

"We are probably doing too little to protect our equipment against
electromagnetic attack," Thompson said.

Some analysts, in fact, think the ever-widening technological edge the
American military enjoys over its enemies has a potential to be an
Achilles' heel.

"We in the sophisticated and technological West are especially
vulnerable to this," said Robert Hewson, editor of Jane's Air-Launched
Weapons. "It would be great to blind the enemies' electronics with
this. It could spare you collateral damage" - the military term for
civilian casualties. "It could do a lot for you.

"But we have the most to lose."

© 2002, The Kansas City Star. (via Mike Cooper, DXLD)  ###