DX LISTENING DIGEST 3-002, January 3, 2003 edited by Glenn Hauser, ghauser@hotmail.com Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only if full credit be maintained at all stages and we be provided exchange copies. DXLD may not be reposted in its entirety without permission. Materials taken from Arctic or originating from Olle Alm and not having a commercial copyright are exempt from all restrictions of noncommercial, noncopyrighted reusage except for full credits HTML version of this issue will be posted afterwards at http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldta03.html For restrixions and searchable 2003 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html For restrixions and searchable 2002 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid2.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn WORLD OF RADIO 1163: [Low] (Download) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1163.rm (Stream) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1163.ram [High version from Wed or Thu:] (Download) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1163h.rm (Stream) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1163h.ram (Summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1163.html RFPI: Sat 0730, 1330, 1800, Sun 0000, 0600, 1200, 1830, Mon 0030, 0630, 1230, Tue 1900, Wed 0100, 0700, 1300 7445 and/or 15039 WWCR: Sat 0700, Sun 0330 5070, Sun 0730 3210, Wed 1030 9475 WJIE: M-F 1300, daily 0400 -- maybe; Sun 0630, Mon 0700, Tue 0630 7490 WBCQ: Mon 0545 7415 WRN: rest of world Sat 0900, Eu only Sun 0530, NAm Sun 1500 ONDEMAND: http://www.wrn.org/ondemand/worldofradio.html ** AFGHANISTAN [non]. NORWAY: R. Afghanistan via Kvitsøy 18940, Jan 3 1545-1630* - as reported in DXLD (12/31) no program, just an Interval Signal endlessly repeated, and suddenly off at 1630 (Jim Renfrew, Byron NY, Drake R8, longwires, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Amigos, já há algum tempo percebe-se um sinal de rádio em 18940 KHz (15 metros), e as bases de informação (PWBR, WRTH e ILG) apontam ser a Radio Afeganistão. O curioso é que ouve-se esta emissora, vindo de um relay na Noruega, em pleno meio dia. Ou melhor, das 11 e meia da manhã às 2 e meia da tarde. Confiram. Vale à pena. Nota-se uma comunicação muito simples ainda, e as listas européias já anunciaram que este é o inicio de um grande projeto que faz parte da reconstrução daquele pais. Há longos periodos de execução de uma música, uma música repetitiva que não tem mais do que 10 acordes sequenciais. Uma melodia tocada com sintetizadores e orquestra. Já foi verificado quase uma hora seguida com esta música repetitiva, creio que por falta de programação própria, e para ocupar espaço na frequencia. Vale à pena conferir. Arrisquei ontem enviar o meu primeiro informe de recepção para Kabul, que tenho quase certeza que não será respondido. Mas, se não tentasse muitas vezes, não teria conseguido algumas pérolas. Um forte 73 a todos e boass escutas (Rudolf W. Grimm, São Bernardo, SP - Brasil, Jan 3, radioescutas via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. 11710, Radio Nacional, 0238-0303 Jan 2. Music program of very nice Latin and South American music. Announcers in Spanish. Radio Nacional ID at 0301 followed by a presumed NA. Strong, clear signal. My schedule lists English service M-F at 0200-0300. Could this have been special New Years programming? (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, Sangean ATS 818, RF Systems MLB-1 kit, RS longwire kit & RLD balun, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. VNG (Australia's only HF Standard Frequency and Time Signal service) was unceremoniously switched off at 2344 UTC on 31 December 2002, 15 minutes earlier than the official close down time. Let's hope WWV/WWVH is not next. If you wish to listen to the "last" minute of VNG broadcast, look down this page to see a MP3 recording of the transmitter being switched off at 2343:43 UTC on the 31st Dec 2002. http://tufi.alphalink.com.au/time/time_hf.html (posts in rec.radio.shortwave via Mike Terry; link also via David Zantow, DXLD) As anticipated, the time signal station VNG has closed down. 5000 kHz is now clear of the previous 24/7 high-intensity wide-band radiation output from VNG which spread from 4985-5015 kHz. Interestingly, the Venezuelan time signal station at Caracas on 5000 is now audible in our local Melbourne evenings around 0800, co-channel with WWV and WWVH (Bob Padula, Mont Albert, Vic, Australia, Jan 3, EDXP via DXLD) GOODBYE VNG According to letters sent out from the chronohertz station VNG in Llandilo (LAN-DIE-LOW) in New South Wales Australia, this station was closed down a few days ago at the end of the old year. It is planned that calibrations by GPS satellites will replace the signals broadcast by shortwave station VNG. It is possible however, that the low powered 1 kW service on 2500 kHz for the Sydney area may still remain on air. The history of the chronohertz station VNG, with its familiar ticking sounds, goes way back more than 50 years. Test broadcasts from a 2 kW transmitter at Lyndhurst in Victoria under the callsign VLX were noted back in March 1946. At the time, this transmitter was carrying a relay of the ABC programming in parallel with the other shortwave station VLR. Soon afterwards, this transmitter began to broadcast only time signals with a standard tone on a constant frequency. The callsign was changed to VNG reminiscent of earlier time signals that were emitted by maritime radio stations as XNG. The NG stood for navigation and the X was an abbreviation for transmission. An improved service was introduced on September 21, 1964, using a 10 kW STC transmitter. Subsequently, two more transmitters at 10 kW were installed at Lyndhurst for this chronohertz service. The ABC closed their Lyndhurst radio station in 1987 though the VNG service remained on air for a few months longer. During the following year, 1988, four of the 10 kW STC transmitters were removed from Lyndhurst and transferred to Llandilo in New South Wales where they were re-installed at the International Transmitting Station operated by the Civil Aviation Authority. A few years later, VNG bought two more transmitters; one was the 10 kW ABC unit VLQ near Brisbane in Queensland and the other was a 2.5 kW Harris transmitter at commercial station 2KA in the Blue Mountains out from Sydney. Over the years, various transmitter configurations have been used on various frequencies at VNG Llandilo. Their QSL card shows four main frequencies; 5000, 8638, 12984 & 16000 kHz. All four transmitters were STC units at 10 kW, with the old VLQ in operation as a standby unit. The transmitter for the Sydney coverage on 2500 kHz is listed as a 1 kW Harris transmitter. The antennas for the four main transmitters are described as quadrant dipoles, and the antenna for the Sydney service was a vertical monopole. Chronohertz station VNG was noted as a good verifier, from both offices in Canberra and Sydney. The Canberra QSLs in the form of folded sheets were signed by Dr Marion Leiba who is noted in Australia for her research into earthquake phenomena. Some QSLs were actual photos of transmitters and antennas. Anyway, whatever QSLs you do hold from VNG are now unique, in view of the fact that they represent a part of Australia's radio history. Incidentally, the VNG authorities are now looking for a suitable place to house all of these old transmitters in their retirement. A museum somewhere maybe? (Adian Michael Peterson, AWR Wavescan Jan 5 via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. 3rd Jan'02 Dear All, As per Mr Ian Williams, Frequency Manager, HCJB Australia, the start of transmission to India has been delayed till the 12th January on a new frequency of 15480 kHz (1230- 1730 UT) instead of earlier announced 15130 and 15135. HCA HCA: Delete 15130 1230 1430 41 KNX 100 307 0 148 1234567 271002 300303 D ENG AUS 15135 1430 1730 41 KNX 100 307 0 148 1234567 271002 300303 D ENG AUS ADD 15480 1230 1730 41 KNX 100 307 0 148 1234567 271002 300303 D ENG AUS With season's greetings, (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, Jan 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Greetings once again to all on the EDXP E-NET. Happy New Year and good DX in 2003! Thanks to many of you who joined me last weekend on the DX Partyline when we spoke with Dennis Adams of HCJB Australia about the new transmitter site in Kununurra, Australia. The final preparations are in place for the South Pacific release to begin from Kununurra this Sunday, 5 January 2003. Dennis will join me again this weekend for a last-minute update, especially regarding the scheduled release to Asia, which will now begin 12 January 2003. I will be with Dennis live for the India release of the DX Partyline Saturday at 0200 UT. The interview will then be repeated in the subsequent releases of the program. I hope you can join us again. It'll be great to have your company! As of today, the planned schedule for broadcasts from HCJB Australia Kununurra are as follows: Starting 5 January: Daily 0700-1200 South Pacific 11755 kHz 25 kW Starting 12 January: Daily 1230-1730 Asia 15480 kHz 100 kW I cannot confirm at this moment with the HCJB Australia office if the test broadcast to Ethiopia will also be delayed. The new broadcast times for the DX Partyline will be Saturdays at 0930 UT to the South Pacific and 1430 to Asia. You are invited to send your Reception Reports to: HCJB Australia GPO Box 691E Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 3001 E-mail reports, especially for test transmissions, may be sent to: office@hcjb.org.au Thanks again. Many blessings your way today from Quito! (Allen Graham, HCJB, Jan 3, EDXP via DXLD) ** BURKINA-FASO. The international religious Reintegration organization of the Réinsertion des Marginaux (Remar) wants to create television channels and radio in deprived Burkina and in the fifty one other countries where Remar is implanted. It is at least learnt on the occasion of the world congress, which was from 13 till 15 December 2002 in Ouagadougou. Created by the Spanish pastor Miguel Diez, Remar works in the reintegration of all kinds of marginalized and takes advantage of it to make known to them divine word (Source: Sidwaya, 17/12/02) http://www.sidwaya.bf/sitesidwaya/sidawaya_quotidiens/sid2002_17_12/societe_8.htm (via Bernard Chenal, France, Jan 3, DXLD) ** CANADA [and non]. The last two or three days have seen quite spectacular ionospheric conditions, as signals from North America have crossed the North Pole into Northern Scandinavia from complete daytime! I have logged CBX Edmonton AB 740, CFCW Camrose AB 790 and others at 1900 UT, that is 12 noon in Alberta! Also in one instance I heard KSL Salt Lake City UT at 2200 when the sunset line crossed the CET area. It is not uncommon around winter solstice to hear northern (Canadian) high-powered stations somewhat prior to local sunset, but never have I encountered such extremes! Alaska stations have had huge signals well into mid-Scandinavia - most uncommon (From the world's northernmost DXer, Bjarne Mjelde, Berlevag, Norway, Receivers: AOR AR7030+, JRC NRD-525Mod, Antenna: K9AY, Jan 2, dxing.info via DXLD) ** CANARY ISLANDS. Yoido Full Gospel Church, Las Palmas, Jan 3 2208- 2315 - noted for the first time with a weak but steady signal, best in USB, began with male vocals and preaching, then all preaching from 2214, strong utility QRM began at 2228. Recheck at 2314 showed some more talk and then a instrumental music piece, with an "amen" bar at the end. Hardly audible towards the end. Too weak to ID language, so this is a presumed logging (Jim Renfrew, Byron NY Drake R8, longwires, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. CHINA SIGNALS ON 9 MHZ EXCELLENT IN EARLY EVENING The 9 MHz band is currently vigorously alive in the Melbourne early evening period for transmitters located on the Chinese mainland, in the time-span 0830-1030, about an hour before our sunset. There are signals there which I haven't come across previously, so here's the summary as at Jan-02: 9470 CNR8-Minorities Network, Kazakh, 0905 9510 Xinjiang PBS, Urumqi, Mongolian network, 0930, parallel with 7230 where also heard 9530 CNR1, Mandarin, 0900, co-channel Voice of Vietnam Domestic Service 9560 Xinjiang PBS, Urumqi, Uyghur Network, 0930 9600 CNR1, Mandarin, early fade-in 0845 9600 Xinjiang PBS, Urumqi, Mandarin Network, 0830, co-channel CNR1! 9610 CNR8-Minorities Network, Korean, 1005, parallel with 7120 where also noted 9620 CNR2, Mandarin, 0900 9645 CNR1, Mandarin, 0905 9675 CNR1, Mandarin, 0900 9800 CNR1, Mandarin, from around 0840 9810 CNR2, Mandarin, audible as early as 0830 9820 Guangxi Foreign Network, Nanning, Mandarin, 1020, parallel 5050 where also heard Chinese transmitters are also audible on 4 and 7 MHz in our early evening, including: 4525 Nei Menggu PBS, Hohhot, Mongolian Network, 1015-1030 4785 Nei Menggu PBS, Hohhot, Mongolian Network 1000-1100 7105 CNR1, Mandarin 0900-1000 7110 CRI, Russian, 1000-1100 7120 CNR8, Minorities Network, Korean 1000+ 7155 Xinjiang PBS, Urumqi, Mandarin Network 0930-1000 7160 CRI, Russian 1000-1100 7190 CRI, Japanese, opening at 0930 7200 CNR2, Mandarin, 0900-1000, co-channel Russia Far Eastern transmitter 7230 CNR1, Mandarin, 0900-1000 7230 Xinjiang PBS, Urumqi, Mongolian Network, 0900-1000, co-channel CNR1 7245 CRI, Russian, 1000-1100 (new channel) 7255 CRI, Russian, 1000-1100 (new channel) 7280 Voice of the Strait, Mandarin 0830-1100 7340 CNR8, Minorities Network, Kazakh, 0900-1000] 7350 Heilongjiang PBS, Harbin, Mandarin, 0930-1030 The 60 mb is dominated by Chinese transmitters later in our evening, after around 1100, before the Indian stations become audible. I have still to QSL several of the Chinese Regionals, and am working in these! I usually wait until English Teaching lessons or narratives are broadcast. I would be interested in knowing the spectrum usage in the period 0800-1100 for Chinese transmitters on 7 and 9 MHz, as observed outside of Asia-Pacific? Regards! (Bob Padula, Mont Albert, Victoria, Australia, EDXP via DXLD) ** CUBA [and non]. More Zephyrs from Zecchino (Dec 30) A fine repast was enjoyed by a most eclectic concatenation of electrophiles aboard an elegant ocean liner. Due to security concerns, Mr. Kobayashi sent a Mr. Kint as his personal representative. It was discovered that 1572 is the spot on the dial for Cuba's beloved R. Encyclopedia, bearings fix west of Holguín, possibly Las Tunas. Encyclopedia is thankfully back on the air on 1270 from Torriente, whilst Ciego de Ávila is the home of this most tranquil music staple on 1560. The jammer is faithfully still on 820 from a point east of Holguín. Mr. McManus will understandably deny such, but his family is believed to own substantial landholdings in that area which reportedly bloom with MW curtain arrays. Progreso on 660 from Santa Clara and 690 from Jovellanos are both back with vigor, as is Progreso on 890 from Santa Clara. In the waters to the northeast of the Oriente one hears with clarity unexpected the dulcet tones yet again of R. Encyclopedia as it triumphantly trounces RJR, on 1050 R. Victoria sits below 1060 and 1070, where one hears R. Trinchera Antimperialista and its message of truth, freedom, hope. Be sure to tune in 1150 when close to the Granma Province to enjoy R. Entronque Bueycito. Nothing tops the thunderous preaching heard in the past on WIBS, R. Caribe, QTH Guayama, Puerto Rico replete with earthquakes for percussion, multilingual orator who renders Demosthenes as inarticulate. Of course, Mr. Hockney had no way of knowing that Reloj is ever strong on 1010 from Jobabo, Las Tunas. Lest one forget, Haiti on 840, fresh, exciting, in Creole (Paul Vincent Zecchino, Englewood FL. NRC International DX Digest Jan 3 via DXLD) ** CYPRUS TURKISH. Audible right now in New York, SINPO 33333, but modulation is a bit weak. ID by a male at 2200 in English, including a brief rap jingle ID ("Bayrak, Bayrak, Bayrak International"). They were playing soul music, now with Santana's "Smooth" as I type this 2210 UT). (George Maroti, NY, Jan 3, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** CZECHOSLOVAKIA. The CSDXC (Czechoslovak DX Club) homepage address changed after some time of parallel operation: old address: http://www.csdxc.cz --- new address: http://www.dx.cz We are sorry of those who do not visit our pages so often, so they did not notice the blinking warning and now complain that the page is not available. Please note the change, thanks. Best wishes (Karel Honzik for CSDXC, hard-core-dx via DXLD) ** FINLAND. New Wonderful Year 2003 has just started! Let`s start it together with us! Scandinavian Weekend Radio is once again ready to rock whole day long with you. Our transmission will began today, Friday 3rd January at 22 hours UT. Keep on mind our frequencies 5980, 5990 and 6170 on 48 mb and 11690 and 11720 on 25 mb. Our programme and frequency schedule is available on our web-page http://www.swradio.net On 25 mb we will direct our aerial towards NA from 22 to 06 UTC. Hopefully you are able to pick our signal there and let us know of that. Our HOT-LINE is open for calls and SMS’s during transmission +358 400 995 559. SWR will be on the air following days this year: 4th January, 1st February, 1st March, 5th April, 3rd May, 7th June, 5th July, 2nd August, 6th September, 4th October, 1st November, 6th December and 25th December. So we have transmission every first Saturday of Month and on Christmasday. New 2003 QSL-cards are now available for hunting! Send your reception reports with 2 EUR/ 2 US-$ or 2 IRC’s to: SWR Reports, P.O.Box 35, FIN-40321 JYVÄSKYLÄ, FINLAND. Uuh… we do it, baby!!!! (DJ Madman, Scandinavian Weekend Radio via Alpo, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. YEAR END REPORT - RADIO FRANCE INTERNATIONAL The Year End report from Radio France International, RFI, reveals the fact that this broadcasting organization has developed a massive worldwide network for the electronic dissemination of information and entertainment. RFI is the international segment of the government broadcasting service with headquarters in Paris, France. For the past three years, RFI staff are working at the level of a 35 hour working week. The cost of operating RFI for this past year has been 121.7 million Euros. The international radio broadcasting network that has been established for RFI coverage of the world is so large that it is almost impossible to list all of its facilities. Here is a summary of their broadcast outlets:- 46 shortwave transmitters in France, Guyana in South America, and Gabon in Africa. It should be remembered that 31 of these transmitters are rated at 500 kW each. In addition, they are on the air from from several relay transmitters in Japan & China, and they have a big new shortwave station under construction in Thailand. For coverage of Europe, they are on the air mediumwave in France from 5 mega-power transmitters, and for the rest of the world they are on relay via 275 local AM and FM stations including one in Beijing, China with a super-power output of one million watts. The programming from Radio France International is also available on 32 direct broadcast satellites and on 45 cable networks. Radio France International is on the air globally with 3 program services in the French language as well as in 13 additional languages. (Adrian Michael Peterson, AWR Wavescan Jan 5 via DXLD) ** GERMANY. DW goes on WRN: see INTERNATIONAL VACUUM ** GUAM. ADVENTIST WORLD RADIO After a period of 22 days without electricity, the large shortwave station of Adventist World Radio on the island of Guam is back on the air again with its regular schedule of broadcasts to Asia and the Western Pacific. Local electricity was restored to the station on Friday afternoon January 3. It was on Sunday evening December 8 that Super Typhoon Pongsona attacked the island of Guam for nearly ten hours causing a devastation that is considered by local residents to be the worst ever. All four of the tall curtain antennas at AWR Guam, station KSDA, sustained serious damage, and the emergency generator failed and was declared irrepairable. During the interim period while AWR Guam was off the air, AWR programming was transferred to leased transmitters at other shortwave stations located in the United Arab Emirates and on the island of Taiwan. This interim emergency schedule will be discontinued on Sunday January 5. Although the local electrical authority on Guam has not yet restored electrical power to all of its customers, power was re-connected to the AWR shortwave station on Friday afternoon January 3 and transmissions resumed almost immediately on three transmitters. The fourth unit was re-activated a few hours later. Although the programming in English and Asian languages is beamed primarily towards Asia, the signal from KSDA Guam can be heard at optimum times of the day in almost every country of the world. (Adventist World Radio, Dr. Adrian M. Peterson Co-ordinator - International Relations, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUAM. Drove by Radio Barragatta [sic] and decided to look a little more at the damage, There is a sign on the road leading to it saying "Government Property do not enter", but the main highway leading past it gives a better view. I counted 11 towers were damaged from the storm and one is leaning at a 45 degree angle. That one if it was put in upward position would be in good shape. In the background are 10 other towers, like those commercial broadcast types and there still in good shape. The log periodics I had seen so many times before are missing and they may have been taken down for repairs. Up date of the local Ham groups: Heard KF6ILA mention to another ham that there is a new vhf antenna on order for the repeater but the shipping cost is $1200 by way of DHL. The antenna is coming from Texas. There is a local Radio shack here but they don't have enough parts or products to fill any Dxer's needs. I purchased a mag mount to work the 2 meter repeater and had the last one on the shelf. They have only 1 scanner and no CB's, shortwaves. Only one 2 meter HT. 73's from Guam island (Gilligan's other home) (Larry Fields, n6hpx/du1 Jan 2, swl via DXLD) ** INDIA. Ever since AIR National Channel started transmissions on 9470 at 1320 to 0043 from Nov. 21, 2002, the External Service on 7410 to Europe in English & Hindi at 1745 to 2230 was not heard. It is now learnt that it is the same transmitter at Khampur in Delhi that is being used. So 7410 to Europe at 1745-2230 in English and Hindi now stands cancelled. 73 (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS/AT0J, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 4775 AIR, Imphal 1205-1221 Jan 2. News in English, able to make out talk of ``Prime Minister`` and ``End of the news from All India Radio`` at 1211. Acoustic style music and singing; sounded devotional/religious. Fair (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, Sangean ATS 818, RF Systems MLB-1 kit, RS longwire kit & RLD balun, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. Heard 9950 kHz channel at terrible audio quality level last week around 20 UT (Wolfgang Bueschel, Germany, BCDX Jan 3 via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. Welcome to Deutsche Welle Radio from Germany! January 1st 2003 saw the launch of Deutsche Welle Radio on all WRN English language networks. WRN is happy to offer its audience the opportunity to listen to DW Radio`s flagship current affairs magazine `Newslink` as well as to a wide variety of special interest and feature programmes such as `Inside Europe`, `Man and Environment`, `Spectrum`, `Money Talks`, and `Living in Germany`. Deutsche Welle Radio can be heard on WRN English to North America daily at 1am Eastern Time / 10pm Pacific Time, 6am Eastern / 3 am Pacific, 4pm Eastern / 1pm Pacific, 7.30pm Eastern / 4.30 Pacific, as well as Mondays to Fridays at 10am Eastern / 7am Pacific. [what`s that in UT? -- gh] In Africa and the Asia-Pacific region daily at 10.00 UTC (12.00 CAT / 21.00 AEDT), 15.00 UTC (17.00 CAT / 02.00 AEDT), 18.30 UTC (20.30 CAT / 05.30 AEDT), as well as Mondays to Fridays at 00.30 UTC (02.30 CAT / 11.30 AEDT). Listeners in Europe can tune into DW Radio via WRN daily at 00.30 UTC / 01.30 CET, 06.00 UTC / 07.00 CET, and Mondays to Fridays at 11.00 UTC / 12.00 CET, and 15.00 UTC / 16.00 CET. In the upcoming weeks, we will provide you with additional programme information on DW Radio programmes in our Newsletter updates (WRN Newsletter Jan 3 via DXLD) ** IRAQ [non]. Re: The station ID has been reported as `` Idha'at Radiyo al-Ma'ulumat``, but that means ``Radio Radio Information`` in Arabic! The correct ID is ``Idha'at al-Ma'ulumat``! (Liangas & Zeidan, DSWCI DX Window via DXLD) Strange but true, yet that is how the ID goes! - listen to the clip on the Interval Signals Archive at http://www.intervalsignals.net/countries/clandestine-active.htm Regards, (Dave Kernick, UK, Jan 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Information Radio, the ID by my Arabic speaking neighbour was, he suggested, "base of Information", the interpretation is the station as the base of information, so if want information/news you listen to Information Radio (Johno Wright, Jan 2, ARDXC via DXLD) ** IRAQ [non]. Radio al-Mustaqbal 1575 kHz, 1440-1528* 16/12 KWT, Arabic, Arabic traditional music, talk about Iraqi people and Saddam Hussein; heard clear ID (shorter version): "Huna idha'atu al- Mustaqbal", sign-off 1528 23442 (R. Petraitis, Lithuania, Dec 16, 2002 for CRW) Twin Rivers Radio heard on Dec. 14th, at 1831 UT on 1566 kHz with SINPO 33333 with arab popmusic and many IDs "Idha`atu Wadi al Rafidayn" (P. Robich, Australia, Dec 14, 2002 for Clandestine Radio Watch via DXLD) Both from KUWAIT ** IVORY COAST. Situation in Ivory Coast is about to sink into anarchy. There are now four rebel movements hostile to Laurent Gbagbo, the legitimate and controversial president of Ivory Coast. The oldest movement is the MPCI (Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast) which would be supported furtively by Burkina Faso. Another connected movement seems to the MPCI, Popular Movement of the Ivory Coast of the Big - West (MPIGO); refers to former general Robert Gueï murdered in Abidjan on September 19. The MPIGO is anchored in the extreme the West of the country and would recruit at Yacoubas, region known under the name of Nimba which would be of the border zone with Liberia. Experts claim that this region is Charles Taylor's "military reservoir" and that it would lend strong hand to rebel movements. The MPIGO would be in fact connected to the MPCI, quite as the third rebel, Movement for the Justice and Peace (MJP). Another movement appeared, the national Armed forces of Ivory Coast (Fanci). The MPCI would have a radio station called "the Voice of the Mutineer" (la Voix du Mutin) and the MPIGO of another station called "the Voice of the Big West (la Voix du Grand- Ouest)". It is credibly about local or deprived stations FM taken by the opponent Names in French of four rebel movements MPCI = Mouvement Patriotique de Côte-d'Ivoire MPIGO = Mouvement Populaire Ivoirien du Grand-Ouest MJP = Mouvement pour la Justice et la Paix FANCI = Forces Armées Nationales de Côte d'Ivoire French version La situation en Côte d`Ivoire est sur le point de sombrer à l`anarchie. Il existe maintenant quatre mouvements rebelles hostiles à Laurent Gbagbo le président légitime et controversé de la Côte d`Ivoire. Le plus ancien mouvement est le MPCI (Mouvement Patriotique de Côte d`Ivoire) qui serait soutenu en sous main par le Burkina Faso. Un autre mouvement lié semble-t-il au MPCI, le Mouvement ivoirien du Grand-Ouest (MPIGO) se réclame de l`ancien général Robert Gueï assassiné à Abidjan le 19 septembre. Le MPIGO est ancré dans l`extrême Ouest du pays et recruterait chez les Yacoubas, région connue sous le nom de Nimba qui serait frontalière avec le Libéria. Des experts prétendent que cette région est le "réservoir militaire" de Charles Taylor et qu`il prêterait main forte aux mouvements rebelles. Le MPIGO serait en fait lié au MPCI, tout comme le troisième groupe rebelle, le Mouvement pour la Justice et la Paix (MJP). Un autre mouvement est apparu, les Forces armées nationales de la Côte d`Ivoire (Fanci). Le MPCI disposerait d`une station de radio appelée " la Voix du Mutin " et le MPIGO d`une autre station appelée "la Voix du Grand Ouest". Il s`agit vraisemblablement de stations locales privées FM pris à l`adversaire (via Bernard Chenal, France, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JORDAN. 12020. Oddity during the day. Jordan at around 06-08 UT. 12020 UNRESOLVED (\\ at that time to 11810 and 11920). (Vlad Titarev, Ukraine, Dec 24, BC-DX via DXLD) You would expect a mixing product from those to land on 12030 (gh) ** KOREA NORTH. OPINION: LET PSYWAR LIBERATE NORTH KOREA Nick Grace of Clandestine Radio Watch says Washington no longer has the luxury of appeasing and containing North Korea. He argues that the US should apply pressure through psychological warfare [overt and covert broadcasting, other methods]. The time for appeasement on the Korean peninsula is over. Now that Pyongyang has shown its nuclear hand and total disregard for the conventions of international law, the Bush administration has the best chance ever to isolate North Korea from its allies and help spark a process that can lead to the liberation of its people... http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/features/html/korea030103.html (RN Media Network Jan 3 via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH. "THE OFFICIAL PROPAGANDA IN THE DPRK: IDEAS AND METHODS`` By Andrei Lankov, 1995, excerpt: Since the outside world is seen by North Korean authorities as a source of danger and ideological corruption, the utmost care is taken to seal all possible channels by which unauthorized data from the outside could otherwise filter into the North Korean information space. Obviously, of these channels, radio is the most "natural" source of unwanted information: it is easy to use, relatively cheap (even by North Korean standards), and portable, as well as capable of being received at long-distances -- i.e. from foreign or South Korean radio stations. Thus, radio is a source of the special attention by the authorities and is kept under particularly harsh control. Pyongyang does not follow the old Soviet example of jamming foreign radio stations. The North Korean authorities have found a cheaper, and more reliable solution: they have simply banned the domestic sale and use of the free-tuning radio receivers. The small lamp receivers which can be bought in North Korean shops (of course, one has to have special permission to buy even this piece of vintage technology) are fixed on the wave-length of the official broadcasting station. Certainly, a person with some technical knowledge can easily make the necessary changes and transform such a receiver into a real radio set. To prevent this from happening, the police undertake periodic random inspections of all registered receivers. Controlling the "right" use of radio receivers is also an important task of the heads of the so- called "people's groups" (inminban) {*1}. According to some reports, the head of inminban can break into any house at any time (even in the dead of night) to check whether there is a non-registered receiver present. Such measures, obviously, are not water-proof, since at least one of the author’s North Korean acquaintances had access to a "normal" radio with free tuning and listened to foreign programs with his family, but this was, no doubt, a rather risky business... http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/champion/65/propaganda_lankov.htm (via Nick Grace, Clandestine Radio Watch Dec 31 via DXLD) ** KOREA SOUTH [non]. THE TRUTH ABOUT THE VOICE OF NATIONAL SALVATION (NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC FRONT BROADCAST) Statement by the Republic of Korea National Intelligence Service, 2001 Published on the www.nis.go.kr Web site (URL now broken) The Voice of National Salvation is a malicious anti-South propaganda radio broadcast aimed at South Koreans. - It was initially launched on June 1, 1970 under the name of the Voice of the Revolutionary Party for Reunification. The broadcast changed its named to the current Voice of National Salvation on August 8, 1985, following the renaming of the Revolutionary Party for Reunification as the National Democratic Front for South Korea (in fact, the Korean Worker's Party). - Thereafter, the broadcast station increased its frequency range, broadcasting hours and output, to intensify its function as ideological indoctrinator of pro-North student activists and instigator of anti-government struggles in the South. The broadcast is transmitted from the "Mt. Chilbo Liaison Office" under the United Front Department. - All broadcast and recording scripts prepared by party organizations undergo proofreading by South Koreans (defectors or abductees) to disguise the broadcast as one originating from the South. Word choice, spelling and pronunciation are carefully checked to make them sound natural. The broadcast starts with the opening, "This is the Voice of National Salvation of the National Democratic Front for South Korea reporting from Seoul." - Anchors are mostly defectors and abductees from South Korea. Song Kyung Hee and Jong Kyung Suk, who were kidnapped and taken to the North when their plane (Korean Air) was hijacked to the North in 1969, work as anchorwomen. Yoon Noh Bin, a former professor at South Korea's Pusan University, who defected to the North through Singapore, also works as an anchorman. The station operates one medium-range and six short-range frequencies. They are transmitted from Haeju, Wonsan and Pyongyang to all of South Korea for 16 hours a day, with 30 minutes of English service each day. (via N. Grace Dec 27, 2002 for CRW via DXLD) VOICE OF NATIONAL SALVATION Quoted from the Congressional Research Service: Report for Congress 94-933 S, November 29, 1994 http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/crs/94-933s.htm Through clandestine publications (the quarterly Ch'ongmaek in particular) and the Voice of National Salvation broadcasts, North Korea urged South Koreans of all walks to rise up in "anti-U.S., pro- independence" struggles. To that end, Pyongyang in August 1985 inaugurated an anti-U.S./anti-R.O.K underground organization called the "South Korean National Democratic Front"--actually a renaming of the North Korea-based "Reunification and Revolutionary Party" at the disposal of Pyongyang since 1969, as an instrument of propaganda, agitation, and disinformation against U.S./R.O.K. interests (via N. Grace Dec 27, 2002 for CRW via DXLD) VOICE OF NATIONAL SALVATION PROFILE --- By North Korea Today, 1998 http://www.koreascope.org/newdocs/etext/sub/2/1/nk7_2.htm The Korean People's Democratic Front Radio is an organization disguised as an anti-regime organization in the South, pretending that it exists in Korea. This is the mouthpiece of the "Korean People's Democratic Front" (its name was changed in July, 1985, from the Unified Revolutionary Party), which airs propaganda in the name of the "Voice of National Salvation." This radio employs kidnapped South Koreans as announcers in order to pretend to be airing from within Korea in the dialect spoken in Korea, but in reality its transmitting station is located on Mt. Namsan in Haeju City, Hwanghae Province, and the "Chilbosan Liaison Office" (located in Hungbudong, Pyongyang City), under the North Korean Workers' Party United Front Department, controls its broadcasting. The contents of the broadcasts consist typically of false rumors devised to stir up disorders in Korean society, and the propaganda to praise the North Korean system, also making efforts to agitate leftist activists in the South to lead anti-government struggles. The Korean People's Democratic Front Radio stands proxy for North Korean agencies in propagandizing anti-South revolutionary lines, advertising that Juche ideology should be the basis for a world view, and contending that Korea must be unified in the formula of a confederacy through ceaseless struggles to attain the objectives of "independence from the United States," an "anti-fascist democracy," and finally "national unification." At the same time, the radio agitates for the pullout of the U.S. troops from Korea and the overthrow of the present Korean government. In fact, the People's Democratic Front Radio had a great influence upon leftist students and subversive forces in South Korea, giving birth to the organization of a leftist group called the "Juche Ideology Faction," which was indulged in listening to the Voice of National Salvation and struggling against the government according to the instructions of the radio, although lately the strength of the faction has been considerably reduced (via N. Grace Dec 27, 2002 for CRW via DXLD) NORTH KOREA'S NEW YEAR MESSAGE AND JUCHE (SELF-RELIANCE) IDEOLOGY FACTION Anonymous letter to the Chosun Ilbo, January 14, 2001 http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200101/200101140304.html South Korean left-activist students may undergo more drudgery than North Koreans in memorizing North Korea's New Year message to its people in its entirety, as reported in the North Korean Report, for the former are required to completely master the (South) Korea Nationalism and Democracy Front's New Year message as well... Though the front is claimed to be a vanguard organization of the Juche ideology faction operating in the South, its' generally accepted that it in fact exists in the North. Broadcasts of the "Voice of National Salvation" aired from a transmission tower in Haeju, South Hwang hae Province, North Korea, the Juche ideology faction in the South takes notes and disseminates them. The Nationalism and Democracy Front also issues a New Year's message every year. The left-activist group has a small team, specializing in listening to the "Voice of National Salvation" radio, compiling its contents into booklets and distributing them. They are distributed on January 2 or 3 every year without fail, titled, "Friends," "National Salvation Front," "Voice of No-defeat," "Patriotic Voice," or "Lighthouse." Printed in them are Kim Il Sung's New Year's message, the Nationalism and Democracy Front's address, annual evaluations and prospects, and New Year's discussions, issued by the Front. Debates take place on them among seniors first and then by juniors. In the course of conducting about a dozen debates, the activist students naturally learn them by heart. Shameful as I am, I too recited Kim Il Sung's New Year's message in full, perfectly imitating his voice... Two sentiments assail me as I write this letter. One is a sense of guilt toward North Koreans. Once I read a story about a person who was beaten to death in a political detention camp in the North for having failed to memorize the New Year's message, in the memories of a North Korean defector named Ri Sun Ok. The story made me agonize. Another is a sense of pity toward some South Korean leftist students, who appear to be filled with admiration for "comrade Kim Jung Il's greatness and affection." (via N. Grace Dec 27, 2002 for CRW via DXLD) ** KOREA SOUTH. RKI TRANSMITTER DAMAGE BY TYPHOON Dear All, RKI transmitting facilities in Kimjae, in the southern part of Korea, were severely damaged by the recent typhoon Rusa. As a result, reception conditions on the frequencies 15575 KHz (23:00~04:00 UT) and 13670 (07:00~11:00 UT) are not sounding their best... However they are trying to repair it. Regards, (Md. Azizul Alam Al-Amin Rajshahi, Bangladesh, hard-core-dx Jan 3 via Mike Terry, DXLD) This was some months ago. And I believe the below even predates the above (gh) From RKI web site: Located in Kimjae, North Cholla Province, some 270 km south of Seoul, the station was built and opened in 1975. Having assumed its role as RKI's major transmitting station, Kimjae presently operates 7 transmitters (three of 250 KW and four of 100 KW) and a sprawling network of 17 antennas, controlled by computer. Information related to the broadcasting schedule is entered into the computer well ahead of the actual transmission time. A comprehensive switching matrix can connect any of the transmitters to any of the antennae. It has been true, however, that as years went by, some facilities at Kimjae had become fairly old, rather naturally. Most recently, some of them have been replaced with new ones. To be more specific, in late August of 2001, the station completed re-engineering work for two old antennas which had been torn down in late December, 2000. The two new antennas now target Indonesia (A3) and Southeast Asia & South China (A4). If you happen to visit Kimjae, there you'll find that they have erected three high-rise steel towers, and installed two sets of horizontal, elliptical antennas, one each between the two towers (see the picture below). While installing the antennas, they previously employed the "1 bay 2 stacks" mode . But, this time, they changed to the "1 bay 4 stacks" type. This helps to enhance the efficiency of the antennas. With the recent official dedication of the new facilities, RKI began using the new antennas, starting on October 1st, for five hours of transmission on a trail basis. The schedule is then incorporated into part of the more full-fledged service for the B01 schedule, as of October 28th, 2001. A3 antenna - targets Indonesia (9.570 MHz three hours) Indonesian 12:00-13:00, 14:00-15:00 English 13:00-14:00 A4 antenna - targets Southeast Asia (Indochina, South China, Malaysia) (9.755 MHz, two hours) Indonesian 22:00-23:00 Chinese 23:00-24:00 Meanwhile, we hope the re-dedication of antennas at Kimjae will continue to allow Radio Korea International to further increase the scope of the exchange of relay hours with its foreign partners or to lease its facility to other customer broadcasters wishing to send their program signals to their target areas from Kimjae in Korea (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** KOREA SOUTH. SPURIOUS. 8300 harmonic [sic]. I've tuned to 8300 a bit later. And faced something interesting (after 18 UT): mix of barely audible French and something hardly discernible, another 'voice'. After first short reaction: "something wrong with my 7030". I`ve tuned R399 (with quite different circuitry) and find the same mix ... Just before 19 UT I've caught ID in French: "RKI Seoul". To shorten the story, after some analyzing RKI's sked and exploring calculator, Kimjae fault was discovered: 15575-7275=8300. Unfortunately 15575 does not propagate into Ukraine now to confirm this theoretical conclusion. Another possibility - second 'mirror' on 22850 kHz. Not the best moment I guess, nevertheless, who is in daylight, worthy to check that (Vlad Titarev, Ukraine, Dec 24, BC-DX via DXLD) 8300 being where you might expect to hear New Star --- or is it really Star Star --- Taiwan numbers station, earlier around 1400. Please, understand what a harmonic is! Only an integral multiple of a fundamental frequency, such as 2x, 3x, 4x... (Well, sometimes we have semi- and sesqui-harmonics but nothing more complex than that). The above is a *mixing product* (gh, DXLD) ** KYRGYZSTAN. When I tuned to 4050 just after 0300 this morning (31 Dec) there was a talk program in what appeared to be standard Persian (rather than Tajik or Dari). Because of the currently very disturbed propagation there was no chance to pick an ID, but finally we may get to know within the next few days who has been planning to use this channel (Olle Alm, Sqweden, BC-DX via DXLD) ** LIBYA [non]. FRANCE. Voice of Africa/Radio Jamahiriya (Libya) 15220 at 1743 January 3, man in English with strong accent reading world news till 1745. Switched to French with ID "Ici La Voix Afrique de la Grand Jamahiriya...". Arabic from 1752 until cut in mid-sentence at 1757 and off. Good signal with some QRM (Harold Sellers, Newmarket Ont., ODXA via DXLD) ** MAURITIUS. Since December 16, 2002, Top FM became the third Mauritian private radio to broadcast in frequency modulation (FM). It follows close by its colleagues and rivals, both launched in 2002, Radio One (in March 12) and Radio Plus (in April 13). Top FM is a chain with musical dominant, with also broadcast of stray and flashes every hour. The radio arranges three frequencies of broadcast, according to every covered region: 104.4 MHz, 105.7 MHz and 106 MHz. The launch of December 16 was in fact only a simple stake in appetite, because during almost a week Top FM had restricted itself almost only morning slice of two hours (western, local and oriental music with a accent on the Indian songs). Previous weeks, Top FM had diffused the music by way of technical attempts. The launch of Top FM was foreseen for June 2002, but technical constraints decided on it otherwise. The new radio has moreover the only presenter of Top FM not to use a pen name in the antenna. The name Top FM was preferred to that of initially foreseen Sunrise Radio. Indeed, Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA, authority of Regulation) imposed on Top FM is a subsidiary of the skywave company. This suspension is motivated by the fact that the Mauritian public Radio TV (MBC) already reruns Sunrise's broadcasts (Source: Le Mauricien in French, 12 décembre, 2002 http://www.lemauricien.com/mauricien/0216/so.htm#4 via Bernard Chenal, France, Jan 3, DXLD) I assume Bernard is running these thru a machine translator, which I have fixed up slightly, but can`t always figure out what was meant (gh) ** MEXICO [non]. BORDER RADIO: BACK WHERE IT ALL BEGAN Karen Gleason, The Del Rio News-Herald, Published December 22, 2002 "I feel a hot wind on my shoulder, And the touch of a world that is older, I turn the switch and check the number, I leave it on when in bed I slumber, I hear the rhythms of the music, I buy the product and never use it, I hear the talking of the deejay, Can`t understand, just what does he say? I`m on a Mexican radio. . ." - "Mexican Radio" Wall of Voodoo Old-time border radio is coming back to Del Rio. On Feb. 14, 2003, the stage of Del Rio`s Paul Poag Theatre for the Performing Arts will crackle with the likes of Dr. John Brinkley and Wolfman Jack, brought back to life in Border Radio Show, a stage play developed by Gene Fowler and Bill Crawford, authors of the book Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves. Fowler and Crawford held a press conference at Memo`s restaurant Tuesday to announce the play`s opening here. Billed as "A Nuevo Vaudeville Documentary Performance," Fowler said Border Radio Show grew out of a two-person talk he and Crawford developed as they were promoting their book. "It went so well that we decided to expand it," Crawford said. Ludlum, who with business partners Nick Khoury and Bobby Paul, is responsible for bringing Border Radio Show here, said he is delighted. "The place (Fowler and Crawford) said they`ve always wanted to play is Del Rio." "It had to be done here," Fowler agreed. Part of Border Radio Show is devoted to Del Rio`s Dr. Brinkley. In their book, Fowler and Crawford`s first chapter deals with the man they called "The Big Daddy of Border Radio." Brinkley moved to Del Rio in the early 1930s after receiving permission from the Mexican government to build what would become the most powerful broadcasting station on earth. At one million watts of power [so the legend grows --- gh], Brinkley`s "border blaster" radio station XER, physically located across the Rio Grande from Del Rio in then-Villa Acuña, carried the good doctor`s messages around the world. "Because of Dr. Brinkley, Del Rio became known throughout the English-speaking world," Fowler said. "Border Radio Show" will showcase the vocal talents of Crawford and Fowler, as well as those of Rick Perkins and Anna María García. The play itself will feature many of the product advertisements for which border radio became famous: Mineral Wells` "Crazy Water" and psychic readings by another Del Rioan, Rose Dawn. Del Rio Mayor Dora G. Alcalá was one of the guests at Tuesday`s press conference. She described herself as "a devoted listener" of border radio. "I grew up with border radio," the mayor recalled. "I would run home from school to listen to novelas en Español. I remember listening to Wolfman Jack, and I remember wanting to order every product that was advertised -- the autographed picture of Jesus, the baby chicks, everything." Crawford, a resident of Austin, is the author or co-author of more than a dozen books, including Stevie Ray Vaughan: Caught in the Crossfire. Fowler`s non-fiction books include Crazy Water and Mystic Healers and Medicine Shows. Tickets are $15 apiece and will go on sale after the first of the year. For more information about Border Radio Show, visit its Web site at http://www.borderradioshow.com Del Rio News-Herald. 73 (via Kim Elliott, DXLD) ** NEWFOUNDLAND. A look at the CKZN-6160 antennas, Nov 2001: http://members.aol.com/baconti/xckzn.htm (via Bruce Conti, DXLD) ** NICARAGUA. In the Dec 28 edition of DXLD, you wrote, "600 is thought to be the best chance for Nicaragua in North America." I've found 620 to be a best bet. It's been logged in New Hampshire and Maine on a few occasions over the years. 600 - never logged (Bruce Conti - Nashua NH, Jan 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Like Bogdan said http://members.aol.com/baconti/bamlog.htm ** NIGERIA [non]. Jakada R., 12125 M-F at 1900-1930: HFCC frequency registrations for the current broadcasting period indicate that the transmitter site used is Armavir, Russia (BC-DX via DXLD) ** NORWAY [non]. See SRI LANKA ** PAKISTAN. 5083, R. Pakistan, Dec 29 1551-1604 33333 Urdu, Talk. ID at 1559. 1600 News (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan Premium via DXLD) This one must vary quite a bit; last reported less than one kHz above and below 5080 (gh) ** PAKISTAN. PAKISTAN OPENS AIRWAVES FOR PRIVATE RADIO After five decades of complete government control of broadcasting in Pakistan, the country has opened up its airwaves and granted licences to more than 20 private radio stations. Pakistani authorities also say that seven new television channels could also be given permission to start transmitting. Initially the private stations will not be allowed to carry news, but sources in Islamabad say pressure from broadcasters based in India and elsewhere could eventually compel Pakistan to give total freedom to its electronic media (From ABC Online News, Sat 4 January 2003 -via Matt Francis, McLean, VA, Jan 3, DXLD) ** ST. PIERRE & MIQUELON. Hello, Glenn. Happy New Year! While tuning around on mediumwave this afternoon, I came across a fairly good signal from RFO-St. Pierre et Miquelon on 1375 kHz. They were featuring the music from the concert for Queen Elizabeth earlier in the year. While listening to the music, I decided to search on the Internet to see what I could find out about the station. I came across this site which not only gives some information and an on-line audio link to RFO St. Pierre, but links to all other RFO services. This could be a useful link for the DXing community. Here is the URL: http://www.rfo.fr/st_pierre_et_miquelon_ie15m.php I haven't explored the whole site yet. I was mainly looking to find an e-mail address for the station, but haven't tracked it down yet. Perhaps I'm just missing it. Anyhow, hopefully this if of interest to everyone. Best wishes, (Sheldon Harvey, Jan 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA [non]. Radio Islah is on 9925, with the bubble jam still on. Sign on at 1830 till 2130 UT. They have a room on http://www.paltalk and that's how they get the opinions of the listeners, mainly Sa`udis living in KSA! About the transmitter QTH, I reckon, not sure, it's coming from Bulgaria!! not confirmed. Best 73s from Cairo Egypt, SU Land (Tarek Zeidan, Jan 3, dxing.info via DXLD) ** SERBIA. The forces of stabilization of the NATO (Sfor) in Bosnia searched yesterday the premises of a radio belonging to Sonja Karadzic, girl [friend? Daughter?] of Radovan Karadzic, the former leader of the Serbs of Bosnia who is suspected of genocide. The radio is installed at Pale (12 km east of Sarajevo), where Radovan Karadzic possesses a house and where lives his wife. Vehicles of Sfor blocked the entrances of the building, while several helicopters glanced through the village with low height. Karadzic is looked for by the international penal Court for ex-Yugoslavia. He is charged with genocide and war crimes for the acts during the Bosnian conflict (1992-1995). He would hide in the Serbian part of Bosnia, Republika Srpska, protected by a network of partisans and bodyguards, and would leave by chance Bosnia to go in nearby Montenegro (AFP via l'Alsace (local newspaper) in January 3, 2003 via Bernard Chenal, France, DXLD) ** SERBIA-MONTENEGRO. Radio Yugoslavia still IDing with this name today at 0100 sign-on, 7115 (Harold Sellers, Ont., UT Jan 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SIERRA LEONE. R. UNAMSIL 6139.1, JAN 2 2154 - very poor reception, best in LSB, hard to distinguish between talk, music and/or noise. However, at 2154 I noted a strong voice saying what sounded like "Radio Unamsil". Wishful hearing, perhaps, so I will keep at it (Jim Renfrew, Byron NY, Drake R8, longwires, DX LISTENING DIGEST) How is the name pronounced, exactly? (gh, DXLD) Kann es sein dass, radio unamsil etwas nach oben auf 6139.15v driftete? (Thomas Lindenthal, Germany, A-DX Dec 29) Ja, duerfte so sein, wurde in Amerika gestern ebenfalls auf 6139.1 geloggt (Christoph Ratzer, Austria, OE2CRM, A-DX Dec 29, die beide via BC-DX via DXLD) ** SRI LANKA. LTTE RADIO MAY REACH INDIA Colombo: Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers will start their upgraded radio broadcast services from January 16, reaching a wider area with more programmes, LTTE sources said on Thursday. The Voice of Tigers will expand its services using a newly opened broadcast station in the island’s northern jungles. It was not immediately clear if the new services will reach the nearby Tamil Nadu, having traditional ties with Lankan Tamils (from http://deccan.com/neighbours/#LTTE Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad, January 3, via Jose Jacob, India, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Another version: LANKA-RADIO LTTE TO EXTEND RADIO BROADCASTS COLOMBO, JAN 2 (PTI) --- Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels will expand their newly legitimised radio broadcasts from mid January with the deployment of controversially imported transmitting equipment even as a leading Opposition party warned that its reach could undermine India's security. The Voice of Tigers radio, which the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ran for over a decade as an underground station will transmit programmes for longer periods and to cover a wider area from January 16, the Tamilnet website said. President Chandrika Kumaratunga's People's Alliance said through their new equipment, the Tigers could expand their radio broadcasts to Southern India which could undermine India's security. There was no immediate reaction from Indian diplomats here on the matter. Kumaratunga herself wrote to Norwegian Prime Minister Kijell Magne Bondevik protesting the conduct of Oslo's envoy here Jon Westborg, in importing the equipment. The expanded broadcasts will coincide with the death anniversary of a top Tiger leadeb, Kittu, who committed suicide when his ship bringing arms to Sri Lanka was intercepted by the Indian navy in 1993. The Tamil net did not say what would be new reach of the VOT station, but the government had said the transmitter used by them and put into test transmissions currently was five kilowatts. http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?gid=&id=108954 (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** SRI LANKA. Finally answering my question, what is PA? :: [Sinhala ethnic opposition Party Alliance -D.P.] (via CRW) A very lengthy report, including parts list of all the radio equipment imported into SL for the Tigers with the help of Norway reached us some days ago, but we have continually put off publishing it in toto in DXLD. Now we can link to the latest issue of CRW where it does appear, along with much else, including before and after it a lot of other LTTE stories, many of which have appeared here, but not all, such as the one about LTTE civil administration. This is about 2/3 down into the file. Or search on the title or author. Here`s how it starts: (gh, DXLD) INSIDE STORY OF LTTE`S RADIO BOOTY, By Frederica Jansz An apparent sinister move by the LTTE to import an entire consignment of radio equipment from Singapore has surfaced as being nothing more than an attempt to evade a Rs. 2 million customs duty. An in-depth investigation by The Sunday Leader has found that the recent controversy over the government having allowed the LTTE to import new radio equipment for its station the ``Voice of Tigers`` boils down to the fact, the Tigers involved the Royal Norwegian Embassy to facilitate the import in order to avoid paying over Rs. 2 million in customs duty. The radio equipment in reality was not a gift from the Norwegians to the LTTE.... http://www.schoechi.de/crw/crw123.html (via gh, DXLD) [non]. NORWAY REJECTS SRI LANKAN COMPLAINT OVER VOICE OF TIGERS Norway has rejected criticism by the president of Sri Lanka over its role in the importing of a new radio transmitter for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). President Chandrika Kumaratunga sent a letter to the Norwegian prime minister on Monday accusing Norway of breaking Sri Lankan laws. But in reply, Norway said there have been some misunderstandings in the Sri Lankan media about the role of the Norwegian embassy, which had simply responded to a request by the Sri Lankan government to help the rebels set up a private radio station as part of peace efforts. President Kumaratunga does not support the peace policy of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, and is concerned that relations with India will suffer if Voice of Tigers broadcasts reach into southern India (© Radio Netherlands Media Network 3 January 2003 via DXLD) ** TAIWAN. REPUBLICA DE CHINA. Radio Taipei Internacional realizó un programa especial de inicio del nuevo año (1/1/2003) en el que participaron sus locutores Patricia Lin, Bonnie Cheng, Elena Chen y Pablo Wang. La siguiente es la reproducción de un comentario muy interesante, especialmente, para los oyentes de idioma portugués: "...También recibimos regularmente muchísimas cartas de amigos brasileños, a veces nos escriben en portuñol, a veces nos escriben en portugués directamente y, a pesar que nosotros entendemos el portugués, nos resulta un poco complicado responder algunas de las preguntas; no comprendemos perfectamente al portugués, por su puesto, y también hemos recibido algunas sugerencias para abrir una sección en portugués, digamos emitir programas en portugués o un programa en portugués, por lo menos"(Pablo Wang). "En realidad hemos hablado del asunto con los superiores pero actualmente debido al problema del presupuesto nos es imposible abrir una nueva sección pero... ¿Quién sabe? a lo mejor en un cercano futuro ustedes van a poder escuchar los programas en portugués a través de CBS Radio Taipei Internacional" (Patricia Lin). Posteriormente, Bonnie Cheng agradeció al oyente brasileño Caso Caruso por haber demostrado mucho interés a través de sugerencias y deseos de colaborar en favor de la reactivación del servicio en portugués de RTI (Rubén Guillermo Margenet, Jan 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKMENISTAN. Very interesting propagation this evening. Both R. Bakhara 4930 (USB+carrier) and 5015 are audible between 0100 and 0126, SINPO was 34333 on 5015 at one time. 4930 has distorted audio (George Maroti, NY, Cumbredx mailing list, UT Jan 4 via DXLD) ** UKRAINE. Glenn, Between the thunder on January 1, 2003 I managed to check RUI at 2200 UT on 5905 kHz. 2200 VOA in Mandarin, positive ID, on 5905. Barely heard RUI ident signal. RUI useless. 2215, 2230 and 2245 same as 2200 UT. 73, (-.. . Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, VA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re Olle's message concerning RUI --- I heard 7420 close-down at 0800 today [Jan 3]. 17760 was running a carrier and came on a few minutes before 0800. I THINK I heard 6020 before 0800 but am not certain after then due to a co-channel (maybe Brazil). 11825 11840 and 13590 listed in the tentative schedule from Jan 1 were not heard, so I assume this has not come about --- only the change from 9810 to 7375. So where does 7420 come into it --- in the tent. sched it is listed for Kyiv 074 deg 0100-0500 and not listed at all in the "part 1 minimum sched". (Noel R. Green, UK, Jan 3 via Wolfgang Bueschel, DXLD) ** U K. I've uploaded "Shortwave News" for January which has Part One of my visit to BBC Bush House, and that means that International Listener is now officially back on the web! Please help spread the word! http://www.internationallistener.com (Ed Mayberry, TX, Dec 31, swprograms via DXLD) ** U S A. Hi Glenn: My live 1700-1800 new year's call-in show is available indefinitely on-demand in either video or audio formats and I`ll ask Tom Sundstrom to link them from the CW website: TTAM News Year day audio program link address; http://www.voanews.com/real/worldnet/ttam/engl/ttama0101.ram TTAM News Year day video program link address; http://www.voanews.com/real/worldnet/ttam/engl/ttamv0101.ram 73 (Kim Elliott, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Today's Washington Post has a profile of David S. Jackson, the director of VOA. Online at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3923-2003Jan2.html (Matt Francis, Counsellor, Public Diplomacy, Australian Embassy, Jan 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: PLAYERS: DAVID S. JACKSON --- A VOICE AT THE HEART OF THE ACTION By Christopher Lee, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, January 3, 2003; Page A17 As a longtime foreign correspondent for Time magazine, David S. Jackson explained the world to an American audience. These days, the new head of the Voice of America explains American values to the world. Jackson, 52, took over as the 26th director of the government-owned broadcasting service in September after a yearlong stint running a Pentagon Web site devoted to the war against terrorism. Before that, the Nashville native spent 23 years working for Time in the United States, the Middle East and Asia. "I wanted to write and I wanted to have adventures," Jackson said of his career choice in a recent interview at his VOA office in downtown Washington. "I wanted to be where it was happening." It was happening in Iran, where Jackson covered the Islamic revolution in 1979 and the Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s. And in Egypt and Lebanon, where he reported on Palestinian refugees and the contentious politics of the Middle East. And in Asia, where he wrote about a coup in Thailand in the early 1990s. These days, the VOA is at the heart of the action. The 61-year-old service, which broadcasts news, educational and cultural programming in 53 languages to 94 million people, gained a higher profile after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The VOA director's job, always a tricky political balancing act between providing news and pushing government policy, became even harder under the new spotlight. Two of the three principles in the VOA charter call upon the service to present U.S. policies and project "American thought and institutions" abroad, missions that gained new importance as fallout from the attacks revealed considerable hatred toward Americans in many parts of the world. "I am trying to get a message across," Jackson said. "The message is about who we are in the United States and what we believe in. . . . The charter obliges us to present U.S. policy and it also obliges us to present responsible discussion and opinions on that policy. And we will do that." But free-speech advocates and some VOA staff members worry that a renewed emphasis on selling U.S. values abroad might come at the expense of the VOA's first mission, also laid out in the charter, to be an "accurate, objective and comprehensive" source of news. That tension, long a part of VOA's culture, is exemplified in the debate over Radio Sawa and Radio Farda, two new foreign-language services that officials hope will reach a broader audience in the Middle East and Iran. The services, in Arabic and Farsi, began last year and broadcast pop music geared toward younger audiences, with news mixed in throughout the day. Radio Sawa replaced the VOA's Arabic Service, and some at VOA fear the agency's Farsi Service will be the next to fall, limiting not only outlets for news, but for serious explanations of U.S. policy. The programming shifts "show that the United States has disengaged itself from being involved in credible discussion of critical issues in the Middle East and Iran," Gary A. Marco, a broadcast technician at VOA and president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees local, wrote in a recent letter to The Washington Post. "Both Sawa and Farda insult the intelligence and cultures of Arabic and Iranian people." Jackson and officials with the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the presidentially appointed panel that oversees the VOA, defend the new services as a way to attract larger audiences. Radio Farda won't mean the demise of the agency's other Farsi-language programming, Jackson said. "VOA is in some ways like a daily newspaper," he said. "We have news, we have features and, in some places, we even have sports. It doesn't all have to be news to get our message across." Other challenges await Jackson. The budget impasse on Capitol Hill, for example, has frozen VOA's funding at the fiscal 2002 level of $148 million, delaying the arrival of money to pay for replacing outdated hardware with digital equipment. Jackson also must earn the respect of VOA's 1,353 employees while maintaining the confidence of the nine-member board. "He's in a tough spot," said Tim Shamble, a VOA radio production specialist and president of the American Federation of Government Employees local. "The BBG is calling the shots. There's really not a lot he can do." BBG Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson said Jackson has shown his independence, recently arguing against a push by some officials to diminish the VOA's Persian news service when Radio Farda started. "David fought to keep VOA strong," he said. "And it has turned out to be very, very important. Because if you are going to offer programming to a youth-oriented under-28 audience, you'd better have your McNeil- Lehrer [-style] backup for your more mature audience." Jackson and his wife, Susan Reed, a CNN journalist, moved to Washington in August 2001 when Jackson accepted an early retirement package at Time. After Sept. 11, Jackson called Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke, an old friend from his reporting days, to see how she was doing. She offered him a job as editor of DefendAmerica.gov, a new Web site devoted to news about the war against terrorism. He took it, motivated by the desire to help the country during a difficult time. BBG officials approached him about the VOA post last summer. When then-VOA Director Robert Reilly resigned in August after less than a year on the job, officials announced Jackson as his successor. Jackson, a Republican, said he was not picked for his political views. His strength, he said, is that he is a longtime journalist with a lot of experience in the troubled parts of the world that the VOA wants to reach. "I know how people in those parts of the world look at us. I know how they think of us, I know why. I know how to talk to them," he said. "And I'm grateful for the opportunity to try to help us get our news out." © 2003 The Washington Post Company SIDEBAR: In Profile: David S. Jackson Title: Director, Voice of America. Education: Bachelor's degree in psychology, University of California at Berkeley. Age: 52. Family: Married; one child. Career highlights: Editor in chief, DefendAmerica.gov, Department of Defense, 2001-2002; correspondent, Time Magazine, 1978-2001; staff writer, Chicago Sun-Times, 1978; staff writer; Chicago Daily News, 1974-1978; reporter, City News Service, 1972-74. Pastimes: Bicycling, jogging, reading. (via Matt Francis, DXLD) ** U S A. VOICE OF AMERICA MUSEUM UNDER WAY First phase will cover interior, safety work in 1940s building By Jennifer Edwards, The Cincinnati Enquirer, Friday, January 3, 2003 WEST CHESTER TWP. - The first phase of a three-part plan to recreate the 1940s Voice of America broadcast building as a public museum should be complete by the Fourth of July. The VOA Bethany Station began relaying news and entertainment around the world in 1944. While broadcasters delivered reports from Washington and New York, the signals were relayed to the Tylersville Road station in what is now West Chester Township and broadcast in more than 50 languages, waging war on Nazi Germany's radio propaganda. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it closed in 1994, and the big radio towers came down in 1997. Now West Chester owns the VOA building and is converting it into a museum to honor the facility's legacy throughout World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars and the Cold War era. West Chester Township and MetroParks of Butler County are transforming their portions of the 625 acres into parklands with recreation fields, a lake and other amenities. The museum will be the only place the public can come to listen to an archive of VOA broadcasts. Some will be available for purchase. State Sen. Scott Nein, R-Hamilton, grew up riding past the radio towers that hummed nonstop for 50 years. Each time the family drove past the towers, his parents pointed them out, speaking in awe of their important role and historical legacy. "We shouldn't ever forget about the Cold War and what the country endured during that time," Mr. Nein said. "You always learn from history; and if you forget any of it, we are probably going to be in bigger trouble down the road." The first phase of the estimated five-year project will cost about $100,000. It involves taking down interior walls and making the one- story museum safe. It was originally constructed in the Art Deco style with two separate units. The administration section is two stories tall with a four-story central tower that served as a guard station and revolving searchlight beacon house. The transmitter section was designed to accommodate six transmitters with their associated equipment. Subsequent work will include heating and air conditioning, restorations inside and out, improved drainage and additional bathrooms. That phase will take the brick building to the point of being a public museum. Township Trustee Catherine Stoker is helping to spearhead the project and the fund raising that will pay for it. "VOA is probably one of the most important facilities in Ohio from World War II through the Cold War," Ms. Stoker said. "The Voice of America agency does not archive its broadcasts, but there are interested individuals and organizations who have archived some of them, so we are going to put out a call to collect those we can to build up a library." The West Chester Amateur Radio Association restored one transmitter and the control console at the VOA building. It also dismantled and removed the remaining two transmitters. The 30-member organization with the call sign WC8VOA will install an amateur radio station at the museum. from: http://enquirer.com/editions/2003/01/03/loc_voa03.html (via Alan Pennington, BDXC-UK, Caversham UK) ** U S A. WC8VOA is an amateur radio club located at the old VOA Bethany transmitting site... http://www.wc8voa.com 73 (Kim Elliott, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. SPECIAL EVENT, SPACE CONTACT TO MARK MARCONI TRANSMISSION CENTENNIAL Special event station KM1CC will be on the air January 11-19, 2003, to mark the 100th anniversary of Guglielmo Marconi's inaugural wireless transmission between the US and Great Britain January 18, 1903 (January 19 UT). On that date, from the sandy Cape Cod cliffs overlooking the Atlantic, Marconi --- using a powerful (35 kW) rotary spark transmitter coupled to a massive antenna system -- transmitted a 54-word greeting from President Theodore Roosevelt to England's King Edward VII. The monarch promptly acknowledged receipt of the message via land line and cable, literally igniting the spark of global communication. The Marconi Radio Club, W1AA, and the Marconi Cape Cod Memorial Radio Club, KM1CC, are working in partnership with the National Park Service at Cape Cod National Seashore to organize the celebration. The special event will take place at the former Coast Guard station at Coast Guard Beach in Eastham, Massachusetts, which is near the original Marconi site. Operation will include several amateur modes, including SSB, CW, FM, digital and satellite. Marconi Radio Club President Robert J. ``Whitey`` Doherty, K1VV, says operators will be on the air 24 hours a day from January 11 through January 19. ``We have a half dozen operators who will live at the station for the full period,`` he said. The special event station will open to the public from 9 AM until 5 PM EST (1400-2200 UT). An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) school contact --- the first of the new year with US students --- is to be scheduled during the weeklong celebration. Doherty says that selected students from three Cape Cod high schools will speak via KM1CC with a member of the new Expedition 6 ISS crew. l. Marconi's daughter, Princess Elettra Marconi, is scheduled to attend the a reenactment of the groundbreaking wireless transmission on January 18, when KM1CC will transmit the text of Roosevelt's original message to King Edward VII. KM1CC QSL card requests from US amateurs (include a self-addressed, stamped envelope) go via Barbara Dougan, KB1GSO, Cape Cod National Seashore, 99 Marconi Site Rd, Wellfleet, MA 02667. DX stations are invited to QSL via the W1 QSL Bureau. Additional details are on the Marconi Radio Club Web site http://personal.tmlp.com/k1vv/w1aa/ (ARRL Letter Dec 27 via DXLD) ** U S A. WSAI-AM SWITCHES FORMAT, HIRES RHODES AS MORNING HOST http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2002/12/30/daily29.html 15:38 EST Thursday Clear Channel's WSAI-AM Channel 1530 announced a slew of changes Jan. 2, including a format change and a new morning host. The longtime Cincinnati station said it is switching from an adult standards format to oldies, featuring hits from the 1950s and '60s. And with the format change comes a new morning host: Dusty Rhodes, who also serves as Hamilton County auditor. Rhodes replaces legendary broadcaster Nick Clooney, who earlier in the week said that his contract with the station had not been renewed for 2003. Rhodes rejoins the station, where in 1964 he was part of the WSAI "Good Guys" and was instrumental in sponsoring the Cincinnati appearance of The Beatles during the group's first American tour. Since then, he has worked with several other Cincinnati radio stations including WKRC-AM, 700 WLW and WGRR-AM. WSAI-AM said the format change will be effective Jan. 3. © 2003 American City Business Journals Inc. (BTW, semi-local WTTI 1530 Dalton, GA burnt to the ground in late December. WSAI winter sky wave fades around 10 AM local, but is back by 2 PM now (Brock Whaley, Atlanta for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. CC STARTS SILENCING INTERNET STREAMS (AGAIN) - 1/3 - Radio And Records reports that Clear Channel has starting halting the internet streams of some of its key stations. "This time it's not webcast performance royalties that are being blamed, but the streaming royalties charged by BMI and ASCAP," says R&R in reference to the discontinuance of the streams about a year ago. We do hear that many of the streams of CC's eight DC stations (DC101, WIHT, WMZQ, WASH, WBIG, WTNT, WWRC, and WTEM) and three Baltimore stations (WPOC, WXFB, WCAO) have been pulled. R&R says that CC outlets in places like NYC, Houston, Miami, and Dallas have also yanked theirs. Broadcasters are in a dispute with performing-rights organizations over whether to pay additional fees for internet simulcasts of over-the-air programming, R&R adds... (dcrtv.com via Kim Elliott, Jan 3, swprograms via DXLD) ** U S A. IBOC: I can comment to some extent on the local scene here in the Washington, DC area. The WKDL-730 transmitter that Doug lists is only 9.8 miles WSW of me with 5 KW and a two-tower array which pumps a field of 793.82 mV/m at 1 km in my direction. It has indeed been giving IBOC a try during the daylight hours though the IBOC transmissions appear to have ceased for the time being. The station, being only about 10 miles south of the FCC's main offices in downtown Washington longways down a mostly all- water path (the Potomac River) should have given FCC personnel a good chance to hear for themselves how IBOC works with AM transmissions. Semi-local WGOP-700 which is about 50 miles away from me to the North with 5 KW and 3-tower array with major lobe just about 20 degrees off of me was severely affected by hash from WKDL-IBOC. In addition there were distortion products which sounded like a slope-detected carrier edge which bothered WBMD-750 Baltimore and even slightly affected WCBM-680 Baltimore. As for trying to hear WOR-710 which is usually the strongest of the NYC area powerhouses here during daylight hours, forget it! Earlier IBOC experiments involving WILC-900 with a 2 KW transmitter 19.6 miles away from me put hash on WCBS-880 which made listening to that NYC station very uncomfortable. As to FM, WETA on 90.9 with 75 KW at 827' asl 12 miles away from me has been using IBOC quite consistently and at my place you can't hear anything on 90.7 or 91.1 even with my Denon in the sharpest IF mode. And when I am over in the Arlington VA area where the transmitter is located and where the wife and I shop quite frequently, I can forget about listening to one of my regular music sources, all-classical WBJC 91.5 from Baltimore. I hope this isn't what lies ahead for our future. The test procedure described by a post to this list some time ago certainly didn't sound like a real-world test to me. It looked like parameters were carefully chosen to avoid discovering problems, and even at that at the last minute the agreed-upon-in-advance testing procedure was severely modified anyway (Fred Laun, Temple Hills, MD, W3ZO, Dec 30, WTFDA via DXLD) I think this is EXACTLY what the future will be. These guys are trying to sneak it in and the FCC is part of it (witness their close association with the WOR IBOC transmissions, especially the night time tests to determine the amount of IBOC power to be used at night on AM). Just the fact that WOR has not been very forward mentioning that they are using less power on the IBOC sidebands than what normally would be used should raise some red flags. And the story that when they first ran IBOC and caused considerable interference was because of a bad IBOC exciter or two? Wanna bet? Probably was the full IBOC power that will be used in the future. The future band will be 15 stations (X 2 as IBOC has the 2nd program channel capability) and 85 channels of buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. By the way, in my correspondence with Tom Ray of WOR he complained of one listener who reported the IBOC buzz all the way up to 1030. Naturally he dismissed the claim as B.S. (well, it wasn't on his $45,000 HP Spectrum Analyzer). But if the listener was pretty close to the WOR towers, in the heart of the pattern, I wouldn't be surprised to have the IBOC noise all over the dial. The FCC has authorized IBOC for FM and AM daytime only. It will be adopted by at least some stations and, quite frankly, every time I turn on the MR-78, I get nervous about tuning around the dial as I might find that a half a dozen stations have embraced it. As I see it, the only two things that can stop it are that as more and more stations start broadcasting in it, the interference downside of it is recognized and the people who make the big decisions in broadcasting come to their senses. Some lawsuits between stations would help a lot, too, as stations lose coverage to IBOC. The other thing that might stop it is rejection or neglect by the public. Supposedly IBOC will add $100-$200 to the cost of a radio which many will find too steep. And, because of the power consumed by the IBOC chips/circuits, supposedly portables will not have enough battery life to make them feasible at this time (now that's a really great technology...brings us back to the 40s when the battery life in tube portables was less than 15 hours). One other comment. Someone made the comment about the fact that WOR is an example of a best possible case where IBOC could succeed and where the interference aspects get very little notice. I agree with that 100% and I remember a remark made to me by Tom Ray --- he claims the FCC approached WOR about doing IBOC testing which infers this is the reason they are doing it. Obviously something within the FCC is driving to get IBOC adopted on a large scale (Joe Fela, NJ, WTFDA via DXLD) I find it hard to believe that broadcasters have not yet collectively figured out that IBOC (er, IBAC) will mean substantially less coverage area, and therefore a drop in the value of their stations. Do you really think that they are ignorant of the implications of this technology --- or are the broadcasting associations that support IBOC dominated by large corporate conglomerates that see an opportunity to squeeze out the smaller independents- by chewing up three times the spectrum per station? Another question: What's IBOC gonna sound like in a car radio --- when all sorts of digital sidebands mix together and interfere with one another --- is the technology good enough to discriminate between signals? One can imagine that listening to IBOC signals in a car radio outside of the strong signal primary coverage area would be maddening, as the radio struggles to discriminate various digital signals and flips between the digital and buzz-laden analog signals to provide a continuum to the ear. While the fixed-receive location application of IBOC seems straightforward, its performance in mobile applications piques my imagination. It shall be interesting to see it (try to) work. I hate to sound like some regressive anti-progress loser, but this IBOC seems like a "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" deal. The benefits just don't seem to outweigh the costs at this point- is the "CD quality audio" that IBOC is supposed to provide that much better than what we get from FM now? I guess the answer is yes if you are one of the nutcases like us that enjoy crackly, hissing signals from afar. But a majority of the public largely listens to local stations and I doubt the sound quality difference justifies the addition spectrum costs. Yes, yes I know there will be additional channels for streaming digital information --- I predict this information will be about as welcome and useful as internet pop up ads. In the process, the minority rural and fringe listeners are done a disservice, variety is quashed, and the rest of the public gains what I think will be a pretty marginal benefit. This IBOC push also seems at odds with the policies on LPFM. LPFM will get destroyed in a IBOC dominated world --- won't it? I do not understand the agenda of the FCC relative to IBOC. Who's back pocket are they in? I guess if I were a government conspiracy theorist I would be shouting "government mind control" but I am not willing to go that far --- yet. I get my digital quality music off of the satellite, and that works just fine for me. Leave it there. Regressively yours, (Paul Froeloch, Lodi, WI, Jan 2, WTFDA via DXLD) You can answer this question with one word: greed. The large station groups own the dominant stations on AM and FM and want to retain their investments as technology progresses. IBOC provides a way to hold on to their precious frequency and power allocations. IBOC is a nightmare for technical types like us who understand the workings of the system. We all know that this step-forward really requires it's own spectrum like FM was given in the 1940s. The end-user is not aware of the technical issues, at least in the prospective of the large station groups. If listeners to small stations migrate to major stations because the small stations can no longer be heard, the major stations can charge more for their ad rates and eventually the station groups can buy out and close down the smaller operations. Less competition, less cost with the same listenership. A delight for accountants and CFOs. What the big stations groups don't understand is the lack of local content and the lack of small stations for the young to learn the crafts in this profession is slowly killing the beast. Combine this with new avenues of entertainment, like satellite radio, and your 100 million dollar major market FM will eventually be worth a lot less. It kills me because I used to love radio. I can't listen to much of it anymore. Even the college stations have gone "public" (read: commercial). Even colleges have seen how much income radio stations can provide. Why waste these resources on students? (i.e the tragedy of WFUV-FM in NYC) When the rules concerning multiple ownership and public service were removed, the public sustained a heavy loss. McDonalds, USA Today, Walmart and American radio. Maybe it works for you, Clear Channel, but I'm not listening. Not even a little. Thanks for the soap box, (Karl Zuk, N2KZ, NY, ibid.) NRC MAKES THE GONSETT COMMUNICATOR #555 AM "HD RADIO" IS ON THE AIR, BUT NOT WITHOUT CONCERNS Will AM IBOC adjacent channel interference be a "real world" issue? And, what's the future of nighttime AM IBOC? National Radio Club http://www.nrcdxas.org/ maintains some interesting and candid comments on the matter from both sides of the issue, at: http://www.nrcdxas.org/digital/article_summary.html CGC Communicator (via Kevin Redding, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. A thread from the broadcast@broadcast.net list... Jan 3 Some of us here are already members of that list, I know, but for those who aren't, there's been a lot of discussion there today about the continuing need to protect skywave coverage. Here's my two cents on behalf of the DXers... ----- someone else's post quoted ----- The Class A, being protected anywhere from 750 to 900 miles is the crazy for our day and time. Now I could understand somewhat 50 years ago, but not NOW! Chris, one of the things that has kept the Class A stations protected is some of the DXer's across the country. Back when WLIB, a former daytimer in NYC purchased WOWO in Ft. Wayne, the folks at WLIB did some mighty big changes to WOWO to bring it down to (from what I understand) 10 kw, DA at night, away from WLIB. When Inner City filed those apps. for WLIB to get what it has nighttime and to change the class and night power of WOWO, if my memory serves correct, those old DX guys were screaming to the commission about what they were doing to WOWO, and petition the commission against WLIB's application for night authority. Well guess who won! You`re right, who cares in Houston about a sale of furniture at a local furniture store in Chicago. Nobody in Houston is listening to a Chicago station who will be going out to that furniture store, bright and early next Saturday Morning for that big sale of furniture at the local furniture store in Chicago! ----- and then my comments ----- Those old DX guys don't pay the bills! I was one of those "old DX guys" at the time (and to think I was only twenty-something :-), and the answer is that Inner City won. But protecting the class A signals' skywave coverage is NOT about being able to hear WSM or WLS or KOA in Houston. It's about preventing the immense amounts of nighttime skywave noise that has severely hurt the ability of most of the class B and C AM signals out there (the old class III and IV stations) to provide useful night service to large portions of their markets. Allow the 650s in Texas and Massachusetts and Minnesota and so on to run 5 or 10 kW at night, and two things will happen: they'll still only cover a portion of their markets, because the received interference from Nashville won't go away - and listeners to WSM, even those fairly close in to Nashville, will begin experiencing objectionable skywave interference from the newer night allocations. The net effect, I'd submit, is that the AM service becomes less useful, on the whole, to listeners. (Why put up with noisy buzzes and whistles and interference when you can just switch to FM?) So what this is really about is being able to get a rock-solid, clear, noise-free signal at night from WLS in someplace like Joliet or Kankakee - or from KOA in some of the fringe areas of the (physically very large) Denver market where it's the *only* AM signal with full coverage. There's really only one number that the experts in AM station acquisition and upgrades look at these days, and that's the nighttime interference-free (NIF) contour, which is really a function of what else is on the channel elsewhere in the country as much as it's a function of a station's own signal. It's not at all uncommon these days to see a station that was once a blowtorch in its market (like the little 1kw here in Rochester on 950) that now has a theoretical NIF of 25 or 30 mV. Care to guess how small the 30 mV contour is on a station like that? You could throw a rock farther in some directions. Look at a market like Chicago, and the only AMs that are able to fully compete with the FMs in their markets are the former I-A signals; everything else has been so severely hurt by additional nighttime interference (including the many AMs that don't power down or sign off when they should) and by the suburban sprawl that's grown far beyond their NIF coverage that they're either barely viable or have moved into a niche like leased-time ethnic or Disney. Worse yet, ask any graveyard-channel (today's class C, yesterday's class IV) owner about just how much benefit they derived when those stations were allowed to up night power from 250 to 1000 watts. In nearly every case, the additional 6 dB of signal was more than drowned out by the addition to the noise floor of all the OTHER additional 6 dBs of signal out there. The lesson of the "old DX guys," for the broadcasters who care to pay attention, is that skywave exists, whether you like it or not, and MW broadcasting can never be a purely local medium as a result. Something has to give, and the current regulatory climate (particularly as we enter the era of IBOC) says it's going to be fringe coverage - and those "fringes" will fall closer in than most broadcasters (at least the non-engineering types) are expecting. I understand Scott's position here - he's a small owner/operator of what's essentially a daytimer on 1560 outside Nashville, and a good guy who deserves every break he can get in the business. But when the 1560 in New York City has to fight so much man-made interference (not to mention illegal operation from Cuba and Miami) that it needs every ounce of its 50kw night authorization just to cover its city of license (and even then has serious deficiencies in some areas), what's the solution? Allowing all the other 1560s to add night service would raise the noise floor substantially in New York (and Bakersfield, which is actually the priority allocation on this channel); powering down 1560 New York to make it happen would remove what's now one of only about a half-dozen full-city AM signals in the market. Allow the other 1560s to add night service at the same time that WQEW stays at 50kW and you've replaced what's now a usable AM channel in one place with a channel that's nearly useless almost everywhere (and at the top of the dial, yet, where winter skywave can sometimes last all day!) If there's a good solution to this out there, a lot of station owners are waiting to hear it...and in the meantime, the DXers are really just the canaries in the coalmine (Scott Fybush (member, National Radio Club), via NRC-AM via DXLD) ** ZANZIBAR. 11733.88, 2025+ Jan 2/03. OM with Swahili talk, mentions of Zanzibar at BOH, howl on audio, great signal! (Joe Talbot, Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. Cumbre DX via DXLD) Well: lower than 11734! UNIDENTIFIED. Still chasing a positive ident on that off frequency station under CFRB on 1009.8 kHz heard in Spanish since late in November. The ident they keep playing sounds like "... una música, la raza ...". I have a short .wav file at http://members.aol.com/j999w/DX (152k) I can best hear it LSB on my west EWE with CFRB nulled, then filtering the rest of the 200 Hz het out of the audio. I'm thinking KALT in Houston, TX. Help! (John Wilke, WB9UAI, Milwaukee, WI R71a, EWE, hard-core-dx via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. On 3 Jan 2003 on 4800 I heard a station in African sounding language at 1850 with phone-ins. They passed 1900 TOH with just time pips and continued the program. The signal was weakish with rapid fading. Had nasty QRM on both sides of frequency. At 2000 the frequency was blocked here by China signing on. Alf Aardal in Norway heard this station at the same time. This might be Lesotho reactivated, but no positive ID heard. By the way, Botswana on 4820 was silent at this time. Any observations appreciated (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, Jan 3, dxing.info via DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DRM +++ The interference being caused by Juelich transmission on 5975 is very similar to what Olle recently described hearing on 7130. I have also found that the splatter from 5975 (BVB on Sat/Sun) is so intense that it creates QRM to HCJB 5965 and splatters up the band to c6000 (there is so much splatter from HOL 5955 that it's difficult to tell how low in frequency it spreads). The Juelich relay of VRT on 5985 c0758-0827 also causes tremendous splatter - it more or less obliterates a S9+10dB signal from Brazil on 5990. As Kai suggests - it seems very unlikely that LUX 6090 and BR 6085 could co-exist in DRM mode, from what we've heard so far. (Noel R. Green-UK, BC-DX Jan 1) RECEIVER NEWS +++++++++++++ Re: Most Grundig SW receivers have been manufactured in one China or the other for years now, anyway (gh, DXLD) Developed on GRUNDIG headquarter in Fuerth-Germany, and have been built in Portugal, Taiwan, Singapore, or Mainland China (Wolfgang Bueschel, Germany, BC-DX via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ GEOMAGNETIC INDICES phil bytheway - Seattle WA - phil_tekno@yahoo.com Geomagnetic Summary December 16 2002 through December 30 2002 Tabulated from email status daily Date Flux A K SA Forecast GM Forecast Etc. 12/16 203 5 2 minor minor 5 17 213 4 2 minor minor 3 18 197 4 1 minor minor 2 19 193 18 3 minor minor 9 20 197 13 3 moderate minor 8 21 184 19 1 minor minor 7 22 172 11 4 minor minor 4 23 159 21 3 minor minor 9 24 147 17 3 no storms minor 7 25 132 14 3 no storms no storms 7 26 127 14 3 no storms no storms 6 27 117 26 3 moderate minor 8 28 117 17 2 no storms no storms 6 29 115 12 3 no storms no storms 5 12/30 114 14 3 no storms no storms 4 ********************************************************************** (IRCA Soft DX Monitor via DXLD) No solar flares worth mentioning since Dec 22. Coronal hole activity saw the geomagnetic field become active on Dec 27-29 with storm levels reached at high latitudes and poor high latitude propagation conditions and absorption. There is a small coronal hole that might lead to slightly active conditions for the next 2 days, otherwise conditions are expected to remain good from Jan 6-15. There are no forecast return of flare regions in the near future. Prepared using data from http://www.ips.gov.au (Richard Jary, Jan 3, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) HARMONICS EXCEEDING 30 MHZ 30+ MHz BROADCAST HARMONICS MONITORED IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA, DEC 2/3/5/7 [from a report covering all of December, so only dates propagating?] Dec 2 30.860 H2 0726 CBS Taipei Variety Px, 30.320 0725 Pyongyang H4, 30.520 0855 H2 India Delhi HS poor, 30.420 0935 CRI H2 EE Px 5x5, 30.560 1001 Phl H2 Rfe/Rl RR Svce to E Asia Het S4, Dec 3 30.880 0013 Japan R France via Tokyo H2 35.205 0204 H3 Pyongyang 11735 Poor, Dec 5 30.420 1015 CRI H2 5x4,50.110 1020 VK2YOY 5x4 36.250 1040 India Gorakpur Het S3.5, Dec 7 30.410 2355 H2 VOA via Phl 4x4 health Px, 30.880 0056 RFI via Asia poor, 73's (David Vitek, Adelaide, South Australia, All Times UT, ICDX via harmonics yahoogroup Jan 1 via DXLD) SIMILAR LOGS FROM HOLLAND: 29-12-2002 30.5200 at 1055 AIR INDIA DELHI Radio 50 kw with music {harmonic radio am-modulation} 30.5200 x 2 = 15.2600 khz 31.3500 at 1100 Voice of Mesopotamia (Denge Mesopotamia) in Kurdish. with news program {harmonic radio station am-modulation} 31.3500 x 2 = 15.6750 khz 30-12-2002 30.4200 at 1010 CHINA Radio international PEKING 100/600 KW {harmonic radio am-modulation} 30.4200 x 2 = 15.210 khz 31.3500 at 0933 Voice of Mesopotamia (Denge Mesopotamia) in Kurdish. with music program {harmonic radio station am-modulation} 31.3500 x 2 = 15.6750 khz. GOOD DX ALL 73s JAN (Jan Griep, city-Kreileroord, Netherlands 52.845 north 5.078 east vhf-skip list via harmonics yahoogroup via DXLD) ###