DX LISTENING DIGEST 3-003, January 5, 2003
        edited by Glenn Hauser, ghauser@hotmail.com

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WORLD OF RADIO 1163:
WRN ONDEMAND: http://www.wrn.org/ondemand/worldofradio.html
[Low]  (Download) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1163.rm
       (Stream)   http://www.k4cc.net/wor1163.ram
[High] (Download) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1163h.rm
       (Stream)   http://www.k4cc.net/wor1163h.ram
(Summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1163.html 

RFPI: Mon 0030, 0630, 1230, Tue 1900, Wed 0100, 0700, 1300 7445 
      and/or 15039 
WBCQ: Mon 0545 7415
WJIE: M-F 1300, daily 0400 -- maybe; Sun 0630, Mon 0700, Tue 0630 7490
WWCR: Wed 1030 9475

PAY PAL

If you wish to make a contribution, we can accept money in this way, 
to our accounts wghauser@hotmail.com or ghauser@hotmail.com Thanks!

BE IN STYLE

I don`t want to discourage anyone from including DXLD on their mailing 
list, but how about letting the other guys do the editing fix-ups for 
a change in 2003y. You can reduce gh`s workload by submitting your 
loggings and reports in DXLD style. This can be perceived by taking 
careful note of how material ultimately appears in DXLD, but to be 
explicit, some of the points: 

I don`t mind putting in our distinctive two asterisks and a space (if 
your material also goes elsewhere). Country header is always in caps 
and ends with a period. Do NOT use caps in your credit line, name or 
location. Credit line is always enclosed by parentheses. Always give 
your full name and location. If you mention equipment, include that in 
the credit line. DATES should go right next to the first time 
mentioned, not in the credit line!!!!! Always specify the date with 
each logging; otherwise all we can do is put the date of your *report* 
in the credit line, which may not be the same. Since numerical dates 
can be ambiguous, use a 3-letter month abbr., e.g. Jan 5.

If you submit a long list of loggings, we are going to need a credit 
line at the end of each one of them used, or at least each country. 
You can copy and paste this over and over as needed. It helps to have 
material in alphabetical order by country [or non].

Avoid truncating words, but spell them out. We can spare the bits to 
make your material more readable! Do not put UTC after every time or 
kHz after every frequency. We all know these units apply. At most 
mention UT only once in an item. If there is any doubt you are using 
UT, or something needs to be mentioned in local time, specify that. If 
you include a unit, do NOT attach it to the number, but leave a space 
between them. USB and UT (not UTC) should be in caps, as should most 
other initialisms. 

Do not use colons or periods within times, unless you are specifying 
seconds within a minute. Please follow our convention of using a dot 
rather than a comma for a decimal point. Avoid clutter in general, but 
do not hesitate to use punxuation to make your material read more 
smoothly and expressively. For SW frequencies, use kHz, not MHz.

Separate phrases and clauses by commas or semicolons as appropriate. 
Do NOT connect two or more independent clauses with commas (comma 
splice). Use three dots only to indicate something is omitted from a 
quotation. Otherwise to show a pause use three hyphens --- or a 
semicolon, if not a period. If using the 3-hyphens (amounting to a 
dash), do not connect them to the words before and after. 

Since different character sets do not agree on what represents an 
apostrophe or quotation marks, we use the grave accent mark ` (upper 
left on our keyboard) once or twice, respectively. Avoid the key next 
to ENTER. Learn and apply the difference between its and it`s. Putting 
`s after 73 is redundant and nonsensical. Avoid using the & symbol 
unless it`s part of a common title or name, not just to avoid writing 
out a-n-d.

Selecting material: when in doubt, send it! But DXLD does not 
routinely publish everything received; isn`t it large enough already? 
We are more likely to publish material sent exclusively to us; 
secondly, to us directly among others; thirdly, anything else we find 
on lists and other publications. But it must be of some interest 
beyond the routine: a station you, and nearly everyone has logged 
countless times before is not news, unless there is a frequency, time 
change, or something to make it stand out, such as a clever remark or 
observation about the programming heard. This is all very subjective, 
and gh appreciates your accepting his constant editorial decisions 
about what to include and what to leave out. As a rule, material 
original to this publication is credited to DX LISTENING DIGEST, spelt 
out, while material from elsewhere uses the abbreviation ...via DXLD.

We often receive multiple copies or links to press items. While we try 
to credit everyone who reported them, this is not always possible, 
especially if some meet a deadline and others do not (and no, we 
cannot specify in advance when a deadline for any given issue will 
be.) Ideally, it`s best to have a copy of a story and a direct link to 
it, so we can either run it all or link to it, depending on space 
available, relevance, etc.

Sometimes we have to close an issue which has reached the 100K 
arbitrary limit before we have rechecked all our usual sources and E-
mail accounts. But anything missed will likely be in the next issue if 
it is not duplicative.

If English is not your native language, do not worry. We are 
constantly fixing errors and improving syntax, etc. If you make a 
point of re-reading your material once it has appeared in DXLD, this 
could amount to some lessons in English, which could help you.

Before sending, please proofread your material for typos, especially 
in numbers. Acquaint yourself with spell checker if you have not 
already. Did you leave anything out, notably the frequency! We do not 
like to have the frequency first in every item --- this doesn`t read 
well. The only reason this has been encouraged is to make it less 
likely the frequency be forgotten. If you do put a frequency first, 
place a comma after it. Thanks for your coöperation. 

Oh yeah, accents are welcomed and encouraged. If they are missing in 
French, Portuguese, Spanish, etc., I have to put them back in one by 
one (Glenn)

** ANGOLA. Inactiva Ecos del Torbes en 4980 y Cima 100 (Santo Domingo) 
en 4960. Por el contrario entra muy bien Radio Nacional de Angola en 
4950, a partir de las 0445, cuando la señal empieza a oirse con más 
fuerza, hasta después de las 0540 (Adán González, Catia La Mar, 
VENEZUELA, Jan 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

** AUSTRALIA. HCJB: South Pacific release adds programmes to 
regionalise service; Au government asked us to include programs 
originating in Au. First half hour each weeknight (0700): Mon, Music 
of Australia including Au culture, history, folklore. Tue Music of 
Asia. Wed Music of NZ. Thu Music of S Pacific. Fri Music of Asia, 
another edition.

0800 each weeknight, Great Destinations, tourism program, in Pacific 
and Asia. Weekends. Country Down Under, on Au country music. Sunday 
night, Sunday Night Alive, done by Dennis, hour long music, info, 
interviews, etc. [not clear if 0800 applies to these too]

Asian service, a lot of the same, but additionally, Radio Classroom, 
M-F 1430, teaching English ASL, with assistance of Bible College of 
Western Australia, 3 nights a week, with another program 2 nights a 
week, by longtime teacher of the Gospels (Dennis Adams, Melbourne, 
DXPL Dec 28, which was finally put up ondemand Jan 5, along with the 
Jan 4 edition, notes by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST)

This week`s report on DX Partyline, again interviewing Dennis Adams, 
in charge of the operation in Melbourne, originally live on the 0200 
UT Sat broadcast: It`s been a hectic week, including getting ISDN 
links established (pray they will not fail), to feed to Kununurra. 
Ready to go `tomorrow`, i.e. UT June 5, at 0700-1200 on 11755 to 
Pacific. Has also tested the last few days, VG signals reported, but 
no further details known here.

Why will the Asia service be delayed? There was a major windstorm at 
the site, knocking down the antenna to Asia, quite severely damaged. 
Still working on it. So will be delayed a few days, and start not 
later than next Sunday, 12th.

Schedule: 0700-1200 11755, Pacific, same frequency which had been used 
by Pifo at 0700-1100.

When ready, 1230-1730 to Asia, QSY to 15480 as of two days ago, 
because in the two months since the ABU conference, other stations had 
occupied the frequencies originally planned, 15130/15135. [Checked the 
15480 area Jan 4, and it was pretty empty here at the moment ---gh]. 

Tests to Ethiopia [at 1800] will be delayed further, perhaps a couple 
of weeks, since that antenna was also damaged.

Power on 11755 is starting at 25 kW, and will gradually be cranked up 
to 50 kW, in order to evaluate how much power will do the job. It is 
thought that from this proximity the full 100 kW, as used from Quito 
and to Asia will not be necessary.

The office e-mail address given last week has been flooded with E-
mail, so about reception, please use instead: english@hcjb.org.au

Program schedule TBA, including new DX programs (?). DXPL will also be 
carried, Sat 0930 and 1430 (HCJB DXPL 0300 UT Jan 5 on 9745, notes by 
gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Did anyone hear HCJB-Australia testing since Dec. 26? There was a 
report on Radio Bulgaria's DX program this weekend (compiled by Rumen 
Pankov) saying that the Kununurra site was testing between 0700 and 
1730 UTC on one of these frequencies: 15310, 15135, and 11755 kHz. I 
heard this news on the DX show at 0330-0340, UT-Jan. 4 on 9400 kHz, 
beamed to North America (Joe Hanlon in Philadelphia, USA, EDXP via 
DXLD) 

Believe was this I heard testing with preaching at 0250 UT Jan 5 on 
15465. Can you hear it? (Chris Hambly, Victoria, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 
Not a thing here (gh, OK, DXLD)

11755, HCJB Kununurra, heard at s/on with loop announcement and music 
from 0655 thru to Australian national anthem at 0700. Suffers heavy 
QRM from Finland and only about 30% intelligible here in its target 
zone. I understand that they are not currently running full power. 
Now it's 0730z and Finland is totally dominant, HCJB audible weakly in 
the background (Paul Ormandy, New Zealand, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

HCJB-Australia 11755 good in Adelaide, South Australia at 0920, no 
sign of interference. Not as strong as previous night's broadcast via 
Ecuador however, though from this location I am probably within the 
first hop from the transmitter plus it is aimed in a different spot. 
ID as "The Voice of the Great South Land, HCJB Australia". (Richard 
Jary, Cumbre DX via DXLD)


5 Jan '03, HCJB-Australia inaugural broadcast on 11755: Nothin' was 
heard between 0700-0900; after 0900 faint signals but surprisingly 
good signals here in New Delhi for a 25 kW transmitter after 1000. Was 
able to hear with signal strength of 3-4 with no QRM. There was an 
interview with director of HCJB-Australia Mr David between 1000-1030 
UT. After that regular Sunday programming with Christian music and 
devotional talks. Regds (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, EDXP via 
DXLD) 

Hi, checked this at 0655-, no sign of HCJB at all here in Finland, 
only very powerful audio from Radio Finland with echoing signals, also 
via the long path (this is a 500 kW unit) but at our local noon time 
at 1000 UT, Radio Finland's signal was decreasing a little bit and 
HCJB was tentatively heard with religious songs and talks about Sunday 
night. Very difficult to read the signal, maybe some other frequency 
will give better results. I wonder when are the local sunrise/sundown 
times at Kununurra? Rx: Palstar R-30 Ant: Wellbrook ALA-1530 73 (Jarmo 
Patala, Hyvinkää - Finland, hard-core-dx via DXLD)

Juat checked here, thought sign on was a bit later :-) Weak and noisy, 
nowhere near as good as the same ferq was from Ecuador last night with 
DX Partyline (Richard (Adelaide) Jary, UT Jan 5 0727, ARDXC via DXLD)

Finland started getting stronger as the introductions progressed here 
just north of Sydney. I was able to get most of the broadcast until 
about 0720 and Finland made it harder after that (Wayne Bastow, ibid.)

It`s 0835 and it`s booming in here in Blue Mountains NSW fighting with 
Finland (I guess). Sometimes its heaps stronger then Finland, 
sometimes a touch weaker. Either way, it`s a poor choice of 
frequency/time as far as listenability is concerned. 73 de (Jem 
Cullen, ibid.)

Listening to HCJB World Radio broadcasting from Kununurra in Western
Australia on 11755 at 0655 with their first broadcast to the Pacific
in English, reception was good at 0700 at 45444. By 0730 YLE Radio 
Finland was well and truly fading in causing moderate QRM at 43433. By 
0800 and 0830 the situation was slightly worse at 43433 to 42432. 
With only 25 kilowatts of power from Kununurra, once Finland fades in 
with it's 500 kilowatts it seems to have an effect upon the signal. 
I do hope that this level of QRM does not continue for HCJB 
Australia's sake; otherwise an increase in power or a change of 
frequency may have to come about. How is reception in your area?? 
Just having a quick listen now at 0900 has revealed Finland fading a 
little to leave HCJB at 43433, certainly quite able to understand was 
is being said on their News  (Michael Stevenson, Port Macquarie, 
N.S.W., Australia, Sangean ATS-909 with outdoor 15 metre longwire 
strung north/south, Jan 5, EDXP via DXLD)

I don't know why 11755 was retained for the Kununurra service at
0700-1100, as the channel has for many years been occupied by Radio
Finland, well heard throughout Australia via long-path.

This is a further example of an inappropriate frequency selection,
with the planning process hopelessly flawed by inadequate analysis of
channel occupancy in the primary service area - in this case Australia
and the Pacific.

Conversely, and this should be part of the process, the Australian
transmission on 11755 would also be audible in Europe, via the same
propagation path, causing disturbance to Finland in its primary
coverage area.

HCJB ought now to select a better channel, free of other signals, and
they can only do this by actually observing spectrum usage as actually
monitored across Australia and the Pacific!

Prior to the start up of HCJB Australia, I had attempted unsucessfully
to contact someone/anyone in the Australian organization about the
Finland clash, but no reply was ever received from several E-mails,
FAXes, and telephone calls! In the end I gave up, completely
exasperated.

I believe that they will run into further severe problems by 
attempting to use 15480 from 1230-1730 to Asia. Don't they know that 
15480 is currently occupied by Voice of America, Philippines, 1300-
1500, to the same target area, AND by Voice of Russia, Samara, 1300-
1600, also to the same target area? Are these frequencies being merely 
selected at random? Again, has an analysis been made of actual 
monitored spectrum usage in the principal target area on 15480?
(Bob Padula, Mont Albert, Victoria, Australia, Jan 5, EDXP via DXLD) 

I don't know but from the results I read this morning (in the USA) it 
seems as if the people who choose frequencies for HCJB-Australia just 
don't have a clue about the best channel to reach the target audience! 
I guess they wanted to retain 11755 simply because that was the 
channel used for the last few years from the Pifo site. Now, they may 
have to look at a channel in the 11.55-11.7 range if they want to 
reach the desired target with such low power. 

I myself had no luck trying for Kununurra earlier today: 0700 nothing 
heard; and before 1200 I had YLE-Finland with some audibility (a 
church service) on 11755... no trace of HCJB-AUS at all! 

When will frequency managers finally get the idea that a clear 
frequency is the best option to reach distant areas via shortwave, not 
on a channel that has other stations using it --- whether they are 
targeting the same area as the station in question or not? 

I'll tell you, now Havana is using 6195 (possibly to the Caribbean) 
after 0300 in Spanish, where BBCWS to Europe is very good at my 
location, and sometimes RHC can cause interference with BBC depending 
on propagation conditions (Joe Hanlon in Philadelphia, USA, Jan 5, 
EDXP via DXLD)

** AUSTRIA. [Historical item]. [see also under Germany]. And in 
Austria - the American operated Blue Danube Network lists Salzburg 
0.35 kW on 9617 and 5080 plus a MW network operating 0600-2400 in 
English. Then there was Sendergruppe Rot-Weiss-Rot (also in the 
American Zone) operating in German on 9562 with 10 kW (location could 
also be Salzburg) plus Vienna 755 100 kW, Linz 773 100 kW and Salzburg 
1250 10 kW. In the French Zone there was Landessender Tirol using 
listed 6000 with 0.5 kW while in the USSR Zone there was RAVAG at 
Vienna using 7245 & 9665 both 0.3 kW. Their address says "Oeffentliche 
Verwalter fuer das oesterreichische Rundspruchwesen" but ID as "Hier 
is R Wien" so RAVAG may mean something else? The British had a station 
but for BFN and via three MW only (Graz & Klagenfurt 565 and Vienna 
868). As said, I can remember hearing 5470 and 9617, but not the other 
frequencies on SW (Noel R. Green, UK, BC-DX Jan 2 via DXLD)

** BARBADOS. Barbados Advocate columnist thinks Barbados should have a 
shortwave station 

HOW ABOUT DIFFERENT RADIO STATIONS?
Web Posted - Fri Jan 03 2003 Showtime Commentary  By David Hinkson 

EVERY now and again the Broadcasting Authority reveals whether there 
are new applications pending for radio stations in Barbados, but I 
haven’t heard anything new in this regard lately. Is this confirmation 
that we probably have too many stations? 

If so, that is a shame, really, because even though we have easy-
listening stations (BBS and Love), youth-oriented stations (HOTT, 
Liberty and Mix), traditional stations (900 AM and VOB) and religious 
stations (Faith and Gospel 790) depending on the time of day you can 
hear the same music on practically all of them. 

How about coming with something totally different? I think that jazz 
and classical music have enough of a following to generate advertising 
revenue for a specialised station, and in terms of local content there 
are enough local jazz musicians producing good material that can get 
some exposure on such a station. 

Right now the only time we hear any real jazz on the radio is when the 
Jazz Festival is coming up, and as we all know not all of the featured 
performers are jazz musicians per se. With regard to classical music, 
we have enough of those musicians around as well, and what could also 
be useful would be highlighting the Youth Orchestra and the bands from 
our secondary schools. Steel pan music could also be highlighted here. 

A news radio station could also be a good idea bringing news not just 
from Barbados but also from the region and the rest of the world. 
Along with local news programmes catering to all the aspects of news 
(sports, business, human interest and so on) we could also bring such 
programmes from the region and from the BBC, especially if in the case 
of the latter they deal with major issues such as globalisation and 
the Gulf situation. 

It might be useful to convert the station currently bringing 
broadcasts from Parliament (100.7 FM) to that purpose, and what could 
also be helpful is if programmes were brought where various parties 
discussed the day’s proceedings in Parliament and the Senate, 
especially if a major matter was before the House, for example at 
Budget time or if major bills were being passed in one of the key 
sectors of the country’s affairs. These shows can take the forms of 
both discussion and call-in programmes. 

In the absence of such a station, however, I would hope that when and 
if the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) gets fully back onto its feet 
again, it can seriously look into this area, and as was once suggested 
by a former head of the Broadcast Authority, it might be good to put a 
news station on the short wave band so the region can truly have a 
voice on the world stage. 
http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/NewViewNewsleft.cfm?Record=11387 
(via Kim Elliott, DXLD)

** BELARUS`. The transmitter in Minsk on 6115 kHz has been reactivated 
for Belarusian Radio 1 (-1150- UT) // 6080 kHz. Contrary to info in 
certain DX lists, 6115 has been totally silent since the switch-off in 
early 2002. Another earlier key frequency for Belarusian Radio 1 in 
Minsk, 7210 kHz (which also was switched off in 2002), is remaining 
silent so far (Bernd Trutenau-LTU, 5 Jan, Cumbredx mailing list, via 
DXLD) So is the following really Belarus` transmitter? (gh) 

RUSSIA. 6115, 0155-, R. ROSSII, Jan 4 Test tones till toh then 
stopped. To time 5 pips, then to short IS and male announcer with ID 
as R. Rossii in Russian. Then to possible news items in Russian. 
Signal level at S8 but rapid fades. Nice clear signal till 0206 when 
some side splatter started but mostly audible (Bob Montgomery, 
Levittown, PA USA, Cumbre DX via DXLD)

BELARUS` STOPS RE-BROADCAST OF RUSSIAN RADIO |
Text of report by Belarusian news agency Belapan 

Minsk, 3 January: The re-broadcasting of Russian FM radio stations 
Mayak, Golos Rossii and Yunost will be stopped, according to a press 
release from the Belarusian Radio and TV Broadcasting Company. The 
decision was adopted due to "the development of regional radio 
broadcasting and expanded broadcasting by the radio station Stalitsa". 
Transmitters that were used to re-broadcast Mayak and Golos Rossii 
will be assigned to Stalitsa, while transmitters that relayed Yunost 
will be broadcasting a regional radio station. 

"Re-broadcasting of these radio stations was previously financed from 
the Belarusian state budget. This is no longer possible due to the 
shortage of budgetary funds. Russian radio stations should themselves 
take care of rebroadcasting their programmes in Belarus by concluding 
contracts with the Ministry of Communications," the press release 
says. Source: Belapan news agency, Minsk, in Belarusian 1850 gmt 3 Jan 
03 (via BBCM via DXLD)

NO RUSSIAN RADIO IN BELARUS - DEPUTY MINISTER |
Excerpt from report by Belarusian news agency Belapan 

Minsk, 4 January: Regional broadcasting will be expanded in Belarus in 
2003. "I cannot say anything about TV channels, but radio stations 
will be opened in all regional capitals and Minsk," Deputy Minister of 
Information Syarhey Bulatski has told Belapan. He also said that a TV 
channel similar to Russia's Kultura will be created. 

Bulatski pointed out that the concept of the operation of Russian 
radio stations in Belarus will undergo change. "There will be 
absolutely no Russian radio stations. If a Russian radio station sets 
up shop in Belarus, it will have to carry from 30 to 50 per cent of 
local content," Bulatski said. 

[Passage omitted: details of potential Russian, Belarusian media 
projects] 

[Belarusian state radio and TV recently announced that three Russian 
radio stations would no longer be re-broadcast in Belarus. See Belapan 
news agency, Minsk, in Belarusian 1850 gmt 3 Jan 03] Source: Belapan 
news agency, Minsk, in Belarusian 1320 gmt 4 Jan 03 (via BBCM via 
DXLD)

** BOLIVIA. R. Nacional de Huanuni, Dec 31, 0540-0656 on 5964.77 kHz, 
the station made a special extended transmission, playing much 
folklore music (cuecca, sanjuanito, etc). (Shoji YAMADA, Tokyo, Japan, 
RNM, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

** BRAZIL. I heard a station today 4 Jan UT at 0415 on 4935 and I 
can't figure out who it was. Male announcer in Spanish with talk radio 
format until 0435 then possible ID (which I can't make out) and into 
music with a different male announcer. I have a Windows Media File at 
http://dybka.home.mindspring.com/jill/radio/4935.wma If someone is 
curious and can figure out who this is :) Thanks (Jilly Dybka, TN, 
Cumbre DX via DXLD)

It`s R. Capixaba, Brasil, in Portuguese, not Spanish. ID can be heard 
at 1:05 into the file. Apparently is 24 hours, 1 kW (Glenn Hauser, OK, 
Cumbre DX via DXLD)

** CUBA. Trying to reconfirm times and frequencies for En Contacto, 
RHC`s Spanish DX program. The website http://www.radiohc.cu lists it 
on Sundays at 1335-1350 and UT Mondays 0135-0150 when I have not yet 
checked. I did hear it at a time missing from the posted schedule, but 
when it used to be on and no doubt has been for years, Sun 2155 UT or 
so Jan 5, tuned in at 2203 to the end of a feature on R. Venceremos, 
El Salvador. Later Arnie Coro phoned in a propagation report, ended at 
2210. The only frequency I could find this on was 15230, not on any 
other listed or unlisted Habana frequencies. I suppose they don`t 
bother to mention this timing since is part of a magazine Revista 
Iberoamericana --- but that`s no excuse (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. From a story about James Cason, new head of the US Interests 
Section:

He has continued the controversial radio giveaway program that earned 
his predecessor, Vicki Huddleston, the nickname "radio ambassador." In 
the past four months he and his staff have handed out about 2,000 
Chinese-made short-wave receivers to Cubans, an initiative meant to 
increase access to foreign stations, especially Radio Marti, the 
federally funded, Miami-based station generally blocked by the Cuban 
government.

Castro has denounced the initiative as meddling and subversive, 
claiming it violates Cuba's sovereignty. Cason counters that U.S. 
embassies give away radios in many countries and that Radio Marti is 
not programmed or marked on the dial. "Isn't this an irony?" Cason 
said. "The world's largest communist country is making a radio that 
Cuba is afraid of."
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-hbauza05jan05,0,1277527.column?coll=sfla-news-cuba 
(via Kim Elliott, DXLD)

** CYPRUS TURKISH. 6150, R. Bayrak Int'l, 2202 Jan 3. Presumed them 
with rock music after China off. Have heard the Baby Love by the 
Supremes mentioned by George Maroti and Steve Lare, but tonight they 
had Smooth by Rob Thomas and Santana on at 2207. They were actually 
strong enough that I could tune them in on 6148.5 to avoid going to 
LSB. By 2215 they were hard to hear even on LSB. This during a 
snowstorm with about 5" on the ground as I listened (John Sgrulletta, 
Mahopac, NY, USA JRC NRD-515/K9AY & A/D Sloper, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 

6150, Bayrak Radio International, 2156-2212 Jan 3. Jazz music after 
CRI signed off, then brief talk by OM. Some more jazz, then an ID in 
English by the OM, mentioning shortwave. Rap style jingle ID, 
("Bayrak, Bayrak, Bayrak International"), then some rap and soul 
music. Santana's "Smooth" at 2207. Signal faded out by 2212, but SINPO 
was 33333, with S8 signal strength at tune-in. Modulation was weak 
however (George Maroti New York, Drake R8B, K9AY loop, 100 foot T2FD, 
45 meter long dipole, 150 foot LW fed by coax and noise reducing 
impedance matching transformer, EDXP via DXLD)

** CZECH REPUBLIC [non]. 8963, 0218-, R.P PRAGUE, Jan 4, English 
broadcast which I found // 6200 in USB format. Strange but was clearly 
in USB on this freq. IS heard at 0227 with ID at that time on both 
frequencies. Poor audio quality in USB format but was audible. Have 
never noticed this before. IS and ID by female heard again at 0230 
with email address (Bob Montgomery, PA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 

** DJIBOUTI. DESTITUTE DJIBOUTI PINES FOR U.S. AID --- PLENTY OF MONEY 
ALLOTTED TO FIGHT TERROR, LITTLE TO BOOST ECONOMY, RESIDENTS SAY 
Mark Fineman, Los Angeles Times  Saturday, December 28, 2002 

Djibouti -- Just beyond the barbed-wire berms and guard posts that 
mask the U.S. military's secretive special operations base, past a 
cratered road strewn with scrap heaps and human waste, Kadija Omar 
expects the Americans to deliver....
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/12/28/MN108493.DTL
(via San Francisco Chronicle, via Jilly Dybka, NASWA Flashsheet via 
DXLD) Mentions upcoming `VOA` station

** ECUADOR. I continue to be awed by the odd pronunciation guesses by 
Jeff Ingram, who is entrusted with reading so much material for DX 
Partyline. Doesn`t anyone at HCJB notice or care? On the Jan 4 show, 
he read Christer Brunström`s monthly Christian radio feature, this 
time about World Harvest Radio. He must never have heard this fellow 
Christian broadcaster, since he pronounced LeSea ``Lacey``; Marie Lamb 
became Mary; and Joe Brashier, ``Brashler`` (Glenn Hauser, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** FRANCE. re: ``Even France Inter stopped broadcasting across France 
on longwave in 1997.``

Sic, must read mediumwave; frequencies were amongst the ones just put 
on tender (675, 1071, 1161, 1350). Longwave 162 is still in use of 
course. And the longwave stations operating from Monaco, Luxembourg 
and Saarland are not really foreign ones, just let me mention the term 
"peripherical stations". (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 4, DX LISTENING 
DIGEST)

** GERMANY. 6085, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Munich – Ismaning, Jan 2, 3 
and 4, *0500-0515 German, opening without I/S, but straight on with TA 
and ID: ``Es ist sechs Uhr. B5 Aktuell --- Das Informations Radio``, 
news from Bayern 5 Aktuell including information on severe flooding 
and road conditions. SINPO 44434. Also heard Jan 2, 3 & 5, 1920-2300*, 
also B5 programming. 43443 QRM Deutsche Welle in German 6075 and 
Deutsche Welle in Chinese 6090. The Ismaning carrier was off between 
2300 and 0500, thus the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk programs are no 
longer relayed at night! Instead these stations were noted here in 
Denmark on 6085: WYFR Family R in English 0000-0100, VoIRI Tehran in 
Bengali 0030-0130, 0050-0200 tentative Krasnoyarsk in Russian (ex 
5290), and *0200-0220 R Oman strong with readings in Arabic from the 
Qur`an. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, Jan 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GERMANY. 1953 history: You may remember I mentioned AFN Germany 
using SW - part of my "voyage of re-discovery" is that in 1953 
Bayreuth is listed on 5470 kc/s 55.03 m 0.35 kW operating 0500-2400. 
The MW outlet for Bayreuth was 665 with 10 kW. This town did not have 
an AFN studio, so what the purpose of 5470 was I cannot guess.

You might also be interested to know that Frankfurt had 6190 1.2 kW - 
the NWDR had lost its SW to a foreign service -- see under future 
plans: The German Foreign Service on SW from NWDR will probably start 
its service in the course of January (1954) . The programs will be 
beamed to five areas on the seven SW frequencies used by NWDR - 
another 20 kW station under construction in Norden-Osterloog.

7290 & 11795 were listed as either 20 kW or 0.4 kW. 6270 with 0.4 kW
and 0.35 kW on 9735 15275 17815 & 17845. Some of those seem very
familiar to this day!

Suedwestfunk Baden-Baden had 6320 1 kW - Muehlacker had 6030 20 kW and
RIAS Berlin Britz 6005 20 kW.

The GDR had a list of stations but not their frequencies - they were 
shown separately. SW were 6115 7150 (used for Berlin I) and 9730 (used 
for Berlin III). The address was at Nalepastrasse 18-50 in Berlin-
Oberschoeneweide.

I think that must be the end of today`s History of Radio lesson! It's
difficult to close an old WRTH once it has been opened. The 1953 
edition had 136 pages and cost 10 shillings and 6 pence in old British 
currency, 55 pence in the new. I think around 0.75 Euro [I'm not sure 
how to express that properly - is it 75 cents?] (Noel R. Green, UK, 
BC-DX Jan 2 via DXLD) see also AUSTRIA

** GERMANY EAST. PROPAGANDA BROADCASTS TO US TROOPS

Glenn, A recent contributor wrote about hearing "Professor Lobo" 
broadcasting to the American armed forces. I can confirm that these 
broadcasts, on the air from around 1961-68, came from East Germany and 
were broadcast under the title "O.P.S. Berlin" (a nice military title, 
don't you think!). These transmissions went out nightly for half an 
hour from 2200 or 2300 UT on mediumwave and two or three shortwave 
frequencies. I think the MW frequency was 1421 kHz, a frequency used 
by Danmarks Radio until about 2210. Both signals were heard in 
southern England at about equal strength until the Danish station 
closed down, after which O.P.S. was well received. 

The shortwave transmissions were on the 6 and 7 MHz band (nearly 40 
years after, I am a bit vague about the details). The opening 
announcement for O.P.S was: "This is O.P.S Berlin, the programme that 
entertains and informs. We broadcast nightly for Americans in West 
Germany and Europe." The O.P.S. programme went out as the final 
broadcast of the night on Radio Berlin International's European 
service. RBI did not list it in their English schedule and O.P.S did 
not often reveal that it was part of RBI, although it did mention that 
fact occasionally. 

I was first alerted to its existence when I saw it listed as a 
"clandestine station" in the bulletin of the Danish Shortwave Clubs 
International, although it was not a true clandestine in the sense of 
other stations emanating from East Germany, such as Deutsche 
Freiheitssender, Deutsche Soldatensender and Bizim Radio (beamed to 
Turkey). Actually, its style reminded me of tapes I had heard of Nazi 
wartime broadcasts to Allied troops, except that it was smoother and 
the politics were very different. 

Professor Lobo spoke with a deep African-American accent and came 
across as the wise guy who knew the answer to every problem. Most of 
the records played were by black artists, creating the impression that 
black servicemen were the main target. There were sometimes very 
subtle suggestions, in speech and music, that listeners might consider 
defecting to East Germany. Between items there was relaxed banter 
between Lobo and a female announcer. The news bulletins, which were 
different to those of mainstream RBI, frequently juxtaposed items 
about Vietnam and racial oppression in the US in order to establish a 
psychological connection between the two problems. 

The people behind this effort were well versed in propaganda 
techniques! I think I heard some of the voices from O.P.S. a few years 
later on Radio Habana Cuba. 

O.P.S. was not heard (at least by me) after 1968, when its mediumwave 
frequency was taken over, during the invasion of Czechoslovakia, by an 
East German "black" clandestine station broadcasting in Czech ("Very 
bad Czech", according to a comment I heard on Radio Free Prague). 

Another interesting fact: O.P.S. used an address in Berlin W8, which 
listeners probably thought was in West Berlin; in fact it was in the 
eastern part of the city. Every weekend O.P.S broadcast a radio play 
entitled "Conspiracy of Silence", designed to expose real or imaginary 
Nazis holding high positions in West Germany. I remember that the 
closing announcement for the feature said something like (referring to 
the alleged Nazis) that "whether you wear the uniform of the armed 
forces or civilian clothes, whether you are coloured or white, you 
should know that these inhuman criminals are at liberty in the so-
called Free World". 

And a final note: Britain's leading expert on radio warfare, Sefton 
Delmer, wrote about the station in his autobiography: "Nearer home the 
Soviet Germans in East Berlin have been broadcasting a counterfeit of 
the US forces' radio to the American troops involved in the dispute 
over Ulbricht's Berlin wall....(they) can even chalk up one small 
success for this operation. They forced the American troops to abandon 
their amiable habit of wearing their names on their uniforms. For 
Communist spies copied the names and the radio men then used them to 
embellish stories in the broadcasts of their counterfeit radio just as 
we would have used the names of German officers on Calais or Gustav 
Siegfried Eins during the war. 

They were less happy in their choice of a theme song for the station. 
Whether they knew it or not, the tune the Soviet Germans and their 
American Communist radio men were playing to introduce their broadcast 
was that of 'Don't fence me in...!", a somewhat double-edged jest for 
the defenders of Ulbricht's wall." (Source: Black Boomerang, Secker 
and Warburg (London), 1962, pages 296-297). (Roger Tidy, UK, Jan 4, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** GERMANY EAST. Re WWII propaganda stations: 

1430 OPS - Out-Post-Station. OPS - Out-Post-Station was a special 
service from RBI-GDR Radio towards US soldiers serving in West Berlin 
and Western Europe. Started service on August 25, 1961 as "Berlin 
Island Station". 

Renamed from August 26, 1961, on air till Januar 1972 as "Out Post 
Station". RBI MW frequencies at this time span: 1133, 1430, or 1511 
kHz. But OPS used 1430 kHz from 1961, and some SW broadcasts also, 
like 6080 7185 7300 9730, not 6115; from 1968: 6080 6115 7185, and 
9730. All at 2300-2330 UT.

Also a small FM transmitter was on air in East Berlin-GDR on UKW 98.6? 
MHz, targeted towards the American Sector of (West) Berlin. In German 
"IHRF Handbook 1965/1966" also a noon service at 1100 UT was
mentioned on 1430 kHz.

"This is OPS Berlin, the program which entertains and informs. We 
broadcast nightly to Americans in West Germany and Europe." And after 
a transmitter switching procedure from 1430 to 1511 kHz of 15 minutes, 
a similar program in French language registered:

MW 1511 kHz  198.5 mb 2345-0015 UT "Cette nuit à Berlin"
SW 6080 6115 7300 9730 
73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany West, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUAM. 9465 kHz, KTWR, 1200 Dec 29 with IS then into JP. Was 
awaiting the English part of the Japan SW Club broadcast. At 1214 
there was one sentence spoken in EG but then a number of people were 
all talking at once. Then at 1220 a male talking about the history of 
the JSWC interrupted the program. Just as they started an interview 
with Toshi Ohtake on his trip to "last week's Winterfest" the 
transmission cut back in mid-sentence to JP. Either poor editing or 
transmitter troubles due to the Super Typhoon. Signal strength was 
good but much noise that appeared on the channel only after the 
broadcast started (John Sgrulletta, NY, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 

** GUAM. KTWR update --- retraction of an earlier report. 

Hello to the group, I went back to KTWR and decided to check on 
something. Seemed I saw something on a picture I took and it didn't 
look right. Turned out my feelings were right. KTWR did sustain some 
damage to two of its antennas and it was quite a shock as I hadn't 
noticed it before. I thought it had gone untouched. As I was standing 
there in the path to take a picture, one of the station engineers, 
NH2CW, called to me to come get a closer look at the station, plus I 
was given the chance to view inside the transmitter room in which he 
was just about to throw the switch. This was at 1730 local time [0730 
UT]. The antennas sustained an estimated damage of 1/2 million 
dollars, but fortunately the towers were unharmed. So I hope it gives 
a better idea here. Sorry for the confusion but I hope it helps out. 

I know that many of you are also wondering about the hams here, and if 
you read the article by KF6ILA, then you will notice many are fine and 
well. I think that if any of you have any extra antennas you don't 
need and may want to donate to the club here. It would be helpful. 
There are no radio stores here for 5000 miles (73's from Guam this is 
Larry Fields, n6hpx/du1, Jan 5, swl via DXLD) 

** INDIA. For the last couple of days AIR Aligarh is noted testing 
their new 250 KW transmitter on 9470 at various times: e.g. 0200, 1100 
etc. (Note: 9470 is also used by Delhi at 1350-0043 for National 
Service now but the new Aligarh transmitters will take over this 
transmission once their tests are over.) Another new transmitter of 
250 kw will also be tested by Aligarh very soon. There are four old 
transmitters of 250 kw at Aligarh site and these 2 new transmitters 
replace two of them. 73 (Jose Jacob, Jan 4, dx_india via DXLD)

The schedule of test transmissions from the new 250 kW of AIR Aligarh 
is as follows: 9470 0130-0530, 0930-1230. It relays AIR FM II programs 
from Delhi in Hindi & English. Parallel frequency is 9425 Bangalore 
500 kW which is also testing (Jose Jacob, Jan 5, ibid.)

** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. The rest of the story: the new DW airings on 
WRN replace SRI (Kevin A. Kelly, MA, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM [non]. PROMINENT RADIO ASTRONOMER DIES HERE IN 
TASMANIA

You probably have heard about this and I have met hams who knew him
but I personally never met him.  He mainly kept to himself although he 
constructed a huge long-wave  antenna for radio astronomy. Yes, that 
is right, he used to map the sky on LW! When he started it was
electrically quiet but the HT lines from the Electricity grid made it
difficult.

He lived in the  sparsely populated Central Highlands near 
Bothwell/Ouse and as the article below says lived here since 1954 but 
he periodically returned to the States. Grote, as far as I am aware, 
never took out a VK7 callsign, although he was instrumental in the 
Tasmanian University getting involved in radio astronomy.

Remember the film" Contact" with Jodie Foster? In the credits they
acknowledged the pioneering work of Grote and inspiration for the 
film. Ironically, the film was shown on the local TV channel just a 
few weeks prior to his death. The majority of Tasmanians were unaware 
that he lived here. Grote died on December 20th at the Ellendale 
Multipurpose Health Centre and it was not publicly announced until the 
28th (Robin L. Harwood, VK7RH/ Editor, ``Spotlight on SWLing", 
Norwood, Tasmania, Jan 4, swl via DXLD) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

He was one of those radio pioneers I would love to have met
INTERNATIONAL SILENT KEYS: RADIO ASTRONOMY PIONEER GROTE REBER, EX-
W9GFZ, SK

Grote Reber, ex-W9GFZ, one of the earliest pioneers of radio 
astronomy, died December 20 in VK7 Tasmania, where he had been living 
since 1954. He was 90.

Reber was the first person to build a radio telescope dedicated to
astronomy, and his self-financed experiments laid the foundation for
today's advanced radio astronomy facilities.

"All radio astronomers who have followed him owe Grote Reber a deep 
debt for his pioneering work," said National Radio Astronomy 
Observatory (NRAO) Director Fred Lo. Reber was the first to 
systematically study the sky by observing something other than visible 
light. "This gave astronomy a whole new view of the universe," Lo 
said.

Reber constructed a parabolic dish antenna in 1937, using his own 
funds, a nine-meter (31.4 feet) dish antenna in his backyard. The 
strange contraption attracted the attention of curious neighbours and 
became somewhat of a minor tourist attraction, he later recalled.

In 1941, Reber produced the first radio map of the sky, based on a
series of systematic observations.

Reber's research results were published in a number of prestigious
technical journals. He also received numerous honours normally 
reserved for scientists professionally trained in astronomy. Ohio 
State University conferred an honorary doctorate on Reber on 1962.

In a 1977 paper, "Endless, Boundless, Stable Universe"
http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/galaxy/G_Reber.html Reber concluded:

"Time is merely a sequence of events. There is no beginning nor 
ending. The material universe extends beyond the greatest distances we 
can observe optically or by radio means. It is boundless."

Reber's amateur call sign, W9GFZ, now is held by the NRAO Amateur 
Radio Club in Socorro, New Mexico (written text NRAO news release by 
Dave Finley, N1IRZ; Tom  Crowley, KT4XN via the arrl letter. Audio 
thanks to SPECTRUM TASMANIA.) (via Robin Harwood, DXLD)

** IRAN. FINES FOR VIOLATORS OF SATELLITE DISH CODE
From http://www.tehrantimes.com  Wednesday, January 01, 2003

The Majlis on Sunday set an amount of cash fines for importers, 
dealers, and owners of illegal satellite dish equipment.

The deputies approved a bill stipulating that the equipment will be
confiscated and illegal importers and distributors of such equipment 
will be required to pay a total cash fine of 10 to 100 million rials 
(U.S.$1,250 to 12,500).

Also, owners of unauthorized satellite facilities will be required to 
pay a fine of one to three million rials (U.S.$125 to 375). (via Mike 
Terry, DXLD)

** IRAN [non]. The press service of SANAM also says that the first 
independent radio of Southern Azerbaijanis "Voice of South Azerbaijan 
Radio" will be broadcasted in near future. The radio will broadcast 
programmes directed towards South Azerbaijan, beginning the first week 
of January. The radio-programmes to be broadcasted twice a week (Baku 
Today via Jilly Dybka, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) WTFK??

** KOREA NORTH. The webmaster of this country`s official and only 
website, http://www.korea-dpr.com --- Alejandro Cao de Benos, who is 
in Spain, was interviewed on NPR Weekend Edition Saturday Jan 4:
http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/wesat/20030104.wesat.03.ram
Site features the cult of personality of the Leaders, includes some 
links to nice stereo music, as long as we can`t understand the lyrix. 
P`yongyang is truly a winter wonderland (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING 
DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH [non]. Foreign correspondent, now Ohio University 
professor, wants RFA Korean on MW to North Korea Also helpful, he 
said, would be to begin broadcasting "real, solid, impartial news" via 
Radio Free Asia into North Korea on the AM band rather than shortwave, 
seeing as very few North Koreans own shortwave radios. Though the 
United States has said it hasn't been able to get permission from 
neighboring countries for radio towers, Martin scoffed at this excuse. 
"If you can arrange wars, surely you can arrange signal towers," he 
said. http://www.athensnews.com/issue/article.php3?story_id=11121 
(via Kim Elliott, DXLD)

Also says acting president Bush should withdraw NK from the Axis of 
Evil club --- doing that set off Dear Leader`s fear he`s next for US 
military action, and consequent escalation (gh, DXLD)
 
** LIBERIA. 5470 R. Veritas, 0602-0635 01/04 English. Hi-life music 
followed by ID ``Radio Veritas from ..(?).. center with news, 
entertainment and spiritual programs. Today is January 4, 2003; 
Welcome``. Continuous Up-beat/reggae-like music with religious themes 
until 0623 when announcement for ``brothers and sisters`` and meeting 
reminder for ``council members`` at 9 and 11 AM. More music and ID 
``Radio Veritas; your friendly station`` at 0632. Good, strong signal; 
much better than 11/03/2002 when I last heard them (Scott R. Barbour, 
Jr., Intervale, NH, Sangean ATS 818, RF Systems MLB-1 kit; RS longwire 
kit & RBA-1 balun, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

5469.97, Radio Veritas, 0604 Jan 5. Religious service, prayer "Glory 
be to the father and to the spirit", scripture reading from Ezekiel, 
African gospel music, ID @ 0613, schedule, another ID @ 0614, program 
"Sunday Messages" about Biblical readings, this edition "The Solemnity 
of the Epiphany of the Lord" (Ralph Brandi, NJ, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 

5470, R. Veritas, 0722 Jan 5, English commentary on "complimentary 
health care systems and then into Bing Crosby vocals (don't tempt me 
in ?) for 10 secs and then "you have been listening to.. Radio 
Veritas, weak but intelligible (David Norrie, Bucklands Beach, 
Auckland, NZ, AOR 7030, hard-core DX via DXLD)

** MADAGASCAR 5010 Radio Madagascar 0301 sign-on Jan 5, Malagasy 
national anthem --- matches anthem at 
http://www.countryreports.org/sounds/madagasc.mid --- talk in Malagasy 
with mentions of Madagascar and possible ID, Malagasy pop music; faded 
out by 0330 (Ralph Brandi, NJ, Cumbre DX via DXLD)

** MEXICO. Note especially the sections on IBOC, and on shortwave.

FOX Y LOS RADIODIFUSORES: La CIRT acepta renovación legal 
Fernando Mejía Barquera 

Tras cuatro años de discursos repetitivos y previsibles en los cuales 
el presidente Zedillo se volvió monotemático al pedir a los 
radiodifusores que se ``autorregulen`` pues él, según advirtió, no 
promovería reforma alguna en materia de medios electrónicos, la Semana 
Nacional de Radio y Televisión que organiza la CIRT tuvo por fin 
motivo de interés: la presencia de Vicente Fox como invitado especial 
en una cena con los empresarios radiofónicos y de tv el 6 de octubre 
en el ex convento de San Hipólito. Había la expectativa de conocer las 
posturas del Presidente electo y los radiodifusores sobre un tema que 
se espera relevante en el sexenio foxista: la probable reforma a la 
legislación sobre medios electrónicos. 

Tanto Fox como los radiodifusores mostraron sólo algunas de sus 
cartas, como esperando que la contraparte muestre más claramente sus 
intenciones en los próximos meses. La CIRT, a través de un discurso 
enviado por su presidente, Joaquín Vargas Guajardo *quien no estuvo en 
el encuentro con Fox debido, según se supo, a problemas familiares*, 
aceptó que ``la legislación a todas luces debe ser modificada``, pero 
sostuvo que ninguna reforma deberá hacerse sin la participación de los 
concesionarios: ``Los empresarios de radio y televisión *dijo* tenemos 
mucho que aportar, por lo que tampoco concebimos la modificación del 
marco jurídico actual sin tener en cuenta nuestras opiniones``. 
Finalmente dejó claro el rechazo de los ra diodifusores a la propuesta 
que diversos grupos, partidos y personas han manejado en el sentido de 
que se constituya un organismo de carácter autónomo *un consejo o 
comisión* que tenga facultades decisorias en la función de otorgar 
concesiones de radio y TV: ``Estamos en desacuerdo *expuso Vargas* en 
que esas facultades se trasladen a un grupo determinado sin haber 
explicado previamente y con absoluta claridad los propósitos y 
alcances, sus normas de actuación y sus respectivos controles``. Y 
remató: ``Ni para el otorgamiento de las concesiones ni para los 
refrendos debe someterse a los concesionarios a presiones o 
chantajes``. 

Por su parte, Vicente Fox prefirió dar una imagen conciliatoria y 
afirmó que ``el gobierno de la República habrá de acudir al diálogo 
para llegar a acuerdos; las transformaciones se deberán tener con la 
participación de la CIRT (y) también con los usuarios``. El punto de 
partida en el probable proceso de reforma a la legislación sobre 
medios electrónicos parece estar claro. Los concesionarios estarían 
dispuestos a ``aceptar`` modificaciones a la ley pero condicionándola 
a: 1) que por ningún motivo se les margine del proceso; 2) que la 
forma de otorgar o revocar concesiones permanezca inalterada o, en su 
caso, tenga alteraciones mínimas. La pregunta es: ¿cuáles serían las 
modificaciones a la ley que los concesionarios sí aceptarían? 

RADIO DIGITAL EN MÉXICO 
Una de las actividades más interesantes y menos atendidas por los 
medios dentro de la 42 Semana Nacional de Radio y Televisión fue la 
presencia de representantes del consorcio iBiquity Digital para 
ofrecer a los radiodifusores mexicanos información sobre el avance en 
Estados Unidos del sistema de radio digital llamado IBOC (In Band 
OnChannel). La radio digital permite recibir señales de audio con 
``cali dad compact disc`` y será de uso cotidiano en el siglo XXI 
sustituyendo a las actuales transmisiones ``analógicas``. En el mundo 
hay actualmente dos tipos de tecnología en materia de radio digital: 
las que exigen emplear frecuencias distintas a las habituales de AM y 
FM, y las que tienen precisamente como objetivo difundir señales 
digitales dentro de estos parámetros, es decir, en la banda de 535 a 
1605 kilohertz para el caso de AM y de 88 a 108 megahertz en el de FM. 
Todas ellas están en proceso de experimentación. En EU se ha 
desarrollado el sistema IBOC que ofrece la ventaja de transmitir audio 
digital a través de AM y FM, e iBiquity Digital es la empresa que 
encabeza el esfuerzo por convencer a la Comisión Federal de 
Comunicaciones de Estados Unidos (FCC) para que ese sistema sea 
aceptado como norma técnica o ``estándar`` para las transmisiones de 
radio digital en ese país. El consorcio iBiquity se creó en julio de 
este año y es resultado de la alianza entre dos empresas: Luncent 
Digital Radio y USA Digital Radio. Entre las empresas que apoyan la 
adopción del sistema IBOC como ``estándar`` para las transmisiones 
digitales en Estados Unidos están 15 de las más importantes cadenas de 
radio en esa nación, así como importantes empresas fabricantes de 
equipo y diseño de tecnología, entre ellas la cadena ABC, Clear 
Channel Communications *que, por cierto, tiene inversión en México 
dentro del Grupo ACIR*, Cox Radio, Hispanic Corporation y Harris 
Corporation (esta última la productora de equipo más importante de 
Estados Unidos). Para iBiquity acercarse a la Cámara Nacional de la 
Industria de Radio y Tele visión *que agrupa a los concesionarios de 
747 es taciones de AM y 377 de FM* es estratégico, pues sería un 
extraordinario alia do para impulsar la adopción del sistema IBOC para 
las transmisiones de radio di gital en México, un merca do muy 
atractivo en términos de compra de tecnología y de equipo. 

CUCO SÁNCHEZ 
Figura en la época dorada de la radio *1940 a 1960* y gran vendedor de 
discos aun en la actualidad, Cu co Sánchez (José del Refugio Sánchez 
Saldaña), creador del blues mexicano, como lo definió en alguna 
ocasión Parménides García Saldaña, falleció el 5 de octubre. Nacido en 
Altamira, Tamaulipas, el 3 de mayo de 1921, Cuco debutó en la XEW como 
compositor y cancionero en 1940. Aunque no colocó en las listas de 
popularidad tan tas canciones como, por ejemplo, José Alfredo Jiménez, 
sí hizo llegar al hit parade mexicano melo días que han devenido clási 
cas como ``Fallaste corazón`` (1954), ``Grítenme piedras del campo`` 
(primer lu gar de popularidad en junio de 1956), ``La cama de piedra`` 
(primer lugar en enero de 1957) y ``No soy monedita de oro`` (1958), 
además de otros grandes éxitos radiofónicos y dis cográficos como ``El 
mil amores``, ``Nube pasajera``, ``Qué manera de perder`` y, por 
supuesto, ``Anillo de compromiso``. 

ONDA CORTA 
Uno de los temas casi olvidados en el ámbito de la radio es el de la 
onda cor ta. Durante el encuentro de diexistas mexicanos (es decir, la 
gente que escucha onda corta), celebrado en Oaxaca en agosto, se 
conoció una interesante estadística elaborada por el doctor Julián de 
Santiago y el ingeniero Héctor García Bojorge, del grupo Encuentro DX. 
En México existen autorizadas 17 estaciones de onda corta, de las 
cuales sólo cuatro funcionan regularmente, tres lo hacen de manera 
ocasional y las diez restantes permenecen inactivas. Las que funcionan 
con regularidad son: XEOI, Radio Mil (6010 khz); XEPPM, Radio 
Educación (6185 khz); XERMX, Radio México Internacional, del IMER 
(5985 y 9705 khz) y Radio Huayacocotla (2390 khz). Las que transmiten 
una temporada sí y otra no son: XERTA, Radio Transcontinental de 
América, concesionada a Roberto Nájera Martínez (4800 khz) en el DF; 
XEYU, Radio UNAM (9600 khz), y XEQM, Candela, una estación 
concesionada al grupo RASA en Mérida (6105 khz). Las que de plano han 
dejado de transmitir son: XEQK, del IMER (9555 khz); XEQQ de Televisa 
Radio (9680 khz); la histórica XEWW (con tres frecuencias: 6165, 9515 
y 15160 khz), también de Televisa; XEUJ, Radio Linares, del Patronato 
Cultural de Linares, Nuevo León; XEXQ, Radio Universidad de San Luis 
Potosí (6045 khz); XEBR, La in vasora (11820 khz), del grupo MVS en 
Hermosillo, Sonora; XEUDS, Radio Universidad de Sonora (6115 khz); 
XECMT, Radio Fes tival (6090) de Ciudad Mante, concesionada a 
Organización Radiofónica Tamaulipeca; XEFT, La jarocha (9545 khz), 
controlada por el grupo FIRMESA en Veracruz; y XEUW (6020 khz) El eco 
de Sotavento, bajo control del grupo RASA en Veracruz. Mientras en 
otros países la radio de onda corta sigue siendo un recurso importante 
para la comunicación nacional e internacional, en México hay 
frecuencias ya asignadas que no transmiten. Los concesionarios que 
están desperdiciando ese recurso y la Secretaría de Comunicaciones que 
permite ese dispendio tendrían que decir algo al respecto. 

RADIO EN RED
Es intención de esta columna, en cada una de sus entregas, 
proporcionar al lector un pequeño tip acerca de sitios de Internet que 
proveen información sobre radio o difunden audio con formatos 
radiofónicos en la red. La primera que señalamos es 
http://www.mexicoradiotv.com página elaborada por Fred Cantu (así, sin 
acento) un periodista chicano, reportero de la televisora KVUE de 
Austin, Texas. Es una página útil porque reúne las direcciones de los 
grupos radiofónicos mexicanos que tienen presencia en Internet, de las 
dependencias e instituciones privadas que participan en la actividad 
radiofónica, así como ligas con sitios vinculados a la radio en 
diversos países. http://www.etcetera.com.mx/3.asp 
(via TK Wood, Alexandria USA, DXLD) 

** MEXICO. According to a reply from Grupo ACIR Puebla, they have 3 AM 
stations: XEPOP (1120), XEHR (1090), XEPUE (1210), and 3 FM stations: 
XHNP "La Grupera" (89.3), XHJE "Mas 94" (94.1), XHRH "La Romántica" 
(103.3). (Shoji YAMADA, Tokyo, Japan, RNM, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NEWFOUNDLAND. 2 more stations I am looking for. VOCM 590 and CKVO 
710. I heard several rumours about VOCM not QSL-ing, and other rumours 
who said that occasionally some people did receive VOCM QSLs. I can't 
find the address from CKVO, but it seems to be an sister station of 
VOCM, so I am afraid this one will be difficult too. 

So, any info about these stations, like QSL-address and if anyone 
received an QSL from them recently will be appreciated. Maybe there is 
an DX-club in New Foundland or an active DX-er that can do something 
to stimulate QSLing there...... MERRY XMAS!!!!!!!!!! 

"Dx-ing from the car out in the field" Located in East-Holland, using 
AOR AR7030plus and fixed beverages: 160m towards Africa and 450m 2-
wire beverage for Asia/S. America Specialized in antennas and (low-
band) broadcast DX (Dick van der Knaap, Dec 24, dxing.info via DXLD)

VOCM has always been a poor verifier. Since they simulcast their 
programmes via Internet they stopped QSLing completely. 

In 99 I just got an e-Mail-QSL for a follow-up for a report from 1996, 
because that covered a reception done before they started streaming. 

Harold Steele harold.steele@vocm.com wrote: "Because VOCM and Magic-97 
have real audio on the WWW, we do not make it a point to answer QSL 
reception reports." Several reports before remained unanswered. 

But who knows, these policies are not made for eternity, and perhaps 
you can persuade them to QSL. Address is in the WRTH. Greetings, 
(Martin Elbe, Germany, ibid.)

There is more than one reason why stations like VOCM stop answering 
QSL requests. Until September 2002 I lived in St. John’s, 
Newfoundland, and I visited VOCM on a number of occasions. VOCM is a 
first-rate company with a very high reputation in Newfoundland. It is 
easily the most popular station on MW in St. John’s. It is heard 
regularly by DXers in Europe (although it is a tough catch for North 
American DXers outside of the Atlantic region). Consequently, it 
receives many reception reports from European DXers. 

About 10 years ago, prompted by appeals from a number of QSL-hunters, 
I took up the issue of reception reports with the engineer at VOCM. He 
used to reply to the reports from time to time. He showed me the 
accumulated stack of reception reports, which must have numbered at 
least 100. I looked through them, and in my opinion there were less 
than 10 that were worth a reply. There were a few cases of obvious 
fraud. For instance, one listener in California (the only letter from 
the US) claimed reception at a time that was just after noon in St. 
John’s. However, the majority of letters from DXers were boring, rude 
or fragmentary. I would not have believed that someone capable of 
picking up a transatlantic signal would waste stamps on a form letter 
with ``I heard your station. Send me your QSL card.`` But there were 
many of these. Isn’t it written all over the place that for local 
stations you should use local time, do not use SINPO, and clearly 
state your evidence for hearing the station? It is no exaggeration to 
say that more than half of the reception reports had no real 
programming details at all. Also, many reports were written on 
``Report Forms`` that had been generated either by the DXer or by a DX 
club. Is there anything more boring to read? 

On a happier note, there were three or four really excellent reports. 
These contained all of the required elements of date, time, frequency, 
reception quality and programming details, plus they were interesting 
for a non-DXer to read! All of these reports came from Finland. The 
engineer, who I should say died of cancer about three years ago, 
answered these reports with QSL letters. (I don’t know the present 
engineer.) 

So what is the moral of the story? Commercial stations that receive 
lots of reception reports fall into two QSLing categories. The first 
category will QSL almost everything as a public relations gesture. 
(Nowadays, E-mail QSLs cost nothing.) Such QSLs are obviously not 
worth much as confirmation of reception, although I will acknowledge 
that a nice card or a letter on good paper might be a decent souvenir. 
The second category, which includes VOCM and its affiliated stations, 
regard reception reports almost the same junk mail. It is not news to 
them that they can be heard in Europe. If someone insists on trying to 
QSL stations like VOCM, then I think that the letter must really stand 
out. This means a really interesting and original letter. Finally, I 
would suggest one write to the ``station manager`` or some on-air 
personality. The engineers have seen enough from DXers. 

I still travel to Newfoundland from time to time, but I’m sorry to say 
that I won’t visit VOCM or any other station on behalf of QSL-hunters 
again. It is too simply embarrassing. With best wishes for Christmas 
and the New Year to everyone! (Jean Burnell, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 
Canada, Dec 24, ibid.)

** NORWAY. Re BBCWS on "Radio Norway" frequencies: In fact Radio 
Norway is dead and gone. Instead NRK puts also the all-news network 
Alltid Nyheter on the shortwave feed, and Alltid Nyheter relays the 
BBC Worldservice at times. So BBC relays on NRK / Radio Danmark 
frequencies are simply NRK output. Regards, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 
4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) in English??

** OKLAHOMA. HAMS HELP OUT DURING OKLAHOMA TELEPHONE EMERGENCY

Hams responded to fill a communication gap December 23 after the town 
of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, experienced a city-wide telephone outage 
that left telephone customers unable to call outside their local 
exchange. Broken Arrow implemented its Telecommunications Failure Plan 
as a result. A request went out for amateurs to assist at the local 
emergency operations center (EOC) and at three area hospitals.

Several hams in and around the town of 75,000 residents responded to 
the call. Four Broken Arrow Amateur Radio Club members staffed 
positions at the Broken Arrow EOC and at three hospital emergency 
rooms. Tulsa Amateur Radio Emergency Service member Joe Iverson, 
KD5KKZ, reported to the City of Tulsa EOC.

"All in all, things went smoothly," said Broken Arrow ARC president 
Steve Bradley, KB5ZSD. "The city officials were again very impressed 
and appreciative with the amateur community's commitment to service 
and response to the emergency. It is times like these that such 
partnerships between local government and the local hams become 
invaluable."

The operation lasted about five hours. In addition to passing traffic
between the EOC and the hospitals, lines of communication also were 
opened with the Oklahoma State Department of Civil Emergency 
Management in Oklahoma City via the EOC's HF amateur station.

The telephone system troubles were traced to the loss of a digital
protocol needed for call routing (ARRL Letter Jan 3 via DXLD)

** PERU. R. La Reina de la Selva, Chachapoyas. Dec 30, 1030-1110 on 
5486.74, heard many huaynito criollos. Simple IDs with timechecks were 
given, "5 de la mañana con 34 minutos, 5.34 de la mañana. Ésta es 
Radio La Reina de la Selva.", etc. (Shoji YAMADA, Tokyo, Japan, RNM, 
DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PERU. Hola Glenn... Saludos desde Venezuela y Feliz Año Nuevo... Te 
cuento que escuché el pasado 04/01, a las 0200 UT, una estación de 
radio que transmitía desde el municipio de Huancabamba. Con música 
tradicional y comentarios de un locutor con críticas a los políticos y 
consignas de apoyo a los campesinos. En ningún momento identificó la 
radio. El programa terminó a las 0231 UT y la señal quedó fuera del 
aire a las 0232. La señal se desvanecía mucho. Frecuencia 6536.0 (Adán 
González, Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA, Jan 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

** RUSSIA. 5920 kHz, R. Gardarika, 2223 Dec 22 with mostly music I 
didn't recognize (some of it techno-pop). A number of Radio estudios 
IDs heard. At 2252 there was an announcement in English by both M & W 
starting with "Broadcasting live .". I heard the numbers 29801 (the 
end of a phone number?) plus that this was a special broadcast and 
Radio Gardarika. Same English announcement made at 2300 as the 
broadcast ended. Fair signal (John Sgrulletta, Mahopac, NY, USA JRC 
NRD-515/K9AY & A/D Sloper, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 

5920, Radio Studio, 2248-2301* Dec 30, pop vocals with IDs in multiple 
languages at 2055. Woman announcer with closing announcements followed 
by jingles and "Radio Studio" ID in English. Program ended at 2300 
with carrier cut a minute later. Poor reception (Rich D`Angelo, PA, 
NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD)  Did they really stop after Dec 31? (gh)

** RWANDA. Has anyone received a QSL from Radio Rwanda lately? The 
2002 Passport gives BP 404, Kigali, and the 2002 WRTH give BP 83, 
Kigali as addresses. I'm inclined to follow Passport, but maybe one of 
you has some information about this? Also, my e-mail to the 6715 
Canaries station at pulse@121.net bounced back immediately as 
undeliverable. So I am trying the fglc@jet.es address. Thanks! (Jim 
Renfrew, Byron NY, Cumbredx mailing list, via DXLD) 

Jim, Whenever I have a similar question, I first consult the QSL 
Information Pages, an excellent resource and database for QSLs: 
http://www.schoechi.de/qip.html The most recent Radio Rwanda QSL 
reported in QIP is from April 2002, and they used the BP 83 address 
(George Maroti, ibid.)

** SERBIA-MONTENEGRO. A name change for R. Yugoslavia to R. Serbia-
Montenegro? How about shortening it to "Radio S&M". I could say that 
anyone listening to them would have to be a masochist, but then that 
would be sadistic & mean! 73, (Ivan Grishin, Ont., Jan 4, DX LISTENING 
DIGEST)

** SIERRA LEONE. Glenn, I note your query about "UNAMSIL" 
pronunciation. What I heard hardly qualifies as a solid ID, but it 
sure sounded just like you would pronounce it in English: You-namm-
sill (but said quickly, of course). (Jim Renfrew, NY, DX LISTENING 
DIGEST)

Presumed Radio UNAMSIL on 6139.1 kHz, from 01301-0315, playing rap, 
reggae, and hi-life. SINPO is 33433, and their signal is better than 
in the past, provided you can get away from the strong QRM from 6145 
kHz. This is not a problem for the R8B in LSB sync mode (George 
Maroti, NY, Jan 4, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD)

** SRI LANKA. SLBC spurious noted on 11850 of the original frequency 
of 11905 at 1430 UT on 4 Jan 2003. 

TWR tuning signal noted on 873 kHz for a short time at around 2228 UT 
on 4 Jan 2003. It suddenly changed to the original 882 kHz and started 
regular transmission from 2230 (The same transmitter is used on 882 by 
TWR and SLBC on 873 at different times) (Jose Jacob, India, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

Is there any reason for the inconvenience of changing MW frequencies 
other than to `distance` the two stations from each other? (gh, DXLD)

** TAJIKISTAN. Afghanistan: VOA relay station heard on 801 kHz signing 
off at 1930 UTC on 31 [sic] Jan 2003. (Jose Jacob, India, DX LISTENING 
DIGEST)

Current IBB schedule admits this actually from Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 
230 is the azimuth thruout:

801 0000 0030 RFE AFG DA   DB C 230 
801 0030 0130 VOA AFG PASH DB C 230 
801 0130 0230 VOA AFG DARI DB C 230 
801 0230 0330 RFE AFG PA   DB C 230 
801 0330 0430 RFE AFG DA   DB C 230 
801 1230 1330 RFE AFG PA   DB C 230 
801 1330 1430 RFE AFG DA   DB C 230 
801 1430 1530 VOA AFG PASH DB C 230 
801 1530 1630 VOA AFG DARI DB C 230 
801 1630 1730 RFE AFG PA   DB C 230 
801 1730 1830 RFE AFG DA   DB C 230 
801 1830 1930 VOA AFG PASH DB C 230 
801 2330 2400 RFE AFG DA   DB C 230 
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKMENISTAN. 4930 (USB + carrier), Turkmen Radio 2 0026-0103 Jan 
4. Alternating talk by YL & OM, with distorted audio. ME sounding 
vocals at 0034. When I checked on this at 0058, there was either a 
test tone, or a het. At 0102 an anthem-like song was heard. Thanks to 
Karl Van Rooy who pointed out who this was while we were both 
listening to the web radio based in Sweden. SINPO 34333. 

5015, Turkmen Radio 1, 0044-0112 Jan 4. Exotic ME vocal music at tune-
in, then talk by YL & OM. Some contemporary music. SINPO was 34344 at 
this time. I re-tuned at 0105, and the signal was degraded, and I 
started to think this might be Brazil. I tuned to a web radio in 
Sweden, and found it with much better strength, but delayed about 6 
seconds. ID heard at 0110 by the OM (George Maroti, NY, Drake R8B, 
K9AY loop, 100 foot T2FD, 45 meter long dipole, 150 foot LW fed by 
coax and noise reducing impedance matching transformer, EDXP via DXLD)

** UGANDA. 4975.96, R. Uganda, Kampala, JAN 5 0318-0420+ - tuned in to 
a weak signal with a man talking/preaching, reappeared a bit stronger 
at 0333 with what sounded like Afro-pop, at 0354 two men (fishermen, 
CIA agents, astronauts?) speaking in Spanish decided to occupy the
frequency, but I could tell that English news began at 0400 but very
difficult to hear any details, the Spanish talkers left around 0403,
finally a clear "Kampala" ID was spoken at 0416:55, followed by what
might have been an ad, then more news, still going as I write this.
This is a new country for me, after many years trying for it! (Jim 
Renfrew, Byron NY, Drake R8, longwires, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** UKRAINE. Here is a link to a 2 minute (approx) recording I made of 
RUI on January 1, 2003 beginning at 0059.40 UT. I made the recording 
so Alexander could hear the jammer. Caps matter for SWL in the 
following URL: http://www.erols.com\kkrist\SWL (Kraig Krist, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

Do you think the jammer is bleedover from the one against Martí on 
7365, or something else. Wonder if the changes in its sound were the 
result of your tuning during the recording? 73, (Glenn to Kraig)

I believe jammer is attempting to cover R. Martí on and around 7365 in 
case R. Martí slightly changes frequency. On the evening of December 
29, 2002 I checked 7375 again. I noticed the jammer from 7340 to 7375. 
No, I did not tune during the RUI recording. Perhaps, sound changes 
were due to receiver's DSP or because I recorded on cassette tape and 
then converted into MP3. What times of the recording have the change? 
I'll listen again. It's interesting hearing, on the latest WOR, your 
poor reception of RUI. 73, -- (Kraig to Glenn)

Kraig, Well, I`ve never known R. Martí to use the frequency-variation 
technique, just multiple frequencies and sites and as much power and 
gain as possible. The different sounds to the jammer may well have 
been produced by the jammer itself, which often offset frequencies 
(Glenn to Kraig)

I hope others will find the brief audio recording useful. I've already 
heard from Alexander of RUI. He finds the jammer very interesting. I'm 
glad we have the technology for me to allow him to hear what I've been 
trying to describe. In general I think the recording worked well. 
Perhaps, I'll do more often of interesting listening. Almost forgot. 
Ukraine was not listed in the 1st 2003 DXLD contents summary. 73, 
(Kraig Krist, VA, Jan 4, DX LISTNENING DIGEST) Tnx, fixed 

** U A E. Middle East: Radio Asia noted on 1575 kHz with Malayalam 
songs around 2300 UT on 3 Jan and following days. This station moved 
to this frequency from 1152 kHz on January 1, 2003 and is broadcasting 
24 hours in Malayalam which by the way is my mother tongue. There are 
lot of expatriates speaking this language in the Middle East. 
Malayalam is the mother tongue of the people of the Kerala state in 
South India (Jose Jacob, Hyderabad, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

** U K [and non]. Chicago Sun-Times column about BBCWS favorite song 
contest 

DIVIDED WE STAND ON WORLD'S GREATEST SONGS 
January 5, 2003 BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST 

Well, it's January 5th and you, the loyal reader, have a right to 
expect that we media types have given up sloughing off lame-o ''Best 
Of The Year'' lists for another 11-1/2 months. But not so fast. If I 
were compiling a ''Best Lists Of The Year'' list, my best list of the 
year would be this one: the BBC World Service poll of the Top Ten 
Songs Of All Time....
http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn05.html 
(via Kim Elliott, DXLD)

** U K. DYKE ORDERS THE BBC TO MAKE ITS ULTIMATE DOCUMENTARY  
   From The Independent

Director general seeks to preserve Corporation's story in words of 
those who were there --- By Louise Jury Media Correspondent 2 Jan 2003

Greg Dyke, the director general of the BBC, has been seeking 
inspiration for the future in the corporation's past. As he considers 
how to reform the Beeb for the digital age, he has watched hours of 
old interviews with Hugh Greene, a Fifties predecessor, to learn how 
he shook up the stuffy BBC of the post-war era.

The interviews form part of a unique in-house archive chronicling the 
story of broadcasting in Britain in the words of those who were there, 
but which has operated on the BBC's margins. Now Mr Dyke has decreed 
this "oral history" must be expanded and properly preserved, alongside 
the technical artefacts that help to tell the corporation's story.

For years, it was often enthusiastic technical staff who saved 
important pieces of BBC heritage. Engineers would take home 
interesting items of old equipment rather than see them end up on the 
tip. Now this ad hoc system has been formalised in a special 
department, under a dedicated head of BBC heritage, Robin Reynolds.

An appeal to old staff has already brought in equipment of historical 
value. And Rory O'Connell, a curator who started work at the BBC from 
the Museum of London just before Christmas, aims to track down other 
pieces languishing in corners of Broadcasting House and Television 
Centre. They may be brought together in a dedicated museum, or they go 
on show in the BBC's offices as a reminder of the past.

The BBC is determined to preserve its history through the spoken word. 
A long-standing programme of recording interviews with senior 
executives will be widened to take contributions from other BBC 
employees and popular on-screen faces. Other staff members are 
expected to contribute to a full understanding of, for instance, the 
unpopularity of the reforms of John Birt, Greg Dyke's predecessor. Mr 
Reynolds admits the problem is largely a question of who to leave out. 
"You can't do everyone," he said. "It would have been great to do [the 
football commentator] Kenneth Wolstenholme before he died, on the 
[1966] World Cup."

Other interviews capture in detail broadcasting milestones such as the
funeral of Princess Diana and the Millennium celebrations. All are 
given on the basis that they will remain confidential until the 
interviewee dies.

The aim is to extract full and frank disclosure about controversial 
events, such as the 1985 row over Real Lives, a programme about 
Northern Ireland which the then Conservative Government demanded 
should be banned, or more recent events such as the decision to 
establish new digital channels.

Mr Dyke and the BBC chairman, Gavyn Davies, have watched the 
interviews conducted with Hugh Greene, who tried to shake up the BBC 
to meet the challenge of its new rival, ITV. Mr Reynolds said Mr Dyke 
was interested because he too, wanted to change the culture of the 
BBC, notably in his "cut the crap" campaign.

Mr O'Connell said with major developments planned for Broadcasting 
House in London and in cities such as Glasgow and Birmingham, his team 
expects the next couple of years to be busy. "Museums usually get to 
pick over dead history. This is a mixture of the museum world I know, 
and working in a living industry. It's completely fascinating." (via 
Mike Terry, DXLD)

And a rather different angle by the same writer, same publication...

BBC RECORDS ITS OWN SECRET HISTORY  
   
From The Independent, By Louise Jury Media Correspondent, 2 Jan 2003

The "oral memoirs" of senior BBC figures, including Sir David 
Attenborough, are to be preserved in an archive of broadcasting 
history ordered by the director general, Greg Dyke.

The candid videotaped interviews with broadcasters and executives who 
have played central roles in the corporation's history are to be 
recorded on the promise that their contents will remain secret until 
the contributors die.

Although the project has existed on a small scale for decades, Mr Dyke 
is said to be determined that the full story of British public service
broadcasting be preserved for the nation and has significantly 
expanded the list of interviewees to reflect the breadth of the 
organisation.

The move forms part of a wider project to bring together the thousands 
of artefacts that chart the BBC's history.

Mr Dyke has made the initiative a priority to ensure that no important
pieces of equipment or works of art are lost during the £400m 
redevelopment of Broadcasting House in Portland Place, London.

For decades, the views of directors general and chairmen of the BBC 
have been recorded when they left office. But Mr Dyke and Gavyn 
Davies, his chairman, are now interviewed at least once a year to 
capture new developments. The list of other interviewees is secret, 
but has been extended recently to include entertainers and senior 
executives.

Sir David is understood to have been given a place not just as 
controller of BBC2 in the 1960s but as one of the most popular 
broadcasters (via Mike Terry, DXLD)

** U K. DIGITAL RADIO IS A CRUEL JOKE  
 
An extract from The Times Online, December 30, 2002, By Chris Campling

THE REVOLUTION will not be televised? Listen, it isn't even being 
broadcast on the steam radio - well, not to all of us, anyway. Look at 
the map helpfully provided by the BBC --- on 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/digitalradio --- and you will find that the part 
of the country capable of receiving digital, either within the home or 
by means of a simple outside 740ft aerial, begins just to the south of 
London, and then travels up in a thick, but not thick enough, band to 
Glasgow. Above that, nada. Same to the west, mostly, and to the East, 
once you're past Essex. Put simply, the biggest news in radio for 
2002, and 2003, is not being received by swaths of the country.

The Beeb will tell you that its digital signal can be received by 65 
per cent of the population. Well, of course it can, since London alone 
comprises 12 per cent of the population. So once you add in the other 
big conurbations you're pretty close to the 65 per cent without even 
trying.

The Beeb also says it intends to reach 85 per cent of the nation 
digitally by the beginning of 2004. Which means that the signal may 
just creep far enough into East Anglia to be received by me, with my 
trusty little 740 ft aerial. The rest of the country, presumably, can 
go on whistling Dixie.

This means no crystal-clear reception, no vast choice of stations, no 
sense of being at the front line of the white heat of technology 
thingie. I wouldn't really care, except that sports fans are missing 
out. And I'm a cricket fan. Twelve years ago I would sleep next to my 
stereo because that was the only way I could be close to source when I 
woke from a fitful doze to catch the latest Ashes disaster as it 
happened. These days I have a long-wave trannie and sleep with 
earphones on - but this did not help me during the one-day ICC Trophy 
tournament in October, or the current one-day series between England, 
Australia and Sri Lanka. For ball-by-ball coverage of both these 
tournaments was/is available only on digital radio. Radio apartheid is
here.

I'll tell you who I feel really sorry for - it's the ones in the Outer
Darkness who lashed out hundreds for a digital car radio, only to find 
they had to drive for miles just so they could listen to it.

Look, I know there are ways around the problem. Owners of digital TV 
boxes can tune in that way, while digital radio coverage is available 
on the internet. But excuse me; I did not fall in love with radio so 
that my family and I could cluster around the computer of an evening. 
The great power of radio is its portability, and its ability to blend 
with and provide a background to whatever activity the listener is 
pursuing. (more on web site) (via Mike Terry, DXLD)

** U S A. WRMI, 15725, is still filling with classical music, at least 
on Saturdays. Jan 4 from 1445 past 1500, sounded like Mozart`s 
Requiem. Now they need to learn *how* to present classical music. Each 
piece should be identified before and after, with composer, title, 
performers, including orchestra and conductor as a minimum. Classical 
music shall not be chopped off or even faded out or in. At 1500, as 
always happens on WRMI, the music was chopped off and on for a canned 
ID --- shortly after it came back there was a natural pause where the 
ID could have gone (tho purists, which I admit to be, would not 
interrupt it here either --- classical pieces should always be played 
in their entirety without interruption or talkover, and there should 
be at least a respectful one-second pause before and after, NOT 
tightly produced). US stations are allowed to delay IDs beyond Top of 
Hour in such cases, and ought to be *required* to do so. Wagner was 
the victim at 1600. Still classical past 2000, and tho I`ve not kept 
track, I think I hear the same war horses, and never any 
announcements. Perhaps they are rotating a few CDs (Glenn Hauser, ex-
classical music programmer and announcer, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. In compiling my yearender, I came across last April`s 
Monitoring Times, which judging from the sealed plastic wrapper around 
it, I never got round to reading (it was a busy month). Such as this:

AFRTS CONTRACTS BOEING

US Armed Forces Radio and Television service programs are broadcast 
from a number of transmitters located around the world, including the 
Florida Keys on 4278.5 and 12689.5 kHz USB. Initially handled by the 
U.S Navy when the broadcasts started in 1998, the day-to-day operation 
of the Florida Keys site has now been contracted out to Boeing.

Boeing tells MT that the transmissions are from the NCTS [Naval 
Computer Telecommunications Center] facility on Saddlebunch Keys, 
which are about 15 miles east of Key West. The station is visible to 
the north from US Highway 1, but a locked gate, apparently a post -
9/11 development, blocks entry. Two 1-kW transmitters are connected to 
a couple of whip antennas. Both are operated 24 hours a day.

Altho AFRTS Washington DC has QSLed these transmissions, the site also 
welcomes reports. You can write them at : NCTS-Jacksonville-Detachment 
Key West, Building A1004, Naval Air Station Boca Chica, Key West, FL 
33040 (Hans Johnson, Communications, Apr 2002 Monitoring Times via 
DXLD)

** U S A. And On the end of VOA Communications World:

Speculation here is that the VOA, in the aftermath of September 11, 
had become squeamish about producing the kind of program that 
inevitably must discuss broadcasting-related activities (like 
clandestine radio operations) that involve less transparent aspects of 
U.S. policy. For his part, being a journalist, Dr. Elliott could not 
consent to restrixions on his reporting and something had to give. Of 
course, I could be all wrong about this... (John Figliozzi, Program 
Highlights, April 2002 Monitoring Times via DXLD)

** U S A. BUSHISMS ADDED TO LIST OF BANNED WORDS

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. (Reuters) - Overused clichés, wordy 
redundancies and hyperbolic phrases -- including the Bushism "make no 
mistake about it" -- were declared banished on Wednesday by the 
university overseers of an annual list of banned words.

Other favored utterances of President Bush such as "material breach," 
"weapons of mass destruction," and "homeland security," were the tired 
targets of the New Year's Day list compiled by the public relations 
staff at Lake Superior State University.

This year's list of 23 worn-out words and phrases was whittled down 
from 3,000 entries submitted to the school from around the world to 
its Web site, http://www.lssu.edu/banished

"Make no mistake about it" was nominated by several contributors, one 
of whom commented, "Who's mistaken, anyway?"

As usual, the media and advertising worlds came in for ridicule.

In response to the catch-phrase "must-see TV," contributor Nan Heflin 
of Colorado wrote: "Must find remote. Must change channel." The list-
writers added: "Television once pitched entertainment. Apparently now 
it's taken on a greater imperative. (It) assumes herd mentality over 
program taste."

Another linguistic target was "now, more than ever," which contributor 
Matthew Lowe of New Jersey said "has become overused since the (Sept. 
11) terrorist attacks ... from warnings to be safe, to stores having 
sales ... It has to go."

Advertisers would be better off finding another superlative other than 
"extreme," which contributors complained had evolved from an adjective 
denoting dangerous sports into a promotional tag for products from 
cars to deodorant.

"Branding" too has morphed from something burned into a cow's rump 
into "any activity that supports a company's desire to clearly define 
its products," said Nancy Hicks of Virginia.

Irritating to many contributors were the overused "having said that" 
and "that said," to which David Patrick of Indiana said: "I heard you 
the first time."

To those who trumpet facing one "challenge" after another in their 
lives, Ray Lucas of Michigan suggested keeping quiet and locating a 
solution.

Sports clichés such as "got game" -- referring to a player with skills 
-- and "mental mistake" -- is there any other kind? -- also came in 
for criticism. And "There is no score," is merely a misnomer for a 
score of 0-0, a contributor opined.

Tautologies such as "frozen tundra," which by definition is frozen, 
and "an undisclosed, secret location," as in references to Vice 
President Dick Cheney's position, repeat themselves.

Finally, the list gave the heave-ho to the self-important obituary 
writer's phrase, "untimely death," which seems to suggest some deaths 
are more tragic than others. "Has anyone yet died a timely death?" 
asked Donald Burgess of California. 01/01/03 07:12 ET (via AOL Canada 
news via Fred Waterer, Jan 3, DXLD)

** U S A. ART BELL, W6OBB, RETIRES 

Art Bell, W6OBB, bid a final farewell to his Coast to Coast A.M. radio 
show as 2002 gave way to 2003. Over the fifteen years he hosted the 
show, Bell took it to the very top of the ratings peak. It was over 
450 radio stations in North America, heard world wide over the 
Internet and had an audience estimated in the 10's of millions. Bell 
had departed the show once before due to a family situation that 
needed his full time and attention. The show did not do well under the 
substitute hosts. Bell returned the following year and and rebuilt the 
program to its powerhouse position on the Premiere Radio Network. 
Often, after the program, Bell could be found on 75 meters chatting 
with his friends. In saying goodbye to his listeners, W6OBB explained 
that this is not the end of his career in radio. Actually it's a new 
beginning. Bell says that he and his wife have made one of their 
dreams come true. They built their own radio station, KNYE, located in 
Pahrump, Nevada and it`s now on the air. Bell says that building KNYE 
into the station he wants it to become will be the next challenge in 
his broadcasting career. Meantime, you can still hear -- and talk to 
Art Bell, but only if your signal can be heard in Pahrump. Just listen 
on or near 3.840 MHz for the call sign W6OBB. If you hear Art, please 
say hello and you might add -- "...thanks for the ride." (ARNewsline 
Jan 3 via DXLD) WTFK??

** U S A. ARRL CONCLUDES 5-MHz EXPERIMENTS, AWAITS FCC DECISION ON NEW 
BAND

Without fanfare, the ARRL allowed its WA2XSY 5-MHz experimental 
license to lapse January 1 rather than request renewal for another 
year. Last May, the FCC proposed going along with the ARRL's 2001 
request for a new domestic (US-only), secondary HF allocation at 5.25 
to 5.4 MHz. Discussions with various governmental agencies--including 
the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee (IRAC) and the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)--continue on 
how to accommodate amateur operation in the band, which is primary for 
several governmental agencies including the military. The NTIA 
regulates radio spectrum allocated to the federal government.

"At this point, we have every reason to believe the FCC will act on 
its proposal early this year," said ARRL Chief Executive Officer David 
Sumner, K1ZZ. "As to what the outcome will be as far as 5 MHz is 
concerned, we cannot predict."

In a December 24 letter, Sumner thanked the 15 Amateur Radio clubs and
individual amateurs who took part in the 5-MHz experimental operation 
that began in January 1999 and largely concluded in 2002. "You 
assisted in providing an important part of the groundwork for our 
petition for a domestic allocation to the Amateur Radio Service in 
this frequency range by demonstrating the desirability and feasibility 
of a shared allocation," he wrote. "We hope it will not be long before 
amateurs throughout the country are able to enjoy the fruits of your 
efforts."

Sumner said the ARRL chose not to request another renewal of the 
WA2XSY license because it already had obtained sufficient information 
to justify its petition for the band.

Until surprise opposition surfaced last fall from the NTIA, the FCC 
had the League's request for a new 60-meter band on the proverbial 
fast track. In a letter filed with the FCC last August --- after the 
comment deadline had passed --- the NTIA recommended that the 
Commission not go forward with the 5-MHz proposal. The NTIA said 
several government agencies with allocations in the proposed spectrum 
had expressed reservations about allowing amateurs to use the band, 
even on a non-interference basis.

The ARRL has been working with the federal agencies involved to 
resolve the impasse the NTIA letter raised. The NTIA said critical 
federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, the US Coast 
Guard and the Department of Defense, were making extensive use of 5 
MHz frequencies. The FCC's May 2002 Notice of Proposed Rule Making 
(NPRM) fails to adequately protect these "critical government 
operations" from harmful interference, the NTIA asserted.

The ARRL has called the 5 MHz allocation "an urgent priority of the
Amateur Service." In its July 2001 petition, the League told the FCC 
that a new band at 5 MHz would aid emergency communication activities 
by filling a "propagation gap" between 80 and 40 meters.

Experimental operations on 5 MHz continue on a very limited basis in 
the United Kingdom and in Canada. In Newfoundland, the Marconi Radio 
Club's VO1MRC has been operating under experimental authority from 
Industry Canada and an endorsement from Radio Amateurs of Canada to 
conduct experiments on 5 MHz. On December 21, VO1MRC completed a 
cross-band (5 MHz/7 MHz) CW contact with VK7RO in Tasmania (ARRL 
Letter Jan 3 via DXLD, also via Mike Terry)

** U S A. The most heavily top-loaded tower that I have seen is the 
Loran tower near Gillette WY. Even though it is 700 feet tall, that is 
a very short 25 degrees at the VLF frequencies it operates on. The 
upper guy wires serve as a capacitance hat almost all of the way back 
down to the ground. There are photos of the site on my web page at 
http://community.webtv.net/AM-DXer/ Tab down to Loran Station (Patrick 
Griffith, CBT, Westminster, CO, NRC-AM via DXLD)

Fred, do you know of any broadcast stations using Phillystran? (a non-
conductive material that can substitute for steel guy wires. Hams 
commonly use it if they're going to mount an antenna on the side of 
their tower --- they don't want the guy wires affecting the antenna. 
It's really expensive, though. There must be commercial applications 
as I don`t see any way ham radio could create enough sales to cover 
the development costs.) I`ve also seen guy wires broken up where they 
pass a side-mounted FM antenna, or a studio-transmitter link dish. 

WGNS-1450 in Murfreesboro, TN used a variation on this design (the 
tower collapsed a few years ago and I've not been back since it was 
rebuilt, don't know if they stuck with the same scheme). It was a 
self-supporting, grounded tower with what looked like water pipe 
(*not* coax) exiting the back of the transmitter building and attached 
to a leg of the tower maybe 30 feet up. Works pretty well, too; their 
signal is pretty good for a graveyard station (though the swampy 
location probably helps). While you can't say a tower isn't AM because 
there's no base insulator, you're probably safe to say it *is* AM if 
there *is* one. There will be a few exceptions, but not many (Doug 
Smith, TN, ibid.)

Doug, when I visited KRVN [880 Lexington NE] several years ago, it had 
100% Phillystran for all of the guy wires on all of the towers. No 
metal at all in the guys. 

When KPOF [Denver 910] replaced their 50-year-old 4-leg self-
supporting tower with a uniform cross section tower in the early 80s, 
the old self supporting tower with its 4 base insulators was left in 
place. The base insulators were bridged to ground with straps but they 
were still visible and looked intact. A detuning system was installed 
since it was only 1/4 mile from the new tower. It then continued in 
service for another 10+ years as a land mobile tower. The detuning 
skirt ran up 2 legs and made the tower look very much like a folded 
unipole with base insulators. It finally reached the point where the 
tower maintenance folks refused to climb it for painting and 
relamping. After cutting 2 of the 4 legs with a torch it still 
wouldn't fall. So they had to re-weld the 2 cut legs, then climb part 
way up and tie a cable to the tower, then cut the 2 legs again, and 
finally pull it over with a bulldozer! (Patrick Griffith, CBT, 
Westminster, CO, USA, NRC-AM via DXLD) 

** VENEZUELA. Radio Táchira, 4830, 0314-0345 Jan 1, man announcer with 
Spanish announcements, ads, TC and ID followed by lively Latin male 
vocals. Alternating between chatter by the man and lively vocals. Fair 
to good signal with some heterodyne from 4832, presumably Radio 
Litoral forced to move back to this location on the dial (Rich 
D`Angelo, PA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) Often inactive 

** VENEZUELA. Por primera vez en muchos decenios, Radio Nacional de 
Venezuela vuelve a ocupar los primeros lugares de sintonía en el país, 
disputándose el encendido con las radios de mayor popularidad, las 
cuales siempre han sido las privadas. El noticiero del canal 630, "RNV 
Noticias" (con cuatro emisiones diarias), es uno de los más 
sintonizados en hogares y automóviles. Saludos, (Adán González, Catia 
La Mar, VENEZUELA, Jan 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

UNIDENTIFIED. Re unID in Spanish on 1009.8, DXLD 3-002:

Is it not true that "La Raza" is a term used by Mexican immigrants to 
the USA to describe themselves/their culture? I would think this 
slogan and the ranchera mentions would pin this station as somewhere 
in the U.S. (Doug Smith, W9WI, ibid.)

KTNZ, Amarillo TX, has the slogan "La Raza" (per the Arbitron web site 
-- if you haven't used this site yet, follow the instructions on my 
links page http://www.inetworld.net/halls/dx/links.html And has been 
reported by other DXers on 1009.78 kHz. Nice catch! 73, (Tim Hall 
Chula Vista, CA, amfmtvdx via DXLD) 

KTNZ is from Amarillo and this certainly should be what JW has here. 
The pura música ranchera and La Raza mentions as well as the ranchera 
music in the slogan are clear. 73 KAZ (Neil Kazaross, IL, ibid.) 

I guess I'm going with KTNZ. Many thanks to all ! Will keep checking 
for them, hoping for a better ID. 73, (John WB9UAI, Milwaukee, ibid.) 

UNIDENTIFIED. Thank you for your original idea of pursuing the medium 
of shortwave radio forever and ever Amen. I was lucky to be introduced 
to shortwave as a youngster, and was and still am (40 years later) 
tuning in to WWV regularly. I recall listening to broadcasts from 
Greenbelt MD, sans voice announcements, with Morse ID every five 
minutes. 

Now, having proven my geezer status, could you tell an old man who is 
putting out this discordant time signal on 5 Megahertz, every evening? 
It is most certainly not Caracas, Venezuela, who have done a fine job 
in the past. Very compatible. No, this must be someone else, very far 
away, about a third of a second off in time, and causing an extremely 
annoying beat approaching 10 Hz. Best Regards in the New Year, (Sigurd 
Rottingen, location unknown, Jan 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PROPAGATION
+++++++++++

SOLAR UPDATE

Wave bender Tad "Who can make the sun shine, on a cloudy day?" Cook,
K7VVV, Seattle, Washington, reports: Last week we reported sunspot 
numbers dropping dramatically. This week it became a trend. Average 
daily sunspot numbers for the past three weeks were 206.1, 164.4 and 
55.3. Average solar flux was 188.7, 169.1 and 117.1. The real shocker 
though was Monday, with a sunspot number of only 44! I thought it 
possible that the sunspot number had not been that low since the other 
side of the solar cycle (before the peak), but we actually saw lower 
values of 27 and 38 on September 11 and September 12, 2000. On 
September 26, 1999, it was also 44 --- and that was probably on the 
other side of the peak of the current cycle.

Last year was surprisingly good in terms of high sunspot activity. The
average daily sunspot number for Calendar Year 2002 was actually 
slightly higher than any of the three previous years. Average daily 
sunspot numbers for the years 1997 through 2002 were 30.7, 88.7, 
136.3, 173, 170.3 and 176.6. Note the 176.6 value is lower than the 
178.3 reported in last week's bulletin as the average sunspot number 
for the first 359 days of the year. The drop in sunspot numbers over 
the past week was so dramatic that it actually dropped the yearly 
average by nearly two points! Average daily solar flux for the same 
six years was 81, 117.9, 153.7, 179.6, 181.6 and 179.5.

What is the trend? Let's look at quarterly averages.

Average daily sunspot numbers for the past eight quarters were 147.3,
164.8, 170.4, 198.1, 178.3, 165.3, 193.5 and 152.7. Average daily 
solar flux for those same quarters was 164.4, 166.7, 175.5, 219.1, 
203.9, 156.4, 178.1 and 164.2. As you can see, there is quite a bit of 
variability in the values. Solar cycles only appear smooth when 
looking backward and doing a moving average of the data.

Currently Earth is entering a solar wind from a small coronal hole on 
the sun. Conditions could be unsettled on Friday and Saturday. The 
projected planetary A index for Friday through Monday is 15, 15, 10 
and 8. The projected solar flux for those same days is 120, 125, 125 
and 130.

Sunspot numbers for December 26 through January 1 were 62, 63, 70, 51, 
44, 50 and 47, with a mean of 55.3. The 10.7-cm flux was 127.4, 116.5, 
116.9, 114.8, 113.8, 115.1 and 115, with a mean of 117.1. Estimated 
planetary A indices were 15, 37, 19, 13, 15, 11 and 10, with a mean of 
17.1 (ARRL Letter Jan 4 via DXLD)

TEAM UNRAVELS SUNSPOT MYSTERY 

In what may be one of the most important steps in understanding 
sunspots since they were discovered by Chinese sky watchers more than 
two millennia ago, researchers at Rochester, along with researchers at 
the University of Colorado, University of Cambridge, and University of 
Leeds, have reported an answer to several sunspot mysteries in the 
current issue of Nature. [Note: this is a replacement for the link 
that was expired for this item last week--Jilly] 
http://makeashorterlink.com/?L18225CE2 or
http://www.rochester.edu/pr/Currents/V30/V30N21/story07.html
(via Jilly Dybka, NAWA Flashsheet via DXLD)

[HCDX] EMERGING TECHNIQUES IN HIGH-TECH DX  

The portable computer can profoundly change the way you DX. 
A group of four experienced American DXers shows you how in this new 
HCDX feature article, Emerging Techniques of High-Tech DX. 
http://www.hard-core-dx.com/nordicdx/dxlab/hitechdx/hitechdx.html 

Here DXers Guy Atkins, John Bryant Nick Hall-Patch and Don Nelson, all 
of Proceedings of Fine Tuning fame, explain in detail how to best use 
modern computer software to enhance you DXing. Subjects range from 
software that is familiar to most DXers to some that will be new to 
virtually everyone in the hobby and include: 

Sunrise-sunset: GEOCLOCK 
Information/Reference Management 
Semi-Automated Reception Logging: B-LOG 
Laptop as Tape Recorder: TOTAL RECORDER and THE AMAZING SLOW DOWNER 
Direct Receiver Control: GNRX320, ERGO3 and ERGO4 
Other laptop Applications: Hall-Patch's DX RADAR 

And it will not cost you a lot. 

"We have a general tendency to to adopt the simplest and least 
expensive software available that is highly effective. Several of us 
use laptops similar to those currently available on ebay for under 
$300," explains HighTech DXer John Bryant. 

"Three of the programs that we discuss are freeware, and only two of 
the eight software packages require any learning curve to operate 
effectively. Further, most of the programs that we discuss are quite 
small and undemanding of computer resources." (Hermod Pedersen, hard-
core-dx Jan 4 via DXLD) 

Also up on DXing.info at http://www.dxing.info/articles/hitech.dx as 
an HTML file, and also an MS Word file at
http://www.dxing.info/articles/hitech_dxpeditioning.doc
73s (Mika Mäkeläinen http://www.dxing.info/ Corazón DX via DXLD)_

QSL DAYS CALCULATOR

Glenn, As an example of javascript I created a QSL Days Calculator 
allowing one to calculate either Days between the Report Sent and QSL 
Received Dates, calculate the Report Sent Date or calculate the QSL 
Received Date. I've also provided a ZIP file, for downloading, 
containing a JavaScript and a VBScript example of the QSL Date 
Calculator. People are free to modify the QSL Days Calculator as 
needed. Please see http://www.erols.com\kkrist\SWL 73, (-.. . Kraig, 
KG4LAC, Krist, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###