DX LISTENING DIGEST 3-044, March 17, 2003 edited by Glenn Hauser, ghauser@hotmail.com Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only if full credit be maintained at all stages and we be provided exchange copies. DXLD may not be reposted in its entirety without permission. Materials taken from Arctic or originating from Olle Alm and not having a commercial copyright are exempt from all restrictions of noncommercial, noncopyrighted reusage except for full credits HTML version of this issue will be posted afterwards at http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldtd3c.html [note change] HTML version of February issues: http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldtd3b.html HTML version of all January issues: http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldtd3a.html For restrixions and searchable 2003 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html For restrixions and searchable 2002 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid2.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn NEXT AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1173: RFPI: Tue 1900, Wed 0100, 0700, 1300 on 7445 and/or 15038.6 WJIE: Tue 0700, 1300, Wed 1300, Thu 1300 on 7490 WWCR: Wed 1030 9475 WRN ONDEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO: Check http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html [Low] (Download) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1173.rm (Stream) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1173.ram [High] (Download) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1173h.rm (Stream) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1173h.ram (Summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1173.html ** AFGHANISTAN. AFGHANISTAN MARKS 61ST ANNIVERSARY OF RADIO BROADCASTING | Text of report by Afghan radio on 16 March The 61st anniversary of Radio Afghanistan was marked at a ceremony in the ballroom of the Intercontinental Hotel today. According to a report by Bakhtar [Information Agency's] correspondent Ahmad Zia Ahmadi, Dr Sayd Makhdum Rahin, the minister of information and culture, read out a message from esteemed Hamed Karzai, the head of the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan. The message says that after going through many ups and downs, Radio Afghanistan is gaining fresh energy and is getting the capacity to increase its programmes. The message expresses the hope that Radio Afghanistan will update its units and transmitters with modern technology and achieve a lot of success. Later on, the minister of information and culture talked about the development and improvements in Radio-Television programmes and congratulated Radio-Television workers on the 61st anniversary of Radio Afghanistan. Afterwards, Mohammad Alam Izadyar, deputy head of the general department of Radio-Television, in his speech asked the responsible authorities to pay attention to solve the technical and broadcasting problems facing Afghanistan's radio-television. Later on, Shafiqa Habibi, a long-standing radio presenters, addressed the ceremony and shed light on the role played women in radio programmes since its establishment. She asked the new radio presenters to concentrate on the items they present. Abdol Haq Wala, the editor-in-chief of the daily Kabul Times and once an official of Radio Afghanistan, talked about his memories of time he spent in the radio. Similarly, Gholam Hasan Hazrati, the director of Radio Afghanistan, shed light on the performance of Radio Afghanistan since its establishment. Minister of Information and Culture Dr Sayd Makhdum Rahin conferred the titles of Ustad [Master] to Ms Parwin, Salam Logari, Abdol Mubin Belton, Gol Zaman, Gol Alam, Abdol Wali and Amroddin [all Afghan singers and musicians]. The minister also presented certificates of best news readers to Ms Shafiqa Habibi and Dor Mohammad Nuri and good news reader certificates to Ms Jamila Mojahid, Ms Najiba Sharif and Abdollah Fahim. In addition, cash, certificates and gifts were presented to a number of artists and broadcasters of Radio Afghanistan by officials. At the end, a concert was given by experienced and long-standing workers of Radio Afghanistan. Ms Parwin, the first lady singer of the country, sang a few songs after a decade break. The songs were warmly appreciated by the audience. The ceremony was attended by officials of the Ministry of Information and Culture, Mirwais Zaher [one of former king's sons], officials of independent radio stations, the UNESCO and cultural organizations. Source: Radio Afghanistan, Kabul, in Pashto 1530 gmt 16 Mar 03 (via BBCM via DXLD) Now, what will they do for the 62nd? ** ANGOLA. 11955.65, Rádio Nacional de Angola 0349 March 17, music, talk in Portuguese, into news at 0400, possible ID, mentions of Angola, two definite IDs at 0405, more news, another ID at 0407, into music; // 4950, weakening by 0400; tnx Jay Novello (Ralph Brandi, Tinton Falls, New Jersey, USA, AOR AR-7030 Plus, Drake R8, 250-foot mini-Beverage antenna, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** CANARY ISLANDS. 6175 [sic] USB Gospel Church, 2215 3/16 [Sunday], OM in Spanish with preaching, ute QRM (Jilly Dybka, TN, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Hi, was this really in Spanish? First time I see them logged in any other language than Korean. Frequency 6715U? (Jari Savolainen Kuusankoski Finland, Cumbre DX via DXLD) As I recall, info emerging from the station in last few months was that on rare special occasions they do have services in Spanish (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) ** CHINA. CHINA WANTS TO HAVE IT BOTH WAYS TO BE A MODERN COMMERCIAL STATE, AND TO PRESERVE ITS UNIQUE COMMUNIST-BASED IDENTITY, WHICH IS A DIFFICULT BALANCE TO STRIKE Looking outwards, China's CCTV English-language channel is now available on Britain's BSkyB and France's TPS. This is a big step forward for Chinas drive to gain understanding, as BSkyB is the largest and only service provider for direct broadcasting satellite television, with more than 200 channels and programmes for over 6 million subscribers in Britain, while TPS is one of the two largest service providers for direct broadcasting satellite television in France, with 1.2 million subscribers. But at the same time, China does not want too much foreign influence in its colossal broadcasting market (population over 1 billion). The Chinese have very recently made it clear that there will not, as many in the global industry had believed, be a great deal of opening up of the market. CCTV Vice-President Zhang Changming said the key issues with regards to China's TV industry were how to improve cooperation with foreign broadcasters and allow Westerners to "understand" China's situation and views. "Overseas channels rarely carry programmes from China. It's very rare that you see content on overseas TV channels that is true or fair," he complained. "What we want to see is other networks carrying our content. The key is to have overseas television stations carry the true picture about China." The Chinese issued a complete list of approved foreign broadcasting organisations: News; BBC World; Bloomberg; CNBC; CNN; Phoenix Infonews; Movie, music & sport; Cinemax HBO; Phoenix Movie; Star Movie; Channel V; MTV; ESPN; Star Sports; General entertainment; AXN; Discovery; Hallmark; JETV; Macau Asia; Macau Five Star; Macau Travel; National Geographic Channel-Asia; NOW; NHK; Phoenix Chinese; TVB8; TVB Galaxy; Yangguang Weishi; TV5. Any further applicants may have a hard time of it (March AIB Newsletter via DXLD) ** COLOMBIA [and non]. RADIO VOZ DE LA RESISTENCIA CARIBE FM STEREO Seguidamente, el artículo textual, tal como aparece la noticia en un periódico de Venezuela: DENUNCIAN QUE EMISORAS GUERRILLERAS OPERAN EN PERIJA Eliseo Fermin, miembro de la Comision de Frontera del Consejo Legislativo zuliano, informó que la estación de radio La emisora Resistencia Caribe FM Stereo transmite todos los días desde el municipio Machiques, en territorio venezolano, y se escucha en apartados sitios a través de radios comunitarias, otorgadas por el Gobierno nacional. Diputados del Consejo Legislativo del Zulia presentaron en cámara un informe en el que señalan la existencia de radios comunitarias en la zona fronteriza, que sirven de enlace a la emisora disidente colombiana La Voz de las FARC. La estación Resistencia Caribe FM Stéreo --- "la guerrilla del dial" - -- incita a los campesinos venezolanos y colombianos a que se sumen a las filas guerrilleras de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, al Partido Comunista clandestino colombiano y al movimiento bolivariano. "Si por alguna razón no puedes ingresar a las fuerzas guerrilleras de las FARC, ejército del pueblo, te invitamos a vincularte con el movimiento bolivariano por la Nueva Colombia y las milicias bolivarianas", termina la emisión de Resistencia Caribe FM Stereo. "No olvide sintonizarnos en los 96.6, 104.3 y en los 105.3 megahertz de la banda FM todos los días a partir de las 4:00 pm [2000 UT = Venezuela; 2100 UT = Colombia]. Somos la cadena radial bolivariana, voz de la resistencia, somos el bloque caribe, somos Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, el ejército del pueblo", cita el informe. "Estas emisoras no solo transmiten loas al Gobierno venezolano y a la revolución bolivariana, sino que deja constar la presencia de campamentos de entrenamiento de guerrilleros cercana a la zona de abastecimiento como El Cruce, en territorio nacional", agrega (Damaso Jimenez, Maracaibo, en El Nacional, 12/3/03, via Jose Elias Diaz, Venezuela, Conexión Digital via DXLD) Cabe agregar aquí, que además de la Cadena Bolivariana que cubre la zona llamada Caribe de las FARC, existe el Bloque Oriental, que cubre las zonas del Meta, Boyacá, Casanare, Arauca y Cundinamarca; el Bloque J.M. Córdoba que cubre Antioquia, Risaralda, Caldas y Uraba; el Bloque Magdalena Medio que cubre el Magdalena Medio; el Bloque Sur que cubre la zona del Caquetá, y el Comando Conjunto Central que cubre Tolima y Huila y el Comando Conjunto Occidental que cubre el Cauca, Valle y Nariño, emitiendo la mayoría de las emisoras en FM y diariamente (Periódico Resistencia, del Secretariado del Estado Mayor Central de las FARC-EP, Colombia, via Gabriel Iván Barrera, Argentina, Conexión Digital via DXLD) ** CONGO DR. 6030, 9550 and 11690, R. Okapi, continues to be heard, all frequencies with quite weak signals (Vashek Korinek, RSA, DXplorer via DXLD) The other night I was out at our DX-QTH about 60 km north of my town of Västerås and here are some of the loggings made: 11690 15.3 0134 R Okapi, Zaire with jingle and African music 73 de (Lennart Weirell, Västerås, Sweden, EDXP via DXLD) ** CONGO DR. SURVEY OF RADIOS IN THE EAST OF THE COUNTRY The following are some of the radio stations known to be active at present in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an area largely under the control of rival armed groups, mostly acting as proxies for the Kinshasa government, or Uganda or Rwanda. The stations are listed in geographical order, starting from the north: (Note: Some provincial stations in DRC identify themselves as outlets of the Radio-Television Nationale Congolaise (RTNC), the name used by the state-owned broadcaster based in Kinshasa, even though they are in fact rebel controlled.) 1. Radio Candip in Bunia (broadcasting in French and Swahili). Bunia (the capital of Ituri District) is in Orientale Province, close to Lake Albert and the Ugandan border. The town was captured on 6 March 2003 by Ugandan forces. Prior to that date it had been controlled by the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC, led by Thomas Lubanga), an ally of the pro-Rwanda, anti-Uganda RCD-Goma. The UPC had themselves captured the town in September 2002 from the Ugandan-backed RCD-ML (Congolese Rally for Democracy - Liberation Movement, also known as RCD-Kisangani). Radio Candip is a long-established station, originally an educational venture (Candip is an acronym for Centre d'Animation et de Diffusion Pedagogique - Educational Broadcasting and Promotion Centre). In late 1996 it was taken over by rebels fighting the then government of Zairean President Mobutu. It again fell under rebel control following the renewal of fighting in the country in 1998. It is heard on shortwave (5066 kHz). 2. RTNC radio in Butembo (broadcasting in Swahili). Butembo is in Nord-Kivu Province, close to the border with southwest Uganda. It is controlled by the Mbusa Nyamwisi-led faction of a pro- Kinshasa group, the RCD-Kisangani-ML (not to be confused with the anti-Kinshasa, pro-Uganda group, the RCD-ML/RCD-Kisangani). This radio broadcasts on 94.8 FM. (A "Radio Butembo", possibly the same station, was heard in 1997 on shortwave - 7060 kHz.) 3. Radio Moto Beni-Butembo (broadcasting in Swahili). The towns of Beni and Butembo lie about 40 miles apart, in Nord-Kivu Province. They are both controlled by a pro-Kinshasa group, the RCD- Kisangani-ML, although Radio Moto Beni-Butembo appears to be politically independent. Radio Moto (the word means hot in Swahili) is heard in Butembo on 106.0 FM. 4. RTNC radio in Goma (broadcasting in French and Swahili). Goma is the capital of Nord-Kivu Province. It is the HQ of the pro- Rwanda, anti-Kinshasa, anti-Uganda, Rally for Congolese Democracy - Goma (RCD-Goma). This FM radio is the RCD-Goma rebels' main station. 5. Radio Bukavu (broadcasting in French and Swahili). Bukavu, the capital of Sud-Kivu Province, lies on the border with southwest Rwanda. The town is controlled by the Rwandan-backed RCD- Goma. Radio Bukavu is heard on shortwave (6713 kHz). According to our records, it was also at one time on 88.4 FM and may still be using that frequency. 6. RTNC radio in Uvira (broadcasting in French). Uvira is in Sud-Kivu Province, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika and close to the Burundi border. It is currently controlled by RCD-Goma but has changed hands recently to-and-fro between the RCD-Goma and the Mayi Mayi (a pro-Kinshasa tribal militia). RTNC radio in Uvira currently broadcasts on 93.7 FM. According to our records, in 1998 the station was known to be on 100 FM (it may have changed frequency to avoid interference from stations in nearby Bujumbura, the Burundian capital). In addition to the above, note may also be made of Radio Maendeleo in Bukavu, which is currently off the air after it was closed down and several of its staff arrested in December 2002 by RCD-Goma. (It had previously been closed by the RCD-Goma from July 1999 to August 2001.) Radio Maendeleo (the Swahili word for Development/Progress) had been one of the few independent radio stations in eastern DRCongo. Source: BBC Monitoring research in French and Swahili Mar 03, Chris Greenway (via DXLD) ** COSTA RICA. RADIO FOR PEACE INTERNATIONAL VISTA ON-LINE: MARCH Dear friends and listeners, A lot has been happening at Radio for Peace International since our last Vista Online. In February, RFPI hosted a training workshop in collaboration with Pauline Bartolone from Free Speech Radio News, a US-based independent media news program. It was attended by nine people working in social justice organizations in Nicaragua. This one week intensive course trained the participants in news reporting for independent media and digital editing. Several programs were produced, one of which was featured on Free Speech Radio News this week. Radio For Peace intends to step up its work in similar projects this year, the central idea being to train as many people here in Latin America as independent radio journalists. Many listeners have asked for more coverage in this region and we feel that this response will improve RFPI's coverage of events in a area of the world that often suffers from highly distorted and under reported media representation. Peace Journalists Needed!!!! In a world increasingly filled with war correspondents, RFPI continues to train journalists in the new concept of Peace Journalism. Our first 4 week course this year in Peace Journalism and Progressive Media Through Radio was completed on February 21. The course brings together activists who wish to have a better understanding of media and practicing journalists who wish to learn alternative reporting skills. The summer months are starting to fill up with students, which is good news as the proceeds from the course help sustain RFPI and add to the pool of trained progressive radio correspondents. "This course gave me a deeper understanding on how the media really works and my place within it" -- Jean N, IPC student Session 1, 2003. RFPI's summer looks to be a very full and intense time with large numbers of students and volunteers applying to come and work here. More good news; after a long wait and many postponements and disappointments, we have finally got back our high speed internet!! We have waited for more than four months to get this back up and running. The benefits are already in evidence to our listeners who are once again hearing some of the quality programming that we were temporarily not able to broadcast because of the long and expensive dial-up downloading times. Free Speech Radio News is back, we have been able to add to the line-up Pacifica Radio's Peace Watch, an hour long show dealing with the Middle East, and more. We have also been able to continue our work searching out more diverse independent programming from around the world. We are currently in talks with the Voice of Human Rights Radio in Indonesia and others. We still have a way to go before we can get RFPI's live internet- casting back, but we are working on it. Please keep checking our progress on the web site http://www.rfpi.org/ We are also now able to rebuild our Spanish language programming schedule which will carry independent media programming from ALER (Asociación Latinoamericana de Educación Radiofónica) in Ecuador, RFPI's own in-house productions, programming from Costa Rica's University Radio and from many other groups in Latin America. We are currently talking with a progressive news group of media activists in Nicaragua about a regular program of Nicaraguan news and analysis. April will be a pivotal month and a difficult one for RFPI financially. What this means in practical terms is that we have to consider reducing the air time significantly through turning off our transmitters at different times of the day to save on the electricity bills, we have urgent antenna repairs (after the strong winds we experience in Costa Rica at this time of the year) that we cannot afford to fix, and a whole host of daily operating problems that we have to struggle with. In addition, the 15040 transmitter is in need of replacement parts which will cost around $1,000. This, our second transmitter is currently off the air. All of this is coming at a time when RFPI's voice needs to be heard more than ever as an independent media organization calling for sanity in the world in this current war-mongering atmosphere. We heard recently of the overwhelming support in the form of donations (quite rightly) raised by the independent media in the US at this time of a huge emerging global peace movement and it got us thinking about how much harder we have to struggle here at RFPI to get funding. Yet, we are the ONLY shortwave progressive radio station broadcasting independent programming and information globally. Most of the excellent programs you can hear on Radio For Peace International operate on budgets that far outstrip that of RFPI's whole radio station! The realities at RFPI are that we limp from one month to the next, often without wages, our ability to carry out essential repairs is limited, as is our ability to replace old equipment, expand and push ahead with new projects and campaigns and hire additional staff that we so much need. We want to appeal to you, our listeners and supporters to please come to our aid at this crucial time. We are still here 16 years later because you want us here and you believe in what we do. You made it happen and you are the ones who will continue to make it happen. You can make a donation securely and immediately by clicking on the Pay Pal icon on our web site on http://www.rfpi.org/ or you can send us a check or postal order to: Radio For Peace International, PO Box 3165, Newberg, OR 97132, USA From all the staff of RFPI we thank you. (RFPI-Vista mailing list via DXLD) ** DEUTSCHES REICH. A new book on William Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw") was published in London on Friday. Entitled "Lord Haw Haw, The English Voice of Nazi Germany", it is the latest publication in the Secret History Series published by the National Archives (formerly known as the Public Record Office). It was compiled by Cambridge academic Peter Martland from recently released files of the Secret Intelligence Service, MI5, many of which are reproduced in the book. The book is not aimed specifically at radio enthusiasts and, in common with many works written by academics or journalists, contains errors that will be obvious to World of Radio readers. There are also many irritating omissions. For example, it says little about the Nazi "black" clandestine stations that broadcast to Britain despite the fact that Joyce is known to have been their main scriptwriter. Indeed, an earlier biographer of Lord Haw-Haw observed that Joyce's scripts for these stations were probably the most insidious and harmful work that he undertook for the Nazis. Moreover, despite the coverage given of Joyce's pre-war fascist activities, there is no mention of the fact that the main medium-wave transmitter used for the "Germany Calling" transmissions ("Station Bremen" based at Osterloog) was built under a secret agreement between the British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley and Hitler and was originally to have been used for a commercial radio service beamed to Britain, the revenue of which would help to finance British fascism. For details of this, and much more concerning Lord Haw-Haw, you will need to read a previous book, "Hitler's Airwaves" (by Bergmieir and Lotz, Yale University Press, 1997). Nevertheless, for anyone who is fascinated by the use of international broadcasting for propaganda purposes, especially during World War Two, this is a useful addition to the growing literature on the subject. It may be ordered via Amazon or direct from the National Archives, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU, UK (Roger Tidy, March 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. 7520 CLANDESTINE Voice of Ethiopia, 2042-2059* Mar 9, tune in to Horn of Africa vocals followed by a man at 2046 with "an editorial from the Voice of Ethiopia" about France support for brutal dictators in Africa, French support for Iraq and that the French sell weapons to both side. I gathered they didn't care for the French too much! At 2053 there was an instrumental music segment followed by news items with a focus on Ethiopian Government suppression of journalists. At 2058 a simple "Ladies and Gentlemen, we come to the end of the news. Brief flute music until carrier cut. Poor to fair signal (Rich D`Angelo, PA, NASWA Flashsheet Mar 16 via DXLD) ** GERMANY. An article about the Berlin Dammheide "Funkamt Köpenick" site, but beware, the statements about frequency/program usage are partly erroneous: http://www.kunsttexte.de/download/denk/jochinke.pdf Shot of the very last mast coming down: http://www.underground-and-shelternetwork.de/invboard/uploads/post-17-1047752316.jpg (Kai Ludwig, Germany, March 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUATEMALA. Today, Mujb'ab'l Yol, daughter of La Voz Popular, is still not recognized by the government and is currently transmitting on illegal frequencies. Their present struggle is political in idealogy [sic], but economic in practice as the monopoly of radio (recognized by Presidente Portillo in a recent speech) allows little room for community radio. Under the current system, radio frequencies are auctioned off at a minimum of $26,000 leaving under-funded grass- roots radio stations no option but to operate illegally. If the daughter of La Voz Popular is to remain fertile it must struggle to create its legitimate place within national radio communication. udio (Entre Mundos article referenced in last issue) WTFK?? FM?? ** INDIA. IT'S NOT MUSIC TO THE EARS FOR QUAKE-HIT -- TANVIR SIDDIQUI Ahmedabad, February 7: FIVE thousand world band transistors, donated by Japanese electronics giant, Sony, to the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS), meant for distribution among the Kutch earthquake victims, still lie undistributed. The transistors were handed over to the IRCS in May 2001. http://makeashorterlink.com/?W372212D3 (via Jilly Dybka, TN, NASWA Flashsheet Mar 17 via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. European service of Voice of Indonesia had a solid signal on 15150.02 at scheduled 1800-2100 Mar 15. And carrier of RRI domestic service relay on 11860.03 noted even before 2100, and domestic music program heard the whole night, despite scheduled approx. 2100-0100 (Wolfgang Bueschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAQ. BABIL ONLINE WEB SITE SEEKS FOREIGN VOLUNTEER REPORTERS On 17 March, the Babil Online web site, an Iraqi news network run by President Saddam Husayn's son Uday, carried the following "invitation" in Arabic and English. The following is the text of the English "invitation": Invitation for Reporters: Babilonline invites those who wish to work as voluntary reporters for the site on all over the world to send to the site reports, news and photos which they wish to be transmitted on Babilonline site and via the E-mail of the site: babilonline@uruklink.net The Babil Online web site, which carries news in Arabic and English about Iraq and the Arab world, is located at http://www.iraq2000.com/online/ Source: Babil Online web site, Baghdad 17 Mar 03 (via BBCM via DXLD) I`ll pass. See also ISRAEL non ** IRAQ [non]. WITH LEAFLETS AND BROADCASTS, U.S. AIMS TO SWAY IRAQI MINDS --- By Vernon Loeb, Washington Post Staff Writer, Monday, March 17, 2003; Page A11 Raining leaflets down across southern Iraq, the U.S. military speaks to Iraqi soldiers and "the people of Iraq" in a strong, imperative voice, urging them to stay at home with their families and abandon the tyrannical regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. "He lives in splendor," says one leaflet in Arabic that was dropped last week by the thousands around the southern city of Basra, the words superimposed over a smiling photograph of Hussein sitting on what looks like a throne, "as your family struggles to survive. Who needs you more? Your family or the regime? Return to your home and family." Other leaflets dropped in the south by the U.S. Central Command direct Iraqis to tune in to evening radio programs emanating from Commando Solo psychological warfare planes that broadcast a mix of Euro-pop, traditional Arabic music, contemporary singers such as Sheryl Crow and Celine Dion, and a steady stream of U.S. propaganda. Although it is impossible to know what impact these psychological operations are having on Iraqis, the leaflets and broadcasts clearly speak to the greatest concerns U.S. commanders and policymakers have about a possible war with Iraq -- the use of chemical or biological weapons, the destruction of Iraq's oil wells, the willingness of Iraqi military units to fight, and the use of civilians and national landmarks as shields. "If the Oil industry is destroyed, your livelihood will be RUINED!" says one new leaflet. Another warns, "Any unit that chooses to use weapons of mass destruction will face swift and severe retribution by Coalition forces. Unit commanders will be held accountable if weapons of mass destruction are used." The U.S. European Command, meanwhile, announced Friday that for the fourth time in two weeks, it had leafleted parts of northern Iraq, urging military units not to fire at U.S. and British aircraft patrolling the northern no-fly zones. One senior defense official at U.S. Central Command's headquarters in Qatar said dropping leaflets -- 14 million have been spewed across southern Iraq to date -- is like "varnishing the brightwork on your sailboat. It's a lot of thin layers that add up to a bright luster." The Central Command has received anecdotal reports from journalists inside Iraq, the official said, that the leaflets are starting to show up in Baghdad, and that coalition radio is among the most popular in Iraq with young people. "People are picking the leaflets up, and they are having an effect. The only way they get to Baghdad is if people carry them in there," the official said. "We put out about 120 broadcast hours per day. There's a wheel, and in an hour you'll get maybe 45 to 50 minutes of music, and interspersed in there will be news and information. The Iraqi population is an information-starved population." But the strongest evidence that the leaflets are working, the official said, comes from Hussein himself, who was recently shown on the news in Iraq meeting with commanders and exclaiming, "Do they think they can shake the 11th Division with leaflets?" "If the leader of the country is talking about leaflets," the American official said, "it is on his mind." After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, U.S. officials concluded that leafleting that instructed Iraqi soldiers on how to surrender had been highly effective, with a high percentage of Iraqi war prisoners saying they had seen the leaflets and been swayed by them. "The leafleting is very, very important, but the critical thing is, you've got to deliver on what you promise," said Richard Hallion, an Air Force historian. Outside the military, however, skeptics wonder whether leafleting will really be all that effective in a country where many ordinary citizens, while they may detest Hussein, hate the United States even more for imposing devastating economic sanctions since 1991. Retired Air Force Col. Samuel B. Gardiner said that leaflets and broadcasts historically have not succeeded in breaking the will of those determined to fight, such as the Vietnamese. "There's only a certain degree you can move people, if they're not of a mind to move," Gardiner said. Denis J. Halliday, a native of Ireland who ran the United Nations' humanitarian oil-for-food program in Iraq in 1997-98, doubts the leaflets will work. "I think these leaflets are going to be dismissed as a naive American endeavor to turn the people against themselves. Toilet paper is in short supply," he said. "The sanctions and all the suffering from the sanctions are entirely attributed to the U.N. and the United States, not Saddam Hussein." The leaflets are produced by the 4th Psychological Operations Group at Fort Bragg, N.C., where native Arabic speakers under contract with the military translate messages forwarded by Central Command officials. "What they give us is a target audience and a behavior they want to effect," said Maj. Mike Whalen. "Once we [develop a message], we send it back to the command to make sure it meets their intent. Once they send it back, we go ahead and translate it." Every message is then translated into Arabic -- "Coalition air power can strike at will. Any time, anyplace" -- and triple-checked to make sure small errors in translation do not become large mistakes in meaning. The leafleting began in southern Iraq in October with messages urging the Iraqi military not to fire at U.S. and British aircraft patrolling the southern no-fly zones. By late fall, those messages were replaced by leaflets telling the Iraqis not to repair fiber-optic cable stations destroyed by coalition aircraft in retaliation for Iraqi antiaircraft fire. Since the beginning of the year, with the Bush administration amassing a large invasion force in the Persian Gulf region, the messages have grown in complexity and left the impression that "the coalition" was moving inexorably toward war. A recent leaflet directed at civilians depicts the vast and dramatic Al Shaeed monument to martyrs. A photograph on the front shows children holding hands with a caption that says, "The Coalition does not wish to destroy your landmarks." Next to the photograph, an artist's rendering of the monument depicts Iraqi tanks in its shadows being attacked by coalition aircraft. "The coalition will destroy any viable military targets." On the back of the leaflet, a message reads: "Coalition forces do not wish to harm the noble people of Iraq. To ensure your safety, avoid areas occupied by military personnel." (c) 2003 The Washington Post Company (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** IRELAND [non]. Radio Telefis Éireann: Full data QSL showing the country side of Ireland. It was for my report of November 30th 2002, on 9895. Return address was Broadcast Development, Radio Telefis Éireann, Dublin 4, Ireland (Emmanuel Ezeani, Sokoto, Nigeria, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL [non]. ISRAEL RADIO MONITOR LISTENS FOR START OF IRAQ WAR By Maia Ridberg TEL AVIV, March 16 (Reuters) - "Requesting to meet me in the green, over," said a U.S. pilot flying over Iraq or nearby. "Roger," replied another. The short, cryptic radio exchange was one of many recorded daily by Michael Gurdus, who monitors the world's airwaves for Israel Radio. His latest project is trying to detect the start of a possible U.S.- led war against Iraq. "The location names are all coded," he said over the weekend about the pilots's conversation as he sat in a monitoring room at home crammed with 10 televisions -- one tuned to Iraq's state broadcaster -- and eight radios. "They can say Alabama and it is somewhere in Iraq," said Gurdus, turning up the volume of his radios whenever they picked up exchanges among U.S. and British military personnel in the air or on the ground in Iraq or the Gulf region. Gurdus, 58, has broken big international stories -- military invasions, airplane hijackings, coups d'etat -- by listening in from his Tel Aviv home. He was one of the first to report the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the start of the 1991 U.S.-led Gulf War that ousted President Saddam Hussein's forces from the Gulf Arab state. "I heard the aircraft leaving for their targets (in the Gulf War)," he said. Last week, Gurdus reported that the more than 200,000 U.S. and British forces massed in the Gulf area would enter a state-of-war alert on March 18 based on his perusal of military communications. "I don't know from where I will hear (the start of the war)...I might know about it from Iraqi radio and television, I might know from the aircraft...I might know from American TV." "FATALISM" IN IRAQI BROADCASTS Gurdus said he has noticed a continuous increase in radio communications over Iraq, including U.S.-backed broadcasts in Arabic urging Iraqis not to fight or blow up their oilfields. But he said he would not herald the beginning of any war until Radio Baghdad or an American network broke the story. "Even now, if I know ahead of time, I will not broadcast because I have no intention to jeopardise the American pilots, to harm them by any means," Gurdus said. One of Gurdus's more memorable scoops was during the 1974 Greek- inspired coup in Cyprus to topple the Mediterranean island's president, Archbishop Makarios. Cyprus Radio reported Makarios had been killed, but Gurdus picked up a weak radio broadcast in which the Cypriot leader announced he was alive. Makarios, who was rescued by British forces, later told the Israeli ambassador in Nicosia that he owed his life to Gurdus. Three years later, Israel Radio, using Gurdus's monitoring skills, was the first to report on preparations by West German anti-terrorist commandos to storm a Lufthansa airliner hijacked to Mogadishu, Somalia. Gurdus, who speaks Hebrew, English, Arabic, Polish, French, and Russian, learned his trade from his father, a former French news agency bureau chief and refugee from Nazi-occupied Poland. "I stay here to watch television, to watch sports...It's my everything -- my entertainment, my work," he said of his highly wired office. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L15580018 (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** MEXICO. 1300, XEP, Cd. Juárez, lots of Mex mx and ``Radio Trece`` IDs at 0755. Regular signal now (Chris Martin, Queensland, Mar NZ DX Times) 500 watts, yeah sure (gh, DXLD) ** MEXICO. PRESIDENT FOX INAUGURATES NEWLY RELAUNCHED XHUIA RADIO IBERO OF UNIVERSIDAD IBEROAMERICANA by Señor Jose Alba Z., Mexico City, for the Argentine DX club bulletin, Conexión-Digital, of Buenos Aires, March 10, 2003, and translated and reprinted by arrangement. Mexico City, Mar 7 (Conexión-Digital) --- President Vicente Fox, accompanied by the rector of the Iberoamerican University (Universidad Iberoamericana, UIA), the Jesuit professor and priest Enrique González Torres, relaunched radio station XHUIA 90.9 FM, first authorized 1991 to this educational institution. UIA is the alma matter of the president. XHUIA was, until very recently, a low-power station, but it has been increasing the power and undergoing important development in the last year and a half, exactly the period that corresponds to the Fox administration. The ceremony at which the Chief Executive took part formed part of the festivities regarding the 60th anniversary of Iberoamerican University. As part of these festivities, the President inaugurated the new station installations, which from this day forward has a new identification: ``Radio Ibero: 90.9,`` as it has been known, became ``Ibero 90.9, Radio.`` Although the station has been operating for some time, the relaunching on the part of the President, the new ``radio broadcasting concept`` that is developed, and the coverage of the media from this date forward will help it to be more noted on the dial, because until now many people did not know that Radio Ibero existed. It will cover the entire Valley of Mexico, thanks to the increase to 3,000 watts of power authorized by the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes (SCT). In July 1991, the Universidad Iberoamericana received from the SCT a permit to operate on the frequency of 90.9 MHz in the Distrito Federal with a power of 100 watts. As we have noted on various occasions, the present technical norms operative in Mexico for FM establishes that stations operating in this range of frequencies (which run from 88 to 108 Megahertz) need to maintain between each other 0.8 MHz separation in order to avoid interference from adjacent stations. [Editor`s Note— This same requirement prevails in the United States and Canada.] Nevertheless, the operation of low-power stations that maintain a separation of only 0.4 Megahertz from adjacent stations is possible. Thus, university stations, as well as ``pirate`` stations, have been operating for a long time in various places in the country. XHUIA is found between XEDA-FM Radio Imagen 90.5 FM and XHFAJ 91.3 FM, Alfa Radio. The Universidad Iberoamericana station began broadcasting in May 1992 with a very limited service area because of its 100 watts power. Its coverage was confined to the campus and neighboring areas. In this regard it operated principally as a laboratory for formation in the matter of radio productions for students pursuing a degree in the Communications Sciences. Nevertheless, with the legitimate right of having a station with greater coverage area, XHUIA Radio Ibero conducted tests to calculate how much it could increase its power and, as a consequence, its coverage. After approximately five years of applications before the SCT, it received in September 2001 authorization to increase its power from the rachitic 100 watts to nothing less than 3,000 watts, with which it left being a low-power station and entered the ``medium power`` class, sufficient to cover the Valley of Mexico. At the beginning of May 2002, it began proofs to reach coverage of the entire metropolitan area, an objective which it has obtained. Today, XHUIA Radio Ibero is heard also in the Parre area, part of the way to Cuernavaca, in Lindavista area, north of the Distrito Federal. The actual topography of the Valley of Mexico keeps it from reaching all zones clearly, for example, the eastern area. The UIA now has an instrument of broadcasting that, although it does not have optimum coverage, gives XHUIA Ibero 90.9 Radio the opportunity of transcending the condition of a marginal station to make possible the objective of reaching a massive public inside the limits of the Valley of Mexico, which is no little thing. Today, the station maintains its ``college radio`` tone, which makes it agreeable. It has a very varied music programming that includes jazz, rock, world music, and lounge music, among others. There are hours of the day in which the station makes one not want to turn the dial. In others, not so much. It has live programs, with the announcer in the control room and feedback from listeners, and also ``canned`` programs, these last by means of capsules or ``miniprograms`` with interesting information, well documented and presented with amenity. Of course, it does not have commercial announcements, although it does have public service announcements, such as those of IFE. Every Sunday it broadcasts ``La Hora Nacional`` [Editor`s Note— This is an hour- long Government program that every radio station in Mexico is required to carry by law, according to my understanding.] According to what we have been told, XHUIA Ibero 90.9 Radio will maintain the tone that we have known up until now and that distinguishes it from the circumspection and at times exaggerations of the traditional university radio station, for example, that which can be heard over the stations of the Universidad Nacional Autónima de México (UNAM). Our congratulations to XHUIA Ibero 90.9 Radio on its relaunching, its new installations and, above all, for its future, without doubt a promising one. The government ought to be acknowledged for having granted the power increase that places this station in a better perspective. But with the recognition, the demand: Would that the Fox government not fail in its friendship towards Universidad Iberoamericana, where the President pursued his licenciado, but at the same time not fail to attend to other universities that also merit to have a means of communication as this one. Those universities merit a similar treatment, although the President may not have passed through their halls. This is the case of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM), whose contribution to Mexican society is undeniable but which does not boast a radio station, not even one of low power. On this point the government has an outstanding debt with this house of studies. The case of XHUIA Ibero 90.9 Radio shows that when the government wants to, it can, and that governmental pretexts of not giving social or educational organizations low-power frequencies are strategems that hide political decisions dressed in technical arguments: ``There are no available frequencies.`` Now we know, with the Ibero station, that we can also have ``medium power`` stations on the dial without affecting those of high power —commercial or cultural— that broadcast on FM. We hope that UAM does not have to wait for one of its graduates to attain the Presidency of the Republic to be able to have a radio station. Editor`s Note: XHUIA does not have a website or even a webpage at this moment, but that is likely to change, given its new coverage. Mexico does not license religious radio stations, although in the last decade or so it has permitted commercial stations to sell airtime to religious groups. The Mexican Legislature under President Fox and his PAN party has proposed that this law be changed. While this law has strapped the Catholic Church, it has also prevented well-financed U.S. Protestant sects from launching radio efforts to steal our sheep, no small blessing, given what is happening in Central America and elsewhere. Mexico and Cuba are the only Latin American nations with no Catholic radio stations. Database México City (Ciudad de México): XHUIA Ibero Radio 90.9 FM (3,000 watts PRA). (Formerly XEIB). Universidad Iberoamericana, Prol. Paseo de la Reforma 880, Lomas de Santa Fe, CP 01210, Ciudad de México, DF/ Tel: 5950-4000, 9177-4400 University website: http://www.uia.mx/ibero/default2.html Founded 1992 as a low-power station; power increase March 2003 (Mike Dorner, Catholic Radio Update March 17 via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS. In view of the likelihood of war in Iraq coming sooner rather than later, I decided to get the schedule online ASAP. You can view it now at http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/html/schedule_a03.html There will be some additional DRM stuff to add, but the regular schedule is complete. 73, (Andy Sennitt, RN, March 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. PAKISTAN TV STARTS SPECIAL BULLETIN FOR VIEWERS IN EUROPE, USA | Text of report by Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) news agency Islamabad, 17 March: Pakistan Television [PTV] has started telecasting a special news bulletin for viewers of Europe and United States on the instructions of Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. The news bulletin is telecast on PTV World at 2 p.m. [local time] and is aired live for the viewers of Europe and United States at PTV Prime. According to their local time, the 20 minute bulletin can be watched by viewers of Europe at 9 p.m and viewers of United States at 4 p.m. The information minister has instructed that maximum number of news and special reports about Pakistan should be included in the bulletin so that Pakistanis living in Europe and United States can remain aware about the events in their homeland. Source: Associated Press of Pakistan news agency, Islamabad, in English 1807 gmt 17 Mar 03 (via BBCM via DXLD) Why not give us the real times, with zone specified? ** PERU. RADIO SANTA MÓNICA, which recently launched its shortwave transmissions on 4965, is a commercial broadcaster in Cusco. Seemingly the station uses the shortwave transmitter of Radio San Miguel. I visited the station on September 21, 1999, while I was in Cusco to study the broadcasting circumstances. The studio is located at Urbanización Marcavalle P-20, Cusco. Radio Santa Mónica broadcast daily at 0800-0400 daily simultaneously on 1370 kHz medium wave and 93.9 MHz FM. The station has specialized in Peruvian folk music programming. In particular, the station featured Andean folklore with a lot of DJ chatter, personal messages and greeting services whole day with the exception of a newscast entitled "60 minutes" which is on the air at 1700-1800 from Monday through Friday. The broadcasting enterprise "Productoras Musical Flower - Radio Santa Mónica" was established by Walter Farfan Flower on May 24, 1988. As of September 1999, the station broadcast simultaneously on 1370 kHz with a Philips brand transmitter of 1 kW and 1/4-wave vertical antenna (54 meters high above the ground) and on 93.9 MHz with a transmitter manufactured by Carlos Valdeiglecias (a radio engineer of Cusco). On February 10, 1992, the medium wave outlet was licensed with the callsign OAZ7B under Ministerial Resolution No. 0076-92-TCC/15.17. On July 26, 1996, the FM outlet was licensed with the callsign OCW7S under Ministerial Resolution No.0 327-96-TCC/15.17. The transmitter site is located at Cerro Arco Ticatica, Cruz Verde (about 10 km away from the studio). The station has a repeating outlet at Anta, broadcasting on 105.3 MHz with an output power of 0.3 kW. On October 16, 1996, the Anta station was licensed with the callsign OCT7N under Ministerial Resolution No. 0585-96-TCC/15.17 (Takayuki Inoue Nozaki, Relámpago DX at hard-core-dx March 13 via DXLD) ** PERU. 4965 kHz, Radio Santa Mónica, 2348 UT March 11 featuring a music program of huaynos with a male host. He gave the time and an ID between virtually every song. Radio Santa Mónica was also shouted over some songs. At 2354, more excited talking appeared by both a male and a female. It sounded like a possible advertisement and/or personal message block that lasted to 2359. Their time checks over a 3-day period that I heard them (Mar 6, 10 and 11) were right on the money, but they didn't seem to "celebrate" the ToH as anything special- just played music straight through. As reported by others, they seem to sign off around 0100 or just past with no anthem, song or fanfare, but they are pretty weak by then. 4886.7, Radio Virgen del Carmen, F/d "Maroti" QSL with partial data letter in 2 weeks for mint stamps, SAE (neither used), $1 US and cassette recording. Also enclosed postcard of town of Huancavelica. Letters appears to state former v/s Reverend Samuel Cárdenas (Station Gerencia) is no longer with the station and José López Alvarado has been the director since 2001. A new address is also given that differs from 2003 PWBR: Plaza Bolognesi No. 142, Cercado, Huancavelica, Peru. Also signing the card was Bishop William Molloy McDermott, President of Radio Virgen del Carmen. Bishop McDermott then added a personal note in English on the back of the QSL-Card. As if all this in 2 weeks was not enough, an e-mail received on Thursday from the Director, José jlopez_alvarado@hotmail.com indicated that he had already sent out a Certificado de Sintonía! It looks like with Bishop McDermott there, an English report might also be possible. Even Jose closed in English in both the letter and e-mail (John Sgrulletta, Mahopac, NY, USA JRC NRD- 515/K9AY & A/D Sloper, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** PERU. 4750.2, Radio San Francisco Solano, 1020-1041 Mar 14, man with OA vocals accompanied by flutes. Non-stop vocals until a woman announcer gave ID at 1035 and Spanish talk followed by flute music. Poor. 4790, Radio Atlántida, 1032-1046 Mar 14, tuned in to catch ID by a woman announcer and Spanish language talks. Brief musical segment followed by more talking at 1034. Fair (Rich D`Angelo, PA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. Re: VOR webcasting live: I see that part of the URL is "stimme..." which suggests a German connection, as Kevin speculated. I frankly haven't compared in great detail what's webcast live versus what's archived for a week on the WRN feed, but it appears that a week's worth of the WRN on-demand archive covers most of the VOR feature program output, given how often VOR programming is repeated over the week. I noticed that Estelle Winters' program, "Timelines" doesn't appear in either the 04 or 09 hours that are archived by WRN. (Richard Cuff, PA, March 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAINT PIERRE & MIQUELON. 1375.00 2314-2325 08-03-2003 SPM RFO, St. Pierre French talks. Very bad signals this year 24442 (``CG``. Probably in Europe, Ydun`s MW News via DXLD) ** SWEDEN. Tomorrow, Sunday the 16th of March, a special transmission from Radio Sweden`s domestic channel "Sveriges Radio P4, Radiosporten" which will cover the Final of the Swedish championship in Bandy, the game between Hammarby and Sandviken. The time will be between 1300 and 1500 UT at 18960 and 9410 kHz. Best wishes (Bernt-Ivan Holmberg, Moklinta, Sweden, hard-core-dx via DXLD) Coming in strong, 44334, in East Tennessee. Listening on 18960, 1310- 1335 UTC, 16 March, 2003 Swedish language (?) broadcast, crowd and air horns very audible. Distinct voices of announcers. I wish I could understand them. Using Radio Sweden's transmitter from Hörby I believe (George Cahelo, Knoxville, Tennessee USA, hard-core-dx via DXLD) 18960, "Sveriges Radio P4, Radiosporten", canal domestico de la radio sueca, reportado a 1310-1330, con la cobertura de la Final del Campeonato de Suecia desde Bandy, con el partido entre Hammarby y Sandviken. LLegaba con el relato del partido, que me imagino era de futbol, con 34433; siendo inaudible por los 9410 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, Conexión Digital via DXLD) Hello! Seems like we got a good signal of the national final game in the Bandy championships. I am sure Radio Sweden but also the P4 Sport would be rather interested in hearing from places around the world where the game was picked up, even if the transmission primarily was intended to Swedes living abroad with limited access to the game on TV or other radio channels. In brief, Bandy is a game planed on ice; the plane has the size of about a football ground and you play with sticks and try to hit a small orange ball, a little bigger the a golf ball. To my knowledge Bandy is well known Scandinavia, Russia and maybe at least known In Canada and part of US. If you are familiar with hurling, just imagine ice instead of grass and a little better clothed players. The play is extremely fast and I guess it takes a lot of courage to be a goalkeeper. The national championship has one final game and the season starting early autumn and the final game is major event. The area is sold out and this year gathered more then 20 000 people. The good thing (so far) is that in spite of a sport which by tradition requires/is connected with some drinking not only pure water among parts of the spectators, the atmosphere is friendly and a big family event. Unfortunately we cannot say the same about some football ice-hockey games. Anyway, your reports are most likely highly appreciated if you send them to P4 Sporten, Sveriges Radio, SE-10510 Stockholm or to Radio Sweden, SE-10510 Stockholm. radioswedden@sr.se is a useful address for you who heard the transmissions and want to get in touch. I am sure you who send your reports get some nice verification from them of your reception reports and most probably I will also find copies of them on my desk, when we technical evaluate the transmissions and see what we can learn to next time. Yours sincerely, (Magnus Wiberg, Teracom AB, responsible for the frequency planning, March 17, hard-core-dx via DXLD) ** TOGO. | So how was the modulation? It had been extremely low. | Hello Glenn, I cannot confirm that the modulation is extremely low. I would say it is moderate. Due to the strong signal here in Europe one can understand something. bye (Michael Schnitzer, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. I've now uploaded what I think is the BBCWS US stream via Broadcast/Yahoo Real Audio .ram files. I found something which seems to work grubbing about in my MSIE cache. http://home.netcom.com/~jmrubin/bbcus.ram http://www.cyberspace.org/~jmrubin/bbcus.ram Windows Media format: http://home.netcom.com/~jmrubin/bbcus.asx http://www.cyberspace.org/~jmrubin/bbcus.asx [or specifically for WM Americas stream:] mms://63.250.199.195/bbcworld?StreamID=231095&Segment=78153624&b=50vpr44v3fkoi3e37d312&ru=embedded%2Eyahoo%2Ecom&s=78177033&CG_ID=57024 (Joel Rubin, swprograms via DXLD) ** U K. There has been some discussion on this list regarding British Forces Radio. BFBS is streaming live on the internet. Click on the following link. http://www.ssvc.com/bfbs/liveaudio.htm SF (Sandy Finlayson, March 17, swprograms via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. Exhaustive info about US, Canadian, European, Australian and New Zealand military communications: http://www.wunclub.com/newsletter/v09/n02/mla.html (WUN via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. Hi Glenn, I found this US Army Field Manual about propaganda methods, including radio broadcasts, that could be of some interest: "Propaganda Media" is based upon "Psychological Operations Field Manual No.33-1" published in August 1979 by Department of the Army Headquarters in Washington DC; and "Psychological Operations (PSYOP) Media Subcourse PO-0816" by The Army Institute for Professional Development, published in 1983 http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm33-1/fm33-1m.htm It's part of Field Manual 33-1, "Psychological Operations", that includes information about propaganda by means of printed material http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm33-1/index.html 73 (Fabrizio Magrone, Forlì, Italy, March 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. OOPS! HE DID IT AGAIN! BROKAW REPEATS CANARD, "THERE ARE NO ATHEISTS IN FOXHOLES" DURING NBC EVENING NEWS For the second time in two years, NBC Evening News Anchor Tom Brokaw has employed the misleading and unfair claim, "There are no atheists in foxholes." On the Tuesday segment of the popular news program, Brokaw introduced a segment about the pending war with Iraq telling viewers: "One of the most familiar axioms of war is that there are no atheists in foxholes. So at a time when Pope John Paul and Jimmy Carter among others are making strong arguments against the war on religious and moral grounds, on the front lines, it is a more personal matter." Brokaw had referred to "no atheists in foxholes" in another broadcast aired on October 8, 2001. "Isn't it time that a prominent news reporter like Tom Brokaw stopped using this questionable canard, or at least tried to verify whether it could be false and unfair to millions of people who do not believe in a God?" asked Ellen Johnson, President of American Atheists. In a news statement being issued this evening to media, Johnson added that during the Godless Americans March on Washington held last November in the nation's capital, "hundreds of Atheists, Freethinkers and other nonbelievers who serve or have served in the military took the stage and were widely applauded for their patriotism." Brokaw's unsubstantiated claim is also being scrutinized by Kathleen Johnson, founder of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers. MAAF represents men and women in the armed services who have no religious beliefs, and support the separation of church and state within the military. Origins In WWII The claim "There are no atheists in foxholes" first appeared in the writings of World War II journalist Ernie Pyle. A roving reporter in both theaters of operation, Pyle was killed by a sniper's machinegun bullet when he stepped ashore on le Shima, a small island near Okinawa on April 18, 1945. To millions of Americans including service men and women in the field, Pyle's regular columns offered an intimate and empathetic view of life in the midst of combat. His writings appeared in 400 daily and 300 weekly newspapers. He penned compelling descriptions of what he saw, describing "the unnatural sight of cold dead men scattered over the hillsides and in the ditches along the high rows of hedge throughout the world ... Dead men, in such familiar promiscuity that they become monotonous..." Pyle was also considered a friend of the American infantry grunt, proposing that combat soldiers be given "fight pay." Congress agreed, granting soldiers a hefty 50% bonus for combat. The legislation was nicknamed "the Ernie Pyle bill." But it was his statement "There are no atheists in foxholes" for which he is probably best remembered. Those six words were repeatedly constantly by Readers Digest Magazine, and even found their way into the 1942 World War II movie "Wake Island" which starred Robert Preston, William Bendix and Macdonald Carey. The film depicted a handful of U.S. Marines struggling to hold a remote outpost on Wake Island during the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The statement has become a cliché in the narrative about war and combat, though rarely is any proof of this "axiom" offered. It is repeated constantly by politicians, clergy and pundits. The head of the Mormon (LDS) Church, Gordon Hinckley, once told an assembly of the faithful, "As you once knew so well, there are no atheists in foxholes. In times of extremity, we plead for and put our trust in a power mightier than ourselves." As Atheist writer Austin Cline notes in an about.com entry on the myth of "no atheists in foxholes," there is even the possibility that faith can be undermined by the violence of war. "Quite a few soldiers have entered battle devout believers but ended up coming away without any faith all," he wrote. Larry Darby, the Alabama State Director for American Atheists also questions Brokaw's tendency to rely uncritically on this myth. "Haw Mr. Brokaw forgotten that he should check his facts before presenting a story?" Darby asks. "Is Mr. Brokaw ignorant of the fact that approximately 30 million Americans are godless and live without the primitive superstititions of Theism? I personally know scores of military personnel and veterans who were and are Atheists, right here in Alabama, the heartland of Theistic bigotry." Brokaw, is the author of the best selling book "The Greatest generation" which chronicles individual accounts of life on the American home front during World War II. But despite the range and sensitivity displayed in that work, Brokaw is falling short of his responsibilities as a journalist says Chris Allen, a Board member of American Atheists and himself a U.S. Navy vet. "It's his responsibility to look into any claim like this, and give a fair hearing to those fighting men and women who are not religious believers," said Mr. Allen after viewing the Tuesday NBC report. "This type of journalism is not giving the American people a balanced and fair perspective." Those wishing to do so may contact NBC via e-mail at Nightly@nbc.com, or through NBC News, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112. American Atheists is tentatively a demonstration this Saturday, March 15, 2003 outside the NBC offices at 30 Rockefeller Plaza from 12 noon to 2 PM. Visit http://www.atheists.org/action for updates beginning tomorrow. For further information: http://www.atheists.org/Atheism (All about Atheism and Atheists, both in and out of the foxholes!) http://www.maaf.info ("Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers") (AA Newsletter Mar 12 via DXLD) ** U S A. US Navy publication about their 76 Hz (yes, Hertz, not Kilohertz!) transmitter in Wisconsin. Transmitter output was elsewhere given as 2000 kW if memory serves right (compare with the ERP mentioned in this document), the antennas are about 10 kilometres long [at Clam Lake in northern Wisconsin]: http://enterprise.spawar.navy.mil/spawarpublicsite/docs/fs_clam_lake_elf.pdf (Kai Ludwig, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. FIREFIGHTERS, POLICE LACK LINKS --- Because of Spectrum Problems Emergency Responders at Same Sites Still Often Can't Radio to Each Other --- By KARA SCANNELL and ANN DAVIS, Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Even as smoke was still rising from the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, security and safety officials were focusing on serious weaknesses in communications that stymied rescue efforts. Firemen were trapped in the burning Twin Towers partly because they never received police-department messages warning that the buildings might collapse. At the Pentagon, radio traffic was so overwhelmed that foot messengers were the best means of communication. Now, a sesquiyear later, similar communications flaws are still evident, and not only in New York and Washington. In city after city, police and firefighters still face huge problems communicating with each other during an emergency. This lack of so-called interoperability "is a huge problem across the country," says Robert Gurss, outside counsel to the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials. "There are short-term fixes. ... But they really aren't long-term solutions." Part of the problem is a dispute within localities over how much interoperability is necessary. Raymond W. Kelly, commissioner of New York City's Police Department, says communication should be limited to key people who can then dispatch information to their respective units on the ground. "The communications need among agencies at the lowest level is overblown," he says. During a major crisis, he says, more people talking could worsen the confusion. There is also the matter of cost. In some large cities, overhauling the system would require buying new radios for tens of millions of dollars -- more than most state, local and city budgets can afford. The principal reason, however, is an insufficiency of available radio airwaves, known as spectrum. Different public-safety agencies in the same city often operate on different channels within different "bands." Consequently, police and firefighters can't talk to each other and warn of life-threatening risks. The problem can be even worse in suburban areas, where scores of local agencies, each on a different band, might serve a relatively large geographic area -- without the ability to communicate. "Every public-safety system across the country has been [set up] individually, at different times at different technologies and different frequencies," says Jeff Arnold, deputy legislative director at the National Association of Counties. As fears of another terrorist attack mount, so does the urgency to effect interoperability among local agencies -- even in New York City, where police and fire agencies, long notorious for their turf wars, have taken strides to work together since 9/11. Today in New York, a fire chief is stationed at police headquarters and vice versa. Fire captains are now permitted in police helicopters, which are equipped with the fire department's radio system, to gain a better view of a blaze. And an officer is dispatched to the scene of every two-alarm or higher fire. Last month, the New York City fire department rolled out a new radio system that operates on a higher frequency than its old one. The new hand-held radios produce a signal that can penetrate buildings better and have more channel capacity and safety features. The new radio also puts firefighters on the same frequency as the police department so a dispatcher can monitor transmissions over one shared channel. Also, select fire chiefs are using portable radios that are 20 times as powerful as their old ones. But firefighters still cannot communicate directly with police officers at the same scene. Establishing complete interoperability between departments doesn't appear to be on New York's near horizon. Even if the city decided it wanted all of its firefighters to have the ability to communicate with all of its police officers, there wouldn't be enough spectrum to simply move one to the band used by the other. And, even if extra space were available, such enhanced communications could cost a bundle in new radios needed to operate on the new spectrum. James Kallstrom, the former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New York and a senior adviser to New York Gov. George Pataki for counterterrorism, says law-enforcement agencies have found that "you can't turn around in a year and re-establish and rebuild radio systems. These are long-term projects." He says police and fire departments across New York state are experimenting with temporary solutions or trading each other's radios so that representatives from each department have each other's radios in command vehicles. Federal officials have recognized the shortage of spectrum: Congress voted in 1997 to require TV stations to give up their analog share of the spectrum in the so-called 700-megahertz band by the end of 2006, if 85% of the public has access to digital television. There are bills before Congress that would make that spectrum available to public-safety agencies in 2006 regardless of how many homes have digital TV. The Federal Communications Commission is also exploring the use of other potentially underutilized bands of spectrum for public safety. One potential solution: Nextel Communications Inc. is proposing a plan that would free up additional spectrum for public-safety agencies in the 800-megahertz band. (Other wireless carriers are fighting the proposal, because it would effectively increase Nextel's calling capacity.) For now, short-term fixes seem to be the rule. In Washington, D.C., truck-mounted translators that connect different radio systems have been set up along the Beltway for use in emergencies. In Charlottesville, Va., the fire department's radios are so congested that it has equipped its fire engines with Nextel mobile phones to enable firefighters to talk to one another. Charles Werner, deputy chief of the department, installed the phones in fire engines and handed them out to every chief. Before the mobile phones, "we either did it over the main radio or we couldn't communicate at all," Mr. Werner says. His radio commands would sometimes be overridden by radio traffic from Baltimore County, Md., 150 miles away. "A lot of radio traffic was constantly overriding us," he says. The Nextel phones that Charlottesville uses offer the carrier's walkie talkie-like feature called "Direct Connect," which allows users to speak to other Nextel users without experiencing the delay of dialing a phone number. "We're able to talk on the Nextels as opposed to the radio, which stays open for emergency traffic," Mr. Werner says. But that still hasn't solved the problem of communicating between emergency-service and police units, which all operate on different bands and frequencies. Mr. Werner estimates it would cost Charlottesville $13.3 million to fully upgrade its radio system. The Nextel system offers a lower-cost near-term solution: $40 a month for each of the 24 phones used by his department. Indiana and Michigan are putting in statewide systems on an 800-megahertz frequency that would be open to as many agencies as possible, and Michigan is nearly done, Mr. Gurss said. South Dakota operates on the same frequency from the federal to local level. But one of the key stumbling blocks remains cooperation -- and a community's will. "People have to want to do it and talk to others to make change," says Robert E. Lee Jr., director of the Public Safety Wireless Network, a program sponsored by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Treasury. -- Jesse Drucker contributed to this article. (Wall Street Journal March 17 via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. TAHOE RADIO STATION IS BEING OFFERED ON EBAY [KTHO-590] http://www.kxtv10.com/storyfull.asp?id=3851 (via Jilly Dybka, KF4ZEO, March 16, DXLD) ** U S A. Heard KHAC last night around 2330 ELT with native language and chants behind KRVN. Still there this morning at 0700 ELT. There's no way they should be heard here at these times (legally, hi). (Bill in Fort Worth Hale, March 16, NRC-AM via DXLD) 880 in NM/AZ That would be them. This is Sunday, their version of HS football ``STA`` (Kevin Redding, AZ, ibid.) How commonly can do they cheat on Saturday nights/Sunday mornings? I've only heard this station once and that was during great SSS conditions in November this year. 73 KAZ (Neil Kazaross, IL, ibid.) 52 times a year (Kevin Redding, AZ, ibid.) ** U S A. AFFILIATE LISTS: I'm sure there's a good explanation for this. Can one of you knowledgeable people help? I've been trying to find some affiliate station lists of the various networks and syndicated programs. It's become trying to the patience. Let me share two examples of this. The first is from January, when I searched the internet everywhere for the Westwood One affiliate lists for the NFL conference championship games. WW1 was quite proud to be carrying the games, but quite sure they weren't going to share the affiliate list with me. I only wanted to listen to the games, of course. The most recent is from 3/13-14, with IRN. I heard a station running Jesse Lee Peterson at 1900 EST on 1600. I supposed this was WMQM Lakeland-Memphis, but no ID happened to follow the program's ending. I contacted IRN, after a complete search of their website, about their network affiliates and those known to carry Jesse Lee Peterson, particularly in the southeast. The reply was "we have no affiliates in your area." This was an absolutely accurate and irrelevant answer to my question. On a follow up, I got a short list of southeast stations carrying Jesse Lee Peterson. This included WMQM, which after the two days of exchanges was a moot point, as I'd heard an ID from WMQM at 1900 the next day. What is so special about affiliate lists that I, the listener, am not given one on request? What could WW1 have been protecting? What good does it do sports franchises to limit sharing their affiliate listings? And could it be that IRN doesn't know, for sure, who is carrying their programs? Or they know all too well, and it's a short, embarrassingly short list of call letters? Can one of you on the inside of the radio explain this reticence to share such information? (Gerry Bishop, Niceanddazedonthisville, FL, NRC-AM via DXLD) Radio and TV is a dog eat dog business and everyone in it wears milk bone underwear. Larger networks protect their affiliates list because some networks do not want to be under bid next time renewal of contracts comes due. Some networks may think of you, the ordinary listener as a spy for another network, trying to get an affiliates list (Bob Carter Operations/Engineering--Max Media Radio Group, ibid.) Interminable affiliate lists, mostly sports are being posted on the IRCA topica list (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. IBOC/DAB thread continues... circa March 13-15 from NRC-AM: Every morning at 6:45 am Eastern, WLW-700 and WGN-720 vanish under a sudden, crushing wall of hash as WOR switches on IBOC. Oh yes, they're still using it (Rick Kenneally, Wilton, CT, NRC-AM via DXLD) Re http://www.msnbc.com/news/krakow.asp Interesting piece, but I noticed a couple of inaccuracies: 1. DAB (a.k.a. Eureka 147) is referred to as a "digital FM" system. DAB has nothing at all to do with FM (except that it could be used to simulcast FM programs). 2. Ibiquity is quoted as saying that 130 stations are currently licensed to broadcast HD (IBOC). Not true. Only 60 stations (41 FM and 19 AM) have been granted IBOC STAs so far (Barry McLarnon, Ont., ibid.) I might venture a guess he means 130 stations have licensed the Ibiquity patents. Getting a FCC permit to actually use them on the air is a different issue |grin| (Doug Smith, ibid.) I think that somewhere over 1000 stations are licensed by Ibiquity (David Gleason, ibid.) I wonder if the figure he was quoting was from a iBiquity, where a higher number might slant the perception their system is more popular? (Fred Vobbe, ibid.) I suspect that the 130 is indeed the number licensed with iBiquity, as Doug mentioned. The FCC doesn't generally move very quickly. I further suspect David's "over 1000 stations" represents stations committed to IBOC but not necessarily either contracted individually nor licensed. Since CC is committed to IBOC, and they have over 1200 stations by themselves, that would make sense. The same might be true for a few other groups. All of this really is inconsequential, however, without listeners and that part of the equation depends in some part on availability of receivers at whatever price the potential listeners might be willing to pay. That hasn't happened yet. Are we going to see any great commitment of capital to mass-produce receivers in sufficient quantities to bring the price down far enough to attract those listeners without having more interest? Will someone gamble that kind of capital on truly affordable mass market IBOC receivers in this economy ? Sounds a lot like "Catch-22". (Russ Edmunds, NJ, ibid.) Yes, but the push will be on FM digital. People won't be buying new receivers for the daytime-only improved AM, that's for sure. FM digital receivers will just happen to come with AM digital too. Audiophiles are already looking forward to free digital radio as an alternative to subscription satellite and cable services (Bruce Conti, Nashua NH, ibid.) You're right - that's probably what was meant. I keep forgetting that there's more than one licence involved in putting IBOC on the air. It's a new paradigm for broadcasting, and (IMHO), a regrettable one... Actually, the FCC is moving fast on this one. Applications for IBOC STAs typically get granted within a matter of days, as it's pretty much a rubber stamp procedure (Barry McLarnon, ibid.) Fully agreed. How long are Ibiquity patent licenses valid for? If IBOC does fly, what's to limit the royalties due at license renewal? "Pay whatever we ask or switch back to analog"? (Doug Smith, ibid.) Ibiquity did an early adopters program where stations that committed to IBOC prior to 1/1/03 had sign up fees waved and had a lower cost structure. Some companies, like Radio One and HBC, signed up all their stations. From the trades, it seems that the figure of signed and licensed stations was well over a thousand. As mentioned, the FCC approval is a formality. Ibiquity licenses use of their system. Patents that protect this run the normal period for technology patents. I believe it is 20 years renewable once (David Gleason, ibid.) For your convenience, here's the list of AM stations that have been granted IBOC STAs under the October 2002 Report and Order: 620 WTMJ WI Milwaukee 640 WJNA FL Royal Palm Beach 730 WKDL VA Alexandria 740 KCBS CA San Francisco 750 WSB GA Atlanta 840 KXNT NV North Las Vegas 950 WPEN PA Philadelphia 950 WWJ MI Detroit 1020 WRHB FL Kendall 1030 WBZ MA Boston 1070 KNX CA Los Angeles 1120 WTWZ MS Clinton 1170 WWTR NJ Bridgetown 1250 WMTR NJ Morristown 1360 WKAT FL North Miami 1420 WRMR OH Cleveland 1450 WCTC NJ New Brunswick 1470 WWNN FL Pompano Beach 1490 WOLF NY Syracuse In addition, some stations had experimental IBOC STAs prior to October 2002 that are still in force, including: 700 WLW OH Cincinnati 710 WOR NY New York 880 KIXI WA Mercer Island 960 KABL CA Oakland 1200 WCHB MI Taylor 1500 WTOP DC Washington Of this latter group, I think only WOR and WCHB are running IBOC on a regular basis. If folks reading this are in the groundwave coverage area of any of the above stations, perhaps they could check them out and let us know if they're currently running IBOC (daytime only - I don't think there are any night tests currently going on). If we can get some updated info, I'll put a web page together to track their status (Barry McLarnon, ibid.) Thanks, Barry. I check KIXI-880-Mercer Island/Seattle often and not a peep out of IBOC since the tests last Fall during the NAB convention. Haven't heard any IBOC on KCBS-740 as yet either (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) | 1070 KNX CA Los Angeles I just don't get this. Why would an all-news station have any interest in IBOC? (Brian Leyton, Valley Village, CA, DX-398 / RS Loop / 18" box loop, ibid.) So when they go stereo they can talk out of both sides of their mouth? (Powell E Way, ibid.) The url for the FM IBOC list is: http://members.cox.net/fmdxweb/ibocontheair.html I've heard from a few people, and to the best of our knowledge only WCHB 1200 Detroit and WOR 710 New York are running IBOC in the day. No one seems to be testing IBOC at night. Your list is the list from an FCC search for digital AM stations, right? What would help even more is a broadcast industry list of stations that are actually using IBOC or will in the very short term. But that's what I can't find anywhere. You'd think that the stations involved (plus iBiquity) would be blasting that info out for PR purposes, but there's very little of that. Perhaps that says something (Chuck Hutton, ibid.) As Rick Kenneally mentioned yesterday, WOR-710 continues to turn on IBOC daily at 0645 EST (Marc DeLorenzo In Boston, ibid.) The IBOC audio is digital, and should be less subject to man made noise and interference (David Gleason, ibid.) Dunno, unless it's the corporate people at Infinity who have the interest. If that's true, a large handful of clear channel stations might also be dragged into the IBOC arena- they own KYW, KDKA, WCBS, WBZ, WTIC, WBBM, WWJ, KMOX, KCBS, KNX, etc. I now remember WWJ was one of the early testbeds for IBOC. Surely this is a corporate Infinity decision (Chuck Hutton, ibid.) KCBS-SF would fall into the same boat. I was a bit surprised not to find KGO & KFI on the list. I can imagine KGO running IBOC. Stations like KPDQ-800-Portland with their 500w at night will suffer. I don't believe that IBOC will stay daytime only. Just like the X Banders slowly going to directional arrays and more power at night, IBOC will indeed go night too (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) Well, I'll be happy to reserve judgment until they actually go live, but I find it hard to believe that a 50 kW powerhouse like KNX would really be able to improve their sound quality without it being at the expense of a smaller coverage area. The interference will still be there, and it will degrade the digital signal too. I was thinking more along the lines of scrolling traffic reports... (Brian Leyton, Valley Village, CA, ibid.) Sure, they'll have a smaller coverage area with digital than with analog. That's a given. But 50 kW has nothing to do with it - the same will be true for any station. If by interference you mean electrical noise, the digital signal will in many cases be cleaner. That's because the digital signal is either successfully decoded (and sounds perfect) or un-decodable and is discarded. The threshold between the two is very steep, so it really falls off the edge of the cliff. Result: you won't hear "mid level" noise with digital. Only high-level noise will affect the digital, and of course it would bother analog also. Make sense? (Chuck Hutton, ibid.) Yeah, I guess I understand - my only concern is that I suspect that the area in which you get a clean digital signal won't be all that big. Once you go outside that area, the radio will fall back to the analog signal, so the end result is much the same - assuming that the transition to hybrid IBOC doesn't negatively impact KNX's analog signal. It's a win/win for the station - assuming that the cost isn't too great. They get a better sounding signal in the full digital coverage area, with little impact on their analog coverage. The problem is simply that it's the first adjacent stations who will pay the price. And when those first adjacents themselves go IBOC, then things will get really interesting. I guess that's just what happens when everyone is out for themselves (Brian Leyton, Valley Village, CA, ibid.) 840 KXNT NV North Las Vegas is not running IBOC; adjacent frequencies are clean of any digital whine and other noise (Harry Helms AK6C/7, Las Vegas, NV DM26, ibid.) Yep, they were just an NAB test bed as best I know and never ran IBOC except for during the convention. Ditto KIXI-880 Seattle (Chuck Hutton, ibid.) And if that's the case, and they are happy with a 50 to 60 mile range, why not put all the digital stuff up in the UHF band and keep from hurting existing AM stations. The logic is beyond me. It doesn't work for distance, the broadcaster's don't care if it works for distance, yet the emission causes problems with distant stations, and they say "no problem". I'm missing something. Just take the digital stuff up into the UHF TV band with the 8VSB, or allocate a band for digital where the propagation normally conforms to the city grade of the existing station (Fred Vobbe, ibid.) Hello group, Well, I've decided to return to this fine group. I know that you folks have been talking a lot about IBOC, so here is what I'd like to say. My wife and I plan to move back to CA and I wonder if any AM or FM stations in Bakersfield are planning to use IBOC? One station I would not like to hear IBOC signals. KUZZ AM 550. Buck Owens already has KUZZ FM so if he dose use this innovative broadcasting technology I hope he uses it on KUZZ FM and KCWR 107.1 FM. Also, I think it is pointless that all news and talk stations use this IBOC system. I think it is better to use this system on the FM dial. Finally, I wanted to tell you folks that I believe that WRAL FM in Raleigh NC is using IBOC. I was watching something on our local PBS station about a month ago and they were discussing digital radio and they mentioned WRAL-fm. I don't know if they use IBOC, but they have digital signals already in use. I also wanted to clarify my location is in the southern Piedmont of NC. I live near Charlotte. Take care and God bless to all and 73. (Lino L. Morales, ibid.) || Why would an all-news station have any interest in IBOC? || Because with the memory function, the listener can retrieve weather, traffic, sports, and stock reports at his or her convenience. Multi- casting two or more channels on one frequency is another possibility. (Bruce Conti - Nashua NH, ibid.) Is this going to work with AM IBOC? I think the multicasting two channels thing is only intended for FM, or at least NPR thinks so. And with the 400 bits per second data channel for AM, I wonder whether you really can support weather, traffic, sports and stock reports (Chuck Hutton, ibid.) Additional services for AM are part of future plans, when the hybrid mode is replaced by an all-digital mode. Once the analog is removed, the digital is supposed to move closer to the center frequency to reduce interference to adjacent channels, and whatever space remains will support the additional AM digital services. At least that's my understanding. However I have trouble believing that a radio station would be willing to give up bandwidth in the switch from hybrid to all-digital. It's more likely that all-digital bandwidth will remain the same as hybrid, and the space once occupied by 5 kHz analog would be filled up with digital. At least the DRM people are more honest (or practical) about future plans. When DRM completes the transition from hybrid to all- digital AM, it might expand to a bandwidth of up to 20 kHz (Bruce Conti - Nashua NH, ibid.) Hi Bruce: The details of the all-digital version are completely described by iBiquity and the manufacturers are building hardware to match those specs, so I believe the die is cast and we already know what will happen. The all - digital mode is so far off I don't think we should be thinking about all those data services on AM. It certainly could not be KNX's enticement at this point in the game. (Chuck Hutton, ibid.) FWIW, there's a list of stations listed in the FCC CDBS with "digital status: hybrid" on http://www.w9wi.com/articles/iboc.html These lists were obtained by going to the CDBS search page, selecting the service (AM or FM), and selecting the desired "digital status". (Doug Smith, ibid.) The url for the FM IBOC list is: http://members.cox.net/fmdxweb/ibocontheair.html (Chuck Hutton, ibid.) I wouldn't take that list as gospel. For example, it doesn't mention KROQ, which has reportedly been running IBOC for quite awhile. And it has WDMK in the "coming soon" list... I'm pretty sure that they began using IBOC about 3 months ago. , it's simply a list of stations that have been granted IBOC STAs. I guess iBiquity is taking a low-key approach to publicizing which stations are actually on the air with IBOC because the numbers wouldn't look very impressive at this time. Stay tuned... iBiquity's report on night testing should be out soon. They previously said it would be filed with the FCC by the end of February, but that didn't happen. I'll bet they're still working overtime trying to figure out how to put the right spin on it. You may recall the Glen Clark petition in which it was proposed that, based on an interference analysis, some stations could start running IBOC at night. Both iBiquity and the NAB formally opposed the petition. The last thing iBiquity wants is to have to tell its AM customers that some of them are "haves" who can use IBOC at night, and some of them are "have nots" who have to shut it off at night. So, they have to try to build a case for all AM stations running it at night, based on some limited tests between a couple of stations, with probably just a handful of different receivers tested, and, no doubt, a bunch of software simulations. Can't wait to see how they try to pull this one off... There is a presentation from iBiquity on the night testing scheduled for the NAB shindig next month, so my guess is the report will be released around that time as well (Barry McLarnon, ibid.) Try http://www.beradio.com/eye_on_iboc --- it has AM and FM stations. (Kevin Redding, ibid.) I'm aware of that one, but it's an incomplete list, since they depend on the stations themselves to submit the info. It's interesting to see WJLD on the list, since they are not running IBOC. They only did some brief, and apparently illegal, test transmissions with IBOC last year (Barry McLarnon, ibid.) I guess what is more confusing about than the technical issues are; 1) why people are so apathetic about interference to stations, but if their station (the one running IBOC) gets interference it should be a capital crime. and 2) why we're pursuing an technology that is going to save the AM that is not a technology issue, but a content issue. The normal answer is, follow the money. No other logic seems to apply (Fred Vobbe, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. U.S. X-BAND AT A GLANCE - 1 March 2003 1610 CJWI Montreal QUE FF Caribbean music. 1620 WPHG Atmore AL Rel/Gos. (but silent) possible resurrection as WPNS WDND South Bend IN ESPN Radio 1620 KOZN Bellevue NE ESPN Sport .``The Zone`` WTAW College Station TX 'Newstalk 16-20 WTAW' CBS Nx KBLI Blackfoot ID SS ``Radio Fiesta`` KYIZ Renton WA Urban/Contemporary Soul KSMH West Sacramento, CA Rel. EWTN Global Catholic Radio WDHP Frederikstad, VI Variety.``The Reef`` // WRRA 1290 & WAXJ 1630 KCJJ Iowa City IA Hot AC /Classic Rock KKWY Fox Farm WY C&W AP nx KNAX Ft Worth/Dallas TX SS. Radio Vida/ Radio Dos Mil Dos. EE ID :58 WTEL Augusta GA 'Newstalk 1630 WTEL' x WRDW XEUT Tijuana BCN [added by gh --- as much a part of the `US` x-band as CJWI-1610!] 1640 WKSH Sussex WI Disney KDZR Lake Oswego OR Call change 2/03 and now Disney KDIA Vallejo CA Talk/religious/life issues KBJA Sandy UT SS/Radio Unica EE ID on hour 1650 WHKT Portsmouth VA ``AM1650 WHKT Portsmouth, Radio Disney`` KDNZ Cedar Falls IA Talk/ Sport ``The Talk Station``//KCNZ KWHN Fort Smith AR 'Newstalk 1650 KWHN' KBJD Denver CO now Talk. ``KNUS-2`` [change] KFOX Torrance CA Korean/ EE ID on hour 1660 KTIQ Merced CA Sporting News Network ``The Ticket`` WWRU Elizabeth NJ PP & SS Radio Unica/R. Portugal WCNZ Marco Is FL ‘Newsradio 1660' AP nx. WQSN Kalamazoo MI Sports/talk ESPN// WKLZ 1470. KRZX Waco TX ``Newstalk KRZX`` (off 6.p.m.-12 NZST) KQWB West Fargo ND Standards ``Star 1660 is KQWB AM' CNN news KXOL Brigham City UT ``Oldies radio`` (60’s rock) KXTR Kansas City KS 'Classical 1660' WGIT Canóvanas PRico SS oldies ``El Gigante`` 1670 WRNC Warner Robins GA Urban Gospel ``1670 The Light`` WTDY Madison WI Sports/Talk. ``The Big one is 1670 WTDY`` ``The Team`` KHPY Moreno Valley, CA Rock/AC ``KHPY Moreno Valley 1670`` KNRO Redding CA ``Redding's ESPN Radio 1670 KNRO' 1680 WTTM Princeton NJ Ethnic - Hindi WTIR Winter Garden FL ``Traveler Information Radio`` // WFVR 910 // WXXU 1300 WJNZ Ada MI Urban/AC KAVT Fresno CA Disney/SS KRJO Monroe LA Gospel. ``Gospel 1680`` # KTFH Seattle WA International CC, VV, JJ, RR due on 31/3 [ya prueba] 1690 KDDZ Arvada CO Disney KSXX Roseville CA SS rel. /Radio Tricolor/ & Asian. WPTX Lexington Park ``Newstalk 1690 WPTX`` CNN News 1700 WJCC Miami Springs FL SS/Rel/``Radio Luz`` WEUV Huntsville AL Black Gospel. ``Music of your Life //1600 WEUC 1 kw KTBK Sherman TX Sporting News Radio ``Sports Radio 1310 KTCK.`` KBGG Des Moines IA ‘The new AM 1700 KBGG``. CNN KQXX Brownsville TX Oldies (880 watts night) (Compiled by Tony King from various sources, March NZ DX Times via DXLD) ** VENEZUELA. Saludos colegas diexistas. Espero se encuentren todos muy bien. El próximo 19 de Marzo la querida emisora Radio Puerto La Cruz (Doble Q) estará cumpliendo 53 años; hoy he podido grabar una bonita promoción que pongo a disposición de los colegas diexistas que la soliciten. Atte: (José Elías, Venezuela, sintoniadx@cantv.net Cumbre DX via DXLD) see also COLOMBIA non for FARC FM stations UNIDENTIFIED. 1625.90, 2159-2220 08-02-2003 Pirate, Greek, Spanish bullfight music, Greek songs + music, announcements, frequency announcement. Noisy modulation 45444 (``CG``, probably in Europe, Ydun`s MW News via DXLD) A number of other Greek X-band pirates are reported in the European evenings on: 1618.70, 1645.00, 1673.00, 1680.00, 1685.80, 1691.30 [tho I doubt that some are really so accurate to .00]. Details: http://www.ydunritz.com/loggings/y-logs.php (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 1670: 0724z I'm hearing Radio Católica, giving frequency as 660 kHz. Pretty good signal too. Any ideas??? Cheers, (Paul Ormandy, ZL4TFX, NZ, March 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Durante las conversaciones, fue tratado entre otros temas, la nueva emisora libre en 1720 khz escuchada en una reciente expedicion DX. Por favor chequeen esta frecuencia (Greg Majewski, USA en FRW Winterfest Notes, USA; 13/3, via Conexión Digital via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Anybody any idea as to what Russian station I am listening to on 18180 kHz? Live instrumental music and traditional songs, announcements in Russian. Signal is not very strong (S4) but without interference (except some occasion Ute on ± 18185) and without any fading at all (!). 73 de (Frank van Gerwen - ICQ # 2231692, Bakkum-Noord/Netherlands (52 34' N / 4 43' E), http://www.xs4all.nl/~cisquet Receiver: Lowe HF-225, Antenna : Wellbrook ALA 1530, Mar 16, BDXC via DXLD) 3 x 6060?? (gh, DXLD) Ik had pas ook zoiets. Toen was het een derde harmonische uit Rusland, Frank (Ary, ibid.) Leuk bijverschijnsel. Het is inderdaad Radio Rossii. Heb het net gehoord op een opname, die ik na mijn eerder mailtje gemaakt had (moest een tijdje mijn ontvanger in de steek laten). Dank voor je reactie, Ary. Achteraf meen ik me "jouw geval" wel te herinneren, maar ik heb nog geen systeem bedacht om alles te onthouden.. :-(( (Frank, ibid.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ PACIFIC ASIAN LOG I've just updated the Pacific Asian Log and posted the new version on my web site. The log lists approximately 3600 medium wave and longwave stations in 60 countries throughout Asia and the Pacific. This is the fourth edition of the log. It includes many additions and changes gleaned from e-groups, DX clubs, websites, individual DXers, and other sources. You can download it as a .pdf file from http://www.qsl.net/n7ecj , sorted by country or by frequency. As always, your comments and updates are always welcome and can be sent to bportzer@attbi.com. (Bruce Portzer, Seattle, WA, USA, DXLD) RECEIVER NEWS +++++++++++++ SHACK The manager of the local Radio Shack actually let me look at the internal memo with a listing of discontinued items, so I'm confident the information is valid. Personally, I've never been impressed with the YB-400, thinking it poorer than the DX-398 and no match at all for the Sony ICF-2010... And like others, I hate to see Radio Shack leaving the amateur radio/shortwave/market, but it just reflects the reality of the current retail market. 73, (Les Rayburn, N1LF, NNN0HSI Navy MARS/SHARES, Helena, AL, March 16, NRC-AM via DXLD) DRM +++ Re: DX Listening Digest 3-043. All sorts of good stuff in here. Saw the Kraig Krist quote on DRM from the MSNBC article. Kraig is right to muse regarding digital distortion, but if the decoding schemes we saw demonstrated at the 'Fest do indeed come to pass, the signal usability falls off pretty quickly -- if the signal becomes unusable, you hear distorted audio for two seconds, and then nothing. When the signal becomes usable again it's a two second delay (roughly) to buffer the interleaved digital signal. As a result, you probably only need a three point scale for DRM usability: 5-no distortion 4-occasional tin can sound 1-forget about it (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hello, not even a whisper can be heard on or near the A-DSL (German T- DSL) modem or phone line, erected here on the house, and also no complaint of many of my ham radio colleagues in southern Germany has been noted. But replaced my good old [19 years old ] BOSCH washing machine by a new one from SIEMENS electronics, and when the NEW switch-on, the noise floor level is just S=8, also on handheld battery buffered rxs/txs (disconnected from power line); some 12 meters away from the machine (Wolfgang Bueschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###