DX LISTENING DIGEST 3-134, July 28, 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 later at http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldtd3g.html For restrixions and searchable 2003 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn NEXT AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1192: RFPI: Tue 1900, Wed 0100, 0730, 1330 7445, 15039 [times variable] WWCR: Wed 0930 9475 WRN ONDEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO [also for CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL]: Check http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html [Low] (Download) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1192.rm (Stream) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1192.ram [High] (Download) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1192h.rm (Stream) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1192h.ram (Summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1192.html WORLD OF RADIO WATCH. Sunday`s anomalies: on IBC Radio via WRMI 15725, noted ending around 1840, so must have started late around 1811. On RFPI 15039 noted ending around 2009, so must have started around 1940 instead of 1830; and repeated until about 0210, so 0140 UT Mon, and heard again around 1355. UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS I have enjoyed your show since I got my first SW radio in 1993. World of Radio helped me figure out a little more of what I was doing back then and I have always liked the fact that you take an interest in the content of the broadcasts, rather than taking the narrow and limiting DX only path. I listen primarily for information and not just to put a pin in the map. Yours is an entertaining program, packed with content. The name is Michael Lijewski (pronounced in various ways Lee-eff-ski is the closest to the original Polish, though I prefer the American phonetic Lie-jew-ski, and my parents say La-jess-key; take your pick.) I reside in Harford County MD, 25 miles north of Baltimore near the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. SOLICITED TESTIMONIALS Hi Glenn, Last week on WoR you asked on what station listeners hear the programme. I hear World of Radio on the WRN 1 channel of Worldspace Afristar on Saturdays 9 am local time, 8 UT. (In 'near-fm' audio quality, no less!) All the best, (Daniel Atkinson, Kirkby Lonsdale, England) Mr. Hauser, Hi! I catch you either on Saturday nights 9:30 on WWCR 5070, or Sunday nights 10:30 [CDT] on WSUI 910. My radio is a 1968 Pomtrex! (Bill Vaughn, Charles City IA) ** AUSTRALIA. HCJB, Kununurra, 11750, 1117-1131, July 25, English, Religious program, "Truth for Life" # 1084, followed by announcement of new frequency schedule effective July 21 with full "HCJB, V. of the Great Southland" ID. New program begins at 1130, Fair signal at tune- in, quickly deteriorating to poor at tune-out (Scott R Barbour, Jr, Intervale, NH, July 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) HCJB-AUSTRALIA. The new schedule for HCJB-AUS from Kununurra started on July 21, including the introduction of Urdu programming: 0100-0130 15420 Urdu to South Asia 0130-0330 15420 English to South Asia 0800-1230 11750 English to Australia and New Zealand 1230-1700 15390 English to South Asia 1700-1730 15405 Urdu to South Asia 1800-2030 11765 English to New Zealand and Australia Unfortunately, this transmission plan is of very limited effectiveness, due to - propagationally incorrect frequencies - interference caused to other broadcasters on some channels - interference on the same or adjacent frequencies from other stations broadcasting to the same target areas - unsuitable timings The plan appears to neglect the special conditions which exist in providing reliable and satisfactory long distance coverage across trans-equatorial circuits from Northern Australia. There are also serious technical constraints at Kununurra due to antenna inflexibility: two antennas are installed, one orientated 106 degrees (which puts the major lobe into the general direction of Fiji). This antenna can only be used currently on the 11 MHz band, and the back lobe pattern puts substantial energy into China. The other antenna is at 307 degrees, and available at the moment only for 15 MHz, which puts a primary radiation pattern into the general direction of Jakarta. There is also substantial back-lobe radiation into Eastern Australia. 11750 0800-1230 for Australia and New Zealand. This is a replacement for 11770 which was co-channel with WYFR Florida - reception in NZ was seriously degraded by the USA transmitter. WYFR claimed prior occupancy and declined to move. 11770 was in fact a substitute for 11755 used during B02, which was a disaster due to co-channel Radio Finland. 11750 now suffers extreme adjacent channel interference in New Zealand for the first hour of the transmission, from Radio Finland which uses 11755 for its service to the same region! This will intensify over the coming months as the northern winter approaches. 11765 1800-2030. This is a new morning service for New Zealand. Unfortunately, the signal is completely inaudible in New Zealand, as it too low for satisfactory daytime propagation across the Tasman! Recent checks of reception in Wellington, using the IBB's Remote Receiver facility in Wellington confirm this problem. No signal - no listeners! There is also co-channel use on 11765 by Radio Tupi, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil! Reception here in Melbourne is poor, due to strong adjacent interference from China Radio International on 11760 with its French service to Europe from Urumqi which runs 1830-2030. The timing is quite unsuitable for Australia - 1800 is 2 am in Western Australia, and 4 am in the Eastern States! 15420 0100-0330 to South Asia. Radio Australia, Shepparton, uses the ADJACENT FREQUENCY of 15415 to the same target area from 2130-0900, as it has done for years. On the other side, 15425, there is FEBA via Kalatch (Russia) using this frequency 0015-0130, to the same target areas! HCJB-AUS is squeezed between these power-houses. There are many other clear channels on 15 MHz at this time which could have been used! 15390 1230-1700 and 15405 1700-1730 to South Asia. The 15 MHz band is not suitable for propagation from Northern Australia into the target area at that time period, as the OWF is below 15 MHz. That is the problem which affected 15480 prior to July 21 - the signal was barely audible in India. the change was made to avoid interference from/to BBC Woofferton 15485, and China National Radio 15480. 15390 is also in use that time period by Radio Romania International (1000-1400), and 15405 is in use by Russia (Omsk and Novosbirsk) 1200-1800, as well as Romania 1700-2200. I was advised that the 15390/15405 combination was recommended by a non-technical listener in South Asia. There is background to all off this which you will find interesting... For some months I had been providing unremunerated professional support to HCA-AUS, working closely with the Frequency Manager (Ian Williams) here in Victoria, in looking at signal effectiveness. Ian had been doing this work for some time, on a voluntary basis. We had worked together in attempting to develop operational plans for the station for the remainder of 2003, to incorporate the new services to India and New Zealand. Due to other commitments, Ian had advised that he would not be able to continue with this work after May, and had recommended that I pick up this responsibility as an interim arrangement in my capacity as a professional communications engineer. We believed that this would be satisfactory, as the HCJB-AUS offices are located only a few km from my home. I had agreed to do this, without remuneration, apart from reimbursement of direct operating expenses, which would require coordination with the Australian Communications Authority and the technical department of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, as well as many broadcasters. Ian and I had submitted joint formal papers to HCJB-AUS outlining the processes which would be followed, and I had also offered to prepare, free of charge, training manuals for technical staff located at Kununurra, covering issues such as practical frequency management, propagation, remote monitoring and interactions with bodies such as the ABU-HFC, ITU, and the HFCC. Everything was set to go, and we had worked out a timetable for transfer of these responsibilities, following Ian's formal withdrawal from the role. HCJB-AUS then issued a policy directive which advised that they were no longer able to outsource the frequency management function, and that this would from now on be done "in house" by their own personnel. You now see the results... Sorry! (Bob Padula, EDXP World Broadcast Magazine July 27, used by permission http://edxp.org via DXLD) Just tuned into HCJB Australia from 1410-1700 on new 15390. Strange they didn't inform me because I am the one who suggested it! Frequency is clear of any co-channel, but HCJB is very weak 2-3 and at 1430 splatter from IRN too bad. 1600-1700 picks up to fair to good. They ought to be at least on 9 MHz. They have only one antenna and 75 kwatts. Regards (Victor Goonetilleke, Sri Lanka, July 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Victor G. hardly qualifies as a ``non-technical listener`` (gh, DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. ABC STAFF TO LEARN FATE THIS WEEK Staff of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) will learn by the end of this week whether they are likely to lose their job as a result of looming budget cuts. The ABC board will meet on Thursday to thrash out ways of cutting AUS$18 million from the programming budget, on top of the AUS$5 million which has already been agreed from other areas of the Corporation. Sources inside the ABC suggest that as 80 jobs may go in news and current affairs, with the closure of some foreign bureaus. However, it's thought that the new media division will escape the cuts. ABC management will negotiate with staff and unions before a final package of cuts is approved by the ABC board in August (© Radio Netherlands Media Network 28 July 2003 via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4600.33 (tentative) Perla del Acre, Cobija. July 2003 --- 1050 UT. No ID but for sure Bolivia and besides I have logged the station here on exactly the same frequency. I haven`t observed this Bolivian for a long time. New Bolivian or San Miguel, Riberalta on new frequency? 4734.00 Radio San Miguel "LV del Norte", unknown QTH (Bolivia). July 2003 --- 2350 UT. Heard with good signal and distorted audio during the last days. Announces 4730 kHz. San Miguel, Riberalta on 4930 is off air so it ought to be this one who has moved? "La Voz del Norte" mentioned several times might be a program title (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, SW Bulletin July 27, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. Dear Thomas, I notice that you have a clear path for listening to Bolivia and Peru at 2300 to 0000 GMT. I would think that this would be about 2:00 am in Sweden. Dedicated DXer listening at this time. I believe that Radio La Palabra is operating on 4731.62 as I heard it briefly from 0003 to 0010*. The signal was best in LSB to avoid the RTTY. Signal strength was marginal at best! Radio La Palabra has in the past seemly had problems with their transmitter with intermittent signals. I hope that you will find this of value. 73's (Robert Wilkner, Florida, SW Bulletin July 27 via DXLD) ** BOUGAINVILLE. 3850, R. Independent Mekamui, Bougainville. Very weak signal of male speaker in unID language. Not readable, 1019 12/7 (Jones) Reactivated, fair at best 0920, frequency announcement, 0922, all in Pidgin, 26/7 (Craig Seager, Aug Australian DX News via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 4785.07, Radio Caíari, Porto Velho. July 2003 --- 0105 UT. Radio Caíari with ID at this time. Our member Christer Brunström/CB has noted 2 (unID) Brasilians on the frequency. I have so far heard only this one here in Quito (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, SW Bulletin July 27, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. CJRS Radio Montreal http://www.cjrsradio.com -- Not really a radio station, only an online operation. No apparent relation to ex- CJRS 1520 Sherbrooke. Only music, mainly French, stretching as far back as the 1950s. Apparently, no announcers either (International Radio Report July 27, CKUT, notes by Ricky Leong via DXLD) Believe I heard an announcer when I checked it briefly (gh, DXLD) ** CANADA [non]. Dear Glenn; Here's an interesting, and possibly useful, short wave story from The Voice Of The Martyrs. They've even included the frequencies. That in itself is amazing. Maybe my note to Glenn Penner did the trick. VOM LAUNCHES TWO NEW SHORTWAVE PROGRAMS (EGYPT, ERITREA) In recent weeks, The Voice of the Martyrs and High Adventure Gospel Communication Ministries have launched two new shortwave radio programs into Egypt and Eritrea. The Road to Emmaeus, an Arabic program, is being broadcast into Egypt every Friday at 0845 UT (10:45 a.m. local Cairo time) on shortwave frequency 17.595 on the 16-meter band. The Voice of Light program airs on Tuesday evenings at 1700 UT (8:00 p.m. local Eritrea time) on shortwave frequency 13.810 on the 22-meter band in Tigringa. Both programs are produced in Canada by local pastors. Glenn Penner, Communications Director for The Voice of the Martyrs, said, "We are so pleased to have a significant role in these programs. Both programs are meeting a vital need in their respective countries. The Road to Emmaeus presents the gospel in a way accessible and understandable to Egyptian Muslims, while The Voice of Light is more directed to encouraging Eritrean evangelicals who are being persecuted for their faith, as half of the program consists of dramatic readings of our best-selling book 'Jesus Freaks.'" I hope that story was of use to you. It's so wonderful when news agencies give details like which broadcaster is airing the programs, the times they'll be on, and the frequencies. Don't other news services realize that people may have friends who they can advise regarding the news story? I suspect that most news directors don't know a frequency from a hole in the ground. Yours, (Bruce Atchison, a freelance writer and electronic music composer in Radway, Alberta, Canada, http://gideon.www2.50megs.com July 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. CHINA NATIONAL RADIO --- CNR's Second Network offers English Teaching programs at various times on MW, SW, VHF and the Internet. The early morning release is at 2225-2245, and here in Melbourne best HF signals are on 6010 7335 7360 and 11985. This assists preparation of reception reports for QSLs, rather than the bland/inappropriate "woman talking in Chinese..." ! (Bob Padula, EDXP World Broadcast Magazine July 27, used by permission http://edxp.org via DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. 5955.52, CARACOL, Villavicencio now on this frequency 2980.00 harmonic, unID "Radio Pampa", unknown QTH. July 20 2003 - 1030 UT. Decent signal and TexMex-music. First I thought I listened to Radio Punto Cinco in Colombia (harmonic from 1490 kHz) which I have heard here earlier. Talk about Colombia and ID as "....aquí en Radio Pampa". (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, SW Bulletin July 27, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) Colombia H2980 Radio Pampa... Or Radio Paipa, which would be a match unless they still use their Radio La Paz slogan (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. 5054.59, Faro del Caribe back with lousy audio as usual (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, SW Bulletin July 27, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. It is often ignored or forgotten that RFPI has never had a license from the Costa Rican government to operate a radio station. I thought the hammer would come down when RFPI decided to open a FM outlet for their station. As many of you may or not know Costa Rica is my home away from home so I am not surprised that it has taken this long for things to wind down for them. In Costa Rica they call it Tico Time. I would not be surprised if this was not something that came from the top of the Tico government. i.e., they told the officials at UPAZ to cut the station off or else (Ulis Fleming, Maryland USA, swprograms via DXLD) RFPI`s position, I believe, is that under auspices of UN from UN territory, it does not need authorization from CR (gh, DXLD) RFPI (I quote) has trained over 300 peace journalists who now work all over the world, RFPI (I quote) runs courses in Peace Journalism and Progressive Media through Radio, RFPI (I quote) specializes in the monitoring and documenting of hate radio and the use of media by extremist groups. Let's take a closer look at the last statement. From their UN programming one would think that the RFPI outlook was global in scope, but actual listening shows that the focus is limited to the USA. Here is RFPI's list of study targets. PRIVATE U.S. SHORTWAVE BROADCAST STATIONS Call letters Location Designator Special Notes WSHB SC R/MN Owned by Christian Science Monitor WCSN ME R Sold by C.S.M. to another religious group KGEI CA R KJES NM R Cultish sounding program KTBN UT R Part of Trinity Broadcasting network KNLS AK R KWHR HI R Sister station to WHRI WHRI IN R/RFR Has 100,000 watt capacity KCBI TX R/RFR Rumored Dr. Gene Scott silent partner WEWN AL R Four 500,000 transmitters WINB PA R/RFR Pastor Pete Peters considering buying WJCR KY R Small church station 50,000 watts WMLK PA R Owned by Assemblies of Yahweh WRMI FL P/PFR Anti-Castro broadcaster WRNO LA P/R/PFR/RFR One 50,000 watt transmitter WWCR TN P/R/PFR/RFR Three 100,000 watt transmitters WYFR FL R Per the RFPI website, these are stations susceptible of airing "far right" radio, a.k.a. "hate radio". So who is then trying to be mean to such a 'progressive' entity as RFPI? Well, perhaps the Colombian paramilitary groups, or... eh, on second thought perhaps it's not them after all: "There have been recent concerns that the violence of Colombia's civil war may be spilling over into Costa Rica, including the possibility of paramilitary groups from Colombia operating in-country. While details remain very sketchy, it doesn't seem they are involved in the RFPI siege; the initial report cites 'guards from the University of Peace,' where RFPI has its studios." (http://www.diymedia.net/archive/0703.htm#072303) [The above item about Colombia was not put out by RFPI itself; tho the study target list is somewhat outdated, I don`t see what your point is about that somehow indicting RFPI --- gh] I have tuned in to their unauthorized frequencies on many occasions, listening to their homebrew Far Right Radio Review, and I have listened to some of their Spanish language programs (including those on female emancipation), none of which I deemed worth the while. An exception to their dull programming is WOR (World of Radio), but this program has been and is still aired elsewhere, including stations considered by RFPI as outlets of "hate radio". RFPI has been operating thanks to a presidential decree, but their frequencies were considered illegal by the frequency board of Costa Rica already from the very beginning. This I learnt on a visit to the country in 1987. Their eviction is long overdue (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, July 26, hard-core-dx via DXLD) I'd respect your letter a bit more if you were more honest with us. We all do listen to the radio you know, and most of us have listened to RFPI. It's not all U.S. programming, though a good portion of it is. We have heard them read the Tico Times, and are well aware that it is not a U.S. paper. We also know the Zapatistas don't haunt the streets of Chicago. And while the United Nations news show broadcast by RFPI actually is based in NYC --- I've heard tell that the U.N. is known to take a global perspective: fancy that. Nor can I say I have ever heard RFPI "target" the U.S. commercial shortwave broadcasters you mentioned simply because they are commercial broadcasters and anybody with the cash can buy an hour of time; even you, even me. They do target the various Neoklannazimilita shows that are broadcast from said stations and speaking as a person who lives in these United States, I am glad they have been doing it. Why is North America's only national left of center! radio station based in Central America? I get worried when everybody's on the right, and I get worried when everybody is on the left. Those kinds of majorities are grotesque, disfiguring, and dangerous. I liked RFPI, and I also had my share of complaints. I think the Far Right Radio Review got too casual and lost much of its effectiveness. I recently tuned into some of their in house programming that consisted mainly of some cranky guy spouting off for ever and ever. That's not radio. Mostly though, I'll miss them. For all its technological prowess and wealth, or perhaps because of it, American journalism - left, right, and center - is horrible. To find an American who's well informed about international affairs is a rare find indeed. There are a few people here that would like to become well informed, but they really have to dig deep to find a good source. It was a horrible irony when the BBC World Service started cutting back transmissions to the U.S. We don't need foreign aid here, we don't need food, but we sure could use some information aid. The same goes for opinion. We have huge debates between the marginally left and the marginally right and that's about it. RFPI had lots of news, and lots of opinion. They had American labor news! Labor is a dirty word here. You can talk a lot of trash but don't say that dirtiest word of all, UNION. So a lot of my labor news came out of Costa Rica. For me RFPI's finest hour was back in '94 or '95 when they had gotten an email from someone in a town in Mexico that had been surrounded by the army who were about to go in and stomp anything that moved, but somebody had a computer and a modem, somebody got the word out in real time. RFPI was asking everyone to immediately send email to the responsible parties and get things cooled off. I never did hear any follow ups on the incident. I hope things got settled down. The idea of someone throwing a rock over the wall of a besieged city and having it land in a million mailboxes made a big impression on me that day and that's the day I decided that I needed a computer. I hope RFPI gets through this trouble. Someone once said of the Grateful Dead that it "isn't that they are the best at what they do, they are the only ones that do what they do", and that surely sums up this little station. They did a lot with what they had too. For some odd reason they seam to have placed their antenna farm in some sort of tornado alley kind of place and it blew over once a week. They never got the funding they needed to get a sure grip on things, simply because most of the Americans with disposable income have never even seen a shortwave radio and their Central American audience is not all that wealthy. RFPI would sputter and spark for days on end and then roar back to life, only to have something else blow a fuse. People did send money though, lots of people, just not enough I guess. It is unfortunate that there is not an endangered radio genre law because there's a million preachers and 10,000 Brownshirts rantin` and a ravin` on the radio at any given minute of the day, but only one free voice from the left. I am decidedly left of center in my outlook; however I like to have the "loyal opposition" around too, but I want them to be honest. I won't stand behind any dishonest speech from my own people and I think you do your cause a disservice by playing fast and loose with the truth. It's easier to just make stuff up, anybody can do it, but it takes hard work and determination to check all of your facts and think out something that's honest and persuasive. And if you're angry, really angry: take what you wrote and put it in a drawer 'til you calm down and then look at it. Now if you're always angry, you have a problem unrelated to your politics that is in serious need of attention. This is a common malady; the one who can't blame himself, so he blames the Other. If the cause is just, no deceit is needed. If the heart is pure, the anger will subside (Michael Lijewski, Maryland, hard-core-dx via DXLD) Hi, Glenn, Many thanks for your advice ten years ago about getting help with direction finding re interference with RFPI's signal, and for the broad variety of topics you cover in your broadcasts. If any of the following is useful for your weekly program or the Continent of Media, feel free to use it there. In September of 2002, I spent a week doing volunteer work at RFPI, and was impressed with the smart, dedicated and generous public service activities I saw at the station. At that time there were already rumblings of trouble from the new administration of the University for Peace. An independent observer I happened to meet, outside the RFPI community, filled me in on the dangers lurking. I was told that a billionaire administrator - who was invited to lead the university under the theory that this would shield the UN-chartered University for Peace from economic stress - had purged the university of professors and staff who showed too great an interest in the institutional causes of poverty and environmental degradation. This week a representative of the University for Peace, delivered an eviction notice to the station's staff, and armed guards patrol the now-chained gate of the station, and the notice calls on the staff to leave within two weeks. This dramatic challenge to free speech and advocacy for a better world raises questions over how the university could develop such hostility to a station invited by the university's leaders, and independently supported by listeners all over the world. It is listeners' contributions that paid for the building, the transmitters, and the operating expenses. The university's administrator, Canadian Maurice Strong, came in on a wave of influence based on the promise of Ted Turner's foundation to give a billion dollars to the UN. His connections to the Turner foundation, the World Bank, and to those environmental groups you hear criticized for allowing domination by big business, are just the tip of the iceberg. Anyone searching "Maurice Strong" on the web encounters a very interesting array of entries. (To quote Lewis Carroll, the story becomes "Curious and curiouser") If we can believe even 10% of the story of his ascent to power and influence, an astonishing tale of subterfuge emerges, consistent with his attack on RFPI. Beyond the fig leaf of NGO's that he uses for cover, Strong's real alliances are with the enemies of the UN, which they are busily "reforming". His comprehensive biography is posted on the webpage of an anti-UN organization. On the sovereignty.net website, click the Sustainable Development link in the left column. When that page opens, look near the top of the list for "Maurice Strong: The New Guy in Your Future". http://www.sovereignty.net/p/sd/strong.html As the 16th anniversary of RFPI's broadcast approaches, it is in our power to help this station survive! The station web address offers breaking news and ideas for supporting the station's continued good work. http://rfpi.org Legal defense and other expenses need our help, with contributions of any size. Tax-deductible contributions may be sent to RFPI, Box 3165, Newberg, OR 97132. The station broadcasts on 7445 and 15040 kHz am (Jerry Markatos, Balance & Accuracy in Journalism, NC, 919 542- 2139, July 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) On various DX lists, several people, who I am sorry to see apparently have a longstanding grudge against RFPI --- how dare RFPI come from the left??? --- have mouthed off to the effect that it serves RFPI right --- don`t pay your rent: get evicted. Believe me, there is a lot more to this than back rent, as I hope is now becoming obvious to those taking the trouble to read info in and linked from DXLD (gh) RFPI program director Naomi Fowler says to DXing.info that a year ago the station did receive a letter requesting them to leave their premises, but without a reason. "They gave no reason for this to us, unlike their current claims that we were broadcasting illegally or that we owed them money," Fowler says. "We explained to them that they were trying to evict us from our own building! They did not appear to know that the building did not belong to them, as their institutional memory is short due to the five administration changes over the last 16 years," Fowler writes. "That eviction attempt we assumed was legally unenforceable and we never heard anything from them after that until this latest eviction order." In an earlier email to DXing.info, the staff of RFPI says that "ideological differences" between the station and Maurice Strong, President of the University for Peace Council, are partly to blame for the conflict. As to broadcasting on an illegal frequency, the staff email says that the station is looking for another frequency to replace 15040 kHz, which according to a letter received from the authorities, is reserved for air traffic. Despite the conflict, RFPI has continued to broadcast on shortwave (DXing.info, July 27, 2003, also via Mike Terry, DXLD) Per James Latham, they are on 7445 and 15038 kHz. Nothing has really changed since last week, the gates are still locked, but people are passing them supplies through the locked gates. He says that the audio stream of their short wave broadcasts has been down for quite some time. He also said that there will be a website http://www.saverfpi.org as well as some updates on their website soon. They have a number of people who will be coming next week to witness anything the University may do, but Latham is hoping for a peaceful resolution (Hans Johnson, Cumbre DX July 28 via DXLD) RFPI is still on the air, whenever I check; at 2235 UT July 28, 15038 in as usual and 7445 beginning to fade in (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. In all the years of TVDXing, since 1955, I have seen stations from Cuba many times. However, I have never seen any Cuban sign on the air, until today. At 1145 EDST [1545 UT] on channel 4, I notice a test pattern with no ID. I was sure it was Cuba. At 1200 the test pattern went away and the Cuban flag came on the screen with their national anthem. This was followed by the news in Spanish (Willis Monk, Old Fort, TN, July 28, NRC FM-FV via DXLD) ** CUBA [and non]. While poking about the FCC database, I found a rather interesting document of a few years ago (FCC 95-160) relating to the USIA wanting to counter Cuban jamming of its transmissions on channel 13 by being granted authority to broadcast on channels 18, 50 and 64, with the transmissions being rotated on these three channels to foil jamming efforts. The document went into detail as to how under the provisions of the International Telecommunications Convention, UHF TV broadcasts to Cuba did not constitute harmful interference, as Cuba had no UHF television broadcast services. This seems to have been the impetus for the Cuban government in recently initiating UHF TV broadcasting, as with UHF now in use, TV Martí could be construed as causing said harmful interference. TV Martí also seems to be the reason behind Cuban television broadcasting hour after hour of test patterns. TV Martí apparently broadcasts in the middle of the night when Cuban television is off the air so as not to violate the harmful interference provision of the ITC treaty. If Cuban television keeps the channel in use, even while not actually broadcasting anything other than a test pattern, then it can argue that TV Martí is causing harmful interference to their broadcasts. This whole mess will add a big footnote upon TV DX'ing history eventually. When the changeover to DTV comes, TV Martí will be the only American station continuing on NTSC. It's quite a shame they aren't running anything on a Band I channel; their Band III service will be a bit difficult to DX from much of the country (Curtis Sadowski, IL, July 27, WTFDA via DXLD) Basulto & Co. were going to try this again on May 20, but some technical problem prevented it. That was also when TV and Radio Martí beefed up their broadcasts to Cuba. This was all covered in some depth in DX LISTENING DIGEST, mid to late May. http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldtd3e.html 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Many thanks! I do read DX Listening Digest, but I must have missed that issue. As always, you're right on top of all things DX. I've read about TV Martí`s tethered balloon with the directional antenna; is there any anecdotal information that you've heard about how well that puts a signal into Cuba? I know they used that to prevent CCI with American broadcasters (and to keep things cheap), but I would have gone with an airborne station (like Stratovision). From what I've read that system was very adept at providing wide area television coverage. I suppose if one REALLY wanted to get a signal in there, a powerful transmitter could be set up on a navy ship. It could take up a patrol some miles off the Cuban coast in international waters beaming the signal in on a directional antenna. Granted, you wouldn't be able to achieve much in the way of tower height that way, but it could be used for beaming in signals to an urban area in strength (Curtis Sadowski, ibid.) [Later:] I guess it isn't strictly a pirate either --- according to the Miami Herald they could be received on channel 58 "on any cable ready TV", in other words, it was over a standard amateur television rig, and apparently used the call letters of the ham operating it. So, for all intents and purposes, it was all a publicity stunt that no one saw in Cuba UNLESS they had advance notice AND a modern cable-ready set. They seem to have achieved their aim in beefing up broadcasting to Cuba, which as far as I'm concerned is not much more than a sop to the exile community. I hope Basulto's stunt didn't cause the Cuban government to initiate jamming on amateur television frequencies (Curtis Sadowski, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. During the building of a second floor on our tiny house during next week I must remove my antennas. I hope I can put up some temporary antennas instead but it means my activity will be considerably lower here in Quito. 73 from BM in Quito! bjornmalm2003@yahoo.com (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, SW Bulletin July 27, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) In this issue see BM`s logs under BOLIVIA, BRAZIL, COLOMBIA, COSTA RICA, HONDURAS, PERU, UNIDENTIFIED ** EGYPT. Queridos Radioescuchas, los invitamos a enviarnos las fechas de eventos especiales que quisieran mencionaremos al aire, por ejemplo: Cumpleaños, Aniversarios, Bodas, etc. Nos gustaría mucho compartir al aire con ustedes su alegría. También envíenos frases célebres o algunas citas que consideren nos inspirarán a sentirnos mejor cada día y a reforzar los lazos de amistad. A partir del 9 de Agosto tendremos música oriental especial dedicada a los cumpleaños y podrán conocer cuáles son las melodías típicas para esas ocasiones aquí en Egipto. Esperamos sus e/mails o cartas via el correo postal. Un abrazo y Suerte (RADIO EL CAIRO EN ESPANOL via Pedro Sedano, Spain, July 27, Noticias DX via DXLD) ** GUYANA. I spent some time in Guyana a few years back and listened to the VOG every day and also saw them in action at many public events, so it was nice to hear you praise them for their efforts a few months back. They have true grit and little else to work with, yet come up with some great programming. One has to love a station that broadcasts the national Parliament one hour and a children's cricket banquet the next. Guyana is in a state of constant political/racial tension and VOG has taken the high road remaining objective at all times. Sadly it's not only a tough catch here, but also a tough one there too. We were with the Akawio Indians in the upper Mazaruni district where they scrimped to buy a few batteries for their flimsy little analog radios each week, deftly working the dial every night for the BBC, VOA, and Radio Netherlands, but no Voice Of Guyana --- not enough money to get out that far. Even the tribal Yaesu transceivers and the Icoms owned by the traders couldn't pick it up. I tried and tried with the handheld Yaesu VR-500 I had with me (a great little travel radio if you ever need to travel very lightly and need a DC to daylight device), stringing wires in every way possible with little effect. Thanks again, (Michael Lijewski, Maryland, July 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HONDURAS. 2859.98 harmonic, HRSJ, Radio Futura, Tocoa. July 19 2003 --- 0200 UT. After listening to Glenn Hauser`s "World Of Radio", where Mark Mohrmann and other North American DX-ers have heard an unIDd LA "Radio Cultura" on 2860 kHz, I checked the frequency and mailed the message below to Glenn Hauser [as in DXLD 3-129] (listen to the recording from this occasion here): http://homepage.sverige.net/~a-0901/ (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, SW Bulletin July 27, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. Dear Glenn Hauser, Ref: All India Radio Bangalore on SW mentioned in DX LISTENING DIGEST 3-126, July 15, 2003 by Dan Goldfarb, Brentwood, England. As far as I know, earlier one transmitter was on standby mode only. Now they are using it also for regular transmissions. They have 6 nos of 500 kw tx in all. Sincerely, (Jose Jacob, India, DX LISTENING DIGEST) BTW, I notice Allen Graham has started pronouncing ``Joe`s`` as ``JAWS`` instead of ``ho-ZAY``. No cigar. . . (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL. REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS SUSPENDED FOR ONE YEAR FROM UN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS The organisation publishes a report on the commission's accelerating decline, entitled Wheeling and dealing, incompetence and "non-action," in which it recommends a radical overhaul Reporters Without Borders's consultative status with the United Nations commission on human rights was suspended on July 24 for one year at the request of Libya and Cuba because activists with the organisation staged a protest during the inauguration of the commission's last session in March against the decision to let Libya chair the commission. Reporters Without Borders insists that granting the chair to Col. Gaddafi's regime has been a disgrace to the commission. The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the body that took this decision, never invited Reporters Without Borders to explain its action. The failure to respect sanction procedures has been criticised by the French government, which lodged a request for a postponement of any decision to suspend the organisation. This suspension of one of the few press freedom organisations to have consultative status with ECOSOC is farce of the kind that increasingly characterizes the commission on human rights. Reporters Without Borders today publishes a report which details the excesses, shortcomings and accelerating decline of this commission, which dictatorships such as Cuba and China have taken over in order to strip it of all substance. The reports proposes a series of reforms that are essential if the commission is to be rescued : limiting the right to vote to those states that have ratified the main international human rights covenants, naming an independent human rights expert to chair the commission, and abolishing the so-called "non-action" motions that have repeatedly been used to block debates. The results of the vote on the suspension of the consultative status of Reporters without borders: In favour (27) : Azerbaijan, Benin, Bhutan, Brazil, Burundi, China, Congo, Cuba, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Libya, Malaysia, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Against (23) : Andorra, Australia, Chile, El Salvador, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Peru, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and United States. Download the report (PDF): http://rsf.fr/IMG/pdf/Report_ONU_gb.pdf (Reporters Without Borders, July 24 2003 via David E. Crawford Titusville, Florida, DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [and non]. The official Radio Caroline site has been updated yet again and is now of a high quality. Well done to Ryan and Nigel --- superb, brilliant. I should thank the photographer(s); the photos are excellent. Have a look at http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk/ (Mike Terry, UK, July 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CAROLINE AND "LOVING AWARENESS" From http://www.getintola.nl/ In the 60's economic growth was prospering and for the first time a lot of young people got better education and more free time to spend than generations before. This released a lot of energy into new activities where youth was interested in: music, movies, travelling, love and friendship, relaxation and having fun while meeting each other. New products like the electric guitar, the amplifier, and the transistor radio (for on the beach!) changed life. . . click here - for more. http://www.getintola.nl/index5.html (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** ISRAEL [non?]. PEACE ACTIVISTS TO REVIVE VOICE OF PEACE RADIO STATION 28/07/2003 20:40 By Anat Balint, Haaretz Correspondent and DPA From http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=323074&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y A joint Israeli-Palestinian initiative will see the re-establishment of the Abie Nathan's Voice of Peace radio station. Yesterday, Israeli and Palestinian peace activists signed an agreement to begin the new broadcasts on November 4, the anniversary of the assassination of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. The station will use archive material of the original Voice of Peace station; and in order to refrain from breaching Israeli law, it will split its operations: The station's studios will be located in East Jerusalem, while its transmitters will be positioned in the West Bank town of Bitunia, near Ramallah. The Palestinian Authority has already allocated to the station two frequencies, which were originally assigned to the PA by Israel, but the station's range of reception remains unclear. The idea to revive the Voice of Peace came from Mussi Raz, a former MK for Meretz and current deputy director-general of the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace in Givat Haviva, and Palestinian businessman Hanna Siniora, publisher of the Jerusalem Times weekly. According to Siniora, the station received the broadcast frequencies following a meeting with PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, who gave his blessing to the initiative, but commented when he heard its name: "But that's Abie Nathan's station, isn't it?" Siniora said the station's objective was to rebuild trust and narrow the distances between the two peoples. It also aimed at fighting stereotypes presented in the media about the Palestinians and Israel, he added, stressing that the station would not relay political programs, nor would it be funded by any party. Instead, it would mainly broadcast Arabic and Hebrew music as well as entertainment programs for children and youth. "It will not focus much on news or current political issues. It will mostly be about the cultures of the two peoples, their similarities and differences," Siniora said. Reviving the station was made possible thanks to a $600,000 donation from the European Union that was approved recently. From day one, the station will broadcast 24 hours a day, dedicating three hours each day to programs dealing with coexistence and serving as a mouthpiece for associations and organizations involved in promoting such issues. The station's presenters will include Israelis and Palestinians who will broadcast both in Hebrew and Arabic. The original Voice of Peace was a legendary pirate radio station run by Israeli peace activist Abie Nathan. It broadcast from a ship anchored just outside Israeli territorial waters and its slogan became something of a catchphrase in Israel - "From somewhere in the Mediterranean, we are the Voice of Peace." In 1993, after Nathan decided to shut down the original Voice of Peace and scuttle the ship from which it transmitted, he donated the station's archives to the Givat Haviva center. Nathan is currently in ill health, but his associates have given their consent for the new station to use the archive material (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** ITALY. GOVERNMENT REMOVES FM ANTENNAS NEAR ROME AS RESULT OF STRINGENT ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES LAW Rome, July 18 (CRU) --- ``In a couple of days, according to a report by the news agency ANSA, removal of `abusive` antennas --- radio and television --- located near Leopardi Elementary School on Monte Mario near Rome will begin,`` Emilio Pappagallo reported on the Italian radio website FM World. ``The radio stations involved are RTL 102.5 on 91.45 FM, Radio Subasio 94.0 FM, and Radio Maria 94.8 FM. The daily newspaper Il Messaggero has anticipated that the transmitter buildings and towers of these networks will be demolished next September 1st. Radios Subasio, Maria and RTL are still present in Rome on other frequencies, respectively 94.5 FM, 95.1 FM, and 102.1 FM.`` In a related development two weeks ago, the Italian Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling and said that Radio Vaticano officials must stand trial in regard to alleged criminal allowance of Radio Vaticano transmitters to exceed stringent Italian electromagnetic radiation standards, said to be the toughest in all Europe. HVJ Radio Vaticano was built in what was then the rural area of Santa Maria di Galeria outside Rome, but since World War II, the population has swollen to surround the antenna farm, and residents attribute every medical or genetic aberration to the high-power AM and shortwave transmitters. The previous leftwing government had brought the charges. Anti-clericalism runs as rife in Italy as it does in Latin America. The report from FM World was used with the permission of Nicola Franceschini, editor (Mike Dorner, Catholic Radio Update July 28 via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH. Re English effective May 6th (one hour duration): 1600 3560, 9975, 11710: Just listened to this transmission, and they are on 9975 and 11735 (Erik Køie, Copenhagen. July 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. A good sporadic E opening on July 28 from Mexico, including XEFB-2 Monterrey NL at 1735 UT with local weather, 5-day forecast, and news; MUF made it to channel 6 at 1813 when I had an Azteca-7 network relay judging from the bug in lower right, a show measuring some woman`s waist, and at 1815 what looked like an ID supered, two lines, at upper right, but could not make it out. According to Doug`s database http://home.earthlink.net/~w9wi/tvdb/channels/6.htm there are four possibilities, two of which are in the area open a bit earlier, but the other two also possible by skip distance if not likely by power: Torreón, DU XHGZP-TV 50.00 0.00 N H 0 0' 0"N 0 0' 0"W XV-XE Acapulco, GR XHACC-TV 5.00 0.00 Z H 16 50'41"N 99 54'39"W XV-XE San Luís Potosí XHCLP-TV 89.80 0.00 Z H 22 9'10"N 100 58'37"W XV-XE Cd. Camargo, CI XHCGJ-TV 1.00 0.00 + H 27 41'49"N 105 10' 8"W XX-XE So Torreón, which is in Coahuila, not Durango! --- unless the unknown G.C. puts the site across the state line, which could well be the case --- seems most likely, with second place going to SLP. But I have another potentially identifiable factor: when the signal faded up, the audio cut off. This is because I had my Sanyo TV set on STEREO(SAP), meaning automatic switch to SAP when transmitted, otherwise receiving in stereo when transmitted, otherwise receiving in mono. By turning off the SAP, the audio came back, so this station was broadcasting silent SAP, an otherwise totally useless practice also engaged in by some US stations, such as KOED-11 Tulsa. So now all I need to have confirmed is which of the four A7 stations on 6 does this (if not more than one). Now, how can I possibly find this out? Has any other DXer noticed this, or anyone in Torreón or SLP to check? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS. Hola Glenn, Saludos desde Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA. He recibido de parte de la pirata holandesa, Alfa Lima Internacional, una hermosa QSL, la cual confirma mi captación del 28/09/2002, en la frecuencia de 15070 kHz. También viene adjunta una hoja informativa de la emisora y una especie de certificado donde puede leerse la potencia de la emisión por mí reportada (300 watts). Mi carta fue enviada el 21/05 del presente año (con un IRC) y la buena noticia la recibí esta mañana (28/07). Estoy muy feliz por esa QSL; sin duda alguna es una pieza de colección. Incentivo a mis colegas para que también manden sus reportes de Alfa Lima; no perderán su tiempo. Saludos, (Adán González VENEZUELA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PARAGUAY. After many years of listening to Paraguayan stations I got a QSL verification via e-mail from RADIO AMERICA. Frequency: 9905 khz. Hour: 0411 UT. V/S: Don Mur. e-mail: radioamerica@lycos.com (CESAR PEREZ DIOSES, CHIMBOTE, PERU, July 27, hard-core-dx via DXLD) What was the programming? ** PERU. Quito 26/Jul/2003 23:32, Hola Amigos DXistas Hénrik, César y Alfredo! 1610.11 kHz: La encontró Hasse Mattisson ARC/SWB-Suecia La identificó Bjorn Malm ARC/SWB-Ecuador La regaló un QTH Cesar y Alfredo del Perú. Henrik (Klemetz), estoy interesado de saber qué tipo de música tiene Radio Sabor 1610.11 kHz. Música típica de Paucarpata? Música típica de Arequipa? La programación de música de Radio Sabor para mí parece ser el mismo tipo todo el tiempo procedente de la misma región del Perú. Esta noche escuché Radio Sabor durante más de dos horas. Nadie dijo nada, solamente el mismo tipo de música. La señal era muy débil y solamente pude grabar algunos minutos de la música. Enviaré la grabación a Henrik Klemetz que sabe mucho sobre la música peruana. Una preguntita: ¿dónde se puede encontrar la página WEB de Henrik Klemetz con "Música de América Latina"? 73s de (Bjorn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, July 26, Conexión Digital via DXLD) Mañana día 28, todos los peruanos celebran sus fiestas patrias, pero pienso que para la semana que viene puede que haya alguna novedad acerca de la identidad de la emisora, pues le pedí el favor a una persona que reside en Arequipa a ver si encuentra la emisora ubicada en "la falda del Cerro Nueva Alborada". Björn, la página que mencionas, la puedes encontrar ahora en http://home.swipnet.se/gersnaes/henriks/lamusic.html Lo que escuchó Hasse Mattisson era lo que en algunas emisoras peruanas llaman "música vernacular", es decir huaynos, tanto instrumentales como vocales. Esta música es la típica de Huánuco, Huancayo, Andahuaylas, Ayacucho y la que se oye en todo el país, incluso en Lima. Había un par de anuncios bilingües, en español y quechua, y una clara mención de "el centro del Perú", quizás en alusión a la procedencia de la música. (Como lo sabrán explicar mejor los colegas peruanos, la música de Cajamarca y la del Cusco no suena como la del Centro, pues la orquestación es diferente, y tampoco suele escucharse en las emisoras del resto del país). Saludos, HK (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, Conexión Digital via DXLD) ** PERU. The official Peruvian frequency list has a 0.5 kW station on 1605 kHz [!] located at Paucarpata, Arequipa, with OAU6O as their call sign. The registered company name is Empresa Radiodifusora Flor de los Andes SCRL. There is no indication of a station slogan such as Radio Sabor, which is the one Björn Malm, Alfredo Cañote and César Pérez Dioses have reported hearing on 1610. On a surprisingly clear recording made on 1610 kHz by Hasse Mattisson at the end of May, there is lots of Peruvian "vernacular" music and some announcements in Spanish and Quechua, none of which appear to contain an ID. The exact location per the Peruvian list is given as Falda del Cerro Nueva Alborada, Paucarpata, Arequipa (Henrik Klemetz, hard-core-dx via DXLD) El colega Björn Malm me acaba de enviar un archivo de audio de lo que oyó anoche sábado en los 1610 kHz. No hay identificación alguna, pero sí cuatro temas definitivamente peruanos, todos de corte "andino", y uno de los cuales interpretado por el cantante conocido como "El Jilguero del Huascarán" (un ejemplo de su música se encuentra en la página musical que indicaba en el correo anterior). Gracias, Björn, por el envío. HK (Henrik Klemetz, Conexión Digital via DXLD) Hola hola! Bueno, el tema es simple. La emisora se llama Radio Sabor. Paucarpata es un distrito de la capital de Arequipa. Tiene mucha música andina, puesto que Arequipa está dentro de los Andes. Que transmite música vernacular. Sí, y no sorprende ya que hay que analizar la cantidad de puneños y/o cusqueños que se han instalado en la capital arequipeña. Lamentablemente no se identifican en la noche. En las mañanas peruanas (1100 ut) la capto con dificultad extrema y tengo la esperanza de aumentar más información sobre la radio en mención. Lo que sí se escucha "mejor" (sinpo = 32412) es WDHP (US Virgin Islands) en 1620 khz (gracias henrik por ayudarme a identificarla!) Lo mejor para ustedes siempre amigos del DX!!!!!!!!!! (Alfredo Cañote, Perú, July 27, Conexión Digital via DXLD) ** PERU. 2003v (Harmonic?), Radio Libertad, región de Cajamarca. July 2003 --- 0040 UT. The station could be heard here around July 22 and has been on the frequency both mornings and evenings. Ought to be a harmonic from OCY2N Radio Libertad, Cajamarca listed on 890 kHz and in that case slipped up to a full 1000 kHz. Program title in the morning "Despertar Campesino". 4750.10, Radio San Francisco Solano, Sóndor, la provincia de Huancabamba, el departamento de Piura. July 18 2003 --- 2345 UT. The station has been off air for a pretty long time and heard only this date. Close down at 2353 UT. Info from "Ventanaperú": Provincia de Huancabamba, cuya capital es Chanchaque. Sus distritos son: El Carmen de la Frontera, Huancabamba, Huarmaca, Lalaquiz, San Miguel de El Faique, Sóndor, Sondorillo; con una población total de 125,458 hab. 4835.47, Marañón active again but extremely weak modulation. 4940.00, San Antonio back with good signal. A Quillabamba station has moved! 5121.11, Radio Suroriente, Quillabamba. July 2003 --- 0035 UT. New frequency for Ondas del Suroriente, sometimes also with ID as "Radio Suroriente". Ex-5067.11 kHz (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, SW Bulletin July 27, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hello Glenn! 5121.24, Ondas del Suroriente/Radio Suroriente, Quillabamba. Señor Adán González de Venezuela tiene una estación peruana no identificada en la frecuencia de 5121.24 kHz. Hace una semana aproximadamente se movió Ondas del Suroriente de 5067.11 kHz a 5121.24 kHz. También se identifica como "Radio Suroriente". (73s de Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador ARC - SWB América Latina via DXLD) ** PERU. Saludos desde Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA. Ayer llovió en la ciudad y tuve un día muy productivo en la escucha: La Voz del Campesino, con buena señal, audible desde las 2026 UT (jamás la había captado tan temprano), con música andina y locutor de guardia, en los 6956.69 kHz. SINPO 44333. (27/07). Radio Unión, captada en los 6114.94 kHz, a las 0438 UT, el 28/07, con música romántica y rumbera. Armando Manzanero y Elvis Presley, entre otros. SINPO 32532 (desde Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA, Adán González, July 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) also see his unIDs below ** SOUTH AMERICA. 11429.97 USB, 0315 27 July. Jolly Roger Radio International broadcasting via Radio Cochiguaz with frequent English IDs, with address in Ireland, and acknowledging Radio Cochiguaz. Best ever reception here in Victoria, BC. SIO of 3-3-3, with mild degradation from static crashes (Walter (Volodya) Salmaniw, MD, Victoria, BC, Canada, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN. CHINA. The ITU does not recognise "Taiwan" as an official entity for radiocommunications' planning purposes. HF planning is managed by the Broadcasting Corporation of China, in Taipei, and there is no formal technical representation in the HFCC or the ABU-HFC. HF transmission planning is carried out generally in isolation from the rest of the world, and the authorities in Taipei decline to recognise Beijing as the parent regulatory body. Entries will be found in the HFCC data for "Taiwan", but these are limited to the use of relays, such as arranged by Merlin, and other international brokers. Operational dates for HF transmission plans for the CBS are not aligned or coordinated in advance with those in use by the majority of other broadcasters, which is the reason for the activation of the schedules at unusual times during the year. There is no acknowledgment of the official "A" or "B" seasonal timetables. That is the reason for the many frequency collisions for the CBS national and international transmissions, where CBS services are on top of established broadcasters (Bob Padula, EDXP World Broadcast Magazine July 27, used by permission http://edxp.org via DXLD) ** U K. BBC ``SPINNING TO WIN`` Warning: The following paragraphs reflect my opinion on a program I heard on SW today dealing with current and past political propaganda. If you believe political issues have no place in a SW programs forum, delete this message now. I awoke early this morning and accidentally stumbled across the first episode of a BBC documentary entitled, "Spinning to Win." It was a 30 minute program narrated by Robin Lustig which examined how the USA and the UK had warped the truth in past conflicts to mobilize public opinion. The subject is very timely as both governments are today under the gun for recently "spinning" facts to justify what the governments wanted to do. For that matter the BBC itself is under the gun for its involvement in spinning or not spinning (depending on ones perspective) the data leading up to the Iraq attack. "Spin" is a word that has evolved to replace "propaganda" which has such a negative connotation. (As an aside, do you remember an old BBC TV show called "Connections?" The program showed how ancient discoveries eventually resulted centuries later in new discoveries or inventions and tied seemingly unconnected events together. Well I had a "Connection" moment while listening to the program as the BBC explained the origin of the word "propaganda". According to the BBC, "propaganda" derives from an agency of the Roman Catholic Church located in the Vatican whose mission is the "propagation of the faith." I never realized the connection before but I heard of that agency when I was a student in a Catholic high school listening to Radio Moscow propaganda while I did my homework.) The BBC program, "Spinning to Win" examined how the Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher administrations spun public opinion regarding problems in the Suez (Egypt), the Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Nicaragua and El Salvador as examples. One thing the show confirmed for me was that the more things change, the more they remain the same. I heard the program at 0900 UT on 15,400 kHz which is shown in PWBR to be beamed to West Africa from the Ascension Island relay station. I plan to catch the remaining segments and recommend the program to anyone trying to better understand the search for weapons of mass deception. From the BBC web site: MONDAY 28th July 2003 --- PRESS RELEASES 14.07.03 WORLD SERVICE The selling of war - Spinning to Win on BBC World Service How governments sell war to voters is explored in Spinning to Win from 28 July on the BBC World Service. Robin Lustig investigates the relationship between politicians, the military, the media and the public by drawing on the recent war in Iraq and other wars of the broadcast era. Politicians who have led their countries into war will be featured, together with newspaper, radio and TV editors who have covered war stories. The series will question whether journalists have to give up their usual stance of neutrality during times of war, whether the public can expect to be given a full picture of what is going on and how war changes political communication. The first of the three programmes charts the rhetorical transition from the possibility to the inevitability of war. Philip Knightley, journalist and historian, discusses the need to persuade the public of the rightness of the cause, a goal sometimes achieved by portraying an enemy as a psychopathic monster. In the second programme on 4 August journalists discuss how their approach to coverage changes once the conflict gets underway and politicians give way to the military as the main news source. Robin Lustig discovers that a sophisticated PR machine has evolved. During the Iraq conflict, for example, former J Walter Thomson advertising executive Charlotte Beers was employed to rescue the United States government from a dip in support for the war. PR firms Hill and Knowlton and the Rendon Corp were hired by the Kuwaiti government as part of a campaign to denounce Iraq's 1990 invasion and mobilise public support for Operation Desert Storm. Robin Lustig says: "Military press officers are no longer lowly operatives. They have become key strategists in the war of words." The final programme on 11 August reflects on how journalists, politicians and the military decide if they've had a "good war" and examines the manipulation of casualty and death statistics. The late Godfrey Talbot, a veteran BBC broadcaster, explains that in World War II journalists had to use government figures which exaggerated German casualties and minimised Allied ones. Recent wars in the Gulf and Afghanistan were possibly the first where the public didn't expect soldiers to be killed. How do people then react to body bags and friendly fire deaths when things go wrong? Notes to Editors Spinning to Win is a series of three programmes, 25 minutes each. The presenter is Robin Lustig and the producer is Ivor Gaber. International Broadcast Times West Africa: Mon 0906, 1606 | Tues 0006 | Sun 2206 Europe: Mon 0806, 1306, 1806 | Tues 0006 | Sun 1906, 2306 E and S Africa: Mon 0806, 1306, 1806 | Tues 0006 | Sun 1906, 2306 Middle East: Mon 0706, 1606 | Tues 0006 | Sat 1806 | Sun 1306, 2306 South Asia: Sun 2306, Mon 0506, 0906, 1406 | Sun 0606 East Asia: Mon 0206, 1706, 1206, 1806 | Sun 0806 Americas: Mon 1406, 1906 | Tues 0006, 0506 | Sun 2306 Listen online from 18 August (updated weekly on Mondays) at http://www.bbcworldservice.com/programmes - choose Spinning to Win from the drop down list of programmes ~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-., (Joe Buch, DE, July 28, swprograms via DXLD) -*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^ ** U K. BBC CHAIRMAN MOUNTS SAVAGE ATTACK ON THE GOVERNMENT By Colin Brown and Chris Hastings (Filed: 27/07/2003) The row between the BBC and the Government escalates dramatically today, as Gavyn Davies, the corporation's chairman, accuses Cabinet ministers of seeking to destroy the independence of the BBC in revenge for its refusal to back down in the Iraq dossier controversy. Writing in The Telegraph, Mr Davies says: "We are chastised for taking a different view on editorial matters from that of the Government and its supporters. "Because we have had the temerity to do this, it is hinted that a system that has protected the BBC for 80 years should be swept away and replaced by an external regulator that will 'bring the BBC to heel'. "I trust that wiser heads in the government will prevail. There is only one reason why the BBC has been able to build the trust of its audiences over so many years, and that is because it is emphatically not the voice of the state . . . During and after the war, the BBC [has] upheld its traditional attachment to impartiality and the truth under almost intolerable pressures." It is unprecedented for a serving BBC chairman to attack a government of the day in such stark terms. His remarks underline the level of animosity that now exists between the corporation and Tony Blair's most senior cabinet allies. The BBC had informally agreed a truce not to continue the feud until after Lord Hutton delivers his judicial inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly, the government scientist who was the main source of the BBC's attack over last September's dossier on Iraqi weapons. Despite this, Mr Davies and his colleagues felt provoked beyond endurance by last weekend's claim by the former minister Peter Mandelson that the BBC was to blame for Dr Kelly's death and by subsequent hints from Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, that the corporation's governors were not fulfilling their statutory obligations. One senior executive in the corporation claimed that Ms Jowell had privately left BBC chiefs in no doubt that she might use the review of the BBC charter - due later this year - to pressure the governors into sacking Greg Dyke, the director general, change the composition of the board or even change the size and scope of the broadcaster. The corporation has resisted attempts to make the new regulator Ofcom responsible for policing its impartiality and accuracy - a function still performed by the governors. Much of the row now depends on whether Dr Kelly was an authoritative source for the BBC's claim that the intelligence service had been unhappy with the Government over the September dossier. The Government remains adamant that the BBC has provided no conclusive evidence that Dr Kelly was a source of this calibre. The BBC is determinedly sticking by its claim that Dr Kelly was correctly described by Andrew Gilligan, a BBC defence correspondent, as "an intelligence source". One BBC executive claimed yesterday that the scientist had been "seconded" to MI6. However, intelligence officials said that while Dr Kelly had had "some contact" with the intelligence services, he had absolutely no formal connection with MI6. In his article, Mr Davies also hits out at Alastair Campbell. He accuses the Prime Minister's outgoing director of communications of using the row over Mr Gilligan's report - which said that No 10 had inserted the claim that Saddam Hussein could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes into the September dossier - to mount a wide-ranging assault on the BBC. Mr Davies writes: "The main purpose of what we did in our special governors' meeting on July 6 was to repudiate Mr Campbell's central charge that the entire BBC was running a campaign against him, the Government and the [Iraq] war. I am very gratified that Mr Campbell now seems to have withdrawn these wider charges." Last night, Ms Jowell hit back at Mr Davies's comments. "There is absolutely no question that the independence of the BBC is under threat," she said. "I have repeatedly made that clear and that the present row over the Andrew Gilligan report will have no bearing on the charter review." Mr Davies's intervention is a measure of how high the stakes have become in a row which has its origin in a single news story. It is all the more embarrassing for the Government because Mr Davies was a Labour Party member until he accepted his BBC post in 2001, donating -L-10,000 to the party over seven years. He is a close friend of Gordon Brown, and his wife, Sue Nye, is the Chancellor's political secretary. No 10 insists that Dr Kelly played only a peripheral role in the drafting of the Iraqi weapons dossier and was not, therefore, a credible source for the BBC's story. However, a member of the Commons foreign affairs committee told The Telegraph that Dr Kelly may have misled the MPs about his role. Richard Ottaway, a Tory member of the committee, said Dr Kelly may have been "economical with the truth" by understating his importance in the drafting of the dossier. The BBC says it has a tape, made by Susan Watts, the Newsnight reporter, of Dr Kelly accusing No 10 and Mr Campbell of interference in the compilation of the dossier. (c) Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003 (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U K. BBC FACES NEW QUESTIONS AS CHARTER DEBATE REIGNITES Matt Wells, media correspondent, Monday July 28, 2003, The Guardian A senior BBC executive cleared Andrew Gilligan's controversial newspaper article in which he first linked Alastair Campbell to the "sexing up" of the claim that Iraq could launch weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes. The Guardian can reveal that the Today programme editor Kevin Marsh approved the June 1 Mail on Sunday piece, in which Gilligan connected Mr Campbell, director of communications at Downing Street, to the dossier story for the first time. In Gilligan's original May 29 reports on Today, Mr Campbell's name was pointedly absent. Lord Hutton's inquiry into the death of David Kelly, who was Gilligan's source for the story, is likely to ask why the BBC executives felt unable to allow Mr Campbell's name to be mentioned on the Today programme, but were sufficiently comfortable to see it used in the MoS. He may also ask whether the article was changed between approval and publication. The BBC said last night that, by the time the MoS went to press, Mr Campbell's named had been connected to the dossier row by several other newspapers. "That relaxed the attitude a little bit," a spokesman said. It is understood that Richard Sambrook, BBC director of news, has always believed the MoS piece was the most difficult part of the Gilligan story to defend. Once the Hutton inquiry is complete, Mr Sambrook will deliver to the corporation's board of governors a review of the rules governing freelance work by BBC staff. This review, however, is not Mr Sambrook's main concern this week, as the corporation prepares to mount its make-or-break case to the Hutton inquiry. A team of QCs, in-house lawyers, BBC executives and communications staff has been assembled to make the best of the corporation's argument. A key plank will be the recording made by the Newsnight science editor Susan Watts of her conversation with Dr Kelly, the existence of which was disclosed by the Guardian, in which he expressed concerns about Downing Street's use of the 45-minute claim. One problem for the BBC, however, is that while Dr Kelly identifies Mr Campbell on the tape, he appears to use his name synonymously with "Downing Street" and "No 10", rather than blaming him individually and directly for exaggerating the case for war. For Dr Kelly, as with so many observers of the political scene, the words "Alastair Campbell", had become inextricably associated with the government's communications machine. In addition, the BBC will rely on the notes of Gilligan, defence and diplomatic correspondent of the Today programme; and Gavin Hewitt, a Ten O'Clock News reporter, who also spoke to Dr Kelly. The Guardian understands that Dr Kelly spoke to a fourth BBC reporter, Jane Corbin of the Panorama programme. As it prepares for the Hutton inquiry, the BBC has also been fighting on another front: every 10 years, the government carries out a review of its royal charter, which sets the corporation's method of funding and outlines its role and remit. As the broadcast media has expanded in recent decades, the licence fee has become tougher to justify, but never before has the charter renewal process been coloured by such political animosity. The BBC has become increasingly concerned about the mutterings over charter renewal: Gerald Kaufman, chairman of the Commons media select committee, has used the Iraq dossier story to justify a call to clip the BBC's wings by bringing it fully under the remit of the new communications regulator Ofcom. (At the moment, Ofcom will rule on taste and decency issues while the governors will maintain their remit over the BBC's impartiality and accuracy.) Threatened Peter Mandelson, the twice-resigned former cabinet minister, is reported to have threatened the BBC privately over its future. Yesterday Peter Hain, leader of the Commons, claimed the BBC had acted like a tabloid newspaper by exaggerating the claims made by Dr Kelly. Even Conrad Black, owner of the Telegraph newspapers, waded in to say the BBC was the "greatest menace facing the country it was founded to serve and inform" and accused it of trying to "destroy and supplant the government". But it was an interview by the culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, that appears to have goaded the BBC chairman, Gavyn Davies, into action. On Friday, Ms Jowell promised, in a discussion about the licence fee and the BBC's governance on Radio 4's World at One, to "take very seriously" any recommendations on the BBC made by the Hutton inquiry Mr Davies felt it was time to draw a line in the sand with an article in the Sunday Telegraph in which he warned that 80 years of the BBC's independence was under threat. Ms Jowell, who accused Mr Davies of inflaming the row, went back on Radio 4 yesterday to clarify the government's position, putting it "on the record" on The World this Weekend that the dossier row would not influence the charter renewal process. The BBC welcomed her comments, but some continue to harbour doubts. One source, quoted at the weekend, succinctly echoed the concerns of many senior journalists at the corporation: "There's a sense they are going to the wall at the wrong time over the wrong story and the wrong correspondent." Until the row is resolved, few think it likely that the questions over the BBC's future will disappear. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003 (via Daniel Say, DXLD) ** U K. THROUGH THE ROUND WINDOW The BBC has always called itself a temple of the arts. Now it's getting the buildings to match. By Jonathan Glancey Jonathan Glancey, Monday July 28, 2003, The Guardian Scaffolding and extensive building works mean that the art deco lobby of BBC Broadcasting House in London's Portland Place has been out of bounds for some months. It will be, in all probability, for another five years. Directly opposite the entrance, the great, stentorian Latin inscription booms out: "This temple of the arts and muses is dedicated to Almighty God by the first Governors of Broadcasting in the year 1931, Sir John Reith being director general. It is their prayer that good seed sown may bring forth a good harvest, that all things hostile to peace or purity may be banished from this house, and that the people, inclining their ear to whatsoever things are beautiful and honest and of good report, may tread the path of wisdom and uprightness." The sense of occasion this great ocean-liner of a building has always instilled is part and parcel of the BBC's resilient belief, even when under attack from left, right, spinning and reeling governments, that its mission is beyond that of pure information and entertainment. It must also educate and inspire. But, how could it hope to inspire those visiting and working in its more recent buildings? The worst of these is the infamous "tin box" at White City, a cut-price design raced up in 1990 when Stuart Young, a former head of Tesco, was BBC chairman. A rotten place to work, and an eyesore, without even a vulgar Latin inscription to adorn it, the tin box represented the BBC's sad, if temporary, slide into managerialism, bureaucracy and a wilful, lowbrow contempt by well-educated, middle-class managers for the arts and muses. "I'm on record, I'm pleased to say," says Alan Yentob, the BBC's director of drama, entertainment and children's television, "for having a rant at the time. How could we build this appalling carbuncle when we had the chance to build a truly inspirational new design by Norman Foster on Portland Place? I remember being humoured by top executives. All very charming and artistic, but which of us really cares about architecture?" Now, though, the BBC is making an extraordinary architectural comeback. Putative ideas spawned in the 1990s under former director general John Birt and Tony Hall, his head of news, have been fully hatched by a creative team led by John Smith, the BBC's director of finance, property and business affairs. Broadcasting House itself is being reconstructed and added to by architects MacCormac Jamieson Prichard, whose magnificent vaulted newsroom will be the largest of its kind in the world when completed in 2008. Broadcasting House will then be open to the public, as far as security allows, so everyone can witness what have been its secret ministries. Laced through the building will be a programme of artworks, including Rachel Whiteread's nearly complete Room 101, a cast of the room that is said to have inspired Orwell's room-of-terror in 1984. The greatly extended Broadcasting House will wrap around a new public square. It will be both finely crafted and heroically, elegantly modern, as the building was when it opened to great acclaim. Broadcasting House is, however, just the mighty tip of an even mightier architectural iceberg. Over at White City in Shepherd's Bush, the tin box is being flanked by a street of handsome new BBC broadcast and office buildings, due for completion this autumn, designed by Allies and Morrison and, when the costs are finally sorted out, a new BBC Music Centre. The idea is for White City to become one ambitious, 17-acre BBC "campus", connecting existing buildings, including the fondly regarded, soon-to-be-rebuilt TV Centre, a design by Graham Dawbarn from 1960 that I have always thought of as a bit of late-flowering Soviet constructivism landed in west London. The new look BBC White City will plug into the new shopping centre being built here along the approach road linking Shepherds Bush roundabout with the elevated A40 (M) to Oxford and Birmingham. And there is more. By 2001, the BBC occupied some 520 buildings in more than 40 cities. Most were prosaic, often ramshackle, and even downright shabby, held together with seemingly little more than Valerie Singleton's famous sticky-back plastic. Those high up in the BBC, like Yentob, had watched in the early 1990s as rival European broadcasters invested in swish and dramatic new buildings, including Richard Roger's Channel 4 headquarters, Norman Foster's ITN building, both in London, and Richard Meier's Canal+ broadcasting station in Paris. Now the BBC is moving into notable new buildings across the whole of Britain, from the big and blowsy Mailbox in Birmingham by Building Design Partnership, to the brave new Forum, by Michael Hopkins and Partners, overlooking the market square in Norwich. On Glasgow's Pacific Quay, alongside the steely and striking new science centre, David Chipperfield's BBC Scotland building is almost complete. A fine and handsome thing, boasting a dramatic tiered atrium, it has a great sense of openness and exudes quality. How did this sea change in the BBC's design values come about? On a practical level, John Smith has done a deal with developers that will see a £2bn investment in BBC properties over the next 30 years, with no cost to licence holders. There is a precedent for the BBC acting as a commercially-minded developer. Before it occupied the whole of Broadcasting House, the idea was to let out space to pay for the running costs of the building. In a delightful Reithian touch, the BBC drew up a list of prohibited lessees: "Slaughtermen, sugar baker, fellmonger, beater of flax, common brewer, quasi-medical or quasi-surgical establishment, brothel or bagnio keeper." The most hotly debated of the new BBC buildings is the Music Centre at White City. Due to open in 2006, this will house the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC Singers in two concert hall studios. As this will be the gateway to the vast White City campus, the BBC is looking for an eyecatching design, "an iconic building", says John Smith, "which makes a statement and creates a buzz both inside and outside the BBC. We're not afraid to champion a controversial design; indeed, we relish the opportunity to rise to this challenge. We already attract the very best broadcasters, writers, actors and technicians. Now we want to add architects to the list." Architects shortlisted for the Music Centre are Foreign Office, Future Systems, MVRDV (from Holland), Ushida Findlay and Zaha Hadid. Any one of these is capable of shaping an "iconic" building. All five have submitted what Smith describes as "thrilling" designs, and all five have been told to have another go because Smith and his team of judges believe they have all gone way over budget. The point about the BBC is that it belongs to all of us. It is, in a cynically privatised world, a public corporation. Nothing, Lord Reith liked to say, "is too good for the public". Whether standards of broadcasting or of architecture, art and design. © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003 (via Daniel Say, DXLD) ** U S A. The latest 'Economist' magazine offers a review of a history of VOA by Alan L. Heil (Voice of America: A History, Columbia University Press, 2003). Among the examples of the reach of shortwave broadcasts, the book contains this episode: 'A few years after the creation of the Tibetan service, a National Geographic Television crew recorded chants in the kitchen of a Buddhist monastery. Once back in Washington, they discovered that the lyrics were actually: "This is the Voice of America in Tibetan, coming to you from Washington."' The review notes the use of anecdotes to tell the VOA story, but cautions about its readability: 'Readers fascinated by the technical intricacies of radio and the arcana of Washington's broadcasting policies will no doubt be riveted. Others may feel that the book reads a little too much like an internal corporate memo.' The reviewer also notes that VOA is a "well-respected multimedia operation heard in over 50 languages by more than 90 million people - except, ironically, in the United States." (Matt Francis, Washington, DC, July 28, 2003, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Really??? ** U S A. LAWSUIT EMBROILS SPANISH STATIONS --- BITTER LEGAL DISPUTE BETWEEN STATION OWNER AND PROGRAM COMPANY INVOLVES MUSIC, MONEY By Terry Horne July 27, 2003 All-Spanish, all-the-time radio in Indianapolis is just un niño. Already, though, a bitter paternity fight has arisen for control of this broadcast child. Continental Broadcasting, which owns the city's Spanish radio stations, WSYW-AM (810) and WEDJ-FM (107.1), this year kicked Fiesta Mexicana, a radio programming company, off the air and accused Fiesta workers of burglary and theft. Fiesta in turn accused Continental in a civil lawsuit of breaking an agreement giving Fiesta exclusive rights, among the two stations, to play the regional Mexican music favored by much of the Hispanic community. And it claims that someone at Continental falsified a contract to evict Fiesta. The lawsuit, which continues in Marion Superior Court but may be settled soon, is a testament to the thousands of Mexicans and other Hispanics who immigrated to Indianapolis in the past 10 years. The revenue from Spanish radio in Indianapolis is finally worth fighting over. . . http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/1/061012-3471-009.html (Indianapolis Star July 28 via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** U S A. Boston's 1150 attempts to seal its record for most callsigns on a single Boston station, ever, by changing yet again from WBPS to WYTS. (That's ten, by the way: WCOP, WACQ, WHUE, WSNY (followed by a return to WHUE), WMEX, WROR, WNFT, WAMG, WBPS and now WYTS, making 1150 sort of the Ted Williams of Boston call changes. 1510 is in second place with eight, and Bob Bittner would have to get very busy with 740, now mired in third place with six calls, to compete for this particular dubious honor.) And a story that's been simmering all summer: Lowell's WJUL (91.5) will apparently have some different programming this fall, as the Lowell Sun takes over 25 hours a week of the UMass/Lowell station's programming. According to a letter that's been sent out by the station's current student board to station alumni, the Sun will program a local news-talk format on the station from 5-10 AM weekdays, operating from a new studio inside Lowell's Tsongas Arena. The deal raises all sorts of questions, first and foremost about how the Sun would make money on a deal with what is, after all, a noncommercial station - but also about what the long-term effects of such a deal would be on student control of WJUL, not to mention the added competition the deal would create for commercial WCAP (980 Lowell). We'll have much more on this story in the months to come, no doubt --- and we hear this isn't the only format change on the way in the Merrimack Valley, either. Stay tuned! (Scott Fybush, Northeast Radio Watch July 28 via DXLD) ** U S A. RE: [WTFDA] CBS network feed question. When I interviewed for a job at KPNX-12 (Phoenix NBC) in 1990 I was shown a rack with a computer and a bunch of tape machines. It was their network delay system. Just last week I spoke with our corporate director of engineering who told me the custom software we were installing for automated recording of our WSMV-4 newscasts was in use at KPHO-5 to handle the delay of CBS. I've heard similar tales from engineers at at least two other Mountain Time Zone stations. || gh: Standard rant about how the networks ignore the MT zone in program time promos, and, increasingly the CT zone!! And even the PT zone, by a lot of stuff originating on the east coast, The Only Zone That Matters. And Pacific time (it does have a name) being called `West Coast Time`.|| (sarcasm mode on:) They probably figure the average American doesn't know the difference between the Atlantic and the Pacific... (sarcasm mode off) (curiosity mode on:) Why is it Eastern Daylight Time but Pacific Daylight Time? Why not Western Daylight Time? Why did we cede "Atlantic Daylight Time" to the Canadians? (curiousity mode off) -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66, http://www.w9wi.com DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, I hate to betray a fellow CST/CDT person, but I often wonder why the Central Time zone isn't absorbed into Eastern time? I live near Thunder Bay ON and Bruce Crossing MI, both near the western edge of Eastern Time, and wonder why it doesn't encroach farther west? The only people who might really be bothered live in or near Bismarck ND, where in summer the sunset is around 10 p.m. CDT. Of course, I am with you on "daylight shifting time." Why have it at all? My mother remembered when Hancock-Houghton MI were on Central Time, and when I lived in NE I heard stories how the Central time zone boundary has been moving farther west (Bruce Elving, Esko MN, DX LISTENING DIGEST) There has been a proposal two merge the four US timezones into two, but that would be disastrous, in effect forcing more year-round DST on large areas. Here in Enid, we are already on double-daylight shifting; should be in UT -7 MST zone, as we are west of the 97.5 meridian where the CST/MST boundary ought to run (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. PUBLIC [sic] TV RUNNING OUT OF TIME By CHRISTINA L. ESPARZA/Staff Writer Tuesday, July 22, 2003 http://www.vvdailypress.com/cgi-bin/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1058880330,70552, HESPERIA --- Shag carpeting, platform shoes and TV translators are all relics of the 1970s. But while butterfly collars and polyester suits are nothing but a painful memory, the aging translator that's used to provide free network signals to the residents of the Victor Valley is still a part of our everyday lives. The Victor Valley Public Translator, which is in the care of Hesperia Parks and Recreation District, was installed between 1978 and 1982 and had a life expectancy of 10 to 12 years, said Don Webb, supervisor for the parks district. With a very tight budget and replacement parts increasingly hard to find, the translator is still up a quarter of a century later --- but barely running, Webb said. "Channel 27 (KCAL 9) has been down since February," Webb said. "That's a parts problem and we can't find them. ... They don't make them anymore." Over the weekend, channels 25 and 51 (KNBC 4 and KCOP 13) went out, Webb said. In addition, the Federal Communications Commission is requiring all public television translators to convert to digital in 2006. The price of conversion could cost anywhere between $200,000 and $320,000, officials said. "There are multiple things going wrong with it," said Larry Sihock, general manager of HDTV 55, who also repairs the translator when it goes out. "The biggest thing is that it was built in the '70s." Sihock said he normally goes up to the translator every week, but lately has been there every day to fix small problems because of lightning storms. Fund-raising efforts have not yielded much, as most people expect their free network television to be just that --- free, Webb said. Last year, a collection drive by the parks district raised about $400, after spending money on radio and newspaper advertisements. It's a Catch-22, Webb said: People don't want to donate until their service is better, and it can't get better without donations. Sihock added that he and the parks district are looking into federal grants to pay for the conversion, but hasn't heard any word on it yet. "We can't spend money," Webb said. "It's not there." WANT TO HELP? To make a donation to the Victor Valley Public Translator Service, send a check to VVPTS, P.O. Box 401055, Hesperia, CA 92340 (via Brock Whaley, DXLD) ** VENEZUELA. Este próximo 29 de julio, Radio Nacional de Venezuela cumple 67 años de fundada. 73's y muy buen DX... Saludos (desde Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA, Adán González, July 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Unusual Logging on 1340 AM. Last night heard two clear IDs at both 2100 CST and 2200 CST [sics] for a station with a TOH ID of what sounds like, "K1E4RTM Beaumont 1340 10 O'Clock". Male announcer followed by USA Radio Network News. I can't find any GY stations in Beaumont Texas...any idea what I could be hearing? 73, (Les Rayburn, N1LF, Navy MARS NNNØHSI, "Proudly Serving Those Who Serve", Helena, AL 35080 --- Try the 1750 Meter Band: http://www.highnoonfilm.com/xmgr July 27, NRC-AM via DXLD) Les, it's a pretty safe bet (at least on this end) that what you heard was KOLE in Port Arthur, Texas. The "4RT" was probably "Port Arthur" (located next to Beaumont). KOLE gets out pretty well, and has been heard by me from a couple different QTHs in Iowa over the past decade (Rick Dau, Omaha, Neb., ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 3920 \\ 3940 at 1048-1053, OM in Asian? language on 20 July. Best opening to Asia and Pacific this week, some audio on 2960.25v, possibly Indonesia. This was through severe local AROs. Looking for Korea. No joy since 20 July during 1000-1100 (Bob Wilkner NRD535D Pompano Beach, Florida, US, July 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. Re 5134.0 USB: Hi, it is Mayak (RUS) in Russian relayed via Belarus. Parallel to 4982.0 kHz, both in USB. If you try the frequencies early in the morning, you will find very good signals. They start at 0300 UT. GOOD DX, (Karel Honzik, the Czech Republic (Czechia), AOR AR-7030 30 m Long Wire, hard-core-dx via DXLD) Just now (27-7-08, 1630z) the Belarus` military relay of a BLR (or Russian Mayak) broadcasting station is active again on 5134 kHz (USB and LSB). When they operate same pattern as last time they should be QRV till 1800 UT. Maybe anybody with Russian language knowledge will be able to identify the station which is relayed. For my "idea" it sounds not like the Russian Mayak but a more to a "youth public" directed? Any sense to send reception reports to the station relayed? Do they know that the BLR military (?) is relaying them ? What about the (c) ? hi 73, (Tom - DL8AAM, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 5240.26, unID LA SS, unknown QTH. July 2003 - 1120 UT. Weak signal and impossible to locate (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, SW Bulletin July 27, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6200.3, 24.7 0055. Here I found a signal, extremely weak sounding like a Spanish Latinamerican. Reports from the "streets". I have absolutely no idea what this can be (probably a mirror?) but perhaps something to check. In 9 times of 10 there is a Chinese on the frequency, but this one can be attenuated by the K9AY-loop. 0-2 RÅ (Roland Äkesson, Sweden, SW Bulletin, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIEDS. En 4426.59 kHz, 0048 UT, 12/07, sermón religioso. En 4460.81 kHz, 0044 UT, 12/07, SINPO 2/1. En 4650.35 kHz, a las 2226 UT, con SINPO 2/2, anuncios de servicio público y menciones constantes de "Acapulco". Demasiada estática. No pude identificarla. (27/07). En 4716.77 kHz, 12/07, 2327 UT. Baladas en español, locutora de guardia. SINPO 3/2. En 4815 kHz, a la 0110 UT, locutora de guardia presentaba música romántica en español: Marco Antonio Solís "Vivir sin tí" y Enrique Iglesias. Saludos al aire. Identificaba el programa como "Variedades musicales". En ningún momento la locutora dijo el nombre de la estación, en más de 15 minutos. Promociones con demasiados efectos de "eco", que dificultan la escucha de un nombre concreto. Sugerencia: como locutor profesional, creo que los colegas deberían poner más ciudado en decir el nombre de la estación y dónde se halla, al menos cada dos canciones. Sería lo ideal. (27/07). SINPO 32432. En 5460.33 kHz, el 28/07, a la 0148 UT, música andina. Sin identificar. En 5470.75 kHz, a las 2348 UT, música rumbera. Señal muy débil: 2/1. (27/07). En 5637.21 kHz, a las 0154 UT, música andina instrumental, con SINPO 2/1, con clara inteferencia de radioaficionados. (28/07). En 5677.98 kHz, muy buena señal con música y locutor de guardia. Hablaba demasiado rápido y atropellado. No se le entendía nada. 0158 UT, SINPO 4/3. Despedida a las 0218UTC. Sin identificar (desde Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA, Adán González, July 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ HAM PREFIXES A complete list of Prefixes assigned by International Telecommunications Union can be found on the Trans Provincial Website: http://www.tpn7055.ca/callsign.html (Trans Provincial Net newsletter July 27 via Jim Taylor, VA3KU, July 26, ODXA via DXLD) MASSIVE FREQUENCY LIST A very large text file titled "Shortwave Frequency List A-03" has appeared on a Website, from the Nagoya DXers Circle. The list is in descending order of frequency, showing national, international, and non-official broadcasters. The data gives frequencies, times, days, languages, sites, powers, azimuths, ITU coordinates, geographical zones and organisations. The list appears to be a combination of current registered frequencies for A-03 (many of which are not active), plus many redundant assignments for past seasons. The list is available at http://www2.starcat.ne.jp/~ndxc/ (Bob Padula, EDXP World Broadcast Magazine July 27, used by permission http://edxp.org via DXLD) WTS (Where's That Station?) MW DX Utility for Windows® The [FREE] WTS (Where's That Station?) MW DX Utility for Windows® has been released and is now available for download. Visit: http://www.dobe.com/wts/ The four databases used by WTS: North American Medium Wave (AM/BCB) Stations U.S. Zipcodes Station Keywords and Slogans U.S. and Canadian Telephone Area Codes are also available as individual downloads. Come on over and take a peek. Best Regards, (Eric Force eric@dobe.com http://www.dobe.com/wts/ rec.radio.shortwave via SW Bulletin July 27 via DXLD) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ EDXP CONFERENCE EDXP is an affiliate organisation with the EDXC, but I will not be able to attend this year's Conference to fly the Australian flag! My New Zealand trip will not allow me time to get back to Melbourne and then fly away again in a couple of days to Europe --- it is also very expensive at this time of year, being the peak season (Bob Padula, EDXP World Broadcast Magazine July 27, used by permission http://edxp.org via DXLD) Padula was still being mentioned as attending on this week`s EDXP report via DX Partyline. I too was invited, and regret that I will be unable to attend. Fortunately, I never said that I would (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###