DX LISTENING DIGEST 3-231, December 25, 2003 edited by Glenn Hauser IMPORTANT NOTE: our hotmail accounts are being phased out. Please do not use them any further, but instead woradio at yahoo.com or wghauser at yahoo.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.w4uvh.net/dxldtd3k.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 1213: Sat 0000 on Studio X, Momigno, Italy, 1584, 1566 Sat 0900 on WRN to Europe, Africa, Asia, Australasia, webcast Sat 0955 on WNQM, Nashville, 1300 Sat 1130 on WWCR 5070 Sat 1900 on IBC Radio webcast Sat 1930 on WPKN Bridgeport, 89.5, webcast Sun 0130 on WBCQ 9330-CLSB Sun 0330 on WWCR 5070 Sun 0530 on WRN to Europe only, webcast Sun 0730 on WWCR 3210 Sun 0845 on Ozone Radio, Ireland, 6201v, time variable Sun 1500 on WRN to North America, webcast Sun 1600 on IBC Radio, webcast Sun 2000 on Studio X, Momigno, 1566, 1584 Mon 0430 on WSUI, Iowa City, 910, webcast [last week`s 1212] Mon 0515 on WBCQ 7415, webcast, 5105 Wed 1030 on WWCR 9475 WRN ONDEMAND [from Fri]: 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 WORLD OF RADIO 1212 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1213h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1213h.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1213.html [from Fri?] (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1213.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1213.rm ** CANADA. Between 5 PM & 6 PM E.S.T. this evening, Dec. 23, a station was heard on 1570 kHz playing a mix of English and French popular standards from the 50s and 60s. It is believed that this may have been the initial test transmission of CHRN-Radio Nostalgie, a station licensed by the CRTC to this frequency, to be located in Laval, Quebec and to transmit with a power of 10,000 watts. There were no announcements or IDs heard during the broadcast. The signal was strong, but the audio left a lot to be desired. I doubt there was any way they were using 10 kW for this test. There were no advanced warnings about this station coming on the air. The owners indicated that they wanted to be on the air by the fall of 2003. That passed with no further news. I am trying to get more info on this transmission that took place earlier today and will keep everyone posted. In the meantime, keep checking out 1570 AM. Radio H.F. - Canada's specialist in radio communications http://www3.sympatico.ca/radiohf President-Canadian International DX Club Canada's national radio monitoring club since 1962 http://www.anarc.org/cidx/ (Sheldon Harvey, QC, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** CANADA [and non]. As if there's not already enough ho-ho-ho'ing on the airwaves --- Tonight and all day tomorrow CFRB-1010 will be replacing their usual news-talk format with Christmas mx, and Christmas talk or stories, e.g. excerpts from Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". Why can't broadcasters celebrate the holiday by going off the air and giving their on-air staff and engineering folks the day off? Do they really need to trot out the same sappy songs that have been airing every December since the Truman administration? (or even since FDR; White Christmas dates from 1942). 73 (Mike Brooker, Toronto, ON, Dec 24, NRC-AM via DXLD) You jest? Most stations are running on autopilot most of the time anyway, holiday or not, a dirty little secret, they hope, to the general public (gh, DXLD) ** CHINA. CHINA NATIONAL RADIO TAIWAN SERVICE TO INTRODUCE NEW FORMAT ON 29 DECEMBER | Text of report entitled: "China National Radio Taiwan service introduces 'Voice of China' and 'Voice of the Divine Land' programmes", carried by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) Beijing, 24 December: The China National Radio's Taiwan service will undergo a complete changeover on 29 December by introducing the "Zhonghua Zhisheng" [Voice of China] and the "Shenzhou Zhisheng" [Voice of the Divine Land] with respective characteristics. A responsible person of the China National Radio said that the reform was carried out after having fully listened to the opinions and suggestion of Taiwan listeners and in line with the data supplied by a professional survey company. The two programmes will be completely different in contents, formats, and in style. The "Zhonghua Zhisheng" will be a programme of general interest with news as its major content. The "Shenzhou Zhisheng", a dialect and literary and arts programme, will see a large increase in direct-broadcast programming and enhance interaction among listeners. The "Zhonghua Zhisheng" will have hourly news, introduce "cross-strait forum", a news commentary programme on Taiwan, and enhance in-depth reporting. A two-hour programme each of the Amoy [Xiamen] and Hakka dialects daily has been arranged for the "Shenzhou Zhisheng", and the two major themes of music and culture will be given prominent play to its literary and art programme. Source: Xinhua news agency domestic service, Beijing, in Chinese 1232 gmt 24 Dec 03 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. 6035, NCR La Voz de Guaviare, 0810 Dec 25, Música colombiana, Identificación: "NCR, la radio de Colombia, nuestra radio", "Colombia prefiere NCR", anuncios comerciales. 24322 (Manuel Méndez, Spain, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ?? I would have assumed a typo for RCN, except it appears thrice. Surely Radio Cadena Nacional, unless there has been a recent change? (gh, DXLD) ** COSTA RICA [non]. Re John Figliozzi's comment that RFPI should consider buying airtime on NASB stations, I am sure that several NASB members would be more than happy to sell RFPI airtime at very reasonable prices. I'm sure there are some that would not accept certain types of programs that were on RFPI (just as they don't accept certain right-wing programs), but that is their prerogative, and there would still be more than enough stations to accommodate RFPI's needs. In general, with the number of stations selling shortwave airtime today, and the resulting low rates, it is usually much more cost- effective for organizations that want to "put their own shortwave station on the air" to simply purchase large blocks of airtime on existing stations. In addition to lower start-up and operating costs, it's a lot less hassle and administrative work, and it provides the time-buyer with the greatest amount of flexibility (Jeff White, NASB, Dec 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. 990, R. Guamá, unknown city, Pinar del Río; 1733-1737 Dec. 24, Spanish DJ chatter, bumper SFX, very good and parallel poor 1020. 1080, Radio Cadena Habana, Guines, La Habana; 1728-1733 Dec. 24, excellent signal and parallel poor 1100. Cuban vocals, babble and canned "Ésta es Radio Cadena Habana, la frecuencia popular" by man at BoH, then live time check. 1100, CUBA jammer; 2255-2302, Dec. 24. Fair level, audible under the below log. [but why jam 1100? Sure it`s not just maladjustment? --gh] 1100, Radio Cadena Habana, Pastora, Ciudad de la Habana; 2255-2302 Dec. 24. Indeed a RCH outlet here and alone save for the Cuban jammer. Very good level with conclusion of a children's program, parallel 1100 and 1120, and the same canned ID as on the 1080 entry. 1700, CUBA jammer; definitely a jammer here now, noted 2244+, similar to the 1100 jammer (stable but slight warbling sound with TVI-ish audio, and best LSB, as is 1100 kHz). Obviously targeting WJCC-Miami Springs, and the (presumably brief) Radio Martí feed (© 2003, Terry L Krueger, Clearwater FL, TOCOBAGA DX Dec 25 via DXLD) ** DENMARK [non]. FAREWELL PROGRAMME FROM R DENMARK 7490/13800, R. Denmark via Kvitsøy, Norway, 1430-1450, 1530-1550 and 1630-1630, Dec 25, a special Farewell programme in Danish produced by Preben Lund, with a review of more than 55 years of shortwave broadcasting from R. Denmark from King Frederik IX inaugurated the Herstedvester SW transmitter in 1948 till Director of News, Mrs Lisbeth Knudsen, today argued for the closure of these SW- transmissions because of big expenses and alternative technologies. Unfortunately the Management of R. Denmark and the Minister of Culture have been misinformed about the real costs of leased SW broadcasts year 2004 and of the unavailability at many places abroad of fancy technologies. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, Dec 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DENMARK. NEW WAYS OF REACHING OUT WITH RADIO TO DANES ABROAD Shortwave service to be closed down An era in broadcasting history is coming to an end. From its establishment in 1948 shortwave was the easiest and most modern technology for distributing information across the planet. Today the picture is different. The possibilities of listening to radio and receiving news are multifold and very few Danes are nowadays farther away than they can get informed by phone or email. DR can notice the dwindling interest in its shortwave service and has therefore chosen to modernize its service for radio listeners abroad. Up to 10 different platforms are available: from the telephone to the satellite and the internet. Danes in the merchant marine may receive a free fortnightly CD containing a selection of 10 to 20 hours of the Danish home service programs. . . [opening translated by Henrik Klemetz] NYE RADIOTILBUD TIL DANSKERE I UDLANDET KORTBØLGEN LUKKES. En æra i radioens historie er ovre. Kortbølgen var, da den blev etableret i 1948, den letteste og mest moderne teknologi, når informationer skulle distribueres på tværs af kloden. I dag har billedet ændret sig. Mulighederne for at høre radio og modtage nyheder er talrige, og kun få danskere er længere væk, end at de kan modtage information via telefon eller e-mail. Det mærker DR på den dalende interesse for kortbølgetjenesten og har derfor valgt at modernisere sit tilbud til radiolytterne udenfor landets grænser. DR Netradio Du kan høre radionyheder live på nettet - både på P1 og på P3. En del af nyheds-udsendelserne er forskellige på de to kanaler. Læs mere Danskere i udlandet har fortsat brug for og lyst til at kunne lytte radio, samt modtage oplysninger og nyheder fra hjemlandet, og qua den digitale udvikling har DR igennem en årrække kunnet udvide dette tilbud. I stedet for én kanal, som tilfældet var i 1948, tilbyder DR i dag radio, tv og andre tjenester på op imod 10 forskellige platforme fra telefon til satellit og Internet. Danskerne i udlandet har aldrig nogensinde før haft adgang til så mange oplysninger og informationer fra hjemlandet som nu. DR kan tilbyde danskere i udlandet følgende muligheder: Internettet: http://dr.dk/nyheder http://dr.dk/netradio SMS: DR kan tilbyde at sende nyheder som SMS. Tilmeld dig her: http://dr.dk/nyheder/sms/ WAP: DR kan tilbyde nyheder på WAP: Læs mere her [hotlinks in original?] E-mail: Du kan også få en e-mail med nyheder fra Danmark. Tilmeld dig her: http://dr.dk/nyheder/nyhedsbrev/ Telefon: DRs Nyhedstelefon: Ring på + 45 70 11 18 30, hvor man kan høre de seneste nyheder - døgnet rundt. Husk du betaler selv opkaldsafgiften. Læs evt. hvordan her: dr.dk/nyheder/html/nyheder/telefon/ P5 og P6 - Radio: På P5 (Mellembølge) og P6 (Langbølge) læs mere her... Satellit: DR har forlænget sin aftale med Canal Digital og samarbejdet med Radio Solymar i Spanien og arbejder på, at der i 2004 vil være endnu flere muligheder for at modtage DRs medieprodukter. Hvis man vil modtage DRs programmer i udlandet, ligger prisen for programkort på omkring DKK 2100 inklusiv de lokale skatter og afgifter. For yderligere oplysninger: I DR kontaktes specialkonsulent Niels Sennicken, DR Teknologisk Stab, på tlf. 35 20 28 93, dr.dk/omdr/teknik/satellit eller DRs tekst-tv side 742. Hos Canal Digital kontaktes kundecenteret på tlf. 70 13 19 19 Tilbud til søfolk: For søfarere yder DR en særlig service. DR har i samarbejde med Handelsflådens Velfærdsråd udarbejdet en ordning med start i januar 2004, hvor danske søfolk verden over hver 14. dag modtager en gratis cd med et udvalg af DRs radioudsendelser. Cd’en vil indeholde mellem 10 til 20 timers radio, med programmer fra P1, P2 og P4 samt fra DRs rige og store arkiv af programmer. Cd’erne vil blive fløjet ud til havne verden over, til søens folk der i lange perioder er væk fra Danmark og DRs medietilbud. Ordningen er finansieret af DR og træder i kraft fra starten af det nye år. Tilmeld dig ordningen hos Handelsflådens Velfærdsråd; Arne Jørgensen, tlf. 35 43 31 11 eller på e-mail video@hfv.dk - Du kan også få flere informationer på Handelsflådens Velfærdsråds hjemme-side www.hfv.dk Source: http://www.dr.dk/pubs/nyheder/html/programmer/kortboelge/index.jhtml;jsessionid=ACK11J3QHQLT5LASFANSFEQ (via Henrik Klemetz, Lulea, Sweden, Dec 25, DXLD) see also NORWAY ** EUROPE. 6274.96, EURO-PIRATE Radio Crazy Wave; 0039-0120 Dec. 25. Presume the one with pop music, accented (Dutch?), emphatic delivery from man, one clear "Crazy Wave" noted at 0105. Believe this one was reported by others the night before on 6275. 6310, EURO-PIRATE unidentified; 0408-0520 Dec. 25. Someone here with music, male announcer but no ID's heard in brief checks while unwrapping gifts and eating late night snacks. Anyone else? (© 2003, Terry L Krueger, Clearwater FL, TOCOBAGA DX Dec 25 via DXLD) R. Tre BRIEF EUROPIRATE UPDATE --- Just came down to log onto the Internet and check what others are hearing. Aside from CWR on 6275, I also have been hearing Radio Tre Network with a nice signal on 6310. I don't know anything about this station, but the promos sound like they were produced by a North American production company. I've also been hearing 6212.5 with techno. I came down here before I got the clear ID, but I heard techno and a male announcer talking about sending snail mail, etc. According to Kyle, it's Alfa Lima, which makes sense. Very nice signals thus far, for only stringing about 70-100' of wire out the bedroom window at my inlaw's house, which is in an electrically noisy environment. Wonder what the next 2-3 hours will bring? Have a great Christmas morning! (Andrew Yoder, PA?, Dec 24, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Guess their computer is in basement ** GERMANY. HOLZKIRCHEN SHUT-DOWN IMMINENT According two press reports posted at http://www.sender-freies-oberland.de (the two large-scale links in the main frame) the Holzkirchen- Oberlaindern site will be officially closed on Dec 31. Word is that the station grounds will be sold for 7 million Euro to the municipality of Valley the Oberlaindern settlement (situated about 3 km east of Holzkirchen). It is intended to establish a golf course there. The federal government of Germany will pay the expenses of 600,000 Euro for the demolition of the station. All transmission equipment will be dismantled by the end of June 2004; three of the four shortwave transmitters will be moved to the Philippines. Well, I would assume that all transmissions will be transferred without any interruption to other sites, as was already done when the Playa de Pals site was closed. This should be not so much a problem with the various RL (with VOA programming inserted) slots, but an especially interesting case are the Tibetan broadcasts of RFA, 0100- 0300 on 9670 and 1200-1400 on 15185. And I wish you all a merry Christmas, or to say it in German: Frohes Fest! (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUAM. CHRISTMAS DATE WITH KSDA/AWR I called AWR/KSDA on the phone and asked around about getting a tour of the station. I ended up talking to Asst. Chief engineer Dan Weston, who agreed to meet me the next day. So I went back and saw a movie and later went to KTWR and wished a few friends there some happiness. I went there this morning at 8 am and finally met up with many of the people of KSDA, then finally got to meet Dan. He invited me into a little room where some of the many persons who worked there had gathered around for morning prayer and bible readings. I found it quite enjoyable since I don't get much church time. Later he took me into the transmitter room and witnessed the new ABB transmitters that were operating, I was told they were pushing around 100,000 watts and that they had 3 or 4 in operation. I hadn't really noticed too much on the frequencies but did notice one reading around 15300 kHz but the others were quite a bit away. There was another 5th transmitter that was being serviced and was soon to come on line in the next few weeks. Dan tells me that a lot of the station is being sent over the airwaves very similar to that of KTWR where its being done either via CD or via programs from their main studios somewhere else. I did take lots of pic's of the station. I kinda figured it, as I passed a little room when I came in that had a Studio listed on the sign but no one was inside. He mentioned that they use to do programs there but with all the RF feed back it was hard to do anything as the feed back was often heard inside the room. The transmitters are also water cooled with special cooling water that makes it non conductive and this goes through a special heat exchanger to a standard unit a few feet away. I noticed the transformers and there was an engineer using a vacuum cleaner to get the dust away from `em. It was quite amazing stuff to see. Inside one cabinet he showed me the exciter tube and it was about 2 feet in length and about a foot wide. It was quite neat to view. There were special boxes between cabinets that were used to cut back on the RF between the units. The station had a special map of all the countries that listen to the station and there are at least 175 or more that actively send QSL cards to the station for ones in exchange. I never saw a card but would have loved one. Just being there was like a QSL card in itself. It was quite interesting to hear Dan talk about the many who are on the back side of the antenna that also hear the station. As he mentions, it`s very directional. It`s built by the same company who built KTWR and he mentions that they often help each other during problems. I again took lots of pictures of the station and I wanted to mention to anyone who travels to the island, to visit these beautiful stations. They are quite impressive and Dan mentions that visitors are always welcomed. His business card gave the following info: Adventist World Radio, P O Box 8990, Agat, Guam 96928 USA, phone for KSDA is 1.671.565.2000. Again Happy Holidays to all and I am on my way to Saipan tomorrow (Larry Fields, n6hpx/du1, Dec 25, swl at qth.net via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. Arutz 7 sentencing --- From the A7 daily news update 25 December 2003 WOMEN IN GREEN TO DEMONSTRATE FOR ARUTZ-7 The Women in Green organization is planning a demonstration on behalf of Arutz-7 this coming Monday at 1:30 PM [1130 UT], outside the Jerusalem Magistrates Court in the Russian Compound. The "Arutz-7 ten," who were found guilty two months ago of operating an unlicensed radio station, will be sentenced at that time. The prosecution asked for prison sentences for up to four of the defendants, as well as fines of "hundreds of thousands of shekels" for several of them. The Women in Green announcement, signed by Co-Chairpersons Ruth and Nadia Matar, reads: "Arutz-7 has been the major source of objective news and commentary for the majority of Israeli citizens for many years. This large majority of Jews living in Israel had found that they could not get reliable news coverage from the major radio and television stations, whose views were those of a minority of the Jewish People. Unfortunately, it is this minority that controls the major means of communication in Israel. "We, who have faithfully listened to the broadcasts of Arutz-7 radio for many years, proclaim that we citizens of Israel are just as guilty as the defendants in the Arutz-7 case. We proclaim that we also should have been charged and punished along with these defendants, who selflessly supplied us with objective news and the commentary we needed to hear. "We also say to the defendants in the Arutz-7 case: You are our courageous heroes and we thank you for supplying us with the relevant news and commentary for the past 15 years. You have given us responsible free speech, and supplied us with the kind of views and Jewish orientation of our tradition and heritage, which resulted in pride in ourselves and love of our country. "Come with your friends, neighbours and relatives en masse, on Monday afternoon to show your identification with, and appreciation for Arutz-7!" (From Mike Brand via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** ISRAEL [and non]. IRANIANS EXPRESS SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL IN RADIO PROGRAM --- Julie Stahl, Jerusalem Bureau Chief http://www.crosswalk.com/news/1237443.html Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) --- Despite their leaders' regular call for the destruction of the State of Israel, Iranian citizens expressed their support for the Jewish state and encouraged Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz in his confrontation against the Palestinians. The contact was made through a weekly radio phone-in program broadcast by the Israel's government-run Kol Israel (The Voice of Israel) radio as part of its Farsi (Persian) language radio service, the program's director Menashe Amir said on Monday. "We have a weekly program talking about political issues," Amir said in a telephone interview. "This time was Shaul Mofaz. Listeners from inside Iran called. "One of the most important questions was about the nuclear strategy of Israel," Amir said. The listener asked what Israel would do if it came under nuclear attack by Iran. "[Mofaz told them that], 'this is a complex question and I think that that additional pact of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] gives the possibility of a very careful [inspection] of the Iranian nuclear installations and may delay for awhile the Iranian efforts of producing a nuclear bomb," Amir said. But according to Amir, Mofaz told the Iranian listeners that Iran's leaders would make every effort to gain time so they could produce a nuclear device. Iran has agreed to sign an additional nuclear protocol allowing for more inspections of its nuclear sites. Russia is currently helping Iran to complete construction of its first nuclear reactor, which both Tehran and Moscow claim will be used for civilian purposes. But Western experts believe that Iran is using the cover of its civilian project as a springboard to develop nuclear weapons. Former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani said in a speech two years ago that the Islamic world wanted to obtain an atomic bomb for the purpose of wiping Israel off the map. The current Iranian regime supports Hizballah terrorists in southern Lebanon and Palestinians in their fight against Israel. But according to Amir, his listeners expressed very different sentiments to Mofaz. "[The Iranians] have been very amicable," said Amir. "There were so many sympathetic messages about [their] love for Israel and the Jewish people. [They] encouraged [Mofaz] in the confrontation with the Palestinian people... "Mofaz in his answers emphasized the traditional friendship existing between Israel and Iran," he said. "[It was] very flattering for Mr. Mofaz himself to see how the Iranians are against the Arabs and support Israel." Iran and Israel have had historically good ties dating as far back as Biblical times, when Cyrus the King of Persia (ancient Iran) helped the Jewish people return to Jerusalem from Babylon and rebuild their temple. Until the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, the two countries had diplomatic ties and Israel's national air carrier El Al had direct flights to Iran. According to Amir, some of his listeners asked Israel to intervene to overthrow the Iranian regime. "[They were also] very pleased from the toppling of Saddam and wish it would happen to the Iranian leaders," he said. The Farsi language broadcast of Israel radio has been on the air for 44 years, said Amir, who came to Israel from Iran. Sources within Iran estimate that his daily program has several million listeners. The 45- minute comprehensive news bulletin focuses on news inside of Iran. According to Amir, he and his team try to talk to the listeners twice a week through a phone connection that goes through a third country. Those who call are from every age, social status and educational background, he said (Crosswalk.com [Christian], via Kim Elliott, DXLD) See also IRAN [non], 3-230 ** NORWAY. Dec 25 at 1520 came upon English on 17525, NRK frequency! Could they be treating us to something comprehensible before vanishing into the aether next week? Of course not: it was just another default BBCWS relay on the domestic service as picked up for the SW relay, perhaps more than usual hours due to the holiday. This was about hog farming, ``Pushing for Production``, and proved to be \\ 15190, the American stream, but a good two seconds behind it, and not \\ the European/North African stream on 15565 from BBCWS itself. 1530 promptly switched to another imminent casualty, R. Denmark, q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 6115.07, Radio Unión, Lima, 0655+, December 25. Spanish. Two men talked about the reception report received in the station from all world. Announcement and ID: "van llegando las 2 de la mañana... más música en Radio Unión... y sigue la salsa". Greetings. Other ID as: "Y que siga la fiesta de Radio Unión, en sintonia!!!!", 33433 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Hmmm, last report from Björn had them on 6113+ (gh, DXLD) ** RUSSIA. What`s new on VOICE OF RUSSIA MUSIC AT YOUR REQUEST (on the air on Tuesday, December 30) Welcome to our program "MUSIC AT YOUR REQUEST". It is a very SPECIAL, NEW YEAR program, so it is very much DIFFERENT from other programs. But just what are the differences? First, since this program is meant for ALL classical music lovers, it will feature music that is MOST- LOVED by millions of our listeners. Second, the program will uncork a wealth of surprises, like, for instance, harpsichord-played ragtime music or a recording of the concert entitled "For Father Frost with Orchestra"! The program can be heard at 0530, 1530, 1830, and 2130 UT on Tuesdays, at 1530 UTC on Thursdays, and at 0630 UT on Fridays. Happy listening! [actually a sesquiminute later after headlines] MUSICAL TALES It's a series of weekly 19-minute programs for classical music fans. A wealth of eye-opening information, little-known facts, popular music and rare recordings will help our listeners to know more about the past and present of Russian music. The MUSICAL TALES are prepared by the Voice of Russia team that made our best musical series of the past few years. The author, Olga Fyodorova, editor Emil Akopov, producer Svetlana Afanasyeva and your hosts Svetlana Yekimenko and Carl Watts invite you all to tune in every Tuesday at 0410 UT, beginning January 6. The program is repeated on Wednesdays at 0330 and 2130, on Thursdays at 0230 and 1830, on Saturdays at 0710 and 1710, on Sundays at 0510 and 1910, and on Mondays at 0510 UT. Stay tuned! Copyright © 2003 The Voice of Russia (via Maryanne Kehoe, GA, swprograms via DXLD) ** SAUDI ARABIA. 13710, SA`UDI ARABIA, BSKSA Holy Qur`an Service, Riyadh; 1638-1703 Dec. 24, very good and parallel 15205, 17560 (both excellent) with continuous mullah Qur`an poetic scripture readings past ToH (© 2003, Terry L Krueger, Clearwater FL, TOCOBAGA DX Dec 25 via DXLD) ** SURINAME. 4990, Radio Apintie, Paramaribo. QSL letter in a email in 10 hours. I sent my reception report to following address: apintie @ sr.net They were sent the e-QSL from same electronic address. V/S: Charles Vervuurt, Director (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Viz.: This is the QSL letter complete text: "Dear Mr. Arnaldo L. Slaen, It is with great pleasure we hereby confirm that you have been listening to Radio Apintie on December 17, from 2340-2355 UT on 4990 kHz. On 12 December this year we took our new shortwave transmitter (Omnitronics 1000 watt) on the air. Although the transmitter is used for our interior it is nice to receive reports from outside our country. The antenna we use is 6 element logperiodic beamed to the south. Thank you for your report, Wishing you and your family Happy Holidays, Regards, Charles Vervuurt, Director, Radio Apintie P O Box 595 Verl Gemenelansweg #37 Paramaribo, Suriname Fax 597 400684 Tel 597 400450 Email: apintie @ sr.net (via Slaen, ibid.) Ahá, it is direxional south as I suspected, with minimal signal up here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UGANDA. 5026 and 4976, R. Uganda. First signals to pop up on 60 meters. Extremely weak hets 24 Dec at 1855, and then up with a little audio by 1925. 5010 Madagascar was the second station to show (Dave Valko, NRD-535D, Beverages of 500' at 75 degrees, and 300' at 40 degrees, QTH: "Dip" reclaimed stripmine near Dunlo PA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 4975.97, R. Uganda, 25 Dec 0347-0358, M in English with song announcements, "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year", then into "Fernando" by Abba. "White Christmas at 0354, then M over organ music with ID, and into another Christmas song. Another ID at 0358. Good strength but low audio level on announcements (Dave Valko, NRD-535D, ANT: 300' at 40 degrees, QTH: State Game Lands #26 near Dunlo PA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** U S A. JACKSON CO. [Mississippi] RADIO STATION SWAPS FORMAT Posted on Thu, Dec. 25, 2003 By MARY LOUISE MASON, THE SUN HERALD PASCAGOULA - A local AM radio station is changing management and bringing a new morning talk show to the Jackson County area. WZZJ 1580 AM has changed from a Christian music format to talk radio. Tim Lee, of USA Radio Network, is the new general manager and hopes to buy the station pending Federal Communications Commission approval. Lee said he wants WZZJ to cater to east Jackson County as a community station. The daytime signal reaches parts of Florida and Louisiana, but at night the signal is confined to Pascagoula, Moss Point and Gautier... http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/news/local/7568031.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. 1060, FLORIDA, WPIM363, St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport; 1739-1745 Dec. 24. Note this one back on after many spells of silence or open carrier. Only now, very reduced signal -- only fair at my location 4-1/2 miles from the airport -- with male looped parking info. As always, IDs do not include calls (© 2003, Terry L Krueger, Clearwater FL, TOCOBAGA DX Dec 25 via DXLD) 96.1 MHz, FLORIDA, WTMP-FM "Hot 96-1", Dade City; have noted this for a while now (at least a couple of weeks – including today, Dec. 24) in non-stereo mode; wonder what gives. Are they trying to up their coverage in a shady way, or just running semi-broken equipment? The usual Urban format. 96.7 MHz, FLORIDA (PIRATE), "Flavor FM" St Petersburg; 1850-1930 UT Dec. 24. The only Pinellas or Hillsborough Counties pirate noted active from this location right now. Usually active Fridays/ Saturdays/ Sundays-only, but on for the mid-week Christmas holiday with the usual Old School soul format. Very poor signal on the car radio; however my location is about 10 miles north of this DF'ed site. "Florida Low Power Radio Stations" is at: http://home.earthlink.net/~tocobagadx/flortis.html 464.525 MHz, UNIDENTIFIED; seemingly this frequency or at least very close (this is where it locks on my handheld scanner). Sporadic all- Spanish traffic 1816+ Dec. 24. Anyone know what this is? Presumably Florida and also close, as nothing special seemed apparent propagationally today (© 2003, Terry L Krueger, Clearwater FL, TOCOBAGA DX Dec 25 via DXLD) ** U S A. PERSPECTIVE: LEFT BEHIND: CAN LIBERAL NETWORKS MAKE A GO OF IT? http://www.sptimes.com/2003/12/21/news_pf/Perspective/Left_behind__can_libe.shtml "To his credit, Rush started this and created a lot of imitators. Now we've got to decide if we can compete,' says Al Franken. By ERIC DEGGANS, Times TV/Media Critic Published December 21, 2003 Which wing of the political spectrum really controls the media? That's easy: Conservatives dominate talk radio, fill pundit seats on most every TV talk show, own huge media companies and even have a cable network, Fox News, devoted to their point of view. But wait a minute. Liberal commentators permeate shows on PBS and National Public Radio, while the mainstream media criticize President Bush's policies in Iraq, showcase sexual harassment allegations against Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger and ruminate on the possibility of gay marriage. Truth is, both sides have their supporters, armed with enough facts to make for a seriously drawn out argument. But in the world of openly partisan media, it's the left that has been stuck playing catch-up. Nearly 20 years after conservatives began assembling their own network of talk radio shows, think tanks and TV pundits, two new media ventures have emerged for liberals who feel left out. And despite months of publicity and speculation about both projects, the most important question remains unanswered: Can they work? Even comic Al Franken, who has talked up his negotiations with the under-development liberal-oriented radio network Central Air, isn't so sure. "I have to see if this something we can pull off . . . there's so many things stacked against it," said Franken, explaining why he hasn't yet signed on to the project, now under development by investors who plan to buy five radio stations in major markets. "Conservatives got a head start and sort of defined what talk radio was," added the comic, who told a Newsday reporter last week he expects Central Air to debut in March. "To his credit, Rush (Limbaugh) started this and created a lot of imitators. Now we've got to decide if we can compete." Already, former vice president Al Gore's efforts to develop a TV outlet focused on younger -- and presumably liberal -- viewers has hit trouble (an out-and-out liberal news network was considered "dead on arrival" according to an unnamed Gore aide quoted in an Advertising Age story earlier this year). Gore hopes to purchase Universal-owned digital newschannel Newsworld International, but mogul Barry Diller, who holds veto power over the deal, has not given his approval, according to a spokeswoman. (The New York Post reported Tuesday that Diller resisted a personal appeal from Gore himself.) Both projects are an effort to counter the powerful voices of conservative pundits in modern media -- especially on radio, where giants such as Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Michael Savage dominate talk show lineups devoted to pressing right wing causes. According to the firm Anshell Media, the top 45 talk radio stations in the country feature 310 hours of conservative talk and five hours from liberal personalities (public and community radio outlets such as National Public Radio and Pacifica Radio -- which often feature more liberal talk hosts -- are not included). Not everyone wants to talk about the issue. Fox News' resident liberal Alan Colmes, now hosting his own late-night, left-leaning radio talk show for Fox News Radio, declined to talk with the St. Petersburg Times. Likewise, officials at satellite radio company Sirius cited an upcoming revamp of their liberal-oriented channel Sirius Left (among 100 streams of content they broadcast each day), in their decision not to comment. But Mark Walsh, a former American Online executive and chief technology adviser to the Democratic National Committee, was eager to outline his plans for Central Air -- a network slated to debut in spring 2004 on stations in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Boston. Walsh and his partners last month bought Anshell Media, a company created by Chicago venture capitalists Sheldon and Anita Drobny to build their own liberal-oriented radio network. But instead of spending $10-million to buy time on radio stations nationwide, as the Drobnys had planned, Walsh said his company will spend "tens of millions" to buy stations outright -- scrambling to debut early enough to snag millions in revenue from political ads for the fall elections. "As an owner, you're master of your own domain," said company CEO Walsh, who envisions Central Air's shows as a radio version of Comedy Central's newscast parody The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (former Daily Show head writer Lizz Winstead serves as head of entertainment). "We don't want to face stations reconsidering airing our programming if it gets too controversial." Conservatives have derided the idea, saying liberals are too serious, too elitist or too evenhanded to make an impact -- pointing to the long list of failed liberal talk show hosts, including Phil Donahue, Jim Hightower and former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo. But the real obstacles may have less to do with politics and more with boring stuff like audience demographics and corporate appeal. Challenge No. 1: Mainstream liberals don't feel as shut out of mainstream media as conservatives do -- yet. Here's where conservatives have a point: The mainstream media's friendliness to some liberal causes -- social justice, civil rights, curbing corporate power -- keep liberals from feeling as alienated from major media outlets as their conservative counterparts. Consider a Gallup poll released in October, which noted that 60 percent of those who identified themselves as conservative felt the mainstream media was too liberal, while just 30 percent of liberals felt the opposite. Indeed, half the liberals surveyed felt mainstream media was "about right" in its focus, while just 29 percent of conservatives agreed. Such figures highlight a key element to conservatives' appeal, particularly on talk radio: Fans have been told they're the underdogs in a fight with a liberal-controlled mainstream media. "People who listen to Rush (Limbaugh) and (Sean) Hannity really feel they're getting alternative media," said Jonah Goldberg, a conservative columnist with National Review magazine. "I go to colleges . . . and ask conservative kids what they read, and it's this entire vast conservative alternative media. I ask the liberal college kids, and they say they read the New York Times." Michael Harrison, editor and publisher of the trade journal Talkers, agreed. "(Listeners believe) the whole world is liberal and (the host) is giving people a slice of something they can't get anywhere else," noted Harrison, who nevertheless has said a liberal-oriented radio show could work with a talented host. "Talk radio appeals to people who feel disenfranchised." Still, some left-leaning pundits have succeeded in channeling liberals' growing anger into compelling work, including Franken, filmmaker Michael Moore and columnist Molly Ivins. But building such fury into an ethic that inspires consumer loyalty is the next, most important step. Challenge No. 2: News viewers and talk radio listeners often are older and more conservative. Another survey tells the story: According to a study released in July by the Pew Center for People and the Press, 38 percent of those who watch network TV newscasts call themselves conservative, compared to 16 percent who say they are liberal (the numbers are similar -- 36 percent conservative, 15 percent liberal -- for CNN). In the same poll, 84 percent of the network news audience was over age 30 and almost half was over 50 (among those age 50 and up, CNN scored 40 percent, while Fox News stood at 38 percent). This pool of middle-aged viewers may be less likely to respond to Gore's proposed youth-centered liberalism. The radio ratings service Arbitron shows similar numbers among news/talk listeners, with about 58 percent of the audience over aged 50 and nearly 60 percent male. And an unscientific poll featured on Talkers' Web site shows an audience twice as likely to be Republican as Democrat (25 percent compared to 12 percent). "Talk radio's really a male-dominated thing and a white male dominated thing," said Rob Lorei, news director at Tampa community radio station WMNF-FM 88.5, which features Pacifica's overtly liberal Democracy Now show. "It's rare to hear a black person, a female host or a young person. It's put off the majority of the population." Walsh, who envisions avoiding the "caricature . . . the tree-hugging liberal" for a more centrist vision, is gambling listeners will come if Central Air offers an alternative. "(Liberals) have lost any traction in the radio industry, because many of our shows were two to three hours of liberal talk in a sea of right wing spew," he said. "This idea of having a home where the entire broadcast day is liberal . . . we think the audience will come." But even Lorei wondered if an entire network's worth of programming can successfully debut nationwide at once. "Good radio has to be done more organically," he said. "You start with people who have a track record locally . . . and put them on a little higher platform. It's taking quite a chance to take people whose careers are not in radio and try to make them stars." Challenge No. 3: Devout conservatives often embrace corporate power and advocate supporting the country's institutions; liberals, particularly these days, criticize such symbols. Listen to WMNF and you'll hear Democracy Now criticize how the United States once supported Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan, or commentator Jim Hightower lambaste U.S. companies that reincorporate in Bermuda to avoid paying U.S. taxes. Compare that to conservative talker Limbaugh, who recently theorized that good news for America -- including stronger sales in U.S. chain stores and the capture of Saddam Hussein -- is bad news for Democratic presidential hopefuls. "Conservatives are saying our enemies really are the bad guys, people should be moral," said the National Review's Goldberg. "Liberals say this is still a racist country, still a sexist country and still oppresses the poor. To have these (companies) run down as . . . global-warming-inducing, environment-raping racists is not a good thing to listen to on your lunch hour." And, as WMNF's Lorei noted, far left politics can also alienate potential advertisers. "Liberals are going to say there are too few corporations that own too many radio stations . . . does (radio giant) Clear Channel want to hear that?" he said. "Is Wal-Mart going to advertise on a show where its (labor practices) are being attacked?" Other challenges loom for liberal-oriented media enterprises, including finding a way to unify their ideology and develop a populist, less intellectual approach. But conservative talker Todd Schnitt, who holds down the post-Limbaugh slot on WFLA-AM 970 weekdays, suggests a simpler goal. "Hire an entertainer . . . someone who can capture an audience," said Schnitt, also known as WFLZ-FM 93.3 morning personality M.J. Kelli. "If you've got a liberal who is entertaining and engaging, conservatives will listen to him . . . just to check out the opposite point of view." (c) Copyright 2003 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. KXGQ 91.9 FM - 92-GQ --- Correspondence I had with the station, it plays superb soul music 24/7. http://www.kxgq.com/ (Mike Terry, UK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Name: Mike Terry Comments: Your music is great. I am intrigued to know how you finance the station as I never hear any commercials. Regards, Mike, Bournemouth, UK Listener: In answer to your query, as an FM station in operation locally since 1991 (and on the internet since March of 2001) not unlike other radio stations revenue is generated by local advertising sales. Due to union restrictions we are obliged to omit our local "spot" ads on our internet stream. During local stop-sets (commercial clusters) airing on our FM signal, music is substituted on our internet stream and timed in such a way that this is usually not noticeable by our internet listeners. We are also obliged to omit our network news-feed at about two minutes before each hour. This is why you normally hear an instrumental selection each hour at that time. We are allowed to let national spots pass-on to our internet stream. That is why we don't omit the national spots included in any of the syndicated programming that we carry. This is the case with all broadcast radio stations in the US that simulcast their over-the-air programming. Different stations handle it in a number of different ways (on some station's streams you hear dead-silence during the stop-set while others actually "sell" internet time availabilities separately, which is what we plan to do in the near future). KXGQ is carried on 91.9 FM on Comcast cable systems throughout the East-Bay Area. Thank you for your kind words and for taking the time to send us a message. We here at 92-GQ strive to make your listening experience an enjoyable one. There are some great new programs that will premiere in the near future, as well as some special programs that are worthy of special attention. On Friday nights join RJ for great disco from the 70s on "RJ's Disco USA" between 6pm to 10pm Pacific Time (0200-0600 UTC). On Sunday evenings be sure to check-out "The Soul of the 60's with Dick Bartley" at 6pm Pacific Time (0200 UTC) and our weekly album show "Long Play" at 7pm Pacific Time (0300 UTC). Finally, at 8pm Pacific Time (0400 UTC) we air many of the syndicated programs produced by SI communications in Burbank, California such as "Music of a People", "Story of a People", "Black Men: A Legacy of Achievement" and many other great programs from a first-class radio production outfit. Also as of the first of the year, as one of the few stations streaming in stereo, KXGQ will be increasing its streaming bit-rate to further improve our quest for high-quality stereo audio. For additional information check our web-sites at http://www.kxgq.com or http://www.geocities.com/kxgq At the same time, we'll be replacing major portions of our aging technical plant in order to provide more variety and less repetition. In the near future we also plan on making some "boss" additions to our web-site, as we'll be expanding it with additional pages. There will be rare celebrity photos of soul music artists, rare information regarding some of your favorite hits and bios on not only the performers, but also on the people that helped to make it happen (Shh! keep this info to yourself; it's supposed to be a secret). 92-GQ plans on creating the greatest soul-station of all time! D. C. Bailey, Century Broadcasting (via Mike Terry, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 1289.88, USA, 2302-2305 Dec. 24. Someone way off frequency here, definitely domestic with unID satellite-fed ToH news. Very poor. Seems to me David Crawford long-ago ID'ed this, though I might have the wrong channel (© 2003, Terry L Krueger, Clearwater FL, TOCOBAGA DX Dec 25 via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 1630.9 -- That tone on 1630 has been a constant visitor at my QTH here in Central PA for many months; I always figured it was from some locally generated source and never bothered to investigate it further. Tonight (11:30 PM EST) it's at equal or greater levels to KCJJ and WRDW, loops NW-SE, and zero beats at 1630.9 kHz. While the tone is nearly steady, it does exhibit a bit of wavering to my ear. I haven't bothered to check its daytime levels (if any) but will do so tomorrow and report any findings (Brett Saylor, N3EVB, State College, PA, Dec 23, NRC-AM via DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ INSTANT TRAFFIC REPORTER Anyone else have one of those new $29.99 ITR receivers? It clips to the car sun visor, and broadcasts continuous traffic updates (I've been played with it for an hour, and there were no updates -- ahem, Gary M., you remain the bay area Traffic God). However, closer to drive-time, updates picked up. Powered by four AAA's. Just a silly radio toy (I can never resist such) that I grabbed while in the usual, painfully slow Soviet-era checkout line at Eckerd, which is the primary selling partner right now. It's people like me that Eckerd obviously intentionally created the slow check-out process for. Anyways, they are hawking the crap out of the ITR on local TV spots now, you know, right up there with C-C-C-Chia and the Clap-On. If they only incorporated all three into ONE product, they'd have a guaranteed money-maker. Imagine: traffic with fuzzy greenery, providing needed oxygen to your car's interior, and a moment with both hands off of the wheel while travelling at a high rate of speed ("clap, clap") to deactivate the receiver. Brilliant on my part, no? One of the partners in this project is ex-Tampa Bay Lightning member Brian Bradley, a Canadian. The signal is piggied on an FM subcarrier in a joint venture with Infinity (Viacom) and Metro Networks. One of the audio loops mentions a transmitter stick in "downtown Tampa" and another in St. Petersburg. Does anyone know which local Infinity FM'ers these are specifically emitting from? See http://www.ITRNow.com for more info. Apparently Tampa Bay is the only city in the country with this service for the moment, though Miami, Jacksonville and Orlando appear to be coming up soon according to their web (© 2003, Terry L Krueger, Clearwater FL, TOCOBAGA DX Dec 25 via DXLD) DVD RECORDERS/EQUIPMENT REVIEW A few days ago I purchased a Gateway AR-230 DVD recorder as a gift. This is a DVD+R/RW recorder with built-in tuner, thus intended to be a VCR replacement. It sells at a breakthrough price of $349 (and there's even a $50 mail-in rebate that brings it down to $299). To be honest, I hadn't considered this unit for any DX purposes, but I opened the box anyway out of curiosity. Once I started playing with it, my attitude changed. Then I decided to take the time to run some real tests on it... This unit has several unusual features that make it DX-friendly: 1. It has NO BLUE SCREEEN. (Not even an option to turn it on.) 2. It has manual fine tuning, in 48 steps (24 above and 24 below the channel) 3. It is unusually sensitive. 4. It automatically places chapter markers on the DVD every minute (this is adjustable in 1 minute increments from 1-15 min., and can be turned completely off). This would be great for unattended recording; one could record an entire skip event and rapidly review it later. (You can record 1, 2, 4, or 6 hours on one disc -- trading off picture quality for time.) 5. It has a setting for "Canada." That's right, the tuner can be programmed to receive Canadian stations (the other choice is "America"). I'm not making this up. Maybe DX'ers in California could set this up to pick up stuff in Quebec? (LOL) Actually, I have no idea what this function does. The TV tuner sensitivity (the point at which color lock is lost) measures -99dBm worst case at VHF channel 9, and a very good -109dBm up at UHF-66. Overall, sensitivity is excellent, in fact 6dB better than my best TV set. Adjacent channel rejection is average at about 47dB (lower channel) and greater than 55dB (upper channel). Image rejection is average at 51dB. The unit is made in China, so the build quality is certainly not top-notch, but it is attractive and very simple to use. I believe it is made by Lite-On, which is a decent brand name of optical drives for PC's. My method of measuring selectivity shows the unit is average. In actual use, it works better than measurements would indicate because of the fine tuning capability. My worst channel is 8, sandwiched between DC's 7 and 9. This unit fails to lock onto Richmond or Lancaster 8 on its own. But if I fine-tune, it locks on just fine. Philly's NBC-10 locks on easily between DC-9 and weaker Balto-11. Etc. The unit holds sync down to unwatchable signal strength, which none of my VCR's will do. (One very thoughtful touch: the AR-230 has a TiVo style menu screen, but they put a small screen of the live video on the menu so you can see the effect of fine tuning as you adjust it. Most TV's simply superimpose menu characters on the picture, which can be very difficult to see with a weak signal coming in, or just blue screen the entire picture.) You can look it up on the web at http://www.gateway.com and Google search will pull up some reviews. I have no financial interest in this matter. This has whetted my appetite for a DVD recorder. Now I`d like to get my hands on one of the Panasonic or Samsung units and do a "shootout." 73, (Tim McVey, Warrenton, VA, Dec 19, WTFDA via DXLD) I would put a vote in for the Panasonic DMR-E60. I've recorded Es and very long-haul tropo on it, and it works quite well (Girard Westerberg, Lexington, KY, ibid.) THE NRC IBOC DEBATE CONTINUES [from 3-222] Someone else had an IBOC test receiver and the analog got way beyond that. The IBOC was gone well before Philadelphia, and had dropped back modes too. Lucent is itself on exceptionally shaky ground. Ibiquity had a BIG engineering lay off directly related to money (Powell E. Way III, SC, NRC-AM late Nov via DXLD) WOR was always useable throughout all of the Philadelphia suburbs N & E of the city as pure analog in the old days. Used to be a CE would brag on his coverage -- now with IBOC he has to talk it down in order to make the IBOC appear attractive ???? This is why he has unfortunately compromised his credibility throughout this continuing IBOC saga (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA (15 mi NNW Philadelphia), ibid.) Thank you for demonstrating my point. "Near Philadelphia" is about 70 miles outside the NY metro, and of no real sales and marketing use to WOR. As mentioned before, only 300 of all 13 thousand US stations get ratings outside their local metro, and most of these 300 are getting into adjacent markets that are smaller and unproductive (Like LA stations in Riverside, CA. Big ratings, zero sales). As long as the digital signal is prevalent in the metro, it should do fine. I can see no reason why a NY station would care, or would have in the last 50 years, about covering Philadelphia. It is a smaller market, lower rate market and there is no Philly revenue to be derived from coverage of that market. And, in the last 20 years or so, local noise levels have effectively eliminated the possibility of using weak signals. The WOR point is well made: the digital extends way beyond anything they need and want to cover, so the digital coverage is acceptable (David Gleason, Burbank CA, ibid.) I'll grant you your point, but explain why the former 1-A's would need 750 mile night time protection if they have no intention of providing any service to the people in that radius? If your logic applies, then all the daytimers on those freq's should be allowed unrestricted nighttime operations once IBOC gets night authorization. A good reason to demand that those 50 KW ND clears continue to service their skywave audience lies in the power failure in the Midwest and Northeast this fall --- Where did people turn for information? The Big AM's. Would not be possible if IBOC gets night authorization --- Something about service to the public. Or why not have the Federal government grant ownership of those frequencies to the licensees and forget the foolish notion that the airwaves belong to the public. Since IBOC will be creating a lot of interference, why not just have stations provide interference free service to their city of license and to hell with everyone else. Just my $0.02 worth (Paul Smith, W4KNX Sarasota, FL, ibid.) A technically useable signal often exists at distances where the revenue is non-existent. We all know that. If the argument is one of useable signal, then we're talking about much greater distances than when the argument becomes one of revenue-producing signal. The latter, as you've pointed out previously, is far less. We all hopefully understand that a station's primary coverage area is all that matters in terms of advertising revenue and the audience that produces it. There are a small handful of AM clears still programming to the truckers, but they're a small and statistically-insignificant minority. IBOC AM *may* sound better than analog when heard on appropriate and comparable-quality equipment. I don't know about that. And if I weren't a DX'er, I wouldn't care about IBOC, but nor would I care about AM other than for local traffic and weather which are just fine as they are. Time will tell whether IBOC on AM will become another historical artifact like AM Stereo or whether it will, as you suggest, become as popular and inexpensive as CD players are today. I'm betting closer to the former (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA, ibid.) I expect that when all falls out, the digital will be way more fragile than they ever anticipated when encountering real world interference. WOR doesn't really count, being on a clear channel. And I do expect all but the very best made radios to not perform very well. You forget that the manufacturers have just forgotten how and cheapened up receivers to the point where the AM section really doesn't work. The FM's are surprisingly bad in recent times (Powell E. Way, ibid.) || Having talked with Tom Ray, I got a different impression. I feel he told me that the digital signal was usable "nearly to Philadelphia" while the analog signal got lost in noise and RFI before that. || **** Chuck says: How odd. The NRSC reports show exactly the opposite. See amibocevaluationreport04062002.pdf from the NRSC report and you'll see the lesser coverage areas for digital. Furthermore, the digital coverage area is the MONO coverage area. With stereo, the IBOC coverage area will be dramatically less than mono which is less than analog. || I have heard no indication that Ibiquity is in bad shape; in fact, a large group of the owners are broadcasters, nearly all of which have invested. || **** Chuck says: what does it prove that broadcasters are investors? And I think there is plenty of reason to think iBiquity is in not-good shape. It seems to be a public fact that their remaining capital is enough to last them until next summer and that they must have new investment (which they are seeking). Of course that is true for many startups --- not just iBiquity --- and many of them do get funded. However, many do not. At this point, I believe AM IBOC will not attract investment. FM IBOC seems to not be dying but not be strong enough to carry the whole company. We shall see (Chuck Hutton, WA, ibid.) The problem is that the definition of usable has changed over several decades, and as a function of man-made interference. Tom Ray [WOR] indicated to me that the digital signal was usable beyond the usable range of the analog signal. Ibiquity is likely to get further capital from the broadcasters who have already invested, and the market will make the rest. Just in the company I am with, there are 12 IBOC installs, an AM and an FM in each of the roll-out markets; there are plenty of other installs around the country and lots of consumer electronics company interest. That means investment. Remember, XM is still far from profitable and has lost hundreds of millions in the last 5 years. Sirius is a trader's favorite for short selling, yet survives (David Gleason, ibid.) If IBOC is to survive, Analog needs to go away fast, like in 2 years. IBOC will have to be mandated on ALL receivers first. Who cares who gets left in the cold, right? Yep, that will do it (Powell E. Way, ibid.) David, I don't care about marketing and all that stuff that you hype because you are part of HBC a CCU subsidiary and a VP. As such, you have little standing with me. I am a DXer. As far as I am concerned IBAC stinks. It decreases the signal range that I can receive. As a DXer, I don't care to hear the IBAC rah-rah stuff. I wish you would be more supportive of the DX hobby but being in your corporate position we have to hear about IBAC and why it`s good for radio. Its possible it could be good for radio but I think it`s bad for DXers. Dave, you are going to see IBAC hit the dirt on a rocket and destroy terrestial radio. XM is going to make a ton of money because of corporate greed. When people hear the hissing crap they will run as fast as they can to XM and Sirius. I thought that satellite radio was DOA until I heard IBAC. I am a satellite radio believer now. I am very disgusted with the corporate people and even more so the government. I would much prefer digital radio to be on a separate band. However the corporations have paid the government officials off and the people are getting hosed again. Dave, you are the consummate corporate guy. If I were VP of HBC, a CCU subsidiary, I would say the same thing (Kevin Redding, Mesa, Arizona, ibid.) To start --- HBC does not exist, and has not for 90 days. It was merged with Univisión, and Clear Channel was reduced to a 3% shareholder, and has sold most of its resultant UVN stock since then. The Cisneros family from Venezuela owns 5 times as much of Univisión as CCU, and they are only the 4th largest shareholder. HBC was never, ever a Clear Channel subsidiary. Clear owned a 26% non- voting interest, and in all my time, 10 years, I never saw a Clear Channel person at any of the stations, was never called by one nor was anyone else I know. Your are modifying the truth to fit your belief. A lie, no matter how many times you state it, is still a lie. As a DXer, I support the hobby. But no station makes any money off DX reception, and I have to be realistic. IBOC is a definite factor, and will be in hundreds of major FMs by mid-2004. If AM joins in, it will survive. If it does not, this will be yet another nail in the AM coffin and we will start to see Austria, South Africa and Canada-like disappearances of AM in the US. Since you like to bash Clear Channel, keep in mind that they have invested in music AMs in Portland, Cincinnati and Chicago of recent, pioneering a 50's and 60's oldies format that has achieved listener interest and shows that music AMs, properly programmed, will work. XM, on which I program 5 channels, is not even targeted at the same audience. It is aimed at people like you, Kevin, who are at the fringe of the appeal of terrestrial radio due to taste, age (too young or too old) or ethnicity. Those folks make up the 2% to 3% of Americans that will use XM, and, by the way, make it profitable (David Gleason, ibid.) We know that stations do not make money off DX. || SCREAMING ON THE TOP OF MY LUNGS || THIS IS A AM DX LIST. THE WAY YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT IBOC, IS THAT IT WILL KILL DX AND TAUNTING ALL DX'ERS. GRRRR!!! (pant pant wheeze!) David, the way you have talked about IBOC is very insulting to a lot of us (Powell E. Way, ibid.) Powell, reality is reality. It is neither insulting nor flattering --- just the truth. The fact is, whether right or wrong, most major broadcasters have committed to IBOC and will be installing equipment. How this effects DX is one of the subjects of this group. Ignoring reality is not usually an option, so seeing from a station perspective what is going on is, to me, appropriate. I don't apologize for being in broadcasting, and don't apologize for looking at how to use technology to improve station performance. I remember when I first debated going 24/7 on my own station; the DXer said "no" but the broadcaster said "yes." IBOC is a similar situation (David Gleason, ibid.) Most have NOT. Reality is for the MW band, 75% of the stations HAVE to go off for IBOC to work, for FM, it's 33.33% or more. Reality is all of the old graveyard will have to go dark. Almost all of the mom and pops will be gone. I work for one. 1240 and IBOC won't work. Jimmy here at the station wants me to work full time. I am not going to do this. I don't want to be the last person to turn off the lights. I had thought of moving up here or the NE Georgia mountains some 75 miles NE of Atlanta. I can hear WSB and some of the others, and most of the Atlanta FM's. Often the FM's are shaky in displaying the RDS because of the background interference. And I'd expect to get really decent FM when I move, I'd have to spend over $500 on just antennas when IBOC is around because of co and adjacent channel interference. Thank goodness I have tons of vinyl and around 500 or more CD's. Your tone of voice is almost a gloating that it will destroy DX'ing. Reality is that IBOC will take commercial broadcasting to its knees, and then the sword may indeed fall. Except for close in major markets, there will be extremely large areas of the US with NO MW reception, and there also large areas of no FM either, due to stations going off, or too much interference. We do not even have a clue to how IBOC on FM is going to handle tropo interference. We do know that the US version of HDTV cannot handle E-skip at all. I'd expect tropo (there is tropo DX of HDTV, but with only 1 station being tropo'd) interference to just eat it up. A rip roaring thunderstorm will kill IBOC MW. I'm very close to taking my DX-398 and YB-400 outside the station and running over them (Powell E. Way, ibid.) Permit me to offer a few words as someone who's both a DXer and a broadcaster, if I may: I am not a big fan of Ibiquity's system. I don't think it's a terribly elegant technological solution, particularly on the AM side. Many of the broadcast engineers I talk to on a regular basis are equally unenthusiastic about it when speaking candidly --- yes, even some of the ones who have it on their stations. I have heard the system in action, albeit not on the current (and reportedly much improved) codec. I was not at all impressed with the audio quality of the last codec, but I'm willing to reserve judgment until I can get back to New York in a month or so and hear the new codec at work. That said, I don't think we've really heard any good tests of what effect the system will have when it's implemented across the AM dial. WOR is both the best and worst possible testbed for the system --- best, because it's one of the small percentage of AM broadcasters that truly blankets its entire market with a signal that's usable day and night in contemporary noise fields and on contemporary receivers; worst, because such a strong signal with so few co- and adjacent- channel signals nearby will of course show off the system's performance in a way that few other stations can hope to match. It's all well and good that we're debating whether WOR can be heard in digital in Philadelphia, but let's not forget that WOR at least puts a listenable signal into every corner of its own city of license. You can't say the same for several other New York-licensed stations (1330, 1380, 1480, 1600, even the 50 kw 1560) --- and that's even more true of thousands of other AMs in other markets. We STILL don't know how the system will work when it's implemented on, for instance, 1040 Flemington NJ, 1050 New York and 1060 Philadelphia. There has been no empirical testing of the system under such circumstances, and a number of engineers whose skills I respect believe (again, when speaking off the record) that such levels of adjacent-channel interference will render both analog and digital service unusable under those circumstances in areas where analog signals are currently listenable. In the case of Philadelphia, that could mean areas such as Bucks County, which is very much in KYW's home market; ditto for New York and areas such as Middlesex County, N.J. I'm also inclined to be doubtful about how quickly IBOC receivers will be swallowed up by the marketplace so long as existing analog transmissions continue. Even if the cost of digital receivers plummets, as I agree it will, radios for home and portable use are relatively durable consumer goods, and it's hard for me to imagine any but the most obsessive early adopters rushing to replace their existing, working analog radios just to get the digital signal (which won't sound noticeably better on the 3" speaker of a portable radio in any event.) Yes, it will make its way into cars over a 10 year phase- in period, but that represents only a portion of all radio listening. So that, in turn, means that there won't be a speedy transition to the digital-only radio environment that is (or should be) the ultimate goal of this next step in broadcast technology. It's hard for me to imagine that we won't still be in the analog/digital cohabitation period 15 years from now --- and that's the period that poses the most danger both to smaller broadcasters and to our hobby. Ibiquity has apparently been selling smaller AM stations on the idea that going digital will somehow increase their coverage areas, and I know of several station owners who are buying into the system specifically for that reason. I think they're making a mistake. I believe the widespread adoption of the system, should it occur, will add considerably to the background noise and interference level that has already relegated thousands of AM signals to economic third-class status. Even the big guns, the 50 kw signals that have remained economically viable as major full-market signals, will suffer at least some level of added noise at night from co- and adjacent-channels. The AM engineering game these days, as I've said on this list several times before, is as much about interference received as it is about actual signal coverage. (As I've pointed out before, the smartest AM engineers I know judge AM facilities by their nighttime interference- free contours, and you'd be stunned to see just how small they are for many stations that look as though they should have better signals.) Keep adding to the overall noise floor and the game just gets uglier. What's desperately needed is a way to weed out the AM dial and to make it economically attractive and legally possible for small-signal operators to allow themselves to be bought out (or to themselves buy out interfering signals) to clean up a lot of the mess that the spectrum has become over the past few decades. Ibiquity's system would have worked like a charm with the signals and noise level of the U.S. AM dial in 1955. Find a way to get back to that, and maybe I'd have more faith in it. For now, though, if I were an AM broadcaster, I'd spend that $100K (a lowball estimate, by the way, for many stations with older directional antenna systems that need to be broadbanded to pass IBOC) on a couple of new cars before I'd invest it in this system. But that's just me... s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) With IBAC or not, this is going to happen. IBAC will just accelerate the situation. IBAC just isn't compatible with the frequencies below the UHF bands. Digital radio needs the stability of UHF frequencies. The only way IBAC will make it is if the government mandates it. I am sure this would please many corporate types and bring tears to the mom and pops running standalone AM stations (Kevin Redding, Mesa, Arizona, ibid.) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ FIVE YEARS OF CATHOLIC RADIO UPDATE: A WHIM, A MINISTRY, OR A FOLLY? Five years ago I began what quickly became Catholic Radio Update. What triggered it was the news that EWTN had won a construction permit for a Class A FM in an out-of-the-way place in central Kentucky called Tyner. As readers know, that c.p. was allowed to expire after EWTN decided that it did not want to get into the radio construction and operation business, but concentrate on program production and network delivery --- a wise move, I think. Many an enterprise in the commercial world has come to grief by leaving what it does best and expanding into areas that drain its resources. At the time, I envisioned that this newsletter would appear in readers` e-mail boxes as news warranted. I did not think that it would be a weekly, not for a good while at least. The second issue did not appear until December 31st, and then it became apparent that weekly issues would be required. Too much news was happening too fast. Mother Angelica`s quixotic-appearing plan to spread Catholic radio through the land was beginning to gain momentum. Further, as I explored the Internet on our little second-hand Atari computer (``Don`t you think we ought to get a computer, dear? The kids are learning computers in school and we ought to have one at home.``), I started finding Catholic radio stations that I did not know existed. The first issue went out to five people whose e-mail addresses were available on the Internet; two are still with Catholic Radio Update: Father Robert Reed, who heads the radio apostolate of the Archdiocese of Boston, and Tom Busch, the engineer who built the Diocese of Fairbank`s KNOM 780 AM Nome and later returned (after considerably begging by founder Father James Poole SJ) to manage the station. I hear from both of them on occasion and value their continued interest. As time went on, I added names as I came across them, station people whom I thought would be interested. Word spread about Catholic Radio Update and with time I began to receive e-mails from people asking to have their names put on the list. I no longer add people`s names on my own initiative, not because I do not want Catholic Radio Update to be considered spam, but because by temperament I do not impose myself on people who are not interested in me or what I have to say. Today, this newsletter has about 160 ``subscribers.`` Not all Catholic radio stations receive it. and because I list a station and its e-mail address in my directories does not mean it is on my automated subscriber list. Early on my investigations, at first in the inestimable World Radio-TV Handbook, page by page, line by line, in the Central America and South America sections, discovered many Catholic stations and some that were uncertain. Readers are aware that Latin America is far ahead of the rest of the world in Catholic radio. It seemed to me that the rest of the world (that infinitesimal slice of Catholic radio people who read Catholic Radio Update) ought to know about these stations, and that these stations ought to know about the developments of Catholic radio, first in the United States and then in the rest of the world. At the time, there was little Internet in Latin America; the stations with websites you could count on one hand. Brasil (I spell it the way the people of that country do), as in much else, was ahead of the pack. I started a Spanish edition, Radio Católica al Día, first as separate newsletter, then merged it into a bilingual publication, Catholic Radio Update/Radio Católica al Día, and then, on the urging of several readers, split it off. I had hoped to achieve a unity in a bilingual edition, but soon found out that this made no one happy. Radio Católica al Día counts about 80 subscribers today, a gain of only 10 in the last 18 months. Many have joined, but e-mail addresses in the lands of Cervantes change constantly, and apparently Radio Católica al Día is unimportant to readers there, because I rarely get change-of- address notices. Frankly, this Spanish newsletter is a big disappointment. Perhaps it is because I am a gringo. Latin Americans hate the United States with a passion, many of them -- - particularly in the Church, which is pronouncedly leftwing throughout much of Latin America. Those of us Americans who have studied in Latin America at anytime know I speak the truth. I studied in Mexico City one summer in the 1960`s as part of a university program. The anti-Americanism was intense. I saw dozens of American college kids from around the country drop out of the program and return home, forfeiting all credits. Others went to sit under the American flag in the U.S. Embassy on Paseo de la Reforma, just be around other Americans and hear English, while their counterparts back home were burning draft cards and flags. I had several verbal encounters with Mexican students, all on their impetus, including one with a very angry university student at a bus stop. He was so angry that the veins on his forehead were distended. But his English was as bad as my Spanish and we were reduced to bursts of singular words and sputtering. The newspapers at the time were filled with photos and reports of the war in Vietnam; the Mexican dailies featured U.S. Marines burning thatched huts in villages; they did not feature the atrocities against the people waged by the Viet-Cong. The U.S. has done a lot of stupid things regarding Latin America and still does, but we are often blamed for problems of their own making. In any event, Radio Católica al Día continues to be a problem. If it were not for a few dedicated, warmly friendly correspondents and readers, I would terminate it immediately. Because no one wants to translate my English into better Spanish than I can produce, I have to translate it myself, and it takes many hours away from the kind of research and attention to detail that I would like to give both editions. The English edition continues to grow steadily. How many of the 150 readers actually read it, I have no idea. There are indications that a few people forward it on to others— once in a while I receive an e- mail from a reader I did not know I had. In terms of size of the publication, I originally tried to hold it to four pages, then eight. This proved impossible, and now some issues are over my present target of 13 pages when events warrant it, such as this anniversary issue. The longest has been 19 pages. The problem is, especially in this day when everyone is overstressed and overbusy, the longer the issue, the fewer will read it. It is a dilemma: the more news, the fewer readers; the less news, the less useful this newsletter. Many have written to encourage me in my ``ministry.`` I do not know if it is a ministry; that is for God to decide. I started this because I have always been interested in radio, since that night long, long ago, when at 13 I discovered on my mother`s table radio that I could pick up Little Rock and distant stations at night. (Transistors had not yet been invented; it was a five-tuber all-American table radio, Arvin by brand. That should tell you how old I am.) In my early twenties I realized that the Church was hardly involved in radio at all, but it was only much later in life that I saw this as a serious deficiency. I followed the development of EWTN with great interest. I was aware of it but had never seen it until a local Catholic woman led a successful petition drive to have it added to the local cable television network, and finally we had a presence in the media. True, there had been a few Catholic stations on the air, mostly diocesan, but these were few and far between, and the stations at Catholic universities were turned over to the students who used them to propagate the neopaganism that flooded college campuses. When Mother Angelica began her shortwave station, WEWN, I was delighted, although I could not get it during the day on my small portable radio and often only with difficulty at night. When she started promoting Catholic AM and FM stations, I thought it a Quixotic project, given the prices of radio stations (not what they are today, but still steep back then) and the general indifference of Catholics to Catholic media. The consequent development to the present day is in large part thanks to her pioneering work done in the face of great hostility from many Catholic religious, priests, bishops, Catholic intellectuals, and ecclesial aparatchiks. She was, as the Thomists would say, the instrumental cause; Divine Providence was the efficient cause. EWTN was, and is, a heavy shower that helped end a long drought of liturgical, catechetical, and moral theological abuses in the Church in the United States. So it is that Catholic radio began to develop in the United States and, as a small consequence, I enthusiastically began Catholic Radio Update. Both have grown remarkably since. Instead of a small, sporadic newsletter detailing new stations, it became a link between Catholic stations in the U.S. Much to my surprise and horror, I began hearing from readers who said that the work was unique and indispensable. One long-time reader wrote me that he often goes into the office on Saturday morning to read the latest issue. Many others have written very kind notes of encouragement and praise. Encouragement I need. The perennial problem is getting people at various Catholic radio stations to cooperate by sending news and answering my e-mails. At least half my e-mails are not answered, not even from CRU/RCD readers. This never fails to amaze me, because I do not ask about privileged information --- expenses, personnel problems. Instead, I have had to rely these five years on radio websites and DX (radio fan) club bulletins and members. Readers will be aware that almost all of the recent big news --- CX12 Radio Oriental, Radio María Bolivia, Radio María España, Radio María Argentina, various LPFM stations on the air --- came through the great kindness and constant help of the wonderful people in radio clubs around the world. I do not name them for fear I will inadvertently leave one out. But they know who they are and readers will see their names frequently on these pages. What causes me even more difficulties is that most websites dedicated to radio are drying up; some have started charging subscriptions (such as www.100000watts.com), others offer less information than ever (Radio and Records Online, Radio Business Report, Broadcasting and Cable) to the public. Many excellent websites that proved accurate and thorough sites maintained by people like me who love radio, have been ended by their authors because of the great amount of time required to verify and obtain information. One has only to go to one such site, Michiguide.com, click on ``Regional Guides`` and then click on the many links to radio websites to find out that they have either been terminated, not been updated in months or years, or have simply become a list of local stations and websites. In short, it is increasingly difficult to produce this newsletter. Ironically, readers who have not been particularly cooperative have faulted me for publishing information they say is erroneous. The information in question came from other sources that I was forced to use. I am often told, ``you are doing the work of the Lord.`` If I am doing the work of the Lord, why don`t I get more cooperation? Where do they expect me to get information from? Or is it that this newsletter has served its purpose and the project should be given over to somebody else? Hey, I`ll go along with that. Somebody else in Catholic radio ought to be doing a newsletter, one that encompasses all types of Catholic stations in every land. Perhaps Signis will do this. I hope so. In the United States, the same polarizations between the avant-garde and traditionalists that have disrupted the Church for 40 years militate against the various genres of Catholic radio stations from even associating with each other! Foreign readers understandably would think I exaggerate or am mistaken here. They ought to sit in this chair in front of this computer. Let me say, for the benefit of new readers and casual readers, that this newsletter is a product of my own personal interest. I do not have any pecuniary interest in it; it is not subsidized by anyone or any organization. It is not fostered by the official Catholic Church. There are no paid subscriptions, advertisements, subsidies of any kind. Out-of-pocket expenses are minimal and income is zero. I have no personal agendas; I am not out for employment or position; this is not my regular employment; I do not hope to use this newsletter for any kind of gain; it is not connected with any commercial or noncommercial product, service, or activity. The opinions are my own unless stated otherwise. Most important of all, Catholic Radio Update is not the voice of Catholic radio! To wrap it up: Your encouragement and warm letters are read with gratitude. My deep thanks to all the wonderful readers and correspondents who have kept this newsletter going, in English and Spanish, particularly to those who have sent in information and news reports. My eternal thanks to the warm friends I have made in Latin America who offered me and my family refuge after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001. At the time no one knew what was in the offing or how things would develop, and these kind Christians on their own motivation wrote immediately, opening their homes to us for our personal safety. A very Blessed and Merry Christmas to all. Thank you (Michael Dorner, editor, Catholic Radio Update Dec 22 via DXLD) COMMENTARY ++++++++++ RE: SWL CALLs Humm, rather a one sided outlook on the "whys" (or in the article case, whyNOT's) of holding a SWL call, as published in the December 2003 MT. I know you read my posts to Duane (and the group) on SWL group. There are valid reasons for obtaining a SWL call, and YES it is a Wizard of Oz thing, but then one could also take it one step further into the Amateur radio licensing game. Amateurs talk, therefore they should be licensed by the governing body under which they live. SWL's listen, a call is not "essential to life", but does come in very handy when sending out QSL requests to HAMS and when applying for awards. SWL QSL cards DO go through the ARRL incoming QSL bureau, and there is even an SWL ARRL co-ordinator responsible for distributing them to us lowly SWL's. I could tell you a few interesting stories about the ARRL and SWL's, but that is not the point of this note. I hope you might post a few positive responses, and if you would like I will write you a section for your column giving good reasons why (expanding on above), so that the opposite side can give a viewpoint (Bob Combs, KCA6RC, WDX6RTC, WPE2PJU, New Mexico, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ EARLY TELEVISION CONVENTION, OHIO, APRIL 24TH & 25TH While browsing around on a British mechanical television website, I found an interesting press release from the Early Television Foundation in Hilliard, Ohio. They will be having their Early Television Convention this coming April 24th and 25th. The press release is in the following link (some distance down the page, but you'll find it): http://www.nbtv.wyenet.co.uk/hot.htm Scheduled doings include a demonstration of the infamous CBS partly-mechanical color television system (the first time in fifty years!), plus some sort of program about TV DX during the NTSC era, along with the foundation's usual demonstrations of mechanical television technology. The Early Television Foundation's website is at: http://www.earlytelevision.org Interestingly enough, their own site doesn't have the press release about their convention on it (Curtis Sadowski, WTFDA via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ SIGNAL STRENGTH vs DISTANCE You have to be careful with relating signal strength inversely with distance. There are a couple of reasons why closer stations may be weaker (assuming they're running the same power, have equally efficient antenna systems, etc.). The most obvious one is that skywave over short distances involves high radiation angles, and the radiation from the vertically-polarized transmitting antennas drops off at high angles. The other reason is more subtle: the E layer critical frequency drops to near the bottom end of the AM broadcast band at night. This means that for frequencies above that, rays above a certain elevation angle (determined by the secant law) will penetrate the E layer and be reflected by the F layer instead. In the ex-band, this will occur for elevation angles greater than roughly 20 degrees, which corresponds to ground distances in the 300-350 mile range. So, for stations within that range, the skywave signals will be propagated by the F layer, and since it's about three times the height of the E layer, they have to travel a lot farther and will thus have significantly higher path loss (10 dB or more). This E layer penetration mechanism may or may not be a factor in your case, depending on the distances involved. Re-reading this, I see that it's a bit unclear. I should have said that elevation angles of greater than 20 degrees correspond to ground distances *up to* 300-350 miles. Here's an example. Suppose you have two x-band stations, one 250 miles away and the other 400 miles away. For E layer propagation, the radiation angles would be about 27 and 17 degrees, respectively. However, my claim is that only the 400 mile path will be via the E layer, since signals launched at 27 degrees elevation will not be reflected by this layer. In other words, for the 250 mile distance, x- band is above the E-layer MUF. For that distance, the path goes via the F layer, and the elevation angle is much higher - around 43 degrees. Not only is this path longer than the E layer path for 400 miles, so there is more spreading loss, but the transmitting antennas probably send considerably less energy out at 43 degrees elevation than at 17 degrees. So, it's not surprising that the station 400 miles away could be stronger than the one at 250 miles. Your mileage may vary. :-) From my vantage point, WHKT 1650 (about 600 miles away) does not seem unusually strong. The NJ stations (about 350 miles) and WPTX (about 450 miles) are normally stronger here. Judging from signal strengths here, the x-banders that I most suspect of running day power at night are WTAW and WEUV. Happy Holidays, all! (Barry McLarnon, VE3JF, Ottawa, ON, NRC-AM via DXLD) Since MUF is Maximum Useable Frequency, how can one X-bander but not the other be either above or below it, especially when your prior post indicated that it goes to the lower end of the band at night? While the effect to the receiver may be the same, radiation angles aren't analogous to MUF. And leaving out the issue of the MUF, the radiation angle issue makes excellent sense. Whether the same applies when the distances are 80 - 100 miles (WWRU & WPTX) or 240 miles (WHKT) I don't know (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA (15 mi NNW Philadelphia), ibid.) Russ: Perhaps the definition of MUF is what's causing confusion. The International Telecommunications Union ITU-R (Recommendation P. 373-7 10/1995, in force) recommends two definitions for MUF: 1. Operational MUF (or just MUF) is the highest frequency that would permit acceptable operation of a radio service between given terminals at a given time under specific working conditions (antennas, power, emission type, required S/N ratio, and so forth), and, 2. Basic MUF, being the highest frequency by which a radio wave can propagate between given terminals by ionospheric propagation alone, independent of power. So Barry's usage of MUF is very standard. All he is saying is that the MUF depends on the angle of incidence of the signal. Barry (who is currently speaking via his unauthorized Seattle mouthpiece) said that the vertical E layer MUF is near the bottom of the AM band. To talk about E vs F propagation of a couple of X band stations, you are now talking elevation angles from 90 degrees down to almost 0 degrees. The precise angle determines whether E or F is possible; if 1 station is 30 degrees and the other is 15 degrees, they may indeed arrive via different layers. I have a chart of arrival angle vs. E and F MUF based on the "secant law" (as Barry has mentioned). It's done in Excel if anyone wants it. (Chuck Hutton, WA, ibid.) TRANS-ATLANTIC [polar] LW & MW DX IN ALBERTA [continued from 3-230] There was an even better opening into Europe last night, though this one certainly favoured the lower frequencies. Of the 17 European LW frequencies, 14 of them produced audio. I haven't listed them all because some are very regular here. On several I could hear a second station. This was the best LW opening I have heard here since the middle 1980's, with several stations making only a second visit in almost 30 years of DXing. Only 2 stations heard above 1Mhz being UK- 1053 and Norway 1314. All times are UT 162 France Allouis with usual French language programming at 0637 12/25/03 There was a second station under France playing classical music, no vocals heard. Both Russia and Turkey listed. Poor. 177 Germany Zehlendorf with a man speaking the German language at 0547 12/25/03 Poor 183 Germany Saarlouis with a man speaking French at 0546 12/25/03 this is the French station Europe 1 based in Paris. Poor 198 With a man and a woman speaking in one of the Eastern European languages at 0520 12/25/03 Definitely not the usual BBC English poor 198 England Droitwich et al with 2 men having a discussion in what can only be described as BBC English at 0550 12/25/03 Fair at times 207 Germany Aholming with faint music under beacon QRM at 0551 12/25/03 Followed by a man & woman speaking in German. I could hear a second station underneath, Israel, Morocco and Ukraine to choose from. Poor 216 France Roumoules with a man speaking in French at 0533 12/25/03 Only the second time heard here. Poor 225 With what sounded like a young girl (child) singing at 0535 12/25/03 Too much beacon QRM to get the language. I also think there was a second station underneath. Poland and Turkey listed. Poor 234 Faint music heard under beacon QRM at 0552 12/25/03 Probably Luxemburg and not needed here. Poor 243 With classical music under beacon QRM at 0539 12/25/03. Denmark and Turkey listed. Poor 252 With a female talking at 0540 12/25/03. Just too much beacon QRM to get the language. Algeria, Armenia and Russia listed. Poor 261 With faint music under beacon QRM at 0556 12/25/03 followed by a woman talking. Unable to get the language used. Poor 270 With classical music at 0543 12/25/03 Both Czech Republic and Russia listed. Poor 531 Switzerland Beromunster with hymnal/choral music at 0518 12/25/03. No vocals heard until 0600 when man began talking in German giving a possible ID. As the only German station listed on 531 is a DRM test station and Switzerland has a German Language Network on this frequency, it can only be them. Fair at times and in the clear. New for me. 765 Probably Switzerland Sottens here with man and woman speaking French at 0514 12/25/03 Followed by a woman singing in the same language. Poor 837 Probably France Nancy here with a man and woman speaking French at 0510 12/25/03 Poor 864 With a woman talking at 0507 12/25/03. Too much slop from 860 to get the language used. Poor 873 With a man possibly reading the news at 0505 12/25/03 in the Russian language. 4 stations listed. Clear and alone on channel. (Mike in St Isidore AB Stonebridge, with AOR 7030 & 150' EWE, Dec 25, IRCA via DXLD) GOOD TA CONDITIONS COMING THIS WEEK MW-condities --- Hallo MW-DX-ers, De komende dagen (26-31 december) worden goede MW condities verwacht. Proberen maar dus --- zie ook http://www.dxlc.com/solar/ Ikzelf hoorde al diverse TA stations. Groeten (Ben, Dec 25, BDXC via DXLD) ###