DX LISTENING DIGEST 4-043, March 8, 2004 edited by Glenn Hauser, http://www.worldofradio.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 For restrixions and searchable 2004 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 1222: Wed 1030 on WWCR 9475 Mon 0430 on WSUI 910, webcast http://wsui.uiowa.edu WRN ONDEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO [also for CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL]: Check http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html WORLD OF RADIO 1222 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1222h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1222h.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1222.html WORLD OF RADIO 1222 (low version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1222.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1222.rm ** AFGHANISTAN. Masa, JG1OWV, informs OPDX that Afghanistan hams are now planning to operate club station YA0J for the upcoming CQ WPX SSB Contest (March 27-28th). Their activity will be limited, and they will try to be on as much as possible within their work schedules. This will be the first Multi-Operator entry from that country (KB8NW, OPDX March 7, BARF-80 via John Norfolk, DXLD) YA, AFGHANISTAN. Rene, DL2JRM, is on a business trip in Afghanistan Until March 19th. He is currently active as YA/DL2JRM and plans to be Active on 160-10 meters. Over the past week, he was heard on 160/ 40/ 17/ 15 meters CW (KB8NW, OPDX March 7, BARF-80 via John Norfolk, DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. RAE heard on 15344.9 at 1906-1953, Mar 5, Italian to Europe with folk music, talks, DX program; 35433 with adjacent QRM till 1930 and improving QSA towards 2000; the modulation, however, was dreadful, distorted I'd say; announced // 9690 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DSWCI DX Window March 8 via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. Rejoinder to Jonathan Marks` comments about the possible closure of ABC Radio National: So more people find Newsradio interesting. Even more like so-called reality television such as "Big Brother" (which originated in The Netherlands) and "Survivor". What do these numbers prove? The 200,000 that regularly listen to Radio National may be the smartest and most intellectually curious people in the country, for all we know. RN clearly states it is a "specialist" network. In an era of 500 channel cable tv services, why do people still think that if it doesn't have a mass audience, it must not be worthy? It's not like the budget for RN is massive. It's the least expensive to operate of all the ABC networks--radio or tv. Isn't one of the prime motivations for public service broadcasting to serve audiences that commercial broadcasters won't? (John Figliozzi, NY, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RADIO NATIONAL AXING RUMOURS ALARM BROWN http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1060760.htm The Australian Greens have vowed to fight any moves to close ABC's Radio National. Greens Senator Bob Brown says he is concerned by reports that the management of the national broadcaster is considering axing the service. He says Radio National is invaluable and he will introduce a notice of motion in the Senate tomorrow aimed at protecting the network: "Radio National is pure gold for Australians who want some analysis, who want to know what's going on behind the scenes, who want to hear more than a six-second grab," Senator Brown said. "It's a really critical part of the flow of information to the public, not just on politics but on law, on health, on the arts, on sports. "It's got depth." (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** BOTSWANA. R. Botswana still inactive on SW (Vaclav Korinek in Dxplorer, Mar 6, DSWCI DX Window March 8 via DXLD) ** CHINA [non]. Re Falun Dafa, 6035: The last time I heard these daily 2100-2200 broadcasts was on Feb 04 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window March 8 via DXLD) ** CHINA. CHINA TO LAUNCH 'JAM-PROOF' SATELLITE The China Daily reports that China is preparing to launch a broadcasting satellite that officials hope will be impervious to attempts by the Falun Gong spiritual movement to block Chinese satellite TV and radio transmissions. The Sinosat-2 satellite is currently being manufactured and will be launched next year, and officials will not know for certain if the anti-jamming technology will work until the satellite is launched. During an eight-day period in June 2002, Falun Gong disrupted nine channels run by China Central Television (CCTV) and 10 provincial channels. The official broadcasts were replaced by Falun Gong programmes. In October 2003, Falun Gong prevented some Chinese viewers from watching coverage of the country's first manned spaceflight by jamming signals carried by the Sinosat-1 satellite, China Daily said. China's Ministry of Information Industry believes the jamming signals originated in Taiwan. # posted by Andy @ 10:11 UT March 8 (Media Network blog via DXLD) This, of course, is raising the red flag to the Falun Gong to come up with a solution. Digital encryption may prevent the Falun Gong hijacking the transponder, but bearing in mind the tiny powers used, blocking the Chinese uplink signal with a more powerful one -rendering the transponder silent - looks more difficult to prevent (Jonathan Marks, 03.08.04 - 12:42 pm, ibid.) ** CHINA [non]. CRI via Cuba, 17720, audio the best I have heard in quite a while. No squealing March 8 at 1505, tho there was some crackle, and the overall modulation level was higher than usual, tho still not up to par (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Our Chief Engineer at the Bauta transmitting station is very happy with the reports I have forwarded to him and his crew. And they keep on working now installing still more transmitters and new antennas to give our station much better coverage and transmission quality. For those that kept on faithfully listening to Radio Havana Cuba when we were on the air with very old, obsolete equipment, our thanks, and our hope that you all will enjoy our programming much more now that already four of our new transmitters are on the air on a regular basis (Arnie Coro, RHC DXers Unlimited March 6 via Bob Chandler, ODXA via DXLD) ** DJIBOUTI. Reliable reports from Djibouti indicate that nighttime testing, possibly using both directional and non-directional antenna modes, should now be underway or commence very shortly (Ydun Ritz (4/3-2004), Ydun`s MW News via DXLD) R. Sawa, 1431 kHz ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. 5009.8, Radio Pueblo; 2330, 6-Mar; M in Spanish ID and Latino tune. SIO=322/LSB helps. Covered by Malagasy till 2330 q.v. (Harold Frodge, Brighton MI MARE DXpedition, Cumbredx via DXLD) ** ECUADOR. 4870: see UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIAL at bottom ** ECUADOR. Re 4870: R Dif. Católica Cultural, Macas, had not been reported since June 2000 on this frequency (Ed Anker Petersen, DSWCI DX Window March 8 via DXLD) ** EGYPT. Ask WWCR #174 at http://www.wwcr.com/wwcr_ask_wwcr_program.html includes an aircheck montage from Cairo, made by George McClintock during his February visit there, some of it in English, rock and even US country music. #176 should have airchecks from the UAE. Now available only in Real and MP3 due to lack of interest in TrueSpeech (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA [non]. 15675, Voice of Liberty, heard 0440-0500*, Sun Mar 07, Triginya talks mentioning diaspora, Khartoum and America, Afropop, closing announcement mentioning http://www.eritreana.com and playing somber orchestral music, 55454 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window March 8 via DXLD) ** FRANCE. Une grève "perlée" des techniciens de Radio France- Internationale (RFI) a interrompu les programmes durant deux heures vendredi soir (NDR : le 5 mars) , a-t-on appris auprès de la présidence de la radio. Les techniciens, qui protestent contre les changements introduits par la numérisation de la radio, un chantier en cours depuis deux ans et demi, ont prévu de renouveler ces interruptions, a-t-on indiqué de même source. Des négociations sont en cours avec la direction. Aucun responsable syndical de RFI n'était joignable ce jour. (AFP via http://www.voila.fr - 05 mars 2004, informations issues de http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jm.aubier via DXLD) ** FRANCE. Ciao! Latest information: Programs of Radio Superloustic on 999 kHz Paris area will start Sunday 21 March. Their address : B.P. 32, FR-75462 Paris Cedex 10 Dernière info: Superloustic débutera ses émissions sur 999 kHz Paris, le dimanche 21 mars. Adresse: B.P. 32, FR-75462 Paris Cedex 10 (Christian Ghibaudo, France, via Dario Monferini, March 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ICELAND. 13865, Rikisutvarpid, Reykiavik sent me a nice QSL-card in 23 days with all details, except power. V/S was unreadable. A pamphlet and the transmission schedule was included. On the front of the QSL- card is a picture of `The Blue Lagoon` – a unique geothermal wonder which was inaugurated by the Icelandic President on Jul 15, 1999 (Roland Schulze, Philippines, DSWCI DX Window March 8 via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 4790, RRI Fak Fak; 1218-1230+, 7-Mar; M in unknown language with speech excerpts and remote reports. ID 1225 mentioning Indonesia, 1228:35 with (tentative) Fak Fak and again 1230 mentioning Jakarta. Sounded a lot like Spanish at times. SIO=423-/ QRM by duelling swipers (Harold Frodge, Brighton MI MARE DXpedition, Cumbredx via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL. LONG WAVE Hi Glenn, Re: INTERNATIONAL. LW-SCAN 1600- 1630 UT --- Here´s my list of LW-stations heard here in pretty electric noisy suburb of Turku, Finland via DXLD 4.042 Located further south-west in Europe I can add that, in addition to the list from Jouko, the stations listed below are usually heard at some time between 0700 and 2300. Europe #1 183 and RTL 234 are using directional antenna which may be the reason they were not audible in FNL. 153 DLF Donebach [D] 171 Medi #1 Nador [MRC] (occasionally audible) 177 DLRF Zehlandorf [D] (i.e. - not 171 as listed in the WRTH) 183 Saarlouis - Europe #1 [D] 189 RUV Gufuskular [ISL] RAI Caltanissetta [I] 198 BBC R4 Droitwich + Scottish syncros Westerglen & Burghead [UK] Raszyn [POL] underneath the BBC around 0800+ 207 DLF Aholming [D] RUV Eidar [ISL] usually around 0700 // 189 Gufuskular - same as Jouko 225 TRT Van [TUR] tentative - mixing with POL late evenings 234 RTL Junglister [LUX] 252 RTA Tipaza [ALG] Clarkestown [IRL] currently with carrier only 261 Radio Horizont, Sofia [BUL] (occasionally audible) 270 CRI Uherske-Hradiste [CZE] 279 Asgabat-TKM [audible c2300 when Sasnovy closes] TRT Polati 180 is very difficult here due splash from strong 183, but a station can occasionally be heard. Cross modulation (also known as the Luxembourg effect) is a well known phenomena on this band. I have Ided France Inter on 216 mixing with Roumoules [RMC] and on 252 mixing with Tipaza and I assume it is caused by Allouis 162. Unidentified transmissions are heard on 225 mixing with POL, 270 mixing with CZE and on 279 mixing with Sasnovy [BLR]. But RTL 234 is not affected at my location! Propagation is not confined to night-time, and such as ISL / I 189 and MRC 171 have been heard in daytime. Hearing some of the more distant stations presents a challenge - this is where Jouko's ALA 1530P-active loop will help! 73s, (Noel R. Green, UK, March 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. SATELLITE RADIO LOOKS TO TAKE-OFF By Ian Hardy, BBC ClickOnline North America technology correspondent Despite crystal clear sound, crackle-free delivery and nationwide coverage, American radio listeners have been slow to take up many satellite radio offerings. But, after years of indifference, consumers are now starting to take an interest in a new era of radio. . . http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3537341.stm (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH. 11334.95, Voice of Korea; 1938-1948+, 5-Mar; Operatic music; report on industrial activity in NK; ID 1945. All talk in English. SIO=2+42+, aircraft QRM de 11330 (Harold Frodge, Brighton MI MARE DXpedition, Cumbredx via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH. 3025.5, Frontline Soldiers R., Channel 2 (presumed), *1500, Feb 18, IS, presumed ID in Korean, National Anthem, probable mention of Pyongyang. Replaces former sign on time at *1420. KCBS was heard 1000-1105, Feb 24, all with the same program in Korean on: 2348.8 (very weak), 2850, 3220, 3320, 3350, 3480, 3960, 4450, 9665 and 11680. A spurious signal was also noted in parallel on 3400 (Roland Schulze, Philippines, DSWCI DX Window March 8 via DXLD) ** KOREA SOUTH. EL FUTURO DE KBS Estimados amigos: El siguiente es un comunicado emitido por KBS Radio Corea Internacional el pasado día sábado 6 de marzo en el programa DX "Antena de la Amistad" conducido por Sonia Cho y Ramiro Trost. Por su importancia considero necesario participarles del contenido a la vez que les solicito tengan a bien difundirlo a través de los medios a vuestro alcance. Muchas gracias. Les saluda: Rubén Guillermo Margenet ANTENA DE LA AMISTAD Sábado 6 de marzo de 2004 Está circulando por varias listas de contactos entre diexistas una información que apareció en la página en Internet de la FIP, Federación Internacional de Periodistas con el título ``Corea del Sur: peligra la KBS`` La información dice: El futuro de la principal difusora pública de Corea del Sur podría estar amenazado de aprobarse una propuesta de un partido de modificar la ley de difusión del país. El Partido Gran Nación presentó una propuesta para revisar la Ley de Radio y Televisión de Corea para separar las cuotas de licencia de televisión de las facturas por el servicio eléctrico. Esto eliminaría una importante fuente de financiamiento de Korean Broadcasting Systems (KBS), una emisora de servicio público, y la obligaría a confiar más en la publicidad. Continúa diciendo la información de la FIP que “las finanzas estables son un elemento importante para que KBS realice sus responsabilidades públicas sin restricciones de los políticos. El público coreano tiene derecho a una difusión de servicio público libre de comercialismo excesivo, y agrega que esta organización, la Federación Internacional de Periodistas, está pidiendo que se retire el proyecto de ley. Sobre esta noticia debemos decir primero que refleja lo que se estaba viviendo hace dos meses en Corea del Sur y que hoy en día la situación ha sido superada y se ha asegurado el financiamiento de KBS, que es el multimedio al que pertenecemos. Para aclarar la situación desde su origen, les decimos que KBS es una emisora pública porque su financiamiento proviene que un impuesto que abonan todos los ciudadanos y que viene incorporado en la boleta del servicio eléctrico. Mensualmente, los usuarios de electricidad pagan un extra de 2.500 wones, unos 2 dólares estadounidense, que luego la compañía de electricidad gira a KBS. Hay otra parte de los ingresos que provienen de la publicidad, ya que uno de sus canales de televisión y algunas de sus emisoras de radio tienen un tinte más comercial. Pero al mismo tiempo se mantienen las emisiones de otro de los canales de TV y estaciones de radios que están exclusivamente al servicio de la comunidad y la difusión cultural. Además tienen este mismo carácter las emisiones internacionales, por medio de los diez idiomas de Radio Corea internacional y de radio Liberty, en coreano y dirigida a Corea del Norte y a los residentes en China y Rusia. Cada dos años se renueva, previa deliberación, el contrato que une a KBS con la compañía de electricidad para el cobro de ese impuesto a las transmisiones públicas. Justamente hace dos meses se cumplió el plazo para su revocación o renovación y en esa ocasión el principal partido opositor presentó un proyecto de ley para que sea eliminado ese impuesto de la boleta del servicio eléctrico. Los sindicatos que reúnen a los trabajadores de KBS se movilizaron incluso frente a la sede del partido Gran nación para protestar por la propuesta. Finalmente los plazos se cumplieron sin que fuera tratado el proyecto en la Asamblea Nacional y el contrato se renovó, por lo cual se asegura el financiamiento de KBS. Eso es lo que ha sucedido, por eso creímos conveniente salir al cruce de rumores y hasta temores por un posible cierre de KBS, cosa que sería imposible. Internamente, debemos decirles que KBS está experimentando una transformación interna que le permitirá afrontar los desafíos de la alta competencia internacional. Se han unificado todos los departamentos dedicados a las transmisiones internacionales y relaciones con el exterior. En este centro de medios está incluida por supuesto RKI, con su onda corta e Internet, además de la televisión satelital, con el fin de profesionalizar y focalizar aún más el trabajo hacia el mundo de una manera más eficiente. A diferencia de la corriente que se vive en otras partes del mundo con las emisoras internacionales, KBS sigue apostando a la onda corta, buscando retransmisiones y mejoras en sus plantas transmisoras para llegar mejor a Uds. En esa apuesta está también la incorporación de nuevo personal, en este caso para la sección francesa, alemana y árabe que se han sumado desde el mes de febrero. Somos conscientes de la falta de una frecuencia que llegue con nitidez a España, de las falencias en América Central y el Caribe y de la carencia de una frecuencia nocturna audible en el cono sur de América. Y tenemos que decirles que estamos trabajando en ese sentido y pronto habrá novedades. Forma parte de esta apuesta la colocación de una casilla de correo en Argentina con el fin de disminuir el costo del envío de correspondencia. Por ese es imperioso que la utilicen, ya que está asignado un presupuesto para su mantenimiento, pero su prolongación dependerá de la utilidad que le den o no los amigos de los países del Sur de América del Sur. Para que no surjan los lamentos cuando no esté, es mejor prevenir esa situación haciendo uso de esta caja postal, que además les da seguridad en la recepción de los envíos, ya que tenemos un reporte inmediato de las cartas que se reciben antes de ser despachadas a Corea, y además les reduce el costo a uno local o regional. Radio Corea Internacional Casilla de Correo 950 2000 Rosario-Argentina. Hace tiempo que no hablábamos de nosotros, por lo que creemos que esta aclaración a la información que estaba circulando nos vino muy bien para contarles muchas novedades. Y sólo nos resta decirles que sigan con nosotros, que nosotros continuamos junto a Uds. (KBS via Rubén Guililermo Margenet, Argentina, DXLD) There had been reports that KBS was in danger, as there was a proposal to eliminate the licence fee collected on top of electric bills, but this was defeated. It would have caused KBS to rely more on advertising. RKI has been reorganized internally for better efficiency, along with satellite TV service for abroad. RKI is aware of the sub-standard SW reception in Spain, Caribbean, Central and South America and is taking steps to remedy this [new relays for A- 04?] (summary translation of above by Glenn Hauser for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LAOS. 7145, Lao National R., Vientiane, 1330-1359*, Feb 19, English program, but moderate signal with weak modulation. This station is irregular, because of its frequent transmitter problems. It is listed with 25 kW, but I hear the Lao National R. in Luang Prabang on 60 mb (supposed on 4660. Ed) much better, despite it only is listed with 1 kW! (Roland Schulze, Philippines, DSWCI DX Window March 8 via DXLD) ** LESOTHO. 4800 is still inactive (Vaclav Korinek, RSA, in Dxplorer, Mar 06 via DSWCI DX Window March 8 via DXLD) ** MADAGASCAR. MALAGASY: 5010.0, RTV Malagasy; 2259-2330+, 6-Mar; first time heard! Drama in unknown language to 2309:40, then into English pop oldies segment to 2317:50. M in unknown language taking phone calls with occasional oldie thrown in. Heard distinct "Malagasy" at 2322 and "RTV" at 2329. SIO=3+33- well over 5009.8 R. Pueblo [DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, q.v.] till 2330, then got hammered (Harold Frodge, Brighton MI MARE DXpedition, Cumbredx via DXLD) Are they always on as late as 2330*? Perhaps on late for cyclone coverage, see below (gh, DXLD) ** MADAGASCAR. 5010, R TV Malagasy, Antananarivo, 1850-1901*, Mar 05, Vernacular talks, local tunes, jingle prior to the national anthem; 35332 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DSWCI DX Window March 8 via DXLD) ** MADAGASCAR. Another cyclone hit; RN`s 11655 missing at 1700 March 8 (Chris Hambly, Victoria, DX LISTENING DIGEST) NEW CYCLONE RESTRICTS POWER TO MADAGASCAR RELAY Yesterday, Sunday 7 March, another cyclone passed over Madagascar. As far as we know, there has been no damage to our relay station, and none of our colleagues were injured. However, power supplies on the island are currently restricted, and for that reason the following transmissions from Madagascar have been temporarily suspended: 1537-1600 UTC English 12080 and 15595 kHz 1600-1700 UTC Dutch on 15335 and 17695 kHz 1700-1800 UTC Dutch on 6020 and 11655 kHz 1800-2100 UTC English on 6020, 7120 and 11655 kHz 2100-2200 UTC Dutch on 7120 and 11655 kHz 2200-2400 UTC Indonesian on 7285 and 9590 kHz 0000-0112 UTC Spanish on 9895 kHz [-0112??? Odd closing time] # posted by Andy @ 14:08 UT March 8 (Media Network blog via DXLD) Back on in English when checked 11655 at 2000+ March 8 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) {But see 4-045} ** MEXICO. Still Spanish talk and the usual het on 9705, March 8 at 1527 check, so XERMX is still on the air. During the 1400 hour it is totally blocked by an IBB outlet. BTW, the long story in Spanish about its imminent closure was attributed to an anonymous source (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Saludos amigos del grupo: Con tristeza nos hemos enterado días atrás del muy próximo cierre de una más de las emisoras de onda corta, esta vez de nuestra querida Radio México Internacional. Muy lamentablemente creo (al igual que en otras ocasiones) don "billete" es el que manda y por más esfuerzos, gritos y protestas que hagamos será lo mismo. Las decisiones siempre se toman desde "arriba" y sobra decir que dará lo mismo si son acertadas ó no. Personalmente he tenido contacto con la emisora desde hace más de 20 años y he visto como se ha desarrollado en este par de décadas. Por ello es que se llega uno a encariñar con ella. Siempre recibí atenciones, desde su secretaria, la sra. Mireya hasta los distintos gerentes en turno que fueron desfilando en los últimos años. A la propuesta de enviar cartas de protesta a las distintas autoridades, me parece muy noble la intención y veremos que habrá muchísimas muestras de simpatía. Ha funcionado en otros paises, pero en México creo no será lo mismo. Ya lo dijo la directora del IMER, es un proyecto que no es redituable haciendo eco de algo similar de lo dicho por Lara Zumano (exdirector) en fechas pasadas. No olvidemos que pasó con la XELA. Hemos llegado a ese extremo de hacernos creer que lo que no genera ninguna utilidad no sirve, y claro entonces los valores y nuestra identidad nacional tampoco sirven. Ya no será necesario "mostrar" lo que en México existe ya que al fin de cuentas vivimos en una gran "aldea globalizada". Pareciera que soy muy pesimista pero quiero partir de algo sólido y no simplemente echar al vuelo mis esperanzas. De cualquier manera enviaré mi protesta a las distintas dependencias para mostrar mi inconformidad y exhorto a los demás a hacer lo mismo. Ojalá alguien pudiera propocionarnos algunas direcciones y teléfonos para iniciar a enviarlas. Gracias al buen amigo Héctor por "reenviar" mi mensaje ya que yo no soy miembro de grupo y no puedo enviarlo directamente. 73. (IVAN LOPEZ ALEGRIA, Nayarit Dx Club, México via Héctor García Bojorge, Conexión Digital via DXLD) ** MEXICO. XERTA --- Glenn: What an INCREDIBLY strange station! Here in San José, CA, the signal at 4810 is almost completely buried in ute noise, covering most of the USB. LSB listening is (barely) possible -- but the sound quality that I heard this morning -- 03/08/04 from 0805 to 0835 -- is worse than a telephone in its limited frequency response. However, at least it's not distorted. When there is a pause in the programming, or during soft parts of the music, a grotesque hum (240 Hz, I think) is sucked up, in Mike Dorrough's immortal phrase, "from the bowels of the station right up through the antenna". Yet the salsa-flavored Mexican and central American pop music mix is extremely pleasant; I'd listen to this if it weren't so painful. It's also odd to hear English station breaks; even odder to have a bed of classical music ("Va, pensiero" from Verdi's opera "Nabucco", of all things!) in the background, as the English speaking announcer intones portentously, "Businessmen: extend your reach. XERTA covers North America, Canada, and Central America." Well, if one could claim that, say, San José, California is "covered" with a signal buried in QRM and hum, I suppose --- then, back to the bouncy Latino music. This is the oddest juxtaposition of stuff I've ever heard; why the operatic chorus? Mind boggling; and even more bewildering is the fact that so much electricity is wasted in transmitting a frequency response that has a big huge honking peak at around 1.5 kHz, like the old earpiece of the 1905 Kellogg magneto-crank telephone my grandfather had on his farm in Wallingford, Iowa. Best, (Steve Waldee - retired radio station CE, March 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 2390, XEJN, Radio Huayacocotla; 0050-0100*, 7-Mar; M&W in Spanish with ranchera music and sounds --- like a pickup band with horn, drum and bell. ID 0057 and into children's choral--anthem? SIO=322/LSB takes out trill QRM (Harold Frodge, Brighton MI MARE DXpedition, Cumbredx via DXLD) ** MONACO [non]. Re: MC 1 is to start broadcasting in the next days on 1467 kHz from the Col de la Madonne transmitter Col de la Madonne and TWR site are located on French territory, two to four kilometers north of Monaco soil (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX March 8 via DXLD) ** NAMIBIA. 6174.93, NBC, back 24 hours a day after a several days absence. 6070 is still silent (Vashek Korinek, RSA, DXplorer Mar 7 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS ANTILLES. Special DRM transmissions from Bonaire In connection with the Winter SWL Fest in Kulpsville, Pennsylvania, USA, Radio Netherlands will make special DRM transmissions on Fri/Sat 12/13 March 2004, at 2100-2400 UTC on 15530 kHz, beamed 350 degrees towards Kulpsville. Programming will be the Radio Netherlands English stream. The regular DRM transmissions on 11730 and 15530 kHz at 2100- 2300 UTC will be cancelled on those days. From Sunday 14 March through Friday 19 March there will be special DRM transmissions from Bonaire at 2200-0100 UTC on 17725 kHz beamed 140 degrees towards Brazil. Programming will be RNW Portuguese at 2200- 2300 and 0000-0100, Spanish at 2300-2400. The regular DRM transmissions on 11730 and 15530 kHz at 2100-2300 UTC will also be cancelled on those days. These transmissions are in connection with conferences in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo organised by the BBC. # posted by Andy @ 14:01 UT March 8 (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. OKCityRadio.com is now . . . http://www.okcradio.net Glenn, I saw your note asking about us. You might say that we re- launched and we're still playing 1,000,000,000 red dirt country punk songs in a row. Thanks! (Brian French, OKCRadio.net, March 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glad to see you`re back. It`s actually hosted by Angelfire, so be sure your pop-up stopper is running. Three sections: AM Dial, FM Dial, and Historical Exhibits, the latter with some station listings from the 1920s. Are you going to add KFNY-1640 Enid, which pretends to be an OKC station? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. SPECIAL EVENT. Lee/K1NT and Marvin/AG5I will be operating special event stations K5O and K5K mobile during Oklahoma`s QSO Party, ``Just for the fun of it,`` March 13th and 14th. A special QSL card will be available for working either station. A certificate for 1 USD is available for working both stations. QSL via KW5DX (KB8NW, OPDX March 7, BARF-80 via John Norfolk, DXLD) ** SOMALIA. I have a tentative logging of Radio Shabele, 6960 at 0357. Signal was not holding up too well as sunrise had already reached the Horn of Africa at that time. Supposed to be on at 0400 but I'm guessing that they fired up the transmitter and began relaying their FM outlet. Scheduled 0400-0600 and 1000-2100. Originally on 6961 but now on 6960 per recent report. Might be worth the trip to our northern listening post to rebuild the African wire. 03/07/04 (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, Drake R7, R8, R8B, http://www.iserv.net/~n8kdv/dxpage.htm swl at qth.net via DXLD) ** SOUTH AFRICA. 6100, R. Veritas, via Meyerton, is now here daily 1000-1100 (ex 1000-1400) daily, ex 7240. They announced that they were granted another temporary licence to broadcast on MW (729) and FM 24hrs/day between Mar 21 and Apr 18 2004. Judging from the previous experience the SW broadcast will be either dropped during that period or reduced to Sundays only (Vaclav Korinek, RSA in Dxplorer, Mar 6, DSWCI DX Window March 8 via DXLD) English is scheduled (DSWCI Ed) ** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. Brother Scare, 21590 via Germany was messing up two neighbours in French, March 8 at 1522, with splatter and artifacts on 21580 RFI, and 21600 BSKSA. I`m convinced that if he spoke in a normal tone of voice and were not so hoarse, this would not be a problem. Nor would it be, of course, if DTK were processing the defective incoming audio properly. And 21590 isn`t even aimed at us. I shudder to think of the situation in the Middle East (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SYRIA. 13610, Radio Damascus; 2149-2212+, 6-Mar; M in English with short announcements and anti-Israel comments between Arabic instrmental bumpers. M with English ID at 2212, finally. SIO=122 before 2200 then SIO=322+ after; LSB helps with Swiper QRM -- but not much (Harold Frodge, Brighton MI MARE DXpedition, Cumbredx via DXLD) ** UKRAINE. U.S.-FUNDED RADIO LIBERTY TO CONTINUE ADVOCACY JOURNALISM IN UKRAINE DESPITE SETBACKS http://wizzer.advance.net/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?a0753_-U_raine-RadioLiberty&&news&newsflash-internationa By TIM VICKERY The Associated Press 3/5/04 7:58 PM KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- U.S.-funded Radio Liberty vowed Friday not to abandon its tough journalistic style despite the closing of two Ukrainian affiliates and the death of a promising broadcaster. The station's roughly five million listeners "are sick and tired" of news that difficult to follow, said Aleksandr Narodetsky, director of Radio Svoboda, Radio Liberty's Ukrainian service. Narodetsky told the Associated Press his network's analytical programs and debates irritated the government in this former Soviet republic by defying the Soviet-era tradition of "propagandizing" events. He compared his station's role to that of religious missionaries who seek to bring salvation by challenging traditional views. Ukrainian authorities pulled one private station off the air Wednesday, five days after it began broadcasting Radio Liberty's shortwave programming on more-accessible FM bands. Radio Liberty's previous partner of five years had canceled the service last month after making vague demands for format changes. The abrupt cancellation triggered suspicions that officials pressured station managers to yank Radio Liberty from the airwaves as part of a crackdown on media ahead of October presidential elections. Adding to suspicions, the director of regional Radio Yuta died Wednesday in a car crash while en route to Kiev to meet with executives from Radio Svoboda about pickiing up the canceled programming. Mykola Tomenko, a top Ukrainian lawmaker who heads parliament's free press committee, said that Yuriy Chechyk's death did not appear to be an accident. In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said the United States supports Tomenko's call for full investigation. "Clearly there's reason for concern based on the history of murder and disappearances of journalists in the Ukraine," Ereli said. Ukraine's media climate has been tense since the 2000 death of Heorhiy Gongadze, an Internet journalist who crusaded against high-level corruption. His decapitated body was found in a forest outside Kiev. Opposition groups allege President Leonid Kuchma was involved in Gongadze's killing, but Kuchma denied it. (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** UKRAINE. RADIO KONTINENT CLOSURE "FOR FINANCIAL REASONS" The head of Ukraine's National Council for Radio and Television, Borys Kholod, today claimed that the closure of Radio Kontinent had nothing to do with politics. According Kholod, Radio Kontinent had its licence revoked in 1999 mainly due to the station’s financial problems. Speaking to Kiev's Hromadske [Public] Radio, Kholod said: ``We have taken into account all the issues related to Radio Kontinent. As Radio Kontinent’s debt to the state stood at UAH 440,000 of which only UAH 40,000 had been repaid by the time of tender [for a licence to broadcast], we took a decision to deny them that licence. The invoice for 12 extra hours for 10 years had not been paid. That is why the license for 1999 had not been granted. Radio Kontinent is a permanent deadbeat, actually a bankrupt.`` The station was forced off the air last Wednesday after a new deal to rebroadcast the programmes of US-financed Radio Liberty. Radio Kontinent, meanwhile, has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. In keeping with European Court procedures, the radio station cannot [should not] be taken off the air prior to the European Court’s ruling, legal experts say. (Source: Hromadske Radio via UANewswire) # posted by Andy @ 16:09 UT March 8 (Media Network Blog via DXLD) ** U K. BBC'S ALISTAIR COOKE BLAMES HEART TROUBLE FOR RETIRMENT LONDON (AP) -- Alistair Cooke, whose weekly "Letter from America" has run on British Broadcasting Corp. radio since 1946, said in an interview published Wednesday that he was retiring at the age of 95 due to heart problems. Cooke also expressed anger that the BBC had announced his retirement earlier than he wished, The Times of London newspaper reported. He had wanted to break the news on Friday, at the start of his weekly slot. "I'm absolutely appalled," Cooke was quoted as saying in The Times. "I don't know who is the villain of the piece but I have my suspicions. I'm furious." The BBC defended its decision to announce Tuesday that Cooke, who missed last week's broadcast, had accepted the advice of his doctors that he should retire. Because Cooke is such a prominent figure, the news sneaked out early, a spokeswoman said. Cooke, who lives in New York City, told The Times that he had no choice but to stop his broadcasts. "I've had heart disease for a long time and I'm not up to it," he was quoted as telling the paper. "I've been feeling low for about two months. When I'd done my talk I used to collapse. I began to wonder if I could go on and I can't. "It's an enormous relief. Suddenly I can throw all my newspapers away and I don't care what happens in Afghanistan," he said. "Letter from America," which was carried on the BBC World Service and on Radio 4 in Britain, started 58 years ago and was originally scheduled to run 13 weeks (mm-rb) (APws 03/03 0315 via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. JUDGE BANS SAUDIS FROM WATCHING ALHURRA TV A prominent Saudi judge has forbidden people to watch or contribute to the US satellite channel Alhurra, saying it promotes Washington's global hegemony, al-Hayat newspaper said on Monday. Sheikh Ibrahim bin Nasser al-Khudeiri declared that watching Alhurra, working for it, advertising on it or even writing to it were all haram (forbidden) because it was a "channel that causes corruption", the Saudi-owned newspaper said. "People working for it are considered American agents," he told al-Hayat. "Its goal is to facilitate American hegemony over the religious, political and social spheres in the world." # posted by Andy @ 15:01 UT March 8 (Media Network Blog via DXLD) ** U S A. Checked March 8, the WWCR website now has updated program schedule dated March 1 at http://www.wwcr.com/wwcr_program/wwcr_pgmguide_text.html And the frequency schedule is also updated as of March 3, showing 9985 and other changes http://www.wwcr.com/wwcr_transmitter/wwcr_transmitter_schedules.html but still nothing about what will happen in A-04 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WWV, 10000, was totally obliterated by a `V` bonker on the same frequency around 1400 UT March 8. An hour later, WWV signal had built up to daytime level, and the bonker was gone. But what was it ever doing on a Standard Frequency in the first place? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WTJC, no signal at all on 9370 around 2030 UT March 8, but loud and clear when rechecked at 2223; supposed to be 24h (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. The following is the Final 28 March 2004 to 31 October A- 2004 High Frequency Schedule for Family Stations, Inc., WYFR. (kHz)Time (UTC)Az Zone(s) Power 5850 1045-1245 315 2 100 5950 0300-0800 285 10 100 5950 0800-1300 355 4,5,9 100 5950 2145-0300 355 4,5,9 100 5985 0445-0700 315 2 100 5985 2000-0445 181 11 50 6015 1045-1245 315 2 100 6065 2245-0445 355 4,5,9 100 6085 0945-1945 181 11 100 6175 0900-1100 160 15 100 6855 0300-0600 355 4,5,9 100 7355 0300-0800 44 27,28,39 100 7355 1100-1400 222 12 100 7520 0100-0200 142 13 100 7520 0500-0800 44 27,28,39 100 9355 0300-0800 44 27,28,39 100 9355 1100-1200 160 15 100 9505 0000-0445 315 2 100 9505 1045-1200 355 4,5,9 100 9550 0800-1200 160 14 100 9605 0800-1100 142 15 100 9605 1100-1400 222 11 100 9625 0845-1045 140 13 100 9680 0145-0700 315 2 100 9715 0300-1145 285 10 50 9755 0945-1145 285 10 100 9930 0445-0900 87 46 100 9985 0400-0800 44 27,28,39 100 11530 0345-0900 87 37,46 100 11565 2045-2300 44 28 100 11580 0500-0800 44 27,28,39 100 11740 2145-0000 315 2 100 11740 0145-0600 222 11 100 11770 0800-1100 142 13 100 11830 1245-1700 315 2 100 11835 2345-0300 285 10 50 11855 0800-1200 160 16 100 11855 2000-0500 222 11 100 11865 1245-1700 140 13 100 11970 0945-1300 151 15 100 11970 1300-1500 355 4,5,9 100 13695 1200-1500 355 4,5,9 100 15130 1945-2200 355 4 100 15130 2200-0145 142 13 100 15130 1145-1945 285 10 50 15155 1945-2345 285 10 50 15215 2300-0400 160 16 100 15255 2300-0500 151 15 100 15440 2145-0300 285 10 100 15600 1845-2300 44 27,28 100 15695 2000-2245 44 27,28,39 100 15770 1600-1700 44 27,28 100 15770 2100-2245 87 47,52,57 100 17525 1700-1900 87 46 100 17725 2000-0145 140 13 100 17750 2245-0300 160 15 100 17750 1145-1700 285 10 100 17750 1700-2045 44 27,28 100 17795 1700-2145 285 10 100 17805 2245-0100 142 15 100 17845 1900-2245 87 37,46 100 17845 2300-0300 160 14 100 18930 1545-2245 44 27,28 100 18980 1545-2145 44 27,28 100 21455 1545-2000 44 27 100 21525 1545-2100 87 47,52,57 100 21670 1545-1845 44 27,28 100 WYFR BROADCAST SCHEDULE 28 MAR 2004 to 31 OCT 2004 Note: Schedule information showing languages for transmissions carried by WYFR for other broadcasters will have to be obtained directly from the other broadcasters. TIME SORT TIME (UTC) LANG FREQ (KHZ) AZ ZONE PWR 0000-0045 PORT 17805 142 15 100 0000-0100 ENGL 15130 142 15 100 0000-0100 FREN 15255 151 15 100 0000-0100 PORT 17750 160 15 100 0000-0200 SPAN 5985 181 11 50 0000-0200 SPAN 11855 222 11 100 0000-0445 ENGL 6065 355 4,5,9 100 0000-0445 ENGL 9505 315 2 100 0100-0145 PORT 15130 142 15 100 0100-0200 PORT 7520 142 15 100 0100-0200 SPAN 15255 151 15 100 0100-0200 SPAN 17750 160 15 100 0200-0300 ENGL 5985 181 11 50 0200-0300 ENGL 15255 151 15 100 0200-0300 ENGL 11855 222 11 100 0200-0300 PORT 17750 160 15 100 0200-0300 SPAN 11740 222 12 100 0300-0400 ENGL 11740 222 12 100 0300-0400 GERM 9355 44 27,28,39 100 0300-0400 SPAN 9680 140 13 100 0300-0445 SPAN 5985 181 11 50 0300-0445 SPAN 15255 151 15 100 0300-0445 SPAN 11855 222 11 100 0304-0400 RUSS 7355 44 27,28,39 100 0304-0400 SPAN 9715 285 10 50 0304-0400 SPAN 6855 355 4,5,9 100 0400-0500 ARAB 9355 44 27,28,39 100 0400-0500 ENGL 7355 44 27,28,39 100 0400-0500 ENGL 9715 285 10 50 0400-0500 PORT 11530 87 47,52,57 100 0400-0600 ENGL 6855 355 4,5,9 100 0404-0500 GERM 9985 44 27,28,39 100 0500-0600 ARAB 9930 87 37,46 100 0500-0600 ARAB 11580 44 27,28,39 100 0500-0600 ENGL 9355 44 27,28,39 100 0500-0600 FREN 11530 87 47,52,57 100 0500-0600 GERM 7355 44 27,28,39 100 0500-0600 MAND 5985 315 2 100 0500-0600 SPAN 9985 44 27,28,39 100 0500-0700 SPAN 9715 285 10 50 0504-0600 RUSS 7520 44 27,28,39 100 0600-0700 CANT 5985 315 2 100 0600-0700 ENGL 11580 44 27,28,39 100 0600-0700 ENGL 11530 87 47,52,57 100 0600-0700 FREN 9355 44 27,28,39 100 0600-0700 FREN 9930 87 37,46 100 0600-0700 ITAL 9985 44 27,28,39 100 0600-0700 SPAN 9680 140 13 100 0600-0745 ENGL 7355 44 27,28,39 100 0700-0745 PORT 9985 44 27,28,39 100 0700-0745 SPAN 9355 44 27,28,39 100 0700-0800 ARAB 11530 87 47,52,57 100 0700-0800 ENGL 9715 285 10 50 0700-0800 ITAL 11580 44 27,28,39 100 0700-0845 ENGL 9930 87 37,46 100 0800-0845 FREN 11530 87 47,52,57 100 0800-0945 ENGL 5950 285 10 100 0800-1100 SPAN 11855 160 16 100 0800-1145 SPAN 9715 285 10 50 0800-1200 SPAN 9550 160 14 100 0804-1045 PORT 9605 142 15 100 0804-1045 PORT 11770 142 13 100 0900-1000 PORT 9625 140 13 100 0900-1045 PORT 6175 160 15 100 1000-1045 FREN 9625 140 13 100 1000-1100 FREN 11970 151 15 100 1000-1145 ENGL 9755 285 10 100 1000-1245 ENGL 5950 355 4,5,9 100 1000-1600 SPAN 6085 181 11 100 1100-1145 FREN 9505 355 4,5,9 100 1100-1200 ENGL 7355 222 12 100 1100-1200 ENGL 11855 160 16 100 1100-1200 SPAN 9355 160 15 100 1100-1245 ENGL 5850 315 2 100 1100-1245 ENGL 6015 315 13 100 1100-1300 SPAN 11970 151 15 100 1100-1400 SPAN 9605 222 11 100 1200-1400 ENGL 13695 355 4,5,9 100 1200-1400 SPAN 7355 222 12 100 1200-1600 SPAN 15130 285 10 50 1200-1645 ENGL 17750 285 10 100 1300-1400 ENGL 11865 315 13 100 1300-1500 ENGL 11970 355 4,5,9 100 1300-1700 ENGL 11830 315 2 100 1400-1500 MAND 13695 355 4,5,9 100 1400-1500 SPAN 11865 315 13 100 1500-1600 MAND 11865 315 13 100 1600-1645 RUSS 15770 44 27,28 100 1600-1700 ARAB 18930 44 27,28 100 1600-1700 ENGL 15130 285 10 50 1600-1700 ENGL 21525 87 47,52,57 100 1600-1700 ENGL 11865 315 13 100 1600-1700 ENGL 6085 181 11 100 1600-1700 ITAL 21670 44 27,28 100 1600-1800 ENGL 21455 44 27,28,39 100 1600-2145 ENGL 18980 44 27,28,39 100 1700-1800 FREN 17525 87 37,46 100 1700-1800 GERM 18930 44 27,28 100 1700-1800 PORT 21525 87 47,52,57 100 1700-1800 RUSS 17750 44 27,28 100 1700-1845 SPAN 21670 44 27,28 100 1700-1900 SPAN 15130 285 10 50 1700-1900 SPAN 6085 181 11 100 1700-2145 ENGL 17795 285 10 100 1800-1845 PORT 17525 87 37,46 100 1800-1900 FREN 17750 44 27,28 100 1800-1900 GERM 21455 44 27,28,39 100 1800-1900 ITAL 18930 44 27,28 100 1800-2000 FREN 21525 87 47,52,57 100 1900-1945 ENGL 15130 285 10 50 1900-1945 ENGL 6085 181 11 100 1900-1945 FREN 21455 44 27,28,39 100 1900-2000 PORT 18930 44 27,28 100 1900-2045 ENGL 17750 44 27,28 100 1900-2200 ENGL 17845 87 37,46 100 2000-2045 ARAB 21525 87 47,52,57 100 2000-2100 ARAB 15695 44 27,28 100 2000-2100 GERM 15600 44 27,28 100 2000-2200 ENGL 17725 140 13 100 2000-2300 SPAN 5985 181 11 50 2000-2300 SPAN 11855 222 11 100 2000-2345 SPAN 15155 285 10 50 2100-2200 ENGL 18930 44 27,28 100 2100-2200 GERM 15695 44 27,28 100 2100-2200 PORT 15770 87 47,52,57 100 2100-2200 SPAN 15600 44 27,28 100 2200-0145 PORT 17725 140 13 100 2200-2245 ARAB 18930 44 27,28 100 2200-2245 ARAB 17845 87 37,46 100 2200-2245 ENGL 15695 44 27,28 101 2200-2245 ENGL 15770 87 47,52,57 100 2200-2300 PORT 15130 142 13 100 2200-2345 ENGL 11740 315 2 100 2300-0000 ENGL 5985 181 11 50 2300-0000 ENGL 17750 160 15 100 2300-0000 ENGL 11855 222 11 100 2300-0000 FREN 6065 355 4,5,9 100 2300-0100 SPAN 15215 160 14 100 2304-0000 ENGL 15255 151 15 100 2304-0100 SPAN 17845 160 14 100 (via Evelyn Marcy, WYFR, March 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. BOSS RADIO FOREVER --- "Boss Radio" was the name chosen to promote a new programming format on AM radio station KHJ, Los Angeles in May 1965. Although this all happened nearly 40 years ago, the introduction of the new format remains a rarity in the history of radio broadcasting because nothing quite like it has ever happened again. Since 1996, this site has been the most objective source for unique insider perspectives on the radio programming efforts of Bill Drake, Gene Chenault and others starting in California in the 1960s. This site is dedicated to the memory of Roger Christian, Robert Morgan, and The Real Don Steele, stars of 93/KHJ. http://www.bossradioforever.com/ (via Sheldon Harvey, Greenfield Park, Quebec, March Radio HF Internet Newsletter via DXLD) ** U S A. WTOP, 1500, DC, CPC Test March 14 at 0000-0100 EST [0500- 0600 UT] ---- NRC member Gerald Conkling, jr., forwarded more info bout the WTOP test: I really hope you`ll be able to hear this station, because it`s one of the best news stations in the country. WTOP`s transmitter location is in Wheaton, Maryland and very close to Georgia Avenue (Maryland route 97) and University Boulevard west (Maryland 193). They have three 500- foot towers running from NW to SE. Wheaton is about six miles directly N of the Washington, DC line. Their best signal both day and night travels mainly straight north and straight south of their towers, and their signal is pushed more to the East at night. They`re running 50,000 watts with separate directional patterns day and night. Very little signal goes to the NW [KSTP protected]. A couple of regular news reporters are Dave McConnell and Neil Augustine. The midnight shift is hosted by Dean Lane and Amy Morris. Dean has a very soft and pleasing voice, but he might be more difficult to hear if you`re not receiving a good signal on the station, and they identify very often. WTOP does have a cute ad, and I hope they play it in the test. In a woman`s voice you`ll hear ``WTOP radio doesn`t play songs --- (pause), WTOP radio is Washington`s News, Traffic, and Weather station.`` They also identify with ``1500 AM, 820 AM and 107.7 FM``. The station is owned by Bonneville International Corporation, and the Bonneville group acquired WXTR on 820 kHz in Frederick, MD, and they also own WTOP-FM in Warrenton VA on 107.7 MHz. All of the stations simulcast WTOP-AM (NRC DX News March 8 via DXLD) As per original notice back in Feb, the WTOP test will be normal programming, but on day instead of night pattern, altho there is not too much difference between them (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. In the 30+ years since I started DXing, I have witnessed the FCC devolve from a fairly competent, technically savvy, and mostly public-minded body to a collection of political hacks who technically don`t know a thing about issues such as interference. The results, egregious as they currently are, what with massive levels of interference (as well as outright massive flaunting of the rules by licensees), are about to get a lot worse. As reported by Jerry Starr in his Musing in Issue 19, the National Association of Broadcasters has recommended that the FCC allow nighttime transmission of the IBOC digital system on the AM band, even tho this will result in massive adjacent-channel interference for many stations. The NAB, in asking this recommendation, is simply being true to its character as the mouthpiece for the large broadcast conglomerates (who own high powered stations more likely to benefit from IBOC, and don`t forget that the iBiquity system is also partly owned by some of these companies, who will collect license fees from stations that use it) at the expense of the smaller broadcasters (mostly who operate with smaller powers at night and are most likely to be wiped out by the iBOC ``fuzz`` from adjacent channel stations. The FCC, being the bunch of political flacks it is, is very likely to approve this disastrous proposal. . . [text missing]. . . largely be a complete fantasy. The irony is that there is no evidence that the general public cares about digital transmissions on AM or FM. At some point, there will probably be a 180-degree shift and the same people who are currently busy shoving digital TV down American public`s throat will decide to go to the Eureka digital system on radio (as has Canada and the rest of the world). This will require a new band (but also require the public to buy all new receivers, meaning hefty profits for the electronic industry) and that new band will likely not be as amenable to DX as MW is. In short: the days of AM DXing are probably very numbered, one way or another. It may be time for the NRC to ponder ways of surviving the upcoming demise of BCB DX (Phil Boersma, Spring Lake, MI, Musings, NRC DX News March 8 via DXLD) The trend so far has been for many FM stations to install the system; only a few AM stations have done it thus far, and I doubt it`s going to take off like everyone thinks it will. Yes, I`d like to see it happen (more work for me!) but I think it`s going to take the route of AM stereo. There is a lot more to do BEHIND the speaker that makes the system work, such as replacing transmitters and broadbanding antenna systems. An experiment that I did once, to see just what a station`s antenna system was doing: I took the antenna off a vehicle the station had and decided to drive up close to said station`s 5 tower system. When I was going past each tower, the station audibly sounded different, from a boomy low end signal to a very thin sound! A system like that would cost thousands of dollars to correct, but I doubt very much the money would be spent to upgrade it. Plus, modulation transformers and IBOC don`t work together; solid state transmitters are needed. In my travels around the Albany area, it`s GREAT to hear WENT 1340 is still doing LIVE programming (what a concept!) with LIVE DJs and an enjoyable contemporary music format, and LIVE ads! Their ID says they`ve been around for 60 years; I can see why (Dave Schmidt, Scranton PA, ibid.) ** U S A. MET OPERA BROADCASTS CONTINUING FOR YEAR By VERENA DOBNIK, AP NEW YORK (AP) - Metropolitan Opera officials announced a $3.5 million matching donation Saturday that will enable the Met`s famous radio broadcasts to continue another year, but they warned there`s not enough money to continue beyond that. The announcement of a donation from the Stabile Foundation comes nine months after the Met lost ChevronTexaco`s longtime sponsorship of the well-known Saturday afternoon broadcasts, which have been a radio staple since 1939. The new funding will match $3.5 million previously offered by the Annenberg Foundation, replacing for the 2004-2005 season the $7 million that ChevronTexaco had provided every year. The donation will allow a full season of the broadcasts, which reach about 11 million people in 42 countries live from Lincoln Center, Met officials said. There are 20 broadcasts each season starting in December. Texaco --- acquired by Chevron four years ago --- had been the sole sponsor of the broadcast since a Dec. 7, 1940, performance of Mozart`s ``The Marriage of Figaro.`` Last May, ChevronTexaco announced it would withdraw its support after the 2003-2004 season, ending the longest continuous sponsorship in American radio history. The company said it was a marketing decision. The Stabile Foundation, of Naples, Fla., was started by industrialist Vincent Stabile, who died in 2002 after making a fortune with Industrial Retaining Ring Co., a Mount Vernon, N.Y., company he started in 1950. The money comes from Stabile`s sister, Antoinette Stabile. Met chairman Beverly Sills planned to seek an additional $150 million from individuals, corporations and foundations to fund the broadcasts indefinitely. In the text of an appeal prepared for Saturday`s broadcast, Sills said the contributions could be of any amount: ``Every dollar will be a valuable contribution to our goal.`` Over the years, guests on the radio show have included opera buffs such as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and singing stars including tenors Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo. On the Net: http://www.metopera.org 03/06/04 20:05 EST Copyright © 2004 The Associated Press (via John Norfolk, DXLD) ** U S A. WSM SHIFTS 'CLASSIC SATURDAY' TO INTERNET By Craig Boerner, March 05, 2004 Nashville`s country legend station, 650 WSM AM, is removing Eddie Stubbs Classic Saturday from conventional radio beginning this weekend. Stubbs show was known for playing classics from the 1920s through 1970s. The show, 6-10 a.m. on Saturdays [1200-1600 UT], is considered one of the few programs on commercial country radio highlighting the genres heyday. I think it is the end of an era, said Kyle Cantrell, WKDF FM disc jockey. Classic Saturday really was an important forum for the history of the music and WSM is uniquely qualified to present that history because so much of it took place within their walls. I hate to see that go away. Taking Stubbs` Saturday slot on conventional radio will be Classic Country Weekend with Bill Cody, according to WSM Program Director Brian Landrum. Cody`s show had been running midday on Saturday. Classic Saturday is actually going to remain on http://wsmonline.com and also remain on our Sirius satellite channel stream 137 so those listeners will still be able to get a diet of the older music. It won`t be on 650 AM but it will be a free show on the Internet site, Landrum said. This is just within the context of some changes we have been doing to tweak the radio station just to try to serve a wider audience and continue to grow the ratings, he added. WSM, the AM side, is our heritage station, said Robert K. Oermann, a Music Row Magazine columnist, author of seven books on country music and Nashville Star judge. It has been here since 1925 and Eddie is certainly a powerful voice for that station. He kind of is the voice of the station to me so it`s a sad thing for me and I`m sure it is for me [sic]. I am a big, big fan of [Stubbs] and that show so I am sad to see it go. Stubbs also serves as an announcer for the WSM Grand Ole Opry and has a 7 p.m.-midnight show Monday through Thursday on WSM that features both rising country stars and legendary performers. His other shows don`t reach quite as deep into country music history as [Classic Saturday] did, Oermann said. Classic Saturday began in January 1991 when Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame member Ted Cramer was program director at WSM. Cantrell hosted the show for four years and eventually hired Stubbs as his replacement in 1995. Cantrell`s Legendary Sunday Mornings airs 6-9 a.m. each weekend on 103 WKDF FM in Nashville and is syndicated on 113 stations. Between the two of our shows, that was about all that was on the air in Nashville playing that kind of music to my knowledge, Cantrell said. Station Inn owner J.T. Gray said Stubbs is is such a great historian of music in general and he does an incredible job of presenting it to any audience, Gray said. Im sure he had a lot of listeners, I know he did, and I will be very sad to see it go because it is big part of teaching the general public and sort of putting us back in time a little bit. Copyright 2000-2004 The City Paper, LLC (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. HE 'IS WHAT HE IS': ADVERTISERS STAND BY HOWARD STERN By SARAH MCBRIDE Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Howard Stern is in hot water again, but the shock jock's advertisers are standing by their man. Purveyors of everything from diet pills to tax advice say they will continue to buy air time on Mr. Stern's show, despite the Federal Communications Commission's crackdown on indecency and a decision by the nation's largest radio broadcaster, Clear Channel Communications Inc., to suspend the show from six of its stations. Advertisers say they are sticking with Mr. Stern because his show attracts an important audience: young men... [subscription required] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107871075109148863,00.html (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. AFTER CRISIS, WAMU MOBILIZES VOLUNTEERS STATION RETURNS TO BASICS IN FUNDRAISING DRIVE By Jennifer Frey Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, March 6, 2004; Page C01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35222- 2004Mar5?language=printer It was Friday morning, and Glenn Ihrig was manning the phones, his 30-year career as a WAMU fundraising volunteer happily resumed. The three ladies who like to sit together were back at their cozy table, and one knitted between calls. The handwritten tote board up on the wall was regularly updated with hourly totals. And the "legibility crown" was back in all its gold spray-painted, tacky splendor, ready to be awarded to the volunteer with the best penmanship. Public radio station WAMU (88.5-FM) went back to basics this past week, when it launched its first on-air fundraising drive since the station's management change. The campaign had been postponed for a month as WAMU continued to deal with the public scrutiny and internal turmoil that arose after serious fiscal problems came to light last fall. The goal: $800,000. The message: We're still here, we're still producing great programming, and we still really need you. "People will give what we ask them to give if they have the means and if they feel involved," said Walt Gillette, WAMU's director of individual giving. "And that's what we're trying to do now, is rebuild the trust." The eight-day campaign yesterday began its final day -- and always its biggest revenue day -- about $239,000 short of its goal, and more than $100,000 of that had been raised by the time Diane Rehm's show signed off at noon. When the formal on-air campaign concluded at 8 p.m., revenues totaled approximately $756,000. The station also expects to receive $15,000-$30,000 over the next week as mail continues to arrive and last-minute donations trickle in, and combined with what WAMU hopes to see over the weekend, Gillette said he predicts the station will meet the goal. Last year's January campaign had a goal of $750,000 and raised more than $900,000, he said. The station's primary campaign comes in September; WAMU raised more than $1 million last year. Last fall, shortly after the September campaign ended, WAMU management came under attack from former volunteers and donors, as well as many employees, for large deficits (more than $4.5 million across three years) and serious morale problems. In the fallout, Executive Director Susan Clampitt was fired by American University President Benjamin Ladner and questions were raised about the nature of the financial relationship between the station and university, which holds its license. David Taylor, assistant to Ladner, has overseen the station since Clampitt's firing and said yesterday that he is optimistic that when the fiscal year ends in April the station will be close to bringing its spending and revenues back into balance. Membership pledges and underwriting income, he said, should equal or exceed last year's levels, with only foundation grants -- pledges by boards or corporations, some of which have expressed concern over WAMU's financial management -- likely to suffer in the aftermath of last fall's controversy. "Some are back in, and some said, 'Come and see us in the spring,' " Taylor said of the foundations. "It's variable." WAMU's main problem had not been income -- revenues were significantly up under Clampitt, and fell just short of what Ladner called "overinflated" expectations in the budgets -- but rather its rapidly increasing expenditures. To bring the budget back in line, staff cutbacks were made in December -- five employees were dismissed, among them Ruth Thompson, senior director of marketing and communications and Kevin Beesley, the news director. Expenses have been pared, Taylor says, in areas such as consulting and printing costs. And Ladner suspended for this fiscal year the annual fee that WAMU pays to the university for overhead expenses. That fee had become controversial because it was based on revenues, rather than expenses, with WAMU paying 16 percent of its income to the university. Taylor also spent a significant amount of time trying to heal rifts inside the station, and program director Lettie Holman credits his sensitivity and patience in what she considers improved morale at the station. "I feel everyone is moving forward," Holman said. "Do we still have some issues to resolve? Of course," she said. "Any place you work will have issues to resolve, but we are very optimistic about moving forward." Holman, the chief architect of the campaign's "message," tried to put the focus back on what WAMU provides -- top-quality programming that was never affected by the financial or managerial problems. And, for the first time, WAMU made a point of mentioning, on-air, the station's total budget figure for this year ($8 million) and how much of that went to programming and production costs (more than $3.5 million). The station also tried to reconnect with the community by inviting volunteers back to man the phones during the campaign, a long tradition at WAMU. During Clampitt's administration, that work was mainly contracted out, with donors routed to operators in Texas -- leaving the longtime volunteers out in the cold. It was, Gillette said, a detriment to fundraising that loses "a part of the donor relationship." Said Ihrig: "We were upset and concerned. By the same token, we gave our opinions and obviously we've been heard." Yesterday, Ihrig, a Washington resident, was taking calls, filling out pledge forms, passing along listener suggestions to the appropriate people. He was one of more than 30 volunteers serving a 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift under the watch of Audrey Freed, WAMU's volunteer service coordinator for the past few years. Freed was giddy about the excitement and enthusiasm, as were other WAMU staffers who had considered the volunteers' presence part of the public radio culture. The volunteers, she said, had returned in droves, and so, too, had local businesses, which kept them well-fed all week with donations of cakes and fruit, sushi and burritos, extra bottled water and coffee. As for the future direction of the station, that's still uncertain. According to Taylor, AU has not yet begun a formal process to hire a new executive director, and is, instead, focusing on fixing the current problems. Taylor will continue in his current role indefinitely. "I would like to think that things have settled somewhat," Taylor said. "I perceive my role as really to help things calm down." (c) 2004 The Washington Post Company (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. The new left-leaning "Air America" talk network landed a home in market #1 this week. It'll be carried on Inner City Broadcasting's WLIB (1190 New York), displacing the station's current talk programming aimed at the city's black community. Air America's studios are located on the same floor of the same building as WLIB, and it appears that Inner City may lease or sell other stations it owns (including, perhaps, WHAT 1340 in Philadelphia and KVTO 1400 Berkeley CA?) to Air America as the network finds its legs. (NERW wonders: will Air America keep the "LIB"eral calls on 1190, or will it realize that those calls carry a very different heritage in New York from the image it's seeking?) (Scott Fybush, NE Radio Watch March 8 via DXLD) ** U S A. We turn to the wall of the NERW home office on which hangs a large poster of Edward R. Murrow as we recall that it was a half- century ago tomorrow - March 9, 1954 - that Murrow and Fred Friendly presented their landmark "See It Now" broadcast examining and exposing the methods of Senator Joe McCarthy. A few thoughts, if we may, on this anniversary: It's depressing, first of all, to realize how few of today's younger journalists even remember Murrow. The man who was an icon for an earlier generation of reporters today seems to merit just a brief mention in the history lessons, and that's a shame, for there's much that today's news media can still learn from Ed Murrow. Network executives were just as craven and politically motivated in 1954 as they are today. Even the "Tiffany network" era of CBS leadership, William S. Paley and Frank Stanton, gave Murrow and Friendly only weak support for their broadcast, declining to give it any promotion and forcing Murrow to pay for newspaper advertising out of his own pocket. (It must be noted that the stakes were even higher for Paley and Stanton than they are for today's Viacom leadership; while there's little danger today of license revocation, there were serious threats in the fifties of Congressional retaliation that could have stripped CBS of its key television licenses had the political winds not shifted against McCarthy.) "See It Now" looks incredibly primitive by today's standards, of course - most of the McCarthy broadcast, in fact, is nothing but talking-head footage (in black and white, of course) of McCarthy giving speeches. The broadcast has no hidden cameras, no dramatized re-enactments, no fancy graphics or indeed any graphics at all, no incessant crawls or any of the other artifice of today's TV news. And while it's not lacking a point of view - there's no doubt about where Murrow and Friendly stood in opposition to McCarthy and his tactics - it's "fair and balanced" in a way that's rarely seen today on commercial television, using McCarthy's own words and statements to effectively let the senator demolish himself. (At the same time, the show was never less than respectful to McCarthy or his office; name- calling was not a part of the political discourse in which Murrow and Friendly engaged.) The sort of thoughtful, long-form journalism Murrow and Friendly epitomized is far from dead today. It's in short supply at the network level, to be sure (indeed, even Murrow found CBS an increasingly inhospitable place to work after the McCarthy broadcast), but it lives on at PBS, on cable TV (though not to any extent at the cable news networks) and in the medium of documentary feature film that came to fruition in the years after Murrow. What those venues lack, though, is the national reach that Ed Murrow enjoyed for a few shining years. On that night of March 9, 1954, even the most fortunate TV viewer in New York or Los Angeles had at most seven choices - and most of the nation still had just one or two channels to watch. So when Murrow and Friendly ascended their broadcast pulpit, it's no exaggeration to say that they had the eyes of most of the country. That's something no broadcaster today can claim. Even the most-watched network news program - typically CBS' 60 Minutes, the most direct successor to the Murrow legacy - is lucky to draw 10 percent of the available audience. The nightly evening newscasts draw a small fraction of that, and cable news channels consider themselves lucky to pull a 2 share. If Ed Murrow were alive today, much of what he would see on TV wouldn't surprise him. He'd be in no position to criticize the relentless drone of celebrity "news" - after all, his "Person to Person" show created the genre that would later yield "Entertainment Tonight" and "Access Hollywood" - though he might be taken aback by the way that strain of journalism has crossed over into what was once considered "serious" news. (Martha Stewart, anyone?) He'd be pleased, no doubt, at the amount of thoughtful coverage of important issues available on PBS and elsewhere. But he'd be appalled, I suspect, at the splintering of the national dialogue and at the ease with which supporters of a partisan viewpoint can surround themselves with only the information and opinion that supports what they already believe. Could an Ed Murrow, in 2004, ever break through the din of all those websites, talk shows and hundreds of cable channels to get the kind of attention he drew in 1954? And if he couldn't, then why can Janet Jackson? (Scott Fybush, NY, NE Radio Watch March 8 via DXLD) ** U S A. COURT RULING CLOSES THE BOOK ON LOW-POWER RADIO STATION Copyright 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. Monday, March 8, 2004 from the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel By JERRY HARKAVY, Associated Press Writer PORTLAND (AP) -- In the first half of 1998, sounds of the '80s -- hits like "Der Kommissar" and tunes by A Flock of Seagulls -- flowed from a roof antenna atop a three-story apartment building to radios in Portland's West End. "We called ourselves I97.3 -- Irreverent Radio," said James Ganley, who ran the noncommercial FM station out of his first-floor living room as a vehicle to showcase the potential of low-power radio. The pirate station went on the air that February with a quarter of a watt of power, enough to carry the signal beyond the neighborhood and into parts of South Portland, including the Maine Mall. The automated station broadcast around the clock and never pretended to offer quality programming. Ganley's "microcast" experiment reflected his concern that 1996 legislation lifting radio ownership restrictions was spurring consolidation within the industry, making it harder for local voices to get on the air. "It was just to prove a point, that it could be done cheaply, without causing interference and that it could garner listenership, and boy, did it ever," Ganley recalled. "I don't think we spent $1,000 on everything: transmitter, computer and everything else." A few weeks ago, Ganley paid the final bill for his grand experiment when U.S. Magistrate Judge David Cohen hit him with a $5,000 fine for operating a station without a license. . . This story can be found online at: http://www.centralmaine.com/news/local/478440.shtml (via Curtis Sadowski, WTFDA Soundoff via DXLD) ** UZBEKISTAN. 9715, Radio Tashkent; 1325-1335+, 7-Mar; M&W in unknown language to 1330 switch to English; "Radio Tashkent International calling". English news with slight echo. SIO=333-/LSB takes out rumble QRM. Reported // 5060 and 5975 buried, if there (Harold Frodge, Brighton MI MARE DXpedition, Cumbredx via DXLD) ** VENEZUELA. Article in NYT on Venezuelan radio --- A couple errors: Obviously they mean watts when they say kilowatts. Also, if they're government sanctioned, they aren't pirate radio (headline). The person who forwarded this article stated that it failed to describe the role of full-power Venezuelan stations in promoting upper-class rebellion to Chávez. Apparently they are all-protest all the time when the opposition is in the streets, and go back to regular programming on radio and cartoons and soaps on TV when Chávez' supporters gather. --Leigh Robartes David Rochkind/Polaris, for The New York Times Davis Semeco plays music for his show at Radio Nuevo Día's studios — in the corner of one of the two rooms in a rough cinder block house owned by a cleaning woman, Zulay Zerpa, back right, in Caracas [caption] PIRATE RADIO AS PUBLIC RADIO, IN THE PRESIDENT'S CORNER CARACAS JOURNAL By JUAN FORERO Published: March 8, 2004 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/08/international/americas/08VENE.html?ex=1079767788&ei=1&en=ed848ccb755b1bd5 CARACAS, Venezuela, March 7 --- The sound room of Radio Perola, a small community station on the poor edge of this city, is papered with posters celebrating Latin American revolutionaries like Fidel Castro and offering a stern warning to the behemoth to the north: "Death to the Yankee Invader." The setting seems fitting for José Ovalles's politically charged Saturday radio program. Gripping a microphone and waving reports from a government news agency, the white-haired retired computer teacher charges that a far-flung opposition movement arrayed against President Hugo Chávez is part of an American-led conspiracy. He ridicules the president's foes as criminals with scant backing. He urges listeners to defend what Mr. Chávez calls his Bolivarian Revolution, which is under international pressure to allow a recall vote on the president's tumultuous five-year rule. "We have to fight for a free country," he said recently, "one with no international interference." The message, beamed from a 13-kilowatt [sic] station in what was once the storeroom of a housing project, reaches at most a few hundred homes. But Radio Perola is part of a mushrooming chain of small government-supported radio and television stations that are central to Mr. Chávez's efforts to counter the four big private television networks, which paint him as an unstable dictator. With Venezuela on edge, stations like Radio Perola are poised to play an even bigger role in this oil-rich nation's political battle. Instead of shutting down his news media tormenters, Mr. Chávez's tactic appears to be to ignore them as much as possible while relying on former ham radio operators and low-budget television stations to get the government's message across. Although the stations say they are independent and autonomous, Mr. Chávez has announced that $2.6 million would be funneled to them this year. They also will receive technical assistance and advertising from state-owned companies. "This year, we will not only legalize and enable approximately 200 more communitarian radios and televisions with equipment, but we will also promote them," the communication and information minister, Jesse Chacón, said in an interview posted on a pro-Chávez Web site. The stations have been important to Mr. Chávez's government during the current turmoil, in which the opposition has accused the government of fraudulently disqualifying hundreds of thousands of signatures for a recall referendum. Through it all, the private television and radio stations and the nation's largest newspapers have stepped up their pressure, presenting a parade of antigovernment analysts and opposition figures. Mr. Ovalles, though, calls the opposition "gangsters" and accuses private news organizations of faking the sizes of antigovernment marches. At first glance, the community stations and their largely volunteer staffs hardly seem political, nor do they offer the wallop of the big news organizations. Programming often deals with mundane matters like trash pickups or road conditions. The stations are staffed by volunteers, from teenagers eager for the chance to play Venezuelan hip-hop or salsa to homemakers who want to tell listeners how to stretch earnings in tough times. The main objective, say those who work at the stations, is to show there is another side to neighborhoods that, in the popular press, are presented as crime-ridden ghettos. "The image of the barrios is one of criminals, violence, prostitution, where kids are abandoned," said Gabriel Gil, a producer at Catia TV, a three-year-old station that recently moved into a vast building belonging to the Ministry of Justice. "We say we are television of the poor." Radio Un Nuevo Día, in a poor neighborhood, is much like the rest. Its small transmitter has been set up in the corner of a bedroom in a two- room cinder block house belonging to a cleaning woman, Zulay Zerpa. Bedsheets separate the bare-bones operation from the cots where her two children sleep. "I cook, I clean, I watch the kids, and they do what they have to do," Ms. Zerpa said. "I do my part by giving up a bit of my house." Music is a big part of the broadcast fare. Disk jockeys arrive with stacks of CD's, playing for hours on end. "I like to talk, and I like to play the music," said Rosa Amarista, 26. "Private radio is so grandiose. Here you can say what you want, tell people what you feel." Nuevo Día, with just 5 kilowatts, does not have much of a signal, reaching only a few miles around Ms. Zerpa's house on a crowded street. It is still waiting for a $31,000 government grant. Its 15 staff members are unpaid. But the people who broadcast are committed to Mr. Chávez. While the station is small, it is just one in a string of outlets that have been popping up in neighborhoods, one after another, covering a broad expanse of urban Venezuela. The number of community radio and television stations, both licensed and unlicensed, has grown to about 300 from 50 in three years, said Alfredo Flores, who helps stations nationwide set up operations. Although Nuevo Día has modest means, it also clearly demonstrates its close ties to the government. When its reporters are sent downtown, they have easy access to governing party officials and government functionaries. The station broadcasts the president's garrulous speeches. This week, the health minister, Roger Capella, is expected at Ms. Zerpa's house for an interview. "This is a counterbalance," said one of Nuevo Día's operators, Armando Farias, 37, referring to the new dynamic with the private stations. "Right now, it is balanced one way. Our idea is to counterbalance the other way." (via Leigh Robartes, Don Thornton, DXLD) WTFK? WTFK? WTFK? ** VIETNAM. While some international stations terminated their Japanese services on shortwave such as Voice of Mediterranean and Iran's IRIB, which brought them to a close at the end of last year, Voice of Vietnam added one more time slot for its Japanese service, totaling two hours daily. New time and frequencies starting on Feb 03 are 1100-1130 on 9840 and 12020 and the reception condition has been about SIO 454. The station is opening its Japanese Branch in Tokyo and a man, formerly with the Japanese Language section was brought from Hanoi last December. Another staff member will be added and the Branch will be formally opened this Spring (Toshimishi Ohtake, Japan, Feb 27, DSWCI DX Window March 8 via DXLD) ** ZIMBABWE. 4828, ZBC, Gweru, seems to be on 24 hours relaying National FM. R. Zimbabwe is relayed on 3306 and 6045, switch-over times are currently 1600 and 0500. Sometimes the two channels are //, mainly for the news and some late night programs. The Zimbabwean government has been making noises lately that it will counter the imperialist and racist propaganda aimed at Zimbabwe by all available means. I am quite sure that the sudden increase in SW activity with perfect signal quality is a part of that counter-propaganda programme. We are in for some fun times (Vaclav Korinek, RSA, in Dxplorer, Mar 6, DSWCI DX Window March 8 via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Radio Peace on 4750 kHz --- The station which I reported hearing on 4750 kHz from around 0345 on 30th and 31st December 2003, identifying as Radio Peace, has been heard again in recent days. Heard from 0315 tune-in on 4750 kHz on 3rd March with talk in African vernacular and African music, but with same English ID inserted at 0318, 0348 and 0418 sign-off as follows: "We are broadcasting on four- seven-five-zero kilohertz in the sixty metre band. This is Radio Peace. Thank you for listening", then a few seconds of music before "This is Radio Peace" again. Heard again at 0345 on 5th March with same English ID. Dave Kenny kindly checked this out around the same time as I had reported them and on 7th March was able to confirm the ID in English as "Radio Peace". Not sure of the programme content, but possibly religious? No clue as to where it is originating from, presumably east or southern Africa? (Tony Rogers, Birmingham - UK, AOR 7030+/LW, March 7, BDXC-UK via DXLD) I would not be surprised if it is just something as boring as TWR Swaziland, which has used frequencies around there (gh, DXLD) 0240 Mar 7, apparently an African gospel station has opened up here. Woman in English with several references to the Bible; ID by man at 0245, "Broadcasting on 4750 in the 60-meter band, this is Radio [1-2 syllables]." About a minute later, "This is Radio . . ." and into vernacular till 0300, when another unreadable ID was given. Seemed to change languages at this point and every 15 minutes. thereafter; continued in this fashion past 0400. IDs in English every quarter hour, but the signal was too weak and static-ridden for any chance to pick out the word after "Radio." Who is this? (Bob Hill, MA, DX-plorer via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 7560, 2032-2041+, 6-Mar; Sounds like a test; same techno tune with occasional brief stops & possible voice during pauses. SIO=322-/roar QRM. TDP Belgium has been reported here (Harold Frodge, Brighton MI MARE DXpedition, Cumbredx via DXLD) DRM mix? UNIDENTIFIED. 13927.1/USB, unID Net with calls FN3C & F82AC discussing FAA rules. 1826, 6-Mar (Harold Frodge, Brighton MI MARE DXpedition, Cumbredx via DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ SHORTWAVE GUIDE CANCELLED Announcement from WRTH: We are sorry to say that, after an extensive period of consultation and analysis, we have decided not to publish another edition of The Shortwave Guide. The book was very well received by those who bought it, and especially by frequency and scheduling managers, but the overall sales do not justify continuing publication. As this has been the fate of all summer editions published by WRTH we must now learn the lesson that there is not enough interest in the summer schedules for a successful print publication. Thank you for the support we got for the last two volumes. Nicholas Hardyman, Publisher, World Radio TV Handbook Regards, Sean D. Gilbert, International Editor - WRTH (World Radio TV Handbook) Web: http://www.wrth.com Fax: +44 (0) 709 2332287 WRTH - THE Directory of Global Broadcasting (via hard-core-dx March 8 via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ PHILCO.COM VALE A PENA VER Amigos amantes de radios antigos e de Philcos da velha guarda. Aqui está um site sobre radios Philco, vale a pena ver, é muito bom. http://www.philcoradio.com/ (Alfredo Meurer, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil, @tividade DX March 7 via DXLD) DRAKE R8B VS. NRD-525: MY EXPERIENCE --- BY BOB RYDZEWSKI I`ve been a fan of the HF band for quite a few years now and have been very satisfied with the performance of my radio. It`s a Japan Radio NRD-525 that`s been tweaked out with Collins filters and a Sherwood SE-3 synchronous detector. Bob Sherwood himself did the tweaking. It`s been reliable and enjoyable for cruising the big international broadcasters as well as for DXing the tropical bands from three different locations. Now it seemed to me that in the twelve or so years since I bought my NRD-525, improvements in microprocessors and circuit design should have made for better, more sophisticated shortwave receivers that would make my radio seem akin to one of those cathedral sets from the `30s. Or at least result in an audible improvement in the ability to handle the weak signals I always look for. Read any of the hype in the shortwave hobbyist press and you`ll find modern receivers with ``outstanding`` sensitivity, ``superb`` performance, etc., etc. At the time my NRD came out it seemed to be state-of-the-art, but twelve years is a long time and surely some good changes must have come about in that time. So even though my current set was in perfect working order I decided to invest some of the fruits of my labors (I mean $) in a new receiver. One of the shortwave sets most frequently praised is the Drake R8B. It`s a five-star receiver by all accounts. And it`s even built in America, so no need to increase the national debt (ignoring, of course, all those parts which are probably made by our friends in Malaysia or China). The R8B has been praised for its aural qualities, a definite advantage over the admittedly hissy NRD-525. And doing a comparison of the specifications (a sure route to disappointment if there ever was one) shows that the Drake should be more sensitive, selective, and have a higher dynamic range and image rejection than my old set. Another frequently hyped set is the newer incarnation of my receiver, the DSP Japan Radio NRD-545. I`d done some research on all the options and was initially scared away by the sound files I downloaded from the web which demonstrated some strange ``digital`` chattering and clicking sounds that seemed to go along with this set. The clincher for the Drake was that if you buy it directly from the factory you get 15 days to send it back for a full refund, so you really can`t lose anything except for the shipping fee. This being the case I was excited to find the box at my front door. I`d already downloaded and studied the owners manual so it was no problem to get my brand new ``baby`` up and running. I`d decided that the only way to go initially was to do a direct A/B comparison with my old receiver. I could do this by reversing my antenna switch, which normally selects between two antennas for one receiver, so that I could switch just one antenna between two receivers. Also, to be fair, I used the same set of headphones, switching it between both. I was confident that by doing a comparison using the same antenna and the same headphones at nearly the same time (it took about 5 seconds to switch between the two) I`d prove the superiority of the Drake, the correctness of all the reviewers, and of course my own good sense in buying the new radio. My initial impression of the Drake was that, although it was kind of cool looking, I didn`t care for the backlit LED display, where the lighting is uneven and blotchy. Everyone seems to knock the tuning knob as being too lightweight, but to me this wasn`t much of an issue. I could get used to it. Also, plugging in to an outlet that was controlled by a light switch was not a good idea since every time the switch was turned off the next time on the radio would display ``POWERLOS`` and the clock would need to be reset or it would keep intruding on the frequency display. These are very minor points however, and one or two of them could be easily remedied. In at least ten hours of direct comparison under a variety of conditions (night & day, high & low frequencies, strong & weak signals) I got to know the new set in a way one never could by reading reviews, manuals and specifications. There were a number of surprises there for me. The conventional wisdom is correct in that I found the Drake to be superior to the NRD-525 in terms of sound quality. Listening to one of the big international broadcasters, or listening to music on a medium to a strong signal was much more enjoyable on the Drake, which doesn`t have the hiss endemic to the NRD but has apparently a much more robust bass response. Under these conditions the NRD just didn`t have the ``oomph``. Of course the sound quality of both receivers is improved by synchronous detection and in this respect I couldn`t find too much difference between the Drake`s built-in ``Synchro`` and the NRD`s outboard Sherwood detector. The Drake`s, however, when used in sideband selectable ``Synchro`` did seem to introduce a bit of fuzziness in the sound that was especially apparent if the signal wasn`t strong. Somebody had noted this on a web review, and whoever it is was right. This isn`t too much of a drawback in reality since (as with the Sherwood detector) I didn`t find the Drake`s ECSS to be too much use in the weak signal DXing I normally do. It does minimize certain types of fading, but these tend to occur above 9 MHz and are usually noticed with moderate to strong signals, not so much on weak tropical band ones. So a five star rating is in order for Drake sound quality on good solid signals. Disappointingly, the Drake`s improved sound quality does not translate into an improvement in weak signal intelligibility. The annoyingly hissy NRD signal was often easier to copy than the relatively boomy Drake signal. However, the real disappointment for me was that despite what the specs say (sensitivity supposedly less than 0.5 microvolt for the NRD and less than 0.25 microvolt for the Drake) the R8B was not measurably better at picking up weak DX than the NRD, even using its built in preamp. In listening to many, many such signals on both radios, there were some cases when one was a bit better than the other for a given signal, but overall they were so similar that I would almost use the word ``equivalent``. Of the 43 signals I compared one day, 11 were slightly (and I do mean SLIGHTLY, since I`m a very picky listener) better on the NRD-525, 12 were slightly better on the Drake, and 20 were the same. Of those 12 signals that the Drake was better for, 5 of them were moderate or strong (over S9), where the Drake`s better sound qualities made me give it the nod. For truly weak signals, the NRD beat the Drake 10 times while the opposite happened 6 times. The bottom line is that, although the odd signal might come in slightly better on the R8B, there would be no dramatic improvement in my DXing prospects with that receiver. I could use it as a supplement to my old one if I wanted to, but it was definitely not the kind of superior replacement I`d had in mind. In Drake`s favor I can say that their notch is a little deeper and the noise filter arguably a bit better than the NRDs. However I ran across something very unexpected. Again, despite the better image rejection figure given for the Drake, I found very annoying images at 2320 and 2440 kHz which were absolutely not there on the NRD at the same time using the same antenna. Am I interested in this frequency range? No, but this just doesn`t measure up to my own QC standards. At one point on a Sunday morning (Hamateur time, no doubt) the Drake was abuzz with a CW interference signal at ALL frequencies, even with the RF gain turned completely down to zero. A shielding issue? Who knows. But again, the Japan Radio was silent on this. But perhaps the most annoying thing of all was that the Drake was off by between 0.01 and 0.02 kHz, so WWV was really at 9999.99 kHz. In AM or Synchro mode, of course, you won`t notice, but to a DXer tuning around in SSB it`s quite annoying, and that great audio fidelity served to make the Donald Duckishness more apparent at the more easily tuned even frequency. I read somewhere that you can open up the receiver and fix this, but shouldn`t it just be calibrated for the right frequency before they put it in the box? Did you have to open up your new big screen TV set and do a service procedure to get the channels right? All in all, I concluded that the R8B is a very good receiver. Had I compared it to a portable radio or not done a direct A/B comparison with another good tabletop set, I`d be happy to own the Drake. If my interest was primarily in SWL I`d keep it for the nice sound quality. However for weak signal DXing this set offers no significant advantage over the 12 year old set I already have. And in my mind only a real advantage could justify the extra $1.5K. So back to Ohio it went, and my compliments to the enlightened folks there who refunded my money with no questions asked. At that point, although I could feel self righteous about my old set and had saved some money, there was still a void in my life. A spot somewhere labeled ``New Receiver`` was annoyingly empty. Was it time to go digital and get the NRD-545 after all? Well that`s another story. . . (Bob, thank you very much for a very interesting review, very much appreciated! / ed) (SW Bulletin March 7 via DXLD) UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIAL +++++++++++++++++++++++ Caro amigo Glenn Hauser, Agora, que sei que você entende bem o português, escrevo no meu idioma! Lembra-se de alguns anos atrás, quando, iniciante, te mandei uma mensagem em inglês utilizando o programa Translate-Pró e o software traduziu o nome de uma rua modificando sentido da mensagem e tornando tudo muito engraçado? Bem.. te mando este E-mail para agradecer a divulgação do retorno das transmissões da Rádio La Voz Del Upano (4.870 KHz) pois esta foi uma informação importante para todos nós, e você, como sempre, realiza muito bem este trabalho de divulgação a nivel mundial. Informo que esta escuta foi feita graças a uma informação inicial do colega João Benigno de Manaua - AM - Brasil, que a ouviu pela primeira vez e me comunicou pedindo ajuda para identificação. Fiz o monitoramento da mesma e consegui captar e com a ajuda das diversas escutas publicadas no DX Listening Digest e também das informações do Miguel Dorner (Rádios Católicas ao Dial) pude realmente identificá-la. Neste número do DX Listening Digest, você eliminou todas as dúvidas de identificação e confirmou realmente o retorno da emissora nesta frequência. Muito obrigado pela divulgação, parabéns por mais este belo trabalho e conte comigo sempre que precisar. Do amigo brasileiro, (Que não usará mais o Translate-Pró, pelo menos contigo, hi hi hi...) Adalberto Marques de Azevedo, Barbacena, Minas Gerais py4wth @ bol.com.br MEMBRO DO DX-CLUBE DO BRASIL http://www.ondascurtas.com Entre para esta família! PROPAGATION +++++++++++ SPRING IN THE GRAVEYARD The coming spring and summer months can produce some interesting DX on graveyard frequencies [1 kW max power in USA, 1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450, 1490]. The different skip angles and ionospheric absorption of the next few months can allow you to hear stations inaudible during the fall and winter. Give a listen; you might be pleasantly surprised by the results (Harry Helms, Las Vegas NV, Domestic DX Digest, NRC DX News March 8 via DXLD) OUR EXCLUSIVE AND NOT COPYRIGHTED HF PROPAGATION UPDATE AND FORECAST Equinoctial propagation conditions approaching fast, and already many radio amateurs are enjoying daytime DX on the 10 meter band, even when solar flux is hovering at rather modest levels. At the same time, and due to the low solar activity, the 160 and 80 meter radio amateur bands are providing excellent DX during local nights amigos!!! So, seems like at this particular moment we are able to enjoy the best of both worlds, daytime DX at the extreme end of the HF range, and nighttime DX on 160 and 80 meters. My good friend AKI, CO2 Charlie India, told me Saturday morning during a QSO we had on the local two meter band repeater that he had worked several Japanese stations on 80 meters CW at sunrise local time here in Havana. And these contacts are possible due to rather low ionospheric absorption and the enhancement provided by the so called gray line or terminator line propagation, that is the line that separates DAY from NIGHT on planet Earth; actually it is not exactly a thin line at all, it's like a band extending both sides of the actual terminator that makes propagation possible with very low attenuation between locations that are at sunrise and sunset at the two ends!!! And now as always at the end of the show, our exclusive and not copyrighted HF propagation update and forecast. The daily optical sunspot count is now between 50 and 55, and the effective sunspot number or SSN is now near 60 units. The planetary A index on Friday was 8, and it seems like it will be moving down, while the daily microwave solar flux will be moving slowly up to values around 120 units, that are ideal for DX conditions to show up during local daylight hours on the 10, 12 and 15 meters band now that we are approaching the spring equinox, here in the northern hemisphere. So, it`s time to be active on the radio amigos, you can always return to the workshop and play with your equipment when HF propagation conditions take a turn for the worse later in the year !!! (Arnie Coro, RHC DXers Unlimited March 6 via Bob Chandler, ODXA via DXLD) ###