DX LISTENING DIGEST 4-074, May 2, 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 EXTRA 47 [= COM 04-02]: Mon 0330 on WSUI 910, webcast http://wsui.uiowa.edu [last week`s 1228] Mon 0430 on WBCQ 7415, webcast http://wbcq.us Wed 0930 on WWCR 9475 WRN ONDEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO [also for CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL]: Check http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html WORLD OF RADIO Extra 47 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/worx47hh.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/worx47h.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/com0402.html WORLD OF RADIO Extra 47 (low version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/com0402.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/com0402.rm WORLD OF RADIO EXTRA 47 = CONTINENT OF MEDIA 04-02 in MP3, recorded from 5070 with that true shortwave sound: (download) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/continentofmedia_05-01-04.mp3 (stream) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/continentofmedia_05-01-04.m3u DXLD YAHOOGROUP: Here`s where to sign up. There may be a delay in approval if I do not recognize your name and / or e-mail address. If your yahoo profile does not give this info, please send me a separate e-mail with your true name, location and brief reason for wishing to join the group --- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dxld/ (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. ACA to review short-wave bands The Australian Communications Authority (ACA) is to review the use by Australian licensees of some high frequency (HF) short-wave radio bands. The review affects certain bands between 4 and 10 MHz and will establish the need for spectrum by current licensees in these bands, and whether there is unused spectrum that could be allocated to broadcasters. ACA Acting Chairman Dr Bob Horton said the review followed last year`s World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC). The conference called for studies on whether the spectrum allocated to broadcasters in these bands should be increased. Dr Horton said that studies undertaken for the 2003 WRC revealed that at least 250 kHz of additional spectrum would be required to overcome co-channel interference in the broadcasting bands. An additional 800 kHz would be required by broadcasters to also avoid adjacent channel interference. ``The ACA wants to establish whether the increased availability of satellite and telecommunications services nowadays has reduced Australian HF radio usage in these bands,`` he added. ``We also need to find out if some spectrum is under-used and could be made available to broadcasters``. ``Because short-wave HF transmissions can travel across the world, it is important to coordinate their use internationally and move with the trends.`` In the first phase of the review, the ACA is writing to licensees using the bands under review as to their future HF intentions. Depending on their responses, the ACA may also meet licensees to discuss their requirements. The ACA is also talking to Australia`s HF broadcasters about their current and long-term preferences within these bands. Dr Horton said findings of the ACA review would ultimately be presented at the WRC in 2007, and would contribute to shaping future international agreements (via Richard Jary, April 18, ARDXC via DXLD) ** CANADA. CKY off --- Hi all, As noted previously on some lists by Shawn Axelrod, local CKY-580 has been off all day today after rebroadcasting FM for several months and hopefully will remain silent for good now (Morris Sorensen, MB, May 1, ODXA via DXLD) KY58 (CKY 580) Winnipeg, Manitoba is now history. No announcement was made prior to leaving the air. Yesterday they were still broadcasting regular programming. WIBW 580 Topeka, KS is dominating the frequency tonight (Kenneth Nawalkowski, Sandy Lake MB Canada, May 1, IRCA via DXLD) ** CANADA. 6030, 2338-, CFVP, May 1. Very good signal strength from this Calgary flea-powered station, with local programming for a change, rather than the paid infomercials. Mentions of Alberta, C&W music. Best reception ever. ID for 1060 CKMX and The Rosebud Radio Hour at 2349 (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHANNEL ISLANDS. Subject: [mwc] Utility Info --- Jersey Radio For those interested, Jersey Radio will cease all MF transmissions as from May 4. No more MF marine coastal stations from the Channel Islands. 73 (Lionel Roithmeir, CI, April 30, MWC via DXLD) Lionel, I never did get round to getting a QSL from this station. Are they doing a special closedown broadcast? (Steve Whitt, ibid.) Hi Steve, I'm not aware of anything planned, any further info will be posted to the Circle. URL with the details of MF closure: LNTM No 4 of 2004 http://www.jersey-harbours.com/uploads/admin/NtoM_4_2004_JSY_Radio.pdf Should be OK to QSL 73 (Lionel Roithmeir, ibid.) A good time to catch Jersey Radio 1659 kHz before it leaves the air for good is 2245 UT. Last night it signed on [off?] about 2 minutes late. 73 (Steve Whitt, ibid.) ** CHINA. Harmonics --- It is not often that harmonic frequencies are heard or reported. I managed to catch two of them on 28th April 2004: 19640 kHz China Radio International, in Chinese which is a harmonic of 9820 kHz with fair to good signals with Chinese talk and music at 1420 UT. It is clear even when the broadcast band frequency is troubled by adjacent channel splash (Supratik Sanatani, India via DXLD) see also PHILIPPINES ** CHINA [and non]. BBC HAS CHINESE BROADCASTING FIRST BBC World Service programme Outlook came live from Beijing in a broadcasting first on 25 and 26 March. It was the first time foreigners have been allowed into a Chinese broadcast studio for a live transmission with an overseas broadcaster. Outlook joined Radio Beijing for a co-production of the programme, the fist time a state broadcaster has collaborated on such a project (AIB The Channel, April 2004 via DXLD) What is this ``Radio Beijing``??? Remarkable this is newsworthy, not happening long before 2004y as a routine courtesy. Does this mean that BBC and China are buddies again, after jamming and preventing BBC TV from being seen in China in favor of Murdoch`s crap? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. 9550, 0525-, Radio Havana Cuba, May 2. Perhaps overkill, but RHC is broadcasting on three 31m frequencies: 9550, 9655, and 9820. All are very strong in Victoria with English programming celebrating international workers day. Must be their new transmitters (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Each is supposedly on a different beam to cover E, C and W NAm (gh, DXLD) ** CUBA. Hoy primero de Mayo del 2004, está arribando a su aniversario 43, la querida emisora Radio Habana Cuba. Hoy por la mañana hubo llamadas desde diferentes partes del mundo de oyentes que llamaban para felicitar a la radio; hubo así mismo entrevistas a personas que trabajaron en la emisora hace mucho tiempo. Pude grabar casi una hora de programación en la cual quedaron para el recuerdo muchas cosas interesantes. FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS RADIO HABANA CUBA. Atte: (José Elías, Venezuela, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. DX'ers Unlimited - May 1, 2004 - RHC Anniversary Special Hi gang, I think you'll find this special anniversary programme very interesting. Arnie CO2KK takes a fascinating look back to the early days at Radio Havana Cuba in the 1959-1961 period. Cuban radio engineers, with very limited resources were scrambling to get their station on the air in a climate of revolution and the subsequent CIA- organized armed invasion. The script for tonight's show is below 73 de Bob VE3SRE Dxers Unlimited weekend edition for May 1 2004 By Arnie Coro --- Special Anniversary of Radio Havana Cuba edition Hi amigos radioaficionados around the world and in space. It`s certainly nice to have you listening to this special edition of Dxers Unlimited on the occasion of the 43rd anniversary of Radio Havana Cuba. I am Arnie Coro, your host at this radio hobby program and its going to be my pleasure to share with you about seventeen minutes of on the air time, devoted today mainly to the history of our station. According to my research, the history of Radio Havana Cuba goes back as early as 1959. A Cuban delegation designated by the Revolutionary Government was attending an International Telecommunications Union World Administrative Conference that was sessioning in Geneva, Switzerland, at the Palais des Nations, the United Nations` main building in that Swiss city. Senior Engineer Carlos Julián Estrada Castro, one of my mentors, was there and he told me that one day the members of the Cuban delegation received a call from the Cuban Embassy at the United Nations organizations in Geneva. A diplomatic cable from Havana instructed the members of the delegation to find out about the possibilities of starting a Cuban international short wave radio service. Engineer Estrada, who was very experienced in matters related to the use of the short wave radio spectrum, realized that right there in Switzerland, there was a world famous radio transmitter factory, the Swiss firm Brown Boveri Corporation. Estrada and other members of the Cuban delegation to the ITU Conference contacted Brown Boveri, and soon found out a very interesting information. Brown Boveri had several short wave transmitters ready to be shipped to a country in Africa, I believe it was Ethiopia, that had suddenly refused to receive the two 100 kiloWatt and two ten kilowatt transmitters. Estrada wired Havana, and in a few days, by the end of 1959, the deal was completed, and that's how Radio Havana Cuba received its first four transmitters, brand new from Switzerland, and they came together with several antenna systems that were included in the sale. About one year later, by the end of 1960, the Bauta transmitting station, about some 30 kilometers to the West of Havana was under construction. More about the history of Radio Havana Cuba in just a few seconds, as Dxers Unlimited continues broadcasting from the recently totally refurbished Bauta transmitting station, that now has six brand new 100 kiloWatt transmitters that Cuba bought from the People's Republic of China, and one 50 kiloWatt transmitter, also from the same supplier that is now on the air with the Radio Rebelde Tropical Band frequency of 5025 kiloHertz. Sí amigos, we are celebrating very happily our 43 rd anniversary today, May Day of 2004 !!! .. You are listening to Radio Havana Cuba, the name of the show is Dxers Unlimited, and today we are devoting almost all of the program to tell you about our station's early days. By early January of 1961, one of the Brown Boveri 10 kiloWatt transmitters was installed at a small provisional shed, used by the construction workers that were building the transmitting station. There were no steel towers to put up an antenna for the transmitter, so Engineer José Antonio Valladares talked to the local power utility and obtained six wooden poles, and he asked for the tallest ones that they had available. Valladares, who is Cuba's most experienced antenna specialist, knew very well that he needed no less than 20 meters to install a dipole antenna for the 25 meters band that will put out a good signal to the Americas, but the wooden poles were only about 13 meters high. Then someone at {sic} brought up the idea of making a taller mast by putting two poles into the ground and inserting a third one about half way in between the two lower ones. Using typical power company equipment and hardware, the two first masts that the station used went up, and in less than a week they were ready to support a full wave dipole antenna. Power had to be brought to the provisional building so that the 10 kiloWatt transmitter could start operations, and because there was no link with the Radio Progreso downtown Havana studios, someone suggested installing a tape recorder and player right next to the transmitter. Tests began by the first and second weeks of February of 1961 and on the 24th of February of that year, Onda Corta Experimental Cubana, the Cuban Experimental Short Wave went on the air with a one hour long program in Spanish that was repeated several times during the evening. More about Radio Havana Cuba's early days in a few seconds. .. This was our original interval signal, the first bars from the hymn of the 26th of July Revolutionary Movement, that has identified our station for the past 43 years. Now let me tell you more about those early days. We also had obtained a 1 kiloWatt Gates short wave transmitter, using a 4 dash 1000 final amplifier tube, modulated by two 833A's, so we installed another antenna, and soon the station was on two frequencies, 11760 kiloHertz with 10 kiloWatts and 1 kiloWatt on 6000 kiloHertz. All of us involved in the setting up of the station were delighted when we began to receive reports from friends in Latin America, Canada and the United States. The provisional installation was working quite well indeed, as we proceeded to install the second 10 kiloWatt transmitter and the first 100 kiloWatt transmitter as the main building of the Bauta station was almost completed. Why Cuba wanted to have the station on the air as soon as possible and with the best equipment available was something quite logical, we all knew that an armed invasion against our nation was in the works, and that having a short wave station on the air meant that the world could be informed directly about what was really happening. The period between the 24th of February and the 15th of April of 1961 saw engineers, technicians, electricians and the antenna crews working at a hectic pace to try to have all the equipment on the air and with the new antennas that had to be installed. Engineer José Valladares was in charge of the design of several antennas, and of supervising the installation of the ones that were bought to Brown Boveri, he had among his crew a very young at that time radio enthusiast, that had just completed his senior high school and a radio and television training course. Yes, I was one of Valladares` pupils, at age 18, and you cannot imagine how much he taught to all of us that were fortunate to work with him and the other senior engineers in charge of the project. On the 15th of April of 1961 everyone in Cuba learned about the air raids to three Cuban Air Force Bases, a prelude of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. It was one day later, at the burial of the martyrs of the Revolution that were killed during the air raids that Fidel told the world about the existence of what was going to be Radio Havana Cuba. SOUND: Fragmento Fidel's speech at 12 and 23 streets next to Havana's Cemetery where he announced to the world the existence of our station A day later, April 17th the infamous 25O6 Brigade organized, trained and supplied by the US Central Intelligence Agency, began landing at the Bay of Pigs, and immediately was challenged by the Cuban Rebel Army and militia troops that brought them to a total defeat in less than 72 hours. During the whole time that the invasion lasted, our experimental short wave station was on the air 24 hours, telling the world what was happening and providing to the many friends of the Cuban Revolution up to the minute information of what was happening in the Zapata swamp, the isolated area of Cuba carefully selected by the CIA for the landing of the mercenary forces. SOUND: Fragmento comunicado del Gobierno Revolucionario The battle reports went on the air from the very Stara [start?] of the military operations against the invaders, and the last one, telling the world about the outstanding victory of the Cuban people was repeated many times, so that everyone could pick up our broadcasts. ... Si amigos, a few days later, on May Day, the first day of May of 1961, Cuba celebrated its victory over the CIA forces sent to invade our nation, and it was precisely on that day that our station went on the air, for the first time, using the name of Radio Havana Cuba SOUND: Corte identificación Lilia Rosa y Alcorta A very small group of people were envolved in the start up of Radio Havana Cuba; we worked up to 18 hours a day to try to finish installing the complex equipment. Never before Cuban engineers have worked with such powerful transmitters, as the only two high power AM band broadcast transmitters that existed here were a pair of 50 kiloWatts Westinghouse model 5OHG2 transmitters owned by Radio Progreso and Circuito CMQ National Networks. The first 100 kiloWatt Brown Boveri transmitter was ready to operate just a few days before the Bay of Pigs invasion, and it did play a very important role in making known to the world what was actually taking place at the Zapata swamp battlefield. A few months later, the Bauta transmitting station phase one was completed, and we started to broadcast regularly in both Spanish and English, adding shortly after Portuguese and French. Several years later two new Russian built SNIEG transmitters were added to Bauta, as well as more antennas to make it possible to broadcast not only to Latin America, the Caribbean and North America, but also to Europe. Si amigos, the history of Radio Havana Cuba is full of very interesting anecdotes, and I'll try to tell you a few of them in the coming weeks. This program today, is my humble tribute to all of those who are no longer with us, having passed away since the station first went on the air, and who make possible that Cuba's voice may be heard all around the world !!! . You have just heard a special edition of Dxers Unlimited, devoted to the early days of Radio Havana Cuba; your comments about this program will be most appreciated, please send them directly to me arnie@r..., [truncated] or VIA AIR MAIL to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba, It was certainly nice to share with you this description of how our station started 43 years ago amigos!!! (via Bob Chandler, ODXA via DXLD) ** CUBA. Se acaba de activar por los 13680 kHz a las 1510 UT la señal de Radio Reloj de Cuba, pero al parecer el transmisor confronta serios problemas, ya que la señal se está cayendo a cada rato. Atte: (José Elías Díaz Gómez, April 29, Conexión Digital via DXLD) See VENEZUELA ** DENMARK. World Music Radio is now nearer the re-launch --- but suffered yet another delay today Monday. The new 10 kW transmitter for 5815 kHz is in the harbour of Oslo instead of Copenhagen – so it will take a few more days before the transmitter arrives at the transmitter site in Jutland. However Stig Hartvig Nielsen now hopes that test transmissions on 5815 kHz from WMR will take place late this week or some time next week (Hartvig Nielsen, Apr 19, DSWCI DX Window April 21 via DXLD) ** GUATEMALA. 3300, TGNA/R. Cultural, 0935-1000 1 May, Spiritual talk by M mixed with light religious Spanish vocal music. Phone #'s given at 0942 at program end including one in US. Possible call ID promo at 0943. Nonstop light instrumental music. 0958:45 nice "R. Cultural" ID program promo over ranchera music. Would've been 100% copy if not for thunderstorm QRN which was just horrible. Decent signal and good modulation though. Seems irregular. Nothing on 5955 (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** INDIA. AIR domestic service, 9425, has a 5-minute English newscast at 0035 UT; poor in splash from Greece 9420, May 2, but it was better a night or two ago (Joe Hanlon, NJ, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL. MISSION AVIATION FELLOWSHIP [Cf. VENEZUELA] Another interesting faith-based volunteer organization, MAF supports many humanitarian and missionary operations throughout the world, including Africa (Mali, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, etc.), Indonesia, Russia, Ecuador, Haiti and Venezuela. In addition to ferrying people and supplies using its fleet of small aircraft, MAF also sets up and operates communication networks to serve very remote parts of the world through its MAFLink system. MAFLink operates satellite phone, GSM mobile phone and HF Email services using both PacTOR and Codan technology. The MAF site lists HF Email networks in operation from the following countries and hub locations: Haiti (Port Au Prince), Mali (Bamako), Zambia (Musenga), West Papua (Wamena), Ecuador (Shell), Congo (Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Tshikaji) and Central African Republic (Yaloke). At least one of these networks, operating from Haiti and using the selcal PAPIPO, has been spotted on 5427.8 and 5857.8 kHz. Perhaps the Codan networks stick to the proprietary selcal system rather than the standard MIL-188-141A ALE? Otherwise I feel confident that a number of these other networks would have been identified by now. Let me know if you happen to bump into them in your travels through the HF dial. Resources --- MAF: http://www.maf.org (Mike Chace, Digital Digest, Utility World, May MONITORING TIMES via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. I meant to check the scheduled Israel Radio SW broadcasts May 1 and 2 to determine whether they have really been canceled, but missed most of the times; at 1945 May 2, 15640, the frequency supposed to have come up May 1, had something, which I could almost think was Spanish as scheduled, but nothing on 11605 or 17535. Anyone hearing IBA anymore on SW? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. Channel 1 strike - Knesset TV http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/422400.html "Channel 1 strike may disrupt Likud coverage --- By Anat Balint "The Israel Broadcasting Authority's union of journalists yesterday announced its plan to initiate sanctions starting today, in response to a series of steps undertaken recently by IBA management. The sanctions would disrupt Channel One's coverage of the Likud Party referendum on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan. The union contacted all of the employees slated to take part in the special coverage of the referendum and demanded that they not leave the station building during the day. According to the union, IBA management has cut overtime payments, and has drastically cut Arabic-language broadcasting as a result of a merger between Channel 33 and the satellite Mideast Channel. The union, headed by Yehuda Cohen, also claimed that some programs were outsourced to outside producers, and some union members were personally harmed. The members of the union also said that for the past three months they have been "completely ignored" by IBA management. In response, the IBA said, "The sanctions are illegal since just two weeks ago the journalism-production union signed an agreement with the IBA's deputy director-general in charge of human resources, which included these subjects. The matter will be dealt with in accordance with the law." " ====== Knesset to be broadcast live on new Israeli TV channel / Website / Satellite http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/422394.html "Knesset TV to begin broadcasts tomorrow By Anat Balint The Knesset television channel will begin broadcasting tomorrow, starting at 8 A.M., on Channel 99 on cable and satellite, and 41 for the analog cable service. Channel 2's News Company was chosen to produce the channel for the Knesset for a trial period of two and a half years. At the end of this period the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council will issue a tender for a more permanent production contract. Initially, the channel will broadcast on Monday through Wednesday, but with the opening of the Knesset winter session in October, it will broadcast five days a week. Programming will include five hours of Knesset sessions, two hours of a Knesset committee meeting, and a further eight hours of other programs and news of the Knesset and national politics. Orit Levy-Nasiel, formerly of Channel 1, was chosen to present the daily concluding program that will be aired at 10 P.M. Michael Tuchfeld, formerly of Israel Radio, will broadcast from the "main studio" throughout the day, and Gal Gabai, formerly of Channel 2 news, will present the morning show. The director of the channel will be Uri Paz - until recently, the number two man at the News Company of Channel 2. Among the media personalities presenting programs on the channel are Nachman Shai, Amit Segal, Shevach Weiss, Dr. Mina Tzemach, Roni Milo, Gideon Reicher, Ari Shavit and Ze'ev Schiff. The broadcasts will replace those available on Channel 33. The Knesset will pay NIS 15 million per year, compared to NIS 6 million paid to the Israel Broadcasting Authority for Channel 33. " ====== From the Knesset website English homepage http://www.knesset.gov.il/main/eng/home.asp "The Knesset Television Channel Will Begin Broadcasting on May 3, 2004 The Knesset Channel will broadcast on Channel 99 on digital cable and Yes, Channel 41 on analog cable. The Channel will also broadcast via open satellite and via the Knesset Website." "02/05/2004 16th Knesset: Passover Recess. Summer Session will start on May 3, 2004 " === "Yes" is direct broadcast satellite, available in Israel. === Live webcast:: http://www.knesset.gov.il/broadcast/eng/screen_eng.asp "Plenum Sittings: Monday: 4:00 PM Israel time Tuesday: 4:00 PM Israel time Wednesday: 11:00 AM Israel time" === I emailed the Webmaster for the satellite information (all via Doni Rosenzweig, May 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. MORE DETAILS OF RADIO FREE NK PUBLISHED Today's Korea Herald publishes more information on the clandestine Internet broadcaster Radio Free NK (which the paper refers to throughout the article as Free & NK). The article says that one of the North Korean defectors behind the station, Kim Eun-il, was engaged in anti-South propaganda broadcasting before his defection in February 2002. It quotes a survey by the Korean Broadcasting System that found about 66 percent of North Korean defectors had risked punishment by government authorities by secretly listening to radio programmes from South Korea and other countries. That's why the group place great importance on getting some of their material onto the Voice of America. Not everyone thinks the broadcasts are a good idea. The Korea Times says there has been vehement criticism from some South Koreans, who insist the station is harming the reconciliatory mood between the two Koreas by openly criticizing the North Korean dictatorship. It quotes Kim as saying "I have many supporters, but I have received mail thatening to harm us if we continue the broadcasting, which they say gets on the nerves of North Korean leaders by disclosing negative facts about the country." Read the full article http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2004/05/03/200405030006.asp # posted by Andy @ 10:43 UT May 2 (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** LIBYA. Voice of Iraq has been monitored in past days. Direction finding at about 160-170 degrees from central Europe, which decide that either the Sabrata or Sabhah sites are in use. So should be coming from former ute service, left over by the Libyan diplomatic service. RIZ company from Zagreb-Croatia (former YUG) delivered some ute units two decades ago. Daily Arabic service towards the brothers in Iraq on USB mode 1203-1300 11890 (QRM VoA Greenville, Spanisch 1200-1230 {1130-1300 Sat/Sun, and Creole Sat/Sun}) 1800-1900 and 2100-2200 7425 11890. At present (May 1) at 2115 UT with fine signal strength of S=3 / S=4. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 9704.97, 0402-, Radio Mexico International, May 2. Presumed logging of continuous Spanish EZL vocals, gradually improving towards TOH, but no ID that I could hear. Initially poor to fair, but fair+ after TOH. Best on USB to avoid het from Ethiopia on the lower side. No parallels noted. Strong splatter from WYFR on 9715. Signal continues to fade-up at 0409. Occasionally good. Still going at 0450. They must have faulty transmitter as the modulation will suddenly increase greatly in volume, and then fade again. Also there is a very slight drift between 9704.97 and 9705. NA heard at 0500, and then very clearly a Radio Mexico ID (finally) in Spanish, then dead air, and off by 0502 (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MONACO. RE: DXLD 4-073 Monaco [non] "New longwave country logged: Monte Carlo --- I believe the transmitter is in France". DXing has changed a lot since I first came into the hobby in the late 60's. Back then, the location of the transmitter, not the location of the studio, determined what country as actually being heard. And Monte Carlo is not the name of a country, anyway! (Andy Sennitt, dxldyg via DXLD) As I recall, MONACO was mentioned in the original text, but since it was also the header for the item, I removed it as redundant; really splitting hairs here (gh) ** NEW ZEALAND. 9615, 0504-, Radio New Zealand International, May 2. 5-5-5 reception with National Radio finishing the news, and then into sports information. Very impressive signal strength! An excellent choice for WCNA (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NICARAGUA. Another station which slipped away, virtually unnoticed, is Radio Miskut, 5770. The word on this one is that their transmitter had been damaged but is to undergo repairs sometime in the future. We probably shouldn`t look for this one to return before the end of the year (Gerry Dexter, Bandscan America, May Short Wave Magazine, UK, via DXLD) 5770 USB, R Miskut, Ptº Cabezas, 2245-2254, Apr 12, Spanish phone-ins; 35342 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DSWCI DX Window April 21 via DXLD) Has been Off the air since May 2003 while the transmitter was repaired in USA (DSWCI Ed Anker Petersen, ibid.) ** OKLAHOMA. NETWORK SUES KXOK, FAULKNER 4/26/04 By Robert Barron Staff Writer http://www.enidnews.com/story.php?story_id=59085 Enid attorney Rex Faulkner, doing business as KXOK television is being sued by a California production company and television minister asking $20 million in damages. The lawsuit asks the Central District court of California to assume jurisdiction. The suit is the latest in an ongoing dispute between Faulkner, Dolores Press, Inc., The University Network, and Dr. Gene Scott. The plaintiffs ask for a permanent injunction against KXOK or its associates from using any of the material in question or in any way infringing on the rights of the plaintiff, The University Network; that any copies be returned, destroyed or otherwise disposed of and that the defendant be required to pay the actual damage of the plaintiff; that defendants account for all gains, profits and advantages derived from their acts of infringement or other wrongful conduct; restitution of benefits unjustly received or retained; punitive damages, costs and expenses incurred in this action, attorneys` fees, pre- and post-judgment interest at maximum legal rate. The lawsuit alleges copyright infringement, contributory and vicarious copyright infringement, trademark dilution, unfair competition, violation of the Cable Com-munications Policy Act, breach of contract, and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Additional allegations are: fraud, interference with prospective economic advantage, conversion, un-fair competition in violation of California, business and professional code, false advertising in violation of the California business and professional code, and defamation. A jury trial is demanded. Faulkner said Sunday he is not worried about the lawsuit, which he called a ``cheap tactic,`` in response to his breach of contract lawsuit against The University Network. The lawsuit alleges that on Nov. 14, 2002, Faulkner entered into an agreement with The University Network in which he agreed KXOK would broadcast programming provided by satellite feed from The University Network 24-hours per day in exchange for a monthly lease fee of $7,500. The programming to be broadcast consisted largely of pre- recorded religious educational commentary by Bible scholar W. Eugene Scott, Ph.D. The agreement allowed KXOK to broadcast programming other than provided by The University Network during specified periods of time each day, reimbursing The University Network for such time. KXOK was allowed only to broadcast ``ground crawlers`` containing public service information during programming of Scott`s lectures, because secular advertising during The University Network programming would offend viewers, as well as impugn the reputations of both The University Network and, Scott, the action claims. The lawsuit claims KXOK violated the terms of the contract by broadcasting commercial advertising and claim Faulkner concealed his intent when reaching the agreement. Despite specific language in the contract and the intent of the parties, the network alleges Faulkner intentionally and materially breached the agreement by broadcasting advertising during the time exclusively allotted to The University Network. They also allege KXOK violated the contract by providing the programming to a regional cable provider, and that Faulkner made unlicensed copies of broadcasts. Faulkner claimed to be the sole owner of the station at the time of the agreement, but the lawsuit alleges other partners unknown to them and sues them under fictitious names. The suit alleges Scott was not a party to the agreement, although Faulkner misled the Oklahoma court by improperly naming him. Faulkner earlier filed suit against The University Network, and Scott, claiming breach of contract, asking $150,000. He claimed the network had not paid him for broadcasts of their program as agreed. ``This is just people trying to discourage me from going further,`` Faulkner said. ``It`s a cheap tactic to try to dodge their responsibilities. I`m not concerned about it in the least.`` Faulkner said The University Network has the money to pay for a lawsuit and this is their ``modus operandi.`` ``If they thought they had a claim against me, it`s interesting that nothing transpired until after my lawsuit. This is clearly just a retaliatory attempt,`` he said. Attorney’s [sic] for The University Network could not be contacted Sunday (Enid News & Eagle April 26 via DXLD) Comments [all sic for your amusement] Christ and Sue writes: "Sounds like Dr. Scott's organization is expressing its literal lack of integrity by sueing this TV Station $20 million dollars for a breach of $7,500. Who needs the money? What are they really trying to say? No faith? Hmm... Oh well. Enid is better off without Scott's arrogant mug and condescending mouth on the air!" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- glad it's off the air too! writes: "I'm glad it's gone. He was hedious. Not a true man of God. He was condensending and judgemental and negative. He is an angry, nasty man. If Mr Faulkner is a christian, do you really think his show was a christian ministry? Did you let your children watch it? Did you watch it? Good riddens, Mr Scott." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Emerald writes: "Mr. Faulkner had to have worked hard during his life...becoming a lawyer is not an easy task...He was able to purchase a television station that would not only represent himself but the wonderful people of Enid, Oklahoma. To compromise that privilidge for a mere $7,500.00 a month to air ~gene scott~ 24/7 seems to me like KXOK has become a mere "call girl" . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- As one the comments replied..gene scott is a false prophet and a disgrace to the gospel of Jesus Christ. With the morality decline of this country...the hopelessness that so many feel...the rise in teenage pregnancy and std's...no respect for our senior citizen's....on and on...Mr. Faulkner, KXOK could be such a postive beacon that would show that the LIGHTS OF ENID ARE ON...you will find ~HOPE~ in our town....there is no hope in broadcasting gene scott across the airways...." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JR writes: "After seeing W. Eugene Scott's programming it is clear he is in it for the money, not God's work. That and along with Universities other programs is nothing but a joke. They don't want to pay what they owe and want someone to futher thier cause in my opinion." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- glad its off the air writes: " Did any of you ever watch the programming? Dr. Scott is a complete nutcase. Why did Rex Faulkner agree to have him on the air 24/7 on one of Enid's channels, taking away better programming? Was it only the money that was enticing to you, Mr. Faulkner, or do you actually believe in this man's so-called ministry? I know many people are very glad that he was finally removed from our airwaves. The man is a false prophet and is leading people away from true Biblical values." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tim writes: "Dr. Scott has been conning people his whole life and wants to continue. I was in California back in the seventies and he would drink, smoke and tell the audiance if they wanted more reigeous programing they had to send money, or, he would just sit back, drink his wine, and smoke cigars until they did." (Enid News & Eagle via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. Top Example of What Is Wrong With Radio... While driving into Eastern Oklahoma during tonight's outbreak of tornadoes, I was very impressed with the storm coverage provided by both KRMG and KFAQ... the fact that they will be there during a storm is a given. My problem was, I needed information on the storms along I-40 and not the Tulsa metro. I knew that there was a tornado warning for Muskogee County, and this was the information I needed, so I turned to 100,000 watt blowtorch KMMY 97.1 in Muskogee. Keep in mind, there is a funnel cloud hovering above Main Street in Muskogee, with another potentially deadly storm behind it heading toward me on I-40, and KMMY stays with music. No EAS alerts... no weather radio reports, nothing... The sad thing is that the only place to get information for Muskogee that I knew of was KISR 93.7 an hour away in Fort Smith. Fred Baker does an excellent job keeping up with Oklahoma, and tonight was no exception. Let me also say that I don't know what KTFX or KEOK in Tahlequah were doing, but from a 100kw station I expected better than what I heard on KMMY. You could at least simulcast a TV station or something. And this complaint goes against every other jukebox station that thinks another ten in a row for a point in the ratings is more important than protecting the people you serve. That is the whole point being each one of us that has a license to own and operate a radio station. (MediaMogul, April 22, Radio-Info Oklahoma board via DXLD) ** PAKISTAN. Karachi radio scene 612 kHz (Landhi 10 kW? new frequency -oa) 0215-0700 Suit-ul-Qur`an (Voice of Qur`an), national hook-up; Radio Pakistan Karachi, Channel II 1400-2145 (conversion error for 1645? -oa) local service, including programmes in Sindhi. 639 kHz (Landhi 100 kW) 0200-0400 & 1300-1800 News & Current Affairs channel. 828 kHz (100 kW, site at the Karachi-Hyderabad highway -oa) 0045-0200 Hay-ya-all Falah channel (Quran programme national hook-up, title means Come towards prosperity); Radio Pakistan Karachi channel I: 0044-0405(Sun 1900) (including above? -oa), 0600-1900 (Basic information provided by DXer Javaid Azim in Karachi, via Olle Alm/WRTH, ARC Information Desk via DXLD) ** PAKISTAN. The A04 schedule for the domestic services is: Islamabad API-2 100 kW 6065 1350-1400 Balti news...1420-1428 Sheena news, 1615-1700 Islamabad Pgm (Aaina) 6085 0045-0200 Haya Allal Falah and 0200-0215 Urdu news 7105 1230-1330 Rawalpindi Kashmiri Pgm 7130 0600-0604 Urdu news....0604-0700 Rawalpindi Pgm...0700-0703 Urdu news...0703-0707 Punjabi news...0707-0755 Rawalpindi Pgm...0755- 0800 Sindhi news...0800-0803 English news...0803-0900 Rawalpindi Pgm... 0900-0903 Islamabad Pgm...0903-0907 Pushtu news...0907- 1000 Islamabad Pgm...1000-1005 Urdu news... 1005-1100 Islamabad Pgm...1100-1104 English news...1104-1115 Islamabad Pgm. Islamabad API-4 100 kW 6225 0200-0400 & 1300-1800 Current Affairs Quetta 10 kW 5025 0045-0404 (Fri. 0345) & 1200-1805 7155 0600-1145 (Fri. 0400-0820 & 1000-1145) Peshawar 10 kW 7220 1100-1400 Chitrali Service Islamabad API-8 100 kW 4790 0045-0215 & 1445-1815 Pindi III Programme [meaning Rawalpindi] 7265 0900-1215 Pindi III Programme 6065 0430-0515 Balti Service 6065 0530-0615 Sheena Service Rawalpindi 10 kW 4790 0230-0425 & 1335-1430 Pindi III Programme (R Pakistan via Noel Green, Apr 15, DSWCI DX Window April 21 via DXLD) ** PERU. "Latest 2 SW Recordings" -- Listen to this recordings at: http://www.malm-ecuador.com Two Peruvian stations, both from Cusco and both normally with heavy interference from nearby channels. This time almost without interference: 6173.33 Radio Tawantinsuyo, Cusco 152kb 04/2004. 6193.45 Radio Cusco, Cusco 1/May/2004 16:30 Saludos Cordiales desde "La Mitad del Mundo"! (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, May 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. Harmonics --- It is not often that harmonic frequencies are heard or reported. I managed to catch two of them on 28th April 2004: 19520 kHz VOA English news at 1400 utc, harmonic of 9710 kHz with feeble to moderate signals (Supratik Sanatani, India via DXLD) Nothing scheduled then on 9710; assume you mean 9760 Philippines 0.5 x 19520. See also CHINA ** RUSSIA. 9880, 0311-, Voice of Russia World Service, May 1. Joe Adamov with Moscow Mailbag. Fair to good reception. Noted parallel of 9665, but under very loud presumed CRI in Spanish from Brasília. My information stated that this later frequency was not in use until 5 Sept. Next day, May 2 at 0413, 9665 is in the clear and very loud, and equal to 15595 in strength. Other parallels include 15595 and 17660, both good (these are usually very strong here on the west coast, especially 15595), and 9860 (fair). 17660 was missing the next evening 2 May (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. BSKSA schedule in A-04 as monitored in April: General Programme 0600-0900 on 17730 17740 0900-1155 on 17805 21705 1200-1455 on 21640 21505 1700-1800 on 15315 15435 1800-2300 on 9555 9870 Voice of Islam 1500-1700 on 15315 15435 Holy Qur`an 0300-0555 on 9715 15170 17895 0600-0800 on 17895 0600-0900 on 9715 15380 0900-1200 on 11935 17615 21495 1200-1300 on 15380 17895 21600 1300-1400 on 15380 17895 21460 21600 1400-1500 on 17895 21460 1500-1600 on 11785 13710 15205 21460 1600-1800 on 13710 15205 17560 1800-2300 on 11740 11820 11915 Second Arabic Programme 0300-[0900] on 9675 Foreign Language Programme 0800-1000 on 17785 in French 1400-1600 on 21600 in French External Services 0400-0500 on 15470 in Somali 0400-0600 on 15275 in Turkish 0500-0600 on 15470 in Swahili 1000-1200 on 21670 in Indonesian 1200-1400 on 15345 in Urdu 1400-1600 on 11745 in Persian 1400-1600 on 9730 in Turkmen 1600-1700 on 9525 in Pashto 1700-1800 on 17775 in Bambara (Datsinov, Green, Ivanov, Merrall and Petersen, DSWCI DX Window April 21 via DXLD) ** SIERRA LEONE. UNAMSIL, Sierra Leone 6140. After a few years another QSL as a formula letter (v/s Sheila Dallas as last time), a booklet with schemes etc, a paper from UNAMSIL and a T-shirt (XL to my great luck). Is the station just on frequency nowadays, so that is the reason we can't here them or is the tropical weather that have degraded the antennas and transmitter? (Jan Edh, Sweden, SW Bulletin May 2, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) QSL from R UNAMSIL in Sierra Leone on 6137.7 who after nearly two years time replied with a letter, T-shirt, paper and scheme. V/s was Sheila Dallas, Station Manager & Executive Producer (Dan Olsson, ibid.) ** SLOVAKIA. ESLOVAQUIA: El primer tópico de la información dado esta noche (sábado 1 de mayo) por Radio Eslovaquia Internacional se refirió al anunciado cierre de sus servicios por onda corta, la locutora dijo: "...Debido a la falta de recursos financieros los parlamentarios pidieron a los Ministros de Cultura y Finanzas que garantizaran la financiación de este servicio con apoyo especial proveniente del presupuesto estatal. Como lo comentó el Director General de la Radio, Jaroslav Reznik, mantener las transmisiones de onda corta en Radio Nacional (de Eslovaquia) debería ser uno de los intereses primordiales del país dado a la eficacia que reviste la difusión de la información sobre Eslovaquia a través de este medio". (Rubén Guillermo Margenet, Argentina, May 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA. 15747.98, 20.4 1450, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation with their All Asia Service is really off their usual frequency. A very nice programme with oldies before the news at 1500. 3-4 CB 15748, 30.4 1515, Sri Lanka Bc Corp with All Asia Service and the very entertaining Classic Gold. Can be heard very well all afternoon with oldies. 3-4 CB (Christer Brunström, Sweden, SW Bulletin May 2, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15747, 1230 01/05, Sri Lanka BC/Ekala, ID, pop music, off-frequency, English 34433 (Silvain Domen, Belgium, shortwaves yahoogroup via DXLD) ** SURINAM. 4990, R. Apintie, apparently off the air for quite some time now. Never got an answer to my e-mail back in mid-Winter. 73's (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** THAILAND [non]. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 5890, 0308-, Radio Thailand, May 1. What a pleasure to receive absolutely superb reception of Radio Thailand in English via Delano, California. Story about SARS in China. Direct 15395 not audible at this time (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The 0300 broadcast via Delano is not very good here (Joe Hanlon, NJ, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Maybe it really is aimed due south with a nice backlobe toward Volodya (gh, DXLD) {or bi-direxional} ** U K. 5 MHz operation: In the UK, holders of full (or general) class amateur licences can apply for permission to operate on five selected frequencies in the 5 MHz area, where they are permitted to contact military stations. Comprehensive log keeping and signal reporting is required and logs must be submitted to the RSGB for collation. It`s notable though that communications must be in USB mode. Much military HF equipment may not be easily configured to operate in LSB, which is conventionally used by amateur operators at frequencies below 10 MHz. The whole exercise is being carried out to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of HF communications throughout the UK should a major terrorist incident, or disaster, occur. In this event it`s possible that , as in the frozen north, the NVIS [near vertical incidence scatter(?) --- SWM is lax in explaining abbrs.] effect could be a particularly useful tool. The frequencies in use are 5258.5, 5278.5, 5288.5, 5398.5 and 5403.5 kHz. Activity is generally high on Sundays and Thursday afternoons when schools that have Combined Cadet Force (CCF) signal sections come on air. The CCF stations are allocated some frequencies slightly lower than those listed above. The channels are given the following designators: FA, FB, FC, FE and FM respectively. The military stations use callsigns such as Five Charlie or similar and are not supposed to state their location (Ben Hogan, SSB Utilities, May Short Wave Magazine, UK, via DXLD) ** U K [non]. RADIO EZRA NEW BROADCAST Dear Short Wave Listeners and Radio Enthusiasts. Radio Ezra is pleased to announce a new series of weekly English language broadcasts commencing on Sunday 6th June 2004. The broadcasts will be targeted towards Europe, North Africa and the Middle East on 17490 kHz between 0900 and 0930 UT via the Krasnodor transmitter in Russia. Radio Ezra is the Radio Outreach Project for the World Karaite Movement and the only counter-missionary radio station in the world. Reception reports are very welcome and a QSL certificate will be issued to any correct reports received. Contact information will be given out on air. In the meantime, please refer to the station website for any further information. John D. Hill (Station Owner) Radio Ezra http://www.radioezra.com World Karaite movement http://www.karaites.info Regards, (via Swopan Chakroborty, Kolkata, INDIA; Roberto Scaglione, Sicily, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Annotated WBCQ Program Guide Anomalies and Recent Observations from: http://www.zappahead.net/wbcq/anomaly.php Sunday, May 2, 2004 Updated program schedules based on the release of a new 'official' schedule from Michael's site at wbcq.info. Changes of note include: The Voice of Reason added M-F 4-5 PM ET on 5105; Radio Caroline is back M-F 5-6 PM ET on 5105; and Brother Scare now runs one hour later M-Sat and has dropped Sunday broadcasts on 5105. All Saturday programming on 17495 has been cancelled with the exception of The Full Gospel Hour from 5:30 to 6:30 PM ET. This means no more Zombo Mondo, Allan Weiner, Timtron, RMF Show or World of Radio broadcasts on 17495. 9330 changes include: The Spirit of Elijah replaces Tampon Tea Bingo Hour on Saturdays 7-8 PM ET The official schedule has at least one error. It lists Power From On High but I have verified Odin Lives here at this time as recently as the previous Thursday (via John Norfolk, dxld yahoogroups, DXLD) ** U S A. WJIE, 7490, noted with much better modulation lately, in the 0300-0700 period carrying Christian Media(?) Network. It`s // WRMI 7385 but WRMI lags behind by a few seconds to a minute. Wish WJIE would still broadcast the good southern gospel music it used to (George Thurman, TX, late April, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. ESTADOS UNIDOS: Estupendo Certificado QSL he recibido de World Wide Religious Broadcasting, Short Wave Radio Station WWRB, Box 7, Manchester, Tennessee 37349, USA. La respuesta ha demorado poco más de un año: el reporte incluyendo casete con la grabación de la escucha realizada el 19/03/03 en 5050 kHz fue enviado el 21 de abril de 2003 y la QSL arribó el día 30 de mayo [sic] de 2004. La enorme tarjeta mide 28 cm de largo x 21,5 cm de alto, está diseñada con un fino recuadro; en el centro va inscripto el nombre del oyente como Listener Club Member y tiene previsto catorce lugares a completar con dos autoadhesivos dorados que la emisora remite verificando cada informe de recepción (siete en total), uno indica el modo de transmisión y el otro el transmisor utilizado y la frecuencia, se verifica el día en forma manuscrita pero no el horario de la escucha. El verificador es DAVID FRANTZ. El Certificado QSL lleva el número SW-00000 3 (!!!). La dirección web de WWRB es http://www.wwrb.org La recepción fue realizada con un receptor Kenwood R-5000 y antena T2FD de 27 metros (Rubén Guillermo Margenet, Argentina, May 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. BOB EDWARDS SIGNS OFF AS HE SIGNED ON IN '79 May 1, 2004 By LYNETTE CLEMETSON WASHINGTON, April 30 - With a notably wistful edge to his familiar baritone voice, Bob Edwards, the longtime host of National Public Radio's "Morning Edition," anchored the network's flagship news program for the last time on Friday. "This program is the last I shall host," Mr. Edwards told listeners just before the final segment of the two-hour show, a poignant interview with a fellow radio veteran, Charles Osgood, who was Mr. Edwards's first interview subject when he started "Morning Edition" in November 1979. He told his nearly 13 million listeners, "You're the audience a broadcaster dreams of having." . . . http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/01/arts/01NPR.html?ex=1084445927&ei=1&en=55e98c80445b4b06 (via Don Thornton, DXLD) ** U S A. This was the Air America list found May 2 at http://www.airamericaradio.com/pub/resStations.htm Find a Station --- On The Air New York City - WLIB 1190 Chicago - WNTD 950 Minneapolis - WMNN 1330 Portland, OR - KPOJ 620 Riverside, CA - KCAA 1050 West Palm Beach, FL - WJNO 1290 Plattsburgh/Burlington - WTWK 1070 Key West, FL - WKIZ 1500 Portland, ME - WMTW 870 Chapel Hill, NC - WCHL 1360 XM Satellite Radio - 167 Sirius Satellite Radio - 125 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coming Soon San Francisco/San Jose KVVN 1400 San Francisco/Berkeley KVTO 1430 Sacramento, CA KSQR 1240 Colorado Springs, Co KBZC 1300 San Luis Obispo, CA KYNS 1340 Santa Cruz, CA KTEE Santa Fe, NM KOOT 101.5 Anchorage, AK KUDO 1080 Honolulu KAOI 1110 Boulder, CO KBAC 610 Memphis, TN WMQM 1600 Reno, NV KXTO 1550 Northampton, MA WHMP 1400 Nashua, NH WSNH 900 Dish Network (via Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Another RDS List Website --- I found this new RDS Listing website the other day. It shows all of the information available for a station if people submit it. I added all of the stuff that I have seen myself. There are at least a couple that aren't on John Z's list. 93.1 WMGX, 100.9 WYNZ, and 101.9 WPOR. There is probably more. Also, there were a couple that I saw while in NY last week that I forgot to post about. 102.7 WNEW "MIX102.7" and 104.7 WSPK "K-104.7" There is probably more. http://www.rdslist.com (Jeff Lehmann, Hanson, MA, March 26, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. Spring tropo from Omaha to Alexandria Ah, spring tropo at last. The other morning I had Omaha 15, and Kansas City 38 (38 The Spot). Saturday night, UT Sun 0315+, zero CCI to KOCO-5, flutter rate about 6 Hz, "Storm Team 5". Felt lucky in a Google search which led to WPTV. Storm Team 5, yes, but not the station I was getting as a few minutes later uncovered kalb.com which also uses that weather slogan. Very steady relative strength. KALB by tropo is not often seen here, being close to the same direxion as KOCO which never goes off. After 0329:30 (NBC starts half a minute early, have you noticed, also weeknights Tonight show at 0334:30 UT), SNL from KALB, stlil under KOCO, but the vertically offset VI bar could be seen with some binary code in it? Did not look like letters. However the other morning during the Omaha tropo, which also extended at least to The Metroplex, KOCO was totally wiped out by CCI, probably mostly DFW. Strangely, not much seen from the UHFs down there, except 49 in Spanish, with heavy CCI. WFAA-DT was so strong that KWTV-9 analog was getting very very snowy (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, April 17, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. Salem Fucks up --- With the indecency furore in full swing, you wouldn't expect to hear the "magic word" of obscenities on, of all places, SALEM RADIO NETWORK, but there it was just before 10 am PT on TUESDAY on DENNIS PRAGER's show. ALL ACCESS heard an agitated liberal caller denouncing conservatives call PRAGER and his political brethren the "m-f" word, and the word was not dumped (as heard on affiliate KCBQ-A/SAN DIEGO). The incident comes the day after SALEM officials touted the network's programming as "safe for the whole family." (allaccess.com via Brock Whaley April 27, DXLD) Fine `em, FCC! ** VATICAN STATE. Fr. Dan, technical director of Vatican Radio, confirmed Apr 13 in an interview for the Vatican Radio Italian Programme ("www.ok") that the Vatican Radio is very happy about its first DRM experiments, going on 1611 MW with 28 kW at 0645-1500 and 2100-2205 daily. Monitors confirmed very good listening conditions from such far places like Munich in Germany at night (over 1,000 km North of Rome). Analog signal with same power is not audible even by night. Vatican Radio hopes to extend their DRM operations to SW and counting on DRM to overcome the power reductions imposed to MW transmitters after socalled electro-smog row. According to Fr. Dan manufacturers promised to introduce low cost DRM receivers by the year's end (Luigi Cobisi and Paolo Morandotti, Italy, DSWCI DX Window April 21 via DXLD) ** VENEZUELA. MYSTERY NETWORK CRACKED I was interested to read a message posted on WUN that seemed to suggest a breakthrough in a network that we had first mentioned here almost two years ago. Centered on the frequency of 8016.1 kHz, one can hear the incessant selcalling activity between a number of stations including CUWA, YAJA and JANK. At the time, we speculated in this column that the network was in the Amazonian basin area of Brazil based on a preliminary fit of some place names. German monitor Kristian K seems to have finally come up with an answer to this network. As a web search of some of the PacTOR selcals confirms, this network appears to be deep in the jungles of the far southern parts of Venezuela and supports a number of missionary operations in that part of the world. Over 1.2 million people live in this region of Venezuela, including the remote indigenous tribes of Yanamamo, the Ye`Kuana, the Piaroa, and the Sanoma. The missionary organization YES (Yielded Evangelical Servants), most likely supported by transport and supply flights from MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship), has groups of its volunteers in the following places (indicated by their PacTOR IDs): COSH Cosheloweteli COYO Unidentified CUWA Cuwa JAL Jalulusi-Teli JANK Unidentified MMG Unidentified VEN Caracas? YAJA Yajanamateli Another location, Puerto Ayacucho, is also listed, but no selcals appear to fit this station and many of these locations are far too small to be found on any commonly available maps. To date, there have been no reports of actual traffic between these stations, only the constant selcals and responses. YES has other operations in Haiti, Mexico, Dominican Republic and Trinidad, although none of these have yet been found on HF. It is also interesting to note that another mystery PacTOR network on 7987.75 kHz with selcals like JMX, BRR and YANOMA also fit a number of missionary locations. Resources --- YES: http://www.yeservants.org (Mike Chace, Digital Digest, Utility World, May MONITORING TIMES via DXLD) More on MAF at INTERNATIONAL ** VENEZUELA [non]. Sunday May 2 around 1430 found ``Aló, Presidente`` via Cuba on 13750 (new?), and 11875, but no other frequencies found in scans of 6, 9, 11, 13, 15 and 17 MHz --- tho possibly under WYFR 17750 as before (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM [non]. 17595, R Chan Troi Moi, via Juelich, Germany, *1330- 1429*, Apr 12, New frequency ex 9585, Fanfare, Vietnamese IDs 1330 and 1333: `Day là daì phat thanh Chân Tròi Mói`. Vietnamese music, 1337 Speech about Phnom Penh to audience, 1344 instrumental music and 1345 obviously a religious programme with church bells, hymns by choir and preaching. Spanish speaking station underneath. 34444. At 1429 Deutsche Welle Interval signal was heard (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window April 21 via DXLD) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. 7460, RASD, 2202-2233, April 26, Arabic, OM with news, several field reports mentioning Mauritaine; Mediterraine and Israel. Good signal (Scott Barbour, NH, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hearing this as early as 2000 (Steve Lare, MI, DXLD) ** ZANZIBAR. I checked the BDXC site the other day, and on their Africa on Shortwave page they are now showing Zanzibar as inactive on SW at present. I have not heard them on 11734.1 for some time now. (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. 6145, SW Radio Africa did not change, i.e. it is still on 6145 at 1600-1900. The second half of the transmission gives quite poor reception with lots of QRM here, but perhaps it is better in Zimbabwe. I would not be surprised if they change to a lower frequency later in the year. The station does not want to confirm the transmitter site, but let's say that the signal here "sounds local". (Vaclav Korinek, RSA, DSWCI DX Window April 21 via DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Mensaje para el colega Glenn Hauser. El aire de radio está vacío sin tu información! (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, Conexión Digital via DXLD) You're a Googlism ..... http://www.googlism.com/index.htm?ism=Glenn+Hauser&type=1 Thought you might enjoy that. :-) (Pete Costello, NJ, April 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ PRESS RELEASE FROM THE DANISH SHORTWAVE CLUB INTERNATIONAL (DSWCI) NEW SURVEY AVAILABLE: The DOMESTIC BROADCASTING SURVEY 6 (DBS-6) edited by DSWCI Chairman, Anker Petersen. ISSN 1399-8218 The 47 year old DSWCI which still has experienced DX-ers in 35 countries all over the world as members, has just issued the 6th Edition of its annual Domestic Broadcasting Survey. This time the survey is divided into four parts: Part 1: The 32nd edition of the Tropical Bands Survey covering all ACTIVE broadcasting stations on 2300 - 5700 kHz. Part 2: Domestic stations on international shortwave bands above 5700 kHz broadcasting to a domestic audience, or relaying such broadcasts to compatriots abroad which have increased in order to save production costs in external services. Part 3: All ACTIVE Clandestine shortwave stations are listed with schedules and identifications in a different lay out. Part 4: Deleted frequencies which have not been reported heard during the past four years. This new Survey is based upon many official sources and DX-bulletins. A04 schedules are included when available. In order to make the DBS reliable, our own monitors around the world have checked throughout the period May 2003 - April 2004, if each of the 1560 station frequencies is on the air. As a result of this monitoring, about 70% of the frequencies already have been confirmed being used in 2004! ACTIVE stations are marked with an A (`Regular`), B (`Irregular`) or C (`Sporadic`) in the list. D means `Likely inactive`. A unique feature is the right column called `Last log`. It shows the last month and year before DBS deadline on April 15, 2004 when the particular station was reported logged by a DX-er somewhere in the world.This is another way of indicating the current audibility of the station. To make this DBS up-to-date and user-friendly, most frequencies which have not been heard during the past year have been deleted and moved to Part 4. Other useful features for easy identification (ID) are the parallel frequencies and reference to Station ID sentences. Reviews can be found on http://www.dswci.org The 48 pages A-4 size DBS-6 is available by e-mail as pdf-format (about 663 KB). A limited number is also printed on paper. They are sold by the treasurer: DSWCI, c/o Bent Nielsen, Egekrogen 14, DK 3500 Vaerloese, DENMARK E-Mail edition: DKK 40,00 or USD 7.00 or EUR 5,00 or GBP 4,00 or IRC 6 Printed: DKK 75,00 or USD 13.00 or EUR 10,00 or GBP 7,00 or IRC 11. Payment by cash notes is preferred. Checks are not accepted. DSWCI Bank is Danske Bank,2-12 Holmens Kanal, DK-1092 Copenhagen K, Account: DK 44 3000 4001 528459. Swift: DABADKKK Postal Giro Account: DK 10 3000 007 103409 (add fee: DKK 30!). Best 73's, Anker Petersen anker.petersen@get2net.dk Bent Nielsen bentndx.elinh@post.tele.dk (via DXLD) POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ WALDEE ON BPL Glenn: FWIW I refer you to my latest magnum opus, "My Take On BPL": http://www.home.earthlink.net/~srw-swling/bpl.htm Best, (Steve Waldee, CA, May 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) A MUST READ! (gh) I note this is written purely from a US perspective, but there are similar moves afoot in Europe and Australia, to name but two. This threat needs to be dealt with on a worldwide basis, not a country-by- country basis. What the hell is the ITU doing? (Andy Sennitt, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) There are definitely days (more lately than not) when I have the same feeling he has - that BPL is inevitable and HF as we know it will be trashed either by BPL or all the other RF emitters out there. I filed my NPRM comments and will continue to monitor the power utility serving my area, and hope for the best. I must admit that I have not been proud of our country for a few years now, with how both big business and our recent administrations have been bullying folks around. I'm not sure which is the better descriptor - a bully or a spoiled brat. Both really. I can hope that he NTIA report will help win the day, but either way BPL is still permitted in the U.S. under Part 15 rules. So it is probably inevitable. What a waste. A black mark on history. Frustrated on Sunday... (Kevin Anderson, Dubuque IA USA, K9IUA, swprograms via DXLD) FCC TO ENDORSE PIRATE RADIO INTERFERENCE? For many years, the FCC has repeatedly claimed that pirate radio transmissions are dangerous because of their potential interference to aircraft in flight, ambulances, and other emergency services. Almost all of these FCC claims have proven to be bogus, since no ambulances use 6925 kHz, and this channel is not in use by other emergency services. This month we print your editor`s own best pirate station QSL card, which came for an actual pirate radio broadcast made by the FCC on the occasion of their bust of WHBH. In the press release issued on the occasion of this pirate bust, the FCC makes its traditional claims about the dangers of unlicensed HF broadcasts in the pirate bands. Astonishingly, the FCC may be in the process of reversing course on this major issue in the unlicensed broadcasting field. For more than a year it has been considering proposals to implement new internet services, called ``Broadband over Power Line`` transmissions. This new BPL system would transmit high speed DSL internet connections over the existing power line grid owned by electric utility companies in the USA. Many in the radio monitoring hobby, including the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) in Connecticut, have been monitoring tests of the proposed BPL systems. The ones currently under consideration are actually radio broadcasts that transmit unlicensed jamming signals. They deliver both internet connections to subscribers and also loud RF interference to anybody who tries to listen to radios in proximity to the power lines. Despite repeated protests by the ARRL and the amateur radio community, FCC Chairman Colin Powell, Jr. [sic – he`s Michael Powell, Colin`s offspring] has been issuing statements indicating that the FCC may approve this radio jamming system for widespread use within the United States. It is unclear if the FCC and Chairman Powell will take credit for interfering with aircraft in flight, ambulances, and other vital homeland security functions if they approve this unlicensed jamming by pirate radio operators at utility companies selling BPL services. Your editor normally tries to avoid too much commentary in this column, but this time we have to say something about this outrageous abuse of the public trust on the part of the United States Federal Government and the FCC. For decades, the government and the FCC have told us that unlicensed broadcasting was dangerous. But now, under pressure from economically and politically powerful greedy interests at the utility companies, the FCC may be poised to authorize the biggest authorized radio jamming project in the history of the world. It would dwarf the old jamming efforts of the Soviet Union, and the occasional jamming of broadcasting that we still see from Cuba today. Monitoring Times readers always have varied opinions about the legitimacy of pirate radio broadcasting, but it is certain that all readers of this magazine will be strongly opposed to the dangerous BPL jamming scheme of Powell and the FCC. You should contact your congressman at once to complain bitterly about this potential abuse of governmental authority in a supposedly free country (George Zeller, Outer Limits, May MONITORING TIMES via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ UPDATES TO PASSPORT TO WORLD BAND RADIO - EDITION 2004 Hello everyone. Here's a link to PASSPORT's latest posting which, I am sure, will be of interest to all. http://passband.com/pages/receivernews.htm It looks to me that Sony wants to exit the market. Better "get 'em while you can!" With a large number of SW radios being sold in the US (not to mention Europe, Asia, and Africa), you kind of wonder what goes through the heads of these marketing "geniuses?" Sure they don't sell in the numbers of the Apple IPod, etc., but, then, they don't have to be redesigned every three months. Once development costs are amortized, it costs very little, relatively speaking, to manufacture a product that sells in small but consistent numbers over many years. At least this is what I have been told. I guess they just don't want to bother even "thinking" about SW radio. Akio Morita was a true genius; the "managers" who have followed him seem to be sadly lacking in brain- power. I hope that one of the other manufacturers can license Sony's "sync" circuitry (or, even better, design their own, perhaps superior, one). It's the "sync" circuitry which makes the Sony radios stand way out ahead of the competition. Sony's radios, truth to tell, are no better than anyone else's except for that circuit (and, of course, their build quality). I'm surprised that Sangean and Degen have not tried to design one and I'm very surprised that Eton, with their Drake connection (Drake's circuit is better than Sony's), have not tried to incorporate it into a Yacht-Boy 400 "A" model. Frankly, after using synchronous selectable sideband circuitry for the last six years or so (and having plenty of experience without the circuit), I won't buy any receiver which does not incorporate it. (From IBS receiver news via Lawrence H Bulk, rec.radio.shortwave via SW Bulletin May 2 via DXLD) TenTEc RX-350 I think it's in $1,000 range - I saw it on the Ten-Tec site. Is this a good receiver? What other receivers would it compare to? Is it better than the ICOM R-75? Thanks, (Jim Williams) ---------------------- Well, I have had mine since the first of the year, and it is the finest receiver I have ever owned. Should you think I don't know what I am talking about, here is some background: I have owned 33 R-390A's, 20 SP-600's, 1 R-390 and 87 other miscellaneous receivers, both tube and solid state, all the Drake R8 series, the NRD series etc. The choice of 34 bandwidths, the passband offset range, and all the other features make it a real pleasure to listen to news, music and utilities. I got the remote control with it and it's great to be able to sit back in the easy chair and punch in frequencies and use the tuning knob. One last thing, I too owned a Kiwa modified R-75 including the 3.8 filter before Kiwa couldn't get them anymore. It was a good receiver, but not as good as my old R8B and this RX-350D aces them all imho. (Les Locklear, On The Gulf of Mexico Ten Tec RX-350D Various antennas Monitoring since ' 57) ------------------------- The RX-350 is a strange beast: It has every feature you could imagine, including 34 filter bandwidths, three different AM sync modes, built-in DSP noise reduction and auto-notch, etc. The firmware is still a work in process, however, and is updated by Ten-Tec and user installed from your computer (flash rom). Ten-Tec still needs to refine a few things in the firmware. I like my RX-350 very much. The R-75 is not in this class of receivers but a good buy for the money. (Brian Denley) --------------------- it is a terrible receiver, I sold mine a week after I got it. the sync is pathetic, the selectivity has DSP problems. the receiver is a mess and ten-tec KNOWS it. Ten-tec hasn't updated the firmware in almost two years. and it is NOT a priority for them, just ask the person in charge of the update. I feel sorry for anyone who buys one. Also note that the 350 has NOTHING to do at all with the 340 the 340 was designed by the same engineer who designed the WJ-8711 the 350 was designed by ten-tec and is based on the jupiter by adding things like the poor sync detector. (mike maghakian ) ----------------------- I own both the RX-350 and the r75 and I put them in 2 different classes. For pure DX work, where digging out a tiny signal is important, I prefer the r75. But for listening to a broadcast I find the 350 to have much better audio. I believe the Icom lives up to it's name stamped on the receiver, namely Communications (I also have an Icom 745 transceiver). In communications, intelligence not audio, is the important factor and the r75 does a bit better in this department. When it comes to audio, the 350 is the winner. The 350 also has the plus of a 12kHz IF, which allows for DRM reception experimentation. I'm very pleased that I can afford to keep both and enjoy both sides of the coin. (Al KA5JGV San Antonio, Tx.) (all rec.radio.shortwave via SW Bulletin May 2 via DXLD) DIGITAL VS ANALOG TV DXING Last thing I want to do is start a big controversy on this. All I`m saying is DXing is a great passion of mine, and digital TV will ruin TV DXing for me, because I simply will not enjoy it. I might very well become like one of my best friends, who doesn`t even own a TV and spends much of his free time doing volunteer work in the community --- more rewarding anyway, right? As far as quality goes, much of it is a matter of personal taste, since both systems have shortcomings. But what I can`t stand with digital tv is that the flaws are INHERENT to the technology and are still present even under ideal conditions, as opposed to analog, where the picture can be improved upon with better reception. The reason is that even at its best, a digital picture is nothing more than a binary reconstruction of the analog original, and by its very definition and nature, digital is always inferior to analog in quality. To illustrate, It is similar to analog vs digital tuners. Some prefer the one over the other, it is often a matter of personal taste. But one undeniable fact is that a digital tuner is limited in its fine- tuning capacities, because the increments you can fine-tune in are finite, not infinite as in an analog tuner, where you can always make an ever slighter adjustment; say you want to tune to 97.135 with the analog you can in theory keep fine tuning indefinitely. But with the digital tuner, you cannot. You jump from 97.13 to 97.14. You cannot fine-tune beyond that. What does this have to do with digital TV? Well, everything! This is how digital works! For example, say you have a picture of a sunset. On the analog picture, each pixel will faithfully reflect a mirror-like image of the luminance and color. As you get closer to the sun in the picture, each pixel will increase slightly in luminance and color. Not so with the digital picture! As in the case of a digital tuner, the digital picture works with increments. So in this same picture of a sunset, the pixels will only change in luminance and color once a certain digital threshold is reached, and then jump abruptly in luminance to the next 'increment'. The result? Your analog sunset faithfully reflects the life-like infinite subtle variations of brightness and color. The digital picture besides it look like a paint-by numbers picture. It looks like a bunch of circles in a sky full of tiny tiles, not a sunset! Awful. So maybe at first glance if you happen to try a side by side comparison and the Simpsons is on and you're watching on a small monitor, it won`t just jump out at you. But if you're using a fairly large TV and it's a nature show, or anything outside, where digital fails so badly at reproducing the real world, the digital picture looks waxy, dull, almost like looking through a dirty window at times. Yet that is only one of the flaws; we have barely scratched the surface, there are several others, just as painful to look at. They become more noticeable after you watch for a while. But these are inherent flaws that cannot be corrected, and I won`t even get into those other ones because I am realizing this post is starting to be more the size of a novel. But those flaws are always there, even under ideal conditions, and no doubt you will notice the many others --- especially on those signals that will use multiple channels, since further compression will make those flaws even more painful to look at! So really I was not talking about reception flaws. The sad fact is that, in most cases, where you used to get a weak analog picture, in digital mode, you'll get nothing at all. As a DXer, what would anyone prefer? the answer is obvious. But under ideal conditions, with perfect reception say 5 miles from the tower, the analog picture will be perfect. The digital picture will remain what it is, an inferior mock of the analog one. HDTV is irrelevant to the discussion; of course the picture quality is astounding, it has 1000+ lines, but it will STILL suffer from the same digital flaws --- and would be yet even of better quality if it ever was broadcast in analog! One last note --- so someone actually is able to do a comparison of both, and lo and behold, those awful digital flaws are visible on the analog picture too! Yes sadly, some analog broadcasters have started getting some of their satellite feeds in digital already, so fairly soon, you may not be able to even get a chance to do a fair comparison. There is no fighting this obviously, but at least perhaps one can find small comfort in at least not being completely duped with these digital errr ...improvements.... Everyone have a nice day and sorry if this runs a bit long....! (Steven Durocher, March 30, WTFDA via DXLD) I would respectfully suggest to Steven that it's increasingly rare to see anything at all on TV that hasn't spent at least some time in the digital domain. Here in my medium-sized market (Rochester NY), three of the five TV stations shoot all their news video on a digital format (DVC Pro, a bigger cousin of the MiniDV in many new camcorders), and even the other two do much of their editing on digital systems. Most programming you see on cable TV is played off digital storage systems. Those of you who were up here for the WTFDA convention last year and went on the WXXI station tour saw the giant tape archiving system there, which stores hundreds of hours of programming - again in the digital domain. Even if you're watching a "live" program, it's now almost inevitable that the signal will pass through at least one digital/analog conversion somewhere along the way. Doug Smith can speak to this better than I can, I suspect, but one big issue right now in TV engineering is the FCC's takeback of part of the spectrum (in the 12 GHz range, IIRC) that's used by TV news live trucks. As a result, they're rapidly switching from analog to digital transmission to save bandwidth. Many studio-transmitter links have gone digital. It's not uncommon now for a TV station's master control to be located at a distant central location, which means the video then has to be backhauled - digitally, of course - over fiber, microwave or satellite to get to the transmitter. And in this era of Janet Jackson, a lot of "live" programming is getting delayed - digitally. So there's very little left to be seen on the air - even on an "analog" broadcast - that's never gone into the digital domain somewhere along the way from the camera to you. This is no less true in radio, where the humble cart machine has been replaced by digital automation at even the smallest of stations. Where I'm working at the moment (the radio side of WXXI), our news audio is acquired digitally (on minidisks), edited digitally (on our Enco automation system), played back digitally (on the Enco), sent over a digital STL to the transmitter, and only then broadcast in analog. But I'd contend, as well, that even if you accept Steven's argument where live broadcasts are concerned (and I don't, at least not in the real world of broadcasting), I would in general much rather watch or listen to a recorded program digitally than in analog. Many of you know that I spent several years working for the local all-news cable channel here in town. When I started there, we were shooting video in the field in S-VHS, editing to 3/4" analog tape, then dubbing to an analog format called M-II (a higher-quality professional version of VHS) for playback out of an analog tape automation system. When that system wasn't running "live" (15 or so hours out of the day), we'd play back tapes recorded from that automation onto 3/4" analog tape. By the time it got to that generation, the pictures were horrible - all smeary and fuzzy and just plain ugly. Not long afterward, we switched to MiniDV in the field, Avid digital editing systems and an automation system based on Profile digital video servers. The jump in quality was astonishing. I realize we've strayed from DXing here, but the point I'm driving at is that digital doesn't automatically mean "worse," at least not in my eyes. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ ENCONTRO DEXISTA NO BRASIL !!!! BRASIL DX 2004 --- LORENA SP ENCONTRO DE RADIOESCUTAS AFICIONADOS POR RÁDIO E DXISTAS De 9 a 11 de julho de 2004 (6a feira a domingo) estará ocorrendo o Brasil DX 2004 - Lorena, nas instalações do Valle Hotel, em Lorena - SP. O DX Clube do Brasil e o Sr. Cassiano Alves Macedo produtor e apresentador do programa Encontro DX na Radio Aparecida, promovem este encontro de aficionados por rádio, radioescutas e dxistas, com a presença de personalidades da radio difusão regional e internacional, jornalistas, fabricante de receptores, enfim, pessoas ligadas ao radio de ondas curtas, para apresentação de palestras sobre temas atuais e abertura para discussão com os presentes. O BRASIL DX 2004 – Lorena será aberto aos radioescutas, aficionados por rádio e dxistas de todo o Brasil, que poderão optar inclusive por somente assistir as palestras a serem realizadas no dia 10 de Julho. Neste fim de semana haverá o programa Encontro DX especial ao vivo, com a presença de convidados para discutir a resenha do evento e para formar opinião favorável às ondas curtas, haverá a participação de ouvintes no ar de todo o Brasil. AGENDA 9 DE JULHO No dia 9 de Julho, sexta-feira, chegada ao meio-dia e confraternização entre os presentes, haverá demonstração de receptores, antenas, e contará com a presença do distribuidor Radiohaus, revendedor de equipamentos para radioamadores e radioescutas, e também do fabricante nacional de receptores Motobras. No fim da tarde em diante, haverá reunião para a prática de escutas de radio, utilizando os conceitos, receptores e antenas utilizados durante o dia, para a boa prática do dxismo. 10 DE JULHO Ocorrerão palestras ministradas pelos convidados especiais, no Salão de Convenções do hotel e contará com recursos áudio visuais para facilitar a comunicação e os debates. Os principais temas a serem abordados pelos palestrantes convidados : 1. Panorama atual do idioma Português nas ondas curtas internacionais 2. A formação de redes e a radio difusão regional nas ondas curtas 3. O rádio de ondas curtas na formação de opinião no mundo moderno 4. O relacionamento entre ouvinte e emissora no desenvolvimento de laços culturais 5. A convergência de mídias – Internet e Ondas Curtas e o futuro padrão DRM 6. O Mercado nacional de receptores de ondas curtas e suas tendências 11 DE JULHO Haverá um almoço de confraternização para reforçar os laços de amizades e criar novas oportunidades em prol do rádio e do desenvolvimento da atividade dxista. DIVULGAÇÃO O evento será divulgado através das emissoras internacionais de ondas curtas que emitem em português para o Brasil e pela da Rádio Guarujá Paulista, pelos boletins do DX Clube do Brasil e pela Lista Radioescutas@Yahoo. ORGANIZAÇÃO ENCONTRO DX --- Cassiano Alves Macedo Dois radialistas e apaixonados por rádio - Cassiano Macedo e José Moura - apresentam a mais de 18 anos na Rádio Aparecida o programa ENCONTRO DX, que vai ao ar aos Sábados das 19:00 do horário de Brasília as 19:30, levando cultura e informação de extrema relevância aos praticantes do hobby da Radioescuta e DXismo. Este programa já faz parte da história do rádio e do Dxismo brasileiro. A primeira edição do Encontro DX foi ao ar no dia 01 de novembro de 1986 e foi fruto da persistência de Raimundo Leonardo Bezerra e a visão de radiodifusão do Padre Ronualdo Pelaquim que dirigia a Rádio Aparecida. DX CLUBE DO BRASIL O DX Clube do Brasil surgiu em Outubro de 1981, então denominado DX Clube Paulista, para colocar novamente a disposição dos aficionados brasileiros na radioescuta uma publicação regular, onde estes pudessem divulgar as suas captações, experiências e confirmações de relatórios de recepção (QSL´s) recebidas das emissoras, sejam elas broadcasting ou utilitárias. Graças ao pioneirismo dos Dxistas Samuel Cássio Martins Santos, Márcio Roberto Ferreira Bertoldi e Carlos Felipe da Silva, os sócios do DXCB têm mantido atividade ininterrupta há mais de 21 anos e já em mais de 200 edições do boletim, hoje mensal, ``Atividade DX``, onde foram publicadas algumas das mais difíceis e interessantes captações e verificações QSL realizadas pelos Dexistas brasileiros ao longo de duas décadas. Alem disso, semanalmente é produzido o ``@tividade DX`` , boletim eletrônico do DXCB gratuito na Internet. A tradição do DXCB em prol do hobby tem levado o Clube a organizar e apoiar ativamente encontros anuais para reunir profissionais da radiodifusão, ouvintes de rádio e praticantes do hobby DX. Alguns eventos como o DX Brasil 1999 e 2000, Encontro de Aficionados por Rádio em Aparecida, DX-Camps em Lorena e Ilha Comprida, tem sido eventos de sucesso. Atualmente, o DXCB conta em seu quadro com coordenadores de diversas partes do Brasil, tendo abrangência realmente nacional, como o próprio nome sugere, sendo eles : Samuel Cássio Martins – São Carlos, São Paulo Carlos Felipe da Silva – São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo Caio Fernandes Lopes – Itajubá, Minas Gerais Sarmento F Campos – Rio de Janeiro Além destes, fazem parte da comissão organizadora do evento, Pedro de Castro da cidade de Lorena, Rudolf Walter Grimm de São Bernardo do Campo e Valter Aguiar da cidade de Santos, São Paulo O DX Clube do Brasil apóia e crê na radioescuta como meio de expansão do conhecimento e de formação humana. LOCAL DO ENCONTRO O Valle Hotel se localiza na estrada velha Rio – São Paulo, entre Guaratinguetá e Lorena. Por estar fora da zona urbana, o local é tranqüilo e o nível de ruído elétrico é baixo, permitindo boas escutas. O hotel é amplo e agradável, e tem um ótimo restaurante. Em sua enorme área de lazer, que conta com playground, quadra de esportes, quiosque, sauna, churrasqueira e piscinas, é possível esticar antenas de todos os tipos e tamanhos. Os receptores podem ser instalados no quiosque ou no salão de conferências. O gerente e os funcionários já estão acostumados a nos receber, e facilitam tudo para que nos sintamos à vontade. Para este encontro o hotel cobrará uma diária de 30 reais por pessoa, com um excelente café da manhã, desde que fiquem duas pessoas em cada apartamento. As demais refeições podem ser feitas no restaurante do hotel ou nos (bons) restaurantes de Lorena, da Via Dutra ou de Guaratinguetá, todos de fácil acesso. UMA IDÉIA QUE VEM DANDO CERTO Este ano em particular, com a união do já tradicional Encontro Nacional de Aficionados por Radio organizado pelo Sr. Cassiano Alves Macedo, na cidade de Aparecida, e do já tradicional Lorena DX-Camp organizado pelo DX Clube do Brasil na cidade de Lorena, iremos concentrar em um único fim de semana as atividades de palestras sobre radio difusão e atividades Dxistas. Assim, teremos o BRASIL DX 2004 – LORENA. Por se realizar num local adequado e econômico, numa cidade de fácil acesso e eqüidistante dos grandes centros, o encontro de aficionados por rádio, radioescutas e dexistas em tanto em Lorena como em Aparecida vem ganhando importância e crescendo a cada ano. Já em sua terceira edição, tanto do Encontro de Aficionados por Rádio como Lorena DX-Camp, agora BRASIL DX 2004 - Lorena, estaremos nos reunindo para rever os amigos, fazer novos amigos, colocar a conversa em dia, para ensinar, para aprender e também para ouvir rádio. Por ser uma reunião aberta e informal, qualquer pessoa poderá participar, inclusive levando os familiares, se desejar. O hotel é muito agradável e as cidades de Aparecida e Guaratinguetá, muito próximas, são conhecidos pontos turísticos. COMO FAZER SUA RESERVA As reservas podem ser feitas pelo telefone (12) 3153-1415. Fale com Cleiton ou Luciana e diga que se trata do encontro de radioescutas e dexistas. Na internet : http://www.delvalle.tur.br/valle.htm COMO CHEGAR É muito fácil chegar ao Valle Hotel, tanto de carro como de ônibus: - Para quem vem de carro, do Rio ou de Minas: seguir pela Via Dutra até o km 55,1 e tomar uma estrada à direita, que liga a Via Dutra à Estrada Velha Rio - SP, que fica a 2 km adiante. Dobrar à esquerda (sentido Guaratinguetá) e andar mais 300 metros, chegando ao hotel. - Para quem vem de carro de São Paulo: seguir pela Via Dutra até o km 59,5 e entrar no Posto e Restaurante Clube dos 500. Fazer o retorno pelo túnel e retomar a Via Dutra ou a marginal (de terra) por 600 metros, até a fábrica Leite Paulista. Dobrar à direita, entrando numa avenida com canteiro central e seguir até o seu final. Dobrar novamente à direita, sentido Lorena, chegando ao hotel, cerca de 5 km à frente. - Para quem vem de ônibus do Rio: a Viação Sampaio tem uma linha para Lorena, saindo do Terminal Novo Rio às 0615, 0845, 1230, 1600 e 1800. A viagem dura 4 horas e a passagem custa R$ 26,30. Os horários de retorno são 0600, 0840, 1015, 1340 e 1750. O telefone da Sampaio no Rio é 2233-8325. Chegando à rodoviária de Lorena, tomar o ônibus circular da Pássaro Marrom para Guaratinguetá, via Estrada Velha, que parte a cada 20 minutos no horário comercial e a cada 30 minutos fora do horário comercial. Pedir ao motorista ou ao cobrador para parar em frente ao Valle Hotel. Uma corrida de táxi da rodoviária de Lorena ao hotel custa 10 reais. - Para quem vem de ônibus de São Paulo: tomar o Pássaro Marrom no terminal Tietê, com destino a Guaratinguetá, que sai de hora em hora. A passagem custa R$ 19,90 e a viagem dura 2 horas e 15 minutos. Chegando na rodoviária de Guaratinguetá, tomar o mesmo ônibus circular da Pássaro Marrom descrito acima, com destino a Lorena, e descer em frente ao hotel. - Para residentes em outras cidades, sem ônibus direto para Lorena: a cidade de Aparecida, muito próxima de Lorena, é ligada às principais cidades do Brasil por muitas empresas de ônibus. Informe-se na rodoviária de sua cidade. CONTAMOS COM A SUA PRESENÇA ! Adalberto Marques de Azevedo py4wth @ bol.com.br Barbacena - MG - Brasil Sócio do DX Clube do Brasil http://www.ondascurtas.com Faça parte desta família ! (via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ Monthly Ri_hemispheric Report :Issued: 2004 May 01 0916 UTC :Product: documentation at http://sidc.oma.be/products/ri_hemispheric #--------------------------------------------------------------------# # MONTHLY REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL SUNSPOT NUMBER # # from the SIDC (RWC-Belgium) # #--------------------------------------------------------------------# APRIL 2004 PROVISIONAL INTERNATIONAL NORMALIZED HEMISPHERIC SUNSPOT NUMBERS Date Ri Rn Rs __________________________________________________________________ 1 55 20 35 2 51 14 37 3 47 10 37 4 55 16 39 5 57 17 40 6 40 8 32 7 39 0 39 8 27 0 27 9 15 0 15 10 13 0 13 11 13 0 13 12 25 0 25 13 35 0 35 14 42 8 34 15 34 9 25 16 31 10 21 17 50 9 41 18 58 9 49 19 63 9 54 20 59 7 52 21 59 0 59 22 57 0 57 23 43 0 43 24 38 11 27 25 31 18 13 26 34 24 10 27 26 15 11 28 23 14 9 29 24 10 14 30 34 9 25 __________________________________________________________________ MONTHLY MEAN : 39.3 8.2 31.1 COOPERATING STATIONS : 45 39 39 PILOT STATION : Specola Solare Ticinese, Locarno __________________________________________________________________ Reproduction permitted if source mentionned P. CUGNONm avenue Circulaire, 3 B-1180 BRUXELLES - BELGIUM #--------------------------------------------------------------------# Monthly Ri Report :Issued: 2004 May 01 0916 UTC :Product: documentation at http://sidc.oma.be/products/ri #--------------------------------------------------------------------# # MONTHLY REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL SUNSPOT NUMBER # # from the SIDC (RWC-Belgium) # #--------------------------------------------------------------------# Provisional International monthly mean Sunspot Number for April 2004 : 39.3 (thirty-nine point three) Maximum : 63 on 19 // Minimum : 13 on 10, 11 Provisional daily International Sunspot Numbers for April 2004 : 1.. 55 6.. 40 11.. 13 16.. 31 21.. 59 26.. 34 2.. 51 7.. 39 12.. 25 17.. 50 22.. 57 27.. 26 3.. 47 8.. 27 13.. 35 18.. 58 23.. 43 28.. 23 4.. 55 9.. 15 14.. 42 19.. 63 24.. 38 29.. 24 5.. 57 10.. 13 15.. 34 20.. 59 25.. 31 30.. 34 45 cooperating stations on May 1, 09 UT Predictions of the monthly smoothed Sunspot Number using the last provisional value, calculated for October 2003 : 58.1 (+-5%) SM CM SM CM SM CM 2003 Nov 57 57 2004 May 45 51 2004 Nov 36 47 Dec 52 56 Jun 43 50 Dec 35 47 2004 Jan 50 55 Jul 42 49 2005 Jan 33 47 Feb 49 54 Aug 41 48 Feb 32 45 Mar 47 53 Sep 39 47 Mar 30 43 Apr 46 52 Oct 38 47 Apr 29 41 SM : SIDC classical method : based on an interpolation of Waldmeier's standard curves; the estimated error ranges from 7% (first month) to 35% (last month) CM : Combined method : the combined method is a regression technique coupling a dynamo-based estimator with Waldmeier's idea of standard curves, due to K. Denkmayr. ref. : K. Denkmayr, P. Cugnon, 1997 : "About Sunspot Number Medium- Term Predictions", in "Solar-Terrestrial Prediction Workshop V", eds. G. Heckman et al., Hiraiso Solar Terrestrial Research Center, Japan, 103 #--------------------------------------------------------------------# # Solar Influences Data analysis Center - RWC Belgium # # Royal Observatory of Belgium # # Fax : 32 (0) 2 373 0 224 # # Tel.: 32 (0) 2 373 0 491 # # For more information, see http://sidc.oma.be (via Jim Moats, DXLD) "THE HIGH LATITUDE IONOSPHERE AND ITS EFFECTS ON RADIO PROPAGATION" Bed time reading for anoraks. If you can get hold of a copy of the book "The High Latitude Ionosphere and its effects on Radio Propagation" by Hunsucker & Hargreaves 2002 from your local library it will make fascinating reading. It couples basic propagation with sun- earth fireworks and considerably extends the subject in a highly understandable way. Lots of facts and figures for those solar, weather and acoustic effects we see from submarine frequencies to the uhf. It cost me thirty bob for a 3 week loan and it's an absolute steal (Derek, MWC via DXLD) ###