DX LISTENING DIGEST 4-097, June 25, 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 1235: Fri 2300 on Studio X, Momigno, Italy 1584 Sat 0800 on WRN1 to Europe, Africa, Asia, Pacific Sat 0855 on WNQM Nashville 1300 Sat 1030 on WWCR 5070 Sat 1830 on WPKN Bridgeport, 89.5, webcast http://www.wpkn.org Sat 2000 on WBCQ 9330-CLSB Sat 2030 on WWCR 12160 Sat 2030 on WBCQ 17495-CUSB [maybe] Sat 2030 on R. Lavalamp http://www.radiolavalamp.org Sat 2130 on RFPI http://www.rfpi.org repeated 8-hourly [maybe] Sat 2300 on RFPI http://www.rfpi.org repeated 8-hourly [maybe] Sun 0230 on WWCR 5070 Sun 0630 on WWCR 3210 Sun 1000 on WRN1 to North America, webcast; also KSFC 91.9 Spokane WA, and WDWN 89.1 Auburn NY; maybe KTRU 91.7 Houston TX, each with webcasts Sun 1100 on R. Lavalamp http://www.radiolavalamp.org Sun 1500 on R. Lavalamp http://www.radiolavalamp.org Sun 1900 on Studio X, Momigno, Italy 1584 Sun 2000 on RNI webcast, http://www.11L-rni.com Mon 0100 on WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0330 on WSUI 910, webcast http://wsui.uiowa.edu [previous 1234] Mon 0430 on WBCQ 7415, webcast http://wbcq.us Mon 0900 on R. Lavalamp http://www.radiolavalamp.org Mon 1600 on WBCQ after-hours http://wbcq.com repeated weekdaily 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 1235 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1235h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1235h.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1235.html [from Thu] WORLD OF RADIO 1235 (low version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1235.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1235.rm WORLD OF RADIO 1235 in MP3, the true shortwave sound of 7415: (stream) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/worldofradio_06-23-04.m3u (d`load) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/worldofradio_06-23-04.mp3 DXLD YAHOOGROUP: Why wait for DXLD? A lot more info, not all of it appearing in DXLD later, is posted at our new yg. Here`s where to sign up. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dxld/ (Glenn Hauser, May 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BIAFRA [non]. SOUTH AFRICA. V. of Biafra International, 7380, June 19 2108-2159*, tune-in to Christian music; 2109 ID and English prayer, talk about corruption and suffering in Nigeria. Vernacular talk, 2151 English news. Good; Saturday only (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. R. San Miguel, Riberalta, 4904.17, June 20 0205-0225+ local music, Spanish announcements, IDs, fair (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOTSWANA [and non]. Flash! 909 kHz is a medium wave frequency! . . .Although Mr Blair does not name the people in southern Africa that he is working with, the Zimbabwean Government has complained to its neighbour, Botswana, about the anti-Zimbabwe broadcasts by the American Studio 7 radio station, which is using a frequency allocated to Botswana by the International Telecommunications Union. The Botswana government has promised to investigate the concerns by Zimbabwe as matters over the issue are coming to a head. Recently the Minister of Information and Publicity, Professor Jonathan Moyo, wrote to his Botswana counterpart Mr Boyce Sebetela to take necessary steps to rectify the issue as soon as possible. "Our technical people have done an investigation, with the help of the International Telecommunications Union, and have concluded beyond any technical doubt that there's indeed Medium Wave, not Short Wave, transmission using 909.000 kHz frequency allocated to Botswana by the ITU for Botswana's internal use. "Through VOA (Voice of America), the American government is using this national frequency meant for Botswana's national use to broadcast hostile and inflammatory content, in the evenings every day, aimed at causing disaffection and insurrection among Zimbabweans," Prof Moyo said in his letter dated June14, 2004. "I look forward to your resolving the matter of 'Studio 7' with some urgency and finality," Prof Moyo said. . . http://allafrica.com/stories/200406240336.html (via Kim Elliott, DXLD) Who says MW is internal only? It`s not anti-Zimbabwe unless you are Mugabe and can`t tell the difference (gh, DXLD) ** BURKINA FASO. RTV Burkina, 5030, June 16 *0529-0545+, sign-on with lite instrumental music; 0530 French announcements, Af folk music. Good level but some splatter from Gene Scott [Costa Rica] on 5029.08. Also heard at 2340-2400* without the GS QRM (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, June 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. A revealing moment of skip --- Last night around 2330 CT I had a station fade up on channel 2, aimed NNE, which featured 2 women and 1 man, all naked... and I'll leave to the imagination what they were all doing together. Any thoughts as to who would run soft-core porn Friday nights? (Matthew C. Sittel, Bellevue, NE, June 12, WTFDA via DXLD) Seeing naked and/or revealing sex scenes on foreign TV is not uncommon. CBC and TVOntario have been known to show such films; often there's no rating nor warning given in our TV GUIDE when these come on the air and thus a "border region" viewer in the USA can be taken somewhat by surprise! I've even seen a nude scene on "Dead Man's Gun" when CHWI-16 aired it. (No wonder they put it on TNN!) (Keith K. Smith, Lansing, MI, ibid.) Believe me, CBC and TVO are saints compare to TQS eh Matt?!!! Without a doubt, that was CFAP-2 Quebec City. I can personally confirm your recep...uh.... well, never mind... TQS runs blue movies every Friday and Saturday night. We're French you see.............. 73, (Charles Gauthier, St-Lambert, QC, ibid.) Here in WNY we can get "Ed the Sock" on Friday night (they do the Naked News, among other things) and then "Sex TV" (blue movies and soft porn) on Saturday night, both on City TV out of Toronto. In fact, I watched "Ed the Sock" last Friday night for the first time. Very funny comedy! There are often other shows that have nudity and such, often in French, on other channels out of Canada. All on UHF stations and NOT carried by local cable companies (Guy in Lockport Falsetti, ibid.) ** CONGO. Rdf. TV du Congo QSL FINALLY!! --- After 22 years of trying, I finally received a f/d QSL card and letter from Radio Congo (per letter), Félix Lossombo, Le Directeur Administratif et Financier for a June 2001 report on 4765 kHz in 10 months after follow-up for $5 and a registered letter. Their schedule per letter is: 6115 kHz from 0600 to 0830 and 1700 to 2030 UT with 50 kw. 9610 kHz from 0700 to 1700 UT (no power mentioned). 5985 kHz from 0430 to 0700 and 1700 to 2300 UT with 100 kw reduced to 50 kw. I figure this QSL cost me approx. $53.50 to obtain over the last 22 years (Terry Palmersheim, KC7LDP, Helena, MT, June 25, hard-core-dx via DXLD) ** CROATIA. RADIO CROATA --- OBSERVACIONES LINGÜÍSTICAS Glenn, desde el 8 de noviembre 2003 que vengo escuchando diariamente a Radio Croata y me sorprende la distinta pronunciación de nombres geográficos croatas por parte de los locutores del programa La Voz de Croacia en 9925 en castellano a 2230v-2353v a 2359v TU, por ejemplo, Bosnia-Herzegovina es pronunciado de tres maneras: Bosnia-Hérzegóvina (así lo pronuncia ùnicamente el editor del programa, el argentino Mario Ostoic, que es oriundo de la ciudad de Luján en la provincia de Buenos Aires, o sea, con dos acentos); otros locutores lo pronuncian Bosnia-Herzegóvina o Bosnia Herzegovína, con acento en la o, o en la i y he escuchado en un mismo locutor pronunciarlo de dos maneras distintas durante el desarrollo de la lectura de una misma noticia. Otras novedades son que semanalmente emiten el "informe bio- meteorológico" con una manera distinta de pronosticar el tiempo diciendo los diferentes trastornos que pueden sufrir las personas a causa del tiempo pronosticado como ser dolores de cabeza, cansancio, dolores reumáticos, etc, etc. Además, el sábado pasado, día 12, por primera vez mencionaron a casi una veintena de oyentes que escribieron a la emisora, entre los cuales estaba yo, y me sorprendí cuando pronunciaron mi apellido como poveryénich (mi difunto padre lo pronunciaba povéryenich y dos tías croatas casi nonagenarias que viven aquí lo pronuncian igual: povéryenich, lo que me hace suponer que el croata es un idioma no consolidado). Chau, hasta la próxima, (Emilio Pedro Povrzenic, Villa Diego, Pcia. Santa Fe, Rep. Argentina, June 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. Key West DX! 48 hours in Key West, a lot to say... CUBA FM.... all assumed from Havana unless marked with * 88.7 R Taíno?* 90.3 R Progreso 91.7 COCO 93.3 R Taíno assumed 94.1 R Enciclopedia 94.9 CMCA assumed 96.7 R Rebelde 98.1 R Taíno?* Varadero & Matanzas in "ads" 98.3 R Metropolitana 99.1 CMBF R Musical 99.9 Cadena Habana assumed 101.5 R Reloj 104.7 R Rebelde 106.9 Habana Radio - I think this is the only Cuba FM right now without parallel on AM TIP: If you are getting FL on FM on e-skip, try for 96.7 in Cuba. There is no high-power FM on 96.7 in FL, not even a Class A. CUBA TV TR = Tele Rebelde CV = Cubavisión CE = Canal Educativo CE2 = Canal Educativo 2 PV = Perlavisión 2 TR/CHTV Havana 3 CV 4 CE Havana 5 TR/PV 6 CV Havana 7 ? 8 ? (WVIB OFF) 9 CV 10 ? 13 TR/PV 14 CE 15 CE2 Havana (seen at home a while back) 18 CE 18 TV MARTI (US), s/on @ 6 pm [2200 UT] 20 CE? Santa Clara? seen in Key Largo LOCAL TV (KEY WEST) 8 WVIB OFF, Cable only now?? 22 WDLP 27 WGZT-LP assumed - color bars only 34 WCAY-LP "Key TV" 39 as 22, but NO to VERY LITTLE SOUND (Christopher S. Dunne, Jun 22, 2004, WTFDA via DXLD) ** CUBA. I've been trying for about 8 years to find pictures of Cuban TV sets on the Internet. So far, no luck. But, this picture I've got to share... http://www.hermanos.org/docs/26803590349.jpg (Wallace Dixon,June 12, WTFDA via DXLD) That`s the one we`ve seen before of the Brothers to the Rescue`s ham TV on a VCR UHF channel airplane test to Cuba (gh, DXLD) Hello Wallace, You can find a number of pictures of Cuban TV sets by doing a Google image search on either Cuba TV, or Cuba television. Set pictures can also be found on Cuban hotel/resort web pages. Room photographs usually show a TV (sometimes other electronic items too -- one place has 70's vintage stereo phonograph sets in each room). (Curtis Sadowski, ibid.) Russian TV sets in Cuba Perhaps it is obvious but Russia is (1) not known for exporting TV sets, (2) today largely depends upon sets built in Turkey and Asia, (3) and most obvious - uses a standard (SECAM) and channeling system NOT compatible with Cuba's NTSC format adopted back in the 50s (Bob Cooper in New Zealand, June 12, ibid.) Hello Bob, While they aren't known for exporting television sets presently, the former Soviet Union did have a lively export trade in the seventies and eighties. I've come upon USSR made Vega brand portable TV sets for sale on Ebay UK. Since they only had a UHF tuner, it was obvious that they were specifically made for that market. Various books and magazine articles I've read have mentioned Soviet made televisions in use in Cuba. After the U.S. embargo to Cuba went into effect in the early 60's, Cuba was in a bit of a quandary about obtaining new sets. Accordingly, the TV plant at Minsk started manufacture of twelve channel VHF only NTSC black and white sets for export to Cuba. I'm not aware of any Soviet color sets ever being made for the Cuban market, which was probably just as well for the Cubans, as Soviet color television sets had an unfortunate shortcoming --- the picture tubes were often wont to explode [implode?]. I think that by the time Cuba adopted color broadcasting, color sets were being purchased from Japan. Interestingly enough, I've come upon references to a TV manufacturing plant in Cuba, but these references indicated that Cuban produced sets were of rather poor quality. As far as I can tell, most electronic items for sale presently in Cuba are of Chinese manufacture (Curtis Sadowski, ibid.) ** CUBA [and non]. CASTRO CHANNEL ON CABLE FROM "LA NUEVA CUBA" http://www.lanuevacuba.com/nuevacuba/notic-04-06-2010.htm By Dane Schiller, Express-News Mexico City Bureau José F. Sánchez, Research Dept., La Nueva Cuba June 20, 2004 --- It isn't all Fidel all the time, but it's as close as the Cuban leader gets to MTV just a few clicks away on the dial or remote. From puppet shows to politics, Havana beams government-produced TV programming to the world via satellite. Cubavisión Internacional isn't being secretly monitored by guerrilla cells in the mountains. It's offered as part of some basic cable television packages in several Mexican markets, including Guadalajara, Acapulco and southern Mexico City. In Mexico, it's carried by smaller cable companies. They include Mexico City's Neocable, which counts college Professor Manuel Pierdant among its viewers. "The propaganda doesn't hold my attention, and like on any channel, I won't watch soap operas," said Pierdant, who teaches finance. But he sometimes watches the station, because even though the view is straight through the Cuban government's lens, he can get a first-hand look at the Caribbean nation. Dalgis Baquero, of the Cuban Institute of Film, Radio and Television, said the programming is free to cable providers or any private residence with the appropriate antenna. "People don't know us and we're trying to help them know us better," she said by phone from Havana. "Many things are said about Cuba. We want the world to know Cuba according to Cubans." A sampling of recent programming was both predictable and surprising. When Fidel Castro led hundreds of thousands of Cubans in a march along a seawall to protest tightening of a U.S. trade blockade last month, Cubavisión was there. When a hen laid a record-setting egg, Cubavisión also was there. It reported on brushfires triggered by drought, offered a feature on female operators at the nation's international phone exchange and aired a round-table discussion suggestively titled, "U.S.: Wars, Lies and Videotapes." Cubavisión's popularity outside Cuba is impossible to gauge. While the network is virtually unknown in the United States, Cuba contends 700,000 cable providers and individuals receive the programming worldwide. The Cuban government says it's beamed across North America, but declined a request for a list of cable providers receiving the programming. Internet postings indicate it's watched by governments, journalists and sports fans. The British Broadcasting Corp. files a daily program summary. In 2000, CNN turned to Cubavisión for a report on Elián González, the boy plucked from the ocean on a clandestine journey to Florida, only to be returned to his father's custody in Cuba. William Ratliff, a Cuba expert at Stanford University, said Cuba always has worked to make its case abroad, although its message has evolved. "During the 1960s and some of the 1970s, it was promoting armed revolution in Latin America and the world," Ratliff said. The emphasis today is on building support, he said, for "real and alleged Cuban reforms, particularly in the face of continued harassment from the United States." Cuba's message continues to reach across Mexico, even as the two countries' relationship has soured in recent years. Both governments announced they would meet in Havana in July to work on improving it, including the possibility of returning each country's ambassador to their posts. The ambassadors were pulled out in May, the same month Castro boycotted a Guadalajara summit of European and Latin American leaders. While the past two Mexican presidential administrations have sparred with Cuba, there's sympathy for the Castro government among many Mexicans, said Jaime Suchlicki, head of the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies. The sympathy for Cuba stems from old grudges over the loss of what's now the U.S. Southwest in 1848, he said. "They can identify with what the Americans did to the Mexicans" even though Cuba's situation is far different, he continued. Cuban revolutionary hero Ernesto "Ché" Guevara remains a popular figure in Mexico, especially with college students, who wear his beret-clad likeness emblazoned on T-shirts and jeans. Regardless, Suchlicki considers Cubavisión pure propaganda. There's always a message, even with the children's shows, he said. Suchlicki said he found it interesting that Cuba transmits Cubavisión even while trying to block the Voice of America's TV Martí and Radio Martí. Cubavisión recently interviewed Cuban Americans professing love for a motherland they've never visited. "Ana was taken here by her parents when she was 7; obviously she had no choice," says a deep voice as the camera displays a Rhode Island woman in her late 40s, sitting beside a Cuban flag taped to a computer. "We are Cuban, we have it inside," Ana says as she begins to cry. "I will be Cuban until I die" (via Oscar de Céspedes, DXLD) ** DENMARK. World Music Radio, 5815, June 17 0140-0155+ pop music, 0153 ID. Poor signal in noise and deep fades but did manage to catch an ID (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, June 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Previous issue had 5810 by mistake, confused with 15810, not the first time this happened: ** DENMARK. Hi Glenn, World Music Radio is on 5815 kHz, I'm sorry I typed wrong, ref: DX LISTENING DIGEST 4-096. Strong signal today morning June 24, too (Matti Ponkamo, Naantali, Finland (locator: KP10AK), Drake R4-C, 20 m dipole, Sony 2001D, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. R. Nacional, Malabo, 6250.35, June 18 2210-2303* local pops, Spanish talk, R. Malabo IDs. Sign-of with NA. Poor, difficult copy due to ute QRM; best using ECSS-LSB (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, June 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA. V. of Peace and Democracy, 5500, June 17 *0314-0330+; sign-on with Horn of Africa music, 0317 into vernacular talk. Fair, \\ 6350 (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, June 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA. AFRICAN UNION LAUNCHES "FIRST EVER LIVE RADIO BROADCAST" | Text of report in English by Ethiopian news agency ENA web site The Commission of the African Union [AU] will launch next Sunday [27 June] its first ever live radio broadcast on the margins of the AU Summit. The four-hour-daily program in Amharic, Arabic, English and French languages will be broadcast for eight days from 8 p.m. to 12 midnight [local time] on short-wave frequency 7165 kHz and 9560 kHz, according to a statement issued by the AU on Friday. It will mainly focus on what the AU is doing and plans to do on future, according to the statement. The AU is edited and presented by a team of journalists and technicians assembled locally by the chairperson of the African Union Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare. Source: ENA web site, Addis Ababa, in English 25 Jun 04 (via BBCM via DXLD) UT +3, so 1700-2100 UT (gh) ** FINLAND. According to the owner Roy Sandgren (via SWEDX mailing list), first tests of "Radio Scandinavia 603 AM" on 603 from Mariehamn, Åland Islands, will be made on Sunday 27 June with 1 kW and "computer music" (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, MWDX yahoogroup via DXLD) ** GERMANY. Notes on June 18 revision of DTK T-Systems schedule: Additional Deutsche Welle transmission from Jülich since June 17: 0457-0656 on 9590 (130 deg.) Trans World Radio: 1810/1825-1840 on 6015 is to cease after August 1. Bible Voice Broadcasting changes: New transmission Sat 0700-0815, Sun 0700-0845 on 5905 (Jülich, 290 deg.) since June 6. 2230-0130 on 5925 will cease after July 29. 15680 afternoon transmissions moved to 15715 on June 14 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, June 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUATEMALA. R. Verdad, 4052.47, June 16 0540-0604* Spanish religious programming, Christian hymns; 0558 English sign-off with ``Radio Truth`` ID and address; 0559 Spanish closing, NA; fair-good (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, June 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUIANA FRENCH. Did not check June 23, but again/still June 24, RFI 15515 had that continuous big buzz around 1330, now going for at least a full week. Yay, June 25 the buzz was finally gone, tho 15515 was a bit splattery (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. AIR, 13605, June 18 2300-2330+ English news commentary, ID. Good; weaker on \\ 11620, 11645 (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, June 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL. I have a Sony 7600G and am looking for any world band frequency's that might broadcast any of the Olympics live. I live in the southeastern part of the USA. Thank You (Sam) I told her that BBCWS might do so, but their August schedule isn`t in yet. Don`t expect much on SW, since in most countries the rights have been sold for big bucks to TV networks. Also, can you handle languages other than English? (gh, DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. Another internet TV site Suggest http://www.smartdigitaltelevision.com as an interesting resource to world wide television, live and in real time, spanning slow (33 kbps) to fast (500 kbps) and more than 200 "channels." Do NOT click on "watch" but rather select "smart TV" from right hand column for list of available video streaming sources. The world is coming closer and closer to having it all on Internet (Bob Cooper in New Zealand, June 21, WTFDA via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. Remember a couple of recent incidents when a Honolulu TV station and an Arizona FM station got in trouble for moving their transmitters to new sites without proper FCC permission? Well, DirecTV has trumped these two small-time lawbreakers: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-248517A1.txt (Doug Smith W9WI, WTFDA via DXLD) Viz.: NEWS News Media Information 202 / 418-0500 TTY 202 / 418-2555 Fax- On- Demand 202 / 418-2830 Internet: http://www.fcc.gov ftp.fcc.gov Federal Communications Commission 445 12th Street, S. W. Washington, D. C. 20554 This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action. Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action. See MCI v. FCC. 515 F. 2d 385 (D. C. Cir. 1974). FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NEWS MEDIA CONTACT: June 18, 2004 Janice Wise (202) 418-7450 Janice.Wise @ fcc.gov FCC PROPOSES TO FINE DIRECTV, INC. $87,500 FOR REPOSITIONING SATELLITE WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION Washington, D. C. --- Today, the Federal Communications Commission proposed an $87,500 forfeiture against DIRECTV, Inc., for repositioning the DIRECTV 3 satellite without FCC authorization. Section 25.117( a) of the FCC’s Rules required DIRECTV to get Commission approval before repositioning the satellite from its authorized orbit to a location for which it was not licensed. DIRECTV had filed a request with the FCC for special temporary authority to relocate DIRECTV 3, but admits that its employees began repositioning the satellite the next day, without waiting for Commission approval of its request. In setting the amount of the forfeiture, the Commission noted that strict adherence to the rules governing modification of satellite authorizations is critical to minimizing the risk of collisions between satellites. Action by the Commission, June 14, 2004, Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (FCC 04- 138). Chairman Powell, Commissioners Abernathy, Copps, Martin, and Adelstein. FCC - Enforcement Bureau Contacts: Janice Wise at (202) 418-7450 and Jennifer Burton at (202) 418-7581 (via Doug Smith, ibid.) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [non?]. MIDDLE EAST See DXLD 4-079 and WOR 1229. Radio Ma`luumaati (Information Radio, in Urdu), 15500U, best signal ever noted at my location in northern Sweden, June 23, 1645-1710, on a Sony ICF2001D and a 7 meter random outdoor wire. Music resembling Indian ``film music``, multilingual announcements in Hindi, Urdu, Pashtu, Farsi and Arabic. One 4-minute segment in accented English on detecting and denouncing drug smuggling. In the English language portion the station name was given as ``Radio One`` and the transmission schedule, with times in UT, mentioned as 0300-0800 on 6125 and 1400-1900 on 15500. The name ``Information Radio`` was not heard during the English language portion I monitored, only ``Radio One`` and ``Radio Ma`luumaati``. Radio Kuwait on 15505 and 15495 appeared to reach its peak level a bit later than Radio One (Henrik Klemetz, Umeå, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [Later:] Radio One --- That`s the English language ID for the Coalition maritime forces broadcast on 15500U, audible June 23 and 25 about an hour before and after 1700. Today, a weak BBC WS outlet (in // to 15565) was producing co-channel interference from 1640 to 1730 (close down). Which one? Peak reception time does not seem consistent with that of Radio Kuwait on 15505, and so I suspect Radio One is from some other place further to the East. Reception was possible on June 23 and today but almost unreadable yesterday. I have heard an accented English language segment, about 4 minutes long, on both occasions dealing with drug trafficking. The Urdu name for "Information Radio" has been heard also in the English PSA which ends in an invitation to "tune in every day" to their morning frequency of 6125 and in the afternoons on 15500 On June 25, from 1600 to past 1730. The English segment, probably read by a Pakistani national, included both slogans. Unknown weak BBC WS outlet noted co-channeling at 1640-1730 (off). Kuwait closed shortly thereafter, and never reached full signal readout during its transmission. On 15495, there was only a transmission from the UN Radio until 1745 (Henrik Klemetz, ibid.) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [non]. Glenn, FSR shall launch weekend tests today Thursday 24th June. We shall operate on 22 mb, mostly on 13865 kHz. There has been some kind of interfering actions on this frequency, so we might use also some other frequencies nearby. But mostly on 13865 kHz. Testing times will be today from 1825 up to Friday morning 05 GMT. Some tests also from 07 to 10 GMT. And whole weekend. [Later:] Hi, Some more info... WE SHALL TURN OUR SHIP TO BETTER DIRECTION TOWARDS NORTH AMERICA at 23 hours GMT. So we shall have one hour break from 22 to 23 UTC and then back antenna directed to USA. This direction at least until 03 GMT (Maynard Wesley, June 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I heard Friendship Radio again last night, this time on 13855.08 at 0012 UT (25 June). DJ announced had been on 13865 earlier. Same DJ as before, IDing in English with accent (maybe Scandinavian?) who again mentioned the North Sea. Signal seemed marginally stronger than 13 June but suffered from co-channel chattering utility on 13855. (Thanks to Robert Petraitis who advised postal address of Friendship Radio is the old FRSH address: P.O.Box 2702, 6049 ZG Herten, NL) (Alan Pennington, Caversham, UK, AOR 7030+ / longwire, BDXC-UK via DXLD) The hotmail messages from FSR are apparently coming from Finland. The QRM on 13865 would be ISBS Iceland around 1800 and 2300, which FSR should avoid; 13855 is (was?) the AFRTS Iceland channel (gh) ** IRAQ. AL-MASHRIQ TV STARTS TERRESTRIAL TEST BROADCASTS The Baghdad newspaper Al-Mashriq, an independent daily paper, on 19 June published on its front page an advertisement on the start of test broadcasts by Al-Mashriq Television. The advertisement said: "Al- Mashriq, the television of Iraq and Iraqis, has started terrestrial test broadcasts on UHF Channel 54." Source: BBC Monitoring research 24 Jun 04 (via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. ISRAELI POLICE RAID EIGHT PIRATE RADIO STATIONS IN JERUSALEM | Text of report by Etgar Lefkovits "Jerusalem police raid eight pirate radio stations", published in English by Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post web site on 23 June Jerusalem police on Wednesday [23 June] raided eight pirate radio stations illegally operating in the city, including one transmitting from the roof top of a girl's school, police said. During the simultaneous afternoon raid, which was carried out with officials from the Communications Ministry, police seized a large amount of broadcasting equipment and detained five suspects. About 100 pirate stations operate in Israel, with the government and police recently embarking on a crackdown, because some of them interfere with control-tower communications at Ben-Gurion Airport. Source: The Jerusalem Post web site, in English 23 Jun 04 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** MALI. RTVM, 5995, June 19 *0600-0650+ tune-in to IS, 0600 French ID, into local tribal music, children`s chorus. Good; weaker on \\ 4782.39, 4835 (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, June 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO [and non]. XESS has moved from 780 kHz to 620 kHz, and is accordingly now calling itself "la tropical 6-20". XEPE is back on the air on 1700 kHz today. As far as I can tell, XESDD appears to still be broadcasting from their old Ensenada site at their old power. 73, (Tim Hall, Chula Vista, CA, June 23, amfmtvdx via DXLD) media bytes: thursday, june 24, 2004 ... Updated: | 06:07 | a.m. | pt What if you own a radio station and you just picked and choose your frequency for the day? That seems to be the case with a couple of AM stations based in Baja California. Yesterday, widespread reports have AM 620 on air. That's right in the middle of the KOGO AM 600 - KFI AM 640 shuffle. The new station has reports as far north as Fresno, east as the 'burbs of Phoenix, and of course, all over San Diego county. Missing from the air: 560, 780, and the Rosarita-based 920. Is this the result of the high-level meeting between the FCC and their Mexico counterparts? AM 1700 has replaced a TIS station at the San Ysidro port of entry, and 620 is believed to be run by the same corporation that has ties to the other discussed (and cussed) stations. Stay Tuned (SDRadio.net June 24 via DXLD) ** MEXICO. Monday, another *unofficial* TV station from Mexico was logged, mixed with XHCSA-2 San Cristobal. The TV Azteca local text ID (with logo left of text) was supered upper left for a long time, and this is what it says: XHCSA-TV CANAL 2 TUXTLA GUTIERREZ CHS That is correct: The same calls as the station in San Cristóbal. This ID is similar to the ID used by XHTAU-2 Tampico: The font is a thin, difficult-to-read "Times" style, and the top line of text is centered over the second line of text. Other Azteca local IDs that I've seen use a thicker, easier to read "Arial" style font, with both lines of text pushed to the left, next to the Azteca logo. While this ID was still mixing in and floating around, the ID from from XHCSA-2 San Cristóbal came up at 0910 CT. {correxion: 1010} Mexico/Latin America TV ID tips and TV DX photographs: http://members.tripod.com/~nladxer/TMTVDXPindex.html June 24 (Danny (Shreveport, LA) Oglethorpe, June 24, WTFDA via DXLD) See also PUBLICATIONS ** NETHERLANDS [and non]. Special frequencies for Euro 2004 quarter- final coverage --- On Saturday 26 June, Radio Netherlands will carry live coverage in Dutch of the quarter-final of Euro 2004 between the Netherlands and Sweden. The broadcast, at 1800-2157 UTC, will be on the following frequencies: 6035 kHz to southern Europe 9485 kHz to SE Europe and eastern Mediterranean 9700 kHz to SW Europe/NW Africa 7380 kHz to Central Europe 13845 kHz to Spain/NW Africa, Africa, Middle East, S & SE Asia, Pacific (3 transmitters) 17735 kHz to eastern North America 13665 kHz to Far East/East Asia 21580 kHz to South America # posted by Andy @ 12:34 UT June 24 (Media Network blog via DXLD) Euro 2004? What`s that, football? Andy has been filling up his personal blog about something like that (gh, DXLD) RNW had during the last days, ceasing yesterday, some additional transmissions via Wertachtal: 1759-2059 on 13845, using three transmitters at 250 kW each, antenna bearings 105, 165 and 225 degrees, respectively. Makes a total of 750 kW, probably the highest powered shortwave outlet of RNW. Apparently not the first time, on an earlier occasion they already had such a "three transmitters" configuration for a special transmission. And they will do it again on July 26 acc. Andy Sennitt. But what will the other sites be? 7380 looks much like RTRS (Bolshakovo?). From 1800 only a single transmitter is on air from Flevo, so I would think that 17735, 21580 and either 6035, 9485 or 9700 will originate from there with the remaining two ones probably to be operated from UK sites (or probably RTRS instead; or T-Systems although nothing is shown in their schedule). 13665 would be whatever site outside Europe (Kai Ludwig, Germany, June 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS. If you have not seen it yet: Radio 10 Gold will use Flevo-Zeewolde 1008 from July 1st. Press release by Talpa Radio Nederland, the operator of Radio 10 Gold: http://www.talparadionederland.nl/pers/pers23062004.html (Kai Ludwig, Germany, June 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS. Euro-pirate, Alfa Lima International, 15069.56, June 19 2320-2350+ techno-pop music, rap, IDs, e-mail address. Weak-poor in noise (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. V. of Nigeria, 7255, June 20 0522-0625+ continuous local Afro-pops except for English ID at 0532 and 0609. Good signal with nice clean audio until 0620, then very low modulation and after 0625 only an open carrier. 0644 check, French noted. VON, 15120, June 20 0628-0650+, sign-on around 0628; 0630 English ID, news. Good, clean audio until news came on at 0630, which had very distorted, unusable, unintelligible audio (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. Rdif. Huancabamba, 6536.1, June 20 0140-0208* Spanish talk, OA folk music, Spanish pops, ID. Abrupt sign-off; poor, weak in noise (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA [and non]. 13 meters was hopping on June 24; BBC English on the Media at 1335 on 21640 was giving basic info about the Internet, but equally strong co-channel signal with Arabic music and talk \\ weaker 21505. There is absolutely no excuse for such collisions on 13m, where there are plenty of empty frequencies; HFCC shows 21640 from Riyadh 1200-1500 at 310 degrees; 21505 1200-1500 295 degrees. And BBC Ascension 1330-1415 65 degrees. BTW, per HFCC there is a third station on 21640 at this time, but no sign of it here: DW Sri Lanka, 1000-1355 75 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SCOTLAND [non]. Scottish based web station radio six international, already heard regularly on shortwave via the IRRS transmitters in Italy [sic] on 13840 and 5775 kHz, is to make its first test broadcast from transmitters in the United States on Thursday, 1st July. The broadcast will run from 0000 to 0200 UT and will be fed live from the rsi studios in Glasgow, Scotland to the transmitters of WBCQ in Maine. The transmission will be on 7,415 kHz with a power of 50 kW - a frequency familiar to listeners of World of Radio in the US, Canada and Central and South America. The test transmission will feature the best of the unsigned musicians regularly featured on the station's 24/7 webstream with a special emphasis on writers and performers from the USA and Canada. A special QSL card will be issued to commemorate the station's first broadcast from America, and the station is particularly keen to receive reports from listeners outside the target area. Details on the website http://www.radiosix.com (TONY CURRIE, Programme Director, radio six international, June 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Just to be sure there is no misunderstanding, you do mean UT Thursday July 1, which is Wednesday evening in Maine, right? We should hope you include some bagpipes! Also, I notice that you say ``IRRS transmitters in Italy``, altho there has been a lot of discussion and evidence that they are not (any more), but somewhere else, such as Romania. Does IRRS claim to you that they are transmitting your program from Italy, or do you just assume this? As a client of IRRS, are you not entitled to know from which country your program is radiated? Glenn (gh to Tony, via DXLD) ** SOUTH AFRICA. Hi Glenn, I'd like to expand on the item regarding QSL cards/verification letters in DXLD 4-096. Sentech is indeed now responding to reception reports with verification letters instead of QSL cards. A verification letter was mailed to Mr Rajeep Das for a reception report on a Channel Africa transmission. Mr Das responded as follows: ``To, Kathy Otto, Dear Madam, Thank you so much for your early reply. You sent me a verification letter in response to my reception report on Channel Africa`s English broadcast on 17770 khz dated May 15, 2004. Thank you so much for that. Will you be kind enough to send me a QSL card for that transmission as I have no QSL card from Channel Africa/Sentech in my collection. I look forward to a positive response soon. Thank You, Yours Truely, Rajdeep Das.`` Hence my explanation to Mr Das that we were unable to comply with his request for a QSL card because our supply was at an end, and we had decided for various reasons not to have a further supply printed. A copy of the V/L sent to Mr Das is attached for your info. Surely this serves the same purpose as a QSL card? Or am I missing the point? Kind regards (Kathy Otto, Sentech Ltd, June 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, it certainly should, but a lot of verification collectors prefer cards with nice designs; a letter, on the other hand, can contain more detailed info, and could have an equally nice letterhead which yours apparently lacks, or maybe some graphics just won`t display for me. Collectors are fortunate that Sentech is still willing to verify in some manner, unlike some other stations/transmission providers. Do you have your QSL card designs from the past until they ran out displayed on your website? If not, would be a good idea for posterity (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA. SLBC, 15748, June 17 and 19, 0235-0320+ English programming with oldies music, ID, some gospel music and English religious programming. Off from nominal 15745. Fair-good signal (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, June 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SYRIA [non]. Hi Jeff, The June 18 revised DTK schedule shows RMI = Radio Miami International: 13650 1800-1859 39,40 111 120 216 1 2006-311004 JUL 100 RMI This just happens to be the new Radio Free Syria broadcast. Are you really connected with this, and if so, how??? 73, (Glenn to Jeff White, via DXLD) Wolfgang Büschel pointed this out (gh) Glenn: We`re just the broker (Jeff White, RMI, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Will you QSL such transmissions? (gh to Jeff, via DXLD) Glenn: I think it would be more interesting if the Syrians would QSL them. I know there was some discussion about that. Let me find out if they are planning to issue QSL cards. If so, we would just pass any reports we receive on to them. If they aren't going to issue QSLs, I think we would be willing to do it. I'll get back to you shortly on this (Jeff White, RMI, June 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The new shortwave transmission schedule shows as customer for the Jülich transmission Sundays 1800-1859 on 13650 transmission RMI - Radio Miami International. Would Jeff White have any comment on this? (This is of course the Radio Free Syria programme, already DFed by BBCM as "near Cologne", now confirmed by T-Systems itself.) (Kai Ludwig, Germany, June 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND. R. Thailand, 9680, June 18 2030-2045, chimes and into English news, ID; 2045 chimes again. Poor in noise (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg, PA, June 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U A E. Instead of no signal as is usually the case, Dubai 21605.0 was the best signal on 13m, June 24, but before and after 1330 there was just continuous music, no sign of the former English broadcast. Is the English staff on vacation from the blistering summer heat, or is English gone for good? Ditto June 25, tho weaker (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. Letter from America reruns on BBCR4 (WOR 1235): The first broadcast is Fridays at 2045 TIG. ("time in Greenwich", i.e. British Summer Time, GMT+1) (Joel Rubin, NY, June 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) i.e. 1945 UT, the only zone that matters (gh) ** U K [non]. Lately I`ve been noting good reception of BBCWS on 17760 in the 1300 hour; where from? HFCC A-04 shows Thailand, 25 degrees at 1000-1400, same at 0300-0500. Intended for NE Asia, but NAm is beyond in the same direxion (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. [Politics_CurrentEvents_Group] BBC TO LAUNCH AL-JAZEERA COMPETITOR LONDON (AP - 24 June 2004) - The British Broadcasting Corp. said Thursday it will launch a 24-hour Arabic-language TV news channel to compete with the Qatar-based satellite station Al-Jazeera. The channel will be broadcast across the Middle East and Europe. The new channel's $50 million in annual costs will be covered by the Foreign Office, which also provides funding for the BBC World Service's radio network. The BBC is hoping to rival Al-Jazeera, which has aired many of Osama bin Laden's speeches and has been accused of anti-Western bias. ``After discussions about the changing media scene in the Middle East, and in the light of the growing impact of regional satellite TV services in Arabic, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office asked the BBC World Service to develop a proposition for a BBC Arabic television service,'' the BBC said. The channel will offer a mix of news, information, discussion programs and documentaries, the network said. Most programs will be broadcast from London but the channel will have staff based across the Middle East. The venture follows the recent launch of the U.S. government-funded Al-Hurra TV station, which has been denounced by some Muslim clerics as ``propaganda.'' The BBC ran an Arabic channel in the mid-1990s but closed it after two years of operation when its backers pulled out. [and then morphed into Al-Jazeera with many ex-BBC staff --- gh] The BBC is publicly funded but operates independently. It broadcasts in dozens of languages, including Arabic, on its radio World Service (via Mid-East Realities via Clara Listensprechen, DXLD) BRITISH FOREIGN OFFICE SIGNS UP BBC IN THE PROPAGANDA WAR Mid-East Realities - MER - http://www.MiddleEast.Org - 24 June 2004: More and more the British Broadcasting Corporation, the once-truly- famed BBC, is allowing itself to be dumbed down and twisted into contortions. The dumbing down aspects are more and more evident these days on the feeds the BBC provides by special contract to the PBS network in the U.S. These broadcasts are now accompanied by considerable corporate advertising coupled with financial subsidies and political news 'guidance' from the Americans. And when it comes to matters Middle Eastern the BBC for America has clearly succumbed to intense pressures to extensively and repeatedly interview analysts themselves in the pay of the Israeli/Jewish lobby and the Council on Foreign Relations - notorious among them Dennis Ross, Martin Indyk, and Judith Kipper. Now this latest British Foreign Office gambit to essentially hire and use the name of the BBC to 'compete' with Al Jazeera and other Arab-world media, something the American State Department and Congress have also done since 9/11 by creating Congressional fully-funded new Arabic media to broadcast to the people in the Middle East from the U.S. on both radio and T.V. MID-EAST REALITIES http://www.MiddleEast.Org Phone: (202) 362-5266 Fax: (815) 366-0800 Copyright © 2004 Mid-East Realities, All rights reserved (via Clara Listensprechen, DXLD) Note the NAME of this new service is never mentioned above. Is this the same one in the following BBCM item, which gives no hint of any connexion with BBC? Like Al-Hurra downplays its US government sponsorship, tho everyone knows it? Maybe not, as the BBC service is apparently not yet operational (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UNITED KINGDOM. ARAB NEWS BROADCAST - NEW ARABIC SERVICE TESTING ON SATELLITE | United Kingdom-based Arab News Broadcast (ANB) was observed by BBC Monitoring testing on 23 June with a rolling caption in Arabic saying "Coming soon", but with no further details as to when broadcasts are to commence. ANB is on the Hotbird 4 satellite at 13 degrees east on frequency 10949 MHz vertical polarity, symbol rate 27500 and FEC 3/4. ANB is also reported to be on the Nilesat satellite at 7 degrees west on frequency 12226 MHz horizontal polarity, symbol rate 27500 and FEC 3/4. Source: BBC Monitoring research 1445 gmt 23 Jun 04 (via DXLD) Breaking News Alert The BBC is planning an Arabic-language television channel that will be on the air 24 hours a day throughout the Middle East. Speaking before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the UK parliament on Tuesday, BBC World Service Acting Director Nigel Chapman said the proposed channel's mix of news, discussion programmes and documentaries would address what he described as "the dramatically changed media landscape in the Middle East". The plans have been included in the British Foreign Office's 2004 Spending Review which goes before the British Treasury for approval. The BBC is seeking an additional 28 million pounds to fund the channel, according to reports in the London 'Financial Times'. BBC World Service radio is funded by the UK government through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office while BBC World television is an entirely commercial venture. In February, Al Hurra (the Free One) was launched from the United States, operated by Middle East Television Network, funded through the Broadcasting Board of Governors (a Member of the AIB). The station is an attempt to put across US policy in the Middle East to Arabic- speaking television viewers in the region. Al Jazeera television - also an AIB Member - operating out of Qatar, has gained significant audiences throughout the Gulf region, along with other channels like Al Arabiya - operated by MBC TV in Dubai (AIB Breaking News June 24 via DXLD) ** U K. /MIDDLE EAST: AL-JAZEERA "FEARS NO THREATS" FROM BBC ARABIC CHANNEL | Text of report by Mustafa Abd al-Halim entitled "Al-Jazeera 'fears no threats' from BBC Arabic channel", published on Qatar-based IslamOnline.net web site on 24 June; subheadings as published: Cairo, 24 June: As the BBC World Service declared its plans to launch a 24-hour Arab satellite channel reportedly to go head-to-head with Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based all-news channel still "feels no threat or fear from the coming competition". British press reports said Thursday 24 June the plan, which is the brainchild of the British Foreign Office, is designated to develop a counterweight to Al-Jazeera and Arab-run satellite stations that have proved popular in the region but irked Washington and London. However, Wadah Khanfar, the director of Al-Jazeera, ruled out the BBC channel would pose a threat or create a fierce competition with the famous media outlet. "Any competition by the BBC channel will be a source of no threats for us, given the status we had secured in Arab-speaking households [since launch] all along the past eight years," a confident Khanfar told IOL over the phone. "We are immersed deep in the region, portray news through Arab eyes and to Arab eyes, a case which does not work with other Western Arab- language channels," Khanfar added. Known for its quality programmes, professionalism and independence, Al-Jazeera - nicknamed "the CNN of the Arab world" - is the most- watched channel in this part of the world. The station's officials plan the launch of an English satellite TV by next year. Moreover, Khanfar said that the Arab viewers have become much more mature "to judge which channel to watch or which to turn their eyes away from". Government funding "Any competition by the BBC channel will be a source of no threats for us," said Khanfar The British station will be modelled on BBC World - the existing international television service - with most programmes broadcast from London but staff based around the Middle East. Its running costs, estimated at 28m pounds a year, will be covered by the Foreign Office, and the government funding will have to be approved by the Treasury before the station can be given the green light. The funding has been included in the Foreign Office's 2004 Spending Review. The Foreign Office declined to give further details about the plan. The prospect of a new station surfaced during a hearing of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Tuesday, 22 June. "The Foreign and Commonwealth Office asked the BBC World Service to develop a proposition for a BBC Arabic television service of news, information, discussion programmes and documentaries, to be broadcast 24x7 across the Arab world," a BBC World Service spokeswoman said on the network's news web site. Nigel Chapman, acting director of the World Service, told MPs that the proposed station's mix of news, discussion programmes and documentaries would address "the dramatically changed media landscape in the Middle East". "We know from our research that people trust the BBC brand and if more people could access it in their own language it would have a major impact," Chapman was quoted by the Financial Times Thursday as saying. Mistrust But Fabian Hamilton, a member of the committee, said: "I would be absolutely amazed if the BBC's audience in the Middle East had not collapsed because the Arab world is now absolutely distrustful of the BBC." "People no longer see the BBC as utterly impartial but as the voice of the United States - albeit a rather more civilized voice," he added. The Syrian newspaper Tishrin said Thursday: "This [BBC] station is part of a project to recolonize the Arab homeland that the United States seeks to implement through a carrot-and-stick policy." The USA launched in February a similar Arab-language station that broadcasts from Washington, Al-Hurra (The Free). The United States has criticized Arab-language news services on claims that they trigger off hatred and violence by "slanting" the news about events in Iraq. But Al-Hurra was met with a certain amount of suspicion among its target audience, said Chris Tryhorn, a reporter with the Guardian. It prompted fury from Arab commentators with one senior Saudi scholar issuing an edict forbidding Muslims to watch it. The BBC ran an Arabic channel in the mid-1990s, which was funded by Orbit Communications, an arm of the Saudi Arabian royal family. It broadcast for eight hours a day between June 1994 and April 1996, and was closed down when Orbit withdrew its support over editorial disagreements. Relations between Al-Jazeera and Washington and London have always been running on a collision course. Al-Jazeera web site was downed by hackers since Tuesday, 25 March, a few days after Washington and London blasted the station for its footages of dead US and British soldiers and captured POWs. On 8 April 2003, one year ago, US forces hit with missiles [the] Al- Jazeera office in Baghdad, killing its correspondent Tariq Ayyub just a few hours before rolling into the capital. The channel officials charged the missile attack was a "deliberate" strike, recalling that the office of the station had been hit in November 2001 during the US-led assault on the Taleban regime in Afghanistan. Source: IslamOnline.net web site, Qatar, in English 24 Jun 04 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** U K [non]. DEMISE OF RADIO LONDON VIA HOLLAND I must confess that the news of the demise of the planned broadcasts of Radio London via Holland came as absolutely no surprise to me whatsoever. I never really imagined that the station would ever start broadcasting in the way envisaged by the likes of Ray Anderson. Good though Radio London was in its day, its day was almost 40 years ago and, whether we like it or not (and I don't say that I do necessarily like it) time has moved on, and I don't believe there is a place on the AM bands for a station of that type. You only have to look at Atlantic 252. Virgin and the gold stations do survive on MW, but they are all available to listeners via much higher-quality audio as well, and I know that the Isle of Man station also plans to use high-quality means, along with its 279 kHz LW signal, to reach its target listeners (PAUL DAVID, Wembley Park, United Kingdom, MW-DX via DXLD) ** U S A. WOR on WJIE [not]: Following notification from WJIE about WOR scheduled on 13595, M-F at 2100-2130 UT: Tue June 22 checked at 2200 by mistake; Wed June 23 2100, no WOR, something else, sounded like Rod Hembree; Thu June 24 2100 and since, including June 25 at 2100, inaudible, only ute (?) on frequency -- or is that malfunxioning WJIE transmitter? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. Hello, did you already know about the still existing RIAS Berlin Kommission? Here's their website: http://www.riasberlin.de/index.html News from the other side: Probably pop culture is something from another world for you, but if not you have probably already heard about the Black Eyed Peas. Word is that they are going to produce some new songs at Nalepastraße in Berlin. If this doesn't ring a bell, just consult http://kailudwig.bei.t-online.de/nal.htm And I just discovered that a small fanpage about VOA's German service exists: http://www.radiotreff.de/voa/ All the best, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, June 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. VICTORVILLE CA PIRATE STILL ON THE AIR [Re 4-093; WOR 1235] A pirate broadcaster in Victorville, California, is still operating full time on AM 660 and FM 91.3, in defiance of FCC actions to shut it down. [``KRSX``] Back on March 31, the FCC issued a $20,000 fine to alleged station owner Stanley Mark Mayo, for willful and repeated violation of Section 301 of the Act for operating radio transmitting equipment without the required Commission authorization. Nonetheless, the stations remain on the air leading to speculation that another level of enforcement action might be taken, one that could lead to seizure of the broadcast equipment and jailing of those who put the stations on the air. For a look at the Commission`s action on these stations, see http://www.fcc.gov/eb/FieldNotices/2003/DOC-246123A1.html (CGC, others via ARNewsline June 25 via John Norfolk, dxldyahoogroup) ** U S A. A 100 WATT TRAVELERS INFORMATION STATION AT LAX The FCC has granted a request by the managers of Los Angeles International Airport for a ten fold power increase to their Travelers Radio Information Radio service. On December 4, 2002, managers filed the application that asked to increase power from 10 to 100 watts. The reason for the increase was to facilitate the airport`s efforts to provide emergency communications to the traveling public in the event of a terrorist attack. The FCC has now granted the 100 watt request, due, it says, to the circumstances involved. More on this story is on- line http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-03-3843A1.doc (CGC via ARNewsline June 25 via John Norfolk, dxldyahoogroups) WTFK?? 530!! (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. MPR LAYS DOWNTOWN FOUNDATION FOR FUTURE RADIO NETWORK IS REPLACING OUTMODED ST. PAUL OFFICES BY KARL J. KARLSON, Pioneer Press, June 21 http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/8972362.htm?1c Preliminary construction has begun on a $41 million, glass-fronted Minnesota Public Radio building that solidifies downtown St. Paul as the continuing home for the radio network that began 35 years ago in the basement of the city's nearby former Arts and Science Center. To create the expanded MPR campus, roads have been torn up, one building will be torn down and one will go up. When all the dust clears by July 2006, MPR will have a new home, concluding a search that began more than five years ago. The multifaceted nonprofit needed more and better organized space. The nearly 300 employees, who serve MPR's 35 stations and produce programs for other audiences, have been shoehorned into three downtown locations. It was a situation that didn't look like it would change. "We were landlocked,'' said Bill Kling, MPR president and CEO. Since 1979, many employees have been housed in the dark red brick office at East Seventh and Cedar streets with the familiar electronic news crawl featured at the roofline. Others are stationed a block away on the 19th floor of the Piper Jaffray Plaza office tower; the rest of the staff occupies two floors that MPR rented in the St. Paul Public Housing building across the street at 480 Cedar St. "We needed a large, open space, and that speaks to a suburban location,'' Kling said last week. So, in recent years, MPR officials quietly looked closely at 20 to 30 alternative sites, many in Minneapolis and some in the suburbs. Kling said St. Paul officials in 2001 finally found a solution that involved vacating Ninth Street and selling MPR the 480 Cedar building owned by Public Housing St. Paul. The $7.8 million deal to acquire the building was reached with the help of area foundations and a $3.3 million forgivable loan from the city. The new 120,000-square-foot building, designed by the Hammel, Green and Abrahamson architectural firm, will double MPR's space. It will have eight studios, more public space, a digital library and more. MPR officials say its open interior design will encourage staff interaction, just what is lacking now. The new building also helps create an MPR campus in what some now call downtown's Fitzgerald Park District. The main campus components will be the existing headquarters and the new building, which will be linked. It also will include the Fitzgerald Theater, less than a block away, as well as the triangle of land across Cedar Street from the existing building and a parking lot on East Ninth Street. Keeping MPR downtown was a major accomplishment for the city. "As the home of 'Prairie Home,' St. Paul certainly should remain the home of Minnesota Public Radio," said Mayor Randy Kelly, referring to Garrison Keillor's popular national program, "A Prairie Home Companion." "As the capital city, we are honored that one of public radio's flagship stations should remain and grow in our city," he said. "Along with their well-respected radio programming, MPR also contributes much in the way of financial and community support to our area." The original plans for MPR's expansion, announced three years ago, included an amphitheater on the triangle of land, but this is on hold pending fund raising. The area, once a patch of grass, was bulldozed last week to serve for the next two years as home to construction-site trailers. Although MPR and city officials will hold groundbreaking ceremonies Tuesday, preliminary work around the site has been going on for a month. Traffic has been affected with lane closures on Cedar and Minnesota streets and the closing of Seventh Street to accommodate necessary storm-sewer and District Energy work for the new building. Ninth Street, between the existing MPR building and the 480 Cedar building, is closed and is being torn up. When the work is done, it will be a cul-de-sac with entry from Minnesota Street. The new MPR building, which will include a longer news crawler, will sit 60 feet from Central Presbyterian Church, at 500 Cedar St. The 480 Cedar building --- a former parking ramp that was converted to offices and added onto over the years --- is attached to the church and will be taken down within a month. In the space between the church and the new building will be a public park, overlooked by a 115-year-old semicircular stained-glass church window that has not been seen from outside in decades. The church and MPR are still working out how best to protect the window during construction. It may be padded and braced, or taken out and put in storage until heavy construction is done. "It's a very pretty window,'' said Central's pastor, the Rev. John Severson. The congregation, however, is more concerned about access to their place of worship because they are losing parking rights in the 480 Cedar building, he said. GROUNDBREAKING Minnesota Public Radio and city officials will hold groundbreaking ceremonies at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at the site of the radio network's new building at Ninth and Cedar streets in downtown St. Paul. The event will include announcement of a capital campaign to continue raising funds for the $41 million building and $5 million in technology improvements and programming additions. For more information about the 35-station network and its construction project, go to http://www.mpr.org (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** U S A. Just saw this and thought I'd pass it along. This station is very popular around the area and will lose most of their listeners I believe. When will some people realize that people listen to radio for the PROGRAMS? Too late is my guess (John Hunter, Rossville GA, NRC-AM via DXLD) Taken from an article on http://www.chattanoogan.com UNFORTUNATE CHANGES AT WUTC --- posted June 18, 2004 Well we knew it would finally come to this. The bottomline. Forget the music. Forget local programming. Forget your audience. Look at weekend p. 5 Chattanooga News Free Press, Barry Couter's article. The WUTC format is changing to more national programing and eliminating most of the local programing. Mary-Anne Williams has resigned due to this. Where will be our voice in the morning? Where will be our voice for indie/folkie music? The last attempt to have music that isn't controlled by the six media giants in our area is being taken. When did WUTC stop being true Public radio and become Corporate radio? I have seen this tide turning with the letting going of Bob Edwards on Morning Edition and the more "Conservative" slant of NPR. So are we happy now? We have been so proud of our station for so long. I guess pride comes before the fall. For those who still want to listen to folk,singer/songwriters, celtic, etc., (music that will fade from wutc) try http://www.folkalley.com Kent State University (yes that Kent State) is brave enough to keep the faith. Keep the music alive and keep the faith Mary-Anne." (via John Hunter, June 18, NRC-AM via DXLD) When WUTC started up, it was a satellite of WUOT Knoxville where I worked, so I made dual IDs, and was sure to give dual ET/CT timechex; I even was offered the opportunity to run it but could not bear to move from Knoxville to Chattanooga; eventually it developed separate identity (Glenn Hauser, ex-TN, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WKLU SOLD FOR $6.2 MILLION (Jolly Roger Radio?) http://www.indystar.com/articles/4/157104-7954-031.html Miami buyer says Brownsburg-based album-rock station to see major changes. By Will Higgins, June 23, 2004 Quirky radio station WKLU (101.9 FM), with its laid-back, '60s counterculture sensibility, has been sold to a hard-charging, multimillionaire radio industry entrepreneur who lives in Miami and drives a sports car. The price was $6.2 million in cash. The deal, expected to close in the fall, portends a culture clash -- one for the ages -- followed by a drastic overhaul of the station. WKLU, known for its odd mix of hippie music, had been owned by Bruce Quinn of Brownsburg and members of Quinn's family since it went on the air in 1992. Its ratings never were high (it had about one-tenth the listeners of powerhouses WFMS-FM and WFBQ-FM). But the Quinns hadn't sunk much money into the property and so did not feel the need to maximize cash flow. They played music that pleased them but had little commercial appeal. Earlier this year, Bruce Quinn's health took a bad turn, he says -- "I had some strokes, the last one in March." Quinn, 48, had been running the station. The family decided it was time to sell. The buyer is Russ Oasis, a self-made multimillionaire radio executive. Oasis, who made roughly $45 million with the sale of his 50 percent stake in two Miami stations in 1997, is 53, single, rides a Harley Davidson and drives a Dodge Viper. "I'm always on the lookout for underperforming properties," Oasis said. He also owns a top-performing station in Fort Wayne that plays hip-hop music. At a time when the radio industry had become big business -- a signal alone in a market the size of Indianapolis is worth millions -- Quinn, who is legally blind, operated his station in a personal, quixotic way. He discovered the unused frequency and applied to the Federal Communications Commission for its license. He built the studio, mostly by hand, in an old pet shop on the outskirts of Brownsburg. His play list was not test-marketed but consisted of the music he and his small band of staffers happened to like, which was mostly '60s and '70s album rock: Grateful Dead, Wishbone Ash, Frank Zappa. . . . Quinn spent six hours a day at the microphone as Bruce the Radio Pirate -- a reference to the time in 1980 the FCC busted him for operating an illegal station. Quinn, who says his health has recovered, has been living in Columbus with his wife, Mitzi, whom he married at the WKLU studios on the air in January 2002. They also operate a low-power station in Columbus. It's a two-person office, and there's little stress, Quinn says. Oasis said many changes are ahead for WKLU, including relocating the offices and building new studios -- "making it a radio station that lives in this century." He said the station underperforms because "money is not invested in programming -- the entire station is run on a shoe-string budget. The Quinns are nice people -- honest, homespun people. But they've run it like a hobby." The sale will net Bruce Quinn roughly $1 million. "Yeah, something like that," he said. Oasis said he did not know what the station's new format would be but promised that "a state-of-the-art organization is coming here." (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** U S A. WCTM-AM CALLS IT QUITS TODAY --- OWNER, 81, SAYS, 'I JUST CAN'T KEEP IT GOING' --- By Bob Batz, Dayton Daily News http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/daily/0624wctm.html EATON | It's apparently the end of the road for the Miami Valley's only one-man radio station. Stanley Coning --- owner, president, general manager, music director, chief of engineering and only employee at WCTM-AM (1130) --- told listeners on Wednesday that he will close the station around 5 p.m. today. "There's no income in it any more . . . and I just can't keep it going," he said. The rather reclusive Coning, who has owned and operated WCTM for 24 years, was not available for comment Wednesday. The telephone at the station, which sits in a field off U.S. 35 on the outskirts of this Preble County community, apparently has been disconnected. The 250-watt station plays the music of Glenn Miller, Guy Lombardo and other Big Band-era greats. It has been broadcasting from sunup to sundown and also airs news and sports reports, weather updates and farm news from the USA News and Ohio News networks. Although WCTM doesn't show up in the quarterly Arbitron Radio Ratings Surveys that measure listenership, the station, mostly because of its format and broadcast hours, has a small number of dedicated fans. In 2002, the 81-year-old Coning, who built the station's transmitting tower and studios, shut down WCTM for eight months while dealing with heart problems and prostate cancer. Dick Heeter, 83, of Dayton tunes in WCTM every day. "I'll miss it when it's gone, because it is one fine station to listen to," he said (via Artie Bigley, June 24, DXLD) STATION TO GAIN NEW LIFE AS CLASSIC COUNTRY FORMAT By Bob Batz, Dayton Daily News http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/daily/0624mullinsweb.html The Miami Valley's last one-man radio station, which went silent Thursday, will return to the airwaves in July with a new owner, new call letters and a new format. Joe Mullins, who owns WBZI-AM (1500) in Xenia and WKFI-AM (1090) in Wilmington, has purchased Eaton's WCTM-AM (1130) from Stanley Conning, who for 24 years was the owner, general manager, music director, chief of engineering and only employee at the low-power station that showcased the music of Glenn Miller, Guy Lombardo, Ted Weems, Billy Vaughn and other big-band-era musicians. Mullins will change the station's call letters to WEDI and install a classic country music format. Though WEDI also will broadcast at 250 watts and be on the air from sunup to sundown, Mullins said it is a perfect fit in his network of stations because its 1130 signal overlaps WBZI's 1500 signal in the middle of downtown Dayton. WBZI and WKFI also are classic country music stations (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** U S A. HAITIANS BUYING CARIBBEAN RADIO STATION IN DAVIE By Alva James-Johnson, Staff Writer, Posted June 23 2004 http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-cwavs23jun23,0,6535494.story?coll=sfla-news-broward Seventeen years ago, WAVS Radio launched the first 24-hour, daily, English-speaking Caribbean radio station in the country. Now, for the first time in its history, the Davie-based operation at 1170 AM will have Caribbean owners to match its format. The radio station, owned by Radio WAVS Inc., a company composed of non-Caribbean shareholders, has been sold for $2 million to a Haitian- owned company called Alliance Broadcasting Network Inc., pending FCC approval. The sale comes as South Florida's non-Spanish-speaking Caribbean community is exploding. The 2000 census puts the size of the population at nearly 400,000, but most experts believe it's much higher. The group is developing economic and political clout, which has helped make WAVS Radio a hot commodity. Radio WAVS President Roy Bresky said shareholders sold the station because the right buyer just came at the right time. "This was the aim of the shareholders, to sell it to a Caribbean company or individuals ... to maintain what we worked hard to develop over the past 17 years," said the retired ophthalmologist. But the Caribbean community is not a monolithic group, owners of the station have discovered. News of the sale angered some entrepreneurs who purchase time on the station and fanned rumors throughout the English-speaking community that the format might change to Haitian Creole. Winsome Charlton, president of Hi-Class Promotions, which leases the largest amount of time on the station, said it was her idea to adopt the Caribbean format, and she had offered Bresky up to $6 million to purchase it. She said she was hurt when she found out that it had been sold to Alliance Broadcasting, and she doesn't believe the new owners will keep the current format. "I just don't see Haitians buying a station and keeping it Jamaican," she said. But Alliance Broadcasting met recently with staff and brokers to assure them that programming would remain the same. "It would be a grave mistake to change the format," said Emmanuel "Mani" Cherubin, who is principal owner of Alliance with his brother, Jean. "It's doing well. If something is not broken, why fix it?" Bresky said Charlton expressed interest in purchasing the station, but never followed up with a formal request in writing. He said he's received calls from many people who said they wanted to purchase the station over the years. Rudy Moise, owner of Haitian Broadcasting Network (HBN), which runs Radio Carnivale (WRHB 1020-AM in Little Haiti), said he offered $5.5 million for the station four months ago, but the owners wouldn't sell. Bresky said Moise also never put it in writing. "It's a business approach that's required when you make a major investment," he said. "And just to say in passing, `I'll give you such and such' just doesn't cut it." Radio WAVS Inc. has owned the station since 1971. In the mid-1980s, it began the transition from an urban contemporary/Hispanic format to a Caribbean one at the suggestion of Charlton, Bresky said. With permission from the owners, she began playing Caribbean music in 1985. Two years later, the owners decided to switch to the Caribbean format, and sell broadcast time to businesses and individuals that wanted to target the Caribbean community. Charlton said she borrowed $60,000 from investors and launched her company to purchase most of the time on the station. Today the station, which broadcasts in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties as "The Heartbeat of the Caribbean," has 38 brokers. Hi-Class Promotions leases about 50 hours week, and produces programs like Taking Care of Business (TCB), a morning show that features infomercials from professionals who provide listeners with advice on a variety of issues; and an open-line talk show hosted by Miramar Commissioner Winston Barnes, who's also the station's news director. "This station has been a profitable business venture," said Bresky. "The Caribbean community is strong and growing exponentially and it's made up of people of entrepreneurial interests who are out there trying to develop businesses, make money and spend money." The station "pretty much has been the main voice of the community," said Jamaican-born Eddy Edwards, who hosts a show called Caribbean Riddims on WVCG (1080-AM). "It's a great medium to get information out." Cherubin, 47, said Alliance Broadcasting is a new company, with plans to purchase other radio stations. He and his brother already own Choice One Telecom, a Miami telephone and Internet service provider, with 40 employees. They also host programs on WLQY (1320-AM), a Haitian Creole station; and WJCC (1700-AM), a Haitian Creole/Hispanic station, both in Miami. He said his programs are in French, English and Creole. Moise, of the Haitian Broadcast Network, said he might be soon partnering with the Cherubins to purchase the Radio Carnivale frequency, which his company has been leasing with an option to buy. He plans to expand the station to a radio network with programs in New York, Boston and other cities. Alliance made an official offer for WAVS in April, Bresky said. The application for transfer of the station was filed June 16. Cherubin said he and his brother had been eyeing the station for some time. "It's a station that most people in the English-speaking Caribbean are listening to, and provides a lot of leadership and togetherness," he said. "We've been talking to the [owners] for years and finally it was the right time for them to sell." Copyright © 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** U S A. FCC GRANTS LPFM TIME SHARE --- TWO GROUPS TO SHARE 94.1 IN VISALIA, CA The FCC grants what we believe are the first construction permits for a time-shared LPFM operation. Two licensees will be sharing 94.1 in the Visalia, CA area. According to the FCC authorizations, Friends of Radio Grito/Proyecto Campesino will broadcast on the channel from 5 to 9 AM Monday through Saturday while another group, Pacific Friends Outreach Society will have the channel in the evenings from 5 to 9 PM Monday through Saturday. LPFM groups facing competing applications can reach a settlement that is agreed upon by all applicants. If the agreement involves a time share, each applicant must broadcast at least 10 hours per week (REC Networks, 6/21/2004, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. RIAA Claims Music On Car Radios Meant Only For Original Vehicle Owner!!!! Trade Group Vows To Go After Passengers Who Illegally Share Soundwaves http://radio.about.com/library/weekly/aa082603a.htm/ (via Art Blair, DXLD) ** U S A, KNAZ-2 [Flagstaff] is not a relayer of KPNX-12. KNAZ does their own weekday evening newscast, late newscast, and "Today" news inserts. They run their own IDs (which don't mention KPNX at all, and only KMOH-6 part of the time), local ads, PSAs, etc. They relay KPNX- 12 news at midday, evening, and prior to "Today" in the morning. KNAZ-2 was in here (again) today (Danny Oglethorpe, Shreveport, LA, June 8, WTFDA via DXLD) On Tue, 2004-06-08 at 15:47, Glenn Hauser wrote: ``Spent the night in Santa Rosa, so checked out the local scene. Active UHF translator channels, which have been migrating downwards: 30 KNME-5 PBS 36 KOB-4 NBC 38 KRQE-13 CBS 64 KOAT-7 ABC`` Thanks for the info on these. I had 30 listed with KOAT, which really didn't make much sense with 64 also carrying them... There's supposed to be one at the same site on channel 34 carrying KASA-2 Fox, apparently not there? There's also supposed to be one on channel 9 at a nearby site carrying KOB, but it might be directional the wrong way. (or on the wrong side of a mountain). ``After noting some beat bars on the cable TV in the Flagstaff motel on channel 4, I unplugged the cable, and attached the trusty rabbit ears which travel everywhere with me to check out the local TV situation: 2, KNAZ NBC; does local news, but also relays KPNX-12 news 4, KTFL, local station with FJ(?) network; nice local ID slide I was not prepared to photograph or tape 6, Univisión 7, weak religion, presumably Prescott 13, Spanish novela, the network with a triangle in a triangle bug UHF: could not check due to the TV set programming for cable, no access to change it.`` 6 Univisión is KTVW-CA, 110 watts. Relays channel 33 in Phoenix. There's supposed to be a 1 kW station (KCFG) on channel 9 at the same site, carrying America One; apparently not there? (has CP for 316 kW) There is a CP for a 1 kW LPTV on channel 7, licensed to Flagstaff but a considerable distance to the northwest. (seems to be at the junction of US-180 and Arizona 64, about midway between Flagstaff and Tusayan) Don't know that it's on though, nor do I know what they plan to carry. It probably *was* Prescott. (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66, WTFDA via DXLD) I checked the UHF channels thoroly in Santa Rosa; not unusual for at least one of the local translators to be off the air for some reason; never saw a channel 9 there before, tho can`t say I was looking for it this time. Also in Flagstaff, I only reported what I could see, and can`t recheck it further now (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) KNAZ-2 is my most frequently received station via Es from west of the MS River. During a good Es year, KNAZ is received almost daily, and sometimes more than once a day. It hasn't been many years since KNAZ-2 did all of their own newscasts from Flagstaff, with NO relays of KPNX-12 news, and KMOH-6 Kingman was a non-network, independent with their own local newscasts from Kingman. In fact, there is a photograph of a KMOH newscast (actually the sports) on one of my web pages (as received over my local KTAL). I remember one of the programs that KMOH used to run on weekdays was "The Odd Couple." (Danny Oglethorpe, Shreveport, LA, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. ARIZONA HIGHWAYS GOES TO TELEVISION Each Saturday, a half-hour TV show that takes its cue from Arizona Highways magazine will air in both English and Spanish in Arizona. The TV shows, produced independently, will cover the same topics readers enjoy in the magazine, especially unique Arizona adventures and places off the beaten path. The programs will air in English at 6:30 pm [UT -7] Saturdays on Channel 12 in Phoenix and Channel 2 in Flagstaff and at 4:30 pm Sundays. The Spanish broadcasts are at 10:30 am Saturdays on Channel 33 in Phoenix, Channel 52 in Tucson and Channel 13 in Flagstaff. Robin Sewell, former news anchor for Channel 15 in Phoenix, will host the show (May Arizona Highways magazine via gh, DXLD) ** U S A. The FCC has announced a window, open until August 13th, for settlements and amendments to a list of mutually-exclusive non- commercial FM applications. There are 550 such applications on hold, applications the grant of which is mutually exclusive with the grant of another application. (I don't have the time to count up how many groups these 550 applications represent - probably about 200 - that's how many potential new stations there are. A small handful of the M-X applications are for power increases at already-licensed stations - probably fewer than 20 of the 550.) These applicants have until August 13th to either amend their applications to clear the mutual-exclusivity (by specifying another frequency, reducing power, moving the transmitter, or some combination), or to withdraw their applications from consideration. In the cases where such changes completely clear the mutual exclusivity, the remaining applicant will (barring a petition to deny) receive the permit. In the cases where the exclusivity cannot be cleared, the Commission's "point system" for non-commercial stations will be used. Modification applications that create new mutual exclusivities will be returned. (for example, there are two applications for 89.9 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Say, one of these applicants modifies their application to specify 88.1. But, one of the applicants for 91.3 in Sturgeon Bay, attempting to clear a mutual exclusivity there, also modifies their application to specify 88.1. These two *amendments* are mutually exclusive. Both will be returned without action.) The Commission has also waived 73.3525(a)(3). This regulation ordinarily prohibits applicants from accepting payment in return for dismissing an application, unless that payment is for "legitimate and prudent applicant expenses." (the actual close of filing and pursuing the application) The waiver will allow applicants to "pay off" competing applicants to dismiss their applications and clear mutual exclusivities. -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66, http://www.w9wi.com June 16, WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. K200AA on the air --- The translator in the Reno, Nevada area that managed to swing a permit for 87.9 MHz has filed for an operating license and is presumably on the air. If you have skip to Reno (uh, we can dream, can't we?) don't forget to check this frequency! -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66 June 18, WTFDA via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. TRANSATLANTIC FM OPENING --- Dear Sir, just a few lines to report a rather exceptional reception which occured this weekend just gone by. During a Sporadic E opening on June 19th toward Iceland a path opened to North America which saw the MUF rise at least as high as the FM broadcast band. A North American station was received between 1310 and 1330 UTC. As yet no positive identification of its source has been possible but I am confident that this was a Trans Atlantic signal. During the event TA television carriers were received on 55.25 - 61.25 - 67.25 - and 83.25 MHz. To my knowledge this is the third time in the last year that such a path has opened the other dates being June 26th and July 20th 2003. Further information on these receptions can be found at the bottom link. Audio from June 19 2004 can be heard at http://www.geocities.com/yogi540/unid Hope this report is of some interest. (Paul Logan, MI3LDO, Lisnaskea, N. Ireland., Loc. IO64GG, Low VHF/ FMDX Homepage: www.geocities.com/yogi540 June 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) It certainly is. The 1:24 file is mostly loud and clear, but rather nonsensical out of context. A speaker talking about carbon dioxide, oxygen, smoking and recovery. Every potential 88.5 source should be checked for such programming at that time on Sat 19th; not clear to me whether it`s public radio or a gospel huxter. Then I went back to the WTFDA list and pulled out all the postings on this: (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 1410 local time, 0910 EST [sic, means EDT] - Inspirational type talk with N American OM on 88.5 faded in and out for about 20 minutes or so. Heard Iceland on 90.1 / 92.9 at same time- also carriers on 61.25 67.25 83.25 [NTSC video ch 3, 4, 6]. Have some bits on tape. I wonder was this WHCF in Bangor ME again. Still in a state of shock - ===== (Paul Logan, MI3LDO, Lisnaskea, N. Ireland, Location: 54 15 N, 7 27 W in IO64GG, June 19, WTFDA via DXLD) [Later:] Hi folks, I wonder can anyone lend their investigative skills to this one --- 88.5, 0910 est [sic == 1310 UT] (1410 in Ireland) --- inspirational type talk with guy talking to audience about AA and recovery from alcoholism. The guy was very funny and the discussion animated. So I`m thinking public radio or religious contemporary. When I heard this one first I was beaming almost North --- Which gets me excited thinking all kinds of strange ideas! ( Alaska? hahah) Seriously though, any ideas what this one was, it being something of a rarity (lol)? I`d be grateful for any help you all can lend. I have recordings but have to get mp3s made. Regards for now ===== (Paul Logan, MI3LDO, Lisnaskea, N. Ireland, ibid.) Well it's NOT my local WXPN-PA, nor is it WNJP-NJ. It doesn't sound like either WAMU-DC or WFCR-MA. That sort of format sounds most like WHCF-ME. A real longshot might be WCII-NY. But have no current knowledge of what any of the last 4 are doing. ===== (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA ( 360' ASL ), ibid.) Nice catch, Paul. I was thinking WHCF as well, but their website has them listed with "Down Gilead Lane" which is oriented towards children. You can listen to the program here http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/down_gilead_lane/ WHCF's website is http://www.whcf.cc/ and I think you can also listen to them online to attempt a //. So I'm unsure which station you heard but it couldn't hurt to ask WHCF anyhow. 73 KAZ (Neil Kazaross, IL, ibid.) WSEW, Sanford ME is also religious, affiliated with the Word Radio Educational Foundation, http://www.wsew.org WCII, Spencer, NY is Family Life Ministries, Contemporary Christian, http://www.fln.org -- that's not a misprint, the last letter is N not M. Perhaps check these against what you heard. WSEW seems a good second bet to WHCF if the latter's website is accurate as per Kaz above. ==== (Russ Edmunds, ibid.) WSEW is a pretty small station it's only 100 watts. WHCF however is a powerhouse, I would bet on them. I think they were heard across the pond once or twice last year (Jeff Lehmann, Hanson, MA, ibid.) That was my first choice also, until KAZ noted that the program sked on the website didn't match ==== (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA (360' ASL), ibid.) Hi Guys, the logging on 88.5 doesn`t look like WHCF --- just had a look at their website. They would have had kids programmes around this time. Nor did this show come from CBC; had a look at their schedule. Programme was a man talking to an audience about Alcoholism recovery- it was more inspirational than strictly religious and the guys vocabulary seemed a little liberal for some of the more conservative religious broadcasters. I was beaming almost north when I heard this which gets all kinds of ideas going. I`m going to make some soundfiles tomorrow and put them on my website, but for now this one is a mystery. I`m absolutely thrilled to have a repeat of TA reception. Now just to pin down the actual source of the signal. I also note that there was a big 6 metre opening from the east coast of the States up to Iceland this evening - some of you guys are bound to hear Iceland at some time. Right now it`s 0027 local time and I`m keeping my eye on the Icelandic TV channels - and hoping for a repeat of this afternoon. I wonder could you all throw out the names of some possible stations which may have been carrying such a programme. I`m going to have to do some serious detective work on this one. Don`t rule out the Northern Midwest --- I think at this point I`m definitely holding to the notion that with the right conditions ANYTHING is possible. A Northern/ Polar beamheading really does get the heart racing!! Regards for now- (Paul Logan, Lisnaskea, Ireland, ibid.) The FCC database gives me this result for 88.5 http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/cgi- bin/ws.exe/genmen/cdb/frequency_res.hts?db_id=11&rows=0&radio_serv=&freq=00000088.50000000 It's the "Mass Media" database result after entering M88.5 on this page http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/genmen/frequency.hts You can then right-click on the table, export it to Excel and sort it by (for instance) ERP Horizontal. Cross-referencing with http://www.radio-locator.com results in state/province order for 88.5 frequency gives some clues. But I haven't yet found anyone carrying anything but kids stuff or network stuff at 8 am Eastern (Mark Hattam, UK, ibid.) It was *9* am EDT, as would show on local program schedules (except parts of Indiana)! (gh, DXLD) I usually use http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/fmq.html The links you posted are from the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau -- the Media Bureau has responsibility for broadcasters. I'm not sure how well the WTB keeps up on broadcast listings. (they might be very good. Or maybe not!) Has anyone looked into WEDW-FM (Connecticut), WFCR (Massachusetts), or WVPA (Vermont)? My gut feeling is WHCF's online program schedule is broken... (-- Doug Smith W9WI, ibid.) AFRTS Iceland? -- (Doug Smith W9WI, ibid.) Apart from 104.1 FM and 1530 AM from Keflavik, I don't find any other channels http://myafn.dodmedia.osd.mil/affiliates/listfreq.asp?medium=2&country=Iceland (Mark Hattam, UK, ibid.) Inconclusive, unreliable list Could this also be from some AFRTS from Alaska's north coast. Or what about something from Arctic Canada where they have an alcohol problem with the natives and perhaps might not be running // CBC. Paul, did you aim your antenna in a more southerly direction towards New England rather than towards Alaska to see if the signal improved or weakened? 73 KAZ (Neil Kazaross, IL, ibid.) Hi all, got the recording online; it`s at http://www.geocities.com/yogi540/unid Neil Kazaross asked about the antenna direction during this reception- it was North at first - then I tried west- the direction WHCF came from last year and the signal faded down - swung the antenna out to the North West and it came back --- so antenna direction was North/ North West. The guy`s accent on this recording probably has little bearing on the source of the signal but to me he sounds mid western - maybe Michigan- am I right? or is my appreciation of regional US accents as bad as I think? Will send this to WHCF tomorrow but if it isn`t them what is it??? Anyway have a listen. Regards and 73 (Paul Logan, Lisnaskea, Ireland, June 20, ibid.) Impressive copy, Paul. The guy sounds midwestern to me, but that really doesn't mean anything as to origin since this seems like a syndicated program. I doubt this is WHCF due to your antenna direction and that fact that this peaked NNW rather than westerly, and it certainly doesn't match WHCF's sked. Could there be more an AFRTS station on 88.5 in Iceland or could this be Alaskan. I hope we can track this down. If you can make a link to a much larger file of every bit of audio heard from this, perhaps someone can recognize something. 73 KAZ (Niel Kazaross, IL, ibid.) WHCF is owned by the Bangor Baptist Church, a religious organization. Your programming content is a part of a stand-up comedian's program, which means it probably was from a college radio station. Probably the easiest way to nail it down is to identify likely targets, then see if you can find their program schedules on the internet. ????? ----- (Jim Thomas, wdx0fbu, Milliken, Colorado, 40 mi N of Denver, ibid.) I am not so sure it`s a stand-up comedian! (gh, DXLD) As for my TA signal last Saturday it looks like this one is going to remain an unID; I'm confident it came from North America but where???. After lots of detective work and a number of unanswered emails to WHCF I guess this one will remain a mystery. Pity --- could have been something really outrageous. Oh well --- Next time --- ===== (Paul Logan, MI3LDO, Lisnaskea, N. Ireland, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. [ham-hist] CIRCA 1915 RADIOTELEGRAPH RECORDING Tinfoil.com's June, 2004 "Cylinder of the Month" at http://tinfoil.com/cylmonth.htm is an over-the-air recording of a long-distance spark radiotelegraph transmission -- you can hear the signal fade in-and-out -- which they believe was recorded around 1915. Given the expertise of the members of this mailing list, I thought it would be helpful to interpret what was being sent in this recording (Thomas H. White, ham-hist via Horacio A. Nigro, Uruguay Jun 21, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Amigos DXistas! This Friday morning I had 2 unidentified LA/SS stations on the 49 meter band: 5939.27, "Radio Melodía" with news and ads. Talking about "Bolivia" but perhaps it is the Arequipa station? 5949.75, Religious Spanish speaking station, has been there the last 2-3 days. Could be Radio Bethel, Arequipa(?). Strange if 2 Arequipa stations are that close. 73s (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, June 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) {see 4-098 PERU} La última vez que reporté a Radio Melodía en 5996.7 fue durante el pasado fin de semana. De allí en adelante no la pude captar más en la frecuencia. Es probable que siga "navegando" por los 49 metros. Mañana voy a chequear la QRG que señalas. En cuanto a la otra estación, estoy totalmente desconcertado. No sé qué puede ser. Talvez alguna reactivación???? Radio Bethel salía hasta antes de su abrupto cese de transmisiones en los 5940v, talvez 5940.3 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, Conexión Digital via DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ MEXICO/LATIN AMERICA TV ID TIPS AND TV DX PHOTOGRAPHS --- UPDATE Work on this project started only sixteen days ago, and the pages now cover fifteen countries. I didn't really expect to make these pages public until July or later. The small amount of DX has given me the extra time. I must say that I've learned a great deal. Christopher S. Dunne has been very helpful. I'm impressed by the number of stations he has logged from Central America and the Caribbean area. The work will continue as time permits... http://members.tripod.com/~nladxer/TMTVDXPindex.html (Danny (Shreveport, LA) Oglethorpe, June 12, WTFDA via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ SONYINDIA HAS LAUNCHED 3 OF ITS WORLDBAND RECEIVERS IN INDIA ICF-SW12 - Rs. 5990 (USD 135 Approx) ICF-SW35 - Rs. 7990 (USD 180 Approx) ICF-SW7600GRS - Rs. 14990 (USD 335 Approx) Great news for Indian dxers !! Available with most of the Sony dealers all over India. For further details visit this link : http://www.sonyindia.co.in/sonyindia/products/PersonalAudio.jsp?catego ryId=145 Regds, (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, DX LISTENING DIGEST) NRD545 REMOTE CONTROL APPLICATION -- ORCHID CITY SOFTWARE The Japan Radio Corporation`s newest Communications Receiver is the Digital NRD545. It has a comprehensive CPU that allows the receiver to be controlled in a number of new and unique ways. JRC had a computer program written for the receiver and although it looked good, it can only be assigned to commport 2 of your computer. Enough Said. The NRD545 Remote Control Application from Orchid City Software, was written with the focus on the Shortwave/DXer as the primary user. The application is a remote control program with a set of comprehensive database files combined. Take a look at the screen shots below: . . . http://www.orchidcitysoftware.com/IMAGE19.HTML (Chuck Bolland, FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###