DX LISTENING DIGEST 4-135, September 6, 2004 Incorporating REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING 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 1244: Tue 1600 on WBCQ after-hours http://wbcq.com repeated Wed Tue 2100 on WBCQ 9330-CLSB repeated Wed [see below] 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]: WORLD OF RADIO 1244 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1244h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1244h.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1244.html WORLD OF RADIO 1244 (low version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1244.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1244.rm WORLD OF RADIO 1244 in the true SW sound of 7415: (stream) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/worldofradio_09-01-04.m3u (d`load) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/worldofradio_09-01-04.mp3 WORLD OF RADIO ON WBCQ: added four more airings, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu at 2100-2130 UT on 9330-CLSB, confirmed tho very weak here Sept 6. See USA for more WBCQ changes (gh) FIRST AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1245: Wed 2200 on WBCQ 7415 Wed 2300 on WBCQ 17495-CUSB Thu 2030 on WWCR 15825 Thu 2100 on WBCQ 9330-CLSB ON DEMAND: From early UT Thursday, change 1244 above to 1245 ** ANTARCTICA. 15476, 1.9 2010, Radio Nacional Arcángel told about ice and cold and played nice music. Great audio! QSA 4 JE (Jan Edh, Sweden, SW Bulletin Sept 5, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15476, 2.9 1915, Radio Nacional San Gabriel with Latin American songs and sole announcements. 2 CB (Christer Brunström, Sweden, SW Bulletin Sept 5, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. 11710.8, RAE, 0246-0258* 4 Sept., History program hosted by W in English, music bridge, then another talk. Very difficult to copy due to announcer`s heavy accent. Almost sounded like a Japanese accent!! Tango music. Brief program notes. Piano music accompanied by chorus later, and off abruptly (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** ASIA [non]. RFA transmitters reduction --- For a few days now the RFA Mandarin service at 0300-0700 has been using only half the normal number of frequencies: active on 13760, 15130 (including ex 15165), 17495, 17525; inactive on 13670, 15685, 17880, 21690. No replacements have been traced so far, so what's up - transmitter/antenna works or reallocation of resources? (Olle Alm, Sweden, 5 Sept., DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. 5050, ARDS --- After not hearing them, I sent Dale Chesson an email and got this reply: We have been off the air since the beginning of May as we found we were in breach of licence conditions regarding our allowable bandwidth of the transmitted signal. We will be placing a filter in the system to allow us to meet our licence conditions next week and so anticipate being back on air by Sat 18 Sept. As well as this we will be increasing our transmitter power from the 200 W we were operating at up to the maximum permissible under our licence which is 1 kW. So I will be interested to hear from anyone after the 18th to know if they are able to receive our signal. Cheers (Dale (Chesson) Radio Service Manager, via Hans Johnson, WY, Sept 5, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Seems friendly enough. I again suspect Steve Waldee, who has vanished from the DX scene, greatly over-reacted to ARDS legalese boilerplate (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BAHAMAS. I'm getting ZNS1 [1540 Nassau] by day here in Palm Coast, Florida after all with its nondirectional operation. WYMM 50 kW (pushes south from Jacksonville, FL toward me) is still technologically crippled evidently, and no problems of interference with ZNS1 1540. My Radio Shack TM152 has the stereo pilot lit on the station, but I have a nasty buzz in AM in the garage sometimes. Best option is the car and DX 398. Still covering the Hurricane - it's moving very slowly. I haven't noted 810 ZNS3 Freeport, Bahamas here yet. Standying by for 20+" of rain (and turning off my lawn sprinkler timer) (Ron Gitschier, Action Central, FL, 1957 UT Sept 4, NRC-AM via DXLD) I heard ZNS 1540 well night before last, well enough to decide that there was no real hum I remember on the broadcast signal. There was the usual slight tubbiness of the announce mic and some little hum on the telephone feeds from outlying places such as Cat Island (Bob Foxworth, Tampa FL, ibid.) 1540 ZNS in Memphis --- Thanks to the live stream at http://www.znsbahamas.com I am able to just pick out 1540 ZNS in Memphis. I decided to wait until late at night because WSAI tends to turn off IBOC later. Sure enough, ZNS is just poking through a jumble of KXEL, KZMP, and possibly CHIN. They are running religious programming and hurricane information. A lady from a church in California just got through praying on the air. The audio feed on the web site has a very rough hum. They just stated that they are simulcasting 1240, a TV station, and several other stations. They are answering the phone "good morning, this is hurricane central." Too bad it takes an emergency to get them (Adam Myrow, 0758 UT Sept 4, ibid.) [Later:] ZNS was very tough to hear most of the time with all the other stations on the frequency. 1540 sounded like a graveyard frequency in my location last night. About the clearest audio I have was the woman from the Church in California who called and prayed with the announcer that I mentioned in my original post. I also have bits of a rebroadcast of the Prime Minister giving a news conference. Later, they ran a flash-back on hurricane Andrew. One question I have to those who got a better signal. Is it just the web feed that has that awful hum, or is that actually on the station? (Adam Myrow, 1407 UT Sept 4, ibid.) I didn`t hear the hum on the off air signal. Actually considering the circumstances, they sounded pretty good. I know how unreliable the diesel powered electric utilities are on New Providence Island... (Nassau) (Paul Smith, W4KNX, Sarasota, FL, ibid.) ** BAHRAIN. Re previous report: What station is broadcasting on 954 kHz in Bahrain? Is it parallel to 612 and 801? 73 (Herman Boel, http://www.emwg.info MWDX yg via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 6 September 2004: Being the Labor Day holiday, I decided to take advantage of the day off and head out for another micro- DXpedition. I went to a new QTH, suitable for laying out Beverages in any direction. Receiver: NRD-535D; Ant: Beverage of 500' at 175 degrees +/-5, and changed to 310 degrees at 1035 UT; QTH: Reclaimed stripmine. Duration: 0800-1130 UT; Solar Indices: Solar Flux = 102, A Index = 9, and K Index = 3. No storms; WX: Cloudy, dull, dreary, and damp. Calm. 55 degrees (13 C.). 5952.44, R. Pio Doce, Excellent signal in the clear [WYFR still off] with Pio Doce theme song at 1001. At 1013 with M talk over music giving long list of countries and mention of Cochabamba and Bolivia. (6 Sept.) (Dave Valko, near Dunlo PA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) i.a. logs ** BRAZIL. Primeiro silenciou a freqüência de 6030 kHz. Agora, faz bom tempo que o canal de 11805 kHz, da Rádio Globo, do Rio de Janeiro (RJ), está mudo. Será que a crise na emissora é tão grande que está faltando dinheiro para manter um transmissor de ondas curtas no ar? (Célio Romais, Brasil, Panorama, @tividade DX Sept 6 via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 3230, Rádio Guarujá, Guarujá Paulista, 0931-0935, September 05, Portuguese, retrax Guarujá FM, Jingle and announcement and ID as: "Promoção Exclusiva Guarujá FM", 45343. 3235, Rádio Guarujá, Guarujá Paulista, 0931-0935, September 05, Portuguese, announcement: "Grande parada sertaneja... Guarujá... Guarujá", 35343//5045 (45443) and 5930.5 (35433) (Arnaldo Slaen, Chascomus DX-pedition, Argentina, Play-DX via DXLD) Actually the two adjacent frequencies are at two different sites some 400 km apart, I read somewhere (gh, DXLD) ** CANADA. CBC on 9625 --- Labor Day Greetings! I have been listening this morning to the CBC Radio North shortwave service on 9625, which propagates quite well into upstate NY from the Sackville, NB transmitter of RCI. As has been their habit over the years on major national holidays, the multilingual schedule of CBC North is suspended today and replaced with a full time relay of CBC Radio One. This year, the Labor Day schedule is entirely devoted to repeats of some of the best segments and programming from the past season on CBC Radio One, as well as a sneak preview of the coming season which starts tomorrow. It is a most pleasant, entertaining and informative way to spend the holiday. That's 9625 kHz (John Figliozzi, Halfmoon, NY, using a Lowe HF-150 on batteries with about 10 meters of wire extended over the swimming pool. :-)) swprograms Sept 6 via DXLD) ** CANADA. 1610.11, CPAM "Radio Union.com", 0915-0927 3 Sept, LA Romantic music with occasional canned IDs by M as above with QTH as Montreal. Fair signal w/QSB of course. Heard quite often and always fady (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) = CJWI ** CANADA. Re 4-134: The Industry Canada broadcasting database is now available from this site: http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/insmt-gst.nsf/en/h_sf01842e.html The AM and FM files of the zip archive are still in the dbf format. Updated weekly. 73s (Olle Alm, Sweden, Sept 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Arson at broadcast HQ --- A man tried to torch the nerve centre of one of Canada's largest broadcasters early yesterday, causing $100,000 damage at the Chum-City building. Police said at about 1:40 a.m., a man broke into the building and went to the "on air" production room on the fifth floor, setting fires in several locations. Police arrested a suspect without incident. Chum-City operates 27 local, specialty and digital television stations including Citytv, Cable Pulse 24, Much Music, Much More Music, Space and Bravo. Giang Ly, 32, was charged with break and enter and arson (CP TORONTO via Edmonton Sun Sept 6 via canoe.ca via Mickey Delmage, AB, DXLD) ** CHAD. TT8, CHAD. François, F6GYV, reports that he has received his new licence and the callsign issued to him by the Tchadian Authorities is TT8FT. His station in Ndjamena consists of a FT-847 Transceiver and dipole. François's job is with the mobile telephone service, and he states this leaves him with very little time to operate. Look for him to be on the air only during his evening hours (Ndjamena time) and on Sundays. He states, "Some of you have asked for 160 meters activity. I'll try to build an HM antenna with my few own parts (nothing to find or buy for amateur radio gear here). More information later." QSL via the French Bureau (via F6GYV) or direct to: François Theveneau, Celtel Tchad, BP 5665, Ndjamena, Chad (KB8NW/OPDX/BARF80 Sept 6 via Dave Raycroft, ODXA via DXLD) ** CHINA. 3280, 1355-, Voice of Pujiang, Shanghai, Sep 5. Fair reception with Chinese talk and traditional Chinese instrumental music. Not listed in ILG, but is in DBS. Parallel to 4950. Strangely, best heard on a vertical cut for 10 meters! Conditions have been quite good of late after a pretty dismal summer. Worthwhile dusting off the radios and checking the antennae. These loggings were all from my urban/suburban home mostly using a JRC NRD 535D. Good DX! (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) More of Walt`s loggings below: ICELAND, INDIA, INDONESIA, KOREA SOUTH, MYAMAR, NEW ZEALAND, PERU ** CUBA. Hola Glenn, Saludos desde Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA. Después de casi un mes fuera del aire por los efectos del huracán Charlie, Radio Habana Cuba volvió al aire este 05/09 a las 2121 UT, por los 15230 kHz. SINPO 5/5. Transmitía el espacio "Amigos de Cuba". Fuera del aire a las 2128. Captada luego a la 0132 con un boletín de noticias, en la misma frecuencia pero con SINPO 2/2. También sintonizada a las 0428 en los 11875 kHz, con SINPO 4/4 (Adán González, Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA, Sept 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Actually started coming back a few days earlier, as reported here (gh, DXLD) ** CUBA [non]. Este 05/09, la gran ausente era Radio Martí, sobre todo en la usual frecuencia de 6030 kHz. Me imagino que Frances impidió las emisiones. ¡Gracias Frances! 73s y buen DX (Adán González, Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA, Sept 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ¿A qué hora? El lunes universal entre las 03 y 09 es su período semanal de silencio. Si llena de agua su cabina en Miami, ¿no puede originarse por emergencia desde Wáshington? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DENMARK. 5815, World Music Radio, 2310-2325 Sep 4 and 0030-0040 Sep 5, mainly continuous music with jingle ID noted at 2318 ("World Music Radio, WMR") and a man at 0034 with ID and request for e-mails. Fair and improving (sunset enhancement?) until rain forced me inside from my outdoor Lowe HF-150 arrangement. Returned after the rain stopped but signal wasn't nearly as strong (Rich D`Angelo, PA, NASWA Flashsheet Sept 5 via DXLD) WMR (presumed), 0709-0720 5 Sept., Heard pop and rock music, but horrible slop QRM from over-powered WEWN 5825. Did recognize 0711-0714 "Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" by BTO. Just impossible to listen to (Dave Valko, micro DX-pedition near Dunlo PA, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) 5815, WMR, 2253-2255 5 Sept., "Imagine" by John Lennon, 2255 M announcer including "WMR" ID. "Boogie Oogie Oogie" by A Taste of Honey, another announcement, several Soul songs, 2312 instrumental LA flute song, "Who's Crying Now'" by Journey, 2320 short canned ID by W then M saying "WMR, World Music R.". Into a Reggae Pop song. Also noted "Too Late for Goodbye" by Julian Lennon. Weak but no QRM. Quick QSB and moderate QRN (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 5815, first time I heard a World Music Radio, ID, 1954 UT Sept 5, by a woman; strong (Chris Hambly, Victoria, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. A long-time DX'er and member of several DX clubs passed away Friday, September 3, at his home in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Cesar Objio was in his mid-70's. He had also written several books dealing with local history in his hometown of Baní and was researching information for a book on the history of radio in the Dominican Republic at the time of his death (Paul Swearingen, KS, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) More in 4-134 The following was received from César Objío's daughter informing of his recent passing. Although I never met the man, I have known the name as a quality DX'er since I entered the hobby in the 60's. 73, Rich [D`Angelo?] Dear people of NASWA: On behalf of the Objío-Gonzales-Meléndez family, I Ana Rosina Objío Meléndez, have to informe you the departure of one of the most loyal DXer of all times, Mr. César Objío has past away yesterday at 6:00 P.M. due to a cancer that had spreaded fron his prostate to his lungs and bones. There're nothing that we could do, but pray that he didn't have to wait for long, so he didn't suffer. He was born on January 15 of 1928, but I still feel it wasn't enough. He was following your steps since before I was born. Although he died surprisinly quiet, and for that I'm more than grateful. My spelling isn't very good, but I guess you get the idea of what I meant. So, LET'S LIGHT A CANDLE to help him guide his way. Thanks for all. His daugther, Ana Rosina Objío Meléndez (via NASWA via John Wilkins via Wayne Heinen, NRC-AM via DXLD) I will miss César. I had even hoped to see him again during one of my occasional long trips through Latin America, but I've lost the chance. As Latins were my major interest in the 70's and 80's, C’esar would listen to my tapes amd help out from time to time. I paid him back by fixing his frequency counter. César was at the Atlanta convention in '78 and also a convention a few years ago and I wish he'd been able to make it to more but it's a long way from the Dominican Republic. Does anyone have an email addres for the Objío family? (Chuck Hutton, WA, ibid.) I am sorry to learn of this as I was fortunate to have met César a long time ago. He last wrote to me in 1997 after seeing a musing from me, after I moved to Fla. I had just recently run across his last letter to me as I was rummaging through things to bring to the Convention (before canceling at the last minute due to the hurricane). For some reason, I thought it important to have it at hand at this time, but without knowing why. I don't think I would be out of line to quote parts of his letter now. [quoting] Dear Bob, Surprise! remember me? I do remember you. The first time we met was on my way to the Boston Convention in 1968. You were accompanied by Ernie Cooper who were so kind as to receive me at Kennedy Airport, and host me at Ernie's home so that the next day we could leave for Boston ... After that I attended the Conventions in New Jersey in 1970, Miami in 1972 and Atlanta in 1978 with my late and good friend Ronald Schatz. After that it has been impossible for me to attend another one due to the higher prices we have had to face with air fares. So, it is almost twenty years that I attended my last one (26 today - Bob). Last time I visited the United States was in 1992 (when visiting nephews in N. Y.)... I am right now 69 (in 1997 - Bob), have a wife and daughter who has learned to speak and understand English just by watching Cable TV, only she doesn't write it very well, but she manages and also writes letters to some of my friends in the States. Sometimes friends call me from the States and if she answers the call she starts talking to the person who called while I can reach the telephone. Oh, she is now 20 years old. I like geography and because of that I am a subscriber of the National Geography Society since 1964. I am telling you this due to the information you gave in your Musing about your location in the map and all that about finding your way through the computer. It is quite interesting that information because as I said I like geography and maps, but I can't do what you do, Yes, I have a small computer which was a very kind gift from Paul Swearingen. It is a small Macintosh Classic, which I use mostly like a typewriter, as it is also very expensive to be on the Internet and I am not working right now. So mine is not connected to anything outside from home. No telephone or fax lines. I am not an expert in computering either as most of you in the States are. But yes, I have a telephone. ... I am not collaborating too much now to IDXD as I used to, not because of willing to DX but that I am dedicated to some other things. I still have a loop that was given to me by Gordon Nelson during the Boston Convention, which I use from now and then, especially when I wish to null a station, it is of the kind that tilts. My receivers are a Radio Shack TRF, that I could buy through the kindness of Chuck Hutton, when he was at Atlanta, which I use mostly, and another R.S., a DX-400, this one is a digital one, very good, usually for locating exact frequencies, only the exactitude is down to 1 kHz, but it is good. I no longer use my old 9-tube Lafayette HE-30 which is still good. Well I think this letter is becoming too long so I am going to stop here. Very glad to hear from you after such a long time, 29 years. Yours sincerely, César Objío. Calle Enrique Henríquez 69, Ensanche Lugo, Gazcue, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic [end quote] ............. God take care of you, César, (Bob Foxworth, Tampa, FL, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** ECUADOR. On an unID clip sent to me by WRTH Editor Tore B. Vik I can hear the following canned station ID, ``Desde la orquídea de la Amazonía, Sucúa, te acompaña La Voz de la . . . (one word lost in the noise), FM estéreo 107.3, qué buena!`` Tore says the station was logged at 0420 UT on 1400 kHz. In CNX275, DXLD 4117, 4118 and WOR 1240 Rafael Rodríguez and Adán González say they have been hearing the FM 107.3 programming on 4959.97, which is one of the channels usually carrying Radio Federación Shuar. They report the slogan as ``La Voz de la Ruta`` or ``La Voz de la Gruta``, but neither ``Ruta`` nor ``Gruta`` seems to match the word on Tore`s clip. It might end in ``ia`` but it certainly appears to be shorter than ``Amazonía``, which one can clearly distinguish in the preamble. The official frequency list for Ecuador shows a ``La Voz de la Amazonía`` on 107.3, both owned by the Federación Shuar organization. The listed address in Sucúa coincides with that of Radio Federación Shuar. There is no MW frequency listed for Sucúa. Perhaps Björn Malm, in Quito, could find some time to check this channel (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, Sept 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. Questionable info on the Sept 4 DX Partyline: starting right off, the Christian Radio report mentions Radio Ezra!! Has he ever listened to it (can`t say that I have) or inspected the website http://www.radioezra.com/ ?? Sure doesn`t look Christian to me, with a minorah prominently displayed, and info about the World Karaite Movement, which appears to be a Jewish sect. In its earlier incarnations, Radio Ezra did appear to be Christian, altho non- mainstream, and John D. Hill --- I think that`s his name, not easily visible on the website --- only adopted the Karaite angle more recently. At one point he called Radio Ezra ``contra-missionary``, which ought to be anathema to the HCJB ilk. The page has links to a lot more information about What is Karaism? And the ``last three`` programs on mp3 audio files, which were in July --- So did the current series of broadcasts, Sundays 0900-0930 on 17590 via Krasnodar, end? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA [non]. CLANDESTINE from UK to ERITREA, 15595, (Presumed) Voice of Eritrea, 1730 Sep 5 with talk in language and local music via DX Tuner Europe. 1733 talk by man, but no ID that I could catch. 1748 retune, still same man talking. 1750 music (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** ERITREA/ETHIOPIA [nons]. U.A.E., Radio UNMEE (United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea) noted on Sep 5, 2004 on 21790 (SIO- 433) between 0945-1000 UT in English. News by YL followed by reports on UNMEE activities. Sign off at 1000 with tune and station ID. Listen to their broadcast on the following link: http://www.unmeeonline.org/press/radio_04.htm (RAJDEEP DAS, KOLKATA, INDIA, Sept 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. CLANDESTINE from CIS to ETHIOPIA, 12120, Voice of Ethiopian Medhin. No joy hearing them via DX Tuners Europe at *1830 Sun Sept 5, still on? Everything looks fine on their website and these contact details are listed: Etmedpar @ telecom.net.et P.O Box 55 3 15, Addis Ababa Tel. 136371 and 772729 Fax 772729 (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** EUROPE. EUROPIRATE, Laser Hot Hits, 6220 with pops at checks at 1220 and 1750 Sept 5, but I couldn't hear listed 3970 or 7465 (still on?). 2008 recheck nothing on 3970, 7465 was a mess (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Presumably another DX Tuner Europe log ** EUROPE. September 4th, 2004 (Sat), 9385, 1927-, LHH-Music rock, program in English (// 4025), 23232. RX: JRC NRD545, ANT: Yaesu FRT7700-MLB-longwire 15 mts, QTH: Pont Canavese (TO) at 50 km north- west of Turin, My address: Pecolatto Bruno, via Soana 13, 10085 Pont Canavese (TO), Italy, AIR via BCLNews.it via DXLD) LHH = Laser Hot Hits ** GERMANY. Re: ``6015, Maeva FM International (Presumed), 1216 Sept 4 . . . not DRM`` --- They only did some preliminary DRM tests. The regular transmissions they started afterwards were always in AM (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Sept 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ICELAND. 9980, 0431-, AFRTS, Sep 5. Great reception of Iceland tonight, with Madonna's 'Like a Virgin', sung by another female artist. A repeat of great conditions again tonight? Parallel to 7590 just as strong, but spoiled somewhat by ute, but solved by PBT [passband tuning]. (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 4970, 1414-, AIR Shillong, Sep 4. Weak audio heard with Indian music, but talk subaudible about an hour post sunrise. Quite a good opening, as many other 60 m Indians have about the same level carriers, as well as 4902 Sri Lanka. Best audio on 4775 (AIR Imphal). (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 4970, AIR Shillong, 1240 Sep 6 pops, including Michael Jackson, hosted by a female announcer. ID in English at 1255. Via DX Tuner OZ (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** INDIA. South Asia DX has been excellent since about 8/22. 4970, AIR Shillong with English program that seems to vary in its schedule. On 8/22 heard English program with US pop music from 50's and 60's, woman announcer from 1237 to 1315, SINPO 45544. On 9/4 heard man and woman talking in English at 1327 followed by a contemporary US pop music piece to 1334. Back into local language at 1335 with man talking, then woman announcer in English with AIR ID at 1340 followed by more US pop music --- three male vocals including "Falling in Love with You" to past 1352. SINPO 45444. This station has the most unusual programming of 60 mb AIR channels and is almost armchair quality between 1245 and 1345. The only thing that spoils reception is occasional ute 2-way SSB on channel. 4990, AIR Itanagar with local music (man singing with group vocal response, a cappella), 9/4, 1251.5-1259 and again at 1305 to past 1326 when tuned out. Excellent signal, completely covering Hunan PB --- Hunan started to reassert itself after 1315 with both stations mixing but AIR still predominated to past 1325. Again, armchair quality, although music not as entertaining. SINPO 44444. First time heard this AIR station over Hunan (Bruce Churchill, CA, Japan Radio NRD-545 w/ rotating Wellbrook loop antenna, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** INDIA. ALL INDIA RADIO, MUMBAI, 4890, (V/S Y. K. Sharma: Director of Frequency Assignments: Delhi) picture of Nagina mosque (15-16th century), Champaneer (full data QSL) in 169 days (RAJDEEP DAS, KOLKATA, INDIA, Sept 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. REVOLUTIONARY CHANGES IN RADIO INDUSTRY - Vijayawada, Sep. 6 The Government is planning to bring revolutionary changes in the radio industry by encouraging private entrepreneurs, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting S Jaipal Reddy, said today. Laying the foundation stone of a 10 kW FM transmitter at All India Radio (AIR) complex here, which will cost about Rs 2.75 crores, the Minister said there was scope to operate as many as 400 FM stations in the country. Reddy said the FM transmitter was expected to be ready in a year and would cover areas in and around Vijayawada up to a radius of about 50-80 km. There was also need to encourage community radio stations in universities, colleges and other centres, he said adding that it would cost only Rs. 10 lakhs to set up a community radio station. FM radio has gained popularity for providing superior quality stereo sound signal uniformly throughout the day, he said adding that the superior quality of FM radio would make Vividh Bharathi programmes more enjoyable. As part of the increasing FM coverage in the country during the 10th Plan, seven more FM transmitters were proposed and one transmitter was being upgraded, he said adding that in Andhra Pradesh the new stations were proposed to be set up at Kakinada, Srikakulam, Karimnagar and Nellore at an estimated cost of Rs. 25 crores. K S Sharma, Chief Executive Director, Prasara Bharati, said besides strengthening the present Vijayawada AIR centre, there was also demand for a self-sustained Doordarshan centre here. (http://www.hinduonnet.com via Swopan Chakroborty, Kolkata, India, Sept 7, dx_india via DXLD) ** INDIA. PRASAR BHARATI HOPES TO ROPE IN BBC, CNN ON TO DTH PLATFORM --- Our Bureau, Hyderabad, Sept. 4 PRASAR Bharati is in parleys with BBC and CNN to induct them into the DTH (direct-to-home) platform to be launched by Doordarshan on September 15, as part of the countrywide rollout of free-to-air television broadcast services and digital radio channels. The Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharati, Mr K. S. Sarma, said, "We are in the process of holding parleys with BBC and CNN and several other players to induct them into the 30 free-to-air channels space to be beamed by the DD DTH platform. This project is to be launched by the Prime Minister on September 15. It was on September 15, 1959, Doordarshan came into being." Prasar Bharati has distributed about 5,000 sets of set top boxes and dish antennae to rural areas in the country. This Rs 165-crore DTH project, in which Prasar Bharati has invested about Rs 90 crore so far, will be formally launched later this month with 30 channels. Addressing a press conference here, Mr Sarmasaid Bharat Electronics Ltd has been mandated to manufacture set top boxes for the DTH rollout, and various retailers are being finalised. "We are also negotiating with the state-owned Electronics Corporation of India Ltd to manufacture these set top boxes and antennae." The same set top box and dish can offer a host of digital radio channels, including 214 radio stations in the country. "Since both DD DTH and Zee DTH are beamed out of same satellite feed, there is the possibility of accessing more channels initially, till we move over to Insat VI B," the CEO explained. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com (via Mukesh Kumar, THE COSMOS CLUB, MISCOT-3, R-8, RAMNA, MUZAFFARPUR – 842002, BIHAR, INDIA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. Re Article in Times of India: All India Radio needs 16 gigarupees to stay on the air (CKUT International Radio Report Sept 5, notes by Ricky Leong, via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 3976.04, 1436-, RRI Pontianak, Sep 4. Great signal except for some ham QRM, with what sounds like a children's story, with filler orchestral music in the background (could also be the audio feed from a TV program). 3976.07, 1410-, RRI Pontianak, Sep 5. Great reception with news in Bahasa Indonesia. Slight muffle as usual for Indo transmitter. Suspect business news, as there is talk of 'Intercom'. Frequent jingles between items. Strongest Indo on 90 or 75 meters (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 4604.9, 1326-1458*, RRI Serui, Sep 4. Caught tail end of RRI network broadcast, with RRI promo and announcements leading up to 'RRI Serui' ID by male, 'Waktu Timur' time check, other announcements, and into very nice lagu hiburan music. ID again at 1336. Excellent, pounding signal at tune-in; best ever heard. Signal only weakening slightly past local sunrise. Low studio modulation ID by male and voice-over steel guitar type instrument at 1454; Love Ambon tune at 1455 (slightly upbeat, peppy version I've never heard before), and announcer with ID, time check, frequency, and announcements 1456. At 1458* Love Ambon ended with Serui sign-off (1-1/2 hours past local SR). Also heard at great levels on August 5. Can Serui really be just 500 watts? Sounds more like 10 kW (Guy Atkins, Puyallup, WA USA, Modified RA6790GM & R75, Kiwa MAP / ERGO / DSP-59+, 450 & 700 ft. Beverage Antennas, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 4789.96, Fak Fak & 4604.94, Serui, 1152 01 Aug [probably means Sept]; Both in well, S9 & 10/S9 with pop music (JERRY STRAWMAN, Des Moines, IA, 41.6 N 93.66 W, R8B, R7, 6790/GM-13 R390A, HF-2050, 60 Meter Dipole, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 4749.96, 1423-, RRI Makassar, Sep 4. Besides Malaysia on 4895, this is the strongest station on the band at this time. S5 to S6 signal with modern Indonesian music. Cleaner audio than I'm used to for Indos (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. Not a bad signal from Voice of Indonesia 9525 at 2001 UT Sept 5/04 with sign on announcements in English, News, Getting to Know Indonesia at 2022. Indo popular love songs at 2025. Shortly to be Mailbag. (333) 73 (Mick Delmage, Sherwood Park, AB, Collins HF-2050, 7-30 MHz KLM Log Periodic antenna, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. THE ONLINE RADIO MARKET By Jon Iverson, Stereophile http://www.stereophile.com/news/090604online/index.html September 06, 2004 -- Online radio offers music lovers an unlimited choice of music options not found with either over-the-air or satellite broadcasters. Tens of thousands of "stations" are available online at no charge to anyone with a fast enough Web connection and compatible playback software. (Just Google "Web radio" to get started.) For the audiophile, however, the sound quality of streamed radio can be annoying: A typical high-end station might stream at 128kbps – hardly even "CD quality." But what Web radio lacks in fidelity, it often makes up for when used as a tool for exposure to new music, or as a way to hear what is going on in virtually any part of the world. Web stations' offerings can range from a very personal (and tightly focused) mix of music and commentary to slick simulcasts of real over-the-air broadcasts from traditional radio stations. This affords listeners the opportunity to tune in to a favorite hometown commercial or public radio station while on the other side of the world, or discover the popular music scene in a foreign city that would otherwise be unobtainable locally. And did we mention that it's all free to those with a decent connection and the right software? As with any growing new medium, success brings with it the attention of marketers vying for access to users. RRadio Network has been surveying online radio users for the past three years, aggregating web broadcasters into demographic groups for advertisers. Their studies indicate that 37.2% of the online radio audience resides outside of the United States. As for the 62.8% of US-based listeners, 28.8% call the east coast home, 18% live in the midwest, 4.9% are central/mountain residents, and 11.1% listen from the west coast. The Web radio audience also tends to be well educated, with 57.7% of those surveyed saying they hold a college or post-graduate degree. It's also a predominately male audience: 22.5% of the respondents are 2534 year-old males and 3544 year-old males come in second at 16.1%. Women of all ages combined account for just over 30%. Recognizing that radio has always been a background medium, RRadio Network notes, "People do other things while listening, and this has never been argued. Figuring out what that 'other' is for broadcast is relatively easy, they mostly drive a car." Online, however, the company's surveys find that most listeners (30.1%) are tuned in while at work doing "business," random Web surfing is claimed by 22.1%, and 18.1% say they just listen. The surveyers then asked listeners what percentage of time spent with broadcast radio, against the percentage spent with radio online, and 20% of the respondents said they listen to online radio at least 80% of the time. An interesting side note is that only 3.9% of online radio listeners subscribe to satellite radio, and 42.8% of these satellite radio subscribers report listening to radio online at least 50% of their total time spent listening. Finally, it turns out that 42.6% of online radio listeners work longer than 40 hours a week. This translates to marathon listening sessions: 40.3% say they listen between one and three hours at a time, and 47.3% listen in stretches of more three hours (via Kim Elliott, DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS. 15500, 26.8 1659, Radio One with various information in English after hard rock (!) in English. Otherwise only oriental music. Finished announcement with "Thank you for listening to Radio One". Quite strong signal this evening. 3 CB (Christer Brunström, Sweden, SW Bulletin Sept 5, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [and non]. Here are a couple more sites to add to the superb list that was presented earlier. With Ivan now active, it looks as though the last 3 months or so of the Hurricane season will be a devastating one; NOAA Marine Forecasts http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/home.htm Weather Recon flights Tropical Cyclone Plan of the day http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ftp/pub/forecasts/recon/MIAREPRPD 73s (Mike, KA3JJZ, Sept 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) more: USA ** IRAN [non]. MOLDOVA, 7480, Payam-e Doost, 1815 Sep 6, strong via DX Tuner Europe with talk by man in Farsi. ID by another speaker at 1819 (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** IRAN [non]. Sedaye Mellat-e Iran on 15670 --- The clandestine is still on air at about 1325-1355 and Israel comes on at about 1356 carrying Reshet Bet until changing to Persian at 1400 (Noel R. Green [Blackpool, NW England], Cumbre DX via DXLD) Another time they overlapped, so not same transmitter (gh) ** IRELAND. Reflections Europe --- Trying at 1740 Sept 5, I couldn't hear anything on listed 12255 via DX Tuner Europe receivers (still on?); 6295 had a decent signal with Christian programs in English. Still could not hear 12255 at 2005, but I would hear 3910 and 6295 which were still on (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. Kol Israel SW --- At the 0330 UTC Israel Radio English broadcast last night, they mentioned the frequencies for the 0330 and 0930 UT broadcasts. 0330: 9435 11590 17600 0930: 15640 17535 These are the same frequencies as listed prior to the network changes. Actually, 15640 was scheduled to change to 9435 as of Sep 1 --- but as of last night, the 0330 UT broadcast was still using 15640. I still haven't heard anything confirming the 1730 UT frequencies - although I'd expect those to be the same as they used to be also. The 1900 UTC Reshet Hey broadcast did not change - so there's no reason for those to have changed. For those who didn't hear, the israelradio.org live "Israel Radio International" feed DOES include the 1730 UT English broadcast. I initially said it would not. [Later:] KI - list of foreign broadcasts The israelradio.org website is being updated and now has the new foreign language timings listed on the webstream pages. The shortwave page hasn't been updated as of this moment. On the following page, it has the complete foreign language schedule for the REKA network (on the bottom half of the page) --- which contains all domestic foreign language broadcasts. It also has the language schedule for 88.2 FM Jerusalem, which has Reshet Hey, the External Services, for most of the day and REKA for times when Reshet Hey is off the air. The sections are marked as such on the webpage. As previously noted, all of the English broadcasts are available via the 88.2 FM feed. All but the 1900 UT (10 PM Israel Time) broadcast are available on the REKA feed. As it's a large table, it won`t come out properly in a plain text email. So, here is the URL: http://www.israelradio.org/livestream.htm (Daniel Rosenzweig, Sept 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. 6973, Galei Zahal heard at unusually good level here 9/4 at 0334 with pop vocals to 0358, then a military bugle call followed by man and female announcers to 0359.5, musical program signal at 59.5 followed by man announcer with presumed news broadcast to 0403.5. SINPO 35333 (Bruce Churchill, CA, Japan Radio NRD-545 w/ rotating Wellbrook loop antenna, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** ITALY. 7306U, Radio Europe trying for this one at 1208 on a few DX Tuner Europe receivers but not hearing anything. Can anyone share the current schedule for this one? (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Very irregular (Roberto Scaglione, Sicily, ibid.) ** JAPAN. About DXLD 4-134: "Yamato" is simply a mis-spelling of "Yamata". Yamata transmitter site, owned by KDDI, is located in Sanwa- cho, Ibaragi prefecture. Sanwa-cho is a small town, some 50 km north from Tokyo, with the population of about 40000. The town's HP is, http://www.town.sanwa.ibaraki.jp/ The city of "Yamato" is nothing to do with Yamata trasmitting site. Yamato city is located some 40 km south west from Tokyo, where U.S. Navy's "Atsugi" Airport exists (Takahito Akabayashi, Tokyo, Japan, Sept 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thanks to Takahito Akabayashi for this information, I have to apologize for having been on the wrong track. 73s, (Bernd Trutenau, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KASHMIR [non]. CLANDESTINE from PAKISTAN to SOUTH ASIA, 5102, Voice of Jammu and Kashmir Freedom (Tentative) 1300 Sept 6 with man talking, but persistent UTC [sic] made for weak reception. Via DX Tuner OZ (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** KOREA SOUTH. 3912, 1407-, Voice of the People, Sep 5. I notice that this one is not listed in the DBS for some reason, but is in ILG. Fair signal with female talk in Korean. Due to local QRM, not sure if it's jammed or not. Parallel to much stronger 6600 (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LAOS. 6130, Lao National Radio, 1159, 30 Aug; Instrumental intro to gongs at 1200:00; 1200:40 into further instrumental; opening announcement at 1201:20; decent signal at almost mid-winter strength (JERRY STRAWMAN, Des Moines, IA, 41.6 N 93.66 W, R8B, R7, 6790/GM-13 R390A, HF-2050, 60 Meter Dipole, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** LAOS. 6130, RN Lao with Laotian vocals, man/woman announcers 1253 to 1300 9/2 when BBC Spanish service from Delano covered the channel until 1330. At 1333 RN Lao again heard at even better level with man announcer mixed with instrumental music to 1334 then Lao pop vocal (female vocalist). At 1337.5 man announcer again mixed with instrumental music was heard to past 1340. SINPO 45534 (Bruce Churchill, CA, Japan Radio NRD-545 w/ rotating Wellbrook loop antenna, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** LAOS. 4648, Xam Nua [sic; WRTH spells it Sam Neua] 1224 Sep 6 weak, but // to much-stronger 6130. Via DX Tuner OZ (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** LATVIA. 9290, 29.8 1200, Der Störsender via Latvia mostly with nice music presented in German and English. Stoer is a small river between Schweriner See and Elbe, that's why the somewhat curious name. Web site: http://www.rrws.de Will be back Sept 11 with a new program. At 1300 instead Q103, also that station in German. Interesting phenomena that so many producers lease time via Latvia. 4-5 CB (Christer Brunström, Sweden, SW Bulletin Sept 5, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) I thought Störsender meant jammer, literally noise-sender; also see UNIDENTIFIED 9390 (gh) ** LITHUANIA. 1386 kHz, China Radio International (via RBW [Radio Baltic Waves]), partial data QSL-card (transmitter site not mentioned), card shows 'Black Snub-nosed monkey, no v/s. Also included schedule, rr form and 5 pieces of paper-cut-artwork with apes. In 39 days for a report in German with no rp to China Radio International, Gürtelstraße 32b, 10247 Berlin, Deutschland (M. Schoech, Germany, August 2004, GRDXC Sept 6 via DXLD) ** MALDIVE ISLANDS [non]. 11535, 3.9 1630, Minivan Radio // 9985 with transmission for the Maldives. Nice again to hear music from these distant islands. It reminds me of the shortwave logging of Voice of Maldives many, many years ago. 3-4 CB (Christer Brunström, Sweden, SW Bulletin Sept 5, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) That was a one-day test, AFAIK (gh) FRIENDS OF MALDIVES WEBSITE BANNED IN MALDIVES Friends of Maldives Press Release 06 Sep. 04 The Maldivian internet provider, Dhiraagu http://www.dhiraagu.com.mv/ has blocked all Maldivian computers from accessing the Friends of Maldives website. Dhiraagu is part owned by Cable and Wireless, who took over telecommunications on the archipelago in 1977. Twenty-one years later the British firm invested in 45% of the stock in Dhiraagu. As with all forms of media, Dhiraagu is owned by the state, and has a monopoly on Internet access. On its site, Cable and Wireless says it "supports the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" and that one of its priorities is "to develop ethical behaviour within the company". However Dhiraagu has a long history of repression of freedom of speech. Amnesty International has documented the cases of several prisoners of conscience arrested for publishing an internet magazine, Sandhaanu. Mohamed Zaki, Ahmad Didi, Ibrahim Lutfy and his assistant Fathimath Nisreen were arrested in January 2002, for writing about human rights abuses and corruption in the Maldives. Charged with "defamation" and having "attempted to overthrow the government", Zaki, Lutfy and Didi were on 7 July 2002 sentenced to life imprisonment. Fathimath Nisreen, who was only 22 at the time of the trial, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Reporters Without Borders has written to Cable and Wireless to raise concerns over the involvement of the firm with the Maldivian telecommunications company, which has banned dissident websites such as Maldives Culture, Dhivehi Observer and the Maldives Royal Family websites. Article 25 of the Maldivian constitution states that "all citizens have the right to express their opinions orally, in writing or by any other means". For more information please look at the following web pages. http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=10787 http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=10996 http://www.maldivesculture.com/news/dhiraagu_telecom_maldives.htm (FOM website http://www.friendsofmaldives.co.uk/Pressrelease060904.htm Sept 6 via DXLD) And the Royal Family site has lots of info, run out of New Zealand: http://www.maldivesroyalfamily.com/ And here`s the FOM forum on Freedom of Expression: http://www.friendsofmaldives.co.uk/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=3&sid=db499ddaebb0320c12ba2b59aedb0227 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. XERF --- THE BEST DARN STORY OF THE WHOLE 20TH CENTURY Many radio fans will remember the heydays of the Mexican border AM radio stations; the famous DJs, the great music, and the powerful signals. This page tells the story of the `X` stations, including XERF. http://www.ominous-valve.com/xerf.html (via Sheldon Harvey, Greenfield Park, Quebec, Sept HF Radio Internet Newsletter via DXLD) ** MONGOLIA. JT100, MONGOLIA. Yuri, UA9OBA, has been active as JT100M. This is a special callsign being used until September 13th during the Mongolian leg of the Altay-Himalaya Transasian off-road expedition. Activity has been mainly on 20 meters SSB around 14180 kHz (at various times). There have been some QSNs reported on 80/40 meters. QSL via UA9OBA. Also, visit the Web page at: http://off-road.ru (KB8NW/OPDX/BARF80 Sept 6 via Dave Raycroft, ODXA via DXLD) ** MYANMAR. 5040.41, 1406-, Radio Myanmar, Sep 4. Nice clean signal with minorities programmming with talk by YL. Surprisingly strong with excellent modulation (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEPAL. 5005, R. Nepal 1322 8/29 with man talking in local language to past 1327. Still S3 at 1352 re-tune with man talking again. SINPO 44444. Best I have heard this station at this QTH. QRM from WWVH (minimal) and occasional pulsed ute that took out Nepal's audio for its duration (usually just a few seconds each time). (Bruce Churchill, CA, Japan Radio NRD-545 w/ rotating Wellbrook loop antenna, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** NEW ZEALAND. 3935.07, 1312-, ZLXA, Sep 5. Finally heard again with poor to fair levels with presumed National Radio relay. Western modern female vocal. This station at one time provided regular good reception, but has deteriorated for many years. Nice to hear again in a suburban environment with only a modest antenna. 5 + 1 time pips and time check for ?2 o'clock and into National news program at 1400. Signal is at fair levels (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3935, 1314-1319, ZLXA Levin, Sep 6. This station continues at better than usual levels, as noted a week ago and as also reported by Walt Salmaniw. Two men in a panel discussion in English at 1314; fair signal (Guy Atkins, Puyallup, WA USA, Modified RA6790GM & R75, Kiwa MAP / ERGO / DSP-59+, 450 & 700 ft. Beverage Antennas, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. LF Experiments from Oklahoma --- Laurence Howell, GM4DMA and now KL1X/5, has received an experimental permit to operate at up to 5 watts ERP in the 135.895 to 137.785 kHz band. His location is Northern Oklahoma and the experimental callsign is WD2XDW. Permit is valid until 1 August 2006 (RSGB via Mike Terry, Sept 4, LWCA via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 4960, CRN Vanimo with non-stop devotional music 1343 to past 1405 9/1. SINPO 3+5433 (Bruce Churchill, CA, Japan Radio NRD-545 w/ rotating Wellbrook loop antenna, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** PERU. 6020.25, 0812-, Radio Victoria, Sep 4. Quite an exceptional night with very strong signals all evening with Spanish religious talk by a male preacher. Best I've ever heard here. 6020.32, 0434-, Radio Victoria, Sep 5. Incredible reception again tonight of this Peruvian S5 to S7 signal with excellent modulation. Latins, unlike on the east coast do not propagate well to the Pacific north-west. Most sign off before our local sunset, and the Grayline does not favour the west coast, so it's always a treat to hear such a strong Latin. The exception in my experience is Brazil, which seems to propagate much better and are more reliable on all bands than other central and south American stations. Program 'La Voz de la Revolución' (excuse my Spanish, if it's incorrect) began at 0449 (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Probably La Voz de la Liberación / Voz da Libertação, the Brazilian evangelical show widely reported, including on this station (gh, DXLD) ** PERU. 6020.29, R. Victoria, 0655-0702 5 Sept., Live M announcer at tune-in giving list of times, seemingly sked of programs with "Atención, Atención" once, then long program promo for religious program from Managua, Nicaragua. 0659 nice canned ID announcement by M over classical (Beethoven) music they've been using for years, giving frequencies 770 AM, and 6020 SW. Into religious program of the same promo heard minutes earlier. Didn't hear what like an actual program name though. Very strong signal!! (Dave Valko, micro DX-pedition near Dunlo PA, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** PERU. 4856.12, R. La Hora, 0953 6 Sept. Nice opening ID announcement by W over music mentioning onda media and "onda corta banda de 60 metros", and giving programming format ("...música, comentario, información de ciudad"), and ending with another ID ("Radio La Hora, la radiodifusión ?? buenos días"). Nice clear signal, and unusually steady frequency too (Dave Valko, near Dunlo PA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** PERU. 4890.3, Radio Macedonia (presumed), Arequipa, 2315+, September 4, Spanish. Religious talk by male. Reactivated!!!! 35242 (Arnaldo Slaen, Chascomus DX-pedition, Argentina, Play-DX via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. Trying to hear news on the school hostage crisis in Beslan, for two nights running, September 4 and 5, the Voice of Russia was absent on the previously very well heard 9655 kHz at 0100 and 0200. I was unable to find it on any other frequency (Roger Chambers, Utica, New York, ODXA via DXLD) You meant 9665? That`s because a regular seasonal change to 7180 has taken place: 01.00-02.00 17660, 15595, 9665*, 7180** 02.00-03.00 17660, 15595, 9860, 9665*, 7180** 03.00-04.00 17660, 15595, 9880*, 9860, 9665*, 7300**, 7180** 04.00-05.00 17660, 15595, 9880*, 9665*, 7300**, 7180** * - from 28.03 till 04.09 ** - from 05.09 till 30.10 (from http://www.vor.ru/Eng_N_A.htm via DXLD) The 0300 and 0800 UT broadcasts for the past week are archived at: http://www.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=25 (Fred Waterer, ON, ODXA via DXLD) ** SAINT HELENA. 11092.5, R. St. Helena ZD7RSD with f/d card, original QSL cover letter from Tony Leo (station manager for last broadcast Oct 1999) and Ralph Peters (current station manager) in 4 years 306 days for follow-up E-mail and snail mail reports sent on May 14 this year. Many thanks to Robert Kipp from DSWCI and Ralph Peters for their assistance on this one! (Bruce Churchill, CA, Japan Radio NRD-545 w/ rotating Wellbrook loop antenna, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** SAO TOME E PRINCIPE. S9, SÃO TOMÉ. Jorge, CT1EFV, will be a part of "Latitude Zero Equatorial Challenge 2004". This challenge is humanitarian (they will be carrying medicines to deliver to the mission of the AMI), cultural (they will recoup a Portuguese school, deliver 6000 Portuguese books to the library of São Tomé) and also open new roads to impassable parts of the Island. Half of the team will make use of local communications (VHF, telephones and satellite) while Jorge will be operating the HF bands as S92LZ from the Island of São Tomé (IOTA AF-023) between September 19-26th, providing conditions and logistics allow. He will use a Kenwood TS50S mounted onboard a Land Rover and will make use of a G5RV antennas. QSL via CT1EFV (QRZ.com via KB8NW/OPDX/BARF80 Sep 6 via Dave Raycroft, ODXA via DXLD) ** SCOTLAND [non]. 5105, USA Radio Six International in English (via WBCQ). 2308 8/29/04. Fair-Good with slightly distorted audio. Retrospective on life of composer Elmer Bernstein into Glasgow Symphony doing theme from "Magnificent Seven." Radio Six International IDs and promos/jingles - "Around the Clock and Around the World," into "Summer Samba" then a guitar/instrumental version of the Beatles' "Something." Email given along with URL http://www.radiosix.com and mailing address in Glasgow (Jim Clar, NY, NASWA Flashsheet Sept 5 via DXLD) see also UK ** SLOVAKIA [and non]. MW changes in Slovakia - note 1 Hi, from 6 SEP, Slovakia makes another step in its plan of changes. The Presov transmitter on 1071 kHz is no more, and it empties the channel quite a lot, at least here in the middle of Europe. Iran and Euzkadi heard last night (5 SEP 2200... = midnight CEST when Presov left the frequency), but signals were not too strong, giving hope for some Asia.....? More info to come, (Karel Honzik, the Czech Republic (Czechia), AOR AR-7030, 80 m LW, MWDX yg via DXLD) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 5019.85, SIBS, 1155 30 Aug; BBC relay with excellent 20/S9 signal. Fall conditions seem to be here; Monday August 30 conditions prior to 1400 UT, were in some cases, at winter strength (JERRY STRAWMAN, Des Moines, IA, 41.6 N 93.66 W, R8B, R7, 6790/GM-13 R390A, HF-2050, 60 Meter Dipole, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** SPAIN. Em apenas um único dia, quatro de setembro, a Rádio Exterior de Espanha emitiu toda a programação matinal, com destino à América do Sul, em freqüência diversa da habitual. Ao invés de ser captada em 21570 kHz, a programação estava em 21530 kHz. No dia seguinte, voltou para a freqüência habitual (Célio Romais, Brasil, Panorama, @tividade DX Sept 6 via DXLD) ** SRI LANKA [and non]. SLBC op 4940 kHz --- Beste Mensen, In het laatste klubblad (mischien al in de bus bij de mensen in NL ?) beweerde ik dat in de tweede augustushelft SLBC op 4940 kHz regelmatig doorkomt, terwijl in de rest van het jaar daar alleen AIR te horen is. Tot nu toe was dat niet overtuigend op de dagen dat ik luisterde. Weliswaar is het al september, maar SLBC is ook nu nog te horen. Eergisteren (03 Sept) om 1700 UT met s/off (chimes, chants, NA). SIO 333 Ik was al bang dat mijn voorspelling dit jaar de mist in ging, maar SLBC laat me gelukkig dan toch niet in de steek. Groeten, (Aart Rouw, Bühl, Duitsland, AR7030 + 10m lonwire, Sept 5, BDXC via DXLD) ** SRI LANKA. 4902, SLBC Colombo/Ekala with man talking 1310 to past 1340 9/1, weak signals. Even when South Asians are much better than average, this channel is a tough catch. SINPO 24442 with S-1 at times (Bruce Churchill, CA, Japan Radio NRD-545 w/ rotating Wellbrook loop antenna, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** SUDAN. 4750, Radio Peace, New Site, 0236+, September 05, news or talks by male and female in ????, instrumental music and songs. 25232 (Arnaldo Slaen, Chascomus DX-pedition, Argentina, Play-DX via DXLD) 4750, Voice of Peace via DX Tuner Europe (Presumed), 0245 Sept 6 with African singing and drums. 0250 talk by man in language. Weak, and up and down. 0259 fanfare, then man in American English, "..50, [as in the frequency?] thank you for listening." A bit more by same, and then another program in local language (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** SURINAME. 4990, R. Apintie with what sounded like non-stop devotional songs 0833 to past 0842 8/30 at uncharacteristically good level of SINPO 35443. Music reminded me of what we hear on CRN Vanimo. This station is not often heard here, especially at such good quality. Frequency seems to move between 4990 and 4991 --- this was definitely on 4990 as ECSS was used for clarity (Bruce Churchill, CA, Japan Radio NRD-545 w/ rotating Wellbrook loop antenna, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) 4990.3, R. Apintie (presumed), 0305 02 Aug; apparently drifting higher, with only snippets of low level talk and pop music through t- storm static (JERRY STRAWMAN, Des Moines, IA, 41.6 N 93.66 W, R8B, R7, 6790/GM-13 R390A, HF-2050, 60 Meter Dipole, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** SYRIA [non]. CLANDESTINE from GERMANY to SYRIA, 13650, Radio Free Syria *1800 Sun Sept 5 with RMI ID, then fanfare and IDs in Arabic by man and woman. Via DX Tuner Europe. No sign of any jamming; I don't recall any reports of jamming on this one, so I guess it doesn't bother the Syrians too much (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** TURKS & CAICOS [and non]. Radio Visión Cristiana --- I couldn't get it Wednesday night but Saturday it was booming in. There's a parallel RVC-owned station in NYC on 1330 and in Mt. Kisco, NY on 1310 so I don't have to wait for an ID. There's a TIS on 530 kHz owned, IIRC, by the NY State Thruway Authority. I wonder about the efficacy of this frequency for TIS use in the Eastern U.S. (Joel Rubin, NY, Sept 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. BBC OPENS ITS DOORS TO THE PUBLIC ON 18 SEPTEMBER The BBC opens its newest building to the public as part of London Open House Weekend on Saturday 18 September 2004. The Media Centre, part of the BBC's new Media Village in White City, will offer visitors a glimpse of the BBC of the 21st century when it throws open its doors for a day of free tours. Officially opened in May this year, the Media Centre was designed by distinguished architects Allies and Morrison, and is part of the BBC's ambitious new project to create cutting-edge and inspirational buildings and spaces that are accessible and welcoming to the public. The tours will operate every 30 minutes from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm (last tour leaves: 4.30 pm) on a first come, first served basis. [BST = UT +1] Just down the road, the world famous broadcasting hub BBC Television Centre will also be offering free tours on Saturday 18 September. Tours will be running every 10 minutes from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm (last tour leaves: 5.00 pm and tours lasting 50 minutes). BBC Bush House, in The Strand, completes the BBC's Open House Weekend hat-trick with 30-minute tours every 10 or 15 minutes on Saturday 18 September (tours from 10.00 am to 4.30 pm, last tour at 4.00 pm). The stunning home of the BBC World Service was built in the Twenties by American businessman Irving T Bush as a trade centre. Leading the way in construction and design, it was one of the first buildings in London to feature central courtyards to bring light to its back offices. Its galleried show fronts, marble-clad public areas and sweeping staircases maintain their splendour today. # posted by Andy @ 14:00 UT Sept 6 (Media Network blog via DXLD) Note, as previously reported, the Bush tour does NOT include studios (gh) ** U K. THE FURY OF A TOWN MALIGNED --- A BBC film which painted their home as 'hell on earth' has provoked a storm of protest in Campbeltown Lorna Martin, Scotland editor, Sunday September 5, 2004, The Observer Special report: the BBC | Television How does it feel to live in a place portrayed on national television as 'the armpit' of Britain? How does it feel the day after some disillusioned youths have told the nation there's nothing to do but 'get pished' and go joyriding? Residents of Campbeltown, at the tip of Scotland's longest peninsula, the Mull of Kintyre, know the answer. 'It feels as if we've been dragged through the gutter - manipulated and exploited for a piece of very cheap journalism,' said Nancie Smith, chair of the community council and a former deputy head teacher at a local school. She is not alone in her anger. The local paper, the Campbeltown Courier, has been inundated with calls and letters from irate residents, as has the BBC, which broadcast the film. Argyll and Bute Council is considering making a formal complaint to the corporation because of what it described as 'a shockingly unbalanced picture'. Even the local chief inspector of police said it gave a 'wholly false impression' of the town. . . http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1297686,00.html (via Gerald T. Pollard, DXLD) Plus links to lots more BBC stories ** U K. BBC PUT LIBYANS' LIVES IN DANGER, SAYS WATCHDOG Dominic Timms, Monday September 6, 2004 Special report: the BBC | Television The BBC was today severely criticised by television watchdogs for unnecessarily endangering the lives of a Libyan tour guide and a singer who featured in a major BBC series without their consent. Media regulator Ofcom said the BBC had "put at risk" the tour guide, Mr Muhunned Al-Mungoush, after failing to inform him the video footage it was taking was not for a holiday video but a BBC series. After Libyan authorities learned that Mr Al-Mungoush had been involved in the programme he was arrested, interrogated and beaten up. He also lost his job. Ofcom said Mr Al-Mungoush was "misled" by two journalists on the Correspondent programme Holidays in the Axis of Evil, who disguised themselves as tourists in order to film the show. The tour guide said he had agreed to be filmed for a holiday video but said he would not have given his consent if he had know the two were journalists. Co-operating in any way with non-Libyan media is strictly forbidden in the country. . . http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1298419,00.html (via Gerald T. Pollard, DXLD) ** U K [non]. R. Ezra: see ECUADOR ** U S A. Annotated WBCQ Program Guide Anomalies and Recent Observations - Monday, September 6, 2004 [EDT = UT -4] I received a schedule update from Jen in Monticello. Changes are summarized below. * Jen notes that "In-house productions", a.k.a. Operator's Choice, will be featured Monday to Friday 5-6 PM on 5105. This could include any of the following: Allan Weiner Worldwide, Radio Timtron Worldwide, Squad 51, the RMF Show, The Michael Ketter Show, Squad 51, Tasha Takes Control, Duh News, etc. * Area 51 (Jean Shepherd, Firesign Theater, Tesla's Ear, Pirate's Cove, Squad 51, and others) will move back to Sunday night 8-midnight ET. The exact arrangement of this four hour block is undetermined as yet. * Allan Weiner Worldwide repeat gone from Sunday 6 PM on 5105. * Radio Timtron Worldwide now simulcast on 5105 Saturdays at 6 PM ET. * Word of the Cross replaces Allan Weiner Worldwide Sunday 6-7 PM ET on 9330. * Hard Core Christianity gone from Sunday 9:30-10 PM ET on 9330. * Squad 51 replaces American Voice Friday 5-6 PM ET on 9330. * World of Radio replaces American Voice Monday-Thursday 5-6 PM ET on 9330. Presumably there will be fill programming from 5:30 to 6 PM. World of Radio is now running: [UT! days corrected by gh] o Mo 0100 9330 o Mo 0430 7415 o Mo 2100 9330 o Tu 2100 9330 o We 2100 9330 o We 2200 7415 (première) o We 2300 17495 o Th 2100 9330 o Sa 2030 17495 o Su 0300 9330 Radio New York International was on 7415//5105 this evening from 0000. Also, RNI ran until about 0407 UT (Normally WBCQ will cut off JL at 0400 but the show continues on the 'net live for a while as they feel like it). Amos and Andy on 7415//5105 until 0411, when 5105 faded down to the signoff message and off. Amos and Andy continued on 7415 (via Larry Will, dxldyahoogroups and the WBCQ Program Guide via DXLD) ** U S A. Around 0015 UT Mon Sept 6 I checked the same list of WYFR frequencies as in last issue, and all still missing as they were almost 24 hours earlier; and BBC again audible on 11835 from somewhere. I had just heard a report on CNN that in the town of Okeechobee, flooding was not as bad as feared, and not too many power lines were down. Just before completing this issue, 2335 UT Sept 6, WYFR appeared still to be silent (Glenn Hauser, OK, CX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Glenn: It's Sunday night. WRMI is off air at the moment, due to high winds, heavy rains and frequent power outages in Miami. Hopefully we'll be back on sometime tomorrow. Then we're watching Ivan (Jeff White, Sept 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WRMI heard back on Sept 6 at 1420 check on 15725, seems better signal than before, tho hummy; but wait! It`s not WRN as scheduled; instead, Christian Media Network, some guy with a British accent with ``news`` about Bilderberg, Skull & Bones, etc. Is WRMI doing make-goods for the time lost, disrupting its published schedule, or permanent change? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. RADIO CONDITIONS IN WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA Radio notes during Frances ... still buffeting from winds reaching maybe 40 kts, moderate rain bursts, no local flooding here but a lot of reports of scattered power outages, trees down etc. Power bobbled a couple of times here but otherwise has been steady. So far we have done somewhat better than I had expected. Lots of screen captures from the NWS radar, mostly from "KMLB" and "KTBW". (Melbourne and Tampa Weather stations) Locations are not COL but metro areas only. Used two receivers and a TV receiver. Checked around 1800 EDT Sunday. 540 Orlando // 740, lagged 740 by 7 seconds. Feed from Orlando 570 Tampa // Channel 8 with WFLA-TV origination 620 Tampa // 970 Tampa WFLA's local radio origination 680 Tampa // Channel 8, EE (they're normally SS) 720 Hernando, not heard, believed SILENT 740 Orlando gave a list of many stations on their "WFLA" feed" 760 Tampa usual fare, as is 820 and 860 with local px 910 Plant City SILENT but supposed to be // Ch. 8, back on at 1845 970 Tampa originator, local coverage, has been since early yesterday 1010 Tampa // 99.5 with their own coverage 1040 Tampa // WTSP Ch. 10, audio _LED_ WTSP-10 by 150 ms 1110 Tampa SILENT, still off at 1845 1150 Tampa // Ch. 10, audio in sync with 10 1250 Tampa // 970 1300 Tampa usual program, as is 1340 TanTalk and 1380 Disney 1430 Lakeland // 970 1450 Sarasota, not heard, believed SILENT 1470 Tampa SILENT, Ch. 10 said they were "on" with them, OC at 1840 1490 Bradenton believed SILENT, not heard 1520 Pinellas Co. SILENT 1550 Tampa SILENT 1590 Pinellas Co. usual program I assume most of these SILENT are due to loss of power, but could be due to loss of facilities as well. Power loss seems more likely. Some of these probably waiting for someone to head to a transmitter site and reset something. Sent at 1850 [EDT Sept 5] (Robert Foxworth, Tampa FL, NRC-Am via DXLD) Were you watching WTSP off air, or via cable? (could be WTSP uses digital fiber to feed the cable system; 150ms sounds about right for digital coding delays. That delay wouldn't be present if 1040 was using an off-air pickup to receive WTSP.) – (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66, http://www.w9wi.com ibid.) In this case it (WTSP-TV) WAS via cable as I took the portable AM receiver downstairs to listen as I scanned the TV channels, I wanted to include BayNewsNine in the sample for audio matching, and they are available on cable only. I don't believe any of the AMs relayed bayNews9. At one point about 2 years ago, 620 St Pete DID relay them, until they found a permanent sports format (Bob Foxworth, ibid.) 1490's transmitter is on the Manatee River at the memorial pier. (I used to be part owner of this station). 1450 is also on the waterfront on the same island that St. Armands Circle is on (City Island). I can see why they are off. It's funny but 1420 and 1490 are listed on all hurricane evacuation signs along major routes in Manatee County as information sources. Neither station has been able to provide any meaningful public service in over ten years except maybe to put on some TV audio. It looks as though we are going to suffer a massive environmental disaster as a phosphate plants retention pond has failed and the pollution is going into Tampa Bay. 970 out of Tampa has done a very good job of providing information during all this. A job well done by Clear Channel (Paul Smith, W4KNX, Sarasota, FL, Sept 5, NRC-AM via DXLD) I agree wholeheartedly. WFLA 970 is always first rate. Their AM drive anchors have been doing yeoman service all weekend (Bob Foxworth, ibid.) WFLA has always been the loudest (and best sounding) AM station in the Tampa market. I always figured they were that loud because I think I recall they used the Kahn Power side system back when they were 5 kW, but when they upgraded to 25 kW and then put 1250 on the same site they had to do something else. I would love to know their processing secret. 1250, even though originating at the same studios and transmitter site, doesn`t have the same audio punch (Paul Smith, Sarasota, FL, ibid.) Back in the early 70s when I lived in Fort Walton Beach, FL, I listened daily to WFLA-970 along with the 620 St. Pete and the 930 in Sarasota. I was amazed how easy they were to hear in the daytime, but it was a clear shot over the Gulf. But 970 was a top-notch news station, even back then when they were primarily a music station (BILL Hale, TX, ibid.) Other than a few downed trees in Tampa, the West coast of Florida has dodged a bullet. We got lots of rain, and it knocked off a lot of Spanish moss but very little property damage anywhere. Problem right now is media is here in droves with nothing to report. I've never seen such misinformation in my life from so called "experts" (Paul Smith, Sarasota, FL, 30 miles or south on I75 from Sun City Center, ibid.) ** U S A [and non]. Lou Josephs` blog http://www.myjamby.com/medianetwork/ has been covering Hurricane Frances including links to webcams et al. you may not yet have seen, such as this Sept 6 entry with further hotlinks: It will be some time during the day when we learn the fate of America's Space Program. Considering NASA did not have anyone on base during the entire time the place was hit by Hurricane Frances, I don't think it's going to be good news. The shuttles were wrapped in plastic but if the roof came off the OPF, they will be billion dollar piles of junk. All of the East Coast of Florida was affected by this storm from Miami to Jacksonville, the northern part of Florida started being affected around 2 pm in the afternoon Sunday. Live TV can be found here [WESH]. OK, here's what we know, CNN is reporting a 50 foot hole was reported in a building at KSC. They didn't say which one. It appears after reading Floridatoday that it was the tile assembly building. It looks like the shuttles are OK. But without a place to make tiles, that's going to be a launch issue. The VAB, that's the large building that you can see from Route 1 in Titusville, is damaged. Pretty badly. Anyone on the Titusville side of the river should take a look. It was built in the 60s so it wasn't designed to withstand 2 days of pounding. Most of Florida's east coast is without power. FP and L is living up the the old nickname Florida Flickern Flash (Lou Josephs blog via DXLD) ** U S A. The major news networks are Hispano-phobic. Among other times, at 2144 UT Sept. 5, when Gob. Jeb Bush switched to Spanish in a live news conference, MSNBC dumped out quickly, and CNN after another half-minute. Why don`t the anchors immediately start translating, have a capable interpreter or captioner standing by, or shut up and let the growing minority of Americans who understand Spanish, listen? English will probably resume in a minute, anyway. BTW, I occasionally check Univisión, and have not noticed them dumping any of their normal inane programming for hurricane coverage (Glenn Hauser, Oclajoma, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also INTERNATIONAL WATERS ** U S A. Re: PURDUE STUDENT-RUN AM RADIO STATION TO BEGIN SOON When I entered at Purdue in 1955, we already had one of the first carrier current stations operating anywhere in the country. The station adopted the call sign WCCR which stood for Cary Club Radio. The station was located in the Cary Hall residence unit adjacent to the football stadium. I remember reading an article in Radio and TV News magazine (Or was it still Radio News at the time?) about the station sometime in the early 1950's. I remember one of the big engineering challenges was making the 600 KC signal propagate around the stepdown transformers in each of the buildings. Reception was good in some spots but not others. The heavier the load on the transformers, the greater was the cross-modulation of 60 cycle hum on the 600 KC carrier. Reception after midnight was pretty good when the lighting load diminished. The station used a good FM tuner to receive a station from way over in Iowa (WHO?) to provide program material to cover the midnight to dawn times. The signal was also fed to several fraternity/sorority houses on campus via twisted pair phone lines and transmitters in each house. Other residence halls on campus later operated similar stations. The new station will only have a range of a mile or so according to the Exponent article. I wonder if it is going to operate under Part 15 rules (100 milliwatts input with a 10 foot vertical antenna) or if it is licensed under rules governing Travelers Information Stations? They talk about licensing problems so I doubt they would be using Part 15 authority. Has the FCC made a waiver here of the TIS content rules? I will attempt to find out. ~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-., (Joe Buch, DE, Sept 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) -*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^ ** U S A. Re: Why would a full-power station (whether analog or digital) ever choose to decrease its broadcast coverage area? (2004- 08-07 at 12:07, David Austin) Ah, I *thought* I saw this post & never saw a reply. It's pretty rare for an existing station to reduce coverage. Most of the power reductions I've seen are when a newly-authorized station, not yet on the air, files for lower power/antenna height. Sometimes this happens for economic reasons: the station just isn't able to raise the capital to build the full 5000 kW facility. In other cases, construction delays (often involving local opposition to new towers) makes it likely the full facility can't be completed before the permit expires. The station hangs a small low-power antenna on an existing tower somewhere to get a signal on the air before expiration, then continues to work on getting the local permits for the full-power facility. (good example: WMMF-68 Fond du Lac, Wis. Which now seems to have given up on the 1600' tower, gone on the air as a "four-letter LPTV", and is working on a shared 650-footer with WWRS-52, both of which will run 5000 kW.) Among DTV stations I think you can usually assume the reason for reducing the power of the permit is economic. I think the power costs are causing "sticker shock" at a lot of stations whose analog facility is VHF. They aren't used to spending that much money on power! Certain power-saving techniques that work on analog UHF don't work on digital either. (I'm not sure how much of a difference that makes) TV channels are alloted on the basis of distance. It is assumed a given station will run the maximum power permissible for that channel - the channel will only be allotted (and the transmitter site authorized) if it's far enough from other stations on the same/nearby channels to not cause interference at 5000 kW/ 600 m. Of course, sometimes those formulas don't work so well! For example, the allotment of DTV channel 8 to Milwaukee has proven to be a problem for analog viewers of WOOD-8 in West Michigan. But essentially, it's "tough cookies" for the affected stations. ``The examples that most quickly come to mind are the Lexington KY UHFs (WLEX-18, WKYT-27, and WTVQ-36). At one time WKYT's grade B contour extended to the Carter/Rowan county line and, IIRC, into Ohio and Indiana along the river at some points. Now their contours are substantially retracted. I think much the same is true for WLEX-18.`` I have to guess you're looking at different contours. Station 1966 1988 1997 Now ====================================================================== WKYT-27 195 kw/640' 2360 kw/980' 1520 kw/985' 1510 kw/984' WLEX-18 272 kw/640' 1104 kw/640' 1104 kw/640' 1100 kw/640' WTVQ-36 600 kw/881'* 2240 kw/1000' 2140 kw/1000' 2240 kw/1000' * in 1966 this was an application, not yet authorized or on the air, and was for channel 62. I see WKYT did reduce power sometime between 1988 and 1997. My guess is they were required to do so when they acquired WYMT-57; the co- owned stations' Grade A contours were not allowed to overlap. Many UHF stations were originally built with considerably less than maximum permissible power. I suspect this is indeed because they can't sell time in adjacent markets, so there's no reason to waste electricity trying to cover those markets. Rockford, Illinois and Fort Wayne, Indiana are probably two good examples. This is far less common on VHF, but KNTV-11 San Jose did operate at about half of maximum authorizable power for many years so that it wouldn't overlap with ABC-O&O station KGO-7. (KNTV doubled its power when it became the NBC affiliate for San Francisco) -- (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66, http://www.w9wi.com WTFDA via DXLD) ** U S A. The Sacramento affiliate for Air America is KSQR and it is getting pretty bad. They are pre-empting Air America programming for their own local shows. No longer do they carry Air America on the weekends, and the Majority Report is basically being replaced by a local call-in talk show. I find this disgusting. The only reason I ever tuned into KSQR is to receive Air America and nothing else. On the weekends they play nothing but rhythm and blues instead of the Air America programs. It is getting to the point where I am having to forego this radio station entirely and just pick up the web stream of Air America on the internet. I have written Air America and suggested that they look into this matter, but have not heard back from them. Is there anybody out there who has inside poop about what KSQR is trying to achieve? Is Air America looking for other more dedicated affiliates in the area? (allnitewatchman Sep 4 2004, 07:10 PM, airamericaplace forum via DXLD) KSQR's owner has been in a long-standing legal dispute for some years now. There's some kind of weirdness where Paula Nelson of Diamond Broadcasting sold her stations to Moon Broadcasting, then got seller's remorse and tried to get them back. Now Diamond is in receivership as a result of the suit and some inheritance weirdness, and Moon is also in some kind of inter-vivo trust presumably so THEIR kids can inherit mom and dad's radio stations. The receiver is Beverly Communications, whoever they are. The station was actually dark (off the air completely) until the AAR format. Fun industry, huh? Anyway KSQR was operating on a lease deal where Diamond or its receivers got the station back on a local agreement, and then in July they filed with the FCC for an involuntary license transfer. Here's the legal murk courtesy Sacramento Bee public notices: QUOTE NO 519 Public Notice NOTICE On July 29, 2004, an application was filed with the Federal Communications Commission for authority to assign the license of AM Broadcast Station KSQR, 1240 kHz, Sacramento, California, from Moon Broadcasting Sacramento, LLC, to Diamond Broadcasting. Moon Broadcasting Sacramento, LLC is a California limited liability company whose managers and members are Abel A. DeLuna, Arelia DeLuna and Abel DeLuna, trustee of Abel DeLuna Inter- vivos Trust. Diamond Broadcasting is a California corporation whose officers, directors and stockholders are Paula Nelson, Aquila Nelson and Helen Clark. A copy of the application is available for public inspection during the hours of 9:00-5:00 p.m. at the offices of Station KSQR, 1017 Front Street, Second Floor, Sacramento, California. 4 August 18,19,25,26 2004 (via Zowie, via Clara Listensprechen, DXLD) ** U S A. This week`s 7-minute RVi Radio World is made up entirely of airchex, including jingle and singing IDs, from the vintage collexion of ADXB-OE, of these stations, several examples each: WGAR-1220, WSM- 650 (including the voice of Ken Berryhill now on WWCR/WRVU), WLAC-1510 and WCBM-680. More to come next week, starting with WCBM. Frans Vossen guesses that there are hundreds of stations with W-calls --- make that thousands (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VATICAN. Sept. 2, 2200: Noted Vatican Radio in Chinese on a new frequency, 9450 (ex-9600). Heard with IS, bells, then ID in Chinese, fanfare, into religious talk; very good, tho aimed at China (Joe Hanlon in NJ, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA [non]. I listened carefully to the reactivated RNV relay via Cuba, Sept 5 at 1900 on 13740 (this broadcast resumed Sept 3), still giving its defunct Apartado 3979 address, and then announcing its full schedule, which is different than before, and all times given in UT, with the times seemingly correct for a change: 1900-2000 13740 San Francisco 2000-2100 9550 Caribe 2000-2100 13680 Chicago 2000-2100 15230 Buenos Aires 2000-2100 17705 Rio de Janeiro 2100-2200 11875 Santiago de Chile 2300-0000 9820 and 13680 Chicago 2300-0000 11760 Norte, Centro y Sud-América Note they no longer mention a broadcast to Wáshington on 6000. That and other outdated/incorrect info still appears on the RNV website, in unspecified local times. Just disregard that and hope no one else posts or publishes the don`t-you-believe RNV schedule from its own website. I kept checking and at 2000 when four frequencies are supposed to be on, I could only hear 15230, poorly, tho reportedly it is strong in South America. Nothing audible on 9550 or 13680, and 17705 as always blocked by the super-signal of Greece via Delano. At 2100, 11875 was inaudible. I also checked for the 2000 frequencies during the 2100 and 2200 hours, just in case. And the 2100 and 2300 frequencies during the 2200 hour, but nothing. During the 2300 hour, none of the frequencies heard either, except 13680 --- which is actually occupied by CRI English via Sackville \\ 6145. Rechecking Monday afternoon, Sept 6, not as exhaustively, again heard only 13740 at 1900 and 15230 at 2000. But, unless it gets wiped out again by Iván, expect more of the Venezuela relays via Cuba to come back, poco a poco, as well as China relays, and RHC itself. BTW, a quick check of 11760, 13680, 13750, 15230, earlier after 1400 UT this Sunday did not turn up any Aló Presidente (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA. NEW VENEZUELAN COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER PLEDGES TO STRENGTHEN STATE MEDIA | Text of state news agency Venpres report by Jaqueline Gil: "Andrés Izarra to create competitive state news system to combat infophrenia", translated by Vanessa Carolina del Valle Marcano and published in English by Venezuelan pro-government VENews web site on 6 September; all eelises as published "I will conduct a very aggressive policy to strengthen all production and news gathering systems in the public media such as Venezolana de Television (VTV), Radio Nacional, Venpres and YVKE Mundial, to create a very competitive news system." Venezuela's new minister of Communication and Information (MinCI), Andrés Izarra, has his first meeting with the press after being sworn- in during a ceremony at Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, saying that MinCI will offer integral support and strength to the alternative and community media... "what we are seeking is to give people power to create their own means of communication." Izarra also says he's worried by a "syndrome of infophrenia" that has currently affected the population of Venezuela due to aggression transmitted daily by the private media. "Let us remember that during the oil strike... for 63 days... the (private) media only transmitted spots exclusively against the government... without even broadcasting commercials... that damage caused to the population will take some time to heal." At a press conference next week, Izarra will go into detail about the plans to strengthen the system of recuperation, production and information of all the State media. When asked about the aggressive position that some media still maintain against the government, the MinCI Minister said... "I think that some of the extremist media have been left out in the cold, we have observed positive signals from media that had assumed radical positions... but they are now open to dialogue." "There's a proposal that will take form next week, but I want to make it known at the press conference I talked about, which will seek to lower levels of aggression of some private media," Izarra added. "However, there are programmes that cannot be saved, we all know which ones they are, so there's no need for me to go into further detail." Concerning the use of Presidential TV and radio transmissions (cadenas) on all channels, Izarra clarifies that once the state information system is strengthened and the private media opens up some space to let the information be broadcast, the use of the joint TV and radio transmissions will not be necessary. Source: VENews web site in English 6 Sep 04 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** VIETNAM. 4740, R. Son La (presumed) with traditional Vietnamese song 1327 9/5, woman announcer in Vietnamese at 1329, program music at 1330, woman announcer in local vernacular 1331 followed by indigenous vocal/instrumental music at 1332. SINPO 3+5443+. This station is regularly well heard and must have a power level higher than usual regionals at 1 kW. 5035, Voice of Vietnam Hmong service with woman announcement at 1243 8/21 followed by traditional Viet song by woman. Woman announcer again at 1346 followed by another song by woman. Heavy splash from Beijing on 5030. SINPO 33533 (Bruce Churchill, CA, Japan Radio NRD-545 w/ rotating Wellbrook loop antenna, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. CLANDESTINE from ALGERIA to NORTHWEST AFRICA, 7460 (Presumed), SADR, 2000 Sept 5, rapid fire speed news in Arabic by man via DX Tuner Europe. Just a bit too weak for me to catch an ID so I tuned out at 2017 (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. 1712.25 --- It's KXEL Waterloo, IA, with an English ID and news at 0100 [EDT?]. Now, what is it doing on 1712? It's on 1540 of course, can't tell if it might be on 1368 as well (Jim Renfrew, Byron NY, Sept 5, NRC-AM via DXLD) SEP 4 2330 [EDT], 1712 kHz, KXEL - strong signal on this odd frequency, a spur of some kind? Heard for the second night (Jim Renfrew, Byron NY, 0353 UT Sept 5, ibid.) Really relay by pirate? UNIDENTIFIED. LA, 6104.72, This station heard again at 1000 right on the exact same frequency as heard the first time 31 August. Pretty weak, 6 Sept (Dave Valko, near Dunlo PA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 6104.72 unID LA --- Two mornings I have been listening to Dave Valko`s unID on 6104.72 kHz. Weak signal and heavy splash from 6105.00 (Chinese) makes it difficult. I`m far from being sure but it sounds to me more like a Brasilian station with Brasilian religious music. A little bit odd is that both mornings the transmissions started some minutes before 1000 UT and ended 15-20 minutes later around 1015. 73s (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, Sept 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. USA, 6405, Watch America Radio Sept 5, 2336-0056. I don't really know how to classify this one. I was tuning around for possible Europirates, and heard a male with a slight southern accent, but couldn't understand anything at first. I came back to it around 0040 UT, and heard him mention http://www.watchamerica.com and a phone number (770) 427-4189. The phone number matches the one of the website. Is this a mixing product, a relay of their web audio, or a pirate transmission? SINPO 23232 (George Maroti, NY, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Naturally, the first thing I thought of was a 2 x IF image from 910 kHz higher, i.e. 7315, WHR/WSHB. But does not match that schedule and not supposed to open until 0000 anyway (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) It has been carried on WWRB for a while, but just a half hour here and there, not an hour and a half at a pop (Hans Johnson, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Well, he did not ID it until 0040, so maybe else earlier (gh) UNIDENTIFIED. JAMMER. 9390: There's a big jammer here, presumably until 0600 (gone at 0609 recheck). No one else was heard underneath. Who would be the target?? (5 Sept.) (Dave Valko, micro DX-pedition near Dunlo PA, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Cf. LATVIA 9290 UNIDENTIFIED. Re unknown site jpg photos, 4-134: Hello, nothing is known about it at all. I can only say that the mast visible in the background of the second picture looks like a typical French MW installation (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Sept 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIAL +++++++++++++++++++++++ Glenn, Thanks for all info you find. Now when the tropical bands almost are dead (which of tradition are of main interest for SWB) it is nice to get info also from other aspects of out hobby! DXLD is a must for every serious DX-er. 73 (Thomas Nilsson, Sweden, editor of SW Bulletin) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ EiBi SCHEDULES UPDATED GH, you have an outdated version of Eike Bierwirth's A04 schedules on your site, updated in May; however if you go to http://www.eibi.de.vu you can go to the latest version of his SW skeds which was last updated on August 22 (Joe Hanlon in NJ, Sept 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) It`s just a link, not ``on my site``. Silly me, assuming he would keep the same link to future revisions and delete the old ones; the latest is now at http://www.susi-und-strolch.de/eibi/dx/bc-a04.txt and if you check out the homepage, you can reach other versions (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ ICOM 746pro After spending some time with my ICOM 746pro, I realized that the rig is an amazing radio for SWL. It is a great ham transceiver, but I was surprised how well it receives AM. It has been FAR superior to any other radio I have owned, whether ham rig or SWL rig. My observations have been confirmed by the technical review below. These radios have been having trouble with a particular IC, causing some of the transmit sections to fail. It does not affect receive. There are fixes available for them, but the used price has been driven down as a result. They are out there commonly for under $1000.00 US, due to nervous owners trying to unload them. There has been much discussion, review and praise for the ICOM R-75. I am sure that it is a good radio. However, if you want the real deal and a top of the line receiver at any price level, check out the 746pro. Its only weakness is that reception below 1.6 MHz is attenuated. There are people out there now (including the gentleman who wrote the review below) who are pursuing a fix to that issue. I hope this helps someone looking to get into the hobby, or someone looking to upgrade their station (Dave via rec.radio.shortwave via SW Bulletin via DXLD) Would that be Dave Zantow? Attenuating below 1.6 MHz is unforgivable (gh) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ W9DXCC CONVENTION Sept 18, Elk Grove Village IL (Reminder/Update!). The Northern Illinois DX Association is pleased to announce the 52nd annual W9DXCC Convention on September 18th. The convention will be at the Holiday Inn in Elk Grove Village, IL, about five miles west of Chicago O'Hare International Airport. Their banquet speaker is John Devoldere, ON4UN. John will also be appearing during the day along with John Battin/K9DX and Jerry Rosalius/WB9Z, in the Low Band Forum. Eric Scace/K3NA will be on hand with the story of the 3B9C Rodrigues Island 150,000+ QSO DXpedition. Jay Terleski/WX0B will tell us about his Fort Bragg NC military antenna farm featuring phased log periodics. Scott Robbins/W4PA will have the Ten-Tec Orion Story and Lee Finkel/KY7M has his 5U5Z African Adventure to relate. Propagation expert Carl Luetzelschwab/K9LA will be back for his fifth year as he updates our prospects in the declining years of Cycle 23. The ARRL Forum features Central Division Director Dick Isely/W9GIG, Vice Director Howie Huntington/K9KM, DX Advisory Committee Chairman Jim O'Connell/W9WU, Membership Service Chairman and Logbook of the World Guru Wayne Mills/N7NG, and BPL expert Greg Lapin/N9GL. Jim Cain/K1TN, author of the YASME book, will present a program about Danny Weil/VP2VB, arguably the first DXpeditioner and Lloyd and Iris Colvin, W6KG and W6QL. For the IOTA fans, Mike McGirr/K9AJ, Jim Model/K9PPY, and Gordon Bazsali/WB9EEE will have the latest Island News. Card checking will be available for DXCC, other ARRL awards, and the CQ DX awards program. Full details about the convention are available at the W9DXCC Web site: http://www.w9dxcc.com On-line registration is available as well as a link to the hotel for on-line lodging reservations. Further information is available from the 2004 Chairman Bill Smith, W9VA, at: w9va @ aol.com (KB8NW/OPDX/BARF80 Sept 6 via Dave Raycroft, ODXA via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ FANTASTIC TA OPENING TONIGHT Hi Everyone: Fantastic opening to Europe this evening. It all started here just after local sunset around 20:30 MDT [= UT -6] and continued thru to sunrise in Europe which is around 23:00 MDT. Virtually every split frequency I checked had a carrier, and most had some audio, though faint in most cases. Unfortunately I wasn't able to listen for the whole opening, however I did manage to ID 10 stations, one of which was new for me. Unlike other openings of this magnitude, there were few longwave stations, other than 3 of the regulars. The frequencies that had carriers were: 153, 189, 198, 531, 549, 558, 576, 585, 657, 684, 711, 738, 747, 756, 774, 819, 837, 855, 873, 882, 891, 936, 945, 954, 972, 1008, 1035, 1044, 1053, 1071, 1089, 1098, 1116, 1125, 1134, 1143, 1152, 1179, 1188, 1197, 1206, 1215, 1224, 1242, 1251, 1278, 1296, 1305, 1314, 1422, 1485, 1494 and 1548. Those I managed to ID: [now he switches to UT] 189 Iceland 04:57 09/06 with man speaking in the Icelandic Language 198 United Kingdom 05:03 09/06 Man with a very English accent reading the news 693 United Kingdom BBC Radio 5 04:45 09/06 Two men discussing Winston Churchill 864 France Paris 04:42 09/06 Man and woman talking in French. 945 France Toulouse 04:45 09/06 Man speaking in French. Parallel to 1206. New for me. 1053 United Kingdom 04:32 09/06 Man speaking in English about sport. Parallel to 1089 1089 United Kingdom 04:34 09/06 Man speaking in English about sport and // to 1053 1206 France Bordeaux 04:38 09/06 Man speaking in French and // to 945. This was the best signal of all. S9 at times which enabled the synchronous detector to lock on giving perfect copy. Now if only I could speak French fluently! 1215 United Kingdom Virgin Radio 04:33 09/06 English speaking DJ with old time hits and Virgin Radio IDs 1314 Norway 02:33 09/06 with it's usual fare of all night pop music. This was the first TA to appear this evening. (Mike in St Isidore AB Stonebridge, with AOR 7030 & 150' EWE, UT Sept 6, IRCA mailing list via DXLD) ###