DX LISTENING DIGEST 4-182, December 7, 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 1255: Wed 1030 WOR WWCR 9985 Wed 1700 WOR WBCQ after hours Wed 2200 WOR WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0430 WOR WSUI 910 http://wsui.uiowa.edu MORE info including audio links: http://worldofradio.com/radioskd.html 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 1255 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1255h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1255.rm WORLD OF RADIO 1255 (low version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1255.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1255.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1255.html WORLD OF RADIO 1255, mp3 in the true SW sound of 7415: (stream) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/worldofradio_12-01-04.m3u (d`load) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/worldofradio_12-01-04.mp3 FIRST AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1256: Wed 2300 on WBCQ 7415 Thu 0000 on WBCQ 17495-CUSB Thu 2130 on WWCR 9985 Thu 2200 on WBCQ 9330-CLSB ON DEMAND: from early UT Thu, change 1255 above to 1256; mp3, 12-01 to 12-08 DX/SWL/MEDIA PROGRAMS John Norfolk continues to update frequently, as needed: http://www.worldofradio.com/dxpgms.html DXLD YAHOOGROUP: Why wait for DXLD? A lot more info, not all of it appearing in DXLD later, is posted at our yg. Here`s where to sign up: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dxld/ ** ALBANIA. 1395 kHz at 0530 VOA in Croatian shifted to MW 1215: 0600- 0630 VOA in Alb; 0630-0640 Carrier; 0640 DW in Alb; 0700 CRI in En. (Rumen Pankov-BUL, BC-DX Nov 29 via DXLD) See also CHINA [non] ! ** ALGERIA. See WESTERN SAHARA [non] ** ANTARCTICA. ANTARCTIC NEWS. Dr. Mario Pillon, I0QHM, (along with 2nd operator Danilo) continue to be active as I0QHM/KC4 from the Mario Zucchelli Station (WAP ITA-01). After the operators establish family connections on the air, they will then make an efforts to make contacts with everybody else. They state that they will check-in regularly on 14180 kHz from 1830-1900z. However, due to limited time, Mario can only stay on the air for 30 minutes a day. You have less than a month to work Finn, VK4LL (OZ2QK), as VK0DX from the ANARE Davis Base Station (AUS-03). His activity has been mainly on 20 meters CW/SSB. There have been a few QSNs on 17/15 meters. Look for him between 0000-0530z. QSL VK0DX via: Finn Olsen, P. O. Box 1544, Brisbane 4001, Australia. Web page at: http://www.qsl.net/vk0dx/ (KB8NW\OPDX December 6\BARF-80 via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. A bit of news from Geelong. ABA media release today had some interesting news for MW. See full version at: http://www.aba.gov.au/abanews/news_releases/2004/160nr04.htm In its broadcasting policy released in the run up to the recent election, the Government said it would develop a policy for the introduction of digital radio in conjunction with existing radio broadcasters. In light of this the ABA is now considering whether or not to allocate vacant MF and VHF Band III spectrum pending clarification of the digital radio policy and its implications for spectrum use. Accordingly, the ABA has decided to hold off auctioning the AM frequencies identified in Round 11 - Price based allocation of transmitter licences for open narrowcasting services. These frequencies are in Albury, NSW, and Manjimup and Northam, WA. Whether these frequencies will be made available for allocation at a future date will depend on the details of the digital radio policy that is developed (David Onley, Belmont, Victoria, 3216, Australia, Dec 6, ARDXC via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. It seems that the docu on the Xmas 1974 cyclone in Darwin and 8DR`s coverage, as well as the history of broadcasting in Darwin, on RNZI Mailbox previously publicised, just became available today Dec 7 ondemand at http://www.rnzi.com/audio/mailbox.rm and should remain for a fortnight (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. Test transmission for Voice International in English: 0000-0300 on 7355 DRW 250 kW / 340 deg to SoEaAs (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 7, via DXLD) Seems to me the first time Australia has used the 7.3+ MHz band. I hope WRNO does not mind (gh, DXLD) ** AUSTRIA. Re 4-181, the ``22h`` timecheck gh heard on RÖ1 at 0000 UT: http://oe1.orf.at/service/international suggests that this transmission contains on Sundays news of five minutes duration. However, I suspect that this is the very same program of just 28 minutes as transmitted at 2330. If so the news should have a duration of just three minutes, and probably such news can be recorded not later than at 2100 from the Österreich 2 network (Österreich 1 news are five minutes instead). On the nights after weekdays recordings of Österreich 1 Mitternachtsjournal are included in these transmissions. Mitternachtsjournal is originally broadcast 2300-2308, so probably a ´´null Uhr´´ timecheck will be heard unless they keep it out of the shortwave programmes (where these recordings are certainly inserted automatically). And yes, ´´zweiundzwanzig´´ is the usual style. ´´Zwo´´ is not common language but a special term, used only if any confusion with ´´drei´´ must be prevented. Kind of the ´´Ooooooost´´ on Deutschlandradio's sea weather forecasts (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I was listening to Wolf Harranth too much, as he always gave numbers with ``zwo`` --- I thought it was an Austrian dialect thing (gh, DXLD) ** BELGIUM [non]. GERMANY. 5925, new R. Traumland (via DTK-Juelich), sked to Europe: on Dec 05 only at 1400-1559; Sundays from Dec 12 (except Dec 26) at 1400-1515; and on Dec 24 only at 1400-1515. Rpts invited to Ralf.Weyl@t-systems.com (DTK via JB) Contact info: R. Traumland, P.O. Box 15, B-4730 Raeren, Belgium, radiotraumland@skynet.be (Trutenau-Lithuania, DXplorer) And I see mention of this one at http://www.fmradio.be/new/nieuws.php?id=20698 (all Dutch). (Jerry Berg, DXplorer via DXLD) 5925, R. Traumland. This is coming in at (not surprisingly) local strength, even on a primitive receiver, on 5925 at present. First tuned 1403. Curious operation so far. A little self-praise about being the first voice of German-speaking Belgium on SW, which is probably true apart from a pirate with an address in Gemmenich about 20 years ago, but mainly the praise is for their "broadcasting partner" Hotel Schloss Korb near Bolzano in Italy - Hallenbad, Tennisplatz, 6 nights half-pension for merely 750 euros, etc. Where is all the publicity I was expecting for Belgian mountain hotels? Contact data as in past information on this list, plus telephone (after your international access code) +31 87 301722. (John Campbell- UK, DXplorer Dec 5 via BCDX via DXLD) From 1450 onwards badly interfered by co-channel Voice of Russia in test tones and Farsi (Mauno Ritola-Finland, DXplorer via BCDX via DXLD) Re 5925, R. Traumland via Germany, ``Curious operation so far. A little self-praise about being the first voice of German-speaking Belgium on SW, which is probably true`` Definitely not true. In the past the RTBF shortwave service included a rebroadcast of a 30 minutes news magazine from BRF, the Eupen-based public broadcaster of Belgium`s German community (schedule in 1990: daily except Sat 1130-1200 on 9925 and 21460). And a few years ago Radio Sunshine at Kelmis, across the border from Aachen, maintained shortwave transmissions via Jülich. They were even live: The low-powered FM outlet of Radio Sunshine was picked up at Aachen (Ballempfang) and the received audio forwarded to Jülich through landline. I must say that this Radio Traumland operation has a striking similarity to Radio Sunshine which declares itself as "Der Reisesender" = the journeys station, cf. http://www.rsk.fm Hmmm (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BIAFRA [non]. 7380, V. of Biafra (via Meyerton RSA?), 2100 sign-on, ID in English ``Voice of Biafra from Washington DC``, Sat only, SIO 344, Nov 13 (Dave Kenny, Sheigra, Scotland DXpedition, BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) Also makes it to ENAm this time of year (gh) ** BOLIVIA. Yoo everyone, 4763.22 KHz, Radio Chicha from Bolivia is active now at 2318 UT. Logging to follow (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, Dec 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. A Rádio Cultura AM e FM, de São Paulo (SP), deve reajustar seu parque de antenas até o final do ano. Foi o que noticiou o jornal Folha de São Paulo, em matéria da jornalista Laura Mattos. Conforme a publicação, a Cultura FM vai acrescentar jornalismo em sua programação. Tem sua programação retransmitida na freqüência de 6170 kHz, em 49 metros. As informações são do sítio http://www.radiobaseurgente.blogspot.com BRASIL – Após período de ausência, a Rádio Difusora, de Poços de Caldas (MG), deu as caras, novamente, no Sul do Brasil. Foi em três de dezembro, às 2331, pela tradicional freqüência de 4945 kHz (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX Dec 5 via DXLD) ** CANADA [non]. /SWEDEN: Additional frequency for RCI in Arabic: 0430-0500 NF 5840 HBY 350 kW / 135 deg to ME (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 7, via DXLD) ** CANADA. CBC on Sirius: see INTERNATIONAL VACUUM ** CHINA. From Radio Guangdong --- Dear Listeners, Thank you so much for quick replies. Reading your e-mails make us feel so warm in this cold winter. The Radio Guangdong English program team will hold a Christmas and New Year party on December 22 at our broadcasting building. About 100 foreign friends in Guangzhou will be invited to have fun here (if you will visit Guangzhou on that day, please contact us and we would be most happy to invite you to join us). While reading your e-mails, an interesting idea came to our mind. We want to produce slides with your warm e-mails and share the happiness with our guests here in Guangzhou. It will be the best if you can send us the pictures of you or your family. It can also be pictures of your country, your town, your home, or holiday celebration, anything that can show the atmosphere of glee. It will be a nice surprise for our guest to see friends from their countries show up in the big screen of our party on this nostalgic holiday. I am sure your pictures will bring them memories about hometown and love. Isn`t that a nice way to share our happiness together? We will upload photos of the party to our website http://www.radio-gd.com/english afterwards. We`ve received so many e-mails till now and we will try to increase the number of audiences who can get our CDs. Of course, the best pictures and greetings will win. We are looking forward to your reply. Please send your text together with pictures again to us. Please reply us before December 15. Thank you! English program staff, Radio Guangdong, P. R. China Tel: 86-20-36236600-5503 86-20-36235075 Fax: 86-20-36235075 Add: International Development Center, Radio Guangdong, No. 686 Renminbei Road, Guangzhou (510012), P.R.China Website: http://www.radio-gd.com/english (via Alokesh Gupta, India, Dec 7, dxldyg via DXLD) ** CHINA [non]. ALBANIA. Hello Glenn, Have been listening to several of the CRI transmissions via Albania, and they are super strong here in the UK, especially 6020 kHz at 0000 UT. This transmission seems extremely overmodulated to me; has anyone else noticed this? 7345 also strong, but not sure which location this is from, but about 5 seconds delay (6020 being ahead). Greetings from England (Christopher Lewis, Dec 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, you may find this of interest: at the moment I'm listening to CRI on 7220, weak but I can hear them in English, no site is given, check theire new frequencies (Daryl Rocker, NY, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 7220 would be Albania per info further below (gh) Viz.: CRI Launches New Frequencies 2004-11-24 11:35:20 CRIENGLISH.com Starting November 28th, China Radio International will launch a few new short-wave frequencies for West Europe, North America, and North Africa. Listeners in these regions will have better reception of CRI's programs. Here are details of the frequencies for these regions. Regions Time (UTC) Frequencies(KHz) West Europe 2000-2200 5960 7285 0700-0900 11855 17490 1100-1300 13665 North America 0000-0200 6020 7170 North Africa 0500-0600 7220 17505 0600-0700 11750 17505 (via Daryl Rocker, NY, Dec 7, DXLD) In 0630-0657 UT time span heard only 11750 kHz via CER, and 17505 via KAS-Kashi, TODAY Dec 6th. But nothing from Cerrik on \\ 7220 today. So CRI did split the program 0500-0557 on 7220, 0600-0657 on 11750. (wb) CRI Cerrik relay site operating schedule has been stabilized. Latest summary, of Dec 6th: 0000-0157 English 6020 9570 [ciraf 8,9] NoAM 0200-0357 Chinese 6020 9570 [ciraf 8,9] NoAM 0500-0557 English 7220 \\ 17505KAS [ciraf 38] EGY LBY NE NoAF 0600-0657 English 11750 \\ 17505KAS [ciraf 38] EGY LBY NE NoAF 0500-0657 Arabic 5985 7120 9590 [ciraf 37 38] EGY LBY NE NoAF [and 17485KAS too] 0700-0857 English 11855 \\ 15350KAS 0700-0800, 17490KAS 0800-1257 [ciraf 27] WeEUR 11715 kHz spur of new powerhouse CRI Cerrik Albania relay 11855 kHz. 0700-0857 Chinese 11785 \\ 17650KAS [ciraf 27] WeEUR 11925 kHz spur of new powerhouse CRI Cerrik Albania relay 11785 kHz. Both spurs of 11785/11855 kHz are 70 kHz apart, the normal procedure, upper spur carries lower frequency program content, and lower spur carries upper frequency program content v.v. 1100-1257 English 13665 [ciraf 27] WeEUR \\ 17490KAS 0800-1257 1200-1357 English 13790URU [ciraf 27 28] Ce&WeEUR 1300-1457 English 13610KAS [ciraf 27 28] Ce&WeEUR 1400-1557 French 11920 13670 [ciraf 46] WeAF 1500-1557 Turkish 7120 9565 [ciraf 39] TUR IRQ IRN 1600-1657 Arabic 9555 11725 [ciraf 37-40] AFG IRN EGY LBY NoAF MRC (very wide target area) 7130StP ciraf 39,40 7160KAS ciraf 39,40 7245KUN ciraf 38 7300KAS ciraf 38,39 9555CER ciraf 38 9610KAS ciraf 37-40 11725CER ciraf 37 15125MLI ciraf 47,48 17880MLI ciraf 37,38 1600-1757 German 5970 7155 [ciraf 28] Ce&WeEUR 1700-1757 Arabic 9555 11725 [ciraf 37-40] AFG IRN EGY LBY NoAF MRC (very wide target area) 9555CER ciraf 38 11725CER ciraf 37 1800-1957 French 5970 7175 [ciraf 28] Ce&WeEUR \\ 6055 7385 [ciraf 46] WeAF 2000-2157 Arabic 6185 7215 [ciraf 38] EGY LBY NoAF MRC 2000-2157 En (EU) 5960 7285 [ciraf 27 28] Ce&WeEUR 2200-2257 Portug. 6175 [ciraf 37] POR ESP NoAF 2200-2257 Spanish 7210 [ciraf 37] POR ESP NoAF 2300-2357 Spanish (EU) 6175 7210 7120URU [ciraf 37] POR ESP NoAF (not 7215) 6175CER and 7210CER ahead; 7120URU kHz a tenth second behind. Spanish (AM) 7160XIA 7245XIA [partly different program] Cerrik transmission feeder audio is AHEAD of Kashi or Urumchi \\ outlets by a quarter of a second. CRI Cerrik schedule still puzzles. Varies from day to day. At present only four of six txs are on schedule. (wb, BC-DX Dec 6) Thanks to Erich Bergmann's recent observation: 7220 now 0500-0557 CRI English to [ciraf 38] EGY LBY NE NoAF China Radio Int. heard in French this Sunday at 1400-1600 UT (new time) on 11920 and 13670 with good reception. (from Cerrik-ALB? or via China as HFCC says). The following info is according to HFCC-B04 13670 1400-1600 46W KAS 500 269 CHN CRI RTC 11920 1400-1600 46W URU 150 270 CHN CRI RTC (Jean-Michel Aubier-F, BC-DX Nov 28) The French Service closed at 1557 on 13670 and 11920. Could this have been for Africa? {both 1400-1557 ciraf46 WeAF}. French is heard on 11920 (co-ch BBC SNG? [11920 suffers much by BBC Kranji SNG. wb.] ) and 13670. Thanks for the mails concerning ALB. It is very tricky trying to decide which freqencies are coming from the new station and which are not in the afternoon/evening. In the mornings it is far simpler. I noticed that no one commented positively about the location of 11920 & 13670. But, as Wolfie says, he is better placed to know what skips overhead at his location. I think Olle and I will hear whatever they put out from ALB. It seems that CRI are now establishing many two hour long programmes too. CRI updates. I find that the evening is a very difficult time to distinguish which signal is coming from which station - but obviously the type of propagation is also of help in deciding. It seems that most of the ALB transmissions have now been identified, and I am surprised that they have decided to use so many in-band freqs instead of in the 7300-7500 range. Obviously, by registering them from another site [in western China, keen procedure ! wb.] they have helped to ensure that most are available for use by ALB (Noel R. Green-UK, BC-DX Nov 28-30) Most interesting is the use of 22 mb 13665 kHz, that means the Chinese wound up a 13 MHz antenna dipole array [cut the 25 mb dipols?], not just refurbished the old dipole lines of 1968year. A look into WRTH 1976 issue, shows 49 to 19 mb usage by Albania. But also few OOBs in 7000-7310 and 9300-9500 kHz range (wb, BC-DX Nov 30) Yes, I was wondering myself about the use of the 13 MHz band by Cerrik, as I couldn`t remember the station ever using this band previously. But they did use a couple of odd freqs - at least - of about 14.3 and 16.3 MHz. Maybe existing aerials allowed that to happen. I was assuming that maybe they could "stretch" one of their 11 MHz [rather stretch the former 14 or 16 MHz antennas, wb.] antennas into the low end of 13 MHz. So, I have no idea how this has been achieved, or how the Chinese at Cerrik have managed to use 13665! I would guess they have refurbished the antennas, and maybe decided to sling up a 13 MHz one - or adapt another - while doing the job (Noel R. Green-UK, BC-DX Nov 30) It will take few days, before the monitoring schedule in total will be result in a fixed schedule table to put down on paper. I guess to search full operating schedule for Africa from Cerrik, will limit at my place, due of DEAD zone for the 31 and 25 mb channels in afternoon and night. Even the NoAM sce channel of 9570 kHz at 0000-0357 UT to NoAM suffers by some 'like Aurora' distortion, compared to powerhouse \\ 6020 kHz. But both are 100 % from Cerrik site. En 0000, Chinese 0200-0357 UT. (wb, BC-DX Nov 29) 1600-1757 Arabic 9555 11725 [ciraf 37-40] AFG IRN EGY LBY NoAF MRC (very wide area) 9555 is doing great here. A local station as a matter of fact with a spur affecting 9550 1100-1700 UT with VoVietnam in English, but 11725 is not audible at all. All I could hear is noise! (Tarek Zeidan SU1TZ, Cairo, Egypt BC-DX Nov 30) Dear Wolfy, Re: 0500-0557 CRI English 7220 now to [ciraf 38] EGY LBY NE NoAF 0600-0657 CRI English 11750 \\ 17505KAS [ciraf 38] EGY LBY NE NoAF 0500-0657 Arabic 5985 7120 9590 [ciraf 37 38] EGY LBY NE NoAF [and 17485KAS too] I'm checking them now and I can confirm the following: 11750 nothing; 17505 good to very good SINPO 44444 also I noted 7220 booming in is that one coming from Albania as well?? It sounds like it really SINPO 45554 about the Arabic section : 5985...nothing 7120...nothing as well 9590...now we are talking. local station here 44554 (there's a station in the back ground on the same freq. but NO WAY to ID that station as long as they are on!) 17485 great stuff SINPO 45444 will keep letting you know about the rest of the freqs soon. all the best from Cairo, (Tarek Zeidan-EGY SU1TZ, BC-DX Dec 4) Your various updated lists of activity from Cerrik are much appreciated. As I wrote, I have found it very difficult to identify the site in the evenings due to the congestion in the bands at that time and in recognising one site from another. By now, I think we have a fairly good idea of what they are doing. I'm surprised that they have not come up from Cerrik in more European langs or Russian - but perhaps they are satisfied with their coverage direct from URU and KAS (Noel R. Green-UK, BC-DX Dec 5 via DXLD) 9570/6020, CRI via Cerrik verified an e-mail report with an e-mail reply in 3 days from YingLian of the English Service promising to send a QSL card. YingLian [collective name] was glad to know that they "could reach on two SW frequencies we rent from Albania" and requested further reports to crieng @ crifm.com Also indicated that they operate from Albania from 0000-0200 UTC on 6020 and 7170 kHz. I heard 9570 kHz so this could be a change in frequency during the first few days of operation from this site (Rich D'Angelo-PA-USA, DXplorer Dec 5 via BC-DX via DXLD) All the above from BC-DX ** COSTA RICA [and non]. Hello From San José where we have been living for the past seven months. My wife, Polly, and I are missionaries with Latin America Mission, teaching at the Evangelical University of the Americas (UNELA). Polly teaches ESL, and my field is communications -- - training Latin Americans how to use the mass media in their ministry. We lived here for eight months in 1990 while learning Spanish in preparation for our work at HCJB in Quito. The radio scene has changed a lot since then, with the then-famous Radio Reloj having been bought by the Monumental group. Now, R. Reloj is primarily the news department of Monumental. They did an excellent job following the recent 6.2 earthquake along the Pacific Coast. For economic reasons, a number of AM stations, including Faro del Caribe, sign off at 6 p.m. rather than transmit all night. One other difference is the growth in English-language stations on the FM dial and other stations with a lot of English music. One FM also carries the BBC World Service news a couple of times a day. Reception of North American and Caribbean stations here in the Central Valley, especially in the city where we live, is very spotty. On good nights I can get R. Bahamas on 1540 and the Virgin Island station on 1620. Along the Atlantic coast, at Cahuita, many more US stations can be heard, including a number of non-50,000 watt stations including WIOD 610 in Miami, WFLA in Tampa/St. Pete, and a few others from the Florida Keys. Along the Pacific coast recently I heard one or two California stations around 2 a.m. Don`t remember which ones and I didn`t take notes. I do miss more English programming as shortwave possibilities are greatly diminished since 1990, when one could easily hear HCJB here every night as well as VOA. Now, it`s BBC with a poor signal, and occasionally RCI and Radio Netherlands. A few of the North American private stations are heard well, in particular WHRI via the Monitor station in South Carolina. I`m looking forward to being back in the US at Christmas to catch many of the clear channel stations with their variety of programming. Best wishes to all (Ken MacHarg, Apartado Postal 232-1011, San José, Costa Rica, kmacharg @lam.org Musings of the Members, NRC DX News Dec via DXLD) ** CUBA. Radio Havana Cuba in English: 0500-0700 NF 6000*, NF 6060, ex 9820 and 9655 \\ 9550, 11760 * co-ch 0600-0630 Radio Bulgaria in Turkish (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 7, via DXLD) ** CUBA. Subject: [NRC-AM] Radio Angulo on 740 ref: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/billqsl/sounds/00740-20041206-1758e-radio_angulo.mp3 I just heard Radio Angulo on 740 and got a good recording of them. Can someone tell me from where they are broadcasting and what are their calls? CMKO comes to mind. Also, where on the internet can I find a good up-to-date listing of Cuban stations? (Bill Harms, MD, Dec 6, NRC-AM via DXLD) From checking around last week for Barry McLarnon (who sent me a clip to listen to) I was unable to find any mention of this new transmitter at http://www.radioangulo.cu/ The site has a button to go to an English version if you wish to scout around. So there's no way to know the exact location, power or the calls yet. (Chuck Hutton, WA, ibid.) BTW, this Angulo is not like the word for angle, which is ángulo. Ron Schatz used to put an accent on the U, which is not really proper, to make this absolutely clear (gh, DXLD) Hi Glenn - 740, R Angulo, 0005 past 0140 UT Dec 7 (7:05 pm - 8:40 Dec 6 local), music mix in program "Nocturno", formal canned ID 0129: "Ésta es CMKO, Radio Angulo, transmitiendo .. Holguín, Cuba". Then a single rendition of the RHC IS played on big iron chimes. Into another music program introducing song by Carlos Varela. Good signal, seems high-power, although getting trouble from Toronto even on the S mini- bev. Tnx Bill Harms tip, who had already ID'ed it at 2300 UT. No idea what this is doing here. 73 (Jay Novello, Wake Forest NC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. New R. Martí outlet on 1570: see TURKS & CAICOS ** ECUADOR. AGDX Germany Special DX Card. 20 years DX editor Ulrich Schnelle via HCJB. Dec 25th, 0700 UT 9765 21455usb. 1630 UT 3955 Skelton-UK relay. Am Samstag, 25. Dezember kommt wieder eine der AGDX Sendungen via Radio HCJB. Diese Sendung wird das Jubilaeum 20 Jahre DX Editor Ulrich Schnelle sein. Fuer richtige Empfangsberichte hierzu wird es eine SonderQSL geben. Also: im deutschsprachigen Program von R HCJB am Samstag, 25. Dezember 2004! Viel Spass, Anton Vorsitzender der AGDX e.V. http://www.swl.net/agdx/ (Dr. Anton Kuchelmeister-D, A-DX Dec 5 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** EGYPT. Radio Cairo at 2128 UT (12/5) on 9760. Poor-Fair with the de rigueur muffled audio. M in Yoruba to pips and ID at BofH followed by greeting and what seemed to be a news headlines (mentions of "Iraq") in Arabic. Here, too, not even knowledge of Yoruba and Arabic would have rendered this mess worth listening to (Jim Clar, Rochester, NY, Drake R-8 with dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. A Rádio Nacional, que emite desde a localidade de Bata, foi sintonizada pelo colunista, em Porto Alegre (RS), em cinco de dezembro, às 0544, pela freqüência de 5004 kHz. Levava ao ar um programa religioso, em espanhol, falando em prosperidade e paz de espírito. Após a mensagem, houve um intervalo razoável antes de executarem uma música religiosa em ritmo africano. Em seguida, breve mensagem em idioma não identificado. A Guiné Equatorial é a única nação africana que fala o espanhol (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX Dec 5 via DXLD) ** FRANCE [and non]. Hello, George. Last weeks, we transmitted in DRM to Libya (Visit of President Chirac to this country) and Saudi Arabia so not really in your direction. In February, we expect to transmit to Mexico city from Montsinery; more interesting for you, and also to Brazil. Best regards (Jacques Gruson, TDF, Dec 6, via George Poppin, DXLD) ** GERMANY. Some DTK T-systems changes, both in German: 1400-1515 Sunday on 5925 JUL 100 kW / non-dir to WeEu R. Traumland 1800-1900 Daily NF 3955 JUL 100 kW / non-dir to WeEu WYFR ex 3985 (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 7, via DXLD) ** GERMANY [non]. Frequency changes for Deutsche Welle from Nov. 25: 2300-2350 Chinese NF 5995 DHA 250 kW / 065 deg, ex 6090 2300-2400 English NF 6070 TRM 250 kW / 075 deg, ex 7250 (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 7, via DXLD) ** GERMANY [non]. The latest schedule from Deutsche Welle in Germany shows a very interesting crossover involving shortwave transmitters at three different locations. The single frequency in use is 6100 kHz and the transmitter locations are Antigua in the Caribbean, Sackville in Canada, and Bonaire in the Caribbean. At 0200 UT, Antigua leaves the air and Sackville takes over. At 0400, Sackville leaves the air and Bonaire takes over. At 0500, Bonaire leaves the air and Antigua comes on again, all on the same channel, 6100 kHz. Monitoring observations in Indianapolis indicate a seamless cross over on each occasion, without heterodyne or echo or change in program level. Reception conditions alone give no indication of the crossover of the transmitters at the three different locations (Adrian Michael Peterson, AWR Wavescan Dec 19 via John Norfolk, DXLD) ** GERMANY. 6045, Hamburger Lokalradio (via DTK), hrd at *1000 Dec 4, pretty fair strength, better than when heard Nov 20, but bothered by persistent "pecking and clicking" QRM, seemingly spillover from 6030 jamming. Opens with foghorn, GM ID with frequency, mention of DTK and some numbers, probably contact info. They definitely mentioned "Kulturzentrum Lola," which is part of the address on the GM portion of their website http://www.hhlr.de/ Then into what seemed like a comedy drama--animated voices, operatic singing. ID again at 1007, more drama. The strength continued to hold up fairly well, but the QRM got to me around 1015 (Jerry Berg, MA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) But live only on FM. The shortwave transmission is sent on CD via snail-mail to Jülich; the programme for WRN distribution is transferred to London via FTP as 64 kbps MP3. (Bitrate specified by WRN I was told after commenting that 64 kbps are hardly studio quality.) (Kai Ludwig, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. Jülich-702 and Nordkirchen-855 active Subject: [A-DX] Truck-Radio in NRW auf MW aktiv! Hallo Liste, bin gerade von der Arbeit zurück und drehe kurz über den MW-Bereich und (welch Überraschung...) höre einen neuen "Ortssender". Truck-Radio mit wunderbarer amerikanischer Country-Musik auf 855 kHz und Bombensignal S9+30dB. Auf 702 kHz sehr schwach auch aus Jülich zu hören. Gruß Rick --- QTH: Münster RX: Yaesu FRG-100 / Aktivantenne (Eigenbau) (A-DX via Kai Ludwig, DXLD) Viz.: Transmissions of Truckradio via Jülich on 702 and Nordkirchen on 855 have started, apparently today, see the enclosed message. Website of this station: http://www.truckradio.de Both transmitters have a power of 5 kW. 855 originates from the site otherwise transmitting DLF on 549 with 100 kW, the 702 transmitter is situated at the well-known shortwave station. Originally both frequencies were allocated to VIVA-Radio, a joint- venture of VIVA TV and Radio NRW, the station producing network programming for the (so-called) local stations in Nordrhein-Westfalen. However, VIVA-Radio never saw the light of the day; finally the licence has been returned, the frequencies were put on tender again and Truckradio got them. And meanwhile VIVA has been swallowed by its arch rival Viacom (the operator of MTV) who will nominally keep the VIVA brand but is in fact winding up the VIVA operations at Cologne. Hardly any original programming will remain; instead the VIVA programs will become (in part they are already anyway) crap recyclers like MTV Central (the Germany version). (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also DRM below ** GREECE. V. of Greece, 18840, Oct 20 1233 YL in Greek, harmonic of 9420, SIO 131 (David Gascoyne, Staplehurst, Kent, BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) [non] VOG`s move from 11750 to 9775 via Delano at 1200-1500 is now expected to take place on Sat Dec 10 (via John Babbis, MD, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUATEMALA. 3330, R. Cultural was briefly on the air! 2250 with music, ID as R. Cultural FM at 2302 and religious programming in Spanish. Off suddenly at 2355. No sign of listed \\ 5955 (Hans Johnson-FL-USA, Cumbre Nov 28 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** HONDURAS. 3340, HRMI, definitely them, mentioning MW frequency 1480 at 0355 Dec 1, "R. Misiones International" at 0400, then the audio dropped way down, almost inaudible, but station still on (Jerry Berg, MA, DXplorer via DXLD) Presumed. 0334 Dec 2 with religious songs. Fair (Gerry Dexter, WI, ibid.) ** INDIA. Frequency change for All India Radio in Russian: 1615-1715 NF 9875*, ex traditional 15140 \\ 11620; * strong co-ch on Friday RTI English till 1700 and NHK English from 1700, both in DRM (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 7, via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. Several listeners, including myself, heard Quirks & Quarks from CBC this week greeting listeners via Sirius Satellite Radio --- but CBC isnt` supposed to be on there yet (gh) Mystery solved: The PRI World stream on Sirius now carries some CBC programming, including Q & Q on Sunday morning. See the entire schedule here: Shortcut to: http://www.pri.org/PublicSite/listeners/sirius_schedule.html In addition, it lists "Le Show" several times on the Sunday schedule, which is a thrill for me since I find that WBCQ doesn't propagate very well to my location after dark, so I often miss "Le Show" on the Sunday night transmission from Maine (Scott Walker, New Cumberland PA, swprograms via DXLD) This is brand new, Scott. I checked the schedule not more than a couple of three weeks ago and As It Happens was the sole CBC representative on the PRI stream. Interesting that they would add so much CBC programming (Quirks, Sunday Edition, Ideas as well as As It Happens) with Radio One due to be added to the Sirius line-up in the near term. Happy about it though. Who knows when the CRTC will get around to ruling on those applications. DNTO is also on there, as is R. Netherlands' "Euroquest" (John Figliozzi, ibid.) ** IRAN. 6120, Voice of Justice, 0205-0230* Dec 1, English program to North America is now back on the air from *0130. A lot of coverage of Iraq with feature program, "Iraq Occupation Crisis." Reminiscent of the good old days of shortwave broadcasting. Many IDs. Good signal and // 9580 was also quite good (Rich D`Angelo, PA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** IRAN. Frequency changes for VOIROI/IRIB: 1300-1327 Japanese NF 9640, ex 9770 1430-1527 Hindi NF 9875, ex 9865 1730-1827 German NF 6165, ex 6110 1730-1827 German NF 9845, ex 9500 2100-2127 Japanese NF 6145, ex 6125 (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 7, via DXLD) ** IRAN. At 1930 EST [Dec 6 = 0030 UT Dec 7] I'm tuning around looking for any other hets and I find one on 1500. Tuning up to 1503 I hear first a man singing (chanting is more like it), then music with a stringed instrument (sitar or mandolin type of instrument). I do a search for "IRIB streaming audio" and up comes a live stream of IRIB Radio Channel One, and the audio parallels what I'm hearing. So what I have now is IRIB1, Bushehr, Iran with 100 kW! New! There's some slop from WTOP but not excessive (Mike Bugaj, Enfield, CT, WTFDA-AM via DXLD) See KUWAIT ** IRAN [non]. V. of the Party of the Communists in Iran on v3880, v4380, v6425 at 0426 UT s-on with IS of "Nutrocker" by Tchaikovsky (x0626-0728), "International" by choir in Ru and ID in Persian (Nov 26). (Rumen Pankov-BUL, BC-DX Dec 4 via DXLD) ** ISRAEL [non]. Overcomer Ministry to use 1170 kHz. Bro Stair writes, ``We are looking to start transmissions to Israel on AM radio! It is a high power channel with 1 million watts`` (via Dave Kenny, Nov 17, BDXC-UK via DXLD) There is no such channel in Israel, but it`s hard to imagine this being anything other than the 1200 kW transmitter in Tblisskaya, Russia, which already has a heavy schedule of Arabic and other ME languages until 1900, despite R. Farda, 24h from UAE on same. But why would he think this would only serve Israel? Just what they need (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JAMAICA. RJR Jamaica in again --- RJR Jamaica is in with fair to good signals well over a very weak WLW [700] in Memphis tonight. I never heard them until November of this year, and all of a sudden, they are becoming fairly common. I wonder if they've done something to their antenna pattern or power? (Adam Myrow, TN, Dec 6, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** JAPAN [non]. Radio Japan NHK in Arabic effective Dec. 1: 1200-1215 NF 17560 RMP 500 kW / 105 deg to ME, ex 1100-1115 on 17665 via EKA (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 7, via DXLD) ** JORDAN. 11690, Radio Jordan Amman, English news by M to 1504 ending with what sounded like a mention of 96.3 FM. Jingle, and Irish folk- Dance music bridge, then live W in English with greeting to the 2nd half of the program, Web site, and promo/sked for the program. Into Dance music. 1723 still going with Pop music. 1524 nice canned ID by M "Don't you dare touch that dial. Its 96.3 FM with R. Jordan". Played another Pop song to 1729, started another, but then cut off and a Blues song was played. Still going at 1735 UT when I tuned out. Good signal with RTTY QRM. R-388 does a wonderful job of eliminating the RTTY with its crystal phasing (John Wilkins-CO-USA, Cumbre Nov 28 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH. 6285v, Voice of Korea: Heard in English at 1025 Dec 1, talk, big production chorals, list of times and frequencies at 1054, programming stopped at 1056 but carrier remained. During this time the frequency started at 6284.9 and drifted down to 6284.77, then started drifting back up. At 1057 the carrier suddenly moved up to 6284.97 and at 1100 programming opened with IS repeated, NA and into French. Fair at best (Jerry Berg, MA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) 15180, Voice of Korea, verified with a full-data mountain scene card from an illegible V/S in 70 days. Package included a form letter mentioning "Radio Pyongyang Voice of Korea," "Radio Pyongyang" pennant, "VOK" pin, report form, and a copy of "The Pyongyang Times." This is the first time I have been successful mailing a report from the USA direct to Pyongyang. Other successful attempts have been through an intermediary (Arthur Ward) in England (Rich D'Angelo-PA- USA, DXplorer Dec 5 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** KURDISTAN. IRAQUE - 6995 - Rádio "Patriotische Union Kurdistans", Sulaimania - IRAQ , Recebido carta QSL. 42 dias. V/S: Ahmad Berwari. QTH: Postfach = 210231, Berlim 10502, Alemanha. Forte 73!!! (Murilo Rodrigues, Dec 7, radioescutas via DXLD) You have now been in contact with ``terrorists`` (gh, DXLD) ** KUWAIT. R. Sawa, 1548, 1915 EST [Dec 6 = 0015 UT Dec 7]. Just when I thought AM conditions were worse than lousy, I tune to 1548 and find a humungous signal from R. Sawa, Kuwait on 1548. I caught two R. Sawa IDs, American music, I'll be There Waiting for You, which sounds like Foreigner or Richard Marx (you tell me), news with some English clips (Pres. Bush maybe). It's 1915 EST and the signal is WAY over S9 and the funny thing is that the Saudi on 1521 is not there at all. Never heard them like this! Amazing! Kenwood R2000 ~50ft longwire (Mike Bugaj, Enfield, CT, WTFDA-AM via DXLD) Next: IRAN Conditions are much changed from last night, with signals in general far weaker tonight. However, at 1725 EST I stumbled on an amazing local-like signal from R. Sawa Kuwait on 1548 - I couldn't believe my ears! Armchair copy without even nulling any 1550 domestics. Quickly checking around, I found a monster het on 1503 from presumed Iran, but little or no audio. Also a good het from presumed Kuwait on 1593, but again little audio. Lots of other hets noted, including 1169, but nothing else coming close to those three. They've all pretty much faded out now (2020). So, expect the unexpected tonight! (Barry McLarnon VE3JF Ottawa, ON, Dec 6, NRC-AM via DXLD) Like Barry I noted some activity on the high end of the band this evening, earlier after 1700 EST and later around 2000 EST mainly in the 1500's. In the 1700 period I noted Kuwait-1548, Saudi-1521, 1512 [probably Saudi although it may have been Belgium but not enough audio to ID], Djibouti-1431 and Vatican-1530 [woman in Italian and religious music]. Around 2000 EST I had a 1548 station that did not sound a bit like Radio Sawa, with slow, EZL type music. I think Moldavia but it has now faded. And around the same time an orchestra with vocals on 1503 which was most likely Iran but this time there was no 1169 het. Most of the rest of the band is noisy and rather poor (Ben Dangerfield, Wallingford, Pa. [SE cor Pa], ibid.) ** LATVIA. Was it a radio WRMS in German today on 9290 kHz via Latvia around 1420 gmt? Very good music (Ruby Tuesday, Purple Haze etc.) 73, (Stefano Valianti, Italy, Dec 5, BDXC-UK via DXLD) That was "Stoer-Sender" which came on after Europa Radio International had closed around 1400. Stoer-Sender have a web site at http://www.rrms.de or email info @ rrms.de 73s (Dave Kenny, ibid.) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. BVN and RNW now available 24h a day across North America We're pleased to announce that, from today, our Dutch-language TV service BVN-TV, as well as the three audio streams of Radio Netherlands, are available throughout North America free-to-air 24 hours a day via the Intelsat Americas 5 satellite. This had been planned to come into effect on 1 Jan 2005, but has been brought forward due to the funeral of HRH Prince Bernhard which takes place on Saturday. Anyone with a suitable satellite dish and receiver in the US, Canada and Mexico can now watch BVN-TV and listen to Radio Netherlands round the clock. Full technical details of the transmission and a map showing the recommended dish size is available on this page: http://www.bvn.nl/html/n_amerika.html The 24-hour English stream is, as on the Internet, labelled RNW2. # posted by Andy @ 16:52 UT Dec 7 (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** NEW ZEALAND. On the current RNZI Mailbox (see also AUSTRALIA) Adrian Sainsbury says they will be adding windows media live stream, because of complaints about Real Player downloads, altho free, keeping trying to sell you something. And WM is multi bitrate, automatically adjustable to connexion speed. Plans to do away with RA feed completely later both for streaming and ondemand programmmes (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. Heard the V. of Nigeria this afternoon (12/5) at 2120 UT on 9690 in English. I believe that this is from Ikorodu; not sure that they are scheduled in EG at this time, but there they were anyhow. Signals were quite good but the modulation and audio were horrible. Program consisted of a male announcer with news --- first a report (barely usable) including taped comments from a government official re democratizing various services in Nigeria (??) with multiple mentions of "Lagos." This was followed by a sports report with talk re game between a Nigerian team and a German national side. Can't for the life of me figure out the purpose of broadcasting a signal that, for all intents and purposes, is unlistenable!!! Check out some of my recently published reviews and articles at: http://hometown.aol.com/jcc55883/myhomepage/index.html [mystery, crime fiction] (Jim Clar, Rochester, NY, Drake R-8 with dipole, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. After a month or more of silence, 91.1 in Enid is back on the air, first noted Dec 7, tho could have been on a day or two earlier before I noticed. No longer KBVV, the church-based station which sold lots of advertising despite its non-commercial license. A couple of ``improvements,`` anyway --- Bruce Elving will be glad to know that it`s now stereo as befits a station with a music format. Gospel rock, constant mindless ``praise music``, (amounting to brain- washing gullible young people) but they claim to be ``non-commercial`` and indeed no ads have been heard in the brief snatches I can stomach listening to for the cause of covering local media changes. It`s only 410 watts, but a mile away from me with a formidable local signal. 100000watts.com reported Dec 3 that KBVV had changed calls to KKRD, but you`d never know what the calls are from listening at hourtop, such as 0600 and again at 1600 UT Dec 7. The new owners are off to a great start, violating a cardinal FCC rule about identification. No local IDs, just this from the network, as it`s no doubt a 100% satellite relay: ``Across the country and around the world, on airone.com this is the Air One Radio Network. The positive alternative, Air One`` At 1608 UT they did mention that Air One in Monterey CA is on 96.3 FM, but that`s still no legal ID. ``News``, with a blatant Christian slant appears at :15 and :45 past the hour (unless you`re listening in Nepal). Now what`s the website, really? If you go to http://airone.com you get the San José Flea Market! Don`t ask me why. If you go to http://www.airone.com you get boom and hydraulic lifts, also in San José CA! Here it is: http://www.air1.com Guess what: their station list at http://www.air1.com/music/stations/ does not yet include Enid, the only OK station being 89.1 in Tulsa, KWRI, and many of the others do not include a callsign! Every radio station on the air has a callsign; many of them may be satellators, but they too have callsigns. There are stations in 26 states listed, tho many of them have only one. By far the most, 18, in California, whence I suspect this originate: also San José and somehow connected with the flea market and the hydraulic lifts?? Air One is part of EMF Broadcasting, which has a much larger group of `K-LOVE` stations: http://www.emfbroadcasting.com/stationlist.aspx Address for this is not San José, but Rocklin, CA, which is just NE of Sacramento on I-80. ``K-LOVE Radio & Air 1 Radio are a part of the EMF Broadcasting family. With radio stations across America, EMF is making an impact in listener's lives. K-LOVE Radio features a great music mix just right for families with artists like Third Day, Mercy Me & Michael W. Smith! Air 1 Radio features artists like Jeremy Camp, Skillet & Big Dismal and is reaching young adults 24 hours a day. Find one of our stations near you!`` (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. KOSU 91.7 Stillwater has been announcing lately that it will soon be heard in four states --- OK, AR, MO and KS. This must be referring to KGND 107.5 Ketchum near Tulsa which KOSU is acquiring as a relay, as first reported here in 4-138 --- well, just slivers of the other three states under normal conditions (Glenn Hauser, Enid, Dec 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PORTUGAL. RDPi. They were airing another special/extra broadcast yesterday, and I checked all QRGs; 15540 to NoAM was radiating spurs on 15708 & 15372, but that continued until the end of the broadcast despite having faxed a note on that (Carlos Gonçalves-POR, BC-DX Dec 4 via DXLD) When? See also UNIDENTIFIED 9755 below ** ROMANIA. Updated schedule of Radio Romania International (# Saftitza 50 kW): ARABIC 0730-0756 15145 15280 17720 17755 1500-1556 9655 15255 AROMANIAN 1600-1626 6175# 1800-1826 7130# co-channel English service !!!!! 2000-2026 6130# CHINESE 0500-0526 15160 17735 1400-1426 9635 11885 ENGLISH 0100-0156 6140 9510 9615 11740 0400-0456 6125 9515 11870 15250 0630-0656 9565 11710 1300-1356 15105 17745 1800-1856 5965 7130 co-ch Aromanian sce till 1826!!! 2130-2156 6015 6055 7145 9540 2300-2356 6135 6180 7105 9610 FRENCH 0200-0256 6130 9615 0600-0626 7160 7180 9565 9650 1100-1156 15260 15315 17790 17845 1700-1756 6110 7135 2100-2126 6055 7120 GERMAN 0700-0726 7160 7275 9635 9655 new time, ex 0630- 1200-1256 9610 9690 11730 11940 1900-1956 6140 7140 ITALIAN 1630-1656 7105# 1830-1856 6110# 2030-2056 6130# ROMANIAN 0800-0856 15370 15430 17735 17810 Sun 0900-0956 15380 15480 17745 17775 Sun 1000-1056 15260 15380 17735 17825 Sun 1300-1356 15170 17825 new time, ex 1200-1256 1500-1556 11740 15150 new time, ex 1400-1456 1700-1756 6055 7220 1800-1856 6040 7140 1900-1956 6040 7125 new time, ex 1600-1656 RUSSIAN 0530-0556 6055 7135 1430-1456 7120 9520 1600-1656 6125 7135 SERBIAN 1530-1556 7105# 1730-1756 6135# 1930-1956 6105# SPANISH 0000-0056 9525 9745 11935 11960 0300-0356 9545 9615 11870 11895 2000-2056 7140 9570 2200-2256 9575 11940 UKRAINIAN 1500-1526 6145# 1700-1726 6135# 1900-1926 6175# (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 7, via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. 4625 kHz, from Numbers & Oddities #89: From a usually well informed source, I received interesting info about UVB-76 (not UZB-76) a.k.a. "The Buzzer". The exact location is 40 km North-West of Moscow, half-way between Zelenograd and Solnechnogorsk. The facility is being operated by the army. It is a communications hub of the General Staff of the army (Uzel Svyazi Generalnogo Shtaba Armii). Earlier notes that state that this station belongs to the Strategic Missile Troops are said to be incorrect. The transmitter is a 15 kW "Molniya". The station is using a horizontal multi-wire dipole "VGDSh". The antenna farm is near the village of Lozhki. According to my contact this channel is part of a network that transmits coded orders to military units, civil defence objects and recruitment centers ("Voyenkomaty"). The recruitment centers reportedly monitor UVB-76 around the clock (Christian Zietz-D, A-DX Dec 5 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. See ISRAEL [non] ** SRI LANKA. If you want to hear SLBC on 9770 in the 1200-1500 UT period, in NAm, or anything on 9775 or 9780, better try now, as Greece via Delano plans to move to 9775 from 11750 as of Sat Dec 10 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA [non]. UZBEKISTAN. Frequency change for IBC Tamil Service in Tamil: 0000-0100 NF 7450 TAC 100 kW / 165 deg, ex 7460 (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 7, via DXLD) ** SWEDEN. SCDX/MediaScan has again been missing for months, with its R. Sweden program previews, but here`s a likely one: Dec 10, Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, besides Santa Lucia Day, Dec 13, as Samantha Bee reminds us on The Daily[non] Show, Comedy Central (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWITZERLAND. Dear friends, Last night on 14 MHz, I had an interesting 2 way Amateur Radio contact with HE1RSI station operating from Swiss Radio Transmitter site in Sottens. The operator was OM Pastal and he told that he was using one of the big antennas used earlier by Swiss Radio and that it will be dismantled soon. Its pictures are available in http://www.hb9mm.com 73 (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, National Institute of Amateur Radio, Raj Bhavan Road, Hyderabad 500082, India, Dec 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) About to destroy it now if not already (gh, Dec 7, DXLD) ** TIBET [non]. UZBEKISTAN: New schedule for Voice of Tibet in Tibetan/Chinese via TAC 100 kW / 131 deg: 1100-1148 on 17515 or 17520 or 17525 + Chinese Mx Jammer new txion 1212-1300 on 17525 or 17545 or 17560 + Chinese Mx Jammer 1302-1350 on 15535 or 15525 or 15540 + Chinese Mx Jammer 1430-1518 on 7480 or 7505 or 7520 + Chinese Mx Jammer 1520-1608 on 7480 or 7505 or 7520 + Chinese Mx Jammer - cancelled (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 7, via DXLD) ** TURKS & CAICOS. New Radio Martí Outlet --- probably won't be on the air until at least late spring next year but Radio Martí will be simulcast on the former Atlantic Beacon frequency 1570. The IFRB has a two tower array registered with the lobe at 240 degrees. It's believed RVC/530 still holds the license for 1570 so this will be a year to year lease with the towers located on the north end of South Caicos at the former US Coast Guard base. http://www.fbodaily.com/archive/2004/10-October/10-Oct-2004/FBO-00691699.htm (DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. BBC ANNOUNCES COST-CUTTING DRIVE; UNIONS THREATEN STRIKES London (AP) The British Broadcasting Corporation has announced a major cost-cutting move, eliminating about 29-hundred jobs or more than a- tenth of its work force. The announcement touched off a strike threat by unions representing B-B-C workers. The B-B-C announcement says 25-hundred jobs will be cut in human resources, finance, marketing, training, legal services and other departments that do not make programs. Another 400 posts will be cut in the corporation's factual and learning departments. Company officials also announced that some 18-hundred workers, including staff of the B-B-C's 24-hour radio news channel, will be moved to a new regional center in Manchester within five years. The corporation says its goal is to double profits for B-B-C worldwide, the company's commercial arm, and cutting costs by 15 percent in broadcast, new media and news divisions. (Copyright 2004 by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.) APNP 12-07-04 0720CST (via Ed Mayberry, TX, swprograms via DXLD) O, that`s not so bad compared to previous speculation (gh, DXLD) ** U K. BBC MAKES GBP 320 MILLION CUTS Owen Gibson and Matt Wells Tuesday December 7, 2004 The Guardian http://media.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5079914-112198,00.html The BBC's director general, Mark Thompson, will today unveil a radical blueprint for the future of the corporation, making savage cuts designed to save #320m and safeguard the licence fee in the digital age. The Guardian has learned that Mr Thompson will announce plans to cut the BBC's army of support staff in half, and will promise to move its children's channels, sports department and Radio 5 Live to Manchester. Non-programme-makers will be hardest hit, with 2,500 redundancies across finance, human resources, policy, legal, strategy, marketing, PR and related back-office functions. Over the next three years, up to 6,000 jobs could go. Mr Thompson will this morning tell staff that the BBC is entering a new phase, during which it must cut in-house costs by around #320m and be more collaborative in its dealings with independent producers and commercial rivals. Last night he told a "subdued" meeting of 300 senior managers that the swingeing cuts were vital if the corporation is to secure a favourable licence fee settlement in 2006, when its royal charter is up for renewal. During the meeting, he told executives that #150m worth of cuts had already been identified to bring the BBC's overdraft down to zero. But he argued that further savings would have to be made in the next three years if the BBC was to prove to the government that it deserved a 10-year deal to guarantee annual above-inflation rises in the licence fee. Programming departments will not be immune from the cuts, with budget reductions averaging 15% across the board. BBC Factual and Learning, the department responsible for hits such as the Blue Planet and Walking With Dinosaurs, will be among the hardest hit, with 400 job losses. News and current affairs will also be forced to make cuts, but not until March. Today, Mr Thompson will also unveil a new programme strategy for the BBC, promising to abandon makeover and reality shows in favour of news, comedy, family entertainment and drama. Mr Thompson, who instigated a series of internal reviews on his appointment in May, will promise to redirect hundreds of millions of pounds to boost key current affairs programmes such as Newsnight and Panorama. He is expected to announce plans to sell some of the corporation's commercial interests, and will demand that its commercial division doubles its profits to #200m. Staff face an agonising wait over Christmas and many, including senior managers, will find it hard to accept such cuts are necessary. There is a school of thought that Mr Thompson is going too far in his efforts to convince the government the corporation is slimming down to justify an above-inflation licence fee settlement. But Mr Thompson, who argued as chief executive of Channel 4 that the BBC was wallowing in a "jacuzzi of cash", believes the corporation has become too large and cannot justify an increase in cash if it does not cut costs first (via Day Say, DXLD) Mainly about TV? Not BBCWS (gh) BBC STAFF WAIT TO HEAR WHERE JOBS AXE WILL FALL Owen Gibson, media correspondent Tuesday December 7, 2004 The Guardian http://media.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5079785-112198,00.html BBC staff face an anxious time over Christmas waiting to find out if their jobs are to be cut as part of a cull to be announced today by the director general, Mark Thompson. Although the BBC's governors have approved the broad outline of the plans, it is understood that they are concerned about Mr Thompson's costings and have ordered more work to be done on them. That means it will be several months before managers are able to identify precisely which jobs will be lost. Mr Thompson has also encountered a rearguard action by senior managers, including the director of television, Jana Bennett, which will make the plan to move some staff from London to Manchester appear less radical than was expected. The managers are concerned that the creative heart of the BBC in London may be seriously damaged by the changes. The result of their opposition is that none of the four main channels will be moved north; instead, the two children's channels, sport and part of the drama department will be be relocated. Radio 5 Live will also be moved. In all, 1,500 posts are expected to transfer to Manchester over the next five years. Late into yesterday evening Mr Thompson was briefing senior staff about the plans, which are expected to result in the loss of between 5,000 and 6,000 of the corporation's 27,600 jobs. The estimated 6,000 who work in the finance, human resources, policy, legal, strategy, marketing, communications and related back office areas will be hardest hit - 2,500 of them losing their jobs. Programming divisions are to be told to cut their spending by an average of 15%. Managers have until February to implement the cuts. The broadcasting union Bectu and the National Union of Journalists are promising to ballot for strike action if, as expected, there are compulsory redundancies or staff are forced to relocate. Today's announcement is the most important plank in Mr Thompson's campaign to demonstrate to the government that the BBC is cutting its costs and investing licence money onscreen in the run-up to the renewal of its royal charter in 2006. It is the culmination of four internal reviews instigated by Mr Thompson on his arrival in May. Some senior managers have questioned his plans in private, and wonder whether he is going too far in his effort to persuade the government of his cost-cutting credentials. Many of the job losses will stem from his proposal to reduce from 75% to 50% the guarantee to use in-house productions. Independent producers will be given 25% and the rest will be up for grabs. BBC Broadcast, a commercial division employing 1,000 people which provides graphics and subtitling, is expected to be sold, and joint venture partners will be sought for BBC Resources. Mr Thompson will expand on his plans to boost distribution by new means, announcing the introduction of the BBC's interactive Media Player, which will let internet users download programmes broadcast in the past seven days. The board of governors, chaired by Michael Grade, is understood to have queried some of the plans at a meeting last week, leading the unions to fear that today's announcement will be less clear-cut than they had hoped. Mr Thompson will justify today's cuts by arguing that they will allow more cash to be ploughed back into core public service areas, including news and current affairs, comedy and flagship drama. He is keen to boost the public service image of the BBC after the criticism of his predecessor Greg Dyke for being too commercial and competitive (via Dan Say, DXLD) ** U K. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4073571.stm BBC director general Mark Thompson has announced savings of £320m a year and thousands of job losses as part of a "transformation" of the corporation. About 2,900 jobs are expected to go, mainly from administration departments. Mr Thompson said the savings were needed so that more of the licence fee can be put into programmes. Almost 2,000 workers are expected to move from London to Manchester by 2008, to make the corporation more reflective of UK audiences. The departments hardest hit by the cutbacks are professional services, including human resources, training, finances and legal services, although programme legal advice is to remain as it is. With a target of savings of £57m, they are expected to lose about 47% of the 6,500-strong workforce over the next three years. Mr Thompson said that the job losses would be through redundancies and outsourcing of posts over the next three years. Another 400 jobs are set to be cut at the corporation's factual and learning departments. The BBC currently employs about 27,000 people. Mr Thompson told staff that the BBC should "spend less on process and more on content". The cuts will include a 15% reduction in costs across all content departments. The targets are tough because much of the BBC is pretty lean Mr Thompson also announced a major new BBC media centre in Manchester, describing it as "reconnecting with communities across the UK", but he added it could take up to five years to complete. "It will change our tone of voice and open our doors to new talent and perspectives," he said. The director general told staff the focus of the BBC must be excellent programmes and content. VALUE FOR MONEY SAVINGS Professional services and support - £68m Better procurement - £93m 15% savings in news, radio and music, TV, new media, nations and regions - £79m 15% costs of commissioned TV programmes - £80m Total savings per year after three years - £320m The director general highlighted news and current affairs, comedy, drama, interactivity and music as programming priorities for the BBC. The announcements come as the BBC seeks to renew its charter in 2007. The charter sets out the BBC's role, structure and funding. Mr Thompson has said the licence fee will only survive as the main method of funding the BBC if the public is convinced that the corporation is spending money wisely. All key service budgets will go up The director general delivered to staff the conclusions of four reviews - which included value for money and programme production - that have taken place at the BBC over the last few months. Union leaders warned they would "ballot for industrial action" if any of the redundancies are compulsory. WHO IS MOVING TO MANCHESTER? Children's TV and radio BBC Sport BBC Radio 5 Live New media headquarters Research and development Formal learning Estimated number of staff moving: 1,800 They are concerned that there could be several hundred compulsory job cuts but have pledged to fight any moves to force workers to leave the corporation or relocate against their will. Gerry Morrissey, assistant general secretary of the broadcasting workers' union Bectu, said he hoped the BBC would put more money into production, technical skills and news as part of its review. Mr Morrissey added it was "not a very happy Christmas" for staff who were facing redundancies or having their jobs relocated or outsourced. Mr Thompson was appointed as director general of the BBC in March, succeeding Greg Dyke who resigned in the wake of the Hutton Report. His time in charge has been marked with a period of change as the corporation works towards securing its future in the digital age. On the day he took charge at the BBC, he said: "We're going to have to change the BBC more rapidly and radically over the next three to five years than at any previous point in its history." (BBC news via Andy Cadier, BDXC-UK; and via Ricky Leong, swprograms, via DXLD) ** U K. BBCWS Holiday programmes --- The BBC is no stranger to holiday programming; the following schedule is pretty much already in place: Thursdays 1532 and 2232, repeated Fridays 0232 [Americas stream times only here], beginning December 9th: The Word features three special editions where you`ll hear a selection of favorite poems requested by listeners (Rich Cuff, Dec NASWA Journal via DXLD) more to come later ** U S A. No final do ano, mais um experiente jornalista que atuou em várias emissoras internacionais ``pendura as chuteiras``. Trata-se de Ricardo André, brasileiro que atua na Redação em Português Para a África da Voz da América, de acordo com informação apurada por Leônidas dos Santos Nascimento, de São João Evangelista (MG). Ricardo André trabalhou na antiga RSA – A Voz da África do Sul e principalmente na Voz da América, onde foi um grande incentivador do dexismo e das ondas curtas. No início dos anos 80, quando a estação ainda emitia especialmente para o público brasileiro, apresentava o programa Onda Curta. Também teve passagem pela Rádio Bandeirantes, de São Paulo (SP). (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX Dec 5 via DXLD) ** U S A. The Restoration folks sure haven`t restored KVOH`s transmitter they bought this year, from putting out horrible spurs at plus and minus multiples of 147 kHz from 17775. First noted Dec 7 at 2222 on 17922, 20 over 9 carrier which dipped at modulation peaks, as two preachers were talking; between words, the carrier level went back up. Naturally, I then checked minus 147 from 17775, and on 17628 there was a spur of matching strength. Then checked at double 147 above and below, on 18069 and 17481, and found another matching pair, but much weaker. Triple 147 above and below, could barely detect yet another pair, on 17334 and 18216. The fundamental 17775 was extremely strong at this time; probably as before, someone close to the transmitter could hear them all the time. At least seven frequencies for the price of one! But I`d sure hate to be trying to make air to ground emergency contact around 17927 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Re Brian Alexander`s log: Thank you for confirming WMLK on odd channel. I have them as follows. November 30th 2048, 9265.2 AM, WMLK Bethel PA, Religious Talk by Male in English yet not Elder Meyer. Frequent mentions of Yahweh with Scripture references from Psalms and Isaiah. Reception better on lower sideband. Eternal damnation of Sodom and Gomorrah. Unusual topic for World AIDS Day. ID 2059 then carrier off 2100. Definitely under-modulated as hard to follow speech but carrier was OK. SINPO 25212. Receiver Icom R70 to 21 feet of wire slung along curtain rail (Robin L. Harwood VK7RH, Norwood Tasmania 7250, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WBCQ Schedule Update, December 6, 2004 Frankie V is gone, according to Jen at WBCQ, so there is an open schedule half-hour slot at 7:30 PM ET Saturdays on 7415 available. 7415 fired up at 5 PM ET on Sunday, December 4, and presented a new music and variety show that IDed as Radio Legion at the close of the broadcast: "Thank you for tuning the inaugural broadcast of Radio Legion. Radio Legion is a production of Toothless Old Crone Studios. 'Til next time, Radio Legion will return." Planet World News has been absent at its previously scheduled times lately (i.e. 2:45 to 3 PM ET weekdays on 7415//9330//17495). Michael Ketter starts out the his news/talk show World Microscope with a reading of the news in the Planet World News style, so it appears that PWN has been absorbed into World Microscope. I will wait to confirm this with Michael before removing the entry from the schedule (Larry Will, the WBCQ Program Guide via dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A. One of the best liberal talk-shows, altho the opinions expressed by the hosts are rather predictably left-wing rote, Ring of Fire with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Mike Papantonio on Air America, Sat repeated Sun at 2307-2400 UT, finally has an audio archive, not immediately of the latest show, but all of them since May by segments! http://www.ringoffireradio.com/shows.asp (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Another AIR AMERICA RADIO is coming on line, according to the CINCINNATI ENQUIRER's JOHN KIESEWETTER, who reports that CLEAR CHANNEL will drop the Oldies from WSAI-A/CINCINNATI [1530] and will pick up the liberal talk network's programming by year's end (allaccess.com via Brock Whaley, DXLD) Viz.: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041205/ENT/412050337/1091/ENT&template=printpicart Sunday, December 5, 2004 Local media By John Kiesewetter, Enquirer staff writer AIR AMERICA COMING TO WSAI Dusty Rhodes says he'll soon be dumped for Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo. The Hamilton County auditor, who moonlights as morning DJ on WSAI-AM (1530), says Clear Channel will drop the oldies music to put on the liberal Air America talk lineup by year's end. Rhodes, who helped bring the Beatles to Cincinnati Gardens as a WSAI disc jockey in 1964, anchors the '50s and '60s format that replaced Nick Clooney and big band music two years ago. The "Real Oldies" lineup has included local rock veterans Jack Stahl, Marty Thompson and Dan Allen. Forty stations carry the Air America shows with Franken, Garofalo, rapper Chuck D., Lizz Winstead, Katherine Lanpher and Mike Malloy. Adding 50,000-watt WSAI-AM pains Rhodes. "As a Democrat elected in this county, I don't want my party to be seen as the Al Franken party," says Rhodes, who turns 65 Monday (Cincinnati Enquirer via DXLD) Maybe WSAI will then drop IBOC? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I wonder if this means there's hope that they will turn off that d*** IBOC at night that wipes out WWKB and WLAC here in PA (René F. Tetro, Chief Engineer, WNTP - 990 kHz / WFIL - 560 kHz, 117 Ridge Pike, Lafayette Hill, PA 19444-1901, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. It`s been a while since I tried to listen to ThePublicRadioStation.Com, the web-only supplementary service from WAMC Albany, Northeast Public Radio, for programs like The Brazilian Hour. But now it appears to be a pastthing, as going to http://www.thepublicradiostation.com one reaches instead WATCH THIS SPACE! Coming soon.....WAMC Arts Radio....a 24/7 web stream featuring all-star performances from the WAMC Performing Arts Center. Check back soon for live recordings and live as-they-happen events from WAMC's Linda Norris Auditorium! (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Denver radio stations battle to win back listeners (this is a MUST READ link; you'll never see this blunt an assessment of radio's present and future problems in Radio World or the M Street Journal): http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0%2C1413%2C36~78~2572787%2C00.html (Harry Helms W5HLH, Wimberley, TX EM00, Dec 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. Here`s the full list of Xmas-format stations, 256 of them as of Dec 6, both AM and FM, including a handful of Canadians, even CKWW 580 listed as Detroit: http://ftp.media.radcity.net/ZMST/100kw/Christmas.htm (100000watts.com via Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. FCC EXPECTED TO DELAY VOTE ON DIGITAL TV PLAN Jonathan Cody, senior media-regulation adviser at the US Federal Communications Commission, has told journalists that a vote on the FCC's plan to convert the US television system to digital technology by January 2009 may be delayed until March. The vote had been due to take place on 15 December. There has been opposition to the plan from broadcasters, who say the timetable is too tight. The government is anxious to free up the spectrum space currently occupied by analogue TV transmitters so it can be used by emergency services. # posted by Andy @ 16:01 UT Dec 7 (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. Confirmed transmitting equipment installed for Radio Nacional de la RASD, co-sited with the studio in the refugee camp in Rabouni (near Tindouf) in Western Algeria: 50 kW Harris MW transmitter (according to a Spanish ham visiting the camp some years ago, via Mauricio Molano, Spain in 1998) and 20 kW RIZ SW transmitter (according to RIZ information). I have not found evidence for the alleged 100 kW which is commonly quoted as power for 1550 kHz, nor that the station is using an "external" MW facility in Tindouf installed by Algerian PTT or Algerian Radio (as it is occasionally indicated by DX publications), or have I overlooked something? (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, Dec 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ALGERIA, 1550, Polisario Front, Tindouf-ALG, observed on 26 Nov at 2314-2401* in Spanish, playing western pops followed by a history program, s/off after National Anthem; 54544, QRM de Moroccan jammer, which has simply been inaudible when monitoring this station in Lisboa, which was not the case on 26/11. the \\ 7460 outlet remains silent (Carlos Gonçalves-POR, BC-DX Dec 2 via DXLD) 1550 kHz, Polisario Front via RTA facility in Tindouf-ALG, surely changed its Spanish broadcast some time during Nov last; it was noted today, 2 Dec, starting its Spanish program (ID as R. Nac. Saharaui) at 2303 UT only and announcing \\ 7470, not ~60, but neither is active. I keep monitoring their short lived 700 kHz outlet, but nothing so far (Carlos Gonçalves-POR, BC-DX Dec 3 via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 1710 unID – 4 Dec 1700 [EST] – French with religion. Lubavitcher pirate off (open carrier) for Sabbath. Heard very weak programming the following day beneath Lubavitcher talk. Definitely not an image, could this be a pirate near Boston? (Saul Chernos, Burnt River Ont, NRC-AM via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Logs from Dec. 5 include: 04:15 4270 34233 UNID Female voice reciting letters in phonetic code 04:17 4650 34233 UNID Female voice reciting letters in phonetic code 04:21 4880 31132 UNID Female voice reciting letters in phonetic code 04:39 5435 33323 UNID Female voice reciting letters in phonetic code (Alvin Mirabal, Onda Corta PR, Puerto Rico, Grundig YB 400 with chain- link fence antenna, DX LISTENING DIGEST) two more below UNIDENTIFIED. Re gh`s 6060 at 0630 under RHC: Hi Glenn, The raspy voiced preacher (DX'er Carlos Gonçalves in Portugal calls him a "goat- like shouting preacher" and I believe that describes the preacher well), in Brazilian Portuguese, is in fact R. Tupi (Brazil) on 6060.1 and is usually // to Radio Victoria (Peru) on 6020.3. I last noted them Sept 14 at 0745-0805 and they were both fair. Sorry to find RHC here now (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I wasn`t sure of the language but the intonation seemed English; could have been Brazilian, but on this occasion was not as much as 100 Hz off RHC (gh) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. Does anyone know what station is on 9315 kHz around 1300 and beyond UT? The signal is fair. Maybe a Russian dialect? (Dan Srebnick – NJ, Dec 5, HCDX via DXLD) Nothing at all on 9315 in PWBR 2005, but HFCC B-04 shows 9315 1300 1330 30S,31S IRA 250 356 1234567 311004 260305 D Kyrghiz CLN IBB IBB 9315 1400 1430 30S,31S IRA 250 356 1234567 311004 260305 D Kyrghiz CLN IBB IBB That is R. Liberty via Sri Lanka. 73, (Glenn Hauser, Dec 7, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 9331, 5-digit Spanish YL numbers, very strong, at 0639 UT Dec 6, also heard on several previous occasions. Wonder what would happen if WBCQ stayed on 9330 this late. Another one on 6797, Dec 7 at 2206 past 2217 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 9755, Dec 6 at 0635, fair signal but more hum than modulation. According to EiBi, HFCC and PWBR the only possibility is RDPI Portugal, 300 kW 45 degrees, M-F only; next time I should try to // it to 9815 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 11740.01, from 2300 most nites, likely Brazilian, many mentions of São Paulo, Brasília, music and variety programs, even a nice selection of what sounded like Brazilian Xmas music this past Fri. Unseems the new TWR station; format seems too commercial. Signal hangs on right thru 0200, but in several nights of listening no specific IDs were heard. News program usually airs at the top of the hour. Who is this? (Mike Agner, KA3JJZ, Glen Burnie MD, TenTec RX320(d), various homebrew indoor antennas, MFJ752 audio filter, Palomar Preselector, various DSP audio software, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) Sounds like Voz Cristã, via Chile, but last we knew they were on 11745: 2300-0400 11745 SGO 100 kW / 060 deg (Observer, via DXLD) And 11740 checked here at 2330 Dec 7 bore a very strong station in English, WYFR (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ FCC PUBLISHES BPL REPORT AND ORDER --- by Joe Buch, NASWA Journal That thud you just heard was the other shoe dropping. An anonymous wag once said, "The devil is in the details." After reviewing the FCC's Report and Order on BPL, it is clear that the devil is alive and well and living at the FCC. NASWA, individual shortwave listeners and radio amateurs for that matter had most of their BPL comments ignored or rejected by the FCC. About the best thing that can be said is that the FCC did acknowledge international broadcasting as a licensed service and at least did read NASWA's comments. On a positive note, the FCC will move ahead with a national database of BPL operators with interference complaint contact points by telephone and e-mail. BPL operators are required to notch certain frequencies to mitigate harmful interference and as a last resort to shut down equipment causing interference. Beyond that there is little good news. The FCC acknowledged NASWA's request for protection of shortwave broadcasting along with many others requesting similar protection. FCC says in their report, "Aeronautical Radio, Inc. (ARINC) and the Boeing Company (Boeing) request that Access BPL not be permitted to operate in the frequency bands that are used by the aeronautical radio service. The North American Short Wave Association (NASWA) requests that we protect international broadcasting services in the 5.9-26.1 MHz frequency range. Shipcom LLC (Shipcom), which operates several Maritime Public Coast (MPC) stations on frequencies in the 2-25 MHz range, submits that its facilities would be especially susceptible to BPL interference because the receiving antennas of its stations are mounted very high. To avoid such interference, it requests that we establish BPL-free zones around MPC stations. Bell South Corporation (Bell South) and Verizon Communications, Inc. (Verizon) are concerned that Access BPL could cause harmful interference with telephone network and DSL services because power lines are parallel to telephone wires, which are also unshielded, and so could receive harmful interference. Alan Dixon is concerned the BPL could cause harmful interference to Citizen's Band (CB) radio service on 27 MHz frequencies." "The Association for Maximum Service Television, Inc. (MSTV) urges the Commission to limit Access BPL to frequencies below 50 MHz, and avoid operations in the low VHF TV band. The Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) is concerned that BPL operations could cause harmful interference to low VHF band DTV stations (channels 2-6) because the service threshold for those channels is just 28 dBµ, or 25.1 µV/m. It therefore submits that low band VHF DTV stations will not be able to serve viewers if Access BPL is allowed to operate on frequencies up to 80 MHz, and that even limiting BPL to a maximum of 50 MHz might not be satisfactory because of the likely generation of harmonics in BPL equipment. SBE further submits that BPL operations could interfere with Broadcast Auxiliary service (BAS) remote pickup stations and low power auxiliary stations operating on frequencies between 25.85 and 26.48 MHz. In addition, SBE expresses concern that BPL operations could adversely affect Emergency Alert System (EAS) transmissions by AM radio stations at 535 to 1705 kHz, by EAS Primary Entry Point (PEP) stations on frequencies between 2-20 MHz, and by low band VHF EAS stations in the 39.48 MHz (California) and 44.43 MHz (Illinois) bands. The National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council's Committee on Radio Frequency (NAS/CORF) submits that radio astronomy allocations in the HF and low VHF regions need to be protected from Access BPL operations." NASWA made the case that international radio regulations required the FCC to protect international broadcasts from harmful interference. International Radio Regulations have defined harmful interference and the FCC has adopted that definition into its own regulations (47CFR2.1), "Harmful Interference: Interference which endangers the functioning of a radionavigation service or of other safety services or seriously degrades, obstructs, or repeatedly interrupts a radio communication service operating in accordance with these [international] Radio Regulations." The FCC has literally applied this definition in reacting to all these requests for protection. If your shortwave reception is just noisy and not fun to listen to, the FCC will likely reject any interference complaint if it does not "seriously degrade" or "interrupt" reception. The FCC reserves to itself the right to determine what is harmful. Only public safety and radio astronomy services will receive specific frequency or geographic exclusion zone protection. Even amateur radio will not receive any specific protection although the ARRL and many radio amateurs pointed out in their comments that hams often provide the only surviving form of communication in the aftermath of disasters. In response to the ARRL's arguments, the FCC said, "We similarly do not find that amateur radio frequencies warrant the special protection afforded frequencies reserved for international aeronautical and maritime safety operations. We note that in many instances amateur frequencies are used for routine communications and hobby activities. While we recognize that amateurs may on occasion assist in providing emergency communications, we believe that the general Part 15 provisions and the specific provisions being adopted herein for Access BPL operations are sufficient to protect these amateur operations." Thus it is clear that NASWA has no chance of convincing the FCC that international broadcast frequencies should be afforded special protection. NASWA never requested protection of frequencies not used to target North America. It was clear from the beginning that DXing Nibi-Nibi on tropical band frequencies was a hobby largely without redeeming social value at least in the eyes of the FCC. In view of the Commission's reluctance to even protect major broadcasters targeting North America, it is obvious requesting such protection for the tropical band domestic broadcasters would have been a waste of time. NASWA attempted in its comments to point out to the FCC that while the process they have devised for mitigating interference could possibly work for government and commercial licensees, it was too complex to expect casual shortwave listeners to identify BPL interference, access the national data base, and make contact with appropriate BPL personnel and then negotiate mitigation of their interference. The FCC dismissed those comments with the unfounded assertion that their mitigation procedure will work. This assertion allows the FCC to charge ahead with plans for deployment. If it is later proven that NASWA was right, it will be too late to do anything about it. NASWA member Tracy Wood suggested in his own FCC comments that some means of identifying BPL signals must be built into BPL transmitters, "Anthony Good, Boeing, and Tracy K. Wood recommend that we require Access BPL devices to incorporate 'marker beacons' that carry identifying data for use in tracing interference. Boeing states that absent such markers, there is no way for aeronautical operators to identify the source of Access BPL signals." The FCC then said, "We also decline to adopt a rule requiring transmission of identification codes. As NTIA states, such codes could increase the potential for interference from Access BPL operations. We also do not believe that it would be practicable for ARINC or any other operator to identify an Access BPL system as the source of interference and contact its operator on a real time basis to resolve the interference. As NTIA indicates in its letter of September 24, 2004, no practical method has been identified for Access BPL systems to transmit an identifying code. We believe that the Access BPL notification requirements, as described below, will provide sufficient information to locate and mitigate interference." Nice try Tracy and thanks for your effort. Recognizing that shortwave listeners and shortwave broadcasters often change frequencies as hourly, daily and seasonal variations in the ionosphere cause propagation shifts, NASWA requested the FCC to require quick response to interference complaints. Ten minutes was suggested as a reasonable response time. NASWA also made a case for the fact that shortwave listeners were often not fluent in the English language. They listen to shortwave radio to hear programs in their native language. NASWA requested that contact operators be fluent in all major languages to facilitate such persons reporting interference. The FCC chose to only mandate response times of less than 24 hours to public safety communicators. They refused to impose any multilingual requirement on BPL contact points. The FCC said, "ARRL, ARINC and others assert that Access BPL operators should be required to provide points of contact fluent in all major languages that are reachable 24 hours a day/seven days a week in order to allow parties using international broadcast services to report interference complaints." One BPL proponent objected, "Southern, in its reply comments, objects to a requirement to have multilingual employees so that BPL operators could address interference complaints from non-English speaking shortwave radio listeners. It states that such a requirement is unreasonable and would place it and other BPL providers at a disadvantage to other communications service providers." The FCC again weighed in on the side of the BPL providers, "We therefore are adopting rules that will require the BPL industry to establish within 180 days from publication of this item in the Federal Register a centralized publicly accessible Access BPL notification database." That's the good news. The FCC went on, "We also are not requiring Access BPL operators to have multi-lingual contact persons. We believe that requiring both telephone and e-mail contact information is sufficient to address interference inquiries. We are also not requiring that telephone contact positions be staffed 24 hours per day and seven days a week. We believe that our emission requirements and other mitigation rules will ensure that interference is generally avoided. We believe that telephone contact staffing during normal business hours is sufficient and also note that e-mail would generally allow interference reports to be filed at any time." "We expect both parties to cooperate to determine a mutually acceptable schedule to diagnose and resolve the interference complaint, recognizing that the Access BPL operator may have to prioritize any complaints of interference that it receives (e.g. from a public safety agency). With regard to public safety operations, however, we will require that the BPL operator respond to complaints of harmful interference from public safety users within 24 hours; the BPL provider shall be required to immediately cease the operations causing the public safety complaint if it fails to respond to such complaint within 24 hours. Any complaints of interference that are not resolved in accordance with the mutually agreed schedule may be filed with the Commission along with the particulars of the interference case. Upon receipt of the interference complaint, the Commission will investigate the complaint and take action against the Access BPL operator if it is found to be causing harmful interference. If, on the other hand the Commission uses its resources to investigate an interference complaint that is found to be frivolous, the Commission will impose appropriate sanctions for abuse of its administrative process." I have seen an Internet posting by one active shortwave listener that implied he would just overload the system with spurious interference complaints. I hope he does not try it. As noted above, the FCC may impose fines for abuse of the system. Secondly, if shortwave listeners get a reputation as whackos whose reports cannot be trusted, we will soon all lose any credibility as our complaints are shuffled to the bottom of the FCC's "to-do" box. In its reply comments NASWA noted that nearly all of those who commented had requested special protection for their service. NASWA suggested that the FCC adopt an approach that would satisfy most of the responders by forcing BPL to use vacant VHF TV channels. NASWA noted that in every market there are such vacant channels available as a result of the 1945 allocations. NASWA noted that modern TV receivers have much less susceptibility to adjacent channel interference than the 1945 designs. The FCC did not take NASWA's suggestion but did comment in response to a couple of broadcaster comments requesting that BPL not be allowed on TV channels 2 through 6. The FCC said, "We do not believe that Access BPL presents a serious threat of interference to broadcast television service on channels 2 to 6. We note that in many instances all low VHF TV channels are not used within a particular area and those not in use for television service could be used for Access BPL operations without causing harmful interference to TV reception. In this regard, we also note that the effective Part 15 limit for Access BPL is more stringent for frequencies above 30 MHz than it is for frequencies below 30 MHz and that propagation losses are also more significant higher in the spectrum. We therefore do not find that special protections for broadcast television service are warranted." Where do we go from here? As noted last month, the Communications Act mandates the FCC to encourage the deployment of new broadband technology. The Act places the burden of proof on objectors to new technology to show the new technology would not be in the public interest. Maybe a case could be made that such proof was offered and ignored by the Commission. NASWA could file a petition for reconsideration. Such a petition would be a precursor to taking the FCC to court. Even such a petition would cost money because electronic filing is not permitted. In view of the low win probability further petitions or legal action by NASWA are not warranted. I do not have the energy and NASWA does not have the money to pursue this battle through the court system. Maybe ARRL will and if so I encourage you to support them. Our best approach will likely be to refine technical methods to minimize power line coupling. Active antennas positioned to minimize BPL pickup may become the norm. Operating your radio on battery power, isolated from the electric mains may also help. Phasing techniques used by broadcast band DXers might also be adaptable. Sample a nice strong BPL signal; attenuate it and phase shift it; then couple it into your receiver with just the right phase and amplitude to cancel the BPL signal received by your antenna. That might work. I say it "might work" because the radiation from the power line will cause a smearing of the signal arrival time of the BPL signal at your antenna. Deeps nulls may, therefore, not be possible. It seems like such techniques are the only answers short of moving to Nibi-Nibi. Stay tuned (Joe Buch, Dec NASWA Journal via DXLD) DRM +++ Some additions to Jeff White's report, 4-181: ´´Deutsche Welle is planning a new DRM program for Europe as of next year´´ --- Probably this refers to the already existing ´´DW-Musik´´ channel. ´´and that the commercial broadcaster RTL in Luxembourg will begin a German-language program in DRM as of January 1´´ --- As I already mentioned, apparently on 1440 and one of the two Junglinster shortwave channels. And of course the program itself is not new, cf. http://rtlradio.rtl.de with promotion of the existing 1440 AM service at http://rtlradio.rtl.de/index.php?ct=frequenzen&pt=frequenzen ´´and there is also interest in establishing a DRM station for truckers´´ --- Could refer to two things: 1.) Europe 1 has a licence to operate such a service on Burg-261. http://www.digitalerrundfunk.de/mittelwelle/mittelwelle-anhalt.php still gives a statement that they plan to start the service in 2004... By the way, this website now contains an abundance of funny MABB (media authority of Berlin and Brandenburg) bashing for their suggestion to scrap DAB in favour of DVB-H and DMB. 2.) Truckradio, the station just put on 702 and 855. They talk about adding DRM on shortwave. ´´and a radio shopping channel´´ --- Kaufradio, cf. http://www.kaufradio.de They were on DAB in Berlin and also did DRM tests on 1485 from three sites in/around Berlin but are only webcasting at present. Were also thinking about leasing airtime on shortwave, were told how to contact Radioagenstva-M in Moscow, but nothing ever saw the light of the day. ´´RAI in Italy plans to conduct DRM tests in Milan before the end of this year´´ --- Reportedly referring to Milano 693. DRM freaks immediately remembered the uproar in the UK when T-Systems fired up the former Megaradio transmitter at Zehlendorf near Oranienburg on 693 with DRM during the IFA fair in last year. (That's a TRAM 200, upgraded to 250 kW AM carrier power.) ´´And this will include a copy of the Dream DRM software as well´´ --- ...which offers also interesting AM reception capabilities: The bandwith can be adjusted over a wide range, and the DSP processing beats any conventional filter. This from somebody who never felt comfortable with dinners and buffets so far... (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ The geomagnetic field ranged from quiet to minor storming this period. The high speed stream on 29 November through 01 December produced mostly unsettled to active periods at all latitudes with an isolated period of minor storming observed at high latitudes midday on 30 November and another minor storm period observed at mid latitudes early on 01 December. Quiet levels persisted from midday on 01 December through early on the 5th with an isolated period of active conditions observed at mid latitudes. The summary period ended with quiet conditions. FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 08 DECEMBER 2004 - 03 JANUARY 2005 Solar activity is expected to be very low to low through most of the forecast period. Isolated moderate levels are possible after 23 December when old Region 708 is due to return. A greater than 10 MeV proton event is not expected. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at high levels on 08 – 11 December, 18 – 19 December, 23 - 28 December, and 03 January. The geomagnetic field is expected to range from mostly quiet to active levels with isolated minor storm periods. High speed coronal hole streams are expected to produce occasional storm periods on 07 – 08 December, 17 – 18 December, 22 - 27 December, and 02 – 03 January. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2004 Dec 07 2211 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Environment Center # Product description and SEC contact on the Web # http://www.sec.noaa.gov/wwire.html # # 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table # Issued 2004 Dec 07 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2004 Dec 08 90 15 3 2004 Dec 09 90 10 3 2004 Dec 10 95 8 3 2004 Dec 11 95 8 3 2004 Dec 12 95 8 3 2004 Dec 13 95 8 3 2004 Dec 14 95 5 2 2004 Dec 15 100 8 3 2004 Dec 16 100 8 3 2004 Dec 17 100 12 3 2004 Dec 18 100 12 3 2004 Dec 19 100 10 3 2004 Dec 20 100 8 3 2004 Dec 21 100 8 3 2004 Dec 22 105 15 3 2004 Dec 23 105 15 3 2004 Dec 24 105 12 3 2004 Dec 25 105 12 3 2004 Dec 26 100 12 3 2004 Dec 27 95 12 3 2004 Dec 28 95 8 3 2004 Dec 29 90 5 2 2004 Dec 30 90 5 2 2004 Dec 31 90 5 2 2005 Jan 01 90 5 2 2005 Jan 02 90 12 3 2005 Jan 03 90 12 3 (http://www.sec.noaa.gov/radio via WORLD OF RADIO 1256, DXLD) TIPS FOR RATIONAL LIVING ++++++++++++++++++++++++ SORRY EVERYBODY What is this site about? It gathers together news, opinions, comments, etc., from around the world, of what people think about the re- election by Americans of President Bush http://sorryeverybody.com/ (via Eric Wolfe, Lebanon, Pennsylvania, Dec Radio HF Internet Newsletter via DXLD) When I checked the gallery there were 6596 jpgs, some artwork, mostly people holding up handlettered signs. Unfortunately, no slideshow! But once you click on one of them, you can get others randomly. There are some gems in there (gh, DXLD) ###