DX LISTENING DIGEST 4-190, December 27, 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 1258: Tue 1000 WOR WRMI 9955 Tue 1700 WOR WBCQ after hours Tue 2200 WOR WBCQ 9330-CLSB 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 1258 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1258h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1258.rm WORLD OF RADIO 1258 (low version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1258.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1258.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1258.html WORLD OF RADIO 1258, mp3 in the true SW sound of 7415: (stream) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/worldofradio_12-22-04.m3u (d`load) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/worldofradio_12-22-04.mp3 WORLD OF RADIO EXTRA 52, released the week of Dec 29; same as CONTINENT OF MEDIA 04-07; first airings: Wed 2300 on WBCQ 7415 Thu 0000 on WBCQ 17495-CUSB Thu 2130 on WWCR 9985 Thu 2200 on WBCQ 9330-CLSB WRN ONDEMAND [from Fri]: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO [also for CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL]: WORLD OF RADIO Extra 52 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/worx52h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/worx52h.rm WORLD OF RADIO Extra 52 (low version, without the WOR opening): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/com0407.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/com0407.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/com0407.html MUNDO RADIAL diciembre-enero: se demoró en entregar la cinta a WWCR para el 24 de diciembre. Ahora a mano, comenzará el martes 28 a las 2230 en 9985. TSUNAMI ITEMS: filed separately under ANDAMAN & NICOBAR, AUSTRALIA, INDIA, INDONESIA, MALDIVE ISLANDS, SRI LANKA, THAILAND. ** AFGHANISTAN [and non]. SE broadcaster gets Afghans tuned in to radio --- by ERIC FRY JUNEAU EMPIRE --- Web posted December 27, 2004 Journalism in Afghanistan: An unidentified journalist from the program "Salaam Watandar," the national program produced by Internews, reports from a presidential campaign rally in Afghanistan. [caption] Radio news in Afghanistan under the Taliban instructed women how to dress to show no skin. It was news you'd better use. Jon Newstrom, a former public radio reporter in Southeast Alaska, is helping to establish independent radio stations in Afghanistan. If the mail is anything to go by, it's a success so far. Listeners in Afghanistan send the stations letters that are elaborate works of art. . . http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/122704/sta_20041227002.shtml (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS. 4760, INDIA (Andaman and Nicobar Islands), All India Radio - Port Blair, 1145-1210 fade out Dec 21, woman announcer with Hindi talks, Hindi vocals and flute music. Poor with an intermittent growl on the channel (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek DXpedition, PA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) 4760, 0005, AIR Port Blair (tentative), Indian songs, OM talks, 26.12.2004, SINPO 24332 (Günter Lorenz, currently near Pavia, North Italy, Icom R75, 30 m Longwire, HCDX via DXLD) This was less than an hour before the earthquake and tsunami hit. Nominal sign-on is 2355 UT; I doubt it will be on now (Glenn Hauser, OK, Dec 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4760, 1552-, AIR Dec 26 Quite certain this is AIR Port Blair, with talk by OM, just above threshold, and sounding English to me. But, there's been a huge earthquake/tsunamis, so they may very well not be on the air (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4760.03, 0019, AIR Port Blair (tentative), Indian songs, YL talk, about the same type of programming and quality as yesterday. So if this is really Port Blair, they are on, approximately 24 h after the disaster stroke. 27.12.2004 SINPO 24332 (Günter Lorenz, currently near Pavia, North Italy, Icom R75, 30 m Longwire, HCDX via DXLD) Leh is not normally on this early (gh, DXLD) ANDAMAN ISLANDS (Update). As this was being typed Sunday morning, December 26th, word came out that a major earthquake (8.9 magnitude) hit the Indonesia area from the eastern Indian Ocean. Reports of many deaths and severe injuries are reported. The effects of the earthquake were very strong in India and tsunami waves have caused problems on the Andamanns. Charles Harpole, K4VUD, who usually provides updates on the VU4 operations daily, did not Sunday. However, on the air reports and InterNet sources indicate that the VU4 team is fine. Reports also state VU4RBI is now on low power and providing emergency communications. There is an interesting Web page to view the current earthquakes. Please visit: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_big.html Let`s hope that the reports about the VU4 team are true, and they are all in good health. In Charles` updates on the VU4 operations this past week, he mentioned that the team is using paper logs. However, a SWL volunteer is taking the logs and typing the QSOs into a computer. The hand logs will be kept to solve any questions that may come up as QSL requests come in. Charles did mention he will explain to the VU4 team the possible use of the LoTW and hope later that all logs can be loaded there. On Thursday, December 23rd, Charles stated that the ``team has now passed the 30,000 QSO mark and has mounted HF signals on SSB, CW, Slowscan TV, RTTY, and PSK on all bands --- including all 3 WARC --- from 160-6 meters.`` (KB8NW\OPDX December 27\BARF-80 via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) I heard VU2RBI until 6 pm today. the DXpedition team has survived the earthquake (Ashhar Farhan, VU hams list via Alokesh Gupta, DXLD) VU4NRO/VU2MYH is still (at 00:25 hrs IST 27th December) operating QRP with generator power; It seems Andaman landlines are now restored. VU4NRO/VU2MYH could retrieve an information from a landline at Portblair in response to a QSP from VU2TPN (Trichur). Emergency frequency is 14.193 MHz. But right now (at 19:00 UTC Sun) I can copy VU4NRO on 14.191 in QSO with VU2UKR. 73 de (Sandeep, VU2MUE New Delhi, ibid.) By now most of you have probably heard about the 9.0 Earthquake which took place just off shore of Sumatra in North West Indonesia around 0058Z on Sunday December 26. The Andaman Islands were one of the closest land areas to the epicenter of the earthquake. This earthquake apparently set off multiple aftershocks and several tidal waves (tsunami) which killed over thirteen thousand people in the area (VU, VU4, 9M, 4S, 8Q, YB, HS). Reports indicate that since the initial earthquake four more earthquakes have taken place centered on the Andaman Islands, ranging from 6.0 to 6.3, and two more in the Nicobar Islands measuring 7.3 followed by 6.5. Multiple sources reported Bharathi on the air several hours after the quake and tsunami. VK6APK, Alex, heard her around 1000Z and she was reporting "there is no electricity or telephone communication. All of the "team members" are OK, but no direct word on Charley, K4VUD. As you all know Charley has been assisting the all Indian team at VU4RBI/VU4NRO and sending us daily reports. The VU4 ops are now apparently operating with battery power running 20 watts and are on "standby to provide emergency communications to assist the local authorities", per Alex. VU3SLJ, M.S. Kamath, spoke to the VU4 team who again confirmed "everything's OK" with them. They also reported that Ham Radio is the only communications link to the islands at this time. YC4VD, Sabri, spoke to VU4NRO on 7092 around 1730Z. News sources are now reporting that Indian Airforce AN-32 aircraft have flown into Port Blair and Karnic airfield in Andaman Islands delivering "emergency and medical supplies". More than 100 are feared to be dead in the Andamans. Late Sunday 9V1YC, James, reported he too spoke to the VU4 team on 20 meters. The team was passing emergency traffic back and forth between the Andaman Islands and the Indian mainland. They are using one or two small gas generators, batteries and running 20 watts with the antennas now pointed at the homeland. Early Monday James again spoke to Bharathi on 7075. Here is an update. 1. They are running on batteries and small generators using very low power and one vertical. Trying to put up some more antennas today. Commercial power is promised by 4 pm today, but no guarantees from the authorities. 2. The main building they were using was damaged, and the authorities are restricting entry at the moment. Most of their equipment is still inside, but they are confident they will be allowed to retrieve it soon. 3. There were heavy aftershocks all night long and they were sleeping outside in temporary shelters. A temporary station was set up outside on the grass and they continue to be on the air to pass traffic to India, and hand out the QSO's. 4. They know there are reports that the DXpedition is over and they are leaving, but insist that this is not true, and are staying on the air as much as they can until the 31st - as scheduled. Bharathi and team depart the island on the 1st. 5. K4VUD has an air ticket home for today, but they have no idea if he can leave since emergency passengers will likely take priority. The airport is open, so I am sure he will have much more detailed and accurate information for you if and when he gets back tomorrow. 6. Though they reported yesterday that main power and phones are out, they seem to have some telephones working, and Bharathi was talking to her husband back in Delhi this morning. 7. They (and the authorities) seem quite hungry for information on casualties in the region since they have only a trickle of news from the outside. It seems that Amateur Radio is showing its value during a severe crisis. 8. The emergency frequencies seem to be 7050 for emergency traffic within India, and 7055 for Indonesia (which is their usual net frequency). 14190 and 14150 are also being used for traffic to VU2. The usual net of expats on 7075 in Thailand seemed to be a gathering place today, with many reporting in from 4S7, VU2 and 9M2. Credit 9V1YC, AD5W, K1ER, K3ZO, N5FG, VE7AVV, VK6APK, VU3DJQ, W6KH, W7YES, --- Bernie McClenny, W3UR Now more than ever - you need The Daily DX and The Weekly DX - to keep up with the DX news from around the globe! (via Ken Kopp, dxldyg via DXLD) ** ANGOLA. 7244.55, 2257, RN Angola, (causing strong heterodyne with CRI before 2257), Portuguese songs, 2300 TS, tent. ID, jingle, Portuguese talk, mentioning Natal (Christmas) and pagamento (payment) very often. 24.12.2004, SINPO 22432 (splatter from 7240 / 7250) up to 24433 (Günter Lorenz, currently near Pavia, North Italy, Icom R75, 30 m Longwire, HCDX via DXLD) ** ANTIGUA. More on the putative BBC harmonic --- At 1600 UT today I was receiving nothing on 30.38 MHz with my ICOM R-7000, the putative BBC 2nd harmonic. As a test, I checked with the remote receiver at The Listening Post. 15.19 MHz was received with good quality & strength. I next tried my Alinco DJX-2000. 15.19 was received on my bicone full scale with good audio quality. No signal was heard on this receiver at 30.38 MHz. While not conclusive, this test would seem to indicate that my antenna is not generating the 30.38 MHz doubling product when receiving 15.19 MHz. As 30.38 MHz is receiving by both the ICOM and the Alinco, tyhe receivers are not to blame either. Reception of 30.38 MHz is apparently tied to band conditions and is probably a real signal despite otherwise unfavorable propagation conditions (Jack Sullivan, Central New Jersey, FN20, Dec 25, harmonics yg via DXLD) This is indeed a transmitter harmonic; I've heard it before here in TN, though I haven't listened for it recently. There has been a fair amount of activity on the 10 meter hamband recently, with multi-hop skip from Brazil not uncommon. It would not surprise me that there has been F2 skip on 30 MHz from Antigua on a fairly routine basis (David Hodgson, Nashville, TN, ibid.) Thanks for the confirmation, David. There has been a bit of a controversy as to whether or not these signals were real harmonics or not at Newscanner-antenna@yahoogroups.com. After hearing the same signal on two different radios we eliminated the receivers as possible sources. And I observed selective levels of reception of the harmonic while hearing the 15.190 signal a good strength, so I became pretty sure that this was a true harmonic and not a spurious product. Your report puts the stamp of validity on this reception. I have reported a number of BC harmonics in the 30-31 MHz range here over the past years so I'm very familiar with them. It's still odd to pick up this one with almost daily regularity when the rest of the 10 meter segment only opens for F2 sporadically during the day (Jack Sullivan, NJ, ibid.) ** ARGENTINA. 3810, 0732, R. Provincia, La Plata, BA, Argentina, español, música variada, OM comentarios, 3º armonico de 1270 khz, calidad regular. 13/12 [see also ECUADOR] 4290, 1134, Ilusión, Argentina, español, programa músical variado, OM ID "en su canal de AM 1430 kHz, transmite Ilusión desde Berazategui, Argentina", 3º armonco. 25/12 (Alfredo Locatelli - Durazno / Uruguay, El EsKuch@ Newsletter Nº 24/ Diciembre 25, 2004, Play DX via DXLD) What an appropriate name for a station putting out harmonic (gh, DXLD) (armonico). 4290h (1430 x 3), R. Ilusiones, Berazategui, Prov. B.A, 2330 ID por hombre, baladas en español. QRK 4, dic 25 (Horacio A. Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, Dec 26, condiglist via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. LA RADIO ESTRENA SU PRIMERA GUÍA --- ETER, la Escuela Terciaria de Estudios Radiofónicos, lanza la primera radio guía del país. A partir del 15 de diciembre se podrá buscar la programación de las radios, leer notas de opinión, entrevistas a personajes del medio, información y recomendaciones. La dirección del boletín electrónico es http://www.radioguiaeter.com.ar (Noticia cortesía de Claudio Morales, via Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina lista ConDig, dic 11, Conexión Digital Dec 25 via DXLD) Many hundreds of stations covered? (gh, DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. I checked the Australian Broadcasting Corporation website http://abc.net.au and it said nothing about the tsunami hitting the west coast of Australia. Surely the tsunami must have hit Australia. Has anyone heard about this? Are local radio stations off air there? (Liz Cameron, MI, UT Dec 27, dxldyg via DXLD) CNN USA (at last!) just joined CNN International coverage at 0400 UT. Weather guy mentioned that reports of tsunami had been received from the Cocos Islands, and NW Australia, but no details. I should think that it would have weakened quite a bit by the time it reached WA, with Kununurra and Darwin off to the side and perhaps masked by Java (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Kununurra is inland - I can't see anything reaching it. I haven't heard anything mentioning the Australian mainland on the ABC so far (Wayne Bastow, Wyoming (just north of Sydney), Australia, Dec 27, dxldyg via DXLD) ** BELGIUM. Next Sunday, January 2, there`s no Radio World in the programme which will be a special edition of Flanders Today to celebrate the New Year. So, let me end by wishing you a very merry last week of the year. We`ll meet again in 2005 (Franz Vossen, Radio World script December 26 via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 6020, 0730, R. Guaíba, Porto Alegre, RGS, Brasil, portugués, programa de música gaúcha, OM ID, slogan, "Guaíba, líder de audiência do futebol do Rio Grande do Sul". Frecuencia espúrea, regular a mala, 17/12. Printing mistake of the frequency has been corrected here. 6720, 0730, R. Guaíba, Porto Alegre, RGS, Brasil, portugués, programa de música gaúcha, OM ID, slogan, "Guaíba lider de audiência do futebol do Rio Grande do Sul". Frecuencia espúrea, regular a mala, 17/12 (Alfredo Locatelli - Durazno / Uruguay, El EsKuch@ Newsletter Nº 24/ Diciembre 25, 2004, Play DX via DXLD) Nominal 6000, 11785 and 720. Therefore, 6720 would be a mix of 6000 plus 720. 6020 I suppose a spur of 6000 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BURKINA FASO. 5030, Radiodiffusion Nationale du Burkina, 1900, Francés, locutor, comentarios de Navidad, Noticias de Burkina. 35433 (Diciembre 24). (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, escucha realizada en Friol, 27 Km. al oeste de Lugo capital, Grundig Satellit 500, antena de cable, 8 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Re CHEV 1610, 4-189: What are these guys smoking? CHEV are defunct and likely to remain so, until they can find a suitable frequency. "Emergency broadcast station", my hindquarters! In case of another August 2003-like power failure, or natural disaster, the last local frequency I would tune would be 1610. The "listen live" Windows media link doesn't work. Maybe they're an AM carrier current operation (or FM subcarrier), but that isn't very likely. 73 (Mike Brooker, Toronto, ON, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC [non?]. Yesterday (24 December) I heard Radiocentrafrique from Bangui, Central African Republic at 1705-2300 UT on 9590 kHz. From 2200 until close at 2300 the signal was very strong - much better than it has been earlier. The last hour consisted of lively African music interspersed with many IDs in French and Radio Centrafrique programme promos. At 2235 there was a long ID announcing as "la Chaîne Nationale de Radio Centrafrique éméttent de Bangui". The ID mentioned shortwave 41 metres (7220 kHz I think) plus FM frequencies. Could this be a new transmitter in the Central African Republic, or is it being relayed from elsewhere? Earlier, at 1700, I heard a multilingual ID for RFI on the same frequency, with Bangui heard when I rechecked at 1705. The transmitter went off air at exactly 2300 while programming was still in progress. (Credit also due to Vladimir G.Titarev on DXplorer who first reported hearing an unidentified African station on 9590 on 22 December) (Dave Kenny, (British DX Club - BDXC-UK), Dec 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I've been monitoring 9590 for a bit now and I'm not sure what I'm hearing as the audio keeps cutting in and out. It is definitely in French. When it is on it is quite good, but it only lasts for 10-30 seconds. 1755 25 December 2004. Happy Holiday to all (Steven R. Lare Holland, MI, USA, ibid.) To state the obvious, a relay via nearby Gabon seems likely (gh, DXLD) I on 9590 now (1947 UT) and I have African singing possibly in Swahili and signal is fair (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston FL, ibid.) Sango, not Swahili. I think it's Issoudun 500 kW; ILGradio reports a new entry on 9590 from France with no name station (Roberto Scaglione, Sicily, http://www.bclnews.it Dec 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9590, CENT. AFR. REP., R. Centrafrique, Bangui, strong in French at 1850 Dec 25, mention of Bangui, ID 1857, African combo music, also a lot of very native-sounding stuff. Occasional talkovers, but almost all music, including a minute of "Silent Night" at 1946, seemingly as part of an Xmas greeting. Upbeat announcements mentioning Bangui 1952. The audio was chaotic; rough and overmodulated at times, plus hiccups and occasional drop outs. I gave up at 2000 when it went completely crazy, sounding like an idling motorcycle. Tnx Vlad Titarev for finding this and Dave Kenny for IDing it (Jerry Berg, MA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) Controllo dopo la segnalazione: Radio Centrafrique, 1945-2000, 9590 khz, segnale ottimo con audio a volte distorto, musica e speaker esagitato, IF durante la trasmissione. Audio scomparso alle 2000 sostituito da un rumore continuo (problemi di bassa frequenza?) Francesco Cecconi, Anagni (France), Dec 25, RX.ICOM R72 ANT: LW 120 mt Ciao! Via Dario Monferini, playdx via DXLD) Alle 2130 UTC su 9590 kHz è rimasta solo la portante, provabilmente non se ne sono accorti neanche loro.... che il TX è andato in TILT ! hi! (Dario Monferini, Italy, ibid.) REP. CENTROAFRICANA. 9590 R. Bangui, 1958 dic 25. Locutor con charla rapida en vern. QRK 2, QSB (Horacio A. Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, Dec 26, condiglist via DXLD) Sempre BANGUI 9590 kHz --- Ciao! Radio Bangui 9590 kHz Rep. Centrafricana di nuovo con segnali ottimi alle 1830-1930 con un DJ simpatico ed allegro, con musica locale godibile e annunci di dediche bilingui, Francesi e Sango (uno Yankee ha scritto Swahili .... Orrore...). Dopo le 1900 UT programma religioso cristiano. Ancora in onda alle 2015 con canti rurali molto "originali". Segnale fin troppo modulato. Ottima ricezione qui a Milano. Secondo le mie informazioni è dal 2000 che non conferma l'indirizzo sul WRTH 2005 è sempre: BP 940, BANGUI. Se ci provate ....auguri! e non scordate di allegare al vostro rapporto almeno 2 IRCs Buoni Risposta Internazionale (Dario Monferini, Milano, Dec 26, Play-DX via DXLD) CENTROAFRIQUE, Republic: 9590, R. Centrafrique, Bangui, 2129-2200, December 26, French. Music. Pips at 2130 UT, complete identification by female in French. Announcement: ".....et de la reconciliation...". Announcement by male. Afterwards, African pops. At 2200, strong QRM from Radio Nederland Wereldomroep with the sign-on of Indonesian transmission. SINPO: 33433 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, HCDX via DXLD) via Issoudun 500 KW!!! (Roberto Scaglione, Sicily, playdx yg via DXLD) Sez ILG, at least. Checked 9590 here Dec 27 at 2057, overmodulated talk in French(?) over hilife music, 2059 ``Guantanamera`` somewhat incongruously, then more hilife music only past hourtop thru 2110 with no ID heard; compared to Africa Number One, Gabon, signal on second- adjacent 9580: 9590 sounded stronger, but that was due to modulation, as 9580 measured stronger on the meter; similar fading rate. I suppose it is unlikely Moyabi would be on both 9580 and 9590 at same time with different programs. OTOH, probably no accident CFA would choose a frequency so close to a major African tuningpoint (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9590 African - Radio Centrafrique, Bangui. TDF daily at 1700-2300 UTC from Issoudun (500 kW) - since 26 Nov according to the HFCC (Vlad Titarev, Ukraine, Dec 27, BC-DX via DXLD) ** CHINA. 4525, 1545-, Nei Menggu PBS, Dec 26. Infrequently reported regional station from Inner Mongolia in presumed Mongolian at S5 level, with weaker parallels of 4785 (fair/poor), 6195 which would be at least as strong, but under BBCWS from Kranji, Singapore. 5 + 1 time pips with a very stern sounding male with presumed IDs. 'Radyo' heard. Mongolian is totally different sounding than Chinese, and very distinct. Closer to languages of central Asia. Off at 1605 with transmitter cutting out a few seconds later (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 4830, China Huayi Broadcasting Company, 1204-1226 fade out Dec 20, man and woman with Chinese talk hosting a program of Doris Day Christmas music. At 1215 they must have tired of Doris switching to Whitney Houston. Fair to good with some CODAR QRM. // 6185 was under Mexican (Rich D'Angelo, French Creek Dxpediton, PA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) 4830, Huayi BC, 1205-1230 Dec 20 Christmas music (Silver Bells, I'll Be Home For Christmas, Winter Wonderland), Whitney Houston tune. Man and woman in Chinese // 6185 (Fred Kohlbrenner, French Creek Dxpediton, PA, ibid.) Suppose this answers the unID of a while ago ** CHINA. B-04 for China Radio International via Kashi-Kashgar (KAS) [the new site in the extreme SW tip of China]: 0000-0057 5905 100 kW / non-dir Russian 0300-0357 5905 100 kW / non-dir Russian 1300-1957 5905 100 kW / non-dir Russian 1600-1657 5915 100 kW / 209 deg Hindi 0200-0257 6065 100 kW / 239 deg Pashto 0000-0157 6075 100 kW / 174 deg English 1830-1927 6175 100 kW / 239 deg Arabic 1900-1957 7130 500 kW / 294 deg Albanian 2000-2027 7130 500 kW / 294 deg Serbian 0200-0227 7150 100 kW / 239 deg Bengali 1600-1657 7160 100 kW / 239 deg Arabic 1800-1957 7170 500 kW / 308 deg German 2030-2127 7180 500 kW / 294 deg Italian 2300-0157 7180 100 kW / 174 deg English 2000-2157 7190 500 kW / 308 deg English 1500-1657 7235 100 kW / 174 deg Hindi 2000-2057 7245 500 kW / 269 deg Chinese 1600-1757 7255 500 kW / 294 deg English 1400-1457 7265 100 kW / 173 deg Sinhala 1500-1557 7265 100 kW / 173 deg Tamil 1400-1557 7285 100 kW / 209 deg English 1900-2057 7295 500 kW / 269 deg English 1600-1757 7300 500 kW / 269 deg Arabic 1800-1857 7340 500 kW / 294 deg Italian 1700-1757 7350 500 kW / 308 deg French 1800-1957 7385 500 kW / 269 deg French 1500-1657 9435 500 kW / 298 deg English 1400-1557 9490 100 kW / 174 deg Tamil 1500-1657 9525 500 kW / 308 deg English 1400-1557 9560 100 kW / 174 deg English 2000-2027 9585 500 kW / 308 deg Serbian 2030-2057 9585 500 kW / 308 deg Hungarian 2000-2157 9600 500 kW / 308 deg English 1600-1657 9610 500 kW / 269 deg Arabic 1300-1357 9635 100 kW / 174 deg Hindi 1900-1957 9635 500 kW / 298 deg Portuguese 2100-2257 9640 500 kW / 298 deg Spanish 1500-1557 9665 100 kW / 239 deg Pashto 2100-2157 9695 500 kW / 269 deg Arabic 1400-1457 9700 500 kW / 308 deg English 1500-1557 9700 500 kW / 308 deg Chinese 1600-1657 9700 500 kW / 308 deg French 1900-1957 9770 500 kW / 308 deg Cantonese 0300-0357 11640 100 kW / 209 deg Hindi 2030-2227 11660 500 kW / 308 deg French 0200-0357 11770 100 kW / 174 deg English 0600-0657 11770 100 kW / 239 deg English 1400-1557 11775 100 kW / 209 deg Urdu 1800-1957 11775 500 kW / 308 deg German 1500-1557 11800 100 kW / 173 deg Tamil 0200-0257 11870 100 kW / 173 deg Tamil 0500-0857 11880 100 kW / 209 deg English 1600-1727 12000 100 kW / 239 deg Swahili 0200-0257 13610 100 kW / 174 deg Tamil 1300-1457 13610 500 kW / 308 deg English 0200-0257 13640 100 kW / 174 deg English 0200-0257 13715 100 kW / 173 deg Tamil 0300-0357 13720 100 kW / 209 deg Hindi 0300-0357 15110 100 kW / 174 deg English 0600-0657 15140 100 kW / 239 deg English 0300-0357 15210 100 kW / 173 deg Chinese 0300-0357 15350 100 kW / 174 deg Hindi 0400-0457 15350 100 kW / 174 deg Chinese 0500-0857 15350 100 kW / 174 deg English 0300-0357 15465 100 kW / 209 deg Hindi 0500-0857 15465 100 kW / 209 deg English 0500-0657 17485 100 kW / 269 deg Arabic 0700-1257 17490 500 kW / 308 deg English 0500-0657 17505 100 kW / 269 deg Arabic 0400-0457 17540 100 kW / 173 deg Chinese 0500-0857 17540 100 kW / 173 deg English 0600-0757 17650 500 kW / 308 deg Chinese 0800-0957 17650 500 kW / 308 deg French 1000-1157 17650 500 kW / 308 deg Chinese 1200-1357 17650 500 kW / 308 deg French 0900-1057 17670 500 kW / 308 deg Chinese (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 27 via DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. 6090.34, R. Macarena, Spanish talk around 1050 Dec 22, not very strong but building. "HJ--, R. Macarena . . ." around 1052, at 1100 a short version of the Colombian NA, then into talk, many ads, UTC-5 TCs "en Colombia" -- the "classic" upbeat, "big city" Colombian morning style. The signal was pretty decent at times, but started declining circa 1125 and went into the soup soon thereafter. USB was necessary in order to avoid QRM on 6090. The audio was slightly overmodulated but not so bad as to affect readability. There was lots of noise, but the signal fought it off pretty well, and on a not-so- good 49 mb morning. - On Dec 23, carrier was on at 1000 check, programming started 1006, seemingly light religious vocals with a little low-level preaching around 1024, mention of 49 mb at 1030, "Noticiero Macarena" at 1033, ID that I didn't catch at 1058, then NA, ads. S9+10 on peaks. - Not found on Dec 25 checks (Jerry Berg, MA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** DENMARK. WMR (World Music Radio) is on the air right now (Friday 1230 UT) and until Monday morning 0700. The frequency is 5815 kHz - and power is 5 kW. And without any Christmas music... guaranteed :-) Reception of WMR is possible in large parts of Europe during daytime. The deep winter seasons means that reception close to the transmitter site in Denmark becomes poor after sunset. However reception in Southern Europe should be all right in the evening hours. Reception overseas is sporadic but sometimes possible in the Americas after 22 UT. From Africa, Asia and Pacific we haven't received any reports recently. PS! We apologise for not having sent out QSL cards yet - but they WILL be sent out in the new year. Please be patient. Best 73s (Stig Hartvig Nielsen, http://www.wmr.dk World Music Radio, P O Box 112, DK-8900 Randers, Denmark, Dec 24, hard-core-dx via DXLD) Signal strength of WMR Denmark on 5815 kHz here in the former capital of Finland at peaks even S9 +5dB. Good reception once again. May I wish a Merry X-Mas to all DX-ers sharing this unique hobby! 73´s (Jouko Huuskonen, Turku -SW of FINLAND, ibid.) ** ECUADOR. I was in Ecuador in November. They are NTSC. I did take a 5" B/W portable and watched some. I'm not sure of the channels as the thing has a continuous UHF tuner, but both VHF and UHF are in use. On election night I was able to "listen" to US network news (no useable video) from ABC, CBS, and NBC which I was able to tune around channel 65. One station audio was from channel 35 (WSEE) in Erie, PA and one from channel 2 in Nashville. I think the third was a station in Texas. It was the only time I was able to get that audio as I moved to another room in Quito and never couldn't get it there. At least I was able to listen to the election results. My candidate came in third again. I have no idea where the signals were coming from (Dave Pomeroy, Topeka, Kansas, Dec 22, WTFDA via DXLD) The signals you note would have been through Echostar or DirecTV which are widely "pirated" by cable and broadcasters throughout the Caribbean and Northern SA (Bob Cooper in NZ, ibid.) Those signals would have been coming from the AMC 3 satellite (http://www.lyngsat.com/amc3.html) where the "Primetime 24" package of WKRN-2, WSEE-35, and WNBC-4 are uplinked for big dish owners (Jeff Kitsko, ibid.) Now why did an obscure affiliate in the small market of Erie PA get to be THE satellite source for CBS? I recall a previous discussion, one reason being that it had a record of not pre-empting the network. But why not WCBS itself? (gh, DXLD) ** ECUADOR. 3810, 0733, HD210 [sic], Servicio Hidrográfico de la Armada, Ecuador, estación de señal horaria, OM anuncios en espalo, regular. 13/12 (Alfredo Locatelli - Durazno / Uruguay, El EsKuch@ Newsletter Nº 24/ Diciembre 25, 2004, Play DX via DXLD) See also ARGENTINA for a 3rd harmonic on same frequency at same time. Time for another reminder of the correct callsign of this station: HD2IOA. The only number in it is the two, and the IOA stands for Instituto Oceanográfico de la Armada (gh) ** ECUADOR. UNID 5040, open carrier here mornings during the 1000 and 1100 hours. My guess is Upano, Ecuador. Same pattern as was heard on 5999.3 which has no [sic] ended; I think it could be the same transmitter just shifted to 5040 (Hans Johnson, Naples FL, Dec, via Björn Malm, Ecuador, DXLD) 5040 (around 5040.05 kHz) is not an open carrier but very low modulated signal from LV del Upano and it is not their transmitter that has moved from 5999.29 to 5040 kHz kHz - I have heard them both at the same time. 5999.29 LV del Upano, Nueva Loja (= Lago Agrio) has been off air the last 10 days or so - strange as they said they were going to start regular transmissions from 15th of December from their new QTH Nueva Loja. 73s (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA [non]. Voice of Delina --- The website of Belgian airtime broker TDP http://www.airtime.be/schedule.html now lists "Voice of Delina", a new transmission for Eritrea. According to this, it's on the air in Tigrigna 1500-1600 UT on Saturdays [15650]. I found this just a couple of hours too late to check it here, but a Google search turned up the website of the Tesfa Delina Foundation http://dmsi.delina.org/Notices/n041223.html which in a "Notice to Eriitrean Business" (sic) confirms that schedule and gives an address in California. Regards, (Dave Kernick, UK, Dec 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: email: Info @ delina.org MAIL: Tesfa Delina Foundation, Inc. 17326 Edwards Road, Suite A-230 Cerritos, CA 907003 Voice of Delina, 15650 kHz. 19.16 Meter Band Saturdays from 15:00 - 16:00 UTC (6:00 PM - 7 PM Asmara Local Time) (via Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Read somewhere of the 1600-1800 UT span on very same channel: 1600- 1800 DVI English on 15650 SPI Christian Voice via Kostinbrod-BUL?? TX site UNKNOWN. Africa target. Same organization at 1800-2000 UT on 9680 via Sofia Kostinbrod-BUL (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX Dec 24 via DXLD) ** FINLAND. 6170, 25.12 1055, SWR, Virrat: I asked Jan-Erik Österholm to phone their live-programme, which he also did. And he asked to greet me in Swedish. Then – not only because he asked for permission before starting talking Swedish – they were happy at the station. This is a station who has more than QSL to offer: I got a T- shirt, a CD-record etc for participating in a simple competition. HK (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, SW Bulletin Dec 26, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. Now relaying CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC, q.v., on 9590 ** GABON. 4777, Radio TV Gabonaise (probable, presumed), 0550, locutor, señal bastante distorsionada, francés, música y canciones africanas. A las 0558 se cortó la señal. 24322. (Diciembre 25). (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, escucha realizada en Friol, 27 Km. al oeste de Lugo capital, Grundig Satellit 500, antena de cable, 8 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. Re Andy's notes about 693: There were indeed complaints in the UK last year when the Zehlendorf transmitter was run in "pure" DRM mode during the IFA fair. But what are the experiences with 250 kW AM operation from Germany, until 1991 from Berlin (Dammheide site between Köpenick-Uhlenhorst and Mahlsdorf Süd) and 2001-2003 from Zehlendorf? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Berlin-Britz 990 is off, reportedly at least since yesterday. 855 is on in AM at present. Zehlendorf 693 is still on, apparently unchanged in DRM simulcast mode, judging from the muffled-sounding audio (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Berlin-Britz 990 is still off. I have an impression that 855 is stronger than previously and has again the typical audio with completely suppressed bass range, so probably this is again the "old" Nautel transmitter. No idea what's going on there, especially since it is hard to imagine that they would abandon 990 but keep 855 with the co-channel Romanian megawatter (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The interference factor of DRM is very much higher than for an AM transmitter of the same power, as every watt of the DRM signal consists of energetic noise as seen by an AM detector, while much of the AM power consists of the carrier, which does not per se create interfering sounds although it greatly facilitates the demodulation of the sidebands as compared to BFO detection (Olle Alm, Sweden, BC-DX Dec 23 via DXLD) Now, I feel more chaos is looming on the horizon as DRM is introduced to the MW band, and particularly if high powered transmitters are used. And the last paragraph of Olle's mail seems to sum up what I mean. I have very little experience of DRM on MW, but if it is as loud, and spreads as much, as it does on SW then those stations which continue to broadcast in AM are going to be badly affected by it (Noel R. Green, UK, BC-DX Dec 24 via DXLD) ** GREECE. 7430, Filia Radio via Voice of Greece, *1929-1958* Dec 20, instrumental music to opening ID and FM (107) and AM (666) frequency announcement. Also, mentioned to Europe and North America on shortwave. A woman presented the news, then international news with PSA for "moneygrams." Fair to good reception (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek Dxpediton, PA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** GUATEMALA. Radio Cultural - TGNA 3300 card, letter, pennant info, tourist info, follow-up, 8 weeks. Addr.: P.O. Box 601, 01901 Guatemala; v/s Yojhana Ajsivinac, Sectretary; my fifth or sixth attempt was successful; I forwarded my f/up report for a February 2002 reception by e-mail tgna @ guate.net.gt (Norbert Reiner, Germany? via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) ** INDIA. 4775, AIR Imphal, Dec 25, 1236-1300, talking in vernacular, several mentions of `Christmas`, followed by xmas music with singing in vernacular, English ID for AIR. Was fair to good, till start-up of CODAR at 1300 (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 9425, AIR Bangalore, Dec 24, 1741-1900, very good reception, sub-continental music and vocals, at 1830 noted time clicks (4 double + 1 long), English ID for AIR, English news, details given for the funeral ceremonies planned for the former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and that AIR Hyderbad would carry live commentary (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, NRD545, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. [See also ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS] Altho there are some other cities near the east coast, the only major city right on the coast is Chennai (ex-Madras). On the dx_india list, Alokesh Gupta forwarded a press report that AIR Chennai was flooded. Nominal sign-on times, per WRTH 2005: Chennai 4920 *0015 Chennai 7270 *0025 [tests] It may well be that many unaffected AIR stations elsewhere in India will be on extended emergency schedules. I haven`t heard any specific news about Kolkata, Dhaka, BANGLADESH, and Yangon, MYANMAR, but let`s hope their positions somewhat inland, altho on the water, will have diminished tsunami damage (Glenn Hauser, Dec 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) The emergency frequencies seem to be 7050 for emergency traffic within India, and 7055 for Indonesia (which is their usual net frequency). 14190 and 14150 are also being used for traffic to VU2. The usual net of expats on 7075 in Thailand seemed to be a gathering place today, with many reporting in from 4S7, VU2 and 9M2 (The Daily DX via Ken Kopp, dxldyg via DXLD) RADIO AMATEURS, DXPEDITION TEAM HANDLE EMERGENCY TRAFFIC IN DISASTER`S WAKE http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2004/12/27/2/?nc=1 NEWINGTON, CT, Dec 27, 2004 --- Here is an update on the current situation in India, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Sri Lanka, with thanks to The Daily DX, courtesy of its editor Bernie McClenny, W3UR, and from Horey Majumdar, VU2HFR: News agencies now report estimates of more than 21,000 feared dead from the tsunamis (tidal waves) that took place in the Bay of Bengal December 26. The estimated death toll in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands ranges from 2000 to 5000. VU2HFR reports that radio amateurs in India are handling hundreds of pieces of health and welfare traffic regarding people missing and from relatives of those living in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which are closer to the earthquake`s epicenter. ``There is presently no communication from Nicobar Islands,`` Majumdar reports, noting that Nicobar received more damage than Andaman. McClenny says the VU4RBI/VU4NRO DXpedition team continues to pass traffic and occasionally hand out QSOs. C. K. ``Ram`` Raman, VU3DJQ, reports he was in contact with Sarath, 4S7SW, a physician operating from the vicinity of a hospital in Mathara, Sri Lanka, which also was heavily hit by the tsunamis. ``He is requesting food, clothing and medicines for relief,`` Raman reported. ``He will be listening 14.195 and 21.295.`` Telephones are not working there, he said. McClenny and Majumdar agree that it was fortuitous that the VU4RBI/VU4NRO DXpedition was under way when the disaster struck. ``If there is a positive aspect to this disaster, it may very well be that the Indian government --- and others --- realize the ability of Amateur Radio during these difficult times,`` McClenny observed. The initial earthquake off the Indonesian Island of Sumatra just before 0100 UT on December 26 now has been upgraded to 9.0 on the Richter scale. Since then, the National Earthquake Information Center has reported some 18 aftershocks split between the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The most recent, just before 0100 UT today, registered 6.1 on the Richter scale. Sandeep Baruah, VU2MUE, reports two emergency frequencies have been established. VU4NRO, the team at Port Blair, will be QRV on or near 14.190 MHz. The club station VU2NRO in Hyderabad on the mainland will relay traffic to and from Port Blair. Other emergency traffic frequencies being reported include 14.193 and 14.160 MHz in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 7.050 MHz in South India, 7.055 MHz in Indonesia and 7.075 in Thailand, where stations from 4S7, VU2 and 9M2 were reportedly heard. D.V.R.K. Murthy, VU2DVO,and Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, are now in Port Blair. Reports indicate that some telephone lines are now working, but there still is no water or electricity at the Hotel Sinclair, where the VU4 DXpedition was headquartered. In the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the most devastated area is Car Nicobar, which has been totally cut off. It is possible that Amateur Radio operators may travel to this area after obtaining clearance from local authorities. Club station VU2NCT and VU2MUE in Calcutta all are helping with the efforts to pass emergency traffic to Port Blair. Baruah is operating club station VU2NCT in coordination with the National Disaster Control, New Delhi. The Calcutta VHF Amateur Radio Society has set up a control station from Calcutta. Majumdar is operating that station and has been in touch with VU4RBI in the Andamans. Charly Harpole, K4VUD, who had been visiting the VU4RBI/VU4NRO operation and filing regular reports via The Daily DX now is reported back on the Indian mainland. Majumdar also tells ARRL that hams from Bangalore and Chennai on the Indian mainland are moving toward Nagapattinam to set up ham radio disaster communication stations at Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu --- the worst-affected areas on the mainland. The Indian Army is assisting stations on Andaman by providing logistics and backup batteries. Majumdar says radio amateurs from Bangalore, Chennai and other parts of South India are trying to set up stations in the affected areas of Tamil Nadu. James Brooks, 9V1YC, provided additional information via The Daily DX. He says Andaman and Nicobar Islands authorities have asked the DXpedition team for relief communications help. They have requested one station at the deputy commissioner`s office in Port Blair and another on the remote Nicobar Islands. VU2RSB will be manning the station at the deputy commissioner`s office in Port Blair, and VU2RSI will staff the station at the current DXpedition site until further notice. He reports the Indian Army will be flying VU2MYH and VU2DVO out to the Nicobar Islands with three days` food, a rig, batteries and an inverted V. The VU4RBI/VU4NOR team was allowed back into the damaged hotel building and Bharathi Prasad, VU2RBI, ``is bravely operating on the fifth floor using the Yagi`` despite continued aftershocks. Telephones in the building are also working again. Commercial power is returning slowly, but the DXpedition team continues to use battery power most of the time. The DXpedition has been suspended, but VU2RBI still is promising to hand out the contacts once emergency communications work is finished. The team has asked authorities for an extension of the DXpedition, but so far this has not been granted. ``This decision may change, due to the relief communications work they are supplying,`` Brooks said. Bharathi Prasad, VU2RBI, will be leaving on January 1 regardless, he reports, and if any time extension is granted VU2RSB and VU2MYH will remain for an additional week, possibly longer. Here in the US, the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN) has been monitoring HF frequencies for news and information in an attempt to assist with emergency communications as needed. --- additional information from K2FF, VA3ORI and WA6KAH Copyright © 2004, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved (via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. Banda Aceh was closest to the epicenter, but RRI here and other west-coast Sumatera cities such as Sibolga and Padang, have been off SW for some time (Glenn Hauser, Dec 26, dxldyg via DXLD) Among MW stations heard last night (not all positively IDed) were: 855 RRI Medan; I couldn't hear RRI Banda Aceh 1251 kHz from this location (Alan Davies, Pekanbaru, Sumatra, Indonesia, Dec 27, BC-DX via DXLD) The emergency frequencies seem to be 7050 for emergency traffic within India, and 7055 for Indonesia (which is their usual net frequency). 14190 and 14150 are also being used for traffic to VU2. The usual net of expats on 7075 in Thailand seemed to be a gathering place today, with many reporting in from 4S7, VU2 and 9M2 (The Daily DX via Ken Kopp, dxldyg via DXLD) List of Indonesian media at http://www.mediosmedios.com.ar/A.%20Indonesia.htm Some links may work, others not (Horacio Nigro, Uruguay, dxldyg via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL. Corey Deitz's weirdest moments in radio this year: http://radio.about.com/od/radio2004whathappened/a/aa122004a.htm (CKUT International Radio Report Dec 26, notes by Ricky Leong, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ITALY. Re 4-189, is Rai still on 11800 in English to NAm at 0055? At present 0030 UT I hear 100% Italian Christmas children songs on both 9840/11800; as well as to CAm on 6110/11765 kHz. So you have the choice of 2 different Italian language programs. Unfortunately the graphic designer at RAI Rome put out the B-04 schedule as a silly very bulky .PDF format file of 531 kB [excerpts:] INGLESE 0055-0115 11800 0445-0500 5965 6000 7230 1935-1955 6035 9760 2025-2045 6040 11880 2205-2230 11895 ITALIANO 0130-0230 6110 11765 0130-0315 9840 11800 0435-0445 5965 6000 7230 0455-0530 11985 0630-1300 11800 1000-1100 11920 1400-1425 17780 21520 (lunedi-sabato) 1500-1525 9670 11800 11900 (lunedi-sabato) 1500-1525 9670 11800 (lunedi-sabato) 1555-1625 5985 9570 11680 1700-1800 6140 9755 11875 11895 15250 15320 1830-1905 11800 15250 2240-0055 9840 11800 2300-0500 900 1332 6060 - - - A NORTH AMERICA Time Frequency (kHz) Language 1400 1425 17780 21520 Italian 1830 1905 11800 15250 17780 Italian 2240 0055 11800 Italian* 0055 0115 11800 English 0115 0130 11800 French 0130 0315 11800 Italian* 0315 0335 11800 Spanish B CENTRAL AMERICA 0130 0230 11765 Italian C SOUTH AMERICA 2240 0055 9840 Italian * 0055 0115 9840 Spanish 0115 0130 9840 Portuguese 0130 0230 6110 Italian * 0130 0315 9840 Italian * 0315 0335 9840 Spanish (Wolfgang Büschel, Dec 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ITALY [non]. 13840 "GERMANY." R. Rasant (via IRRS), just a whisper at 1130 Dec 25, but picked up to intermittently audible after 1200, pop mx with talk in between. I had about given up at 1220 when the signal peaked modestly and a woman gave an EG ID, "You are listening to Radio Rasant . . ," plus contact info in what appeared to be both EG and GM, spelling out some items phonetically (the only one I could get was the postal code, 59846). A female rock selection followed, then a pop male vocal. The Rasant prgm appeared to end arnd 1227, at which time IRRS played Xmas mx until 1238 when there was an EG talk prgm which I couldn't decipher. IRRS closed down at 1301 after ID, address and what appears to be an anthem (Jerry Berg, MA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) 5775, ITALY, IRRS, 2013-2030; 2106-2120, Dec. 25, English, "Free Speech Radio News" re Palestinian health issues; Israeli raids. Program ID/credits, IRRS ID/contact info. Re-check at 2106 with Xmas edition of "Medialine" with interview of NEXUS B/C C.E.O. re R. Rasant, R. Six Int'l and R. 510 Int'l. Host with talks re various Int' SW Xmas programs. Both good (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, 200' NE and NW Beverages, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH. 2850.04, 1532-, KCBS, Dec 26. Very strong and clear modulation with instrumental non-descriptive music. Hard to believe ILG listed power as 5 kW. Suspect 10 times that at least. 3320.26, 1537-, KCBS, Dec 26. South Korean service, again with strong signals with Korean male vocal. EZL music by North Korean standards! Good audio again (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LATVIA. 9290, R. Marabu, 1138-1209, German/English, Dec. 25, Ballads, pop and dance music in English with numerous German ID's. Fair/good. 9290, LATVIA, UNIDENTIFIED, 1548-1600*-German/English; *1600-1627- English/Japanese, Dec. 25, Xmas music including "Father Xmas" by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, German OM between selections. Partial copy of English announcement re "..Germany" and "January" followed by "Winter Wonderland". At 1600 seamlessly into a new program with English announcement mentioning "You are tuned to..? via 9290 kHz shortwave from Latvia" followed by Japanese pop music. Other English announcement mentioned (as best as I could copy) "On 9290 this is (call-sign-?) Germany via Latvia with a DXpedition test transmission directed to the areas of Japan and the Pacific featuring Top 10 music direct from Japan" appreciating reports from Japan and surrounding areas though no contact info was ever mentioned. Fair/good signals from both. Who are these and where are they located??? Dave Valko tip thinks it's Q103 but I am 99% positive these are two separate programs. Any help IDing the 9290-Latvia unIDs is greatly appreciated (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, 200' NE and NW Beverages, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) The pre-publicized schedule was: ** LATVIA. RELAYS FROM LATVIA ON 9290 KHZ, ALL TIMES IN UT 24 December Marabu 1300-1500 25 December Marabu 1100-1300 25 December Q103 1300-1700 26 December Marabu 1300-1500 GOOD LISTENING (Tom Taylor, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA. "V of Africa", Same package received by others as of late with n/d letter on sharp looking letterhead, report form and "Welcome to Libya" CD-ROM from the General People's Committee for Tourism in 217 days for an English report. Nice stamp blocks on envelope (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, 200' NE and NW Beverages, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LITHUANIA. Vilnius & Klaipeda 612 --- In order to improve the skywave coverage in Belarus for Radio Liberty on 612, Radio Baltic Waves started to lease MW capacities in Klaipeda combined with reduced power of the transmitter in Vilnius. The arrangement is as follows: Vilnius 50 kW + Klaipeda 20 kW (to be increased to 40 kW in the next days) at 0400-0600 & 1600-2200. This is a test operation which may be turned into a regular configuration if the results are positive. (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, mwdx yg via DXLD) So this explains the mystery open carriers on 612? (gh, DXLD) ** LUXEMBOURG. Olle's fears re 1440 were just true; they are going to test DRM 0000-0350 from today: Subject: [A-DX] DRM-Tests auf 1440 kHz - Hallo, RTL sendet ab heute regelmäßige DRM-Tests auf 1440 kHz zwischen 0:00 und 03:50 UTC. 73, (Klaus Schneider, Germany, A-DX Dec 27 via Kai Ludwig, DXLD) Another one bites the dust. Hi, Klaus Schneider reported today in the Austrian list A-DX, that from today onwards RTL Luxemburg will run DRM tests on 1440 khz in the timeslot between 0000 and 0350 UT. Another free channel now offering KCHCHKKCHKK only instead of DX- possibilities. Looks to me, as if we MW-DXers are facing the last season of our hobby, with DRM being the nail to the coffin. Or what do you think, how will our hobby look like in one year from now, when the first DRM-receivers are hitting the market? Just a week ago that Voice of Russia started DRM on 693 kHz, now the next buzzer coming around the corner. -- 73 (Martin Elbe, Germany, Dec 27, MWDX yg via DXLD) ** MALDIVE ISLANDS. Hi Glenn, We need help. We are having a great difficulty in contacting the outlying islands. Please can we get help to find out the situation in the islands. Tomorrow we are contacting all the Aid agencies to get help to the individual islands. It seems as if the death toll here is going to rise and rise especially if we cannot get help to the outlying islands soon. Minivan Radio is getting through to the islands - as long as people have dry batteries. Do you have amateur radio specialists in the Maldives who can let us know what is going on? Telephones and internet are not working there. It looks like we are back to Radio as the only thing that might be able to help these people. Hope you can help. Best Wishes (Dave Hardingham, UK, 1809 UT Dec 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I had to tell him that I don`t know of any hams in the area. US media have barely mentioned Maldives as one of the countries hit, and I have yet to see any video from there, but there is a great deal of news about this at http://www.e-maldives.com/ Most of the atolls are barely a meter above sea level, so the entire country may have been swamped! (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALI. 4783, Radio TV du Malí, 0600, Inicio de la emisión, Identificación: "Radiod. TV du Malí, Bamako". Francés, locutora, horarios y frecuencias. 34333. (Diciembre 25). (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, escucha realizada en Friol, 27 Km. al oeste de Lugo capital, Grundig Satellit 500, antena de cable, 8 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nice Africa Opening; Glenn - this is off the screen compared to the tsunami. 5995 34322/34333, 4786.9 24322/1 heard at 0605 on Dec 26. Stringed instrumental / vocals. Heard till after 07. 0707 several "Bamako`s... (emphasis on the first syllable Ba'-mako). 60 mb was 4786.9 and not 4783± (David Norcross, Kahalu'u, HI, 2010/7600G, attic Grove Skywire, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. ¿Qué pasará con la onda corta de Radio Eduación? Considera el periodista mexicano Fernando Mejía Barquera en una nota publicada en "Etcétera" http://www.etcetera.com.mx/pag26ne50.asp que Radio Educación, pese a sus 80 años de trayectoria, sigue siendo una entidad "que opera con presupuestos raquíticos una frecuencia de AM y otra de onda corta". Piensa que "para cumplir cabalmente" con la misión que se le atribuyó en 1978, en el sentido de apoyar a la Secretaría de Ecuación Pública "en la educación formal y la difusión de la cultura, así como organizar una fonoteca, dar asistencia técnica y de producción radiofónica a otras emisoras culturales del país, y ´promover la investigación científica y técnica en materia de radiodifusión´", debería "convertirse en un sistema de radiodifusión cultural moderno, con solidez económica y tecnológica, y con una red de estaciones en la República, incluida una de FM en el DF." Son palabras que hacen pensar en un desahucio de la onda corta. (Henrik Klemetz, Suecia, Dec 26, condig list via DXLD) ** MONGOLIA. 12085, Voice of Mongolia, 1001. Programa en inglés. Identificación: "Welcome to de Voice of Mongolia English Service". Noticias de Mongolia y música. Buena señal, pero mala modulación. 34333 variando a 44444. (Diciembre 25). (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, escucha realizada en Friol, 27 Km. al oeste de Lugo capital, Grundig Satellit 500, antena de cable, 8 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 12085, 21.12 1015, VOM, Ulanbaatar, likes the messages a lot sent by Christer Brunström and me, the female announcer Oyuna (short for a longer first name) who has been around for at least 20 years. If you miss the mailbox on Mondays there is a follow up the day after and also reception normally is better!! The station sent a nice Christmas card and every QSL is of high class. 3-4 HK (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, SW Bulletin Dec 26, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. RNZI and Radio Sport Hi Glenn, Merry Christmas. Regarding RNZI carrying Radio Sport. Leaving aside RNZI's reasons for carrying Radio Sport, you also asked who in their right mind wants to listen to American sports programs in the middle of the night here in New Zealand. Probably no-one. However, I understand that The Radio Network (TRN) who own Radio Sport, are themselves 50% owned by American network Clear Channel, and 50% owned by Rupert Murdoch's News group (who own Fox) and in that tangled world of international media links lies the reason why Radio Sport takes KXTA 1150 programs. Radio Sport is, like so many other New Zealand radio networks, really just a brand. One small studio, about 5 or 6 presenters, and everything else on contract, including the news, advertising sales, transmitter maintenance etc. I guess the overnight presenter is on holiday so it's cheaper to run a feed from LA than find a replacement presenter in Auckland. Of course, such ownership gives deep pockets with which to buy sports rights. And, in cricket mad countries like New Zealand, cricket commentaries are the sound of summer. One can speculate that having the rights from Radio Sport to relay cricket during the day on RNZI has something to do with broadcasts of Radio Sport at night via RNZI. Warm regards (David Ricquish, Wellington, New Zealand, Dec 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND [and non]. The Radio Heritage Foundation has launched its own website at http://www.radioheritage.net Please invite your readers and listeners to visit us soon. You'll find our latest media release here: http://www.radioheritage.net/RHF_Media_Release_221204a.doc Warm regards (David Ricquish, Radio Heritage Foundation, Wellington, New Zealand, December 22 2004, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: RADIO HERITAGE FOUNDATION LAUNCHES WEB SITE A new web site http://www.radioheritage.net has been launched to celebrate the story of radio broadcasting in the Pacific region, and to provide a home for a wide variety of radio heritage activities, exhibitions, archiving, research and advocacy projects covering New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific Islands and reaching as far as countries around the Pacific Rim. ``Radio has a long history in the Pacific,`` says Radio Heritage Foundation chairman David Ricquish. ``In fact, it`s even claimed by some biographers that `Rutherford began what Marconi completed` in which case, New Zealand is the real home of radio broadcasting in the modern age.`` Whether New Zealand`s Lord Rutherford was indeed the true father of radio instead of Marconi is one of the hundreds of fascinating topics the Radio Heritage Foundation plans to investigate in the near future. Currently, http://www.radioheritage.net contains information about various projects which the Foundation has underway, highlights radio heritage issues, and a selection of articles from its on-line archives project. ``We have hundreds of articles and thousands of images already available from our collections`` says David Ricquish, ``and we`ll be bringing these on-line as fast as resources allow. Our definition of `heritage` is anything up to a nano-second ago, so contemporary radio issues are as important to us as those of the 1920`s or any other era,`` he adds. ``Radio has touched every aspect of our lives for almost a century now`` says David Ricquish. ``It has a social history, cultural, artistic, technological, heritage, genealogy and entertainment context,`` he says, ``and this web site, and indeed, the whole project, helps us understand just what the impact of radio on our lives continues to be in the new digital era.`` The Radio Heritage Foundation is a non-profit charity based in Wellington, New Zealand. Board members include prominent broadcasters from New Zealand, Australia and Europe and a growing number of contributors and volunteers located across the Pacific from the USA, Canada and Japan, to Australia and New Zealand. ENDS For more information contact: David Ricquish T: +64 21 631 337 Email: info @ radioheritage.net (via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NICARAGUA. ``Síntesis histórica del nacimiento y desarrollo de la radio difusión en Puerto Cabezas`` --- Historical review of the development of radio in Pto. Cabezas. A SW station Radio Mar in the 60s is reported to be the second station in Bilwi. http://www.pto-cabezas.com/radioporte%C3%B1a.htm (Tetsuya Hirahara, Radio Nuevo Mundo Dec 15 via DXLD) Initially in 1966 on 5055, soon changed to MW 1265, per this story from El Pelicano; I really don`t recall that one (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** NIGERIA. 15120, V. of Nigeria, 1409-1420, Dec. 20, English, Poor, choppy reception but able to pull out a few phrases, ID at 1414 and bits of program schedule. Surprised to hear anything in N.H. from VON at this hour (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, 200' NE and NW Beverages, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PARAGUAY. 9736.95, Radio Nacional del Paraguay, Asunción, 0242+, Diciembre 25, Español. Programa especial de Navidad. Charla por locutora. ID: "...en Radio Nacional del Paraguay", 24432 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, Noticias DX via DXLD) ** PERU. ``OC en los Andes Nor-peruanos`` --- A very interesting story on Radio Difusora Huancabamba, with an interview to administrador Federico Ibáñez Matidorena: http://www.galeon.com/red-api/noticias.htm (Tetsuya Hirahara, Radio Nuevo Mundo Dec 15 via DXLD) ** PERU. 6520.3, Radio Paucartambo, 1003-1034 Dec 20, rustic vocal followed by a man announcer with Spanish talk, brief news program, ID and TC and OA vocals. Nice formal canned ID announcement at 1030. Poor to fair. 6536.1v, Radio Huancabamba, 0153-0223 Dec 21, long Spanish talks by a man and a woman. Man announcer took phone calls from listeners and played some OA vocals. Off with ID and sign off announcements but no national anthem. Poor. 6957, La Voz del Campesino, 0135-0152* Dec 20, Man in Spanish hosting program of OA vocals. Off with ID but no anthem. Fair (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek DXpedition, PA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. INFORMACION IMPORTANTE PARA CAZADORES DE QSL`s QSL ESPECIAL DEL 75 ANIVERSARIO DE LA VOZ DE RUSIA Con motivo del 75 Aniversario que cumplirá La Voz de Rusia el próximo 29 de octubre, Francisco "Pancho" Rodríguez --- realizador del programa DX "Frecuencia RM" --- ha editado una tarjeta QSL especial con la que se responderán a todos los radioescuchas que envíen informes de recepción a dicho programas hasta fin de año. Además, desde el 19 de octubre (y cada martes) Frecuencia RM está emitiendo parte de la historia de la radiodifusión rusa en varios capítulos. Debido a los problemas con el correo electrónico de la emisora (colocaron un supero filtro de spam), Pancho recomienda utilizar las siguientes direcciones para establecer contacto el programa: pcortes @ orc.ru y pcortes @ col.ru (Ruben Guillermo Margenet, Argentina, Conexión Digital Dec 25 via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. Last evening VOR German service ran an interesting live show, quite different from the old Radio Moscow like many other programmes they produce today (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Some pictures of the Taldom site can be found at http://www.drmradio.co.uk/html/taldom.html I assume that all 100 kW transmitters at Taldom, except RV-806, are of this design. TDP mentions two SSB transmitters separately, but I think they singled out only in as far as two 100 kW's at Taldom carried Radio Rossii on OOB frequencies like 8005 in USB mode until this service had been changed to "ordinary" 250 kW AM. From the captions I gather that the three masts are a directional system for 153. The mentioned height of 257 metres probably belongs to the 261 antenna (the one still churning out 2500 kW, thus being the highest powered broadcast outlet in the world). (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The picture (VoR1) with three tall masts shows part of the reflector wall for one of the parabolic type highly directional shortwave antennas, called AMO450 (high band) or AMO900 (low band) by the Russians. The platform used by the skydiver seems to be one of the masts of the six mast system assumed to be used by 261 kHz. 73s (Olle Alm, Sweden, Dec 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. 7200 is a daily guest with S=2, in peaks S=3, R Rossii Yakutsk program (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX Dec 21 via DXLD) Yakutsk on 7200 is back with the wobbling carrier frequency. The average frequency is 7201, so that may explain why the LSB seems to be suppressed. This time the exciter stayed stable was something like three weeks this time - previously it has started malfunctioning again already a few days after the visit of the repair man. I have also confirmed that Yakutsk is still using 6150 as last winter. Yakutsk 7200 from time to time reaches a beautiful S9+10 signal here. Magadan 7320 most days is not audible here due to a local buzzer (not the DRM signal, which is very weak here). (Olle Alm, Sweden, BC-DX Dec 24 via DXLD) I notice that the Magadan signal on 7320 has reappeared at normal strength once again - I assume it has been off air or at much reduced power recently. Yakutsk 7200 is putting out "funny noises" again, and apparently only using the USB. I hear nothing when 'tuned' to LSB. Their 7345 was audible today but with strong Chinese co-channel (Noel R. Green-UK, BC-DX Dec 24 via DXLD) 6150 also contains the Perm transmitter for R Rossii, and Yakutsk normally is weaker than both Perm and Brother Scott. Yakutsk needs to be booming in on 41 mb before even a whisper will be heard through the competition on 6150 (Olle Alm, Sweden, BC-DX Dec 26 via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. 7465, Presumed R. Radonezh, heard from 1948 Dec 24, not very strong, and very fluttery, but better than on previous tries. Gongs 1949, again 1955, otherwise all talk. At 1955 it sounded like they gave a Moscow address twice, also an E-mail address, maybe other contact info, then some religious orchestral music. Programming stopped at 1959, carrier off 2000+ (Jerry Berg, MA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** SRI LANKA. Of the SW transmitter sites here, DW`s Trincomalee is on the east coast and likely to have been hit by the tsunami; is anyone hearing normal DW relays as scheduled here? Fortunately, Colombo is on the west side (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) All scheduled TRI transmissions heard loud and clear in 1800-2100 UT frame, like 9715, 11695, 11890, and 12025. Though transmitter site built up on a former submarine harbour base (WW II British? or Japanese?). Main power gain from self-sufficient two ship DIESEL engine generators. 73 wb 01548 0000-0100 ENGLISH 400 035 SAS 01548 1400-1429 GERMAN 400 035 SAS 01548 1430-1515 URDU 400 035 SAS 01548 1515-1600 HINDI 400 035 SAS 01548 1600-1700 ENGLISH 400 035 SAS 01548 1700-1800 GERMAN 400 035 SAS 06030 0000-0059 ENGLISH 250 015 SAS 06170 1600-1659 ENGLISH 250 015 SAS 06180 2200-2259 ENGLISH 250 060 FE 07225 1430-1515 URDU 250 345 SAS 07225 1515-1600 HINDI 250 345 SAS 07225 1600-1659 ENGLISH 125 345 SAS 6070(x7250) 2300-0000 ENGLISH 250 075 SEAS 09560 2300-2350 CHINESE 250 045 CHN 09585 1515-1559 HINDI 250 015 SAS 09610 2200-2250 INDONESIAN 250 105 SEAS 09615 0100-0200 BENGALI 250 015 SAS 09655 1200-1250 INDONESIAN 250 120 SEAS 09655 1400-1600 GERMAN 250 005 SAS 09655 1600-1758 GERMAN 250 005 SAS 09715 1700-1800 RUSSIAN 250 345 CIS 09715 1800-1900 RUSSIAN 250 345 CIS 09715 1900-1959 RUSSIAN 250 345 CIS 09815 2300-0000 ENGLISH 250 105 SEAS 11695 1700-1730 URDU 250 335 ME 11695 1730-1930 PERSIAN 250 335 ME 11890 2000-2130 ARABIC 250 300 ME 12025 2000-2059 ENGLISH 250 240 C/SAF 13780 2100-2200 ENGLISH 250 270 WAF 15145 1030-1055 CHINESE 250 005 FE 15275 1800-1955 GERMAN 250 255 AF 15330 1300-1350 CHINESE 250 015 CHN 15335 0200-0300 RUSSIAN 250 345 ZAS 15335 0300-0359 RUSSIAN 250 345 ZAS 15410 2000-2100 ENGLISH 250 285 C/SAF 15490 1300-1350 CHINESE 250 045 CHN 15595 0100-0200 RUSSIAN 250 025 CIS 17820 1030-1055 CHINESE 250 045 CHN 17820 1200-1250 INDONESIAN 250 105 SEAS 17845 1000-1200 GERMAN 250 060 FE 17845 1200-1355 GERMAN 250 060 FE 21560 1400-1430 ARABIC 250 300 ME 21560 1430-1500 ARABIC 250 300 ME 21640 0600-0800 GERMAN 250 120 SEAS/OC 21640 0800-1000 GERMAN 250 120 SEAS/OC 21675 0600-0700 ENGLISH 090 300 SEUR/ME DRM 21675 0700-0800 ENGLISH 090 300 SEUR/ME DRM 21675 0800-0900 ENGLISH 090 300 SEUR/ME DRM 21675 0900-1000 ENGLISH 090 300 SEUR/ME DRM (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Last night I heard DW's English service to S Asia at 1600 on 6170, 7225 and 1548 kHz via Trincomalee. They were belting out Paul McCartney's 'Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time' - just about the most insensitive choice of mx possible in the circumstances, I would have thought (Alan Davies, Pekanbaru, Sumatra, Indonesia, Dec 27, BC-DX via DXLD) Sri Lanka has been hit heavily and my thoughts and good karma have been concentrated in Victor Goonetilleke's direction. Peace in 2005 (Jim Strader, Swprograms mailing list via DXLD) I think Victor`s near Colombo on the west side, which should have been OK. He`s probably busy with emergency ham communications (Glenn Hauser, swprograms via DXLD) [Later: a CNN correspondent reported only the NW corner was spared, and there were deaths both north and south of Colombo] Glenn, Just called up Victor's colleague at VOA monitoring C. K. Raman (VU3DJQ) and he confirmed that Victor is keeping fine. Regds (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, Dec 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Victor Goonetilleke is alive and OK! Hello, everyone! I heard back from Victor Goonetilleke in Sri Lanka, who kindly took a moment to answer me and let me know how he and his family are doing. I am passing along his response. Thank goodness he's safe, and as those who know him might expect, he's working to help his people through this disaster. He's a very busy fellow now, so I am most grateful that he was able to get a moment to respond. 73 (Marie Lamb, NY, Dec 27, swprograms via DXLD) viz.: Great to hear from you. Will respond soon. All of us are OK here. Trying hard to organize some emergency communications and also doing some food distributions and things like that. Since the affected areas are so widespread things are very hard. Everyone within 1000 metres or so of the coast have been badly affected right along the coast from North to South on the eastern side of the island. In some areas as far as 2-3 km. On the Western side not so bad, about 100 metres from the coast, as the quake was on the Eastern side of the island and the tidal waves came from the East / Southeast. You would have seen the vast destruction --- frightening. Regards (Victor Goonetilleke, via Marie Lamb, Swprograms mailing list via DXLD) Some heart breaking stories are emerging. Just got back after a hectic day. We are sending a radio amateur team to the worst affected area to link on HF and try VHF through one of our functioning repeaters. And a coordinating centre will be set up tomorrow at "Temple Trees" at the Prime Minister's official residence in Colombo. We have some more volunteers who would go, but we have a shortage of portable equipment, transport, etc., to the affected areas, etc. I hope our efforts tomorrow to link Hambantota which is in the deep South are successful as it has been cut off since the first waves hit. Thank you all for writing - excuse this common note as I am exhausted after a very heavy day. Regards, (Victor A. Goonetilleke, Sri Lanka, 4S7VK, DXplorer Dec 27 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** SUDAN. 4750, Radio Peace, *0230-0247 Dec 20, opening ID and announcements followed by English program consisting of a long talk by a woman. Brief musical segment at 0239 and more talk. Poor signal (Rich D`Angelo, French Creek DXPedition, PA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) If the hi-power tests via VT Merlin on 4750 are at 0330, then perhaps at 0230 it is still from their own 1 kW in Sudan? (gh, DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. Dec 27 at 1506, came across English news on 15530, by woman with heavy accent but slowly and clearly enunciated, all dealing with Sudan and Darfur; 1512 said would be more news in half an hour, ID as Sudan Radio Service, jingle ID too, a bit of music; 1514 welcoming us to second part on the findings of some institute on the peace process, with Tracy Cook (f.); SINPO 35533. The 140 degree beam from Woofferton, UK is close to opposite direxion here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWITZERLAND [and non]. SWITZERLAND IN SOUND HIJACKED Hi Glenn, and very best wishes of the season. I have a problem with my Switzerland in Sound website, and would like to appeal to the DX/SWL community for help. In the past few weeks, an unidentified Russian- based web operator has, in effect, hijacked the name "Switzerland in Sound", by making it an extension of its own various URLs. In concrete terms, if you do a search for Switzerland in Sound in Google, multiple results claiming to be SIS turn up on the first page. At best, they lead to a website for medications and related products and services. At worse, they may contain a virus or Trojan. I am deeply concerned about this because this bogus operation hurts the good name of Switzerland in Sound and discourage people from visiting the real SIS site. On top of that, the bogus entries dominate the first 10 results on Google, with the real Switzerland in Sound pushed back to page 7 of the results. The IT experts tell me there is nothing that can be done to stop this Russian operation. Steps have been taken to optimize our performance in the search results. But the only other effective measure is to increase the number of hits on the real SIS website, which will gradually reposition it to a higher ranking in Google. For this reason, I am asking for your help in appealing to your listeners and readers to visit my website frequently. The correct URL is http://www.switzerlandinsound.com Many thanks, Glenn, and very 73. (Bob Zanotti, Dec 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Would not load for me, maybe a flash problem (gh, DXLD) ** THAILAND. The emergency frequencies seem to be 7050 for emergency traffic within India, and 7055 for Indonesia (which is their usual net frequency). 14190 and 14150 are also being used for traffic to VU2. The usual net of expats on 7075 in Thailand seemed to be a gathering place today, with many reporting in from 4S7, VU2 and 9M2 (The Daily DX via Ken Kopp, dxldyg via DXLD) Among MW stations heard last night (not all positively IDed) were: 720 Radio Thailand, Krabi 810 Radio Thailand, Trang 864 Radio Thailand, Phatthalung 1062 Radio Thailand, Phuket 1458 Voice of the Navy, Phuket (Alan Davies, Pekanbaru, Sumatra, Indonesia, Dec 27, BC-DX via DXLD) ** TURKEY. Mr. Abdullah Karakas, Head of Spectrum Management, Telekomünikasyon Kurumu, Yesilirmak Sok. No. 16, Demirtepe-Kizilay/ Ankara refused to complete my ppc's for different Turkish NDB's heard on Samos Island [Greece] "because NDB stations all over the world are registered to ICAO COM Tables and they are copy right". (Norbert Reiner, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD) Non sequitur ** U K. Staff at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) have been given instructions on how to walk through a door, a tabloid newspaper reported. . . http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041224/wl_uk_afp/britainbbcoffbeat_041224092837 (via Pete Costello, DXLD) ** U K. 5450, 0717, RAF Volmet, (Inglaterra), USB inglés, estación del servicio aeronáutico, YL noticias meteorológicas. Buena. 14/12 11255, 1051, RAF Volmet, Inglaterra, USB, estación del servicio aeronáutico, YL noticias meteorológicas de varias ciudades del mundo. 25/12 (Alfredo Locatelli - Durazno / Uruguay, El EsKuch@ Newsletter Nº 24/ Diciembre 25, 2004, Play DX via DXLD) ** U S A. 9264.7, WMLK at 1733 with Jacob O. Meyer. Bad modulation as usual. Loud hum. Best USB but barely audible in AM. I thought this was supposed to be a new transmitter; 24 Dec (Liz Cameron, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Too bad Xmas was on The Sabbath this year, so he couldn`t come on and bash it then. Checked Mon Dec 17 at 2056, and found 10-over-9 signal, but barely any modulation detectable vs noise level; off when rechecked at 2103 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. I have a feeling KJES isn`t on every day; but it was Dec 27 when checked 11715 at 1654; continuous hum and low modulation, but readable as only one man was speaking Spanish with heavy American accent. Also at 2055 checked 15385 and found the usual child exhorting; poor signal on 15385 compared to 11715. KJES is a bit close for good propagation on 15 MHz without some help from the E-layer (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WBCQ heard in Australia with extended Christmas Broadcast G'day, heard WBCQ with their extended Christmas broadcast from 0730 till 1000 hours UT with a lot of group fun. The signal however wasn't fabulous, a 1 - 2 at best but enough to ID WBCQ at the top of the hours heard. Monticello Maine USA, WBCQ, 7415, 0730 TILL 1000 SIGN OFF, Christmas, group talking, Lots of laughing, sinpo 25342, Dec 26 (Tim Gaynor, using Sony ICF 7600SW WITH 20 metre longwire facing north east/south west, Gold Coast City, Q, Australia, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Annotated WBCQ Program Guide Anomalies and Recent Observations http://www.zappahead.net/wbcq/anomaly.php Friday, December 24, 2004 Tim and Marcie hosted the Real Amateur Radio Show/Piss and Moan Net on Friday, December 24, at 5:00 pm ET (2200 UT) on 7415 \\ 9330. Tim spoke of rumors of future expansion of programming on 17495 on Saturdays. Allan came online and said that this plan isn`t going to happen, at least any time soon. He was working with Tom Anderson to bring ``best of`` WBCQ programming to Saturdays on 17495, but this won`t be done for budgetary reasons. However, Tom Anderson is sponsoring the return of the Area 51 block, Sunday evenings 9 pm-1 am ET on 5105 [UT Mon 0200-0600]. Allan said he cancelled Area 51 a couple of weeks ago in order to save on the electric bill. Also, Monday-Friday 5-6 pm on 9330 is an available time slot. WBCQ would like to find a sponsor to run the Jean Shepherd show at this time (via John Norfolk, dxldyg) That`s 2200 UT --- meanwhile has been filling 2200-2230 UT Mon-Thu with WORLD OF RADIO on 9330-CLSB, and still on 9330 Mon Dec 27 (gh, DXLD) WBCQ Schedule Notes - Monday, December 27, 2004 The Full Gospel Hour is moving from Saturday at 3:30-4:30 PM EST on 17495 to Saturday 6-7 PM on 9330, replacing a repeat of Allan Weiner Worldwide. This is in addition to the 10-11 PM slot already occupied by The Full Gospel Hour. According to Allan, this move now frees up all available programming on 17495 on Saturday and Sundays, so this presumably means that the 4:30-5 PM repeat of World of Radio [Sat 2130 UT] is gone as well. A test transmission of "the best of WBCQ programming" will take place from noon to 6 PM ET [1700-2300 UT] on Sunday, January 2, 2005 (Programming notes from Allan Weiner Worldwide, Friday, December 24, 2004) Planet World News at 2:45 PM ET weekdays has not been aired for some time, so I am removing it from the schedule. Michael will sometimes air news in the PWN style at the beginning of World Microscope. Old Time Radio Theater now listed as 2-3 PM ET weekdays [1900-2000 UT] on 17495. Also, replaced Planet World News Roundup with Old Time Radio Theater on Thursdays at 6-6:30 PM ET [2300 UT] on 7415 based on recent monitoring. The early broadcast of Radio Timtron Worldwide moves from 6-7 PM ET to 7-8 PM ET Saturdays [0000-0100 UT Sundays] on 7415 effective January 1, 2005. The Lumpy Gravy Radio Show moves from 7-8 PM ET to 6-7 PM ET Saturdays [2300 UT] on 7415 on January 1 (Larry Will, the WBCQ Program Guide via dxldyg) So it appears that both Friday night temp times [2200 on 7415, 2430 on 9330-CLSB] for WORLD OF RADIO are already gone (John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A. 6870, 0723, WWCR, inglés, OM programa religioso, // con 5765 khz, buena, 17/12 (Alfredo Locatelli - Durazno / Uruguay, El EsKuch@ Newsletter Nº 24/ Diciembre 25, 2004, Play DX via DXLD) 6870 is WRMI, not WWCR! Both carrying Brother Scare at this time (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. Frequency change for WYFR As of 19 December, 2004: Delete 5820 kHz 2000-2300 UT 44 degrees Zones 27,28 Add 5810 kHz 2000-2300 UT 44 degrees Zones 27,28 (WYFR Dec 24 via DXLD) No improvement for World Music Radio 5815 (gh) ** U S A. 1460 FLORIDA WQXM "La X," Bartow; 1225-1402 Dec. 23. Initially thought this was a Mexican, but not fading out. Mostly XE vocals (a few more generic ballads thrown in), occasional brief talk by M. At 1258, canned "WQXM [in English], Bartow, La Equis." and back to XE music. Caught the same ID at 1400. DFed ESE on the Scotka loop. Format still listed as Country on 100000watts.com. 1460 FLORIDA WZEP, DeFuniak Springs; 1233-1250 Dec. 23. This one faded up and dominated for awhile with Walton County news items, weather ("high 44-48... from the Florida Weather Center... WZEP-AM") and W proudly announcing six recent deaths, which the M proceeded to read the obit details, including reference to a presumed funeral home at "101 Park Street, Niceville." DX for me (not for you Gerry Bishop!). 1580 FLORIDA WSRF, Ft. Lauderdale; 0923 Dec. 23. Mostly dominating the channel with Kreyol program of kompas, M. First time I recall hearing Kreyol (usually Caribe English programming). Despite an NRC report that this one is on its deathbed and running on STA at around 200 watts, it's always a good copy here -- about 200 miles NNE of transmitter site. [you mean NNW?] 1670 FLORIDA City of Boynton Beach (MIS); 0917 Dec. 23. Briefly faded up and alone with computer-man NOAA West Palm Beach-area weather audio. Presume the one based on others' logs. The GA station recaptured the channel after a couple of minutes (Terry L. Krueger, Clearwater FL, Tocobaga DX Dec 23 via DXLD) ** U S A. Re LRS 1660, UIUC Urbana IL: Don't Part 15 rules cover campus free radiate & carrier current applications? I do know that schools can use free radiate upwards of 20 watts. Syracuse Univ. runs "WERW" 1570, a similar station. Merry Christmas HO X 3 (Andrew MacKenzie, Greenville NY, Dec 24, WTFDA-AM via DXLD) Hi Andrew, Twenty watts sounds about right for the coverage they have. I was down in Urbana yesterday but the station was silent (not surprising over Christmas break). The website says they're doing experimental transmissions until regular broadcasts begin in January. As for the Part 15 rules, I honestly can say I'm not up on the specifics --- I'll have to poke around and look it up. Illinois State University has a student station "WZND" on 540 AM current carrier, so I guess they'd be able to go the broadcast route with this provision in Part 15. Merry Christmas! (Curtis Sadowski, Paxton, Illinois, ibid.) ** U S A. RADIO ACCIDENTS: PLANE CRASH FELLS KFI TOWER [ham version] A historic Southern California radio landmark came crashing down on Sunday, December 19th after a single engine Cessna 182 airplane en route to Fullerton Municipal Airport from El Monte accidentally struck the KFI AM tower in La Mirada at about 9:50 in the morning. We have more in this report: According to news reports Jim Ghosoph of Temple City California was flying the Cessna when its wing may have clipped the top of the 750 foot high antenna structure. The tower came down in folded pieces. The structure and its guy wires missed moat buildings with the tower falling completely within the stations parking lot. A small fire ensued but was quickly extinguished. According to information from Forbes News Service, pilot Jim Ghosoph was a ham, callsign KG6LPA. He and his wife Mary, who was a passenger in the ill fated Cessna, were both killed. KFI was off the air for about an hour, before engineer Tony Dinkel, WB6MIE could make his way into the site. He manually switched the station to its 200 foot auxiliary tower and brought power to the 5000 watt level. That`s where he left it for the next 24 hours as the old tower was removed and damage assessments made. Reports indicate that the 50 kilowatt tuning house was seriously damaged, if not completely demolished. While the cause of the accident is yet to be determined, local pilots say that the KFI tower is nearly invisible from above on bright sunny mornings. This is particularly true when wind conditions require that planes land from the West instead of following the standard Eastern approach. That was the case when the accident occurred. According to news reports, local authorities are quoted as saying that numerous requests have been made in recent years to Clear Channel Communications which owns KFI. They wanted the company illuminate the tower with flashing strobe lights easily seen in the daytime. So far these requests have yielded no response. Clear Channel, which is based in San Antonio, Texas, issued a statement on Monday, December 20th. It said that the tower was in full compliance with current Federal Communications Commission rules. The National Transportation safety board has been called to investigate. At airtime, KFI is back on the air on the auxiliary tower on 640 kHz but only running 25,000 watts (CGC Communicator, Forbes News via W6OBB, K7CD, others via ARNewsline December 24 via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A. Be on the lookout for another quarterly Capitol Steps holiday comedy special on public radio. Most will run it around NYE or NYD, but an early airing is UT Tue Dec 28 0100-0200 on webcasting KGOU, Oklahoma (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** URUGUAY. 9620 nominal, SODRE, Montevideo. Inactiva desde por lo menos este pasado fin de semana. 6045, R. Sarandí Sport, Montevideo, aparentemente inactiva. Siempre tuvo poco caudal de modulación. 6140, R. Montecarlo, inactiva desde por lo menos un mes. Nada escuchado de R. Banda Oriental, Sarandí del Yí; R. Universo, Castillos; y la otra frecuencia de OC de Radio Montecarlo (9595), ni 11735, R. Oriental, Montevideo. 6010, Em. Ciudad de Montevideo, heard durante los mediodias locales (más o menos 1300-1600), buena señal y modulación. Obs.: Captaciones hechas con un Kenwood R600, (usado) (regalo de Papa Noel por USD 60.oo!!), + 15m randomwire (Horacio A. Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, Dec 26, condiglist via DXLD) ** VANUATU. 7260, 0715, R. Vanuatu, programa de música variada (internacional y local) YL comentarios en Vernacular, OM ID en inglés, regular a mala. 15/12 (Alfredo Locatelli - Durazno / Uruguay, El EsKuch@ Newsletter Nº 24/ Diciembre 25, 2004, Play DX via DXLD) ** VATICAN. 9755, Vatican R at 1952 with the rosary in Latin. // 11625 poor. 7365 good. 5885 fair. 4005 not heard. English at 2000 only on 11625, 9755 and 7365. The Latin Mass at 0630 is audible here on most SW frequencies. The sked says 105, 585, 1530, 93.3, 4005, 5885, 6185, 7250, 9645, 11740, 15595. These are the only Latin transmissions on SW now (Liz Cameron, MI, 25 Dec, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Besides YLE ** VENEZUELA. 1500, YVRZ Radio 2000 AM, Cumaná, Sucre; *0956-1030 Dec. 23. Great catch for me – tune-in to nice choral version of YV national anthem followed by M "Radio 2000 AM" and into commercials, Spanish MoR vocals, frequent slogan IDs between songs (sometimes just "Radio 2000.") At 1028, long string of commercials with prices in Bolívares (Terry L. Krueger, Clearwater FL, Tocobaga DX Dec 23 via DXLD) ** VIETNAM [non]. 7480, 25/12 1319-1330, DEGAR VOICE - Chita (Russia), Vietnamese, talk OM, musica di Natale, 343-SF/BN (DX Tuners - London- ON Canada) (Luca Botto Fiora, Italy, Play-DX via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 4508.99, 2226, tent. Italy 3rd harmonic, Italian pop music, 24.12.2004, SINPO 25444 (first noted 05.12.2004 at 1636, confirmed // 1503) (Günter Lorenz, currently near Pavia, North Italy, Icom R75, 30 m Longwire, HCDX via DXLD) 4510 pirate ni 2021 212 music Dec 25 04 (Michel Lacroix, France, HCDX via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 6348, UNIDENTIFIED, 1240-1300*-?, Dec. 20, Vernacular, Up-beat pop music in "Asian" dialect and announcer with same between selections. Talk from 1249 until the signal was gone/signed-off-? around 1300. Poor under static. It's either Echo of Hope-Clandestine or Yen Bai RTV-Vietnam. I'm rooting for the latter (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, 200' NE and NW Beverages, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Re 6355: UNID mixing product English news about Iraq (Tim Bucknall-UK, harmonics Dec 21) Moosbrunn, Austria? 5955 V. of Vietnam, 1800-1830 English, 1830- Vietnamese; and 6155 ORF Vienna program Another spurious should be on 5755 kHz also, but nothing heard on Dec 27th (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Yosemite Sam: Reception reports seem to indicate the transmitter site is likely in the desert SW USA. This is due to the fact that the 3700 kHz frequency has been monitored during the local daytime in Tucson Arizona, as well as from other observations, taking propagation into account. Sam vanished from the air around 1830 UTC on December 23, 2004. From the ARRL Intruder Watch: This is to inform you that the FCC monitoring station did provide us with an approximate area that the "Yosemite Sam" signal was coming from, and the local Official Observers and Section Manager have been notified. Hopefully they will be able to pinpoint the source for us. However, due to the holiday season it may be a while. The location was given as near Albuquerque, NM (http://www.spynumbers.com/YosemiteSam.html Dec 25 via DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tengo tiempo sin enviar colaboraciones a DX Listening Digest, entre otras cosas porque no he tenido tiempo de hacer DX y además, las condiciones de propagación han estado "espantosas" por acá. Eso sí, tan pronto como tenga algún "free time", volveré a enviarte informes ya que quiero que me sigas considerando como miembro activo de la lista. Aprovecho también la presente para desearte una Feliz Navidad y un Próspero Año Nuevo 2005; ése deseo lo hago extensivo a todos los colegas de la mejor lista de la onda corta. Saludos (desde Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA, Adán González, Dec 24) Glenn, From all of us swlers out here on the West Coast, We wish You a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2005 all year long. Keep up the good work that you are doing for the hobby of Radio Listening. (Stewart H. MacKenzie, WDX6AA, "World Friendship Through Shortwave Radio Where Culture and Language Meet" ASWLC - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASWLC/ SCADS - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SCADS/ Dec 24) Hi Glenn: Thanks for another great year of DX info! All the best for 2005. Happy Holidays and Great DX, (Mike Beu KD5DSQ, Austin, Texas, with a PayPal donation, Dec 24) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ NEW EDITION OF THE IRCA TIS/HAR LIST NEW IRCA TIS/HAR List!!! Mike Hardester has completed the most up to date list yet. 56 pages of top-notch information on current TIS/HAR stations in the AM Band. Get your copy now from the IRCA Bookstore for $8.50 (IRCA members). Overseas, add $3.00. Non-IRCA/NRC members, add $1.00. IRCA Bookstore, 9705 Mary Ave NW, Seattle WA 98117-2334 (checks payable to Phil Bytheway.) (Bytheway, Dec 23, NRC-AM via DXLD) [= Travel Information Stations, Highway Advisory Radio, i.e. low-power outlets on MW, originally 530 and 1610, and now on many frequencies] EL DIAL, LATEST ISSUE FREE IN PDF La AER, Asociación Española de Radioescucha, fecilicita las fiesteas y desea un próspero año nuevo a todos los aficionados. Además, en su afán por promover la afición, ofrece gratis a todos los internautas la última edición del año 2004 del boletín EL DIAL en formato electrónico PDF. Este número tiene 48 páginas y en su contenido destaca: - Que más del 50% del mismo está dedicado a noticias - Contiene la LISTA MUNDIAL DE EMISIONES EN ESPAÑOL - Un especial dedicado a Radio Rumanía Internacional Todo ello gratis en un fichero que ocupa 654 Kb y que está disponible en http://www.aer-dx.org/gratis.htm ¡que lo disfrutes! Un saludo cordial desde Madrid (Pedro Sedano, Madrid, España, COORDINADOR GENERAL, AER, http://www.aer-dx.org coordinador.jd @ aer-dx.org (c) Notici@sDX es un servicio de AER y ADXB (via Noticias DX via DXLD) ILG B04 DATABASE NOW AVAILABLE! ILG has put its B04 frequency database files online! What a great X'mas gift! Go to http://www.ilgradio.com/ilgradio.htm and download what you want! Happy DXing and have a prosperous new year! (Eric Zhou, from Nanjing, China, Dec 25, dxldyg via DXLD) Para quien lo utilice, ya está disponible la nueva versión de la lista del ILG, que se puede descargar para programas específicos y para Access, Excel y Linux. Su habitual dirección es http://www.ilgradio.com/ilgradio.htm Paz y Dx (Ignacio Sotomayor, Segovia, Castilla, España, DX LISTENING DIGEST) BROADCASTS IN ENGLISH There are details on the BDXC web site about the winter edition of Broadcasts in English which is now available from the club secretary. This 32-page booklet includes the schedules for all international broadcasts in English, in time order, for the B04 schedule period (valid until the end of March 2005). See http://www.bdxc.org.uk for ordering details (via dxldyg via DXLD) RADIO NUEVO MUNDO The December 15, 2004 issue of RADIO NUEVO MUNDO, No. 319 is labelled as the final edition, and accompanied by a note: ``Now it turned very difficult to issue bulletins because staffs for the bulletin are hard pressed with business. So this bulletin is the last issue. Thank you for your cooperation for a long time.`` Indeed, we have cooperated with RNM for as long as I can remember, perhaps the very beginning. 319 monthly issues amounts to 26 years and 7 months, or starting in mid-1978. Altho the amount of material from Japanese members has been declining, there was certainly no lack of other material, as RNM reproduced, among other things, all the LA-info from DXLD from the preceding month, re-compiled into one alphabetical list. In the final issue, 17.5 of the 24 pages were from DXLD. Altho they got DXLD online, the RNM bulletin remained a print publication, sharply produced by photocopying, and thus probably of limited circulation. RNM was an important bridge between the community of Japanese LA-DXers and the non-Japanese speaking DX world. (Typically, one or two pages would be in Japanese, and material in Spanish and Portuguese was just as welcome as English.) In the past, RNM also put out several books of additional LA material, much of it derived from travels in Latin America by Tetsuya Hirahara, Takayuki Inoue Nozaki, and others. I wonder if they have any leftover copies? We can only hope the individuals involved will still keep in contact with us, with their LA news and loggings, wish them all the best and hope that their business commitments will eventually abate (Glenn Hauser, Dec 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) EXIT RADIO NUEVO MUNDO. I have just received the 319th and final issue of the Japanese Radio Nuevo Mundo magazine. The magazine was entirely devoted to the Latin American broadcasting scene. Although shortwave has long been on the decline in Latin America, this sudden demise is hard to bear (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, Dec 27, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DX-PEDITIONS ++++++++++++ SHEIGRA, NOV 2004 A report on the November 2004 DXpedition to Sheigra in the far northwest of Scotland by British DX Club members Dave Kenny and Tony Rogers is now available on the BDXC web site at http://www.bdxc.org.uk - see the Articles Index. The report includes loggings of stations heard on MW and SW (dxldyg via DXLD) GRAPHIC GAFFES ++++++++++++++ The geographically-challenged CNN ran a caption at 0302 UT Dec 27 that the earthquake was off the NorthEASTERN tip of Indonesia (gh, DXLD) TIPS FOR RATIONAL LIVING ++++++++++++++++++++++++ RELIGION --- THE TRAGEDY OF MANKIND Happy Holidays and Season Greetings. I can't wish you Merry Christmas because Jesus Christ never existed; check this out: http://www.jesusneverexisted.com 73 and good DX, (Bogdan Chiochiu, Latin MWDX yg via DXLD) LOTS of thought-provoking info there; read it if you dare (gh) ###