DX LISTENING DIGEST 5-036, February 25, 2005 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 2005 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 1265: Sat 0600 WOR SIUE Web Radio Sat 0900 WOR WRN1 to Eu, Au, NZ, WorldSpace AfriStar, AsiaStar, Telstar 12 SAm Sat 0955 WOR WNQM Nashville TN 1300 Sat 1130 WOR WWCR 5070 Sat 2030 WOR R. Lavalamp Sun 0330 WOR WWCR 5070 Sun 0400 WOR WBCQ 9330-CLSB Sun 0430 WOR WRMI 6870 Sun 0730 WOR WWCR 3210 Sun 0930 WOR WRN1 to North America, also WLIO-TV Lima OH SAP Sun 0930 WOR KSFC Spokane WA 91.9 Sun 0930 WOR WXPN Rhinelander WI 91.7 91.9 100.9 Sun 0930 WOR WDWN Auburn NY 89.1 [unconfirmed] Sun 0930 WOR KTRU Houston TX 91.7 [occasional] Sun 1030 WOR WRMI 9955 Sun 1100 WOR R. Lavalamp Sun 1400 WOR KRFP-LP Moscow ID 92.5 Sun 1500 WOR R. Lavalamp Sun 2000 WOR Studio X, Momigno, Italy 1584 87.35 96.55 105.55 Sun 2100 WOR RNI Mon 0330 WOR WRMI 6870 Mon 0400 WOR WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0430 WOR WSUI Iowa City IA 910 [week delay] Mon 0530 WOR WBCQ 7415 Mon 0900 WOR R. Lavalamp Mon 1700 WOR WBCQ after hours Tue 0700 WOR WPKN Bridgeport CT 89.5 Tue 1000 WOR WRMI 9955 Tue 1700 WOR WBCQ after hours Wed 1030 WOR WWCR 9985 Wed 1700 WOR WBCQ after hours 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 1265 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1265h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1265h.rm WORLD OF RADIO 1265 (low version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1265.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1265.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1265.html WORLD OF RADIO 1265 in the true shortwave sound of Alex`s mp3: Keep checking http://www.piratearchive.com/dxprograms.htm ** AUSTRALIA. 2310 kHz, 1721 UT Feb 21. VL8A Northern Territories SW Service with 50 kW has a nice signal here at 1720 GMT. Still, I think the signal ought to be stronger with 50 kW, but am unsure of what type of antenna they use. Waiting on QSL (Al Muick, Tinian, Feb 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Billed as ``shower service,`` i.e. NVIS, so surprising they get out as well horizontally as they do (gh, DXLD) ** BELGIUM [non]. Yes, that was RTBF that Eric Bryan reported (Feb 24, DXLD). This relay of RTBF's domestic La Première radio service has been coming in well on 17570 from 1530 to 1830 (sometimes later) on weekdays. There's music in the half-hour beginning at 1530. After 1600, there's an hour-long "Dictionary Game" panel show. The 1700 hour is mostly news (including those all-important Brussels traffic reports), while more music creeps in during the 1800 hour. I enjoy this broadcast largely because it's a rare direct SW relay of a domestic European broadcaster (Mike Cooper, GA, Feb 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RVi partial reprieve? Hi gh, RVI (Belgium) announced that although programs in English will still end, the station will broadcast news from Belgium in English several times a day. A small victory, perhaps. Now if we can only talk them into restoring the music program (Ed Stone, Feb 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) News bulletins will be transmitted at 8.56 and at 19.56 local time (0656 and 1756 UT), 3 minutes each (Jean-Michel Aubier, France, ibid.) Once DST in effect from Marchend. Unseems available via Bonaire (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) On the Thursday 2200 airing from WRN, Colin Clapson reported that RVi would continue with English News Broadcasts, seven times a day. No mention was made of the times or lengths of these news broadcasts (Larry Nebron, CA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) In that case we may have a better chance, tho it`s hard to imagine a 3-minute-only Bonaire relay (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BERMUDA [non]. DAYTIME AM RECEPTION --- I actually had this question in another post, but a couple guys liked it and suggested it was worthy and I should initiate a new thread, so here goes: Bermuda is about one megameter off the Carolina coast over salt water. Most coastal directionals beam out to sea. So, what can you get there just in the day (please, I am only interested in groundwave reports)? I would guess one could receive a LOT of QRM, all up and down the lower part of the dial. I understand they have locals on 1160, 1280, and three graveyard channels (ai4i Feb 15, radio-info dx board via DXLD) Note: ai4i [ham call?] actually said `one megameter` (gh, DXLD) Among other directional USA stations in the Sixties, Top 40 WGLI from Long Island, sending their signal ALL that way, purportedly was a regular in the Metro Pembroke surveys. Legend has it that WGLI DJ Roger Alan Wade, upon an airplane vacation, once was swamped with autograph seekers and was stripped to his shorts by radio fans upon disembarkation in Bermuda and thus fled in terror and vindication. Hooper, Pulse and Trendex, plus other ratings companies had ZBM1 (1235 khz) and WGLI (1290) neck and neck for the top spot. Wade and other WGLI luminaries such as Gordie Baker and Al D'Amico and Lou Dean and Cathy (Jean) Giordano were people who reluctantly had to offer locks of their hair in Bermuda in order to get past Incoming Arrivals alive. And WMID Atlantic City NJ once showed there with a 65 share. :-) (Steve Green, ibid.) Interesting! I would think that if such a distant station were affecting local ratings, the Bermudese government would authorise a local low-powered station to operate on WGLI's frequency. Twelve ninety would only have been 5 kW back then, what could their ERP to the SSE have been? What about WABC, WNBC, WAPE (690, Jacksonville FL), and other stations up and down the coast? (ai4I ibid.) I was exaggerating, of course, about the ratings and WGLI's affect there. But the path would be nearly all over sea water, as WGLI's towers were on the South Shore of Long Island (though not on the shore itself). I couldn't guess as to their ERP, but the bulk of their pattern by far went out over water and they had nulls tight enough that you could see the towers and hear the sideband slop from WADO 1280. I think 'The Big Ape' on 690 [Jacksonville FL] was omni daytime, which would mean that directional stations aimed toward Bermuda would have a pretty equal ERP. I don't know the specifics; merely guessing, but I'd say something like 10,000 watts ERP for WGLI toward Bermuda (Steve Green, ibid.) ** CANADA. RADIO CANADA INTERNATIONAL --- 60 YEARS OF RADIO WORLDWIDE --- RCI CELEBRATES ITS 60TH ANNIVERSARY TODAY ! [first portion of this duplicates what was in 5-031] A Special 60th Anniversary Contest for 18-to 30-Year-Olds Who Want to Build a Better World . . . International Development Week (January 30 to February 5) and the UN- sponsored International Year of Microcredit 2005 will be marked in an original way by Développement international Desjardins (DID) and Radio Canada International . . . the two have teamed up to launch Building the Future Now!, a major worldwide contest for 18- to 30-year-olds. What can we do in 2005 to build a fairer, more prosperous, more equitable world? Young people around the world will be challenged to answer this ambitious question in a short essay or illustration, giving them a chance to win one of two international development education missions organized by DID in partnership with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Prizes are valued at $15,000, and contestants can enter by visiting http://www.RCInet.ca RCI has also produced a series of short radio features, consisting of two-to three-minute interviews with young adults whose lives have benefited from microcredit. They hail from Africa, Latin America and Asia, and can be heard on RCI`s international airwaves throughout the year. Relive the best of RCI on CD and on the Web . . . We also invite you to visit a special 60th anniversary section of the RCI website, jointly produced by the CBC Archives team and RCI staff. It contains a wealth of radio and TV clips—with different selections in English and French --- that look back at the landmark events of the past 60 years on RCI. Judith Jasmin, Maurice Chevalier and René Lévesque are just a few of the stars of yesteryear you’ll be able to see and hear again. Be sure not to miss this fascinating walk down memory lane at http://www.RCInet.ca and http://www.cbc.ca/archives/rci - 30 - A complete press kit with audio and photo archives can be obtained on request. Contact: Denis Pellerin, Communications Director, RCI Promotion, Analysis and Broadcasting, French Radio Communications and RCI, (514) 597-4204 denis_pellerin @ radio- canada.ca (via DXLD) Also check out: http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-69-1598/life_society/rci/ (Brian Smith, ODXA via DXLD) ** CANADA. Caught Ian Jones on the first segment of The Roundup of CBC Radio One, Feb 25 at 2230 UT via Vancouver delay; this was aimed at people who know nothing about SW. He explained that relay stations abroad picked up the SW signals from Sackville! At the conclusion he informed them that RCI is not allowed to broadcast to Canada (or Canadians abroad, really), and within the country you have to listen not on SW but on the Internet, not streamed, he claims, but ondemand only. All misinformation. Was he required to mislead the domestic Canadian audience this way? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. RHC 0500-0700 UT in English, noted with fair level on 9550 at 0625 UT, news at 0630 UT, and also on 6000 + 6060 kHz. But 4th channel couldn't be traced today, no signal from Cuba on 9655, 9820, and neither 11760 (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX Feb 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Arnie Coro me informa que Radio Habana Cuba sigue trabajando en el montaje de las nuevas antenas que forman parte del proyecto de actualización tecnológica de la emisora, quedando la primera de estas lista en los próximos días y de inmediato se comenzará a probar con una potencia de 100 kilowatts en los 6 Mhz, en la banda de los 49 metros. Además, se está terminando de remodelar el Estudio 4, utilizado para las Radio Revistas, es decir, Despertar con Cuba (matutina), Revista Iberoamericana (que sale por las tardes y noche para Europa) y la Revista de la Noche que sale para América Latina y el Caribe en las noches. Por otra parte, me dice que Radio Rebelde ya recibió su nuevo transmisor de 50 kilowatts de la misma tecnología de modulación de pasos de impulsos PSM (Pulse Step Modulation) que usan los de 100 kilowatts de Radio Habana Cuba. Radio Rebelde tenía prestado uno de los de RHC mientras terminaba de montarse el de la propia emisora, quienes ya están en el aire con la antena provisional de banda tropical en la frecuencia de los 5025 kHz, y en espera de la nueva antena omnidireccional de alto ángulo de radiación. También nos informa que hasta hoy tienen en Cuba 83 emisoras de radiodifusión y se están inaugurando en estos días varias radios comunitarias más, siendo las dos más recientes la de Minas de Matahambre en la provincia de Pinar del Río y la de Minas en la provincia de Camagüey; ambas trabajan en FM y son de carácter local empleando para la para la producción de programas tecnología digital con maquinas computadoras Pentium IV, lo que simplifica mucho el proceso de producción y salida al aire. Todas estas informaciones de Arnaldo Coro Antich, quien tiene su programa llamado DXers Unlimited, el que continúa con un alto grado de popularidad entre los oyentes de habla inglesa, recibiendo mucha correspondencia tanto por correo electrónico como por las vías tradicionales de tarjetas postales y cartas (Gabriel Iván Barrera, Argentina, RN Radio-Enlace Feb 25-27 via DXLD) ** CUBA. WE'RE HERE TO BUG YOU: VIDEO MOCKS POLICE Fri Feb 25, 8:14 AM ET Oddly Enough - Reuters HAVANA (Reuters) - "Good Morning, we've come to install your microphones," an agent says at the door in the opening line of an underground video making the rounds in Cuba. "In what part of the house do you usually talk bad about the government?" he asks the nervous resident, a driver who pilfers gasoline and coffee from the state. The spoof of Cuba's feared security police is in hot demand among Cubans, for whom black jokes and complaints about communist bureaucracy is a major pastime. Made privately by well-known figures of Cuba's film industry, the 15- minute video is being passed around as a DVD. While many Cubans are talking about the video, not all have seen it because few Cubans have computers and even fewer DVD players. . . http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050225/od_nm/cuba_bugged_dc (via Curtis Sadowski, WTFDA Soundoff via DXLD) ** DEUTSCHES REICH [and non]. JUDGE RULES CANADA FREE TO DEPORT ERNST ZUNDEL Ernst Zundel, well known holocaust denier (deny-er?) and onetime shortwave broadcaster's deportation to Germany imminent. German authorities have indicated he will be arrested (for holocaust denial) once he sets foot in that country. Zundel has been fighting deportation for over 2 years (Fred Waterer, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Judge rules Canada free to deport Ernst Zundel --- CTV.ca News Staff http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1109336098253_56/?hub=Canada Jewish leaders expressed relief after a federal court judge ruled that Ottawa was free to deport infamous holocaust denier Ernst Zundel back to his native Germany. Justice Pierre Blais called Zundel a danger to Canadian society in a 64-page decision released on Thursday. "Mr. Zundel's activities are not only a threat to Canada's national security but also a threat to the international community of nations," Blais said. The judge wrote that "reasonable grounds" exist "to believe Mr. Zundel is inadmissible on security grounds for being a danger to the security of Canada," The Globe and Mail reported. Blais' ruling was a scathing denunciation of Zundel, who he said was a "leader of international significance" among white supremacists. "He also tried, by all means possible, to develop and maintain a global network of groups that have an interest in the same right-wing, extremist, neo-Nazi mindset," Blais said. Blais also described him as a Hitler-sympathizer who set out to expand the neo-Nazi movement and was proud of his influence. "I remember how proud he was when he mentioned in cross-examination that his Zundelsite received hits from 400,000 people a month, and that after his arrest, the number grew to 1.2 million people accessing his website each month," Blais said. Zundel, 65, was arrested in the United States and deported back to Canada over an immigration violation in 2003. He has been in solitary confinement in a Toronto jail for the past two years on a national security certificate signed by Canada's solicitor general and the federal minister of citizenship and immigration. The certificate allows the federal government to hold Zundel indefinitely pending his deportation. Jewish leaders praised the judge's decision and hoped the deportation would be quick. Ed Morgan, president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, told the Toronto Star the judge's decision was "a victory against racism and hate. "It is certainly a victory for all Canadians who believe in a peaceful, multicultural society," Morgan said. Bernie Farber, executive director of the Canadian Jewish Congress, echoed his sentiments. "He could be gone tomorrow," Farber told The Globe. "All I know is, it's going to be quick. Canadians can breathe easier now." Zundel's defence counsel Peter Lindsay told The Globe that he plans to make a couple of last-ditch efforts to stay the deportation order. With files from The Canadian Press (via Fred Waterer, dxldyg via DXLD) Couldn't happen to a nicer guy!!! Can't believe we allow this kind of trash into our country, and then let them fight extradition for years, to start with. It's time for us to wake up and make whatever changes are necessary to our laws to not allow this kind of garbage go on, at great expense to the Canadian taxpayer I might add, for years (Tony (VA3QC) Champion, ODXA via DXLD) In case you wonder what in the world this has to do with radio, Zundel used to do a SW broadcast from the USA, and his followers still do, American Dissident Voices on WWRB (gh, DXLD) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 5005, Radio Nacional Guinea Ecuatorial, Bata, 0529, comienzo de la emisión, español, lectura de edictos, "las 6 de la mañana con 31 minutos en nuestros estudios. Salud para el desarrollo de la población, un programa que presenta Radio Bata". Locutora, programa sobre los enfermos de SIDA y sus familiares. A las 0600 música africana. 34333. (Febrero 25). 15190, Radio Africa, 1430, programa en inglés, locutora, se identificó varias veces como Radio Africa. "Thank you for listening, from Radio Africa Network". A las 1441 programa en francés, presentado por locutora. A las 1500 de nuevo inglés, identificación "Radio Africa", dirección de correo en Nigeria. 32332. Interferencia de la BBC World Service. (Febrero 25). (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, DX LISTENING DIGEST) GNE, 15190, also around 0625 UT in progress. Morning service lasted till approx. 0910 UT this morning, last sermon started at about 0903 UT. Noted some addresses of CAN, PA-USA and OH-USA given during the broadcast, S=2 signal level, but well above threshold (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, wwdxc BC-DX Feb 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE. The schedule of The Voice of Greece on Glenn Hauser's World of Radio website for February 22, I believe, is from Observer in Bulgaria which is probably a DX listener's club. They seem to think that Avlis has one 100-kW and two 250-kW transmitters in operation; I think not. I have put the questioned items in bold-face type; there also seem to be other errors in their schedule. . . (John Babbis, MD, Feb 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WRTH 2005 says there are FIVE 250 kW at Avlis, and one 100 kW. Of course that does not mean all of them are currently in operation, but let`s get the real story (Glenn, ibid.) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM [and non]. Radio National, Australia: Verbatim programme ham radio-related --- While wandering around the RN website, I discovered audio for an old Verbatim programme(soon to disappear, no doubt, since it's dated 29 January). It's the story/interview of an American YL radio amateur living in Australia who communicated with orbiting Russian cosmonauts, and because of it, became the subject of an opera. "A broadcast of this opera ["Cosmonaut: a dance opera in four orbits"] will go to air on Classic FM's In Performance on 18th April 8 pm". Great fun! "Cosmic Conversations" at the bottom of this page (if you hurry): http://www.abc.net.au/rn/history/verbatim/ (Saul Broudy, Feb 25, Swprograms mailing list via DXLD) I did ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [non]. Radio Caroline will be broadcasting live programmes from its ship The Ross Revenge in Tilbury all over this weekend. To get an idea of what it was like all those years ago when the station broadcast from the sea listen in this weekend. There will be lots of live programmes. http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk/ (via Roland Beaney http://www.geocities.com/woodleyuk/index3.htm via Mike Terry, Feb 25, dxldyg via DXLD) ** ITALY. 11800 heard at 1830 UT with sign on to Canada, // 15250. Exceptional strong, both frequencies, S-9 + 20. I have heard these two frequencies before, and are quite strong initially but fade rapidly by 1900. A phone call interrupted my monitoring after 1835, so unable to check at sign off. R71A with 130 ft. long wire. Bend in Central Oregon. 73 (Joe Barry, swl at qth.net via DXLD) ** LAOS. 4649, 1015 UT Feb 21. Radio Nationale Lao, Sam Neua HP comes in here with traditional Lao flute music 1015 GMT. Probably no QSL chance here, but I'll try (Al Muick, Tinian, Feb 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LATVIA. The World service of EMR --- DATE - 26th of FEB 2005 [Sat], TIME 2100 UT, FREQ 9290 KHZ. PROGRAMME DETAILS: 2100 MUSIC SHOW, 2130 MAIL BOX, 2205 CLOSE DOWN. GOOD LISTENING 73s (TOM Taylor, Feb 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR. 5010, 1845 UT Feb 23. R. Nasionaly Malagasy heard here at 1810 GMT with pop music until positive station ID in Malagasy/ French and national anthem/sign-off at 1900 (Al Muick, Tinian, Feb 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 7295, 1030 UT Feb 23. RTM Malaysia also booming in here at 1030 GMT with hip-hop music and "Useless Facts About Your Body." Actually has a pretty talented DJ during this time! (Al Muick, Tinian, Feb 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS. Re Radio Enlace being played out on the wrong day: We have recently experienced some problems with the overnight automated playout system. John Figliozzi noted the wrong English programme going out a couple of times. There is one technician on duty for all languages. The output is pre-programmed and he would not interfere with it unless the thing breaks down completely, in which case you would hear continuous filler music. It's very important to notify Radio Netherlands immediately of any irregularities in the programming noticed in our service to the Americas (i.e. overnight in Europe. It may be that there was an error in programming the computer, or there could be another cause, such as a database problem. You can use media @ rnw.nl or letters @ rnw.nl to report anything strange or wrong, and it will be passed on to my colleagues for investigation. We do care about getting things right, unfortunately overnight automation was forced on us by the government's cut to our budget (Andy Sennitt, Radio Netherlands, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. Re: VON, "Their schedule as per the webpage today reads:" This is the schedule installed in October 2001, after the 2nd transmitter was successfully tested; now they are back to one transmitter with more or less stable times and frequencies: 0500-0800, 1000-1500, 1700-1900: 15120, 0800-1000, 1900-2300: 7255, 1600-1630: 9690, 1630-1700: 11770. In Europe best at 0700/0800 F + 1700/1800 E (Thorsten Hallmann, Münster, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. I hang my head in shame: in 5-035, I identified KXOK-TV as channel 18, without even thinking --- that is its Cox Cable channel; its real on-air channel is 32!!! (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. KETA-13 OKC is having transmitter problems. It was off the air most of Friday afternoon, and kept dumping off for a few seconds during the NEWSHOUR at 2300-2400 UT. At 0110 UT Feb 26 it`s off again for over an hour (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. KCCU is now in Chickasha on 100.1 FM so as you drive from Lawton to OKC, you can hear KCCU almost all the way into Oklahoma City. [coverage map shows 100.1 has the smallest of all their circles] This spring, KCCU will sign on its first two HD [sic] radio stations. HD Radio is the most exciting advancement in radio technology since radio began broadcasting in the 1920s. The HD stations in Lawton [89.3] and in Wichita Falls [88.7] will be the area`s first HD radio stations in either market. KCCU will have new transmitters that will improve the quality of audio on our current analog stations, and, at the same time, provide us with the HD radio stations. HD radio in all the KCCU markets will follow as quickly as funding and equipment can be obtained. Your support of KCCU and the additional gifts many of you have sent are making this HD radio expansion possible. You will be hearing much more about HD Radio this year so keep your eyes on our newsletters and your ears tuned to KCCU. KCCU, in partnership with KSWO-TV, will be your radio station for severe weather coverage. No other radio station in the entire area provides 24/7 weather coverage. All the KCCU stations, whether in Lawton, Wichita Falls, Altus, Ardmore, Western Oklahoma and now Chickasha will have the best weather coverage we can provide! (Mark Norman, GM, KCCU, March 1 circular, via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 4960, 1835 UT Feb 21. On the other hand Papua New Guinea's Catholic Radio Network with 1 kW has a nice fair signal in here also at 1900 GMT. Been chatting with the engineer who installed the transmitter and he's passed my info on to the Fr. who runs it, and I hope for some sort of QSL. Word is they're not set up for QSLing, but maybe some social engineering will pull it off (Al Muick, Tinian, Feb 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. A short program in English from Sa`udi Radio can be heard seldom prior to the emission in French from 8 to 10 hours on 17785 kHz. Saudi Radio usually broadcasts in English only on medium wave (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DX program Feb 25 via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) ** SWAIN`S ISLAND. KH8 - The American Samoa Amateur Radio Association has announced that a team of nine operators (namely JA1BK, K1ER/KH6, JH1JGX/AH7C, JR2KDN, F6EXV, N9TK, W0MY, KB6NAN and W9IXX) will be active as KH8SI from Swains Island (OC-200), American Samoa on 2-6 March. They plan to operate on 160-10 metres CW, SSB and RTTY, with four complete HF stations with amplifiers and yagis. At least one station will be active during the ARRL DX SSB Contest. Planned frequencies are: 1822.5, 3505, 7005, 10107, 14025, 18073, 21025, 24895, 28025 and 50110 kHz (CW); 3795, 7080, 14195, 18140, 21295, 24930, 28495 and 50110 kHz (SSB); 14088 kHz (RTTY). The pilot stations will be AH8LG, WA2MOE, JE2EHP and KH6BZF. QSL via VE3HO (Garth Allistair Hamilton, P.O. Box 1156, Fonthill, ON L0S 1E0, Canada). [TNX K1HP] (425 DX News via Dave Raycroft, ODXA via DXLD) ** U K [and non]. RTI --- Hi One and All, Thanks for the coverage so far and just a note to say we've updated the web site - please feel free to use the content as you see fit. http://www.rti.fm There is now a confirmed launch date The Schedule has been updated AND there's a fun competition. All the best (Eric Wiltsher, DX LISTENING DIGEST) LAUNCH COMPETITION --- RTI will launch across Europe on 9 April. But what do the initials RTI stand for? To enter a draw to win a launch party goody bag send your entry to: RTI, 1 Northumberland Avenue, Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5BW, United Kingdom The closing date entries is Monday 4 April and the lucky winner will be announced during the on-air launch party on 9 April - GOOD LUCK! Well, it`s not Radio Taiwan International -- See also illustrated projected schedule including Mrs Wiltsher and her cleavage: http://www.rti.fm/schedule.html (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [and non]. Re 5-035: Kim`s letter to the Lord: http://www.kimandrewelliott.com/lord_carter.html Viz.: Kim Andrew Elliott, Arlington, Virginia 22207 USA February 17, 2005 To Lord Carter and the Public Diplomacy Review Team: I am responding to the invitation by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for comments about the public diplomacy of the United Kingdom. I am an audience research analyst for the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau, but not writing in any official capacity. My particular interest is BBC World Service, to which I have been a listener since 1965 (before it was called "World Service"). The most interesting fact to consider is that Britain spends less ($330 million) on international broadcasting than the United States ($540 million), but BBC World Service has a larger audience that all of the U.S. international radio services combined. I believe these statistics hold up even when compensating for different means of measuring audiences and budgets. The success of BBC World Service has mainly to do with two factors: 1) BBC's independence and 2) its unitary structure. BBC's independence has allowed it, over the decades, to build credibility -- the key commodity of international broadcasting. People go to the trouble of tuning foreign broadcasts to find a believable alterative to domestic media that are deficient because of a poor economy, or government control, or both. The BBC's disputes with U.K. governments happen every few years, or about once per war (World War II, Suez, Falklands, Iraq). As disruptive as these disputes are, they do remind listeners overseas that BBC World Service is not merely an official mouthpiece. The process of international broadcasting was described succinctly by the head of the BBC Burmese Service, Tin Htar Swe, recently interviewed by The Irrawaddy: "Our job is to give an accurate and balanced account so that people are better informed, enabling the listeners to form their own views. Our medium is not only to help keep people informed but also to give an opportunity for the listeners to express their views." So instead of using persuasion to steer listeners' opinions in a certain direction, successful international broadcasting gives people information they need to overcome misinformation and disinformation, and to make up their own minds about current events. If our policies are indeed wise and virtuous, we in the democratic West should have no problem with such a process. The unified structure of BBC World Service contrasts to the American confederacy of broadcasting entities: Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Radio/TV Martí, Radio Sawa, Alhurra. These stations to a large extent have overlapping missions. They compete for resources that are scarce no matter how much funding is available: talent, frequencies, overseas transmitter sites, news sources, listeners, viewers. In the U.S. international broadcasting structure, listeners are expected to tune to the "radio free" station to get news about their own country, and to the Voice of America to get news about the United States and world in general. My reading of audience research, however, is that audiences want news about their country and world news, and presumably they want all of that news from the convenience of one station. BBC World Service provides that service from the convenience of one station. The U.S. international broadcasting structure makes sense only from a bureaucratic perspective. So BBC World Service is doing something right, and the factors contributing to its success should continue. But World Service must adjust to the new multimedia era of international broadcasting. From the 1930s to the 1970s, radio -- specifically shortwave radio -- was the only medium that could travel, uninterrupted, over long distances and across national boundaries. Now, with the availability of communications satellites and the internet, video and text can bridge these distances and boundaries, and thus are available to international broadcasting. Television In the development of international television, BBC is conspicuously behind other international broadcasters. To be sure, BBC World is already an important player in English-language international broadcasting. But in multilingual international television, BBC is largely inactive, while other stations, such as Deutsche Welle, NHK World (Japan), CCTV (China), VOA-TV and others have made significant progress. The requirement, dating from the Thatcher government, that BBC international television be self-funding through commercial partnerships will probably not work in most languages. Such BBC language services would have limited appeal to advertisers. But as we have seen from the examples of Al Jazeera, CNN International, and BBC World (English), satellite delivered international television is functioning much as shortwave radio did in decades past. Direct funding of BBC international television will be necessary. And BBC World Service radio and international television could benefit from continued consolidation. The planned (resumed) BBC Arabic television service should be funded. The Arab audience for BBC may never be as great as that of Al Jazeera, because BBC will no doubt eschew Al Jazeera's populist appeal. But BBC would provide the "reference point" against which other news sources in the Middle East would be compared. It will probably not be possible for BBC to maintain full time television channels in most other languages. Here, the delivery medium would be a multilingual satellite channel, with programs of 30 to 60 minutes in each languages. Some cable systems in cosmopolitan cities would carry the channel 24 hours, and a few satellite dish owners would receive the channel directly. Most of the audience would come via local terrestrial stations that would downlink and rebroadcast the segments in the appropriate language. Some local stations will want to use news programs in 30 to 60 minute blocks. Others would prefer to use short news reports to be incorporated in their own news programs. It should be kept in mind that international television is much more interdictable than shortwave radio. Local terrestrial and cable services can opt to, or be compelled to, stop the rebroadcasts of BBC content. Satellite companies can take BBC off their transponders, if pressured to do so. Visually conspicuous satellite dishes can be made illegal and confiscated. Internet A Website can replace the work that shortwave radio has traditionally done. It can do so more efficiently because the user can read the information more quickly than he or she can listen to that information read by a radio announcer. And the user can choose what information to read, while listening to radio makes such choices more complicated. For the broadcaster, transmitting web content is certainly cheaper than transmitting via high powered shortwave transmitters. Because web users tend to read content rather than listen to streamed audio, if international broadcasting makes the transition from shortwave to the internet, it will also have to make the transition from audio to text. But, as with television, the internet is subject to interdiction. The BBC and Voice of America websites are blocked effectively in China and other countries. Methods to work around this censorship are generally limited to the internet savvy. While most people prefer to read the content directly, some use the web sites of an international broadcastr to get information about receiving its radio or television transmissions. Schedule information should be easy to find and easy to use. Radio Radio is my favorite medium. But I must conclude that it may become the least effective medium for international broadcasting. Although radio news magazines and documentaries can be superb productions, my experience has been that, when a television set is introduced in a home, people will watch bad television before they will listen to good radio. Radio is a good medium for breaking news and emergency information. And, because radio is the most intimate of media, a radio program featuring a personality with good intercultural communications skills, perhaps incorporating music, is an excellent way to convey goodwill from one country to another country. Most importantly for international broadcasting, radio remains the least interdictable medium. While shortwave transmissions are jammed, such deliberate interference is rarely 100 percent successful. This is because of the physics of shortwave: transmissions from afar often provide better reception than those from closer transmitters. Thus, jamming transmitters inside the target country cannot always block shortwave transmissions from distant locations. The best way to combat shortwave jamming is to transmit on as many frequencies as possible from as many locations as possible. Internet and satellite transmission are not granted by the laws of physics any such immunity to interdiction. For this reason, it is important, indeed a matter British national security, for BBC World Service to retain its global shortwave capability, at least for the time being. In fact, BBC World Service should keep its frequencies occupied, so that other stations do not take them over, and its transmitters operating, so that they do not fall into disrepair. A good way to do this is through a global English service. Such a service would be appreciated by the motley Anglophone community spread widely throughout the world: travelers, businesspeople, workers, students, diplomats, volunteers, missionaries, aid workers, yachtsmen, ship's crew, expatriates, wanderers and vagabonds. Many are located in remote locations where internet access or satellite reception may not be possible. They are a grateful audience. The frequencies and transmitters for that English service would be ready for the crises during which BBC FM local rebroadcasters might be taken off the air. We have seen such occurrences recently in Ukraine, Cote D'Ivoire, and other countries. In these cases, the shortwave frequencies can be shifted to other appropriate World Service language services. In this regard, the United Kingdom should take steps to prevent the implementation of power line communications (PLC), known in North America as broadband over power line (BPL). This system transmits data through unshielded electric power wires, using the shortwave frequencies, with much noise predictably escaping and interfering with radio reception. PLC could destroy the viability of shortwave broadcasting and communications. The shortwave spectrum (2 to 30 megahertz) should be considered a precious and endangered natural resource, no less than a tropical rainforest or virgin prairie. It is the only part of the electromagnetic spectrum where long distance communication is possible without manmade relays, i.e. without gatekeepers. The significance of this to international broadcasting should be obvious. The Digital Radio Mondial (DRM) system shows promise to make shortwave radio more attractive by improving audio fidelity. However, the main advantage of analogue shortwave is it robustness. If a signal is sent over transoceanic distances, it may attenuate and suffer some fading and interference, but still be intelligible to the listener. My own experiences with DRM show it to be less tolerant to attenuation or interference, in which case the content disappears altogether. Another question is whether DRM receivers will be as common abroad as analogue radios with shortwave bands are now. To review the media available to international broadcasting: 1) Television, given local access in the target country, can generate the largest audiences. 2) The internet is the most efficient medium to deliver detailed information to news-interested audiences. 3) Shortwave radio is still the best to transmit news into denied or remote areas. U.K. Public Diplomacy I think of public diplomacy -- as separate from international broadcasting -- as involving advocacy and techniques of persuasion. Every country is entitled to maintain a program of public diplomacy. Among the tools of public diplomacy are exchanges, publications and, increasingly, the internet. Many countries have websites where policy statements can be found. The U.S example of this is http://usinfo.state.gov. These websites may not have large audiences, but they are useful resources for journalists, government officials, researchers, and individuals with an uncommon level of interest in international affairs. The FCO maintains a number of such websites. But just as people throughout the world know that they should go to bbcnews.com for reliable and independent news, they should also be able to go to a website, with a similarly memorable URL, to learn about official British policies. I believe there was previously such a site: Britain-info.org. It seems to be inactive and perhaps was dropped out of a desire to route web users through the British embassies in their respective countries. But by this procedure, the website must be found through a search, and this process is not particularly intuitive. In my opinion, the content of a public diplomacy website should not be portrayed as news, or news-like information that accentuates the positive and downplays the negative. Information presented in such a manner loses its credibility after only a few readings, and does not speak well for the sponsoring country. Public diplomacy information is appropriately formatted as press releases, policy papers, transcripts, etc. People throughout the world should know, without ambiguity, that they can go to the BBC for news and to the U.K. public diplomacy website to learn about British foreign policies. Public diplomacy itself cannot attract large audiences. It cannot sustain a mass-appeal television channel or radio service. The huge but never successful Radio Moscow of the Soviet era is the most notable example of this. For public diplomacy content to reach larger audiences, it would be more effective to join successful media rather than to try to create a popular media outlet from scratch. Here, the use of well placed advertisements can be useful. Depending on the target audience, the advertisements can be placed in print or broadcast media. Such a campaign should not be employed routinely, but only when there is misinformation or disinformation about British policy that needs to be countered. The messages should be straightforward and brief, with their origin plainly identified. The former U.S. Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy, Charlotte Beers, tried a broadcast advertising campaign that proved to be controversial. I don't the think the message in these ads - that Muslims have religious freedom in the United States - served any important need other than to expend a budget. But Secretary Beers was on the right track by using the advertising medium to reach large audiences already gathered by successful television channels. Also, from her campaign, we learned that not all countries and broadcast systems will allow such advertisements. Finally, it is interesting to note that state funded international broadcasting to many target countries has a finite life span, but the role of public diplomacy is eternal. At some point, the media of a target country become so free and diverse that very few people will tune in foreign broadcasts, or visit foreign websites, and local broadcasters prefer to use their own resources for news, even international news. BBC World Service closed its German, Finnish, and Japanese services for this reason. But in such media-diverse countries, the aforementioned journalists, government officials, researchers, and other interested persons will always have a need for statements of British policies. I wish you and your team success in your work. Thank you for the opportunity to share my comments. Yours sincerely, Kim Andrew Elliott (kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** U S A. WWCR reminds us that from March 1, 15825 will stay on an hour later until 2200 UT, so WORLD OF RADIO on Thursdays at 2130 will again be on 15825 instead of 9985 (Glenn Hauser, Feb 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WTOP is now running IBOC and is blowing away reception of stations on 1490 and 1510 here in Elkridge, Maryland. The date and time is 2/25 0710 EST [1210 UT] (Bill Harms, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. CLEAR CHANNEL LAUNCHES HIGH-DEFINITION RADIO STATION IN S.A http://sanantonio.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2005/02/21/daily37.html (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2005/02/21/daily37.html?t=printable LATEST NEWS 1:37 PM CST Friday (via Brock Whaley, Sheldon Harvey DXLD) by W. Scott Bailey Clear Channel Communications Inc.'s flagship radio station -- WOAI-AM 1200 -- began broadcasting in digital format Friday morning. It is the first San Antonio station to bring the CD-quality sound and high- definition (HD) programming to the Alamo City's airwaves. Officials with San Antonio-based Clear Channel (NYSE: CCU) say the new digital radio format has the ability to offer listeners a host of wireless data applications. Some of those applications will include the ability to access scrolling local weather forecasts, news, sports and other station-generated information on the digital radio receiver's display window. "The future of radio is here today," WOAI General Manager Tom Glade says. "This investment and upgrade in transmitting equipment will deliver superior sound and clarity to South Texas." To hear the new HD signal and digital broadcasts, and to access the available applications, listeners will need an HD radio receiver. That receiver can be used in conjunction with analog radio tuners. A number of manufacturers are marketing those digital receivers through participating local electronic stores and retail chains, Clear Channel officials say. Those who do not have the necessary equipment can continue to access WOAI's analog signal. In July, Clear Channel officials announced that the company had formed a joint venture with iBiquity Digital Corp. in an effort to expedite development of HD broadcasts at 1,000 of its radio stations. That same month, the Business Journal reported that Clear Channel Radio, a division of Clear Channel Communications Inc., planned to install HD radio equipment at 95 percent of its radio stations in the top 100 markets by late 2007. WOAI Operations Manager Nate Lundy says other San Antonio Clear Channel radio stations will begin broadcasting digitally in the next few months. KAJA-FM should be ready by March or April, he says, followed by KQXT-FM by the end of summer. Lundy says two more stations -- KTKR-AM and KMMX-FM -- should be ready for launch by the end of the year (via Artie Bigley, Sheldon Harvey, Brock Whaley, DXLD) Hmm, this does not say it is daytime only...? (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Hmmm.... Well, since WOAI booms in here during skip hours, I'll hafta see what kinda signal I can still get from KXKS 1190 ABQ in the mornings (Mike Westfall, N6KUY, WDX6O Los Alamos, NM, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. RADIO DRIVES HUGE LOSS AT VIACOM --- THE MEDIA GIANT POSTS AN $18.4-BILLION LOSS AFTER SLASHING THE VALUE OF INFINITY BROADCASTING. --- By Sallie Hofmeister, Times Staff Writer In a move that reflects the continued challenges facing the struggling radio business, Viacom Inc. dramatically wrote down the value of its Infinity Broadcasting division Thursday, contributing to the fifth- largest quarterly loss ever reported by a U.S. company. The New York-based media giant, which also owns CBS, MTV and Paramount Pictures, posted an $18.4-billion loss after taking an $18-billion charge against fourth-quarter 2004 earnings. The bulk of the charge -- $10.9 billion -- was attributed to Viacom's radio holdings, while $7.1 billion was related to its outdoor advertising business. . . http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-viacom25feb25.story (via Tom McNiff, DXLD) So much for the advantages of media consolidation (Tom McNiff, Burke, Virginia, USA, Feb 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Same: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20050225/ts_latimes/radiodriveshugelossatviacom Different: Newsday, Fri, 25 Feb 2005 0:25 AM PST Viacom charges lead to $18.4B loss CBS parent company Viacom yesterday shrunk the estimated value of its radio station and outdoor advertising businesses, resulting in a mammoth loss of $18.4 billion for the fourth quarter of 2004. http://www.newsday.com/business/ny- bzvia254156743feb25,0,2801746.story?coll=ny-business-headlines (via Sheldon Harvey, DXLD) Different: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20050225/1b_viacom25.art.htm (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. DIMINUENDO --- WEAK AUDIENCE AND INCOME BLAMED IN CLASSICAL FADE -- Originally published in Current, Feb. 16, 2005 By Mike Janssen For lovers of classical music, these are difficult times. Once pubradio`s dominant format, classical music is still widespread on the airwaves. As of fall 2002, 340 public stations aired a ``very significant`` amount of classical each week, according to a Minnesota Public Radio report on the genre. But news programs from NPR and other sources have been pushing symphonies and operas off stage. News eclipsed classical in 2000 as public radio`s most prevalent format and more and more stations have been shearing hours of the music from their schedules. Dozens have eliminated it from middays. Sagging ratings prompted WFDD in Winston-Salem, N.C., to switch to news last month. And WETA-FM in Washington, D.C., decided last week to drop classical at month`s end, giving the city two news/talk pubradio stations. The trend exasperates music fans, of course, and worries some programmers who believe that music of such cultural value merits a safe haven on public radio. ``I`m very concerned that a generation moving into public radio management and staffing is tossing away something of durable value --- I wouldn`t say casually, but a little bit more cold-heartedly than I think is justified,`` says John Montanari, music director at WFCR-FM in Amherst, Mass. ``I might in my darker moments even refer to it as baby-boomer triumphalism at work.`` Others, despite their love of the music, say they have little choice if the genre fails to draw listeners. ``Classical music on the radio is an endangered species to a certain degree,`` says Hal Prentice, manager of music programming at WKAR-FM in East Lansing, Mich. ``How I feel about that personally is one thing. How I look at that in purely radio terms is another. . . . You can still do quality programming and not do classical music.`` Shorter pieces --- or none at all The statistics are sobering. There are more hours of classical programming on the air now than five years ago, but total listening to classical public radio stations has remained flat. News programming is much better than classical music at raising money to keep a station going. ``A listener-hour of NPR news may generate twice as much listener income and much more business underwriting income as classical or jazz,`` says a report by researcher George Bailey. Jay Banks, g.m. at WFDD, found listeners were tuning away to other commercial and noncommercial news outlets when classical music hit the air weekday mornings. Over two years, classical music listener-hours fell by 25 percent. On Jan. 29, the station unveiled a new schedule that replaced locally programmed classical for most of the day with news programming including Diane Rehm, Day to Day and Talk of the Nation. The station still airs classical on weeknight evenings and provides opera and local classical performances on weekends. ``My only regret is that we did not move sooner,`` Banks says. Though he`s a classical fan himself, Banks joined WFDD expecting that he`d be running a dual-format station like a large number of pubradio stations, especially university stations like his in medium-sized markets. About 30 to 40 stations have made similar changes over the past five years, estimates Tom Thomas, co-c.e.o. of the Station Resource Group. Of the 100 or so stations that generate roughly equal amounts of listening from news and classical, most have reduced classical in recent years, he says. Banks says the switch also responds to the growing availability of classical music on competing stations, including WDAV-FM in nearby Davidson, which he says recently expanded its listening area. But for stations that are the sole provider of classical in their markets, the format remains a way to distinguish themselves from rivals. That`s why WKAR continues to air classical despite its troubles with the format. WKAR`s audience has fallen by a third since 1999, in part because nearby Michigan Radio in Ann Arbor switched to all-news. WKAR considered abandoning the dual format, Prentice says, but kept it because classical once worked and he hopes it will again. The station airs MPR`s Classical 24 service on weekday evenings and weekends to save money, and its own midday music block now mirrors the satellite service from St. Paul, Prentice says, with shorter pieces and fewer ``big, long Romantic symphonies.`` The station is trying to give listeners ``more occasions to find something that they like,`` he says. WKAR also beefed up news, expanding Morning Edition by two hours daily and replacing weekend classical with Weekend Edition Saturday and Sunday. Ratings since the changes show some audience growth at least on the news side of the dual format. ``We`re starting to get tentpoles where we didn`t used to have them,`` Prentice says. But he can`t explain why midday classical listening remains low. If the tweaks fail, he says, ``I guess we`re going to change again.`` NEA rolls up its sleeves Some announcers and music directors still broadcasting classical are trying to fine-tune the format, heeding ``core values`` studies conducted by the Public Radio Program Directors Association. Classical listeners surveyed for the study viewed anything nonmusical as clutter, so hosts are shortening breaks. Listeners also said they connected to classical on an emotional level --- ``soothing`` was a recurring term --- suggesting to some announcers that they should squelch any echoes of a music-appreciation classroom. They can`t assume that today`s listeners know as much about classical as past generations, says Karen Walker, president of the Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio and music director at KBIA-FM in Columbia, Mo. Walker says announcers should refrain from comments such as, ```As you know, Mozart wrote 41 symphonies` --- because they might not, and that`s a real turnoff.`` WFCR`s Montanari recommends that faltering classical stations review their musical selections. When he surveys other stations` playlists online, he says, ``I`m sometimes puzzled as to why I see programming that`s filled with sort of inconsequential and second-rank performances --- not timely, not fresh, not focusing on . . . what`s happening in their market.`` ``Before a station should depart from the format, it should consider improving what they do,`` he says. Stations that contemplate reorchestrating their classical schedules may find guidance in an NEA-backed report coming out in June. Case studies aim to illuminate how seven pubradio stations have made decisions about the classical format, providing examples for others to follow. The study explores whether stations make choices ``with full knowledge of the practical implications and a full knowledge of the potential of classical music,`` says Bob Goldfarb, a consultant and classical music veteran hired to conduct the study. Station execs sometimes misinterpret research or don`t openly discuss how factors such as governance affect decisions, says Goldfarb, who will discuss the study at AMPPR`s Music Personnel Conference, Feb. 21- 24 in Las Vegas. NEA`s other classical venture, MPR`s Classical Music Initiative, looks to energize collaborations between public radio producers and the greater classical community. Public radio`s studies focus inward, but the project looks beyond the system. Sarah Lutman, MPR`s senior v.p. for cultural programming and initiatives, met recently with members of the Minnesota Orchestra to discuss trends in other musical genres that classical artists should consider. For example, orchestras could mimic some rock bands by encouraging concertgoers to record and share copies of performances. ``The field in general needs stimulation,`` Lutman says. ``There`s a lot of excitement and funding and new ideas in news and information programming, but there really has been less investment on the classical side for many years. Web page posted Feb. 16, 2005 Copyright 2005 by Current Publishing Committee (via DXLD) ** U S A. WQED-FM STRUGGLES AS PLEDGE DRIVES REAP LESS Tuesday, February 22, 2005, By Adrian McCoy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Classical station WQED-FM (89.3) has been singing the blues in recent weeks. The station's last fund-raiser fell short of its $265,000 goal by about $85,000. Some regular listeners and donors were unhappy about the November firings of longtime WQED hosts Judi Cannava and Paul Johnston as part of the station's cost-cutting efforts. . . http://www.postgazette.com/pg/05053/460848.stm (via Current via DXLD) ** U S A . Add another webcasting New Mexico public radio station! I visited their studios some years ago shortly after they came on the air; in the meantime KGLP mostly relayed KSJE from the Four Corners; now it seems more like a real Gallup station (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) KGLP Mission Statement --- "The primary mission of KGLP is to provide a radio service that encourages intellectual curiosity and critical analysis. KGLP's mandate is to provide for the otherwise un-served tastes and interests of the public in the Gallup area, and to present material that challenges the mind, provokes thought and discussion, broadens views, and educates the whole person in a formal and informal manner. KGLP strives to enhance intellectual development, expand knowledge, and deepen aesthetic enjoyment through a balanced presentation of alternative view points. KGLP attempts to help listeners become more responsive, informed human beings who exercise personal responsibility." KGLP On-Line --- If you haven't heard by now, we are streaming our broadcast signal over the Internet. Click on the button to the right and then pick the format that fits your computer best. Be sure to print out a copy of our program schedule so you won't miss any of your favorite programs. http://www.kglp.org/ Nice 96 kbps stream. A couple of local shows with intriguing titles: Tue 2000-2200 UT KINDBEAT – Accessing the World [music] Sun 0000-0200 UT GALLUP ARTS CRAWL [first Sat] (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VANUATU. 7260, 0945 UT Feb 24. Looks like Vanuatu is really back! I have been monitoring this frequency around its alleged sign-on time of 1900 GMT (0500 Local) and detect a carrier there, faint but steady, but if there's any modulation, it's way the hell down there. Gotta report in to work at the station by 0730 local and the carrier just doesn't pick up by then. Came home in the evening and decided to try again and there it was at 0945. Pretty good carrier, but only about 70% modulation, so it wasn't very loud at all. Playing island music and 100% positive English ID at 0950 by female announcer. QRM from amateur ops and still a bit of a pile-up on frequency under their carrier. Report sent (Al Muick, Tinian, Feb 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. Hi Glenn, Thanks for including the latest on SW Radio Africa in DXLD 5-035. Monitored SW Radio Africa this morning Friday 25th February from Harare, Zimbabwe, using a Yaesu FRG 7700 communications receiver. The new MW frequency 1197 kHz was heard from 0300 to 0345 UT (0500- 0545 Zimbabwe time) with a signal strength of S3. Propagation path was closed out around 0345 UT. The new SW frequency 3230 was heard from station open at 0300 UT (0500 Zimbabwe time) with a signal of S9 until it finally faded at 0445 UT (0645 Zimbabwe time), just before station close down at 0500 UT. What is interesting to note is that a station announcement was made at 0430 UT (0630 Zimbabwe time) explaining that the MW frequency can be heard in South Africa and parts of Southern Zimbabwe only at this time and that they, quote "were working on the problem of the Medium Wave signal reaching the Northern parts of the country". Regards, (David Pringle-Wood, Harare, Feb 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Antes de nada, una emisora no identificada, haber si alguien me puede decir que pude ser. Ahí van los datos, 6124.9 KHz. 0857 UT 25 Febrero, música boliviana o peruana, flautas, locutor, bastante mala modulación y señal débil, español, pero muy dificil de entender, parece que dice "En la amistad y en el tiempo ... 110 KHz... Radio`` y a continuación probablemente unas siglas. Luego canciones en idioma indígena, posiblemente quetchua o aymara. Las canciones se alternan con comentarios de locutor, dificil de entender; una vez parece que menciona Colombia. A las 0910 la señal desapareció o se volvió indaudible. Por la programación, parece una emisora tipo Radio Cultural Amauta. En WRTH 2005 y otros listados no aparece ninguna emisora latinoamericana de estas características en esta frecuencia, pues sólo está SODRE y no me parece que sea esta emisora. ¿Alguíen sabe qué emisora puede ser? (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, España, Escuchas realizadas los días 24 y 25 de Febrero en Friol, 27 km al oeste de Lugo. Grundig Satellit 500 y antena de cable, 8 metros, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hola Manuel, Desafortunadamente, nada más que HCJB en Quichua, 0830- 1000 en 6125 según WRTH 2005. 73, (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) Muchas gracias Glenn, la verdad, me pareció "algo mucho más importante" y descarté que pudiera tratarse de HCJB. Un abrazo (Manuel, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. Re 11690 French language station around 0530-0600 UT. Hirondelle Radio? (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED (Jordan). Re: "11690, Free FM (?), heard several days in a row at 1500-1730*." My guess would be of course R. Jordan, usually 1400-1730 on 11690 // 99.three FM (Thorsten Hallmann, Münster, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ COMMENTARY ++++++++++ INTERNATIONAL RADIO CONTINUES TO DEPEND ON SHORTWAVE -- Graham Mytton CIBAR Annual Conference, London November 2004 I have been coming to these conferences for 20 years. As I explained to you on Monday, I have not been to all of them, but one thing that I am sure I said at the first meeting and on several occasions since is a simple fact: Most listening to international radio broadcasting is on shortwave. That was true in 1984 and it is true today. The proportions may have changed. The proportion of people today tuning in to international radio services on shortwave may be smaller than it was in 1984, but of one thing I am fairly certain – they are still in the majority. If this changes, if the numbers being reached by means other than shortwave or long-distance medium wave, fall below half, it will not be the result of any changes in technological choice but will be the result of the decisions of the international broadcasters themselves, or changes in the domestic media scenes of countries where most listening to international broadcasting takes place. Over the past 15 years each of them have made decisions that are based on imagined trends at worst and at best on very partial evidence. We know from the evidence of surveys over many years that levels of listening to international radio by direct means – that is not via rebroadcasters on local stations - is negatively correlated with the degree of choice that listeners have. The more that the local media scene is deregulated or freed up, the more choice there then is, the less listening there is to international radio. Several of you will remember this chart that I produced several conferences ago. In have also shown this chart or variations on it at other conferences on international broadcasting research. To produce this interesting and revealing chart in 1992, I took audience figures for direct listening to the BBC and cross-tabulated them against the number of local domestic radio services available – I had to take one place so I chose the main or capital city. You can see that with two exceptions BBC audiences are large (above 10%) only when there is demand created by the absence of local choice. Usually this means, of course that it is where all the local media are under political control. The point here is, I believe, that listening to alternative, foreign radio services is something that people do when they need to. For the most part, they stop or reduce their listening when they no longer have that need or when the need is less acute. Nobody Listens to Shortwave: They Listen to Radio The next point to make is about the medium of shortwave itself. I am often asked, and have been repeatedly over the years, questions like ``Where are shortwave listeners to be found?`` or ``Is shortwave listening in decline?`` or ``Are shortwave listeners migrating to FM?`` There is nothing wrong with the questions, but they do reveal a way of thinking that needs to be challenged. There is in fact no such thing as a shortwave listener in the way that there is, for example an Internet user, aside from the very small number of dedicated DXer enthusiasts. Many people who use the shortwave bands on their sets every day --- perhaps even most of them --- do not know they are shortwave listeners. If you ask them if they listen to shortwave they may say ``No``, and the same is true if you ask them if they have a shortwave set. They are no more familiar with these technical terms than most people are with for example, the differences between VHF and UHF TV reception. How many of you know what frequency bands your terrestrial TV is received on where you live? If you do, it is only because you are extremely odd and unusual! Hardly anyone knows these things. Most of these who use shortwave to listen to some of the radio services they receive are unfamiliar with anything other than the place on the tuning dial where they can find this or that station. For about the last 15 years the predictions of the demise of shortwave have been frequent and persistent. It is as if it has been taken as an obvious fact that there would be decline. If the assumption had been made for market reasons, this would perhaps be understandable, although one would hope that they based their assumptions on some real market data. But we hear reasons given as being to do with technological advance and innovation. But in fact change in technology may not be the main driver with respect to what people choose to do, so far as radio is concerned. And besides, FM is not a new technology. It has been around, even in parts of Africa and Asia, since the 1960s or even 1950s in some places. What is new is a change in the media environment not the technology. Where there was previously very widespread state monopolies broadcasting, now we see thousands of private services on FM in many parts of the world where previously there was only a single radio service provider. But the change is not principally a change in technology. It is a change in market availability. Assumptions have been made that because shortwave is an old technology it must be on the way out, in a world of the Internet and cable and satellite TV. Or that somehow given the fact that shortwave is sometimes unreliable and often noisy, people are surely certain to choose something clearer and easier to listen to. This does of course happen, provided that the content available is what they want. But countless surveys will show that people often choose to listen to scratchy ad difficult shortwave services in preference to or as additions to locally available services in good quality, provided that what is available on shortwave is what they are looking for. To give just one example, in the dying days of the Abacha dictatorship in Nigeria, when people in Kano had local FM radio services easily accessible to them, they still listened in huge numbers to the BBC and other broadcasters in Hausa, all on shortwave. As I said, people don`t look for different kinds of Hertz. Nobody listens to HF or shortwave, or come to that FM or AM. They listen to radio programmes. They look for content. Technical quality comes second to content. Unfortunately this message has not been heard and leading figures in broadcasting who ought to know better have said and done things that have not been based on realities. For example, Richard Sandbrook, now in charge of the World Service, but speaking when in a senior position in BBC News 8 years ago at a conference in London spoke of the ``migration away from shortwave``. When I pointed out that there was no such migration, he expressed astonishment. He admitted that he had said this not on the basis of any evidence, but just that he assumed it was true. There have been too many assumptions like this. The previous Intendant of Deutsche Welle once spoke on similar lines when talking about the policy they had adopted of reducing shortwave services to, for example, Turkey. In fact, as research at the time showed, the only station to lose audiences over the period he was talking about was Deutsche Welle. It has lost listeners because it had cut back its availability on shortwave. And I don`t need to go over the painful experience of Radio Canada International in too much detail. Between 1990 and 2000 it was subject to almost continual cuts and threats of cuts. Their audience declined sharply. This was used by some to argue that listening to the station was in decline and that the cuts were an acknowledgement of that. In fact, decline was almost certainly mainly the result of the cuts. If the services had not been cut, and especially if there had not been the major reduction in shortwave delivery RCI audiences may not have reduced at all. Here and elsewhere we have seen the enactment of self-fulfilling prophecies. There is something very odd and rather ironic about the assumptions that have been made about shortwave. They came at the end of a period of massive investment in shortwave enhancement and improvement. In the BBC we had what we called the ``Audibility Programme`` that stretched from the early 1980s through into the early 1990s. Not only were all existing shortwave facilities greatly improved and strengthened, at Singapore, Cyprus, Oman and Ascension, as well as in the UK at Rampisham, Wooferton and Skelton, but new sites were opened in Hong Kong, (later moved to Thailand), the Seychelles and most recently, Oman. Shortwave now became very good. Most major target areas were now reachable by a first hop service and with higher signal strengths than ever before and with much more efficient aerial arrays. And it was not only the BBC that made such improvements. RFI launched a huge investment programme focussing on improvements at their main transmitter site in Issoudun. VOA opened several new transmitter sites in Botswana, Sao Tome, Morocco, and elsewhere. Deutsche Welle also made several new investments in Germany and, after many difficulties, in Sri Lanka. The results of many of these investments in new, more powerful and better focused shortwave could be seen in larger audience reach in several parts of the world, most notably in Africa where audiences for all major international broadcasters grew impressively over the period. The investment in shortwave has been vindicated and justified. It was a period of huge success, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Why then was there this extraordinary volte face in the policies of the major broadcasters? Was it simply because as a result of changes in the regulatory environment in several countries, local FM relays and rebroadcasts became possible, and in order to fund these, cuts had to be made elsewhere? This was certainly the case at times, because I was present at some of the discussions in the BBC. But I always made it clear that FM could never be a replacement for shortwave, unless the local situation had changed so much that people in the entire target area had enough local choice and therefore no longer had any need to tune to shortwave. I entirely endorsed and supported the decision to stop broadcasting services in Portuguese and Finnish to Europe. It was also sensible to stop shortwave broadcasts in Polish, Czech, Greek and a few others. Indeed I suggested that the need for these services to be continued at all was at least questionable. The BBC stopped broadcasting in Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Italian and Japanese. Perhaps other languages should also be closed in favour of new services in new languages to people in greater need. FM is Not an Alternative to Shortwave. It`s Different! FM, by its very nature, cannot be a replacement for shortwave. Its reach is very limited. I have just been in East Timor where both Radio Australia and RDP Portugal have a local FM relay in the capital Dili. Neither can be heard far outside the town, and not only because of the power of the transmitters. Dili is hemmed in by hills. Beyond these, you have to use shortwave to get either service. And to listen to the BBC or VOA or any other international broadcaster, East Timorese have to use shortwave wherever they are. That is one weakness of FM. Its reach is very limited. There are five other serious weaknesses. The second is that it is subject to local regulation and approval and both are at risk at any time. And they are at risk from the very factors that make the ability to listen to alternative voices very important. The BBC and other broadcasters have had several problems with this; services have been opened then closed or restricted in both Congos, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, several former Soviet states and no doubt others. And this draws our attention to a grave risk inherent in over-dependence on FM. When FM services are cut because of a change in government or a change in the political atmosphere and resort has to be made to shortwave, how does the audience know where to find you? Has an adequate shortwave service been maintained, and more importantly, has it been fully publicised? Even when these restrictions are not imposed for political reasons when the government wants to restrict the flow of alternative news, it may be that the demands of the BBC, VOA, Deutsche Welle, RFI etc have to take second place to the competing demands of potential commercial and other local broadcasters. The BBC is not on FM in more than a very small handful of European cities. This is not because of political restrictions but because the demands of local broadcasters tend, rightly, to take precedence. The BBC boasts of its FM coverage. In fact it is very thinly spread. Now for the third weakness. FM is often very unreliable. Breakdowns are common, as are problems with modulation and related technical difficulties. This is not because the medium is inherently faulty but because of weaknesses in local support services. The transmitters are not always properly or fully maintained. Shortwave is more reliable and, by the way, it is often as good as FM in terms of its received quality. My wife and I were on holiday not long ago at a beach hotel just north of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. The BBC is available on FM. It is also available on shortwave from Seychelles. The quality of both is equally good. In several blindfold tests Janet was not able to tell which was which. The shortwave was there every day. The FM was not. Moreover, and this is the fourth weakness.. We could choose ourselves whether to listen to the Swahili or the English. Listening on FM, the decision was not mine to take. The fifth weakness is the fact that many relays or rebroadcasts are out of the control of the originator. Programmes or services from the BBC, or VOA, or RFE etc. are carried by an independent broadcaster at times chosen by that broadcaster. The listener cannot tune to the BBC as a distinct station when he or she chooses. The relationship of the broadcaster to the audience is completely different. There is no longer that close relationship whereby the listener is choosing the station that he or she wants to hear. But the sixth and final weakness of the FM strategy is its greatest shortcoming. It is never available where it is most needed and by those for whom shortwave is literally a lifeline. Let us just think of Dhafur at present. There will be many caught up in that tragedy who have radio sets. I don`t need to check what they are listening to. If they are listening to anything at all it will be on shortwave. There is nothing else available! I mentioned East Timor earlier. I talked to people there about what had happened during the crisis of 1999 when they voted for independence from Indonesia in the referendum and the Indonesian militia trashed 90% of the buildings in Dili and elsewhere. People fled into the hills and they listened to the BBC, the VOA, Radio Australia and others on shortwave. I was told by several people that there is still an audience for these stations on shortwave throughout the country. I am coming back to this point later, but let it be noted at this point that East Timor has never been surveyed. These listeners do not exist! Other examples are not difficult to think of. Aceh in western Sumatra, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Somalia, Burma, Palestine and Turkmenistan are just a few places where political crises or violence and instability or oppression make international radios services especially important. Then there are the vast areas not covered by FM in countries where such relays or services may be available in the capital or other cities. There is no point listing these. There are too many. But let us just take Nigeria. In Lagos, Abuja and Ibadan there are several new local FM broadcasters and some international broadcasters have been available on FM through some of these. But Nigeria is a large country and for most listeners, it is shortwave that is still the main means of listening. In some areas, there is only shortwave. I reported at the Stockholm CIBAR on a survey I did in Jigawa State, Nigeria in 2002. All radio listeners listened to radio on shortwave. No other service can be heard in the state. Jigawa is not exceptional. Much of rural Africa is like that to this day. Travellers Use Shortwave: It Remains the Only Global and Portable Medium! I don`t want you to think that my argument is all about people living at the margins, in areas of poverty or conflict. The strength of shortwave lies also in its ability to reach anywhere. That is another reason for the huge success of some international broadcasters. The fact that you can pick them up almost anywhere. It is especially a strength of the BBC – or rather it was. For most of its history the BBC was able proudly to boast that in English at least, it was available globally. Two or three years ago it used this fact to blow its own trumpet. It produced a set of postcards which I rather treasure. Several celebrities and well known people were quoted on them saying how much they relied on the BBC when travelling. People as diverse as Paul McCartney, Richard Branson, Lennox Lewis, Judi Dench, Joan Armatrading, Benjamin Zephaniah and Mary Robinson spoke of how important the World Service was to each of them, especially when travelling the globe. They all said very nice things when the BBC was still globally available. I wonder what they would say today when shortwave services have been withdrawn from Australasia and North America, the first time in the World Service history that the service has been officially unavailable in those areas. Not only that however. The World Service is now reduced in its shortwave coverage in most areas and is now more difficult to find than it has ever been in recent history. What Does Research Tell Us? We Don`t Know! At Least, We Don`t Know Enough! But you might ask, is this not supported by research? Is it not true that there is now less listening on shortwave? I don`t know and neither does the BBC. You can easily find places and countries where there is now less listening to services on shortwave than there used to be. In some cases this may have more to do with the reduction of services. But even if we discount that, there are still places where undoubtedly there as been a reduction. Those places are well researched. The trouble is that many areas where shortwave is still vitally important are either under researched or not researched at all. The other worry I have is that we have taken the focus away from investigating the use of shortwave thoroughly and properly as we used to and as a result we are deluding ourselves. As a result of the FM relays and rebroadcasts, the surveys that are now commissioned all try to cover those places. They also, most of them at least, try to cover other towns and rural areas. But do they always do so proportionately? There are some worthy exceptions but for the most part, rural areas, especially the more remote rural areas are neglected entirely or covered only partially and incompletely. But more seriously than this is the tendency now to underestimate shortwave access and use. We know that many people who regularly use shortwave do not know that they do. They are not familiar with what to them are obscure and unimportant technical details. That is why it was accepted practice in all surveys commissioned by the BBC and VOA for the interviewer to ask to inspect the respondents` sets. This has long ceased to be the universal practice. As a result there has, without any doubt, been a consequent reduction in the estimates of the numbers of shortwave households. Even without the inspection of sets, there have been some very strange and unbelievable data about shortwave from recent surveys. How, for example, can shortwave ownership in China decline in 3 years from 33% of households in 1999 to 19% in 2002. And similarly, how can a decline in urban Angola from 91% in 2000 to 65% in 2003 be credible? I wonder if this is what is happening. We know that the expectations of interviewers influence the data that they collect. It is alarming but true. How much is the expectation that shortwave is in decline influencing the very results that are being obtained? The assumption about shortwave may be infectious and may itself influence results. Perhaps the assumptions about shortwave are affecting the research even at the interviewer level. The literature on quantitative survey methods warn us all that the expectations of the person doing the research can influence the results. This was proved experimentally in an exercise, which shows how the interviewer`s prior expectations can have an influence. The experiment was conducted on a research methods training course. Participants from various African countries being trained in quantitative methodology were being shown the dangers of unwittingly influencing respondents` answers. They were divided into three groups for a pilot study in a rural village. A key question they were to administer asked farmers to give reasons why they did not expand their agricultural activity. Each group of interviewers was given, identical instructions. Interviewers were told not to suggest answers and not to supply examples. However, before they started, the instructor casually mentioned three likely reasons that they might hear being given by the farmers who would be interviewed. These were mentioned separately to each group and a different reason was given to each! To the first group the instructor suggested that the likely reasons that the farmers would give for not expanding agricultural activity was the shortage of land, labour and equipment. To the second group, the instructor suggested that they would probably hear their respondent farmers say it was a lack of money, seed and fertiliser. To the third group of interviewers he suggested that they would find their respondent farmers saying that it was the lack of roads and the distance from markets. The interviewers selected, at random, a number of farmers. The most frequently stated set of constraints in the responses recorded corresponded with that mentioned casually by the instructor to each of the three groups! The interviewers, who had been given to expect that the problem was the shortage of land and labour, recorded this as the most common reason given by the farmers. Those who had been told to expect the lack of money, seed and fertiliser recorded this as the most common reason, and those who had expected transport difficulties recorded that this was the main constraint. The ``casual`` remarks of the instructor had influenced the results. It may have been that despite the firm instructions, interviewers confronted by the difficulty of asking an awkward question of a stranger, actually helped the person to answer or interpreted responses in the expected way. Even when the interviewer scrupulously follows the rules and says nothing apart from reading the questionnaire verbatim, there is still a tendency for the interviewer`s expectations to have an influence on the way responses are interpreted and recorded. There are two ways of minimising this bias. The wording of questions needs to be as neutral as possible to avoid giving the respondent the impression that certain answers are expected. Secondly, interviewers need to be thoroughly trained to maintain a self-critical awareness of the twin dangers of influencing interviewees, and of a subjective interpretation of responses. That then is my thesis. Shortwave remains the main way in which most people continue to listen to international radio broadcasting. It will remain the case unless the major broadcasters continue their false assumptions about its decline and make that decline come true by their actions. I believe that the research that is being done is not sufficiently reflecting the realities of international radio listening. I believe that the obsession with performance in relatively easy to measure radio markets is blinding strategists to the wider realities in those many areas where research is difficult or where the societies involved are being seen as marginal or not a top priority – many of the most vulnerable and needy people in the world, who the international broadcasters have mostly served very well in the past. And I believe that a misguided obsession with the supposed rise of new technology has created an atmosphere in which the reality is ignored or understated. John Tusa once said that if the technology of shortwave were to have been invented or discovered today, people would be amazed and bowled over by what it could do. It can reach anywhere from anywhere, without the need for phone lines, local permission, local regulation, expensive equipment or subscriptions. But it is old, invented and its properties discovered by Marconi 100 years ago. Therefore it must be past its sell by date. This is utter nonsense as we all know, but it is time for the big broadcasters to wake up before it is too late and they find that their core listeners have deserted them, not because they don`t want the product, but because they can no longer reliably find it. I have amazed myself by not mentioning DRM. So I shall do so in closing. DRM has all the advantages of shortwave with none of the disadvantages. It is an essential facility for the future. But it will succeed only slowly, possibly very slowly. Most of those in the world who most need the services of international broadcasters are most likely to be the very last people to have DRM sets. Just as they are likely to be the last people to have the Internet, satellite reception, FM services and all the other supposed new technologies that are said to be transforming our world. Analogue shortwave will remain for a very long time to come the bedrock of international radio service delivery. Unless the major broadcasters are immune to the whole story that I have tried today to outline (via Al Muick, DXLD) POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ REPORT DOESN'T PLUG INTERNET BROADBAND VIA STATE UTILITY LINES Wednesday, February 23, 2005 BY REINHARDT KRAUSE, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Bringing Internet access to rural areas via electrical lines, rather than phone or cable lines, might be a pipe dream after all. So says a new report by state utility regulators. The report throws cold water over the idea of broadband over power lines, or BPL, technology. BPL fans hope the technology can fill a gap in the availability of high-speed, or broadband, data services. In much of rural America, phone and cable companies haven't upgraded to digital subscriber line and cable modem. On the other hand, even the more rural areas have electrical lines. But BPL technology isn't easy, and the report says BPL isn't ready to ride to the rescue of rural residents who can't otherwise get speedy Internet access. The current state of the technology has distance limitations, says a report by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. That's because BPL networks require digital repeaters that amplify signals every 1,000 to 3,000 feet. The NARUC task force that prepared the study, released Feb. 15, said it has no evidence of a "technical solution that would extend BPL to widely dispersed rural users." The report says BPL service might be feasible in serving clusters of homes. If so, BPL shows promise of serving small towns or cities, the NARUC report says. Electric utilities or electric cooperatives might get a sufficient economic return on investing in BPL networks. Third Pipe After Cable, Phone The Federal Communications Commission has touted BPL as a "third pipe" into homes that can compete with DSL or cable modem services, perhaps in urban as well as rural areas. And BPL trials are under way in Virginia, Cincinnati, Hawaii and Washington, D.C. In October, the FCC took some regulatory steps to foster BPL's growth. One goal is to make sure BPL doesn't interfere with some radio frequencies, such as those used by ham radio operators. FCC Chairman Michael Powell is a big supporter of BPL, but he's leaving the agency in March. Like Powell, state regulators believe BPL has potential. The NARUC task force says state regulators should take a "light-handed approach" to BPL that doesn't impede innovation. A Standard & Poor's report last year said utilities are looking into BPL as an add-on to heavily regulated, slow-growth services. But the utilities are going slow with BPL, S&P notes, because many ventured into "risky strategies" in the late 1990s "to attract a larger investor base and boost earnings growth." Those strategies included building fiber-optic phone networks along power line rights of way. The utilities planned to lease high-speed data lines to businesses or phone companies. But many companies rushed to build fiber, resulting in a fiber glut that still remains. "The utility industry went through the fiber boom in the late '90s and lost billions when it imploded," said Sam Spencer, executive editor of newsletter BPL Today. "They're slow to try things. They're waiting for BPL to become affordable. It's very much a wait-and-see approach." Cinergy, Duke Testing Spencer agrees with NARUC that rural applications of BPL technology face hurdles. For one thing, some new wireless schemes might be better suited for rural areas than BPL, some analysts say. WiMAX networks provide DSL- like speeds at distances of about 10 miles. Phone company Verizon (VZ) has been testing WiMAX gear from startup Alvarion (ALVR) in rural areas. WiMAX standards have been slow to arrive. That's delayed WiMAX's rollout, so BPL may still have a shot. BPL works by sending radio signals over electrical lines. Customers plug computers into regular wall outlets. Utilities testing BPL include Cinergy, (CIN) PPL, (PPL) Progress Energy (PGN) and Duke Energy's (DUK) Duke Power. AT&T (T) pulled out of a BPL trial with PG&E (PCG) last year. Makers of BPL gear include Ambient and privately held companies Amperion, Current Technologies and Main.net. Even if high-speed data services don't pan out, some analysts say utilities might invest in BPL to provide automated meter reading. URL: http://www.investors.com/editorial/tech.asp?view=1 (via Ken Kopp, Amateur Radio - KKØHF, DXLDYG via DXLD) I sent the following to IBD in response to this editorial: Dear Sirs: I read with interest your recent editorial on BPL (Broadband over Power Lines) and agree with the viewpoint that it has been overly hyped and will not deliver the touted benefits. But there is an over-riding aspect you did not mention and which should be considered every time this subject comes up: BPL causes enormous Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) in every area it is implemented. It wipes out the ability to receive signals from shortwave broadcast stations and many types of amateur radio communications (the latter not only being a hobby but also a major emergency-communications backup resource). It imposes a high background-noise level for ordinary consumer electronic gear that receives radio signals. It can interfere with emergency communications gear used by police and fire units, especially that used for longer- distance traffic in rural areas. Using BPL in the small-town scenario your editorial described makes it especially dangerous and annoying, as such locales usually rely on receiving radio-frequency signals from relatively distant transmitters. And such signals are weaker and easily swamped by BPL interference. The FCC's espousal and encouragement of BPL flies in the face of test results proving BPL's deficiencies and ill effects. It's another example of how the FCC has betrayed its public trust in recent years. Thank you, (William Martin (St. Louis, MO), cc to DXLD) MIKE WENDLAND: From your tech columnist's e-mail February 25, 2005 In this tech columnist's mailbag this week, ham radio operators are seriously peeved about the emergence of broadband over power lines (BPL) that new technology utilities want to use to send the Internet into homes via electric lines. Though the Federal Communications Commission and utility regulators enthusiastically endorse the idea, I've received a lot of messages like this one: Before praising BPL too much, you owe it to yourself to learn more about it. The interference that it will cause is incredible. High-frequency ham radio will cease to exist, along with everything in the shortwave bands. That includes military frequencies, too. -- Zack Schindler, Royal Oak That's a huge overstatement, Zack, which isn't justified by the extensive tests that have been going on for some time. Yeah, there have been some interference issues, but the professionals who test this tell ham hobbyists that the concerns can be dealt with. And for whatever it's worth, I've been a ham operator for more than 40 years (K8ZRH). On the other side of the issue, readers in rural areas are thrilled about the prospect of high-speed connections brought by wires that already reach their homes. We cannot wait for the Internet via power lines to happen outside of Gaylord. While the phone company sits on their duff and will not give us DSL lines, we are stuck with a modem and downloads of updates that take you most of the day. Even with an accelerator it's almost unbearable. Can't wait till high-speed Internet comes north. -- JB Tisdale, Gaylord There's a company called M33 Access up your way that offers wireless broadband for a big hunk of the north. It just got a $1.3-million loan from the Michigan Broadband Development to expand service. Check out their coverage area on their Web site, http://www.m33access.com You may already be within range, or soon will be. MIKE WENDLAND can be reached at mwendland@freepress.com URL: http://www.freep.com/money/tech/mwmail25e_20050225.htm (via Ken Kopp, dxldyg via DXLD) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ THE NEW TV GUIDE TV Guide's biggest mistake, in my opinion, is dropping the station list that appeared on the first page of the program listings. In the South Georgia edition, how do I know which Channel 11 symbol represents WXIA in Atlanta, WFSU in Tallahassee or WTOC in Savannah? The latest redesign seems to have eliminated most of the program highlight boxes and has done away with the "Hits & Misses" film reviews by those noted experts, "Susan" and "Matt." It's amazing to me TV Guide can find room for pages on soap operas and even a horoscope page while eliminating listings. At least the $5/year subscription rate reflects the value of the magazine unlike the $2.49 cover price (Mike Cooper, Atlanta, Feb 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###