DX LISTENING DIGEST 5-178, October 14, 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 Extra 62: Fri 0200 WOR ACBRadio Mainstream [repeated 2-hourly thru 2400] Fri 2000 WOR RFPI [repeated 4-hourly thru Sat 1600] Fri 2000 WOR World FM, Tawa, Wellington, New Zealand 88.2 Sat 0400 WOR VoiceCorps Reading Service, WOSU-FM subcarrier, cable Sat 0800 WOR WRN to Eu, Au, NZ, WorldSpace AfriStar, AsiaStar Sat 0855 WOR WNQM Nashville TN 1300 Sat 1000 WOR WPKN Bridgeport CT 89.5 & WPKM Montauk LINY 88.7 Sat 1600 WOR R. Veronica 106.5 Sat 1730 WOR WRN to North America (including Sirius Satellite Radio channel 140) Sat 2100 WOR WRMI 7385 Sat 2300 WOR Radio Studio X 1584 http://www.radiostudiox.it/ Sun 0230 WOR WWCR 5070 Sun 0300 WOR WBCQ 9330-CLSB Sun 0600 WOR World FM, Tawa, Wellington, New Zealand 88.2 Sun 0630 WOR WWCR 3210 Sun 0830 WOR WRMI 7385 [from WRN] Sun 0830 WOR WRN to North America, also WLIO-TV Lima OH SAP (including Sirius Satellite Radio channel 140) Sun 0830 WOR KSFC Spokane WA 91.9 Sun 0830 WOR WXPR Rhinelander WI 91.7 91.9 100.9 Sun 0830 WOR WDWN Auburn NY 89.1 [unconfirmed] Sun 0830 WOR KTRU Houston TX 91.7 [occasional] Sun 1300 WOR KRFP-LP Moscow ID 92.5 Sun 1400 WOR WRMI 7385 Sun 1730 WOR WRN1 to North America (including Sirius Satellite Radio channel 140) Sun 1900 WOR RNI Mon 0300 WOR WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0330 WOR WSUI Iowa City IA 910 Mon 0415 WOR WBCQ 7415 [usually closer to 0418-] Mon 1600 WOR WBCQ after hours Mon 1800 WOR RFPI [repeated 4-hour thru Tue 1400] Tue 0100 WOR R. Veronica 106.5 [NEW; see below] Tue 1600 WOR WBCQ after hours Tue 2330 WOR WBCQ 7415 [usually but temporary] Wed 0000 WOR CJOY INTERNET RADIO plug-in required Wed 0930 WOR WWCR 9985 Wed 1600 WOR WBCQ after hours Latest edition of this schedule version, with hotlinks to station sites and audio, is at: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html WRN ON DEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO [also CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL]: http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org WORLD OF RADIO Extra 62 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/worx62h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/worx62h.rm [Extra 62 is the same as CONTINENT OF MEDIA 05-08; high adds WOR open] WORLD OF RADIO Extra 62 (low version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/com0508.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/com0508.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/com0508.html WORLD OF RADIO Extra 62 in true SW sound of Alex`s mp3: (stream) http://www.dxprograms.net/worldofradio_10-12-05.m3u (download) http://www.dxprograms.net/worldofradio_10-12-05.mp3 WORLD OF RADIO Extra 62 downloads in studio-quality mp3: (high) http://www.obriensweb.com/worx62h.mp3 (low) http://www.obriensweb.com/worx62.mp3 WORLD OF RADIO PODCAST: www.obriensweb.com/wor.xml (currently: 1285, 1286, 1287, 1288, Extra 61, 1289, soon Extra 62) Radio Veronica Schedule Changes Hi Glenn, We have made some major changes in our programming schedule this past week, dramatically increasing the amount of time we are devoting to our talk, public affairs, and news-oriented programming. As a result your program will have additional airings each in addition to the original rotation. The schedule will now be: Monday 2100-2130, Thursday 1930-2000, Friday 1300-1330, and Saturday 1200-1230. All times are Eastern [daylight = UT -4, so UT will be: Thu 2330-2400, Fri 1700-1730, Sat 1600-1630, Tue 0100-0130] I thought you might want to know this for your records. You might want to know that I also have added the "Short Wave Report" to our lineup, which will be airing on Sunday evenings at 2000-2030. Best Wishes, (Rene' F. Tetro, Radio Veronica (US), West Point, PA Website: http://www.radioveronica.us Email: rtetro @ pobox.com DXLD) ** AFGHANISTAN. 9365, Peace R (presumed), Bagram, lately heard 0900- 1500, a bit better around 1400. No clear ID, but I cannot think of anything else. Much weaker than the 9133 CMF station. I managed to check that 9365 was not // with 17700 "sister" station (Mauno Ritola, Finland, Sep 30, DSWCI DX Window Oct 9 via DXLD) No signal audible in Denmark 1400-1550, Oct 01, 03 and 04 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, ibid.) Why do you presume this? I find no such listings on 9365. Do you think this is from inside rather than outside Afghanistan?? (gh, DXLD) ** CANADA. RCI, 13655, Oct 14 at 1420 with Sounds Like Canada from CBC, Shelagh interviewing someone called Velcro Ripper --- ``Cro`` for short; presumably a self-chosen moniker; otherwise I want a word with his parents. At 1429 closing mentioned that the new SLC season would begin on Monday, so it`s taking longer to ramp up this program again after the Lockout. Also RCI on 15360 at 1510, as Will Martin noted, quite good reception, despite being via Rampisham UK aimed at S Asia (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, I am going on memory here but I recall 'Cro" is one of the people responsible for the wonderful film The Corporation. Along with another fellow, named Bart Simpson --- not making it up --- ef (Eric Flodén, Vancouver BC, dxldyg via DXLD) ** CHINA. Controlling the web: see INTERNATIONAL INTERNET ** COSTA RICA [and non]. Pacifica Radio/RFPI collaboration For those who have been following the progress of RFPI, you may be wondering what happened to the joint project with Pacifica Radio. Here`s an update: In August we spoke with Ambrose Lane, acting Pacifica CEO and the Pacifica committee in charge of implementing the project. From those conversations we learned there was still a strong interest in pursuing the creation of a joint shortwave station to be based in the United States. However, at the moment, Pacifica Network is undergoing some reorganization which has setback the proposed on- air fund drive to generate the necessary money to begin the project. We continue to anxiously look forward to getting back to shortwave broadcasting and putting all that equipment we have in storage to good use! Next Vista we will bring you more of our vision for the future of the station. RFPI`s Webcast and Podcast RFPI`s Program Director, Joe Bernard, has been busy with technology to make our programming even more accessible. Now beside logging on to the web site and clicking on the live web stream you can also download the day`s webcast as a ``podcast`` and listen at your leisure. For more information about the podcasts, check out our web page: http://www.rfpi.org/podcast.html A full program guide is available as well at http://www.rfpi.org/RFPIsked.html MAURICE STRONG IN THE NEWS FOR LINKS TO U.N. OIL-FOR-FOOD SCANDAL Maurice Strong. Most readers of Vista and listeners to our broadcasts over the years have heard of this man. Strong was the power broker who ordered RFPI to shut down our shortwave broadcast and was responsible for the damage to our studios and facilities in November 2003. Strong is no stranger to controversy having been fingered for defrauding the Costa Rican government for $1.65 million as reported in many Canadian newspapers. Peter Foster writing for the Financial Post on May 12, 2004 reports on Strong`s Earth Council debacle: ``In 1996, the Earth Council was granted land on which to build a new headquarters, with the provision that the land would have to be returned if the council shut down or moved on. Trouble arose in paradise when the Earth Council decided to reimburse itself for its expenditures by selling the land that Costa Rica had given it. The government cried foul, and the Earth Council upped and departed the country, citing the drain of the legal fight.`` A recent article penned by Judi Mcleod and David Hawkins of the Canadian Free Press titled, Entity behind Kyoto conned public, states: ``The Costa Rican government has been pursuing the Earth Council for payment of U.S. 1.65 million, for the wrongful sale of a tract of land it imprudently donated to the council ...... All hell broke loose when it was discovered that the Earth Council sold the land that was not theirs to sell in the first place.`` No doubt, like Radio For Peace International, the Costa Rican government has found it daunting to bring legal action against Strong due to his U.N. diplomatic immunity. That status may be a thing of the past however, as Strong lost his job at the UN recently it is said to his alleged links to the Oil-for-Food scandal. During the summer of 2005 the story started to unravel how U.N. officials had been receiving kickbacks and bribes in the U.N. operated Oil-for-Food program. This following an investigation by an Independent Inquiry Committee led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker into just who at the U.N. was involved. In a September 7th 2005 Reuters article Irwin Arieff explains the complex corruption that was allowed to take place at the UN: ``Among the cast of characters in the complex scheme were Tongsun Park, a South Korean ... and Iraqi-American oilman Samir Vincent... Also involved were Canadian businessman and longtime U.N. aide Maurice Strong [together with] Cordex Petroleums Inc., a now bankrupt Canadian oil company whose major investors included Strong`s son Frederick`` According to the report, some 15 million dollars was available for bribes designed to shape the Oil-for-Food program to Saddam Hussein`s liking. Tongsun Park, a business associate of Maurice Strong, was the bag man carrying money out of Iraq to be used to buy influence in the U.N. As Irwin Arieff details in the Reuters story: ``Park ....told associates he gave nearly $1 million in 1997 to Maurice Strong, who was then advising Boutros-Ghali and had been lobbied by Iraqi officials to get involved in Iraq... Park carried the money out of Iraq in a cardboard box, and it ended up invested in Cordex, which had been established by Frederick Strong and failed soon afterward... Strong, who lost his job as an adviser to U.N. Secretary- General Kofi Annan in mid-July, said he had no memory of getting a check from Park. But when shown the check, said he recognized his signature on the endorsement.`` Strong seems to have quietly cleaned his desk and left other officials at the U.N. to swing for the crimes. At the time of writing this issue of Vista, the University for Peace`s web site still listed Maurice Strong as President of the Council of the Upeace. A kind reminder to Secretary-General Annan: while working for you, your former Under Secretary-General pillaged a non-profit radio station dedicated to peace that at the time was helping to bring the UN`s message to the world via its airwaves. An apology would be nice; a payment for the hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages would be appropriate as well. For a copy of the report from the Independent Inquiry Committee into the United Nations Oil-For-Food Programme, go to http://www.rfpi.org/iic.pdf (RFPI Vista Newsletter, http://www.rfpi.org/vista_October2005.html via DXLD) ** FINLAND. RADIO FINLAND MERGED WITH DOMESTIC CURRENT EVENTS & TALK CHANNEL YLE Radio Finland, the international radio of YLE, is being merged with a domestic current events and talk channel, YLE Radio Peili. The move, planned for the start of 2006, requires talks with the staff unions, scheduled for October. YLE says it will be able to cut some jobs and save costs. In 2002 YLE discontinued programming in English, German and French, but continued in the domestic languages Finnish and Swedish as well as in Russian and the languages of some Finno-Ugric minorities within Russian (Urdmut, Mari, Komi). Advertising of Radio Finland as a service for tourists and expatriates has continued until this year, though on a reduced scale. The broadcast hours are fairly long and the external service resembles generalist domestic channels. In Western Europe the service is available all day long on several frequencies. Services for the rest of the world tend to be available during target area evening and/or morning hours. During the past two years influential expatriate organizations have been campaigning for the continued availability of Radio Finland as "free to air" radio worldwide. The campaign seems to have been successful, and during the summer YLE arranged bidding for shortwave transmitter services for the time after 2007. The current agreement with Digita (TDF owned) concerning the shortwave and mediumwave transmitters in Finland comes to a close end of next year. In a strategy paper this past spring, YLE expressed the view that the importance of free to air broadcasting will decline in international communications. Many expatriates have given up or reduced their use of radio and use their mobile phones and laptops instead. The expatriate organizations have noted, however, that the cost of mobile audio may be high abroad and the service may not be available everywhere. Internet really cannot replace "the radio on the kitchen window shelf", they said. YLE has said both "brands", YLE Radio Finland and YLE Radio Peili would continue to be used. The nature of programming on Radio Finland may change though. YLE Radio Finland, in its services for tourists and expats has been offering a great variety of programming ranging from drama, childrens broadcasts and religious programming to news. Based on a 2002 decision by the Parliamentary Controllers of YLE, programming may become more news and information oriented. The expatriate organizations have opposed the trend. The new unit will be called "YLE CompilationChannels" (or re-hash channels). The current head of programming at YLE Radio Peili, Mr Juha Virtanen, has already taken over the management of the two services. The new organization will officially take effect in January. International radio from Finland is based on domestic licence fee funding. The name "Radio Finland" appeared first in the 60s, though international radio from Finland had been launched in 1938. In the 90s YLE registered YLE Radio Finland as a sub trademark. "YLE Radio Peili" started as a news and current events service for DAB services. DAB never got off the ground in Finland in terms of audiences and was finally closed in September 2005. (Source: Juhani Niinistö, YLE Radio Finland) # posted by Andy @ 08:10 UT Oct 10 (Media Network blog via DXLD) YLE INTERNATIONAL RADIO TO MERGE WITH DOMESTIC NEWS CHANNEL | Text of report in English from European Broadcasting Union website YLE international radio is to merge with domestic compilation channel Radio Peili. The head of the new unit is Mr Juha Virtanen, former head of Radio Peili. Virtanen has previously held posts in YLE TV's Economy News and in YLE Radio Suomi's Current Affairs. The change of organization will take effect at the end of the year. According to Juha Virtanen, Radio Finland's broadcasting schedule will not be affected. Links: http://www.yle.fi/rfinland/index.shtml [not English] Source: European Broadcasting Union website, Geneva, in English 12 Oct 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** GERMANY [and non]. Some poor station on 17820 getting heavy interference from DW seeking brothers with its IS at 1457 Oct 14. And that station is --- DW! Yes, at 1500, one iteration of the IS overlapped, as DW introduced its program in Albanian, ``Shqip``: lack of internal coördination as there should have been a crash-start to avoid the overlap. Details per EiBi A-05: 1430-1500 in Turkish via Wertachtal; 1500-1530 in Albanian via Sines (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. My attention has just been drawn to this press report from spring: http://www.taz.de/pt/2005/03/29/a0246.nf/text Summary: The BBC sent no new TV correspondent to Berlin when Tristana Moore withdrew in summer. Herewith only a single journalist represents the BBC in Germany anymore, since the position of the business correspondent at Frankfurt has been already earlier vacated, leaving only Ray Furlong, the correspondent of the BBC World Service in Berlin, now responsible for reports to all BBC departments. The BBC refused to give any comments on this matter. Herewith the famous BBC studio at Berlin is practically history. I also heard that the BBC office at Frankfurt that used to be still involved in some activities, has been recently closed altogether. Somebody who is a regular listener of the BBC World Service just told me that I am in her opinion absolutely correct when I note that I found the BBC's coverage of the recent developments rather shallow and full of stereotypes. She said that she notes such a development on the BBC World Service already for a few years and concluded that it is actually no longer worth to listen to this station, since it doesn't provide any additional knowledge and background information. East German TV history: I guess it will be widely unknown abroad that GDR TV started experimental Teletext transmissions in 1989. I just came across the first authentic document, an actual screenshot of the Teletext start page of GDR TV as seen in late December 1989: http://www.ralph-toman.de/fernsehweitempfang/ddr_videotext.htm The text expresses wishes for a happy new year 1990 "to all our viewers in the East and the West", something that would have been impossible to be put on air just ten weeks earlier of course. The headline states "technical experiment" and refers to RFZ, the department of the GDR postal office (DP) responsible for developing radio and TV equipment and technologies. The website contains also a bunch of transmitter site slides of GDR stations (and much more from the remainder of Germany as well as from the Netherlands and other countries on the other pages): http://www.ralph-toman.de/fernsehweitempfang/fernseh_dx25.htm http://www.ralph-toman.de/fernsehweitempfang/fernseh_dx26.htm http://www.ralph-toman.de/fernsehweitempfang/fernseh_dx27.htm The computer-generated charts came in use in the late eighties. Until then actual slides were used. At times they indeed as blurry as in some of the screenshots; I guess they were scanned with cheap Vidicon cameras for industrial applications. The generated pictures were indeed black-and-white, i.e. without colour burst, and where shown in the morning before they switched to the program feed --- with test card as shown as http://www.ralph-toman.de/fernsehweitempfang/fernseh_dx3.htm about half an hour before the program was scheduled to start. These scanners / generators were also used to announce things like possibly disturbed reception due to Es / tropo openings or that only a degraded signal is available for transmission. The latter one usually indicated that they had to make do with off-air reception of other transmitters, i.e. Ballempfang. At the Dresden TV/FM transmitter (i.e. Dresden-Wachwitz TV tower) the staff really loved the circumstance that the Ballempfang equipment could pick up Berlin, almost impossible for ordinary antenna installations at Dresden (joke from the time: ARD means "Außer Raum Dresden" = except Dresden area). Guess what one day happened when the microwave link failed late at night: They were stupid enough to put their very special Ballempfang on air. Perhaps I told this story already, but I will go into the risk to be repetitive because a rumour circulates about the Dresden TV tower being fed with ARD and ZDF, meaning that it would have been required them only to push some buttons to put the West TV in Dresden on the air. Well, kind of, as mentioned above. But this was no feed, just DX reception of Berlin transmitters, not usable for regular distribution of course (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Oct 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 3945, RRI Palu instead of RRI Denpasar as reported in DX-Window 278, 1115-1602, Sep 19, regional news, IS, IDs at 1138, 1220, 1253, 1301, 1344, 1536 and 1559. News relayed from Jakarta at 1200-1219 followed by "Pelangi Nusantara" program, i.e. Vernacular and Indonesian pop songs up to 1330. Phone-in music by request programme (tel 62 451 455442) served listeners as far as Manado, about 700 [km?] north-eastward. Mostly Indonesian songs played, but Celine Dion's "The Power of Love", Christian St Peter's "Willingly", Tom Jones' "Green Green Grass of Home", and Dan Hill's "Boulevard" also heard. On closing, OM Bram mentioned Tondo as transmitter site and station address: Jl Kartini 39, Palu. 24332 up to 1324 when signal strolling higher to 3950. 3950, RRI Palu, 1125-1135, Sep 20, various local announcements in Public Service program. 1130 TC followed by Hindu Religion program opened with Balinese typical gamelan which made me came to think of Bali or RRI Denpasar on this hour and this day, Tuesday, 8 weeks ago. 33333 (Soehartono (Tony) Ashar, Depok, West Java, Indonesia, DSWCI DX Window Oct 9 via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. Son of Spam, all purpose: http://www.snopes.com/info/notes/sonspam.asp (via Jonathan Marks, Critical Distance Blog Oct 11 via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL INTERNET. USA: REPRESSIVE STATES USE US TECHNOLOGY TO CONTROL INTERNET - VOA REPORT | Text of report by Stephanie Ho published on VOA News.com website on 13 October Washington, 13 October: US-made computer products and filtering software are helping repressive countries, like China and Iran, control what their citizens see on the internet. The issue is getting wider attention, as more and more people around the globe have access to the world wide web. Information is power, and for countries like China and Iran, this concept manifests itself in strict government control of the mass media. In the old days, when mass media were dominated by print and broadcast outlets, that control was relatively easy and effective. Now, though, new technologies to facilitate communication are giving repressive governments new headaches. One of these new areas is the internet, which has a growing number of users among ordinary people in both China and Iran. In China, there are more than 94 million internet users out of a population of 1.3 billion people. There are more than four million internet users in Iran, which has a population of 68 million people. Julien Pain, from the group, Reporters Without Borders, says these countries make it difficult, but not impossible, for ordinary people to use the internet to spread the kind of information that would not appear in the mainstream media. "In countries such as China and Iran, you have to be brave to publish political content online," he said. "You know, it's not a hobby." In Iran, individual internet service providers are responsible for filtering content. Iranian-American journalist Azadeh Moaveni, who often reports from Tehran for Time Magazine, says, even as recently as two years ago, internet controls in Iran were relatively loose. "But in the last year or so, the government has become much more serious about how it wants to control it," he explained. "And so, internet service providers are forced to use a box that is provided to them officially, through the judiciary, that sets up the firewalls for internet users." There are some Iranian internet service providers that use American filtering software, called SmartFilter, to censor content, though export controls keep US companies from selling their products directly to Iran. This is not the same story for China, where American companies are being accused of providing many of the tools that help Beijing tighten its grip on the internet. These tools include not only hardware and software, but also voluntary cooperation with Chinese authorities. One recent case involves Chinese journalist Shi Tao, who was arrested and sentenced in April to 10 years in prison for "illegally providing state secrets abroad." Human rights groups say web search engine Yahoo provided Chinese authorities with e-mail account information that helped Chinese authorities make the conviction. Beijing is also buying American hardware to crack down on the internet in China. Rebecca MacKinnon, with Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, says it is a subtle situation, because routers from companies like Cisco Systems are also used in countries with free flow of information to filter out harmful things, such as computer viruses, or to block pornography in places like public libraries. But she says she believes Cisco may be helping to train Chinese authorities on how to use the hardware to filter even more things out. "When they're [Cisco] selling stuff, and they're marketing it, and they know how it's being used, there is no line being drawn about what they should be assisting, and what they shouldn't," she said. "And so, my argument has been that there needs to be more scrutiny on this, and there needs to be a lot more questions asked. And it's clearly not murky. It's not like we should deny China the internet, or deny China Cisco routers. But here we are claiming, as Americans, we believe people should have free speech, and our companies are going and helping to stifle it." A spokesman for Cisco, Ron Piovesan, says the products his company sells to China are exactly the same as those that are sold to any other country in the world. "We can't control how our customers use our equipment," he noted. "Our equipment does come with certain security features, which are used to block, for example, to block viruses from infecting a network, or to prevent a hacker from stealing a credit card company's [information], or to protect confidential medical information. So, when you talk about a security feature, that is the mainstream uses of a security feature that are inherent within a lot of Cisco's products." China recently stepped up its control over the internet by announcing new regulations governing content on news web sites. In response to a question about these new rules, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Washington considers free _expression a universal right. "Any effort to limit freedom of expression, any effort that would have a chilling effect on freedom of expression and freedom of the press is something that is of concern to us," he said. When asked what Washington thinks about American companies helping the Chinese government with internet censorship, Mr. McCormack did not directly address the question. At the same time, he acknowledged that he is not aware of any direct discussions on the issue between the US government and any American computer companies. Source: VOA News.com website, Washington D.C., in English 13 Oct 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. IS SIRIUS PLAYING GAMES WITH SUBSCRIBER NUMBERS? http://futureofradio.typepad.com/the_future_of_radio/2005/10/is_sirius_playi.html Whenever I post something even remotely critical about Sirius, I always get some angry responses from Sirius users. To them, Sirius is not just a satellite radio service; it's a religion. For blind, unquestioning loyalty, they might even have Apple computer users beat. So it's with some trepidation that I post the following. . . . . Sirius seems to be fudging its suscriber numbers by counting each in- car installation as a subscriber, even if the installed Sirius receiver is never activated: http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/tech/scottmoritz/10246148.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA When a company has to resort to this sort of easily-exposed nonsense to boost its financials, they've got problems. Big problems. Posted on October 10, 2005 (Harry Helms, Future of Radio blog via DXLD) Comments --- "For blind, unquestioning loyalty, they might even have Apple computer users beat." True. I believe this is mainly because in the past XM had commercials on some music channels. If the underdog, Sirius, goes out of business, XM will probably not have any competition. Thus, they will probably go back to airing some commercials on music channels. If Clear Channel were to buy out Sirius, then look out because there would probably be nothing but commercials. Sirius-ly (pun intended) speaking, Sirius is probably the only reason XM decided to make all music channels commercial-free. Of course, they do have problems. For instance, if Sirius does have 1 million subscribers, then it will take $12.95 +1,000,000= roughly $12.9 million per month ($500,000,000- Howard Stern's contract)=around 38 months to pay off Howard Stern's contract. If they have 2 million subscribers, then roughly 19 months just to pay Stern's 1/2 billion dollar contract. I am no financial wizard by any means, but considering it will take 19 months for 2 million-worth of subscribers to pay just one on air talent, according to my math, not including any technical costs for keeping the satellite birds up in the air. Yeah, Sirius does have really, really big problems --- if my math is even remotely correct. Of course, they probably get revenue elsewhere, like ads on news and talk channels, but my God it just doesn't seem like a way to run a company and expect profits. Posted by: Jason | October 10, 2005 at 19:03 Even if Sirius does run into severe financial problems, I don't think Sirius listeners will be stuck with a lot of useless receivers. I expect their assets --- the satellites, production facilities, subscriber lists, etc. --- will be acquired for a few cents on the dollar by another company. If I were Mel Karmazin, I'd seriously (pun intended) consider offering a basic set of channels --- supported by advertising --- free to anyone owning a Sirius receiver and then charge for extra channels, especially content like the NFL, NASCAR, Howard Stern, etc., that they shelled out a lot of cash to acquire. Posted by: Harry | October 11, 2005 at 12:50 Ah yes, but if that is the case, then satellite radio would be nothing but glorified commercial radio. (Read: they would become the exact thing people are getting satellite radios to get rid of in the first place --- monotonous FM ads). On the other hand, as long as all the music stations did not turn into Top 40's stuff, and if the ads were paced to the music, it might work. However, putting an ad with lots of screaming and so forth, on something like Spa 73, would ruin the whole mood for even listening to such a channel. If they run ads, then they must be congruent to the listening audience. Posted by: Jason | October 12, 2005 at 04:30 (ibid.) ** INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM. AL QAEDA DISTRIBUTES THIRD EDITION OF VOICE OF THE CALIPHATE --- By Nick Grace October 14, 2005 The full online issue can be read at: http://www.ClandestineRadio.com/crw/crw.php?id=267 The third edition of Sawt al-Khilafa (Voice of the Caliphate), the "Caliphate Voice Channel," was posted on Octobrer 10 across Islamist message boards by the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF), an al Qaeda mouthpiece believed to be in Europe or the Middle East. The 27-minute video displays better production skills and appears to use the same services as the news anchor who debuted in the second edition. According to open source reporting, he speaks with an Egyptian accent. Missing from the current edition of the video is the machine gun that sat pointed at the camera in earlier programs. News items include extremely graphic and disturbing footage of the beheading of an Iraqi, developments in Afghanistan, Egypt, and Algeria. At 15:22 the program segues into Islamist chants. GIMF also posted a call to create the "al Qaeda University for Jihad Subjects," according to a SITE Institute report on October 10, where "jihad subjects" including psychological, electronic, and physical warfare would be taught. SITE reports: "(T)he advertisement states that 'the students of jihad today are the mujahideen of tomorrow,' as it incites Muslims to action and promises that those who 'graduate' from al Qaeda University apply their knowledge on the ground and teach the 'jihad supporters who are still learning from these heroes, and they will hurt the enemy in the coming days.'" The group also recently posted requests for video editing and Web production support. With the increased sophistication apparent in the latest Sawt al-Khilafa video it seems that the request was answered. The latest edition of Sawt al-Khilafa can be downloaded here but please note that it is extremely graphic: http://www.clandestineradio.com/audio/meast_aq_caliphate_051010.wmv (CRW Oct 14 via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [and non]. Some SSB stalwarts are the ocean cruising community who are often travelling without the financial resources that commercial mariners enjoy. Therefore, SSB using basic equipment is their preferred means of communication. There re many such radio nets on the amateur band allocations but here are a few more that operate outside the amateur bands. Northeast Caribbean Cruisers net on 8188 at 1400 UT. The area of operation is from Mexico to San Andreas [sic] Island, Colombia. Cruiseheimer`s net on 8152 at 0830 ET [1230 UT, soon 1330]; these people carry on with their contacts way after their start time. A net controlled from Ontario, Canada on 12359 from about 1930 that covers the USA East Coast and eventually covers the Pacific as propagation allows. Radio Peri-Peri, with an East African emphasis, on 8101 at 0500. Area of operations is the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic. After weather has been broadcast, the net shifts to 12353. At 1500, both frequencies are active. New Zealand traffic net at 0830 and 1630 on 12359, for vessels sailing in the region from Bora2 to Australia. All the above on USB (Ben Hogan, SSB Utilities, Oct Short Wave Magazine [UK] via DXLD) ** IRAN. Controlling the web: see INTERNATIONAL INTERNET ** IRELAND. 2835, RTE Radio 1, Athlone, 0740-0755, Sept. 17, Irish traditional music in parallel with MW 567. 35433. Spurious signal maybe 5 x 567 (Patrick Cody, Nenagh, Ireland, DSWCI DX Window Oct 9 via DXLD) No doubt the 5th harmonic! (DSWCI Ed., ibid) ** JAPAN. According to NHK Engineering Head Quarters, termination of domestic short wave relay was decided in March and actually terminated by the end of May. NHK had been using the relay for almost 60 years, but satellite link and quality land line were more reliable and convenient these days, so all relays were terminated. Just for your record, the terminated relays are: Location Power Modulation Carrier Frequencies Sapporo (Ebetsu) 600 DSB 3970.0 6005.0 9535. Tokyo (Shobu) 900 SSB 3607.5 6175.0 9550. Nagoya (Nabeta) 300 SSB 3970.0 6005.0 9535.0 Osaka (Mihara) 300 SSB 3373.75 5428.0 9181.0 Fukuoka (Kasuga) 300 SSB 3259.0 6130.0 9535.0 (Toshimichi Ohtake/ JSWC, Kamakura, Japan and Satoshi Wakisaka, Osaka, Japan, DSWCI DX Window Oct 9 via DXLD) ** KASHMIR [non]. V. of Kashmir, 9890, 0805 27 August, Indian traditional songs by OM, vernacular, SINPO 45433 (Nik Borovenski, Novokuznetsk, Russia, Oct World DX Club Contact via DXLD) That`s the one from Delhi-Kingsway site of AIR, 100 kW (NDXC A-05 frequency list via DXLD) ** LATVIA. 9290 kHz Relays: Sat 15 October Radio Six 0600-0700 UT Radio Casablanca 1000-1100 UT Sun 16 October Radio Six 1100-1200 UT Good Listening (Tom Taylor, Oct 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA [non]. V. of Africa had a much more interesting segment Oct 14, in English on 21675 via France at tune-in around 1350: interview with a visitor from South Africa who was most impressed with Libya and concluded that those two countries would lead Africa into the future. Cut off abruptly at 1400 as usual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. RTM renamed its networks a few months ago: Radio 4 on 7295 is now called Traxx FM. The other renamed networks on SW are Nasional FM (ex-Radio 1) in Malay on 5965v; Asyik FM (ex-Radio 7) in Malay and Orasng Asli languages on 6025. RTM renamings: The Sabah network on 5980v has been renamed as Sabah V FM, but I have not heard the SW frequency for some time. Wai FM in Iban/Bidayuh etc. on Kuching-7270; Sarawak FM in Malay on Kuching-5030 and 7130 (Alan Davies in Dxplorer via DSWCI DX Window Oct 9 via DXLD) ** MALDIVE ISLANDS. MALDIVES POLICE SUMMON JOURNALISTS FROM OPPOSITION NEWSPAPER | Excerpt from report dated 13 October by Minivan News headlined: "Col Nasheed taken to Dhoonidhoo; Other Minivan journalists possibly to follow" by Sri Lankan-based Maldivian Minivan News website on 14 October President Gayoom appeared to commence his long-anticipated assault on Minivan today - the only daily newspaper critical of his regime. Popular opposition figure and regular Minivan columnist Colonel Nasheed was taken from Male' to Dhoonidhoo detention centre this afternoon. Another Minivan journalist, Ablo Saeed (Fahala), has been summoned to the police this evening. Colonel received a chit from the police this morning which summoned him at 4.30 this afternoon. The chit stated only that the police wished to question him about "a matter that is being investigated". After going to the police station in Male' at the requested time, Colonel was reportedly transported to Dhoonidhoo. No further details are available. On 20 September, the state-run media announced that seven Minivan staff, including Colonel and Fahala, were under investigation for articles published by Minivan which were critical of the government. Colonel is being investigated specifically for a speech he made - independent of Minivan but which was reported in the paper - in which he argues Gayoom would do almost anything to stay in power. If Gayoom decides to prosecute the journalists, it could result in prison sentences for over half of Minivan's staff, including its editor, Aminath Najeeb, and would result in automatic de-registration of the paper under Maldives' draconian press laws. The government, which only allowed the newspaper to register in July 2005 after over a year of waiting, has stepped up its attacks against Minivan following the arrest of Mohamed Nasheed (Anni) in mid-August and a series of investigative articles in the paper which have seriously undermined the prosecution's case against Nasheed. [passage omitted] Sources close to the paper have said that "Even if Gayoom doesn't outright ban the paper, he appears determined to render it ineffective by ensuring that the staff are simply unable to go to work... [ellipsis as published] either because they are in jail or because they are being hauled up to the police or courts for hours every day." Minivan Daily, which sold its first issue on 26 July, is the biggest- selling daily newspaper in the country. Colonel Nasheed was also due to address an MDP rally in Kalaafaanu School in Male' tonight (9.30 p.m.) and is expected to stand as an MP in the upcoming Male' by-election. MDP activists Naasthaa Waheed and Bafaa Waleed were also reportedly summoned to the police this afternoon. Source: Minivan News website, Colombo, in English 0000 gmt 14 Oct 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) So how closely related is Minivan newspaper to Minivan Radio, and why was it not even mentioned? BTW, the Friends of Maldives website has expired (gh, DXLD) ** MOLDOVA. 5910, Radio DMR, State R of Pridnestrovye, Tiraspol, *1600-1636, Sep 20 and 26, English, French and German programs with chime, ID and commentary. They announced "5960 kHz", 45444 (Satoshi Wakisaka, in Düsseldorf, and Klaus-Dieter Scholz, Erfurt, Germany, DSWCI DX Window Oct 9 via DXLD) ** PERU. Quito 13/10 2005 Thursday 2nd edition: I have talked by telephone to Radio Santa Mónica, Cusco: The telephone number to Radio Santa Mónica, Cusco (+51 84) 225160 is not correct. I just talked to the owner of this telephone, a very nice woman. She gave me the new number: (+51 84) 225357. I asked her if she knew something about Radio Santa Mónica. She said Santa Mónica is transmitting as normal with the same name "Radio Santa Mónica" on MW and FM but said she does not know anything about the shortwave frequency. She said also that Radio Nacional del Perú is not transmitting from Cusco. EXACTLY the same information had a woman working at Radio Santa Mónica when I talked to the station using their new telephone number. She does not know anything about Santa Mónica relaying Radio Nacional del Perú. I`m wondering if the station on 4965.82 really is a part of Radio Santa Mónica MW/FM or some kind of a pirate station? A very strange story, but I will go on listening to this unID "Radio Nacional del Perú" on 4965.82 kHz. Comments, photos and recordings at: http://www.malm-ecuador.com 73s (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, Oct 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Quito 14/10 2005 Friday edition: 4965.82, unID Perú, this Friday morning at 1100 UT I made a new recording of the station`s ID. A never-ending-story but very interesting so please listen to the clip and tell me your opinion. Daniel Camporini (Argentina) has sent an e- mail to a friend that is working at Radio Nacional del Perú in Lima. "Nacional (+ name QTH?), cambios en ... los programas y medios(?) ... sólo una radio todos los lugares. En las noches de ... a 7:30 Radio ... (inter-?)Nacional ... con la cobertura (inter-?)nacional ... local ...". Comments, photos and recordings at: http://www.malm-ecuador.com 73s (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, Oct 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Shudder; wish you could filter out the het. Note that many of the clips on BM`s site are temp, to be removed, so don`t delay in auditioning them (gh, DXLD) ** RUSSIA. COMMENTATOR BELIEVES GAZPROM PREPARED TO SELL EKHO MOSKVY RADIO | Text of commentary by Mila Kuzina published by Russian Gazeta.ru website on 7 October. Subheading inserted editorially Gazprom still has some media assets that it inherited from Gusinskiy. Three teams of top managers have tried to sort them out and bring about order in them. Nevertheless, there is no obvious consistency, structure, or purpose to their actions. Let us take radio, for example. The radio stations Next and Popsa are managed by Yuliya Yakovleva. They have their own advertising service, their own production base, and soon they will even have their own building. Ekho Moskvy [radio] is managed by Aleksey Venediktov - and here too, there is practically full autonomy. In addition to them, a new radio station is being created, which will be managed by Aleksandr Gerasimov. It too will have everything of its own - an advertising service and a base. But the main thing is that the station will operate in the same format as Ekho. You must agree, from the standpoint of business, this is total absurdity. In one holding company, there are three radio stations. Moreover, two of them are strictly informational - direct competitors, with their own specific news services. And news, per minute, is one of the most expensive products. No matter what our attitude may be towards the Russian Media Group, its methods of operation and the repertoire of Russkoye Radio, one thing we cannot take away from them is professionalism. Since it is easier to live within a holding - then we will create a holding. Then we will try to buy up our weak competitors. We will sell advertising in a package to all radio stations. We will sort out the listeners by interests. We will create a common news service for all the stations. As a result, after a while, most respondents, in answering the question of where they most often hear the news, will say: On Russkoye Radio. It is just that the Russian News Service operates for several of the holding's radio stations at once, and gives the impression of carpet bombing. On this background, one gets the feeling that Gazprom is simply acting irrationally in regard to its radio media assets. On one hand, it is buying Sibneft and shares in RAO YeES [Russian joint-stock company Unified Energy Systems], developing the resources of the Yamal Peninsula, and entering the markets in compressed natural gas, and on the other - it seems that it has become lost and disoriented with its radio stations. But in fact, this is, of course, not so. Gazprom is preparing Ekho for sale. I was prompted to this idea by the banners hung throughout all of Moscow. "For 15 years, we have been chasing the wave," says the stylized head of the chief editor of Ekho Moskvy , Aleksey Venediktov. Depicted next to him is the Gazprom logo. At first glance, everything seems logical. A shareholder is promoting his subsidiary, and has given it money for its birthday. But here is the strange thing: He never gave any before, but now suddenly he is giving it. Why should Gazprom shell out several hundred thousand dollars for promoting Ekho Moskvy , a wilful and on the whole oppositionist radio station? That's right - in order to sell it at a higher price. And here, we begin to understand not only the advertising, but also the creation of a radio station to compete with Ekho within the holding, under management of Gerasimov. Price versus political risks Let us leave logic aside and return to the facts. Gazprom Media is really actively offering the radio station Ekho Moskvy to the market. Naturally, only the packet belonging to the holding itself is being sold, which is slightly over 60 per cent (34 per cent is held by the journalist collective). It is being sold for 12m dollars. The entire radio station costs 25m dollars without political risks, and 20m dollars with them. Offers to buy Ekho have already been made to two media holdings - Prof-Media and the American Metromedia International Inc. Corporation, which owns Radio 7 on Seven Hills and Radio Melodiya. Both aspirants refused. The price and the political risks turned out to be greater than the desire to become the owner of Ekho. At the same time, Russian Media Group has long stated that it is prepared to buy Ekho Moskvy and to develop it. But it is not mentioned on the list of potential buyers. And this brings us to one other thought: Development of the already overly free and politically active Ekho is simply not needed. What will happen to it after it is sold? Through this deal, Gazprom clearly wants to absolve itself of responsibility for what is happening on the air of Ekho on the threshold of the next electoral cycle. And the new shareholders would be able to do whatever they want with the radio station, even close it down completely. But no one wants to spend 12m dollars in order to close down Ekho . That is why it is not easy to find buyers. Today, the radio station pays for itself, and it could be given to the artistic collective. But it does not have the money to buy out the Gazprom packet, and it is practically impossible for it to raise any significant investments by itself, without any guarantees. It is unlikely that Ekho Chief Editor Aleksey Venediktov would want to work with Berezovskiy. Nevzlin and Khodorkovskiy cannot be bothered right now, and Gusinskiy would only stand to gain from the closure of Ekho. He has long been trying to get the leading journalists to come to work for his own television company, RTVi . And it may very well be that this is how the entire matter will end. Source: Gazeta.ru website, Moscow, in Russian 7 Oct 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** SAUDI ARABIA. Nice 13m conditions continue Oct 14: at 1450 we have Qur`an on 21505 // 21640, but not strong enough to uncover mixing products on 21775 or 21370. AND, a different Qur`an recitation on weaker 21460, which is the Qur`an service --- it`s Friday, it`s Ramadan, and it`s Sa`udi Arabia, so hardly surprising we are blessed with a choice of Qur`an listening. However, 21505 and 21640 cut off at 1455 while 21460 continued, as did French on 21600, which was still going strong at 1535 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SIERRA LEONE. STATE BROADCASTER GETS NEW DIRECTOR GENERAL | Text of report by Sierra Leone radio on 11 October The new director general of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service [SLBS], Kashor Wellington, has assumed the mantle of office to manage the SLBS for the next 15 months. Before Mr Wellington's appointment, SLBS was managed by a transitional management team headed by a representative of the national commission for privatization, Ibrahim Keh-Turay. The transitional management team was appointed five months ago by the national commission for privatization to put in place a management team at the SLBS. Mr Wellington has now been presented to members and staff of the SLBS/TV at a presentation ceremony held at the office. Speaking at the ceremony, the representative of the national commission for privatization, Ibrahim Key-Turay, said the new management team is going to run the SLBS for the next 15 months, before turning into corporation. Mr Key-Turay noted that the new management team is coming to change the phase of the SLBS. Speaking later during a conducted tour, the new director general explained that they need to work together as a team to make the SLBS a better place. The new director general and the transitional management team were taken on a conducted tour to the television studios, the newsroom and the FM Studios to get first hand information of Broadcasting House. Mr Kashor Wellington was a former broadcaster at the SLBS. Source: SLBS radio, Freetown, in English 2000 gmt 11 Oct 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** SIKKIM. 3390, AIR Gangtok, 1325, Oct 01, English program about Sikkim culture. Seems a regular English slot 1300-1400. At 1400 went into dialect (Victor Goonetilleke, Sri Lanka, DSWCI DX Window Oct 9 via DXLD) ** TURKEY [and non]. BBCWS with a poor signal from Oman to S Asia in English, Oct 14 at 1456 on 17790, slightly ahead of // 15565, but with CCI from music. At 1520, the other station was on top in Arabic, giving website ending in .net.tr --- how do you say double-u in Arabic? Don`t even try. Yes, VOT is scheduled in Arabic to Africa on 17790 at 1400-1555, whilst BBC is on there from 0700 to 1600, not a very good share idea (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UGANDA [non]. R. Rhino International Africa, as Chris Greenway pointed out, is mourning the death of Dr. Apollo Milton Obote. Listened to their entire broadcast Oct 14 at 1500-1530 on 17870, which is now scheduled Wed and Fri only, via Jülich, Germany. Very good signal today. 1501 introductory slogans as ``your voice for the future; for liberty; for hope``, then a bit of western music which I would not have connected with Obote or Uganda. 1503 martial tune, presumably Ugandan anthem. 1504:30 YL saying they are in mourning for Obote, who died in a South African hospital while undergoing a routine checkup, Oct 10 at 1430* UT. 1506, a version of ``The Rose``, not by Bette Midler. 1507 eulogy spoken by OM, the director of RRIA, including (good thing they aren`t using VT/Merlin): 1510 accusing the BBC of misinformation: Obote was not frustrated and angry when he died. ``Our papá`` died of kidney failure, not AIDS as present dictator Museveni is claiming. 1516 brief tone or het QRM. 1526 another seemingly unrelated western tune, reminiscent of, or ripped off from ``Love Me Tender`` with words and some notes changed. This was still going until 1530, so there was no transmission closing at all, as the audio changed abruptly to Y. Doodle, and VOA opening Georgian. The latter is scheduled via Morocco, but the overlap was so smooth one might have guessed both were from the same site. I see that the website http://www.radiorhino.org/ has some audio files about this, and the complete text of the eulogy by Godfrey Ayoo. The site has sizing problems and the frame with all the text will not copy. However, Obote was not exactly a saint, as RRIA would have us believe, tho surely not the monster Idi Amin was. A Google search on Milton Obote crimes got about 24000 hits, including this Boston Globe story: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2005/10/11/milton_obote_80_uganda_prime_minister/ And this from The Herald, Harare: http://allafrica.com/stories/200510130559.html (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Altho supposedly authorized from *1500 on 17775, KVOH was already on with music at 1455 Oct 14, very good strength but usual distortion. Just so it`s not on before 1425 when Italy concludes its NAm service on 17780; hmmm, except Sundays when Italy is scheduled until 1630, per EiBi A05 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 5835, R Liberty via WHRI, South Bend, IN, 0430-0500*, Sep 27, English, ads for WWL, many IDs as R. Liberty at 0455 and mentioned website http://www.radioliberty.com a few times, phone number, etc. No trace of WWL at 0500 according to earlier temporary schedule, so it might have been changed after the first few weeks after hurricane Katrina. 24333 (Bjarke Vestesen, Radby, Blommenslyst, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Oct 9 via DXLD) This ``Radio Liberty`` is just another gospel-huxter program as scheduled on WHR, at 0300-0500 Tue-Sat on 5835, among other times. But I don`t see how it could have been mixed in with WWL relay (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. WRNO Site: Google Earth Placemark: WRNO?.kmz Re: latest DXLD: "Site is in Marrero, Jefferson Parish". So the site shown in the attached placemark must be the old one (HFCC: 29N50, 90W07)? I see Marrero a bit more to the north, about 90W06? 73, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, ABDX via DXLD) No attachment arrived; please respond directly to me re DXLD items (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. Family Radio Special announcement --- Very Important announcement for listeners in the San Francisco / Oakland California area. Beginning October 17, 2005 KEAR (Family Radio broadcasts) will be moving to an AM frequency. Family Radio will no longer be heard over 106.9 FM. Listeners directly affected by this change must switch their radio dial to 610 AM to listen. (From : special announcement Family Radio, via Ashik Eqbal Tokon, Rajshahi, Bangladesh, Oct 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) So the sale of KEAR and the purchase of KFRC 610 is finally going thru, netting a mint for Camping, disposing of the valuable FM property for what had been one of the Bay Area`s premier AM stations, but is now of little value. Hasn`t Camping already said everything one could possibly say about Christianity? He drones on and on and on on WYFR SW, and presumably on 610 in San Francisco, so this is only a net gain for BA FM listeners (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Remember the Media Ownership Reform Act, sponsored by Rep. Maurice Hinchey of NY? His website page http://www.house.gov/hinchey/issues/mora.shtml for the past months has never gone beyond ``Further information will be available soon. Please check back!`` Unfortunately, he may respond to e-mails only from his constituents in NY District 22, so would one of our readers with the proper zip code use the contact form and ask him about it? Since MORA would affect far more than NY-22, should he not respond nationally? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. from Northwest Broadcasters: KUOW-FM 94.9 Seattle has acquired KVSN AM 1340 Tumwater and will convert it, beginning today, to a simulcast of news, information and National Public Radio programming. KUOW will manage the station pending FCC approval of the sale at a price of $500,000. Call letters will change to KUOW AM (Eric Flodén, BC, Oct 13, IRCA mailing list via DXLD) ** U S A. I have just assembled a web page depicting the current status of the AM stations in southeast Florida which have at one time or another operated with IBOC. The web page includes a spectrum scan for each of the four stations, along with other pertinent information. You may find the scan images of interest even if the stations themselves are not. Southeast Florida AM IBOC Status: http://ScooterHound.com/WWWR/radio/sefliboc.html (W. Curt Deegan, Boca Ratón, (Southeast) Florida, Oct 11, IRCA via DXLD) ** UZBEKISTAN. INTERNEWS LOSES BATTLE TO STAY IN UZBEKISTAN | Text of report by US-based Internews website on 12 October Internews Network, a leading international media development organization, has lost its bid to continue working in Uzbekistan, the Central Asian nation where it has operated for 10 years to support independent media. After 10 minutes of deliberation, the Tashkent City Court on Tuesday [11 October] denied Internews Network's appeal of a court order last month to shut down the US-based organization's Uzbekistan office. "We expected our appeal to be denied because it's been obvious from the start that the authorities want to boot us out for political reasons," said Catherine Eldridge, Internews' country director for Uzbekistan. "But we're still very disappointed. We've put up a good fight and we'll continue to fight this decision through the courts, starting with an appeal to the review board of the Tashkent City Court. But it looks like we really have to go." The US-based non-profit media organization began operations in Uzbekistan in 1995 where it has helped develop the country's independent, private television stations through trainings, technical assistance and support of local news and information programming. According to Uzbek legislation, Internews is now obliged to close its office in Tashkent and cease all operations in Uzbekistan. However, all its activities were effectively suspended more than a year ago when the Central Bank froze its bank accounts without warning or explanation. Last month the Tashkent City Court found Internews Network guilty of a number of "gross violations" of Uzbek law and told it to close. In August, two Internews employees were convicted of conspiring to publish information and produce TV programs without the necessary licences. The liquidation order was based on these convictions as well as a number of other violations. These included: using the Internews logo without registering it first with the Ministry of Justice, referring to itself as "Internews Uzbekistan" instead of "Internews Network Representative Office in Uzbekistan", "monopolizing the media," and carrying out activities without getting prior permission from the Ministry of Justice. Such permission is actually not required according to the Bilateral Agreement Regarding the Cooperation to Facilitate the Provision of Assistance between Uzbekistan and USA under which all American NGOs work in Uzbekistan, Internews projects in Uzbekistan have been supported by the US Agency for International Development and EuropeAid (the international aid branches of the US and EU, respectively) and the US State Department. In the last 18 months, there has been a crackdown on foreign non- governmental organizations (NGOs), especially those supporting the development of democracy. In September another foreign NGO, IREX (International Research and Exchanges Board) was suspended for six months for allegedly conducting activities not in line with its charter and not registering its logo with the Ministry of Justice. Many believe that the Uzbek authorities fear a repeat of the popular uprisings that brought down the governments in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. In May, relations between Western governments and the authoritarian regime of President Islam Karimov worsened after Uzbek forces brutally quashed a popular uprising in the city of Andijan, killing hundreds of mostly unarmed protesters. In July, Uzbekistan gave the US military six months to leave its base at Karshi-Khanobad. Source: Internews website, Arcata, in English 12 Oct 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** VATICAN. Radio Vaticana in DRM --- Ciao a tutti, ecco le ultime novita' della Radio Vaticana in Drm che mi sono state comunicate per email dopo aver inviato un rapporto d'ascolto delle nuove emissioni digitali sui 1530 kHz. Gent.le Sig. Borgnino, grazie per il messaggio. Al momento le trasmissioni in DRM sull'OM 1530 kHz, 0010-0200 CET, sono di carattere sperimentale; dal prossimo 16 Ottobre al posto della musica verranno trasmesse le repliche dei programmi tedesco, inglese ed italiano lasciando alla musica gli ultimi 30 minuti. In altri orari della giornata, 0800-1710 CET e 2200-0010 CET, le trasmissioni sperimentali in DRM continuano ad essere effettuate sull'OM 1611 kHz. Nel prossimo futuro cominceremo delle trasmissioni sperimentali in Onda Corta. Cordiali saluti. Saluti, (via Andrea Borgnino IW0HK, Oct 14, bclnews.it via DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Glenn, Bill of DX Radio school was talking about you!!! He asked about why you put on so many extras and he was wondering if your health is OK. He said you are playing a lot of Extras these days because of bad health? He said you are a far left 'Nut Case'. Did you hear that?? You can hear that on http://www.dxprograms.net Click on DX Radio School for Oct 9. Thanks, (Artie Bigley, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I finally found some time to listen. This segment lasts for 2 or 3 minutes starting 9 minutes into file. Good luck keeping it going as these dxprograms.net mp3 files tend to keep stopping abruptly, at least for me. Here is a paraphrase of part of what Bill says: ||Is Glenn doing OK, and I mean this sincerely; I still am a follower of gh altho Glenn doesn`t like me much and thinks I`m a far-right nutcase. I think he is a far-left nutcase. I still care about the guy. He has good info, and I hope his health is OK, since I am hearing a lot of extras, which usually show up when there are holidays. Maybe stations are screwing up? (Bill Lauterbach)|| Appreciate the concern. The Extras are of course COMs which I am producing anyway once a month, so ideally one of them should appear each month as a WOR Extra so they don`t pile up. They had been piling up, so that when they came on the WOR network including SW they were several months old. I do try to make them as non-perishable as possible, but something always gets outdated or overtaken by events. Now the one produced at the end of August has just appeared in October, so we are more or less caught up. My health is fine, but I do need to take more time off than I have been taking in order to attend to things I have been neglecting. Trouble is, when you hear an Extra it doesn`t really gain me any net time off, as I have twice as much material to go thru for the next WOR after a 2-week break (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ ALTERNATIVES TO 100000WATTS.COM Feel freee to use my am logbook at http://www.amlogbook.com It is FREE and always shall be. I just did a complete update for the new DX season and do updates bi-weekly (would like to do it more often, but I do have a life). With the changes on 100K I may try to do it weekly. Sorry but no FM or TV at this time (Lee Freshwater, Ocala FL, IRCA mailing list via DXLD) NEW FCC DATABASE INTERFACE I may have discovered what everybody else already knows, but maybe there is someone else out there who has not explored the new FCC database interface on the web. That's "new" compared to the old, though just how new it is I don't know. The main menu is at http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/reports/index.cfm It has a wide range of choices for searching. The one I found interesting was the "Location" option. There may be similar surprises buried in the other options as well. The ability to enter initial coordinates and either a radius or another set of coordinates to form a search box allow finding all the stations in a given area. The type of service -- AM, FM, TV, etc. -- can be selected, as well as a frequency range. As an aside, there are choices for AM Digital and FM Digital, though on my search there were no entries found. No doubt intended for future use, unfortunately. All this is pretty "so what", but the ability to create PDF and MS Excel downloads of search results is potentially very useful. Adding to the flexibility of this facility is the results "Search" option. When selected, you can choose which fields from the found data of the last station search, that you wish to have presented, and download in comma or tab delimited, or MS Excel format. This can produce a data file that can be easily incorporated into local programs. This will not produce the complete results of an "AMQ AM Radio Database Query" search, but it can save a lot of work if a straightforward list of stations in a given region is the goal. For example, I chose my location coordinates and a 300 mile radius, to cover most of Florida, and a range of frequencies 540-1710. This produced a rather unwieldy result, but it had all the AM stations -- in call sign order -- with info including distance and direction from my location, all in a PDF file. Using the results search option I then selected from all that data, a subset of frequency, call sign, location, distance, and direction, and downloaded this in comma delimited format. This produced a compact 40k file that I can now manipulate locally. I don't have Excel, but suspect this would be a very convenient local searching tool. My spread sheet program is too old to deal with this format, so this may spur me to move into the 21st century. There are a lot of possibilities; what I've described is only one. It would probably be worth most DXer's time to take a look at this interface into the FCC database (W. Curt Deegan, Boca Raton, (Southeast) Florida, Oct 8, IRCA via DXLD) DX-PEDITIONS ++++++++++++ MW Radio Bandscan (and a bit of FM and Shortwave) from Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles, September 2005 --- BY JAY NOVELLO This year we took off for Bonaire, and you won't find a more laid-back place in the Caribbean. There are none of the crowds of Aruba - and you can have that cattle pen of an airport there! There are only 10,000 residents, beautiful scenery, flora, fauna, and plenty of great restaurants. Downtown Kralendijk is small, walkable, and picturesque. And the place is completely attitude-free. English is spoken almost everywhere, but a few words in Dutch or Papiamentu will win you instant friends. I expected an RF jungle, but even though we were less than 10 kM from the 100 kW transmitter of TWR on 800 kHz, and about 50 or so from the big RNW relay station, the only ill effect noticed was some splash plus and minus 20 kHz from 800 - to be expected, really. RNW and TWR both have offices on the north end of Kralendijk, distinct from their transmitter sites. We gave TWR's a miss, but dropped in on RNW and met the very accommodating station manager, Hans. He spoke of continually having to justify shortwave to the Dutch government, who (predictably) wants to cut shortwave in favor of internet streaming. They have an internal joke that they provide an alternative viewpoint to countries with tightly-controlled media - like the US! And we told him there was a certain element of truth to their joke. He suggests writing to RNW director Jan Hoek at the usual PO Box 222 address in Hilversum if you wish RNW to continue on shortwave. Hans is happy to arrange tours of the transmitter site (we had to decline due to time constraints - the beach was calling. However, He called ahead to the site to let them know two crazy tourists were going to come up and take pictures - "we're off until 3:00, it's safe!"). We were not challenged the entire time we were in the shadows of the awesome curtain arrays. Pictures of the RNW site, as well as the TWR site, both stations' offices, and beer and listening post pictures, are available here: http://havana.yak.net/photoalbums/bonaire-radio-album/ Stations heard on AM were almost exclusively from the Venezuelan states of Falcón, Carabobo, Aragua, Miranda, coastal Anzoátegui, and Nueva Esparta, and the city of Caracas - all via water path. Inland stations were almost completely absent. There also seemed to be a direct path to the Dominican Republic, whose stations were heard on many frequencies where there were no Venezuelans audible. Equipment used on this trip included a Sony ICF-SW7600GR radio and Kiwa pocket loop, a Pogo Radio Your Way LX AM/FM mp3 recorder, and a C. Crane/Sangean CCRadio. (Radio samples will be forthcoming here, if I can find the time.) The bandscan -- All times local (EDT/AST) 540 R. ABC, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Religious rant. 1551 merengue; Canned "R. ABC" ID 1602. Weak second station in its null. Sept 25 550 YVKE Mundial, Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela. "Noticiero Mundial" in progress 1220; bookstore ad; loud. Sept 20 570 R Rumbos, Villa de Cura, Aragua, Venezuela. National anthem 1200, promo for religious show "La Voz de la Liberación", "570 AM" IDs, into music, second station in the mix; Noti-Rumbos 1606, and ID "Radio Rumbos, la emisora de Venezuela". Sept 25 590 R Continente, Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela. Full ID/station promo 1110, mostly Venezuelan music mix, loud. "Emisora Matriz de CRC" 1132, list of affiliates, into network news. Sept 20 600 R Sucre, Cumaná, Sucre, Venezuela. Venezuelan rural music, sports promo, lots of IDs, in splash from strong 590. Sept 20 610 R Centro, Cantaura, Anzoátegui, Venezuela. Two stations here, this one with "música bailable" and IDs 1814; second one earlier with classical music 1235, ads for Barquisimeto businesses including multiple restaurants 1733, but no ID heard - likely R Cristal. Sept 25 630 R Nacional Canal Informativo, Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela. Loud with El Presidente speech about the "Modelo Capitalista" 1240; IDed by // with 770, then ID "R Nacional, El Canal Informativo de Radio Nacional de Venezuela". Sept 20 640 unID, academic talk about the history of Venezuelan music 1245. Never returned for an ID. Sept 20 650 R Universal, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Talk about Mickey Mantle's baseball career 1250; ad for "su supermercado favorito"; lots of sports promos; 1300 ending program "Deportivo Universal". ID'ed as "650 Universal", then into bachata music. Sept 20 660 Tu R Popular, Coro, Falcón, Venezuela. ID in passing, rural music about "El último hombre en el caballo". Sept 20 670 R Dial, San Pedro de Macorís, Dominican Republic. Nice surprise here in absence of R Rumbos. 1500 IDs in passing, political statement by some candidate for something, full ID 1507. Every once in a while a huge OC opened up over it, so probably xmtr problems at Rumbos, but later noted loud and clear with ID 2157. Sept 20 680 R Continente, Cumaná, Sucre, Venezuela. Merengue, female DJ, "En Continente...." 1508. Sept 20 690 R Guarachita, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Weak with bachata music, canned, shouted ID "HIAW R Guarachita!" 1515, back to bachata. Sept 20 710 R Capital AM, Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela. ID 1520 and into program of Venezuelan folkloric music. Local-like. Sept 20 720 R Oriente, Porlamar, Nueva Esparta, Venezuela. Vallenato music in loud splash from 710, full ID 1656. Sept 27 730 R HIZ, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, one of the handful of stations here, dominant 1527 with bachata and ID 1527 Sept 20. Heard some English in its null 1440 Sept 29, likely Trinidad. 740 R CNB, Maracaibo, Zulia, Venezuela. ID, talk about family relationships, giving call-in number, selection of romantic vocals 1701. Sept 27 750 RCR Caracas, Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela. Ad for digital cameras, full ID 1530, loud. Sept 20 760 La Doble Q, Puerto la Cruz, Anzoátegui, Venezuela, Cuban salsa, ads, ID 1535. Sept 20 770 R Nacional Canal Informativo, Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela. // 630 1539. Sept 20 780 R Coro, Coro, Falcán, Venezuela. Canned timecheck and ID 1540, song announced as a ranchera selection. Sept 20 790 R Venezuela 790, Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela. Mixed Latin music styles, singing ID "Venezuela, su AM digital" and spoken ID "Señal 790" 1555. Sept 20 800 Trans World Radio, Bonaire, noted missing 1557 Sept 20, but loud 1818 same day, splashing plus and minus 20 kHz at our location less than 10 km from the transmitter site. 800 is the only TWR Bonaire frequency now, with shortwave ending years ago and the old 500 kW omnidirectional pattern replaced by a 100 kW directional slewable toward Brazil or Cuba around six years ago, according to RNW Bonaire station manager Hans. 810 Super Radio 810, Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela. Long ad for "cristales de poder" at Centro Botánico in Valencia, promising help with love problems, bad luck in business, etc. 1601 full ID for "Súper Radio Digital AM" mentioning Valencia is the "Centro Industrial de Venezuela". Sept 20 820 R Guadalupana, Coro, Falcón, Venezuela. Venezuelan folkloric music with lots of guitars, ID 1607. Sept 20 Radio Paradise, St. Kitts and Nevis, in null of R Guadelupana with Carib-accented English preaching, thankfully not with TBN relay. ID 1100, then into "Morning Melodies" music and call-in program. Sept 28 830 R Sensación, Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela. 1632 with Alejandro Sanz song and similar Latin pop, interviews with call-in kids, animal quiz, "It's a Small World" theme, sounds like the Caracas version of Radio Disney. Loud and local-like Sept 20. Sports 1107 with "en Sensación Deportiva" mention Sept 28. 840 unID with high plains Venezuelan cowboy yip-yip music; 1718 "840 AM" non-ID heard multiple times during an hour plus of listening, but gave up after that. Sept 27 850 RV-850, Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela. Venezuelan history segment by Universidad de Carabobo 1638, birthday greetings, "RV-850 la súper estación" in passing. Sept 20 R Fe y Alegría, Maracaibo, Zulia. Vallenata and pop music, 1457 giving phone numbers and ID, in null of RV-850. Sept 29 860 R Curom, Willemstad, Curaçao, likely the one with endless Papiamentu talk every time I tuned in, as at 1645 Sept 20. 870 CNB, listed as Puerto La Cruz, Anzoátegui, Venezuela. But I thought I heard location given as Barcelona in ID 1501. Sept 29 880 R Deportiva 8-80, Caracas, Venezuela, likely the one with sports yak at 1730, but no ID heard. Sept 27 890 R América, Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela. Celia Cruz song 1650, lots of "en América" IDs in passing, "Sciencia y technología" featurette 1655, big ID with URL 1659. Sept 20 900 Mara Ritmo 900, Maracaibo, Zulia, Venezuela. Full "Digital AM" ID with YVMD calls 1702, repetition of some very familiar network chimes, mentioning "modelo socialista para Venezuela" Sept 20 910 R. Q, Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela. Huge splashing signal with "AM Cénter las noticias" 1705, Sept 20. Also 1200 with full ID and into program supplied by the Vatican, Sept 24. 930 WEKO, Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, suspected the one with network ID "Cadena Radio Puerto Rico" and ad mentioning "#1 en computadores" 1116, in 940 splash. Sept 28 940 R Punto Fijo, Punto Fijo, Falcón, Venezuela, ID in passing 1718 in program of Venezuelan regional news, message from Minister of Health. Sept 20 950 R Popular, Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela. Música Mexicana 1720, feature "La Enciclopedia Popular", vallenata music, lots of IDs as R Popular. Sept 20 960 Venezuela Llanera 960, Acarigua, Portuguesa, Venezuela, canned ID using this station name 1732, merengue music. Sept 27 970 R Continente, Maracay, Aragua, Venezuela. Newscast, ads, CRC network promo, ID 1729 Sept 20. R Mundial, Barcelona, Anzoátegui, Venezuela. ID'ing this way in null of R Continente 1256 Sept 30. Two loud stations located only two states apart. 990 unID with religious pontification 1732 mentioning "salvación del alma ... la vida eterna", etc., promising to solve matrimonial and other family problems. No patience to ID these kind of stations, especially while on vacation. Sept 20 1000 Caribeña Mil AM, Morón, Carabobo, Venezuela. TV cable company ad, another saying "enjoy the benefit of electricity for all", lady calling in with kid yelling "mama" in background, loads of ads for local moron businesses, ID 1740 mentioning "La señal del Caribe"; 1806 "El Mundo del Disco" with Karyn White's wonderful "I Love The Way You Love Me". Hadn't heard that one in about 15 years. Sept 20 1010 R Aragua, Cagua, Aragua, Venezuela. "Informativo regional" for el estado de Aragua 1820 Sept 20; ad with chipmunk voices, then romantic vocals 1037 Sept 29. Seems to only ID as "Aragua". 1020 R Alegría, Chivacoa, Yaracuy, Venezuela. Suspected the one with spot sweep with mentions of Alegría in outro, then romantic vallenata selection 1738, but no ID noted. Sept 27 1040 LV de Carabobo, Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela. Program of vallenatos describing instrumental lineup of each song, call-ins, mentions of "la hora de Carabobo", ad for comidas criollas in Valencia. 1658 full ID mentioning "La emisora de Magallanes", then into publicidades. Sept 21 1050 R Nacional Canal Informativo, Cabudare, Distrito Federal, Venezuela, // 630, slightly weaker of two stations here 1614 Sept 21. "R Educativa 1050", laid-back music station mentioning "gobierno bolivarano" 1620 Sept 21 - possibly the listed R Nacional Canal Musical in Caracas? Really two stations in DF here? 1060 unID in English with SRN news, hurricane Rita evacuation of Texas ordered by Governor "Goodhair" Perry. Rattled off three calls in San Juan at ID time 1601, then into religious programming ID'ing as "The Rock". Sept 21 1070 Mundial Zulia, Maracaibo, Zulia, Venezuela. Sin Banderas song, lots of tele-talk, news promo with ID in passing 1554. Sept 21 1080 Venezuela 1080, Maracay, Aragua, Venezuela. ID'ing this way and saying "en el primer lugar de sintonía" (several stations heard claimed this, in fact). 1527 local music mix, Fútbol Clube promo for a team in Maracay. "YVNR su AM digital" 1536. Sept 21 1090 Unión Radio, Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela. ID 1508, phone interview with metro police official. Sept 21 1110 Unión Radio 1110 AM, Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela. Travel agency ad, regional music, ID 1507. Sept 21 1120 R Metro, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Non-stop Latin pop mix including "Ven devórame una otra vez" [sic] (various versions heard often this trip). 1503 ID calling itself "Metro Hit". Sept 21 1130 R Ideal, Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela. Palabra de Dios stuff, strong 1419 Sept 21. Preacher had Brazilian accent. ID "1130 R Ideal" heard 1628 Sept 27. 1140 R Porlamar, Porlamar, Nueva Esparta, Venezuela. AM Center noticias 1225, RQ-910 IDs, in fact // 910, split briefly at 1230, then back in // again with promo for traditional Venezuelan music show. List of net affiliates read, including R Porlamar 1140. Strong considering distance (but all water path). Sept 29 1150 Ondas del Caribe, Punto Fijo, Falcón, Venezuela. Pan-latin pop music mix, canned ID 1418. Sept 21 1160 Caribbean Radio Lighthouse, St. John's, Antigua. Long program of symphonic muzak ending 1300, announced as "Lighthouse Concert" in English, then into English preaching. Sept 29 1180 LV de la Victoria, La Victoria, Aragua, Venezuela. ID sequence 1400, PSAs from El Gobierno Bolivarano, reggaeton music. Sept 21 1200 R Tiempo, Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela. Traditional instrumental music, plenty of IDs 0700. Sept 21 1210 R Anzoátegui, Barcelona, Anzoátegui, Venezuela. Music sounding like Colombian cumbias, ID "en primer lugar de sintonía" 1024. Sept 25 1220 R Valencia, Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela. Vallenata music 0942, one selection sounding like storytelling by lead singer between choruses (i.e. vocals spoken, not sung). TCs after most selections. Supermercado Magallanes ad; "R Venezuela [sic]" singing ID, then "Valencia 1220" canned ID 1003. Sept 25 1230 R Barlovento, Caucagua, Miranda, Venezuela. Long ad string 1030 beginning "Atencion Caucagua..." Canned ID "El poder del aire", "Somos la número uno", and into Cuban son. Sept 25 1260 RRB, Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela. Instrumental music, low-key religious talk 1040, ID "RRB, YVRM, 1260 kHz" 1303. Sept 29 1270 unID. Loud and terribly distorted station playing Latin pop and bachata music. Singing ID as "Mix 107.5" (in English), and canned "you pick the mix" 1230, and into reggaeton music. Sept 22 1290 R Puerto Cabello, Puerto Cabello, Carabobo, Venezuela. Loud with teletalk 1241 Sept 22; ID and news promo 1042 Sept 25. 1300 R 1300, Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela. Presumed with musical program "Radio Recuerdos", network IDs as "tu AM Cénter", "Radiocénter" news bulletin 1248. Sept 27 1310 Radio Nacional Canal Informativo, Barcelona, Anzoátegui, Venezuela. // 630 1251, mentioning "responsibilidad social de comunicación". Sept 22 1320 R Apolo, Turmero, Aragua, Venezuela. Kids' show, SID, noticias 1700, then nonstop music. Sept 22 1330 R Vision Cristiana, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Weak with Spanish-language religious pop music 1055, full RVC ID, TCs "en Nueva York". Sept 25 1340 R Uno, Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela. ID 1302, then into health talk program. Sept 22 WSTA, Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas, USVI. Tentative with R Uno briefly off 1320 with supermarket ad mentioning St Thomas. Sept 29 1350 R Falcón, Puerto Cumarebo, Falcón, Venezuela. 0920 music program "El ritmo de la gaeta" (?), ID, ads, strong. Didn't log the date. 1360 R. YVTZ, Charallave, Miranda, Venezuela. Ad for store offering "artículos de santería" 1103, ID simply as "YVTZ", AM Cénter promo. Sept 25 1370 unID, English preaching 1330 in splash from 1380, basically amounting to "read the Bible, you won't have family arguments". Didn't bother waiting for an ID on this one. Sept 29 [WIVV?] 1380 Ondas del Mar, Puerto Cabello, Carabobo, Venezuela. Strong station with mostly-Cuban music format, turned out to be our default beach entertainment station of the vacation. Singing ID after publicidades 0935 including one using "Feliz Navidad" as music bed. Venezuelan stations like to distinctly intro a spot sweep as "publicidades", it seems. Sept 23 1390 R Fe y Alegría, Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela. ID 1047 and into Juanes song. Local-like. Sept 23 1400 Harbour Light of the Windwards, Carriacou, Grenada. Likely the one here with church 1105 Sept 25, English religious pontification 1650 Sept 28. 1420 R Sintonía, Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela. Full ID 1059 after music program, and into news. Sept 23 1430 R Bahía, Puerto la Cruz, Anzoátegui, Venezuela. ID in passing 1110 after tropical music selection, tele-talk over music. Sept 25 R Satélite, Guacara, Carabobo, Venezuela. Equal level with R Bahía, both easily nullable but one off-frequency 100 Hz or so. Cuban music, ID "Satélite 1430" 1130 Sept 25. 1440 unID. Caught the end of a "Radio Impacto" possible ID 1440 giving location somewhere in Dominican Republic, and giving FM calls in Corona, California (?). Contemporary religious music format. Didn't log the date. 1450 unID. "El Amor de María" religious talk 1105 Sept 23. Still going 1140 with rosary. 1406 Sept 25 heard string of IDs from the Radio María Network, some in English ("Greetings from the Radio Maria Network in Uganda", etc.), and acoustic religious music. 1470 R Vibración, Carúpano, Sucre. News, sports, ad for phone cards, bank ad, Unión radio news promo, ID "R Vibración 1470 AM", then NA 1200. No sign of listed and much closer R Latina, Valencia. Sept 23 1480 unID. Puerto Rican station with multiple non-IDs as "R Isla 1320", loads of ads 1730. Sept 28 1490 La Dinámica, Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela. Likely this one with religious talk, talk, talk 1206 and loud signal. Sept 23 1500 R 2000, Cumaná, Sucre, Venezuela. Romantic Mexican-style music 1208, spoken ID 1233. No sign of listed, and much closer, R Galaxia, San Mateo, Aragua. Sept 23 1520 R Bonita la Guapa, Guatire, Miranda, Venezuela. Non-stop Latin pop 1254, but introduced one vallenato with sounder "música de nuestra tierra". TC 1300 and "R Bonita la Guapa 1520" ID. Sept 23 1530 R San Felipe el Fuerte, San Felipe, Yaracuy, Venezuela. Tentative at 1642 with romantic vocals, water commercial mentioning San Felipe, estado Yaracuy. Weak and fading signal in QRN, then faded down to nothing. Sept 27 1550 R Metropolitana, Los Teques, Miranda, Venezuela. ID coming out of music 1321, then into Kumbia Kings "Fuego". Sept 23 1570 R Amanecer, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Pretty weak station with religious format 1420 Sept 25. Had a hunch, hooked up the wind-up antenna supplied with the ICF-SW7600GR, and sure enough: // 6025. Reasonable daytime signal on shortwave. 1580 unID Venezuelan. Long acoustic storytelling vallenato 1455, same guy followed with two more similar selections. Break with a guy reading ad copy including one for a restaurant, then into what sounded like phoned-in horserace commentary. Probably the one listed for Cumaná, Sucre. Sept 25 1590 R Deportes, Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela. Sports yak 1330, long string of restaurant ads. 1405 ID for R Deportes 1590. Sept 23 1620 WDHP, Christiansted, St Croix, USVI. Audible all day, as 1000 Sept 24. The usual deep-voiced male announcer doing a Saturday morning program, interviewing an old radio guy from St Kitts whose calypsonian name is "Lord Black". Talking about the old days of ZIZ, building a radio from a diode and toilet roll with 100 turns of wire when they were kids, getting kids today interested in radio, etc. - good listening. Guest was marveling at modern equipment at WDHP. They picked out an "old calypso" to play, but couldn't remember what number it was. Guest said "with a turntable it was just push and go!" WDHP was also the only source of reliable English-language news we found during the daytime on either AM or FM. 1660 that religious station in Puerto Rico, 1730 Sept 24. 6035 LV del Guaviare, San José del Guaviare, Colombia. Respectable daytime signal 160 [sic] with canned ID in between tropical music selections. Sept 25 89.5 Trans World Radio, Bonaire. Pretty much the programming you'd expect, in Spanish and Papiamentu. 91.1 Digital 91 FM, Kralendijk, Bonaire. Papiamentu DJ, ads, mix of local zouk-like music, bachata, reggaeton, and merengue. This was the station they played in most of the stores in downtown Kralendijk. 93.1 Alpha FM, Kralendijk, Bonaire. I know we heard this but all I wrote down in the log book was "bachata". 94.7 Voz di Bonaire, Kralendijk, Bonaire. Good local music mix. 97.1 listed Ritmo FM, Kralendijk, but nothing but a big open carrier every time checked. 97.5 Dolfijn FM, Kralendijk, relaying 97.3 Curacao. This is the Dutch-language rock/pop station. 101.1 Loud rock, probably Mega FM, Kralendijk 102.7 Bon FM, Kralendijk, nice local music mix, ads, etc. (Jay Novello (with help and support, as always, from Marie), Wake Forest, North Carolina, Oct 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ DRM: see VATICAN IBOC: see USA [Florida] AUSTRALIA: WORLD'S FIRST DIGITAL PICTURE RADIO UNVEILED | Text of press release by Commercial Radio Australia on 14 October The Australian commercial radio industry today unveiled the world's first digital radio capable of displaying pictures. The groundbreaking prototype, called the DAB Picture Radio, will allow consumers to hear radio programmes in CD-quality sound, while seeing images of their favourite artist, news reports or weather maps being broadcast on a colour screen. The development of the radio is a world first, with the receiver going on display for the first time at the Commercial Radio National Conference in Sydney today. Peak industry body Commercial Radio Australia developed the prototype in partnership with Inventec Electronics, a subsidiary of global electronics manufacturer Inventec. The receiver was designed so that it could theoretically retail on the mass market for about 400 [Australian] dollars. CRA chief executive officer Joan Warner said: "The Australian industry is thrilled to be leading the world in demonstrating the capabilities of advanced Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) technology. But we are only at the tip of the iceberg in terms of what this technology can ultimately deliver to consumers," she said. "Our vision for the future of radio is one where listeners will have an enriched, interactive and multimedia experience with more choice in programmes and more control over when they listen. For example, if they are interested in a song, listeners could download more information about the artist, browse a station's broadcast website or hit rewind and listen to it again," Ms Warner said. Key features of the sleek new radio include: 320 by 240 pixel backlit colour LCD screen to display pictures or text such as album covers, song titles and lyrics, real-time news updates, weather and traffic maps, stock reports, competitions and advertising images. The screen can also be used to display a slide show of selected personal photos. Rewind feature so if you miss something, you can rewind and playback the last five minutes of live radio. Record a programme segment to SD card and playback on mp3. Autotune and select stations by name from a menu. 240V to 9V DC external power adapter or C-type alkaline battery. While there are no immediate plans to put the prototype into production, further development is planned to deliver future functionality such as the ability to display radio station broadcast websites, animated logos and an electronic programme guide. The radio was developed with Malaysian-based Inventec Electronics, a subsidiary of Inventec Multimedia, and Telecom in Taiwan, a leading manufacturer of personal video recorders, VoIP and digital televisions. The radio industry is conducting digital broadcasting trials in Sydney and plans to rollout the new technology in metropolitan areas over the next two years, with regional areas to follow soon after. Source: Commercial Radio Australia press release, Sydney, in English 14 Oct 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ BRIEF ICOM R-75 REVIEW I bought a new "stock" Icom R-75 from Universal Radio 7 days ago and have been putting it to rigorous use on LW, MW and SW. I used a 120-11 meter doublet (all band dipole) up at 35 feet and fed with 50 feet of 450 ohm window line to a tuner. My subjective findings are as follows: The rig is very small and light weight and would make an excellent DXpedition rig. It's a surprisingly good receiver, very impressive actually for $570. On the longwave band I have had easy copy of European and African longwave broadcast stations from France on 162 kc, and Germany on 183 kc, with no IMD. [intermodulation distortion] On the MF AM broadcast band it's very sensitive with easy copy of Norway on 1314 kc and BSKA Saudi Arabia on 1521 kc, with no IMD. On SW broadcast it's very sensitive with no IMD, including the ham radio bands. Yesterday evening I listened on the 20 and 80 meters SSB ham bands where many strong signals existed and could detect no IMD. I had recoverable audio on AIR 4760 kc Port Blair, Andaman Islands around 0000 UTC two nights in a row. Also easy copy on 90 meter Papua New Guinea stations around 0700 UTC and Australia stations on 120 meters at 0830 UTC. Seems to me that if I made the Kiwa sensitivity mod which would improve sensitivity by 1.5-3 db, the rig would probably begin showing IMD on LW and SW and would then require a passive preselector. The mod. would probably improve LW sensitivity performance though, albeit with IMD. I added the INRAD 1.8 kc SSB filter which has a real good shape factor. The stock AM filter is a to wide at -40/-60 db but the stock 2.1 kc SSB filter seems to have a pretty good shape factor. BTW I usually DX using USB for easier carrier detection then I switch to over to AM. Synchronous AM detection drops out to easily during fades but I've never owned a rig with good ECSS, including my Yaesu FT-1000MP Mark V. I can't really say much either way about the performance of the adjustable NB because I have an S0 noise level on all bands, as all power lines are buried within 3 miles of my QTH. But the AF DSP is surprisingly effective in making weak stations pop up above the lightning static, as good as my Mark V. I've owned the following receivers: My current modern receivers include a Sangean ATS-909, ATS-818, ATS- 505P, Grundig S350 and Eton E10. Older receivers include a Zenith Transoceanic H500 and Royal 7000, Realistic DX-60 and DX-100, Hallicrafters WR600 and S120, Sony ICF- 6500W, Kenwood R-1000 and R-2000 and Collins R-390A. Ham rigs that I've owned with general coverage receive include a Yaesu FT-840, FT-990 and FT-1000MP Mark V Field. I have been an SWL for 40 years and also a ham for 17 years and have never owned such a good receiver for SWLing as the R-75. But I preface that statement by saying that I've never owned a Drake R-8 series receiver. Owners of the Drake R-8 series and Icom R-75 can comment on how the two receivers compare performance wise. Comparing the $570 Icom R-75 to my $1800 Yaesu FT-1000MP Mark V Field ham transceiver --- On the LW band the R-75 is better than the Mark V Field as far as sensitivity and IMD. On the MF band the R-75 is much better than the Mark V Field as far as sensitivity and IMD. On SW including excluding the ham bands it's equal with the Mark V Field as far as sensitivity and IMD. On the ham bands the Mark V Field has a small edge. My R-75 has no "noticeable" internal birdies, no CPU noise, no VCO phase noise and no IF Hiss. It's a very sensitive radio too and selective with the INRAD filter installed. 73 & GUD DX, (Thomas F. Giella, KN4LF, Lakeland, FL, Oct 13, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) TV TOWER WIRES KILL 400 BIRDS IN ONE NIGHT Thursday October 6, 2005 1:16 PM MADISON, Wis. (AP) - As many as 400 songbirds were killed in one night after they flew into wires holding up a television tower. The deaths may spur the creation of a group to study the dangers communication towers pose to migrating birds, said specialists with the Department of Natural Resources. ``It's an issue that has been with us for decades,'' DNR avian ecologist Sumner Matteson said. ``But we really haven't done anything about it.'' The birds were killed the night of Sept. 13-14 at the WMTV tower. ``There were birds all over the place,'' said Steven Ugoretz, a DNR environmental specialist who works on tower-related issues. Searchers found 172 birds around the base of the 1,100-foot tower. Crows, cats and other scavengers took another 200 or more, and Ugoretz estimates more birds likely died because no one searched a heavily wooded area just north of the tower. A similar kill occurred the night of Sept. 7-8, Ugoretz said. Such kills are not unusual during spring and fall migrations, though Ugoretz and Matteson said they are an increasing concern because of multiple threats to the world's songbirds. Most of the dead birds Sept. 14 were warblers. Other birds included red-eyed vireos, American redstarts, ovenbirds, common yellowthroats and a rose-breasted grosbeak. Matteson and Ugoretz said they want to form a task force of bird experts and communications industry representatives to study the issue. Possible solutions include using lights to illuminate wires and changing the blinking frequency of red warning lights, Matteson said. A telephone message left for WMTV's general manager was not immediately returned Wednesday. – Information from: Wisconsin State Journal, http://www.wisconsinstatejournal.com (via Dave Zantow, WI, DXLD) ###