DX LISTENING DIGEST 5-209, December 6, 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 For latest updates see our Anomaly Alert page: http://www.worldofradio.com/anomaly.html Latest edition of this schedule version, with hotlinks to station sites and audio, is at: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html NEXT AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1295: Days and times here are strictly UT. Wed 0030 WOR WBCQ 7415 [usually but temporary] Wed 0100 WOR CJOY INTERNET RADIO plug-in required Wed 1030 WOR WWCR 9985 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 1295 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1295h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1295h.rm WORLD OF RADIO 1295 (low version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1295.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1295.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1295.html [soon] WORLD OF RADIO 1295 downloads in mp3: (high) http://www.obriensweb.com/wor1295h.mp3 (low) http://www.obriensweb.com/wor1295.mp3 AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1296: Wed 2300 WOR WBCQ 7415 [first airing of each edition] Thu 0000 WOR WBCQ 18910-CLSB Thu 0900 WOR World FM, Tawa, Wellington, New Zealand 88.2 Thu 1900 WOR KLC [suspended until 2/2/06; not including 12/7/05?] Thu 2130 WOR WWCR 7465 Thu 2200 WOR World FM, Tawa, Wellington, New Zealand 88.2 Fri 0030 WOR R. Veronica 106.5 Fri 0100 WOR WTND-LP 106.3 Macomb IL Fri 0200 WOR ACBRadio Mainstream [repeated 2-hourly thru 2400] Fri 2000 WOR World FM, Tawa, Wellington, New Zealand 88.2 Fri 2100 WOR RFPI [repeated 4-hourly thru Sat 1700] Sat 0500 WOR VoiceCorps Reading Service, WOSU-FM subcarrier, cable Sat 0900 WOR WRN to Eu, Au, NZ, WorldSpace AfriStar, AsiaStar Sat 0955 WOR WNQM Nashville TN 1300 Sat 1100 WOR WPKN Bridgeport CT 89.5 & WPKM Montauk LINY 88.7 Sat 1530 WOR R. Veronica 106.5 [ex-1700] Sat 1830 WOR WRN to North America [including Sirius Satellite Radio channel 140] Sun 0000 WOR Radio Studio X 1584 http://www.radiostudiox.it/ Sun 0330 WOR WWCR 5070 Sun 0400 WOR WBCQ 9330-CLSB Sun 0600 WOR World FM, Tawa, Wellington, New Zealand 88.2 Sun 0730 WOR WWCR 3215 Sun 0930 WOR WRN to North America, also WLIO-TV Lima OH SAP [including Sirius Satellite Radio channel 140] Sun 0930 WOR KSFC Spokane WA 91.9 Sun 0930 WOR WXPR Rhinelander WI 91.7 91.9 100.9 Sun 0930 WOR WDWN Auburn NY 89.1 [unconfirmed] Sun 0930 WOR KTRU Houston TX 91.7 [occasional] Sun 1400 WOR WRMI 7385 Sun 1400 WOR KRFP-LP Moscow ID 92.5 Sun 1830 WOR WRN1 to North America [including Sirius Satellite Radio channel 140] Sun 2000 WOR RNI Sun 2230 WOR WRMI 7385 [temporarily] Mon 0400 WOR WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0430 WOR WSUI Iowa City IA 910 Mon 1900 WOR RFPI [repeated 4-hourly thru Tue 1500] Wed 0030 WOR WBCQ 7415 [usually but temporary] Wed 0100 WOR CJOY INTERNET RADIO plug-in required Wed 1030 WOR WWCR 9985 ON DEMAND: by UT Wednesday change 1295 above to 1296 PIRATE ARCHIVE STILL INCLUDES WORLD OF RADIO Hi Alex, Seems your dxprograms.net site is inaccessible, tho piratearchive is still there. Wonder if you plan to continue with the dxprograms site? I understand your cutting back to programs otherwise unavailable on the web, and appreciate all your trouble thru the years in making WOR available. 73, (Glenn to Alex Draper, via DXLD) Hi Glenn, I'm still working on this DX project that I started back in 2002. I had a misunderstanding with the hosting company "VisaWeb" and they deleted my file. I told them I didn't want to renew my hosting package in 2006 and they thought I meant cancel my service. I decided to continue hosting some dxprograms including World of Radio, Dxers Unlimited, Dx Partyline, Dxing With Cumbre and The Pirate Week. Please note the new url http://www.piratedxer.com/dxprograms.htm Take care 73 (Alex Draper, ON, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Last 3 WORs are still there, of 11/16, 11/22 and 11/29 (gh, DXLD) DX/SWL/MEDIA PROGRAMS Dec 6: http://www.worldofradio.com/dxpgms.html ** ALBANIA. Hi - Have (tried to) listen to Radio Tirana tonight, but the transmitters seem to be OFF AIR. Tried: 1945 UT English 7465 and 7530 2030 UT German 7465 2230 UT English 7110 --- nothing heard. Someone might try the two NA transmissions later. 73, (Erik Køie in Copenhagen, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nothing but RTTY audible here on 7455 after 0000 UT Dec 6 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Ordered Radio Tirana External Service off air from today 1500 UT till? HI again, While as usually, I was monitoring the start of Radio Tirana, Albanian program to Europe, around 1600 LT (1500 UT + 1h) resulted that Fllaka radio station was off the air. Calling Fllaka radio station on radio to ask on that, they replied that they were ordered to NOT transmit only the Radio Tirana External Service in Albanian and foreign languages until another order, while TWR and CRI will be normally transmitted. Meanwhile, for further verifications I called to Shijak radio station and they confirmed the order to NOT broadcast only Radio Tirana on SW and to transmit Radio Tirana Prog I-st on MW 1089 kHz at 1600-2300 LT. Our Monitoring Center is not notified on the above orders from ARTV Technical & RTV Stations Director, A. Mehilli, yet, though I tried to call and find him around (Drita Cico, ARTV-ALBANIAN RADIOTELEVISION, Head of Monitoring Center, RADIO TIRANA, Tirana, ALBANIA, Dec 5, via Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Something to do with budget cuts? Hope this does not mean the end of R. Tirana external service! (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Listened again today for Tirana at 1945 UT English on 7465 and 7530 kHz 2030 UT German on 7465 kHz --- still nothing heard. Wonder if they so abruptly have closed down their foreign service? 73, (Erik Køie in Copenhagen, Dec 6, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARMENIA. I recorded a three minute clip at Yezidi sign-on today on 864 kHz, maybe of interest. Rather weak at the ID but strengthening a bit. True, doesn't sound like Yiddish at all, but not very much like the Kurdish that is usually heard, either. At least I don't notice any word like "Denge" there. 73, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, Dec 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) In the STATION SOUNDS files of the dxldyg (gh) ** AUSTRALIA. ABC RADIO NATIONAL IN 2006 No word yet on how changes to be implemented at ABC Radio National might affect Radio Australia, which greatly depends on RN for content. Times (and days) listed below reflect Australian Eastern Summer Time (AEST), which is currently 16 hours ahead of ECNA (EST). [?? How confusing; you mean 11 hours ahead of UT; also I suspect rounded off with hourtop shows axually starting 5 or 6 mins later] Audio from http://www.abc.net.au/rn (John Figliozzi, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Media Release December 6, 2005 ABC RADIO NATIONAL IN 2006 ABC Radio National today confirmed its revamped program schedule for 2006, which begins on Monday, 23 January. Greater focus on books From Monday to Friday at 10 am, The Book Show, presented by Ramona Koval, is the major addition to the weekday morning line-up. ABC Radio National pools its considerable literary expertise to present a 40- minute program that explores all forms of publishing. Arts coverage The weekday Deep End program airs at 3 pm with a new brief to cover the arts in even greater depth and the new Sunday Deep End is broadcast at 10 am ahead of Julie Copeland's Exhibit A at 11 am. The Daily Planet returns...and The Weekend Planet begins ABC Radio National has listened to feedback and reintroduces The Daily Planet. Lucky Oceans presents Monday to Friday at 2.20 pm, whilst Doug Spencer delves further into the world of music each weekend night from 10 pm with a brand new Weekend Planet. More on music Music Deli, presented by Paul Petran, merges with Live on Stage. Broadcast at 8 pm Friday and 4 pm Sunday, the emphasis is on live concerts from the kinds of artists featured in both these programs. ABC Radio National also introduces a new music feature program, Into The Music. Presented by Robyn Johnston, the program looks behind the events and trends of the major forces and movements in music. It airs at 5 pm each Saturday. Saturdays After Saturday AM at 7am, Geraldine Doogue hosts Saturday Extra at 7.30 am with analysis of current events and issues, focussing on business and foreign affairs. Then a new design and lifestyle program, By Design, airs at 9 am with Alan Saunders. In the afternoon, All in the Mind comes forward to 1 pm, and Alan Saunders returns at 1.30 pm with The Philosopher's Zone, which becomes a half-hour program in 2006. Sundays As well as the revised morning arts line-up from 10 am, Rear Vision is a new program exploring the historical background to current events at 1 pm, with Street Stories now following at 1.30 pm. The 2006 schedule owes much to an extensive review undertaken this year of the station's programming and audience feedback. ABC Radio National moves into 2006 with reaffirmed commitment to bringing specialist interest information within the reach of all Australians (via John Figliozzi, dxldyg via DXLD) I don't see any mention of Asia Pacific, one of my favorite programs. Is that being affected by the programming changes? (Ted Schuerzinger, swprograms via DXLD) That's produced by Radio Australia and carried by Radio National to a domestic audience. There won't be any change there. jaf (John Figliozzi, ibid.) If I'm not mistaken, "The Europeans" will be cut, as from next year. 73, (Peter Bowen, Canada, ibid.) "Rear Vision" looks especially interesting. Good to see Alan Sauders back on the air -- he'd hosted the longtime "The Comfort Zone" architectural series. Both of these would be good additions to RA (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA, ibid.) Is the new schedule listed in full on the website. I can't seem to find either the schedule of the newsrelease you quoted. I am particularly interested in the BBC Comedy slot in the early mornings. (Sandy Finlayson, PA, ibid.) Changes don't go into effect until after the "Silly Season" (combined Christmas/New Year holidays and summer vacation period). In the case of RN that's January 23. So no advance schedule available yet. Don't know if BBC comedy will survive; but not everything is changing. jaf (John Figliozzi, NY, ibid.) ** BELGIUM [non]. Radio Sunshine (ex Jülich) busted Perhaps it is simply impossible to remember all broadcasters that run shortwave transmissions via T-Systems facilities. Anyway, amongst them was the German-language Radio Sunshine from eastern Belgium. Meanwhile this station went bankrupt, and on Sunday its FM transmitters were switched off, presumably for good. Some pictures were posted here: http://forum.mysnip.de/read.php?8773,363023 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ``Busted`` in American lingo implies that the station was raided by authorities. ``Went bust`` implies bankruptcy, FYI (gh, DXLD) ** BURMA [non]. KAZAKHSTAN(non): Frequency change for Democratic Voice of Burma in Burmese: 1430-1530 NF 9415 A-A 200 kW / 132 deg, ex 15480 [Almaty] \\ 17495 MDC 250 kW / 055 deg [Volonononondry] (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 6 via DXLD) 2330: see GERMANY ** CANADA. Re: Australia / The National Interest Roger, I think they were referring to Global, the media conglomerate based in Winnipeg. It happened after Global took over Southam Newspapers and the National Post. There was talk at the time that more and more content was the same across the newspapers (less local content and journalists) and that the editorials had to pass through HQ if not originated there. Regards, (Vince Ferme, Ottawa, ON, ODXA via DXLD) ** CANADA. Rare Praise Indeed --- As readers of this list will know, I have made numerous negative comments about CBC Radio in the past. Well, I'd like to offer some praise for it, as well. Over the last while, I've noticed that it does a good job of reporting news and issues from Latin America. This is especially welcome because this region is so neglected in international reporting. LAm stories feature in "Dispatches", "The Current" and "The World This Weekend". 73, (Peter Bowen, Dec 5, Swprograms mailing list via DXLD) ** CANADA [and non]. Extended transmissions of Radio Canada International effective Dec. 2: Arabic to ME 0300-0400 5840 HBY 350 kW 135 deg, 6025 WER 250 kW 120 deg, ex 0330-04 0400-0500 5995 SKN 300 kW 130 deg, 7265 SKN 300 kW 110 deg, ex 0430-05 Spanish to Mexico/Cuba 0100-0200 6100 SAC 250 kW 240 deg, ex 0100-0130 0300-0400 6130 SAC 250 kW 240 deg, 9755 SAC 250 kW 240 deg, ex 03-0330 (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 6 via DXLD) ** CHINA. Frequency change for China Radio International Spanish SoAm: 0000-0057 NF 9435* KAS 500 kW / 269 deg, ex 9865 \\ 5990, 9590, 9745, 9800, 15120 --- *co-ch Deutsche Welle in German via TRM 250 kW / 345 deg to SoAs (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 6 via DXLD) ** CHINA. China's first entirely privately funded digital cinema line has gotten the go-ahead to go into business. It vows to be the McDonald's of the digital movie market. The Dec 6 "Biz China" looks at the program (Jim, CRI/English http://pw2.netcom.com/~jleq/cri1.htm Dec 5, Swprograms mailing list via DXLD) ** CUBA. Re 5-207, R. Surco ID heard at 0523 on R. Rebelde, 710, because it`s during program called Estaciones --- I checked the program grid (beware; audio launches automatically) at http://www.radiorebelde.com.cu/temas/quienes/quienes.htm#programacion and see that Estaciones is at 10:30-12:30 M-F = UT Tue-Sat 0230-0430, so 0523 does not fit --- and are we sure Estaciones is in the sense of stations rather than seasons? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. Tuning across R. Martí, 13820, Dec 5 at 1542, I heard an outro from ``tu meteorólogo Lázaro Domínguez`` (I think that be his name; can`t read my scribble). In any event, dentro-cubanos have ``thy weatherman`` in gusano-land. Isn`t that special? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DIEGO GARCIA? [and non] AFRTS heard on 5446.5U, 7811U, and 12133.5U at 2233 all with football. In addition I also heard 4319U with same program and about the same signal strength. This site has been listed as Diego García, but I believe they were off for quite some time. I thought this may have been from Florida originally, but given that I heard all three listed Florida frequencies in addition to 4319, I don't think that is the case (Hans Johnson, FL, Dec 4, Jihad DX via Jari Savolainen, HCDX via DXLD) Hans, thanks for a tip. 6 Dec at 1240 noted AFN program on 12579U (listed earlier as Diego García). Rechecking at 1510 UT, and now a nice signal on 4319U. Reception like this on 4319 at this time at my location suggests this is a signal from east, so might be a reactivated Diego García (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, HCDX via DXLD) ** GEORGIA [and non]. Re 5-208: How do you know she`s attractive? (gh, DXLD) Glenn, judge for yourself: http://www.geotvr.ge/eng_version/pirveli_arxi/aboutus/kincurashvili.html (Sergei Sosedkin, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I agree with Eike (Jari Savolainen, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Well, this isn't real DX, but is radio related with woman scent. Have you seen those beauties from the Spanish service of Slovak Radio? Despite their warmth and sweet style on the air, specially Laya or Ladislava, they are a trio of flowers on two legs. Where else behind the mike you know more? (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, ibid.) down, boys ** GERMANY. Updated B-05 for DTK T-Systems. Part one - daily transmissions: IBC Tamil Service: 0000-0100 7110 WER 250 kW / 105 deg to SoAs Tamil Hrvatska Radio/Voice of Croatia: 0000-0400 7285 JUL 100 kW / 300 deg to NAmE Croatian/English/Spanish 0200-0600 7285 JUL 100 kW / 325 deg to NAmW Croatian/English/Spanish 0500-0800 9470 JUL 100 kW / 230 deg to NZ Croatian/English/Spanish 0600-1000 11690 JUL 100 kW / 270 deg to AUS Croatian/English/Spanish 2300-0400 7285 JUL 100 kW / 230 deg to SoAm Croatian/English/Spanish Athmee Yatra He/Gospel For Asia (GFA): 0030-0130 7210 WER 250 kW / 090 deg to SoEaAs Southeast Asian langs 1330-1430 13600 WER 250 kW / 075 deg to SoEaAs Southeast Asian langs 1430-1530 12005 WER 250 kW / 075 deg to SoEaAs Southeast Asian langs 1530-1630 11645 WER 250 kW / 090 deg to SoEaAs Southeast Asian langs 2330-0030 7160 WER 250 kW / 075 deg to SoEaAs Southeast Asian langs Radio Free Asia (RFA): 0100-0300 9670 WER 500 kW / 075 deg to SoEaAs Tibetan Voice of Russia (VOR): 0200-0400 5995 JUL 100 kW / 100 deg to ME Russian "Russ.Inter.Radio" 1500-1600 9555 JUL 100 kW / 115 deg to ME Russian "Commonwealth" 2000-2200 5965 JUL 100 kW / 105 deg to ME Russian "Russ.Inter.Radio" 2000-2200 5975 JUL 100 kW / 110 deg to ME Russian "Russ.Inter.Radio" 2100-2200 5990 JUL 100 kW / 115 deg to ME Russian "Russ.Inter.Radio" 2300-2400 6175 JUL 100 kW / 100 deg to ME Arabic CVC International: 0500-0700 9430 WER 125 kW / 180 deg to NoAf English 0700-0900 15640 WER 125 kW / 180 deg to NoAf English 1500-1800 15680 WER 125 kW / 180 deg to NoAf English 1800-2000 9765 WER 125 kW / 180 deg to NoAf English 2000-2100 7285 WER 125 kW / 180 deg to NoAf English Deutsche Welle (DW): 0600-1000 6140 JUL 100 kW / 175 deg to Eu English 1000-1300 6140 JUL 040 kW / 175 deg to Eu English DRM / German DRM 1300-1600 6140 JUL 100 kW / 175 deg to Eu English 1600-1900 6140 JUL 040 kW / 175 deg to Eu English DRM / German DRM BCE Radio Luxembourg: 0900-1545 7295 JUL 040 kW / 290 deg to Eu German DRM 1545-1700 7145 JUL 040 kW / 290 deg to Eu German DRM HCJB (The Voice of Andes): 1600-1700 3955 JUL 100 kW / non-dir to WeEu German [lo & hi] Minivan (Independent) Radio: 1600-1700 11800 JUL 100 kW / 105 deg to SoAs Dhivehi CBS Radio Taiwan International (RTI): 1700-1800 5850 JUL 100 kW / 060 deg to EaEu Russian 2100-2200 6120 NAU 125 kW / 230 deg to SoEu Spanish Voice of America: 1700-1800 12110 JUL 100 kW / 100 deg to ME Persian 1800-1900 9495 JUL 100 kW / 100 deg to ME Persian 1900-2000 9680 JUL 100 kW / 100 deg to ME Persian 1900-2000 9485 JUL 100 kW / 100 deg to ME Turkish WYFR (Family Radio): 1700-1800 11835 JUL 100 kW / 175 deg to NoAf Arabic 1700-1900 9925 JUL 100 kW / 115 deg to ME Turkish 1800-1900 3955 JUL 100 kW / non-dir to WeEu German 2000-2100 5925 JUL 100 kW / 115 deg to ME Arabic 2000-2100 9465 WER 125 kW / 195 deg to WeAf French IBRA Radio: 1730-1800 9660 WER 125 kW / 135 deg to EaAf Somali 1730-1830 9520 JUL 100 kW / 145 deg to EaAf Swahili 1830-1845 9520 JUL 100 kW / 145 deg to EaAf English 1900-2045 9610 JUL 100 kW / 190 deg to WeAf Hausa [NOTE: recent GUINEA unID item, different langs per IBRA sked --- gh] 2000-2100 7340 JUL 100 kW / 175 deg to NoAf Arabic Democratic Voice of Burma (DVOB): 2330-0030 5955 JUL 100 kW / 070 deg to SoEaAs Burmese (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 6 via DXLD) ** GERMANY [non]. RUSSIA(non): Frequency change of Deutsche Welle in German to SoEaAs from Dec. 1: 1200-1400 NF 13590 SAM 250 kW / 140 deg, ex 17480 SRI LANKA(non): Frequency change of Deutsche Welle English to SE As: 2200-2300 NF 6000 TRM 250 kW / 060 deg, ex 6180 (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 6 via DXLD) ** HUNGARY. Re 5-208: La Revista del Diexismo --- Saludos cordiales amigo Ruben, desde la semana pasada esta página para escuchar los programas de Radio Budapest no funciona, parece como parte de los recortes económicos en la emisora. Entre otra de las medidas tomadas para "ahorrar" se están repitiendo muchos de los programas una y otra vez, además del despido de una parte del personal de la sección española. Creo yo, que por ese camino en que van, la próxima noticia será el cierre de las emisiones! Una verdadera pena pues los programas de esta radio son muy buenos. Ojalá y que Radio Budapest se levante una vez más de esta amarga situación económica. 73 (Dino Bloise, FLORIDA, EEUU, Dec 5, condig list via DXLD) Saludos amigo Dino, ahora mismo estoy escuchando el programa en español; parece que de nuevo la activaron. 73 (José Bueno - Córdoba - España, ibid.) Hola Dino: Yo no tengo inconvenientes para escuchar los programas archivados (noviembre y lo que va de diciembre); solamente debo hacer la aclaración que para escuchar un determinado día hay que hacer click en el día siguiente al que se desea reproducir, por ejemplo, si buscan domingo 6 de noviembre para escuchar "La revista del Diexismo" de ese día, deben optar por el 7 de noviembre y así con todos los programas diarios. Respecto al audio en vivo, no tengo inconvenientes en escuchar Budapest aunque confieso que aún no lo hice en el horario del español (2230 y 0430 UT). Cuando dices que "no funciona" ¿A qué programas te refieres? Un cordial saludo! (Rubén Guillermo Margenet, ibid.) ** INDONESIA. BROADCASTING REGULATIONS PUT ON HOLD | Text of report in English by Indonesian newspaper The Jakarta Post website on 6 December [Re 5-208]. In a decision eliciting jeers and cheers from the gallery, the government and the House of Representatives agreed on Monday (5 Dec) to postpone the implementation of the much-criticized government regulations on broadcasting. They settled on a timetable - over the next two months - to amend some articles in Law No 32/2002 on Broadcasting, the ambiguity of which have been blamed for the controversy. The postponement came after staunch criticism over four regulations, issued on 16 November, which media analysts and lawmakers have criticized as a return to the suppression of press freedom and a violation of the broadcasting law. Press activists and members of the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI), who observed intently during the hearing between Information Minister Sofyan Djalil and House Commission I on information and defence, immediately welcomed the decision. House members had taken turns lambasting the minister and the president for issuing the regulations, with some calling for a flat revocation of all the regulations. The regulations are No 49/2005 on foreign broadcasters, No 50/2005 on private broadcasters, No 51/2005 on community broadcasters and No 52/2005 on foreign broadcasters. Seemingly cornered, minister Sofyan said the regulations were drafted by his predecessor Syamsul Ma'arif and he only complied with a Constitutional Court verdict over a contentious article in the broadcasting law. Article 33 of the broadcasting law says that licensing-related issues are determined by the "state" through the KPI. The word "state" had been self-claimed by both the Information Ministry and the KPI, delaying the issuance of government regulations to implement the law for almost a year. The Constitutional Court, claimed Sofyan, had ruled in favour of the government by stating that it does have the power to regulate broadcasting issues. House members, some of whom were directly involved in the deliberation and the enactment of the historic law, disputed the verdict. They said it was the government that would set the rules, but that did not mean that it could take over the power that the broadcasting law had constitutionally embedded in the KPI. All in all, the lawmakers admitted the broadcasting law was prone to multiple interpretations due to the fact that, coupled with political compromises, it was deliberated in haste. Revising the law, House members agreed on Monday (5 Dec), should be conducted with democracy in mind, where information affairs should be left to the public - in this case by a quasi-state institution such as the KPI. The revision process is expected to include the government, the House, the KPI, press experts as well as several former lawmakers who deliberated on the bill. In the hearing's conclusion, the House told the government to completely lift the current night-time ban, which applies to all local broadcasters. That contentious ministerial decision was made several months ago, ostensibly to comply with the so-called campaign to conserve energy. The House also called on the government to submit by the end of next month, at the latest, a list of questions for the free access to public information bill to start the deliberation process. Source: The Jakarta Post website, Jakarta, in English 6 Dec 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL. December 8th marks the 25th anniversary of the death of John Lennon. Lennon was one of the major influences in my life. I have included several related websites in the General Zone this month. I offer up a few of my favourite John Lennon quotes: ``Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.`` ``God is a concept by which we measure our pain.`` ``If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.`` THE OFFICIAL JOHN LENNON WEB PAGE The official John Lennon website, courtesy of Yoko Ono, featuring the latest news, downloads, videos, and more. http://www.johnlennon.com/ IMAGINE – JOHN LENNON DAY This is one of the most complete sites of all things related to John Lennon. The site contains literally thousands of links. http://www.john-lennon.com/ BAGISM Bagism is the place for fans of John Lennon and The Beatles to come together and learn, educate, and have fun. It is an interactive site meaning that you will have to be an active participant rather than just being a passive observer. The underlying concept of John and Yoko's "bagism" idea is interactivity among people without prejudice. http://www.bagism.com/ SOUND TRANSIT This collaborative hub dedicated to field recording and phonography features a huge collection of far-out sounds. Clicking around the catalog at random, we found percussive chants from a Hindu ceremony in Kuala Lumpur, lively strumming from street buskers in Berlin, some deeply unsettling bomb concussions from the invasion of Baghdad, and the gentle lowing of Angus cattle on the Isle of Amrum. With the transit map, you can sample sounds by geography, and there's even a nifty travel feature that encourages you to book "sonic journeys" from one country to another. And if you're new to the whole field recording genre, the artists' page features links to a number of informative individual resources. So tune in and turn on. http://soundtransit.nl/ VIA Yahoo Weekly Picks (via Sheldon Harvey, Dec Radio HF Internet Newsletter via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. SATELLITE RADIO: DO YOU REALLY WANT TO PAY FOR IT? . . .(Satellite radio services) "have far more variety and longer play lists than ordinary commercial radio. However, neither service has the Internet's selection of stations from around the world, nor do they have short-wave radio's sense of distant voices in the night." . . . http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051206.wxsatellite06/BNStory/Entertainment (via Kim Elliott, DXLD) ** IRAN. A NUMBER OF JOURNALISTS AMONG THOSE KILLED IN PLANE CRASH | Text of report by Iranian Mehr news agency on 6 December 2005 A number of correspondents, including those of the Voice and Vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran [VVIRI], have been killed in the C-130 plane crash in [Tehran], Mehr News Agency reports. According to Mehr News Agency, quoting the Central News Unit, as a consequence of the crash, a number of correspondents have been killed, including those from the Central News Unit, the News Network of the VVIRI, ISNA, IRNA and Fars News Agency as well as cameramen and technical staff of the VVIRI. On Tuesday [6 December]at 1345 [local time, 1015 gmt], the C- 130 of the military of the Islamic Republic of Iran was on its return flight to Tehran when, while approaching Mehrabad Airport, owing to technical problems it came down at the Azari crossroad and crashed into residential buildings. Source: Mehr news agency, Tehran, in Persian 1212 gmt 6 Dec 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** LIBYA. Re 5-208, satellite jamming: The Guardian article mentions questions in Parliament and here they can be seen. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmordbk2/51205o01.htm Questions 38, 39, 40, 41, 52, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 288 (Aaron Zawitzky, Dec 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) More about this: LIBYA ENGAGES IN JAMMING WAR http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2005/december/12_05_4.html ............................................ LIBYA JAMS WESTERN BROADASTS http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/05/front2453709.9972222224.html (via Nick Grace, CRW via DXLD) ** NEW ZEALAND. The following has just been received from Adrian Sainsbury (RNZI) (Mark Nicholls, ripple via DXLD) Viz.: At 9:00 PM +1300 12/6/05, Adrian Sainsbury wrote: We tested for the first time the new DRM transmitter yesterday 5 Dec for 15 minutes on 15720 kHz at 0340 UT. Next week 13 to 15 Dec expect random DRM tests on 15720 kHz between 0110-0245 UT. I will be in Suva and yes I will have a couple of DRM receivers with me! Cheers (Adrian Sainsbury, RNZI via Nicholls, ibid.) ** NEW ZEALAND: Frequency changes for Radio New Zealand International: --- analogue service from November 30, 2005 to NE Pacific, Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands 1651-1750 NF 11980 RAN 100 kW / 035 deg, ex 9870 to All Pacific, also heard in Europe 1751-1850 NF 15720 RAN 100 kW / 000 deg, ex 11980 --- DRM service from January 22, 2006 to All Pacific 1300-1650 NF 7220 RAN 050 kW / 000 deg, ex 7230 to NE Pacific, Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands 1651-1750 NF 11610 RAN 050 kW / 035 deg, ex 7230 1751-1850 NF 13595 RAN 050 kW / 035 deg, ex 11610 (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 6 via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. ``Fastest growing newscast at 6:00`` is what KOCO-TV`s Eyewitness News is, per a promo heard in Nightline UT Dec 6. What the hell does that mean? How do you measure the ``growth rate`` of a local newscast? In sales? In quality? In ratings? Certainly not in quantity. But it does imply that it has been so bad that any improvement is ``fast growth`` (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. Some frequency changes for Radio Pakistan: 0945-1015 Tamil NF 17480.0, ex 17490.0 \\ 15625.4 1015-1045 Sinhala NF 17480.0, ex 17490.0 \\ 15625.4 1630-1700 Turkish NF 6215.4, ex 6255.4, \\ 7465.0 1915-0045 Urdu NF 5835.4, ex 5840.4 >>>> Islamabad program (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 6 via DXLD) ** PERU. El colega, amigazo y flamante papá Alfredo "Spacemaster" Cañote me informó ayer que está reportando a Radio Willkamayu, en los 10353 kHz sobre las 1259 UT con SINPO 24412. También, Alfredo escuchó la nueva onda corta peruana en los 4060v, que transmite desde Ancash. Alfredo piensa que se trata de Radio Corazón de Huandoy, desde Ancash. 73 (Arnaldo Slaen, BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, Dec 6, condig list via DXLD) The 10353v was last reported 3+ years ago, per Mark Mohrmann`s LADX archive; nothing in the `current`` list thru 2004, and I don`t recall any reports of it this year: 10354.1 R Willkamayu, Cusco [1103-1125] (.1-.3) Nov 02 C LA TESTING 20 WATTS! (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. Frequency changes for FEBC in various SE As languages: 1130-1200 NF 9460 BOC 100 kW / 280 deg, ex 9920 1200-1230 NF 9455 BOC 100 kW / 280 deg, ex 9920 1230-1300 NF 9465 BOC 100 kW / 280 deg, ex 9920 1200-1300 NF 7410 IBA 050 kW / 270 deg, ex 7400 1400-1430 NF 6070 BOC 100 kW / 280 deg, ex 6055 2300-2330 NF 9470 BOC 100 kW / 280 deg, ex 9490 (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 6 via DXLD) ** PUERTO RICO. I had best signal from WGIT in a very long time on 1660 kHz. When it ID'd it mentioned several stations as well as WGIT at 0031 UT: WCTV, canal 18 en San Juan, WVOZ, canal 48 en Ponce, WVEO, canal 44 en Aguadilla-Mayagüez, WIVE, canal 42 en Ceiba-Fajardo (Steve Whitt, UK, MWC via DXLD) While on Curaçao, Neth Antilles, in October I recorded their ID with the mentioning of these stations. The ID can be heard on: http://webdisk.planet.nl/mvarnhem/publiek/album/WGIT%201660%2023%20oct%2004.mp3 73 (Max van Arnhem, The Netherlands, ibid.) How much TV soundtracking? ** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. Brother Scare show on WWRB, 9320, Dec 5 at 1534, playing piano music for a change instead of husky huxtering, but bad wow, or even tape snagging. Pray that God will fix the wow, proving he is in constant contact with the Profit (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND. PM DROPS LIBEL SUITS AGAINST CRITIC | Text of unattributed article from the "Breaking News" page entitled: "PM Thaksin drops libel suits against Sondhi"; published in English by Thai newspaper The Nation website on 6 December Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra Tuesday [6 December] instructed his lawyer to drop the libel suits against media tycoon Sondhi [Sonthi] Limthongkul after King Bhumibol Adulyadej advised Thaksin to listen to critics instead of suing them. The king told Thaksin that Thais preferred to watch soap operas rather than the prime minister rushing on to their television screens to respond to every criticism, alluding to those from media tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul. Sondhi has taken his weekly current affairs chat show to a Bangkok park since it was taken off state-run television in September and has been drawing large crowds as he lambasts Thaksin for alleged abuses of power. Sondhi's lawyer, Suwat Apaipak, told a Bangkok radio station the tycoon welcomed the withdrawal of the libel cases and would go ahead with this week's park rally on Friday. Source: The Nation website, Bangkok, in English 6 Dec 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** U K [and non]. Rich Cuff``s listing of best BBCWS frequencies in NAm drew a blank during the prime 0100-0200 hour. Check these, according to EiBi; surely some Thailand, Cyprus, Oman or Singapore outlets would be audible: 0100 0200 G BBC World Service E FE 15280/THA 0100 0200 G BBC World Service E ME 9410/CYP 0100 0200 G BBC World Service E SAs 11955/OMA 15310/THA 17790/SNG SEA 6195/SNG 15360/SNG No, none of them audible UT Dec 6, but maybe on a better flux day. To Rich Cuff`s hour by hour list of best BBC frequencies in NAm, at 1500 I added 21490 via RSA, as I often hear it, but should note that it only lasts a semihour until going into Swahili. AGAIN! BBCWS seriously marred by audio drop-outs, Dec 6 during the 1501 UT news. I was listening on 15565, and found exactly the same dropouts on 12095. Did not manage to get around to all the other possible frequencies in time to determine whether they were affected too, and different program streams split off at 1506. However, 15575 and 12095 continued to drop out during Go Digital – how appropriate. At first they were happening every half minute lasting from one to three seconds. Then there were dropouts twice as often for a while; then less often. IS NO ONE PAYING ATTENTION AT BBC TO THEIR OWN OUTPUT BY MONITORING OFF THE AIR AND SOLVING THIS PROBLEM ONCE & FOR ALL? Per HFCC at this hour, 12095 is Woofferton and 15565 is Ramphisham, so the problem is occurring somewhere upstream from the individual UK transmitter sites. Other 1500+ audible frequencies: 17640 Woofferton UK, 9740 and 5975 Kranji Singapore and 5970 Nakhon Sawan Thailand, to check out next time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. Sir: Occasionally in DXLD you refer to the "bow bells" used as an interval signal on the BBC. They are called after the church St Mary le Bow and so I believe should be written "Bow bells." A short history can be found at http://www.stmarylebow.co.uk/bells.html (Gerald T. Pollard, NC, Dec 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Right you are: seems there are a dozen of them, each with a lengthy religious inscription. Church & State! (gh, DXLD) ** U K. BBCWS Programme Previews, Wednesdays+ in December ALL IN A DAY`S WORK People who do the same jobs in different countries share their experiences of working life in a new four-part series of the popular All in a Day`s Work from Wednesday, 7 December. Domestic workers Doreen, Rajesh and Margaret cook, clean, tidy and manage other people`s homes in the UK, India and South Africa. On Wednesday 7 December the programme explores how they feel about a life of servitude. Soldiers in Canada, Russia and Israel speak candidly about what it means to fight for a living on Wednesday 14 December. Captain Jeffrey Schamerhorn, Nikifor (not his real name) and Omer Bariochai compare notes. The prospect of killing another human being causes no difficulties for Nikifor, who is hardened by his experiences as a soldier in Chechnya but for Omer and Jeffrey using a weapon against another person is something you never forget. Three judges from very different environments; Sophia Akuffo from Ghana; Bernard Goodwyn from the US; and Abdul Baset Bakhtyari from Afghanistan, talk about their jobs on Wednesday 21 December. Abdul, who regularly sentences international terrorists to jail or death, is in constant fear for his life. He says his job is like playing with fire. Spiritual leaders Dr Graham Williams, a Buddhist Tibetan Lama in Australia, Ayatollah Hadavi Tehrani in Iran and Father Andrew O`Sullivan, a Catholic priest in Ireland, share their thoughts on Wednesday 28 December. ``People sometimes seem surprised that I`m a normal human being,`` says Father O`Sullivan. ``When I meet children I usually reassure them I`m not some kind of alien.`` Presenter/Producer/Andrea Kennedy All In A Day`s Work: 4 programmes x 25 minutes Wednesdays from 7 Dec [European stream & webcast:] Wed 0906, 1306, 1906, Thu 0106 [Americas stream & webcast:] Wed 1406, 2006, Thu 0106, 0606 DISCOVERY - SHIPPING Shipping is a Cinderella business – it`s the biggest industry in the world, with over 90% of the world`s goods and freight travelling by sea – but it`s hidden from view. Tracey Logan investigates the future of shipping in Discovery – Shipping in a special three-part series from Wednesday, 7 December. The series examines the science behind the giant, high-speed craft of the future, their likely effect on our environment and how scientists are making shipping safer ``Shipping is a growing industry thanks to the escalation of international trade, particularly the opening up of China, and the fact that sea transport is a greener alternative to road, rail and air,`` she says. ``And it`s not just goods but people too. By the year 2020 marine tourism is expected to double with more and more of us climbing aboard.`` Fully laden, the world`s largest container ship, the MSC Pamela, is capable of carrying 9,200 containers – impressive today, but soon she`ll be a midget as 12,500 container loads are predicted within 5 years. But its speed rather than size that`s challenging the designers of tomorrow`s ships, since the faster a ship sails the more slender – and more unstable - its hull must be. Tracey Logan looks at the giant ships of the future on Wednesday 7 December. ``They may be tri-marans and penta-marans –the central hull supported by knife-edge stabilisers at the side,`` she says. ``An even more radical design is for a ship that appears to fly above the water, its keel cutting through the waves on the back of a giant sub-marine propeller.`` Monster waves can seriously damage giant ships and their cargo on Wednesday 14 December. A satellite-based study now reveals the extent of these freak waves and weather forecasters hope one day to be able to predict their occurrence so that ships can alter course to avoid them. Freak waves of a different kind will threaten people and property on land, too, as bigger and faster ferries can produce their own mini- Tsunamis under certain coastal conditions, doing serious damage, especially when coming into port. Tracey Logan investigates the possibilities of greener shipping on Wednesday 21 December. ``Perhaps the Green Ship, an idea still at the concept stage, holds the key to solving environmental problems,`` she says. ``A giant ferry, it could carry 10,000 cars at a time powered by wind and wave energy including solar-powered sails and hydrogen fuel cells.`` She continues: ``While we`re waiting, conventional ships are going to have to cut their emissions of harmful sulphur and nitrogen compounds. Today`s ships run on the lowest grade fuel available, their sulphur and nitrogen emissions way beyond land-based limits. Next year the Baltic and North Seas will become low-sulphur emission zones – an example that other regions are expected to follow in the future. Tracy explores how ships will adapt and how can science help clean them up.`` Presenter and Producer/Tracey Logan Discovery – Shipping: 25 minutes x 3 programmes Weds Dec 7, 14 and 21 [European stream & webcast:] Wed 1006, 1506, 2006, Thu 0206 [American stream & webcast:] Wed 1506, 2206, Thu 0206 Listen online http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/index.shtml (BBC Press Office via Rich Cuff via Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. NTIA SEEKS TO CURTAIL USE OF OUT-OF-BAND FREQUENCIES BY BROADCASTERS The Office of Spectrum Management of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) sent a letter to the International Bureau of the FCC on Sept 29, 2005. The letter cites three instances of interference from private shortwave broadcasters in the last 12 months dating back to Nov 2004. The NTIA letter lists 115 Federal Fixed and Mobile Service frequencies in the shortwave bands. The NTIA sent the letter to the FCC on behalf of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA owns, operates and maintains a very large high frequency radio system known as the FEMA National Radio System (FNARS). The NTIA letter asserts that the receivers in the FNARS HF network use current technology and still receive interference from shortwave broadcasters operating 13 kHz away from the FEMA frequency. The letter requests that the FCC immediately remove from the broadcast schedule any frequency located plus or minus 13 kHz from the listed FEMA frequencies. The combined spectrum identified for protection by NTIA in the letter totals over 2000 kHz. The FCC has authorized private broadcasters on select out-of-band frequencies on a non-interference basis for many years. Broadcasters recognize they must quickly vacate the frequency in the event of actual interference and have promptly done so when asked by the FCC. The NTIA contends that interference, when it occurs, cannot be resolved in a timely manner. Licensees learned of the NTIA letter after the B05 schedule had been finalized and many broadcasters had already printed and distributed their frequency schedules expected to go into effect on October 30, 2005. The FCC International Bureau is in the process of evaluating the letter and talking to NTIA and FEMA. The FCC will issue instructions to licensees when a decision is reached. If the NTIA / FEMA request is granted by the FCC, it would displace 120 hours of broadcasts by 14 private shortwave licensees. The three broadcasters with more than 20 hours in jeopardy are EWTN Global Catholic Radio, Family Radio and World Harvest Radio. Some of the licensees scrambled to find new frequencies before B05 went into effect. Those that chose not to change, but to wait for the outcome of the FCC decision, were authorized those frequencies under the following condition in their B05 authorizing letter: "In addition, we note that the National Telecommunications Information Administration has requested that some of the out-of-band frequencies be removed from the Commission's HF Broadcast Schedule. (See attached letter) The Commission is still evaluating this request, however, you are on notice that you may have to vacate certain frequencies depending on the outcome of this request." ----- NASB SUBMITS PROPOSAL FOR FUTURE SHORTWAVE BANDS Planning has already begun for the World Radiocommunication Conference 2007, and the official U.S. proposals are now being discussed. One of the items on the agenda is the need for more spectrum for HF broadcasters between 4 and 10 MHz. The NASB has introduced a draft proposal to the FCC's IWG-4 advisory group that was received well as a starting point and has been "tabled" for further comment. The proposal is favorable to HF broadcasters by suggesting a 700 kHz addition to the broadcasting service spectrum between 4 and 10 MHz. The planning group will eventually have to come to grips with two very different proposals -- the NASB proposal and a separate proposal from the NTIA (the government's National Telecommunications and Information Administration) which calls for no additional spectrum for broadcasters. At the Nov 9th meeting, Globe Wireless submitted a draft proposal that substantially mirrored the earlier NTIA proposal opposing band expansion. After additional discussion, it was determined that a compromise draft would be developed for the January 2006 IWG-4 meeting that will seek ``harmonization`` between the differing draft proposals. NASB representative Don Messer was chosen to draft the compromise proposal. It has now been completed and will shortly be submitted to IWG-4. The compromise is structured to take into consideration the concerns of fixed services users, but still to give the broadcasters additional primary allocations. In short, it reduces the broadcast allocation to 350 kHz, all of which is co-primary with existing fixed service allocations. It means sharing of frequencies by fixed and broadcasting stations -- something that is normally shunned in theory, but there is also a section that suggests a footnote for times of emergency. Had the NASB not been an active participant in these recent IWG-4 meetings, it is highly likely that the idea of band expansion for broadcasting would already be dead. The NASB will continue to be actively involved in the IWG-4 meetings as events move toward the preparation of recommendations to the WRC-07 Advisory Committee. NASB attorney Ed Bailey has been attending the planning meetings in Washington, and recently Dr. Donald Messer has come on board as an NASB representative to these meetings as well. Don recently retired from NASB associate member IBB (the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau) and is now working full-time with the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) Consortium as Chairman of the Technical Committee. Don Messer received his doctorate from The Johns Hopkins University in applied math and physics, after having received an MS degree from Cornell University in theoretical physics and a BS degree in engineering physics from New York University (magna cum laude). At the Voice of America (IBB), he was a main driver for the introduction of digital radio, both via satellite and terrestrial means. In the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) radiocommunication unit, Don was the chairman of the Conference Preparatory Meeting’s preparation for all of the World Radio Conference 2003 (WRC-03) agenda items dealing with the use of shortwave frequencies, and he was the international chairman at WRC-03 for three of the shortwave agenda items. NASB President Doug Garlinger said the Association is very pleased to have Don Messer working on our behalf. "Don is the right person at the right time to be representing us at these important HF planning meetings which could have a profound impact on the future of shortwave broadcasting." (Dec NASB Newsletter via DXLD) ** U S A. Frequency changes for WEWN in English from Dec. 1: 0000-0500 NF 6875 EWN 500 kW / 020 deg to NoAm, x5085, x5875, x5810 0000-0500 NF 6875 EWN 500 kW / 285 deg to CeAm, x5085, x5875, x5810 (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 6 via DXLD) Where will they go next? (gh) ** U S A. Frequency changes for WHRI Angel 1 in English via HRI 250 kW from Dec. 1: 0600-0700 Thu-Sat NF 6125 / 315 deg to NoAm, ex 7315 / 152 deg to SoAm 0600-0700 Sun-Wed on 7315 / 152 deg to SoAm, ex Daily 0700-1000 Daily on 7315 / 152 deg to SoAm, ex 0600-1000 (Observer, Bulgaria, Dec 6 via DXLD) ** U S A. As could be expected, the new (old) antenna for 7385 has been delayed just slightly by the factory. But it's possible that they will be able to come down and put it up this coming weekend if all goes well. Then if we can just get the modulation under control (Jeff White, WRMI, Dec 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Which was near zero during the 2200 UT hour Sunday Dec 4 on 7385 including WORLD OF RADIO at 2230 (gh) HURRICANE WILMA STRIKES TWO NASB MEMBERS IN FLORIDA This year's hurricane season, which ran from June 1 to November 30, was a record-breaker -- more hurricanes than any other year in recent history. There were so many storms that the entire English alphabet was used to name the events, so the Greek alphabet had to start to be used as well. At the end of October, Hurricane Wilma swept through Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and then made its way back to the state of Florida in the U.S. As it went across Florida from west to east, Wilma did some serious damage to two shortwave stations: WYFR in Okeechobee and WRMI in Miami. Both are long-time members of the NASB. The eye of Hurricane Wilma hit the southwest coast of Florida and then made its way right across the southern part of the state, pretty much right between WRMI to the south and WYFR to the north. Wilma took WYFR off the air on October 24. The transmitter building fared much better than it did in the devastating storms of 2004. Damage to the antenna field -- though less than from 2004's hurricanes Frances and Jeanne -- was fairly wide-ranging, including transmission lines, dissipation lines, antenna switches and antennas. With the return of electrical power on October 29, sufficient repairs had been made that most of the transmitters came back on the air that day. Repairs continued, and by November 3rd, all 14 transmitters were back to a full schedule of operation. The National Hurricane Center in Miami first thought that Wilma would be a category one hurricane (i.e. the weakest category) when it hit the Florida coast, but it suddenly strengthened to a category three by the time it got there. Floridians knew a hurricane was coming, but they didn’t expect such a strong one. Some of the worst-affected areas were the metropolitan areas of Miami and Fort Lauderdale, known as Miami-Dade and Broward counties, respectively. WRMI's transmitter site is in Hialeah, which is in northern Miami-Dade County, near the Broward County line. This area experienced some of the worst hurricane winds and damage. Throughout the Miami area and beyond, the hurricane damaged the electrical power grid more than any hurricane in history. Most of southern Florida had no electricity for several days after the hurricane, and it took about three weeks to restore power to all customers. Telephone lines and cellular phone services went down, and in many places there was no running water. Thousands of traffic lights were damaged, and the rest had no power. Tens of thousands of trees and utility poles were knocked down by the force of the hurricane winds, blocking roads and highways. Countless homes, vehicles and commercial buildings were damaged or destroyed. In short, this was the worst hurricane to hit the Miami area since the infamous Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Wilma hit early on Monday morning, October 24. WRMI’s office in the western suburbs of Miami had no power until the following Friday. Most of the station's employees had no power at their homes for several days. Telephone and cellular service was sporadic at best, so it was difficult for the staff to even keep in contact with each other. But thankfully no one was physically hurt. At WRMI's transmitter site in Hialeah, power was not restored until nearly two weeks after the hurricane. In addition, the high winds damaged both of the station's antennas, particularly the log periodic antenna used to reach North America, and they knocked down the security fence around the other antenna -- a corner reflector used to reach the Caribbean and Latin America. WRMI got back on the air to the Caribbean and Latin America on 9955 kHz on Sunday, November 6th. But the North American antenna needed repairs by the factory in central Florida, which took a few weeks more. In the meantime, a temporary antenna was set up for the North American service on 7385 kHz. WRMI narrowly escaped the wrath of the two hurricanes that damaged WYFR in 2004. But WRMI was also off the air for part of a day in September of this year when Hurricane Rita went through Florida from east to west and knocked out electrical power at the transmitter site for about eight hours. To everyone's relief, the hurricane season ended on November 30th (Dec NASB Newsletter via DXLD) ** U S A. 77 WABC will be commencing an oldies show every Saturday night, 6-10 pm [Sat 2300-0300 UT Sun], complete with all the old jingles. Now, if I can only get the CE to print up a bunch of the old Musicradio QSL cards. (He has one.) (Bob Galerstein WB2VGD, Nov 30, Morristown, NJ, NRC-AM via DXLD) WABC Brings back oldies Allan Sniffen reports of the New York Radio Board that: WABC is starting an oldies show this Saturday night from 6 to 10 PM. Mark Simone will host it. The old Musicradio jingles, the music --- the whole thing. From a radio programming point of view, it's a good move for WABC. The demo that misses CBS-FM in many ways overlaps WABC's talk demo and talk on Saturday night isn't exactly a big draw. WABC is going back to its music roots. For the radio geek in me, it doesn't get any better. And for the radio watcher in me, it's not a bad idea. WABC had some success with a Saturday night Sinatra show a few years back so why not fill this void? (Pete Kemp, ibid.) I'm sure this is not the official webpage, but look here: http://www.musicradio77.com/ (Mike Westfall, N6KUY, WDX6O, Los Álamos, New Mexico logbooks: http://dxlogbook.gentoo.net?account=mikew [tag:] "Los Alamos" is Spanish for "More than one Alamo" - Dave Barry, ibid.) Hi Mike. The website you referred to is a weekly tribute to WABC when it was a top 40 station. It is an excellent site and has many airchecks and other information about the days of music radio 77. If you want to hear the oldies show on Saturday night, the site to go to is http://www.wabcradio.com A live stream of the show should be there at that time (Larry Stoler, ibid.) See http://www.wabcradio.com/listingsentryfeature.asp?ID=391217&PT=WABC+Talk+Topic+of+the+Day (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Having discovered this message around 0240 UT 4 December I logged onto the site for the remaining few minutes of the program. Whilst I am sure it was brilliant to hear the oldies again on 77 WABC, I did feel the echo on the program was slightly overdone. The technique of using echo on stations of that type is something familiar to some English ears, including mine, but in this case I did feel it was slightly OTT. Also, the problem I have mentioned previously occurred here too, namely that of only hearing one stereo channel on a mono radio station, which showed up most noticeably on Ray Charles' "Hit the Road Jack", where the backing singers could barely be heard. Nonetheless, providing I am at home, and providing I remember, I will be logging on again next Saturday, hopefully much closer to 2300 (PAUL DAVID, Wembley Park, United Kingdom, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) That kind of reverb went with the territory as I recall on other such stations. Listened a while. On this, also were long periods of entirely inappropriate music fill during commercial breaks (gh, DXLD) Was sailing, then driving home to PEI from NS after doing reindeer duty --- listening to WABC from the ferry terminal to home. Then after putting away tons of pop, gifts from the mainlanders, then reading bedtime stories --- I turned on the R-390A listening to WABC in HiFi Collins sound. On right now as my sore, clumsy not so old fingers type this. Not all that much music because of the call ins and rejoicing. But sounds so good --- without the multipath distortion that I find makes FM so fuzzy to my ears. But, just as a certain day in 1982 was "The day the Music Died", tonite was the night the music came back. Long live music on AM radio! Long live radio with personality! Long live local radio! (Phil Rafuse, PEI, Dec 4, ABDX via DXLD) Yes, that was actual music being heard on WABC, reverb and all, as the station reacted to the summertime disappearance of oldies on New York radio by unveiling its own four-hour weekend oldies block, hosted every Saturday night from 6-10 by Mark Simone. In addition to already being in the building on Saturdays, hosting a morning talk show, Simone has excellent credentials where New York music radio is concerned, with a resume that includes a long stint at the old WPIX- FM. And while we had our qualms about the first show (Simone brushed off the message-board suggestions for his first song, playing little snippets of "Imagine" - the last song WABC played in 1980, "Summer Wind" - the last song WCBS-FM played in 2005, and "Hit The Road Jack" - for obvious reasons - all mixed together, and the reverb was a far cry from the old version), Phil Boyce and Johnny Donovan and the rest of the crew at WABC made a lot of radio fans very happy this weekend, while sparking all kinds of talk about whether a similar weekend approach might work at other former top-40 AM giants that long ago flipped to talk. How long the show will last will depend, of course, on the answer to the much bigger questions about ABC Radio's future, and as soon as there's anything more than just speculation to report, we'll be here. (We might even post a "BULLETIN!") (Scott Fybush, NE Radio Watch Dec 5 via DXLD) ** U S A. KNTS 1220 Palo Alto CA CP --- I have a question. Maybe one of the CEs out there can answer it for me. KNTS 1220 Palo Alto CA (San Francisco) which runs 5000/ 145 U1 currently, has got a new CP for U4 50000/5000. How is the world did they get that? 1220 in CA has Canyon Country (North of LA) with U4 1000/500 and Pomona (LA) with U3 250/250. 1210 in CA has Rocklin (Sacramento) with 5000/500, Fowler (Fresno) with U1 370/370 and San Marcos (San Diego) with 20000/10000. 1230 in CA has Stockton 50 miles away with U1 900/900. Plus all of the other night traffic on 1220. I presume the site will be East of SF shooting the signal due West with hardly anything N, S., or E. Just a guess. But I wonder how much signal they can send N/S/ or E? 145 watts? Any thoughts? (Patrick Martin, OR, IRCA via DXLD) Actually, the listing in the IRCA bulletin is in error -- KNTS's CP is for 50 kW-DA-2! If you don't believe me, check the FCC's CDBS database. The transmitter location is indeed in the East Bay. The site is adjacent to that of KTCT 1050. Salem originally acquired the site for KFAX, whose site is 1.2 miles to the southwest of the new KNTS site. KFAX was going to lose its current site for an upgrade of the power grid in the area. The power-grid project came-a-cropper, however, and KFAX will not be moving. The KTCT site and the new KNTS site constitute an active garbage dump owned by the town in which the sites are located. The radio stations use the sites under lease. KNTS will use three 200' towers by day in an almost in-line configuration with unequal spacing between the towers. The day pattern is a rather standard three-tower modified cardioid with a small lobe out the back. The maximum inverse-distance field of 4010 mV/m at 1 km lies to the west-southwest at 246 degrees. The night array comprises four towers (the three in the day array plus one more 200' tower somewhat northwest of the extended line of the three day towers). The night pattern, which is, of course, tighter than the day pattern, is roughly circular, but is tangent to the transmitter location with a few small lobes out the back. The radiation maximum at 248 degrees differs by only two degrees from the daytime maximum but at 4659 mV/m, the inverse-distance field @ 1 km is 16% higher (equivalent to 35% higher power). Despite the huge power increase, KNTS will actually lose a significant amount of daytime coverage to the east of SF Bay. The FCC's ratchet rule required a reduction in signal strength to the east to protect the stations you named in your post. All of them, I believe, have prohibited overlap with KNTS's present operation. The CP operation reduces that overlap. KNTS will send substantially less than the equivalent of 5 kW to the east during the day and still less at night. San Francisco, Silicon Valley and areas in the immediate East Bay will get huge signals day and night, however, although in Oakland, there will be many stronger AM signals at night. If you want your own copies of the KNTS's new patterns and those of every other AM station in CDBS, download Bob Carpeneter's AMSTNS program. (Search for "AMSTNS download" at Google or at the search engine of your choice.) AMSTNS is FREE (not shareware; it's really free; Bob wrote it as a labor of love and Larry Vehorn hosts free AMSTNS-compatible downloads of the CDBS database at his Web site. Larry posts a new version of the database just about every week. The file size for the database updates is appoximately 1.8 Mbytes -- no sweat, even over dialup connection.) (Dan Strassberg, NRC-AM via DXLD) Dan is correct (and I'd echo his endorsement of the AMSTNS software, which I use all the time), but I'd also point out that the "lost" coverage is mainly over uninhabited parts of the East Bay hills and over areas even further east that are out of the San Francisco market and are largely lost to KNTS anyway due to adjacent-channel splatter from KEBR 1210 and KWG 1230. It's a big win for them in signal strength over the core of the market, and an even bigger win for any fish in the Pacific Ocean swimming around pulling their R390s behind them, tuned to 1220... s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Oh great! Worse than I thought. 50 KW! I guess the future looks like more and more 50 KWers in the US. Maybe my thought of spending the rest of my life living on the West side of Kauai might be an option. hi. I joke about it, but I wonder. It is better than going back to Alaska, Kauai is a lot warmer. hi. But I guess KNTS then does not have to protect Canada? Of course it will be sometime until its built, so there is some time to DX 1220 yet, but what a bummer (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) I wouldn't get too worried. Pretty much the entire 50 kW is being pushed east from Hayward out over the peninsula and out to sea. They'll be more noticeable in Seaside than they are now with their 145 watts or whatever it is at night, but I'd be very surprised if this makes it into the pest category. In fact, it may well be MORE audible on the west side of Kauai than in Seaside, from the looks of it :-) s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) Scott, It is funny you mention that. My friend, Chuck Boehnke from The Big Island, who passed away, used to tell me that so many CA stations were powerhouses there that I hardly ever heard in the NW. It is kind of like the Seattle/Portland stations with their pattern in my direction. But 1220 is such a great DX frequency, I hate to see it go. It has nabbed quite a few goodies since the Canadians vacated the channel including WLSD-Big Stone Gap VA with 45 watts. 1570 is not nearly as good as it was since the boost of XERF to 100KW. It was fun while it lasted. Maybe we need to extend MW to 1800 khz now. hi (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) Absolutely. KNTS on day pattern will be strong pre-sunset along the Oregon coast. The KEX site, which is east of Portland, is right in a KNTS pattern minimum, however. If you swing 15 degrees counterclockwise, which ought to take you to the coast somewhere near Portland, KNTS's nighttime inverse-distance field at 1 km will be 806 mV/m. That's equivalent to a little more than 6 kW ND from 1/4-wave towers. At a distance of 300 miles or so, you'll hear KNTS more nights than you won't but it will hardly be another KGO. As for what happened at the FCC to encourage all of these 50 kW AMs (a question that somebody asked), the answer in two words is Rio Treaty. The treaty opened up all of the former Class III channels and all of the former foreign Class I channels to domestic Class B stations using as much as 50 kW day and night. In addition, there is no longer any blanket protection of borders with Mexico or Canada. There has to be a station to protect. Also, on US soil, there is no protection whatever of foreign Class As (and on foreign soil, no protection of US Class As). Stations of all classes receive protection only in their native countries. BTW, if the FCC chose to so do--and it has not--I believe it could authorize US Class As to operate with 100 kW-U. I think that the treaty authorizes any Western Hemisphere nation that chooses to do so to permit Class As to operate with as much as 100 kW-U. Mexico uses this limit. The US, Canada, and most Caribbean countries limit the power of Class As to 50 kW, which is also the limit for Class Bs. So be thankful for some favors (Dan Strassberg, ibid.) Dan, OK, I now understand the new rules. In other words, you might as well say no protection. If KNTS wanted 50 KW directional North, they could probably do it. It is hard to tell exactly what the signal will do to 1220, but with 6 KW, it will probably ruin it except on really good cx to the East. But it is hard to tell. Also the directivity of my beverage depending on the frequency. Some channels, the directivity is much better than others. At least there are still some channels that the beverage works well on. Portland signs off around 10:30 PM on 1330, and my nearest going East in Wichita, Waterloo, etc,. So things aren't that bad. Thanks (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) I wouldn't come CLOSE to saying no protection. The ratchet rule is VERY restrictive, and is the reason that, after the power increase, KNTS won't cover anywhere near the amount of territory east of the Bay by day as it does now. (Though as Scott points out, the loss of population served will be much less, percentage-wise, than the loss of area served.) Any AM that proposes a change of any consequence must demonstrate that existing prohibited overlap with co-channel and first, second, and third adjacent-channel stations will be reduced by at least 10%. In a few cases (very few), stations have been able to (financially) induce the affected stations to modify their operations to reduce prohibited overlap. The most prevalent strategy, however, is to buy and take dark the affected stations. However, the FCC permits taking stations dark for the purposes of upgrades to other stations only in cases where service to the CoL of the station going dark would not be significantly diminished. Recent FCC actions suggest that, to upgrade another station, the FCC won't allow taking dark the only station licensed to a community, even if the community is covered by 10 or more technically excellent AM and FM signals from stations licensed to nearby communities. This whole area is a technical and legal briar patch. Several consulting engineering firms are making a nice living negotiating this regulatory thicket for broadcasters who still feel that their AM properties are valuable and are willing to invest in them (Dan Strassberg, ibid.) ** U S A. Re site of KKLF 1700? Sherman is what the FCC dB says, for what it's worth. http://dettifoss.fcc.gov/acweb/dettifoss/genmen_a/db_11/d_admin.roi;299513?ViewDefault [info is somewhat jumbled, and some blank entries removed by gh] KKLF AM 86684 140 EAST MARKET ST. US SHERMAN TX 00001700.00000000 M LICEN 2/28/2001 8/1/2013 YORK, PA 17401 Online License Data KRBE LICO, INC. Station Class: B Antenna ND1 Antenna Nominal Power: 0.7 Augmentation 0 Broadcast Schedule: U Domestic Pattern: T Hours Of N Theoretical 410.3 Tower Count: 1 Latitude: 33 25 23 N Longitude: 96 39 45 W Station Class: B Antenna ND1 Antenna Nominal Power: 10 Antenna Power: Augmentation 0 Broadcast Schedule: U Domestic Pattern: T Hours Of D Theoretical 410.3 Tower Count: 1 Latitude: 33 25 23 N Longitude: 96 39 45 W FRN File Number FRN History 0003246477 BOA 20030926ALJ (via Terry Krueger, FL, DXLD) ** U S A. NBC, Digital Platform Central? --- At the launch of the MSNBC channel, we were given to understand that Microsoft, the "MS" part of MSNBC, was partnering with NBC that was somehow advantageous for both companies. And just a few minutes ago, as I was tuned in to MSNBC, "NBC Group President" Jeff Zucker got up in-front-of-god-n-everybody to announce that MSNBC's parent company, NBC Universal, was going to launch content for Steve Job's darling, the IPod. Zucker concluded by saying that NBC Universal intended to "provide content for all its platforms." All ITS platforms??? Wow (Clara Listensprechen, Dec 6, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Re 5-208, new anchors for ABC-TV World News Tonight --- watched the clip on abcnews.com and they said as of 2006y, they would be doing a new version for the west coast, plus a webcast in the afternoon. I guess that`s how they come up with ``three timezones``. Nothing about Hawaii or Mountain, surprise2 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) An CBS exec once told me that only 4% of the US population live in the Mountain time zone. Hence the low priority. There will indeed be some big bucks involved in going live at 6:30, 7 PM sometimes, 8:30, and 930 PM [ET]. Figure a NYC union studio crew that used to get off at 730 PM EST now getting off at 10 PM. Figure each "let`s go live to the White House" with the WH correspondent (and crew) who has been there all day now hanging around for the 830 and 930 PM cut in. Oh what a smile this with bring to his/her face. Or the Baghdad correspondent's live shot - he had stayed up till 2:30 AM; now he might be up till dawn doing up-to-the-minute reporting on some event that happened 20 hours earlier. Also, having worked in a newsroom years ago, I cannot imagine much enthusiasm for stopping all the preparations just 2-3 hours before the eastern feed airs to sit on set and do a webcast version. But I could be wrong (tom roche, GA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) That`s no excuse. How much of the Canadian population lives in NF? Yet their odd timezone is always catered to. Hey, that`s the ticket: change MT to a half-hour zone! (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. In case you haven`t noticed on MONITORING REMINDERS CALENDAR, http://www.worldofradio.com/calendar.html among a few TV shows included is GLOBE TREKKER, an offbeat hourlong travelog on the Travel Channel, UT Mon 0300 & 0600. Dec 12 it`s about Germany. Now I am adding another 24 hours later, ANTHONY BOURDAIN: NO RESERVATIONS. This week it`s about Iceland, next week Uzbekistan, UT Tue 0300 & 0600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VANUATU. Hi Glenn. Non-data QSL from Radio Vanuatu per email received this week after a 5-year wait. Fellow DXer Vince Stevens from Cape Town visited the station in October, taking along a reception report and tape from me for a transmission heard on 4960 kHz in Otford, Kent, England on Christmas eve 2000. To cut a long story short, Acting Technical Manager, Warren Robert, finally made contact on Monday via his personal email address (the station doesn't have email right now). He says they are in the process of printing new cards and that they are active as follows: 3945 (0600-0830) and (1630-2230) [1900-2130 & 0530-1130 UT] 7260 (0830-1630) [2130-0530 UT] All in local time. 4960 is out of service. Regards (Graham Bell, London, England, Dec 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) El colega Mauno Ritola, de Finlandia, informa en la Lista DXplorer que se ha reactivado Radio Vanuatu, desde esta exótica isla de Oceania (y radiopaís). Fue reportada en 3944.76 kHz, en la mañana de hoy, sobre las 1000 UT. 73 (Arnaldo Slaen, ARGENTINA, Dec 6, condiglist via DXLD) ** VATICAN. Vatican "admits" to DRM --- At last the Vatican Radio broadcasts of DRM on 1530 have been listed on http://www.drm.org ``2310-0100 UT daily; 1530; ND; Europe; 60 kw; Vatican Radio; various languages; Santa Maria`` 73 (Steve Whitt, UK, Dec 5, MWC via DXLD) ** VENEZUELA. Good Morning to Glenn and all of you! The past night, while listening to RCR-750, I noticed after the news (mainly about the government and the Hugo Chávez relationship with Fidel Castro) and sports newscast ended at 0300 UT, they switched to non-stop classical music with short announcements about the future of the people and went abruptly off with the national Gloria al Bravo Pueblo anthem around 0400 without any announcements. It's not the first time I hear classical music on YVKS-750, but all the other times were quick tune by, so it's the first time I really listened. I taped the reception peaks when co-channel WSB Atlanta QRM was less of a problem, even though I still have quite some tape recordings of them, because I'd like to have a QSL from them. Since my Spanish isn't too bad at all and I copied the name of Antonio Calderón which was doing Deportiva; I think a written reception report may suffice as well, but with a tape recording it would be even better. There are still some very residual side-effects of the chemo, which is why I write this at this time, but I will leave for school in just a few minutes. Be the good DX stuff with you! (Bogdan Alexandru Chiochiu, the SON of Aurel Chiochiu (not Aurel himself like some thought) on the island of Montreal, Dec 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Confusion arises from the e-mail address containing Aurel`s name (gh) UNIDENTIFIED. This item under UK [non] in 5-207 should have been separately filed under unID rather than included with 9395 item: unIDed 5880 from Russia at 1457 with carrier at S5. Clear at 1500 UT on LSB due to strong QRM in USB from operators for just 15 seconds until an FSK signal (FDM?) wipes out lower side. Heard just piano misoc and man talking in apparently Korean (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 27 via DXLD) ? IME ? Do you know more about these Merlin / IME organization tests on 5880 kHz via Irkutsk Russia site, from November 22nd to 27th ? According to Tohru Yamashita, Asian Broadcasting Institute, the broadcast began on November 23 at 1500-1600. The program consists of the explanation of the Chinese historical facts and persons such as Confucius, with the announcement "This is the test broadcast". As the announcer speaks Korean with provincial accent, it seems to be some non-Christian religious (such as Confucianism) broadcast produced outside of Korea (Takahito Akabayashi, Japan, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 28 via DXLD) 1500-1600 IME 5880 kHz Irkutsk-RUS. Korean?, 22 to 27-Nov-2005. (BCDX via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Roaring jammer on 6015, Dec 5 at 1520. No pretending here to be a broadcast suffering from co-channel interference. Some talking underneath but unable to determine language. What could it be? Seems Korea N/S have had a conflict here but can`t find anything likely listed now. However, VOA in Tibetan via Thailand is on 6015 at 1400-1500; has been expanded? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6215, YL with repetitive syllables in Korean, probably numbers, at 1505 Dec 5. 1506 switched to brief message, then resumed repetitiveness but not same syllables as before. 1508 to open carrier and 1511* off; fairly good signal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6612, re 5-208, Zimbabwe? Thanks for the Tip, Dave, heard last night here at 0215 with African music and a lot of flutter, then suddenly swamped by hets from Goodness knows what. 3306 was totally obscured by utility signals (Tim Bucknall, UK, Dec 6, harmonics yg via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED [non]. 14290: As per the request here I did some checking of my mystery station; the one I mentioned was out of band and they was back again. I first listened at 0400 UT and again at 0800 but heard nothing. Then tonight at 1100 on 14290 station came on saying it was from Indonesia; this was repeated 2 times with what sounded like a station identifier. It lasted till 1200 as it abruptly disappeared. The station`s signals 43334. Language was Indonesian. 1230, 14290 heard another one saying the Republic of Tehran followed by music ID and prayer time. Arab language. I checked both times 7145 and there was no identical stations matching this and not sure why these 2 stations are appearing here. I hope some one near by to Australia might have heard it. I recorded the station this time 73's from (Larry Fields, n6hpx/mm, ship`s location 14 degrees South by 93 degrees East, Dec 5, swl at qth.net via DXLD) [later:] Larry`s 14290 Identified --- After taking some off line advice from a few persons I was able to find out who my mystery station was and it turned out like they said it was an image on my machine. I took my HT vx-5r and Sony 7600 gr and tried listening to both at the same time, stereo effects. I put the vx5r on the 15200 and the other on 14290; it received it on the Sony 7600 gr and the vx-5r picked up the 15200. I then reversed it and wala the vx-5r didn't hear the station. 15200 was TWR out of Guam and I checked it when it went off. This has bugged me for about 2 weeks as I been hearing almost every other night, pending rain and job requirements. Thanks all and at least now I know it wasn't a pirate. Again Thanks for the help and will check it out better next time (Larry Fields, n6hpx/mm on station in the Indian Ocean, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Your other image on 14290 is indeed Iran, also from 15200 as in NDXC: 15200 VO ISLAMIC REP.IRAN 1230-1327 1234567 Malaysian Sirjan 500 115 IRN 5541E2927 IRIB b05 If you get these you also ought to be getting lots of other images from 15 MHz on 14 MHz, 910 kHz below, as well as on other bands with that receiver. Once this is determined they are really of no DX interest, but to be avoided (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENIG DIGEST) Hello Glen[n]. I wonder if you can shed any light on this for me. I have been hearing test transmissions on mostly 15040 from 0900 to 1400. Using snatches of Indian style music or odd calls like "this is X-ray November Two" or This is Yankee Delta six. The transmissions are in full AM and a strong S9 to me here in the UK. I feel it`s part of a broadcast station while others say it is a numbers station called E22. Do you have any opinions I wonder? (Mike in West Sussex, On the South Coast of the UK, Dec 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Mike, I have no specific info about this, but I would agree that it is more likely a numbers station than a broadcast station. But does it ever actually get to the numbers? You could compare it to the info about E22 at ENIGMA. 73, (Glenn to Mike in West Sussex, via DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE TINY TRAP +++++++++++++ Listening to tape delay of IDEAS, CBC Radio 1 a few weeks ago about monarch flutterbies, and their amazing migration. An excellent show, marred by someone referring to them as ``these tiny insects`` --- as insects go, monarchs are rather large, obviously? (Glenn Hauser, OK, on the migration route, where some visit my grounds, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ SHORT WAVE - THE RADIO MAGAZINE FOR THE REAL ENTHUSIAST December 5 2005: Editor Kevin Nice announced today that `Short Wave' is still on course for publication of its very first edition in December 2005, which will be available from all the usual outlets – including WH Smith. Kevin, who was Editor of Short Wave Magazine (from PW Publishing Ltd) for nearly 8 years, has been appointed Editor for 'Short Wave', he stated: "This brand new magazine from a new publisher will provide all the latest news and information for the short wave radio listener, together with regular articles from contributors well known for their enthusiasm and in depth awareness of their subjects :- Lawrence Harris - Hot news and images from the WXSAT administrations and users alike. Martin Peters - what's happening on the broadcast wavebands and readers' logs Dave Roberts - The latest from the World of Scanning. Peter Bond - All the Civil and Mil Air goings on. Pat Carty - All the latest in the UK Mil scene. Keith Hamer & Garry Smith - VT DX Logs and news. Roger Bunney TV News Feeds via satellite - latest reports Paul Beaumont of Enigma 2000 - Numbers Stations unravelled. Ben Hogan - SSB communications under the microscope. Jacques d'Avignon's Propagation Forecast charts, plan your DXing. Greg Baker Returns with broadcast reports from Australiasia and So Much More Plus all those `must have' features for the radio listening enthusiast. Reviews of latest equipment – this month the hot new product under scrutiny on your behalf. Get an independent view before you buy! Club listings – get in touch with your fellow enthusiasts Competitions – Serious Prizes - for serious listeners." Kevin added, "Editing 'Short Wave' is a thrilling new venture for me. We have put together a strong team dedicated to bringing the very best to the radio listener. Our aim is to be at the forefront of the hobby. It's important to stress that 'Short Wave' is a new and completely independent magazine and is from new publishers with the flexibility to respond quickly to readers' interests." For further information and subscriptions please see our website http://www.shortwavemagazine.co.uk or contact us at Short Wave Magazine Ltd, B1 Arena Business Centre, 9 Nimrod Way, Wimborne, Dorset BH21 7SH. Tel: 01202 862762 E-mail subs @ shortwavemagazine.co.uk *`'Short Wave' is published by Short Wave Magazine Ltd. and neither the magazine nor the company have any connection whatsoever with `Short Wave Magazine' (SWM & Scanning Scene) previously published by PW Publishing Ltd (SWM-readers group via Mike Barraclough, DXLD) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ HFCC A06 Conference Oldrich Cip confirmed that the A06 conference would be the next joint HFCC/ASBU and ABU-HFC conference and would be hosted by the ABU and RTC (China Radio and Television) between 13th-17th February 2006. The venue for this joint conference will be Hainan Island in southern China. Thursday, 5th January 2006 is the deadline for submission of requirement data for inclusion in the initial A06 schedule. Later Ms. Wang Fang of RTC gave a brief presentation on the amenities available on Hainan Island, which is a holiday island with excellent hotel and conference facilities and a very pleasant temperature in February. Wang Fang said that the conference would be held in Sanya City in the south of Hainan Island and connecting flights to Phoenix airport, that is situated about 35 minutes distant by taxi, are available from Hong Kong, Beijing or Shanghai. Details of available hotels and rates will be provided by RTC as soon as possible, but delegates should bear in mind that February is high season in Sanya City. Future Conferences HFCC Vice Chairman Horst Scholz asked if there were any volunteers amongst the organizations present who could host a future conference. There were no such volunteers. Horst said that the Steering Board appreciated the difficulties of hosting an HFCC/ASBU conference. Nevertheless no host meant no conference. Horst pointed out that there were still some of the larger organizations that had not hosted an HFCC/ASBU conference. Therefore, the Steering Board would be liaising with each of those organizations in order to try to persuade each of them to host a conference in the very near future. Hopefully one or another of those organizations could be the host for the B06 conference (Report of Second HFCC Plenary Meeting, Valencia, Spain, Thursday, 25th August 2005 via Dec NASB Newsletter via DXLD) The world`s number one jamming nation: China! A less appropriate venue for HFCC would be hard to imagine. The only thing worse would be if China were not at least pretending to cooperate and were totally out of the organization (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ DRM --- See also GERMANY; NEW ZEALAND; VATICAN Currently DRM data published by the HFCC is not sufficiently accurate. To improve the accuracy of that DRM data the following measures will be adopted: * All occasional DRM requirements should be submitted with their actual operational dates rather than be submitted for a complete season. In addition, any and all changes to those operational dates required during a season should be submitted immediately; * Currently DRM requirement data from the tentative seasonal schedule is published. This practice will cease and only the DRM requirements within seasonal operational schedules will be publicised; * In practice it has not been possible to gather the complete data for longwave and mediumwave DRM transmissions. In addition, the HFCC database does not contain the details of some local 26 MHz transmissions operated by non-HFCC organisations. Therefore, in future the HFCC DRM database will exclude details of LF, MF and local 26 Mhz transmissions and will be limited to data on DRM transmissions operated by HFCC/ASBU and ABU-HFC member organisations. Currently discussions are taking place, both within and outside the broadcast community, about the possibility of grouping DRM transmissions together in designated parts of the HF broadcast bands because such an arrangement is believed to be more spectrum efficient. There are a number of reasons why such an arrangement would not be easy to achieve in practice: * Setting aside parts of the HF bands for DRM only transmissions would sterilize those parts of those bands in areas of the world where DRM is not used currently. Consequently, such an arrangement would be less spectrum efficient; * Nevertheless, it is sensible to try to group DRM transmissions together as much as possible because DRM transmissions have a lower mutual interference potential than do DRM transmissions towards some analogue transmissions; * Those HFCC/ASBU member organizations with long running DRM requirements on air are encouraged to consult each other and study the possibilities of grouping such transmissions together (Report of Second HFCC Plenary Meeting, Valencia, Spain, Thursday, 25th August 2005 via Dec NASB Newsletter via DXLD) IBOC Minnesota Public Radio has a slew of stations in MN. Tonight I noticed that 91.1 KNOW Mpls/St. Paul, which has been broadcasting IBOC for a while, has main channel audio about 7+ seconds behind 88.9, KNSR Collegeville, which is not IBOC. Now, it is odd that the SCS talking book 67 kHz channel is not delayed on KNOW. Wonder why?? (John Ebeling, MN, WTFDA via DXLD) The main channel audio is delayed to match up with the IBOC audio, which takes about 4 seconds to be encoded, transmitted and decoded. (The additional 3+ seconds is for error correction and time diversity.) Once receivers become available, they'll switch back and forth automatically between the IBOC and analog audio if the signal isn't strong enough for the digital to decode. Without the delay on the analog audio, it would be impossible to do a smooth switch from analog to digital and back. There's no need to delay the SCS audio, since it's not duplicated digitally. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) US BROADCASTERS FORM HD DIGITAL RADIO ALLIANCE A number of major US broadcasting groups - Bonneville, Citadel, Clear Channel, Cumulus, Emmis, Entercom, Greater Media and Infinity - have announced the launch of the HD Digital Radio Alliance. The purpose of the alliance is to coordinate issues like formats for the new HD Radio multicast channels. Clear Channel's Peter Ferrara has been named as President/CEO of the Alliance. The members have pledged to spend at least $200 million in marketing next year. They will target automakers and the retail trade, to convince them of the desirability of using radio's new digital standard. (Source: Inside Radio) # posted by Andy @ 16:40 UT Dec 6 (Media Network blog via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ 300 OHM TWIN LEAD ET AL. When television started, does anyone remember how many types of 300 ohm wire there were? When my family got the first television set in spring, 1954, I remember a dark brown lead-in wire was used. I also remember an almost clear plastic lead-in wire with rectangle squares cut out and spaced apart. There was probably a 300 ohm lead-in wire used for industrial purposes, such as apartment buildings and areas subject to more than normal interference. 73. Good DXing (Dave Sinclair, Vancouver, BC, WTFDA via DXLD) I dug out some old catalogs for the following info: A 1971 Allied/Radio Shack catalog lists "82 channel 300-ohm Shielded TV cable" which boasted copper covered reinforced wire with low loss foam encapsulation with a dense polyethylene jacket. Also lists standard flat twin lead. Also notes a "low-loss foam space web" type of 300 ohm wire. A 1952 Allied Radio catalog lists the standard Belden twin lead in 300, 150 & 72 ohm impedances. Also noted is a Gonset low loss open wire line with 450 ohm impedance, consisting of 18 gauge wire spaced one inch apart with polystryrene spacers every 6 inches to hold the wires apart. I also recall some type of almost round 300 ohm twin lead, foam filled, meant for low loss at UHF frequencies. Somewhere along the line I also recall the regular flat 300 ohm twin lead having the polyethylene dielectric (spacing) being having sections cut out, effectively providing only about half of the normal twin lead dielectric. I'm sure Bob Cooper could add some information to the above, but, hopefully, some of David`s questions have been answered (John Ebeling, Bloomington, MN, ibid.) Interestingly enough, it's still possible to buy 300-ohm twin lead. http://www.wb0w.com/wb0winc/Cable.htm among other places (Doug Smith, W9WI Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66, ibid.) If by "original" we mean the FIRST TV transmission line from antenna to receiver (1938-1941), it was in fact more or less (mostly less) 72 ohms; twisted together wires such as you might still locate today for wiring door bells (assuming anyone still uses wired doorbells; "bell wire") or wired intercom systems (a stretch in the day of "wireless" everything). The "first" antennas were simple dipoles, more or less 72 ohms and the two wires, twisted at a rate of approximately one twist each inch or so, came out of other industrial uses. The first 300 ohm line (1946) was flat, #20 typically but often smaller "size" with 3-4-5-6 smaller wires forming each side of the line. The primary problem with this "flat line" (as it was known) was susceptible to man made interference. There was a period in the late 40s/early 50s when ignition noise (from motor vehicles) and electrical appliance noise (from virtually everything running on electricity) was a MAJOR cause of concern. Champion created/developed a "low noise spark plug" for cars as a result. In the UK vehicles without "noise suppression" were banned from operating because their own TV was in the 40-46 MHz region and this just happened by dumb accident to be the most noisy portion of the spectrum for vehicle (ignition) noise. To complicate life for the Brits, they had elected to transmit all television using vertical polarization and the primary radiation component from car/truck/lorry ignition systems was also vertically polarized. The USA had elected horizontal for precisely that reason, after RCA demonstrated the significant difference between noise pickup with a vertical polarity and that (reduced in level) from horizontal. But most TV antenna line runs, using 72 (later 300) ohm lines ran vertically (from antenna on roof DOWN to set) and the non-shielded transmission lines acted as their own antenna picking up ignition noise as a result. To reduce (not eliminate) ignition noise pickup, installers "twisted" the downline antenna run at a rate of approximately one 360 degree twist per 3-5 feet, the twisted downline run being somewhat (but not much) better to reducing ignition noise pickup on the downline run. The second "problem" related to line loss. Standard, flatline 300 ohm, line had losses approaching 10 dB per 100' at TV channel 13, half that at channel 2. But when the polyethylene (plastic) material separating the two sides of the line became wet, the losses doubled so in wet weather TV reception for anyone not getting a very strong signal degraded. When, in 1953, the first UHF TV began (Portland, Oregon - September 1953, channel 27) the losses at UHF for even DRY flatline were horrendous and out came the first modification of flatline - "tubular line" which was flat line that looked pregnant. The single layer of poly between wires became two, with an air gap between the two sides; think of a long thin baloon. This meant that it was "air" (an excellent insulator material) that was "between" the two wires, significantly reducing line losses when dry, improving (but not eliminating) line losses when wet. Various attempts at reducing line losses were also present - such as the flat line with rectangular air gaps cut into the wire (solid poly/ air gap/ solid poly / air gap and so on) which typically reduced the poly content by 50% (i.e. half of it was missing replaced with "air"). This had the unfortunate unexpected side effect of turning the frequency-flat line into a "tuned line" where if the installer was not exceptionally skilled in using screw eye insulators to "stand off" the cable from anything metallic (or wood if the wood was wet), one or two channels in the spectrum "crashed". A large amount of time and magazine space was devoted to the best techniques for installing the various types of flat line and pages of technical notes detailing use of stand off insulators was common. The flat line needed to be suspended away from anything metallic (such as the gutter on a roof, the metal pipe that held the antenna, aluminum siding) by several inches or the line was adversely effected by the proximity of the metal; resulting in "standing waves" and one or two channel signal "suck out". Gonset did indeed have a low loss "open wire line" (as did many others). The original "Gonset Line" was 450 ohms, two solid copper wires (or later copper covered steel) supported every 3-12 inches by a heat applied plastic stick or rod. There were also 300 ohm versions of this, all copied from then original (RCA developed in the 30s) 600 ohm "open wire line". Gonsetline was very popular for long antenna runs, such as having your antenna 1,000 feet away up a hill. However, for ignition noise pickup and other electrical interference problems, it was no better (nor worse) than standard flat lines. Returning to the tubular line, with an "air core" it was essentially an "open pipe" waiting to be filled with water. If water somehow got into the line at the top (as it invariably did) the open air core acted like a pipe and water trickled down INSIDE the line so that at the bottom, as it entered the house, it became a vertical catchment. Now the losses escalated rapidly because rather than wet poly between the two wire sides we had a pint or quart or gallon of water. Magazines were filled with reports of how one "drained off the water" from open-core 300 ohm line OUTSIDE the house before the wire looped up through the wall into the TV set. Not a few reported how the "wire pipe" had water running out of the wire at the 300 ohm antenna terminals on the TV set! The eventual solution after many false starts was low loss 72/75 ohm coaxial cable. This cable's outer braid (shield) was effective in eliminating (or greatly reducing) ignition/interference ingress to the center conductor and the outer poly jacket shucked the water without allowing it to collect between the two sides of the line - i.e. the center conductor and the shield. None of the variations in flat line (brown, white, black poly; solid or with rectangular openings, tubular with air in the middle, tubular with a foam fill) solved the REAL problems of interference ingress and moisture degradation. But from 1947 through 1960 or so, it was difficult to pickup a copy of Radio Electronics, Radio TV News et al and NOT find at least one article about how to improve antenna downline runs. 300 ohm line (of any description) evaporated into history largely because it was not the best technology. And yes, you can still find it (often with difficulty) at a local Radio Shack as I saw in California during a trip in mid November (Bob Cooper in New Zealand, ibid.) ###