DX LISTENING DIGEST 6-031, February 14, 2006 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 2006 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 NEXT SW AIRING OF WORLD OF RADIO 1304: Wed 1030 on WWCR 9985 Full schedule, including AM, FM, satellite and internet, with hotlinks to station sites and audio: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html WRN ON DEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO [also CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL] http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org WORLD OF RADIO PODCASTS: www.obriensweb.com/wor.xml ** ALGERIA [non]. RTV Algeria in Arabic/French again via ISS 500 kW from Feb. 15 0600-0658 on 9885 / 162 deg to CeSoAf 0700-0758 on 9885 / 194 deg to NoWeAF till Feb. 25 11725 / 162 deg to CeSoAf 11830 / 194 deg to NoWeAF from Feb. 26 0800-0858 on 13620 / 194 deg to NoWeAF 1200-1358 on 15255 / 194 deg to NoWeAF 17840 / 162 deg to CeSoAf 1900-2058 NF 9475 / 194 deg to NoWeAF, ex 9885 Jan. 18-24 2000-2158 on 7325 / 162 deg to CeSoAf All transmissions of RTV Algeria via VT Communications deleted from Feb. 6: 0600-0800 on 9735; 0700-0800 on 12020; 0800-0900 on 13750; 1200-1400 on 17690, 17755; 1900-2100 on 5985; 2000-2200 on 7105 (Observer, Bulgaria, Feb 14 via DXLD) How about breaking down which hours in French, which in Arabic, Berber, etc. (gh, DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. 15344.6, RN, Feb 12-13, 2338-0101*, fútbol coverage in Spanish, ToH 5+1 pips, BoH 2+1 pips, off in mid-sentence, several distinct IDs for ``Radio Nacional Santa Fe.`` Relay of LRA 14? Reception was good (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, RX340, with T2FD antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARMENIA. Re 6-030: 9965, Voz de Armenia, 0330-0345, escuchada el 14 de febrero en español, locutor con presentación, frecuencia y dirección web, boletín de noticias, mala modulación, SINPO 33232 (José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hurra!!! Me han tapado la boca hermano! Como leí acá las quejas en inglés de algunos colegas, ayer le mandé un mensaje a la Radio Armenia, instándolos a poner orden a sus horarios, y sobre todo, en sus frecuencias. Y bien, como hacía días no los escuchaba, he caído anoche en la cuenta de que ahora sí mencionan 9965 para este servicio en castellano a las 0330 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, ibid.) Saludos Raúl, no es fácil escucharla por aquí en España, pero esta madrugada tras despertarme por culpa de una lumbalgia que me está llevando por el camino de la amargura, decidí probar y efectivamente ahí estaba. Por cierto me picó la curiosidad y entré en la página web y accedí a la emisión en directo por internet, pero pude comprobar que el servicio en español no estaba siendo emitido por la red; supongo pues que este servicio via internet sólo es para la emisión local. Los horarios que se publicaron podría confundir, pero sí se tiene en cuenta que están en hora local de Armenia y éste país en invierno es UT +4, pues parece que sí coinciden. Lo que no me cuadra es la hora que marca el reloj de su página web; la ponen cómo hora local de Armenia y la diferencia sin embargo daban +6. Ese dato me extrañó, pero de todas las maneras no te lo puedo asegurar ahora si no lo veo; entonces estaba medio dormido. Un saludo (José Miguel Romero, ibid.) ** BOLIVIA. ROBO DE EQUIPO SILENCIO EMISIONES DE RADIO PIO XII El equipo sustraído tiene un valor aproximado de US$ 3.500.- Noticia de último momento: Radio Pio XII suspendió sus emisiones diarias, porque le robaron un equipo receptor de enlace que se encontraba en una caseta ubicada en el cerro San Felipe. El robo habría ocurrido el domingo 12, a las 13:10 horas, aproximadamente y ni el sereno se percató del hecho. El robo fue confirmado por el director de la Policía Técnica Judicial (PTJ), coronel Jhonny [sic] Vargas, quien informó que ayer en horas de la mañana responsables de Radio Pio XII se apersonaron a esas dependencias para realizar la denuncia formal contra quienes resultasen los autores del robo del equipo de transmisión. Posteriormente, efectivos de la PTJ junto a los afectados subieron al cerro San Felipe, donde verificaron la falta de un equipo de transmisión -receptor enlace- que fue sustraído del lugar. El coronel Vargas dijo que se constató que este equipo se encontraba en el interior de una caseta y quienes robaron este receptor enlace no violentaron la puerta e ingresaron facilmente. Indicó que era muy fácil para una persona poder sustraer ese equipo, porque es pequeño y puede ser cargado sin problemas, ya que se debe considerar que es muy largo y dificultoso el descenso desde el cerro San Felipe, lugar más conocido como: "el cerro de las antenas". En el lugar no sólo existe la caseta de los equipos de transmisión de la radio; también se encuentran muchas más de otros medios de comunicación y empresas de telecomunicaciones. En horas de la tarde investigadores de la División Propiedades, Laboratorio Criminalístico de la PTJ, fueron hasta el lugar y tomaron muestras fotográficas, y la declaración del sereno del lugar. El cuidador informó a los policías que no se percató sobre la presencia de personas que hayan subido hasta ese sector. Él dió cuenta del robo cuando recibió una llamada de la radio Pio XII, donde se le indicó que no podían emitir señal alguna. Por ello, el cuidador fue hasta la caseta y evidenció que le faltaba ese equipo, para luego comunicar la situación. En Radio Pio XII, el personal se encuentra preocupado por el robo, ya que producto de ello no pueden emitir señal y ello significa en enorme perjuicio económico por concepto de publicidad con casas comerciales, además que se tienen que cumplir con contratos. Asimismo, se espera la llegada del director departamental, Abenor Alfaro, para emitir una posición al respecto. Los trabajadores de la radio esperan que no se trate de un atentado contra la libre expresión, como el que sufrieron en octubre de 2003, cuando utilizando una carga explosiva dañaron los equipos y esa investigación hasta la fecha no dió ningún resultado (Fuente: El Deber, BOL, Feb 14, via GIB) Radio Pio XII emite en 710 khz AM y 5952 kHz Onda Corta (desde Siglo XX, a 80 kms de Oruro), y en FM, emite en 99.9 MHz en Oruro, en 97.9 MHz en Cochabamba y en 102.1 MHz en Llallagua. 73 GIB (Gabriel Iván Barrera, Argentina, Feb 14, condiglist via DXLD) MW and SW sites are often at different locations than FM where being on a mountain is advantageous. So it could be only FM was affected by this. Why doesn`t the story make this clear? Which city is Cerro San Felipe next to? Or maybe the mountaintop site also relays signal to the AM and SW transmitters, wherever they be. I spent a good deal of time putting all the accents back into this story, but one stays already there, ñ --- if trying to avoid ASCII mixups, why is this one on a consonant OK, and the ones on vowels not? Jhonny is a common misspelling in Latin America, weird because the h is unnecessary in the first place; or do they think that makes the J pronounced as in English rather than Spanish? There is certainly no jh digraph in Spanish for any purpose (gh, DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Re 6-016, the pirate on 7842v, the report was not from Célio Romais`s Panorama column but from another column in @tividade DX as credited at the bottom, by Rudolf Grimm (gh, DXLD) ** CAMEROONS [non]. Changes of TDP transmissions via transmitters in Russia and Moldova: Radio Free Southern Cameroons in English from Jan. 29: 1800-1900 NF 11840 ARM 500 kW / 235 deg to NoAf Sun, ex 12130 ARM 300 kW (Observer, Bulgaria, Feb 14 via DXLD) ** CHINA. COMMUNIST PARTY ELDERS CRITICIZE CENSORSHIP And now for something completely different... ... BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Party elders attack China censors A group of former senior Communist party officials in China have launched a scathing attack on the country's handling of the media and information. In an open letter, the group denounced the recent closure of investigative newspaper Bingdian (Freezing Point). They said strict censorship may "sow the seeds of disaster" for China's political transition. Among the signatories are an ex-aide to Mao Zedong, a former newspaper editor and a former party propaganda chief. "History demonstrates that only a totalitarian system needs news censorship, out of the delusion that it can keep the public locked in ignorance," the group said in the letter, according to Reuters news agency. The letter was signed on 2 February but publicly released on Tuesday. According to the BBC's Rupert Wingfield Hayes, in Beijing, this open outburst against China's media censors is all the more surprising because of who it comes from. Those signing the letter include Chairman Mao's former secretary, Li Rui; the former editor of the Communist party's own mouthpiece, People's Daily, Hu Jiwei; and ex-propaganda boss, Zhu Houze. ... Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4712134.stm The times they are a changin'. Cheers, (via Mike Cottingham, In the Capital, where you can get a free press after 10 dry cleanings, CAJ list via Ricky Leong, DXLD) Throw `em in the dungeon! (gh, DXLD) ** CHINA. 6155, CBR, Feb 11 & 12, 1300-1358, "English Evening" programs about Valentines Day. Seems that John & Cynthia host the show Mon.-Fri. and Alan & Joy during the weekend. Reception fair-poor (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, RX340, with T2FD antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Are you receiving CRI on 7130 > (00 UT, unlisted) better than I am, considering your location? CRI has been noted at 1200 2/14 on another unlisted frequency, 9760, with fair signals here -- ironically it is QRMing VOA in English which has been on this channel for many years. So what made CRI think they can use a US IBB channel? (Joe Hanlon in NJ, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nothing on 7130 here at 0000 UT Feb 15, but a very weak unidentifiable carrier beside very strong VOR 7125. Do you find CRI still on 7130? 9760: maybe to give them something to negotiate over at HFCC? (Glenn to Joe, via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I'm still hearing CRI on 7130 UT-Feb. 15 at 0000, fair level here. Better signal on the high side due to Russia being 5 kHz down. 7130 has another English hour at 0100. Both are // to direct 7345 (co-ch Prague), and the two Albania relay channels for NAm (6020/9570). Could 7130 actually be a replacement for the listed 7180 (per NDXC)? Could be coming from the hi-power Kashi site (Joe Hanlon in NJ, ibid.) ** CHINA [and non]. Re 6-030: CARD HOG --- Maybe if jackasses like this didn't request 24 cards, the English Service would have enough to go around for others (Terry Krueger, FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Stuart, It`s not clear who made the remarks about verification policy. Yourself? 73, (Glenn Hauser to Stuart Forsyth, NZ, via DXLD) Glenn, If you are talking about last month's DX Times Mailbag column, the comments were made by Günter Jacob in Germany. I actually watered down what was printed. I don't think any DXer has the right to demand a QSL. My remarks were [already quoted too]: ``(It would indeed. We need to remember that a lot of international broadcasters no longer can afford to pay for staff to do verifications and those that do do not necessarily offer the relevant information to their staff. There is not a lot we can do other than complain. Good will is important. Satellite television, among other things, has done a lot to weaken the importance of radio .....)`` Günter is quite prone to offering written abuse of radio stations that do not verify his reports or do not give full details. Because of the international audience our humble magazine has, I do try to edit out the more strident comments. I hope this helps. Regards, (Stu Forsyth, NZ, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA [non]. 9TH ANNUAL HOMELESSNESS MARATHON RFPI is pleased to announce we will webcasting the 9th annual Homelessness Marathon, this year from Atlanta, GA. Due to scheduling conflicts, we'll be joining the Marathon in progress at approximately 10 pm EST. [0300 UT Thursday Feb 16] To hear the webcast, "copy and paste" the following address into your favorite MP3 player: http://mp3server.taifun.ch:8004/listen.pls Regularly scheduled programming will be preempted during the special 11-hour webcast. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- NATION'S HOMELESS TO BE IN SPOTLIGHT OF LANDMARK BROADCAST The 9th Annual Homelessness Marathon is set to air from Atlanta starting at 7 p.m. [EST? = 0000 UT Feb 16] on Wednesday, February 15th. The Marathon is a unique 14-hour live broadcast focusing on homelessness and poverty in America. The Homelessness Marathon is a consciousness-raising, not a fund- raising broadcast. There are no on-air solicitations. Instead, the Marathon presents the voices of experts, takes calls from around the country and, above all, puts homeless people on the air directly so America can hear who they really are and learn about the obstacles they face. The Homelessness Marathon regularly covers topics other broadcasts don't touch. For example, six months before Katrina hit, we aired a segment entitled, "Hurricanes and Homelessness." Some of the tough questions we'll be raising this year include, "Why is there growing friction between Katrina survivors and people who are homeless for other reasons?" and, "Has the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless sold out the very homeless people it is supposed to protect?" But the toughest question is also the simplest one, and we ask it every year: "Why are people sleeping on the streets of the richest country in the history of the world?" The Homelessness Marathon has been a very well-received broadcast. The first Marathon aired on a single small station. Last year's 8th Marathon was on 95 stations coast-to-coast, with another 30 or so stations across Canada carrying a parallel Canadian Homelessness Marathon. The Homelessness Marathon will be hosted in Atlanta by 100,000 watt community radio station, WRFG, and by the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless. Additional information, including, broadcast schedules and sound clips from past Marathons, words of praise for the broadcast, and our growing list of affiliates can be found at the Marathon's web site: http://www.homelessnessmarathon.org (via Rfpi-announce mailing list Feb 14 via DXLD) ** CUBA [and non]. Esta tarde a las 0003 TU de miércoles 15 de febrero probé los 6010 y pude escuchar ligeras burbujas, y nada más al lado de la poderosa China via Canadá en 6005. Ningunas burbujas audibles en 5965 abajo de igualmente poderosa RHC, pero sí en 7205 contra R. República, aunque no a nivel de anularla (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hola Glenn: precisamente estoy escuchando Radio Mil en 6010 con un fuerte jamming. Espero tener respuesta de los ingenieros de Radio Cuba (Julián Santiago Díez de Bonilla, DF, 0036 UT Feb 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. The claim that TV Marti's using a channel "assigned" to Cuba is highly questionable, as specific channels are NOT assigned to individual countries by the International Telecommunications Union. Signatories to North American broadcasting treaties are, however, required to consult one-another regarding both Radio and TV assignments in border-zone areas; these requirements also apply to some two-way communications technologies (Greg Hardison, CA, Broadcast Band Update Feb 14 via DXLD) Full UD is in the dxld yg ** DENMARK. DANISH RADIO STATION OWNER CONVICTED OF RACISM | Text of report by Danish radio website on 13 February; subheading as published: The owner of Copenhagen local radio station Radio Holger has been given a 14-day suspended prison sentence for racism directed at Muslims. In July last year Kaj Vilhelmsen called on local radio for Muslims to be driven out or exterminated. This caused the Radio and Television Board to temporarily revoke Radio Holger's broadcasting licence. However, the radio station's broadcasting licence is no longer revoked. Reaction to terrorist bombs Kaj Vilhelmsen's comments were made in reaction to the terrorist bombs on the London Underground a couple of weeks earlier. "The essence of your comments is that all Muslims represent a threat to Western civilization. A unanimous panel of judges finds this to be a general comment and propaganda which accuses Muslims of terrorist activities," Judge Mette Bytofte stated as justification for the sentence. In her judgment the judge gave weight to the fact that Kaj Vilhelmsen was also convicted of racism in 2001 when he wrote in an article that "the rape of non-Muslim women is an intrinsic part of Muslim culture". The court also suspended the prison sentence for two years as the previous conviction took place some time ago. Prosecutor Maria Warncke had called for a minimum sentence of 20 days' imprisonment for Vilhelmsen's "derisory and demeaning statements". Source: Danmarks Radio website, Copenhagen, in Danish 1228 gmt 13 Feb 06 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** DEUTSCHES REICH. RHYTHM OF THE REICH (1940-1945) ... a BBC Radio 2 documentary aired at prime time on the first three Tuesdays of two double-o six. Introduced by Neil Russell Davies. PART ONE The first part opened with the voice of William Joyce, giving the full radio ID "Germany Calling (thrice) here is the Reichsender Hambury, sender Bremen and station DXB in the 31 metre shortwave band. You are about to hear the news" fade out. The narrative commenced - not only news but music as well was used as propaganda - cue for Charlie and his Propaganda Swing Orchestra with "Lambeth Walk" (likely date late 1940 ?). The standard format was to sing the lyrics through then talk through a propaganda version, which at times was funny. As listening to American shortwave stations was forbidden access to the latest songs was not possible and numbers from the thirties were used. The orchestra arrangements were those of the late thirties swing band era. Nothing is known of the early days of Karl Schweiber and where he picked up his knowledge of English which had a strong continental flavour when Lambeth Walk was recorded, by 1943 his English voice was much clearer. A poor and distorted dialogue of a bitter Norman Baily Stuart, the last man to be imprisoned in the Tower of London, was picked up from Paris. He was bitter and chose to side with Germany and very bitter at not getting William Joyce's job. The 1941 recording was about captured airmen deserving what they got. After more background to the period it was Charlie again with "Stormy Weather" - his talk through 'Stormy weather you are losing your ships all the time, they're sinking all the time'. As it was true, fair game, clever propaganda. This was followed by a full length version of Lala Andersen with Lili Marliene and musicians of the same swing orchestra that backed Charlie. There followed a mention of the pre-war annual concerts at the Scala Theatre, Berlin. February 1939 saw the not so successful visit by Henry Hall who had left the BBC to go on tour. The February 1938 visit by Jack Hylton with a 60 piece concert orchestra. German technicians provided a live broadcast for the BBC. Opening - roll of kettle drums "This is the National Programme. We now take you across to the Scala Theatre, Berlin for a concert by Jack Hylton and his orchestra". A massive list of some twenty vocalists followed. Wireless at its very best. It was Charlie again bringing the thirty minute programme to an end. Probably early 1943 as bad language was now being used for propaganda in a version of "Making Whoopee". PART TWO This part was mainly about what we and the US were producing in the way of black radio propaganda at the time. [no further details] PART THREE Charlie was a happy man as long as the war was going well, such as Pearl Harbor which was the cue for "Japanese Sandman". The US reaction - a Spike Jones version of Der Fuehrer's Face. Charlie couldn't match that. All recordings of Charlie and his Orchestra were made at the studios of the Deutsche Gramaphone Company in Berlin and distributed to radio stations all over Germany and neighbouring countries and also neutral countries such as Portugal and Spain. Some found their way to the BBC, these were found in a deserted radio station in Crete. Strangely there was a 1941 recording of Elmer's Tune, not long after it arrived on Broadway. Make's one wonder who it transcribed without breaking the law. The very last recording made by Charlie was "Let's Go Slummin on Park Avenue". As the Allied armies progressed across France they became out of range of their own transmitters and the Germans became aware of this and started to rebroadcast the AEFP (Allied Expeditionary Forces Programme) substituting their own news programmes. Also there were a number of other propaganda stations broadcasting news in English but there were periodic collapses of output on the German side as they moved their equipment back towards their own borders. The propaganda swing orchestra left Berlin in 1943 driven out by bombing and took up residence in Stuttgart and broadcast on the Reichsender there, continuing until the 5th of April, 1945, the day after that the SS blew up the radio station. By the end of the month the Third Reich was decapitated by its own hand. (German broadcast with a BBC voice over). This is London Calling, here is a news flash, German radio has just announced that Hitler is dead. The last thing to come out of the German propaganda service was the drunken voice of William Joyce, Lord Haw Haw in a garbled dialogue on unity about two days later. From then on it was sender Hamburg. This is Radio Hamburg a station of the Allied Military Government with war correspondent Winford Vaughan Thomas as announcer. Meanwhile, Joyce stopped two British soldiers in a forest to ask for directions to where he wanted to go. One of them recognised his voice and so he was picked up, tried for treason and executed on extremely shaky citizenship grounds. Was he American, Irish, United Kingdom or German?. Fellow broadcaster John Amery was also put to death, but everyone else survived. Charlie though, where was he? Trevor Hill of British Forces Radio wanted that question answered not to arrest him but to employ him at Radio Hamburg. Charlie was so sure that he would be imprisoned or perhaps even put to death that he disappeared and was said to have become a night porter in a Düsseldorf hotel, then went to the United States but couldn't traced there, and finally said to have died in the Bavarian Lake district. Conclusion an early recording, "With a Smile and A Song". This recording showed how good a crooner Karl really was. He would have fitted in well at Radio Hamburg. As for the propaganda - did it make any difference? (Arthur Ward, Feb World DX Club Contact via DXLD) ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. Me informa el estimado colega Robert Wilkner en Florida que Radio Cristal Internacional está reactivando su emisora onda corta en los 5010 kHz, entre 2100 y 2300 y que fue escuchada en el estado Massachussets. Esto es contradictorio con la información en Hard-Core DX que dice que no puede alimentar la transmisora. Lamentablemente, no he tenido la suerte de escucharla. La he tenido en los 570 kHz este otoño con música merengue y bachata (Bogdan Chiochiu, QC, Feb 13, HCDX via DXLD) ** ERITREA [non]. Changes of TDP transmissions via transmitters in Russia and Moldova: Voice of Eritrea is new station in Tigrigna effective from Feb.4: 1600-1700 on 9485 MSK 200 kW / 190 deg to EaAf Sat (Observer, Bulgaria, Feb 14 via DXLD) Dejen Radio in Tigrigna again on short waves effective from Feb.8: 1700-1800 on 7590 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg to EaAf Wed, ex Sat in B-04 (Observer, Bulgaria, Feb 14 via DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. Changes of TDP transmissions via transmitters in Russia and Moldova: Voice of Ethiopian People in Amharic effective from Feb.7: 1700-1800 NF 7590 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg to EaAf Tue/Sat, ex 7380 (Observer, Bulgaria, Feb 14 via DXLD) ** GABON. As previously, the Afro-pops on 17670 stopped at 1530 on the 13th and the carrier "faded" off air shortly afterwards. ANO opened at 1600 on 15475 as scheduled in the WRTH. I tried to hear their 9580 outlet this morning and I believe I was successful around 0730, but loud splatter from Medi #1 9575 prevented a positive ID. So despite their web site it seems that SW is continuing, although not to full sched currently on 17630. 73 (Noel R. Green, Blackpool, UK, Feb 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Goes with LIBYA [and non] 1600 Feb 14, 45444, 15475, 305 250, to NW & WAf, Africa #1. Regards, (John Babbis, Silver Spring, MD, USA, from daily monitoring report to ERT, via DXLD) ** INDIA. 9425, AIR Bangalore, Feb 10, 1452-1600, religious programming in English, talking about Krishna, discussion about their booming economy causing an increase in stress and that yoga meditation is a good way to lower that stress, pop songs in English, ads, vernacular, BoH 1 pip, ``News at 9``, ``Next news bulletin at 11 PM,`` into ``Spotlight,`` interview with Communications and Information Technology Minister. When I think about India, I often think of their various religions, but rarely hear an AIR program in English about them, so this was a nice change for me. They certainly must be going through a major socio-economic change with their growing economy. The company I work for does a lot of outsourcing and we now employ over 2,000 people in Bangalore (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, RX340, with T2FD antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA [non]. KAZAKHSTAN. Frequency change for TWR India, all ex- 7410, re-ex 7405: 0000-0030 NF 7535 A-A 200 kW / 132 deg in Assamese Mon-Sat 0015-0030 NF 7535 A-A 200 kW / 132 deg in Bangla Sun 0030-0045 NF 7535 A-A 200 kW / 132 deg in Bangla Mon-Fri (Observer, Bulgaria, Feb 14 via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. BAN ON OVERSEAS NEWS BROADCASTS BEING IGNORED | Text of report by Yura Syahrul headlined: "Bulletin ban" in English by Indonesian newspaper Tempo website on 14 February The ban on the relay of overseas news broadcasts has come into force. However, some stations continue to ignore it. At first glance there is no change in the Journal of VOA (Voice of America) aired by Metro TV. From the studio in Washington, DC, USA, Malay-faced newscasters continue to greet viewers in Indonesia at 5:05am. However, since the beginning of last week, the information programme from Uncle Sam has been a recorded event instead of a live broadcast. Metro TV made the change following the enforcement of four government regulations on broadcasting institutes. One of the provisions in Government Regulation No 50/2005 stipulates that private broadcasting institutes shall be prohibited from relaying regular programmes from overseas broadcasting agencies. This regulation also bans the relay of musical events with indecent appearances and sporting competitions with sadistic scenes. Originally, Metro TV aired the daily programme transmitted by VOA live. With the new rule, the television station, which is owned by Surya Paloh, did not shift the VOA Journal schedule, but rather it asked VOA to broadcast the news an hour earlier so that it could have enough time to undertake recording and selection. "As an institution, we have to abide by the government stipulation," said publication manager of Metro TV Henny Puspitasari. Henny revealed that his station had anticipated the application of the new decree. For a month, Metro TV and VOA discussed the journal's format change and broadcasting technique. One segment omitted is the interactive dialogue with viewers. "There's no problem with this adjustment," added Henny. But not all studios have readily accepted the fresh formula. Several radio stations in Jakarta continue to air their packages from VOA or the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation). Elshinta is one news radio service that continues to relay programmes from the two foreign broadcasting agencies. "No executive instruction has been issued yet on the relay ban," said an Elshinta crew member. Broadcasting studios also have different interpretations of the new regime. The Chief Editor of Media Nusantara Citra Networks, Driantama, said there was no rule banning the relay of news reporting from abroad. The government regulation only limits the overseas newscast relay to 5 per cent a day. "I've consulted our legal affairs division," assured Driantama, the boss of Radio Trijaya. Indonesian Broadcasting Commission member Amelia Hezkasari Day described the different perceptions and attitudes of private broadcasting stations as a reflection of the weakness of this rule. "The relay prohibition is only an example of the various flaws in the government regulation," she pointed out. Amelia indicated that the government was over-paranoid about the contents of foreign reports. Private broadcasting institutes can still seek loopholes in the regulation by whatever means or - in more extreme cases - ignore the rule. In any case it appears only Jakarta stations are being targeted. What about the broadcasting studios in regions, which frequently escape central monitoring action? The foreign broadcast relay ban was indeed intended to allow local media the opportunity to conduct editing or checking of the substance of news transmitted. "In this way, it can be accounted for if complaints are lodged," said Director-General of Information, Office of the Minister of Communications and Information, Widiadnyana Merati. Chairman of the House of Representatives Sub-commission on Information, Dedy Djamaluddin Malik, also referred to the necessity for local media to be responsible for the contents of broadcasts because relaying news is their internal policy. Henny had a different understanding. In her view, news suppliers should be responsible if any problem arises in the future. "But both parties should go on checking with and reminding each other," she maintained. Source: Tempo website, Jakarta, in English 14 Feb 06 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL. USA: WATCHDOG RELEASES ANNUAL PRESS FREEDOM SURVEY | Text of press release by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on 14 February New York, 14 February 2006 - Highlighting the global nature of its press freedom advocacy work, the Committee to Protect Journalists [CPJ] today released its annual press freedom survey Attacks on the Press in four cities: Bangkok, Cairo, London and Washington, D.C. Reported and written by CPJ staff, Attacks on the Press is widely recognized as the most authoritative source of information on press conditions worldwide, and features a preface by Paul E. Steiger, CPJ chairman and managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, and an introduction by CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. Attacks on the Press recounts a violent year in Iraq, which has become the deadliest conflict for journalists in a quarter-century. Among trends documented in the latest edition are the assassinations of journalists in the Middle East, a surge in government persecution in Africa, the widespread jailing of reporters from China to Cuba, and pervasive self-censorship in Latin America. CPJ's annual survey details hundreds of cases of media repression in dozens of countries, including murders, assaults, imprisonments, censorship, and legal harassment. Attacks on the Press reports on several trends: - Self-censorship is widespread in areas of Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil where crime and corruption are strong and government institutions weak. "Burning issues such as the pillaging of natural resources, trafficking in drugs and people, and corruption are deprived the oxygen of public debate," Carlos Lauria writes. - Assassinations of journalists in Lebanon, Libya, and Iraq have fundamentally changed reporting in the Middle East, where governments traditionally used non-violent methods to quell dissent. Now, writes Joel Campagna, "A growing number of attacks against journalists have been carried out with impunity, forcing independent journalists across the region to ponder the consequences of what they write." - The U.S. government's policy of close cooperation with Eurasia's authoritarian leaders has undermined independent reporting in nations such as Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. "At the same time, the administration's antiterrorism agenda has made it easier for the region's resourceful authoritarian leaders to justify repressive media policies in the name of security," Alex Lupis writes. - More Asians are getting their news on the radio than ever before because of an explosion of community stations and an infusion of international financing. But as radio becomes powerful, challenges emerge. "In Nepal and Thailand, leaders retaliated with crackdowns on radio stations, while radio journalists in Afghanistan and the Philippines frequently faced threats and violence because of their reporting," writes Abi Wright. - Elections in Africa offered very different lessons in democracy and the press. While Burundian media played a major role in an election that led to the country's most representative government in years, Julia Crawford writes that, "In Zimbabwe, the independent media have been so restricted by an increasingly repressive government that elections were no victory for democracy." - Throughout the world, CPJ staff identified new trouble spots: in Nepal, where a royal coup led to vast censorship; in Uzbekistan, where the massacre of citizens by government troops was followed by a brutal press crackdown; in Ethiopia, where journalists were put on a "wanted list" and jailed to quell dissent; and in Yemen, where a surge in violent attacks threatened the lively media. Other important facts in CPJ's Attacks on the Press include: - A total of 47 journalists were killed worldwide as a direct result of their work. More than 100 journalists have lost their lives in the line of duty in the last two years, making it the deadliest such period in a decade. - Iraq was the most dangerous place for journalists in 2005, with 22 journalists killed in the line of duty. Iraq also became the deadliest war for journalists since CPJ was founded in 1981, surpassing the 58 killed between 1993 and 1996 in the Algerian conflict. - Murder was the leading cause of work-related deaths among journalists. More than three-quarters of the journalists killed on duty were targeted for murder, continuing a long-term trend documented by CPJ. - Continuing another trend, the killers of journalists usually go unpunished. In about 90 per cent of cases in 2005, CPJ found, the murders were carried out with impunity. - A total of 125 journalists were imprisoned by 24 countries for their work, figures that reflected increases from the year before. Four countries account for more than two-thirds of the total: China with 32 journalists behind bars, Cuba with 24, Eritrea with 15, and Ethiopia with 13. - In at least 78 cases, CPJ found, journalists were imprisoned on broad "anti-state" charges, such as sedition, subversion, divulging state secrets, and working against the interests of the state. Despite these assaults on the press, CPJ found several important achievements. International advocacy efforts, including those waged by CPJ, helped win the early release of a number of imprisoned journalists, notably Burmese documentary filmmaker Aung Pwint and Yemeni editor Abdel Kareem al-Khawaini. In the Philippines, where rural radio journalists had been killed in record-breaking numbers since 2000, the government reversed its long- time denial of the problem and stepped up its law enforcement efforts. A landmark conviction followed, along with hopes that the killings would subside. [end] Source: Committee to Protect Journalists press release, New York, in English 14 Feb 06 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [non?]. Re 6-030, CMF on 9134.5 --- Hallo Jari, On the 7th of Feb I phoned Maarten van Delft here in The Netherlands, who told me about his interesting reception that afternoon. 9223 USB, 1600-1610 UT: non-native English messages, probably pre-recorded with warning against involvement in pirate actions off Somalia. "If you want a long happy life with your family, stop taking part in these illegal actions. We know who you are and where to find you". Several times the Coalition Maritime Forces were mentioned and a telephone number and e-mail address in Bahrain with a request to give information about these pirates. This was in English and very similar to your observations. Quite interesting!! 73 (Max van Arnhem, The Netherlands, Feb 14, HCDX via DXLD) ** IRAN [and non]. IRAN PRESS: COMMENTARY EXPLAINS BLOCKING OF BBC PERSIAN WEBSITE | Text of "First View", commentary by Esma'il Firuzi: "Filtering the BBC website; the result of interference in Iran's internal affairs", published by the Iranian newspaper Hemayat on 7 February The BBC's Persian-language website, Wednesday 25 January 2006, in an item titled "Blocking the BBC's Persian site; why and at whose expense?" challenged the Iranian government's measure in filtering this site. The writer of the item, Jamshid Barzegar, by twisting the facts and distracting the mind from this website's overt and covert acts of meddling in Iran's internal affairs, has tried to relate the Iranian government's action to Iran's isolation and the nuclear issue. While there is no instance throughout the contemporary history of Iran at which we had even one good feeling about dealing with the British, it would be simplistic, if not foolish, of us to have an optimistic view of the British news service. In a rational view of the Persian-language BBC's track record, we can see that its news policy is based on gaining the trust of politicians, intellectuals and students. Of course, there are specific programmes intended for each of these groups. Focusing on one issue, while covering a large variety of topics, and drawing the same conclusion from all the reports and analyses on this website are methods that have, in many cases, effectively managed to drive the Iranian authorities from the position of questioning to that of answering, or at least play an effective role in determining the subject matter in political and media circles. Seyyed Sowlat Mortazavi, the managing editor of the daily Hemayat, earlier talked to the correspondent of ISCA News in this regard, and said: "The mission of the BBC's Persian-language network in Iran is to fabricate news, create crises and spread rumours in Iran and in other countries." He believes that Britain maintains its presence in regions that have valuable resources in two ways: either overtly, as in Iraq and Afghanistan, or indirectly and covertly, by means of training spies and learning things from inside those countries. This website's approach to Iran's bid to acquire nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is one of the cases that clearly shows this news service is trying to frighten our politicians and parliamentarians of the threats made by the West. Reviewing some of the headlines and excerpts from the items of the BBC's Persian website in the past few days clearly substantiates this claim. Sowing dissension between Hashemi and Ahmadinezhad with the pretext of the nuclear issue The BBC's Persian website, Monday 30 January 2006, in an item titled "The prospects of Rafsanjani's effort in Iran's nuclear crisis", takes advantage of the difference of opinion between Hashemi and Ahmadinezhad and tries to set these two influential revolutionary figures against each other. Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, who apparently had meetings with most of the renowned clerics living in Qom, except for Ayatollah Hoseyn'ali Montazeri, an eminent source of emulation and a critic of the Islamic system of Iran, pointed to the conduct of European countries vis-a-vis Iran's nuclear case and said: "They are insane, greedy and bullying, and they are an example of true Satan. We didn't do anything to anyone, but they kept escalating the situation to this point. Of course, we ourselves haven't been that innocent either." The last sentence of Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani apparently refers to certain behaviours of Mahmud Ahmadinezhad's administration, which he believes have further aggravated Iran's nuclear crisis. Nonetheless, it isn't clear what solution Rafsanjani would propose to control the crisis unfolding between Iran and the West. Efforts to incite regional disputes The BBC's Persian section is trying to exploit India's weakness against America's pressures in deterring it from buying Iranian gas, in order to affect the regional peace with a crisis. For this purpose, it delicately tries to put the Iranian audience in a position of premature decision-making, thereby leading the Iranian side towards cancelling or losing interest in Iran's important gas contracts with Pakistan and India. This website, on Saturday, 4 February 2006, wrote: "The pipeline, once hoped to help establish peace between the two large nuclear powers of Asia, now seems to have fallen victim to Iran's nuclear debate, itself." This website portrays the situation in a way as if the subject of this deal were already forgotten, and that we should stop thinking about it even as a bilateral contract between Iran and Pakistan. Meanwhile, neither the Iranian nor the Indian authorities insist on cancelling this enormous deal. Perhaps, this effort of the British government should be viewed in the same context as their other acts of sabotage where they try to prevent the formation of regional treaties and mutual interests in the Middle East. The nuclear debate's timetable with a pessimistic orientation On Thursday, 12 January 2006, the timetable of Iran's nuclear debate with a pessimistic orientation, aimed at exaggerating and overstating Iran's efforts to achieve its absolute right, was placed on the BBC's Persian-language website. The writer of the note, Parsa Piltan, has a mission to convince the audience that all the excessive demands and the decisions being made against Iran are due to a certain period of inconsistencies and the Iranian authorities' disregard for international warnings. Of course, the malicious acts of the centres affiliated with Zionism are not confined to these few cases, which are merely small examples of this approach. However, we should admit that it wouldn't be possible to confront all the plots only by means of filtering, and that we should consider other methods, such as strengthening our domestic news sites by absorbing writers from all around the world. We should keep in mind that many of the Iranian writers of this website were driven by enormous pays and hopes for a better life, to become hired writers. And the last question for Mr Barzegar, the respected writer of BBC; how come you stayed silent about the closure of the Al-Manar network? Was this frail voice the only one not to be heard in the free world of information? Source: Hemayat, Tehran, in Persian 7 Feb 06, pp1,2 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. I S R A E L O N S H O R T W A V E by DAVID CRYSTAL I was involved in this around 1971. At the time I was a member of Finlands DX Club International and I wrote a report for their bulletin. It was printed and I was thoroughly bawled out for reporting politics. I hold, I should be allowed "Radio Patriotism'. A few years ago, I told the story over the Voice of Turkey in "Live from Turkey". I can't give names, simply because I have forgotten them. I have lost whatever documents I had from that period. In 1971, I was living in Jerusalem. I wrote a letter to Israel radio in which I mentioned, I listen to short wave as a hobby, I received an invitation to visit the short wave department on Tuesday afternoon. It was an easy half hour walk. There was a guard at the door to keep visitors out. I was escorted to the short wave department, where I was gazed upon as if I were a calf with two heads, because I was the very first person they had ever seen who claimed to be a short wave listener as a hobby. The department was clean and tidy, but there was absolutely no luxury. The head of the shortwave department - I will call him G - and the Chief Engineer of Israel Radio shared an office. They sat on plain wooden chairs and had simple desks. There was no decoration. The short wave department had only one studio for all the language sections. Its equipment was of World War Two vintage. One microphone in the middle of a round table. The microphone was bi-directional so two people could speak while facing each other. The diameter of the table was important. The speaker's belly had to be pressed hard against the rim of the table in order to be the correct distance from the microphone. Of course, the chairs were plain and stiff. Tuesday afternoon was the slack time and the studio was unoccupied. I did four or five weekly visits. I will now tell why my visits were terminated and get it over with. I was unemployed and frantic about finding a job. G was looking frantically for another announcer. I had good English and a radio background and he was thinking of offering the job to me. He suggested I should produce and present the five minute DX program, but I refused because I could not do better than the incumbent presenter, Ben Dalfen. I did contribute to Sweden Calling DX-ers, but only a few items per year. Then G let me interview him. for the DX program of YLE Radio Finland. This was my audition, and I did it very badly. One more visit, and I was chased away from Israel radio permanently. That bad interview was broadcast twice over YLE Radio Finland, but those were the last two editions of the Radio Finland DX program. I hired a professional photographer to take a picture of me interviewing G. When the photographer was about to leave, they confiscated his film. That's how strict security was, in 1971. I got the pictures, but I have lost them. During my visits to Israel radio, I had conversations with G and the Chief Engineer. These had some good results. I saw how much mail the station received each day. It was only half a handful. G wanted more listeners and more letters. G had heard about quizzes with prizes. I told him that these were a means for the radio station to give gifts to its friends. I told him that whenever I wanted a prize, I had only to answer the quiz and I would get the prize, G was appalled. The people at Israel radio were honest, I saw nothing bad about discrimination in my favour, for a change. I am not a pig, and when I didn't want the prize, I didn't participate in the quiz. G had heard about small clubs devoted to listening to a short wave broadcaster. I told him that these actually existed, in developing countries. They were the equivalent of chapters of Lions, Variety and Rotary (I mentioned some Jewish clubs). They supplied social contact and they did some good work too. But with hardly any mail, and poor reception, we did not know how to support such a club. I told G, that next to DX programs which helped us, we short wave listeners liked mailbag programs, which showed us who else was listening. I said it was important that the mailbag program be presented by his very best announcers. This is because the audience will decide that most Israelis are like these announcers. When you go abroad, you meet only a few natives, and from them you decide what is the character of the nation you are visiting. The audience regards the presenters of the mailbag program as people with characters, not as reading machines. The mailbag program will produce letters with comments. G accepted my suggestions. The mailbag program was presented, every Saturday night, by his two best announcers, a man and a lady. The program was done the hard way. It was fully scripted, and the script and the acting were good enough to sound like the show was not scripted. The show was very successful. After some years, the lady took maternity leave, the longest maternity leave in the history of the station, four years. During that time her place was taken by a newsreader who was not an actor, and the show had less spirit. When the lady returned, the show had its old charm again. I am sure this was the best mailbag program in the whole world. Of course I listened every week; this was my program! The mailbag program ended when there was a severe budget cut. The script writer sent a letter of protest to the Jerusalem Post newspaper. Only then I learned her name, Dvorah Ben Shaul. She wrote that the mail arrived in sacks. Processing a mail sack, even if it is only half full of letters, costs a lot of money. I was very sad. Back to 1971. The Chief Engineer told me about the transmitters. There was one old transmitter of 50 kW on 9009 kHz to South Africa. There was an old and small 20 kW transmitter on 31 meters that nobody could hear through the interference. The newest transmitter was 100 kW and its main use was towards the Jews in Soviet Russia, and it was severely jammed, The Chief Engineer and G were very depressed. I pointed out to them that the Soviets were spending more money on jamming them than they were spending on broadcasting. Furthermore they were broadcasting only ordinary news and little else, yet the Soviets still felt the need to jam them. This shows that somebody here was doing something right. This viewpoint was entirely new to G and the Chief engineer, and they felt better. It was clear that Israel needed more and stronger transmitters for short wave. The Israel government did not have the money, but the Jewish Agency did, and G had good relations with the Jewish Agency. I had read the book, "Parkinson's Law" by Cecil Northcote Parkinson, and I suggested they obtain an external expert advisor. I suggested George Jacobs for this job. I told them he was a good Jew who donated to Jewish causes, I knew this was true, and it was necessary to tell this for him to be accepted. His services could be obtained for free from Voice of America. The Soviets were jamming VOA too; G followed my advice. When George Jacobs came to Jerusalem, I was in Tel Aviv and working. George Jacobs came to Tel Aviv and took me out to dinner, because of my monitoring of VOA. I did not tell him of my activity with Israel Radio. That dinner was very enjoyable and as a second dessert, George Jacobs lent me a Barlow Wadley XCR-2 for testing. I used it in tandem with my Drake SW4A and I discovered it was not suitable for monitoring well before others did. Yes, dear reader, I know you are green with envy. Israel radio got about four transmitters of 500 kW power and used them at full power until the bill for electricity arrived. Ever since, most of them are being used with only 300 kW. Mr Jacobs told me, a 500 kW transmitter gives much better service than one of lower power. Capital investment was no problem, but running costs must come from radio license fees. When Israel radio began broadcasting on shortwave, it was the Voice of Zion to the Diaspora, meaning from Jerusalem to Jews abroad. All those exotic languages are intended for Jews in Arab countries. With the mailbag program and the new powerful transmitters, Israel radio was attractive to the general public. This is not so today. In 1971, Israel radio had a beautiful QSL card, a picture postcard with a panorama of Jerusalem. In 2002, the QSL card was a thin card printed in blue. Now they may not be QSLing at all. Try your luck by writing to Raphael Kochanowski, Director of Liaison & Coordination, IBA-Kol Israel Radio, P.O. Box 1082, Jerusalem 91010, Israel. Raphaelk @ iba.org.il Jerusalem is a great tourist attraction. Should you be there, you may wish to visit Israel radio. I expect you must apply in writing. Mention you are a member of this club and you will submit a report of your visit to CONTACT, and don't forget to write that article; In 1971 when I told G I would write an article about my experiences for my club in Finland, he showed fear of poor little me. He had orders to treat journalists very well. I even made it clear that my article would be printed in no more than 150 copies. You should follow my example. (DC 2527) (David Crystal, Feb World DX Club Contact via DXLD) The above typewritten feature filled three A4 sides and has only been edited to correct a few typos. For newcomers to the hobby Mr George Jacobs was assigned as consultant for most of the then new religious shortwave stations that sprung up in the USA two deacdes ago. He advised on sites, transmitters and power best suited to serve proposed target areas (Arthur Ward, ed., ibid.) ** ITALY [and non!]. New schedule for IRRS-Shortwave from Feb. 13: 2000-2130 Mon-Thu on 5775 MIL 020 kW / non-dir to WeEu/NoAf 1800-1855 Friday on 9380 ??? 100 kW / non-dir to WeEu/NoAf 1900-2300 Friday on 5775 ??? 100 kW / non-dir to WeEu/NoAf 0800-1300 Sat/Sun on 13840 MIL 020 kW / non-dir to WeEu/NoAf 2000-2300 Sat/Sun on 5775 MIL 020 kW / non-dir to WeEu/NoAf New schedule of Brother Stair via IRRS-Shortwave from Feb. 13: 0700-1555 Mon-Fri on 13840 ??? 030 kW / non-dir to WeEu/NoAf 0700-0800 Sat/Sun on 13840 ??? 030 kW / non-dir to WeEu/NoAf 1300-1400 Mon-Fri on 15740 ??? 100 kW / 090 deg to ME/FE 1300-1500 Sat/Sun on 15740 ??? 100 kW / 090 deg to ME/FE 1600-2000 Daily on 5785 ??? 030 kW / non-dir to WeEu/NoAf 2000-2100 Mon-Fri on 5785 ??? 100 kW / non-dir to WeEu/NoAf 2000-2200 Sat/Sun on 5785 ??? 100 kW / non-dir to WeEu/NoAf (Observer, Bulgaria, Feb 14 via DXLD) So the Bulgarians cannot acknowledge that the ??? stands for one or two Bulgarian sites; and contrary to Kai Ludwig`s remarx, they are saying that the few nominally 20 kW IRRS broadcasts are still from Milano. Notice the strange 30 kW power for some BS bcs (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH. 11735 kHz, La Voz de Corea - Comité de Radio y Television de la RPDC, Pyongyang Tarjeta QSL, Postal, Banderín, Prendedor. Demoró 64 días (César Rojas Gordillo, PERU, Feb 14, condig list via DXLD) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. RUSSIA, 5890, Shiokaze - Sea Breeze via Irkutsk *1430- with English programme on Tuesdays first reported by Ohtake, Ritola and Liangas. List of missing Japanese persons most probably captured by North Korea. Signal was strong but overall reception only fair. Preceding programme in Japanese came with better reception. 73 de (Jouko Huuskonen, Turku, FINLAND, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA [and non]. BELGIUM [non]. Changes of TDP transmissions via transmitters in Russia and Moldova: Sawt al Amal / Voice of Hope is new station in Arabic effective from Jan. 20: 1200-1400 on 17660 KCH 250 kW / 250 deg to NWAf (alt. 17655/17665/17670/17680) (Observer, Bulgaria, Feb 14 via DXLD) KCH = Moldova That`s interesting, because Jeff White told me Amal is not a TDP client ---- he had to deal with them because of the collision with his client Radio Waaberi. Furthermore, no sign of Amal on the TDP schedule http://www.airtime.be/schedule.html which however is not up to date in some other entries. Nor is Amal shown on http://www.airtime.be/whose.html but that is not up to date, and probably not complete either as some clients wish not to be identified (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Idha`at al Jamahiriya al Ozma / Radio of The Great Jamahiriya, in Arabic, 1200-1400 on 17655/17660/17665/17670/17680, probably to jam Sawt al Amal!!! (Observer, Bulgaria, Feb 14 via DXLD) Unidentified station with Afro pop and Cuban music: 1130-1530 on 17655/17660/17665/17670/17680 tentative via RUS/CIS transmitters (Observer, Bulgaria, Feb 14 via DXLD) See also GABON From this perspective, I really don`t think it`s coming from Russia/CIS, but from Africa, or maybe western Europe. Signals from this are generally reliable, as in low-latitude, unlike Sawt al-Amal itself. On Tue Feb 14, I tuned in at 1355, only to hear on 17660, continuous repetitive Arab music, just a few notes over and over, probably in a loop, presumably as jammer to Al-Amal, which was not audible. This lasted until 1359, when I thought it was going off, then came back for another minute until 1400* Nothing on the other frequencies 17655- 17675. If Sawt al-Amal was on 17680 this date, it was not noticeable here under Voz Cristiana (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Saludos cordiales, hoy 14 de feb del 2006, por 17680 Al-amel y emisora de música afro-pop. Por 17660 emisora de música árabe (José Miguel Romero, Spain, 1507 UT Feb 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Solar-terrestrial indices for 13 February follow. Solar flux 76 and mid-latitude A-index 3. The mid-latitude K-index at 1500 UTC on 14 February was 1 (9 nT). No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours (SEC via DXLD) ** MEXICO. Estimado sr. Fogarty: La nota informativa que ha leído con respecto al transmisor de Onda Corta es correcta y le puedo informar que en estos momentos nos encontramos haciendo los preparativos para su puesta en operación, por lo que considero que será a corto plazo cuando Radio UNAM este con su señal de Onda Corta en los 9600 KHz en la banda Internacional de 31 Metros. Agradezco su interes en nuestra programación y reciba un cordial saludo (ING. ARMANDO TRUJILLO PANTOJA, SUBDIRECTOR DE OPERACIÓN E INNOVACIÓN TECNOLÓGICA, RADIO UNAM 96.1 FM 860 AM 9600 O.C., Feb 10, http://www.radiounam.unam.mx armandot @ servidor.unam.mx (via David Fogarty, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Estimado Sr. Pantoja, Gracias por su respuesta sobre la puesta en operación de la emisora de onda corta de Radio UNAM. Esta es una buena noticia porque la única emisora mexicana que se pueda recibir acá (cerca de San Francisco, California) es Radio Educación (6185 kHz) y solamente con dificultad. Desafortunadamente, la frequencia de 9600 está ocupada por Radio Habana Cuba y por esta razón sería muy deseable si pudieran escojer otra frequencia. Entiendo que el gobierno mexicano haya distribuido esta frequencia a Radio UNAM y no se puede cambiarla a su propio albedrio; sin embargo ¿tal vez se puede solicitar permiso? También, los radio oyentes pueden pedir que Radio Habana se mueva de 9600 kHz. Muchas gracias (David Fogarty, reply to Ing. Trujillo, via DXLD) Hablé con el Ing. Mejía, nuevamente en R. UNAM los han ocupado en hacer todos los movimientos para llevar a cabo la remodelación del edificio principal de Radio UNAM. La remodelación me informan se llevará hasta noviembre, por lo que, los ingenieros han estado cambiando y adaptando estudios, antenas, etc. Me informé esta semana estará en la planta de Ticomán para revisar un cableado que cambiaron en un transformador del tranamisor y que espera tener el tiempo para cuanto antes hacer las primeras pruebas (Julián Santiago Díez de Bonilla, DF, 0036 UT Feb 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 4810, XERTA, Still off the air, as they are in the process of changing the location of their antenna. -----Original Message----- From: Radio Transcontinental de America charlaxerta @ yahoo.com.mx Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 10:30 AM To: Ron Howard Subject: Re: Saludos de Monterey, California ESTAMOS CAMBIANDO DE LUGAR LA ANTENA PRONTO ESTAREMOS SALIENDO. RECIBAN SALUDOS, LES AGRADECEMOS SU CORREO. EL DIRECTOR RUBEN CASTAÑEDA. PUEDEN ESCUCHARNOS POR http://www.xertaradio.com (via Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO [and non]. ON THE BORDER: Two notable station-moves. Longtime English-language "border blaster" XETRA/690 has finally made the change to Spanish Talk, predicated last year by an agreement turning sdtation control over to Grupo Prisa, based in Madrid. Local programming targeting SoCal comes from L.A. studios; other syndicated fare from Mexico City's giant XEW/900 is heard now over the 690 stick. The change occurred late Sunday night, Feb. 5; until that time XETRA featured Adult Standards selections, now the exclusive SoCal domain of Saul Levine's KKGO/1260 (L.A.), simul'd over Tijuana's XESURF/540 (mentioned above, Digitally). Around the bend, the ever-controversial Jaime Bonilla has skinned "La Pantera" from his XHBCE/105.7, turning it into a simulcast of English- lingo Sports stick XEPRS/"The Mighty" 1090, which has a Directional- signal cross-phasing problem in eastern San Diego County. Bonilla's empire is now inexhorably linked with that of John Lynch, and his Mighty 1090; he's also running Business Talk on XEPE/1700, and Gospel on his punily-powered KURS/1040 in San Diego proper. Bonilla enjoys dual-citizenship; as such he can legally own stations in both México and the U.S. His near-border outlets on 620 (ESPN Deportes) and 1030 (Romántica musical selections) are engendering controversy over their apparently-non-sanctioned, non-Directional transmitter patterns. Bonilla's also involved in an engineering dispute with Emmis (KPWR/105.9 owners) and Lazer Broadcasting (owning KXRS/105.7 in Hemet), regarding XHBCE. Bonilla's being accused of running higher- than-licensed power, and of NOT utilizing a mandated Directional pattern on his FM outlet. It will eventually boil down into Mexico's Director General de Telecommunicaciones either 1) adhering to U.S./FCC engineering demands, or 2) giving the FCC the Middle Finger, and allowing Jaime to run unabated. More as it happens! (Greg Hardison, CA, Broadcast Band Update Feb 14 via DXLD) Full UD is in the dxld yg ** MEXICO. There are now at least two DTV stations operating in Mexico. http://www.multimedios.tv/hdtv.asp indicates XHAW-DT is on the air in Monterrey on channel 50, remapping as 12-1. The page doesn't indicate how much power the DTV station is running. This page also suggests Mexico has in fact set a "drop-dead date" for analog TV, in no more than 15 years. The other Mexican DTV station is XETV-DT 23 Tijuana. I suspect there may be more.) (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66, Feb 14, http://www.w9wi.com WTFDA via DXLD) We had a report from Harris? That the DTV transmitters were only a few kW ** NEW ZEALAND [and non]. RNZI webpage was indicating a reduced HF schedule early evening today, just as in the latest DXLD, i.e. 9885, 13840 and 9870 were not in use, but now at 2210 Feb 14, the whole schedule's back again and no further news of similar cuts are visible either. Let's hope it remains as it is, even if some fqs are currently of no use for us here, at least here in SWEur that is. I was checking them the other day on 13840 and all I could hear (via L or USB) was Brother Stair despite the QRM from what I believe is some digital (?)signal (DRM broadcast?). (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The only DRM scheduled on 13840 is from RNZI itself, in the 1045-1300 period, per http://www.hfcc.org/data/B05drm.html but not listed in the other two DRM schedule websites (gh, DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. Laurel: to KRMP-AM 1140 in OKC, now featuring a progressive talk show at 1 pm [CST = 1900 UT] on Sundays. Call [405] 327-6005 (Frosty Troy, Observerscope, Oklahoma Observer Feb 10 via DXLD) Title? Length? Host? Can`t find a website for KRMP tho there is one for an apparently related station, http://www.kvsp.com --- Could be the same one which was on ex-Anglo WKY 930 Sunday eves? (gh, DXLD) ** PAKISTAN. 5023v, R. Pakistan, Quetta is still drifting. Hard to measure exact frequency, somewhere between 5022,9 and 5023,2 kHz at 17 UT Feb 14 with news in Urdu. Reception was good. 73 (Jouko Huuskonen, Turku, FINLAND, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nominal is 5027 ** PETER I [and non]. Hi all, any ideas what freqs to try and listen for for this station? According to the Southgate ARC it is txing on 10m, 12, 30 and 40m. What chance of being able to receive it from NE England? I like a challenge!! 73 (Patrick, Feb 13, monitoringmonthly yg via DXLD) You have every chance of hearing it if only the so called amateurs would listen on the station`s transmit frequency and stop shouting all over them. Bye Bye Amateur radio.... Hello Multiband CB (Ken Ward, Bolton, ibid.) They are now on all bands - just tune and find the pile-up. Keep a check on the Peter One website http://www.peterone.com/p1freqs.html I see the Peter One team have just completed nine 2 metre EME contacts, an incredible achievement given the extreme conditions they are working under. http://www.southgatearc.org/news/february2006/peter_one_140206.htm 73 (Trevor M5AKA, ibid.) ** PHILIPPINES. 02/11/06, 7120 at 2315, VOA in English. I believe this is a long path logging. Short path would be entirely in daylight with at least 3 hops. Long path would be more than 90% in darkness (Jerry Lenamon, Waco, Texas, ICOM R75, 60 foot Sloper, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also CHINA ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. Now being heard at good strength on 9534.30 // 5020 Regards (Tony Magon, VK2IC, Sydney, 1053 UT Feb 14, HCDX via DXLD) HCDX posting delayed about 11 hours due to moderation (gh, DXLD) ** SOMALIA [non]. See INTERNATIONAL WATERS [non] ** SOUTH AFRICA. WRONG NUMBER: Radio 702, the highly-rated News-talker serving Johannesburg, South Africa, is back on the air following a devastating transmitter fire. Problem is, "702", heard usually on that very frequency, is having to borrow a co-located former transmitter of Radio Bop --- anchored at 540 kHz AM. The station website http://www.702.co.za/ goes to pains to inform listeners that their favorite Talkback programmes. Well, it's like this: "To continue listening to 702 you need to retune to 540 kilohertz on Medium Wave, or AM – the first medium wave signal on the left hand side of the dial." Now, that's a Promo! (Greg Hardison, CA, Broadcast Band Update Feb 14 via DXLD) Full UD is in the dxld yg ** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. More Brother Scare sked changes: ITALY [non] ** SUDAN [non]. Great Britain, 02/13/06, 7120 at 0345, Sudan Radio Service in English and other languages (Jerry Lenamon, Waco, Texas, ICOM R75, 60 foot Sloper, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. How far does it go? Worth noting, for example, is that on the BBC Web site, a religion page about Islam presents the angels and revelations of Islamic belief as historical fact, rather than spiritual conjecture (as is the case with its Christianity Web page); plus, it follows every mention of Mohammed with ``(pbuh),`` which means ``peace be upon him`` --- ``as if,`` writes Will Wyatt, former BBC chief executive, in a letter to the Times of London, ``the corporation itself were Muslim.`` (from ``Submission is in your dhimmitude``, by Washington Times [Moony] columnist Diana West, via Feb 14 Enid Eagle via DXLD) see also IRAN ** U K [non]. CYPRUS(non) Freq change for BBC WS in English to Russia: 1600-1700 NF 7285*CYP 300 kW / 007 deg, ex 15565 RMP 500 kW / 062 deg *co-channel Polish Radio in Esperanto till 1625 (Observer, Bulgaria, Feb 14 via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. Chicoms move in on longtime VOA frequency 9760: see CHINA. Maybe to give them something to negotiate at HFCC? (gh) ** U S A. Support and derision for VOA at RedState blog: http://alphaecho35.redstate.com/story/2006/2/9/145335/2650 (kimandrewelliott.com Feb 14 via DXLD) As a news organization that is also a government agency, that broadcasts news but is also required to broadcast propaganda, VOA is losing the struggle to establish its identity, even among people who should know better (Kim Andrew Elliott, kimandrewelliott.com Feb 14 via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. RUSSIA. New additional transmissions of WYFR on short waves from Feb. 10: 1200-1300 on 7495 IRK 250 kW / 180 deg in Vietnamese (tent.) 1300-1400 on 7495 IRK 250 kW / 180 deg in Tagalog (tent.) (Observer, Bulgaria, Feb 14 via DXLD) ** U S A [and non?]. Regarding AFN and the on again, off again frequencies, I heard them on 01/28/06 and 01/29/06 on 4156 USB at about 1300. Parallel 5446.5U, 7811U and 12133.5U. I haven't heard 4156 since then. I have no clue where 4156 originated (Jerry Lenamon, Waco, Texas, ICOM R75, 60 foot Sloper, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WWCR IN-HOUSE PRODUCTION CHANGES Hi Glenn; I wanted you to know that WWCR's in-house production, "World Wide Country Radio", has new hosts. Tammy Bishop, who previously hosted the program, has left, and our two new hosts are Brady Murray and Zach Harper. They are also the Operations Managers for WWCR and medium wave WNQM (AM1300), respectively. They just completed their third taping of the hour long program. They can be reached at brady @ wwcr.com and production @ wwcr.com (for Zach). If there are listener comments, Brady and Zach would love to hear them. I'm still doing our other in-house production, "AskWWCR", and just completed #223, which includes monitoring reports from my recent trip to Houston, Texas. I can be reached (for radio related items) at askwwcr @ wwcr.com Everything else is doing fine. As you know, I read DXLD and enjoy it. Keep up the good work! "Money is not evil; just the love of money." http://www.docplummer.com Cordially; (Jerry Plummer, WWCR, Feb 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WWCR mixing product: At 2245 Feb 14 I noted a nice mess on 4915. Turns out it's WWCR 9985-5070 = 4915 (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) No Ghana making it thru, then (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. The Right Perspective --- Hi Glen[n], I just came across your great write-up of The Right Perspective here http://www.dxing.com/dxr/dxld5085.htm and would like you to know that TRP can be heard every Friday night at 10 pm EST (probably Pastor Peter's folks had something to do with this) and the show goes on for another hour (sometimes two) over the Internet. You can hear the full show over the Internet at http://www.therightperspective.com And, you can hear full archives of the show (and subscribe via podcast RSS feed) at http://therightperspectivepodcastblog.blogspot.com So what I'm going to do is put a link up on the podcast blog to your site to say "Danke"! (Peter "NewsGuy" Goodman, Feb 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WWCR`s January 6 pdf program schedule, the latest available, shows this at 0300-0400 UT Sat on 3215 (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U S A. Dart: to ABC TV for carrying that distorted and outright false John Stossel attack on public education. ABC TV news is a joke, according to Ted Koppel. He would know (Frosty Troy, Observerscope, Oklahoma Observer Feb 10 via DXLD) ** U S A. BROADCAST BAND UPDATE by GREG HARDISON [excerpts] THE MORE THINGS CHANGE...: So Citadel Broadcasting is in the process of biting off more than it can chew, in its purchase of 22 ABC Radio properties for a cool $2.7-Billion. Word is, Entercom and the KKR investment group are a bit pissed off about the funds they spent in good faith, while assuming that Disney was in that same frame of mind. Entercom especially has a valid claim, as they were in the perceived running for the station chain from the gitgo. In the midst, we hear Disney denying a "New York Post" report that Board chair George Mitchell swept a headhunter's negative evaluation about fairly-new CEO Robert Iger under the rug. That allegedly occurred as said Board was searching for an Eisner replacement. (Remember, only one outside candidate was considered; she soon "withdrew her name from consideration".) One can now only speculate that Citadel won the Maus' approval over more qualified, better funded potential owners, fueled by a feeling on the Disney board that the smaller company would be less eager to replace the cadre of execs currently running the Radio division (into the ground, we might add), than would a firm with actual major Market experience. (Citadel's largest owned-markets consist of Oklahoma City, Birmingham, Providence, Tucson and Chattanooga, among others not as well populated. Some wags have compared the potential sale to that of the original Goldenson-kissed ABC to Capital Cities, twenty-odd years ago. At least Cap Cities had stations in Detroit and Los Ángeles, and as such DID come to the table with major market wings.) Other industry observers are loosely leaning toward the same opinion. The Update sees Citadel buckling in a quiver in the face of Disney's corporate status, regarding most decisions, strategies and efforts to save a once-great Radio operation. About the only stick in the pile assured of continued success is San Francisco's KGO/810, with its nearly 30-year record of #1 Ratings placements, aided by a Management structure mostly unchanged since the pre-Cap Cities days. The one fluid top-position at KGO has been that of News Director, with a number of top names warming the chair over the past quarter-century. The latest was Greg Tantum, formerly ND at L.A.'s KFWB/980. After seven years, Greg is now packing bags and shopping for parkas and mosquito repellent, having accepted the top post at "Washington Post Radio"'s WTWP/1500 in the Nation's Capital (more about them below). Greg assures all his move has nothing to do with the Citadel conbloberation... but no one's ever accused him of being anyone's fool, either! He expressed his enthusiasm to laradio.com's Don Barrett, in heading up what he calls the Nation's largest News Department at WTWP (800 reporters and stringers scattered about the Planet, he says). Meanwhile, the Council of American-Islamic Relations has received an apology from the KFI/640 Morning master Handel, this time for a January 12 bit in which he satirized the Islamic Hajj, then underway in Mecca, specifically lampooning an incident in which several hundred pilgrims were trampled by the surging crowd. Bill first said he'd apologize, as soon as CAIR 1) Denounces "Terrorism" (they responded by denouncing "bombings"), 2) Recognizes the right of Israel to exist as a sovereign nation, and 3) Declares that they've "never" had ties to any group advocating terrorism. KFI Management issued their thoughts via the station's website: "KFI- AM does not condone making light of the deaths of people engaged in religious observances. We regret that listeners found the comments of one of our on-air hosts to be insensitive. KFI does not censor its hosts, nor does it tell them what to say or not to say. KFI is a strong and passionate believer in 1st amendment rights and that is at the very core of this radio station." You may recall that CAIR successfully pressured Disney's WMAL/630 in Washington to fire one of their hosts for alleged anti-Islamic comments last year. Another Update favorite is landing in the middle of a formatic mess at Buffalo's WWKB/1520. Once a heritage-tinged AM Rocker (as WKBW), this 50,000 watt stick has been blasting over the Northeast and North Atlantic once again with Oldies, for the past three years. Entercom switches gears on the big stick to Progressive Talk, featuring the beautiful and talented Leslie Marshall in middays...as she seeks Syndication opportunities surrounding said program. Leslie was last heard in SoCal over KLAC/570, prior to its Sports and Adult Standards lives, circa 2000. The 'KB move is preemptive, coming just after the announced pairing of Niagara Falls' WHLD/1270 with AirAmerica, and other like-minded Talkers; Northeastern Oldies fans are mourning this second loss of Music from a traditional established source. The Update is saddened to hear of the loss of Al Lewis, better known as "Grandpa Munster", during the CBS creation of 1964. Grandpa Al performed hosting duties at Pacifica's WBAI/99.5 in NYC, and was widely known for his "F**k the FCC" chant heard (and quickly muzzled) during a live Howard Stern rally over the old WXRK/92.3, circa 1990. Al was a young 95, at the time of his passing. NEXT ON THE AGENDA: The sale of Hispanic giant Univisión, Radio and/or TV divisions, together or separately. Rumour mongers already have CBS, Time-Warner and Disney as competing suitors; the Update predicts someone or something out of Left Field, coming in later in the year as new owners of the U.S.' largest Spanish-language Broadcaster (Greg Hardison, CA, Broadcast Band Update Feb 14 via DXLD) Full UD is in the dxld yg ** U S A. UNIVISIÓN, EL GIGANTE TELEVISIVO EN VENTA. ¿ADIÓS AL ESPAÑOL EN EE.UU.? M. Amigot / Iblnews. ¿Quién comprará Univisión y a qué precio? El gigante de la comunicaciones en español Univision Communications confirmó el viernes 10 que está en venta. News Corporation de Rupert Murdoch, Time Warner, CBS, Walt Disney, Grupo de Televisa de México y grupos privados de inversores figuran entre los potenciales compradores, aunque la operación presenta complicaciones. Para empezar el alto precio (se habla de más de $10.000 millones), y después, las dificultades jurídicas, dado que Univisión es de facto un monopolio en la TV en español (llega al 98 % de los hogares hispanos). Las leyes federales limitan la propiedad de las estaciones que alcanzan a más del 39 % de la nación. Esto excluiría, en principio, a News Corporation y CBS. Merril Lynch dijo ayer que Time Warner y Disney son compradores improbables dadas sus dificultades internas. Grupo Televisa sería el adquiriente natural pero las leyes que restringen la incursión extranjera suponen una dificultad. Un comentarista de la CNN dijo el sábado por la mañana que tal vez lo que podría hacerse es que algún grupo se hiciera con la propiedad de Univisión y empezara a reducir las emisiones en español. Sea como fuere, Univision es, según se coincide, la última gran oportunidad de quedarse con una gran network en EE.UU. Y es que Univision es la quinta cadena y en algunos mercados como Nueva York o Los Ángeles es más vista y oída (tiene cadenas de radio y de música) que algunas de las tres networks líderes. Fuente: IBLNews (Via CLAUDIO MORALES, Argentina, Feb 14, condig list via DXLD) ** ZANZIBAR. 11735, RTZ, Feb 12, 1740-1810, Middle Eastern type music, ToH drums, 5+1 pips, news in English from Spice FM with items about Zanzibar, Kampala, Lagos, Islamabad, Abu Dubai, Port-au-Prince, etc. Fair (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, RX340, with T2FD antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [and non]. 02/11/06, 6612 at 0350 in English. No audio on 3306. I checked 90 meters for propagation from Southern Africa and heard Meyerton on 3255 (BBC relay) and 3320 (Radio Sondergrense) both with decent signals so if 3306 is the primary frequency it would seem that it would be heard here (Jerry Lenamon, Waco, Texas, ICOM R75, 60 foot Sloper, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dear Mr. Hauser: Thanks for picking up some of my logs and QSL reports in your columns. I really appreciate it! I have seen a couple of them in the World DX Club`s Contact recently. I never thought that even the best of my logs would be of interest to the caliber of DXer that usually contributes to DXLD. Anyway, you asked about an ``Applause Card.`` An Applause Card is a term from the early days of radio. I read in one of the monthly radio magazines that, listeners sometimes used to send in cards similar to QSLs to stations thanking them for the broadcast. I though that it sounded like a great idea, so I started sending a card I made up on my computer along with my reports. I usually enclose some type of postcard from Tennessee also. I always enjoy your columns in several club and commercial magazines and bulletins I receive. 73 (Joe Wood, Greenback TN, Feb 11) LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ SPANISH IS NOT CASTILIAN BUT CASTILIAN IS SPANISH Glenn, Re. your [sic] notation in my report in DXLD 6-030 of 13 Feb, is that too odd for you to see the language referred to as "Castilian" instead of "Spanish"? Please allow me to suggest the following examples (they abound) to many of the DXLD readers: a) http://www.orbilat.com/Languages/Spanish-Castilian/Castilian.htm b) http://www.orbilat.com/Languages/Galician/Galician.html c) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Castilian d) http://www.answers.com/topic/names-given-to-the-spanish-language Maybe at least some will understand once and for all what exactly "Spanish" means, and why many abroad - including here in Portugal! - make such mistake, a mistake that is as silly as saying (non-native) Australians are a British-speaking people. And getting back to DXLD, what a delight it was to see an article in the Spanish language spoken in Catalonia, or Catalunya in Catalan. Did you understand it, Glenn? The best is really to actually listen to it and then "tune to" Galician; I wouldn't suggest Basque, Euskera, because, frankly, this other Spanish language is a completely different language not related to any of the those in Spain or elsewhere, so it seems, though it borrowed a few words from Castilian. Finally, the foreigner, with us Portuguese being no exception among those, will notice Galician (the most closely related to Portuguese), Castilian and Catalan (even some Basque words seem to show this is a language "living under the same roof" as Castilian!), all share some common bits of intonation - and making therefore Portuguese sounding very much of its own, which makes us very proud. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Feb 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I know that Spanish speakers often identify their language as castellano, whatever their dialect, but for my purposes, there are two major dialects of Spanish, Castilian and Latin American. I have never heard Voz Cristiana, based in Miami, speaking with a Castilian accent, altho that could happen if someone on their station happened to be from Spain. Castile is just one region of Spain, and not everybody even in Spain speaks with a Castilian accent, tho it is considered the standard, or first among equals. Also as an American-continental, I tend to consider the primary dialect of Spanish to be American, not Castilian, and that is certainly the case as far as number of speakers. I do have some trouble with Catalan, but it`s fun to try to figure it out, hoping for cognates (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also BOLIVIA PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ QIP: NOW 50.000 QSL LOGS FROM 10.000 STATIONS I'm very pround to tell all qsl-card-collectors, that the QSL Information Pages for BC-DXers - QIP at http://www.schoechi.de/qip.html now contain more than 50.000 qsl logs from more than 10.000 BC radio stations from around the world. These logs come from 241 different 'radio-countries' plus 46 different clandestine radio target areas. Included are qsls from LW, MW, SW and FM radio-stations. QSLs from pirates and from utility stations are not included (the only exeptions are those from time signal stations and from the Japanese lighthouse stations). The majority of the qsl logs are from 1996 until today. These logs exists in 2 versions: - MS Exel files for all large world regions (only av. For subscribers) - HTML pages for all visitors of the page (the zipped versions of these HTML-pages (for an easier and faster download) are again only av. for subscribers). The subscription price in 5 EUR or 6 USD for 2 years. I prefer payments via Paypal (no credit cards please!). Other payments to my P.O. Box please. I'd like to thank you all DX Clubs and all individual DXers for their support of QIP in the last 8 years! Please continue to send in your qsl logs to me. Contributors know that they get access to some MS Excel files as a thank you for their contribution. Yours (Martin from Eisenach Schöch, Feb 13, dxldyg via DXLD) Allaccess.com SHAMELESS PLUGS: One must go to the aforementioned AllAccess, found readily at http://www.allaccess.com This is arguably the finest daily resource for Radio and Music news on the continent, and the price is right, if you know what I mean. One will also find myriad job listings, for those livin' in The Biz, and numerous other features that will keep you staring at the screen for the better part of the day. The Update salutes all involved, and expresses outright green jealousy at the scope of this operation, along with a bit of deserved gratitude for the daily fix (Greg Hardison, CA, Broadcast Band Update Feb 14 via DXLD) Full UD is in the dxld yg CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ RADIO TAIWAN INTERNATIONAL DHAKA MEET POSTPONED February 21, 2006 at 12 PM in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Venue: Sarina Hotel Plot#27, Road#27 Banai, Dhaka 1213 Attire: Casual but proper (Requested by hotels). (RTI web site via Swopan Chakroborty, Kolkata, India, Feb 13, dx_india yg via DXLD) Dear Group Members, Sorry to say that RTI Dhaka meet postponed. RTI will send souvenir to those who have registered with RTI. Regards (Ashik Eqbal Tokon, Rajshahi, Bangladesh, Feb 14, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) BOURNEMOUTH TALK - AMATEUR STATION HEARS MRO AT 45 MEGAMILES I wish I could make it down to Bournemouth on Thursday March 2nd. Paul Marsh M0EYT is giving what promises to be a superb talk on his achievement in receiving signals from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter at a distance of 45 million miles'. That's quite some DX !!! See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/february2006/45million_miles.htm 73 (Trevor M5AKA, Feb 10, monitoring monthly yg via DXLD) Richard Atkinson, who's organised the lecture, tells me the interest shown so far is 'greater than I've seen before', so if you're likely to attend drop him a line at richard.atkinson @ clickairport.com as he may have to consider finding a larger venue (but still on the same campus) and some warning, rather than have to respond to unexpectedly large numbers turning up on the night, could be helpful. Regards (Clive, G4SLU, ibid.) BRITISH DX CLUB GATHERING, MACCLESFIELD, THURSDAY 16TH MARCH Members of the British DX Club are organising a get-together of radio enthusiasts on the evening of Thursday 16th March 2006. This will be at Wetherspoons "The Society Rooms" pub in Park Green, Macclesfield (next to the registry office). These meetings began some years ago in Manchester as BDXC meets, but soon diversified to include all radio enthusiasts including radio amateurs, airband listeners, utility band monitors etc as well as the short wave broadcast band DXers from the BDXC. The gathering is informal and open to all, whether a member of the BDXC or not. We would especially welcome members of the local radio clubs (Macclesfield, Stockport, East Cheshire etc) and Summits On The Air participants as well as British DX Club members. Feel free to bring details of your latest constructional project, photos and QSL cards. Macclesfield is fairly central to the hotbeds of SOTA activity in the North West of England, so provides a good opportunity for SOTA enthusiasts to meet up for a chat. The Society Rooms is a large pub and always offers a range of several hand-pull real ales. We will be there from 7 pm, and will remain until at least 9 pm, after which we may adjourn to one of the excellent nearby Indian restaurants or other pubs. On the night I will be monitoring 145.500 MHz (the 2m calling channel on amateur radio) and mobile telephone 07724 113877 or 07821 151504. If you are going to come along, please try to let me know with an email to tommyread @ hotmail.com or telephone 01625 612916. Directions are: From Macclesfield railway station, turn left up Sunderland Street to traffic lights at main crossroads. Pub is on right. From Macclesfield bus station, turn left down Mill Street, pub on right at the bottom. From Manchester/Stockport - A523 into Macclesfield, turn right at railway station (under bridge), and bear left to pass station on left. Continue up Sunderland Street to main set of lights at crossroads. Pub is on right adjacent to two car parks. Other routes on request from myself. 73, (Tom Read M1EYP, Macclesfield, England http://tomread.co.uk bdxc-UK via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ DRM'S HISTORY OF MISSED TARGETS http://futureofradio.typepad.com/the_future_of_radio/2006/02/drms_history_of.html DRM stands for "digital radio mondiale," a system for digital broadcasting on AM/FM/SW that's been heavily promoted for the past few years, primarily by international shortwave broadcasters laboring under the notion that the reason their listenership is falling is because "our broadcasts aren't digital" instead of the real reasons, namely "our broadcasts are boring as hell, and there's something called 'the internet' now." From Glenn Hauser's World of Radio comes a nice summary of the missed promises made by DRM backers over the last couple of years; it's not permalinked so scroll down to the section headed "Digital Broadcasting" to find it. [6-029] Like IBOC/HD in the United States, it's now time for DRM to deliver on some of its promises. And that's means widely available, reasonably priced receivers and programming that will make average listeners (instead of radioheads) want to try the new technology. Okay, I'll say it again: any digital broadcasting system operating in a frequency range that can be affected by the ionosphere on a regular basis (that is, anywhere below 30 MHz) is a dumb idea, and the best bets for digital broadcasting lie with satellites and wireless broadband services (Harry Helms, futureofradio blog Feb 14 via DXLD) DRM INTERFERENCE ON MW IN EUROPE Hi Glenn: I just received the following letter from EBU: Dear Sir, We are considering, at the technical department of the EBU, the interference cases mentioned in your e-mail below. Concerning the co-channel interference case on 594 kHz, we have already informed the concerned broadcasters about the complaint. In order to be able to assess the situation, we would appreciate to have answers on the following questions: - What type of AM receiver is used, what sensitivity and selectivity does it offer? - What type of antenna is used? - What are the levels of the received wanted signals on the different frequencies mentioned in your e-mail? - What is the time of listening? - When the interference by DRM is encountered, during the day or the night time? Looking forward to receive your response, Best regards, Walid SAMI, Senior Engineer Technical Department, EBU, Tel: +41 (0)22 717 2711 I will of course give the information requested - my equipment is simple - SONY ICF7600G - not very far from an ordinary Medium Wave listener's technical equipment, but the little loop antenna in my basement is doing a decent job in eliminating a good deal of the interference. This morning I even heard WQEW Radio Disney on 1560 kHz, but TA reception is exceptional on this type of antenna. Anyway, my complaints were met with interest by the EBU. Let's see what happens in the future. 73 (Ullmar Qvick, Sweden, Feb 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also NEW ZEALAND RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ TV BROADCASTERS OPPOSE HEADSET COMMUNICATIONS DEVICES IN NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS http://futureofradio.typepad.com/the_future_of_radio/2006/02/tb_broadcasters.html Well, not exactly all headset devices. . . . . . just those operating on frequencies used for television broadcasting and their auxiliary stations http://www.tvtechnology.com/dlrf/one.php?id=1158 This linked article is a perfect example of what is going to be an increasing point of contention in coming years: the growing number of wireless devices and technologies that will need spectrum for their operations, and the current occupants of the spectrum who will want to keep any and all new users out of "their" spectrum. In this linked article, it should be obvious that the potential for interference to TV broadcasters from these headsets is zero. So why the battle? Like a rumble between two street gangs, it's all about protecting your turf, and logic/reason be damned. Posted on February 14, 2006 (Harry Helms, futureofradioblog via DXLD) U.S. HAM RADIO LICENSE NUMBERS CONTINUE TO DECLINE http://futureofradio.typepad.com/the_future_of_radio/2006/02/us_ham_radio_li.html The number of U.S. holders of ham radio licenses peaked at 687,860 in April, 2003, but since then has declined by 26,779. Here's the full details and some often unintentionally hilarious commentary about the causes and meaning of the decline http://www.qrz.com/ib-bin/ikonboard.cgi?s=06ec099a9c6274714b7c8ba7302292cd;act=ST;f=3;t=113940;st=0 The reasons for the decline are actually simple: 1) radio is nothing magical or unusual to people today, especially younger ones, and it doesn't possess the allure/mystery it did to previous generations; 2) if you are a young person interested in RF/wireless, many of the more interesting areas of experimentation --- say, expanding coverage of WiFi networks or implementing mesh/ad hoc wireless networks --- are easier to do under Part 15 than under the rules of the amateur radio service; and 3) if you're strictly interested in communicating, cell phones, instant messaging, Skype, etc., will let you communicate over a wide area, even internationally, for free or very cheaply; I doubt a kid today would be as thrilled as I was as a kid to talk to someone 500 miles away via radio. When the FCC removes the code test for HF privileges, you'll see a short-lived upward bump in the number of ham radio licenses. Then, a couple of years later, the decline will resume. Posted on February 10, 2006 (Harry Helms, futureofradioblog via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ Generally, quiet to unsettled conditions were observed during the period at all latitudes. A nine hour period of active to severe storm conditions was observed at high latitudes midday on 06 February due to a solar sector boundary crossing earlier on that date. For the period, solar wind speed ranged from a low of about 280 km/s early on 11 February to a high of about 500 km/s early on 12 February. The summary period ended with wind speed at about 350 km/s. The Bz component of the IMF was generally weak, not varying much beyond +/- 5 nT for the period. However, there was a 12-hour segment early on 06 February when the Bz was oriented steady southward at about -10 nT during the solar sector boundary crossing. FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 15 FEBRUARY - 13 MARCH 2006 Solar activity is expected to be at very low levels during the forecast period. No greater than 10 MeV proton events are expected. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at high levels on 23 – 27 February. The geomagnetic field is expected to range from quiet to minor storm levels. Active to minor storm periods are possible on 21 - 23 February due to effects from a recurrent coronal hole wind stream. Otherwise, quiet to unsettled conditions are expected. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2006 Feb 14 2124 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Environment Center # Product description and SEC contact on the Web # http://www.sec.noaa.gov/wwire.html # # 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table # Issued 2006 Feb 14 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2006 Feb 15 75 5 2 2006 Feb 16 80 8 3 2006 Feb 17 80 5 2 2006 Feb 18 80 5 2 2006 Feb 19 80 8 3 2006 Feb 20 80 8 3 2006 Feb 21 80 10 3 2006 Feb 22 80 20 4 2006 Feb 23 80 12 3 2006 Feb 24 80 5 2 2006 Feb 25 80 5 2 2006 Feb 26 80 5 2 2006 Feb 27 80 5 2 2006 Feb 28 80 5 2 2006 Mar 01 75 5 2 2006 Mar 02 75 8 3 2006 Mar 03 75 8 3 2006 Mar 04 75 5 2 2006 Mar 05 75 5 2 2006 Mar 06 75 5 2 2006 Mar 07 75 5 2 2006 Mar 08 75 5 2 2006 Mar 09 75 5 2 2006 Mar 10 75 5 2 2006 Mar 11 75 5 2 2006 Mar 12 75 5 2 2006 Mar 13 75 8 3 (http://www.sec.noaa.gov/radio via DXLD) TIPS FOR RATIONAL LIVING ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Laurel: to http://huffingtonpost.com for accessing all of George Bush`s military records, proving he was not only a coward, but was suspended from flying and went AWOL, to work in an Alabama political campaign. Who died in his place in Vietnam? Laurel: to a majority of Americans. According to the new Zobgy Poll, 53 percent of Americans support impeachment of George W. Bush. Forty- two percent are opposed. Seventy percent of 18-29-year-olds favor impeachment (Frosty Troy, Observerscope, Oklahoma Observer Feb 10 via DXLD) ###