DX LISTENING DIGEST 6-036, February 26, 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 AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1305: Mon 0400 on WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0515 on WBCQ 7415 Wed 0030 on WBCQ 7415 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]. R. Algeria External Service --- got this on 6245 & 6225 at 1830 UT 25/2/06. Is 6225 a spur of 6245 or another transmitter? (Tim Bucknall, UK, harmonics yg via DXLD) ** ANGOLA. Re 6-035, PORTUGAL [non]. One thing I must correct when you more or less imply some photos were taken from WRTH older editions: yes, BUT ONLY regarding QSL cards as explained in the text &/or footnotes (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. 18 FEB, 0736 UT, 2540 KHZ (1270 x 2), Radio Provincia de Buenos Aires. Castellano. Resumen de la historia de la emisora. Dijeron que el primer transmisor era de la marca Telefunken. Fuerte. Calidad excelente (Adán Mur, desde Ñemby, Paraguay, Conexión Digital via DXLD) ** BAHRAIN. 9745U, (Presumed) R. Bahrain, 2037+, Feb. 21, Arabic, Kor`an like vocals and chanting poking thru static. Very weak/poor, reception didn't last very long (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH- USA, R75, 200' Beverages, MLB-1, DTS-4, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELARUS [non]. EU-funded radio beams into Belarus 02-26-2006, 11h25 MINSK (AFP) Radio antennae. An EU-funded radio broadcaster began beaming news, music and information into Belarus to counter state-controlled media three weeks before a tense presidential election. (AFP/File) [caption showing a bunch of self-supporting towers squeezed in together, probably foreshortened, and having nothing to do with this] An EU-funded radio broadcaster began beaming news, music and information into Belarus to counter state-controlled media three weeks before a tense presidential election. "We are putting out truthful and current information about events in Belarus and abroad. We are for freedom and objectivity," said a written statement on the European Radio for Belarus website. The Vilnius-based Baltic Waves service broadcasts on short wave from the nearby Lithuanian capital and is staffed by Polish and Belarussian journalists, with the latter using pseudonyms. Broadcasting on FM (frequency modulation) is due to begin shortly. . . http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=109890 ) (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Not to be confused with the other one from Poland which started a few days earlier. WTFK??? Cf 6-034, this contradicts Bernd Trutenau who said it would be on MW 612, no mention of SW. I know which version I will believe (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BENIN. Hi Glenn, caught some great Africans yesterday evening by jumping around the upper portion of 60 mb. 2105-2130 UT Feb 24, Radio Benin, 5025 kHz in French with African and French songs, IDs, SIO343. Surpisingly, didn´t hear any interference from Cuba´s Radio Rebelde (Marty Delfín, Madrid, Spain, Sony ICF-77 with reel out antenna setup indoors, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also BURKINA-FASO, EQUATORIAL GUINEA ** BURKINA-FASO. 2125-2234 UT Feb 24, Radiodiffusion Télévision du Burkina, 5030 kHz, African music, interviews with woman announcer in vernacular. News in French by woman and man on top of the hour with full ID followed by lively pop music. Vernacular again at 2230. SIO 443. First time I heard this one (Marty Delfín, Madrid, Spain, Sony ICF-77 with reel out antenna setup indoors, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5030, R. Burkina - Ouagadougau, 0539 2/21 fading up and dominating University Network in language not French, male talking, 0543 native music with hand clapping. good (George Herr, CA, WinRadio g303e. R8B and NRD535, 50' wire and AmRad, Antennas are active, NASWA Flashsheet Feb 26 via DXLD) ** CAMEROONS [non]. 11840, Feb 26, 1810-1830, Rusia: Radio Free Southern Cameroons. CLANDESTINA para Camerún, escuchada en inglés a locutora con comentarios, segmento de música pop local, locutor con referencias a Camerún con música de fondo, buena señal y sin interferencias, SINPO 55444 (José Miguel Romero, Spain, HCDX online log via DXLD) Sundays only ** CANADA. MORE INDUSTRIAL ACTION THREATENED AT CBC FRENCH SERVICE The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that Radio Canada, the French- language service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) could be heading for more industrial action as employees rejected fresh contract demands yesterday. The current collective agreement ends in a couple of months' time, and the newspaper says that with salary issues not even on the table yet, the union has indicated it could ask members for a mandate for an unlimited general strike. Read the story: Radio Canada union talks tough http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060225.wradio0225/BNStory/National/home # posted by Andy @ 11:01 Feb 26 (Media Network blog via DXLD) RADIO CANADA UNION TALKS TOUGH AS EMPLOYEES SNUB NETWORK'S CONTRACT DEMANDS --- 2006-02-25 19:43:00 http://money.canoe.ca/News/Other/2006/02/25/1462575-cp.html (via Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DXLD) Similar if not identical story ** CHILE. 20 FEB, 2113 UT, 13290 KHZ, Voz Cristiana, Chile. Castellano. En paralelo con 9635 y 17680 KHZ. Medio fuerte. Desvanecimiento propagacional (Adán Mur, desde Ñemby, Paraguay, Conexión Digital via DXLD) 13290 would be a leapfrog mixing product with their Brazilian service on 15485, 2195 kHz between! Now on 15525 before 1700, that leap would land on 13370 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHILE. El siguiente es el listado de emisoras Santiaguinas que transmiten con RDS: 88.1 Imagina texto "cancion+artista Imagina 88.1" 88.5 Concierto "cancion+artista Concierto 88.5" 88.9 Futuro "cancion+artista radio Futuro fm 88.9" 89.7 Duna "Duna 897" 90.5 Pudahuel "Pudahuel" 91.3 El Conquistador "Conqstadr+prog name+radio slogan+temperatura" 92.9 Romance "Romance" 93.7 Universo "Universo" 94.1 Rock & Pop "Rock Pop" 95.9 Tiempo "FMTiempo" 97.1 Bésame "Besame 97.1MHZ" 98.5 Dos "FM Dos 98.8" 100.1 Infinita "Infinita" 101.7 Hit "FM Hit Radio 101.7" 102.1 Oasis "Artista+Cancion en Oasis" 103.3 Horizonte "103.3 en Horizonte artista+cancion" 104.1 Romántica "Romantica" (información via Felipe Asenjo, desde Chile, Conexión Digital Feb 26 via DXLD) No accents on RDS? (gh) ** CHINA [and non]. Glenn, Tonight on 7105 from 2200 to 2300 BBC World Service from Oman was barely audible. This time I am hearing Mandarin PLUS firedrake on top of a listed broadcaster. Having checked EiBI, NDXC, BBC's own website, and the new and old VOA skeds, no trace of ANYONE in Mandarin on 7105 at this hour. However, per HFCC, Xian CRI is listed blasting out 500 KW to Latin America. Why would there be firedrake audible as well? Also, I see no Mandarin on that frequency per NDXC's CRI sked. In fact at 2200, 7105 seems only to have been an unpursued option. Any ideas? If you know straight away, you are welcome to email me back. 73's (Dan Goldfarb, Brentwood, England, Feb 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dan, Looks like you have already done the research. All I can suggest is that as we near the end of the B-05 season, more and more changes will have taken place, so the original HFCC and other schedules get more and more out of date. Also, China may well be making mistakes in where they are running their own overt broadcasts and where they are running jamming. Keeping it all straight must be a nightmare for them (Glenn to Dan, via DXLD) Why is China jamming 7105? Glenn, Tonight 7105 is again in a mess between 2200 and 2300. The jamming is mindboggling (worse than the fuss being made over Saut Al Amal). There are two CNR Voice of China's with a deliberate delay as well as Firedrake in the background! Two Theories are possible. 1) See DXLD 6-034. To avoid what seems to be similar extreme jamming, has Sound of Hope (Xi Wang zhi Sheng) moved from 9635 down to 7105 without notice. The transmission time and jamming pattern would match. 2) Is this the start of BBC World Service ENGLISH being jammed in China?!!! The Oman transmission is at 90 degrees aimed at East Asia! Let us hope that option 2 is only a paranoid fear on my part. Could other correspondents please both monitor 7105 (and 9635) and discuss what is possibly happening via your forum. I cannot be the only person to have noticed this. 73's (Dan Goldfarb, Brentwood, England, Feb 26, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Re this item in 6-035 under Libya: ``That's really interesting, and I thought I could hear some sort of 'other' transmission. It's still continuing and now fair to good and peaking to S9 at 1140. The 'second' transmission is now not so obviously audible and so I assume one of them has improved in strength but not the other? The signal compares well with that on 17635 (Noel R. Green- UK, wwdxc BC-DX Feb 20 via DXLD)`` To save any confusion, this actually refers to the CNR (China) transmission that was being heard on 17310, and to the CNR transmission using 17635 same time. It has nothing to do with the Libyan activities (Noel R. Green, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. Defunct Gene Scott with a quite distorted signal on 7375, Feb 26 at 0532 check; needs some tweaking, but is there anyone to do it? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Re 6-035: Glenn, I wonder if jammers for Radio Martí are just R-F sources without modulators, or are SW transmitters with wobbulated oscillators. Did you notice if any of the jammers for Radio Martí were out of service (or jamming on some RM frequencies was less intense)? Marxist countries used to put a lot of R-F assets into jamming. I've heard that jamming assets exceeded broadcasting assets. Keep up the good work! Charlie (Charles A & Leonor L Taylor, Greenville, North Carolina, IRCA via DXLD) If you mean during the Friday event was there less jamming, I doubt it, but I was not looking for that on every R. Martí frequency. I would not doubt at all that the jamming assets exceed the broadcasting assets in Cuba, but I really don`t think there is much crossover if that is what you are wondering about, altho some of the jamming may come from same sites as broadcasting. Nor can I really evaluate the method jamming signals are produced, but some of them are bubbly and some of them are noisy (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. RHC is currently running three (3) different essay contests in connexion with musical programs in Spanish. They were all promoted, one after another, at the end of Cancionero Iberoamericano, around 1448 UT Sat Feb 25 on 9550 et al. One prize is a CD recorded at the R. Progreso studio. Rechecked En Contacto this Sunday Feb 26, on 9550 et al.: it ran from 2152 to 2207 approx., a good 15 minutes (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Featured in the March Utility World column by Hugh Stegman in MONITORING TIMES, are the new Cuban numbers broadcasts designated V2a: This daily sked starts at 1600 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), and goes until the 2100 broadcast ends, nearly six hours later. The times in UT and frequencies in kilohertz (kHz, AM mode) are: 1600 on 7975.0 1700 on 8010.0 1800 on 8097.0 1900 on 8097.0 2000 on 7887.0 2100 on 6855.0 (via gh, DXLD) We had frequently observed 6855, which collides with WYFR, and also 7975 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CYPRUS. INTERNET-BASED TV STATION TO LAUNCH IN MARCH | Text of report in English by Greek Cypriot newspaper Cyprus Mail on 17 February Cyprus has become the first country in the world to have its own Internet-based TV station. Cyprus ITV, a 24-hour station which will broadcast over the Internet, is available across the globe and is based on a new technology concept. It is scheduled to launch on 1 March. The ethos at Cyprus ITV is quite simple: the promotion of Cyprus to the world. The company provides the latest technology to enable customers to enjoy the commercial advantages of owning a TV channel and broadcasting globally, at a fraction of the cost of conventional terrestrial or satellite TV stations that are currently available. Cyprus ITV is also an agent and reseller in the advanced technology that is used to establish Internet TV stations, which, in simple terms, means that, should a company or agency need to produce its own TV station, CITV is equipped to orchestrate the need. The company also offers film production services, meeting the needs of a client from idea to concept. CITV uses "click and watch" streaming technology, which allows the viewer to enjoy a scheduled programme without the need to download anything. Through a directory, the viewer may explore different products and services available in many sectors across Cyprus. At the same time, an advertiser may present their product through the directory and at the same time host the material on their website. The same material can be used to reach a direct market through e-mails or mobile phones. CITV currently hosts programmes based on attracting tourism and business to Cyprus. The Cyprus Tourist Organization, Press and Information Office, ministries, municipalities and other organizations will be able to use the channel to project their own productions while Cyprus ITV has expanded to incorporate new fields, such as lifestyle, young innovative businesses, arts, music and never-ending challenges that will bring more attention to the island. Source: Cyprus Mail, Nicosia, in English 17 Feb 06 (via BBCM via DXLD) What`s the URL? Apparently http://www.cyprusworld.tv but not much there yet. Prompts to install Macromedia Flashplayer 8 (gh, DXLD) ** DIEGO GARCIA. QSL: AFN, 4319U, friendly, personal, frequency-only verie letter and aerial photo of Diego Garcia in 45 days for $2 and a report to U.S. Naval Support Facility, POB 2, ASC 466, FPO AP 96595. Return address lists "POB 14." V/S, IC2(SW) Marshall C. Bennett (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH-USA, R75, 200' Beverages, MLB-1, DTS-4, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. 2280 harmonic, Radio Anacaona, 0302-0311* Feb 24, Latin vocals until male announcer gave ID and brief closedown announcement in Spanish followed by orchestral National Anthem. Harmonic of 1140 kHz medium wave. Poor to fair (Rich D'Angelo, Wyomissing, PA 19610, U.S.A., Ten-Tec RX-340, Drake R-8B, Lowe HF-150, Alpha Delta DX Sloper, RF Systems Mini-Windom, Datong FL3, JPS ANC-4, NASWA Flashsheet Feb 26 via DXLD) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 2106-2159* UT Feb 24, 5005 kHz, Malabo Radio in Spanish with tropical-style music and talk about curtailing immigration to Spain by residents there. Some harsh propaganda against Spain´s influence in the current government. Abrupt sign-off. SIO 333 (Marty Delfín, Madrid, Spain, Sony ICF-77 with reel out antenna setup indoors, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Earlier than usual (gh) ** EUROPE. QSL pirate Radio Alfa Lima International The Netherlands, 15076, Pirate Radio Alfa Lima International, recibida carta QSL y tarjeta QSL con datos completos, no v/s, indicando que usaron una potencia de 450 watts en la transmisión captada. Tardaron en contetar 50 días. Junto al informe de recepción se acompañó 1 US $ para ayuda del sello de retorno. En la carta, junto a los datos del informe de recepción se pude leer: How did it all start? Our first transmission was at 14-03-1998 on a Saturday afternoon with a home brew transmitter with 100 watts. The valves that we used were the 2Xper/100. What kind of equipment were are using? Our transmitter are old German army transmitters called Rohde & Schwarz sk050 & sk 010 with an maximum power or 900 & 150 watts. The antennas are an inverted V hanging 17 metres above ground level. And 2 dipoles for 13 and 19 mb that are around 20 metres above ground level. On which frequency's are we active? We are active on several short-wave frequency's which are in the area of 6250/7400/11485/15074 and 21860 kHz, but our main frequency's are 6250 and 15074 kHz. When are we active? We do not have a real regular radio program but often we are on at Saturday night till Sunday mornings on 15074 or starting on 15074 or 21860 around 1500 UT in the weekend. How to contact: Email: info @ alfalima.net Phone 0031 619508938 Or just to our snail mail address: Alfa Lima INT Pobox 663 7900ar Hoogeveen The Netherlands (via Manuel Méndez, Spain, DXLD) ** FALKLAND ISLANDS [non]. DISMAY ABOUT BBC DECISION TO END CALLING THE FALKLANDS Its target audience may only be 2400 strong, but Calling the Falklands, the twice weekly 15-minute programme that the BBC plans to axe on 31 March, has a lot of support. In a long article for MercoPress, the South Atlantic's news agency, Harold Briley (BBC Latin America Correspondent 1979-1983) writes: "The news that the BBC World Service is axing its dedicated and historic 'Calling the Falklands' programme has caused dismay and anger among some Falklands supporters in the United Kingdom who believe it is an ill-timed error of judgment by the BBC and the Foreign Office, who finance the programme. Briley says that "Abolishing the two 15-minute programmes a week will save comparatively little money in the BBC's huge budget. The alternative package of training and programmes offered by the BBC for re-broadcast for the Islands media is welcome as far as it goes but seems to offer little more than was available previously." Read the article http://www.mercopress.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=7294 # posted by Andy @ 11:41 UT Feb 25 (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** GABON. 15475, Africa Nº 1, 1735-1745, escuchada el 21 de febrero en francés a locutor y locutora con comentarios en programa musical con piezas melódicas y música afro-pop, emitiendo en paralelo por 9580 y frecuentemente interferida por la NHK Radio Japon y la BSKSA 2 en 9580, programa "La Music Áfrican", SINPO 55454 (José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Qué número, José! Me llamó la atención la referencia tuya a Africa #1, la cual siempre consideré que aparecía en 9580 hacia las 1900, una vez que dejaba de transmitir en 15475. Pero es algo que yo no puedo confirmar porque no hay propagación a esa hora en 31 metros entre ambas costas del Atlántico. Y es que aunque recién ayer me armé de la edición 2006 del WRTH, no me he puesto a revisar si efectivamente ellos transmiten en ambas frecuencias mencionadas al mismo tiempo (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, Feb 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) WRTH 2006 shows 9580 in use straight thru from 0500 to 2300, with the other frequencies added during shorter hours (gh, DXLD) Saludos cordiales Raúl, según el EiBi.de.vu, desde Gabón la emisora África Nº 1: 9580 0500-2300 GAB Africa No.1 F Af 15475 1600-1900 GAB Africa No.1 F Af 17630 0700-1500 GAB Africa No.1 F Af Con buena señal aquí en Valencia; sin embargo la frecuencia de 17630 a falta de que te lo confirme, por aquí por Valencia no la capto; desconozco si es que realmente no transmiten o bien no entra bien por ésta frecuencia. Atentamente (José Miguel Romero, Spain, ibid.) ** GERMANY [non]. Germany : Radio Rasant - cancellation I received today an e-mail from Reinhard Marx at Radio Rasant, saying that the CDs of the programme due to be broadcast this weekend were lost by the post in their way to IRRS. They will upload their programmes to the broadcaster in the future, instead of sending them through postal mail. The announce of the cancellation of this weekend's broadcast is on their homepage http://www.radiorasant.org (Stephane Veron, France, Feb 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Latest news: our broadcasts on Sat Feb. 25 at 0900-1100 CET on 13840 kHz with a repeat on Sun Feb 26 2200-0000 CET on 5775 has been deleted. Sorry! (via DXLD) ** GREECE. IBB closing down: This is, if correct, pretty significant. It would evidently include both Kavala (MF and HF) and Rhodos (MF only now, as HF was shut down not too long after a complete rebuild of all the HF antennas). Rhodos particularly is an important site for area E. of the Maghreb (Aaron Zawitzky, DX LISTENING DIGEST) BBG/IBB Greece --- The closure of the Kavála station has been rumoured already for some time and is hardly a surprise. However, Rhodes is a different story. A look at the maps suggests that it should put a better signal of Radio Sawa into Syria and vicinity than Kuwait. I suspect that pulling out of Greece entirely is BBG's only option to get rid of Kavála, since otherwise they would certainly keep the Rhodes transmitter for Radio Sawa, all-important as a weapon in the "war on terrorism". Or is 1260 kHz much poorer than one would assume in theory? Regarding Voice of Greece: A considerable amount of their transmissions direct from Greece originate from Kavála as well. Current schedule is 0000-0400 on 9375 and 12105, 0400-0700 on 15650 and 17520, 0900-1000 on 15650 and 21530, 1100-1400 on 17525, 1100-1600 on 12105, 1400-2000 on 7430, 1600-2000 on 7475, 2000-2400 on 9375 and 12105, i.e. two transmitters most of the day. Years ago they received some of the Gloria transmitters as gift, but what are the actual capabilities of ERA's own Avlis site now, especially in regard of antennas? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) And they never got around to installing and activating some of the gifts from Glória. Maybe now, if they haven`t totally deteriorated? (gh, DXLD) ** INDIA. Re: All India Radio on 17510 kHz around 1045 UT, jammed? from Tarek Zeidan. I would agree with the comment made by Glenn. AIR 17510 is audible as I type at 1015 with a clear and clean signal although at only fair strength playing 'Film Songs'. Parallel 13710, 15235, 15260 (with unID co-channel) and 17800 are also audible but at weak strength. 15020 and 17895 are inaudible. 73 (Noel R. Green (NW England), Feb 24, dxldyg via DX LISENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. Re: All India Radio on 17510 kHz around 1045 UT, jammed? from Tarek Zeidan. I would agree with the comment made by Glenn. AIR 17510 is audible as I type at 1015 with a clear and clean signal although at only fair strength playing 'Film Songs'. Parallel 13710, 15235, 15260 (with unID co-channel) and 17800 are also audible but at weak strength. 15020 and 17895 are inaudible. 73 (Noel R. Green (NW England), Feb 24, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA [non]. New website of TWR India --- In the latest edition of HCJB-DX Partyline there is an interview with Shakti Verma, technical director of TWR-India. Allen Graham interviewed him during HFCC conference. In his interview Mr Verma advised about the new TWR India website: http://www.radiovv.org He also announced that TWR India will start verifying listeners reports with e-qsl's. Contact details for TWR India as follows: Trans World Radio - India L - 15, Green Park New Delhi - 110016 Phone : +91 11 26515790 Email : info @ twr.in Latest edition of DX Partyline can be heard at : http://www.hcjb.org/mass_media/dx_partyline/dxpl_audio_files.html (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, dx_india via DXLD) What is this mania about Christianizing India? They`ve plenty of religions already! (gh, DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL. A quick 1-hour tour of the planet [HAC] Hi guys, Conditions a rockin' --- With conditions so good this morning I did a round the world in 1 hour trip in the spirit of the Winter Olympics. All reception was made February 25th between 1705 and 1805 UT using a Collins HF-2050 and a KLM 7-30 MHz Log Periodic. NIGERIA: VoN 15120 at 1705 well into their English program of African News. Excellent signal. JORDAN: Radio Jordan 11690 at 1720 with English pop music. Sign-off announcement at 1726 then continued with a couple of Bon Jovi tuners until they pulled the plug at 1732. Excellent with just a hint of RTTY under. JAPAN: Radio Japan 9535 at 1733 with Hello from Tokyo in progress. Excellent. VATICAN: Vatican Radio 11625 at 1737 with religious programming in English. ID at 1741 then into a program called Church News. Good AUSTRALIA: Radio Australia 11880 at 1745 with a retro program from a few years back interviewing Helen Hawke. Excellent CHILE: Voz Cristiana 17680 kHz in Spanish at 1758 with many "Voz" promos and IDs. Really nice signal but battling it out with something in Russian? CANADA: CFVP 6030 at 1805 with Country Music countdown. Relay on Country Classic 1060 CKMX Calgary. 73 (Mickey Delmage, Sherwood Park, Alberta, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Solar-terrestrial indices for 24 February follow. Solar flux 76 and mid-latitude A-index 7. The mid-latitude K-index at 1800 UTC on 25 February was 1 (9 nT). No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours (SEC via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM [non]. I had not heard of this until I saw the link http://spacetransmissions.com on a small display ad for WBCQ in the March MONITORING TIMES, page 55, otherwise unexplained. Seems for $19.95 you can have WBCQ encode a message and beam it into space with a laser, not a hazard to airplanes. No guarantees of QSL, I gather, but a fun way to spend your money and help fund WBCQ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. TIME FOR A PLAN TO UNDO IRAN --- By Kenneth R. Timmerman THE WASHINGTON TIMES [moony] Published February 23, 2006 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked Congress last week for an extra $75 million to enhance radio and television broadcasting into Iran and to support pro-democracy forces there. This is welcome and long overdue. The good news is that the Bush administration has finally understood that talking about freedom is not enough. The United States must devote serious assets to helping pro-democracy forces inside Iran, if there is to be any hope of a long-term resolution to the nuclear crisis with Iran. The bad news is that, after all these years, the administration still has no plan of how to do it. . . . We need to shut down Radio Farda, help VOA produce quality radio programs in addition to TV talk shows, and hand over more money to Iranian broadcasters in Los Angeles and elsewhere who have their finger on the pulse of Iran's people. . . http://washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20060222-085120-2360r (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** JAPAN. Radio Japan's "44 minutes" program just announced its last airing will be on March 25th. 73s (Bill KA2EMZ Bergadano, Feb 25, Swprograms mailing list via DXLD) And that`s not all ** LIBYA [non]. 7320, FRANCE, R. Jamahiriya - Issodun fair-good at 0150 2/20 with English news; into Arabic music bridge and multi- lingual ID - French, English, and Arabic; then short segments in French and Arabic; ID at 0200 and back to music (Jim Ronda, Tulsa, OK, NRD-545, R-75, E-1 + Eavesdropper, NASWA Flashsheet Feb 26 via DXLD) ** LIBYA [and non]. Este sábado 25 la emisora en Libia en 17660 estaba pegando duro después de las 1200, pero no había señal de las restantes; hasta después de las 1400 fue que percibí muy levemente la radio con afro-pops y algo había debajo la dominante CVC La Voz en 17680, como una especie de zumbido, difícil de identificar de qué se trataba. Lo que sí he notado es que como que se acabó el juego del gato y el ratón de perseguirse la una a la otra; después de las 1400, al menos desde aquí, se percibe mucha calma en ese pasaje entre 17660 y 17680. Se les habrá acabado la cuerda? (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, Feb 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Respecto al juego de Sawt Al-amal y las jammer, parece que se está tranquilizando la cosa; hoy por la frecuencia de 17660 la transmisión de música árabe de 1200-1400 con un SINPO tremendo 55555, se la escuchaba en las frecuencias de 17655 y 17665. Por otra parte Sawt Al-amal ha tomado la decisión de empezar su transmisión en una frecuencia y en la segunda hora cambiar: hoy ha empezado en la frecuencia de 17670 su programa habitual con constantes cuñas de identificación con un SINPO 54444; hasta las 1255 no ha empezado la emisión de música afro-pop, pero se la escuchaba de fondo y no ha supuesto ningún problema para Sawt Al-amal. Sin embargo a las 1300 Sawt Al-amal se ha cambiado a la frecuencia de 17675, continuando su programación sin problemas y con un SINPO 54544. Desde las 1300 a las 1400, la situación ha sido que en 17660 a quedado sola la emisora de música árabe, en 17670 la emisora de música afro- pop y en 17675 Sawt Al-amal, todas transmitiendo sin problemas y sin interferencias entre ellas; hoy no se a apreciado ninguna señal de burbuja ni portadora. Las transmisiones han sido limpias. Respecto a esta emisora de música afro-pop, siguen las dudas, pero creo que también transmite desde Issoudon en Francia; la música es muy similar a la que emite la Voz de Africa en su emisión en Hausa, es mas parecida que la que transmite desde Gabón la emisora África Nº 1, y la potencia con que se la escucha en Valencia es mucho mayor que la emisora de Gabón, es una teoría, quizás no tenga mucho fundamento, pero creo que la transmisión no proviene de Gabón y sí de Francia Atentamente (José Miguel Romero, Spain, ibid.) I would not make such a conclusion. A 17 MHz signal from France should be weaker for you next door in Spain, most of it skipping over you. You cannot correlate distance with strength like that on SW. Feb 26 observations: At 1350, 17660 with Arabic music, drumming; 17685 something I could not make out aside CVC 17680; 17690 with African music, hiphop. At 1400 both 17660 and 17685 were off, 17690 continued (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also GABON; CHINA ** MEXICO. Re 6-032, unID: Hi Glenn, Hideki Watanabe followed up his UNID MEX; 770.0, XEREV-R. Volución 77, Los Mochis; 0636-0650, p on 11/25. UNID station I reported is XEREV (ex. XEFTA?) - Radio Volución 77 in Los Mochis, Sinaloa. http://www.promored.com.mx/Jjrios/jjrios.htm (Hideki WATANABE / Radio Nuevo Mundo via Takeshi SEJIMO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 4810, XERTA R. Transcontinental fair at 0215-0300 2/26 with a religious program in Spanish and occasional religious vocals; ID at 0250 that included phone number for request call-ins (Jim Ronda, Tulsa, OK, NRD-545, R-75, E-1 + Eavesdropper, NASWA Flashsheet Feb 26 via DXLD) ** NAMIBIA. 3290, Namibian Broadcasting Corporation, Windhoek, Namibia, fair signal on peaks with English talk by two men but occasional blasts of utility QRM and quick fades 0256 UT Feb 25. There was a loud het on the high side which required use of the notch filter and passband tuning; I think the source was the Voice of Guyana but I couldn't detect any audio from it despite a lot of control diddling (Harry Helms, W5HLH, Smithville, TX EL19, I used my NQAB (not quite a beverage) antenna with the feed taken at the 700/300 foot point through a Par 9:1 balun. Tonight I used my Drake R8B receiver and a MFJ tuner, ABDX via DXLD) AFAIK, Namibia has been inactive on SW for 3 years or so; 3290 is not listed in current WRTH. Could this be something else? It would be good news if you could get a definite ID. 73, (Glenn, ibid.) ** NEPAL. 5005, Radio Nepal, 2333-0113, 25-02, bonitas canciones orientales (nepalí), con comentarios en nepali, locutor. A las 0015 señales horarias (Nepal UTC +05:45), comentarios, posiblemente noticias, menciona "Nepal", luego más canciones y comentarios. Señal variable y con bastante fading. A partir 0105 la señal se volvió muy débil y terminó desapareciendo, por ser ya día en el lugar de transmisión. 24322 variando a 14311 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Re 6-035: Josesito!!! Nepal siempre fue buena verificadora pero al mandar sus preciosas QSL en tarjetas postales muy coloridas, con sellos postales muy vistosas, no sería raro que algún cartero "filatelista" las haya tomado. Un abrazo (Arnaldo Slaen, Noticias DX via DXLD) Isn`t mail theft a federal crime everywhere? (gh, DXLD) Hola, Arnaldo, lo mas seguro es que algun cartero, me haya quitado la QSL por los puñeteros sellos, ademas lo tengo observado las QSL´s que vienen sin sobre y que a otros compañeros españoles le llegan y a mi no es porque algun sinverguenza se queda con la tarjeta por los sellos, en alguna de las oficinas regionales. Yo prefiero que la manden en sobre y en vez de sello que venga con un tampon de correo pagado o algo de eso, ya que como traiga sellos lo tengo jodido para que la QSL llegue a mis manos. Yo no he vuelto a escucharla. Saludos Arnaldo (JOSE HERNANDEZ MADRID, Spain, Noticias DX via DXLD) And on Feb. 25, time pips at 1715 followed by news bulletin in Nepali and closed down at 1721. Paz y DX (Ignacio Sotomayor, Segovia, Castilla, España, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTH AMERICA. Pirate WBNY 6925 has transmitted a bunch of colour SSTV images, displayed here: http://www.rfma.net/archives/000687.html and http://www.rfma.net/archives/000686.html (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. Héctor Álvaro Gutiérrez, desde Lima, Perú, nos hace llegar un listado unificado de las emisoras que transmiten desde la capital del país y zona de influencia. 87.90 Radio SuperEstación "arrasando en sintonía" (operativa sólo en las tardes de 23+ TU hasta 0215 o +) escuchada el 29 oct. hasta 0215 (L. sur) 88.30 Telestéreo 88 FM 88.90 Radio Kebuena 89.30 Radio Chasqui Perú 89.30 Radio Amaru (escuchada el 27 oct. en surco) 90.10 Radio Superior 90.50 C.P.N. Radio (1470 khz mw) 91.10 Radio San Borja 91.50 Radio del Sur (de Lurin - Lima sur) 91.50 Radio Planicie 91.50 Andina Radio 91.50 Radio Millenium 91.90 Radio Okey 92.50 Radio Studio 92 93.10 Radio Ritmo 93.70 Radio La Inolvidable (660 khz mw) 94.30 La Mega (900 khz mw) 94.90 Radio "A" 95.50 Radio Zeta 96.70 Radio Corazón 97.30 Radio Moda 97.70 Radio María (580 khz mw) 97.70 Radio Canto Grande 97.70 Radio Alto Nivel 97.70 Radio Cadena (txn de Cieneguilla - Lima) 97.70 Radio Sensacion (txn de Chosica - Lima) 98.10 1160 Radio Noticias (1160 khz mw) 98.50 Radio Turbo Laser (escuchada el 23 oct. cuando "Onda Digital" estaba inactiva) 98.50 Radio Onda Digital 98.70 Radio La Caribeña (txn de Lima este) 99.10 Radio Doble Nueve 99.50 Radio Imperial II (2) 1440 khz mw - Lima sur. 99.50 Radio Vitarte (txn de Lima este) 99.70 Radio Auténtica "via los 99.7 de autentica para toda la gran ciudad" escuchada el 27 oct. en surco - Lima 100.10 La Cien 100.50 Radio Origen "origen fm" (escuchada el 27 oct. en surco Lima) 100.50 Radio Inti 100.50 Radio Emanuel 100.50 Radio Bonita ID "bonita" (escuchada el 5 de noviembre) 100.70 Radio Brisas del Pacífico (txn de lima sur) 100.70 Radio Activa FM "sigan en sintonía de activa fm 100.7" (escuchada el 27 oct. en surco - Lima) 101.10 Radio Panamericana (960 khz mw) 101.50 Radio Súper FM "el poder del folklor" escuchada el 27 oct. en surco - lima 101.50 Radio Shanty (2005) 101.50 Radio Stéreo Olivos (Lima norte) tal vez activa 101.70 Radio Comas (1300 khz mw) txn de Comas Lima norte. 102.10 (RDS) Radio Oxígeno (único en Lima con el sistema RDS, recientemente) 102.50 Stereo Villa "estás escuchando Stereo Villa" txn desde Lima sur (Villa TV ch 45 en UHF Lima sur) 102.70 Radio Filarmonía 103.30 Radio Unión (880 khz mw, 6115 khz en sw) 103.50 Radio San Juan 103.50 Radio Satélite 103.90 R.N.P. (850 khz, 1320 Radio la Crónica - Radio Nacional, TV ch 7 en VHF en Lima) 104.30 Radio Huracán (Radio los Andes) de vuelta cambiando su nombre a la anterior, o sea Huracán. "Huracán tu radio 104.3 fm" txn de Lima sur. 104.70 Viva FM 105.10 Radio Santa Rosa (1500 khz mw, 6045 khz en sw) 105.10 Radio Familia (txn de Lima norte) 105.10 Radio Fenix 105.50 Radio Fiesta 105.80 Radio Perú 105.90 UNID (27 oct. surco - Lima) 106.30 Radio Mar Plus (780 khz mw) 106.70 UNID (27 oct. surco Lima) 107.10 Radio Inca (540 khz mw) 107.70 Radio Planeta Lista Unificada de FM de varios distritos de Lima. Alrededor de 35 kms a la redonda (aproximado) elaborada el 28 de octubre 2005, con chequeo de Lima sur y algunos informes así como escuchas posteriores a la fecha mencionada. Como podrán leer, existen tantas estaciones de FM entre autorizadas y piratas, las cuales aparecen y desaparecen o cambian de nombre. Resultó algo dificultoso realizar una lista de este tipo. Imaginen que todo eso esté en un área de 35 kms. aproximadamente (a la redonda). Sobre RDS la única emisora con el sistema es Oxígeno 102.10 MHz; ellos mencionan "exclusivo de Oxígeno" y según parece también en todo el Perú? (Conexión Digital Feb 26 via DXLD) ** ROMANIA. RADIO ROMANIA INTERNATIONAL NEW PRIZE-WINNING CONTEST DEVOTED TO ROMANIAN SCULPTURE RRI invites you to participate in a new prize-winning contest devoted to Romanian sculpture. On February 19th 2006 it’s 130 years since one of the most outstanding sculptors of the 20th century, Constantin Brancusi was born in Hobita, Gorj county, in southwestern Romania. Regarded as the father of modern sculpture, Brancusi is just one of the outstanding sculptors Romania has ``given`` the world. One of them, Ion Irimescu died in late October 2005 aged 102. The series of outstanding Romanian artists includes: Dimitrie Paciurea, George Apostu, Oscar Han, Ion Jalea, Cornel Medrea, Gheorghe Dimitrie Anghel, Constantin Baraschi, Gheorghe Iliescu-Cãlineºti, Constantin Lucaci, Frederik Storck, Paul Vasilescu, Vida Geza, Vlad Ciobanu, Mihai Buculei or Marcel Guguianu. The last one, 80 year old sculptor Marcel Guguianu is one of the main promoters and supporters, through the foundation he runs, of our contest. So tune in to RRI’s programmes and access our site http://www.rri.ro and provide correct and complete answers, in writing, to the questions and you may be a winner of the contest. You should post your answers, at the latest, by March 31st, 2006. The contest offers two Grand Prizes --- two 10-day trips, for one person, with full board, at the end of June and the beginning of July 2006 in Bucharest (to visit the museums and workshops of some Romanian sculptors), in Targu Jiu (to get to know the birthplace and works of Brancusi) in Craiova (to get acquainted with one of the projects of the Guguianu Foundation) and in Bârlad (to see the Marcel Guguianu Exhibition Pavilion). As usual, you have to cover travel expenses outside Romania and get a visa for Romania, if necessary. If you do not win the Grand Prize, don`t worry because there are many other prizes in objects related to the life and work of some important Romanian sculptors; they will be offered by the local authorities of Targu Jiu, the ``Marcel Guguianu`` Foundation, by renowned fine artists and by the two media partners of the contest: Radio Oltenia of Craiova and the newspaper ``Gorjeanul``, of Târgu Jiu. And now the questions: - When did Constantin Brâncuºi live? - In what Romanian city is the Marcel Guguianu Exhibition Pavilion located? - Name at least 3 famous Romanian sculptors. - Name several museums displaying works by Brancusi and Guguianu respectively. Please write to us what made you participate in the contest. You can send your answers to: Radio Romania International, 60-64 G-ral Berthelot street, sector 1, Bucharest, PO Box 111, code 010165, fax 00.40.21.319.05.62, e-mail: engl @ rri.ro or eng @ rri.ro Post your answers by March 31st 2006 at the latest. The winners of the contest will be announced in mid April 2006. Good luck (via Jaisakthivel. T, President of Ardic Dx Club ardicdxclub @ yahoo.co.in dxldyg via DXLD) Where does the name Ardic come from? (gh) ** RUSSIA. Voice of Russia What`s New http://www.vor.ru/English/Exclusives/what_new.html THE WHIMS OF FATE (on the air as of February 27th). The next edition of our weekly feature will be devoted to Matvey Mudrov, an outstanding Russian physician of the 18th century, who is considered to be the founding father of the Russia therapeutic school. We invite you to tune in to THE WHIMS OF FATE which will go on the air on Monday at 1730 and 1930, and then will be repeated on Tuesday at 0430, Wednesday at 1730 and 1830, Thursday at 0430, Friday at 1730 and 1930, and Saturday at 0430 all times UT [add a sesquiminute to all]. The text version of the program is posted at http://www.vor.ru/English/whims/whims_main.html (via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) ** SWITZERLAND. SWISS BROADCASTING CORPORATION DEFENDS INTERNET STRATEGY On the occasion of its 75th anniversary, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) has defended its online strategy in the face of protests from publishers. The SBC said its multimedia websites added value to its radio and television programmes and were helping the corporation retain its competitive edge. Read the story at swissinfo http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=106&sid=6500747&cKey=1140792909000 # posted by Andy @ 11:37 UT Feb 25 (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** TAIWAN [and non]. [bangladx] RTI LISTENERS' MEET AT KOLKATA Dear DXers, 48 DXers enjoyed a day-long meeting on 19th February 2006 with Radio Taiwan International's Chairman Mr. Feng Jeng Lin, Vice Manager of Programming Department Mr. Wayne T. F. Wang and Senior Staff of English Section Mr. Carlson Wang at The Peerless Inn, 12, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Kolkata. At 11:30 a.m the DXers entered the hotel and registered themselves. Everybody was given a special commemorative picture postcard. At the beginning of the meeting Radio Taiwan International's Chairman Mr.Feng Jeng Lin welcomed all and mentioned India and Taiwan both being democratic countries respect each other. Mr. Carlson Wang translated the Chairman's speech in English. A 15 minutes' long documentary on RTI was shown next. Then it was a tea/coffee break. In the next session DXers voiced their proposals when Mr. Feng Jeng Lin and Mr. Carlson Wang commented on the proposals and noted these down. Among the Dxers were Mr. Swopan Chakraborty [sic] (Official Monitor of RTI), Mr. Rabishankar Basu, Mr. Pranab Kumar Roy, Mr. Hiranmoy Mondal, Mr. Anandamohan Bain, Mr. Dipak Das, Mr. T. Jaisakthivel, Mr. Bhudeb Sarkar, Mr. Subir Basu, Mr. Rajdeep Das, Mr. Tanumoy Chakraborty, Mr. Bishan Ghoshal, Mr. Talat Mahmood (excuse me, I can not recollect others' names). DXers mainly requested to improve propagation condition so that the programs become audible. They also drew the attention to the jamming on the RTI frequencies. Requests for airing regional language programs (Bengali & Tamil) was also placed. Some listeners wanted to have colourful program schedule. The Chairman of RTI assured the DXers to look into the proposals and to do something positive. This questions- proposals-answers session went on in two halves - pre and post lunch. Then some mementos were distributed and finally a listeners' club was formed and Mr. Swopan Chakraborty was given the chair of the president of the club. After another Coffee break the meeting was over. Sincerely yours, (Rajib Bandyopadhyay, Feb 22, bangladx yg via Swopan Chakroborty, DXLD) We hope to hear how RTI may manage to improve propagation conditions so programs become audible. That`s quite a turnout since RTI does not even broadcast in Bengali (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Re ``RADIO TAIWAN NEW FREQ FOR SOUTH ASIA --- Starting February 18th, our broadcasts to South Asia will be changed from 1600 to 1700 UT at 11815 KHz to 1700 to 1800 UT at 6080 KHz.`` NEW FREQUENCY IS NOT AUDIBLE BECAUSE OF OTHER STATION INTERFERENCE. PLEASE CHECK AND SEND THE LATEST FREQUENCY (Raja Raja, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Way to go, RTI; per EiBi, R. Australia is on 6080 during that hour, and also CNR1 until 1735 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY. Voice of Turkey, January-June 2006 schedule booklet: Glenn, In the program schedule I do not see an explanation of English I, English II, I. Term or II. Term. [From previous experience, and from knowing the actual schedule of Live From Turkey, English I must mean the 1930 UT broadcast, when LFT pre-empts other programming on Tuesdays; and English II the 1330 UT broadcast, when LFT pre-empts other programming on Thursdays. But unlike previously, there are other differences between English I and II. So why don`t they spell out which of the several English airtimes each day apply to each version???? I thought that LFT was NOT repeated on subsequent broadcasts the same day, but maybe now it is? Or maybe this is a backwards way of presenting the programming, in that when you come to Tuesday you look at one version for the 1930 broadcast with LFT, and the other version for all the other transmissions without it. The program day normally begins with the 1330 broadcast, with the final repeats on the next UT day`s 0400 broadcast. All these times one UT hour earlier from A-06, last Sunday in March, to confuse things further, when there will also be frequency changes not yet known. As for Terms I and II, I THINK this refers to the first and second quarters of the year, with a few program changes coming in the second quarter. Another unexplained item, which we know about: when there is a / between program titles, that means they alternate week to week, e.g. DX Corner --- gh] I have retyped the following: Voice of Turkey Program Schedule January 1 thru June 30, 2006 English I I. Term (II. Term programs indicated when different) Monday News-Review of the Turkish Press Last Week Hues and Colours of Anatolia Mustafa Kerman [Kemal] Atatürk Turkish on Radio Tuesday News-Review of the Turkish Press Last Week in Turkish Sports Turkey, an Energy Bridge Culture of Co-habitation Did You Know These? Wednesday News-Review of the Turkish Press Foreign Media Letter Box The EU Agenda/The Economic Weekly Thursday News-Review of the Turkish Press Live from Turkey Friday News-Review of the Turkish Press Turkish Album Like A Fairy Tale Did You Know These? Saturday News-Review of the Turkish Press Outlook From Our Correspondents/DX Corner Bergama. (II. Term has ``Hello Troy`` instead) Sunday News-Review of the Turkish Press Turkey With Its Traditions Leyla Gencer (II. Term: ``Hide And Seek In Istanbul`` instead) Turkish On Radio English II I. Term (II. Term programs indicated when different) Monday News-Review of the Turkish Press Last Week Hues and Colours of Anatolia Mustafa Kerman [Kemal] Atatürk Did You Know These? Tuesday News-Review of the Turkish Press Live From Turkey Wednesday News-Review of the Turkish Press Foreign Media Letter Box Iraq and the Middle East Through Turkey’s Window Thursday News-Review of the Turkish Press The Balkans/From The Dailies Turkey On The List Of World Heritage In The Wake Of A Contest Friday News-Review of the Turkish Press Turkish Album Like A Fairy Tale Turkish On Radio Saturday News-Review of the Turkish Press Outlook From Our Correspondents/DX Corner Bergama (II. Term has ``Hello Troy`` instead) Sunday News-Review of the Turkish Press Turkey With Its Traditions Leyla Gencer (II. Term, ``Hide And Seek In Istanbul`` instead) Did You Know These? 73, (via Kraig Krist, KG4LAC, Manassas, VA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, Thanks for the explanation. Even with the schedule confusion, with broadcasters leaving SW, I guess we should be thankful VOT remains on SW. 73, (Kraig W. Krist, ibid.) The folder also lists recent winners of trips to Turkey and something about them; that too is not inconsequential, for essayists (gh, DXLD) ** U K. STEPSON SOLVES THE MYSTERY OF PRIESTLEY WARTIME RADIO AXE Yorkshire Post By James Reed 26 February 2006 http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1367007 It was one of the great mysteries of the Second World War. For more than half a century, intrigue has surrounded the abrupt end to the wartime broadcasts of Yorkshire-born writer JB Priestley. His Sunday evening radio programme was designed to rally morale among the population and was one of the most popular of the period. But in early 1941, eight weeks into its latest run, the broadcasts came to an end and were never resurrected, prompting much speculation over what had happened. Now, almost 65 years later, Priestley's stepson believes he has the definitive answer and will bring an end to the mystery in a lecture next month. Nicolas Hawkes, who lives in Ilkley, has pieced together the answers by scouring the BBC archives and other documents from the time. He said his stepfather had never spoken of the incident in later years despite the controversy at the time. But Mr Hawkes, a retired lecturer, believes the evidence suggests Priestley's scripts finally prompted elements of the political establishment to take action. While his broadcasts were hugely popular their content did not always go down well with a certain section of British society at the time. Mr Hawkes said: "He was a bit left of centre in outlook, not really in the political sense but in that he believed very strongly in community, in justice and in saying that Britain couldn't go back to the injustices of the 1930s and the men and women involved in the fighting must be given a good deal when the war was over. "Winston Churchill would not put his mind to what kind of society we should have after the war. There were Conservatives who said 'never mind about society, never mind about justice or how to improve life for people, we just want to win the war'." Priestley was given the job in the early years of the war when the BBC was looking for broadcasters who could raise morale. He began his broadcasts in the wake of the evacuation of forces from the beaches at Dunkirk and stayed on the airwaves for 20 weeks. Mr Hawkes said: "He had a gift for language and a gift for communication and a record as an infantryman in the First World War. He was a person who could reach people across the country and had a very good microphone voice, very deep with lots of tones. "He was hugely praised and admired by all and sundry. People used to say that Churchill was the only person more people listened to than Priestley. "The broadcasts were aimed at people at war but they weren't about the war. He was really talking about his experiences and his observations of people. "When he came back in 1941 after his break, his listening figures went up from 32 per cent of the adult population to about 40 per cent, his highest being 44 per cent. "Graham Greene, as a writer, did not rate Priestley highly but he wrote in the Spectator that Priestley had become a national figure and had held the country together." As for the exact way Priestley was removed from the airwaves, Mr Hawkes will wait for his lecture to the JB Priestley Society to reveal all. The lecture will be held at Bradford University on Saturday, March 18 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. Alastair [sic] Cooke's first Letter from America was broadcast on the Home Service (now Radio 4) on Sunday 24 March 1946. It began: "I want to tell you what it's like to come back to the United States after a sobering month or two in Britain... I came back with a couple of thousand of GI brides...". Straight into the story, and then he went on to talk about his voyage on the Queen Mary that had taken him and those GI brides across the ocean from Southampton. Given a new "top and tail", this was re-recorded by Cooke as his 50th anniversary talk in March 1996. On that occasion, I wrote in the Sunday Times: "Through the subjects he takes and the way he illuminates them, the message he conveys is that life is not some meaningless, post- modernist nightmare in which nothing has any explanation or point, but that past and present are connected in a logical, linear fashion; that reason can make sense of events; that knowledge is to be shared, just like a joke or a wee dram. He is, by all accounts, including his own, a difficult and irascible man, but literally irreplaceable". Ten years on, I stand by that, despite sometimes enjoying and often learning from the contributions made by his assortment of successors (Paul Donovan, UK Radio Listners - where there are other postings about these memorable radio broadcasts, via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A. No signal from WRMI 7385, at 0532 UT check Feb 26; normally starts 7385 at 0500 on Sundays; unknown what happened in the 14-16 UT period. On as usual at 2230 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 3270, WWRB, Manchester, TN, with the always enjoyable Brother Stair 0307 UT Feb 25. I've never understood the antipathy toward Brother Stair; I think he is secretly a gifted performance artist, a total put-on in the tradition of the late comedian Andy Kaufmann. I visited the WWRB web site out of curiosity and saw that air time is available for $30 per half-hour and $60 per hour. That's very tempting; I can be, and often am, angry and incoherent so maybe a new career as a radio evangelist on shortwave awaits me (Harry Helms, W5HLH, Smithville, TX EL19, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. WWCR - WORLD WIDE CHRISTIAN RADIO --- FIFTEEN PLUS YEARS ON THE AIR --- By Dr Jerry Plummer --- is a 3-page illustrated article on the history of WWCR, in the March issue of MONITORING TIMES (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. I've been exploring Texas Radio Station websites and ran across a strange one tonight ... not far from Tulia, Texas, where a phone drug ring prosecution took place a few years ago. In Shamrock, Texas, the owner of the FM station (if you believe his website) has been convicted of stealing from his own station. http://www.kbkh.com http://www.monsterfm.com/justice/ Qal R. Mann, Krumudgeon (John Callarman, Krum TX, ABDX via DXLD) That IS a strange one, sir Qal R Mann. Man I thought -I- was in small- market radio. That sounds really small-marketish, like the small towns where the town council members bring their guns to the council meetings. (I have actually heard this happens in some of the small towns here in the wild west!) (Michael n Wyoming Richard, ibid.) Sounds like Boss Hogg and Rosco P. Coltrane are in charge of this small radio market! (Mike Westfall, N6KUY, WDX6O Los Alamos, New Mexico (DM65uv), ibid.) Calls were KBYB and I have the banner. I have pictures here before the tower was taken down and the studio stuff and transmitter removed. The Collins was saved by a ham in New England. http://www.qsl.net/w4opw/kbyp.htm Mr. Hammond is a friend of mine, and "The Red River Mafia" a.k.a. the EDC thinks they own the station. Funny, the FCC shows no record of this. But these folks aided with a corrupt state prosecutor (the previous one went to jail for serious drug charges) who does not recognize the FCC as governing radio stations in Texas. Unfortunately Mr. Hammond's appeal is the 28th, and it may be that he will have to go to jail for 2 years. I am also on the EDC's shit list, so when I go through Wheeler county I've got to go through and not get caught for speeding. If I did, I could end up dead, I guess. There's a lot more I could say, but the hit man could show up (Powell E. Way, III, SC, ibid.) The 1580 must be connected with this: http://www.monsterfm.com/ Leading to: Crime and Corruption in the TX Panhandle: http://www.shamrockjustice.com/ Beware: automatic audio launch. This was previously covered a few years ago in DXLD, under OKLAHOMA [non] since Hammond was thinking about moving across the border to Oklahoma to get away from that horrible place, Shamrock (Glenn Hauser, ibid.) There has been some commentary about this from Keith on the b/c list. Apparently the prosecutor was able to claim in court that "the FCC license for KBKH is a forgery", and should be disregarded by the jury. The EDC would be the local Economic Development Council, who purport to be the true owners, as I understand the posted accounts (Bob Foxworth, ABDX via DXLD) The license is not a forgery, but that's one of the claims of David Rushing. He also doesn't recognize the FCC as valid --- period (Powell E. Way III W4OPW, ibid.) ** U S A. Re 6-030, the new public radio station in Marfa, KRTS 93.5, more strangeness in TX: Marfa shows up only as a CP for an LPFM on *98.5. Yet that is the place, in the sparse Big Bend area where ``Marfa Public Radio`` is supposed to be authorized. It claims to have one [won?] 93.5C1 in Auction 37, but no construction permit has been issued; and it wants the calls KRTS (Feb FMedia! via DXLD) The story from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 6-030 said station would be ``dedicated`` by Dan Rather and others on Feb 13. Much of it is in the future tense, but the overall impression is that it`s a done deal and on the air, or very nearly so. I looked again at the website http://www.marfapublicradio.org on Feb 25, and there is still nothing definite in the way of a program schedule, or streaming. The News page does have a pdf copy of a story originally from the NY Times, but obviously reprinted somewhere else, Feb 15 http://www.marfapublicradio.org/docs/NewYorkTimes_021505.pdf which says KRTS ``signed on`` when Rather flipped a switch. It goes on to detail how the tower has been constructed on 6900-foot Brown Mountain, so that would seem to have required a CP! [none of these newspaper stories are copyable] More from an earlier, local newspaper story, Big Bend Sentinel, Feb 9: http://www.marfapublicradio.org/docs/BBS_020906.pdf A week before the launch, the station was still waiting for furniture and equipment. Construction on the tower was still underway. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the station should be fully furnished and tower construction complete in about a month. The antenna is still under construction on Brown Mountain off FM 166 in Jeff Davis County. GM Tom Michael expects the coverage area to increase as the tower is completed and the height of the antenna increases. A photo caption in the Feb 2 issue of same shows a satellite dish on roof of the studio which ``will send the signal to Brown Mountain`` -- I seriously doubt that; more likely to downlink NPR and any other incoming programming. I have written to the station for clarification on all this (Glenn Hauser, OK, Feb 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Dear Mr Michael, Years ago I considered moving to Marfa, and one reason I did not was the lack of public radio. So I was naturally interested when I heard about your new station. Now I am trying to make some sense out of the info on your website, including the three newspaper stories, and another one I saw first in the FW Star-Telegram. The impression is that KRTS is on the air in some way, since Dan Rather and Willie Nelson helped dedicate it Feb 13 and threw a switch, altho not up to its full capacity. Is this correct? One says you are already transmitting from Brown Mountain even tho the tower is not complete. So you have your antenna on a temp lower tower, near ground level at the site? Or are you transmitting on 93.5 temporarily from another location, such as your studio? If so, with how much power? The Feb issue of FMedia says the FCC has not even issued MPR a construction permit, nor assigned call letters. How do you respond to this? Good luck, anyway, in spreading public radio to the far reaches of west Texas! I hope you will be adding web streaming ASAP so I can hear you, further away. Regards, (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO) Here`s the FCC FM Query result; facility ID 164217 but as Matinee Radio: http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?list=0&facid=164217 The tiger map shows location as within the city limits of Marfa. Status: CP applied for as of 08/06/2004. Quite possibly the FCC`s own website is not up to date (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U S A. WUEV *91.5 Evansville IN stays with University of Evansville ownership, after a well-organized ``Save WUEV`` effort prompted university officials to announce that any sale is off. The college received a $700,000 offer for the station, which is often very convincing to administrators. The party making the offer not identified, but it might have come from one of the big national religious broadcasters. University president Stephen Jennings hopes to boost academic offerings at the station and to boost support for its jazz, sports and alternative music programming. It has one paid staff member overseeing the student volunteers. It has, according to M Street online, been on since 1951 (Feb FMedia! via DXLD) Also on the WRN affiliate list, but the exact hours carried has been unclear, and probably not when WOR is on. Website http://wuev.evansville.edu/ now has a grid not showing any WRN, but does have streaming (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. EXPANDED CITY BROADCASTER ON SAME FREQUENCY COULD OVERPOWER WMUC --- By Nick Madigan, Sun Reporter, February 24, 2006 A ripple of indignation spread across the campus of the University of Maryland, College Park yesterday over news that its student-run radio station, which has been broadcasting since 1937, might be unceremoniously forced off the air by a more powerful station in Baltimore. The college station, WMUC, issued an appeal to alumni to help it retain its signal, currently powered by just 10 watts and available within a radius of only a few miles of the 1,200-acre campus. University officials said they had met with lawyers to determine the station's legal options. They also began looking for an engineer to explore moving the station to another frequency, out of harm's way, although that option, they said, could be thwarted by the crowded radio spectrum in and around Washington. It is WMUC's position at 88.1 on the FM dial -- not just its small size -- that has placed it in jeopardy. It has the same frequency as WYPR, a 10,000-watt public radio station in Baltimore that intends to increase its power south, a move that could obliterate WMUC's signal. . . http://tinyurl.com/jpvot (Baltimore Sun via Ken Kopp, KK0HF, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A. NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND OLD PRACTICES DON'T MIX http://radiosutton.blogspot.com/2006/02/new-technologies-and-old-practices.html A new report from the Audience 2010 project all but says public radio is hurting itself by not making Morning Edition and All Things Considered available on satellite radio in real time. It will be a hotly debated topic and one that should be the catalyst for answering a much more important question raised in the report. Is public radio a collection of stations that provide public service to individual communities or is it a system that provides public service to the nation, and increasingly, the world? Changes in technology are forcing public radio away from the first definition and toward the second. That shift is uncovering significant weaknesses in public radio's structure. It's this structure -- the mutated product of a station-centric, government subsidized business model where stations pay hefty programming fees to networks -- that presents the biggest threat to public radio. That model was weakening before satellite radio. It's on the verge of breaking today. Few stations include in their mission statements the importance of serving the nation and the world through their NPR membership. And few will as long as they believe that allowing NPR greater access to listeners through satellite radio will harm them. NPR, despite lots of rhetoric about partnerships, does not have stated, measurable goals regarding the audience growth or financial health of its member stations. To use a well-worn cliché, NPR and stations don't have each other's back. Instead of looking out for one another, they are wary of each other. To remain a significant media choice, NPR needs to have its best programming available in real time on all delivery platforms. This is a sacrifice stations will have to make. We maintain, as does Audience 2010, that stations will remain the backbone of public radio for the foreseeable future. They will need mechanisms to remain financially viable as they receive more competition for listeners to their most expensive, and profitable, programming. NPR will have to make sacrifices to ensure this. While these are essential actions, nothing will happen until NPR and stations transcend the parochial attitudes that are driven by old technology, old systems, and old practices. Everything, from how programs reach listeners to how stations pay NPR to how money is raised, needs to be updated. Efforts to address new opportunities such as satellite radio, podcasting, and WiMax -- one at a time -- are nothing more than temporary fixes for a much bigger problem. Public radio isn't poised to grow over the next few decades because its business relationships and practices are rooted in the way things used to be. In future postings, some ideas on how to change that. posted by RadioSutton at 4:20 PM Thursday, February 23, 2006 (via DXLD) ** U S A. Re 6-034, formats, There's Portuguese on KLBS 1330-CA: The Portuguese on KLBS serves the generations old population, of the region between (roughly) Los Baños to the south and Patterson to the north (also referred to as the West Side), who are immigrants from various countries of which Portuguese is the main/only language. I grew up in Modesto, CA, and knew several families in the area - some of the elders spoke only Portuguese (Mike Hardester, NC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Tonight the Coast to Coast AM web page at http://www.coasttocoastam.com/ contains an audio clip of the 1942 CBS newscast concerning the infamous Los Angeles Air Raid incident. The clip contains mention of all southern CA radio stations being ordered off the air with the exception of the San Diego stations. It is a very interesting several minute clip. Apparently this is the anniversary of the incident (Patrick Griffith Westminster, CO, Feb 25, IRCA via DXLD) Viz.: UFO Air Raid on L.A. Tonight is the anniversary of the 1942 Los Angeles Air Raid. According to accounts from the era, unidentified aerial objects were spotted in the sky over the L.A. area, prompting the military to activate air raid sirens and launch an anti-aircraft attack against them. The following audio, submitted last year by Coast listener Wallace B., is from a 1942 CBS Morning News broadcast which details the incident: Win | Real [under 4 minutes] http://mfile.akamai.com/5022/rm/coast.download.akamai.com/5022/clips/05/12/120705_cbs_news_ufo.ram (via gh, DXLD) ** U S A. In checking the other Caribbean format stations I found 1700 WJCC Miami Springs, off the air. It had been running // 1580 WSRF Fort Lauderdale, since WSRF returned to the air. WSRF resumed operation on 2/3 -- diplexing with 1400 WFLL Ft. L., according to Scott -- following a hurricane Wilma induced outage on 10/25/05 (W. Curt Deegan, Boca Raton, (southeast) FL, Feb 26, IRCA via DXLD) Maybe the 5 year rule for WJCC 1700 came up and Liu turned that in. He had stated that was the one he was going to turn in. 1210 is clearly a better facility (Paul Walker, ibid.) Indeed - WJCC no longer appears in the FCC's database. This would appear to be the second X-bander to go off at the end of the five years, after KBLI 1620 in Idaho, and the fourth X-bander in all to go away, after KALT 1610 in Texas and the 1620 in Atmore, Alabama. Actually, scratch that - Atmore moved to Gulf Breeze FL and returned as WNRP, so that leaves three that have gone silent: KBLI, KALT and now WJCC. S (Scott Fybush, ibid.) ** U S A. WDAB, 1580 kHz, Traveler's Rest, SC Maintenance Test Date(s): February 27, 2006 (Late Sunday Night, early Monday Morning) Time: Midnight to 01:00 AM EST (0500-0600 UT) Modes of Operation: 5 KW, Non-Directional Programming: Morse Code ID's, Sweep Tones, Voice ID. Notes: Reception reports are desired via e-mail (first choice) and snail mail (only if e-mail is not available) Station would prefer to received recordings of the test (MP3, CD, or cassette). Submit reports to: les @ highnoonfilm.com Please put "WDAB DX Test" in the subject line. All standard mail reports should go to: Les Rayburn High Noon Film 100 Centerview Drive Suite 111 Birmingham, AL 35216 Thanks to the staff of WDAB for this test! Special thanks to member Paul Walker, Jr. who helped to arrange this test and is working with us to set up many more to come. http://www.walkerbroadcasting.com (Les Rayburn, Jan 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST 6-020 via 6-036) ** URUGUAY. 15 FEB, 0914 UT, 3020 KHZ (1510 x 2), Radio Ibirapitá, Uruguay. Castellano. "Encuento Folclórico". Fuerte. Desvanecimiento propagacional. 17 FEB, 2300 UT, 3020 KHZ (1510 x 2), Radio Ibirapitá, Uruguay. Castellano. Apertura Carnaval 2006. Grupo "Agatha". Fuerte. Desvanecimiento propagacional (Adán Mur, desde Ñemby, Paraguay, Conexión Digital via DXLD) ** VIETNAM. VIETNAM WAR PIRATE DJ DAVE RABBIT HAS FINALLY COME FORWARD From Corey Deitz, Your Guide to Radio. Feb 19 2006 His Story in His Own Words The story of Dave Rabbit has circulated for years with few facts and much speculation. Rabbit was serving in the Air Force during U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. He started a short-lived, Pirate Radio station that became legendary. Not much could be verified - until now. On February 14, 2006, Rabbit emerged and contacted several people, including myself, through an intermediary. I was sent Rabbit's story, which he wrote, along with photographs. I subsequently spoke personally with Rabbit and verified, to my satisfaction, the autenticity of his claims. Here now is the story of Radio Pirate Dave Rabbit, his station, and his broadcasts. 21 Days in the Saigon Underground --- The Birth and Death of Radio First Termer - By Dave Rabbit 35 years after the last words were spoken on the "Big 69", I find myself excited again about having the opportunity to relive and tell the true story of a part of my life that will be with me until they bury me face down in my grave so the whole world can kiss my ass. . . http://radio.about.com/od/pirateradio/a/aa021506a.htm (via Curtis Sadowski, IL, WTFDA Soundoff via DXLD) RADIO PHAN RANG, 101.75 FM is referred to first, then R. First Termer was supposedly on ``69 MHz on your FM dial``. Whose FM dial? That`s even below the Japanese FM band (gh, DXLD) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. Has tenido noticia de la Radio Nacional Saharawi en onda corta, o seré el único que no la recibe? Un abrazo. (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, Feb 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) He was asking José Miguel Romero. Has been inactive on SW 7460v for months now (gh, DXLD) En un boletín de noticias en TVE se ha hablado de la situación en los campos de refugiados del pueblo Saharaui en Argelia tras las últimas lluvias torrenciales, aunque no se ha hablado de daños personales; sí que ha habido muchos daños materiales. Se desconoce pues la situación de la Radio Nacional Saharaui, pero es probable que ante la precariedad de los medios disponibles, estas lluvias hayan provocado daños y puede estar fuera del aire sin transmitir; desde hace unos días por Valencia no se la puede escuchar, pero desconozco el motivo (José Miguel Romero, Spain, Feb 25, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Last Friday 24th I could listen to them at 2300 UT in Spanish with a program about an historical view of their 30 years of "fighting", on MW 1550. SIO/554. Paz y DX (Ignacio Sotomayor, Segovia, Castilla, España, (40º57'00''N-4º07'10''W), Rcvx: ICOM R-75; SONY ICF -SW7600, Anx: Hilo largo de 20 metros y Balun; KIWA Pocket Loop, ibid.) Gracias Ignacio, confiemos pues que no se haya visto afectada; en estos momentos por Valencia en la emisión árabe no se la escucha, tal vez fruto del fuerte temporal que estamos sufriendo. Un saludo (Romero, ibid.) [Luego:] Saludos cordiales, acabo de comprobar que la R. N. Saharaui está emitiendo por los 1550 khz; parece ser que no ha sufrido daños, buena noticia. A pesar de las malísimas condiciones metorológicas aquí en Valencia con un fuerte temporal, se la está escuchando con un SINPO 32332 (José Miguel Romero, 2321 UT Feb 26, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 4675, re 6-035: Strange station. I checked this one 26 Feb at 1725. Continuous Middle-East/Central Asian flavoured pop songs. One song was also in English. Writing this around 1835 and yet no announcements heard. Mode is AM and rather strong signal. Ignacio, did you hear any announcements or only music? (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, Feb 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yesterday February 25th I listened to them once again at 1609 with chants, only in Arabic. No English songs and of course no identification. By the way, at 1602 I hear some comments about flight situation or so. Is this a frequency for NAT? (Ignacio Sotomayor, Segovia, España, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Do you mean by that, an aeronautical frequency for the North Atlantic route, or what? (gh, DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ "TIPS FOR RATIONAL LIVING" Glenn, First of all, all credit to you for your hard work and the wonderful fruits of it, your column above the paragraph "tips for rational living". As I read in that part of the column, you have little use for gospel huxters and other pushy perveyors of religion. To that end we are in a high positive correlation. In your "tips..." section, however, your advocacy of your religion, specifically "atheism", I find rather hypocritical. And I truly do not believe you are a hypocrite. But it may be that you haven't considered the way it comes off in your column. Have you considered that your proselytizing of atheism in your otherwise brilliant WOR column is something like the "missionaries" knocking on your door during the 4th quarter of the big game (ooops, forgot, silly game), of the long awaited top of the hour ID from that rare entity, and detracts from the (selfishly, "my" ) enjoyment of your otherwise excellent compilation. The message may be spot on, but in the context of the newsletter it is a "great unconformity". I am sure I will keep reading your column, and will continue to tune out the commercials. Your column is too good not to keep reading. I must be honest, I have been going to send you some support ($) as I can, but I want to support your World of Radio, not your World of Religion. What an ethical question, I avidly read your column, but don't support it financially because a part of it proselytizes religion. I guess I either need to send money or quit reading the column? Tag line in progress: I know what I believe, er, think I believe, but I can't prove any of it. Not sure the inability to regenerate new limbs sways me one way or another... :-) If well endowed ladies work at Hooters, where to one-legged girls work??? IHOP PS: This is just a private thought, not written to see my name in print. You won't offend me by deleting this. Wishing you great DX! //dbd// Very respectfully, (yes, I mean that) (Don DeCaria, NF7R, Logandale, NV, Feb 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thanks for a thoughtful reaxion! I`m not in this for the money, so I can forego some extra financial support which you don`t feel comfortable sending, tho I am sorry that is the case. I justify (rationalize?) it this way: if there were no gospel huxters on SW radio (or in the world at all?), I would feel no need for an occasional TFRL to present the other side. This is rather unlikely to happen. TFRLs amount to a tiny fraxion of DXLD content, and are always put at the very end so those who don`t want to read them can easily skip or delete them; they are also mostly brief, and/or only linking to further reading. Whether atheism is a ``religion`` itself is an age-old conundrum which we are not going to solve either. I hope you will keep reading and like anything else in DXLD which is not of personal interest, just skip it (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, Thanks for the great reply. You met my every expectation and I am very pleased to send you this admittedly small amount. Hope to make it a habit! (Don NF7R, with a PayPal contribution) LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ Re 6-034. Castellano y español --- Hi fellas. For those interested in Carlos Gonçalves` thread about language lessons. We learnt at High School that Castellano was the name of the subject dealing with grammar and orthography of the Spanish language. Even here in Tiquicia (C.R.) we sometimes say "Spanish is spoken in Spain, here we speak in tico or "pachuco", (referring to the way the common vulgar or street people speak with lots of slang and sayings)". It's little the same if we consider that the real Portuguese is spoken in Portugal, as in Brazil they speak in "brasileiro", or Portuguese with some "salsa". OTOH, if this becomes true, the real English is what they speak in England, and maybe we could joke about what they speak in the US is "gringo", as may not be the essential language. Besides the other day, some colleagues were arguing about some names in the Baja California region when dealing about the XTRA or XETRA call letters. There must be two different places with names alike in a few miles. ROSALITO means a little field full of roses, while ROSARITO, being the R the only difference, is the kindly way a woman by the name of ROSARIO is treated. Regards (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) It still strikes me as odd that a female-only name would end in -o, but of course it comes from the word rosary, which is inalterably masculine. If I were a woman, I would not like to be named for a string of beads, of any gender (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ BROADCAST ENGINEERING SOCIETY EXPO, INDIA Hi Glen[n], A report on BES Expo alongwith DAB roadshow photos now available at : http://www.geocities.com/alokeshgupta/bes_expo_2006.pdf Regds, (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, Feb 25, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Jonathan Marks also reports from there in his Critical Distance blog, more about sightseeing in India (gh) see also TAIWAN [and non] 2006 WINTERFEST PROGRAM Here's the full schedule for this year's SWL Winterfest in Kulpsville PA. For additional information, go to http://www.swlfest.com 2006 SWL WINTERFEST FORUMS SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM [EST = UT =5] FRIDAY 3 MARCH 0815-1030 Registration Table Open (Stockholm Room) 0850-0900 Announcements and Directions (Stockholm Room) Exhibit Area Open Radio HF Sales, DRM Demo, Satellite Demo, DX Tuner Demo, Club Tables 0900-1000 • Will Radio Clubs Survive? Some say that with the arrival of the internet, the need for radio clubs no longer exists. Yet, several clubs have surveyed the landscape, adjusted to their new environments, and appear to be flourishing nonetheless. Are radio clubs still relevant? Sheldon Harvey leads a panel and the audience on a discussion of this timely topic for the hobby. 1030-1130 • The Year in Pirate and Clandestine Radio Chris Lobdell, John Fisher and crew review recent developments in unofficial, non-sanctioned, unlicensed, free, political dissident, and otherwise unruly wireless. Lunch on your own Hospitality Room open 1130-1330 1320-1330 Announcements and Directions (Stockholm Room) 1300-1400 Registration Table Open (Stockholm Room) 1330-1430 • The Scum Show (Totally Irresistable) ...with your hosts, Skip Arey and Tom Swisher. This year`s episode even has a theme: ``You Can`t Podcast a Scanner!`` While many broadcast outlets present podcasting as an alternative content resource, scanning`s ``real time`` nature keeps it both interesting and pod-proof! FYI: The Scum are posting a lot of local Kulpsville frequency information at http://www.scannerscum.com 1500-1600 • SWL Gizmos John Wagner surveys a collection of newly made available receiver accessories for portables and table tops, briefly describing each product and how it works (or perhaps doesn`t). If you`re looking for a way to better reception, maybe you don`t a new radio. Perhaps one of these gizmos could be your answer. (Special thanks to our good friends and longtime Fest supporter, Universal Radio in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, for supplying John with these samples.) 1630-1730+ • A Radio Theatre Bring the popcorn! Steve Colletti presents a some rare and vintage videos and tapes having as their common denominator, radio as a theme. Dinner on your own! Hospitality Room reopens at 1730. Evening Activities: 1930 Swap Meet in the Exhibit Room Exhibit Area Open Radio HF Sales, DRM Demo, Satellite Demo, DX Tuner Demo, Club Tables Hospitality Room Open 1930-2030 • A Survey of the Radio Hobby New to the radio hobby? Or maybe you`ve been around for a while but are open to developing a new interest? Reprising last year`s popular Friday evening session with perhaps a few new tricks, Skip Arey and a few friends take you on a fascinating tour of the wide, wide world of radio. 2100-? • The Listening Lounge... ...will reconvene Friday night with our resident shortwave-ologists David Goren and Myke Weiskopf. Myke will be spinning B-sides and unheard tracks from behind the scenes of his popular blog: Shortwavemusic. David will debut a sound portrait of the ``Unshackled!`` radio drama featuring a behind the scenes look at a production session recorded at The Pacific Garden Mission. Other topics include a look at the tropical bands past and present, shortwave and popular culture, and the usual maelstrom of nuggets from the archives. Hospitality Room Open. SATURDAY 4 MARCH 0815-0930 Registration Table Open Exhibit Area Open Radio HF Sales, DRM Demo, Satellite Demo, DX Tuner Demo, Club Tables (closes promptly at 1600) 0850-0900 Announcements and Directions (Stockholm Room) 0900-1000 • Writing on Radio What`s involved in contributing to club bulletins, writing for commercial magazines like Monitoring Times and PopComm, or even writing and publishing your own books, software etc.? Can you get paid for doing that? A ``how to`` and ``why to`` session designed to encourage you to join in the fun by learning from those who are doing it. Skip Arey and friends (panel discussion) 1000-1600 Silent Auction (Rooms 153 and 155) 1030-1130 • Radio Telepathy Harold ``Dr. DX`` Cones with more from those historic Zenith files he`s been mining. Hey, with that title and Dr. DX presenting, need we say more? Just be sure to bring your aluminum foil-lined hats! Pizza and Salad Luncheon 1200-1330 General After Lunch Discussion 1245-1330 - A new idea! A chance for you to ``sound off`` on a hobby topic, sort of a new way to ``sing for your supper`` -- `er lunch! Got something you want to get off your chest, just step up to the microphone! (But please keep it clean and respectable. Possible topics: DRM, the VOA, Group vs. Local Ownership in U.S. Radio, whatever you want to discuss!) Those not registered for the luncheon are cordially invited back at 1245 to take part in the discussions! 1400-1515 • The Eton E1 Greg Majewski really takes this one apart! Or at least he did. Greg provides an up close review of the new Eton E1 radio. Both listener goodies and problems are highlighted, providing some insights into the operation of receivers using phase locked loops for tuning. 1600 Silent Auction Ends! Collect your treasures and pays your monies to Alan Johnson, Kris Field or Harold Cones. Hospitality Room open 1645-1800. Evening Activities 1800 Cash Bar 1900 • Fest Banquet Master of Ceremonies: Harold ``Dr. DX`` Cones After Dinner Remarks by Mr. John Stevenson, Chief VOA Worldwide English. Those not registered for the banquet are cordially invited back at around 2015 to hear Mr. Stevenson and participate in the raffle which follows! • The Grande Raffle (begins at approximately 2100) Hospitality Room opens again after the Raffle. (John Figliozzi, co-organizer, Feb 26, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) MUSEA +++++ CONNECTICUT MUSEUM MOVES FORWARD WITH NEW FACILITY AFTER A LONG DELAY The Vintage Radio and Communications Museum of Connecticut said it has completed the purchase of a new 20,000-squaqre-foot building in Windsor and is working for a reopening in the fall. The museum`s efforts to develop a new home envisioned several years ago. Museum Director John Ellsworth stated, ``After coming to Windsor in 2000 and purchasing a large industrial building in the town`s center, we became bogged down in efforts to find a developer to partner with us in that building`s restoration. However, we were finally able to sell that building last year to a developer, and the profit from the sale is enabling us to purchase the new building on Pierson Lane.`` The museum said it is working with the town to finalize a state grant to fund building upgrades to allow the facility to meet occupancy codes. ``We are anxious to finally open our doors after being closed for so long,`` Ellsworth stated (Feb FMedia! via DXLD) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ WRTH 2006 Received the 2006 WRTH from Amazon on February 23, 2006. Been a few years since I last purchased one. Interesting reading the historical 60th anniversary articles. Problems are with the paper sections (National, International, etc). Print is too small. Yes, I am getting older and use reading glasses. However, even with reading glasses the print is small. Also the paper is thin to the point of being transparent. Seeing print from the other side of the paper, in combination with the small print, make for difficult reading. Are these problems unique to U. S. editions? Request for WRTH. Please use larger font size and thicker paper. 73, (Kraig Krist, KG4LAC, Manassas, VA, Feb 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I too would like somewhat larger print, but the slight bleedthru from the other side of the paper does not bother me. All considered, I think they have made the right compromises, as it`s already a hefty 704-page volume. What bothers me more is that it won`t open flat, so when I am trying to refer to it and type something, I need three hands, preferably four. Long ago I think they had stitched binding, which would open flat, but it was a much smaller book then. My copy came direct from UK, but I doubt there is a differently printed US edition (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Heh, I agree with you guys. The print is real small but I guess it has to be to keep the book within reasonable size. As I'm "legally blind" in US terms, I need extra tools while reading WRTH. When at the receiving post I'd really need a third or fourth hand to read the text next to binding. At the moment I'm trying to grow my fingers longer to hold the book with one hand, but it seems it's a long process and needs a lot of vitamins and beer :-) 73 (Jari Savolainen, Finland, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) There's a very interesting and detailed three page article on how the World Radio TV Handbook is put together today in the latest issue of Monitoring Monthly, on sale in the UK from Tuesday: "WRTH is a very decentralised operation. There's no office building, no room full of staff hunched over frequency lists and schedules. Almost everyone works from home and the whole organisation communicates by email" They hold a get together every year January or early February, normally in Sweden to discuss the previous edition and plan for the next one. There's a colour phot of Mauno Ritola, Tore Larson, Nicholas Hardyman and Bengt Ericson at one of these meetings with the 2004 edition. "The total number of pages is fixed by various weight limits for postage and by the practicalities of the printing process,.." "The printing is done in a single overnight run. The colour pages get transported down to Bath and the whole lot goes onto a binding line that assembles 30,000 finished books in pairs which are joined like Siamese twins. They're then chopped apart and packed automatically in cartons. Many of these are immediately packed and airfreighted to distributors around the world." UK outlets and contact details, they are also planning to have the magazine available by electronic delivery in the near future: http://www.monitoringmonthly.co.uk/monitoringmonthly/shops.html (Mike Barraclough, UK, ibid.) Dear Glenn Hauser, Here I want to say one more thing, Here in India we are very difficult to get WRTH. Some of the DW monitors and VOA monitors get it free of cost. I don’t know how many of them buy it from the publishers from India. Some of them get a photo copy from the monitors. This year I try to buy my own copy, for that now I am saving the money. Because it is an important edition for WRTH and me. May be I will get it on mid of this year. If we order from UK or US it gets so much cost. So ask them to print in India. Already there is lot of active Dxers in India. I think that if they published the Low price Indian edition, in India surely I am said that 1000 copies will be sold here itself. 73’s (Jaisakthivel, Ardic DX Club, Chennai, India. ardicdxclub @ yahoo.co.in http://www.dxersguide.blogspot.com dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ HDTV has a very similar situation. You can get the PSIP data long before a picture will sync and lock (Kevin Redding, AZ, ABDX via DXLD) The same holds true with DRM tests on MW here in Europe. The layered structure of the digital signal allows for the station identification to show up even when signal to noise ratio is not favourable for the digital audio to lock in. A detailed explanation of HD-AM waveform and logical structure can be found at http://www.ibiquity.com/technology/pdf/Waveforms_AM.pdf IDS (IBOC data service) information, like SIS, Station Identification Service, are carried in separate logical program, PIDS, within IBOC "MAn" service modes (n=1,2,3,4) and separate subcarriers within the spectral form. IDS subcarriers are quite far from the channel center so it's fair to assume diversity propagative effects may too have a role in the "ID with no audio" described by Scott. 73s (Andy Lawendel, Italy, ibid.) NPR MUSICAL STREAMS NPR announces five musical streams for so-called ``HD Radio`` stations. They are: CLASSICAL music from the Classical Public Radio Network, a joint ventures of Colorado Public Radio and KUSC *91.5 Los Angeles JAZZ from JazzWorks, a collaboration of Boise State Radio in Idaho and WDUQ *90.5 Pittsburgh FOLK music from FolkAlley.com a webcast produced by WKSU *89.7 Kent OH TRIPLE A tunes from WXPN *88.5 Philadelphia, and GROOVE SALAD, electronic music from webcaster SomaFM. These are designed to be fill-in program sources while digital streams become established. For $2000, a station can acquire rights to put a stream on a digital channel and on the internet. NPR will review the success of the streams and the business model supporting them after two years, and may expand them into full-blown services with more live hosting if they catch on, reports the public broadcasting rag, Current (Feb FMedia! via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ FM DUMBED DOWN, NO LONGER SCARY Back a number of years when I took marketing at "X" [just as CDs were really coming on stream and then starting to almost kill the LP] the theory was that the success of new products was all based on the concept of "felt need". CDs were successful because people were really tired of clicks and pops, bulky storage and to a lesser extent, broken styli [expressed as broken "needles". Piggybacked on that was the push that the sound quality was better. Eureka 147 DAB has failed miserably here in Canada in large part due to the prominence of FM radio, thanks to so many AM to FM flips, and general satisfaction with FM among the public. Receivers have dumbed down FM sound quality and channel separation to minimize multipath, picket fencing etc. When FM is often only making it up to 12,000 HZ and offering only 10 db channel separation, these FM "Nasties" of picket fencing and multipath just don't stand out too bad. When you listen to a technically good sounding FM station on a vintage mono FM tuner that goes up to 20,000 HZ [like the Heath PT- 1] it is scary how good FM can sound. And, its scary how bad modern FM gear now sounds (Phil Rafuse, PEI, Canada, ABDX via DXLD) SEVEN SECOND SOLUTION FOR EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM SHORTCOMINGS There are stirrings against the present EAS, in that it relies on a daisy-chain way of one station contacting another. The National Alliance of State Broadcasters has risen up against the FCC to demand change. NASBA says such a daisy chain ``often results in delay and failed message delivery.`` Stations in Pennsylvania have begun to use what`s being called the ``seven second solution``. Stations can directly receive encrypted emergency messages by satellite, thus eliminating the need for intermediate stations and the unreliable daisy chain (Feb FMedia! via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ MORE ZERO SPOTS Hi amigos radioaficionados worldwide! I am Arnie Coro, radio amateur CO2KK, host of this twice weekly program, entirely devoted to the promotion and development of this wonderful hobby: RADIO. Here is item one: Another row of ZEROS, yes, one after the other, for the past SIX DAYS the optical sunspot count has been ZERO, indicating that not a single sunspot was detected by any observers at all the optical astronomical observatories where daily routine observations of the solar disk are done. This is the second period of extremely low solar activity during the past few weeks; the previous one lasted for nine days in a row. Very low solar activity with a totally spotless SUN is an indication, a very clear one indeed, that SUNSPOT CYCLE 23 is coming to an end. By the way, 160 meter band radio amateur Dxers are enjoying a period of extremely low ionospheric absorption, so I expect rather high scores during the CW and SSB 160 meter contests that are taking place during the end of February and beginning of March. Now that I talk about March, it`s time to remember that the spring equinox is now less than a month away, so get ready for the equinoctial DX season amigos, due to start in about two weeks from today. Trans Equatorial Propagation Season is now in full swing. Radio amateurs in Brazil are reporting ham radio stations from Barbados in the Caribbean appearing every afternoon, and the interesting fact is that those stations are operating not on the standard HF bands but on 6 meters. Here in Havana, hams from Argentina are heard every late afternoon on 6 meters with excellent signals, even when receiving them with just a full wave dipole just 4 meters above the roof. TE propagation was discovered by radio amateurs, and so far has challenged ionospheric researchers as no one has a solid explanation about how this unique propagation mode works. The fact is that during peaks, TEP signals on frequencies as high as 220 and even 432 megaHertz have spanned phenomenal distances, and there is no doubt that this is a ionospheric mode. Trans Equatorial Propagation has two yearly peaks, one close to each of the equinoctial seasons, that is starting during early February and early September. And it is quite independent of solar activity !!! You are listening to the weekend edition of Dxers Unlimited coming to you from Havana. Solar flux is at very low levels, and that’s good news for long wave and medium wave broadcast band Dxers, who are enjoying excellent propagation conditions on those two bands. Here in Havana I have logged several Brazilian AM stations, that are very easy to find, because they use the Portuguese language, something that stands out when scanning the AM broadcast band here in the Caribbean. Colombian, Venezuelan and Central American AM stations are easy to pick up here, but the Brazilians only come in when propagation conditions are really good. And now, as always at the end of the program, here is Arnie Coro’s Dxers Unlimited’s HF plus low band VHF 30 to 60 megaHertz propagation update and forecast. Solar activity continue at bottom low levels, SIX days with ZERO sunspots in a row; solar flux running around baseline 75 units, and the daily maximum useable frequency curve shows a very low peak, something that is very easy to understand because of the very low solar activity. Expect Trans Equatorial Propagation conditions to peak up to latitude 30 degrees North during the next three weeks, and be ready also for the impact of a high speed solar wind gust expected to hit the Earth’s magnetosphere by Monday, and possibly generating a high latitude propagation disturbance (Dxers Unlimited’s weekend edition 25-26 Feb 2006 By Arnie Coro Radio amateur CO2KK, via ODXA via DXLD) ###