DX LISTENING DIGEST 6-147, October 1, 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 NEXT SHORTWAVE AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1330: Mon 0300 WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0415 WBCQ 7415 [time varies] Wed 0930 WWCR1 9985 Latest edition of this schedule version, including AM, FM, satellite and webcasts with hotlinks to station sites and audio, is at: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html [see also NEW ZEALAND] For updates see our Anomaly Alert page: http://www.worldofradio.com/anomaly.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 NETS TO YOU OCTOBER: http://www.w4uvh.net/nets2you.html ** ALBANIA. ENVER HOXHA WEBSITE --- Comrades, workers, peasants and peoples' intellectuals! Look here: http://www.enverhoxha.info/frame.htm Although not directly mentioning Radio Tirana, this site may well be of interest to those who remember the glorious days of the Party of Labour of Albania with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head, when Albania broadcast the revolutionary truth to all progressive working peoples of the world - though hard luck if you were a bourgeois, counter- revolutionary, imperialist, revisionist radio amateur upset at the obliteration of half the 40 metre band. In particular, if you were unfortunate enough to miss the serialization of Comrade Enver's great works like "Eurocommunism Is Anti-communism" or "Marxism-Leninism Is The Guide And Leader Of Every Party And Not Kruschev's Conductor's Baton", they are all here for download! Goodbye, Dear Listeners! (Mark Palmer, BDXC-UK via DXLD) ** ALGERIA. See WESTERN SAHARA [non] ** ARMENIA & AZERBAIJAN. Radio Voice of Justice transmitting from Steppanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh, was received again in Sofia on September 23 between 05 and 0530 hours on 9677 kHz. The station stands for reconciliation between Armenia and Azerbaijan (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DX Sept 29 via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. Surprised to hear RA in English on 9475 around 1324 UT Sept 29 // 9580, 9590 etc. This frequency is usually in Chinese at that time, I see scheduled 1300-1430, but before and after in English. RA was back in Gyoyü as scheduled on 9475 at 1328 check Sept 30; the day before in English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. R BULGARIA DX MIX News, Ivo Ivanov of July 25 reported some frequency changes for Radio Australia, and one of them is: 1300- 1430 on 11825 DRW 250 kW / 340 deg in Chinese, additional. I've heard this transmission the last two days and on Saturday (30/09) after 1400 (tune in) the broadcast was in English and today - Sunday (01/10) - English is heard from 1310 tune in. On Saturday transmission closed abruptly at 1430 as listed. The signal is a very strong one at my location, and better than either 11660 or 9475, both of which are carrying Chinese as listed (Noel R. Green (NW England), Oct 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. [continued from NEW ZEALAND]. OTH, Radio Australia used to play lots of reggae roots between 0330 and 0400 many times performed by local talent but, Gosh! Hip-hop crap was included this time from and for poor people with spiritual “deafness”. Frankly I’ll have to quit believing that Brandon 12080 signal is only 10 kW. And sorry, no more ABC from Shepparton 11880, at least at 0400, as noticed since a week ago (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, UT Sept 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BAHRAIN. 9745, 27.9 2115, Bahrain BS. Endless Muslim unannounced female music. But also short talk at 2135. QSA 3 but disturbed. JE (Jan Edh, Sweden, SW Bulletin Oct 1, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOTSWANA. Hey, have you ever heard anything about VOA Botswana? Still not picking up anything on their sked English frequencies. 0300- 0500. Will Have to try for other frequencies and other languages later in the day, too (Alex Vranes, Jr., Harpers Ferry WV, Sept 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No; schedule says Botswana 0300-0600 on 4930; while 4960 at 04-05 is São Tomé. Have you been looking for 4930? (gh, DXLD) ** BRAZIL. I`m working for the first time with the MFJ 1026; just great. 6009.50, 0022 UT 1/10, R. Inconfidência, Belo Horizonte, about Cristo, Portuguese. 43333. RX; AOR 7030 + NRD 535 antenna 100m. LW en 30 LW + MFJ 1026. Gr (Maurits dxa 111 van Driessche, Belgium, HCDX via DXLD) I don`t know if this station is on later at night, but it adds to the hetmess on 6010 as México and Colombia are also slightly off frequency. Could it be that they are ganging up to discourage major broadcasters from using 6010? (gh, DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 9615, R. Cultura de São Paulo, OC noted as early as 0641, so must've just left the transmitter on all night. Finally on at *0751:18 1 Oct with two ZY contemporary songs, then full canned ID by M with calls, 3 frequencies, and address at 0757. 0758-0801 instrumental, NA, Rooster, and ID, program intro. Good clear signal but had faded by sign-on (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) Já fazia uns dias que a Marumby Florianoólis, agora Camburiú, não chegava por aqui em 25 metros, 11750, mais hoje cedo peguei ela muito bem, apesar de ser só 1 kw a potência do transmissor. O nome GIDEÕES foi bastante pronunciado, prova de que realmente a Marumby, na freqüência citada, mais os 9665, foi adquirida por eles. Em 31 também peguei muito bem, sofrendo um pouco de interfêrencia por causa do espúrio da Canção Nova (Isaac Rosa, Crateús - Ceará, Oct 1, radioescutas via DXLD) ** BURKINA FASO. 5030 & 7230 R. Burkina, Ouagadougou, silent again like happened just a few weeks ago --- it seems the transmitter repair was short lived! (Carlos Goncalves, Portugal, wwdxc BC-DX Sept 29 via DXLD) ** CANADA. According to Ian Sharp, CFRX engineer, he is awaiting parts and the time to repair the transmitter on 6070 (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, USA, Sept 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. CHANGES AT RCI --- I haven't seen mention of this elsewhere. Apparently there's quite an overhaul forthcoming at RCI that affects programming produced for the non-North American audience. All of the weekly feature programs, for example Spotlight, Business Sense, and Media Zone, aired their last editions this past week, as did the regionally-targeted editions of Canada Today. For the month of October weekday programming will consist of a special one-hour edition of Canada Today, and weekend programming will be a one-hour version of Maple Leaf Mailbag. I don't believe this will tremendously affect what we hear in North America, as that programming is quite often the domestic CBC programming, which isn't affected by the shakeup. The new programming -- whatever it's called -- will begin October 29th. The final editions of all the current programming are currently available on-demand; no idea how long they'll be available. If you enjoy listening to farewells, there are plenty there -- at least this time around, staff had advance notice that these programs would be their last ones. If I find out more I'll post it here (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, Sept 30, Swprograms mailing list via DXLD) ** CANADA. ``The House`` Saturday mornings on CBC Radio One, and RCI 9515, 13655 and 17800 at 1311-1400, is not just a boring show about Canadian politics. They must try harder to make it fun to listen to with comedy bits; and not just limited to Parliament Hill in Ottawa: Sept 30 interviewed the President of Latvia, who happens to be a Canadian; and a segment about US midterm elexions (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CKZN: see POLAND [non] ** CHINA. Firedrake, Sept 30: at 1359-1400* audible on 13970 but not on 10400; at 1445, fluttery on 10400, not audible on 13970 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. 6009.47, La Voz de tu Conciencia (tentative), Oct 1, 0220-0245, non-stop Spanish talking (religious?), some LA music, poor- fair in QRM. Possibly Colombia and not Mexico, based upon frequency and programming (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, RX340, with T2FD antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. Gone again! True to form, R. Líder, 6139.8 has disappeared again after little more than a week of activity; no sign of it around 0500 Oct 1, but instead RHC signing off; see CUBA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 24 hours earlier: 6139.8, 30.9 0500, Radio Líder med långt nyhetsprogram. 2 CB (Christer Brunström, Sweden, SW Bulletin via DXLD) ** CONGO DR. The following QSL e-mail was received from Radio Kahuzi for DX Tuner Johannesburg receptions on 9/18 1634 tune to 1730 carrier off and 9/25 1636 tune to 1702.5 carrier off. Interesting data on transmitter power and extended programming. Worth listening past 1700 and on days other than Monday/Friday in case of further test transmissions. Not sure what "SNEL" refers to, but will ask. Under the "small world" department: Harold Smith, the Radio Kahuzi home office partner, is a part time barber in my hometown of Fallbrook, CA! Since I'm getting a haircut at his shop tomorrow, I will ask about the availability of QSL cards for this station - if they don't have them I will offer to have some printed as a donation to the station's operation: Quote - Dear Bruce, & CC: Mike Axman, Greetings from Bukavu! And thank you for your accurate & helpful report. As you indicate that you were on tonight (Sept 25 at 1645), I increased power to 850 Watts and then to 875 Watts, but went back to 850 to provide a more stable operation, as the various readings fluxuated more at higher power and I assume the signal would also "flutter" or something, Also, the red warning light blinks on the PA RFV from 830 increasing as the power setting increases. (Mike, you might have some advice on this.) I guess we can't do anything about the "images" on this particular S. A. receiver. If I understand our transmitter is the source when you say "the noise level was quiet (N5)." Mike would be interested, as are we, in your ""SINPO" code of 33533, in which "5" is best for each category." The reason we were on later the 18th was an outage of SNEL at 1805 which cut "Unshackled" So we put it on later to see if the reception would improve later / with time. Today and Friday we were on generator and our power is about 203 instead of 220 V. When we have SNEL, the voltage may be a little stronger. We need to re-do a number of things to improve our output. I don't want to fix anything that should not be touched, so we appreciate everyone`s prayer and advice. We may begin rebroadcasting VOA direct from satellite between 18:30 and 22:00 instead of recording and rebroadcasting it at 14:30. For two weeks now we had to run with our generator all day, which would be less of a problem if SNEL comes on in the evenings. On Tuesday the 19th we tested the system at 870 Watts for VOA Sports at 20:44; and tried 902 Watts at about 20:50, but may not have had anyone searching for our signal since it was later. From our system in the studio it was a good test and I just need to follow through to get the OK from VOA and the government here, since it involves VOA "en direct". We could possibly broadcast to Darfur if the conditions were right / or the frequency (via Bruce W. Churchill-CA-USA, DXplorer Sept 26 via BCDX via DXLD) Société Nationale d`ÉLectricité? (gh, DXLD) QSL R. Kahuzi, Bukavu. --- In an e-mail today, Barbara Smith indicated she is working on 6-7 new QSL cards for reports received recently, so for those who may have submitted a report to the station and/or to radiokahuzi @ sbcglobal.net a QSL should be forthcoming soon. That address goes directly to Barbara, who prepares the QSLs. Were all stations as organized! (Bruce W. Churchill, CA, DXplorer Sept 29 via BCDX via DXLD) ** CUBA. RHC, 11805, Sat Sept 30 at 1340 with ``Agenda 21`` report on how Cuba is reducing CFC emissions for the benefit of the ozone layer; I notice they use the term ``entorno`` for environment; it also means surroundings. Certainly handier than ``medio ambiental``. Is this a Cubanism or in general Spanish usage I had not noticed? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Martí spurs: U S A ** CUBA. Looking for R. Líder, 6139.8, Colombia, Oct 1 at 0459 I heard instead RHC on 6140 with ID, NA, and sign-ON announcement by mistake mentioning 15230, 11760, 11875, 11960, 9505, 9620, 5965, 6000, not all of which are currently in use anyway! OC stayed on until at least 0506 but off at 0509 recheck (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CYPRUS. Re 6-146: More on the earlier activities of RTI Digital Ltd, Cyprus can be found in the DXLD archives, in 2003 (e.g. DXLD- 3221, Sonnet Radio/Cyprus) and 2005 (e.g. DXLD 5-068, Radio Nord International/Aland Islands). The Name RTI Digital existed long before Radio Tatras International was founded. RTI Digital Ltd is registered as a recording studio enterprise in Cyprus, with UK background, one of the more known names behind the venture is Mike West (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. 4909.21, R. Chaskis, 0926 30 Sept, on with long live concert of modern religious music, 0932 M with accurate TC, long talk including mention of SW frequency, Otavalo, Amazonas, Ecuador. -0940 brief music and short canned announcement, and continuous talk by live M. TC, mentions of Ecuador, buenos días, then into more live religious music 0942. 0949 canned announcement by M, and live M returned with TC, date, talk of Amazonas, "programa", Ecuador, etc. 0951 more music. Fading and never did hear an ID. Decent strength but modulation a bit low. Frequency seemed to drift upward a tad also (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) ** EGYPT. FM TROUBLES IN CAIRO!!! --- Hello DXers, on 28/9/06 I noticed that the FM band is having a severe problem; the new semi-gov FM stations Nile FM on 100.6 and Nile FM on 104.2 are not working. also the general program on 107.4 as well not audible!! Sounds like the transmitter of these stations - located in Mokatam "tentative" - is having some problems. As we are having the month of Ramadan nowadays and the most listened to Arabic station on FM band in Cairo is a commercial network and signed a lot of commercial contracts with different parties, they managed to get the authorization to move to a workable frequency of 98.8 MHz which used to carry the Musical program. Now the musical program is not audible in Cairo!! All the best my friends. Yours (Tarek Zeidan, Cairo, Egypt, Sept 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA ECUATORIAL. 15190, Radio East Africa, Malabo, 1015-1030, October 01, English, very long talk by male, identification at 1027 UT by male as: ".....Radio East Africa", 22432 Strong QRM from other station in the same frequency (Arnaldo Slaen, Buenos Aires, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA. 7100, VOBM Eritrea, Oct. 1, 1610-1625 UT, in presumed Tigrignia with talks by OM and local pops. 33443. LSB QRM from hams on 7099. Greetings from Portugal (José Turner, Oct 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. Re 21620, Oct.1, RFI at 1400-1430 UT English and 1430-1500 UT French, not heard and very likely no transmission at this time. I've also essayed at 1200-1300 UT, per EiBi also English/French and nothing was heard. Greetings from Portugal (José Turner, Oct 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) But 21620 still might possibly be on and skipping over nearby Portugal or just not propagating. Were the TDF relays of Libya on 13m audible, such as 21695? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** GABON. Heard well today Sept. 29 and yesterday around 1800 on 9580 // 15475 // 19160. Harmonic a bit weaker than 9580, but surprisingly stronger than compared to daytime. 15475 carries NHK English at 1700- 1730 (Thorsten Hallmann, Münster, Germany, http://www.africalist.de.ms DX LISTENING DIGEST) Really? NHK English to Africa at 17-18 is supposed to be on 15355 via Gabon; mixup? 73, (Glenn to Thorsten, via DXLD) In fact unlike the 29th, yesterday everything was as scheduled, NHK 15355, ANO 15475. Also some people reported 15475 off from 1700-1800 recently --- Seems to vary (Thorsten Hallmann, Oct 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. MV Baltic Radio is on Sunday 1st of October 2006, at 1200 UT in the 49-m-European-Shortwave-Band, 6045 kHz to Europe. Good Listening (Tom Taylor, Sept 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST) for one hour? In advance on the dxldyg ** GERMANY [and non]. DW in B06. 20 hours daily AM to the Americas. 6040 1000-1200 8,10E,11,12N SAC 250 212 daily Ge CAN 9545 0000-0200 4,8,9,11 SIN 250 260 daily Ge POR 9545 2200-2400 13-16 NAU 500 230 daily 0101-250307 Ge D 9545 2200-2400 13-16 WER 500 240 daily 2910-311206 Ge D 9655 0000-0200 8S,10,11,12N KIG 250 295 daily Ge RRW 9800 2300-2330 4,7,8 SAC 70 268 daily DRM En CAN 11690 2200-0200 12,13,14N,15N KIG 250 265 daily Ge RRW 11865 2200-2355 13-16 SIN 250 230 daily Ge POR 17770 1000-1157 13E,14,15 SIN 250 225 Mo-Fr Ge POR 17770 1000-1200 13E,14,15 WER 500 240 Sat/Sun Ge D --- 30 minute DRM mode test via Sackville-CAN (wb, wwdxc BC-DX Sept 29 via DXLD) ** GERMANY. DW paying VT 4 megapounds a year for SW relays: see U K ** GERMANY. Dear Wolfgang, Thank you very very much for VOA Ismaning information. I have just visited youtube.com and watched that sad video. If you want to download Ismaning Towers (53 MB large) just right click on the following link in this e-mail and than choose "Save Target As": http://www.christiangeology.com/video/IsmaningTowers.divx (Dragan Lekic, Serbia, wwdxc BC-DX Sept 28 via DXLD) ** GIBRALTAR. 1458 kHz, R. Gibraltar, Wellington Front, is almost like a local station down on SW coast, with typical SINPO ratings of 45454 during the day; the distance up to Lisboa is only slightly bigger, but this and noise do seem to be well enough to "choke" the R. Gib' signal (Carlos Goncalves, Portugal, wwdxc BC-DX Sept 29 via DXLD) ** GREENLAND. 3815-USB, 21.9 2040 with programme in native language, QSA 3. At least one hour before it also could be found on 650. JE (Jan Edh, Sweden, SW Bulletin Oct 1, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUAM. Heard on KUAM 570 kHz, the US Navy is planning to install a new communications system, on HF; not much details except it`s to improve comms on airnav and weather forecasts. This is a million dollar contract but is subject to congressional approval. 73's from (Larry Fields, n6hpx/kh2, Guam, Sept 28, swl at qth.net via DXLD) I assume this refer to Guam, but only to Guam? BTW, KUAM is on 612, and KGUM on 567 (gh, DXLD) ** GUAM. 5765 (USB), AFRTS (presumed), Sept 30, 1317-1340, Kit Brooks with American Country Countdown (#17 ``My Wish`` by Rascal Flatts, etc.), PSA, good. Causing some splatter for Myanmar on 5770 (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, RX340, with T2FD antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUYANA. 3291.2, Voice of Guyana, 0320-0352+ Sept 22, talk in English by a man to a "live" audience about local events, issues mentioning ministers of government and an upcoming national holiday. An announcer introduced a group of children who song the National Anthem a cappella. After a brief string of ads, a man gave a station ID ("This is the Voice of Guyana" which was followed by somber instrumental mx and a man reading the obituaries. Appropriately followed by some lively jazz mx (interesting programming change of pace). Fair (Rich D'Angelo, PA-USA, DXplorer Sept 24 via BCDX via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. VOI, 9525, still missing Sept 30 around 1330. I have not been reporting its absence every day, and may not mention it till it shows up again (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sad to note the complete absence of VOI (9525) and RRI Jakarta (9680) for some time now, as you have also noted. As you indicate, no point in continually reporting them being off. Is not unusual for VOI to be erratic, but RRI Jakarta was always very constant. Have not heard the KGRE programs (Sun. & Wed.) for a while now and I miss them. Believe I will send an e-mail to the RRI engineering department to ask what is happening and telling them that I very much enjoyed the Kang Guru Radio English programs they broadcast (Ron Howard, CA, Sept 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL. Radio Netherlands commentary: "The Right Choice: International See http://www.radionetherlands.nl/features/media/bbc060928 Thoughtful piece from Andy Sennitt. I would add one thought: In lieu of direct audience surveys and panels, which can be expensive, we should attempt to engage our favorite broadcasters in dialogue regarding their programming. It can get frustrating when comments or requests for information get ignored, but one can't control what a broadcaster *does* with a listener comment or inquiry. Hopefully, taking the time to say *something* at least allows the broadcaster to count "hits" -- the number of listeners who actually take the time to get in touch. In these days when shortwave usage is on the wane in North America, we owe it to broadcasters to remind them *why* shortwave remains an important delivery method -- the convenience it offers, the lack of cost to the listener, or whatever reasons make sense for you (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, swprograms via DXLD) Shortwave is not dead http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/01/news/edletmon.php Regarding "Shortwave radio era looks short-lived" (Sept. 25): The BBC, which eliminated its shortwave transmissions to Thailand earlier this year, no doubt regrets that decision now, given the recent coup and press censorship in thailand. At least the Voice of America, which has done more than its fair share of transmission-cutting recently, has not cut its shortwave broadcasts to Thailand yet, and was able to immediately quadruple its shortwave output to Thailand in the wake of the coup. When there is a crisis in a country, and the local FM relays, Web sites and satellite output are interrupted, shortwave continues to be the only means of direct international mass media communication. Many people are writing off shortwave as old-fashioned, but Digital Radio Mondiale, a new method of FM- quality shortwave broadcasting that is being tested and initiated by many major international stations, has the potential of creating a worldwide renaissance in shortwave broadcasting. (Jeff White, Miami, President, National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters, letter to the editor, International Herald Tribune, Oct 1, via Ken Kopp, dxldyg, and Mike Cooper, via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. WRN TO CHANGE FROM INTELSAT 10-02 SATELLITE TO PAS 10 SATELLITE [repeated from 6-128] Dear Glenn, As of the 21st of August 2006, WRN is switching its distribution of the English and Multilingual networks from Intelsat 1002 to PAS10. After many months of consideration we have concluded that PAS10 would be preferable as it is widely received both in Africa and Asia. We intend to augment this already wide beam even further in the future with additional relays - especially to West Africa. There is a one month overlap period from the 21st August 2006, which means that your programs between 21st August 2006 and 21st September 2006 will be received on both satellites. As of September 21st the English and Multilingual networks will be heard only on the PAS 10 Satellite. We are aware this change may have an effect on how some of the audience receives your programs so feel free to use any of the following details for the PAS 10 satellite to make them aware of the change. Transponder: 8 (C band) Downlink frequency: 4064 MHz (Horizontal) Symbol rate: 19.850 MS/s FEC: 7/8 (Listeners already equipped to receive the satellite will get all the channels listed on the page with frequencies from 3716 to 4192 MHz.) Best Regards (Katarina Richterova, Account Manager, WRN > TRANSMITTING SUCCESS, Aug 22, WORLD OF RADIO 1326, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The overlap period has been extended until Sept. 30. PAS 10 is at 68.5 degrees east. This of course concerns direct reception of WORLD OF RADIO via satellite in Africa and Asia, Saturdays at 0800 UT (Glenn Hauser, Sept 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. CLANDESTINE (RUSSIA), 6245, R. Zamaneh, 2057, 29 Sept, talk by W in presumed Farsi mentioning Iran, Saddam, and IDs. Audio cut at end of sentence and then signal gone at 2101*. Very strong and clear. Sign-off varies quite a bit sometimes going past 2200. When it`s on late, there is a nice canned ID (in unison by group of people) along with synth rock music always at 2144 UT (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. Finally Kol Israel was honoring their sked for English at 0330 on 7530, which has been running Hebrew, until this 9/29. Will they stop the game after Yom Kippur? Just before the weather forecast, this female announcer mentioned that tomorrow at 0200 local, Israel will go to standard time. No // 9345 and 11590. But at 0400, the latter was with Hebrew service (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, UT Sept 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Kol Israel keeps playing games with its schedules for 0330. This Sat. 9/30 Hebrew service is in place of English on 7530 as we heard yesterday, but English is back on 11590, with noisy signal. BTW, the presence of Galei Zahal on 6973 at 0345 is a consequence of DST ending as they announced from 0200 their local (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, 0348 UT Sept 30, ibid.) ** ISRAEL. "Kol Yisrael broadcasts in English will resume Monday evening, after the end of Yom Kippur. Our first [English] broadcast will be the 8:30 p.m. [Israel Standard Time] bulletin on the Reka Network." http://reka.iba.org.il/index.asp?classto=RekaInner&entity_code=156149&lang=English (Daniel Rosenzweig, Oct 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) When the non-DST time will then be 1830-1845 UT, presumably still on 9345, 11590, 13675 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Galei Tzahal and GalGalatz - the two Israel Army Radio networks, went off the air today, for Yom Kippur, sometime between 15:05 and 16:00 Israel Standard Time. They will go back on the air, Monday, October 2, at 19:00 Israel Standard Time. Galei Tzahal is broadcast via shortwave to Europe. Both Galei Tzahal and GalGalatz are webcast on the Internet. They are both broadcast domestically, as well (Doni Rosenzweig, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15785 day, 6973v night (gh, DXLD) The return from summer time to winter time was fixed by the Knesset to follow the Sabbath between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur after a succession of interior ministers drew criticism for choosing different dates for the change. Most people credit the change with an earlier end to the Yom Kippur fast and more time for people to start work on building the booths from which the Sukkot holiday, which starts next weekend, gets its name. The change also lessens the impact of later sunrises on those who say s'lihot penitential prayers in the morning before Yom Kippur. The Israeli economy saved an estimated NIS 65 million because of daylight time this summer. http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=112855 Kol Israel Overseas Service Schedule is at http://israelradio.org/sw.htm (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via dXLD) ** JORDAN. Joe Hanlon, NJ, tells me R. Jordan is on 11960 instead of 11690 Oct. 1 at 1605, news in English. Away from the RTTY and other QRM, but probably just a mistake. Get it while you can! Out here, only a weak, fluttery signal, presumably that. Their DST time unchange does not come for another 4 weeks (Glenn Hauser, OK, 1611 UT Oct 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio Jordan, English. Tuned in at about 1615 UT, Sunday October 1, to hear R. Jordan pop music on 11960 instead of the listed frequency of 11690. Closing announcements just before 1630 said they would be on again at 1300 UT next morning on 11690. Off at about 1635. Very good signal here (Bernie O'Shea, Ottawa, Ontario, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Nice signal here peaking at S7 with some QSB. They ceased transmitting at 1635 (Steve Lare, Holland, MI USA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) When checked at 1640 UT was OFF. Scheduled on nominal 11690 1300-1630 UT. On 11690 is CRI Beijing in French. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, ibid.) They were using 11690 on Saturday so I also assume that 11960 is a mistake. It has been off air - I think at least for a week - so perhaps the engineer forgot what the frequency should be - or he didn't change it from the previous transmission! (Noel R. Green, (NW England), ibid.) 11690, Sep. 30, 1410-1425 UT, English program with listeners letters and dedicated songs. 44444. Greetings from Portugal (José Turner, Oct 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. Shiokaze, 9485 via Taiwan, Sept 29 around 1310 with poor reception but I could not convince myself it was in English as usual on Fridays. Did anyone else check it today? Shiokaze, 9485 was in Japanese ID at 1328 Sat Sept 30; fair. Unheard Oct 1 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA [non]. V. of Africa, 17850 via France, Sept 30 at 1403 was in Arabic, but at 1418 recheck was in English, with hum, item on HIV. Inaudible a bit later. So who knows whether 14-16 is still nominally all in English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also FRANCE ** LIBYA [and non]. Sawt al-Amal, 29 Septiembre. En los últimos días me ha sido imposible chequear a esta emisora por falta de tiempo, excesivo trabajo. En el día de hoy a Sawt Al-amal la he encontrado a las 1245 en la frecuencia de 17645, excelente señal; sin embargo a las 1250 ha cambiado a la frecuencia de 17640 y hasta el final de mi chequeo a las 1320 se ha mantenido en esa frecuencia, libre de interferencias y con excelente señal (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) AMAL AND THE AFTERNOON VISITORS --- Voice of Hope jammers. Today I noted three French transmitters with the Libyan programme jamming V. of Hope. At 1200 they were using 17625, 17660 and 17670 and at 1350 they were on 17620, 17630 and 17660. RFI in French was using 17620 as usual until about 1357, while the co-channel Libyan relay stayed on until 1400. All three Libyan relays cut the audio and then the carriers at the same time at 1400 sharp. The afropop jammer was not heard. VOH was using 17630 at sign-off (Olle Alm, Sweden, September 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 6049.65, Asyik FM (RTM), Sept 30, 1107 call to prayer (maghrib - sunset prayer), as sunset at Kuala Lumpur was 1106, many ``Asyik FM`` jingles, seemed to be news/commentary about Islam/Ramadan, 1125-1142 DJ playing pop songs/ballads, fair-poor with the usual het (Sibu?) (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, RX340, with T2FD antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 5964.94, Klasik Nasional FM (RTM), Oct 1, 1107-1111 call to prayer (maghrib - sunset prayer), as sunset at Kuala Lumpur was 1105, // 6049.65 (Asyik FM - RTM), fair-poor (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, RX340, with T2FD antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALI. (Presumed): 4835.45 at 0305z, the music seemed odd for a North African station, French peasant or folk style, but I don't see anything more likely (Jerry Lenamon, Waco Texas, Drake R8B with sloper, 0232 UT Oct 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Something is off here as timestamp shows posted before time cited (gh) ** MAURITANIA. Assumption that 4845 would be 24h for Ramadan appears incorrect, as no sign of it around 0515 Sept 30 or Oct 1, tho further Africans such as 4777 were making it. Is anyone hearing 4845 at other times? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. The Mexican government is planning a whole mess of X Banders along the US/Mexican border in the future covering about all channels and all running 10 KW ND day & night. If that happens, it will really mess things up. 73, (Patrick Martin, OR, via John Plimmer, RSA, mwdx yg via DXLD) I asked Patrick where he heard this but no reply. Following happens to deal with the only two Mexican border x-banders so far (gh, DXLD) ** MEXICO. According to a recent verie from XEPE, this is the current status on 1700 and 1630: "XEPE operated with 10 kW non-DA at the time of your reception. Normally there is a two tower directional array at night. The transmitter site is near the US/Mexico border, near the Tijuana airport. There is also a Mexico Univ. educational 10/l kW station a mile or so away on 1630 kHz. They power down to l kW non-DA at night." (Bjarne Mjelde, Norway, Coastal Roundtable via NRC IDXD Sept 29 via DXLD) 1700, MEXICO, XEPE Tecate (32 32'N, 116 49'W) SEP 17, 0542 - Ad for tourism in Baja, male U.S. announcer, listed sights of Tijuana, Mexicali, and Ensenada. ID in Spanish by a woman, "XEPE 1700 (mil setecientos) AM, Tecate, Baja California," into news of San Diego in English. Excellent, but continues to suffer breaks in transmission. (Richard Wood, Keaau HI; Icom R75, Yaesu FRG-100, long wires 350-ft northeast and 175-ft north/northeast, NRC IDXD Sept 29 vi DXLD) SEP 21, 1026 - CNN Headline News, commercial for Cloud 9 Airport Shuttle, Spanish legal ID at 1030 followed by English ID: "Cash 1700, where money talks." (Niel Wolfish, Miscou NB; AOR 7030+, two Ewe antennas, NRC IDXD Sept 29 via DXLD) ** MEXICO. INFORME DE RENDICIÓN DE CUENTAS POR PARTE DEL INSTITUTO MEXICANO DE LA RADIO (IMER) Hola: En el ``Informe de Rendición de Cuentas de la Administración Pública 2000 – 2006 Primera Etapa`` del Instituto Mexicano de la Radio (IMER). Se pueden apreciar las mentiras que están en dicho documento para tratar de ocultar las verdaderas ganancias que se obtuvieron con la venta de los activos de IMER por parte de la actual directora y su grupo desde el año 2002. Entre ellos destacan la venta del terreno en donde está ubicada la planta transmisora de XEMP-AM, así como también la eliminación de tres estaciones que pertenecían al IMER entre ellas XERMX-OC. Entre otras cosas. Solo léase la página 20 de dicho documento en la siguiente dirección: http://www.imer.com.mx/informe_rendicion_cuentas_imer.pdf Si solo esto solo es la primera etapa, ¿Cómo será la segunda etapa del informe? Con respecto a lo anterior me da coraje e impotencia [sic] lo que dice dicho documento se da a conocer. Por lo anterior, hay que darle seguimiento a las 17 estaciones del IMER que todavía sobreviven. Saludos cordiales, (Roberto E. Gómez Morales, Sept 30, Noticias DX via DXLD) ** MYANMAR, Myanma Radio, 5985, 1430 09/30/2006, English, 333, News from neighbouring countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam (Manikant Lodaya, Hubli, Karnataka State, South India, Transceiver Icom 751, Dipole antenna, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. These guys must be turning Caribbean for their mid- morning period. Soca music was coming close to 0400 9/29 from Radio New Zealand International, which has improve its arriving here in Tiquicia from 0300 since they make that move to 13720 [sic; means 13730]. (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, UT Sept 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Continued at AUSTRALIA ** NIGER. 9704.02, 24.9 0525, La Voix du Sahel excellent for a while with local music. Then into French ads for a new renovated suburban hotel. 3-4 CB (Christer Brunström, Sweden, SW Bulletin Oct 1, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST)) ** OKLAHOMA. Travel Channel had a 2002y hour ``Bigfootville`` about sightings in SE and NE Oklahoma, UT Sept 30. An Okie couldn`t help but notice some gross errors in the titles, such as Eufala instead of Eufaula, Kaimichi instead of Kiamichi Mountains and a radio station jingle for local color in the Ada area appeared several times, ``KBEZ 92.5``, mentioning Bigfoot sightings. Trouble is, KBEZ is on 92.9 and in Tulsa, not a factor in Ada. If they can`t get little things like that right. . . And they have had four years to correct it (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN [non]. All VOA Deewa Radio programs can be heard in select cities on FM 100.5 MHz, and on short wave from 1300 to 1400 UT on 11510 (26.06 meters) and 15645 (19.18 meters). A strong medium wave signal is forthcoming. VOA Deewa Radio Evening News Hour 1300-1400 UT (6:00-7:00 PM Local Time) Tune in to the VOA Deewa Radio Evening News Hour for a fresh glimpse of the day's top news headlines. The VOA Deewa Radio news hour includes short stories and in-depth feature segments of international, regional and local news critical to the region and the Pashtun community. This comprehensive news hour will include daily features on politics, economy, arts and entertainment, health, weather, sports, and special features such as "Person on the Street" which features feedback and comments on top news stories from ordinary Pashtuns we find on the street or in the market on any given day. Other special features include on-going series on the life of Muslims in America and "Who We Are," an innovative glimpse at ordinary Americans. The VOA Deewa Radio news hour also includes call-in segments featuring listener participation and feedback. VOA Deewa Radio News Bulletins 1400-1600 UT (7:00 - 10:00 pm Local Time) VOA Deewa Radio also broadcasts 10-minutes of global and regional news at the top of the hour from 1400-1600 UT, (7:00 pm to 10:00 pm local time), followed by contemporary Pashto popular music on a 24-hour, 7- day per week stream. VOA Deewa Radio News Bulletins provide just the right amount of news and information to keep you informed of major stories while enjoying a pleasant evening listening to Pashto songs. Listen to the Latest Pashto Songs. VOA Deewa Radio also plays a diverse and popular mix of the latest Pashto songs for your listening pleasure. Tune in to VOA Deewa Radio 24 hours a day, seven days a week to get a healthy mix of your favorite Pashto artists Khayal Muhammad, Sardar Ali Takar, Gulzar Alam, Naghma, Haroon Bacha, Rahim Shah, Nazia Iqbal, Irfan Khan, Shahen Shah Bacha, Dawood Hanif and many more. Please send us your comments and any song requests you may have! (from http://www.voadeewaradio.com website, Sept 28 via BCDX via DXLD) !! see above: VOA Deewa - A strong medium wave signal is forthcoming... Former IBB units from Rhodes/Kavalla move eastwards to the muslim world... (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Which high power MW channels is free for US propaganda in PAK/AFG border region. 1107 kHz ??? 73 (Büschel, mwdx yg via DXLD) http://www.voanews.com/deewa/schedule.cfm says "A strong medium wave signal is forthcoming" for this service. Presumably this would be the transmitter on 621 that was the subject of a tender awarded earlier this year, and due to be located in Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border. The website also says that "All VOA Deewa Radio programs can be heard in select cities on FM 100.5 mHz [sic]". IBB is indeed on 100.5 in Kabul, but it is (or was) fully taken up with 12 hours a day of the VOA's Radio Ashna and 12 hours a day of RFE/RL's Azadi Radio, so something will have to give if it's going to have Deewa Radio as well. With the IBB's separate Azadi Radio, Radio Ashna, Deewa Radio and Radio Aap ki Dunya all now broadcasting to Afghanistan and Pakistan I kinda wonder if the good folk of those countries will have the time to listen to all these stations (Chris Greenway, UK, Sept 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 15645, VOA Deewa Radio Evening News Hour, 1302-1317, October 01, ¿Pashto?, bulletin news, very long talk by male, 25222 // 11510 with QRK 1 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Anybody on the east coast been able to log any of the Papuans as of late? I`m finding it impossible on any of the frequencies. Maybe I`m trying at the wrong times; this morning I checked from about 0500 until 1000 UT; also on 7120 I always have noise, etc., for when the BBC are on! Would love to QSL a Papuan station one day! (Ray Neeny, Canada, Oct 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I`m not on the east coast, but 100 kW on 4890 from NBC Port Moresby ought to be the easiest, before and around sunrise. (However, I haven`t heard much of a signal from them lately myself.) Some of the 90m outlets ought to make it too on a good day, but not all of them on the list are active. Missionary stations on 4960 and 7120 are low- powered and much tougher catches. 73, (Glenn, OK, ibid.) ** PERU. 4824.49, Radio La Voz de la Selva, Iquitos, 2340-2355, September 30, Spanish, Salsa sounds and tecnocumbias, short announcements by male in spanish, ID as: "....en La Voz de la Selva!!!!", 24442.- Best reception on LSB mode. Thanks DXer Miguel Castellino for the tip (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, dxldyg via DXLD) Had this been inactive for a while? Latest log in NASWA is more than a sesquiyear old: 4824.5 1121 PERU La Voz de la Selva Figliozzi Feb 1, 2005 But more recently in DSWCI; it was in the list of active LAs as of June, in 6-107, and DSWCI alltime logs include: 4824.5 1033-1040 26.05.06 La Voz de la Selva, Iquitos Spanish RLW-USA 4825.0 0913- [date?] La Voz de la Selva, Iquitos Spanish 43333 MVA-ATN It seems that Selva is always reported off-frequency on the low side, so the second log probably should have read 4825, not implying greater accuracy than that, but some people just don`t understand the concept of significant decimal places. And not to be confused with another Peruvian on the hi side of 4825, e.g. this DSWCI entry: 4826.4 1006- PRU 20.08.06 Radio Sicuani, Sicuani Quechua 25342 ALS-ARG And remember this from 6-101: ``Two Peruvian stations on close frequencies do broadcast. [4824v. Radio La Voz de la Selva in Iquitos and 4826.v Radio Sicuani.] I found La Voz de la Selva 4824.53 and Radio Sicuani on 4826.38 at 1030 to 1040 on 27 June and again on 28 June. May be interesting to listen half way in between these two stations. Has Don Moore done this? Photos of La Voz de la Selva: http://www.strubb.de/eh_in_peru3.htm and Radio Sicuani http://www.cafod.org.uk/content/view/full/942 (Robert Wilkner, Pómpano Beach FL, July 8, SW Bulletin via DXLD)`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** POLAND [non]. Friday, September 29, 2006. Woke early so I thought I'd listen to the radio. Tuned to 6160 kHz around 0740 UT and surprised to hear talk on Poland and the EU and Poland's economic situation. ID by male at 0751, "This is R. Polonia". SIO 252 with deep fades and lots of static due to storms in the area. Then at 0757 UT heard a female announcer say, "This is CBC... was R. Polonia". So, I actually was hearing "CBC Overnight" as confirmed by the CBC info at http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/program/index.jsp?program=CBC+Radio+Overnight CBC news began at 0800 UT. Oh, well. Was hoping R. Polonia's promised transmission improvements had happened. I realize some might think SIO 252 is not very good, but compared to not hearing R. Polonia at all, SIO 252, at least to me, is an improvement. 73, (Kraig Krist, KG4LAC, Manassas, VA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) And I would guess that it came via CKZN St. John's, NL rather than CKZU Vancouver, BC to Manassas. CBC Overnight is heard on 6160 with re-broadcasts of several radio stations - when I can get a signal of course. There isn't one currently in my local morning period. As far as I can tell, the old transmitters are still being used by Polonia. The noisy background is still present (Noel R. Green (NW England), ibid.) Sked shows Polonia in the second half of the 4 am hour, i.e. 0730 UT in the Maritimes. Check (gh, DXLD) ** SINGAPORE. 7235, 23.9 1535, Radio Warna with Malayan program. Nice music recognized from Voice of Malaysia. Strong and undisturbed signal. Closedown at 1600. CB (Christer Brunström, Sweden, SW Bulletin Oct 1, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST)) ** SOUTH AFRICA. Re 6-145, the 17770 transmission azimuth is really 20 degrees, Kathy Otto of SENTECH explains; I had added a 30 degree slew, but the 20 degree figure already included that shift (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) SAARL, 17695, 0800 UT [Sundays only], English 10/1/2006, 233 (Manikant Lodaya, Hubli, Karnataka State, South India, Transceiver Icom 751, Dipole antenna, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SRI LANKA. 7301.6, 24.9 1535, SLBC, Ekala with close down at this time. O=2 LRH (Leif Råhäll, Sweden, SW Bulletin Oct 1, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST)) ** SUDAN. Hello DXers, 9505 kHz around 1500 UT, Radio Om Durman-Sudan with the news in Arabic talking about local news, followed by news about Darfur, Israel and Iran followed by a program called "the Great Contest" a Question about verses from the holy Qur`an, giving the address of the station for listeners to send answers. OM interviewing another guy about the month of Ramadan, music followed by OM introducing a program about alzakaat (an Islamic law of giving some of your money for the poor) followed by a religious song then a program about mosques around the Islamic world hosted by OM and YL. It's approaching the Iftar (breaking the fast) time in Sudan, 1545 UT and OM talking about alseyam (fasting) and how important it is. I better get ready to have my Iftar as well :) as they say, Ramadan Kareem, guys. All the best (Tarek Zeidan, Cairo, Egypt, Sept 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN. 4750, R. Peace on 9/28 via DX Tuner Sweden from 0305 tune to past 0345. Very weak signal but occasionally peaked to S2+ for a few seconds at a time - bad hum on the channel - don't know if from the transmitter or some co-channel QRM. Occasional weak splash from a USN Link-11 transmitter. Heavy QSB and static. Man talking, as in typical gospel program from before 0315 to about 0331 then program became too difficult to copy. Look for this in NA a bit earlier, say 0245-0315. (Bruce Churchill, CA, DXplorer Sept 28 via BCDX via DXLD) I recall no reports of this for several months now, direct or via DX tuners; easy to overlook unless you really go after it (gh, DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. Radio Nile, 12060 [via Madagascar], 0430 10/1/2006 English and local dialect, 344, OM talk about joining forces and liberty FC [?] with clear mention of Radio Nile (Manikant Lodaya, Hubli, Karnataka State, South India, Transceiver Icom 751, Dipole antenna, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKMENISTAN. A bulletin with news in English from Turkmenistan Radio was heard in Sofia on 4930 kHz between 1645 and 1653 hours in its Second program broadcast Monday through Saturday. First program includes news in English at 1500 hours on 5015 and 279 kHz (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DX Sept 29 via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) Google imagery entry LW 279 kHz 150 kW ACH Achkabad TKM 37N57 058E23 located exact at 37N51.27 058E22.03 LW mast of 230 meters height. MW mast of 50 m, some SW towers of 2 x 2 mast - 30 meters tall. Folded 7 towers row of SW dipoles on image center. [from below 30, 60, 4x80m, 30 m tall], in total 35 towers on this area (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX June 9 via BCDX Sept 29 via DXLD) ** UGANDA. 4975.97, R. Uganda/UBC, 30 Sept 2314-0247 1 Oct. For some reason, this was still on, obviously all night. M at tune-in mentioning Kampala. All Hi-life and Hi-life Pops, and one or two remakes of Top 40 songs. Live M host in English and local language after nearly every song. Played a canned simple "UBC Radio" ID by M during songs. 2319 live M with "...This is UBC ?? Uganda, ?? Kampala and the western... This is the '?? Show' on UBC. ?? the Reverend ?? South Africa". Nice ID at 2331. Announcement at 2359 but nothing special over ToH. 0007 mention of "?? UBC R., you can ....This is the Saturday Night....shortwave. The #1 sound, the #1 in Uganda, and the #1 ??". Continued with more of the same. 0218 M including "...Radio UBC, Radio Uganda...". Took a phone call at 0220. Sounded like an English announcement at 0221. Great ID at 0223 "...listening to Radio UBC, your number one in Kampala Uganda...". Fair signal with some slight QRM from presumed Brazil below. Fading pretty badly by 0230, probably more from the propagation conditions than morning at the transmitter site. Last heard at 0247 when the mini-disc ran out (Dave Valko, Dunlo PA, HCDX via DXLD) Well, possibly for Ramadan, tho Uganda is only 16 percent Muslim, per World Almanac 2002 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See http://www.ubc.ug/ (Robert Scaglione, HCDX via DXLD) ** U K. VT GROUP RIDES HIGH IN CONFIDENCE Manufacturing News, Source : British Industry 28 September 2006 In its pre-close period statement today, shipbuilding and support services company VT Group reports a strong revenue growth and a confident outlook for the year Reporting its pre-close statement today, The VT Group remains on course to deliver results for the first half of the year in line with its expectations and the board is confident about the outlook for the year. The order book for the group currently stands at £3.5 billion. VT Communications has achieved strong revenue growth in the first half and has recently been awarded an initial five year contract with a potential value of £20 million, commencing in January 2007, to broadcast analogue and digital shortwave programmes for Deutsche Welle, the German public broadcaster. more at http://www.themanufacturer.com/uk/detail.html?contents_id=6975 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Sorry, but a shipbuilding company running SW transmitters makes about as much sense as, say, a gas company owning radio networks! (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U K. RADIO 3, 60TH ANNIVERSARY WEBPAGE 29 September 2006 is the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the BBC's Third Programme, now known as Radio 3. The station is celebrating this anniversary with live concerts and specially commissioned programmes. On the Radio 3 website you can now download a PDF file of the Radio Times containing the first week's programmes. There are also these sections: What do you remember about the start of the Third Programme. Contribute your memories to 'The Time When' website. Introduction to the Third Programme Listen to an introduction to the Third Programme by the Director-General, Sir William Haley KCMG For the Alert and Receptive Listener Read an article by the Head of the BBC's Third Programme - Mr. G.R. Barnes. "For the Alert and Receptive Listener". Letters to the Third Programme Read letters from satisfied and disgusted listeners to the new Third Programme. Lord Montagu interviews Etienne Amyot Listen to the planner of the Third Programme, Etienne Amyot in conversation with Lord Montagu. All at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/classical/thirdprogramme/index.shtml Between the Ears: Three and the Third Radio Times has highlighted this programme on Radio 3 Saturday 30th September 10.15 p.m. to 10.45 p.m: [2115-2145 UT][OD for one week?] Alvin Hall brings together a collage of voices of threescore years of BBC Cultural Broadcasting to celebrate 60 years since the start of the Third Programme. This irreverent but affectionate feature is crammed full of highlights and hiccups, familiar characters and flaming controversies. Radio Times says it includes one of the network's famous pauses when announcer John Holstrom had to find 30 minutes worth of "interesting" material to cover over the gaping hole created by the failure to get a piano onto the platform at the Proms in 1985. The reviewers favourite is a public service announcement on what might happen if one didn't pay for ones TV licence which includes being deeply shamed while out walking the dog! It describes the programme as a work of genius and as original and inspiring as the network it is celebrating (Mike Barraclough, worlddxclub via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. Deewa Radio see PAKISTAN [non] ** U S A. Another R. Martí via Greenville spur free of jamming, unlike the two heavily jammed frequencies mixing to produce it: 12015, leapfrog of 11845 over 11930, at 1402 Sept 30. However, mixes with RTTY on 12015; leapfrog in the other direxion, unfortunately lands on 11760, buried by RHC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Wondering if WWCR got the crosstalk problem fixed on 12160, I monitored a bit of WOR around 1610 UT Sat Sept 30, but signal here was too weak on portable in the yard to tell whether there was any 15825 audio underneath; could not hear any. Did anyone else check? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. KATZ 1600 IBOC after midnight --- Had IBOC hash on 1610, which of course is clear of any major analog signals, so it was quite obvious, UT Sept 29 at 0549. None of that audible on 1630, but some was audible mixing with AM on 1590, so I conclude it was coming from 1600. The dominant station there, as usual was St Louis, with R&B, gospel format. Then at 0551 slogan ``1600 Hallelujah AM``, not in the 2006 NRC AM Log under KATZ or any other 1600 station, but confirmed in a google search with several hits such as http://www.gospel1600.com/main.html as KATZ. How long has that slogan been in use? Nothing obvious on the website, but searching on HD led to this page: http://www.gospel1600.com/cc-common/hdradio/ But that says nothing about KATZ itself being digital, and links to the Clear Channel page where they have audio linx to other HD stations (as if hearing `HD` over internet were anything remarkable), not including any in St. Louis! Since KATZ is now owned by CC, I suppose they indeed are going IBOC, and even in the middle of the night. 73, (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, et al., That update for the slogan came in September --- a month after we went to press, oh well 73 (Wayne Heinen, Editor, AM Radio Log, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. Checked 1610 about 24 hours after I had heard IBOC buzz, evidently from KATZ 1600 St. Louis, i.e. Sept 30 at 0521, but did not hear it; just AM side-splash to which this frequency also has no defense (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. For the past few days I have been hearing a new TIS here in the Chicago area. WQFE239 - Palatine, Illinois on 1660 kHz. Municipal information and local weather forecasts. Good signals and seems to be getting out very well. Audible on the car radio even 18 miles away from Palatine (Chris Rigas, Wood Dale, Illinois, Sept 29, IRCA via DXLD) Noted in well here in Barrington (next village NW of Palatine) but not overpowering and is heavily QRMed at night. Is absolutely no factor on my main westerly directed antennas. Chris, I trust you can get the Lake County TIS on 1620 (I think there are at least 2 of them on in //) The one that is in Lindenhurst gets out really well (Libertyville is also strong) and can be had on my DX setup days 60 miles N in Grafton WI. 73 KAZ (Neil Kazaross, IL, NRC-AM via DXLD) The Lake County HAR WQBR256 on 1620 is the first, and so far only, real HAR/TIS ever heard in Finland. In March Jim Solatie spent a week in Lemmenjoki and wanted to report KOZN, as they had not replied, and was surprised to hear a loop from WQBR256 twice. After some detective work the station was identified and Jim actually visited the station in the Summer. Traffic Engineer Anthony Khawaja is now using Jim's reception report in his presentation to visitors of the station. 73 (Hakan Sundman, Right now in Lemmenjoki, Finland, ibid.) Wow, a local TIS heard in Finland with today's rather crowded X-band! Did the engineer happen to tell you which TIS's out of the several listed by the FCC are on the air? Do you have an email address for him? 73 and good luck in Lemmonjoki. KAZ (Neil Kazaross, IL, ibid.) ** U S A. DX Alert - KYOL / 1510 --- I just got an e-mail from my part-time boss, the Director of Engineering for NRC Broadcasting. He tells me that KYOL switched to ND operation at 3 PM MT today utilizing 1 tower of the existing 4 tower array south of Littleton. He didn't verify power levels but the STA allows for up to 2,380 watts day and 4,750 watts night which is 25% of licensed power. Even at the reduced power levels ND operation will actually result in a significant increase in power to the east and west. The directional array normally severely limits power in those directions to provide protection for the legacy stations in WA and TN as well as others. The programming is satellite oldies from Scott Shannon's True Oldies Channel except when there is a UNC Bears football game which are carried live. I just checked and there is a Bears game going right now. This STA will be in effect for several weeks while the transmitter site is moved 23 miles north to the east side of Thornton. The move will also include a power increase from 9,500/19,000 to 10,000/25,000 and some changes in the antenna pattern. The new site will consist of four 165 foot towers in a straight line running west to east which is very similar to the old DA. FYI yours truly will be the board operator at KYOL overnight tonight starting at 11 PM MT. (Patrick Griffith, Westminster CO http://community.webtv.net/N0NNK/ http://community.webtv.net/AM-DXer/ Sept 28, IRCA via DXLD) Were you board-opping sporting events or do they have someone inserting the commercials locally by hand 24/7? (Paul Walker, NRC-AM via DXLD) KYOL is usually automated 24/7 and is an affiliate of The True Oldies Channel out of New York. Programming comes via satellite from ABC and KYOL uses BSI Simian software to insert local spots and IDs on cue from the network. KYOL does not have a physical studio - only a virtual one. During sports events it is operated in the live assist mode and the local commercials and IDs are manually inserted from a computer keyboard in the equipment rack. The Simian software provides a virtual mixing board on the computer screen. NRC also has two FM stations in their Denver cluster - KJAC and KCUV. The two FMs have live announcers part of the day and are automated for the remainder. The Denver studios are never unattended. Whenever there are no live announcers on duty there is a board operator on duty to serve as the legal operator, monitor transmitter readings and tower light functions, verify that commercials run as scheduled, and so on. It is common to encounter one or more events requiring operator intervention nightly. Some of these events would result in periods of dead air if an operator were not present. I was actually hired as a part-time technician in the engineering department. But just as I was hired they lost a board operator. So I have been helping out with that quite a bit. I expect to get much more involved in the technical activities now that the relocation of the KYOL transmitter is getting underway. BTW you might be interested to know that the NRC Denver offices and studios are housed in a building that was built before commercial broadcasting even existed! It was built in 1889 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings. It was the original power house for the cable cars in Denver. In those days they were propelled by moving underground cables just like the cable cars in San Francisco (Patrick Griffith, Westminster CO, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. http://www.maxpreps.com --- It`s a nationwide repository of high school sports. I found it tonight when I heard a football game between the Royals and the Mustangs. Of course, the announcer never said anything more to ID the teams. I plugged in the team names and made a list (Royals was shorter). I quickly found that the Mission Prep Royals were playing the Laton Mustangs, and that was the only game between the Royals and Mustangs in the west. Mission Prep was in San Luis Obispo, and there is a station on 1340 (which I was tuned to) in San Luis Obispo. Bingo! Nice tools are nice to find (Mike Hawkins, ABDX via DXLD) ** U S A. The DXTests Info site at http://www.dxtests.info has been updated. I changed the format to a blogspot template which makes it much easier for me to update, while also allowing for reader comments (Brandon Jordan, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) ** U S A. If you missed any or all the 13 episodes of this years`s Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival series, which ran on many public radio stations as early as April or as late as September, here`s another chance: WUOT Knoxville is running them Oct thru Dec, UT Tuesdays at 0000-0100, one hour later after DST ends, and has a high-quality webcast. http://www.wuot.org Here is the playlist: http://www.wfmt.com/main.taf?p=12,7,31 I`ve already listened to several episodes more than once as this has special meaning for me in one of my favorite places, having attended some of their concerts myself and I well know the ambience of the Museum of Fine Arts auditorium and the Lensic Theatre. Also it seems the New York Philharmonic`s new broadcast season also gets underway in October, on WUOT and many other stations UT Fridays at 0000 but at various other times as well, and presumably resuming ondemand after a summer of old NYP recording replays with no ondemand available; see http://newyorkphilharmonic.org/attend/broadcasts/index.cfm?page=broadcastsByMonth (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. AL TALKS FRANKENLY ABOUT AIR AMERICA Posted on Fri, Sep. 29, 2006 By ROBERT PHILPOT, STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/living/15628074.htm Talk about bad timing: Al Franken: God Spoke, a documentary that spends two years following the comedian-turned-pundit from book tours to a possible run for office, arrives in Dallas today -- two days before Air America Radio, the liberal talk network that boasts Franken as its flagship host, loses its Dallas affiliate. Border Media Partners, which owns KXEB/910 AM, is leasing the station to Guadalupe Radio Network, a Catholic radio group based in Midland. The religiously oriented format is expected to take over Sunday, grounding Air America in North Texas. Franken, however, is unconcerned, even as rumors persist that the barely 2-year-old radio venture is preparing to file for bankruptcy. (Air America officials have repeatedly dismissed this in news reports.) "This happens all the time," Franken says. "It happened to Hannity. It happened to O'Reilly. It happened to Rush. A station is bought by another entity and they change the format. This happened to us in Arizona, in Phoenix, and a couple of months later or a month later, we were back on another station. It doesn't really mean anything." For the record, the names of the men Franken refers to are, respectively, Sean and Bill and Limbaugh, and they all still have on- air forums in Dallas-Fort Worth, the country's fifth-largest radio market. (O'Reilly's radio show airs on KLIF/570 AM; Limbaugh and Hannity air on WBAP/820 AM.) Franken insists he's not mixing liberal apples and conservative oranges. "[Conservative talk-show hosts] have this sort of right-wing echo chamber where anytime something like this happens, they act as if it's never happened before," he said this week, during a brief phone interview. "They'll report it as, 'Air America is doing so badly that it lost its Dallas station.' " When one of Air America's 90 affiliates has a poor showing in radio's Arbitron ratings, Franken says, it gets much more attention than when his show bumps up the ratings. (Air America never made a dent in the Dallas-Fort Worth Arbitrons, but a support group is already working to get it back on the air here.) The beginnings of Air America figure into Al Franken: God Spoke, which comes from executive producer D. A. Pennebaker (The War Room, Don't Look Back) and co-directors Nick Doob (Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars) and Chris Hegedus (Startup.com), Pennebaker's wife. The filmmakers, who are known for getting intimate access to their subjects, followed Franken for two years, from the start of a 2002 book tour through the 2004 presidential election and beyond. But although the Pennebaker team usually turns up revelations about its subjects, there's little in God Spoke that anyone who's even halfway interested in Franken (whether it be to admire him or loathe him) doesn't already know. He's well-known as a liberal voice who likes to bash President Bush and taunt the Fox News Channel. (He became the target of a lawsuit when he riffed on FNC's "fair and balanced" slogan for the title of his 2003 bestseller LIES: And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them -- A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. And Bill O'Reilly is shown several times in God Spoke referring to Franken as a "vile human being".) Politically slanted documentaries are nothing new, but during the past few years, more of them have actually made it into Dallas-Fort Worth theaters. No matter their point of view, they often have one thing in common: They almost always raise the question of whether anyone who doesn't already agree with a doc's ideology is going to go see it. Franken agrees that the people most likely to see God Spoke are already on his side, but he still believes that he can make converts to his cause. "'Preaching to the choir' is also what I get about Air America," Franken says. "But I get a lot of Republicans when I do...book signings [and things] like that. Even on the floor of the Republican Convention in 2004, when we had been on the radio less than a year, I had a lot of delegates come up to me and say, 'I think your show is fair.'" (One of the movie's slier commentaries is on how celebrity can trump ideology; Franken says he's sometimes asked for autographs by people who don't agree with his politics.) The movie concludes with Franken considering a run for one of Minnesota's seats in the Senate. Jumping from liberal talk radio to straight-up politics would seem to be like jumping from the frying pan into the oven's broiler pan. "That's part of the consideration of why I'm going to do it or not," Franken says. "Even by saying, 'I'm thinking of doing it,' I've become a target. But part of my nature is, 'Oh yeah? If you're gonna come after me, that makes me want to do it more.'" (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** U S A. MORSE CODE IS BACK, ON TV! --- Maybe it will be a shot in the arm for Ham Radio, maybe it will enforce the stereotype that they’re all paranoid conspiracy believers, or maybe it will make people think that those who use it are all spies or government agents, but the new CBS entry, Jericho makes use of Morse Code in it’s opening and as the only link of long distance communications within the show. . . http://dkosmediaus.com/WordPress/?p=33 (Steve Coletti, The Big Guys` Rantings blog via DXLD) ** U S A. Preliminary analysis of 600m amateur traffic --- Working through 600MRG traffic and the 600m log I find the following: WD2XSH stations reported on-the-air: Call State ==================== WD2XSH/5 NH WD2XSH/10 NC WD2XSH/11 TN WD2XSH/19 IL WD2XSH/20 OR Approximate reported reception distances over 1000 mi (please add others I missed): WD2XSH/20 > WY3B/KH6 2,495mi [Oregon > Hawaii] WD2XSH/20 > VE3MGY 2,166mi [Oregon > Ontario] WD2XSH/11 > VE7SL 2,088mi [Tennessee > British Columbia via QRSS] WD2XSH/20 > KA5WRL 1,627mi [Oregon > Arkansas] WD2XSH/20 > AA5AM 1,602mi [Oregon > Texas] WD2XSH/20 > W0RPK 1,511mi [Oregon > Iowa] WD2XSH/20 > K0NG 1,369mi [Oregon > Nebraska] WD2XSH/20 > W0EEA 1,024mi [Oregon > Colorado] WD2XSH/20 > W0RW 1,006mi [Oregon > Colorado] Note that WD2XSH/20 dominates this list. It would be interesting to read about the details of Rudy's station, especially his antenna. All WD2XSH/20 receptions have been CW by ear. TNX es 73 de Ralph Wallio, WØRPK W0RPK @ netINS.net (via Steve Whitt, Oct 1, MWC via DXLD) ** U S A. Another photo of Iva Toguri you may not have seen: http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/1bd579c4-d1dd-4662-9208-f81b71d6ce66_sp.jpeg (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** U S A. I thought ``family`` was code for no-sex-please, altho it is reliably reported that congress is usually necessary to produce a family --- but ABC Family cable network ran not one, but two ``Dirty Dancing`` movies in a row on Saturday evening, and prime time to boot. Another boot: the first one also ran twice in a row starting pre- primetime. In case you`re not familiar, according to glimpses on one of my aux monitors, DD contains some pretty steamy sexy scenes, altho I suppose no outright nudity. Just another example of Disney`s so- called ``family values``. Can hardly wait until Monday night for a dose of the sexless 700 Club (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** URUGUAY. Pasamos a UT- 2 --- COMIENZA EL HORARIO DE VERANO Este domingo a las dos de la madrugada habrá que adelantar los relojes 60 minutos. El horario de verano estará vigente hasta el 11 de marzo. Por tercera vez consecutiva, el Gobierno implementará la hora de verano para aprovechar mejor la luz solar y ahorrar energía. Los que no quieran llegar una hora tarde a todos lados deberán adelantar una hora sus relojes y dejarlos así hasta el 11 de marzo. Con esta medida se suma a las varias estrategias de UTE para sortear la crisis energética que atraviesa el país. A pesar de que la situación ha mejorado la empresa estatal tiene dificultades en la generación y la importación desde Brasil y Argentina, por lo que la disminución del consumo es una pieza fundamental en la política de ahorro. Las autoridades de UTE estiman que el horario de verano permite un ahorro de entre el 1 y el 2%. Montevideo Portal set 29 (via Horacio A. Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, condig list via DXLD) ** VENEZUELA [non]. Found by chance --- the only way to do it --- another new broadcast of Canal Internacional, Radio Nacional de Venezuela, making use of Cuba`s ever-expanding transmitter capacity with new Chinese made (American patent ripoff) transmitters: Sept 29 at 1257 on 11705, feature on Francisco Miranda, with recorder music in background. VG signal except for hum. Unfortunately this 1200 UT broadcast ran a sesquiminute past 1300, colliding with NHK Warido in Japanese via Canada, which has been on 11705 for many years, starting at 1300 sharp (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CUBA?? Radio Nacional Venezuela Relay?? 15250, 2010, Spanish, 544, Sept 23, ID by an OM and a YL. Then comments by a YL on Chávez followed by more comments by two OMs (Stewart MacKenzie, CA, GRDXC via DXLD) 15250 had been in use for this at 2300, and apparently they have added it at 2000; I had recently monitored 17705 only (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** VENEZUELA. CHÁVEZ AMENAZA CON NACIONALIZAR LA CANTV EXTRAIDO DE El Nuevo Herald | 10/01/2006 | EFE CARACAS, GREGORIO MARRERO/BLOOMBERG NEW El presidente venezolano, Hugo Chávez, reiteró su amenaza de nacionalizar la telefónica CANTV, la principal del país, si la empresa mantiene su ''resistencia'' de acatar la orden judicial de pagar una deuda millonaria a jubilados de la compañía. . . http://www.miami.com/mld/elnuevo/business/15649990.htm (via Oscar de Céspedes, condig list via DXLD) = Compañía Anónima Nacional Teléfonos de Venezuela; used to hear their PTP markers on SW (gh, DXLD) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. ALGERIA: 7425 kHz. R. Nacional Saharaui via Tindouf/Rabouni. Heard [Monday] 9/25 2250-0005*. 2250 tune-in Arabic program with woman speaking. Just after 2259 into Spanish, man mentioned "R. Nacional Saharaui" "Voz del Pueblo" and "1550 kHz." Music until 2310, then possible news program or commentary. Back to music 2315. 2328-1/2 man mentioned "informativa" and "R. Nacional Saharaui," then into most likely news program. Many mentions "Laayoune" "Frente Polisario" "Saharaui" and "Congreso Nacional Africano." 2337 back into music. Signal was very nice, about S7 this whole time, with just a little splash from WBCQ 7415, until man speaking 2348 signal losing strength at this time. 2358 man again mentioned "R. Nacional Saharaui" and "Voz del Pueblo." 2359 probable National Anthem. 0000 silence; 0005 carrier off. Music was very nice during this time. A lot of it was mixture of African and Arabic styles, but some of it was very definitely Spanish- influenced. Most of it featured acoustic or electric guitars; song at 2344 featured electric guitar with wahwah pedal effect (Hendrix would be proud, hi!). Very nice reception, definitely better than when was on 7460. Don't recall ever seeing them ID as "R. Nacional Saharaui," though. Also noticed one time ID'd as "R. Nacional Sahara" (Alex Vranes, Jr., Harpers Ferry, WV, Sept 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I looked for it at 2337 UT Sept 29, but no trace of any signal on 7425 or 7460, at least not on the ATS-909 in the yard (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, I had to wait until 2300 yesterday before I could report something you suggested re Polisario Front's eventual program change due to Ramadan: it seems not. W. SAHARA, Polisario Front active, 29 Sep, on 1550 kHz alone, both morning (must have closed at 0900 as usual on Fridays as it faded out around 0845) & evening, when the Castilian program was again heard at 2300-0000, ex-1700-1800. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Sept 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Last night at 2328 I found myself listening to a good strength Spanish language signal on 1550 with frequent references to Morocco, Arabic- sounding individuals' names and Sahara Occidental. I though this must be Radio Nacional de la República Arab de Saharaui Democrática (RASD). However at the end of the news they clearly said 'Radio Nacional Sahal'. I see Steve has logged this before, is this the same station? I can't think that there can be any doubt about it! (Andrew Brade, UK, Sept 29, MWC via DXLD) 1550, ALGERIA, RASD, Tindouf, SEP 21, 2210 - Excellent; man in Arabic, sounded like a political speech (Bruce Conti, Camden ME; R8B, MWDX-5, wires 130-m east and 300-m south, 15 x 26-m terminated corner-fed broadband loop east, NRC IDXD Sept 29 via DXLD) SEP 26, 2114 - Parallel 7425 with Arabic talk by man, then music; very good, over WNTN. MW actually stronger than SW (Mark Connelly, Rockport MA; Drake R8A, DXP-6, cardioid array onfiltered= 3.7-m whip (MFJ-1956) to 81:1 xfmr to DX Engineering RPA-1 amp + broadband loop, in vertical plane, square, 2-m per side, to 1:1 xfmr to DX Engineering RPA-1 amp, peak east-west, null north-south, Pogo Radio Your Way LX mp3 recorder, NRC IDXD via DXLD) Glenn, Contrary to what you've suggested, "AOE" is not "nostalgia", it is an ITU country code applied to W. Sahara, even if actually meaning "Africa Occidental Española", regardless of the latter's statutory condition. A similar situation existed for years thanks to several countries: Portugal, Indonesia and the USA: Timor. ITU's code was, and still is, "TMP", which stands for "Timor Português. Check http://www.itu.int/cgi-bin/htsh/glad/cga_list.sh?function=1&Ing=E. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) OK, but not on the HFCC country list because the only SW station `in` AOE is not really there, off-topic and clandestine to boot (gh, DXLD) ALGERIA. WESTERN SAHARA [non] Regarding recent discussions in DXLD: a) AOE is the ITU's official "geographical area designation" for "Western Sahara": http://www.itu.int/cgi-bin/htsh/glad/cga_list.sh?function=1&lng=E b) Some articles which provide background information about "Western Sahara" / "Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic" (SADR), which also may help understanding the broadcasting services: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahrawi_Arab_Democratic_Republic and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Sahara BBC profile: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/3466917.stm CIA Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/wi.html The SADR has a government in exile which resides in the refugee camp in Rabouni (near Tindouf) where also the studios of the "national" radio (and TV) station are located. The camps around Tindouf are highly organized: http://www.wsahara.net/campsstr.html and http://ec.europa.eu/echo/information/eye_witness/2002/2002_02_en.htm (EU-Commission Report). A more detailed description of the SADR state authority in the camps: http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/PDFs/RSCworkingpaper29.pdf The radio & TV services are part of the SADR state infrastructure in the camps. Apart from a TV transmitter, visitors in earlier years reported about a 20 kW RIZ SW transmitter and a 50 kW Harris MW transmitter co-located with the studio facilities at the Rabouni camp. Algeria is one of the 15 states which have diplomatically recognized the SADR, and the SADR embassy in Algiers (website: http://www.ambrasd.org ) is known as a contact address for reception reports to the radio station. The station-related website http://web.jet.es/rasd/radionacional.htm now also has a live streaming link (though inactive when checked). (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, Sept 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Tnx for the excellent wrapup! (gh) ** ZAMBIA [and non]. (Presumed): 5915 at 0220z, ZNBC, vernaculars with some English words. Mostly Afro-Caribbean style music but the music director on holiday, heard "Jingle Bells" (in English) by a male singer and chorus, also "techno" dance music. There was a recitation of numbers, some numbers in the thousands, before 0230z and again at 0250z. I don't know what the numbers represent, not frequencies. Time check "It's 4:49" (at 0249z). Program continued past 0300z without a recognizable ID. At the same time nothing heard on 3306 or 6612, but SABC (Meyerton) was audible on 3320 in Afrikaans. Interference from a jammer (over Spanish, not // 6030 or 7110) on 5910 (Jerry Lenamon, Waco Texas, Drake R8B with sloper, 0232 UT Oct 1, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Something is off here as timestamp shows posted before times cited (gh) ** ZIMBABWE [and non]. SW Radio Africa, 4880 [via South Africa], 1740 UT 09/30/2006, English, SIO 233. Jamming signal comes on for a couple of seconds every 4 to 5 minutes. Malfunctioning probably. At 1800 number station on but soon disappears. Later the radio signal weakens (Manikant Lodaya, Hubli, Karnataka State, South India, Transceiver Icom 751, Dipole antenna, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 1710 kHz. Had checked this frequency around 0345 but nothing heard, not even the Lubavitcher station in N.Y. Dozed off on the couch for awhile, then woke up again around 0515 (9/29). Decided to check again before wandering back to bed, and heard something very unusual. Mostly man speaking with a little music. Language seemed to be French, but sounded a little different, so maybe Creole? But also possibly might've been Caribbean- or African-accented French. Music was at low volume, but what little I did hear sounded more African than Caribbean, but a bit hard to tell. 0522 man mentioned "trois heures africaines." Also mentioned "africain" a number of times throughout the listening period. Also mentioned "six-zero-un-un" then would repeat slower; did this a number of times; perhaps telephone#? Also mentioned "soixante-onze" (71) frequently throughout the listening period. 0536 mentioned "travail" and "la guerre" and "toutes émissions techniques." About S7 at tune-in, but faded rapidly, down to only about S3 by 0535 to 0545 tune-out. Wanted to stay with it longer, but wanted to get back to sleep. Had to get up early to drop off my insane little kitten at vet's office for his appointment to get "altered." Definitely want to keep an eye on this frequency. Never heard this one before on this frequency. Couldn't be an African, right? Possibly Haitian pirate, maybe N.Y. or Florida? Anyone have any idea what this one could be? (Alex Vranes, Jr., Harpers Ferry, WV, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Haitian pirate on 1710 would most likely be Boston area. Seems to me there is more than one of them. Maybe Soixante-onze refers to the frequency? 73, (Glenn to Alex, via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Can anyone tell me what the utility station on 9995 USB or perhaps (9997 LSB) is? Was transmitting VNG-like time pips for about 10 minutes, one pip a second but 2 double-pips in a row twice a minute. Then it suddenly changed to sending fast pulses about 5 a second. No morse or voice IDs. I have it very strong (SIO 444) right now (5544 [sic] UT Saturday. Beats watching the Swans getting roasted) 73 de JEM (Jem Cullen, Sept 30, ARDXC via DXLD) Why not RWM, Moscow, as on page 695 of the WRTH 2006? Listed on 9996 CW, but does not give details as above to help ID it for sure. What was the real time you heard it? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Greetings from the far Chile, and congratulations for your great bulletin (I am an avid reader of it) (Mr. Eduardo Peñailillo Barra, Santiago, Chile) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ ILGRADIO --- FREE DATABASE PROJECT --- Project temporarily stopped because: - copyright violence - censorship pressure by IBB Washington - spam-mail and form-mail (about 700 a day) After successful solution of these problems it will be decided later if this project will continue or not ... (from http://www.ilgradio.com Sept 30 via DXLD) Such a shame... Does anyone has any good alternatives to use while waiting for its return (I hope)? (Jeroen Kloppenburg, dxldyg via DXLD) Several online sources, each with a different approach and its strengths and weaknesses, make up for ILG, which I have found also has significant weaknesses: HFCC A-06 schedule, download zip file from http://www.hfcc.org/data/index.html Unfortunately, HFCC is incomplete, and you may thank Mr. ILG for that! BC A06 - The comprehensive shortwave broadcasting schedule http://www.eibi.de.vu/ leading to: in time order: http://www.susi-und-strolch.de/eibi/dx/bc-a06.txt and frequency order: http://www.susi-und-strolch.de/eibi/dx/freq-a06.txt Schedules sorted by language: http://www.addx.de/Hfpdat/plaene.php Schedules sorted by station, many from DXLD: http://www.bclnews.it Prime Time Shortwave, many different sorts, English only, without all the details, and not always up to date: http://www.primetimeshortwave.com WRTH A-06 supplement, by country, also language and frequency sorts: http://www.wrth.com/files/WRTHMay06.pdf 73, (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I was using the ILG together with the "Tropenband Liste" from Pasmann, another great resource which has been stopped :( ``Unfortunately, HFCC is incomplete, and you may thank Mr. ILG for that!`` How come? [see below]. EiBi looks very handy; I had it actually in my bookmarks but forgotten all about it... Thanks :) I've also found a "Africa List" http://www.muenster.org/uwz/ms-alt/africalist/ which IMO is less useful if you, like me, just browse the bands up and down, instead of typing in exactly what you want to hear. If at some point in time such initiatives completely disappear I would just need some time to develop a website that a group of people could use to update a frequency list. It would just need to find a few days coding it. Anyway, that's a possibility for later, if all free services are gone, *and* if there are enough people or ways to keep such a list updated with correct data (Jeroen Kloppenburg, ibid.) Bernd Friedewald of ILG also has a frequency management business, with several clients including Radio Australia, and requires that HFCC delete all `BFM` entries from publicly-accessible data. The true reason is best known to himself, but we can only assume it is to make his ILG and other resources for a price more valuable (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ DRM - EUROPE DITHERS OVER DIGITAL RADIO IEEE Spectrum Online By Michael Dumiak http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/oct06/4660 Is the continent's digital AM and shortwave system stillborn or still to be born? It's been a year [sic] since Digital Radio Mondiale was supposed to spark a revolution. Shiny new radios would come fitted with DRM technology to receive a new, higher-quality digital signal for shortwave and AM broadcasting. That in turn would pave the way for all-digital airwaves --- first in Europe, and then in Asia, Latin America, and North America. It never happened. The first DRM receivers were supposed to be on the market in time for last December's holiday shopping [see photo, "Stocking Stuffer]. But because of unspecified technical glitches --- or maybe just cold feet on the part of manufacturers, who worried about whether the technology would truly take off --- stores still lack radios. Now, with this year's holiday season fast approaching [sic], DRM backers are trying to drum up enthusiasm for the technology. DRM got its start a decade ago in the R&D labs of the United Kingdom's BBC, Germany's Deutsche Welle and Deutsche Telekom, and the United States' Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Voice of America. The idea was to develop a nonproprietary digital technology for terrestrial broadcasting at frequencies of 30 megahertz and below, to supplement the satellite transmission technologies already in place [see sidebar, "Roll Over, Marconi"]. Although analog shortwave signals can travel many thousands of miles, reception is easily disrupted and tends to be spotty. Analog AM fidelity is generally better than that of shortwave, but broadcast reach is much smaller, except at night, when signals bounce off the ionosphere [sic]. Among the advantages of digital broadcasting are its consistency of signal quality and its efficiency. A 50-kilowatt transmitter using DRM can reach Warsaw from London, while an analog transmitter with the same reach would have to be 200 kW [sic], observes the BBC's John Sykes, a DRM pioneer. Not surprisingly, dozens of major international broadcasters are backing DRM, which also lets them get out of analog shortwave broadcasting without leaving its bandwidth fallow. "Radio will be digital. Full stop," says Peter Senger, a longtime R&D man at Deutsche Welle and leader of the international Digital Radio Mondiale consortium. But for DRM to take hold, listeners will have to go out and buy new radios, and so far that's put a full stop to DRM. Why would people throw out perfectly good radios and plunk down the equivalent of US $200 to buy supposedly better ones, considering they can already get all the content they want with their existing sets? Sony Corp. and Blaupunkt, both part of the DRM consortium, show no signs of putting a DRM-compatible radio on the market, and they declined to offer comments for this story. Evidently, for now they'd rather leave the field to more obscure [sic] manufacturers, such as Taiwan's Sangean Electronics and Britain's Roberts and Morphy Richards. No company has yet offered consumers a DRM car radio. Still, "pilot production runs are happening as we speak," says Dave Hawkins, a business development strategist at RadioScape, in London, which makes the decoding module for DRM receivers. Hawkins is confident that radios will be available for Europe's Christmas holiday market this year. There are tense days ahead, though. DRM boosters express confidence that when consumers hear it, they'll like it. They say that even though DRM's sound quality will not be like hearing true hi-fi, listeners will appreciate having shortwave and AM stations coming in at near-FM quality. Even more important, perhaps, listeners will be able to get many more stations than before, and if they purchase a well-equipped radio, they will have user-friendly ways of identifying and selecting programs of interest. But Sangean, Roberts, and Morphy Richards don't have the marketing clout of a Sony, and rarely does a new technology sell itself (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) See my [sic]s above --- I don`t disagree with the thrust of this article, but the writer shows his ignorance of some basic facts, especially about shortwave, and this was published by the IEEE! --- 1) It`s been far more than one year since DRM was supposed to spark a revolution. Has he just heard about it? 2) SW signals DO bounce off the ionosphere in the daytime, believe me --- it`s just that higher frequencies work better in day, lower at night. This is just about the first thing any new SWL learns. 3) The holiday season is not ``fast approaching``. It is approaching at a constant rate just as any other date in the future. Every 24 hours it is exactly one day closer! 4) 50 kW DRM vs 200 kW required for analog over the same path, London to Warsaw, is a gross generalization. 50 kW analog could do a perfectly good job if properly carried out with the usual direxional high-gain antennas on an appropriate frequency. Unfortunately, there are no SW transmitters in London! 5) Sangean is ``obscure``???? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 1) Apparently the author is under the impression of the "commercial launch" on last year's IFA where really big promises were being made. 4) T-Systems demonstrated over a decade what a mere 100 kW can do on AM, and even on sightseeing tours for a general public they point out that state-of-the-art 500 kW transmitters can be run at 125 kW without compromising the efficiency too much. 500 vs. 125 or 200 vs. 50 kW makes a difference of 6 db, so 36 db of S/N ratio will become 30 db, as an example. Not desirable of course, but still much better than just lamenting that 500 kW are eating up so much money that it is unavoidable to shut down the whole thing. 5) Sangean is no widely recognized brand in Europe but known only as a manufacturer of shortwave radios, and that's only a small niche market of course. In the past the Sangean sets were here in Germany labelled as Siemens, just like their prototypes of a DRM radio now carrying a Roberts label. Another point: "Analogue AM sounds better than shortwave" -- AM sounds better than AM or what?? (Kai Ludwig, ibid.) OK, time to get more knowledge on the whole DRM world. I have been experimenting with WinDRM and testing transmissions of "digital voice" on HF on the amateur bands with 2.4 Khz "DV". To date, I have generally ignored the DRM international broadcasters other than occasionally listening to those on World of Radio that appear to dislike this mode of transmission. However there is some appeal to me if we could ever develop public domain, PC soundcard based, decoding of signals without additional hardware. Am I correct in assuming that the DRM signals that the short wave broadcasters use are wider than the standard 6 kHz bandwidth common to most short wave receivers? If so, I am guessing that that no matter how good any sound card based software is, decoding with a standard radio is out of the question? (Andy O`Brien, NY, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) DRM transmissions on shortwave mostly use a bandwidth of 10 kHz. The side-tuning trick works only on AM signals with their identical sidebands, for DRM reception the receiver indeed has to pass the full 10 kHz spectrum. But the PC solution does not work with a standard radio anyway for another reason: It requires the received, not demodulated HF signal being mixed down to a frequency audio equipment can handle (usually 12 kHz if I recall correct). This so-called baseband must be fed into the computer through its soundcard. An NF output of the blaring white noise the AM demodulator produces when it gets a DRM signal is of no use here (Kai Ludwig, ibid.) DRM: see also GERMANY RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ ICOM R9500 Universal Radio indicates that the ICOM R9500 will not be available until 2007: http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/widerxvr/0095.html ----------------- HI from Ken in the UK, I was at a radio show here in the UK about two weeks ago and this new receiver was on display. The spec is equal to the 'ICOM-7800' regards 'IP2' and 'IP3' on the HF frequencies, in fact it's meant to be the companion RX for the '7800'. The price quoted for the UK is --- £7.000.00 (around about $12,000.00 US). It will sell and sell very well, but not to us poor SWL's and Amateurs, I'm afraid. Cheers all, Ken, G4KIR (dxAce, Michigan, USA via rec.radio.shortwave via SW Bulletin Oct 1 via DXLD) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dear Ladies of Radio ..... nobody mentioned by name but nobody forgotten [sic] This is written as a collective letter, and as you know I usually don't do so. This time I must be practical rather than personal, but I hope you who read this will still take it as a personal message. And this is a very personal account of a very special event in my life. Yesterday, Saturday September 30th, was a great day in Swedish DX history. The Swedish DX Association - Sveriges DX-Förbund - celebrated its 50th anniversary on the premises of Radio Sweden in Stockholm. The SDXF is the main organization for local DX clubs and individual DXers in Sweden and the number of members is around 600. About 75 DXers and guests had gathered for the occasion, among them two charming ladies of radio, Sonja Persson and Helen Persson, who are not relatives but both worked in the past as editors and speakers at Radio Station HCJB, Quito, Ecuador, a Christian station which also had programmes in Swedish. It has now largely moved its facilities to Australia, and Sonja and Helen are here in Sweden. They have made it a habit to attend DX Parliaments and other important DX meetings in Sweden. The day started with a discussion on the future of radio, in which podcasting and DRM were seen as interesting developments - but really not without problems. Improved local radio and more diversified commercial radio in Sweden were also matters on the agenda. Also some short talks about technical matters of interest were held. After a tour through the corridors, into the studios and archives of the Swedish radio - only the news and sports sections were really active at the time - we had a very nice dinner in the radio house dining room. Then came the final part of the proceedings. After listening to a talk about the history, development and possibilities in performance of radio receivers it was my turn to enter the stage and to give a nostalgic presentation of "The Life of Radio and the Radio in my life." With the help of two American DX magazines I gave a sketch of the DX situation at the time of my birth (in 1934) - there were only a couple of DXers in Sweden at that time - and then moving on to the period of World War II when common people here got their news from BBC in Swedish, I gave episodes from my first listening at the end of the war, hearing Nazi stations and stations in Japanese occupied South East Asia. My listening with a small 4 tube receiver was possible through my will and interest in combination with the shortwave station lists which existed already then and the DX news in the Swedish Radio publication Röster i Radio - Voices of Radio. Among stations heard were indeed HCJB in Ecuador, August 1945, also Radio Moscow in Swedish early 1945, plus the more exclusive far-away catches in other continents. I was only 11 years old but filled with enthusiasm! I followed the news from the war, read newspapers and studied the maps all the time --- in a poor family, my father being an industrial worker but with intellectual and artistic ambitions. I had brought with me my first Radio Log Book, starting in June 1945 and several old publications as illustrations to my speech. I also pointed out that radio has formed my whole life and my occupations - today as a translator of Albanian, due to an interest created by radio. Of course I also said some words about my appreciation for the ladies of radio - with all the different developments connected with this. My speech was met with very positive reactions from those listening. Before we closed there was also an auction, conducted by my old friend Mr. Bengt Ericson, who is a very successful auctioneer with his humourous style. Among the old friends I was able to meet was the the veteran DXer Jan- Erik Räf (he and I may be the only still active Swedish DXers who started more than 60 years ago in this hobby) and he also held a short speech. Very emotional to me was the fact that Mr. Lars Kalderén, former head of the Swedish Riksgäldskontoret - a State Financial Office, came to the jubilee upon my recommendation. Mr. Kalderén, at the age of 15 (they did not know his age!) started writing DX news chronicles in Röster i Radio in 1943 and continued to do so until 1946-47. These reports were of utmost importance to me in my development as a world listener. Also Mr. Folke Isaksson, later to become one of Sweden's foremost poets, was a columnist in the DX section of this weekly magazine in the mid-1940'ies. Mr. Kalderén and I had never met before, he seemed very touched to hear my words about his column and its importance in my life --- He is still, at the age of 78, active as a financial adviser on the international arena! So this was a day to remember. Everything went so well, I only regret there was too little time for individual chats and discussions. We spent eight hours together and then everybody disappeared into the night.... Kindest regards from (Ullmar in Sweden Qvick, via Drita Cico, R. Tirana, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ SPACE WEATHER CANADA 27 DAY MAGNETIC ACTIVITY FORECAST SEPT 26-OCT 22 http://www.spaceweather.gc.ca/forecast27days_e.php (via gh, DXLD) ###