DX LISTENING DIGEST 7-003, January 7, 2007 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 2007 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html For restrixions and searchable 2006 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid6.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 1342 Mon 0400 WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0515 WBCQ 7415 [time varies 0500/0520] Mon 1331 WRMI 7385 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 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 ** AFGHANISTAN [and non]. On Jan 6, I was listening to CBC news from CKZU-Vancouver and heard an item about the new Canadian Forces RANA FM (88.5) station that started today in Kandahar. Programming is a mix of music with a pro-NATO, anti-Taliban message aimed at young people. They have a website http://www.ranafm.org/ with live streaming (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: RANA-FM ABOUT TO HIT KANDAHAR AIRWAVES --- By BILL GRAVELAND KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - The Canadian military will begin radio broadcasts in Kandahar this week, but forget about comparisons with the movie Good Morning Vietnam. In the movie, actor Robin Williams played an irreverent disc jockey with American armed forces radio who used his unorthodox style to boost morale among American troops. Canada's RANA-FM, on the other hand, will specifically target Afghan residents, primarily those between the ages of 15 and 25. "(We) want to give them pretty much a progressive station that plays a lot of music and promotes the Afghan way of life," said Capt. Robin Thibault, 32, of Montreal. "It allows us to demystify what we're trying to do and accomplish in their area and help us to explain to people, better, who we are." The station, 88.5 on the radio dial, is scheduled to hit the airwaves Jan. 6 and will also provide the commander of Joint Task Force Afghanistan, Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, a means to talk to the people of Kandahar, although officials insist the station will not be a propaganda tool. It will play mostly Bollywood and modern Afghan music and would be considered "on the edge" by Afghan standards. And in a bit of a twist, the radio station itself is located in an unidentified city in Canada. "We have Canadian-Afghan presenters, mostly true-Pashto speakers so they'll be recognizable to the people of Kandahar city," he said. "We're located in Canada but linked into Afghanistan by satellite and basically we just rebroadcast the transmission," said Thibault. The station will also provide public affairs programming dealing with international sporting events and include features on Afghans living in other countries. Basing the radio station in Canada is simply part of security measures. "The station is safe back home. It's because of the security threat that we're facing right now. The reason we didn't have the station here to begin with is because of the security aspect," said Thibault, who notes BBC Pashto already broadcasts into Afghanistan from London along with Voice of America, which comes from Washington, D.C. "As you know, I think it was in April or May that an interpreters' bus was blown up on the way to Kandahar Airfield and that's what we're trying to prevent," he said. The 300-watt radio station will have limited reach by Canadian standards but should be strong enough to hit all of Kandahar city since it is "half the size of west island of Montreal but with a greater populace." The call letters, RANA, is a Pashtun-Dari word that means light. "Our slogan is 'Light in your life,' " he said. "We want to be a factual, unbiased radio station so we need to be credible, . . . we cannot be western or push western views or values," Thibault said. If the commander of the Canadian task force wants to address the people of Kandahar, it would be part of public affairs programming and with the use of a translator. RANA-FM is not competing with any local radio stations and will not sell advertisements, aiming instead for a target audience that nobody else has hit before. But by offering what the military calls progressive messages, modern music and a pipeline for the Canadian views, it is bound to attract the attention of the Taliban. And that is something Thibault acknowledges. "Once the people start to take sides and the Taliban realize people are not taking their side then chances are the Taliban are going to be very upset by what we're trying to do," he said (via A. Markewicz, Canadian Forces, DXLD) Same: http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=9fc822a5-e5ca-417b-8978-dae2165a590e&k=56711&p=2 (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) Another version, illustrated, reveals it`s from Kingston, Ont.: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/01/06/kandahar-radio.html (via Dan Say, DXLD) ** ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS. Dear Friends, While monitoring AIR Regional stations, I noted AIR Port Blair on 4764 at 0100 UT. By 0117 the frequency drifted downwards and noted on 4963 kHz [sic, must mean 4763]. Usually they were on 4760 kHz. Seems that they are suffering from some sort of transmitter problem and not like what happened at Guwahati few weeks ago! (T. R. Rajeesh, Kerala, INDIA, Jan 7, HCDX via DXLD) Yes, noted them 6 Jan around 1500 on 4761.2 drifting slowly upwards. 73 (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, ibid.) ** BIAFRA [non]. V. of Biafra International, 7380 via South Africa, heard with ID immediately after tune-in Sat Jan 6 at 2136, saying it originates in Washington DC, and frequency, I thought he said ``7 point 80 kHz``, then commentary ``What would you do now in 2007?``, asserting that Nigeria is governed by a ``mentally retarded dictator``; retune at 2152, wrapping up and familiar anthem; I think it was ``God Bless Africa`` in keeping with VOBI`s quasi-evangelical tone; 2155 frequency clearly stated as ``7380 kHz``, and sign-off. Is weekly, Saturdays at 21-22 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BULGARIA. R. Bulgaria 70th anniversary contest, oldest QSLs, audio in Spanish: http://www.bnr.bg/RadioBulgaria/Emission_Spanish/Theme_70RB/Material/concurso.htm (via Henrik Klemetz, SW Bulletin Jan 7, DXLD) ** CAMEROON [non]. Re: ``Please confirm whether RFSC is really now on 11840 Saturday at 1800-1900 UT as recently reported. Tnx, (Glenn, in advance, Dec 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` Saludos cordiales, hoy 6 de Enero a las 1800 en 11840 nada de Radio Free Southern Cameroon; a esa hora se escucha con buena señal a Radio Ashna en Dari. 73 (José Miguel Romero, Spain, ibid.) 11840 Channel is empty at 1835 UT, not even a carrier whistle, when SSB reception mode on set. [IBB VOA Dari Lampertheim co-channel til 1830 UT only]. Also missing this RFSC registration entry in latest DTK T-systems Juelich schedule of Jan 3rd, 2007. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, ibid.) ** CANADA. Dead Dog in the City, the hilarious deadpan first-nations humour programme on CBC Radio 1, was missing Jan 3 from its usual Wednesday evening at 8:29 pm local schedule; instead, Nighttime Review ran another quarter hour until Out Front at 8:44. Yet DD was still shown on CBC online program schedules http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/radio/ which we have noticed before are not kept up to date. Not heard either at its other time, Thursday 10:44 am local January 4, but this one has been removed from the schedule. Let`s hope it`s just a holiday thing or a brief hiatus. Program website gives no clues: http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/program/index.jsp?program=Dead+Dog+in+the+City The other Thursday morning show, O`Reilly and the Age of Persuasion, at 11:30 am local, remains on the schedule but they don`t say for how long. The Jan 4 was a repeat, but is one of the few shows whose reruns we willingly listen to anyway. CBC Hotsheets to which we subscribe have been extremely erratic lately; you never know whether a given day`s will ever arrive, and anyhow, they are highlights rather than complete program info. Meanwhile I heard a promo that And Sometimes Y, the show about the English language, is back, on Saturdays at 11:30 am local. Its website is up-to-date, showing a 6-month run thru June 2007, with repeats Tuesdays at same time(s) on CBCR1: This means we have 10 chances each week to catch one of the webcasts. Unseems ondemand but check out show site http://www.cbc.ca/andsometimesy/ I heard the first episode on Jan 6, and it`s terrific. Next Monitoring Reminders Calendar update will have it underlined and italicized as not-to-be-missed. There are probably some more program changes with the new year on CBC but I don`t see anything else significant on this week`s grid (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Bob McDonald on Quirks & Quarks still says it`s ``around the world on shortwave on Radio Canada International``. Must he retire this claim, unfortunately? Not completely. Per http://www.rcinet.ca/rci/PDF/B06_SW.pdf there is still ONE broadcast of Q&Q on SW, but hardly around the entire world: 1200-1259 ENGLISH Asia / China 7105 9665 SUN Quirks & Quarks Companion technical schedule gives further details, via Japan: YAM 7105 100 270 Log periodique 43N,44N YAM 9665 300 235 HR 4/2/1.0 43S,44S,49,50 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Sounds like Islam meets "Corner Gas". What's Corner Gas? The funniest show on Canadian Television. http://www.cornergas.com/ (Fred Waterer, Ont., DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: 'LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE' = BIG LAUGHS? POSTED: 9:05 a.m. EST, January 3, 2007 http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/03/television.canada.reut/index.html Story Highlights • Canadian sitcom "Little Mosque on the Prairie" starts Jan. 9 • TV show about Muslim community in Saskatchewan • CBC exec says early screenings encouraging TORONTO, Ontario (Hollywood Reporter) -- "Little Mosque on the Prairie," a Canadian sitcom that debuts Tuesday, January 9, depicts immigrant Muslims bumping up against white locals in rural Saskatchewan. Zarqa Nawaz, creator and writer of the groundbreaking show, insists she's an equal-opportunity satirist taking dead-aim at both Muslim and Canadian stereotypes in a post-September 11 world. "I expect both groups will be wondering if the other finds the show funny," says Nawaz. There are predictable jokes about Muslim beliefs clashing with Canadian traditions. In one scene, a father wearing a kufi, or a knitted cap worn by devout Muslims, protests that his Canadian-born daughter wearing a revealing tank top looks "like a Protestant." "Don't you mean prostitute?" the daughter asks. "No, I meant a Protestant," the father replies. In another scene, a young man of Middle Eastern origins with a Canadian accent is heard in an airport check-in line telling his mother via cell phone that his father shouldn't think his choosing to stop being a Toronto lawyer to become an imam in Saskatchewan amounts to career "suicide." "This is Allah's plan for me," the young man says in passing, before an arresting cop appears suddenly and tells the surprised lawyer that he won't be making that appointment in Paradise. Nawaz, a British-born Muslim and mother of four who settled on the Prairies with her family a decade ago, downplays the idea that the homegrown comedy may spark widespread controversy. She insists her comedy springs from a relatively uneventful life in multicultural North America, unlike Europe, for example, where relations between Muslims and the wider Christian community are often a powder keg. "North America should be the first place where a comedy like this would come about, where Muslims can be comfortable in their own skin and questions of Canadian identity can produce a sitcom," she says. To ensure it doesn't cause unforeseen offense with "Little Mosque on the Prairie," the government-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) has hired an independent Muslim-Canadian consultant to comb through the sitcom's creative elements and suggest possible alterations. Kirstine Layfield, CBC executive director of network programming, says recent preview screenings with select Muslim audiences elicited encouraging results -- laughter. "Just doing the series is a risk in itself, but one the public broadcaster should take on if we're to help communicate authenticity of living in Canada," Layfield adds. Mary Darling, one of three executive producers shopping the Canadian comedy stateside, says a U.S. airing may help break down barriers between faith communities. "It won't do any harm, and maybe it can do some good," she says (via Fred Waterer, DXLD) see also AFGHANISTAN ** CANADA. I just checked a few minutes ago and it appears that the open carrier on 630 kHz - which has been there since about December 20 or so, is now off the air. As of a few hours ago, it was on. Theories abound - one, the most likely, is that CFCY-AM forgot to shut off its transmitter. Others have theorized it might be a pirate. I never had the time to drive to Cornwall to drive past their site. But signal strength wise, the carrier had the same readings I was used to back when CFCY was on the air. No more AM on PEI. Yup - it`s gone. My Drake R8 is happy now. Might even be able to get into LW now. At some point CKEC and CBA will be gone. I will miss CKEC, as they are very "Hi-Fi" and it shows off the audio on my Heath PT-1, the R- 390A, and a few other rigs with the capability for really good AM top end audio response. But I still have my little flea power transmitters which have great audio. But CKEC-FM will pound into PEI - I've seen their contours and they are good! So, I'll still be able to listen to the mildly eclectic yet folksy CKEC, albeit on FM. CFDR will be gone before too long too. How long will CJCH hang on? And - why is 930 CFBC's nighttime signal so bad of late? - CJYQ is the only game in town on 930 at night the last few months (Phil Rafuse, PEI, Jan 5, ABDX via DXLD) ** CHINA. Firedrake check, Jan 5 at 1410, poor on 9200 against presumed Sound of Hope (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Comparing commie CRI today to RBI yesterday: see GERMANY ** COLOMBIA. Re 7-002, Galeras: see LANGUAGE LESSONS below ** CROATIA [non]. Croatian R., 0300-0307 (not-0315) NA 7285ge; 2315- 2322 (not-2330) SA 7285ge (George Sherman, MN via Daniel Sampson, Prime Time Shortwave Jan 6 via DXLD) Doesn`t the English length vary? What if they play music after; is that still part of the English broadcast? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** CUBA. Re 7-002, Rychalsky: A message to be read and analyzed by the list members Dear amigos: If you received a message written in the way this one I received and not only received but also saw it as a posting on several mailing lists... WHAT WOULD BE YOUR REPLY....??? Would you take this as an insult? Would you believe it comes from a disrespectful person that is not aware of all one has done to promote and help develop the radio hobby in general and amateur radio in particular? Would you just think that this person doesn't have the slightest idea of how a local, provincial or even a national radio network is organized and managed in a country very different from his? AND, if this person that writes in such an insulting language learns that practically no one at those stations reads and writes English, and know nothing about DXing... what he would do??? In the past, at the request of Dxers Unlimited's listeners I have helped them to obtain QSL letters from Cuban TV and Broadcast Stations, and even with some "utilities" too, but devoting time to translating the reports, finding the right person to sign the QSL, writing the reply letter in Spanish, asking for the person's approval, and then translating the QSL letter to the English Language is certainly a lot of work. Radio Havana Cuba's very efficient (and very small in number staff) at the RHC Correspondence Department have even gone to the point of paying for the postage of those QSL requests of other stations in the case of DXers Unlimited listeners that had insisted in obtaining our help, like for example, to confirm reception of a Cuban Channel 2 Tele Rebelde TV station... (and then who can be sure that the person was picking up Tele Rebelde's Ch 2 in Havana, or the same station's Ch 2 relay in other regions of Cuba) Well, read the e-mail, and please provide your opinions about how you would handle this "request" in case you were in my place. 73 and DX (Arnie Coro, Host of Dxers Unlimited, Radio Havana Cuba, Jan 4, ODXA via DXLD) Hey Arnie, What I would say would likely not be appropriate for this genteel forum. I wouldn't take it as an insult though, just as whining from someone who obviously takes themselves too seriously and is unappreciative of all of the good stuff RHC and you have done through the years. Ask them if they would complain to a prominent Oklahoma DX'er like Glenn Hauser if a station in Oklahoma didn't send them a QSL? (not to give anyone ideas LOL) Would they expect him to take the time to contact that station on their behalf and explain the hobby to them? I don't think so ;) The guy is just being unreasonable. 73's! (Dan Murray, Canada, ibid.) It's free speech, Arnie. Don't take it to heart, we love ya man! (Jim N8RPI, ibid.) Unfortunately, a minority of shortwave listeners behave as if the international broadcasters were their personal servants. I can always remember my good friend George Wood at Radio Sweden, one of the most placid people you could wish to meet, getting incensed at a shortwave conference when someone stood up and told the international broadcasters on the panel that it was their job to provide QSL cards to the listeners. I have never seen George get so angry! I briefly processed some reception reports for World Music Radio in the early 80's. Some were from people well known in the hobby. The standard of some of the reports was appalling, and I refused to QSL them. Some offered not a single piece of evidence that the listener had actually tuned in to one of our programmes. The 'details' were so vague that they had probably been copied from someone else's logging in a DX magazine. The result of that experience was that I totally lost interest in QSLing, because I realised that a lot it was just a meaningless ritual to many SWLs (Andy Sennitt, Radio Netherlands (expressing a personal point of view), ibid.) ** CUBA [non]. Watching TV Martí recently, I saw a short "feature" that showed the toppling of a statue of Lenin as communist regimes fell in Eastern Europe, then the pulling down of a statue of Saddam Hussein in 2003, and finally Fidel Castro tripping and falling at a graduation ceremony in 2004. The point, I assume, is that all dictators eventually "fall." Is making fun of the mishap of an old man effective propaganda for Cuba? (Or for South Florida?) If TV Martí has any interest in credibility, should it be inserting these propaganda snippets at all? (Kim Andrew Elliott, Jan 5, kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) ** CYPRUS TURKISH [non]. Mediacorp, Singapore is coming in well here right now on 6150 with ID in English while I write this. So far I have been unable to hear Northern Cyprus on this frequency at various hours as others claim. Best 73, (Anker Petersen, Denmark, 0100 UT Jan 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DENMARK [and non]. Glenn, With the reports in DXLD 7-002 January 4, 2007, it seems that the Denmark longwave station on 243 kHz may still be around for a while. Good news. A thread on it's demise in DXLD 6- 193, included some history on the station from me, and included from Kai Ludwig, a general summary of departed longwave broadcast stations in Europe. I always enjoy Mr. Ludwig's reports and observations. He clearly has a love and passion for European broadcast information, and transmitter history. He has my full respect and I always look forward to his reports in DXLD. In DXLD 6-193, In reference to closed longwave broadcast stations, Kai wrote: "It might be interesting that almost all of them are in the CIS and Scandinavia. Elsewhere in Europe I'm aware of only one closed longwave station, Burg on 261." As a point of history, I would add that Caltanissetta, Italy on 189 kHz, and Al Karahah, Jordan on 207 kHz, also left the longwave broadcast band in recent decades. I will not tread back to the "cold war" and the VOA Munich monster on 173 kHz, or all the former USSR and Finland stations that operated well above the top end of the recognized lw broadcasting band of 285 kHz. I just wanted to point out that since I have been longwave DX'ing from this side of the pond, that both Italy and Jordan are gone as well. My best regards to you and Mr. Ludwig (Brock Whaley, GA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Long and medium wave --- According to the 2007 edition of the WRTH (with some edits made by me due to monitoring), DR's schedules on long and medium wave are as follows: 243 kHz: P1 0433-2330 UT (although I think sign-off is 2314 UT) with weather reports at 0745, 1045, 1645 and 2145. Navigational warning at 1700. Gymnastics programme 0730-0740. 1062 kHz: P3 M-F 0349-1100 and 1500-2314. Sat/Sun 0349-1100 and 1700- 2314. P4 M-F 1100-1500. Sat/Sun 1100-1700. Weather reports, Navigational warning and gymnastics programme as 243 kHz. Also news in Faroese Sat 1800-1830 and news in Danish from KNR Greenland M-F 1755- 1800. I suspect that the KNR news bulletins have been scrapped as I continued to hear P3 between 1755 and 1800 when I listened earlier in the week. Not sure about the Faroese programme on Sats though. There are also regular on-the-hour news bulletins from DR, in Danish, that are specific to 243 and 1062, but not all are carried on both frequencies. The majority are on 1062 kHz. This is not mentioned in WRTH. Regards, (Darren Rozier, Stowmarket, Suffolk, England, Jan 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. Heard several times last month, R. Sucre, Guayaquil, 700, showed up again here last night, in conditions that were otherwise unexceptional. Here's an audio snippet from 2324 EST last night: http://topazdesigns.com/ambc/audio/rsucre-700-2324-4jan07.mp3 This one gets out well, and with frequent IDs, is quite easy to pick out in a crowd. Especially for those in the east who can get a null on WLW, this should be on your target list! -- (Barry McLarnon, VE3JF, Ottawa, ON, Jan 6, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** EGYPT. Glenn, Having fun on Google Earth I have just spotted what seems to be two shortwave sites very close to Cairo (and to each other) but not matching the three known coordinates of ABS, ABZ, or MOK. Please check (1) 30 01 46N, 31 16 26E; (2) 30 01 35N, 31 16 37E. Just for good measure the main Cairo FM antenna seems to be squeezed into the same complex. Perhaps the Egyptian contributor can help me out. Regards and 73's (Dan Goldfarb, Brentwood, England, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Abu Zabaal: 30 16 28 N, 31 22 E Google Earth Imagery. The large Radio Cairo SW site at Abis is located at 31d 07' 38"N, 30d 04' 27"E (high resolution). (Douglas Johnson-USA, via Olle Alm, wwdxc BC-DX July 12, 2006) R. Cairo at Abis apparently at 31 07 30 N, 30 04 26 E. Ex-Mokattam could not find but something very strange near it on the attached picture?! (Mauno Ritola-FIN, wwdxc BC-DX July 14, 2006) Yes very old eight dipoles at [31 mb see below] Mokattam: 30 01 36 N, 31 16 41 E My old archive files show of November 1998: 9755 Holy Quran Radio 0200-2200 UT from Mokattam-EGY on 9755 kHz. B99 of 1999 season 9755 0200-2200 28S,38,39,47N,48N MOK 100 ND 251098 280399 HQ2/0.5 ERU 73 wb Radio Cairo have been difficult to obtain verifications from over recent years but recently I tried again and did get a nice friendly e- mail reply from Marwan Khattab at Radio Cairo thanking me for my reception report for 7270 and promising that a QSL card will be sent soon. His address is egyptianoverseas_english @ hotmail.com (Ian Cattermole, NZ, July NZ DX Times direct, 2006) (all via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) Hello DXers, checking pics sent by my friend Mauno Ritola from google earth (as I can't download it to my system) I can tell that the 2 attached pics are located in Mokattam (it's a well known mountain in Cairo). I can see FM transmitter when I pass by this area in Cairo, but never noticed these SW transmitters before (Tarek Zeidan, Egypt, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. Re: ``EFD (what's this?): Moved from JUL to WER; Wed, Fri and Sun 1900-1959 on 9620, 100 kW @ 135 deg.`` Voice of Ethiopian Unity, according to http://www.biener-media.de/de-jul-1.html (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE [non non]. RFI, 11615, Issoudun, with Dav-id Pa-ge opening English to Africa, Jan 6 at 1601; among programs in the hour would be one on the media, and into news by him too. Lite echo, but much better than // 15160 via South Africa (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GABON. Re. ``Not only the buzz disappeared, also RTG on 4777 at 1600-1700 is missing since the beginning of this year. I've the impression that Moyabi has only two fully working transmitters at the moment``: Recently it had been frequently assumed that RTG would use the Moyabi transmitters. What is the source for this information or rumour? WRTH 2007 still shows "irregular" shortwave transmissions from RTG via "Melen 100 kW". This would be their own shortwave site near Libreville, as opposed to the French-owned Moyabi plant with big 500 kW transmitters. The most recent transmitter at Melen is said to be a 100 kW Thomson from 1987: http://www.tdp.info/gab.html (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Source is that The Buzz was being heard on 4777, just the same sound as on 9580 and 19160 (gh, DXLD) This implies that 9580 and 4777 share the same transmitter, and it should apply also to 7270, heard not too long ago. Is there evidence for 9580 being indeed off air every time either 4777 or 7270 are on? One could also consider temporary cover as a possibility, thus eliminating the "every time" condition, but would RTG suddenly bother to make such arrangements when over years it was no problem for them that their shortwave transmissions were apparently rather erratic? Re. Libya getting involved in the Moyabi facilities: I was already wondering what will happen with the plant when NHK transmissions will be done, even expecting a possible shut-down of the site since RFI already left this site while for ANO shortwave doesn't appear to be a high priority. I wouldn't be surprised if it was TDF who tipped the Libyans of the Moyabi plant ("we know something you could use, too"). (Kai Ludwig, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Much more under LIBYA [non] ** GERMANY [and non]. Re. ``My first impressions of the DWL change to Merlin [VTC U.K. wb.] after one day is that signals are not as strong here as when Wertachtal was being used, but it maybe that shortwave conditions are to blame. For instance 9545 kHz at 0600-1000 UT. [...] Getting the sychronisation right on 6075 & 9545 must be a nightmare. Working out the time delays of the different programme circuits will be a problem`` Actually 9545 is still Nauen, without any changes. There is just an additional synchronized (or supposed-to-be, I read about echo problems here as well) transmission from Woofferton in the 0800-1000 period. Btw, Nauen uses a 230 degree beam with 4/4 antenna configuration ("holidaymakers outlet", aiming at Mallorca and the Canary Islands), just right for reception in New Zealand via long path. Re the synchronization nightmare: They did such operations in the UK already when the transmitters were still owned by the BBC, I think some of the well-known frequencies (in particular 9410, 12095 and/or 15070) were at times on air even from all three UK sites simultaneously. Just no different circuits. Same satellite downlink, same receivers with same firmware, no other delay-causing equipment in the chain. And I think that some test transmissions in advance would have uncovered the problem in time to avoid bothering listeners. For the record, there is another opinion that the single transmitter operation I noted after 1700 was still Skelton with Sines being off instead. Finally remembered this from DXLD 6-182: http://www.bayerndigitalradio.de/download/bdr_pressemeldungen/pm_061219_ard.pdf ... "2008 shall see the "Digitalisation" of Public Broadcasts on Terrestrial Television come to reality. Through this freeing up of spectrum, "new offerings" will become possible. ... So it seems that DAB is not dead in Germany`` Of course, would anybody expect a DAB operator to make such a statement? The latest comments by RBB's director of engineering on the matter of terrestrial digital radio were: At present we're participating in a field trial of carrying radio via DVB-T, but it seems that this mode already becomes obsolete for this purpose now. Possible standards for future radio distribution could be DMB or DVB-H, but this remains to be seen. In any case it appears to be quite unlikely that any standards meant solely for radio distribution will be common anymore. And by 2008 the era of analogue terrestrial TV in Germany could be already over. RBB had done with it on New Year's Eve when the last remaining PAL-B/G outlets in northern Brandenburg were shut down. A last screenshot of the Pritzwalk transmitter, with a crawl referring viewers to cable and satellite: http://hometown.aol.de/AnalogFreakDX/rbb_fernsehen_Laufband.jpg (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. Since we just tipped the DAB matter: Recently some subsidies for DAB operations in Hessen were terminated. Result: The local L-band ensemble at Frankfurt has been abandoned by two stations, the Munich-based DAB venture Nova Radio and the German Sky Radio, leaving there only a special service sponsored by the media authority plus Truckradio and Wilantis, both with a whopping 128 kbps signal. In the state-wide ch. 12 ensemble the two commercial stations (Harmony FM and Planet Radio, both having a somewhat spotty FM coverage in Hessen) cut back from 160 kbps stereo to 96 kbps mono, apparently to save operational costs since the ensemble is almost empty, otherwise only used by Deutschlandradio (both main programs with 192 kbps each and an additional speech channel with 64 kbps). (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. Re: R. Berlin International announcers, Joachim Schneider Well, I could find out a little bit: He was a factory worker at the Berlin-based cable manufacturer KWO until some political initiative (a typical GDR phenomenon), presumably by the youth organization FDJ, let him begin studies at Leipzig; Arabic and probably also journalism. Afterwards an initiative by SED (the GDR's communist party) brought him to RBI. At least that's what he told his colleagues there. Shortly before the demise of RBI he married an editor of the Italian service and assumed her surname, whatever name this was (the "informer" can't remember anymore). It seems that he is travelling through the Middle East at present, known as an expert for this region, whatever this may say about his current job (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Kai, Most interesting. Even though it was a challenge listening to RBI (because of poor reception or boring propaganda) I never forgot the beliefs or policy of the host country. I always expected letters, etc were examined before reaching the station. Even today I've encountered problems sending programming comments to former Soviet countries. My emails or letters are not received. I guess old habits die hard. Had a chance to listen to CRI on Friday, January 5, 2007. Big programming difference since I last listened. Yes, broadcast filled with lies and propaganda, but overall tone was upbeat instead of the usual commie propaganda. 73, (Kraig Krist, ibid.) RBI: I think it should be noted that the beliefs of many people in the GDR, certainly including the vast majority of GDR radio editors, were one thing but various realities an entirely different one. Hence also incoming letters were examined *before* reaching the editorial offices. Many people here in Germany do not realize (or refuse to acknowledge) this difference, seriously hampering any research in the history of East German broadcasting. CRI: I was quite surprised when I heard them again after some years and noted the fundamental change in their whole style. But somehow their programming still smacks the closed society, has an appearance of well-produced stuff coming through the Great Firewall. Btw, now that I mentioned it anyway: Somebody who tried to set up a connection to the network of his company from China found this to be quite difficult, he wrote about what he found to be a "poisonous DNS network" and an observation that known websites here in Germany appeared under wrong IP numbers there. Internet service in China? Apparently it is rather a big Intranet with some gateways, provided by well-engineered proxy systems, but not a true part of the Internet. (Kai Ludwig, Germany DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE. Re: Could our European monitors awake at 0700 UT please check again if Greece is still running R. Filia in English on 15630, or any other frequency? We had a report that it was not. Maybe it is irregular? Tnx, (Glenn, late UT Jan 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Couldn't check between 0700 and 0800, but 0852-0900 : only Greek music (no French) 0900-0905 : Greek (no Spanish) The programme was in // with 12105 and 9420 (JM Aubier, France, Jan 6, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Saludos cordiales, confirmado desde Valencia, en 15630 emisión en griego a las 0800 y a las 0900, en silencio a las 1000, emisión en paralelo en 12105 y 9420. Quizás los servicios han sido cancelados o cambiados de hora; probaré a las 1500 y 1600, antiguos horarios de transmisión en idiomas extranjeros por Radio Filia (José Miguel Romero, Spain, ibid.) Quiubole José: igualmente escuché esta madrugada nuestra, desde 0830, a Radio Filia con buena programación de pop local, esperando escuchar algún español tras las 0900 como leí por ahí, pero nada; siguieron noticias y más música. Buena señal para ser aquí una hora de escasa propagación en 19m. 73s (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, ibid.) Should be checked in next week again, due of the high holidays in Orthodox Church World (Russia, Greece etc.) this weekend. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) VOG, 9420 with MUF holding up, Jan 6 at 0715 past 0745 with wonderful Greek Orthodox singing since it`s Epiphany; more of same on weaker 17525 after 1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) It's All Greek To Me music programme heard January 7th 1138 to 1200 on 9420 17525; for some months on occasional checks the programme has started with an English announcement by the male host, then just seemed to be continuous music. Today the programme was presented by Angelika Timms with announcements between each record giving its background. I think she is the same announcer that I have heard on the morning Radio Filia broadcasts, again not on the air this morning, perhaps due to religious holidays, programming was in Greek and in parallel on 9420 12105 and 15630 at 0830. I found a webpage about Ms. Timms: http://www.choisi-media.gr/en/cv_timms.htm (Mike Barraclough, Letchworth Garden City, UK, Jan 7, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. The General Overseas Service continues to be unreadable to inaudible. The best reception is the domestic service, with news in English heard at 1530-1535, 1630-1635, 1730-1735, 1830-1835, 1935- 1940, 2030-2035, 2135-2140, & 2230-2235 all on 9425 (George Sherman, MN via Daniel Sampson, Prime Time Shortwave Jan 6 via DXLD) ** INDIA. I received "The world's smallest QSL card" for the AIR Tamil DX programme Vannoli Ulagam along with stickers, etc. The card is 35 x 60 mm and sealed in a plastic sleeve. If anyone else is interested in obtaining one of these - let me know - I can give you the details. The programme runs Sunday nights sometime between 1115 and 1215 UT - best frequency for me was 15770 kHz (Aligarh) and they throw in some English during the DX programme. Regards, (Wayne Bastow, Wyoming, NSW, Australia. ARDXC via DXLD) Promotions for this show usually appear in advance on the dxldyg, but it`s too late for this week (gh, DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 9525, VOI, 0835-0901, Jan 6, in English, pop songs, ``Week in Review`` (many stories about the apparent plane crash, etc.), request for reception reports, ``News in Brief``, IDs ``From Jakarta, you are listening to the Voice of Indonesia``, fair (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. I have not heard RRI Nabire, 6125.29 for the past 4-5 days during the 1230-1400* period (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, USA, Jan 7, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Noticed the same here in Eastern tip of West Virginia, too, Steve. Been a good 10 days it seems since I last heard them, and they'd been coming in fairly well, using USB to separate them from the Chinese station, around 1200-1300+. Had even thought of getting details to send reception report, then they disappeared! Now only Chinese station heard this time period on 6125.0. Googled Nabire after I first started hearing them, and found there have been a couple earthquakes there in recent years, so probably explains long periods of being off. Hope same thing hasn't happened again (Alex Vranes, Jr., Harpers Ferry, WV, ibid.) ** IRAN. 15085: An unscheduled Indonesian service of IRIB Tehran noted today Jan 7th at 0830-0927 UT on the likely "European" angle azimuth of 310 degrees via Kamalabad 500 kW. Superpower signal here in Germany. 15085 is used for Italian at 0630, and German at 0730-0827. Indonesian service website: Frekuensi Dan Jadwal Waktu Siaran 1230-1327 UT 15200 [also scheduled 17570] and reserve channels 15275, 15295, and 17845 kHz. 2230-2327 UT 5945[x5945], 7255 and reserve channel 5935. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRELAND. RTE to end MW broadcasts --- Herman Beale, of the European Medium-Wave Guide, has just reported receiving word that RTE Ireland are to close down all MW operations by the end of 2007. This would mean the end of 567 and 729 kHz from that country, although I must confess I thought that 729 kHz had closed down a considerable amount of time ago. Herman suspects this will mean the end of all high-power MW operations from Eire (PAUL DAVID, Wembley Park, United Kingdom, Jan 7, dxldyg via DXLD) Depends on your definition of high power, among the frequencies offered by the BCI in July 2006 for the new quasi national Irish religious AM service, for which there have been five applicants, is Athlone on 612 with 200 kW as well as four other 100 kW ones. Is RTE actually relinquishing the frequency and if so why could it not now be used for the Irish national AM religious station? Full details available for download at: http://www.irtc.ie/news_information/press91.html (Mike Barraclough, England, ibid.) The decision to "Close Radio 1 Medium wave", i.e. 567, is mentioned in the document RTÉ’s Guiding Principles published in November 2006 http://www.rte.ie/about/guidingprinciples2006.pdf However, that document indicates that it will happen in Q4 2008, not 2007, though it has already been "agreed and costed in the Five-Year plan (Andy Sennitt, ibid.) ** JAPAN. The Swedish broadcasts from NHK Radio Japan will end in October this year. Hans Shimizu-Karlsson has been working for the Swedish section for some 20 years reading news and producing feature programmes such as the monthly Mailbag. Along with friend Martin Sakurai, he has started an Internet radio station called Audioport Japan. They plan to offer news and feature programmes in Swedish and possibly other languages as well. I listened to a most interesting 22- minute show about Tokyo's City Hall in which they talked about the building, Tokyo generally, manga comics and Japanese movies. The station can be reached at http://www.audioport-japan.com (Christer Brunström, Sweden, Jan 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 9950, Shiokaze (Sea Breeze), via Taiwan, *1300, Jan 6, piano IS, programming in Japanese or Korean, fair, light QRM from 9955 (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KURDISTAN [non?]. Iran: New Kurdish radio observed on shortwave A new Kurdish radio station identifying itself as the Voice of the Kurdistan Democratic Party was observed on 5 January. It was noted on- air for 30 minutes from 0400 to 0430 gmt. The broadcast consisted of 15 minutes continuous music and 15 minutes announcements. The station identified in Kurdish as "Erah Radyoy Dengi Kurdistana" and in Persian "Im Radyo Seda-ye Kordestan-e". The station, which broadcast on 3930 kHz, signed-off at 0429 gmt. The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDP-I, or PDKI) already operates a radio station called the Voice of Iranian Kurdistan. This new station is possibly operated by a group which broke away from the KDP-I last month - an item on the Kurdish Media website explains, stating: "These former comrades have fabricated the PDKI's name for their new organization, this will cause confusion..." However, the article http://www.kurdmedia.com/articles.asp?id=13744 doesn't give the name of the breakaway organization. Source: BBC Monitoring research, 0520 gmt 5 Jan 07 (via DXLD) ** KURDISTAN [non]. The clandestine, Denge Mezopotamia (presumed), 7590, heard here at 1500 sign-on, in Kurdish to the Middle East via Moldova. Transmission scheduled at 15-17. Very weak. Interesting flute music noted after 1600 (Steve Lare, Holland, MI USA, dxldyg via DXLD) on 11530 until 1500 (gh) ** LATVIA. Latvia Today in English, announced as a weekly programme produced by Radio SWH, noted 1300-1400 January 7th on 9290, SINPO 44444, mixture of music and features, perhaps also now weekly Saturdays 0800-0900? Contact details announced very quickly at the end of the programme, they have a website with some English pages http://www.radioswh.lv/swh/page.php?id=131 confirming address as Skanstes Street 13, LV-1013, Riga, Latvia, email radio @ radioswh.lv (Mike Barraclough, Letchworth Garden City, UK, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LATVIA. Hoy 7 de Enero retransmisión vía Lituania [sic] en 9290 a las 0918, emisora en alemán, Radio Caroline FM [sic], música "yeye" de los años 60, SINPO 45433. [Later:] LITUANIA [sic], 9290, Radio Caroline Eifel, 0918-0945, escuchada el 7 de Enero en alemán a locutor con ID y dirección de correo, programa musical, SINPO 45433. Audio: http://valenciadx.multiply.com/music/item/324 (José Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA [non]. V. of Africa from the Great Jam., 17725 via France, Jan 5 at 1444, much better than the day before, with ``The Leader`s Mail``, laudatory letters to MAQ, from someone in the ``southwest of America``, Robbie Ayne (sp?). Usual big hum but good modulation otherwise. 1447 into ``Unforgettable Persons`` --- Martin Luther King, whom they have not forgotten countless times before, probably with exactly the same playback, but at least we`re getting close to his nominal birthday (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA [and non]. Checking out the Afropop music distraxion, not really jamming a Libyan clandestine, Jan 5 at 1449, it was on usual 17660, and Africa No. Un, Gabon, was missing from 17630 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA [and non]. GABON --- The following article may cast some light on the appearance of the "Afropop" station vs Sawt Al-Amal. Gabon : Tripoli prêt à participer à la réhabilitation des équipements d'Africa N 1 --- Rubrique: Médias. Gabonews, 13-06-2006 http://www.bdpgabon.org/content/view/3718/9/ Le Gabon et la Libye ont signé mardi à Libreville un accord pour la réhabilitation des équipements de la radio panafricaine, Africa N 1 émettant de Libreville et de Moyabi au Gabon, a rapporté la première chaîne de télévision gabonaise. Le document a été paraphé au siège de la vice-présidence de la République gabonaise entre le M. Basher Salah Basher, PDG du porte feuil libyen Africa pour les investissement et Louis Barthélémy Mapangou, PDG d'Africa N 1. « Nous espérons qu'il va y avoir un appui important de la Libye pour la réhabilitation des équipements d'Africa N 1 », a déclaré M. Mapangou après la signature du document. « Nous voudrons parvenir à une coopération sud-sud », a-t-il ajouté dans la perspective de la dynamisation de cette radio et notamment son centre émetteur en onde courtes, l'un des plus puissants du continent mais qui a au fur et à mesure a perdu ses principaux clients ayant préférés le satellite et la fréquence FM. Fervent défenseur des ondes courtes, M. Mapangou a estimé que le partenariat avec la Libye permettra de couvrir toute l'Afrique en modulation de fréquence. Créée en 1981, Africa n 1 qui a pour slogan : « La radio africaine » est la plus importante des radios africaines francophones. Ses programmes sont diffusés dans le monde entier grâce à ses émetteurs ondes courtes, son site Internet et son bouquet satellitaire Africasat. La radio dispose également de relais FM (modulation de fréquence) dans plusieurs capitales d'Afrique francophone et à Paris (107.5 FM). Africa n 1 propose à ses 30 millions d'auditeurs (selon la direction de la radio) des bulletins d'information à chaque heure entre 5h30 et 23h00 (temps universel) et des grandes éditions le matin (5h30 à 8h30), le midi (12h00) et le soir (18h00) composés par sa rédaction située à Libreville et ses correspondants basés dans plusieurs pays africains et en Europe (via Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, dxldyg via DXLD) Yes, that explains a lot. Since a semiyear ago, Libya is helping to `rehabilitate` the ANO transmitters, obviously with an ulterior motive, and it`s something Libya is hardly qualified to do, from a technical standpoint (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA [non]. MOLDAVIA, 17635, Sawt al-Amal, 1200-1220, escuchada el 6 de Enero en árabe con ID, sintonía, canto del Cor`án, locutora con comentarios, SINPO 44444. La emisora afro-pop inicia emisión musical a las 1130 en 17660, cambia a las 1206 a 17635 sin conseguir anular a Sawt al-Amal. La señal es fuerte y no permite escuchar en 17630 a Deustche Welle en alemán (Jose Miguel Romero, Spain, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)( I`ll have to agree in what have been posted by several colleagues: There was an afropop carrousel on 17635, while that nowadays plague called CRI (appears even in your soup!) was completely alone on 17630. Afropops ended at 1529, but different to what have been said about the minute they need to adjust transmitter or antenna, it took four minutes to have Africa #1 back on 17630. Now, the Afropop signal wasn`t as good as that one from ANO which led guess is a different azimuth antenna. What purpose may be following that Afropop mix as they don`t seem to be jamming anybody? 73s (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, ibid.) Hi Raúl - as I wrote recently, the Afro-pops was positioned on 17660 for some time, and only jammed Amal if the clandestine chose that frequency for its broadcast. But now it appears to have become frequency agile again - as a jammer should! I've heard the frequency change from 17635 to 17630 in 40 seconds, and this obviously includes a beam change. When doing the Afro-pops, their signal is consistently strong here, but when doing ANO the signal is less strong. And see Bernd Trutenau's enlightening mail about this situation. I need to admit that my knowledge of the French language is limited but I think I get the gist of it. I like the bit about CRI - you can't get away from them, can you. If it isn't CRI it's CNR or Firedrake - or a mix of all of them. 73 (Noel R. Green (NW England), ibid.) Note: we are generally filing such items under Libya [non] for ease of reference, and the lingering uncertainty about whether all such transmissions are really from Gabon. However, in this issue there is also more under GABON. Likewise items about Sawt al-Amal, believed to transmit from Moldova/Moldavia (gh, DXLD) e.g.: MOLDAVIA, 17640, Sawt al-Amal, 1200-1215, escuchada el 7 de Enero en idioma árabe con sintonía, ID, canto del Corán, 54544. La emisora afro-pop desde las 1130 en 17660 con SINPO 55444. Realizo un pequeño experimento con el Ten-Tec RX 320 en Newton, observo: Ten-Tec Sangean Newton. USA Valencia, España 17620 RFI 33242 45454 17630 DW 45343 34333 17640 Sawt 34333 54544 17660 Afro 24332 45554 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia), España, Sangean ATS 909, Radio Master A-108, Ten-Tec 320, Newton, Massachusetts, dxldyg via DX LILSTENING DIGEST) Uma emissora clandestina de fácil captação no Brasil é a Sawt Al- Amal (Voz da Esperança). Ouvi a emissora ontem (05/01/2007) de manhã em 17640 kHz, 1200 UT. Eles começaram a transmissão com uma espécie de hino (talvez seja um hino mesmo) e identificação com vozes masculinas e femininas. Logo após, cântico do Alcorão e programas de comentário. Durante esse tempo todo a emissora é perseguida implacavelmente pelo jamming vindo da Líbia. Tocam música, fazem comentários, tudo na mesma frequencia. Às 1225, a Sawt Al-Amal troca rapidamente de frequencia e pula para 17645 kHz, mas mesmo assim não se livra do jamming. Às 1230 a Líbia continua a transmissões também em 17645 e isso dura até 1300 UT, quando as duas emissoras saem do ar. Ufa! Confiram isso com seus próprios ouvidos!!! O áudio no Multiply, para que possam ouvir, está em http://marceloquinze.multiply.com/ 73! (Marcelo Quinze, Brasil, Jan 7, radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** LITHUANIA. LITUANIA. 7325, Radio Vilnius, 2352-2358, 02-01, programa en inglés, locutor y locutora, comentarios. Identificación a las 2358 y fin de la transmisión: "Radio Vilnius, our address Konarskio 49, Vilnius, Lithuania, e-mail radiovilnius @ rt.lt". A partir de las 2359 la frecuencia completamente bloqueda por Radio Austria Internacional, con señal muy fuerte y noticias en español entre las 0000 y las 0005. 22322. 9875, Radio Vilnius, 0030-0040, 02-01, inicio programa en inglés, identificación: "This programme is coming to you from Radio Vilnius, Lithuania", locutor, locutora, comentarios y noticias de Lituania. 34333 (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, escuchas realizadas en casco urbano de Lugo 7º 33' 09'' W, 43º 00' 37" N, Grundig YB 400, antena telescópica, DX LISTENING DIGEST) R. Lithuania weak in English 0130-0200 (not listed) on 7325 (George Sherman, MN, via Daniel Sampson, Prime Time Shortwave Jan 6 via DXLD) Unless I missed it somewhere I don't recall there being a English broadcast at this time. -ds (Dan Sampson, ibid.) And it`s called R. Vilnius still, is it not? Sitkunai registered both at 22-24 and 01-03 on 7325, 310 degrees, but have not been using all this time; in between at 00-01 only is Austria (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** MALDIVE ISLANDS [non]. Quite by chance I was tuning across 11800, Jan 6 at 1600 and heard Jeff White with Radio Miami International ID, the following program is in Dhivehi, introduced by some horn music; fair, via Germany, but which site now? {Minivan Radio} (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Still Jülich (Kai Ludwig, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MOLDOVA. See LIBYA [non]; KURDISTAN [non] ** OKLAHOMA [and non]. THE NEW YORK TIMES VENDE NUEVE EMISORAS DE TELEVISIÓN POR 440 MILLONES The New York Times Company, matriz del emblemático periódico del mismo nombre, ha llegado a un acuerdo para vender nueve emisoras de televisión por unos 440 millones de euros a la firma Oak Hills Capital Partners. La decisión de la empresa de vender estas emisoras fue anunciada el pasado mes de septiembre. La operación busca centrar los esfuerzos de la compañía en el área de prensa escrita y la división de internet. El conjunto de emisoras vendido incluye cuatro cadenas repetidoras de televisión de la cadena CBS en los estados de Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee y Virginia, dos de NBC en Iowa y Oklahoma, dos de ABC en Illinois y Pensilvania, además de una de MyNetworkTV, también en Oklahoma. La compañía estima que estas emisoras representaron aproximadamente el 4% de los ingresos totales de la compañía en el año 2005. El grupo de comunicación edita los periódicos 'The New York Times', 'The International Herald Tribune' y 'The Boston Globe', además de otros 15 diarios (extraido de El Mundo, España via Arnaldo Slaen, 1.431 BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, Jan 5, condig list via DXLD) In OK that`s KFOR-4 and its adopted offspring KAUT-43 both in OKC. Why am I not surprised that there is not a word about this UT Jan 6 at http://www.kfor.com which some time ago eliminated NY Times being revealed as owner, the only hint of a connexion being a link to current NYT news at the very bottom, which will presumably disappear? Why couldn`t they find anyone in OK to buy it?? (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) NYT CO. SELLS TV GROUP FOR $575 MIL. --- Katy Bachman JANUARY 04, 2007 http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003528029 The New York Times Co. announced Thursday it had agreed to sell its Broadcast Media Group to Oak Hill Capital Partners, a private equity firm, for $575 million. The agreement follows the company’s announcement in September that it would sell the TV group, which accounts for about 4 percent of the company’s total revenue, in order to focus on its newspaper and digital media business. Included in the sale are the company’s nine network-affiliated TV stations, their associated Web sites and the Digital Operating Center: WHO-TV, the NBC affiliate in Des Moines; KFSM-TV, the CBS affiliate in Ft. Smith, Ark.; WHNT-TV, the CBS affiliate in Huntsville, Ala.; WREG- TV, the CBS affiliate in Memphis, Tenn.; WQAD-TV, the ABC affiliate in Moline, Ill.; WTKR-TV, the CBS affiliate in Norfolk, Va.; KFOR-TV, the NBC affiliate in Oklahoma City, Okla.; KAUT-TV, the MyNetworkTV affiliate in Oklahoma City; and WNEP-TV, the ABC affiliate in Scranton, Penn. ``We look forward to maintaining the standard of excellence that The New York Times Company has achieved over the last 30 years,`` said J. Taylor Crandall, a managing partner of Oak Hill Capital Partners. The TV group is expected to have total revenue this year of $150 million and profit of $35 million. Not included in the sale are the New York Times’ two New York City radio stations. Not included in the sale to Oak Hill are the New York Times’ two New York City radio stations. However, through a long-time option agreement with Disney dating back to 1998, NYT is selling WQEW-AM to Disney for $40 million. The station has been a Radio Disney outlet for several years (via Sheldon Harvey, DXLD) see also USA for that BREAKING NEWS --- NY TIMES CO. FINDS STATIONS BUYER By Michael Malone -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/4/2007 5:30:00 PM http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6404372.html?display=Breaking+News The New York Times Company has a buyer for its nine television stations, which it put on the block in September. Private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners agreed to pay $575 million for the stations. The deal, which awaits regulatory approval, is expected to close in the first half of 2007. The sale price represents a 13.3 times multiple on $43 million of EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization), according to Prudential Equity Group analyst Steven N. Barlow. Analysts called it a good deal for the NY Times Company. Oak Hill Capital Partners managing partner J. Taylor Crandall commented, ``The New York Times Company Broadcast Media Group is one of the industry’s most admired franchises because of its heritage television stations, its commitment to quality news and serving the local community, and its outstanding employees.`` The nine stations, a mix of NBC, CBS, ABC and MyNetworkTV affiliates, are: WHO Des Moines, KFSM Ft. Smith, Ark., WHNT Huntsville, Ala., WREG Memphis, WQAD Moline, Ill., WTKR Norfolk, KFOR and KAUT in Oklahoma City, and WNEP in Scranton. In 2005, the latest year BIA Financial Network has figures for, the stations had revenue of $157 million. According to the formulation used by the FCC, the stations cover 3.2% of the nation's TV households. A spokesperson from the Times Company said the stations were unloaded to allow the company to focus on its ``rapidly growing digital properties and newspapers.`` The Times Company’s papers of course include the flagship Times, along with the International Herald Tribune and the Boston Globe. The company still owns two New York City radio stations and a host of Websites, including About.com. Oak Hill Capital Partners, with offices in New York, Stamford and Northern California, was part of a consortium that unsuccessfully attempted to purchase the Knight Ridder newspaper company last March. According to its Website, Oak Hill has more than $4.6 billion invested in a wide range of businesses, ranging from restaurants to pharmacies to southwestern cable operator Wometco Cable Corporation (via Sheldon Harvey, DXLD) ** POLAND [and non]. 1. The name change from "Radio Polonia" to "External Service of Polish Radio" was made in order to avoid the misunderstanding that the transmissions for abroad are conducted by a separate station (something which also DXers often misunderstand). They are however, like home service programs, produced by the national public broadcaster Polskie Radio (="Polish Radio"). 2. The Esperanto service of PR's External Service was due to end on 31 December and the time slots were due to be used for additional transmissions in Ukrainian. The frequencies and beams were newly coordinated and adjusted accordingly, in order to reach the new target Ukraine: 1600-1630 on 6035 (ex-6050) & 7170 (ex-7285), 1900-1930 on 5935 (ex-7290), all from Wertachtal (Germany) with 100 kW. However, at the last minute it was decided that the Esperanto programs will continue, at least for the time being. Due to these circumstances, the Esperanto transmissions are currently transmitted with parameters that were prepared to target Ukraine. 3. Frequency change for PR's Polish transmission to Baltics/Belarus/Ukraine at 1630-1730 (Jülich, 100 kW) from 15 January: 6140 (ex 6050) (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, Jan 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** POLAND [non]. 9525, Polish Radio via Wertachtal relay, 1331-1400* Jan 7, program in English, address and e-mail address given, interview, pop music till end of transmission, no sign-off announcement. Poor. No VOI or het/hum heard. First reception since last heard Jan 3 (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, Etón E5, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SCOTLAND [non]. Radio Six International, What`s New January 7 Radio Six International http://www/radiosix.com What`s New? --- Five cities. One party. A Hogmanay party to remember. Recorded exclusively as it turned into 2007 across the globe in Hong Kong, Mumbai, Berlin, Rio de Janeiro and New York City. With a cast to remember ... Scissor Sisters, Rihanna, John Legend, Atomic Kitten, Nelly Furtado, Ludacris, Sugababes, The Black Eyed Peas, KT Tunstall and Christina Aguilera. Join our party on radio six international on Tuesday, January 9th at 00:00 GMT (94.2, 94.8FM, Sky 0195, Hotbird and Web) for Nokia New Year`s Live. Some things get back to normal this week after the holiday break. Random Play returns at 0000 GMT on Monday (Web only), and The Lively Lounge can be heard on Thursday at 0600 GMT (88.5 MHz and Web). The Best of Alchemical Radio continues on Mondays at 2250 GMT (Web only) with a repeat at 0400 GMT on Tuesdays (94.2 and 94.8 MHz, Sky Channel 0195, Hotbird and the Web). The January College of Piping can be heard this week at 1800 GMT on Sunday (Web only); 0600 GMT on Monday (88.5MHz and Web) and 0000 GMT on Thursday (94.2 and 94.8 MHz, Sky Channel 0195, Hotbird and the Web). And there are two brand new series starting this month - The 60s Party with a mix of hits, obscurities, TV themes, and instrumentals from the period 1960 - 1969. You can hear it on Tuesdays at 0600 GMT (88.5 MHz and Web) with a repeat on Saturdays at 2300 GMT (88.5 MHz and Web). And Sounds Orchestral featuring Johnny Pearson at the piano. Each programme features a whole hour of uninterrupted music. Starts Monday, 15th January at 0600 GMT (88.5 MHz and Web) with a repeat on Friday nights at 2300 GMT (88.5 MHz and Web). Site last updated at 15:07 GMT on Sunday, 7th January, 2007. Schedule and homepage updated (via John Norfolk, dxldyg) No mention of DXtra; is this program defunct? They do carry The Shortwave Report, but not on shortwave (Norfolk, ibid.) ** SOMALIA. Re ``No SW involved?``: Is anybody still using shortwave there? WRTH 2007 suggests that all parties took aside the ham radio gear and now rely on real-world FM broadcasting instead. But: What became of the professional-grade transmission facilities of Radio Mogadishu? Looted during the last 15 years? Btw, I just saw in a newspaper (can't find it online) a nice press conference picture from Mogadishu with various mic logos, including one of Radio Horn Afrik (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. Saludos cordiales, desde Chile los miembros de FEDERACHI preguntan si el programa Españoles en La Mar lo retiran; por el momento no he encontrado ninguna noticia al respecto. ¿Alguien sabe algo? 73 (José Miguel Romero, Spain, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Según los esquemas hasta 24 de marzo vía http://www.rtve.es/ree/OndaCorta/0607.htm Españoles en la Mar se irradia como sigue: L-V 1600 después de El Vestuario (entonces a las 1630?) en 15385 y 17755 para África, 15585 para Europa, y 21570 para Sudamérica L-V 2100 seguido de Mundo Solidario (entonces a las 21 hasta 2130?) en 7275 para Europa, 17755 para África, y 21610 para Oriente Medio 73, (Glenn Hauser, Oclajoma, ibid.) But we have to wait until Monday to confirm the above. While I was researching that I also noted on the Near & Middle East page that besides the other transmissions, there is a `special` one with no specific program content shown, on 12045, at: L-V 1900-2259, Sat 1800-2303, Sun 1500-2259 EiBi has slightly different times for this: 12045 1500-2300 Su E Radio Exterior España S ME 12045 1800-2303 Sa E Radio Exterior España S ME 12045 1900-2300 Mo-Fr E Radio Exterior España S ME And meanwhile I heard 12045 again Sat Jan 6 at 2132, with silly ballgame // 9630. On Monday at 2207 I had heard 12045 with an unscheduled broadcast of La Bañera de Ulises (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Y si mi memoria no me juega una mala pasada, creo que este programa [Españoles en la Mar] tiene una QSL especial. Es así, no?? (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, condig list via DXLD) Asi es, Arnaldo; esa es la única manera que nos queda de confirmar a REE y por fortuna yo la he conseguido hace poco el locutor personalmente verifica los informes enviados a Santa Cruz de Tenerife de manera muy atenta. 73!!!! (Luis Vallebueno, ibid.) ** SPAIN. 6 Jan, 0848, 11943.5, REE, Spagna, spuria di 12035 kHz. BN/MB! (Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), bclnews.it via DXLD) ** SPAIN. En exclusiva el primer programa de El Mundo en Nuestra Antena, próximamente en Burjasot Radio. Nuevo Programa DX, En Radio Burjasot, a través de la Red de Emisoras de la URE y en internet. http://valenciadx.multiply.com/music/item/315 Atentamente (José Miguel Romero, playdx yg via DXLD) ** TIBET. Xizang PBS QSL for 5240 (hit slideshow to see the other side): http://zlgr.multiply.com/photos/photo/10/2 Or both sides on one page: http://zlgr.multiply.com/photos/album/10 (via Zacharias Liangas, Greece, DXLD) ** UKRAINE. R. Ukraine Int'l. 0400-0500 now on 5820, probably x-6150 which is blocked (George Sherman, MN via Daniel Sampson, Prime Time Shortwave Jan 6 via DXLD) When was it ever on 6150? 5820 has been in use since before B-06, instead of originally planned 5810 because of WEWN (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U K. Wanted to hear Close Up as had been scheduled on BBCWS Eu and internet stream at 2245 UT Sat Jan 6, but instead I get an ``unavailable due to global rights restrictions relating to the Olympic Games on the Internet`` loop!! Since when are there any Olympics underway now? Why in the world? Must be because now scheduled during this hour is Music Performance: BBC Symphony Orchestra in China! Yet, I can get a stream of same concert from Shanghai, via some other relayer. And then I found the censored concert is available anyway on the BBCWS player (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WWRB schedule has been updated. WWRB 0000 - 0400 NA 3185, 5050 WWRB 0000 - 0400 LA, M-Sa 5745 WWRB 0400 - 0430 LA, Sa-Su 5745 WWRB 0400 - 0500 NA 5050 WWRB 0400 - 1200 Oc 3185 (partial broadcast, also Overcomer Ministry) WWRB 0430 - 0500 LA, Sa 5745 WWRB 0500 - 1200 NA 5085 WWRB 1500 - 1600 ME, Eu, Su 11920 WWRB 1600 - 2200 Af 15250 WWRB 1600 - 2200 ME, Eu 11920 WWRB 2200 - 2300 NA, Sa-Su 3185 WWRB 2300 - 2400 NA 3185, 5050 WWRB 2300 - 2400 LA, Su-F 5745 WWRB Overcomer 0000 - 0500 NA 6890 WWRB Overcomer 1200 - 2200 NA 9385 WWRB Overcomer 2200 - 2400 NA 6890 WWRB Republic B/C 1600 - 2300 NA 12180 (WWRB website and report of Republic Broadcasting Network via Bob FN23jc via Daniel Sampson, Prime Time Shortwave Jan 6 via DXLD) ** U S A. Channel surfing, UT Sat Jan 6 at 0540 I noticed the http://www.drgenescott.com website and phone number in the lower right corner of a program on KOPX-62 OKC (via Suddenlink Enid cable 22), while some woman was preaching. Yes, it`s Melissa! She wears a black pantsuit but with a cover-all jacket, a far cry from her previous attire, and with a clerical collar. The local newspaper just lists this hour as one of a string of paid programs, not worthy of individual identification, and in fact it is a kind of infomercial. TV Guide online does the same, so from consulting them, you would never know she was on. Zap2It, however, does show ``Pastor Scott`` at 11 pm- midnight CT M-F. Seems her preaching style bears some resemblance to DGS, but not quite so gruff --- who could possibly be that gruff? Later ID supered as ``Pastor Melissa Scott``. Toward the end she attempted to sing accompanied by a rock combo. But that`s not all; after commercial breaks, at 0600 UT on came Defunct Gene Scott himself, tho Zap2It shows both hours with the same ambiguous title ``Pastor Scott``; don`t know if the hours are always split up this way, but the main DGS website only shows Sun-Fri 10-11 pm on the entire i (ex-Pax) network, that being Pacific time and days, the world standard as far as The University Network is concerned. Neither was parallel SW 5935. And does not mention a separate hour for PMS, tho she does have a separate page linked from the main site (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. EIGHT YEARS LATER — DISNEY BUYS NEW YORK’S WQEW FOR $40 MILLION You probably thought ABC already owned it – but no. In December 1998 it signed an eight-year option to purchase WQEW (1560) from the New York Times — thus installing the Radio Disney format in the largest market and knocking off adult standards there. The news comes as the Times reveals a $575 million deal to sell its TV group to Oak Hill Capital Partners. But spokeswoman Abbe Serphos tells Inside Radio they’re keeping classical WXQR radio in New York. (InsideRadio.com via Sheldon Harvey, DXLD) See also OKLAHOMA [and non] ** U S A. KRSN, 1490, Los Alamos, New Mexico has installed a new Harris DAX-1 transmitter and is now ready to reschedule the DX test that failed to happen in November. The test is scheduled for Sunday morning, January 28th. As before, the test will run for 10 minutes each at 1:00 am, 2:00 am and 3:00 am [MST = 0800, 0900, 1000 UT], and will consist of phonetic voice IDs, Morse code IDs and tone sweeps. And as before, this will be a challenging test, as KRSN is on an STA that allows them only 640 watts. The antenna is a short (about 80 foot) folded unipole mounted on a 150 foot tower. The top of the tower supports several bays of cell phone antennas. (Trivia: KRSN is planning on installing a Kinstar antenna in a few months after a permanent antenna site is located -- they are currently in negotiation with the county for a 99-year lease on a site.) Reception reports via e-mail are preferred. Send reports to: dxtest @ krsnam1490.com For those who cannot send e-mail reports, the address for Postal reports is: KRSN AM 1490 145 Central Park Square Los Alamos, NM 87544 A recording of the test is requested. Most formats are acceptable for e-mail attachments. Audio or data CD or cassette for Postal reports. If a recording is not available, please include a detailed description of your reception including the sequence of test elements, description of sweep tones, etc. -- (Mesa Mike, N6KUY, WDX6O, Westfall, Los Alamos, New Mexico (DM65uv), Jan 3, IRCA via DXLD) ** U S A. Nowadays I don't send reports, it's much work, costly and the result is too low, and the most important: after what I've heard, and read in this list, many stations don't like the reports: no time for answering and it's costly also for them. And there are DX-ers demanding (!) verifications, even threatening (!!) the stations, so there are staffs disliking us DX-ers! Awful! All these stations are essential conditions for our hobby, we should make them our friends, not irritate them (Andersson Sigvard, Sweden, Jan 3, NRC-AM via DXLD) [TR] From a station standpoint, and as one who has been threatened and pestered, I don't answer QSL requests. We're extremely busy, I don't have an assistant, I don't have time to look up a commercial break on the commercial log stored in the archives or traffic, and I don't have time to search the logger for audio or listen to a tape or CD that is sent. I've even had people asking me to QSL for our other stations (like stations on the west coast that I only listen to when I'm out there!). Much as I'd like to, there isn't enough time in the day to get everything done. Sorry guys (Thomas R. Ray, III, CPBE, KC2NTU, Vice President, Corporate Director of Engineering, Buckley Broadcasting/WOR-710HD Radio, Chairman, Society of Broadcast Engineers, Chapter 15, New York City, 212-642-4462 phax: 212-764- 1573, ibid.) Tom, thanks for your broadcaster's input on this rather vexing question. I have no doubt that many, if not most, engineers would respond exactly the same way these days -- "I'd like to, but I just can't." (And it never ceases to amaze, shock, and appall me to hear that some DXers not only "pester" station personnel for veries, they actually THREATEN them?! Who do we DXers think we are, anyway?) Now, that's not to say that the folks in the programming, production, etc. departments wouldn't be able to QSL reports, but you can bet they're probably equally swamped for time and short on resources. Like it or not, we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto (Randy Stewart, Arts Producer, KSMU (FM), Missouri State University, Springfield MO, ibid.) I think you're right. Everyone I know, whether in Engineering, Programming, Promotions, Sales, are flat out. Things have changed in the business dramatically even in the last 5 years. Staff has been cut, budgets have been cut, but the work load has increased. This ain't your father's radio business any more. I've had DXers send an initial letter with a request. And follow it up a month later... and a month later... and so on. I've had some send a letter that they "were going straight to our corporate office and report me". Some HAVE called our corporate office. I've had people call and berate me on the phone. This, unfortunately, gives the DXer a very bad name and leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the person on the receiving end. It's unfortunate, but things in this industry have changed, but there is zero acknowledgment from the DX community in many instances (but not all) that this is the case. On the other hand, I have received calls and emails from DXers that have been very helpful when a daytimer has remained on the air someplace on our frequency. Or the email that got my attention a few weeks ago; a DXer in Indiana was tuning around right before 6PM Eastern time with his Boston Acoustics radio, and it locked on our HD signal. He sent me a picture of the front of his radio showing the HD lock, along with our title and artist data we were sending. And for this assistance I'm very grateful. I also am happy to provide tours of our facilities (transmitter and studio), and help arrange tours of other sites in the area. I'd like to think this is my contribution, as small as it is, to the DX hobbyist. But QSL's just aren't on the agenda right now (Thomas R. Ray, III, CPBE, KC2NTU, Vice President, Corporate Director of Engineering, Buckley Broadcasting/WOR-710HD Radio, NRC AM, via DXLD) Hi all, I would like to echo Tom Ray's sentiments. Although unlike Tom I will respond to QSLs - even if it not always in a timely manner - when Tom speaks of the increased work load on the broadcast engineering community in recent years, he is on solid ground. The past two years have gotten particularly horrendous with me, personally. And I know I am not alone in this. Just to give you an example, in this quarter alone I am facing three major projects: installation of a new automation system, reconfiguration of the WNTP daytime array, and rebuilding of one of our studios. This is, of course, in addition to the routine work. I am not complaining by any stretch of the imagination, but just wanted to reiterate why many broadcasters in our day do not respond to QSL requests. Like Tom, I appreciate the heads up that some DXers give us when things are not right. I would say that 3 times out of 5, it is through DXers that I find out about other stations on our frequencies not changing to night pattern, not dropping power, etc. For instance, several months ago there was the case of a Canadian station on 560 that for a couple of weeks on end, did not change to its night mode. This wreaked havoc with our nighttime coverage. It was through DXers that we were able to ID the station, contact them, and get them to correct the problem (which turned out to be a bad pattern change program in their remote control system). As a DXer myself, I appreciate the time and effort that goes into the hobby. You should know, however, that if your QSL requests are not answered, it is not necessarily a defect in your reporting, or a "snub" by the station, but simply that in our day and age, many CEs just don't have the time they once did to sit down, confirm the facts, and respond. Such time restraints are also the reason I do not spend nearly the time reading the list mails, posting reports, etc. I still lurk regularly, but only glance at the subjects as they come down and read those that are of particular interest to me. 73, (Rene' F. Tetro, Chief Engineer, Salem Communications - Philadelphia, WNTP-AM / WFIL- AM, ibid.) So true, Tom. When CHWO switched over to 740, our club (Ontario DX Association) approached them to handle the reception reports that would be coming in. We were already looking after CFRB/CFRX. They readily agreed. Both stations have said they would not have had the time to look after them on their own. Cutbacks and other things just don't leave the time to do them on their own. Speaking for CHWO, they did take the time to help design a QSL for the reports. They are still a family run station and used to send out verification letters when they started in 1956. But they had almost stopped reporting at all until we came along in 2001 (Brian Smith - am740 @ rogers.com AM 740 - http://www.am740.ca Reception Reports - http://www.odxa.on.ca/chwo.html Yahoo Group - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AM740/ CHWO Streaming: http://www.am740.ca/main.htm and click "Listen Live! Click Here", ibid.) Tom, I understand where you are coming from. I am an avid QSLer myself. I took on the job of QSLing KAVT Fresno CA, as the CE is also very busy. We offered me the job and I took it on. Maybe what he need is a DXer in the NE that can obtain the permission to QSL stations as I do. Les Rayburn and Patrick Griffith have also done this. Do you think this is possible? Would you OK a 3rd party to QSL WOR? The last time I heard WOR was in the 60s out here. Or is there someone else at WOR that could verify reports? There has been too much pressure on CEs in the past few years to always handle the QSLing. I have many QSLs signed by secretaries, PDs, GMs, etc. It doesn't matter who signs my QSL. Any thoughts? There is never a reason to ever be rude. I do know also of stories I have heard from other CEs that they have had similar situations. This is terrible. That hurts everyone. At 2942 MW QSLs from 92 countries, I will be QSLing until there aren't any stations left to QSL. I have been at it for near 42 years now. I do appreciate your honest comments. Thanks for sharing. 73, (Patrick Martin, OR, KAVT Reception Manager, ibid.) (Tom, thanks a BUNCH for that tour of WOR at the WTFDA Convention!) It should probably also be kept in mind that many people are DXing who aren't members of any organized club. I know I only became aware of the NRC when I saw a copy of the Log for sale at the Dayton Hamvention - and since I stupidly didn't buy it, I didn't learn how to *join* until I stumbled across Tim Noonan at the company Christmas party. He was married to one of my co-workers. There are a LOT of misconceptions about what a station's legal obligations are. Answering tech calls for a TV station, I encounter many of them! Add to that the sense of absolute entitlement some people have in general society (radio listeners are no different), and voilà: we see what Tom's mentioned. In most cases the station engineer has no way of knowing that this reporter doesn't reflect organized DXing; often, the engineer (understandably) doesn't care, and unfortunately I'm sure from time to time the culprits *are* club members. While I'm not a fan of IBOC by any means, I see some pretty bizarre (and untrue) things said about it in a variety of forums, including this one. ``Indiana was tuning around right before 6PM Eastern time with his Boston Acoustics radio....and it locked on our HD signal. He sent me a picture of the front of his radio showing the HD lock, along with our title and artist data we were sending. And for this assistance I'm very grateful.`` I'm very curious: do you know if this listener received any digital audio? If so I believe it would be the first successful DXing of AM HD audio. I have succeeded in receiving the PAD (the display of station call letters; I don't think any artist/title data was being transmitted) from WOWO Fort Wayne, received right after sunrise this summer. (sunrise was before 6 am) And I've also received PAD from WOAI San Antonio, in this case when they left the HD on overnight. (I'm presuming they had some kind of STA to do so) There's a photo of one of these - I forget which one - on my website. But I've only received AM HD audio from my two local HD stations, WPLN-1430 and WLAC-1510. There have been reports of successful DXing of FM HD audio, both by sporadic-E and tropospheric propagation. – (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66, http://www.w9wi.com ibid) I ditto the CE workload as outlined on this list. Our CE (who just left - NOT because of rude DX'ers, hi!) was swamped. I assumed the (occasional) QSL chores from him and continue to do so. We don't have cards (yet - due to various reasons) but will gladly send a v/l to the deserving (Bob Galerstein, WEPN/WABC/WQEW, ibid.) See also CUBA for more QSL discussion ** U S A. HIGHER POSTAL RATES BEING PROPOSED --- Glenn, a new proposal for raising postal rates overseas to Canada and beyond! http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/E6-21750.htm Take care, (Bruce MacGibbon, OR, Jan 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Huge file ** U S A. WMLB AM, 1690, The Voice Of The Arts puts a fair signal into West Palm Beach, FL during the evening hours. Classical music format with no identification of selections. No legal ID at top of the hour as required by FCC. Only identifies as "AM 1690, The Voice Of The Arts". DXLD 6-123 shows station as located in Avondale Estates, GA. One of only two classical music stations I can hear on AM. The other is on 590 from Cuba, Radio Musical Nacional (Joe Buch, FL, Jan 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WOI JOINS IOWA PUBLIC RADIO NETWORK [text and video] http://www.kcci.com/news/10682818/detail.html (KCCI via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** U S A. How`s Nova M doing, the successor/competitor to Air America as a progressive talk network? Only three specific names on the schedule, Mike Malloy UT Tue-Sat 0200-0500; Mike Newcomb, M-F 1400- 1700; Peter B. Collins, M-F 2300-0200 Tue-Sat. Podcasts are available. And the affiliate list as of Jan 6 shows: KPHX 1480 AM Phoenix AZ http://www.1480kphx.com KQKE 960 AM San Francisco CA http://www.quakeradio.com KSAC 1240 AM Sacramento CA http://www.1240talkcity.com KPTK 1090 AM Seattle WA http://www.am1090seattle.com [50 kW] SIRIUS 146 CH Sirius Left USA http://www.sirius.com from http://www.novamradio.com/ I listened to the Jan 5 Mike Malloy show, certainly some fresh air; refers to the ``Bush crime family``, etc. Also mentioned that he is now on WINZ 940 Miami [10 kW] (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Re 1230 Columbus OH: Found this: http://www.ohiomajorityradio.com/ We Are Holding A Rally Near The Statehouse On Monday, January 8th At 11:00 am To Noon To Mark The Passing Of Progressive Radio In Columbus. Click Here http://www.ohiomajorityradio.com/WTPGRallyPoster.pdf to View, Download And Print A Flyer About This Rally (PDF File - 1.8 MB). Please Pass The Word About This Rally. The More People We Have The More Likely It Will Be They Will Respond (via Artie Bigley, ibid., DXLD) ** URUGUAY [and non]. Hi, Here you can see a brief slideshow of part of my memorabilia radio and TV collection. Hola, Aquí pueden ver una breve exposición de fotografias de parte de mi colección de memorabilia sobre radio y TV http://img213.imageshack.us/slideshow/player.php?id=img213/6392/116818150529p.smil 73 de (Horacio Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay, So. America, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Very nice! And it zooms. No QSLs included. With sound icon but I don`t hear any (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA. Re RCTV threatened by Chávez: PRESIDENTE DE RADIO CARACAS TELEVISIÓN PARTICIPA EN FORO INTERAMERICANO --- El empresario venezolano Marcel Granier fue uno de los invitados en la emisión de Foro Interamericano transmitida este viernes 5 de enero de 2007 por VOA Televisión. Granier es presidente de Radio Caracas Televisión, compañía a la que el mandatario venezolano Hugo Chávez ha amenazado con cerrar. La máxima autoridad del canal RCTV se refirió a lo que él califica, entre otras cosas, de ``el atentado al derecho de la gente a estar informada``. Escuche la participación de Marcel Granier en Foro Interamericano. Por favor de hacer click en: http://www.voanews.com/mediaassets/spanish/2007_01/Audio/mp3/marcelgranier010507.mp3 73 (Dino Bloise, FLORIDA, EEUU, Jan 5, Noticias DX via DXLD) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. Polisario: 6458 is almost exactly 1 MHz below the "regular" frequency 7460 kHz. This leads to the possibility that there could a tuning error in the RIZ transmitter, which perhaps appeared while retuning for the recent frequency changes, or the repeated frequency changes were already a result of such an error. (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Wolfgang, Maybe the 6458.2 kHz (can't say for sure whether this is the actual frequency) digital signal here really emanates from the NATO facility, as it's damned strong: at full steam as I write this, 1241 UT. As to being an odd QRG for them, sorry for being so plain, but I'd say other items here are also odd, viz. the Polisario Fr. itself & NATO. I don't think they're using an alternative equipment, what they're probably trying is a better (lower frequency) and simultaneously run away from the evening mess on the 41 & 49 m, and since that even adjacent QRGs of those 2 bands are being used by powerful broadcast stations, they chose that surely ignoring there's this bl...dy NATO utility station nearby, too near from them. 73, (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Jan 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) If it`s a punch-up mistake, they keep on making it for a while longer. R. Nacional de la República Árabe Saharaui Democrática was still on 6458, Jan 6 at 2150 check with song and talk in Arabic, 2200 continuous talk, perhaps news. No ute QRM at the moment (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 2203 5 Jan, NF 6458.0 kHz, RN de la RASD - Tindouf (Algeria), Arabo, tk OM. Segnale buono -> molto buono. Prima o poi troveranno la banda giusta, perché anche su questo cabale c'è interferenza, da parte di una stazione utility digitale. La stessa cosa avviene con la VO Rev. of Tigray, che insiste a rimanere su 6350 kHz nonostante il pesante QRM: si vede che nel corno d'Africa non dà fastidio (Luca Botto Fiora, Rapallo (Genova), bclnews.it via DXLD) Por acá, por la ciudad de Buenos Aires, la emisora entra con buena señal en pleno atardecer porteño, más allá de las 2130 UT. 73 (Arnaldo Slaen, Jan 6, condig list via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. José Miguel Romero in Spain has been hearing something from or about the Dominican Republic on 5460 when he listens to the Ten-Tec remote receiver in Newton MA. Nothing audible here on 5460 at 2347 UT Jan 4. I listened to Newton for 10+ minutes at 2312 Jan 5. Since there are two stations mixing plus several more in the background, but very little fading, I believe this is a local Boston-area mixing product. It could be transmitted or produced in the receiver, with which I am not familiar. In this big city there is a high concentration of strong MW transmitters, so such things are bound to happen, but not of much real interest, except no chance of hearing R. Bolívar actually on 5460, underneath this mess! No trace of anything here on my own receiver on 5460, Jan 6 at 2158, fortalizing my conclusion that whatever is heard on the remote receiver in Newton MA is some local mixing product (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 5915, continuous tone of about 1 kHz, 2203 Jan 6; perhaps Zambia does this after sign-off? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yep, at least earlier Zambian SW channels used to put a tone on for a while after last program (Jari Savolainen, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6165 [looking for R. Logos, BOLIVIA]: Glenn, It's 0940 UT and 4:30 A.M. local and I am sitting here listening to 6165 kHz. I have been listening since 0920 and it's been steady Chinese music. Yes Chinese. It sounds almost like Firedrake. My unID was reported for the 1000 hour, so I will wait another few minutes to see what happens after 1000, if this music changes or someone else comes up? This format that I am listening to now is not what I heard yesterday. [Later:] Too many players too many questions? Unid, 6165, 0920-1100 From 0920 to 0955 music (possibly Firedrake). No breaks in the music. Just before the hour at 0955, the music gets interrupted by a woman who gives details and announces an email or URL address (could not copy). However, at 1000, a fanfare is played. This fanfare station continues and progresses into the format I heard yesterday with the promos and other characteristics. I no longer hearing the Chinese music which sounded like Firedrake from before the hour, although there's plenty QRM on this frequency and that station could have been buried. I am changing my mind on the language and ID being Vietnamese. The signal is a little clearer today, and the language sounds Chinese but could be something else. I don't know??? At 1012, pop music presented in Oriental Language. Although this could be CPBS to Taiwan, I occasionally hear a second station underneath in Oriental language. The format now is what you'd hear on FM radio, if you know what I mean - one song and comments, song and comments? At 1056 Radio Nederland's carrier comes on the air blocking everything on the frequency (Chuck Bolland, FL, Jan 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ I thought you had been a bit quiet! I had a few issues of DXLD that had backed up from late December to read but now I'm ready for more! (Mark Fahey, Australia, ARDXC) Notices were bouncing from that list LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ Re 7-002, COLOMBIA, Galeras: If I had taken a moment to Google I could have answered my own question about Galeras --- it`s a volcano, and volcán is masculine singular. However, skimming thru a number of Spanish and English pages, never saw any mention of where the name comes from (gh, DXLD) Los indígenas Quillacingas dieron el nombre de ``Urcunina`` (Montaña de Fuego) al volcán de Pasto, hoy conocido como ``volcán Galeras``; llamado así, por los primeros conquistadores Españoles, por su semejanza con las Galeras o barcos que con sus velas navegaban en aquel entonces por el Mediterráneo This passage found at http://intranet.ingeominas.gov.co/pasto/Generalidades Galeras Volcano, Colombia --- This is a radar image of Galeras volcano in southern Colombia. ... Chuck Wood of VolcanoWorld was on Galeras at that time but was not injured. ... volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/img_galeras.html Galeras Volcano, Colombia --- Galeras, a stratovolcano with a large breached caldera located immediately west of ... The above is a radar image of Galeras volcano in southern Colombia. ... volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/current_volcs/galeras/galeras.html See also: http://tinyurl.com/ya652s and also: Ecuadorian Medium Wave Log COLOMBIA La Voz de Galeras, Pasto 0207. Briefly on top w/ "Todelar está en todas partes" anmt. (Nov 1) Only Todelar station here per Henrik Klemetz. ... http://www.swl.net/patepluma/genbroad/logs/hcmwlog.htm 73, (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ QSL GALLERY [ham only] The large collection of QSL cards (4100+) on Les Nouvelle DX's web site has been updated. Nine different galleries include cards for the ten Most Wanted DXCC Entities (140+ QSLs), each of the 58 deleted DXCC entities (700+ QSLs), obsolete prefixes (1700+ QSLs), Antarctic bases (600+ QSLs) & TAAF (Terres Australes and Antarctiques Francaises, 220+ QSLs), the various rare French DXCC island Entities (100+ QSLs), pre-1945 countries (200+ QSLs), French Departments and USA. Several cards are still needed and your participation is encouraged - please visit http://LesNouvellesDX.free.fr and send send your comments to LesNouvellesDX @ free.fr [TNX F6AJA] (425 DX News via Dave Raycroft, ODXA via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ OZONE HOLE I keep reading and hearing about the ozone hole over the South Pole. Got me thinking. The Soviets did high power tests in the late 1970's or early 1980's. I understand the high power signal, instead of reflecting back to Earth, punched a hold in the ionosphere. Could these tests have contributed to the current ozone hole? This is an honest question. I'm not attempting to be funny. 73, (Kraig, KG4LAC Krist, Jan 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ARRL JANUARY 4: CYCLE 23 COULD BOTTOM OUT THIS SUMMER Cycle 23 could bottom out this summer (Jan 4, 2007) --- Radio wave propagation could be looking up after this summer, according to past and predicted sunspot and solar (radio) flux statistics this week from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration`s (NOAA) Space Environment Center. Those numbers indicate that current Cycle 23 will bottom out in July. As for Cycle 24, which should peak in approximately five years, the predictions are all over the map, with some saying it could be one of the most intense cycles in history and others calling for a weak or average cycle. This week`s data predict a smoothed sunspot number of 9.5 and a 10.7 cm solar (radio) flux of 72.0 for July. More information on radio wave propagation is available on the ARRL Technical Information Service Propagation page http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/propagation.html Link to this story http://www.arrl.org/?artid=7091 (via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) Hi amigos radioaficionados. 2007 well underway and solar activity remains at low levels, but nevertheless the 10.7 centimeter solar flux, the internationally accepted yardstick to measure day to day solar activity has gone up to a bit past the 90 units mark. And yes, you will notice the difference between what happens on the short wave bands after many days of solar flux levels between 70 and 80 units, and what happens when activity increases and the microwave radiometers measure figures above 90 units. In other words, we will enjoy slightly better HF propagation during the weekend. 2007, according to solar scientists is going to be "The Year of the Quiet Sun" when the present solar cycle will go trough its minimum. ARNIE CORO`S DXERS UNLIMITED HF AND LOW BAND VHF PROPAGATION UPDATE AND FORECAST Solar flux near 90 units, and is expected to remain around that level for the next two days. The effective sunspot number is around 35, and Saturday morning local time in Havana the A index was at a nice and low zero seven units. So, expect a little better HF propagation today, tomorrow and day after tomorrow, that will include short openings of the 15 meters amateur band for really nice long distance DX. No VHF openings via sporadic E are expected in the northern hemisphere (Arnie Coro, DXers Unlimited, Radio Habana Cuba, Jan 6, via ODXA via DXLD) THIS IS THE LOUDEST LUXEMBURG EFFECT I EVER HEARD: http://xfer.3sdesign.de/LuxEffect 279_Minsk VOR_1386.mp3 When tuning to Minsk, BLR 279, you hear in front the Luxemburg effect of Bolshakovo 1386 // 1215 carrying a German religious broadcast (the muffled male voice). Minsk is only heard in the background. Unbelieveable (Jurgen Bartels, Suellwarden, 10km east of Wilhelmshaven, Northern Germany, 3km off Northsea coast, 300m BOGs over marshland - pointing 320 degrees (Iceland - Los Angeles), - pointing 280 degrees (UK - Ireland - Cuba), 30m EWE - pointing 320 degrees (Iceland - Los Angeles), WinRadio G305 and R390A, Jan 6, MWDX yg via DXLD) TIPS FOR RATIONAL LIVING ++++++++++++++++++++++++ LETTER FROM AMERICA: ATHEISTS THROW DOWN THE GAUNTLET By Richard Bernstein Published: January 2, 2007 NEW YORK: Here on the first days of the year of our lord 2007 it seems awkward to talk about a Godless world, but the fact is that in the waning months of 2006, a kind of militant atheism was making itself felt across the land. There were two best-selling books declaring belief in God to be a kind of mass delusion, and a harmful mass delusion at that, occasioning a vigorous and often angry response from many people who believe the repeated announcement of the death of God . . . http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/02/news/letter.php (via Gerald T. Pollard, DXLD) ###