DX LISTENING DIGEST 7-009, January 21, 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 Extra 74 Mon 0400 WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0515 WBCQ 7415 [time varies] Mon 1330 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 MUNDO RADIAL ENERO-FEBRERO: (corriente) http://www.w4uvh.net/mr0701.ram (descargar) http://www.w4uvh.net/mr0701.rm (texto) http://www.worldofradio.com/mr0701.html DXLD YAHOOGROUP: Why wait for DXLD? A lot more info, not all of it appearing in DXLD later, is posted at our yg. When applying, please identify yourself with your real name and location. Here`s where to sign up http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dxld/ ** AFGHANISTAN. I reported some time ago about (tentative) R Peace - R Solh broadcasts on 6700. They've been audible here again past few days. The reception is rather weak. Today 20 Jan at 1440 UT noted them again on 6700 with non-stop Afghan music. While scanning upwards, there was another station on 6800 with Afghan music too, but not in parallel. 6800 was stronger and peaked to good level after 1500. Sudden decrease in signal at 1525. Both stations passed their local TOH 1530 without any announcements. What I've learned (thanks to Mauno Ritola and various websites), there's been (or still is) at least three transmitter sites for U.S. Psyops Radio Peace on shortwave (lately in the 9300 kHz region). These are Bagram, Kandahar and Orgun. I guess the listmembers in India/ Middle East have a good signal from these stations and possibly can get a local ID (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, Jan 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ALASKA. As usual, KNLS is an early displayer of its next-season, A- 07 schedule; note that they are not making any changes March 11 when DST starts in the US, including even Alaska: KNLS Broadcast Schedule Starting March 25, 2007 Time (khz) M Language 0800-0900 7355 41 English 0800-0900 11765 25 Mandarin 0900-1000 7355 41 Russian 0900-1000 11765 25 Mandarin 1000-1100 7355 41 English 1000-1100 11765 25 Mandarin 1100-1200 7355 41 Russian 1100-1200 11765 25 Mandarin 1200-1300 7355 41 English 1200-1300 9920 31 English 1300-1400 9655 31 Mandarin 1300-1400 9920 31 Mandarin 1400-1500 7355 41 English 1400-1500 9920 31 Mandarin 1500-1600 7355 41 Russian 1500-1600 9920 31 Mandarin 1600-1700 7355 41 Russian 1600-1700 9920 31 Mandarin 1700-1800 7355 41 Russian 1700-1800 9920 31 Mandarin (from http://www.knls.org/English/ksched.htm#Next%20Season via Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. Hi Glenn, Chris Hambly, Melbourne, phoned today, said that 4835 kHz, Alice Springs, Northern territory, was back on air, as of January 19th, 2007. 73 (David Vitek, SA, Jan 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. R. Congonhas QSL --- Just received, in 41 days, a nice letter (v/s illegible), a small station sticker, and two postage stamp-sized (large postage stamps) stickers, one commemorating 200 years of "Profetas Do Aleijadinho" and the other commemorating 500 years either of the city or of Brasil. Also received a very nice and colorful tourist brochure in Portuguese and English. In it, it states "Congonhas has got its name from a plant named Congonha. In Tupi, an Indian language, Kõ gõi means 'the one that feeds and supports.'" Very happy with this QSL, especially as it's only 1 kW on 4775 kHz. Thought this might interest some who like me had wondered about the name of the city and the station, and also explains the name of R. Tupi (Alex Vranes, Jr., Harpers Ferry, WV, Jan 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. --- WEEKEND HOT SHEET, SUNDAY JANUARY 21, 2007 --- THE SUNDAY EDITION/SPIN CYCLES: Take a trip behind the headlines this week in a new series on The Sunday Edition. It's Spin Cycles, Ira Basen's personal tour through the world of media manipulation, "spin doctoring" and information management. He starts with a look back at "A Century of Spin" - how the modern public relations industry grew out of Spin Cycles, in the third hour of The Sunday Edition, at 11 a.m. (11:30 NT) on CBC Radio One (CBC Hotsheet via DXLD) That`s 1505 UT + 1/2/3/4 hours on timezone-delayed webcasts (gh, DXLD) ** CANADA. Re: CBC changes format of Radio Two Hmmm... I thought Radio Three was supposed to attract the younger set? (Keith McGinnis, Hingham MA, Jan 18, ABDX via DXLD) When you are a government run entity, why are you worried about serving older people instead of younger ones? They don't sell ads on the CBC. And yes, I remember the same thing about Radio Three (Kevin Redding, AZ, ibid.) Keep in mind that the CBC is a Crown Corporation, not just an arm of government. It is constantly fighting to maintain, or increase, its funding. They have had funding slashed as part of deficit elimination. The CBC is not universally loved by many Federal politicians. The CBC participates in the BBMs. And tends to do very well in BBM ratings. For example, CBC Radio Two [it might be Radio One, but if so it`s a BBM typo] is the number one station in Halifax - ranking ahead of the mighty C100 and Q104. CBC Radio One does very well in PEI as well (Phil Rafuse, PEI, ibid.) ** CANADA. 1280, TIS, Toronto Airport, weak signal, only got a few sentences at a time. 0712 Terminal 1 Air Canada, 0720 French, 0724 Toronto Pearson airport, GTAA, GTAA.com "Don't leave your vehicle unattended; it will be towed". Color coded signs tell which airline is in what terminal. Valet Parking. 1/14 (Larry Russell, Brighton MI DX- Pedition, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) CFYZ ** CANADA. Glenn: Listening to "That's Cool" with Bill Gable. One of my favorite programs from AM 740, CHWO in Toronto. Only difference is, propagation has been so crazy lately, I've taken up their offer to listen via: http://www.am740.ca From their website: *****Saturday evening we present 'That's Cool', hosted by Bill Gable and featuring unforgettable standards, both original and contemporary, in a unique blend that can only be called - "cool"!.***** Doesn't lose its AM flavor since the tunes are in mono. In fact, it sounds exactly like it did the last time I visited Toronto a few months ago, using a Sony 2010. Love the old stuff from; "Route 66", "Ain't that A Kick In The Head", "It Had To Be You" plus more swing, jazz, blues and old time rock. Great music program! (I also enjoy their "All Night Jukebox".... 73, (Bill Lauterbach - WA8MEA, MI, Jan 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Voice of Strait, 7280 kHz, no-data verification card entirely in Chinese (except for my name) and a schedule pamphlet (mostly in Chinese) in 2 months for a Chinese-language report and $1, no signer. Address: P. O. Box 187, Fuzhou, Fujian 350012, China. Some info gleaned from the schedule: Channel 1 News & Public Affairs, 666 & 11590 kHz Channel 2 Lifestyle, 90.6 FM and 7280 kHz Channel 3 Fujianese-dialect programs 783 & 6115 kHz Channel 4 Music 99.6 FM All channels 2225-1700 UT (0625-0100 Beijing time). FM stations are presumably in Fuzhou. Listed English programs on Ch. 1 (11590 kHz): M-F "Happy English" 0550-0600 UT Sa/Su English 0500-0530, repeated 0800-0830. The schedule pamphlet also had this information in English, presented with original grammar: Introduction of the Voice of Strait Voice of Strait (VOS), one of the most comprehensive national broadcasting stations, was founded on August 24th, 1958, serves most areas of Mainland, Taiwan Province, Hong Kong, Macau SAR and almost the globe every day in Mandarain, Minnan dialect [aka Fujianese] and English. After more than forty years' development, VOS has become an very influential media in China and the world. In addition to our short- wave broadcasts, we also try to make ourselves heard on the local AM and FM frequencies in many parts of the world through different forms of cooperation. We can now be heard locally in countries like Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, USA, Philippine, France, Germany, Denmakr, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and South Pole area, as well as more than forty countries across the world. VOS now has got its autumn after forty-year explore. In the early 1980s, our "Friend of the Youth" was one of the earliest emcee programs. "Crossroad on the Air" in 1990s was highly praised by the experts. According to "New Ideal, New Situation, New Appearance", VOS is always changing for better. Now VOS's programs include news, current affairs, military affairs and features on politics, culture, science and technology. News channel, Entertainment life channel, Minnan Dialect channel and Music and Information channel are the four major channels on VOS. We broadcast to the whole world from 6:30 every morning to 1:00 early next morning, 74 hours amazing programs and shows on air everyday. Our "666 Morning News", "Morning Digest", "Straits' wide-angle lens", "Military Online", "Vogue China", "Good Morning", "Travelogue", "Go throughout South Fujian", "My Family", and many other characteristic programs is loved by listeners from all around the world. And through our website http://www.vos.com.cn users can read program transcripts, view illustrations and hear our programs as well (via Mark Schiefelbein, Missouri, Jan 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 6065, CNR-2, 1300-1332, Jan 21, 5+1 pips, Alan Spear and Joy with ``This is English Evening on China Business Radio``, commentary about the movie ``Prime``, plays audio clips from the movie, BoH into ``Advanced English``, // 6155, 7245, 7315 and 9820 (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, RX340, with T2FD antenna, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. UNID: Been hearing something in Spanish with fairly weak signals on 6108.9 the last couple of weeks around 1130-1200, and I think I've got it figured out. On Thursday Jan. 18, I heard it again around 1140-1150, again fairly weak. But I could make out a man speaking for a few seconds, then a woman for a few seconds, then again the same back and forth. Glenn Hauser had suggested checking for // in the 49 m.b. I did this day, and it seemed to match what was on Marfil Estéreo on 5910v (forgot to measure exact freq.). It was religious talks by a man in Spanish, with a woman translating into English. Then the same time period on Friday, I could hear on 6108.9 the same type of back and forth, but this time with two men, and also mixing with some music. The talks again seemed to match what was on Marfil on 5910v (forgot to measure the exact frequency again!), and the music matched what was on sister station La Voz de tu Conciencia on around 6009.5. This would make sense, as they are right around 100 kHz apart, and 6108.9 is right around 100 kHz. higher than LVdtC. Radio Nederland comes on 6110 just before 1200, and I think it's WYFR that's on 6105 up to 1045 (according to EiBi), that causes a lot of QRM and makes it next to impossible to hear this, which is why there's such a short window for me to hear this. Yaesu FRG-100B and antenna is 200-ft. dipole at a height of about 20-ft (Alex Vranes, Jr., Harpers Ferry, WV, DX LISTENING DIGEST) O yes, I should have thought of that. Someone heard that mixing product before, Brian Alexander, I think, and it matched to two decimal places from the two slightly-off frequencies. There is a more commonly heard one on 5810v (or was, or would be when WEWN is off!), but something or other blocks it a lot of the time on 6110v. 73, (Glenn to Alex, via DXLD) ** CONGO DR. 5066.3, Ibl, 1610, Candip regularly. Varies in QRG between 5066.329 to 5066.332 kHz. Always closedown around 1620. Usually weak. SA (Stig Adolfsson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Jan 21, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. For those interested to know about the sometimes erratic functioning of DGS Cahuita transmitters, all local daytimers (around 2200z Jan 21) are on the air, 9725 // 11870 --- this one flanked an with heavy splatter from DW 11865 and WYFR 11875 --- // 13750. Guess I'm situated in the skip zone of this latter, as I receive WWCR 13845 with a stronger signal. 73s (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. 5700, Radio Habana; *0459...0524+, 13-Jan; Cuban anthem & "This is Radio Habana's English language broadcast..."; SIO=2+42; spur?, some distortion. // 6000, S10; // 6300, SIO=333, ute bursts; // 6420, SIO=222 with woodpecker QRM. More funny business from Raul? (Harold Frodge, Brighton MI DX-Pedition, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) 6300 is produced by 6060 leapfrogging over 6180, 120 kHz further. 6420 would be a second leap a further 120 kHz up the band, but that isn`t the way mixing products usually work. It appears that 5700 would result from 6300, itself a mixing product, leapfrogging over 6000, 300 kHz further down, to land on 5700 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. The clock is ticking on RHC`s 15230, which has been colliding with China-via-Canada for several winters now (tho RHC was using 15230 for sesquidecades before). Still there Jan 19 at 1429 check, and Jan 21 at 1450, but supposed to switch to 15190 from Jan 22. RHC had been closing 6000 earlier than 1400 for a while, but Jan 20 it was still on at 1455 as sign-off announcement played. I did not copy the frequencies mentioned, which never correspond exactly to reality anyway, but tuned around the // ones. Ahá: 11805 was missing, so that was apparently the transmitter which stayed on 6000 instead. However, next day, Jan 21 around 1450, 11805 was back and not 6000 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DENMARK [and non]. Re Kalundborg ``Isn`t that hard on a transmitter, turning it off and on 5 times a day? (Glenn Hauser, DXLD)`` Probably, but that's just the fate of any shortwave transmitter. And the Kalundborg transmitters belong to the same modularized series of Telefunken transmitters (PANTEL = Pulsanodenmodulation System Telefunken, also called, at least internally, RUSEP = Rundfunksender Einheitsprogramm) as the S4001 and S4005 shortwave models. I don't recall the model numbers in this case, but 243 is a transmitter like on air on 153 and 207 (if not replaced recently there) while 1062 is the same model than probably still in use at Hamburg on 972 and kept as aux for 576 (main transmitter at Mühlacker is now a Nautel). In addition there is a third transmitter which can be tuned to both 243 and 1062, probably the only such one Telefunken ever made. Of course it is only the plate current (to put aside various other circuits) which will be turned on and off while the tube heating stays always on. So the transmitter will be in stand-by mode between transmissions, not switched on and off in its entirety. I wonder what will happen with the longwave equipment? The initial reports about an intended closure from autumn 2005 had it that the transmitters for both 243 and 1062 were to be kept operational, but is this still the current plan? I think the transmitters will be hardly an issue, since operation on 1062 will continue anyway, but what will happen if expensive maintenance work has to be done on the antenna? And what for the gymnastics at 0730? I think this is one of the longwave specials at present, but why on earth do they keep this oddity? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Kalundborg appears on 1062 as distinctive SAH and faint audio behind Praha (Country Radio). 243 is as always faint but in the clear (Kai Ludwig, 1118 UT Jan 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA. 5100, 12.1 1500, Radio Bana or similar from Eritrea with English educational program for adults. Quite good at the end when an address in Asmara was mentioned. S 3! BEFF (Björn Fransson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Jan 21, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA [non]. The Voice of Delina (produced by Tesfa Delina Foundation, Inc) appeared with a new website: http://vodm.asmarino.com and under a new name: Voice of Meselna Delina (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, Jan 19, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: Voice of Meselna Delina Shortwave Broadcast information: Days: Monday - Friday; Time: 8:00-8:30 PM Eritrea time Frequency 7335 kHzi (41 meter band) (1700-1730 UTC) Click here to contribute to Voice OF Meselna Delina Contributions can be sent to: Tesfa Delina Foundation, Inc 17326 Edwards Road, Suite A-230 Cerritos, CA 90703 USA (via gh, DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. 7280, Andenet Ledemocracy Jan 16 *1700-1717 31331- 33333 Amharic, Talk and Ethiopian pops music, ID at 1712 (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) ** EUROPE. Some interesting QSL's: Euro-Pirate Mystery Radio/6220: I sent an e-mail report while they were on live on Dec. 17, and got a Verification back in 20 minutes! There has been much speculation about both it's location (Italy has been the popular guess), and transmitting power (I figured at least 1 kW, some had said up to 10 kW). So I asked nicely if they could give me a little info on both of these, as they always put in such a solid signal here, and here's part of their e-mail back: "I can't tell you where we are based but it is in southern Europe. The transmitter is a professional piece of kit and runs a 1,000 watts on high power. Hope this info has been of use to you." (Alex Vranes, Jr., Harpers Ferry, WV, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Euro-Pirate, R. Borderhunter/6210: Sent a reception report for a broadcast on Oct. 7, and got back a nice QSL certificate from op Frans, a letter that basically explains the name of the station, and a tourist brochure of the Baarle-Nassau-Hertof area. The station operates near the Belgium-Netherlands border, apparently either in or very near these Belgian enclaves in The Netherlands. In an exchange of e-mails after I heard the broadcast (I copied the e-mail address but couldn't make out the snail-mail address), Frans told me the transmitter puts out up to 1 kW, but he was only running about 600-W at the time, so very happy with this QSL! (Alex Vranes, Jr., Harpers Ferry, WV, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. RFI German --- AFP reported Feb 18 that editors of RFI's German service say their broadcasts "are seriously threatened," noting that management has cut 4 of 10 journalist positions. RFI officials say the journalists left voluntarily or went to work for other RFI services. A statement by the German service staff said RFI was jeopardizing the biggest audio platform in the German language dedicated to news about France, serving more than 110 million German- speaking listeners in Europe. AFP noted that RFI's president told personnel on Jan. 9 that RFI was "heavily penalized in the 2007 budget plan." (Mike Cooper, GA, Jan 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GABON. Chex of the Afropop music distraxion on its varying frequency: Jan 19 at 1427 on 17640, aside ANU 17630 with similar signal; Jan 20 at 1524 on 17660; Jan 21 at 1448 on 17650 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTNEING DIGEST) See also LIBYA [non] ** GERMANY. As per the info provided through a personal e-mail to me by the DX Boys, the DW World DX meeting will be aired till March, 2007, which would be the last DX Meeting over DW English service (Hari Madugula, Young Stars Radio Club, http://geocities.com/ysrc_india Jan 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [and non]. European Music Radio relay 5965 kHz - Today Sunday 21st January 2007, 1300 to 1400 UT on 5965 kHz This programme will also be broadcast via the internet service at http://bereik.net:9290/listen.pls 1300-1400 UT and repeated at 1600-1700, 1900-2000, 2200-2300 Please note you will require a broadband connection to listen to our internet service which is available 24 hours a day. Good Listening 73s (Tom Taylor, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 128 kbps stereo ** GREECE. Glenn: Amongst all the noise on 17525, I am trying to listen to Katerina's "Greeks Everywhere" program at the tail end at 1450 UT (John Babbis, MD, Sat Jan 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) John, That`s about the time I tuned in, but I found 9420 much better than 17525 here. Someone reported that it`s no longer called Greeks Everywhere. I thought I had this in a recent issue but can`t seem to find it (Glenn to John, via DXLD) VOG, Greeks Everywhere was on again this Saturday Jan 20, interview in English concluding (tho it sounded familiar, a repeat from a week or two ago?), audible at 1455 on both 9420 and 17525 but 9420 as usual better (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn: At 1400 UT, 9420 never makes it here that early in the morning (9 a.m. EST). Maybe it is because you are in a different time zone and you people are still cracking dawn. In Greek, they call it "Ellenous Pantou" which means exactly "Greeks Everywhere." Some years back, Katerina's program was called "Hellenes Around the World." Last night, 9420 was dead here from 0000 UT Sunday, and 7475 sounded like they were roasting chestnuts and barely audible when 0300 came up which was when Katerina's repeat is scheduled. Instead it sounded as though Angelika Timms was on introducing Greek songs. The language was not decipherable, but it could have been English. Why doesn't VOG try the 6 MHz band, as Demetri Vafeas once did to get a signal to North America, propagation being what it is at this time of the year? (John Babbis, MD, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Was not aware that 0300 UT Sunday was still a possible English block; I wonder if they have antennas at Avlis suitable for NAm on 6 MHz? And finding a clear frequency on that crowded band is always a challenge (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUIANA FRENCH. DRM test on 21615-21620-21625 continues, Jan 20 at 1531 and Jan 21 at 1447 with buzz sounding like it`s enough to decode. Unclear what programming or station this is, as not specified in original announcement of tests thru Jan 23 toward Mexico City. But that`s beside the point, gee whiz? I`ve looked thru all the posts about these tests on the DRMNA yg and most make no mention whatsoever of the program content. Just this from moderator Christopher in Salem OR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) We've had a few days of fun with these tests. A heads-up for our new list members --- the tests continue! January 19 to 23 beaming to Mexico City on 21620 from 1300z to 2020z. Programs seem to be in French, Russian (or other Baltic language) and Spanish. I'd prefer English, but "we takes what we can get." Seems to me that this test oughta' light-up some of the midwest and west with some nice signals. Log your reception for posting to DRMRX and be sure to give us some signal reports here. This list is works nicely for "live sightings". Would love to hear of some better than 30 dB SNRs :-) (Christopher, Salem, OR, moderator DRMNA yg, Jan 19 via DXLD) No mention whatsoever on drmrx.org as well, unless I missed it in the three-page-long thread there. Only a vague specification of the heard programming being in French, so one can guess that it must have been some RFI feed. The numerous screenshots there always reveal an audio bitrate of 14.4 kbps, output power has been specified as 150 kW. Wasn't DRM supposed to deliver FM-like quality with much less power than used for AM services? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HAWAII. KWHR, 9930, at 1444 Sunday Jan 21 with country-gospel music, English announcement, occasional quick audio dropouts, but no jamming at all. On weekdays at 14-17 Sound of Hope gets 9930 heavily jammed by the Chicoms (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HUNGARY. Hungarian radio - MR4 --- The ethnic programme of the Hungarian Radio (Magyar Rádió) is going to broadcast under the name of MR4 from 1. February 2007, daily 08.00-20.00 CET on the following frequencies: [UT +1 now, UT +2 in summer] Marcali 1188 KHz Szolnok 1188 KHz Lakihegy 873 KHz Pécs 873 KHz On Satellite Hotbird 3, the ethnic programmes broadcast 36 hours earlier are going to be repeated every day from 20.00 to 08.00 CET. The ethnic programmes can be heard at the following time: Monday - Friday: 08.00-10.00 croatian 10.00-12.00 german 12.00-13.00 music 13.00-13.30 on Monday sloven Tuesday ruthenian Wednesday bulgarian Friday ukrainian 13.30-14.00 gypsy/roma 14.00-16.00 serbian 16.00-18.00 romanian 18.00-20.00 slovak Saturday 08.00-10.00 croatian 10.00-12.00 german 12.00-13.00 music 13.00-13.30 armenian 13.30-14.00 polish 14.00-16.00 serbian 16.00-18.00 romanian 18.00-20.00 slovak Sunday 08.00-10.00 croatian 10.00-12.00 german 12.00-13.00 music 13.00-14.00 hungarian ? 14.00-16.00 serbian 16.00-18.00 romanian 18.00-20.00 slovak 73 (István Kiss, Balassagyarmat, Hungary, Jan 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ICELAND. 13865, Utvarp Reykjavik; 1432-1431+, 13-Jan; M in Nordic language with news items including English clip. UR ID at 1430 & into chorale music. SIO=343 (Harold Frodge, Brighton MI DX-Pedition, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) ** INDIA [and non]. /CHINA, 11775, AIR Delhi, Tibetan/Nepali service underneath of China mainland jammer FIREDRAKE program. Used jamming practice by Chinese authorities since at least 2002y, also against AIR Tibetan programs. \\ 7420, 9575 couldn`t check due of prop and co- channel Medi I (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 3266.419, 11.1 1415, RRI Gorontalo with ``musik populer``. Normally closes earlier. Best heard in the evenings but sometimes disturbed by the third harmonic from 1089 which is on 3267 kHz. This day closedown at 1435. O=2 SA. 3987.056, 6.1 1250, RRI Manokwari. 1258 time signal and announcements, 1259 closedown or ``signal dalam`` (also known as ``tutup``) O=2 SA (Stig Adolfsson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Jan 21, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 6125.29, RRI-Nabire, Jan 10, 0744-0808, 35443, Indonesian, Talk and music, ID at 0758, 0801 RPK, 0801 Jakarta news relay. 7289.88, RRI-Nabire (Presumed). Jan 10, 0808-0840, 25442, Indonesian, Jakarta news relay and music. 9525.95, V. of Indonesia, Jan 11, 0744-0804, 34433-44433, English, Repetition of IS and ID, 0801 Opening music, Opening announce, News, // Frequency drift, Jan 12 9525.97 kHz, Jan 13 9525.98 kHz, Jan 14 9525.98 kHz (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan Premium via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. XM/Sirius Merger? Most of the speculation concerning such a merger seems to be coming from the Sirius side. I've heard Howard Stern mention several times that a merger between the two would make sense. I feel both XM and Sirius will likely be acquisition candidates for larger, richer companies and that both will eventually morph into multi-platform (internet, mobile phone streaming, etc. in addition to satellite) content delivery companies (Harry Helms W5HLH, TX, Jan 18, ABDX via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [and non]. Yachting High Frequency tables: http://www.yachtcom.co.uk/comms/Frequencies.htm (via Roald Kooijman, BDX via DXLD) ** IRAN [non]. 7470, R. Democracy Shorayee, Jan 11, *1700-1725, 34433- 44433 Farsi, 1700 sign on with opening music, ID, Opening announce, Talk, Thanks for frequency changes information from Kenji Hashimoto. 7470, R. Democracy Shorayee, Jan 12, *1700-1713, 34433, Farsi, 1700 sign on with opening music, Opening announce, Talk. 7470, R. Democracy Shorayee, Jan 16, *1700-1710, 34333, Farsi, 1700 sign on with ID, Opening music, Opening announce, Talk (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) see also KURDISTAN ** IRAQ. ON THE AIR, THE VOICE OF SUNNI REBELS IN IRAQ By MARC SANTORA and DAMIEN CAVE, January 21, 2007 BAGHDAD, Jan. 20 — The video starts with a young American soldier patrolling an Iraqi street. His head is obscured by leaves, so a red target is digitally inserted to draw the viewer’s eye. A split second later, the soldier collapses, shot. Martial music kicks in, a jihadi answer to John Philip Sousa. The time and place of the attack scrolls at the bottom of the screen. Such tapes, along with images of victims of Shiite militias and unflattering coverage of Shiite leaders, are beaming across Iraq and much of the Middle East 24 hours a day, broadcast by a banned Iraqi satellite television station that has become a major information center for the Sunni insurgency — and the focus of a cat-and-mouse hunt that has exasperated and infuriated American and Iraqi forces. Making the situation even more galling for the authorities, American and Iraqi officials say that money stolen from the United States probably helps pay for the station. ``They do not have programs but buffoonery, blaspheming and support for terrorism,`` said Jalal al-Din al-Sagheer, a senior member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite party. ``The source of funding for the channel is theft.`` The channel’s founder, Meshaan al-Juburi, is a former Sunni member of Parliament who was indicted last February on charges of embezzling millions of American dollars meant to pay for a vast pipeline protection force he had been assigned to help build with recruits from Salahuddin Province. He was accused of collecting salaries for thousands of soldiers who did not exist. He denied the charges and went into hiding, fleeing to Syria... [more] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/world/middleeast/21sunni.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** KURDISTAN [non]. IRAN: VOICE OF IRANIAN KURDISTAN RADIO ON NEW SATELLITE FREQUENCY BBC Monitoring observes clandestine radio Voice of Iranian Kurdistan (VoIK) on a new transponder on the Hot Bird 6 satellite at 13 degrees east, on a frequency of 11681 MHz, horizontal polarization, symbol rate 27500, FEC 3/4. The radio is carried on the sound channel of Tishk TV when the latter is not broadcasting (currently observed schedule for Tishk is 1700- 2000 gmt daily). A still image of a transmitter mast with the station's contact details superimposed is displayed when the radio is being carried. Voice of Iranian Kurdistan was first observed on satellite by BBC Monitoring in February 2005, broadcasting on 12597 MHz frequency, vertical polarization, symbol rate 27500, FEC 3/4 on the same satellite. This continues to be available on the same schedule as before, 1300-1400 gmt daily. Until recently VoIK was also available on shortwave, although this has not been traced by BBC Monitoring since at least mid January. [but see Jari`s log below] Voice of Iranian Kurdistan and Tishk TV are operated by the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, which has a multilingual website at http://www.pdki.org Tishk TV has a website at http://www.tishktv.net and VoIK has a new website under construction at http://www.rdkiran.com Source: BBC Monitoring research, in English 1620 gmt 21 Jan 07 (via DXLD) ** KURDISTAN [non?]. 3879.83V, V. of Iranian Revolution, Jan 16, *1526-1541, 35322-33332-34433, Kurdish, 1526 sign on with IS, Repetition of IS and ID, 1530 ID and opening music, Opening announce, Talk (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) ** KURDISTAN [non?]. 19 Jan checked some of these clandestines. At 1400 tune-in R Voice of Kurdistan was again on 3940.1 and closed down at 1431. Back again at 1627 on 3930 with their "interval-signal" and Kurdish program at 1630. Jammed At 1425 a carrier came on 3970 and 4870 (and jammers a moment later). At 1430 very low modulated audio, but I guess this is the Voice of Iranian Kurdistan. Hopping 3960-3980 and 4845-4895. Off around 1630. At 1535 tune-in a station in Kurdish on 4360.6 and parallel on 3879.3 with sign-off at 1644. I don't know what is the official name of this one, they id "Denge Sorsi Iran, Radyo Komala". I guess in English it's something like "Voice of Iranian Revolution, Radio Komala". I don't know if both transmitters drifted same way, or was it the technician doing that, but frequency moved very slowly away from the jammer (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski Finland, Jan 19, dxldyg via DXLD Iran. A new radio station named People`s Radio Kurdistan announcing ``Shaabi Radio Kurdistaniti`` was received in Sofia at 16 hours on 3930 kHz. It was changing its frequency every 3 minutes between 3925 and 3940 kHz apparently to escape the Iranian jammer (Rumen Pankov, Bulgaria, R. Bulgaria DX program Jan 19 via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) ** LATVIA. LETONIA, 9290, Latvia Today, 1300-1315, escuchada el 21 de Enero en inglés, locutor con presentación e identificación, locutora, segmento música pop, locutora con comentarios, SINPO 45444 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia) España, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LATVIA. Hallo, wir mußten leider unsere Sendezeit etwas verändern. KWRN ist also am 28.01.2007 um 09.00 Uhr UT hoffentlich zu hören hello, we must change our time for transmission KWRN is on air from 0900-1000 hours UT (January 28, Sunday) 9290 relay on 28 can look this KWRN 0900-1000 UT Marabu 1000-1300 UT Latvia Today 1300-1400 UT Regards, Raimonds [Kreicbergs?] (via Wayne Bastow, Wyoming, NSW, Australia, ARDXC via DXLD) ** LIBYA [non]. MOLDAVIA, 17650, Sawt al-Amal, 1220-1230, escuchada el 21 de Enero en árabe a locutor con entrevista a invitado; se aprecia emisora afro-pop de fondo, SINPO 54544 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia) España, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) cf GABON ** LITHUANIA. Hi Glenn: Mighty KBC Radio via Sitkunai 1386 kHz is heard every Saturday 2200-2300 UT with a musical program announced in English. The manager Tom de Wit has sent me an E-mail in which he writes that as from next week KBC will be on both 1386 kHz and new 6255 kHz. Tom does not state the location for 6255 kHz but it is most likely also Sitkunai, since their transmitter is used for VOIRI transmissions in English on near-by 6250 kHz a little earlier in the evening. Address: KBC, Argonstraat 6, 6718 WT Ede, Holland. E-mail addresses kbc @ wxs.nl (seems to be the most reliable) and info @ k- po.com Funny enough there is another KBC on 1386 kHz - Kenya Broadcasting Corporation - but I think the risk for confusion is almost non- existing! 73 from (Ullmar Qvick in Norrköping, Sweden, Jan 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. 6049.65, Suara Islam/Voice of Islam (RTM), 1525-1616, Jan 21, YL DJ playing mostly pop songs, some Islamic music/Middle East type music, IDs ``Radio Suara Islam FM``, fair (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA, RX340, with T2FD antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALDIVE ISLANDS. MINIVAN NEWS JOURNALIST BLACKLISTED FOR TWO YEARS http://www.minivannews.com/news/news.php?id=2837 (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** MEXICO. Hola Glenn: al parecer R. UNAM (9600 kHz) ha extendido mas allá de las 0000 UT sus pruebas. En estos momentos la escucho (audio bajo, poca intensidad, y un ruido de fondo). Esto lo he notado desde el lunes pasado cuando reinició pruebas. Hoy por la mañana la escuché un poco mejor, lo mismo en la tarde ¿La escuchas tú en este horario nocturno? Saludos, (Julián Santiago Díez de Bonilla, DF, Jan 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hola Julián, ¿Cierto que sea UNAM? RHC está en 9600: 9600 2330-2400 (Sun.) Esperanto 0000-0500 Spanish 0500-0700 English (Según monitoreo por Bernie O`Shea, DXLD) Y en su esquema oficial figuran por lo menos 2330/0000-0500: http://www.radiohc.cu/espanol/frecuencia/frecuencias-espanol.htm No he probado, pero hace algunas noches sí anote a RHC alrededor de las 00. 73, (Glenn to Julián via DXLD) Hola Glenn: no me queda duda que anoche era Radio UNAM, música clásica, programas informativos; incluso a las 0900 UT la escuché muy claro con música clásica. Hoy la he escuchado más bajo que ayer y hasta hace unos momentos se escuchaba RHC y en el fondo R. UNAM. En este momento cotejo la OM y la OC y efectivamente es R. UNAM pero menos intenso que ayer y con mucho ruido de fondo, Saludos, (Julián, Jan 20, ibid.) XEYU, 9599.4, with a respectable signal now between Australia 9590 and Canada 9610; Jan 21 at 1441 with violin/piano sonata; also Jan 20 at 1459 with Spanish announcement. But still that het from China 9600.0 until 1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MYANMAR. 5985.8, Radio Myanmar in English at 1445 tune in with a commentary about the State Constitution as discussed at the National Convention. ID at 1503 then into a few western pop tunes until usual News fanfare at 1514:30 and Time Check, News and weather at 1515 UT. At 1520 a couple of short items about Myanmar followed by several instrumental tunes from 1523 onwards. Tune out at 1538 UT. Good at tune in to bad at tune out, Jan 15/07 (Mick Delmage, at Don Moman`s antenna farm, AB, Jan 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. 7255, 5.1 0631, FRCN Abuja, Nigeria, regional program mentioning many times Abuja, at 0645 national again with this announcement: ``Good Morning, welcome back to the National Service of Radio Nigeria``. Good (Giampiero Bernardini, Italy, SW Bulletin via DXLD) Really 7255? Should be on 7275, with V. of Nigeria, when active, on 7255. Or is the VON transmitter on 7255 relaying this? (gh, DXLD) ** OMAN. 15140, Radio Sultanate of Oman; 1404-1431+, 13-Jan; Wide variety of English pop music + Macarena; birthday greetings; 6:21 & 6:30 TCs; chimes IS & ID at 1430 & into English news. SIO=343-, sig improved throughout, USB helps (Harold Frodge, Brighton MI DX- Pedition, MARE Tipsheet via DXLD) ** POLAND [non]. 6015, FRENCH GUIANA (presumed relay site), Polish Radio in English with news from around Poland Jan 15 at 1805 to s/off 1900 (w/out announcement). (Mick Delmage, at Don Moman`s antenna farm, AB, Jan 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Mick, Tnx for the logs. No, it`s Wertachtal, per DTK sked: 6015 1800-1900 27 300 kW 206 degrees 1234567 291006 250307 WER 250 PRW 73, (Glenn to Mick, via DXLD) Thanks. WOW, that was a killer signal from them at 1805 UT from Germany on 49m. 73 (Mick Delmage, AB, ibid.) Well, you have a lot more darkness (or near-darkness) over the polar regions than you would have from French Guiana at that hour. 73, (Glenn, ibid.) That is true, I just thought that band was rather dead and the K was moving up. We were just sitting around chatting as Nigel was packing up to head south and I spun through 49m and this killer signal was there. I guess the log was really helping out. Attached is a short 15 second sample. 73 (Mick Delmage, AB, ibid.) Yes, strong but with quite a bit of flutter on it (gh, DXLD) ** RUSSIA. 11915, Tatar Radio (Na Volne Tatarstana) via Samara, Russia site, as usual noted with distorted audio of the small band width satellite feed. Today Jan 21 at 0910-1000 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. Taldom, Kurovskaya, Balashikha --- Just found this news release from the Russian transmitter operator RTRS about accepting the "first" DRM transmitter at Taldom in last March: http://www.rtrn.ru/news_releases.asp?view=14813 It's a 250 kW unit if I'm not terribly misunderstanding the item, judging from the design a more recent Russian model, presumably representative for all 250 kW shortwave transmitters at Taldom. Looks like a Transradio DRM kit what they have added to this transmitter. The transmitter used for the first DRM trials at Taldom can be seen here: http://www.drmradio.co.uk/html/taldom.html But 100 kW PEP in SSB mode only? I would think this is rather one of the transmitters with 100 kW AM carrier power at Taldom? And here is a presentation of transmitter sites around Moscow: http://www.tvtower.ru/311_RCMO/ Pages with pictures: http://www.tvtower.ru/311_RCMO/rc7.shtml Radio centre 7 near Avsyunino, more widely known as Kurovskaya site, with more than a dozen shortwave transmitters and a 500 kW mediumwave transmitter for Radio Mayak on 549. http://www.tvtower.ru/311_RCMO/rc13.shtml Radio centre 13 at Balashikha, an eastern outskirt of Moscow. The left one picture shows the decoders for incoming MPEG audio circuits, some with 256 kbps, others with 384 kbps, some declared as stereo, others as two independent audio channels, whatever difference this may denote (probably joint stereo vs. linear stereo). Note in the other picture the obvious traces of removed equipment in the floor. It must be the places once occupied by shortwave transmitters they have covered here, and of course these shortwave transmitters were devoted to jamming. The FM equipment is new, but the lighting obviously remained from the past times, so the view is still authentic in some way. And an example for "ordinary" Russian FM/TV sites: http://www.tvtower.ru/312_TVMO/tv1.shtml (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I think that "ST" denotes a stereo mode, in which both channels share the displayed data rate, but do not need to have exactly half of the data rate for each channel. So, if in one channel is only low activity the other channel can use more of the data rate. Joint Stereo would mean that both channels are mixed to mono (M) and to a "side signal" (L-R=S), M and S are separately encoded and transmitted in the same stream. This is completely different and not used für data rates above 192 kbps. Often it is written als "JS". I've never seen a 256 kbps or higher signal with joint stereo. Then there are some "mixed modes" with joint stereo in some of the spectral bands and "linear stereo" in the others, as used by the German stations Radio Bremen and Deutschlandradio on the Astra Digital Radio (ADR). "2CH" could be a "true" stereo mode with exactly half of the stream bitrate for each channel. This is used in case of 2 independent signals in the stream, like original speech and translation in one broadcast or 2 completely different mono signals. Maybe Andreas can describe this more precisely (Christian Schubert, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. MAKING WAVES --- SEX ADVICE, ROCK STAR WISDOM AND PRISONER SONG CONTESTS ARE AMONG THE STRANGER OFFERINGS IN THE QUIRKY WORLD OF RUSSIAN TALK RADIO. By Anna Malpas, Published: January 19, 2007 Despite the impression given by some taxi drivers, Russian radio stations offer far more than best-forgotten hits of the 1980s. Talk shows allow listeners to consult lawyers, send messages to prisoners, ask questions about sex and even arrange dates with fellow radio fans. Stations range from the veteran Radio Mayak, whose signal has rung out across Russia for the last 62 years, to new kids on the block such as City FM, a Moscow station focusing on talk and local news that launched in 2006. Some of the most varied broadcasts go out on Radio Rossia, which dates back to 1990 and covers everything from alternative rock to musicals to politics. Govorit Moskva, or Moscow Talks, specializes in call-in shows, while Ekho Moskvy runs a fast- moving news service, and Radio Kultura went on the air in 2004 with a mix of classical music and arts programming. Breadth of coverage is where radio beats mainstream television, and a search through the schedules turns up some strange but inspired shows. . . http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/19/101.html (via Gerald T. Pollard, DXLD) ** SAUDI ARABIA. Hi all, The transmitter used by Riyadh on 11715 kHz, 1800-2300 UT for Holy Qur`an seems to have been fixed. Usually heard for months with terrible buzz-like noise, but today heard with good audio. I will see what happened with other transmissions plagued by that problem; I think one was in the 16-meter band. 73, (Moisés Knochen Montevideo, Uruguay, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 21460 was that way, but hasn`t been propagating for some weeks now (Glenn Hauser, OK, ibid.) Check these BUZZY ARS transmitter channels: 21495 ARS BSKSA Riyadh Arabic, 0900-1200, followed by 21505 kHz at 1200-1500 UT only. Then 21460 kHz at 1500-1600 UT, 11715 kHz 1700-2300 UT. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, ibid.) ** SOMALIA [and non]. 5517, 15.1 1720, I have to mention this one as I was certain that the airport at Mogadishu was closed. Here you could hear Mogadishu Aero best of all (also Tripoli and Nairobi was on the same frequency). Contacts with all the Boeings landing on the airport. Now you have to see if the infra structure in the country will pass my report for this air traffic station. BEFF (Björn Fransson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Jan 21, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. /CHINA, 6125, CRI English service via Noblejas Spain today Jan 21 at 2100-2200 UT. Much better audio signal channel of satellite feed today. S=9+20dB (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWEDEN. Today - 20 Jan 07 - EITHER a Teracom engineer fell asleep at 1000 and left 1179 running throughout the remainder of the day OR this is a test before all-day transmission is permanent with 600 kW. In any event - great to hear pure 55555 reception of SR P1 in winter daylight without QRM from Galbeni and Valencia. Ironic that this mistake/improvement occurs immediately after Denmark announces its imminent reductions at Kalundborg! 73's (Dan Goldfarb, Brentwood, England, DX LISTENING DIGEST) There is an item on the Swedish Radio website that probably explains the 24 hr operation on 1179 at the moment: ``Mellanvågssändaren igång igen Radio Swedens mellanvågssändare i Sölvesborg på 1179 kHz är nu åter i drift efter de långa avbrott som drabbade våra sändningar torsdag kväll och fredag morgon. På grund av fortsatt osäkerhet kring styrfunktionen kommer sändaren att vara igång dygnet runt under veckoslutet, dvs från fredag kväll 19/1 till måndag morgon 22/1. Förutom ordinarie Radio Sweden-program kan mellanvågslyssnarna under de här dagarna höra program från både P1 och P4." http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/International/nyhetssidor/artikel.asp?nyheter=1&ProgramID=2076&Artikel=1154569 Best if a native-Swedish speaker translates precisely, but I think it means they had interruptions on Thursday evening / Friday morning on 1179 and so will be on 24hrs Friday 19/1 evening to Monday 22/1 morning with R Sweden, P1 and P4 programmes. Currently has usual scheduled evening Radio Sweden programmes on 1179. (Alan Pennington, Caversham, UK, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) - the text reads: Radio Sweden's MW transmitter at Sölvesborg on 1179 kHz is again on the air after long breaks that hit our broadcasts Thursday evening and Friday morning. Because of continued fear about the control system, the transmitter will be on the air 24 hours from Friday evening Jan. 19 until Monday morning, Jan. 22. Besides the usual Radio Sweden programs listeners can also hear P1 and P4. 1179 in Copenhagen is of course a 'local station', still on the air while writing, 73, (Erik Køie, Denmark, 1151 UT Jan 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 1179 again on continuous operation today (Sun) - currently (11.50 UT) with SR P1 programmes. Thanks to Erik for translation of Swedish text. (Alan Pennington, Caversham, UK, ibid.) Usual schedule on 1179: 0430-0700 P1 weekdays (from 0455 holidays); 1545-1730 P1; 1800-1830 Sundays P4 sport; 1900-1930 Radio Sweden; 2100-2200 P1; 2200-2230 Radio Sweden; 2300-2330 Radio Sweden (according to SR website)] But on air at moment (1130 UT) with SR P1 programmes (Alan Pennington, UK, Jan 21, BDXC-UK via DXLD) I think they run the transmitter with only 300 kW already for some years now. Of course this does not help with the rather bad interference situation. Many pictures of the Sölvesborg station can be seen at http://hem.passagen.se/longwave/ ... specifically at http://hem.passagen.se/longwave/Solvesborg.html http://hem.passagen.se/longwave/Solvesborg2.html http://hem.passagen.se/longwave/Solvesborg3.html See also the big collection of Hörby pictures, with two pages featuring the current shortwave facilities and a photo of one transmitter "flying" into the transmitter hall: http://hem.passagen.se/longwave/Horby15.html http://hem.passagen.se/longwave/Horby16.html If I understand it correct they had a problem with PCB contamination of the old Thomson transmitter from 1973 when replacing it in 1993, and they sent the parts that could still be used to Fredrikstad from where they later went further away to Moyabi. http://hem.passagen.se/longwave/Horby11.html http://hem.passagen.se/longwave/Horby12.html (Kai Ludwig, Germany, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) All I hear on 1179 right now is daytime skywave from Romania, with some SAH as only indication of other signals being there as well. At the same time Kalundborg appears on 1062 as distinctive SAH and faint audio behind Praha (Country Radio). 243 is as always faint but in the clear (Kai Ludwig, 1118 UT Jan 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY. Çakirlar site --- Examining the new Voice of Turkey schedule, effective January 1st, reveals that the use of the Çakirlar site, some kilometres west of Ankara, is quite limited now. Only remaining transmissions are: 0700-0730: Albanian on 9765 0800-0900: Azeri on 11835 0800-1400: Turkish on 11955 and 15350 1000-1030: Romanian on 9560 1130-1200: Greek on 7295 1200-1230: Bulgarian on 7105 1230-1300: Albanian on 11910 1430-1500: Bosnian on 9525 1530-1600: Greek on 6185 1600-1630: Tatar on 6140 1630-2200: Turkish on 6120 The Çakirlar transmitters are apparently in a bad shape, as already discussed here a couple of times. Right now 15350 is not so severely undermodulated as it is typical for Çakirlar transmissions for more than five years now, but still quite heavily distorted and no pleasure to listen to. I guess Çakirlar will go dark entirely sooner or later. http://www.tdp.info suggests that the Çakirlar plant opened in 1970, replacing modest shortwave facilities on the near-by Etimesgut longwave site (still active on 198). A second shortwave site, now doing most of TRT's shortwave transmissions, opened in 1992 at the village of Emirler, 40 km south of Ankara. Note that there are more than a dozen Emirlers in Turkey, so it's necessary to specify the location of this plant further (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Note: as far as I can tell, the I in Çakirlar is not supposed to have a dot, but this is inconvenient to remove on most fonts. Just remember that when you are handwriting it. Emirler, OTOH, does have a dot, whew (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. "End Game" [Moderator note: This posting is included in full mainly because of the interesting and important issues of listener accountability it raises at the end of the article. How woeful it is that major shortwave stations also seem to take so little account of listeners before axing popular programmes and services on the airwaves!] The Sunday Times January 21, 2007 "RADIO WAVES: PAUL DONOVAN: END GAME" http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2101-2552369,00.html Your Hundred Best Tunes ends tonight. Long before Classic FM was even dreamt of, it was busy popularising Bizet's Pearl Fishers, Pachelbel's Canon and Verdi's Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves. But Radio 2's bosses - if not all its listeners - now regard it as past its sell-by date. Sheridan Morley's Melodies for You has already been axed (last month, very quietly). Replacing these shows from next Sunday is two hours of Alan Titchmarsh, who even now will be getting used to cheap jokes about turning over old sods and uprooting hardy annuals. In addition, Pick of the Pops gets an extra half-hour. Plenty of people will welcome these changes. The audience for Your Hundred Best Tunes has fallen from 570,000 in 2002 - when its creator, Alan Keith, was still hosting it in that uniquely upholstered voice, reminiscent of Bakelite and wing collars - to 390,000. Its radio listening share between 9 and 10 pm has dropped from 19% then to 13%. The presenter, Richard Baker, a former naval officer, is a little brisk. Others, however, are outraged. On BBC message boards, they mourn the loss of a serene Sunday-evening institution that a former archbishop's wife (Mrs Runcie) and the late Earl Spencer, Princess Diana's father, once presented as holiday reliefs. They believe it will result in less light music on the network, and regard this as particularly worrying given that Radio 3 will next month abolish its only series dedicated to light music - Brian Kay on Thursdays at 4 pm. (That move will certainly disenfranchise listeners, and seems quixotic indeed in view of the resurgence of light music on labels such as Naxos, Guild, Hyperion and Chandos.) In reply, Radio 2 says that light classical music will continue to have a home on the network - on Friday Night Is Music Night, on Titchmarsh's new show and others. The key question is not whether one approves or dis-approves of this particular decision by Radio 2's controller, Lesley Douglas, a controversial but astute manager who has already brought in Jonathan Ross, Chris Evans, Russell Brand and Dermot O'Leary. The question is whether any BBC radio programme controller, not just her, should have the power to make sweeping changes without any public consultation. In the time I have been writing about radio here, I have seen them turn Radio 1 from mainstream to yoof and Radio 2 from comforting to trendy, and both the abolition of children's programmes on Radio 4 and their restoration. Last year, Radio 3 ended its only series for children (Making Tracks), apart from a Boxing Day special, and again so quietly that nobody noticed. Next month, it cuts live music for the first time in its history. Listeners get a chance to comment on this only after the decisions are made, unless there is a leak from the sort of concerned whistleblower the BBC champions in Whitehall, but hypocritically condemns in its own ranks. If the new BBC trust really wants to show that it is more responsive than the BBC governors, it will reverse that with its new public consultation exercise, launched last week. Programme controllers spend tens of millions of pounds of our money every year: why should we not get an opportunity to affect crucial decisions before they are made, rather than afterwards, when it is already too late? (via Mike Terry, BDXC-UK via DXLD) Once again, Mr Donovan should know better, and check his facts. The new show is actually to be called "Alan Titchmarsh with Melodies for You", suggesting it will follow fairly faithfully the format of the old show which therefore has NOT been axed. This has happened in the past, but maybe the placing of the presenter's name first, rather than the programme name- I can remember when it was "Melodies for you with Eric Robinson"!- makes it look more radical. As to YHBT, I used to love the show even as a boy, but it had become very much like Melodies for You under Richard Baker anyway (who ironically, presented that show originally!) , and had never been the same since Alan Keith died just before he was to announce his retirement. Moving into its slot is actually Russell Davies, from his current afternoon home on two, who is not mentioned above (Mark Savage, BDXC-UK moderator, via DXLD) ** U S A. FROM THE PANHANDLE: NOT SO LUCKY SHAMROCK FM --- Anyone remember the incessant posts here a couple of years back about KBKH ("Monster FM") in Shamrock? The owner claimed that a band of locals was trying to force him out of business and said that someone had stolen equipment from him. He made a public appeal help in his fight to keep the station. An interesting story, but a lot of things just didn't add up. Well, the FCC held hearings about the station's license renewal following informal objections and all kinds of charges and counter-charges a few months back. And here's what you could call the final chapter in the story, straight from the FCC: http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=1321 (JD, Jan 17, radio-info.com TX board via DXLD) You'll note that the address for the station owner happens to be a state prison. I have no idea how this situation came to be, but being convicted of a felony is a good way to get out of the broadcasting business, or at very least, it ruins your ability to hold a license (Chuck, ibid.) Be sure to read the rest of the comments in this thread: http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,60822.0.html (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Local 2nd and 3rd Harmonic --- I'm hearing my local on 1450, WCTC, with harmonics on 2900 and 4350. The tower is about 5 miles away. Should I be hearing their harmonics at that distance? Would they appreciate a note from me about this, or not? Thanks (Dave Hochfelder, Highland Park, NJ, Drake R8B, Quantum Phaser, Kiwa Loop, Quantum QX Pro Loop, copper pipe loop, and CB whip, Jan 20, IRCA via DXLD) That`s perhaps a bit too far, judging from what I hear of local 1 kW stations here which are less than 5 miles away. Have these harmonics only recently appeared? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) It wouldn't be unusual to hear them at that distance, however if you've checked those frequencies previously with similar equipment and not heard them, it might by worthwhile to let them know (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA (360' ASL), IRCA via DXLD) In this particular case, if these harmonics weren't present before, I'd definitely let them know. "Smitty", a.k.a. Milford Smith, is Greater Media's corporate engineer, and would definitely want to be made aware of this (Scott Fybush, ibid.) My recollection is that harmonics must be down 40 dB from the carrier. That's .1 Watt for WCTC. You didn't say how strong a signal you are receiving - if it's very strong it's surely more than .1 Watt and deserves a mention. If it's a wispy DX level signal, they may be within legal limits and wouldn't appreciate a false alarm. If the 40 dB rule has changed since I last had to know these things, I'm sure one of our broadcast engineers will speak up right away (Chuck Hutton, ibid.) The last time I had a spectrum test run at a client, I think the figure was -73db. It is measured about a kilometer away from the site. If the signal is -73db down from the fundamental, then it's good. I might be wrong on the figure, but I think it's more than 40db. What I would do on that station is make sure that the harmonics are heard at other locations. Sometimes they are locally generated by things like aluminum downspouts that have dirty of corroded junctions that form defacto diodes (Craig Healy, Providence, RI, ibid.) Normally those kinds of things produce either images or mixing products. The easy way to tell is if the null on the harmonic matches the station null - then it's generated from the transmitting facilities (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA, ibid.) Craig: You're very close (and a lot closer than I was), but it's actually a little more complicated than that. Here's a cut and paste from an FCC document at http://www.fcc.gov/eb/Orders/2003/DA-03-1033A1.html --- Section 73.44(b) of the Rules requires that the emissions of an AM station that are removed by more than 75 kHz from the carrier be attenuated at least 43 + 10 Log (Power in watts) or 80 dB below the unmodulated carrier level, whichever is the lesser attenuation. So our 1 kW station on 1450 ought to be 73 dB down, or 50 microwatts. Sounds like Dave has a good reason to call them - there's no way they are within spec (Chuck Hutton, IRCA) ** U S A. Station News --- 1660, WDAF, KS, Kansas City. These heritage calls have apparently returned to the Kansas City AM dial! The former ``Classical KXTR`` has changed to these calls, while keeping the same format. Internet postings have said so, the station’s website reflects it, and J.E. Lewis confirms that the station is using WDAF on air. However, as of Friday evening 1/19 as this is being written, the FCC database still shows it as KXTR, perhaps because in this Holiday week the FCC is a little behind (Bill Dvorak, WI, NRC DDXD West, Jan 29 via DXLD) ** U S A. Two major classical music orgies coming up on WHRB Harvard, webcasting via http://www.whrb.org – UT times and dates here: JEAN SIBELIUS Sun Jan 21 1730-0500 Mon Jan 22 Mon Jan 22 1100-0300 Tue Jan 23 Tue Jan 23 1100-0300 Wed Jan 24 Wed Jan 24 1100-0300 Thu Jan 25 EDVARD GRIEG Thu Jan 25 1600-0300 Fri Jan 26 Fri Jan 26 1700-0300 Sat Jan 27 Sat Jan 27 2300-0300 Sun Jan 28 Full playlists (UT -5): http://www.whrb.org/pg/JanFeb2007.html Also check out the other remaining orgies interspersed thru Jan 29 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Broadcast language standards --- A letter from the FCC. I received an email from the FCC today, more than EIGHT months after I emailed them. To be honest, I do not really object to swear words on the radio and have played a few tracks on the air that contain explicit language (after 10 PM). However, following the "fuss" the FCC made about the Janet Jackson affair, I thought I would see how the FCC reacts to general complaints versus right-wing orchestrated complaints. I emailed the FCC about two separate issues. One the 'F-Word" being broadcast during the 10 PM news on a right-wing TV network, and other case where the TV host mouthed the F-word on camera. The FCC never did respond about my first complaint, but here is what they said about the April 5th MSNBC issue; NBC never responded. I "snipped" some aspects of the correspondence that are not relevant (Andy O`Brien, NY, Jan 18, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Beverly Stancil" To: "Andrew J. O'Brien" Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 5:42 PM Subject: RE: Imus : Swearing ... Dear Consumer: Thank you for contacting the Federal Communications Commission to share your concerns about program material. It is against federal law to air obscene programming at any time. It is also against federal law to air indecent or profane programming during certain hours. The Commission is charged with enforcing the law that governs these types of broadcasts. Your views and concerns about program material are important to us. We will review what you have submitted carefully to determine whether it contains sufficient information to suggest that there has been a violation of the obscenity, indecency or profanity laws. Further information is available on the Commission's web site at http://www.fcc.gov/eb/oip/process.html Again, thank you for contacting us about this important issue. Federal Communications Commission Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau Consumer Inquiries & Complaints Division Telephone Number: 1-888-225-5322 ________________________________ Subject: Imus : Swearing and comments about Katie Couric snip... Additionally, Don Imus clearly mouth the words "shut the fuck up" while on camera this morning. He was apparently distracted by someone making noise in the background. At this time frame, on a low tier cable network, the language is not acceptable. snip (Andy O`Brien, NY, April 5, 2006, to NBC Today and Imus, via DXLD) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. ARGELIA, 6458, Radio Nacional Saharaui, 1825- 1830, escuchada el 19 de Enero en idioma árabe a locutor con comentarios, segmento musical y locutor con cuña de identificación, SINPO 34333 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia) España, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) But RASD noted playing usual Saharan guitar music and ID by female around 2140 UT on 6485.15 kHz Jan 19. Not 6458! Signal strength lower than former 7425 / 7460; S=7 on AOR 7030 / E1 Radio, on Sony ICF 2010 3-4 diodes luminous. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, ibid.) Good move for them, Wolfy. Thanks to your log I went to 6485 and RASD is there in their usual Spanish at 2233. I have been tuning the past few days 6458 and heard nothing but a jammer that I (got to be f.....up) don't know why nobody seems to notice, and I know is a jammer. Didn't you and José Miguel have my same impression of a better signal from 7460? 73s (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, ibid.) Saludos Raúl y Wolfgang, parece evidente que la RAS comienza en 6458 y luego cambia a 6485, desconozco el motivo, a muy tempranas horas de la tarde comienza emisión en 6458, señal pobre y con mucho ruido, quizás para evitar alguna interferencia de emisora utilitaria o quizás jammer Marroquí cambia a 6485, entonces se aprecia una mejoría en la calidad de la señal, sin embargo intentarlo en 7460 parece misión imposible, esa frecuencia sufre el terrible ruido de una emisión en DRM. Veremos pues cual va a ser la tactica de los proximos días de ésta emisora. 73 (José Miguel Romero, Spain, ibid.) [Later:] Por cierto cuando son las 0700 comienza emisión la RASD en 6458 con el Himno Nacional y canto del Corán, SINPO 34343 (José Miguel Romero, Spain, Jan 20, ibid.) 6484.6, 19.1 2300, Radio Nac de la RASD, Rabouni or whatever the name is, quite strong. For a while I thought it was a South American station at this time, But the language said something else. Arabic. S3-4. BEFF (Björn Fransson, Sweden, SW Bulletin Jan 21, translated by editor Thomas Nilsson for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ARGELIA, 6458, Radio Nacional Saharaui, 1825-1830, escuchada el 21 de enero en árabe a locutora con comentarios y emisión de música folklórica local, SINPO 23232 (José Miguel Romero, Burjasot (Valencia) España, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thanks Glenn for the tremendous work you carry out for the benefit of DX listeners around the world. 73 from (Ullmar Qvick in Norrköping, Sweden, Jan 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ CARIBBEAN RADIO DATABASE [Re 7-008:] The XLS database is okay, IF, you only want to know one quarter of the FM radio stations in the Caribbean. The future edition of "Emisoras de FM" (release date unknown), has been expanded to include 24 Caribbean nations and has all known FM radio stations, derived from current official government lists. This includes actual call letters/radio station names and power of each radio station. BTW, the governments of Costa Rica and Honduras (Central America) just released their latest database of fm radio stations, with major changes in each country. Those governments were nice enough to include me on their email list to receive their PDF files. It appears Honduras did a major overhaul of their call letter assignments, which will be in the new edition of "Emisoras de FM". Costa Rica also has several changes. FYI (Jim Thomas - wdx0fbu Milliken, CO - 40 mi N of Denver, WTFDA via DXLD) HAM RADIO'S TECHNICAL CULTURE (Hardcover) by Kristen Haring Just bought the book; Have given it a quick flip through. Will do a thorough read and pass along my sentiments. In my brief, in-book store scan, I found the book to be amusing, compelling and somewhat poignant. I think the author, a gal, had a dad who was an Amateur and she totally pegs the social-psychological aspects of the hobby in the 60's and 70's - and how, in some ways, we Amateurs and radio hobbyists are the grandfathers(mothers) and greatfathers(mothers) of this 21- century geek generation. A good read I believe it will be, yes! (Colin Newell - in Victoria B.C. Canada, Creator of http://www.coffeecrew.com | http://www.dxer.ca | IRCA via DXLD) Yes, please give us a review! As a teen in the 1950s-1960s, I dabbled in DX, amateur radio, "hi-fi" as it was then called . . . and today I am a science writer & book developer w/a deep interest in technology, history. And this book is from MIT Press, which I know well-a classy publisher. So I eagerly await your review. In meantime, others might want more info on the book . . . this from amazon (be sure to scoop up the WHOLE link): http://www.amazon.com/Radios-Technical-Culture-Inside-Technology/dp/0262083558/sr=1-1/qid=1168909314/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-1274464-3253616?ie=UTF8&s=books And btw be sure to post your review on amazon! No amazon customer has reviewed it yet . . . book release date was 12/1/06 (Fred Schroyer, Freelance Science Writer / Editorial Consultant, Waynesburg PA, ibid.) Hi Colin and IRCA'ers, Yes, Kristen Haring's book is great at capturing the social aspects of ham radio as a hobby, its relation to family life, etc. I was on a prize committee sponsored by the IEEE and we awarded her the prize for an article based on the book. I also read her dissertation that the book is based on. As an outsider, I think she "gets" the radio hobby in ways we might not. A good supplement to "200 Meters and Down." Also, I recommend Susan Douglas's "Listening In." It's a great book dealing with radio from the listener's perspective, and she talks a lot about hams and broadcast DXers as being crucial to the development of the medium. She understands the thrill of DXing (Dave Hochfelder, Highland Park, NJ, ibid.) Re: Internet censorship of DXing.info site: Google or Goggles? ``DXing.info has been deleted from the Google database. I have no idea why. As many of you know, DXing.info has been number two in results when you google "DXing" - but now it doesn't appear in the search results at all.`` At present it is in the German version the seventh reference at http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=dxing&meta= Date specified as Jan 19 2007, whatever this means (the date when their bot visited and registered the site)? And when searching for "lemmenjoki dx" the twelfth reference http://www.google.de/search?q=lemmenjoki+dx&hl=de&lr=&start=10&sa=N brings up the most recent report, with the remark that if after the shut-down of 1314 and 963 now only all those mediumwave stations in the Americas and Asia would be turned off. . . (or something like that, uh?) Glenn commented in DXLD 7-008: "Thank goodness worldofradio.com couldn`t care less whether Google notices us (it certainly does)" And various DXLD editions appear prominently in the search results when researching certain matters about shortwave broadcasting. Quite frequently I find them to be the only useful references at all. Most recent example: "cakirlar trt" --- well, this time DXLD 6-188 appears "only" as # 29 (of 416). "cakirlar radio": # 16 (of 428) is GHDX 99- 21. And these are not *that* specific enquiries (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Indeed, dxing.info is also back in the international version of Google. Mika contacted me last week and wanted me to run this story about "censorship" in the Media Network Weblog, but I first wanted to do some proper research and told him it was more likely to be human error or a technical problem. It seems I was right (Andy Sennitt, Jan 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST When I was reading Ydun Ritz here website today there I found a message that not everything can be found via this surge [sic] engine. Please read the next story on this link and give some comments on this stupid idea from Google. http://www.lunchoverip.com/2007/01/google_killed_t.html Greetz (Johan JMn, Jan 17, BDX via DXLD) Apparently the problem has been solved. Google gives 449,000 matches on dxing now (Ary Boender, Jan 20, BDX via DXLD) But dxing.info? Fortunately, DXing.info has again been included in the Google index. I think Google deserves a thank you for reacting to the issue, eventually. However, several interesting issues remain. The only reaction that I have received from Google (presumably) is a comment on the above-mentioned blog, claiming to be from Vanessa Fox, product manager for Google Webmaster Central, promising to look into the matter, and asking me to file a reinclusion request in webmaster tools. This post didn't contain any contact information for me to follow-up. I didn't file a reinclusion request, but a day later, DXing.info had been crawled by Google and added in the index. Unfortunately, DXing.info does not score as high in search results as it used to. This makes me wonder whether the site is (still) under some untold penalty. I have tried to search for Google comments on issues related to indexing, penalties and reinclusion. Among other sites, I browsed the blog of Matt Cutts, which included information about how Google informs webmasters of penalties: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/notifying-webmasters-of-penalties/ Cutts explains that obvious spammers are not informed when they are penalized (DXing.info regarded as one of them? Anyone who has ever used this website knows that DXing.info is not in the business of spamming). Of the rest, some are notified by email. Also, Google informs via its webmaster tools - a service which I enrolled in, after learning that DXing.info had been deleted from Google's index. Here's a quote from the blog of Cutts: Quote: Q: Okay, okay, I understand that not everyone will be notified of penalties, and that it’s a test. What will it look like if I do have a spam penalty? A: In the webmaster console, once you verify a site, click on the tab labeled “Diagnostic” and one of the page sections is called “Indexing summary.” The specific text will say No pages from your site are currently included in Google’s index due to violations of the webmaster guidelines. Please review our webmaster guidelines and modify your site so that it meets those guidelines. Once your site meets our guidelines, you can request reinclusion and we’ll evaluate your site. [?] Submit a reinclusion request At least in my case, the indexing summary only used to indicate that DXing.info is not indexed - and now it says that the site has been indexed. So this tool provided no clue to the reason of delisting. I have received a bunch of emails suggesting various reasons and remedies. I am taking some into consideration, and I may need to implement some changes with the website content and design to prevent this nightmare from occurring again. Not all of them will please the users, unfortunately, but more about that later. The pagerank (6) DXing.info used to have seems to be history. Who knows if this will return to previous levels over time. Also, only a small part of the website seems to be indexed. Some 40+ pages can now be found out of the hundreds of pages that there are on the site. Call me paranoid, but I couldn't help noticing that there are some exclusive articles that have not been indexed, such as "Radio for the Future of Iraq" at http://www.dxing.info/profiles/clandestine_future.dx --- yes, I admit, an old article, and even I can't imagine that anyone would still want to keep it unpublished. And as far as the Google Directory is concerned, as Jonathan Watson points out in another thread, DXing.info is again listed, but under a name that has been history for years. I have tried to have this corrected by writing several emails since 2002, but, as you can see, correcting mistakes with Google is not easy. Naturally, I still look forward to being able to communicate with Google concerning this incident - if I only knew how - on issues like why (Mika Mäkelkäinen, Jan 21, dxing.info via DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING DRM: see GUIANA FRENCH; RUSSIA; WESTERN SAHARA ++++++++++++++++++++ RADIO WORLD SAYS PORTABLE HD RADIOS URGENTLY NEEDED "True dat," as those zany young people like to say, but the problems of power consumption in DSP-intensive circuits are big ones and they won't be easy to solve: http://www.radioworld.com/pages/s.0044/t.774.html This situation is familiar to anyone using a portable XM receiver. My Delphi "SkyFi" receiver only lasts about eight hours on a set of fresh alkalines! DRM portable receivers will also face this problem (Harry Helms W5HLH, Smithville, TX, http://topsecrettourism.com ABDX via DXLD) My MyFi receiver will only do 4 hours of XM before giving out. I am looking for a portable that will run 24 hours on a charge. If they put enough battery in the receiver, it can be done. The battery doesn't even need to be too massive if they use LiOn rechargeables. The big thing is that if you can't get HD at night on MW, its not even worth the time to put it on the radio. If you are expecting better sound than FM, I don't know if too many people will be able to tell the difference (Kevin Redding, AZ, ibid.) HD RADIO PERCEPTUAL STUDY - AWARENESS & INTEREST [Re: 7-008] The survey is flawed, because question 2 asks, "Do You know what HD or High Definition Radio is or what it does?" There is no such thing as "High Definition Radio." The company conducting the survey has possibly tainted its results by assuming that "HD" means "High Definition" and implying such on the survey. That iBiquity calls it "HD Radio" without telling us what the HD stands for (and thus encouraging people to imagine that it stands for "High Definition") is a psychological ploy by them to make people think more highly of the system than they ought. -- (Mesa Mike, N6KUY, WDX6O, Los Alamos, New Mexico (DM65uv), NRC-AM via DXLD) Interesting study. I am 55 and own one (Boston Acoustics HD Receptor). I keep it in my office at work. The FM side is very good, although the signal strength has to be pretty good to ensure an adequate HD reception. I am using an outside discone antenna with the Receptor that is split through a Stridesburg four-way active splitter. I receive the Philly area FM IBOC's very well, but some of the suburban FM stations' IBOC, like Reading and Allentown, are marginal - even though their analog signals are good. The AM, on the other hand, still has me very concerned. The daytime dial in our area is becoming a real mess. It is now nigh to impossible to listen to anything between 590 and 730 around here. With WIP 610, WWJZ 640, WFAN 660, and WOR 710 all running IBOC, all you hear is hiss between the channels. And now that WWDB 860 has turned on the IBOC, and it is impossible to listen to WCBS 880 in New York, even though I am well within their 0.5 protected contour because of the IBOC noise. Same with WFAN (although I can receive their IBOC hash on 670 with no problem): WWJZ's IBOC products make WFAN impossible to listen to --- again even though I am within their 0.5 mV/m contour. All of this leads me to question - as I have questioned in the past - if AM IBOC will have the positive long term effect that it has been touted as having. Will it be the savior of AM? I fear that the exact opposite will be the case. With the AM band becoming increasingly noisy from all of the IBOC hash, I fear that it will be the final nail in the coffin before its potential benefits can be realized. I'm sure that Tom Ray and other engineers may disagree with this assessment, and I do hope that I am wrong, but just simple listening tests lead me to believe as I do. 73, (Rene' F. Tetro, Chief Engineer, Salem Communications - Philadelphia, WNTP-AM / WFIL-AM, ibid.) Maybe the survey should have asked "How many of you are willing to buy and put up an outside antenna for HD radio"? Presuming they were not asking DX'ers of course. And I doubt they were. They also did not ask "Would like to hear a wacky morning show actually kill a listener with a stupid how much water can you drink stunt, in sparkling HD clarity"? (Brock Whaley, GA, ibid.) Why would they ? Only DX'ers have any interest in hearing stations more than 50 miles away. Now of course they're not advertising that limitation either. I beg to differ. I have heard ads for both stations and radios which do in fact include that item. That is also in fact what iBiquity uses. The fact that in radio terms those words may be either meaningless or irrelevant or both is a separate issue (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA, ibid.) iBiquity never, EVER uses the phrase "High Definition" in reference to its HD radio. Check its websites and press releases if you don't believe me! Maybe some radio stations do, and some receiver manufacturers do, but it's because they've assumed that that's what the "HD" means. iBiquity isn't in any hurry to correct them, though. I have seen some reports that iBiquity, when pressed, says the HD means Hybrid Digital. I wonder what it'll mean when the system goes 100% digital (Mesa Mike, N6KUY, WDX6O, Los Alamos, New Mexico, ibid.) Rene, Thanks for the info. Especially on the FM side. I had wondered if the FM signal was much better on IBOC. I guess with Portland & Seattle, no use wondering anymore if I could get an FM IBOC signal out here. The signals are strong enough in analog, from Seattle, but not that strong! I will agree, that the more AM stations go IBOC, the more the dial will be less desirable to the average listener with their clock radio, auto radio, etc. If we DXers have trouble getting through the hash, the average listener does have a prayer. With IPOD, satellite radio, cassette & CD decks, people will be listening to other things. We may be listening to the demise of AM radio in the near future. So sad too. 73, (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) What's that? Do I hear the refrain of "TEOTWAWKI"? (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA, ibid.) Hi Everyone, I thought I might weigh in with my 2 cents here. I recently purchased a Sangean HDT-1 HD Tuner from Universal. I've put this unit up side by side against my modified Yamaha T-85 and on analog signals the results were pretty close with the T-85 coming out on top only because the selectivity was somewhat worse on the Sangean (which interestingly enough doesn't seem to have an filters inside, just a DSP unit --- in fact the whole innards could be squeezed into a RS Pro 2036 Scanner). I live about 20 miles south downtown and Boston. HD FM signals from Boston stations decode fine (with my outdoor antenna)with the Sangean while Providence stations (about 45 miles or so) away are in and out (and not there at all with the provided indoor dipole). Once in a while stations beyond 50 miles that pop up with the calls but no HD audio at all. The MW section is a joke. WBZ (7 miles from me) decodes fine while the two other local HD MW stations decode as long as the long wire is attached; if not then both have a lot of trouble with the supplied little loop that is provided with the unit. Both of these stations are between 10 and 20 miles from me. I can see it now --- every community is going to look like 1955 with an FM antenna on the roof, but also a longwire in their back yard (Keith McGinnis, Hingham MA, ibid.) Per today's Inquirer, WHAT 1340 will keep its call letters and go to what they call "alternative music" even though they realize the younger audience doesn't listen much to AM radio. Says they do like that sort of music anyway. And oh yes, WHAT will soon go to "HD" so as to "improve the sound quality". Oh well, there goes the neighborhood! The lower half of the band is already screwed up here in the Philly area so I guess it is now time to screw up the upper end - keep WDAS company (Ben Dangerfield, Wallingford, PA, Jan 19, ibid.) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ HELP KEEP LORAN-C (100 KHZ LF RADIONAVIGATION) ON THE AIR http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/E6-22421.htm Regards, (Ben Mesander, UDXF yg via DXLD) Is there a need for a backup-system to GPS or not? Is there something else useful you can place on that radio-spectrum? After all. This system costs about 1 to 2 dollar per US citizen, which is (AFAIK) much less then the cost of the GPS-system. At that cost, keeping it just as a backup-system (until the other satellite navigation systems are operational) would be quite a sane decision. Cheerio! (Kr. Bonne, ibid.) I suggest that all read the very recent news describing the ability of the PRC government to destroy orbiting satellites (including GPS satellites). Any government that will "place all their eggs in one basket" and rely on satellites for navigation, without keeping a ground based backup in operation, is short-sighted and irresponsible. If the satellites became unserviceable for any reason, it would be a lengthy process to replace them. I believe the GPS constellation of 24 (I think) has just two spares in orbit (Bob Foxworth, FL, ibid.) Think what you want, but in my opinion what the PRC can do over their own airspace is of no consequence to any decision involving maintenance of LORAN-C. They rely on GPS just as much as any other industrialized nation, but perhaps that has not occurred to anyone putting the vulnerability argument out there. Additionally, in order to make LORAN-C actually useful by any modern navigation standard, it would require a very expensive upgrade for timing systems that use GPS in order to function. It would be easy to put LORAN-C back on the air, in the event your book "How to find your old fishing holes after nuclear war" ever gets written (Jack Painter, ibid.) Sure Ben, I'll suggest that the millions of dollars it cost the taxpayers to keep the antiquated fishing-spot-finder system in operation just be assigned to the cost of purchasing a salt water fishing license. Or, you could just use the savings from avoiding those $500 increases in fishing licenses to just go buy yourself a DGPS Navigation system! The FAA isn't willing to pay for it. The DOT isn't willing to pay for it. And the USCG isn't going to pay for it. Nobody wants it except a few fishermen and General Aviation operators, so if you guys want it, I suggest you plan to pay for it. Regards, (Jack Painter, Jan 18, ibid.) Loran is obsolete. When I was a USCG radio operator in NYC, the very first distress call I got was from someone using Loran. It's a pain in the ass to find Loran coordinates on a chart. And that was the ONLY time I heard anyone using Loran. It's a waste of time and money (Bob/WF3H, ibid.) The Chinese now have the capability to render GPS useless. Anyone with a very small transmitter can render GPS useless over a reasonable sized area. LORAN transmitters are a defendable entity. GPS satellites are not. When the S*** hits the fan, LORAN may be the only way to quickly get an accurate position fix. I served 22 years in the submarine force as a navigation electronics technician. The fix source that we preferred, for accuracy and ease of getting the fix, was satellite. But, it was well known that we would be denied this fix source in times of war. Or next preferred fix source was LORAN-C. This took some more time and some skill and some knowledge of the system to make it work properly. GPS requires no skill, fits very well into today`s instant gratification society. LORAN-C required some skill, does not go over very well today, takes too much time away from the games. We also had another fix source that I cannot discuss. But it did not require any mast exposure to use. This was our "Doomsday" fix source and it could not be destroyed by enemy action. As you can clearly see, GPS is indeed accurate and quick, but it is very easily denied to those that falsely rely on it as a dependable fix source. If we allow LORAN-C to be turned off, what is left?????? If you can establish a reliable and defendable [sic] fix source that is at least as accurate as LORAN-C, I would concede my vote to shut it down, until that fix source is in place, it is utter stupidity to shut down LORAN-C. 73 (Glenn Little, WB4UIV, ETCS(SS) Retired, ibid.) RF NOISE AND OTH RADAR Hi Glenn, There's always plenty of material of interest in your World of Radio programmes, even though I am not an active DX-er or amateur radio enthusiast. I particularly enjoyed your programme which was broadcast on WorldFM in Tawa, New Zealand this afternoon. [Extra 74] The increasing noise caused by switched mode PSU's is something I was aware of, but I hadn't considered how the wide-spread use of energy- saving bulbs was adding to the problem. An awkward case of causing a problem whilst trying to reduce energy consumption. The matter of over-the-horizon radar systems reminded me of the trouble we used to have with such systems back in the early 1980s. At the time, I was a radio operator on ship-to-shore and shore-to-shore services in the Overseas Radio Telephone Terminal ("Radphones" as we were known) located in Wellington, New Zealand. The noise generated by the OTH radar sounded very much like machinegun fire (or even a mechanical chaff mill) and it could fire up for 2 minutes or several hours at a time, completely drowning out HF radio circuits at times. When working a vessel in the northern hemisphere, we had to keep a close monitor on the circuits and take them down and wait for the OTH radar to cease or, if it persisted, begin looking for a less noisy channel for a QSY. There was no way of knowing whether the OTH radar burst would be long or short, and its random bursts made QSY's a nightmare as the new channel might be selected during a quiet period only to find it useless after we'd QSO'd and the radar resumed. It was one of the things we lived with during the Cold War days, and I had assumed that such activity was long behind us. As your programme mentioned, it's now a problem for DX-ers, broadcasters and radio enthusiasts, but less of an issue for commercial radio-telephone communications. Keep the programmes coming. -- For information on Earthquakes, Eruptions, History and Weather for New Zealand and nearby in the South Pacific visit http://www.wildland.biz Regards, (Ken Morse, New Zealand, Jan 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) HF FOR TECHS ON FRIDAY, FEB. 23 Of interest to the Hams on-list: I just read that indications are that the FCC's Report & Order on Morse Code will likely be published in The Federal Register on Wednesday, January 24. That means the 30-day clock starts ticking at that time, and the change would go into effect on Friday, February 23, 2007. This means two things, of course. On that Friday, current No-Coders will immediately get access to HF privileges that "Tech Pluses" have now. That includes CW privileges on 80, 40, and 15 meters, and more comprehensive privileges on 10 meters allowing RTTY, data and SSB (from 28300 to 28500). It also means that on that Friday, license holders may upgrade to General or Extra without passing Element 1. Sadly, these new HF hams are coming on-line when 10 meters (the only HF band Techs get with phone privileges) is at its most dead. 10 meters has been nearly dead, of late, as F2 is virtually non-existent here at Solar Minima, and sporadic-E won't crank up until April or May. Hopefully, these new hams will not visit the band, find it dead, and never return (Peter Baskind, J.D., LL.M., N4LI, Germantown, TN/EM55, 901-624-5295, WTFDA via DXLD) If that`s the case, they must not know the first thing about propagation, sunspot cycles (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ Leonid Trains Highlights 1998 - 2006 NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE Hi Everyone, My FM Tuner recordings of persistent trains (forward scatter) during the Leonids meteor shower are now available online for free download. Note that these mp3s are encoded at 320k bitrate for high quality, so the files are quite large (usually 6-11 mb). I recommend broadband internet access for these. http://www.owdjim.gen.nz/chris/radio/DXSoundBites/leonids/andromeda.ph p It will give you an Australian perspective of the Leonids : ) Highlights are from 1998 to 2006. I hope you will really enjoy these. Some are even in STEREO. Some trains even have a dopple whistle at the start. The Leonids of 2001 produced quite a few of these. HeHe - I hope you like classical music! I used a distant ABC Classic FM transmitter for monitoring. In some cases I ran 2 or 3 tuners in parallel to capture the trains on more than one frequency. Please email me privately for any comments. Much Thanks to Chris Mackerell in New Zealand for hosting these (Geoff Wolfe - Bombala, NSW Australia, ICDX, via Curtis Sadowski, WTFDA via DXLD) ###