DX LISTENING DIGEST 7-023, February 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 1347 Thu 1430 WRMI 7385 Fri 1130 KAIJ 5755 [NEW] Fri 2000 KAIJ 9480 [NEW] Fri 2130 WWCR 7465 Sat 1330 WRMI 7385 Sat 1730 WWCR3 12160 Sat 2230 WRMI 9955 Sun 0330 WWCR3 5070 Sun 0730 WWCR1 3215 Sun 0900 WRMI 9955 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 NOTE: this week, an mp3 high version of WORLD OF RADIO 1347 for broadcasters only should be accessed at http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1347.mp3 DX/SWL/MEDIA PROGRAMS Feb 20: http://www.worldofradio.com/dxpgms.html ** ALBANIA. Usual spurious signals of Cerrik-ALB 0700-0900 UT, CRI on nominal 11785/11855, and spurs symmetrical 11715/11925 both (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, Feb 21, harmonics yg via DXLD) ** ANTARCTICA [and non]. I don`t check every day, but Feb 20 at 1956, no sign of LRA36 on 15476. The closest signal was something very weak on 15465, presumably Portugal scheduled until 2000 at 226 degrees to WAf and SAm (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, I checked on Monday, 19 February, and found no trace of LRA36 on 15476 (Steve Lare, Holland, MI USA, Feb 21, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA [and non]. En las actualizaciones de la pasada semana informamos sobre dos nuevos programas DX en español: "El Mundo en Nuestra Antena" de Arturo Vera y "Frecuencia al Día" de Dino Bloise. Pues bien, esta semana os informamos que ya tenemos otro programa en nuestro sitio, se trata de "Actualidad DX" de RAE (Radiodifusión Argentina al Exterior). Un programa que no es nuevo para los radioescuchas pero si para nuestro sitio. Aquí pueden escucharlo, además del resto de programas. Un cordial saludo y disfruten de los Programas DX. El equipo de redacción PROGRAMAS DX Saludos cordiales: Si por alguna razón no a podido oír alguno de sus programas diexistas favoritos del pasado fin de semana, pueden escucharlos en Programas DX. También están disponibles los archivos de los programas emitidos en semanas anteriores: http://es.geocities.com/programasdx/ Programas DX disponibles [incluyendo]: ACTUALIDAD DX de RAE (Radiodifusión Argentina al Exterior) http://es.geocities.com/programas_dx/actualidaddx.htm (José Bueno, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) That`s the one written by Gabriel Iván Barrera, and translated into each language service including English. GIB also contributes to Radio Enlace on R. Nederland, but less and less of his stuff there concerns SW (gh) ** AUSTRALIA. Tennant Creek back on the air on 2325, 4910. Outages believe to be caused by heatwave (Chris Hambly, Victoria, UT Feb 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELGIUM [non]. Updated B-06 of TDP stations via RUS/CIS transmitters: Denge Mezopotamya in Kurdish: 0300-0500 7590 KCH 300 kW / 116 deg WeAs Daily, but really not active 0500-1500 11530 KCH 300 kW / 116 deg WeAs Daily 1500-1700 7590 KCH 500 kW / 116 deg WeAs Daily Que Huong Radio in Vietnamese: 1200-1300 on 15680 DB 100 kW / 117 deg to Asia Mon-Sat Tensae Ethiopia Voice of Unity in Amharic: 1500-1600 on 11900 ARM 250 kW / 188 deg to EaAf Daily Radio Xoriyo Ogadenia in Somali: 1600-1700 on 9445 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg to EaAf Tue Andenet Le Democracy in Anharic: 1600-1700 NF 9445 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg to EaAf Wed/Fri/Sun, retimed 1700-1800 on 7280 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg to EaAf Tue/Thu/Sun, deleted Voice of Eritrea in Tigrigna: 1600-1700 on 9485 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg to EaAf Thu, deleted Voice of Ethiopian National United People's Front in Amharic: 1600-1700 on 9445 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg to EaAf Fri, deleted Dejen Radio in Tigrigna: 1600-1700 on 9445 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg to EaAf Sat Voice of Delina in Tigrigna: 1700-1730 on 7335 ARM 100 kW / 188 deg to EaAf Mon-Fri Radio Democracy Shorayee in Persian 1700-1800 on 7470 RUS or TDF transmitter to WeAs Tue/Thu/Fri/Sun Denge Rojhelat in Persian: 1700-1900 on 7590 SAM 250 kW / 175 deg to WeAs Daily, but really not active (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Feb 20 via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. New frequency: 3215, UnID (R. Virgen de Remedios?), Spanish, relay WEWN, QRM WWCR, 0010 17/Feb. 3215, Radio Virgen de Remedios, Tupiza, Spanish, relay WEWN, ID 1100 "...los oyentes de Radio Virgen de Remedios prepararse para asistir la santa misa...", 1040 18/Feb./07 (Rogildo Aragão, Quillacollo, Bolivia, Sony 2001D - LW 25m, HCDX, via WORLD OF RADIO 1347, DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. R Logos verified through Latcom office in New Castle [which one?] by signing and stamping my prepared card and with a separate postcard from Hope Cummins, Bookkeeper in 12 days. The separate “Cup Offered to All” postcard contained a handwritten note from the verie signer mentioning: “We received your letter about receiving Radio Logos from Santa Cruz, Bolivia. I faxed your letter to Bolivia perhaps they will reply. LATCOM-EPLABOL has been broadcasting since 1985. At peak we had AM-FM and shortwave. Now we just have SW. Thanks for listening!” (Rich D’Angelo, PA, Feb 18, DSWCI DX Window Feb 21 via DXLD) I think he heard it on 4865 rather than 6165, but not stated here (gh) 4865, R. Logos (via R. Centenario?), Stª Cruz de la Sierra, 2210-2216, 20 Feb, English, preaching; 33331, QRM de Brasil at about the same QSA level (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ``Via R. Centenario`` is inoperative, since as explained previously here in info from the station and its advisor, this is one and the same station and the R. Centenario name is no longer used (gh, DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Radio Cultura, Araraquara, back to the 90 meter band, 3365. Listened to it on 20 February 0215 UT with regional songs and the ID ‘Cultura’. Good signal, 45554 (Rudolf Grimm, São Bernardo, SP, BRAZIL http://www.radioways.cjb.net WORLD OF RADIO 1347, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This was last reported in DXLD 6-127 of August 21, 2006, to be inactive; previous mentions were in 6-107, 5-029, 5-014 (gh, WORLD OF RADIO 1347, DXLD) ** CANADA. CBC Northern Quebec, 9624.98 at 2315+ in native language. Moderate but nowhere near a solid S9 signal. Barely audible at 2345 recheck. 20 Feb. (See DXLD 7-021, 17 Feb) (Liz Cameron, Metro Detroit, MI; Shortwave Obsession: http://www.geocities.com/alera1/ Radioblonde Blog: http://www.radioblonde.blogspot.com/ dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Hi, Glenn. Just received the following information from Stanley Asher at CJRS Radio Shalom. They are testing on 1650 kHz. "We're official now, Industry Canada said we're kosher -- or the radio equivalent. Send me reception reports, please. Also, tell me if you have radio dreams -- and you don't have to be Jewish, as the old Cantor's ad went." Cantor's, by the way, is a chain of Jewish bakery/pastry shops in the Montreal area. They used to run an ad on Montreal radio saying that you didn't have to be Jewish to go to Cantor's (Sheldon Harvey, QC, 2321 UT Feb 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) More about it in 7-021 and 7-022 Hello Glenn: Early this morning 0520 UT I caught Radio Shalom briefly on the Tecsun PL200, after hearing it compete with Radio Disney on 1650 [WHKT Portsmouth VA] using a homebrew 1 transistor boys radio. Music with woodwinds and violin for a minute or so. Radio Shalom being nearly opposite Disney was a difficult null. Mention in French that the station originates in Montreal at 0530 UT. Call sign not heard. SINPO 32222 with deep fade, static crashes, and Disney interference (Paul Shaffer, Cheshire, CT, Feb 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Here is the link to the English version of the website for CJRS Radio Shalom 1650 kHz, Montreal --- http://www.radio-shalom.ca/EN/ There is a guestbook on the page to enter your comments or suggestions. There is also a series of photographs running on the page, showing the construction of the office and studios, and the erection of their antenna tower. E-mail reports can be sent to the broadcast engineer, Mr. Michel Mathieu, at the following e-mail address: technique @ radio-shalom.ca I do not know if the station has implemented any policy for QSL verifications at this time. The person in charge of the English programming at the station is Mr. Stanley Asher. He is an avid radio fan and is a long standing member of the Canadian International DX Club. I sent him a note last evening and have extended an offer to have CIDX look after reception reports and QSLs for the station. The station is currently running a test transmission. There are no firm details available at this time as to exactly when regular programming will commence. I will keep everyone posted on further developments (Sheldon Harvey, QC, Feb 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thanks to Sheldon's tip, hearing CJRS 1650 with an omni-directional K9AY over/under WHKT Radio Disney. Did hear the announcement giving a phone number but still taping them at this time. Started listening at 9:15 PM EST after seeing the e-mail. They seem to playing various Hebrew, French and American songs. Very strong right now at 10:15 with phone number, CJRS 1650 ID completely blocking WHKT. It was changing minute to minute, but the last peak lasted over 5 minutes. 73 (John Sgrulletta, Mahopac, NY, Feb 20, NRC-AM via DXLD I decided to surf the X-Band on the R-390A. Nothing terribly exciting or strong, except for: A very strong CJRS 1650 kHz Montreal, Radio Shalom playing instrumental music, with the occasional vocal, quasi- classical to easy listening, then every so often an announcement that they are testing... Very solid - so solid that I'm listening to them on 16 KC bandwidth on the R-390A - very good audio quality. According to their website, 1 KW transmitter with a 76 foot tower. The testing announcement gave their transmitter site location, but I can't recall it. Great signal, superb audio - I switched over to 16 kHz bandwidth on the Collins and Frank Mills Musicbox Dancer sounded like I was playing a CD! What a way to end a nice DX session! Folks, tune in 1650 and try to catch this! (Phil Rafuse, VY2PR, Stratford PEI, Canada, Feb 20, ABDX via DXLD) New CJRS-1650 Montreal blasting in over WHKT 1742 EST with detailed test announcement and instrumental music (Marc DeLorenzo, South Dennis, MA, Feb 21, IRCA via DXLD) Yep - just logged it here in Scotland at 2328!! [UT]. My scratchy recording of CRS at 2328 this evening http://paulc.mwcircle.org/cjrs.mp3 Does he say 1000 watts? (Paul Crankshaw, Troon, Scotland, ibid.) In here near Chicago last night as well with Hebrew music under the Iowa and Arkansas stations (Disney is not much of a factor here) After dinner I'll head out to the phased BOG set up that will should allow me to phase IA/AR QRM and have them almost alone, I hope. 73 KAZ (Neil Kazaross, IL, ibid.) Thnx for tip. Strong here in Lima OH, S9+ at 18:32 EST (Fred Vobbe, Feb 21, IRCA via DXLD) ** CHAD. 6165, RD Nationale Tchadienne, N'Djaména, 1114-., 19 Feb, Vernacular, tribal songs; 23431, QRM de HRV [Croatia] but also de RNW in Spanish via Bonaire. Propagation wiped out all 3 stations later (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 6165, R Chad - Radiodiffusion Nationale Tchadienne, 2050-2200, Feb 17, good Afro-pop with lively DJ, short ID (as stated) in French, 2115 "(Musique) Internationale" started with "Macarena", then mixed Afro, rap and reggae. Wiped out station underneath (Croatia?) completely almost. From 2145 QRM had completely vanished. 2200 News (Finn Krone, Lolland, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Feb 21 via DXLD) ** CHINA [non?]. 10400, Sound of Hope R, via Tan Shui, Taipei, 0004- 0030, Feb 04 , nice non-stop oriental music, no QRM (Rafael Rodríguez, Bogotá, Colombia, DSWCI DX Window Feb 21 via DXLD) So in all probability you were listening to China`s Firedrake jammer, and not to Sound of Hope, as we have tried to explain repeatedly (gh, DXLD) Firedrake audible on 9200 at 1443 Feb 20, and somewhat weaker also on 10400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CROATIA [non]. The Voice of Croatia at 0300 Feb. 20 on 7285 via Jülich; man-woman team with domestic and world news in English on Slovenia, Croatian hostages in Nigeria, the UK, Iran, Serbia, etc.; little feature on Dalmatia and an 8-month-old rescued wolf being prepared for release; spectacular signal with a near straight-5 SINPO; the usual American-accented announcers to Croatian pop at about 0315; best signal from them here since the move to 7285 from 9925 (Eric Bryan, WA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non?]. Re 7-022, wobbler: I made an error in the message when I originally posted it. I meant to say that I detuned to 1096 kHz to observe that Cuban station drifting off of 1100 kHz (Wayne King, dxhub yg via DXLD) Instead of 1126, which we queried (gh) Group, The Wobbler on 1100 is truly bizarre! It looks like the variation is caused by incipient oscillator failure. As the frequency varies, it shifts the tuning and loading on the power amps. That varies the voltage applied to the oscillator. A feedback condition. Note that some extremes of frequency variation, the frequency has rapid variations on it...as though the bass component of the modulation frequency is FMing the signal briefly. I don't think that external power variations have a thing to do with it. A grid that unstable would constantly be losing sychronization among generators on the high-voltage tielines. That would trip breakers and cause very frequent blackouts. 73 de (Charles A Taylor, WD4INP Greenville, North Carolina, IRCA via DXLD) This would imply that this is a design issue with the type of transmitter in use. I believe many of the Cuban xmtrs are old and of Eastern European, probably Czech mfg. A way to corroborate this would be to identify the make of every xmtr that is doing this. I think this a very reasonable candidate explanation, as nothing else I've heard (including mine) makes much sense at all. We would need to do a better job of correlating modulation type with exhibited wobble behavior. I have, in my limited experience, heard wobbles when the underlying signal was not audible, and I think I have heard wobbles when the underlying signal was voice. But I am not the guy to ask about that, given my limited hearing of them. One of my spectacular receptions was on Musical-590 last year when the strong wobble replaced the modulation, briefly, which was nowhere near timed in rhythm or beat. If an oscillator was drifting into instability, the wobble would I think tend to slowly appear and fade. I have heard them start and stop abruptly as if a switch was thrown on and off. Another problem is when the wobble appears strong and the underlying signal has faded out. I have heard this on 1100, 1120 RCH. If the frequency and site are the same, wouldn`t the fades be similar? I don't think power is an issue here either, but one problem I have is that I believe this condition (incipient failure) would tend to get worse over time. The wobbles last sometimes for days which implies there are no armies of techs standing by to retune these failing rigs when the wobble begins, but they eventually all seem to cure themselves, even if for a finite time. Wouldn't entropy suggest that by now, every Cuban transmitter would be "all wobble all the time"? (Bob Foxworth, Tampa FL, 0816 est, ibid.) Are any wobblers being heard from any other locations other than Cuba? Unfortunately most US Stations are probably not using original equipment that's old enough to cause wobbling signals. I'm not detecting anything that sounds like a wobbler on any frequency. In order to hear a wobbler there can't be other signals coming in to make the effect sound like a normal signal mix, correct? I'm assuming that a wobbler is just from one source. I can't say that I've heard one yet so if one of the wobbler guys in the southeast could attach the sound of a recorded wobbler then the rest of us too far away can also find out what it sounds like. Thanx from (Bill in Vic, BC, ibid.) They are heard semi regularly in the North East also (Bob Young, Millbury, MA, KB1OKL, various boatanchors/2 400' LW's/Misek Phaser, ibid.) Bill, As far as all reports I've seen and my own ongoing investigation of the Wobbler phenomenon, they originate only from Cuban AM broadcast stations. There is certainly the possibility they could occur elsewhere under similar conditions, but no US, Canadian, or Mexican stations have been heard to produce Wobblers. Wobblers are often heard interfering to some degree with other stations. It is the interaction of the varying carrier of the Wobbler and other carriers that produce the most audible result. Of course a very strong local station will likely not be affected so much as weaker stations. Wobblers originate on many different Cuban AMs, up and down the dial. A list is given on the web site along with a log of recent receptions I've made. Most of these are weak and unlikely to be heard at any great distance beyond Florida or possibly immediately adjacent Gulf and Atlantic states. The occasional extremely strong ones -- like 1100 Radio Cadena Habana of late -- have been heard all the way to the northwest coast and once even in Hawaii. You can read all about the Wobbler, with audio clips and spectrum images, at the web site -- link in my signature. For a quick listen here is a direct link to a 27kB audio clip: http://ScooterHound.com/WWWR/wobbler/wobbler7-5.mp3 Note: To best evaluate this recording you'll want to use the Windows audio mixer controls -- or your equivalent -- to play the left and right channels independently. The Left channel is the processed signal, the Right channel is the signal as received. To enhance the ability to detect weak Wobblers I use USB and off-tune to produce a beat note, this elevates the pitch of the Wobbler making it much easier to hear. That is the difference between the left and right channels in this recording. The right channel is what you would hear just tuning along the AM dial, if a strong Wobbler were encountered. The left channel was produced using special tuning techniques to make the Wobbler more obvious (W. Curt Deegan, Boca Ratón, (southeast) Florida, USA http://ScooterHound.com/WWWR/wobbler ibid.) ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. Radio Senda. Call sign: HIC82. I have received a reply to my question about the call sign assigned to Radio Senda, 1680 (San Pedro de Macorís) from INDOTEL (the Dominican Rep. Communications Authority): "Señor Molano: Esta emisora es el Ministerio Religioso Senda de Vida; opera en San Pedro de Macorís, en la frecuencia 1680 kHz y su call sign es el HIC82. Nos reiteramos a su disposición para cualquier inquietud que pueda subsistir. Lic. Gianella Pereira, Encargada Control de Casos" (Mauricio Molano, Salamanca, Spain, Feb 20, HCDX via DXLD) ** ECUADOR. HCJB, 11960, yet another time to hear them announce the wrong frequencies, at 1444:30 Feb 20, then La Biblia Dice (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GABON [and non]. Routine check of Afropop music distraxion, Feb 20 at 1524 found it on primary channel of 17660, but for a change there was co-channel and fast SAH from something in French, an occasional word of which could be heard during fades; not // 17630 ANU. However, the French was no longer heard from 1527, and when Afropop went off at 1531 it could not be heard either tho there was some weak carrier remaining (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [and non]. DECLINE & FALL? A recent posting to GLENN HAUSER`S ``World of Radio`` (see http://www.worldofradio.com for the most timely Internet source of DX news) by Dave Kenny reports the closing of Deutsche Welle`s English language broadcasts for Europe on shortwave. In response to his emailed query as to the whereabouts of the 6140 kHz English service, Margot Forbes of DW`s English Service somewhat clinically advised ``You are quite correct, we no longer broadcast our English language radio programmes on 6140 kHz. We are available within Europe per DRM transmissions and we are also still available online and per satellite. Please find our satellite information attached. You will fi nd our DRM transmission information on our website: http://dw-world.de - then go to DW radio and choose English.`` With limited availability of DRM-capable receivers we once must again question the timing of international broadcasters in their withdrawal of shortwave transmissions from ``first world`` listeners. The decline of shortwave radio as a means of mass communication has become a self- fulfilling prophecy as the broadcasters seek to force us to find alternate means of ``hearing`` them. Yet we know that these modern alternatives fail to deliver in times of international crisis – with the internet channels of broadcasters being blocked, local FM relays closed, and so on. Only shortwave still provides a reliable broadcast medium across borders. What do you think? What will shortwave sound like in 10 years? 20 years? Let us know your thoughts (Bryan Clark, NEW ZEALAND DX TIMES PAGE 36, FEBRUARY 2007 via DXLD) ** GERMANY. DW Mailbag program going to change as In-Box as from summer 2007. This will also feature reaction, feedback from DW listeners and also very little music. The programme will be about 25 minutes long, including a mini-German language course of about 5 minutes. It will include an active web page (Jaisakthivel Chennai, India, Feb 22, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE. Another check of ERA5 via SVO Olympia, 15630, Feb 20 at 1521 found carrier dropping off about 9 times in that minute; but in the following minute when I had stopped counting, even more times and it was off more than on. How much longer are they going to mess with this obviously unsuccessful test? (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1347, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Same old story with ERA5 test via SVO, Feb 21 around 1500 on 15630: frequent carrier breaks making it unlistenable; when on, pretty good signal // 17525 Avlis (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sent an e-mail reception report to the reported address of Olympia R at radiosva @ otenet.gr but the e-mail was returned as non-deliverable (Jerry Berg and Bruce Churchill in DXplorer, via DSWCI DX Window Feb 21 via DXLD) Admiralty List of Radio Signals 2006/2007 besides shipsva @ otenet.gr suggests olymprad @ otenet.gr (Harald Kuhl in DXplorer via DSWCI DX Window Feb 21 via DXLD) ** GUINEA. 7125, R. Guinée / R. Conakry - still no sign of it (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, Feb 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HUNGARY. DEVELOPMENTS AT RADIO BUDAPEST Pointed out by Rudolf Krumm: http://www.english.radio.hu/index.php?cikk_id=214874&rid=PT13TnhFVE0= Radio Budapest no longer belongs to Kossuth Radio; instead it now becomes a part of MR 4, the department for local and minority broadcasts. The German service was not allowed to go ahead with planned hirings, at the same time they were told that they can no longer engage freelancers as of March 1st. Thus they have to eliminate a weekend`s program; the airtime will be filled with another show ("Gruß und Kuß", the common program with Radio Fünfkirchen at Pécs) as an interim solution. "For the time being the remaining team will try to keep the program running." The whole item is subtitled: "The beginning of the end?" (Kai Ludwig, Feb 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ICELAND. Re: ``Contrary to Anker`s observations, which may have been correct for that date only, since ISBS timings vary, on Feb 19 as early as 1422 I was getting very weak talk and no music, which I think was ISBS and not R. Free Asia (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` WTFK?? 13865!! Rikisutvarpid, 13865 at 1849+ in Icelandic. Good to fair-some deep fading. When good, bent the meter at S6 or so. Not a common catch. Haven't heard it on LW at DXPs for quite some time. Had to tune out at 1910. 21 Feb 73/Liz (Liz Cameron Metro Detroit, MI, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. ALL INDIA RADIO SPECIAL TRANSMISSIONS [IST = UT +5:30] 24th Feb 2007 2130-2300 IST Direct relay of 261st Aradhana Festival of Shri Narayanatirtha from Thirupoonthuruthy. 26th Feb 2007 All India Radio will broadcast the direct relay of the presentation of Railway Budget-2007 in the Lok Sabha by the Union Railway Minister and the other special programmes on Rail Budget. 1130-1155 IST An intro to Rail Budget (By experts) 15260, 15185 1155-1400 IST Direct relay of the presentation of Rail Budget by the Union Railway Minister from Parliament followed by Special Live Discussion on the Railway Budget 27th Feb 2007 Special Programmes on Results of Assembly Elections-2007. 0910-1400 IST A Special Composite Live programme 1105-1110 IST Additional News Bulletin in English 1200-1210 IST Additional News Bulletin in Hindi 28th Feb 2007 Coverage of Union General Budget - 2007. All India Radio will broadcast the direct relay of the presentation of General Budget-2007 in the Lok Sabha by the Union Finance Minister and other Budget related programmes on 28th February 2007. 1030-1055 IST Discussion on the Pre-Budget Scenario 15260, 15185 1055-1230 IST Direct relay of the presentation of General Budget by the Union Finance Minister from the Parliament House 1230-1245 IST Special Budget Bulletin in English 1245-1300 IST Special Budget Bulletin in Hindi 1300-1400 IST Special Live Budget Program. Consequently there will be changes / cancellations on above dates/times during News bulletins, National Regional News Bulletins & GOS-II Service (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, Feb 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 11785, Voz de Indonesia, 1740-1800, escuchada el 21 de Febrero en español a locutor con ID “la Voz de Indonesia desde Jakarta”, segmento musical, final de reportaje y Noticias en breve, se aprecia que la grabación es de hace un mes ya que anuncian el próximo viaje del político español Rodrigo Rato para el próximo 23 y 24 de Enero, SINPO 45444 (José Miguel Romero Burjasot (Valencia) España Sangean ATS 909 Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 11784.872, V. of Indonesia in French noted very late today, now French at 1945 UT. Fair signal. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, Feb 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. A long thread about XM/Sirius merger is being held over ** IRAN. Hi Glenn - I tuned into VOIRI for the 0130 UT broadcast on February 21 on 7160. Throughout the program they were referring to their broadcast as the "Voice of Justice" a change from their signature "Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran" which I never heard. The "Voice of Justice" was used so frequently that at a minimum it implied that it was the name of the broadcast you were hearing. Sincerely, (Dean Bonanno, Durham, CT, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, they have been using that slogan only during that transmission for some time (gh, DXLD) ** JAPAN. Folks, here's the complete record of loggings during my recent stay on the Queen Charlotte Islands in northern B.C. Errors are purely my own, and attributable to lack of sleep, DXing for 7 to 10 hours daily. 2 receivers, the AOR 7030+ and the NRD 535D. 3 Beverage antennae (2 N/S, and 1 E/W), and a Misek phasing unit were used. Enjoy! 1575, 1558-, AFN, Feb 11. Keeping an eye on this frequency this morning and far different from yesterday. AFN Japan is reasonably well heard under VOA Thailand. With music programming ('You can ring my be- e-e-ll, ring by bell', etc). Into English news at 1600 but VOA faded up. As for the station heard yesterday, very briefly at 1557, the bubble jamming around 1574.4 became quite evident but only for a few moments. Conditions must be very variable today. Overall not as good as yesterday's. AFN back into modern techno music at 1603. Signal would be quite decent if not for VOA. Interesting that they became dominant for a time at 1604, well over VOA. 1575, 1524-, AFN, Feb 16. Great reception this morning with no sign of VOA Thailand at all. Public service announcements (proper tire pressures, etc) and then into music. Not sure whether all 3 listed stations are in parallel. At 1532 I'm hearing some talk about Japan, with music in the background, which I'm assuming is one of the other AFN Japan stations. Nope, it's VOA with special English. Oh, well. Rechecked at 1600. No ID, but they're booming in with a S7 to S9 signal with modern American music. Just a short 'Happy Friday', and a mention of 'Guns and Roses' (not sure of the connotation for the latter). Occasionally I can hear VOA Thailand beneath, but mostly they have the frequency entirely to themselves. Into USA Network Sports at 1620. At 1622, I'm hearing PSA for military priority post, but with modern American music underneath, which isn't VOA. Perhaps the feeds are different for the 3 AFN stations. Sure wish they'd have local IDs! Incredibly long lasting! I've been listening to a steady, almost local-like signal for more than an hour, and they're still very strong at 1644 (8:44 local) with mostly non-stop music, with occasional PSA, but nothing that I would call a definitive ID. At 17:00, heard the following: 'You are listening to the American Forces Network'. This was repeated a second time but much weaker, so I'm thinking this is another transmitter. Finally have something I would call a legal ID! I'm pleased. Sure is blasting in still! What a great DX site!!! At 1719 still present with perfectly readable signal with a spot for smoking cessation (Walt Salmaniw, Masset, Queen Charlotte Islands, BC, HCDX via DXLD) I`ve picked just this of his numerous MW logs which appeared in full on the HCDX and no doubt in various MW DX lists (gh) The 160-meter hams noted Japanese DX in places as distant as Ontario and Florida this morning, so maybe someone other than west coast MW DXers (and Bill B.) should be listening for Japanese DX. The Florida ham called CQ DX and was flooded by Japanese stations replying to him, much to his surprise. Best wishes, (Nick Hall-Patch, Victoria, B.C., Canada, Feb 21, IRCA via DXLD) ** KYRGYZSTAN. 4050: Please note that this is not a transmitter of "KTR" (Kyrgyz National Radio). It is a transmitter of the Ministry of Communications (which owns all transmitters in Kyrgyzstan), and it is now leased by R Rossii from Russia. It carries a time shifted edition of R Rossii, that is why it is not parallel to the (European) webstream of R Rossii (Bernd Trutenau in DXplorer, Feb 19 via DSWCI DX Window via DXLD) ** LIBYA [non]. MOLDAVIA, 17655, Sawt al-Amal, 1256-1300, escuchada el 20 de Febrero en árabe a locutora con identificación, sintonía y titulares, noticias, justo un minuto antes estaba emitiendo por los 17665 y en paralelo por 17670, SINPO 44544. 17650, Sawt al-Amal, 1350-1400, escuchada el 20 de Febrero en árabe a locutora anunciando E-mail, dos piezas musicales en árabe, SINPO 45444. 17645, Sawt al-Amal, 1222-1235, escuchada el 21 de febrero en idioma árabe a locutora con ID y emisión musical, emitiendo en paralelo por 17650, SINPO 45554 (José Miguel Romero Burjasot (Valencia) España Sangean ATS 909 Antena Radio Master A-108, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Without embargo, by the time I tune in later, Afropop was always on 17660. See SAUDI ARABIA (gh, DXLD) ** LUXEMBOURG. RADIO LUXEMBOURG EXPERIMENTAL UK SERVICE NOT CLOSING DOWN Radio Luxembourg recently stopped using 7295 kHz for its experimental DRM English service to the UK, leading some hobbyists to question whether RTL has had second thoughts about relaunching the English service. This morning I had a chat with DJ Benny Brown, whom I have known for more than 20 years. Benny assured me that RTL is still very committed to DRM, and has a number of frequencies registered, but since there are still very few DRM receivers on the market, it’s too early to launch a permanent service. Low power DRM transmissions from Dudelange, serving Luxembourg, continue on 25795 kHz 24 hours a day in parallel with the Internet stream http://www.radioluxembourg.co.uk/cms/ Tests on other shortwave frequencies may also take place (February 20th, 2007 - 11:06 UT by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** MEXICO. 6045, 0550, 21/1, Radio Universidad, XEXQ, Weak with classical music. Blocked by KBS 0600-0630 via Sackville also in Spanish. Be careful!! XEXQ clear again after 0630 (Ian Cattermole, Blenheim, JRC 535, T2FD, Alpha Delta, Feb NZ DX Times via DXLD) When I first found XEXQ on the air at this hour, I suggested it might make it to NZ or Europe, but this is the first report from NZ that has come to my attention, almost a month afterwards. Still waiting for one from Europe; will it take another month to reach me? XEXQ, 6045, barely audible with classical music at 1435 Feb 20 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. XEYU now seems to be a bit lower around 9599.1, Feb 20 at 0620 but best reception yet in classical solo piano recital, S9 +15, SINPO 44444. However, it was missing at another time I usually hear it, 1442; just some weak Asian signal on 9600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1347, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. LA NUEVA CARA DE RADIO UNAM Medios de por medio, Elvira García, 20 de febrero de 2007 Radio UNAM cumplirá 70 años en junio de 2007. Para esas fechas se habrá terminado la remodelación del edificio y la modernización de los procesos técnicos en producción, estudios de grabación y cabinas. Hace unas semanas hice un recorrido por la emisora. Me sorprendió encontrarme con una nueva cara de esa entrañable estación. En 2005 estuve por Radio UNAM y salí entristecida por la ruina en que se encontraba; todo mostraba el paso del tiempo y el abandono. Fernando Álvarez del Castillo tenía algunos meses de haber tomado posesión como director de la emisora. A invitación del propio Fernando Álvarez del Castillo hice en recorrido por las renovadas instalaciones de Radio UNAM. No es cosmética pura la que se empleó en el arreglo de su fachada, es un trabajo de ingeniería y arquitectura que se proyectó en 2005, fue aprobado en agosto y en enero de 2006 se iniciaron los trabajos, a cargo de la Coordinación de Proyectos Especiales de la UNAM, cuyo titular es Felipe Leal. Tarea compleja la de darle funcionalidad a esos cuatro edificios en los cuales, desde los años 60, viven y crecen los acervos y las instalaciones de Radio UNAM. Recordemos que antes de convertirse en estación de radio, ese espacio - ubicado en la calle Adolfo Prieto - fue una escuela con edificios construidos en cuatro épocas distintas. Los directores de la emisora, desde Fernando Curiel en los años 70 hasta Fernando Escalante en 2004, lo que hicieron fue ir adaptándolo y en ocasiones parchándolo, según demandaban las necesidades de la estación. Durante la reestructuración a cargo de Felipe Leal, alguno de esos cuatro edificios tuvo que ser prácticamente derruido para levantarlo otra vez y darle un nuevo diseño y unidad; hoy los cuatro están otra vez unidos, pero con una distribución más funcional. Quedan las enormes y vetustas jacarandas que han visto pasar a los más grandes personajes de la cultura y la historia del país, en los 30 años que Radio UNAM ha estado en esa calle. Más allá de la cara nueva del edificio está la parte sustancial, la de transmisiones, grabaciones y discoteca; en esas tres esferas se han instalado equipos digitales y se ha impulsado la transmisión por internet, durante las 24 horas del día. Se ha fortalecido la programación de FM y Onda Corta. Se ha instalado el aire acondicionado en el transmisor de AM, lo cual hace que se prolongue la vida del mismo, y se ha colocado un no break en el de FM; se trabaja hoy en la innovación tecnológica de los procesos digitales de esa radio, desde la producción hasta la salida al aire. El negrito en el arroz es su área de noticias; como ya dijimos, los noticieros de Radio UNAM dejaron de ser un referente. El único noticiero que le quedó a esa estación, el matutino, se elabora la noche anterior y se deja ahí, a dormir el sueño de los despistados; claro que cuando se leen al aire, a las 8 de la mañana, esas noticias suenan siempre envejecidas. Mucho tendrán que hacer para modernizar esa área. También hay qué hacer algo para lograr que Radio UNAM tenga más escuchas, pues - según datos de Arbitron - la emisora está en el número 26 de audiencia en el cuadrante. Antes estuvo en el 31, pero quienes la respetamos quisiéramos que estuviese compitiendo por los primeros sitios de audiencia en el dial. Por si no se enteró... [changing the subject] En el Día de la Candelaria, por primera vez en más de 20 años, Radio Educación no acudió a Tlacotalpan para transmitir el festejo. Dicen que a Lidia Camacho, su ex directora, se le olvidó presupuestar ese gasto... Fuente: http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/columnas/63667.html (via José Bueno - Córdoba - España, DXLD) I assume ``el negrito en el arroz`` is not seen to be a racist expression in Mexico, or even politically incorrect? Says XEYU`s 8 am newscast [1400 UT] is written the night before and thus is stale when aired (gh, DXLD) ** MONGOLIA. 12085, V. of Mongolia, Khonkhor, 0845-1045, 09 Feb, Japanese, talks, light music, Mongolian 0900, Chinese 0930, English 1000; 44433 but gradually deteriorating, and barely heard at 1045 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS [and non]. EXTRA RNW FREQUENCIES ON THE AIR TOMORROW, INCLUDING 1314 KHZ Tomorrow, 22 February, the new Dutch government will be formally presented. Live coverage of the formalities will be carried on our Dutch service, and from 1700-1900 UT we shall again be on mediumwave 1314 kHz via the high power transmitter at Kvitsøy in Norway. At the same time, 6125 kHz will be on the air from Flevo directed to Spain, Portugal and southern France. We have also booked 1314 kHz for 7 March at 2000-2300 UTC. Details to follow (February 21st, 2007 - 9:24 UT by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. Re 7-022: Glen[n], haven't heard IBOC from KAKC 1300 in quite a while but it wouldn't surprise me if they turn it back on. Email reply from KAKC indicated format switch occurred Jan 18. Guess I need to monitor locals more closely! Only KTBZ-1430 and KMUS-1380 currently using IBOC in Tulsa as far as I can tell. 73, (Bruce Winkelman, AA5CO, Tulsa, OK, Feb 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Recently spent just over a week in Masset, BC on the Queen Charlotte Islands off northern B.C., and just south of the Alaskan panhandle. Although my main emphasis was on MW reception (Europe, Asia, and Alaska), I did spend some time on the shortwaves, and here are some of my loggings. Errors are entirely my fault and attributable to lack of sleep! Receivers were the AOR 7030+ (primary) and NRD 535D (secondary). Three Beverage antennae and a Misek phasing unit were also employed. Enjoy! 4960, 1650-, Catholic Radio Network, Feb 17. Just about forgot about PNG. English religious hymn at fair to good level (Walt Salmaniw, Masset, Queen Charlotte Islands, BC, dxldyg via DXLD) All Walt`s SW logs from here appeared in the dxldyg; see also JAPAN ** PERU. 4856.4, R. La Hora, Cuzco, Spanish, programa sport, ads, 2325 18/Feb (Rogildo Aragão, Quillacollo, Bolivia, Sony 2001D - LW 25m, HCDX, via WORLD OF RADIO 1347, DXLD) Alomst matches Bolland`s tent. ** PHILIPPINES. VOA 1170 I was looking for last Fall when I was hearing Korea 1170. Maybe next Fall. I heard VOA 1143 on 1143 and then again on 1147.5, which VOA QSL'd as 1143. 73, (Patrick Martin, OR, IRCA via DXLD) New VOA-1170 transmitter is a Harris DX-1000. Four tower array. Toward Korean, Vietnam and China, I think. 73, (Charles A Taylor, WD4INP, Greenville, North Carolina, IRCA via DXLD) I have a plot of VOA-1170's antenna patterns. There are two of them. One has a main lobe at about 260 degrees, with a secondary lobe at about 7 degrees, with a deep null from 45 to 200 degrees. It's apparently intended for SE Asia. The other pattern has its main lobe at 325 degrees (towards China) with a small lobe at 90 degrees. Both patterns send very little power towards North America (azimuth about 38 degrees from the Philippines). The plots came from consulting engineer Ben Dawson, who has designed antenna systems for this and several other VOA sites (Bruce Portzer, WA, Feb 20, IRCA via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. Re 7-022, new 5920: The "Petropavlovsk-Kamchatkiy" transmitter is located at Yelizovo. Cf. location list in WRTH2007, pg. 469. 73, (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. 7200, Feb 20 at 0641 in Russian talk, than rock music in English; fair signal but carrier frequency fluxuating rapidly, and even more obvious with BFO on, the Yakutsk warbler (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA [and non]. I am again hearing French on 17660, at 1508 UT Feb 21, mixing with and underneath the Afropop music distraxion; something which was not there before yesterday. It is not // 17630 ANU, nor // 15300 RFI. I believe it is BSKSA, ex-21600. The signal again fades down greatly before Afropop goes off at 1531. There is a fast SAH between them of about 15 Hz. An interesting thing I have noticed more than once. Just before Gabon cuts the carrier at 1531, for a few seconds the SAH level increases. This must be because the Gabon output power steps down briefly before going off; that is, BSKSA momentarily has a relative strength advantage. Presumably BSKSA continues on 17660 at least until the French bihour ends at 1600, but after 1531 the carrier is barely detectable. No doubt those further east could confirm this. VOA, 17895, via Botswana, in English at 1444 Feb 21 had fluttery co- channel QRM from something. Per EiBi, that must also be BSKSA, which overlaps on 17895 at 14-15, both broadcasting to different parts of Africa. BSKSA frequency management is the pits: 17895 1200-1500 ARS BSKSA HQ A NAf 17895 1400-1700 USA Voice of America E EAf /BOT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. BSKSA Riyadh. Two carriers noted on 21670 and 21740 kHz at 0858 UT, and Arabic program in progress on 21705. So seemingly combination of Indonesian service QRG 21670, and Arabic 21705 kHz produces a spur signal on 21740 kHz. 21670 channel opens at 0930 UT, but is on air very early around 0858 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, wwdxc BC-DX Feb 20/21, harmonics yg via DXLD) ** SIERRA LEONE [non?]. "Fondation Hirondelle is developing a project of journalistic training that will be taught to the students of the Communication Dept. as well as to ten or so local journalists. They will form the editorial team of the radio station. In 6 months, the station should be able to produce 6 hours of information programming a day. It will be broadcast on FM over the air waves of the station of the U.N. in Sierra Leone. About 10 community radio stations should also retransmit this news programme. In addition, one half hour of news will be broadcast daily on SW over the entire country. Correspondents will also be trained and hired in the regions. This project, among others, fits well into the plan for professional journalistic coverage of the presidential and legislative elections planned for July 2007 in Sierra Leone. Ireland, Switzerland, Great Britain, and the European Union are the financial partners of the Fondation Hirondelle on this project." (Finn Krone, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Feb 21 via DXLD Half an hour a day on SW covering the whole country certainly points to hiring time on a site outside the country (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** SPAIN. REE had an excellent show discussing US-sponsored coups in Iran and Guatemala in the 1950s, interviewing various authorities in Spanish but with accents, apparently North Americans. One quite fluent nevertheless slipped and said ``una programa``. The show was rudely interrupted at 1455 UT Feb 21 on 17595 for the mandatory waste-of-time frequency change announcement. Axually all they do on 17595 is move the antenna beam southward, which could probably be accomplished in less than a minute during a real programming break at 1459. Grrr! Per schedule, this is ``Documentos``, Wed at 1400+ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. Having failed to update its SW frequency schedule from A-06 to B-06, Sudan Radio Service now seems to have given up on displaying any SW schedule (I hope this doesn`t mean they are really off the air) which I had bookmarked at http://www.sudanradio.org/schedule.htm Now the closest we can come is the timetable http://www.sudanradio.org/timetable.php showing programs but no frequencies, which is helpful once you subtract 3 hours for UT, and on another page you can listen to various archived programs, and on yet another page in other languages. Presumably this means that everyone in Sudan now has a broadband internet connexion (Glenn Hauser, Feb 19, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1347, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I wrote to SRS, and they kindly sent me a pdf of their program schedule as of Feb 14, including SW frequencies; that is now available in the files - programs schedules folder in the DXLD yg. The frequency schedule converted to UT is: M-F 0300-0500 7280, 0500-0600 9525, 0400-0600 13720, 1500-1800 9840 Sat 1500-1700 9840 Sun 1500-1600 9840 Apparently no longer a Wednesday 14-15 on 9660. 9840 is Moscow, but where are the others? Latest EiBi says 13720 and 9525 are UAE; that 9840 switches from Moscow to UAE at 1700; 7280 switches from Skelton to UAE at 0330, times it should be interesting to monitor. I wonder if they use Skelton and Moscow rather than UAE for all transmissions because of transmitter unavailability, or if it is really thought to be propagationally advantageous to do so? (Glenn Hauser, Feb 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN. On http://www.persecutionproject.org/resources/photogallery/radiopeace.aspx you can see a photo gallery from Radio Peace (Finn Krone, Lolland, Denmark, DSWCI DX Window Feb 21 via DXLD) ** SURINAME. R. Apintie, 4990 kHz, Postbus 595 - Paramaribo - Suriname con lettera in 101 giorni. v/s Ch. Vervuurt, Director. 1 IRC (191mo country) (Roberto Pavanello, Vercelli - Italia, bclnews.it yg via DXLD) Several such QSLs reported lately; cleaning out backlog (gh) ** TURKEY. Frequency change for TRT/Voice of Turkey in Arabic to ME from Feb. 23: 1500-1655 NF 6175 EMR 500 kW / 168 deg, ex 6120 to avoid TRT Turkish from 1630! (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Feb 20 via DXLD) ** TURKEY. 15350 - TRT Çakirlar - my SPECIAL DARLING. 0800-1400 UT. Once again still has "widespread" spurious signal problems. Noted with scratching around 0855 UT, on range 15303 to 15404 kHz. Measured also TRT 'bad boy' 15350 kHz which suffers by faulty audio feed and produces spurious signals, -- since months! Any complaint correspondence to TRT engineering was not successful yet. Still same mess. Measured around 0900-0945, was wandering down from 15350.103 to 15350.84 kHz but had a heterodyne buzz of 160 Hertz to co-channel CNR Kashi, China, even xx.00 kHz (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, Feb 21, harmonics yg via DXLD) ** U A E. Further research about Dubai transmitters Re [DUBAI] Emirates Radio Dubai SW site has been scrapped in 2004. Actually transmissions ceased in spring 2005. Find at the bottom the related items from DXLD (which one more time turned out to be a valuable reference). It is especially intriguing that Dubai TV had apparently done with shortwave on the last day of the B04 season, but at least 21605 was still on two days later, now with open carrier only! Beats by far the method of Danmarks Radio to bury 243 with eleven minutes of OC. What remains is the question when 1476 left the air. Probably at the same time than the Lihbab shortwave transmitters, since WRTH 2006 mentions for all Dubai TV mediumwave transmitters "reported inactive lately", and in the 2007 edition Dubai TV (called "Emirates Radio" there) has been deleted altogether. Indeed it appears that Dubai TV has abandoned radio entirely. The 92.0 and 93.9 FM stations, previously English and Arabic FM from Radio Dubai, now belong to the Arabic Radio Network, apparently an entirely different entity, cf. http://www.arnonline.com Of course it is incomprehensible that these facilities were demolished, especially the high power mediumwave transmitter, since at the same time Emirates Media at Abu Dhabi has already the third new, additional mediumwave transmitter in preparation. I just can't believe that no foreign broadcaster (especially BBG/IBB) would have been interested in using 1476. __________ DXLD 5-056: ** U A E. Open carrier of fair strength on 21605 March 29; I think it was around 1430 tho did not note the hour at the time. Much stronger than Saudi and Spain on its flanx, and in fact the best signal on the 13mb at the time; too bad there was no modulation. Can`t imagine this being anything but Dubai (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISENING DIGEST) DXLD 5-063: ** UNITED ARAB EMIRATES. Emirates R, Dubai seems to have ceased using SW since the start of A05 period on Mar 27! (Noel Green and Anker Petersen, DSWCI DX Window April 6 via DXLD) Familiar frequencies are still in HFCC A05 but labelled OLD A04 (gh) DXLD 5-067: UAE Dubai did shift from 21605 to 12005 towards the end of B-04, but the station is still not heard on any of its former frequencies - or elsewhere - since the start of A-05. 73s from (Noel R. Green [NW England], April 21, dxldyg via DXLD) Re: ``We also had a report that UAE Radio had closed down its own SW operation recently (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1271, DXLD)`` Indeed, they apparently did not submit any frequencies for the current HFCC schedule, despite having hosted an HFCC conference in 2004. All the entries in the A05 schedule are marked "old A04" (Andy Sennitt, dxldyg via DXLD) Well, the UAE SW transmitters are still plenty busy relaying other stations; I suppose this free three or four more of them for that (gh) (all HISTORY via Kai Ludwig, Feb 20, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1347, DX LISTENING DIGEST 7-023) ** U K. Whatever happened to Bob Holness? The 78 year old former host of "Anything Goes" on BBC World Service is recovering from several strokes. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=437393&in_page_id=1774 (Daily Mail, 20 February 2007 via kimandrewelliott.com via DXLD) Bob Holness was also host of programs on BBC domestic radio and television. On his Anything Goes program he would take requests for any genre of music from World Service listeners all over the world. It was good radio, because of Holness' personable delivery, and a good international experience because of the participation of listeners from all parts. BBC World Servive took Anything Goes off the air in 1998, perhaps because the program had a whiff of the old British Empire to it, or because it was hardly in line was the Cool Britannia movement of that time. Those were the same reasons I liked Anything Goes (Kim Andrew Elliott, Posted: 21 Feb 2007, ibid.) ** U K [non]. Re: BBC Spanish at 11-12 UT on strange new frequencies I didn't hear anything myself - I tuned 13570-13870 (and a bit either side) but the only Spanish I heard [Feb 19] was via the REE 13720 blowtorch. There was a buzzy noise just hf of 13570 and tentatively something close to 13870, but no audio, and this could have been local noise. I did try 5100 and 6300 without expecting to hear anything - and didn't. I forgot 6140, but have made a note for today. If you and Chuck didn't hear anything either then I doubt if I will. 73 from (Noel Green, UK, Feb 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [Later:] I can hear the programme today at 1115 with clear BBC ID on 13760. The signal is peaking to about S3 on the meter. A tune through 49 metres (and on 5100 & 6300) reveals no parallel. At the same time VOA Spanish is heard via all three listed frequencies at similar strength - 11840(GB 176deg), 9885(GB 176deg) and 9535(GB 164deg). There's a co-channel on 11840 that might be KSDA? If I had to make a guess where 13760 is coming from I'd opt for Greenville. 73 (Noel R. Green (NW England), Feb 20, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1347, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Or 13760 GUF as before, or WHRI (gh, DXLD) It was 1133, Feb. 20, when I got BBC Mundo on 13760 only with clear and good signal, but I'd guess this is French Guiana. 73 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, ibid.) ** U K. A former colleague has some nice pictures of BBC Skelton[-B], MF / SW / SSB feeder overseas at Daventry and LF Droitwich. http://www.flickr.com/photos/russell_w_b/sets/ - 121 pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/russell_w_b/sets/72157594157807130/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/russell_w_b/sets/72157594143991522/ and railway installations too (Richard Buckby G3VGW, Feb 18 via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) ** U S A. Re: His employer? The Voice of America." David Frum, National Review Online, 14 February 2007. (for five linx see http://www.kimandrewelliott.com/index.php?id=1060 (kimandrewelliott.com Posted: 15 Feb 2007 via DXLD) I saw that last one on C-SPAN; someone questioned his identity with VOA, and he said, what`s wrong with that? One might ask, what`s wrong with him? Which language service, who was that exactly? (gh, DXLD) Glenn: Video and audio are available at... http://www.aei.org/events/eventID.1458,filter.all/event_detail.asp# I didn't quite catch his name, and the camera does not show the questioner. I don't think I know him, in any case. C-Span might also have video, but their video search is not working right now. 73 (Kim Elliott, VOA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. Additional VOA Amharic broadcasts in the morning were cancelled as of Feb 18. So it's even more obvious now that they were launched only as an interim solution until Somali could be revived. Also reduced usage of Djibouti-1431: Radio Sawa has not just been deprived of 30 minutes of airtime for Somali at 1600-1630; instead Sawa is carried on 1431 now only at 1645-0400, beamed 325 degrees. Apparently 1431 kHz is now off the air at 0400-1600, i.e. local daytime more or less (Aaron Zawitzky, Feb 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WWCR 13845 from transmitter #2 was putting out a spur on 10475 before and after 2100 UT, Monday, Feb. 19. Dr. Gene Scott. Fair to good, clear, some fading in and out. After 2100 another spur under the above on 10475 from 12160 on transmitter # 3. Poor, badly distorted, another preacher. Checked with three receivers, so not internally generated images. Both spurs off at 2158 but Gene Scott still going strong on 13845 after 2200 (Bernie O'Shea, Ottawa, Ontario, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I would look at this as a single spur, the usual leapfrog mixing product, of 13845 over 12160 another 1685 kHz further down. Sometimes you hear the audio from one, sometimes from the other. When either of the two mixing frequencies goes off, so does the product (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** U S A. WEWN missing from 7540 in Spanish, at 0639 check Feb 20. Then I found it on new 7455 heavily mixing with RTTY, despite WEWN`s super-power! With the usual unxious announcer raving on and on about Mary, in super-reverential tones. In Spanish they keep talking about her stomach or belly, ``vientre``, afraid to use the proper word for womb, ``útero`` (which ironically is masculine), or ``matriz`` (feminine). My Random House Spanish/English dixionary does not even mention womb as a meaning of ``vientre``. Perhaps an even greater miracle was involved by gestating an infant in her stomach. We know what usually becomes of the fruit of one`s stomach, don`t we? Perhaps the RCatholix should rethink their euphemisms. Why in the world would WEWN move from a good clear frequency abruptly to one occupied by RTTY for ages, and thus avoided until recently by more savvy US frequency managers, with the exception of WYFR, which started using it at the beginning of B-06 but at 0700-1100 only? Now according to http://www.ewtn.org/radio/freq.htm WEWN is on there all the way from 2300 to 1300. So presumably this was also coördinated with WYFR; else we will have an even bigger collision. I haven`t yet checked it after 0700. As usual, despite mid-season changes, the effective dates for the displayed frequency schedule remain ``Effective October 26 2006 - March 25, 2007`` but instead in Spanish ``Horario vigente el 29 octubre 2006 al 25 marzo 2007``! So it is impossible to tell just when the change was made, but it is a blatant lie to state that 7455 went into use in October. Looking it over, I don`t notice any other new frequencies, tho there could be some adjustments. One would have to find a copy of the previous schedule somewhere else to compare. I suspect early changes like this are jockeying for position now that HFCC A-07 coördination has been completed. Or, if some ute or government agency complained about WEWN on 7540, where no interference was really to be heard, will that RTTY station on 7455 now complain about WEWN? Hard to imagine they would not, unless they are paying no more attention to co-channel problems than WYFR and WEWN. For its own benefit, hard to imagine WEWN did not know about the RTTY or check out the frequency by axual monitoring before moving onto 7455 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1347, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Christians vs Christians! There is a big collision between WEWN and WYFR now on 7455. The night before I found that WEWN had moved from 7540 to 7455, and posted as such on its schedule, at 23-13, and assumed WYFR must have moved off 7455 at 07-11, but it did not! Feb 21 at 0711, found both of them there, along with the RTTY which should have dissuaded both broadcasters from using 7455 at all. At that moment, WYFR was on top, with Camping in English, at most favorable skip distance from here; RTTY was next; and below that, WEWN could be heard in music // weak 11870 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WTJC missing again from 9370, Feb 21 at 1438 check, as well as various other times, not just on Sunday, as I supposed previously (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Is Marie Lamb OK? I had a report that DXing with Cumbre has been repeating the old standby pirate show for three weeks. Feb 21 at 1727 UT I checked WAER webstream for Marie`s jazz show scheduled weekdays 15-18 UT, only to hear some other woman doing it, Jane McGreasy, who said she was sitting in. She is not among those pictured on the staff list at http://www.waer.org/stafpics.html where I went to check the spelling of her name (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Interesting radio show about FCC LPFM rules exceptions Hello Glenn, Interesting Mediageek radio program available this week at http://radio.mediageek.net/ Most of the half hour show looks at exceptions the FCC has made to Low Power FM rules recently. Show Rundown: Recently the FCC has made two unusual exceptions in offering low-power FM broadcasting licenses. One was even to a former pirate. DIYmedia`s http://www.diymedia.net John Anderson helps fill in the details. Want more info on the stuff we talked about? Check out the show notes: http://www.mediageek.net/?p=1518 Direct links to this episode: http://www.mediageek.net/sound/2007/mg20070216.mp3 http://www.mediageek.net/sound/2007/mg20070216.ogg (Leigh Robartes, KRFP-LP / Radio Free Moscow, Inc. 92.5, Moscow, ID 208 892 9300 http://www.radiofreemoscow.com DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Hi folks, Wanted to let you know that over the next week or so, WNTP [990] will be operating at 12.5 kW Non-directional between sunrise and sunset (7 AM and 5:30 PM Eastern for February [1200-2230 UT]). This is to facilitate a non-directional proof as part of our long-awaited daytime antenna pattern upgrade project. At night we will be operating on our day pattern with 5 kW. These changes will not affect the operation of WFIL [560]. Good DXing (Rene' F. Tetro, Chief Engineer, Salem Communications, Philadelphia, Feb 20, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. NOVA M RADIO TO BEGIN BROADCASTING ON XM ON 1 MARCH Nova M Radio, Inc, a national progressive talk radio network in the US, plans to begin broadcasting on the XM Satellite Radio network on 1 March, 2007. Anita Drobny, the CEO of Nova M Radio, commented, “We are very excited to begin broadcasting on the XM Satellite Radio network, and help expand our liberal and progressive talk radio format.” Nova M Radio, Inc is in the business of building a national progressive talk radio network, with a partnership with the original founders of Air America Radio Network. Based in Phoenix Arizona, Nova M Radio currently broadcasts in San Francisco, Seattle, Sacramento, and Sirius Left radio network, with plans for additional affiliates throughout 2007. http://www.novamradio.com (February 21st, 2007 - 15:05 UTC by Andy, Media Network blog via DXLD) ** U S A. I am not a big opera fan, and seldom listen to one straight through, but I do enjoy the intermission features on the Met, and have found another opera show which is entertaining and down-to-earth with introductions to the operas at quite some length, starting UT Thursdays at 0400 for a 4-hour block: KCSN Opera House, via webcast from http://kcsn.org/kcsnoperahouse.htm This week it was Tannhäuser (Glenn Häuser?, UT Feb 22, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. Has anyone heard RN de la RASD anywhere? No sign of it here for the past week or more. Last heard on 6300, 1700 to 2400 UT (Bernie O'Shea, Ottawa, Ontario, Feb 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Could be on a totally new and undiscovered or covered up frequency (gh) RASD noted last time on SW 6300: Feb 7th, 8th, and 10th. Missed since then on all known RASD frequencies, except MW 1550, latter according to Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal. RASD technicians studied HF engineering in Cuba some 25 years ago, but - seemingly - got in trouble now, since new equipment (RIZ?) put into service some 18 months ago. 73 (Wolfgang Büschel, WORLD OF RADIO 1347, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DSWCI DX Window Feb 21 mentions that the last date heard on 6300 was Feb 11 rather than 10 (gh, DXLD) CLANDESTINE, 1550, Polisario Front, Tindouf, Algeria, was active yesterday's evening, i.e. 20 Feb, but airing nothing but the usual noise-like signal they insert prior to program start. They're loud & clear as usual now as I write, 2245 UT Feb 21. UNIDENTIFIED - 1550, jammer (Morocco?), 1907-..., 20 Feb, 24431, and rough DF did indicate it to emanate from the south. The Polisario Front was off this evening. This jammer was off at recheck 1935 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [and non]. SW Radio Africa jammed at weekends? A story in DXLD 7-022 suggested that SW Radio Africa was not jammed at weekends. Listening to 4880 at around 1730 last Saturday (17 Feb), I could hear what I assumed to be jamming underneath the SWRAF signal. The jamming was hard to describe - certainly "musical", though definitely not the usual Chinese music jammer. I think someone has described it as sounding like bagpipes, though I wouldn't use that description for what I heard. Apart from the jamming the channel was clear, and even with it SWRAF was good copy (Chris (UK) Greenway, Feb 20, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) SW Radio Africa is definitely jammed on weekends (Saturdays). Attached herewith 3 audio files for 27th Jan (Sat), 28th Jan (Sun) & 29th Jan (Mon). Note the jamming on 27th (Sat). Regds (Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi IN, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4880, SW R. Africa, Meyerton, S. Africa, 1848-1859*, 20 Feb, English, phone report, closing announcements & http://www.swradioafrica.com info, song & abrupt sign-off; 55444 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) i.e. no jamming or other interference heard whatsoever (gh, DXLD) Re Text messages via cell phone get the news into Zimbabwe (updated). Who pays for the text messages? The recipient, or SW Radio Africa? Update: Zimbabwe may not have such technology at present, but my friend Jukka Kinkamo in Finland reminds me of China's Golden Shield and similar projects. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service writes in its Commentary No. 89, September 2006: "The technical capacity of the system includes blocking domestic and overseas Web sites, filtering content and key words on Web pages, monitoring and suppressing e-mail and surfing; phone and SMS message tracking, hijacking PCs and sending out viruses." And this recent headline: "The Long Awaited SMS Firewall Is Here!" Best Security Tips, 15 February 2007. It refers to a new product from CM Technology: "Mobile companies such as telecom operators will be able to enforce local sms regulations, codes of conduct and privacy policies by using the Regulatory SMS Firewall." (see http://www.kimandrewelliott.com/index.php?id=1073 for four linx) It would therefore not be a good idea to decommission those shortwave transmitters (Kim Andrew Elliott, Posted: 20 Feb 2007, ibid.) UNIDENTIFIED. 5362, TRT (?), 2247-2303, 17 Feb, Turkish, songs, TS, news 2300; 44343; gone at recheck at 2309 but the carrier went on & off several times. Some external mixing spur? (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Only even-kHz MW harmonic it could be is 7 x 766, but 766 is not a frequency in the Eurasian bandplan, but instead 765. Missed it by that much (gh, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. The story comes to an end? No way. Hi Glenn. First the good news. Haven't heard any digital transmissions on 9760 ever since I wrote about it. Then the bad news. There are UNID digital signals on 31 metres, though. Yesterday (Feb 19, 2007) at 1900 I caught one on 9704 kHz, quite sharply 9 kHz wide. The transmission may have been more or less local. I can imagine the military force using any frequency for their communication they like, but their message bursts last only a couple of seconds (maximum), not several (tens of) minutes. Electric appliances at home usually create different type of interference, and the noise is not sharply on one exact frequency, with a more or less fixed bandwidth, located only on crowded BC bands. So, I tend to think these "digital ghosts" are somehow of broadcast origin. I guess I should stop worrying and do as I did yesterday. I tuned to something different, the BBC/Radio Scotland on 810 kHz and started enjoying the program. 73 de (Matti Ponkamo, Naantali, Finland, (KP10AK18), Feb 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE TINY TRAP +++++++++++++ ``Tiny Holland`` says Jim Shudow (sp?), Senior Foreign Correspondent, in a report on ABC`s Nightline, about this being the country of the world`s tallest people, male average 6`1`` (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ NEW ENGLAND TOWNS It is far from intuitive, as are so many New England pronunciations. It's especially confusing because only 40 miles away, you have Boston-area communities like Dorchester and Winchester that are pronounced pretty much just like they look, and which do have the "h" in them. (Ditto for Manchester, New Hampshire, also about 40 miles away.) Then there's Leominster and Tewksbury and Billerica and Haverhill and all those other communities that don't sound very much like the way they look. To bring this back around to radio, it took me a while when I started on the air at WCAP in Lowell to get the pronunciations right - as a Rochesterian, I'm basically a midwesterner, too. s (Scott Fybush, NY, NRC-AM via DXLD) It gets worse: some towns have more than one pronunciation, even by locals - Taunton - usually would rhyme with "Lawn-ton" but some old-timers say Tan-ton. Chelmsford - most say it as it looks but I hear "Chemsford" (minus the 'l') once in a while. Norwich - I hear the as-spelled variety and "Norrich" or "Norridge" sometimes - not sure if the Connecticut one or the Vermont one gets mangled up more often. Lowell - can be two syllables or simply "Lole" (I remember the radio ad-campaign with the "There's a Lot to Like About Lole" jingle. I thought the rhyme to it was going to be "Most of you thought it was just a hole.") Billerica - correctly "Bill - er - RICK - a" but sometimes mangled to "Barricka", "Bricka", and (by those outsourced telephone operators in India) BillaREEKa. Founded in 1655 and named after Billericay (Billa- Ricky) in the old country, as mentioned in an Ian Dury & the Blockheads song. Woburn - more say "Woo-burn", some "Woe-burn" (as in "woe is me"). When even the locals can't agree on how to pronounce some of these towns, it's no wonder that out-of-towners are usually stymied and generally get it wrong. Hollywood movies and TV shows set in Boston are a prime example. Since most radio announcers started out somewhere else, they screw things up pretty badly too. Car commercials seem the worst. They have the largest amount of people rhyming "Route One" with "Out One" - a sure sign of a non-native since, around here, "Route" and "Root" are pronounced about the same (Mark Connelly, WA1ION - Billerica, MA, ibid.) I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post. Perhaps one of my personal favorites, and I never understood it fully, was the pronunciation of Worcester. Many pronounce it Wooster... rhyming with rooster, others pronounce it wurster, as in to liver-"wurst". I've even heard a few pronounce it "Worchester", with the accent on "chester". However people may pronounce them, they are all located in my favorite part of the U.S. 73- Good DX (Gary Wilt- W2GJW, Wood Ridge, NJ, NRCDXAS Webmaster, ibid.) And then there's Quin-zee, Mass., as opposed to Quin-see, Ill. And try to pronounce Waltham the Massachusetts way. But then you really get into trouble when you do Texas pronunciations in Massachusetts. Many Texans, maybe most, pronounce the state Mass-a- TOO-shetts. And there was a Patriot quarterback about 35 years ago who got into trouble. His name was Taliaferro, but he came from Texas where the family pronounced the name TOLL-i-ver. It was a common Italo-American name and the Sons of Italy in the Boston area were up in arms because he wouldn't call himself Tall-yuh-FAIR-oh. As an old radio man, figuring out how different families pronounced the same name. In Jefferson County, Ill., one branch of the Wyciskalla family pronounced it Witch-is-KALL-lah; the other branch pronounced it WISS-kuh-lah. Both branches made the news every once in a while. I was glad when I moved from WMIX to the Register-News, because at least I knew how to spell it. One of the weirder pronunciations, though, came from a new WMIX announcer I'd hired. He was reading a lost dog item and Chihuahua became Chee-HOO-ah-HOO-ah. I grew up, by the way, in OR-y-gun, Not Or-e-GONE, and in the Will-AM- ette Valley, not the Will-uh-METT. There were bumper stickers "ORYGUN" and "Willamette, Dammit" to try to teach Easterners how to get it write (Qal R. Mann, Krumudgeon, ibid.) And you haven't even mentioned some of the picturesque Indian names of some Massachusetts & Rhode Island towns....none of which I could spell correctly without an Atlas, let alone pronounce. FWIW, and speaking as I was about PA, nearby Worcester, PA is pronounced 'War- sester' or 'Wor-sester'. Go figure. Surely some of this group recall the sportscaster back in the 1950's who pronounced on air golfer Chi Chi Rodriquez ad "Chai Chai Rodrigees ( hard g )... (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA ( 360' ASL ), ibid.) Both that and the "chi-HOO-ah-hoo-ah" were also Les Nessman-isms from WKRP --- but since so much of WKRP was based on real-life (or close to it) tales from the broadcasting world, I'm sure it really happened somewhere, too. "Mr. Rod-ri-geez shot seven below par. Hopefully, he will come closer next time..." s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) It was a reasonably well-known ( and should've known better ) announcer, I believe on network radio. I'm hoping someone will remember who (Russ Edmunds, ibid.) I can't recall when WKRP was aired, but George Sterling Smith called it a Chi-HOO-ah-Hoo-ah in 1971. QRM (John Callarman, ibid.) Subject: More pronunciation lessons Now that we have beat up New England for their "many" pronunciations, the Great Lakes area shares in the fun also. The large city near where I live has at least 4 pronuciations. Midwesterners say "Duh TROIT" Southerners say "DEE troit" Old school from the early French settlers "DAY twah" Canadians (not all but many) say "DEE troy it" It is from the old schoolers that Detroit Metro Airport uses "DTW" for its airport code. I won't get started on how bad some of the street names around here get mangled.... 73 (Joe Miller, KD8DLU, Troy, MI, NRC-AM via DXLD) Pennsylvania isn't a lot better. How many of you know how to pronounce "Bala Cynwyd" ? If you know anything about Welsh, you have at least a clue. On the other hand, Punxsutawney pronounces as it looks (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA ( 360' ASL ), ibid.) I should mention that I lived in Monroe, Louisiana for a while in 1961-62, where half the population pronounced it Mun-ROW, Loo-ee-zee- ANN-a and the other half called it MAWN-Row LOO-zi-anna. And I guess everybody knows by now that it's KAY-ro, Illinois, not KI- ro. But did you know it was New AY-thens, not New ATH-ens? (Qal R. Mann, ibid.) Well, since nobody answered, the correct pronounciation is "Bala Kin' wid" or, alternatively some locals pronounce it "Bala Kin' wood". Furriners call say "Sin' wid". (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA, ibid.) Subject: Re: [NRC-AM] New England towns and midwestern cousins To begin with, I pronounce my name with a soft "g", or "dj" sound (thinke of "engine"), but I've run into those who pronounce it with the original German hard "g" sound. In and around Kansas, there are any number of place names which are traps and quick identifiers of carpet bagger broadcasters. Nevada, Missouri? Nuh-VAY-duh, and pick your preference as to how you pronounce "Missouri": miz-UR-uh for me. Arkansas City? Best way is simply "Ark City", but be advised that it's ar-KAN-zus in this state. Osawatomie? You may end up there if you try to keep up with all the little towns named after native Americans (it's the home of the state mental institution), but when you arrive in your straight jacket, be sure to say "o" (long o, not "aw") suh-WAT-uh-me. And then there are altered place names ... someone's bad handwriting got Elsmore re-christened from "Elsinore" when the United States post office was recording names in Allen County, where I grew up. And I have no idea of how to pronounce "Kechi". Went through there (north of Wichita) a couple of months ago, and I just kept on going ... (Paul Swearingen, tuh-PEE-kuh, ibid.) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ DIGITAL RADIO MONDIAL (DRM) schedule on SW. Last updated: February 19, 2007 with kW, degrees: [see also GERMANY; LUXEMBOURG; UNIDENTIFIED] 0000-0100 9790 SAC 070 / 227 NoAm TDP Radio Dance Mx 0000-2400 5990 JUN 050 / N-D Europe RTL Radio French 0000-2400 6095 JUN 050 / 060 Europe RTL Radio German 0100-0200 6080 SAC 070 / 227 NoAm CRI English 0200-0400 15640 K/A 090 / 250 China VOR Russian WS 0400-0600 15640 K/A 090 / 250 China VOR English WS 0400-2205 6085 ISM 010 / N-D Europe BR-B5 aktuell German 0600-0655 9850 FLE 040 / 123 SoEaEu RNW Dutch 0600-1300 9890 RAN 050 / 000 SoPac RNZI English 0630-1130 6175 FON 010 / 330 Europe RMC French 0700-0755 7300 FLE 040 / 230 SoWeEu RNW English 0700-0800 11615 MSK 035 / 240 Europe VOR English 0700-0900 5875 KVI 050 / 190 Europe BBC WS English 0700-0900 7335 KVI 050 / 220 Europe BBC WS English, test irreg 0700-0900 6130 WOF 100 / 172 Europe DW various 0700-1500 7320 RMP 035 / 080 Europe BBC WS English 0800-0855 7240 FLE 040 / 123 CeEu RNW Dutch 0800-0855 13810 SIN 090 / 030 Europe DW various 0800-0900 9655 MOS 040 / 285 Europe DW various 0800-0900 11615 MSK 035 / 240 Europe VOR/RIR Russian 0900-1000 11615 MSK 035 / 240 Europe VOR English 0900-1055 6015 FLE 040 / 191 SoEu RNW Dutch Mon-Fri 0900-1055 7240 FLE 040 / 123 CeEu RNW Dutch Sat/Sun 0900-1155 13810 SIN 090 / 020 Europe DW various 0900-1155 15725 SIN 090 / 050 Europe DW various 0900-1200 7275 WOF 100 / 114 Europe DW various 0900-1330 13620 KWT 120 / 310 Europe Radio Kuwait Arabic 0900-1430 9470 KVI 050 / 190 Europe BBC WS English 0900-1430 9480 KVI 050 / 220 Europe BBC WS English 0915-0945 5945 WER 040 / 330 Europe BVBN English 1000-1100 9760 MOS 050 / 295 UK CVC English 1000-1200 11615 MSK 035 / 240 Europe VOR German 1100-1255 15605 FLE 040 / 191 SoEu RNW Dutch 1200-1300 6130 WOF 100 / 172 Europe DW various 1200-1300 13770 SMG 125 / 300 NoAm Vatican Radio various 1200-1400 15440 SIN 090 / 030 Europe DW various 1200-1400 11615 MSK 035 / 260 Europe DW various 1300-1325 6065 RMP 035 / 095 Europe Radio Prague German Sat 1300-1330 7275 FLE 040 / 123 CeEu Radio Sweden German 1300-1550 7145 RAN 050 / 000 SoPac RNZI English 1300-1600 6130 WOF 100 / 114 Europe DW various 1300-2000 17875 GUF 150 / 320 NoAm RFI French Mon-Fri 1330-1355 9750 RMP 035 / 095 Europe Radio Prague German Fri 1330-1355 6065 RMP 035 / 095 Europe Radio Prague English Sat 1330-1400 7275 FLE 040 / 123 CeEu Radio Sweden English 1345-1745 9880 KWT 120 / 282 NoAf Radio Kuwait Arabic 1400-1425 9750 RMP 035 / 095 Europe Radio Prague English Fri 1400-1430 9750 RMP 035 / 095 Europe RNZI English Sat 1400-1500 5905 MSK 035 / 260 Europe VOR Russian 1400-1555 13590 SIN 090 / 030 Europe DW various 1400-1600 9815 MOS 040 / 295 Europe DW various 1430-1500 9750 RMP 035 / 095 Europe KBS World English Fri 1430-1500 7240 FLE 040 / 123 CeEu RCI English 1430-1900 7465 KVI 050 / 190 Europe BBC WS English 1430-1900 7485 KVI 050 / 220 Europe BBC WS English, co-ch KTWR Korean till 1630 1500-1515 6060 SMG 125 / 350 Europe Vatican Radio German 1500-1530 7340 WER 060 / 300 Europe RRI English 1500-1600 6015 ISS 035 / 060 Europe TDP Radio Dance Mx 1500-1600 9750 RMP 035 / 095 Europe CBS RTI English Fri 1500-1600 5905 MSK 035 / 260 Europe VOR English 1500-1800 5875 RMP 035 / 080 Europe BBC WS English 1505-1605 9800 SAC 070 / 268 NoAm RCI English 1515-1530 6060 SMG 125 / 350 Europe Vatican Radio Polish 1550-1750 9890 RAN 050 / 000 SoPac RNZI English 1600-0800 3995 SIN 090 / 040 Europe DW various 1600-1655 7240 FLE 040 / 123 Europe RNW Dutch 1600-1700 9750 RMP 035 / 095 Europe NHK English Fri 1605-1635 9800 SAC 070 / 268 NoAm RCI Russian Sat/Sun 1605-1705 9800 SAC 070 / 268 NoAm RCI Russian Mon-Fri 1635-1705 9800 SAC 070 / 268 NoAm RCI Ukranian Sat/Sun 1705-1905 9800 SAC 070 / 268 NoAm RCI English 1750-1850 11675 RAN 050 / 035 SoPac RNZI English 1800-1900 5970 RMP 035 / 080 Europe BBC WS English 1800-2000 17860 SGO 015 / 045 Brazil CVC Portuguese Mon-Fri 1850-1950 15720 RAN 050 / 000 SoPac RNZI English 1900-2055 3965 ISS 001 / 065 France RFI French 1905-2005 9800 SAC 070 / 268 NoAm RCI French 1950-2050 11675 RAN 050 / 325 SoPac RNZI English 2000-2300 6105 MSK 035 / 260 Europe VOR English WS 2045-2130 9800 SAC 070 / 268 NoAm Vatican Radio English 2050-2300 15720 RAN 050 / 000 SoPac RNZI English 2130-2200 9800 SAC 070 / 268 NoAm RNW English 2200-0200 11675 KWT 120 / 350 NoAm Radio Kuwait Arabic 2200-2300 9800 SAC 070 / 268 NoAm RCI English 2200-2255 15425 GUF 125 / 320 NoAm RNW English 2300-0600 17675 RAN 050 / 000 SoPac RNZI English 2300-1755 3965 ISS 001 / 065 France RFI French 2300-2330 9800 SAC 070 / 268 NoAm DW English 2300-2345 7370 SMG 125 / 300 NoAm Vatican Radio English 2330-2400 9800 SAC 070 / 268 NoAm Radio Sweden English (DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Feb 20 via DXLD) RADIO WORLD'S "GUY WIRE" PREDICTIONS FOR 2007, and it's well worth your time: http://www.radioworld.com/pages/s.0048/t.1596.html Some highlights and my comments: "The nighttime prohibition of AM HD operations will be lifted, with the caveat that interference complaints be appropriately handled. I don't see a rapid increase in the number of new AM HD operations during the year as existing HD stations go full-time and deal with the first wave of complaints. The majority will come from listeners outside protected contours and DXers, in addition to station licensees and their operatives." Those damn DXers!!!! Messing up things again for poor broadcasters!!! Ye gods, are we really that influential? I had no idea! "Unfortunately I do not see any sign the NAB is interested in providing leadership to advance any proposals to help clean up the AM band. Fewer stations and less interference would obviously give AM HD a much better chance of succeeding." Fewer stations and less interference are what AM needs to succeed, IBOC or not. You have too many stations chasing a finite pool of ad dollars and shrinking base of listeners. "Another missing ingredient in the HD rollout is the lack of portable and pocket-sized HD Radios." Really? When was the last time you saw someone, especially someone under 40, listening to a portable or pocket-sized radio? MP3 players are the portable and pocket-sized audio devices of choice these days; if similar IBOC radios were currently available, I suspect only radioheads like us would care. "The advent of IP Internet 'radios' is for many the harbinger of what will happen to radio broadcasting." I hope Guy doesn't get burned at the stake for such heresy! But he's right. "With every passing month, it's becoming abundantly evident that radio stations need to focus more than ever on content creation and stream it via their Internet Web sites to ensure themselves a home base in tomorrow's IP world." He's right again. "The rules that keep satellite a national service rather than allowing local content also need to be retained." Really? Who benefits from such a restriction, other than existing terrestrial publications? I despise business people who want the government to protect them from competition. "It seems that every few days a new model cell phone is introduced with more features. . . . How many more apparently desirable features can cell phone makers stuff into these small handheld devices and still make them user-friendly before we hit overload?" Dunno. . . . but looking at all the kids who text message, play games, etc., on their mobile phones, it looks like feature overload is a long way in the future, especially for the under-30 crowd. What's puzzling is that Guy doesn't even mention QualComm's MediaFLO and Crown Castle's Modeo systems for direct broadcasting to mobile phones. Those are potentially huge developments, maybe even bigger than mobile broadband. Guy really does need to broaden his RF/wireless industry literature reading. . . . "I will venture to predict that while IP devices will certainly be a big part of our future, it will be a very long time before they completely replace broadcasting as we know it." Oh, I doubt mobile broadband, cellphonecasting, etc., will ever totally replace AM and FM broadcasting. But I do think you're going to see a major "thinning of the herd" among terrestrial broadcasters, with many stations going dark for purely economic reasons due to new competition. The good stations will survive, the mediocre and bad stations will die (Harry Helms W5HLH, Smithville, TX EL19 http://topsecrettourism.com ABDX via DXLD) IBOC: see also OKLAHOMA PROPAGATION +++++++++++ Once again our friends at http://www.spaceweather.com give us news valuable to both the shortwave radio and amateur astronomy hobbies: AURORA MYSTERY MISSION Scientists have been studying auroras for centuries, and you might suppose there's no mystery left in the Northern Lights. Wrong. Sometimes, with no warning, gently shimmering pale auroras erupt in a riot of wildly-shifting colors. This is called an "auroral substorm" and no one knows what causes it. NASA’s plan is to launch a fleet of five satellites into Earth orbit. The name of the mission is “Themis” – named after the Goddess of Good Counsel and the antithesis of “Nemesis” - and its goal is to crack the mystery of the substorm. NASA is undertaking the mission to investigate what causes auroras in the Earth's atmosphere to change in appearance and dissipate. Discovering why the light of auroras can fluctuate and fade will provide scientists with important details on how the planet's protective magnetosphere works and on the sun-Earth connection. In the process, researchers hope to learn new things about Earth's magnetosphere. Taking multitasking to new heights, NASA launched the five Themis satellites aboard a single Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 6:01 p.m. EST, on February 17. Racing into space on the flaming power of three rocket stages and nine solid rocket motors, the Themis satellites will soon disperse around Earth to monitor auroras like the Northern Lights. [and like the Southern Lights, I betcha --- gh] (via Mark Coady, ON, ODXA via DXLD) QRX FOR 10 METERS Friday, at 12:01 am, lots of WTFDA members who are Tech-class hams will finally be allowed onto parts of the HF spectrum. Of course, for most, that will mean trying their hands at 10m (28 MHz), the only spot on HF that brings voice privileges for the Techs. So, I am wondering how many ? if any ? plan to be on 10m next weekend? I thought I might make a few scans through the band as the weekend goes by, looking for new folks. Sadly, we are at the most quiet time imaginable for 10m, but it is a fun band when open. I did notice some Es a few days ago; perhaps we might get lucky. As I have mentioned before, making a signal on 10m would not be that hard. I have watched eBay over the past few days, and RS HTX-10s, all- mode 25 W radios that I really like for what they are? are selling for about $100. Making a dipole for the band is just not that hard. So, the motivated can be on quite easily. Anyone planning to make the jump? (Peter Baskind, J.D., LL.M., N4LI Germantown, TN/EM55, 901-624-5295, Feb 17, WTFDA via DXLD) In the ongoing ARRL International DX Contest, I have made four contacts on 10 meters in the last 6 hours or so. Three Argentines and a Bolivian. California is also coming in pretty well. And I'm running only five watts (Doug Smith, TN, 1943 UT Feb 17, ibid.) 10 meters is an easy band to work the world on when the conditions get good; hopefully the new hams will wait out this low cycle. It seems so long since you could turn on 10m and hear all of Europe and Africa coming in; I almost forget what those days were like. 10 is also a great band for anyone to try all kinds of new gain antennas on, like a moxon or a 2 or 3 element quad etc. (Craig, ibid.) You know, I got my license in 2001, just after the peak of Cycle 23. I didn't understand or appreciate just how good it was, as I had no frame of reference. Western Europe was just interference. Britain, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, etc., 20+ over S9. Japan strong enough in the afternoon to work FM in the car. And backscatter... remember 10m backscatter? Central Asia routinely at 1 watt. South America S9 at 100 mW, off an attic dipole. And, on the domestic side... the West Coast would be so strong, I could darn near work it with the radio "off." :) I miss it; but, it'll be back. Gee... when was the last time I even HEARD Alaska on 10m? It's been a while (Peter, N4LI Baskind, TN, ibid.) MORE LONG-HAUL TRANS-EQUATORIAL FM DX, CARIBBEAN TO SOUTHERN BRASIL [times presumably UT, with SINPOs] SAINT LUCIA 97.3 0059 09/02 R. Saint Lucia, Castries, mx caribenha, EE 45233 97.3 0108 10/02 R. Saint Lucia, Castries, px de música country, OM, EE 43343 97.3 0029 16/02 R. Saint Lucia, Castries, OM/OM, talks, EE 43343 GUADELOUPE 97.0 0102 09/02 RFO, Basse-Terre, YL, nxs, FF 45233 97.0 0109 10/02 RFO, Basse-Terre, OM/OM, talks, FF 43343 89.8 0125 10/02 R. Haute Tension, Basse-Terre, mx caribenha, FF 44243 SAINT VINCENT & GRENADINES 99.9 0107 09/02 WE FM, Kingstown, YL/OM, nxs, EE 33333 99.9 0115 10/02 WE FM, Kingstown, OM, nxs internacionais, id “WE FM”, EE 43343 90.7 0121 10/02 NBC, Kingstown, OM/OM, talks, EE // 107.5 MHz 45344 107.5 0123 10/02 NBC, Kingstown, OM/OM, talks, EE 35233 90.7 0031 16/02 NBC, Kingstown, OM, nxs, EE 32332 99.9 0045 16/02 WE FM, Kingstown, OM, anúncios??, EE 33333 MARTINIQUE 94.0 0110 10/02 RFO, Trinité, OM/OM, talks, FF 45243 94.3 0112 10/02 RFO, Morne Rouge, OM/OM, talks, FF // 94.0 e 92.0 MHz 45243 92.0 0113 10/02 RFO, Macouba, OM/OM, talks, FF 44243 94.0 0033 16/02 RFO, Trinté, OM/OM, talks, FF 45243 94.3 0034 16/02 RFO, Morne Rouge, OM/OM, talks, FF // 94.0 MHz 23232 ANTIGUA 91.9 0120 10/02 Hitz FM, Saint John’s, mx caribenha, EE 44333 91.1 0127 10/02 Observer FM, Saint John’s, YL/OM, talks, EE 33343 UNID 103.7 0137 10/02 ZROD, Christiansted, mx caribenha variada, id OM: “1037 ZROD”, EE 45333 103.7 0036 16/02 Unid (ZROD - Ilhas Virgens Britãnicas ou Hitz FM - Saint Vincent & Grenadines?? ), mx caribenha, OM, EE 35233 101.4 0047 16/02 Unid, OM/YL, mx, relg, FF 35233 100.9 0053 16/02 Unid, mx caribenha, FF 25232 96.7 0100 16/02 Unid (Victory in Christ Radio - Saint Kitts & Nevis ou ZIZ - Saint Vincent & Grenadines?? ), OM, relg, EE ????? (RUBENS FERRAZ PEDROSO, BANDEIRANTES- PR, BRASIL, RECEPTOR: SONY ICF SW 7600G, @TITIVADE DX Feb 18 via DXLD) FM --- 30 de janeiro de 2007 - entre 2215 e 2250 Hs Brasília [0015-0050 UT Jan 31] 95.5 - ZJB - Montserrat - Voz masculina em ingles 97.3 - Santa Lucia - Mx e voz masculina em ingles 98.1 - The One - Barbados - Mx caribenha - ???- Mx caribenha num idioma não id. locutor identificou em francês “..Radio Liberté.....” mais não tem nenhuma emissora relacionada na lista de emissoras caribenhas 90.1 - ????- Mx caribenha e voz masculina em inglês. Essa e inédita aqui pra mim 90.7 - BBS - Barbados - Voz Masculina e feminina numa conversa 92.5 - WORO Radio Oro - Porto Rico - pregação religiosa em espanhol 92.7 - ????? - Mx caribenha idioma não ID. Inédita pra mim e desapareceu rapidamente 98.5 - WPRM - Porto Rico - Mx religiosa “..aleluia, aleluia...” 89.8 - ?????- Mx caribenha na voz masculina parecendo francês e reçepção boa, porem sumiu rapido. Não consta essa frequência nas listas de emissoras caribenhas. 94.7 - ????- Voz masculina e feminina em inglês 03 de fevereiro de 2007- entre 2245 e 2340Hs Brasília [0045-0140 UT Feb 4] 90.7 - BBS - Barbados - Voz Masculina em inglês e Mx 94.3 - RFO - martinica - Mx típica da região 94.7 - ???? - Mx com voz masculina e locutor num idioma nao id 95.5 - ZJB - Monteserrat - Mx voz feminina 97.3 - Santa Lucia - Mx estilo country, com recepção quase local 98.5 - WPRM - Porto Rico - locutor conversa com mulher em espanhol 88.1 - ???? - Mx voz masculina repetindo varias vezes uma parte da Mx 88.5 - Possivelmente a Radio Comando 88 da Rep Dominicana - Mx parecida com estilo mexicano, no idioma espanhol bem claro. sumiu em seguida apos minutos de gravação 09 de fevereiro de 2007- entre 23Hs e 00Hs Brasília [0100-0200 UT Feb 10] 97.3 - Santa Lúcia - Voz masculina em inglês 94.3 - RFO- Martinica - Mx tipica da região, e voz masculina em francês 95.5 - ZJB - Montesserat - final de uma Mx e locutor em inglês 90.7 - BBS - Barbados - Mx e locutor em inglês 98.1 - The One - Barbados - Voz masculina e feminina em inglês 88.1 - ??? - Mx e locutor num idioma não id 92.9 - Voice of Barbados - Barbados- Locutor no idioma inglês 10 de Fevereiro de 2007 [no time; around the same?] 98.1 - The One - Barbados - Voz masculina em ingles 90.7 - BBS - Barbados - Conversa entre 2 homens em ingles 92.9 - Voice of Barbados - Barbados - Mx típica da região 97.3 - Radio Santalucia - Santalucia- Mx estilo country 90.1 - ???? - Mx parecendo evangelica e locutor em ingles 94.3 - RFO - Martinica - Mx tipica do local 107.9 - Radio Kairi - Dominica - Mx caribenha e locutor falando em ingles no meio das Mx. Sinal quase local 98.5 - ??? - Mx caribenha e locutor em ingles parecendo Id a emissora porem meu ingles ruim não permitiu a id 88.1 - ??? - Mx em idioma que parece frances 88.7 - Possivelmente Joy FM de Dominicana - Voz masculina em inglês [meaning Dominica?] 91.2 - RCI - Martinica - Voz feminina em francês. Muita interferencia da 91.1 MHz 94.7 - Possivelmente WCOM Onda94 de Porto rico - Mx caribenha em idioma não id 95.3 - ???- Locutor voz masculina em idioma inglês (ANDERSON TORQUATO, GAROPABA-SC, BRASIL, RECEPTOR SONY 7600G, @tividade DX Feb 18 via DXLD) The geomagnetic field was disturbed during 12 – 16 February due to a recurrent coronal hole high-speed stream. Activity ranged from quiet to minor storm levels during the disturbance with a brief period of major storm at high latitudes on 14 February. ACE near-real-time solar wind data indicated the recurrent high-speed stream commenced on 12 February accompanied by a brief density increase (peak 51 p/cc at 12/1147 UTC) and a solar sector boundary shift. Velocity reached a peak of 778 km/s at 14/0830 UTC. Maximum IMF Bz variations occurred during 12 – 13 February with a peak southward Bz of minus 11 nT at 13/1558 UTC. Field activity decreased to quiet to unsettled levels during 17 – 18 February as coronal hole effects subsided. FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 21 FEBRUARY - 19 MARCH 2007 Solar activity is expected to be at very low to low levels. No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to reach high levels on 21 – 24 February, 26 February – 04 March; and again during 07 – 19 March. The geomagnetic field is expected to be at quiet levels during 21 – 24 February. Field activity is expected to increase to unsettled to minor storm levels during 25 – 27 February (with major storm periods likely at high latitudes) due to a recurrent high-speed stream. Quiet to unsettled conditions are expected during 28 February – 11 March. Another recurrent coronal hole high-speed stream is expected to disturb the field during 12 – 13 March with unsettled to minor storm conditions expected. Quiet to unsettled conditions are expected for the rest of the period. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2007 Feb 20 2053 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Environment Center # Product description and SEC contact on the Web # http://www.sec.noaa.gov/wwire.html # # 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table # Issued 2007 Feb 20 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2007 Feb 21 80 5 2 2007 Feb 22 80 5 2 2007 Feb 23 85 5 2 2007 Feb 24 85 5 2 2007 Feb 25 85 25 5 2007 Feb 26 85 15 3 2007 Feb 27 90 15 3 2007 Feb 28 90 10 3 2007 Mar 01 90 5 2 2007 Mar 02 85 5 2 2007 Mar 03 85 5 2 2007 Mar 04 85 5 2 2007 Mar 05 85 8 3 2007 Mar 06 85 10 3 2007 Mar 07 80 5 2 2007 Mar 08 80 5 2 2007 Mar 09 75 5 2 2007 Mar 10 75 5 2 2007 Mar 11 75 8 3 2007 Mar 12 75 20 4 2007 Mar 13 75 15 3 2007 Mar 14 75 12 3 2007 Mar 15 75 8 3 2007 Mar 16 75 5 2 2007 Mar 17 75 5 2 2007 Mar 18 75 5 2 2007 Mar 19 75 5 2 (http://www.sec.noaa.gov/radio via WORLD OF RADIO 1347, DXLD) TIPS FOR RATIONAL LIVING ++++++++++++++++++++++++ IS AMERICA TOO DAMN RELIGIOUS? debate, audio http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7422542 This is an excellent series of debate programs, Intelligence Squared, http://www.npr.org/intelligencesquared which appears once a month or less. Note that audio of the edited show as broadcast is available, but also the original much longer full debates. More about the original events at http://www.iq2us.org (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###