DX LISTENIING DIGEST 00-99, August 4, 2000 edited by Glenn Hauser, wghauser@hotmail.com {Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only providing full credit be maintained at all stages and we are provided exchange copies. DXLD may not be reposted in its entirety without permission} ** CANADA. Thanks to a tip from a friend of mine, Howard Gontovnick, of Chomedey-Laval, Quebec, I'd like to pass along some info about some interesting websites which have popped up across Canada. The first one which Howard discovered was: http://www.fmmontreal.com The site is very professional looking, but has little info to tell you who these people are. As it turns out, Neal Ford, former Montreal RadioDigest.com correspondent also found fmtoronto.com and fmottawa.com. Subsequent to that, I discovered that similar sites exist in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg. There may be others, but we haven't found them yet. Whoever is behind this seems to have some advertising dollars behind it, and is seeing to be quite aggressive in signing up members (Sheldon Harvey, Greenfield Park, Quebec, August 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Offers 50 commercial-free `station` streams (gh) ** CHIAPAS [non]. Dear Mr. Hauser, First let me say it is always a pleasure to hear your show on air! A real treat! I sending this as it comes to my attention that one C. Crawford has suggested that KIPM is related to the Mexican Clandestine La voz de La Zapista. This is not true. While I do air over a dozen 1 hour feature shows of Pirate-tainment. I do not feature this station in my programming. Perhaps you can alert folks before I get a bunch of QSL requests for none KIPM programming. I also wish to get my hands on a Zapista QSL should they become available! KIPM does feature currently 4 8 1/2 x 11" color QSL cards. Each more disturbing then the next. The reaction of most first time viewers is to curl up in a fetal position and become disbondent. Happy to converse with you on any other KIPM related matters in the future! 73's (Alan Maxwell, August 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHIAPAS [non]. Hi Glen, Radio Bob here of Radio Bob's Communications Network, a N Am. SW pirate op since '92 and droperator of Pirate Drop Box 24 Lula, Ga. 30554. Saw a log you posted from Charlie Crawford reguarding my mail client station, KIPM as having broadcasted a program of V Zapatista in the 21 meter pirate band a while back. Allen Maxwell, station op of KIPM assures me it 'twas not him airing this program. The program simply appeared after a KIPM broadcast of the same day and Mr Crawford's imagination took over from there. The way your log reads it appears that dx'ers can get a V Z QSL by sending a report to KIPM at Lula. Well I will tell you that this ain't happening. I want nothing to do with this clandestine station which happens to concern blasting a neighboring country which is friendly to the USA. I'd rather imagine that these broadcasts have caught the attention of the FCC, an agency which I'd prefer not to have many intimate dealings with as you might surmise. I'd appreciate if you could print this correction/clarification in the next soonest possible edition of MT. Nevertheless any mail addressed to VZ showing up at Lula is going strait to the trash unopened. Thanks for your time. 73's (Rbob, August 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. CM& [sic – supposed to be some other symbol? No, the ampersand also appears on their website. How do you pronounce it? -gh] TV newscast available live on Internet | Excerpts from report from Colombian newspaper 'El Espectador' web site on 1st August From your house, office or from Tokyo, Japan, with a couple of clicks, you can enter cyberspace and see the noon and evening transmissions of the [commercial] CM& [TV] newscast. Such media as CNN use this technological advance, but in Colombia it will be the first time that a television newscast has gambled on the usefulness of the network of networks. "The idea emerged thinking about the Colombians abroad and the people interested in knowing what is going on in the country. We were also thinking about the people who are in offices and do not have a television set or who are simply very busy," Ricardo Galan, deputy director of CM& said. Another innovation will be that the visitors to the CM& web site (http://www.cmi.com.co) will be able to consult the newscasts of the previous five days. The technological platform was developed by the Colombian company, Paginas.net. "The newscast generates its video through the system's central console, which receives the microwave signal. We then placed an image-capturing card in the two main computers to upload the signal to the Internet, thanks to the installation, in one of the computers, of Microsoft's Windows Media software, which digitizes the video," Camilo Saenz, technology manager of Paginas.net, explained. With this innovation, it is expected that in the long term the newscast will be replacing the microwave service because the correspondents will be able to send their signal via Internet... The system will be in the firing line for the first time this Monday [1st August] during the evening transmission. Source: 'El Espectador' web site, Bogota, in Spanish 1 Aug 00 (BBC Monitoring via DXLD) ** COSTA RICA. James and Debra Latham reported on RFPI Mailbag first airing at 2000 UT Friday August 4: Still deciding on which antenna to build for 6970. The WIDA mentioned previously would have 50-ohm matching problems. Another design looked great on computer model, until another tower nearby was introduced. So may put up provisionally a 2-element vertical yagi, with about 5 dB gain, rather than another design which would take longer but have 8-12 dB gain. Listeners are invited to E-mail their preferences, and a decision will be made within one week. Part of the solar system is now funxioning, module #1, which does not yet include the panels, but power at the studio is no longer subject to interruption as this kicks in without a glitch when commercial power fails. This allows the recording of programs [on VCR for 8-hour and 16-hour later play back, presumably] to continue without interruption, tho the transmitters will still go off (notes by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAYSIA. Following the serious fire at its radio centre a few weeks ago, RTM has introduced a number of temporary changes to its services: Domestic services generally carry news every 2 hours rather than on the hour; the English service Radio 4 on 7295 kHz & FM now carries news at the top of odd hours UTC Time signals are no longer being broadcast The external sces Suara Malaysia and Suara Islam have moved to temporary studios in Kajang, usually reflected in opening announcements. The HF transmitting station at Kajang continues to suffer its own problems, with strong harmonics noted recently on 9690 (2x4845), 11930v (2x5965v) and 12050 (2x6025). There have been many long breaks on 4845 during the past week, and 7295 has also been observed with an intermittent distortion problem. (Alan Davies, Malaysia, Cumbre DX August 3 via DXLD) ** PAKISTAN. Hello Glenn, There is another alteration to the Radio Pakistan schedule. Propagation has permitted reception of their Indonesian service 0900-0930 and I found them still using 17660 and not 17510 as planned. This is via Islamabad and // should be 15485 (inaudible due BBC co-ch). The group of Asian programmes between 1000 and 1245 is also heard on 17655 - this appears to be via Islamabad and not Karachi, but no positive information as yet. 15625 is faintly heard but there is no trace of 12015 (LUF?) (Noël Green, UK, August 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Today, I spoke with two different officials at NBC in order to get the most accurate picture of some recent PNG shortwave stories. I spoke with both Francisca Mariday, Senior Planning Officer, and George Alokaka, Senior Technical Officer: 3290 Radio Central: both confirm that this station was recently on for a single day as reported by myself and Chris Hambly in Australia. The studio to transmitter link is still being worked on so the transmitter test was done using a feed of Karai National Radio [as heard here in Wyoming.] The STL should be done shortly and the station could return as early as Monday, August 7th. 3305 Radio Western: a senior technician was recently at this station and 'fixed' it, but it has apparently gone off again. I heard them on Jul 11, running // to 4890. 3345 Radio Northern: Alokaka says this one is off air, awaiting spares. 5985 NBC: was recently reported by Padula in EDXP around 2200. Both NBC officials tell me that they are only using 9675 and 4890 on the following schedule- 9675 8:30 AM-5:30 PM and 4890 5:30-midnight PNG time. Personally, I think there was a punch up error that Bob heard that these officials weren't aware of. Please note that NBC still has a single 100 kW transmitter operating at half power. So if you don't hear 9675, then try 5985 (All above DIRECT Johnson Cumbre DX Copyright Aug 3 via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. This summarises PNG HF operations, based on monitoring observations made during my trip to North Queensland between Jul-29 and Aug-03. Scheduling for many stations is erratic, and inconsistent from day to day. Some stations remain on air all night during feasts, "sing-sings", and festivals. Weekend evening transmissions are often extended to past the usual 1200 s/off. There is only very limited activity during the morning period, with most stations preferring to operate during evening hours. MORNING TRANSMISSIONS Kundu Service: *1900-2200* 3315 Manus 3375 Western Highlands 3385 East New Britain Karai Service 4890 Port Moresby *1900-2200* DAYTIME TRANMISSIONS Kundu Network 5985 East New Britain - on weekdays only, in period 2230-0700, carrying educational/schools/public information programming, intended for the Gazelle Peninsula. Actual hours of operation and broadcast days are irregular Karai Network 9675 Port Moresby *2230-0700* EVENING TRANSMISSIONS Kundu Service: *0730-1200*v 3205 W. Sepik 3220 Morobe 3235 W. New Britain 3245 Gulf 3260 Madang 3305 Western 3315 Manus 3325 N. Solomons 3335 E. Sepik 3355 Simbu 3365 Milne Bay 3385 E. New Britain 3395 Eastern Highlands 3905 New Ireland Karai Service 4890 Port Moresby *0730-1200*v (2410 not checked) From: (Bob Padula, Surrey Hills, Victoria, Australia, EDXP, August 4 via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. Moscow longwave transmitters off the air On 2nd August the Voice of Russia "DX Club" web site quoted the following communication from a listener: "The last edition of DX Club reported that Radio Russia's longwave transmitter in Moscow Region, broadcasting on 261 kHz, had stopped working. I regret to report that yet another Moscow Region transmitter, which used to broadcast Yunost Radio programmes on 153 kHz, also stopped working recently. And on 14th July, the Moscow transmitter which broadcasts the Russian service of Voice of Russia on 612 kHz went off the air between 1900 and 2100 hours [gmt]." The listener asked: "Does this mean we can bid farewell to your broadcasts on this frequency in Moscow?" The DX Club presenter, Pavel Mikhaylov, supplied the following explanation: "Unfortunately, the longwave transmissions of Radio Yunost have stopped for the same reason as Radio Russia's - lack of funds to pay for the lease on this transmitter. As far as the Voice of Russia relay is concerned, the Moscow transmitter on 612 kHz was not switched off on 14th July, but instead of putting out a proper signal, it emitted unintelligible noise. In other words, the staff of the transmitter station responsible for quality of the signal were not doing their job properly. The following day everything was back to normal. We know about this, and our technical service has already made representations to the transmitter people." Source: Voice of Russia web site, Moscow, in Russian 2 Aug 00 (BBC Monitoring Aug 4 via DXLD) ** SA`UDI ARABIA. 21205.0 SABS Riyadh, program in Arabic language, intermodulation product of 21505 kHz. 21284.8 SABS Riyadh, there are two programs at the same time: Holy Quran file://21495 [sic] and a program in Arabic language // 21505 and 21705. Signal strength on 21284,8 is S 9 + 10 dB. 21399.8 SABS Riyadh, program // 21670 in Indonesian language. 21410.0 SABS Riyadh, program in French language // 21600 (All via Monitoring System Newsletter August via Ron Roden, UK, Cumbre DX August 3 via DXLD) ** U A E. Re UAE Abu Dhabi; this is what has been heard so far --- The new Koran programme, which also includes lots of phone-in and other dialogue, is heard :- 21735 fade in c0345(from 0200?)-0700; 17835 0700-1300; 15315 1300-1600; 9695 1600-1958 sudden off. (not traced after this time - if on air) Main Arabic Programme : 6180 on air 0210/fade out c0245 (0200-0400?); 11945 0400-0600; 15310 0600-1300; 9605 1300-2210. 17665 on air 0210(from 0200?)-0500; 21630 0500-0700; 21735 0700-1600; 13755 1600- 2000; 17760 2000-(2210?) The transmission on 9695 seems too strong for the old Makta 120 kW transmitters, and is assumed to be one of the three 500's that currently operate. I cannot hear the 120 kW unit after 2000 when it is registered to be on air. The two programmes have been heard to merge into one network between c1307 and 1500 with a short break around 1400. Please also credit Ray Merrall-UK who gave me considerable help (especially in the early hours) to monitor and cross check this one. Keep up the good work. 73's (Noël Green, UK, August 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 9320, WGTG: According to an on-air announcement by Dave Frantz, this is apparently their new frequency for their third transmitter, seemingly ex-planned 9580 and 3270. He added that 9320 will probably be used in the evening hours, possibly by a new Christian network. Interestingly, an Al Patrick reported to rec.radio.shortwave in mid-July that he heard WGTG testing 9400 and 9320 with Pastor Pete Peters during a recent Saturday afternoon. Could Pastor Peters be the new network to WGTG? (Hans Johnson, Aug 3, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** U S A. WTJC, 9370, has been off the air since Monday, July 31st, due to a transmitter fault. Parts are on order, but they aren't sure when they will be back on yet. (via Hans Johnson Aug 3, Cumbre DX via DXLD) It was back at 2200 check August 4 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** USA [and non]. From the Staff of Monitoring Times Magazine Much has been written over the last couple of years regarding the Armed Forces Network being back on shortwave. I have finally gotten the straight story directly from the horse's mouth on this AFRTS HF situation. Below is the definitive word on how this service came about, its future, current broadcast freqs/sites and proposed future transmitting sites. So enjoy HFers. AFRTS is back to stay for awhile on HF in the USB mode. --------------------------------------------------------------------- On July 31, 2000 the Armed Forces Satellite Transmitted Radio Service (AFSTRS) went off the International Maritime Satellite (INMARSAT) system. For the past sesquiyear, Navy HF service from Key West Naval Air Station (NAS), Florida, and Roosevelt Roads NAS, Puerto Rico, have been transmitting the AFSTRS service, identical service land based outlets know as the "Voice Line". This has served ships in the Caribbean Sea and the waters around South America quite well since the AFSTRS service was terminated on the INMARSAT Atlantic West satellite in 1998. AFRTS is negotiating for cooperative use of the transmitters and assignment of frequencies so the Navy HF service will also be transmitted from U.S. Navy facilities in Guam, Diego Garcia, Sicily, Iceland, and Maine. With over 100 U.S. Navy ships now equipped for Direct to Sailor (DTS) satellite television and radio service, it is no longer cost-effective to continue this service on INMARSAT. However, for those ships that will have DTS equipment installed during the next sesquiyear and for those few Navy ships that may never have DTS equipment the HF service will help fill the gap. Current Short-Wave High Frequencies Location Band Daytime Nighttime Key West, FL Upper Sideband 6458.5 kHz 12689.5 kHz RR, Puerto Rico Upper Sideband 6458.5 kHz 12689.5 kHz Sigonella, Sicily Upper Sideband 4993 kHz 10940.5 kHz Sites to soon possibly carry AFN: Guam, Diego Garcia, Iceland (Larry Van Horn, MT Assistant Editor-Fed File/Milcom/Scan Logs/Service Search Columnist, Monitoring Times Magazine, August 4; also via Joe Olig, via DXLD) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. RN finally acknowledges that V. of the People is transmitted from Madagascar, as our sleuths had concluded weeks ago: Former members of ZBC are producing VOP, thanks to grants from the George Soros Foundation [also funded the VOA Zimbabwe Forum which has been cancelled], and a Dutch foundation HIVOS. The group chose to use a 50 kW RN Madagascar transmitter on 7215. The 1700—1730 broadcast is in Shona, the 1915-1945 in Ndebele. A spokesperson in Harare, Thandiwe Henson, was interviewed; she said: ZBC has always been a government mouthpiece, so is not entirely to blame for the lack of equitable coverage of the opposition. The VOP service is mainly for rural people who do not have as much access to alternative media as city people. The announcers here are well-known and give their names on the air; not associated with any political party, non-partisan. As a result, SW radios are sold out in [some] town. In a couple of weeks VOP plans to announce a P O Box for listener contact (Media Network August 3, notes by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) A more complete report, close to verbatim from the broadcast is tucked away in MN`s Hot Spots page, finally posted August 4: http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/features/html/zimbabwe000804.html ###