DX LISTENING DIGEST 1-191, December 6, 2001 edited by Glenn Hauser, wghauser@hotmail.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. For restrixions and searchable 2001, 2000 contents archive see} http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/Dxldmid.html Check the WOR websites: http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/ http://www.worldofradio.com [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] WORLD OF RADIO #1108: (STREAM) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1108ram (DOWNLOAD) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1108.rm (SUMMARY) http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/wor1108.html FIRST AIRINGS ON WWCR: Thursday 2130 on 15685, Friday 1030 on 3210, Saturday 0300 on 3215, 1230 on 15685 FIRST AIRINGS ON RFPI: Friday 1930, Saturday 0130, 0730, 1330, 1800 on some of: 21815-USB, 15040, 7445 ON WORLD RADIO NETWORK: Sat 0900 to rest of world; 1500 to NAm SELECTED ENGLISH LANGUAGE DX/SWL/MEDIA PROGRAMS ON SHORTWAVE compiled by John Norfolk, OKCOK new revision December 5, 2001: http://www.worldofradio.com/dxpgms.html SPECIAL PROGRAMS AND TRANSMISSIONS FOR THE MARCONI CENTENNIAL http://www.worldofradio.com/marconi.html (under construxion) YAHOO PROBLEMS. Please do NOT use our yahoo address, but instead wghauser@hotmail.com ** AFGHANISTAN [and non]. Afghanistan: Media round-up Wednesday 5 December 2001 [excerpts] Watchdogs say media freedoms must be ensured Text of press release from IFEX, the Toronto-based International Freedom of Expression Exchange, dated 4 December 2001 and headlined "Freedom of the press for Afghanistan?" Human rights and media NGOs should play a role in ensuring that freedom of expression concerns are dealt with during the current negotiations over the future of post-conflict Afghanistan, say Article 19 and International Media Support (IMS). The two organizations recently released a report assessing the state of the media in the war-torn country. "The international community should make it clear to the key Afghan players that they expect them to take measures to promote media freedom," says the report, which grew out of an investigative mission to Pakistan last month involving the participation of Article 19, IMS and the Baltic Media Centre. These measures would include putting an end to government interference in newspapers, allowing the existence of independent media and transforming the state-owned Radio Shari'ah [former Taleban-run radio] and television station into a public broadcaster. The report notes the importance of involving Afghans "in a holistic way" in developing the media, including the establishment of consultations with key players to discuss priorities and concerns. The full report can be viewed on the web site of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting http://www.iwpr.net which is acting as a clearing house for information on Afghan media and media development. Source: IFEX press release, Toronto, in English 4 Dec 01 Pakistan orders "illegal" radio stations near Afghan border to close The political administration of Bajaur Agency, near the border with Afghanistan, has directed religious organizations and tribal elders to close their private radio stations within two days. According to the web site of Pakistani newspaper Dawn, Mohammad Saleem, a political activist, said that the police had raided and sealed three radio stations one month ago but no action was taken against the people responsible to avert the possibility of unrest in the prevailing uncertain circumstances. He said that this time the government would spare no effort to close the radio channels which were "broadcasting baseless propaganda against the government". Seven private FM radio stations operate in different areas of the agency, their broadcasts being heard within a radius of 80 km, which includes some parts of Afghanistan's eastern Konar Province. Source: Dawn web site, Karachi, in English 5 Dec 01 Radio Voice of Afghanistan broadcasts Radio Voice of Afghanistan, which is based in London, continues to be observed on its scheduled frequency of 9950 kHz from 1330-1430 gmt daily. The station was observed by BBC Monitoring on 5 December, carrying the usual opening announcements, programme preview and a recitation from the Koran, followed by news in Pashto and a programme in Dari from 1400 gmt. News items on the Pashto cast included: - Afghan delegates in Bonn sign accord, name head of the interim administration; - lack of security on Kabul-Jalalabad highway; - Mojahedin forces in Nangarhar Provinces attack Al-Qa'idah in Tora Bora; - Pakistan agrees to help US with intelligence to track down Bin- Ladin News items on the Dari cast included: - The former governor of Kandahar, Gol Agha, survives an assassination attempt. - Interview with a number of Afghan personalities on signing of UN sponsored accords in Bonn to set up an interim administration in Afghanistan. The station closed as normal at 1430 gmt. Compiled by Foreign Media Unit, BBC Monitoring Telephone +44 118 948 6261 e-mail: fmu@mon.bbc.co.uk Source: BBC Monitoring research 5 Dec 01 (via DXLD) ** AFGHANISTAN [and non]. Afghanistan: Media roundup Thursday 6 December 2001 [excerpts] Russia eyes airwaves to Afghanistan: editorial analysis A new Russian media initiative on Afghanistan is under way in Central Asia. Russia plans to broadcast Moscow TV and radio to Afghanistan via the Central Asian state of Tajikistan. The strategy's success will depend on finding the money to restore a Soviet-era transmitter in Tajikistan. Russia's proposal to Tajikistan involves upgrading an old transmitter to rebroadcast TV and radio to Afghanistan. It is located in Orzu, near the southern town of Kolkhozabad at the Tajik-Afghan border. Russian presidential aide Sergey Yastrzhembskiy raised the issue with Tajik President Emomali Rahmonov during talks in the capital Dushanbe. "In the course of the meeting with President Rahmonov, we agreed that it was important to begin rebroadcasting Russian television programmes to Kabul," the aide told Russian TV. Both sides also discussed bringing Russian TV channels back on the air in Tajikistan, which could then be rebroadcast via the Orzu transmitter to Afghanistan. Since early October, Russian Public Television channel ORT has been off the air in Tajikistan and transmissions of the Russian State Television RTR have been cut back. Moscow had a long-standing agreement with Tajikistan whereby it paid Dushanbe to relay Russian TV. The termination of Russian TV broadcasts "plunged the Tajik population into an information vacuum", Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency noted. During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, Radio Afghanistan broadcast both its domestic and international programmes from powerful transmitters in former Soviet republics. The Tajik transmitter in Orzu was one of the main facilities used by Radio Afghanistan. When the Moscow-backed Afghan president of the 1980s, Babrak Karmal, made his inaugural speech on Radio Afghanistan it was relayed from Orzu at the beginning of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Transmissions of Radio Afghanistan from Tajikistan and other Soviet republics continued until the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1990. They supplemented the domestic and international broadcasts from Radio Afghanistan's own weaker transmitters inside Afghanistan. The Tajik transmitter still works but not to full strength. The Russian aide Yastrzhembskiy said restoration would be expensive, but funding would hopefully come from the Russian state TV and radio company's budget next year. The aide told Russian TV that future Russian broadcasts "would be in the interests of everyone, perhaps primarily those of the Afghan people". Although the Soviet Union broke up in 1990, Russia still sees the former Soviet Central Asian states bordering Afghanistan - Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - as being its "backyard". Russia's media expansion strategy could be a way of counterbalancing increasing US influence in the region. So far, Russian cooperation in the US campaign against terrorism has mainly been behind the scenes - intelligence sharing and allowing the US military to use Central Asian bases and Russian airspace. Russian troops have also begun distributing humanitarian aid inside Afghanistan. Since the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan began in October, US psychological operations radio has been broadcast inside Afghanistan. US public broadcaster, Voice of America (VOA), has increased its services to Afghanistan, the Middle East, Central and South Asia. And after 10 years, the US government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty will resume broadcasts to Afghanistan in January. It is set to open an office in Kabul next February. The Voice of Russia has matched VOA by increasing its combined Dari/Pashto service to Afghanistan, as well as its Persian and Urdu services. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether Afghans will welcome the return of Russian radio on the airwaves. Many of them have bitter memories of the Russians. The country was at the centre of the so- called "Great Game" in the 19th century when Imperial Russia and the British Empire in India vied for influence. Many Afghans died in the war against 10 years of occupation by Soviet troops, who intervened in 1979 to prop up a pro-communist regime. In the end, Tajikistan stands to gain economic aid and political influence by assisting Russia's diplomatic manoeuvres in the region. And through Tajikistan, which has close links to the Afghan Northern Alliance, Russia may yet succeed in attracting an Afghan audience for Russian TV and radio and counterbalancing US influence. Source: BBC Monitoring research 6 Dec 01 Al-Jazeera's former Kabul correspondent describes experiences Deteriorating law and order in Kabul forced the Al Jazeera Satellite Channel's (JSC) team to flee the city, Taysir Alluni , the JSC correspondent who was stationed in Kabul said on Monday [3 December]. According to a report on the web site of Qatari newsapaper The Peninsula, Alluni spoke about his experiences at an award ceremony organized by the Qatar Sports Club where he was honoured for his coverage from Afghanistan during the US-led military campaign against the Taleban. He attributed success to the efforts of his technical team. According to Alluni, working in Afghanistan was extremely difficult, adding that he escaped death several times during the bombardment of the country by US-led forces and when the Northern Alliance troops entered Kabul. According to Alluni, JSC was under severe international pressure during the military strikes. Several western satellite TV channels attempted to cast doubts over the credibility of news reports and other coverage as broadcast by JSC, said the paper. Speaking of his escape from Kabul, Alluni said he was forced to flee from the Afghan capital along with his team after he witnessed a change in the security situation after the Northern Alliance took over. "We fled at night, just a few hours before our office was hit by a bomb dropped by a US aircraft. We left with Taleban forces", he said, adding that satellite phones, cameras and associated video equipment were all stolen. However, all the equipment was later returned, he added. "Following our exit from Kabul, JSC is coordinating with CNN", he said, but claimed that CNN's coverage of Afghanistan was poor as their correspondents are not familiar with the Afghan people and their life. The paper adds that Alluni refuted charges that JSC is biased in its coverage. He said that the channel was broadcasting news that was entirely different from that produced by other channels, whose coverage was based on a particular agenda. "We were broadcasting what he heard and saw, without any external influence", he added. Source: The Peninsula web site, Doha, in English 5 Dec 01 Radio Voice of Afghanistan broadcasts Radio Voice of Afghanistan, which is based in London, continues to be observed on its scheduled frequency of 9950 kHz from 1330-1430 gmt daily... Balkh Radio Balkh Radio, which is based in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, Balkh Province, continues to be heard. On Thursday 6 December, the scheduled 0230-0430 morning broadcast was observed by BBC Monitoring between 0325-0412 gmt (0755-0842 local time). Balkh Radio's evening broadcast was observed from 1130 gmt until 1350 gmt, when the broadcast ended without warning. (1600-1820 local time). Broadcasts are on the usual frequency of 1584 kHz. The BBC has not yet observed radio and TV broadcasts in the capital Kabul... US PsyOps broadcasts continue... Compiled by Foreign Media Unit, BBC Monitoring Telephone +44 118 948 6261 e-mail: fmu@mon.bbc.co.uk Source: BBC Monitoring research 6 Dec 01 (via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. Glen[n], Was glad to see mention of RAE Argentina in DXLD on 3rd December as being on 6060 and 11710 at 0200 UT. Having tried for ages (quite a while ago and with no success) to get them on 15345 at 1900 for English to Europe (that is the last data I have for them), do you (or anyone reading this) have the current RAE schedule and / or a weblink for them? Emails welcome. Best 73's, (DXDave, Bristol, England eurodx@yahoo.co.uk Dec 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. Noted Aussie accent in news on 9475 after 1100 UT Dec 6, so apparently R. Australia is on much earlier than in B-01 HFCC which shows *1330. If it is on 9475 even before 1100 that would explain WWCR=1 staying on 3210 until 1100, then 15685 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BANGLADESH. 9550.6, Bangladesh Betar; Kabirpur, Dec. 5, 1325-1332, Strong signal from their external service in Nepali, // 7185 kHz. Native music. At 1329 talk and ID by female, followed by ID and presumed news by another female speaker. Audio sounds better than that of the English service in the (European) evenings, but still with some 'buzz'. 7185 still terrible modulation and buzz (Mark Veldhuis, Netherlands, SWBC via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Milagre! A Rádio Gazeta, de São Paulo, não transmite apenas a programação religiosa da Igreja Pentecostal Deus é Amor. A emissora possui um programa intitulado "Rádio Universitária Casper Líbero", que pode ser captado, nas manhãs, com músicas e notícias. É em 9685 kHz, em 31 metros. Inclusive, o locutor menciona um endereço, em São Paulo, para recibo de correspondências. É: Avenida Paulista, 900, CEP: 01310-100. Pode ser uma alternativa para receber a tão sonhada confirmação! (Célio Romais, Panorama Atual das Ondas Curtas Dec 5 via DXLD) ** CANADA. from http://www.cbucc.org/press/051201.htm Press Release --- Toronto - Dec 5, 2001 CBC Technician's Strike set for NOON Tomorrow Talks fail to produce compromise. After 7 months of bargaining, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) is set to strike at noon on Thursday. At issue are fundamental worker rights which CBC seeks to remove from its workforce. "We spent all this week trying to find a compromise solution, but CBC just wasn't interested in moving. They repeatedly rejected our offers to deal with their stated objectives," said Mike Sullivan, chief spokesperson for the Union. "Their positions at the table, and their actions in the workplace, represent an alarming shift to the right on the part of Canada's Own public broadcaster." CBC is seeking concessions from its employees amounting to 7.5% per year or $6 million over two years. They want the absolute unfettered right to schedule employees with no meal breaks and no time to sleep between shifts. They want to stop paying temporary employees for vacation pay, and to extend the work day of all CEP employees. They want to create a two-tiered wage system whereby new employees will get less than existing staff. The CEP took a strike vote on these issues in mid-November, and CBC's demands were rejected by 86% of the membership. "Our negotiating committee has tried to find a way to compromise on the key issues of meals and sleep, but CBC flatly refused to seek any middle ground. The committee has no choice now but to begin a work disruption at the deadline," said Sullivan. CEP represents 1600 technicians, design staff, and electronic maintenance workers at CBC. CEP also represents 20000 other media workers in Canada, as part of a 150,000 member Union. The expiry date on CEP's previous agreement with CBC was June 30, 2001. For further information please contact: Mike Sullivan - 416-240-7836 Peter Murdoch - 905-516-5720 (via Ricky Leong, QC, DXLD) The following is a news item posted on CBC NEWS ONLINE at http://cbc.ca/news ____________________________________________________ CBC AND TECHNICIANS' UNION HEADED FOR HIGH NOON SHOWDOWN WebPosted Wed Dec 5 22:17:35 2001 TORONTO-- The CBC and one of its main unions may be just hours away from a strike. The Communications Energy and Paperworkers Union has set a strike deadline for 12 p.m. ET, Thursday, unless somehow the two sides can reach agreement on a new contract. But reaching agreement on a new contract looks remote. The CEP issued a news release on Wednesday evening that blamed the corporation for the failure to reach a deal. "We spent all this week trying to find a compromise solution, but CBC just wasn't interested in moving. They repeatedly rejected our offers to deal with their stated objectives," said Mike Sullivan, chief spokesperson for the Union. "Their positions at the table, and their actions in the workplace, represent an alarming shift to the right on the part of Canada's own public broadcaster." The CBC and the CEP have been in negotiations for more than six months, but failed to come to terms on a new contract. The union said in its news release that "at issue are fundamental worker rights which CBC seeks to remove from its workforce." A strike by the 1,600 CEP members would mean the second disruption of service on CBC Television and CBC Radio in less than three years. In 1999 a strike by CEP members disrupted radio and television programming across the country for more than six weeks. CEP members work in mainly technical positions at the corporation, performing duties such as camera work, editing and studio production. Recently they gave their bargaining committee an 86.2 per cent strike mandate. Programming by SRC, the French language services of the CBC, inside the province of Quebec would not be affected. The main issues in dispute involve money. Copyright © 2000 CBC All Rights Reserved (via Ricky Leong, QE, DXLD) from http://www.cbucc.org/barg01/bc41.htm Bargaining Communique # 41 December 5, 2001 (21:00 hrs) Nowhere To Go Dear Members, Your committee has exhausted all reasonable efforts to get the CBC bargaining committee to start talking. There is no point in further discussions until the CBC changes its "my way or the highway" approach. Job action will commence at 12:00 noon Thursday. Your local strike committee will let you know what action to take. We regret we have to take such drastic action but the CBC has offered us no alternatives. We will remain in Toronto ready to meet with the Corporation should they be willing to move from their present position. In Solidarity, Your Negotiating Committee, Mike Sullivan and Len Deiter - CEP National Representatives, Rick Warren - Vancouver, Anton Szabo and John Seccareccia -Toronto, Chris Turner - Fredericton, Blayne Paige - Ottawa (via Ricky Leong, QU, DXLD) CBC Radio One news from Montreal at 1700 UT Dec 6 led with item that the 1600 CEP workers had indeed just begun strike against CBC (not including those in Quebec and Moncton NB --- what about nearby Sackville?). Then I switched to Regina, which reported at the end of the newscast that the techs *could* walk out within the hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Canadian Press and everyone who picked up the item might have jumped to the wrong conclusion. In Toronto, in any case, a "study session" was called at noon with the intention of returning to work at 1330 local. I'm still awaiting the result of this but the options were: 1. return to work and maintain the status quo in an attempt to reopen "negotiations" or 2. Be told to leave the building in which case it is not a strike but a lockout. For updated bulletins, check out: http://www.cbucc.org http://www.cep71m.com The CBC can put whatever spin they want to on it but it comes down to this: the Corp does not want to guarantee we receive any breaks during our elongated shifts, nor do they want to guarantee any reasonable minimum rest between scheduled shifts. If you think this is silly of us to think that they wouldn't abuse people in this manner, just remember that the penalties were negotiated in to the contract many years ago because they WERE doing just that. I'm getting too old for this nonsense (Ori Siegel, ODXA 1746 UT Dec 6 via DXLD) ** CANADA. Hi Glenn, In your latest DXLD I read about this Marconi test being on Dec 12 via Canada by an amateur David ? VE#### but I didn`t get the whole e-mail address there. What is his email address or what is the name of the yahoo group? I want to send a report if I hear it -- the signal at 3550 kHz on USB or maybe AM may work. Thanks (Petro Giannakopoulos, GA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Here`s a repeat of the item without the address truncated (gh): ... QSL messages should be sent to VE3BBN@rac.ca and reports should include "name, QTH, signal report and distance as the crow flies from Niagara Falls, Ontario.....`` (via Mike Mills, via Saul Chernos, amfmtvdx@qth.net via DXLD) ** CHILE. 6010.00 khz, Radio Parinacota, escuchada hoy en la madrugada del 5/12/01, entre 0415-0447 retransmitiendo el programa de Radio Cooperativa (de Santiago), llamado "De la Noche a la Mañana" conducido por Claudio Riveros. ID's "Radio Cooperativa", "En Cooperativa seguimos con la música", "Cooperativa", "Cooperativa: 26 minutos para las 2, 26 minutos para las 2", "vamos a continuar con la música de la noche a la mañana en Cooperativa". Quedo bien claro creo, que retransmitía a Radio Cooperativa. SINPO: 25342. Estaré enviando el reporte grabado en cassette a Parinacota y copia de la carta a Radio Cooperativa, de Santiago. Emisora informada en su momento por primera vez por Hugo López, de Chile. 73's (Gabriel Ivan Barrera, Argentina, Conexión Digital via DXLD) ** CHINA. China launches new state-owned media giant | Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) Beijing, 6 December: China's largest state-owned media group, China Radio, Film and Television Group (CRFTG) was founded here Thursday [6 December]. Liu Yunshan, executive deputy head of the Department of Publicity of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee, said at the founding ceremony that the establishment of the group marks a step forward and a new stage in radio, film and television in China. He said that the CRFTG is a national media group of great importance to the country and the Party, and should take a leading role in national radio, film and television. Xu Guangchun, chairman of the Board of Management of the group, who is also deputy head of the Department of Publicity of CCP Central Committee and director of State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), said that the group is expected to become a media conglomerate in China, and an important part of the country's media reform. He pointed out that the group should build itself into "a top player in China and Asia and be at the forefront world-wide", should rationalize the structure and systems of the sector to improve competence, and should strengthen cooperation with local radio and TV stations to expand coverage. The group should also carry out reforms on the national radio and TV networks by setting up a transmission network, to bring a nation-wide network, fully utilize hi-tech, cultivate and explore new economic growth, and expand its international market to bring the voice of China to the world. The CRFTG consists of all the broadcasting stations and other companies and institutions of the SARFT, namely, China Central Television, China National Radio, China Radio International, China Film Group Corporation, China Radio and Television Transmission Network Corporation Limited, China Radio and Television Web site. It will operate in the radio and television service, in films, the information transmission network, the internet web site, newspaper and journal publishing, film and television arts, science and technology development, and advertising and property management. With over 20,000 employees, the group holds fixed assets valued at 21.4bn yuan and has an annual revenue of about 11 gigayuan. Source: Xinhua news agency, Beijing, in English 1027 gmt 6 Dec 01 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** CUBA. Radio Rebelde is at http://www.radiorebelde.com.cu, but there's no station list. Other Cuba sites: Radio Victoria http://www.tiempo21.islagrande.cu Radio Sancti Spíritus http://www.radiosanctispiritus.islagrande.cu indicates call letters are CMGL. Radio Ciudad del Mar, Cienfuegos http://www.rcm.cu indicates call letters CMFL. CMKO Radio Angulo, Holguin http://www.radioangulo.cu Radio Taíno, La FM de Cuba, Holguín http://www.891fm.cu CMCH Radio Cadena Habana, la frecuencia popular http://www.cadenahabana,islagrande.cu lists 1080, 1090, 1120, and 99.9 and the following additional stations: CMAD R. Artemisa 1320 1kW CMBS R. Ariguanabo 1200 1kW CMLW R. Camoa 1490 1kW CMBT R. Jaruco 1390 1kW, 1330 500w CMBU R. Guines 1450 1 kW (Bruce Conti - Nashua NH, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** DENMARK [non]. See NORWAY! I can add that Radio Denmark (DR) has a contract with Norkring running till December 31st 2003 so until then the Norwegians are *bound* to broadcast the programmes of Radio Denmark from both sites in Kvitsøy and Sveio. Besides - on December 20th 2000 it was made clear - in a departmental order from the Ministry of Culture - that "DR must broadcast short wave programmes to listeners abroad". (§ 4 subsection 18) and this order, which is almost the same as a law, is still valid !! (Stig Hartvig Nielsen, Denmark, Dec 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GEORGIA. Subject: Adsharia TV on the air! IN REPLY TO: "BATUMI, Georgia -- President Aslan Abashidze of the autonomous republic of Adzharia (capital Batumi, population considerably less than the London Borough of Hammersmith) has a vision. By the end of the year he wants everyone from Belfast to Bokhara and from Stavanger to the Sudan to have heard of his minuscule kingdom. [...] But this isn't all. News from Adzharia wouldn't be much use to the people of Edinburgh or Naples or Schwarzwald if it only came in Georgian. So the ingenious Abashidze hit on a plan. He'd broadcast the news of Adzharia, where donkeys outnumber buses four to one, in five languages -- English, French, German, Italian and Georgian. [...]" So this is this awfully strange TV station we are watching on some (presumably high) cable TV channel here in St. Petersburg, Russia!! In their news they often mention Batumi, so I already concluded it to be Georgian (also with the interesting script they use for their language), but I did not find any details. They advertise a homepage at http://www.ajaratv.com/ but there is nothing yet. About foreign services, I noticed them only in Georgian (Adsharian?? dunno diffs) and Russian yet, but as it is such a crazy story, I will keep watching. Quality is rather poor, by the way, quite a lot of snow in the pic, but the TV set is not the best and several channels in a certain QRG range are not fine, as well. And I don't know how to read a freq on a TV giving only an on-screen tuning bar. Their emblem is a golden oval (lying horizontally) with some curve in it. News, movies, and ajaratv-promotion. 73, EiBi ************** QTH for a year : Stary Petergof, RUS-78, St. Petersburg metropolitan oblast. Find all SW sked at http://www.eibi.de.vu/ (Eike Bierwirth, Russia, Dec 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. Berlin: DRM tests, 603 no longer from hlenhorst/Mahlsdorf Yesterday I found in Berlin again (or still) ongoing DRM tests; 810 was active while 1485 brought around 0900 an unreadable murmuring but had a DRM signal, too, at noon. 855 carried during daytime also a DRM signal, and like during the IFA fair the transmitter again splattered over a range of at least +/- 100 kHz, severely disturbing reception of Wiederau 783. It is incomprehensible that the regulation authority tolerates such poor engineering. I also went out to the transmitter site which is officially called Berlin-Köpenick, also known as Uhlenhorst but actually closer to Mahlsdorf-Süd. The 240 metre tall pipe mast (also carrying an FM antenna, in the past used on 93.1, until the eighties on 95.05/95.1 instead) is still there but the other mediumwave antennas (two triangular systems) are gone. The outer fence is down, only the posts are still there, and some of the ancient light bulb lamps on the following dead strip are meanwhile down, too. The inner fence is in a poor shape with many mends and open gates, in fact it is no problem to enter the station grounds if one dares. Demolition work is up there but at least the transmitter hall still exists, although without transmitters now. But the most interesting finding was that Voice of Russia 603 no longer goes out from this dying site. Only 200 metres away from the antenna the signal was far too weak (the radio not even showed a full LCD bar) and I found a null roughly in north/south direction. Later I noted at Wittenau, about 15 km away in northern Berlin, a stronger signal and a north/south null, too, so it seems to be an educated guess that 603 now originates from Zehlendorf (the 177/693 site north of Berlin, officially called Oranienburg). This also fits complaints about decreased reception quality VoR received. Inmidst Berlin the signal is still quite good but indeed no longer a true powerhouse. I found it also quite interesting to note 6005 and 6190 with distinctive fading just 5 km away from the transmitter site (Berlin- Britz), indicating that the majority of the signal was still skywave. Regards, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Dec 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HONDURAS. LAST NIGHT! great opening straight South with many Mexicans (though none new) and Cubans (some new), Radio Nicaragua absolutely wrecking 620...and... 860 HONDURAS HRBS San Pedro Sula Dec 4 0231-45 in mess with two other SS stations, nice fade up at 0245 with "Radio San Pedro" and San Pedro Sula mentions. New country, station #1000! Time GMT (Eric Loy, Champaign IL, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** INDIA. Re Live Cricket Commentary. Glenn, was it in DXLD or somewhere else a few years ago; someone explained the concept of "test" matches: during test matches there are lots of breaks for tea, sandwiches and gin tonics. After the tests they start playing for real. 73, (Mauno Ritola, Finland, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Somehow I doubt it, but DXLD is not about to become a forum for the discussion of cricket beyond its usefulness in special/extended SW broadcasts.... :) (gh, DXLD) You know that winter is coming (despite the exceptionally mild autumn, 67 F here this early morning) when you can hear AIR on 11620 and 7410, both with very good arm chair copy for the 1900 news in English, then some very fine music, and commentaries (Roger Chambers, Utica, New York, Dec 6, via Daryl Rocker, ODXA via DXLD) ** IRAN. Received from Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 46 days for a report in English with 2 IRCs: A full data QSL (with only frequencies filled in, 11730 kHz and 11970 kHz), a color photo of ``The main portico and the wind towers of Khanbeh-ye Borujerdi in Kashan.`` Booklets: ``The Concept of Freedom in Islam`` ``Ali (A.S.): An illustrious Personality of Islam`` ``The Meaning of Islam`` Basic Cultural Aspects 1: ``Islamic Doctrines Simplified`` Magazines: Zamzam : sort of like Highlights for Children (2 copies) Mahjubah: Sort of a Moslem version of Focus on the Family, with news items, articles on culture, youth, family, etc. Plus ....... a very nice personal letter. I haven’t gotten such a packet of goodies from one station since the good old days of the 1960s cold war, when Radio Moscow or Radio Sofia sent out such packages! It should provide some interesting reading, as well as guarantee me a spot on the FBI list (if I am not there already!) (Roger Chambers, Utica, New York, Dec 6, via Daryl Rocker, ODXA via DXLD) ** IRELAND. Hello Glenn, RTE have a web page describing Radio One World, at: http://www.rte.ie/radio/radiooneworld/index.html (- Kevin Burnett, Dec 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH. DX editor calls for patience regarding North Korea (P5) situation: As widely reported, North Korea --- the DXCC entity that tops nearly everyone's most-wanted list --- was activated in November by Ed Giorgadze, 4L4FN, of the Republic of Georgia. The operation has not yet been approved for DXCC credit, however. On the basis of oral permission from North Korean authorities, Giorgadze has been operating as P5/4L4FN. Bernie McClenny, W3UR, who edits "How's DX" in QST and publishes his own DX newsletters --- The Daily DX and The Weekly DX, says activating North Korea has been a work in progress involving one step at a time. "DXers around the globe need to have the patience, understanding and foresight that this is only the beginning," McClenny said this week. He also expressed the hope that nothing would jeopardize efforts now under way in public and behind the scenes to establish ham radio in North Korea and see it added to The DXCC List. "The policemen, hecklers with all their comments being made on Ed's frequency do nothing to help the situation," he said. "In fact it could actually damage future operations. Everyone must realize that the North Korean authorities recognize what is going on with P5/4L4FN and are monitoring everything." McClenny also cautioned against e-mailing 4L4FN or the UN World Food Program for which he works. He further advised against discussing the operation and its "oral permission" status on 4L4FN's frequency. "This can be damaging. Let's not worry about a license, as we all know there is no Amateur Radio service in North Korea," he said. McClenny added that lines of communication in and out of North Korea have only recently begun to open, also on the basis of oral permission. He speculated that formal, written authorization for 4L4FN's operation could come this month. "As we all know, Amateur Radio is a great means of spreading international goodwill. As DXers, each of us has the responsibility in helping to spread the word as ambassadors." P5/4L4FN QSL manager Bruce Paige, KK5DO, has more information on his North Korea - P5 Web page http://www.amsatnet.com/p5.html (ARRL December 6 via John Norfolk, OKCOK, DXLD) ** NORWAY. Shocking News from Norway: The Board of state broadcaster NRK yesterday decided on heavy budget cuts for 2002 to bring it in balance. Some regional radio programs will be merged, and all regional stations will have their budgets cut. To an international audience, the most shocking news is that Radio Norway International will be completely closed from Jan. 1st. Transmitter costs are said to run to 40 mill NOK annually. But NRK will have to negotiate with transmitter provider Norkring and also Radio Denmark to close at this time. Norkring have a contract for running the transmitters until 31/12-2003. Radio Denmark have a contract with NRK for leasing of free transmission time for the same period. So here some instant negotiations will have to be carried out! The staff of 7 at Radio Norway International have been informed that the station will not exist after Jan. 1st, and have been transferred to a "job-bank" for employment elsewhere in the broadcast organisation. So it seems the decision to end the foreign service is definite. Veteran broadcaster Einar Lie will host the final programmes on New Year`s Eve. The decision also affects the 1.2 MW mediumwave transmitter at Kvitsøy Island (1314 kHz). This is also planned to be switched off on New Year`s Eve, alongside the four SW transmitters at Kvitsøy and Sveio. The two sites employ a staff of 18 (13 at Kvitsøy, 5 at Sveio). At the remote Kvitsøy Island, the station is a very vital employer, and a closedown will have great impact on the community. Time will show what will actually happen. It seems definite that Radio Norway International will close by New Year, but to meet contracts with Norkring/DR, it is possible that the transmitters will continue to be on air, but with only relay of some domestic programmes... I'll keep you posted.... (Bernt Erfjord, Norway, Editor, DX-News magazine, DX-Listeners' Club berfjord@eunet.no via Dec 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) We saw this coming; see DXLD 1-174 way back on Nov 18. The 1314 kHz megawatt has been one of the most frequently DXed European MW in North America, also thanks to being nearly evenly split frequency (gh, DXLD) Radio Norway closes down - last QSL chance Radio Norway is closing down all programming and transmission on short and medium waves. The decision was made by the board of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corp (Norsk Rikskringkasting - NRK) today, Dec 5. NRK is in deep money trouble. Radio Norway will cease to exist "early in the new year (2002)", so, if you haven't got Radio Norway's QSL, this is your final chance to get it. Radio Norway has been on the air since 1948, beaming programs mainly to sailors on board Norwegian merchant vessels and expatriate communities. Radio Norway was a direct ``child`` of the Norwegian exile government's transmissions from London and Boston during WWII to Norwegians living in German occupied Norway and to sailors on the Norwegian merchant fleet supplying UK and the Soviet Union with goods and arms from the US (Rolf Lovstrom, Norway, Dec 5, rec.radio.shortwave via amfmtvdx via DXLD) Is QSLing it all that matters now? (gh, DXLD) see DENMARK ** PANAMA. Has anyone ever received or know of anyone who's received Panamá on MW? Is receiving a 5 kW station from Panama possible? What about a 5 kW located on the Pacific coast? I can't believe it's for real, but I got it on tape and will have to carefully listen a few more times... 860 PANAMÁ R. Reforma, Chitre DEC 5 0145 - "AM Radio Reforma" and Panamá mention, accordion music, CJBC nulled out. Right now the frequency is a mess. Radio Clarín, Dominican Republic has popped up a few times with merengue and bachata music. An unID oldies/nostalgia station is also in there, and sometimes CJBC tries to work its way back in. Conditions are definitely unusual tonight. For example, WVKO "The Life" has been dominant on 1580, normally dominated by WPGC (Bruce Conti - Nashua NH, Dec 4, NRC-AM via DXLD) You may wonder why the final A of Panamá has an accent even when all caps a few lines above, but not in the all-caps country header to this item above that. I keep accents out of the headers (only) in order not to confuse searching (gh, DXLD) ** POLAND. Polskie R-1: Glen[n], Longwave is probably not in the field of DXing but I would like to gain some idea of how far Poland's national Radio 1 goes. I can get it where I live roughly 24 hours per day on LW 225 kHz. Those who try this frequency and hear it, please let me know where you are. Thanks and Best 73's, (DXDave, Bristol, England eurodx@yahoo.co.uk Dec 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PORTUGAL. A RDP --- Rádio Portugal leva ao ar, todas as segundas- feiras, dentro do espaço DX/Internet, o programa "Encontro DX". São gravações que foram apresentadas já na Rádio Aparecida. A locução é de Cassiano Macedo e José Moura. Confira por volta de 0025 em 9715, 11655, 11980, 13700 e 13770 kHz (Célio Romais, Panorama Atual das Ondas Curtas via DXLD) 23720 (2 x 11860), RDP, 1905 DEC 5, // 15540, positive match. Highlights of recent football match in PP. Harmonic: weak to fair. Fundamental: Fair (David Hodgson, TN, harmonics yahoogroup via DXLD) ** SINGAPORE. A visit to the BBC (Merlin) relay station at Kranji Hello SWLs, I was lucky enough to visit the BBC/Merlin relay station in Singapore last month. Here is description of what I saw, I trust it is not too long and boring! 73, Richard ====== When I joined the BBC in 1962 at Daventry there were just the two overseas relay stations for BBC World Service transmissions, at Cyprus and at Tebrau on the southern tip of Malaya. At Daventry we had a special huge array, an HRRS 8/6,and two transmitters in parallel on 17.79 MHz that was used mainly for feeding Tebrau with programme. For political reasons, after Singapore split from the Malaysian Federation, the Tebrau station closed and a new station was built at Kranji on Singapore Island. In those days I never dreamed that I would one day visit the area at the other end of that beam! Even travel to Europe in those days seemed only for the rich! A few years ago I was able to visit my brother-in-law Robert (G4BWB) who was living in Hong Kong at that time and was able to visit the BBC relay station there not long before it closed. Robert has now moved to Singapore where he is a TV producer and he invited my wife and me to visit him and his family this autumn. We went out there, taking in Dubai and Hong Kong on the way to see if there had been any changes since our last visit. We arrived in Singapore in mid-November for a 2 week stay with Robert and his family. I had already contacted Kranji by e-mail and they had kindly offered to let me visit the station during our stay. I must admit that before my first visit to Hong Kong I had assumed that it was totally covered with buildings, as this is the impression given by all the tourist photos. I was surprised to find how much countryside there is in the territory. I had the same impression about Singapore and a casual visitor to the island would tend to agree, as there are large areas of high rise apartment blocks, apparently covering every inch of the island. Once again, my impression was proved wrong. I telephoned Kranji to arrange a time for my visit and they warned me that I might have difficulty finding them and gave me detailed instructions, as they doubted that even a local taxi driver would know where they are! The address of the station is 51, Turut Track, which might give the impression that there are many other buildings along that road. However, consulting Robert's street directory, page 39 revealed that Turut Track was in the middle of a blank page, with only one other building shown. There is an excellent Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) rail system in Singapore and one of its stations is Kranji. Robert and I set off on the MRT and as the train approaches Kranji you can indeed spot the red and white towers of the radio station over to the West, looking as though it would be only a short walk to reach it. However, the map reveals that in the way is the large Kranji reservoir. We eventually managed to hail a taxi and sure enough the driver had never heard of the place or even of Turut Track. With the aid of the map I was able to direct him, which involves driving north to the coast, with its views of Johore Baru across the strait, then crossing over the dam at the reservoir and then heading south down a lonely road surrounded by green countryside. In fact it could almost be an English country road were it not for the banana and palm trees! Eventually a small sign on the left proclaims 'BBC Far Eastern Relay Station' and Turut Track turned out to be just that, a narrow track that winds past the radio station owned by the local Singapore radio authority and then ends abruptly at the gate of the BBC station. We were greeted by Mr. Yong Wui Pin, the operations manager who took us to his very pleasant air conditioned office and introduced us to the two charming ladies who look after the administration there. Cindy Yeo told us that she had been there almost since the station had opened and she invited us to sign the visitors book. They seemed genuinely pleased to see visitors and I was quite surprised to see that my name was the first entry in the book for 2001. Obviously, given their location, they do not get many people passing by! In fact, the previous signature in the book was that of Mark Byford, the World Service boss, so we were in illustrious company. Mr. Yong then showed us first around the stores and workshop areas, all nice and cool and air-conditioned. It was quite a contrast when we went out into the transmitter hall. Here it was very hot, even though our visit coincided with the 90 minute period when the station is shut down for maintenance. To me, apart from the heat, it was a moment of great nostalgia! Way back in 1963 I was transferred from Daventry to Woofferton, the station located near the Welsh border, which at that time was primarily a Voice of America relay station and was just in the process of having its 50 kW RCA transmitters replaced by then brand new 250 kW Marconi BD272 units. Nearly 40 years later, it was a bit of a shock to step into the sender hall at Kranji to see almost a replica of Woofferton, with those Marconi units still giving sterling service. The BBC has always called its short wave transmitters 'senders' for long forgotten reasons and at Kranji they are numbered Senders 102, 103 etc.. The BD272 units need manual wave changing, which in practice means they need to be closed down for 15 minutes at a minimum to manually remove some very large, heavy (and hot!) coils, insert ones for a different band and then tune up the sender on its new frequency. The final anode coils for the 41 & 49 metre band are very impressive, the antenna coupling coil is a single turn over a metre in diameter and made of tubing about 12 cm across - quite a beast! Doing a rapid wavechange at Woofferton in cool England made you sweat profusely, I can imagine in the heat of Kranji, you rapidly lose some weight! Power for the station is supplied by the local electricity authority and is transformed down to 11,000 volts to supply the anodes of the two BY1144 triode valves in grounded-grid configuration in the final stage of each sender. At full power these draw 26 amps anode current, so some quite serious power is being consumed. The senders use high level modulation, which means they need something in excess of 125 kW of audio to give 100% modulation. This is provided by two more BY1144 valves in class B configuration. This means that the current they draw varies wildly with the modulation, thus the current being drawn by the station is not constant, particularly if all the senders are carrying the same programme. I remember that in the town near to Woofferton, all the lights in the houses flickered in time with the modulation and when the Greenwich Time Signal 'pips' were broadcast at the top of the hour, you could check your watch by your house lights! The sender hall is raised above ground level and when we went out of the hall we found ourselves on a balcony overlooking the antenna farm. I soon realised the reason for not going down into the field, the lush tropical vegetation is infested with some very nasty snakes - not a problem I had at Woofferton! Mr. Yong told me that crocodiles had also been spotted in the area. Thus their 4 antenna rigging staff had to take great precautions when going out to their tasks in the field. All the antenna switching is done by air operated switches remotely controlled from the building, which must be a great relief to the staff! Although the station is now operated by Merlin, the station still has a BBC 'feel' to it and I was interested to learn that the station operates on a three shift system with similar hours to that worked at the UK stations. Day shift is I think 09.00 to 17.00, evening shift is a short one until 23.00 and the night shift is the long one until 09.00. This used to be quite a good system, well liked by most staff, as it meant on evening shift you had most of the day free and could still be in bed by midnight. Programme feed to the station is by satellite, via AsiaSat, and I was interested to hear that they now have no HF receivers for back-up if the satellite feed fails. BBC World Service in English is available for local listeners on 88.9 MHz FM; the programme feed for this is received at Kranji but is fed on to a site located with all the other domestic transmitters in the centre of the island. I asked if they receive many reception reports at Kranji from SWLs and was told that they are forwarded to Bush House, London. (You know what happens to those!) I mentioned that while I was working on Ascension Island I used to answer reception reports personally, but I am not sure if this will have any effect at Kranji! Interesting smells coming from the kitchen announced that it was nearing lunch time for the staff, so we bade our farewells to our hosts and suggested we phone for a taxi. Mr. Yong said that taxi drivers would never find the place, so he very kindly drove us to Kranji MRT station. A fascinating visit, full of nostalgia for me, with grateful thanks to the very friendly staff who took time out to show us around. Having now seen the Hong Kong and Kranji relays, I must now persuade my wife that we need to visit Thailand next! (Richard Buckby (G3VGW) & Family, Dec 5, shortwavelistening yahoogroup via DXLD) ** SPAIN. Ciência? Idioma? Solidariedade? Onde encontrar tudo isso nas ondas curtas? Resposta: na programação da Rádio Exterior de Espanha. Se você quer saber das novidades da ciência, ouça o programa "Vanguardia de la ciencia". Aos domingos, vai ao ar, entre 0300 e 0400, em 9620 e 15160 kHz. Ou, então, queres saber tudo sobre o idioma espanhol? Não deixe de ouvir "Un idioma sin fronteiras", de segunda a sexta-feira, às 2000, em 11815 e 21700 kHz. E, por fim, não perca o "Mundo Solidário", verdadeira aula de solidariedade entre os povos, todos os dias, às 1400, em 11815, 21570 e 21700 kHz (Célio Romais, Panorama Atual das Oncas Curtas via DXLD) ** SWEDEN. What`s the buzz, what's happening? Hi Glenn, I thought this could be of interest. From Svenska Dagbladet, one of Sweden's two nationwide morning dailies. [Headline]: High velocity data transfers in powerlines might disturb radio communications. The use of ultra-high speed data through ordinary powerlines for such distribution might impair radio communications of the Swedish defense forces, which would be a serious thing to happen, says Hans Dahlqvist at FMV [Försvarets Materielverk, the Swedish agency handling defense materiel]. According to [Swedish local FM station] Radio Kristianstad, the same feelings are expressed by Teracom [the authority in charge to provide transmitters for FM and AM radio and TV - medium wave is nowadays exterminated for domestic broadcasts in this country] and by 6000 radio amateurs in the country. [what about DX listeners!!?? -gh] But Bengt Ekenstierna, head of Sydkraft data communication [one of the big power companies in Sweden], speaks of unconfirmed fears and ungrounded statements, and that the effect would only be a marginal increase of noise from already installed cables in user homes. TT [Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå, Swedish News Agency] Well, this reminds me about the debate that raged over the Vatican Radio transmitters. Nothing, or very little of the kind has come up in Swedish press about such things. When you read anything about masts, the protesters are usually environmentalists who are against the possible spoiling of beautiful views in certain places. This is clearly different, but perhaps related. Does anyone know of any serious tests that has been made in this field? A look at a map of Sweden will disclose that Trollhättan is pretty close to the Lake Vänern, and geography has forced the state power company to build its powerlines just through the forests that separate that town and my place. I can actually see one of them, 500 meters away) one of six 400-KV lines. It's the north-south main artery of electric power in this country. So in extremely wet weather it sends out a terrible buzz, and on a clear and a bit frosty night, the buzz is in the air to be heard without a radio. Of course this worries me, but would data streams come in high- voltage lines too? I would be grateful for hints where to read more. 73 (Johan Berglund, Trollhättan, Sweden, Dec 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND. Radio Free Narathiwat From the Far Eastern Economic Review, 29th Nov by Shawn W. Crispen. In the name of national security the military has long dominated Thailand's airwaves. No more so than in Narathiwat province, where managing the message was seen as critical to combating Islamic insurgency. The information blackout came at a cost though. Restricted airwaves meant local authorities went unchecked; communities were fragmented and left in the dark. Now with the insurgency in decline, the airwaves over Narathiwat are freeing up. And community radio is proving a potent tool for grass- roots empowerment. In 1999, a group of 170 local organisations pooled resources and launched Narathiwat Community Radio, or NCR. Although due to budget restraints they only broadcast for 28 hours a week, NCR helps local organisations to get their word out, energising and educating grass-roots communities like never before. NCR covers the gamut: ranging from publishing health to arts revival to spiritual salvation. In October NCR launched a programme about the 1997 constitution and broadcast it in the local yawee language. "We are teaching people about their rights," says Hama Mayunu, a core member of NCR and sometime broadcaster. "That's changing the way communities not only think, but act," he adds. Hama claims that when NCR goes on the air, the listening audience almost triples compared to government-run programming. On the ground, that's shifting the local balance of power. Freer airwaves are opening the politics of scrutiny in Narathiwat. Now over 2000 CB-radio carrying volunteers throughout the province play as impromptu reporters, calling in reports to NCR of obvious cases of corruption or abuse of power by wayward officials. Other groups have aired call-in forums on local environmental issues. In some cases, it's proving too much change too fast. In May, one NCR broadcaster, Adul Kari Saleamea, reported on how a controversial palm-oil plantation project between a Malaysian business group and government officials allegedly would have endangered a local mangrove forest. He was shot and killed the next month. Other NCR reporters say they are reluctant to report on suspected smuggling rackets controlled by local officials along the border with Malaysia. "There are still limits on freedom of speech," says Hama. Thailand's 1997 constitution calls for a formal redistribution of national frequencies, with guaranteed access for local communities. But in recent weeks, the military has tried to renege on the charter obligations, arguing to maintain their continued monopoly over the airwaves. Perhaps they are looking warily at the power shift unfolding in Narathiwat (via Gareth Foster, BDXC-UK via DXLD) WTFK!!?? FM?? ** U K. **M** I visited the Royal Navy Thunderer Squadron's interesting site http://www.atlantic-leap.org regarding a near re- enactment of Marconi's first DX catch. The naval engineering students have constructed a spark gap transmitter which will attempt to send a signal from Poldhu, Cornwall to a receiver at St. John's, Newfoundland, which was designed and built by Midshipmen of the U.S. Naval Academy, on 12 DEC. The CANFORCE School of Communications and Electronics is also involved. They show a schematic of the tx, which unlike Marconi's features a rotary spark gap of 3 kW, delivering a signal through a bandpass filter of 1.4 kW to a T antenna. They have been authorized operation in the range of 1606 - 1800 kHz, which is the approximate pass band. There is a guest log page, and people are asking them to post more details like actual frequency, bandwidth, and operating schedule, but I couldn't find it. The Poldhu Radio Club will operate on amateur bands under the special callsign GB100GM from their new Marconi Centre building. Their site shows operators for three radio rooms plus VHF ops, scheduled for 0700-1900 UT on 12 DEC. But, WTFK? No bands or freqs mentioned. Find this at http://www.mulliononline.com and click on Village Notice Board, then Marconi Centenary Celebrations, then The New Marconi Centre. 73, (John Cobb, Roswell, GA, Dec 5, WORLD OF RADIO 1108, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. R. Moshiach & Redemption, previously mentioned as the possible source of the 1710 kHz station, promotes instead on its automatic embedded real player, which never connected, at http://www.radiomoshiach.org ``tune in 1620 in Crown Heights and Borough Park`` (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Surprised to find Bro. Scare at 1110 UT Dec 6 on 7415, good signal. Would that be WBCQ? Not scheduled at this hour on their website (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Altho the press release about WWCR`s ``Jihad`` show is still on their website, no listings for it are in the current schedule dated Nov 30/Dec 1, such as Thu 2100 on 12160 (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. It seems WRMI has totally revamped its schedule; note the new relay of Channel Africa, with 9955 used for a block 1000-1300 weekday mornings, but no longer in the evenings except on weekends, and very long hours of Christian Media Network eating into weekdays on 15 and weeknights on 7, so all the other feature/exile programming must be after 0300 or on weekends. In order to get the full picture, we are leaving it all in this time (gh, DXLD) Note the effective date; misprint [really December 1?]? (Norfolk) WRMI Radio Miami International 7385, 9955 and 15725 kHz Shortwave/Onda Corta Portfolio WRMI Program Schedule/Horario Effective December/Diciembre 10, 2001 Days are local days in the Americas; times are UTC. Días son días locales en las Américas; horas son UTC. MONDAY-FRIDAY/LUNES-VIERNES To the Caribbean and Latin America on 9955 kHz/Hacia el Caribe y Latinoamérica en 9955 kHz: 1000-1030 Radio Prague (English) 1030-1100 Wavescan (English) 1100-1130 Viva Miami (English) 1130-1200 Channel Africa (English) 1200-1230 Creciendo en Gracia (español) 1230-1300 Radio Praga (español) To North America on 15725 kHz/Hacia Norteamérica en 15725 kHz: 1300-1600 The Power Hour (English) 1600-0000 Christian Media Network (English) To North America on 7385 kHz/Hacia Norteamérica en 7385 kHz: Note: The following are Tuesday-Saturday UTC. Los siguientes son martes-sábado UTC. 0000-0300 Christian Media Network (English) 0300-0330 Radio Praga (español) 0330-0400 Viva Miami (English/español, Monday-Thursday/lunes-jueves) 0330-0345 Standing in the Gap (English, Friday) 0345-0400 Words of the Spirit (English, Friday) 0400-0430 Radio Prague (English) 0430-0500 Words of the Spirit (English, Monday & Wednesday); Carter Report (English, Tuesday) 0430-0445 Words of the Spirit (English, Thursday & Friday) 0445-0500 Phil Hensler Ministries (English, Thursday & Friday) 0500-0515 Herald of Truth (English) 0515-1000 Christian Media Network (English) SATURDAY/SABADO To North America on 15725 kHz/Hacia Norteamérica en 15725 kHz: 2300-2330 Battle Cry Sounding (English) 2330-2345 Regard sur le Monde (Français) 2345-0000 Voix et Croix (Français) The following are Sunday UTC. Los siguientes son domingo UTC. To the Caribbean and Latin America on 9955 kHz/Hacia el Caribe y Latinoamérica en 9955 kHz: 0000-0100 Foro Militar Cubano (español) 0100-0130 Conversando entre Cubanos (español) 0130-0145 Juventud Evangélica (español) 0145-0200 La Verdad Para el Mundo (español) 0200-0300 Radio Revista Lux (español) To North America on 7385 kHz/Para Norteamérica en 7385 kHz: 0300-0330 Radio Praga (español) 0330-0400 Wavescan (English) 0400-0430 Radio Prague (English) 0430-0500 Viva Miami (English) SUNDAY/DOMINGO To the Caribbean and Latin America on 9955 kHz/Hacia el Caribe y Latinoamerérica en 9955 kHz: 1000-1100 Foro Militar Cubano (español) 1100-1115 Words of the Spirit (English) 1115-1130 Abundant Life (English) 1130-1145 Words of the Spirit (English) 1145-1200 Living Word (English) 1200-1230 Jack Van Impe (English) 1230-1300 Doctrines of Grace (English) To North America on 15725 kHz/Hacia Norteamérica en 15725 kHz: 1300-1315 The Living Word (English) 1315-1330 Truth for the World (English) 1330-1400 Wavescan (English) 1400-1430 Radio Prague (English) 1430-1500 Battle Cry Sounding (English) 1500-1530 World Radio Network (English) 1530-2100 Off Air - Fuera del Aire 2100-2130 Jack Van Impe (English) 2130-2200 Kol Israel (English) 2200-2230 Wavescan (English) 2230-2300 Viva Miami (English/español) 2300-2330 Radio Vaticano (español) 2330-2345 Juventud Evangélica (español) 2345-0000 La Verdad para el Mundo (español) The following are Monday UTC. Los siguientes son lunes UTC. To the Caribbean and Latin America on 9955 kHz/Hacia el Caribe y Latinoamérica en 9955 kHz: 0000-0100 Radio Revista Lux (español) 0100-0115 Souls Vision International (English) 0115-0130 Truth for the World (English) 0130-0200 Radio Oriente Libre (español) 0200-0215 Voix et Croix (Français) 0215-0230 Living Faith Fellowship (English) 0230-0300 Conversando entre Cubanos (español) To North America on 7385 kHz/Para Norteamérica en 7385 kHz: 0300-0330 Radio Praga (español) 0330-0400 Bluegrass Gospel (English) 0400-0430 Radio Prague (English) 0430-0445 Abundant Life (English) 0445-0500 Souls Vision International (English) (via John Norfolk, DX LISTENING DIGEST) **M** WRMI`s new posted schedule makes it look like long-publicized Marconi specials UT Dec 12 will not fit in --- not only programming but frequency usage has changed. Has WRMI forgotten about this? (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1108, DXLD) Glenn -- No, we haven't forgotten anything. The schedule will be as announced. Scheduled programming will be pre-empted (Jeff White, WRMI, Dec 6, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Even firing up 9955 for half an hour only on Tuesday evening? (gh to Jeff) Glenn -- That's right. Just that half-hour on 9955 that night (Tuesday night for us). (Jeff White, WRMI, ibid.) Viz.: European DX Council and WRMI invite you to listen to a special broadcast December 12, the centennial of the first trans-Atlantic transmission received by Guglielmo Marconi between Poldhu, Cornwall, and St. John's, Newfoundland. A clear "S" Morse-coded signal reached the other coast of the Atlantic, opening the way to a new form of communications. If a DXer had been there, he would certainly have sent his reception report and, maybe, received a confirmation from the first radio-amateur in history -- the inventor of radio. EDXC and WRMI celebrate with a special multilingual broadcast produced in Europe and transmitted to the world from America. UT December 12 only: 0130-0200 9955, 0330-0400 7385, 1330-1400 15725. A commemorative QSL card will be issued. Reports to: EDXC, C.P. 18120, I-50129 Florence, ITALY or marconi2001@edxc.org (WRMI, Dec MONITORING TIMES Global Forum by gh, via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. Marconi 100 celebrations: Let's DX on the 12th ! There have been several celebrations recently to commemorate the 100th anniversary of transatlantic wireless communication. More are planned. **M** The Newfoundland DXpedition in November was among these events. It concentrated on medium wave reception. The five participants in that DXpedition are reviewing tapes and putting the finishing touches on their reports which will be "glued together" by Jean Burnell for the complete report expected before the end of the year. Since 12 DEC is the actual 100th anniversary day of Marconi's first "TA DX" reception, it would be a great thing if as many DXers as possible put in some time at the dials that day to assemble a huge pile of loggings. If the weather is reasonable, I may leave work a bit early to get in some DXing at the seashore between sunset and 9 p.m. local (UTC: 2115 / 12 DEC to 0200 / 13 DEC). The previous evening, I may do some at- home listening after 7 p.m. (UTC: 0000 / 12 DEC) to get a few different logs in the book. International MW DX will be the main focus for me, but any kind of DX - from LF whistlers to microwave moonbounce - that someone wants to do is a good way to celebrate the historical event. When you're done, please share your results with like-minded hobbyists through DX publications, on-line lists, and e- mail (Mark Connelly, WA1ION, MA, NRC-AM via DXLD) === The text below is about an amateur radio operation and tests from West Coast commercial station KPH on 500 kHz. For more details, see http://www.alpcom.it/hamradio/100.htm and http://personal.tmlp.com/k1vv/w1aa/release.html THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF MARCONI'S HISTORIC TRANS-ATLANTIC RADIO TRANSMISSION --- December 11 - 16, 2001 **M** The Marconi Radio Club and The Falmouth Amateur Radio Association Amateur Radio operators are making plans to celebrate a Marconi world historical event. December 12, 2001 will mark the 100th anniversary of the first Trans-Atlantic radio transmission. That signal was transmitted across the Atlantic from Poldhu, Cornwall England to St John's, Newfoundland. Radio pioneer, Marconi, sat listening at Cabot Tower on Signal Hill in Newfoundland. His antenna dangled from a kite in the sky, and through that hanging wire, he heard the anticipated signal from across the ocean, "dit dit dit". The letter, "S", in Morse code. Marconi, son of an Irish mother and an Italian father, had been playing with electricity since he was a child. A rebellious student, he hated lessons but loved to experiment and invent. By the time he was nineteen, he had resolved to be the first man to give the world a system of communication based on electromagnetic waves. By trial and error, relying on his own intuition and audacity, Marconi conducted a series of experiments indicating that long-distance wireless communication was possible. His goal was accomplished and crossed the world over the threshold of radio as we know it today. To celebrate this 100 year milestone, Amateur Radio operators* ["Hams"] around the country will be launching kite-lifted antennas and demonstrating the marvel of radio to folks in their local communities. Amateur Radio Operators will be flying a kite antenna at Coast Guard Beach in Eastham on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and are planning to contact other Amateurs at the historic Marconi station locations at Poldhu, England and St. Johns, Newfoundland. The Amateurs at these locations will also be flying 1901 kite antenna replicas. They will also be contacting other hams the world over, using the similar technology as Marconi did 100 years before. They will be bouncing radio signals off the ionosphere at the speed of light and will be able to communicate with each other. Some operators will be using Morse Code, while others will use voice transmissions. These commemorative demonstrations will take place during the week of Tuesday, December 11th through Sunday, December 16th 2001. Local school classes, scouts, church groups and news-crews are invited to come out and participate in this historic Marconi anniversary. The Marconi Radio Club members will be launching a kite-lifted antenna on December 12th between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM at the Coast Guard Building in Eastham demonstrating radio contacts just as Marconi did in 1901. Please note that all demonstrations are somewhat weather dependent. Kites cannot be flown in all conditions. Some operators will demonstrate with other antennas if kites cannot be launched. There will be five on going Amateur Radio stations capable of worldwide communications operating in the Coast Guard building. The operation is open to the public from 9 AM to 5 PM. There will be displays antique radio equipment and a demonstration of a 1902 replica spark gap transmitting and coherer receiving station. Videos of Amateur Radio operation and of Marconi's life and his accomplishment on Cape Cod will be shown. Everyone is invited to visit the Amateur Radio operation during this Marconi 100th Anniversary Radio Celebration. This Historic Event compares with the completion of the transatlantic cable, the transcontinental railroad and the Wright brothers flight at Kitty Hawk. HISTORIC COAST RADIO STATION WILL CELEBRATE MARCONI EVENT **M** Stations KPH and K6KPH will be on the air on 12 December 2001 to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first wireless signal to cross the Atlantic, received by Marconi on 12 December 1901 at St. John's Newfoundland. Both stations will use the original transmitters, receivers and antennas of famous ex-RCA coast station KPH. The transmitters are located at the transmitting station founded by the American Marconi Co. in 1913 at Bolinas, CA. The receivers and operators will be at the KPH receiving station about 20 miles north at Pt. Reyes, CA. KPH will be active on commercial frequencies 500 and 425kc with most activity taking place on 500kc (600m). Power output will be 4.3kW. The antenna is a Marconi T. These frequencies have been made available through the generous cooperation of Globe Wireless, current holders of the KPH license. K6KPH will be active on amateur frequencies 3545, 7050 and 14050kc. Power output will be 1.5kW. Antennas will be double extended Zepps on 3.5 and 7Mc, H over 2 on 14Mc. K6KPH will begin operations at 1700Z (0900PST). KPH will begin operations at 0000Z (1700PST) 13 December 2001Z Commercial practices and procedures will be used on all frequencies to give amateurs the experience of working a real coast station. Traffic lists will be sent and messages for stations that have worked us in the past and sent reception reports will be awaiting in the message rack. All operators will be ex-commercial ops from KPH, KFS and other coast stations. Amateurs and shortwave listeners are invited to contact or monitor KPH and K6KPH. Maritime stations may call KPH on 500 kc. KPH reception reports may be sent to: Tom Horsfall 1862 Tulare Ave. Richmond, CA 94805, USA K6KPH reception reports may be sent to: Dick Dillman 435 Utah St., No. 4 San Francisco, CA 94110, USA (via Mark Connelly, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. "Wanda Hickey Lives: Jean Shepherd's Immortal Characters Will be Seen and Heard Again as His Estate is Settled" (Entertainment Wire, Nov. 28) Excerpt: "The estate of the beloved raconteur Jean Shepherd, which contains such timeless creations as The Ferrari In The Bedroom, In God We Trust - All Others Pay Cash, Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories, I Libertine and A Fist Full of Fig Newtons has been settled. In accord with the terms of Shepherd's will, Dalfie Entertainment, Inc., a New York Corporation, will own all of the intellectual property created by Shepherd. "Shep would love the coincidence that one of his many creations, The Christmas Story which TV Guide called "one of the great Christmas classics of all time, will receive its annual airing in a matter of weeks, courtesy of its owner TBS," said Irwin Zwilling, his long time friend and President of Dalfie Entertainment. "Even the name Dalfie was pure Shepherd zanyness. Shep's beloved dog was a Shiitzu named Daphnie and mine, a Golden retriever was Alfie. Between them I came up with Dalfie for the company. "As a story teller often compared with Mark Twain, Shep wanted to develop his characters so their stories would bring joy to new audiences. Many of his books and stories are under discussion for future development." Zwilling said. Jean Shepherd's radio show had far reaching influence on other media. One of his favorite "bits" was to instruct his radio listeners to open their windows and turn up the volume so that he could "hurl the invective." This gave rise to the scene in the movie Network in which the Peter Finch character urges his listeners to open their windows and shout that they had 'had enough and weren't going to take it any more....' Read More: http://news.excite.com/news/bw/011128/ny-jean-shepherd I just happened do a search for 'radio' at Time.com and only now found this Shepherd retrospective from June '01: ------------------------------------- The Heyday and Dark Nights of Radio Legend Jean Shepherd (Time Magazine -- http://www.time.com/ ): Concluding 2 paragraphs: ...As for Shepherd's later trashing of radio, the medium with which he will forever be linked, California radio personality Tom Leykis gets it right in his posting on an extremely moving message board containing tributes to Shep from fans and colleagues. The fact that Shepherd chose to see radio as a way station to other, more important media made no difference, for by the time he began getting publicly cranky about the subject in the 1970s, the generation of listeners who had become addicted to the medium with his help had already entered the business — from Leykis to NYC's free-form veteran Vin Scelsa to Harry Shearer. The curmudgeonly gent viewed by many as radio's last great star had, much to his own consternation, helped keep a sinking medium afloat. As for the thousands and thousands of other listeners who didn't go into radio but still hung on Shep's every word, his every chuckle, every note of his boisterously demented kazoo solos, many became writers (Shepherd's unforgettable "tapestries of words" — his own "Christmas Story" phrase —having opened up the joys of language for those kids with the portable radio stuffed under their pillow); others took up the innately 20th-century hobbies he advocated on the show (like ham radio; to his dying days, he proclaimed "Once a ham, always a ham"). Others simply carry around treasured memories of their own favorite Shep story or saying, and hope that they, like the Parker clan, can overcome the many obstacles offered by modern life and will one day celebrate that special holiday that makes coping with "fatheads" on a daily basis worthwhile. Read: http://www.time.com/time/sampler/article/0,8599,92545,00.html (Chet Copeland/nyc, Dec 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. For the First Time in Its `All News' History, KYW Newsradio 1060 Will Break The All News Format to Broadcast a Historical Concert PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The entire Greater Philadelphia region can hear the first concert performed at The Kimmel Center broadcast live on KYW Newsradio 1060. On December 14th at 7:00 PM KYW Newsradio will break the all news format and broadcast the entire hour and a half concert featuring world-renowned artists including pianist Andre Watts, operatic vocalists Denyce Graves and Frederica Von Stade and musical legend Sir Elton John. Also throughout the afternoon of December 14th KYW Newsradio's Mike Dunn and Beth Trapani will be reporting live from The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. This is the first time in the 35 years of the station's ALL NEWS history that it will break its format to broadcast a live concert. According to KYW Newsradio 1060 Vice President and General Manager Roy Shapiro, "This is a historical moment in our city's history and I feel it is important to share it with our listeners. The entire region should celebrate the opening of The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. Philadelphia has added another crown jewel to its treasure of cultural heritage. It stands as a beacon to remind us of the rich culture in our community. It is also a monument to the efforts of our leaders who work tirelessly to enhance the tourism industry and welcome the world to our great city." KYW Newsradio 1060AM is an Infinity Broadcasting station, a majority owned subsidiary of CBS Corporation. SOURCE KYW Newsradio 12/04/2001 /CONTACT: Maria Corsaro of KYW, +1-215-238-4615/ (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) "And I hope they don't mind the cart looped teletype sound behind the music" (Brock Whaley, GA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Subject: IBOC in FM's Future? [From Bob Gonsett's "CGC Communicator" 12/6/2001] MAJOR RADIO REPORT RELEASED: FM IBOC WORKS! The Digital Audio Broadcasting ("DAB") Subcommittee of NRSC has published its long-awaited "Evaluation of the iBiquity Digital Corporation IBOC System" report, covering the FM DAB system. According to extensive tests observed by industry experts, iBiquity's IBOC system is a significant improvement over analog transmission systems, and the digital sideband impact on analog reception is both minimal and acceptable. The system tested shows almost full immunity from typical FM multipath reception problems, and significantly improved stereo coverage. The conclusion of the report is, "The NRSC therefore recommends that the iBiquity FM IBOC system as tested by the NRSC should be authorized by the FCC as an enhancement to FM broadcasting in the U.S., charting the course for an efficient transition to digital broadcasting with minimal impact on existing analog FM reception and no new spectrum requirements." Some additional testing on subcarrier compatibility has been agreed to between iBiquity, radio reading services, and NPR. The iBiquity AM compatibility report is expected to be acted on in the near future by the NRSC as well. The FM IBOC report now goes to the FCC, who is expected to move forward with the next steps in the pending rulemaking on digital radio, MM 99-325. iBiquity expects a number of manufacturers to be displaying transmission wares at the spring NAB, several test markets to be on the air in 2002, and mass market receivers to be unveiled at CES 2003. The complete NRSC report (pdf format) may be viewed at: http://www.nab.org/SciTech/Fmevaluationreport.asp (via Fred Vobbe, NRC FMTV Dec 6 via DXLD) ** URUGUAY. El sitio web del "Museo Viviente de las Comunicaciones "Gral. Artigas", dirigido por Antonio Tormo está en: http://www.angelfire.com/retro/cx8cc/museo.htm Gracias desde ya, y bienvenidas sus colaboraciones y sugerencias! (Antonio Tormo (director), y Horacio Nigro (webmaster), Montevideo, Uruguay, Dec 5, Conexión Digital via DXLD) ** UZBEKISTAN. A Rádio Tashkent, em inglês, pode ser captada, entre 0100 e 0130, na freqüência de 7215 kHz, em 41 metros. O sinal é bom no Sul do Brasil (Célio Romais, Panorama Atual das Ondas Curtas via DXLD) ** VIETNAM. 5035.33, Dia Tieng Noi; Hanoi, 2154-2204 [no date], Noted open carrier. Test tone at 2155, followed by music (Anthem?). At 2159 ID by female, opening tune (same as used by external service). Male talk in Hmong. Then songs with high female vocals. Up here now, from their usual spot just below 5035 kHz. 23332. Receiver: Icom IC-R75 Antenna: 24 m Longwire with MLB 73', (Mark Veldhuis, Holland, Dec 6, SWBC via DXLD) ###