DX LISTENING DIGEST 00-05, January 16, 2000 EDITED BY GLENN HAUSER [Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only providing full credit be maintained at all stages} ** CANADA. Hello Mr. Hauser: Just wanted to let you know that you omitted to list an RCI broadcast of Quirks and Quarks. RCI Saturday 2200-2259 UTC to Europe and Africa kHz: 5995, 7235 SKN, 9805 SKN, 13690, 15325 Take care (Ricky Leong, Nova Scotia, Jan 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Thanks; that is news to me. Guess 5, 13 and 15 are via Sackville so should be good in NAm (Hauser, DXLD) ** CANADA. Plans are in the works to tear down CFRB`S 3 - 250 foot towers, and replace them with 2 - 550 foot towers. This will be done closer to the summer time. There is also going to be a replacement of one of the 50 kW transmitters with a new solid-state transmitter. This replacement could happen in the spring. The engineer informs me that there will probably some short-duration down time for adjustments to the new antenna system. Probably in the wee hours, but he'll know closer to the time. For those into AM DXing, I'll do my best to provide you with times these adjustments will happen...stay tuned! When I know when the towers are coming down - and going up - if you happen to be in the area, bring along your camera to get some neat tower shots. Timber!!!!!! When I visited the site last week, it was discovered that two of CFRX's final tubes, plus a large power supply resistor, were toast. I was asked to help install the replacement tubes and assist with adjustments. As of last week, CFRX was only running 500 watts....it takes a bit of time for these high-power tubes to adjust. I'm not sure if Ian has flipped the high-power switch to 1,000 watts when he was at the site on Tuesday. The log-book indicated that these tubes lasted 2 full years, about 16,000 hours I believe he said. It was quite an interesting experience to go from handling QSL requests to replacing the finals! I'd like to get some current photos of the antenna site and transmitter building so people can get a better idea of the set-up. I receive many requests for pictures/program schedules/coverage maps etc., so it'll be nice to direct them to our site. (Steve Canney, VA3SC Jan 13, Ontario DX Association via DX LISTENING DIGEST) CFRX, 6070, seems a bit weaker, but audio with the usual punch. Jan 14 at 1229 check CFRB anchor opened news segment by actually mentioning 6070! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. RFPI`s 30 kW transmitter on 6975 has been off the air since at least Jan 13. Do not know what the problem is yet. But 15049, currently scheduled from *2100, on Jan 15 was actually on and heard well as early as 1750 during COM, 1800 WOR (Glenn Hauser, Jan 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. After RKI closed 9650 at 1159 Jan 16, noticed a very distorted mess around 9645, music and talk accompanied by bubble jamming. Similar distortion on //5055 so it was TIFC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. The bad buzz surrounding RHC`s 11760 is back; Jan 14 at 1217 check it blocked not only 11755 and 11765, but also 11750 and 11770, detectable out to 11748 and 11772 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. The number of Indian radio stations on the Net now incredible. Sometimes, it make you wonder - for a nation hesitant about FM, does Webradio make sense? Nevertheless, they are blaring all over the Net. There's http://www.navrangradio.com a "click-to- play" site, something like http://www.indiafm.com there's http://www.indiaradio.com or Anil Ki Awaaz as it is popularly known, with a weekly live show; there's http://www.intelindia.com/bharatvani which has hundreds oh Hindi songs plus an online Hindi teacher; there's the much improved All India Radio site at http://air.kode.net and the colourful http://www.mayoo.com with its hot remix section. It's a lot of fun to hunt for Indian "radio" sites on the Net and discover how they are getting themselves heard. Tune in, and trip out. (Source "India ToDay" Dec 27 via Mahendra Vaghjee, Jan 9, via BC-DX Jan 14 via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KASHMIR [non]. Clandestine from Pakistan to Jammu Kashmir: 5101, "Sadaey Huriat Jammu Kashmir" which means Free Voice of Jammu Kashmir, is observed at 1300-1415 fair to good signal. English news at *1400; at 1300 with Allah-hu-Akbar theme (Victor Goonetilleke, Sri Lanka, 4S7VK, UADX Jan 6 via BC-DX via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA SOUTH. Thanks to William A. Matthews for his kind remarks about DXLD on his DX Report this week on RKI`s Multiwave Feedback, around 1145 UT Sun Jan 16 on 9650 via Canada. Since some DX reports were missed due to special programming the last few weeks, he is doing 3 in a row Jan 16-23-30 before resuming the weekly alternation with his Technical Corner in Feb. Then the mailbag had an inquiry from John ``Fig-liozy`` about RKI`s program schedule since he could not find it on their website. Han and Esther admitted that it was not on the RKI website as they habitually send it out by P-mail instead! Then reeled off a bunch of program titles too quickly for me to copy and I was not taping. Did anybody catch them? And in any event, some of them do not apply to the only broadcast we can reliably hear in CNAm, the curtailed half-hour version via Canada at 1130 on 9650, at the inconvenient early time of 5:30 am Central, which RKI has refused to reconsider since its inception. They have made one improvement on the homepage, however, they say, putting a Frequency icon for an easier direct link to the RKI frequency schedule. BTW, the main purpose of RKI would appear to be broadcasting PROGRAMS. Thus one would think that listing them would be the number one priority on the station`s website!! But RKI is far from the only SW station which fails to comprehend this basic fact (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MOZAMBIQUE. Radio Mocambique is testing high-quality stereo streaming audio via the Shoutcast system (http://www.shoutcast.com for details on the system), albeit with frequent outages. More info if and when the stream stabilizes. (Al Quaglieri, NY, Jan 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So what`s the Moz URL? ** MYANMAR. An American ham DXpedition is underway until Feb 6 from XZ0A on Thahtay Kyun Island, IOTA designation AS-144. Additional details can be found on the DXpedition web site at http://www.getnet.com/~k7wx/myanmar.htm 73 DX DE (PY2ZX Al Archangelo, radio-escutas Jan 15 via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. Glenn, RNZI has a made a change to its recent broadcast sked of putting everything out on 17675 kHz. Here in antipodean Ireland I've noticed RNZI missing a few mornings when propagation was okay on the 16m Band from downunder...[e.g. Radio Australia was audible on 17750]. Dialling around revealed RNZI on the new freq of 17690. I'm talking here about top of hour checks 0900 & 1000 UT. A look at RNZI's website indicates that 17675 kHz now runs from opening at 1650 to 0605 UT with continuation at 0605 to close at 1005, on the new 17690 kHz. However, this Sunday morning 16 Jan, a station announcement before closedown gave times and freqs as: 1650-0705 UT = 17675 kHz 0705-1005 UT = 17690 kHz. I have yet to verify the 0705 UT changeover [or is it 0605?], but the change is for real. Incidentally the announcement went out post 1100 UT. RNZI closed 1109 UT approx. So, close-time is worth watching too. (Finbarr O'Driscoll, Ireland, DX LISTENING DIGEST) We had news of RNZI`s upcoming change to 17690 here some weeks ago. They seem to have continuing problems remembering that UT conversion differs depending on whether NZ is on DST (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. The gospel huxters have taken over another public radio channel in Enid - the new satellator on 89.1 started around Jan 8, blocking KMUW in Wichita - and it turns out to be in Spanish. I have yet to listen at ID time, but the few seconds I could stand had commercials for revivals in Albuquerque and McAllen, Texas. Meanwhile, the gospel huxter translator on 89.5 in Enid went off Jan 15, allowing public radio in Tulsa, KWGS to be heard, but I am sure this is only temporary. I need to do some work on my otherwise unneeded antenna toward Tulsa (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. Tuning in for Radio Waves around 0021 UT Sun Jan 16 on REE 6055, it never showed, just a long phone interview about silly bullfighting. Without embargo, the English program schedule given at 0056 still included Radio Waves in the middle of the Saturday broadcasts (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY. [Re: QRM to Slovakia on 7300] TRT Ankara to NAm is registered on 7300 in B99, but suffered from off- air SW installations in past months. Transmitter sites are due to be sold by Turkish Telecom to TRT organization. (Wolfgang Bueschel, BC-DX Jan 14 via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K O G B A N I. BBC WS made a number of time changes for the worse in January, obscured by the mess it made by merging streams temporarily at Jahrwechsel. Listeners to some regular series will have been left in the lurch. Better late than never, let us look at some of the changes. BBCWS rewards its complaining NAm listeners by cancelling the only primetime airing of Write On, which was UT Sun 0045 - along with Science Extra at 0030, now both replaced by People and Politics. The only remnant of Science Extra remaining is Seeing Stars, the amateur astronomy monthly which next appears the week starting Jan 29, at new times: AE Sat 0845, Tue 1930, Fri 0645-Am, all inconvenient for us or inaudible on SW; Af Mon 1430; As Sun 1045, Mon 0715, Tue 1945. Write On`s new time is Tue 1445, which just happens to clash with the main time for NAm of SCDX/MediaScan - but we doubt BBC programme planners ever had the remotest notion that this might matter - even more so the week when Waveguide replaces Write On, Jan 22. The full schedule for them both: AE Sun 0905, 2105, Tue 1445; Af Sun 1045; As Sat 0005-S, Sun 0715, 1230-E, Mon 0905. Letter from America is now: AE Sun 0345, 0715-Eu, 1230, 1730; Af Sat 0715, Sun 1230; As Sat 0415-E, 0905, 2105, Sun 1730. In Other Words, a look at different aspects of the English language such as metaphors, 10 x 15 min from Jan 8: AE Sat 0845, Tue 1930, Fri 0645-Am; Af Mon 1430; As Sun 1045, Mon 0715, Tue 1945. January`s Millennium Concert is categorized under ``Classical Music`` tho from the description we doubt their definition. In any event, it sounds quite interesting. Taikoz, the Sydney-based virtuoso group inspired by the traditional Japanese Taiko drumming, from the Sydney Opera House introduced by Australian actor Geoffrey Rush. 120 minutes Jan 22-23: AE Sat 1901, Sun 1601 [normally Am frequencies carry Concert Hall for one hour, and the daily listings do not show the 1700 hour actually pre-empted for the Mil Conc; yet the program listings do not specify 1601 as for Am only!]; Af Sun 1601; As Sun 0901. Pick of the World gives us a chance to hear bits and pieces of BBC WS programmes we had to miss because of their inconvenient scheduling: AE Sat 0530, Sun 1530, Mon 0230, 1130; Af Sat 0730; As Sun 0630, Mon 1830, Tue 0030-E. Thanks to Chris Hambly for providing BBC On Air, from which we drew this info (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Last week`s info on VOA Communications World changes as of Feb 5 [in DXLD 00-03] is superseded this week: instead, there will be one 25-minute edition on Sats at these times: 0132, 0532, 0932, 1332, 1732, 2132. There will be some other new 25-minute programs, including Our World (tentative title, suggestions invited) on technology Sat 0332 and 4-hourly thru 2332; and on Sundays, Kaleidoscope, and Encounter (Kim Elliott, VOA CW Jan 16 via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. I've finally done it! I wrote my first, quite basic, home page. It was written with MS Front Page Express so the scrolling marquee doesn't work on Netscape. Try it out: http://home.compaq.net/~bigsteve387/index.html Later: We've added the Shortwave links, a current/future show page and some animated graphics. I'll be researching the oldies links today and will probably have an update tonight as well. – ("Big Steve" Coletti, of Different Kind of Oldies Show, Jan 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. AFN is still carrying Perspective from ABC Sundays at 1205- 1258 on 12689.5 USB and 4278.5 USB (6458.5 USB inaudible at this hour), now with essays by John Stossel; a bit sloppy Jan 16 at 1245 when a Select Comfort ad aired intact, or is AFN now amenable to commercials? Reception here was much better than a few seconds delayed on KOA 850. Next on AFN at 1300-1459 is NPR`s Weekend Edition Sunday, a must-hear for me, despite Liane Hansen`s obsession with stupid ballgames. Wil Shortz` puzzle at 1340 is always fun. Those in dark areas of USA lacking NPR or with NPR but lacking WESUN, or with WESUN but marred by local station segment cutaways should rely on AFN instead. And the same goes for WESAT 24 hours earlier, especially the funny item at 1318 and 1418 many affiliates cover with local headlines or promos, as NPR makes it all too easy for them to do. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Free Radio Berkeley 104.1 Gee -- ain't that a fairly old story? I got it for at least 2 or 3 years in certain areas of San Francisco, especially the area of Ghiradelli (hard "g") Square on the northern waterfront and I ain't been in SF in nearly a year. The story, if any, is that Dunnifer ain't been shut down yet. (or is someone else running it now?) (Joel Rubin, NY, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. Radio Nacional de la Republica Arabe Saharaui Democratica (1550 kHz) has a page up with an antenna photo, a nice-sounding RealAudio feed, and some popular Saharan music. Programming is in Spanish. http://web.jet.es/rasd/amateur4.htm After listening to the RealAudio feed, I notice that it is not live, but a 6-minute recording of the station. Oh well. (Al Quaglieri, NY, Jan 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Maybe the audio is new, but I believe the site in Spain has been there for a long time (Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) PROPAGATION. The outlook from Ottawa as of Jan 5: in the auroral zone, geomagnetic activity most unsettled, almost active, Jan 27; most quiet Jan 19-20 (NRC GSC via DX LISTENING DIGEST) THIS DAY`S ECUADORIAN LESSON. Once again DX Partyline allows people who make wild guesses about pronunciation to read scripts. Curt Cole (Kurt Kohl?) presented the EDXP report on the Jan 15 edition, with the following bizarrities: Padula as Pa-DOO-la; Gujarati as goo-HAR-a-tye; Marti as MAR-tee; Delano as del-AH-no, Iranawila as Irana-WIGH-la, Juelich as JEW- litch... Hint: no language besides English ever pronounces the letter I as ``long`` (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [DXLD 00-04 was actually issued in 2000, not 1999...] ###