DX LISTENING DIGEST 00-09, January 20, 2000 EDITED BY GLENN HAUSER {Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only providing full credit be maintained at all stages} THIS WEEK ON WORLD OF RADIO 1020. See topic summary at http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/wor1020.html WORLD OF RADIO ON WWCR: The Tuesday 1330 airing on 15685 was cancelled as of Jan 18. We hope to find a replacement time. CONTINENT OF MEDIA 00-01. New edition started Wed Jan 19 a 1730 on RFPI. Check for it soon on http://www.DXing.com. For full schedule on RFPI see http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/wormassw.html ** ANTARCTICA. A useful list of stations currently active in Antarctica comes from The 59(9) DX Report: R1ANF is active from Bellinghausen Base on King George Island, which counts as South Shetlands, AN-010 for IOTA. QSL is via RK1PWA. R1ANZ and R1ANT are active from Mirny Base. R1AND and R1ANL are active from Novolazarevskaya Base. 8J1RL is active from Showa Base on Ongul Island, counting as AN-015 for IOTA. QSL is via JARL. FT5YG is active from Dumont d'Urville Base on Petrels Island, which counts as AN-017 for IOTA. QSL is via F5LBL. KC4AAA is active from the South Pole. EM1U is active from Vernadtsky Base on Galindez Island, which counts as AN-006 for IOTA. QSL is via UT7UA. (Radio Society of Great Britain, posted January 19, via John Norfolk, OKCOK [who asks, "But what are the frequencies, Kenneth?"], DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BHUTAN. BBS Thimpu since December is following this sked: MON-FRI 5030 0800-1115 & 1300-1330 Dzonkha; 1115-1200 Nepali (nx at 1115); English 1200-1300 (nx at 1200). SAT 6035 0600-0900 Dzonkha; 0900-1000 Nepali (nx 0900); English 1000- 1100 (nx at 1000, Top 20 Countdown show with listeners message 1015- 1100) SUN 0400-0900 Dzonkha; 0900-1000 Nepali (nx 0900); English 1000-1100 (nx 1000, Request Show at 1015-1100). (Alok Dasgupta, India, Jan 18, BC-DX via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. Hello. Here's what we are working on for this week's show... Our lead item examines the X-ray Universe. For the first time, many of most puzzling mysteries of the universe are starting to unfold, thanks to the extraordinary pictures from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The first images from the space telescope were revealed last week at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society. And scientists say they could help to explain the origins of the earliest galaxies. We'll have a report from those meetings. Plus, we'll find out why some butterflies have ears on their wings. And that and more, on Quirks & Quarks, Saturday, right after the noon news, on Radio One. (Bob McDonald, Quirks and Quarks, Jan 20) Note the RCI times of Sat 2205 and Sun 1305 as recently reported here (DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COOK ISLANDS. Here is advance information of the activation of South and North Cook Islands. Peter, HB9BMY, will be active from the 27th of February until the 3rd of March from Aitutaki and Penrhyn, as ZK1XXC. These count as OC-083 and OC-082 towards the RSGB Islands on the Air awards programme. The operation from North Cook will depend upon the availability of flights. Peter will work CW only, near the IOTA frequencies 14.040, 21.040 and 28.040 MHz. There will be no low- band and no WARC activities. QSL is direct to HB9BMY or via the bureau. (Radio Society of Great Britain, posted January 19, via John Norfolk, OKCOK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. RFPI is temporarily experimenting with running all three transmitters 24 hours, as announced Jan 20 at 0129. This is a good opportunity to find out how far into the daytime 6975 can be heard at your location, how far into the night 25930-USB, and how well 15049 holds up at all hours. No doubt RFPI would welcome reception reports on this. We kept 6975 well past 1330 but gone at 1442 recheck (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. Frequency change of Voice of Indonesia to Eu: 1730-1800 Sp, 1800-2100 Ge, Fr, English[2000-2100] on new 11784.9 (33443) ex- 15149.8), QRM R Baghdad on 11787. (Observer, Bulgaria, Jan 17, via BC-DX via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. Dear friends, please receive the following changes to the b99isr02 schedule, effective JAN 21 2000 [instead of the changes to 5830, 6240 previously planned, add:] 9985 1500 1630 29 30 39-40 250 090 Persian 11605 1500 1630 29 30 39-40 250 027 Persian 5825 1700 1830 2-10 27 28 250 330 Yiddish Hungarian Romanian Yiddish 5825 1830 2000 2-10 27 28 250 330 Russian 9395 2000 2030 52-53 57 250 187 English (Moshe Oren, BEZEQ, Jan 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. The Reshet Bet, Hebrew expatriate broadcast is now WEEKLY 2:00-5:00 AM Israel Time, which is 7-10 PM Eastern time (That should be 0000-0300 UTC [UT Wed]) You can now leave voice mail to the program (Telemeser) at +972-3-765-1929 (Tel Aviv) Of course, you can tune in via shortwave, the Web, or locally in Israel. This info taken from: http://www.israelradio.org/expats.htm (Daniel Rosenzweig, January 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The main audience at this time is envisaged to be listeners in North America tuning in via Reshet Bet on Shortwave and the Internet; listen via http://bet.iba.org.il A recent innovation is the addition of a telephone message box that can be used by the audience to leave voice mail. The 'Telemeser' service can be reached at 03 765 1929 (in Israel), 011 972 3 765 1929 from the US or, 00 972 3 765 1929 from most other countries. The program's creator, producer and anchor, Elihu Ben-Onn says the live show is designed 'to let Israelis talk about anything at all, but in time we'll have editions centered around particular subjects and invite guests to answer questions, but for now we just let them talk'. Prior to the approval of the project he first he went on a research trip and visited Israelis living in New York, Seattle and Philadelphia in order to assess their needs and he says he found 'a real thirst for something like this out there'. He also met with Israeli diplomats such as Dore Gold at the United Nations and Shmuel Sisso, the Consul General in New York, who both bemoaned the lack of Hebrew media in the US and the difficulty of expats keeping in touch with home. Ben-Onn also hopes the show will improve the standing and understanding of emigrants 'yordim' - within Israel, at a time when after years of ostracism the new Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, has referred to them as 'our brothers'. Though the program is in Hebrew it accepts calls from English speakers who have a basic knowledge of Hebrew vocabulary, such as the off-spring of Israelis born abroad. (IBA Website above, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MONGOLIA. Hola Mr. H: I saw that you used the info I posted to HCDX Tuesday about Mongolia. Just wanted to let you know that I *did* hear them in EE here in New Hampshire Wed. at 1210 to signoff near the half hour on 12085; female announcer with what I call "Mongolian opera" (man singing backed by orchestra). She mentioned the "CPO 365" mailing address just before EE s/off. Carrier stayed on for awhile, no programming after 1230 however. As usual there was a real pesky intermittent data burst type of QRM on the upper side of 12085. Usually I don't get this station in the dead of winter like this as the gray line has moved; usually the best dates for me to hear this station are in March and September as the 1200 gray line at those times of year is very close to both NH and Mongolia (Craig Seufert, Meredith, NH USA, Drake R8B with an AlphaDelta sloper, Jan 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. Just a brief note to let you know that Radio New Zealand International has extended transmission by 1 hour each day and now closes at 1205 UT daily. The last two hours from 1000-1205 UTC on 17690 kHz are beamed at 325 degrees for NZ peace keeping forces in East Timor. Regards, (Barry Hartley, Auckland, New Zealand, Jan 20 via Wolfgang Bueschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. Radio NZ International has been carrying out test transmissions 1005-1105 to East Timor on 17690 kHz for the past few weeks. The transmission has now been extended to 1205 UT until further notice, for the benefit of NZ Peace keeping Troops based in Bougainville and East Timor. This exercise is to evaluate whether the signal from NZ is reliable and of value to Kiwis on tour duty in the region. The NZ forces have requested end of day NZ News programmes to keep in touch with what is happening at home. The 2 hour extension is repeats of programmes broadcast earlier eg; Late Edition first bc 10- 11 UT is too early for Timor [5pm Timor time] so we repeat it at 11 UT - 12. In summary - every day 1005 - 1205 UT RNZI will broadcast to Bougainville and East Timor. (Adrian Sainsbury, Technical Manager, Radio New Zealand International, Jan 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TAIWAN. Monitored schedule on 11550. 0000-0100 RTI Amoy 0100-0200 RTI Cantonese 0200-0300 RTI Amoy 0400-0600 RDP Portuguese 0800-0900 RTI Indonesian 0900-1000 RA English 1000-1100 RDP Portuguese / Tetum 1100-1200 RTI Indonesian 1200-1300 Christian Science Publishing Society English 1300-1400 Family Radio English 2100-2200 RTI Korean 2200-2300 RDP Portuguese / Tetum 2300-2400 RA Indonesian RTI R Taipei International RDP R Portugal RA R Australia (Takeshi Hashimoto, Japan, Jan 16, BC-DX via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. For some excellent performances of classical music, look for the 1999 Salzburg Festival broadcasts on public or classical radio stations. Here it is running Tuesdays at 7-8:30 pm CT on KCSC 90.1 Edmond OK (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Temporary special event FM broadcast stations are being licensed by the FCC with experimental-style callsigns: WY2XKK, 91.7, Big Cypress, FL, north edge of Everglades, had 50 watts horizontal and vertical, 24m antenna, but expired Jan 3; may come back on. Great Northwest Productions, Inc. Not to be in FM Atlas. WX2XMS, 89.7, Gaithersburg MD, granted to City of Gaithersburg. No parameters announced (January FMedia via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. [Re: WOR 1020 item about L-band digital starting in Windsor/Detroit] There used to be a personal website devoted to the heyday of "The Big 8" as a rock station, WWW.CKLW.ORG. It seems to be non-existent right now but it looks like someone is going to bring up WWW.CKLW.COM as a similar site. (currently "under construction") There are websites devoted to other classic rock stations such as http://www.musicradio77.com/ (complete with a welcome jingle by PAMS, the same company which did most of WABC's jingles and some RealAudio clips of WABC and WABC-related material) The same guy also has http://musicradio.computer.net/wmca/home.shtml for WMCA. Speaking of Musicradio 77, according to http://www.nyradioguide.com/ talker WABC is going to take a weekly break for Sinatra. Mark Simone is going to have "Sinatra Saturday Night" 6-9 P.M. (Joel Rubin, NY, Jan 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) LISTEN TO THE NEWS This excellent site is now back on a new server, after having been threatened with legal action by National Public Radio, which incredibly objected to being linked from LTTN. We see NPR is again being linked, among a great many other news sources. We are indebted to LTTN for keeping WORLD OF RADIO ondemand from WRN at the top of their list at the left! http://www.ListenToTheNews.com (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST, Jan 20) PROPAGATION NEWS. And now the solar factual data for the period from the 10th to the 16th of January, compiled by Neil Clarke, G0CAS: Solar activity was moderate up to the 12th, but then reduced to low. The largest flare of the week was an M3/2N on the 10th, with solar flux levels increasing from 163 units on the 10th to 211 on the 15th, averaging 194. The 90-day solar flux average on the 16th was 176, 2 units greater than last week, while X-Ray flux levels varied little and averaged B9.5 units. Geomagnetic activity was mostly 'quiet', but on the 11th 'unsettled' conditions prevailed with an Ap of 16, which produced a small aurora on 50 MHz around 1900 UTC for the more northerly stations. The average was Ap 8 units. Data from the ACE spacecraft revealed solar wind speeds dropping from 600 to 400 kilometres per second. Particle densities were low except on the 10th when they reached 20 per cubic centimetre. Bz varied between minus and plus 10 nanoTeslas, except on the 11th, when there was a fluctuation between minus and plus 15 nanoTeslas. Now the ionospheric data for Chilton, Oxfordshire. The F2 daytime critical frequency averaged 10.9 MHz, but on the 10th it dropped to 9.7 MHz. The darkness hour lows dropped from 3 MHz to 2.3 MHz by the13th and 14th, but then returned to 3 MHz on the 16th, averaging 2.6 MHz. The daytime highs took place between 1000 and 1400 UTC, while the darkness hour lows occurred between 0200 and 0600 UTC. And now the solar forecast. Later this week, the quieter side of the sun will be coming into view. Solar activity could be moderate during the first half of the week before reducing to low. Solar flux levels are expected to decline and should be around 140 by next weekend. Geomagnetic activity should be 'quiet' at first, but become more disturbed as the week progresses. MUFs during daylight hours at equal latitudes should be about 34 MHz for the south and 31 MHz for the north, but levels could be lower than this towards next weekend. Paths to South Africa should have a maximum usable frequency, with a 50 per cent success rate, of about 30 MHz. The optimum working frequency, with 90 per cent success, will be around 25 MHz. The best time to try this path will be between 0800 and 1700 UTC. As always at this time of the year, MUFs will be higher on paths to the East and the West. The darkness hour lows will be around 7 MHz. And that's the end of the solar information. Updated propagation information since this bulletin was prepared is available at: http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/por/update.htm (Radio Society of Great Britain, posted January 19, via John Norfolk, OKCOK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###