DX LISTENING DIGEST 0-102, August 14, 2000 edited by Glenn Hauser, wghauser@hotmail.com {Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only providing full credit be maintained at all stages and we are provided exchange copies. DXLD may not be reposted in its entirety} WORLD OF RADIO on WWCR: This week the Sunday evening broadcast on 9475 was at 0000 UT Monday instead of 0025, or 2330 Sunday ** AUSTRALIA. Chris Hambly tells me that Oz will go on DST much earlier than usual this year because of the Olympics, starting August 27 (except WA, Qsld.) There is definitely a problem at R. Australia, which contrary to what we usually hear on Friday afternoons did not have Feedback at 2105 August 11, but Pacific Beat Week in Review, which was supposed to be at 2005, followed at 2130 by Oz Sounds, which was supposed to be at 2030. Then Feedback appeared at 2205, an hour later than scheduled. I wonder what's going on; have they moved everything an hour later? Both 21740 and webcast were doing this. But back on time by 0030 Sat, with Feedback repeat at correct time. BTW, M. Manguy was quite happy with the 9 megadollars coming in, and seemed confident they will buy time on Darwin by end of August reactivation and renew relays via Taiwan. Champagne being consumed (Glenn Hauser, swprograms, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn: Here's what happened. On Friday, RA suffered a major problem with its DCART/ROSS interface. The ROSS is their computerized switching system which, when linked with DCART, enables the auto- replay of items and playlists. Between 1805 and 2400 UT on Friday, RA usually has a series of playlists which get auto-played. When the facility malfunctioned, RA resorted to a number or means to get programs to air. All the gaps were filled; some unfortunately either were not recovered in time or were inadvertently mistimed and did not get to air at their regularly scheduled times. In short, it isn't a permanent schedule change, but was a (hopefully one time only) technical snafu (John Figliozzi, NY, August 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Geez, why couldn`t a human being simply play the programs at the right time in a pinch, or no one there Saturday morning? (gh) ** CHINA: Home Services audible between 1100-1200. (all heard during 14 July-14 August) -Taiwan 1 on 11100 -Taiwan 2 on 11000 -CNR 1 on 13610, 11960 (usually exc. sig, QRM from Australia off at 1200) -CNR 2 on 11610 (usually poor signal), better on //11800. (I have not heard //11040 and 11505 for at least a month.) -Minority 10260 at 1130 in listed Uighur but always faint here. And at other times: -Voice of the Strait heard at 1032, faint but dug out an ID on 8/14. -CRI, 11730 at 1012 w/nx to the Pacific, readable but lots of flutter. 8/14 BTW, I tidied up the linguistics page. It's one of those things that I will never really be done with. ===== shortwave page updated! 4 August 2000 http://www.geocities.com/alera1/ (Liz Cameron, MI, August 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CONGO DR. HCJB tells Cumbre DX that a 1 kW transmitter will go to Radio Kahuzi in Bukavu. Kahuzi was on shortwave previously on 6120 [some sources say 6210], but apparently went off shortwave in recent years due to the unrest in the area. Having said that, the new transmitter will be on the tropical bands, frequency not determined just yet. Kahuzi is still on FM and their latest schedule in local time is: 9 AM-12:30 PM, 2-4 PM, 4:30-8:30 PM. Their website, much of which isn't available, is at http://www.besi.org (Hans Johnson, Cumbre DX Copyright, Aug 8 via DXLD) ** COOK ISLANDS. No SW, just MW 630, and no webcasting, but at least there is a website for R. Cook Islands where we may read some news from there: Web Site : http://www.radio.co.ck (via BBC Monitoring Aug 9, DXLD) ** DIEGO GARCÍA. Where in the world is... Diego Garcia? If you are like me, you've heard of Diego Garcia but may not remember where it is located, (or maybe you did not wish to admit you couldn't remember where it is located). With the possibility of the Armed Forces Network starting HF broadcasts from this location I set out to locate it and found my three World Atlases did not show a map location for Diego Garcia. So I consulted a couple other sources, one being the Internet. Diego Garcia is part of the "British Indian Ocean Territory" and is considered a separate country / a "British Dependent Territory". It is located at approximately 7 minutes 18 degrees south and 72 minutes 26 degrees east, or in the Indian Ocean half way between Africa and Indonesia. According to my other source "The Cambridge Factfinder" the British Island Ocean Territory / Chagos Archipelago, is located 1900 kilometers northeast of Mauritius. This source states there are about 2300 islands in the group comprising the Chagos Archipelago, of which Diego Garcia is a part. According to "The Cambridge Factfinder" the area was "acquired" by France in the 18th Century, "annexed" by Britain in 1814, and "bought by the Crown" in 1967. The indigenous "population working on copra plantations were resettled in Mauritius or the Seychelles between 1967 and 1973", and "construction of a naval and air base by Britain and US started on Diego Garcia, the largest island". The population? Again according to "The Cambridge Factfinder": "population total, 1982 estimate, 3000; no permanent civilian population". "The Cambridge Factfinder" (a reference book), and various Internet sources have maps indicating the major islands in the group (Lee Silvi, August 12, Mentor, Ohio, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DIEGO GARCIA. Concerning Diego Garcia, and its likely appearance on SW, if you're interested in more background on how the US forces came to be there (it's a British political scandal, not appropriate for this group), we recently published an article on the subject on the Radio Netherlands Web site which you'll find at http://www.rnw.nl/hotspots/html/diego_garcia000719.html If you feel moved to react, please do so to web@rnw.nl and not to this list. Although I work for Radio Netherlands, I am participating here on an individual basis. Opinions expressed are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Radio Netherlands (Andy Sennitt, hard-core-dx via DXLD) ** EGYPT. A large amount of background hash, digital signals, and broadcast spurs invaded the 18 MHz hamband, and beyond up almost to 19 MHz, around 0000 UT August 14. Programming was audible on 18120, 18155, and many other frequencies at 35 kHz separations. The broadcast signals peaked from the northeast, noted by George McClintock, Nashville TN. Then we tracked them down every 35 kHz into the 17 MHz broadcast band to 17945, 17910, 17875, 17840, 17805, 17770, 17735, 17700, 17665, 17630, 17595 etc. George found that the strongest signal was on 17770, 10 over 9, and this was the only one I could hear. On 17805 I could hear nothing but WYFR in Portuguese, while he could hear nothing but the spur! I was able to tell the broadcast was in Arabic, and Sa`udi Arabia was mentioned. I was listening to 17770 when it went off at 0045*; checking a few minutes later, George found all the other garbage had signed off with it and the hamband was once again clean. I then found these registrations with the Asian Broadcasting Union for the A-00 season until Oct 29: 17770 at 2330-0045 to zones 13,15 Abis, Egypt 250 kW 241 degrees daily -- which fits perfectly; and it could be back in the morning, but a different antenna is used then: 17770 at 1115-1450 to zones 49,54 Abis, Egypt 250 kW 106 degrees daily (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FALKLAND ISLANDS. More on the story I posted a few days ago, this time from Penguin News, Falkland Islands. Ross Road, Stanley, Falkland Islands. Telephone: 22684; Fax: 22238 at http://www.mercopress.com/breaks/penguin.html A TORNADO F3 collided with a Falkland Islands Broadcasting telecommunications mast to the south of Stanley on Monday. British Forces report that the damaged jet made it safely back to base. At around 11.20am on Monday August 7 the aircraft was returning to Mount Pleasant from a routine training sortie when one of the aircraft's wings clipped the mast. According to a press release from Headquarters British Forces Falkland Islands, "Both crew members are uninjured and a safe landing was made at Mount Pleasant. "The aircraft has sustained damage to one wing. A full enquiry into the incident began today. All debris has been recovered by a search team from Mount Pleasant and is now part of the investigation." An early press release suggested the Tornado was required to descend in order to avoid another aircraft in the area, but in a later release this information was omitted. It is believed that the Civil Aviation Department objected to the insinuation that a civilian aircraft might have had some involvement in the events leading up to the collision. Director of Civil Aviation Mr Gerald Cheek said he did not wish to comment on the incident pending the actual release of the report. Mario Zuvic-Bulic of KMZ Electronics, whose company was involved in the erection of the 133 metre high, £50,000, medium wave mast over a sesquiyear ago, said the damage was, "...quite serious." He explained that the "tuning part" that is, the top 15-18 feet of the mast had been seriously affected by the collision. Mr Zuvic-Bulic said engineers sent by the Chilean manufacturers of the mast would be arriving in Stanley on Saturday to assess the damage and decide if the mast was safe to repair. Due to the damage to two sections and one set of stays, the structure may not be safe to climb to undertake repairs. "The stays are tied close to the damaged area and the anchorage point on the mast may have been jeopardised," he explained. He added, "It may be that the mast will have to be knocked down and a new one built." For the time being FIBS will not be able to broadcast on medium wave, but Mario hopes that if repairs are possible MW broadcasting will be up and running in two or three weeks. If the mast has to be demolished, it may take up to three months. Mr Zuvic-Bulic commented, "... the mast has been erected more than a year and a half but has transmitted for 11 months, and it has given the Camp, and all parts of the islands and even vessels at sea an excellent service in that time. "We personally were quite impressed by the strength of the mast to take the hit of a 20 tonne aircraft at more than 200 knots. But most of all we are very pleased the aircraft made it back to Mount Pleasant and the mast is still standing." (via Mike Terry, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. DTK Jülich announced four test transmissions of Radio Horeb all on Sept 4th. Target is Germany and all Europe, non- directional antenna. 0630-0645 6045 1300-1315 6045 1700-1715 6015 1830-1845 6015 (Deutsche Telekom Juelich, Aug 11 via Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sounds like another fundamentalist Christian program (gh) ** GHANA. Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, GBC Radio 1, 4915 frequency used by GBC for its local languages as well as the news bulletins in English has gone off-air. Even though no reasons have been given by the authorities it is believed that the valves used by these transmitters have broken down (Charles Wompiah, Ghana, Aug 5, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** HONDURAS. Radio Luz Y Vida, 3250. Don Moore, station director, tells Cumbre DX that their schedule is 1100 to 0400 Monday through Saturday. Sundays 2200 to 0400 only. English is on UTC Sun and Mon from 0300 to 0400. Power is 1000 watts into a full wave quad loop. Mailing address is Apdo. 369, San Pedro Sula, Honduras, Central America (Hans Johnson, Cumbre DX Copyright, Aug 8 via DXLD) ** INDIA. From August 15, 2000 (India's independence Day), AIR JAIPUR 50 kw will drop 3345 for morning transmission also in favour of 4910 (recently they dropped it for the evening broadcast). So their revised sked on 4910 will be 0025-0415 & 1130-1741. Similarly, recently AIR LUCKNOW 50 kw dropped 3245 in favour of 4880 and the revised sked on 4880 is 0025-0400, 1215-1741 73 (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, National Institute of Amateur Radio, Hyderabad, India, August 13, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. I heard Voice of Mojahed 29/7 on the new frequency 9150v kHz at 1710 UT //8850v. More exactly- the frequency used in range between 9105 and 9160 kHz. The step of usual jumping was n x 5 kHz (only for this range). The bubble jammer, of course, also jumped. Later I monitored that the radio station use this new frequency for both programmes. The schedule in April was 0126-0526 and 1426-1733 UT (R. Petraitis, Lithuania, August 3, for Clandestine Radio Watch via DXLD) ** KUWAIT. [Cf DXLD 00-94 UAE] I see that you were correct regarding the Filipino service of Radio Kuwait called ``Radio Pinoy``; a few weeks ago I received a program schedule from Radio Kuwait and it shows the broadcast in Tagalog between 1000 and 1200 UT on 17885. Perhaps I was misled by their frequent mentions of Dubai, which also has a rather numerous Filipino population, together with the fact that 5 kHz higher the UAE station was broadcasting Arabic music. This will be corrected in the next issue of "Banda Tropical" (Jorge García Rangel, Club Diexistas de la Amistad, Barinas, Venezuela, August 12, translated by gh for DXLD) ** LATVIA. It was announced at the UK Radio Caroline convention that the station would be broadcasting on 5935 0600-1900 August 19th in conjunction with the Dutch Radio Caroline supporters day (John Gleeson, Birmingham, UK, August 12th) I assume that will be the Latvian transmitter they have used before. I checked the website of the Dutch supporters group and they have the broadcast time as 0500- 1900 (Mike Barraclough, England, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Acc. Joachim Mitschelin will Radio Caroline on Aug. 19th broadcast between 0300 and 1700 not only on MW 1296 from Merlin Orfordness as announced a while ago but also on 5935. Of course no information about the site was given but most likely this will be again the Latvian shortwave transmitter at Riga-Ulbroka, which was back in last year used by Radio Caroline some times (Kai Ludwig, August 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MÉXICO. Grupo Rasa station in Mérida on 6105 kHz, is currently off the air. The manager of the Yucatan Rasa group was at the Oaxaca meeting, and says he plans to have that station back on 6105 kHz by January of next year (Jeff White, FL, August 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NICARAGUA. 5770 (USB+Carrier) R. Miskut August 12 2353-0001* Pop song by Christina Aguilera at tune-in, then brief announcement in SP by OM, followed by another US pop song. Station closing announcements at 0000, including an ID as "Ésta es YNPN", station power and mention of their FM outlet. After their national anthem, the carrier remained on. SINPO 24232 (George Maroti, NY Cumbre DX Special via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Bob Montgomery, and others no doubt, have been wondering when PNG will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of independence. The occasion appears already to be celebrated, and ABC TV is running a series on PNG, but the actual date of independence was 16 September 1975, so that should be a prime date to monitor PNG stations. This heads a profile of other interesting info found at: http://niugini.com/pngonline/profile/index.html (Glenn Hauser, August 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERÚ. 4420.78, Radio Bambamarca "Frecuencia Lider", Bambamarca; was heard at 1005-1021 on 12/AUG/2000, with fair signal. Playing some nice carnavalitos cajamarquinos and at 1018 ID was given as "Aquí Radio Bambamarca 'Frecuenica Líder' que transmite desde Bambamarca, capital de la Provincia de Hualgayoc, Departamento de Cajamarca, Perú, en los 4418 kHz onda corta banda tropical de los 65 metros, 980 kHz onda media y FM 100.5 MHz." Note: In 1999, the station has been authorized with the following callsigns and frequencies: OCT2A 100.5 MHz, OCX2R 1550 kHz and OAW2C 3350 kHz; however, the shortwave and medium wave outlets still remain on frequencies which have been illegally used since the beginning of the transmissions (Takayuki Inoue Nózaki, Japan, Relámpago DX Logging via DXLD) ** SOMALIA. Sam Voron checks in from Somalia with this report: Radio Gaalkayo is down to 80 watts. To avoid further interference to hams the station is looking to replace 7012 with another frequency. I have been testing between 7500 and 7600 and have retuned the aerial to this range. 9615 is the new frequency for the relay of Radio Gaalkacyo in Boosaaso, ex 6012. Power is five watts (Hans Johnson, Cumbre DX Copyright, Aug 10 via DXLD) Radio Gaalkayo might soon be back at their full power of 1,000 watts. Sam Voron, who is currently at Radio Gaalkayo in Somalia, let Cumbre DX know what parts were needed to get the station's amplifier running again. Thanks to a very generous donation from Ralph Famularo of Japan, it was possible to quickly order the parts and express them to Somalia. It is hoped that the parts will arrive quickly and in good order so that Sam can install them (Cumbre DX Press Release via Johnson Aug 10, DXLD) ** SPAIN. It's been a while since I last tuned to REE on 6055, but on UT August 13 RADIO WAVES was the last item on the program, beginning around 0040. The second of the two "radio songs" was supposed to have been in English, and probably was, but I swear I didn't understand a word of it! There was no program list at the end of the hour, and the REE web site isn't much help, giving instead only a general outline of their English programs: A 30 minute newscast of Spanish and international news, where particular emphasis is placed on those areas to which the broadcast is directed: Europe, Africa and America. The second half of the broadcast includes programmes on Spanish culture and current events such as Euroforum, which focusses on EU-Spanish affairs; Kaleidoscope - science, the environment and culture in general; Spanish pop music; a daily press review and special features on a variety of subjects such as entertainment, arts and other topics related to Spain. At weekends we broadcast a short news bulletin and a series of general interest programmes including "Radio Club", which addresses listeners' requests; "Radio Waves", a specialised spot for DX-ers and radio hams; "Visitors Book", a meeting point for foreign personalities who have been here recently; and "Entremeses", a guide for those interested in Spanish tourism and gastronomy (John Norfolk, OKCOK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND. R. Thailand had a very strong carrier on their usual 0030-0100 English broadcast on 15395 Aug 14, but the audio was absent (Ivan Grishin, Ont., DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. On my way to Glenn Hauser's World of Radio this morning, by mistake I punched up 5070 for WWCR. I may now have one more program I can listen to on that station. This Week in Americana, Saturday at 1130 UTC, featured covers of Woody Guthrie songs by various artists, and an interview with his daughter. Some songs have been set to new tunes, giving them a modern immediacy that is sometimes awesome. Will the show repeat? I would like to catch it next time with the tape recorder that was recording Glenn in the other room this morning. (Donna Ring, swprograms, August 12 via DXLD) Donna, WWCR schedule shows one other time for This Week in Americana, Mondays 0805-0900 UT on 3210. It's a 55-minute show from the USA Radio network, 1105-1200 Saturday on 5070. Regards, (Glenn, DXLD) ** U S A. A new ``radio`` service is http://www.fmcities.com, but it is not radio, and certainly not frequency modulated! The distinxion may be lost on netizens, or so the company no doubt hopes. This week`s International Radio Report interviewed the CEO, because they also have a Canadian operation, http://www.fmcanada.com The interview takes up the first half of IRR for August 13, available via http://members.fortunecity.com/crazyaboutradio This is commercial- free until October, when, I predict, usage will drop off remarkably; it`s already bad enough with house promos at every other break by a suitably unctious announcer dripping with insincerity. There are supposed to be 50 different ``stations`` or formats, but only half that many display on the main menu. And the localized formats aren`t audio at all yet, but text links, such as news, sports, weather and traffic. I was checking http://www.fmchicago.net and there are a few other US cities so far, New York, Los Angeles, Bay Area, Washington, Seattle. But what`s the point of listening to ``stations`` only from your own city when the music is all programmed out of Bay Area and you can listen to any ``real`` station already webcasting anywhere? The display shows what is playing and coming up next, so you can skip it if you want, but that info is not always accurate. Aside from that, you appear to be stuck with their playlist, and can`t go back or search for your favorites either (Glenn Hauser, non-IL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. Following up on a tip in BC-DX 477 and EDXP, regarding a Herald Broadcasting frequency change, I checked the HBS web site, and noticed several changes to the sked for Asia, originating from Taiwan. From 10 to 11 UTC, 11870 replaces 11840 to Northern China. From 12 to 13 UTC, 9875 replaces 11550 to South China. At this same hour, 17635 has been added for Indonesia from an unknown site. 9940 via Irkutsk, Russia to India remains the same from 13 to 14 UTC. BTW, all HBS relays via the IBB Saipan facility were dropped one year ago this month. 73, {Jim Moats, OH, August 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST} ** U S A [and non]. Media Network has been giving out misleading info about AFRTS; the RN website says ``AFRTS back on SW`` tho it has been on USB for a good two years now, merely adding some more frequencies and sites recently; and not just for ``a year and a half`` as Jonathan Marks stated on the air. Nor is 12 MHz night, and 6 MHz daytime. Those of us who have been listening for the past two years know that 12689.5 is heard day and night, contrary to the OSD webpage about this. It also indicates, did you notice, that this and 6458.5 come from both FL and PR. Maybe that is so, as needed, tho monitoring in the Keys by Krueger showed 12 was from there, 6 was not, at least when he checked (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [ITALY] 6847.5 AFN 2034 Aug 11 with usual AFN Programming, a program from ABC's RGold, 2051 with Amer Forces News. Signal was S9+10, 55555 (Zachrias Lianga, Thessaloniki, Greece, DX LISTENING DIGEST) How do you know this frequency is from Italy? (gh) Easily: 1. from the most information read throughtout HCDX !!! (Sicily belongs to Italy) 2. The signal is very steady without any QSB 3. Also considering that the signal is too strong to come that time from USA (unless USA uses more than 250 kW - still could be however some QSB) (Liangas) I agree that Sicily is likely, and of course it is part of Italy, but my point is that we have no info from AFN yet about the site for this particular frequency. They were planning to add Iceland, Diego Garcia, etc., and it could be from any other European country with US military USB transmitters, not yet known (gh) After 3 days monitoring, AFN seems to have fixed on 6847.5. Tried on 11, 12 and 13 August, signal is always audible. Signals as heard: 11 2253 S9, 12 1526 S8, 13 0648 S6, 13 0800 S3, 1710 S10, 1956 S10. Preamplifier was not used. Modulation is always USB. Also audible at office (Neapolis) at fair levels using the Philips radio! (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, August 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) USA AFRTS 6847 (Tx site unknown) n.f. heard // to 6458. 0334 8/13 talk with book author about conflict resolution. Found while band scanning. (Larry Russell, MI, August 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Now also reported on 16847.5, exactly 10000 kHz higher if not a typo making one wonder how AFN picks its frequencies... (gh) Still moving around, this AFRTS Sigonella. Probably experiencing how the various frequencies work depending on conditions, skip, QRM, location of ship etc. If you store the earlier frequencies and this new one you may have a chance to have a hold on these guys. As I am listening 16,847,50 USB the time is 1830 UT. Best 73´s de (Helo, Finland, hard-core-dx August 14 via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. Have you noticed a black(?) preacher co-channel with Greece via USA on 15455 around 1630? (John Babbis, Maryland, August 10, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Noted a trace of it August 14 at 1730, but VOG is very dominant here. The answer: (gh) World Beacon, to Europe: 1600-1800 15455 Krasnodar 100 kW 1800-2000 15585 Skelton 250 kW 1800-2200 7360 Krasnodar 100 kW World Beacon, to Africa, all via Meyerton: 1530-1800 6145 1800-1900 17665 1800-2200 3230 1900-2200 11640 Info gathered from various sources after hearing it to 2000* abrupt on 15585, stronger than VOA 15580 (George Thurman, IL, August 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###