DX LISTENING DIGEST 0-103, August 17, 2000 edited by Glenn Hauser, wghauser@hotmail.com MORE DXLD IN FRENCH. Dear Mr Hauser, Following your remarks about a French web site, I'd like to inform you that I also have a small web site. And I regularly mention informations from other sources including DXLD. I wish you all the best and congratulations for what you do (Jean-Michel AUBIER, ARCAY, FRANCE) http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jm.aubier/ (un site consacré à la radiodiffusion internationale principalement en ondes courtes) Très bien, but I remind Jean-Michel and everyone what I mean by {Items for DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only providing full credit be maintained at all stages} This means it is not sufficient to credit just to ``DXLD`` but you must retain whatever string of credits, names of individuals and publications, appear at the end of each item in (), as well as DXLD, and you should also add the date of the DXLD issue if there is no obvious date in the credits or body of the item. Thanks, (gh) THIS WEEK ON WORLD OF RADIO 1048: see topic summary at http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/wor1048.html ** BRAZIL. 4875 at 0815-0830 Aug 15 in Portuguese: Radiodifusora Roraima, Boa Vista. "Cowboy" music, rooster crows, mention Boa Vista, much prattle by DJ. SIO 333; best 60M Brazilian, others marginal (Bill Flynn, OR, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. 6070 CFRX Good carrier, but no audio 1932 UTC 8/15 (Larry Russell, MI, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Same old story with them (gh) ** EUROPE. DRM Digital Radio Mondial broad band outlets. Tests today on 15225, started before 0619 with annts in Sp and En. Digital signals started at 0619, sounded similar to the former East European jamming stations during Cold War. Jammed bandwidth is now much wider, the 15195, 15200, 15205, 15210, 15215 and 15220 were unusable or even disturbed here in Germany at test time span. Similar interference in the 15230-15255 range. Mit dem SONY 2001D (mit und ohne SYNC Funktion) war mal 5 kHz höher und tiefer das Störsignal noch sehr nahe am Maximum. Auf 15205 war die VOA mit I=3 noch beeinträchtigt. Auf dem freien Kanal 15195 waren auch noch leichte Spuren zu bemerken. Nach oben sah es ähnlich aus (Erich Bergmann, Deutschland, A-DX Aug 13 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** GERMANY. Hi Glenn, Radio Horeb can perhaps be described as the German Radio Maryja. It is a Catholic, private-commercial station, which broadcasts on the Astra DTH satellite system, so the test transmissions could consist either on a specially prepared tape or more likely on fragments of the ongoing program. They stated that they will shortwave "simply give a try", following a invitation by the Jülich unit I guess (Kai Ludwig, Germany, August 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ICELAND. See USA [non] ** INDONESIA [and non]. Dear Glenn, Firstly, let me congratulate you on your column in Monitoring Times which I read regularly. It is the first thing I turn to everything I pick up a new copy of MT. I write today however, to register my dismay at certain comments made in your latest column. This had to do with the propose acquisition of the former Radio Australia transmitter in Darwin by the religious group that operates Christian Voice. Before I begin, I would like to present my credentials. I have been DXing for the last 10 years and am proud to say that I am probably the most active DXer in Singapore. I am also a degree holder majoring in political science and Southeast Asian studies. Bahasa Indonesia happens to be one of the languages that I speak. Besides MT and other Western SWL media, I also have access to some SWL media published in Indonesia for Indonesian SWLs. The comments by you and other Australian SWLs have to do with the lost of control by Radio Australia of what was its transmitter. There was also some unhappiness over the fact that the same transmitter would be sold to a "fundamentalist" religious group which would use the said transmitters to broadcast programs into Asia which would presumable offend Australia's Asian neighbours, on account of the fact that the transmitters are sited on Australian soil. Some SWLs also thought that listeners to the proposed Christian Voice broadcast would not be able to distinguish between Christian Voice as a private project and Radio Australia programming which Christian Voice may be obligated to carry. John Figliozzi feels especially that it would not be in the best interest for the Australian government to lease the transmitters to a Christian organisation especially now that the region (read Indonesia) is rocked by religious violence. The Canberra Times was also quoted as saying that the allegations made about Australia's agenda in East Timor shows the need for balanced and unbiased coverage of regional affairs, broadcast to the region. Certain presumptions follows according to this view: 1. Christian religious broadcasting would offend Asian governments and people. 2. There are no Christian broadcasts in the same Asian countries. 3. Listeners in Asia cannot distinguish between a lease program and a program from the transmitter owner like SWLs can. 4. A religious broadcaster is incapable of carrying unbiased viewpoint. 5. Without its Darwin site, Radio Australia would not be heard by Asia. 6. Radio Australia as a broadcaster carries balanced and unbiased comment. It`s time to debunk these presumptions. Indonesia may be the country with the largest Muslim population, however there are also a large number of people belonging to other religions including Christianity, Roman Catholicism, Buddhism and Hinduism. In fact, if you do not have a religion, Indonesians may very well think that you are a communist and for that you would have difficulty looking for employment. One of the former armed forces commanders, General Benny Murdani is a Roman Catholic. Christian radio stations are a fact of life in many parts of Indonesia, and even RRI stations carry Christian programming at times. On Sundays and Christian religious holidays such as Ascencion Day and Christmas, private and government TV stations also carry programs for Christians and Catholics featuring local preachers. I have never believed that the majority of Indonesians are offended by these broadcasts. The TV and radio audience are well aware that religious broadcasts are produced by religious organisations. It would be naive to think that they cannot distinguish between paid programs and what the station itself (mostly Muslim owned) stood for. In fact, Radio Australia itself is carried by local affiliates using FM outlets in many Indonesian cities. Radio listeners in these cities can certainly distinguish between the local music station and a foreign broadcast. Contrary to what your correspondents like to think, many (by no means all) Indonesians do not view broadcasts from Asian countries favorably. Radio Australia for example has been criticised by some of the SWL newsletters here as being unresponsive to listeners' requests. There is also this issue of Radio Australia being used to further the agenda of its government. Many Indonesians feel that the independence of East Timor can only be achieved by foreign intervention. The active promotion by western countries throughout the years have only served to strengthen these feelings. In my view, it is precisely because Indonesians have a good grasp of the realities of international and regional issues that they can tell that Australia's agenda in East Timor is not truly altruistic. (No amount of western propaganda will change that view.) For these reasons, Radio Australia's absence is not as sorely missed in Indonesia as it is by western SWLs. On the other hand, Christian radio stations tend mostly to stay away from politics and concentrate more on spiritual issues. By the comments carried in your column, I feel that the SWLs quoted do not have a clear understanding of the content of religious broadcasters. They tend to equate people like Gene Scott and Brother Stair with the rest of the religious broadcasters which I think is simply unfortunate. Swls also seem to have no idea of the message carried in international broadcast from Third World countries. For now, the message seems to flow one way - from north to south. Unless there is a fair exchange of views, SWL cannot claim that they have a better understanding of world affairs. I would urge John Figliozzi and you especially to be more tolerant of religious broadcaster. I do not think all of us want to see what has happened in some fascist states to also happen in SW media. I offer my apologies to those who feel offended. I hope that I have cleared the air for all of you. 73s de (Richard Lam, Singapore, August 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. [Cf DXLD 0-102] ACHTUNG! Correction: please delete my message about Voice of Mojahed on new frequency 9150v kHz. I think it is a shadow frequency (notch?). Sorry, I didn't think about that earlier because Voice of Mojahed uses many other out-of-band frequencies. Sorry, again (Robert Petraitis, Lithuania, via CRW August 16, DXLD) OK, but I don`t quite understand what you mean by ``shadow frequency (notch?)``. Receiver-produced image? From where? (gh) ** IRELAND [non]. Glenn, I've just received hard-copy mail from RTE, Dublin with some details of their upcoming Sport Specials. It's info about their annual September SW coverage of the All-Ireland Gaelic Hurling and Gaelic Football Finals. I'll quote: "Live commentaries on the All-Ireland Hurling and Football Finals will be transmitted on short-wave by RTE on [Sundays] 10 and 24 September 2000 respectively at 14.30-16.30 GMT/UTC. The frequencies are as follows: N. America 13720 kHz Africa 17810 kHz Australasia 15360 kHz C&S America 15240 kHz SE Asia 15270 kHz The live commentaries will also be available on RTE's website at http://www.rte/gaa " [Finbarr O'Driscoll.....Ireland, August 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST] ** ISRAEL. Arabic radio channel off air after trasmitter loses radiation permit | Text of report by Israel radio on 17th August The broadcasts of Voice of Israel in Arabic were discontinued at midnight [2100 gmt], because the Zoran transmission station [near Tel Aviv] was closed down after losing its radiation permit. The discontinuation of the broadcasts, which are received throughout the Arab world and in the Palestinian Authority areas, generated a wave of protests, and the managers of Voice of Israel in Arabic received dozens of them. Our correspondent Shula Schmerling reports that the prime minister appealed against the decision of the Ministerial Committee on Environment Affairs to discontinue the station's broadcasts, and the issue will be decided by the government. [The main transmitter of Voice of Israel's Arabic channel, Network D, operates on 738 kHz mediumwave with a listed power of 1200 kW] Source: Voice of Israel, Jerusalem, in Hebrew 0400 gmt 17 Aug 00 (BBC Monitoring via DXLD) ** LATVIA. Regarding the confusion about the slots of Radio Caroline next Saturday: It was my understanding that the Dutch supporters group announced the time for the 1296 operation in CET, leading to 0300-1700 UTC, but if I correct BBC WS no longer uses this channel prior to 1900 (at least when checking around 1900 Orfordness was off, 1296 had only Bulgaria and a weak het, perhaps from Azerbaijan), so 0500-1900 may be correct instead. Anyway the programming should continue on the Astra DTH satellite after 1296 switches away, so the transmission time on 5935 must not be the same than on mediumwave... At least Caroline-regular Peter Och (known as "Peter from Blankenburg") meanwhile confirmed to Christian Schubert that 5935 will indeed originate from Riga-Ulbroka again. Regards, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, August 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MONGOLIA. VOM, 12085, heard fairly well August 15 in English from tune-in 1035 with news, musical break, and mailbag. Mentioned that the first electronic Mongolian/English dictionary had been published for about $15 (CDROM I assume). As others have noted, transmission cut off a few seconds before 1055 while the programming was still in progress. Maybe they have to hustle to change frequency for an RFA broadcast (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS ANTILLES. Heavy splatter from DW in English at 0300- 0345 on 15105, bothering even RFPI on 15049, August 16 (George Thurman, IL) It`s Bonaire according to A-00 schedule. I advised RN, asking them to fix it ASAP (gh) Splatter heard 0330 8/16 from about 15030-15185. Possibly coming from strong DW on 15105. (Russell) They`re checking it with a spectrum analyzer (Andy Sennitt, RN, Aug 16 via DXLD) ** NICARAGUA. 5770 at 0157 R. Miskut usb (Bill Smith, TX, August 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I could tell something was there; good to see it on later than 0000 as in previous issue. So far nothing heard in the prime morning hour of 1100 I checked August 15 and 16 (gh, OK, DXLD) ** NIGERIA. Radio Nigeria domestic service ``Network News`` in English appears to be scheduled at 0600-0630, 1500-1530, 1800-1830 and 2100-2130, as per last published BBCM schedules and own listening observations. This is believed to be carried on shortwave by the following stations (not all confirmed): 3326-Lagos, 4770-Kaduna, 5965-Plateau, 6025-Enugu, 6050-Ibadan, 6100-Borno (and 9570-Kaduna?). (Tony Rogers, August 15, BDXC-UK via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA [non]. Follow-up. For what it's worth, the maker of the ABC TV documentary series is Sean Dorney. He first went to PNG in 1974 on secondment to the new National Broadcasting Commission. He ended up spending 17 years in PNG reporting for the ABC before returning to Australia to cover the Pacific from Brisbane. On radio this morning, Dorney said his documentary is going to air one month ahead of the actual anniversary of independence because the date, when it falls, will be the day after the opening ceremony at the Sydney Olympics. Dorney didn't think anybody would be watching the ABC when the Olympics are underway (Matt Francis Canberra, August 15, WORLD OF RADIO 1048, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. There have been some conflicting reports about the sign-on time of R. Central, 3290. It is *2000 with programming, but sometimes the carrier is heard as early as 1900 (Chris Hambly, Victoria, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Let`s try one more time with the URL for PNG info, mentioned on WOR 1048. There is no www and the one which works now has a capital I on Index: http://niugini.com/pngonline/profile/Index.html (gh, August 16, DXLD) ** PERÚ. 6301* (*FMing) R. Unión, Lima here! with spur or bad xter's fq oscillator(!?) 0130 with SP religious program, mostly unreadable, best tuning on 6304 but not much left to do with. I kept wondering what it could be, but the minutes passed and finally fell asleep till I woke up at 0321, surprised to find that some sentences became readable on signal peaks, enough to get ad for "Sevichería San Ramón" (Seviche is the typical Peruvian food with fish). Talks were by man on soccer items and he was excitedly accepting phone-ins from listeners with poll on Venezuela-Perú soccer match. Finally, at 0343 got ID: "Por Radio Unión, la radio más potente del Perú". Strong signal but distorted. No traces found of nominal 6115. ¿Qué escuchas tú Pedro? (Horacio Nigro, Uruguay, Aug 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ROMANIA. Romania Actualitatsi is Romanian Radio's main news and information channel. News is carried on the hour. This schedule shows only those frequencies recently confirmed by BBCM. HF frequency usage can be erratic. All broadcasts will be one hour LATER in WINTER. Languages : Romanian. Address : Str. General Berthelot 60-62, sector 1, Bucharest. Tel : +40 1 223 26 26 Fax : +40 1 315 69 92 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 0000-2359 Daily ROMANIAN Global Net: http://www.ituner.com/station/Romania/4928.html - live audio [Also on satellite, MW and FM; we excerpt SW:] 0000-0400 Daily 5.955 7.225 0600-1900 Daily 11.830 15.105 2100-2359 Daily 7.105 9.625 ---------------------------------------------------------------- (© BBC Monitoring August 16 via WORLD OF RADIO 1048, DXLD) ** THAILAND. [Cf DXLD 0-102] Glenn, I confirmed that Thailand is back on 15395 0030-0100 Aug 16, Weak and fluttery, but audio was audible. 73, (Ivan Grishin, Ont., DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Our first DDXD-West report of the new call letters on 1160 in Chicago comes from Christos Rigas of suburban Wood Dale. His report is as follows: 1160 WXRT AM IL CHICAGO 8/15 0859 ET, "WXRT AM and FM" ID given, followed by news, sports and rock music. Since 8/15/00 local midnight, this frequency carries WXRT (FM 93.1) programming. The calls are WXRT AM, while the calls on 670 kHz officialy became WSCR as of this day also. So for those of you who log call changes, be listening for that, as chances are it'll be changing as soon as they can find a buyer for the frequency. (Bill Hale, NRC-AM August 15 via DXLD) ** U S A [non] [ICELAND]. SITE? 6350U AFRTS with a very strong signal at 1125 carrying an American football game (Titans up, 20 to 3). Not // to 6458.5 which was much weaker. Still on as I type this up at 1150. Any ideas where this is coming from? (Hans Johnson, WY, Aug 15, Cumbre DX via WORLD OF RADIO 1048, DXLD) Good here too, gradually fading but still barely audible as late as 1430, so certainly seemed to be from the west coast – but listed as ICELAND below! 10320 also heard (gh, OK, August 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi, Manfred Reiff reported on A-DX that NPR broadcasts via AFN from Diego Garcia on 12579 and 4319 kHz. In fact this is what the NPR shortwave schedule says http://www.npr.org/worldwide/shortwave.html Can anybody confirm this? 73, (Enzio Gehrig, Spain, hard-core-dx August 16 via DXLD) day eve Key West, FL Upper Side Band 6458.5 kHz 12689.5 kHz RR, Puerto Rico Upper Side Band 6458.5 kHz 12689.5 kHz Sigonella, Sicily Upper Side Band 4993.0 kHz 10940.5 kHz Guam Upper Side Band 13362.0 kHz 5765.0 kHz Diego Garcia Upper Side Band 12579.0 kHz 4319.0 kHz Iceland Upper Side Band 10320.0 kHz 6350.0 kHz ...Says the NPR website above, which also has a complete minute by minute AFN SW program schedule! But with many streams running, odds are this may not match what you hear on any given frequency. I have not yet confirmed Guam and DG frequencies, and notice that this does not mention site for 6847.5 and 16847.5 which we heard in the past few days. The day and eve specifications are hardly accurate (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1048, DX LISTENING DIGEST) On 10320.0 USB Excellent signal (surpassing both 6 and 12 MHz Florida/Puerto Rico and 10940.5 Sigonella, Sicily) with coverage of Democratic national convention. According to NPR schedule, this frequency is from Iceland. Can anyone confirm? Diego Garcia and Guam have yet to be heard. All this at 0404 UT 17 August (Walter R. Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, Canada, DX LISTENING DIGEST) NPR-Iceland(?) on 10320.0 USB being heard here quite well in the Pac NW w/ Rockies vs. Mets baseball game at 0200 UTC. 10940.5 is fair. No sign of DG or Guam. (Terry Palmersheim, KC7LDP/FOØPAM, August 17, hard-core-dx via DXLD) ** URUGUAY. (UPDATE) 6140/9595/11735 R. Montecarlo/ Oriental. They continue to be inactive. Phoned the station to learn that problem is in the xter's cooling turbine, which became damaged, but hopefully this will be solved soon (Horacio Nigro, Uruguay, Aug 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM [non]/CANADA. V. of Vietnam, Hanoi in En at 0100 on 9890, what relay is this? (Daryl Rocker, Herkimer NY, Aug 8, BC-DX via DXLD) Tentativelly Sackville Canada relay (x9695 on test), or direct Hanoi 'spurious' signals of 9530, 9730, 9875 or 9840 fundamentals in 31 mb, which reported recently (Wolfgang Büschel, ed. BCDX via DXLD) At 0120 UT check August 17, nothing on 9890 but sideband from 9885 and 9895, and Vietnam/Canada was on 9695 as usual (gh, OK, DXLD) ###