DX LISTENING DIGEST 1-056, April 24, 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 [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] ** ANTARCTICA. TERRITORIO ANTÁRTICO: 15476 KHz, LRA36 Radio Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel, activa desde el pasado 30 de Marzo de 2001. Emite de lunes a viernes, de 1800-2100 UTC. sábados y domingos: sin actividad. Potencia actual: 4 kW. Su transmisor es de 10 kW, pero sólo se utiliza la potencia mencionada a fin de preservar el mismo. E-mail: lra36@infovia.com.ar (Gabriel Iván Barrera, Argentina, Conexión Digital Apr 22 via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. I tried 29810 today Apr 22, 1645; identified as Radio Planeta many, many times over a period of a sesquihour. It was live LA programming indeed and great fun to hear at this time of the day. Radio Planeta might be a program title, but I doubt it. So now I am trying to locate an address to the Argentine Armed Forces station, and also some information about Radio Planeta. I cannot recall having read anything about an Argentine station by that name. Perhaps someone has that information ready right away. About live from Buenos Aires - and this is old stuff - RAE on 15345 carries LRA1 Radio Nacional at weekends, instead of For. Sce. programs. "Buenos Aires Ciudad Secreta" is about Old Buenos Aires, and has a home page of its own. And a lecture by a historian about the Malvinas - Falklands war included many recordings of radio broadcasts at the time of the event. Very good for a history buff. With some luck it can come in with (almost) local QSA. 73 JB (Johan Berglund, Trollhättan, Sweden, hard-core-dx via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. Radio La Cruz del Sur 4875: I have received after only 23 days personal letter and fantastic "50 years" pennant: v/s Dtr. Reyes Baltazar Quispe - Diretor; addr. Casilla 1408, La Paz, Bolivia - email: cruzdelsur@zuper.net (I have enclosed 1 $) (Daniele Canonica, Switzerland, Apr 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BULGARIA. Thanks to Mike, Radio Ezra was heard Sunday at 1100 UT on new 13850. The signal was strong (peaking 9+10dB's) but had an awful buzz. Carrier was on at 1152 when tuned, and tones started at 1156 before the IS signal began at 1200 (Noel Green, UK, April 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) {oops, he slipped into BST UT+1 there -gh} Radio Ezra confirmed on new freq 13850 kHz from 1100 on Sunday 22 April. Transmitter cut off abruptly at 1112. Strong signal here but with rather poor audio including hum in the background. The broadcast is via Wavre, Belgium according to presenter John D Hill (Dave Kenny, Caversham, April 22, BDXC-UK via DXLD) But what does he know? See previous discussion pointing to Bulgaria (gh) ** CAMBODIA [non]. Radio Free Asia. April 15 broadcast 1700-1800 on 11525 and 15695 in Khmer (Cambodian) must indeed have been a one-off. No doubt about RFA: English ID near the end of the broadcast. Lots of Campuchea mentioned, also Prathet Thai (Thailand) but as far as I'm aware no Thai programs on RFA (Silvain Domen, Belgium, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Not sure if `Prathet Thai` is the Cambodian term for Thailand, but it is the Laotian, same as Thai (gh, DXLD) ** CANADA. I don't know if you had a chance to hear RCI`s Mailbag program this past weekend. Marc made an interesting comment during the show: "Due to printing and legal problems" RCI was just then mailing out the new printed skeds. I can certainly understand printing problems, but "legal"? Anyone in the DXLD community know what "legal" problems were involved here? And the RCI website staff has updated the technical schedule with program names for the English and French programs. So that fills my request for a plain and simple text file with times, freqs, and program names. 73, (Will Martin, April 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [non]. Fine signal of RCI Xian-CHN relay on 17720 today Apr 22, 1500-1600, at 1520 mailbag program observed, mentioned Bill Westenhaver also (Wolfgang Bueschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ! Same time and frequency as CRI via Cuba English to NAm! (gh, DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. 5588.3 RADIO NUEVA JUVENTUD. Pasto, Colombia. Abril 21 0205-0230. Esta pirata colombiana ahora está saliendo a través de esta frecuencia luego de probar varios cristales, según me informó su dueño. Siempre con programación musical operando por ahora sólo los fines de semana (V-S-D) ID: " ...Radio Nueva Juventud desde la ciudad de San Juan de Pasto en la banda de 60 metros..." (Rafael Rodríguez, Colombia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. 5954.2 RADIO CASINO. Puerto Limón, Abril 22 *1030-1045 Iniciando transmisión con una oración de acción de gracias y comentando sobre el aniversario No. 10 de un terremoto que azotó a la región atlántica. ID: "... Desde Puerto Limón, Costa Rica, transmite TIQ Radio Casino 98.3 MHz FM estéreo, 1220 kHz onda media y 5.954 kHz en 49 metros... Radio Casino, su preferida de ayer, su favorita de siempre..." Hacía varios meses que no podía captar esta emisora que también se identifica como " ...la Reina del Caribe..." (Rafael Rodríguez, Colombia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. RFPI frequency change: They went off 15050 at 0400 as scheduled. They are not on 7450, however, where they are scheduled. They are on 7445 (Michael McCarty, Central Ohio, April 24, swprograms via DXLD) Another brief test? (gh) ** CROATIA [non]. Glenn, "News from Croatian Radio" by female 0105 UT April 21, 2001 on 9925 kHz in EE. Nx read by YL until 0108 UT when she said, "That was the news from Croatian Radio.". SINPO 55544. Program in Spanish followed. 73, --(Kraig, KG4LAC Krist, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The Voice of Croatia, as their ID announces, has resumed English news on their Jülich relays, as noted on Sunday, April 22 on their SAm beam on 9925, heard at 2204-2209, followed by Spanish news. Probably heard also at 4 minutes past 00, 02, 04, 06 and 08 UTC, to different targets. Reception on April 22 was only fair but tonight (April 23) it was much better (Joe Hanlon in Philadelphia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. Re: 1593 Holzkirchen shut-down. My guess is that the final sign off took place on April 8 at 2400 UTC (i.e. on April 9 at 2 AM local time). I checked once again the webpages of the people who demand a closure of the site: No real news there so far, but one of the newspaper clippings includes a nice picture of the antennas in front of the Alpen mountains, on the left the mediumwave mast, on the right the shortwave curtains, evidently for beams towards the CIS exclusively: http://www.sender-freies-oberland.de/presse/MM20010216.jpg Regards, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GOA. The recent report of the reception report being returned by the station engineer at Panaji, Goa must be a trend on his part! He did the same thing to me a few weeks ago. I had the same reaction: why didn`t he just forward the report? Seems as though the postage would have been cheaper! (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE. Makedonias transmissions are via Avlis (Athens site), now, using 100 kW instead of former 35 kW. The ancient 3 x COLLINS txs of 35 kW of the Fifties at Thessaloniki Perea [ex VoA site there] are off since Oct 27, for unknown reason. Even direct telephone contact by Greek DXers revealed no definite reason for that site change. The Greeks strike some attitude to let such operation VAILED (Wolfgang Bueschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. The AIR signal on 10200.2 seems now to have disappeared. Hopefully as a result of repairs being carried out. I assume it was unintentional, but one of the strongest signals of its kind noted here in some time. I can`t recollect a problem like this from AIR previously, but Albania and Russia as well as Slovakia and Czech Republic have been heard radiating unwanted signals (Noel Green, UK, April 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. The network of RRI Jakarta seems to be changed. Now the station can be heard on 9680 and 15125. ID of 9680 is "RRI Jakarta Programa Lima" or "Pro Lima" instead of "Programa Nasional Dua". "Lima" means five in Indonesian. ID of 15125 is "RRI Jakarta Programa Tiga" or "Pro Tiga" instead of "Programa Nasional Satu". "Tiga" means three in Indonesian. According to my monitoring, two frequencies are NOT parallel; 9680 has "Kang Guru Radio English Show" at 1100 on Sundays, and 15125kHz has news at 1100 (Not confirmed its title) and 1400 ("Warta Berita Ibukota"). Also 15125 is now operated for 24 hours while 9680 signs off at 1300. I visited RRI Jakarta Homepage for the confirmation of these official changes, but it is still Programa Nasional Satu and Programa Nasional Dua (Juichi Yamada, JAPAN, Jembatan DX April 22 via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. Satellite Telstar 6 appears to have ceased functioning this weekend. Fox, CBS networks are having to shift C- band transmissions elsewhere and various syndicated programs will also be affected. I've seen no explanation of the problem anywhere and have heard nothing about the cause (Mike Cooper, GA, April 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. Radio Voice Of Iran-KRSI: April 21, 0500 or earlier, still going strong at 1000 on 15690 Farsi. SINPO 45343 here in Belgium, so Jülich it surely can be. Lots of commercials for Iranian businesses and callcenters in USA. Phone-in with listeners living in USA. ID given as "Radio Sedaye Iran, Los Angeles`` (Silvain Domen, Belgium, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. Dear friends, please note following change in ISR A01: delete: 21665 1530 1600 27-28 6-10 21665 1600 1630 27-28 6-10 add: 21670 1530 1600 27-28 6-10 21670 1600 1630 27-28 6-10 the change is valid from MAY 1 to SEP 30. Best regards (Moshe Oren, Bezeq, April 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MALAWI. Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, 3380 khz, date and frequency letter with verification statement, in 7 months (no follow up), for IRC, v/s Joseph C J Chikagwa Director of Engineering. Envelope with 14 Malawian Kwacha postage. I am especially pleased with this QSL, Malawi may be next to impossible to hear in Alberta Canada! One of my long time DX targets! This from the September 2000 Greyland WA USA DXped. Mr Chikagwa mentions the station is off the air; they need $20,000 US to replace the transmitter valves, this already in the DX press (Joe Talbot, Alberta, April 24, hard-core-dx via DXLD) ** MALAYSIA. 4845, RTM K-L, Kajang, again active from 1100 onwards in Tamil, reactivated since Jan 11. At 1220 tx problems, with some breakdowns in between! 34433 (Roland Schulze, Philippines, Apr 7, via Wolfgang Bueschel, DXLD) 4895, RTM Kuching, Sarawak, was not active on Apr 2, but appeared next day again. Previously the service on that channel is very irregular, tx problems? (Roland Schulze, Philippines, Apr 2/3, via Wolfgang Bueschel, DXLD) ** MEXICO. DX Information from the British DX Club (BDXC-UK). Dear Mike, Having received correspondence from you in the past, we here at Radio Mexico International would like to send you a warm salutation and invitation to visit our internet page to check out our new programming schedule (for April-October) as well as a questionnaire that helps us to better serve you, the listener. Our web page is found at http://www.imer.gob.mx Please take a moment to fill it out and send it to us here at: Radio Mexico International Apartado Postal 21-300 C.P. 04021 México D.F. The responses that you give on the questionnaire help us to better our programming and achieve our goal of transmitting to the world the culture and music of Mexico. We appreciate any help you can give us and look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible. Sincerely, (Cristina del Razo, Station Manager, Radio Mexico International, via Mike Terry, BDXC-UK via DXLD) ** MEXICO. Televisa TV lays off 2,500 workers, shuts down ECO Television news | Excerpt from report by Mexican news agency Notimex on 19 April [No dateline, as received] Mexican television network Televisa has decided to cancel ECO [Spanish: Empresa de Comunicacion Orbital (Global Communication Company)] Television, because of the financial situation it is going through. Televisa will also lay off 2,500 employees, cancel two remote-control units and reduce the number of technicians and production staff. "The lay-offs began on 16 April," said three consortium executives. They even commented that Televisa's crisis is such that approximately 2,500 employees will lose their jobs. According to Televisa-San Angel technicians, two remote-control units will be completely broken up, because the company has decided to reduce the number of TV programmes. Among the staff-cutting measures announced by the company are the reductions in the number of technicians per stage and the number of production personnel, which will be a maximum of 21, including the producer, editor, secretary, assistants and continuity and props staff. Furthermore, according to a technician from Stage 2, productions will have to divide their recording time between stage and location. They will not be able to work simultaneously at both, as was done before. All these measures will be ratified on 25 April, when - according to Televisa - the company's board of directors meets... On 17 April, coordinators of the ECO Television system announced, in an exclusive to Notimex, that the news service would end transmissions on 19 April. The 400 unionized and trust employees, as well as independent contractors, will lose their jobs... Faced with this scenario, the atmosphere of uncertainty and preoccupation has increased among the personnel working at Televisa because, with a reduced budget and less production, the opportunity for work is becoming scarcer... [EFE news agency (Madrid, in Spanish 1815 gmt 19 Apr 01) reported: (Excerpt) Mexico City, 19 April: The Mexican Televisa company today discontinued the transmission of its ECO news service after providing uninterrupted coverage for 13 years to more than 400 million Latin American television viewers. Considered one of the dreams of Emilio Azcárraga Milmo, the late owner of Televisa, which was made a reality by Mexican journalist Jacobo Zabludovsky, ECO ceased its programming at 1200 (1800 gmt)"] Source: Notimex news agency, Mexico City, in Spanish 0151 gmt 19 Apr 01 (via BBCM via DXLD) ECO was also a mainstay of the Galavisión cable network in the US (gh) ** NETHERLANDS [and non]. The discussion of DRM and its potential benefits is all very interesting, but well off topic for this list. Can I suggest that those of you interested in knowing more about DRM read the very detailed FAQ that has been put together by our colleagues at Merlin Communications. You'll find it on the official DRM Web site at http://www.drm.org. No less than 50 questions are answered, covering most of the points that have come up in mailing lists, newsgroups and E-mails. To complement that, because it seems updating on the official site is sometimes a bit slow, we've created a page on the Radio Netherlands site at http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/html/drm.html where we have details of current DRM tests and some links to other relevant articles. We have another article planned by our own DRM engineer Jan-Peter Werkman, who coordinates most of the tests (Andy Sennitt, standard disclaimer, swprograms via DXLD) ** NEW ZEALAND. [as of:] 21/04/01 RNZI Schedule 06 May - 02 September UT kHz Days Target 1650-1850 6095 Mon-Fri NE Pacific, Cooks, Niue, Tonga, Samoa 1851-1950 11725 Daily All Pacific 1951-2215 15160 Daily All Pacific 2216-0458 17675 Daily All Pacific 0459-0705 11725 Daily All Pacific 0706-1105 9885 Daily All Pacific 1106-1305 11675 Daily NW Pacific, Bougainville, East Timor/Asia 1305 Usual Closedown 1305-1650 6095 Occasional use for sports commentaries or cyclone weather reports (Adrian Sainsbury, Frequency Manager, Radio New Zealand International, http://www.rnzi.com April 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NICARAGUA. 560. RADIO 560 "LA PODEROSA" 0330-0415 APRIL 22: New station from Managua, not listed in WRTH Nicaragua section but is in the list by frequency, MW Central America and Caribe as Future Plans. ID "...Radio 560 la Poderosa, la que sí golpea con 30 mil vatios de potencia cubriendo a toda Nicaragua..." Director is Sr. Érick Gómez and QTH Shell Ciudad Jardín, 5 cuadras al lago, 20 varas [= 2.8 piés c.u. -gh] arriba, Edificio Radio 560 La Poderosa, Managua, Nicaragua, CA. Phones 505+2400544 505+2400550 (Rafael Rodríguez, Colombia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. I have some information from the Controller, Frequency Management, Radio Pakistan that may interest. Due to interference the following has / will happen : World Service to Gulf & M.E. 0500-0700 : 17835 (API-1 100 kW) has been replaced with 17825 as from April 22nd due to RL via KAV in Iranian co-channel. 15180 (API-5 250 kW) will be replaced with 15160 from April 25th due BBC Arabic 15185 via OMA & CYP and ROM 15180 (0600-0657). Parallel 21460 (API-6 250 kW) continues. Middle East Service 1630-1830 (Turkish/Irani 1700 & Arabic 1745) will change API-1 from 11665 to 13590 KHz from April 26th due to adjacent channel QRM. Reception reports are welcomed by the above (Noel Green, UK, April 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. Bandscan 21 April 20 (Björn Malm) 5175.49 New Peruvian! L.P.C. La Radio. Querillos (?), (dpto San Martín?) 20 april 2001 - 1115 UT. Had its première transmission this date Friday morning. Start at about 1100 UT with tremendous strength but unfortunately the DJ`s mike produced somewhat dull and distorted audio. Due to lack of time because I´m leaving for Riobamba again - I just manage to send this information to SWB via my Internet-café here at Avenida de la Prensa. I`m not 100% sure that the station transmits from Querillos. The DJ says the following: "....de L.P.C. La Radio que está transmitiendo desde Girón y Bilgrau [sic – see below], Manzana 18, lote 11" (address in Querillos??) and "...transmisión de prueba de esta (ciudad de??) Querillos...". In December 2000 I logged on 5175.85 Radio Máster in Moyobamba, Dpto San Martín. L.P.C. might only have taken over the rights for the frequency. L.P.C. can be heard with definitely better signal than Radio Máster had earlier. The DJ greeted persons among others in Querillos, Alto Querillos, Bagua Grande, Naranjos and Tarapoto. Announces the frequency of 5175 kHz. [more on this one below] 6524.07 New Peruvian!. Unknown name and might transmit from a town which name phonetically sounds like "Santa Uro". Judging by the speech from the DJ, this station ought to be located in Utcubamba, Amazonas. I can`t hear any direct ID, only some occasional phrases like for instance: "J.J." and "Emisora total Cién-Uno" [sic -– see below]. Quite bad signal where the music can be heard quite well but DJ has a weakly modulated mike. Also suffering from annoying QRM from nearby channels: Aramango-6519.78 and Huancabamba-6536.00. Always repeats that it is test transmission, "Estamos en calidad de prueba". The programme consists of modern disco/pop, both English and Spanish and some cumbia, salsa and such. Also a lot of political "contracted" ads for "Perú Posible". Three following nights in close down at 0100 UT and seems to be very stable in frequency. Says 1 kW effective. What makes me a little "nervous" when it comes to confirming the location of the transmitter, is that in one of the political struggle songs the following places are mentioned: Santa Cruz, Cajabamba, San Marcos, Celendín and some I can`t hear. All of them located in "dpto Cajamarca"! Sometimes it feels like I`m completely out of time but I hope my friends in SWB have the pleasure of digging up more information regarding the two new Peruan stations on 5175.49 and 6524.07 kHz. I have struggled hard listening to the tapes for these two stations. I`m also very fond of listening to MW, mostly at split frequencies published in "MW-Eco"in ARC (= Arctic Radio Club). (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, SW Bulletin April 22, translated by Thomas Nilsson for DXLD) Glenn, Address for Malm`s Peruvian on 5175.49 is most likely Jirón Miguel Grau, not "Girón y Bilgrau". As for the town, suggested as "Querillos", I have no idea. Slogan for Malm`s Peruvian on 6524.07 is most likely "Ciento Uno" (=101), not "Santa Uro" nor even "Emisora total Cién-Uno". 101 has to be read "ciento uno". Of course, 100.1, "cien punto uno" is another possibility (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 5175.8, RADIO MPC or NPC??. Guerillo?? Provincia de Moyobamba. 2321-0250* APRIL 21. New Peruvian station with mx alabanza. Ments Movimiento Misionero Mundial and Iglesia Cristiana Pentecostes del Perú. The name of the Distrito from broadcast is unclear to me, but QTH said by DJ is: Jr. Miguel Grau Manzana 18, Lote 11 en este Centro Poblado de Guerillo?? en la provincia de Moyobamba, Departamento de San Martín..." Continuously sending greetings for Naranjos and Soritor and ments that Propietario is José Fernández who lives in Naranjos. Ment. frequency nominal in 5165 kHz and sked 1000-0300 but heard s/off at the 0250* and s/on this morning at *0950 (Rafael Rodríguez, Colombia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Only matching location seems to be Gerillo, which is in Distrito Jepelacio, Provincia de Moyobamba, Departamento de San Martín (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, DXLD) ** TANNU TUVA. GTRK "Tuva", from Kyzyl, the capital of the Tuva Republic in the Russian Federation, was observed on 6100.5 kHz at 2200 on 17th April with a news relay from Radio Russia followed at 2210 by local programming in Tuvinian and Russian. Reception was fair. An edited clip of this can be heard on the Russia page of the Interval Signal Archive at http://www.intervalsignals.com (Dave Kernick, England, hard-core-dx via DXLD) ** U K. Hi, Glenn! Well, my fame grows apace. Not only was my item on the disappearance of "Seeing Stars" read on "Write On" last week, but I will be on the BBC's "International Check Up" on their diabetes show next week. I had sent them an e-mail when I heard that they'd be doing a program on diabetes, and they e-mailed me back asking if it would be OK to call me. I responded (luckily getting to the library and seeing their e-mail in plenty of time) and said it would be fine, suggesting the 1400-1600 UT timeframe as the best compromise time to both conform to their daytime and reach me at home. They called Tuesday and set it up for a call during the show's taping on Wednesday, which happened to be just about 1500 UT anyway. Lucked out! I had sent four questions, and they suggested the two I should ask while taping, since some of the others were to be covered in other calls. I heard the presenter actually ask one of them as I waited to speak, so just about everything I mentioned was covered. They said they'd be sending me a cassette of the program, too. Nice touch. The actual call and taping seemed to go fine, and I'm looking forward to hearing my voice over the BBC this coming Monday and some other airings thereafter... Other notes: I had meant to write you a note when I heard you refer to the "On Air" listing of the substitute for "Write On" being on the 14th. It was another "On Air" error, and, unusually, they corrected it on "Write On" a couple weeks before. So I hope that you were listening at the WO usual time and heard it Friday... The sub should be today (though they did not say the actual date on the air). (Will Martin, MO, April 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Dear BBC: Thank you for reading and responding to my comment on the demise of "Seeing Stars" in the last "Write On". I appreciate it. I've been meaning to write "Waveguide" some time about how poor the frequency of 12095 kHz to the Americas is, and now am writing you since "Waveguide" is gone and you said to send such comments in to you instead. 12095 kHz is the only frequency to the Americas for the first hour of the evening broadcasts, and it is a lousy choice. It has constantly been interfered with by utility/RTTY noise slightly higher in frequency, and this has gone on for years. Yet you persist in using this frequency and now rely on it alone. The interference can be reduced if the listener uses a high-end radio with adjustable bandwidth and fine-tuning capability, but, on many ordinary portable shortwave radios, 12095 kHz is just unlistenable. Up until the time change, 9590 kHz was available with a good strong signal as an alternative to listen to the programs that are now on 12095 kHz alone. PLEASE either shift 12095 to some other frequency that is not belabored by noise, or at least add another alternate during that hour! Haven't your monitors reported this noise to you all these years? If not, you need better ones. If they have, why have you kept using this bad frequency? (William Martin, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA to BBC, cc to DXLD) ** U S A [non]. AFN reactivated 4993 kHz (USB) - heard last night 21 APR at 0200 with "Live Sports Coverage". Strong signal - coming probably from Italy? (Karel Honzik, the Czech Republic, hard-core-dx via DXLD) ** VATICAN/ITALY. Minister holds to 30 April deadline for measuring Vatican 'electrosmog' | Text of report in English by Italian news agency ANSA web site Rome, 19 April: Environment [Minister] Willer Bordon said Italian and Vatican experts would have to work weekends and on a national holiday in order to respect a government deadline for measuring electrosmog from Vatican Radio. Flying in the face of last night's Vatican-Italy agreement to complete the new measurements by about 10 May, Bordon noted that the government had set 30 April as the deadline in a meeting earlier this month. "For me the completion date for the tests remains 30 April," he said. "Ten working days are needed for these measurements and so, to meet the deadline, they'll have to work Saturday Sunday and on the 25 April holiday." The environment minister's statement again underlined the split in the cabinet on the best way to resolve the electrosmog controversy. Last night the foreign ministry announced that a joint commission of Italian and Vatican officials, set up to solve the problem last year, had agreed to test electromagnetic emissions again within three weeks. Earlier tests showed that electrosmog levels around the transmission centre at Cesena [sic] were well above legal limits. This finding led Bordon to threaten to cut off power to Vatican Radio unless it reduced the level of pollution quickly. Premier Giuliano Amato eventually overruled an ordinance to this effect by his Green minister and charted a less aggressive route to gaining the Vatican's compliance with Italian laws on electrosmog. The Vatican reiterated its readiness to find solutions which would bring its emissions into line with the 1998 Italian government decree. The key to the more diplomatic approach advocated by Amato and Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini is the joint commission which produced its three-week pledge yesterday and which Bordon today made a point of ignoring. Source: ANSA news agency web site, Rome, in English 1532 gmt 19 Apr 01 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** YEMEN. I hear Yemen at least in last three weeks on: 9779.62..63 ... never above 9780 ... so maybe a second station on air on that channel in the Western Hemisphere... v9779.63 YRTVC Sana'a with Ar comments progr, fluttery signal. 34322. Still heard here on v9779.62 at Apr 18th, 1640 UT (Wolfgang Bueschel, Germany, Apr 10/18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 2839.93 (HARMONIC?) LA. April 2001 - 1000 UT. This station which has been reported by Rafael Rodríguez, can also be heard here in Quito with decent strength especially in the mornings. Always religious programmes, often Catholic masses. Never any IDs, nor any place names or country at any occasion. 4662.70 unID LA. 19 april 2001 - 1025 UT. Religious programme giving telephone number as 71 19 97. No clue at all from which country. Good signal but with somewhat distortion (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, SW Bulletin April 22, translated by Thomas Nilsson for DXLD) ###