GLENN HAUSER'S SHORTWAVE/DX REPORT 99-39, Sept 12, 1999 {Items from this and all our reports may be reproduced and re- reproduced only providing full credit be maintained at all stages} REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING ONLINE DATA The sliding subscription rate for the remainder of the current volume has descended to only $10 US. This will pay for approximately 2300K of information over the next several weeks. Trial subscriptions at this rate are welcomed; more info and subscription form at http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/Ribolduq.html ** AUSTRALIA. See item below about leasing offshore SW BC facilities to reach western Indonesia! But not a word about this on RA's Feedback this week, UT Sat 0030 on 21740, just mostly horror stories by correspondents in Timor and about RA's special website on East Timor already mentioned here (Glenn Hauser, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING) ** AUSTRALIA. Analysis: East Timor - the media scene This weekend Australian radio is to extend its services into Indonesia. ABC managing director Brian Johns said that the corporation had leased offshore short-wave transmission facilities to allow the service to reach central and western Indonesia. Six hours of programming will be provided daily. Source: Monitoring research 10 Sep 99 (C) (BBC Monitoring) [very brief pertinent excerpt by gh] ** AUSTRALIA [non]. Many thanks for your good program every week. Radio Australia has new relay via Radio Taipei International ------------------------------------------------------------ Radio Australia's Indonesian program is now on 11550kHz from 2300 to 2400 UTC via RTI. According to Mr. Mitsuo Yamada, Japan, this new relay started 2300 UTC on Sept. 11. So RTI Korean service which was broadcast between 2300-2400 UTC on 11550kHz is now broadcast 2100-2200 UTC on the same frequency. According to Mrs. Baik Cho Mi, chief of RTI Korean, she knew schedule change after 0800 UTC on Sept. 11. And RDP International is broadcast between 2200-2300 and 1000-1100 UTC on the same frequency as you know. (Toru Yamashita, in charge of Radio Japan's "DX Corner" in the Korean Service) Asian Broadcasting Institute http://www.246.ne.jp/~abi/ (via Hauser) We indeed heard R. Australia opening Indonesian Sept 12 at 2300 on 11550 with news theme and Warta Berita; transmitter failed at 2309:30 as reception was diminishing and was still off at 2318 (Hauser) ** CHINA. China Radio URL. Hello, Glenn. I have been using the listing of international websites for some time and passing it on to friends. However, I noticed that China Radio hasn't been hooking up. Now when you click on it, it asks you for a password!!?? The correct URL should be http://www.cri.com.cn (Blake Finley, San Francisco, 9 Sep, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING) ** COSTA RICA. It almost snuk up on us, RFPI's 12th anniversary Fiesta on the Air. Heard announcement that it would be UT Fri Sept 17 at 0000- 0400, including Bangladeshi love songs! Call in, toll free in US or NAm: 1-800-794-9365. Some prizes will be given away, as also mentioned on this week's RFPI Mailbag. The new quarterly schedule Sept - Nov is now in effect, and one change is moving the Friday Mailbag half an hour earlier so it immediately follows WOR at 2000, UT Sat 0400, 1200 (Glenn Hauser, Sept 11, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING) ** ECUADOR. Yes I do know what happened and Glen's assumption that it was the STL is right on!! We have heard our multi-channel microwave between Quito (studios) and Pifo (Transmitters) fading for more than a month. We did all of the obvious stuff like realigning the microwave dishes, trying to correlate the fading to storms in Quito, adjusting the channels in various ways to increase the signal level, etc. However it was not until the 7th of Sept (two days after Glen's report) that we discovered that one of the microwave channels was over modulating and causing the rest of the channels to fade as a result. We have corrected the problem now so we should not experience any more problems like that. Thanks for being so attentive! Take care, (Doug Weber, dweber@hcjb.org.ec Frequency Manager & Engineer, HCJB, The Voice of the Andes) Regarding our previous item ** IRELAND [non]. I'm sorry to be (in part) late with info on RTE's annual Shortwave Specials for the All-Ireland Gaelic Hurling & Football Finals. It seems that RTE does not care too much about updating its "Overseas" or "Special Events" webpages nor its "Aertel Radio-Extra" page when SW is the medium. The specials are a nice opportunity for Irish folk overseas to hear again voices and traditions from home and for others to get a taste of Irish domestic sports broadcasting. The Hurling Final was relayed today Sunday Sep 12 from 1429 to 1602 UT on the following frequencies. 13720* to North America 15240 to Central America 15270 to South East Asia 15360* to Australia 21640* to Africa The service will get another outing in two weeks time for the Gaelic Football Final. I can confirm three of the frequencies for today, those with an asterisk, but those without were not audible in my part of the world. [that would be Sept 25-26?] Educated guesses all round at the transmitters sites, as a phonecall by me just before broadcast time to the nearest RTE studio was no help. (Finbarr O'Driscoll........Ireland, Sept 12, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING) ** MADAGASCAR. Subject: Re: Mad Mix Organization: Radio Netherlands Glenn, Just an update: the problem at Madagascar appears to be due to RF from one of the shortwave transmitters getting into the satellite receiver. It is proving difficult to fix, but rest assured that the people here and the engineers in Madagascar are working to try and resolve the problem. 73, (Andy Sennitt, RN, Sept 10) Another follow- up to a previous item in our reports (gh) ** NETHERLANDS. Andy Sennitt replies to Tom Welch, previously quoted here: Hi Tom, I've passed your comments on to my colleagues. While you are perfectly entitled to your opinion, and our format may not be to everyone's taste, ou are completely wrong in your belief that our output is "designed specifically for an American audience". North America, in fact, is not even the primary target area for Radio Netherlands. We have much larger audiences, percentage wise, in Africa and Asia, which is why special regional versions of Newsline are made for those areas. Your claim that the news agenda is selected to "pander" to an American audience is simply not true. We have one newsroom that provides the material for our four language services, including our service for Dutch abroad. The news agenda is decided according to what is deemed important here, not in Washington. But given that The Netherlands is an active member of NATO and other international organizations, it stands to reason that the news agenda will on many occasions be similar, if not identical. If you find that 'hard to understand", so be it. At the end of the day, you are entitled not to like our programmes. It isn't compulsory :-) BTW, if you wrote to us previously by E-mail it's possible your message got lost as we had several problems with the mail server in recent weeks. Everything seems to be on an even keel now. Kind regards, (Andy Sennitt, Radio Netherlands, Sept 8) ** TIMOR EAST [non]. RDP - Radiodifusao Portuguesa - is beginning special broadcasts for the martyred territory of Timor Loro Sae, in Portuguese and in Tetum (language of Timor), on shortwave as well as satellite. The SW schedule is: 10.00 - 21.00 h UTC - 17 740 kHz (16m) - 300 kW 10.00 - 11.00 h UTC - 11 550 kHz (25m) - 250 kW 22.00 - 23.00 h UTC - 11 550 kHz (25m) - 250 kW 21.00 - 10.00 h UTC - 17 600 kHz (16m) - 300 kW For more info, consult this website: http://www1.rdp.pt/timor/index.htm For info on RDP's various transmissions: http://www.rdp.pt But the station in Portugal which has distinguished itself the most in news coverage of the monstruous happenings in Timor Loro Sae is called TSF and transmits from Lisbon. It's only on FM and covers almost all of the country. TSF has many of the best journalists on Portuguese radio and is heard by the ruling classes of this country. There is not a minister in Portugal who does not listen to TSF first thing in the morning. TSF has broadcast about 150 hours nonstop Timorese coverage. Can be heard via internet at: http://www.tsf.pt The words "Loro Sae" mean "Sol Nascente" in Tetum. Timor Loro Sae should be the official name of the country which its people so hopefully would like to see independent, and who are so criminally being massacred, in accordance with a plan cynically premeditated and coldly executed. (Fernando de Sousa Ribeiro, Porto, Portugal, radioescutas newsgroup, translated by Hauser) Portugal has evidently stepped up its SW direct to 24 hours a day on 17740 and new 17600; 11550 are the Taiwan relays, tho not mentioned here. As Joe Hanlon observes, it seems unlikely the 16m band would hold up 24 hours a day on a Portugal-Timor circuit, but we were hearing 17600 fairly well with moderate fading from 2200 past 2300 Sept 12; included some rather haunting music. "Loro Sae" in Tetum means "rising sun" - I bet it's corrupted Portuguese for "the gold is coming" (Glenn Hauser, OK) ** TIMOR EAST [non]. An historic transmission from RDP on 17600 pro- Liberation of East Timor. There were a lot of interviews, commentaries, from various world personalities. It caught my attention because the Portuguese being spoken was neither from Brasil nor Portugal. So I listened avidly for more than an hour, hearing besides interviews, music of struggle, and curiously, some religious songs, evangelical and Catholic, which we know here in Brasil. Heard on 17600 starting at 2330 Sept 11. Perhaps will be on the air again the next day (Rudolf Grimm, Brazil, radioescutas newsgroup Sept 11 translated by Hauser) ** U S A. I hypothesize: IBB decided 5985 was a good inband channel they should grab before someone else (Mexico during other? hours notwithstanding), especially since VOA Delano left it for 9770 after 1000 some months ago; more valuable than 5890. Also puts two Marti frequencies rather close together on Cuban Russian analog sets, easier to run across. However, once the Cuban jammers catch on to 5985, they will probably run them beyond Marti hours, damaging XERMX much more, despite Mexico's relatively friendly relations with Cuba (Glenn Hauser, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING) ** U S A. Here's what happened during WRMI's DX sesquihour UT Sun Sept 12 at 0330-0500 on 7465: Wavescan from the week of Aug 8, and at 0400 unheralded repeat of last week's Scream of the Butterfly -- at least the first few minutes of it sounded very familiar like what we heard last week (Glenn Hauser, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING) CANADIAN INTERNATIONAL DX CLUB MESSENGER INTERVIEWS GLENN HAUSER CIDX is Canada's national radio monitoring club, serving radio hobbyists since 1962. Our monthly newsletter, Messenger, covers all aspects of the radio monitoring hobby. Our September edition is 52 pages. Sample copies are available for $2.00 each, in Canada or the U.S., or $3 overseas. Membership is open to radio hobbyists worldwide. Visit the CIDX website for complete information, as well as special features and website profiles, or for a membership application. http://www.anarc.org/cidx/ NOTE: Our September edition includes a special 7 page interview with Mr. Glenn Hauser, host of the syndicated radio programme, World of Radio, editor of Shortwave/DX Report and Review of International Broadcasting On Line Data, plus many other related activities and publications. Mr. Hauser recently celebrated the 1000th airing of his weekly show, World of Radio. (Sept RadioHF Newsletter) ###