DX LISTENING DIGEST 00-95, July 24, 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 without permission} {NOTE! Because of its refusal to exchange info, NU is explicitly prohibited from quoting or using DXLD in any way. Nor may individual NU members read or use DXLD with a clear conscience unless they also contribute without reservation directly to DXLD. We are happy to share our work with everyone, EXCEPT those who refuse to reciprocate. This situation is entirely the fault of NU. Those who spot any more quotations from DXLD in NU, properly attributed or not, are requested to inform us, confidentially. Those NU members who see the injustice of this situation might also encourage the policy to change.} GRUNDIG SATELLIT 800 REVIEWS, UPDATED You are not at the mercy of one reviewer of this receiver; we have had for some weeks, and now updated, John Norfolk's review, as well as a summary of other opinions, at http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/rxtips.txt ** ANGOLA. Hi Glenn, Re comments about Radio Ecclésia: You are right to note that the shortwave transmissions are not (always) in parallel with the Web Audio. I was given to understand by my colleagues in continuity that some of the shortwave programmes are fed live, some are repeats of earlier broadcasts. I'll investigate further to see if a fixed pattern has now been established. As for the transmissions reported by Mike Ford, anything heard outside the published times cannot be from Radio Netherlands transmitters. Perhaps another broadcaster is also working with Radio Ecclésia. They do have a close relationship with Radio Renascença in Portugal, who have a 100 kW SW transmitter that might have been reactivated. 73, (Andy Sennitt, RN, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Cumbre was not explicit but the unscheduled broadcast was apparently heard on 15195, carried over from the previous item not published here (gh) ** ANGOLA. Glenn, you will like to check this letter and also the Angola country report for 1999 where there is more on R Ecclésia. http://www.cpj.org/protests/00ltrs/Angola13jan00pl.html (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, DX LISTENING DIGEST) That`s a letter from the Committee to Protect Journalists to His Excellency, the Dictator of Angola, mentioning R. Ecclésia, VOA and others (gh) ** ANGOLA [non]. We've already had requests for QSLs for the Radio Ecclésia transmissions via Radio Netherlands. Unfortunately, Radio Netherlands is not in a position to QSL any of the transmissions of other broadcasters who hire airtime from us. Quite simply, a proper QSL should include verification of programme details. As we only provide technical facilities for the other broadcasters, Radio Netherlands does not have those details. Reports should always be sent direct to the broadcasters concerned: they produce the programmes, not us. On the other hand, we are happy to verify reports of Radio Netherlands' own programmes over any of the shortwave sites we use. 73, (Andy Sennitt, RN, hard-core-dx) This led to a thread, which provoked further comments: I would tend not to burden Radio Ecclésia with requests for QSLs at this time. The station's staff are being harrassed by the authorities, and the sole reason for being on shortwave is to reach the rest of Angola. They are not interested in knowing that they can be heard in Europe or North America. I understand the desire for a QSL card that will be a collector's item in the years to come, but there's a risk that if they are swamped by unwanted mail from overseas they might decide being on shortwave is not worth the hassle. And, given that they are the only domestic source of uncensored news in rural Angola, that would be a tragedy. Because if I was in a country in the middle of a civil war and my life was in danger, I wouldn't give especially high priority to receiving unsolicited mail from someone thousands of miles away :-) Perhaps I'm wrong. But it's only an opinion. I don't expect everyone to agree with me. >I think it is a dangerous attitude concluding, you cannot send letters to stations, it is the same as saying "excuse me for being a dx-er". Most stations appreciate response from their listeners. It's not an attitude I hold generally, but I prefer to take each case on its merits. A small commercial station in Latin America will be thrilled to get a letter from someone in Sweden. I just can't equate that with the very different circumstances under which Radio Ecclésia is operating. The Angolan government want an excuse to get Ecclésia off the air. I'm quite certain that mail to the station will be intercepted. They could argue that by becoming a de facto international broadcaster, the station is in breach of its licence. They could use foreign DXers' reception reports as evidence of this. If, after considering these facts, you still want to go ahead and send a report to Radio Ecclesia, by all means do so. Each of us has to make our own decisions. 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) ** AUSTRALIA. RA announces its Olympic coverage plans: The Asian service does not have the resources for full coverage, but will have updates daily at 0030, 0330, 0530, 0730, 1130. The Pacific service will have full coverage relayed from ABC 702 Sydney, for 16 days starting Sept. 16 from 2100 UT Friday, after about 30 minutes of news: 2100-2400 17715 0000-0200 17580 0200-0800 13605 0800-end 11650 (RA Feedback July 21 via gh, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. Special event station AX3OLY has been allocated to the WIA Victoria by the Australian Communications Authority to commemorate the Olympic Games being held in Sydney, Australia. WIA Victoria members will be sporadically operating the station on DX bands over the next three weeks. The band of operation being chosen to coincide with the best propagation at the time. AX3OLY is being activated for the first time this week to mark the arrival of the Olympic flame in VK3 which is half way through its 100 day torch relay around Australia. The special event station will later highlight the holding of Olympic soccer games in the VK3 capital city of Melbourne, Australia, which also hosted the 1956 Olympic Games. A commemorative QSL card will be available. QSL is to VK3WI via the Bureau or the Callbook address. (KB8NW/OPDX July 24/BARF-80 via John Norfolk, OKCOK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. This eve a very strong Brazilian on 4915 from 0245 to 0305 UT - hitting S9 + 30, but I could not get an ID. Usually hear Radio CBN Anhanguera here - weak but occasional ID's. This one mentioned "Nacional" frequently & aired "Programma telefono..." or similar - discourse about phone service in Brazil ? So was it Radio Nacional, Macapá or Anhanguera? Magnetic storm enhancement? Regards from (Bill Flynn, OR, July 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I would bet on Radio Nacional, Macapá. It usually signs off just after 0305 UT. From my QTH in NY State (near Albany), I can hear this one nearly every night. 73 (John Figliozzi, July 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [non]. Regarding the site for Falun Dafa Radio, now on 9370 at 1400-1500, while this is not conclusive, 9370 is also used by R. Free Asia from Tajikistan, in Uighur at 1600-1630, according to previously published schedule in DXLD 00-87, //7460 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. 9635, R Difusora Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, July 21, 0155-0210 Spanish talks and orchestral music very much covered by VOA in English on 9635. At 0455* sign off was heard much better without VOA. SINPO 23333 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, EDXP via DXLD) ** COSTA RICA. The new frequency for RFPI of 21815 usb is an excellent choice and a vast improvement on the old 25930. World of Radio from Glenn Hauser was crystal clear on Saturday 0330-0400 when that frequency closed down. 15049/15050 was audible at the same time as well but a weaker signal. I understand that RFPI will not be using 6970 for a few days to permit repairs and maintenance. (Morrison Hoyle, Foster, Victoria, EDXP via DXLD) ** EUROPE. PIRATE. 15810, R Sunflower, 0035 July 23, europop music, Willie Nelson, Russian vocal song, "Cotton Eyed Joe" by Rednex, announcer in English with ID 0041. Announced as test xmsn to USA. Nice signal. R Skyline even better at the same time on 15050.07 with techno mx, Dutch language announcer with many IDs (Jay Novello, Wake Forest, NC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. Voice of Indonesia on 11785 July 21 2000-2059 in English with fair to poor reception here in south central Wisconsin. Heard nothing on the 15149.82 frequency (David Zantow, Janesville, Wisconsin, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS. VE0NWP STATION. The ship "Simon Fraser" is recreating the voyage of the ship "St. Roch" through the North West Passage. It was heard on Saturday at 0521z (band was not mentioned) from the Aleutians Islands. Check out the Web page: http://www.stroch.org (KB8NW/OPDX July 24/BARF-80 via John Norfolk, OKCOK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAËL. UNID: an UNKNOWN Arabic speaking station on 15430.00, playing a lot of Ar mx, but has very distorted overmodulated audio, like R Pakistan always has. Mention always Israel, and also Pakistan few times. It's NOT in // Baghdad 11787.00, it's NOT ISR in Ar on // 5915 and 9815. Also NOT in // to Libya 17725. Heard from about 1500 - till at about 2130 UTC Sat July 22 (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DXLD) No, 15430 doesn`t "ring any bells" here, but will try the channel tonight. Pakistan should be off air completely by 2000 UT. The distortion could mean it might be another Baghdad service or maybe a clandestine (Noël Green, UK, to WB) ISRAEL 2nd Arabic program? Now, I heard the Ar language stn on Sat and Sun, at about 1500 til 2100, when I went to bed. Heard mention often about ISRAEL items. On 1600 UT there was continous Ar mx, no ID, no nx at all on the hour.00. Heard yesterday night ISR on 5915 and 9815, but on both latter was a different program in progress. Audio is very distorted, and looks technicalwise like more of R PAK and R Baghdad 11787 type. ?? Bcasts have something to do with the Camp David negotiations?? Or is just a BLACK BC station copying ISR Arabic sce, and is aimed at Palestine target from another NE/ME country. 15430 Arabic still puzzles me up. regards and 73 de (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, July 23, DXLD) ISRAEL: Kol Israel Reshet Dalet in Arabic heard regulary here: 1400- 2115 on NF 15430, instead of registered 15480, //5915 and 9815 in USB mode (Ivo and Anguel, Observer, Bulgaria, July 23 via DXLD) ** KOREA SOUTH. RKI webcast is at extremely high level and distorted, but listenable if you turn the volume almost down to zero. Exactly the same situation this Sunday July 23 as last week July 16 when tuning in for Multiwave Feedback at 1937. Still the easiest way to find it is at the top of the Korean language homepage http://kbs.co.kr Why must there be such wide variation in audio levels among different webcasters? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEWFOUNDLAND. Subject: Vikings on CBC... from http://cbc.ca/onair/jhtml/newsitem.jhtml?ID=1326 CBC RADIO ONE CELEBRATES THE THOUSAND YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE VIKING LANDING IN NEWFOUNDLAND FRIDAY, JULY 28 BEGINNING AT 2 P.M. CBC Radio Newfoundland and Labrador celebrate the anniversary of the Viking landing at L'Anse Aux Meadows with THE VIKING MILLENNIUM SPECIAL, airing Friday, July 28 from 2 to 4 p.m. (2:30 p.m. NT) on CBC Radio One. "The early Vikings may have first settled in what's now the province of Newfoundland," says producer Gerry Amey. "But the significance of their presence is now being appreciated all over the world." Five hundred years before Christopher Columbus made his famous voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, Viking explorers had established a small settlement at what's now known as L'Anse Aux Meadows, on Newfoundland's Great Northern Peninsula. The Norsemen came from Iceland in search of timber and other resources. What they found was a land already inhabited by the ancestors of today's Innu, Inuit and Mi'kmaq people. This summer, Newfoundland and Labrador pay tribute to this milestone through the "Viking Millennium Celebrations." On Friday, July 28 from 2 to 4 p.m. (2:30 p.m. NT) CBC Radio One participates in the celebration through THE VIKING MILLENNIUM SPECIAL, co-hosted by Jim Brown and Chris Norman, broadcasting live from L'Anse Aux Meadows. Thousands of people are expected to witness the arrival of the authentic Viking long ship replica Islendingur, following its retracing of the original voyage of Leif the Lucky. THE VIKING MILLENNIUM SPECIAL will also present the story of the Vikings, how they came to settle at L'Anse Aux Meadows and how this discovery has changed our understanding of world history. (via Ricky Leong, DX LISTENING DIGEST) If this is only in Nfld, 2-4 pm ADT, 2:30-4:30 pm NDT equals 1700- 1900 UT; try the webcast from St. John`s. If on the entire CBC Radio One network it would repeat hourly and not really be live, at 1800 UT in EDT zone, 1900 UT in CDT, 2000 UT in MDT, 2100 UT in PDT (gh) ** NIGERIA. Voice of Nigeria now using NF 7265.5, instead of 7255.0 as follows: 0500-0700, 1000-1100, 1500-1700 and 1900-2100 in English 0700-0800, 1100-1200 and 1800-1900 in French 0800-0900, 1200-1300 and 2200-2300 in Hausa 0900-1000, 1300-1400 and 2100-2200 in Fulfulde 1400-1500 and 1700-1800 in Arabic. Co-channel and QRM on nominal 7265.0: 0000-2400 Sudwestfunk in German; 0530-0630 VOA in French to Af Mon to Fri (Observer, Bulgaria, July 23 via DXLD) ** PERÚ. 6673.12, Radio Andina, Huancabamba; was first heard in Tokyo thanks to a tip from Rafael Rodríguez who first noted this new station being on the air on the measured frequency of 6672.9 kHz on July 8, 2000. It was heard at 1051-1146 on 22/JUL/2000 and also 1011- 1058 on 23/JUL/2000. Signal was fair to poor, however the propagation from Perú was totally terrible. So the station is seemingly well equipped with about 1 kW output. The station broadcasts with the following morning programs: 1000-1100 "Amanecer Andino", 1100- "Pueblo Despierta" On 22/JUL/2000, I got two IDs: "Señoras y señores, amables oyentes, son las 5 de la mañana 52 minutos en Radio Andina desde Huancabamba. Ustedes están disfrutando con [sic] su programa AMANECER ANDINO de Radio Andina ...." & "En los 6672 kHz onda corta banda internacional de los 49 metros, Radio Andina onda corta transmite desde Huancabamba, la ciudad que camina, en el Departamento de Piura ...." On 23/JUL/2000, ID was confirmed as "Las 5 de la mañana con 15 minutos en Radio Andina que transmite desde Huancabamba" (Takayuki Inoue Nózaki, Japan, Relámpago DX Logging via DXLD) ** PERU. 6673.06, R Andina, 0115 July 23, chicha mx, male anncr ID'ed as "R Andina de Huancabamba". Pretty strong signal atop persistent thunderstorm QRN. Noted off at 0201 (Jay Novello, Wake Forest, NC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. I just became aware of an "Observer" item from July 16th regarding Radio Rossii missed on 9845, 11735, 13705 and 17660. These frequencies were until now used from 2 x 250 kW transmitters at Taldom. An immediate check indeed confirmed both daytime frequencies 13705 and 17660 as silent. Obviously these transmitters were silenced on July 11th together with the co-located 2.5 megawatts longwave transmitter on 261. Seemingly the remaining shortwave outlets from the Kurovskaya, Tbilisskaya and Samara sites are not affected by these axings, as 9720, 11655 and 12005 are still on air. Some nostalgia: The now silenced Radio Rossii outlets from Taldom were until a few years ago using USB on OOB frequencies like 8005 and 12195, officially declared as feeders, actually aiming at Russian ships on the Atlantic. And the 261 frequency of the now also abandoned longwave giant is also in use by the German Burg transmitter, until 1994 carrying the Russian forces Radio Volga. Late at night Radio Volga was taking Radio Rossii by picking up the Gorizont satellite outlet, resulting in the tinny and distorted Burg audio (result of a bad feed circuit from the Radio Volga studio) not simply interfered but instead accompanied by a punchy pre-echo. Regards, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, July 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH COOK ISLAND. Andy, ZK1AND, is active from Rarotonga (OC-013) for the next month. His activity has been mainly on 20 meters SSB around 14260 kHz between 0300 and 0500z, and again around 1030z. QSL via AB7FS. (KB8NW/OPDX July 24/BARF-80 via John Norfolk, OKCOK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TUNISIA: New schedule of Radio Tunis in Arabic, effective July 17: 7225 1700-2300 to Eu - back on air 7275 0400-0700 to Eu - back on air 9720 0200-0500 to ME 9720 1700-2100 to ME 11730 1400-1700 to Eu - back on air 17735 1200-1700 to ME DELETED FREQS (for week July 17-23): 7110 0400-0700 Sfax 500 kw/265 degr. to NoAf 7110 1900-2300 Sfax 500 kw/265 degr. to NoAf 11655 1400-1900 Sfax 500 kw/265 degr. to NoAf (Observer, July 23 via DXLD) ** U K. Ken Morrison in San Antonio, Texas, used to be a shipboard radio officer. He writes "now I do all my listening on the Web instead of shortwave." Ken read the script of the July 8th show, in which Glenn Hauser reported that the BBC World Service feed to the Americas is one of two regional World Service feeds available as a Webcast. He can only find the European stream at the World Service Web site. Ken would prefer the Americas stream, because the music programs are at a more convenient time. It is hard to find the Americas stream at the World Service Web site. I suggest you go to http://www.broadcast.com/bbc. There you can hear the World Service Americas stream, and the 24-hour all-news service, in either RealAudio or Windows Media formats (VOA Communications World July 23 via John Norfolk) The website http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice has a quite illogical setup near the top to click on live streams. The LIVE NOW current program shown always refers to the Europe (UT + 2 in BBC On Air) stream, as does the NEXT program. Immediately below that it says ALSO AVAILABLE AT YAHOO! BROADCAST. You would think ``also`` refers to the programs immediately above it. This only applies at certain times of the day, such as early evening North American time, when the two streams are parallel (usually). Elsewhen, when you go to Yahoo (which is the same as http://www.broadcast.com) you will instead find two links in three formats each to the Americas stream. The bottom one, Information and Entertainment is the one I always bring up, and which does include entertainment programs, (UT -4 listings in BBC On Air) while the top ones are supposedly all-news and sport 24 hours a day. For some months, these were mislabeled in reverse on the yahoo page. There is also a continuous BBC Spanish service there (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. July 28th will be the last days for the present schedule of VOA broadcasts in Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Slovene, Lithuanian and Latvian services. These services were slated for reduction as a result of a language review by the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors. Most of these broadcasts are satellite feeds, but included is the VOA Polish broadcast at 20 to 21 Universal time on 1197 kilohertz medium wave [via Munich]. European listener might want to tune in that last broadcast Friday. Even if you don't understand Polish, you can listen for the inflections. As a result of a redistribution of budget brought about by the language review, fifty-one VOA employees will receive official notices on August 7th that their positions will be terminated. Unless they can find jobs elsewhere within the Voice of America or its parent entity, the International Broadcasting Bureau, they will be off the payroll as of October 13th. Tim Shamble, president of the labor union that represents VOA broadcasters, wrote in an e-mail to the 51 affected employees: "All of you have persevered and shown an extraordinary concern for the programming, the listeners, and the Agency even during the most difficult period of the RIF [reduction in force] conducted by the Management." Three broadcasters will remain in the VOA Polish, Czech, and Hungarian services, and they will produce 15 minutes of feed programming Monday through Friday. Two each will remain in Slovene, Latvian, and Lithuanian, with ten minutes of output per weekday. Multimedia services in these languages are slated for the future. (VOA Communications World July 22 via John Norfolk, DXLD) ** U S A. soon to test WGTG # 3 9.580 mhz planned operation freq 7 days week : 6:00 am to 4:00pm eastern [1000-2000 UT]. 50 kw /100 kw test beaming northwest tones / music/ digital data am / usb / isb night test : 3.270 mhz (Dave Frantz, WGTG, July 21, DXLD) 9580? Please don`t use that frequency, at least not before 1600. It`s the main R. Australia channel, beamed 70 degrees from 1100 to 2100; at least in central and western North America, will give you co- channel and even more enemies among SWLs (gh to WGTG) ** VIETNAM [non]. Que Hong Radio observed on new 12150 *2300-2359* on July 20 and July 21, with Vietnamese programming, intended for Vietnam. Transmitter site deduced to be in Central Asia, possibly from former CIS facilities. Excellent signals here in Melbourne. Regards From: (Bob Padula, Surrey Hills, Victoria 3127, Australia, Electronic DX Press via DXLD) ** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. July 22 at 1930 on 7450.00 RASD to WeSahara, Ar mx; at 1945 v7470.72 RTM Sebaa-Aioun, Morocco, Ar mx, //15345 (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** YEMEN. Radio Aden in Arabic (not Radio Cairo/Voice of Arabs) again noted on July 23: 0900-1100 on 9900.0 (SINPO 34543). No parallel freq. 73 from (Ivo and Anguel, Observer, Bulgaria via DXLD) [Cf DXLD 00-94] ** UNIDENTIFIED. I had just finished transferring the tape I made of the strange CW being broadcast on 9725 kHz at about 0210 UTC Monday morning July 24, when serendipity did its usual magic trick: the sound editing software I used to record the sound allowed me to "see" the dots and dashes. So whaddaya know, it was... a number station, smack in the middle of a broadcast frequency in AM mode. That probably explains why it disappeared suddenly at about 0218 UTC. The tape recorder muffled up the spoken words of some preacher that the CW was already interfering with (Ricky Leong, Quebec, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, numbers, at a pretty fast clip, but that does not necessarily mean it`s a spy station, which often substitute shorter-character letters when using CW. Tsk, tsk, the preacher is Dr Gene Scott via Costa Rica (gh) ###