DX LISTENING DIGEST 0-133, November 5, 2000 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 2000 archive contents see} http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/Dxldmid.html WOR/DXLD HOMEPAGE: http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/ ** ARGENTINA. Listado de emisoras argentinas en la banda ampliada de Onda Media: 1610 R. CULTURA, Domingo Purita 2247 (1824 Lanus) - Inactiva 1610 R. CANTICO NUEVO, Av. Oliver 1134, Barrio 9 de Abril (1842 Monte Grande) 1620 R. TROPICANA, Av. San Juan 2461 (1232 Capital Federal) 1630 AM1630 BUEN AYRE (RED 92), Calle 32 Nro. 426 (1900 La Plata) 1640 R. BOLIVIA, Av. Int. Francisco Rabanal 1467 (1437 Capital Federal) 1650 AM RESTAURACION, Debussy 2948 (1686 Hurlingham) 1660 R. UNIDAD, Molina 830 (1847 Rafael Calzada) - Irregular 1670 BBC AMERICA LATINA (Capital Federal) 1680 AM GETRO, Av. San Martin 4280 (1824 Lanus oeste) (Marcelo Cornachioni, Argentina, Conexión Digital Nov 5 via DXLD) ** ASIA [non]. RFA currently broadcasts from 1100 to 0700; there are no transmissions between 0700 and 1100. Daily programming includes Mandarin for 12 hrs, Cantonese for two hrs, and Tibetan for eight hrs. Transmission facilities via KWHR Hawaii, KHBN Palau, Dushanbe- TJK, Holzkirchen-GER, Ulan Bator-MNG, Tinian-SoMRA, Yerevan-ARM, Saipan-MRA, Iranawilla-CLN, and Almaty-KAZ. (Nov 5) 05.11.2000 RFA B-00 updated schedule of Nov 5th. USA RFA schedule in B-00, valid til Mar 24, 2001. RFA uses IBB txs in HOL=Holzkirchen Germany, IRA=Iranawila Sri Lanka, SAI=Saipan & TIN=Tinian NoMariana Isls. And relays in ALM=Almaty-KAZ, DUS=Dushanbe-TJK, WHR=KWHR Hawaii, HBN=KHBN Palau Isl-marked [P], ULA=UlaanBataar Mongolia, and YER=Yerevan Armenia. 0000-0100 LAO 11830I 13830A 15545T 0030-0130 BURMESE 11535D 11570A 13710S 15155T 0100-0300 TIBETAN 7470D 7560Y 9570H 15225T 17730U 0100-0130 UIGHUR 7485D 9365D 15405T 17590T 0300-0700 MANDARIN 13670T 13760T 15150T 15665T 17495D 17525D 17615S 17880S 0600-0700 TIBETAN 17515D 17540Y 17720U 21500T 1100-1300 TIBETAN 7470U 9365Y 11540D 13625T 15185H-(from 1200) 1100-1200 LAO 9355S 9860T 15555I 15695A 1230-1330 CAMBODIAN 11510A 13725I 15385T 1300-1400 BURMESE 7550A 9355D 11825T 15250T 1300-1400 TIBETAN 7470U 9365Y 11540D 13625T 15185H 1400-1500 CANTONESE 9445S 11950S 15260T 1400-1500 VIETNAMESE 9365D 9455S 9920Y 9930W 11535A 11760T 13635P 15470T 1400-1500 KOREAN 5855U 7475Y 12000T 13720T 1500-1600 TIBETAN 7470U 7495D 9920Y 1500-1600 MANDARIN 7540D 9910P 11945S 13690T 13735T 15510T 17640T 1600-1630 UIGHUR 7515D 7530D 11955T 1600-1700 MANDARIN 7540D 9455S-(fr 1630) 9910P 11850T 11945S 13690T 13735T 15510T 17640T 1700-1800 MANDARIN 7540D 9455S 9910P 11850T 11945S 13690T 13735T 15510T 17640T 1800-1900 MANDARIN 7455D 7540D 9355S 11790T 11945S 13690T 13735T 15510T 17615T 1900-2000 MANDARIN 7455D 7540D 9355S 9875P 11790T 11945S 13625T 13680T 13735T 15510T 2000-2100 MANDARIN 7455D 7540D 9355S 9455S 9875P 9885T 11950S 13625T 13735T 15510T 2100-2200 CANTONESE 9570S 11740T 11785T 2100-2200 MANDARIN 7540D 9455S 9875P 9885T 11950S 13625T 13735T 15510T 2200-2300 CANTONESE 9570S 9845P 11740T 11785T 2200-2300 KOREAN 7460U 9455S 11905S 2230-2330 CAMBODIAN 7185I 7530A 9930P 15485T 2300-2359 MANDARIN 7540D 9905P 11785T 13800S 15430T 15550T 2300-2359 TIBETAN 7415D 7470U 7550Y 9875H 2330-0029 VIETNAMESE 7515D 9490A 9930P 11580U 11670T 13720S (various sources, updated on Nov 5 by Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) ** CANADA. Alors que Radio Canada International avait annoncé que sa programmation d'hiver serait quasiment doublée, rien de tel ne transparait au regard de son schéma horaire (que vous pouvez retrouver dans la partie horaires). On note une redistribution des zones couvertes puisque l'Asie et le Proche Orient semblent ne plus être desservis, au profit de l'Afrique qui bénéficie d'une couverture plus importante avec notamment une nouvelle émission à 0700 TU et avec un relais situé à Meyerton (Afrique du Sud) pour la transmission de 1900 sur 15325 kHz (courrier électronique de RCI - 23 octobre 2000). (Jean Michel Aubier, Informations, Nov 4, via DXLD) ** CANADA. The redesigned RCI website http://www.rcinet.ca has a program-search funxion now. I want to find out all the times Maple Leaf Mailbag is aired, noting that it was heard last UT Monday at 0205, not 0230, and I heard it UT Sunday 0505 (via webcast), not 0530. Pick the name of the program from the list. Language: English. Day of the week: All. The ``valid time`` you enter determines what timezone the entire readout displays, no matter what the country, so naturally I left it on UT. If the time is half an hour off, the displays are half an hour off, and the day may also be wrong. If you do not pick a country, you get a huge list showing all possible times and frequencies for each country. You may not realize the search has completed and displayed unless you page down. Strangely enough, USA, Mexico and Central America have only two times and one frequency for MLM, Sunday AND Monday at 0230 on 9755 and that is 50 percent wrong!! While remote islands such as Maldives and St. Helena have 23 time-frequencies to listen. This is absurd and contrary to common sense as well as actual observation. Everywhere the 0230 broadcast is shown (now as a morning service to Asia as well as evening to Americas), it is on both Sunday and Monday, surely not, and a case of confusing UT days with local days, something which this search funxion ought to be able to cope with. Looking thru the list, these seem to be all the shown times for MLM, including the first surely spurious one: Sun 0230, Sun 0530, Sun 0600, Sun 1830, Sun 2130, Mon 0230. Bill and Sheldon were speculating on today`s International Radio Report that broadcasting it in the first half of the hour last Sunday may have been a one-off transition problem, and it could be back to the second half of the hours this week. But already UT Sun Nov 5 I heard it in the first half again of the 0500 hour, not 0530. I did not check at 1800, but we shall soon find out what happens at 2100. I tried again for Quirks & Quarks, which we already know is UT Sunday at 0000. In this case, there are listings only of some Pacific Islands such as Vanuatu misspelt Vanuata, mostly followed by ``Vide`` which means empty in French; Asian countries such as Philippines West, Taiwan West and Hong Kong West (!), are shown. AND USA East, but not West, ``Saturday 0000`` even tho with the time in UT it should be showing Sunday. It would be far less trouble and far more accurate simply to show a non-searchable list of all programs, times and frequencies! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. Surprised to hear Ham Radio Today UT Sun 0200 and 0500 on 9745 and new 11840 right after DXPL; have all its airings been moved from Wednesday/Thursday to Saturday/Sunday? The HCJB website hasn`t gotten around to updating the summer program schedule, tho frequency schedules have been (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. Don`t you believe PWBR 2001 that HCJB will cease broadcasting English and Spanish to the Americas in 2001. Here are the facts: Quito does need a new airport. The old one is too small and the city has built up around it, potentially dangerous. The new airport site has a flight path in line with HCJB`s Pifo site; the highest antenna extends into the flight buffer zone, and there are concerns about HCJB RF interference to navigation. HCJB has purchased 400 acres on the coast near Salinas at Santa Elena, for a potential replacement transmitter site. The federal government has turned over to the local governments of Quito (and Guayaquil which also needs a new airport) responsibility for building a new airport. There are economic concerns whether it can be built. HCJB is being pro-active in planning for this possibility. It has a commitment to maintain English, Spanish and Quechua language broadcasts, and other languages are under evaluation. There could be some interruption in service while the move is being made. One team including Allen Graham recommends that at least one antenna be built to serve Europe from the new site. [contrary to previous plans] It is unknown when airport construction will begin, and HCJB will not make a move until it sees dirt being turned at the new airport site (Allen Graham, HCJB DX Partyline Nov 4, notes by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FINLAND. YLE Radio Finland`s revived weekly Saturday night broadcast to NAm confirmed, UT Sunday Nov 5 at 0130 in English, 0154 in Latin, but very poor reception this date: 9655 hardly audible, and 12035 audible with heavy flutter. Fortunately the daytime broadcast at 1330 on 15400 and 17660 booms in, and they should never have dropped it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. RFI B-00 en anglais: - de 1200 à 1300 sur 11670, 15155, 15195 et 15540, - de 1400 à 1500 sur 11610, 17620 et 17680, - de 1600 à 1700 sur 11995, 12015 et 17850, - de 1600 à 1730 sur 11615 et 15210. (via Norbert Fouquet, Le Monde Vous Parle Oct 30 via DXLD) ** GEORGIE. R. Georgie continue d'émettre en français entre 0800 et 0830 sur 11910 kHz. La réception est toujours difficile et cela concerne également les autres langues. La station en est parfaitement consciente, mais le budget ne permet aucune amélioration de ce côté. Radio Georgie devrait toutefois lancer ses émissions sur Internet. Pas de date connue, mais ce serait pour bientôt. Dans l'immédiat une adresse électronique (cf section Coordonnées des stations) a été ouverte (contact téléphonique avec la station - 1er novembre 2000 par Jean-Michel Aubier, Informations, via DXLD) ** IRELAND [non]. Horario de Radio Telefís Éireann en inglés a través desde el 29 de octubre: 0130-0200 6155 Centroamérica (S) 1000-1030 11740 SE Asia (K) 1800-1830 9895 Oriente Medio (UK) 1830-1900 21630 Africa (A) 1830-1900 13725 Norteamérica (S) S -Sackville-Canadá K -Kranji-Singapur UK-Skelton-Gran Bretaña A -Isla Ascensión Dirección: Broadcasting Developments RTÉ, Dublín 4, Irlanda. E-mail: haydej@rte.ie URL: http://www.rte.ie (Ramón Vázquez Dourado, EA1-1265-ADXB/EA1-5369v-AER, Noticias DX Nov 4 via DXLD) Note that according to this the 6155 transmission is now from Sackville; before it was from Europe (gh) ** ISRAËL. Is Reshet Bet supposed to be on 7545 kHz (NOT 17545) at 05-06 GMT? I fell asleep before I could get an ID but it was definitely Hebrew folkish songs, the sort of thing you'd expect to hear on a Sabbath morning for a non-religious audience. (The religious audience, of course, won't have the radio on and certainly not to Bet.) I guess I have to compare the Real Audio stream as the schedule from the WRTH is way out of date and even the web schedule http://bet.iba.org.il/frameted.htm expires 10/10 (Joël Rubin, NY, Nov 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KASHMIR [non]. 5101.113, Oct 21 at 1400 Voice of Jammu Kashmir Freedom Movement in Muzzafarabad, (PO Box 122) with English news until 1405. Starting with Urdu programming at 1405. Close down at 1432. Nothing has been observed on the old frequency 3665A kHz during the whole autumn, the same station??? (Stig Adolfsson, Sweden, SW Bulletin, translated by Thomas Nilsson for DXLD) ** KOREA SOUTH. RKI`s World Cyberstamp Exhibition continues to Nov 22 on their website http://rki.kbs.co.kr You get a pop-up link to the Ex immediately, but have to keep deleting the pop-ups insisting Korean text support be intalled even tho you don`t read Korean. It`s hard to believe there are only a few RKI logos alongside some of the stamps, which entitle the viewer to win a coffee mug by filling in address info, since I have run across several without really trying, but at least on the same session it did not want to take my name a second time. Beware: winners` names AND ADDRESSES are posted on the website, however in a hard-to-find location: http://rki.kbs.co.kr/stamp_event/eng/06event-e/eventmain-e.html In fact of the 15 Australian stamps, for example, 10 have the winning logo (several are actually Christmas Island, which may be used from Australia too, and the last one is misplaced, actually from Austria!) Stamps are classified into broad topical categories but there is no captioning in most cases, no info about each stamp. Most are cancelled, and some slightly damaged, apparently actually taken off listeners` letters. The three stamps from ``Ireland`` are actually from Iceland (Island), -- oh well, close enough, nearly neighbours... In fact, exactly the same stamps and same postmarks appear under ``Island`` (Iceland). Don`t miss the extensive gallery of tractors, dumptrucks, and bulldozers from Belarus`! Not to be outdone by more heavy vehicles from the CCCP – so I guess these date back a few years. One 1989 postmark was visible. I learnt something from the stamps, that there is supposed to be a soft-sign at the end of Belarus` -- how come no one ever writes it that way? After selecting a country, and clicking on the first thumbnail stamp, you may go from one enlargement to the next by clicking on the bottom of each display, something I did not notice at first since it was out of view on my screen, just as the hard-to-find link to RKI web audio can be. Some countries have more than one page with numbers hidden in the lower right corner. It`s hard to imagine how a site could be designed less user-friendly, but once you get the hang of it the stamps are very nice. Too bad the enlargements are not full-screen so we could inspect the stamps in detail and even read the lettering (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA SOUTH. RKI starts some new programs this week, including Mon Nov 6, ``Peace in the Making`` replacing ``Exploring the New Millennium``. Following the new Kranji relay, RKI plans to add more relays of language services in other countries next year. Han Hee Joo also referred to RKI in passing as the ``voice of Korea,`` or was that with a capital V? (Esther Li and Han Hee Joo, RKI Multiwave Feedback Nov 5, notes by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MÉXICO. Por los 25.770 kHz usb Radio Rocco free mexican station transmitiendo los fines de semana desde algún lugar de la República Mexicana y próximamente una nueva frecuencia en las bandas tropicales enviar informe de recepción a radiorocco@yahoo.com se otorga QSL card. Radio Urantia es una emisión por los 27.500 kHz usb todos los días jueves a las 01:00 utc información relacionada con el diexsmo radioafición amateur y banda ciudadana enviar informe de recepción a qrzurantia@mail.com se otorga QSL card audiencia potencial EUA, Sur América, Japón, España, Norte de Europa, Hawaii (Ricardo Crotte, México, Nov 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MÉXICO I have new updates from México. In México, Distrito Federal: SW: XERTA 4800 Radio Transcontinental de América is still inactive, since April. XERMX 5985 Radio México Internacional was broadcasting with 5 kW, yesterday (October 20, 2000) disconnected its transmitter to test other of its old and inactive frequencies. XERMX 9705 Radio México Internacional is broadcasting with 6 kW. XERMX 11770 Radio México Internacional began its transmission of test, I tuned in it from 15:00 to 5:00 UTC XEOI 6010, Radio Mil has a new e-mail to receive reception reports at: radiomil@nrm.com.mx Radio UNAM, XEUN 860, XEYU 9000 (inactive) and XEUN 96.1, the new "Director General" is Fernando Escalante Sobrino. Well, I hope this information will be useful to the next edition, the 2002 edition. I will send you the next collaboration as soon as I can. Greetings from Mexico [Héctor García Bojorge, via TL, SW Bulletin Nov 5 via Thomas Nilsson, DXLD] ** PAKISTAN. 15455, Radio Pakistan 0050 EG talk on Pakistan-China & Pakistan-Iran relations, mention of, "occupied Kashmir." Traditional South Asian music through top-of-the-hour. Woman commentary on situation in Afghanistan @0104 followed by more music. Is this the domestic service? Fair reception (Ralph Famularo, Japan, Nov 2, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Hi all, Here is Radio Pakistan's B00 sked... http://www.radio.gov.pk/exter.htm Cheers, (Paul Ormandy, Oamaru, New Zealand, Nov 5, hard-core-dx via DXLD) Wherein we find the answer in one entry, something new? The dates each other service began are specified, except this. I hyphothesize R Pak were in such a hurry to get the Assami service on the air they decided to start it in English before they have anyone to do it in Assamese: ``Assami Service (English) 0045-0115 9780, 11650, 15455 to: Assam`` Or could it be like RAI broadcasting the Maltese service in Italian, Habana the Creole service in French? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. Radio Philippines: Actually, I did change it, not the time, but the frequency list, starting 30 October. It's now 0230-0330 on 11805, 15120, 15270 kHz. Also 1730-1930 on 11730, 11890, 15190 kHz (Dan Ferguson, IBB, swl@qth.net Nov 4 via DXLD) ** RUSSIA [and non]. Hello, last night I found VoR 7180 a little bit weaker than 7125. As well-known 7180 is the winter counterpart for 9665 and used until a few years ago to be on 7105 instead. Remember that it was once the cause for much excitement when a clash with another CIS outlet was solved by moving 5 kHz down to 7100, the borderline between the ham and broadcast bands in Europe. The German authorities believed the transmission to originate from the Ukraine and filed a official complaint to Kiev... Of course 7180 (9665) used to originate from Grigoriopol`. But the current registration shows Armavir, and the difference in signal strength suggests that it now indeed originates from the Tbilisskaya centre between Krasnodar and Armavir. So far this is the only clue; the fading patterns of 7125 and 7180 were similar but Grigoriopol` and Tbilisskaya are roughly the same direction from here, some years ago resulting in BBCM stating that Radio Dniestr International transmits from the Russian site although it of course used Grigoriopol`. Between 0400 and 0500 both channels carry VoR English, and of course it would be interesting to check with two radios for a delay. A possible reason for a move could be that Tbilisskaya meanwhile lost its original transmissions to the Americas. First Radio Vilnius left in favour of Jülich (as one of the first new clients already when the DW era was not over at Jülich yet), then Radio Minsk had to withdraw for financial reasons and now Voice of Vietnam favours Sackville instead. Last night I also finally managed to check VoR via Santa Maria di Galeria on 9765. The findings are the same as already reported: It was not possible to recognize a different audio style than on the VoR outlets from CIS sites, also due to a rather weak signal here in Germany (and some interference from co-channel Wertachtal, too), but the crash-start at 0159 is really not CIS-like. By the way, last night 7125 started without tones, just silent carrier from 0051 until finally joining the VoR circuit at 0059. To avoid misunderstandings: The new transmission from 1500 on 7180 from Kamchatka has of course nothing to do with the above discussed transatlantic transmissions. Regards, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Nov 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. R Exterior de España - REE with their B-00 schedule: [gh excerpted English and Sephardic only] EUR En 2000-2100 9680 Mon-Fri, 2200-2300 Sat+Sun AF En 2000-2100 9595 Mon-Fri, 2200-2300 Sat+Sun AM En 0000-0200, 0500-0600 6055 NE/ME Sefardi 1825-1855 17770 Mons only SAm Sefardi 0115-0145 11795 Tues only NAm Sefardi 0415-0445 9690 Tues only Radio Exterior de España, Apto. 156 202, 28080 Madrid, Spain. fax ++34 91 346 18 15 e-mail: audiencia_rne.ree@rtve.es URL: http://www.rtve.es/rne/ree (REE printed schedule via Andreas Volk, Germany, Oct 18 via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) ** SWITZERLAND [non]. Interesting information on the Swiss shortwave transmitters, about where the txs went. Korea D.P.R. and AWR Argenta Italy purchased the used material. New is, one of the 250 kW txs is seemingly forwarded later to WMLK [International Shortwave of the Assemblies of Yahweh]. About a year ago the stn was looking for a 100 kW SW tx. Here is the answer from SRI/SwissCom techical management. station number product kW opening closing disassembly fate Sarnen 1 BBC 250 1972 1995 1995 demolition Beromünster 1 BBC 250 1965 1993 1995 Korea DPR 1 BBC 250 1965 1995 1995 Korea DPR Schwarz'burg 1 BBC 250 1966 1993 1993 Korea DPR 1 BBC 250 1966 1994 1995 Korea DPR 1 BBC 250 1976 1998 1998 AWR Italy 1 ABB 250 1993 1998 1998 AWR Italy 1 ABB 100 1986 1998 1998 AWR Italy 1 Marconi 250 1978 1998 1998 demolition Lenk 1 BBC 250 1974 1998 1999 demolition 1 BBC 250 1974 1998 1999 demolition Sottens 1 ABB 500 1990 still in service (Ulrich Wegmüller, SRI, Nov 2 via Wolfgang Büschel, via DXLD) ** TURKS & CAICOS. A 5-inch B&W bedside TV with no brand, but model SW-0615, made in China, also has AM and FM (but not SW), hard to move analog dial, but for kicks I started tuning across AM to see what this awful rx could get. First thing I hear is Spanish on 530, and at 0600 UT Nov 5 ID for WWRV 1330 New York and 530 South Caicos. In fact this seems to be nothing unusual for it, unlike the DX-390 and DX-375 next to it which pick up nothing but a buzz on this frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTEHING DIGEST) ** U S A. WBCQ SCHEDULE INCLUDES DXish programs besides WOR, CW: UT Sat 2300 6:00pm-7:00pm EST Sat 7415 Radio Timtron Worldwide UT Sun 0000 7:00pm-7:30pm EST Sat 7415 The Real Amateur Radio Show UT Sun 0500 12:00am-1:00am EST Sun 7415 Tom and Darryl UT Wed 0100 8:00pm-9:00pm EST Tue 7415 Off the Hook (http://wbcq.net Nov 5 via DXLD) ** U S A. KIM: This Tuesday is election day here in the United States. A new president will be elected, as well as senators, representatives, governors, and holders of local offices. VOA News Now will have special coverage of the election returns beginning UTC Wednesday, November 8th, at 1 Universal Time. For listeners in Asia, the morning transmission to South Asia [I should have said East Asia] will be extended from the usual sign-off at 1 UTC to 3 UTC. Frequencies are 11980, 15385, 17740, and 17820. [Also] For East Asia, 21505 via Tinian will be available from 1 until 6. To the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe, News Now will be available after 1 UTC on 7170, 9815, and 11985, plus a battery of medium wave relays: Kavala 792, Munich 1197, Rhodes 1260, and Holzkirchen 1593. Kuwait 1548 is also available until 3 UTC, as usual. To Africa, at 1 UTC, the following frequencies will be available: 4960, 6035, 6080, 7290, 7340, 7415, 9575, and 9885, plus medium wave 909 and 1530. And finally to the Americas, News Now will stay on past its usual evening sign-off at 2 hours until 3 on 5995, until 6 on 6155 and 9455, and from 3 to 6 on 6055. (Elliott, VOA Communications World Nov 4 via John Norfolk, DXLD) ** U S A [non]. Present U.S. government policy does not allow the Voice of America to broadcast to western Europe. On the other hand, U.S. government funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has just begun broadcasts to western Europe. In international radio, audiences are sometimes larger among diasporas of the target country than in the target country itself. This is because people outside their home country yearn for news about their home country, in their mother tongue if possible. It is possible to receive this news by shortwave. But what if the broadcasting service in the home country is government-controlled and thus not very useful as a source of news? Then an external broadcaster which provides more objective news about the target country, such as BBC, Radio Australia, VOA, or RFE/RL, becomes the best source. On October 29th, RFE/RL began supplementing its Persian Service broadcasts to Iran with shortwave broadcasts to western Europe, at 20 to 23 Universal Time on 7280 and 9835 kilohertz. RFE/RL's Arabic- language Radio Free Iraq is also transmitting to western Europe at 21 to 22 on 7150 and 9645 and 22 to 23 on 7115 and 9645. To be sure, RFE/RL broadcasts are available in western Europe as streamed audio via the Internet. But not everyone has access to the Internet, and per-minute charges for Internet access and local telephone calls can make listening to a two-hour broadcast expensive. So shortwave to reach diasporas is, in my opinion, a good use of the medium. Now I wonder when RFE/RL will begin a North American service? (Kim Elliott, VOA Communications World Nov 4 via John Norfolk, DXLD) ** VANUATU. Hi, the 5th of November seems to be a special day: just like in the last two years, Radio Vanuatu was audible today for the first time on the tropical band frequency. Due to the early sunrise at my QTH (0731), the reception window is still very narrow and the signal was gone at 0711. Here the log in detail: 4960 R. Vanuatu 0657-0711, southsea music, followed by announcements in Bislama and news, 23322. I did not hear the yellow bird which may be due to some local QRM which blocked the frequency entirely for a few seconds at 0700, or - worse case scenario for us listeners - maybe the station has done away with this traditional interval signal which was one of the characteristic means of identification for this station 73,(Enzio Gehrig Dénia / Spain (38.50N 00.04 E) JRC535d / IC-R 8500 / ALA-1530, Hard-Core-DX mailing list via DXLD) Nice catch! Vanuatu is audible most nights out here on the West Coast (barring solar storms :-). As of two nights ago( 4 Nov 0600-1000), they were still using the Yellow bird ID. (Don Nelson, Oregon, hard- core-dx via DXLD) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. CLANDESTINE FROM MADAGASCAR TO ZIMBABWE: 7120, Voice of the People (presumed), 1700-1755 Very weak at sign-on, fades up to weak to fair but very poor readability due to heavy interference from both adjacent channels though 7120 is clear. Male and female announcer talks in English and local, occasional musical breaks. Glenn Hauser spotted the RN Madagascar allocation in the B00 schedules with service listed as Special and is confirmed by Jim Parker on the BDXC e-mail list saying the station had told him of the move in a recent QSL letter. Have not got a definite identification though (Mike Barraclough, UK, Oct 31/Nov 1, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** ZIMBABWE [non]. Voice of the People reasonable signal on 7120 as I type. As Jim Parker says is on 1700-1755, channel is clear. Previous monitoring found them weak and difficult to copy due to strong signals on both adjacent channels but good readability tonight, fair strength has defeated the adjacent channel splatter. Could be interesting listening as the Zimbabwe crisis develops. (Mike Barraclough, Nov 5, BDXC-UK via DXLD) The above information may only be reproduced if full credit is given to the original contributor AND to the British DX Club (BDXC-UK) ###