DX LISTENING DIGEST 0-140, November 17, 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 contents archive see} http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/Dxldmid.html THIS WEEK ON WORLD OF RADIO 1058: See http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/wor1058.html WORLD OF RADIO 1058 AUDIO: Hear download: http://www.freespeech.org/hauser/rmfiles/wor1058.rm or stream: http://www.freespeech.org/hauser/wor1058.ram WOR MP3 files at WRN: even if you don`t see a link for the latest edition, put appropriate Saturday date into browser, such as: ftp://ftp.wrn.org/archive/gh/gh_nov1800.mp3 ** BULGARIA. Radio Bulgaria asks for Reception Reports of 9400 kHz at 1715-1945 from European target countries. \\ 7200 kHz both 500 kW Plovdiv. At 1700-2000 UT co-channel interference by Radio Pakistan towards Europe at 313 degrees. Please RRs to Mr. Ivo Ivanov, at Radio Bulgaria, rbul1@nationalradio.bg 73 (Wolfgang Büschel, df5sx, DXLD) ** CANADA. Hi! I was looking for BBC World Service on 9,515 kHz before going to school this morning at 1600 UTC, but found Deutsche Welle in French to Europe/Africa instead. Is this a permanent change or simply a misfeed? (Ricky Leong, Quebec, Nov 16, to RCI, via DXLD) ** CANADA. CFRX audio restored. Glenn, Sounds like CFRX 6070 is back to normal...I checked in around 2155 Tuesday and heard the audio back on loud and clear (well, considering the modest signal anyway), with commercials, an ID (as CFRB 1010) and sports news. (-Mike Horan Park Forest, IL, Nov 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Falun Dafa. When I listened for Falun Dafa around 12140 from 2200 on 13 Nov I did not hear the program, but strong jamming. The freqs used were 12130, 12125 and 12145 with the freqs shifting at 2220 and 2240. During the first 30 mins only one strong jammer with CNR1 was heard, and this one turned out to be Lingshi as it was mirrored in 11630 with spurs occurring on 11130, 11135 and 11115, respectively. At least two more jammers offered noise "programming" only. As none of the normal Lingshi txers seemed to be missing, the jammer appears to be an additional txer. The fact that they also take two of the Beijing 100 kW rigs (9830, 9900) off the air to jam Falun Dafa clearly indicates the importance they attach to these countermeasures. Last evening I monitored 12125-12150 from 2145, and found that one of the Chinese jammers had the normal warm-up procedure (on 12140) of the Lingshi bc txers, so it appears that a sixth txer at this site has been assigned to jamming duty only. The audio is clear and the freq is precise. Originally, when Lingshi was bcing CNR-2 on 9064, 7516 and a couple more freqs, only four channels were used. In connection with the change to CNR-1 a fifth channel was added. Maybe they have split up original 50+50 kW pairs? Jammers on 17720 and 17540 at 0600-0700 (VOA Tibetan) may also be Lingshi. At this time the 7935 txer is also available for such use (Olle Alm, Sweden, Nov 14/15, BC-DX via DXLD) ** COSTA RICA. RFPI change from 15049 to 15065 has been delayed again, still not accomplished by Nov 16; and was not off the air as expected for power system upgrade Nov 15 (gh) ** IRAN. New transmission in English of Voice of Islamic Republic of Iran: 1900-1927 "Radio Shalom" on 7175, 7255 both registered as EBRI/NEW (Observer, Bulgaria, Nov 15 via DXLD) Another ``Ebri`` broadcast is at 0430-0457 on 9830, 11985, per previous schedule. ``Ebri`` apparently means Jewish rather than Hebrew (gh) ** ISRAËL. Moshe Oren just telephoned from Tel-Aviv to further clarify the reason for the change to 6280 kHz beginning mid-December. Technically, you were correct, Joe. The computer does indicate that a higher frequency was OK for 15 December. Due to the fact that the sun spot count would be so-o low at that time, it was found from experience, a lower frequency would come through a lot better; thus the change to 6280 until the end of February when the sun-spot count will be higher. In essence that is the crux of Moshe's contention. Keep up the good work. You got the attention of Israel Radio's Frequency Manager...nice going!!! All is well (George Poppin, CA, reply to Joe Hanlon, via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sunspot counts do not dip in northern winter. There is no correlation whatsoever. The presumed factor is actually the maximum amount of darkness over the high-latitude path (gh) ** LAOS. Houa Phan currently heard regularly on 4662v in local early morning and evening at 1000-1230. At sign-on there's also mention of an FM frequency. Luang Prabang now seems to be absent from SW. For many months from around June 2000 until late October I was regularly hearing a strong carrier on 6969.5v which was probably them -- same hours as Luang Prabang previously used but with no discernible audio. Perhaps they've finally decided that there's not a lot of point in burning electricity on a transmitter with no modulation (Alan Davies, Vietnam, Cumbre DX Nov 16 via DXLD) ** PALAU [and non]. Hi all, A reply from KHBN re their sked brought the following information. Apparently their schedule has been reduced: Operating Schedule-Palau Effective October 29, 2000 to March 25, 2001 Revised 10/16/00: UTC kHz Antenna Target Program Language China Transmitter: 1030-1500 9965 318 China KHBN Programs South East Asia Transmitter: 0900-1100 15725 270 Indonesia KHBN Programs In response to a question about the future of KHBN Palau, Paul W. Hunter of High Adventure Ministries responded: Paul: Regarding Palau, we have a partnership with the Chinese Church from Hong Kong will take responsibility for the programming and operating BUT High Adventure will retain the license and some programming of our own. We expect the Chinese Church will begin to increase the programming, especially in Mandarin in the near future. We are reaching the Middle East, Europe and India from our Deutsche Telekom facility in Germany but we are also negotiating an AM site in the former region of the Middle East. We hope to establish a 100 KW AM site that will reach the areas we lost when we had to pull out of South Lebanon. We also an FM on the air near Jerusalem and have a studio up linking to satellite 24 hours a day from Jerusalem. If you would like a schedule of our European/Middle East relay from Germany, please let me know. Regards (Paul W. Hunter, High Adventure Ministries, Nov 15 via Paul Ormandy, NZ, hard-core-dx, via DXLD) ** PALESTINE. West Bank and Gaza: Voice of Palestine resumes mediumwave transmission Voice of Palestine in Ramallah, the official radio station of the Palestinian National Authority led by Yasir Arafat, was observed to resume transmission on its mediumwave frequency of 675 kHz on 16th November. At 1129 gmt, the radio made the following announcement: "We would like to draw the attention of our dear listeners to the fact that the Voice of Palestine today resumed its experimental transmission on its principal mediumwave frequency of 675 kHz after the engineering and technical teams repaired the damage caused by the Israeli aggression against the radio transmitters in Ramallah on 12th October. Accordingly, our dear listeners can switch to the mediumwave frequency of the Voice of Palestine, in addition to other local stations, as of today, Thursday, 16th November 2000, in order to follow our coverage of the news of our glorious intifadah around the clock." The announcer then thanked the people for standing by their radio station, and the local radio and television stations in the Palestinian territories for "transmitting the Voice of Palestine programmes on their frequencies". Source: Voice of Palestine, Ramallah, in Arabic 1129 gmt 16 Nov 00 (BBC Monitoring via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. BBC is reporting that an earthquake/tidal wave have hit the town of Rabaul and that communications have been knocked out. Is anyone hearing Rabaul's Radio East New Britain on 3385? It has been often reported around 1100 and there have been logs at 1900 as well. Also, is Radio Bougainville on 5985 being heard? Recent logs have been at 1100 and 0000. It seems that the transmitters for this one are now on at Kubu on Buka Island, Bougainville. Having said that, the transmitters and studios were previously reported as being in Rabaul (Hans Johnson, Nov 16, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Radio East New Britain, 3385, is off the air (Chris Hambly, Victoria, Nov 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. Oops, I mentioned a wrong time for Radio Rossii on 6115 and 7380, here is a correction: Radio Rossii on 7140 and 7350 originates from Taldom, the site which was recently off air due to unpaid electricity bills. Alongside with the 2500 kW longwave giant on 261 also two 250 kW shortwave transmitters are in use by Radio Rossii there, and in previous winter seasons a mix from Taldom appeared on 60 metres when one of the transmitters used 49 metres instead. Such a constellation still exists between 0200 and 0500 with 6115 and 7380 as fundamentals and 4850 as possible mixing product. (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Nov 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 5020, SIBC at 0715 (around sunset in Honiara): The carrier is pretty solid, though not as good as Vanuatu 4960. Usually I would expect them to be similar level. As far as audio is concerned, it is extremely weak at this time! I can make out speech and music but nothing really understandable! Why, Gaalcayco is better than this! 0830 Audio now at readable level though weak compared with the carrier level. Usually after dark they would be second only to Papua New Guinea 4890 in strength and readability. Tonight, 16 November they rate poor (Bryan Clark, New Zealand, Nov 16, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** THAILAND. IBB Udorn Thani schedule for RTG and RL (not VoA) B-00 6040 1130-1145 RTG LAO 030 6040 1145-1200 RTG BURM 284 6170 1300-1400 RL UZ 316 6185 2000-2100 RL GE 308 7145 1300-1315 RTG JAPA 054 7145 1315-1330 RTG MAND 030 7145 1330-1400 RTG THAI 054 7160 1300-1400 RL KY 316 7180 1900-2000 RL AZ 308 7270 1600-1700 RL KY 311 7280 1700-1800 RL GE 308 7285 1000-1100 RTG THAI 138 7285 1100-1115 RTG VIET 144 7285 1115-1130 RTG KHME 144 9530 1400-1430 RTG ENGL 132 9535 1900-2000 RTG ENGL 329 9535 2000-2015 RTG GERM 321 9535 2015-2030 RTG FREN 321 9535 2030-2045 RTG ENGL 321 9535 2045-2115 RTG THAI 313 9585 0200-0330 RL TA 311 9680 0000-0030 RTG ENGL 256 9785 2000-2100 RL GE 304 9810 1230-1300 RTG ENGL 132 9835 0100-0200 RL KY 319 11795 1200-1300 RL KA 316 11805 1200-1215 RTG MALA 154 11805 1215-1230 RTG INDO 154 11855 1800-1900 RTG THAI 284 11910 1500-1630 RL TA 316 13695 0030-0100 RTG ENGL 006 13695 0100-0200 RTG THAI 006 15115 0530-0600 RTG ENGL 321 15410 0900-1100 RL RU 030 15460 0300-0330 RTG ENGL 038 15460 0330-0430 RTG THAI 038 (IBB Nov 11 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** U K. Hi, Glenn! I suppose you've gotten your December BBC On Air. In case you didn't notice, they almost but not quite cleaned up the Americas pages from the November fiasco. Note the 1400 UT hour. The timings and listings for the programs that follow the Meridian programs that begin at 1405 are all messed up. They omitted the entries for Westway at 1430 on Wednesday and Friday, plus they have the wrong start times listed for the music programs that follow Meridian on Mon, Tues, & Thurs. Friday has a wrong entry seemingly left over from the November errors. Oh, for a return to manual typesetting! :-) I noted your last WoR BBC Preview items and was hoping that you'd expand on the "Write On"/"Waveguide" item to recommend to US listeners what times and SW frequencies they can use to catch that program if they miss the single Americas 0430 Sat airing. I note that the Europe/N Afr stream has one at 0845 and the MidEast/CIS stream has one at 0745 UT. But I was trying the frequencies of 12095, 11955, and 9410 kHz last week for those two streams, and I couldn't seem to be sure which of those streams was on which of those freqs, plus they seemed to switch. I then fell asleep so was never able to determine if I could get that program at either of those times, anyway. I don't have a good BBC frequency vs. stream listing now; I never got that inaccurate one that was supposed to come with the October On Air, but didn't complain since you said it was wrong anyway. Can you put a good complete one in an upcoming DXLD? Anyway, please give listeners a guide to what freqs & times on SW they can get a backup Write On (Will Martin, MO, Nov 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) November`s Waveguide airs this weekend starting UT Sat Nov 18 at 0430 to Am, subject SW time for sale. If there were something on BBC website I could copy giving this kind of info, I would gladly do it, but I don`t think there is. The Dec On Air shows most of the Write On/Waveguide airings are in the middle of our night, when I doubt anyone but you would be trying to stay awake to hear these programs on off beams: 0645, 0745, 0845, 0945 on various streams. I am loathe to spend a great deal of effort in constructing maybe-hear schedules. So I pick one of the remainders: Sat 1945 to WAf, when 17830 and 15400 are on, from Ascension. In the past these I`ve found these can do well here off the back. BTW, these two shows are available ondemand during week following from BBC WS website, but for that you need a –yuk— internet computer. I wonder why Letter from America is not? Once or twice there was a link to it, but not lately, just reams of scripts (gh) ** U K. BBCWS previews: HERITAGE 6 x 30 min from Thu 16 Eu: Thu 2030, Fri 0230, 1530, Mon 1030 Am: Fri 0230, 2130, Mon 1530 The Grand Tour of the 18th century, a reclaimed landscape in the Netherlands which has revealed hundreds of shipwrecks and the archaeology of some of Britain’s ancient gardens, are explored on location in this series of Heritage. In the first programme, producer and presenter Malcolm Billings, speaks to art historians, archaeologists and writers about the attractions of the Grand Tour in the 18th century and finds out what kind of people were Grand Tourists. He learns that the Grand Tour attracted mainly young travellers most of whom had been inspired by a classical education. It was de rigour to be accompanied by at least a tutor and a servant but it was not unheard of for very wealthy people to embark with their own artist in tow. One of the highlights of the Grand Tour was an invitation to the residence of British Envoy at the Royal Court of Naples to see Sir William Hamilton`s wife, Emma, perform her ``attitudes`` for her guests -- dances based on scenes from Ancient Greek vases. In the Netherlands Malcolm Billings speaks to archaeologists about a fascinating new World Heritage Site where land reclaimed from the sea has offered up hundreds of shipwrecks dating from Roman Times to the 19th century. The third programme reveals how archaeologists are making a significant contribution to the re-discovery of ancient and historic gardens in Britain. At the Roman Palace at Fishbourne, Sussex, a Roman garden has been re-created from archaeological evidence. In the north of England, the National Trust`s Biddulph Grange, an early 19 the century ``pleasure garden`` complete with ornamental Chinese lakes and Egyptian tombs, has been rescued from ruin and the programme also visits a restored 17th century physician’s garden in Chelsea, London. PLAY OF THE WEEK Eu: Sun 0001, 1701 Am: Sun 0001, Mon 0630 Home Life by Brandt Mowry 1 x 60 min Nov 18-19 Home Life was the regional winner for the Americas in the 1999 BBC World Service/British Council International Radio Playwriting Competition. Written by Brandt Mowry and set in New York city, the play takes a wry look at men`s ambivalence in dealing with relationships. Bobbie and Hayling are the best of friends and happy to admit that they just don`t understand women or the emotional minefield that goes with relationships. When Bobbie`s ex-girlfriend Beth, unexpectedly turns up at the flat, down on her luck and accusing Bobbie of various misdemeanours against her, a comic, touching and angry emotional tug of war ensues. Home Life is Brandt Mowry`s first radio play and is directed by Rosalynd Ward (BBC Press Office via DXLD) ** UNITED NATIONS [non]. UN Radio monitored Nov 15 at 1730: 15495 good, 17735 fair (Chris Hambly, Victoria, DX LISTENING DIGEST, WORLD OF RADIO 1058) ** U S A [non]. Re: Gene Scott 9940. This afternoon I had a look at the Dr Gene Scott channel when it changed (from 17765, sign off at 14.00.37) to 9940 at 1430. The technical procedure was characteristic of Samara, and there is no doubt that at least 9940 originates from Samara [Russia] (Olle Alm, Sweden, Nov 15, via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) ** U S A [and non?] The Dude: Some inside news! Some North American stations have also tried 21860 in 13M & 26015 in the 11M int'l BC band. Either AM or USB weekends & holidays from 1400 to 2100. The bands are wide open! So what are we waiting for? (Free Radio Weekly Nov 15 via DXLD) ** URUGUAY. 6055: planned R. Universo, Castillos, Dpto. de Rocha: station owner Mr. Juan Heber Brañas, whom I phoned inquiring for details on this future sw outlet from them, says that they will be on the air here *not* before the end of this year. They already have the transmitter ready: a homebrew 300 W effective output (500 W nominal, though they had 2 KW authorized), from 3 x 6DQ5 tubes plus other four same tubes modulating them. The delay in starting operations comes from the DNC (Direccion Nacional de Comunicaciones) observation that prevents them to have the SW transmitter in the same site where they have the MW (1480) transmitter. They are too close to the urban area of this small village nowadays, so they are planning to move the whole xter site to another convenient place. There they would be installing a folded monopole or alternatively a 1/4 longwave directional (dipole) as the aerial for the SW. In a first stage, they will be simulcasting MW 1480 (callsign CW 148), but they plan to make separat programming (including a prgm for swl/DXers, possibly on Sun). Authorized sked will be 1600-0500, daily. Station address is: c/o Ferrer 1265, Castillos, Dpto. de Rocha. E-mail: am1480@adinet.com.uy I have offered my friendly support and assistance from the DXers` side of the business. A second station remains to be contacted: Radio Sarandí del Yi, which also has a planned output on 49m: 6155. More next week, if I succeed (Horacio Nigro, Uruguay, Nov 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM. Current frequencies for the regionals on shortwave: Son La 4976v Lao Cai 5597v & 6698v Lai Chau 6381v Cao Bang 6501v Ha Giang 7156v This week I paid a visit to Lao Cai, about 350 km NW of Hanoi. It lies on the Red River and faces the Chinese town of Hekou in Yunnan Province which is reached by a short railway bridge. Lao Cai is not the most charming of places, perhaps because it was largely demolished during the Chinese invasion of Vietnam in 1979. Most of the new buildings were obviously thrown together in a hurry. Now that relations have improved, quite a few day-trippers cross the border from China in search of cheap shopping (mostly vegetables, actually) and the experience of a foreign country. There are even a couple of duty free shops, but they didn't exactly seem to be doing a roaring trade when I poked my nose through the door. The local Voice of Vietnam station operates 0300-0430, 0945-1100 and 1145-1400 on 1098, 5597v and 6698v kHz. There's probably also an early morning transmission at around 2200-2300, but I`m afraid I wasn`t awake in time to hear it. The mediumwave transmitter site is on the western edge of town inside a walled compound marked 'Restricted area - no trespassing' in both Vietnamese and English -- maybe they are aware of the risk of being encroached upon by visiting shortwave listeners?! The shortwave signals may also be coming from the same site, there appear to be two 'birdcage'-type antennas slung end-to-end between three low masts, but this array is hard to see as it is largely overgrown by trees. All three frequencies are rather intermittent, and it`s not uncommon for one or two to be off air at any time. In particular, 6698v often seems to 'die' a couple of minutes after coming on air. I`m not sure whether the studios are located at this site; it didn`t look much my idea of a studio centre with a few rather primitive- looking brick huts scattered around the compound. Also there is no sign on the compound mentioning Voice of Vietnam. The audio from Lao Cai is very variable, some periods are reasonably good but at other times it is very clipped and distorted. This seems to be a studio problem, as the audio is basically the same at any given time on all three frequencies and also on the FM frequency 95.2 MHz which carries a short segment of local programming from 1000 (at other times FM relays the first programme of Voice of Vietnam from Hanoi). The audio problems seem to be worst on some sections of prerecorded programming, including the sign-on music and ID, so maybe there is a problem with a tape deck. Both shortwave frequencies are variable. 5597v varies around 5595- 5598. On 10 Nov, the other transmitter jumped from previous 6684v to 6698v, where it has consistently been heard since. The carriers of both SW transmitters are a little unstable, especially as the transmitters warm up just after sign on. With the BFO on your receiver turned on, you can hear the whistle changing frequency as the transmitters drift around slightly. On the way back to Hanoi, I broke the train journey with a day in Yen Bai, also a regional station formerly heard on shortwave. However, Yen Bai is now on FM only, with two frequencies (92.1 and 98.0 MHz) which carry separate local programming at times. Also there is no trace of the MW transmitter at Yen Bai listed on 580 kHz. I think it is over a year now since I heard Yen Bai on shortwave, so I`m not too optimistic that they will ever return... (Alan Davies, Nov 16, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ###