DX LISTENING DIGEST 1-015, February 3, 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 OUR CURRENT AUDIO -- Finally have put together all our audio links on one convenient page, as well as to summaries/scripts, for WORLD OF RADIO, CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL, SHORTWAVE YEAR IN REVIEW: http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/Audiomid.html ** ANTARCTICA. Recently I spoke with LRA36 operator, and they inform me that the stn up today is inactive, and they not know when will be the first txion now with the new endowment, but, may be in any moment. I informed to my contact that will be a good idea bc after 1900, after s-off Africa Numero 1, and bc 1 hour more later than the usual s-off at 2100 on the usual freq of 15476 (Gabriel Iván Barrera, Argentina, Jan 29, BC-DX via DXLD) ** BELGIQUE. A partir du 25 mars, RVI va subir un petit lifting (nouveau nom, nouveau logo, nouvel indicatif). Avec l'arrivée de la concurence des radios commerciales, la VRT se lance dans une opération de remodelage de ses différentes chaînes. On ne parlera plus de Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal, mais tout simplement de RVI. Le "I" peut aussi bien signifier "International", "Internet" ou "Interactif" et dans le logo, cette lettre forme une sorte d'arobase qui entoure les autres lettres. On insiste donc sur l'aspect multimedia, RVI étant amenée à devenir un véritable portail, ce qui ne veut pas dire pour autant que les OC seront abandonnées (RVI - 20 janvier 2001) NDR : ce qui figure au dessus est le communiqué lu par le service français. Toutefois, le nouveau logo mentionne toujours "Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal" !! (Informations de Jean-Michel Aubier via DXLD) [I hope DXLD readers are not too put off by the variety of languages included, all of which I can more or less comprehend, so I know the material is significant. I rarely want to take the time and trouble to do a word-for-word translation myself. I hope this encourages people to familiarize themselves with more languages. And there are so many cognates in the western languages involved, that I think one ought to be able to get the gist of the content, anyway. And one can always run the item through an Altavista translator for a very rough rendering if needed -gh] ** BELGIUM. Frans Vossen and his Radio World has been off R. Vlaanderen for a month. He did his last feature very hoarse. Music show has run in the slot featuring Paul Rands [Brems?]. Jan 28 he played his lute. He makes them. Plays them. Also stories, profiles on his musical background. They say it`s getting raves from listeners. FV should be back soon with RW. Heard him do a report Jan 29 on RVI during newscast portion. He sounded fine (Bob Thomas, CT, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. RFPI left 7450 test on past 0600 Feb 3, in fact including COM at 0700, WOR at 0730 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, Just to report that I heard World of Radio 1067 this morning (Feb. 3) via RFPI on 7450 from tune in c0735 until 0800. A signal was heard on Feb. 2 in Russian at tune in 0810 on 7450, and it cut off during a pop tune at 0815. Today (Saturday) a programme in English continued past 0800 but the station had gone off by 0813 re- check. The signal was strong both days, with no QRM, but of poor quality, with a hum. Is this a total replacement for 7480? That channel still has RTTY type signals present at my location c0700. Best 73's, (Noël R. Green, Blackpool, England, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EGYPT. (non SW). Referring to the recent complaints in BCDX about the continued terrible audio from R Cairo, I should advise users of the World Space Afristar satellite that the program, 'Egypt2', during the evenings carry the European program, which means German at 1900 (letterbox Tues at 1905), French at 2000 and English at 2115 (letterbox Sun at 2205) in \\ with SW 9990. The audio is excellent. (Erik Køie, Denmark, OZ3YI, Jan 29, BC-DX via DXLD) Fine, but I doubt that will be much help to Bob Thomas in Connecticut, who keeps complaining about it, that I do not even publish all his remarks about this (gh, DXLD) ** FINLAND [non]. Looking for Scandinavian Weekend Radio around 0330 past 0430 Feb 3, found instead a strong signal from what must have been IRAN, as in HFCC: 11720 0330 0530 29S,40NW SIR 500 338 1234567 291000 250301 D TURKI-AZ IRN IRB IRB 3860 I rather wonder why SWR does not pick frequencies not so occupied by 500-kW stations? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. 9342,0 14/1 0937- France Bleue, Nice, MW 1557 x 6 harmonic (Luca Botto Fiora from Rapallo (Genoa) GRAL - Gruppo Radioascolto Liguria, Italy, via DXLD) ** FRANCE [non]. That comment about the background noise on the signal [on 144300 kHz, DXLD 1-014], is making me lean more towards the accidental rebroadcast theory and away from the harmonic theory, question: if an NFM repeater received an AM signal, would it rebroadcast it in AM? 73's (Tim Bucknall, harmonics list via DXLD) ** GREECE. Acc to the TDP, Avlis should have 5 x 250 kW from Gloria and 2 x 100 kW. Acc to the amended VoG sched sent out by Observer, it seems that two txs are on air with the all day Greek sce on 15630 & 9420 (these are/were Avlis 100 kW I think) but only one tx is on air via Kavalla for Greek and Interprogramme. So, the question seems to remain - which tx is being used to carry Macedonia progrs? While listening as I type, I hear 15630 go off c1650 and return c1656 on 7455. 9420 did not come on until c1705. There were two txions on 9420 before 1700 - one was AWR in Farsi - the other went off c1650, so may have been ERT. The stn is being heard on 11645 (Turkish til 1700 then Serbian), 7455 Greek and \\ 9420 from c1705, and Greek on 7430 opening a strong fluttery type signal at c1704 doing football(?). 11645 should be Kavalla, and one of the others must either be Kavalla too, or an active ex Gloria tx at Avlis (Noel R. Green, UK, Jan 31, BC-DX via DXLD) It seems that the Perea site is only used for the MW 1044 outlet. I have talked today with Mr. Tselepis from the Leof Statou site, but for the moment have not a complete information on this. The only I can tell you for the moment (and neither knew) is, that the txions from here have been stopped and Avlis is now taking over transmission. As for the new txs I think that they have been sent to Avlis Athens site. As for the program of ERA Thessaloniki you know it, and Mr Tselepis has verified it: 9935 at 1100-1700, 7430 at 1700-2200. Please notice that the telephone numbers stated in the message are WRONG ! Tels are 30 31 299400 (Leof stratou), 30 31 299500 (Aggelaki). Fax 30 31 299653. Transmitters 30 392 23363 at Perea. Not affilate any more with SW, affiliate only for MW 1044. And a further notice: he told me that the txs ERT they removed are from VoA (does it mean does not have any relation from the IBB system?) What is sure for the moment, the dept of Thessaloniki has claimed too much for this BAD move from the central offices of Athens (as for ERA) and has been too much noise from many sides (what my best man Danos told me on it). I today noticed that 9935 was with a carrier without programming on 1100. Do not know what happened after the blackout in our city on 1200-1430 (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, Jan 30, BC-DX via DXLD) Final ERT news. Today I had except telephone talkings with the technical persons of the ERT 3, a person to person discussion with them, after I left the office, and though we discussed about 20 minutes still there are too many other things to tell. What I have learned: Indeed the Continental tx from IBB RFE donated by the VoA have been received sometime and they are still on their packs, for Thessaloniki at least. The facility of Perea/Thessaloniki has received two pack 250 kW txs with their antennas. However in order for these systems to be installed, a management approval is required (bureaucracy ...). ERT Thessaloniki SW relay: the program is sent via the PTT facilities to Athens and from there to Avlis via the 100 kW Collins [TDP reported Marconi sets] txs. Please notice the following changes on telephones and addresses. R/S Macedonias adresses: ERT #2 Agelaki 6/ERT #2. Tel 30 31 299400. ERT #1 Agelaki 14. Tel 30 31 299401. Person intended for the programming and SW: Tatiana Tsioli. Radio+ TV facilities Leof Stratou 6?. Tel 30 31 299500.Tech dept: 30 31 299653(fax). On Agelaki 6, Technicians: Alex Tzelepis, Gianis (?) Tsouvaltzis & Demetrios. E-mail address: epakbe@ert3.gr epakbe@ert3.gr (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, Jan 31, BC-DX via DXLD) Comments from Noel R. Green, UK to Zacharias` mail: 1) ERA Thessaloniki has taken off air their ex VOA 35 kW tx and 2) The Perea site now broadcasts only on 1044, and 3) Transmissions of Macedonian Radio are now coming from the Avlis site and finally. *Nooo, see the item, that 2 x 250 kW units and the antennas still kept on storage at Thessaloniki ! 4) The ex Gloria txs are actually located at Avlis. *I guess - acc to TDP, 2 x 250 kW and the 2 x 100 kW are located now at Avlis, another 1 x 250 kW at Kavalla, and see ABOVE 2 x 250 kW still in mothballs at Thessaloniki. Acc to the TDP, Avlis should have 5 Continentals x 250 kW from Gloria and 2 x 100 kW old Marconi ones. Acc to the amended VoG sched sent out by Observer, it seems that two txs are on air with the all day Greek sce on 15630 & 9420 (these are/were Avlis 100 kW I think) but only one tx is on air via Kavalla for Greek and Interprogramme. So, the question seems to remain - which tx is being used to carry Macedonia programmes? An old Marconi, or new 100 kW tx at Avlis. Maybe the non-dir from Athens reach now both Cyprus and C Europe too!! (Noel R. Green, UK, Jan 31, BC-DX via DXLD) RDP shows for former RFE-RL-VoA Gloria site only 4 x 250 General Electric, Syracuse-NY of 1964; 7 x 250 kW Continental, Dallas-TX of 1981; 8 x 250 kW Continental of 1988. 4 x 100 kW General Electric txs marked as scrapped (ed. Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX via DXLD) Correxion to DXLD 1-014: In Babbis` schedule, the entry 1500-1600 should read 1500-1650 (gh) ** GUATEMALA. 4845: Radio K`ekchí: I have been listening all morning and haven`t heard a thing out of them. Perhaps that is a good sign - they may have switched the antenna over to the old Gates transmitter in order to try it out when they get the replacement transformer installed. My understanding was that they were to do it yesterday (Friday) but they may have run into problems. Since it is a manual switching operation - actually, physically moving a piece of coaxial cable from one transmitter to the other - they would probably do that after having installed the transformer (Larry Baysinger, Guatemala, Feb 3, Cumbre DX Special via DXLD) ** GUYANA. 5948.9, Voice of Guyana, Feb 3 0928-0947: Hindu devotional mx. 0930 promo for National Unity Rally then ID "Voice of Guyana"; Station ad for on air funeral announcements over Voice of Guyana. Good S9 signal with moderate fading. ID again at 0940, then reading of verses from various sections of the Bhagavad Gita. Not more then a half second after the host ended with "Hari Om Shanti Shanti Hari Om", a huge carrier from WYFR on 5950, buried the signal. How ironic! (David Hodgson, Nashville TN, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KALININGRAD. 1386/1993 kHz: Last Sunday we mentioned a possible spurious AM bc signal on the amateur 160-metre band at 1992.8 kHz. This has now been identified as coming from the Russian 1.2-Megawatt Kaliningrad tx on MW 1386. We have not worked out how it is being generated, but the sidebands of this 'sproggy' are very wide, and even though it may be more than 40 decibels down on the fundamental it is causing serious problems. Details have been given to the IARU monitoring sce. For feedback on this section of GB2RS, please contact Gordon Adams, G3LEQ, by voice mail or fax on +44 [0] 1 565 634 560. (Radio Society of GB, via Richard Buckby G3VGM, Jan 28, BC-DX via DXLD) ** KURDISTAN [non]. CLANDESTINE from ? to IRAQ 9450 Radio Bopishava heard on Friday [Feb 2] at 1500, but in Kurdish again rather than scheduled Arabic [Noel Green, England], same Radio Anternationale ID at sign on, no 'local' ID heard [Johnson, AZ] They seemed to have a mains frequency buzz on the carrier. I have rather much splash from adjacent frequencies [Alm, Sweden] (Cumbre DX Special via DXLD) Was it not once determined that ``Anternationale`` was simply a misinterpretation of the French pronunciation of ``Internationale``? (gh) ** KUWAIT. v1566 kHz: More on possible INC bcs: The CIA [Harris Kuwait] MW tx is being used for the Iraqi National Accord`s al- Mustaqbal and Jordanian intel`s Voice of the Brave Armed Forces. The Clinton administration grudgingly signed the Iraqi Liberation Act of 1998, which provides the INC with $97 million, because of their covert support for the Accord. Unless the Bush administration turns American policy in a radically different direction, which is extremely likely, the Accord will continue to xmit from the CIA facility [in Kuwait soil, ed.]. The INC, nevertheless, remains bound to the current contingency, and that is to bc from Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan, and most likely from southern Iran. Use of the Kuwaiti tx is contingent upon receiving aid from the CIA. R Hurriah is being funded overtly with congressional funds (Nick Grace, DC, NU Jan 28 via BC-DX via DXLD) [comments by wb in brackets] ** PAKISTAN. v17520: The original frequency used by API-5 at 0800- 1105 at beginning of B-00 was 17525, but this had to be shifted due to co-channel V of Russia (till 1000), and 17520 was chosen as being clear channel. They do carry a few minutes of English news around 0805. Then GRC decided to use this freq until 0800 - I think they moved from somewhere else. Fortunately, their tx goes off slightly before 0800, so PAK only receives some brief QRM at the very beginning of txion [v17519.89 & 21464.91 well heard on both channels today Jan 30, 0800-1115, ed Büschel] (Noel R. Green, UK, Jan 26, BC- DX via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Actually, R Sandaun on 3205 kHz returned to the air on Jan 3, 2001. Noted then at a Graylands DXpedition, and since then (Don Nelson, Oregon, Feb 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 3205, Radio West Sepik: In early January, Cumbre reported that this one was about to come back. The station had gotten funding, but a technician still needs to check out the transmitter. The station was then noted by David Norrie in New Zealand on Jan 13th. Now Chris Hambly in Australia is hearing them too (Hans Johnson, Feb 3, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. There are some changes from Rudnev`s lists regarding the VOR transmissions to Western NAm, so here is an updated list: Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy 7180 1500-1900 English 12020 0200-0600 English 13665 0200-0500 Russian, English 15595 0200-0600 Russian, English 17565 0200-0400 Russian 17595 0200-0600 Russian, English Vladivostok (Tavrichanka) 15445 0200-0600 Russian, English Komsomol`sk-na-Amure 12010 0200-0600 Russian, English 15470 0200-0600 English When 15470 switches to VOR English to the Pacific area at 0600 there is also a change of transmitter. The location of the noisy transmitter used on 15445 has been confirmed from a good source. Komsomol`sk and Vladivostok are fed from Khabarovsk and can be heard with the Khabarovsk pips at approx. 840 Hz, while the normal Moscow pips are at approx. 770 Hz and can be heard from Petropavlovsk. Komsomol`sk usually, but not always, connects the feed only a couple of minutes before the program start, while Khabarovsk, and often also Vladivostok-Tavrichanka, may run the pips for 10 minutes or more. The VOR Russian schedule also lists 17660 and 21755 for the 0200-0400 period, but these have not been heard and may be intended for the spring period (Olle Alm, Sweden, Feb 2, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** TIBET [non]. KAZAKHSTAN/TAJIKISTAN. V of Tibet noted on Jan 28th: 1212-1300 on 15705 Almaaty, NF 15595 Dushanbe (x15695 and 15655). On Jan 27th VoT was on 15705 KAZ, as well as on 15595 TJK again, as well as some jamming on both channels. In EUR, the 15705 outlet is now the better one - even with CHN jamming underneath -, but when the TJK channel isn`t disturbed, that channel audio is better to understand - audiowise - here. Morning 2315-0000 is on either 7180, 7195, 7250 or 7335. About VOT, the jamming is now very bad. They keep following daily. Sometimes when VoT change the frequency, they find it within 5-10 mins, unlike before when they took days to do it (Wolfgang Buschel, Germany, Jan 27/28, BC-DX via DXLD) ** TURKMENISTAN. Leader orders media to cut down adulation | Text of report by Russian Ren TV on 26 January Lifetime Turkmen President Saparmyrat Niyazov has told his country`s media to reduce the time devoted to adulation of his own person. The head of the state also ordered to remove a logo in the appearance of his bronze bust from TV screens and said he was ashamed of the authors of a musical programme composed of songs about Turkmenbashi. Apart from this, the president has cut down 50 per cent the salary of the nation`s chief weatherman for inability to give reliable weather forecasts. Source: Ren TV, Moscow, in Russian 1130 gmt 26 Jan 01 (via BBCM via DXLD) BTW, the tourist expedition to the six ``Stans`` is subject of a terrific report on this week`s Savvy Traveler, from PRI (gh) ** U K. 7160,0 15/1 0800-0836 BBC R2, UK, EE, oldies, IDs, s/off 0836, almost every morning as from Dec 00, tests? 3 (Luca Botto Fiora from Rapallo (Genoa) GRAL - Gruppo Radioascolto Liguria, via DXLD) Current BBCWS frequency folder has 7160 from Ascension only until 0800. This also used to be a frequency direct from UK to Pacific, I think (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. I was wondering if Gov. Bush would be continuing the tradition of a ``Presidential Radio Address`` on Saturday mornings. KFH 1330 Wichita, which used to carry Gov. Clinton at 9:05 am CST, did not have Bush on Feb 3, but the other known station around here which does it, KFDI 1070 Wichita, did have Bush on. He finished already at 1509 UT, so only 4 minutes (or 3 if the start was 1506). KVOH used to delight in broadcasting Gov. Reagan, but would not do the same for Clinton, so it should be interesting to see if they now work Bush in. Not at the live time, as 17775 was in Spanish as usual. C-SPAN [television] schedules used to show Clinton`s address Saturdays around 2330 or 2345 UT (time varies), but this week TV Guide seems to be listing C-SPAN hit and miss, with this missing. From http://www.cspan.org we see that they have spawned a third network, but this is still on the original C-SPAN, sometimes referred to as C-SPAN 1, in EST for Sat Feb 3: 06:50 pm 0:05 Broadcast President's Radio Address White House George W. Bush , United States 06:55 pm 0:05 LIVE Broadcast Democratic Response Democratic Party Thomas A. Daschle , D-SD That`s 2350 and 2355 UT, subject to variation. Even harder to find on local radio has been the opposition`s response, even when it was Republican, one hour later on Saturday mornings at 1605/1606 UT, so how can C-SPAN`s Democratic Response be LIVE at 2355? At 1605, neither KFH nor KFDI had a Democrat on. C-SPAN, of course, is also available via webcast. The TV version runs a still photo of the governor, maintaining the radiocity of the event. Another option is WWCR`s commendable public service of presenting both the Governor and the Response together, currently scheduled only: Presidential Radio Address/Republican Response [sic]: Saturday 2:30 PM CST, 2030 UT 15.685 MHz WWCR-1 When available But – it was not available Feb 3; instead, ``A Visit with Mrs. G.``, mixed with cuing up the 2:45 pm program on the air. I think the combined Address show always presented a production challenge. I must admit that I am not really that eager to hear what Gov. Bush has to say, anyway (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WEVD-1050 NY: Well, I`m not sure who is supposed to own the station right now but they have tomorrow`s edition of their one remaining Yiddish program (Der Forvertz Show) in RealAudio on their website. Strangely if you listen to the live web feed you hear a financial talk program when it`s played over the air (Sunday, 1000 EST) http://www.1050wevd.com/stored/storedprograms.php3 (Joël Rubin, NY, Feb 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###