DX LISTENING DIGEST 1-025, February 23, 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 [NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn] WORLD OF RADIO ON WWCR: from now on, March through November, according to traditional WWCR frequency scheduling, our first broadcast Thursdays at 2130 UT will be on 15685 instead of 9475 (and from April at 2030 instead of 2130). This is bound to be advantageous for some listeners and disadvantageous for others, depending on distance from Nashville, other propagational factors and interference. That`s why we have a number of repeats at a variety of times and frequencies. SELECTED ENGLISH LANGUAGE DX/SWL/MEDIA PROGRAMS ON SHORTWAVE (and a few amateur bulletins, too) compiled by John Norfolk, OKCOK, New revision of February 22, 2001 now posted at http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/dxpgms.html ** ALASKA. Regarding the widely-circulated HAARP story, as in DXLD 1- 024: I have checked 3390 a number of times late evening and early morning, and heard absolutely nothing (gh, OK, Feb 23, DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. RA has new program guides up in four different timezone versions on the website, word files (Roger Broadbent, RA Feedback Feb 23) Why, oh why, do we have to click on LISTEN NOW from the homepage http://www.abc.net.au/ra before we get a page which then links us to the program guides. Why does LISTEN NOW apply also to the streaming links, while HEAR US is about something else (local relays via WRN in USA, for instance)? Anyhow, now posted at http://www.abc.net.au/ra/proguide.htm is a fancy grid, apparently updated, but with only two timezones keyed, Suva and HK! It shows Feedback Sat 0810 HK time, but it is really at 0005 UT. Why can`t RA get straight how long their newscasts are, in their schedules? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. I hear from Nigel Holmes at RA that the downlink to Darwin has now been set up, so they are closer to beginning transmissions from there. No frequency schedule yet (Chris Hambly, Victoria, Feb 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRIA. Adventist World Radio will use the ORF Moosbrunn facilities in the upcoming A01 season. Lothar Klepp gives following times and frequencies for broadcasts in German, i.e. there could be further ones in other languages: 0700-0730 on 7230, 1500-1530 on 7165, both with 300 kW. This must be vertical incidence transmissions, but I dimly remember that Moosbrunn is indeed equipped with two HQ antennas for 6/7 MHz and 300 kW power, so it should be possible to run the AWR transmissions together with 6155. Moosbrunn replaces the current Rimavská Sobota outlets of AWR "Stimme der Hoffnung"; of course this does not say whether or not other AWR language services will still broadcast via RSO (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. Re: DXLD 1-023: Brazil has not been heard on 11780, but I have heard the station using 6180 again. They began earlier this year on an irregular basis, and were heard on-air around 0730. The broadcasts then became daily. Clear "Bom dia Amazônia" announcements are heard. For about one week I have been hearing them signing on at 0800 instead -- has Brazil perhaps altered their clock time? [Yes - gh] The signal is very strong initially, so obviously one of the high power units, but fades down quite quickly after c0830. I would like to know for how long they operate on/use this frequency mornings, and if a frequency switch is made. Checking 15 MHz at night -- I haven`t heard any trace of their external services, so their SW usage would appear to be confined to domestic programming. Best 73's, (Noël Green, UK, Feb 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. WEEKEND HOT SHEET, SUNDAY FEBRUARY 25, 2001 ---THE SUNDAY EDITION: This week, host Michael Enright talks with a reporter who has evidence that the infamous New York Giants of 1951 cheated to win the pennant. Also, Benny Cooperman returns: Howard Engel`s much-loved private eye tries to unravel a murder set in a...gulp...broadcasting corporation? Also, a look at India's burgeoning high-tech capital, Hyderabad. And a tribute to the last survivor of an infamous sweatshop fire that changed labour laws forever. That`s The Sunday Edition, right after the 9 o'clock news (9:30 NT) on CBC Radio One (CBC Hotsheet via DXLD) On RCI 1311-1600 (gh) ** COSTA RICA. Thanks to Lynn, at freespeech, the only person at the volunteer organization who knows how to fix it, RFPI`s easy-to- remember E-mail address info@rfpi.org is funxioning well again. Some may have noticed muddy audio and a weak signal on 7450 a few nights ago; that resulted from some transmission line and a connector burning up, almost causing a short, but all fixed now. Occasionally has been testing on 7445 prior to broadcasts [meaning before 0000, or before 0200?], to avoid QRM but probably will keep 7450 0200-0800. Global Community Forum is back this Saturday with a show on the upcoming Global Women`s Strike, at 1600, repeated 8 & 16 hours later [sic – now I`m really confused; we were told before it would be at 0230 UT Sundays, and of course the repeats are now 6, 12, maybe 18 hours later. Check the Weekly Update if it is out in time -gh]. More new GCFs with live 800-number call-ins are planned: UT Thu March 8 0230-0330 with Bruce Harris of Casa Alianza, on children`s rights in Central America, in the wake of news reports about teenage prostitution, sex tourism here. UT Sun March 11 at 0230, Hans ----, engineer, who is writing a book on Latin American politics. More Far Right Radio Reviews are planned, one in particular about WWFV, which seems to have inspired some hate mail to RFPI, read from Thomas in Plant City, Florida. ``Far Right broadcasting is a curtain of hate surrounding the US`` (RFPI Mailbag Fri Feb 23 first airing at 2000, notes by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [and non]. BONANZA (Not in your country list.) 20 February I received a large package from Deutsche Welle. In it were 11, yes eleven, QSLs with 10 different illustrations, each relating to DX reports I`d sent between April 1999 and January 2001. They represented DW receptions from Bonaire, Sines, Novosibirsk, Sri Lanka, Petropavlovsk, Sackville, Antigua (2), Nauen, Kigali, and Wertachtal. The covering letter from Frau Silke Broker explained she had been intending to ask me to become DW's "technical monitor" for New Mexico. But she had fallen ill and spent almost all of 2000 in hospital and recovery. Enclosed were a DW notepad, cap, 3 pens, 2 key rings, and a "church key" (bottle opener). Needless to say, I`ll accept her kind offer to become a DW monitor. (But how technical I can become remains to be determined.) (George Glotzbach, Santa Fe NM, Cumbre DX Feb 22 via DXLD) ** GERMANY. On Mondays and Thursdays there is a DTK/Jülich transmission on 15670 at 1700-1800. I`ve monitored this now a few times; clearly again one of those African opposition groups, but no clear ID heard. Mentioning Africa and Sudan. Does anyone know more about this one? (Silvain Domen, Belgium, Feb 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE. I am sure that your comments are correct in regards to the VOG ``It`s All Greek to Me`` aired on Sundays 1900-2000 UT. When he looks at the studio clock doing it live at 6 pm Athens time, 1600 UT; it is a recorded version 3 hours later at 1900 UT and repeated at 2120 for Australia. While listening to my tape of WOR 1067, I interrupted it to monitor VOG on Feb 7 at 0200 trying to avoid the RTTY on their frequency of 7455. I moved the dial to 7448 to see if VOG had moved there. Who did I hear on 7450? Glenn Hauser doing a WOR broadcast... [via RFPI`s new frequency, moved from 7480 to avoid Greece 7475!]. Later in the day on VOG`s 1200 UT frequency of 9690 R. Martí was on instead. I found VOG on RM`s 6060 with SINPO 43544 and a warble. How`s that for VOG to Cuba; I don`t think that the Greek-Americans were too pleased with that! I looked through my files on VOG and came across info your monitors might wish to note and perhaps update: VOA in Kavala is not equipped with antennas that cover North America effectively –- that explains why the capabilities of the 250-kW transmitters there are rather limited. Kavala has curtain-type antennas with azimuths of 26, 51, 95, 105, 172, 208, 240, 355 degrees. Avlis has three series of curtains (some of which are in use in the antipodal mode). HR1 (46/226 and 80/260 degrees), HR2 (105/285) and HR3 (2/182 and 143/323); also two log-periodic rotatable (0 to 360 degrees) which are used for their azimuths of 8, 52, 292 and 306 degrees. Thessaloniki has dipole and rhombic antennas. All of which brings us to the RTTY station on 7453 –- are you getting any feedback from the European monitors in Germany, Greece, UK, etc. experiencing severe interference problems on the VOG frequency of 7455 on the 0000-0350 service, or is this a Stateside problem? When VOG dropped 9420 for 12105 on Jan 8, the new set-up was like so: 7455 (now 7475) 323 Avlis 1 to Alaska, Canada, USA, C America (RTTY) 5895 292 Avlis 2 to Europe 7475 (now 7455) 355 Kavala 1 to Alaska, Canada, USA 12105 355 Kavala 2 to Canada Perhaps as a result of my pointing out the severe RTTY interference on 7455, Dionisios Angelogiannis several weeks ago moved 7455 from Avlis 1 to Kavala 1 and 7475 from Kavala 1 to Avlis 1. Evidently he cannot find a more suitable frequency on the crowded 41m band, so he is using the 250 kW Kavala 1 to try for a stronger signal to cover the adjacent-frequency RTTY on 7453, even though the Kavala 1 antenna at 355 degrees does not cover NAm effectively. As soon as VOG`s Avlis 250-kW transmitter goes on the air, we should get a super signal on 7475 on this side of the Atlantic. When VOG gives its opening frequency announcements, they are usually given in this order: Avlis 1, Avlis 2, Kavala 1, Kavala 2 – 7475, 5895, 7455, 12105. My Christmas-New Year card was signed by Demetres Keramidou and Tasos Glia, ERT-3, Subdirection of Technical Services, Angeleki 6 Str., 546 21 Thessaloniki, Greece. Demetri Vafeas` card read: ``Thank you for your wishes and the information concerning our frequencies. I`ll be writing to you in more detail.`` With the Atlantis Dictionaries English-Greek, Greek-English in one hand and my village-Greek knowledge to decipher VOG`s program schedule printed in Greek, I have come up with translations for the North American Services of 0000-0350, 1200-1500 and 1800-2200 UT. What you see may not be what you get! For instance, the Thread of Ariadne may not be the Greek fable, but rather the thread of life that ties the Greeks in America to the Old Country. Ariadne in Greek Mythology was King Minos` daughter who gave Theseus the thread by which he found his way out of the labyrinth. [Tue 1200, Sat 1900] THE VOICE OF GREECE Winter Schedule October 29, 2000 – March 26, 2001 0000-0350 on 5895 7455 7475 12105: DAILY 0000-0005 News in Greek 0005-0100 Radiodrome 0100-0105 News in Greek 0105-0200 Radiodrome 0200-0205 News in Greek SUNDAY 0205-0300 Radiodrome 0300-0320 Know Songs of the Sea 0320-0350 The Third Bell MONDAY-FRIDAY 0205-0300 Popular Watch 0300-0310 News in English 0310-0320 Athletic Panorama 0320-0350 Songs of the Party SATURDAY 0205-0300 Radiodrome 0300-0320 Radio Clip 0320-0350 Folklore Evidences At 1200-1250 on 9420 9690 15530 15630, 1250-1500 9420 9690 15630: SUNDAY 1200-1210 News in Greek 1210-1300 So Far, So Near 1300-1310 News in Greek 1310-1400 Faces of the Week 1400-1410 News in Greek 1410-1500 Journey in Time MONDAY-FRIDAY 1245-1300 Know Songs of the Sea 1300-1400 Tribune of the Air 1400-1430 Debt of the Money 1430-1500 The Postman MONDAY 1200-1215 Unknown Hellenism 1215-1245 The Third Bell TUESDAY 1200-1245 Thread of Ariadne WEDNESDAY 1200-1245 Profits and Losses THURSDAY 1200-1245 Journey with Arts FRIDAY 1200-1245 Turning the Leaves SATURDAY 1200-1210 News in Greek 1210-1240 Folklore Evidences 1240-1300 Radio Clip 1300-1310 News in Greek 1310-1340 Money and Investments of Saturday 1340-1400 Know Songs of the Sea 1400-1410 News in Greek 1410-1500 Union with ERA Sports At 1800-1900 7455 9420 17565 17705, 1900-2055 7455 7475 17565 17705 and 2055-2200 7475 17565 17705: SUNDAY 1800-1830 Radionewspaper of Studio A (ERA) 1830-1900 Today and Yesterday 1900-2000 It`s All Greek to Me (English) 2000-2200 Live Line MONDAY-FRIDAY 1800-1900 Radionewspaper of Studio A (ERA) 1900-2000 Where the Greek People and Where the Greek Language 2000-2010 Athletic Panorama 2010-2200 Live Line SATURDAY 1800-1900 Radionewspaper of Studio A (ERA) 1900-2000 Thread of Ariadne 2000-2010 Athletic Panorama 2010-2200 Live Line (John Babbis, Silver Spring MD, Feb 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN [non]. CLANDESTINE from IRAQ to IRAN. Sedeye Mojahid seem to have XX20 as their "home" frequencies, on which they sign on [0227] and to which they frequently return. They hop around between XX00 and XX90, always using XXX0 frequencies. Noted home frequencies are 5320, 5620, 6420, 6820, 7020, 8320, 8820, 9320, 10220 (Olle Alm, Sweden, Feb 21, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** IRAQ [non]. CLANDESTINE from IRAN to IRAQ. V of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, *0330 and heard past 0500 in Arabic. Precise frequencies and rather good signals. 6145 Kamalabad 500 kW ND, 7100 Ahwaz 250 kW ND, 7295 Sirjand 500 kW 295 deg, 9535 Sirjand 500 kW 282 deg. The latter three had a satellite delay compared to 6145 (Olle Alm, Sweden, Feb 16/21, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** JAPAN. Hi all, New article on the Radio Heritage site, "WVTR Radio Tokyo" contributed by Shelby Newhouse. Good anecdotal story of radio & life in occupied Japan... http://radiodx.com/spdxr/WVTR.htm Regards, (Paul Ormandy, Oamaru, New Zealand, Feb 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LITHUANIA. R Vilnius, 0030-0100, 9875, SINPO 45444; as per announcement it is via Sitkunai with 50 kW outlet. Their biweekly mailbag is on Thursday (22/2/01) Kind Regards, (Swopan Chakroborty, Kolkata, India, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR. 7154.5, Radio Television Malagasy, 0547-0601 Feb 13. Emission in Malagasy. Comments and announcements. Instrumental music. Time Signal. Identification of the radio station. 33222 (Claudio Morales, Argentina, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MOZAMBIQUE [non]. Re: DXLD 1-023: Fiquei muito desiludido com a tal "Africa Rádio Mozambique" via internet. O que eu escutei foram uns trechos do gênero "música de hotel", própria para entreter turistas enfastiados, e pouco mais. Alguns dos trechos que ouvi cheiravam mesmo a naftalina, pois eram músicas feitas por colonos e para os colonos, na época colonial. Eram (são) músicas completamente alheias ao povo moçambicano e à sua riquíssima cultura. É lamentável que as tenham desenterrado; tanto mais lamentável quanto Moçambique tem uma música belíssima! Ainda há poucas semanas assisti deliciado, numa emissão da RTP Âfrica (por cabo), à interpretação de alguns trechos de música popular urbana de Moçambique, por diversos cantores moçambicanos, entre os quais se contavam alguns excelentes intérpretes. Infelizmente nada disto transparece nesta tal "Africa Radio Mozambique". :-( 73 (Fernando de Sousa Ribeiro, Pôrto, Portugal, radioescutas via DXLD) [He`s very disillusioned with the internet Africa Radio Mozambique. They don`t even play real Mozambican music] ** NICARAGUA. Regarding Johan Berglund`s Radio Miskut log, they are sometimes on even later than 0000 GMT, so there might be opportunities for others in Europe to catch them. On Feb. 21, they were noted here with nonstop relay of VOA, all current pop music except for VOA IDs occasionally, past 0130 tune-out, on 5770 carrier + USB mode, of course (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, hard- core-dx via DXLD) ** PUERTO RICO. Hi from JB, 1660 kHz, 22 Feb 0020, WGIT, San Juan, was here the whole night through until sunrise. Only a few times an English-speaking station came up and went away as quickly as it came. Very good reception from Puerto Rico, so I skipped all other DX-ing, just to listen and feel good. ID also "El Gigante - dieciséis- sesenta". Both male and female announcer, but so far no commercials that I know. Surely there is another Spanish-speaking on this frequency when other conditions are at hand. WGIT has mostly romantic, nostalgic songs, but two nights earlier, as I reported, there was one there with pure Mexican tones all the time. One mariachi would be followed by another one, with the fiddles, the guitarrones and the trumpets plus the base. I think I heard only one such piece of music from Puerto Rico during the whole last night. Any suggestions about this supposed Mexican station? (Johan Berglund, Trollhättan, Western part of Sweden, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No Mexicans known on 1660; why not R. Única, New Jersey? Or WGIT could have been playing anything in test phase (gh) ** RUSSIA. Radio Studio Doma Gardarika is heard regularly on 6230 kHz every evening 1900-2100 hours, qsa=3-4, not so much problems with utility 6227 kHz here in Italy. Very good jingles and modern Russian rock music (Dario Monferini, Feb 21, hard-core-dx via DXLD) Dear colleagues, I am very and very sorry - but I indicated an incorrect post office number for their address. The correct one is 192007 (one nine two zero zero seven), not 197002! I think all your letters will nevertheless reach Radio Gardarika without any problems as we do not have any real 197002 post office... Please accept my apologies and special thanks to Alexey Osipov for his note (Mikhail Timofeyev, hard-core-dx via DXLD) We will use a new frequency of 6235 kHz at 1900-2130 UT (new time!) for our Radio Gardarika relay starting on Friday, February 23 (instead of 6230 kHz at 1900-2100). This change is because of an UNID interfering source on 6227 kHz (military RTTY-like transmitter). Please will send some words about the reception quality on 6235 kHz to Radio Gardarika/to me (studiosw@metroclub.ru and timofeyev@sp.ru) if you will be near your receivers/computers this evening... (Mikhail Timofeyev, Russia, Feb 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Mikhail Timofeyev announces that from today (Friday Feb. 23) 6235 will be used instead of 6230 for Radio Gardarika 1900-2100 [sic]. Some further background about the somewhat confusing on-air identifications from Bernd Trutenau: Radio Gardarika operates three networks, the "traditional" one on the wired network, "Nevskaya volna" on 69.05 MHz and "Radio studio" on 102.4 MHz. The shortwave broadcast contains a mixture of both "Radio studio" and "Nevskaya volna", hence both identifications are given. Regards, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SERBIA [non]. For the record, I haven't heard anything since my earlier post about Yugoslavia on 9580. However, I have been hearing Budapest 2300-0000 and now believe that was what I originally heard. It is possible that what I heard was a test by Yugoslavia, but there are too many similarities between what I heard on February 17 and what I am hearing now as Budapest for me to say with any certainty that what I heard was Yugoslavia. Just trying to get it right... (John Figliozzi, NY, Feb 21, swprograms via DXLD) Hi Glenn, R Budapest entry: 9580 2300-2400 to zones 13-16 JBR 250 kW 245 DEGRS Hungarian HNG RBP HNG, and Day #2 means: also UT Monday only 0000-0100, that means Sunday night in C & S American target (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, DXLD) ** SOLOMON ISLANDS. Australia donates generator to broadcasting corporation | Text of report attributed to Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation radio bulletin of 0800 gmt 22 February carried by Solomon Islands Ministry of Commerce web site on 23 February The Australian government yet again assisted the country`s national broadcaster, the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation, SIBC. This time it was in the form of a standby generator worth more than 250,000 dollars. At a handing over ceremony this afternoon, SIBC`s General Manager Johnson Honimae said the standby generator will not only benefit the corporation, but the over 450,000 Solomon Islanders in the country. The Australian government last year gave a grant of 150,000 dollars and is continuing to sponsor radio programmes on the peace process. The new standby generator replaces a 20 year old generator which couldn`t cope with the growing demands of the corporation. In response, the Australian high commissioner, Dr Martin Sharp, said the assistance adds on to the continuing support given to government agencies. Source: Solomon Islands Ministry of Commerce web site, Honiara, in English 23 Feb 01 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** SUDAN. 7200.3, Radio Republic of Sudan. 0422-0437 February 20. It programs in Vernacular. Comments and the speaker`s announcements, music of drums and sung. 33222 (Claudio Morales, Argentina, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWITZERLAND. SRI-English seems to have policy against playing Swiss County music. Capital Letters will play it on request but will insult the listener who requested it and maybe play 'Mu' (the sound a cow makes) music instead. On their monthly music program 'Sounds Good' they play rock, rap, -- but never Swiss County Music! In the filler area at end of Newsnet SCM is never played although the Swiss language(s) services almost always fill with it. When Bob Zanotti presents the 'Name Game' he tries to put in a little bit of SCM but since the Name Game has been reduced to 7.5 minutes he has no time to add SCM. The music policy is WRONG! Since the Swiss Foreign Ministry who finances about 45% of the SRI budget has the say, they do not appear to approve of the image Swiss County Music presents of Switzerland, at least to English speaking listeners. If the listener does not approve, too bad. The station NEVER! asks for listener feedback, and maybe is just being honest. The truth is known, but to recognise it would lead to serious trouble (Larry Nebron, swprograms Feb 22 via DXLD) This type of discussion is very interesting. While the news (especially business news on pharmaceuticals) is very interesting from SRI, I for one, would long for the time when they, perhaps on weekends, focused on items of cultural, historical, human interest, social, music, literature, nature, etc. There does seem, by the postings here, an interest in hearing honest Swiss music in an English program format. While this may date me a bit, I still fondly recall listening to the old SBC in the 75 minute broadcasts, which included lots of music, contests, features on art, history, culture and food, religious and ethnic traditions, etc. and it was marvelous. As various stations change through time with a more fixed focus, they may indeed be "cutting their own throats" by being so narrowly focused as to be "boring" except to those with a very specific interest in their seemingly increasingly narrowly focused programs. Examples include not only SRI, but also at times Radio Sweden, Radio Bulgaria, and many others. It is the great diversity of affairs within a country, and its social and cultural internal affairs with its neighbors that gave those with broad interests their "hook" into the hobby, and being a "regular" listener of the station in question. A bit of this, and a bit of that, not just something to appeal to a reader of such specialized publications as Foreign Affairs or Architecture Today, but more to the interests of one likely to browse the Smithsonian Magazine. Maybe the analogy is not the best, but since SRI contracted into telling everything one wanted to know, as long as it concerned Swiss Politics, Economics, and Business, they gradually lost this "regular listener," and I only tune occasionally, when looking for the "Swiss angle" and a certain international event, (such as the recent US elections). By the way, many other stations have the same "problem" of being "out of touch" with their listeners, and too narrowly focused, including Deutsche Welle, Austrian Radio, Radio Budapest, and at times, RCI. The ones to my mind that have the right mix are REE-Spain, Radio Prague, Radio Netherlands, and BBC (though the Beeb is obviously in a slightly different category than the other two). But as Madrid and Hilversum prove, it is possible to put on a first class one hour program (with Prague 30 minutes) a day with a very good mix of credible news, music, and intelligent features without being pompous and arrogant that appeal to a wide variety of listeners, all of whom will find something of interest within an hour or so of listening (Roger Chambers, NY, swprograms via DXLD) Sad to say SRI has dropped most of its business coverage. For about a year Tom O`Brien headed the Zurich Business Desk and the coverage was first class. It was a dream, of how a station should cover business news. There were stories on both businesses small and large and reports for various brokerage firms. Coverage of finance. It was something that Tom O`Brien and the station could have and should have been proud of. Maybe that was the problem? Now sports coverage has replaced the business coverage! So much for providing anything useful (Larry Nebron, CA, swprograms via DXLD) ** U K [?]. Hi Mike, thanks to your message I have been able to log this morning 0800-0930 hours Radio Nova on 9290 kHz really clear channel, qsa= 2-3. Jingles "nova" and mentioning "...we are broadcasting 24 hours a day on 9290 kHz...." good pop songs. Do you know if they have e-mail QTH for reports? Good dx's (Dario Monferini, Italy, Feb 21, hard-core-dx via DXLD) ** U S A. 3480.00 WOBU - Lakewood, NJ (3 x 1160 harmonic, tentative) 1054-1110 Feb 20, Ads with mention of "...Ocean County College...", local weather, tentative ID. Weak signal with fair peaks (Mark Mohrmann, VT, DX LISTENING DIGEST Feb 20) ** U S A. Ken Berryhill has received a new honor. Story, Radio Days, 'Father of WRVU' continues legacy begun 50 years ago in Cole Hall, at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/News/register/Feb19_01/story10.html which says that besides shortwave [WWCR], Ken`s Country Classics is on WRVU Thursdays 1800-2000 UT, and webcast via http://wrvu.org/home.html whence a program grid actually shows Ken`s other title The Old Record Shop (gh, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Dear Mr. Fischer, I want to assure you that nobody has any intention of discontinuing the WWV/WWVH broadcast. We are doing this survey as a periodic check (roughly every sesquidecade) to see how many are using our service and if we are meeting their needs. For example, if there were a certain aspect of the broadcast no one was using and it could be replaced by a more useful and practical feature it would be our duty to implement it (within the reasonable restrictions of our budget, staff, non-interference with other parts of the broadcast, etc.) Certainly, if no one were to reply to the survey I can`t dispute the fact that our service would come under scrutiny, as would be proper. However, I can say that by judging from the strong response we are getting that this would not be the case. It is apparent that the HAM community is, and always has been, a important segment of our user base. It is important that everyone who uses the WWV/WWVH service respond to the survey so that your voices can be heard. Please pass the word to anyone else that you know of that is using WWV/WWVH and we will be happy to send them a survey so that they can be included. Best Regards, Matt Deutch, Radio Station WWV (via Duane Fischer, swl@qth.net via DXLD) ** U S A. This may be insignificant, but broadcast delays always fascinate me. I wonder why Acting Pres. Bush`s first news conference, as received here in OK Feb 22 around 1950 UT, was more or less synchronized on ABC, CSPAN and NBC, but running about 11 seconds behind on CBS TV? That is far too much to be accounted for by even multiple satellite hops, which would not be necessary anyway on a feed from Washington. Is CBS delaying him with a finger on the button in case he says something that needs to be censored?? Not such a conspiracy theorist, I. We were free to hear him in all his goofy glory, making awful mistakes in English usage and pronunciation. Truly an example of the Common Man (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** URUGUAY. 6140/9595/11735: R Montecarlo/Oriental. More: Remember that they have a single transmitter with multifrequency tuning. Technical Manager now is Sr. Gustavo Cirino. Former tecnician, Alexi Haisaniuk, has retired. Gustavo is also a ham. I contacted him and he said that they are busy at the site, rearranging things there. BTW, there are important sport events in Uruguay in the near weeks to come. The bicyclist tour "Rutas de América" is starting next Sun. On April 8-15, there is the "Vuelta Ciclista del Uruguay". They have been carried by R. Oriental. They plan to have SW working again for this event, not sure for the one beginning next Sunday (Horacio Nigro, Uruguay, Feb 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** URUGUAY. 6045, R Sarandí Sport. The transmitter is currently off the air. The use of this SW has been leased by station`s owner to station`s co-producer Mr. Joaquín Télis. He manages the team that prepares and puts on the air the Uruguay Bicycle Tour ("Vuelta Ciclista del Uruguay") every year. He personally commanded the construction of a SW transmitter a year ago with the purpose of sending live audio of the event to associated MW stations in the Uruguayan countryside. The event lasts a week. This year the tour will happen April 6-15. When I contacted him, he was unsure of putting it again into operation for this coming occasion, since this time they will unite efforts with powerful MW CX4 Radio Rural, Montevideo. But when I told him that I had listened to the SW last year, he got surprised. He thought that SW reception was only possible away fom the skip-zone (outside a 200 kilometer radius from the transmitter site). I told him that station had also been received in Argentina, as far as I knew. And encouraged me to call the station to let them know that SW was possible of being heard. I encourage foreign DXers to write to ustedqueopina@sport890.com.uy and encourage station to use the SW. I have just done that! For those who need a model for a Spanish text letter to that purpose, I can help! (Horacio Nigro, Uruguay, Feb 22, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM. Since at least the mid-90s, there has been a Vietnamese station operating in the range 4657-4722 kHz. It has been heard in Australia, Asia, and North America. Based on available information, DXers have listed it as a provincial station out of Lao Cai, Lam Dong, or Gia Lai. Others who noted it relaying Vietnam`s national service out of Hanoi simply reported it as this, adding that they weren`t sure of the site. Now this station has been IDed and it looks like we have a `new` provincial station in Vietnam. Thanks to Gaku Iwata, who tells us that Satoshi Hasebe has identified this station as Lang Son. As is the case with the other Vietnamese provincial stations currently active, Lang Son is in the far north of Vietnam. Satoshi says it currently operates around 4660 at 1000-1430 as follows: 1000-1030 Relay VOV-Hanoi2, 1030-1100 Local program in Vietnamese, 1100-1130 Relay VOV-Hanoi2, 1130-1200 Local program in Vietnamese, 1200-1430 Relay VOV-Hanoi2. ID is heard as "Day la dai phat thanh Lang Son" Signals are very poor and the audio is extremely low. It is heard maybe once or twice a month in Japan. It drifts around in frequency. Care also has to be taken not to confuse it with the Laotian regional at Houa Phan, which also operates around 4660 at reported *1000-1230*. In the past, Houa Phan has carried the news from Lao National Radio at 1200-1230, so it is parallel to 6130 at this time (via Hans Johnson, Feb 20, Cumbre DX Special Feb 22 via DXLD) ** VIETNAM. Regarding Vietnamese jamming of RFA, Olle Alm comments on my recent report: "My experience is that they probably jam all RFA frequencies, but using signals with highly varying powers. What I hear is largely dependent on propagation. Sometimes no whistle is heard over a strong program signal; in other cases I only hear a detuned jamming signal, often modulated with VoV home service. The only noise jamming signals I hear are a wee-wee-wee bubble type jammer (1400-1500: 9365, irregularly 15470) and/or in one or two cases (15470, irregularly 11760) a buzz signal jammer." Olle and I spent Feb 17-18 listening to Vietnamese jamming of RFA during 1400-1500. I was wrong before; they do jam all the frequencies throughout the broadcasts. The jammers can be weak and the ones carrying Vietnam`s home service tend to drift; some were noted almost 3 kHz away from the target frequency. During poor propagation, one just hears a weak het on or in the vicinity of the RFA frequency. During better propagation, one can hear a wee-wee or Home Service transmissions [parallel 5975 or 7210] on or near the RFA frequency. As Olle said, the powers vary, but some seem to be quite modest. Received jamming signals seem to be much weaker than Chinese jamming of various services (Olle Alm, Sweden and Hans Johnson, AZ, Feb 17/18, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ###