DX LISTENING DIGEST 1-031, March 5, 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] ** AUSTRALIA. Re: HCJB: Now need a content licence from the ABA, content & National interests licence from the Dept of Foreign Affairs (Don Rhodes, Australia, March 3, Electronic DX Press via DXLD) Think that may be a "consent" licence... if these religious broadcasters needed content licences, apart from HCJB and one or two others, very few of them would be on air! (Paul Ormandy, New Zealand, March 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA/TAIWAN. What a mess Radio Australia has created by switching the new relay via Taiwan from 15125 to 15240! Shepparton keeps going at the same time and although that transmitter is then beamed at 90 degrees to the Pacific and the Americas, the interference between the two transmissions is terrible here at the very southernmost tip of Australia. The program content is the same but there is a lag of about 500 milliseconds from Taiwan. Perhaps in the intended reception areas the interference isn`t so bad, but I doubt it. Surely they could have found another clear spot for the Taiwan relay (Morrison Hoyle, Victoria, VK3BCY, March 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA/NETHERLANDS [non]. Re: clash of 6020, DXLD 1-030: Ehard Goddijn of RN`s Programme Distribution Department comments: "Reception via IBB San José, Costa Rica of B6020 kHz on March 3rd 2001 at 1131 UT was SIO 444/3 and at 1201 UT 344, where AUS is vaguely heard; a very weak low heterodyne and fading degrades the reception sometimes to fair. So there AUS is not a big problem for us. Frequency 6020 kHz in use by RNW at 1130 UT since March 1989." Why do listeners living a long way outside both target areas automatically assume that because they can hear two signals at the same time, everybody else can? 73, (Andy Sennitt, RN, March 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELGIUM [and non]. A01 English from RVI, starting March 25: 0700 9685 via Jülich, Germany to Eu 1130 9925 to N&S Europe 200 kW Wavre 1130 9865 To EAs via Petropavlovsk, Russia 1730 5910 SEu, 9925 N&SEu both 200 kW Wavre; 13710 100 kW Jülich to SEEu/ME 1930 1512 MW 300 kW, 9925 via new relay site 120 kW Moscow to Eu 2300 [ex-2230!] & 0400 15565 via Bonaire to NAm (RVI Radio World March 4 via gh, DXLD) ** CHECHNYA. If the Chechens decided to jam R. Chechnya Svobodnaya, they are a bit late, since it is no longer on SW. March 5 at 1400 I checked 15605 to see if R. Rossii was still on there, and heard only traces of some programming beneath big continuous noise, which was worst on the lower side. It was still going at 1447 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. Found this on the English page of the RFI website http://www.rfi.fr on March 5, but searching other pages could not find any frequencies for the new morning broadcasts and other references to English programming were outdated still showing a full hour at 1200 and 1400! (gh, DXLD) RFI's English service broadcasts for five hours a day. The day begins with three 30-minute broadcasts to Africa and one hour-long programme to the same zone. The broadcast at 04h00 Universal Time (UT) begins with an international newsflash followed by a bulletin of African news. The broadcast also includes Sports, a review of the French dailies, an in-depth look at events in Africa and a look at the main news event of the day in France. At 05h00 UT the format is similar, but there is no international newsflash. The format at 06h00 UT is similar to the 04h00 UT programme, but includes a report on the day's main international story. The hour-long broadcast at 07h00 UT is similar to the 05h00 format with an extra half-hour added. This consists of a daily magazine programme (French lesson, Crossroads, Voices, Rendez- Vous, World Tracks, Weekend, Club 9516). The first three morning programmes are all followed by the half-hour Afrique Matin in French. There are no morning broadcasts on Saturday and Sunday. The 30-minute broadcast at 12h00 UT consists of an international bulletin followed by one of the magazine programmes mentioned above. The 30-minute broadcast at 14h00 UT begins with a bulletin of international and Asian news. This is followed by Sports, in-depth reports on Asian and international news stories, and a look at the main news event of the day in France. On Saturday, the international report is replaced by the feature Asia-Pacific. On Sunday, there is a weekly report on cultural events in France. And listeners can express their views in a weekend 'phone-in feature. RFI`s English service targets Africa between 16h00 and 17h30 UT. The first half-hour includes news and reports from across the continent, as well as an international newsflash and news about France. This is followed by one of our magazine programmes. At 17h00, the focus is on news from the eastern part of Africa. On the weekend, you can listen to our weekly Spotlight on Africa, as well as features on culture in France, health issues, the week in Sports, media in Africa and your comments in the weekend `phone-in. RFI`s English programmes are also broadcast on FM in Uganda, Sierra Leone, Namibia, Cameroon, Liberia, Tanzania, South Africa, the Seycheles, the Caribbean region, Taiwan, Ukraine and on FM and AM in 35 Canadian cities. We are also on cable in several North American, European and Asian countries. Our e-mail address is: english.service@rfi.fr Over forty journalists, production assistants and administrative staff operate from our Paris office and we have a network of over 50 correspondents around the world (RFI website March 5 via DXLD) Had RFI March 5 on at 1600 on 11615. On the half hour they made the announcement of programming changes, and looks like 03, 4, 5, 600 GMT [sic, each one hour later per above] will be in English, supposedly the better to reach the listeners in N America [? Africa, I thought - gh]. Now, that`s new, as I looked yesterday and what`s there wasn`t English. But he`s dribbing and drabbing the info out with "Stay tuned for more Info", The big day of the complete unveiling is supposed to be Sunday, with the new programing taking off on Monday a week from now. Now that`s as of 1630 (Colonel Jon Standingbear, Army Radio Station adn3u, Beaumont, Calif., DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. I have on now DW 6145 direct from Germany. When Silkie Boker returned from being ill she sent me an email explaining her time away and said she`d catch up my QSL cards. I received them from 2 years ago last year, and this one 6145 the week before. Said she had a pile of late QSLs higher than Der Eiger (Colonel Jon Standingbear, Army Radio Station adn3u, Beaumont, Calif., March 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. Re: Cable TV STO blast, "The obvious solution for this is to have backup feeds on different satellites, but it seems the cable industry cannot be bothered" -------------- Glenn, as a 25 year Veteran of Cable TV and Satellite Broadcasting , I must respond. The STO season (also known as solar transit outages) occurs twice year a year in the spring and the fall and all of the satellite services using geostationary orbit are affected somewhere and at sometime during this time period. You mention that the solar outage occurs at different times for different cable TV headend locations for each city or municipality, this of course is true. However, to propose using "backup feeds" would be okay for just Enid, Oklahoma, but if you were to have backup feeds for every satellite service up there, coupled with the matching receiver needs necessary and each and every location on the planet during these minimal periods, would cost many millions to engineer. This cost (assuming the satellite frequency space is available which it is not) would have to be passed on to you the consumer (as if the cable bill is not high enough already). Your "obvious solution" is not quite so easily realised. Satellite transmission is (and has been) quite reliable excepting when these known outages occur a mere 30 minutes or less total per year, per service. My calculations makes this a 99.994 percent reliable service over that time period, which is pretty darn good. By the way, even your local off air broadcasters are affected, classic example, are Sunday afternoon NFL football games in the fall right. They also get their network feeds by those little birds in the sky. Someday in the not too distant future the satellite feeds will be replaced by fiber optics, and the satellites will be the backup, just as satellite replaced the point to point terrestrial microwave feeds. Rather than slam the cable business, why not buddy up with your local operator, I bet they would be willing to give you some nice low loss 75 ohm hard line, just perfect for your VHF/UHF applications, if you ask for it. 73s, (Jerry KC2UT Monroe, snowy Syracuse, NY, March 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) What, me pay more just to avoid STOs?! OK, but tho I would never be watching a silly ballgame during the afternoon, or elsewhen, I never see a BROADCAST network going to noise for 15 minutes. Guess that`s why they are still considered a cut above cable networks... If not compensated for, the classy thing to do would be to put up a local slide, saying ``TEMPORARY SOLAR TRANSIT OUTAGE FOR 15 MINUTES; PLEASE TRY ANOTHER CHANNEL`` (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) ** KAZAKHSTAN [non]. Kazakhstan and Ukraine, indeed, had a transmitter swap agreement, but as I recall this was cancelled some three years ago, plus or minus a couple of years. If WRTH still states that there is an exchange, this must be another example of their failing to keep current. I stand to be corrected if anyone has more current information (Walt Salmaniw, BC, March 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. On is VOR on 7.180 MHz, and they should hold in until 0500. Haven`t heard any schedule change for them yet. They`re also there from 1500 to 1900 on 7.180, so there`s over 6 hours daily you can listen to Uncle Joe. Thanks for being there Glenn; makes it just that more enjoyable. Take care, 73's and good DX. Sincerely, (Colonel Jon Standingbear Army Radio Station adn3u, Beaumont, Calif., March 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SICILY. Accurate Frequency: I don`t agree with the repetition of someone`s report of the AFRTS transmitter from Italy as 10942.54. I suggest that the frequency accuracy of most listeners` radios is no better than 40 hertz. I have just retuned my amateur transceiver (Icom 751) as the lower sideband on WWV transmissions was reading 200 hertz high. The upper sideband read correctly. Unless reporters are absolutely certain of the accuracy of their measurement, I suggest they keep their observations to themselves. Incidentally, the free software Hamscope (the Google search engine takes you to the download site) is invaluable for calibrating a radio if you have the audio fed to the PC soundcard (Morrison Hoyle, Victoria, VK3BCY, March 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TIBET. The entire long article on increased jamming here can be found at http://www.tibetinfo.net/news-updates/nu280201.htm (Mick Knapton, Sheffield, England, March 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. On Feb 16 Acting Secretary of State Powell sent a letter to BBG Chairman Nathanson asking the BBG to reverse its decision to close the VOA Thai Service. Secretary Powell wrote, "At the beginning of the Bush Administration, it is essential that we reinforce our commitment to preserving close relations with our Thai allies. The VOA Thai Service represents an important symbol of that U.S.-Thai friendship." (VOA Communications World March 3 via John Norfolk, DXLD) ** VIETNAM. At the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on International Operations hearing, acting chairman Chris Smith indicated his concern about the jamming of Radio Free Asia broadcasts. Although he did not mention it, VOA broadcasts to East Asia are also jammed by China and North Korea. Richard Richter, President of Radio Free Asia, gave this account of the effectiveness of Vietnam`s jamming of his station`s Vietnamese-language broadcasts. The situation in Vietnam is such that depending on economics and weather, our transmission is better or worse. When there is a flood, the transmission is better. In and around Saigon, the Delta, listeners report to us that the ability to listen is not nearly as bad as it used to be. Around Hanoi it`s terrible. As a matter of fact there is a new jamming station which has been put in by an American company that is being used against us. I`m not certain what company; I can get the information (R. Free Asia President Richard Richter, VOA Communications World March 3, transcribed by gh for DXLD) ###