DX LISTENING DIGEST 1-055, April 20, 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 1077: (STREAM) http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/wor1077.ram (DOWNLOAD) http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/wor1077.rm (SUMMARY) http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/wor1077.html CONTINENT OF MEDIA 01-04 is now available at DXing.com: (STREAM) http://www.DXing.com/com0104.ram (DOWNLOAD) http://www.DXing.com/com0104.rm (SUMMARY) http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofrdio/com0104.html ** AUSTRALIA. Alice Springs resumed using 2310 kHz the night of April 18-19, after having stayed on 4835 day and night for a few weeks. But at 2130 UT April 18th, it was still on 2310 instead of daytime frequency 4835 (Chris Hambly, Victoria, WORLD OF RADIO 1077, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Maybe they are still having trouble switching twice a day, so will stay on 2310 only for a while, causing Bob Padula less distress (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) However, the next day was back to staying on 4835 day and night (Hambly, UT April 19, DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. Radio Australia has the Naughton gallery with extras from 'domestic' radio from his doctoral thesis. As a Radio Australia webmaster he put them on their site with charts, graphs etc. at: http://www.abc.net.au/ra/gallery/gallery.htm (Daniel Say, BC, swprograms via DXLD) ** CAMBODIA [non]. CLANDESTINE from TAIWAN? to CAMBODIA 15455v Voice of Justice *1000-1100* was off the air last Saturday 14 Apr (Mahmud Fathi, Philippines, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** COSTA RICA. RFPI planning new SW transmitters | Text of "World of Radio" report via WWCR radio on 19 April The spring issue of Vista has just arrived from Radio for Peace International [RFPI, which broadcasts on shortwave from the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica]. I believe I mentioned it before but it bears repeating because it's in black and white hard print: RFPI has changed their philosophy somewhat from thinking small to thinking big. They now have a development plan which could eventually lead to six 100-kW transmitters, one of which would be dedicated to United Nations programming. Source: WWCR radio, Nashville, in English 2030 gmt 19 Apr 01 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** COSTA RICA. Dr Gene Scott putting out some nasty spurs 1465 kc above and below the fundamental frequency of 9725; i.e. 11190 and 8260, respectively. The station didn't ID @ 1100 UT, just rolled right along with the lecture, so don't know the origin, just heard "Universty Network" (David Hodgson, TN, Apr 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Hola Amigos, Navegando encontré la página web de la emisora Radio Reloj de Cuba; no sé si alguien ya había reportado esto pero les recomiendo que la visiten ya que allí se detalla las características que hacen de esta emisora única en el mundo. Visiten la sección "LA VOZ"; además hay una grabación histórica. De otro lado hay una canción del intérprete Manu Chao donde hay varias identificaciones de emisoras latinoamericanas dando la hora incluyendo esta emisora, pero en verdad no he podido localizar el nombre del tema aunque sé, que está incluído en el más reciente disco de este intérprete llamado Clandestino. Así se pueden dar una idea más clara del formato de esta emsiora ya que lamentablemente no tiene transmisión on-line: http://www.radioreloj.cu Saludos y buen DX (Rafael Rodríguez, April 18, Conexión Digital via DXLD) ** FINLAND. Why R. Finland schedules are in local time: Thank you for your comments. The main audience of Radio Finland are Finnish tourists and other nationals temporarily abroad. To give schedules in the local times of all countries would be impossible and to use UT or GMT would be counterproductive as the standard traveller does not know those terms any longer. We started using Finnish local time in our schedules last year - and have received many thanks for the swap. With best regards (Juhani Niinisto, YLE Radio Finland radio.finland@yle.fi via Mike Terry, BDXC-UK) ** GOA. INDIA, 9700, AIR Panaji. I received a letter from S.C Gupta, the Station Engineer. My report, with all its contents (a postcard and $1) and the envelope it was sent in was returned to me. The letter requested that I should get in touch with the External Services Division "who will do the needful". I could only speculate why the otherwise courteous engineer not do the needful himself. The email of the station is: airPanji@goa1.dot.net.in Fax: (0832)225351 (Station Director), (0832)225662 (News). (Richard Lam, Singapore, Cumbre DX April 19 via DXLD) ** GUATEMALA. Larry Baysinger just returned from a trip to Guatemala and reports the following: 4825 Radio Mam, untraced in Guatemala 4835 Radio Tezulutlán, untraced in Guatemala 4845 Radio K'ekchí, the transformer on the large transmitter was rewound wrong, so they are on the air with their small transmitter. Power is 900 watts. At 0000, I heard unidentified stations on 5965, 5990, and 6110. From the programming and the announcers' accent, they sounded like they were coming from western Guatemala or Mexico. None ever IDed though (Baysinger Apr 17, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** GUYANA. 3291.42, GBC, April 18 at 0820. Back on 90 meters this week after an absence from this band, for several months. First noted them on the 16th. Usual format of religious programs, subcontinental mx, birthday announcements and so forth. This morning fair strength, but rapid fading (Dave Hodgson, TN, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HAWAII. Another obit for legendary broadcast engineer Alan Roycroft: http://pacific.bcentral.com/pacific/stories/2001/02/12/daily27.html (via April NZ DX Times via DXLD) ** HONDURAS. I am quite sure what I heard last night on 4832 kHz was Radio Litoral from Honduras in English. 4832.00 kHz Radio LITORAL, Honduras 19 APRIL 2001 0325-0358 s/off. Religious program in English. Signal was quite fair at 0330, getting weaker up to 0358 sign off. Mostly songs in English, one shorter speech and a final announcement at the end of transmission. I think I heard 2 IDs and one phone number, something like 904 443 00 ... Tape recording available. The station is usually listed with sign off at around midnight UT; I also have not seen English mentioned anywhere. GOOD DX, (Karel Honzík, the Czech Republic, hard-core-dx via DXLD) ** INDIA. After a phone call from friend Ray Merrall in the UK I heard AIR on 10200.2 -– that`s as close as I could get to the exact freq. Signal strength was very good, peaking 9+ on my meter, but audio quality was very distorted and low in AM --better in USB or LSB. It was being jammed at one time -- presumably actually meant for the Mujahaddin station. It appeared to be carrying the European sce in English and Hindi from tune in c1920 and still going at 2200+. Other loud freqs heard were 7410 9950 and 11620. Acc to the recent list of AIR txions that appeared via HCDX, all are located at different sites. AIR should also be using 9650 & 9910 as well as 11715 11935 & 13795 and 15120 at certain times. I suspect the 10 MHz signal had something to do with 9950, which had some distortion too. On trying 250 kHz lower (9700) there was a heterodyne and what seemed two carriers (I haven`t noted the time I logged this!) but no audible AIR audio. Can anyone come up with a calculated conclusion ??? (Noel R. Green, UK, Apr 16, BC-DX via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. New address for "Kangaroo Show" in English via RRI Jakarta, 1100-1120* UT. KANGURU, JALF, P. O. Box 3095, Denpasar 80030, Bali, sponsored by the Indonesian-Australian Language Foundation, they offer you a free magazine "KANGURU" ...! (Roland Schulze, Philippines, Mar 25, BC-DX via DXLD) ** IRAN [non]. Re report about V. of Iran, different frequencies depending on day of week, in 1-054 and mentioned on WOR 1077, the three frequencies are probably rotated at random, and would not match from one week to the next, as previously reported in DXLD 1-048 (gh) ** PAKISTAN. 5025, PBC Quetta. Another letter I received from this station in Pakistan might provide the answer to the above [Goa]. I had earlier received a QSL for their broadcast via Islamabad. Now I receive a letter direct from the station which explains that as a matter of policy, reception reports would be forwarded to Islamabad for verification. The station director also send a postcard of the region together with his explanatory, but non- QSL letter (Richard Lam, Singapore, Cumbre DX April 19 via DXLD) ** PALAU. There had been speculation recently about the situation with the SW facility at Palau, operating as KHBN. Until late 2000, KHBN was owned by the High Adventure Ministries organisation, under the "Voice of Hope" banner, providing services to Asia in English, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese. Three transmitters are available, each running 50 kW. In early 2001, a joint partnership was established with the Chinese Church in Hong Kong, whereby High Adventure Ministries retained the license, but programming and operations were to be transferred to the Chinese Church. Some programming from High Adventure was to be retained. For some time, High Adventure had leased some of its transmitter capacity to the IBB, for Radio Free Asia programming. For the current A-01 season there has been an increase in the volume of RFA output from Palau, believed to have been negotiated between IBB and the new joint partnership. There has been a corresponding reduction in non- RFA programming. For A-01, frequency usage for Palau is as follows: 9905 RFA 1500-1800, 1900-2200 Mandarin 9930 RFA 2230-2330 Khmere 9930 RFA 2330-0030 Vietnamese 9955 RFA 2200-2300 Cantonese 9965 HAM 1030-1500 Mandarin 11770 RFA 2300-2359 Mandarin 11815 RFA 1800-2200 Mandarin 13755 RFA 2300-2359 Mandarin 13775 RFA 1400-1500 Vietnamese 15355 RFA 2000-2200 Mandarin 15520 RFA 1600-1800 Mandarin 15545 RFA 1100-1400 Tibetan 15585 RFA 1500-1600 Mandarin 15725 HAM 0900-1100 Mandarin 17675 RFA 1500-2000 Mandarin 21690 RFA 0600-0700 Tibetan The above schedule suggests that there are no operations between 0700-0900, nor between 0030-0600, either for RFA or Church/Ministry programs. High Adventure no longer shows the Palau facility in its promotional material. It has restructured its global operations, with various "Beacons": Americas Beacon (KVOH, California) China Beacon (Jülich, Germany) African Beacon (VHF-FM from West Africa) Indian Beacon (Jülich) Middle Eastern Beacon (Jülich) West European Beacon (Jülich) European/Russian Beacon (Jülich) Refer to http://www.highadventure.org Regards (Bob Padula, Melbourne, Electronic DX Press via DXLD) ** POLAND. 6035, R Racja, Bialystok, Apr 16, 0440-0450, Belarusian talk, ID 0445 "Radyjo Ratsyya, Minsk", Belarusian pop song, 0448 another ID, 54544 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PORTUGAL. from http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/html/drmlongterm.htm "DRM test transmissions from Bonaire: Technical problems have delayed the start of the regular Mon-Fri transmissions listed in the current Radio Netherlands frequency schedule. In the meantime, regular test transmissions have started from Sines, Portugal." Just underneath on that web site is a grid of broadcasts and receiver locations. Here is a synopsis: ========== 11:00 to 11:55 tx SIN / 21760 / 260 deg, rx BON ---------- 12:00 to 12:55 tx SIN / 15440 / 30 deg, rx KLN, KTK, LDN, HIV ---------- 13:30 to 14:30 tx SIN / 17890 / 300 deg, rx LDN, OTW ========== TX Site SIN Sines ---------- RX sites: KLN Köln, Germany, BON Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles, OTW Ottawa, Canada, KTK Kotka, Finland, LDN London, UK, HLV Hilversum, The Netherlands ========== (via Ricky Leong, QC, April 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No sign of it here April 20 at 1252 on 15440, maybe closed a bit early, but there were analog signals on 15435, 15445 which would not welcome it. There it was on 17890, however at 1337 check, harmfully interfering with analogs on 17885, 17895; no break for analog DRM IDs heard past 1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DXLD) ** QATAR. Hi Glenn, I thought the following excerpt of a column by Judy Rebick at cbc.ca might give you a chuckle: "The fire of youth rebellion is now raging around the world. It is now so widespread that the WTO is planning its next meeting in Qatar, a Middle Eastern country in the middle of the desert that no one has ever heard of." --from http://cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/columns/rebick/rebick010417.html (Ricky Leong, DXLD) Chuckle. Especially since the peninsula of Qatar is in the middle of the Persian Gulf, not the desert (gh) ** RUSSIA. I heard an announcement on VOR last night that their Space Quiz contest was being extended beyond the original deadline of April 12. Originally submissions had to be mailed by April 12 with winners to be announced on June 15. Now the deadline is June 12 with winners to be announced on July 15. It was not clear whether this contest is separate from the previous one or simply an extension of the original deadline (Joe Buch, April 19, swprograms via DXLD) ** RWANDA. 6055, Radio Rwanda, April 13 2045 western pop music, multiple IDs and frequencies in multiple languages, including English and French; signal very poor at tune in, but improving dramatically by the minute to about 90% intelligibility by the English ID @ 2059, into national anthem, test tone, then off (Ralph Brandi, NJ, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** SINGAPORE. The new address of the BBC Far Eastern Relay Station is as follows: Merlin Communications International Ltd, 51 Turut Track, Singapore 718930. The following is a description of the place: "Turut, Malay meaning to follow. On 14 march 1967 Dewan Bahasa, the then street naming authority decided to use the word track in preference to road as it was undeveloped. This area off Lim Chu Kang Road is home to the vast array of antennas belonging to the BBC Far Eastern Relay Station which rebroadcasts the BBC short-wave service as well as home to SingTel radio stations." I also found a detailed map showing the SingTel (now SIM Communications) station a few hektometers away from the BBC station. Apparently the MediaCorp Radio and R Singapore International SW station is separate from the BBC station. The coordinates as rounded off to whole minutes become the same: 103.44E, 01.25N (Olle Alm, Sweden, Apr 16, BC-DX via DXLD) ** SOUTH AFRICA. World Amateur Radio Day specials April 18: in the 1900 hour, 17590 to CAf was fairly good; in the 2000 hour, 15475 to Eu was not so good, and had a light het I suspect came from LRA-36, which itself was otherwise undetectable. April 19 in the 0200 hour, 9585 was good, after BBC had left 9590. In all three transmissions I noticed a number of audio dropouts lasting roughly a minute each, interrupting what was being said. Did not note whether they were at exactly the same point each time, and thus in the audio input. Too bad Channel Africa won`t aim a daily English broadcast to us at 0200 like Radio RSA did (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Clear Channel is already working on a system to remove commercial matter from their internet streams and substituting something else. Have to give them credit for a brilliant idea. I have a feeling that CC wont be without their streams for very long (Lee Freshwater, Ocala, FL, April 12, NRC-AM via DXLD) Lee, That indeed would be a brilliant step. Moreover, this would help bring about a final resolution as advertisers themselves won't likely sit back taking this lightly once they discover that their commercials are being clipped. They'll demand a restoration which will force some compromise. Rick is so right that greed is a life killer (Mike Pietruk, ibid.) Given that most Internet listeners in particular wouldn't want the commercials anyway (unless they were seeking to create bogus loggings for a DX club, ) this development may have already been in progress before the issue of the AFTRA contract arose. After all, as long as you're getting your billings from the broadcast side, and the advertiser isn't paying you extra for being heard over the Internet, and if Internet listeners, many of them likely remote, don't went the ads anyway (cross-reference Napster?), then why not zap the ads? (Russ Edmunds, Blue Bell, PA, ibid.) Russ, Many of CC`s advertisers are national brands or firms, not just the local grocer, dry cleaner, or sporting goods store. And more and more stations are beginning to promote their webcasting indicating that they want that web presence communicated not only to listeners but also to advertisers and, yes, brokertime buyers. As a listener, I want the stream to be a genuine reflection of the station not something filtered down. After all, local commercials help make a far away place more familiar. And with the clarity of the Internet, it sounds like local radio (Pietruk, ibid.) The ads will just be replaced with other netspecific ads or with fill promos and PSAs (David Gleason, ibid.) ** U S A [clandestine]. Steve Anderson resumed United Patriot Radio (altho I did not hear an ID confirming still using that name) UT April 19th; checked 3260-USB at 0158 and heard his address being spelt out, and 0200 into his usual show. Contrary to the previous info from CRW, he explained that the reason for absence was that just before Norm Creek there was a large electrical storm, a switching station was hit, and despite protection, his transmitter was torn up. Someone from WV has supplied a new one, but in future will close down when electrical storm approaches, since can`t keep getting new transmitters. Said had parted ways with Kentucky State Militia because they objected to his America-is-for-Christians-only statements -- ``people that fly around on magic carpets need to leave``, he reiterated, -- but no hard feelings and they were not fighting among themselves. Then he read a passage from John in the Christian Bible, played a track from a Tennessee Ernie Ford CD he just purchased, ``Onward Christian Soldiers``, and so on; transmitter was still on at 0400 check, presumably with Genesis network programming. Next night, UT April 20, tuned in earlier around 0140 and nothing on 3260-USB, but he came on about 0147 making excuses for another outage; so about to make it through notorious April 19 without being busted. BTW, I`ve received several reports of ``patriot`` type programming on 3270 and 12172, wondering if this is UPR. While IDs may be scarce on either, these are well-established frequencies of licensed WWFV ex- WGTG (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) CLANDESTINE to/from USA 3260 World Patriot Radio 0100 Don, Tony, and Steve, discussing arms, ammo protection, (how to keep your powder dry), Kentucky militia (no longer affiliated), etc. not really a BS [? -gh], but still on the air with huge signal (Dave Tomasko, IL, Apr 19, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Reactivated this date after repairing their equipment. Also heard 12182 later on the 19th (Hans Johnson, AZ, ibid.) Really WPR, not UPR? I`d think using the name ``World`` would be verboten, as in New World Order (gh, DXLD) ** U S A [non}. HI, Glenn: Surprised to find AFRTS programing on an old fqy again, 10942,5 kHz, on Easter Monday (4/16) thruout most of the day, with super signal, also while I`m typing this on 4/18 (1822z). Remembering the `old` days when this fqy was reported coming via a UK site (Barford something). The other channels, like 6459 or 12690 kHz, were too much weaker this morning @ 0325z (Joachim Kornek, Dortmund, Germany, April 18, WORLD OF RADIO 1077, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. 15485 1700-1859 to zones 46,47,52,53 160 degrees UMC The United Methodist Church. Strange frequency selection, co-channel both BBC Skelton WS-EUR program (\\9410) and UMC via DTK Jülich in 1700-1800 time range. Skelton 0600-1800 300 kW 180 degrees towards Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean - zones 27S,37 , and Jülich at 160 degrees towards zones 46,47,52,53 (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX, Apr 18) Well, when they started using 15485 in January, UMC had it to themselves, as I recall coming up immediately after BBC closed (gh) ** U S A [non]. TAIWAN New frequency for CSPS via Taiwan. Herald Broadcasting has changed their 11870 at 1000-1100 to new 11780 due to interference (Fyodor Brazhnikov, Russia, Electronic DX Press Apr 18 via BC-DX via DXLD) ** VATICAN/ITALY. Italy, Vatican to begin joint tests on radio emissions 19 April | Text of report by Italian TV teletext on 18 April The programme of joint measurements on electromagnetic emissions from the [Vatican Radio] transmission site at Santa Maria di Galeria [Rome] will begin tomorrow. The data will be released within three weeks, and then solutions will be adopted. This was announced at the end of the meeting of the Bilateral Commission (Foreign Ministry and Holy See). For the environment minister [Willer Bordon], however, the date for resolving the question of Vatican Radio's emissions "remains 30 April", the date fixed at the cabinet meeting on 11 April. Source: Rai TV teletext, Rome, in Italian 1931 gmt 18 Apr 01 (via BBCM via DXLD) This Vatican story is getting confusing. This item says that Vatican Radio halved its MW power on February 1 (presumably 2001)... DECLARATION BY HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE DIRECTOR VATICAN CITY, APR 11, 2001 (VIS) - Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls released the following declaration late yesterday: "The head of the Italian delegation, Ambassador Umberto Vattani, and that of the Holy See Delegation, Msgr. Celestino Migliore, met this evening to detail the work of the Italy-Holy See Bilateral Commission in charge of the solution of the problems related to the intensity of (Vatican Radio's) electromagnetic fields in Santa Maria di Galeria. "In expectation of the completion of the process of joint measurement, established by the technical protocol adopted last March 23, the Holy See confirms that it has reduced, unilaterally, by 50% the power of medium wave emission from Vatican Radio's Broadcasting Center in Santa Maria di Galeria, since last February 1, and is committed to reducing the duration of emission of the same broadcasting station in order to take into account the thresholds established by Ministerial Decree n. 381/98. "The Bilateral Commission will meet again on April 18." OP/VATICAN RADIO/NAVARRO-VALLS VIS 010411 (170) (via Kim Elliott, April 19, DXLD) ###