DX LISTENING DIGEST 1-168, November 9, 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 Check the WOR websites: http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/ http://www.worldofradio.com [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 #1104 (STREAM) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1104.ram (DOWNLOAD) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1104.rm (SUMMARY) http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/wor1104.html NEXT AIRINGS ON WWCR: UT Saturday 0300 on 3215, 1230 on 15685, Sun 0330 on 5070, 0730 on 3215 NEXT AIRINGS ON RFPI: UT Saturday 0130, 0730, 1330, 1800; UT Sun 0000, 0600, 1200 on some of: 21815-USB, 15040, 7445 (when reactivated) WORLD OF RADIO ON WRN: Sat 0900 to rest of world; Sat 1500 to North America WORLD OF RADIO on WBCQ. Contrary to what we were told earlier, second airing of WOR did not appear UT Thu at 0600 on 7415, Nov 9. We shall try to have this straightened out by next week (gh) HFCC B-01 season table available: http://www.hfcc.org/data/index.html (Wolfgang Bueschel, Nov 9, and Graham Powell, DXLD) ** AFGHANISTAN. Glenn, Although the US Department of Defense will not state for the record whether the single-frequency wind-up radios are being dropped into Afghanistan, I understand from sources in the media who cover the Pentagon that they have not been. It is also interesting to note that while the psyops broadcasts on 8700 kHz do not even carry an identification the psyops messages do not seem to have changed! To the best of my knowledge, having monitored the broadcasts nearly every day, "Information Radio" continues to air the same 13 messages that were translated for the press by the Pentagon last month. The total number of psyops messages broadcast over the Voice of the Gulf during the Gulf War hit 189. On the other hand, the U.S. dropped leaflets around Mazar-e-Sharif this week that show an aerial recon photo of Taliban leader Mullah Omar's car. His license plate is clearly legible! "We are watching!" http://www.clandestineradio.com/dossier/afghanistan/leaflets_nov7.htm (Nick Grace, DC, Nov 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Also see USA for more news about R. Free Afghanistan. And news reports on Nov 9 said the Balkh Province city Mazar E-Sharif had fallen, so BBCM may no longer have the Taliban to monitor on 1584 kHz (gh, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ARGENTINA. I finally fiddled around a bit with the Yaesu, rather than just using the little bedside Sony 7600G... RAE ARGENTINA was on EXACTLY 11710.00 last night (UT Thu Nov.8) in Portuguese from 0130, then their exceedingly long multi-lingual ID sequence at 0159. Hammered by slop from RHC's sideband transmitter on 11705, but still a very good signal, stronger than usual... AND dead- on frequency! What's going on, did they finally get a new transmitter? (Randy Stewart, Battlefield [Springfield] MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA (presumed). LOUD bubble jammer 0139 on otherwise UN-occupied 15330 on UT Thu Nov. 8. Why are they wasting the energy?? Sorry Fidel, but this is listed as a SUMMER frequency for Radio Marti! Nobody's home... (Randy Stewart, Battlefield [Springfield] MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. The HFCC table shows that Deutsche Welle carries on 3995 the Turkish programme 1830-1900, and a check confirmed that this is indeed the case. Turkey is about 2000 km away from Germany and the 3995 antenna a vertical incidence dipole, so I guess the actual "target audience" are the numerous Turks here in Germany. Regards, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY. Alan Gale from England passes along via the NDB DX list that there will be a low frequency transmission commemorating Guglielmo Marconi's reception of radio signals across the Atlantic, the centennial of which is next month! The National Weather Service (NWS) of Germany will transmit a special broadcast for all friends of wireless for the occasion. Listen to the multi-lingual telegraph broadcast in Morse Code over DDH47 located at Pinneberg (54.7N 9.6E) on 147.3 kHz, 12 Dec 2001 22:30 GMT. They do not use this frequency normally between 21.50 (the end of their rtty wx report Eastern Med (in German) and 0500 apart from any weather warnings that might be issued during that period for the North Sea and Baltic areas. More info from http://www.dwd.de/services/gfsf/sf100y.html (via MARE and Robin L. Harwood via DXLD) ** INDIA (presumed). 11620 presumed All India Radio 0148 Nov 8 --- not listed here at this time in 2002 "Passport," but could hardly be anything else. Usual huge signal with moderate flutter, typical Indian film music-style vocals & instrumentals, with announcements by man in unknown language (this may be their Urdu service--it's listed as such on their website, albeit in a schedule that expired on 28 October...). (Randy Stewart, Battlefield [Springfield] MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN. Powerful radio transmitter to begin broadcast within a month | Text of report by Iranian radio on 8 November One of the biggest radio transmitters of the world, with the strength of one megawatt [1000 kW], will begin broadcasting within a month. The deputy director in charge of projects and expansion in the Voice and Vision Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran said: This powerful transmitter is installed in the plain near Qazvin [120 km west of Tehran]. The cost of building and equipping the transmitter was 40 gigarials and 500,000 dollars in foreign currency. After opening this transmitting station, all the people in the central regions of Iran as well as in some neighbouring countries will be able to receive programmes of the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Source: Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Tehran, in Persian 0330 gmt 8 Nov 01 (via BBCM via DXLD) WTFK??! ** NIGERIA. Radio Nigeria-Abuja now heard on shortwave The Radio Nigeria station in the country's capital, Abuja, is now being heard on the shortwave frequency of 7275 kHz. The station on this frequency identifies itself as "The National Service of Radio Nigeria, Abuja" and as "The Voice of Unity". It announces that it broadcasts at 0430-2305 gmt on 909 kHz mediumwave, with the shortwave relay on 7275 kHz operating at 0430-1915 gmt. However, the station is noted frequently to be off the air on the 7275 kHz channel, which is believed to be the result of the regular power cuts that affect a number of Radio Nigeria outlets. In the past, the frequency of 7275 kHz has been used by the Radio Nigeria station at Kaduna. However, the Kaduna station now uses 4770 and 6090 kHz. Other Radio Nigeria stations observed to be operational on shortwave at present are those at: - Lagos, which identifies itself as "The National Service of Radio Nigeria, Lagos" (on 3326 kHz, operating in parallel with 1089 kHz mediumwave); - Enugu (6025 kHz); - Ibadan (6050 kHz). At various times in the day the above stations carry a common programme, which identifies itself as "The Network Service of Radio Nigeria". This includes the 30-minute network news in English at 0600, 1500, 1800 and 2100 gmt. The separate Lagos-based external shortwave service, Voice of Nigeria, transmits on 7255 and 15120 kHz. Source: BBC Monitoring research, 8 Nov 01 (via DXLD) ** NIGERIA [non]. Dear Glenn, Just received the Salama Radio schedule ( http://www.salamaradio.org ). 73, (Erik Koie, Copenhagen, Nov 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hello Greetings. Thanks for your interest in Salama Radio. I am sorry that we have not been able to publish our new times on our website, but our new details are as follows: Frequency: 12.025MHz Time: 1900hrs Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, from 1900-1930 hrs is Hausa, 1930-2000 hrs English Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, from 1900-1920 hrs (Hausa), 1920-1940 hrs (Fulfulde) and 1940-2000 hrs (English). Thanks and Kind regards (Jacob Abdalla, Salama Radio via Erik Koie, DXLD) ** PAKISTAN. 15485 HIGHLY variable... presumed R.Pakistan with Qur`anic-like chanting & man in unID language mentioning Islamabad; fair-poor signal, but what was most notable was how the transmitter was drifting like a sonofagun! When I first tuned in around 0120 Nov 8 it was at around 15487.25 or so... within a three-minute period (0131-0134 UTC) it had slid from 15485.26 down to 15484.75 and still drifting down... (Randy Stewart, Battlefield [Springfield] MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UKRAINE. Glenn, I wonder if Radio Ukraine Int. "turned up the juice" as reception on November 8, 2001 at 0100 UT was S9 + 37 dB to S9 +47 dB. Very slight QRM from University Radio on 7375 kHz. I'm not even hearing Idea Radio on 7380 kHz. Much better reception than the past few days. 73, (Kraig, KG4LAC, Krist, VA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. USA Today, 8-Nov-2001: House approves funds for Radio Free Afghanistan The House voted 405-2 to provide more [than?] $27 million over 2 years for U.S. news broadcasts into Afghanistan in local languages. It's part of an effort to counter propaganda broadcasts. "We are falling behind in the battle for the minds and hearts and souls of the people of Afghanistan," said California Rep. Tom Lantos, ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee. There is no similar bill pending in the Senate. [The editorial page of the same USA Today issue also contains a lengthy commentary about roll of the Voice of America in US international relations. Following is a revealing portion:] During the 1990's, the VOA fought running battles with House members who couldn't understand why broadcasts were needed in an era of faxes and CNN. Or, why broadcasts were required in foreign tongues. Since Sept. 11, several more steps down the isolationist path have been diverted because the crisis exposed their foolishness. Harold also adds that Since about 4-Nov, almost all of my digital signal cable channels have been breaking up. A call to Charter sez that due to "security measures implemented by the government", radar signals are interfering. Mercury Net ISP also seems to be urping & burping more lately-- same problem? --(Harold Frodge, MI, MARE Nov 9 via DXLD) What radar are they talking about? (--kvz, MARE via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. SRI LANKA/THAILAND. Interesting to note VOA News Now programming from Sri Lanka on 15250 & Thailand 15300 around 0135-0140 UT Thu Nov 8. The Thailand site's audio was a good three seconds ahead of the Sri Lanka relay--different satellite circuit? 15250 much the better of the two, very good with just some slight flutter; Udon Thani -15300 quite poor in fact (Randy Stewart, Battlefield [Springfield] MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. New details: Officers kill militia voice; deputy shot... Helmet might have helped, by Mark Shaffer, The Arizona Republic, Nov. 07, 2001 12:00:00 EAGAR - One of the country's most influential militia radio broadcasters was killed early Tuesday in a hail of gunfire when law officers tried to arrest him on a warrant accusing him of aggravated assault. William Milton Cooper, 58, whose apocalyptic, constitutionalist shortwave radio programs were a major influence on Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, was shot to death after Cooper shot and critically wounded an Apache County sheriff's deputy who had tried to arrest him, officers said. The officer, Robert Marinez, 40, was listed in critical condition at St Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. Apache County Sheriff Brian Hounshell said Marinez, a former Marine and Persian Gulf War veteran, was shot twice in the head by what was believed to be a .45-caliber pistol. The officer was expected to survive, Hounshell said, after undergoing two hours of surgery Tuesday morning. Marinez's skull was fractured, and surgeons removed bone fragments from near his brain, the sheriff said. Cooper had been indicted on federal charges of failing to pay taxes from 1992 to 1994 and became a fugitive after failing to appear for a U.S. District Court hearing in Phoenix three years ago. Scott Garms, Eagar's police chief, said he had urged federal law officers to stay away from Cooper's two-story compound, high on a mesa overlooking Round Valley, because militia group members do not recognize the legitimacy of federal law officers. "We certainly didn't want to make him a martyr," Garms said. The police chief said the effort to arrest Cooper became a local law enforcement matter in July after Cooper ordered a local man to leave land that Cooper did not own atop the mesa and then followed the man about two miles to his home. Cooper then pulled a gun and pointed it at the man's face, Garms said. That resulted in a warrant for Cooper's arrest. Seventeen officers were involved in the operation, which started at 11:40 p.m. Monday, Garms and Hounshell said. Garms said a group of undercover officers in a pickup truck pretended to be "people just acting normal up there at night" in a ruse to draw Cooper out of his house to adjoining property 200 yards away. But Cooper surprised the officers by driving, not walking, to them, and he never left the vehicle during a verbal altercation. During that confrontation, a second undercover police vehicle drove to Cooper's property line and blocked the road, Garms said. But on the way back to his house, Cooper drove off the side of the road and tried to run over sheriff's Sgt. Steve Brown, who dived out of the way, Hounshell said. Cooper then parked his vehicle in front of his house, and Marinez followed him toward his front door while admonishing him to surrender, Hounshell said. Near the door, Cooper turned and fired an undetermined number of rounds at Marinez, who was wearing a bulletproof vest but no helmet, Hounshell said, adding that officers had not seen Cooper's handgun before he fired it. At that point, another sheriff's deputy who had been at the side of Cooper's home, approached Cooper and opened fire. Hounshell said he did not know where or how many times Cooper was struck, saying a state Department of Public Safety shooting -review team had been dispatched to the site. Hounshell declined to identify the officer. Cooper had said numerous times on his radio show, Hour of the Time, and posted on his Web site, that he had been under siege by "Nazi jackbooted thugs." He also had solicited donations for what he said was his fight against the U.S. government, which he said was responsible for the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City." He had vowed that he would not be taken alive," said Tom McCombs, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshal's Service in Phoenix. Garms said Cooper's radio show had been off the air for about a month because of a shortage of money. But in one of his last programs, Garms said, Cooper had accused the federal government of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. Glenn Jacobs, a Round Valley newspaper publisher and friend of Cooper, said he didn't think the police operation was unjustified. "I think Bill just went nuts. He was looking for martyrdom anyway and swore he would never surrender," Jacobs said. "They had him dead to rights on the aggravated assault." Jacobs also said that if the sheriff's deputies had allowed Cooper to enter his house, "they would have had a bloodbath on their hands." "He kept an AK-47 just inside his front door by a magazine rack," Jacobs said. A spokesman for a group that tracks militias said the shooting wasn't surprising given Cooper's history. In addition to his show, he was known within the militia movement for an influential book called Behold a Pale Horse, in which he wrote about global elites and conspiracies. "For more than 3 1/2 years, he had been holed up in his house in Eagar, threatening to kill police officers and federal agents," said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center. "He was talked about as a guy who talked crazy and made a lot of threats. The reality is that people like him are frequently exceedingly dangerous." James Nichols, brother of Oklahoma bombing co-defendant Terry Nichols, said during a 1996 court proceeding that McVeigh had been a regular listener of Cooper's programs in the months leading up to the Murrah bombing (Arizona Republic Nov 7 via Jack via Larry Van Horn, Monitoring Times, DXLD) As of Nov 9, The Hour of the Time still appears on WBCQ schedule UT Tue-Fri 0300-0400 on 7415. And link to http://williamcooper.com where we find someone is still running his website and claiming all reports on the incident except a press release displayed there are false. We haven`t had a chance to check what WBCQ is running in this timeslot yet (gh, DXLD) ** VIETNAM [non]. Presumably from HFCC B-01, VOV is shown relayed also via Moosbrunn, Austria, and Meyerton, South Africa. Are these actually in effect? We recall previous season had these scheduled but not activated (gh, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 5955 1800 2000 27,28W MOS 100 320 281001 310302 D G VOV MER 5970 2000 2130 28S SKN 250 150 281001 310302 D G VOV MER 6135 2100 2200 52E,53W,57NE MEY 100 5 281001 310302 D AFS VOV MER 6175 0100 0300 8 SAC 250 212 281001 310302 D G VOV MER 6175 0300 0500 2,6 SAC 250 268 281001 310302 D G VOV MER 7390 2000 2130 27,28,37 MSK 250 240 281001 310302 D RUS VOV MCB 7440 1800 2000 18,27,37 MSK 500 265 281001 310302 D RUS VOV MCB 12025 2000 2100 37S,46 SKN 250 177 281001 310302 D G VOV MER (via Wolfgang Bueschel, DXLD) VOV means Voice of Vietnam and MERlin brokers airtime at the Austrian Moosbrunn site. I checked at 1800 and indeed found Voice of Vietnam in English on 5955 with Moosbrunn-like Optimod settings (high compression ratio). Evidently VoV no longer uses Russian transmitters, at least 7440 from "Moscow" is still registered for VoV after 1800 but carries Voice of Russia in French instead. Regards, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 11790, Nov 8 0148 to 0200 sign off with man in what sounded like an Indian subcontinental language; final announcement by woman before going off, but couldn't pick an ID out of it. Best in USB but still suffering slop from Deutsche Welle-11785. HFCC's (outdated) A01 online list shows Voice of Russia here from 0100-0200, but this sounded more like All India Radio to me. Decent signal (Randy Stewart, Battlefield [Springfield] MO, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###