GLENN HAUSER'S SHORTWAVE/DX REPORT 99-41, Sept. 23, 1999 {Items from this and all our reports may be reproduced and re- reproduced only providing full credit be maintained at all stages} THIS WEEK ON WORLD OF RADIO 1004. See topic summary at http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/wor1004.html THIS MONTH ON CONTINENT OF MEDIA 9907. See topic summary at http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/com9907.html ** AUSTRALIA. David Parkinson, chairman of HCJB's Australian board, was interviewed on DX Partyline Sept 18 regarding their plans for a SW station. The location is Cananara (sp?) in the NW part of the Northern Territory. A big dam wall is nearby with the possibility of hydroelectric power being generated at a fraction of the cost for electricity from the grid. HCJB-Au is helping get legislation passed to allow it to be licensed to broadcast on SW from Australia, and believes they have the support of the major parties. It is believed that 60 percent of the world’s population could be reached from this location, in the ``10-40 window,'' referring to latitudes [10 south to 40 north?]. Coverage would range from north of Japan across China, Mongolia, part of Russia, India, and all the islands in between, over to the east coast of Africa. Exactly what is built depends on whether the `U S Board' [evidently meaning the ex-Board for International Broadcasting] want to take part in the project. HCJB-Au already has $750K worth of towers obtained in Victoria for $30K, and dismantled for easy shipping. Ian Williams in Victoria already has some curtain antennas on his property and has done propagation/engineering studies. Transmitters would cost about $400K each, and would take six months to be delivered; it would take at least two years before anything is ready to go on the air. Perhaps six HC-100 transmitters like those in Quito and associated antennas would be installed, depending on the needs of IBB. God chose the site, he imagines. 200 acres of farm land was donated, and they also hope to get adjoining land from the government. (our summary of interview with Allen Graham on HCJB-Ecuador DX Partyline Sept 18) We already see strange bedfellows in relay and joint venture deals in international broadcasting, but in the US we have something called separation of church and state... (Hauser) ** AZERBAIJAN. 9165 - Dada Gorgud English program started just after Arabic at 1700 with chime, then mx and ID by woman as "This is Radio Dada Gorgud from Azerbaijan broadcasting daily from Baku the capital of Azerbaijan Republic on 1296 and 9165 Khz" then followed by talk mainly on Azerbaijan and songs. The English program ended at 1730 after ID, then Russian. Good signal but distorted audio. (Mahendra Vaghjee, Mauritius, 13/14 Sep, WORLD OF RADIO 1004) ** BELARUS. R. Belarus Int’l, 11670, Sept 11 [UT Sat] 0200-0230 English news, commentary, local music. Sked given. Fair, but some splatter from 11675. Weaker on //7210 (Brian Alexander, PA) English is not daily (gh) ** BOLIVIA. Checking 6105 this morning, I found CP92, Radio Panamericana, La Paz, with what sounded like an anthem at 1010 UT, followed by great Andean cuecas and a time announcement between each tune. Signal was building to a good level by 1022; zero-beat was at 6105.5 (John Cobb, Roswell, GA, Sept 21, WORLD OF RADIO 1004) ** BOLIVIA. R. Panamericana is testing RealAudio since Sept 16. Heard the satellite fed international Informativo Solar news program Sept 21 at 1800. Participants in this program, which has been on the air for several years, are R Programas del Peru, RCN Colombia, R Caracas R, R Quito, R Mitre and R Panamericana. http://www.panamericana-bolivia.com/indice.html (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, Sept 21, WORLD OF RADIO 1004) ** CANADA. Don't you believe that the Coalition to Restore Full RCI Funding played no role at all in saving RCI, as implied by Ian McFarland in an article in the September MONITORING TIMES making no reference whatsoever to the Coaltion. In fact, we played a pivotal role, while Mr. McFarland was no longer employed by RCI, and for two years was not even in Canada. Our letter in greater detail is to be published in the November issue (gh's summary of lengthy rebuttal by Sheldon Harvey, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING) ** COLOMBIA. Schedule of FARC Voz de la Resistencia, got from their chief engineer: Bloque Sur daily 1100, 1700, 2130 on 6240 Comando Conjunto Central daily 1300, 2000 on 6240 Bloque Oriental daily 1130, 2130 on 6170 Comando Conjunto Occidental Sundays 1300 on 6240 Zona de Despeje [literally, cleared zone] area del Caqueta daily 1800 on 6240 (Rocco Cotroneo, visiting Bogota and Caqueta August 25-31 via Play DX, MUNDO RADIAL and WORLD OF RADIO 1004) ** COLOMBIA. 4955 Sept 15 Radiodifusora Nacional de Colombia, Bogota, 2340-2355, 44444, programa de familiares enviando mensajes a los secuestrados, en paralelo a los MW 570 (2-3) y 580 (5!) RF! 6170 Sept 15 "Caracol-Florencia", 1142-1202+, 23332, TC "6-42 en Caracol", dando tels como 435-2199 y 435-6785, locutor dando mencion de "ultima hora caracol", llamada de los oyentes opinando sobre el tema del alumbrado publico, a las 1200 UT con Full ID luego con anuncios comerciales. Frecuencia reactivada. CLANDESTINA/COLOMBIA 6095 Sept 15 "Voz de la Resistencia"-Comando Central, *1130-1230*, 22222, Primera Emision, mezclandose con una no identificada en Frances [debe ser WSHB! -gh]. NOTA: tal vez se movieron de los 6170 (ver Colombia/6170) a la nueva frecuencia para dejarle libre a Caracol Florencia?! Nota 2: tambien tienen dificultad en la segunda emision o sea entre las *2130-2230*, Nota 3: Aun escuchando algo ahora muy debil a las *1415-1500* en los 6240 KHz la emision de Voz de la Resistencia - Comando de Occidente. Nota 4: 0j0 que esto se basa solo en monitoreo hecho por mi en Cali, Colombia (todo: Yimber Gaviria, Sept 16, MUNDO RADIAL and WORLD OF RADIO 1004) Web: http://www.freeyellow.com/members6/gaviria/index.html ** COSTA RICA. Some tidbits from James Latham on RFPI's XII Anniversary Fiesta on the Air Sept 17 UT 0000-0400: George Thurman called in to suggest RPFI should look into acquiring the 250 kW KGEI transmitter which is in storage in Idaho, no plans for use by present owners. RFPI plans a full-time UN channel, and to serve as a "rapid-response" service to areas in crisis. Three-phase power line is now in place, amounting to a $25K gift to UFP and RFPI, so there is no longer a power supply obstacle to installing bigger transmitters. Looking at live streaming on internet very soon; and distributing radio programs produced here by mpeg files to a network of affiliates. This has been RFPI's most difficult year. The four hour Fiesta and two hours leading up to it are available at RFPI website http://www.rfpi.org/webcast.html (Glenn Hauser, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING) ** DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. 4960.12, R Villa-La Sencilla, Santo Domingo, 0010 Sep 21, nearly continuous bachata mx, occasional male announcer. Ad for Banco Popular in Santo Domingo, then man with ID followed by singing ID around 0035, occasional interjections of "R Villa". Listed in WRTH on 1330. Ex-R. Cima, last reported in November 1998. (Jay Novello, NC, Sep 21, WORLD OF RADIO 1004) ** EGYPT. R. Cairo, 9900, Sept 11 2345 English mailbag, commentary, ID, local music. Very strong and very good audio for a change. In the past has always been very strong but with poor distorted audio. But Sept 18 at 0010, back to their normal distorted audio (Brian Alexander, PA, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING) ** GERMANY. Dear Feminine Readers and Masculine Readers: In the August issue of DW-PLUS, I requested you to contribute towards the costs of our magazine. As a result of budget cuts, we are no longer able to provide a printed magazine every month, and will cease publishing DW- PLUS at the end of the year. We have decided to return your voluntary contributions. We intend expanding our DW-online service. (Dieter Weirich, DW Intendant, Oct. DW Plus condensed by Hauser) ** IRELAND [non]. Re SW/DX Report 99-38 and 99-40: It looks to me like a taping foul-up did occur. Let me theorise: RTE Radio 1 does indeed have a show about the cornucopia of radio, called "The Wide World Of Radio". In it, presenter Tim Lehane "selects some favourite (program) moments from round the globe". In a recent day and time change of schedule the show now goes out domestically on Saturday at 1705 UT, dislodging "News and Weekend Sport". It was this latter program that Merlin had been accustomed to taping from satellite and relaying later, UT next day 0130 on 6155. It looks like the Merlin folk forgot or did not know about the altered RTE schedule that particular weekend (Finbarr O'Driscoll, Sep 17, Ireland, WORLD OF RADIO 1004) ** IRELAND [non]. The tx sites that RTE used for recent SW sport special are confirmed here: Sackville: 13720 kHz to NAm Cypress Creek: 15240 kHz to C & SAm Taiwan: 15270 kHz to SE Asia Singapore: 15360 kHz to Australasia Meyerton: 21640 kHz to Africa -- Confirmed start time: 1430 UT Sunday Sep 26 [football championship] (Finbarr O'Driscoll, Sep 17, Ireland, WORLD OF RADIO 1004) NOTE: CYPRESS CREEK! That's WSHB serving as relay for another station, quite a rarity (Hauser, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING) ** NEW ZEALAND. A serious fault has occurred in the operating system at the RNZI transmitter site. As a result of this fault we have had to suspend our current frequency schedule. Please note until further notice our transmission will be on one frequency only - 17675 kHz from 1650 to 1105 UT. We apologise to listeners who may suffer poor reception due to the limitation of RNZI using one frequency which may not suit some regions of the South Pacific specially during the period of sunrise. Transmission engineers are making every effort to repair the [synthesizer] fault as soon as possible. (Adrian Sainsbury, Technical Manager, Radio New Zealand International, Sept 18; also RNZI webpage via David Zantow, WORLD OF RADIO 1004) ** NEW ZEALAND. Radio NZ International continues to use 17675 exclusively, as of Wed. Sept 22, providing very good reception past 0800. One benefit of this arrangement is that there isn't the sesqui-minute break in programming that normally happens when they change freqs at 0706 (Ivan Grishin, Ont., WORLD OF RADIO 1004) ** OMAN. While scanning the SW bands I came across R. Sultanate of Oman in English on 15140 at 1425 tune-in Sept 20. Consisted of local announcements local timecheck for 1830, YL with news, ID 1436 followed by pops. Into Arabic at 1500 abruptly. Are they back with the English service or was this a switching error at the transmitter site? They were also heard on the 18th at around 1505 tune for a short while in English, then abruptly into Arabic around 1512 (Edwin Southwell, England, WORLD OF RADIO 1004) ** OMAN. R. Sultanate, from Muscat, good signal in English daily 2300- 2400 UT on 9735, such as Aug 10-11 (Sonya Van Zoest, Amsterdam, Netherlands, reporting for my column in CIDX Messenger) Such a broadcast is news to us, but she includes a copy of her QSL card printed in English for 1-6-1999 on 9735 at 2300-2400, signed by Salim Jamal Al-Nomani, Director of Frequencies, from R. Sultanate of Oman, Ministry of Information, P O Box 600, Musqat; fax (968) 604 629. I checked the other day and couldn't hear it here (Hauser, Sept 17) ** TAIWAN. Radio Taipei International is providing very good coverage of the earthquake. I just heard the UT 0700 broadcast on 5950 via WYFR. The usual 12-minute news bulletin at 0702 was devoted exclusively to the earthquake, the second 15 minutes featured a special report on the quake; the next 15 minutes, a program entitled "Taiwan Today", had even more details on the earthquake. The featured song in "Taiwan Today" was "Tomorrow will be a Better Day". Their usual Chinese language lesson ended the hour. RTI mentioned that they would be providing updated news of the earthquake, as it became available. Times & freqs for Radio Taipei International (providing very good reception in NAm, via WYFR): 0200-0300 & 0300-0400 5950, 9680 0700-0800 5950 2200-2300 15600 (Ivan Grishin, Ont., WORLD OF RADIO 1004) ** U K O G B A N I [non]. The Stafford Broadcasting Society will be hiring time on Merlin Network One every Friday night from 1st October 1900-2000 on 6010 via Ascension as well as via Astra transponder 58, 10.847 GHz vertically polarised on sub carriers 7.38/7.56 MHz. The on- air name will be Imagination and the station will feature an hour of soft rock from bands such as Barclay James Harvest and Pink Floyd. They have a website at http://www.imagination.clara.net/index.html The address of the station is P.O.Box 346, Stafford ST17 4AF, United Kingdom. The broadcasts will air for an initial period of six months. (Shaun Geraghty, Stafford, UK, World DX Club via Mike Barraclough, WORLD OF RADIO 1004) ** U S A. The Other Side of the Story. Hello Glenn, I saw in shortwave/DX report 99-38, Allan Weiner claimed he was betrayed by WBCQ's "former operations manager." If people would like to know Randi Steele's point of view in the WBCQ hate speech controversy, please direct them to http://www.frn.net/wkjce/realaudio/randisteel-wbcq/ There, they can hear Randi's interview on WBAI in Real Audio -- including a tape of Allan Weiner reading and endorsing the original hate speech policy on his program. They can also read a copy of WBCQ's original hate speech policy, and view some of Randi's comments about the situation. 73 (Anita Louise McCormick, Sept 16) ** U S A. Dear Glenn, New program starts this Tuesday 2030-2100 on 7415. Marion's Attic is a program featuring Miss Marion, a little old lady playing turn of the century music. She has an extensive collection of Al Edison cylinder recordings wich will be played directly on the air thru an electronic transducer. Should be some real interesting tunes. Back then Edison approved all recordings before they were released to the public. More great alternative stuff on WBCQ-The Planet!! Cheers, (Allan H. Weiner, WBCQ, WORLD OF RADIO 1004) ** U S A. Glenn: The Greenville sites are OK. They maintained their commercial power throughout except for one brief interruption. They also have water from their own wells. The Greenville Site A is somewhat isolated because of roads blocked by the high water. Three Greenville employees' homes were affected by the floods, and a fourth employee living in the flood area has not been heard from. Some employees not able to get home have been staying at the sites, which have showers, food, and basic amenities. Charlie Taylor lives in the flood area, but he has been at work. I'll have a report this weekend on Communications World. Interesting that Bound Brook NJ, a former VOA transmitter site, was also hard hit by the floods. 73 (Kim Elliott, VOA, Sept 22, WORLD OF RADIO 1004) ###