GLENN HAUSER'S SHORTWAVE/DX REPORT 99-55, Nov 18, 1999 {Items from this and all our reports may be reproduced and re- reproduced only providing full credit be maintained at all stages} WORLD OF RADIO ON RFPI: Special timings were observed Thu Nov 18, at 1800 WOR 1011 and 1830 COM 9908. Unless there is a new Global Community Forum this week, these would repeat UT Friday 0200 and 0230 (and 1000, 1030). RFPI may be announcing a replacement for 21460 on this week's Mailbag first airing Friday 2000. ** CANADA. Posted on the CRTC website Nov 17 is Decision CRTC 99-501, renewing the license not only of CKWX 1130 Vancouver, but shortwave CKFX 6080: "Rogers Broadcasting Limited Vancouver, British Columbia - 199812582 Application processed by Public Notice CRTC 1999-100 dated 21 June 1999 Licence renewal for CKWX and its transmitter The Commission renews the broadcasting licence for CKWX Vancouver and its (short-wave) transmitter CKFX from 1 January 2000 to 31 August 2006, subject to the conditions specified in the licence to be issued." (via Sheldon Harvey, Quebec, Nov 18) The 10-watt SW outlet has been off for a long time and there were no plans to revive it. At least it will be possible with the license renewal (Hauser) ** EGYPT. What is it, going on 10 years already? It is incredible that Radio Cairo North American Service English remains poorly modulated. In one year, I may hear one or two clear transmissions either on 9900 at 2300 or 9475 at 0300 [*0200]. And should a transmission be clear, it may not run the full course of the sesquihour. It may revert back to the low audio and distortion at some point. I have found it curious that sometimes I have heard 9900 clash with SRI and overpower 9905 with its modulation! Why can't they pump it up when it counts to us at 2300? They're wiped out by 9895 [RN] 98% of the time. At 0300 9475 is wiped out by 9470 VOR in Spanish. Engineers must be asleep in Cairo. It is the wee hours of the morning over there. Maybe they don't want to disrupt their nap with loud audio? I've complained for some 10 years and I know it's been mentioned on WOR, in MT, on various SWL programs on other stations, where poor modulation has been cited on Radio Cairo. Nobody seems to care or be motivated to find a solution. Why then burn the oil to keep the transmitter cooking? Few hear their programming. It's a moot point, just as their audio is nearly mute. Example: Nov 14 2300 on 9900 had one dropout signal. Some splatter as usual from 9895 Spanish R. Nederland. Cairo’s mod slightly better than usual. It only lasted a half hour or so, then as expected garbled, low volume, etc. It got worse. Splatter from RN not a major issue. R. Cairo needs engineering help (Bob Thomas, CT) ** GREECE [non]. As far as the IBB relays at 1800 UTC are concerned, the ERT5 schedule does not indicate sites. One thing I noticed the last two days is that 17565 kHz is almost inaudible here at work, while 17705 kHz reception has improved. I am suspecting that 17565 kHz switched to GA and 17705 to DL. Prior to this 17565 kHz was booming in, while 17705 kHz was weak. All this is just speculation on my part (Chris Rigas, IL, Nov 18) It is fun watching the speculation, but 17565 is GR, 17705 is DL. (Dan Ferguson, IBB, Nov 17) Actually 17565 is nowhere at the moment. It was missing whenever I checked on Nov 17, and is still missing as of 2033 UT on Nov 18. Strangely enough, at 1830 we did hear a very weak spur from the very strong 17705 around 17560.9, and synchronized with it (no, it's not my modem). On Nov 18 we first checked the frequencies at 1751 when 17565 had weak VOA Creole, and 17705 an extremely strong open carrier. At 1805 recheck, nothing on 17565, and VOG in English on 17705. I agree with Chris that 17705 now ``sounds like'' Delano based on strength, as the first hop is coming right down upon me, whilst Greenville reception is off the side, tho still quite potent here. However, I have no way of measuring absolute signal strength or direction-finding. I checked throughout the 13, 16 and 19 meterbands for a new VOG parallel, especially 15485 which was used last winter, but nothing. If and when 17565 comes back it will be interesting to check whether it now leads audio from 17705 or vice versa. I am positive that 17565 was a satellite hop behind 17705, from several checks with two receivers and two ears, and no one has disputed that. But if this does not confirm that 17565 was DL and 17705 GR, there must be some other explanation for the disparity, which I still am waiting to hear. Dan may truthfully say on Nov 17 that 17565 *is* GR and 17705 *is* DL but it depends on what the meaning of *is* is. Will he confirm or deny that in the first two weeks of November, until we brought it to their attention, 17705 was GR and 17565 was DL? I can imagine other circumstances that could account for swaps in this case, which would not necessarily be reflected on the IBB public schedule: maintenance could prevent one site/transmitter from operation (as indeed one is off currently) so depending on available capacity and/or priorities, the other site might substitute temporarily for broadcasts to the Americas, which both are equipped to cover. None of this is earth-shaking but everyone loves a mystery, and solving it (Glenn Hauser) ** RUSSIA. The R. Free Chechnya schedule given on WOR 1012 is already outdated. Here is the latest from St. Petersburg: Here is a new changed schedule of Radio Chechnya Svobodnaya (Radio Free Chechnya) transmissions via St. Petersburg starting on November 19 [Friday]: 5935 0300-0600 7305 1830-2100 7335 0300-0700 7340 1430-2100 7355 1500-1800 11635 0630-1430 15605 0730-1400 Old 15515 and 17665 kHz will be out of use. We are also planning to relay a Radio Chechnya Svobodnaya program via our Kaliningrad transmitting center starting on November 22 [Monday] according to the following schedule: 5905 1530-2100 9450 0300-0700 15355 0730-1500 Don't be surprised if you will not hear a Radio Gardarika signal exactly at 2015 in the coming time. We are planning to change their transmission time according to the following schedule [Fri, Sat, Sun only]: 2030-2130 tentatively on November 26-28 2030-2200 tentatively on December 3-5 and 10-12 All on old 5925 (ND) and 7330 (222 degrees). (Mikhail Timofeyev, St. Petersburg, Nov 18) THIS DAY'S TURKISH LESSON. If Turkey keeps grabbing the headlines with quakes, it's about time we all learned a few things about pronouncing Turkish. Duzce, for instance. Kudos to Ted Koppel and Ray Suarez who got pretty close. The U is umlauted, like in German. The C in Turkish before a soft vowel, and C with cedilla before a hard vowel, is pronounced like a J, that is [dzh]. Examples of the latter are the TRT transmitter site Cakirlar (delete the dot on the i), and Turkiye Cumhuriyeti, the official name of the country, Turkish Republic, obviously cognate to the Arabic Jamahariyah which is transliterated in a less confusing way for the uninitiated. Indonesian treats C in a similar way, but unvoiced, as in Banda Aceh. BTW, I measure Duzce at about 190 km from Ankara, so I don't think a quake at that distance is much excuse for VOT to dump English, as they remained technically capable of broadcasting in Turkish -- unless some of the English speaking staff or their families happened to be directly affected by the quake (Glenn Hauser) ###