GLENN HAUSER'S SHORTWAVE/DX REPORT 99-62, Nov 28, 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 WWCR: Glenn, had opportunity to check out, start to finish, "World Of Radio" #1013, Sat 27 Nov '99 1230 UT, 15685 kHz. Perfect TransAtlantic propagation to my part of WEu at least. You were concerned about reports of clash with Voice of Tibet during this particular time-slot. Re that, nil heard here. You came in clean as a whistle to Ireland, so presume UK, etc. too?, this time at least. (Finbarr O'Driscoll....Ireland) ** ANGUILLA. DGS is back on Nov 28, 11775 at 2020, but bad audio, and clashing with station in French; was better earlier at 1500 (Joe Hanlon, PA) It is VOA Sao Tome scheduled on 11775 at 1830-2030 daily (Hauser) ** CANADA. CKWX [sic; CKFX were the SW calls -gh] [6080] Chief Engineer Jack Wiebe tells Cumbre DX that reports of them renewing their license for shortwave are in error. "We gave that license up four years ago," he said. "We had no protection [from QRM] with just 10 watts on 6080 and management didn't want to spent the $40-50,000 it would take to get a new transmitter." Wiebe also said that their original transmitter had been built in 1947 and just wasn't going to work any longer. He added that the potential audience, villages along British Columbia's rugged coast, didn't have local radio in the late 40's and 50's when the shortwave started, but they certainly did when the left shortwave-they simply had no audience. He finished by saying that there is no chance of them returning to shortwave. (Hans Johnson, Cumbre DX, Copyright Nov 24) I would not be surprised if the unwanted license WAS renewed automatically by the CRTC along with co- pending transmitters (Hauser) ** CHECHNYA [non]. 9450/15355/5905 from the Bolshakovo site in Kaliningrad area carries no Chechnya Svobodnaya as originally announced but Radio Rossii instead. By the way, it appears that the same two transmitters at Popovka are used on 7310 until 0200 and on either 5935 or 7335 from 0300, hence 7310 is operated with just 400 instead of 800 kW from 0200. It looks like 9450/15355/5905 are used for Radio Rossii to fill the gap, which was created by kicking it off Popovka in favour of Chechnya Svobodnaya. Evidently this change was decided on very short notice prior to the inauguration of this additional transmitter operation on Monday. In general the Chechnya Svobodnaya operation appears as knitted with the hot needle. The 7340 outlet from Popovka is a ridiculous clash with Voice of Russia, which is carried on this channel from 1600, beaming towards Central Europe from a pair of 250 kW transmitters at Lesnoy, a suburb in the north of Moscow. Here in Germany of course the 500 kW main lobe from Lesnoy is ahead but some signal from Popovka remains audible underneath, undoubtly there will be the same situation the other way round in the Caucasus region. Moscow disturbing itself. Regards, (Kai Ludwig, Nov 27) ** CHINA. Once again this winter 11675 is best frequency for CRI in EG to Asia/Pacific region, at 1200 with great signals here in Philadelphia (Joe Hanlon, Nov 28) Also here but I would not call it great (Hauser, OK) ** COSTA RICA. RFPI's new 25930-USB was heard all day Nov 26, and still coming in well when turned off around 2415 UT Nov 27. Next morning was not audible at 1303 but in by 1356 recheck; remained audible again until turned off a few minutes after 2400 Nov 28; already in well before sunrise Nov 28 at 1235 check. (I have yet to have any luck with Germany 25740 or France 25820 before 1300 - wish they would leave them on at least an hour longer) (Glenn Hauser, OK) Very good audio from RFPI's new 11m frequency here in Germany. The signal is about S7 at 1200 UTC. At 1300 it went down near zero but 15 minutes later it climbed up again. Thanks to you Glenn for the information. vy73 de (Mathias Eisenkolb from Germany; Equip.: AOR AR 7030 Plus, ALA1530, 25m longwire, via hard-core-dx) ** COSTA RICA. New RFPI Mailbag was not done in time for Fri Nov 26 2000, but was inserted at 0400 UT Sat, tho at 1200 repeat defaulted back to previous week's show. Then again from 1830 Sat. New sked is 2300-1300 on 6975, 2100-0600 on 15050. 25930 is experimental with USB, 2 kW, high-gain antenna, a fixed log periodic some 40 feet long and wide, on the air approx 1300-2300 or a little longer awaiting reports. 15050 is currently using a fixed yagi. Board member Scott Wood is bringing a heavy-duty replacement rotor for it to be installed in a few months after the windy season. Streaming audio comes from Baltimore pickup [actually Annapolis per website], but address given last week was wrong. Should be http://www.boinklabs.com/ifpi meaning Internet for Peace International [However, we found the correct URL to be: http://www.boinklabs.com/ifpi.html]. The receiving antenna system for that is being improved this weekend with a new dipole. World Trade Watch, coverage of the WTO special ministerial meeting in Seattle by the Making Contact Team, starts Monday evening if possible, or delayed one day if necessary, 0000-0100 from UT Tue Nov 30 through Saturday. Global Community Forum / Far Right Radio Review expects to be back live this week, UT Fri Dec 3 at 0200. Working on lineup of experts to be interviewed in new season on KKK, Neo-Nazis, etc.; and may run speeches recently recorded at a UFP ceremony where Ted Turner accepted an honorary degree, as did Violeta Chamorro, ex-president of Nicaragua; and a great speech by Dr. Oscar Arias, ex-president of Costa Rica, which they hope to get translated (RFPI Mailbag with Joe Bernard and James Latham Nov 27, notes by Hauser) ** ECUADOR. Still lacking a program schedule for HCJB's Spanish service, I checked an old time for Musica del Ecuador, and found it still there, Sat Nov 27 at 1107-1129 very good on 11960 //6050. Used to be at the same time on Sundays too, unchecked yet (Glenn Hauser, OK) ** FRANCE. RFI had maritime weather for the North Atlantic in considerable detail, Sat Nov 27 at 1140 on 13640 in French, presumbly Guiana relay (Glenn Hauser, OK) ** FRANCE. The public broadcasting strike including RFI ended at 2300 UT Nov 25. Main issue was a 35-hour work week. The Communist-backed CGT union decided to return to work after signing a draft agreement with management. The strike lasted 10 days (France Info Radio via BBC Monitoring, summarised by Hauser) ** HONDURAS. 4960, Radio Buenas Nuevas/HRET 0002-0035 Nov 27, Mix of rustic guitar mx and various styles of religious mx. Anmts in Spanish & numerous IDs as Radio Buenas Nuevas in Puerto Lempira in test transmissions ('en prueba'). Religious talk then into canned childrens' program at 0032. Noted again at 0103 with anmts and ID, this time with HRET call sign, in native language. Fair. (Don Moore, IA) ** IRAN [non]. TAJIKISTAN CLANDESTINE? 7520 "Radio Ante National", Dushanbe. Heard on 25 and 27 Nov clear reception both times; S/on at 17.30 with Musical Tune then ID by man, then by woman as "In Radio Ante Nationala" and frequency was given; then followed immediately with an interview by woman/man probably in Persian lang mentioning many times Iran, Tehran Islami Regime etc. 17.45 a song of the same lang and immediately after ID and Freq was given then followed by a long talk by woman then talk woman and man 17.58 an english song and again after the song ID, Freq, Telephone number and as well as e-mail address was given then the same opening Tune and went off at 18.00. On 27 went off suddenly at 17.59 without completing the Telephone Number. Have already reported as Radio Antena National but sounded to me like Radio Ante National (Mahendra Vaghjee, Mauritius) ** ISRAEL. Someone pointed out the SW station is referred to on one of their schedules as Israel Radio International, but Yishai El-Dar was still calling it Voice of Israel as I heard him concluding English Nov 27 at 1529 on 17545. R. Netherlands also gets called R. Netherlands International by the unknowing (Glenn Hauser, OK) ** ISRAEL. Israel Radio International will remain on new 17715 0500- 0515 English to Au, and not on planned 17710 (Craig Tyson, Electronic DX Press). I saw a recent report that someone had heard this English service on 21715, but there is no current activity for IRI on 13 mb. The station now promotes itself as Israel Radio International. (Bob Padula, EDXP) ** ITALY / KOREA SOUTH [non]. IRRS seems to be deliberately interfering with the RKI UK Merlin relay on 3980 when RKI has French at 2100-2200 and English at 2200-2230, altho 3985 and 3990 are open. As soon as RKI closes at 2230, IRRS switches to 3985. There is no clash for 75m Merlin relays at 1900-2000 of RTI and at 2000-2100 of RKI. Hope this can be resolved, perhaps with IRRS using 3987.5 (Alan Holder, UKOGBANI, as quoted on RKI Multiwave Feedback Nov 28 via Hauser) I expect Alfredo Cotroneo of IRRS sees it differently, as he blames Merlin for the problem and has said previously that Merlin should stay away from IRRS (Hauser) ** KOREA SOUTH. A reminder of the 2nd annual Cyberstamp Exhibition on the RKI website which opens Dec 1. Associated quiz has prizes of CDs, computer, trip to Korea. New RKI jingles have been sent to Tooru Yamashita for posting on his website http://www.246.ne.jp/~abi. On Nov 25 KBS began 24h internet broadcast of entertainment, music, drama via 5 channels on demand from http://www.crezio.com (pronounced crazy-o), also linked from http://www.kbs.co.kr which also has a 1620-page webzine (RKI Multiwave Feedback Nov 28 as noted by Hauser) ** LITHUANIA. The latest nx from the Lithuanian R: due to severe financial problems (annual budget '99 cut of 8 million Litas [2 million USD] and planned budget 2000 cut), there are preliminary plans to discontinue entire LR-2 (FM+MW progr; culture and education), LR-3 progr (FM; classical mx), plenary meeting txions from the Parliament. NoAmerican SW service via DTK Juelich, SW txions to WeEUR 9710, RUS 9555 and probably all MW txions of LR-1 (666 / 1557). Nat public TV progr will be also shortened a few hrs per day. (Rimantas Pleikys, LTU, 25 Nov via Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania via Wolfgang Bueschel) From the way this is worded, I am not sure if it means the NAm service is planned to be cut (Hauser) ** MEXICO. XERTA changed their address a month ago, and in a couple weeks they will have a new programme, where I hope they can give me a space another time. Their new address is: Plaza San Juan, 5, piso 2, San Juan de Letran, Mexico, D.F. In a few weeks they will have phone number, and perhaps, the new frequency will change from 4800 to 4810. Julia Serradilla. (Elbe, A-DX, Nov 10 via Pypers, Cumbre DX) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. When checked Nov 28, RWNB 3235 was off the air (Chris Hambly, Victoria) ** PERU. HCJB DX Partyline Nov 27 had a report from a Swedish DXer now living near Quito, Bjoern Malm(?), contributing his Quito Logbook. This actually appears to contain some DX news. I have transcribed as best I could but cannot be sure everything is accurate; I looked at the HCJB website but all the DX news pages I found were several months old. Peruvian specialists will want to check this info out: 5130.93, R. Uno, Provincia de San Miguel, Cajamarca, 1000 with ABBA. 5340.06, Ondas del Pacifico, Ayabaca, at 0307 with test transmission for rural areas of the province of the same name, ute QRM, on the air at 2200-0300, ``la nueva sen~al...'' and wants reports. 5421.5, R. San Juan del Faique [no further details] 5678, R. Cielo, at 1055. Same station previously unID on 6705, now stronger here; ``romantica Radio Cielo''. Location unknown, Peru or Ecuador 6592, R. San Juan, Peru at 0035; not the same R. San Juan as on 5421.5 (via Hauser) ** ROMANIA. Sat Nov 27, RRI at 1303 was accurately on 17805.0; Sun Nov 28 check found English on 17805.0 at 1302, subaudible het with other 17805 station I have yet to identify; at 1350 recheck, still on 17805.0 but now also spur from 17824.9 domestic relay on 17807.4 approx. along with some other station on 17810, a tight squeeze (Glenn Hauser, OK) ** ROMANIA. 17790 RRI Bucharest tx Tiganesti 250 kW 247 degr put out some spurious signals in 16 mb, fundamental on 17790 Ar, 1400-1457: 17703 17720.5 17738.2 17755.22 17772.62 17807.36 17824.85 17842.1. (Wolfgang Bueschel, Germany, Nov 28) ** U S A. Revived SSB transmission of VOA Communications World underway Sun Nov 28 at *1358 on Greenville 18275 USB, LSB and residual carrier. Excellent signal here on ATS-909 and DX-390; the YB-400 BFO could not cope with the double sideband, crackly even when maximum attenuation; probably not enough carrier injection for this unusually high level of sideband transmission (Glenn Hauser, OK) ** U S A. At the Voice of America, we have been eagerly awaiting Congressional Passage of the budget for the federal fiscal year 2000, which officially began back on October first. There was talk of an eight million dollar budget cut for VOA. The budget bill that was passed by the House and the Senate earlier this week calls instead for a four-tenths-of-one-percent cut for all U.S. government agencies. That would amount to about a one million dollars cut for VOA Even if there were no cut in the VOA budget, mandatory salary raises for employees turn it into an effective decrease, meaning that VOA will probably have to cut some programs. The budget bill awaits President Clinton's signature. (Kim Elliott, VOA Communications World Nov 27 via John Norfolk) ** U S A. That significant date, January first, 2000, is just over a month a away. Truly amazing. And on that day, I will be here at the VOA studios to do three live and expanded broadcasts of Communications World. These will be at 1536, 1936, and 2336 Universal Time. These will not be call-in programs, but rather call-out programs. I'll be calling various people to find out if they made it through the Y2K changeover unscathed. If you would like me to give you a call on New Year's Day at any of these three times -- 1536, 1936, and 2336, the last being January second in the morning in Asia -- please let me know. My address and e-mail at the end of this program. Earlier this year, three radio plays were performed and recorded in front of audiences in the VOA auditorium. These plays will be broadcast on VOA News Now on December 18th and 25th, and January first, at 12 to 14, 17 to 19, and 21 to 23 Universal Time. On December 18th, the play will be 'The Substance of Fire,' by Jon Robin Baitz. December 25th, 'As Thousands Cheer,' by Moss Hart and Irving Berlin. January first, 'The Diary of Anne Frank,' adapted by Wendy Kessellman. Broadcast of these plays will pre-empt the B segment of Communications at 1336 and 2136, and the A segment at 1736. Because 'As Thousands Cheer' is only 90 minutes in length, the B segment on December 25th at 1336 will be heard. (Kim Elliott, VOA Communications World Nov 27 via John Norfolk) ** U S A. Bandscanning 19 MHz Nov 28 at 1210, came across V. of Greece on 19380 = 2 x 9690 VOA relay, fair signal but faded out a few minutes later, leading me to believe this be a propagated harmonic, tho seemingly a bit early for the same 75 degree beam from Delano which blasts in here later in the day on 17705 (Glenn Hauser, OK) ** U S A. Ran across DXing With Cumbre, Sun Nov 28 at 1750 on WHRA 17650; it was still last week's edition. Is it now being produced every other week? Surprise, this is not a time in Marie's latest list (Glenn Hauser, OK) ** VANUATU. 4960 is still on as of Nov 28, despite the tidal wave (Chris Hambly, Victoria) ** UNIDENTIFIED. Large rock-steady carrier on 4903.0 at 0458 Nov 28 proved at 0500 to be an English numbers station, woman very clearly enunciating, but with slight Germanic? accent, unsounding mechanical, started with 2 9 1 over and over, and at 0504, 503 503 27 27, then 92419 32758, each group twice; retune at 0509 to catch four zeros concluding transmission, open carrier and off. The signal was not as strong as WWCR 5070, but much steadier; at the moment WWV was not propagating on 5000 which had a mix of YVTO and WWVH (Glenn Hauser, OK) HUNTING HARMONICS WITH HAUSER. DXing harmonics is a cut above DXing mere fundamentals for several reasons; they are often or usually: 1) unintentional 2) very low power 3) denied by the station 4) requiring superior equipment or DXing techniques 5) allowing propagation study with broadcast signals in frequency ranges normally devoid of them 6) stations one cannot hear otherwise What more could one ask of a DX catch?? It is rather like stamp or coin collecting, where an error makes the item much more valuable! (Glenn Hauser) ###