[HCDX]: DX LISTENING DIGEST 00-01

[Glenn Hauser <wghauser@xxxxxxxxx>]

        DX LISTENING DIGEST 00-01, JANUARY 1, 2000
                EDITED BY GLENN HAUSER

Welcome to our new online publication. The name DX LISTENING DIGEST 
formerly applied to our print magazine. This DXLD is an outgrowth of 
and replaces GLENN HAUSER'S SHORTWAVE/DX REPORT, the final issue of 
which was numbered 99-84. DXLD will continue to be the primary outlet 
for our personal observations; for material contributed directly to 
us; and important timely or relevant reports from elsewhere. The 
emphasis will continue to be on SW, but not limited to SW 
broadcasting.

CREDITING. Since a number of editors have found it difficult to 
maintain credit to GHSWDXR, we shall put a DXLD credit here at the 
end of every item, with apologies to those who are reading each 
original entire issue where this is obvious.

{Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only providing 
full credit be maintained at all stages.}

** BHUTAN. Hello everywhere, today I can announce a little DX-
sensation. I could receive the Bhutan Broadcasting Service on 5030 
with a special program on New Year's Eve. In the first moment I 
didn't believe that I really tuned in to this exotic station. I 
thought it's the usual Chinese on that frequency until I caught a 
clear ID. The signal was very fine with S9 and with good modulation. 
Here the logging now in detail: 

BHUTAN 5030 Bhutan Broadcasting Service, Thimpu, December 31, 1740-
1830, English, phone-in-program with New Year's greetings, ID, count 
down at 1759, New Year 2000 in Bhutan at 1759 (!). SINPO 4 4 4 2 3-4 
A Happy New Year 2000 to all Michael Schnitzer mschnitzer@cc-
online.de Receiver: JRC NRD-525 Antenna: 25m longwire & DX-One 
Professional Location: Hassfurt, Germany (via hard-core-dx via DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** CAMBODIA. 11940, National Radio of Cambodia from Phnom Penh: I am 
observing this station for more that a week and the reception was not 
always easy at *0000 in English as there are heavy QRM from Romania 
and distorted audio but the best chance to hear it is the French 
program 0015-0030 then the reception is much better and after that it 
became difficult again. IS at 0015 then repeated ID by man as "Ici 
Radio National du Cambodge" then continued with ``we broadcast from 
Phnom Penh capital of Cambodia in French every day at 0715-0730 and 
1915-1930 Phnom Penh Time or 0015-0030 and 1215-1230 Universal Time 
on 110 meter band [sic - actually 405m -gh] that is 740 kHz and in 
the 25 meter band that is 11940.'' Normally the remaining program is 
being presented by woman with news and musical program until end of 
French but Dec 31 no news bulletin was given; instead it has been 
replaced by a special program of Festival 2000. (Mahendra Vaghjeek 
Mauritius, Dec 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST Jan 1) 

** CANADA. For those, like myself, who enjoyed and miss Ian Brown as 
host of "Sunday Morning", Mr. Brown is hosting the whole shebang on 
Sunday, January 2 at 1400-1700 UT on RCI [9640, 13655, 17710]. (Also 
available from 9-12 local time from CBC Radio One affiliates 
broadcasting in RealAudio.) (John Figliozzi, swprograms via DX 
LISTENING DIGEST Jan 1)

** CZECH REPUBLIC/POLAND. Radio Prague wants to resurrect its Russian 
service, says station director Miroslav Krupicka. He has also 
revealed plans for a joint venture with Radio Polonia. 

In a new year's eve interview on Prague's English service, Krupicka 
said: "I think the time is coming when we should consider 
reintroducing Russian because, like it or not, we are close to 
Russia, they influence our lives, they are our trade partners." 
However, he added that, despite having received support for the 
project from the Czech parliament and the Foreign Ministry, it was 
not clear yet whether the government would provide the money. He said 
Prague's previous Russian service was axed in 1990 (see note). 

Turning to the new joint venture with Radio Polonia, Krupicka said a 
new feature, Europe East, would be produced from the end of January 
by the English sections of the two stations. He explained that the 
new programme would concentrate on news from all over central and 
Eastern Europe. 

The millennium has got off to a bad start for Radio Prague on the 
internet. Its live audio feed started to malfunction on December 30th 
and was still not working properly on January 1st. Archived audio 
items could, however, be accessed as normal. 

Note: I have based the above report on a tape of Krupicka's 
interview. He definitely said the Russian transmissions were 
cancelled in 1990 but I doubt the veracity of this date. As far as I 
can remember, there were no Prague broadcasts in Russian during the 
60s, 70s and 80s except for a brief period in August 1968 when I 
remember hearing their emergency broadcasts in a series of languages, 
including Russian. It is my impression that the Russian broadcasts 
ended around September 1969 when Czechoslovakia embarked on the road 
of "normalization". Unfortunately I don't have the WRTH from that 
period to check and I am relying on my memory, which could be 
defective! (Roger Tidy, England, DX LISTENING DIGEST Jan 1)

** GERMANY. Deutsche Welle's English-language satellite and internet 
service will run for 24 hours a day, starting January 1st, according 
to an announcement on its website. (Roger Tidy, UKOGBANI, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST Jan 1)

** U S A. Y2K HITS ENID!!! Check the date on the homepage of 
http://enidnews.com (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST Jan 1)

** U S A. GLEN I GET LOTS OF REQUEST FOR QSL CARDS. OUR QSL POLICY: 
1. THE LISTENER MUST PROVIDE 5 HOURS OF PROGRAMMING DETAILS. THE 5 
HOURS DO NOT HAVE TO BE CONSECTUIVE BUT CAN BE ANY COMBO OF HOURS OR 
DAYS. 2. SELF ADDRESSED ENVLOPE. 3. POSTAGE OR 2 IRC'S FOR REPLY. 

WE WILL BE ADDING ANOTHER TRANSMITTER (5 TOTAL) THREE NEW ANTENNAS (7 
TOTAL), STARTED CONSTRUCTION ON 7OOO SQ FOOT TX BLDG. UPGRADING ALL 
TRANSMITTERS TO 120 KW ...NOW WE ARE / WILL BE MORE POWERFUL THAN 
WWCR / WHRI.. ETC. WITH MUCH BETTER ANTENNAS / DIRECTIONS. (Dave 
Frantz, WGTG, Jan 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

** U S A. Glenn--- Per Kevin L. Carter's radio column in the 12/31 
Philadelphia Inquirer, Dr. Laura and Rush Limbaugh will move their 
shows from WWDB-FM on 96.5 to WPHT-1210, effective Monday, January 
17--Dr. Laura from 9 am to noon (which means that Imus' final hour 
will be chopped off--so Imus is only aired 6-9am), and Rush from noon 
to 3pm. G. Gordon Liddy will be heard, on tape-delay, at 7-10 pm ET. 
WWDB thus will be going to all-local talk shows, also from Jan. 17. 
Among the changes they're making: Gil Gross moves from doing the 5-9 
am news block to hosting his own talk show at 9 am-noon ET. (Joe 
Hanlon, Philadelphia, Dec 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

NEW YEAR'S EVE MONITORING BY JOE HANLON, PHILADELPHIA

New Zealand on 6105 at 1005-1059 was mixing with WYFR in Spanish 
(guess no one reminded Adrian Sainsbury that WYFR was on this channel 
before 1100), but WYFR was off just before the clock struck midnight 
in NZ, 11 UTC, so I had a good signal when the celebrations began; 
heard commentary and some live rock music until around 1120, when I 
tuned out. 

Also heard R. Australia at 13 UTC on 9580 with their millennium 
arrival; fair-to-poor reception. I then ran to the TV to see the 
Sydney celebrations live on CNN. 

At 1458 Japan via Sackville was loud on 11705 (no trace of VOA-PHL 
underneath) until abrupt signoff; I searched around for another 
frequency by checking NASWA Listeners' Notebook Dec. '99 and the one 
frequency that was audible at 15 UTC was 15305 from French Guiana 
(not 15310 per RJ's schedule); reception was good. 

Later in the day: Couldn't find a frequency for Voice of Russia that 
could be on past 2100 UTC, so watched CNN and ABC to see the 
celebrations in Moscow--and what a day for Russia with Mr. Yeltsin's 
resignation being the big news item. 

At 2200 heard Israel's B-net on 11585 with a man and woman 
celebrating the arrival of Y2K in the studio--no live celebrations 
from Bethlehem as I monitored this but they must have had some live 
reports afterward. 

2300 UTC: heard DW on 15410 (German) on the SW8, and Spain on 15110 
(Spanish) on the ICF-2010 with celebrations from Berlin and Madrid, 
respectively-- wild celebrations, fireworks, and all; also checked 
the live video on CNN which stuck with the live shots from Paris, 
Madrid, Berlin and the Vatican; PBS had just-taped shots from other 
European cities like Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, and Zurich. Also 
tried RAI-International at same time on 9675/11800, but didn't bother 
to carry any live coverage from Rome of the Y2K arrival--no wonder 
they'll never improve on their SW programming, considering that 
government changes oh so often! 

0000 UTC: heard a few minutes of BBCWS on 5975 until Big Ben chimed 
in the Millennium and then the crowds went wild and the fireworks 
went off along the Thames River; ran back to the TV to see CNN's 
coverage from London and also with some live cut-ins from the 
Millennium Dome in Greenwich. CNN stayed with the coverage to its 
conclusion whereas ABC cut away to other events including 'N Sync 
doing a live performance. (Joe Hanlon, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

NEW YEAR'S EVE MONITORING BY GLENN HAUSER, OK, PART II

2300 DW on 15410 - a couple of people kept yammering and there was 
not even a timesignal or anything else to mark the moment!

0000 BBC on 9590 - For me, monitoring both BBC and WWV is mandatory 
at Jahrwechsel. I am pleased to report that Ben's first chime was 
precisely aligned with WWV. Suggestion to WWV next year when it may 
matter more: put a special greeting for each time zone at the top of 
the hour instead of the usual ID. If any station needs to let its 
hair down once in a while, it is WWV.

Afterwards I confess to defaulting to TV coverage, on multiplying 
networks. Some of the PBS narrators were doing so almost 
apologetically, so softly they could hardly be understood, but loud 
enough still to be annoying!

At 0600 UT here in the Central timezone on ABC, CBS and NBC 
affiliates, we were deprived of whatever coverage the networks were 
doing from Chicago, New Orleans, etc., for rather boring but oh-so-
local-live-latebreaking coverage in OKC and Tulsa. 

This was topped at 12:02:20 am CST by KXII-TV, channel 12 in Ardmore 
OK, which was up on tropo, doing their own very pale imitation of the 
Times Square balldrop, just a tad late with no one noticing, outdoing 
the poor Abu Dhabians. (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST Jan 
1)

SPECIAL LIVE MILLENIUM PROGRAMMES ON AFRICAN STATIONS 

KENYA. 4935 2140 in Af and EG with pop music and interview; some in 
audience predicted that the doom days are coming; was still on the 
air at 2230 

MADAGASCAR. Live program at Palais des Sport in Malagasy but time to 
time in Fr as well as "Bonne Année 2 0 0 0 ...Happy New year very 
strong since Nepal hasn't been heard on 5005 and went off at 0030 

TANZANIA was on 24 hours with Af and Eg songs While business as usual 
on Namibia, Mozambique, Angola, Lesotho and Uganda already went off 
2100; and Zimbabwe has not been heard on any freq and Madagascar was 
on 3306 (Mahendra Vaghjee, Mauritius, January 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

LATIN AMERICAN MUSIC STYLES WEB PAGE

Henrik Klemetz and Jay Novello are pleased to announce the
Latin American Music Styles web page, located at
http://havana.iwsp.com/radio/lamusic/ 

"Spanish music", "Latin rhythms", are standard labels used by 
DXers to describe the kind of music they hear from Latin American
broacasting stations.

By replacing "Spanish" and "Latin" with, say, "American" and "Anglo", 
the vagueness of such terms come into the open.

It is not an easy task to determine the home of a musical variety 
if you have to choose from more than 20 countries. Even a native
Latin American senses the difficulty, except of course when he has
to identify the kind of music which is unique to his home country.

To assist in the identification of different Latin music styles,
we present 90 samples for your listening enjoyment.  Some of the
styles represented are tropical, vallenato, cumbia, huayno, huaylas,
chicha, pasillo, charanga, danzon, mambo, samba and forro, as well
as the possibly less familiar joropo, bambuco, pasaje, bailecito,
carrilera, zamba, chamame and milonga.

Thanks for your interest, 73, and Happy New Year! (Jay Novello, via 
DX LISTENING DIGEST Jan 1)                                ###



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