[HCDX]: DX Listening Digest 00-83 June 30

["Glenn Hauser" <wghauser@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

	DX LISTENING DIGEST 00-83, June 30, 2000
	edited by Glenn Hauser, wghauser@xxxxxxxxxxx

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** ARGENTINA. Hi Glenn: Re DXLD 00-82 ARGENTINA RAE. We hear them
most nights in the summer, sometimes very strong. Just goes to show
you what several miles west does to those strong signals from Europe
& S. America. Most nights EE is on time [0200 on 11710] but some
evenings football in SS cuts into the English service. I am never
around for the EE to Europe transmission on 19 metres but perhaps
that is an alternate choice for ECNA listening. 73 (Mick Delmage,
Sherwood Park, Alberta, June 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ARGENTINA. 1630 kHz, La Red 92, Buenos Aires, JUN 09 2350 - pops
from 60's and 70's, ads, horse-racing results, and lots of ID's; SIO
454, with Tropicana next door on 1620 kHz at about half this
strength. [Jean Burnell, Newfoundland]
JUN 21 0800 - Good; woman in Spanish and Bee Gees' "Night Fever,"
over KCJJ. [Bruce Conti, Maine]

On 1640 kHz, R. Bolivia, Buenos Aires, JUN 10 0018 - Andean tunes,
announcer took phones calls and lots of dedications; SIO 243-2. [Jean
Burnell, Newfoundland]

On 1650 kHz, R. AM Restauración, Hurlingham, JUN 10 0010 - mainly
back-to-back SS religious songs, finally some announcement with ID at
0055; peaking at SIO 343, but poor by 0055. [Jean Burnell,
Newfoundland]

On 1670 kHz, BBC Relay, Buenos Aires, JUN 09 2344 - history of rock
program, "desde la BBC de Londres;" SIO 353. [Jean Burnell,
Newfoundland]

On 1670 khz unID JUN 15 0047 - man with excited Spanish religious
talk that mentioned several South American countries; good. [Mark
Connelly*R, MA]

Jean speaks: "...things here were somewhat auroral on the evening of
June 9, although it was wearing off pretty quickly. I did hear five
X-banders from Argentina, and I stopped to listen to four of these;
1650 and 1670 were first-time logs here. Unfortunately, by 0200 UTC
(10 June) the band was poor, with mainly domestic short-skip stuff
dominating and European big-guns (nothing newsworthy) audible off the
side of the wire. Here are some Panamerican logs from a little
earlier that evening. By the way, these logs were made at Renews. Due
to the usual weather (fog and rain) I could not see if "Northern
Lights" were visible, but the previous evening (which was clear) I
could not see anything unusual in the night sky over St. John's."

Contributors: @Jean Burnell St. John's, Newfoundland DXing from
Renews, NF, Drake R8A with a 350 m wire pointed at eastern South
America (jburnell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) @Mark Connelly WA1ION, DX'ing
from Rockport MA ["R"], West Yarmouth MA ["Y"]; Drake R8A, Palstar
R30, APW-1 active whip, two BBL-1 broadband loops, Superphaser-1
phasing unit <MarkWA1ION@xxxxxxxxxx> @Bruce Conti, DX'ing from Camden
ME; Lowe HF-225 Europa, Die Hard 96552 Deep Cycle Marine Gel battery,
MWDX-5 phasing unit, two 60-m wires sloping northeast and southeast.
<BACONTI@xxxxxxx> (all from NRC International DX Digest, via DXLD)

** AUSTRIA. Wolf Harranth left some comments on the German "A-DX"
list; a summary:

> The 24 h FM home service Blue Danube Radio will be discontinued.

Blue Danube Radio already ceased to exist. Currently the youth
program FM4, which is now using the former BDR network 24 hours a
day, has some programming in English. ROI is considering a
cooperation, which would of course result in less own productions.

> The ADR ASTRA satellite feed will close down with B00.

ROI will try to keep it up into 2001 but this would need to cut the
operational costs of 1 million ATS elsewhere.

> The digital bouquet on ASTRA will continue, but all channels will
be encrypted (Irdeto/Premiere World system).

There seems to be no definite decision about the TV services yet, but
in any case the ORF radio services, including ROI, will remain clear.

In a follow-up to a discussion about a short report about the "Ham-
Radio" fair at Friedrichshafen Wolf stated:

"I am confirmed in doing without resistance. Today DXers are more
interested in new equipment than a broadcast, which offers them
service, as they can get it meanwhile also from other sources. This
will just lead radio stations to first cancelling the DX show when
taking economy measures."

Wolf will have an interview with ROI director Roland Machatschke in
this week`s "Intermedia" show. Regards, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, June
29, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BELGIUM [non]. Subject: RVI frequency change. New frequency change
at Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal. From Monday 3rd July 2000, RVI's
transmission in Dutch via Madagascar to southern Africa at 1800-1856
UTC will move from 11985 to 7195 kHz. And from 1 until 23 July 2000,
RVI will bring daily live coverage of the Tour de France, at 1300-
1600 UTC on 9925 and 13710 kHz for Europe; the normal Sunday sports
programme remains at 1300-1600 UTC on 9925, 13710 and 21630 kHz for
Europe and Africa (Paul Brems, Belgium, June 29, rec.radio.shortwave
via John Norfolk, DXLD)

Aha! 1800 happens to be the transmission via Madagascar now
sandwiched between the two V. of People clandestine airings to
Zimbabwe, also from Madagascar if our theory is correct. Scenario: it
was too much trouble for Mad to go from 7 to 11 and back to 7 MHz
during this period, so Belgium agreed to change to a 7 MHz frequency
to facilitate transmitter tuning (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BOLIVIA. 4801v, R Mamoré, Guayaramerín - I can now confirm that R
Mamoré is indeed on the air at higher power. On 6/27 I heard them on
4801.4 from 0040 until 0110 with a weak signal, not able to copy
anything. The next day they were on 4801.2 at 2350 (local dusk here)
until 0108 with the signal drifting down to 4800.8, but still not
enough audio to positively ID. When they cut carrier, I immediately
called the station and confirmed that they cut power about 1 minute
earlier. According to Lucio Montan, R Mamoré is running 250 watts at
the moment and the frequency was "about 4799". I informed him that
there was a Guatemalan station nearby causing some interference and
he told me he would try to get a technician to stabilize and adjust
the frequency up about 2 - 3 kHz as well as tweak a little more power
out of the transmitter. He was very excited to hear about the logging
and told me that before sign off he is broadcasting a message of
greetings to all his "amigos radioaficionados" that helped get the
station back on the air. He also mentioned that he has gotten reports
from around the rural area that the signal is much better. (Walt
Fair, Venezuela, June 27-28, Cumbre DX via DXLD)

** BRAZIL. Here?s our reply from the director of R. Educadora de
Limeira, 2380; we asked for info on the programming and SW schedule,
but no info on the latter. And it seems despite the name it is not
really educational, but commercial: (gh)

I am Bruno Arcaro Bortolan, Director of Bortolan Filho Organization,
a Broadcasting Group in São Paulo, Brazil. We have 3 radio channels:
Educadora AM 1020, Educadora OT 2380 and Estereosom FM 99.9, in the
city of Limeira, 150 kilometers distant of the capital of state São
Paulo, or about 4 hours by air to Brasília. Well, I`m studying
Business Administration and I`m very interested to study in the
United States for a period, and, who knows meet a radio station. I`ve
been in your country in 96 and 97 in the NAB Conference in Las Vegas
(Nevada), and I´ve traveled to other cities like New York, Los
Angeles and Orlando.

The Educadora is a popular station. We have cultural, political,
Brazilian music, talk, news and sports program. Is a very variated
programmation. We have a Sunday special sports programmation with
regional soccer transmissions. We transmitted the best soccer in the
world: The "Campeonato Paulista" and "Brazilian Soccer Championship".
In our city we`ve two soccer teams: Independente and Internacional
(The 86 and 96 Paulista Champion!) Therefore the Sunday, in the other
days we`ve the Educadora Esportiva, a radio program made by the
"Timão 1020", our sports team, with speakers and reporters. The
program transmits bulletins of all the world sports (Soccer, Volley,
Basketball, Formula 1, Cart, Tennis, Swimming, and others). The time
is from 06:00 pm to 07:00 pm local time.

In our station work about 45 persons: Producers, Commercial Agents,
Speakers, Technicians, Directors, Reporters... We´ve a "Broadcast
Central" with 5 studios in a 2000 mts(2) constructed area. With the
FM channel, work about 60 persons in our radios. Our AM audience is
the bigger in our region. About 70.000 persons listen to our
programs. Limeira has a 180.000 population. Besides in the
programation we have Catholical and Evangelical programs too, but the
station is private. Thanks and e-mail me for more informations,
(Bruno Arcaro Bortolan, June 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. CBC Hotsheets abruptly stopped a few days ago, so we have
no info on Canada Day weekend holiday specials. Guess Victoria is on
vacation and no one took over. Nor could we find any advance info on
the convoluted CBC websites. If anyone has info on timings of special
programs on CBC R1, R2, from newspapers or anywhere, please send it
on to us (gh, DXLD)

** CHINA [non]. Glenn, The following BBC WS story was monitored on
June 29th at 15.10 UT. Presenter:

Members of China's banned Falung Gong spiritual movement have set up
their own radio station and say they plan to begin broadcasting into
China on Saturday. They say they'll operate from an undisclosed
location outside the country to tell ordinary Chinese about the
attempts made by the government to suppress the movement. Rupert
Wynfield Hayes reports from Beijing. Rupert Wynfield Hayes:

According to staff members in the United States 'World Falung Da Fa
Radio' (phonetic) will hit the airwaves at 10 pm Beijing time on July
1st. It will broadcast on shortwave into northern and central parts
of China. Group members say the broadcasts will be aimed at ordinary
Chinese people, not Falung Gong members. The aim, they say, will be
to let ordinary people know about the widespread persecution of
Falung Gong going on inside China. The radio station is another
weapon for the group in its ongoing propaganda battle with the
Chinese government. Group members already run dozens of internet
sites in countries across the globe but many sites are difficult to
access from inside China. The Chinese government banned Falung Gong
last year, declaring it an evil cult, but thousands of its members
have continued to hold sporadic protests inside China in defiance of
the ban. In his first public comment in nearly a year, Falung Gong's
exiled leader, Li Hongzhi, last week called on his followers to
continue their defiance. (via Roger Tidy, England, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)

** CHINA [non]. Falun Gong radio to start broadcasting to China on
1st July | Text of report by Hong Kong-based Information Centre for
Human Rights and Democracy on 29th June

Our centre learned that the Falun Gong has recently set up a radio
station, named the World Falun Dafa Radio, for broadcasting to China
in order to broadcast information on Falun Gong and clarify facts
about the Falun Gong issue to the people in the Chinese mainland. The
radio station will make its first broadcast on 1st July and
thereafter broadcast for one hour everyday from 2200 to 2300 Beijing
time on the shortwave frequency of 9.915 MHz. As revealed by people
in the know, the radio station will carry out its editing and
operations in the United States and all the procedures are in
conformity with relevant laws and regulations of the place of
transmission and are absolutely legal.

At the moment, common people within the mainland, who are
discontented with the Chinese Communists, are still keeping abreast
of blocked information mainly by tuning in to foreign radio stations.
As revealed in the Chinese Communists' internal documents, there are
more than 50m mainlanders who regularly tune in to foreign radio
stations. In view of the extremely far-reaching influence of these
radio stations on the mainland, the authorities have interfered, to
varying degrees, with Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and others.
Such interference is a serious violation of pertinent rules of the
International Radio Association. Source: Information Centre for Human
Rights and Democracy, Hong Kong, in Chinese 29 Jun 00 (via BBC
Monitoring via DXLD)

** FINLAND [non]. One last reminder of the first monthly broadcast of
Scandinavian Weekend Radio, scheduled for *2200 UT Friday June 30 to
2159 UT Saturday July 1 on 11690 or 11720 kHz. Why they picked these
two frequencies is beyond me; the incomplete initial A-00 ABU
registrations, for instance, show all these usages already, 7 days a
week and thru 28/29 October u.o.s.; frequency, UT-UT, CIRAF target
zones, site, kW, azimuth, (language), country, station/organization ?
no, I cannot explain all the abbrs., but most will be obvious:

11690 0000 0100 42,43 UDO  250 324                     THA IBB IBB
11690 0100 0200 30,40,41N,42 EMR 500 72 Uzbek          TUR TRT
11690 0700 0800 29S,30S,39N,40N EMR 500 72 Georgian    TUR TRT
11690 0800 0900 28E EMR 250 290 Macedonian             TUR TRT
11690 1130 1325 51W,54 SNG 250 140 Indonesian          SNG RNW
11690 1600 1700 27,28 ERV  500 305                     ARM ARM MCB
11690 1700 2000 14,16,27,28,37 MSK  500 240            RUS VOR MCB
11690 2000 2200 27,28 SKN  300 110                     G   RCI RCI

11720 2330 0300 10,46 MSK  240 275                     RUS VOR MCB
11720 0030 0330 42,43N BEI 50 283                      CHN CRI RTC
11720 0500 0600 46,47,52  MEY  500 335 Engl/Port       AFS CAF SNT
[until 3 Sept]
11720 1000 1200 43,44,49,51,56,60,62,63,65 PHT 250 150/330 PHL IBB
11720 1100 1200 54 BEI 150 217                         CHN CRI RTC
11720 1100 1500 30,40,41  ARM  100 105                 RUS VOR MCB
11720 1200 1300 49,54 XIA  100 200                     CHN CRI RTC
11720 1300 1330 49,54  XIA  100 200                    CHN CRI RTC
11720 1300 1500 52,53,57 MEY 100 5 0  English          AFS CAF SNT
[Sat, Sun only]
11720 1600 1700 48,53 XIA  100 270                     CHN CRI RTC
11720 1730 1930 39,40  PHT  250 283                    PHL PBS IBB
11720 1800 2000 37,46 MSK 240 240                      RUS VOR MCB

SWR`s Finnish mailing list included this item:
``Lehtovaara on kuitenkin pahoillaan, että aluksi aiotun 250 watin
lähetystehon sijasta asema toimii toistaiseksi vain 50 watilla.``
(via Jouko Huuskonen, June 30, hard-core-dx)
Where is Dr. Richard E. Wood when we need him? My Finnish is not
enough to be sure, but this appears to refer to power being 250 or
even only 50 watts. Oh, Mike Barraclough is just in time:

Subject: SWR newsletter #2 -It's showtime! Date: Fri, Jun 30, 2000,
19:09 SWR's first transmission is going to start in few hours time.
Please tune in on 11690 / 11720 kHz. Unfortunately we have only 50
watts of power this time due technical problems. (But we have parts
waiting for a 750 watt amplifier... ;-) Our aerial is horizontal half
-wave dipole in 20 metres high from sea level. I've just updated our
website, it is now possible to send an reception report for us via
internet. Reports sent from our website can be verified in our public
verification-page. Who will be the first one? Please visit:
http://www.swradio.net/SWRsuomeksi/reception.htm Now I'll start my
motorcycle, and ride to Virrat. Let's meet in 25 metres! With best
regards, (Ville-Veikko Haikarainen, Scandinavian Weekend radio, via
Barraclough, BDXC-UK via DXLD)

BTW, the http://www.swradio.net website countdown timer assumes your
computer is set to UT+2! At 1922 UT it claimed there were 4 hours and
38 minutes remaining instead of only 2:38 on my computer running on
UT, only one of many instances of ``wrong`` times being displayed
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA. [Re: DXLD 00-75] All India Radio's short wave frequency
11620 kHz was heard (again?) on 27 June 2000 at 22.00 h UTC in
parallel with better 7410 kHz (Hansjörg Biener, Amberg, Germany, June
29, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** JAPAN [non]. Hi Glenn! Re Joe Hanlon's loggings of special Radio
Japan election broadcasts, at 1500-1600 UTC on Sunday 25 June, I
don't know where they were transmitted from, but they weren't from
Sackville. Sackville did run one special frequency for RJ at that
time, but it was 11655 kHz, on a 240 degree heading. RJ also extended
the morning 6120 kHz transmission, not only on that day, but also on
18 and 26 June. The extensions were from 1200 to 1259 UTC. 73- (Bill
Westenhaver, RCI, June 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** LIBYA. 15435, Voice of Africa, June 27 0132 news in English: peace
between Egypt and Sudan; conference in Addis Ababa, minister of water
resources in Egypt, popular revolution, strike at airport; ID "And
with this we come to the end of the news from Radio Voice of Africa
broadcasting from the great Jamahiriyah", into French @ 0137; muddy
audio (Ralph Brandi, NJ, Cumbre DX via DXLD)

** LIBYA. 1251 & 711 both remain intensely distorted signals. 1251 is
massive signal after dark but is a real struggle understanding the
English (down to 10-20% intelligible on a clear S9 +++ signal!) news
at 2040utc which is followed by French. Audio quality seems to vary
noticably from day to day. "Radio Voice of Africa broadcasting from
the Great Jamhirya" (Steve Whitt, central Majorca, Mediumwave Circle,
May 28-June 3, via NRC International DX Digest via DXLD)

** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 5019.9 still on at 1119 this morning June 28; had
said they would be 1100* (Hans Johnson, WY, Cumbre DX via DXLD)

** SWEDEN. Last Chance to hear a radio dinosaur. For only two periods
of 15 minutes each, the Swedish telecommunications museum radio
station SAQ will air its 1924 Alexanderson alternator on (what today)
is the incredibly low frequency of 17.2 kilohertz. This is the last
remaining operational Alexanderson alternator in the world, and
requires a literal crew to get it started up. It is operated only on
significant occasions, and Sunday July 2 is its 75th anniversary.
Special QSL cards for reception reports will of course be sent. Here
is the website with more details about the July 2 transmission and
the Grimeton RCA radio transmitter in general. For potential
listeners, it should be noted that the station's 6-tower antenna is
specifically oriented to transmit on a great circle toward New York
from the southern end of Sweden. However, at 17.2 kHz, there's
probably not a huge amount of directivity in it, so listening at any
point on the globe is probably a good bet for well-equipped receivers
- meaning having a significant receiving antenna.

Those who have never tried this sort of stunt might be interested in
trying to make a temporary "Beverage" antenna, which consists merely
of a thousand feet or more of wire laid atop the earth (insulated
wire, of course), with a 600 ohm resistor connected to ground at its
distant end from the receiver. A Beverage antenna is "hot" off its
distant end from the receiver end, so simply unroll some wire out in
the direction of Sweden from your location and give it a try!
(Remembering to put that 600 ohm resistor on the far end.)

Good luck! I'd like to hear from anyone who tries, and of course from
anyone who succeeds! Your only chances are 0830-0845 and 1230-1245
UTC on July 2! (SAREX via AMSAT.ORG June 27 via Bob Chandler, ODXA
via DXLD)

** U K. Glenn, While perusing the BBC WS August info, I noticed that
the time slots for Andy Kershaw's World Music program have been
replaced by "Stars Over Lebanon".  You recall the recent news item
about Andy Kershaw's departure from BBC domestic radio. July may be
our last chance to enjoy Andy Kershaw on WS. For the Americas: Thu
1430, Fri 0030 & 1930, Sat 0530 (Ivan Grishin, Ont., June 30, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. The Capitol Steps comedy troupe present another of their
quarterly specials via NPR over the 4th of July weekend. Most
stations run it on the 4th, but there are several earlier placings,
even starting Friday 6/30. See http://www.capsteps/radio/ for quite a
listing, including a number of webcasters. A new one is WYSO, which
also presents Imagination Workshop, another comedy special, 7/4 at 7
pm EDT. See their schedule of holiday specials at
http://www.wyso.org/wysopgs/hldyschd.html Imagination Workshop,
produced at KANU in Kansas, has their own website, but no specific
info on scheduling there Enjoy! (Glenn Hauser, OK, swprograms via
DXLD)

** U S A. Attention radio nuts! Time for another test program this
Sunday morning 7/2/00 from 0000-0400 [presumably EDT, so 0400-0800 UT
-gh]. The usual: 10 kw, 1660 am, old jingles, obscure music, bad
jokes and (this time) reverb! Tapes will be rolling as usual for
those who just can't get enough, and reception reports can be sent
right here to wmib@xxxxxxxxx (Phil Beckman, WMIB, Marco Island, FL,
via Dinan Rogerio, June 28, radioescutas via DXLD) Dinan adds: QSLs
rapidly 100%

** U S A. Several people have asked about the calling frequencies we
will monitor from KPH during the commemorative broadcast on 12 July
so they might have a chance to copy any ships that might possibly
call us. We will be monitoring ITU channels 3 and 4 in the
4/6/8/12/16 Mc bands. The specific frequencies are:

4184.0 4184.5
6276.0 6276.5
8368.0 8369.0
12552.0 12553.5
16736.0 16738.0

Happy listening... Vy 73, (Dick Dillman, W6AWO,  Chief Operator at
K6KPH of the Maritime Radio Historical Society, WUN via Sheldon
Harvey, DXLD)

** ZIMBABWE [non]. See BELGIUM [non] above!          ###


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