[HCDX]: Glenn Hauser's SW/DX Report April 2
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[HCDX]: Glenn Hauser's SW/DX Report April 2
GLENN HAUSER'S SHORTWAVE/DX REPORT 98-17, April 2, 1998
WORLD OF RADIO TIME CHANGES. Remember that from April 5, WWCR
times shift one UT hour earlier to: Thu 2030 15685; Sat 0600
3210 and 5070; Sat 1130 if not already cancelled, 5070; Sun 0630
5070; Mon 0400 5070; Tue 1230 15685. On WGTG from April 11, Sat
2330 on 5085-USB. Same UT as always on RFPI, with 21465v
reactivated in daytime (Hauser)
THIS WEEK ON WORLD OF RADIO 935. R. Democracy for Africa; VOA now
on SW via Armenia; mid-America radio meeting this summer?; summer
frequencies for RCI, BBC, Switzerland, Norway, Finland, Lithuania,
Ukraine, Russia, Greece, Turkey; recording of Merlin test; and
much more including some of the stories below (Hauser)
IRELAND [non]. RTE's weekly Worlds Apart program changed some
frequencies for Z-98, not publicized but obtained by Finbarr
O'Driscoll for RIB:
Day & Time UT Freq (* = new) Target Presumed Site
Tue 2300 9640* SAm Juelich
Wed 1330 12015 SEAsia Irkutsk
Wed 1500 15165* EAf Meyerton
Wed 1700 11605 N/C/SAf Juelich
Wed 1800 11785* WAf Juelich
Unfortunately, DTK recorded the wrong hour for the March 31
broadcast, containing a country music show instead (WORLD OF
RADIO 935)
JAPAN [non]. The new R. Japan relay via Sackville started UT
April 2 at 0000-0100 on 11705; loud and clear here, tho wider
band audio would be nice; at first RCI was running its own
newscast by mistake, but at 0007 recheck had switched to NHK
in English. //9665 via Ascension with satellite delay, still
badly mixing with VOR in Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK)
MONGOLIA. This morning 3/31 VOM was excellent from 1115 UT tune-
in; MG ran to 1139, IS, into CH at 1140. Signal peaked at S7 @
1155, SINPO 45534. Polar flutter light but multipath (probably
from long path) became increasingly severe. IS @ 1209, ID in MNG
& EG, into EG pgm w/talks. Faded to S5 by 1225. Modulation off
abruptly 1226, carrier seemed to be there but I couldn't tell if
they had problems or were covered by another xmtr. Note that
program start times have been advanced 10 minutes. I forgot to
mention that this was easily heard on my wife's RFB-45 kitchen
radio with a short indoor antenna...a rare event, indeed!
(John H. Cobb, Jr. / Roswell, GA, WORLD OF RADIO 935)
PORTUGAL. Could not hear R. Portugal's 2000 broadcast on any of
the listed frequencies; 9570 has been strong and fairly clear
early in the evening, but after 0300 heavily splattered by VOA-
9575; and UT April 1 RDP added insult to injury by shutting off
9570 just before the final English broadcast at 0330, forcing
us to listen to even worse 6150 instead. I taped and forced
myself to listen to this historic event, but it was mostly music,
not announced by Winnie Almeida, and Phillip Gonzo (?) had the
honor of signing off for the last time. Fortunately, I
understand and enjoy listening to Portuguese, and suggest
everyone else learn it too (Glenn Hauser, OK)
U K O G B A N I [non]. Sunrise Radio, which has been using 5850
via Germany at 0600-2000, tell me they are pleased with the
response to SW in Britain and plan to keep using it for years
(Roger Tidy, England, WORLD OF RADIO 935)
U K O G B A N I. How many languages does BBC WS use? In perusing
the April versus March issues of BBC On Air for the programming
info in a recent RIB, I also noticed the page listing foreign
language schedules. The March issue has a big 45 at the top; the
April an equally big 44. The trouble is, comparing them side by
side, exactly the same languages are listed, no more, no less.
Counting them, I only get 40 (plus English)! To get up to 45 they
would have to count Arabic and French three times each for
different target areas. Possibly a case could be made that North
African Arabic is a different "language" than Arabic in the Gulf
and East Mediterranean; but surely not ex-colonial French to
different parts of Africa. Though sharing a time/service, I am
counting Kinyarwanda and Kirundi separately, too. Since one
measure of a SW station's status is its number of languages, BBC
really ought to figure out this statistic correctly! (Glenn
Hauser, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING)
U S A. Radio Democracy for Africa is a surprise new service
Pres. Clinton announced while visiting VOA site host Botswana
March 29. Could start as early as May. $5 million funding over
next two years comes out of existing VOA budget, 22.5 hours per
week of uncensorable news and info [thus, must primarily be SW].
Will use nine languages, English, French, Portuguese, Afrikaans,
and vernaculars (details gleaned from Reuters via Dave Alpert,
VOA news via Mike Cooper, and via Denis Zoqbi, radio-escutas,
WORLD OF RADIO 935)
VIETNAM [non]. VOV relay via Russia for Z-98 is back on 7250,
away from Dr. Scott QRM from 5935 on 5940, 0100-0300 with English
at 0100 and 0230 (Ivan Grishin, Ont., WORLD OF RADIO 935) 0130
Vietnamese, 0200 Lao--to America!--when on 5940 (BBCM via WORLD
OF RADIO 935)
SOUTH AMERICAN HANDBOOK, 1998. New edition has just come in to
the library. For a while I believe this was split up into
regional editions, but now it's one huge but small book--I mean
1680 pages but barely a sesquiinch thick. Past editions have
been recommended by Latin American DX enthusiasts for detailed
info about South America. It's really designed for the British
traveller. While each country has a "Communications" section,
this deals mainly with newspapers, especially those in English;
postal services; telephone services. TV and radio are barely
mentioned; in fact, in the index, only three pages are listed
under "radio"--unlike most countries, Argentina has a "Media"
section following "Communications", 10 lines with totally
incorrect info on RAE's English schedule! The last page of the
massive Brazil section puts "radio" as a subsection under
"Entertainment"--three lines claiming that RadioBras has
English on 15290--wrong!--and no time given. Then Uruguay has
two lines under "Radio" and 3 lines under "TV" giving the
number of stations. Other TV references per the index: The
Chile "Media" section has three sesquilines mentioning the
Santiago TV channels. And in Brasilia there's a TV tower with
an observation deck. That's it--barring page-by-page searches.
This book is abysmal for info on broadcast media. Even the non-
DXer traveller is very ill-served.
Perhaps the most valuable items for the radio enthusiast are
the city street maps. If you are trying to construct a decent
reception report to some Peruvian in Huaraz, Chiclayo, or many
other towns, you may be able to recognize a street name you
heard in a commercial or ID; there are other regional maps of
interesting areas to visit. Of course there is very detailed
info on accomodations, places to visit, festivals, tour companies
and travel agents, etc., etc. One can only hope this is much more
accurate than the paltry radio/TV info. Not in the index, but a
section in the intro does recommend the use of SW radio, with
references to WRTH and PWBR.
Amount of info is more or less proportional to the size and
importance of the country, but added on as afterthoughts are
incrediby brief sections on Suriname--16 pages; Guyane--15 pp;
Falkland/Malvinas--6 pp; South Georgia--1/2 page; Antarctica--
less than one sesquipage.
Spanish words and phrases--a 3-page section, nothing for
Portuguese, tho in the intro both are given.
But there is a wealth of information in almost 1700 pages.
Especially valuable are sections about local customs, to help you
avoid faux-pas and get along with the locals better.
It's now one of a series of Footprint Handbooks; several Latin
American and other countries now have their own handbooks,
presumably with even more detailed info. Yes, there are ones for
Peru and for Bolivia.
In USA, South American Handbook is sold by Passport Books for
$39.95, ISBN 0-8442-4783-9. Author is Ben Box. Passport E-mail:
NTCPUB2@xxxxxxx [sic in caps]. Check the website
http://www.footprint-handbooks.co.uk
(c) 1998 Glenn Hauser, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING
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