[HCDX]: Glenn Hauser's SW/DX, April 23

["Glenn Hauser" <wghauser@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

        GLENN HAUSER'S SHORTWAVE/DX REPORT 98-20, April 23, 1998

THIS WEEK ON WORLD OF RADIO 938. World DX Club membership drive;
new SW receiver book; Hank Holbrook dies; upcoming DX meetings;
R. Free Iran approved; BBC WS accused of racial discrimination;
FEBC on MW in Cambodia; much more and many of the stories below.

BELGIUM. Since I missed RVI's Radio World Sunday at 1237 on 15545,
I searched the RVI site where scripts of that have been posted,
with little publicity. There's nothing about it on the homepage
of vrt, http://www.vrt.be From there, you click on the RVI logo
but still find no direct link to it. Finally I found it under rvi
rather than vrt: http://www.rvi.be/uk/hoeontvang/world/index.htm
but it was the Feb 8, 1998 script, after which they apparently
quite posting them. BTW, I object to "uk" being in the URL; in
Europe, shorthand for "English language" is far too often "uk" 
or even "gb" (Glenn Hauser, OK, R.I.B.)

BELGIUM. On at least two occasions, VRT in Dutch at 1800 has been
heard on 15720 instead of scheduled Wavre 15270, recurring punch-
up error? (Joe Hanlon, PA, April 19, WORLD OF RADIO 938)

CANADA. Checking RCI for Inside Sports/Madly Off in All Direxions
Monday 1207-1300 on 9640, 11855, 13650, found instead THIS 
MORNING, Monday, first hour, apparently live from the original
Atlantic Zone feed! And the second hour followed after RCI news
at 1300; but no third hour. So it seems RCI has finally decided
to run TM live rather than As It Happens and condensed TM the
next day, but this also knocks out MOAID repeat; contrary to 
published summer sked just received (Glenn Hauser, OK, April 20)

COSTA RICA/ECUADOR. HCJB has started using 21470 in Czech to
Europe at 1830-1900, carrier on as early as 1814, interfering
with RFPI on 21465+; on Friday April 17 only, so far, HCJB
expanded this to 2000 with additional European languages. I've
been corresponding with HCJB's frequency manager, asking them 
to shift to any one of numerous open channels at this time on
the 13mb, or at least to 21475, but they refuse to budge, 
insisting that they have prior rights to 21470, it doesn't 
really bother 21465, and if RFPI has a problem, it should move.
HCJB has much more frequency flexibility than RFPI, as James
Latham explained on Mailbag, with the antenna tuning limited
to about 21450 to 21500; until now 21465 has been a nice clear
frequency for RFPI; BBC Cyprus is on 21470 earlier in the day,
but not much of a problem in NAm compared to HCJB. RFPI is
considering what to do next (Glenn Hauser, April 20)

GREECE [and non]. Dionysios Angelogiannis, Frequency Manager of
Voice of Greece replies to my query about the RFE-RL 250 kW
transmitters that were dismantled at the Portugal site and 
donated to the Greek government: "We have not received yet the
new transmitters. We hope to receive them around July." Current
sked for VOG ERA-5 broadcasts via USA:

0600-0800       9755    Delano CA       272     EAu/Pac
0900-0950       9775    Delano CA       272     Au
1200-1350      11730    Delano CA        75     Canada
1800-2200      17765    Delano CA        75     Canada
1800-2200      17705    Greenville NC   164     C&SAm

Use of 11730 apparently stems from my previous report to VOG that
it was doing well during the winter on the 1800 broadcast (John
Babbis, MD, April 17, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING)

IRELAND. Emerald Radio's webpage says that during the special
WWCR broadcasts April 27-30 they will also have live RealVideo of 
them at work in their studio at 1200. Check it out at 
http://www.emeraldradio.com (Finbarr O'Driscoll, Eire, R.I.B. and 
WORLD OF RADIO 938)

KOREA NORTH. R. Pyongyang, 2100 English to Europe on new 9335.
Strong signal in London but modulation almost as distorted as the
ideology! They have dropped "The Song of General Kim Il Sung" at
the beginning of transmission. Such changes usually have a 
political meaning. But the "news" doesn't seem to have changed
much -- the top story this week being the 85th birth anniversary
of the late "Great Leader" and the fact that people throughout
the world have been holding meetings to mark the earth-shattering
event (Roger Tidy, England, April 21 via Hauser)

MADAGASCAR. WWCR is planning to shut down its 3215 transmitter
UT Sun May 3 and 10 at 0300-0330 so that it will be easier to 
hear the new AWR transmission here. At least I think that is what 
was meant by "May 2 and 9". Don't expect something like this very 
often, but it happens to be possible in this case, and George
McClintock is interested in tropical DX himself (Ask WWCR #38 via 
Glenn Hauser)

MINERVA, REPUBLIC OF. On a previous W.O.R. you mentioned someone
wanting to build a "New Utopia" in an area of reefs in the 
Caribbean. This isn't the first time this has happened. The Dec.
21, 1992 issue of World Coin News published an article about a 
similar situation that occurred about 16 years ago in the Pacific
and what eventually happened to it (Steven Cline, IN, April 17)

It's in the Token World column by David Thompson on page 14.
Australians, New Zealanders and Americans were trying to set up
a similar operation on Minerva Reef, 1800 miles east of Brisbane
and 250 mi SW of Tonga; they even issued $35 gold/silver coins,
but Tonga nipped it in the bud by asserting sovereignty over
Minerva, fearful of competition in the stamp and coin biz. BTW,
I seem to recall there have been some ham DXpeditions to Minerva
(Glenn Hauser, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING)

U K O G B A N I. Once again Merlin/BBC can't get their act
together on 17840--Saturday April 18 at 1712 check, there was a
varying subaudible heterodyne indicating two transmitters on
the frequency, and a slight audio reverb--fortunately, not an
echo making listening impossible. Apparently Antigua did not turn
off their transmitter at 1700 when RCI takes over. Or, I hope 
some ill-informed planner at BBC doesn't think a deliberate 
overlap is a good idea (Glenn Hauser, OK)

U S A. Vinton, Iowa: J. L. Gorski & Associates announces sale of
an XP5003 log-yagi antenna and tower to WBCQ Monticello, Maine.
The antenna, a patented design from Sommer Antennas, is a 3-band
rotatable model operating on the 7, 9 and 13 MHz bands with a 
gain of 14 dbi. The antenna boom is 30 feet long with 7 elements,
the longest being 74 feet. The unique patented design allows this
antenna to out-perform antennas many times its size and cost. 
Allan Weiner, president of WBCQ, called the antenna "a 
technological breakthrough. Without this antenna, we would have
had to spend at least $85,000 on a fixed antenna of equal
performance. With this design the antenna and tower will cost us
less than $25,000." The tower, from Glen Martin engineering, is a 
24-inch face galvanized steel design, 60 feet tall, with an 
elevator system permitting one person to easily lower the antenna
to within 6 feet of the ground in about one minute, unlike 
competitive systems which can take a 4-man tower crew about a day
to lower, should repairs be needed. Delivery of the tower and
antenna is scheduled for May 1. For more info contact J. L. 
Gorski and Associates at (319) 472-5102 voice or fax (Gorski, RIB
and WORLD OF RADIO 938)                                       ###


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