[HCDX]: Hauser's DX Report 98-39

["Glenn Hauser" <wghauser@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

        GLENN HAUSER'S SHORTWAVE/DX REPORT 98-39, SEPT 10, 1998

THIS WEEK ON WORLD OF RADIO 956. See summary on our website:
http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/Wor956.html

COSTA RICA. RFPI news from this week's Mailbag, with James Latham
and Joe Bernard, monitored at 0435 Sept 5: Within two weeks the
website URL will be simplified to http://www.rfpi.org and the
E-mail address will change accordingly, thanks to the help of
webmaster Charlie Wilkins. New pictures are being scanned and put
up on the website already, such as new equipment, map with pins,
Paz the Kitty-Cat. Recent transmission outages are due to heavy
thunderstorms in the area, worse than usual for this time of
year, lightning strikes nearby, heavy rains and flooding. Power
lines have been hit and power station may have been closed down
for its own protection as well as protecting RFPI equipment. The
15050 frequency is back on the air around 1700-1400, subject to
change; reports are wanted, especially in the all-night period.
6975 is not quite full power but getting there. Contemplating 
whether to reactivate 21460 with the 2 kW SSB. The new issue of 
VISTA was delayed in printing, but should be in the mail early 
next week. The next issue of VISTA will be a special audio 
edition. Also, RFPI is advertising lifetime memberships in 
Friends of RFPI for $1000, which may be paid as $500 this year
and $500 next year; or $100 for the next 10 months. More info
from the Oregon office, (503) 252- 3639. Subsequently around 
Sept 7-10, 6975 was off the air but 15049 was on (Glenn Hauser,
REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING)

CUBA/U S A. Checked WRMI 9955 Sept 8 at 0955: woman religionist
from New Mexico was clear of any jamming, tho somewhat
distorted audio; CP for the new NAm antenna ran out Aug 31, by
when it was supposed to be in use; is it? Around 0957 on came
the Cuban jammer with motorboat sound; 0958 added bubble sound;
and 0959 more intense higher-pitched bubbling. Unclear if this
represents at least three different Cuban jammer transmitters, or
stages in startup of a single one. Became progressively more
effective, so that by the Cuban exile progam at 1000, WRMI was
essentially inaudible here. Let it never be forgotten that
no matter how friendly the voices on RHC, or how healthy it may
be for Americans to have RHC's point of view on the news, the
same country is responsible for this scourge of shortwave jamming
in the Hemisphere, and constantly reveals its true attitude
toward freedom of speech. The whine on about 9942 was still there,
no doubt another Cuban jammer against the long-defunct La Voz del
CID. Now WBCQ promises to be what WRMI never became, or will it
too soon fill up with gospel hucksters? (Glenn Hauser, OK)

ECUADOR. Subject: HCJB, PIFO transmitter relocation -
HCJB reported on their German language DX program Sep 6 
[sic, means 5?] at 0456 that due to the recent air crash in Quito, 
talks have begun again to implement the building of the new 
airport. That is leading HCJB engineers to renewed efforts to 
look for new sites to relocate the transmitters from Pifo (Joe 
Karthaus, Toronto ON, Canada, Sept 5, WORLD OF RADIO 956)

FRANCE. RFI via French Guiana, English at 1200 Sept 8 not on 15
MHz any more, but 13625 only; 15515 had Spanish (Glenn Hauser,
WORLD OF RADIO 956)

IRAQ. Radio Baghdad tuned with very strong signal at 0303 4 SEP 
with EG program of commentaries on anti-Iraq policies of U.S. and 
UN, interspersed with disco and local music. Strong but slightly 
muddy audio, 50-Hz hum; completely covered co-channel Qatar. 
S/off w/anthem 0357, Qatar in clear at 0359. This is the 
strongest I've ever heard Iraq....on 11785 kHz. (John Cobb, GA, 
REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING and WORLD OF RADIO 956)

ISRAEL. Per stories in Ha'aretz, winter time resumed on Sept 5
(Joel Rubin, WORLD OF RADIO 956) So all SW broadcasts would be
one hour later suddenly, including English at 0500, 2000 etc
(Hauser, ibid.)

MEXICO. Dr. Julian Santiago told me today that he just spoke 
with the Director of Sistema Rasa in Merida; they have plans to
broadcast segments on Candela FM XEQM 6105 of their other
stations, want to answer all the letters, and may soon have a
QSL card. They also want to price a new more powerful transmitter 
and apply for a power increase (Hector Garcia Bojorge, Mexico DF,
Sept 8 via Hauser)

SIERRA LEONE. On 27 August I heard (on BBC WS Network Africa) 
mention of Hilton Fyle, the ex-BBCWS producer/presenter, and a 
death sentence passed on him in Sierra Leone. This is for the 
part he played working for an anti government radio station 
during the unrest in Sierra Leone last year. This was the first I 
had heard of it and am hoping that my ears deceived me (it was 
0340 UTC after all).

Does anyone have any confirmation of this, or more details? I was 
unable to find anything on the web and have got nothing from BBC 
WS African service yet. Many thanks, (Chris Brand, British DX 
Club, Sept 3)

Chris, Your ears did not deceive you. Hilton Fyle was one of 16 
people, including four broadcasters and one press journalist who 
face the death penalty after being found guilty of treason. In 
the case of the broadcasters, it was because they broadcast 
material allegedly in support of the junta that seized power last 
year (and which was itself overthrown earlier this year with the 
help of the Sandline mercenaries). Apparently Fyle is the owner 
of an FM radio station in Freetown. Among those found guilty 
alongside him is Felix George, the former Director-General of the 
SLBS. I have a recollection that Hilton also used to present the 
early evening "Black London" programme on the old BBC Radio 
London in the late 1970s. Does anyone else remember this?
(Chris Greenway, BBC Monitoring, British DX Club, Sept 3 via 
Hauser)

SIERRA LEONE. I recall listening to Hilton Fyle as presenter of 
"The Morning Show", which used to be on BBC WS around 0530 UT, 
back in the mid-70's. I remember seeing Hilton Fyle's photograph 
from an old "London Calling" BBC program guide of that period. He 
was bearded and sported a large afro haircut, which was in style 
back then.  I was distressed to read of his current plight and 
wish him all the best. 73, (Ivan Grishin, Sept 4, REVIEW OF
INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING)

SWITZERLAND. At the end of October, SRI is closing the 
omnidirectional European Service on 6.165 MHz. This will leave 
only the directional transmitter at Sottens in operation in 
Switzerland. SRI expects spill-over from that and other SRI 
directional services to provide shortwave coverage in Switzerland, 
itself, but is counting much more heavily on the popularity and 
efficiency of Astra and Eutelsat Hot Bird satellites to fill the
European SW gap (Bob Zanotti, SRI, Sept 8, REVIEW OF 
INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING)

UKRAINE. Radio Ukraine International have left their summer freqs 
of 9550 & 12040.  The only freq I could find them on at UT 0000 
Sept. 8 was 7180, which is Voice of Russia's evening freq for NAm.  
Ukraine continued on 7180 at UT 0100 in Ukrainian.  I could not 
locate a freq for VOR in English at 0100 (Ivan Grishin, Ont., 
Sept 8, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING)

U S A. WBCQ did inaugurate itself starting at 0000 UT Sept 9 on
7415. Allan Weiner was joined by Seth in the studio, and on the
phone John Lightning, Randi Steele. Some of the programs already
set are: [UT days and times here]

Wed 0400-0700 Watchman of the Night, and 5-nightly? 7-nightly?
Sat 0100-0300 Friday Night Live with Gary Bourgois, via satellite
Sun 0100-0400 Radio Free New York, from Brooklyn (time uncertain)
Mon 0100-0400 RNI - Radio Newyork International, with Johnny
        Lightning
Tue 0100-0130 American Dissident Voices [yes, the neo-Nazi show;
       Weiner wants to give them a chance, poor things, turned 
       down by other stations] with a tentative repeat Tuesday at
       0500-0530
Tue-Fri? 0100-0400 The Hour of the Time with William Cooper [as
given the next night; yes, it contradicts item above].

Allan says he will be filling in the 0000-0100 period until it's 
sold with "Allan Weiner Worldwide" and he will be political 
unlike on the inaugural broadcast. In response to a call-in 
question, he said WBCQ has 14.2 dbi gain, equivalent to 18-20 
over 50 kW transmitter power, considerably more than half a 
megawatt in the main beam of 245 degrees, but he couldn't 
remember the beam width. Antenna is a hybrid, both logperiodic 
and beam, 60 feet or about a halfwave above ground. Transmitter 
is a 50 kW Harris MW converted to SW and now designated a SW-50, 
with pulse duration modulation (PDM), not plate or linear 
modulation; uses an Inovonics 222-02 audio processor modified for 
SW; it's simple, clean and broadband, and I must say the audio is 
quite good both on voice and music (but not on some of the phone 
lines). Said he would be back tomorrow at 8 pm. Phone line for 
call-in was 207-538-9180; business phone in Kennebunk is 207-985-
7547. Both the websites were announced: http://wbcq.com and 
http://theplanet.wbcq.net  E-mail: alweiner@xxxxxxxx

Randi Steele added they hope to have an alternative source of
news about what's really happening, not 5-minute network pablum,
not decided which it will be [could it be Pacifica?]. She went on
at some length about how the mainstream media are more and more
controlled by a few corporations.

Was going to take a one hour break off the air before the 0400 UT
program, but was running late, and at 0305 Weiner closed with
"We are the light, and thunder, and the truth shall set us free";
music went on until 0311* 

Best of luck to Al Weiner and company with WBCQ! (Glenn Hauser,
RIB and WORLD OF RADIO 956)

VIETNAM. Voice of Vietnam continues to use their summer freq of 
7250 Sept 8 0100-0300.  I'm enjoying the good reception there 
while I can. I am expecting them to make their annual move to 
5940 shortly, where they have to put up with noise from Dr. Gene 
Scott on 5935 (Ivan Grishin, Ont., Sept 8, WORLD OF RADIO 956)

U S A. KVLH, Pauls Valley, 2 x 1470, not heard when I checked in 
daytime Sept 4 or evening UT Sept 5 but loud and clear at 1159 on 
2940, as country music paused for brief ID as "With your country 
favorites back to back, KVLH and KGOK"; no news on the hour. 
Night power is only 63 watts on fundamental versus 1000 day power 
which probably starts at 1100. The hour after 6 am local is most 
productive for US harmonic DX. Thanks to Don Moore's tip. Later:
KVLH, 2940 = 2 x 1470, Pauls Valley, already good signal at
1043 Sept 8, before I would have expected increase from 63 to
1000 watts daytime power; no ID on the hour, but then two
farm features, and dual ID with KGOK at 1112, back to C&W (Glenn
Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 956)

U S A. Vance AFB TIS, 1610, near Enid, 3-minute loop now includes 
base under "Threat Condition Alpha--not an exercise", no doubt
prompted by recent terrorist activity (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD
OF RADIO 956)

U S A. The AFRTS SSB relays seem less of a sensation now, as we
can never depend on them to have the news/talk stream instead of
the music stream. For example, Sunday Sept 6 in the 1700 hour
this week did not have Savvy Traveler but some music show. AFRTS 
HQ never replied to my request for program skeds; perhaps I
should have pulled rank on them (Glenn Hauser, OK, USAF, Ret.)

THE WORLDWIDE SHORTWAVE LISTENING GUIDE, by John Figliozzi,
Second Edition, 1998. A comprehensive guide to SW programs in
English in time order, showing days of the week in numerical code, 
brief explanation of the program, target, program type, 
frequencies, all on one line or sometimes two per entry, about 
80 per page for 93 pages. It's sort of a Shows We Like gone mad, 
the kind of thing I could never do because it would have to 
include all those gospel huxters and far-right fanatics to be 
complete. This is also the kind of thing that can't help but 
outdate quickly, and would be much more useful if constantly 
updated online. All frequency listings are separated by slants 
rather than commas or spaces, which seems quite wasteful clutter 
to me. Still, it's a useful starting point if you want to know 
what's on at any given moment. Shows targeted at the Americas are 
in bold, and strangely enough uses the same "minus" style next to 
times I do to indicate one-hour-earlier-during DST--yes, all the 
basic times are for winter, meaning you'll be doing a lot of 
subtracting until then. There is a much shorter section of
Classified Program Lists, which would seem much more useful, but 
again only as a starting point, and frequencies are not shown 
here, in these categories: Arts, Cultural and History; Drama, 
Literature and Readings; Language Lessons; Business, Finance and 
Economic Development; Health and Medicine; General Science; 
Environment and Ecology; Documentary (only six entries from 5 
stations!); Listener Mail and Contact; Live Sports and Sports 
Specialty; Teens; Communications, Media and SW; Children; Folk, 
Traditional and Indigenous Music; Request Music; Jazz and the 
Blues [but not Classical!]. Book is comb-bound so it conveniently 
lies flat. Sold by Radio Shack at $8.99 so at this price may well 
be worth it despite its drawbacks. Has brief introduction to SW, 
and Alternate ways to access international broadcasters. The all-
important Radio Shack stock number is 62-1335, and be sure to get 
the new edition with the Eiffel Tower on the cover, not the first 
edition (Glenn Hauser)                                       ###




______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a message from "Glenn Hauser" <wghauser@xxxxxxxxxxx>
to hard-core-dx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx list. To unsubscribe the list, send
"unsubscribe hard-core-dx" in mail body to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
For more information, please check http://www.iki.fi/rko/hard-core-dx/
or email Risto Kotalampi, risto@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
------------------------------------------------------------------------