[HCDX]: DX Listening Digest 00-20 Feb 1

[Glenn Hauser <wghauser@xxxxxxxxx>]

        DX LISTENING DIGEST 00-20, February 1, 2000
                edited by Glenn Hauser

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

** AFGHANISTAN. Northern Alliance launches radio station on Internet 
Text of report by Afghan Northern Alliance newspaper `Payam-e 
Mojahed' web site on 27th January

The weekly `Payam-e Mojahed' has initiated a radio station called 
Radio Voice of Mojahed [Dari: radio sada-e mojahed] which will be 
available via Internet. The aim of the radio is to provide further 
information to our compatriots about the developments in our country. 
The radio will begin its broadcast via Internet from Tuesday 12 Dalw, 
corresponding to 1st February 2000. Listeners can access the station 
by clicking on the title of Radio Voice of Mojahed which will be 
highlighted on the first page of the weekly `Payam-e Mojahed'. The 
Radio Voice of Mojahed will broadcast the latest developments of our 
dear country from inside Afghanistan in Dari and Pashto on Sundays, 
Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1900 Afghanistan's time [1430 gmt]. 
Initially, the programmes of the Radio Voice of Mojahed will include 
recitation of few verses from the holy Koran, news and a piece of 
Afghan music. Total duration of the broadcast will be 20 minutes each 
day. In view of the fact that our listeners might have work 
commitments, the broadcast of each day's programme will be available 
on the Internet for a week Dear listeners can send their comments and 
sound criticism via the electronic address of `Payam-e Mojahed' and 
address them to the office of Radio Voice of Mojahed. [Payam-e 
Mojahed's web site is at http://www.payamemujahid.com ] Source: 
`Payam-e Mojahed' web site, Parwan, in Dari 27 Jan 00 (via BBC 
Monitoring via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ANTARCTICA. Today I talked with the Comando Antartico question by
my friend that worked at LRA36 in the past year. The contact here at
Comando Antartico give me the information that LRA36 was inactive in
all this time during the 'change' of personal & militaries to Base
Esperanza and all previous staff is returned here. Today or tomorrow
probable is coming to Base Esperanza the new endowment, and probably
in the next days will be reactivated the stn, as usual on 15476, but
I not know if the times will be the sames as the past year  (Gabriel
Ivan Barrera, Argentina, Jan 27, BC-DX via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

15476.0 LRA36 R Nac Arcangel, 1455, heard with very good signal in
Buenos Aires, checked at this time by my friend Norberto Pugliese, as
I'm in my job office.

As I talked yesterday to my friend at Base Esperanza, they will bc
Mon-Sat 1400-2100 on SW 15476, from 1400-1800 only mx with news each
30 mins, and from next Wed 2 Febr, the progrs between 1800-2100 will
be as usual, progrs talking about ARG land and Antarctic comments,
from 1400-1800 will broadcast mx. On Suns they probably will bc only
three hrs, with mx only (tentative). The new chief at Base Esperanza
(and in consequence of LRA36) is Mr. Carlos Alberto Drews (Gabriel
Ivan Barrera, Argentina, Jan 31, BC-DX via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BELARUS. 6010,0 at 0407, SINPO 35333, Belaruskoje R., Brest clear 
ID, weather report, hit music, only 5 kW, audible only during 
transmission break of TRT Turkey at 0407-0412 Jan 27 

6040,0 at 1439, SINPO 24322, Belarusskoe R., Minsk 10 kW, home 
service program 1, hit music  //6070 (5 kW) 6115 (10 kW) 7110 (5 kW) 
7210 (75 kW) Jan 28 

6070,0 at 0321, SINPO 44444 R. Minsk Belarus military orchestra, 
frequencies and times, IS //1170 7210 Jan 27

6928,0 at 1914, SINPO 25322, Belarusskoe Radio mixing product, HS-1, 
modulation totally verzerrte, classical music, ID //6070 6115 7210 
Jan 28 (Hans-Joachim Koch, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

** CANADA. RCI Engineering issued a revision of its frequency 
scheduled dated 30.12.99, showing that the 2200 half-hour to 
Europe/Africa in English has been expanded to a full hour. (Thus, it 
is possible to broadcast a longer than half hour program such as 
Quirks and Quarks on Saturdays). At 2200-2259 Sackville is on 5995, 
13690, 15325; Skelton on 7235, 9805. Note that at 2100-2159, 5995 is 
Skelton instead of Sackville (Glenn Hauser, from sked via Bill 
Westenhaver, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC. UN's Radio Minurca closes, new station
planned   Text of report by the French news agency AFP

Bangui, 1st February: "Radio Minurca [UN Mission for Central African
Republic] has had the great pleasure of informing and entertaining the
people of the Central African Republic [CAR] since July 1998 (....)
Thank you for listening." Radio Minurca, the first UN radio station to
be heard on the air waves seven days a week, 24 hours a day, ceased
broadcasting today at 0715 local time (0615 gmt).

The station, which was as widely listened to on FM in Bangui as Radio
France Internationale and Libreville-based Africa No 1, as well as on
shortwave throughout the CAR, had become familiar to Central Africans,
who do not have any highly circulated written press. In between
Congolese music and BBC bulletins, Radio Minurca has accompanied the
restoration of peace to the CAR and the holding of the 1998-99
parliamentary and presidential elections since its first broadcast on
24th July 1998. It broadcast programmes in French and the national
Sango language, educating the public on the workings of democratic
elections, human rights, and informing them about the progress made on
the road to peace.

The radio held live debates, which were sometimes heated in a country
highly divided following the three violent mutinies of 1996 and 1997.

"The debates helped to loosen tongues," says David Smith, the Canadian
director of the station, who was among the five Central African
journalists and two technicians of his team.

At Camp Baal, Bangui's main military base, the last Minurca soldiers
are getting ready to leave the CAR. Soon, the studio material will be
flown to Sierra Leone, where another UN force has been deployed.
Although it is a "sad and emotional" time, the Radio Minurca team is
fighting to set up another UN radio station in Bangui under the
auspices of the UN Development Programme and with the assistance of
Fondation Hirondelle, a Swiss NGO. 

Tita Samba, announcer and director at Radio Minurca, has not been paid
for two weeks now, but he always reports to duty. "It is our dream to
be able to express ourselves freely in our country and our duty to
show our compatriots that we can do things ourselves," he said.

Source: AFP news agency, Paris, in French 1039 gmt 1 Feb 00
(BBC Monitoring via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [non]. From Feb 1, CRI is heard in London via World Radio
Network and Spectrum Radio weekdays at 2300 UT on 558 kHz. CRI is
also added to WRN's satellite European and North American services
plus overnight relays in several American cities (WRN press release
via BBC Monitoring summarised by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CZECH REPUBLIC. QSL de Radio Praga para el 2000

R. Prague has edited a new series of seven QSLs for this year to 
confirm reception reports. They deal with different aspects of Czech 
broadcasting:

n Airport hanger once used for broadcasting
n Litomysl transmitter site
n TV tower
n Czech broadcasting building
n First Czechoslovak president
n 1935 bus
n Achievements of Czech broadcasting

(Eduard Boada i Aragonès, Spain, Noticias DX translated by Hauser, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST))

** GUATEMALA. I was traveling through the mountainous parts of 
Guatemala in January 2000 and here are some changes with respect to 
the 1998 WRTH (the latest version that I have)...

SW stuff: signals were heard from all other stations listed in the 
WRTH but not mentioned below. IDs were heard from all except R. 
Cultural 3300, R. Chortis 3380, R. Cultural Coatan 4780 and LV de 
Guatemala 6180. R. Mam 4825 was heard only in the Mam language ? no 
SS.

2360 R. Maya not heard in spite of hearing weak R. Maya on 3325
2390 LV de Atitlan Not on the air --- see below
4845 R. Kekchi not heard tho I did not pass close to Fray Bartolome 
     de las Casas
5955 R. Cultural not on the air
5980 Union Radio not on the air
6180 LV de Guatemala not on the air

The influx of evangelical stations since my last visit is absolutely 
amazing. One half of the stations in Guatemala City are now 
evangelical. The rest may be by the time this hits print. It was very 
surprising to see that some of what were the biggest stations in Guat 
City are off the air. For example, in the past 670, 880 and 1180 were 
all important stations in Guatemala. They were all heard by DXers in 
the US in times long past. 

On a sad note, La Voz de Atitlan is no longer broadcasting on 1490 
and 2390. Almost 3 years ago they were forced to abandon AM and SW 
due to the costs of operation in relation to the benefits. Only FM is 
now used. This station also was caught in the middle of the painful 
civil war in Guatemala; in the early 80`s the Guatemalan army forced 
it off the air and its director was killed by assumed paramilitary 
forces. The station survived all of this only to eventually lose its 
battle to broadcast due to finances. The antennas are taken apart but 
they and the transmitters are in storage should founding ever be 
available; the station is run by a community organization and depends 
entirely on funding from external organizations. Should any of NRC`s 
wide-spread audience be aware of funding sources, LV de Atitlan would 
certainly appreciate being put in touch. (Chuck Hutton, National 
Radio Club International DX Digest Jan 31, retyped by gh for DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

Hmmm, were they really on 1490 or just a convenient image of 2390, 
and what is the active FM frequency?? (Hauser, DXLD)

** IRELAND. 12255,0 at 1830, SINPO 15422 Radio Fax in English 
Religious program, The glory of god //6295 3910 Jan 30 (Hans-Joachim 
Koch, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

**ISRAEL. Keep your eyes on http://www.israelradio.org/english.html . 
In a couple of weeks, there will be a live internet/satellite stream 
of many of Kol Israel's foreign language radio broadcasts. The 
satellite broadcast is over Europe.... more details coming. English 
broadcasts to be streamed live via web/satellite are at: 1135 UTC 
(6:35 AM EST) [only 5 minutes -gh] and 2000 UTC (3 PM EST) The 
recorded 1500 UTC (10 AM EST) broadcast will continue as a recorded 
broadcast (available on http://www.israelradio.org/english.html , 
usually within minutes of the finish of the actual live broadcast). 
Of course, on shortwave, all four broadcasts (0500 (midnight EST), 
1135, 1500 and 2000 UTC) are available... live only - and the 1500 
UTC broadcast is available (rebroadcast at a later time) on many 
radio stations around the world, including "WRN on NPR" in the middle 
of the night local time on many local NPR stations. (Daniel 
Rosenzweig, Jan 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH. Glenn, Radio Pyongyang in English with a good signal 
on this "early" afternoon here in Wisconsin (Jan 31). 11710 at 1900 
to 1955 UT. We will not try and spit hairs on the actual frequency as 
the signal was drifting over this 55 min broadcast, one min below 
11710 say by almost 100 Hz next min high by 100 Hz. Regards, (David 
Zantow, Janesville, WI, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MADAGASCAR. News in English and a series of VOA programmes could 
be heard on Radio Madagascar at 16.30 UTC (Mahendra Vaghjee, 
Mauritius, Jan 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Frequencies? Until? (gh)

** MEXICO [non]. [cf DXLD 00-19] Commandante Null is better known as 
Mike Adams of NPC Information Associates in Atlanta. This isn?t new, 
it was a replay of a program that ran on RFPI in the spring of 1999, 
Chiapas, the World Speaks. It aired on RFPI only briefly. I spoke 
with Adams today and he said that he posted a real audio file of this 
program the other day at his website- 
http://www.mindspring.com/~exomike/ Unbeknownst to Adams, a US pirate 
then recorded the audio and put it on shortwave. Having said that, 
Adams is considering making additional programs available. He has a 
total of ten. So if the pirates are up for it, there may be more 
programs from this "clandestine". (Hans Johnson, Jan 31, Cumbre DX 
Special via DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

Now known as Michael Leo Lively, Adams has a twisted sense of humor 
immediately evident on the webpage. Makes one wonder how seriously 
the Chiapas show should be taken. Perhaps I will succeed in listening 
to all of it. One also questions the nativity of a commander who does 
not know how to spell Comandante (Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NEW ZEALAND. [Cf DXLD 00-19: What do you know about 
Hellschreiber?] This was written up in Ham Radio Magazine in the 
'70's. As I remember it, it used a paper tape to print text messages 
at the receiver, as a replica image of the original (sender) tape. 
There was a rotating detector head that would helically optically 
scan the pre-lettered tape (looking like an old Western Union 
telegram paper tape) at a steep angle, when scanning a letter on the 
tape at the sending end it would send a pulse to the receiver, each 
time the scanner crossed one of the bars of the letter, whose sync'ed 
scanner head would (thermally?) burn a similar image on the 
receiver's tape. The letters might each have 10 or 15 scan lines 
through them, making them easily readable by eye. This is much like 
weather maps by fax, but there was no greyscale, just B&W. When the 
scanning or tape drive speeds were not in agreement, the line of 
letters would "barber-pole" across the paper tape. I suppose the 
receiver guy had to keep it aligned? A good benefit was the ability 
to send reasonably fast data information rates across a serial data 
link of low fidelity. I haven't heard of this in years. Surprised 
anyone remembers it. I suppose hearing it today on radio would just 
be random rapid short bursts of "fsk" data, but it's a non-obvious 
mode, isn't it? (Robert Foxworth, FL, hard-core-dx Jan 31, via DX
LISTENING DIGEST)

In 1967 I met Mr. engineer Rudolf Hell in person, during the
inauguration of the very first CRT - Cathode Ray Tube typesetting
machine in Europe, which was developed by Engineer Hell Company in
Kiel in 1966 [later merged to SIEMENS company]. I worked there five
years as system analyst on the Siemens 3000 system.

Hell was one of the greatest German inventors of the previous century,
amongst Prof. Manfred von Ardenne and Mr. Bruch, they developed early
tv experiments between 1927 and 1940.

At that time in the Fifties and Sixties the Hellschreiber technology
was in use by the well-known PRAVDA printing house in the then USSR,
to distribute plain scanned newspaper pages online at large distances
to the various printing houses in Siberia and the Far East regions for
reprinting the Communist Party central organ. Though not spectacular
at present ... (Wolfgang Bueschel, Germany, Feb 1, BC-DX via DX
LISTENING DIGEST)

** NIGERIA. Delivery of two new SW transmitters to Abuja is being
expedited to enhance FRCN's national coverage (The Guardian website
Jan 31 via BBC Monitoring, summarised by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ROMANIA. 11987,3 at 1353, SINPO 35333 RRI in English, ID, hit 
music, Sport on this weekend //11940 ? once again an amazing spur 
from a nearby frequency, Jan 28 (Hans-Joachim Koch, Germany, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. Mikhail, Tnx for the info on VOR Spanish. I assume you mean
that these frequencies are from your site. But are there others from
elsewhere? How about MW 1323 from Germany as Kai Ludwig speculated?
(Glenn)

No, all freqs from other sites (I know only that one of them is from
Moscow). St. Petersburg does not have curtain antennas to SW Europe,
but Kaliningrad has some ones with 245 degrees. I do not think that
1323 from Germany will be in use for this broadcast... (Mikhail
Timofeyev, Feb 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH AMERICA. PIRATE, 14564.95 LSB, Radio Blandengue heard with
fair to even good reception at 0132 tune-in, nonstop Latin music, 
with only brief intros, mentioning Cuba, Mexico and Panama. No 
English. Started to fade towards the end. Believe I heard an ID at 
0156. Off the air in mid sentence at exactly 0200:00. Much stronger 
than I've ever heard 6950. Worth checking next weekend if they are on 
again (from 0000 to 0200 UT Sat/Sun) (Volodya Salmaniw, Victoria BC, 
30 January, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN. WorldWide Radio inaugurará sus emisiones próximo 17 de 
febrero

WorldWide Radio, la primera emisora de radio profesional de España 
que emite exclusivamente por Internet, estrenará su programación el 
próximo 17 de febrero, después de tres meses en periodo de pruebas.

El presidente de la Generalitat, Jordi Pujol, presidirá el acto de 
inauguración que se celebrará en el Museo de Cera de Barcelona.

Asimismo, el mismo día WorlWide Radio estrenará, dentro de su 
webside, su servicio de formación a distancia, con cursos on line 
sobre periodismo, idiomas y nuevas tecnologías, así como una ciudad 
virtual de comercio electrónico. La web de la emisora ha sido 
visitada por más de 15.000 personas durante el periodo de pruebas, 
las cuales han podido escuchar una selección de las noticias más 
destacadas de la actualidad, tanto en catalán como en castellano.

El próximo mes de marzo, la emisora pondrá en marcha una exposición 
itinerante divulgativa llamada «La radio en Internet» que recorrerá 
las principales ciudades catalanas y después el resto de España. 
(Agustín Sanjuanes, Noticias DX)

[Spain`s first professional web-only radio station will commence on 
Feb 17 after a 3-month test period during which its website had more 
than 15 kilovisits. News items in Spanish as well as Catalan were 
provided. WorldWide Radio will also provide on-line instruction in 
journalism, languages, new technology : Summary translation by gh; an 
earlier report of this said they planned to use additional languages
including English, and the name itself is in English. URL not given
here but it was something very simple like http://www.wwr.es which
does not now work (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)]

** SUDAN [non]. 9517,2 at 1750, SINPO 24322, clandestine Voice of 
Sudan in vernacular with folksongs, mentioned ``Democratic Sudan" 
c/d 17.59. Nothing to be heard at this time on 8000 + 9000 Jan 28 
(Hans-Joachim Koch, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U K O G B A N I. The following is from Robert Leighton of the
Stafford Broadcasting Society:

Stafford Broadcasting Society, providers of the 'Imagination'
programme broadcast as part of the Merlin Network One (MNO) programme
stream, has now received official notification from Merlin
Communications International of the likelihood of the termination of
its existing contract on MNO. Merlin have told  us "the reasons for
this is the lack of resources available to push the original revenues
for advertising our 5 minute slot at the top of the hour as well as
optimising our studio facilities". (Note that for some time Merlin
have, in fact, been providing 59 minutes each hour to their clients
and retaining only 1 minute as their advertising slot, as I understand
it, to "retain the programme flow"). The two members of staff at the
MNO studio site were given notice of redundancy on Thursday 13th
January.

We have known for some time that the current MNO service was subject
to change after receiving information last year of the refusal by
Merlin to offer an hourly rate to a potential MNO client, but their
readiness to offer a yearly rate of -L-150k to that potential client
for an Astra feed - probably that currently in use by MNO.

Existing Merlin customers are now being offered shortwave transmission
facilities on a 60-minute hourly basis, and/or continuation of the
existing Sirius 2 feed, although Astra and/or studio facilities are
"unlikely" to be offered.

Imagination's soft rock programme is currently transmitted in stereo
across Europe on Astra transponder 58, and around the world on
shortwave in the 49 metre band on 6010kHz between 1901 and 2000 UTC.
[FRIDAYS ONLY -gh]

If MNO does come to an end and the Astra feed is no longer available,
Imagination is likely to broadcast as a radio station in its own right
and with its own identity, utilising the existing 250kW shortwave
transmitter and 10MW(!) beam in current use. The location of the
transmitter, the direction of the beam, and the time and the frequency
of the transmission provides excellent reception across most of the
world. (Robert Leighton/Stafford Broadcasting Society via Dave Kenny,
BDXC E-Mail News Feb 1 via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Glenn: This schedule for the new 25-minute CW via NewsNow 
corrects a few mistakes from the schedule I announced this past 
weekend. [as in DXLD 00-18]

COMMUNICATIONS WORLD ON VOA NEWS NOW

A 25-minute version of Communications World is broadcast by VOA News 
Now Saturday at the following times (actual start time is about 32:30 
past the hour, just after the news summary at the bottom of the 
hour):

To Pacific/East Asia/South Asia
0132    7115  7200  9850  11820  15250  15300  17740  17820
0932    11995  13650  15150
1332    6110  9355  9645  9760  11705  11920  15425  21550
1732    6110  7125  9645  15395  
2132    11870  15185  17735  17820                      

To Middle East/North Africa/Europe
0132    1548
0532    7170  9700  11825  15205
0932    1197  Astra*
1332    1197  Astra*
1732    6040  9760  15205
2132    1260  1548  6040  6095  9595  9760
*Astra analog, transponder 31, 11.671 GHz H-Pol, audio subcarrier 
7.56 MHz

To Africa
0532    909  5970  6035  6080  7295  9775  12080 
1732    11920  12040  15240  15445  17895

To the Americas
0132    5995  6130  9455
0532    6035

Yes, the DSB transmissions via Greenville continue (Sat 0700 6873, 
Sun 1400 18275).  Those will be the unabridged 28-minute version, 
i.e. as heard via WRN. 73 (Kim Andrew Elliott, Producer and 
Presenter, Communications World, Voice of America, Washington, D.C. 
20237 USA, Jan 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. NPR has a new (monthly?) web-only music program playing 
complete pieces from which `buttons` on All Things Considered have 
been excerpted, ``All Songs Considered`` at 
http://npr.org/programs/asc/ (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###           
    

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