[HCDX]: DX Listening Digest 00-23, Feb 5

[Glenn Hauser <wghauser@xxxxxxxxx>]

        DX LISTENING DIGEST 00-23, February 5, 2000
                edited by Glenn Hauser

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

WORLD OF RADIO ON 15685 Sat 1230, Tue 1200: Voice of Tibet daily
1220-12.59:20 now on v15650.21 and 9950 (ex 15685 and ex 9910)
(Wolfgang Bueschel, Germany, Feb 4)

** ANGUILLA. Anyone getting spatter from Gene Scott on 11775 from
11540 through 12000? Using a Drake R-8 and a dipole cut for 6955.
(Ron Hunsicker, location unknown, Feb 5, swl@xxxxxxx) Well,,, (gh)

** BENIN. Having just got them identified they move back! 7210.2,
Radiodiffusion du Benin, 2255-2304*  Choral music, identification "Ici
Cotonou..", National Anthem and off, ex 7200. Fair signal on clear
channel (Mike Barraclough, England, February 1st, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. Hi Glenn! The membership of the STARF union voted 79.3% in
favour of accepting the negotiated settlement, in results announced
Thursday evening, Montréal time. Therefore, the strike is over. The
return to work will take place over the next few days, so that
everything at RCI should be back to normal by Wednesday at 1100 UT.
73- (Bill Westenhaver, Feb 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC.
    Radio MINURCA went off the air Feb 1 at 0615.  I'm packing
the place up. UN radio should be back on the air from its new home
in the CAR in about a month. MINURCA itself ends on Feb 15, however
much of the staff has already been sent to other missions. On the
positive side, our project for an after-MINURCA radio is going well.
A new radio building is under construction at the UNDP compound
thanks to a grant from the German government. The Japanese
government is likely to buy new equipment for the operation. If all
goes well, the new operation could be on the air in three weeks. It
will use the same frequencies as Radio MINURCA, with an as of yet to
be determined name. This per David Smith, station manager. (via
Hans Johnson Jan 29, Feb 2, Cumbre DX via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Smith also did his own report on MINURCA on the Feb 3 RN Media
Network, accessible via http://www.wrn.org/ondemand (gh)

** CHECHNYA. Let's begin with news about U.S. international
broadcasting. The breakaway republic of Chechnya has lately been one
of the most dangerous places to practice journalism. But it is
specifically the job of U.S. financed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,
based in Prague, to gather news from all parts of Russia and to
transmit it back in Russia. Andrei Babitskiy, RFE/RL correspondent
covering the war in Chechnya, was reported missing after filing a
story on January 15th. On January 28th, it became known that Mr.
Babitskiy was detained by Russian authorities, allegedly for not
having the proper credentials to cover the Chechnya war. On Thursday,
RFE/RL and the Itar-Tass news agency reported that he was released and
was to be flown back to Moscow.

But later on Thursday, in a move that Reuters described as 'bizarre,'
Mr. Babitskiy was turned over to the Chechens in exchange for three
Russian prisoners-of-war. RFE/RL president Thomas Dine condemned this
action by the Russians, calling it a violation of human rights. Mr.
Dine said he is totally confident that Babitsky has performed
according to what he called the highest journalistic standards and has
violated no law. He reaffirmed that RFE/RL would do everything in its
power to ensure Babitsky's safe return to his family.

No specific charges were ever filed against Mr. Bibitskiy. He is a
36-year-old Russian citizen who has reported for RFE/RL for the past
ten years. [See the RFE/RL website for news about Mr. Babibitskiy and
developments in Chechnya.] (Kim Elliott, VOA Communications World Feb
5 via John Norfolk, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [non]. CRI via Cuba 9570, English at 0100 has not been
showing up since Jan 23. I do hear low/weak RHC on 9570. No CRI so I
have heard RRI Bucharest English to NAm at 0200, weak; do not hear
them for repeat at 0400; it`s either QRN or splash from VOA 9575 (Bob
Thomas, CT, Jan 28, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** COSTA RICA. RFPI has been promoting a special, first airing Sunday
Feb 6 at 2000, ``Songs of Freedom`` for the birthday of Bob Marley.
And repeated UT Mon 0400, 1200, on some of: 25930-USB, 15049, 6975.

BTW, I've noted RPFI seems to have tightened up its timing. While it
is not necessary to chop off programs just in order to meet the clock
unless a live network feed is coming, it is the `pro` thing to do, to
run as closely to ontime as possible, and I frequently note RFPI shows
now start within a couple of seconds of hourtop. This is especially
helpful to those who may be timer-taping (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUINEA-BISSAU (presumed) [NON? -gh]: 4848-4852, Jan 31 0520-0600;
s.o. [sic - means sign on??] "Eng. sevice of Guinea Bissau Nat'l
Radio, Bissau."; ID at 0530; sig. staggered over the band, not listed
in Passport or WRTH on this freq. weak sig. w/strong fade ups- in the
clear all talk about African development, by regions. Clandestine?
(Ron Guylas, Lansing MI, MARE TIpsheet)

[THIS ONE DESERVES A FEW EXTRA EARS ON IT FOLKS! Relay from Cameroon
maybe?-MARE ed.] (via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. RRI Fakfak, which broadcasts from Papua - formerly known
as Irian Jaya - was knocked off the air after being looted and
ransacked on Friday, January 29, according to newswire detik.com.
Although the causes of the riot is unknown witnesses state that
local residents have been upset that the state-run broadcaster
continued to call the province "Irian Jaya" and not "Papua" as had
been declared by President Wahid earlier this year.  RRI Fakfak now
refuse to return to work until their security can be guaranteed.
(Nick Grace, Jan 30, Cumbre DX via DX LISTENING DIGEST) See DXLD
00-22, already back on air 4789 (gh)

** IRAN. Since at least February 1st most of the VoA and RL outlets
in Persian language are subject of Iranian government jamming. Some
VoA/RL channels are jammed by well known BUBBLE jamming, other
channels covered by strong co-channel outlets of VOIRIB Arabic
program.

Bubble jamming heard at 0700 [scheduled 0430-0730] on 15290 against R
Liberty Kavalla Greece relay. Parallel channels 7285 and 9585 both
from Lampertheim Germany suffered by co-ch VOIRIB Arabic progr.
Original VoIRIB outlet for cross check is 9895.

Also Bubble jamming at 1530 [registered 1500-1700] against R Liberty
Woofferton outlet of 15410 kHz. Parallel 6015 Lampertheim strong here
in Germany, no jamming observed. On 11730 also Lampertheim noted a
station jam of at least 3-4 stns. 73 wb df5sx (Wolfgang Bueschel, Feb
5, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
                       
** ISRAEL. [Re: 15785 presumed Galei Tsahal]  Easiest way to ID this
one is by the distinctive jingle that they play on the hour. There is
an audio file of it on their web site. (Hans Johnson, Feb 2, Cumbre DX
via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** JAPAN. NHK World Radio Japan began Friday [Feb 4] distributing an
Internet audio stream of its radio programs in 22 languages. This is
one continuous RealAudio stream with different languages at different
times. English is at midnight, 1, 5, 15, 17, and 21 Universal Time.
http://www.nhk.or.jp/rj (Kim Elliott, VOA Communications World Feb 5
via John Norfolk, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The last major ISWBC station
to do so? (gh)

** LIBERIA. 4760; ELWA is returning to shortwave and tests could begin
as early as February 4th. It is hoped that regular broadcasts can
start by the 13th. It will be a simulcast of their FM service
initially, but they plan to add other languages. Exact schedule is
unknown, but look for them in the local afternoon and evening hours.
Power will by 1 kW, with a new transmitter designed by HCJB. Antenna
will be a four-pole array. All this per SIM. (DIRECT Hans Johnson Jan
28 Copyright Cumbre DX via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** LIBYA. Foreign policy is currently focused on the African continent
to the south rather than the Arab world that it had concentrated on
throughout the 1990s. This is reflected in Libya's external
broadcasting service which now identifies itself as Voice of Africa
(``Sawt Afriqia`` in Arabic). The schedule for VOA is currently 1045-
1230 and 1645-0400 (times may be variable slightly) on 11815, 15415
and 15435. Programmes are in Arabic, with news in English, followed by
French, variable at around 1735, 2035, 2335, 0035, 0135 and 0335.
Prior to the change to V. of Africa, the external service was called
``Voice of the Greater Arab Homeland`` (Tony Rogers, Feb British DX
Club Communication, via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO [non]. As a result of Commandante Null's posting (on the ACE
page) about the Spanish clandestine [La Voz del Zapatista on 6950,
6955] several of us heard, I e-mailed him and this is the reponse:

Charlie, At this point it looks like the pirate mail drop is not
going to work out. They realized it was a real clandestine and I
can't blame them. I will fwd the vines logs to LVZ but response may
take a while. I will post more info as it becomes available.  Yes
there will be more broadcasts and there may eventually be programing
in English. Thanks for your interest.  Regards,  Commandante Null

Charlie, Yes, it's pretty close except I uploaded the show several
months ago and I am better known as Commandante Null;). I pretty much
dropped out of the Zapatista movement about 6 or 8 months ago due to
lack of cooperation and coordination so this a weird development.
I received an email from the clandestine/pirate and they plan a
re-broadcast plus some more pro zapatista programs. I do have enough
material for 10 programs but it is not edited into finished programs
so I am not sure what will happen with that. (via Charles Crawford,
Free Radio Weekly via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NEW ZEALAND [non]. Following the recent mentions of Hellschreiber
in Glenn's reports, the following may be of interest. It is taken from
"Assigned to Listen", a compilation of second world war reminiscences
by former staff of the BBC Monitoring Service.

In the book, Martin Esslin, a German monitor at the time, and in the
1960s and 70s Head of BBC Radio Drama, wrote:

"My greatest achievement as a Roving Monitor [one who would spend
their time "roving" up and down the bands, rather than be assigned to
concentrate on listening to one station throughout their shift] that
summer (1940) was a discovery which also had important consequences.
In the very long wavelengths, far beyond normal longwaves, I came
across a curious broadcast in German. It was very slow - in fact at
dictation speed: a voice read out all sorts of news in that slow
tempo. I got myself a typewriter and began to type out what was being
dictated. It turned out that, for example, the dictation included the
German High Command's daily communique several hours before it was
usually released. In other words I had stumbled across the German News
Agency's (DNB) [Deutsches Nachrichtenburo] embargoed advance service
for the numerous frontline newspapers that were springing up in the
path of the German advance through Europe. This became a fruitful
source of news and brought the Monitoring Service much kudos.

"But then, one day, I typed out an announcement that, as from a
certain time the next day, this transmission would cease and be taken
over by the 'Hellschreiber', whatever that might have meant. And so it
happened. The next day there was still a broadcast on that wavelength
but it was merely a wittering electronic sound. I duly reported my
belief that the transmission was now being radiated by an
electronically controlled teleprinter.

"The Germans were obviously certain that it could not be exploited by
their enemies, but within a few weeks British technicians, mainly at
Beaconsfield [a Foreign Office monitoring station] not only had
analysed the signal but had also obtained the necessary equipment for
interception. This was the start of the special DNB unit at Evesham
[where BBCMS was based between 1939 and 1943, before moving to to
Caversham] which regularly received all this advance material, and the
Germans never knew we had it. Hitler speeches, one or two days before
they were made, the weekly Goebbels [German Propaganda Minister]
article which gave the propaganda line for the next seven days,
communiques and - above all - all the advance releases of decorations
to German soldiers, were thus available to us well in advance.

"Years later, when I was working in the German Service of the BBC, we
made splendid use of this material. Hugh Carleton Greene, the Head of
the German Service (later to be the BBC's Director-General) [and
brother of novelist Graham Greene], broadcast a weekly preview to the
Goebbels article each Wednesday evening, a day ahead of its
appearance, And Goebbels, as his diaries show, was convinced that
there must be a British spy in his ministry. He never thought that his
ministry itself was broadcasting this material to us. Thus the
Germans' belief in their technical superiority had blinded them."

For the record, a semi-official history of BBCM published in 1979 says
that monitoring of the Hellschreiber service of the DNB began on 23rd
October 1941. I know that Hellschreiber continued to be used well
after the war. As recently as the 1980s it was still being used by the
Chinese government news agency Xinhua to transmit material for later
publication in Chinese provincial newspapers, thus also making such
material available for interception by BBCMS. I would be most
interested to hear of any other recollections regarding this now semi-
forgotten technology and its inventor, Rudolf Hell.

(Chris Greenway, England, Feb 4, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

[For those who may have lost track, the only connexion with New
Zealand is that the Hellschreiber was a topic this week on Mailbox;
we are keeping the thread here for ease of reference -gh]

Chris, We had a Hellschreiber machine already installed in the tower
at Croydon Airport when I joined the Civil Aviation service in 1937.
It was there for aviation service of course, no doubt for receiving
weather reports etc. But in fact it was never used - maybe this is the
one that the Foreign Office got hold of. We had good telex and radio
connections with Germany, so there was no need for it (Geoff Halligey,
Pencoed, South Wales, BDXC E-mail news via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NIGERIA. 3326, Radio Nigeria, 1740 Feb 3, Live commentary in
English of football match between Nigeria and Morocco in the African
Tournament (CAN -- that means "Coupe d'Afrique des Nations"). 1758
announcement of result Nigeria 1 Morocco nil. 1702 Mx and then time
given and ID by woman in Eg as This is the External service of Radio
Nigeria, then continued with talk and again as "This is the External
service of Radio Nigeria" then Nx by man. Poor reception (Mahendra
Vaghjee, Mauritius, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

I thought 3326 was domestic service. Also, the BBCM item about new
transmitters referred to ``national coverage`` so one would not
expect 15120 to be affected as Hans Johnson suggests; but perhaps the
distinction between services is ours, not theirs (gh)

** PAKISTAN. 6075, Radio Pakistan, 1425-1430 Nx in Urdu then signature
tune and a few lines of Koran, then talk by man in Pushtu ? mentioning
Pakistan, then again a few lines of prayer and followed by songs and
talk in between songs on Kashmir. 1445 Mx before Nx then a few lines
of prayer and Nx mainly on Kashmir; 1457 ID and went off at 1500 after
NA. Distorted Sound (Mahendra Vaghjee, Mauritius, Feb 5, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)

** SIERRA LEONE. [cf DXLD 00-22] 3316 (Cumbre DX 279 follow up) SLBS
says that they were testing last week and that they commissioned the
station on Jan 28th. They had finally received spares for their 10 kW
transmitter. Their schedule is 0600-1000 and 1900-0000 on 3316. The
station is relying on a generator for power, hence the limited
schedule. If they can get power from the grid, they will expand from
1000-1900 on 5980. All this per Henry Goodaig Hjax, Assistant
Engineer. (DIRECT Hans Johnson Jan 31 Copyright Cumbre DX via DX
LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH AMERICA. Radio Blandengue from some place in South America
will be on the air next weekend performing his pirate activities on
14565 kHz LSB according to the following sked:

ALL TIMES AND DATE ARE UTC [sic -- so what are we to make of the 0100-
0300 segment listed after 1100-1300 - is it actually UT Monday?? gh]

Sunday Feb 06 on 14565 kHz LSB

1000 - 1130 Emisora Z del Dragon (tentative)
1130 - 1200 Radio Blandengue (tentative)
1200 - 1230 Emisora Z del Dragon (tentative)
1230 - 1300 Radio Blandengue (tentative)

0100 - 0130 Emisora Z del Dragon
0130 - 0200 Radio Blandengue
0200 - 0230 Emisora Z del Dragon
0230 - 0300 Radio Blandengue

All reports correct received for snail mail QSL guaranteed
And don't forget to include 2 IRC

Addresses for reports:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Emisora Z del Dragon, Casilla 159, Santiago 14, CHILE
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Radio Blandengue, Box 293, Merlin Ontario N0P 1W0, CANADA
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Raul Gonzalez Operator of Radio Blandengue
radio.blandengue@xxxxxxxxxxxxx radio.blandengue@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
radio.blandengue@xxxxxxx
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/4401/blandengue.html
(Radio Blandangue via Hans Joachim Koch, Feb 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN. [Cf DXLD 00-20]. I have found and confirmed the URL for
WorldWide Radio, the internet-only station starting up soon, as I
have rementioned it on Mundo Radial: http://www.wwr.fm (Glenn Hauser,
DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SUDAN. I heard this evening (February 4) at about 1740 R. Omdurman
with its English programme on 7200 kHz. I don't know if they use now
regular the 7200 kHz for the English programme. I found curious their
time announcement at 1755 before the news in brief: "the time in our
studio is 8.55". That means that Sudan has UTC+3, or this was a
recorded programme broadcast at the wrong time. 73s (Erich Bergmann,
Germany, hard-core-dx via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TAIWAN. We noted Rumen Pankov`s unID on 8300 kHz which was
probably New Star Radio. Prior to the launch of Radio Free Asia, the
US undertook a feasiblity study and this included a survey of all HF
output (e.g. target audiences, languages used and hours per week),
country by country in the region. For some unknown reason New Star
Radio was included in this sweep and was identified as operating from
Taiwan. The report was passed to Congress prior to the inception of
RFA and no doubt to justify its funding. NSR is an intelligence
service transmission sending coded number groups for manual
decryption. A report we received from the US: New Star Radio did not
appear on any frequency at 1200, 1230, 1300 and 1330 on Tuesday, 21st
September 1999 following the earthquake which damaged buildiings and
power in Taiwan (Chris Midgley, West Yorkshire, Feb British DX Club
Communication via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. VOA's new science show, Our World, is worth a listen, in
the alternate odd UT xx:32:30 hours Saturdays when Communications
World is not on; first one ended with an item on Carl Sagan and the so
far unsuccessful SETI, as heard Feb 5 at 1932:30 on 15580 (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Attention, compilers of DX program lists! Whilst WBCQ 7415
has been on the air for a sesquiyear, and has accumulated a number of
shows falling into the DX/media/radio hobby category, I do not see
them listed along with World of Radio and Communications World. If
your definition is broad enough, I suggest you start including these,
for which I add a brief description. And keep checking http://wbcq.net
for latest changes - this is excerpted from download Feb 5, with no
date on this schedule page, tho the home page was still dated *Jan 3*.
Unlike WBCQ we make clear here that all times and DAYS are strictly UT
to avoid confusion; all shift one UT hour earlier for DST from April:

Planet Program Schedule

UT Sunday:
0030-0100 The Real Amateur Radio Show - Mister Mike and the TimTron,
          interviews Riley  Hollingsworth, FCC enforcer; classic
          pirate tapes such as R. Confusion, R. Morania
0500-0800 Tom and Darryl - live call-in talk show, often with guests,
          such as Bob Grove (temporarily? starting at 0400, and has
          been known to run past 0800)
2100-2130 Communications World

UT Monday:
0000-0100 Le Show - Harry Shearer satire, especially on the media: he
          does wicked Dan Rather, Mike Wallace, Tom Brokaw, Mr
          Blackwell, ``Clinton-Something``...

UT Wednesday:
0100-0200 Off the Hook - phones, computers, hacking from WBAI
2230-2300 Glenn Hauser's World of Radio

UT Friday:
2230-2300 Radio Detective - music, repairs antiques

UT Saturday:
0100-0200 Allan Weiner Worldwide - Live call-ins, WBCQ station news,
          philosophizing about radio, etc.

A number of other programs fall into the Old-Time Radio category,
antique music or pirate [non] programming. This is my idea, not
prompted by WBCQ (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** YUGOSERBIA. I`m finding VOA clashing with R. Yugoslavia, to NAm
at 0100 on 7115, both in English (Bob Thomas, CT, Jan 28, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)

** ZIMBABWE. 6045, ZBC, 2120, new frequency for this time of day.
Heard with Afro music and UTC +2 time checks by male announcer. ID as
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation at 2145 and anthem at 2156. Also
checked 5975 to see if they were there as well and there was music
underneath BBC via Antigua at 2140. Can someone in Europe check
please?  Later heard report from Alexander on WOR that Zimbabwe
hadn't been heard on "its usual frequencies" in several weeks. So I
guess that they have been using 49 mb for a while. Seems to be
trend among Africans these days to stay on the higher bands even in
the local evenings, perhaps related to approaching solar maximum?
(Hans Johnson, Feb 2, Cumbre DX via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

CHINESE NEW YEAR

Ethnic Chinese all the world over will celebrate Lunar New Year this
year on Feb 5 (in East and Southeast Asia: Feb 4 at 1600 UTC). Look
for special programs on all Mandarin/Chinese stations all over the
world, including the Mandarin services of international stations.
The festival traditionally lasts 15 days, but it would only be a
public holiday for 3 or 4 days. Special new year programs is always
a tradition for stations in mainland China, Taiwan and southeast
Asia. The programs typically starts around 1400 UTC on the eve of
the lunar new year lasting past 1600 UTC, where most of the Chinese
in Asia will mark the beginning of the new year until maybe 1700 UTC
or beyond. The Lunar New Year is also celebrated in Vietnam, where
it is known as Tet, Tibet and both parts of the divided Korea.
(Richard Lam, Singapore, Jan 30, Cumbre DX via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
###

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
http://im.yahoo.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a message from Glenn Hauser <wghauser@xxxxxxxxx>
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.kotalampi.com/hard-core-dx/
or email Risto Kotalampi, risto@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
------------------------------------------------------------------------