[HCDX]: DX Listening Digest 00-29 Feb 23

[Glenn Hauser <wghauser@xxxxxxxxx>]

        DX LISTENING DIGEST 00-29, Feb 23, 2000
		edited by Glenn Hauser

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

THIS WEEK ON WORLD OF RADIO 1025: See topic summary at
http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/wor1025.html

** AFGHANISTAN. Voice of Shari'ah, 7073: Open the English program at 
1500 with a with a song in English ``Afghanistan ... Afghanistan...`` 
then ID by man as ``This is The voice of Shari'ah, English Service of 
Afghanistan`` then continued with the song and "You listening your
English program on 1107 kHz and 7000 in SW`` then time in GMT was 
given. Much better audio on that day (Feb 21) (Mahendra Vaghjee, 
Mauritius, DX LISTENING DIGEST, WORLD OF RADIO 1025)
                 
** ANGUILLA. DGS 11775/6090 is temporarily at 10 kW because of a 
damaged water hose. Once a new hose and cleaner can be installed next 
week it should be back to 100 kW. The 1610 kHz outlet is only running 
about 6 kW, and 690 is much less than the authorized 200 kW (DX 
LISTENING DIGEST, WORLD OF RADIO 1025)

** AUSTRALIA. Darwin - Australia arguments !
I was interested to read the item from Bob Padula concerning the 
arguments as to whether or not there are any txions from the Darwin 
site. I am just wondering whether both people may be right! This is 
just a theory of mine and quite likely to be wrong, so I am prepared 
to be shot down!

When I went to work at BBC Woofferton many years ago, they were just 
in the process of replacing the old WW2 RCA 50 kW txs with new 
Marconi BD272 units which were capable of 250 kW output. At the time 
all the antenna arrays were also about to be re-built, as they were 
designed to only handle 100 kW maximum. Thus when the first of the 
new 250 kW units was ready for testing, there was no way of trying 
them at more than 100 kW into the existing arrays.

The obvious solution of course is to test them into a "dummy load" 
which basically means a pure resistor capable of handling 250 kW.

Anyone who has done any radio construction will know that even a 10 
watt resistor is quite big - you can hardly imagine how large a 
250,000 watt resistor would be! Plus you have a problem that such a 
resistor will be dissipating all that power as heat, so it would need 
a huge cooling system. Such dummy loads do nowadays exist but are 
huge and very expensive.

The solution adopted at Woofferton and I think at other BBC sites, 
was to use instead a so-called "radiating load" - in other words, an 
antenna!

This consisted of a wide-band cage dipole mounted only about 2 metres 
above ground and capable of handling 250 kW. The theory was that 
because it was so low, the majority of the signal would go straight 
up, and certainly on the higher bands would go straight up into space 
without reflection from the ionosphere. To give a proper test, 
modulation was also applied, usually whatever programme happened to 
be available! As you know, some stations in Africa on the 90 and 60 
metre tropical bands use just such an antenna to give good local sky 
wave coverage. Despite the theory, reports on the Woofferton tests 
were received from all over the World, together with complaints from 
other broadcasters.

When I went back to Woofferton a few years ago on the occasion of the
station's 50th. birthday, those "test loads" were still there.

What I am leading up to is that I just wonder if Darwin has similar 
test loads, rather than a "proper" non-radiating dummy load, and the 
mystery txions ARE in fact from Darwin but not meant to be heard ?
As I say, this is just a theory of mine, and if someone has hard 
evidence of what sort of dummy load is in use at Darwin, I would be 
most interested! (Richard Buckby G3VGW, Ambergate, Derbyshire, 
England. Feb 15 via BC-DX Feb 22 via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. Re: DXLD 00-29. The strike at CBC cannot be blamed for 
feed mixups at RCI Dec 19, as it did not start until Dec 30 (gh, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHILE. Voz Cristiana had huge extremely distorted spur covering 
11485 to 11515 and peaking at 11500 Feb 22 at 1110; this was //11690 
which was mixing with the usual RTTY. Checked +190 or so and found a 
weak match on 11885 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GREECE [non]. VOG relay via VOA 17705, Sun Feb 20 around 2000 
noted with good audio, seems wider frequency response, less 
distortion than before, and no crosstalk during Greek music and talk. 
Have they and VOA been working on improvements or is this a fluke? Do 
they play any music BUT Greek? Mentioned penta programma, so I 
believe it is still the right feed, ERA5 = external service (Glenn 
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NETHERLANDS. Glenn, I had a chat with Jonathan about the new 
schedule. He says the feature programmes will be reduced by no more 
than 30 seconds :-) In fact, programmes often under-run by that 
amount anyway, so the effect will hardly be noticeable. Apparently 
there are going to be two versions of Newsline - a 30 minute version 
including the Dutch press review, and a 25 minute version without. 
Both will start with the news. Programs will be mostly grouped in 2 
hour blocks, each with one 30m and one 25m Newsline, and two feature 
programmes of 29:30. I hope that explanation makes sense. 73, (Andy 
Sennit, RN, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NETHERLANDS. RE: 9790 jamming. Dear Andy, I checked remote 
monitoring receiver in Sydney at 1002 UTC and no bubbles on 9790 kHz 
this morning February 21st 2000. (Ehard Goddijn, RN via Andy Sennitt) 
Checked 9790 around 1050 Feb 22 and it was loud and clear, no sign of 
jamming (gh, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOMALIA. New SW station in Mogadishu - Radio Banaadir
Text of report by Somali newspaper 'Xog-Ogaal' on 22nd February

A new radio station, called Radio Banaadir [see note below], was
officially opened yesterday in Mogadishu and has started full
operations. The radio station, which had been testing for two months,
is said to be independent. Some reports, however, link it to various
Mogadishu faction leaders. The radio can be heard on the 41 and 49
metre [shortwave] bands. The [opening] ceremony was addressed by
various leaders. [Banaadir is the name of the region encompassing
Mogadishu and its immediate environs.] Source: 'Xog-Ogaal', Mogadishu,
in Somali 22 Feb 00 p 3 (BBC Monitoring via WORLD OF RADIO 1025, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)

** UKRAINE. RUI English frequencies, as reconstructed by gh from 
transmitter schedules as of Feb 17:

2200: 6020 6080 9560 9610 9785 9870
0100: 6020 9560 9610
0400: 6020 9600 9610 9810 11825
1200: 15520 21510

All are 100 kW, except 1000 kW on 9785, 9810, 21510 (Alexander 
Yegorov, Ukraine, Feb 20, BC-DX and Electronic DX Press via DX 
LISTENING DIGEST and WORLD OF RADIO 1025)

** U K O G B A N I. Hi Glenn, Well, it turned out that Waveguide was 
not what I was told it was going to be. It was a "radio tour" of 
Moscow with a BBC listener who explained that most people in Moscow 
don't listen to the BBC any more! Jamming was mentioned - once - but 
the rest was about the situation now. Sorry if I confused anyone, I 
was just relaying a message someone left on my answering machine :-) 
(Andy Sennitt, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Re DXLD 00-28, WYFR on 6900: I should have said: 2 x 9555 
minus 2 x 6105 equals 6900! Or, 9555 minus 6105 equals one half of 
6900 (Glenn Hauser, DXLD, WORLD OF RADIO 1025)

** U S A. WBCQ-2 did start Mon Feb 21 at 1310 check with the 
Apocalypse guy James Lloyd allegedly interpreting the book of Daniel, 
and also in the 1400 hour. At least he is not a screamer. The 
network`s sponsor, Christian Media, seems to be an anti-New-World-
Order publication listing so-called ``patriot`` broadcasts. Not 
checked Feb 22, but the morning of Feb 23, 9340 was absent. What is 
the problem now? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) TimTron
told me Feb 23 at 1940 that he was working on a transmitter problem
and hoped to have it back on the next day (George S. Thurman, TX,
WORLD OF RADIO 1025)

** U S A. AFN still carrying The Tom Joyner Show at least until 1300 
UT when checked Mon Feb 21, on 4278.5 and 12689.5, while NPR`s 
Morning Edition was only on 6458.5 USBs (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX 
LISTENING DIGEST)

** VENEZUELA. The frequency for R. Valera in the current active list 
via DXLD 00-27 should surely be 4840, not 4940 (gh, DXLD)   ###

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