[HCDX] Re: RCI Canada

[ragusa <ragusa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This discussion seems to be based on a perceived need for Canada to project
a Canadian viewpoint into the Pacific Basin via SW broadcasts, which seems a
valid topic for this and related mailing lists.

Firstly though, why should RNZI relay RCI. In the past, RNZI has provided SW
relay facilities for BBC and, of late, for 'freedom' programs to Burma
(because of tx location benefits v jamming), and programs for NZ forces in
Timor, Bougainville and the Solomons. RNZI's reason to exist is to project
and reflect a Pacific island viewpoint for listeners in Polynesia, Melanesia
and Micronesia - not to act as a brokered transmitter supplier to the
highest bidder for those outside the region who wish to peddle their wares
here.

Does Canada have a profile in the Pacific. Short answer is no. Why not? That
debate is for Canadians to have, and to do something about if they choose
to. The engineering rationale given in your papers may help deliver
programs, or may not. What's the point if no-one wants to send the message,
and no-one wants to listen? Yes, Vancouver is as close to China as Halifax
is to Paris, but if Canadians choose to look East and not West, that's their
outlook on the world.

There's nothing to stop RCI (but why them, and not a consortium of private
broadcasters instead?) technically broadcasting here now via internet
streaming, via local AM or FM relays (such as the BBC does), or providing
programs of interest to small island broadcasters to insert in their
programs (like RNZI and RA do).

Canada can also invest in a SW relay base (if that's what it wants) and
build its own facilities in NZ and pump a powerful signal into the South
Pacific where, frankly, no-one cares what's happening in Ottawa.

RNZI occupies a niche as a local broadcaster, with SW providing a secure
service in times of local coups (Fiji yesterday, Tonga tomorrow?), power
failures (Fiji has regular drought which affects power supplies, and I've
been stuck in elevators in Apia during brown-outs), and when Mother Nature
strikes (cyclones, tidal waves and earthquakes are common). The second (DRM)
transmitter due on air in 2004/2005 will further improve the quality for
local rebroadcasts on FM, and for those with a new generation of more
affordable DRM capable SW receivers.

Yes, there are minds to influence in the Pacific, where island-states of
20,000 people or less have the same voting power in the UN as Canada or the
USA. But SW broadcasts as a means to influence them and manipulate them to
agree with Canadian or other outside the region viewpoints, must be a lost
cause.

To suggest that the Bali bombing targeting Australians and NZers was a
direct result of RNZI and RA failing to favorably influence local people in
Indonesia via SW broadcasts is, with respect, plain dumb. Do you really
think that pumping millions of watts worth of John Howard's voice and
'deputy sherrif' policies into Indonesia via SW would make a blind bit of
difference to local youths who listen to local FM stations and care more
about making a living and a future than listening to foreign cultures
telling them what to do? Let's be thankful the masses of Indonesia are
oblivious or they'd be in Perth next week.

If Canadian taxpayers want to waste their money broadcasting Ottawa's
policies to Niue and Tokelau, go ahead. Frankly, it's a waste of a good
transmitter and using up frequencies better used for something else, not to
mention polluting the environment at the tx site with radiation. If you want
it, keep it in Canada. And no, we're not isolationist - two of our five
major TV channels and 50% of our most popular branded radio networks in NZ
are already Canadian :).

David Ricquish
Wellington, NZ


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "mhev" <mhev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "ragusa" <ragusa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <hard-core-dx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, November 08, 2003 10:13 AM
Subject: RCI Canada -- relay on RNZI would be a good idea : read as "have
Canada pay for 1/4 of the cost of the new transmitter for 1/4 the airtime"


 RCI Canada -- relay on RNZI would be a good idea : read as "have Canada pay
 for 1/4 of the cost of the new transmitter for 1/4 the airtime".

 This kind of arrangement would be a good one, as a 100 kw transmitter
(Thales) costs 700,000 USD. The Canadian Dollar (CAD) is stronger than the
NZD, but not  like the UK Pound (UKP >> NZD).

 I don't know if RNZI and RCI (Canada) have the collective will (or
intellect) to pull this arrangement off however.
 : )

 PS: I have been under the impression the one of the reasons that the Bali
 bombing happened is in some way related to Australia and NZ's "marginal"
and
 "simi-isolationist" external broadcasting policies in the Asia-Pacific
 region. Some of my proposals related to NZ and Canada on this webpage
 (http://cbc.am/radio.htm) may partly fix the problem, but perhaps a lot
more
 needs to be done than what I propose.







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