__ __ __ / /\ / /\ / /\ / /_/_/ / / / / / / ____ / / / / / / /\__/ / / / /_/___ /_/ / /_/ / /_______/\ \_\/ \_\/EARD \_______\/AST WEEK ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ v1#4 Capsule summaries of DX, Shortwave, and Media Programs heard the week starting UT Monday, July 25th. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- o R. St. Helena - only 12 weeks to go, see Mailbox with DX News o Another Sony ICF-SW7600G review, see Media Roundup ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mailbox with DX News R. New Zealand Int. Arthur Cushen's DX News: Australian MW stations, N. Korea, and R. Reading Service new on 05960. Kirghizian: 03955 @17:30 with aircheck. VOA's new Thailand transmitter (1 of 7 500 kW) on 09645 @11:00. Italy to Australia to restart - schedule to be announced. Changes: Sweden 06040->06155 @03:30. R. St. Helena this year: Friday, October 14th on 11092 @20:00-23:00. Adrian Sainsbury on Jamming: example recordings from 49 meters, USSR & Cold War gone - but jamming goes on, jamming in the Middle East and the Pacific, methods, and relay censorship. Next show: Adrian on IRC's. DXers Unlimited, mid-week edition R. Havana Cuba Special report on "Getting Started in Ham Radio with a 2 Meter handheld transceiver (HT)". Why start with 2m and voice? Licensing. What about DX? A close look at a 2m HT. HT care and feeding. What to buy and what will it cost? Starting operations: Listen lots first. Arnie's best 2m DX contact. Ham Radio Today HCJB Electronic countermeasures (anti-radar) at the RAF (from an arti- cle in R. Communications Magazine). Propagation Notes #21: some sys- tematic rules for changing frequencies when having reception problems: at night frequency fails around sunrise try higher at day frequency fails around sunset try lower at day failure, all path in daylight try higher & lower at night failure, all path in darkness try lower at day abrupt frequency failure try higher at night abrupt frequency failure try lower any gradual frequency failure try higher Antenna notebook: the Quad antenna is light, small, and a good per- former near the ground. Electrical units we use and historical sketches of the men they are named for: watt, volt, farad, henry, amp, and ohm. Waveguide BBC Working on Waveguide's mailbag: Albania reception, satellite sys- tem questions, and on BBC frequency changes. The Latest Catch HCJB KGEI (California, USA) closes at end of July: interview with sta- tion manager Dean Brubaker, with final schedule. KNLS (Alaska) schedules for English, Russian, and Mandarin Chinese. Albanian home services: 06100 @03:00-22:00 & 06145 @09:00-14:00. Media Network R. Netherlands Int. New R. Netherlands "Listener Services Catalog" available. Over- view of radio operation in Rwanda: French considering station to com- bat R. of a Thousand Hills, border SW/FM station being planned, RPF reactivated R. Rwanda transmitter on 06055 since July 15th with English news @19:00. S. African MW pirate in Pretoria on 106.2 FM. Satellite magazines and shows. Dish ban in Saudia Arabia: BBC-Saudi Deal and possible censorship using MDS. BBC relay in Bangkok to cover possible losses in Hong Kong. AWR Guam testing 3rd transmitter - spe- cial QSL cards. SW Radio weds PC: the ComFocus receiver, ~$1500, DSP, and 6 "virtual" (software) receivers. World of Radio WWCR/WHRI/KWHR/RFPI #756. WOR on World Radio Network (satellite), temporarily on both G5/6 and ASC-1/23 as SCOLA goes digital. A preview of upcoming US SW broadcaster frequency changes. Hawaii pirates closed down by FCC. Jeff White's "Viva Miami" on WRMI on 09955 @01:00-01:30 UT Tue-Sun but WRMI running on backup transmitter. KGEI closing down. Format changes coming to Monitor R. Int. in August. R. Free America - two new SW outlets? David Brenner on SW - CFRB on 06070 @05:00. VOA Charter change. RFPI on 09400 having troubles. Cuban clandestine on 07020 @22:00. DW works deal with China and S. Africa to substitute S. African transmitter for Rwandan relay with schedule. R Volga closes August 1st (200 kW LW on 261) with schedule. R. Bulgaria Calling R. Bulgaria Regular last Friday of the Month propagation forecast with time/MUF pairs to and from Europe and the rest of the world. Riga on 05925 @19:00, Estonia 05925, UAE 13675 @16:30, VOA Botswana on 13710, and Malta on 11935 @14:00. RadioWorld R. Vlaanderen Int. SW Programming still in Dutch. Changes: Vatican adds 15570 & 21720, Sudan 09155->09200, Taiwan 09610->17750. R. Yerevan in Armenian. Tashkent in German. RadioWorld (Belgium Calling) schedule on World Radio Network (satellite). DX Partyline HCJB KGEI closes this weekend. Expanded piece on the history of KGEI since the station's GE transmitter was shown at the 1939 World's Fair. Some good stories. Station manager interview repeated. Some Latin American tropicals: Peru 03340 & 06203, Bolivia 04410, Ecuador 04920, Trinidad 04549, and Columbia 05569. Review of the Olive Carol's "Deep Sea Sparks", a book on being a female ship's radio officer when CW was the only mode. Communications World VOA EIA and TIA position paper on the Information Superhighway. Good 2nd quarters for major US long distance carriers. Direct satellite radio broadcasting: WorldSpace, Washington, DC, in 1997 to field 3 DBS audio satellites over Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Motorola building "StarMan" receiver, targeted at $100, will receive the L-band (1500 MHz) signals with a cassette box sized antenna and produce FM quality from DAB signals. Receivers to be individually addressable? {twilight-zone music to be played here} DXers Unlimited, weekend edition R. Havana Cuba Tropical MUF lowest in 10 years: keeping solar flux and index records by listening to WWV. Box loops versus large ferrite rod anten- nas for the Fall MW/LW DXing season. Scrounging low cost experimental components by stripping junk boards. Central States VHF Conference in Memphis, TN. Distance Unknown R. Exterior de Espana Singapore Broadcasting Corporation upgrading to six 250 kW and one 100 kW transmitters. VOA updates: new facility at Tangiers, Botswana schedule, and Greenville looses 15410 and 17785. HispaSat notes. New Zealand's Print Disabled R. (ZLXA, 1kW) requesting reception reports for 03935 @07:00-11:00 and 07290 @21:30-07:00 (Mon-Fri). Also Sunday on 03935 @07:00-10:00. Home Satellite Int. R. Show WWCR Listener calls: What's a good DX TV? Interesting discussion on station operations and broadcast, satellite news feed, and cable TV signal quality. Gary Bourgois: KJAZ gone - to return? Planet Con- nect, a BBS by satellite, with broadcasts on July 27 and Aug 31 (G3/20 & G4/7). Gary gets his hands on a DBS store display and notes on a DBS trial city. DX News R. Budapest Int. Listener SW and MW catches from Russia and Germany. Spectrum WWCR Listener Appreciation Night (in the future to be held on the fifth Saturday of the month). New Spectrum studio almost complete. Rundown of returning features for future shows and hints about some new ones. Media Roundup R. Japan AWR German's Morse QSL to be available from all AWR sites with extensive AWR English schedule. Survey: New trends in media and Japanese broadcasting - with Japan being media rich, 24 tv & 26 radio & 12 cable tv, international broadcasters are dropping broadcasts tar- geted at Japan (was 21, now 16 with DW in doubt). Larry Magne and Ian Mc Farland review the Sony ICF-SW7600G: $200, no tuning knob and fewer memories, yes - only a single filter bandwidth, FM better than '2010 & stereo!, performs much like '2010, circuits much quieter than YB-400 and sync. detection makes the '7600G much better than the YB-400 on crowded bands, good weak signal radio (e.g. for DXers), seems to have pushed YB-400 price down to $200 too. Recommendation: YB-400 for high signal strength areas (Europe and E. USA) since YB-400's audio is better. Elsewhere, i.e. W. & C. USA, Asia, Africa, Pacific, tropics, etc., go to '7600G for better weak signal performance. DX Corner KOL Israel On the lack of shortwave radios (non-converter types) for automo- biles. Ben's early use of a portable in a car (with good results). {do they sell the Philips DC-777 in Israel?}. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Schedules for these and other shortwave programs can be retrieved using "anonymous" ftp from thumper.bellcore.com in the directory /pub/radio/shortwave. WWW users use: file://thumper.bellcore.com/pub/radio/shortwave/ HEARD LAST WEEK's purpose is *not* to provide detailed transcripts of program contents, but is to encourage and assist shortwave listeners in identifying those programs which might match their interests. My own comments and/or observations are enclosed in brackets "{ ... }". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments and suggestions on content and format always welcome. Chase ----- Chase Cotton Hopatcong, NJ, USA cotton@thumper.bellcore.com