Friday, April 17, 2009

Shortwave Blog "Bytes"

All times UTC

All India Radio on 9425
9425, AIR Bengaluru - National Channel, 1431-1440, April 15. In English; news bulletin; ID seemed to be: “This is the National Channel of A.I.R. on 191.6m, 1566 khz., 246.9m, 1215 kHz., and on shortwave 9425 kHz. and 9470 kHz., in the 31m band”; program “Vivdh”(?) with talk about “Leadership in Education”. This is the regular program in English that I have recently been hearing at this time and seems to only be in English every other day, but needs more monitoring to confirm. Unable to hear them on 9470 (Ron Howard, CA)

British DX Club updates
The following updates have been made for BDXC DX Program, Africa, South Asia & Middle East guides.
http://www.users.waitrose.com/~bdxc/articles.html
(Alokesh Gupta, India)

Beacon Traffic monitored
Used my SONY-2010 in am mode with no filters, but my usual array of ALA100s. As Phil succinctly pointed out, the noise for this CLE was horrific. It reminded me of when I first started listening to BCNs about 11 years ago. Locals were spread over more than 20 khz. Canadians, when found, were the strongest of the bunch that could be heard for about 10 khz. W/O filters, it was very difficult seeing around all the local trees here on the middle coast. Could probably do a lot better without all the thunderstorms. A winter retry would be most interesting.

Ended up with 53 of 2,070 previously heard. In spite of ringing ears had fun remembering the days w/o filters and a high tech radio.

20090410 1732 353 DV IA Davenport
20090410 1733 356 PI IL Peoria
20090410 1735 365 MRJ WI Mineral Point
20090410 1738 375 CCY IA Charles City
20090410 1741 379 OW MN Owatonna
20090410 1743 382 AL IA Waterloo
20090410 1744 389 EN WI Kenosha
20090410 1713 200 HXF WI Hartford
20090410 1713 203 PVB WI Platteville
20090410 1748 206 IIB IA Independence
20090410 1750 417 IY IA Charles City
20090410 1716 230 HPT IA Hampton
20090410 1717 236 DEH IA Decorah
20090410 1718 245 FS SD Sioux Falls
20090410 1904 248 WG MB Winnipeg
20090410 1721 251 PRO IA Perry
20090410 1720 252 BOZ IL Sterling
20090410 1722 260 OLZ IA Oelwein
20090410 1913 269 BEX IA Bloomfield
20090410 1712 275 RF IL Rockford
20090410 1711 278 XWY IA West Union
20090410 1920 290 TVK IA Centerville
20090410 1726 293 CJJ IA Cresco
20090410 1726 302 EAG WI Eagle Grove
20090410 1728 323 EBS IA Webster
20090410 1729 329 AAA IL Lincoln
20090410 1752 332 HK IL Chicago
20090410 1729 341 DB IA Dubuque
20090410 1731 341 PRG IL Paris
20090411 0115 344 UNU WI Juneau
20090411 0134 332 QT ON Thunder Bay
20090411 0140 346 YXL ON Sioux Lookout
20090411 0143 356 IUL IN La Porte
20090411 1128 371 TZT IA Belle Plaine
20090411 1037 382 YPL ON Pickle Lake
20090411 1131 385 HYX MI Saginaw
20090411 0117 391 DDP PR San Juan
20090411 0122 400 MS WI Madison
20090411 1040 400 QQ BC Comox
20090411 1138 403 AXA IA Algona
20090411 1136 407 AQ WI Appleton
20090411 1136 407 BNW IA Boone
20090411 1148 410 MK WI Milwaukee
20090411 1139 412 CMY WI Sparta
20090411 0128 420 FQ MN Fairmont
20090411 1144 517 FN IA Clinton
20090411 1042 218 RL ON Red Lake
20090411 1049 245 YZE ON Gore Bay
20090411 1057 248 GGI IA Grinnell
20090411 1047 242 GM WI Milwaukee
20090411 1100 257 PEA IA Pella
20090411 1112 278 CRZ IA Corning
20090411 0058 280 PT ON Pelee Island
(Dave/MARE #524)

New video available at You Tube
A video with Bill Whitacre, who many will remember as our former North American Secretary, explaining how to listen to sounds recorded by the IBB Remote Monitoring System has been posted to YouTube.

IBB operates a network of over 70 remote monitoring systems [RMSs] in order to determine and demonstrate the audibility of its own and others' broadcasts.

Each RMS consists of an antenna, a radio and a computer attached to the internet. A simple text file script is used by the computer to collect and encode sound samples and bandscan information from the radio.

YouTube Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI9IPVTCGUE

Webpage:
http://monitor.ibb.gov/rms/
(Mike Barraclough/UK, World DX Club)

Clandestine changes frequency
5910, Shiokaze/Sea Breeze, ex: 6120, *1400-1430*, April 15. In Korean with piano music in the background; fair to good reception; another clear frequency for them. This is a good solution to their problem of jamming by N. Korea. Just change frequency before any jamming is used against them. Most listeners know by now that they stay in the 49m band during this time period, so it is not difficult to re-locate them. They were on 6120 for about 2 weeks (Ron Howard, CA)

European Music Radio 33rd Birthday progtram
Time 0900 to 1000 UTC

Date 19th of April 2009

Frequency 6140 kHz

0900 to 0920 Tom Taylor

0920 to 1000 Mike Taylor (Mail Box program)
(Tome Taylor)

Reactivated stations
Another tidbit courtesy of Don Jensen and the NASWA Yahoo Group:

From Raphael Rodriguez, Colombia, reporting in PlayDX:

Two new or reactivated stations in Huancabamba, Peru:
La Voz de las Huarinjas reactivated on 5059, hrd 2350 and signing off at 0204*
Radio Nueva Super Sensacion now on 6536, 0050-0120*
(Mary Coady/ODXA)

Peruvian logs
6195.77, Radio Cusco,(presumed) 0038-0100, Part two: Noted a male in Spanish language comments. Can't recognize what the comments are referring? He could be discribing a sporting event or a religious revival? The noise is just a little stronger than Cusco's signal. most of the time. At 0055 music heard At 0057 noted a canned ID from a female as: "...Radio Cusco ..." during the music which continued.Heavy duty QRM on the hour at 0100 blocks Cusco completely. (Chuck Bolland, FL April 17, 2009)

6195.77, Radio Cusco, 0034-0100, Noted a male in Spanish language comments. Signal was very poor/threshold. Frequency is measured to the nearest Cycle. More will follow. (Chuck Bolland, FL April 17, 2009)

6019.30, Radio Victoria, 0834-0845, With a male in live Spanish comments giving time as "seis hora ... en matina ...", as he continues to talk until 0837 when canned promos heard. With the time, believe he was saying how long before six o'clock? Promos continue until 0840, then male with live talk again. So far the signal is good.(Chuck Bolland, April 17, 2009)

6019.40, Radio Victoria, 2319-2330 Setting on this freq prior to 2319 with only the carrier audible, at 2319 the audio popped in with a female in Spanish comments. She's shortly joined by a male. This continues to 2330 and beyond.Signal was poor. (Chuck Bolland, FL April 16, 2009)

Pirate traffic
6925USB Northwoods Radio/North Sea Radio. 2337-0035*. 11 April. EG. The reception was plagued by heavy static and poor propagation at tune in. Luckily, both improved greatly as the program progressed. ID by Mr. Savage at 2337 followed by The Delaware Destroyers featuring Mr. Thorogood with “I Drink Alone.” From 2345 until approximately 2353, it sounded like an IS loop with many calls from the Loon, “Thus Spake Zarathustra,” IDs, email address of rthwoodsradio@yahoo.com, and the first part of “Heavy Metal” sang by Mr. Hagar. At 2354, the call of the Loon was replaced by the cry of a seagull, Mr. Savage was promoted to Capt. Savage, and the station became North Sea Radio. The music then consisted entirely of songs with pirate themes. All in all, it was a very well produced program, and the music on the North Sea Radio portion was very nice indeed. (Wood)

9625USB WEAK Radio / Radio First Termer (?) Iraq w/70s pop music including "Spill the Wine" a Steppenwolf tune and somewhat out of genre "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straights. Lots of
local noise making reception poor, SIO 3+32+ ID and address at s/off as weakradio@gmail.com but IDs in the midst of the program were something like Radio First Termer Iraq. 0154-0230* 2/April
(MARE # 524)

Radio Havana World of Stamps Contest
The following letter is received by RHC. They are running the Philatelic contest. Here is the
details for that contest.

Dear friend:
Thanks for getting in touch with us on March 20th last. In fact, your message was forwarded immediately to our General Director for due consideration.

We invite you to listen to Radio Havana Cuba's broadcasts and to visit our webpage (http://www.radiohc.cu/ ) because we'd welcome your comments and suggestions about them.

Attached you'll find some information on the philatelic contest we're running in case you want to
participate.

With kindest regards,
Lourdes López
Head of Correspondence Dept.

“THE WORLD OF STAMPS” CONTEST 2009

“The World of Stamps” show invites all listeners of Radio Havana Cuba to answer the annual philatelic question, which this time is dedicated to the “50th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.”

WHAT’S YOUR OPINION ABOUT THE STAMPS ISSUED IN CUBA DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD?

Contest deadline is December 31st, 2009.

Every participant will be awarded a prize, consisting in a Cuban stamp series issued as of 1959.

Send your essay to: Radio Havana Cuba, P. O. Box 6240, Havana Cuba

E-mail: radiohc@enet.cu
(Jaisakthivel, ADXC, Chennai, India)

Radio Heritage Foundation contest
In case you've missed our earlier message, remember to enter our Easter competition before it closes this Sunday, April 19!

You could win the classic pirate Radio Hauraki CD 'Fresh Pacific Wind' by answering a simple question about radio in Fiji.......

We'll also be back shortly with another new competition, again celebrating 50 years of statehood for Hawaii...and with a great prize!

Just released in the UK, Australia and New Zealand is the new pirate radio movie 'The Boat That Rocked', a comedy about the British pirate radio scene in the early 1960's. It's coming your way soon too.

It's produced by New Zealander Tim Bevan, who was just 8 years old when Radio Hauraki burst onto the Kiwi airwaves in 1966....and to celebrate the movie and it's Kiwi connection, we've got a copy of the original CD 'A Fresh Pacific Wind - Radio Hauraki 1966-1970' as the prize in our Easter 2009 competition!

To enter this new competition simply answer this question:

What was the callsign of the Fiji Broadcasting Company station that began broadcasting in 1935?

You'll find the answer at www.radioheritage.net/story6.asp on the global website of the Radio Heritage Foundation: http://www.radioheritage.net/.

Email your answer to info@radioheritage.net with "Fresh Pacific Wind" in the subject line and to reach us no later than midnight Sunday, April 19 2009.

The competition is open worldwide, the judges decision is final, no correspondence will be entered into and by entering the competition you agree to us entering your email address onto our mailing list.

Somalia on shortwave
On Sam Voron's website
https://sites.google.com/site/somaliahamradio /
Among other interesting stuff, there's a mention of new Somali sw station Radio Hage.
Info says it operates from Galkayo with 1.25 kW on 3980 and 6915 at 0900-1000 and 0300-0500 UT.

Direct links about Radio Hage;

https://sites.google.com/site/somaliahamradio/somalia-short-wave-radio-broadcasts

https://sites.google.com/site/somaliahamradio/radio-hage-somalia
(Jari Savolainen,Kuusankoski,Finland/Cumbre DX)

Special CD Offer
A special offer to thank you for your ongoing support, and to make sure you get your own copy of this fantastic CD, during the competition period only, you can make a donation of NZ$40 [in NZ] or US$35 [worldwide] using your creditcard at the Paypal donation button at http://www.radioheritage.net/ and we'll airmail your CD as a thank you!

Usually, the CD costs NZ$49.95 or US$39.95 but we'd like to make our own Easter gift to you with this special offer. Your donation must be received by midnight, Sunday April 19 2009 to be eligible. We'll also send you 5 free Art of Radio Japan postcards! Donations in NZ are
also tax deductible.

For more information about the CD see www.radioheritage.net/shop6.asp and don't forget to enter the 'Fresh Pacific Wind Competition' as well. Our thanks to supporter David Miller for donating a copy of his CD as our competition prize.

To enter the Easter 2009: Fresh Pacific Wind Competition, simply visit http://www.radioheritage.net/ and email your answer to the question above to reach us at info@radioheritage.net no later than midnight, Sunday April 19 2009. And, don't forget our special offer of the CD to make sure of your own personal copy.....your donation must also reach us by Sunday, April 19 2009. (Dario Monferini, Italy/playdx2003)

Utility and amateur radio traffic
3485/U WSY70 New York Radio, volmet; 2339, 14-Apr; ID @2340 (Frodge-MI)

6660/U CHU Ottawa ON, Canada; 2043, 14-Apr; Time station, 2 x 3330. //3330 & 7850; 14670 not heard. 6660 covered by periodic ute bursts. (Frodge-MI)

6855/AM W/SS 5d #s; 2104, 14-Apr (Frodge-MI)

7887/AM W/SS 5d #s; 2036, 14-Apr; strong (Frodge-MI)

9031/U U.S. Military?; 2055, 14-Apr; 2-way w/alpha-numeric msg; one side was Pipeline, other sounded like Condor. (Frodge-MI)

26348/FM Saginaw MI, WNEM-TV studio/mobile relay; 2008-2020+, 13-Apr; Brief messages from obviously mobile dude with estimates of time to return & lamenting MSU basketball loss; occasional bits from WNEM-TV Saginaw including; Great Lakes Loons baseball promo, WNEM.com spot and WNEM-TV weather. TV spots //1250 WNEM Bridgeport MI which
carries WNEM-TV audio. Good copy. 1st studio relay I've heard in ages; guessing this is new as never heard before. (Frodge-MI) (MARE # 524)