Ed Mayberry has posted the April edition of his International Listener newsletter.

Posted 17:11 UTC

This is Radio Botswana, Part 6 (on the Media Network site): "I remember flying to see some similar aerials which had been installed in Namibia (then South-West Africa) for SABC. This was a delicate matter, since we were not on good terms with the apartheid regime and the visit had to be arranged 'unofficially'."

Posted 01:13 UTC

Speaking of German, Radio Netherlands says that a German publisher has brought out a German-language magazine all about webcasting, web.r@dio. It's nice to see that gratuitous use of dots and at signs isn't confined to English.

Posted 01:08 UTC

Mark Veldhuis of Holland passes along this this list of station web sites originally posted to the German-language DXers mailing list A-DX by Eike Bierwirth. I've taken the liberty of translating as best I can (my German is mostly limited to stuff like "ein Hefeweizen, bitte", "ein Dunkelweizen, bitte", "zwei Pilsner, bitte", and "ein pizza mit Käse und Salami, bitte", but I've done what I can).

• Albania, RTV Shqiptar and Radio Tirana: http://rtsh.sil.at/
• Angola, Radio Nacional: http://www.rna.ao/
• Bahrain, BBC: http://www.gna.gov.bh/brtc/radio.html (behaupten immer noch, auf 6010 und 9746 zu senden)
• Brother Stair: http://www.theovercomerministry.com/
• Cameroon, CRTV: http://www.crtv.cm/
• Chad, RNT: http://www.tid.td/rnt/
• Cote d'Ivoire, RTV: http://www.rti.ci/
• Cuba, Radio Rebelde: http://www2.cuba.cu/RRebelde/ (email: rebelde@ceniai.inf.cu)
• Equatorial Guinea, Radio Africa: http://www.radiopanam.com/ (If you want, you can buy time here: 15 minutes per week costs $69)
• Ethiopia, Radio Ethiopia: http://www.angelfire.com/biz/radioethiopia/
• Germany, AFN: http://www.afneurope.army.mil/
• Ghana, GBC: http://www.gbc.com.gh/
• India, AIR: http://www.allindiaradio.com/ (was .org)
• Israel, Kol Yisrael: http://www.israelradio.org/
• Kazakhstan: http://www.radio.kz/
• Mexico, RMI: http://www.imer.gob.mx/estaciones/rmi.html
• Mongolia, VoM: http://www.mol.mn/mrtv/ (schedule available)
• Nepal, RN: http://www.catmando.com/news/radio-nepal/
• Nigeria, VoN: http://www.nbc-ng.org/von_frame.html
• Pakistan, RP: http://radio.gov.pk/
• Philippines, RVA: http://www.radio-veritas.org.ph/
• Romania, RRI: http://www.rri.ro/
• Senegal, RTS: http://www.primature.sn/rts/ (It says they transmit on 11800; do they?)
• Sri Lanka, SLBC: http://www.lanka.net/slbc/
• Thailand, RT: http://www.prd.go.th/prdnew/eng/radio_e/
• Thailand, RT other site: http://www.prd.go.th/mcic/radio.htm
• USA, AFRTS: http://www.afrts.osd.mil/
• Uruguay, SODRE: http://www.sodre.gub.uy/
• Western Sahara: http://web.jet.es/rasd/ (new station 18-24 UTC on 7470!)
• Zimbabwe, ZBC: http://www.africaonline.co.zw/zbc/

The original post refers to "S+F", which I assume means the German-language station schedule book Sender und Frequenzen. I don't know what they have to do with this, but I just thought you should know.

Posted 00:51 UTC

From Daniel Say on the swprograms mailing list comes word that Andy Kershaw's absence from the BBC World Service will be a mercifully brief one. The Brasil Dos Mille program, part of April's Brazil Season on the BBC WS, will be taking his spot for four weeks, then he's back. Yay! (They had me worried there for a while....)

Posted 21:23 UTC

In last weekend's Communications World, Kim Andrew Elliott promised to post audio from a rally by VOA employees to the web. The employees were protesting cutbacks to the VOA under the name Save VOA. A 32 minute long Real Audio file from the rally is now up on the VOA web site, according to a post Kim made to the swprograms mailing list.

Posted 21:17 UTC

In response to a query on HCDX about finding accurate daylight savings time information for locations around the world, Saul Broudy recommends the following sites:

• http://www.isbister.com/worldtime/
• http://www.whitepages.com.au/time.shtml
• http://timeanddate.com/
• http://www.worldtime.com/

Posted 13:18 UTC

Swiss Radio International (I think that's what they're calling themselves this week) has their new schedule up as a big honking GIF file. They've also got an oh-so-clever Javascript clock that tells me that the current time in UTC is "04:53:20 / March 29, 3900". Whoops! Sounds like a Y4K bug to me.... :-) (They also misspelled Français and Español on their schedule. I hope Larry Nebron doesn't notice....)

Posted 06:00 UTC

AMANDX (which I think stands for Association of Manitoba DXers) has put up a site of AM Station Slogans, something that could potentially be very handy for the AM DXer in this age of satellite-delivery proliferation, scoffing at nighttime powerdown requirements, and most importantly, the increasing trend toward non-IDs on AM (medium wave) stations in North America.

Posted 05:30 UTC

Andy Sennitt: "It's very easy to work in international broadcasting for 10, 20 or 30 years and never meet a listener. Indeed, I know people who would admit to that. Fortunately, none of them work here. People I met at the SWL Fest said how grateful they were that we, and a few other international broadcasters, had made the effort to attend....Far from being an effort, it's always a pleasure. And we get paid for it!"

Posted 05:14 UTC

Here's your chance: Radio Netherlands is looking for a News Producer/Presenter for its Newsline program.

Posted 05:13 UTC

Yokohama DXing number 51, an English-language newsletter from Japan dealing with DXing the Americas, has been posted to the web.

Posted 05:12 UTC

The Winter SWL Fest Organizing Committee has announced that next year's 'Fest will be held on March 9-10, 2001, in beautiful, scenic Kulpsville, Pennsylvania. And if you're interested in helping publicize the 'Fest on your own website, Tom Sundstrom has posted a page of graphics you can use to link to the 'Fest site. I'm a bit partial to the raffle ticket, myself. :-) (Note the if you use the HTML code Tom provides for the ticket, please change the width parameter to 149 pixels; using the 145 number he includes will distort the picture, and make the artist very sad.)

Posted 04:38 UTC

Radio Netherlands has updated their technical schedule, complete with transmitter sites, to reflect the new broadcasting season just underway.

Posted 04:33 UTC

Earth, Wind, and Fireworks: Sun's Storms Blow Northern Lights South: Dr. Charles S. Deehr, a forecaster at the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, said night skies were already pulsating. "It's been a nice spring," he said. "Right now, our models indicate we're going to have a lot of good activity this coming week." (New York Times; requires registration)

Posted 22:21 UTC

Graham Powell tells HCDX that the HFCC A00 Operational Schedule has been posted.

Posted 00:17 UTC

Dave Onley has photographs of his January DXpedition to Woodside, Australia, at 90 Mile Beach. Looks pretty deserted out there, until you see the Omega radio tower. :-)

Posted 00:30 UTC

Radio Netherlands has a page detailing their major scheduling changes, which come into effect today, March 26th.

Posted 00:09 UTC

VOA, always amazingly up-to-date, has their technical schedule for the upcoming broadcasting season, which starts tomorrow, posted already.

Posted 15:04 UTC

WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News 458 for March 24, 2000, compiled by Wolfgang Büschel, has been posted.

Posted 14:57 UTC

Pete Costello sends word of a new shortwave broadcaster from Holland that will be starting up this summer, Info Radio. Their page gives their schedule as "at 08h00 UTC on 7285 kHz".

Posted 14:54 UTC

DJ Stevie of Radio 510 International and NASWA Pirate Radio Report columnist Chris Lobdell have posted pictures from the 'Fest.

Posted 04:32 UTC

The Voice of Half of America: "In 1978, Carolee Brady Hartman and four other women filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Information Agency and the Voice of America, both independent federal government agencies that promote U.S. interests overseas. The suit, which was eventually joined by 1,100 women, alleged the agencies regularly manipulated the hiring process to exclude women."

Posted 03:53 UTC

Art Delibert reports an enjoyably absurd ID in a post to Hard Core DX.

Posted 03:32 UTC

Chris Smolinski's Elmer, ham radio test prep software for the Macintosh, has been updated to version 2.0.1. This version fixes a couple of bugs, in addition to being based on the post-April 15th test pool of questions.

Posted 03:21 UTC

DJ Stevie of Radio 510 International has posted his pictures from the 'Fest. One of the best is the look of delight on George Zeller's face as he becomes the recipient of the first Zeller Trophy, the ball of wire he created when he dismantled the wrong antenna at a recent DXpedition.

Posted 22:44 UTC

Radio Netherlands has added such information as they've been able to glean about the new Ten-Tec RX-340 to their Receiver Shopping List. They mention that the radio is expected to ship in May.

Posted 22:28 UTC

"A quack doctor.

A million watts.

Goat testicles.

Hitler.

Wolfman Jack.

Now, this is radio..."

Hugh Stegman has the skinny on border radio in the days of XERF.

Posted 00:16 UTC

Richard Cuff analyzed the new BBC schedule and discovered that among the improvements is less news!

Posted 23:49 UTC

Tom Sundstrom reviews a new portable, the Sangean ATS-505, for Radio Netherlands Media Network: "In summary, we like the radio....[T]he performance across the MW, SW and FM bands is, simply stated, significantly better than we expected for the money."

Posted 23:40 UTC

Chris Smolinski has released version 0.2 of his MacDSP audio equalization software. This version breaks the spectrum up into ten bands spaced 2 kHz apart; this may change in future releases.

Posted 06:54 UTC

Al Qualgieri notes a page of links to homepages and audio feeds of Russian radio stations. Thanks, Al!

Posted 04:02 UTC

Speaking of the BBC, Richard Cuff (there's that name again!) points out in a post to the swprograms mailing list that the finest program of any sort in any media, From Our Own Correspondent, is now available on demand in Real Audio format.

Incidentally, FOOC has been available in text format on the BBC web site for a couple of years now. FOOC used to put out yearly anthology books, but I heard from Mike Popham a couple of years ago when I enquired what happened to them that BBC Enterprise quashed the deal they had with an outside publisher for the books in favor of publishing them themselves, then failed to follow up. So the text on the web site, which scrolls off into never-never-land (rather than being archived) is the only way to read the pieces, which actually read quite well. At the BBC, at least, radio is a writers' medium.

Posted 01:01 UTC

NASWA Scoops BBC World Service! Easy Listening editor Richard Cuff, when told that the BBC WS schedules on their site did not fully reflect the massive changes in the schedule that will take place on April 3rd (the posted schedule includes Saturday, April 1st, and Sunday, April 2nd), contacted the BBC Press Office and received a copy of the schedule that does show all the changes. We've posted that here on NASWeb as an Easy Listening Extra.

Posted 00:43 UTC

I wonder if this patent could be adapted to work with my R8 so that I could hear programs before they're broadcast.... (found via Scripting News)

Posted 18:26 UTC

NASWA member Bob Raymond NE1I brought his DXtreme product line to my attention. It's logging software for DXers for Windows 3.1 and above (the Gold version is Win 95 and above). I haven't run the software (hard to do on my Macintosh), but looking at the tour on the web site, I'm impressed. The integration of logging and QSLing is something I tried to do a few years ago in FileMaker on my Mac, but it never became easy enough that I actually used the QSL part, and I eventually decided that the time I spent writing for QSLs was time I would rather spend hunting down more stations. This software might save you from such a fate. :-) Nice job, Bob!

Posted 13:52 UTC

I don't know of any other shortwave weblogs updated on a more-or-less daily basis (Sheldon's newsletter is the closest I can think of, but it's monthly), but I have found a ham radio blog that fits the bill.

Posted 20:56 UTC

Creative Express' ERGO receiver control software for Windows 95 and above now has a new web site with its own domain. (Thanks Mark Veldhuis.)

Posted 18:51 UTC

Chris Smolinski's Elmer, US ham radio license test drill software for the Macintosh, has been upgraded to version 2.0, reflecting the question pool for exams to be given after April 15th, when the great Amateur Radio Restructuring is to take place.

Posted 09:40 UTC

This week's Communications World has an interview with Penny Tuerk of the BBC World Service, explaining the upcoming changes to the World Service with its dismemberment into eight separate programming streams. The interview hasn't been transcribed, so you'll have to listen to the RealAudio feed of the program to get the benefit of enlightenment from Auntie Beeb. (See also the WRN archive if you're looking at this after March 26th or so, after the VOA URL above is recycled, or if you want to download the program to your own computer rather than let it stream.)

Incidentally, looking through the schedules for the New & Improved World Service (starting April 2nd), I see that music programs that were 30 minutes long, such as John Peel and The Greenfield Collection, are now trimmed to 25 minutes. Further, airings to North America are cut from a generous (and useful) four times a week to a single airing. Even more frightening, I don't see any airings of Andy Kershaw's World of Music after April 2nd. It's possible that it's airing in a portion of the week not covered by the schedules currently online (it appears that Saturday April 1st and Sunday April 2nd are still on the old schedule, and that the cutover to the new schedule occurs at 0000 GMT Monday April 3rd), but if this show disappears from the World Service, I am going to be really upset. It was bad enough when they cancelled Folk Routes a few years ago.

Posted 08:58 UTC

Pentti Lintujarvi appears to have been (virtually) exploring Africa the past couple of days, and has discovered web sites for Radio Nacional de Angola and Cameroon Radio TV. (via HCDX.) Which begs the question: why is it that the countries with the least bandwidth clutter up their pages with the most crud? For example, on the front page of the CRTV site, there is a link to an MPEG of what appears to be an address by Cameroonian president Paul Biya. The English language version of this file weighs in at a staggering 219 Megabytes. The French version is an even more appalling 253 Megabytes. Who in their right mind, aside from President Biya himself, is going to download this file? And it's right there on the front page! I guess we can only be grateful that Cameroon is bilingual so they didn't have the file auto-start....

Posted 16:49 UTC

Glenn Hauser posted (to HCDX) in a single-item DX Listening Digest that he has discovered a new Guatemalan station on 4052.5 kHz.

Posted 22:39 UTC

George Wood of Radio Sweden has his own domain name and web site. Looks like maybe he's doing a little freelance web design, too.

Posted 01:22 UTC

This site is too cool by half. Really.

Posted 23:47 UTC

The Ontario DX Association maintains a page listing prices for receivers in Canada, noting the high- and low-prices from up to a dozen sources. It doesn't tell you which store offered the high- and low-prices, but if you know the range, you know if you're getting snowed when you call. Bravo, ODXA! (note that the prices are in Canadian dollars; if you want to find out what they are in your currency, check the Universal Currency Converter.)

Posted 23:24 UTC

WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News 457 for March 16, 2000, compiled by Wolfgang Büschel, has been posted.

Posted 23:09 UTC

With Radio Netherlands making substantial changes to its schedule at the beginning of the next transmission season (March 26), Media Network will be airing at different times than you're used to hearing them.

Incidentally, as I understand it after talking to Andy Sennitt in Kulpsville, the way the new schedule will work is that for 2-hour broadcasts, like the one to the east coast of North America from 2330-0125, broadcasts will begin and end with Newsline, and the features will be back-to-back in the middle. So the newscast, Newsline, and Press Review would run from 2330-0000, then Media Network at 0000-0030, Research File (presumably) from 0030-0100, then another newscast and Newsline again (sans Press Review) from 0100-0125. Andy says that features will lose about 30 seconds at most from their existing length, but since they're kind of variable anyway, you won't notice.

Posted 23:04 UTC

Radio Netherlands has posted their pictures from Kulpsville (it's not clear who took them; they only had four people there....)

Posted 22:40 UTC

This is Radio Botswana (part 5): "We'd embarked on a big expansion plan, but these things still take time to get through the system. We went through a tendering process for massive log-aperiodic aerials and 50 kilowatt transmitters and then placed the orders. Meanwhile broadcasting went on as usual - well, not exactly as usual."

Posted 22:32 UTC

Media Network reports on the new Canadian Woodpecker: "It seems incredible that after the publicity of the then-USSR's 'Woodpecker' over-the-horizon (OTH) HF radar system and the ill-fated OTH HF radar attempt by the US Navy (USN), in Maine, that the Government of Canada, the Canadian Department of National Defence, and Raytheon would foist more noise upon the users of the HF spectrum."

Posted 22:30 UTC

Graham Powell answers the question "how do you DX when you have a two year old toddler?"

Posted 21:18 UTC

I thought I was doing pretty good a few years ago hearing European longwave broadcasts on my R8, but Paul Ormandy proves that New Zealand is indeed DXers' Paradise with his article introducing longwave DXing from down under.

Posted 20:57 UTC

Andy Sennitt posted a message to the Media Network and swprograms mailing lists about last weekend's webcast. If you missed it (and I did, since I was in Kulpsville at the time), you can snarf Real Audio G2 or MP3 versions of the show (beware, though, the MP3 files are about 60 MBytes apiece, and best left to those with cable modems and DSL and the like).

Posted 20:31 UTC

WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News 456 for March 9, 2000, compiled by Wolfgang Büschel, has been posted.

Posted 20:50 UTC

BBC World Service Lives!: "So what is the enduring appeal of what was once called the 'bowler hat and umbrella' station? Ex-pats and those without a free press alike say they most value the news coverage, which tries to be as objective as possible." (Thanks Daniel Say on the swprograms mailing list.)

BBC World Service Thrives!: "The BBC World Service is reaching its biggest ever audience - with online usage trebling over the past year. More than 151 million people are tuning in to over 40 language services, an increase of eight million on last year's 143 million figure."

Posted 20:47 UTC

Risto Kotalampi has now added a page of captions for the photos he took at the Winter SWL Fest. Let him know if you can fill in any of the blanks.

Posted 23:57 UTC

Universal has more information about the upcoming TenTec RX-340, including the information that it should be shipping in late April. The radio is an adaptation of a radio the company produced for the government, the RX-331.

Posted 11:24 UTC

Chris Smolinski has updated his Multimode ute decoding software for the Macintosh to version 3.0.3. He's also released version 0.1 of a program to allow you to use your Macintosh as an audio filter, MacDSP There don't appear to be any FFT or other specifically digital-based noise reduction techniques in the software, and no word on the page as to whether that's planned.

Posted 03:16 UTC

Speaking of George Zeller, George has a home page with some information about his favorite aspect of the hobby, unlicensed broadcasters. Among the items on the page are a scan of the only known QSL received from the FCC for a pirate broadcast, and the story of the first radio club in the world, the International Shortwave Club, founded in Klondyke, Ohio in 1929 (this is fascinating stuff, and based on original research that George did in eastern Ohio).

Posted 02:12 UTC

Grundig-Lextronix brought one of the first of the actual production units of the new Grundig Satellit 800 to Universal Shortwave in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, and there's a picture on the DXing.com web site. Latest word is that they should be shipping by the end of the month. A couple of the attendees at the 'Fest, George Zeller and John Wagner, have had their hands on the 800 and report that the front end appears to be identical to the SW-8, and that the audio sections are classic Grundig.

Posted 02:08 UTC

Jonathan Marks has posted his Media Network webcast post-mortem to the swprograms mailing list, and is asking for reports from anyone who managed to catch it, rewriting the SIO code to apply to net broadcasting in the process. It may come as a surprise to Andy, but Jonathan has committed him to posting the entire sound file of the webcast to the webcast page on the Radio Netherlands web site. Andy was telling me at the 'Fest that RNW doesn't run its own audio server, relying instead of the one run by the transmission authority in Holland. I look forward to hearing what I missed; the 'Fest portion of the webcast only lasted about 15 minutes.

Posted 01:51 UTC

Steve Coletti has posted the midnight ride of the Voice of Pancho Villa in RealAudio format on his radio links page; just click on the QSL card.

Posted 01:42 UTC

Hard Core DX has the news that FEBC Philippines is shuttering its English language service. The shutdown is expected sometime in June or July. QSL 'em while you've got 'em. (HCDX, via EDXP, originally from FEBC)

Posted 20:16 UTC

The lucky 13th Winter SWL Fest was one of the best ever, and Risto Kotalampi has the pictures to prove it.

Posted 20:13 UTC

South American pirate station Radio Blandengue plans to be on the air this weekend, according to a post by the operator on HCDX. Frequency is 14565 LSB, and times are Saturday from 17-19 UTC, and Sunday 00-02 UTC.

Posted 06:15 UTC

Yokohama DXing editions number 49 and 50 have been posted to the web.

Posted 03:38 UTC

If you can't make it to the 'Fest, you can at least listen in. Media Network is doing a live webcast on Saturday from 1400-1600 UTC that will include reports from members of the MN team attending the 'Fest and maybe some of the other people attending.

Posted 03:30 UTC

The 'Fest has me thinking about other radio get-togethers. ODXA has one of their DX Camps coming up from April 7-9.

Posted 03:20 UTC

Andy Sennitt: "Preparing to address the Winter SWL Fest in Kulpsville, PA, I was browsing through the 1981 edition of the World Radio TV Handbook, and comparing what was on the air back then with what's on the air now. A lot has changed, [but] I was struck not so much by what has changed, but by what is precisely the same. If I had been abducted by aliens in 1981, and returned to earth just in time to miss the millennium celebrations, I would soon feel at home tuning across the shortwave bands."

Posted 03:13 UTC

Big Steve Cole (Coletti) has posted an RealAudio file of three proposed theme songs for the 'Fest. I personally like Solfeggio, the theme song that Ernie Kovacs used for his TV show.

Posted 01:57 UTC

Here's the official announcement of the debut of NordCordicDX.com.

Posted 01:18 UTC

In this age of corporate mergers, net-based stock swaps, and a general feeding frenzy, it's nice to know that our little backwater, shortwave radio, is part of the fun. Hermod Pedersen, C.E.O. of NordicDX.com, and Risto Kotalampi, Big Cheese at Hard Core DX, have joined forces to create "probably the best DX site in the world". Trading under the name "Hard-Core-DX.com", Kotalampi and Pedersen have nothing less than world domination in their sights, although they'll probably settle for some really good DX tips. The site includes all the features you've grown to know and love at NordicDX.com, plus archives of the past five years of the Hard Core DX mailing list.

No word yet on Kotalampi and Pedersen's respective equity positions, or when they'll be ready to IPO.

Posted 23:53 UTC

Environment Canada has a better explanation of the differences between GMT, UTC, UT1, etc., on their site (of course they stole it from someone else. Those wily Canadians....)

Posted 11:24 UTC

Some e-mail I received today reminded me that you can find out a lot about time, UTC, GMT and the like, at the NIST Time and Frequency Division web site. If you've got a fast connection and QuickTime loaded on your computer, the QuickTime VR 3D walkthrough of the facilities in Boulder is pretty interesting.

Posted 11:20 UTC

Mark Fine is "the hardest working man in shortwave". Huh! Good God!

Posted 05:06 UTC

Michael Murray, Maryanne Kehoe, and Larry Nebron have some good advice for anyone flying in to Philadelphia this week for the 'Fest who are planning to use the shuttle service to the hotel.

Posted 23:28 UTC

Cumbre also has a nice feature on hearing the low-powered domestic NSB SSB stations from Japan, based on work by Sonny Ashimori.

Posted 23:21 UTC

The CumbreDX site has a large graphic created by Hans Johnson about listening to regional stations in Vietnam, including frequencies, schedules, and a map. It looks like a repurposed PowerPoint slide; I wonder if Hans has been giving lectures. :-)

Posted 23:17 UTC

WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News 455 for March 4, 2000, compiled by Wolfgang Büschel, has been posted.

Posted 22:41 UTC

NOAA has a web site that calculates sunrise and sunset times. You can select one of a number of pre-defined cities, or enter the longitude and latitude for your own. (Thanks Pete Costello.)

Posted 22:16 UTC

Somebody has a 1930s vintage "Shortwave" pinball machine up on eBay. Doesn't look like much of a pinball machine, but the graphics are kinda interesting.

Posted 05:20 UTC

Tom Sundstrom has posted links to local scanner frequencies and amateur repeaters on the 'Fest home page. Look under the Maps section.

Posted 03:41 UTC

Alfa Lima International, a Dutch pirate, is pounding in on 15070 kHz here on the east coast of North America tonight. Rich McVicar reports S9 reception in central New York, Tom Sundstrom about S7, and Jay Novello and I are both able to use the notoriously flaky sync detectors on our R8s on the signal.

Posted 03:31 UTC

Babitsky's press conference goes into much more detail about his imprisonment and release: "In my view, what I have undergone was a very badly planned action. Although I am not in a position to prove this, it is the Federal Security Service (FSB). But there are quite a few arguments with which one could support this version. I also think this was an act of vengeance. Today, a free journalist in Russia is very strictly limited in his actions, particularly when it comes to the uncivilized war which is being conducted in Chechnya."

Posted 23:02 UTC

Andrei Babitsky talks about his imprisonment and release: "I still don't understand this myself. I was in the so-called "Central" Makhachkala investigation isolation prison, I was in a cell with three cellmates, getting ready to go to sleep. Suddenly I was summoned to get my things and get ready to leave."

Posted 22:48 UTC

The Southern Pacific DX Resource has a report by Rich McVicar, formerly of HCJB, on the results of HCJB's 1996 mediumwave DX tests on 690 kHz (not heard by me in New Jersey, sadly, although I tried).

Posted 21:37 UTC

NordicDX.com has an item from Dave Kenny about Vanuatu reactivating 7260 kHz. It may have happened already, and then again, it may not have.

Posted 21:24 UTC

Happy Millenium Media Network! Jonathan Marks and Diana Janssen celebrate the 1000th edition of Media Network this week. Also, tomorrow is the deadline for entries in their Real Millenium Contest where you need to provide clever captions for silly pictures. 10 winners get a copy of Jerry Berg's excellent book On the Short Waves 1923-1945.

Posted 20:51 UTC

Andy Sennitt: "Now, be honest. How many of you are reading this at work? Quite a few of you, I bet. But does your boss know what you're doing? If you're already beginning to feel guilty, I'll take that as no."

Posted 20:46 UTC

Never mind the UNID below. As I kept listening throughout the evening, the signal got stronger, and it became clear that it was indeed Madagascar. I got the ID @ 0300, just after sunrise in Antananarivo. You can still listen to the file if you want; I won't remove it right away.

Posted 04:14 UTC

You can influence the course of the Winter SWL Fest! Rich Cuff is taking a poll to determine what the likely attendance is at a couple of concurrently-running forums to help figure out which one should go in which room. Your assistance is eagerly requested (should you be planning on attending the 'Fest, anyway).

Posted 02:12 UTC

Ed Mayberry has posted the March edition of his Shortwave News to his International Listener web site. (From a post by Ed to the swprograms mailing list.)

Posted 02:10 UTC

Looks like Sangean has taken a page from Grundig's YB400PE with their new ATS-505, at least judging by the case color.

Posted 01:58 UTC

This is Radio Botswana Part 4: "It became clear that the main constraint on development in the years ahead was going to be not money but people. [Christie] suggested that I come up with a dream plan, taking into account the lack of trained manpower at our disposal."

Posted 01:51 UTC

I've got an UNID station I could use some help with. I've got an RealAudio file of them at 0100 UTC March 2 on 5009.50, with what sounds like an interval signal. I've checked the samples of Madagascar at Al Quaglieri's and Dave Kernick's sites, and it doesn't match. Madagascar has, as Jay Novello puts it, "a rackety sounding IS like a bunch of xylophones crashing into each other". This IS is a flute thingy. It's about 35 seconds into the file. The OM talking sounds like French to me. Garoua, Cameroon, is the only other station listed near 5010 that seems likely, but I can't find any copies of their IS online. Gotta keep listening....

Posted 01:40 UTC