WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News 489 for October 27, 2000, compiled by Wolfgang Büschel, has been posted.

Posted 12:39 UTC

Speaking of DXpeditions, Mika Mäkeläinen did an excellent report for CNN's World Report program some months back about Those Wacky Finns and their trips to the deep north to hear radio stations. If you missed it (or even if you didn't), Mika has now posted the report in RealMedia format to his excellent Freeze! DXing Arctic Style web site. It's not quite obvious from the front page where the story is, but it's linked from Mika's DXpeditions page. (From a post by Mika to the Hard Core DX mailing list.)

Posted 12:15 UTC

Mark Connelly WA1ION has posted his report from Cappahayden 2000, the recent (mostly mediumwave) DXpedition from the noted site in Newfoundland. I'm always amazed at the kinds of signals they get from that location; I know that in years past they've heard things like India on 1566 kHz. Mark's report is light on reception details; that will follow in Jean Burnell's collected report of loggings. It's more about what it's like to go on a DXpedition, and it's a good read. There are also pictures of the location and the participants at the bottom of the page.

Posted 11:52 UTC

Bob Raymond NE1I tells me that his company, DXtreme Software, has released a new version of his logging software, DXtreme Reception Log 2000. I was pretty impressed when I looked at earlier versions of his software, and this one looks at least as good. It appears to me that the main new feature here is the ability to associate digitized audio of your reception with the log of the reception, which seems pretty cool to me.

Posted 00:33 UTC

Tom Sundstrom points out a very interesting web site for those who want to see the doomed Iridium satellites, which can by sighted by looking for the reflection off its antennas. There's going to be a very bright flare at my location on Monday evening.

Posted 23:05 UTC

The Shortwave Store in Canada reports that the long-rumored Grundig Satellit 900, the on-again/off-again successor to the Sat 700 from the German Grundig Corporation (as opposed to the Satellit 800, a product of their American licensee, Lextronics), will be available in early 2002. I'll believe it when I see it; this radio has been vaporware for a very long time....

Posted 21:31 UTC

Long time shortwave listener/DXer Gigi Lytle passed away on Tuesday. Tom Sundstrom has some details on his site. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal has an obituary.

Posted 20:21 UTC

I don't know how new this is (looks like maybe a few months), but Bob Colyard has gotten his own domain name for his excellent radio-related web site.

Posted 21:16 UTC

Jembatan DX's home page has the link wrong, but issue number 105 has been posted; you just have to get the URL right....

Posted 21:13 UTC

Andy Sennitt: "A surprising number of people who really ought to know better (after all, they claim to have been listening to Media Network for years) have equated the issue of producing a half hour radio show with Radio Netherlands' attitude to shortwave. That to me is as logical as saying that politicians are responsible for the weather."

Posted 21:10 UTC

WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News 487 for October 18, 2000, compiled by Wolfgang Büschel, has been posted.

Posted 20:58 UTC

Big Radio Bites Back (Salon): "The unlikely alliance [of the National Assocation of Broadcasters and National Public Radio] had been maneuvering a bill through Congress that would effectively kill low-power radio. But unable to get it passed, the alliance is now working to attach its bill as a rider to one of the nation's 13 must-pass appropriations bills -- a legislative end-run that would turn the bill into law without Senate debate or a straight up-or-down vote on the merits."

Posted 04:22 UTC

Tom Sundstrom found a list of international air frequencies on the WUN site if you're inclined to try to listen in to the hijacking of the Saudi airliner that happened today.

Posted 17:10 UTC

EDXC 2000 is underway this weekend, and the hosts, the Asociacion DX Barcelona, have a website dedicated to it, complete with webcam, photos of the attendees, and maybe even a webcast (although the webcast doesn't seem to be working yet). If you prefer, you can avoid the oh-so-cute Flash animation, complete with techno music, on the home page (like if you're using a browser without the Flash plug-in, for example). (Thanks Pete Costello for the links.)

Posted 13:41 UTC

Radio Netherlands: "It remains to be seen whether this re-launch is a serious attempt to rebuild the credibility of Nigeria's external service, or an effort to impress visiting delegates to a conference with the theme 'Africa in World Broadcasting: The Millennium Challenge' taking place in Abuja on 26-28 October. In 1975, President Idi Amin of Uganda inaugurated an external service using two 250 kW transmitters, timed to coincide with a meeting in Kampala of the Organisation of African Unity. Within months, the transmitters had broken down, and the service has never been heard since."

Posted 00:48 UTC

Kerbango Tango (The Guardian): "The Kerbango radio is intended to appeal to computer users who are already listening to radio stations via the internet, but it has four advantages. First, it is a dedicated appliance and therefore easier to operate. Second, you can listen to local radio stations all over the world - though listening to your old home town radio is a more attractive feature in the US than it is here." The article claims that Kerbango will go on sale in the US in December.

Posted 00:32 UTC

WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News 486 for October 5, 2000, compiled by Wolfgang Büschel, has been posted.

Posted 23:03 UTC

The Icom IC-R3 Swiss Army Chainsaw has been type-accepted by the FCC, and stocks are expected at dealers like Universal Radio on Monday.

Posted 23:00 UTC

Media Network Interactive poll: "Will on-demand wireless audio replace traditional radio listening?"

Posted 22:54 UTC

Nick Grace C. of Clandestine Radio Intel, Martin Schöch of Clandestine Radio Watch, and Armando Mastrapa have teamed up for a new venture, ClandestineRadio.com. The principals have done a lot of work in the past couple of weeks; when I found the page a couple of weeks ago, it was mostly under construction.

Radio Netherlands has a nice background piece on the site by Andy Sennitt.

Posted 22:51 UTC

Six Hours That Changed a Nation (Radio Netherlands): RTS employees streamed out of the building in Takovska Street, trying to avoid angry protesters. Shortly afterwards, flames were seen coming from the building. The fire was later reported to be under control. CNN’s Bureau Chief in Belgrade said that he had seen journalists and technicians from RTS taking part in the street demonstrations.

Posted 22:44 UTC

Tom Sundstrom has been digging through old tapes and looking for old logs to help him ID some of the stations, so I stumbled across an archive of Henrik Klemetz's Dateline Bogota. Interestingly, the first item in the 1998 edition is a station I heard myself last night for the first time, Ondas del Yuno in Bonao, Dominican Republic, on 2700.10 kHz, 2x1350.

Posted 22:39 UTC

Norwegian Radio is conducting a special test broadcast of their longwave transmitter on 153 kHz today from 1900 to 2300 UTC. Sorry for the short notice. You never know, it might be audible toward the end of the broadcast on the east coast of North America.

Posted 18:55 UTC