WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News 504 for January 27, 2001, compiled by Wolfgang Büschel, has been posted.

Posted 20:06 UTC

Dan Ferguson found an official Glossary of Telecommunications Terms (Federal Standard 1037) put online by his employer, the United States government. See, for example, the definition for diversity reception.

Posted 18:27 UTC

The web site of Vatican Radio was hit by hackers last week, according to Radio Netherlands' Media Network webzine. You can see an archive of the defaced web site on attrition.org.

Posted 17:26 UTC

If you're up for a challenge, check out the Interval Signals (and other signature tunes) quiz that Rich McVicar has posted to his web site. Of the 16, I think I knew one. Hopefully you can do better.

Posted 13:29 UTC

NASA releases first pictures of magnetic force: "The first large-scale pictures of the hidden machinations of the Earth's magnetic force-field are now available, including confirmation of a suspected but previously invisible 'tail' of electrified gas.

"The tail, which streams from Earth towards the Sun, was spotted by NASA's Imager for Magnetopause to Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) spacecraft and is featured on the cover of the Jan. 26 issue of the journal Science. The new imaging technology offers unprecedented views of the transparent, electrified gas trapped within Earth's magnetic field, providing the first visual, global perspective on magnetic storms."

Posted 01:09 UTC

Radio Netherlands has an obituary, written by Jonathan Marks, of longtime Media Network gadget guru Bob Tomalski, who died of a heart attack a couple of weeks ago. Tom Sundstrom, who became friends with Bob through their work on Media Network, has also posted a page about Bob and Tom's reaction to his death.

Posted 18:59 UTC

Radio Netherlands' Media Network webzine (boy, it still feels strange to refer to it that way) has published their review of the 2001 World Radio TV Handbook. The thrust of the review is basically "hey, it's not perfect, but it's better than it has been, and it's needed".

Posted 18:43 UTC

Clandestine Radio Watch, the bi-monthly newsletter covering the shadowy netherworld of black and grey radio stations, has posted issue number 61, dated January 14, 2001.

Posted 17:03 UTC

I was looking at a site for a company that makes CD labelling systems for reasons having absolutely nothing to do with shortwave radio and stumbled across a contest the company has every quarter to reward people using their products to design creative labels. Looking at the brief list of previous winners, who should I see but noted west-coast DXer Guy Atkins as the winner of their prize for the third quarter! Congratulations, Guy! (Guy designed many of the covers for Fine Tuning's Proceedings, legendary publications that contain some of the best writing about DXing anywhere.)

Posted 15:44 UTC

Tom Sundstrom has posted Sergei Sosedkin's obituary for noted Russian DXer Nick Pashkevich, who was killed in an automobile accident last week. Tom also received a picture of Nick from Sergei, which is included on the page.

Posted 02:37 UTC

Bob Raymond of DXtreme Software submits the following:

"DXtreme Software On the Web now features a free Quarterly Prize Giveaway (QPG)! The QPG is open to anyone except employees of DXtreme Software and their families.

"Those interested should visit DXtreme Software On the Web at www.dxtreme.com and click the QPG link located beneath the animated NewsFlash image. There is no obligation to purchase any of DXtreme Software's products."

Note that one of the prizes potentially on offer, and no doubt the most desirable, is a one year membership in NASWA....

Posted 02:53 UTC

Tom Sundstrom has a neat page about Radio Swan, the covertly CIA-run anti-Castro clandestine of the 1960s. Pay particular attention to the story about the Honduran students who invaded the island in 1961.

Posted 02:48 UTC

Martin Schöch has a very interesting page about a notorious Italian "DXer" noted mainly for the blatant fakeness of his QSL reports. I'm not much of a QSLer any more, but I understand the urge. But I'll never understand why someone would want to collect QSLs for stations they've never heard based on the reports of others. QSLs are a reflection of a very personal activity. QSLs without your reception behind them are just postcards. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Posted 20:47 UTC

WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News 499 for January 3, 2001, compiled by Wolfgang Büschel, has been posted. Pete Costello guessed that number 500 was saved for new millennium, and it looks like he was right; this issue is described as "jubilee edition 500".

Posted 16:52 UTC

The Danish Shortwave Club International has posted a comparison of three leading hobby references, the WRTH, Passport to World Band Radio, and Klingenfuss' Super Frequency List CD-ROM. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have mastered the art of creating HTML, so you'll need to read it in Acrobat format. (You can also find the report in Word 97 format, as well as the list of stations compared among the three publications, on DSWCI's Latest News page.) Alternately, you can read the report in HTML format on the Radio Netherlands Media Network site. Radio Netherlands does not include the list of stations in their version of the report. (Found in a post by Anker Petersen to HCDX and the Media Network e-mail newsletter.)

Posted 16:47 UTC