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                      \_\/  \_\/EARD  \_______\/AST   WEEK

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                                   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
