Annual Arietid meteor shower to peak June 7

From our friends at http://spaceweather.com/

DAYTIME METEORS: The annual Arietid meteor shower peaks on Sunday, June 7th. The Arietids are unusual because they are daytime meteors; they stream out of a point in the sky not far from the sun. The best time to look is just before dawn on Sunday morning when it may be possible to spot a small number of Arietids skimming the top of Earth's atmosphere. Such "Earthgrazing" meteors tend to be long, colorful, and very pretty. After daybreak, when the meteors are no longer visible to the human eye, you can listen to radar echoes from the Arietids by tuning in to our online meteor radar: http://spaceweatherradio.com/ .

"The Arietids are the strongest daylight shower of the year," notes Bob Lunsford of the American Meteor Society. "If you could see them through the sun's glare, you would count as many as 60 per hour. Also, don't forget that the daytime Zeta Perseids peak only two days later and are considered the second strongest daylight shower. In all my years of viewing I have never seen a Zeta Perseid, but I have seen a few Arietids. They have all been Earthgrazers and very impressive meteors."

FM and TV DXers should be on the lookout for meteor trail enhanced DX.
Mark Coady/ODXA)

Ex- U.S. State official, wife face Cuba spy charges

By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former U.S. State Department official and his wife have been arrested for spying for the Cuban government for nearly 30 years, the Justice Department said on Friday.

Walter Kendall Myers, 72, aided by his wife Gwendolyn Myers, 71, used his Top Secret security clearance to pass on classified information to the Cuban government and at one point met with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, according to court documents


Gwendolyn Myers worked at a bank. The two received messages from the Cuban government via shortwave radio and hand-passed messages, and typically passed their responses to handlers by hand.

Complete story from Reuters at:
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5546CA20090605

KSM special event D-Day anniversary

Paul Dobosz passes along the following bit of tid from the Maritime Radio Historical Society

The KSM schedule will be slightly modified for 6 June, the 64th anniversary of D-Day.
Transmitter Supervisor Steve Hawes will be aboard SS RED OAK VICTORY/KYVM while QSL Mistress Denice Stoops will be aboard SS JEREMIAH O'BRIEN/KXCH. Both ships will be active on MF, communicating with each other and with KSM. The calling frequency will be 500kc. The KXCH and KYVM working frequency will be 425kc.

KSM will be on 500kc and 426kc. RTTY service will be unavailable since Steve provides this from the Bolinas transmitter site. Steve usually provides the recently initiated CW press service too. But since this has proven popular with many listeners I will key the CW press
service from the receive site beginning at 1000pdt/1700UTC along with the normal KSM Pacific high seas weather broadcast on 1430pdt/2130gmt. All broadcasts will be keyed on 426kc and
all HF channels except 22Mc with interruptions for traffic to or from ships. In that case all transmitters will be keyed with the traffic no matter what frequency is used for contacting
the ship so that listeners on any frequency will be able to hear the KSM side of the exchange. The ship's QSS will be announced so that listeners may attempt to hear the ship as well.
Amateur station K6KPH will be available as usual, guarding 3550kc, 7040kc, 14050kc and 21050kc. K6KPH may best be contacted using commercial calling procedure: call K6KPH repeatedly until the operator responds with DE, then send your call.
VY 73,
RD
=================================
Richard Dillman, W6AWO
Chief Operator, Coast Station KSM
Maritime Radio Historical Society
http://www.radiomarine.org/

(MARE Tip Sheet 531)

Ye Ethiopia Adera Dimtse Radio QSLs

Ethiopian Current Affairs Discussion Forum Multimedia (Ye Ethiopia Adera Dimtse Radio)

QSL

FRANCE: YE ETHIOPIA ADERA DIMTSE RADIO via Issoudun, 13790. Full-data Media Broadcast antenna scenes e-QSL card from Michael Puetz at QSL-Shortwave@media-broadcast.com in 6 months. In response to my request for the name of the program, the QSL includes the name of the producing organization, Ethiopian Current Affairs Discussion Forum Multimedia, although Adera Dimtse Radio is not mentioned.

The e-mail says ADM is the internal name for the German translation of the name of the organization. No response yet from recent reports sent directly to the program at ecadf@ecadforum.com and info@ecadforum.com . I was wrong when I reported this program as Abu Dhabi Media a few weeks ago after receiving a QSL from Issoudun. Several websites gave this as the broadcaster, but after I reported my QSL some said it was probably Adera Dimtse Radio. (Wendal Craighead-Kansas, USA)

Apsua Radio schedule

Georgia
Sukhumi, Abkhaz Republic

Station identification in Abkhazian as;
"Apsua Radio"
Russian as; "Gavarit Sukhumi"

All times UTC // parallel frequency

0330-0345 MS RR
0345-0400 MS AB
0400-0430 MS AB, Sun to 0425 Russian
(same news are repeated on Sunday at 1100 and at 1400)
0430-0500 MS AB
0700-0800 MF AB
0800-0810 MF RR
1100-1120 MF AB, Sat & Sun in RR, Sun till 1125
1400-1420 Sat, till 1425 in RR
1400-1455 MF AB and irregularly 1425-1455 on Sat in AB

All times vary and the usage of languages also vary. In times like 0500-0700 MF (Sat till 0600) and after 1455 is relaying Radio Rossii, mostly Stream No. 4, sometimes No. 3 (as on 4055 kHz KGZ). All above is for the frequency of 9495 kHz, irr. \\ also 9535. The \\ MW frequency of 1350 is with increased broadcast times than on SW.
(Rumen Pankov-BUL, ARDXC/ADXN)

VOA Expands Broadcasting To War-Torn Pakistan Border Region

Washington, D.C., June 3, 2009 – Deewa Radio, the Voice of America’s (VOA) popular Pashto service broadcast to the war-torn Pakistan- Afghanistan border region, is expanding to nine hours daily starting Saturday, June 6, 2009.

“The time is right to add three more hours to Deewa’s original programming,” said Steve Redisch, VOA’s executive editor. “Deewa is often the only source of accurate news and information for the millions of people living in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) and elsewhere. They rely on us daily for basic information.”

Created in October 2006, Deewa is aimed at an estimated 40 million Pashto-speaking people in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, including the NWFP where some 2.5 million people have been displaced as Pakistani military battle Taliban fighters. Deewa also reaches Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Balochistan.

Along with news, Deewa provides information about health, shelter, food, social issues, education, science and culture. The program reaches people in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps and elsewhere. Up to 300 people routinely call in to Deewa during shows.

“Deewa is full of information,” said Syed Inam Rahman of the Centre for Media and Communications, International Islamic University of Islamabad, Pakistan. Rahman estimated the majority of people in Charsadda and Peshawar districts listened to Deewa regularly.

The newest block of programs will focus on news and current affairs, including regional and international news, reports from a network of more than 20 local free-lance journalists, segments on Muslims in America and on youth, a world press round-up and interviews with significant personalities.

The second hour will be a topical call-in show featuring a wide variety of issues affecting those in the targeted region. The final hour will be a repeat of the previous day’s morning call-in show, until July 4, when it will become a live news and current affairs program.

Deewa Radio is distributed on shortwave, FM, and by the Internet at www.VOANews.com/Deewa .

The Voice of America, which first went on the air in 1942, is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S.Government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts approximately 1,500 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 134 million people. Programs are produced in 45 languages.

For more information, please call VOA Public Relations at (202) 203-4959, or e-mail askvoa@voanews.com
(VOA)

Australian DX Report # 154 available for download

Here in wintry Melbourne, our sunset is now at its earliest, 0707 UTC, which is 5.07 pm local time. Sunrise is now 2111 UTC, which is 7.11 am local, and transit time of the sun is 0218 UTC, 12.18 pm.
This has resulted in good propagation from all continents during the various windows, one of which is our sunrise Brazilian mode in the 60 and 49 mbs.

This specialized mode appears each winter, and on June 4, Brazilian transmitters were audible on

4985 2055 to 2120
4915 2103 to 2135
5990 *2000-2100* (a one hr transmission)
6183 2200 to 2300 (off-channel!)

Propagation is via the transmission path crossing the Antarctic regions.

I have included a comprehensive summary of recent propagation events in episode 154 of the Australian DX Report audio news mgazine, which also features news and information about shortwave broadcasting, propagation, further monitoring notes, new schedules, extracts from schedules, and schedule updates.

It's 15 mins duration, and may be downloaded from the Website of the Australian Internet Radio Service, at http://airm.edxp.org/

It is also available as a Podcast, sent to your browser-enabled Mobile Telephone using Windows Mobile.

The site allows you to listen to the ADXR and other audio features directly (streaming audio) via your MP3 player, or via the site's embedded mini-player. Podcasts, iTunes capability, full RSS/XML/Atom feeds, and free subscriptions are supported - full details are at the site.

Your comments and feedback are welcomed!

The Australian Internet Radio Service is administered by the Electronic DX Press Radio Monitoring Association.

You can also hear the episodes on-air, via WWCR Nashville, every Sunday at 0200-0215 on 5070 and on Mondays 1145-1200 on 15825. The WWCR release is also available as streaming-audio, live, from http://wwcr.com/

Good listening to the Australian DX Report Episode No. 154!

Bob Padula,
Melbourne

Thanks Bob for the info - easy to forget as being in the midst of summer, you're enjoying

" winter - DX !" Good luck in your winter DX season !!

Gayle Van Horn

Amateur radio propagation report

QST de W1AW
Propagation Forecast Bulletin 23 ARLP023
From Tad Cook, K7RA
Seattle, WA June 5, 2009
To all radio amateurs

SB PROP ARL ARLP023
ARLP023 Propagation de K7RA

It is so great to see some real Cycle 24 sunspot activity this week. Instead of a phantom that pops into view one day and is gone the next, we have sunspot 1019, which has persisted for five days, so far. Emerging on Sunday, May 31, the resulting daily sunspot numbers through June 4 are 15, 23, 19, 17 and 17. This is a Cycle 24 spot, and at high latitude too, which is an indication of a new cycle spot.

Meanwhile, the low solar wind and quiet geomagnetic conditions continue. Currently spot 1019 is about to fade, although it is still a few days away from crossing the eastern limb to the far side. NOAA and the US Air Force expect geomagnetic conditions to continue to be quiet, and a planetary A index around five is predicted until June 29. Predicted solar flux values are 72 for June 5-6, then 74 on June 7-13.

Geophysical Institute Prague predicts quiet geomagnetic conditions June 5-8, quiet to unsettled June 9-10, and quiet again June 11. Time now to look at our 3-month average daily sunspot numbers to spot trends. It looks like the numbers are up, slightly.

The three-month average of daily sunspot numbers for January through April was 2.4, 2.3, 1.5 and 2. The last number, centered on April, is the sum of all daily sunspot numbers for March through May, divided by the number of days.

Since 2007, the 3 month moving average has been:

Jan 07 22.7
Feb 07 18.5
Mar 07 11.2
Apr 07 12.2
May 07 15.8
Jun 07 18.7
Jul 07 15.4
Aug 07 10.2
Sep 07 5.4
Oct 07 3.0
Nov 07 6.9
Dec 07 8.1
Jan 08 8.5
Feb 08 8.4
Mar 08 8.4
Apr 08 8.9
May 08 5.0
Jun 08 3.7
Jul 08 2.0
Aug 08 1.1
Sep 08 2.5
Oct 08 4.5
Nov 08 4.4
Dec 08 3.7
Jan 09 2.3
Feb 09 2.1
Mar 09 1.5
Apr 09 2.0

The average daily sunspot number for just the month of May was 4, which indicates a nice trend following the March and April 3-month averages.

David Witkowski, W6DTW of San Jose, California was happy to see the reports of night time 20 meter propagation from N6CAS, and notes that on May 20 he worked LY1000A (Lithuania) at 0405z, ES1QD in Estonia at 0612z on May 22, and OH5LF (Finland) at 0635z on May 23. He worked them all using 100 watts and a vertical antenna. He wrote, "I told some friends here in San Jose that I'd worked Europe barefoot at 11:00pm local time and a few of them gave me the 'Oh yeah, sure you did' look. Thanks for vindicating me."

David continued, "Regarding the question of "dead" versus "unoccupied" bands; I wrote a blog article recently on this topic. (See http://sparqi.blogspot.com/ .) During Summer Es I used to listen to 28.4 and/or tune from 28.3-28.5 to check for openings. Recently I made the discovery that listening on CB channel 38-LSB (27.385) is a much better way to do a quick check for openings; I have monitored stations from all over the western US burning up "38 lower" well into late evening, while 10 meters sits idle. Many times there is propagation; we're just not using it."

Howard Estes, WB4GUD of Franklin, North Carolina also likes to check Citizens Band activity for a 10-meter propagation indicator. He wrote, "I agree with W1ZI, the bands aren't dead, we're just lazy. How often do you scan a band, don't hear anything, and go somewhere else? I've started checking the CB channels for activity. If I can hear the Big Frog Gigger in LA (that's lower Alabama), probably 10M is open to somewhere."

Mark Lunday, WD4ELG of Hillsborough, North Carolina wrote about a June 1 E-skip opening on 6 meters that still continued at 0400z on June 2. "I worked 12 stations on CW and SSB across the Midwest on 6. Also, had some multi-hop on 10 meters using WSJT JT65A and heard Oregon. Second night in a row that I was hearing Es late at night on 10 meters using WSJT weak-signal propagation."

Mark said he likes to use DX Sherlock, at http://tinyurl.com/5qwvu2 .

Bill Turner, W4WNT of Matthews, North Carolina has good luck lately with PSK on 20 meters, even when there are no sunspots. He is running 25 watts into a G5RV at 25 feet, and on May 21 at 0345z he worked Peter, ZL1PWD who reported working 12 stations that day.

Erik Jacobsen, KB9BNY of McHenry, Illinois sent a message titled, "20-meter PSK31 has been on fire this week." He wrote, "Tuesday, with the sunspot number at 19 and the solar flux at 72, 20 meters nicely opened up for world wide communication. I participate in the PSK reporter network (http://psk.gladstonefamily.net/pskmap.html ). Basically, when a reporting station receives the de callsign callsign pattern, the location of the transmitting station is then plotted on a map. When I checked the map on Tuesday morning, I saw a Pakistani station, two New Zealand stations and a Japanese station plotted. It just goes to show you how well 20 meters can perform with a small amount of power (usually under 30 watts), a narrow-band signal, and relatively modest solar conditions."

He continues, "I preserved the map for historical purposes at http://tinyurl.com/June2-map . Tuesday's total monitoring take for a 24 hour period was 30 countries. I occasionally blog my PSK reporter observations at http://20meters.blogspot.com/ . My current PSK reporter map can be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/kb9bny-map ."

Thanks, Erik! Great stuff.

Again this week we have a book recommendation. Bill Scholz, KB1SGY of Greenwich, Connecticut advises checking out "The Sun Kings; The Unexpected Tragedy of Richard Carrington and the Tale of How Modern Astronomy Began."

Bill writes that this is "an engaging book by Stuart Clark that describes, in great detail, how the great astronomers of the 19th century linked sun spots, solar flares, auroras and magnetic storms. An excerpt from the flyleaf: 'In September of 1859, a cloud of seething gas engulfed the Earth and a blood-red aurora erupted across the planet. Around the world, telegraph machines burst into flames, while compasses reeled as if struck by a massive magnetic fist. No one knew what could have released such strange forces upon the Earth - no one, that is, except the amateur English astronomer Richard Carrington.'"

He continues, "It's a great read and I recommend it highly if you're interested in the connection between these phenomena."

Last week's bulletin mentioned a consumer communications product out of Japan that would require text messengers to learn Morse code. We asked if anyone could decode the Japanese in a graphic on a web page talking about the product, and Brett Graham, VS6BG says it is just a banner ad for a television show. He thought the product might be for real, but checked with JA3USA, who thought it was an April 1 joke. But Brett says, "The idea does have something going for it."

In last week's bulletin we presented some confusing text regarding scientific notation and numbers representing the area covered by sunspots, at least it confused me. I was worried about it, so I checked with K9LA, who got me on the right track. But K1SFA at ARRL HQ was concerned when she got it from me, so she passed it on to a ham who is an astronomer for a fact check. Somehow it got changed back to the way I had it in the first place, before getting input from K9LA. So at this point I can't correct it, although I believe K9LA had it right. More later.

If you would like to make a comment or have a tip for our readers, email the author at, k7ra@arrl.net .

For more information concerning radio propagation, see the ARRL Technical Information Service web page at, http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/propagation.html . For a detailed explanation of the numbers used in this bulletin, see http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/k9la-prop.html . An archive of past propagation bulletins is at, http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/prop/ .

Monthly propagation charts between four USA regions and twelve overseas locations are at http://www.arrl.org/qst/propcharts/ .

Instructions for starting or ending email distribution of this bulletin are at http://www.arrl.org/w1aw.html#email .

Sunspot numbers for May 28 through June 3 were 0, 0, 0, 15, 23, 19, and 17 with a mean of 10.6. 10.7 cm flux was 67.7, 68.2, 68.5, 68.5, 72.5, 71.9, and 72.5 with a mean of 70. Estimated planetary A indices were 7, 5, 3, 3, 3, 2 and 4 with a mean of 3.9. Estimated mid-latitude A indices were 5, 4, 2, 3, 2, 2 and 4 with a mean of 3.1.
NNNN
/EX
(Dave Raycroft/ODXA)

Blog Logs - South America

Today's BLOG LOGS, are shortwave radio stations from South America. The following logs represent a portion of additional logs recently cut from my SWBC Logs column in Monitoring Times magazine at http://www.monitoringtimes.com/ due to space constraints. Contributions are always welcome for the magazine or blog, and may be directed to my above email address. Thanks very much to the contributors and blog readers for your kind words and support.
Gayle Van Horn

Argentina
RAE 11710.75, 0005-0112. Portuguese service. Piano into instrumental music and announcements. Brief talk segments to time pips at 0030. Interval signal and multi-lingual “RAE Argentina” ID. Piano music and possible anthem added to ID sequence after 0105, followed by Spanish ID. Japanese program at 0112. Good signal with fading, down a bit by 0110. (Evans).

RAE, 11710.64v, 0159-0226. Station interval signal to time pips, another I.S. and station ID. Played some music selections of tango music, into news. Signal poor-fair. (Howard).

Bolivia
Radio Fides 6155.23, 0120-0130. Spanish comments to mentions of station and “Bolivia.” Signal poor, on past 0130. Station noted 6155.25, 0058-0110. Music until the hour. On the hour a male in Spanish comments, possibly news. Signal was poor. (Bolland)

Radio Libez (presumed) 4796.28, 1053-1105. Previously this was Mallku, but noted station has changed their name. Signal was threshold with only a suggestion of audio making it, while the carrier was at a poor level. (Bolland).

Radio Yura, Yura, 4716.65, 2334-0202. Typical Bolivian instrumental music, announcer hosting in studio five children with some difficult to start and run talks, one at once "tiene sugerencia musical?" and questions like "what’s your name?, where you come from?..". Ten minutes earlier as I tune passed this frequency, I noted only a carrier. It seems in the interim the signal faded in somewhat to a poor level. Seems like the music continued until 0202 when a person commented briefly and dead air followed for a minuted then more music. Thought they had ceased transmission, but I was mistaken. Signal was poor (Bernardini, Bolland and Otávio/DX Window # 377)

Radio Virgen de Remedios, Tupiza, 4835, 2351-0004. Religious music, flute music, Spanish ID: "Radio Virgen de Remedios. Radio Virgen de Remedios FM 89.5..", 0001-0004 seems relaying audio of TV religious channel, SINPO 33233. (Otávio/DX Window #377)

Radio Pio XII, Siglo XX, 2207-2310, 5952.50. Spanish talk: "Nuestros Departamentos". Quechua discussion, SINPO 23332 QRM 5950, SINPO 23332. (Méndez and Petersen/Vejers/DX Window #377)

Brazil
Radio Bandeirantes (Sao Paulo) (presumed) 9645, 0658-0715. Strained to hopefully hear a Portuguese ID, but no luck. Noise was just too high (Barker).

Radio Clube do Para 4885, 0640-0655. Lively Brazilian tunes between Portuguese announcements, including an ID. Signal poor and faded out by 0650. (Barker).

Radio Cultural Ondas Tropicais, Manaus, AM, 4845.2, 0007-0054.Man preaching in Portuguese repeated by a woman. Religious vocals noted between long talk segments. End of program at 0050 with man talking over choir vocals and studio ID, fair. (Rich D'Angelo/DX Window #377)

Radio Difusora (presumed), Cáceres, MT, 5055, 0935-0955. Portuguese talks, music sounding like religious, 0940 choral music and talks. 0945 very poor signal. From 0950, 5050 Brazilian harmonic splatter QRM, 14322. (Otávio/DX Window #377)

Colombia
La Voz de tu Conciencia (Puerto Lleras) 6010, 0701-0735. Lady pastor in English, translated to Spanish. Sermon was directed towards Colombians and continued to 0710. Spanish station ID into religious music to 0733 ID and “this is the Voice of your conscience” (Barker).

Marfil Estereo 5910, 0700-0715. Missed the station ID at 0700 but announcer’s Spanish announcements were followed by a station ID at 0710 then Spanish music. Poor signal (Barker). 5910, 0452-0510. ID at 0456. Nice Latin American music with tight harmony, a good bass line featuring the accordian. Signal very good (Wood).

Peru
Radio Vision 4790, 0710-0730. Spanish text amid poor signal, further hindered by deep fades and a faint hetrodyne. Full station ID at 0722 and 0730. Non-stop talk during this period, though nothing religious observed (Barker).

Radio La Hora, 4857.39, 2330-2355. Just tuning around the 4 Meg band and found this starting to fade in. Noted a male in Spanish comments describing what seemed to be a soccer game. Signal was still at a poor level, so couldn't make out much of what was being said except for a few words here and there. (Bolland)

La Voz de la Selva, 4824.42, 2356-0001. Not exactly faded in yet, but can hear some Spanish comments by a male. Signal was threshold however. (Bolland)

Radio Huanta Dos Mil, 4746.83, 0042-0055, Not much to hold on to here with a very, very weak signal. Noted a person in Spanish comments. However, the carrier was better, aiding with the tune in. At 0050 noted music. (Bolland)

Contributors:
Bruce Barker, PA
Chuck Bolland, FL
Rich D’Angelo, PA/DX Window #377
Jim Evans, TN
Ron Howard, CA
José Mendez/DX Window # 377
Joe Wood, TN

IBB Remote Monitoring System Video

Former World DX Club North American secretary Bill Whitacre, has posted a video to YouTube explaining how to listen to sounds recorded by the International Broadcast Bureau Remote Monitoring System.

IBB operates a network of over 70 remote monitoring systems (RMSs) in order to determine and demonstrate the audibility of its own and others’ broadcast. Eash 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. The video is available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=G19IPVTCGUE The IBB memote monitoring web page is available at http://monitor.ibb.gov/rms/
(DX World Club/Contact Vol.46)

Battle of Midway Commemoration to be Broadcast Live

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The U.S. Navy Memorial will host a commemoration of the Battle of Midway June 4 in Washington, D.C. The ceremony will be broadcast live at 2 p.m. EDT on Navy.mil, the Pentagon Channel and the Direct-to-Sailor Network.

Amateur radio special event schedules

Saturday - June 6
MUSEUM SHIPS WEEKEND. Sponsored by the Battleship New Jersey Amateur Radio Station (NJ2BB), this year's Museum Ships Weekend will be held from 00.00 UTC on 6 June until 23.59 UTC on the 7th. Information on the event, including the relevant certificate and the listing of participating ships, can be found at http://www.nj2bb.org/

F - Commemorating the 65th anniversary of the World War II "D-Day" landings in Normandy (6 June 1944), the following activities are expected to take place from France. The South Flanders DX Activity Group will operate as F/ON6JUN/P from Ranville on 3-8 June (QSL via ON5SD, direct or bureau. Henk/PA0HFT and Hans/PA0WYS will be active as F/PA65DDAY from Juno Beach, near Courseulles-sur-Mer on 5-8 June (QSL via PA0HFT, direct or bureau). Michel/F6IPS will operate as TM6SME from Emondeville, close to Sainte-Mere-Eglise on 5-14 June (QSL via F6IPS,direct or bureau). [TNX F5NQL]

7X - Special event station 7U2ISM will be active from Djelfa, Algeria between 16 June and 6 July for the International Amateur Radio Meeting that will take place on 15-21 June. The event will be hosted by the Amateurs Radio Algeriens (the Algerian IARU society) and the Radio Club of Djelfa (7X2VFK). A multi-national group of operators will be active on 160-10 metres CW and SSB, with some activity on RTTY, SSTV and BPSK. QSL direct to 7X2DD. [TNX DB1JAW]

8Q - Nobby, G0VJG will be active as 8Q7CQ from the Maldives (AS-013) on 1-15 June. He will spend his honeymoon on Kuredu Island and he plans to operate holiday style on the HF bands SSB. He will also give 6m a try. QSL via G4DFI. [TNX NG3K]

C6 - Mark/NA6M, Renee/N5RNA, Craig/W5TSN, Judy/KC5VVN and Scott/K2CK will be active as C6AMS from Nassau (NA-001) Bahamas on 1-14 June. They plan to operate SSB, CW and digital modes on 160-10 metres with two or three stations. QSL via NA6M. Further information and log search at http://www.c6ams.com/ [TNX The Daily DX]

E5_sc - Nigel, G4KIU has moved to Rarotonga (OC-013), South Cook Islands, where he holds the call E51SC. He plans to be active on 80-10 metres SSB, RTTY, PSK31 and some CW. QSL direct to Nigel Peacock, P.O. Box 880, Rarotonga, Cook Islands via New Zealand, or via G4KIU through the RSGB bureau. He will upload his logs to LoTW on a weekly basis. [TNX The Daily DX]

EA - George, EC2ADN and Christian, EA3NT will be active as EG3FI from the Formigues (Hormigas) Islands (EU-078) on 6-7 June. QSL via EA3NT, direct or bureau.

F - In June-July 1944 the BBC war correspondents used the tower of the castle at Creully as a radio studio, from where the first reports of the Battle of Normandy were broadcast. Look for special callsign TM5BBC to be aired again from Creully on 4-12 June. QSL via F2UW. [TNX F5NQL]

F - Pierre, F5AAR and Alain, F5OZC will be active as homecall/p from Yeu Island (EU-064) on 3-5 June. They will operate SSB and CW on 10-80 metres. [TNX F6AJA and Les Nouvelles DX]

F - Robert, F5HTR and Roger, F5LKW will be active as homecall/p from Riou Island (EU-095) on 8 June. They will operate QRP on +/- 7032 kHz. [TNX F6AJA and Les Nouvelles DX]

(photo/USS New Jersey (BB-62)/bluejacket.com)

Radio Havana, DXers Unlimited June 2-3 edition

By Arnie Coro, CO2KK

Hi amigos radioaficionados worldwide ! Welcome to the mid week edition of your favorite listener oriented radio hobby program, always trying to bring to you the latest HF plus low band VHF propagation information, plus as many technical aspects of our hobby as possible.

I am Arnaldo, Arnie, Coro, radio amateur CO2KK, your host at this twice weekly radio hobby program, and here is now item one:

solar activity picking up, an active sunspot region ,number 1019 is clearly visible, and this one is definetely a cycle 24 spot.

Also, photos of the solar limb show what may well be another active sunspot region about to rotate into view... Now, let me tell you about the direct consequences of even a single sunspot active region on the Earth's ionosphere.

When the free electrons concentration is at such a low level as it happens when solar flux is below 70 units for many days at a time, even a small increase in the flux, as we are seen right now, makes a marked improvement on the propagation conditions , especially on frequencies between 10 and 20 megaHertz.

For example, here in Havana, a Tuesday morning local time bands scan showed that the fifteen megaHertz signal from WWV in Boulder , Colorado, was at the highest signal to noise ratio in many days.

Another finding was that the signals from a short wave broadcast station located in Chile could be heard with a good signal to noise ratio on the 16 meters or 17.5 to 18.0 megaHertz band.

I could also pick up several amateur radio stations on the CW segment of the 20 meters band, during another observation period that spanned from 12 to 13 hours UTC...

So be on the lookout for making good use of this slight, but as explained earlier, significant increase in solar activity ...

Item two: From Radio Havana Cuba's engineering department comes the news that our 11770 kiloHertz 25 meters band frequency is been heard well in southern Europe , as well as all along the East Coast of North America.

Item three: A quick reply to a question sent by listener Stefan from Canada about the ongoing search operation launched to try to find where the Air France A330 aircraft went down. Monitoring the aircraft HF bands brought some very interesting exchanges between ground stations and the Brazilian aircraft that finally found floating debris that almost for sure belong to the aircraft.

Yes amigo Stefan, whenever a search and rescue operation is in progress you will be able to pick up a lot of traffic on certain frequencies used routinely for aircraft HF single sideband communications, and on some other frequencies you may pick up also SSB voice exchanges between ships arriving at the scene of the accident.

In this particular case, knowing Portuguese did help to understand what the search planes were describing when they finally spoted the location where seats and other debris from Air France flight AF 447 were found.

Item four: An add on to item three: Long Distance Operations Centers use Single Sideband Voice communications on the HF aircraft bands, in order to keep contact with planes flying out of range of the VHF band frequencies.

The distance that a plane can be still heard at the VHF frequencies depends on two main elements: first the altitude of the aircraft, and second on the particular VHF propagation conditions at a given moment.

HF aircraft communications are much less reliable than the VHF signals,and often require that the crew change frequencies several times until they can find one that provides an effective link to remote Long Distance Operations Center or LDOC, that have to keep track of the flights as they proceed along the flight plan, checking their position at certain locations that are given a name that is tied to specific geographical coordinates.

By the way , listening to HF SSB voice mode aircraft communications is one of the more than 85 ways that you can enjoy our wonderful hobby, yours and mine: RADIO !!!

Stay tuned for more radio hobby related information coming up in a few seconds after a short break for station ID, I am Arnie Coro, CO2KK in Havana...

.......................

You are listening to Radio Havana Cuba, the name of the show is Dxers Unlimited and this is our mid week edition on the air on Tuesdays and Wednesdays UTC days... Hire is now item five:

The Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico Tropical Hurricane Season Season began on Monday , the first day of June and will last until the 30^th of November...

Radio amateurs all along the areas that may be hit by storms have by now completed the preparations in order to be able to provide emergency communications whenever required.

Equipment capable of operating using batteries , portable antennas that can be quickly set up , and the organization of emergency nets are very important elements of any effort aiming at providing alternate links when the normal communications systems fail or are used to the top of their possibilities.

Here in the Caribbean, tropical storms and hurricanes are carefully followed by the weather services,and as soon as they start to develop, radio amateurs are ready to deploy their stations well ahead of the path of the storm.

Among the important services provided by the amateurs are passing along precise weather data to the main meteorological services, so that they can keep accurate track of the storms. Other ham stations are installed at shelters, hospitals and clinics, as well as near dams and water reservoirs.

Here in Cuba, during the very active 2008 hurricane season,more than one thousand radio amateurs participated in providing alternate emergency communications to the Civil Defense Disasters Command Posts , something that was recognized by the Government and also brought some very nice reports from the mass media that have generated a lot of interest in the people in our hobby.

..........................

Si amigos, sure, radio is a technical hobby, and many of us enjoy homebrewing our radios, antennas, and accessories.

Improving your listening post of amateur radio station is always rewarding.

Take for example a local friend that could not operate on the 40 meters band, because he didn't had enough space to install a full size 40 meters band half wave dipole.

When I heard him on 2 meters complaining about not having enough space to install a 40 meters band antenna, I told him that a very effective short antenna could be easily made, and that the difference in signal strength between this half size antenna and the full size one was in the order of between one third and one half of an S unit, something very difficult to detect .

So I proceeded to provide him with the step by step building and assembling instructions for the half size 40 meters band antenna.

About a week later, he came back to me, again on the local 2 meters band repeater, telling me that he had built the half size dipole with excellent results.

Amigo Eduardo also added that he was able to trim the antenna to resonance on 7050 kiloHertz achieving a low standing wave ratio from the low end of the band to about 7125 kiloHertz, something that according to him was very rewarding as he could operate on CW, the digital modes and single side band voice .

The antenna uses two easily made loading coils ,located at about 2.5 meters from each side of the center insulator, and the overall length is about 10 meters, or roughly one half of the length of the standard half wave dipole for the 40 meters band.

Eduardo told me that he started by adding about 3 meters of wire to the end of each loading coil, and the proceeded to trim the length until he achived the lowest possible standing wave ratio on 7050 kiloHertz.

His antenna was strung between a mast that he installed at the flat roof of his home, and a nearby pine tree, and so far has proven to be very effective not only for short distance near vertical incidence skywave communications while the Sun is out, but also as a rather good antenna for working DX during the local evening hours,especially when using the PSK31 digital communications mode.

..................

And now amigos, as always at the end of the program here is Arnie Coro's Dxers Unlimited's HF plus low band VHF propagation update and forecast.

Participants on the CW WPX Contest during the past weekend that heard our forecast were able to work many 10 meter band stations via the Sporadic E propagation mode that provided mainly single hop skip signals, but that also eventually brought some double hop propagation too. As explained during our weekend edition, at peak times the 21 megaHertz or 15 meters band also was open, but in this case for both
sporadic E and F2 layer propagation.

Now as you hear this, active sunspot region 1019 is developing, and there are even chances for a class C solar flare to erupt from that area of the Sun. Solar flux should increase to around 75 units, so HF propagation should take a turn for the better during the next three days.

Sporadic E events should be happening at a very high rate during the next three weeks...So check the low band TV channel frequencies and the FM broadcast band !!!

Join me Saturday and Sunday for the weekend edition of Dxers Unlimited and don't forget to send your signal reports, comments and radio hobby related questions to inforhc and enet dot cu or via air mail to Arnie Coro , Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba

Blog Logs

Today's shortwave BLOG LOGS, represent a portion of additional logs recently cut from my SWBC Logs column in Monitoring Times magazine at http://www.monitoringtimes.com/ due to space constraints. Contributions are always welcome for the magazine or blog, and may be directed to my above email address. Thanks very much to the contributors and blog readers for your kind words and support.
Gayle VH

All times UTC, frequencies in kHz, English unless otherwise indicated // parallel frequencies.
* sign-on - sign-off *

Australia
Radio Australia (Brandon) 11660, 2156-2158. Pop music, talk by man at 2157, followed by Walting Matilda tune and ID. Signal gone by 2158, poor signal, Also noted at very poor level from Shepparton on 11650 with same program details, but not 100% in sync with 11660 Evans).
ABC Northern Territory Service (Tennant Creek) 4910, 0817-0838. While tuning an almost dead 60 meter band found Aussie accented English on band. Initial talk from announcer, then pop music at 0822, more talk and listener’s call-ins. News at 0830 past scheduled close, gone by 0838. (Evans).

Clandestine
Fususato No Kaze (presumed) 9780, *1600-1630.* Opening routine, including music from Sakura, followed by Japanese talks. Closedown routine at 1625 including the same website mentioned above. Never did catch an ID, though Shiokaze also reported here (Wilkins).

Eritrea
Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea (Asmera) 7175, 0353-0405. Interval signal and recorded announcements in Amharic. Jammer cranked up at 0359, tonight with about ten seconds of loud music. VOBME switched to 7165 and in the clear two minutes with opening by lady announcer. (Evans).

Ethiopia
Radio Ethiopia 7110, 0412-0425. Horn of Africa music with brief announcements, returning to musical segments. Good signal with some fading observed. No parallel frequewncies noted (Evans).

India
All India Radio-Bangalore 11620, 2151-2205. Indian pop music to station ID on the hour and world news. Good signal with less than normal fading. Noted // on 9945 with almost identical signal. No other parallels noted. (Evans).

Iran
VOIRI (Kamalabad) 15085, 1734-1740. End of Qu’ran segment followed by announcers’ talk portion. Station ID, schedules and addresses at 1737. Instrumental music at 1738 with announcers’ talk-over. Good signal with some fading observed, no // noted. (Evans).

Madagascar
Radio Madagasikara (Antanarivo) 5009.95, 0310-0335. Possible French service including pop music noted with occasional low audio talk from announcers and background piano music. Talk segment ended at 0324 followe dby upbeat yet smooth easy vocals with a hint of African instruments. Poor signal observed with fading. (Evans).

Mali
RTV de Mali 9635, *0800-0815. Station’s sign-on with interval signal melody of of drums/flute. Opening identification during extremely good signal quality. 5995, 0610-0630. Spectacular tribal music full of drums with both instrumentals and vocals up to 0630. French announcements and conversations to full station ID in French,followed by Arabic. Recheck at 0758 where audio was all but gone Gangbusters signal on 9635, *0800-0845. 5995, 0535-0545 with splendid listening including “Radio Mali” ID’s throughout (Barker).

Mauritania
Radio Mauritanie 4845, 0800-0810. Station ID at 0800, followed by Arabic news briefs to 0805. Signal strong for Mauritania, despite local weather problems. (Barker).

Morocco
Radio Mediterranee International/Medi 1, 9575, 0635-0650. Male/female in French discussion. Station promos and musical bridges between topics (Barker).

New Zealand
Radio NZ International 6070, 0805-0830. Continuous music, mostly geat indigenous tunes up to 0822. English station ID and postal/.web addresses. More music to intros for BBC World News relay (Barker).

Nigeria
Voice of Nigeria 9690, 0810-0830. Announcer obviously with laryngitis this morning! Hideous modulation wrecked any opportunity to pick out anything intelligible during Hausa service. Tune-out at 0830 because signal was too annoying to continue trying to copy. Subsequent check the next day for 9690, *0800-0835 (Barker).

South Africa
Radio Sondergrense (Meyerton) 3320, 0431-0450. Tuned in to hear their usual excellent pop music and found classical Strauss waltz music with occasional Afrikaans talk from host. Good signal. (Evans).

Sudan
SRTC 7200, *0237-0245. Call to Prayer segment in Arabic and mentions of “Huna Omdurman” at 0241. Amateur radio interference on frequency (Evans).

USA
Voice of Boafra International via WHRI, Cypress Creek, SC. Station ID to instrumnetal anthem, followed by same identification and vocal anthem in English by woman. Prayer at 2107, news at 2112. Local vocal music at 2135. Good signal (Evans).

Zambia
Voice Africa 4965, 0430-0440. Modern praise and worship music, Announcer’s talk on the Gospel of Matthew. Station ID as “Radio Christian Voice” at 0435. Signal good-very good (Wood).

Contributors:
Brian Alexander, PA
Chuck Bolland, FL
Bruce Barker, PA
Jim Evans, TN
John Wilkins, CO
Joe Wood, TN

Weekly Propagation Forecast Bulletins

Product: Weekly Highlights and Forecasts
:Issued: 2009 Jun 02 2021 UTC
# Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center
# Product description and SWPC web contact: www.swpc.noaa.gov/weekly.html
#

# Weekly Highlights and Forecasts
#
Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity
25 - 31 May 2009

Solar activity was very low. No flares were observed. New cycle polarity Region 1019 (N28, L=297, class/area Cro/080 on 02 June) was numbered on 31 May. It was simply structured and produced no flares during the summary period.

No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was at normal levels during the period.

Geomagnetic field activity was at quiet levels at all latitudes during most of the period. However, activity increased to unsettled levels on 28 May with a brief period of active levels at high latitudes. The increase followed a sudden impulse at 28/0520 UTC (33 nT, as observed by the Boulder USGS magnetometer). ACE solar wind measurements indicated an interplanetary shock passage at approximately 28/0418 UTC. There was no obvious source for the shock. Solar wind changes associated with the shock passage included a jump in velocity (284 - 338 km/sec at 28/0418 UTC), increased interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) Bt (peak 12 nT at 28/0722 UTC), and intermittent periods of southward IMF Bz (minimum -8 nT at 28/0857 UTC).

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity
03 - 29 June 2009
Solar activity is expected to be very low.

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at normal flux levels.

Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be at quiet to unsettled levels during 03 - 04 June. Mostly quiet conditions are expected during 05 - 28 June, with unsettled periods possible on 10 June. Activity is expected to increase to unsettled levels on 29 June.

Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt
:Issued: 2009 Jun 02 2021 UTC
# Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center
# Product description and SWPC web contact: www.swpc.noaa.gov/wwire.html
#


# 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table
# Issued 2009 Jun 02
#
# UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest
# Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index
2009 Jun 03 72 8 3
2009 Jun 04 72 8 3
2009 Jun 05 72 5 2
2009 Jun 06 72 5 2
2009 Jun 07 72 5 2
2009 Jun 08 74 5 2
2009 Jun 09 74 5 2
2009 Jun 10 74 8 3
2009 Jun 11 74 5 2
2009 Jun 12 74 5 2
2009 Jun 13 74 5 2
2009 Jun 14 72 5 2
2009 Jun 15 72 5 2
2009 Jun 16 72 5 2
2009 Jun 17 72 5 2
2009 Jun 18 72 5 2
2009 Jun 19 70 5 2
2009 Jun 20 70 5 2
2009 Jun 21 70 5 2
2009 Jun 22 70 5 2
2009 Jun 23 70 5 2
2009 Jun 24 70 5 2
2009 Jun 25 70 5 2
2009 Jun 26 72 5 2
2009 Jun 27 72 5 2
2009 Jun 28 72 5 2
2009 Jun 29 72 10 3
(NOAA)

June specials from DX Stamp & Supplies

Dear Customer,

Below are June DX stamp and supply specials.

Stamps on BACK ORDER: Turkey, Bosnia, Bahrain, Brunei and Thailand.

Stamps IN STOCK AGAIN: Peru

JUNE 2009 DX STAMP SPECIALS

2 Belgium-$3.00 2 Slovak Rep.-$3.00 3 Germany-$8.25

3 Japan-$3.60 2 Spain (Canary, Balearic, Ceuta & Melilla)-$3.00


JUNE 2009 DX SUPPLY SPECIALS

200/200 European Air Mailers & Returns $35

2 Standard QSL Albums $40

300/300 Stateside Mailers & Returns $23

Shipping charges extra on supply specials

PRIORITY MAIL Shipping Rates for Supplies

Orders under $16.00 add $6.50, Orders from $16.00 to $40.00 add $9.00, Orders from $41.00 to $100.00 add $13.00, Orders from $101.00 to $150.00 add $18.00, orders over $150.00 add 12%. When ordering supplies AND stamps, use supply total to figure shipping costs. Stamps “ride free” when you order supplies. Shipments to Canada ship at a greater cost. (04/2008)

Non-DX Item:

I'm collecting Forever Stamp Booklets, both ATM booklets of 18 stamps and the Flat booklets of 20 stamps.

I can use ANY that are dated "2007". The year date can be found in the upper left corner of EACH STAMP near the yoke of the bell. On some versions, the year is VERY SMALL and difficult to see.

I can also use any booklets dated "2008" with plate number S11111 on them.

If you have any complete booklets you'd like to exchange, let me know. I can post you complete booklets of 20 stamps in exchange for the booklets you have plus an SASE so you're not out the postage.

If you'd like to exchange, drop me an email. TNX!
73 and good dx,
Bill Plum

Mint postage stamps of foreign countries can be purchased from Bill Plum's Airmail Postage and DX Supplies, 12 Glenn Road, Flemington, NJ 08822 USA.

Include a self-addressed-envelope for his current price list or request a price list via email at plumdx@msn.com . The prices represent Airmail rate to North America. Prices are subject to change without notice. No mimimum order via check, money order or credit card, but credit card orders under $ 15.00 will incur a $ 2.00 extra charge. Visa, MC, AMEX are accepted. Please include billing and shipping address for AMEX.

Don't forget the DX supplies include European Airmail envelopes (European Air Return and European Air Mailer). These envelopes are perfectly acceptable for mailing to ALL parts of the world, not just to Europe. Their size insures you that a 4"x6" DX QLSs will not come back to you folded which could happen if you used small U.S. sized airmail envelopes. Bill's European Air Return fits into a European Air Mailer without folding. These two envelopes and up to 5 QSL cards weigh less than one ounce. The European Air Return and 2 QSLs weigh less than 10 grams. All envelopes are sealed in plastic for protection. Envelopes are packed 100 per size per package. The 5-/50 Combo comes in one package.

I have used Bill's service for years and find his prices affordable and dependable. All stamps are enclosed within a glassine envelope, so no worries of stamps sticking to the letter, and you can enclose the stamps as is in the letter to the station.

Now you're set! Recheck this blog regularly for Bill's monthly specials!
Gayle Van Horn

Shortwave Blog "Bytes"

All times UTC // parallel frequency

AWR annual DX Contest
And remember, the month of June is our DX contest month, and this year, we are focusing on "Silent Shortwave Stations". We invite you to list your five best QSLs
from silent shortwave stations, together with a photocopy of each, and a paragraph about
each. Then, send us also three reception reports on AWR transmissions, and where possible,three radio cards. Full details again in Wavescan next week. (American DX Report/Nws 14 via Adrian Peterson)

China's new registrations of former CHN stations
Former CHN mainland bc stations in 7100-7200 kHz range.
6040 2150-1700 43NE,44NW HUH 50 263 141 Mongolian x7210
7205 1227-1800 42N URU 50 230 145 Uighur x7195
7205 2330-0257 42N URU 50 230 145 Uighur x7195
7255 1000-1805 43SW LHA 100 85 141 Tibetan x7125
7255 2050-0200 43SW LHA 100 85 141 Tibetan x7125
7260 0257-1205 42N URU 100 0 145 Chinese x7155
7295 0330-0530 42N URU 50 247 145 Kirghiz x7120
7295 1030-1230 42N URU 50 247 145 Kirghiz x7120
7420 2150-1700 43N HUH 50 263 141 Chinese x7165
7450 0900-1800 43SW LHA 100 85 141 Chinese x7170
7450 2000-0300 43SW LHA 100 85 141 Chinese x7170
(May 19/BC-DX 914, wb, Germany)

Congo ends relays programming from RFI
According to BBC Monitoring, the radio stations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are no longer permitted to relay the programming from Radio France International. This prohibition also includes Radio Candip, which operates with 1 kW on 5066 kHz and it is one of the few shortwave stations on the air in the Congo.
(American DX Report/NWS 14 via Adrian Peterson)

Canada's CSIC long awaited QSL
Brandon Jordan in Memphis Tennessee has received a QSL card after a long, long wait.
In June 1993, Brandon sent a reception report to station CSIC in Canada regarding transmissions on 7425 and 7413 kHz, and he received the QSLs as form letters just recently, a wait of fifteen years and five months.
(American DX Report/Nws 14 via Adrian Peterson)

Ecuador's HCJB decides to downsize ministry
Due to the construction of a new airport and due to financial considerations, HCJB's shortwave ministry has been downsizing. This process is now in its final phase. By April 1, 2010, all transmitters at the Pifo transmission site will be shut down. They will maintain 49 metre broadcasts to reach the Andean area and the headwaters of the Amazon River Basin. This would be done from their high-power AM site. The number of antennas at Pifo has declined from a total of 31 to 8 at the present time. The site will eventually be closed entirely. At its peak, it had 12 transmitters and 31 antennas.

They have three 100 kW HC-100 transmitters. One will stay in Ecuador for regional coverage as previously mentioned, but the other two will be refurbished and moved to other locations.

All other transmitters will be dismantled and scrapped. One of these is a 50 kW unit.
(NASB/WDXC-UK Contact)

Germany/ Switzerland - Radio Reveils Paroles de Vie
via Nauen was heard April 30 on 15675 at 1840 in French with talk and pop music.
Station identification and off at 1845.
(Jorge Freitas, Brasil/via WDXC-UK Contact)

This is now their only shortwave broadcast, Tuesdays and Thursdays 1830-1845. Their address is Chapons-des-Pres 4, 2022 Bevaix (NE), Switzerland.
(Mike Barraclough-UK, WDXC-UK Contact May 27/BC-DX #914, wb, Germany)

Monaco maritime station 3AC on the air
According to a report from Jari Savolainan in Finland, the maritime communication station 3AC in Monte Carlo is on the air with a bulletin of news from a local FM station twice daily. These news bulletins, three minutes in duration, can be heard at 0700 and 1100 UTC in the upper side band mode on four shortwave channels, 4368 8728 13146 and 17260 kHz.In times past, Monaco Radio 3AC has issued a QSL card as verification of reception reports
(American DX Report/NWS 14 via Adrian Peterson)

Myanmar keeps in touch with Christian radio
Radio Veritas Asia keeps the people of Asia in touch with the rest of the world. The Catholic radio service, based in the Philippines, also serves Kayin Christians in Burma, most of whom are Evangelicals and other Protestants.

Hong Kong youths log onto the Internet, children in Tokyo use their mobile phones and many Delhi kids have scores of cable TV channels to entertain them. But for the Kayin, or Karen, ethnic people in Myanmar, a cheap US$10 radio is their "hi-tech" link to communications and entertainment. Here you'll find many Kayin with "Made in China" radios tuned to Radio Veritas Asia's (RVA) Kayin service.

The RVA, based in Quezon City north of Manila and sponsored by the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences, has provided a Kayin-language service for over 25 years. Its Catholic programs have become a source of spiritual strength and information to thousands of Kayin Christians, most of whom are Protestant.

The programs include reflections on the Bible, meditations, family and youth issues, question and answer sessions on spirituality, sessions on the lives of the saints, local news and Kayin culture. Anthony Htun Mya, 45, from Hkaungpu-Bawsi in Hpa-pun Township, Kayin State, who was on a visit to Yangon, is one such listener. He is a regular follower of Radio Veritas' shortwave early morning and evening services.

In his village, the programs are virtually the only window to the outside world, he said. There, all the Catholic and Baptist villagers regularly tune in to the service. (from SperoForum)
(Arnaldo Slaen, Buenos Aires, Argentina)

NASB meeting focuses on DRM
The annual meeting of DRM USA, Digital Radio Mondiale and NASB, the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters USA took place in Nashville Tennessee on May 7 and 8. In a report regarding the recent DRM digital tests from the FEBC station on Saipan, KFBS, John Stanley stated that two Continental transmitters at 100 kW were modified for the occasion with an exciter from HCJB in Indiana. Two channels were in use, 11650 kHz and 11580 kHz. It was stated that reception in Japan was flawless, and some listeners in Europe and Russia also heard the programming.

In a call to the manufacturers of radio receivers, Adil Mina from Continental Electronics in Texas stated that the greatest need at the present time is for a mass produced low cost digital receiver for use in countries like India for example, where plans are underway for the conversion of the home service shortwave stations to the digital mode.
(American DX Report/NWS 14 via Adrian Peterson)

Papua New Guinea band scan
band scan of PNG stations conducted during two week period:
3260 Papua New Guinea Radio Madang, Madang 0910; 1030
3290 Papua New Guinea Radio Central, Boroko 0910; 1025
3315 Papua New Guinea Radio Manus, Lorengau 0910; 1030
3325 Papua New Guinea Radio Buka, Kuba 0910; 1035
3335 Papua New Guinea Radio East Sepik, Wewak 0910; 1030; 0915
3385 Papua New Guinea Radio East New Britain Rabaul 1000, 1050
(Bob Wilkner,FL/DXplorer/BC-DX #914, wb, Germany)

Russian shortwave monitoring
7270 (Armenia) International Russian Radio, Yerevan Gavar, 01:50-01:55, escuchada el 25 de mayo en ruso a locutor con comentarios sobre Ucrania, segmento musical, SINPO 45544. (Jose Miguel Moreno, Spain/RUS-DX #190/BC-DX #914, wb, Germany)

7285 Moldova) Voice of Rusia, Kishinev-Grigoriopol, 01:58-02:02, escuchada el 25 de mayo en ruso a locutor en espacio DX, escucho fragmento de Radio Biafra, comentarios de la emisora, titulares de noticias, SINPO 44444
(Jose Miguel Moreno, Spain/RUS-DX #190/BC-DX #914, wb, Germany)

Schedule changes from VT Communications
South Africa/ UAE/ Uzbekistan
Effective: 01 June 2009
Somali Interactive Radio Instruction Program(x Mustaqbal) to East Africa in Somali
0545-0615 on 15200 DHA 250 kW / 225 deg, cancelled
0620-0650 on 15200 DHA 250 kW / 225 deg, cancelled

Voice of Free Radio to North Korea in Korean:
1600-1700 on 7520 TAC 100 kW / 060 deg, x1600-1630

RTE Radio One to South Africa in English:
1930-2030 new freq 6225 MEY 100 kW / non-dir, x6220
(R BULGARIA DX MIX News, Ivo Ivanov, via wwdxc BC-DX TopNews June 2/DX Mix News #575)

Radio Broadcasting in New Guinea

The Port Moresby Story - VIG & VHSU
In recent time, we have begun a series of progressive topics here in Wavescan on the story of radio broadcasting on the island of New Guinea. Thus far, we have shared with you the early origins back in the era of the old spark wireless stations; and on this occasion, we take a look at the New Guinea story, in Port Moresby itself.
You will remember from the previous program on this topic that the first wireless station located at Port Moresby in the Papua section of New Guinea was a temporary facility erected on Paga Hill in March 1911. A permanent spark wireless station was erected on the edge of Port Moresby two years later. This permanent 5 kW electrical transmitter was constructed from equipment provided by Father Shaw and his wireless factory on the edge of Sydney in Australia.
Wireless station VIG in Port Moresby was installed for the purpose of Morse Code communication with shipping in the waters nearby to Port Moresby, for contact with Sydney with commercial traffic and government messages, and for inland communications throughout the eastern half of the island of New Guinea. The long distance communications with Australia were often handled via intermediate stations that relayed the Morse Code messages on to the next nearest wireless station. These intermediate relay stations were located at Cooktown and Townsville, on the Pacific coast in the northern areas of the state of Queensland.
In October 1915, all wireless stations throughout the Commonwealth of Australia and all neighboring islands were placed under the control of the Australian navy, which formed part of the British navy at the time. It might be added that Port Moresby was a quite small town during this era, and it was described as having the character of a small outback town in Queensland.
Station VIG in Port Moresby was taken over by the Australian government soon after the end of World War 1, though it was transferred back to the original owners, AWA in 1922.
It was around the year 1925 that the spark wireless stations in coastal areas of Australia and nearby islands were modernized with the installation of electronic transmitters utilizing the recently introduced valves, or tubes, made in England and the United States. The Port Moresby station, along with all of the others in the maritime service throughout the South Pacific, was upgrade with the latest available electronic equipment.
In March 1931, AWA installed a high speed telegraph centre in Main Street, Port Moresby which keyed a new out-of-town facility that contained a 5 kW transmitter and a three mast antenna system beamed on Sydney.
With the progress of the Pacific Conflict, the civilian population in the city of Port Moresby was evacuated to Australia in December 1941, and the main operating facility for the radio station was transferred into Wonga Cottage, at a place called Five Mile, which was of course, 5 miles out of town. Wonga Cottage was in earlier times a quite famous vacation home for a wealthy family living in New Guinea.
That was the story of the AWA communication station VIG, from its earliest installation up to the early 1940s.
However, it so happened that AWA established another radio communication station in the province of Papua during this same era. It was an air radio facility for communication with aircraft and it was operated by AWA on behalf of the government Post & Telegraph Department.
Initially this station was on the air under the callsign VHPM, with the letters VH indicating an Australian aircraft facility and the letters PM obviously indicating Port Moresby. Following the initial series of test transmissions, the callsign was changed to VHSU.
Communication station VHPM/VHSU was heard in Australia, New Zealand and the United States when it was on the air with aircraft communications and also when it was in contact with a similar airways station located at the regional air strip near Salamaua in New Guinea. It was noted in Australia with traffic for various communication stations in New Guinea and Australia, and the messages were read very slowly, and sometimes specific words were spelled out.
Airways station VHPM/VHSU was active from September 1938 to around June 1940. There are no known QSLs from this station.
During this era around the middle of last century, the main AWA shortwave station at Port Moresby, station VIG, was often heard in the same three countries, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. On some occasions, it was noted with communication traffic, and on other occasions it was heard with program broadcasting.
Somewhat independent from the AWA shortwave facility was a new mediumwave station which was on the air under the Australian callsign 4PM, and shortwave station VIG sometimes carried a relay from this mediumwave counterpart for the benefit of distant listeners. Every now-and-again, an old QSL card from the AWA station VIG turns up, though these days they are quite rare.
OK, then on the next occasion in this series of special features on radio broadcasting in New Guinea, we will tell the story of the mediumwave station 4PM and its shortwave relay counterpart VIG.
NWS 14 via Adrian Peterson)

World Harvest Radio summer A09 schedule update

Palau/ USA - Effective 01 June 2009

All times UTC

WHRI Angel 1
0100-0200 on 5850 Mon-Fri
0100-0200 on 7315 Sat/Sun
0200-0500 on 7315
0500-1100 on 11565
1100-1400 on 7315
1400-1600 on 15195
1600-1700 on 17520
1700-1800 on 17520 Sun-Fri
1700-1800 on 9495 Sat
1800-1900 on 17520
1900-2000 on 15665 Mon-Thu Demitse Tewahedo in Amharic 1900-2000 Mon
1900-2000 on 17520 Fri-Sun Voice of Biafra International in Igbo Fri
2000-2100 on 7520 Mon-Fri
2000-2100 on 15665 Sat
2000-2100 on 9495 Sun
2100-2300 on 11885
2300-0100 on 7315

WHRI Angel 2
0000-0400 on 7385
0400-0500 on 5850 Sun-Fri
0400-0500 on 9825 Sat
0500-0600 on 7390 Mon-Sat
0500-0600 on 7365 Sun
0600-0700 on 7365
0700-0800 on 7390
0800-0900 on 11565
0900-1000 on 9425 Sun-Fri
0900-1000 on 7465 Sat
1000-1200 on 9425 Deutsche Welle in German
1200-1300 on 9410 BBC in Spanish Mon-Fri
1300-1600 on 9840 Sat/Sun
1600-1700 on 9840
1700-1800 on 9840 Sun-Fri
1700-1800 on 17520 Sat
1800-2000 on 9840
2000-2100 on 15665
2100-2200 on 15665 Mon-Sat
2100-2200 on 9690 Sun
2200-2300 on 11885 Sat/Sun
2200-2400 on 17820 Deutsche Welle in German Mon-Fri
2300-2400 on 9615 Sat/Sun

T8WH Angel 3
0700-1500 on 9930 Sound of Hope R.in Chinese 1200-1500 Mon-Fri
1500-1800 on 9905 Radio Free Asia in Chinese
1800-2200 on 9905 Radio Free Asia in Chinese 1900-2200

T8WH Angel 4
0100-0300 on 15710
0300-1200 on 15700
1200-1300 on 12130 Hoa-Mai Radio in Vietnamese 1200-1230 Tue/Thu/Sat
1300-1400 on 11685 Democratic Voice of Burma in Burmese
1400-2300 on 9965 Nippon no Kaze in Japanese 1530-1600
2300-0100 on 15550 Suaab Xaa Moo Zoo in Hmong 2330-2400

WHRA Angel 5
0000-0500 on 7385
0500-0700 on 7390
0700-1100 on 11565
1100-1300 on 7315
1300-1600 on 15195 Sat/Sun
1600-1900 on 17520
1900-2000 on 9840 Demitse Tewahedo in Amharic 1900-2000 Mon
2000-2100 on 15665
2100-2300 on 11885
2300-2400 on 9615

WHRI Angel 6
0700-1300 on 7385
1300-1400 on 11785 Sat/Sun, Hmong Lao Radio in Lao Sat/Sun
1400-1500 on 11785 Sat/Sun, Hmong World Christian Radio in Lao 1400-1430 Sat
1500-1600 on 11785 Sat/Sun
1600-2300 on 11785
2300-0700 on 5875

DXing With Cumbre program

WHRI Angel 1
0130-0200 on 7315 Sat/Sun
0330-0400 on 7315 Sun/Mon
0430-0500 on 7315 Mon-Fri?

WHRI Angel 2
0200-0230 on 7385 Sun/Mon

KWHR Angel 4
1400-1430 on 9965 Sat/Sun
1930-2000 on 9965 Mon-Sun?

WHRA Angel 5
0130-0200 on 7385 Sun
0330-0400 on 7385 Sun/Mon
0430-0500 on 7385 Mon-Fri?

WHRI Angel 6
1000-1030 on 7385 Sun
1430-1500 on 11785 Sun
1530-1600 on 11785 Sat/Sun
1830-1900 on 11785 Sat
(R BULGARIA DX MIX News, Ivo Ivanov, via wwdxc BC-DX TopNews June 2/DX Mix News # 575)

WEWN summer A09 schedule update

USA, WEWN Global Catholic Radio

All times UTC

English
0000-0900 on 11520 EWN 250 kW / 085 deg to WeAf
0900-1200 on 11640 EWN 250 kW / 355 deg to SEAs
1200-1500 on 11530 EWN 250 kW / 355 deg to SEAs
1500-1700 on 15610 EWN 250 kW / 040 deg to WeEu
1700-2000 on 15610 EWN 250 kW / 040 deg to NoAm
2000-2400 on 15610 EWN 250 kW / 040 deg to N/ME

Spanish
0100-1100 on 11870 EWN 250 kW / 155 deg to SoAm
1100-1500 on 12050 EWN 250 kW / 155 deg to SoAm
1500-1700 on 11520 EWN 250 kW / 155 deg to SoAm
1700-0100 on 17510 EWN 250 kW / 155 deg to SoAm

Spanish
0500-1300 on 7555 EWN 250 kW / 220 deg to CeAm
1300-2200 on 11550 EWN 250 kW / 220 deg to CeAm
2200-0500 on 5810 EWN 250 kW / 220 deg to CeAm
(R BULGARIA DX MIX News, Ivo Ivanov, via wwdxc BC-DX TopNews June 2/DX Mix News # 575)

Radio Havana Cuba, DXers Unlimited

Radio Havana Cuba, DXers Unlimited weekend edition May 30-31, 2009

By Arnie Coro CO2KK

Hi amigos radioaficionados around the world, and the six space travelers now orbiting in space !

I am Arnie Coro radio amateur CO2KK welcoming you to my twice weekly radio hobby program that really tries to cover the more than 85 ways you and I enjoy our wonderful hobby, from participating in an exhausting whole weekend worldwide amateur radio contest like the one taking place right now, to relaxing at a the sandy beach of a tropical tourist resort listening to a far away AM broadcast band station that is heard on your little portable radio with a nice and clear signal thanks to that interesting propagation effect known among experts as sea gain...

Sure, this hobby is always challenging, and when you think that already you have gone through all the possible aspects of it, then someone comes out with a radically new antenna, a new digital communications mode using computers or suddenly finds out that there is still a lot of room for experimenting at the millimeter wavelengths...

Si amigos, yes my friends, oui mes amis in Canada and the French speaking Caribbean that listen to this program, radio is simply fascinating...

Take for example this weekend's CQ Radio Amateur magazine WPX CW contest, when thousands of amateur radio stations around the world are on the air to try to work as many new prefixes as possible...According to my own on the air on 40 meters, so far the WPX contest this weekend was quite a challenge to the participants due to the extremely low solar activity that has prevailed for the past week.

From the very beginning on Satuday at 00 UTC when the contest started, that was Friday evening for us here in the Americas, it was clear that the bands above 14 megaHertz or 20 meters would offer participants very few chances of working many stations, and as a matter of fact, fifteen and ten meters should remain totally closed for F2 mode propagation for most of the time.

So far those really rare goodies picked up on the ham bands, the really hard to work prefixes have shown up on 40 meters, because working on 160 and 80 meters has had to deal with the extremely high QRN that is atmospheric noise levels .

Other maybe not so rare, but nevertheless interesting stations heard during the weekend WPX ham radio CW contest showed up during a short lived opening on 15 meters Saturday morning my local time, when I was giving the finishing touches to the script of this program.

I also heard several South American stations on 10 meters too , proving once again the well known " ham radio contest effect ", that brings in DX stations on an otherwise dead band...

And new prefixes continue to be assigned to amateur stations in countries with a deep rooted tradition in promoting our hobby; that is the case of the prefix 5P7 , that I had never heard before... it took some time to find out that it was a station from Denmark...

And before going over to the next item, once again the world heritage site of the Ecuadorean GALAPAGOS ISLANDS was on the air during an amateur radio contest.

The HC8 prefix would be easy to work for radio amateurs in North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean during the Sunday morning local time slot.

More radio hobby related information follows as Dxers Unlimited's mid
week edition continues...

.........

This is Radio Havana Cuba , the name of the show is Dxers Unlimited, and here is our next item in today's weekend edition of the program... More about compact antennas for HF and some interesting antenna modeling done, not using computers but in real life, in actual practice, but by building scale models of some antennas... Yes you heard it right a one fifth or one tenth scale model of HF antennas provides a lot of practical information and those scale models have the advantage that they are easy to reproduce and modify.

For example , a working model for the 6 meters or 50 megaHertz meters amateur band of the electromagnetic ground plane antenna system, proved that using a proper ground system, the efficiency of the EMGP vertical antenna will match the radiation efficiency achieved by a full size quarter wave vertical to within a very small percentage.

As a matter of fact, very carefully done field intensity comparative measurements between a full size quarter wave 6 meters band vertical placed at the center of a metal plate that has a diameter of three meters, and an EMGP antenna cut for the same 50.3 megaHertz center frequency proved to be almost exactly the same...

A very interesting finding if you take into consideration that the EMGP antenna's height above the ground plane is just 1/12 of a wavelength, that for the 50 megaHertz or for the 6 meters band it's 24 centimeters or just about nine and a half inches...

Now please compare this antenna height with the 55 inches or about one point fourmeters required by the full size quarter wave or 90 electrical degrees high antenna system for operating at the low end of the six meters ham band.

For six meters band operation of local links , this extremely EMGP low profile antenna will be an excellent choice to be used when extremely strong winds are expected, like when a hurricane is approaching.

An EMGP or electromagnetic ground plane antenna for the 40 metersamateur band, will be only about three and a half meters high above the ground plane, but I must clarify to my listeners that it would not be a very good emergency antenna because it will not have enough high vertical angle radiation , something that is essential for short range Near Vertical Incidence Skywave propagation, as required for short range communications within an affected area.

Nevertheless, modeling the EMGP as a "real life" antenna on 6 meters proved to be a very interesting and rewarding experience, and something that was done in just a few hours of my weekend spare time...

If you don't have enough space where to install a short wave antenna system, don't overlook the possibility of homebrewing an EMGP antenna, that when properly made, will provide reasonable results on the band for which it is cut on transmit, and good receiving on the next lower and higher adjacent bands.

If you want to know more about the EMGP , the Electro Magnetic Ground Plane antenna, send me an e-mail to inforhc@enet.cu , and I will reply with the EMGP Antenna Design Package, with detailed instructions on how to homebrew these antennas for the amateur bands between 80 and 10 meters meters...

......

Si amigos, yes... ASK ARNIE continues to be at the top of your preferences, according to the e-mail messages, letters and actual on the air two way amateur radio contacts... here is ASK ARNIE today... answering a question sent by listeners Rosie in Alberta, Canada,a listener from the USA, Pedro in California and Ian , who tells me that he listens to our 11760 kiloHertz transmitter quite often at his Southern England QTH.

I also received a report and the same question from New Zealand where our 11760 kiloHertz 100 kiloWatts to a 6 dB gain omnidirectioanal antenna deliver a nice signal too, with amazing good quality as amigo Brian tells me in his e-mail.

Well Rosie, Pedro,Ian and Brian want to know more about the recently advertised and much prometed Spiral end loaded antennas that I mentioned here at Dxers Unlimited, and in the case of Ian, who happens to be a very enthusiastic radio amateur operator, he wants me to telll him the difference between the Petlowany and Tak antennas, if there is any difference at all...

Well amigos, the spiral end loaded antennas are really nothing new at all... I remember reading about spiral loaded antennas for the very low frequencies a long time ago, in an article that presented an extensive review of several types of top loaded antennas for operation on very low and extremely low frequencies, using huge top hats made by spiraling a lot of wire .

Then many years ago , some time after reading that article, I went to Cardenas , a city of Matanzas province near Varadero beach. Cardenas has a very nice seaport , where a coastal radio station using the callsign CLC, operated on the now no longer used 600 meters or 500 kiloHertz marine band was installed.

To my surprise the vertical antenna located an an excellent salt marsh swampy area on one side of the bay, had a rather large sized top hat to provide additional loading to the about 70 meters high tower, that was physically too short to resonate efficiently on the 460 to 512 kiloHertz band where it had to operate.

This was just a capacity hat made of spokes and wires, and not a spiral top loading of the tower.

Several months later I had the nice opportunity of talking to the designer of that low frequency band antenna system, and he told me that due to the complexity of the spiral loading configuration, he had opted for the much simpler capacity hat, but he added that a spiral loading system proved to be much more efficient when he was doing "the numbers", that meaning when he was calculating the new antenna for the marine communications site.

I asked him about the size of the projected spiral loading device and he said that even when made with the same diameter as the capacity hat, the spiral was much more efficient and provide much better loading of the structure, something that is essential on those very short antennas for the long waves.

Then, he told me about an experiment that ran under his supervision, when two engineering students that were writing their thesis , made a 10 megaHertz scale model of the 500 kiloHertz antenna system... in other words a one twentieth scale ratio.

The students, the designer said, had much more time to play with the antenna's top loading, and they found out that winding a one quarter wave of wire into a spiral of enough diameter , the antenna's resonant frequency went down dramatically while retaining a rather high radiation efficiency.

But again, he added, the main problem was not of an electrical nature, but one related to the mechanical complexity of keeping the spiral wound loading device in place at the top of a tower when heavy winds are blowing.

In the case of both the Petlowany and the Tak spiral loaded antennas, because they are both dipoles used in a horizontal configuration , keeping the end loading spirals in good shape is not as complicated as with the high towers...So, amigos, now you know a bit more about spiral loading of antennas, and why the Petlowany and the Tak antennas are almost identical !!!

.....

Now ready to copy, as the program is coming to an end, and Arnie Coro's Dxers Unlimited's HF plus low band VHF propagation update and forecast will now go on the air... Solar activity was at extremely low levels, with ZERO sunspot count and the solar flux at 69 units and even lower below...

So, the daytime maximum useable frequency continues to be only barely above 20 megaHertz for short periods, and staying even below 15 megaHertz on some circuits ...

The chances for Sporadic E propagation in our hemisphere is now approaching a maximum for the year, as we enter the month of June...

By the way. there is great expectation for the upcoming ARRL June VHF QSO Party Contest, because if the very low solar activity continues , we may see some really big sporadic E events happening.

Hope to have you all listening to the midweek edition of the program that will be on the air Tuesday and Wednesday UTC days amigos, and don't forget to take a little of your valuable time to send your signal reports, QSL card requests and radio hobby related questions directly to inforhc at enet dot.cu, again, inforhc at enet dot cu or VIA AIR MAIL to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba.

Australian DX Report expands media coverage

I thought you'd like to know that the popular weekly Australian DX Report Internet audio news magazine about shortwave broadcasting is also available to your mobile telephone, delivered as a Windows Mobile Podcast, and compatible with your SmartPhone or Pocket Personal Computer!

The service is offered, free, by various providers, one of which is the Hubdog Canadian-based Podcast delivery company, which means that you are no longer limited to accessing the episodes from a fixed PC. Play the episodes on the road at your leisure!

To set up your Windows Mobile Podcast, go to the Icon "Windows Mobile Podcast" on the Australian Internet Radio Magazine website, at http://airm.edxp.org and locate the Icon "Windows Mobile Podcast."

Click, and you will be taken to a Hubdog screen which links directly to the Australian DX Report Podcast and you can then register (free) with Hubdog, where you will be asked to submit some personal details and obtain a password for using the service with your mobile phone device.

You will need Windows Mobile Media Player installed on your mobile device (Windows Mobile Version 5.0), and access to the internet via Active Sync, Wi-Fi, or a Cellular Data line (GSM, CDMA, etc)

Several people are already linking to the Australian DX Report Podcasts via Humdog and they think it is a very useful way to receive the episodes!

Keep in mind that the episodes are around 15 mins, and consume about 3 MB of
bandwidth, which you would need to consider if using a mobile telephone on a tarrif limited plan.

Regards from Melbourne!

Bob Padula

RTÉ on the brink of going bankrupt

The Irish Independent reports that Ireland’s public broadcaster RTÉ is losing €1m a week and will not be able to pay staff by October unless a programme of salary cuts and redundancies is implemented in the coming weeks. The newspaper says the crisis comes amid growing anger among staff at the level of pay and bonuses paid to the director-general and senior management over the past number of years.
The bankruptcy warning has come from management at the broadcaster, and the director-general Cathal Goan has cautioned that up to 300 jobs are now under threat.
(R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)
Full story at:
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/rte-on-the-brink-of-going-bankrupt-1756637.html