BABYL OPTIONS: Version: 5 Labels: Note: This is the header of an rmail file. Note: If you are seeing it in rmail, Note: it means the file has no messages in it.  0, unseen,, *** EOOH *** From: xberri@quark2.aero.org (Jason E. Berri) Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave Subject: SCDX 2142 Date: 2 Nov 91 19:38:00 GMT Organization: The Aerospace Corporation News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: MediaScan :: :: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS :: :: from Radio Sweden :: :: Number 2142--Oct. 15, 1991 :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio Sweden. This week's bulletin was written by George Wood. Packet Radio BID SCDX2142 All times UTC unless otherwise noted. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- TELECOM 91: The International Telecommunications Union is holding the Telecom 91 exhibition in Geneva. The world's broadcast and telecommunications companies are particpating in what has been called the industry's Olympics. Among the participants is the European DX Council, encouraging the shortwave listening hobby. Swedish Telecom took advantage of the event to announce the signing of agreements to introduce the Nordic NMT cellular telephone system to Estonia and Latvia. Swedish Telecom also broadcast a press conference to all of Europe over Nordic Channel on the Eutelsat 2-F2 satellite, to announce a rate restructuring. The latest developments in high definition television were also in focus during Telecom 91. A European Community supported project, Eureka 95, is developing a common standard to HDTV in Europe, using a system called HD-MAC that is a development of the D2-MAC system that the European Community wants to impose on future satellite broadcasting. The first regular Eureka high defination broadcasts in Europe are to start in 1995. However, many European broadcasters oppose HD-MAC, saying it will be obsolete when it is introduced. They would like a truly digital system. (The "A" in MAC stands for "analogue", so the system is not completely digital.) We have reports from Telecom in the English edition of Sweden Calling DXers this week and next week. SWEDEN: COMMERCIAL RADIO--Stockholm has its first over the air commercial radio station, an illegal operation on a legal transmitter. We've reported before about Radio Nova, a community radio station here that began broadcasting commercials, despite the law against radio advertising. Recently the head of Radio Nova was given a small fine for breaking the law. Encouraged by the slight sentence, Stockholm's Conservative Student organization has begun broadcasting commercials in their community radio programs, Studio West FM, which are all night long on weekends. Earlier, the same organization tried commercial broadcasting from a pirate transmitter. This time, they're taking advantage of the ambiquity about community radio, and using the community radio transmitter on 88.9 MHz. Several more community radio groups plan to start broadcasting commercials. ("Dagens Nyheter") RADIO NORD--Sweden's first commercial ever radio station, the offshore pirate Radio Nord, has also returned to the airwaves, via satellite. Radio Nord is on the air Saturdays between 09:00 and 11:00 hrs UTC in Intelsat 5-F12 at one degree West, using the TV4 transponder, and the audio subcarrier on 7.74 MHz. The rest of the time, this subcarrier is used by Radio Northsea International. (Jan Johansson) COMMERCIAL TELEVISION--On Wednesday the British government will announce who will get the franchises for the commercial ITV stations around the country. The channels are basically being auctioned off to the highest bidder, and some companies that have had licenses for 30 years are expected to lose. The new Swedish government will reportedly decide on October 24th which of the two remaining applicants will receive the licence this country's first over the air commercial TV broadcaster. The contest is between Sweden's two largest satellite broadcasters, TV3 and TV4. ("Svenska Dagbladet") NORDIC CHANNEL--Sweden's smallest satellite-TV broadcaster, Nordic Channel, is under new ownership, and has cut back on its schedule. According to reports, Nordic Channel is also considering moving to another satellite, from their current home on Eutelsat 2-F1. Since they want to cut costs, that means that they probably aren't planning on moving to Astra. One possiblity is the Swedish direct broadcast satellite Tele-X. SATELLITE TELEVISION/EUROPE: ASTRA--BSB has started a new service called the Comedy Channel, using the Astra transponder 11.597 GHz. The service is scambled but is free to subscribers to Sky Movies Plus or the Movie Channel. EuroSport has returned to its former Astra transponder at 11.258 GHz. The transponder at 11.538 GHz will be used in parallel until the end of the month. (Astra) SCRAMBLING--The Discovery Channel, which uses Intelsat at 27.5 degrees West, has announced plans to encrypt its signals within 12 months. There are also rumors that British Sky Broadcasting plans to encrypt Sky One, a popular service on Astra. (Sat News) BRITAIN--There are two new British satellite channels on the way, Classic TV, which will feature classic films, and UK Today, a news and current affairs channel. Both will be relayed on Intelsat 6-F4 at 27.5 degrees West. (Jan Johansson, Sweden) INTELSAT--Now that Intelsat 6-F5 is in orbit, Intelsat plans to shift around some of its satellites over Europe. Some channels are likely to get a bit stronger. But the big news is that the new Intelsat K is due to launched at the beginning of next year. It will be placed at 21.5 degrees West with 16 medium-powered Ku-band signals. Monitors should be able to receive the new satellite with Astra sized dishes. (Sat News) The first customers for Intelsat-K are the international carrier Brightstar, based in London, and a partnership involving Italy's RAI. Both will each lease two transponders. The RAI group will use the satellite to beam TV programming to houeholds in the Americas, beginning on the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Caribbean on October 12th, 1992. Brightstar will beam daily news and other programs to small dish owners. ("Wall Street Journal") YUGOSLAVIA--Satellite television programs from Croatia have moved to a new transponder at 11.508 GHz, on the Eutelsat 1-F5 satellite. Radio Zagreb is using the audio subcarrier at 7.02 MHz. Signals from Yugoslavian Television are being relayed to the United States on the PanAmSat satellite o at 45 degrees West. (Sat News) MIDDLE EAST--There are now two Israeli TV channels on Intelsat 5-F12 at 1 degree West. These are on 11.075 and 11.577 GHz. (Michael Gurdus, Israel, via "In Orbit") Turkey's Magic Box is broadcasting a second channel called Mega 10 on Eutelsat 2-F2, on 10.986 GHz. (Wolfgang Thiel, via InterNet News) SATELLITE TELEVISION/ASIA: BBC--BBC World Service Television started its service to Asia over the Asiasat satellite Monday. Some commentators say they will be battling it out with the Cable News Network, which is to begin using Indonesia's Palapa satellite to reach Southeast Asia. SATELLITE RADIO: NORTH AMERICA--We reported last time about the Let's Talk Radio program on the Spacenet 3 satellite, transponder 21, with the audio subcarrier at 6.2 MHz. Now there's a new program on Let's Talk Radio, brought to you by the people behind the famous clandestine expert Havana Moon. "Signals" will be on the satellite Fridays and saturdays at 6:30 PM Eastern Time and Sundays at 11:00 AM Eastern time. It will also be carried on shortwave, on 7435 kHz on Sundays at 03:35 hrs UTC, which is Saturday night local time in North America. The Voice of America has switched from using the SCPC format, which is difficult to receive without expensive equipment. VOA signals are now found on the Spacenet 2 satellite, transponder 21, with audio subcarriers on 7.355, 7.425, 7.515, and 7.605 MHz. (Gary Bourgois, via InterNet News) SHORTWAVE: ESTONIA--Radio Estonia has introduced a DX program, on the first Monday every month in the 21:30 hrs transmission. The frequencies are 1035, 5925, and 9560 kHz. (BBC Monitoring) LITHUANIA--Radio Centras, a commercial station in Lithuania, has regular programs in English on the last Saturday every month on 9710 kHz. Radio Centras also says Radio Vilnius, the public station in Lithuania, is broadcasting now in English at 22:30 hrs on 666, 1557, 9675, and 9710 kHz, and at 23:00 hrs on 666, 11790, 15180, 17605, and 17690 kHz. Rainer says the higher frequencies of the second broadcast are from sites in the Soviet Far East. The prefix LY, followed by a third letter and one or two digits will be used as a call sign for all transmitters from Lithuanian territory. (Rainer Henrich, Switzerland, via InterNet News) USSR--A new Russian station called Radio Ala has gone on the air. Radio Moscow says this is a new independent music station, and lists the schedule as 07:30-16:00 hrs on 7400 kHz, 16:30-07:00 hrs on 5040, 07:00-12:00 hrs on 11925, 12:00-15:00 hrs on 11920 kHz, and 15:30-07:00 hrs on 6055 kHz. The transmitter on 7400 kHz is in St. Petersburg, the others in Kaliningrad. (BBC Monitoring) Russia's Radio is now using additional frequencies between 06:00 and 15:00 hrs: 7105, 7175, 9525, 9550, 11935, 12045, 15255, and 15365 kHz. There's a new station in the Ukraine called Radio Independence, broadcasting in Ukrainian between 16:00 and 18:00 hrs on 5980 and 11825 kHz. (BBC Monitoring) Radio Tashkent is on the air in English at 12:00-13:00 hrs on a new frequency of 15470 kHz, along with 17740, 9715, and 7325. (Asantha Sirimanne in "UADX Newsletter", Sri Lanka) YUGOSLAVIA--Here's the new Radio Yugoslavia schedule. English is being broadcast to North America at 02:30-03:15 hrs on 9555 and 11885 kHz, and at 12:30-13:00 hrs to North America on 17740 kHz, to Australia on 21605 kHz, and to South Asia on 17710 kHz. There's Engish at 19:30 hrs to Europe on 6100 kHz and to southern Africa on 15140 kHz, and at 22:00 hrs to Europe on 6100 and 9505 kHz. Radio Yugoslavia broadcasts in German to Europe at 17:30-18:15 hrs on 9620 kHz and at 20:30-21:00 hrs on 6100 kHz. Radio Yugoslavia broadcasts in Russian at 16:00-16:45 hrs on 6100 and 15175 kHz and at 19:00-19:30 hrs on 6005 and 7165 kHz. Croatian Radio has reported a new 24 hour war radio station, intended for the defence forces. It's on 107.5 MHz. (BBC Monitoring) NEPAL--Radio Nepal is on the air 00:15-17:15 hrs with a break every day except Saturday at 05:15-07:15. Frequencies are 5005 and 7165 kHz, although 7165 may soon make its usual winter move to 3230 kHz. (Kanwarjot Sandhu in "UADX Newsletter") UNOFFICIAL RADIO/KASHMIR--The Voice of Independent Kashmir has been heard in English between 17:10 and 17:15 hrs on 5000 and 5900 kHz. ("UADX Newsletter") COMPUTER CORNER: Radio Sweden's 60 page booklet "The DXers Guide to Computing" tells you just about everything you might want to know about using a computer in the radio listening hobby. It's available from us for USD 5, GBP 3, DM 8, SEK or FF 30, or 8 IRCs. But things change rapidly in the world of computers, and here is an update to the guide: COMPUTER BULLETIN BOARDS--There are many computer bulletin boards for the radio hobbyist, available to anyone with a computer, modem, and a communications program. A few weeks ago we mentioned the Nemesis BBS in the Swedish west coast city of Gothenburg. We made an error when we said the system was operated by the Swedish DX Federation. Actually, the federation was an active participant. Recently the Nemesis BBS went offline, while the Swedish DX Federation has started its own BBS here in Stockholm. The SWEDX BBS is open daily between 05:00 and 02:00 hrs UTC, at +468-653- 0180. It handles speeds up to 2400 baud, and parameters should be set to the standard 8-N-1. The SWEDX BBS is one of the first places where the Sweden Calling DXers bulletins are uploaded. It also carries the international Shortwave Echo, a conference of shortwave and scanner enthusiasts from around the world. Users can read conference messages and make comments at no more cost than the ordinary phone bill to Stockholm. This summer a new BBS for shortwave listeners started in the Netherlands. The ShortWave Board is online 24 hours a day at +31-4920-25889. It also handles speeds up to 2400 baud. There's also a new BBS for shortwave listeners in Florida, called the Shortwave Paradise BBS. It's open between 03:00 and 11:00 hrs UTC during the week and 24 hours weekends at +1-305-524-1035. SOFTWARE/WEATHER SATELLITES--Frode Weierud in Switzerland writes: Yesterday I saw a demonstration of an astounding piece of software for receiving and displaying Meteosat images on the IBM PC. The software is written by British Aerospace and is called DARTCOM (version 2.2a). It allows you to zoom, pan, add color from different palettes, and to store images to disk. It has a multitude of other options and one of them allows you to see the height of the clouds while you display the image. Other possiblities are 3D images and 16 frame animation. It is the best program of this type I have seen so far. Unfortunately, Frode doesn't know where DARTCOM is available and how much it costs. If anyone has more information, please let us know. PUBLICATIONS: MEDIUM WAVE MONITORING--The Tampere DX Club has published a neew edition of "Asia on Medium Waves, which lists Asian medium wave stations heard in Scandinavia from 1978 until July this year. This 36 page publication lists almost 1000 stations in frequency order. There are special lists of stations heard from Pakistan, India, Thailand, the Philippines, Korea, and Japan. It is available for 3 IRCs from: Tampere DX Club, Jorma Mntyl, Box 212, SF- 33101, Tampere, Finland. SATELLITES--For more information on satellite television, you can check out "In Orbit", which is page 270 on Super Channel's teletext (Text-TV) service. It's operated by the European Satellite User Group. For more information, you can write to them at: TESUG, Rio House, Ashford, TN23 2TT, England. Meanwhile, another excellent source, Satnews, is available free in the UK and Europe on various computer networks, such as FIDO, CompuLink, and in CompuServe's IBMEurope Forum. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sweden Calling DXers is the world's oldest radio program for shortwave listeners. Radio Sweden has presented this round-up of radio news, features, and interviews since 1948. The program is now broadcast on shortwave on the first and third Tuesday of each month. A special European edition is included on the other Tuesdays in the 19:30 hrs broadcast. Radio Sweden broadcasts in English at 19:30-20:30 hrs on medium wave 1179 kHz, as well as shortwave 6065, 9655, and 15270 kHz. The rest of the Radio Sweden English schedule is (half hour programs): To Europe: 21:30 hrs 1179 and 6065 kHz 23:30 hrs 1179 kHz To Asia/Pacific: 13:30 hrs 17740 and 21570 kHz 01:00 hrs 9765 kHz To North America: 15:30 hrs 17870 and 21500 kHz 01:00 hrs 9695 and 11705 kHz 02:00 hrs 9695 and 11705 kHz To Latin America: 23:30 hrs 9695 and 11705 kHz 15:30 hrs on 17875 and 21500 kHz 02:00 hrs on 9695 and 11705 kHz 03:30 hrs on 9695 and 11705 kHz Contributions can be sent to DX Editor George Wood by fax to +468-667-6283, from Internet, MCI Mail or CompuServe (to the CompuServe mailbox 70247,3516), through the FidoNet system to 2:201/697 or to SM0IIN at the packet radio BBS SM0ETV. Reports can also be sent to: Radio Sweden S-105 10 Stockholm Sweden Contributions should be NEWS about electronic media--from shortwave to satellites--and not loggings of information already available from sources such as the "World Radio TV Handbook". Clubs and DX publications may reprint material as long as Sweden Calling DXers and the original contributor are acknowledged, with the exception of items from BBC Monitoring, which are copyright. We welcome comments and suggestions about the electronic edition, Sweden Calling DXers, and our programs in general. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to this week's contributors, especially Kauto Huopio Good Listening! -- Jason Berri (SPEEDX USSR Editor) INTERNET: berri@aerospace.aero.org or berri@arecibo.aero.org [SPEEDX is an SWL club, send email to the above address for more information] [SCDX back issues are available via anonymous ftp from arecibo.aero.org]