From: xberri@quark2.aero.org (Jason E. Berri) Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave Subject: Media Network - 6-FEB-1992 Date: 22 Feb 92 20:24:00 GMT Reply-To: xberri@arecibo.aero.org Organization: The Aerospace Corporation News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41 I have started downloading the Media Network transcripts from Pinelands / ANARC and will post them and put them in my local archive as I have been doing with the SCDX bulletins for the last 6 months or so. Back issues are available via email from me (I had hoped to have some kind of mail-server up by now, but my boss has me doing real work (:-)). Thanks to William Kelsey for providing this service. -Jason -- R A D I O N E D E R L A N D W E R E L D O M R O E P (RADIO NETHERLANDS INTERNATIONAL) presents * M E D I A N E T W O R K * Radio Netherlands' Weekly Communications Review hosted by that international raconteur * J O N A T H A N M A R K S * THURSDAY, 6 February 1992 unofficial transcript from the Southwest Asian Broadcast (1450 UTC on 15150 kHz) Southern & East Africa Broadcast (1850 UTC on 21685 kHz) -=- BEGINNING OF SHOW -=- ,-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-, | RADIO NETHERLANDS: THE PUBLIC RADIO STATION YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY FOR! | '-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-' Announcer: Media Network, the weekly communications review, hosted by JONATHAN MARKS! JM: Hmmm, maybe there are stormy waters ahead for SW wireless! Find out in the next half hour of our weekly communications magazine. Welcome! -=- WINTER OLYMPICS SATELLITE BROADCASTS -=- JM: We start by responding to several callers to our AnswerLine, asking if there are any special satellite broadcasts from the Winter Olympics which are worth looking out for. Joining me is BART KUPERUS, of the _World Radio TV Handbook_, who has a condensed summary. BK: A few new services have been seen on the -- on various transponders on the new EUTELSAT, mainly Spanish services in the 11 gHz range. These Spanish services are, unfortunately, encrypted with the famous NAGRA- VISION(?) encryption system; you cannot hack that! So, that's very unfortunate, but the radio -- the audio subcarrier frequencies are not encrypted, so you can enjoy various Spanish radio stations, at least four of them. With regard to the new Winter Olympics, it's interesting to watch the EUTELSAT I F5 on 21.5 degrees east, which will certainly carry some material of the Winter Olympics. Unfortunately, it will be sound-in-synch(?), so you will have to have a decoder, a real expensive decoder, to be able to watch these pictures undisturbed. Furthermore, there will be some more transponders active on the various EUTELSAT II satellites on 13, 10, and 16 degrees east, and one transponder on the INTELSAT at 18.5 degrees west will be active with programming from the Winter Olympics. -=- SPANISH NATIONAL RADIO -=- JM: So, now we know. Talking of Spain, and back to wireless, we understand that the SW relay station for SPANISH FOREIGN RADIO, being built in Costa Rica, is nearing completion. No test frequencies have been released yet, though. In the meantime, RICHARD MEACHAM(?) of BBC's WORLD BROADCASTING INFORMATION publication, reports that Spain has short-term plans for yet another relay. RM: Yes, SPANISH NATIONAL RADIO, on Tuesday, the 4th of February, announced that RADIO EXTERIOR DE ESPANA, the Spanish external services, is going to have another relay station, for broadcast to eastern Europe. Sometime this month, the Director General of SPANISH RADIO AND TV is going to sign an agreement with ROMANIAN RADIO AND TV to maintain and use transmitters that were previously in use by the former RADIO INDEPENDENT SPAIN. JM: Aha! Now here's something to test you out! If you recall the following interval signal, you must have listening to SW prior to 1977. [interval signal, and an announcement [in Spanish] that RADIO INDEPENDENT SPAIN is speaking from the Pyrenaica(?) station on the 19, 25, and 26 meter bands all day, without interference.] JM: Spanish television made a documentary series a few years back which examined those broadcasts. RADIO INDEPENDENT SPAIN announced a PO box address in Prague, and confirmed reception reports with a QSL card depicting a painting by Picasso [Guernica?]. Replies were postmarked in Paris, but the actual transmissions came from various places. RM: It broadcast until 1977. It was the voice of the Spanish Communist Party, and used at least four transmitters located in Romania. The history of the station actually dates back to the Spanish Civil War, and from about 1941 it operated out of transmitters in the Soviet Union, and only after the Second World War did it start operating from transmitters in Romania. There's also a few transmissions from Hungary and, possibly, from Bulgaria, also. JM: But these weren't simply the transmitters, then, for what was called RADIO BUCHAREST, now RADIO ROMANIA INTERNATIONAL? RM: That we don't know. The odd thing about this agreement for the maintenance and use of the former RADIO INDEPENDENT SPAIN installation is the fact that it's now been closed for 15 years, and the transmitters there must be dating back to the Second World War, so they're pretty old. They also operated mostly way out of band, anyway. JM: I see, but no frequencies announced so far? RM: No frequencies announced, but the typical frequencies they used in 1977, when the station closed down after 36 years, were 7690, 10110, 12140, 14585, and 15505 kHz. ,-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-, | SOMEWHERE IN THE WORLD, | | SOMEONE WRITES TO MEDIA NETWORK EVERY HALF HOUR! | '-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-' -=- RADIO VILNIUS -=- JM: People also call us, on 724222, here in Hilversum. Here's one of 43 calls about the same station. TB: Hello, Jonathan, it's TONY BART(?) from [garbled] in southwest England. RADIO VILNIUS, in Lithuania, in a broadcast at midnight on February the 2nd, they said they had news that big increases in the rent of their Ukrainian and Russian SW transmitters could cause them to reduce the number of frequencies used. They went on to say that if you care about RADIO VILNIUS, report as often as possible about reception conditions in North America. Reports on 9750 kHz at 0200 are particularly welcome; that's the service, or the frequency carrying the Lithuanian external service. They also commented at the end of that item that your efforts might help RADIO VILNIUS. And a second item: VOICE OF AMERICA and HCJB, Ecuador, both use the frequency 21455 kHz. If you try listening around 1000 hours, at my location at any rate, on the lower sideband you'll hear VOICE OF AMERICA and on the upper sideband you'll hear HCJB. How's that for saving frequency space! That's all; bye for now. -=- RADIO FROM THE COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES -=- JM: Sounds great in SSB, but it must sound like last week's Media Network contest if you listen on an ordinary radio. LOU JOSEPHS in Boston was one of the first to note the reappearance of several strong transmissions from the Commonwealth of Independent States. Transmissions on 7400 kHz, which carry various stations, have been missing for the last three weeks. Richard? RM: Yes, we noticed that as well. It's certainly back in operation for RADIO KIEV, MINSK, and VILNIUS. Whether 7400 kHz came from a Ukrainian transmitter, we don't know precisely, but it certainly seems as though that is what is happening. We've also noticed quite a few additional frequencies for RADIO KIEV itself, through the night, and a few additional broadcasts. We've noticed that RADIO KIEV is on 9860, 5960, 4825, and a few other frequencies, throughout the night, with various external service broadcasts. JM: And some of those are in English? RM: The only one that's in English is from 0100 to 0200 GMT, and we're currently hearing that on 17690, 7400, 4825 kHz, and 936 kHz, as well as a single sideband frequency, 10344 kHz in upper sideband mode. JM: That's presumably to -- to link one transmitter site to another; it's not directed for general reception, is it? RM: Yes, as far as we know, we think the 0100 GMT RADIO KIEV broadcast in English was also available from transmitters in the Far East of Russia, so it may have something to do with that. JM: RICHARD MEACHAM, on the line from Caversham Park, in England. ERIK KOIE(?), who lives in Denmark, faxed us with a report on a new radio station he can hear from St. Petersburg, called RADIO POLIS(?). The format is Western rock and commercials, with frequent identifications; at least every half an hour. It's very strong on 6045 kHz, in parallel with 1260 kHz MW. The name may come from "metropolis". It's on the air from very early in the morning, here in Europe, until late afternoon, around 1500 UTC. And the SW frequency again, 6045. EHARD GODDIJN(?), of RADIO NETHERLANDS' Frequency Bureau, made a nice recording on Tuesday, at 0700, of the Russian RADIO NEW WAVE, which has short announcements in English; 15560 and 15230 kHz are the best channels here. [male announcer: The NEW WAVE Radio Station [Russian announcement follows] You can hear us on SW 25, 31, 41, 49 meters, from 7 to 8 AM, and from 5 to 6 PM [garbled: GMT?] on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.] JM: But they don't announce any frequencies in the 19 meter band. Now, the Russian RADIO 2 network, which also carries a program for young people, is noted here 1400 to 1630 UTC on 15150 kHz. That's worrying because RADIO NETHERLANDS uses that channel broadcasting to Asia at 1430; so we're wondering if there are now interference problems. -=- WARC 1992: SATELLITE BROADCASTING -=- [(music) RADIO NETHERLANDS correspondent GINGER DA SILVA: The WARC REPORT, 1992: Is it all hot air from sunny Spain? HANS BAKHUIZEN: Well, it will probably be the same as in the previous conferences; that a lot of time will be spent on finding compromises, and that the drafting will be done almost on the last night. (music)] JM: Well over 1,000 telecommunications specialists and politicians are currently in Torremolinos, in southern Spain, for a World Administrative Radio Conference [WARC]. It started on Monday, and won't finish until March the 4th. It's now 12 years since the UN agency, the ITU [International Telecommunication Union], last re-parcelled out the electromagnetic spectrum, not only to broadcasters, but also the wide range of other users, ranging from the military, who want to guide missiles, and the taxi company around the corner, who simply wants to control his fleet. The conference will make adjustments regulating who can use what between 4 mHz right up to 26000 mHz, or 26 gHz. HANS BAKHUIZEN, who's technical adviser to RADIO NETHERLANDS' management, is in Torremolinos at the moment. He points out that one of the aims of radio broadcasters at the conference is to find a spot for satellite broadcasting to mobile receivers. HB: There's one part of the radio spectrum which is very favorable for satellite radio, and that is the part around 1.5 gHz. There's one problem with that part of the spectrum; it's also a very favorable part for the -- of the spectrum for other services, like, for instance, mobile satellite service. And one of the organizations providing mobile satellite service is INMARSAT(?), which is growing rapidly; it's a profitable organization, the -- and they, with their competitors, are looking for more spectrum there as well. Because of the fact that it is a sort of income, it has high priority on the list of politicians, which is not very favorable for broadcasters, of course. [music] JM: But what about SW wireless? Well, there the broadcasters are divided over the issue of single sideband [SSB] transmissions. It's far more spectrum efficient, but yet less than one radio in 200 can currently properly demodulate this kind of broadcasting. HB: We're hoping for more spectrum for SW broadcasting, as well. And there are proposals to add more spectrum for SW broadcasting and we would like to see the extra spectrum being used for SSB transmissions only, since this is, in my opinion, the only way to get out of this deadlock situation. SSB is already there, but unfortunately it's not growing in popularity for SW broadcasting because of the fact that manufacturers don't produce enough SSB receivers, and as a result broadcasters are not interested in introducing more SSB transmissions. And if you make it mandatory, the use of SSB in part of the spectrum; OK, this is one way of getting out of this situation. JM: However, it's clear that larger broadcasters, who have huge investments in transmission equipment, aren't too keen to make any changes at all. DENNIS THOMPSON(?), heads the BBC's Broadcast Coverage department, in London. DT: I think what listeners will be looking for, if we go to a new broadcasting system, is better quality, and I think the single sideband, either in a full SSB mode, or a compatible SSB mode, doesn't really offer them very much. I think, for example, going back to the broadcast satellite sound, that this seems to me a much more attractive option that might persuade listeners at large around the world to invest in new receiving equipment. JM: So, what about expanding SW broadcasting between 3 and 30 mHz? HB: I can say almost all bands are being proposed for expansion right now, with the emphasis being on the spectrum below 10 mHz. There is a European common proposal, which asks for about 700 kHz extra below 10 mHz, and 800 kHz above 10 mHz. But if you consider that below 10 mHz there's now about 850 kHz available for broadcasting, this is quite considerable. [music] JM: But who'll lose out, though? It's expected that many of the fixed point-to-point services will give up some of their frequency allocations, on the grounds that they've now switched to satellite. Look, for example, at the dwindling number of press agencies you can find in between the SW broadcasting bands. HB: Well, in all of the European countries, and I -- well, actually, in all of the countries all over the world -- national preparations have taken place, and in Europe these national standpoints have been coordinated within the CEPT(?), which is an umbrella organization of the European PTTs. And the result out of this has been 14 European common proposals, and 13 of the 14 proposals have been signed by us. JM: But which of the proposals didn't you sign, though? HB: We did not sign the proposal for satellite radio, the BSS Sound Proposal -- "BSS" stands for "Broadcasting Satellite Service" -- because it proposes 2.5 gHz for broadcasting, and this makes it very expensive for broadcasters to use the channel. The satellite channel will about three times as expensive, and, as a compromise, within the Dutch Proprietary Committee, we decided not to sign the proposal. This gives us freedom during the conference to come up with counter-proposals or follow a majority. JM: But why all this emphasis on satellites? The BBC has just completed a major improvement of its SW audibility around the world; it's now working on a new relay station in Thailand. Both France and the United States are doing the same. But are these stopgap measures, for a couple of decades? DT: To an extent, yes. And I mean I think we have to be very aware of these new developments, and we're certainly trying to take advantage of them. As you know, in Europe we have already used the availability of subcarriers on high-powered satellites to feed stations that will relay BBC material, and so we have some VHF relays in eastern Europe at the moment. We're trying to expand that now into Asia, since we have subcarriers on ASIASAT(?); within Latin America, via PANAMSAT. Yes, there -- there will be some question marks asked about HF [High Frequency] coverage, but there are many parts of the world, many areas of Asia, many areas, certainly, in Africa, where our audience at the moment, and I think for a good many years yet, will be on HF. So, I think we -- we have to have a mixed economy at the moment. HF as the continuing main coverage vehicle, but supplemented, where we can, by better quality MW and, hopefully, VHF [Very High Frequency]. JM: DEUTSCHE WELLE's PETER SENGER, who heads the Radio Frequency department, is also convinced that satellites are part of the future. PS: Well, first of all we started by distributing our program to the radio stations in the INTELSAT satellite network, very successfully. Then we continued, in Europe, on the ASTRA 1A satellite and on the EUTELSAT II F1, for Europe. And we have been, for a short time, also with a digital signal in the DSR [Digital Satellite radio] satellite, together with RADIO BREMEN; this was only an experimental time, and [is] finished now. JM: But we know that if international broadcasters are ever to succeed in broadcasting by satellite to Africa or Asia, the satellite initiative must come from the domestic national broadcasters in the region itself. After all, who wants to buy a radio that only gets ten wealthy overseas stations? PS: We have been contacted, like many other broadcasters -- international broadcasters -- by some American consultants or investors who are looking for clients. We see there's a great chance -- and it is a chance, for the future. It will, most probably, not come tomorrow, but, regardless, the frequency spectrum which will be made available for direct satellite broadcast. Any system will come, being it 1.5 gHz or 2.5 gHz, it will be something like DAB, Digital Audio Broadcast, and DEUTSCHE WELLE will, of course, participate. JM: In the meantime, though, that you're up on satellite so that people with home dishes, ASTRA-dishes, can receive you. PS: Yes, we are, as I said, on the two satellites in Europe. And the experience we made was [that] we didn't lose SW listeners, we gained satellite receivers -- if you want, television receivers, of course -- but we gained a lot of reaction from people who never heard on SW DEUTSCHE WELLE, and now are able to pick up our program in very good stereo quality. ,-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-, | RADIO NETHERLANDS, IN MAGNIFICENT MONO! | '-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-' DT: With the pace of development, and I would certainly like to see them happening before the end of this decade; however, I think the thing we have to very careful of is we need to establish, as ever, a suitable receiver base. We need to have sufficient receivers available, in the hands of listeners, in these target areas. So, for AFRISPACE, we -- we have to have a good number of receivers available in Africa before we could, again, commit ourselves to that sort of thing and withdraw totally from HF. JM: Mind you, broadcasters are not very efficient users of the electromagnetic spectrum. Just look at terrestrial television, where, on the European continent, there's a space of 5.5 or 6 mHz between the sound and vision information being transmitted. Just think of all the radio stations you can if you tune across 6 mHz of the SW radio dial! HB: Digital bitstreams are transparent to the service they carry. They can carry anything -- video, audio, fax -- and INMARSAT has come up with an interesting proposal vis-a-vis WARC 1992, and that is to expand the room, the spectrum, for mobile satellite services downward in 1.5 and 1.6 gHz range, and also to take on board the digital radio service, and it will be take on board as a uni-directional mobile satellite service, as they call it. It -- it's a generic concept, and it is -- it is interesting. JM: It's hoped that over the next few weeks the pressure to come up with a solution may result in some sharing between broadcasters and mobile users. After all, using old analog technology, as you know yourself, that a telex station can't share the same frequency as a broadcasting station. Having a warbling sound mixed in with the program ruins your enjoyment of the transmission! However, if the satellite is transmitting information in a digital form, there's no reason why broadcast, or whatever, can't be all bundled together. The digital receiver would have to pick out the types of transmission it was designed to receive. But if you need more intelligence built in to the radio, the initial cost of producing the first batch will be higher. In any event, an allocation around 1500 mHz will please a lot of broadcasters currently in Torremolinos. HB: Well, you have to make a distinction between national usage of BSS sound. For instance, in Europe, this is seen as a successor to FM radio; CD quality is required there. For Europe alone, about 50 mHz would be needed, and, of course, there's also the successor for SW broadcasting, and there the requirements are far more modest, because we can live with monophonic FM quality, and the requirement would be something like 12 mHz for 200 channels, available worldwide. JM: The advantage with a satellite system is that reception quality remains constant, and you can ensure that a particular broadcaster is always transmitting on the same channel. No more sudden frequency adjustments forced on you because the sun comes up, and the ionosphere absorbs the lower SW frequencies. That's where we leave it for the moment, but more news on decisions at WARC as they happen. ,-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-, | MEDIA NETWORK: THE ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS MAGAZINE! | | ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTE! | '-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-' -=- REPORT FROM THE SOUTH PACIFIC -=- JM: Let's flash back to last week, and we've got a recording: [(garbled) ... of the people of Bougainville that at 8 o'clock tonight the president of the Republic of Bougainville will give an address ... (garbled)] JM: ARTHUR CUSHEN made that recording of RADIO FREE BOUGAINVILLE at his home in Invercargill, New Zealand. He's on the line now. Arthur, you've been checking up on some of the other claims from this rebel radio station, I understand. AC: Ahh, well, RADIO FREE BOUGAINVILLE actually came on the air on the -- on January the 27th. I didn't hear it 'til around the Wednesday, and the station was actually officially opened by the president of the Republic of Bougainville on Friday, January the 31st, at 0800 UTC on the frequency of 3880 kHz. The broadcasts are in Pidgin and English, and there quite a lot of notices, particularly at this time of the year, because it's all about schools and teachers, and the like. They are using a radio amateur equipment, of course, and signals aren't very good, but they're heard here between 0900, sign-off at 1110 with the national anthem. Their national anthem is a song, unaccompanied, and played at the conclusion. At the sign- off they mention that they're using frequencies between 21450 and 21500 USB and various times, but so far I haven't been able to hear them. This reminds me, Jonathan, just ten years ago in the -- on the same band we were hearing RADIO VANURAMA(?), which was on Espiritu Santo, and that was another breakaway group, from the New Hebrides government, but it was severely jammed, and, of course, it is now part of Vanuatu. So, it's a coincidence in the South Pacific. JM: Right, now what about the existing stations on Bougainville, because I guess the Papua New Guinea government must have put a radio station in there before now. AC: Yes, there always has been a -- a PNG station in Bougainville, and that's in the capital, but I presume that has been destroyed or silenced during the fighting, because this is purely a local amateur's equipment. And -- and, of course, he hasn't got much in the way of -- of frequency selection and, of course, it's just -- he's just using the amateur 18 meter band at -- at the extreme end. JM: Right, now what else have you got? AC: Well, from Siberia, ADVENTIST WORLD RADIO this month has started broadcasting on a 100 kW transmitter, and they're broadcasting 24 hours a day, and in 13 Asian languages. The transmitters are to be stepped up to 250 kW, and the recordings are made at their new studios south of Moscow, from which the transcriptions are received. An interesting station here, on MW, on 1485, and this one has me puzzled because before 1200 it broadcasts in Russian, and from 1200 to 1230 it has transcribed programs from RADIO FRANCE INTERNATIONALE, in French. Now, I presume this is another Siberian relay, and it's MW only, and it's quite a good signal, because it completely covers the Australian and New Zealand signals on 1485. That's French from 1200 to 1230 UTC. Pitcairn Island's well known to us here in the South Pacific as the site of the mutiny of the "Bounty" in 1787. In 1938 I heard VR6AY, a radio amateur station, and since then New Zealand has had a radio- telephone link between Pitcairn and New Zealand. But that has now ceased, and it's been replaced by a satellite link, so Pitcairn Island is one country in the South Pacific that is gone. The population there is only 70, and they have their income mainly by the sale of postage stamps, and they have four vessels a year which call and provide them with supplies. JM: But it's gone, in radio terms? AC: It's gone in radio terms, yes. Back to New Zealand, and talking about satellites, the BBC WORLD SERVICE by satellite and, as from March, it's to be broadcast on MW in Auckland on 1386; Wellington, 1233; Christchurch, 1017. ALAN GIBBS(?), one of New Zealand's millionaires, has bought the rights from the BBC to relay the programs throughout New Zealand; the figure of -- the cost of this undertaking hasn't been disclosed. RADIO RHEMA we've mentioned before, 14 stations operating with gospel programming. They're supported by subscription and volunteers; they, at the moment, are in fairly desperate financial straits. RADIO NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL, which is looking for new frequencies, and been testing recently, and they will be testing on February the 8th and the 15th. The test will be between 1900 and 2100, and that'll be on the frequency of 15305 kHz. As from May, NEW ZEALAND will be using the channel of 11735 kHz for its morning transmission to the Pacific, and that's been extended to 1700 to 2200 UTC. JM: Thanks, Arthur. Now to MIKE BIRD in Melbourne. Seems, Mike, in your part of the world, they have traced that 21 mHz channel for RADIO FREE BOUGAINVILLE. MB: That's right, Jonathan. In southern Australia, 21450 kHz has been heard at 0700 and 1100 UTC USB. Also, a clandestine amateur operator has been heard using the callsign of "CHARLIE ONE ALFA" [C1A], so maybe you ought to lookout for that one. -=- PROPAGATION SURVEY -=- JM: OK, now what about the propagation review over the last seven days? MB: We experienced a fair amount of medium strength solar flare activity, and one of these flares produced a geomagnetic storm on Sunday and Monday. Solar activity ranged between low and high, and 15 solar flares were recorded. The solar flux was 280 last Thursday; on Friday it reached its high for the week, at 303, and by yesterday it had dropped back to 246. The average works out to 274.8, and equals an effective sunspot number of 231, which is up on the previous week's figure of 167. The geomagnetic field disturbance indicator, the Fredericksburg [Virginia] A-Index, has ranged between 58 and 10, which represents "major storm" to "unsettled conditions". The field was generally unsettled until 1155 UTC on Sunday, when a sudden impulse to the geomagnetic field was recorded. Conditions quickly deteriorated, and a storm started which lasted until early Tuesday. Since then, the field has returned to "unsettled conditions". JM: And will that continue up until the lucky 13th? MB: Well, Jonathan, solar activity should be generally at "moderate" levels, although sunspot region 7012 is expected to return to the visible disk on Sunday or Monday, and could increase the levels to "high". The geomagnetic field should be "active" or "stormy" tomorrow and Saturday, due to the passage of a coronal hole on the sun. Then hopefully, it will be "unsettled" to "quiet" for the remainder of the week. JM: Mike, thank you. Also to NORMAN HILL(?), ANDY SENNITT, and JULIUS HERRMANNS(?), for help behind the scenes on this week's edition. From all of us, have a nice weekend! -=- END OF SHOW -=- MEDIA NETWORK SCHEDULE: (from the RNI Winter English Schedule) 0730: 11895, 9630 New Zealand 0830: 11895 New Zealand, Southeast Asia 0930: 21485, 17575 Australia 1130: 21520, 21480, 17575, 9715, 5955 Southeast Asia, Europe 1430: 17580, 15150, 13770, 13700, 5955 Southwest Asia, Europe 1630: 15570, 6020 South & East Africa 1830: 21685, 17605, 15570, 6020 South & Central Africa 2030: 13700, 11660, 9895, 9860, 7285 West Africa 0030: 11835(SSB), 6165, 6020 Eastern North America 0330: 11720, 9590 Western North America Transcript prepared by William Kelsey Theology Department St. Mary of the Plains College Dodge City, Kansas -- Jason Berri [berri@aero.org or berri@arecibo.aero.org] [SPEEDX USSR Editor - send email for more info on the SPEEDX SWL club]