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:: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS ::
:: from Radio Sweden ::
:: Number 2131--May 7, 1991 ::
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Shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio Sweden.
This week's bulletin was written by George Wood.
Packet Radio BID SCDX2131
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SWEDEN--We're happy to announce that edition 5.0 of our booklet
"Communications in Space: The DXers Guide to the Galaxy" is hot off the
presses. The last edition, 4.2, came out in late 1989, and many things have
happened in the world of space and satellite communications since then. The
booklet is free, so if you're interested in tuning in to space, from weather
and amateur radio satellites to astronauts and satellite televison, please
write. The address is Radio Sweden, S-105 10 Stockholm, Sweden.
On the other hand, things happen so quickly in the satellite world, we
already have a few updates:
SATELLITE-TV: EUROPE
Eurosport, the satellite sports channel jointly owned by the European
Broadcasting Union and Rupert Murdoch's Sky Television, went off the air on
May 6th. The channel had two problems. First, when Sky bought out British
Satellite Broadcasting, it also bought a British-only sports channel, now
called Sky Sports. Secondly, the European Commission recently ruled that the
venture violated European Community fair competition regulations. Which meant
that programming costs were about to go up. So Rupert Murdoch kept the
British channel and has pulled the plug on EuroSport. (Dagens Nyheter, TT,
Reuters)
However, negotiations are going on to find someone to buy out Sky's share. So
Eurosport may return. Rupert Murdoch, meanwhile, has been selling most of his
publishing interests in the United States. He and the other owners of BSB
have now agreed on a 200 million pound refinancing package to keep the
venture going through the end of 1992.
(Reuters, Dow Jones, AP)
There are some changes on the Eutelsat 2-F1 satellite. The Spanish channel
Galavision has stopped broadcasts on that satellite, and is now only using
PanAmSat.
But there's a new channel coming to Eutelsat 2-F1, the Middle East
Broadcasting Corporation. Owned by the American CNN, it will broadcast to
Arabic speakers in Europe for 8 to 10 hours a day. (Jan Johansson, Sweden,
via packet radio)
Eurosport used the Astra 1A satellite. Another user of that satellite has now
switched to the new Astra 1B, with a longer schedule. Japan Satellite
Television, JSTV, has broadcast for two hours each night on the Lifestyle
transponder on Astra 1A. Since May 4th it been using transponder 24 on Astra
1B, at 11567 MHz. JSTV is scheduled to broadcast for 11 hours a day. Programs
are to be dubbed or subtitled, to make them more accessible to European
viewers. (BBC Monitoring; and Soenke, DD8LS, via packet radio)
SATELLITE-TV: ASIA/GLOBAL
We've reported before about the plans by the Japanese public broadcaster NHK
to create a global round the clock news network. The president of NHK
announced recently that this network would begin by the end of the year, in
collaboration with major American and European broadcasting companies.
according to the plan, there apparently would be three eight hour blocks, in
English, one each to Asia, the Americas, and Europe.
Japanese satellite television suffered some set-backs recently. On April 18th
the American rocket carrying the BS-3H satellite was lost. There were fears
this would mean the loss of one of the country's three direct satellite
television channels. But the gap will be filled by juggling channels on the
two existing satellites, 2-B and 3-A.
Meanwhile, the November launch of Japan's Superbird B satellite has been
rescheduled to January, 1992. This satellite was supposed to replace
Superbird A, which was knocked out of service last December. Eight television
broadcasters have been moved to other satellites.
(BBC Monitoring)
There's another new Asian satellite broadcaster. Star-TV has gone on the air
on Asiasat at 105.5 degrees East. 24 hour programming is due to begin at the
end of this month. By the end of the year, the system is to be operating
three channels. Broadcasts are in Mandarin, and the primary audience will be
in Hong Kong, Thailand, and Taiwan. (Elektronikvaerlden; BBC Monitoring;
David, 4X1VL, via packet radio)
SATELLITE-TV: NORTH AMERICA
Agrivision is a new channel for rural residents, using the Westar 5
satellite, transponder 17. (Jim Sobert on CompuServe)
And there's a new TV satellite over North America. Spacenet 4 was launched on
April 12th, and is located at 101.5 degrees West. John Gentner has seen
tests, with various transponders used a couple of minutes at a time. (John
Gentner on CompuServe)
WEATHER SATELLITES:
There are some interesting launches coming up. The American NOAA-D weather
satellite is scheduled for launch on May 14th, at 15:52 hrs. After launch it
will become known as NOAA-12, and will replace NOAA-10. Look for it in the
136 MHz weather satellite band. (Stephen McNeill in Space News, via Kauto
Huopio)
AMATEUR RADIO SATELLITES.
The launch of the European environment onservation satellite ERS-1 has been
postponed until May 22nd. Also onboard is the University of Surrey's UOSAT-F,
which will probably be known as UO-22 when it's in orbit. It will contain a
packet radio bulletin board. Besides use by radio amateurs, the satellite
will be used to transmit free medical information to universities in East
Africa.
The information will be uplinked from a ground station in Newfoundland.
Ground stations have been shipped to universities in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and
Zambia. The researchers who build the satellite at the University of Surrey
are also developing portable ground stations that will fit into a briefcase,
so that field workers can take them to isolated villages. (New Scientist,
Reuters, TT)
GERMANY:
According to an interview in the second FM radio network of the WDR Cologne
Bayern 5 (Bavaria 5) is going to start on Monday, 6th of May 1991. The station
is a station totally orientated on news coverage. This means: news bulletins
every 15 minutes from 06:00 to 24:00 local time, between the news bulletins
coverage of a special topic, e.g. sports, culuture, politics, economy. The
news coverage shall not be a "Bavarian's view of the world" (Bavaria is ruled
by a right wing christian social government with dominates the Bayrischer
Rundfunk Radio and TV service), but shall use the ressources of the whole ARD
(the umbrella organisation of for all German public broadcasters) news
correspondents'
network.
The model for this format is the French station "France Info".
The "B 5" service will cover 50 percent of Bavaria on vhf-fm frequencies and
the whole of Bavaria on a medium wave frequency (they didn't state which
frequency). Later this year they will also broadcast by satellite.
The costs of "B 5" are estimated to 10 Million Deutschmarks per annum, which
are roughly the costs for three major TV film productions. So the "B 5" service
is considered relativly cheap.
Listeners are not expected to listen for hours and hours, but to switch in
several times of the day for approx. 15 minutes, especially when they have
missed the news broadcasts in the other bavarian radio programs. (Dieter
Kuckelkorn, Germany)
WRTH:
The World Radio TV Handbook has been the standard reference book of domestic
and international broadcasters since just after the Second World War. The
most recent edition includes a new feature--extensive coverage of satellite
broadcasting. WRTH Editor Andy Sennitt was recently here in Stockholm, on his
way to an important club gathering. In this week's English edition of Sweden
Calling DXers Andy talks with Alan Pryke, about the handbook and the club he
was visiting, Sweden's Arctic Radio Club.
They'll be continuing their conversation in the next edition of Sweden
Calling DXers, coming up in two weeks. Our DX Editor George Wood will also be
reporting then on the conference of the European DX Council in Barcelona. And
we hope to see a lot of you there!
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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 the first and
third Tuesday of each month. RS broadcasts to North America:
15:30 hrs on 17875 and 21500 kHz
02:00 hrs on 9695 and 11705 kHz
03:30 hrs on 9695 and 11705 kHz
To Latin America:
23:30 hrs on 9695 and 11705 kHz
To Europe, Africa, and the Middle East:
17:00 hrs on 1179, 6065, and 9615 kHz
18:30 hrs on 6065 and (Middle East) 15270 kHz
19:30 hrs on 1179, 6065 and 9655 kHz
20:30 hrs on 6065 kHz
22:00 hrs on 1179 and 6065 kHz
23:30 hrs on 1179 kHz
And to Asia and the Pacific:
11:30 hrs on 11960, 17740, and 21570 kHz
13:00 hrs on 11960, 17740, and 21570 kHz
01:00 hrs on 9765 kHz
Contributions can be sent to DX Editor George Wood to Swedish telex 11738,
CompuServe (via the HamNet Forum or Easyplex 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.
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Thanks to this week's contributors Good Listening!
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--
Jason Berri (SPEEDX USSR Editor)
INTERNET: berri@aerospace.aero.org or berri@arecibo.aero.org
[SPEEDX is a SWL club, send email to the above address for more information]
[Note: back issues of the SCDX bulletins are now available via anonymous
ftp from arecibo.aero.org (192.5.54.155). Please restrict ftp access to
18:00-06:00 Pacific time (UTC -7), thanks.]
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Hope this helps.
Clemens Pflueger