From: xberri@quark2.aero.org (Jason E. Berri)
Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave
Subject: SCDX 2143
Date: 10 Nov 91 07:06:00 GMT
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41
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:: MediaScan ::
:: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS ::
:: from Radio Sweden ::
:: Number 2143--Nov. 5, 1991 ::
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Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio Sweden.
This week's bulletin was written by George Wood.
Packet Radio BID SCDX2143
All times UTC unless otherwise noted.
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SWEDEN:
Forget what I've written previously about the broadcast schedule of the
MediaScan program. With the latest change in the Radio Sweden schedule,
MediaScan/Sweden Calling DXers is once again a weekly program, in both our
shortwave and European medium wave services. But the programs on the second,
fourth, and fifth Tuesdays of each month will be rather short.
These bulletins will continue to be issued with the longer programs, on the
first and third Tuesdays of each month. Note that the first broadcast of the
Radio Sweden English daily cycle is the 19:30 hrs broadcast. Thus, for some
listeners, programs in broadcasts before 19:30 hrs each day will be those of
the day before.
THIRD NATIONAL TV NETWORK--The struggle for the licence for Sweden's new
third national television network, the country's first commercial network,
has been decided. The competing applicants were the country's two main
satellite broadcasters, TV3 and TV4. What's happened is that TV3 has
withdrawn its application, but is buying a 30 percent share of TV4, which
should get the concession. The formal government decision is Thursday.
TV3 will continue to broadcast over the Astra satellites from London, with
its separate Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian TV3 services as well as the pay
film channel TV1000.
The new Swedish Channel 3 network will take several years to finish. When the
first transmitters go on the air on December 1st, they will reach 50 percent
of the country's population. TV4 will continue to broadcast over the Tele-X
satellite for at least one year. By then, 85 percent of the population will
have terrestrial access to the channel.
NORDIC CHANNEL--Meanwhile, there are also major changes taking place at
Sweden's third satellite broadcaster, Nordic Channel. The station has changed
its name to TV5 Nordic, and to cut costs is switching to the Swedish direct
broadcast satellite Tele-X, so it won't have to pay for European rights.
TV5 Nordic can now been seen on the Tele-X transponder on 12.475 GHz.
Transmissions on Eutelsat 2-F1 will continue in parallel during November.
Nordic's new owners, an American-European consortium headquartered in
Luxembourg, have also changed the format, so that it is beginning to resemble
a Nordic version of Lifestyle.
The French language TV5 Europe has protested about the name change. However,
Nordic says the TV5 name was not registered in Sweden.
FILMNET--Last week Sweden's largest pay film channel, FilmNet, was bought by
a Swiss company, which is reported to be controlled by a South African
concern. ("Dagens Nyheter")
FilmNet has begun tests using the D2-MAC system, using the Nordic Channel
transponder on Eutelsat 2-F1, during Nordic's off periods.
(SatNews)
SATELLITE/COMMUNITY RADIO--And last week also saw the start of what has been
billed as Sweden's first legal commercial radio station, Radio Z.
Owned by the same company that runs TV3, Radio Z is using Swedish TV3's
transponder to broadcast weekdays between 14:00 and 16:00 hrs UTC.
Unfortunately, TV3 broadcasts in D2-MAC, which offers very few radio
channels, so they are using TV3's regular TV sound channel. To make things
interesting, they've added a picture, featuring rock videos and a camera in
the control room.
It looks like an amateur version of MTV, and is essentially just another TV
program, except 12 community radio stations in Sweden are defying the law
against commercials and relaying the sound.
Since TV3 broadcasts from London, Radio Z needs a way to get its signals from
Stockholm to London. They're using the Tele-X satellite, using the TV5 Nordic
transponder on 12.475 GHz, and the audio subcarrier on 7.92 MHz. Which means
the same program is going out over two of Sweden's 3 satellite channels at
the same time.
EUROPE:
SATELLITE RADIO--Radio Luxembourg has announced it's going to close its
medium wave transmitter on 1440 kHz and concentrate on satellite
broadcasting. ("In Orbit" on Super Channel's Super Text)
Eclipse FM has ceased transmissions via Astra because of poor audience
figures. (Dave Plumb to "SatNews")
However, two German public service broadcasters are to begin satellite
relays. SWF-3 is using the RTL Plus transponder on 11.229 GHz, with audio on
7.74 and 7.92 MHz. BR-5 is also to begin broadcsts via Astra.
(DD1GO amd Helmut Steuer, Radio Sweden)
SATELLITE-TV/ASTRA--The British channel 3 auction has had its effects on
satellite TV. Thames Television, which lost its London franchise, has
announced it may sell programs to the BBC and satellite television companies.
And Thames is also considering broadcasting over an Astra satellite when its
franchise ends in 1993. (AP-DJ, SatNews and "Dagens Nyheter")
TV-AM, which lost the national weekday morning franchise, is combining its
advertising sales staff with British Sky Broadcasting, and more co-operation
is planned. (AP-DJ)
In other Astra news, Britain's Home Video Channel is expected to launch a
video-crypt coded service over Astra. Cable and Satellite Express magazine
says HVC may transmit on the Comedy Channel transponder, which is currently
only used between 16:00 and 24:00 hrs. (SatNews)
TV3 Denmark is moving transponders on Astra 1B, from 11.641 GHz to 11.611
GHz. (DD1GO and Jan Johansson, Sweden)
Eurosport, back on 11.258 GHz, has resumed transmissions in Teletext.
The planned erotic film channel "After 12" will not be getting a transponder
on Astra. ("Elektronikvaerlden")
OLYMPUS--With Olympus returned to its correct position, Raisat has resumed
broadcasts. There are English subtitles on Teletext page 778. Broadcasts in
NTSC can be seen on 12.530 GHz. It's uncertain when BBC, Eurostep, and
Eurospace will return to the satellite. Eurospace is currently using Eutelsat
I F-5 at 23.5 degrres East, 11.509 Ghz. ("Elektronikvaerlden")
INTELSAT--Discovery, which broadcasts on an Intelsat at 27.5 degrees West,
has announced plans to encrypt its signals within 12 months. (SatNews)
Europe has a new satellite. Intelsat VI-F1 was orbited on October 29th. The
last Intelsat 6, it will be situated over the Atlantic to relay video, audio,
and data services between the United States and Europe.
(Reuters)
EUTELSAT--But the launch of Eutelsat II-F3, scheduled for October 24th, has
been postponed until mid-November. There's some concern about that satellite
because it will be located just 3 degrees from the Astra satellites, and will
use some of the same channels. There may be interference. (Swedish Telecom,
"New Scientist")
Eutelsat II-F4 is scheduled to be launched from French Guiana in February,
1992, and Eutelsat II-F5 in October, 1992. ("Elektronikvaerlden")
NORTH AMERICA:
SATELLITE-TV--The aging Westar 4 satellite has now been replaced by Galaxy 6,
which took over at the same location on November 2nd.
The new Spacenet 4 satellite, launched in April and located just west of
Westar and Galaxy, suffered a hardware failure on October 15th. Relays of
United Press International were interupted for 14 hours.
(Gary Bourgois via Internet News and SatNews)
Meanwhile, the Satcom 4 satellite is suffering telemetry problems. So Telesat
Canada has sold GE its Anik D2 satellite to replace Satcom. GE will take over
D2 on December 1st, after Telesat has transfered Canadian programming to the
new Anik E1 satellite. D2 is to be renamed Satcom 4R.
GE says it will use Anik D2 until new satellites are launched in late 1992.
(AP-DJ, Mark Long via Internet News, and Ed Ellers and Bill Bard on
CompuServe)
DBS--The Sky Pix project has been saved from financial problems by signing an
agreement with four new partners. Warner Brothers is also joining 35 other
Hollywood studios contracted to provide pay-per-view movies. Sky Pix says it
will launch its service early next year. It's supposed to be offering up to
80 Ku-band channels on the SBS-6 satellite. (Internet News via Kauto Huopio
and SatNews)
The rival service from Hughes Communications, DirecTV, is moving ahead. The
DirecTV satellite is to be launched from French Guiana in December, 1993. To
be located at 101 degrees West, tt will deliver news, sports, movies, and
other programming to American homes equiped with 45 cm (18 inch) antennas.
(AP-DJ and SatNews)
ASIA/PACIFIC:
Here is the frequency schedule for the three Aussat satellites, put together
by Julie VK2XBR:
Xpond Freq. Aussat #1 #2 #3
1 12.227 Ch9 PAL Feeds Aussat Private PAL Itinerant SCPC/DATA
2 12.341 DATA not available N/A
3 12.405 Ch7 EPAL Feeds Aussat Private PAL DATA/occasional PAL
4 12.469 Ch10 EPAL Feeds N/A VAEIS NZ/Pacific
5 12.533 SBS BMAC Radio TV N/A Aussat Private PAL
6 12.597 Ch10 EPAL Feeds N/A TV NZ Pacific
7 12.661 ABC BMAC Rad & TV Golden West BMAC # Club/Sky Occ. PAL
8 12.725 Itinerant use BMAC ABC BMAC WA beam TV NZ Pacific
9 12.309 Ch9 PAL News&promo. Aviation & DATA N/A
10 12.373 DATA Aviation & DATA N/A
11 12.437 ABC PAL Feeds N/A N/A
12 12.501 ABC Audio SCPC/feeds ABC BMAC cent. beam AAP Reuters Data.
13 12.565 DATA N/A SCPC Radio
14 12.629 ABC BMAC NE beam Imparja BMAC/RCTS SKY channel BMAC
15 12.693 QTV BMAC/RCTS (NE) ABC BMAC cent. beam SKY ch BMAC/ Ch9.
# Golden West BMAC TV and RCTS WA beam.
PAL (normal Australian standard TV)
EPAL Encripted PAL
SCPC single carrier per channel - Fortuitous Radio Services.
BMAC B Series Multiplexed Analog Components. - Dirrect TV broadcasts,
Can be scrambled in case of SKY.
Xponders 1-8 are vertical polarization, 9-15 are horizontal. (Ashley, VK2XSO)
STAR-TV--The Star-TV service over AsiaSat has signed an agreement with
Singapore Broadcasting Corporation to buy a minimum of 100 hours of Mandarin
drama programming annually for two years. AsiaSat currently carries four
channels: Star-TV (entertainment and movies), Star Sports, Music Channel
(from MTV), and BBC World Service Television. Mandarin programming will be on
the 5th channel. (AP-DJ)
INDIA--The appearance of AsiaSat has led to a proliferation of rooftop dish
antennas in India. After decades of access only to the heavily censored state
television Doordarshan, satellite dishes are transforming the way Indians see
the world. AsiaSat and video cassette recorders have also spawned a new
industry in semi-legal cable television operators. ("International Herald
Tribune")
JAPAN--TDK and Pioneer Electronics are forming a joint company to broadcast
over a new Japanese communications satellite to be launched in January, 1992.
The new service will include a relay of MTV. (AP-DJ) This would seem to be
the Superbird B satellite, scheduled for launch from French Guiana in
January.
SHORT WAVE:
ALBANIA--Albania is now permitting amateur radio. Several amateur radio
operators from Hungary are there now demonstrating the hobby. Look for ZA1A,
ZA1HA, and DA2A in SSB, morse, and radioteletype on frequencies between 14025
and 14350 kHz. (Bob ?, USA) (Bob Hill?)
CROATIA/USA--Croatian Radio in Zagreb is being relayed over the American
station WHRI from midnight to 01:00 hrs on 9495 and 7315 kHz. This includes
reports in English, and is followed on 7315 kHz several days a week by
another bilingual service called Radio Free Croatia, which appears to be
produced in Chicago. (Richard Langley, USA)
ESTONIA--Radio Estonia is now broadcasting in English on Thursdays as well as
Mondays, at 21:30 hrs on 5925 kHz. (BBC Monitoring)
FINLAND--Radio Finland has restored its medium wave transmitter on 963 khz to
24 hour operation. The station also hopes to begin all day FM operations in
Helsinki, using relays from the VOA, BBC, and Deutsche Welle. (Radio Finland)
GUAM--The Christian station KTWR in Guam is now broadcasting in Russian at
09:57-11:58 hrs on 11805 kHz. (KTWR)
ISRAEL--The Voice of Israel has resumed morning and lunchtime relays of news
in English and French from the domestic service Network A. They are:
05:00-05:15 hrs English and 05:15-05:30 hrs French, on 11588 kHz
11:00-11:30 hrs English and 11:30-12:00 hrs in French on 17545 kHz. (BBC
Monitoring)
LITHUANIA--Radio Vilnius in Lithuania is in English at midnight UTC on 9710,
11675, 11790, 15180, 17605, and 17610 kHz.
NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS/USA--The "Christian Science Monitor" World Service
from KHBI in Saipan is now broadcasting in Russian to the Soviet Far East on
Saturdays at 03:05-03:55 on 17865 kHz and 09:05-09:55 hrs on 17555 kHz, and
on Sundays at 01:05-01:55 hrs on 17865 and at 05:05-05:55 hrs on 17780 kHz.
The "Christian Science Monitor" World Service is also broadcasting in Russian
to Europe from WCSN in Maine, USA on the fourth Saturday of every month at
14:05 hrs on 21670 kHz and on the fourth Sunday of every month at 07:05 hrs
on 9840 kHz. (Christian Science Monitor World Service)
USA--Gary Bourgois, a very knowledgeable American satellite DXer, now has a
program called the "Birdwatcher's Report" aired over WWCR as part of their
Saturday "Signals" program. It's broadcast at 03:35 hrs (UTC Sundays), and
the frequency is 7435 kHz.
USSR--Radio Kiev in the Ukraine is in Enlgish to North America at 01:00 hrs
on 11790, 12005, 15180, 17605, and 17690 kHz.
YUGOSLAVIA--Radio Yugoslavia is now broadcasting in English at 02:30-03:15
hrs on 9550 and 11885 kHz. (Bob ?, USA) (Bob Hill?)
UNIDENTIFIED--An unidentified station has been reported on 6305 kHz playing
music without any announcements. (Wolfgang Thiel, Germany)
UNOFFICIAL RADIO--The Voice of Democratic Kampuchea and the Voice of the
National Army of Democratic Kampuchea have combined to form the Voice of the
Great National Union Front of Cambodia. BBC Monitoring says these stations
are all operated by the Khmer Rouge. The new station has been heard on 5408
kHz at 23:30 hrs. Broadcasts at 08:00 and 12:00 hrs have all been announced.
(BBC Monitoring)
The Voice of Oromo Liberation, representing one of the liberation movements
in Ethiopia, has changed frequency from 9540 to 11705 kHz for its broadcast
at 10:00-11:00 hrs. (BBC Monitoring)
The South African-backed, anti-Mozambique government Voice of Renamo is
broadcasting at 15:00-16:00 hrs on 9990 kHz, using upper side band plus
carrier. (BBC Monitoring)
EDXC/FINLAND--In connection with the 1992 European DX Council conference in
Tampere, Finland, the Finnish government has granted a licence to the Finnish
DX Association to run a radio station during the conference. (Jorma Mantyla,
FDXA)
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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 shortwave every
Tuesday.
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.
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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]