Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave
From: 70247.3516@CompuServe.COM (George Wood)
Subject: SCDX 2165
Organization: Finnish University & Research Network
Date: Tue, 3 Nov 1992 16:39:48 +0200
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:: MediaScan ::
:: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS ::
:: from Radio Sweden ::
:: Number 2165--Nov. 3, 1992 ::
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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 SCDX2165
All times UTC unless otherwise noted.
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AMERICAN ELECTIONS:
EUROPEAN COVERAGE--The big media news today are the American elections.
Coverage will be all over the American satellites, of course, and here in
Europe as well. CNN International has its own reporting. Super Channel is
relaying election coverage from NBC, and both Sky News and Sweden's TV4 are
relaying ABC. It's the first time a Swedish television station will be
running all night coverage of an American election.
Satellite monitors may want to tune in to the feeds coming over the Atlantic
carrying those and other reports. Take a look at the two Brightstar
transponders on Intelsat-K, at 11.531 and 11.558 GHz, and the EBU New York
transponder on Intelsat 601 at 11.472 GHz. There should be more as well on
PanAmSat, for those who can tune it in.
NORDIC MEDIA NEWS:
RADIO SWEDEN--Radio Sweden's Russian service celebrates its 25th anniversary
on Thursday November 5th, with two live one hour broadcasts at 18:00 and
20:00 hrs, and a studio party. Among the guests will be 21 year old Igor
Popov, winner of the Russian service's "Radio Sweden in My LIfe" essay
contest, as well as the Program Director of St. Petersburg Radio, one of
three local Russian stations rebroadcasting Radio Sweden programs.
SWEDISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION--The new Swedish Broadcasting Corporation
presented its channel formats and schedules last week. The new company, which
officially begins on January 1st, 1993, is a merger of the current Swedish
Radio Company and the Swedish Local Radio Company. The two public radio
broadcasters are being combined just before they face competition from new
private commercial stations.
The current P1 channel retains its profile of news and current affairs, while
P2 will continue to broadcast classical music, along with programs in
minority languages, such as Sami or Lapp, as well as Finnish, and other
immigrant languages.
The big change is in the entertainment channel P3, which will be solely aimed
at young people. Many of the current P3 programs that appealed to an older
audience are being moved over to the new P4. This channel will carry the
current local radio stations for 12 to 13 hours a day during the week, as
well as sports and entertainment for an older audience.
SWEDISH PRIVATE RADIO--The Swedish center-right minority government has
introduced a bill to establish the country's first legal private commercial
radio. The government is proposing the initial establishment of 60 stations,
with 10 in Stockholm, 5 in Gothenburg, 3 in Malm, and the rest in a number
of smaller towns. Licences would last for 8 years, and the government wants
to auction them off to the highest bidder. However, daily newspapers would
not be allowed to hold a controlling interest in any station.
Advertising is to be limited to 10 percent of airtime, with a maximum of 8
minutes of commercials every hour.
The government has accepted the opposition demand that community radio
stations also be allowed to carry commercials. The government has also given
in to objections against creating a single regulatory agency for public
broadcasters, private broadcasters, commuunity radio and cable. Instead the
current Community Radio Board would be reponsible for licensing the new
private local radio stations. (TT)
TV 4 NORWAY--TV 4 Norway was originally part of Sweden's TV 4 on the Tele-X
satellite. When that channel received the franchise as this country's first
terrestrial commercial channel, the Norwegian operation was cut loose, and
immediately began losing money. Last week it was on the edge of bankruptcy,
when it was saved from a most unusual source--rock singer Bon Geldof, the man
behind Live Aid, and now involved in British breakfast television.
INTELSAT--Norwegian TV 4 is part of a package of Nordic stations on Intelsat
512 at 1 degree West, which have now cloned themselves onto Intelsat 515 at
18 degrees West. Besides TV 4, Intelsat 515 is carrying the Norwegian public
broadcaster NRK, the new Norwegian terrestrial commercial station TV 2, the
private TV Norge, and Swedish Television 1 and 2, which are uplinked from
Oslo for use by cable systems in Spitsbergen and on North Sea oil platforms.
MARCO POLO--It's hard to say why this has been done, as Norwegian Telecom is
busy moving the Marco Polo 2 satellite to 1 degree West to create a Nordic
DBS package. It's strange that just as the new satellite is arriving at that
position, all those other Nordic channels should be moving elsewhere. Jan
Johansson reports that Marco Polo has been moving 0.8 degrees a day. It may
already be in position, but broadcasts are due to begin on December 1st or
15th. (Jan Johansson, Sweden)
At the recent Satellite TV show here, the Norwegian Telecom representative
was unable to say what channels might be appearing. Unfortunately they seem
to be insisting on using Eurocrypt S decoding, which is very rare outside of
Norway.
FILMNET--The Norwegian Marco Polo package will also be competing with
Filmnet, which has bought the Swedish Tele-X satellite at 5 degrees East, and
is expected to add a further satellite to that position, possibly Britain's
Marco Polo 1, which is for sale.
MTV AND EUROSPORT--Nordic cable operators are currently upset about MTV and
Eurosport. Both channels say they want to be paid for inclusion in
Scandinavian cable networks, despite being free over cable in the rest of
Europe, and freely available on the Astra satellites. Here in Sweden, MTV
will probably become an extra cable pay channel in the new year, while Nordic
cable operators are threatening to remove Eurosport altogether. The cable
operators are also demanding that the two stations code their satellite
signals. ("Dagens Nyheter")
There have been rumors that Eurosport might start a special Scandinavian
service. But the Eurosport representative at the satellite show told Radio
Sweden that this is just a suggestion, and no more.
EUROPEAN SATELLITE BROADCASTING:
UK GOLD--The first broadcast from UK Gold, the new Best of British TV outlet
began on Astra transponder 23, at 19:00 hrs on Sunday. Programs are available
to anyone with a Videocrypt decoder. There's no subscription necessary, as
the service relies on advertising. Curiously, virtually every product
advertised during the first programs had "Gold" or "Golden" in the name.
The question now is what radio signals will pop up on the transponder. Most
likely is Radio 4, which is about to lose its long wave outlet to a 24 hour
news channel. A BBC insider has told us that other BBC programs are under
consideration to satellite relay, and even BBC World Service radio may appear
on Astra.
ASTRA--Meanwhile SES has formally ordered a new Astra 1E satellite, to be
launched early in 1995 and placed alongside the other Astra satellites. It
will carry 18 transponders with 85 watts each (compared to 45 watts on Astra
1A). When that satellite goes into service, Astra will have a total of 84
channels, all at one position in the sky. ("Satnews", AFP)
POLAND--Polish Television has begun transmitting on Eutelsat II-F3 at 11.554
GHz.
A Polish radio station called RMF (Radio-Muzyka-Fakty) has begun transmitting
on one of the MTV transponders on Astra, transponder 15, using the audio
subcarriers at 7.74 and 7.92 MHz. (AFP) The question, however, is how the
signals are getting from Cracow to MTV's uplink in London?
MIDDLE EASTERN SATELLITE BROADCASTING:
EGYPT/TUNISIA--The Egyptian Satellite Channel (ESC Television) currently
broadcasts on the Arabsat 1B satellite, using a channel in the rather unusual
S-band, around 2.5 GHz. This satellite is supposed to be at 26 degrees East,
but has in fact drifted to 40 degrees. ESC has announced that early this
month it will be moving to Arabsat 1C (31 degrees East) to a more
conventional C-band channel of 4163 GHz.
In late November, ESC will also begin transmissions to Europe from the
Eutelsat II-F3 satellite at 16 degrees East. (BBC Monitoring)
It will be joining Tunisia's first satellite channel, RTT (or TV7 Tunisie),
which has begun showing a test picture on Eutelsat II-F3 on 11.660 GHz. Full
launch is planned for November 7. TV audio is on 6.6 Mhz, while Tunisian
radio in Arabic is on 7.02 MHz (in parallel with shortwave 7475 kHz), and
Tunisian radio in French is at 7.20 MHz (in parallel with 963 kHz medium
wave). (BBC Monitoring, "Satnews" and Jan Johansson, Sweden)
ASIAN SATELLITE BROADCASTING:
ASIASAT--Asiasat has signed a contract for its second satellite, Asiasat 2,
with an option for a further satellite. Asiasat is the home of Star-TV, the
several channel service that has had such an impact on television from the
Middle East to China, and especially in India.
Asiasat 2 will have 40 C-band transponders, and 9 Ku-band transponders. (The
first satellite has 24 transponders in the C-band only.) It would be launched
in the fourth quarter of 1994, and would have an unprecedented footprint
reaching from Tokyo to Berlin, and south to Australia. (BBC Monitoring)
NORTH AMERICAN SATELLITE BROADCASTING:
INTELSAT-K--Italy's RAI has begun broadcasts to North America using the
Intelsat-K satellite (21.5 degrees West). ("Satnews", "In Orbit")
Germany's Deutsche Welle has also begun transmissions to North America via
Intelsat-K, with programs in both German and English. As we reported two
weeks ago, these signals are being relayed to North American dish owners on
Spacenet 2, transponder 3. Jim Gallucci reports reception of Deutsche Welle
as well on the new Satcom C-4 at 136 degrees West, transponder 5. (Jim
Gallucci, via CompuServe)
GALAXY 7--On October 27th, an Ariane rocket launched the Galaxy 7 satellite
into orbit. This will be placed at 91 degrees West, and carries 24
transponders in the C-band (16 watts each), and 24 in the Ku-band (50 watts
each). (Reuters and Robert Smathers in "Satnews")
SHORTWAVE:
AFGHANISTAN--The Radio Afghanistan external service is once again heard on
9635 kHz. (BBC Monitoring)
BOSNIA--While Radio Bosnia Hercegovina Studio Sarajevo has disappeared from
medium wave 612 kHz, it continues to be heard on shortwave on around 7238 khz
in upper side band. (BBC Monitoring) This is apparently an amateur radio
transmitter.
ERITREA--The Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea has been heard on a new
frequency of 5000 khz, in parallel with existing 7380, 7020, and 3940 kHz.
(BBC Monitoring)
IRAN--While Turkey has been establishing its influence in the newly
independent Central Asian republics of the old Soviet Union via satellite
television, Iran is using shortwave to counter. The Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting (IRIB) added 30 minute programs in Uzbek and Tajik on October
24th. Tajik is on the air at 15:30 hrs, followed by Uzbek at 16:00 hrs, on
9640 and 6005 kHz. IRIB is also planning to begin broadcasts in the Kyrgyz
language for the people of Kyrgyzstan. Beginning November 6th, the IRIB will
begin television broadcasts in the Azeri language (spoken in Azerbaijan and
Nakhichevan) on November 6th. (BBC Monitoring)
RUSSIA--A radio station in Russian calling itself Radio Art has been heard at
05:15-07:00 hrs on 11655 kHz. The station also announces it broadcasts in
Moscow on 104.2 MHz (in the Western FM band).
Radio Pamyat says that beginning October 26th its 14:30-16:00 hrs broadcast
will only be heard on 7230 kHz. (BBC Monitoring)
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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 on Tuesdays since 1948.
Radio Sweden broadcasts to Europe in English on 21:30-22:30 hrs:
on medium and shortwave: 1179, 6065 and 9655 kHz
via satellite: Astra 1B (19.2 degrees East) channel 26 (Sky Movies Gold/TV
Asia/Adult Channel) at 11.597 GHz, audio subcarrier at 7.74 MHz,
Tele-X (5 degrees East) (TV4 transponder) at 12.207 GHz, audio subcarrier
7.38 MHz.
We're also relay our half hour program at 13:30 hrs on satellite
The rest of the Radio Sweden English schedule is (half hour programs):
Europe:
23:30 hrs on 1179 and 6065 kHz
Middle East and East Africa:
16:00 hrs 15270 kHz
Asia and the Pacific:
13:30 hrs on 15240 and 21625 kHz
21:30-22:30 hrs on 11955 kHz
01:00 hrs on 9695 and 11820 kHz
North America:
16:00 hrs on 17870 and 21500 kHz
02:00 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 Good Listening!