Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave
From: 70247.3516@CompuServe.COM (George Wood)
Subject: SCDX 2166
Organization: Finnish University & Research Network
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 14:21:20 +0200
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:: MediaScan ::
:: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS ::
:: from Radio Sweden ::
:: Number 2166--Nov. 17, 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 SCDX2166
All times UTC unless otherwise noted.
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NORDIC MEDIA NEWS:
SWEDEN--In this week's English edition of the program we'll be meeting
Sweden's satellite DX guru, Bertil Sundberg, who lives in the southern city
of Lund. He writes a monthly column for the magazine "Elektronikvaerlden" as
well as a weekly update on the latest news in the TV guide "Paa TV". And he's
earned the name "Space Doctor", being on call daily to help subscribers to
those magazines with problems in their satellite systems. And you've probably
heard news from him many times before in this program.
A student radio station in the Swedish city of Uppsala is going to start
broadcasting news via satellite, to student stations in other parts of the
country. It was originally scheduled to start this week, but the project has
been delayed until after the beginning of the year. The relays will probably
be over the Tele-X satellite.
KINNEVIK--A Nordic broadcaster hopes to expand outside the region. TV3 is
part of the media empire of Jan Stenbeck's Kinnevik company, which also
includes the pay film channel TV1000, a large portion of the terrestrial
channel TV4, a cable shopping channel, Z Radio, which is carried by satellite
to community radio stations, and it's television counterpart Z-TV, a cable
only MTV clone, along with "Paa TV" magazine, and a number of other
interests.
TV3 set up in London, to circumvent the restrictive Swedish laws of a few
years ago regulating satellite television. Now TV3 is applying with a British
company for a local radio licence in London itself. The station is to be
called Eagle Radio. ("AM/FM" via Kauto Huopio)
Meanwhile, America's Home Box Office has increased its share of TV1000 to
just over 30 percent. ("Satnews")
THOR--Norway's newly bought Marco Polo 2 satellite has arrived at its new
position of 1 degree West. The Norwegians have renamed the satellite Thor,
after the ancient Norse god of thunder. While test transmissions were due to
begin on November 15th, we haven't seen anything there yet. (Jan Johansson)
EUROSPORT--Eurosport has apparently withdrawn its demand that Nordic cable
networks pay for relaying the channel. This follows the cable operators'
threat to remove Eurosport, since it is still available for free to networks
in the rest of Europe and to home satellite viewers. (Jan Johansson)
FILMNET--We've reported before that M-Net, the South African company that
owns Filmnet, has bought Sweden's Tele-X direct broadcast satellite. The new
Filmnet Movie Channel will begin broadcasts via Tele-x on December 1st. The
signals will use the transponder at 12.673 GHz, but since the channel is
intended for cable distribution, chances are it won't be available to home
satellite viewers. (Jan Johansson, and Bertil Sundberg in "Paa TV")
TRANS-ATLANTIC SATELLITE BROADCASTING:
INTELSAT-K--On the day of the American presidential elections, we suggested
watching the transponders on the Intelsat-K satellite, the new satellite used
for transmitting signals across the Atlantic. Sure enough there was election
coverage from ABC, CBS, and others on the previously reported transponders at
11.531 and 11.558 GHz.
But also in use were transponders on 11.593, 11.652, and 11.681 GHz.
Surprisingly, many of the Intelsat-K transponders were being used for both
horizontal and vertical polarization. Generally, a transponder is polarized
one way or the other, to avoid interference with adjacent channels, and
nearby satellites. This is the first time we're seen the same transponder
used both ways. (DX Editor)
DEUTSCHE WELLE--Intelsat-K is seeing service on the other side of the
Atlantic as well. We're reported before on Deutsche Welle's use of the
satellite to cross the Atlantic, for further relays on the new Satcom C4
satellite at 135 degrees West, transponder 5. Deutsche Welle English is
broadcast to Europe (on Eutelsat II-F1) at 19:00, 23:00, and 03:00 hrs, and
presumeably the same times are live to North America. ("Paa TV")
Besides German and English, DW has added broadcasts in Spanish. Half hour
programs are broadcast to Europe at 21:00 and 01:00 hrs. Peru's Global de
Television is to include Deutsche Welle as part of its daily programming,
beginning at the end of this month. (BBC Monitoring)
EUROPLUS--Joining Deutsche Welle on Intelsat-K is Italy's RAI, which hopes
North Americans will tune directly to the satellite for direct to home
broadcasting. RAI says people living as far west as Montreal, Chicago, and
Santiago can receive its signals with antennas as small as 66 to 88
centimeters.
RAI is included in a service called Europlus, which claims to offer 4 TV
channels, several radio stations, and several thouand pages of teletext.
Signals in both the Euroepan PAL and the North American NTSC standards are
supposed to be included. A special Europlus decoder is required. (Internet
News via Kauto Huopio)
BBC WORLD SERVICE--Another global broadcaster that's recently appeared in
North America is BBC World Service Television. The service is being relayed
uncoded to North America on Intelsat 601 at 27.5 degrees West, using the C-
band transponder 4. (Dr. Stuart Kingsley via Internet News) It's being
further relayed across Canada as part of the CBC Newsworld service, coded on
Anik E2, transponder 16.
Back here in Europe, the World Service Television switch to D2-MAC on
Intelsat 601 has been pushed back from this month to January. ("In Orbit")
The November issue of "BBC Worldwide" magazine says nothing about this, but
does tell potential subscribers to contact TV Extra here in Sweden, in the
southern city of Motala. ("BBC Worldwide")
World Service Television plans to expand into the United States, Japan, and
the Pacific in the next 14 months, and talks are also going on with Latin
American broadcasters. (Reuters, "Satnews")
Outside of Europe, BBC World Service Television is primarily a 24 hour news
channel. The BBC is considering starting a second international channel,
focusing on general entertainment. Research carried out in India indicates
that World Service Television has an 11 percent viewship figure, compared to
CNN's 6 percent. ("Satnews")
CNN--CNN International has begun tests in Spanish, Polish, and Russian, and
with subtitles in French and Japanese. On the Astra 1B satellite, the second
half of the "World Business Today" program is to have a Spanish sound
channel. There are other Spanish language programs to the Americas.
CNN International is broadcasting two hours a day in Russian and four hours a
day in Polish. (EFE)
We've found CNN programs dubbed into Russian on the Ghorizont satellite at 11
degrees West, on the single Ku-band transponder at 11.525 GHz.
BRIGHTSIDE--Another would-be global broadcaster seems to have folded. Robert
Smathers writes in "Satnews" that Brightside Network Systems is probably gone
for good. They had briefly used the Anik E1 satellite to North America and
two Russian Ghorizont satellites to cover other parts of the world. (Robert
Smathers in "Satnews")
CARIBBEAN--On the other hand, after decades of being the recipient of
international television, the Caribbean is to start its own international
broadcasts. The Caribbean Satellite Network is to go on the air at the end of
this month, transmitting to both the Americas and Europe, as well as the
Caribbean. (Appropriate following the 500th anniversary of the arrival of
Christopher Columbus in that part of the world.)
Signals are to be uplinked from Miami 24 hours a day. Programing will
concentrate on music, but there will also be documentaries based on life in
the Caribbean, news, and situation comedies. (IPS)
EUROPEAN SATELLITE BROADCASTING:
KOPERNIKUS--A new station called N-TV is scheduled to start on November 30th
on what was the ARD/ZDF transponder (12.524 GHz) on Kopernikus 1. (Gary,
G4GHD)
ASTRA--Sources suggest that the Lifestyle channel may close down at the end
of the year, vacating its Astra transponder to the new German channel RTL-2.
("Satnews")
TELECOM--France's Telecom 2A began regular operation on November 9th, in both
D2-MAC and SECAM. Among the unscrambled channels are: MCM on 12.543 GHz,
Planete Cable on 12.585, TV-Sport on 12.670, and Canal Jimmy on 12.732.
("Satnews")
RUSSIA--The Russian satellite ZSSRD at 16 degrees West carries two Ku-band
transponders, using to relay signals from the MIR space station. Data
information is carried at 11.375 GHz, which can often be seen as flashing
lines on the screen. More interesting is the transponder at 10.835 GHz, which
carries video from MIR in clear SECAM. Unfortunately this frequency is
slightly below that covered by most satellite receivers! (Roger Bunney in
"Shortwave Magazine" and "What Satellite TV" magazine)
HISPASAT--While the Marco Polo 2 satellite has been bought and moved by
Norway, and Marco Polo 1 is for sale, there's a new direct broadcast
satellite at the same position of 31 degrees West, Spain's Hispasat. However,
there are reports the satellite has encountered serious problems involving
its 5 direct broadcast television channels. While the management of Hispasat
says it may be operational by January 1, 1993, absolutely reliable sources
say an antenna malfunction will make it very hard to receive the satellite in
Latin America and the southern part of the Iberian peninsula.
A Hispasat spokesman says the other, lowered-powered, television services are
working fine. (RNE Radio 1 via BBC Monitoring)
NORTH AMERICAN SATELLITE BROADCASTING:
PBS--America's Public Broadcasting System is expanding enormously when it
moves to the Telstar 401 satellite, scheduled for launch late next year. PBS
will be using digital compression techniques to squeeze 8 to 10 channels into
each transponder. Today, each satellite transponder carries one, sometimes
two, TV channels.
PBS plans to provide a total of more than 40 Ku-band channels, creating what
is being described as an "education neighborhood". Most of these new channels
will be used for educational programming to schools. The plans include two
way contact, in which participating classes would interact with the
programming, sending data from computers over the telephone to the closest
PBS station, which would relay signals to the satellite. (Internet News, via
Kauto Huopio)
PBS will also use a single C-band transponder on Telstar 401.
Newscasts from Britain's ITN can be found around 16:30-17:30 Eastern Time via
PBS on Spacenet 4, transponder 10. ("Satnews")
ASIAN-PACIFIC SATELLITE BROADCASTING:
AUSTRALIA--The start of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's TV
Australia service to Asia has been postponed until February. Australian
Communications Minister Bob Collins say the ABC is building facilities for
the new service in Darwin. (BBC Monitoring)
NON-BROADCAST SATELLITE SIGNALS:
RUSSIA--There are many services on satellites besides television and radio.
BBC Monitoring is now subscribing to the Russian ITAR-TASS news agency, via a
data link on the Intelsat 601 satellite at 27.5 degrees West. BBC will
receive information from Moscow in English and Russian, replacing the
previous intricate system of communications cables. (BBC Monitoring)
SCPC--While many satellite radio channels use FM audio subcarriers on regular
TV channels, many more can be squeezed into an single transponder by
themselves, using a system called Single Channel Per Carrier (SCPC). There
are a number of ways to try to receive SCPC signals, but now Universal
Electronics has developed the first consumer-priced SCPC decoder, which can
be attached easily to an ordinary satellite receiver.
The unit is reviewed in the September, 1992 issue of "Monitoring Times"
magazine, which likes the SCPC-100, but points out tuning SCPC requires
extremely stable satellite receiving equipment. The magazine also criticises
the lack of a "line out" jack to connect to a stereo. ("Monitoring Times")
There are hundreds of SCPC services transmitting to North America, including
16 channels from National Public Radio. We haven't heard whether there are
any SCPC services to Europe, and would be interested in receiving reports on
any. (Perhaps the above TASS transmission uses SCPC.)
Universal sells the SCPC-100 for USD 440, plus shipping. More details from:
Universal Electronics, 4555 Groves Road, Suite 13, Columbus, Ohio, 43232,
USA.
MULTIMEDIA NEWS--IBM, NBC, and a company called NuMedia are to test a system
of "news on demand" delivered via satellite. The system, which would be
called NBC Desktop News, would allow people to scan lists of headlines using
personal computers and recall the stories that interest them. It involves
text, graphics, video and sound extracts in a multimedia PC system.
("Satnews")
TELEVISION:
ESTONIA--A new Russian language TV station is going on the air in Tallinn.
Called "Orsent", the new station will apparently be broadcasting
entertainment programming. As Estonian Radio reported: "The producers of the
new television program hope that those inhabitants who are tired of
overpoliticized life can relax and stock up on postive emotions for the
following day." (BBC Monitoring)
MEDIUM AND SHORTWAVE:
AZERBAIJAN--The Voice of Azerbaijan is expanding. Besides the current
programs in Turkish, Farsi, and Arabic, a new English service to Europe is
starting. The station also broadcsts for 60 minutes a day in Russian. (BBC
Monitoring)
RUSSIA--Radio Moscow International's Spanish service to Latin America now
carried a religious program called "La Voz de Salvacion" on Tuesdays at
03:10-03:25 hrs. The program is produced by the Church of God of the Prophecy
(La Iglesia del Dio del la Profesia). (BBC Monitoring)
On November 2nd a station relaying the satellite programs of Deutsche Welle
in various languages began operating in Moscow on 702 kHz. (Voice of Russia
via BBC Monitoring)
Religious programs from American evangelist Dr. Gene Scott have been heard on
21845 kHz from a transmitter which antenna bearings indicate is in Russia.
The broadcast has been heard from 06:30 to 08:00 hrs, when the transmitter
appears to switch to Radio Moscow's World Service in English. Gene Scott
programming (not the same as on 21845 kHz) is also heard at the same time on
5920 kHz from WWCR in the United States, in parallel with 11530 khz from the
Voice of Hope in Lebanon. (BBC Monitoring)
USA--WWCR has moved from 13840 to 13845 kHz, to avoid interference from KHBI
in Saipan. The station has also ordered its 3rd shortwave transmitter, a 100
kW unit expected in 4-6 months. (Tom Sundstrom)
PUBLICATIONS--The new European edition of the "AM Radio Log 1993" is
available. It's unclear if this 300 page A4 book lists North American radio
stations monitored by Europeans (which is very likely) or European stations.
More details from: DX-Service, SF-10760 Vantaa, Finland.
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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!