From news.cs.tut.fi!news.funet.fi!funic!nic.funet.fi!CompuServe.COM!70247.3516 Thu Dec 17 15:17:21 EET 1992
Article: 16690 of rec.radio.shortwave
Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave
Path: news.cs.tut.fi!news.funet.fi!funic!nic.funet.fi!CompuServe.COM!70247.3516
From: 70247.3516@CompuServe.COM (George Wood)
Subject: SCDX 2169
Message-ID: <921217103816_70247.3516_EHB24-2@CompuServe.COM>
Sender: root@nic.funet.fi (The FUnny NET guru)
Organization: Finnish University & Research Network
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 12:38:16 +0200
Lines: 710
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:: MediaScan ::
:: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS ::
:: from Radio Sweden ::
:: Number 2169--Dec. 29, 1992 ::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio Sweden.
This week's bulletin was written by George Wood.
Packet Radio BID SCDX2169
All times UTC unless otherwise noted.
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SWEDEN:
RADIO SWEDEN--The big news at Radio Sweden this year was our appearance on
the Tele-X and Astra 1B satellites. Relays from Sweden's direct broadcast
satellite, Tele-X, began in February, using the TV4 transponder at 12.207
GHz, audio subcarrier 7.38 MHz. The Astra relays began on the Feast of All
Fools, April 1, using transponder 26 at 11.596 GHz, audio 7.74 MHz. When we
started this was the Comedy Channel transponder, but that program did so
badly British Sky Broadcasting changed it to a classic film channel called
Sky Movies Gold. Other broadcasters sharing time with Sky are TV Asia during
the day and the soft-porn Adult Channel at night.
On November 5th, Radio Sweden's Russian Service celebrated its 25th
anniversary, with two live one hour broadcasts and a studio party. Among the
guests was the 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, from
the Tele-X satellite. The anniversary broadcast was preceeded in September by
a special meeting with listeners broadcast live from St. Petersburg Radio
over both stations.
Relays of Radio Sweden's Latvian Service six days a week over Latvian Radio
began on December 14th. Relays of the Estonian Service on Estonian Radio are
expected to begin on January 18th.
SWEDISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION--The new Swedish Broadcasting Corporation
presented its channel formats and schedules in October. 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--Much of 1992 was filled with proposals for the
introduction of private commercial radio in Sweden. After many discussions,
in October, the center-right minority government introduced a bill to
establish private stations. The bill called for the initial establishment of
60 stations, with 10 in Stockholm, 5 in Gothenburg, 3 in Malmoe, and the rest
in a number of smaller towns. Licences would last for 8 years, and the
government wanted to auction them off to the highest bidder. However, daily
newspapers would not be allowed to hold a controlling interest in any
station.
Advertising would be limited to 10 percent of airtime, with a maximum of 8
minutes of commercials every hour. The government accepted the opposition
Social Democrat proposal that community radio stations also be allowed to
carry commercials.
The bill is now being discussed by a parliamentary committee. Because the
government coalition does not have a majority in parliament, it needs the
support of at least one opposition party to pass the legislation. Apparently
turning its back on the country's largest political party, the Social
Democrats, the government has made a deal with the ultra-right wing New
Democracy. According to reports, this means more than 60 stations would be
initially licenced, and restrictions on advertising would be lightened, along
with requirements for locally-produced programming, from the original
legislation.
Should the amended legislation pass as expected, the first private commercial
radio stations in Sweden could be on the air by March. (TT)
BREAKFAST TV--What was touted as Sweden's first breakfast television
programming began on Monday September 14, on the national commercial channel
TV4. Actually Swedish Television has had a weekend morning news magazine for
years, educational television is on in the morning, the pay TV film channels
FilmNet and TV1000 are 24 hour, and the cable only outlet Z-TV has been
playing music videos at breakfast time.
But this is the first weekday breakfast news program of the sort found in the
US and Britain. Interestingly, the rival commercial channel TV3 suddenly
challenged the new program by relaying a single half hour of Sky News in the
middle of the morning period, along with reruns of programs from the evening
before.
KINNEVIK--1992 also saw the expansion of the Kinnevik media empire of
Sweden's answer to Rupert Murdoch, Jan Stenbeck. Kinnevik's holdings include
the separate Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish versions of the satellite
broadcaster TV3, the pay film channel TV1000, a large portion of the
terrestrial Swedish channel TV4, a cable shopping channel, a local cable
channel in Stockholm, and the TV guide "Paa TV".
During 1992, these were joined by Z Radio, which is carried on the Tele-X
satellite to community radio stations, which break the law against
commercials by carrying it, and its television counterpart Z-TV, a cable-only
MTV clone.
TV3 and TV1000 were set up in London, to circumvent the restrictive Swedish
laws of a few years ago regulating satellite television, and use the Astra
satellites. During 1992 Kinnevik sold its 3.4 percent share in Astra's owner
SES. Meanwhile, America's Home Box Office increased its share of TV1000 to
just over 30 percent.
On September 1st, TV1000 started a new cable-only channel of older films
called "FilmMax" in Stockholm. It expanded to Gothenburg and Malmoe in
October.
FILMNET--TV1000's rival FilmNet fought back, its Swedish owners Esselte
having sold out to South Africa's M-Net. FilmNet started a new channel called
"FilmNet Plus" in October. The broadcaster had been using two transponders on
Astra, for parallel transmissions in PAL and D2-MAC, and had apparently
thought it could use one for the new service.
However Thames used its Astra option to launch UK Gold, and FilmNet found
itself without its second Astra outlet. In September the company suddenly
bought 85 percent of the direct broadcast satellite Tele-X from the Swedish
government. The new FilmNet Plus service appeared there the following month,
using 12.673 GHz.
Unlike FilmMax, FilmNet Plus does not offer different programming from its
parent. The two FilmNet's seem to have the same programming, but time-
shifted.
FilmNet is reported to be considering buying a second satellite to co-locate
with Tele-X at 5 degrees East, possibly Britain's Marco Polo 1, which is for
sale from the beginning of the year.
NORWAY:
NORWEGIAN TV2--On September 5th Norway's first nationwide commercial
television station, TV2, went on the air, based in Norway's second city,
Bergen.
TV4 NORWAY--TV4 Norway was originally part of Sweden's TV4, using an Intelsat
to reach Norway in parallel with the Tele-X satellite. When TV4 received the
franchise as Sweden's first terrestrial commercial channel, the Norwegian
operation was cut loose, and immediately began losing money. In late October,
when it was on the edge of bankruptcy, it was announced that TV4 had been
saved from a most unusual source--rock singer Bob Geldof, the man behind Live
Aid, and now involved in British breakfast television. However, the effort
apparently failed, because a few weeks later TV4 vanished from the airwaves.
TV NORGE--In November, the Norwegian authorities tried to punish the private
satellite broadcaster TV Norge for failing to follow the laws covering
advertising. TV Norge is said to have violated the law by broadcasting
commercials in the middle of programs, and for exceeding the 10 recent of
airtime ceiling on advertising. The Norwegian Ministry of Culture tried to
order TV Norge off the air for three days. But an Oslo court ruled against
that action, saying TV Norge had been given too little time to respond to the
accusations. (TT)
INTELSAT--TV Norge and the former Norwegian TV4 were part of a package of
Nordic stations on Intelsat 512 at 1 degree West, which has been the main
Norwegian TV satellite. But in late October, the stations on that satellite
cloned themselves onto Intelsat 515 at 18 degrees West. Now that TV4 is gone,
Intelsat 515 is carrying the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, the new
Norwegian terrestrial commercial station TV2, 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.
THOR--It's hard to say why the Norwegians shifted so much activity from 1
degree West to 18 degrees West, as at the same time Norwegian Telecom was
moving the Marco Polo 2 satellite to 1 degree West to create a Nordic DBS
package. Norwegian Telecom successfully outbid the Swedish Space Corporation
and bought Marco Polo 2 from Britain. Renamed Thor, tests from the satellite
began in November. However, the Norwegians continue to insist on broadcasting
in the relatively obscure D-MAC standard, which makes it hard to understand
how they are going to attract viewers. So far, there has been no announcement
of what broadcasters will be using the 5 transponders on the satellite.
NORWAY--Meanwhile, columnist Bertil Sundberg in "Paa TV" magazine has pointed
out that with the parallel transmissions on two Intelsats and the new Thor
satellite, there are now Norwegian broadcasts on 5 satellites at 4 different
positions. They use a bewildering array of standards: PAL, D2-MAC in both
Eurocrypt M and the unusual Eurocrypt S, and the even more obscure D-MAC.
This, he says, may explain why 80 percent of satellite systems in Norway are
motorized. Swedes often tell jokes about Norwegians. But the Norwegian
approach to satellite television seems to be a joke in itself.
RADIO NORWAY INTERNATIONAL--During 1992 the Norwegian Foreign Ministry
announced it would stop funding Radio Norway International, funding that had
enabled the station to increase its broadcasts in English from once a week to
twice a week (Saturdays and Sundays). At the same time, the Norwegian
Broadcasting Corporation announced it was reviewing its funding of Radio
Norway International, and for a time it looked as if all English programming
would go off the air.
Instead, it seems programming will return to Sundays only beginning in
February. Broadcasts in Norwegian are unaffected.
MTV AND EUROSPORT--Nordic cable operators were upset in 1992 about MTV and
Eurosport. Both channels said they wanted 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. ("Dagens
Nyheter") In early December it was decided to keep Eurosport until the end of
the year (when it could be replaced by the new Euronews channel). The cable
operators are also demanding that the two stations code their satellite
signals, which is unlikely.
There have been rumors that Eurosport might start a special Scandinavian
service. But the Eurosport representative at the Satellite TV Show in
Stockholm in October told Radio Sweden that this was just a suggestion, and
no more.
EUROPEAN SATELLITE BROADCASTING:
UK GOLD--one of the most interesting new satellite channels to appear in 1992
was UK Gold, a combined effort of the BBC and Thames Television, with
financial aid from Cox Communications in the United States. Drawing on the
program libraries of the BBC and Thames, UK Gold promises to be a Best of
British TV outlet, as Super Channel was supposed to be. Transmissions began
on Astra transponder 23, in October. 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.
RADIO LUXEMBOURG--The sad news is that veteran broadcaster Radio Luxembourg's
English service is going off the air at the end of 1992. Earlier in the year
the famous broadcaster had abandoned its medium wave outlet on 1440 kHz to
rely solely on relays on Astra transponder 13. But the station failed to keep
enough advertisers or rebroadcasters to turn a profit. The Swedish copyright
society, CopySwede, may have had a role to play in the end of Radio
Luxembourg. For many months Swedish Telecom has been trying to include
Luxembourg in its cable networks. But CopySwede demanded royalties that
Luxembourg said were far in excess of those paid anywhere else.
ASIAN OUTLETS--Asians in Europe have had access to a number of satellite
outlets during 1992. TV Asia, serving the South Asian community, has used
Astra transponder 26 during the day and transponder 8 at night. Japan
Satellite TV has relayed news from Tokyo on transponder 24 evenings. Both are
coded in videocrypt.
On the other hand, China News Europe broadcasts in the clear for three hours
every night on Super Channel on Eutelsat II-F1. The programs are produced in
China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese.
NEW SATELLITES--There were several new satellites over Europe in 1992.
Eutelsat orbited its II-F3 satellite, which was placed at 16 degrees East,
where feared interference with Astra did not take place. It is now used by
several coded private Spanish broadcasters, HTV from Croatia, the Turkish
HBB, Portugal's RTP Internacional, and the new Tunisian outlet TV7 or RTT.
Eutelsat II-F4 was launched in July. It replaced the weak Eutelsat I-F4 at 7
degrees East, taking over such channels as RIK in Cyprus, Greece's ET1, and
Serbia's RTV Beograd. On January 3rd, the European Broadcasting Union will
begin using 4 transponders on Eutelsat II-F4 for program distribution.
Germany's Kopernikus 3 was launched on October 12th from Cape Canaveral.
Built originally as a back-up for the first two Kopernikus satellites, number
3 is to be positioned over eastern Russia, and will provide
telecommunications to Eastern Europe, as well as to restore capacity for the
international cable system between Denmark and Russia. Kopernikus can provide
13 television channels, as well as 6000 simultaneous telephone calls.
Another new satellite launched in 1992 was Spain's direct broadcast satellite
Hispasat. Going against the trend away from direct broadcast satellites (in
favor of medium-powered satellites like Astra), it offers several high-
powered transponders to Spain and the Canary Islands, and several more to
Latin America. Test pictures from its location at 30 degrees West appeared in
early December. Ironically, just as Hispasat was going into orbit, a Spanish
company booked two transponders on Astra 1B and took options on two more on
the coming Astra 1C.
EASTERN EUROPE--Polish and Hungarian channels tested on Eutelsat II-F3 during
late 1992. The Hungarian station used 11.596 GHz, while the Polish outlet was
on 11.555 GHz, curiously in PAL, rather than the SECAM system used in Poland.
Regular broadcasting is expected to begin early in the new year, apparently
on 11.678 GHz.
ASTRA--The Astra 1C satellite is due to be launched in April or May, 1992.
There has much speculation about what channels will appear on its 16
transponders. Observers say there will be no shortage of takers. There are
options on two Spanish channels, and other possible channels are Discovery,
the Disney Channnel, TV Asia, Children's Channel, RTL-2, ITV, n-tv and Bravo.
Astra 1D is to be launched in 1994. 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.
ASIA, THE MIDDLE EAST, AND THE PACIFIC:
ARAB BROADCASTERS--Several Arab broadcasters appeared on satellite in 1992.
The Kuwaiti Space Channel went on the air on Arabsat 1B at 26 degrees East,
joining the Egyptian Space Channel (which uses the unusual S-band). ESC has
announced it is switching to C-band, and it will soon be broadcasting to
Europe as well via Eutelsat.
Tunisia began satellite broadcasting in late 1992, with the RTT or TV7
service appearing on Eutelsat II-F3.
INDIA--The Star-TV service on Asiasat 1 has launched a channel in Hindi
called Zee-TV (to go along with BBC World Service, MTV, Mandarin, sports, and
entertainment channels). Star-TV and CNN have had a great impact on people in
South Asia, where the only television previously was from tightly controlled
state broadcasters.
A new Hindi-language station called the Asian Television Network began
broadcasting via the Russian Ghorizont at 105 degrees East.
India's Insat 2-A was launched in July and is operational at 74 degrees East,
and three regional Indian television channels have moved to it from Arabsat.
Altogether, the state broadcaster Doordashan is using 6 of the 18
transponders.
Meanwhile, politicians in India are blaming the BBC and CNN for spreading the
recent Hindu-Moslem riots by actually reporting what was happening, including
the destruction of a mosque by Hindus. The official broadcast media in India
try to avoid flaming communal violence by playing down coverage of such
events. The "Times of India" wrote recently "The credibility of Doordarshan
(India's official television) and All India Radio have hit an all-time low.
The BBC is now accepted to be the last world on authenticity." (Reuters)
AUSTRALIA--On August 14th, China finally succeeded in launching Australia's
Optus B-1, formerly known as Aussat B-1. This satellite carries 15 Ku-band
transponders, and is to be placed at 160 degrees East, replacing Aussat A-1,
which is due to run out of fuel in early 1993.
On October 8th the Australian Broadcasting Corporation officially began to
lease a transponder on Indonesia's Palapa B-2P satellite for its Television
Australia service to Asia. The new service was scheduled to begin by the end
of November, but has been delayed until early 1993.
NORTH AMERICA:
NEW SATELLITES--1992 saw the launch of several important satellites for North
America. The higher powered Galaxy 5 (with twice the power per transponder as
earlier C-band satellites), which was launched on March 13th, has taken over
at 125 degrees West, and is now the home of such stations as The Disney
Channel, CNN, Turner Broadcasting, Home Box Office, Cinemax, ESPN, the USA
Network, and Arts and Entertainment.
Galaxy 1R, one of the new higher powered satellites, was destroyed shortly
after lift-off from Cape Canaveral.
But Satcom C4 was successfully launched on August 31st and has been moved to
135 degrees West.
CABLE LAW--In October, the American Congress has, for the first time,
overturned a veto by President George Bush, putting into law the "Cable
Television Consumer Protection Act".
Reversing the deregulation introduced by the Reagan administration, the act
forces cable operators to maintain technical standards, charge reasonable
rates, and include local broadcasters in their output.
It also bans pricing descrimination against satellite home viewers and forces
programmers to make their offerings available to satellite viewers. The act
also lays down some rules for direct satellite broadcasting.
DBS--The planned American direct satellite broadcaster Skypix cancelled its
contract with Hughes in late 1992. According to reports, Skypix is millions
of dollars in debt, and the project is unlikely to happen.
Meanwhile, Hughes is going ahead with its direct satellite system DirecTv.
The first satellite is to be launched in December, 1993. A deal for the
second satellite should be in place by January. They will be placed at 101
degrees West. Using digital compression techniques, DirecTv could offer as
many as 200 channels to dishes around 18 inches (46 centimeters) in diameter.
A 150 channel service is planned.
One DBS expert has pointed to the proliferation of magazines on store racks,
and suggested that the magazine racks of the future will be satellites
offering scores, or even hundreds, of narrow channels appealing to various
interests. ("Cable and Satellite Europe")
GLOBAL BROADCASTERS:
TURNER AND CNN--Turner Broadcasting and the Cable News Network continued to
expand in 1992. In Europe the obvious change was the introduction of CNN to
Astra in April, making the service available to millions of home dish owners.
However, transmissions continued from Intelsat 601 at 27.5 degrees West,
since the Astra transponder is beamed towards southwestern Europe and is
weaker in northern and eastern Europe.
CNN also abandoned use of the Russian Ghorizont satellite at 40 degrees east,
which it used for C-band transmissions to Africa. Instead, CNN added C-band
transmission from Intelsat 601 to Africa. In May or June CNN moved to the new
Arabsat 1C satellite for broadcasts to the Middle East.
In June, CNN International began broadcasting directly to Japanese home on
Superbird B-1 satellite, which was launched in February.
CNN is expanding in 1993, and Peter Vesey, the Vice President in charge of
CNN International, visited Scandinavia in November to present their plans.
These include more programs from London, two hours a day of rebroadcasting in
Moscow, dubbed into Russian (these appear to be Ghorizont 11 at 11 degrees
West, at 11.525 GHz. CNN is relayed with Russian dubbing at around 19:00-
20:00 hrs), four hours daily in Poland, dubbed into Polish, a separate
Spanish soundtrack for one daily half hour, and some subtitled programs in
French and Japanese, for those markets.
Speaking with Radio Sweden, Vesey said that CNN is definately looking more to
direct to home broadcasting: "I think on a global basis, direct satellite to
home delivery is where were are going to see our greatest growth."
Despite losing two recent court cases in France which allowed hotels to carry
CNN for free, Vesey told us CNN has no plans to encrypt its signals to
Europe.
In the United States, Turner Broadcasting launched its Cartoon Channel in
October, drawing on the resources of the Hanna-Barbera library.
Other relatively new Turner Channels in North America include the Checkout
Channel for grocery stores and the Airport Channel at airports. Both use Ku-
band. There's a report Turner Broadcasting is thinking of starting a "Fitness
Channel". Ted Turner's wife Jane Fonda is best known nowadays for her fitness
videos.
DEUTSCHE WELLE--The Intelsat-K satellite was launched in June, and placed
over the Atlantic at 21.5 degrees West. Unlike other Intelsat satellites, it
has many relatively powerful Ku-band transponders, capable of reception in
both Europe and North America with antennas of 1 meter or less. The satellite
has been used to Europe for news feeds from the United States. But two
European broadcasters, Germany's Deutsche Welle and Italy's RAI have used
Intelsat-K to reach North America with regular programming.
Deutsche Welle entered the world of satellite television in March, having
taken over the facilities of the Berlin-based American station RIAS. DW began
broadcasting to Europe on Eutelsat II-F1 with three blocks each two hours
long, in both German and English. Spanish was added later. When France's TV5
evicted the American Worldnet, it found a home on the DW transponder.
The DW broadcasts on Intelsat-K began on November 1st and are further relayed
to American dish owners and cable networks on the new Satcom C4 satellite at
135 degrees West, transponder 5 and on the US Information Agency transponder
3 on Spacenet 2 at 69 degrees West. At the end of November, relays of the
Spanish programming from Intelsat-K began on Peru's Global de Television.
Deutsche Welle is also relayed to Africa on Intelsat 601 at 27.5 degrees
West. Africa, Asia, and the Pacific are covered by transmissions on Intelsat
505 at 66 degrees East. Finally, Deutche Welle is also transmitting to the
Far East and Pacific on Intelsat 508 at 180 degrees East. (BBC Monitoring)
TV5/CANAL FRANCE--Another global broadcaster in the making is the French-
language TV5, which has been broadcasting to Europe on Eutelsat I-F1, and to
North America on Anik E1 transponder 17. TV5 Afrique launched on September
30th, via Ghorizont 12 at 40 degrees East. TV5 planned to expand to Latin
America by the end of the year, using Panamsat-1 at 45 degrees West.
TV5 carries programs from France (TF1, France 2 and 3), Belgium (RTBF),
Switzerland (SSR), and Quebec (Radio Canada). Broadcasts are currently 19
hours a day, but should be round-the-clock soon. (AFP via BBC Monitoring and
"In Orbit")
Meanwhile, another French channel, Canal France, is broadcasting to Africa on
Intelsat 601, and to the Middle East on Arabsat 1C.
BBC WORLD SERVICE TELEVISION--Another global broadcaster that expanded in
1992 was BBC World Service Television. The Asian service, over Asiasat-1,
began on March 10th. This was expanded to Africa in April, using a C-band
transponder on Intelsat 601. The service is encrypted using the IRDETO
system, requiring a decoder from the South African-based M-Net company, which
shares the transponder with BBC.
Most recently World Service Television has appeared in North America, relayed
uncoded on Intelsat 601. It's being further relayed across Canada as part of
the CBC Newsworld service, coded on Anik E2, transponder 16.
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.
Back here in Europe, the World Service Television switch to D2-MAC on
Intelsat 601 has been pushed back to January. The Asian Service is relayed
during the night to Europe, uncoded.
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.
BRIGHTSIDE BROADCASTING--Another would-be global broadcaster seems to have
folded. Brightside broadcasting appeared on Canada's Anik E1
satellite, transponder 23 in January. According to one report they were
uplinked from Atlanta, Georgia.
The service was also relayed to other parts of the world on C-band, using the
Russian Ghorizont 12 and 15 satellites, at 40 degrees East and 14 degrees
West. By April Brightside had disappeared.
INDIGENOUS BROADCASTING--In the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus'
arrival in the Americas, there were some native initiatives against the tide
of global media.
In January Television Northern Canada began broadcasting on Canada's Anik 1E
satellite transponder 19. It broadcasts to Native Americans in the Canadian
Arctic in 11 native languages and English. The intention is to help preserve
native culture.
After decades of being the recipient of international television, the
Caribbean has started its own international broadcasts. Test transmissions
from the Caribbean Satellite Network went on the air at the beginning of
December, transmitting to the Americas on the Galaxy 3 satellite, transponder
7. Regular broadcasting is to begin in January. The station is also reported
to be interested in broadcasting to Europe.
Signals are uplinked from Miami. Programing will concentrate on music, but
there will also be documentaries based on life in the Caribbean, news, and
situation comedies. (IPS and BBC Monitoring)
THE FUTURE:
WARC--The 1992 World Administrative Radio Conference was held during February
in Torremolinos, Spain. Its brief was to reallocate some parts of the radio
frequency spectrum to new and existing users. The last major reallocation
conference was WARC-79, more than 12 years ago, and since then technology has
come a long way. WARC-92 looked at services
operating between 5 MHz and 124 GHz, including broadcasting, space research
and mobile communications.
Shortwave broadcasters wanted to get more frequencies, because the current
bands are so crowded, preferably from bands next door to existing broadcast
bands. Those are occupied by fixed services, that's to say point-to-point
communications for telephone links and emergency services. Many developing
countries protested against this, although research has shown that the fixed
services operating on shortwave are getting fewer and fewer--most of them are
moving to satellite links.
The result of long negotiations was that broadcasters will receive 790 kHz of
spectrum, but only 200 kHz below 10 MHz. And only 50 kHz of that is in the 7
MHz band (where there are currently collisions between broadcasters and radio
amateurs), against an original bid for 200 kHz!
The new extension bands will be transferred to broadcasters in the year 2007.
They are for single side band only and a future WARC has to come up with a
planning system for these new bands. But in practice, many broadcasters will
move into the new bands well before 2007--if you look at the WARC-79
extensions, which still aren't officially released to broadcasting, they are
already heavily used.
The conference was faced with its most difficult arguments over the
reallocation of frequencies between 1 and 3 GHz. Mobile satellite services
and braodcasting satellite services were seeking allocations there. Three
separate frequency ranges were put forward for the new BSS-Sound (direct
radio satellite broadcasting) service. This will provide high quality radio
reception to portable reeivers. The
satellite operators say that receivers will be produced cheaply enough for
the developing world to take advantage of the new techology.
About half the world backed an allocation for BSS-Sound around 1.5 GHz, with
the other half, including most of Europe, opting for a band around 2.5 GHz,
while the United States wanted 2.3 GHz. The conference agreed that 1.5 GHz
was the most technically suitable. It offers best
reception for portable receivers, without interference from the terrain or
buildings. Small whip antgennas can be used and the satellites will be
cheaper to build.
However, politically many countries could not agree, one of the reasons being
that their existing users at 1.5 GHz in some cases include the military. The
conference reached absolute deadlock on this subject, and it was only in its
very last stages that a compromise was drawn up.
This provided the world with three separate allocations for BSS-Sound. One
was at the 1.5 GHz range--with a small portion of the band
available immediately, another allocation at 2.6 GHz, and a separate band for
the US at 2.3 GHz. The result is that digital satellite radio is now just
around the corner, Provided, of course, some satellite can be built and
receivers brought on to the market. (Janne Olsen)
DIGITAL AUDIO BROADCASTING--Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) will replace FM
within the next ten years. During the second quarter of 1992 Swedish Telecom
tested DAB transmissions in Stockholm, using a frequency within TV channel 12
(224 MHz). More comprehensive DAB test broadcasts will begin in 1993. Regular
broadcasts are to begin in 1995 or 1996. The Swedish government has proposed
using TV channel 12, around 224 MHz.
The BBC is using the Olympus satellite for DAB tests until the Spring of
1993.
EDXC--But satellites will not be replacing shortwave immediately. At the
European DX Council conference in Tampere, Finland in August, Simon Spanswick
of the BBC World Service described two coming technical improvements to
shortwave transmission. AM-Data System (AM-DS) is very similar to the RDS
system of transmitting digital text information along with an FM signal, now
in common use in Europe. AM-DS receivers would display station names, as well
as alternative frequencies on which the station is transmitting. Listeners
will be able to switch to those alternatives by pressing a button.
Tests on AM-DS have already been carried out by Deutsche Welle in conjunction
with the Institut fur Rundfunk Technik in Munich.
Farther in the future is a receiver system called ID Logic. This is being
developed by an American company which proposes that whole station schedules
could be downloaded to computer chips in special radios, providing perhaps a
complete three or six month schedule. The keypad on ID Logic receivers would
have the facility to enter the desired language and the nearest city. The set
would then automatically select the frequency scheduled to be operational at
that time.
CABLE TV--An American company is planning to use a new digital system to
provide cable systems with 500 channels or more. The company, TCI, plans to
offer the system to cable subscribers by January, 1994. TCI customers with
satellite dishes could receive simialr compressed digital services in mid-
1993.
A digital compression system converts the standard analog signals now used to
transmit video and voice to a digital format. Special equipment can compress
the digital signals or that 10 channels or more can fit into the same
bandwidth formerly used by one analog channel.
The compressed digital signal would be transmitted through a cable system
through optical fiber-coaxial cable. A set-top device then decompresses the
digital channel and converts it back into 10 analog channels that can be
viewed on a normal television set.
TCI is the largest cable systems operator in the United States. (AP)
That's it for MediaScan and 1992. We'd like to thank all of our
contributors during the year gone by for making the program happen. And
thanks to our readers as well.
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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 year's contributors Good Listening!
Distribution:
Internet >INTERNET: REC.RADIO.SHORTWAVE@nic.funet.fi
Jonathan >mcimail:338-2983
Terry INTERNET> tstader@aol.com
Tom >mcimail:244-6376