Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr12/scdx2180.zip/SCDX2180

Text File | 1993-06-12 | 14KB | 306 lines

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::           MediaScan             ::
::      SWEDEN CALLING DXERS       ::
::       from Radio Sweden         ::
::    Number 2180--June 8, 1993    ::
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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 SCDX2180

All times UTC unless otherwise noted.

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Note: Because of the delay in writing this edition, due to the EDXC meeting,
number 2181 will be uploaded on June 15th.

NORDIC MEDIA NEWS:

SWEDEN--When the Swedish Radio board meets on June 14th, they're expected to
confirm that our services in Spanish and French will be going off the air, as
of the first week of July. In addition, most of our own programming in
Swedish will be gradually replaced by relays from Swedish radio's domestic
service.

This is because the Swedish Parliament has voted to cut our operating budget
next year by a third, two million dollars.

They'll be some changes in our English schedule as a result. Instead of the
21:00 hrs broadcast, we'll be on to Europe at 20:30 on 1179, 6065, and 9655
kHz, and 21:30 hrs on 1179 and 6065 kHz. Both transmissions will also be on
satellite. In addition, there will be a new broadcast at 16:15-16:45 hrs on
1179 and 6065 kHz, as well as satellite. We should have the exact date of the
change next week.

Meanwhile, there's a new addition to our Stockholm International FM
transmitter on 89.6 MHz. There's now an hour of BBC World Service relayed
there daily at 6:00 AM local time.

FINLAND--The Finnish Broadcasting Company, YLE, has suspended broadcasts from
its longwave transmmitter in Lahti, north of Helsinki, on 252 kHz. The Lahti
longwave station first went on the air on 1928. Since the 1970's it's been
used to relay the external service Radio Finland only. Radio Finland will
continue to be heard on medium wave 558 and 963 kHz, as well as shortwave,
and most recently, on the Eutelsat II-F1 satellite, on the Deutsche Welle
transponder. (BBC Monitoring)

NORWAY--There's some unusual activity on Norway's Thor satellite at 1 degree
West, on 12.092 GHz. While the picture is a plain color bar, sometimes
there's some audio, such as an interview in Spanish and sound from the recent
Norway-England soccer match. (Kauto Huopio, Finland)

This seems to be in D-MAC. (DX Editor)

Meanwhile, Britain's highly successful Pace satellite receiver manufacturer
has joined forces with Norway's Tandberg AS company to market the
Cryptovision pay TV system. According to a press release, the encryption
system will work for cable, satellite direct to home, and terrestrial
broadcasting. Pace is coming out with a line of integrated receivers and
decoders. (Pace)


EUROPEAN MEDIA NEWS:

ASTRA--We're still waiting to see how things are going with the new Astra 1C
satellite. By now it should be close to its final position alongside the
other two Astra satellites at 19.2 degrees East. The satellite, with 18 new
transponders, is to be fully operational by the end of the month. Many
people, including James Robinson and Thomas Bergstam, say there's been a test
card on around 10.940 GHz, which is just below the coverage band of ordinary
satellite receivers, telling people not to use that particular signal to
align their dishes, presumeably because the satellite isn't in its final
position yet. encountered difficulties in a programming rights dispute.
Paramount's international program sales division is thought to be concerned
at releasing films and television series for screening on the new channel, since it could
breach existing program sales agreements made with other European
broadcasters. ("Sky Guide") This channel was also rumored to be included on
Astra 1C, along with Paramount/MCA's Science Fiction Channel.

RADIO--There's a new radio station on Astra, something called Retail FM on
the Sky Movies Plus transponder, audio 7.92 MHz. (James Robinson) It seems to
play a strange mix of classic rock and easy listening music, with few, if
any, IDs.

Trans World Radio has appeared on satellite, booking time for English and
German on Quality Europe FM, also on the Sky Movies Plus transponder, audio
7.38 and 7.56 MHz. (BBC Monitoring)

RUSSIA--Radio Moscow has resumed its Nepali service, at 12:45-13:00 hrs on
15510, 15590, 17755, and 21585 kHz. (BBC Monitoring)


EDXC 93:

And now it's time to move from chilly northern Europe to the sunny skies and
palm trees of the Canary Islands, and this year's meeting of the Europe DX
Council, held for the first time outside Europe. The EDXC, as it's known,
brings together the clubs for shortwave listeners in Europe.

There are always a number of broadcasters on hand as well, so the gathering
represents a unique opportunity for program-makers and program-listeners to
get together.

The tourist season in the Canaries is during the European winter, when
hundreds of thousands of vacationers flee the cold of northern Europe for the
sun. This isn't the season, and most of the the cheap charter flights are no
longer flying. The Canaries are a long way off, and you can't drive there in
your car. Which may explain why less people than usual came this year.

Where an average EDXC conference attracts between 150 and 200 participants
from most of the countries of Western Europe, and a few from the East, this
year there were around 50 people total, of which only 20 were from outside
the Canaries. That's too bad, because the conference was well-run and
interesting, and the food and the weather were great.

The local club AER Canarias, which organized the conference, made extensive
use of the modern facilties of the University of Las Palmas. While English is
the language of the EDXC, most of the people at the meeting spoke only
Spanish. So extensive use was made of simultaneous translation equipment, and
a talented interpreter.

All of the lectures were in Spanish. On Saturday May 29th, industrial
engineer Jose Miguel Navarro Garcia spoke about how radio propagation works.
He was followed by the local Sony representative, who spoke briefly about his
company's products, announced that it's better to have a good antenna and a
bad receiver than a bad antenna and a good receiver, and then spoke
enthusiastically, and at length, about Everything You Ever Wanted to Know
about Antennas.

That was the part for shortwave listeners. The day before was satellite day,
revealing the extent that satellites are encroaching on the shortwave hobby.
The head of the school of telecommunications and engineering at the
university spoke about the extensive use of satellite communications in the
Canaries, and another engineer talked about how Spanish universities are
using the Olympus direct broadcast satellite to link up for interactive
classes in telecommunications.

The high point of the day was a visit to the southern shores of the island,
not to the tourist beaches at Playa de Engles, but rather to the nearby
Maspalomas satellite station, which monitors weather and earth resources
satellites, and is a control station for the Eureca scientific satellite.

There was also a workshop on satellites and DXing, where those of us
broadcasters who are on satellite shared our experiences. At the same time,
the Spanish listeners were in a meeting that produced a manifesto calling on
stations not to cut back on languages like Spanish and French. (Such as Radio
Sweden has been compelled to do.)

All in all, it was a very interesting gathering. For those of you who missed
it, there's always next year, when the meeting will be in a somewhat more
accessible location, the French capital Paris. The 1995 EDXC conference will
be in Denmark, and the 1996 in Florence, Italy.

There's always some news announced every year at the EDXC meeting. Deutsche
Welle is going through some major changes, as we were told by their
representive, Waldemar Kraemer.

WALDEMAR KRAEMER: At the beginning of July we will take over the foreign
countries in Europe, there's no need to broadcast to those countries, such as
the Netherlands, France, and Denmark, for example. But I can't say which
languages we will continue to use in the future, and which will be
discontinued.

RS: On the other hand, Deutsche Welle has been expanding tremendously in the
world of television. You're turning into a global TV broadcaster, making
extensive use of satellites.

WK: Yes, we started in 1990 with satellite radio, with subcarriers on Astra
and Eutelsat. Then in 1992 we started our TV programs on Eutelsat, and since
November we're been using Intelsat-K and Satcom C-4 to reach North America.
At the moment we have 14 hours of television daily, and this will expand to
16 hours a day on the 1st of July.

In the middle or end of 1994 we'll begin broadcasting television programs on
Asiasat-2, and we'll then cover the world from Eastern Europe to East Asia.
There are plans to reach Africa as well. Currently we can be seen for two
hours a day in North Africa, using transponders leased by the American
WorldNet.


Speaking of Deutsche Welle's plans to broadcast over Asiasat, another
participant at the EDXC meeting, Henry Lee of Taiwan's Voice of Free China,
announced that within the next couple of years they would be coming to Europe
via satellite, through the help of Deutsche Welle.

PUBLICATIONS--The EDXC conference also sees the annual launch of two very
interesting booklets for the shortwave listener from the Danish Shortwave
Clubs International. The "Tropical Bands Survey" lists all the active
broadcasting stations between 2 and 5.9 MHz, by frequency, and including
location and transmission hours.

The "Clandestine Stations List" contains the latest on all active clandestine
stations on shortwave, including schedule, political organization, language,
and address. Both are very useful tools for shortwave hobbyists. The
Clandestine list is available for 7 International Reply Coupons, the
"Tropical Bands Survey" for 9 IRCs, from: DSWCI, c/o Bent Nielsen, Betty
Nansens Alle 49, DK-2000 Fredriksberg, Denmark.


NORTH AMERICAN MEDIA NEWS:

CBS--CBS has removed its full time feeds from Telstar 301 and moved them to
Galaxy 7. The network is in the process of moving feeds to newer higher-
powered satellites. The feeds currently on Telstar 302 will move to Galaxy 4
when it is launched. ("Sat News")

GALAXY 4--The launch of Ariane mission 57 from French Guiana, originally
scheduled for June 9, has been delayed approximately two weeks. Ariane will
be carrying the new American Galaxy 4 satellite. (AFP) This is to share 99
degrees West with Galaxy 6, with 24 C-band transponders, and 24 Ku-band
transponders. Programmers are to include CBS, Warner Brothers, and
Worldvision Enterprises.

DIRECTV--Columbia Tristar has signed an agreement to provide Hughes' coming
DBS service DirecTV with films for a Pay-Per-View service immediately after
video store distribution. Around 50 PPV films will be carried on the 150
channel system once launched.

Turner Broadcasting has also signed an agreement with DirecTV for it to carry
CNN, Headline News, The Cartoon Network, Superstation TBS, and TNT channels.
Other broadcasters signed up include Country Music Television and The Family
Channel. ("Sat News") The first DirecTV satellite is to be launched at the
end of the year.

KGAY--The Gay and Lesbian radio channel KGAY has returned to the satellite
airwaves. KGAY is now found on Galaxy 3, transponder 22, audio 8.20 MHz.
("Sat News")

DX DAILY--Glenn Hauser's "DX Daily" program on WHRI has gone off the air. In
his last program, on June 5th, Glenn said there was a lack of funds to keep
the program going, possibly due to the waning interest in shortwave during
the summer months. He may bring back "DX Daily" in the Fall. The weekly
"World of Radio" program continues. (Paul McDonough on Internet News, via
Kauto Huopio)


AFRICAN AND MIDDLE EAST MEDIA NEWS:

ALGERIA--Algeria will be launching a new satellite service next year. It will
be receivable in the Maghreb and Europe. (BBC Monitoring) Presumeably this
will be via a Eutelsat satellite, following the lead of Egypt, Tunisia, and
Morocco.


Europe and Africa:

17:30 hrs on 1179, 6065, and 9645 kHz
21:00 hrs on 1179, 6065 and 9655 kHz and
22:30 hrs on 1179 and 6065 kHz

Middle East and East Africa:

15:00 hrs on 15190 kHz and
17:30 hrs on 15270 kHz

Asia and the Pacific:

12:30 hrs on 15240 and 21500 kHz
22:30 hrs on 11910 kHz and
01:00 hrs on 9695 and 11820 kHz

To North America:

15:00 hrs on 15240 and 21500 kHz and
02:00 hrs on 9695 and 11705 kHz

The broadcasts at 12:30, 17:30, 21:00, and 22:30 hrs are also relayed to
Europe by satellite:

Astra 1B (19.2 degrees East) transponder 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.


Contributions can be sent to DX Editor George Wood by fax to [phone],
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 MediaScan/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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