Media Share 9/MEDIASHARE_09.ISO/hamradio/scdx2176.zip/SCDX2176.TXT

Text File | 1993-04-13 | 29KB | 589 lines

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  ::           MediaScan             ::
  ::      SWEDEN CALLING DXERS       ::
  ::       from Radio Sweden         ::
  ::   Number 2176--April 6, 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 SCDX2176

All times UTC unless otherwise noted.

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THE FEAST OF ALL FOOLS:

On April 1st, Radio Sweden celebrated the first anniversary of our broadcasts
on the Astra 1B satellite. That was also April Fool's Day, and there were a
few jokes floating around the international radio community. Jan Johansson
here in Sweden put an item on the packet radio network claiming that the
launch of the new Astra 1C satellite had been moved up to April 1st. And
someone sent out a fax on the letterhead of the late lamented satellite radio
station Euronet, announcing they would be returning as an offshore pirate
from a ship called the MV Astra, also from April 1st.


NORDIC MEDIA NEWS:

RADIO SWEDEN--A lot of people have written to us about our medium wave
transmitter on 1179 kHz, which was in a fire in mid-March. The latest news is
that the transmitter is expected to be back on the air by the end of this
month, or early next month, just about the same time that the new Astra 1C
satellite is due to be launched.

The Swedish parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee seems to have decided to
accept the government proposal to cut our operating budget by a third. The
decision is to be made official at the next meeting, after Easter, and
parliament will make the final decision on April 28th.

SWEDISH COMMERCIAL RADIO--A recent issue of the respected Swedish financial
daily "Dagens Industri" carries an article about how major national companies
here are about to test radio advertising for the first time, on what's
described as a successful commercial station in the city of Norrkoeping, East
FM Radio. The interesting thing about the article is that nowhere does it
mention that East FM Radio is a community radio station that has been
broadcasting commercials quite illegally.

But that changed on April 1st when the new radio law here went into effect,
legalizing advertising on community radio, and permitting the licensing of
new private commercial stations. The agency set up to issue the licenses is
the Board for Local Radio Licensing, and we asked the board's Gunnar Bergvall
about their work.

GUNNAR BERGVALL: This is a very small agency. All in all, there will be four
persons working here.

RADIO SWEDEN: So you're about to start awarding radio licences?

GB: It's really not that simple. It's at least a two step process. The first
step is the people who are interested have to tell us, first, that they are
interested, and second, what areas and signal strengths they would like to
have. When we get all this information, when we know who they are, then we
can try to carve up the spectrum to make it possible for as many as possible
to get a transmitting licence.

Then, when this part of the process is done, we can start to receive formal
applications.

RS: You can't tell us who have been in contact with you about these initial
applications, but can you say how many stations have shown interest and
perhaps what kind of formats these stations might be having?

GB: So far the process hasn't really formally started yet, but there are
between twenty and twenty-five organizations who have expressed interest. As
far as I can judge, the format that seems to interest most is various kinds
of music formats.

RS: When you say various kinds, what do you mean?

GB: From rock and roll to classical music. It's a wide spectrum. Of course, I
would say that most are interested in rock and roll or similar types of
music.

RS: When you finally get going with the second stage, when you are getting
the formal applications in, what will be your criteria for deciding who gets
a licence?

GB: According to the law, there are no other criteria other than that first,
we should try to make it possible for as many as possible to really start to
transmit. And secondly, if there are more applicants than there are
frequencies, then there will be formal auction, and the highest bidder wins.

RS: Lasr year when they did something like that with the awarding of
independent television franchises in Britain, the authority involved actually
sometimes didn't give the licence to the highest bidder, because they thought
that really wouldn't be economically viable if they really paid out that much
money. Will you be able to do that?

GB: No, the law does not make it possible us us to make those kinds of
judgements.

RS: Won't that prevent a diversity of views? The station broadcasting lowest
common denominator programming will probably be the most profitable, and will
be able to make the highest bid.

GB: That's the way the law is written. I think that if all stations who are
awarded licences have the same kind of programming, obviously all will not be
economically successful. Then they will either have to change the format or
go off the air.

RS: What's the time frame here? When will these stations actually be
appearing on the air?

GB: I think that the first stations could be operational just before or
during the summer. Not all over the country, but the first stations should be
operational by then.

Swedish Cultural Minister Birgit Friggebo, the minister responsible for
broadcasting, has described the inauguration of the Board for Local Radio
Licensing as "an historic break-through". At a press conference on March
31st, board chairman Anders Stening said some 50 initial applications were on
file, with most interest from the three largest cities of Stockholm,
Gothenburg, and Malmoe. Licences will be granted until the year 2000, when
they must be renewed. (TT)

We've already reported how would-be broadcasters have protested about the
relatively few frequencies allocated by the Telecommunications Board. Now the
broadcasters say the start of commercial radio could be delayed several
months by the Swedish Royalties Society STIM. The broadcasters say STIM wants
far too much, and STIM itself admits the level in other countries is lower.
(TT)

STIM has been criticised in the past for being greedy. Many small non-profit
organizations had to stop using community radio because they couldn't afford
the royalties STIM wanted. STIM became notorious when it demanded that stores
pay royalties for playing Swedish Radio. Since Swedish Radio had already paid
royalties, STIM was asking to be paid twice for the same songs. Radio
Luxembourg blamed STIM's sister organization CopySwede for keeping Luxembourg
off Swedish cable systems by demanding fees twice that charged by royalties
organizations in other countries, a factor which contributed to Radio
Luxembourg's eventual demise.

Swedish Radio, the Radio Broadcasters Association, and the Community Radio
Broadcasters Association have sent a common letter to the several Swedish
royalties organizations demanding that royalties be based on the number of
actual listeners, rather than on the number of people in a station's coverage
area. (TT)

FINLAND--Radio Finland has reported received funds to go on satellite, but no
word yet on which one. (Radio Sweden "Info")

THOR--CNN has disappeared from its transponder on Intelsat 601, choosing to
reach southern Europe from Astra and northern Europe from the new Thor
satellite. Unfortunately, there's been no publicity for Thor outside of
Norway, and very few satellite monitors have the D-MAC Euroscypt S decoder
required. So CNN has effectively lost its satellite audience in northern
Europe, except for a handful of Norwegians.


EUROPEAN SATELLITE TELEVISION:

EUROPE WITHOUT BORDERS/SATELLITE PORNOGRAPHY--This week the annual Satellite
and Cable show is going on in London. One issue bound to be on the minds of
those attending, is the current controversy in several countries over
pornography by satellite.

Softcore pornography has been broadcast in the clear for some time several
nights a week by some German satellite broadcasters (for example, Premiere,
RTL, and Sat1). The same kind of softcore films are also broadcast by a
British outlet called The Adult Channel, which is on the air after midnight
British time on the same Astra transponder as Radio Sweden. Those broadcasts
are coded in Videocrypt, and available only to subscribers.

The current controversy began with another British channel, Red Hot
Television, which is broadcasting coded hardcore films to subscribers in
Britain, uplinking from the Denmark, where the laws are far more liberal.

The British government initially tried to stop the broadcasts, but has now
instead outlawed sales of new Red Hot decoders. The only problem is that the
channel is switching to a new coding system called Enigma, which James
Robinson tells us is compatible with the Videocrypt decoders used by most
British satellite channels.


Red Hot Television is broadcasting from the Eutelsat 2-F1 satellite, on
11.181 GHz. During a transition phase, broadcasts are in the old SAVE
encoding system three days a week, and in Enigma three other days each week.

While the British authorities are upset about pornography beamed to them from
abroad, the Germans are concerned about pornography from Britain. VTO, the
company run by former blue movie actress Teresa Orlowski, has begun running
hardcore films aimed at the German market over the otherwise softer Adult
Channel on Astra.

When the VTO broadcast began on the Adult Channel just past midnight British
time on April 4th, the announcer made a statement calling on the German
authorities to stop confusing sex with violence. Sex, she said, is about
love.

At the beginning of the Red Hot Television broadcast just after midnight
British time on April 6th, the Executive Consultant Mark Garner of
Continental Television, which owns Red Hot TV, announced that the British
High Court had agreed to let the channel challenge the decoder ban in court:
"What will be happening is that in the next 28 days we will be going back to
court to defend the rights of the people in the UK to watch what they want to
watch in the privacy of their own homes, in exactly the same way as our
continental neighbors."


But can European governments stop this kind of programming? We talked to
Christian Andersson, who has been stationed in Brussels for the Swedish
Foreign Ministry.

RADIO SWEDEN--Christian, can pornography be beamed from one Europe country to
another, no matter what the government of the receiving country thinks?

CHRISTIAN ANDERSSON: Yes it can, if it respects the conditions of the EC
directive.

RS: The British and German governments have both tried to stop pornography
broadcasts. You mean, they can't do it legally?

CA: They can intervene if it breaks the directive, which calls for the
protection of minors, for instance, concerning sex, violence, and racism.

RS: Can the boradcasters do something to demonstate that minors don't have
access to the programs?

CA: Of course, doing as they do now, sending the broadcasts after midnight
when the children should be asleep. Or makming it possible for parents to
control access, through a parental lock feature of some kind.

RS: Isn't there any kind of diplomatic option, where the German government
can ask the British government to remove the licence from a channel?

CA: No, the principle is free access. The only exception is that you have to
protect children.

RS: Is there a difference between the European Community and the European
Free Trade Association, which includes the Nordic countries currently outside
the EC?

CA: No, all EFTA countries have signed the convention of the Council of
Europe which has about the same wording as the EC directive.

RS: What the British government has done now, instead of trying to forbid Red
Hot Television, is to ban sales of new decoders for the system that the
station has been using up to now. Is that something they can legally do?

CA: No, they can't. They can ask the TV companies to send their porno
broadcasts after midnight. They ask them to distribute some kind of device to
give parents a parental lock feature on their TV sets. But the principle is
still that they can't ban a program.

RS: This is all part of the idea of Television Across the Borders in Europe.
But there are people in Britain who would like to be able to buy subscription
cards for FilmNet or TV1000, probably because they broadcast pornography.
Those are available in Scandinavia or the Benelux, but not in Britain. And
many people here in Sweden would like subscribe to some of the British coded
channels, and later this year there will be more British coded channels. If
there is Television Across the Borders, can they forbid the sale of
subscription cards to other countries?

CA: Of course not. One of the mortal sins within the Community is
discrimination of other nationalities. That is Article 7 of the Treaty of
Rome. The whole Community is based on the idea of non-discimination. Every
member of one country should have access to the same goods and services as
the others.

But then there's the issue of royalties. If a television company pays
royalties for broadcasts to Britain only, then that conflicts with the EC
non-discimination principle, and it gets very complicated.


FILMMAX--Many people in Britain have tried to obtain decoder cards for the
Swedish pay-film channels FilmNet and TV1000, which broadcast pornography
several nights a week. Scan-Sat, the owners of TV1000, is reported to be
about to put its hitherto cable-only classic movie channel, FilmMax, on
satellite. On April 15th, FilmMax will begin broadcasts over Intelsat 601.
FilmMax carries pornography the nights TV1000 takes a break. (Bertil Sundberg
in "Paa TV")

GAY CHANNEL--A gay channel called Man to Man is due to start broadcasting
from a Eutelsat this month, uplinking from France. ("Satnews")

FAMILY CHANNEL--As a counterbalance to all this sex, International Family
Entertainment has confirmed that it will launch a British version of its
Family Channel in September. The channel, which is owned by American TV
evangelist Pat Robertson's organization, broadcasts wholesome family
entertainment. It owns the extensive MTM Studios library. Transmissions over
Europe will probably be in the clear. ("What Satellite TV")

INTELSAT--"In Orbit" has suggested that CNN's now unused Intelsat Ku-band
transponder might be used to bring Ted Turner's new Cartoon Network to
Europe, but it hasn't shown up yet, and all the other reports we've seen
indicate that the Cartoon Network is due to start on Astra 1C after that
satellite is launched. ("In Orbit")

ASTRA--At the Cable and Satellite show in London, Tunrer Broadcasting
announced that the combined Cartoon Network/Turner Network Television channel
will use Astra 1C transponder 47, on 11.171 GHz. (James Robinson) There are
lots of reports circulating of possible other Astra 1C channels. James
Robinson has send us a list, which includes broadcasters we've mentioned in
previous programs, along with some new ones said to have transponder options.

Two of these are the USA Network, and the Science Fiction Channel, which the
USA Network owns. "Satnews" says that the Swedish company Kinnevik, which
owns Scan-Sat, that is, TV3 and TV1000, are involved in the project, along
with Paramount and Universal Pictures. (James Robinson)

Becauses of delays in the Ariane program, the Astra 1C launch has moved up to
Ariane flight 56, scheduled now for the end of this month or early next
month. The same flight will also carry the French amateur radio satellite
ARSENE.

THAMES--Thames Television has confimred it will use its option on the Astra
1C satellite. ("What Satellite TV") The BBC has confirmed it is considering
the launch of a second channel on Astra 1C with Thames Television later this
year. ("Satnews")

SPACE SHUTTLE--The launch of the American space shuttle Columbia was halted
three seconds before lift-off March 22nd. That flight has now been
rescheduled for late April. Columbia is carrying a German experiment and
German astronauts. The launch attempt was covered by a special German TV
channel, ALL TV on Kopernikus II at 28.5 degrees, 11.525 GHz. When Columbia
is finally launched, the special channel will carry live video from the
shuttle. (Bertil Sundberg in "Paa TV")

MTV--On March 5th a test program for MTV in Spanish was transmitted on
Eutelsat 2-F2 on 10.990 GHz. (Dr. Helmut Vahlbruch in "Satnews")


EUROPEAN SATELLITE RADIO:

BBC--Four BBC radio channels have appeared on the UK Gold transponder on
Astra, just as we recently predicted. World Service Radio uses the subcarrier
at 7.38 MHz, and after some moving around, Radio 4 is now on 7.56, Radio 1 on
7.74, and Radio 5 on 7.92 MHz, all in mono. After about a week of test
broadcasts (in one case we noticed a radio play on Radio 5 which seemed to be
one of the stereo channels only) regular service began on April 3rd.

BBC World Service can also be heard relayed on medium wave from St.
Petersburg on 1260 kHz. (James Robinson)

VIRGIN--Virgin 1215, the new national British private broadcaster, has been
testing on Astra, using the 11.538 GHz MTV transponder, subcarrier 7.74 MHz.
Unfortunately, it's just an engineering test, due to last four weeks. (James
Robinson and "In Orbit")

QCMR--Country Music Radio was due to begin operations on Astra transponder
20, audio 7.56 MHuz during the current Cable and Satellite Show in London.
But while the UK Radio Authority has granted a licence for that frequency to
the station, British Sky Broadcasting, which rents the transponder, had
promised it to the new Christian station UCB. Until the matter is settled,
neither station will start on Astra. However, QCMR has appeared on Eutelsat
2-F2, on the MBC transponder, audio 7.92 MHz. (James Robinson)

LOVE FM--Love FM, the former Power FM, may be disappearing from Astra at any
moment. It is using a digital transmission system on Eutelsat, and the Astra
contract has not been renewed. (James Robinson)


NORTH AMERICAN SATELLITE BROADCASTING:

SWISS RADIO INTERNATIONAL--Swiss Radio International is now broadcasting by
satellite to the Americas, using the Deutsche Welle transponder on Intelsat-
K. SRI is being further relayed with Deutsche Welle on Satcom C4, transponder
5, audio 8.1 MHz. (BBC Monitoring and Jake White, Internet News, via Kauto
Huopio)

NEW CHANNELS--Among the new TV channels reported to be coming to North
America are the Worship Channel, Americana TV, R&B TV, the Military Channel,
the New Culture Network (offering movies from outside the USA), and the
Wellness Channel. Ted Turner is reported to be considering starting a women's
channel, which could be run by his wife, film and fitness star Jane Fonda.
("What Satellite TV")

The Golf Channel, providing 24 hour golf coverage, is to begin this month on
the Galaxy 1R satellite. ("Satnews") This satellite, at 133 degrees West, has
only one free transponder, number 15. ("Satellite TV Week")

DBS--Plans for American direct broadcast satellite programs continue.
Britain's Worldwide Television News has expressed interest in a 24 hour news
channel on the USSB channels which will share a satellite with Hughes'
DirecTV, due to begin next year. Because 90 percent of the Canadian audience
will also be able to receive USSB, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has
also said it would like to produce a channel. ("Satellite Journal")

But there are loud protests in Canada against DirecTV as a threat to Canadian
television and Canadian culture. The system will allow reception of hundreds
of channels with dishes less than 50 cm in diameter. Canadian opponents have
dubbed direct broadcast satellites "Deathstars", after the evil war machine
in the film "Star Wars".  (IPS)


MIDDLE EASTERN BROADCASTING:

EGYPT--According to Information Minister Safwat al-Sharif, the Egyptian
International Satellite Channel will be launched in October to address the
international community in several foreign languages. (BBC Monitoring)

IRAQ--Iraq International Television will start transmissions via satellite on
June 1st. (BBC Monitoring) Presumeably via Arabsat.

TURKEY--On April 2nd the Turkish government ordered 50 local private
television stations to cease operating, in a widening crackdown on private
broadcasting. The ban does not apply to seven independent television channels
that beam broadcasts from outside the country by satellite. One of these
stations, Star 1, is owned by the son of President Turgut Ozal.

According to private broadcasters, the police also closed down 500 private
radio stations in a two day period. There have been widespread protests
against the action. Angry radio listeners bombarded the offices of the Prime
Minister and other officials with protest faxes, while motorists flew black
banners from their antennas. (Reuters, IPS)


ASIAN BROADCASTING:

ZEE-TV--Zee-TV, which broadcasts in Hindi over Asiasat 1, has increased
programming to 8 hours a day, and plans to go round-the-clock within three
months. Zee is also seeking transfer from the southern footprint to the
northern, to expand coverage. ("What Satellite TV")

INDIA--In response to Zee-TV and the 6 channels offered from Star-TV on
Asiasat-1, the Indian government has decided to launch three new satellite TV
channels, carrying sports, entertainment, news, and business programs. The
government has tried to obtain a transponder on Asiasat to carry the existing
Doordarshan channel, apparently in an attempt to compete with Star-TV. The
govenrment has also reportedly tried to stop Pakistan Television's broadcasts
on Asiasat.

With the launch of the Insat 2-B satellite in June, the 3 new channels and
India's current two channels will all be available on that satellite. (BBC
Monitoring and "Satellite Journal")

NEPAL--Nepal Television has decided to broadcast by satellite to reach the
entire mountainous country. The NTV is currently negotiating with Asiasat and
Intelsat to begin broadcasts as soon as possible. The government also plans
to permit foreign broadcasters to broadcast in Nepal. (BBC Monitoring)

INDONESIA--Indonesia's new Palapa-C satellite is to begin operations in 1995,
replacing the current Palapa B-2P satellite. (BBC Monitoring)


SHORTWAVE:

USA--Something that we originally hoped was an April Fool's joke, but
apparently wasn't, was a fire last Sunday at the American shortwave
broadcaster WWCR in Nashville. The fire reportedly burned everything down to
the ground, ironically, the same day they were putting their third shortwave
transmitter on the air. The only thing left are the antennas. But they hope
to be back on the air somehow within a few days. (Gary Bourgois and George
Thurmond, Internet News, via Kauto Huopio)

WWCR was to begin broadcasts of a new international communications and
technology magazine called "Spectrum" on Sundays beginning on May 2nd. Should
the station get back on the air in time, the program is scheduled at 03:35
hrs on 7435 kHz. It will also be carried on "Let's Talk Radio" on the
Spacenet 3 satellite, transponder 21, audio 5.8 kHz. (Dave Marthouse)

RFE/RL--An American presidential panel has recommended that Radio Free Europe
and Radio Liberty be phased out. According to the head of the U.S. Advisory
Commission on Public Diplomacy, Tom Korologos, the two stations have
accomplished their missions, and should be terminated "consistent with
established US policy".

While RFE/RL would be slowly phased out, the panel wants to immediately
terminate the TV Marti broadcasts to Cuba, cancel the environmentally
controversial Voice of America transmitter project in Israel in favor of the
new site in Kuwait, enhancement of VOA operations in Asia without the
establishment of a separate Radio Free Asia, and consolidate all US
government international broadcasting under the US Information Agency.
(Reuters)

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting told the commission that it could
save the government money by overseeing US international broadcasting,
including Worldnet TV. ("Satellite Journal")

Maybe this would open the door to VOA relays from National Public Radio, just
as Worldnet relays the news from the Public Broadcasting Service.

On April 3rd North Korea denounced what it said was "an undisguised
provocation by US imperialists" to set-up a Radio Free Asia in the region.
(Reuters)

ROMANIA--Radio Free Europe has asked for new frequencies to expand its
broadcasts within Romania. The broadcaster wants access to local medium wave
and FM transmitters to improve the reception of its shortwave programming.

LITHUANIA--Radio Vilnius is now broadcasting to the Americas on 11750 kHz in
Lithuanian at 01:00 hrs and in English at 23:00 hrs. Broadcsts to Europe are
on 612, 666, and 9710 kHz in English at 19:00 hrs (also on 666 kHz),
Lithuanian at 21:00, and English at 21:30 and 23:00 hrs. (BBC Monitoring)

CANADA--Radio Canada International is broadcasting to Canadian peacekeeping
forces in the former Yugoslavia, Cyprus, the Middle East, and Somalia at
05:00 hrs on 6050, 6150, 7295, 15430, and 17840 kHz. RCI will also beam
programs by satellite to Canadian forces 24 hours a day. (BBC Monitoring)

SLOVAKIA--Radio Slovakia International has begun broadcasts in four foreign
languages--English, German, Russian, and French. The new schedule is to
Europe in Russian at 17:30 hrs, Slovak at 18:00, English at 18:30, German at
19:00, and French at 19:30 hrs on 5915, 7345, and 9605 kHz.

Broadcasts to North America are on 5930, 7310, and 9810 kHz in English at
01:00, Slovavk at 01:30 (also 7310 kHz), and French at 02;00 hrs, and on
11990, 15605, 17535, abd 21705 kHz in English at 08:30 and Slovak at 09:00
hrs. (BBC Monitoring)


CLUB NEWS:

EDXC--This year's conference of the European DX Council is rapidly
approaching. It will be held Pentacost, or Whitsun weekend, between May 28th
and May 31st, in Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. The EDXC is the umbrella
organization bringing together clubs for shortwave listeners in various parts
of Europe.

The final registration date is April 30th. You can write for more information
to AER Canarias, Box 2180, E-35080 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.

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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 in English:

Europe and Africa:

   18:30 and 22:00 hrs on 1179, 6065 and 9655 kHz, and
   23:30 hrs on 1179 and 6065 kHz

Middle East and East Africa:

   18:30 hrs on 15270 kHz

Asia and the Pacific:

   13:30 hrs on 15240 and 21625 kHz
   22:00 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


   The 13:30, 18:30, and 22:00 hrs transmissions are also broadcast to Europe
via 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!