From: xberri@quark2.aero.org (Jason E. Berri) Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave Subject: SCDX 2153 Date: 14 Apr 92 03:21:00 GMT Reply-To: xberri@arecibo.aero.org Organization: The Aerospace Corporation News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: MediaScan :: :: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS :: :: from Radio Sweden :: :: Number 2153--April 7, 1992 :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio Sweden. This week's bulletin was written by George Wood. Packet Radio BID SCDX2153 All times UTC unless otherwise noted. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- SWEDEN: SWEDISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION--Sweden's center-right coalition government has reached a compromise over the future of the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation. Because of objections from the Center Party, the Liberals and Conservatives have backed down on their plan for the state to take over the company. Swedish Broadcasting will continue to be a share company with the stocks held by representatives of business, the press, and popular movements, and in addition, cultural and scientific organizations will be included. But the proponents of state ownership left themselves a backdoor by saying that the current owners can sell their interests to the state. Unusually, the government has sought to interfere in programming policy by blocking plans to merge the news departments of the two public television channels. As a commentator for the respected Stockholm newspaper "Dagens Nyheter" has written: "One wonders what interests prefer two poor news departments to a single strong one?" COMMUNITY RADIO--Meanwhile, Swedish Telecom has announced it will turn off the transmitter of the controversial Radio Nova on April 9th. Radio Nova is a community radio station about one hundred kilometers southwest of Stockholm. Swedish community radio is supposed to consist of individual non-commercial programs from various organizations over a common transmitter. But the groups behind Radio Nova have broadcast a single unified program with commercials. One by one, each group has lost its licence, but the station has continued. Last week an appeals court upheld a ruling that Radio Nova has violated the community radio law. While in government until last September, Sweden's Social Democrats opposed the introduction of commercial radio and television. But now the Social Democrats in the city of Karlstad have announced that they also intend to break the law and will broadcast commercials in their community radio programs. (TT) SATELLITE RADIO--We hope those of you with satellite receivers have discovered the joys of listening to Radio Sweden on the Astra satellite on 11.597 GHz, audio subcarrier 7.74 MHz. (The English editions of MediaScan this Tuesday and next include an interview with Susan Newstead, General Manager of the community radio station KZYX in Philo, California.) We've been joined on the Tele-X satellite by another Swedish radio broadcaster, Radio Z, which until now has essentially been a two hour a day TV program alternating between Sweden's TV3 and TV4, consisting of music videos with a camera in the control room. A number of community radio stations here have relayed the program, defying the law against commercial radio broadcasting. Radio Z is now sharing the Tele-X direct broadcast satellite with Radio Sweden on a more regular basis. They're on the TV5 Nordic transponder on 12.474 GHz, audio subcarrier 7.74 MHz, between 04:00 and 08:00 hrs. ("Paa TV") EUROPEAN SATELLITE BROADCASTING: RADIO--The long-expected Solar Radio has made its appearance on Astra, on the Sky Sports transponder at 11.509 GHz, audio subcarrier 7.38 MHz. They seem to be relaying a lot of American programming. (Raymond Ian Woodward in "Satnews") But for some reason, the signal is very weak. ASTRA--Thames Television, which lost the London regional commercial broadcasting franchise from the end of this year, has received a licence to broadcast via satellite. The channel is set to air its extensive back catalog of classic comedy and drama. Thames is a shareholder in Astra, and has options on two Astra transponders. ("Satnews" and "What Satellite") With the dispute over the future of the D2-MAC and PAL standards in Europe apparently settled, one of the main PAL proponents, British Sky Broadcasting, is reported to starting test broadcasts in wide-screen D2-MAC, using 11.641 GHz between 09:00 and 17:00 hrs until April 15th. ("Satnews" and "What Satellite") EUROSPORT--The Eurosport transponders have been rearranged. Transmissions have ended from the direct broadcast satellites Telecom 1A and Kopernikus. Eurosport has returned to Astra transponder 22, 11.538 GHz, in parallel with 11.258 GHz, and is now also reported on Eutelsat 2-F1 on either 11.005 or 11.667 GHz. ("Satnews") EUTELSAT--Germany's international radio broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, has entered the world of satellite television, having taken over the facilities of the Berlin-based American station RIAS. Deutsche Welle is broadcasting on Eutelsat 2-F1 with three blocks each two hours long between 14:00 and 20:00 hrs over Eutelsat 2-F1 on 11.162 GHz. The first 90 minutes each time is in German, followed by 30 minutes in English. Spanish is to be added later this year. The same transponder is carrying Deutsche Welle radio programs on audio subcarriers, with German on 7.02 MHz, other European languages on 7.2, and Asian languages on 8.1 MHz. Deutsche Welle plans to put its TV programs on an Intelsat over the Atlantic to relay its signals to North America, beginning this Fall. Unlike BBC World Service Television, Deutsche Welle is uncoded. (Wolfgang Schultz, Germany) The American government's WorldNet program is moving to Eutelsat 2-F1 channel 29 on April 15th. WorldNet has shared the French TV5 transponder, but TV5 is expanding to 18 hour a day operation. (Karl Grabe, Ireland) MARCO POLO--The merger that created British Sky Broadcasting made Britain's two Marco Polo direct broadcast satellites superfluous. There are now reports the Swedish Space Corporation wants to buy one of the satellites, and move it next to Tele-X at 5 degrees East. ("What Satellite") ARABSAT--MBC TV, which broadcasts to Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa in Arabic, has switched from Arabsat 1B to Arabsat 1C, at 31 degrees East. Parallel transmissions continue on Eutelsat 2-F1 on 11.554 GHz. (BBC Monitoring and "Elektronikvaerlden") ASIAN SATELLITE BROADCASTING: PAKISTAN--Pakistan's PTV-2 is now testing over AsiaSat. Malaysia's RTM-3 is also expected to start a new service soon. (Bindu Padaki in "Shortwave Magazine") PALAPA--Hong Kong Telecom International is offering a compilation of CNN, Home Box Office, and the sports channel ESPN over the Palapa satellite as competition to the Star-TV service on AsiaSat. ("Shortwave Magazine") SINGAPORE--Singapore has for the first time opened its airwaves to CNN and HBO, under strict controls. Singapore's Cablevision will initially rebroadcast the two American services and a Mandarin Chinese entertainment channel on local UHF frequencies. The system plans to eventually send the signals to subscribers by cable. Talks continue with BBC World Service Television and Japanese companies. Individual satellite dishes will remain forbidden. (Reuters) TURKEY--The Turkish State Television TRT began testing a satellite channel to Central Asia on April 1st. TRT hopes to reach as many as 57 million Turkic speakers in the 6 new Moslem states of the former Soviet Union. To reinforce the Latin alphabet used in Turkey since the First World War, TRT will run Latin-alphabet subtitles several hours a day. Regular service begins in May. TRT is using an Intelsat 5 satellite above the Indian Ocean. (Probably the one at 66 degrees East.) (Reuters) NORTH AMERICAN SATELLITE BROADCASTING: GALAXY 5--The Galaxy 5 satellite was launched into orbit on March 13th. It is due to go into service around May 8th. It will replace Westar 5 at 125 degrees West. The Family Channel has booked a transponder on the new satellite. (Robert Smathers and others in "Satnews") CARTOON NETWORK--Turner Broadcasting, which operates CNN, has confirmed it intends to start a 24 hour satellite channel for children. The Cartoon Network will begin on October 2nd in the US, and is to be followed by a European service. Speculation about such a channel has been high since Turner bought the Hann-Barbera cartoon library last year. Disney, which initially planned to go onto Europe's Astra satellite when it was first launched in 1989, is again looking at taking a satellite transponder. ("What Satellite") LOCAL CABLE NEWS--Whereas Stockholm's cable network has just begun its first regular programming, a "no-budget" telephone talk show for two hours three nights a week, local cable programming is widespread in the United States. New York and Washington are now starting their own 24 hour local news channels. Time Warner New York Cable will launch its new service to all 800,000 subscribers in September. NewsChannel 8 is the new news channel in the nation's capital. ("Satnews" and "Antennen") SHORTWAVE: ESTONIA--Radio Estonia is now broadcasting a news bulletin in English weekdays at 16:20 hrs on 5925 kHz. (Ehtel Halliste, Radio Estonia) IRAQ--A new station, apparently aimed at Saudi Arabia, called "The Radio of Iraq, Call of the Kinfolk", has been heard on 11860 and 11880 kHz, announcing broadcasts at 10:00-12:00 hrs. Iraq used 11860 kHz to broadcast its "Voice of Peace" to the American troops in Saudi Arabia. (BBC Monitoring) The clandestine Voice of Iraqi Kurdistan has not been heard on 4175 kHz since March 27th. However, on March 29th, another station, called Iraqi Kurdish Radio appeared on 4130 kHz, announcing a schedule of 16:00-17:00 and 04:00- 05:00 hrs. (BBC Monitoring) KUWAIT--More than a year after the end of the Gulf War, Radio Kuwait's English service has returned to the air, heard at 18:00-21:00 hrs on 13620 kHz. (BBC Monitoring) Before the Iraqi occupation, the pop music oriented prorgramming was very popular among shortwave listeners from South Asia to Europe. RUSSIA--The Radio Moscow Russian service is now the "Voice of Russia". The foreign language service has become part of Russia's new Ostankino state TV and radio company. Russia's Press and Mass Media Minister has assured the staff that the Russian government will do everything possible to maintain and develop the service. (Radio Moscow via BBC Monitoring) According to a letter from Radio Pamyat, the station of the National Patriotic Front of Russia, they've changed to 12040 kHz for their program between 13:30 and 15:00 hrs. (Rainer Henrich, Switzerland) Radio Space in Moscow has switched from 11945 to 12075 kHz, at 14:00-14:45 hrs. (BBC Monitoring) UKRAINE--Radio Ukraine has been heard on the out-of-band frequency of 7970 kHz from as early as midnight 38 UTC until past 02:30 hrs. This is in parallel with 9685 kHz. (Richard Langley, Canada) USA--"Yet another religious broadcaster", WJCR, is on the air, testing on 7490 kHz. Ralph heard them from 05:30 hrs until after 06:00, and again around 14:00 hrs. (Ralph Brandi) Another American station, WWCR, at the last minute cancelled a change of frequency to 5920 kHz. The station is apparently still using 7435 kHz. (Will Martin via Internet News) ZAMBIA--Following the ending of the Radio Freedom broadcasts on behalf of South Africa's African National Congress, and the funds which paid for it, Radio Zambia's external service has run out of money and has been discontinued. (BBC Monitoring) We'll be back with more in two weeks, including a report from this year's Satellite and Cable Show in London. Until then, take care! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 at 20:30-21:30 hrs on medium wave 1179 kHz, as well as shortwave 6065 and 9655 kHz, and via satellite on Astra 1B (19.2 degrees East) channel 26 at 11.597 GHz, audio subcarrier at 7.74 MHz, and on the Tele-X direct broadcast satellite (5 degrees East) at 12.207 GHz, audio subcarrier 7.38 MHz. That program is also broadcast to the Pacific and the Far East on 17730 kHz. We're also relay our half hour program at 12:30 hrs on satellite, otherwise it's being carried to South Asia, the Pacific and the Far East on 15170 and 17740 kHz. The rest of the Radio Sweden English schedule is (half hour programs): To Europe: 22:30 hrs 1179 and 6065 kHz To the Middle East and East Africa: 15:00 hrs on 15270 kHz To Asia/Pacific: 13:30 hrs 17740 and 21570 kHz 01:00 hrs 9685 and 11730 kHz To North America: 15:00 hrs 17870 and 21500 kHz 02:00 hrs 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to this week's contributors Good Listening! -- Jason Berri [berri@aero.org or berri@arecibo.aero.org] [SPEEDX Column Editor - send email for more info on the SPEEDX SWL club]