From news.cs.tut.fi!news.funet.fi!funic!nic.funet.fi!CompuServe.COM!70247.3516 Tue Jan 5 19:29:42 EET 1993 Article: 16948 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 2170 Message-ID: <930105124915_70247.3516_EHB29-1@CompuServe.COM> Sender: root@nic.funet.fi (The FUnny NET guru) Organization: Finnish University & Research Network Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 14:49:15 +0200 Lines: 385 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: MediaScan :: :: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS :: :: from Radio Sweden :: :: Number 2170--Jan. 5, 1993 :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio Sweden. This week's bulletin was written by George Wood. Packet Radio BID SCDX2170 All times UTC unless otherwise noted. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- SWEDISH MEDIA NEWS: SWEDISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION--On January 1st, Sweden's two public service radio broadcasters, the Swedish National Radio Company and the Swedish Local Radio Company, merged, and together are now called the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation, or "Sveriges Radio". Listeners won't notice much of a change until January 18th, when the new program schedule goes into effect. The most noticable change will be the splitting of the entertainment channel P3 into a new youth-oriented P3 and P4, aimed at an older audience, which will also relay the programming of the country's 25 local public radio stations. We asked Arvid Lagercrantz, Managing Director of the old Swedish National Radio Company, and Program Director of the new Swedish Broadcasting Corporation, why the change? AL: "We know that people like music very much, according to their age. Therefore we want to make our channels a little more profiled by age. We are moving some of the programs from channel 3 onto the new channel 4, the program for the older listeners. We will try to have programs for young people, especially in the afternoons and evenings, in the P3 channel." RS: It seems in most countries there is a rock and roll radio station. Sweden seems to lacked that until now? AL: "Sweden is very late compared to nearly all other European countries in the question of commercial radio. Later this year we will get commercial radio in Sweden, and there will certainly then be rock and roll stations in most larger cities." RS: Is that the reason why P3 is becoming a youth station, to compete with these new commercial stations, which will be playing lots of rock? AL: "Yes, and we intend for people in all parts of the country, including outside the big cities where the commercial radio will be established, will have the opportunity to listen to music for young people." RS: I can imagine that many people are happy about that, but have their been protests by some people about the splitting of the two channels? AL: "There are always protests when you change something, and people are afraid that they will lose the programs they have listened to for many years. Some programs will go off the air, and there have been protests about that." RS: Aside from the splitting of P3 into two stations, are there any other changes Swedish listeners will notice on January 18th? AL: "Here in Stockholm we will be giving the audience for classical music 24 hour programming on the P2 transmitter. We're putting the other programming on that network, in minority languages and educational radio, onto other channels. This is a rather major change, I think." RS: In fact the programs in minority languages are shifting to the Radio Sweden FM transmitter (89.6 MHz), so there will be channel that just carries foreign languages. Right now, when Radio Sweden is off the air, that transmitter relays the talk channel P1, which is already available on a more powerful transmitter. Obviously there have been much preparation, and certainly many problems in merging two broadcasting organizations like this. What have been the biggest problems? AL: "I think the problems have been less than we feared. The big problem is of course to put two organizations together and at the same time try to save some money. That means some people have to go, and will be replaced by new people. When you put two companies together, you get a lot of people who have been doing the same thing. So you have to do something about this, and in Sweden it is very difficult to just dismiss people. You have to take care of them, at the same time that new people are being brought in to make the new programs. This is the big difficulty." RADIO SWEDEN--The creation of the new company will have another effect on Radio Sweden besides sharing time on our FM transmitter in Stockholm. Since we relay programs from the domestic service on satellite and shortwave, changes in their schedule affect our schedule as well. A number of things will be happening on January 18th. We've mentioned before that our extra evening half hours in English and Swedish will be disappearing, so satellite and shortwave listeners should look for us in English at 22:00 hrs. Besides satellite, our frequencies then will be 1179, 6065, and 9655 kHz to Europe and Africa, and 11995 kHz to South and East Asia and the Pacific. The good news is that we will have a new English broadcast at 18:30 hrs, to Europe and Africa also on 1179, 6065 and 9655 kHz, and to the Middle East and East Africa on 15270 kHz. And that will be on satellite as well, which may be a better time for some people. Because of the new broadcast to the Middle East, we're dropping the transmission to that area at 16:00 hrs, but we'll continue to broadcast to North America at that time. The rest of our English schedule remains the same. COMMERCIAL RADIO--Legal commercial radio in Sweden is expected to go on the air later this year. But an illegal radio station with major backing is already broadcasting. This past summer, vacationers and residents in Stockholm's archipelago could listen to an unlicensed commercial FM station calling itself "Skaergaardsradio", or "Archipelago Radio". That station was owned by the Bonniers concern, Sweden's print media giant, which owns major newspapers, magazines, book publishers, and the country's largest film distributors. With the end of summer the station went off the air. But now it's moved to the Winter ski resort of Aare, where it will be on the air until April 30th. Meanwhile, Bonniers is hoping to start a legal station in Stockholm when that becomes possible later this year. ("Pressens Tidning") NORDIC MEDIA: EUROSPORT--Beginning January 4th, Eurosport disappeared from Swedish cable television (and probably from cable systems in the other Nordic countries as well). The reason is because the channel demanded payment from Nordic cable operators, who said they would pay if Eurosport enforced the same conditions in the rest of Europe, and encrypted its satellite broadcasts. Eurosport refused, and has now lost most of its viewers in Sweden. FINLAND--On the other hand, a new Nordic broadcaster seems to have appeared on satellite. Dr. Helmut Vahlbruch writes in "Satnews" that Finland's YLE can often be seen on the old Eutelsat 1-F5 satellite at 21.5 degrees East, on 11.508. EUROPE: EURONEWS--Europe has a new all news station. Euronews went on the air at 14:00 hrs on January 1st, from the Eutelsat 2-F1 satellite at 11.575 GHz. There are no presenters, instead the news footage is accompanied by soundtracks in five languages on various audio subcarriers: German on 6.65 Mhz, English on 7.02, French on 7.20, Spanish on 7.38, and Italian on 7.56. When Arabic is introduced later this year, it will probably use 7.74 MHz. Ten European public broadcasters are funding Euronews. The only Nordic participant is Finland's YLE. Much of Euronews initial programming seemed to be PR for the European Community. Interestingly, Euronews is broadcasting in clear PAL, and not in D2-MAC, the standard the European Commission and the French electronics industry have been trying to force on European broadcasters. D2-MAC is supposed to be a transition to a high definition television standard called HD-MAC, which the Commission and the French have been backing, even though it has already been made obsolete by new digital systems. Britain opposes the plan, and that seems to be the reason the European Commission has agreed to delay a decision on high definition television until later this year. (AP, "Satnews") GERMANY--Euronews is directly challenging CNN, which has hit back by buying into the new German news channel n-tv. And, after starting on the Kopernikus 1 satellite, n-tv suddenly appeared on the last free Astra transponder, number 29. (Reuters) Another German all news station, Vox, has been testing on Kopernikus 1. ("Elektonikvaerlden") In other Astra news, the German Tele 5 channel turned into a sports channel called DSF on January 1st, which may increase the pressure on Screensport and Eurosport to merge. RUSSIA--A group of American investors has announced plans to lease and launch Russian-made satellites as a commercial venture. The concernm known as Rimsat, will launch satellites into orbital positions allocated to the south Pacific island nation of Tonga. According to Michael Sternberg, chief operating officer of Rimsat, "The Russians can build and launch a satellite in less than a year," compared to up to three years for other satellite makers. Rimsat plans to use the Russian cosmodrome at Baikonus, and says it has already secured its first contract with Informocosmos, a consortium of Russian satellite makes, to provide seven satellites by 1996. ("Satnews") The MIR space station's widely heard FM audio frequency of 143.625 MHz is now only being used over Europe, when the station is in range of the ground station in the Crimea. Fudning cuts dictated that the communications ships off Sable Island, Madiera, etc., which were relaying MIR by shortwave, are no longer operational. When out of range of the CIS ground stations, MIR communications are now often relayed through the "Luch" or "Altair" transponder systems of CIS geostationary satellites. The mainly used relay over Europe is via the satellite at 16 degrees West listed as ZSSRT-2 (an abbreviation of the Russian words "Zemlya S Sputnik Radio Translator", meaning "Western geostationary satellite transponder"). There is also an eastern relay at 167 degrees East. The SECAM color signals from MIR are listed at 10.835 GHz, but are actually carried at 10.829 GHz (unfortunately just below the range of most satellite receivers). Monitors can look for the satellite by tuning in to the strong data signals on 11.4 GHz. Voice signals from MIR can be heard near the TV frequency, on a 300 kHz SSB subcarrier, but only when no TV signals are being relayed. (Nico Jannsen, Netherlands, and Pat Gowan, England) UNITED KINGDOM--Peter Shore writes in the British magazine "Shortwave News" that BBC World Service radio is hoping to use the UK Gold transponder on Astra, along with the domestic Radio 4, which is losing its long wave outlet on 198 kHz to a 24 hour all news service. "Satnews" speculates that World Service may use the subcarrier at 7.38 MHz. But so far nothing has been heard there. BBC World Service Television, which is due to begin a subscription service in D2-MAC on Intelsat 601 on January 25th has given its viewers a Christmas present. Broadcasts are now in clear PAL, possibly to pick up subscribers for the new service. There are also ads telling potential subscribers to contact TV Extra in the Swedish city for Motala for details. VATICAN CITY--"Vatican View", a half hour program from the Vatican City has begun daily broadcasts on Eutelsat 2-F4 on 11.678 GHz, at 16:00 hrs. When we mentioned this station was coming recently, we speculated that Vatican Radio might be appearing on an audio subcarrier. That hasn't happened, but Vatican Radio has appeared on another satellite instead. Vatican Radio is now relayed on Eutelsat 1-F1 on the MBC transponder at 11.554 GHz, audio subcarrier 7.74 MHz. The schedule includes Italian, French, and English at 07:00-07:45 hrs, and Italian at 11:00-11:30 (Sundays only) and 13:00-13:30 hrs. Between 17:00 and 22:30 hrs there are broadcasts in: Albanian, Arabic, Croatian, Czech, English, Esperanto, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Slovene, and Spanish. According to BBC Monitoring, this relay is handled by the World Radio Network, which tested for a week on Astra last April. WRN was seeking to provide a single time-shared channel for various international broadcasters in English. So far, Vatican Radio seems to be their only customer, and the channel carries programming in something like 15 languages. So far we haven't heard any other broadcasters during the period when Vatican Radio is not being relayed. MIDDLE EAST: EGYPT--The Egyptian Space Channel is now broadcasting to Europe on Eutelsat 2-F3 at 11.163 GHz. The audio subcarriers are carrying the Eygptian Radio General Program on 7.02 MHz, the Voice of the Arabs on 7.20, and Middle East Radio on 7.38 MHz. (BBC Monitoring) ASIA AND THE PACIFIC: AUSTRALIA--Australia's Optus B1 satellite went into service on December 16th, following its launch back in August, replacing the older A1 satellite carrying commercial television, telephone calls, and other broadcast services. Unfortunately the follow-up Optus B2 satellite seems to have been destroyed while being launched from China on December 14th. The Chinese launch company has blamed the satellite's American manufacturers, denying a report from Hughes Space and Communications Company that itsd engineers spotted a fireball 48 seconds after the launch. The Chinese say the launch was perfect, and if no signals are being received from the satellite, then something must be wrong with it. The B2 satellite was to carry a new Australian Pay-TV service, the country's first pay television. (AP, Reuters) CHINA--However, less than a week later, China's commercial satellite launch service signed a contract with Hong Kong's APT Satellite to launch the 24 transponder Apstar-1 satellite in June, 1994. The satellite will be made by Hughes, which will also make Apstar-2, due to be launched a year later. China has previously launched the Asiasat-1 satellite for a Hong Kong company, as well as other satellites for Sweden and Pakistan. (Reuters) NORTH AMERICA: USA--KGAY, an audio service for gays and lesbians, started up on satellite radio recently, heard on Spacenet 3R transponder 22, using the audio at 6.20 and 7.40 MHz, as well as aon Galaxy 5 transponder 6, audio 6.30 and 6.48 MHz. (Robert Smathers in "Satnews") MEDIUM AND SHORTWAVE: BURMA/NORWAY--The Democratic Voice of Burma, which broadcasts from Oslo using Norwegian transmitters, announces in English at sign-on that it is broadcasting between 14:30 and 15:55 hrs on 15140 kHz. (BBC Monitoring) GEORGIA--The London-based Turkish satellite TV channel Kanal 6 reports that the Voice of Abkhazia, broadcasting from the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, is broadcasting on Tuesdays and Saturdays on 1089 kHz, as well as a shortwave frequency in the 41 meter band. Kanal 6 says the broadcasts are listened to with great interest in Turkey. (BBC Monitoring) JAPAN--Radio Japan is now broadcasting in Russian to Asia at 09:15 hrs on 9750 and 11840 kHz, and at 12:30 hrs on 7210 and 9580 kHz, and to Europe at 05:00 hrs on 15170 and 15335 kHz, at 08:00 hrs on 9670 and 9770 kHz, and 20:30 hrs on 6005 kHz. (Radio Japan) LITHUANIA--Radio Vilnius has added a new broadcast in English at 20:00 hrs, apparently only on medium wave 666 and 1557 kHz. The broadcast at 22:30 hrs continues on 666, 1557, 9675, and 9710 kHz, and the broadcast at 00:00 hrs on 7150, 17605, and 17690 kHz. (Radio Vilnius via BBC Monitoring) NEPAL/UK--BBC World Service is now broadcasting in English to northern India and Nepal 17:15-18:30 hrs on 576 and 792 kHz. These transmitters are located in Nepal. (BBC World Service) RUSSIA/UK--A 24 hour relay of the BBC World Service has begun in Moscow on 1260 kHz. (BBC Monitoring) RUSSIA--The Vietnamese language Radio Irina, which broadcasts from Moscow, changed its frequency on December 25th to 9550 kHz. Radio Irina broadcasts material hostile to the goverment of Vietnam. (BBC Monitoring) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Beginning January 18th, 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 +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 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to this week'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