Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave From: 70247.3516@CompuServe.COM (George Wood) Subject: SCDX 2172 Organization: Finnish Academic and Research Network Project - FUNET Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1993 14:39:23 +0200 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: MediaScan :: :: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS :: :: from Radio Sweden :: :: Number 2172--Feb. 2, 1993 :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio Sweden. This week's bulletin was written by George Wood. Packet Radio BID SCDX2172 All times UTC unless otherwise noted. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- SWEDISH MEDIA NEWS: RADIO 95--But we'll begin with the Radio 95 Show recently held here at Swedish Radio to mark the merger between the country's national and local public service radio broadcasters. Radio 95 was organized by Swedish Radio's Head of Production Development Bror Jansson. Bror Jansson: It was held because we have an opportunity to show the future of radio, and not only show it, but discuss it. Radio Sweden: This wasn't just for the people here in Stockholm, it was for a lot of other people as well? BJ: Yes, all the employees of Swedish Radio, they came from all over the country. We also invited special guests from, for example, the other Nordic radio companies. Many many people came from those companies. RS: Was this supposed to make people at the local radio and the national radio come together as the companies are merging? Was there some kind of psychological aspect to it? BJ: Yes, that was an aspect as well, of course. Because of the timing of this exhibition and the seminars, Radio 95 coincided with the start of the new company. So that was a side effect of it all, everybody from the new company could come together and meet and discuss the future. RS: The main lecturers were actually from abroad, from the United States, Britain, and Australia. Why did we have to go outside the country? Did these people from other countries have something to give Swedish Radio? BJ: I think so, definately. Especially our guest from Australia, Rosemary Sinclair. She works for the ABC, where they have just recently built a new radio house. This was built from the beginning with digital technique, so that was very interesting to hear, how they started the project and how it is working now. RS: Why was it called Radio 95? We're hear at the beginning of 1993. One would have thought that it would have been called Radio 93. BJ: We thought a lot about that. But we thought that if we're going to show the radio of the future, we also have to point out that the future may not be so far away. I mean the future is really not in the year 2000, it is just a couple of years away. And another reason is of course that we are planning to introduce DAB, Digital Audio Broadcasting, in Sweden in 1995. Swedish Radio's Director of Technical Development, Christer Grewin, also helped organize Radio 95, and he took part in a seminar on the introduction of digital audio broadcasting: Christer Grewin: I think DAB means a lot for Swedish Radio, as it does for most public broadcasters in Europe. It's a European project, it has been developed by broadcasters for broadcasters, and it will mean a higher sound quality, less interference from multi-path reflection, and things like that. It will also mean the possibility of getting more programs into the same frequency space that we use today. RS: DAB isn't the only thing that's being presented here. There seem to be all sorts of things using computers of different sorts. What other technologies are we talking about? CG: The title of the seminar is "You, DAB, and the Computer", which is much funnier in Swedish ("Du, DAB och Datorn") than in English. That means that computerized editing is one of the big features at the exhibition. This is something that everybody will work with by 1995 for different kinds of productions. We are facing a situation where the dedicated tools for broadcasting will be replaced with more general equipment, like computer equipment, that is used for word processing, sound editing, and a lot of other things. RS: Looking through the exhibition, there seem to be a lot of competing systems for digital editing. Is there a standard here? CG: That's one of the problems. There is no standard, at least there is no standard for the file format when you record audio. We have to see a standard within the next three years or so. This also means that you have to be very careful when you choose a system today, and you have to be aware that this is just until there is an available standard. ACTORS' STRIKE--Members of the Actors' Union here are striking against Swedish Television's two channels and the commercial station TV4. The strike comes after Swedish Television unilaterally reduced the royalties paid to actors for reruns, a move which the actors' union says would reduce residual payments by 80 percent. In comparison wth some other countries, according to the newspaper "Dagens Nyheter", until now the actors' royalties have been the same or worse than in the United States, Britain, Denmark, and Finland. The new proposal would mean Swedish actors receive less royalties than in all those countries as well as Norway, Canada, France, Germany, and Belgium. The Actors' Union has appealed to the unions representing journalists and technicians at Swedish Television and TV4 to strike in sympathy. Should that happen, all three channels would be dark except for news. However, many at TV4, which is struggling for its survival, oppose the move and say they would leave their unions rather than strike for the actors. One interviewer asked the president of the Actor's Union if he was prepared to close the Royal Dramatic Theater in sympathy with a hypothetical journalist strike. He had no answer. Because of the resistance, the TV unions are waiting, and the earliest they could strike would be February 15th. TT--The Swedish news agency TT has been heard on Swedish Radio since its pioneer days. Now, TT is making hourly 2 minute newscasts available to community radio stations around Sweden, over the Tele-X satellite. The transmissions are Monday to Friday between 05:00 and 17:00 hrs, using the TV5 Nordic transponder on Tele-X, audio 7.56 MHz. ("Pressens Tidning") SRU--Svensk Radioutveckling, SRU, supported by major Swedish newspapers, plans to start commercial private radio stations across Sweden as soon as the legislation now before parliament is approved (thought to be by this Summer). On February 2nd SRU signed a contract to transmit its programs over the Tele- X satellite. (TT) TV5 NORDIC--TV5 Nordic is preparing to switch to the same system used by Filmnet and the BBC World Service, D2-MAC Eurocrypt M, and would share a smartcard with the two stations. However, while requiring the card, Nordic would remain free. (Jan Johansson, Sweden) This is probably a way for the station to demonstrate that it only has viewers in Scandinavia, avoiding having to pay rights for other countries. THOR--Norway has finally found programmers for its new Thor direct broadcast satellite at 0.8 degrees West: CNN, Filmnet, and Eurosport. CNN is to drop its transmissions to Europe on Intelsat 601 to use Thor to reach Scandinavia, using D-MAC with Eurocrypt S encryption. CNN is apparently already testing on the satellite using clear D-MAC. Filmnet Movies is also testing, on 12.015 GHz, apparently using D2-MAC Eurocrypt M (which is at least much more accessible, since it is the system used already by the Scandinavian broadcasters TV3, TV1000, and Filmnet itself on other satellites). Three other transponders are running test pictures in clear D-MAC. (Jan Johansson, Morten Leikvoll on Internet News, and James Robinson) We've mentioned before that both D-MAC and Eurocrypt S are obscure standards, unlikely to attract a lot of viewers. Writing in the magazine "Elektronikvaerlden", Sweden's satellite guru, Bertil Sundberg, refers to the Thor coding as "Norwegian Harakiri". RED HOT DUTCH--The pornography channel Red Hot Dutch has moved from the Netherlands to Denmark. The channel broadcasts to Britain, where it has 22,000 subscribers. The British have tried to block the hardcore broadcasts, which are at night over the Eutelsat II-F1 satellite. European Community law means that Red Hot Dutch is legal all over Europe if it is acceptable in just one country. And there's no law against broadcasting pornography from Denmark. Ironically, while the British authorities are upset about films directed to Britain from Scandinavia, they've made no move to stop the pornography broadcast several nights a week on TV1000, uplinked from Britain to Scandinavia over Astra. EUROPEAN SATELLITE BROADCASTING: BBC--After two weeks of running one transponder in PAL and the other in D2- MAC, on Intelsat 601, BBC World Service Television is now broadcasting both in coded D2-MAC. With the switchover of BBC World Service television to D2-MAC on Intelsat 601, many monitors have wondered where BBC radio has gone to. One of D2-MAC's disadvantages is the limited number of radio channels. World Service radio has switched to the SSVC transponder at 11.563 GHz. The picture there is coded PAL, but the radio channels are in the clear. ASTRA-TV--"Lifestyle" and "Satellite Jukebox" are gone, and have been replaced on Astra transponder 5 by the German all news channel "Vox". "Children's Channel" continues to use the transponder in the morning. It's widely speculated that Germany's RTL 2 will replace Screensport on Astra transponder 1, when the merger between Screensport and Eurosport is complete. RTL 2 is otherwise expected to use Eutelsat II-F1 on 11.095 GHz. (Jan Johansson) The Quantum Shopping Channel is now airing on Eurosport's transponder in the morning. British Sky Broadcasting has confirmed that Sky One and Sky News are to join other channels in a subscription package in October. This follows the hopefully successful launch of the Astra 1C satellite in April or May. One of the new channels that is to be part of a Sky package is Nickelodeon, a youth channel operated by MTV in the United States. Other channels reported switching to Astra 1C and joining the subscription package are Discovery, Bravo, and the Children's Channel. ("Satnews") Britain's Independent Television network ITV has dropped plans for a satellite channel to compete with UK Gold. The ITV companies were afraid the satellite competition would hurt terrestrial viewing. ("Satnews") ASTRA-RADIO--Radio Sweden has a new companion on the Sky Movies Gold transponder on Astra. Radio Asia, which broadcasts over Spectrum Radio in London, is using the subcarrier at 7.38 MHz. Spectrum's full schedule is to be broadcast over this channel in the near future. (James Robinson) Updating our earlier report that BBC World Service radio is to use the UK Gold transponder, subcarrier 7.38 MHz, the launch may be in mid-March. (James Robinson) MTV may be planning to join up with the American network ABC in launching a pan-European radio channel. ("Satnews") We've also had a report of a new radio service planned for Astra 1C, digital satellite radio, possibliy similar to that used on Germany's Kopernikus 1 satellite. 30 themed channels of various types of music would be made available to subscribers, without the need for DJs, jingles, or commercials. The 30 types of music would include: US hottest hits, European hottest hits, contemporary jazz, classic jazz, country, big band, world beat, blues, reggae, golden oldies, heavy metal, classic rock, chamber music, and opera. (G7MIL) According to a letter from the Irish authorities saying that they are against relaying domestic programming on shortwave because of the technical quality, but they are investigating using Astra to relay RTE programs to Europe. (Peter Whisker via Internet News) MIDDLE EASTERN SATELLITE BROADCASTING: JORDAN--Jordanian Television is to begin satellite relays. Tests have been observed on Arabsat 1C at 31 degrees East, at 4144 MHz. (BBC Monitoring) NORTH AMERICAN SATELLITE BROADCASTING: GALAXY 7H--The recently launched galaxy 7H satellite has lit up on Ku-band. Hughes has moved the SBS-4 satellite to prevent interference with Galaxy 7H, which is replacing it at 91 degrees West. This satellite carries 24 C-band transponders and 24 Ku-band transponders. The C-band trnasponders have been lit up for some time now. (Robert Smathers in "Satnews") SPACENET 1--Spacenet 1 was due to go dark on January 7th, in order to be moved to around 115 degrees East, where it is to be taken over by China. But as of last week it was still lit. (Robert Smathers in "Satnews") SPACENET 3--"Let's Talk Radio" on transponder 21, 5.8 MHz, now includes a new computer data text file service on Fridays at 12:10 PM EST. The SDTS Data Feed operates at 300 baud, and can be received by any home computer hooked via a modem to a satellite receiver. For more information, write to: Phil Dolve, 4566 Starling Way, Los Angeles, CA 90065, USA. (Gary Bourgois via Internet News) DIRECTV--Hughes Communications has signed contracts with Paramount Pictures and the Disney Channel as program providers for its DirecTV direct broadcast satellite project. DirectTV is due to begin operations in March, 1994, with around 20 general programming channels, 50 to 60 movie channels, 20 to 30 sporting events channels, and 20 to 30 special interest channels. Two satellite are being built by Hughes for the service. The first will be launched from French Guiana in December, 1993 and the second during the first quarter of 1994. The satellites will be located at 101 degrees West, and will receivable on 45 cm dishes. The 32 Ku-band transponders will use digital compression techniques in which at three or more channels of video can be squeezed into each transponder. Initially Hughes expects that most of its customers will be in rural areas where cable television services are not available. ("Satnews" and "World Satellite Almanac") SHORTWAVE AND LOCAL BROADCASTING: JAPAN--Around the world there are a handful of international broadcasters making programs in Swedish. Most are in Europe. One of the farthest away is Radio Japan, operated by the Japanese public broadcaster NHK. Recently Yukiko Duke of Radio Japan's Swedish Service visited Radio Sweden, and I asked her the obvious question, why on Earth does Japan broadcast in Swedish? Yukiko Duke: Well, we have been asking ourselves the same question. It seems to be some sort of policy from NHK and the Japanese Foreign Ministry to try to reach as many people as possible, including the Swedes. We are actually not a Swedish service, we are a Scandinavian service, since we also broadcast in Danish and Norwegian. We try to pick up as many topics as possible that have something to do with Scandinavia. For instance, we can interview Danes who play in the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, or we could talk to Finnish girls who train Japanese soccer teams, or perhaps Swedes who have lived for a long time in Japan. So we try to focus on Scandinavians in Japan, or topics that could interest Scandinavians. RS: But a lot of time it must be hard to find people to interview who speak Swedish. You must have to do a lot of translating work. YD: Yes, this is a problem. We have these programs that are for all language services within Radio Japan. So we get programs about Japanese culture or society, and they're very interesting at times. But sometimes they become a little too general, and perhaps not that very interesting. This is a problem. We try to get more time for our own projects and programs. But we don't always get support for this from the bosses at Radio Japan. RS: Japan has a reputation as a home for high technology, such as satellite television. Here in Europe satellite radio is growing, but so far no Radio Japan on satellite, even though there's a Japanese TV station on the Astra satellite, which presumeably could be used to relay radio broadcasts as well. YD: This is a sad story. It seems that the Japanese broadcasting corporations are not really into radio, and especially into shortwave. They are putting all their money into satellite television, and thus they aren't that interested in trying to broadcast radio via satellite. It would be so much easier if we had access to the satellites, but we don't. CZECH REPUBLIC--The new Radio Prague has taken over the previous Radio Czechoslovakia schedule. The only change is that all previous broadcasts in Czech and Slovak are now only in Czech. There are also new broadcasts in Slovak, at 10:30 and 14:30 hrs, on 5930 kHz. (BBC Monitoring) ESTONIA--The medium wave transmitter in Tartu on 612 kHz which previously relayed Mayak programs from Moscow, is now carrying Estonian Radio's Fourth Program, in Russian. This inlcudes local programs, as well as relays of Radio Liberty and the BBC. The transmitter in Tallinn on 1512 kHz, which previously carried Estonian Radio's Fourth Program in Russian, now carries the First Program, in Estonian. (BBC Monitoring) FRANCE--Radio France International is to broadcast programs in Turkish, Cambodian, and Laotian to Paris on medium wave 738 kHz, Sundays 10:00-11:00 hrs. (AFP) GEORGIA--Georgian Radio has announced an external service. This includes English at 06:00-06:30 hrs on 11805 kHz and 16:00-16:30 hrs on 9565 kHz. (BBC Monitoring) LATVIA--The Latvian Radio and Television Council has granted transmission frequencies to 9 commercial broadcasting stations. Two of them, Radio SPH and Radio 2 (which relays VOA Europe), will be audible in the entire country. Vards, Un Co, Radio 2A, and one other service will be received only in Riga. There are also three regional stations: Jurmalas Radio, Jelgavas Profils M, and Balvu Merkurijs. (Latvian Radio via BBC Monitoring) LITHUANIA--The transmitter in Vilnius on 612 kHz, which formerly relayed the Mayak program from Moscow, is now carrying Lithuanian Radio's First Program. This transmitter has also been observed carrying Radio Vilnius in English at 20:00 hrs. Mayak is now heard on 1557 kHz. Two other First Program transmitters, in Klaipeda and Viesintos, have switched from 1557 to 612 kHz, to create a new snychronised network. (BBC Monitoring) SOMALIA--The American forces in Somalia have started a Somali language radio station called Radio Hope (Radio Rajo). This broadcasts on 1480 and 9540 kHz. (BBC Monitoring) SWITZERLAND--According to Swiss Radio International's Bon Zanotti, SRI is getting involved in the French relay station in French Guiana. Early next year a 500 kW transmitter will be used for broadcasts to the Caribbean. (Radio Japan via BBC Monitoring) TURKMENISTAN--The First Program of the National Radio of Turkmenistan has been monitored on a new shortwave frequency of 5015 khz, instead of 4825. Programs in Turkmen and Russian are in parallel with 279 kHz. (BBC Monitoring) USA--Glenn Hauser has started a new program called "DX Daily" on WRNO in New Orleans. The program will air weekdays at 04:00-04:15 hrs on 7395 kHz. Glenn's "World of Radio" program continues as well. (George Thurman via Internet News) USA/RUSSIA--After jamming of Voice of America programs in Korean by North Korea, the VOA has begun relays by way of Russia. The Vladisvostok-based relay is over a 1000 kW transmitter on 648 kHz. However, this frequency is not mentioned in the VOA announcement, because it is still experimental. According to Kim Elliot of the VOA, it will probably be announced when the satellite link is more reliable. Korea is broadcast 13:00-13:30 hrs, followed by Special English at 13:30-14:00 hrs. VOA is also broadcasting from Russia in Mandarin at 14:00-16:00 hrs on 5925 kHz (from Novosibirsk) and 5945 kHz (from Irkutsk). (Radio Japan via BBC Monitoring) PUBLICATIONS--Concerning our review last time of the new 1993 edition of the "World Radio TV Handbook", it's been pointed out to us that there is an indication that shows when international broadcasters use satellite relays. This is a tiny little dish symbol next to the appropriate broadcaster. These refer to the "World Satellite Broadcasts" section. Nevertheless, you still have to know what you're looking for, and it would make a lot of sense to include this information under the regular listings as well. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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, especicially Kuato Huopio Good Listening!