MW SCAN   -   January 1998

First - logbooks from UK contributors

Second- logbooks from foreign contributors

Third - the news items

CANADA

CJCY 1390 Medicine Hat AB has applied to move to FM 96·1. (NRC 65/8)

CHIN 1540 Toronto ON has been granted 101·3 MHz FM, but as an addition to its AM licence to improve nighttime coverage. Hence they are not relinquishing their AM license. (NRC 65/4)

CHNR 1600 Simcoe ON has moved to 106·7 MHz FM (NRC 65/1)

 

NETHERLANDS

Veronica AM expects to cease using AM from the middle of this month. They have been using the mv Communicator on 1224 kHz and a land based transmitter near Rotterdam on 828 kHz.

Hans Knot sent the British DX Club this report: "The ship, which is still anchored beyond the dyke, which is the dykeroad between Lelystad and Enkhuizen, will not be used as base for the Veronica 1224 AM transmitter after January 15. From the first of January, Veronica will start FM transmissions in the main part of the Netherlands with transmitters on several sites. To bring the former AM listeners to the new frequencies during the first two weeks of the New Year 'heavy Veronica-style promo's will be played on 1224. The same will be done on the 828 AM, a transmitter which is near Rotterdam. This 5 kW transmitter will be in use for Arrow Classic Rock, probably in March. The 1224 kHz has been given away to Quality Radio. Before they will use the transmitter Nozema, the company until now responsible for the transmitters, will give them a complete 'rundown'. This will take some six weeks. After that QRadio will start transmitting on AM. Till now this station, which formerly used the name Wonderful Radio London and started transmission by cable in Holland in April 1995, is transmitting from a train at the Zutphen railroad station."

 

And Piet Pijpers adds the FM information for Veronica.

88.1	0.08 kW	Hilversum	93.4	0.1 kW	Maastricht
93.0	0.2 kW	Middelburg	103.8	5 kW	Rotterdam

 

RUSSIA

R Menovyi Dvor broadcasts on 1053 kHz at 1900. Address: Televizionny per. 3460798, Orenburg-98. (AK)

Obshestvennoe R Primorja is new on 675 kHz 2100-0900 in Primorskyi Kray region. (AK)

Radio Don-TR has regional prgms in Russian on 945 kHz Mon-Fri 0410-0500, 1500-1600, Sat 0410-0700, Sun 0610-0700, 1520-1600 and 1620-1700. Address: ul 1-ya Barrikadnaya, 18, 344101 Rostov-na-Donu. (AK)

Perm has 585 kHz R Rossii/Permskoe R, 846 kHz R Mediana, 1116 kHz Avtoradio and 1359 kHz Mayak. (AK)

Svobodnaya Rossiya broadcasts Mon-Fri 0400-0700, 1000-1300 & 1600-2100 on 1359 kHz to Moscow. (AK)

Narodnoe Radio broadcasts 0500-0645 on 1233 kHz with 150 kW to Moscow. (AK)

Radio Center broadcasts 0500-2100 on 1134 kHz 20 kW to St Petersburg and 1100-2100 on 1485 kHz 20 kW to Moscow. (AK)

Adygeyskoe Radio broadcasts 1800-1900 Mon-Fri on 1089 kHz to Krasnodar. (AK)

Kabardino-Balkarskoe Radio has regional prgms on 1107 kHz 0400-0700 & 1400-1500, and Wed/Sun on 1089 1830-1900.

Radio Kuban - Krasnodarskoe Radio has regional prgms on 1089 kHz 0350-0400 Sun, 0400-0500 Mon-Sat, 0510-0600 Sun, 0700-0800 Sat, 0800-0810 Tue-Fri, 0810-0900 Sun, 1500-1600 Mon-Fri. (AK)

Mayak is carried on 576 kHz 0000-1200 to Novosibirsk (AK)

 

UNITED KINGDOM

Ray Woodward forwarded the following info from The Radio Magazine website to the British DX Club.

The RADIO AUTHORITY has agreed to allow two of the original incremental small-scale local radio stations to switch from AM to FM frequencies in the New Year. KCBC (Kettering) and ISLE OF WIGHT RADIO, both now owned by THE LOCAL RADIO COMPANY, had their licences re advertised in 1993. At the time the Authority said the stations might be permitted to switch to FM when suitable frequencies became available.
A brief period of simulcasting will be allowed. The Authority says it will consider in due course whether any appropriate use can be made of the AM frequencies relinquished. It is understood that KCBC will be given two frequencies, 107·4 MHz for Kettering/Corby with an additional channel, 97·2 MHz for coverage of the Wellingborough area.

The RADIO AUTHORITY says it is continuing to explore the technical feasibility of a similar waveband-transfer for a third station, RADIO FIRST plc-owned MELLOW 1557, serving the Tendring district of Essex.

Radio London "Big L" have been broadcasting from St Katherine's Dock near the Tower of London on 1503 kHz over the Christmas holidays. Reception here in West London has been extremely variable. Today for instance they are barely audible, whereas before Christmas they were booming in.

OTHERNESS

Sea Rescue as alarm call goes long distance BY ROBIN YOUNG
A DISTRESS call picked up in the Western Isles yesterday proved to come from a ship an fire off the coast of Brazil. Coastguards in the watch room in Stornoway listened in astonishment as they heard the mayday call saying 14 crewmen were abandoning a cargo tanker ship, the Aruba. The ship, carrying 1,000 tonnes of cotton and 100 empty containers from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, to Cartagena, Colombia, was ablaze just north of the Equator.
The Stornoway coastguards alerted colleagues in Falmouth, Cornwall, who are linked to the International Maritime Satellite Network. They then passed the details heard in Stornoway to the rescue co-ordination centre in Rio de Janeiro and a rescue operation began. Rescue controllers in Rio said that a ship was due to reach the 4,900-tonne Aruba during the night. The crew were thought to be safe in boats, although one was believed to have suffered burns.
British coastguards were hopeful last night that they would eventually hear that all the men had been rescued. "We would normally get a situation report eventually as a matter of courtesy," said a spokesman in Falmouth.
The call picked up in Stornoway was made on 2,182 kilohertz, the international medium-frequency (MF) distress frequency. MF is usually expected to have a range of only a few hundred miles, but some weather patterns and stratospheric conditions can cause signals to "skip" around the globe.
The freak reception would not work in reverse. The coastguards in Stornoway were not able to tell the stricken ship that its signals had been heard. Nick Teal, coastguard district controller at Stornoway said: "This call was a bit out of our patch, but any vessel in distress needs immediate attention. We heard a distress call that no one else had picked up. It does emphasise how vigilant we must be at all times."

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