From: 70247.3516@CompuServe.COM (George Wood)
Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave
Subject: SCDX 2170
Date: 5 Jan 93 12:49:15 GMT
Organization: Finnish University & Research Network


   
  :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
  ::           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.

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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!



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