NASWA Notes, December 1999
Last Updated on December 8, 2005 by Ralph Brandi
Season’s greetings! It seems like 1999 began only a few short months ago and here we are closing out the year. I hope your favorite overpriced toy or gizmo will make its way into your possession during this time of the year. If not, you may have to hold your breath for another 12 months. Holiday greetings to all members.
Not all news is joyous this holiday season. From long time friend and DX associate Anker Petersen we learn that Jens Frost, the popular editor of the World Radio TV Handbook (“WRTH”) for some many years, passed away suddenly on October 18, 1999 after a heart stroke. Anker had just spoken to him only a few days prior to his passing where Jens confirmed his participation in the EDXC Conference on November 6th in Copenhagen. Jens would have been 80 years this month. He was Assistant Editor of WRTH 1961-1963, Editor-in-Chief 1964-1986, and Editor Emeritus 1987-1999. Letters of condolences can be sent to his daughter and son-in-law, Sonja Frost & Per Soerensen, Engvaenget 18, DK 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark.
Here’s some exciting contest information from Giovanni Serra, The Four Winds Online SW DX Newsletter editor, concerning the A.I.R. CONTEST 2000 “Attilio Leoni”. The contest will start at 1700UTC on January 5th, 2000, and will end at midnight UTC on January 16th, 2000. Participation is open for all radio listeners, A.I.R. members and non-members alike. The Contest is divided into the following parts: First part: free listening on 49 meters band between the range 5800 and 6200 kHz, from January 5 at 1700UTC to January 9, 2000, at midnight UTC, in any language. Second part: listening to programs in any language of the following stations, at any time from January 10 at 0000UTC to January 16, 2000, at midnight UTC(on broadcast frequencies between 150 and 26100 kHz): Radio Tirana, Radio Nacional de Angola, R.Argentina al Exterior, Voice of Armenia, Radio Austria Int., Radio Bangladesh, Radio Botswana, Radio Brasil Central, Radiodiff. de Burkina, La Voz Cristiana, Radio Taipei Int., HCJB, Radio Cairo, Radio France Int., Africa No.1, All India Radio, VOIRI Tehran, Kol Israel, RAI International, NHK Radio Japan, Radio Jordan, Radio Pyongyang, Voice of the Mediterranean, ORTM (Mauritania), Radio Netherlands, Voice of Nigeria, Radio Norway Int., Radio Pakistan, Radio Romania Int., Voice of Russia, Radio Slovakia Int., Channel Africa, Swiss Radio Int., Radio Tunis Int., Radio Ukraine Int., BBC, Voice of America, WEWN, Radio Tashkent, and Radio Vaticana.
Each station can be logged only once. The listening report will have a minimum time of 15 minutes. The reports must contain all useful references (frequency, UTC time, station name, language, the most important details for a good valuation, SINPO code), technical data (receiver, antenna and optional). The listening list, with your participation fee, must be sent to this address: BRUNO PECOLATTO, AIR Contest Manager, via Soana 13, I-10085 PONT CANAVESE (TO) ITALY e-mail: < pecolatto@eponet.it > Not later than February 26th, 2000 (date of postmark). On the same report the participant must indicate name, address and a short declaration as follow: “I take the responsibility on myself that I have listened to all the stations reported during the time of validity of contest”. All details will be very important for a correct estimate of the contest results and for additional controls the Contest Manager could ask your audiotape. The scores will be computed on a base of 101 = points for each station deducting the participants percentage that listened to the same station. Decimal will not be considered. A bonus of 200 points will be awarded to all those who will report the highest number of program details for each station and not only generic terms such as news, music, comments, etc. The participation fee is 6 IRC’s to be sent with your listening list to Contest Manager. Each participant will receive a certificate of participation. First prize is a copy of the WRTH 2000 offered by A.I.R., second prize is a copy of the book Una vita per la radio offered by A.I.R., third prize is a copy of the book The radio pirates aboard the offshore forts in the Thames estuary offered by Pirate News, and fourth prize is a radio controlled table clock offered by A.I.R. Get an extra 100 points by answering the A.I.R. QUESTIONNAIRE 2000 — state your three favorite DX programs of any broadcast radio station.
From Adrian Peterson we learn that Ron Killick of Christchurch, New Zealand is the world winner in the annual DX contest conducted by Adventist World Radio. He amassed a remarkable total of more than 67,000 QSLs during the past 45 years. Ron will be awarded the 1999 Bronze Medallion and a deluxe copy of Jerry Berg’s new book, On the Short Waves. The 1999 DX contest was conducted during September in conjunction with the AWR DX program, “Wavescan”, and it invited listeners to submit details of large QSL collections and to describe the longest time they waited to receive a QSL. The “Longest Wait” is 31 years and that’s how long Karl-Erik Stridh in Hoganas, Sweden, waited to receive a QSL card from the ship station, Radio Syd. In a strange set of circumstances, he heard the station as a youth, and received a QSL card from one of the staff he befriended 31 years later. Don Moore (U.S.A.) has a total of more than 28 QSLs exhibiting the “Long Wait”. In some cases, he later visited the station in Latin America and collected the QSL personally. The other Continental Winners are Ivan Lopez Alegria in Mexico, Madan Mukherjee in India, and David Gordon in South Africa.
Here’s a brief reminder that Radio Nuevo Mundo‘s 21th anniversary pennant is currently available for only US$5.00, which includes shipping. You can order it from Takayuki Inoue Nozaki, 18-11 Fuzimi-cho, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo 192-0044, Japan. Also, the special 20th anniversary giant pennant is still available for US$20.00.
That’s it for this month. Enjoy this month’s special holiday edition of the JOURNAL; it’s another good one.
FRENDX: Twenty Five Years Ago
The Bolivian Survey, complied by Tony Jones, was being sold for US$ 1.00 in North America or overseas for 8 IRCs airmail through headquarters. Loudenboomer presented Alphonse and the Magic Christmas Tree. Ed Shaw presented his last Shortwave Center column for several months and introduced replacement editor Charlie Wootten. Carroll (Pat) Patterson wrote about the Karelo-Finnish SSR while Marlin Field wrote about Christian Radio Voices. Dan Jamison’s Listener’s Notebook column carried special Spotlight features about Rwanda and Equatorial Guinea contributed by Al Miller. Members were encouraged to buy their copy of the 1975 World Radio TV Handbook from Gilfer Associates for $8.95. Bob Zabot presented his first QSL Report column. Ten members reported hearing 200 or more countries in Neal Perdue’s Scoreboard column: Don Jensen (216), Gerry Dexter (213), James Young (211), Sam Barto (207), John Campbell (205), San Henderson (204), Bob Padula (203), Ed Shaw (203), Ernie Behr (201), and Bill Sparks (200). Only Jensen (211) and Dexter (209) had at least 200 countries verified.
ANARC SWL Net Survey
Dave Kirby, one of the net controls for The ANARC SWL Ham Net, has announced a survey to determine whether the net should come back from its summer hiatus. Questions include whether you would be willing to participate on air or via IRC chat channel #swl. Dave and Al Quaglieri hope to bring the net back this fall, depending on the results of the survey. You can find the survey and more information about the future of the ANARC SWL Ham Net at Dave’s web site, <http://www.n1dk.com/>.
Contribute!
Send your loggings and QSL information off to our Distributing Editor, Fred Kohlbrenner (2641 South Shields Street, Philadelphia, PA 19142). He will forward them to the appropriate editor. Remember, Fred has now expanded his business to include QSL report information and totals for the Scoreboard column. He can also be reached through the Internet at: fkohl@ix.netcom.com.
Calendar Of Events
Dec 17 Meeting. Philadelphia Area NASWA Chapter. Kulpsville Holiday Inn, Kulpsville, PA at 7:30 PM. For more information contact Dan Cashin at 215-446-7831.
Dec 17 Meeting. Boston Area NASWA Chapter. This month’s meeting is cancelled. We return on the third Friday in January. For more information contact Paul Graveline at +1 978-470-1971 or Internet: 74007.3434@compuserve.com. The URL for the BADX guys is http://www.naswa.net/badx/
Jan’00 Contest. A.I.R. CONTEST 2000 “Attilio Leoni”. The contest will start at 1700UTC on January 5th, 2000, and will end at midnight UTC on January 16th, 2000. Participation is open for all radio listeners, A.I.R. members and non-members alike. The listening list, with your participation fee, must be sent to this address: BRUNO PECOLATTO, AIR Contest Manager, via Soana 13, I-10085 PONT CANAVESE (TO) ITALY e-mail: < pecolatto@eponet.it > Not later than February 26th, 2000 (date of postmark). Complete details in December’s NASWA Notes column.
Jan 14 Meeting. The Tidewater SWL’s meet at 6:30 PM. For more information plus meeting location contact Joe Buch at +1 804-721-2782 or Internet: joseph.buch@dol.net
Jan 14 Meeting. The Cincinnati/Dayton Monitoring Exchange (MONIX) meet at the Lebanon Citizens National Bank on U.S. Route 42 in Mason at 7:00 PM. For more information contact Mark Meece at 513-777-5296 or e-mail at mmeece@siscom.net. For additional information about MONIX, check out their web site at http://w3.one.net/~mmeece/monix.html
Mar’00 Convention. The 13th Annual Winter SWL Festival, sponsored by NASWA, will be held at the Kulpsville Holiday Inn (Exit 31 on the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike) in 10 and 11 March 2000. Richard Cuff and John Figliozzi co-chair the organizational committee.
Mar’00 Contest. 2000 North American DX Championships – 19 March through 21 March. For further information you can send a self-addressed stamped envelope to 2000 NADXC, c/o Dr. Harold Cones, 2 Whits Court, Newport News, VA 23606.
Sep’00 Contest. AWR Contest. Number of different QSL stamps in the listener’s collection. More details to follow.
Members are invited to submit items to be included in this calendar to Rich D’Angelo (Internet: rdangelo3@aol.com) or Ralph Brandi (Internet: webmaster@anarc.org).
Musings
G. Victor A. Goonetilleke victorg@slt.lk, 4S7VK, “Shangri-La,” 298 Madapatha Road, Kolamunne, Piliyandala. Sri Lanka
Re: JENS FROST 1919-1999
As the e-mails come streaming through, I sit stunned and deeply affected by the passing away of the dearest old man I have ever touched. I have no idiom to pay tribute to Jens for what ever I say will lack in beauty and quality and fade far short of my goal.
After 17 years of correspondence as a contributor to the WRTH, I was greatly honoured to meet Jens in Stockholm at EDXC 84. If anyone fitted my affectionate mental picture perfectly, Jens did. I had never been abroad and the overwhelming DX community at its zenith then, dazzled too strong before me, but Jens held me tight and had me next to him right through that weekend. I traveled down to Copenhagen with him and met him again in 1995, in Rebild EDXC 95, and there again he clasped me to his side. The eleven years hadn’t changed him and he was just as I had met him in ’84. A perfect gentleman, a noble man and friend of all. In my eyes his contribution to radio broadcasting and listening through the pages of the World Radio & TV Handbook can hardly be paralleled. He was my personality of the millennium.
Even though I met him personally and he wrote me and phoned me many times, he was always a mystical figure, a figure that death can not change for he was more legend even in life. Jens Frost will pass on into the legends of radio listening, yet too large for a legend and thus into the mythology of our age. If ever limitless my wireless heart loved, and loved deep and completely, then it was the silver haired genial soul of this great simple and unassuming man. Good bye Jens, Good bye my dear friend you will walk with those that death can only immortalise.
Richard E. Wood, Ph.D., P.O. Box 2895, Kailua-Kona, HI 96745
The segment of the History of ANARC in the October Journal brought back happy memories, especially of my meeting with August Balbi, “the Dean of DXers” of the post-WWII period, and of my chairmanship of the ANARC Frequency Recommendation Committee. Its offshoot, the committee to persuade stations to announce precise frequencies (rather than meterbands) was at least partly successful before it disbanded, but its major failure then and much later was Radio Moscow (and the other Soviet external services) to announce exact frequencies rather than ignoring the final 5 of those not ending in 0. Thus, announced “7.10” could be either 7.100 or 7.105. The reason for this seems to be that, in Russian, there is no simple word corresponding to the decimal point, expressed in English as point, French virgule, German komma, etc. It has to be expressed as a fraction, hundredths, thousandths, etc. Thus, moving in a list from, say, 7.10 to 7.105 would mean a move from hundredths to thousandths and back, a seeming confusion of units.
On a different subject, I’d like to explore the possible holding of a DX convention at my shack in Hawaiian Paradise Park, between Kea’au and Pahoa in the Puna district of East Hawaii. The focus would be on constructing Beverage antennas and developing Beverage switching, matching and mixing units, and experimenting with resistors at various points, ground systems (probably surface-level radials as lava rock makes digging difficult), etc.
As some of you know, East Hawaii is a superb DX location for most areas, notably Africa and Asia and even across the pole to Europe. It is probably the best spot in the United States for worldwide medium wave reception (northern Alaska is doubtless better for Europe, but may not offer the South American, African and possibly Down Under reception we enjoy here). Here in the Hilo area we receive MW stations 10 to 12 times zones away almost daily, e.g. BBC-UK-1296 kHz, Abu Dhabi-1332, Saudi Arabia-1440, and BBC-Oman-1413.
The problem would be the logistics of holding a convention at the one-room shack with its limited sleeping and bathing facilities. Much of the acre is planted in pineapples, but if participants brought tents, they could pitch them in places. The alternative, to hold the convention in a big, RFI-plagued downtown Hilo hotel, would defeat the purpose – to build and adjust Beverages all day, then DX on them all night. On timing, I am open, but March or April should be good for reception from all continents. Please contact me by mail, please, no phone calls; most of the week I am away earning a living in Kona on the other side of the island, not such a good DX location. Sooner or later I hope to retire to live and DX full-time in Puna.
Doug Robertson, 4045 Sunset Lane, Oxnard, CA 93035
There was some transcription errors in the November 1999 musings letter of mine, all in the second paragraph. Here are the corrections, taken directly from the original letter:
1st sentence – add “marine” between “British” and “industry”
2nd sentence – spell “Lowe” vice “Lower”
3rd sentence – substitute “30 MHz AM” for “20 MHz”
As an aside, please recognize the illogicality of Sitex’s labeling of the Nav-Fax 100 (voice only) receiver as it cannot present decode FAX transmissions. The listener would hear a tuned facsimile transmission station as a rapid, high-pitched jumble of semi or quasi-musical “hum.” I am enclosing a tear sheet from Sitex’s catalog on the receivers. (Anyone interested in a copy should send me a SASE – RAD)
73, Doug
Membership Questions?
If you have any questions concerning your membership, renewals, change of address, etc please contact Bill Oliver by postal mail (45 Wildflower Road, Levittown, PA 19057) or e-mail (boliver@bboard.com).