From news.cs.tut.fi!news.funet.fi!funic!nic.funet.fi!CompuServe.COM!70247.3516 Thu Dec 17 15:17:21 EET 1992 Article: 16690 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 2169 Message-ID: <921217103816_70247.3516_EHB24-2@CompuServe.COM> Sender: root@nic.funet.fi (The FUnny NET guru) Organization: Finnish University & Research Network Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 12:38:16 +0200 Lines: 710 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: MediaScan :: :: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS :: :: from Radio Sweden :: :: Number 2169--Dec. 29, 1992 :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio Sweden. This week's bulletin was written by George Wood. Packet Radio BID SCDX2169 All times UTC unless otherwise noted. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- SWEDEN: RADIO SWEDEN--The big news at Radio Sweden this year was our appearance on the Tele-X and Astra 1B satellites. Relays from Sweden's direct broadcast satellite, Tele-X, began in February, using the TV4 transponder at 12.207 GHz, audio subcarrier 7.38 MHz. The Astra relays began on the Feast of All Fools, April 1, using transponder 26 at 11.596 GHz, audio 7.74 MHz. When we started this was the Comedy Channel transponder, but that program did so badly British Sky Broadcasting changed it to a classic film channel called Sky Movies Gold. Other broadcasters sharing time with Sky are TV Asia during the day and the soft-porn Adult Channel at night. On November 5th, Radio Sweden's Russian Service celebrated its 25th anniversary, with two live one hour broadcasts and a studio party. Among the guests was the winner of the Russian service's "Radio Sweden in My Life" essay contest, as well as the Program Director of St. Petersburg Radio, one of three local Russian stations rebroadcasting Radio Sweden programs, from the Tele-X satellite. The anniversary broadcast was preceeded in September by a special meeting with listeners broadcast live from St. Petersburg Radio over both stations. Relays of Radio Sweden's Latvian Service six days a week over Latvian Radio began on December 14th. Relays of the Estonian Service on Estonian Radio are expected to begin on January 18th. SWEDISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION--The new Swedish Broadcasting Corporation presented its channel formats and schedules in October. The new company, which officially begins on January 1st, 1993, is a merger of the current Swedish Radio Company and the Swedish Local Radio Company. The two public radio broadcasters are being combined just before they face competition from new private commercial stations. The current P1 channel retains its profile of news and current affairs, while P2 will continue to broadcast classical music, along with programs in minority languages, such as Sami or Lapp, as well as Finnish, and other immigrant languages. The big change is in the entertainment channel P3, which will be solely aimed at young people. Many of the current P3 programs that appealed to an older audience are being moved over to the new P4. This channel will carry the current local radio stations for 12 to 13 hours a day during the week, as well as sports and entertainment for an older audience. SWEDISH PRIVATE RADIO--Much of 1992 was filled with proposals for the introduction of private commercial radio in Sweden. After many discussions, in October, the center-right minority government introduced a bill to establish private stations. The bill called for the initial establishment of 60 stations, with 10 in Stockholm, 5 in Gothenburg, 3 in Malmoe, and the rest in a number of smaller towns. Licences would last for 8 years, and the government wanted to auction them off to the highest bidder. However, daily newspapers would not be allowed to hold a controlling interest in any station. Advertising would be limited to 10 percent of airtime, with a maximum of 8 minutes of commercials every hour. The government accepted the opposition Social Democrat proposal that community radio stations also be allowed to carry commercials. The bill is now being discussed by a parliamentary committee. Because the government coalition does not have a majority in parliament, it needs the support of at least one opposition party to pass the legislation. Apparently turning its back on the country's largest political party, the Social Democrats, the government has made a deal with the ultra-right wing New Democracy. According to reports, this means more than 60 stations would be initially licenced, and restrictions on advertising would be lightened, along with requirements for locally-produced programming, from the original legislation. Should the amended legislation pass as expected, the first private commercial radio stations in Sweden could be on the air by March. (TT) BREAKFAST TV--What was touted as Sweden's first breakfast television programming began on Monday September 14, on the national commercial channel TV4. Actually Swedish Television has had a weekend morning news magazine for years, educational television is on in the morning, the pay TV film channels FilmNet and TV1000 are 24 hour, and the cable only outlet Z-TV has been playing music videos at breakfast time. But this is the first weekday breakfast news program of the sort found in the US and Britain. Interestingly, the rival commercial channel TV3 suddenly challenged the new program by relaying a single half hour of Sky News in the middle of the morning period, along with reruns of programs from the evening before. KINNEVIK--1992 also saw the expansion of the Kinnevik media empire of Sweden's answer to Rupert Murdoch, Jan Stenbeck. Kinnevik's holdings include the separate Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish versions of the satellite broadcaster TV3, the pay film channel TV1000, a large portion of the terrestrial Swedish channel TV4, a cable shopping channel, a local cable channel in Stockholm, and the TV guide "Paa TV". During 1992, these were joined by Z Radio, which is carried on the Tele-X satellite to community radio stations, which break the law against commercials by carrying it, and its television counterpart Z-TV, a cable-only MTV clone. TV3 and TV1000 were set up in London, to circumvent the restrictive Swedish laws of a few years ago regulating satellite television, and use the Astra satellites. During 1992 Kinnevik sold its 3.4 percent share in Astra's owner SES. Meanwhile, America's Home Box Office increased its share of TV1000 to just over 30 percent. On September 1st, TV1000 started a new cable-only channel of older films called "FilmMax" in Stockholm. It expanded to Gothenburg and Malmoe in October. FILMNET--TV1000's rival FilmNet fought back, its Swedish owners Esselte having sold out to South Africa's M-Net. FilmNet started a new channel called "FilmNet Plus" in October. The broadcaster had been using two transponders on Astra, for parallel transmissions in PAL and D2-MAC, and had apparently thought it could use one for the new service. However Thames used its Astra option to launch UK Gold, and FilmNet found itself without its second Astra outlet. In September the company suddenly bought 85 percent of the direct broadcast satellite Tele-X from the Swedish government. The new FilmNet Plus service appeared there the following month, using 12.673 GHz. Unlike FilmMax, FilmNet Plus does not offer different programming from its parent. The two FilmNet's seem to have the same programming, but time- shifted. FilmNet is reported to be considering buying a second satellite to co-locate with Tele-X at 5 degrees East, possibly Britain's Marco Polo 1, which is for sale from the beginning of the year. NORWAY: NORWEGIAN TV2--On September 5th Norway's first nationwide commercial television station, TV2, went on the air, based in Norway's second city, Bergen. TV4 NORWAY--TV4 Norway was originally part of Sweden's TV4, using an Intelsat to reach Norway in parallel with the Tele-X satellite. When TV4 received the franchise as Sweden's first terrestrial commercial channel, the Norwegian operation was cut loose, and immediately began losing money. In late October, when it was on the edge of bankruptcy, it was announced that TV4 had been saved from a most unusual source--rock singer Bob Geldof, the man behind Live Aid, and now involved in British breakfast television. However, the effort apparently failed, because a few weeks later TV4 vanished from the airwaves. TV NORGE--In November, the Norwegian authorities tried to punish the private satellite broadcaster TV Norge for failing to follow the laws covering advertising. TV Norge is said to have violated the law by broadcasting commercials in the middle of programs, and for exceeding the 10 recent of airtime ceiling on advertising. The Norwegian Ministry of Culture tried to order TV Norge off the air for three days. But an Oslo court ruled against that action, saying TV Norge had been given too little time to respond to the accusations. (TT) INTELSAT--TV Norge and the former Norwegian TV4 were part of a package of Nordic stations on Intelsat 512 at 1 degree West, which has been the main Norwegian TV satellite. But in late October, the stations on that satellite cloned themselves onto Intelsat 515 at 18 degrees West. Now that TV4 is gone, Intelsat 515 is carrying the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, the new Norwegian terrestrial commercial station TV2, the private TV Norge, and Swedish Television 1 and 2, which are uplinked from Oslo for use by cable systems in Spitsbergen and on North Sea oil platforms. THOR--It's hard to say why the Norwegians shifted so much activity from 1 degree West to 18 degrees West, as at the same time Norwegian Telecom was moving the Marco Polo 2 satellite to 1 degree West to create a Nordic DBS package. Norwegian Telecom successfully outbid the Swedish Space Corporation and bought Marco Polo 2 from Britain. Renamed Thor, tests from the satellite began in November. However, the Norwegians continue to insist on broadcasting in the relatively obscure D-MAC standard, which makes it hard to understand how they are going to attract viewers. So far, there has been no announcement of what broadcasters will be using the 5 transponders on the satellite. NORWAY--Meanwhile, columnist Bertil Sundberg in "Paa TV" magazine has pointed out that with the parallel transmissions on two Intelsats and the new Thor satellite, there are now Norwegian broadcasts on 5 satellites at 4 different positions. They use a bewildering array of standards: PAL, D2-MAC in both Eurocrypt M and the unusual Eurocrypt S, and the even more obscure D-MAC. This, he says, may explain why 80 percent of satellite systems in Norway are motorized. Swedes often tell jokes about Norwegians. But the Norwegian approach to satellite television seems to be a joke in itself. RADIO NORWAY INTERNATIONAL--During 1992 the Norwegian Foreign Ministry announced it would stop funding Radio Norway International, funding that had enabled the station to increase its broadcasts in English from once a week to twice a week (Saturdays and Sundays). At the same time, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation announced it was reviewing its funding of Radio Norway International, and for a time it looked as if all English programming would go off the air. Instead, it seems programming will return to Sundays only beginning in February. Broadcasts in Norwegian are unaffected. MTV AND EUROSPORT--Nordic cable operators were upset in 1992 about MTV and Eurosport. Both channels said they wanted to be paid for inclusion in Scandinavian cable networks, despite being free over cable in the rest of Europe, and freely available on the Astra satellites. Here in Sweden, MTV will probably become an extra cable pay channel in the new year, while Nordic cable operators are threatening to remove Eurosport altogether. ("Dagens Nyheter") In early December it was decided to keep Eurosport until the end of the year (when it could be replaced by the new Euronews channel). The cable operators are also demanding that the two stations code their satellite signals, which is unlikely. There have been rumors that Eurosport might start a special Scandinavian service. But the Eurosport representative at the Satellite TV Show in Stockholm in October told Radio Sweden that this was just a suggestion, and no more. EUROPEAN SATELLITE BROADCASTING: UK GOLD--one of the most interesting new satellite channels to appear in 1992 was UK Gold, a combined effort of the BBC and Thames Television, with financial aid from Cox Communications in the United States. Drawing on the program libraries of the BBC and Thames, UK Gold promises to be a Best of British TV outlet, as Super Channel was supposed to be. Transmissions began on Astra transponder 23, in October. Programs are available to anyone with a Videocrypt decoder. There's no subscription necessary, as the service relies on advertising. Curiously, virtually every product advertised during the first programs had "Gold" or "Golden" in the name. RADIO LUXEMBOURG--The sad news is that veteran broadcaster Radio Luxembourg's English service is going off the air at the end of 1992. Earlier in the year the famous broadcaster had abandoned its medium wave outlet on 1440 kHz to rely solely on relays on Astra transponder 13. But the station failed to keep enough advertisers or rebroadcasters to turn a profit. The Swedish copyright society, CopySwede, may have had a role to play in the end of Radio Luxembourg. For many months Swedish Telecom has been trying to include Luxembourg in its cable networks. But CopySwede demanded royalties that Luxembourg said were far in excess of those paid anywhere else. ASIAN OUTLETS--Asians in Europe have had access to a number of satellite outlets during 1992. TV Asia, serving the South Asian community, has used Astra transponder 26 during the day and transponder 8 at night. Japan Satellite TV has relayed news from Tokyo on transponder 24 evenings. Both are coded in videocrypt. On the other hand, China News Europe broadcasts in the clear for three hours every night on Super Channel on Eutelsat II-F1. The programs are produced in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese. NEW SATELLITES--There were several new satellites over Europe in 1992. Eutelsat orbited its II-F3 satellite, which was placed at 16 degrees East, where feared interference with Astra did not take place. It is now used by several coded private Spanish broadcasters, HTV from Croatia, the Turkish HBB, Portugal's RTP Internacional, and the new Tunisian outlet TV7 or RTT. Eutelsat II-F4 was launched in July. It replaced the weak Eutelsat I-F4 at 7 degrees East, taking over such channels as RIK in Cyprus, Greece's ET1, and Serbia's RTV Beograd. On January 3rd, the European Broadcasting Union will begin using 4 transponders on Eutelsat II-F4 for program distribution. Germany's Kopernikus 3 was launched on October 12th from Cape Canaveral. Built originally as a back-up for the first two Kopernikus satellites, number 3 is to be positioned over eastern Russia, and will provide telecommunications to Eastern Europe, as well as to restore capacity for the international cable system between Denmark and Russia. Kopernikus can provide 13 television channels, as well as 6000 simultaneous telephone calls. Another new satellite launched in 1992 was Spain's direct broadcast satellite Hispasat. Going against the trend away from direct broadcast satellites (in favor of medium-powered satellites like Astra), it offers several high- powered transponders to Spain and the Canary Islands, and several more to Latin America. Test pictures from its location at 30 degrees West appeared in early December. Ironically, just as Hispasat was going into orbit, a Spanish company booked two transponders on Astra 1B and took options on two more on the coming Astra 1C. EASTERN EUROPE--Polish and Hungarian channels tested on Eutelsat II-F3 during late 1992. The Hungarian station used 11.596 GHz, while the Polish outlet was on 11.555 GHz, curiously in PAL, rather than the SECAM system used in Poland. Regular broadcasting is expected to begin early in the new year, apparently on 11.678 GHz. ASTRA--The Astra 1C satellite is due to be launched in April or May, 1992. There has much speculation about what channels will appear on its 16 transponders. Observers say there will be no shortage of takers. There are options on two Spanish channels, and other possible channels are Discovery, the Disney Channnel, TV Asia, Children's Channel, RTL-2, ITV, n-tv and Bravo. Astra 1D is to be launched in 1994. SES has formally ordered a new Astra 1E satellite, to be launched early in 1995 and placed alongside the other Astra satellites. It will carry 18 transponders with 85 watts each (compared to 45 watts on Astra 1A). When that satellite goes into service, Astra will have a total of 84 channels, all at one position in the sky. ASIA, THE MIDDLE EAST, AND THE PACIFIC: ARAB BROADCASTERS--Several Arab broadcasters appeared on satellite in 1992. The Kuwaiti Space Channel went on the air on Arabsat 1B at 26 degrees East, joining the Egyptian Space Channel (which uses the unusual S-band). ESC has announced it is switching to C-band, and it will soon be broadcasting to Europe as well via Eutelsat. Tunisia began satellite broadcasting in late 1992, with the RTT or TV7 service appearing on Eutelsat II-F3. INDIA--The Star-TV service on Asiasat 1 has launched a channel in Hindi called Zee-TV (to go along with BBC World Service, MTV, Mandarin, sports, and entertainment channels). Star-TV and CNN have had a great impact on people in South Asia, where the only television previously was from tightly controlled state broadcasters. A new Hindi-language station called the Asian Television Network began broadcasting via the Russian Ghorizont at 105 degrees East. India's Insat 2-A was launched in July and is operational at 74 degrees East, and three regional Indian television channels have moved to it from Arabsat. Altogether, the state broadcaster Doordashan is using 6 of the 18 transponders. Meanwhile, politicians in India are blaming the BBC and CNN for spreading the recent Hindu-Moslem riots by actually reporting what was happening, including the destruction of a mosque by Hindus. The official broadcast media in India try to avoid flaming communal violence by playing down coverage of such events. The "Times of India" wrote recently "The credibility of Doordarshan (India's official television) and All India Radio have hit an all-time low. The BBC is now accepted to be the last world on authenticity." (Reuters) AUSTRALIA--On August 14th, China finally succeeded in launching Australia's Optus B-1, formerly known as Aussat B-1. This satellite carries 15 Ku-band transponders, and is to be placed at 160 degrees East, replacing Aussat A-1, which is due to run out of fuel in early 1993. On October 8th the Australian Broadcasting Corporation officially began to lease a transponder on Indonesia's Palapa B-2P satellite for its Television Australia service to Asia. The new service was scheduled to begin by the end of November, but has been delayed until early 1993. NORTH AMERICA: NEW SATELLITES--1992 saw the launch of several important satellites for North America. The higher powered Galaxy 5 (with twice the power per transponder as earlier C-band satellites), which was launched on March 13th, has taken over at 125 degrees West, and is now the home of such stations as The Disney Channel, CNN, Turner Broadcasting, Home Box Office, Cinemax, ESPN, the USA Network, and Arts and Entertainment. Galaxy 1R, one of the new higher powered satellites, was destroyed shortly after lift-off from Cape Canaveral. But Satcom C4 was successfully launched on August 31st and has been moved to 135 degrees West. CABLE LAW--In October, the American Congress has, for the first time, overturned a veto by President George Bush, putting into law the "Cable Television Consumer Protection Act". Reversing the deregulation introduced by the Reagan administration, the act forces cable operators to maintain technical standards, charge reasonable rates, and include local broadcasters in their output. It also bans pricing descrimination against satellite home viewers and forces programmers to make their offerings available to satellite viewers. The act also lays down some rules for direct satellite broadcasting. DBS--The planned American direct satellite broadcaster Skypix cancelled its contract with Hughes in late 1992. According to reports, Skypix is millions of dollars in debt, and the project is unlikely to happen. Meanwhile, Hughes is going ahead with its direct satellite system DirecTv. The first satellite is to be launched in December, 1993. A deal for the second satellite should be in place by January. They will be placed at 101 degrees West. Using digital compression techniques, DirecTv could offer as many as 200 channels to dishes around 18 inches (46 centimeters) in diameter. A 150 channel service is planned. One DBS expert has pointed to the proliferation of magazines on store racks, and suggested that the magazine racks of the future will be satellites offering scores, or even hundreds, of narrow channels appealing to various interests. ("Cable and Satellite Europe") GLOBAL BROADCASTERS: TURNER AND CNN--Turner Broadcasting and the Cable News Network continued to expand in 1992. In Europe the obvious change was the introduction of CNN to Astra in April, making the service available to millions of home dish owners. However, transmissions continued from Intelsat 601 at 27.5 degrees West, since the Astra transponder is beamed towards southwestern Europe and is weaker in northern and eastern Europe. CNN also abandoned use of the Russian Ghorizont satellite at 40 degrees east, which it used for C-band transmissions to Africa. Instead, CNN added C-band transmission from Intelsat 601 to Africa. In May or June CNN moved to the new Arabsat 1C satellite for broadcasts to the Middle East. In June, CNN International began broadcasting directly to Japanese home on Superbird B-1 satellite, which was launched in February. CNN is expanding in 1993, and Peter Vesey, the Vice President in charge of CNN International, visited Scandinavia in November to present their plans. These include more programs from London, two hours a day of rebroadcasting in Moscow, dubbed into Russian (these appear to be Ghorizont 11 at 11 degrees West, at 11.525 GHz. CNN is relayed with Russian dubbing at around 19:00- 20:00 hrs), four hours daily in Poland, dubbed into Polish, a separate Spanish soundtrack for one daily half hour, and some subtitled programs in French and Japanese, for those markets. Speaking with Radio Sweden, Vesey said that CNN is definately looking more to direct to home broadcasting: "I think on a global basis, direct satellite to home delivery is where were are going to see our greatest growth." Despite losing two recent court cases in France which allowed hotels to carry CNN for free, Vesey told us CNN has no plans to encrypt its signals to Europe. In the United States, Turner Broadcasting launched its Cartoon Channel in October, drawing on the resources of the Hanna-Barbera library. Other relatively new Turner Channels in North America include the Checkout Channel for grocery stores and the Airport Channel at airports. Both use Ku- band. There's a report Turner Broadcasting is thinking of starting a "Fitness Channel". Ted Turner's wife Jane Fonda is best known nowadays for her fitness videos. DEUTSCHE WELLE--The Intelsat-K satellite was launched in June, and placed over the Atlantic at 21.5 degrees West. Unlike other Intelsat satellites, it has many relatively powerful Ku-band transponders, capable of reception in both Europe and North America with antennas of 1 meter or less. The satellite has been used to Europe for news feeds from the United States. But two European broadcasters, Germany's Deutsche Welle and Italy's RAI have used Intelsat-K to reach North America with regular programming. Deutsche Welle entered the world of satellite television in March, having taken over the facilities of the Berlin-based American station RIAS. DW began broadcasting to Europe on Eutelsat II-F1 with three blocks each two hours long, in both German and English. Spanish was added later. When France's TV5 evicted the American Worldnet, it found a home on the DW transponder. The DW broadcasts on Intelsat-K began on November 1st and are further relayed to American dish owners and cable networks on the new Satcom C4 satellite at 135 degrees West, transponder 5 and on the US Information Agency transponder 3 on Spacenet 2 at 69 degrees West. At the end of November, relays of the Spanish programming from Intelsat-K began on Peru's Global de Television. Deutsche Welle is also relayed to Africa on Intelsat 601 at 27.5 degrees West. Africa, Asia, and the Pacific are covered by transmissions on Intelsat 505 at 66 degrees East. Finally, Deutche Welle is also transmitting to the Far East and Pacific on Intelsat 508 at 180 degrees East. (BBC Monitoring) TV5/CANAL FRANCE--Another global broadcaster in the making is the French- language TV5, which has been broadcasting to Europe on Eutelsat I-F1, and to North America on Anik E1 transponder 17. TV5 Afrique launched on September 30th, via Ghorizont 12 at 40 degrees East. TV5 planned to expand to Latin America by the end of the year, using Panamsat-1 at 45 degrees West. TV5 carries programs from France (TF1, France 2 and 3), Belgium (RTBF), Switzerland (SSR), and Quebec (Radio Canada). Broadcasts are currently 19 hours a day, but should be round-the-clock soon. (AFP via BBC Monitoring and "In Orbit") Meanwhile, another French channel, Canal France, is broadcasting to Africa on Intelsat 601, and to the Middle East on Arabsat 1C. BBC WORLD SERVICE TELEVISION--Another global broadcaster that expanded in 1992 was BBC World Service Television. The Asian service, over Asiasat-1, began on March 10th. This was expanded to Africa in April, using a C-band transponder on Intelsat 601. The service is encrypted using the IRDETO system, requiring a decoder from the South African-based M-Net company, which shares the transponder with BBC. Most recently World Service Television has appeared in North America, relayed uncoded on Intelsat 601. It's being further relayed across Canada as part of the CBC Newsworld service, coded on Anik E2, transponder 16. World Service Television plans to expand into the United States, Japan, and the Pacific in the next 14 months, and talks are also going on with Latin American broadcasters. Back here in Europe, the World Service Television switch to D2-MAC on Intelsat 601 has been pushed back to January. The Asian Service is relayed during the night to Europe, uncoded. Outside of Europe, BBC World Service Television is primarily a 24 hour news channel. The BBC is considering starting a second international channel, focusing on general entertainment. Research carried out in India indicates that World Service Television has an 11 percent viewship figure, compared to CNN's 6 percent. BRIGHTSIDE BROADCASTING--Another would-be global broadcaster seems to have folded. Brightside broadcasting appeared on Canada's Anik E1 satellite, transponder 23 in January. According to one report they were uplinked from Atlanta, Georgia. The service was also relayed to other parts of the world on C-band, using the Russian Ghorizont 12 and 15 satellites, at 40 degrees East and 14 degrees West. By April Brightside had disappeared. INDIGENOUS BROADCASTING--In the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas, there were some native initiatives against the tide of global media. In January Television Northern Canada began broadcasting on Canada's Anik 1E satellite transponder 19. It broadcasts to Native Americans in the Canadian Arctic in 11 native languages and English. The intention is to help preserve native culture. After decades of being the recipient of international television, the Caribbean has started its own international broadcasts. Test transmissions from the Caribbean Satellite Network went on the air at the beginning of December, transmitting to the Americas on the Galaxy 3 satellite, transponder 7. Regular broadcasting is to begin in January. The station is also reported to be interested in broadcasting to Europe. Signals are uplinked from Miami. Programing will concentrate on music, but there will also be documentaries based on life in the Caribbean, news, and situation comedies. (IPS and BBC Monitoring) THE FUTURE: WARC--The 1992 World Administrative Radio Conference was held during February in Torremolinos, Spain. Its brief was to reallocate some parts of the radio frequency spectrum to new and existing users. The last major reallocation conference was WARC-79, more than 12 years ago, and since then technology has come a long way. WARC-92 looked at services operating between 5 MHz and 124 GHz, including broadcasting, space research and mobile communications. Shortwave broadcasters wanted to get more frequencies, because the current bands are so crowded, preferably from bands next door to existing broadcast bands. Those are occupied by fixed services, that's to say point-to-point communications for telephone links and emergency services. Many developing countries protested against this, although research has shown that the fixed services operating on shortwave are getting fewer and fewer--most of them are moving to satellite links. The result of long negotiations was that broadcasters will receive 790 kHz of spectrum, but only 200 kHz below 10 MHz. And only 50 kHz of that is in the 7 MHz band (where there are currently collisions between broadcasters and radio amateurs), against an original bid for 200 kHz! The new extension bands will be transferred to broadcasters in the year 2007. They are for single side band only and a future WARC has to come up with a planning system for these new bands. But in practice, many broadcasters will move into the new bands well before 2007--if you look at the WARC-79 extensions, which still aren't officially released to broadcasting, they are already heavily used. The conference was faced with its most difficult arguments over the reallocation of frequencies between 1 and 3 GHz. Mobile satellite services and braodcasting satellite services were seeking allocations there. Three separate frequency ranges were put forward for the new BSS-Sound (direct radio satellite broadcasting) service. This will provide high quality radio reception to portable reeivers. The satellite operators say that receivers will be produced cheaply enough for the developing world to take advantage of the new techology. About half the world backed an allocation for BSS-Sound around 1.5 GHz, with the other half, including most of Europe, opting for a band around 2.5 GHz, while the United States wanted 2.3 GHz. The conference agreed that 1.5 GHz was the most technically suitable. It offers best reception for portable receivers, without interference from the terrain or buildings. Small whip antgennas can be used and the satellites will be cheaper to build. However, politically many countries could not agree, one of the reasons being that their existing users at 1.5 GHz in some cases include the military. The conference reached absolute deadlock on this subject, and it was only in its very last stages that a compromise was drawn up. This provided the world with three separate allocations for BSS-Sound. One was at the 1.5 GHz range--with a small portion of the band available immediately, another allocation at 2.6 GHz, and a separate band for the US at 2.3 GHz. The result is that digital satellite radio is now just around the corner, Provided, of course, some satellite can be built and receivers brought on to the market. (Janne Olsen) DIGITAL AUDIO BROADCASTING--Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) will replace FM within the next ten years. During the second quarter of 1992 Swedish Telecom tested DAB transmissions in Stockholm, using a frequency within TV channel 12 (224 MHz). More comprehensive DAB test broadcasts will begin in 1993. Regular broadcasts are to begin in 1995 or 1996. The Swedish government has proposed using TV channel 12, around 224 MHz. The BBC is using the Olympus satellite for DAB tests until the Spring of 1993. EDXC--But satellites will not be replacing shortwave immediately. At the European DX Council conference in Tampere, Finland in August, Simon Spanswick of the BBC World Service described two coming technical improvements to shortwave transmission. AM-Data System (AM-DS) is very similar to the RDS system of transmitting digital text information along with an FM signal, now in common use in Europe. AM-DS receivers would display station names, as well as alternative frequencies on which the station is transmitting. Listeners will be able to switch to those alternatives by pressing a button. Tests on AM-DS have already been carried out by Deutsche Welle in conjunction with the Institut fur Rundfunk Technik in Munich. Farther in the future is a receiver system called ID Logic. This is being developed by an American company which proposes that whole station schedules could be downloaded to computer chips in special radios, providing perhaps a complete three or six month schedule. The keypad on ID Logic receivers would have the facility to enter the desired language and the nearest city. The set would then automatically select the frequency scheduled to be operational at that time. CABLE TV--An American company is planning to use a new digital system to provide cable systems with 500 channels or more. The company, TCI, plans to offer the system to cable subscribers by January, 1994. TCI customers with satellite dishes could receive simialr compressed digital services in mid- 1993. A digital compression system converts the standard analog signals now used to transmit video and voice to a digital format. Special equipment can compress the digital signals or that 10 channels or more can fit into the same bandwidth formerly used by one analog channel. The compressed digital signal would be transmitted through a cable system through optical fiber-coaxial cable. A set-top device then decompresses the digital channel and converts it back into 10 analog channels that can be viewed on a normal television set. TCI is the largest cable systems operator in the United States. (AP) That's it for MediaScan and 1992. We'd like to thank all of our contributors during the year gone by for making the program happen. And thanks to our readers 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. Radio Sweden broadcasts to Europe in English on 21:30-22:30 hrs: on medium and shortwave: 1179, 6065 and 9655 kHz via satellite: Astra 1B (19.2 degrees East) channel 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. We're also relay our half hour program at 13:30 hrs on satellite The rest of the Radio Sweden English schedule is (half hour programs): Europe: 23:30 hrs on 1179 and 6065 kHz Middle East and East Africa: 16:00 hrs 15270 kHz Asia and the Pacific: 13:30 hrs on 15240 and 21625 kHz 21:30-22:30 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 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 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 year'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