RCI Action Committee: What you can do

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(Source: RCI Action)

How can you help?

How can you help stop this drastic cut of 80% of Radio Canada International’s budget?

Please write to Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, and Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore.  (See addresses below.) If they are your Member of Parliament, please mention that as well.

Ask whether CBC/Radio-Canada should be deciding how strong or weak Canada’s Voice to the World should be?

Whether they feel comfortable with the fact our Chinese audience will now be cut off from RCI’s uncensored news about Canada and the World.

We feel because of the continuing cuts to RCI since 1990 (See: http://rciaction.org/blog), the government should give RCI financial autonomy and take RCI’s budget away from CBC/Radio-Canada’s control.

If you agree with us, please make your point of view heard.

We have very little time to achieve our goal. We’re counting on you.

Some points you might want to bring up with the ministers or your Member of Parliament:

  • RCI’s budget has been cut by more than 80% – from $12.3 million to $2.3 million
  • RCI newsroom will be eliminated, all newscasts cut
  • RCI will no longer be a broadcaster, whether on shortwave or satellite
  • Chinese audience will be cut off from uncensored news from RCI because only shortwave reaches the Chinese, the RCI website is blocked by China
  • Important potential trading partners such as China, India, Russia, Brazil will be cut off from news from Canada, because the RCI website is blocked or the Internet not as accessible as in North America
  • As Canadians we feel it’s essential Canada have a Voice to the World producing programming tailored for an audience not familiar with Canada
  • Canada’s Voice to the World has been a respected source of journalism for the past 67 years

Please consider sending an e-mail to the three ministers, even if you live outside Canada. If you are in Canada, you can send letters free to the ministers, MPs and Senators.

Thank you,

RCI Action Committee

[email protected]

http://twitter.com/rci_action   http://rciaction.org/blog

Addresses:

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird  E-mail: [email protected]

Mailing address:

Hon. John Baird
418N Centre Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

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Canada’s Finance Minister Jim Flaherty:  E-mail: [email protected]

Mailing address:

Hon. Jim Flaherty
435-S Centre Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

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Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore E-mail: [email protected]

Mailing address:

Hon. James Moore
15 Eddy Street, 12th Floor
House of Commons
Gatineau, QC K1A 0M5

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You’ll find e-mail and mailing addresses of all Members of Parliament here:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/MembersOfParliament/MainMPsCompleteList.aspx?TimePeriod=Current&Language=E

You’ll find e-mail and mailing addresses for all Senators here:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/SenatorsMembers/Senate/SenatorsBiography/ISenator.asp?Language=E

List price of Bonito 1102S RadioJet for US

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Universal Radio has published the “List Price” of the Bonito 1102S RadioJet at  $784.00 US.

This could make the RadioJet a very strong competitor to other SDRs on the market in North America. The list price (not necessarily the final price Universal will announce–which could be lower) is  $216 less than that of the Microtelecom Perseus ($999.95 US) and the $116 less than the WinRadio Excalibur ($899.95 US).

After reading Fernando’s review of the RadioJet–where he compared it to the Perseus–this may be one of the best SDR performers for the price. We will be reviewing the Bonito 1102S RadioJet in the near future as well.

To follow all updates of the Bonito 1102S RadioJet, please follow our tag: RadioJet

Music and sounds of Mali

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Myke Dodge Weiskopf, who we’ve mentioned on the SWLing Post for his shortwave radio recordings, has informed us that he will be hosting a long-form radio show May-19-20th, showcasing live radio recordings from Mali. You can listen to the show online, or live (if you live near Cambridge, MA, USA).

Details from Myke:

I’ll be producing and hosting another long-form radio broadcast on the music and sounds of Mali for WHRB 95.3 FM, Cambridge, MA (USA). The broadcast is part of the biannual WHRB Orgy® tradition.

Mali is perhaps the most popular and influential hub of African music. This continuous, 22-hour-long broadcast will feature rare live recordings from more than a dozen of Mali’s finest homegrown musicians and bands, as well as extensive folkloric and regional music from the libraries of Malian state and community FM broadcasters. Recordings were made in January 2012 during a three-week overland journey ranging from the country’s capital, Bamako, to the legendary Saharan city of Timbuktu. Fans of Malian music, African community radio, and world folklore should consider this required listening.

Available via terrestrial FM (95.3 FM) or streaming online at www.whrb.org.

The details in short:

FROM HERE TO TIMBUKTU: The WHRB Mali Orgy®
WHRB 95.3 FM (Cambridge, MA) or www.whrb.org
START: Saturday, May 19 (1800 UTC / 1 PM EDT)
END: Sunday, May 20 (1600 UTC / 11 AM EDT)

Further details will be posted soon at www.maliorgy.info.

CDNSE Newstar DR111 First Review

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The DR111 DRM Radio (Photo: Chengdu NewStar Electronics)

Based on this initial review, it appears that the CDNSE Newstar DR111 is an improvement over the company’s last portable DRM radio, the DiWave.

(Source: DRMNA.info)

[T]he unit is quite sensitive. RNZI evenings at 17675kHz and 13730kHz can be received various places within my house with only the internal whip. REE at 9630kHz using an external ham vertical antenna was similar copy on Pappradio (with a slight edge given to the Pappradio.)

DRM Audio while adequate, seems narrow and compressed in comparison to DReaM on my PC. I verified this by switching A to B between the Newstar and the Pappradio with DReaM using my JBL headphones. I’m beginning to wonder if the DRM audio is being processed by the DSP, just like the analogue audio. The DSP in analogue is a tad too aggressive. A real bonus in analogue is the adjustable bandwidth (1-6kHz) however. That and the DSP make analogue quite enjoyable even in the crowded 49M (6MHz) band. I have been listening to BBC on 5875kHz in the early AM with armchair copy and great audio using only the whip (throughout the house).

Read full post here.

China blocks foreign websites for one hour

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(Photo: International Herald Tribune)

(Source: The Guardian)

China’s internet users have been cut off from accessing all foreign websites for around an hour in an unexplained incident that sparked speculation the country’s censorship system was being tested or further tightened.

The “great firewall” already blocks many sites hosted from other countries, but users in Beijing, Shanghai and other parts of China reported that they could not reach any foreign sites whatsoever on Thursday morning – although it was not clear whether the problems were universal.

Meanwhile, users abroad and in Hong Kong – which is part of China but not subject to Beijing’s net censorship – said they were unable to reach any sites on the Chinese mainland.

Some believed it was purely a technical failure, with several suggesting that Wednesday’s massive earthquakes had hit an undersea cable, disrupting services. In 2007, a tremor hit a major cable and dramatically slowed access to overseas sites for months.

Xu Chuanchao, an executive at Sohu, one of the country’s biggest internet portals, wrote on his microblog: “This malfunction is caused by the failure of China’s backbone network and is under renovation.”

But one company, Data Centre for China Internet, posted: “Latest news: most foreign websites can’t be accessed. Analysis: for commonly known reasons, a large number of foreign URLs are blocked. It is possible that the great firewall is undergoing some readjustment, mistakenly adding many foreign websites to the blocking list. The details are unclear.” (Continue reading article…)

What is clear is that we know China actively blocks foreign websites that criticize their government.   The Chinese website of the Voice of America and Radio Canada International have been blocked for years.  China also censors search engine results.

I believe this incident was most likely a fault in their “great firewall” rather than any network backbone. International broadcasters should take note: as you pull shortwave services targeting China, how will your audience there hear you?

DX-Antwerp special broadcast May 12th

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(Source: DX-Antwerp)

The Belgian club, DX-Antwerp, is celebrating its 30th anniversary on May 12th. They’re airing a commemorative shortwave broadcast on the following schedule:

  • 0430-0530 UTC 17880 kHz Issoudun F AM India
  • 0800-0900 UTC 9680 kHz Issoudun F AM Western-Europe
  • 1200-1300 UTC 6015 kHz Issoudun F DRM Western-Europe
  • 1400-1500 UTC 17880 kHz Montsinery GUF AM North America East
  • 1530-1630 UTC 15775 kHz Issoudun F DRM India
  • 1700-1800 UTC 21680 kHz Montsinery GUF AM North America West
  • 2000-2100 UTC 17755 kHz Montsinery GUF DRM North America

A special QSL card was designed for this occasion. Send a report by
ordinary mail to:

DXA QSL
c/o TDP Radio
PO Box 1
B-2310 Rijkevorsel
Belgium

or e-mail to [email protected].

DXing With Cumbre Episodes 717-721

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DXing with Cumbre programs 717-721 are now available as mp3 downloads.

Here are the links:

DXing with Cumbre, for those of you who are not familiar, is an excellent program for anyone interested in the shortwave radio listening hobby. Best of all, it’s free to everyone!