Apparently-to: scdx@get.pp.se
From: "George Wood" 
democracy in Asia's remaining authoritarian countries. Vietnam, China
and North Korea are among the primary targets of the broadcasts. (AP)
NORTH AMERICA
GALAXY--The International Channel is still on Galaxy 7 transponder 24,
but in Digicipher. ("SATCO DX Chart Update")
DIGITAL CABLE--TCI has rolled out its much-anticipated digital TV
service in the San Francisco Bay Area suburb of Fremont, and hopes to
reach many of its systems in the region within 6 months. TCI's digital
service, dubbed ALL TV, will offer programming packages of up to 170
video and audio-music channels, although that includes many channels
reserved for pay-per-view movies.
The system requires a rented set-top box to convert the digital
signals to NTSC analog signals. The least expensive package offers all
thechannels already included in the programming tiers called basic and
expanded basic, access to 36 PPV channels, an elaborate on-screen
guide, a universal remote control, and six newly available cable
networks, including the Discovery Kids Channel, the Independent Film
Channel, and the CNN/SI sports channel. The next package adds
assortments of commercial-free channels, a choice of a few more newly
available networks (such as BET on Jazz, the Golf Channel, or the
History Channel), and 40 audio music channels. ("San Jose Mercury
News" via Pointcast)
CANADA--The Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission is
reportedly on the verge of awarding a DBS license to Tee-Comm
Electronics' AlphaStar subsidiary. Once launched, AlphaStar Canada
would feature both U.S. programming along with a selection of Canadian
channels. nce AlphaStar migrates from AT&T Skynet's Telstar 402-R
satellite to Telstar 5 in early July, the service will increase to 200
channels of video and audio, Tee-Comm said last month.
Earlier this month, the CRTC awarded a license to Shaw Communications,
which plans to operate a DTH satellite service called HomeStar. In
January, Canadian officials rejected "fast track" DBS licensing
proposals from Telesat Canada and Borealis Space Corporation for the
operation of two satellites in Canadian orbital slots. (Curt
Swinehart)
LATIN AMERICA
FOX--Fox Television has launched its children's TV network, Fox Kids
Network, in Latin America. Fox Kids Network Worldwide has joined Canal
Fox on PanAmSat's PAS-3 Atlantic Ocean Region satellite. The new PAS-3
service consists of one digital channel on the satellite's C-band
Pan-American beam, which covers virtually all of Latin America and the
Caribbean. The Fox Kids signal is being transmitted to PAS-3 from
PanAmSat's Global Operations Center in Atlanta, Ga. The channel joins
a PAS-3 programmer lineup that includes, along with Canal Fox, the
BBC, CCTV, Discovery, ESPN, HBO, Viacom and The Weather Channel. The
Fox Kids service for Latin America will consist of popular Fox
programming offered in Spanish, English and Portuguese.
("Tele-satellit News")
LAUNCHES
ARIANE--Europe's Ariane 5 rocket, which exploded on its maiden voyage
last summer, will make a second launch attempt on July 8, officials
announced February 7. Michel Courtois, deputy head of France's
National Center for Space Studies, rejected recent reports suggesting
the launch could be delayed until December, insisting the July date
was "credible." 
The Ariane 5, a larger rocket aimed at maintaining the European Space
Agency's lead in the global launch market, exploded June 4 shortly
after lifting off from the Kourou launch site in French Guiana in
South America. The rocket was carrying dlrs 500 million in equipment
for a solar energy project. Since the crash probe, "the small
anomalies have been ironed out, including the software problems which
caused the first accident," Courtois told a news conference. (AP)
The upcoming Ariane 5 launch is to carry amateur radio's Phase 3D
satellite, which while costing as much as a geo-stationary satellite,
will follow an elliptical orbit, making it available to large part of
the globe for long periods. Unfortunately the decision also means
prospective uses will continue to require expensive tracking systems.
Someday, perhaps, AMSAT will get around to discovering the Clarke
Belt.
More about Phase 3D can be found at:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/sats/phase3d.html
EUTELSAT--Eutelsat W24 F1 is to be launched with an Atlas rocket
during the last quarter of this year. The satellite will probably be
placed at 10 degrees East. It will carry 24 transponders in the
10.950-11.700 and 12.500-12.750 GHz bands. ("SATCO DX Chart Update")
CYBERSPACE
SPACE SHUTTLE--Discovery has been in orbit on a mission to the Hubble
Space Telescope. NASA has upgraded its service of updated GIF images
to a video stream. More information at:
http://shuttle.nasa.gov/ntv/streamvid.html
The feed includes sound using a free program called Speak Freely, but
I've had trouble getting it to work. RealAudio of the mission sound is
still available at:
http://www.chron.com/content/interactive/space/missions/live/live.ram
AMSAT has a list of amateur radio to monitor Shuttle missions:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/sarex/shutfreq.html
RUSSIAN SPACE IMAGES--The Russian Space Agency has announced a
deal that will post once-classified photos taken by Russian military
satellites on the Internet. The snapshots, taken in the 1990s, depict
about 1 percent of the Earth's surface, plus all cities with a
population over 500,000, said Mikhail Fomchenko, who heads Russia's
space association. The cash-poor Russian Space Agency signed the deal
with Sovinformsputnik, Microsoft Corp. and Aerial Images. Terms of the
deal were not given. Bob Clough, Microsoft regional manager in Eastern
Europe, said the pictures would be available free on the Internet. But
project participants will get a share of profits generated by any
commercial use. The first photos, showing such cities as Los Angeles,
Washington, San Francisco, Rome and London, are to appear on the
Internet within nine months. (AP)
REAL VIDEO--Progressive Networks, inventors of RealAudio, have
followed it up with RealVideo (which unfortunately doesn't work with
Windows 3.1x). Here's how AP reported it:
Progressive Networks has announced that Time Warner, ABC, C-SPAN and
other networks have agreed to use its new RealVideo software to send
news clips, music videos and live sports events across the Internet.
The RealVideo software is billed as improving the image quality of the
Internet's moving images, which after traveling through phone lines
normally appear as jerky as turn-of-the-century silent movies. 
To view programming, people first download the free RealVideo software
off the Internet. They then choose from a menu of Web sites and point
and click to the programming they want. While many offerings, such as
music videos, are free, others are not. ESPN, for example, charges
dlrs 5 a month for access to its live sports events. 
About 50 Web sites initially will use the video technology, with that
number expected to double by the end of the month. Using a standard
dial-up modem, RealVideo images are still choppy though a bit smoother
than other Internet fare. But more powerful modems such as those used
by many businesses deliver "full motion" or broadcast-quality images.
(AP)
RealVideo is available at:
http://www.real.com.    
INTERNET SATELLITE BROADCASTING--WavePhore thinks it has solved
the Internet bandwidth problem for home users. And it won't cost you a
cent - assuming your PC is "broadcast ready." The company has
announced WaveTop, a six-channel nationwide satellite broadcast
network that will send content - including software updates, radio
broadcasts and children's educational material - directly to PCs
outfitted with a television tuner.
WaveTop bypasses bottlenecks by using its own network. Through an
agreement signed last fall with PBS National Datacast, a for-profit
division of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, WavePhore will
piggyback its content on the band commonly used for closed-captioning,
the video blanking interval (VBI). Through the VBI, WaveTop can
broadcast its content at data rates of  between 14.4 and 28.8 Kbps -
depending on the time of day - and reach a  nationwide audience from
its single server instantaneously. And the nationwide network to
transport this data is already in place -  it is made up of the 264
public television stations across the United States.
Consumers will not have to pay for the content because each of the six
channels that are scheduled to begin service in the  fourth quarter
will be sponsored by a content provider that may, in turn, sell
advertising. But to receive this content, consumers must have a
broadcast-ready PC. Manufacturers such as Compaq are currently
developing machines based on Intel's Intercast technology. This will
allow PCs to receive broadcast signals plus "enhanced" content such as
programming-related Web pages produced by affiliates. ("Wired")
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Sweden Calling DXers/MediaScan is the world's oldest radio program
about international broadcasting. Radio Sweden has presented this
round- up of radio news, features, and interviews on Tuesdays since
1948. It's currently broadcast on the first and third Tuesdays of the
month.
Radio Sweden broadcasts in English:
To Europe:
Satellite:
13:30, 17:15, and 19:30 hrs on Astra transponder 33 (ZDF) and Tele-X
(Kanal 5 -- 12.475 GHz) (through March) and on Eutelsat II-F1, 10.987
GHz (NBC Europe), 7.56 MHz (from January 1, 1997)
21:00 hrs via the World Radio Network on Astra transponder 22 (VH-1)
In all cases (except Eutelsat) our audio subcarrier is 7.38 MHz
We're also broadcasting to Africa and the Middle East via WRN at 00:30
Central African Time (Saturdays only also 02:30 CAT) on Intelsat 707
3.9115 GHz in MPEG-2, Audio Stream WRN1. 
Shortwave:
19:30 hrs    1179, 6065, 7240, and 9655 
20:30        1179 and 6065 kHz  
21:30        1179, 6065, and 7230 kHz 
22:30        1179, 6065, and 7325 kHz 
Asia/Pacific:
Satellite:
Via WRN on AsiaSat-2 on 4.000 GHz, MPEG-2 DVB, Audio Stream WRN1, at
20:00 and 23:00 hrs UTC (06:00 and 09:00 AET).
Shortwave:
13:30 hrs    7155 and 13740/15240* kHz
14:30 hrs    9435/9485* kHz
01:30 hrs    7265/7290* kHz
North America:
Satellite:
02:30 hrs UTC via WRN on Galaxy 5 transponder 6 (WTBS), audio 6.8 MHz
(9:30 PM EST, 6:30 PM PST)
Shortwave:
12:30 hrs on 15240 and 11650/13740* kHz
14:30 hrs on 15240 and 9485/11650* kHz
02:30 hrs on 6200 kHz
03:30 hrs on 7115 kHz
Latin America:
00:30 hrs on 6065 kHz
01:30 hrs on 7265/7290* kHz
* = may shift from day to day
Each program Monday to Friday, recorded at 13:30 hrs UTC, is available
in the RealAudio format at:
http://www.sr.se/rs/english/sounds/english.ram
Each day's program, recorded at 01:30 hrs UTC, is also available from
WRN in  RealAudio format. See:
http://town.hall.org/Archives/radio/Mirrors/WRN/audio/0130.ram
FTP versions of both files (for those behind firewalls) are available
at:
http://www.sr.se/rafiles/rs/eng15.ra 
and
ftp://town.hall.org/radio/Mirrors/WRN/audio/0130.ra
Our World Wide Web page is at:
     http://www.sr.se/rs
An html and a RealAudio version of this bulletin can be found at:
     http://www.sr.se/rs/english/media/scdx.htm
Earlier versions of the bulletins in text and RealAudio or au-format
recordings:
     http://www.sr.se/rs/english/media/media3.htm
Sound files of Mediascan are archived at:
     ftp.funet.fi:pub/sounds/RadioSweden/Mediascan.
You can also find the programs among the offerings of Internet Talk
Radio at various sites, including:
     ftp://town.hall.org/radio/Mirrors/RadioSweden/MediaScan
Contributions can be sent to DX Editor George Wood by fax to
+468-667-6283 or by e-mail to: wood@rs.sr.se
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. 
We welcome comments and suggestions about the electronic edition,
Sweden Calling DXers, and our programs in general. 
The mailing list for the Electronic Edition is now open to general
subscription. If you can send e-mail over the Internet, send a message
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You ought to get a confirmation message in reply. To unsubscribe from
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To get a copy of Radio Sweden's English program schedule, write to:
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And for general questions, comments, and reception reports, our e-mail
address is:
info@rs.sr.se
-------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to this week's contributors            Good Listening!
--- NetMgr 1.00.g4+
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