Special Announcement for India Subscribers to WorldSpace Satellite Radio

Dear customer,

On December 31, 2009, the WorldSpace satellite radio broadcast service will
be terminated for all customers serviced from India.

This action is an outgrowth of the financial difficulties facing WorldSpace
India's parent company, WorldSpace, Inc., which has been under bankruptcy
protection since October 2008. The potential buyer of much of WorldSpace's
global assets has decided not to buy the WorldSpace assets relating to and
supporting WorldSpace's subscription business in India. As a consequence,
WorldSpace, Inc. must discontinue its subscriber business in India. Your
subscription contract is with WorldSpace, Inc., a US company that is in a
bankruptcy proceeding in the United States. The company recognizes that you
may have paid for services to be rendered beyond the termination date, but
is not in a position to offer a refund for any unused portion of your
subscription.

You may have a potential remedy under the U.S. bankruptcy law. You may file
a claim under the claims procedure that is intended to protect creditors of
the bankrupt company. Sometime early next year, a claim servicing company
will send notice to all creditors listed by the company. In order to ensure
that you receive timely notice, we would request that you send the following
information by mail or email to Rakesh Raghavan at WorldSpace, Inc.
headquarters in the United States.

1. Name
2. Address
3. Email
4. Subscription Account Number
5. Date of Subscription
6. Length of Subscription
7. Amount paid for your current subscription

Send this information to: By email -- CustomerServiceUS @ worldspace.com or
by regular mail – Rakesh Raghavan, WorldSpace, Inc. 8515 Georgia AV, Silver
Spring, MD 20910 USA.

Our sincere apologies for this circumstance.
s/ Robert Schmitz
Chief Restructuring Officer
WorldSpace, Inc.
---------------------
Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi

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Airtel DTH to replace WorldSpace with AIR channels

Airtel DTH is all set to replace WorldSpace services from its platform with
10 radio channels of All India Radio

Indian subscribers to WorldSpace radio services are praying for a miracle so

that it can continue to broadcast signals beyond 31st December. However,
there is a thin line of hope for the continuation of WorldSpace operations
in India.
Airtel direct to home (DTH) that offers WorldSpace radio services to
subscribers in India said that from 1st January, it will replace WorldSpace
with 10 radio channels of All India Radio (AIR).
According to sources, Airtel DTH will start sending messages to subscribers
from Thursday. Interestingly, just last month, Airtel DTH's chief marketing
officer, Sugato Banerji, had said that when other DTH service providers
selected AIR FM channels, Airtel went for WorldSpace and this was a key
differentiator.
India accounts for over 95% of WorldSpace's worldwide subscriber base with
over 450,000 subscribers, more than 50% through the Airtel DTH pay-TV
package. However, WorldSpace India was not earning enough cash from its deal

with Airtel DTH. The DTH services provider offered 10 channels of WorldSpace

for Rs10 per month or Rs120 a year, with subscribers to its Rs200 package
and above getting the radio channels absolutely free of cost.
At the same time, WorldSpace charged Rs2,000 per annum for its 40 channels.
So in a way, the deal was not profitable for WorldSpace but helped it to
increase subscriber base in the country.

Secondly, the emergence of FM channels throughout the country, especially in

the metros, proved to be a major hindrance to WorldSpace's growth. There
were a few factors that worked in favour of FM channels. The major factor
was the ease of listening to FM channels while travelling across the city.
Due to licensing limits, WorldSpace was not able to offer the same.
According to analysts, the radio services business in the country is worth
Rs830 crore and it will grow by a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of
14% to Rs1,600 crore over the next four years. The Indian government had
announced the bids for phase III licenses across 700 frequencies in about
200 cities. This will further boost growth of FM channels in India.
Recently, US-based Liberty Media Corp bought all debt of WorldSpace through
its unit Liberty Satellite Radio LLC. Earlier this year, Liberty Media
rescued another satellite radio service provider Sirius XM from bankruptcy
by providing a timely loan of $520 million. In return, Liberty Media secured

40% stake in Sirius XM.
According to media reports, Mel Karmazin, chief executive of Sirius XM, had
said that the company may partner with fellow satellite radio services
provider WorldSpace, which is also partially controlled by Liberty. He said
that the deal most likely would involve using its relationships to help the
struggling company build satellite radio equipment and connect with
automakers, with Liberty adding financial support.
WorldSpace has revenues of $4.70 million as of 30th November; however,
during the same period, its operating expenses and reorganisation costs
stood at $52 million. WorldSpace had $1.10 million unpaid post-petition
debts outstanding for end-November that were supposed to be paid in
December.
According to media reports, Liberty Media, which has bought the assets of
WorldSpace, is most likely to redirect it towards Western Europe, which
boasts of 300 million vehicles on the road. The other possibility is that
Liberty Media may use these WorldSpace assets to target South America,
especially Brazil, which has hardly any players in the satellite radio
space. This could mean robust growth for the company.
The question whether Liberty Media would continue WorldSpace's India
operations or use the assets for other lucrative regions, remains
unanswered. The only thing we can say at this moment is that WorldSpace
radio services will be no longer present in India from 1st January, unless
of course, there is a miracle!

http://moneylife. in/article/ 8/3012.html

---------
Alokesh Gupta
New Delhi

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ADXB-OE QSL-Action in cooperation with Radio Slovakia International

Dear Listeners,

Together with Radio Slovakia International, the Austrian DX Board (ADXB) is sponsoring an initiative for a special QSL card for correct reception reports between 1 November-2009 and 31 January 2010.

This is part of the celebrations on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of ADXB, the only Austrian DX club.

The special QSL card may be earned under the following conditions:

• Irrespective of club affiliation, any correct reception report about a transmission of Radio Slovakia International between 1 November-2009 and 31 January 2010 will be honoured with a special QSL card.

• Only ONE special QSL card will be issued per operating frequency.

• Any reports that do not compy with these conditions shall be verified with a standard card from Radio Slovakia International (RSI), and shall not count towards the statistics of the ADXB sponsored initiative.

• The reception report must be submitted via the following address: ADXB, P.O.B. 1000, A-1081 VIENNA, Austria.

• All six language services of Radio Slovakia International shall take part in the initiative. These are: Slovak, German, Russian, Englich, French, and Spanish.

• The handling fee is 1 IRC, 1 USD or 1 EUR. The fee is determined for the cost recovery of ADXB-club, whereas RSI isn´t eligible to receive handling fees.

The QSL cards will be sent directly from Bratislava. Please check the websites of ADXB-OE ( www.adxb.at) and Radio Slovakia International ( www. rsi.sk ) for the current transmission schedule. Information is also available by snail mail.

All transmissions originate from the Slovak short wave centre at Rimavska Sobota.

If you have any further questions, please contact ADXB, P.O.B. 1000, A-1081 VIENNA, Austria, or use the following e-mail address adxbsuess@aon.at in German, English, French, Italian or Spanish.

Have fun and lots of success!

Harald Süss

Meow FM enters Himachal

Meow FM channel, a 24-hour station of the India Today group, has launched its services in Shimla on 104.8 frequency. "The Meow experience is full of good music, sensible talk, humour and live interaction," said head of programming, Shimla station, Shraddha Mishra. The Shimla FM channel was launched by Chief Minister P K Dhumal.
"The Shimla station will cover nearby areas including the towns of Bilaspur, Solan, Sarahan, Kasauli, Mandi, Kufri, Rohru and Narkanda," he said.
- Himachal.us 14/12

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DDH47 147.3 khz in QRSS 3

DDH47 147.3 khz in QRSS 3

In Honor of Nobelprize Winner Marconi and Prof. Ferdinand Braun a special transmission will be Date:

10. Dec 2009 Time: Start 2300 UTC

Frequ. 147,3 kc

Mode: QRSS 3

PWR: 20 kW

The weather forcast transmitter Pinneberg DDH47 will stop RTTY ( 50 Bd) transmission in between 10. Dec 2300h UTC and 11. Dec 001 UTC In this timegap, the TX will be used for a special event transmission. Short words in QRRS 3 will be transmitted. After the transmission You may confirm the receiving at a shortwave frequency or via Internet ( QRG and adress will be given later) You may check propagation every day / night at 147,3 Kc DDH47, because the TX is working 24 Hours.
More details on
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDH47 (Jaisakthivel, Chennai, India Via IWØHK)

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All India Radio's DRM Expansion Plans

Geneva, 26th Nov 2009

Vineeta Dwivedi
Project Director, DRM Consortium
Information based on a presentation given earlier this year by M.C. AGGARWAL Chief Engineer (Projects) provided by AIR

About AIR

- AIR is a national service planned, developed and operated by the Prasar Bharati Broadcasting Corporation of India
- AIR has a network of 232 broadcasting centres with 149 MW, 54 SW and 171 FM transmitters.
- The coverage is 91.79% of the area , serving 99.14% of the people in the largest democracy of the world.
- AIR covers 24 Languages and 146 dialects in home services.
- In External services, it covers 27 languages; 17 national and 10 foreign languages.

Plan for 'Going Digital'

A sub-group of the Planning Commission of the Government of India on 'Going Digital' was formed headed by the Member Secretary, Planning Commission
and has laid down the migration path from analogue transmission to digital:
Step I- Delhi -2010
Step II - All mega cities -2011
Step III - All Tier II & Tier III cities -2012
Step IV - All other areas -2013
Nationwide Switch off of analogue broadcast by 2015

According to All India Radio, they adopted DRM due to the following reasons:

- DRM is the universal, openly standardized, digital radio system, endorsed by the ITU, and standardized by ETSI offering near-FM sound quality, ease-of-use and can be used for a range of audio content, text and data.
- DRM is compatible with existing AM bands (spectrum usage) and services and with other radio services . DRM operates within existing
spectrum allocations
- DRM provides an easy path of migration from analogue to digital broadcasting for a significantly large number of DRM compatible medium
and shortwave transmitters in the AIR network.
- DRM thus maximizes re-use of existing transmitters and transmission facilities

DRM Trials in India

- DRM Trials in India were carried out in Delhi in May, 2007. The trials were part of the DRM-AIR-ABU showcase project on DRM simulcast
technologies
- The principle objective of the project was to demonstrate and evaluate single channel simulcast which enables simultaneous transmission of
analogue and DRM digital medium wave signals using only one transmitter.
- The DRM-AIR-ABU Showcase Project also assessed local digital transmissions in the 26 MHz band
- Two transmitters sites in north Delhi were used for all tests.

SUMMARY OF SIMULCAST TRIAL RESULTS:

- The AM and DRM coverage using the simulcast mode was confirmed to be equivalent following a radial route from the transmitter. In some environments within this radial, DRM outperformed the AM reception
- A 100 Km coverage radius was achieved using a transmitted AM power of 96.17 KW and 3.82 KW of DRM signal.
- In the urban area, they properly covered by simulcast signal up to 15 KM more than 98% of correctly received locations
- Simulcast does not interfere significantly the transmitted AM signal using a set of representative receivers of the Indian market.

DRM Transmissions in India

- Encouraged by the trial results, AIR decided to implement DRM in Shortwave.
- 250 KW SW transmitter at Khampur (near Delhi) was modified to make it DRM compatible.
- The transmitter was adopted for analog, digital and simulcast operation.
- AIR started regular DRM service from this transmitter with a formal launch on 16th January, 2009.
- Approx 5 hours of transmission are beamed towards listeners in the UK and Europe between 2315 to 0400 IST on 9950 KHz, with an additional 3 hours of local transmission within India from 1430 to 1730 IST on 6100 kHz.

Plan For Digitalization Of All India Radio

- There are plans to introduce DRM transmissions in 34 new medium wave DRM transmitters in replacement scheme
- 36 existing medium wave transmitters shall be converted for DRM operation
- 5 new shortwave transmitters shall be installed in replacement scheme
- Installation of 2 one megawatt MW transmitters

Challenges:

- Ensuring good reception in urban area full of concrete structures & man-made noise
- Cost of conversion of Transmitters
- Availability of receivers
- Cost of receivers
- Low-power consumer receivers

Message from AIR "The most important issues shall be to make available DRM receivers at affordable cost to the vast masses of India. It is expected that receiver manufacturers in India and abroad shall address this issue as DRM is progressively implemented in the next five years".

(Excerpts from the EBU-DRM presentation by Vineeta Dwivedi,Project Director, DRM Consortium --- Alokesh Gupta, VU3BSE New Delhi, India)

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World Radio TV Handbook 2010

WRTH were proud to present the 64th edition of the best selling directory of global broadcasting on LW, MW, SW and FM.

The Features section this year includes a look at some of the classic receivers of the Cold War period, a visit to the World Service of the BBC, a Samoan Radio Journey and our regular Digital Update.

The remaining pages are, as usual, full of information on:

• National and International broadcasts and broadcasters

• Clandestine and other target broadcasters

• MW and SW frequency listings

• Equipment reviews and articles

• Terrestrial TV by country

• Extensive Reference section

Price: 23.00 GBP each

Order to:

WRTH Publications Limited,

PO Box 290,

Oxford, OX2 7FT,

United Kingdom

You may contact them by telephone or fax on +44 (0)1865 514405 or by email: sales@wrth.com. Their phone lines are very busy and so they recommend using email. More details on http://www.wrth.com/

DX QUIZ 2009

DX QUIZ 2009

In 2009 the Ardic DX Club celebrates its 11th anniversary. For 11 years it has been the primary source of information for dxing enthusiasts all over the Tamil Nadu, India. In order to celebrate this event, a quiz is being organised. The quiz is open to anyone, regardless of location or club membership. The quiz does not solely deal with Tamil Dxing, but covers very different radio aspects. Answering following 25 questions you can show your radio knowledge.

No quiz without prizes of course. You wish to contribute a prize? Please contact me! And to make the contest interesting to everybody, a few prizes will be given anomaly to entrants. So if the questions look hard, participate anyway.

Schedule
Quiz starts from 1 November 2009, Last date for the entry 30 January 2009

See the Quiz Questions on the special website http://dxquiz.wordpress.com/

Send your answers to
T.Jaisakthivel,
59, Annai Sathya Nagar,
Chennai – 600 106,
India

Mint Stamp / IRC
Every entry will get the special pennant in the memory of The External Services of All India Radio's 70th anniversary. Every entry must send one reception report of any frequency of All India Radio for the 70th anniversary special QSL. Indian listeners must send Rs.10/- mint stamp for postage and International listeners must send 2 IRC or 2 US $.

For more details
ardicdxclub (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) in
[Jaisakthivel]
///////////////////////
For Contact: Jaisakthivel,59,Annai Sathya Nagar,
Arumbakkam,Chennai-600106,India
Visit: www.dxersguide.blogspot.com
www.sarvadesavaanoli.blogspot.com
Join: www.groups.yahoo.com/group/sarvadesavanoli
Mobile: +91 98413 66086
///////////////////////

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Voice of Russia Listeners Conference in New Delhi

On the ocassion of "Year of Russia" in India during 2008 & "Year of India"
in Russia during 2009, Voice of Russia Hindi service is organising a
listeners conference in New Delhi for radio listeners at Russian Science &
Cultural Centre, New Delhi.

The 4th Voice of Russia listeners conference will be held for two days as
foll :
Dec 15, 2009 (Tues) - 11am to 1 pm IST
Dec 16, 2009 (Wed) - 11am to 1 pm IST

Venue :
Russian Science & Cultural Centre
Embassy of Russia Cultural Department
# 24 , Feroz Shah Road
New Delhi 110001.
E - mail: delhi@russiancentre .org.in

-------
Alokesh Gupta,VU3BSE
New Delhi

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Community radio to roll out in Haryana

Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agriculture University will set up its community radio station in Hissar within an estimated three months time.

With this the number of CRS will increase to 60 in the country.

A Letter of Intent had been issued to the Institute after recommendations of Inter Ministerial Committee and seeking requisite clearances from various Ministries. The Community Radio Station is expected to be operational within three months as per the agreement.

The objective of the CRS is to reach out to the communites, particularly those who are poor, literally challenged farmers and socially culturally underprivileged people. The CRS aims to address issues that concern the community through participatory programmes, and improve the quality of life in general and agricultural activities of the farmers in particular. It will be beneficial to communities surrounding suburban areas of Hissar.

The CRS programs will be based on developmental, agricultural, health, educational, environmental, social welfare, community development and cultural programs.

Source: http://www.radioandmusic.com

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