ARLA/CLUSTER : DX material.

[Carlos L.R. de A.Gonçalves]

Dear Wolfgang,

Still a little bit more material...

PORTUGAL
(Cf. my previous msgs. dtd 10th & 15th inst. on this issue) The group
holding R.Comercial & its sister stns, among which RC(P)-R. Club
(Português) - currently off MW to make way for this temporary "football stn"
called R.Portugal - is indeed considering the use of DRM after all, be it
with any of the new 100 kW THALES txs or the new ones for the sites that are
off for years, but the latter will have to wait.   Those idle txs are indeed
no more: they were taken to scrap soon after the RDP sold R.Comercial and
the period when the txs could still be housed together with those of the
RDP; when the period went to an end, RC decided to get rid of them.

I also learned these new DRM-capable 100 kW units (one installed in Belmonte
for 1035 kHz, the other expected to take the air within a month, at Avanca
for 783 kHz) were delivered... five (5) years ago!!!   Let's hope the one
for Avanca hasn't got any moths...

Meanwhile, I've observed that Belmonte 1035 kHz is behaving rather strangely
after some repair was done days ago:  the tx is at approx. mid power and its
DCC-Dynamic Carrier Control system is causing the signal to rapidly
fluctuate like under fast QSB, which is what notice.  Having said that, the
tx is not fully "cured" yet.  Interesting...

Until the crumbling Canidelo unit on 783 kHz 10 kW is scrapped for good, a
new valve is being installed, possibly because of the temporary special
prgramming content aired under the odd label "R.Portugal"...

..... speaking of which, I was also told this name was registered just a few
years ago along with others to be used by the group when needed, so there's
apparently nothing the state owned RDP can do to remedy that as "RDPi -
Rádio Portugal" doesn't seem to be a registered name.

73,
Carlos.