Welcome to 2009

A LITTLE BIT of housekeeping is in order, I feel, as I have been neglecting RFTFT for around six months, judging from my last post, the Carlisle United squad list, which I posted in the early stages of the season, September 2008.

May I belatedly welcome you to 2009 through RFTFT and I do hope to get back to posting here more regularly, if I can wean myself off the addictive social networking which has taken hold . . .

Carlisle United Football Club 2008 - 2009

CARLISLE UNITED FOOTBALL CLUB
Manager : John Ward

The 2008 - 2009 Squad :

1 Ben WILLIAMS
2 David RAVEN
3 Evan HORWOOD
4 Marc BRIDGE-WILKINSON
5 Danny LIVESEY
6 Peter MURPHY
7 Kevin GALL
8 Chris LUMSDON
9 Danny GRAHAM
10 Danny CARLTON
11 Paul THIRLWELL
12 Luke JOYCE
13 Dan WORDSWORTH
15 Grant SMITH
16 Josh GOWLING
17 Cleveland TAYLOR
18 Simon HACKNEY
19 Michael BRIDGES
20 Chris HOWARTH
21 Richard KEOGH
22 Darren CAMPION
24 Shaun VIPOND
26 Scott DOBIE
28 Gary MADINE
32 Jeff SMITH
.

Girls love rally driving!

YES, it is true, girls do love driving rally cars, as this edition of Reporting From The Fox Tower proves. Depicted on the left is Carlisle rally driver Jemma Bellingham, who, alongside the rallying, is social action reporter for BBC Radio Cumbria.
Jemma updates her very own rallying website, which I have linked to here.

REMINDER : Brough Agricultural Show takes place on Thursday 21 August. The show has its own website, which you can visit here.

DAB downturn : The latest closures on DAB radio are as follows:

BFBS "BFBS Radio's trial on DAB digital radio has now ended. Thank you for listening and all of the positive feedback. www.bfbs.com"

Capital Life "We're sorry, but Capital Life has closed down. Thanks for listening to the station over the past few years."

theJAZZ "We're sorry, but theJAZZ has closed down. Why not try Classic FM's late night Jazz programme or the Jazz stream at classicfm.com?"

One piece of good news is that Birdsong is still going strong. For all the latest UK Digital Radio news, go to the website, here.

A*M*A*N*D*A goes live!
Crosby Garrett's Amanda Tinkler, now based in Los Angeles, is on tour with Boyzone and Reporting From The Fox Tower can now report Amanda has her very own website, which you can visit here.

That's all for this weekend on Reporting From The Fox Tower, take care and have a good week!

Eurovision got it wrong so many ways...

NEVER mind the end result and the places in the table for the twenty or so nations which made it in to the final on the Saturday night all those weeks ago, the Eurovision Song Contest got it wrong at the Semi Final stage when they eliminated the Czech Republic entry Tereza Kerndlova, pictured above, with her song Have Some Fun, which was pretty enough, I guess, as a song, but it was the fabulous Miss Kerndlova's little silver outfit which got my vote.

That will be the last word on the Eurovision Song Contest for 2008.

Reporting From The Fox Tower will be looking forward to Summer 2008 very soon with the following :

• Wimbledon 2008 A fantastic excuse, if ever you need one, for new pics of 'top seed' Maria Sharapova.
• Say What A link to the brand new website for Cumbria's own singing superstar Amanda Tinkler.
• Digital Deadlines Rounding up the television switchover dates for late 2008 and a review of DAB digital radio here below the Fox Tower.
• Girls love it hard, rough, dirty Girls love Rally Driving... It's true! A Cumbrian website will show you how it's done.
• Wallpapers Might not be weekly as before, but nice pics all the same.

Take care, be good...

Hello again... it's been a while!

A WHILE has passed since I last posted here on RFTFT, so I thought I would post a few lines...

Manchester United have just been crowned Premiership Champions as I write this, Sir Alex Ferguson's tenth trophy as manager.

I also listened to my radio at the beginning of May, here are the broadcasts I heard on Medium Wave :

BBC Radio 4 ( 720 kHz ) , Radio 747 / Radio 5 (Holland) ( 747 kHz ) , BBC Radio Cumbria ( 756 kHz ) , BBC Radio Leeds ( 774 kHz ) , BBC Radio Scotland ( 810 kHz ) , BBC Radio Cumbria ( 837 kHz ) , BBC Radio Lancashire ( 855 kHz ) , BBC Radio Wales ( 882 kHz ) , BBC Radio 5 Live ( 909 kHz ) , Fresh Radio ( 936 kHz ) , Magic 999 ( 999 kHz ) , TalkSport ( 1053 kHz , 1071 kHz , 1089 kHz ) and Magic 1170 ( 1170 kHz ) .

More soon . . . !

Wallpaper of the Week: Brough, Cumbria.

Sheep graze; Brough Castle in the background.

The playing surface and stand, Brough Football Club.

2008 FA Cup Semi Final Draw

Today, Monday 10 March 2008, the draw for the FA Cup Semi Finals took place at the headquarters of The Football Association, London.

The team numbers were as follows:
1 - Cardiff City
2 - Portsmouth
3 - West Bromwich Albion
4 - Barnsley

The Draw was made by former football player Bryan Robson and the results of the draw are as follows:

Barnsley v Cardiff City
West Bromwich Albion v Portsmouth

Games to be played weekend of 5 - 6 April 2008 at Wembley Stadium, London.

Good Luck to all concerned!

March 2008 Short Wave Links & Red Hot Roxy!

Last Sunday, I spent a day listening to the Short Wave band and published the results here on RFTFT. Here is a list of web links to the stations I heard last week, which I hope you will find informative. To go to the station website, just click on the station name:

Radio Ukraine International

WWV

Radio Bulgaria

China Radio International

Radio Exterior de Espana

Radio Sweden

Voice of America

BBC World Service

May I draw your attention to a particular favourite broadcast of mine, the Sunday night broadcast from Radio Exterior de Espana. The programme is 'Radio Club', a traditional listener response programme, the reading of letters and emails with the odd piece of Spanish music. If you have a Short Wave radio, why not give it a listen? Sundays, 2200 GMT, 6125 kHz.

To contact 'Radio Club':
Postal address: Radio Club, English Language Broadcast, Radio Exterior de Espana, PO Box 156 202, MADRID 28080, SPAIN
E-Mail: englishbroadcast@rtve.es
Web as listed above or via http://www.rne.es/

Enjoy your radio!

Wallpaper of the Week : Red Hot Roxy!

Maxim Magazine invited Roxanne Pallett, star of Emmerdale and Soapstar Superstar, to a photoshoot and interview a while ago, one result of which is this week's Wallpaper of the Week!

As usual, click on the image to show full size, then save as wallpaper, using a program or format of your choice.

Finally, drawing your attention to the following, in a 'Coming Soon!' style :

The FA Cup Semi - Final Draw : Who will play who out of Portsmouth, Barnsley, Cardiff City and West Bromwich Albion at Wembley Stadium?

Jemma Bellingham of BBC Cumbria Social Action with her role as a rally car co-driver!

That's coming soon on RFTFT, but for now, goodbye!

March 2008 Short Wave Logs and this weeks 'paper

TODAY, Sunday 2 March 2008, I have enjoyed tuning around the Short Wave bands yet again, from 9.9 MHz, right up to the end of the band at 26.1 MHz. Here is what I heard:

1005 - 1015 GMT, 9950 kHz, Radio Ukraine International, English language to Europe, 'Ukrainian Diary' programme.

1022 - 1030 GMT, 10 000 kHz, WWV, Boulder, Colorado, USA, Time Signal station.

1107 - 11:15 GMT, 13600 kHz, Radio Bulgaria, Bulgarian language to Russia (Moscow) via Plovdiv transmitter? Female broadcaster with speech.

1122 - 1134 GMT, 13665 kHz, China Radio International, English to Europe via Albanian transmitters, Male broadcaster with news, weather, music.

1254 - 1315 GMT, 13720 kHz, Radio Exterior de Espana, Spanish language to 'Noreste de Europa'. Male & Female broadcasters, rapid speech in Spanish.

1345 - 1352 GMT, 15240 kHz, Radio Sweden, English to North America via Horby transmitter, Sweden, 500 kW transmission. 'Network Europe' programme.

1420 - 1435 GMT, 15530 kHz, Voice of America / Radio Aap Ki Dunyaa, Urdu language to West & South Asia. Male & Female broadcasters with Urdu programming.

1445 - 1455 GMT, 15580 kHz, Voice of America, English to Africa via Sao Tome transmitter, 'Our World' programme with host Art Chimes.

1510 - 1517 GMT, 17830 kHz, BBC World Service, English to West Africa via Ascension Island transmitter, News reports from the US Presidential campaigns and a new group in Nepal.

1528 - 1534 GMT, 21470 kHz, BBC World Service, English to East & South Africa via Ascension Island transmitter, Live news feed from Female journalist in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Wallpaper of the Week - The Capybaras. All together now: Aaaah....

February 2008: Medium Wave Logs.

THE following broadcasts were heard by me on the Medium Wave band, Saturday 23 February 2008:

0842 - 0928 GMT, 567 kHz, RTE Radio One, Tullamore transmitter, Ireland. 'Farm Week' programme. Website here. (Farm Week webpage)

0950 - 1030 GMT, 585 kHz, BBC Radio Scotland, Dumfries transmitter, Scotland. 'Sports Weekly' programme. Website here. (Sports Weekly webpage)

1151 - 1203 GMT, 603 kHz, BBC Radio Four, Wrekenton (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) transmitter, England. 'From Our Own Correspondent' programme. Website here. (From Our Own Correspondent webpage)

1216 - 1230 GMT, 657 kHz, BBC Radio Wales, Wrexham transmitter, Wales. Rhod Gilbert programme. Website here. (BBC Wales Rhod Gilbert webpage)

1254 - 1320 GMT, 666 kHz, BBC Radio York, Fulford (York) transmitter, England. Richard Allinson albums programme. Website here. (BBC York Richard Allinson webpage)

2045 - 2101 GMT, 675 kHz, Radio Maria Nederland, Lopik transmitter, Holland. Continual music programme. Website here. (Radio Maria Nederland homepage, Dutch language)

2126 - 2136 GMT, 684 kHz, RNE 1, Seville transmitter, Spain. Live La Liga football: Sevilla v Real Zaragoza. Website here. (RNE homepage, Spanish language)

2140 - 2151 GMT, 693 kHz, BBC Radio Five Live. Live Six Nations Commentary with Ian Robertson, France 13 - England 24. Website here. (podcast link: Matt Dawson’s 6 Nations Rugby)

2208 - 2214 GMT, 711 kHz, France Info, Rennes transmitter, France. Report from Stade de France, Paris, of the Six Nations Rugby Union result: France 13 - England 24. Website here. (France Info report of France - England, French language)

2223 - 2235 GMT, 720 kHz, WDR, Langenberg transmitter, Germany. Music and speech. Website here. (WDR Radio homepage, German language)

2241 - 2248 GMT, 720 kHz, BBC Radio Four, Lisnagarvey transmitter, Northern Ireland. Round table discussion programme. Website here. (BBC Radio Four homepage).

Those are the logs for February 2008, I hope you find the weblinks interesting too!

FA Cup 6th Round (Quarter Final) Draw

The Quarter Final Draw for the FA Cup 2008 is as follows:

Sheffield United or Middlesbrough v Cardiff City
Manchester United v Portsmouth
Bristol Rovers v West Bromwich Albion
Barnsley v Chelsea

Matches played the weekend of 8th and 9th March 2008.

Wallpaper of the week, FA Cup 5th & 6th Rounds.

WALLPAPER of the week, a once popular feature here on RFTFT, returns with an image of BBC Television's 'Sportsround' reporter Helen Skelton, pictured in her days with BBC Radio Cumbria, on an outside broadcast. Helen is former joint presenter of the BBC Radio Cumbria weekend, latterly weekday, breakfast show. Helen is now reporter on 'Sportsround', broadcast on BBC2, Saturdays, 11:45am.

FA CUP 5th & 6th ROUND :

FIFTH Round Results:

Bristol Rovers 1 - Southampton 0

Cardiff City 2 - Wolverhampton Wanderers 0

Sheffield United 0 - Middlesbrough 0

Liverpool 1 - Barnsley 2

Manchester United 4 - Arsenal 0

Preston North End 0 - Portsmouth 1

Coventry City 0 - West Bromwich Albion 5

Chelsea 3 - Huddersfield Town 1.

SIXTH Round numbers:

The eight teams in the sixth round draw have been allocated the following numbers:

1 - Bristol Rovers

2 - Cardiff City

3 - Sheffield United or Middlesbrough

4 - Barnsley

5 - Manchester United

6 - Portsmouth

7 - West Bromwich Albion

8 - Chelsea.

The ties will be played 8 and 9 March 2008.

(Details from the FA website, http://www.thefa.com )

FA Cup 5th Round Draw, 2008

THE DRAW for the 5th Round of the FA Cup took place today (Monday), which is as follows:

Bristol Rovers v Southampton

Cardiff City v Wolverhampton Wanderers

Sheffield United v Middlesbrough

Liverpool v Barnsley

Manchester United v Arsenal

Preston North End v Portsmouth

Coventry City v West Bromwich Albion

Chelsea v Huddersfield Town

All of the above ties are to be played the weekend of 16 - 17 February 2008.

Other football news:

Dennis Wise, manager of Leeds United, is to join Newcastle United as part of the new coaching set-up under Kevin Keegan. Wise joins Newcastle United on Tuesday morning.

Carlisle United winger / striker Kevin Gall is to join Darlington on a short term loan.

Lucy Branthwaite of Brough is to be a Mascot for Carlisle United at a forthcoming home fixture. Lucy will be Mascot at the United v Huddersfield Town match at Brunton Park on Tuesday 12 February 2008, four or five days before Huddersfield Town face Chelsea in the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge. Town's goalkeeper is former United #1, Matty Glennon.

Former Carlisle United striker Karl Hawley, who wore #10 for the Blues, scored twice for Preston North End as they knocked Premiership strugglers Derby County out of the 4th Round of the FA Cup on Saturday (26 February 2008). PNE face Portsmouth at Deepdale in Round 5.

RUGBY UNION : Return of the 6 Nations

Saturday 2 February sees the start of the 2008 6 Nations, the opening fixtures are England v Wales, Scotland v France.

BFBS DAB TRIAL :

The trial service by BFBS continues on DAB Digital Radio. Please support the BFBS trial by listening on DAB and contacting BFBS using one of the methods included in a previous post.

One highlight of BFBS on DAB is long-serving presenter Simon Guettier, who hosts the weekday afternoon show. Simon also has a MySpace page, which I have linked to here.

More news, views and updates very soon...

2008 Analogue & DAB update

JANUARY 2008 Short Wave logs :

All India Radio, 9445 kHz, General Overseas Service to Europe & Australia, Light Music segment. Website here.

Radio Medi Un (Medi 1), Morocco, 9575 kHz, website here. (Web has a flashy intro!)

Radio Exterior de Espana, Spain, 9630 kHz, website here.

Radio PMR, Pridnestrovie Moldovan Republic, website here.

DAB update January 2008 :

Statement from Oneword on DAB radio readout:
"Oneword Radio is no longer broadcasting. Many thanks for your support over the years. www.ukdigitalradio.com"

Oneword has been replaced on DAB by a rural birdsong soundtrack.

BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting Service) Radio has replaced Core on DAB Digital Radio.
BFBS online: www.bfbs.com/digital
Contact BFBS by email: dab@bfbs.com
Telephone (UK): 01494 848001
SMS Text Message (Mobile / Cell phones): 07740 377 377 start message with UK followed by a space.

That's all for now, happy listening and 73's...

100th post - Happy New Year!

WELCOME to the one hundredth post on Reporting From The Fox Tower, may I wish you and yours a Happy New Year for 2008.

Last year's logs - Medium Wave logs, December 2007:

Thursday 27 December 2007:

1650 GMT, 1557 kHz, France Info, Nice, France. Website. (This site is in the French language).

1718 GMT, 1575 kHz, Voice of Russia in German language via Berg transmiter, Germany. Website. (English language site).

1743 GMT, 1584 kHz, BBC Radio Nottingham, Clipstone transmitter. Drivetime, Alan Clifford. Website.

1800 GMT, 1584 kHz, Tay AM, Perth, Scotland. Friarton Road transmitter. Six o'clock news. Richard Allen. Website.

1812 GMT, 1602 kHz, Radio Vitoria, Vitoria, E (Spain). Website. (This site is in the Spanish language).

1834 GMT, 1611 kHz, Vatican Radio, Europe 2nd Programme: Lithuanian & Latvian language programmes. Website. (Vatican Radio website in English).

That's all for now, take care!

Keep on looking...

Oops, she did it again - Egremont Amy gets wed

TAKEN from The Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=499490&in_page_id=1770

I've married my Egyptian lover, says girl who ran away at 17

By HELEN WEATHERS and TOM KELLY - Last updated at 22:29pm on 3rd December 2007

A runaway schoolgirl has married an Egyptian internet cafe owner only hours after being reunited with him in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada.

Amy Robson, who has just turned 18, married 30-year-old Mohamed El Sayed - known by the nickname Noby - in an Islamic ceremony that seems to have passed in a rose-tinted blur.

"I don't need to cry another tear or feel depressed," Amy told the Daily Mail.

"I feel so happy now. I wish my parents could understand, they think he is not a good man but he is the best man I've ever met.

"He is the first man in my life. He is so special to me and I could never love another man like I love Noby.

"Do you think I have made the right decision? Because I know I have!"

Noby seemed pleased as well. "I am so happy to have found Amy," he said. "The thought of living without her was terrible. I had vowed I would never stop searching for her."

But for Amy's parents - James, 42, an electrician, and Janet, 33, a teacher - the wedding was anything but a fairytale.

"Jesus Christ. I've got to tell my wife," Mr Robson said on hearing the news. He refused to comment further.

For the Robsons, the marriage must be a bitter blow after nearly a year of turmoil.

It all began in a blaze of publicity last April when Amy first ran away from her home in the Cumbrian village of Beaumont.

She fled to Hurghada to be with married boathand Tamer Hossny, with whom she'd become infatuated on a family holiday the year before.

He left her high and dry when she arrived but within 12 hours Amy had fallen in love with Noby, a former policeman, who proposed the day they met.

A chaotic few days followed when Amy and Noby went to stay with his parents near Cairo as the international search for the sixth-former gathered pace.

The couple even started planning their children's names - Yusuf for a boy and Diana for a girl, after the late Princess of Wales - but a wedding was put on hold when Amy fell ill.

Amy's frantic parents, who also have two younger children aged 11 and ten, had flown to Hurghada and when the couple returned to the resort it gave them a chance.

They lured Amy to the airport by claiming she was going sightseeing and took her back to the UK. All contact with Noby was banned.

Noby decamped to his parents' home to set up a new cafe.

In October, Amy used money saved from her £30 a month education maintenance allowance to fund the £800 air fare to Egypt.

She spent more than two months taking part-time jobs in budget hotels as she searched for Noby in the sprawling resort.

Hours after they were reunited on Saturday they wed, although they will not become officially married until after a second ceremony later this week at a government building in Cairo.

The Robsons are understood to have contacted Amy by e-mail but have not spoken to her. They are not invited to the Cairo ceremony.

When speaking to the Mail, Amy was breathless with excitement, giggling so much she could barely get the words out as she clutched the hand of her new husband.

Talking about her parents, she said: "They will be shocked. They've never met Noby and I don't think they will ever want to, but I hope they are happy that I'm happy.

"I am sure this is something I won't regret. From the minute I met Noby all I ever wanted was to be his wife and to have his children.

"I feel safe with him. I really did try to forget him when I came home, but no one I met after returning to Britain could compare with him."

And so Amy married a man she has spent a grand total of 11 days with and who, she admits, speaks little English.

What next? It is clear that Amy hasn't really thought this bit through very seriously.

"We are going to stay in Egypt and live with his parents because there's no way we could go back to England and live with mine," she said.

"I don't think they'd be happy with that."

Amy admitted that when they brought her home the first time her parents were upset but had forgiven her.

When she fled for a second time, she refused to leave Egypt despite the absence of Noby and the desperate e-mails from her parents who were powerless to do anything to make her return because she was 18.

"It was horrible being here without Noby," she said.

"Every time I went out, Egyptian men kept bothering me, asking me to marry them.

"I just ignored them or told them to 'go away' in Arabic.

"I wasn't interested in anyone else but Noby. I just hoped that one day he'd come back for me."

The Robsons must have hoped that before long Amy - an unworldly, shy girl whose pretty head is filled with romantic ideas of true love - would tire of her adventure. But then Noby made contact.

"I was so happy," said Amy. "It was fantastic to see him again.

"He hugged me and told me he'd missed me so much. The minute I saw him I knew I was still in love with him and he told me he still loves me.

"He says he hasn't had any girlfriends since he met me."

So whose idea was it to get married that very evening?

"I don't know, I think it was both of us," said Amy,

"I didn't want to wait, so that evening we went off to an office, I think. We had to sign a lot of papers."

What a way to repay her parents. The Robsons have left the door open for her to return, without recrimination, but Amy is still living out her dream.

Of her wedding ceremony, she said she didn't know where exactly they went, who officiated, or whether it was a civil ceremony or a religious one.

All she can tell you is that she wore a pair of jeans and two of Noby's friends were witnesses.

No-one took pictures. They spent their first night as man and wife in a room adjoining an internet cafe. It must have been everything Amy dreamed of, because it is the cue for another bout of giggling.

So what next? Is she going to start a family? Is she going to convert to Islam? Will she have to abandon her Western clothes?

How will she talk to her in-laws who speak no English? "Erm, I don't really know," is Amy's standard response.

What will she do if, heaven forbid, it all goes wrong and she wants out of the marriage?

Amy's bewildered silence says it all. Isn't this supposed to be a fairytale?

Perhaps, if worst comes to worst, she could simply run away again.

[ Background reading: http://foxtower-reporter.blogspot.com/2007/05/egypt-or-egremont-choice-is-yours.html ]

Abigail Jane Steele. A Model.

Abigail Jane Steele

Abbie Steele

😍

Winter wireless update

A FEW radio stations I heard on the Short Wave band recently:

WWV, Boulder, Colorado, USA - 5000 kHz - Time Signal Station (similar to 'speaking clock' with 'pips') transmitted from Colorado, USA.

Radio Sweden - 6065 kHz - Swedish language programme to Europe / Africa / Middle East via Horby transmitter, Sweden.

Radio PMR - 7370 kHz - English language programme to Europe broadcast from Pridnestrovye Moldova Republic.

Radio Sweden - 7420 kHz - Arabic language programme to Middle East broadcast from Sweden.

Radio Tirana - 7465 kHz - English language programme to Europe...

BBC World Service - 9410 kHz - English language programme to Europe & North Africa broadcast from Cyprus.

All India Radio - 9445 kHz - General Overseas Service (English).

That's all for now, take care folks!

Leeds United "fans" are ANIMALS

AS a lifelong fan of Carlisle United, I can confirm the 'behaviour' of Leeds United "fans" before, during and after the game at Brunton Park was the worst I have ever seen at or outside of a football match.

Bearing in mind Leeds fans kicked off amongst themselves outside Elland Road on the day of the Millwall game, is it any wonder this is how those animals behave when they are away from home?