Articles and reviews from Zach

Colins Malay phrasebook  And this is one book received  ion bundle this year together with  some others  that that were related to Malay customs . This is a  small (caA6 sized )colorful book of ca 250 pages  accompanied with a  CD I will do here some minimal presentation : Fist  the CD covers topics not referred to the book and referes: Introduction Essential words Asking for things I and II Shopping phrases Numbers Basic foodstuffs Quantities Tickets Where??? When?? days of the week My you’re his Problems About yourself Goodbye The book has the following topics : Malay pronunciation  using ejaan baru (notice that this book is very recent !) Ten tips in communicating with Malaysian  people Talking to people Getting around Driving Staying somewhere Shopping Leisure Communications Practicalities Health Travelers Reference Eating out  Plus  the following appendixes Menu reader ...

Malaysia in brief 1991 This is a  book  the counsel of Malaysia has given me on 1995 when we started a ‘cooperation’  together  with some other interesting promo  stuff of that time . That included  also  two video tapes a dictionary (McMillan’s eng – mal & mal- eng ) and some more  promo material (leaflets of the country , from Melaka , Perak etc  the map of Malaysia and a flag ) This  book written in ‘landscape’ paper format  is a small comprehensive guide of Malaysia  of my  early times of interest . Don’t forget  my interest in this country started  from 1989/90 but  my engagement with the consul was on 95 The first chapter deals with the country . Around 4830 km are the the coasts , Climate is influenced from Indian ocean and th S china sea , and 61 % are rain  forest s wth more than 15000 species pf plants  about 6000 are tree species The 13 states  are referred with are...

Kamus Umum Indonesia Inggeris  And this is another  quite interesting book from  my older times . I don ot remember then time  i bought it but must be before 2000. this book  uses many sources for collecting the Malay Indonesian words some of them are of my possession. as for example the Echols  dictionary  (the older smaller edition ), the Malay  GEM  and the Kamus Umum are of this reference Due to its large age (written on 76 ) and it use of ejaan  baru , there are some directions for usage  for the reader in the introductory text There are ca 560 pages of passage as always in two columns . Open holes or the right part (as bookmarks )make a faster search of the required word.See the picture

Kamus Dwibahasa  Oxford Fajar This the second of my smallest dictionaries  of Malaysian language, provided by Oxford, and printed in Malaysia . It is nothing special with this book  except that it includes both from Malay to English and vice versa . Main language of this book is Malaysian with totally  550 pages (406 for English - Malay  and 220 for Malay English ) The  only funny i found in this book are the very many borrowed  words from English into Malay

Languages of the world This is possibly my most useful language book of early 80s Beware  that my interest in languages started from ca 6 years of age when I successfully decoded  Japanese language characters  from lyrics mentioned in the documentation of several  vinyl records. Later I have  used small methods  of other languages  from our region (Serban , Turkish , Arabic etc )  and next due to my interest in Asian languages i was  slightly involved with methods of Chinese Cantonese Hindi (via German ) Punjabi etc This book has been used for very many times so far and still seems as untouched ! Its structure is relatively simple: First part discusses languages by families : Indo-European Uralic Altaic Caucasian Dravidian  and so on Second part discusses  languages  by region individually mainly in 3 parts: foit wirg an example of the language , most times  with its native  script ...

TBL  Tropical Band List By Willi Passman  As you may  know  from the logs posted in this blog , mostof them are refered in he lower spectrum of the SW band ie below 7MHz This  part f the band is called tropical band  Why : http://www.pateplumaradio.com/genbroad/tropical.htm For me  this part of the shortwave spectrum  has a bigger interest thn  the remain part as in these bands you will find stations mostly of the tropical  part fo the  earth ie Africa and Americas (eap South) with signals of special interest to a more dedicated DXer (a person who listens  to more difficult signals then a common shortwave listener ) which can be heard  more particualryl  in late (local )afternoons to early mornings This  book  was edited  by Willi Passman  , in Germany,  till 2006 and covered  this need as a very good and handy A4 sized guide with updates  every 4 months I have...

Grove’s shortwave directory    And this is my last utility frequency guide! And it the oldest along the others (1993) and possibly not longer printed . And i cannot consider either as a rival of the KLingenrffuss  guide due to its unique design IN contrast to the other books  this ‘book’ has 4 peculiarities: - Size : its size  is A4, bound by 3 holes on the left for easy punching in dossier  - Modular :  each  chapter has its own page numbering .Possibly for changing only chapters  in case anupdate is available - Format and design : Utility  oriented. Each  chapter discusses each utility separately with its own frequencies and some minor information - More American oriented : All utilities are mostly  for American ute DXers though  there are also some sub-chapters for other countries Here is a short look of this rather ‘uncommon’ book :  ON preface there are  two communication sets of 34 a...

Special  FreqwenzListe 2005-6 Spezial Frequenzliste  is another rival of the ‘famous;  utility guide from Klingenfuss . And this  time again from the same country as Klingenfuss : Germany. The company VTH de is a specialized  company with hardware (as reseller ) and publisher of  hobby books[under the name Siebel Verlag ], not only on radio and amateur but also on other hobbies of interest as plane radio  (just look at the  site www.vth.de ) This book is in German. I have learned German since my 6 years of age till ca 13but my German now , after 30 or more years is now not so much sufficient though I can understand a bit . The book consists of : Intro guide , with lots of info in German Special reference to all modes used in the book with some basic information on all the used modes More than 400 pages with frequencies This book has the same format as the Ferrel’s and is of same format …… Freq  - station –mode -remarks ...

Advanced writing of students of Malay and Indonesian And this is the third  and my last book of Malay language.  This  book has a rather different aspect  At  fist  the structure is nearly as of the book of Malay grammar , with Malaysian and Indonesian  to be separated by columns , and in case the text is nearly identical only the non-identical terms are separated by a slash and showed with a raised letter  M or I for Malaysian  and Indonesian lang respectively The chapters include the following topics Chronological order Spatial relations Classification Comparison and control Generalizations and specifics Cause and effect Definitions Prediction and inference Hypothesis Proposals Refutation and complaint The first part shows terms in both Malay/Indo  wit the structure and terming as noticed above (actually expressions ) with their  translation on the the second column in English On latihan (exer...

A course of conversational Malay This is  the second  of the Malay language series of Malcolm  Mintz with 420 pages  . This book is accompanied with a cassette with all dialogues I will do here a description rather a review. This book  has been used sparingly so far Each lesson  includes Dialogue  in Malaysian and English ,separately  in two columns Additional vocabulary  with related  words and their translation Notes where available: where further explanation or usage  is  required especially for  the additional vocabulary words . Structure : it shows the  structure of the sentences  with a word by  word  translation on in next paragraph :For example in page 27 (lesson 4 ) the sentence Warna   ini  warna hijau-kah? Salah Saly    is shown as Colour  this colour green- Q? wrong saly and translated as : Is this color green?  Wrong Saly These ar...

Kamus Pelajar Lengkap This is  a rather useless dictionary   for Malay language bought more than 15 yes ago with very low usage or reference  so far As it is noticed  i the book it is  used mainly  for schoolers of secondary schools . Will not review  this book so  much except for its structure and how it works: There are ca 530 pages on this book Starts  with short prefaces and some basic guidance in Malay and English and use the ejjan baru. The main dictionary includes the term followed by English term then followed by Malaysian explanation of te term  then with an example. Still knowing soem few  Malaysian IN some cases there are also some illustrations  with  drawings describing the  term . As for example for smoke  there is drawing of a bulb leaving smoke There  is a English Malaysian  cross reference Abbreviations Roman numerals Measurements and weights

A students  Grammar of Malay (& Indonesian ) by M Mintz  This was one  of my most interesting   the older times when i have  bought . IN this series there are also three other books that include ' a course in conversational Malay' and advanced writing  for students of Malay and Indonesian , that are also in my possession  from same order . and really  was very good book for learning  the structure of the malayan  grammar If am sure  this books also includes a casete with all passages Mine edition is of 1994 with ca 430 pages  . As far as i looked in Amazon there is a new edition of 2002but i was astonished  looking that ths new price is GBP53 from  UK or $170 from USA . although i do not remember exactly i think on mid90s  i have bought  all 3 books  from S'pore for less than $100 !! The book  instead of having  drills or  e xercises has  only a passage...

Ferrel’s confidential frequency  list  (1999) This was (or still is? I don’t know ) one of the major rivals of Klingenfuss frequency lists>This  edition is of 1999 and ws published  by Practical wireless an amateur radio magazine in UK and is possible the last as with a simple search on Google  shown  1998 as the latest As far as it is noticed. They had a cooperation with WUN (worldwide utility  network a mailing list and site related to utility  stations , quite known the older times as the best form  for these types of service on 90s + but later it was  defunct ) I think  that Klingenfuss  blames  rather  directly  this book and  this mailing list for fake and faint  entries This is a spiral bound  book with 450 pages with sheet that can be easily removed if someone not cares enough. The structure of this book is as  follows: Abbreviation list Frequency list  ...

Newness radio amateur and listeners  pocket book Steve Money This is a  pocket size book with all the basic information  (say rather as index )a radio amateur is required to know and was onw of my top reference books  for the older times I have been as a systematic radio listener (80’s? ) Its  size  is  just 7 x 15 cm and includes the following chapters : Radio freqs : band names, wavelength band names micro wave band designations CCITT regions , freq  allocations , emission designations , Amateur radio (licensing in USA , UK , examinations , Morse test , morse code  and timing , practice , amateur radio bands in UK  , UK amateur bands Fm simplex channels , repeaters  CB radio channels ) Digital communication , : radio teletype RTTY , Baudot code (the main code used for RTTY ) with diagram and analysis , control sequences as ZCZC , SITOR [simplex] and AMTOR [amateur RTTY ] , the ARQ mode [auto repeat ...

Kamus ungkapan Indonesia Inggris by Podo & Sullivan This is a rather uncommon dictionary as it has a different approach than all  previous dictionaries . There is a motto  for this book  ‘learn English  though  Indonesian grammar ’ IT is one of the thickest 'Malay languege' books I have with more than 2.5 inches of thickness and about 1250 pages A5 size and is hardbound . It is also hard  to remember from where I bought it , but seems from a oldies bookstore in UK. As far as I kcan remember , the book has been  received  ca  1 month later after I ordered , vue to the Christmas period > MY order was on early December  but I took in my hands on first days of January !!! This  book consists  only with the dictionary . With a small preface in Indonesian and English (just 3 pages ) The structure wording  is this: Term- explanation – example sentence – example’s translation Derivatives and expressions...

Kamus bahasa  baku by Lufti Abas  This is my second Malay dictionary  , after the  Collins GEM , bought more than 15 yeas ago  from  i think directly the publisher from Malaysia Times Corp . It is a  866  page book from which the 804  pages is  the Malay dictionary solely This  book is written in both Malay and Chinese. It uses the classical design of two columns and  the story is  separated this way : Small preface in both Malay and Chinese Chapter with similarities between  ejaan lama and baru  As for example        Batek becomes batik  and pileh becomes pilih Matches between  Latin words and their Malay Romanization        Chocolate > coklat      machine > mesin The dictionary  goes into this format :        Malay > Chinese > English > Malay me...

2005-2006     guide to utility  stations This a more recent edition   from the   Klingenfuss guide I use in my shack . This book has   still ca 600 pages of information but the paper used is quite thinner so that the total thickness   is only the   half of the previous edition This   edition   has several minor changes : Radio regulations   are with the previous   edition do not exist , or just several paragraphs are noticed The structure of the book   remains the same . Only modifications to the introductory   text as the technology has been   severely   changed (esp in the encoding types with more   complex systems ) as first   there was a decline of the   shortwave services There is a paragraph commenting on the total disinformation happened by rivals editions and the internet clubs and forums    with either plagiarized material or even phantom freq...

Klingenfuss utility guide 1999 And once again something different YOU surely know that   I am a keen   radio listener. However you possibly don’t know   that   the older times I was also a keen listener of utility radio stations! That happened   on mid 90s to mid 00’s . and more interested during the time of the war in Serbia. I was using a   Philips   2395   radio   (having BFO to tune ) together   with a Spectrum micro computer   and an interface connected on the rear of Spectrum that   did the decoding of various digital   transmissions   of that time . What is utility radio station? This kind of station is a transmission   normally not intended to the general public as   the transmissions are aimed to   communications. These’re the following categories UC 1: Time Signal Stations, Space Stations and the Aero Section UC 2: PTP Stations UC 3: Maritime Stations UC ...

2005 -6   Klingenfuss Shortwave Frequency Guide,   And this   will be the third book   for review   from this publisher This   book   covers   full listing from all over the shortwave radio spectrum . There is an introduction which is carbon copy from the   utility   guide book (monitoring utility stations ) The first part covers   the utility transmissions. The frequency listing   seems   identical   with the previous book , with some minor differences : 9 columns instead of 4 and smaller font (8 picas instead of 10 ) to   include in 161 pages On the second part (shortwave radio ) there is a introductory text with an extensive reference   to DRM   with emphasis   to the latest for that time   products and a comprehensive   frequency listing   of DRM transmissions The frequency listing of 150 pages uses again smaller fonts (8 picas )a...