** AUSTRIA [non]. Checking whether OE1 still has an English news segment on the CANADA relay 16-17 on 13675: Jan 8 tuned in at 1619 and all in German except for a few sex of English at 1651 in an axuality, quickly voiced-over in AustroGerman. Thought maybe English would show at 1645, as there was a report of that happening at 0045, presumably on 7325, during a formerly full English broadcast. Then at 1655 went to Blue Danube IS and multilingual IDs in German, English, French and Spanish! just to fill up the hour until 1659*. That would have been enough time to repeat the entire 4-minute English news segment from the previous morning 0710 on 6155. Since these don`t appear on their schedule, we need people to note the exact times and frequencies when English is still heard. Meanwhile an open carrier came on 13680 around 1627 past 1630; Cuba for some reason? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL [and non]. BBCWS in English, via South Africa, 11765 at 335 degrees, Jan 8 at 0620 ruined by the wacky wailing preacher who speaks neither Portuguese nor Spanish but a bastardized mixture of them, David Miranda who has occupied yet another Brazilian transmitter, this one in Curitiba and supposedly renamed Súper-Rádio Deus é Amor; roughly equal strength to BBC and with fast SAH of maybe 15 Hz. If God really loved us he would not do this to us. Found to be // Curitiba on 9565, this one in the clear; where`s the DentroCuban Jamming Command when we need them? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COSTA RICA [and non]. As I was checking out RNZI`s other frequencies while 6170 was missing (see NEW ZEALAND), I could not help but notice that the REE relay on 9765 was nothing but a steady open carrier, Jan 8 at 1450. Same appeared to be the case on 15170, but with the usual Romanian co-channel audio and SAH. The third frequency, 11815, was modulating as usual, which means under-modulating, but at least it was audible during Españoles en la Mar, while 17595 direct was weaker than usual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. RHC discrepancy report: Jan 8 at 1430, the big signal on 15370 was missing. Other frequencies confirmed as usual: 15360, 15120, 13760, 13720 (leapfrog 13760 over CRI relay 13740), 13680. At 1445 recheck, 15370 was back on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA [and non]. After some Indian music on 9870, the Vividh Bharati Service channel of AIR, Jan 7, I was surprised to hear at 1400 an ID in English instead for the General Overseas Service, then a program about Indian cinema. But the GOS in English at 1330-1500 is supposed to be on 9690, where nothing was audible.
They are both listed as Bangalore/Bangaluru site, on 9870 500 kW at 335 degrees, 0845-1200 and 1230-1740 with VBS; On 9690 500 kW at 108 degrees, 1330-1500 only with GOS. 9870 had a good signal but with polar flutter, as usually the case with it. The other 31m frequency audible here, National Channel on 9425, could be heard weaker in Hindi talk at 1419 check. It`s 500 kW at 18 degrees, 1320 to 0040 UT.
9870 continued in English at 1420 with press review, negative about the Gaza situation; 1425 interviewing a Bengali poet, 1436 saying that had come from the AIR archives; 1437 into film music from ``Dawn``. All this Indian film music primed me to go see another good movie in current release, Slumdog Millionaire, which does not paint a pretty picture of Bharat, altho it seems far-fetched that a quiz-show contestant would be tortured on suspicion of cheating. And the following evening from 0500 UT Thursday, I had to listen to Spice Routes on KBCS webcast.
Back to 9870: at 1456 with concluding news summary by YL. 1459 sign-off as the AIR GOS to SE Asia but S/N ratio had decreased and could not copy frequencies; I strongly suspect the 9690 and 9870 feeds got switched by mistake. Or maybe 9690 was down so they deliberately put GOS on 9870 transmitter as substitute? 1500:30 to tone test past 1502, and 1503 into music, perhaps back to the correct VBS. I asked the DXLD yg to please check on January 8 whether this happens again or GOS is back on 9690; and what about // 13710, also Bangaluru 500 kW 108 degrees, and // 11620 Delhi.
So far no reports from elsewhere received, but I checked it again the next day, Jan 8: at 1400, 9690 was audible with music not // 9870 music. 1420, 9690 confirmed back in English with another press review, while 9870 went on with VBS music. 11620 and 13710 were very weak but seemed to be // 9690 as they should be, altho 11620 not in synch. 1425 into talk about medical tourism by a correspondent of The Hindu newspaper. Unfortunately, her higher-pitched voice and accent made it hard to understand. I also noticed that 9690`s usual hum had also resumed.
Another India-related program I recommend is Extension 720 from WGN Chicago, which I was listening to until 0415 UT Thursday, interviewing the author of a book about Gandhi and Churchill. Unfortunately it`s missing from the Jan 7 schedule info at
http://wgnradio.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=167&Itemid=275
but maybe will show up in one of the podcasts or audio archives (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NEW ZEALAND. RNZI missing from 6170, Jan 8 at 1403 and still missing at 1446 when I also checked several other possible frequencies in case they got stuck on one of them: 7145, 9615, 9655, 9765, 11675, 11725, 13660, but those were either empty or occupied by other stations. RA was audible poorly on 5995, 6080, 7240, so RNZI should have been detectable on 6170 if on the air. Then I check the website and find this notice which almost accounts for the absence:
``Transmitter Maintenance 07 Jan, 2009 20:49 UTC --- There may be interruptions to our short-wave broadcasts on Thursday 8 January from 1045-1800 NZDT (2145-0500 UTC)``.
BTW, this also gives me a chance to point out an annoying matter of style I am frequently correcting as I edit: if you write ``from`` before a pair of times, you should also write the word ``to`` between the times. If you are going to put a hyphen between them, you should write the word ``at`` before them. I suspect people who mix the two are subvocalizing and convert the ``-`` into ``to`` without thinking of how it looks in print (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Another check of 1680 kHz, Jan 7 at 0633 found gospel music from KRJO Monroe LA. Then I shifted to 1670 for a while, WTDY Madison WI, promoting their website http://madison1670.com and its links to Pulse TV. So I also checked out their program schedule at http://wtdy.com/viewpage.php?id=5
and find that Sundays at 1-2 am CST, WTDY runs The Best of Tom Leykis which is exactly what I thought I was hearing on 1680; so I conclude that semi-sleeping, I must have been on 1670 instead of 1680.
I see that many of WTDY`s talkshows are far-right extremists, including Dennis Miller, Glenn Beck, Michael Medved, Laura Ingraham, just what Madison needs. I wonder what inspired the call letters --- as a vet, I always think of ``temporary duty``, but it could be ``turdy``, or more politely, ``too damn yucky``, or: ``We Talk Down to You`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** BRAZIL [and non]. BBCWS in English, via South Africa, 11765 at 335 degrees, Jan 8 at 0620 ruined by the wacky wailing preacher who speaks neither Portuguese nor Spanish but a bastardized mixture of them, David Miranda who has occupied yet another Brazilian transmitter, this one in Curitiba and supposedly renamed Súper-Rádio Deus é Amor; roughly equal strength to BBC and with fast SAH of maybe 15 Hz. If God really loved us he would not do this to us. Found to be // Curitiba on 9565, this one in the clear; where`s the DentroCuban Jamming Command when we need them? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COSTA RICA [and non]. As I was checking out RNZI`s other frequencies while 6170 was missing (see NEW ZEALAND), I could not help but notice that the REE relay on 9765 was nothing but a steady open carrier, Jan 8 at 1450. Same appeared to be the case on 15170, but with the usual Romanian co-channel audio and SAH. The third frequency, 11815, was modulating as usual, which means under-modulating, but at least it was audible during Españoles en la Mar, while 17595 direct was weaker than usual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. RHC discrepancy report: Jan 8 at 1430, the big signal on 15370 was missing. Other frequencies confirmed as usual: 15360, 15120, 13760, 13720 (leapfrog 13760 over CRI relay 13740), 13680. At 1445 recheck, 15370 was back on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA [and non]. After some Indian music on 9870, the Vividh Bharati Service channel of AIR, Jan 7, I was surprised to hear at 1400 an ID in English instead for the General Overseas Service, then a program about Indian cinema. But the GOS in English at 1330-1500 is supposed to be on 9690, where nothing was audible.
They are both listed as Bangalore/Bangaluru site, on 9870 500 kW at 335 degrees, 0845-1200 and 1230-1740 with VBS; On 9690 500 kW at 108 degrees, 1330-1500 only with GOS. 9870 had a good signal but with polar flutter, as usually the case with it. The other 31m frequency audible here, National Channel on 9425, could be heard weaker in Hindi talk at 1419 check. It`s 500 kW at 18 degrees, 1320 to 0040 UT.
9870 continued in English at 1420 with press review, negative about the Gaza situation; 1425 interviewing a Bengali poet, 1436 saying that had come from the AIR archives; 1437 into film music from ``Dawn``. All this Indian film music primed me to go see another good movie in current release, Slumdog Millionaire, which does not paint a pretty picture of Bharat, altho it seems far-fetched that a quiz-show contestant would be tortured on suspicion of cheating. And the following evening from 0500 UT Thursday, I had to listen to Spice Routes on KBCS webcast.
Back to 9870: at 1456 with concluding news summary by YL. 1459 sign-off as the AIR GOS to SE Asia but S/N ratio had decreased and could not copy frequencies; I strongly suspect the 9690 and 9870 feeds got switched by mistake. Or maybe 9690 was down so they deliberately put GOS on 9870 transmitter as substitute? 1500:30 to tone test past 1502, and 1503 into music, perhaps back to the correct VBS. I asked the DXLD yg to please check on January 8 whether this happens again or GOS is back on 9690; and what about // 13710, also Bangaluru 500 kW 108 degrees, and // 11620 Delhi.
So far no reports from elsewhere received, but I checked it again the next day, Jan 8: at 1400, 9690 was audible with music not // 9870 music. 1420, 9690 confirmed back in English with another press review, while 9870 went on with VBS music. 11620 and 13710 were very weak but seemed to be // 9690 as they should be, altho 11620 not in synch. 1425 into talk about medical tourism by a correspondent of The Hindu newspaper. Unfortunately, her higher-pitched voice and accent made it hard to understand. I also noticed that 9690`s usual hum had also resumed.
Another India-related program I recommend is Extension 720 from WGN Chicago, which I was listening to until 0415 UT Thursday, interviewing the author of a book about Gandhi and Churchill. Unfortunately it`s missing from the Jan 7 schedule info at
http://wgnradio.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=167&Itemid=275
but maybe will show up in one of the podcasts or audio archives (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NEW ZEALAND. RNZI missing from 6170, Jan 8 at 1403 and still missing at 1446 when I also checked several other possible frequencies in case they got stuck on one of them: 7145, 9615, 9655, 9765, 11675, 11725, 13660, but those were either empty or occupied by other stations. RA was audible poorly on 5995, 6080, 7240, so RNZI should have been detectable on 6170 if on the air. Then I check the website and find this notice which almost accounts for the absence:
``Transmitter Maintenance 07 Jan, 2009 20:49 UTC --- There may be interruptions to our short-wave broadcasts on Thursday 8 January from 1045-1800 NZDT (2145-0500 UTC)``.
BTW, this also gives me a chance to point out an annoying matter of style I am frequently correcting as I edit: if you write ``from`` before a pair of times, you should also write the word ``to`` between the times. If you are going to put a hyphen between them, you should write the word ``at`` before them. I suspect people who mix the two are subvocalizing and convert the ``-`` into ``to`` without thinking of how it looks in print (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Another check of 1680 kHz, Jan 7 at 0633 found gospel music from KRJO Monroe LA. Then I shifted to 1670 for a while, WTDY Madison WI, promoting their website http://madison1670.com and its links to Pulse TV. So I also checked out their program schedule at http://wtdy.com/viewpage.php?id=5
and find that Sundays at 1-2 am CST, WTDY runs The Best of Tom Leykis which is exactly what I thought I was hearing on 1680; so I conclude that semi-sleeping, I must have been on 1670 instead of 1680.
I see that many of WTDY`s talkshows are far-right extremists, including Dennis Miller, Glenn Beck, Michael Medved, Laura Ingraham, just what Madison needs. I wonder what inspired the call letters --- as a vet, I always think of ``temporary duty``, but it could be ``turdy``, or more politely, ``too damn yucky``, or: ``We Talk Down to You`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
