** AUSTRALIA. Among several signals, mostly in Chinese audible in the middle of the night on 16m, April 24 at 0558 was something weak on 17830. Per Aoki, this must be CVC Darwin, 250 kW, 340 degrees, 0400-1000 in Chinese.
Also had RA weakly in English on 17750, 0601 April 24 with news from USA, // better 15240. 17750 is Shepparton, 100 kW, 329 degrees at 2330-0800 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS [and non]. Spring is here --- middle of the night opening on 16 meters from R. Free Asia in Chinese, April 24 at 0557 on 17640. At first I figured it was ChiCom jamming with the CNR1 program, which is certainly in use, but then I found two // frequencies, except they were 1 or 2 seconds displaced, typical behavior of the IBB sites to even out power consumption. And no echoes on any single frequency.
At 0601 April 24 on 17880, same Chinese program as 17640 but stronger and about two seconds ahead of it.
Emboldened by such propagation, I headed for 13 meters even tho it was around local midnight. And was rewarded by yet another signal, on 21550. Quite weak but // 17880 and 17640 altho displaced, about one second ahead of 17880. What does PWBR `2009` say? Nothing anywhere at any time shown on 21550.
Per Aoki listings here is what I was hearing:
17640, RFA Tinian, 0300-0600, 295 degrees starting April 24! It is not yet on RFA`s own schedule: http://www.rfa.org/english/about/frequencies.html
17880, RFA Saipan, 0300-0600, 310 degrees [but on later]
21550, RFA Tinian, 0300-0700, 304/303 degrees
But all are jammed. I am fairly positive in this case I was hearing the NMI transmitters, and because of much higher latitude path, the jammers were not making it here.
As if to compensate for this, 16m was late opening after sunrise April 24: still almost dead at 1252, with trace of Chile on 17680; 1328 starting to pick up with only poor signals from that plus 17595 Spain and 17800 Portugal.
Nothing unusual at 0600 per SWPC, unless a SF hitting a hefty 71 made all the difference. More pertinent is the increasing summer sun in the northern hemisphere.
Solar-terrestrial indices for 23 April follow.
Solar flux 71 and mid-latitude A-index 1.
The mid-latitude K-index at 0600 UTC on 24 April was 1 (8 nT).
The mid-latitude K-index at 1200 UTC on 24 April was 1 (9 nT).
No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours.
No space weather storms are expected for the next 24 hours.
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. VOR`s only A09 frequency in English to NAm at 0400-0600 is 13775. Mostly it had been inaudible to just barely audible here, but April 24 it was finally propagating, as I tuned in just before closing: fairly good at 0556 with music, 0558 perky YL with sorta British accent signing off NAm service, to return at 2200 on 31 meters. Service to Europe and Australia would continue now; just gave meter bands and in the case of Europe, Mwavelengths. What century are they living in? Or is their target audience the dwindling number of people with old radios calibrated only in meters? And I use the term `calibrated` loosely, as such terminology is quite inaccurate.
As for 13775, the original VOR A09 sked showed it in English only at 0400-0600, as does EiBi, but Aoki now shows it at 0100-0600, all 250 kW, 50 degrees via Vladivostok-Tavrich site at 131-54E, 43-20N. So is 13775 really on air now from 0100? RUVR`s own schedule at http://www.ruvr.ru/files/shedule/VSA_NorthAmerica.xls
still shows 13775 as 04-06 only, but there were reports that VOR would be adding more SW frequencies due to numerous listener complaints. This led me to check 15, 17, and even 21 MHz with positive results (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 15380, with Qur`an, poor but no buzz, April 24 at 1329. This is the Holy Qur`an Service, at 12-14, 500 kW, 310 degrees from Riyadh (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [non]. 15170 via Costa Rica, reconfirmed REE is still carrying news in co-official languages, as Friday April 24 at 1254 concluding news of Basque country presented in Castilian. Should be M-F 1240-1255 in Catalan, Galician and Basque [really mostly Castilian as a security measure?], despite this schedule
http://www.rtve.es/files/70-14142-FICHERO/Parrilla_marzo_2009.pdf
showing something called ``Fuero Propio`` in the 1230-1300 semihour. My dixionary says Fuero means a compilation of laws or a municipal charter, so possibly this an oblique way of referring to the legal obligation to air token broadcasts in minority languages? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. 6300, LV de la RASD, via Algeria, April 24 at 0608 with chanting, which certainly sounds Qur`anish, but quite unlike what we hear from closer to Mecca; is such variation allowed? By 0611 had finished that and started an exhortative speaker (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 17850, *0559 April 24 Chinese talk over ``Diamonds`` commercial theme music, while I was getting R. Free Asia, NMI and Australia on other 16m channels, 17850 with a better signal than any of them. Nothing listed here in the online schedules, nor on 17845 or 17855 in case I misread frequency on FRG-7 analog dial, which has a parallax problem in this range, but I don`t think so. Could be CNR1 jammer against unknown target (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
Also had RA weakly in English on 17750, 0601 April 24 with news from USA, // better 15240. 17750 is Shepparton, 100 kW, 329 degrees at 2330-0800 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS [and non]. Spring is here --- middle of the night opening on 16 meters from R. Free Asia in Chinese, April 24 at 0557 on 17640. At first I figured it was ChiCom jamming with the CNR1 program, which is certainly in use, but then I found two // frequencies, except they were 1 or 2 seconds displaced, typical behavior of the IBB sites to even out power consumption. And no echoes on any single frequency.
At 0601 April 24 on 17880, same Chinese program as 17640 but stronger and about two seconds ahead of it.
Emboldened by such propagation, I headed for 13 meters even tho it was around local midnight. And was rewarded by yet another signal, on 21550. Quite weak but // 17880 and 17640 altho displaced, about one second ahead of 17880. What does PWBR `2009` say? Nothing anywhere at any time shown on 21550.
Per Aoki listings here is what I was hearing:
17640, RFA Tinian, 0300-0600, 295 degrees starting April 24! It is not yet on RFA`s own schedule: http://www.rfa.org/english/about/frequencies.html
17880, RFA Saipan, 0300-0600, 310 degrees [but on later]
21550, RFA Tinian, 0300-0700, 304/303 degrees
But all are jammed. I am fairly positive in this case I was hearing the NMI transmitters, and because of much higher latitude path, the jammers were not making it here.
As if to compensate for this, 16m was late opening after sunrise April 24: still almost dead at 1252, with trace of Chile on 17680; 1328 starting to pick up with only poor signals from that plus 17595 Spain and 17800 Portugal.
Nothing unusual at 0600 per SWPC, unless a SF hitting a hefty 71 made all the difference. More pertinent is the increasing summer sun in the northern hemisphere.
Solar-terrestrial indices for 23 April follow.
Solar flux 71 and mid-latitude A-index 1.
The mid-latitude K-index at 0600 UTC on 24 April was 1 (8 nT).
The mid-latitude K-index at 1200 UTC on 24 April was 1 (9 nT).
No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours.
No space weather storms are expected for the next 24 hours.
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. VOR`s only A09 frequency in English to NAm at 0400-0600 is 13775. Mostly it had been inaudible to just barely audible here, but April 24 it was finally propagating, as I tuned in just before closing: fairly good at 0556 with music, 0558 perky YL with sorta British accent signing off NAm service, to return at 2200 on 31 meters. Service to Europe and Australia would continue now; just gave meter bands and in the case of Europe, Mwavelengths. What century are they living in? Or is their target audience the dwindling number of people with old radios calibrated only in meters? And I use the term `calibrated` loosely, as such terminology is quite inaccurate.
As for 13775, the original VOR A09 sked showed it in English only at 0400-0600, as does EiBi, but Aoki now shows it at 0100-0600, all 250 kW, 50 degrees via Vladivostok-Tavrich site at 131-54E, 43-20N. So is 13775 really on air now from 0100? RUVR`s own schedule at http://www.ruvr.ru/files/shedule/VSA_NorthAmerica.xls
still shows 13775 as 04-06 only, but there were reports that VOR would be adding more SW frequencies due to numerous listener complaints. This led me to check 15, 17, and even 21 MHz with positive results (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 15380, with Qur`an, poor but no buzz, April 24 at 1329. This is the Holy Qur`an Service, at 12-14, 500 kW, 310 degrees from Riyadh (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [non]. 15170 via Costa Rica, reconfirmed REE is still carrying news in co-official languages, as Friday April 24 at 1254 concluding news of Basque country presented in Castilian. Should be M-F 1240-1255 in Catalan, Galician and Basque [really mostly Castilian as a security measure?], despite this schedule
http://www.rtve.es/files/70-14142-FICHERO/Parrilla_marzo_2009.pdf
showing something called ``Fuero Propio`` in the 1230-1300 semihour. My dixionary says Fuero means a compilation of laws or a municipal charter, so possibly this an oblique way of referring to the legal obligation to air token broadcasts in minority languages? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. 6300, LV de la RASD, via Algeria, April 24 at 0608 with chanting, which certainly sounds Qur`anish, but quite unlike what we hear from closer to Mecca; is such variation allowed? By 0611 had finished that and started an exhortative speaker (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 17850, *0559 April 24 Chinese talk over ``Diamonds`` commercial theme music, while I was getting R. Free Asia, NMI and Australia on other 16m channels, 17850 with a better signal than any of them. Nothing listed here in the online schedules, nor on 17845 or 17855 in case I misread frequency on FRG-7 analog dial, which has a parallax problem in this range, but I don`t think so. Could be CNR1 jammer against unknown target (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
