** ALASKA. KNLS, 7355, April 28 at 1413 in English with Stories from the Bible in Contemporary English, ID; good signal. Could not hear the other transmitter in Chinese on 9795 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake, very good, and equal level on 8400 and 9000, April 27 [not 24 as in DXLD 9-036] at 1321 check, so I `enjoyed` the music for a while. At 1400 monitoring 9000, as usual went to open carrier; 1421 recheck both still going but weakening. On other occasions when both frequencies are on, one has been much weaker than the other, so something must be changing dynamically as to sites, powers and/or azimuths.
Firedrake check April 28: at 1341 fair, about same level on 8400 and 9000; at 1423 found VG Firedrake on new 15600, // weakening 9000 and 8400. At 24 past each hour the segment features a ramshorn-like instrument, slow with some pauses, then into slow drumming, before building up to breakneck percussion again. This is when one might be able to detect its victim underneath, but could not. I quickly scanned the entire 13-19 MHz range but did not find any other FD. Ron Howard has been hearing 15600 12-13 hours earlier, so it may be on long hours in response to Sound of Hope which it seems has stepped up transmissions and frequency-jumping. Keith Perron says this time of year before Tiananmen anniversary is when ChiCom jamming reaches a peak, and additional censorship is imposed on CRI programming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** HAWAII [and non]. AFN, Pearl Harbor, 10320-USB, barely audible broadcast talk as I was scanning for Firedrake, April 28 at 1416. Not // Florida 12133.5, but seemed // to equally weak 5765 Guam. Aoki lists the power for each of these as 3 kW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. VOI, yet another Tuesday with input from RRI Banjarmasin, Kalimantan. 9525 at 1320 April 28, usual features but interspersed continuity is conversation between YL in Jak(?) and OM in Banj; 1330 Focus, on the VP elexion, which is apparently separate from the presidential; 1338 a feature about Banjarmasin, but too much accent and too much noise level to make much out of it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS. RFA Tinian, 17880 was audible again in nightmiddle, April 27 at 0520 in Chinese, // 17615 but not 17640, which was in use on April 24 --- only? Could also detect a carrier on 21550, on YB-400 only with internal wire antenna during storm. April 28 around 0530, 17880 again detectable (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PHILIPPINES. 9700, Monday April 27 at 1325 weak audio but a big het; seems like one carrier is on the low side. 1328 audio improved; not helped by SSB intruder around 9696. 1330 sounds like Vietnamese, anyway with ``phat-thanhs``. Per Aoki this is FEBC, 50 kW from Iba site due west in various minolity languages between 1300 and 1400 in a convoluted schedule depending on day of week. On Mondays supposed to go from Muong to Cham at 1330. Eibi says it`s Eastern Cham. Could the het be jamming? Iba may well be off-frequency. Per online listings, nothing else is intentionally scheduled on 9700 at this hour, except maybe Sofia in DRM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PHILIPPINES. VOA, 9760, April 28 at 1405 news in English but occasional audio breakups and transmission also cut off for several seconds. Aoki shows between 13 and 15 there are two 250 kW Tinang transmitters here, one at 21 degrees usward and the other 270 degrees westward, so when one fails, VOA may still be heard more weakly (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA [and non]. VOR check at 0302 UT April 28:
7395, gone, replaced by 9735, q.v.
9665, VOR English UNDER CRI in Spanish via Brasília, with fast rippling SAH. This is a monumental failure in frequency management, a collision going on year after year at 01-03 and 03-04, plus additional periods of open carrier from Brasil
9735, VOR Spanish via French Guiana, very good, ex-7395
9890, fluttery signal in Russian; scheduled earlier in English
15425, VOR English, good via Far East
Another check at 0422:
9665, VOR in Spanish, now QRMless; apparently new, not on schedule
9735, VOR still Spanish via GUF, not English as claimed by some downunderite during this hour
13775, VOR English, good, having switched FE site from 15425
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WEWN has made some frequency changes, upwards for summer, altho they claim that the current schedule at http://www.ewtn.com/radio/freq.htm
went into effect March 29 --- not true! For example, new 12050 in Spanish // 11550, April 27 at 1315 with religious discussion (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Haven`t heard KJES on 11715 in weeks, but there again April 28 at 1420: S9+20 signal but barely audible modulation, adult OM with catechisms in English, mixed with someone singing. Once again this seems to correlate with sporadic E opening on HF if not VHF, as WWCR 13845 was strong vs usual barely audible, and 15825 was poor vs usual inaudible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** CHINA. Firedrake, very good, and equal level on 8400 and 9000, April 27 [not 24 as in DXLD 9-036] at 1321 check, so I `enjoyed` the music for a while. At 1400 monitoring 9000, as usual went to open carrier; 1421 recheck both still going but weakening. On other occasions when both frequencies are on, one has been much weaker than the other, so something must be changing dynamically as to sites, powers and/or azimuths.
Firedrake check April 28: at 1341 fair, about same level on 8400 and 9000; at 1423 found VG Firedrake on new 15600, // weakening 9000 and 8400. At 24 past each hour the segment features a ramshorn-like instrument, slow with some pauses, then into slow drumming, before building up to breakneck percussion again. This is when one might be able to detect its victim underneath, but could not. I quickly scanned the entire 13-19 MHz range but did not find any other FD. Ron Howard has been hearing 15600 12-13 hours earlier, so it may be on long hours in response to Sound of Hope which it seems has stepped up transmissions and frequency-jumping. Keith Perron says this time of year before Tiananmen anniversary is when ChiCom jamming reaches a peak, and additional censorship is imposed on CRI programming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** HAWAII [and non]. AFN, Pearl Harbor, 10320-USB, barely audible broadcast talk as I was scanning for Firedrake, April 28 at 1416. Not // Florida 12133.5, but seemed // to equally weak 5765 Guam. Aoki lists the power for each of these as 3 kW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. VOI, yet another Tuesday with input from RRI Banjarmasin, Kalimantan. 9525 at 1320 April 28, usual features but interspersed continuity is conversation between YL in Jak(?) and OM in Banj; 1330 Focus, on the VP elexion, which is apparently separate from the presidential; 1338 a feature about Banjarmasin, but too much accent and too much noise level to make much out of it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS. RFA Tinian, 17880 was audible again in nightmiddle, April 27 at 0520 in Chinese, // 17615 but not 17640, which was in use on April 24 --- only? Could also detect a carrier on 21550, on YB-400 only with internal wire antenna during storm. April 28 around 0530, 17880 again detectable (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PHILIPPINES. 9700, Monday April 27 at 1325 weak audio but a big het; seems like one carrier is on the low side. 1328 audio improved; not helped by SSB intruder around 9696. 1330 sounds like Vietnamese, anyway with ``phat-thanhs``. Per Aoki this is FEBC, 50 kW from Iba site due west in various minolity languages between 1300 and 1400 in a convoluted schedule depending on day of week. On Mondays supposed to go from Muong to Cham at 1330. Eibi says it`s Eastern Cham. Could the het be jamming? Iba may well be off-frequency. Per online listings, nothing else is intentionally scheduled on 9700 at this hour, except maybe Sofia in DRM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PHILIPPINES. VOA, 9760, April 28 at 1405 news in English but occasional audio breakups and transmission also cut off for several seconds. Aoki shows between 13 and 15 there are two 250 kW Tinang transmitters here, one at 21 degrees usward and the other 270 degrees westward, so when one fails, VOA may still be heard more weakly (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA [and non]. VOR check at 0302 UT April 28:
7395, gone, replaced by 9735, q.v.
9665, VOR English UNDER CRI in Spanish via Brasília, with fast rippling SAH. This is a monumental failure in frequency management, a collision going on year after year at 01-03 and 03-04, plus additional periods of open carrier from Brasil
9735, VOR Spanish via French Guiana, very good, ex-7395
9890, fluttery signal in Russian; scheduled earlier in English
15425, VOR English, good via Far East
Another check at 0422:
9665, VOR in Spanish, now QRMless; apparently new, not on schedule
9735, VOR still Spanish via GUF, not English as claimed by some downunderite during this hour
13775, VOR English, good, having switched FE site from 15425
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WEWN has made some frequency changes, upwards for summer, altho they claim that the current schedule at http://www.ewtn.com/radio/freq.htm
went into effect March 29 --- not true! For example, new 12050 in Spanish // 11550, April 27 at 1315 with religious discussion (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Haven`t heard KJES on 11715 in weeks, but there again April 28 at 1420: S9+20 signal but barely audible modulation, adult OM with catechisms in English, mixed with someone singing. Once again this seems to correlate with sporadic E opening on HF if not VHF, as WWCR 13845 was strong vs usual barely audible, and 15825 was poor vs usual inaudible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
