** ALASKA. By 1502 April 4, not much from Asia was left on 40m, but on 7355, fair signal, praise music, 1506 YL ID in Russian as KNLS, IS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BIAFRA [non]. Checked the WHR website for latest scheduling of V. of Biafra International, April 3 and it shows a change: Angel 1 at 2100-2200 Friday on new 11885. Just in case the time changed again, I also looked for it at 2000 on 11885, previous frequency 15665, or 17650 as in another schedule, but nothing.
Standing by on 11885, on it popped at *2100 with standard WHRI sign-on giving this frequency, then to VOBI program, with two IDs as ``The Voice of Biafra International broadcast, coming to you from Washington, DC, with matters of interest to Biafra``. Then played instrumental version of ``Finlandia``, which I always find incongruous, but I expect the Biafrans do not think of Finland when they hear it. Then to soprano performing ``All Hail Biafra``, which among the lyrix claims to be the ``land of the rising sun``, more incongruity, but I am sure the Biafrans do not think of Japan when they hear it.
This took until 2107, another ID, and another speaker with ``Let Us Pray``. This is all in English but the prayer is more heavily accented. He goes on and on for 5 minutes about how this is ``the year to claim our freedom. . . after wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.`` Immodestly claims positive God-given traits for his people, implying that the Nigerians lack such. This is one of those prayers obviously directed to the listeners and not really to God, who already knows what he is going to say, anyway. Is he ever going to mention J.C.? Only at the very end, so not completely ecumenical.
2112 another ID and yet another speaker begins the news. I listened carefully to all this to hear what frequency would be announced, but none ever was, as they have done in the past, usually incorrectly. No doubt because at recording-time they had no idea what new frequency they would be on! Maybe next week they will catch up, if it hasn`t changed again.
In mid March the program moved an hour later from 2000 UT to start at 2100, but on the same frequency, 15665, always called ``15.67 MHz``. A lower frequency is surely called for at that late hour to propagate better into the 10-11 pm local nighttime period. The website http://www.biafraland.com/vobi.htm claims yet another frequency, 15280 at 2000 UT. God help the poor Biafrans in finding when and where their uplifting and hopeful broadcast really is.
Speaking of Biafra, other transmissions in ``Ibo`` are on some versions of the WHR schedule, Monday-Friday 1800-2000 on WHRI 17520. So was expansion planned, or by some competing clandestine service? Nothing was heard on 17520 just before 2000 April 3, inconclusive.
11885 is a good change for those of us off the back in NAm, with a shorter skip zone, and the signal was inbooming into OK, while 15 MHz had been problematical (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [non]. CRI English via Sackville, 9650, normally a VG loud and clear signal here on 240 degree beam, but April 4 at 1310 there was co-channel talk underneath. Could not make it out, but most likely RNW Dutch via Tinang, Philippines, 200 degrees at 1300-1327, and indeed not heard during the second semihour. RNW now has a number of such Dutch transmissions of only 27 minutes, in addition to longer ones (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ECUADOR. HCJB, 11960, Saturday April 4 at 1407, Alen Grajan in mailbag show mentioning that from May there would be a new feature the first week of every month on Aventura Diexista, ``Radio Guía Internacional`` from two Venezuelan DXers. But then 11960 cut off the air and did not come back until 1418. It`s unusual for HCJB to have such breakdowns. Meanwhile, much weaker 11690 vs RTTY was still on the air at 1409 check. I did not bother to try 21455, which HCJB insists in its automated IDs two or three times an hour is still on the air (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GERMANY [non]. 15265, Saturday April 4 at 1449, good signal from DW in Russian via Rampisham, UK; the Muzprosvet avant-garde music show has been canceled, replaced by something about Turkey, bits of German with voice-overs, ``Türkische Hund``, sound effects, clips of old (Nazi?) broadcasts, and 1456 into language lesson focusing on vorlesen (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [non]. NHKWNRJ announced last week that World Interactive, the mailbag et al. show would be moving from Saturday to Sunday, so what`s on Saturday? April 4 at 1410 on 11705 via Canada, Pop-Up Japan, the J-pop music magazine with hyper hosts full of phony enthusiasm (or, what are they on?). An immediate turn-off, and a waste of airtime, IMO (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH. 9665, Saturday April 4 at 1507, nice revolutionary music show from KCBS, preferable to but weaker than VOK in stilted, brainwashed English on 9335. In Monitoring Reminders Calendar I have an ancient entry for this at 15-16 UT Sunday, so it`s also on Saturday, and I am not at all sure of its exact scheduling. Who knows, maybe every day, and I am sure there is a lot more of it elsewhen on KCBS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. KOKC, 1520, Oklahoma City, no longer a dominant nighttime signal here in Enid, scarcely 150 km away; in its infinite wisdom, the FCC has authorized many stations to operate at night on 1520, mostly less than 1 kW and somewhere east of OK, west of NY. But all this crud adds up to make 1520 sound like a regional channel, as 0549 April 4 in Midnight Radio Network. Not only co-channel rumble, but SAH from what must be the strongest interferer, plus IBOC hash from WLAC-1510, which was also audible against KSTP-1500.
Yet KOMA ought to do better against all this if it is really running 50 kW direxional covering the western half of N America. I strongly suspect they are not, perhaps on the backup 5 kW(?) as has happened before; and/or non-direxional accounting for making it to Europe under WWKB recently (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. VOR, 9850, Saturday April 4 at 1508 in English talk about the bicentennial of Gogol this year, which explains why they keep talking about him; evidently the 11-minute news-on-the-hour is a pastthing from VOR. This was originally planned to be Samara site, but at this hour I thought Far East more likely (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [and non]. Amigos de la Onda Corta, the Spanish DX program on REE, which is less and less about shortwave, confirmed at new time of 0505 UT Saturday, April 4. This is the time they had been announcing, but for the past few weeks it had actually been airing at 0605. Listened to most of it on webcast, then confirmed it on 6055 direct, followed by 0530 mailbag show on // 3350 via Costa Rica. As for CR-5965, all I could pull was the timesignal at 0530 underneath Vatican which had just ended English broadcast. Last item on the DX program was about identity of the Radio Tirana theme music/IS, as previously discussed in DXLD (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. IBB Greenville transmitter goes haywire again: April 4 at 1402, R. Martí, 13820, accompanied by distorted FMy spurs plus and minus 50 kHz on 13770, 13870; but they were fully readable if one cared to put up with this self-infliction instead of DentroCuban jamming on 13820. At the moment with report on a delegation of eight congressional Democrats visiting Cuba for five days; 1405 Resumen Semanal. Recheck at 1417, the spurs, but also the fundamental were slightly weaker, and I could tell St. Petersburg was underneath on 13870, getting creamed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7390, WHR ID April 4 at 0559, into French Bible reading show, very strong. According to the WHRI Angel 2 program schedule
http://www.whr.org/customcf/dsp_schedule_read.cfm?Search=Angel2
7390 is in use only on Saturdays at 0500-0800, English religion except for 0600-0615 ``La Voix Des Eaux Vivantes``.
This is contrary to the FCC A-09 schedule
http://www.fcc.gov/ib/sand/neg/hf_web/A09FCC01.TXT
showing the only 7390 as WHRA, daily at 0500-0700, 75 degrees to Iberia and N Africa
7390 0500 0700 WHRA 250 75 37-39,46-48 1234567 290309 251009
We were concerned that this would interfere with Radio Tirana in Europe, which broadcasts daily from 0630 in Albanian on 7390, but WHRI is presumably aimed somewhere else. Or is it? How many Quebeckers might be listening at 2 am?
Noel Green in England was also monitoring this and found heavy QRM to Tirana from WHRI, which went off just before 0700.
Besides, there is competing French ``Le Bible Parle`` from WYFR to Eurafrica at 0600 on 9340, 9355. These were very good here, while other WYFR on 9680 and 9715 were weak, and nearby WTJC 9370 JBA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Checking for WWRB 9385 Brother Scare spurs again April 4 at 1353, but none audible around 9317, 9452 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WRMI, 9955, Saturday April 4 at 1510 with English preacher, poorer reception than on weekdays and maybe on SSE SAm/Carib antenna instead of NW to NAm. Less than 1-kHz het on low side was more bothersome than lite DentroCuban jamming. Probably from Tainan, Taiwan transmitter with Family Radio, altho Palau is also listed, and/or ChiCom jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 15390 with open carrier and brief tone test, April 4 at 1447, most likely Greenville testing long before later Creole broadcast, off at 1448* uncovering a much weaker station, presumably something from Issoudun (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** BIAFRA [non]. Checked the WHR website for latest scheduling of V. of Biafra International, April 3 and it shows a change: Angel 1 at 2100-2200 Friday on new 11885. Just in case the time changed again, I also looked for it at 2000 on 11885, previous frequency 15665, or 17650 as in another schedule, but nothing.
Standing by on 11885, on it popped at *2100 with standard WHRI sign-on giving this frequency, then to VOBI program, with two IDs as ``The Voice of Biafra International broadcast, coming to you from Washington, DC, with matters of interest to Biafra``. Then played instrumental version of ``Finlandia``, which I always find incongruous, but I expect the Biafrans do not think of Finland when they hear it. Then to soprano performing ``All Hail Biafra``, which among the lyrix claims to be the ``land of the rising sun``, more incongruity, but I am sure the Biafrans do not think of Japan when they hear it.
This took until 2107, another ID, and another speaker with ``Let Us Pray``. This is all in English but the prayer is more heavily accented. He goes on and on for 5 minutes about how this is ``the year to claim our freedom. . . after wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.`` Immodestly claims positive God-given traits for his people, implying that the Nigerians lack such. This is one of those prayers obviously directed to the listeners and not really to God, who already knows what he is going to say, anyway. Is he ever going to mention J.C.? Only at the very end, so not completely ecumenical.
2112 another ID and yet another speaker begins the news. I listened carefully to all this to hear what frequency would be announced, but none ever was, as they have done in the past, usually incorrectly. No doubt because at recording-time they had no idea what new frequency they would be on! Maybe next week they will catch up, if it hasn`t changed again.
In mid March the program moved an hour later from 2000 UT to start at 2100, but on the same frequency, 15665, always called ``15.67 MHz``. A lower frequency is surely called for at that late hour to propagate better into the 10-11 pm local nighttime period. The website http://www.biafraland.com/vobi.htm claims yet another frequency, 15280 at 2000 UT. God help the poor Biafrans in finding when and where their uplifting and hopeful broadcast really is.
Speaking of Biafra, other transmissions in ``Ibo`` are on some versions of the WHR schedule, Monday-Friday 1800-2000 on WHRI 17520. So was expansion planned, or by some competing clandestine service? Nothing was heard on 17520 just before 2000 April 3, inconclusive.
11885 is a good change for those of us off the back in NAm, with a shorter skip zone, and the signal was inbooming into OK, while 15 MHz had been problematical (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [non]. CRI English via Sackville, 9650, normally a VG loud and clear signal here on 240 degree beam, but April 4 at 1310 there was co-channel talk underneath. Could not make it out, but most likely RNW Dutch via Tinang, Philippines, 200 degrees at 1300-1327, and indeed not heard during the second semihour. RNW now has a number of such Dutch transmissions of only 27 minutes, in addition to longer ones (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ECUADOR. HCJB, 11960, Saturday April 4 at 1407, Alen Grajan in mailbag show mentioning that from May there would be a new feature the first week of every month on Aventura Diexista, ``Radio Guía Internacional`` from two Venezuelan DXers. But then 11960 cut off the air and did not come back until 1418. It`s unusual for HCJB to have such breakdowns. Meanwhile, much weaker 11690 vs RTTY was still on the air at 1409 check. I did not bother to try 21455, which HCJB insists in its automated IDs two or three times an hour is still on the air (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GERMANY [non]. 15265, Saturday April 4 at 1449, good signal from DW in Russian via Rampisham, UK; the Muzprosvet avant-garde music show has been canceled, replaced by something about Turkey, bits of German with voice-overs, ``Türkische Hund``, sound effects, clips of old (Nazi?) broadcasts, and 1456 into language lesson focusing on vorlesen (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [non]. NHKWNRJ announced last week that World Interactive, the mailbag et al. show would be moving from Saturday to Sunday, so what`s on Saturday? April 4 at 1410 on 11705 via Canada, Pop-Up Japan, the J-pop music magazine with hyper hosts full of phony enthusiasm (or, what are they on?). An immediate turn-off, and a waste of airtime, IMO (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH. 9665, Saturday April 4 at 1507, nice revolutionary music show from KCBS, preferable to but weaker than VOK in stilted, brainwashed English on 9335. In Monitoring Reminders Calendar I have an ancient entry for this at 15-16 UT Sunday, so it`s also on Saturday, and I am not at all sure of its exact scheduling. Who knows, maybe every day, and I am sure there is a lot more of it elsewhen on KCBS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. KOKC, 1520, Oklahoma City, no longer a dominant nighttime signal here in Enid, scarcely 150 km away; in its infinite wisdom, the FCC has authorized many stations to operate at night on 1520, mostly less than 1 kW and somewhere east of OK, west of NY. But all this crud adds up to make 1520 sound like a regional channel, as 0549 April 4 in Midnight Radio Network. Not only co-channel rumble, but SAH from what must be the strongest interferer, plus IBOC hash from WLAC-1510, which was also audible against KSTP-1500.
Yet KOMA ought to do better against all this if it is really running 50 kW direxional covering the western half of N America. I strongly suspect they are not, perhaps on the backup 5 kW(?) as has happened before; and/or non-direxional accounting for making it to Europe under WWKB recently (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. VOR, 9850, Saturday April 4 at 1508 in English talk about the bicentennial of Gogol this year, which explains why they keep talking about him; evidently the 11-minute news-on-the-hour is a pastthing from VOR. This was originally planned to be Samara site, but at this hour I thought Far East more likely (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [and non]. Amigos de la Onda Corta, the Spanish DX program on REE, which is less and less about shortwave, confirmed at new time of 0505 UT Saturday, April 4. This is the time they had been announcing, but for the past few weeks it had actually been airing at 0605. Listened to most of it on webcast, then confirmed it on 6055 direct, followed by 0530 mailbag show on // 3350 via Costa Rica. As for CR-5965, all I could pull was the timesignal at 0530 underneath Vatican which had just ended English broadcast. Last item on the DX program was about identity of the Radio Tirana theme music/IS, as previously discussed in DXLD (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. IBB Greenville transmitter goes haywire again: April 4 at 1402, R. Martí, 13820, accompanied by distorted FMy spurs plus and minus 50 kHz on 13770, 13870; but they were fully readable if one cared to put up with this self-infliction instead of DentroCuban jamming on 13820. At the moment with report on a delegation of eight congressional Democrats visiting Cuba for five days; 1405 Resumen Semanal. Recheck at 1417, the spurs, but also the fundamental were slightly weaker, and I could tell St. Petersburg was underneath on 13870, getting creamed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7390, WHR ID April 4 at 0559, into French Bible reading show, very strong. According to the WHRI Angel 2 program schedule
http://www.whr.org/customcf/dsp_schedule_read.cfm?Search=Angel2
7390 is in use only on Saturdays at 0500-0800, English religion except for 0600-0615 ``La Voix Des Eaux Vivantes``.
This is contrary to the FCC A-09 schedule
http://www.fcc.gov/ib/sand/neg/hf_web/A09FCC01.TXT
showing the only 7390 as WHRA, daily at 0500-0700, 75 degrees to Iberia and N Africa
7390 0500 0700 WHRA 250 75 37-39,46-48 1234567 290309 251009
We were concerned that this would interfere with Radio Tirana in Europe, which broadcasts daily from 0630 in Albanian on 7390, but WHRI is presumably aimed somewhere else. Or is it? How many Quebeckers might be listening at 2 am?
Noel Green in England was also monitoring this and found heavy QRM to Tirana from WHRI, which went off just before 0700.
Besides, there is competing French ``Le Bible Parle`` from WYFR to Eurafrica at 0600 on 9340, 9355. These were very good here, while other WYFR on 9680 and 9715 were weak, and nearby WTJC 9370 JBA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Checking for WWRB 9385 Brother Scare spurs again April 4 at 1353, but none audible around 9317, 9452 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WRMI, 9955, Saturday April 4 at 1510 with English preacher, poorer reception than on weekdays and maybe on SSE SAm/Carib antenna instead of NW to NAm. Less than 1-kHz het on low side was more bothersome than lite DentroCuban jamming. Probably from Tainan, Taiwan transmitter with Family Radio, altho Palau is also listed, and/or ChiCom jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 15390 with open carrier and brief tone test, April 4 at 1447, most likely Greenville testing long before later Creole broadcast, off at 1448* uncovering a much weaker station, presumably something from Issoudun (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###