** AUSTRALIA. CVC Darwin, May 22 at 0536 with YL in Chinese on 17830; 340 degrees; next to it on 17820 was weaker singing, which chex as CVC Indonesian service, 290 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** AUSTRALIA [and non]. RA in English, 13630, May 22 at 0551 during interview, but QRM from CW sending Vs, and then into brief message with DE but could not catch ID. At first I thought it might be part of the program production with CW effect in the background, but not present on // 15160, 15240.
After 0610, RA had an engrossing talk mentioning the threat of frozen methane melting at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the dire effect on American and European climates if the Gulf Stream stops keeping Europe mild and heat builds up in the Gulf. I wanted to hear all of this again, but the RA program schedule shows Asia Pacific Business at this time on Fridays, and its content does not match! I did find a web page about this potential devastation:
http://armageddononline.tripod.com/methane.htm
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** AUSTRIA. Only a month from Solstice, Europe now making it up to 14 MHz in the nightmiddle: 13730 in Austro-German at 0555 May 22, fair signal. I wanted to reconfirm the token English newscast around 0608, elsewhen heard on 6155, but missed it as I was trying to track down a local noise source, since the heavier line noise has abated; at 0614 however, I barely caught OE1 going from French back to German. Solar flux had inched up to 72 on May 21 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BULGARIA. 11600 at 0559 May 22 with `space music`, IS and opening French as ``Radio Bulgarie Internationale`` --- do they add International to their English ID now? If so, I have not noticed it. Neither English nor French webpages put International(e) in the title: http://www.bnr.bg/RadioBulgaria/Emission_French/
So perhaps it should be rendered ``Radio Bulgarie (internationale)``. Then at 0601 on 11800 found R. Bulgaria in Spanish giving its entire transmission schedule in that language (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake, May 21 at 1333 on 11300, better than and not // 13970 or 9000, while inaudible on 8400, so ex-that? Good thing I bothered to scan that far out-of-band, so I continued up to 19 MHz, and found something else interesting instead; see U S A.
Firedrake, May 22: at the very late hour of 0533, there it was on 18320 with a poor signal. 17 and 15 MHz were full of Asian signals, including CNR-1 jamming; see below. At 0544 also FD poor on 15600 and not // 18320. At 0556 a trace of FD on 13970.
Not so good the next morning: at 1317, no FD audible on 11300. At 1350, none on 11300, 13970, 15150, 15600 or 18320, but poorly audible on 9000 // 8400. Also checked entire out-of-band ranges from 10000 to 19000 with no others found.
Unlike some previous mid-night openings, May 22 had both ChiCom CNR-1 jamming, and R. Free Asia audible at same time; site and azimuth info from Aoki and/or HFCC:
0535 on 17880, mix of two different Chinese services, one of which is CNR-1 jamming. The other, RFA SAIPAN, 310 degrees.
0536 on 17615, similar to 17880; one audio source was // 17880, and the other was not, i.e. RFA with deliberate delay of a few seconds: RFA, TINIAN, 295 degrees.
0542 on 15635, Chinese audio with echo, // 17880. Target RFA via Irkutsk, RUSSIA, 152 degrees, itself not audible.
0549 on 15615, CNR1 jamming mixed with other Chinese audio. RFA TINIAN, 279 degrees.
0630 on 17880, Chinese talk with `diamond` music theme as heard a few times before, mentioned Mei-Guo, good over other Chinese audio. I think it is RFA on top at the moment, but either one could have been mentioning America, of course.
Other catches from China, altho not jammers:
0540 on 15785, Chinese M&W not // 17615, fair, since this is CRI itself, Xi`an 354 degrees toward Mongolia and W Siberia. Not good news for Galei Zahal if it is really 24h on this frequency; no sign of it.
0543 on 15665, M&W conversation in Russian, fluttery, CRI ID ``MPK``; Kashi 308 degrees; 0545 // 15445, same.
0547 on 15465, CRI English ID in passing, address. Kashi 209 degrees
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. RHC absent again from 13780, May 21 at 1340, and not on its ex, 15370, either. This also removed the 13880 and 13580 mixing products with 13680, still running, as well as 13760, 15120, 15360, all checked, plus 12000, this time somewhat atop the VOR Chinese co-channel from Khabarovsk.
May 22 at 1311, 13880 was back and therefore fundamental 13780 as well, at the moment with clips of Obama vs Cheney speeches the day before. Today RHC had more advantage over VOR 12000, still problematic (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [non]. Happened to hear R. Martí promoting TV Martí, May 22 at 1301 on 7405, saying people could see it on channel 20. The channels have changed from time to time, but I wonder why this is seldom if ever reported by US TV DXers. You`d think Gulf tropo would bring it in even if the signal is direxional and weakish usward. So is this now from the plane, or an aerostat, or ground-based, and what hours is it on the air, surely not 24?
What else is on channel 20 in Florida? WBBH Fort Myers would have been the biggest problem but it has already migrated to 15 for DTV. However, 20 is the permanent DT for WLRN Miami, 625 kW with a CP for 870. There are also lower-powered stations in Melbourne, Tampa-Saint Petersburg and faraway Panama City (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Looking for Firedrakes, May 21 at 1345, instead encountered weak signal with singing on 18770, fading in and out and/or with modulation pauses. Must be a harmonic: yes, // 9385 WWRB in Brother Scare service but someone else singing and testifying at the moment. 18770 peaked at S4, and with the FRG-7 preselector peaked on 18770, not 9385, so despite the usual extremely strong signal on the fundamental, I think this was a true transmitted harmonic, usually inaudible but propagating now tnx to an increasingly frequent seasonal sporadic-E opening, correlating evidence being WWCR 15825 inbooming (but no sign of it on 19960 = 2 x 9980), so once again WWRB is one-up on WWCR in the spurious department. Hey Dave, how much power are you putting out on 18770? I think it must be a pretty good QRP DX catch. Such a short skip distance, slightly over a megameter, is possible only with E-layer skip, not F-layer.
Next day May 22 at 1352, since WWCR was again inbooming via sporadic E on 15825, I searched for the WWRB harmonic on 18770, but could not detect even the open carrier this time:
WWRB, 9385, S9+22 at 1348 May 22, nothing but hum, having lost the Brother Scare feed again; enough signal to put weak spurs detectable on 9317 and 9453 hetting 9320 and 9455 stations, but at least there was no modulation on the spurs either. Altho I could have heard him on WINB 9265, I preferred 9385 for another enjoyable break from B.S. rants, so kept listening to the hum; at 1357 and again at 1359 inserted WWRB IDs, but nothing else. Finally at 1404 joined in progress Alex Scourby Bible readings, via Walterboro, or default fill from Manchester? Left the receiver running down low, not paying much attention, but realized at 1530 that it was again modulation-less; fitfully resumed Scourby at 1539 at low level, taking another two minutes to bring him up to normal level (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WWV, 20000, May 22 at 0534, correlating with a late sporadic-E opening in WNAm still being reported into VHF, tho not much of that here. Time to check for KOA 25950 or anything else on 11 meters, but nothing heard yet (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** AUSTRALIA [and non]. RA in English, 13630, May 22 at 0551 during interview, but QRM from CW sending Vs, and then into brief message with DE but could not catch ID. At first I thought it might be part of the program production with CW effect in the background, but not present on // 15160, 15240.
After 0610, RA had an engrossing talk mentioning the threat of frozen methane melting at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the dire effect on American and European climates if the Gulf Stream stops keeping Europe mild and heat builds up in the Gulf. I wanted to hear all of this again, but the RA program schedule shows Asia Pacific Business at this time on Fridays, and its content does not match! I did find a web page about this potential devastation:
http://armageddononline.tripod.com/methane.htm
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** AUSTRIA. Only a month from Solstice, Europe now making it up to 14 MHz in the nightmiddle: 13730 in Austro-German at 0555 May 22, fair signal. I wanted to reconfirm the token English newscast around 0608, elsewhen heard on 6155, but missed it as I was trying to track down a local noise source, since the heavier line noise has abated; at 0614 however, I barely caught OE1 going from French back to German. Solar flux had inched up to 72 on May 21 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BULGARIA. 11600 at 0559 May 22 with `space music`, IS and opening French as ``Radio Bulgarie Internationale`` --- do they add International to their English ID now? If so, I have not noticed it. Neither English nor French webpages put International(e) in the title: http://www.bnr.bg/RadioBulgaria/Emission_French/
So perhaps it should be rendered ``Radio Bulgarie (internationale)``. Then at 0601 on 11800 found R. Bulgaria in Spanish giving its entire transmission schedule in that language (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake, May 21 at 1333 on 11300, better than and not // 13970 or 9000, while inaudible on 8400, so ex-that? Good thing I bothered to scan that far out-of-band, so I continued up to 19 MHz, and found something else interesting instead; see U S A.
Firedrake, May 22: at the very late hour of 0533, there it was on 18320 with a poor signal. 17 and 15 MHz were full of Asian signals, including CNR-1 jamming; see below. At 0544 also FD poor on 15600 and not // 18320. At 0556 a trace of FD on 13970.
Not so good the next morning: at 1317, no FD audible on 11300. At 1350, none on 11300, 13970, 15150, 15600 or 18320, but poorly audible on 9000 // 8400. Also checked entire out-of-band ranges from 10000 to 19000 with no others found.
Unlike some previous mid-night openings, May 22 had both ChiCom CNR-1 jamming, and R. Free Asia audible at same time; site and azimuth info from Aoki and/or HFCC:
0535 on 17880, mix of two different Chinese services, one of which is CNR-1 jamming. The other, RFA SAIPAN, 310 degrees.
0536 on 17615, similar to 17880; one audio source was // 17880, and the other was not, i.e. RFA with deliberate delay of a few seconds: RFA, TINIAN, 295 degrees.
0542 on 15635, Chinese audio with echo, // 17880. Target RFA via Irkutsk, RUSSIA, 152 degrees, itself not audible.
0549 on 15615, CNR1 jamming mixed with other Chinese audio. RFA TINIAN, 279 degrees.
0630 on 17880, Chinese talk with `diamond` music theme as heard a few times before, mentioned Mei-Guo, good over other Chinese audio. I think it is RFA on top at the moment, but either one could have been mentioning America, of course.
Other catches from China, altho not jammers:
0540 on 15785, Chinese M&W not // 17615, fair, since this is CRI itself, Xi`an 354 degrees toward Mongolia and W Siberia. Not good news for Galei Zahal if it is really 24h on this frequency; no sign of it.
0543 on 15665, M&W conversation in Russian, fluttery, CRI ID ``MPK``; Kashi 308 degrees; 0545 // 15445, same.
0547 on 15465, CRI English ID in passing, address. Kashi 209 degrees
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. RHC absent again from 13780, May 21 at 1340, and not on its ex, 15370, either. This also removed the 13880 and 13580 mixing products with 13680, still running, as well as 13760, 15120, 15360, all checked, plus 12000, this time somewhat atop the VOR Chinese co-channel from Khabarovsk.
May 22 at 1311, 13880 was back and therefore fundamental 13780 as well, at the moment with clips of Obama vs Cheney speeches the day before. Today RHC had more advantage over VOR 12000, still problematic (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [non]. Happened to hear R. Martí promoting TV Martí, May 22 at 1301 on 7405, saying people could see it on channel 20. The channels have changed from time to time, but I wonder why this is seldom if ever reported by US TV DXers. You`d think Gulf tropo would bring it in even if the signal is direxional and weakish usward. So is this now from the plane, or an aerostat, or ground-based, and what hours is it on the air, surely not 24?
What else is on channel 20 in Florida? WBBH Fort Myers would have been the biggest problem but it has already migrated to 15 for DTV. However, 20 is the permanent DT for WLRN Miami, 625 kW with a CP for 870. There are also lower-powered stations in Melbourne, Tampa-Saint Petersburg and faraway Panama City (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Looking for Firedrakes, May 21 at 1345, instead encountered weak signal with singing on 18770, fading in and out and/or with modulation pauses. Must be a harmonic: yes, // 9385 WWRB in Brother Scare service but someone else singing and testifying at the moment. 18770 peaked at S4, and with the FRG-7 preselector peaked on 18770, not 9385, so despite the usual extremely strong signal on the fundamental, I think this was a true transmitted harmonic, usually inaudible but propagating now tnx to an increasingly frequent seasonal sporadic-E opening, correlating evidence being WWCR 15825 inbooming (but no sign of it on 19960 = 2 x 9980), so once again WWRB is one-up on WWCR in the spurious department. Hey Dave, how much power are you putting out on 18770? I think it must be a pretty good QRP DX catch. Such a short skip distance, slightly over a megameter, is possible only with E-layer skip, not F-layer.
Next day May 22 at 1352, since WWCR was again inbooming via sporadic E on 15825, I searched for the WWRB harmonic on 18770, but could not detect even the open carrier this time:
WWRB, 9385, S9+22 at 1348 May 22, nothing but hum, having lost the Brother Scare feed again; enough signal to put weak spurs detectable on 9317 and 9453 hetting 9320 and 9455 stations, but at least there was no modulation on the spurs either. Altho I could have heard him on WINB 9265, I preferred 9385 for another enjoyable break from B.S. rants, so kept listening to the hum; at 1357 and again at 1359 inserted WWRB IDs, but nothing else. Finally at 1404 joined in progress Alex Scourby Bible readings, via Walterboro, or default fill from Manchester? Left the receiver running down low, not paying much attention, but realized at 1530 that it was again modulation-less; fitfully resumed Scourby at 1539 at low level, taking another two minutes to bring him up to normal level (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WWV, 20000, May 22 at 0534, correlating with a late sporadic-E opening in WNAm still being reported into VHF, tho not much of that here. Time to check for KOA 25950 or anything else on 11 meters, but nothing heard yet (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
