Monday, Albania in the Week; cultural events; sports
Tuesday, foreign personalities, mailbag
Wednesday, Albania under the --- process, reforms, EU, music by Albanian artists
Thursday, Albanian economy, Focus on Albania
Friday, regional development, Kosovo, analysis and opinion, --- File, the Albanian language
Saturday, week review, Albanian folk music
At 1451 went into music today as always to upwrap the semihour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake Oct 13 at 1456, just barely audible on 9000, 8400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. Anomaly chex Oct 13: at 0619, found 6140 in Spanish this time, // 6120 and 6000; English on 6060, 6010. No phone ringing sounds audible on any of them. However:
5800.0, the spy cut-numbers (i.e. 10 letters substituting for digits) Morse code sending tones with full carrier, at 0620 Oct 13 did have phone ringing audible underneath.
For the fourth day in a row, the ailing 11760 transmitter is putting out a panoply of spurs, but this time it and they are constantly cutting on and off the air, making as many as 24 useless transmissions! The closest two as usual are strongest with enough modulation to listen to, 11811.2 and 11708.8. Started checking at 1349 and again playing favorite tune Guantanamera at 1353. Quick scan found them as high as 12220.8, but not so many audible on the low side. At 1443 and 1455, still the same story cutting on and off and on and off. At 1454, the one on 11862.4 was causing a nasty noise against WYFR Spanish 11865.0 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EGYPT. 15255 with continuous tone Oct 13 as early as 1442, over some other station in unID language; 1459 check, just open carrier. Finally after 1500, instead of tone, a timesignal 28 seconds late, so why bother, and then ID ``Ju Flet Qahira``, i.e. the Albanian service opening from R. Cairo, and now the other station is off so Cairo in clear for its undermodulation. Uplooked later in Aoki, the victim before 1500 is YFR via Nauen, in Bengali (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** FIJI. Looking for K4M, the Midway Island DXpedition supposed to be getting underway now after some setbax, found nothing on publicized 7078 or 3799, but instead a strange accent with a strange callsign, 3D2MJ, on 7095.0-LSB, Oct 13 at 0612. Was calling CQ40, listening on [7]185. Tuned to 7078 again briefly and when I got back he was already concluding a contact, but said the other ham`s voice was distorted so he was shifting listening frequency on 7187. I listened for a few more minutes, and 3D2MJ never mentioned his location; how rude. So I uplook him later on qrz.com and find, what else, a Pole in Fiji:
``3D2MJ, Jacek, SP5EAQ, Viti Levu Island (IOTA OC-016), Fiji
Lookups: 11979
QSL: VIA SP5EAQ
Click for more detail...
Last Update: 2009-08-21 22:32:56
Latitude: -21.779905 (21° 46' 47'' S)
Longitude: 174.781494 (174° 46' 53'' E)
Grid Square: RG78jf Explore on GridMap
SP5EAQ and SP5DRH will be active from Viti Levu Island (IOTA OC-016), Fiji starting 2009, 1st October for four weeks as 3D2MJ and 3D2KJThey will be active on all bands with focus on low bands. QSL via home calls`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GABON. Africa No. Un reception has improved lately, F-G on 9580, Oct 13 at 0600 with timesignal one second late, so why bother? ANO ID, French news, first about Burkina Faso elexion. One of the better signals on 31m then (Glenn Hauser, OK,, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 9415 the center frequency for the AIR Aligarh blob, Oct 13 at 1336, and correct frequency 9470 absent. However, 9415 distorted modulation was not // 9425 AIR Bengaluru, supposedly carrying same network. Fortunately, 9415 was not wide enough to bother 9425 itself. At first considered it could be something else, but no // found from 9370, 9385 or anything on 31m; besides, the intonation still sounded Hindi. 1340 it had quite slow talk with long pauses, as if dictation or maybe language lesson. Not rechecked until 1457 when considerably weaker as was 9425, but at 1501 they were again // in music. Are 9470-or-whatever and 9425 ever intentionally carrying separate programming?
Meanwhile, 9690 also audible, which I had not heard in a long time, at 1346 with GOS of AIR ID by YL; poor signal, weaker than 9425 and much weaker than 9870. Aoki says 9690 is 500 kW, 108 degrees from Bangaluru at 1330-1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9525.9, VOI check for another Tuesday excursion to Banjarmasin in the Exotic Indonesia series: Oct 13 at 1344 did hear the Banj guy introducing cultural talk given by YL starting with some geographical facts; but very undermodulated and unworthy of spending any more time straining to comprehend. After the China clash, next check at 1502 in the clear again, but modulation JBA and could not be sure it was really English as scheduled. Would it be too much to ask for decent modulation to accompany the 250 kW carrier?
RRI Makassar, 4750 had good signal Oct 13 around 1300, but soon distracted by the mess on 4800; see UNIDENTIFIED. Not much from Jambi 4925 today. 4750 still audible with Indonesian talk at 1355; and music still detectable as late as 1429 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA SOUTH. 6095, clear frequency with very weak B-B-C- note chimes, Oct 13 at 1256. Thought it might be interesting site, and it is per Aoki: Kimjae, Korea South, 250 kW at 290 degrees, about to start BBCWS Chinese service and no doubt promptly to be *jammed into oblivion, but not just yet (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST
** LIBYA. Looked for VOA around 1432 Oct 13 when Saudi Arabia was audible on 21460, 21505, but not heard; however by 1513, 21695 had ascended to S9+10 level with undermodulated music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. There has been a lot of off-season sporadic E the last few days, surging into the FM band and even channel 7, plus double-hopping lowband TV from Venezuela and Colombia into northeast America, but all I got here, once I belatedly resumed monitoring open channel 2 again, was:
2257 UT Oct 12 on analog channel 2, fade-in with ad for some event in Mérida and Cancún, so likely often-seen XHY Mérida. There were more DX signal peaks into channel 2 the next few hours, but nothing identifiable among CCI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OMAN. 15140, R. Sultanate of Oman audible for the second day in a row, Oct 13 at 1440 presumably just after news in English, giving website ending in oman.om, then PSA for hotlines about something in Muscat, several numbers including 924-666-02. 1441 into popsong by YL in English. Sounds like quite a modern station; only poor signal suffering from splash de WYFR 15130 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. BSKSA making it thru on 13m for first time in a long time, Oct 13 at 1432, Qur`an very poor on 21460 and // much better but fluttery 17895. At same time, 21505 also poor with different program in Arabic, enough level to be above the still clearly audible buzz, no doubt the same transmitter that switches to buzz 15435 at 1500. Only other 13m signals at this time were Spain on 21540, 21570, 21610, all JBA. See also LIBYA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAIWAN. Oct 13 is another occasion RTI Japanese service is outputting spurs from 9735, at 1347, same slightly variable pitch on CRI 9730 and BBC 9740 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. Never heard this before in morningly scans of 60m, but Oct 13 at 1300 a US MW station on 4800, cutting on and off intermittently, more off than on, but when cut on was quite distorted, and cutons did not seem to correlate with modulation level. Most likely harmonic, but 4800 could be an even multiple of all these: 600, 800, 960, 1200 and 1600!
960? That`s local KGWA x 5. So I first rule that out and the other two locals on 1390 and 1640; it could be some other mix and not an harmonic. At 1306 I think I detect it // in mixture on 1600, but not nearby KUSHing. Not audible on 3200. 4800 spur at S9+15 QRMs CODAR and another very weak broadcast signal, possibly XERTA at QRP.
Kept listening for next semihour and it was extremely frustrating with only bits and pieces of audio. At 1314 did clearly mention ``the Dallas-Fort Worth area`` --- but the 1600 station there, KRVA is in, what else, Vietnamese, as just reconfirmed. In case it`s still Texan, at 1322 checked for // on 1200, but not // presumed remnant of WOAI. 1323 ad or PSA for cancer screening. 1326 soul music; 1332 ad with dialog. Enough of that, missing other good DX.
1356 recheck, still audible cutting on and off; 1359 wrapping up show giving today`s date. Naturally was not cut on when any legal hourtop ID might have been given. 1428, one more check, still cutting on and off. There is a loose connexion in the transmitter or antenna somewhere, causing this harmonic, or external mixing spur (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED [and non]. 7345, R. Prague in French, Oct 13 at 0604, making slow SAH. It seemed like the other station was in French too, but the only thing listed is Yakutsk, and that site was certainly incoming well on 7200; not knowing 7345 could be this until researched later, I did not attempt to //. Still clashing after 0630 when Prag went into German. Aoki shows Yakutsk long hours on 7345, 19-15 at 310 degrees, R. Sakha/R. Rossii. BTW, R. Prague is facing extinxion by yearend so that could open a lot of frequency-hours (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 17460-17485, OTH radar pulses, presumed, Oct 13 at 1435, rather strong, likely from somewhere in Europe along with many other 16m signals (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
