** ALBANIA [and non]. Checking R. Tirana, Albanian to NAm, Nov 5 at 0015: 7425 very weak and seems two signals, the other being China; 6110 heavy mix of RT and RHC in Spanish which has usurped this frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** AUSTRIA. Since R. Austria International has vanished from the Canadian relay, despite being in the B-09 schedules on 13675 at 16-17 UT, I had to confirm whether this station teetering on the brink of extinxion was still broadcasting direct to the Americas.
Yes, on 7325, good signal at 0034 Nov 5 in Austrian, 0039 switch to English, the 3-minute token newscast repeated from the domestic service at 0708 UT on 6155, concluding with the local weather forecast which is no longer a predixion, 0042 into more of the same in French, from 0712 UT originally.
Instead of returning to Austrian at 0045, played 5 minutes of Blue Danube IS and quadrilingual IDs, including Spanish which has been banned from any other usage on ORF SW! Love that music, but enough is enough, and what a waste of valuable airtime. 0050 resuming programming in German to 0059* when changes to 9840 to SAm for repeat to 0130, but unchecked. The 7325 starts at 0000, and I think all three semihours are identical, so the English should also be at 0009 and 0109, UT Tue-Sat only, except when there is a weekday holiday in Austria and no news can possibly happen anywhere in the world, nor local weather (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1485, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake Nov 5 at 1353: 8400 good with flutter, 9000 fair with flutter, 10210 very poor (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. RHC chex during the afternoon and evening of Nov 4-5: none; too busy doing WORLD OF RADIO 1485. Finally at 0642 I find: 6140 is in English tonite // 6060 and 6010; Spanish on 6150 // 6120. I don`t think 6000 is on, tho sometimes too weak to tell vs WYFR which is Camping out on that frequency overnight, and beside, Mali 5995 was stronger. After 0700, 6010 was off, clearing channel for XEOI [see MEXICO], but 6060 still running RHC in English at 0717, for how much longer?
Since I had not yet checked RHC`s axual frequency usage before 1300 UT since the Nov 2 schedule shakeup, I finally managed to do so Nov 5:
At 1235 a suspicious open carrier on 6110, must be RHC, but no modulation and still just OC well past 1300. Next check at 1348 now Spanish // 15120 et al., tho missing from frequency announcement.
Others running RHC Spanish at 1235: 6180, 9600, 11760, 11800, 13770 ex-13760, JBA on 15120, 15360. At 1249 I noticed 6150 too, maybe missed it a few minutes earlier? This is bad news for KNLS Alaska, with English at 12-13 on 6150, which we did manage to hear in the first week of B-09 before RHC usurped that frequency. 6150 starts at 0500, so are they running it all night?
RNV relay also as usual on 11705 at first check 1235.
At 1259, the RHC QSY announcement as monitored on 11760: said 9600 and 6180 were about to close, and would be on the following thenceforward, in the usual disorder, Soviet-style: 15120, 15360, 13770, 13680, 13780, 11760, 11730, 11800.
Meanwhile as this was going on, 11760 was hit by timesignal and CCI from something in English, I think. Trying to ID this later we find BBCWS in English listed via Oman, but that`s already running from 0700, to 1400. CRI English via Kunming also at 1200-1357 on 11760. AND R. Australia via Taiwan starts 11760 at 1300, but in Chinese. What a logjam!
At 1301, 9600 and 6180 were indeed off and replaced by 13680 and 11730. 13780 was also running; both it and 13680 are big signals here spawning the leapfrogs on 13880, 13580. Weak 13770 still on too, plus distorted 11800, and 11760 --- AND THE TWO DOZEN SPURS FROM 11760 ARE STILL GONE! We are beginning to be hopeful about that. No note from Arnie has been received, thanking us for drawing the spur problem to their attention.
The unannounced 6150 also went off around 1300, and the open carrier on 6110 continued; see above (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EGYPT. 15080, poor signal Nov 5 at 1350, but enough to tell that the music being broadcast is distorted. Must be Cairo! Yes, scheduled Arabic at 1300-1600, 250 kW, 241 degrees from Abis. How do these broadcasters get away with operating inside the exclusive(?) off-route aeronautical band? Except for spurs, they do manage to keep out of 10010+ and 17900+, other such bands. See also INDIA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 15050, poor with flutter, some kind of music, Nov 5 at 1350. It`s AIR Sinhala service at 1245-1500, 250 kW, 174 degrees from a Delhi site. How do these broadcasters get away with operating inside the exclusive(?) off-route aeronautical band? AIR has several more transmissions on 15040, 15075. See also EGYPT.
AIR Aligarh blob, extremely distorted mush extending 9455-9475, bothering RA on 9475, and centred approx. 9465, Nov 5 at 1355. I am beginning to suspect that my almost-daily monitoring reports of this plastered ``all over the Internet`` are not enough to embarrass them into fixing it. How about some others joining in? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. VOI missing for the fifth day in a row from 9524.9 and 9525.9 – nothing on either at 1306 Nov 5. The RRI domestic relay on 9680 may also be missing altho I have not been looking for it every day, but Nov 5 at 1356 only a trace of some carrier there, while it used to put in a good signal, and well-modulated unlike VOI. What`s going on at Cimanggis? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN. 15545, YL in Arabic, Nov 5 at 1347, good signal giving websites ending in .ir, pronounced in English (but how much longer will that last?), yahoo.com e-mail address, mixing with nice string music (mugam?). Is VIRI`s expansive Arabic service, 0530-1630, 500 kW, 295 degrees from Sirjan site. Went on to talk about Islamic stuff, an obsession of theirs (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ISRAEL. After a few days` absence, not unusual, Galei Tsahal is heard again, now varied down to 15783.5, Nov 5 at 1345 with discussion in Hebrew, one side of which was via telephone (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 9880, Nov 5 at 1452, strong signal but heavy flutter playing ``Sukiyaki``, so must be Japanese-related? Tho widely recognized abroad, apparently not considered so stereotypically Japanese that it should be avoided. Provoked harmonica accompaniment in this household. But faded it down before finished for announcement by YL in Japanese, shortly mentioning kHz.
This is Furusato no Kaze, one of the abduxion-obsessed services, listed as via Darwin, 250 kW at 3 degrees. Flutter is not something we normally get from trans-equatorial Australia. Went off a few sex before 1500, tho a second semihour with same parameters is registered until 1530, on stand-by for the sibling service in Korean? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO [and non]. RHC is back on 6010, but apparently only 05-07 UT, so Nov 5 at 0717, Radio Mil was in the clear with ID, ``Vive México`` slogan, timecheck, temperature, ads, back to next music which was doo-wop in Spanish, quite a treat. No co-channel QRM audible from Colombia if it was on; 5910 was not when checked a bit earlier (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. Not hearing any BSKSA buzz today on 11785, so is it audible on 13m? Barely, on 21505, Nov 5 at 1455, with slightly better signals on 21460 and 21640 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. AWR Wavescan is now scheduled just before Happy Station on WRMI 9955, Thursdays at 1530, so listened Nov 5 – this week`s feature is about the history of and radio from St. Helena, with more to come next week, for obvious reasons. Break at 1538 for Indianapolis address voiced by Allen Graham, tho not IDed as such, using the pronouns ``us`` and ``our`` as if he were part of the AWR organization instead of HCJB? But DX Partyline continues separately, evidently worthy of salvation by HCJB Global. I suppose he was roped into recording the announcement for vocal variety, something unknown on WORLD OF RADIO.
Then a musical break in the form of the R. Portugal IS, chimes, ID in French and anthem, from Ian McFarland`s idents collexion, off-air recording complete with adjacent-channel QRM. Should have been pointed out that this is nostalgic history too, as they banned French from SW long ago, in fact nothing but Portuguese is permitted, and I don`t think RDPI airs Lisbon`s version of Big Ben any more either; this was followed by seven bongs (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. A late change I was not aware of in time to mention the previous week, nor in the WORLD OF RADIO schedule expected to appear in the November NASWA Journal out shortly: The Friday 2130 UT airing this standard-time season is on 7465 instead of 15825, so coverage of North America and beyond should be much better without skipovers or MUF-dropping fadeouts. But will 7465 make it as well to Nigeria? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. VOA Spanish service, now retimed to 00-01 UT, Nov 5 at 0015 audible on 9885 unlike previous nights when no signal. No jamming audible, but // 5890 still had DentroCuban jamming. There used to be a third frequency for this, 5940, but now just two (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED [non]. 15465-15470-15475, DRM noise at 1349 Nov 5. Is anything scheduled there in http://www.drm-dx.de/ or in HFCC? Of course not! But there is in Aoki: 15470 WAZ (DRM) 1300-1400 1234567 German(Digital) 100 kW 5 degrees from Nauen D, 01254E 5238N, WAZ b09. That is, the text-news service, no audio? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** AUSTRIA. Since R. Austria International has vanished from the Canadian relay, despite being in the B-09 schedules on 13675 at 16-17 UT, I had to confirm whether this station teetering on the brink of extinxion was still broadcasting direct to the Americas.
Yes, on 7325, good signal at 0034 Nov 5 in Austrian, 0039 switch to English, the 3-minute token newscast repeated from the domestic service at 0708 UT on 6155, concluding with the local weather forecast which is no longer a predixion, 0042 into more of the same in French, from 0712 UT originally.
Instead of returning to Austrian at 0045, played 5 minutes of Blue Danube IS and quadrilingual IDs, including Spanish which has been banned from any other usage on ORF SW! Love that music, but enough is enough, and what a waste of valuable airtime. 0050 resuming programming in German to 0059* when changes to 9840 to SAm for repeat to 0130, but unchecked. The 7325 starts at 0000, and I think all three semihours are identical, so the English should also be at 0009 and 0109, UT Tue-Sat only, except when there is a weekday holiday in Austria and no news can possibly happen anywhere in the world, nor local weather (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1485, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake Nov 5 at 1353: 8400 good with flutter, 9000 fair with flutter, 10210 very poor (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. RHC chex during the afternoon and evening of Nov 4-5: none; too busy doing WORLD OF RADIO 1485. Finally at 0642 I find: 6140 is in English tonite // 6060 and 6010; Spanish on 6150 // 6120. I don`t think 6000 is on, tho sometimes too weak to tell vs WYFR which is Camping out on that frequency overnight, and beside, Mali 5995 was stronger. After 0700, 6010 was off, clearing channel for XEOI [see MEXICO], but 6060 still running RHC in English at 0717, for how much longer?
Since I had not yet checked RHC`s axual frequency usage before 1300 UT since the Nov 2 schedule shakeup, I finally managed to do so Nov 5:
At 1235 a suspicious open carrier on 6110, must be RHC, but no modulation and still just OC well past 1300. Next check at 1348 now Spanish // 15120 et al., tho missing from frequency announcement.
Others running RHC Spanish at 1235: 6180, 9600, 11760, 11800, 13770 ex-13760, JBA on 15120, 15360. At 1249 I noticed 6150 too, maybe missed it a few minutes earlier? This is bad news for KNLS Alaska, with English at 12-13 on 6150, which we did manage to hear in the first week of B-09 before RHC usurped that frequency. 6150 starts at 0500, so are they running it all night?
RNV relay also as usual on 11705 at first check 1235.
At 1259, the RHC QSY announcement as monitored on 11760: said 9600 and 6180 were about to close, and would be on the following thenceforward, in the usual disorder, Soviet-style: 15120, 15360, 13770, 13680, 13780, 11760, 11730, 11800.
Meanwhile as this was going on, 11760 was hit by timesignal and CCI from something in English, I think. Trying to ID this later we find BBCWS in English listed via Oman, but that`s already running from 0700, to 1400. CRI English via Kunming also at 1200-1357 on 11760. AND R. Australia via Taiwan starts 11760 at 1300, but in Chinese. What a logjam!
At 1301, 9600 and 6180 were indeed off and replaced by 13680 and 11730. 13780 was also running; both it and 13680 are big signals here spawning the leapfrogs on 13880, 13580. Weak 13770 still on too, plus distorted 11800, and 11760 --- AND THE TWO DOZEN SPURS FROM 11760 ARE STILL GONE! We are beginning to be hopeful about that. No note from Arnie has been received, thanking us for drawing the spur problem to their attention.
The unannounced 6150 also went off around 1300, and the open carrier on 6110 continued; see above (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EGYPT. 15080, poor signal Nov 5 at 1350, but enough to tell that the music being broadcast is distorted. Must be Cairo! Yes, scheduled Arabic at 1300-1600, 250 kW, 241 degrees from Abis. How do these broadcasters get away with operating inside the exclusive(?) off-route aeronautical band? Except for spurs, they do manage to keep out of 10010+ and 17900+, other such bands. See also INDIA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 15050, poor with flutter, some kind of music, Nov 5 at 1350. It`s AIR Sinhala service at 1245-1500, 250 kW, 174 degrees from a Delhi site. How do these broadcasters get away with operating inside the exclusive(?) off-route aeronautical band? AIR has several more transmissions on 15040, 15075. See also EGYPT.
AIR Aligarh blob, extremely distorted mush extending 9455-9475, bothering RA on 9475, and centred approx. 9465, Nov 5 at 1355. I am beginning to suspect that my almost-daily monitoring reports of this plastered ``all over the Internet`` are not enough to embarrass them into fixing it. How about some others joining in? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. VOI missing for the fifth day in a row from 9524.9 and 9525.9 – nothing on either at 1306 Nov 5. The RRI domestic relay on 9680 may also be missing altho I have not been looking for it every day, but Nov 5 at 1356 only a trace of some carrier there, while it used to put in a good signal, and well-modulated unlike VOI. What`s going on at Cimanggis? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN. 15545, YL in Arabic, Nov 5 at 1347, good signal giving websites ending in .ir, pronounced in English (but how much longer will that last?), yahoo.com e-mail address, mixing with nice string music (mugam?). Is VIRI`s expansive Arabic service, 0530-1630, 500 kW, 295 degrees from Sirjan site. Went on to talk about Islamic stuff, an obsession of theirs (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ISRAEL. After a few days` absence, not unusual, Galei Tsahal is heard again, now varied down to 15783.5, Nov 5 at 1345 with discussion in Hebrew, one side of which was via telephone (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 9880, Nov 5 at 1452, strong signal but heavy flutter playing ``Sukiyaki``, so must be Japanese-related? Tho widely recognized abroad, apparently not considered so stereotypically Japanese that it should be avoided. Provoked harmonica accompaniment in this household. But faded it down before finished for announcement by YL in Japanese, shortly mentioning kHz.
This is Furusato no Kaze, one of the abduxion-obsessed services, listed as via Darwin, 250 kW at 3 degrees. Flutter is not something we normally get from trans-equatorial Australia. Went off a few sex before 1500, tho a second semihour with same parameters is registered until 1530, on stand-by for the sibling service in Korean? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO [and non]. RHC is back on 6010, but apparently only 05-07 UT, so Nov 5 at 0717, Radio Mil was in the clear with ID, ``Vive México`` slogan, timecheck, temperature, ads, back to next music which was doo-wop in Spanish, quite a treat. No co-channel QRM audible from Colombia if it was on; 5910 was not when checked a bit earlier (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. Not hearing any BSKSA buzz today on 11785, so is it audible on 13m? Barely, on 21505, Nov 5 at 1455, with slightly better signals on 21460 and 21640 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. AWR Wavescan is now scheduled just before Happy Station on WRMI 9955, Thursdays at 1530, so listened Nov 5 – this week`s feature is about the history of and radio from St. Helena, with more to come next week, for obvious reasons. Break at 1538 for Indianapolis address voiced by Allen Graham, tho not IDed as such, using the pronouns ``us`` and ``our`` as if he were part of the AWR organization instead of HCJB? But DX Partyline continues separately, evidently worthy of salvation by HCJB Global. I suppose he was roped into recording the announcement for vocal variety, something unknown on WORLD OF RADIO.
Then a musical break in the form of the R. Portugal IS, chimes, ID in French and anthem, from Ian McFarland`s idents collexion, off-air recording complete with adjacent-channel QRM. Should have been pointed out that this is nostalgic history too, as they banned French from SW long ago, in fact nothing but Portuguese is permitted, and I don`t think RDPI airs Lisbon`s version of Big Ben any more either; this was followed by seven bongs (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. A late change I was not aware of in time to mention the previous week, nor in the WORLD OF RADIO schedule expected to appear in the November NASWA Journal out shortly: The Friday 2130 UT airing this standard-time season is on 7465 instead of 15825, so coverage of North America and beyond should be much better without skipovers or MUF-dropping fadeouts. But will 7465 make it as well to Nigeria? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. VOA Spanish service, now retimed to 00-01 UT, Nov 5 at 0015 audible on 9885 unlike previous nights when no signal. No jamming audible, but // 5890 still had DentroCuban jamming. There used to be a third frequency for this, 5940, but now just two (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED [non]. 15465-15470-15475, DRM noise at 1349 Nov 5. Is anything scheduled there in http://www.drm-dx.de/ or in HFCC? Of course not! But there is in Aoki: 15470 WAZ (DRM) 1300-1400 1234567 German(Digital) 100 kW 5 degrees from Nauen D, 01254E 5238N, WAZ b09. That is, the text-news service, no audio? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
