** ARGENTINA. 15345, the 8-note RAE IS fair at 2157 Jan 26, following German broadcast; had I realized that Aoki shows a one-hour gap until Spanish from *2300, I would have stayed tuned a bit longer to reconfirm that Spanish axually starts at 2200 weekdays, as per WRTH (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. 11600, jamming still going at 2202 Jan 26, later than usual? Altho maybe not continuously since it started at 1600. Now it`s pulsing, which means maybe only one of multiple transmitters which add up to walls of noise. Tried comparing it to 11930, and much stronger pulsing there matched, exactly synchronized at the rate of four per second, except the pitch was slightly higher on 11930, where Radio Martí had just closed (BTW, Aoki somehow misses Martí on this frequency). We remained baffled why the DCJC runs jammers on 11600, where nothing at all is known to be broadcasting after 1600 --- but hey, no better place for them!
15360, Jan 27 at 1445, RHC`s Formalmente Informal, a lo-fi interview mixing with something in Persian, about equal level and precisely zero beat, so rather confusing as they took turns dominating. Latter is RFI Issoudun at 1430-1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CYPRUS. OTH radar, presumed from here, but maybe not, Jan 27 at 1450 spanning 15745-15815, with peaks at odd spots such as 15780 and 15810, so most damaging to Galei Zahal, ISRAEL on 15783.6 and BBC Arabic on 15790, which is definitely Cyprus; overshadowed by the Saudi buzz, q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EGYPT. 15080, R. Cairo, poor with distorted modulation as always on this frequency, music at 1430 Jan 27, into 4+1 timesignal 35 seconds late, Cairo news theme and distorted talk in Arabic. This is 13-16 via Abis site to West Africa, where they`d better set their clox by something else (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OMAN. 15140, R. Sultanate of Oman, fair signal but barely audible modulation, 1433 Jan 27 with YL in English news mentioning Baghdad, and highly likely it was bad news (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA [and non]. 9996, binary code at 1255 Jan 27, presumably RWM, and beating against WWV/H on 10000 where there was also a fast SAH indicating some other station`s frequency was not standard at all (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. I thought the Buzzing Service of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was bad the day before, but much worse on Jan 27, a new record: first check at 1500, the horrible 15435 transmitter was audible just between 15390 and 15460, leaving e.g. fluttery Spain 15385 in the clear.
But at 1518 If found that blotted out, with the buzz now extending from 15270 to 15775! I can`t begin to enumerate all the stations this was interfering with, but who cares?
The edges reduced to just pulsing of four times per second, ranged 15270-15300, and 15630-15775, leaving the full brunt at 15300-15630. The upper end overlapped OTH radar from 15745, see CYPRUS. Standard but amplified remarks of incredulity over the Saudi monstrosity (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOLOMON ISLANDS [non]. SIBC missing from 5020 for at least a week in chex around 1300-1430, including Jan 27 at 1307, when no carrier at all detectable. This is because they have ceased overnight relays of BBCWS which used to start at 12 UT, due to power expense of over US$11K per year, per Media Network blog:
http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/sibc-drops-nighttime-relays-of-bbc-to-save-money
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TUNISIA. 7275, RTT music had just switched to announcement when cut to brief OC and off the air at 0626:50* Jan 27 while // 7335 continued. This is a consistently odd closing time for 7275, contrary to published schedules; as for 7335 closing, on the schedules as 0910, Noel Green says it goes off around 0810, and Wolfgang Büschel heard it until 0807* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K [non]. Jan 27 was monitoring barely early enough to hear the conclusion of BBC`s new Creole service, VG on 9410 via WHRI; a bit of music at 1250, then closing announcement giving the only time for ``Connexion[s] Haïti`` (pardon my French) as 9:10 am, which is 1410 UT when it repeats on Haitian FM stations; as usual, shortwave gets no respect from the BBC, just an afterthought if we are lucky. Or in this case, a beforethought.
At 1252:30 introduced in Spanish classical music fill show 19 minutes later than previously, which would last only 7.5 minutes until 1300:00* sharp without announcement, matching a timesignal underneath which must have been BBC Oman just overtaking the channel.
Altho this is the least of their problems, now the Haitians are faced with a logjam of special programming at 1230, from VOA, BBC and WRMI. A bit of coördination rather than competition would be nice (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9955, straining to hear WRMI`s new French service to Haiti, Jan 27 at 1257, very weak signal I was about to conclude to be in French when DentroCuban Jamming Command cut on at 1257:40 with one pulser, quickly joined by others, and a pileup noise wall before 1300 when WRMI presumably is running a new Cuban exile program daily, Radio Libertad until 1400. But Cuba was jamming this hour anyway for months when it contained no contrary programming, just victimized DX and other innocent shows.
WRMI`s website still has not been updated to tell us anything about Radio Libertad: http://www.wrmi.net/schedule.php but it allegedly is not strictly an anti-Castro show. Close enough.
WRMI is not only on the SSE antenna at this time but on the backup 5 kW transmitter, pending repairs, making it virtually inaudible here, and not a chance of overcoming jamming, which the Cubans keep on thru the 1400 hour for good measure against DX and other programs, and even past 1500 when R. Prague is relayed in English.
Jeff White says the 12-13 M-F hour is now occupied by programs in French for Haiti: Prague, Vatican and UN Radio, perhaps to be replaced by religious programs in Creole when available (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. Lavwadlamerik, Jan 27 at 1305 on 6135 via Bonaire, 9505 presumably Greenville, with announcement over sad piano music reminiscent of Sea Breeze. This semihour does not conflict with Haitian services from BBC and WRMI at 1230 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. As I tuned in 15315, Jan 27 at 1438, heard gruff announcer mention ``shortwave radio station``, then ``Family Radio`` and later, ``Open Forum``, but otherwise in a S Asian language. Aoki shows it`s Malayalam, since Dec 30 at 14-15 via Wertachtal, GERMANY (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 17610 with extremely repetitious rustic melody of only a few notes up and down being sung at 1456 Jan 27, 1458 briefly to other music before cut off at 1458:40 without any announcement. Another example of AWR`s Afar service via AUSTRIA, to what must be a tiny minority, Adventist Afars, but AWR voices hope of their peculiar sect catching on from afar (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** CUBA [and non]. 11600, jamming still going at 2202 Jan 26, later than usual? Altho maybe not continuously since it started at 1600. Now it`s pulsing, which means maybe only one of multiple transmitters which add up to walls of noise. Tried comparing it to 11930, and much stronger pulsing there matched, exactly synchronized at the rate of four per second, except the pitch was slightly higher on 11930, where Radio Martí had just closed (BTW, Aoki somehow misses Martí on this frequency). We remained baffled why the DCJC runs jammers on 11600, where nothing at all is known to be broadcasting after 1600 --- but hey, no better place for them!
15360, Jan 27 at 1445, RHC`s Formalmente Informal, a lo-fi interview mixing with something in Persian, about equal level and precisely zero beat, so rather confusing as they took turns dominating. Latter is RFI Issoudun at 1430-1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CYPRUS. OTH radar, presumed from here, but maybe not, Jan 27 at 1450 spanning 15745-15815, with peaks at odd spots such as 15780 and 15810, so most damaging to Galei Zahal, ISRAEL on 15783.6 and BBC Arabic on 15790, which is definitely Cyprus; overshadowed by the Saudi buzz, q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EGYPT. 15080, R. Cairo, poor with distorted modulation as always on this frequency, music at 1430 Jan 27, into 4+1 timesignal 35 seconds late, Cairo news theme and distorted talk in Arabic. This is 13-16 via Abis site to West Africa, where they`d better set their clox by something else (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OMAN. 15140, R. Sultanate of Oman, fair signal but barely audible modulation, 1433 Jan 27 with YL in English news mentioning Baghdad, and highly likely it was bad news (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA [and non]. 9996, binary code at 1255 Jan 27, presumably RWM, and beating against WWV/H on 10000 where there was also a fast SAH indicating some other station`s frequency was not standard at all (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. I thought the Buzzing Service of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was bad the day before, but much worse on Jan 27, a new record: first check at 1500, the horrible 15435 transmitter was audible just between 15390 and 15460, leaving e.g. fluttery Spain 15385 in the clear.
But at 1518 If found that blotted out, with the buzz now extending from 15270 to 15775! I can`t begin to enumerate all the stations this was interfering with, but who cares?
The edges reduced to just pulsing of four times per second, ranged 15270-15300, and 15630-15775, leaving the full brunt at 15300-15630. The upper end overlapped OTH radar from 15745, see CYPRUS. Standard but amplified remarks of incredulity over the Saudi monstrosity (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOLOMON ISLANDS [non]. SIBC missing from 5020 for at least a week in chex around 1300-1430, including Jan 27 at 1307, when no carrier at all detectable. This is because they have ceased overnight relays of BBCWS which used to start at 12 UT, due to power expense of over US$11K per year, per Media Network blog:
http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/sibc-drops-nighttime-relays-of-bbc-to-save-money
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TUNISIA. 7275, RTT music had just switched to announcement when cut to brief OC and off the air at 0626:50* Jan 27 while // 7335 continued. This is a consistently odd closing time for 7275, contrary to published schedules; as for 7335 closing, on the schedules as 0910, Noel Green says it goes off around 0810, and Wolfgang Büschel heard it until 0807* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K [non]. Jan 27 was monitoring barely early enough to hear the conclusion of BBC`s new Creole service, VG on 9410 via WHRI; a bit of music at 1250, then closing announcement giving the only time for ``Connexion[s] Haïti`` (pardon my French) as 9:10 am, which is 1410 UT when it repeats on Haitian FM stations; as usual, shortwave gets no respect from the BBC, just an afterthought if we are lucky. Or in this case, a beforethought.
At 1252:30 introduced in Spanish classical music fill show 19 minutes later than previously, which would last only 7.5 minutes until 1300:00* sharp without announcement, matching a timesignal underneath which must have been BBC Oman just overtaking the channel.
Altho this is the least of their problems, now the Haitians are faced with a logjam of special programming at 1230, from VOA, BBC and WRMI. A bit of coördination rather than competition would be nice (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9955, straining to hear WRMI`s new French service to Haiti, Jan 27 at 1257, very weak signal I was about to conclude to be in French when DentroCuban Jamming Command cut on at 1257:40 with one pulser, quickly joined by others, and a pileup noise wall before 1300 when WRMI presumably is running a new Cuban exile program daily, Radio Libertad until 1400. But Cuba was jamming this hour anyway for months when it contained no contrary programming, just victimized DX and other innocent shows.
WRMI`s website still has not been updated to tell us anything about Radio Libertad: http://www.wrmi.net/schedule.php but it allegedly is not strictly an anti-Castro show. Close enough.
WRMI is not only on the SSE antenna at this time but on the backup 5 kW transmitter, pending repairs, making it virtually inaudible here, and not a chance of overcoming jamming, which the Cubans keep on thru the 1400 hour for good measure against DX and other programs, and even past 1500 when R. Prague is relayed in English.
Jeff White says the 12-13 M-F hour is now occupied by programs in French for Haiti: Prague, Vatican and UN Radio, perhaps to be replaced by religious programs in Creole when available (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. Lavwadlamerik, Jan 27 at 1305 on 6135 via Bonaire, 9505 presumably Greenville, with announcement over sad piano music reminiscent of Sea Breeze. This semihour does not conflict with Haitian services from BBC and WRMI at 1230 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. As I tuned in 15315, Jan 27 at 1438, heard gruff announcer mention ``shortwave radio station``, then ``Family Radio`` and later, ``Open Forum``, but otherwise in a S Asian language. Aoki shows it`s Malayalam, since Dec 30 at 14-15 via Wertachtal, GERMANY (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 17610 with extremely repetitious rustic melody of only a few notes up and down being sung at 1456 Jan 27, 1458 briefly to other music before cut off at 1458:40 without any announcement. Another example of AWR`s Afar service via AUSTRIA, to what must be a tiny minority, Adventist Afars, but AWR voices hope of their peculiar sect catching on from afar (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
