** CHINA. 7585 again bearing Firedrake against unknown target, Jan 28 at 1455; good signal but heavy flutter, while 8400 was very weak and not positive it was //. Only thing listed on 7585 at this time is Vatican in Tamil via Tajikistan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** FRANCE [non]. 11605, good in rapid-paced French morning program, Jan 28 at 0655; sounded like commercials, but surely not on RFI, which is scheduled here via SOUTH AFRICA, 0500-0700 but only 100 kW at 345 degrees, consequently USward as well. 0700 time signal about 7 seconds late, 8 am timecheck in Paris, news, but cut off abruptly at 0702* --- another example of sloppy operations at SENTECH, Meyerton (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA [and non]. VOI, 9526-, Jan 28 at 1459 was on causing heavy het to CRI 9525.0 via EAST TURKISTAN, and also still at 1508 when CRI was trying to talk to us in English.
RRI, 9680 much better in the clear at 1459 Jan 28, good with gamelan orchestra and singing. This continued right thru hourtop until 1504 when switched to a bit of Western orchestral music and then cut off the air at 1504:30* without any ID, announcement or sign-off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO [and non]. 6104.8v, Jan 28 at 0724 the irrepressively peppy upbeat music XEQM plays in the nitemiddle for insomniax, several sex of dead air, then YL DJ and produced IDs mentioning 95.3, ``la más grande``. Good at peaks revealing somewhat distorted modulation, but usual deep fades. 0728 she gave timecheck for 1:29 over music, then also put phone caller on air. 0729-0731 a carrier went on and off a couple times on 6105.0 causing het: probably TWR tuning up prior to its 0745 start via Nauen (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. 15235, Jan 28 at 1525 SW Asian language talk and music, lively show but could not catch ID. Did not think it was Arabic, until uplooked later and found RRI is scheduled in Arabic 15-16 on 15235, 247 degrees from Tiganeshti. Maybe that`s what Arabic sounds like with a Romanian accent (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. Buzzing Service of the Kingdom of Sa`udi Arabia, 15435 transmitter still blotting large portion of 19m Jan 28 at 1530, but somewhat less than on Jan 27. Exact range varies from minute to minute, as well as from day to day, probably more due to intensity of propagation than of transmission. On a much less sensitive receiver, it was much less noticeable.
The 4-per-minute pulsing at the edges reached 15160-15220, the full brunt 15220-15500, but not much above 15500 as it`s assymetrical --- altho with such a wide blob, could be riding or bridging the MUF. Final check at 1555 found the boundary between pulsing and brunting around 15250 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. A few hours before President Obama`s State of the Union address, I found out the special frequencies VOA was going to use to broadcast it live at 0200-0330 UT Jan 28:
Africa: 909, 1530, 4930, 6080, 9885, 15580
Asia: 11705, 11745, 13680, 15260, 15445, 15520, 17845
Middle East: 9550, 9780
Not expecting to hear much in the night from relays presumably Eastern-Hemispheric, I quickly tuned thru the list around 0209 UT. The only ones heard for sure were 4930, when the President had not quite started and the announcer mentioned voanews.com; shortly afterwards found 9885 better as welcoming applause was ongoing. Nothing audible on the others except traces of carriers on a few of them. Both 4930 and 9885 normally open at 0300 via Botswana, but the earlier hour could also have been via São Tomé, or even Greenville on 9885.
BTW, I also noticed that the secret VOA Creole transmission at 02-03 was lacking 7590 but still on 7465, apparently not covering the speech. Perhaps the 7590 transmitter was needed for SOTU; we`ll have to see if it`s back following nights.
REE Spain has also been known to broadcast voice-over translations of such significant US live events on 6055, but not this time (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** FRANCE [non]. 11605, good in rapid-paced French morning program, Jan 28 at 0655; sounded like commercials, but surely not on RFI, which is scheduled here via SOUTH AFRICA, 0500-0700 but only 100 kW at 345 degrees, consequently USward as well. 0700 time signal about 7 seconds late, 8 am timecheck in Paris, news, but cut off abruptly at 0702* --- another example of sloppy operations at SENTECH, Meyerton (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA [and non]. VOI, 9526-, Jan 28 at 1459 was on causing heavy het to CRI 9525.0 via EAST TURKISTAN, and also still at 1508 when CRI was trying to talk to us in English.
RRI, 9680 much better in the clear at 1459 Jan 28, good with gamelan orchestra and singing. This continued right thru hourtop until 1504 when switched to a bit of Western orchestral music and then cut off the air at 1504:30* without any ID, announcement or sign-off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO [and non]. 6104.8v, Jan 28 at 0724 the irrepressively peppy upbeat music XEQM plays in the nitemiddle for insomniax, several sex of dead air, then YL DJ and produced IDs mentioning 95.3, ``la más grande``. Good at peaks revealing somewhat distorted modulation, but usual deep fades. 0728 she gave timecheck for 1:29 over music, then also put phone caller on air. 0729-0731 a carrier went on and off a couple times on 6105.0 causing het: probably TWR tuning up prior to its 0745 start via Nauen (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. 15235, Jan 28 at 1525 SW Asian language talk and music, lively show but could not catch ID. Did not think it was Arabic, until uplooked later and found RRI is scheduled in Arabic 15-16 on 15235, 247 degrees from Tiganeshti. Maybe that`s what Arabic sounds like with a Romanian accent (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. Buzzing Service of the Kingdom of Sa`udi Arabia, 15435 transmitter still blotting large portion of 19m Jan 28 at 1530, but somewhat less than on Jan 27. Exact range varies from minute to minute, as well as from day to day, probably more due to intensity of propagation than of transmission. On a much less sensitive receiver, it was much less noticeable.
The 4-per-minute pulsing at the edges reached 15160-15220, the full brunt 15220-15500, but not much above 15500 as it`s assymetrical --- altho with such a wide blob, could be riding or bridging the MUF. Final check at 1555 found the boundary between pulsing and brunting around 15250 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. A few hours before President Obama`s State of the Union address, I found out the special frequencies VOA was going to use to broadcast it live at 0200-0330 UT Jan 28:
Africa: 909, 1530, 4930, 6080, 9885, 15580
Asia: 11705, 11745, 13680, 15260, 15445, 15520, 17845
Middle East: 9550, 9780
Not expecting to hear much in the night from relays presumably Eastern-Hemispheric, I quickly tuned thru the list around 0209 UT. The only ones heard for sure were 4930, when the President had not quite started and the announcer mentioned voanews.com; shortly afterwards found 9885 better as welcoming applause was ongoing. Nothing audible on the others except traces of carriers on a few of them. Both 4930 and 9885 normally open at 0300 via Botswana, but the earlier hour could also have been via São Tomé, or even Greenville on 9885.
BTW, I also noticed that the secret VOA Creole transmission at 02-03 was lacking 7590 but still on 7465, apparently not covering the speech. Perhaps the 7590 transmitter was needed for SOTU; we`ll have to see if it`s back following nights.
REE Spain has also been known to broadcast voice-over translations of such significant US live events on 6055, but not this time (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
