** CHINA. Firedrake Jan 29 at 1426: poor on 10210, very poor on 8400, only a het on 9000. Nothing on 7585 at this time, but did not check closer to 1500 when Firedrake has been inexplicably there previous days (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COLOMBIA [and non]. Tnx to Jim Evans tip from Tennessee on WORLD OF RADIO 1497, I made a point of looking for the harmonic on 2980, which he heard at 0647 Jan 26. Yes, Jan 29 at 0611 definitely something on 2980.0, very weak music vs QRN level now including lite T-storming close enough to propagate but not nearby. Still just barely audible at 0630, never heard anything but music.
He had an ID at 0650 for R. Vida Nueva. Will keep trying. WRTH 2010 says it`s HJAY, Barranquilla with 5 kW on 1490, slogan ``te acerca a Dios``, so the music should be nothing but religious. It had also been reported months ago, but not lately.
I`m sure that the other active MW harmonic, R. San Carlos, Costa Rica, 2859.8 would be much stronger if they would only stay on the air past 0200v.
The harmonic on 2980 making it all the way from Colombia speaks well for the technical standards of the hundreds of US stations on 1490. Decades ago, one could depend on there being a few harmonics audible at any given time on 2 x graveyard frequencies, 2460, 2480, 2680, 2800, 2900, 2980, and the probabilities are still highest on those channels (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also USA: 4050
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5910, Shiokaze, Friday Jan 29 at 1410 with heavily accented English headlines from earlier in January about North Korea, interrupted by their newsy stinger every minute. F-G signal via JAPAN, no jamming audible. Ron Howard found them also in English on Thursday, which is unusual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** LIBYA. 21695, Voice of Africa, OSOB, Jan 29 at 1508 in English, but better on // 17725, ``dawn of a new age thru the African Union``, 1511 outroing a talk on ``the devolution of Al-Fatah``, or so it sounded to me; 1512 ID ``Voice of Africa from the Great Jamahiriyah`` and then hilife music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. From 15435 transmitter, Buzzing Service of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, checked again Jan 29 at 1502: full brunt of huge buzz interfering with numerous other stations ranged approximately 15380-15680, with the 4-per-minute pulsing at the edges 15680-15780, and 15350-15380. Strong signal from Portugal on 15690 was still not enough to overcome the pulsing. Then the upper pulse range became 15480-15780, instead of full brunt up to 15680. Exact ranges vary from minute to minute; at 1518 check, full brunt was 15300-15650, bad news for Greece on 15650, while 4x/minute pulsing reached 15650-15770 and 15240-15300, conveniently short of QRMing the // BSKSA Qur`an channel 15225.
Since SA won`t do anything about it, a precision air strike could take it out, but probably not without also destroying several other transmitters at the same Riyadh site. ITU ought to have its own air force for such situations (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Having heard the harmonic on 2980 from Colombia, q.v., I was motivated to look again for the third harmonic of KWMO, 1350, ``The Mouth``, Washington MO on 4050, Jan 29 at 0616: yes, intermittent bits of US talk in English, but mostly ute QRM. Since there was any signal at all from presumed KWMO, probably another instance of running day facilities at night. Still no Truth from Guatemala on 4052.5 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Driving around Enid Jan 28 near low noon, which is always 1832 UT, still some X-band daytime skywave DX tho the sun is zenithing higher every day as spring oncomes. (Snow did not start until 2100 Jan 28; plenty snow into midday Jan 29 but no significant icing or power outages here unlike further south in OK.) Tuning around the X-band in the daytime is always interesting as propagation conditions vary widely.
A music station weakly on 1690 around 1815 UT, audible when propagation peaks matched increasingly rare low-noise spots in the city. And again at 1912 when a Radio Disney ID made it. Therefore it can only be KDDZ in Arvada CO as the only dizzy outlet on frequency, and the only other station normally heard here on 1690 is talker WVON in the Chicago area. Denver`s other X-bander, Spanish KBJD 1650, might have accompanied KDDZ if it were not for splash from our local KFXY-1640. No other significant skywave skywave signals on X-band during this hour, not even KXTR-1660 Kansas City KS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** COLOMBIA [and non]. Tnx to Jim Evans tip from Tennessee on WORLD OF RADIO 1497, I made a point of looking for the harmonic on 2980, which he heard at 0647 Jan 26. Yes, Jan 29 at 0611 definitely something on 2980.0, very weak music vs QRN level now including lite T-storming close enough to propagate but not nearby. Still just barely audible at 0630, never heard anything but music.
He had an ID at 0650 for R. Vida Nueva. Will keep trying. WRTH 2010 says it`s HJAY, Barranquilla with 5 kW on 1490, slogan ``te acerca a Dios``, so the music should be nothing but religious. It had also been reported months ago, but not lately.
I`m sure that the other active MW harmonic, R. San Carlos, Costa Rica, 2859.8 would be much stronger if they would only stay on the air past 0200v.
The harmonic on 2980 making it all the way from Colombia speaks well for the technical standards of the hundreds of US stations on 1490. Decades ago, one could depend on there being a few harmonics audible at any given time on 2 x graveyard frequencies, 2460, 2480, 2680, 2800, 2900, 2980, and the probabilities are still highest on those channels (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also USA: 4050
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5910, Shiokaze, Friday Jan 29 at 1410 with heavily accented English headlines from earlier in January about North Korea, interrupted by their newsy stinger every minute. F-G signal via JAPAN, no jamming audible. Ron Howard found them also in English on Thursday, which is unusual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** LIBYA. 21695, Voice of Africa, OSOB, Jan 29 at 1508 in English, but better on // 17725, ``dawn of a new age thru the African Union``, 1511 outroing a talk on ``the devolution of Al-Fatah``, or so it sounded to me; 1512 ID ``Voice of Africa from the Great Jamahiriyah`` and then hilife music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. From 15435 transmitter, Buzzing Service of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, checked again Jan 29 at 1502: full brunt of huge buzz interfering with numerous other stations ranged approximately 15380-15680, with the 4-per-minute pulsing at the edges 15680-15780, and 15350-15380. Strong signal from Portugal on 15690 was still not enough to overcome the pulsing. Then the upper pulse range became 15480-15780, instead of full brunt up to 15680. Exact ranges vary from minute to minute; at 1518 check, full brunt was 15300-15650, bad news for Greece on 15650, while 4x/minute pulsing reached 15650-15770 and 15240-15300, conveniently short of QRMing the // BSKSA Qur`an channel 15225.
Since SA won`t do anything about it, a precision air strike could take it out, but probably not without also destroying several other transmitters at the same Riyadh site. ITU ought to have its own air force for such situations (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Having heard the harmonic on 2980 from Colombia, q.v., I was motivated to look again for the third harmonic of KWMO, 1350, ``The Mouth``, Washington MO on 4050, Jan 29 at 0616: yes, intermittent bits of US talk in English, but mostly ute QRM. Since there was any signal at all from presumed KWMO, probably another instance of running day facilities at night. Still no Truth from Guatemala on 4052.5 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Driving around Enid Jan 28 near low noon, which is always 1832 UT, still some X-band daytime skywave DX tho the sun is zenithing higher every day as spring oncomes. (Snow did not start until 2100 Jan 28; plenty snow into midday Jan 29 but no significant icing or power outages here unlike further south in OK.) Tuning around the X-band in the daytime is always interesting as propagation conditions vary widely.
A music station weakly on 1690 around 1815 UT, audible when propagation peaks matched increasingly rare low-noise spots in the city. And again at 1912 when a Radio Disney ID made it. Therefore it can only be KDDZ in Arvada CO as the only dizzy outlet on frequency, and the only other station normally heard here on 1690 is talker WVON in the Chicago area. Denver`s other X-bander, Spanish KBJD 1650, might have accompanied KDDZ if it were not for splash from our local KFXY-1640. No other significant skywave skywave signals on X-band during this hour, not even KXTR-1660 Kansas City KS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
