** ALBANIA. Further R. Tirana A-10 monitoring: March 30 at 2000 no signal on 13640, finally came on at 2005 after one brief false start, then joined English program in progress.
March 31 at 0031, 9860 opening English, good signal better than yesterday. Surprised at next check 0050 to find it still going in what is supposed to be a 15-minute broadcast. Maybe it started over at 0045 as I recall noticing on the webcast. Now there is adjacent QRM from at least as strong 9855, which is IBB SRI LANKA, 250 kW at 20 degrees, 0000-0100. Not sure when Tirana went off, but before 0100. 0230 on 7425, poor reception.
The 1430 broadcast on 13755 overlaps a bit with its successor, CRI at 1500. March 31 at 1457 just as R. Tirana was saying its broadcast was ending, on came stronger carrier causing a rippling subaudible heterodyne, with Chinese lessons in English, which often occupy the final few minutes of CRI hours.
Overlap was less than a minute with R. Tirana`s closing theme, so not a major loss and not worth changing frequency because of. Then CRI cut audio and stayed on open carrier until 1500 timesignal, IS and opening in Chinese. This is 308 degrees from Kashgar to Europe, but also US (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BELGIUM [non]. 15750-15755-15760, new DRM signals noticed here March 31 at 2015. Figured it might be TDP ex-17755 which is now open with WYFR-AM on 17750. The DRM schedule at
http://www.baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/drmdx/main&sort=kHz,UTC
confirms it is TDP and now via Bonaire rather than Guiana French:
1900-2000 daily 15755 320 USA/Canada 100 TDPradio BEL English Bonaire
2000-2100 daily 15755 320 USA/Canada 100 The Disco Palace USA English
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake March 31: at 1353, poor on 13500, very poor on 8400 and good on 10400, all // (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ECUADOR. 3810-LSB, HD2IOA, at last free of QRhaM, March 31 at 0559:40 with ID in this dekasecond rather than time announcement. It`s not as loud and clearly modulated as the latter, but I could copy fragments: ``del Instituto Oceanográfico de la Armada. . . para el territorio continental del país``, apparently meaning denizens of their Columbus Archipelago are not supposed to listen to it? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN. Altho NHKWNRJ has abolished the Sackville relay on 11705 for English at 1400-1430, it remains on 11705 direct from Yamata back to Asia; that was audible with fair reception March 31 at 1410 check, but no longer a loud and reliable signal here, yet the best we can do at this hour with the only two remaining parallels inaudible. Now we are apprehensive about new fiscal-year programming changes imminent (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH. 9665.4, KCBS with mostly-music to lull the masses into compliance, March 31 at 1415 past 1437, slight het de 9665.0, presumably Mongolia or could be Iran until 1430 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PRIDNESTROVYE. V. of Russia imagines it is on 9665, in English to North America at 2300-0200 per their own website A-10 schedule. NOT: nothing there at 2315 check March 30, and from 00 to 02, 9665 carries Radio PMR instead! It is the `Grigoriopol` transmitter site as usual in A-seasons, ex-6240 in B-seasons. From 0030 March 31 I checked sometime during each quarter hour to determine language rotation and got:
0030 German, 0045 English, 0100 French, 0115 German, 0130 French, 0145 German. You`d think they would have a bit more English instead of German to N America; I suppose there was before 0030. Presumably this runs UT Mon-Fri only.
Signal was sufficient at first, but had faded considerably and was fluttery by 0200, when it switched to VOR in English // 15425; see RUSSIA [and non].
PMR`s language rotation is not firm: on UT March 29, Joe Hanlon in NJ monitored 9665: English at 0000, 0045 and 0130, French at 0015, 0100 and 0145, and German at 0030 and 0115 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA [and non]. V. of Russia English to North America schedule claims to be on 9665 at 2300-0200, but it is NOT. Off the air before 0000 and then two hours of Radio PMR; see PRIDNESTROVYE. Monitoring March 31 from before 0200, found 15425 at 0157 with tune-up tone and then open carrier, 0159 VOR IS, 0200 opening in English, and 9665 via Kishinov switched simultaneously from PMR to VOR, about one second ahead of 15425, which is 65 degrees via Petropavlovsk/Kamchatskiy.
After 0200, VOR 9665 is listed for Latin America, leaving ONLY 15425 for North America, but 9665 may still hold up better in much of our continent. 15425 had declined to poor by 0230. Question is, whether VOR is axually on some other frequency in English to us before 0200? Please, just one? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN [non]. Checking 15710, new frequency for Miraya FM via IRRS via SLOVAKIA, at 14-17: March 31 at 1357 found lo audible het between its carrier, and Cairo`s Indonesian service. At 1359 Miraya music started, and Cairo carrier stayed on until 1401, then Miraya in clear, Arabic dialect. Bothered by some SSB on 15708 around 1432 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 17550, hard rock at 2016 March 30, soon identified in French as having been Radiohead, and on to Vegetable. It`s VOA`s French service via BONAIRE, now scheduled 1830-2030, 250 kW due east to Africa, but considerable leakage USward; seems VOA devotes a lot of French airtime to playing rock music, in English when there are lyrix; why? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9775-SSB, 2-way Spanish intruders here at 1441 March 31, whistling into mike. At least they found a frequency clear of broadcasters at the moment (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 15868 approx., March 30 at 2018, as I tuned by caught snatch of American YL in SSB with position report. Did not have time to pinpoint frequency, but kept monitoring for more than a semihour, and only heard occasional ute digital bursts likely from same transmitter, and at 2037 missed another very brief SSB voice transmission. Plus or minus 2 kHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
March 31 at 0031, 9860 opening English, good signal better than yesterday. Surprised at next check 0050 to find it still going in what is supposed to be a 15-minute broadcast. Maybe it started over at 0045 as I recall noticing on the webcast. Now there is adjacent QRM from at least as strong 9855, which is IBB SRI LANKA, 250 kW at 20 degrees, 0000-0100. Not sure when Tirana went off, but before 0100. 0230 on 7425, poor reception.
The 1430 broadcast on 13755 overlaps a bit with its successor, CRI at 1500. March 31 at 1457 just as R. Tirana was saying its broadcast was ending, on came stronger carrier causing a rippling subaudible heterodyne, with Chinese lessons in English, which often occupy the final few minutes of CRI hours.
Overlap was less than a minute with R. Tirana`s closing theme, so not a major loss and not worth changing frequency because of. Then CRI cut audio and stayed on open carrier until 1500 timesignal, IS and opening in Chinese. This is 308 degrees from Kashgar to Europe, but also US (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BELGIUM [non]. 15750-15755-15760, new DRM signals noticed here March 31 at 2015. Figured it might be TDP ex-17755 which is now open with WYFR-AM on 17750. The DRM schedule at
http://www.baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/drmdx/main&sort=kHz,UTC
confirms it is TDP and now via Bonaire rather than Guiana French:
1900-2000 daily 15755 320 USA/Canada 100 TDPradio BEL English Bonaire
2000-2100 daily 15755 320 USA/Canada 100 The Disco Palace USA English
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake March 31: at 1353, poor on 13500, very poor on 8400 and good on 10400, all // (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ECUADOR. 3810-LSB, HD2IOA, at last free of QRhaM, March 31 at 0559:40 with ID in this dekasecond rather than time announcement. It`s not as loud and clearly modulated as the latter, but I could copy fragments: ``del Instituto Oceanográfico de la Armada. . . para el territorio continental del país``, apparently meaning denizens of their Columbus Archipelago are not supposed to listen to it? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN. Altho NHKWNRJ has abolished the Sackville relay on 11705 for English at 1400-1430, it remains on 11705 direct from Yamata back to Asia; that was audible with fair reception March 31 at 1410 check, but no longer a loud and reliable signal here, yet the best we can do at this hour with the only two remaining parallels inaudible. Now we are apprehensive about new fiscal-year programming changes imminent (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH. 9665.4, KCBS with mostly-music to lull the masses into compliance, March 31 at 1415 past 1437, slight het de 9665.0, presumably Mongolia or could be Iran until 1430 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PRIDNESTROVYE. V. of Russia imagines it is on 9665, in English to North America at 2300-0200 per their own website A-10 schedule. NOT: nothing there at 2315 check March 30, and from 00 to 02, 9665 carries Radio PMR instead! It is the `Grigoriopol` transmitter site as usual in A-seasons, ex-6240 in B-seasons. From 0030 March 31 I checked sometime during each quarter hour to determine language rotation and got:
0030 German, 0045 English, 0100 French, 0115 German, 0130 French, 0145 German. You`d think they would have a bit more English instead of German to N America; I suppose there was before 0030. Presumably this runs UT Mon-Fri only.
Signal was sufficient at first, but had faded considerably and was fluttery by 0200, when it switched to VOR in English // 15425; see RUSSIA [and non].
PMR`s language rotation is not firm: on UT March 29, Joe Hanlon in NJ monitored 9665: English at 0000, 0045 and 0130, French at 0015, 0100 and 0145, and German at 0030 and 0115 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA [and non]. V. of Russia English to North America schedule claims to be on 9665 at 2300-0200, but it is NOT. Off the air before 0000 and then two hours of Radio PMR; see PRIDNESTROVYE. Monitoring March 31 from before 0200, found 15425 at 0157 with tune-up tone and then open carrier, 0159 VOR IS, 0200 opening in English, and 9665 via Kishinov switched simultaneously from PMR to VOR, about one second ahead of 15425, which is 65 degrees via Petropavlovsk/Kamchatskiy.
After 0200, VOR 9665 is listed for Latin America, leaving ONLY 15425 for North America, but 9665 may still hold up better in much of our continent. 15425 had declined to poor by 0230. Question is, whether VOR is axually on some other frequency in English to us before 0200? Please, just one? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN [non]. Checking 15710, new frequency for Miraya FM via IRRS via SLOVAKIA, at 14-17: March 31 at 1357 found lo audible het between its carrier, and Cairo`s Indonesian service. At 1359 Miraya music started, and Cairo carrier stayed on until 1401, then Miraya in clear, Arabic dialect. Bothered by some SSB on 15708 around 1432 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 17550, hard rock at 2016 March 30, soon identified in French as having been Radiohead, and on to Vegetable. It`s VOA`s French service via BONAIRE, now scheduled 1830-2030, 250 kW due east to Africa, but considerable leakage USward; seems VOA devotes a lot of French airtime to playing rock music, in English when there are lyrix; why? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9775-SSB, 2-way Spanish intruders here at 1441 March 31, whistling into mike. At least they found a frequency clear of broadcasters at the moment (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 15868 approx., March 30 at 2018, as I tuned by caught snatch of American YL in SSB with position report. Did not have time to pinpoint frequency, but kept monitoring for more than a semihour, and only heard occasional ute digital bursts likely from same transmitter, and at 2037 missed another very brief SSB voice transmission. Plus or minus 2 kHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
