** CANADA. 9650, KBSWR relay hour in Korean via Sackville, once again replaced by RCI IS and ID loop in French and English, April 14 at 1434. I suspect another instance of lack of communication among Seoul, Montreal and Sackville, no one paying attention or taking responsibility for punching the right buttons, so who cares? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake April 14: not heard on 8-9-10 MHz bands, but on 11500 at 1227 during drumming, lo het and atop some other music. Aoki shows this as one of many 24h Sound of Hope 1 kW non-direxional transmitters on Taiwan to tie up the jammers.
But the more likely collateral victim was Voice of Russia via TAJIKISTAN to South Asia, as in EiBi, 1200 English, 1300 Hindi, 1400-1500 English. 11500 was typoed in VOR`s own schedule as ``15000`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. 15380, new RHC frequency colliding at about equal level with Qur`an from SAUDI ARABIA, April 14 at 1326, making fast SAH of maybe 20 Hz, 1333 Saudi ID as it was gaining on Cuba. Riyadh is scheduled 12-14 at 310 degrees only for Turkey, but their 500 kW USward carries on a bit further. Cuba starts 15380 already at 1100. Another great pick by Arnie (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [non]. 9780, new frequency for R. República at 0200-0400 first reported by José Elías Díaz Gómez in Venezuela, I had trouble hearing at first but audible April 14 at 0203; poor signal but no jamming, compared to 9490 via Sackville until 0200. The 9780 broadcast may be UT Tue-Sat only. Site unknown, possibly UK, or Central America. It seems to put a better signal into Venezuela than it does into OK. JEDG sent a clip of them announcing 9780 for those two hours. WRMI knows nothing about it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. It pays for me to awaken a bit earlier than usual for better Asian reception. 3325, RRI Palangkaraya, best heard in a long time, S9+18, April 14 at 1158 with song, 1200 one pip, RRI ID, WIB timecheck, warta berita, the first minute of which with plenty of music produxion, presumably headlines, then W&M alternating. Really no sign of Buka, PNG on same frequency. This is right at local sunrise in Enid.
3345, RRI Ternate at 1202 April 14, also news in Indonesian but not // 3325, or maybe it was just a bit out of synch; quite weaker than 3325. 3345 back to music already at 1205.
4870, RRI Wamena, April 14 at 1209 with warta berita, // much stronger 4750 Makassar, and a couple words out of synch (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN. 15555+, slightly hi in frequency, poor signal April 14 at 1335 with Qur`an, then YL in Japanese, which always seems a strange pairing, but not to the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1330-1430 at 60 degrees from Kamalabad (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KURDISTAN. 11530, V. of Mesopotamia, via UKRAINE, April 14 at 1405 nothing but talk, but kept tuned waiting for Kurdish music which finally followed at 1418; fair but fluttery signal from the PKK terrorists (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** POLAND [non]. 11675, PRES via AUSTRIA, fairly good signal still, April 14 at 1230 about remembering Pres. & Mrs. Kaczynski, improving relations with Israel, fourth day of mourning (website is still monochrome), controversy over where to bury them, plans for memorials and musea, new elexion must be held in June; 1238 dirge music and ``Opera Connexions`` presenting art songs for rest of hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA [and non]. 15510+, slightly hi in frequency, April 14 at 1337 songs, split-second audio dropouts, hum, 1340 novelty/comedy song in Persian(?), 1346 a more serious song, 1356 ``Love Story`` theme. What`s this?
Finally answered by VOR IS at 1359. It`s the Pashto/Dari service via Armavir/Krasnodar, overlapping briefly with DW opening in Russian via Rampisham UK at 1400. I also heard a few syllables of Chinese in the transition as one must have erred in switching (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CHINA [and non]
** SAIPAN [and non]. 9585 in Vietnamese, fair signal April 14 at 1220 interrupting the flow between Radio Australia on 9580 and 9590. This is KFBS at 12-13, also producing 5 kHz hets between the Australians. And it`s followed by KTWR GUAHAN at 1300-1330 on same in Sgaw Karen, per Aoki (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. Collision on 15380: see CUBA [and non]
** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 3185, Brother Scare via WWRB, April 14 at 1155 saying another major SW station wants him 24/7, at a cost of $50,000 per month, but he doesn`t have the money for that, so please send him plenty. (That worx out to about $68 per hour.) He implied some other stations give him a better rate than that, and said he always pays in advance. That must be why several stations vie for his nonsensical biz; who cares about the public interest?
I happened to tune across him again on WWRB 9385 at 1423, saying he is rearranging radio schedules and asking for radio chex from Europe on 13845 --- is that signal better now that WWCR has changed antennas? (He is not on 13845 at the moment; in fact not on the latest WWCR sked at all. I am sure they`d be glad to have him back, having lost Pastor Pete Peters.) Then at 1425 cut to exactly the same pitch heard 2.5 hours earlier, also saying that last month 7-8 (presumably AM) stations were dropped, but 4-5 added (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. VOA has cancelled all its SW broadcasts in Haitian Creole. These were greatly expanded from three half-hours per day shortly following the January earthquake. The extent of the expansion was not immediately clear since accurate schedules were not posted for weeks, but we soon monitored the additional times and frequencies.
Now that the A-Z language transmission schedule includes the extra hours, those are no longer heard, and furthermore the original half-hours, which in summer time would have been at 1130, 1630 and 2100 UT, are also missing from the HFCC schedule.
Monitoring April 14, no sign of the 1130 transmission which was on 9505, and before than on 9670, nor via the Bonaire relay 6135, which is also gone from the RNW schedule. At 1630 nothing on previous 15390 or 17565. Not yet checked at 2100-2130 but surely also gone.
If the Haitians were so much in need of additional VOA broadcasts on SW then, how is it that now they no longer need them, or any Kreyol SW broadcasts from VOA at all? Are we to assume that any listeners in Haïti can easily access Lavwadlamerik via internet, mobile devices? Or are there some reliable FM or AM relays now? When did the airborne Commando Solo relays cease? Likely quite some time ago, but we don`t get any press releases or any other announcements about that or VOA cuts, which might be construed as negative.
On April 7, Radio Martí got another transmitter at Greenville, labeled ``temporary``, making four frequencies at once during most of the day rather than three, as I previously reported. This came out of the ex-Kreyol service. That may have been when Kreyol was canceled, if not earlier in the nascent A-10 season. We suspected the extra SW for Martí was to compensate for Marathon 1180 being off the air temporarily, as frequently announced on RM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. VOA at 1218 Wednesday April 14 going from Earth & Sky about big dams, to Wordmaster about English teaching, on 7575, also audible on 9505 and with ChiComQRM on 9760 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 4050, at 1134 April 14, fairly good signal with John Gibson on Fox Newstalk network, i.e. 3 x 1350 from KWMO Washington MO. So they do both far-right jabber and C&W music, as recently heard late at night, or is the C&W now displaced by The Mouth?
Cardinals folder from Will Martin shows KWMO also on that baseball network, as if nearby flagship KTRS-550 did not totally overlap KWMO coverage. Upcoming night games at 0015 UT April 15, 17; 0005 UT April 19, 0140 UT April 20, 21, 22 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [non]. Radio Vaticano/a has a new morning relay via CANADA, 227 degrees from Sackville for Mexico, 1130-1215 on 9830, first Spanish, and from 1200 English. April 14 at 1146 heard ID in Spanish, mixed with RTTY! Another station which is not paying attention to the non-broadcast QRM problem on this frequency. Doesn`t anyone send them reception reports with an I of 2 or 3? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake April 14: not heard on 8-9-10 MHz bands, but on 11500 at 1227 during drumming, lo het and atop some other music. Aoki shows this as one of many 24h Sound of Hope 1 kW non-direxional transmitters on Taiwan to tie up the jammers.
But the more likely collateral victim was Voice of Russia via TAJIKISTAN to South Asia, as in EiBi, 1200 English, 1300 Hindi, 1400-1500 English. 11500 was typoed in VOR`s own schedule as ``15000`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. 15380, new RHC frequency colliding at about equal level with Qur`an from SAUDI ARABIA, April 14 at 1326, making fast SAH of maybe 20 Hz, 1333 Saudi ID as it was gaining on Cuba. Riyadh is scheduled 12-14 at 310 degrees only for Turkey, but their 500 kW USward carries on a bit further. Cuba starts 15380 already at 1100. Another great pick by Arnie (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [non]. 9780, new frequency for R. República at 0200-0400 first reported by José Elías Díaz Gómez in Venezuela, I had trouble hearing at first but audible April 14 at 0203; poor signal but no jamming, compared to 9490 via Sackville until 0200. The 9780 broadcast may be UT Tue-Sat only. Site unknown, possibly UK, or Central America. It seems to put a better signal into Venezuela than it does into OK. JEDG sent a clip of them announcing 9780 for those two hours. WRMI knows nothing about it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. It pays for me to awaken a bit earlier than usual for better Asian reception. 3325, RRI Palangkaraya, best heard in a long time, S9+18, April 14 at 1158 with song, 1200 one pip, RRI ID, WIB timecheck, warta berita, the first minute of which with plenty of music produxion, presumably headlines, then W&M alternating. Really no sign of Buka, PNG on same frequency. This is right at local sunrise in Enid.
3345, RRI Ternate at 1202 April 14, also news in Indonesian but not // 3325, or maybe it was just a bit out of synch; quite weaker than 3325. 3345 back to music already at 1205.
4870, RRI Wamena, April 14 at 1209 with warta berita, // much stronger 4750 Makassar, and a couple words out of synch (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN. 15555+, slightly hi in frequency, poor signal April 14 at 1335 with Qur`an, then YL in Japanese, which always seems a strange pairing, but not to the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1330-1430 at 60 degrees from Kamalabad (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KURDISTAN. 11530, V. of Mesopotamia, via UKRAINE, April 14 at 1405 nothing but talk, but kept tuned waiting for Kurdish music which finally followed at 1418; fair but fluttery signal from the PKK terrorists (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** POLAND [non]. 11675, PRES via AUSTRIA, fairly good signal still, April 14 at 1230 about remembering Pres. & Mrs. Kaczynski, improving relations with Israel, fourth day of mourning (website is still monochrome), controversy over where to bury them, plans for memorials and musea, new elexion must be held in June; 1238 dirge music and ``Opera Connexions`` presenting art songs for rest of hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA [and non]. 15510+, slightly hi in frequency, April 14 at 1337 songs, split-second audio dropouts, hum, 1340 novelty/comedy song in Persian(?), 1346 a more serious song, 1356 ``Love Story`` theme. What`s this?
Finally answered by VOR IS at 1359. It`s the Pashto/Dari service via Armavir/Krasnodar, overlapping briefly with DW opening in Russian via Rampisham UK at 1400. I also heard a few syllables of Chinese in the transition as one must have erred in switching (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CHINA [and non]
** SAIPAN [and non]. 9585 in Vietnamese, fair signal April 14 at 1220 interrupting the flow between Radio Australia on 9580 and 9590. This is KFBS at 12-13, also producing 5 kHz hets between the Australians. And it`s followed by KTWR GUAHAN at 1300-1330 on same in Sgaw Karen, per Aoki (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. Collision on 15380: see CUBA [and non]
** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 3185, Brother Scare via WWRB, April 14 at 1155 saying another major SW station wants him 24/7, at a cost of $50,000 per month, but he doesn`t have the money for that, so please send him plenty. (That worx out to about $68 per hour.) He implied some other stations give him a better rate than that, and said he always pays in advance. That must be why several stations vie for his nonsensical biz; who cares about the public interest?
I happened to tune across him again on WWRB 9385 at 1423, saying he is rearranging radio schedules and asking for radio chex from Europe on 13845 --- is that signal better now that WWCR has changed antennas? (He is not on 13845 at the moment; in fact not on the latest WWCR sked at all. I am sure they`d be glad to have him back, having lost Pastor Pete Peters.) Then at 1425 cut to exactly the same pitch heard 2.5 hours earlier, also saying that last month 7-8 (presumably AM) stations were dropped, but 4-5 added (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. VOA has cancelled all its SW broadcasts in Haitian Creole. These were greatly expanded from three half-hours per day shortly following the January earthquake. The extent of the expansion was not immediately clear since accurate schedules were not posted for weeks, but we soon monitored the additional times and frequencies.
Now that the A-Z language transmission schedule includes the extra hours, those are no longer heard, and furthermore the original half-hours, which in summer time would have been at 1130, 1630 and 2100 UT, are also missing from the HFCC schedule.
Monitoring April 14, no sign of the 1130 transmission which was on 9505, and before than on 9670, nor via the Bonaire relay 6135, which is also gone from the RNW schedule. At 1630 nothing on previous 15390 or 17565. Not yet checked at 2100-2130 but surely also gone.
If the Haitians were so much in need of additional VOA broadcasts on SW then, how is it that now they no longer need them, or any Kreyol SW broadcasts from VOA at all? Are we to assume that any listeners in Haïti can easily access Lavwadlamerik via internet, mobile devices? Or are there some reliable FM or AM relays now? When did the airborne Commando Solo relays cease? Likely quite some time ago, but we don`t get any press releases or any other announcements about that or VOA cuts, which might be construed as negative.
On April 7, Radio Martí got another transmitter at Greenville, labeled ``temporary``, making four frequencies at once during most of the day rather than three, as I previously reported. This came out of the ex-Kreyol service. That may have been when Kreyol was canceled, if not earlier in the nascent A-10 season. We suspected the extra SW for Martí was to compensate for Marathon 1180 being off the air temporarily, as frequently announced on RM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. VOA at 1218 Wednesday April 14 going from Earth & Sky about big dams, to Wordmaster about English teaching, on 7575, also audible on 9505 and with ChiComQRM on 9760 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 4050, at 1134 April 14, fairly good signal with John Gibson on Fox Newstalk network, i.e. 3 x 1350 from KWMO Washington MO. So they do both far-right jabber and C&W music, as recently heard late at night, or is the C&W now displaced by The Mouth?
Cardinals folder from Will Martin shows KWMO also on that baseball network, as if nearby flagship KTRS-550 did not totally overlap KWMO coverage. Upcoming night games at 0015 UT April 15, 17; 0005 UT April 19, 0140 UT April 20, 21, 22 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [non]. Radio Vaticano/a has a new morning relay via CANADA, 227 degrees from Sackville for Mexico, 1130-1215 on 9830, first Spanish, and from 1200 English. April 14 at 1146 heard ID in Spanish, mixed with RTTY! Another station which is not paying attention to the non-broadcast QRM problem on this frequency. Doesn`t anyone send them reception reports with an I of 2 or 3? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
