** ANTARCTICA. Not much luck with LRA36 lately, low solar flux. May 21 at 1318 an occasional carrier around 15476, but mixed with weak hash, probably local origin, but possibly Cuban spur. At the moment, however, RHC 15360 seemed too weak itself to audiblize its spurs (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHILE. Spurs from 11920 kHz HCJB --- Hello Glenn! I contacted Calera de Tango, they have looked at the transmitter. There has been a problem at the frequency synthesizer. But it should now be OK again.
Greetings from Germany, 73, (Stephan Schaa, May 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Good; hope it stays OK this time. Checked May 20 around 2255 and indeed did not hear the spurs circa plus/minus 20 kHz; however, the fundamental was unusually weak due to poor propagation, so more tries are needed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake May 21:
9350, good at 1258, to open carrier vs nothing at 1300, resumed at 1305; at 1550 JBA and could not confirm whether // 12960
11500, good at 1335, but not on the earlier scan
12960, very poor at 1546
12970, good at 1309 and // 9350. None others found at this time, 8-18 MHz. 12970 gone at 1350 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COSTA RICA. REE relay apparently still running only two of the three transmitters: May 21 at 0536, 5965 // 3350, but nothing audible on scheduled 9630 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also UNIDENTIFIED 17850
** CROATIA [non]. Voice of Croatia has made its usual odd-date May switch from 7375 to 9925 via the overlapping German relays. Tnx to a log tip from Stewart MacKenzie reminding me of this. HFCC says from 10 May until 6 September, now scheduled on 9925:
22-03 240 degrees from Wertachtal to South America
23-03 300 degrees from Wertachtal to North and Central America
01-05 325 degrees from Nauen to North America (west)
Eibi, which has not been updated since 12 April, still has 7375 instead of 9925, with English at 0200-0215 only. There used to be another one, at 2215-2230 per Aoki at least when on 7375, but needs to be reconfirmed on 9925. May 20 at 2200 the signal on 9925 was just too weak in very poor propagation conditions, only one transmitter this early and aimed to S America.
Quite good after 2300, however; and at 0213 UT May 21 finishing ``Croatia Today`` English segment by spending a minute reciting satellites it`s on, MW and SW frequencies including this one, into music.
The list of satellites merely gave the name and the orbital position, no other parameters. Do they really expect listeners to hunt thru all the transponders and all the frequencies on each to find VOC? For that matter, do they have any significant number of individuals listening to them by direct satellite as opposed to shortwave or mediumwave?
At 0230 recheck, 9925 was starting La Voz de Croacia in Spanish. And despite being on three transmitters from two sites, they were well synchronized, no echo detectable, presuming all three of them were propagating here to different degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 6104.8, XEQM Mérida showing up again May 21 at 0533, lively music, fair at peaks with usual deep fades including at 0534 when a hyper canned announcement played. Modulation a bit distorted (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS. Repeat performance of the Radio Free Asia transmitters in Chinese from Tinian and Saipan still propagating to 21+ MHz in the nightmiddle: May 21 at 0526 all audible: 21690, 21550, 17880 (best, Saipan), 17615, 15615, 15120, 13760. And without jamming, but I am sure that is not the case DentroChina (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN. 17595, REE at 2102 May 20 in Portuguese, or is it? The Castilian accent was so heavy that I had to listen carefully to detect that the words were axually Portuguese. I wonder if the Brazilians to whom this is aimed find it equally amusing to hear Portuguese spoken as if it were Castilian. But then they`ve got wacky wailing evangelist David Miranda who does a much worse job of speaking Spanish sounding like Portuguese, or v.v.?
For another day, REE Spanish to North America at the same time was on correct 15110 instead of 15385, quite separate from 17595 which had broken away from parallelism (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also COSTA RICA
** U S A. Now it`s WYFR putting out spurs. May 21 at 0516 I hear a big distorted blob in Spanish with hum centered as closely as I can measure it, on 9921.3. Soon IDed by // 9715. Then I look for a match 206.3 kHz on the other side, and there it is, tho seems not quite as strong, on 9508.7 --- and it bothers another WYFR frequency in Spanish, 9505. Okeechobee has been notified and I expect they`ll be working on it, so let`s hope for a non-repeat tonight (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 17850, DRM noise strong May 20 around 2100 or earlier, and happened to be tuning across when it cut off abruptly at the odd time of 2112:22*, uncovering WYFR on 17845. Center frequency might have been 17855, but nothing scheduled on either in DRMDX and no mentions of logs on those frequencies in the DRM Forums, or the drmna yg, except for 17850, TDF GUIANA FRENCH to Brazil on 21 May *2009*.
Would it be too much to ask for the DRM folx to publish accurate schedules of their own transmissions? GUF is currently registered with ``various`` DRM at 13-21 on 17870-17875-17880, where I was not hearing DRM, but this was after 2100 anyway.
I was checking 17850 earlier in the first place to see if REE Costa Rica, q.v. and see previous report, was there (in AM). OTOH, since REE is supposedly installing a DRM-capable transmitter at Cariari, this could also be an early test of it. Those with DRM, please monitor 17850 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** CHILE. Spurs from 11920 kHz HCJB --- Hello Glenn! I contacted Calera de Tango, they have looked at the transmitter. There has been a problem at the frequency synthesizer. But it should now be OK again.
Greetings from Germany, 73, (Stephan Schaa, May 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Good; hope it stays OK this time. Checked May 20 around 2255 and indeed did not hear the spurs circa plus/minus 20 kHz; however, the fundamental was unusually weak due to poor propagation, so more tries are needed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake May 21:
9350, good at 1258, to open carrier vs nothing at 1300, resumed at 1305; at 1550 JBA and could not confirm whether // 12960
11500, good at 1335, but not on the earlier scan
12960, very poor at 1546
12970, good at 1309 and // 9350. None others found at this time, 8-18 MHz. 12970 gone at 1350 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COSTA RICA. REE relay apparently still running only two of the three transmitters: May 21 at 0536, 5965 // 3350, but nothing audible on scheduled 9630 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also UNIDENTIFIED 17850
** CROATIA [non]. Voice of Croatia has made its usual odd-date May switch from 7375 to 9925 via the overlapping German relays. Tnx to a log tip from Stewart MacKenzie reminding me of this. HFCC says from 10 May until 6 September, now scheduled on 9925:
22-03 240 degrees from Wertachtal to South America
23-03 300 degrees from Wertachtal to North and Central America
01-05 325 degrees from Nauen to North America (west)
Eibi, which has not been updated since 12 April, still has 7375 instead of 9925, with English at 0200-0215 only. There used to be another one, at 2215-2230 per Aoki at least when on 7375, but needs to be reconfirmed on 9925. May 20 at 2200 the signal on 9925 was just too weak in very poor propagation conditions, only one transmitter this early and aimed to S America.
Quite good after 2300, however; and at 0213 UT May 21 finishing ``Croatia Today`` English segment by spending a minute reciting satellites it`s on, MW and SW frequencies including this one, into music.
The list of satellites merely gave the name and the orbital position, no other parameters. Do they really expect listeners to hunt thru all the transponders and all the frequencies on each to find VOC? For that matter, do they have any significant number of individuals listening to them by direct satellite as opposed to shortwave or mediumwave?
At 0230 recheck, 9925 was starting La Voz de Croacia in Spanish. And despite being on three transmitters from two sites, they were well synchronized, no echo detectable, presuming all three of them were propagating here to different degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 6104.8, XEQM Mérida showing up again May 21 at 0533, lively music, fair at peaks with usual deep fades including at 0534 when a hyper canned announcement played. Modulation a bit distorted (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS. Repeat performance of the Radio Free Asia transmitters in Chinese from Tinian and Saipan still propagating to 21+ MHz in the nightmiddle: May 21 at 0526 all audible: 21690, 21550, 17880 (best, Saipan), 17615, 15615, 15120, 13760. And without jamming, but I am sure that is not the case DentroChina (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN. 17595, REE at 2102 May 20 in Portuguese, or is it? The Castilian accent was so heavy that I had to listen carefully to detect that the words were axually Portuguese. I wonder if the Brazilians to whom this is aimed find it equally amusing to hear Portuguese spoken as if it were Castilian. But then they`ve got wacky wailing evangelist David Miranda who does a much worse job of speaking Spanish sounding like Portuguese, or v.v.?
For another day, REE Spanish to North America at the same time was on correct 15110 instead of 15385, quite separate from 17595 which had broken away from parallelism (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also COSTA RICA
** U S A. Now it`s WYFR putting out spurs. May 21 at 0516 I hear a big distorted blob in Spanish with hum centered as closely as I can measure it, on 9921.3. Soon IDed by // 9715. Then I look for a match 206.3 kHz on the other side, and there it is, tho seems not quite as strong, on 9508.7 --- and it bothers another WYFR frequency in Spanish, 9505. Okeechobee has been notified and I expect they`ll be working on it, so let`s hope for a non-repeat tonight (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 17850, DRM noise strong May 20 around 2100 or earlier, and happened to be tuning across when it cut off abruptly at the odd time of 2112:22*, uncovering WYFR on 17845. Center frequency might have been 17855, but nothing scheduled on either in DRMDX and no mentions of logs on those frequencies in the DRM Forums, or the drmna yg, except for 17850, TDF GUIANA FRENCH to Brazil on 21 May *2009*.
Would it be too much to ask for the DRM folx to publish accurate schedules of their own transmissions? GUF is currently registered with ``various`` DRM at 13-21 on 17870-17875-17880, where I was not hearing DRM, but this was after 2100 anyway.
I was checking 17850 earlier in the first place to see if REE Costa Rica, q.v. and see previous report, was there (in AM). OTOH, since REE is supposedly installing a DRM-capable transmitter at Cariari, this could also be an early test of it. Those with DRM, please monitor 17850 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
