** ANTARCTICA. 15476, no carrier from LRA36, Monday April 11 at 1308, 1418, 1456 checks. Still waiting for them to resume regular operation after the surprise re-appearance (test?) April 6 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** AUSTRALIA. THE DUMBING-DOWN OF RADIO AUSTRALIA: one of the few bright spots on the SW dial in our mornings (in English with a strong signal) has been RA, with a variety of intellexually-stimulating or at least meaningful ABC feature programs on weekdays between 13 and 15 UT. Monday April 11 I tune in 9580 at 1345 expecting to hear ``Innovations``, but instead:
YL DJ is jabbering about the local times in various Pacificasian cities where RA has FM relays, such as Port Moresby 101.9; then pop music outroed at 1350 as by Melbourne band Electric Empire; temps in cities as far as Tokyo. Mentions she is hosting this new program in the wee hours, asks for SMS messages. 1359 says something about RA being made over into a ``brighter radio``!
Still news at 1400, anyway, after 9580 has closed but still on 9590; at 1405 instead of `Big Ideas`, right back to this ``overnight show`` with frequencies 107 in Honiara, 103 in Port Vila, 102.1 in Lae, wants text messages to +61 427 72 72 72. Would someone please tell her to go away and put `Big Ideas` back on shortwave, at least??? She is ``all about connecting with you, the listener``. 1408 starts to play wrong track, ``the beauty of live radio, the unexpected``.
Strike RA as anything worth listening to. I hope they still haven`t canned ``Late Night Live``, superb discussion show in the 12-13 hour, which I last heard on Thursday. OMG, ``Late Night Live`` is no longer among the L`s in program list
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/
Just Live Talk-this, and Live Talk-that. I expect we can still find LNL on ABC domestic webcasts.
Indeed, the program sked at
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/universal.htm
now shows ``Live Talk`` English for Asia, M-F at 1230-1530 and also at 05-08 and 09-12, plus some other times. A few of the old ABC feature shows still appear between 16 and 18, deep in the night.
The official term for this revolting development is not ``dumbing-down`` but ``Renovating``:
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/renovate/
``Over the coming weeks and months you'll begin to notice changes to Radio Australia. We're renovating to be more relevant and immediate in our coverage of breaking news, major stories, activities and events as they occur around Asia, the Pacific and Australia. Through this renovation we'll provide new improved opportunities for sharing, participating and collaborating, as well as a new look, style and feel.
Preview the new Radio Australia. You can now preview our new program schedule featuring nine live audio streams, which will be live from 11 April across Asia and the Pacific. Below you can also preview how the new site is shaping up. During the renovation we'd like to hear what you think makes a great website. You can let us know by visiting our contact us page. . .`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake April 11:
8400, absent at 1255. Starting here, did not have time for a thoro bandscan before 1300, but:
10300, good with flutter at 1255
10965, fair at 1256 // 10300, no 10970 today; very poor at 1328
11500, poor at 1329 // 13920
13130, VG at 1259
13920, VG at 1259; good at 1326
13980, fair at 1326, weaker than // 13920
14700, good at 1416, not earlier
15670, fair mixing with some talk at 1303, i.e. RFA Tibetan via Tajikistan
11760, RHC normally very strong here, has heavy CCI from music at 1329 April 11; talk in English after 1330 turns out to be // CRI 9650, but two seconds behind Sackville. Aoki shows Kunming site at 12-14. At 1356, RHC is atop 11760, but CRI under // 9760. Commies vs Commies! See also EAST TURKISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 13780, April 11 at 1432, RHC audio is suppressed and distorted, while still loud and clear on // 13680. Wiggle that patchcord! See also CHINA: collision on 11760 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EAST TURKISTAN. 13670, April 11 at 1325, ``Chinese opera``, flutter, not // CNR1. Aoki shows it`s CRI Chinese service this hour only via Urumqi.
NOT ``Urumqui`` as I keep seeing it misspelt: the Q in Chinese transliteration has no need of a U and doesn`t even sound like our Q. Or, to be more politically correct, we should spell it Urumchi, less confusing and closer to the Uyghur? Even better: some old maps, Rand McNally Atlas 1971, show it as Wulumuchi (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, April 11 at 1503, gospel huxter in Amerenglish, Brother somebody from Georgia, introducing the ``Bible Way Temple Radio Choir``; presumed R. Africa on its sporadic ``schedule`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI gone again Monday April 11 during the 13 English hour, and 14 Indonesian hour; will it be back in time for Banjarmasin co-produxion 24 hours later? As always, the higher-priority RRI transmitter next to it on 9680 is still running, Indopop at 1358 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN [and non]. R. Tirana, ALBANIA, 13625, English to NAm at 1430 is normally without ACI from 13630, but April 11 at 1430 a stronger signal is on 13630 with music, soft announcements, language uncertain, 1431 into Qur`an. That`s typical behaviour of VIRI; gone at 1455 recheck.
Uplooked later, Iran is scheduled on 13630 but only at 1330-1427 in Japanese via Kamalabad, so another of their sloppy overruns. Languages supposed to start at 1430 on other frequencies are: Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, Pashto, Russian.
However, DX Mix News, Bulgaria April 11 in an updated A-11 VIRI schedule shows Japanese until 1427 is supposed to be on 13645 now; and nothing on 13630 any time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [non]. 15735, April 22 at 1301 poor with news in English of Japan disasters, music stingers à la NHK, and in fact it is R. Japan, via Tashkent, UZBEKISTAN. HFCC shows two 100 kW transmitters, both to CIRAF 41, i.e. Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, one at 141 degrees, the other at 163, getting them all covered (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KURDISTAN [non]. 11530, April 11 at 1413, great Kurdish music at S9+20 without too much flutter; still but weaker at 1456, and also heard before 1400, V. of Mesopotamia via UKRAINE currently scheduled 04-18, and from May 29 expanding to -20, while WYFR blox it only until 0900, so should be in the clear anytime after then. 7540, the other frequency seldom heard here, follows at 18-20 until off for the summer. Thus the PKK terrorists get far more SW time on Ukrainian transmitter than RUI any more (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** LIBYA. 17725, VOAf from the GJ, April 11 at 1404 poor with ID in English, drumming; better at 1532, YL about alleged free medical care in Libya. She refers merely to Libya instead of the ``Socialist People`s Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah``, the cumbersome name apparently abolished some time ago; how I miss the SPLAJ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA [non]. 21480, Monday April 11 at 1357 open carrier, but nothing starts at 1400. Finally at 1402, Hamada Radio International modulation, no RMI ID in English, and my Hausa is not good enough to decide whether it was joined in progress, or merely late starting. Meanwhile, with BFO I notice that the carrier from Wertachtal is unsteady, compared to others on 13m, and has a curious wobble (slight regular pitch shift) 48 times per minute.
Jeff White says the schedule will keep changing due to the Nigerian elexions in progress. Besides 21480 M-F at 1400-1430, HRI is registered at 0530-0600 on 9545, 9610 and/or 11970; 1930-2000 on 11865, 11945, but not all of these may be in use at once via GERMANY, and M-F broadcasts might be expanded to Sat and Sun too. As of April 5-7, Kouji Hashimoto in Japan Premium reported that the 1930 broadcast was on 11945 ex-11865 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PORTUGAL. 21655, April 11 at 1320, RDP Internacional announcing this very frequency plus satellite info. After a couple days of deadness, 13m has revived with this plus the usual signals (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 9980, as I tune across WWCR, April 11 at 1410, Brother Scare reveals that ``Jesus is the only one in heaven now``. I`m sure that will disappoint scads of survivors (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [non]. 11880 via COSTA RICA, Monday April 11 at 1434 REE token news capsule in Portuguese, the extremely nasal Brazilian YL, but by now should be in French; were the two swapped at 1430, today or forevermore? 1435:08 into English with Coe; 1437:50 Arabic YL; 1440 outro in Castilian. So English got almost three minutes, Arabic only two. Just so the quadrilingual headlines add up to 10 minutes.
Another full REE A-11 schedule from Antonio Buitrago, DX program host, via Pedro Sedano, noticiasdx yg, still fails to mention this segment at all, merely part of Spanish service. What about ``co-official`` languages?
Per that, Catalan, Gallego y Vasco are Mon-Sat 2330-2345 on 9535, 9620, 11680 and 15160. While Euskera (same language as Vasco, i.e. Basque) is Mon-Fri 1240-1255 on 11880, 11815, 15585, 21540, 21610. The trouble is, Euskera/Basque was divorced last season from the other two when it got its longer slot elsewhen, which we have recently heard starting closer to 1230 than 1240, but not always. That schedule also claims there are a full 3 hours of Euskera on 5970 at 1200-1500, surely a mistake. Further, it claims that Euskera via China to Philippines on 11910 is at 1330-1355, likely also a mistake rather than // all the others at 1240v. We still need to confirm the ``2330-2345`` slot, surely still only Catalan and Galician, and in B-10 there was an unpublished repeat of that at 0505-0515; and still? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN [non]. 17745, April 11 at *1500, Sudan Radio Service still opening in colloquial Arabic but pronouncing station name in English, strumming, 1501 akbar. There was a false alarm last week that this transmission via Sines, PORTUGAL at 15-17 was being canceled (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 15580, April 11 at 0553, poor signal with golf score in English: must be VOA, at the moment SSOB, better than Australia. Altho no Nigeria, 15120, I figured VOA site would be Botswana, but HFCC shows Iranawila, SRI LANKA at 03-07, 250 kW, 263 degrees toward Africa from the other side; unusual opening.
17545, April 11 at 1421, good signal, better than usual, hard-driving beat, VOA Music Mix promo, and more until 1430 cut to ``From Studio 23 in Washington, VOA`s International Edition``. Until then, Africans were prevented from hearing news about Asia, who cares? 17540 is 100 kW, 350 degrees from BOTSWANA during this hour only (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 13570, I noticed WINB was on air with strong signal around 1258 April 11, but gone again at 1322, so no QRM to CODAR. Has the WINB program schedule been updated since March 13 to show it`s nowhere near 24/7 any more? http://www.winb.com/schedule.htm Of course not! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9320, very strong S9+22 open carrier, April 11 at 0559 past 0600, better than WBCQ, WYFR and WTJC just up the band. Occasional barely audible digital beeps, so maybe ute, Cuban spy station. No broadcasters scheduled here between 0030 and 1430 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** AUSTRALIA. THE DUMBING-DOWN OF RADIO AUSTRALIA: one of the few bright spots on the SW dial in our mornings (in English with a strong signal) has been RA, with a variety of intellexually-stimulating or at least meaningful ABC feature programs on weekdays between 13 and 15 UT. Monday April 11 I tune in 9580 at 1345 expecting to hear ``Innovations``, but instead:
YL DJ is jabbering about the local times in various Pacificasian cities where RA has FM relays, such as Port Moresby 101.9; then pop music outroed at 1350 as by Melbourne band Electric Empire; temps in cities as far as Tokyo. Mentions she is hosting this new program in the wee hours, asks for SMS messages. 1359 says something about RA being made over into a ``brighter radio``!
Still news at 1400, anyway, after 9580 has closed but still on 9590; at 1405 instead of `Big Ideas`, right back to this ``overnight show`` with frequencies 107 in Honiara, 103 in Port Vila, 102.1 in Lae, wants text messages to +61 427 72 72 72. Would someone please tell her to go away and put `Big Ideas` back on shortwave, at least??? She is ``all about connecting with you, the listener``. 1408 starts to play wrong track, ``the beauty of live radio, the unexpected``.
Strike RA as anything worth listening to. I hope they still haven`t canned ``Late Night Live``, superb discussion show in the 12-13 hour, which I last heard on Thursday. OMG, ``Late Night Live`` is no longer among the L`s in program list
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/
Just Live Talk-this, and Live Talk-that. I expect we can still find LNL on ABC domestic webcasts.
Indeed, the program sked at
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/universal.htm
now shows ``Live Talk`` English for Asia, M-F at 1230-1530 and also at 05-08 and 09-12, plus some other times. A few of the old ABC feature shows still appear between 16 and 18, deep in the night.
The official term for this revolting development is not ``dumbing-down`` but ``Renovating``:
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/renovate/
``Over the coming weeks and months you'll begin to notice changes to Radio Australia. We're renovating to be more relevant and immediate in our coverage of breaking news, major stories, activities and events as they occur around Asia, the Pacific and Australia. Through this renovation we'll provide new improved opportunities for sharing, participating and collaborating, as well as a new look, style and feel.
Preview the new Radio Australia. You can now preview our new program schedule featuring nine live audio streams, which will be live from 11 April across Asia and the Pacific. Below you can also preview how the new site is shaping up. During the renovation we'd like to hear what you think makes a great website. You can let us know by visiting our contact us page. . .`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake April 11:
8400, absent at 1255. Starting here, did not have time for a thoro bandscan before 1300, but:
10300, good with flutter at 1255
10965, fair at 1256 // 10300, no 10970 today; very poor at 1328
11500, poor at 1329 // 13920
13130, VG at 1259
13920, VG at 1259; good at 1326
13980, fair at 1326, weaker than // 13920
14700, good at 1416, not earlier
15670, fair mixing with some talk at 1303, i.e. RFA Tibetan via Tajikistan
11760, RHC normally very strong here, has heavy CCI from music at 1329 April 11; talk in English after 1330 turns out to be // CRI 9650, but two seconds behind Sackville. Aoki shows Kunming site at 12-14. At 1356, RHC is atop 11760, but CRI under // 9760. Commies vs Commies! See also EAST TURKISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 13780, April 11 at 1432, RHC audio is suppressed and distorted, while still loud and clear on // 13680. Wiggle that patchcord! See also CHINA: collision on 11760 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EAST TURKISTAN. 13670, April 11 at 1325, ``Chinese opera``, flutter, not // CNR1. Aoki shows it`s CRI Chinese service this hour only via Urumqi.
NOT ``Urumqui`` as I keep seeing it misspelt: the Q in Chinese transliteration has no need of a U and doesn`t even sound like our Q. Or, to be more politically correct, we should spell it Urumchi, less confusing and closer to the Uyghur? Even better: some old maps, Rand McNally Atlas 1971, show it as Wulumuchi (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, April 11 at 1503, gospel huxter in Amerenglish, Brother somebody from Georgia, introducing the ``Bible Way Temple Radio Choir``; presumed R. Africa on its sporadic ``schedule`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI gone again Monday April 11 during the 13 English hour, and 14 Indonesian hour; will it be back in time for Banjarmasin co-produxion 24 hours later? As always, the higher-priority RRI transmitter next to it on 9680 is still running, Indopop at 1358 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN [and non]. R. Tirana, ALBANIA, 13625, English to NAm at 1430 is normally without ACI from 13630, but April 11 at 1430 a stronger signal is on 13630 with music, soft announcements, language uncertain, 1431 into Qur`an. That`s typical behaviour of VIRI; gone at 1455 recheck.
Uplooked later, Iran is scheduled on 13630 but only at 1330-1427 in Japanese via Kamalabad, so another of their sloppy overruns. Languages supposed to start at 1430 on other frequencies are: Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, Pashto, Russian.
However, DX Mix News, Bulgaria April 11 in an updated A-11 VIRI schedule shows Japanese until 1427 is supposed to be on 13645 now; and nothing on 13630 any time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [non]. 15735, April 22 at 1301 poor with news in English of Japan disasters, music stingers à la NHK, and in fact it is R. Japan, via Tashkent, UZBEKISTAN. HFCC shows two 100 kW transmitters, both to CIRAF 41, i.e. Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, one at 141 degrees, the other at 163, getting them all covered (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KURDISTAN [non]. 11530, April 11 at 1413, great Kurdish music at S9+20 without too much flutter; still but weaker at 1456, and also heard before 1400, V. of Mesopotamia via UKRAINE currently scheduled 04-18, and from May 29 expanding to -20, while WYFR blox it only until 0900, so should be in the clear anytime after then. 7540, the other frequency seldom heard here, follows at 18-20 until off for the summer. Thus the PKK terrorists get far more SW time on Ukrainian transmitter than RUI any more (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** LIBYA. 17725, VOAf from the GJ, April 11 at 1404 poor with ID in English, drumming; better at 1532, YL about alleged free medical care in Libya. She refers merely to Libya instead of the ``Socialist People`s Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah``, the cumbersome name apparently abolished some time ago; how I miss the SPLAJ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA [non]. 21480, Monday April 11 at 1357 open carrier, but nothing starts at 1400. Finally at 1402, Hamada Radio International modulation, no RMI ID in English, and my Hausa is not good enough to decide whether it was joined in progress, or merely late starting. Meanwhile, with BFO I notice that the carrier from Wertachtal is unsteady, compared to others on 13m, and has a curious wobble (slight regular pitch shift) 48 times per minute.
Jeff White says the schedule will keep changing due to the Nigerian elexions in progress. Besides 21480 M-F at 1400-1430, HRI is registered at 0530-0600 on 9545, 9610 and/or 11970; 1930-2000 on 11865, 11945, but not all of these may be in use at once via GERMANY, and M-F broadcasts might be expanded to Sat and Sun too. As of April 5-7, Kouji Hashimoto in Japan Premium reported that the 1930 broadcast was on 11945 ex-11865 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PORTUGAL. 21655, April 11 at 1320, RDP Internacional announcing this very frequency plus satellite info. After a couple days of deadness, 13m has revived with this plus the usual signals (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 9980, as I tune across WWCR, April 11 at 1410, Brother Scare reveals that ``Jesus is the only one in heaven now``. I`m sure that will disappoint scads of survivors (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [non]. 11880 via COSTA RICA, Monday April 11 at 1434 REE token news capsule in Portuguese, the extremely nasal Brazilian YL, but by now should be in French; were the two swapped at 1430, today or forevermore? 1435:08 into English with Coe; 1437:50 Arabic YL; 1440 outro in Castilian. So English got almost three minutes, Arabic only two. Just so the quadrilingual headlines add up to 10 minutes.
Another full REE A-11 schedule from Antonio Buitrago, DX program host, via Pedro Sedano, noticiasdx yg, still fails to mention this segment at all, merely part of Spanish service. What about ``co-official`` languages?
Per that, Catalan, Gallego y Vasco are Mon-Sat 2330-2345 on 9535, 9620, 11680 and 15160. While Euskera (same language as Vasco, i.e. Basque) is Mon-Fri 1240-1255 on 11880, 11815, 15585, 21540, 21610. The trouble is, Euskera/Basque was divorced last season from the other two when it got its longer slot elsewhen, which we have recently heard starting closer to 1230 than 1240, but not always. That schedule also claims there are a full 3 hours of Euskera on 5970 at 1200-1500, surely a mistake. Further, it claims that Euskera via China to Philippines on 11910 is at 1330-1355, likely also a mistake rather than // all the others at 1240v. We still need to confirm the ``2330-2345`` slot, surely still only Catalan and Galician, and in B-10 there was an unpublished repeat of that at 0505-0515; and still? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN [non]. 17745, April 11 at *1500, Sudan Radio Service still opening in colloquial Arabic but pronouncing station name in English, strumming, 1501 akbar. There was a false alarm last week that this transmission via Sines, PORTUGAL at 15-17 was being canceled (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 15580, April 11 at 0553, poor signal with golf score in English: must be VOA, at the moment SSOB, better than Australia. Altho no Nigeria, 15120, I figured VOA site would be Botswana, but HFCC shows Iranawila, SRI LANKA at 03-07, 250 kW, 263 degrees toward Africa from the other side; unusual opening.
17545, April 11 at 1421, good signal, better than usual, hard-driving beat, VOA Music Mix promo, and more until 1430 cut to ``From Studio 23 in Washington, VOA`s International Edition``. Until then, Africans were prevented from hearing news about Asia, who cares? 17540 is 100 kW, 350 degrees from BOTSWANA during this hour only (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 13570, I noticed WINB was on air with strong signal around 1258 April 11, but gone again at 1322, so no QRM to CODAR. Has the WINB program schedule been updated since March 13 to show it`s nowhere near 24/7 any more? http://www.winb.com/schedule.htm Of course not! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9320, very strong S9+22 open carrier, April 11 at 0559 past 0600, better than WBCQ, WYFR and WTJC just up the band. Occasional barely audible digital beeps, so maybe ute, Cuban spy station. No broadcasters scheduled here between 0030 and 1430 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###