** ANGUILLA. 6090, April 15 at 1008 UT, DGS is still pontificating past nominal 1000 switch to day frequency 11775, and even at 1019, but gone at next check 1031; by 1046, 11775 was on air with successor PMS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ANTARCTICA. 15476, after LRA36`s official reactivation yesterday, I am listening again April 15 from 1229, with vocal music already in progress. After a pause, 1232 sign-on by YL, program `Amanecer Austral` (southern dawn), then talk mixed with same happy theme song heard yesterday, ``Soy Feliz``. 1242, LRA36 ID in passing with music.
Signal is a bit better than April 14, reading S9 to peaks of S9+10. 4-kHz het from 15480 is also stronger so helps to side-tune-down a bit. Still good with mostly music at 1305, 1329 chex, but by 1358 has declined to JBA, S4-9 at best. Perhaps peak reception area has shifted to west coast as Ron Howard was getting it after 1408 yesterday but weaker and weaker.
The April 14 audio clip I linked in previous report via Roberto Scaglione, he says was made ``in Argentina by our contributor Marcello Caneva``, and must have started around 1230. Listening to that
http://www.bclnews.it/110414-15476-1230z.mp3
there is a lot of spoken info. The three women announcing ``en la producción y conducción`` are Lidia Guzmán, Mónica García [the 41-year-old nurse], and Vanesa ---. Their husbands are involved in base support., etc.
They agree they are at 63 degrees south, and the schedule after this `first broadcast` is M-F 9:30-12 [1230-1500 UT]. Also mentioned names of several other people involved including: Dirección, Teniente Coronel Guillermo Bolger(?); Coordinación General de la Radio, Teniente Coronel Pablo González. Phone 0810-222-0760 (or 0770?), and added 02-16, as extension? Totally different from the one in WRTH 2011. E-mail LRA36 @ infovia.com.ar which is the address I have used twice recently without any reply.
Clarifying the phone number above, Horacio A. Nigro in Uruguay says: According to http://www.marambio.aq/radioarcangelsangabriel.html the phone nr. is 0810-222-0770. There appears another email address: lra36esperanza@yahoo.com.ar
I`m afraid much of the info on that page should be considered historical rather than current. I wonder how much power they are using now, what kind of antenna and direxionality? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ARGENTINA. 6060, April 15 at 1024, Andean music, very weak compared to Nikkei 6055 adjacent. Then talk on 6060 also sounds like Japanese. 1030 timesignal and continues talk in Japanese. Thought it might be from Asia, until consulted Aoki, not HFCC, reminding us that RAE does do Japanese here at 10-11. I wonder how well that makes it to Japan, considering the competition; see also JAPAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** AUSTRALIA [and non]. 6020, April 15 at 0944, heavy collision between R. Australia, and RNW in Dutch via BONAIRE, at 0930-1000, reduced weekends to only -0957. I am rather amazed that several stations choose to collide with RA on 6020 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 11780, RNA, April 14 at 2354 as I tuned across was finishing a promo about inaugurating a new 50 kW MW transmitter at 7 am local on April 18 for RNB, then ID for this as ``Rádio Nacional Amazônia, Brasília, uma emissora EBC – Empresa Brasil de Comunicação``.
If a frequency was mentioned for the new 50 kW, I missed it. Don`t see anything about it on website http://www.ebc.com.br/ but may refer to RNB 800 kHz, as the Amazon MW frequency 980 has a 250 kW transmitter run at somewhat lower power, and 50 kW would hardly be anything to brag about there. However, WRTH 2011 shows 800 as Rádio MEC with 10/1 kW in Brasília and 100 kW no Rio (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 11855, April 15 at 0957 ``Aparecida`` ID in passing, with usual low het we also hear in other dayparts since this station is always off-frequency. I suppose the competition was WYFR in Spanish, so lucky to have surpassed it; also on 11855 for long hours is Saudi Arabia. 11765 SRDA was in better, but who wants to listen to David Miranda wail? Besides himself (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. Lots of watts wasted with open carriers during my April 15 monitoring, including 9625 with hum, CBCNQ transmitter still on the air at 0509 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CUBA [non] Martí; RUSSIA; USA: WBCQ; UNIDENTIFIED 17730
** CHINA. Firedrake April 15:
15900, good at 1245
10300, good at 1250
10970, fair at 1250
No others found between 19 and 8 MHz. 15900 reception strength and fading was very much like CRI English on 17490, Chinese on 17650 before 1300, making me suspect the same site for this Firedrake, i.e. Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COSTA RICA [and non]. 5954.2, April 15 at 0942, R. República surprisingly good in Spanish with only lite pulse jamming under, while heavy DentroCuban jamming fell upon R. Martí 5980, 6030 and 9805 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CUBA [and non]
** CUBA [and non]. 17560, April 14 at 2019, RHC Arabic still colliding with VOA French via Bonaire, and at the moment way atop it here, far outside the target zone of both.
9620, April 15 at 0321, RHC with Fidel way over original occupant REE, making a heavy SAH. Both are to South America, and a collision likely to endure as isolated Arnie is obstinant once he has picked a bad frequency, and REE is not known for being willing to move to solve such problems (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [non]. 9805, April 15 at 0937 R. Martí over heavy jamming. At 0945, 5980 was over jaming and 6030 about equal to jamming, during item about béisbol. 7405 without RM at this time, still had jamming pulses. Extracted from latest HFCC, the full RM schedule via Greenville, daily except truce 03-09 UT Mondays:
22-13 6030
00-01 11775 plus 01-03 Sackville
00-03 7365
03-07 7405
07-12 5980
09-13 9805
12-14 7405
13-17 11845
13-20 13820 plus 20-22 Sackville
14-24 11930
17-24 9565
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also COSTA RICA [and non]
** CZECHIA [non]. R. Prague regains a daily English relay via WRMI at 1400 on 9955, replacing France: see U S A (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EGYPT. 9315, April 15 at 0310, R. Cairo, English, good modulation on music, fair on talk, of course much better than neighboring R. Cairo in Arabic on 9305. 0322, YL ID as ``North American service of Radio Cairo beamed to the eastern coast``. Now it has modulation spikes from 9305 QRMing.
As for 9305, at 0420 with Qur`an somewhat less distorted, 0430 Arabic talk more distorted (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** FRANCE. 7375, April 15 at 1003 VG signal with news in Spanish about more corpses found in Durango, Mexican state ``en la frontera con Estados Unidos``! Durango is NOT a border state. I am not impressed with RFI, in this 1000-1030 relay, 250 kW, 305 degrees via GUIANA FRENCH. And like NHK on 6120, why such an early broadcast? RFI`s official CIRAF target area extends to New Mexico, where it`s only 4 am (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also USA: WRMI --- no longer relaying RFI at all
** GREECE [and non]. 9420, April 15 at 0312, good with Greek music and announcements; can`t hear any IRIB underneath, which started the season colliding all the way from 1630 to 0530; is it still there? Probably. John Babbis in Maryland is still reporting co-channel QRM around 2300-0200+ but no worse than I=4 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUATEMALA. 4055.0, April 15 at 1033, R. Verdad already on the air with hymn, 1035 sermon in Spanish with musical background. 1042 daily Bible reading mentioning ``la buena ceniza``(?). Somewhat distorted and overmodulated, good signal for 700 watts at S9+18.
Normal sign on is circa 1130, nominally 1100. At first I wondered if Guatemala had gone on DST as sometimes happens, but no; then I suspect it`s something to do with Good Friday, maybe a pre-sunrise service? Usual late-Sunday sign-on may also be earlied for Easter. I also asked Dr Madrid about it and her replies:
``It is a SURPRISE to me too. I suppose Mary Zacarías got confused with her time. Our schedules are:
Monday through Saturday: 1100 to 0605 UT
Sunday: 1250 to 0400 UT
Thank you for listening. Dr. Édgar Madrid, Radio Truth, Chiquimula, Guatemnala`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 17715, April 15 at 0410 S Asian popsong, poor with flutter; 0414 announcement, hum, 0415 AIR ID, and news. Delhi (Khampur) site, 250 kW, 245 degrees, is scheduled to be going from Hindi to Gujarati at 0415 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ISRAEL [non]. 9955, Israel Radio relay via WRN via WRMI is gone, April 15 at 0511, instead a gospel huxter in Spanish, and with moderate jamming, the wall of noise about equal to the pulsing. Had been M-F at 0500-0515, (or 0600-0615 before DST).
WRMI has just put up a new program schedule dated April 15 which shows this as `Buscando Verdad` plus other 15-minute programs Mon-Thu. See USA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN. 6055, April 15 at 1028 as I was checking out the Japanese on 6060 [ARGENTINA], R. Nikkei was partly in English, outro as having been from the Society for Testing English Proficiency, Inc. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MICRONESIA [and non]. 4755.4, April 15 at 0940, JBA carrier, presumed PMA The Cross, by carefully comparing to WTWW 5755.0, 1.000 MHz lower on FRG-7 BFO; WTWW carrier, BTW is as usual slightly unstable, hard to zero-beat exactly (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA [non]. 17860, April 15 at 1400 carrier, 1400:20 percussion and Hamada Radio International opening ID, about equal to // 21480 which is weaker than usual, but the latter improving after 1405. 17860 is the new April 15-21 extra frequency for the 1400-1430 broadcast during an elexion week in Nigeria, both 125 kW due south from Wertachtal, GERMANY. See my previous report for full schedule (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. 11955 // weaker 11795, April 14 at 2346 a Beethoven piano concerto at frenetic tempo. I can`t pull myself away from a welcome bit of classical music on SW, even tho I know it must be RRI, and they will disrespectfully dump out of it before it`s over: seems like the coda is almost complete when they do fade it out at 2352 to talk Spanish about an oratorio involved in EBU concerts to be performed April 17, and then some of that. HFCC shows RRI Spanish at 23-24:
11795, 300 kW, 280 degrees from Galbeni
11955, 300 kW, 247 degrees from Tiganeshti –
So 11795 is aimed further north than 11955; why is it weaker? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. 15110, April 15 at 0346 open carrier, somewhat less flutter than Saudi 15170; still OC past 0400. Next check 0416 YL in Russian, lo-fi and muffled. Turning on carrier that early is SOP for Tatarstan Wave, A-11 scheduled 0410-0500, 250 kW, 60 degrees from Samara to Far East, per DX-Mix News.
12065, April 15 at 1338 interview in English, OM subject sounds American. Too poor to follow, 1349 VOR ID. HFCC shows 500 kW, 205 degrees via Chita at 1100-1400. Aoki breaks this down as English 11-12 and 13-14 with Vietnamese in between (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 15170, April 15 at 0345 HQS with, what else, Qur`an beautifully sung, fair with flutter and no CCI yet. It`s stronger by 0359 but now I can tell modulation is somewhat distorted and splattering. One of those defective BSKSA transmitters. Well, they have some new DRM-capable ones which will do even more damage if employed in that mode. Best to hear this during the first hour from 0300, as after 0400 CRI can clash via Kashgar, East Turkistan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [and non]. Since various versions of the REE A-11 schedule are unreliable and contradictory, I check out the alleged Catalan/Galician/Basque token newscasts shown on one at 2330-2345 M-F: April 14 at 2330 yes, in Catalan, 2335 sea-shanty theme and into Gallego, but 2340 back into Castilian with other programming; audible on all four frequencies on air at this time, in decreasing quality: 11680, 9535, 9620, 15160. All these are direct, so no one can benefit from the CR relay in the Americas! Basque was removed from the mix six months ago when it got its own expanded separate slot.
In B-10 Catalan and Galician were repeated at a secret time, 0505-0515, discovered by WRTH, so I check 6055, and Costa Rica 5965, 3350, April 15 at 0505, but no, some music, and from 0506 a Castilian program, `Mundo Solidario`, starting with murders in Ciudad Juárez, and DX host Antonio Buitrago billed as one of the participants later in the hour. So if there is a repeat of ``co-official languages`` benefiting from CR relays, it is at some other time, maybe 0405? But there was no one-hour shift for the original airing.
BTW, 9630 CR was already blasting DRM noise as early as 2357 before scheduled *0000-0200* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CUBA: collision on 9620
** SUDAN [and non]. 13620, April 15 at 0514, R. Dabanga via MADAGASCAR, VG signal but with continuous tone underneath. Last night I only caught the end of the broadcast until 0527 and tone until 0529* so supposed it was at tail of AIR Arabic as scheduled 0430-0530, but if the tone is already there at 0514, it`s more likely deliberate jamming from Sudan, rather less effective than the grind and whine on Dabanga`s other frequency, 13730 via UAE. That pulsing amounted to 72 times per minute vs 78 last nite, and this time there were no breaks every 15 seconds. I reconfirmed it is just modulation on a normal carrier which could be zero-beat with BFO, and this time there were traces of Dabanga program audio underneath (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9330-CUSB, WBCQ with dead air instead of GFRN/Radio 2:11, April 15 at 0311 and further chex thru the nite at 0335, 0343, 0412, 0430, 0935, 1017, 1252; finally at next check 1354, modulation had resumed, now overshadowed by 9335 VOK closing English mixing with IBB.
Except when I happened to be monitoring at hourtop 0500, 9330 came to life for a few sex with legal ID by Allan Weiner --- obviously automated, while the feed from Orangeville was lost for hours and hours before and after, and nothing done about it until next morning. Such is the plight of stations outsourcing programming. When I checked 7415 at 0328, it was also on the air with open carrier, and at 0335, but 7415 was off by 0412 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1560 monitoring: confirmed on ACB Radio Mainstream webcast, UT Friday April 15 from 0100, to be repeated 2-hourly thru 2330.
On WWRB, April 15 at 0331 dead air after preacher, 0332 Dave Frantz comes on live about World of Radio, ``stand by, we`re working on it``, and new WOR 1560 finally starts at 0334:10, on both frequencies 2390 and 5050. As usual, 2390 much stronger here, but T-storm noise on both from eastern OK/AR area.
WRMI has just put up a new program schedule grid, in UT -4 = EDT: Several changes to be found at http://www.tinyurl.com/wrmisked a shortened link we ordered. If the ungainly real URL change, pursue it via http://www.wrmi.net/ and click on Progamming.
A quick look shows WORLD OF RADIO at the same times as before, except losing the Saturday 1400 airing, replaced by R. Prague in English, which has resumed 7 days a week at that time instead of RFI on M-F.
Our WWCR times: Friday 2030 15825, Saturday 1600 12160, Sunday 0630 3215. How are these doing in Eurafrica? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also ISRAEL [non]
** VIETNAM [non]. 6175, VOV via CANADA is still running Vietnamese lessons for English speakers toward the end of Vietnamese-language hours rather than English! April 15 at 0524 sentence-by-sentence translation of text about the Olympix, women allowed since 1928. 0525 finished, into all-Vietnamese, 0527 switch to Babcock fill music loop as always, 0529 a few iterations of the RCI IS and IDs in French and English, and off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9396.5, April 15 at 1355 at first sounds like distorted music spur cutting on and off, but maybe it`s a ute, hard to pinpoint somewhere between 9396 and 9397, definitely not a spur from WTJC 9370 music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 17730, April 15 at 1332, open carrier with `Russian` tones, on and off a few times a minute, but 1333-1334 stayed on constantly for a full minute, then off a semiminute, back on for some 65 seconds. Nothing is scheduled in HFCC or Aoki on 17730 after 1200. Poor signal, at first thought it was 17725 Libya, but that was even weaker, JBA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** ANTARCTICA. 15476, after LRA36`s official reactivation yesterday, I am listening again April 15 from 1229, with vocal music already in progress. After a pause, 1232 sign-on by YL, program `Amanecer Austral` (southern dawn), then talk mixed with same happy theme song heard yesterday, ``Soy Feliz``. 1242, LRA36 ID in passing with music.
Signal is a bit better than April 14, reading S9 to peaks of S9+10. 4-kHz het from 15480 is also stronger so helps to side-tune-down a bit. Still good with mostly music at 1305, 1329 chex, but by 1358 has declined to JBA, S4-9 at best. Perhaps peak reception area has shifted to west coast as Ron Howard was getting it after 1408 yesterday but weaker and weaker.
The April 14 audio clip I linked in previous report via Roberto Scaglione, he says was made ``in Argentina by our contributor Marcello Caneva``, and must have started around 1230. Listening to that
http://www.bclnews.it/110414-15476-1230z.mp3
there is a lot of spoken info. The three women announcing ``en la producción y conducción`` are Lidia Guzmán, Mónica García [the 41-year-old nurse], and Vanesa ---. Their husbands are involved in base support., etc.
They agree they are at 63 degrees south, and the schedule after this `first broadcast` is M-F 9:30-12 [1230-1500 UT]. Also mentioned names of several other people involved including: Dirección, Teniente Coronel Guillermo Bolger(?); Coordinación General de la Radio, Teniente Coronel Pablo González. Phone 0810-222-0760 (or 0770?), and added 02-16, as extension? Totally different from the one in WRTH 2011. E-mail LRA36 @ infovia.com.ar which is the address I have used twice recently without any reply.
Clarifying the phone number above, Horacio A. Nigro in Uruguay says: According to http://www.marambio.aq/radioarcangelsangabriel.html the phone nr. is 0810-222-0770. There appears another email address: lra36esperanza@yahoo.com.ar
I`m afraid much of the info on that page should be considered historical rather than current. I wonder how much power they are using now, what kind of antenna and direxionality? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ARGENTINA. 6060, April 15 at 1024, Andean music, very weak compared to Nikkei 6055 adjacent. Then talk on 6060 also sounds like Japanese. 1030 timesignal and continues talk in Japanese. Thought it might be from Asia, until consulted Aoki, not HFCC, reminding us that RAE does do Japanese here at 10-11. I wonder how well that makes it to Japan, considering the competition; see also JAPAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** AUSTRALIA [and non]. 6020, April 15 at 0944, heavy collision between R. Australia, and RNW in Dutch via BONAIRE, at 0930-1000, reduced weekends to only -0957. I am rather amazed that several stations choose to collide with RA on 6020 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 11780, RNA, April 14 at 2354 as I tuned across was finishing a promo about inaugurating a new 50 kW MW transmitter at 7 am local on April 18 for RNB, then ID for this as ``Rádio Nacional Amazônia, Brasília, uma emissora EBC – Empresa Brasil de Comunicação``.
If a frequency was mentioned for the new 50 kW, I missed it. Don`t see anything about it on website http://www.ebc.com.br/ but may refer to RNB 800 kHz, as the Amazon MW frequency 980 has a 250 kW transmitter run at somewhat lower power, and 50 kW would hardly be anything to brag about there. However, WRTH 2011 shows 800 as Rádio MEC with 10/1 kW in Brasília and 100 kW no Rio (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 11855, April 15 at 0957 ``Aparecida`` ID in passing, with usual low het we also hear in other dayparts since this station is always off-frequency. I suppose the competition was WYFR in Spanish, so lucky to have surpassed it; also on 11855 for long hours is Saudi Arabia. 11765 SRDA was in better, but who wants to listen to David Miranda wail? Besides himself (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. Lots of watts wasted with open carriers during my April 15 monitoring, including 9625 with hum, CBCNQ transmitter still on the air at 0509 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CUBA [non] Martí; RUSSIA; USA: WBCQ; UNIDENTIFIED 17730
** CHINA. Firedrake April 15:
15900, good at 1245
10300, good at 1250
10970, fair at 1250
No others found between 19 and 8 MHz. 15900 reception strength and fading was very much like CRI English on 17490, Chinese on 17650 before 1300, making me suspect the same site for this Firedrake, i.e. Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COSTA RICA [and non]. 5954.2, April 15 at 0942, R. República surprisingly good in Spanish with only lite pulse jamming under, while heavy DentroCuban jamming fell upon R. Martí 5980, 6030 and 9805 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CUBA [and non]
** CUBA [and non]. 17560, April 14 at 2019, RHC Arabic still colliding with VOA French via Bonaire, and at the moment way atop it here, far outside the target zone of both.
9620, April 15 at 0321, RHC with Fidel way over original occupant REE, making a heavy SAH. Both are to South America, and a collision likely to endure as isolated Arnie is obstinant once he has picked a bad frequency, and REE is not known for being willing to move to solve such problems (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [non]. 9805, April 15 at 0937 R. Martí over heavy jamming. At 0945, 5980 was over jaming and 6030 about equal to jamming, during item about béisbol. 7405 without RM at this time, still had jamming pulses. Extracted from latest HFCC, the full RM schedule via Greenville, daily except truce 03-09 UT Mondays:
22-13 6030
00-01 11775 plus 01-03 Sackville
00-03 7365
03-07 7405
07-12 5980
09-13 9805
12-14 7405
13-17 11845
13-20 13820 plus 20-22 Sackville
14-24 11930
17-24 9565
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also COSTA RICA [and non]
** CZECHIA [non]. R. Prague regains a daily English relay via WRMI at 1400 on 9955, replacing France: see U S A (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EGYPT. 9315, April 15 at 0310, R. Cairo, English, good modulation on music, fair on talk, of course much better than neighboring R. Cairo in Arabic on 9305. 0322, YL ID as ``North American service of Radio Cairo beamed to the eastern coast``. Now it has modulation spikes from 9305 QRMing.
As for 9305, at 0420 with Qur`an somewhat less distorted, 0430 Arabic talk more distorted (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** FRANCE. 7375, April 15 at 1003 VG signal with news in Spanish about more corpses found in Durango, Mexican state ``en la frontera con Estados Unidos``! Durango is NOT a border state. I am not impressed with RFI, in this 1000-1030 relay, 250 kW, 305 degrees via GUIANA FRENCH. And like NHK on 6120, why such an early broadcast? RFI`s official CIRAF target area extends to New Mexico, where it`s only 4 am (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also USA: WRMI --- no longer relaying RFI at all
** GREECE [and non]. 9420, April 15 at 0312, good with Greek music and announcements; can`t hear any IRIB underneath, which started the season colliding all the way from 1630 to 0530; is it still there? Probably. John Babbis in Maryland is still reporting co-channel QRM around 2300-0200+ but no worse than I=4 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUATEMALA. 4055.0, April 15 at 1033, R. Verdad already on the air with hymn, 1035 sermon in Spanish with musical background. 1042 daily Bible reading mentioning ``la buena ceniza``(?). Somewhat distorted and overmodulated, good signal for 700 watts at S9+18.
Normal sign on is circa 1130, nominally 1100. At first I wondered if Guatemala had gone on DST as sometimes happens, but no; then I suspect it`s something to do with Good Friday, maybe a pre-sunrise service? Usual late-Sunday sign-on may also be earlied for Easter. I also asked Dr Madrid about it and her replies:
``It is a SURPRISE to me too. I suppose Mary Zacarías got confused with her time. Our schedules are:
Monday through Saturday: 1100 to 0605 UT
Sunday: 1250 to 0400 UT
Thank you for listening. Dr. Édgar Madrid, Radio Truth, Chiquimula, Guatemnala`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 17715, April 15 at 0410 S Asian popsong, poor with flutter; 0414 announcement, hum, 0415 AIR ID, and news. Delhi (Khampur) site, 250 kW, 245 degrees, is scheduled to be going from Hindi to Gujarati at 0415 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ISRAEL [non]. 9955, Israel Radio relay via WRN via WRMI is gone, April 15 at 0511, instead a gospel huxter in Spanish, and with moderate jamming, the wall of noise about equal to the pulsing. Had been M-F at 0500-0515, (or 0600-0615 before DST).
WRMI has just put up a new program schedule dated April 15 which shows this as `Buscando Verdad` plus other 15-minute programs Mon-Thu. See USA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN. 6055, April 15 at 1028 as I was checking out the Japanese on 6060 [ARGENTINA], R. Nikkei was partly in English, outro as having been from the Society for Testing English Proficiency, Inc. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MICRONESIA [and non]. 4755.4, April 15 at 0940, JBA carrier, presumed PMA The Cross, by carefully comparing to WTWW 5755.0, 1.000 MHz lower on FRG-7 BFO; WTWW carrier, BTW is as usual slightly unstable, hard to zero-beat exactly (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA [non]. 17860, April 15 at 1400 carrier, 1400:20 percussion and Hamada Radio International opening ID, about equal to // 21480 which is weaker than usual, but the latter improving after 1405. 17860 is the new April 15-21 extra frequency for the 1400-1430 broadcast during an elexion week in Nigeria, both 125 kW due south from Wertachtal, GERMANY. See my previous report for full schedule (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. 11955 // weaker 11795, April 14 at 2346 a Beethoven piano concerto at frenetic tempo. I can`t pull myself away from a welcome bit of classical music on SW, even tho I know it must be RRI, and they will disrespectfully dump out of it before it`s over: seems like the coda is almost complete when they do fade it out at 2352 to talk Spanish about an oratorio involved in EBU concerts to be performed April 17, and then some of that. HFCC shows RRI Spanish at 23-24:
11795, 300 kW, 280 degrees from Galbeni
11955, 300 kW, 247 degrees from Tiganeshti –
So 11795 is aimed further north than 11955; why is it weaker? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. 15110, April 15 at 0346 open carrier, somewhat less flutter than Saudi 15170; still OC past 0400. Next check 0416 YL in Russian, lo-fi and muffled. Turning on carrier that early is SOP for Tatarstan Wave, A-11 scheduled 0410-0500, 250 kW, 60 degrees from Samara to Far East, per DX-Mix News.
12065, April 15 at 1338 interview in English, OM subject sounds American. Too poor to follow, 1349 VOR ID. HFCC shows 500 kW, 205 degrees via Chita at 1100-1400. Aoki breaks this down as English 11-12 and 13-14 with Vietnamese in between (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 15170, April 15 at 0345 HQS with, what else, Qur`an beautifully sung, fair with flutter and no CCI yet. It`s stronger by 0359 but now I can tell modulation is somewhat distorted and splattering. One of those defective BSKSA transmitters. Well, they have some new DRM-capable ones which will do even more damage if employed in that mode. Best to hear this during the first hour from 0300, as after 0400 CRI can clash via Kashgar, East Turkistan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [and non]. Since various versions of the REE A-11 schedule are unreliable and contradictory, I check out the alleged Catalan/Galician/Basque token newscasts shown on one at 2330-2345 M-F: April 14 at 2330 yes, in Catalan, 2335 sea-shanty theme and into Gallego, but 2340 back into Castilian with other programming; audible on all four frequencies on air at this time, in decreasing quality: 11680, 9535, 9620, 15160. All these are direct, so no one can benefit from the CR relay in the Americas! Basque was removed from the mix six months ago when it got its own expanded separate slot.
In B-10 Catalan and Galician were repeated at a secret time, 0505-0515, discovered by WRTH, so I check 6055, and Costa Rica 5965, 3350, April 15 at 0505, but no, some music, and from 0506 a Castilian program, `Mundo Solidario`, starting with murders in Ciudad Juárez, and DX host Antonio Buitrago billed as one of the participants later in the hour. So if there is a repeat of ``co-official languages`` benefiting from CR relays, it is at some other time, maybe 0405? But there was no one-hour shift for the original airing.
BTW, 9630 CR was already blasting DRM noise as early as 2357 before scheduled *0000-0200* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CUBA: collision on 9620
** SUDAN [and non]. 13620, April 15 at 0514, R. Dabanga via MADAGASCAR, VG signal but with continuous tone underneath. Last night I only caught the end of the broadcast until 0527 and tone until 0529* so supposed it was at tail of AIR Arabic as scheduled 0430-0530, but if the tone is already there at 0514, it`s more likely deliberate jamming from Sudan, rather less effective than the grind and whine on Dabanga`s other frequency, 13730 via UAE. That pulsing amounted to 72 times per minute vs 78 last nite, and this time there were no breaks every 15 seconds. I reconfirmed it is just modulation on a normal carrier which could be zero-beat with BFO, and this time there were traces of Dabanga program audio underneath (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9330-CUSB, WBCQ with dead air instead of GFRN/Radio 2:11, April 15 at 0311 and further chex thru the nite at 0335, 0343, 0412, 0430, 0935, 1017, 1252; finally at next check 1354, modulation had resumed, now overshadowed by 9335 VOK closing English mixing with IBB.
Except when I happened to be monitoring at hourtop 0500, 9330 came to life for a few sex with legal ID by Allan Weiner --- obviously automated, while the feed from Orangeville was lost for hours and hours before and after, and nothing done about it until next morning. Such is the plight of stations outsourcing programming. When I checked 7415 at 0328, it was also on the air with open carrier, and at 0335, but 7415 was off by 0412 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1560 monitoring: confirmed on ACB Radio Mainstream webcast, UT Friday April 15 from 0100, to be repeated 2-hourly thru 2330.
On WWRB, April 15 at 0331 dead air after preacher, 0332 Dave Frantz comes on live about World of Radio, ``stand by, we`re working on it``, and new WOR 1560 finally starts at 0334:10, on both frequencies 2390 and 5050. As usual, 2390 much stronger here, but T-storm noise on both from eastern OK/AR area.
WRMI has just put up a new program schedule grid, in UT -4 = EDT: Several changes to be found at http://www.tinyurl.com/wrmisked a shortened link we ordered. If the ungainly real URL change, pursue it via http://www.wrmi.net/ and click on Progamming.
A quick look shows WORLD OF RADIO at the same times as before, except losing the Saturday 1400 airing, replaced by R. Prague in English, which has resumed 7 days a week at that time instead of RFI on M-F.
Our WWCR times: Friday 2030 15825, Saturday 1600 12160, Sunday 0630 3215. How are these doing in Eurafrica? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also ISRAEL [non]
** VIETNAM [non]. 6175, VOV via CANADA is still running Vietnamese lessons for English speakers toward the end of Vietnamese-language hours rather than English! April 15 at 0524 sentence-by-sentence translation of text about the Olympix, women allowed since 1928. 0525 finished, into all-Vietnamese, 0527 switch to Babcock fill music loop as always, 0529 a few iterations of the RCI IS and IDs in French and English, and off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9396.5, April 15 at 1355 at first sounds like distorted music spur cutting on and off, but maybe it`s a ute, hard to pinpoint somewhere between 9396 and 9397, definitely not a spur from WTJC 9370 music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 17730, April 15 at 1332, open carrier with `Russian` tones, on and off a few times a minute, but 1333-1334 stayed on constantly for a full minute, then off a semiminute, back on for some 65 seconds. Nothing is scheduled in HFCC or Aoki on 17730 after 1200. Poor signal, at first thought it was 17725 Libya, but that was even weaker, JBA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###