** ALBANIA. 13735, April 25 at 1855, R. Tirana`s English to NAm from 1845 today has sufficient modulation, unlike yesterday, now easy to follow something about the European Parliament. Still totally in the clear from QRM, no other signals between 13720 and 13750.
13625, April 26 at 1442, R. Tirana English is poor with some music audible; both signal and modulation are subpar (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ANTARCTICA. 15476, no carrier detected from LRA36 April 26 at 1302, 1358 or at 1420 when the Greenville 15480 carrier had come on; see USA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake April 26:
7970, fair at 1257; poor at 1322
10965, good at 1257; very poor at 1324
12980, poor at 1257; very poor at 1324
13920, very good at 1258, heard a snippet before it cut off at 1259; VG at 1324
13980, good at 1325
14700, very good at 1326
15430, poor at 1358 // 13920; 15430 is vs V. of Tibet via UAE
14950, very good until 1300*; very good at 1325
16980, good at 1327; none others up to 19 MHz. I did not start checking soon enough before 1300 to do a complete bandscan then or might have found some others (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUATEMALA. 4055, R. Verdad, April 26 at 0553 fair with pervasive storm noise on these lower bands, carrier unstable and hard to zero-beat, already in sign-off routine in Spanish, English, 0554 German.
Also received April 25: QSL #10 for their Anniversary 11, ``Nueva Etapa`` showing 4.055 MHz, with 7 photos of staff and equipment, predominant color blue instead of green. Endorsed by Édgar on reverse, ``many technical reports, 700 watts, with special gratefulness``. Also enclosed the check from Jesucristo, 1-sheet 2011y calendar with photo of Dr Madrid next to his colleague from Nueva Radio Lwenge FM, Congo [which one?]; two info sheets as of April 15 with listenership statistics; yellow bumper sticker; and the new fabric rather than plastic/rubber pennant.
This time the envelope bears 3 x Q6.50 stamps, a Q0.50 and a Q5.00 for a total of Q25, all from the same set, three very nice and colorful geometric fabric (?) designs, the work of Priscilla Bianchi --- but the stamps are stuck on the back of the envelope, sort of sealing it as the flap was tucked in, and the 0.50 and 5.00 stamps are stuck on top of the 6.50s! Worse, they are all underneath a big piece of clear sticky tape to seal the envelope for sure. I`ll have to explain how to make philatelists even happier (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI, April 26 at 1345 check, very poor with music audible, and carrier definitely on this frequency, so not off the air, but might as well be for such insufficient reception during another presumed `Exotic Indonesia` Banjarmasin-Tuesday (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH. 13760, April 26 at 1353, VOK fair with stilted talk about respecting intellexual property, as today is: World Intellectual Property Day! Since 1970. DPRK joined an accord about this in August 1974. I could hardly keep from LOL! Then into sign-off. This frequency is to Europe, and in quality ranked between the ones to NAm, better 11710 and worse 9335 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NEW ZEALAND. 6170, April 26 at 1319, RNZI about PNG politix, fair signal weakening to very poor at 1400 when still audible with timesignal. Nothing on 9615 after 1400 today, so yesterday`s mistaken appearance there has been repaired, to the detriment of listeners here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PORTUGAL. 21655, April 25 at 1859, RDPI surprisingly stronger than RFI via GUF on 21690; music but somewhat distorted and carrier unstable. ID and announcement in Portuguese that 9860 to Europe would soon be changing to 9795, timesignal, and at 1900*, 21690 cut off the air without any such warning. Latest schedule via DX Mix News shows:
Brasil/Cabo Verde/Guiné Bissau Mon-Fri
1300-1900 on 21655 LIS 300 kW / 226 deg
West Europe Mon-Fri
1600-1855 on 11905 LIS 300 kW / 045 deg
1900-2255 on 9820 LIS 300 kW / 045 deg* extraordinary emissions
And no usage of 9795 whatsoever! Outdated announcement?
21655 again April 26 at 1440, fair but carrier unstable. This is about when the `Caixa Postal/Dexismo` program used to air, but it`s gone from the minute-by-minute program schedule at
http://tv.rtp.pt/EPG/radio/epg-dia.php?canal=5&ac=d&sem=e
nor at the other time circa 2330 Mondays. Further, it is no longer in the alfabetical list of programs at
http://tv.rtp.pt/EPG/radio/programas/?rcanal=5
so we can only assume it has been deleted completely. Perhaps this one is to substitute: `Clube da Amizade` on Saturdays. Or not. It`s all the way from ``0808 to 1200`` with some breaks, not a convenient time in América.
Furthermore, the program schedule still shows Lisboa and UT as the same! Even tho Portugal has been on UT+1 for a month. So which column are we to believe?? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [non]. 9630, REE via COSTA RICA, back here April 26 at 0543, instead of alternate 9675 heard 24 hours earlier; so was that slopperation or a test? For benefit of would-be CBCNQ listeners before 0505*, bigsig 9675 would be better from Cariari (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN [non]. 13620, April 26 at 0527, R. Dabanga carrier off a few seconds after this minute rather than erroneous English for a sesquiminute as last time; while the jamming tone continues, in the clear without a SAH from Madagascar.
13730, the other R. Dabanga frequency, via UAE, bore only the jamming consisting of an oscillating noisy tone pulsing at the rate of 72 times per minute, and cutting to silence a split second every quarter-minute, still going at 0539 long after RD had finished (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 3215, WWCR: last Friday night (UT Saturday) there was music, Rock the Universe? Instead of Rollye James, so I check again Monday night (UT Tuesday) April 26 at 0555, and now there is gospel music, no Rollye either. The program guide dated April 1 at
http://www.wwcr.com/program-guides/WWCR_Program_Guide.pdf
still shows `Rollye James` Mon-Sat at 0500-0800 UT, but evidently she`s gone from WWCR. That`s a large chunk of available airtime, 18 hours a week.
Altho the Programming Linx page was updated April 25, she`s still listed, onward to:
http://www.rollye.net/index.html
The situation is explained here:
http://www.rollye.net/WhereHear.html
It seems Clear Channel, her original syndicator wanted her gone by March 31, and she has been trying to interest Sirius/XM in picking up her show, but ``no bandwidth available`` so far. So she`s off the air completely for now. How come? She could still be on WWCR, but not even a mention of the shortwave option! Not that I cared to listen to this Mediatrix. DXing and sleeping has been far more satisfying (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9330, WBCQ dead air/open carrier again April 26 at 1343 for at least a minute; next check 1447, GFRN is back (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 17670, April 26 at 1309, fair signal in Christian music, 1311 Vietnamese talk, undermodulated, and at 1315 transmission breaks three or four times. It`s AWR via MADAGASCAR, 250 kW, 60 degrees at 1300-1400. Chances are, anything your hear in Vietnamese on SW will most likely be from western missionaries rather than Rational Atheists, let alone Commies (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. The PTB at IBB ordered Greenville to start broadcasting Radio Sawa, 55 degrees to Libya again from April 23, at 1430-1600 on 15480, despite LRA36 Antarctica on 15476. However, on April 26, RNASG was not audible at all in the earlier sesquihour. GB open carrier on at 1420; at 1421 faded in tone for a little while, then back to OC; 1429.5 cut on Sawa-sounding music, but at 1430 switched to VOA in English! ``From Studio 23 in Washington, this is VOA`s International Edition``. It`s // but an echo apart from 15580 and 17545 which are synchronized with each other this time.
After world news stories, feature item at 1448 mentioned matter-of-factly that ``Chernobyl released 400 times more radiation than Hiroshima and Nagasaki``! That can`t be true; surely nuclear explosions are in an entirely different league than meltdowns. Signal cut off the air for less than a minute at 1450, but resumed still with English instead of Sawa. 1455 closing credits were for Kate somebody as managing director; anchor Paul Westfeeling (sounded like --- just try to find him at the Inside VOA page! Nor does the program page http://www.voanews.com/english/programs/radio/65000907.html
say anything about personnel!); which of them or what writer is responsible for that unchallenged statistic? But Wikipedia says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_compared_to_other_radioactivity_releases
``Some comments have been made in which the radioactive release of the Chernobyl event is claimed to be 300[3] or 400[4] times that of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The work of SCOPE[5] suggests that the two events can not be simply compared with a number suggesting that one was XX times larger than the other.`` It all has to do with isotopes, half-lives, and effects over time rather than immediately.
1456, USG Editorial also about Chernobyl, but this YL reader tried to make the y into a diphthong.
1500 News, 1505 `Border Crossings`, usual pop music stuff and chatter from host Larry London. Fulfilled one request for Peace Corps Volunteers in Zambia, so evidently such Americans abroad are not banned, but would he ever play a classical music piece if one were requested? The closest to that today was a protracted `live` performance of ``Hey, Jude`` by McCartney at 1518.
By now 15480 would be the SSOB if it were not for WYFR on 15130. No time to listen further, but presumably never picked up Sawa until I heard the carrier go off at 1600*.
Ivo Ivanov says other new frequencies for Radio Sawa at 1430-1600 since April 23 are 17530 Kuwait and 17785 Botswana, the former also on in the previous sesquihour. Did they get the correct feed today? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 13585, April 26 at 1317, poor signal in Korean vs CODAR, as I was checking for Zambia on 13590/13599.8 --- it`s VOA at 1200-1500. Aoki says TINIAN, but HFCC says TINANG, PHILIPPINES. It`s too easy to mix up these similar-sounding sites, but IBB might easily switch between them for no particular reason (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 17775, KVOH, after its three-day-long-weekend, is back on the air Tuesday April 26 at 1453 already, VG signal with gospel song in English instead of Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9955, WRMI, April 26 at 1535, WORLD OF RADIO 1561 is barely audible on very poor signal, lite SAH from Taiwan, but no jamming, so WRMI is not off the air (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTNEING DIGEST)
** ZAMBIA [and non]. 13599.8, 1Africa continues to use this unlisted off-frequency instead of scheduled 13590: April 25 at 1857 still making het with something on 13600.0, and 13590 vacant.
April 26 at 0537, nothing on 9430, 13590 or 13599.8, but tuning 13599.8 at 0558, there it is again, this time with its own tone test instead of het. At 0558:42 cut to modulation by gospel music. During jingle at 0600 cut off the air before 0601; 0602 back on with modulation stepping up and down, into Jesus story and plug www site. 0603 cut off and on and off and on, modulation problems, open carrier, etc.
Next check at 1316 found Russian on 13600 (probably CRI, not VOR) about equal level to 1Africa with gospel rock on 13599.8, horrible het. Listed 13590 remained vacant. Around 1500 no longer hearing either, 1Africa off again?
Website http://www.1africa.tv/ shows ``frequency change update --
These frequencies are valid for a period of 6 months (March-October)
0600-0800 CAT: No SW Broadcasting (Listen Live/ Satellite)
0800-2200 CAT: 13590 kHz
2200-2400 CAT: 9505 kHz
1900-2400 CAT: 4965 kHz (South Central Africa)``
Subtract 2 hours for UT. So it seems 4965 has also been switched from the other CVC domestic service to this external service at 17-22 UT // 13599.8 until 2000 UT, then // 9505 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
13625, April 26 at 1442, R. Tirana English is poor with some music audible; both signal and modulation are subpar (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ANTARCTICA. 15476, no carrier detected from LRA36 April 26 at 1302, 1358 or at 1420 when the Greenville 15480 carrier had come on; see USA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake April 26:
7970, fair at 1257; poor at 1322
10965, good at 1257; very poor at 1324
12980, poor at 1257; very poor at 1324
13920, very good at 1258, heard a snippet before it cut off at 1259; VG at 1324
13980, good at 1325
14700, very good at 1326
15430, poor at 1358 // 13920; 15430 is vs V. of Tibet via UAE
14950, very good until 1300*; very good at 1325
16980, good at 1327; none others up to 19 MHz. I did not start checking soon enough before 1300 to do a complete bandscan then or might have found some others (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUATEMALA. 4055, R. Verdad, April 26 at 0553 fair with pervasive storm noise on these lower bands, carrier unstable and hard to zero-beat, already in sign-off routine in Spanish, English, 0554 German.
Also received April 25: QSL #10 for their Anniversary 11, ``Nueva Etapa`` showing 4.055 MHz, with 7 photos of staff and equipment, predominant color blue instead of green. Endorsed by Édgar on reverse, ``many technical reports, 700 watts, with special gratefulness``. Also enclosed the check from Jesucristo, 1-sheet 2011y calendar with photo of Dr Madrid next to his colleague from Nueva Radio Lwenge FM, Congo [which one?]; two info sheets as of April 15 with listenership statistics; yellow bumper sticker; and the new fabric rather than plastic/rubber pennant.
This time the envelope bears 3 x Q6.50 stamps, a Q0.50 and a Q5.00 for a total of Q25, all from the same set, three very nice and colorful geometric fabric (?) designs, the work of Priscilla Bianchi --- but the stamps are stuck on the back of the envelope, sort of sealing it as the flap was tucked in, and the 0.50 and 5.00 stamps are stuck on top of the 6.50s! Worse, they are all underneath a big piece of clear sticky tape to seal the envelope for sure. I`ll have to explain how to make philatelists even happier (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI, April 26 at 1345 check, very poor with music audible, and carrier definitely on this frequency, so not off the air, but might as well be for such insufficient reception during another presumed `Exotic Indonesia` Banjarmasin-Tuesday (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH. 13760, April 26 at 1353, VOK fair with stilted talk about respecting intellexual property, as today is: World Intellectual Property Day! Since 1970. DPRK joined an accord about this in August 1974. I could hardly keep from LOL! Then into sign-off. This frequency is to Europe, and in quality ranked between the ones to NAm, better 11710 and worse 9335 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NEW ZEALAND. 6170, April 26 at 1319, RNZI about PNG politix, fair signal weakening to very poor at 1400 when still audible with timesignal. Nothing on 9615 after 1400 today, so yesterday`s mistaken appearance there has been repaired, to the detriment of listeners here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PORTUGAL. 21655, April 25 at 1859, RDPI surprisingly stronger than RFI via GUF on 21690; music but somewhat distorted and carrier unstable. ID and announcement in Portuguese that 9860 to Europe would soon be changing to 9795, timesignal, and at 1900*, 21690 cut off the air without any such warning. Latest schedule via DX Mix News shows:
Brasil/Cabo Verde/Guiné Bissau Mon-Fri
1300-1900 on 21655 LIS 300 kW / 226 deg
West Europe Mon-Fri
1600-1855 on 11905 LIS 300 kW / 045 deg
1900-2255 on 9820 LIS 300 kW / 045 deg* extraordinary emissions
And no usage of 9795 whatsoever! Outdated announcement?
21655 again April 26 at 1440, fair but carrier unstable. This is about when the `Caixa Postal/Dexismo` program used to air, but it`s gone from the minute-by-minute program schedule at
http://tv.rtp.pt/EPG/radio/epg-dia.php?canal=5&ac=d&sem=e
nor at the other time circa 2330 Mondays. Further, it is no longer in the alfabetical list of programs at
http://tv.rtp.pt/EPG/radio/programas/?rcanal=5
so we can only assume it has been deleted completely. Perhaps this one is to substitute: `Clube da Amizade` on Saturdays. Or not. It`s all the way from ``0808 to 1200`` with some breaks, not a convenient time in América.
Furthermore, the program schedule still shows Lisboa and UT as the same! Even tho Portugal has been on UT+1 for a month. So which column are we to believe?? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [non]. 9630, REE via COSTA RICA, back here April 26 at 0543, instead of alternate 9675 heard 24 hours earlier; so was that slopperation or a test? For benefit of would-be CBCNQ listeners before 0505*, bigsig 9675 would be better from Cariari (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN [non]. 13620, April 26 at 0527, R. Dabanga carrier off a few seconds after this minute rather than erroneous English for a sesquiminute as last time; while the jamming tone continues, in the clear without a SAH from Madagascar.
13730, the other R. Dabanga frequency, via UAE, bore only the jamming consisting of an oscillating noisy tone pulsing at the rate of 72 times per minute, and cutting to silence a split second every quarter-minute, still going at 0539 long after RD had finished (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 3215, WWCR: last Friday night (UT Saturday) there was music, Rock the Universe? Instead of Rollye James, so I check again Monday night (UT Tuesday) April 26 at 0555, and now there is gospel music, no Rollye either. The program guide dated April 1 at
http://www.wwcr.com/program-guides/WWCR_Program_Guide.pdf
still shows `Rollye James` Mon-Sat at 0500-0800 UT, but evidently she`s gone from WWCR. That`s a large chunk of available airtime, 18 hours a week.
Altho the Programming Linx page was updated April 25, she`s still listed, onward to:
http://www.rollye.net/index.html
The situation is explained here:
http://www.rollye.net/WhereHear.html
It seems Clear Channel, her original syndicator wanted her gone by March 31, and she has been trying to interest Sirius/XM in picking up her show, but ``no bandwidth available`` so far. So she`s off the air completely for now. How come? She could still be on WWCR, but not even a mention of the shortwave option! Not that I cared to listen to this Mediatrix. DXing and sleeping has been far more satisfying (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9330, WBCQ dead air/open carrier again April 26 at 1343 for at least a minute; next check 1447, GFRN is back (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 17670, April 26 at 1309, fair signal in Christian music, 1311 Vietnamese talk, undermodulated, and at 1315 transmission breaks three or four times. It`s AWR via MADAGASCAR, 250 kW, 60 degrees at 1300-1400. Chances are, anything your hear in Vietnamese on SW will most likely be from western missionaries rather than Rational Atheists, let alone Commies (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. The PTB at IBB ordered Greenville to start broadcasting Radio Sawa, 55 degrees to Libya again from April 23, at 1430-1600 on 15480, despite LRA36 Antarctica on 15476. However, on April 26, RNASG was not audible at all in the earlier sesquihour. GB open carrier on at 1420; at 1421 faded in tone for a little while, then back to OC; 1429.5 cut on Sawa-sounding music, but at 1430 switched to VOA in English! ``From Studio 23 in Washington, this is VOA`s International Edition``. It`s // but an echo apart from 15580 and 17545 which are synchronized with each other this time.
After world news stories, feature item at 1448 mentioned matter-of-factly that ``Chernobyl released 400 times more radiation than Hiroshima and Nagasaki``! That can`t be true; surely nuclear explosions are in an entirely different league than meltdowns. Signal cut off the air for less than a minute at 1450, but resumed still with English instead of Sawa. 1455 closing credits were for Kate somebody as managing director; anchor Paul Westfeeling (sounded like --- just try to find him at the Inside VOA page! Nor does the program page http://www.voanews.com/english/programs/radio/65000907.html
say anything about personnel!); which of them or what writer is responsible for that unchallenged statistic? But Wikipedia says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_compared_to_other_radioactivity_releases
``Some comments have been made in which the radioactive release of the Chernobyl event is claimed to be 300[3] or 400[4] times that of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The work of SCOPE[5] suggests that the two events can not be simply compared with a number suggesting that one was XX times larger than the other.`` It all has to do with isotopes, half-lives, and effects over time rather than immediately.
1456, USG Editorial also about Chernobyl, but this YL reader tried to make the y into a diphthong.
1500 News, 1505 `Border Crossings`, usual pop music stuff and chatter from host Larry London. Fulfilled one request for Peace Corps Volunteers in Zambia, so evidently such Americans abroad are not banned, but would he ever play a classical music piece if one were requested? The closest to that today was a protracted `live` performance of ``Hey, Jude`` by McCartney at 1518.
By now 15480 would be the SSOB if it were not for WYFR on 15130. No time to listen further, but presumably never picked up Sawa until I heard the carrier go off at 1600*.
Ivo Ivanov says other new frequencies for Radio Sawa at 1430-1600 since April 23 are 17530 Kuwait and 17785 Botswana, the former also on in the previous sesquihour. Did they get the correct feed today? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 13585, April 26 at 1317, poor signal in Korean vs CODAR, as I was checking for Zambia on 13590/13599.8 --- it`s VOA at 1200-1500. Aoki says TINIAN, but HFCC says TINANG, PHILIPPINES. It`s too easy to mix up these similar-sounding sites, but IBB might easily switch between them for no particular reason (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 17775, KVOH, after its three-day-long-weekend, is back on the air Tuesday April 26 at 1453 already, VG signal with gospel song in English instead of Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9955, WRMI, April 26 at 1535, WORLD OF RADIO 1561 is barely audible on very poor signal, lite SAH from Taiwan, but no jamming, so WRMI is not off the air (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTNEING DIGEST)
** ZAMBIA [and non]. 13599.8, 1Africa continues to use this unlisted off-frequency instead of scheduled 13590: April 25 at 1857 still making het with something on 13600.0, and 13590 vacant.
April 26 at 0537, nothing on 9430, 13590 or 13599.8, but tuning 13599.8 at 0558, there it is again, this time with its own tone test instead of het. At 0558:42 cut to modulation by gospel music. During jingle at 0600 cut off the air before 0601; 0602 back on with modulation stepping up and down, into Jesus story and plug www site. 0603 cut off and on and off and on, modulation problems, open carrier, etc.
Next check at 1316 found Russian on 13600 (probably CRI, not VOR) about equal level to 1Africa with gospel rock on 13599.8, horrible het. Listed 13590 remained vacant. Around 1500 no longer hearing either, 1Africa off again?
Website http://www.1africa.tv/ shows ``frequency change update --
These frequencies are valid for a period of 6 months (March-October)
0600-0800 CAT: No SW Broadcasting (Listen Live/ Satellite)
0800-2200 CAT: 13590 kHz
2200-2400 CAT: 9505 kHz
1900-2400 CAT: 4965 kHz (South Central Africa)``
Subtract 2 hours for UT. So it seems 4965 has also been switched from the other CVC domestic service to this external service at 17-22 UT // 13599.8 until 2000 UT, then // 9505 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###