** ANTARCTICA. 15476, standing by for LRA36 from 1230 May 17, but nothing until carrier cut-on at *1242:37 and immediately musically modulated with a beat --- no warm-up needed, ranging S9 to S9+10 peaks. 1245 switch to another music, romantic vocal, unseems national anthem.
If you search on Argentina national anthem you get lots of `free mp3 downloads` with a catch. Let`s go with Wikipedia`s instrumental band music for future reference and comparisons:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_National_Anthem
1249 sign-on by XYL with usual frequencies, G.C.; 1250 starts `Soy Feliz` theme mixed with further announcements; 1251 ``Buen día … Esperanza … Amanecer Austral``, other XYLs join in, staff credits including the Lt. Cols. 1253 tells us what May 17 is the day of, including telecomunicaciones; phone numbers. Then signal begins slow decline of audibility, the typical pattern here and now. I suspect it peaks a bit later further west in NAm, and earlier further east (except it is not on the air then).
One reason for getting it so reliably here may be that the direct great-circle path from Esperanza to Enid is mostly over-water: it barely grazes the SW tip of Chile, and no land until across the Tehuantepec Isthmus, Houston and onward. Further west it has to cross all of Mexico, altho by San Francisco most of Mexico is missed. To New York, the signal has to traverse all of South America up the Andes. And may we assume it is somewhat direxional toward Argentina and consequently USward? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. 6070, May 17 at 1136, CFRX loud and clear, no sign of CCI from North Korea in Japanese for a change; off? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake May 17:
16100, fair at 1338
15970, fair at 1255, fair at 1338
15550, very poor at 1309
15430, poor at 1337. A few days ago, Wolfgang Büschel observed that the target VOT via Tajikistan had escaped to 15279, but unheard there
14700, good at 1255
13920, poor at 1255
13130, fair-good at 1256; very poor at 1340
12240, good at 1256
11500, fair with het, CCI at 1257; good and alone at 1355-1400*
10300, fair at 1257
7970, poor at 1140; poor at 1258
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COSTA RICA [and non]. 5954.2v, May 17 at 0530, heavy jamming and het with 5955 (presumed RNW via PORTUGAL), so R. República appears to be still on the air now, altho Mark Taylor, WI, reported that on May 14, it went off 5954.3 at 0159 with no jamming. Had been all-night, before switching to day frequency 9965.1. Maybe closes earlier on weekends? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 5040, RHC still on at 0527 May 17 with open carrier.
9570, May 17 at 1157 the ChiCom are not getting their due as the Cuban relay is carrying an undermodulated, humming RHC Spanish instead of CRI, not just as a prélude, but at further chex 1200, 1314 still RHC. Before 1300 it was // synchronized 9550 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI, May 17 at 1200 with Japanese ID from Jakarta, so back to normal language schedule.
After LRA36 fades, I return to 9526- at 1315 May 17 for VOI in English: despite being Tuesday, no sign of anything from Bali or Banjarmasin, just normal program segments from Jak with ``Voice of Indonesia, the Sound of Dignity`` IDs between them: `Commentary` about book produxion, low interest in reading, as May 17 is National Literacy Day. Then `Today in History` but tougher copy with different announcer, YL with accent. 1321 `Focus`, about ASEAN. 1323 `News in Brief`. 1326 `Indonesian Wonder`. 1330 `Let`s Learn Bahasa Indonesia`. 1335 `Music Corner`. So skipped `Miscellany` today. Reception went from poor to worse (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [non]. 15335, surprised to hear news in English with giveaway NHK jingle between items, May 17 at 1410, fair signal. HFCC shows this is the first of a two-day test via CHILE, 100 kW, 60 degrees to CIRAF 14, 15, 16, i.e. the southern half of South America, but a viable alternative for us, deprived of any intentional NAm broadcast at this hour any more.
And the test is registered all the way from 14 to 20 UT, the remainder presumably in Japanese only. So I recheck at 1712: yes, still there with a fair signal in Japanese (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT. 15540, R. Kuwait, 2050 May 16, two minutes of news headlines by YL speaking English so fast with accent that I could hardly understand anything. 2052, much more clearly spoken official announcement about amnesty period for illegals: get out by June 30 or be deported. 2054 pop music. 2059 sign-off still with imaginary sked of English at 05 on 15110, 18 on 11990. VG signal. Continued listening on 17550 to Arabic talk, music, also VG but with more flutter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MALAYSIA. 9835, May 17 at 1143, fair signal with Qur`an style singing, but not really, repeating same words over and over with variations in the tune. 1144 segué to YL song with instrumental accompaniment. Need to avoid strong RTTY 9830 ACI. 1159 recheck, now it really is Qur`an with necessary pauses. Judging from previous reports, this is the newish peninsular relay of Sarawak FM which is Qur`anic, altho at times 9835 also relays Wai FM from Sarawak and back to there filling in local coverage gaps in competition with Radio Free Sarawak (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 6010, had not been hearing R. Mil lately when I start monitoring around 1230, so wondered if off. But May 17 at 1130 it`s audible with news of Mexico, fair peaks, het on hi side. Earlier sunrises require earlier monitoring (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MOROCCO. 15345, RTM, stayed on in Arabic until abrupt 2104:42* May 17, unlike yesterday to 2100:00*. May 18 at 1411, it`s made the switch from 15341 to 15345 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN. 17595, REE, VG May 17 at 1347, the `Españoles en la Mar` hour is in mailbag segment, mainly SWLs from Cuba, as replugs the survey for listeners to declare whether they listen on SW or something else, deadline June 30 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 5995, May 17 at 0529 surprised to hear VOA, ``signing-off``; long pause and then Yankee Doodle Dandy routine. Had not been hearing any VOA here, and no wonder, since per HFCC this just started 6 May, only for Hausa at 0500-0530 daily, 100 kW, 335 degrees from SÃO TOMÉ. Guess Mali won`t need 5995 until a bit later; at least we used to hear it around 0600, tho WRTH 2011 said 1800-2400, with 9635 instead at 0555-1800 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9400, nasty warbling spur vs FEBC Chinese, May 17 at 1155. I was about to blame WTJC 9370, till I checked 9380 with BFO and found the same, ergo emanating from WEWN 9390, as one of their transmitters defectively does for years from whatever fundamental of the moment. I expect that Mo. Angelica will Eternally QRM her neighbors with mushy, distorted Words.
Unless transmitters are swapped around, I doubt it, this affects the English frequencies, currently: 10-12 9390, 12-14 13580, 14-24 15610, 00-10 11520.
Thus the victim frequencies and any stations foolish enough to use them are respectively: 10-12 9380 9400; 12-14 13570 13590; 14-24 15600 15620; 00-10 11510 11530.
13570 and 13590 indeed have this crap, at 1341 check May 17 with BFO, lacking significant signals to beat against at the moment; WINB in its weekdaily break from 13570 after 1315. This problem is distinct from one of the two Spanish transmitters with a self-flagellating squeal not bothering 10 kHz away (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15795, WWRB test on new frequency as of 1715 UT May 17 has not been heard since 48 hours earlier, altho we haven`t tried for it constantly. Here`s why, from Capt. Frantz as of 2334 UT May 16:
`` Our testing of 15795 kHz went very Well: The staff at WWRB shortwave is pleased! Plenty of very positive reception reports from: U.S., Canada, the U.K, Europe, Middle East & South Africa (10 from Israel; 4 from South Africa). It's worth noting most of the observers of our test were using portable 'run of the mill' shortwave radios.
The testing at 145 kW did indicate excessive RF heating (skin effect) at the antenna matching network. The antenna matching network 300 ohm to 600 ohm feed line transformer is being upgraded to handle the RF current. Soon as that 'upgrade' is finished, more extensive testing`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [non]. 9830, at 1130 May 17 trying to confirm whether VR via Sackville is here in Spanish, plus 13730, as in the WRTH May update --- very heavy RTTY with something JBA under it, but if Canada, would expect more from it. Aoki lists CNR1 from Beijing 572 site. Presumably the VR entry is another undeleted line left over from a previous season.
13730 does bear RV via Canada, May 17 at 1146 ending Spanish news about Latin America, saying there would be ``más información dentro de 6 horas, a las 11:30 de la mañana, y 5:30 de la tarde, TUC en el programa hispanoamericano``, 1147 on to devotional, ``la buena noticia de cada día`.
Note: they ID in Spanish as R. Vaticana, not Vaticano, as the SS like to mispronounce it. WRTH Update does not show any Spanish anywhere near 1730 UT! EiBi by time shows they do start Czech, English and Italian at that hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VENEZUELA [non]. 6060, May 17 at 1135 looking for RNV relay via CUBA, which was not heard a few days ago: heavy CCI in Indo-Malay? But then I hear Apartado 3979 mentioned in undermodulated Spanish, so there it is, but quite poor signal, maybe way off-beam from it. 6000 RHC was much stronger, as was 6070 CFRX, q.v.
As for the other 6060 station, HFCC shows Miri, Malaysia, and CRI Beijing, but the Malaysian is long inactive, and not listed in Aoki, just CRI in `Filipino` plus PBS Sichuan in Tibetan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
If you search on Argentina national anthem you get lots of `free mp3 downloads` with a catch. Let`s go with Wikipedia`s instrumental band music for future reference and comparisons:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_National_Anthem
1249 sign-on by XYL with usual frequencies, G.C.; 1250 starts `Soy Feliz` theme mixed with further announcements; 1251 ``Buen día … Esperanza … Amanecer Austral``, other XYLs join in, staff credits including the Lt. Cols. 1253 tells us what May 17 is the day of, including telecomunicaciones; phone numbers. Then signal begins slow decline of audibility, the typical pattern here and now. I suspect it peaks a bit later further west in NAm, and earlier further east (except it is not on the air then).
One reason for getting it so reliably here may be that the direct great-circle path from Esperanza to Enid is mostly over-water: it barely grazes the SW tip of Chile, and no land until across the Tehuantepec Isthmus, Houston and onward. Further west it has to cross all of Mexico, altho by San Francisco most of Mexico is missed. To New York, the signal has to traverse all of South America up the Andes. And may we assume it is somewhat direxional toward Argentina and consequently USward? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. 6070, May 17 at 1136, CFRX loud and clear, no sign of CCI from North Korea in Japanese for a change; off? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake May 17:
16100, fair at 1338
15970, fair at 1255, fair at 1338
15550, very poor at 1309
15430, poor at 1337. A few days ago, Wolfgang Büschel observed that the target VOT via Tajikistan had escaped to 15279, but unheard there
14700, good at 1255
13920, poor at 1255
13130, fair-good at 1256; very poor at 1340
12240, good at 1256
11500, fair with het, CCI at 1257; good and alone at 1355-1400*
10300, fair at 1257
7970, poor at 1140; poor at 1258
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COSTA RICA [and non]. 5954.2v, May 17 at 0530, heavy jamming and het with 5955 (presumed RNW via PORTUGAL), so R. República appears to be still on the air now, altho Mark Taylor, WI, reported that on May 14, it went off 5954.3 at 0159 with no jamming. Had been all-night, before switching to day frequency 9965.1. Maybe closes earlier on weekends? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 5040, RHC still on at 0527 May 17 with open carrier.
9570, May 17 at 1157 the ChiCom are not getting their due as the Cuban relay is carrying an undermodulated, humming RHC Spanish instead of CRI, not just as a prélude, but at further chex 1200, 1314 still RHC. Before 1300 it was // synchronized 9550 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI, May 17 at 1200 with Japanese ID from Jakarta, so back to normal language schedule.
After LRA36 fades, I return to 9526- at 1315 May 17 for VOI in English: despite being Tuesday, no sign of anything from Bali or Banjarmasin, just normal program segments from Jak with ``Voice of Indonesia, the Sound of Dignity`` IDs between them: `Commentary` about book produxion, low interest in reading, as May 17 is National Literacy Day. Then `Today in History` but tougher copy with different announcer, YL with accent. 1321 `Focus`, about ASEAN. 1323 `News in Brief`. 1326 `Indonesian Wonder`. 1330 `Let`s Learn Bahasa Indonesia`. 1335 `Music Corner`. So skipped `Miscellany` today. Reception went from poor to worse (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [non]. 15335, surprised to hear news in English with giveaway NHK jingle between items, May 17 at 1410, fair signal. HFCC shows this is the first of a two-day test via CHILE, 100 kW, 60 degrees to CIRAF 14, 15, 16, i.e. the southern half of South America, but a viable alternative for us, deprived of any intentional NAm broadcast at this hour any more.
And the test is registered all the way from 14 to 20 UT, the remainder presumably in Japanese only. So I recheck at 1712: yes, still there with a fair signal in Japanese (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT. 15540, R. Kuwait, 2050 May 16, two minutes of news headlines by YL speaking English so fast with accent that I could hardly understand anything. 2052, much more clearly spoken official announcement about amnesty period for illegals: get out by June 30 or be deported. 2054 pop music. 2059 sign-off still with imaginary sked of English at 05 on 15110, 18 on 11990. VG signal. Continued listening on 17550 to Arabic talk, music, also VG but with more flutter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MALAYSIA. 9835, May 17 at 1143, fair signal with Qur`an style singing, but not really, repeating same words over and over with variations in the tune. 1144 segué to YL song with instrumental accompaniment. Need to avoid strong RTTY 9830 ACI. 1159 recheck, now it really is Qur`an with necessary pauses. Judging from previous reports, this is the newish peninsular relay of Sarawak FM which is Qur`anic, altho at times 9835 also relays Wai FM from Sarawak and back to there filling in local coverage gaps in competition with Radio Free Sarawak (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 6010, had not been hearing R. Mil lately when I start monitoring around 1230, so wondered if off. But May 17 at 1130 it`s audible with news of Mexico, fair peaks, het on hi side. Earlier sunrises require earlier monitoring (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MOROCCO. 15345, RTM, stayed on in Arabic until abrupt 2104:42* May 17, unlike yesterday to 2100:00*. May 18 at 1411, it`s made the switch from 15341 to 15345 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN. 17595, REE, VG May 17 at 1347, the `Españoles en la Mar` hour is in mailbag segment, mainly SWLs from Cuba, as replugs the survey for listeners to declare whether they listen on SW or something else, deadline June 30 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 5995, May 17 at 0529 surprised to hear VOA, ``signing-off``; long pause and then Yankee Doodle Dandy routine. Had not been hearing any VOA here, and no wonder, since per HFCC this just started 6 May, only for Hausa at 0500-0530 daily, 100 kW, 335 degrees from SÃO TOMÉ. Guess Mali won`t need 5995 until a bit later; at least we used to hear it around 0600, tho WRTH 2011 said 1800-2400, with 9635 instead at 0555-1800 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9400, nasty warbling spur vs FEBC Chinese, May 17 at 1155. I was about to blame WTJC 9370, till I checked 9380 with BFO and found the same, ergo emanating from WEWN 9390, as one of their transmitters defectively does for years from whatever fundamental of the moment. I expect that Mo. Angelica will Eternally QRM her neighbors with mushy, distorted Words.
Unless transmitters are swapped around, I doubt it, this affects the English frequencies, currently: 10-12 9390, 12-14 13580, 14-24 15610, 00-10 11520.
Thus the victim frequencies and any stations foolish enough to use them are respectively: 10-12 9380 9400; 12-14 13570 13590; 14-24 15600 15620; 00-10 11510 11530.
13570 and 13590 indeed have this crap, at 1341 check May 17 with BFO, lacking significant signals to beat against at the moment; WINB in its weekdaily break from 13570 after 1315. This problem is distinct from one of the two Spanish transmitters with a self-flagellating squeal not bothering 10 kHz away (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15795, WWRB test on new frequency as of 1715 UT May 17 has not been heard since 48 hours earlier, altho we haven`t tried for it constantly. Here`s why, from Capt. Frantz as of 2334 UT May 16:
`` Our testing of 15795 kHz went very Well: The staff at WWRB shortwave is pleased! Plenty of very positive reception reports from: U.S., Canada, the U.K, Europe, Middle East & South Africa (10 from Israel; 4 from South Africa). It's worth noting most of the observers of our test were using portable 'run of the mill' shortwave radios.
The testing at 145 kW did indicate excessive RF heating (skin effect) at the antenna matching network. The antenna matching network 300 ohm to 600 ohm feed line transformer is being upgraded to handle the RF current. Soon as that 'upgrade' is finished, more extensive testing`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [non]. 9830, at 1130 May 17 trying to confirm whether VR via Sackville is here in Spanish, plus 13730, as in the WRTH May update --- very heavy RTTY with something JBA under it, but if Canada, would expect more from it. Aoki lists CNR1 from Beijing 572 site. Presumably the VR entry is another undeleted line left over from a previous season.
13730 does bear RV via Canada, May 17 at 1146 ending Spanish news about Latin America, saying there would be ``más información dentro de 6 horas, a las 11:30 de la mañana, y 5:30 de la tarde, TUC en el programa hispanoamericano``, 1147 on to devotional, ``la buena noticia de cada día`.
Note: they ID in Spanish as R. Vaticana, not Vaticano, as the SS like to mispronounce it. WRTH Update does not show any Spanish anywhere near 1730 UT! EiBi by time shows they do start Czech, English and Italian at that hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VENEZUELA [non]. 6060, May 17 at 1135 looking for RNV relay via CUBA, which was not heard a few days ago: heavy CCI in Indo-Malay? But then I hear Apartado 3979 mentioned in undermodulated Spanish, so there it is, but quite poor signal, maybe way off-beam from it. 6000 RHC was much stronger, as was 6070 CFRX, q.v.
As for the other 6060 station, HFCC shows Miri, Malaysia, and CRI Beijing, but the Malaysian is long inactive, and not listed in Aoki, just CRI in `Filipino` plus PBS Sichuan in Tibetan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###