** ANTARCTICA. 15476, Monday May 9 at 1301, LRA36 is on with music. 1307 next music is at a feverish pace, no doubt encouraging fast-dancing to keep warm, as at 1311 announced the temperature as -21 C, on `Amanecer Austral` show; 1312 with phone numbers, seemed to mention date as ``9 de marzo`` but maybe was really ``mayo`` with that zh sound prevalent in the Southern Cone and beyond. (``Argentine Antarctica`` might be described as the ``Northern Cone``, literally, of that continent as normally displayed on imperialist maps). Signal now peaking S9+18, stronger than UK het from 15480. 1314 music under and up. By 1335 it faded to much weaker, only S3-6, unreadable (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 5045, May 9 at 0554, some music is making it thru unlike anything else from SAm on 60m, no doubt R. Cultura do Pará. Maybe reception is picking up with seasonal changes. Haven`t been able to hear much of it for months (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake May 9: Checked at 1542, the major lightning area on the Weather Channel golfer map is western Wisconsin, plus a little spot in central Missouri.
7970, poor at 1250 with lots of summer storm noise as above
10300, fair at 1256; fair-good at 1319 when most of the others were not yet back on
11500, fair at 1257, mixing with other signals, het; at 1325 better and dominating over other signals with talk, het
12240, fair at 1258
13130, fair at 1259; good at 1327 // 10300
13850, good at 1258; an unusual one, hetting WWCR 13845. Aoki shows as Sound of Hope at 20-17, no doubt only in use sporadically
13920, fair at 1327 // 13130
15430, poor at 1359
15555, very weak carriers here and 15558 at 1329, not sure if FD audio, but likely usual jumparound vs V. of Tibet
15670, CNR1 jamming dominating vs RFA in Tibetan via UAE, before 1300, and at 1333 could also hear FD // 13130, but no RFA, jammer vs jammer! Also audible at 1358
15900, poor at 1328 // 10300; very poor at 1358
16100, poor at 1259-1300*
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA [and non]. 15190, R. Africa, checked 24 hours after it vanished following a long period of cutting on and off twice per second --- still absent May 8 at 2117. By 2148 the WYFR carrier was on; no sign of ZYE522 meanwhile (typo in WRTH 2011 as ZYE622) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE. 15630, May 9 at 0543, VOG with music and Greek announcement, good signal in the nightmiddle, much better than 11645 with R. Filía service. John Babbis warns that another general strike is scheduled for May 11, so anticipate more classical music fill:
``Greek unions state they will hold a 24-hour general strike Wednesday, 11 May, 2011 --- A general strike will be held in Greece on May 11 against the government's austerity measures after a leading union joined on Tuesday a previously declared labor mobilization. The ADEDY union that represents civil servants said it was joining a strike announced Monday by GSEE, the country's main worker group that defends private sector staff. European trade unions from the ETUC will also be gathering in Athens next month for a congress on May 16-19. The general strike is the second this year held against unprecedented cuts imposed by the Socialist government in its efforts to reduce a gaping deficit and a soaring debt that nearly bankrupted the country last year.`` [source?] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 9690, May 9 tune in at 1323 just in time to hear hum-only convert at 1323:37 to add music modulation, not IS; presumably the Tibetan service supposed to be only on three other frequencies. AIR better watch out: if the ChiCom hear any Tibetan on 9690 they`ll start jamming it too (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9526-, May 9 at 1323, VOI is very poor but seems English, as well as a check before 1300. Atsunori Ishida confirms that this frequency continues to be only in English. I check the main website, http://www.voi.co.id and it forwards to http://en.voi.co.id titled ``VOI Indonesia Latest Radio News, Broadcast International in English Language`` with auto greeting whether you want to hear it or not. Dropdown at upper right still linx to other languages, but when I tried Spanish, it wanted to install a CAB! Deutsch did go to a German page. Both English and German include dire warnings like this:
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'Asia/Jakarta' for 'WIT/7.0/no DST' instead in /home/ambiucom/public_html/voi.co.id/german/libraries/joomla/utilities/date.php on line 198
and an identical one for line 56. I did not do any spelling of a timezone identifier! Not there on the French page. Second try on Spanish got to proper page, also without timezone warning. Each includes ``AV on demand``, linking to nothing. SNAFU (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** LIBYA. 17725, May 9 at 1402, no carrier detectable de VOAf from the GJ, supposed to be in English, but too soon to draw any conclusions (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MOROCCO. 15345.1, May 8 at 2145 in Arabic, so RTM is still on, evidently until 2200v* even if they are really on UT+1 now. No sign of Argentina, but this one was slightly off-frequency to hi side (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA [non]. 21480, no signal at all detectable from Hamada Radio International via Wertachtal, Monday May 9 at 1403; has that been canceled? Other usual 13m signals were in weakly on 21470, 21505, 21540, 21610, 21630, 21655. Not on 21810 either, where HRI was once reported (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 17750, May 9 at 0542, good signal from VOA Kurdish, 250 kW due north from MADAGASCAR. Some JBA CCI this time, way over R. Australia collision. It`s the SSOB with the only other one being 17855, R. Free Asia, Saipan, very poor. Note and remember:
JBA = just barely audible
ACI = adjacent-channel QRM, i.e. 5 kHz away
CCI = co-channel interference, i.e. same channel, or almost so
OSOB = only signal (or station) on band
SSOB = strongest station (or signal) on band
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 17530, May 9 at 1403, pop music from R. Sawa via KUWAIT, still on this same frequency for more than a week! Vying for the longevity award (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 18530, May 8 at 2122, JBA music, sounds like Martha Garvin, and sure `nuff, // 9265 WINB she is belting away her ``Musical Memories`` hymns, accompanying self on piano. Second harmonic always radiating when 9265 is on, just waiting for enough propagation. Wish I knew what the power on 18530 is, but I`m sure not even WINB knows (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 12787.5, May 8 at 2148, very strong and extremely distorted SSB masculine robot with marine weather; quotes NWS Weather Predixion Center, Washington DC, for west-central North-Atlantic continental shelf, etc., etc. Mispronounces ``décimal`` something like ``decíminil``. Geez. But the worst thing is the awful maladjustment of the transmitter which has been going on for months on this and other USCG frequencies. Searched the 33908 posts so far in the UDXF yg on that frequency and got zero hits, nor on 12787, but instead 12788.
Dave Alpert posted this on Nov 4, 2010, source not cited:
NOAA's National Weather Service Marine Forecasts Broadcast by USCG
``Gulf of Mexico Region NMG - New Orleans (MSY)
Broadcast Time GMT (Zulu) Station Location Station Call Sign
Frequency (kHz, USB) Forecast Type
0330Z MSY NMG 4316 8502 12788 Offshore, Hurricane
0515Z MSY NMG 4316 8502 12788 High-seas, Hurricane
0930Z MSY NMG 4316 8502 12788 Offshore, Hurricane
1115Z MSY NMG 4316 8502 12788 High-seas, Hurricane
1530Z MSY NMG 4316 8502 12788 Offshore, Hurricane
1715Z MSY NMG 4316 8502 12788 High-seas, Hurricane
2130Z MSY NMG 4316 8502 12788 Offshore, Hurricane
2315Z MSY NMG 4316 8502 12788 High-seas, Hurricane
Broadcast of hurricane and other weather broadcasts from this station
may on occasion be preempted, as the transmitters are shared with the
radiofax broadcast.``
So I guess it is still the 2130 broadcast from NMG, which needs serious engineering attention! But beware: other USCG stations probably share frequency depending on time schedule. IIRC, 8502 has also been heard with the same problem (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9370, WTJC distorted spur situation, May 9 at 0532: peaking around 9320, 9345, 9495, 9420, i.e. plus/minus 25 kHz and multiples. At 1256, worst on 9395, mixing with distorted BS splash from 9385 WWRB. At 1322, WTJC was louder on 9395 spur than 9370 fundamental. At 1407, splatter from 9385 WWRB so bad on 9395 that it obscured the WTJC spur, commercial station vs fundamentalists! Yes, Capt. Frantz notified us May 8 that WWRB is no longer a ministry ---
``Greetings: Many changes at WWRB shortwave:
WWRB is no longer a Ministry; it is a commercial radio station: Our web page http://www.wwrb.org is being updated to reflect this change. We ask our clients & potential clients to no longer address our staff as 'Brother' or 'Sister'
WWRB shortwave no longer provides Free airtime to broadcasters; In keeping with other shortwave stations` policies, open airtime slots until sold will be filled with various specialty programs.
WWRB shortwave is now open to all broadcasters` political and religious points of view. WWRB does not discriminate. On air conduct will in good taste, and respectful.
WWRB is reviewing our rate card and structure in relation to other shortwave stations.
WWRB is changing Global - ONE broadcast frequency from 2390 to 5050 kHz for the summer. Some programming will move to 3215 & 3195; working out the details with our broadcasters.
WWRB shortwave is installing Audio Processing equipment to enhance / augment our broadcast audio chain. Global-ONE is the first transmitter to be updated.
WWRB is adding 15 MHz to our broadcast line up. 15 MHz frequency to be announced. Antenna Azimuth will be 045 degrees, rhombic antenna 150 feet high. Antenna will be calibrated by using one of our Radio survey aircraft, N 5259Q.
Airline Transport, WWRB's parent company, has received FAA approval to construct an 'All weather' runway with full Instrument Landing System (ILS) capability. This runway will be 36 / 18.
Airline Transport's Runway 28 / 10 ILS / DME has been upgraded.
WOW, we have been and will be very busy! Regards, (Captain David L. Frantz, Chief Pilot, Airline Transport)``
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** BRAZIL. 5045, May 9 at 0554, some music is making it thru unlike anything else from SAm on 60m, no doubt R. Cultura do Pará. Maybe reception is picking up with seasonal changes. Haven`t been able to hear much of it for months (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake May 9: Checked at 1542, the major lightning area on the Weather Channel golfer map is western Wisconsin, plus a little spot in central Missouri.
7970, poor at 1250 with lots of summer storm noise as above
10300, fair at 1256; fair-good at 1319 when most of the others were not yet back on
11500, fair at 1257, mixing with other signals, het; at 1325 better and dominating over other signals with talk, het
12240, fair at 1258
13130, fair at 1259; good at 1327 // 10300
13850, good at 1258; an unusual one, hetting WWCR 13845. Aoki shows as Sound of Hope at 20-17, no doubt only in use sporadically
13920, fair at 1327 // 13130
15430, poor at 1359
15555, very weak carriers here and 15558 at 1329, not sure if FD audio, but likely usual jumparound vs V. of Tibet
15670, CNR1 jamming dominating vs RFA in Tibetan via UAE, before 1300, and at 1333 could also hear FD // 13130, but no RFA, jammer vs jammer! Also audible at 1358
15900, poor at 1328 // 10300; very poor at 1358
16100, poor at 1259-1300*
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA [and non]. 15190, R. Africa, checked 24 hours after it vanished following a long period of cutting on and off twice per second --- still absent May 8 at 2117. By 2148 the WYFR carrier was on; no sign of ZYE522 meanwhile (typo in WRTH 2011 as ZYE622) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE. 15630, May 9 at 0543, VOG with music and Greek announcement, good signal in the nightmiddle, much better than 11645 with R. Filía service. John Babbis warns that another general strike is scheduled for May 11, so anticipate more classical music fill:
``Greek unions state they will hold a 24-hour general strike Wednesday, 11 May, 2011 --- A general strike will be held in Greece on May 11 against the government's austerity measures after a leading union joined on Tuesday a previously declared labor mobilization. The ADEDY union that represents civil servants said it was joining a strike announced Monday by GSEE, the country's main worker group that defends private sector staff. European trade unions from the ETUC will also be gathering in Athens next month for a congress on May 16-19. The general strike is the second this year held against unprecedented cuts imposed by the Socialist government in its efforts to reduce a gaping deficit and a soaring debt that nearly bankrupted the country last year.`` [source?] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 9690, May 9 tune in at 1323 just in time to hear hum-only convert at 1323:37 to add music modulation, not IS; presumably the Tibetan service supposed to be only on three other frequencies. AIR better watch out: if the ChiCom hear any Tibetan on 9690 they`ll start jamming it too (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9526-, May 9 at 1323, VOI is very poor but seems English, as well as a check before 1300. Atsunori Ishida confirms that this frequency continues to be only in English. I check the main website, http://www.voi.co.id and it forwards to http://en.voi.co.id titled ``VOI Indonesia Latest Radio News, Broadcast International in English Language`` with auto greeting whether you want to hear it or not. Dropdown at upper right still linx to other languages, but when I tried Spanish, it wanted to install a CAB! Deutsch did go to a German page. Both English and German include dire warnings like this:
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'Asia/Jakarta' for 'WIT/7.0/no DST' instead in /home/ambiucom/public_html/voi.co.id/german/libraries/joomla/utilities/date.php on line 198
and an identical one for line 56. I did not do any spelling of a timezone identifier! Not there on the French page. Second try on Spanish got to proper page, also without timezone warning. Each includes ``AV on demand``, linking to nothing. SNAFU (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** LIBYA. 17725, May 9 at 1402, no carrier detectable de VOAf from the GJ, supposed to be in English, but too soon to draw any conclusions (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MOROCCO. 15345.1, May 8 at 2145 in Arabic, so RTM is still on, evidently until 2200v* even if they are really on UT+1 now. No sign of Argentina, but this one was slightly off-frequency to hi side (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA [non]. 21480, no signal at all detectable from Hamada Radio International via Wertachtal, Monday May 9 at 1403; has that been canceled? Other usual 13m signals were in weakly on 21470, 21505, 21540, 21610, 21630, 21655. Not on 21810 either, where HRI was once reported (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 17750, May 9 at 0542, good signal from VOA Kurdish, 250 kW due north from MADAGASCAR. Some JBA CCI this time, way over R. Australia collision. It`s the SSOB with the only other one being 17855, R. Free Asia, Saipan, very poor. Note and remember:
JBA = just barely audible
ACI = adjacent-channel QRM, i.e. 5 kHz away
CCI = co-channel interference, i.e. same channel, or almost so
OSOB = only signal (or station) on band
SSOB = strongest station (or signal) on band
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 17530, May 9 at 1403, pop music from R. Sawa via KUWAIT, still on this same frequency for more than a week! Vying for the longevity award (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 18530, May 8 at 2122, JBA music, sounds like Martha Garvin, and sure `nuff, // 9265 WINB she is belting away her ``Musical Memories`` hymns, accompanying self on piano. Second harmonic always radiating when 9265 is on, just waiting for enough propagation. Wish I knew what the power on 18530 is, but I`m sure not even WINB knows (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 12787.5, May 8 at 2148, very strong and extremely distorted SSB masculine robot with marine weather; quotes NWS Weather Predixion Center, Washington DC, for west-central North-Atlantic continental shelf, etc., etc. Mispronounces ``décimal`` something like ``decíminil``. Geez. But the worst thing is the awful maladjustment of the transmitter which has been going on for months on this and other USCG frequencies. Searched the 33908 posts so far in the UDXF yg on that frequency and got zero hits, nor on 12787, but instead 12788.
Dave Alpert posted this on Nov 4, 2010, source not cited:
NOAA's National Weather Service Marine Forecasts Broadcast by USCG
``Gulf of Mexico Region NMG - New Orleans (MSY)
Broadcast Time GMT (Zulu) Station Location Station Call Sign
Frequency (kHz, USB) Forecast Type
0330Z MSY NMG 4316 8502 12788 Offshore, Hurricane
0515Z MSY NMG 4316 8502 12788 High-seas, Hurricane
0930Z MSY NMG 4316 8502 12788 Offshore, Hurricane
1115Z MSY NMG 4316 8502 12788 High-seas, Hurricane
1530Z MSY NMG 4316 8502 12788 Offshore, Hurricane
1715Z MSY NMG 4316 8502 12788 High-seas, Hurricane
2130Z MSY NMG 4316 8502 12788 Offshore, Hurricane
2315Z MSY NMG 4316 8502 12788 High-seas, Hurricane
Broadcast of hurricane and other weather broadcasts from this station
may on occasion be preempted, as the transmitters are shared with the
radiofax broadcast.``
So I guess it is still the 2130 broadcast from NMG, which needs serious engineering attention! But beware: other USCG stations probably share frequency depending on time schedule. IIRC, 8502 has also been heard with the same problem (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9370, WTJC distorted spur situation, May 9 at 0532: peaking around 9320, 9345, 9495, 9420, i.e. plus/minus 25 kHz and multiples. At 1256, worst on 9395, mixing with distorted BS splash from 9385 WWRB. At 1322, WTJC was louder on 9395 spur than 9370 fundamental. At 1407, splatter from 9385 WWRB so bad on 9395 that it obscured the WTJC spur, commercial station vs fundamentalists! Yes, Capt. Frantz notified us May 8 that WWRB is no longer a ministry ---
``Greetings: Many changes at WWRB shortwave:
WWRB is no longer a Ministry; it is a commercial radio station: Our web page http://www.wwrb.org is being updated to reflect this change. We ask our clients & potential clients to no longer address our staff as 'Brother' or 'Sister'
WWRB shortwave no longer provides Free airtime to broadcasters; In keeping with other shortwave stations` policies, open airtime slots until sold will be filled with various specialty programs.
WWRB shortwave is now open to all broadcasters` political and religious points of view. WWRB does not discriminate. On air conduct will in good taste, and respectful.
WWRB is reviewing our rate card and structure in relation to other shortwave stations.
WWRB is changing Global - ONE broadcast frequency from 2390 to 5050 kHz for the summer. Some programming will move to 3215 & 3195; working out the details with our broadcasters.
WWRB shortwave is installing Audio Processing equipment to enhance / augment our broadcast audio chain. Global-ONE is the first transmitter to be updated.
WWRB is adding 15 MHz to our broadcast line up. 15 MHz frequency to be announced. Antenna Azimuth will be 045 degrees, rhombic antenna 150 feet high. Antenna will be calibrated by using one of our Radio survey aircraft, N 5259Q.
Airline Transport, WWRB's parent company, has received FAA approval to construct an 'All weather' runway with full Instrument Landing System (ILS) capability. This runway will be 36 / 18.
Airline Transport's Runway 28 / 10 ILS / DME has been upgraded.
WOW, we have been and will be very busy! Regards, (Captain David L. Frantz, Chief Pilot, Airline Transport)``
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###