** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake July 16 found some anomalies; first time group before 1301:
11500, fair at 1257; no 12`s at this time
11980, fair at 1258; no 10-9-8-7`s at this time. 11980 is an unusual frequency reminding us to search for FD just as thoroly inband as outband. This lasted past 1300 until about 1300:15, when switched to a few words of Chinese, and a bit of other music until 1300:20*. Then another very weak signal from algo was uncovered.
Why would FD be on 11980? HFCC condensed shows:
11980 1200 1300 49,54W KUN 150 177 270311 301011 Eng CHN CRI RTC
11980 1200 1300 18 WOF 125 45 080711 301011 13650 Eng G PRW BAB
Possibly a switching error at Kunming, putting FD on instead of CRI English?? Tough luck for Poland. Note also the second entry effective 8 July: there must have been some change, possibly insignificant, since Poland`s English was already on 11980 for A-11. Aoki does not have anything additional on 11980 until 1300 accounting for jamming.
13920, very good at 1250
14700, very good at 1251. While listening to this one, noted a quick break at 1251:47, and then a change in the music. This rough edit seems to be a standard feature of the current playbacks, often heard before on any frequency.
14970, fair at 1252
15970, good at 1252
16100, very poor at 1255, providing BFO for some SSB 2-way, presumed maritime; this happens very rarely: FD QRMing utilities despite all the out-of-band frequencies employed by SOH and FD.
Second time group, 13-14 UT:
11500, fair at 1345
12980, good at 1343
13920, very good at 1342
14700, very good at 1341
14970, good at 1340
15430, fair at 1328 until 1330:05*! Normally this *starts at 1330, vs V. of Tibet via UAE; has its schedule changed? Nothing heard after 1330.
16100, poor at 1338; no ute QRM now
BTW, S. Handler`s article about Firedrake, updating and expanding the one in July NASWA Journal, appears in the latest DXLD:
http://www.w4uvh.net/dxld1128.txt
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COSTA RICA. 28490-USB, July 15 at 2044, TI4CF making many quick contacts including Spain, Italy, USA, default language English but Spanish when appropriate; keeps changing fonetix for his call. Few other signals on band, one from Arizona. Presumably TI was working multi-hop Es to Europe rather than F2 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 13880, July 16 at 1332, RHC leapfrog mixing product weak but clear, of very strong 13680 over 13780 another 100 kHz higher; time check as 9:30 am, close enough for Commie government work, and news headlines (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** HAWAII. 10000 at 0544, and 15000 at 0545 July 16: following one of the feature announcements, and then the propagation info, WWVH inserted about 4 seconds of tone during otherwise atonal minutes before announcing the next minute`s time; bad editing? Occasionally noted before. One expects perfexion from NIST! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. Continued from last report, Es in progress, July 15, UT:
1555 on 2, Kaplan College ad in English; south, surely XHRIO; it`s one of those online `colleges` with no particular campus; about fraud lawsuits see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaplan_College
1603 game show, `Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader`? Yes, on XHRIO sked today too at 11 am; formerly weekly primetime show must be daytime M-F stripped now, only reruns?
1603 on 2, net-13 dominating, YL fashion show; CCI to above
1616 on 4, snow-free, ads and promos, net-13
1617 on 5, net-5 toons, plus/minus offset
1617 on 2, soccer amid the CCI
1659 on 4, net-13 with ALEGRIA program bug in LR
1702 on 4, net-13 peaking SW with novela
1703 on 2, novela, UR bug with `canal` under a cloud(?), and 11:04 clock = MDT/CST. Probably XEPM Ciudad Juárez, Tu Canal
1703 on 3, net 2, CCI, bécalos on crawler, novela
1705 on 5, net-13, but NOT // net-13 on 4; 5 has cooking show seen previously from XHAQ Mexicali, so delayed in UT-7 zone?
Text scroll DX on channel 5: mixing with net-13 signal peaking roughly from SW I have been seeing as ghost three lines of black text at top of screen scrolling upward, 1705-1725+ UT July 15. Can`t make out any words, whether Spanish or English. Any ideas about this? Like teletext maybe, but on open channel. No, nothing like that on local cable to radiate. Some translator/LP does this on 5? Tijuana/Mexicali also in on 6, 3. CiJz on 2.
[Later:] This is still going on continuously at 1745 UT. The A-13 station on 5 this is mixing with is XHAQ Mexicali. When that fades in strongest, the text disappears, so I am pretty sure it is from a separate signal. Still hard to make out, but I suspect it`s an ID roll of relayers with a lot of `words` starting with X- at the left, blank in the middle, matched with other info at the right side. Now the entire opening seems to be diminishing as often happens by 1800. [This part posted immediately to four lists, but no replies]
1714 on 5, adstring including Lotería Mexicana [used to be called Lotería Nacional], net-13 at 1716
1722 on 6, video now below the MUF, looks gringo, WSW, so XETV Tijuana
1722 on 3, now has signature almost-zero CCI between XHBC and XHTJB
1738 on 5, in upper LEFT: AZTECA on one line and below it in much smaller type: BAJA CALIFORNIA. Ergo XHAQ Mexicali. Had not seen such a localized net-13 bug before
1748 opening starts to fade down as MUF descends
1801 on 2, net-7 YL talk show from S, call-in number on screen; bug in LR of large 7 and to its right 32C, under that 1:05 clock = CDT.
Not monitoring for next few hours but:
2337 on 2, fade-in Spanish video from S/SSW
2348 on 2, Televisa promo
UT July 16:
0025 on 2, net-2
0210 on 2, from south, apparently movie, dark
0418 on 2, movie dubbed in Spanish
0331 on 2, novela amid CCI; also CCI on 3
0331 on 4, brief video from algo, SW
(Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1573 monitoring: Sat 1500 broadcast on WRMI, no jamming but JBA at 1520 with SAH from YFR Taiwan, confirmed on loud & clear webcast. Remaining WRMI repeats are: Sat 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, Mon 1130, 1530, 2130, Tue 1530, Wed 1530.
Best remaining chances this weekend on SW: UT Sun 0400 on WTWW 5755; UT Mon 0300 on Area 51 WBCQ 5110v-CUSB. Allan Weiner advises that what had been the usual final repeat, Wed at 2130 has been canceled, but the first airing Thu at 2130 continues on 7415 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15825, Friday July 15 at 2035 check, WWCR is still running `Unshackled`; sporadic-E enhanced.
BTW, Brian Alexander in PA also heard the WWCR-1 spurs when 9985 was the fundamental, and he measured them more precisely than I could: 10000.56 and 9969.45, i.e. plus and minus 15.55 or 15.56 kHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9479, July 16 at 1348 tuning across WTWW, the heirs of Pastor Pete Peters are discussing the live memorial broadcast Tuesday evening. One says it will be 3 hours long starting at 7 pm MT, or a little earlier, ``until 9``, which according to my calculations amounts to 2 hours. Anyhow, from around 0100 UT Wednesday July 20, i.e. right after 5755 comes up.
An updated version of the local Fort Collins newspaper story adds (an old) portrait of him; see also the comments:
http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011107150328
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
11500, fair at 1257; no 12`s at this time
11980, fair at 1258; no 10-9-8-7`s at this time. 11980 is an unusual frequency reminding us to search for FD just as thoroly inband as outband. This lasted past 1300 until about 1300:15, when switched to a few words of Chinese, and a bit of other music until 1300:20*. Then another very weak signal from algo was uncovered.
Why would FD be on 11980? HFCC condensed shows:
11980 1200 1300 49,54W KUN 150 177 270311 301011 Eng CHN CRI RTC
11980 1200 1300 18 WOF 125 45 080711 301011 13650 Eng G PRW BAB
Possibly a switching error at Kunming, putting FD on instead of CRI English?? Tough luck for Poland. Note also the second entry effective 8 July: there must have been some change, possibly insignificant, since Poland`s English was already on 11980 for A-11. Aoki does not have anything additional on 11980 until 1300 accounting for jamming.
13920, very good at 1250
14700, very good at 1251. While listening to this one, noted a quick break at 1251:47, and then a change in the music. This rough edit seems to be a standard feature of the current playbacks, often heard before on any frequency.
14970, fair at 1252
15970, good at 1252
16100, very poor at 1255, providing BFO for some SSB 2-way, presumed maritime; this happens very rarely: FD QRMing utilities despite all the out-of-band frequencies employed by SOH and FD.
Second time group, 13-14 UT:
11500, fair at 1345
12980, good at 1343
13920, very good at 1342
14700, very good at 1341
14970, good at 1340
15430, fair at 1328 until 1330:05*! Normally this *starts at 1330, vs V. of Tibet via UAE; has its schedule changed? Nothing heard after 1330.
16100, poor at 1338; no ute QRM now
BTW, S. Handler`s article about Firedrake, updating and expanding the one in July NASWA Journal, appears in the latest DXLD:
http://www.w4uvh.net/dxld1128.txt
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COSTA RICA. 28490-USB, July 15 at 2044, TI4CF making many quick contacts including Spain, Italy, USA, default language English but Spanish when appropriate; keeps changing fonetix for his call. Few other signals on band, one from Arizona. Presumably TI was working multi-hop Es to Europe rather than F2 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 13880, July 16 at 1332, RHC leapfrog mixing product weak but clear, of very strong 13680 over 13780 another 100 kHz higher; time check as 9:30 am, close enough for Commie government work, and news headlines (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** HAWAII. 10000 at 0544, and 15000 at 0545 July 16: following one of the feature announcements, and then the propagation info, WWVH inserted about 4 seconds of tone during otherwise atonal minutes before announcing the next minute`s time; bad editing? Occasionally noted before. One expects perfexion from NIST! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. Continued from last report, Es in progress, July 15, UT:
1555 on 2, Kaplan College ad in English; south, surely XHRIO; it`s one of those online `colleges` with no particular campus; about fraud lawsuits see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaplan_College
1603 game show, `Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader`? Yes, on XHRIO sked today too at 11 am; formerly weekly primetime show must be daytime M-F stripped now, only reruns?
1603 on 2, net-13 dominating, YL fashion show; CCI to above
1616 on 4, snow-free, ads and promos, net-13
1617 on 5, net-5 toons, plus/minus offset
1617 on 2, soccer amid the CCI
1659 on 4, net-13 with ALEGRIA program bug in LR
1702 on 4, net-13 peaking SW with novela
1703 on 2, novela, UR bug with `canal` under a cloud(?), and 11:04 clock = MDT/CST. Probably XEPM Ciudad Juárez, Tu Canal
1703 on 3, net 2, CCI, bécalos on crawler, novela
1705 on 5, net-13, but NOT // net-13 on 4; 5 has cooking show seen previously from XHAQ Mexicali, so delayed in UT-7 zone?
Text scroll DX on channel 5: mixing with net-13 signal peaking roughly from SW I have been seeing as ghost three lines of black text at top of screen scrolling upward, 1705-1725+ UT July 15. Can`t make out any words, whether Spanish or English. Any ideas about this? Like teletext maybe, but on open channel. No, nothing like that on local cable to radiate. Some translator/LP does this on 5? Tijuana/Mexicali also in on 6, 3. CiJz on 2.
[Later:] This is still going on continuously at 1745 UT. The A-13 station on 5 this is mixing with is XHAQ Mexicali. When that fades in strongest, the text disappears, so I am pretty sure it is from a separate signal. Still hard to make out, but I suspect it`s an ID roll of relayers with a lot of `words` starting with X- at the left, blank in the middle, matched with other info at the right side. Now the entire opening seems to be diminishing as often happens by 1800. [This part posted immediately to four lists, but no replies]
1714 on 5, adstring including Lotería Mexicana [used to be called Lotería Nacional], net-13 at 1716
1722 on 6, video now below the MUF, looks gringo, WSW, so XETV Tijuana
1722 on 3, now has signature almost-zero CCI between XHBC and XHTJB
1738 on 5, in upper LEFT: AZTECA on one line and below it in much smaller type: BAJA CALIFORNIA. Ergo XHAQ Mexicali. Had not seen such a localized net-13 bug before
1748 opening starts to fade down as MUF descends
1801 on 2, net-7 YL talk show from S, call-in number on screen; bug in LR of large 7 and to its right 32C, under that 1:05 clock = CDT.
Not monitoring for next few hours but:
2337 on 2, fade-in Spanish video from S/SSW
2348 on 2, Televisa promo
UT July 16:
0025 on 2, net-2
0210 on 2, from south, apparently movie, dark
0418 on 2, movie dubbed in Spanish
0331 on 2, novela amid CCI; also CCI on 3
0331 on 4, brief video from algo, SW
(Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1573 monitoring: Sat 1500 broadcast on WRMI, no jamming but JBA at 1520 with SAH from YFR Taiwan, confirmed on loud & clear webcast. Remaining WRMI repeats are: Sat 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, Mon 1130, 1530, 2130, Tue 1530, Wed 1530.
Best remaining chances this weekend on SW: UT Sun 0400 on WTWW 5755; UT Mon 0300 on Area 51 WBCQ 5110v-CUSB. Allan Weiner advises that what had been the usual final repeat, Wed at 2130 has been canceled, but the first airing Thu at 2130 continues on 7415 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15825, Friday July 15 at 2035 check, WWCR is still running `Unshackled`; sporadic-E enhanced.
BTW, Brian Alexander in PA also heard the WWCR-1 spurs when 9985 was the fundamental, and he measured them more precisely than I could: 10000.56 and 9969.45, i.e. plus and minus 15.55 or 15.56 kHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9479, July 16 at 1348 tuning across WTWW, the heirs of Pastor Pete Peters are discussing the live memorial broadcast Tuesday evening. One says it will be 3 hours long starting at 7 pm MT, or a little earlier, ``until 9``, which according to my calculations amounts to 2 hours. Anyhow, from around 0100 UT Wednesday July 20, i.e. right after 5755 comes up.
An updated version of the local Fort Collins newspaper story adds (an old) portrait of him; see also the comments:
http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011107150328
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
