** CHINA. Firedrake July 30; poor propagation at first, but came up with some `new` frequencies, prompted by choices of jamming victims, as SARFT is totally reaxionary:
Before 1200:
16100, JBA at 1150. NO others found 10-19 MHz, altho CNR1 and CRI had some signals on 13590, 13720, 15250, 15480, 15670. Only poor signals from anywhere at this hour above 15 MHz
Before 1230:
11500, fluttery carrier at 1221, but no music. NO others found up to 18 MHz by 1225
Before 1330:
15280, fair with flutter at 1327 [see 15290 below]
15425, poor at 1327. Yes, not 15430 as previously; had to make sure on YB-400 rather than parallax on the FRG-7; no others below 16 MHz. July 30 Aoki has V. of Tibet on 15427 at 1300-1306 via Tajikistan; 15430 at 1330-1400 via UAE. Close enough. Probably was same target when on 15445
Before 1400:
16100, very good with flutter at 1335
15525, very poor at 1345
15290, poor at 1347; was 15280 20 minutes earlier, above. July 30 Aoki almost accounts for these in reverse with V. of Tibet via Tajikistan at 1330-1401 on 15292, 1401-1430 on 15283; no such hets audible here
12900, very good with flutter at 1337; same site as 16100?
12025, poor at 1337 mixing with Chinese, CNR1 jammer
11500, good at 1338; no others 10-19 MHz
Before 1430:
17560, poor at 1421. Unusual spot: Nothing in July 30 Aoki to account for this but HFCC has: V. of Tibet, 250 kW, 45 degrees via Madagascar at 1400-1430
15790, poor at 1421 // 17560. Nothing in HFCC to explain it but Aoki July 30 has Sound of Hope via Tajikistan on 15795 at 1400-1430
14950, good at 1427; no others 10-19 MHz
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. More missing transmissions:
17560, July 29 at 2003, 2019, RHC to Europe absent (allowing unimpeded spash-free reception of ME music on R. Kuwait 17550 Arabic to C&W NAm). 17560 back on next day July 30 at 1936 in French.
13740, July 30 at 1428, CRI relay in English is missing. It had been on 9570 in the 12-13 hour. Now RHC itself on 13680, 13780 as usual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** FRANCE [and non]. 17610, July 30 at 1152, blues song in English, poor with fades, then reggae until abrupt 1200* without any announcement; how rude! Scheduled here is RFI, 500 kW due west from Issoudun in French at 11-12 to CIRAF 7S, 8S, 10E, 11 and 12N, i.e. Enid and vicinity southward! The 270 degree bearing heads more toward Mexico/Central America. This may be another frequency for the Météo Marine weather broadcasts at 1133, more easily heard via GUF on 13640, and always filled out with RFI musique.
15515, July 30 at 1202, RFI via GUIANA FRENCH, good with clip of Pres. Obama, voice-over translation to Spanish with heavy gringo accent. Wonder who did that, the White House? Surely RFI could do better, as then followed by more news announced in proper Spanish: YL refers to US debt as ``14 billones de dólares`` --- oh oh, are they using the confusing alternate million/billion notation instead of trillion? Everybody, abandon that for unequivocal metric ``terabux``.
15300, July 30 at 1650, RFI weak in French. Mike Cooper and I are wondering what the current hours on this frequency are: is it really all the way from 04 to 20 TU as HFCC-registered, and also in Aoki, EiBi? Plus with overlapping transmissions, apparently more than one transmitter/antenna at times.
17850, July 30 at 1701, about equal collision between RFI in French direct and REE in Spanish via COSTA RICA; meanwhile, 17855, 17860, 17865, 17870, 17875, 17880, 17885, 17890 are all vacant plus many more on the lower side (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH. 6230, July 30 at 1134, noise jamming here, presumably against unnamed S. Korean clandestine, which however, S. Hasegawa says is not on until 1200-1240 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MALAYSIA [and non]. 6050.0, July 30 at 1130, RTM apparently back here from spate on 6049.6, as no audible het, just a subaudible one on HCJB 6050.0 with automatic 3+1 timesignal and Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. 15310, July 30 at 1706, hard rock with screaming, typically eclectic music of RRI, as soon IDed in passing at 1708, in Romanian, 300 kW, 285 degrees via Galbeni for France at 17-20 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAIWAN. 6220, July 30 at 1134, weak signal sounds like kids singing. Per Aoki, only here at 11-12 is YFR via Hu Wei, in Burmese.
6240, July 30 at 1134, weak signal with music, maybe Korean? No, Aoki says this one is YFR in Chinese via BauJong at 11-16 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also KOREA NORTH 6230
** U K [non]. 15370, July 30 at 1332, 168.5 hours after last log of this weekly Saturday BBC transmission: vocal music, uncertain language but could be Somali. It`s mostly music, break at 1352 for brief announcement could have been in French; 1400 accurate 5+1 timesignal, and talk, also sounds like French intonation but can`t be sure, and signal keeps fading until just about gone by 1420.
Last week at the outset I was hearing bits of French and English, but this is scheduled at 13-16 via South Africa in Somali (HFCC); via South Africa in English (Aoki); via Cyprus in Somali (EiBi and WRTH May update). I wish those who could receive it better would resolve the language/site question, next Saturday (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9370, July 30 at 1143, no signal from WTJC, tho e.g. WBCQ was quite strong on 9330. Last few days, WTJC has been weakish and spurfree. Did it quit working because Jesus come to them already; a breakdown; or deliberately off for repair? Probably the middle one (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 9955, July 30 at 1139, WRMI preacher in English clear of jamming, unlike wall of noise on 9965 vs República. Now if only WRMI were free of jamming Mondays at 1130. After 1200 the jamming is back (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 12160, July 30 at 1615, `Ask WWCR` new edition #344 says: major schedule change coming August 1: Brother Scare time will be halved instead of 24/7 on WWCR-4, retaining 05-11 on 5890, 14-20 on 9980. [It was BS, no doubt, who decided to cut time on WWCR in half.]
Instead of filling with other programming, most of that time will be off the air for a while, allowing for more convenient maintenance not only of #4 transmitter, but the others by swapping them around, but continuing to operate on scheduled frequencies. Pastor Butch somebody will take one of the remaining hours at 0100 UT [9980 is currently running until 0200].
Recently found a bunch of (modulator) cards in a nail (mail?) bin needing to be rebuilt. This discovery was worth $16K, as they cost $600 each. They have now all been checked, repaired, tested and ready to use. [Unspoken of course, but my frequent complaints about WWCR-1 `squealing` have finally had an effect: It`s defective modulator cards which cause this. We`ll see if that stop. And how about the spurs?]
The 11 hours per day of down-time also provide an opportunity to test a new frequency, 17580, in the 20-22 UT period. Tests will be without any frequency-change announcements and without advance notice. They haven`t even tuned up the transmitter yet for that frequency. 17580, a rare inband channel for WWCR, has been cleared by Tom Lucey at FCC, who however thinks according to VOACAP theory, it probably won`t be effective.
Neither host can remember WWCR ever operating on 17 MHz, but maybe some listeners can: Yes, in the early years WWCR was somewhere in the 17.5s for a while, I recall, 17535? Then preferred 15 MHz. If they decide to keep it, as yet unknown whether 17580 will be OK for the B-season. [Current HFCC A-11 shows no ACI or CCI to 17580 during those hours] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 12100, July 30 at 1709, WTWW-3 is on and still in Arabic. Originally was to be in 3-hour language blox, but is always in Arabic already when cuts on circa 1300. Guess their exact schedule is still flexible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 17575, July 30 at 1644, poor signal with singing and drumming; one particular drum pitch came thru best every few sex. 1656 still similar music, 1659.6 music stops, and off at 1700* without any announcements; how rude! Uplooked later, it`s AWR in Somali via Wertachtal, GERMANY, 250 kW, 135 degrees at 1630-1700 daily (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN. 15570, July 30 at 1608, fair signal in Swahili, 1611 hilife music. 1656 still going, mentions Somalia. I was wondering about this one until 1659 the VR IS played. VR A-11 schedule folder shows Kiswahili at 1600-1615, 1615 Somali on Saturday only; 1630 Amharic, Tigrino [sic] daily. HFCC says 250 kW, 139 degrees from SMG. [During the 16-17 UT hour I was on inside antenna due to much-needed T-storm dropping a semiinch of rain upon us] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED [and non]. 13635, July 30 at 1631, surprised to find S9+20 open carrier, strong and steady, must be from North America, then tone test on and off; 1633 Elvis song, and talk about his ``black blues``, apparently a documentary, but 1634.5 cut that off for some other music until 1635*. Left a receiver on 13635, but never came back by 1656. Such behavior likely from IBB Greenville as a test-only frequency. Nothing is scheduled on 13635 now or later from anywhere. By 1645, a similar big carrier had come up on 17820 prior to 1700 VOA Portuguese (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
Before 1200:
16100, JBA at 1150. NO others found 10-19 MHz, altho CNR1 and CRI had some signals on 13590, 13720, 15250, 15480, 15670. Only poor signals from anywhere at this hour above 15 MHz
Before 1230:
11500, fluttery carrier at 1221, but no music. NO others found up to 18 MHz by 1225
Before 1330:
15280, fair with flutter at 1327 [see 15290 below]
15425, poor at 1327. Yes, not 15430 as previously; had to make sure on YB-400 rather than parallax on the FRG-7; no others below 16 MHz. July 30 Aoki has V. of Tibet on 15427 at 1300-1306 via Tajikistan; 15430 at 1330-1400 via UAE. Close enough. Probably was same target when on 15445
Before 1400:
16100, very good with flutter at 1335
15525, very poor at 1345
15290, poor at 1347; was 15280 20 minutes earlier, above. July 30 Aoki almost accounts for these in reverse with V. of Tibet via Tajikistan at 1330-1401 on 15292, 1401-1430 on 15283; no such hets audible here
12900, very good with flutter at 1337; same site as 16100?
12025, poor at 1337 mixing with Chinese, CNR1 jammer
11500, good at 1338; no others 10-19 MHz
Before 1430:
17560, poor at 1421. Unusual spot: Nothing in July 30 Aoki to account for this but HFCC has: V. of Tibet, 250 kW, 45 degrees via Madagascar at 1400-1430
15790, poor at 1421 // 17560. Nothing in HFCC to explain it but Aoki July 30 has Sound of Hope via Tajikistan on 15795 at 1400-1430
14950, good at 1427; no others 10-19 MHz
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. More missing transmissions:
17560, July 29 at 2003, 2019, RHC to Europe absent (allowing unimpeded spash-free reception of ME music on R. Kuwait 17550 Arabic to C&W NAm). 17560 back on next day July 30 at 1936 in French.
13740, July 30 at 1428, CRI relay in English is missing. It had been on 9570 in the 12-13 hour. Now RHC itself on 13680, 13780 as usual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** FRANCE [and non]. 17610, July 30 at 1152, blues song in English, poor with fades, then reggae until abrupt 1200* without any announcement; how rude! Scheduled here is RFI, 500 kW due west from Issoudun in French at 11-12 to CIRAF 7S, 8S, 10E, 11 and 12N, i.e. Enid and vicinity southward! The 270 degree bearing heads more toward Mexico/Central America. This may be another frequency for the Météo Marine weather broadcasts at 1133, more easily heard via GUF on 13640, and always filled out with RFI musique.
15515, July 30 at 1202, RFI via GUIANA FRENCH, good with clip of Pres. Obama, voice-over translation to Spanish with heavy gringo accent. Wonder who did that, the White House? Surely RFI could do better, as then followed by more news announced in proper Spanish: YL refers to US debt as ``14 billones de dólares`` --- oh oh, are they using the confusing alternate million/billion notation instead of trillion? Everybody, abandon that for unequivocal metric ``terabux``.
15300, July 30 at 1650, RFI weak in French. Mike Cooper and I are wondering what the current hours on this frequency are: is it really all the way from 04 to 20 TU as HFCC-registered, and also in Aoki, EiBi? Plus with overlapping transmissions, apparently more than one transmitter/antenna at times.
17850, July 30 at 1701, about equal collision between RFI in French direct and REE in Spanish via COSTA RICA; meanwhile, 17855, 17860, 17865, 17870, 17875, 17880, 17885, 17890 are all vacant plus many more on the lower side (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH. 6230, July 30 at 1134, noise jamming here, presumably against unnamed S. Korean clandestine, which however, S. Hasegawa says is not on until 1200-1240 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MALAYSIA [and non]. 6050.0, July 30 at 1130, RTM apparently back here from spate on 6049.6, as no audible het, just a subaudible one on HCJB 6050.0 with automatic 3+1 timesignal and Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. 15310, July 30 at 1706, hard rock with screaming, typically eclectic music of RRI, as soon IDed in passing at 1708, in Romanian, 300 kW, 285 degrees via Galbeni for France at 17-20 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAIWAN. 6220, July 30 at 1134, weak signal sounds like kids singing. Per Aoki, only here at 11-12 is YFR via Hu Wei, in Burmese.
6240, July 30 at 1134, weak signal with music, maybe Korean? No, Aoki says this one is YFR in Chinese via BauJong at 11-16 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also KOREA NORTH 6230
** U K [non]. 15370, July 30 at 1332, 168.5 hours after last log of this weekly Saturday BBC transmission: vocal music, uncertain language but could be Somali. It`s mostly music, break at 1352 for brief announcement could have been in French; 1400 accurate 5+1 timesignal, and talk, also sounds like French intonation but can`t be sure, and signal keeps fading until just about gone by 1420.
Last week at the outset I was hearing bits of French and English, but this is scheduled at 13-16 via South Africa in Somali (HFCC); via South Africa in English (Aoki); via Cyprus in Somali (EiBi and WRTH May update). I wish those who could receive it better would resolve the language/site question, next Saturday (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9370, July 30 at 1143, no signal from WTJC, tho e.g. WBCQ was quite strong on 9330. Last few days, WTJC has been weakish and spurfree. Did it quit working because Jesus come to them already; a breakdown; or deliberately off for repair? Probably the middle one (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 9955, July 30 at 1139, WRMI preacher in English clear of jamming, unlike wall of noise on 9965 vs República. Now if only WRMI were free of jamming Mondays at 1130. After 1200 the jamming is back (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 12160, July 30 at 1615, `Ask WWCR` new edition #344 says: major schedule change coming August 1: Brother Scare time will be halved instead of 24/7 on WWCR-4, retaining 05-11 on 5890, 14-20 on 9980. [It was BS, no doubt, who decided to cut time on WWCR in half.]
Instead of filling with other programming, most of that time will be off the air for a while, allowing for more convenient maintenance not only of #4 transmitter, but the others by swapping them around, but continuing to operate on scheduled frequencies. Pastor Butch somebody will take one of the remaining hours at 0100 UT [9980 is currently running until 0200].
Recently found a bunch of (modulator) cards in a nail (mail?) bin needing to be rebuilt. This discovery was worth $16K, as they cost $600 each. They have now all been checked, repaired, tested and ready to use. [Unspoken of course, but my frequent complaints about WWCR-1 `squealing` have finally had an effect: It`s defective modulator cards which cause this. We`ll see if that stop. And how about the spurs?]
The 11 hours per day of down-time also provide an opportunity to test a new frequency, 17580, in the 20-22 UT period. Tests will be without any frequency-change announcements and without advance notice. They haven`t even tuned up the transmitter yet for that frequency. 17580, a rare inband channel for WWCR, has been cleared by Tom Lucey at FCC, who however thinks according to VOACAP theory, it probably won`t be effective.
Neither host can remember WWCR ever operating on 17 MHz, but maybe some listeners can: Yes, in the early years WWCR was somewhere in the 17.5s for a while, I recall, 17535? Then preferred 15 MHz. If they decide to keep it, as yet unknown whether 17580 will be OK for the B-season. [Current HFCC A-11 shows no ACI or CCI to 17580 during those hours] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 12100, July 30 at 1709, WTWW-3 is on and still in Arabic. Originally was to be in 3-hour language blox, but is always in Arabic already when cuts on circa 1300. Guess their exact schedule is still flexible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 17575, July 30 at 1644, poor signal with singing and drumming; one particular drum pitch came thru best every few sex. 1656 still similar music, 1659.6 music stops, and off at 1700* without any announcements; how rude! Uplooked later, it`s AWR in Somali via Wertachtal, GERMANY, 250 kW, 135 degrees at 1630-1700 daily (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN. 15570, July 30 at 1608, fair signal in Swahili, 1611 hilife music. 1656 still going, mentions Somalia. I was wondering about this one until 1659 the VR IS played. VR A-11 schedule folder shows Kiswahili at 1600-1615, 1615 Somali on Saturday only; 1630 Amharic, Tigrino [sic] daily. HFCC says 250 kW, 139 degrees from SMG. [During the 16-17 UT hour I was on inside antenna due to much-needed T-storm dropping a semiinch of rain upon us] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED [and non]. 13635, July 30 at 1631, surprised to find S9+20 open carrier, strong and steady, must be from North America, then tone test on and off; 1633 Elvis song, and talk about his ``black blues``, apparently a documentary, but 1634.5 cut that off for some other music until 1635*. Left a receiver on 13635, but never came back by 1656. Such behavior likely from IBB Greenville as a test-only frequency. Nothing is scheduled on 13635 now or later from anywhere. By 1645, a similar big carrier had come up on 17820 prior to 1700 VOA Portuguese (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###