** ANGUILLA. 6090, Aug 18 at 0534, DGS is back on again. 11775 also on again at 1032 with PMS, but poor signal now, weaker than Brasília 11780; by 1122 had built up to VG signal during music break, 800 number. And 6090 still on Aug 19 at 0602. (At recording time for WOR 1578, it had been off again for a biday.) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ARGENTINA [and non]. 11710+, Aug 18 at 1034, big het between RAE in Japanese and something closer to 11710, presumably North Korea and/or CNR1 per Aoki. Geez! RAE frequency management is a farce, putting Japanese service on same channel as those. But then, RAE does not even try to protect its own frequencies by registering them with HFCC. The // 6060 earlier in the hour was better audible here, but much weaker than Radio Nikkei on 6055, Japan`s domestic SW service, so another loser! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BOLIVIA [and non]. 6134.8, Aug 18 at 1038 music with het from 6135 and also OTH radar [see CHINA]. The het went off at 1040:42* and so did the music, so that must have been from the nameless Korean clandestine, revealing R. Santa Cruz much weaker, while OTHR continued (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 9695+, Aug 18 at 1020, Brazilian with news and nationwide temperatures, S9+18 but undermodulated, mentions Manaus, Rio Mar, local ad for Distribuidora Londrina. It`s Radio Rio Mar, alluding to the Amazon river being so big it amounts to a sea in itself. No het, but we know it`s off-frequency; Manuel Méndez, Spain, recently measured it on 9695.7. This is a good clear window for ZYE245 before Japan comes on with Vietnamese at 1100. BTW, WRTH 2011 has 9695 hours as 09-21 only, one of few entries attempting to show times for Brazilian SW stations (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. 9625, Aug 18 at 0518, Sackville again running a tone test after CBCNQ closed at 0506; good signal but eclipsed by REE/Costa Rica 9630. We seldom hear 9625 well enough any time to enjoy the CBC programming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake August 18:
16980, very poor at 0526, better than 16100 also very poor. No others found at this hour
At 1125, not only no FD on 10300 allowing SOH thru [see TAIWAN] but none heard anywhere else 10-16 MHz
Around 1330, none at 1320 until:
12980, fair at 1336
15290, fair at 1327
14700, fair at 1328
Firedrake August 19, on inside antenna due to thunder, so ratings may be incomparably lower; before 1300:
10300, JBA at 1255
12980, very poor at 1256
13970, fair at 1258
15545, poor at 1258
16100, JBA at 1259
16980, fair at 1258
17170, fair at 1259; not on 18180
Before 1400:
16100, good at 1349
15280, fair at 1349
14700, poor at 1350
13795, fair at 1350; none in the 12`s, 11`s
10300, poor at 1354
After 1430; still on indoor antenna:
10300, poor at 1435; none in the 11`s, 12`s, 13`s, 16`s, 17`s
14700, fair-good at 1432
15790, very good at 1431
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. 6135-6160, August 18 at 1038, OTH radar pulses presumed from here in the middle of a broadcast-only(?) band, bothering i.a. BOLIVIA 6134.8, Canada 6160 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. 15120, Aug 18 at 0524 CNR1 echoing, plus another station in Chinese, so suspect the frequency-hopping Radio Free Asia is back here, way over any sign of Nigeria. At 0528, 17855 had Chinese CCI, but could not tell if part of it was // 15120 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUATEMALA. 4055, S9+15, August 18 at 1110, national anthem is playing, so R. Verdad started a bit late today; multi-verses finally end at 1114, chimes and sign-on in Spanish, offering QSL, banderín; then in English, YL in German (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9525-, Aug 18 at 1025, VOI weak in English with a recipe. Still better than we can hear the 1300 English hour. Did not notice any IADs and wonder if the 9525- transmitter doesn`t have them compared to the 9526-? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT. 21540, Aug 19 at 1358, R. Kuwait in Arabic is the SSOB, if not the OSOB, with hardly any trace of Spain on 21540 or 21610, tho stronger Rwanda had just gone off 21780. These days anything readable on 13m is notable (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NEW ZEALAND. 11670-11675-11680, Aug 18 at 0523, RNZI DRM here as usual, but no trace of AM on 11725, nor at 0539. I looked for known RNZI frequencies on 15, 13, 11, 9, 7 and 6 MHz in case there was a another mistake, but none found. At 1011, 6170 AM was on as usual. Nothing found on RNZI website either to explain the absence, such as a maintenance period (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. Tipped off by an Enid Chamber of Commerce calendar listing for an `R/C` event at local noon Wednesday, August 17, we went to the Broadway Tower in downtown Enid, which has numerous antennas on top, including KXOK-LD 31. Turns out that means ribbon-cutting. Altho the KXOK transmitter is on the top floor, where we went first, the office of ``TVOK`` is on the main floor at Suite K. It`s been there for months; ribbon-cutting now is admittedly only a photo-op of no particular significance on this date.
The staff were hyped-up for the occasion and bent on drawing in new advertising clients, but we took the opportunity to ask some pointed questions, such as why don`t you do any local produxion, since all we ever see on KXOK is RTV. She claimed they did, ball games, and Outdoor Oklahoma, Discover Oklahoma. Trouble is, the last two are NOT produced by KXOK but elsewhere in the state.
How about doing local news? Weaseled out of that one, but would consider producing profiles of local businesses, CofC members. There was no sign of a studio, anyway, tho a guy was recording the event with a portable camera.
KXOK is really just an adjunct of KTEW-LD 18 in Ponca City which bought it a couple years ago, and broadcast joint TVOK IDs. They are also on K35JY, a translator in Lamont filling in a coverage gap, and on a few cable systems. A `coverage map` on the wall [also on the website] showing an ellipsoid with Enid near one focus really has nothing to do with signal patterns. I suspect the master control is in Ponca. (KTEW, inspired by a former call of channel 2 in Tulsa?? It certainly meant a lot more than KJRH does, better branding, altho channel `2` is now on channel 8, not to be confused with channel `8` KTUL which is now on channel 10.)
We did find out that TVOK are getting into the OKC market on a DTV subchannel of ``a Spanish station, 45-2``. That would be KOHC-CD, 15 kW, Azteca América per W9WI.com, which hasn`t made it to Enid despite lack of any active RF 45 here, contrary to listings. I wonder how the TVOK signal gets to KOHC; certainly not off the air from LD 31, blocked by another one in OKC, nor 18 all the way from P.C.
We also picked up some giveaways, cookies, ginger ale 12 oz. can., mug, magnet, business card, pens, folder, squeezable `stress reliever` in the form of a TV set instead of a ball, with TVOK NETWORK pasted upon it. More at http://www.tvoknetwork.com which you will not find by googling on the real callsign KXOK, nor on TV OK, nor TV-OK, but just TVOK - no space (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. More BS on WWCR: see U S A
** TAIWAN. 10300, August 18 at 1125, weak talk in Chinese, no Firedrake, so presumed Sound of Hope, Xi Wang Zhi Sheng, which Aoki shows as 24 hours, or rather at any hour. We can only hope the Falun Gong fans dentro-China caught this rare opportunity to hear it too. There would be a possibility of this being CNR1 jamming instead, but it was not // 11990, 12040. See also today`s Firedrake roundup under CHINA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K. 5870-5875-5880, Aug 19 at 0603, DRM noise at VG strength: it`s BBCWS in English, 100 kW, 114 degrees from Woofferton at 06-08, just starting and not usually noticed as I stop before 0600. Should have provided perfect reception, but no doubt fading down/out as the night/day progresses.
BTW, another UK SW site, Rampisham, is to close by Christmas, says the BECTU union, which strongly objects, via Alan Pennington (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1578 monitoring: first airing confirmed on WRMI webcast after 0330 UT Thursday August 18, but only jamming heard on 9955. Tnx a lot, Arnie! Further WRMI broadcasts are: Thu 1500, 2100, Fri 0500 [confirmed at 0525, steady S9+12 and R5 with no jamming], 1430, Sat 0800, 1500, 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, etc.
WTWW: Thursday 2100 on 9479, UT Sunday 0400 on 5755
WBCQ: Thursday 2130 on 7415, UT Monday 0300v on 5110v-CUSB Area 51
WWRB: UT Friday 0330v on 5051 [confirmed; still with het de 5050]
WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1730, Sun 0830
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WWCR has finally found something to fill unsold time, languishing since the departure of Rollye James at the end of March: MORE Brother Scare! Aug 18 at 0537, there he is on WWCR-1, 3215, // WWRB 3185 just a reverb apart, which isn`t always the case with different stations.
Next check at 1004, 7520 (ex-9985) is also running BS. At 1014 as I was tuning across inbooming 5890, WWCR-4, BS was talking about being on new 7520 and asking for reports, since it was not coming in well at Walterboro. First said he would be on there until 6 am M-F, and then he said until 5 am, usual confusion. Must end at 1100 UT when 7520 switches to 15825 with Russian and Arabic on weekdays. 7520 was only fair here too, night MUF not always cooperating, normally at its lowest in the hours before sunrise. 3185 from WWRB was still on and better. So why does he need 3215 and 7520 in addition to 5890 and 3185??
Next night rechecked: 3215, Aug 19 at 0601 TOM again, // 3185 during Scourby Bible reading; we still don`t know the exact span of this. Are these changes accounted for on the WWCR website? Of course not! The program schedule still stamped August 1 will probably not be updated until September, Labor Day.
Is this accounted for on The Overcomer Ministry website? Of course not! Neither on the home page nor on the ftp SW listing. May well be trial runs (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 6501-USB, Aug 18 at 1006, one of the USCG stations with marine weather, mentions National Hurricane Center in Miami; and the robotic male voice is back re-replacing the human we heard recently. Also with bad distorted modulation which has been a long-time problem; nothing audible just above 8500 which is sometimes // from another transmitter, another site? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Re previous report of Follett TX translators seen except for ch 51: with my brain in analog-mode, I overlooked the more likely explanation: blocked by DTV from KSBI OKC (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VENEZUELA [non]. 11705, Aug 19 at 1254, open carrier here, prompting dreams of RNV reviving via Cuba! So I rechecked the next previously scheduled broadcast at 1506 on 11680, but nothing there. Maybe 11705 carrier was NHK altho not opening Indonesian until 1315? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9063.0, Aug 18 at 0531, S9+20 open carrier; suspect Cuban spy numbers transmitter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9221.5 approx., Aug 18 at 0520, 2-way in Spanish encoded with alfanumerix such as ``lima``, ``catorce`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 10830, Aug 18 at 1030, very distorted and weak FMy music, peaking here but heard down to 10780 or so. Smax of 10.7 MHz IF radiation from some FM radio receiver in my neighborhood; none of mine were on. These things usually don`t appear on exactly 10700 for some reason, due to wideband FM deviation? I might have found a // to a local station if I had been willing to scan the entire FM band on another radio (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** ARGENTINA [and non]. 11710+, Aug 18 at 1034, big het between RAE in Japanese and something closer to 11710, presumably North Korea and/or CNR1 per Aoki. Geez! RAE frequency management is a farce, putting Japanese service on same channel as those. But then, RAE does not even try to protect its own frequencies by registering them with HFCC. The // 6060 earlier in the hour was better audible here, but much weaker than Radio Nikkei on 6055, Japan`s domestic SW service, so another loser! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BOLIVIA [and non]. 6134.8, Aug 18 at 1038 music with het from 6135 and also OTH radar [see CHINA]. The het went off at 1040:42* and so did the music, so that must have been from the nameless Korean clandestine, revealing R. Santa Cruz much weaker, while OTHR continued (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 9695+, Aug 18 at 1020, Brazilian with news and nationwide temperatures, S9+18 but undermodulated, mentions Manaus, Rio Mar, local ad for Distribuidora Londrina. It`s Radio Rio Mar, alluding to the Amazon river being so big it amounts to a sea in itself. No het, but we know it`s off-frequency; Manuel Méndez, Spain, recently measured it on 9695.7. This is a good clear window for ZYE245 before Japan comes on with Vietnamese at 1100. BTW, WRTH 2011 has 9695 hours as 09-21 only, one of few entries attempting to show times for Brazilian SW stations (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. 9625, Aug 18 at 0518, Sackville again running a tone test after CBCNQ closed at 0506; good signal but eclipsed by REE/Costa Rica 9630. We seldom hear 9625 well enough any time to enjoy the CBC programming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake August 18:
16980, very poor at 0526, better than 16100 also very poor. No others found at this hour
At 1125, not only no FD on 10300 allowing SOH thru [see TAIWAN] but none heard anywhere else 10-16 MHz
Around 1330, none at 1320 until:
12980, fair at 1336
15290, fair at 1327
14700, fair at 1328
Firedrake August 19, on inside antenna due to thunder, so ratings may be incomparably lower; before 1300:
10300, JBA at 1255
12980, very poor at 1256
13970, fair at 1258
15545, poor at 1258
16100, JBA at 1259
16980, fair at 1258
17170, fair at 1259; not on 18180
Before 1400:
16100, good at 1349
15280, fair at 1349
14700, poor at 1350
13795, fair at 1350; none in the 12`s, 11`s
10300, poor at 1354
After 1430; still on indoor antenna:
10300, poor at 1435; none in the 11`s, 12`s, 13`s, 16`s, 17`s
14700, fair-good at 1432
15790, very good at 1431
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. 6135-6160, August 18 at 1038, OTH radar pulses presumed from here in the middle of a broadcast-only(?) band, bothering i.a. BOLIVIA 6134.8, Canada 6160 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. 15120, Aug 18 at 0524 CNR1 echoing, plus another station in Chinese, so suspect the frequency-hopping Radio Free Asia is back here, way over any sign of Nigeria. At 0528, 17855 had Chinese CCI, but could not tell if part of it was // 15120 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUATEMALA. 4055, S9+15, August 18 at 1110, national anthem is playing, so R. Verdad started a bit late today; multi-verses finally end at 1114, chimes and sign-on in Spanish, offering QSL, banderín; then in English, YL in German (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9525-, Aug 18 at 1025, VOI weak in English with a recipe. Still better than we can hear the 1300 English hour. Did not notice any IADs and wonder if the 9525- transmitter doesn`t have them compared to the 9526-? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT. 21540, Aug 19 at 1358, R. Kuwait in Arabic is the SSOB, if not the OSOB, with hardly any trace of Spain on 21540 or 21610, tho stronger Rwanda had just gone off 21780. These days anything readable on 13m is notable (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NEW ZEALAND. 11670-11675-11680, Aug 18 at 0523, RNZI DRM here as usual, but no trace of AM on 11725, nor at 0539. I looked for known RNZI frequencies on 15, 13, 11, 9, 7 and 6 MHz in case there was a another mistake, but none found. At 1011, 6170 AM was on as usual. Nothing found on RNZI website either to explain the absence, such as a maintenance period (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. Tipped off by an Enid Chamber of Commerce calendar listing for an `R/C` event at local noon Wednesday, August 17, we went to the Broadway Tower in downtown Enid, which has numerous antennas on top, including KXOK-LD 31. Turns out that means ribbon-cutting. Altho the KXOK transmitter is on the top floor, where we went first, the office of ``TVOK`` is on the main floor at Suite K. It`s been there for months; ribbon-cutting now is admittedly only a photo-op of no particular significance on this date.
The staff were hyped-up for the occasion and bent on drawing in new advertising clients, but we took the opportunity to ask some pointed questions, such as why don`t you do any local produxion, since all we ever see on KXOK is RTV. She claimed they did, ball games, and Outdoor Oklahoma, Discover Oklahoma. Trouble is, the last two are NOT produced by KXOK but elsewhere in the state.
How about doing local news? Weaseled out of that one, but would consider producing profiles of local businesses, CofC members. There was no sign of a studio, anyway, tho a guy was recording the event with a portable camera.
KXOK is really just an adjunct of KTEW-LD 18 in Ponca City which bought it a couple years ago, and broadcast joint TVOK IDs. They are also on K35JY, a translator in Lamont filling in a coverage gap, and on a few cable systems. A `coverage map` on the wall [also on the website] showing an ellipsoid with Enid near one focus really has nothing to do with signal patterns. I suspect the master control is in Ponca. (KTEW, inspired by a former call of channel 2 in Tulsa?? It certainly meant a lot more than KJRH does, better branding, altho channel `2` is now on channel 8, not to be confused with channel `8` KTUL which is now on channel 10.)
We did find out that TVOK are getting into the OKC market on a DTV subchannel of ``a Spanish station, 45-2``. That would be KOHC-CD, 15 kW, Azteca América per W9WI.com, which hasn`t made it to Enid despite lack of any active RF 45 here, contrary to listings. I wonder how the TVOK signal gets to KOHC; certainly not off the air from LD 31, blocked by another one in OKC, nor 18 all the way from P.C.
We also picked up some giveaways, cookies, ginger ale 12 oz. can., mug, magnet, business card, pens, folder, squeezable `stress reliever` in the form of a TV set instead of a ball, with TVOK NETWORK pasted upon it. More at http://www.tvoknetwork.com which you will not find by googling on the real callsign KXOK, nor on TV OK, nor TV-OK, but just TVOK - no space (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. More BS on WWCR: see U S A
** TAIWAN. 10300, August 18 at 1125, weak talk in Chinese, no Firedrake, so presumed Sound of Hope, Xi Wang Zhi Sheng, which Aoki shows as 24 hours, or rather at any hour. We can only hope the Falun Gong fans dentro-China caught this rare opportunity to hear it too. There would be a possibility of this being CNR1 jamming instead, but it was not // 11990, 12040. See also today`s Firedrake roundup under CHINA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K. 5870-5875-5880, Aug 19 at 0603, DRM noise at VG strength: it`s BBCWS in English, 100 kW, 114 degrees from Woofferton at 06-08, just starting and not usually noticed as I stop before 0600. Should have provided perfect reception, but no doubt fading down/out as the night/day progresses.
BTW, another UK SW site, Rampisham, is to close by Christmas, says the BECTU union, which strongly objects, via Alan Pennington (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1578 monitoring: first airing confirmed on WRMI webcast after 0330 UT Thursday August 18, but only jamming heard on 9955. Tnx a lot, Arnie! Further WRMI broadcasts are: Thu 1500, 2100, Fri 0500 [confirmed at 0525, steady S9+12 and R5 with no jamming], 1430, Sat 0800, 1500, 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, etc.
WTWW: Thursday 2100 on 9479, UT Sunday 0400 on 5755
WBCQ: Thursday 2130 on 7415, UT Monday 0300v on 5110v-CUSB Area 51
WWRB: UT Friday 0330v on 5051 [confirmed; still with het de 5050]
WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1730, Sun 0830
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WWCR has finally found something to fill unsold time, languishing since the departure of Rollye James at the end of March: MORE Brother Scare! Aug 18 at 0537, there he is on WWCR-1, 3215, // WWRB 3185 just a reverb apart, which isn`t always the case with different stations.
Next check at 1004, 7520 (ex-9985) is also running BS. At 1014 as I was tuning across inbooming 5890, WWCR-4, BS was talking about being on new 7520 and asking for reports, since it was not coming in well at Walterboro. First said he would be on there until 6 am M-F, and then he said until 5 am, usual confusion. Must end at 1100 UT when 7520 switches to 15825 with Russian and Arabic on weekdays. 7520 was only fair here too, night MUF not always cooperating, normally at its lowest in the hours before sunrise. 3185 from WWRB was still on and better. So why does he need 3215 and 7520 in addition to 5890 and 3185??
Next night rechecked: 3215, Aug 19 at 0601 TOM again, // 3185 during Scourby Bible reading; we still don`t know the exact span of this. Are these changes accounted for on the WWCR website? Of course not! The program schedule still stamped August 1 will probably not be updated until September, Labor Day.
Is this accounted for on The Overcomer Ministry website? Of course not! Neither on the home page nor on the ftp SW listing. May well be trial runs (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 6501-USB, Aug 18 at 1006, one of the USCG stations with marine weather, mentions National Hurricane Center in Miami; and the robotic male voice is back re-replacing the human we heard recently. Also with bad distorted modulation which has been a long-time problem; nothing audible just above 8500 which is sometimes // from another transmitter, another site? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Re previous report of Follett TX translators seen except for ch 51: with my brain in analog-mode, I overlooked the more likely explanation: blocked by DTV from KSBI OKC (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VENEZUELA [non]. 11705, Aug 19 at 1254, open carrier here, prompting dreams of RNV reviving via Cuba! So I rechecked the next previously scheduled broadcast at 1506 on 11680, but nothing there. Maybe 11705 carrier was NHK altho not opening Indonesian until 1315? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9063.0, Aug 18 at 0531, S9+20 open carrier; suspect Cuban spy numbers transmitter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9221.5 approx., Aug 18 at 0520, 2-way in Spanish encoded with alfanumerix such as ``lima``, ``catorce`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 10830, Aug 18 at 1030, very distorted and weak FMy music, peaking here but heard down to 10780 or so. Smax of 10.7 MHz IF radiation from some FM radio receiver in my neighborhood; none of mine were on. These things usually don`t appear on exactly 10700 for some reason, due to wideband FM deviation? I might have found a // to a local station if I had been willing to scan the entire FM band on another radio (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###