** BULGARIA. 11600, Aug 31 at 0523, surprised to find no signal here instead of usual long-running open carrier from R. Bulgaria which used to come on by 0510 or even earlier. So kept monitoring with BFO, and carrier did not cut on until *0529:20, just in time for IS // 9600 and opening German at 0530. Ha, someone(s) at Sofia and/or Plovdiv must have seen my recent log querying why they were wasting so many watts prior to 0530 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake Aug 31, before 1300:
10300, very good at 1243
12970, very good at 1243
13130, very good at 1249
13920, good at 1244
14720, very good at 1249
15900, fair at 1249
16100, very good at 1257
16980, fair at 1257
17170, poor at 1258
After 1300:
15430, very poor at 1305, just starting, I think vs 15432 carrier het, which also QRMed Romania in Chinese on 15435. The latest Aoki, dated Aug 26, showed V. of Tibet via Tajikistan at 1300-1306 on 15437, 1306-1330 on 15442, but today must have been on 15432 instead at the moment
15280, fair at 1307. Aoki shows this too is vs a jumparound V. of Tibet via Tajikistan, 1301-1330 on 15282, 1401-1430 on 15283
12025, very poor at 1313 under CNR1 in Chinese jamming
Before 1400:
18180, just barely audible at 1350
17170, fair with flutter at 1349
15900, fair with flutter at 1349; none in the 16`s
15520, very poor at 1351 vs het de 15523: no doubt another V. of Tibet jumparound via Tajikistan, which Aoki Aug 26 had on 15527 at 1330-1337, 15517 at 1337-1400
15425, fair at 1352, ex-15430 earlier in the hour, q.v.
14720, good at 1353
14400, very good at 1353
13970, very good at 1353
13920, fair at 1353 with het, fax QRM?
13670, fair at 1354, Firedrake music NOT // 13970 and 14400. Unusual spot for Firedrake; Aoki Aug 26 has nothing to explain it, and in fact, lists both PBS Xinjiang, Urumqi in Uighur, and CRI in Chinese via Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN at this hour; wrong audio by mistake? Or maybe it was coincidentally non-jamming programming with same kind of music.
13650, poor at 1355, Firedrake mixing with Chinese, not // 13970 either. Aoki shows this is also an Urumqi channel until 1357, CRI in Chinese, plus VOK in Chinese. So maybe a second Wulumuchi transmitter with the wrong feed, as here too there is no known opposition broadcasting. After 1400, only VOK remained
13130, very good at 1356, // 13970
12025, very poor at 1356 under Chinese from CNR1 jammer; none lower
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9525-, Aug 31 at 1236 music and then announcements in Special Japanese, VOI reception now good enough to confirm that IADs are still happening several times a minute in a very irregular fashion (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ITALY [non]. 15610, it turns out that Brian Alexander in PA was monitoring the same hour as I, Aug 30 at 1259-1400 when IRRS via ROMANIA was not carrying Brother Scare but other (default?) programming, mainly the discussion about California`s Three Strikes law; but he got the program name, `Forum`, which pinpoints it to have originated at KQED in San Francisco, so I replied:
``Brian and I were obviously listening to the same thing. Aha, `Forum` means it came from KQED, their excellent talkshow which I never have time to listen to on KQED itself. This was the 10 am segment on August 16, details and audio:
http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201108161000
And the name I heard was Michael Rushford. Certainly a great improvement over BS; thank you, IRRS. It`s about time KQED got a shortwave relay! But why?``
I checked 15610 again Aug 31 at 1259, and there was IRRS ``Aïda`` theme, 1300 cut to Brother Scare, so no luck today in hearing something incomparably better. Still BS at some swift rechex later in the hour (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [non]. 15445, Aug 31 at 1815, enough of Islamicization from KUWAIT [q.v.], tuned down here to poor-fair signal with a song; 1816 Japanese announcement and another song, sounds like an American novelty tune from the WWII era in the forties, but in Japanese: were our enemies doing that too? Lyrix included ``hinky-dinky-doo``, and soon outroed as ``Tokyo Shoe Shine Boy`` --- I think; I was not expecting to hear English words and may have converted some similar-sounding Japanese phrase unwittingly.
Yes, Google that title, and find there is such a song, with mp3s, YouTube and discussion, such as this, http://www.technogirls.org/enka/
which says it dates from the immediate postwar era. Another example of SWLing leading to learning a little about other cultures, rather than racking up QSLs and country totals.
Until 1830 back to KUWAIT, listened to several more such-era songs. Really fun programming, and only wished reception were better. This was R. Japan at 17-19, 250 kW, 135 degrees via Wertachtal, GERMANY.
I am still waiting and hoping for one of our bilingual readers to provide a translated program schedule of all NHK`s Japanese music shows on SW. This may well repeat at a better time for us. Wonder if it`s a domestic service relay from the nightmiddle (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT. 15540, Aug 31 at 1757, after VATICAN [q.v.] on 15570, I tuned down here to much better signal, R. Kuwait already on air, not in English, but S. Asian music and YL announcement in such a language, presumed Urdu as in the domestic Multilingual service which is not supposed to be on SW, but they just turn the transmitter on early. 1759 brief NA by military band; 1800 5+1 timesignal accurate to within a semisecond, English ID with time as 9 pm = 1800 UTC, plays NA again within a 2-minute period, sign-on claiming frequencies are 963, 93.3 and 11990, quick [p]review of programs starting with `Under the Umbrella of Islam`.
Seems like a live rather than canned announcement as the program lineup varies from day to day, yet they remain clueless that they have not been on 11990 for years. Also, they used to announce the FM as 96.3, which matched the MW channel, how neat, impossible to do with North American allocations, but lately they have been saying 93.3. Since they can`t get their SW frequency right, I have no idea whether this is right, either, but 93.3 is another listed channel.
By 1801.5, right into the Islam show, part 2, dealing with stories of conversions to Islam [that`s fine, but beware of converting away!], announcer with American accent but other speakers in story-telling, dramatizations, laced with frequent quotations from the Qur`an. Outright Islamic proselytizing in English is still a rarity, vs just quoting and translating the HQ as Egypt and Iran do, but the novelty soon became tiresome, so tuned on to 15445; see JAPAN.
1830 I returned to 15540 for R. Kuwait`s main English newscast, mainly about Syria and Libya. I was thinking it was more substantial, but finished already with fanfare at 1836 and on to essential pop music. At least it`s 3 or 4 times as long as the 2050 headline news segment.
Meanwhile some strange QRM hit this and many other frequencies, with periodic peaks, but audible all the way from 11 to 24 MHz. A big peak was found at 19625: four noise pulses between pauses, the last one slightly longer as in an alarm-clock pattern, or a Morse V. No alarums going off inside WOR HQ, so whence? Took the DX-398 outside and it grew louder in one direxion, soon pinned onto an Enid Waste Management truck a block away with a claw picking up a huge pile of debris from a house which had been cleaned out. Flashing lights on the back of the truck (``keep 50 feet back``, surely excessive), matched the noise exactly. Whew, it soon would go away (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MAURITANIA. 7245, Aug 31 at 0522, IGIM still on earlier than usual, but W&M talk in Arabish, rather than chanting. With Ramadan over, we are expecting this to cease 24-hour operation and sign on circa 0600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. Sunrise DX August 31, LSR here being 1202 UT:
920, Aug 31 at 1205 UT, NA just ending so must have started late, then picked a `Radio Capital` ID out of the QRM, so it`s XEHQ, Hermosillo, Sonora, again. But I started late too, missing the pileup of openings at 1159+.
1040, Aug 31 at 1210 UT novelty song, 1211 jingle ID mentioning ``Once . . . Número Uno, La Primera``, and timecheck for 5:10, so it`s XEGYS in Guaymas, again, thus reminding us that Sonora stays on MST of UT-7 just like, and because of, neighboring Arizona. Not sure where the ``11`` comes from unless they are rounding the frequency way off to the hi side as on a badly-calibrated analog dial? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. 15510, Aug 31 at 1254, open carrier with hum or maybe just barely modulated, poor signal. 1300 YL suddenly starts talking with announcement, music, still with hum and undermodulated. Aoki shows the VOR Pashto service at 12-14 via Krasnodar, while HFCC calls the site Samara but omits the language. EiBi agrees it`s Pashto for both hours via Samara; but the dead air in first hour is not unusual, another example of incredibly bad studio/transmitter coördination by Voice of Russia: see also TAJIKISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAJIKISTAN. 11500, Aug 31 at 1243, open carrier with hum, flutter, presumed the scheduled VOR English relay, minus modulation, unlike 24 hours earlier when it axually could be heard (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CHINA - Firedrake report re V. of Tibet
** U S A. 9330-CUSB, Aug 31 at 0512, WBCQ once again broadcasting dead air only, instead of Good Friends Radio Network; still the same at 0518, 0532, but at next check 1234, religion had resumed, ending a program with Norcross GA address (not to be confused with better-known Waycross, almost twice as large). Why does this keep happening? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9955, Aug 31 at 0516 UT Wednesday after WRMI ID, `Conexión Digital Radio Deportes`, new show I had not run across before, gives date as 29 de agosto, over/under considerable Cuban pulse jamming. Then checked the WRMI program grid updated 26 July, and see it listed then and three other times as `CD Deportes`. Conexión Digital is the name of a DX group based in Argentina, I assume only coincidentally, as I have seen no mention of such a sports show in their bulletin or listserve (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 17820, Aug 31 at 1311, very strong open carrier S9+22 atop DW Hausa via Portugal, traces emerging during OC fades: no doubt it`s IBB Greenville back to its usual habit of tuning up the transmitter 4 hours ahead of the 1700 Portuguese on 17820, but off before 1312 uncovering DW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN. 15570, Aug 31 at 1742, heavily African-accented English discussion among three voices, fair-poor and could only understand snippets, not helped by one of my cable DTV boxes putting bubble jamming right on 15570; unplugged two of them, but must be yet another responsible. Thought I might have some neat or new clandestine, so kept straining to copy it. 1749 mentions UN office, bells and drums, ``communications update``. 1756 closing until ``next week at the same time`` a discussion on the relationship between radio administration and listeners, or something like that. Just got in a ``Laudetur Jesus Christus`` and a few notes of the Vatican Radio IS before chopped off the air at 1757*. So that`s all it is, one of VR`s direct-from-SMG frequencies, listed // 13765 and 11625, English daily at 1730 i.a. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake Aug 31, before 1300:
10300, very good at 1243
12970, very good at 1243
13130, very good at 1249
13920, good at 1244
14720, very good at 1249
15900, fair at 1249
16100, very good at 1257
16980, fair at 1257
17170, poor at 1258
After 1300:
15430, very poor at 1305, just starting, I think vs 15432 carrier het, which also QRMed Romania in Chinese on 15435. The latest Aoki, dated Aug 26, showed V. of Tibet via Tajikistan at 1300-1306 on 15437, 1306-1330 on 15442, but today must have been on 15432 instead at the moment
15280, fair at 1307. Aoki shows this too is vs a jumparound V. of Tibet via Tajikistan, 1301-1330 on 15282, 1401-1430 on 15283
12025, very poor at 1313 under CNR1 in Chinese jamming
Before 1400:
18180, just barely audible at 1350
17170, fair with flutter at 1349
15900, fair with flutter at 1349; none in the 16`s
15520, very poor at 1351 vs het de 15523: no doubt another V. of Tibet jumparound via Tajikistan, which Aoki Aug 26 had on 15527 at 1330-1337, 15517 at 1337-1400
15425, fair at 1352, ex-15430 earlier in the hour, q.v.
14720, good at 1353
14400, very good at 1353
13970, very good at 1353
13920, fair at 1353 with het, fax QRM?
13670, fair at 1354, Firedrake music NOT // 13970 and 14400. Unusual spot for Firedrake; Aoki Aug 26 has nothing to explain it, and in fact, lists both PBS Xinjiang, Urumqi in Uighur, and CRI in Chinese via Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN at this hour; wrong audio by mistake? Or maybe it was coincidentally non-jamming programming with same kind of music.
13650, poor at 1355, Firedrake mixing with Chinese, not // 13970 either. Aoki shows this is also an Urumqi channel until 1357, CRI in Chinese, plus VOK in Chinese. So maybe a second Wulumuchi transmitter with the wrong feed, as here too there is no known opposition broadcasting. After 1400, only VOK remained
13130, very good at 1356, // 13970
12025, very poor at 1356 under Chinese from CNR1 jammer; none lower
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9525-, Aug 31 at 1236 music and then announcements in Special Japanese, VOI reception now good enough to confirm that IADs are still happening several times a minute in a very irregular fashion (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ITALY [non]. 15610, it turns out that Brian Alexander in PA was monitoring the same hour as I, Aug 30 at 1259-1400 when IRRS via ROMANIA was not carrying Brother Scare but other (default?) programming, mainly the discussion about California`s Three Strikes law; but he got the program name, `Forum`, which pinpoints it to have originated at KQED in San Francisco, so I replied:
``Brian and I were obviously listening to the same thing. Aha, `Forum` means it came from KQED, their excellent talkshow which I never have time to listen to on KQED itself. This was the 10 am segment on August 16, details and audio:
http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201108161000
And the name I heard was Michael Rushford. Certainly a great improvement over BS; thank you, IRRS. It`s about time KQED got a shortwave relay! But why?``
I checked 15610 again Aug 31 at 1259, and there was IRRS ``Aïda`` theme, 1300 cut to Brother Scare, so no luck today in hearing something incomparably better. Still BS at some swift rechex later in the hour (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [non]. 15445, Aug 31 at 1815, enough of Islamicization from KUWAIT [q.v.], tuned down here to poor-fair signal with a song; 1816 Japanese announcement and another song, sounds like an American novelty tune from the WWII era in the forties, but in Japanese: were our enemies doing that too? Lyrix included ``hinky-dinky-doo``, and soon outroed as ``Tokyo Shoe Shine Boy`` --- I think; I was not expecting to hear English words and may have converted some similar-sounding Japanese phrase unwittingly.
Yes, Google that title, and find there is such a song, with mp3s, YouTube and discussion, such as this, http://www.technogirls.org/enka/
which says it dates from the immediate postwar era. Another example of SWLing leading to learning a little about other cultures, rather than racking up QSLs and country totals.
Until 1830 back to KUWAIT, listened to several more such-era songs. Really fun programming, and only wished reception were better. This was R. Japan at 17-19, 250 kW, 135 degrees via Wertachtal, GERMANY.
I am still waiting and hoping for one of our bilingual readers to provide a translated program schedule of all NHK`s Japanese music shows on SW. This may well repeat at a better time for us. Wonder if it`s a domestic service relay from the nightmiddle (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT. 15540, Aug 31 at 1757, after VATICAN [q.v.] on 15570, I tuned down here to much better signal, R. Kuwait already on air, not in English, but S. Asian music and YL announcement in such a language, presumed Urdu as in the domestic Multilingual service which is not supposed to be on SW, but they just turn the transmitter on early. 1759 brief NA by military band; 1800 5+1 timesignal accurate to within a semisecond, English ID with time as 9 pm = 1800 UTC, plays NA again within a 2-minute period, sign-on claiming frequencies are 963, 93.3 and 11990, quick [p]review of programs starting with `Under the Umbrella of Islam`.
Seems like a live rather than canned announcement as the program lineup varies from day to day, yet they remain clueless that they have not been on 11990 for years. Also, they used to announce the FM as 96.3, which matched the MW channel, how neat, impossible to do with North American allocations, but lately they have been saying 93.3. Since they can`t get their SW frequency right, I have no idea whether this is right, either, but 93.3 is another listed channel.
By 1801.5, right into the Islam show, part 2, dealing with stories of conversions to Islam [that`s fine, but beware of converting away!], announcer with American accent but other speakers in story-telling, dramatizations, laced with frequent quotations from the Qur`an. Outright Islamic proselytizing in English is still a rarity, vs just quoting and translating the HQ as Egypt and Iran do, but the novelty soon became tiresome, so tuned on to 15445; see JAPAN.
1830 I returned to 15540 for R. Kuwait`s main English newscast, mainly about Syria and Libya. I was thinking it was more substantial, but finished already with fanfare at 1836 and on to essential pop music. At least it`s 3 or 4 times as long as the 2050 headline news segment.
Meanwhile some strange QRM hit this and many other frequencies, with periodic peaks, but audible all the way from 11 to 24 MHz. A big peak was found at 19625: four noise pulses between pauses, the last one slightly longer as in an alarm-clock pattern, or a Morse V. No alarums going off inside WOR HQ, so whence? Took the DX-398 outside and it grew louder in one direxion, soon pinned onto an Enid Waste Management truck a block away with a claw picking up a huge pile of debris from a house which had been cleaned out. Flashing lights on the back of the truck (``keep 50 feet back``, surely excessive), matched the noise exactly. Whew, it soon would go away (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MAURITANIA. 7245, Aug 31 at 0522, IGIM still on earlier than usual, but W&M talk in Arabish, rather than chanting. With Ramadan over, we are expecting this to cease 24-hour operation and sign on circa 0600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. Sunrise DX August 31, LSR here being 1202 UT:
920, Aug 31 at 1205 UT, NA just ending so must have started late, then picked a `Radio Capital` ID out of the QRM, so it`s XEHQ, Hermosillo, Sonora, again. But I started late too, missing the pileup of openings at 1159+.
1040, Aug 31 at 1210 UT novelty song, 1211 jingle ID mentioning ``Once . . . Número Uno, La Primera``, and timecheck for 5:10, so it`s XEGYS in Guaymas, again, thus reminding us that Sonora stays on MST of UT-7 just like, and because of, neighboring Arizona. Not sure where the ``11`` comes from unless they are rounding the frequency way off to the hi side as on a badly-calibrated analog dial? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. 15510, Aug 31 at 1254, open carrier with hum or maybe just barely modulated, poor signal. 1300 YL suddenly starts talking with announcement, music, still with hum and undermodulated. Aoki shows the VOR Pashto service at 12-14 via Krasnodar, while HFCC calls the site Samara but omits the language. EiBi agrees it`s Pashto for both hours via Samara; but the dead air in first hour is not unusual, another example of incredibly bad studio/transmitter coördination by Voice of Russia: see also TAJIKISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAJIKISTAN. 11500, Aug 31 at 1243, open carrier with hum, flutter, presumed the scheduled VOR English relay, minus modulation, unlike 24 hours earlier when it axually could be heard (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CHINA - Firedrake report re V. of Tibet
** U S A. 9330-CUSB, Aug 31 at 0512, WBCQ once again broadcasting dead air only, instead of Good Friends Radio Network; still the same at 0518, 0532, but at next check 1234, religion had resumed, ending a program with Norcross GA address (not to be confused with better-known Waycross, almost twice as large). Why does this keep happening? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9955, Aug 31 at 0516 UT Wednesday after WRMI ID, `Conexión Digital Radio Deportes`, new show I had not run across before, gives date as 29 de agosto, over/under considerable Cuban pulse jamming. Then checked the WRMI program grid updated 26 July, and see it listed then and three other times as `CD Deportes`. Conexión Digital is the name of a DX group based in Argentina, I assume only coincidentally, as I have seen no mention of such a sports show in their bulletin or listserve (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 17820, Aug 31 at 1311, very strong open carrier S9+22 atop DW Hausa via Portugal, traces emerging during OC fades: no doubt it`s IBB Greenville back to its usual habit of tuning up the transmitter 4 hours ahead of the 1700 Portuguese on 17820, but off before 1312 uncovering DW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN. 15570, Aug 31 at 1742, heavily African-accented English discussion among three voices, fair-poor and could only understand snippets, not helped by one of my cable DTV boxes putting bubble jamming right on 15570; unplugged two of them, but must be yet another responsible. Thought I might have some neat or new clandestine, so kept straining to copy it. 1749 mentions UN office, bells and drums, ``communications update``. 1756 closing until ``next week at the same time`` a discussion on the relationship between radio administration and listeners, or something like that. Just got in a ``Laudetur Jesus Christus`` and a few notes of the Vatican Radio IS before chopped off the air at 1757*. So that`s all it is, one of VR`s direct-from-SMG frequencies, listed // 13765 and 11625, English daily at 1730 i.a. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
