** ANGUILLA. 11775, Sept 1 at 1245, tune-in to dead air; could it be a pregnant pause by DGS while he puffs a deadly cigar? No, after a while, gospel music interlude ``Kick Yo Feet`` audio cuts on and off and on and off, etc., then PMS starts talking about Labor Day weekend without cutouts. CB still has its problems, but has remained on the air whenever checked last several days, also 6090 at night (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. 7245-7275, Sept 1 at 1227, OTH radar pulses, presumed from here, vs heavy QRM from various broadcasters and hams. More of the same sound at 7335-7355. Both may have extended further if not blocked by QRM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake Sept 1, before 1300:
7970, good at 1230
13970, very good at 1250; none in the 10s, 11s, 12s
14400, poor at 1251
14720, very good at 1250; none in the 15s, 16s, 17s by 1257
After 1300:
17170, poor at 1327 with flutter // others
15520, very poor at 1359-1400*
15430, very poor at 1311, het 15432; poor at 1323 // 15280; none 16s
15280, fair at 1307 plus noise jamming
14720, very good at 1323 // 11560 [as were they all]; music had an abrupt edit to `ramshorn` at 1323
13970, poor at 1322
12025, poor at 1319 about level with CNR1 jamming; no others in 12s
11560, very good at 1320 // 12025. Unusual spot for FD, and no sign of anything else; Aoki shows only YFR, Hu Wei, Taiwan in English 13-15!
11560 was even inbooming on the breakfast table radio with whip only
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. 9600, Sept 1 at 1237, a CRI interview catches my ear, sounds like Al Gore, talking about American radio, then on to other topix focusing on US/China relations and interdependency, // 9760, 11980, 13645, 13790. He was a two-term US senator. Finally outro before hourtop as having been Gordon (Golden?) Brown on `Voices From Other Lands`. Maybe the name is wrong as I don`t find any such person in US Senate archives, by general Googling, nor on the CRIEnglish website, which does not yet have anything about the latest VFOL. 9600 and 11980 site is Kunming, 13645 Kashgar, 13790 Wulumuchi, both EAST TURKISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ITALY [non]. 15610, checking IRRS again Sept 1 whether it would bring us KQED or BS: 1259 Aïda theme, very quick ``IRRS Signing on`` and right into BS. Not even a request for reception reports. Next few minutes there is a raucous mix of music and Bible citations, sounding like a mistake, but that`s what BS sends out before coming on to announce he is on 15610 plus several other frequencies including 9980 which is not really on the air until an hour later via WWCR, and he is speaking to the entire world --- what an ego this wacko has to feed. 1358:50 cut off BS as he was about to give his Walterboro P O Box number, and now we get the full IRRS contact info for special QSL as WEWN starts to mix in the Queen of Heaven. Poor reception thruout, eastward via ROMANIA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT [and non]. 21540, Sept 1 at 1315, R. Kuwait is the SSOB of the moment, better than 21505, 21610, 21780 with Arabic song well atop Spain underneath, but REE gains and by 1412 is atop 21540 with `Españoles en la Mar` report on Somali piracy (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MAURITANIA. 7245, Sept 1 at 0545, post-Ramadan IGIM chanting, still on the air earlier than pre-Ramadan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. Sunrise DX Sept 1, UT:
920, Sept 1 at 1205 mentions ``Hermosillo, la ciudad más bello de México``; yes, it is a pretty little place, i.e. R. Capital, XEHQ again, meanwhile mixing with NA from another XE:
920, Sept 1 at 1205 instrumental NA mixing with XEHQ, 1207 mentions Radio Noticias, Chihuahua2, so Cantú IDs this as:
920 XEQD 920 Noticias Chihuahua, Chih. 1,000 250
The USA QRM is getting worse at sunrise across MW, but 870 remains a nice clear frequency for XETAR, with WWL faded out and nothing much from The Metroplex (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 1640, Sept 1 at 1217 UT, Faith 1640, supposedly an Enid station, KFXY, but ad for OCCC, and OKC traffic report by Connie Carson. Is she doing this from a studio in OKC, or Enid? Or anywhere? KFXY, unusually direxional for an X-bander, just happens to have a major lobe toward OKC. BTW, notably undermodulated, as it has been for some time now, I have been intending to outpoint. 1640 has been on the air ten years already, so about time for some significant transmitter problem (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. 15510, Sept 1 at 1256, classical music with hum, so VOR Pashto service is modulating today (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1510+, Sept 1 at 0544, KCTE Independence MO is *still* putting a wavering het against 1510.0 stations, for at least the fifth night in a row, instead of zero-beating *and* turning off the transmitter at night like it is required to do by license (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9330, Sept 1 at 1233 weak carrier, can`t make out any modulation, WBCQ or completely off uncovering another? But there is nothing else except Syria registered, tho never known active before 1600. Anyhow, by 1407, 9330 is WBCQ modulating about Solomon (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. August 30, all three major network stations in OKC blew away regular programming including network news at 2230 UT, for continuous wildfire coverage from northeast OKC. This may have been going on all afternoon as they said the fires started around 1730.
Only KWTV, however, replaced its continuous news subchannel 9.2 `News9Now` with what would have been on 9.1 during this period, as I found `CBS Evening News` in progress on 9.2 at 2245. As soon as it was over, cut back to simulcast 9.1 when local news would have been on live anyway and I noticed E-T was back on 9.2 instead of 9.1 before 2400 UT. From 0000 Aug 31, 9.2 resumed playing back previously recorded newscasts, as CBS went back on the main channel.
KOCO-7 (ABC 5) and KFOR-27 (NBC 4) also have subchannels but did not avail themselves of this way to propagate their networks` newscasts! Meanwhile depriving their entire audiences outside the wildfire zone of access to the world. Instead, ThisTV stayed on 5.2, continuous weather on 4.2, and Ant-tv on 4.3 --- altho the latter went black during a power failure at KFOR and was slow to resume. Only KOCO kept on wildfire coverage past 0000 UT = 7 pm CDT for another hour or so. I don`t think the emergency suddenly ended as primetime began.
August 31 it was a repeat performance as the fires were still raging around OKC. Network news at 2230 UT was available only via 9.2. KWTV and KFOR quit continuous fire coverage in time for primetime at 0000, but KOCO stayed with the fires all the way until 0400 UT Sept 1, missing `Nightline` too, but not an `Oprah` rerun. Maybe a third day of this, afternoon and evening of Sept 1??
All three carried a live news conference on the fires at noon = 1700 UT Sept 1, even KOCO which deleted noon news months ago. They have it ``contained to an 18-square-mile area``, working on hotspots; depends on whether wind kicks flareups again. Meanwhile there were plenty of shots of raging fires, live or recorded? Next news briefing at 5 pm = 2200 UT. I expect these stations are streaming plenty about the wildfires for those who can`t get them on TV (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1580: not ready in time for 0330 UT Thursday on WRMI, so first airing at 1500 on 9955. Further opportunities: Thursday 2101 on WTWW 9479, and WRMI 9955; Thursday 2130 on WBCQ 7415.
WWRB website says from Sept 1 they are on `winter`! schedule using 3215 and 3195, which I think implies that 5051 will no longer be in use. For WOR UT Friday 0330v check 3195 if not heard on 5051.
More WRMI airings: Friday 1430, Saturday 0800, 1500, 1730, Sunday 0800, 1530, 1730. WTWW, UT Sunday 0400 on 5755. WBCQ, UT Monday 0300v on 5110v-CUSB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9568.4, Sept 1 at 1409 carrier making het with 9570. Suspected Ethiopia longpath, as there was no het closer to its nominal 9560 which had a weak signal from something, probably KSDA, while 9570 was probably KBSWR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 17875-17880-17885, Sept 1 at 1325, DRM noise. Nothing whatsoever on 17880 or 17875 is on the supposedly ``always up-to-date`` DRM DX schedule at http://www.drm-dx.de/ dated July 19!
Furthermore there are no posts about this in the linked DRM Software Radio Fora. Nor in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/drmna/messages
We have sporadically heard DRM noise centered on 17880 before, but HFCC shows nothing either, just 17875 at 13-20, 150 kW, 320 degrees from GUF, plus 17-21 at 165 degrees. I made sure what I am getting is on 17880, not 17875.
I was anticipating something like this because of a Media Network blog item of Aug 30, ``Digital radio seminar in Brazil`` today only:
``The Brazilian Ministry of Communication has organised a high-level one-day seminar on Digital Radio on 1 September 2011 in the capital Brasília. The main objective of this event is to have an extensive discussion with various segments of society about digital radio, which includes what criteria should be used for the adoption of a digital standard with emphasis on the practical implications for broadcasters and the industry. [. . .]
Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) is one of the systems under discussion and the chair of the DRM Consortium Ruxandra Obreja will be present in the meetings along with the Commercial Committee chair Michel Penneroux, Alex Zink, vice-chair of the Association and vice-chair of the DRM Technical Committee, and Jose Maria Matias of the University of Mexico, involved in the recent DRM30 and DRM+ trials conducted by DRM in Brazil.``
So I bet it is really Montsinéry with a DRM demo for this meeting, not publicized for ordinary listeners, and on the 165 rather than 320 degree antenna (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. 7245-7275, Sept 1 at 1227, OTH radar pulses, presumed from here, vs heavy QRM from various broadcasters and hams. More of the same sound at 7335-7355. Both may have extended further if not blocked by QRM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake Sept 1, before 1300:
7970, good at 1230
13970, very good at 1250; none in the 10s, 11s, 12s
14400, poor at 1251
14720, very good at 1250; none in the 15s, 16s, 17s by 1257
After 1300:
17170, poor at 1327 with flutter // others
15520, very poor at 1359-1400*
15430, very poor at 1311, het 15432; poor at 1323 // 15280; none 16s
15280, fair at 1307 plus noise jamming
14720, very good at 1323 // 11560 [as were they all]; music had an abrupt edit to `ramshorn` at 1323
13970, poor at 1322
12025, poor at 1319 about level with CNR1 jamming; no others in 12s
11560, very good at 1320 // 12025. Unusual spot for FD, and no sign of anything else; Aoki shows only YFR, Hu Wei, Taiwan in English 13-15!
11560 was even inbooming on the breakfast table radio with whip only
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. 9600, Sept 1 at 1237, a CRI interview catches my ear, sounds like Al Gore, talking about American radio, then on to other topix focusing on US/China relations and interdependency, // 9760, 11980, 13645, 13790. He was a two-term US senator. Finally outro before hourtop as having been Gordon (Golden?) Brown on `Voices From Other Lands`. Maybe the name is wrong as I don`t find any such person in US Senate archives, by general Googling, nor on the CRIEnglish website, which does not yet have anything about the latest VFOL. 9600 and 11980 site is Kunming, 13645 Kashgar, 13790 Wulumuchi, both EAST TURKISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ITALY [non]. 15610, checking IRRS again Sept 1 whether it would bring us KQED or BS: 1259 Aïda theme, very quick ``IRRS Signing on`` and right into BS. Not even a request for reception reports. Next few minutes there is a raucous mix of music and Bible citations, sounding like a mistake, but that`s what BS sends out before coming on to announce he is on 15610 plus several other frequencies including 9980 which is not really on the air until an hour later via WWCR, and he is speaking to the entire world --- what an ego this wacko has to feed. 1358:50 cut off BS as he was about to give his Walterboro P O Box number, and now we get the full IRRS contact info for special QSL as WEWN starts to mix in the Queen of Heaven. Poor reception thruout, eastward via ROMANIA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT [and non]. 21540, Sept 1 at 1315, R. Kuwait is the SSOB of the moment, better than 21505, 21610, 21780 with Arabic song well atop Spain underneath, but REE gains and by 1412 is atop 21540 with `Españoles en la Mar` report on Somali piracy (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MAURITANIA. 7245, Sept 1 at 0545, post-Ramadan IGIM chanting, still on the air earlier than pre-Ramadan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. Sunrise DX Sept 1, UT:
920, Sept 1 at 1205 mentions ``Hermosillo, la ciudad más bello de México``; yes, it is a pretty little place, i.e. R. Capital, XEHQ again, meanwhile mixing with NA from another XE:
920, Sept 1 at 1205 instrumental NA mixing with XEHQ, 1207 mentions Radio Noticias, Chihuahua2, so Cantú IDs this as:
920 XEQD 920 Noticias Chihuahua, Chih. 1,000 250
The USA QRM is getting worse at sunrise across MW, but 870 remains a nice clear frequency for XETAR, with WWL faded out and nothing much from The Metroplex (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 1640, Sept 1 at 1217 UT, Faith 1640, supposedly an Enid station, KFXY, but ad for OCCC, and OKC traffic report by Connie Carson. Is she doing this from a studio in OKC, or Enid? Or anywhere? KFXY, unusually direxional for an X-bander, just happens to have a major lobe toward OKC. BTW, notably undermodulated, as it has been for some time now, I have been intending to outpoint. 1640 has been on the air ten years already, so about time for some significant transmitter problem (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. 15510, Sept 1 at 1256, classical music with hum, so VOR Pashto service is modulating today (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1510+, Sept 1 at 0544, KCTE Independence MO is *still* putting a wavering het against 1510.0 stations, for at least the fifth night in a row, instead of zero-beating *and* turning off the transmitter at night like it is required to do by license (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9330, Sept 1 at 1233 weak carrier, can`t make out any modulation, WBCQ or completely off uncovering another? But there is nothing else except Syria registered, tho never known active before 1600. Anyhow, by 1407, 9330 is WBCQ modulating about Solomon (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. August 30, all three major network stations in OKC blew away regular programming including network news at 2230 UT, for continuous wildfire coverage from northeast OKC. This may have been going on all afternoon as they said the fires started around 1730.
Only KWTV, however, replaced its continuous news subchannel 9.2 `News9Now` with what would have been on 9.1 during this period, as I found `CBS Evening News` in progress on 9.2 at 2245. As soon as it was over, cut back to simulcast 9.1 when local news would have been on live anyway and I noticed E-T was back on 9.2 instead of 9.1 before 2400 UT. From 0000 Aug 31, 9.2 resumed playing back previously recorded newscasts, as CBS went back on the main channel.
KOCO-7 (ABC 5) and KFOR-27 (NBC 4) also have subchannels but did not avail themselves of this way to propagate their networks` newscasts! Meanwhile depriving their entire audiences outside the wildfire zone of access to the world. Instead, ThisTV stayed on 5.2, continuous weather on 4.2, and Ant-tv on 4.3 --- altho the latter went black during a power failure at KFOR and was slow to resume. Only KOCO kept on wildfire coverage past 0000 UT = 7 pm CDT for another hour or so. I don`t think the emergency suddenly ended as primetime began.
August 31 it was a repeat performance as the fires were still raging around OKC. Network news at 2230 UT was available only via 9.2. KWTV and KFOR quit continuous fire coverage in time for primetime at 0000, but KOCO stayed with the fires all the way until 0400 UT Sept 1, missing `Nightline` too, but not an `Oprah` rerun. Maybe a third day of this, afternoon and evening of Sept 1??
All three carried a live news conference on the fires at noon = 1700 UT Sept 1, even KOCO which deleted noon news months ago. They have it ``contained to an 18-square-mile area``, working on hotspots; depends on whether wind kicks flareups again. Meanwhile there were plenty of shots of raging fires, live or recorded? Next news briefing at 5 pm = 2200 UT. I expect these stations are streaming plenty about the wildfires for those who can`t get them on TV (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1580: not ready in time for 0330 UT Thursday on WRMI, so first airing at 1500 on 9955. Further opportunities: Thursday 2101 on WTWW 9479, and WRMI 9955; Thursday 2130 on WBCQ 7415.
WWRB website says from Sept 1 they are on `winter`! schedule using 3215 and 3195, which I think implies that 5051 will no longer be in use. For WOR UT Friday 0330v check 3195 if not heard on 5051.
More WRMI airings: Friday 1430, Saturday 0800, 1500, 1730, Sunday 0800, 1530, 1730. WTWW, UT Sunday 0400 on 5755. WBCQ, UT Monday 0300v on 5110v-CUSB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9568.4, Sept 1 at 1409 carrier making het with 9570. Suspected Ethiopia longpath, as there was no het closer to its nominal 9560 which had a weak signal from something, probably KSDA, while 9570 was probably KBSWR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 17875-17880-17885, Sept 1 at 1325, DRM noise. Nothing whatsoever on 17880 or 17875 is on the supposedly ``always up-to-date`` DRM DX schedule at http://www.drm-dx.de/ dated July 19!
Furthermore there are no posts about this in the linked DRM Software Radio Fora. Nor in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/drmna/messages
We have sporadically heard DRM noise centered on 17880 before, but HFCC shows nothing either, just 17875 at 13-20, 150 kW, 320 degrees from GUF, plus 17-21 at 165 degrees. I made sure what I am getting is on 17880, not 17875.
I was anticipating something like this because of a Media Network blog item of Aug 30, ``Digital radio seminar in Brazil`` today only:
``The Brazilian Ministry of Communication has organised a high-level one-day seminar on Digital Radio on 1 September 2011 in the capital Brasília. The main objective of this event is to have an extensive discussion with various segments of society about digital radio, which includes what criteria should be used for the adoption of a digital standard with emphasis on the practical implications for broadcasters and the industry. [. . .]
Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) is one of the systems under discussion and the chair of the DRM Consortium Ruxandra Obreja will be present in the meetings along with the Commercial Committee chair Michel Penneroux, Alex Zink, vice-chair of the Association and vice-chair of the DRM Technical Committee, and Jose Maria Matias of the University of Mexico, involved in the recent DRM30 and DRM+ trials conducted by DRM in Brazil.``
So I bet it is really Montsinéry with a DRM demo for this meeting, not publicized for ordinary listeners, and on the 165 rather than 320 degree antenna (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
