** ALBANIA. My recent remark about reception reports of 13640 quoted by R. Tirana on their mailbag being incorrect was: incorrect. Referring to English broadcasts, 13640 had been in use for the 1845 and 2000 broadcasts early in A-11, then replaced by 13735 when India appeared unexpectedly on 13640 and refused to move off.
The other 13 MHz frequency was 13625 for the 1430 broadcast including when service resumed in October after a two-month hiatus. However, 13640 was in use again for a few days at the end of October, as B-11 frequencies were applied unexpectedly early to A-11 times, i.e. 1430. 13640 continued a few more days at the beginning of B-11 for the shifted 1530 broadcast, until it was replaced by 0230 on 7420. I must have overlooked that because of its brief vigence and unsuccessful attempts to hear it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 11780, Nov 18 at 0546, surprised to find R. Nacional Amazônia already on the air with slow romantic song. Normal turn-on ranges from 0630 to 0700 except 24 hours on UT Sundays and this was Friday. Second-strongest signal on band after JORDAN [q.v.] 11960 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake Nov 18, before 1400:
16100, very good with flutter at 1356
15445, barely detectable at 1334, but I think it`s FD vs the het from 15443, no doubt V. of Tibet via Tajikistan on typical offset frequency
14700, poor at 1357
13920, very good with flutter at 1357
12600, very good at 1357; none in the 11s, 10s, 9s, 8s, 7s by 1400
Before 1500:
14700, good at 1437
12600, good at 1437
9200, poor at 1440
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. 5745, Nov 18 at 1152, R. Martí is VG with NO jamming, unlike // 5980 and 6030 walls of noise.
``Official`` B-11 RHC schedules are now circulating, sent out by Arnie Coro and by the correspondence department. We`ve spotted several errors in them, and they don`t match what`s on the website. Don`t you believe any listed RHC frequency until you axually monitor it. True to form, RHC never manages to get its act 100% together (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUAM [and non]. As per large publicity campaign, KTWR was inaugurating one of its two new 250 kW transmitters Nov 18 at 1330-1400 on 15400, but God`s propagation was not cooperating. I was monitoring a few minutes earlier, and at *1330 on came a very weak and fluttery carrier, bothered even by a bit of splatter from 15380 RHC.
I could barely hear someone talking, but it was pointless to try to copy this special transmission. Rechecked at 1349 and found additional QRM from Chinese on 15397! Must have been where jumpy V. of Tibet landed at the moment from Tajikistan. Per Aoki, a more usual spot is 15433.
Yimber Gaviria forwards TWR`s coverage of this momentous event:
http://bit.ly/sPFTn8
The latest TWR schedule at HFCC,
http://www.hfcc.org/data/schedbybrc.php?seas=B11&broadc=TWR
does not yet show any 250 kW frequencies for KTWR, so when and where are they now in use??
BTW, now`s my chance for an off-topic language remark: Surpassing the controversy over whether Agaña should have a Spanish colonial tilde on it, is the official (?) Chamorro language spelling of the capital, Hagåtña (note the added Swedish influence), like the island itself, Guåhan. In case this reaches you as garble, in both names there is a circle over the A in the middle, like the name for extremely short wavelengths, but what sound does it signify in Chamorro? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JORDAN. 11960, Nov 18 at 0547, few signals on 25m and this one is easily the strongest, surprisingly surpassing Brazil (q.v.) on early 11780. Great lively ME music. 0600 widely-spaced (2 seconds apart?) time signal ending 5.5 seconds late! Arabic ID starts ``Sawt ul-Urdan`` I think, before cut off the air abruptly.
I`m confident it was R. Jordan, despite strange scheduling. HFCC B-11 as of 18 Nov shows 0500-0715, 500 kW, 350 degrees to Central & Eastern Europe. But for years they have axually been on the air for only one hour in a legacy SW broadcast. Aoki B-11 shows 0400-0500 but that was the A-11 timing; with DST now off, it`s one real hour later at 05-06 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5910, Friday Nov 18 at 1407, Sea Breeze YL in English with pauses and sounders every few sex during presumed news headlines; poor (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OMAN. 15140, Nov 18 at 1430, R. Sultanate of Oman is no longer so rare with improved conditions, but never a very good signal. At tune-in playing military march tune, presumably their version of a news theme, as every Mideast station has one. Into headlines with music underneath, undermining readability even tho American accent. At 1431.5 kills the music for body of news, but still tough copy (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAIWAN [non]. 6875, you guessed it, Nov 18 at 0651 check, RTI via WYFR is still in wrong language, German (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TIBET [non]. 15397, Nov 18 at 1349, Chinese causing het to 15400 KTWR special transmission [see GUAM]. Must have been where jumpy V. of Tibet landed at the moment from TAJIKISTAN. Per Aoki, a more usual spot is 15433. Seems the jammers had not caught up with it, 250 kW from Guam 3 kHz away may have sufficed in Asia (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TURKEY. 15350 is a good spot for Turkish music from VOT until 1400, but Nov 18 at 1344 a YL is singing a slow song in English! Something about ``wishing wells --- who can tell?``. Very hard to copy due to piano accompaniment, dixion, and above all, severe selective fading distortion. 1347 brief announcement in Turkish, and another song by her in English, ``I told you. . .``; 1354 cut to Turkish music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K [non]. 5875 // 5975, Nov 18 at 1406 BBCWS in English opening `Hardtalk` discussion, via Thailand and Singapore respectively, 5875 stronger. Nov 13 at 1455, I had found the pair were not // (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1591 monitoring: first airings confirmed Thursday Nov 17 at 2200 on WTWW 9479, and at 2230 on WBCQ 7490. WTWW was as usual a super-signal, but with some lo-frequency rumble on the modulation (which is not on the WOR file); audio was better on WBCQ and the co-channel from BBC Thailand gradually lessened during the semihour as WBCQ strengthened and Nakhon Sawan weakened; still, 7505 e.g. remains begging for an occupant other than imaginary WRNO, with no such collision.
WRMI could not be detected at 2200 on 9955 despite no jamming. Jeff White explains why: ``Glenn: We've just starting running 2300-1500 UTC weekdays, and continue 24 hours on weekends. Jeff``
! That means all the DX programs M-F at 15-17 UT are gone from SW too. We`ll have to remove several airings of WORLD OF RADIO from the sked. WRMI remains a good 24/7 listen on webcast, also for some music shows.
0430 UT Friday confirmed on WWRB 3195, and still also weaker // 5051.
Further airings on WRMI 9955: Saturday 0900, 1600, 1830, Sunday 0900, 1630, 1830; on WTWW 5755: UT Sunday 0500; on WBCQ Area 51 5110v-CUSB: UT Monday 0400. On WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1830, Sun 0930.
ACB Radio Mainstream webcast of WOR on UT Fridays now on even UT hours, heard at 1600 Nov 18; repeats every two hours (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15825, Nov 18 at 1229, WWCR cuts off Arabic for produced super-hype ID in English, introduces SWOG (Spoken Word Of God) ``hosted`` by Alexander Scourby, i.e. KJV Bible readings (motivation for which was more political than religious). Only fair signal this early. The Arabic service is M-F 1215-1230 only, what else but `Arabic New Testament`, sorely lacking the beauty and elegance of Qur`anic recitations, let alone KJV. No wonder the Christians are a minority over there.
By 1434, 15825 has built up to a huge signal, and splattering over half the 19 m band. This is during `Inspirations Across America`, black gospel music hour with mandatory overmodulation on the distorted fundamental. I can hear the splatter all the way from 15450 to 15900, i.e. as usual mostly on the lower side, why? Worst peaks are around 15560 and 15680.
This atrocity was no ``Great Gettin-Up Mornin``` despite the song of the moment, Fare thee well, Fare thee well. WWCR thus continues to interfere with countless fellow shortwave broadcasters, as allegedly hot-shot chief engineer Phil Patton is either unable or unwilling to fix this long-standing defect in #1 transmitter, along with the relatively minor +/- 15.6 kHz spurs which were undetectable this time under all the splatter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9330v-CUSB, Nov 18 at 1209, WBCQ is in dead air; not wake-up time yet in Monticello. By next check 1400, GFRN/2:11 has resumed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 7295, Nov 18 at 1401, K0IEI contacting unheard KO0E, ``with a little music in the background`` discussing his eary medical issues. Some hams are gluttons for punishment. Exactly atop strong AM signal, but no SAH, so I assume the ham was in SSB. Scheduled 13-15 on 7295 is VOA Chinese via Novosibirsk, so what we were hearing would have been the ChiCom jamming, CNR1. QRZ.com shows K0IEI as: JAMES C BENNETT, 87 STONEYKIRK DR, BELLA VISTA, AR 72715 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VIETNAM [and non]. 12000, Nov 18 at 1200, I think I hear R. Bulgaria`s theme music, and it is an even -00 frequency they could use, but not scheduled this season. Then at 1210 check programming in Chinese, mixed with noise, QRDRM. Aoki and HFCC show what this collision must really be:
V. of Vietnam in Chinese, 27 degrees USward from Hanoi VN1 site; and
V. of Russia English+Russian in DRM, 40 kW, 195 degrees from Novosibirsk (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VIETNAM [and non]. 9920, Nov 18 at 1205, siren jamming on Vietnamesish minolity language, listed as Tai Dam, Fridays at 1200-1230 from FEBC PHILIPPINES, among many other obscure tonguespeakers ripe for conversion from Communism to Christianity; beware! beware! say the sirens (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 5875 approx., Nov 18 at 1154, very strong signal of frequency-shifting pulses, making chirps with BFO on. Fortunately, BBC from Thailand toward W NAm does not start until 1200 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 7275, re previous report, I have realized that another possibility for the open carrier I was getting at 0731 Nov 17 was: FRCN Abuja, NIGERIA. Would stations please modulate, thank you (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
The other 13 MHz frequency was 13625 for the 1430 broadcast including when service resumed in October after a two-month hiatus. However, 13640 was in use again for a few days at the end of October, as B-11 frequencies were applied unexpectedly early to A-11 times, i.e. 1430. 13640 continued a few more days at the beginning of B-11 for the shifted 1530 broadcast, until it was replaced by 0230 on 7420. I must have overlooked that because of its brief vigence and unsuccessful attempts to hear it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 11780, Nov 18 at 0546, surprised to find R. Nacional Amazônia already on the air with slow romantic song. Normal turn-on ranges from 0630 to 0700 except 24 hours on UT Sundays and this was Friday. Second-strongest signal on band after JORDAN [q.v.] 11960 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake Nov 18, before 1400:
16100, very good with flutter at 1356
15445, barely detectable at 1334, but I think it`s FD vs the het from 15443, no doubt V. of Tibet via Tajikistan on typical offset frequency
14700, poor at 1357
13920, very good with flutter at 1357
12600, very good at 1357; none in the 11s, 10s, 9s, 8s, 7s by 1400
Before 1500:
14700, good at 1437
12600, good at 1437
9200, poor at 1440
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. 5745, Nov 18 at 1152, R. Martí is VG with NO jamming, unlike // 5980 and 6030 walls of noise.
``Official`` B-11 RHC schedules are now circulating, sent out by Arnie Coro and by the correspondence department. We`ve spotted several errors in them, and they don`t match what`s on the website. Don`t you believe any listed RHC frequency until you axually monitor it. True to form, RHC never manages to get its act 100% together (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUAM [and non]. As per large publicity campaign, KTWR was inaugurating one of its two new 250 kW transmitters Nov 18 at 1330-1400 on 15400, but God`s propagation was not cooperating. I was monitoring a few minutes earlier, and at *1330 on came a very weak and fluttery carrier, bothered even by a bit of splatter from 15380 RHC.
I could barely hear someone talking, but it was pointless to try to copy this special transmission. Rechecked at 1349 and found additional QRM from Chinese on 15397! Must have been where jumpy V. of Tibet landed at the moment from Tajikistan. Per Aoki, a more usual spot is 15433.
Yimber Gaviria forwards TWR`s coverage of this momentous event:
http://bit.ly/sPFTn8
The latest TWR schedule at HFCC,
http://www.hfcc.org/data/schedbybrc.php?seas=B11&broadc=TWR
does not yet show any 250 kW frequencies for KTWR, so when and where are they now in use??
BTW, now`s my chance for an off-topic language remark: Surpassing the controversy over whether Agaña should have a Spanish colonial tilde on it, is the official (?) Chamorro language spelling of the capital, Hagåtña (note the added Swedish influence), like the island itself, Guåhan. In case this reaches you as garble, in both names there is a circle over the A in the middle, like the name for extremely short wavelengths, but what sound does it signify in Chamorro? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JORDAN. 11960, Nov 18 at 0547, few signals on 25m and this one is easily the strongest, surprisingly surpassing Brazil (q.v.) on early 11780. Great lively ME music. 0600 widely-spaced (2 seconds apart?) time signal ending 5.5 seconds late! Arabic ID starts ``Sawt ul-Urdan`` I think, before cut off the air abruptly.
I`m confident it was R. Jordan, despite strange scheduling. HFCC B-11 as of 18 Nov shows 0500-0715, 500 kW, 350 degrees to Central & Eastern Europe. But for years they have axually been on the air for only one hour in a legacy SW broadcast. Aoki B-11 shows 0400-0500 but that was the A-11 timing; with DST now off, it`s one real hour later at 05-06 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5910, Friday Nov 18 at 1407, Sea Breeze YL in English with pauses and sounders every few sex during presumed news headlines; poor (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OMAN. 15140, Nov 18 at 1430, R. Sultanate of Oman is no longer so rare with improved conditions, but never a very good signal. At tune-in playing military march tune, presumably their version of a news theme, as every Mideast station has one. Into headlines with music underneath, undermining readability even tho American accent. At 1431.5 kills the music for body of news, but still tough copy (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAIWAN [non]. 6875, you guessed it, Nov 18 at 0651 check, RTI via WYFR is still in wrong language, German (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TIBET [non]. 15397, Nov 18 at 1349, Chinese causing het to 15400 KTWR special transmission [see GUAM]. Must have been where jumpy V. of Tibet landed at the moment from TAJIKISTAN. Per Aoki, a more usual spot is 15433. Seems the jammers had not caught up with it, 250 kW from Guam 3 kHz away may have sufficed in Asia (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TURKEY. 15350 is a good spot for Turkish music from VOT until 1400, but Nov 18 at 1344 a YL is singing a slow song in English! Something about ``wishing wells --- who can tell?``. Very hard to copy due to piano accompaniment, dixion, and above all, severe selective fading distortion. 1347 brief announcement in Turkish, and another song by her in English, ``I told you. . .``; 1354 cut to Turkish music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K [non]. 5875 // 5975, Nov 18 at 1406 BBCWS in English opening `Hardtalk` discussion, via Thailand and Singapore respectively, 5875 stronger. Nov 13 at 1455, I had found the pair were not // (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1591 monitoring: first airings confirmed Thursday Nov 17 at 2200 on WTWW 9479, and at 2230 on WBCQ 7490. WTWW was as usual a super-signal, but with some lo-frequency rumble on the modulation (which is not on the WOR file); audio was better on WBCQ and the co-channel from BBC Thailand gradually lessened during the semihour as WBCQ strengthened and Nakhon Sawan weakened; still, 7505 e.g. remains begging for an occupant other than imaginary WRNO, with no such collision.
WRMI could not be detected at 2200 on 9955 despite no jamming. Jeff White explains why: ``Glenn: We've just starting running 2300-1500 UTC weekdays, and continue 24 hours on weekends. Jeff``
! That means all the DX programs M-F at 15-17 UT are gone from SW too. We`ll have to remove several airings of WORLD OF RADIO from the sked. WRMI remains a good 24/7 listen on webcast, also for some music shows.
0430 UT Friday confirmed on WWRB 3195, and still also weaker // 5051.
Further airings on WRMI 9955: Saturday 0900, 1600, 1830, Sunday 0900, 1630, 1830; on WTWW 5755: UT Sunday 0500; on WBCQ Area 51 5110v-CUSB: UT Monday 0400. On WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1830, Sun 0930.
ACB Radio Mainstream webcast of WOR on UT Fridays now on even UT hours, heard at 1600 Nov 18; repeats every two hours (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15825, Nov 18 at 1229, WWCR cuts off Arabic for produced super-hype ID in English, introduces SWOG (Spoken Word Of God) ``hosted`` by Alexander Scourby, i.e. KJV Bible readings (motivation for which was more political than religious). Only fair signal this early. The Arabic service is M-F 1215-1230 only, what else but `Arabic New Testament`, sorely lacking the beauty and elegance of Qur`anic recitations, let alone KJV. No wonder the Christians are a minority over there.
By 1434, 15825 has built up to a huge signal, and splattering over half the 19 m band. This is during `Inspirations Across America`, black gospel music hour with mandatory overmodulation on the distorted fundamental. I can hear the splatter all the way from 15450 to 15900, i.e. as usual mostly on the lower side, why? Worst peaks are around 15560 and 15680.
This atrocity was no ``Great Gettin-Up Mornin``` despite the song of the moment, Fare thee well, Fare thee well. WWCR thus continues to interfere with countless fellow shortwave broadcasters, as allegedly hot-shot chief engineer Phil Patton is either unable or unwilling to fix this long-standing defect in #1 transmitter, along with the relatively minor +/- 15.6 kHz spurs which were undetectable this time under all the splatter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9330v-CUSB, Nov 18 at 1209, WBCQ is in dead air; not wake-up time yet in Monticello. By next check 1400, GFRN/2:11 has resumed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 7295, Nov 18 at 1401, K0IEI contacting unheard KO0E, ``with a little music in the background`` discussing his eary medical issues. Some hams are gluttons for punishment. Exactly atop strong AM signal, but no SAH, so I assume the ham was in SSB. Scheduled 13-15 on 7295 is VOA Chinese via Novosibirsk, so what we were hearing would have been the ChiCom jamming, CNR1. QRZ.com shows K0IEI as: JAMES C BENNETT, 87 STONEYKIRK DR, BELLA VISTA, AR 72715 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VIETNAM [and non]. 12000, Nov 18 at 1200, I think I hear R. Bulgaria`s theme music, and it is an even -00 frequency they could use, but not scheduled this season. Then at 1210 check programming in Chinese, mixed with noise, QRDRM. Aoki and HFCC show what this collision must really be:
V. of Vietnam in Chinese, 27 degrees USward from Hanoi VN1 site; and
V. of Russia English+Russian in DRM, 40 kW, 195 degrees from Novosibirsk (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VIETNAM [and non]. 9920, Nov 18 at 1205, siren jamming on Vietnamesish minolity language, listed as Tai Dam, Fridays at 1200-1230 from FEBC PHILIPPINES, among many other obscure tonguespeakers ripe for conversion from Communism to Christianity; beware! beware! say the sirens (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 5875 approx., Nov 18 at 1154, very strong signal of frequency-shifting pulses, making chirps with BFO on. Fortunately, BBC from Thailand toward W NAm does not start until 1200 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 7275, re previous report, I have realized that another possibility for the open carrier I was getting at 0731 Nov 17 was: FRCN Abuja, NIGERIA. Would stations please modulate, thank you (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
