** ALBANIA. After hearing 7420 the night before, I was sure to be listening UT Nov 5 at 0227 when an open carrier turned into the haunting R. Tirana IS; good signal S9+22 with flutter, better than Nov 4, and usual modulation not up to par. Sign-on in English already at 0229:40, 0230 right into news from Albania, skipping any frequency/schedule announcement, either waiting until it becomes stable, or not wanting to mention only the two broadcasts which are left. Reception does not improve during the semihour; 0242 goes to music until 0254:30 closing theme and off at 0255*.
Stephen Wood in Massachusetts was also listening, and reports ``signal very good with only slight static.`` I am pleased that we now have a clear frequency with no co- or adjacent-channel interference. So R. Tirana has moved its last English broadcast to our evening and on a clear frequency. I`m sure they would like to hear from other listeners how it`s coming in. Signal might be stronger on 6 MHz band, but more QRM.
Earlier at 0018 UT Nov 5 I checked the Albanian hour, and found it still on 7425, heavy collision from China, and unusable. Hope RT also shifts that to 7420. In Massachusetts, Steve Wood said R. Tirana on 7425 was a huge signal with no interference from China, UT Nov 3 at 0002-0025+, but that`s certainly not the case further west (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN. The bclnews.it B11 schedule archive at http://www.bclnews.it/b11schedules/voiri.htm
shows this for VIRI in English:
ENGLISH 0130-0227 7230 7365 "Voice of Justice"
1030-1127 21575 21695
1530-1627 13785 15525
1930-2027 6010 6115SIT 7320 11670 15450
But it`s labeled Tentative. Contradicted by HFCC as of Oct 28:
The VOJ broadcast to NAm remains at 0330-0427, the time it changed to early in the A-11 season, and the frequencies with azimuths are now:
7200, 313 From Sirjan [the lower sideband of which is out-of-band]
7365, 333 from Kamalabad [which is blocked by the DentroCuban Jamming Command and R. Marti Greenville until 0400 + probable runover of jam. Half of this broadcast on 11920 in A-11 also had a big collision, with Romania which they never did anything about despite my in-person notification to Iranian and Romanian delegates to HFCC Dallas]
The 1030 listings match:
21575, 105 from Kamalabad
21695, 112 from Kamalabad
The 1530 listings match:
13785, 105 from Sirjan
15525, 105 from Kamalabad
1930 has 13670 instead of 11670:
6010, 304 from Kamalabad
6115, 259 from Sitkunai, Lithuania [English but ZRC client not given]
7320, 313 from Sirjan
13670, 211 from Sirjan
15450, 205 from Kamalabad
Confirmation of all of these, especially 0330-0427 is needed. So I checked UT Nov 5: As expected, no Iran to be heard at 0210 on 7365, just R. Martí and jamming; nothing on 7200 or 7230.
At 0330, 7365 is still blocked by the Cuban radio war, but 7200 had Qur`an, with co-channel QRM underneath. The stronger signal stayed in Arabic past 0333, while the weaker one sounded like Qur`an, which means the main signal was SUDAN, its only shortwave frequency, which shouldn`t be bleeding into the hamband either, but certainly not a wise choice for VIRI.
From HFCC B-11 schedule, I expected 7365 to open up at 0400 after R. Martí, but I hadn`t noticed a separate one-hour registration for IBB Greenville at 0400-0500, since it drops power from 250 to 125 kW, why? By 0400, I couldn`t hear the other signal under Sudan either, so can`t be positive Voice of Justice is really on 7200 and 7365 for IRIB`s only English to North America, but both of those definitely need to be somewhere else! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9990, WTWW-2 testing on the air again, Nov 4 at 2150, tnx to tip from owner/engineer George McClintock. Huge signal here with SFAW audio same as 9479, and 9990 is also enough to overpower WWV 10000. We`ll see if the FCC get any complaints from WWV users. I hadn`t heard 9990 at all this week, and George says it had not been on air for a few days.
The night frequency has been changed to 5085, and it has also tested but I haven`t heard it. 9990 is available 22 hours a day, except for the two hours a day WYFR is on 9985 = 0100-0300. 5085 is available 24 hours a day, so except for the 01-03 segment, WTWW-2 can switch whenever it needs to.
An inauguration broadcast is planned for this Saturday afternoon/evening, November 5, with DJ Ted Randall live on the air playing oldies and taking reception reports by phone calls, as he did when WTWW-1 was starting up. (But do not expect WTWW-2 either to stay with an oldies music format.) Time not decided, but says he will notify me; anyhow, keep an ear on 9990 after local noon. Another session like that is expected the following Saturday.
WTWW-3 antenna needs some work, so not running full power on 12105; waiting on a crew to come in a week or two. George says he has been spending ``26 hours a day`` at the site fixing up the #2 transmitter, which it turns out had accumulated a lot of problems in the Seychelles. #3 transmitter acquired from Guam is in better shape. Now he`s thinking of adding a #4 and #5, but only after a rest (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Stephen Wood in Massachusetts was also listening, and reports ``signal very good with only slight static.`` I am pleased that we now have a clear frequency with no co- or adjacent-channel interference. So R. Tirana has moved its last English broadcast to our evening and on a clear frequency. I`m sure they would like to hear from other listeners how it`s coming in. Signal might be stronger on 6 MHz band, but more QRM.
Earlier at 0018 UT Nov 5 I checked the Albanian hour, and found it still on 7425, heavy collision from China, and unusable. Hope RT also shifts that to 7420. In Massachusetts, Steve Wood said R. Tirana on 7425 was a huge signal with no interference from China, UT Nov 3 at 0002-0025+, but that`s certainly not the case further west (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN. The bclnews.it B11 schedule archive at http://www.bclnews.it/b11schedules/voiri.htm
shows this for VIRI in English:
ENGLISH 0130-0227 7230 7365 "Voice of Justice"
1030-1127 21575 21695
1530-1627 13785 15525
1930-2027 6010 6115SIT 7320 11670 15450
But it`s labeled Tentative. Contradicted by HFCC as of Oct 28:
The VOJ broadcast to NAm remains at 0330-0427, the time it changed to early in the A-11 season, and the frequencies with azimuths are now:
7200, 313 From Sirjan [the lower sideband of which is out-of-band]
7365, 333 from Kamalabad [which is blocked by the DentroCuban Jamming Command and R. Marti Greenville until 0400 + probable runover of jam. Half of this broadcast on 11920 in A-11 also had a big collision, with Romania which they never did anything about despite my in-person notification to Iranian and Romanian delegates to HFCC Dallas]
The 1030 listings match:
21575, 105 from Kamalabad
21695, 112 from Kamalabad
The 1530 listings match:
13785, 105 from Sirjan
15525, 105 from Kamalabad
1930 has 13670 instead of 11670:
6010, 304 from Kamalabad
6115, 259 from Sitkunai, Lithuania [English but ZRC client not given]
7320, 313 from Sirjan
13670, 211 from Sirjan
15450, 205 from Kamalabad
Confirmation of all of these, especially 0330-0427 is needed. So I checked UT Nov 5: As expected, no Iran to be heard at 0210 on 7365, just R. Martí and jamming; nothing on 7200 or 7230.
At 0330, 7365 is still blocked by the Cuban radio war, but 7200 had Qur`an, with co-channel QRM underneath. The stronger signal stayed in Arabic past 0333, while the weaker one sounded like Qur`an, which means the main signal was SUDAN, its only shortwave frequency, which shouldn`t be bleeding into the hamband either, but certainly not a wise choice for VIRI.
From HFCC B-11 schedule, I expected 7365 to open up at 0400 after R. Martí, but I hadn`t noticed a separate one-hour registration for IBB Greenville at 0400-0500, since it drops power from 250 to 125 kW, why? By 0400, I couldn`t hear the other signal under Sudan either, so can`t be positive Voice of Justice is really on 7200 and 7365 for IRIB`s only English to North America, but both of those definitely need to be somewhere else! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9990, WTWW-2 testing on the air again, Nov 4 at 2150, tnx to tip from owner/engineer George McClintock. Huge signal here with SFAW audio same as 9479, and 9990 is also enough to overpower WWV 10000. We`ll see if the FCC get any complaints from WWV users. I hadn`t heard 9990 at all this week, and George says it had not been on air for a few days.
The night frequency has been changed to 5085, and it has also tested but I haven`t heard it. 9990 is available 22 hours a day, except for the two hours a day WYFR is on 9985 = 0100-0300. 5085 is available 24 hours a day, so except for the 01-03 segment, WTWW-2 can switch whenever it needs to.
An inauguration broadcast is planned for this Saturday afternoon/evening, November 5, with DJ Ted Randall live on the air playing oldies and taking reception reports by phone calls, as he did when WTWW-1 was starting up. (But do not expect WTWW-2 either to stay with an oldies music format.) Time not decided, but says he will notify me; anyhow, keep an ear on 9990 after local noon. Another session like that is expected the following Saturday.
WTWW-3 antenna needs some work, so not running full power on 12105; waiting on a crew to come in a week or two. George says he has been spending ``26 hours a day`` at the site fixing up the #2 transmitter, which it turns out had accumulated a lot of problems in the Seychelles. #3 transmitter acquired from Guam is in better shape. Now he`s thinking of adding a #4 and #5, but only after a rest (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
