** ALBANIA. 13640, Monday Nov 7 at 1530, R. Tirana reconfirmed gone, replaced by 0230 on 7420 in English to North America, except UT Mondays (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. 6030, by 0654 UT Monday Nov 7, Cuban jamming has abated lite enough with R. Martí in its sexahour silence, to audiblize some weak country music, no doubt CFVP Calgary. More of a problem is overload from RHC 6010 et al. for a few more minutes (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake Nov 7, before 1500:
none in the 7s, 8s at 1452
10300, fair at 1442
11500, fair at 1442
12670, good at 1442
13970, very good at 1445; none higher
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 5955, Nov 7 at 0655, heavy wall-of-noise jamming by Cuba still here with no evidence that R. República is still there underneath. See also CANADA 6030.
Nov 7 I get to hear what happens at RHC English 0700 sign-off: 6010, 6050 and 6060 are gone by 0702, but 6150 stays on with restart of English hour! Better modulation than usual on that transmitter. `Ed Newman` still going at 0710 in `Weekly Review` laden with negative news about US. 6150 transmitter op asleep, or accidentally on purpose? Unknown for how long.
True to form, 8 days after the rest of the world starts the B-11 season, RHC makes a number of frequency changes Nov 7, once Arnie has had a week to study(?) what the coördinating stations are doing. Most of the changes don`t make sense, unnecessary but just to show he`s doing his job, while other frequencies desperately in need of escaping QRM stay right where they are! Here`s what we discovered in the morning from 1352:
9550, still on before and after 1400
11690, stays despite all the RTTY on low side
11750, ex-11730 with weak signal, echo apart from 11760 different site
11760, stays with biggest signal; at 1401 open carrier, not sure if off or just a breakdown
11840, ex-11830 with second biggest 25m signal. 11830 had no interference, nothing in HFCC at 11-13. 11840 now gets bleedover from the DentroCuban Jamming Command against nothing on 11845. Way to go!
12040, stays but this transmitter has an awful humbuzz. The Chinese radio war is no longer there; what luck!
13670, ex-13680 until 1400* just in time to evade ACI from CRI via CANADA 13675 from 1400. 13680 did have some CCI, but so does 13670. Both KBS and CRI English via Kashgar are there at 13-14. 13670 had been RHC`s all-evening frequency on this band
13750, ex-13780, colliding with VOA Spanish until 1400 which has been on 13750 for many months. 13780 was a totally good frequency for RHC and no reason to move except to force VOA to move; how long will it take for IBB to notice and deal with it?
15120, absent at 1357 but may have just closed as in A-11?
15230, still way under CRI via Sackville at 13-15
15380, ex-15360. 15360 did have CCI at times. Now 15380 hits Saudi Arabia until 1400; also squeezed by ChiCom noise jamming on 15375 and later Spain on 15385
The studio is in the dark about all these changes, since the 1401 frequency announcement still gave all the old ones: ``15120, 15360, 15230; from *13 13680, 13780; from *11 11690, 11760, 11830, 12040; from *13 11730``. Everything went off by 1501.
No doubt there will be more surprises in the afternoon/evening broadcasts from 1900. It was too tempting to check the slow-loading RHC Spanish website, which as of 1730 Nov 7 has already been updated.
http://www.radiohc.cu/de-interes/frecuencias.html
In IE, the weather info on the right overlaps the frequency info on the left! No matter what the sizing. Once again we have to unravel which frequency goes with which time(s) in this awful format. I`ve deleted the chaff of UTC after every time, and the meter bands:
Buenos Aires 15230/13670 23-04 y 11-15/ 11-14
Nueva York 6010/11840 11-13/11-15
San Francisco 13780 13-15
Chicago 9850/6140 13-15/11-13
América del Sur 15380 11–15
Banda Tropical 5040 21–23 y 01-05
América Central 11750 13-15
Europa 13640 21-23
Norte Centro Suramérica 11760/6150 11-15 y 24-05/ 11-13
Caribe 6120/9710/11690 23-05/21-23/11-15
América del Sur 11840/97420[sic!]/13690 21-05/23-04/21-04
MESA REDONDA
(Lunes a Viernes y días especiales)
América del Norte 6000/9660 49/31 23–01
(Domingo)
América Central 13680 14-18
Caribe 11690 14-18
América del Sur 15370/17750 14-18
América del Norte 13750 14-18
My notes on the above:
I did not notice any of the 6 MHz frequencies, but might have earlier than when I started monitoring at 1352.
Not noticed today on 9850; typo for now unlisted but heard 9550?
Still shows 13780, not 13750, so maybe that was an error today?
The final Sunday group are of course the long-dormant Aló, Presidente service relaying Venezuela, no longer named as such
The undated English schedule page,
http://www.radiohc.cu/ing/of-interest/frequencies.html
without weather overlap shows one change indicating it is also new:
Banda Tropical 5040 23-24
América Central 11760 19-20
América del Norte 6050/6000/6060 01-07/01-05/05-07
Norte Centro y Suramérica 6125 05-07
San Francisco 6010 05-07
Notes: ``banda tropical`` is not a target area. 6125 is new, replacing 6150. Arnie still refuses to clear 6050 for HCJB
Clicking on other language-flags, no changes in Esperanto; French at
http://www.radiohc.cu/ing/of-interest/frequencies.html
now shows 13640 for Europe at 1930-2000, so that`s ex-17560.
And Arabic at
http://www.radiohc.cu/ar/de-interes/frecuencias.html
shows 2030-2100 also on new 13640; 17560 was a huge signal here.
The Portuguese page was under construxion, calling for login and password! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 15050, Nov 7 at 1445, AIR Sinhala service from Khampur is still in weak DRM today. The ABU meeting in Delhi is about to conclude, so will be interesting to hear whether this resumes AM soon. I sure would like to have my Sinhalese music back (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [and non]. 6145, Nov 7 at 0703 brass band music, what`s this, some station with no news on the hour? ACI de prolonged RHC 6150 English [but not any more: see CUBA]. 0707 revealed with Japanese announcement: It`s NHK to eastern Russia, homeservice relay? until 0800 plus another semihour in Russian scheduled. 35-degree azimuth means it`s also aimed USward, a regular signal last winter too. I did not notice the listed // 6165 at 330 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
15720, Nov 7 at 1513, S Asian language mentions NHK, to 1515*. It`s Hindi, 250 kW, 35 degrees via MADAGASCAR at 1430-1515, and quite sufficient here way off-target and off-beam (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA SOUTH [non]. 6045, Nov 7 at 0653, KBS World Radio in Spanish, usual good signal from Sackville relay to Europe. After 0700 continues another hour in Korean, but weaker, because of a site switcheroo to Woofferton (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT [and non]. 21540, second week of B-11 and MOI is still colliding with REE around 1400; both off at 1504 check while Spain 21610 continued (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGST)
** MAURITANIA [and non]. 7245, IGIM not heard for a few nites by 0600, maybe just signing on later, but Nov 7 I find myself still monitoring a UT hour later tnx to standard time resumption, at 0657 and still no signal from IGIM. Nor Guinea 7125. Also Polisario remains silent on 6297v. And no Equatorial Guinea on 6250. So much for Africa (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 17660, Nov 7 at 1405 fluttery Qur`an, 1410 to scripted sermon in slow French. This is our best chance to hear BSKSA in a Western language, since they have absolutely no interest in broadcasting English to Europe or North America. 14-18, 500 kW due west from Radio Riyadh (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN. 15385, Monday Nov 7 at 1447, Sephardic music on the weekly service from REE at 1425-1455 now has ACI from stronger CUBA on 15380. Will anyone including myself remember to check at 0115 UT Tuesday whether the repeat is really on 11780 colliding with Brasil instead of staying on 11795? I`ve set an alarum (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN [non]. 17745, Nov 7 at 1502, Sudan Radio Service in Arabish, with echo, seems more like longpath than backscatter, from new site Woofferton UK replacing defunct Sines, Portugal. Takeoff azimuth is 126 degrees, which is close to directly off the back from here, maximizing the long/short path echo problem (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAIWAN [non]. 6875, Nov 7 at 0653 check, RTI via WYFR is *still* in wrong language, German. When will they aufwachen? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 15580, Nov 7 at 1447, S9+20 open carrier, while per HFCC, VOA is supposed to be active via SOUTH AFRICA at 14-15, 250 kW, 340 degrees. 15-16 hour is Sri Lanka, 16-17 São Tomé, 17-1730 Greenville, 1730-1930 Botswana, 1930-21 Bonaire, 21-22 Botswana; plus mornings: 03-04 Botswana, 04-05 Sri Lanka, 05-07 Botswana.
So at 1447 I was either getting Meyerton failing to modulate, or maybe Greenville warmup blocking it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 9955, Nov 7 at 1500 checking for WRMI, instead hear good signal from Radio Free Asia, English ID introducing Tibetan. Also noise QRM from the DentroCuban Jamming Command, inadvertently helping out their ChiCom allies. IBB TINIAN is now scheduled 15-16, 250 kW, 297 degrees. So we can further forget about hearing anything on WRMI during that hour, such as WORLD OF RADIO on Fridays at 1530. Would it be too much to ask for other US operations to grant WRMI a desperately needed clear frequency? Apparently, yes! Besides RFA, HFCC also shows at various times on 9955: KTWR, KHBN, and the imaginary WMLK (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. Intermittent `Bronx-cheer` blaaaaaps are infesting several spots in the SWBC bands, Nov 7, such as approx.: 17555-17575 at 1449, equally huge centered around 17730. Includes different tones every few sex. Weaker at 1451 circa 18435, then stays on as OTH radar 18420-18445. Also at 1504 around 21480 (BBC is finished with 21470 from Seychelles at 1400) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. 6030, by 0654 UT Monday Nov 7, Cuban jamming has abated lite enough with R. Martí in its sexahour silence, to audiblize some weak country music, no doubt CFVP Calgary. More of a problem is overload from RHC 6010 et al. for a few more minutes (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake Nov 7, before 1500:
none in the 7s, 8s at 1452
10300, fair at 1442
11500, fair at 1442
12670, good at 1442
13970, very good at 1445; none higher
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 5955, Nov 7 at 0655, heavy wall-of-noise jamming by Cuba still here with no evidence that R. República is still there underneath. See also CANADA 6030.
Nov 7 I get to hear what happens at RHC English 0700 sign-off: 6010, 6050 and 6060 are gone by 0702, but 6150 stays on with restart of English hour! Better modulation than usual on that transmitter. `Ed Newman` still going at 0710 in `Weekly Review` laden with negative news about US. 6150 transmitter op asleep, or accidentally on purpose? Unknown for how long.
True to form, 8 days after the rest of the world starts the B-11 season, RHC makes a number of frequency changes Nov 7, once Arnie has had a week to study(?) what the coördinating stations are doing. Most of the changes don`t make sense, unnecessary but just to show he`s doing his job, while other frequencies desperately in need of escaping QRM stay right where they are! Here`s what we discovered in the morning from 1352:
9550, still on before and after 1400
11690, stays despite all the RTTY on low side
11750, ex-11730 with weak signal, echo apart from 11760 different site
11760, stays with biggest signal; at 1401 open carrier, not sure if off or just a breakdown
11840, ex-11830 with second biggest 25m signal. 11830 had no interference, nothing in HFCC at 11-13. 11840 now gets bleedover from the DentroCuban Jamming Command against nothing on 11845. Way to go!
12040, stays but this transmitter has an awful humbuzz. The Chinese radio war is no longer there; what luck!
13670, ex-13680 until 1400* just in time to evade ACI from CRI via CANADA 13675 from 1400. 13680 did have some CCI, but so does 13670. Both KBS and CRI English via Kashgar are there at 13-14. 13670 had been RHC`s all-evening frequency on this band
13750, ex-13780, colliding with VOA Spanish until 1400 which has been on 13750 for many months. 13780 was a totally good frequency for RHC and no reason to move except to force VOA to move; how long will it take for IBB to notice and deal with it?
15120, absent at 1357 but may have just closed as in A-11?
15230, still way under CRI via Sackville at 13-15
15380, ex-15360. 15360 did have CCI at times. Now 15380 hits Saudi Arabia until 1400; also squeezed by ChiCom noise jamming on 15375 and later Spain on 15385
The studio is in the dark about all these changes, since the 1401 frequency announcement still gave all the old ones: ``15120, 15360, 15230; from *13 13680, 13780; from *11 11690, 11760, 11830, 12040; from *13 11730``. Everything went off by 1501.
No doubt there will be more surprises in the afternoon/evening broadcasts from 1900. It was too tempting to check the slow-loading RHC Spanish website, which as of 1730 Nov 7 has already been updated.
http://www.radiohc.cu/de-interes/frecuencias.html
In IE, the weather info on the right overlaps the frequency info on the left! No matter what the sizing. Once again we have to unravel which frequency goes with which time(s) in this awful format. I`ve deleted the chaff of UTC after every time, and the meter bands:
Buenos Aires 15230/13670 23-04 y 11-15/ 11-14
Nueva York 6010/11840 11-13/11-15
San Francisco 13780 13-15
Chicago 9850/6140 13-15/11-13
América del Sur 15380 11–15
Banda Tropical 5040 21–23 y 01-05
América Central 11750 13-15
Europa 13640 21-23
Norte Centro Suramérica 11760/6150 11-15 y 24-05/ 11-13
Caribe 6120/9710/11690 23-05/21-23/11-15
América del Sur 11840/97420[sic!]/13690 21-05/23-04/21-04
MESA REDONDA
(Lunes a Viernes y días especiales)
América del Norte 6000/9660 49/31 23–01
(Domingo)
América Central 13680 14-18
Caribe 11690 14-18
América del Sur 15370/17750 14-18
América del Norte 13750 14-18
My notes on the above:
I did not notice any of the 6 MHz frequencies, but might have earlier than when I started monitoring at 1352.
Not noticed today on 9850; typo for now unlisted but heard 9550?
Still shows 13780, not 13750, so maybe that was an error today?
The final Sunday group are of course the long-dormant Aló, Presidente service relaying Venezuela, no longer named as such
The undated English schedule page,
http://www.radiohc.cu/ing/of-interest/frequencies.html
without weather overlap shows one change indicating it is also new:
Banda Tropical 5040 23-24
América Central 11760 19-20
América del Norte 6050/6000/6060 01-07/01-05/05-07
Norte Centro y Suramérica 6125 05-07
San Francisco 6010 05-07
Notes: ``banda tropical`` is not a target area. 6125 is new, replacing 6150. Arnie still refuses to clear 6050 for HCJB
Clicking on other language-flags, no changes in Esperanto; French at
http://www.radiohc.cu/ing/of-interest/frequencies.html
now shows 13640 for Europe at 1930-2000, so that`s ex-17560.
And Arabic at
http://www.radiohc.cu/ar/de-interes/frecuencias.html
shows 2030-2100 also on new 13640; 17560 was a huge signal here.
The Portuguese page was under construxion, calling for login and password! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 15050, Nov 7 at 1445, AIR Sinhala service from Khampur is still in weak DRM today. The ABU meeting in Delhi is about to conclude, so will be interesting to hear whether this resumes AM soon. I sure would like to have my Sinhalese music back (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [and non]. 6145, Nov 7 at 0703 brass band music, what`s this, some station with no news on the hour? ACI de prolonged RHC 6150 English [but not any more: see CUBA]. 0707 revealed with Japanese announcement: It`s NHK to eastern Russia, homeservice relay? until 0800 plus another semihour in Russian scheduled. 35-degree azimuth means it`s also aimed USward, a regular signal last winter too. I did not notice the listed // 6165 at 330 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
15720, Nov 7 at 1513, S Asian language mentions NHK, to 1515*. It`s Hindi, 250 kW, 35 degrees via MADAGASCAR at 1430-1515, and quite sufficient here way off-target and off-beam (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA SOUTH [non]. 6045, Nov 7 at 0653, KBS World Radio in Spanish, usual good signal from Sackville relay to Europe. After 0700 continues another hour in Korean, but weaker, because of a site switcheroo to Woofferton (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT [and non]. 21540, second week of B-11 and MOI is still colliding with REE around 1400; both off at 1504 check while Spain 21610 continued (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGST)
** MAURITANIA [and non]. 7245, IGIM not heard for a few nites by 0600, maybe just signing on later, but Nov 7 I find myself still monitoring a UT hour later tnx to standard time resumption, at 0657 and still no signal from IGIM. Nor Guinea 7125. Also Polisario remains silent on 6297v. And no Equatorial Guinea on 6250. So much for Africa (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 17660, Nov 7 at 1405 fluttery Qur`an, 1410 to scripted sermon in slow French. This is our best chance to hear BSKSA in a Western language, since they have absolutely no interest in broadcasting English to Europe or North America. 14-18, 500 kW due west from Radio Riyadh (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN. 15385, Monday Nov 7 at 1447, Sephardic music on the weekly service from REE at 1425-1455 now has ACI from stronger CUBA on 15380. Will anyone including myself remember to check at 0115 UT Tuesday whether the repeat is really on 11780 colliding with Brasil instead of staying on 11795? I`ve set an alarum (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN [non]. 17745, Nov 7 at 1502, Sudan Radio Service in Arabish, with echo, seems more like longpath than backscatter, from new site Woofferton UK replacing defunct Sines, Portugal. Takeoff azimuth is 126 degrees, which is close to directly off the back from here, maximizing the long/short path echo problem (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAIWAN [non]. 6875, Nov 7 at 0653 check, RTI via WYFR is *still* in wrong language, German. When will they aufwachen? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 15580, Nov 7 at 1447, S9+20 open carrier, while per HFCC, VOA is supposed to be active via SOUTH AFRICA at 14-15, 250 kW, 340 degrees. 15-16 hour is Sri Lanka, 16-17 São Tomé, 17-1730 Greenville, 1730-1930 Botswana, 1930-21 Bonaire, 21-22 Botswana; plus mornings: 03-04 Botswana, 04-05 Sri Lanka, 05-07 Botswana.
So at 1447 I was either getting Meyerton failing to modulate, or maybe Greenville warmup blocking it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 9955, Nov 7 at 1500 checking for WRMI, instead hear good signal from Radio Free Asia, English ID introducing Tibetan. Also noise QRM from the DentroCuban Jamming Command, inadvertently helping out their ChiCom allies. IBB TINIAN is now scheduled 15-16, 250 kW, 297 degrees. So we can further forget about hearing anything on WRMI during that hour, such as WORLD OF RADIO on Fridays at 1530. Would it be too much to ask for other US operations to grant WRMI a desperately needed clear frequency? Apparently, yes! Besides RFA, HFCC also shows at various times on 9955: KTWR, KHBN, and the imaginary WMLK (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. Intermittent `Bronx-cheer` blaaaaaps are infesting several spots in the SWBC bands, Nov 7, such as approx.: 17555-17575 at 1449, equally huge centered around 17730. Includes different tones every few sex. Weaker at 1451 circa 18435, then stays on as OTH radar 18420-18445. Also at 1504 around 21480 (BBC is finished with 21470 from Seychelles at 1400) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)