** ALBANIA. 13640, Oct 31 at 1531, I can just barely make out Klara`s voice, no doubt opening schedule announcement of R. Tirana, now at correct time on B-11 frequency, only remaining English broadcast to North America, Mon-Sat. Has the announcement been updated? Now it should take less than a minute instead of two. Anyhow, unusable reception now, while in the evening before or after the 00-01 Albanian on 7425 it would be much better (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** AUSTRALIA [and non]. In B-11, R. Australia has some new collision problems. Best 9580 remains clear, but // 9590, Oct 31 at 1241 with YL in Russian mixing. It`s CRI northwestward from SZG site at 12-13.
9560, Oct 31 at 1242 has RA way buried by something in Cantonese. O, it`s CRI via Sackville at 12-13 like in B-10 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BULGARIA [and non]. 15600, Oct 31 at 1438, R. Bulgaria in Bulgarian, with QRM from 15601 WEWN squishyspur, while 15700 area is totally vacant! Why didn`t RB stay there? Underneath 15600 also heard tone test stepping downward, so colliding with that mystery site? Or defect in RB modulation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. More first-day-of-season foulups in getting programming on the air as scheduled. Why is this so difficult, after years and years of practice??
12025, Oct 30 at 2145, RCI IS & ID repeating. The HCJB Arabic/Berber service makes its seasonal switch from Rampisham to Sackville site, but stays on 12025 at 2100-2145. Off at 2157 recheck.
13675, Oct 31 at 1448, CRI relay // 15230 in Chinese, not English as B-11 HFCC scheduled. Chinese lasted a while, so I don`t think it was a bilingual Beijing hour.
15230, Oct 31 at 1405, large open carrier atop RHC, presumably CRI via Sackville minus modulation, and Chinese had appeared by 1442 check. Trouble is, HFCC shows CRI English at 13-15 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [non]. CRI relays, often upmessed: see CANADA above; also AUSTRALIA [and non]
** CHINA. It pays to scan for Firedrake at off-hours, because at times there is some, such as UT Oct 30 before 6 am ChiCom time:
11500, fair with flutter at 2147 UT
10300, better at 2147
Before 1300, not a thoro search:
10300, fair at 1245
12230, very poor at 1245
Before 1400:
7970, not heard at 1352
10300, very good at 1352
11500, very poor at 1352
12230, very good at 1353
12600, poor at 1353
13970, very poor at 1356
14970: see UNIDENTIFIED
16980, very good at 1359; none in the 17s, 18s
After 1400:
15445, good at 1406
Before 1500:
15795, very good at 1437
13970, very good at 1450, none in the 13s, 12s
11500, very poor at 1451
10300, good at 1451
Again today, non-FD jamming: 15375, Oct 31 at 1358, Chinese plus noise; IBB via Tajikistan now scheduled 12-14, 250 kW, 110 degrees from Dushanbe to CIRAF 42 and 43W, i.e. Tibet, so VOA or RFA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. Day 2 of B-11, Oct 31, and the incompetent DentroCuban Jamming Command still doesn`t have its act together to block R. Martí.
5980, at 1231, there is lite pulse jamming under RM, but nothing like the Wall of Noise totally blocking 6030. RM is plugging etecsa.biz, which I first thought was just to poke fun at the Cuban government internet provider, but if you go there, it forwards to Psiphon, proxy server! To get around DentroCuban censorship. Then they chanted ``9955`` over and over making me wonder if WRMI is now relaying Martí at this hour too, but Jeff White says it`s still M-F 22-23 only.
9805, at 1239, still WON jamming against vacated R. Martí.
11845, at 1350, still jamming no Martí.
11930, at 1350, RM loud and clear with no jamming (meanwhile oblivious Arnie is on RHC 11830 talking about Chinese TV sets).
15330, at 1405, RM still unjammed; 1441 in `El Revoltillo` anti-Communist sell & swap show giving phone and e-mail contact info
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EAST TURKISTAN. 13855, Oct 31 at 1356, Chinese `opera` music bit and then talk. Only thing in HFCC on this frequency at any time is CRI Chinese service via Wulumuchi, 13-14, 500 kW, 308 degrees to Europe (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GERMANY [non]. 9655 // 11865, Oct 30 at 2149, DW VG in English via RWANDA now here for B-11, report from Italy. Both those are 295 degrees, also favoring NAm unintentionally but unavoidably. Did not notice the other frequency scheduled, 12070. The previous hour in English at 20-21 is on 9655, 9735, 12070 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 9425, Oct 30 at 2151, S Asian vocal music, fair with flutter, as AIR National Channel, Bengaluru, has now managed to modulate instead of dead air earlier at 1416.
7550, poor Oct 30 at 2155, muffled M&W in English, with flutter on AM, presumably AIR GOS, as previously used. New AIR schedules are slow to emerge. But HFCC B-11, lacking any AIR registrations, shows instead a 9-kHz bandwidth DRM at 18-22 from something `new` via Armenia, 100 kW, 305 degrees to W Europe.
15050, Oct 31 at 1303, mostly noise on this frequency where the AIR Sinhala service is supposed to be. Is it jamming? Is it totally out-of-whack transmitter? Or is it trying DRM to drive away what listeners it might otherwise have? Still the same at 1357 but weaker (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN. 15735, Oct 31 at 1408, muffled Arabic, YL narration with music background, gone at 1432. HFCC shows this is the multi-hour Arabic service of IRIB, 0530-1430, 500 kW, 289 degrees from Zahedan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN [non]. 15535, Oct 31 at 0527, just as I tune in, music cuts from strong to weak signal, antenna or site switch time? R. Farda is B-11 scheduled straight thru 0430-0700, 250 kW, 105 degrees from Wertachtal, GERMANY, plus 0700-0930, 250 kW, 315 degrees from Iranawila, Sri Lanka (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ISRAEL. 15850, Oct 31 at 0532, Hebrew with stingers every few sex, presumably news headlines, from Galei Zahal; peaking S9+10 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ITALY [non]. 15190, Oct 31 at 1302, Brother Scare is in progress (or rather, regress), as IRRS via ROMANIA has wasted no time in getting him going today rather than defaulting to Shortwave Report as yesterday (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT. 21540, at 1315 Oct 31, day two of B-11, R. Kuwait in Arabic is still here atop Spain, instead of registered change to clear 21520. Hurry up! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA. 15120, Oct 31 at 0529, VON is back with good signal strength, but awful modulation, whine, hum, scratchy audio, YL with program previews not in order, 0531 `Moving On` about local government elexions in Lagos state plus music.
Since last week`s geomag storm, nightmiddle MUF has had a tough time exceeding 12 or even 10 MHz, but now it`s recovering, with many other signals on 15 MHz (but 17 still dead). (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OMAN. 15140, Oct 31 at 1443, commentary in English about tolerance, good conduct, addressing ``honorable members of the Council of Oman``. Poor signal with flutter, but much better than usual from R. Oman`s English hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PHILIPPINES. 15620, Oct 31 at 1438, good signal in Indonesian, except for QRM from WEWN 15610 squishyspur beating against it around 15619. HFCC shows FEBC Bocaue site, 100 kW, 200 degrees and Aoki confirms it in Indonesian as of A-11 at 1430-1600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. 9435, VG Oct 30 at 2150, RRI with mailbag in English from someone in Czechia, whence few reports arrive. Also on weaker // 7380 at 2154 giving contact info. The former 2030 English broadcast well heard in NAm, is now at 2130, also on 6030, 7310.
17530, Oct 31 at 1309, RRI very good in German with address, also 15460. Both also carry English in previous hour 1200-1256, plus 15430, 17765, but that`s before sunrise and higher bands may not open yet here; also will be inconveniently early before 7 am local CST from next week (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. 7260, Oct 30 at 2152 YL in Spanish on AM with hum, ACI from ham 7265-LSB. HFCC shows VOR via Armavir at 21-23 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. 6075, Oct 31 at 1233, pop music with Russian announcement, from R. Rossii, reactivated B-season frequency ex-5930 in A-season, via Petropavlovsk/Kamchatsky. Due to permanent timezone change (i.e. not going off DST), we expect this to close at 1300* instead of 1400* as in past winters.
Yes, monitoring from 1259, 6-pip timesignal ends 4.5 seconds late after 1300, dead air until carrier off at 1300:39*. No sign of `8GAL` or any other hand-keyed CW V marker as was previously the case on 6074 at 1400. We`ll keep checking periodically. Wonder if that will resume/stay at 1400? It was never noticed following 5930 closing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 15285, Oct 31 at 0529, distorted music and talk, surely Cairo? No, this time it`s BSKSA Riyadh, Swahili service scheduled 0400-0700, 500 kW, 190 degrees.
15170, Oct 31 at 0532, Qur`an now with good signal from BSKSA, scheduled 03-06, 500 kW, 355 degrees from Riyadh targeting CIRAF 19-23, 29-31 and 40, which means not only western Russia where it`s really aimed but also the neighboring CIS, all across northern tier of Russia thru most of Siberia, and excepting the southeastern portion (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [and non]. 15170, Monday Oct 31 at 1302, REE Cariari, COSTA RICA relay has resumed B-frequency, ex-11880 in A, very good signal, but never on Sundays, I think, despite excessive HFCC registration as daily 1100-2200!
21610, Monday Oct 31 at 1345, REE is in Basque, so that M-F Euskera diversion has shifted one UT hour later to 1330v on all the Castilian frequencies running at that time.
15385, Monday Oct 31 at 1439, REE with Sephardic music, S9+18 but bad IADs (intermittent audio dropouts --- with 9525 Indonesia missing, someone has to keep up the tradition), 1440 into interview by usual YL hostess; longpath echo also mars. So this stays at same 1425-1455 time and frequency as in A-11.
The REE B-11 schedule viahttp://programasdx.com/principal_archivos/frecuenciasreeb11.pdf
shows the two repeats now as Tuesday 0115-0145 on 11780 to SAm, and Tuesday 0415-0445 on 9690 to NAm. O, no, not 11780 again, to collide with Brasília! In A they sensibly used clear 11795 instead, but old habits die very, very hard. Tho official-looking, this sked version is not, and previously has been caught with errors. For example it *still* shows M-F 2340-2355 news in Catalan, Galician and Basque, altho Basque was removed years ago when it got its own longer slot at 1230/1330.
Tho `Amigos de la Onda Corta` and Basque have moved one UT hour later, due to irrelevant timeshifts inside Spain, the quadrilingual newscast has not. That had been at 1430-1445 on weekdays, so I was expecting it now at 1530 Oct 31, but instead 17595 and 21610, which has grown to a very good signal, are introducing an astronomy show in Castilian! So when, if ever are the French/English/Portuguese/Arabic (but never Russian) news headlines? REE never bothered to include these bits in its published transmission schedules (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN [non]. 13620, Oct 31 at 0526, presumed R. Dabanga is again audible, but poorly mixed with continuous 1 kHz tone jamming, just like in the good old days of A-11. Media Network blog now linx directly to the HFCC page for RNW scheduling including relays of and via, http://www.hfcc.org/data/schedbyfmo.php?seas=B11&fmor=RNW
but nothing about Radio Dabanga; instead, you have to know it`s listed there as ``Press Now``, daily from 30 Oct to 25 Mar:
0430-0557 7315 Issoudun 135 500
0430-0557 11940 Issoudun 135 500
0430-0557 13800 Dhabayya 255 500
1530-1627 13800 Madagascar 325 250
1530-1627 15535 Wertachtal 150 500
But where`s 13620??? It`s no longer in B-11 HFCC, but instead CRI English`s North Pole service, 354 degrees from Xi`an at 03-05, plus CRI Chinese at 05-07. So the tone jamming must have been against that instead of R. Dabanga; oops!
Above are the Press Now listings in Mul[tiple languages]. There are three more PNs in Som[ali], a different service, but not yet:
0430-0457 13750 Madagascar 0 250 14 Nov to 25 Mar
1700-1727 11615 Madagascar 0 250 14 Nov to 25 Mar
1730-1757 11615 Madagascar 0 250 01 Jan to 25 Mar
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TURKEY. If one wants to listen to V. of Turkey in the North American mornings, better do it in something other than English.
17755, Oct 31 at 1307, VG signal with Turkish music, German ID.
15350, Turkish service until 1400 was also good.
12035, the English service to WEu at 290 degrees, so also USward, is now scheduled here at 1330, ex-1230 on 15450 which came in sufficiently in A-11. But Oct 31 at 1350 only a JBA carrier detectable on 12035. What used to be // on 11735 eastward has been moved to 1730 (not to be confused with Zanzibar). (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K [non]. 11890, Oct 31 at 1452, BBCWS in English, fair but we must take whatever we can get from this non-American service, // 9740 Singapore, but not 17640 Ascension. 11890 is also SINGAPORE, 13-15, 100 kW, 25 degrees to E Asia, but also USward. Sri Lanka SLBC is also registered on 11890 at 1330-2100, but not really, I think (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9490, Oct 30 at 2150, gospel huxter in English, VG signal. Must be WHRI. Yes, B-11 scheduled 21-22 only, Sunday thru Wednesday, 250 kW at 47 degrees. May not use it all those days. PPP on 9479 has some close company (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 12788-USB, Oct 30 at 2157, marine weather for Atlantic by masculine robot, very distorted and unstable frequency, continued past 2200+. Presumably NMG in New Orleans, US Coast Guard service still direly in need of repair. See schedule and discussion in DXLD 11-19.
Also found weaker // on 13089-USB less distorted. See DXLD 10-07 where this was listed as NMN Chesapeake at 2130, but same frequency used elsewhen by Pt Reyes CA and Honolulu, not New Orleans (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 17575, Oct 30 at 2202, S9+20 VG signal with off-key child singing hymn in Portuguese, 2204 YFR theme. In B-11 this is new, 2145-2245 at 140 degrees. And 15190 is no longer in use, clearing the way for R. Inconfidência, and possibly R. Africa if it ever revive (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 13580, Oct 31 at 1449, uncertain language with oscillating tone QRM, jamming? Also CODAR QRM. Scheduled as VOA Kurdish via Wertachtal, GERMANY; QRM might have come from Abis, EGYPT, already on air for 1500 Albanian service via defective transmitter due northwest USward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 29004, Oct 30 at 2207, N7KLV calling CQ 10 AM several times from southwest Washington state, without results while I listened (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1588 monitoring: confirmed on Area 51 webcast, http://www.splatterbox.us:5110/listen.pls
slightly after 0300 UT Monday Oct 31 and presumably also on 5110v-CUSB WBCQ. After 0330 played a vintage International Radio Report from years ago with Janice interviewing TimTron, when WBCQ was on 18910 moving to 17495.
Next WOR airings on WRMI 9955: Monday 2130; Tuesday and Wednesday 1530; on Hamburger Lokalradio, Germany, 5980: Tuesday at shifted time of 1030 UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 840, Oct 31 at 1334 UT, ABC News, into GEICO ad, 1336 ad for Chevy pickup dealer in Osceola, seed company in West Point, KTIC mentioned in passing. Osceola presumably referring to the little town SW of West Point in Nebraska, not the Osceola in IA. KTIC is 5 kW daytimer, which on a good quiet day can be detected here by groundwave, but this was still skywave (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 870, Oct 31 at 1328 UT, religion in Spanish, outro as ``Un Nuevo Día`` with 817-AC phone, i.e. Fort Worth TX; also weak Spanish music audible when nulled, maybe remnant of XETAR in Chihuahua; and at 1331 also a WWL ID still made it thru. But at 1333 dominant was praise music in Spanish from KFJZ, allegedly known as Radio Fortaleza, but that slogan not yet heard (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1260, Oct 31 at 1315 UT, something in Spanish from NE/SW, but doubt it`s Mexico now. 1321 ad in Spanish for Greater Iowa Credit Union, Des Moines, ID as ``La Reina 12-60``, inviting kiddies to come to the station, address given, today at 4-6 pm to get some free sweets for Hallowe`en. NRC AM Log shows KDLF Boone IA, 5000/33/225 watts U3, 924 West Second St in Boone, birthplace of Mamie Eisenhower, which is quite a distance NW of Des Moines, so did they give a DM address for the dulces? I guess `the queen` doesn`t connote in Spanish what it does in English; altho I remember there was once a KWEN in Tulsa (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN. 21680, Oct 31 at 1311, poor signal but growing to S9+12 tho undermodulated, in Italian, so it can`t be Italy where Rai abandoned all SW a few years ago; instead, most likely is Vatican whence Italian is still shortwaved. Sounds like newscast, but 1314 into papa stuff, dead giveaway. This is scheduled daily 1255-1330, 250 kW, 170 degrees from SMG toward Africa (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. Trans-Pacific carrier scan on DX-398, internal antenna only, 9 kHz steps in USB mode, Oct 31 at 1251 found only JBA carriers on 828, 774 and 747, all very likely NHK Japan. Today`s Enid sunrise was 1253. In one week it will be exactly 1300 UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6940, Oct 31 at 0544, weak music on AM, maybe Laser Hot Hits, Europe if not a North American pirate (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 13420, Oct 31 at 0523, S9+20+ open carrier, with digital data bursts on and off; gone at 0534 check but CODAR remained in the area.
12120, another big S9+22 open carrier now here 0535 past 0543 Oct 31, but no data bursts heard. Both probably Cuban intelligence (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LILSTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 14970, Oct 31 at 1357, 6-note ``IS`` repeating, sounds vaguely familiar, probably a ute, as I was of course expecting to hear Firedrake here if anything. Very poor on AM; not heard after 1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** AUSTRALIA [and non]. In B-11, R. Australia has some new collision problems. Best 9580 remains clear, but // 9590, Oct 31 at 1241 with YL in Russian mixing. It`s CRI northwestward from SZG site at 12-13.
9560, Oct 31 at 1242 has RA way buried by something in Cantonese. O, it`s CRI via Sackville at 12-13 like in B-10 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BULGARIA [and non]. 15600, Oct 31 at 1438, R. Bulgaria in Bulgarian, with QRM from 15601 WEWN squishyspur, while 15700 area is totally vacant! Why didn`t RB stay there? Underneath 15600 also heard tone test stepping downward, so colliding with that mystery site? Or defect in RB modulation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. More first-day-of-season foulups in getting programming on the air as scheduled. Why is this so difficult, after years and years of practice??
12025, Oct 30 at 2145, RCI IS & ID repeating. The HCJB Arabic/Berber service makes its seasonal switch from Rampisham to Sackville site, but stays on 12025 at 2100-2145. Off at 2157 recheck.
13675, Oct 31 at 1448, CRI relay // 15230 in Chinese, not English as B-11 HFCC scheduled. Chinese lasted a while, so I don`t think it was a bilingual Beijing hour.
15230, Oct 31 at 1405, large open carrier atop RHC, presumably CRI via Sackville minus modulation, and Chinese had appeared by 1442 check. Trouble is, HFCC shows CRI English at 13-15 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [non]. CRI relays, often upmessed: see CANADA above; also AUSTRALIA [and non]
** CHINA. It pays to scan for Firedrake at off-hours, because at times there is some, such as UT Oct 30 before 6 am ChiCom time:
11500, fair with flutter at 2147 UT
10300, better at 2147
Before 1300, not a thoro search:
10300, fair at 1245
12230, very poor at 1245
Before 1400:
7970, not heard at 1352
10300, very good at 1352
11500, very poor at 1352
12230, very good at 1353
12600, poor at 1353
13970, very poor at 1356
14970: see UNIDENTIFIED
16980, very good at 1359; none in the 17s, 18s
After 1400:
15445, good at 1406
Before 1500:
15795, very good at 1437
13970, very good at 1450, none in the 13s, 12s
11500, very poor at 1451
10300, good at 1451
Again today, non-FD jamming: 15375, Oct 31 at 1358, Chinese plus noise; IBB via Tajikistan now scheduled 12-14, 250 kW, 110 degrees from Dushanbe to CIRAF 42 and 43W, i.e. Tibet, so VOA or RFA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. Day 2 of B-11, Oct 31, and the incompetent DentroCuban Jamming Command still doesn`t have its act together to block R. Martí.
5980, at 1231, there is lite pulse jamming under RM, but nothing like the Wall of Noise totally blocking 6030. RM is plugging etecsa.biz, which I first thought was just to poke fun at the Cuban government internet provider, but if you go there, it forwards to Psiphon, proxy server! To get around DentroCuban censorship. Then they chanted ``9955`` over and over making me wonder if WRMI is now relaying Martí at this hour too, but Jeff White says it`s still M-F 22-23 only.
9805, at 1239, still WON jamming against vacated R. Martí.
11845, at 1350, still jamming no Martí.
11930, at 1350, RM loud and clear with no jamming (meanwhile oblivious Arnie is on RHC 11830 talking about Chinese TV sets).
15330, at 1405, RM still unjammed; 1441 in `El Revoltillo` anti-Communist sell & swap show giving phone and e-mail contact info
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EAST TURKISTAN. 13855, Oct 31 at 1356, Chinese `opera` music bit and then talk. Only thing in HFCC on this frequency at any time is CRI Chinese service via Wulumuchi, 13-14, 500 kW, 308 degrees to Europe (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GERMANY [non]. 9655 // 11865, Oct 30 at 2149, DW VG in English via RWANDA now here for B-11, report from Italy. Both those are 295 degrees, also favoring NAm unintentionally but unavoidably. Did not notice the other frequency scheduled, 12070. The previous hour in English at 20-21 is on 9655, 9735, 12070 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 9425, Oct 30 at 2151, S Asian vocal music, fair with flutter, as AIR National Channel, Bengaluru, has now managed to modulate instead of dead air earlier at 1416.
7550, poor Oct 30 at 2155, muffled M&W in English, with flutter on AM, presumably AIR GOS, as previously used. New AIR schedules are slow to emerge. But HFCC B-11, lacking any AIR registrations, shows instead a 9-kHz bandwidth DRM at 18-22 from something `new` via Armenia, 100 kW, 305 degrees to W Europe.
15050, Oct 31 at 1303, mostly noise on this frequency where the AIR Sinhala service is supposed to be. Is it jamming? Is it totally out-of-whack transmitter? Or is it trying DRM to drive away what listeners it might otherwise have? Still the same at 1357 but weaker (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN. 15735, Oct 31 at 1408, muffled Arabic, YL narration with music background, gone at 1432. HFCC shows this is the multi-hour Arabic service of IRIB, 0530-1430, 500 kW, 289 degrees from Zahedan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN [non]. 15535, Oct 31 at 0527, just as I tune in, music cuts from strong to weak signal, antenna or site switch time? R. Farda is B-11 scheduled straight thru 0430-0700, 250 kW, 105 degrees from Wertachtal, GERMANY, plus 0700-0930, 250 kW, 315 degrees from Iranawila, Sri Lanka (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ISRAEL. 15850, Oct 31 at 0532, Hebrew with stingers every few sex, presumably news headlines, from Galei Zahal; peaking S9+10 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ITALY [non]. 15190, Oct 31 at 1302, Brother Scare is in progress (or rather, regress), as IRRS via ROMANIA has wasted no time in getting him going today rather than defaulting to Shortwave Report as yesterday (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT. 21540, at 1315 Oct 31, day two of B-11, R. Kuwait in Arabic is still here atop Spain, instead of registered change to clear 21520. Hurry up! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA. 15120, Oct 31 at 0529, VON is back with good signal strength, but awful modulation, whine, hum, scratchy audio, YL with program previews not in order, 0531 `Moving On` about local government elexions in Lagos state plus music.
Since last week`s geomag storm, nightmiddle MUF has had a tough time exceeding 12 or even 10 MHz, but now it`s recovering, with many other signals on 15 MHz (but 17 still dead). (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OMAN. 15140, Oct 31 at 1443, commentary in English about tolerance, good conduct, addressing ``honorable members of the Council of Oman``. Poor signal with flutter, but much better than usual from R. Oman`s English hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PHILIPPINES. 15620, Oct 31 at 1438, good signal in Indonesian, except for QRM from WEWN 15610 squishyspur beating against it around 15619. HFCC shows FEBC Bocaue site, 100 kW, 200 degrees and Aoki confirms it in Indonesian as of A-11 at 1430-1600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. 9435, VG Oct 30 at 2150, RRI with mailbag in English from someone in Czechia, whence few reports arrive. Also on weaker // 7380 at 2154 giving contact info. The former 2030 English broadcast well heard in NAm, is now at 2130, also on 6030, 7310.
17530, Oct 31 at 1309, RRI very good in German with address, also 15460. Both also carry English in previous hour 1200-1256, plus 15430, 17765, but that`s before sunrise and higher bands may not open yet here; also will be inconveniently early before 7 am local CST from next week (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. 7260, Oct 30 at 2152 YL in Spanish on AM with hum, ACI from ham 7265-LSB. HFCC shows VOR via Armavir at 21-23 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. 6075, Oct 31 at 1233, pop music with Russian announcement, from R. Rossii, reactivated B-season frequency ex-5930 in A-season, via Petropavlovsk/Kamchatsky. Due to permanent timezone change (i.e. not going off DST), we expect this to close at 1300* instead of 1400* as in past winters.
Yes, monitoring from 1259, 6-pip timesignal ends 4.5 seconds late after 1300, dead air until carrier off at 1300:39*. No sign of `8GAL` or any other hand-keyed CW V marker as was previously the case on 6074 at 1400. We`ll keep checking periodically. Wonder if that will resume/stay at 1400? It was never noticed following 5930 closing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 15285, Oct 31 at 0529, distorted music and talk, surely Cairo? No, this time it`s BSKSA Riyadh, Swahili service scheduled 0400-0700, 500 kW, 190 degrees.
15170, Oct 31 at 0532, Qur`an now with good signal from BSKSA, scheduled 03-06, 500 kW, 355 degrees from Riyadh targeting CIRAF 19-23, 29-31 and 40, which means not only western Russia where it`s really aimed but also the neighboring CIS, all across northern tier of Russia thru most of Siberia, and excepting the southeastern portion (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [and non]. 15170, Monday Oct 31 at 1302, REE Cariari, COSTA RICA relay has resumed B-frequency, ex-11880 in A, very good signal, but never on Sundays, I think, despite excessive HFCC registration as daily 1100-2200!
21610, Monday Oct 31 at 1345, REE is in Basque, so that M-F Euskera diversion has shifted one UT hour later to 1330v on all the Castilian frequencies running at that time.
15385, Monday Oct 31 at 1439, REE with Sephardic music, S9+18 but bad IADs (intermittent audio dropouts --- with 9525 Indonesia missing, someone has to keep up the tradition), 1440 into interview by usual YL hostess; longpath echo also mars. So this stays at same 1425-1455 time and frequency as in A-11.
The REE B-11 schedule viahttp://programasdx.com/principal_archivos/frecuenciasreeb11.pdf
shows the two repeats now as Tuesday 0115-0145 on 11780 to SAm, and Tuesday 0415-0445 on 9690 to NAm. O, no, not 11780 again, to collide with Brasília! In A they sensibly used clear 11795 instead, but old habits die very, very hard. Tho official-looking, this sked version is not, and previously has been caught with errors. For example it *still* shows M-F 2340-2355 news in Catalan, Galician and Basque, altho Basque was removed years ago when it got its own longer slot at 1230/1330.
Tho `Amigos de la Onda Corta` and Basque have moved one UT hour later, due to irrelevant timeshifts inside Spain, the quadrilingual newscast has not. That had been at 1430-1445 on weekdays, so I was expecting it now at 1530 Oct 31, but instead 17595 and 21610, which has grown to a very good signal, are introducing an astronomy show in Castilian! So when, if ever are the French/English/Portuguese/Arabic (but never Russian) news headlines? REE never bothered to include these bits in its published transmission schedules (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN [non]. 13620, Oct 31 at 0526, presumed R. Dabanga is again audible, but poorly mixed with continuous 1 kHz tone jamming, just like in the good old days of A-11. Media Network blog now linx directly to the HFCC page for RNW scheduling including relays of and via, http://www.hfcc.org/data/schedbyfmo.php?seas=B11&fmor=RNW
but nothing about Radio Dabanga; instead, you have to know it`s listed there as ``Press Now``, daily from 30 Oct to 25 Mar:
0430-0557 7315 Issoudun 135 500
0430-0557 11940 Issoudun 135 500
0430-0557 13800 Dhabayya 255 500
1530-1627 13800 Madagascar 325 250
1530-1627 15535 Wertachtal 150 500
But where`s 13620??? It`s no longer in B-11 HFCC, but instead CRI English`s North Pole service, 354 degrees from Xi`an at 03-05, plus CRI Chinese at 05-07. So the tone jamming must have been against that instead of R. Dabanga; oops!
Above are the Press Now listings in Mul[tiple languages]. There are three more PNs in Som[ali], a different service, but not yet:
0430-0457 13750 Madagascar 0 250 14 Nov to 25 Mar
1700-1727 11615 Madagascar 0 250 14 Nov to 25 Mar
1730-1757 11615 Madagascar 0 250 01 Jan to 25 Mar
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TURKEY. If one wants to listen to V. of Turkey in the North American mornings, better do it in something other than English.
17755, Oct 31 at 1307, VG signal with Turkish music, German ID.
15350, Turkish service until 1400 was also good.
12035, the English service to WEu at 290 degrees, so also USward, is now scheduled here at 1330, ex-1230 on 15450 which came in sufficiently in A-11. But Oct 31 at 1350 only a JBA carrier detectable on 12035. What used to be // on 11735 eastward has been moved to 1730 (not to be confused with Zanzibar). (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K [non]. 11890, Oct 31 at 1452, BBCWS in English, fair but we must take whatever we can get from this non-American service, // 9740 Singapore, but not 17640 Ascension. 11890 is also SINGAPORE, 13-15, 100 kW, 25 degrees to E Asia, but also USward. Sri Lanka SLBC is also registered on 11890 at 1330-2100, but not really, I think (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9490, Oct 30 at 2150, gospel huxter in English, VG signal. Must be WHRI. Yes, B-11 scheduled 21-22 only, Sunday thru Wednesday, 250 kW at 47 degrees. May not use it all those days. PPP on 9479 has some close company (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 12788-USB, Oct 30 at 2157, marine weather for Atlantic by masculine robot, very distorted and unstable frequency, continued past 2200+. Presumably NMG in New Orleans, US Coast Guard service still direly in need of repair. See schedule and discussion in DXLD 11-19.
Also found weaker // on 13089-USB less distorted. See DXLD 10-07 where this was listed as NMN Chesapeake at 2130, but same frequency used elsewhen by Pt Reyes CA and Honolulu, not New Orleans (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 17575, Oct 30 at 2202, S9+20 VG signal with off-key child singing hymn in Portuguese, 2204 YFR theme. In B-11 this is new, 2145-2245 at 140 degrees. And 15190 is no longer in use, clearing the way for R. Inconfidência, and possibly R. Africa if it ever revive (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 13580, Oct 31 at 1449, uncertain language with oscillating tone QRM, jamming? Also CODAR QRM. Scheduled as VOA Kurdish via Wertachtal, GERMANY; QRM might have come from Abis, EGYPT, already on air for 1500 Albanian service via defective transmitter due northwest USward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 29004, Oct 30 at 2207, N7KLV calling CQ 10 AM several times from southwest Washington state, without results while I listened (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1588 monitoring: confirmed on Area 51 webcast, http://www.splatterbox.us:5110/listen.pls
slightly after 0300 UT Monday Oct 31 and presumably also on 5110v-CUSB WBCQ. After 0330 played a vintage International Radio Report from years ago with Janice interviewing TimTron, when WBCQ was on 18910 moving to 17495.
Next WOR airings on WRMI 9955: Monday 2130; Tuesday and Wednesday 1530; on Hamburger Lokalradio, Germany, 5980: Tuesday at shifted time of 1030 UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 840, Oct 31 at 1334 UT, ABC News, into GEICO ad, 1336 ad for Chevy pickup dealer in Osceola, seed company in West Point, KTIC mentioned in passing. Osceola presumably referring to the little town SW of West Point in Nebraska, not the Osceola in IA. KTIC is 5 kW daytimer, which on a good quiet day can be detected here by groundwave, but this was still skywave (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 870, Oct 31 at 1328 UT, religion in Spanish, outro as ``Un Nuevo Día`` with 817-AC phone, i.e. Fort Worth TX; also weak Spanish music audible when nulled, maybe remnant of XETAR in Chihuahua; and at 1331 also a WWL ID still made it thru. But at 1333 dominant was praise music in Spanish from KFJZ, allegedly known as Radio Fortaleza, but that slogan not yet heard (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1260, Oct 31 at 1315 UT, something in Spanish from NE/SW, but doubt it`s Mexico now. 1321 ad in Spanish for Greater Iowa Credit Union, Des Moines, ID as ``La Reina 12-60``, inviting kiddies to come to the station, address given, today at 4-6 pm to get some free sweets for Hallowe`en. NRC AM Log shows KDLF Boone IA, 5000/33/225 watts U3, 924 West Second St in Boone, birthplace of Mamie Eisenhower, which is quite a distance NW of Des Moines, so did they give a DM address for the dulces? I guess `the queen` doesn`t connote in Spanish what it does in English; altho I remember there was once a KWEN in Tulsa (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN. 21680, Oct 31 at 1311, poor signal but growing to S9+12 tho undermodulated, in Italian, so it can`t be Italy where Rai abandoned all SW a few years ago; instead, most likely is Vatican whence Italian is still shortwaved. Sounds like newscast, but 1314 into papa stuff, dead giveaway. This is scheduled daily 1255-1330, 250 kW, 170 degrees from SMG toward Africa (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. Trans-Pacific carrier scan on DX-398, internal antenna only, 9 kHz steps in USB mode, Oct 31 at 1251 found only JBA carriers on 828, 774 and 747, all very likely NHK Japan. Today`s Enid sunrise was 1253. In one week it will be exactly 1300 UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6940, Oct 31 at 0544, weak music on AM, maybe Laser Hot Hits, Europe if not a North American pirate (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 13420, Oct 31 at 0523, S9+20+ open carrier, with digital data bursts on and off; gone at 0534 check but CODAR remained in the area.
12120, another big S9+22 open carrier now here 0535 past 0543 Oct 31, but no data bursts heard. Both probably Cuban intelligence (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LILSTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 14970, Oct 31 at 1357, 6-note ``IS`` repeating, sounds vaguely familiar, probably a ute, as I was of course expecting to hear Firedrake here if anything. Very poor on AM; not heard after 1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)