** CHINA. Firedrake Feb 25, before 1330:
11500, nothing ever here today, just:
12230, fair with flutter at 1320 just after first found on 12300
12300, poor with flutter at 1320
Before 1400:
12230, good at 1346
12300, good at 1346
12670, good with flutter at 1346 during drumming-only passage, edit
12980, JBA at 1345
13680, good at 1347
15535, very poor at 1349 vs het from 15538 presumed V. of Tibet
15900, good with flutter at 1350
16100, fair at 1350; none in the 17s, 18s
After 1400:
11970, fair at 1444
12230, very good at 1444
12670, very good at 1444
13130, fair at 1445
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [non]. 11885, Feb 25 at 1318, romantic song in Spanish; can it possibly be CRI via CANADA as scheduled with usual VG signal? Yes, it can, 1319 no back-announce, but ID as ``China Drive on Easy FM``, into bear bile story in English. What next?
Decimating all kinds of wildlife for imaginary benefits to humans of their organs, is surely one of the most despicable aspects of Chinese culture and its cousins (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. 11750, Feb 25 at 1315, RHC is back on scheduled frequency after departure (punch up error?) to 11705, 24 hours earlier. Segment // 11760 et al., about Cuba`s support for the Saharans, including a clip of the RASD ambassador to Cuba speaking a strange variety of AfroSpanish. Does this mean Cuba has no relations with evil Morocco? Meanwhile their own SW outlet 6297v remains quelled; we surely miss it.
RHC anomaly today: at 1322 Feb 25, 13670 is missing, but 13780 is on. By 1347, 13670 is also on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUATEMALA. 4055, Feb 25 at 0555, R. Truth in English signing off until 5 am [11 UT], with cowboy hymn music accompaniment, then a prayer(?) with music; 0558 into multi-lingual sign-offs accompanied by Hammond organ: Spanish, 0559 English, 0600 German YL, 0601 Italian, 0602 Swedish, 0603 Japanese, 0604 local vernacular including Spanish words, times approximate; 0605 starting multi-verse NA by children`s choir. Good signal as usual for less than 1 kW, and with BFO, carrier is slightly unstable.
Feb 25 is the twelfth anniversary of R. Verdad. A quick look at the website http://www.radioverdad.org does not find any mention of this; however this note about last year: ``El sábado 26 de Febrero, celebramos nuestro 11º ANIVERSARIO, y tuvimos actividades especiales desde las 22:00 horas UTC.`` Might want to check the webcast around that hour this weekend (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [and non]. 6600, Feb 25 at 1339, // weaker 6518, V. of the People, from South to North, in Korean talk, free of jamming.
9335, Feb 25 at 1342, JBA carrier probably not VOK`s English to America, but R. Azadi (Free Afghanistan) via Kuwait; and nothing at all on 11710.
The following French hour, however, was on the air at 1434, 9335 good with some CCI, // 11710 at 1438 now with choral music.
It seems that a lot of jamming and VOK transmissions have been missing lately, due to electricity shortage. Martyn Williams, Tokyo, wrote DXLD yg Feb 24:
For the last couple of days, most of North Korea's jamming has been silent. Voice of Korea is also missing broadcasts and cutting others short. Electricity supply problems are the likely cause.http://www.northkoreatech.org/2012/02/24/dprk-radio-disappears/
That`s Martyn`s own blog which concludes, ``Earlier in February, Reuters reported that Pyongyang is facing its "worst electricity shortages in years," quoting a foreign diplomat based in the city.``
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 1700, Feb 25 at 1258 UT, orchestral Mexican NA is playing, 1259 ESPN promos in English, ``ESPN Radio 1700`` no callsign ID heard, but no doubt XEPE Tecate BCN, for all intents and purposes a San Diego station for Alta California Sur, no doubt the least interesting of all border stations (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO [and non]. 6010, Feb 25 at 1253, R. Rossii, Pet/Kam on new frequency with harp music and no trace of XEOI; and at 1340 no nothing on 6010. Julián Santiago Díez de Bonilla, DF, responded Feb 24 to our query that it is off: ``Hola Glenn: por el momento está fuera del aire XEOI. Saludos, Julián`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAIPAN. 9360, Feb 25 at 1335, Russian talk from R. Svoboda/Liberty has some modulation breakup on otherwise sufficient signal.
BTW, CSPAN2`s Book TV this morning featured the incredible story of ``King Larry``, founder of DHL, etc., etc., half-hour video/audio:http://www.booktv.org/Program/13159/King+Larry+The+Life+and+Ruins+of+a+Billionaire+Genius.aspx
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TUNISIA. 17735, following up my last report, from 1600, how long is IWT on this frequency? Recheck Feb 24 at 1811, Arabic still audible with fair signal. Rerecheck at 1948, not heard, but could have outfaded meanwhile (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K [non]. 15510 and weaker // 13825, Saturday-only frequencies of BBCWS via CYPRUS, are usually in English, but Feb 25 at 1518 they are not! Presumed the language nominally scheduled, Somali, but still seems to be live coverage of a silly ballgame. I listen for a few minutes trying to decide which sport it could be. Football most likely, but crowd noises not hyper-excited. A bit more staid: could it be cricket? Tried to hear any batcrax, but not for sure. Is there a colonial legacy of cricket in British Somaliland? Is cricket in season in Britain itself? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Greenville is having transmitter problems during VOA Spanish: Feb 25 at 1322, no signals on 13750 or 15590 (no jamming either), so I wonder if VOA has decided to cancel 13-14 morning Spanish on weekends? No, there it is on the third frequency, 9885, which is heavily jammed, despite only inconsequential musical programming as usual on Saturday, playing a country hit from 1994 (in English, natch). At 1325, 15590 is now on the air with program, and 13750 is on with carrier only. At 1330, audio starts cutting on and off every second on 13750, then stays on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15825 and 7490, WWCR, Sat Feb 25 at 1426 are both airing the same ``Why Not?`` hymn sung by Martha Garvin, but far out of synch. Must be separate playbacks instead of combined. Yep, the Feb 1 program schedule shows her `Musical Memories` on both WWCR-1 and -2, Sat at 1400 (Glenn Hasuere, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 11715.1, Feb 25 at 1441, KJES is undermodulated, distorted, catechisms mixed with guitar + hymnsing, SNAFU. Suffers by comparison to the robochoir from Pyongyang adjacent on 11710 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1605: On WRMI 9955: Sat 1830, Sun 0900, 1630, 1830, Mon 0600, 1230; on WTWW 5755: UT Sun 0500; on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB: UT Mon 0330v. On Hamburger Lokalradio 5980: Tue 1030. On WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1830, Sun 0930 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 680, Sat Feb 25 at 1301 UT, good signal from KNBR San Francisco with its only significant hour intellexually breaking away from stupid ballgames, `Commonwealth Club`, introducing this week`s speaker, Dr Margaret Hamburg, US FDA Commissioner. I wonder if KNBR retains a modicum of public service donated time or if CC has to purchase it, even at 5 am local? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1700, Feb 25 at 1309 UT, frequency dominated a few minutes earlier by XEPE is now with stand-up comedy in English about male prostitutes, ha ha, no doubt KKLF, The Metroplex TX with its new format since Feb 1 uniquely on this frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 1190, Feb 25 at 1306 UT, something in Spanish, fragments of ID, ``esuchando la V [? or a rhyming letter], la estación más importante``, lost in too much QRM.
By Googling on the frequency and the slogan, I was at first pleased to get some hits, on the Koje/komex list, but a single pdf page http://www.tapiokalmi.net/dx/koje/10OCT2011-KOMEX-1kW-or-more.pdf
contains all the frequencies, and the only station shown for that is XEI 1300 Morelia.
This could easily be a US station, such as the previously heard KNUV in Phoenix, [Feniz?] Arizona; do they call themselves that? Not on their homepage http://www.onda1190am.com/ but maybe would hear it by taking time to listen to their stream, if only the flash player would work (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6023, Feb 25 at 1430 a carrier here with no modulation detectable, poor but at least equal in strength to 6025, RFA TINIAN, in Cantonese which is a language normally not worth jamming. I previously observed the same on Dec 9 as in DXLD 11-50, but no explanations were forthcoming; standard remark about Avogadro`s number (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
11500, nothing ever here today, just:
12230, fair with flutter at 1320 just after first found on 12300
12300, poor with flutter at 1320
Before 1400:
12230, good at 1346
12300, good at 1346
12670, good with flutter at 1346 during drumming-only passage, edit
12980, JBA at 1345
13680, good at 1347
15535, very poor at 1349 vs het from 15538 presumed V. of Tibet
15900, good with flutter at 1350
16100, fair at 1350; none in the 17s, 18s
After 1400:
11970, fair at 1444
12230, very good at 1444
12670, very good at 1444
13130, fair at 1445
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [non]. 11885, Feb 25 at 1318, romantic song in Spanish; can it possibly be CRI via CANADA as scheduled with usual VG signal? Yes, it can, 1319 no back-announce, but ID as ``China Drive on Easy FM``, into bear bile story in English. What next?
Decimating all kinds of wildlife for imaginary benefits to humans of their organs, is surely one of the most despicable aspects of Chinese culture and its cousins (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. 11750, Feb 25 at 1315, RHC is back on scheduled frequency after departure (punch up error?) to 11705, 24 hours earlier. Segment // 11760 et al., about Cuba`s support for the Saharans, including a clip of the RASD ambassador to Cuba speaking a strange variety of AfroSpanish. Does this mean Cuba has no relations with evil Morocco? Meanwhile their own SW outlet 6297v remains quelled; we surely miss it.
RHC anomaly today: at 1322 Feb 25, 13670 is missing, but 13780 is on. By 1347, 13670 is also on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUATEMALA. 4055, Feb 25 at 0555, R. Truth in English signing off until 5 am [11 UT], with cowboy hymn music accompaniment, then a prayer(?) with music; 0558 into multi-lingual sign-offs accompanied by Hammond organ: Spanish, 0559 English, 0600 German YL, 0601 Italian, 0602 Swedish, 0603 Japanese, 0604 local vernacular including Spanish words, times approximate; 0605 starting multi-verse NA by children`s choir. Good signal as usual for less than 1 kW, and with BFO, carrier is slightly unstable.
Feb 25 is the twelfth anniversary of R. Verdad. A quick look at the website http://www.radioverdad.org does not find any mention of this; however this note about last year: ``El sábado 26 de Febrero, celebramos nuestro 11º ANIVERSARIO, y tuvimos actividades especiales desde las 22:00 horas UTC.`` Might want to check the webcast around that hour this weekend (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [and non]. 6600, Feb 25 at 1339, // weaker 6518, V. of the People, from South to North, in Korean talk, free of jamming.
9335, Feb 25 at 1342, JBA carrier probably not VOK`s English to America, but R. Azadi (Free Afghanistan) via Kuwait; and nothing at all on 11710.
The following French hour, however, was on the air at 1434, 9335 good with some CCI, // 11710 at 1438 now with choral music.
It seems that a lot of jamming and VOK transmissions have been missing lately, due to electricity shortage. Martyn Williams, Tokyo, wrote DXLD yg Feb 24:
For the last couple of days, most of North Korea's jamming has been silent. Voice of Korea is also missing broadcasts and cutting others short. Electricity supply problems are the likely cause.http://www.northkoreatech.org/2012/02/24/dprk-radio-disappears/
That`s Martyn`s own blog which concludes, ``Earlier in February, Reuters reported that Pyongyang is facing its "worst electricity shortages in years," quoting a foreign diplomat based in the city.``
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 1700, Feb 25 at 1258 UT, orchestral Mexican NA is playing, 1259 ESPN promos in English, ``ESPN Radio 1700`` no callsign ID heard, but no doubt XEPE Tecate BCN, for all intents and purposes a San Diego station for Alta California Sur, no doubt the least interesting of all border stations (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO [and non]. 6010, Feb 25 at 1253, R. Rossii, Pet/Kam on new frequency with harp music and no trace of XEOI; and at 1340 no nothing on 6010. Julián Santiago Díez de Bonilla, DF, responded Feb 24 to our query that it is off: ``Hola Glenn: por el momento está fuera del aire XEOI. Saludos, Julián`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAIPAN. 9360, Feb 25 at 1335, Russian talk from R. Svoboda/Liberty has some modulation breakup on otherwise sufficient signal.
BTW, CSPAN2`s Book TV this morning featured the incredible story of ``King Larry``, founder of DHL, etc., etc., half-hour video/audio:http://www.booktv.org/Program/13159/King+Larry+The+Life+and+Ruins+of+a+Billionaire+Genius.aspx
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TUNISIA. 17735, following up my last report, from 1600, how long is IWT on this frequency? Recheck Feb 24 at 1811, Arabic still audible with fair signal. Rerecheck at 1948, not heard, but could have outfaded meanwhile (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K [non]. 15510 and weaker // 13825, Saturday-only frequencies of BBCWS via CYPRUS, are usually in English, but Feb 25 at 1518 they are not! Presumed the language nominally scheduled, Somali, but still seems to be live coverage of a silly ballgame. I listen for a few minutes trying to decide which sport it could be. Football most likely, but crowd noises not hyper-excited. A bit more staid: could it be cricket? Tried to hear any batcrax, but not for sure. Is there a colonial legacy of cricket in British Somaliland? Is cricket in season in Britain itself? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Greenville is having transmitter problems during VOA Spanish: Feb 25 at 1322, no signals on 13750 or 15590 (no jamming either), so I wonder if VOA has decided to cancel 13-14 morning Spanish on weekends? No, there it is on the third frequency, 9885, which is heavily jammed, despite only inconsequential musical programming as usual on Saturday, playing a country hit from 1994 (in English, natch). At 1325, 15590 is now on the air with program, and 13750 is on with carrier only. At 1330, audio starts cutting on and off every second on 13750, then stays on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15825 and 7490, WWCR, Sat Feb 25 at 1426 are both airing the same ``Why Not?`` hymn sung by Martha Garvin, but far out of synch. Must be separate playbacks instead of combined. Yep, the Feb 1 program schedule shows her `Musical Memories` on both WWCR-1 and -2, Sat at 1400 (Glenn Hasuere, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 11715.1, Feb 25 at 1441, KJES is undermodulated, distorted, catechisms mixed with guitar + hymnsing, SNAFU. Suffers by comparison to the robochoir from Pyongyang adjacent on 11710 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1605: On WRMI 9955: Sat 1830, Sun 0900, 1630, 1830, Mon 0600, 1230; on WTWW 5755: UT Sun 0500; on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB: UT Mon 0330v. On Hamburger Lokalradio 5980: Tue 1030. On WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1830, Sun 0930 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 680, Sat Feb 25 at 1301 UT, good signal from KNBR San Francisco with its only significant hour intellexually breaking away from stupid ballgames, `Commonwealth Club`, introducing this week`s speaker, Dr Margaret Hamburg, US FDA Commissioner. I wonder if KNBR retains a modicum of public service donated time or if CC has to purchase it, even at 5 am local? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1700, Feb 25 at 1309 UT, frequency dominated a few minutes earlier by XEPE is now with stand-up comedy in English about male prostitutes, ha ha, no doubt KKLF, The Metroplex TX with its new format since Feb 1 uniquely on this frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 1190, Feb 25 at 1306 UT, something in Spanish, fragments of ID, ``esuchando la V [? or a rhyming letter], la estación más importante``, lost in too much QRM.
By Googling on the frequency and the slogan, I was at first pleased to get some hits, on the Koje/komex list, but a single pdf page http://www.tapiokalmi.net/dx/koje/10OCT2011-KOMEX-1kW-or-more.pdf
contains all the frequencies, and the only station shown for that is XEI 1300 Morelia.
This could easily be a US station, such as the previously heard KNUV in Phoenix, [Feniz?] Arizona; do they call themselves that? Not on their homepage http://www.onda1190am.com/ but maybe would hear it by taking time to listen to their stream, if only the flash player would work (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6023, Feb 25 at 1430 a carrier here with no modulation detectable, poor but at least equal in strength to 6025, RFA TINIAN, in Cantonese which is a language normally not worth jamming. I previously observed the same on Dec 9 as in DXLD 11-50, but no explanations were forthcoming; standard remark about Avogadro`s number (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
