** ALBANIA. 7425, March 30 at 0130, R. Tirana sign-on has now been changed to give the correct times and frequencies for the only two English broadcasts left, unlike on March 27; poor reception with T-storm noise in the area (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake March 30, before 1300:
13130, good at 1259
14700, fair at 1259
14970, fair at 1259
15445, good at 1255, QRMing Turkey English on 15450
15900, good at 1257
15970, good at 1257
16100, good at 1257
16700, fair at 1257
Tuning downward, did not get below 13000 before 1300*
After 1300:
15485, good at 1309, het from 15487 but gone at 1315
15500, good at *1215 with 15498 het, just jumped up from 15485, still on at 1318 when 15540 is off
15540, good at 1309, with het from 15538, still at 1315, off 1318
15550, fair now here at 1326, het on hi side
15900, very good at 1316
Before 1400:
12230, very good at 1350
12300, very good at 1350
13970, poor at 1351
14700, poor at 1352
14970, poor at 1352
15485, good at 1349, het from 15482
16100, very good at 1352
16700, very good at 1352
17450, good at 1353
After 1400:
15615, good at *1404
CNR1 jamming:
15670, March 30 at 1317, along with raspy noise for additional jamming, but the programming is // 12040 jammer. Target on 15670 is RFA in Tibetan via Tajikistan
see also SAUDI ARABIA, 17705 jamming
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE [and non]. 15650, March 30 at 1354 I am standing by for VOG to come on, but only a very poor signal from something else, still same past 1400. Was it Brother Scare via IRRS via Romania as in Aoki, not HFCC, as alternate(?) to 15190? I don`t think so, and after 1400 R Liberty in Turkmen via Wertachtal is surely there. Finally at 1406 I am hearing the same fast SAH as produced by Greece before colliding with RL, and second audio, weak music from Athens.
BTW, John Babbis found a press release on the ERT website about a special marathon broadcast April 2 to raise money for those who cannot afford medications, involving the SW service at 0600-1900 UT, headlined in translation: ``The "VOICE OF GREECE" - SOLIDARITY VOICE
RADIOMARATHON FOR SOCIAL PHARMACY, THE HOLY ARCHIEPISKOPIS ATHENS``
Apparently explaining the lack of response from VOG about an A-12 schedule is this via Chris Rigas, IL to the DXLD yahoogroup:
Technician shortage at Voice of Greece
Voice of Greece (ERA5), the shortwave service of ERT, faces lack of qualified technical personnel. According to the Association of Engineers and Technicians of ERT, the remaining permanent employees at the Emission Center at Avlida are preparing to retire and the Centre will be handed over to new technical personnel that will be employed as contract employees only. "New technicians need at least three years within the group in order to gain the necessary experience to support the Emission Center. The same happens with other facilities. With the new system at ERT of contracting technicians for only one or two years, the ERT faces the problem of not having enough qualified personnel to do the necessary work at the ERT broadcasting facilities," notes the Association of Engineers and Technician of ERT.
Full article in Greek here: http://www.radiofono.gr/node/3161
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 690, March 30 at 1204 UT, time check for 6:04 [CST], 19 grados en Monterrey, live announcer welcoming us to 30 de marzo, i.e. XERG (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 710, March 30 at 0535 UT, preacher in Spanish from SW with Cuba nulled, with het which seems to come from the same station, then with PSA mentioning Chihuahua, so XEDP Ciudad Cuauhtémoc may have gone off-frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 720, March 30 at 1201 UT, choral NA, mixing with presumed KSAH, ID mentions their time & temp format, Coahuila, and ``La Kaliente`` [sic], i.e. XEDE Saltillo (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 760, March 30 at 1200 UT, ID with FM station, mentions Sonora in QRM, but there are two in that state, XEEB Ciudad Obregón, and XENY Nogales, the latter heard before (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 880, March 30 at 1210 UT, 6:10 timecheck, Tiempo del Centro de México, during break in newscast from Grupo Fórmula, ad for Partido Verde, Fórmula 970 program promo; in KRVN null. The 880 Fórmula affiliate is XEV, Chihuahua2 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 1000, March 30 at 1215 UT, crime news of northern Chihuahua state and also Durango, dominant here so weakened KTOK OKC can only be heard in its null, i.e. XEFV Ciudad Juárez. I`ve never heard the other Chihuahuan, XEHPC, R. Mil in Hidalgo del Parral (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MOROCCO. 15341.2, March 30 at 1252, a big het between IMM and HCJB Australia on 15340.0. Matching pitch on my keyboard it`s again D above hi C, 587.33 Hz, where I am hearing a beat, but I may be missing it by an octave, as the keyboard doesn`t go that much higher, i.e. 1174.66 Hz for D6 in this table http://www.phy.mtu.edu/~suits/notefreqs.html
which is based on an even-tempered scale with A = exactly 440. My keyboard also may not be calibrated exactly to this. I need to compare its A to WWV`s, whenever they intone it.
On 15340 itself I could also barely hear a much closer subaudible beat indicating a second station there, but nothing else scheduled. Aoki says HCJB Burmese during this semihour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NETHERLANDS [non]. 17605, March 30 at 2045, no signal from RNW in English, but still on 15495, both now VATICAN relays. A few days ago 17605 was running an extra hour beyond scheduled 1957* but not any more unless a sharp MUF intervened.
9790, 9865, 9895, March 30 at 0519, RNW YL in Dutch interviewing an apparent second-generation Dutchman in New Zealand who replies in English. This went on for several minutes on these three non-synchronized frequencies via Wertachtal, Bonaire and Nauen, respectively (no longer Pridnestrovye on 9895) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. Clear Channel has just fired a lot of people, including at KTOK: Dean Of Broadcasters Jerry Bohnen Booted At KTOK:
http://mccarvillereport.com/archives/4354
This is also being discussed on the Oklahoma forum at radio-info.com Tnx to Artie Bigley for bringing this to my attention. Seems Bohnen is an award-winning and highly respected newsman, but I wouldn`t know, not listening to KTOK with its farrightwingnut national programming. McCarville, another right-winger, used to be on KTOK too (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. 17850, March 30 at 1303 good signal in Chinese, modulation cuts off at 1303:28 but soon resumes, mentions Mei Guo, Istanbul? Then heard what I thought was a R. Free Asia jingle, and not certain it`s Mandarin; no jamming. Yet, no such thing scheduled here, instead RRI in Chinese from Tiganeshti at 1300-1327 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. 15510, March 30 at 1332, Russian pop music, 1340-1344 talk segment in Pashto(?) clarifies that there is a long/short path echo, 250 kW, 140 degrees from Samara, which means the opposite is 320 degrees USward, plus long way around aiming USward too (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA [and non]. 17705, March 30 at 1306, BSKSA is no longer on a clear frequency, again colliding with AIR Chinese service until 1315, which means it is also jammed by the ChiCom; I was probably hearing more of CNR1 under Riyadh than AIR. Yet there are plenty of open frequencies on 16m --- but each station has a history/precedent of using 17705, so nothing else matters (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAIWAN [non]. 5950, March 30 at 0517, SNAFU again on the RTI relay via WYFR: in Chinese instead of scheduled English this hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TURKEY [and non]. 15450, March 30 at 1255, VOT English would be sufficient if it were not for stronger Firedrake on 15445, but that`s off at 1300, and by 1314 check a weaker preacher in unknown language is on 15445, per Aoki KSDA in Kachin during this semihour only, not a problem for VOT, until 1326* with IS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1610 monitoring: produxion completed later than usual, but in time for first SW airing Thursday March 29 at 2100 on WTWW 9479, usual excellent signal. Also confirmed on next airing, UT Friday 0332 just started on WWRB 5050 ex-3195. Next: UT Saturday 0100v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB; last week did not start until 0135, and also try LSB. UT Sunday 0400 on WTWW 5755. On WRMI: Saturday 0800, 1500, 1730, Sunday 0800, 1530, 1730, Monday 0500, 1130. On HLR Germany 5980: Tuesday 0930. On WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1730, Sun 0830 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 770, March 30 at 1200 UT, ``Celebrating 70 years, KKOB --`` and ABC News; 1206 still in with local news about Bernalillo County. Poor signal, presumably the 230-watt Santa Fe County fill-in relay as NM is still in the night (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1550, March 30 at 1227 UT, discussing the Duck Pond and Zimmerman Library on the UNM campus, familiar places to me in Albuquerque, so KIVA. I seriously doubt they were on night power of 27 watts instead of day power 10,000, tho March local sunrise is not until 1315 (April: 1230 UT) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [and non]. 13730, March 30 at 1154, religious talk in Spanish on poor signal, so the 1130 relay via Sackville, CANADA is confirmed on summer channel. HFCC A-12 claims it lasts until 1215 with English too, which I did not check, but the latter had been imaginary in B-season.
15595, March 30 at 1156, VR direct in English has better signal here than 13730, aside strong OC from 15590 VOA Greenville prior to Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 1060, March 30 at 1220 UT, Spanish with funny American accent, pronouncing lots of team names as in English, ID in passing as ESPN Deportes, was NBA report. I don`t find any 1060 affiliate listed in the 2011-2012 NRC AM Log, recent change? On net website http://espndeportes.espn.go.com/ I can`t find any affiliate list. The network has a presence in Mexico, too. Certainly not KIJN Farwell TX, which was audible a bit later with Spanish-American religion (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 11860, March 30 at 0507, weak signal and with 1 kHz tone mixing in it. Aoki and HFCC both have only PBS Xizang, and Iran in Turkish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake March 30, before 1300:
13130, good at 1259
14700, fair at 1259
14970, fair at 1259
15445, good at 1255, QRMing Turkey English on 15450
15900, good at 1257
15970, good at 1257
16100, good at 1257
16700, fair at 1257
Tuning downward, did not get below 13000 before 1300*
After 1300:
15485, good at 1309, het from 15487 but gone at 1315
15500, good at *1215 with 15498 het, just jumped up from 15485, still on at 1318 when 15540 is off
15540, good at 1309, with het from 15538, still at 1315, off 1318
15550, fair now here at 1326, het on hi side
15900, very good at 1316
Before 1400:
12230, very good at 1350
12300, very good at 1350
13970, poor at 1351
14700, poor at 1352
14970, poor at 1352
15485, good at 1349, het from 15482
16100, very good at 1352
16700, very good at 1352
17450, good at 1353
After 1400:
15615, good at *1404
CNR1 jamming:
15670, March 30 at 1317, along with raspy noise for additional jamming, but the programming is // 12040 jammer. Target on 15670 is RFA in Tibetan via Tajikistan
see also SAUDI ARABIA, 17705 jamming
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE [and non]. 15650, March 30 at 1354 I am standing by for VOG to come on, but only a very poor signal from something else, still same past 1400. Was it Brother Scare via IRRS via Romania as in Aoki, not HFCC, as alternate(?) to 15190? I don`t think so, and after 1400 R Liberty in Turkmen via Wertachtal is surely there. Finally at 1406 I am hearing the same fast SAH as produced by Greece before colliding with RL, and second audio, weak music from Athens.
BTW, John Babbis found a press release on the ERT website about a special marathon broadcast April 2 to raise money for those who cannot afford medications, involving the SW service at 0600-1900 UT, headlined in translation: ``The "VOICE OF GREECE" - SOLIDARITY VOICE
RADIOMARATHON FOR SOCIAL PHARMACY, THE HOLY ARCHIEPISKOPIS ATHENS``
Apparently explaining the lack of response from VOG about an A-12 schedule is this via Chris Rigas, IL to the DXLD yahoogroup:
Technician shortage at Voice of Greece
Voice of Greece (ERA5), the shortwave service of ERT, faces lack of qualified technical personnel. According to the Association of Engineers and Technicians of ERT, the remaining permanent employees at the Emission Center at Avlida are preparing to retire and the Centre will be handed over to new technical personnel that will be employed as contract employees only. "New technicians need at least three years within the group in order to gain the necessary experience to support the Emission Center. The same happens with other facilities. With the new system at ERT of contracting technicians for only one or two years, the ERT faces the problem of not having enough qualified personnel to do the necessary work at the ERT broadcasting facilities," notes the Association of Engineers and Technician of ERT.
Full article in Greek here: http://www.radiofono.gr/node/3161
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 690, March 30 at 1204 UT, time check for 6:04 [CST], 19 grados en Monterrey, live announcer welcoming us to 30 de marzo, i.e. XERG (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 710, March 30 at 0535 UT, preacher in Spanish from SW with Cuba nulled, with het which seems to come from the same station, then with PSA mentioning Chihuahua, so XEDP Ciudad Cuauhtémoc may have gone off-frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 720, March 30 at 1201 UT, choral NA, mixing with presumed KSAH, ID mentions their time & temp format, Coahuila, and ``La Kaliente`` [sic], i.e. XEDE Saltillo (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 760, March 30 at 1200 UT, ID with FM station, mentions Sonora in QRM, but there are two in that state, XEEB Ciudad Obregón, and XENY Nogales, the latter heard before (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 880, March 30 at 1210 UT, 6:10 timecheck, Tiempo del Centro de México, during break in newscast from Grupo Fórmula, ad for Partido Verde, Fórmula 970 program promo; in KRVN null. The 880 Fórmula affiliate is XEV, Chihuahua2 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 1000, March 30 at 1215 UT, crime news of northern Chihuahua state and also Durango, dominant here so weakened KTOK OKC can only be heard in its null, i.e. XEFV Ciudad Juárez. I`ve never heard the other Chihuahuan, XEHPC, R. Mil in Hidalgo del Parral (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MOROCCO. 15341.2, March 30 at 1252, a big het between IMM and HCJB Australia on 15340.0. Matching pitch on my keyboard it`s again D above hi C, 587.33 Hz, where I am hearing a beat, but I may be missing it by an octave, as the keyboard doesn`t go that much higher, i.e. 1174.66 Hz for D6 in this table http://www.phy.mtu.edu/~suits/notefreqs.html
which is based on an even-tempered scale with A = exactly 440. My keyboard also may not be calibrated exactly to this. I need to compare its A to WWV`s, whenever they intone it.
On 15340 itself I could also barely hear a much closer subaudible beat indicating a second station there, but nothing else scheduled. Aoki says HCJB Burmese during this semihour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NETHERLANDS [non]. 17605, March 30 at 2045, no signal from RNW in English, but still on 15495, both now VATICAN relays. A few days ago 17605 was running an extra hour beyond scheduled 1957* but not any more unless a sharp MUF intervened.
9790, 9865, 9895, March 30 at 0519, RNW YL in Dutch interviewing an apparent second-generation Dutchman in New Zealand who replies in English. This went on for several minutes on these three non-synchronized frequencies via Wertachtal, Bonaire and Nauen, respectively (no longer Pridnestrovye on 9895) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. Clear Channel has just fired a lot of people, including at KTOK: Dean Of Broadcasters Jerry Bohnen Booted At KTOK:
http://mccarvillereport.com/archives/4354
This is also being discussed on the Oklahoma forum at radio-info.com Tnx to Artie Bigley for bringing this to my attention. Seems Bohnen is an award-winning and highly respected newsman, but I wouldn`t know, not listening to KTOK with its farrightwingnut national programming. McCarville, another right-winger, used to be on KTOK too (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. 17850, March 30 at 1303 good signal in Chinese, modulation cuts off at 1303:28 but soon resumes, mentions Mei Guo, Istanbul? Then heard what I thought was a R. Free Asia jingle, and not certain it`s Mandarin; no jamming. Yet, no such thing scheduled here, instead RRI in Chinese from Tiganeshti at 1300-1327 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. 15510, March 30 at 1332, Russian pop music, 1340-1344 talk segment in Pashto(?) clarifies that there is a long/short path echo, 250 kW, 140 degrees from Samara, which means the opposite is 320 degrees USward, plus long way around aiming USward too (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA [and non]. 17705, March 30 at 1306, BSKSA is no longer on a clear frequency, again colliding with AIR Chinese service until 1315, which means it is also jammed by the ChiCom; I was probably hearing more of CNR1 under Riyadh than AIR. Yet there are plenty of open frequencies on 16m --- but each station has a history/precedent of using 17705, so nothing else matters (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAIWAN [non]. 5950, March 30 at 0517, SNAFU again on the RTI relay via WYFR: in Chinese instead of scheduled English this hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TURKEY [and non]. 15450, March 30 at 1255, VOT English would be sufficient if it were not for stronger Firedrake on 15445, but that`s off at 1300, and by 1314 check a weaker preacher in unknown language is on 15445, per Aoki KSDA in Kachin during this semihour only, not a problem for VOT, until 1326* with IS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1610 monitoring: produxion completed later than usual, but in time for first SW airing Thursday March 29 at 2100 on WTWW 9479, usual excellent signal. Also confirmed on next airing, UT Friday 0332 just started on WWRB 5050 ex-3195. Next: UT Saturday 0100v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB; last week did not start until 0135, and also try LSB. UT Sunday 0400 on WTWW 5755. On WRMI: Saturday 0800, 1500, 1730, Sunday 0800, 1530, 1730, Monday 0500, 1130. On HLR Germany 5980: Tuesday 0930. On WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1730, Sun 0830 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 770, March 30 at 1200 UT, ``Celebrating 70 years, KKOB --`` and ABC News; 1206 still in with local news about Bernalillo County. Poor signal, presumably the 230-watt Santa Fe County fill-in relay as NM is still in the night (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1550, March 30 at 1227 UT, discussing the Duck Pond and Zimmerman Library on the UNM campus, familiar places to me in Albuquerque, so KIVA. I seriously doubt they were on night power of 27 watts instead of day power 10,000, tho March local sunrise is not until 1315 (April: 1230 UT) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [and non]. 13730, March 30 at 1154, religious talk in Spanish on poor signal, so the 1130 relay via Sackville, CANADA is confirmed on summer channel. HFCC A-12 claims it lasts until 1215 with English too, which I did not check, but the latter had been imaginary in B-season.
15595, March 30 at 1156, VR direct in English has better signal here than 13730, aside strong OC from 15590 VOA Greenville prior to Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 1060, March 30 at 1220 UT, Spanish with funny American accent, pronouncing lots of team names as in English, ID in passing as ESPN Deportes, was NBA report. I don`t find any 1060 affiliate listed in the 2011-2012 NRC AM Log, recent change? On net website http://espndeportes.espn.go.com/ I can`t find any affiliate list. The network has a presence in Mexico, too. Certainly not KIJN Farwell TX, which was audible a bit later with Spanish-American religion (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 11860, March 30 at 0507, weak signal and with 1 kHz tone mixing in it. Aoki and HFCC both have only PBS Xizang, and Iran in Turkish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
