** CHINA. Firedrake March 16: none found before 1300
Before 1400:
13920, very poor at 1356
11500, very poor at 1356
Before 1500:
13970, poor with heavy flutter at 1453
13920, slightly stronger than 13970 at 1453
11500, very poor at 1454; no others found 10-17 MHz
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GERMANY [non]. 21780, March 15 at 1840, VG S9+22 signal in Hausa. Could it be Greenville? No, it`s DW as soon IDed, via Kigali, RWANDA, 250 kW at 295 degrees. If in English, would have been equivalent to a fine North American service; dream on. Much stronger than 21690 RFI via Guiana French (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5910, March 16 at 1333, Sea Breeze sinking into the daytime noise level, now starting almost an hour after sunrise here, but enough to recognize the accented YL in English as reliably on Fridays only, with the old electronic stingers every few sex between news items; via JSR Tokyo/Yamata, JAPAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MAURITANIA. 7245, March 16 at 0458, IGIM is already on in Arabish talk; maybe all night on Fribbath? Have never been able to make any definite correlation with its very flexible appearances (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA. 15120.0, March 15 at 1834, VON very poor but on-frequency so it`s the old Ikorodu transmitter as usual during this hour. At *1856:55, the new Abuja transmitter cuts on the low side causing het, break for half a minute and back on at 1857:52 producing E-note het, i.e. 165 Hz, so that makes it 15119.835, but it`s wavering slightly as one transmitter or the other, or both, are unstable. (The new one being constantly off-frequency does not speak well for Thalès/Thomson: get the crystal- grinder to replace it!). Both transmitters remained on the air and hetting each other until the old one finally went off at 1901:14, as the newscast by YL has already started. (This does not speak well for VON and its fancy new equipment finally being paid for. Clearly, they are not ready for the big time, as they can`t even coördinate to avoid interfering with themselves.)
Reception was a little better today, but still a strain to copy it; 1932 break for ID and timecheck during `60 Minutes`. Meanwhile flanked by REE on both sides: the splash from Noblejas 15110 was worse than the weaker signal from adjacent Cariari on 15125, which had its own transmitter problems, SPAIN q.v.
As usual, nothing from Nigeria or anywhere audible on 15120 before or after 1500 March 16, unlike other reports (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. 15460, March 16 at 1342, RRI German service with sufficient signal playing some fine piano jazz, outro as from the Academic Jazz Group at Iashi, a cultural centre. Next, ``This Is How We Do It``. Besides some titles in English, RRI`s German YL announcer is easier to understand since she enunciates clearly, probably not a native-speaker from her accent. 1351 already signing off with full German schedule including WRN, satellite, 1353 ``Auf wiederhören``, but then another song as postlude.
15460 again had the ringing artifacts, most noticeable during the music, and // 17530 was not propagating today. Both of these also carry the English hour at 12-13, and I caught a bit of English before 1300. We`re amid the Fortnight of Confusion when RRI is running on standard time and we are on daylight shifting, pushing the English temporarily into a more waking hour here, 7-8 am CDT, before March 25 when it goes back to 11-12 UT = 6-7 am CDT, on 15210 and 17510, both same 307 degrees from Tiganeshti intended only for Europe, but the German then at 12-13 will no longer be on same parameters as preceding hour in English, instead 9675 from Saftica and 11875 from Tiganeshti, per a tentative sked in BC-DX. I understand that 15 & 17 MHz are too high in the winter for a reliable daytime service to nearby Germany tho OK for us; will 9 and 11 MHz prove to be too low in the summer? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [and non]. 21610, March 15 at 1841, REE is in Arabic on this frequency only at 17-19; poor; while all the others we can hear are in Portuguese, not Spanish: 17715 stronger than 17755; 15125 via CR, but it`s intermittent, had not been on a few minutes before 1841 as I was checking Nigeria on 15120; 15125 goes off again at 1850, on at 1851, off again at 1858, on again at 1900. Meanwhile, 15110, much stronger direct from Noblejas at *1852 with open carrier on and off and on, 1855 IS and sign-on Castilian. Splash from this bothers Nigeria 15120, unlike weaker 15125 signal.
Another day to check whether COSTA RICA 11815 is on-frequency or not, March 16 at 1245: NOT, but hetting Japan and this time very slightly above 11815.5; at 1338 keyboard almost matches a B-note het, i.e. 494 Hz, but it must axually be 500+ Hz as per stepping with BFO between 11815 and 11816 on the YB-400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN [non]. 7315, March 16 at 0457, whine jamming audible but target R. Dabanga unheard; supposed to be a sesquihour from 0427 via FRANCE, and used to be a regular here. Is it gone? A-12 plans a move to higher frequencies, anyway (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Observations about when WINB is on and off, since their online schedule is anything but precise: Thursday March 15 at 1833 UT, 13570 and 9265 are both absent, ditto at 1902, 1942, 1954. Next check 2044, 13570 is on with music, ID, and `Wondrous Stories`.
Yet the Thursday schedule, with wrong EDT/UT conversion, shows:
ET / UT - - Thursday(ET) - -
12:30P / Thu-1730...Moments with God
12:45P / Thu-1745...Guidelines (English)
12:50P / Thu-1750...Guidelines (Spanish)
12:55P / Thu-1755...Soul Gathering Ministries Radio Broadcas [sic]
01:00P / Thu-1800...Destiny Christian Ministry
01:30P / Thu-1830...Walking in Simplicity Program
01:45P / Thu-1845...Study-Grow-Know Ministries
02:00P / Thu-1900...Kroeze Bros. Outreach
04:45P / Thu-2145...Wondrous Story
05:00P / Thu-2200...Radio Bible Study
Since `Wondrous` was confirmed at 2045 UT, it`s clear that the ET = EDT times are correct, and the UT are not, should read one hour earlier, starting at 1630. The last program of the midday session really starts at 1800, probably only 15 or 30 minutes before the hiatus. And presumably had just come back on the air before 2045 UT.
Next question is whether they are switching from 13570 to 9265 at 1659-1700 EDT? Yes, after only 15+ minutes resumed on 13570, at 2100 UT ID from the United States of Americuh, and off* 13570, but without any frequency announcement, so how is your non-DX listener to know where to tune to keep listening to this wonderful station? Still nothing heard on 9265 at 2101, but maybe it came on soon, down in the noise level. On Mon & Fri, however, nothing next on the program schedule until 2130 (``2230``) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1608 monitoring: first SW airing confirmed at new shifted UT of 2100 Thursday March 15 on 9479 WTWW, excellent signal; also at 0331 UT Friday March 16 on 3195 WWRB, already 2-3 minutes into show, so must have started a bit early. Lots of spring storm noise on this low frequency we hope WWRB will move up a band or two for A-12. 3195 is not registered in A-12 or B-11, but these are before 0400: 2390, 5050, 5745.
Further WOR 1608 airings: WBCQ Area 51, UT Sat 0100v-0120v on 5110v-CUSB. WRMI 9955: Sat 0800, 1500, 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, Mon 0500, 1130. WTWW 5755: UT Sun 0400 on 5755.
Also checked 7490 WBCQ Thursday at 2135; if we were still on then, would have been JBA vs the noise level now jumped an hour further into daytime like whatever replaced us (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15385+, March 15 at 1835, KJES has VG S9+22 signal, but just barely modulated, with hum, catechisms in English. Slightly on the hi side, but within FCC`s too-lax tolerance (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 15240, March 15 at 1904, hilife music, flutter, maybe Swahili? 1915 mentions development bank. No, it`s Fulfulde scheduled from AWR, 500 kW, 320 degrees from SOUTH AFRICA for W Africa, also USward, daily 1900-1930 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Today`s local sunrise in Enid is 1240 UT, and growing more than a minute earlier each day as we head for equinox, but before it`s too late for some sunrise skip, I check high-end MW starting at 1306:
1470, March 16 at 1306 UT, weather highs in 80s, lows in 60s, on ``14-70, KYYW``, i.e. 5 kW from Abilene TX: had to look it up; 1470 will always be KRBC to me.
1210, March 16 at 1311 UT, ``Dakota Country weather``, high 80, lo 52 but now it`s 37 at KOKK, 1312 into ``statewide news``. Dominating here from north, and very little signal from westerly KGYN Guymon OK: could they really be on night pattern nulling Philadelphia in the daytime? At night they are usually on day pattern, not nulling. KOKK is 5 kW from Huron SD (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6105, March 16 before and after 1330, 1000 Hz continuous tone (not a het), when nothing is scheduled here in HFCC between 0850 and 1500. Aoki shows Taiwan until 1300, and VOA Chinese from Tajikistan from 1400; From 1500, CRI Russian from Shijiazhuang.
Also Aoki shows at 1500-1530, VOA Uzbek via Thailand jumps frequencies from day to day in a probably futile attempt to confuse the ChiCom jammers interfering in the internal affairs of Uzbekistan: 6100 on Tue & Sat, 6105 on M/W/F, 6110 on Sun & Thu (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6190, March 16 at 0454, CRI English via Sackville has some CCI, not sure what, but not heard after 0500. CRI runs 0300-0600 and normally dominates the frequency. 20 kW from DLF Berlin is presumably active, but normally blown away and Belarus 5 kW also listed on 6190, maybe inactive.
However, on March 13, Martien Groot in the Netherlands heard International Radio Serbia past 0400 in English on 6190 [via BOSNIA-H], very good signal there, instead of closing down N American service at 0230 or 0200. Not clear yet whether that was an anomaly or deliberate extension; IRS refuses to participate in HFCC, so it`s a wild card. Nothing about it, of course, on IRS` fuzzy B-11 ``program`` schedule at:
http://voiceofserbia.org/program-schedule
which is really a transmission schedule. BTW, a news item linked there caught our eye: ``Serbia is Dying Out``:
http://voiceofserbia.org/content/serbia-dying-out
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Before 1400:
13920, very poor at 1356
11500, very poor at 1356
Before 1500:
13970, poor with heavy flutter at 1453
13920, slightly stronger than 13970 at 1453
11500, very poor at 1454; no others found 10-17 MHz
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GERMANY [non]. 21780, March 15 at 1840, VG S9+22 signal in Hausa. Could it be Greenville? No, it`s DW as soon IDed, via Kigali, RWANDA, 250 kW at 295 degrees. If in English, would have been equivalent to a fine North American service; dream on. Much stronger than 21690 RFI via Guiana French (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5910, March 16 at 1333, Sea Breeze sinking into the daytime noise level, now starting almost an hour after sunrise here, but enough to recognize the accented YL in English as reliably on Fridays only, with the old electronic stingers every few sex between news items; via JSR Tokyo/Yamata, JAPAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MAURITANIA. 7245, March 16 at 0458, IGIM is already on in Arabish talk; maybe all night on Fribbath? Have never been able to make any definite correlation with its very flexible appearances (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA. 15120.0, March 15 at 1834, VON very poor but on-frequency so it`s the old Ikorodu transmitter as usual during this hour. At *1856:55, the new Abuja transmitter cuts on the low side causing het, break for half a minute and back on at 1857:52 producing E-note het, i.e. 165 Hz, so that makes it 15119.835, but it`s wavering slightly as one transmitter or the other, or both, are unstable. (The new one being constantly off-frequency does not speak well for Thalès/Thomson: get the crystal- grinder to replace it!). Both transmitters remained on the air and hetting each other until the old one finally went off at 1901:14, as the newscast by YL has already started. (This does not speak well for VON and its fancy new equipment finally being paid for. Clearly, they are not ready for the big time, as they can`t even coördinate to avoid interfering with themselves.)
Reception was a little better today, but still a strain to copy it; 1932 break for ID and timecheck during `60 Minutes`. Meanwhile flanked by REE on both sides: the splash from Noblejas 15110 was worse than the weaker signal from adjacent Cariari on 15125, which had its own transmitter problems, SPAIN q.v.
As usual, nothing from Nigeria or anywhere audible on 15120 before or after 1500 March 16, unlike other reports (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. 15460, March 16 at 1342, RRI German service with sufficient signal playing some fine piano jazz, outro as from the Academic Jazz Group at Iashi, a cultural centre. Next, ``This Is How We Do It``. Besides some titles in English, RRI`s German YL announcer is easier to understand since she enunciates clearly, probably not a native-speaker from her accent. 1351 already signing off with full German schedule including WRN, satellite, 1353 ``Auf wiederhören``, but then another song as postlude.
15460 again had the ringing artifacts, most noticeable during the music, and // 17530 was not propagating today. Both of these also carry the English hour at 12-13, and I caught a bit of English before 1300. We`re amid the Fortnight of Confusion when RRI is running on standard time and we are on daylight shifting, pushing the English temporarily into a more waking hour here, 7-8 am CDT, before March 25 when it goes back to 11-12 UT = 6-7 am CDT, on 15210 and 17510, both same 307 degrees from Tiganeshti intended only for Europe, but the German then at 12-13 will no longer be on same parameters as preceding hour in English, instead 9675 from Saftica and 11875 from Tiganeshti, per a tentative sked in BC-DX. I understand that 15 & 17 MHz are too high in the winter for a reliable daytime service to nearby Germany tho OK for us; will 9 and 11 MHz prove to be too low in the summer? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [and non]. 21610, March 15 at 1841, REE is in Arabic on this frequency only at 17-19; poor; while all the others we can hear are in Portuguese, not Spanish: 17715 stronger than 17755; 15125 via CR, but it`s intermittent, had not been on a few minutes before 1841 as I was checking Nigeria on 15120; 15125 goes off again at 1850, on at 1851, off again at 1858, on again at 1900. Meanwhile, 15110, much stronger direct from Noblejas at *1852 with open carrier on and off and on, 1855 IS and sign-on Castilian. Splash from this bothers Nigeria 15120, unlike weaker 15125 signal.
Another day to check whether COSTA RICA 11815 is on-frequency or not, March 16 at 1245: NOT, but hetting Japan and this time very slightly above 11815.5; at 1338 keyboard almost matches a B-note het, i.e. 494 Hz, but it must axually be 500+ Hz as per stepping with BFO between 11815 and 11816 on the YB-400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN [non]. 7315, March 16 at 0457, whine jamming audible but target R. Dabanga unheard; supposed to be a sesquihour from 0427 via FRANCE, and used to be a regular here. Is it gone? A-12 plans a move to higher frequencies, anyway (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Observations about when WINB is on and off, since their online schedule is anything but precise: Thursday March 15 at 1833 UT, 13570 and 9265 are both absent, ditto at 1902, 1942, 1954. Next check 2044, 13570 is on with music, ID, and `Wondrous Stories`.
Yet the Thursday schedule, with wrong EDT/UT conversion, shows:
ET / UT - - Thursday(ET) - -
12:30P / Thu-1730...Moments with God
12:45P / Thu-1745...Guidelines (English)
12:50P / Thu-1750...Guidelines (Spanish)
12:55P / Thu-1755...Soul Gathering Ministries Radio Broadcas [sic]
01:00P / Thu-1800...Destiny Christian Ministry
01:30P / Thu-1830...Walking in Simplicity Program
01:45P / Thu-1845...Study-Grow-Know Ministries
02:00P / Thu-1900...Kroeze Bros. Outreach
04:45P / Thu-2145...Wondrous Story
05:00P / Thu-2200...Radio Bible Study
Since `Wondrous` was confirmed at 2045 UT, it`s clear that the ET = EDT times are correct, and the UT are not, should read one hour earlier, starting at 1630. The last program of the midday session really starts at 1800, probably only 15 or 30 minutes before the hiatus. And presumably had just come back on the air before 2045 UT.
Next question is whether they are switching from 13570 to 9265 at 1659-1700 EDT? Yes, after only 15+ minutes resumed on 13570, at 2100 UT ID from the United States of Americuh, and off* 13570, but without any frequency announcement, so how is your non-DX listener to know where to tune to keep listening to this wonderful station? Still nothing heard on 9265 at 2101, but maybe it came on soon, down in the noise level. On Mon & Fri, however, nothing next on the program schedule until 2130 (``2230``) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1608 monitoring: first SW airing confirmed at new shifted UT of 2100 Thursday March 15 on 9479 WTWW, excellent signal; also at 0331 UT Friday March 16 on 3195 WWRB, already 2-3 minutes into show, so must have started a bit early. Lots of spring storm noise on this low frequency we hope WWRB will move up a band or two for A-12. 3195 is not registered in A-12 or B-11, but these are before 0400: 2390, 5050, 5745.
Further WOR 1608 airings: WBCQ Area 51, UT Sat 0100v-0120v on 5110v-CUSB. WRMI 9955: Sat 0800, 1500, 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, Mon 0500, 1130. WTWW 5755: UT Sun 0400 on 5755.
Also checked 7490 WBCQ Thursday at 2135; if we were still on then, would have been JBA vs the noise level now jumped an hour further into daytime like whatever replaced us (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15385+, March 15 at 1835, KJES has VG S9+22 signal, but just barely modulated, with hum, catechisms in English. Slightly on the hi side, but within FCC`s too-lax tolerance (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 15240, March 15 at 1904, hilife music, flutter, maybe Swahili? 1915 mentions development bank. No, it`s Fulfulde scheduled from AWR, 500 kW, 320 degrees from SOUTH AFRICA for W Africa, also USward, daily 1900-1930 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Today`s local sunrise in Enid is 1240 UT, and growing more than a minute earlier each day as we head for equinox, but before it`s too late for some sunrise skip, I check high-end MW starting at 1306:
1470, March 16 at 1306 UT, weather highs in 80s, lows in 60s, on ``14-70, KYYW``, i.e. 5 kW from Abilene TX: had to look it up; 1470 will always be KRBC to me.
1210, March 16 at 1311 UT, ``Dakota Country weather``, high 80, lo 52 but now it`s 37 at KOKK, 1312 into ``statewide news``. Dominating here from north, and very little signal from westerly KGYN Guymon OK: could they really be on night pattern nulling Philadelphia in the daytime? At night they are usually on day pattern, not nulling. KOKK is 5 kW from Huron SD (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6105, March 16 before and after 1330, 1000 Hz continuous tone (not a het), when nothing is scheduled here in HFCC between 0850 and 1500. Aoki shows Taiwan until 1300, and VOA Chinese from Tajikistan from 1400; From 1500, CRI Russian from Shijiazhuang.
Also Aoki shows at 1500-1530, VOA Uzbek via Thailand jumps frequencies from day to day in a probably futile attempt to confuse the ChiCom jammers interfering in the internal affairs of Uzbekistan: 6100 on Tue & Sat, 6105 on M/W/F, 6110 on Sun & Thu (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6190, March 16 at 0454, CRI English via Sackville has some CCI, not sure what, but not heard after 0500. CRI runs 0300-0600 and normally dominates the frequency. 20 kW from DLF Berlin is presumably active, but normally blown away and Belarus 5 kW also listed on 6190, maybe inactive.
However, on March 13, Martien Groot in the Netherlands heard International Radio Serbia past 0400 in English on 6190 [via BOSNIA-H], very good signal there, instead of closing down N American service at 0230 or 0200. Not clear yet whether that was an anomaly or deliberate extension; IRS refuses to participate in HFCC, so it`s a wild card. Nothing about it, of course, on IRS` fuzzy B-11 ``program`` schedule at:
http://voiceofserbia.org/program-schedule
which is really a transmission schedule. BTW, a news item linked there caught our eye: ``Serbia is Dying Out``:
http://voiceofserbia.org/content/serbia-dying-out
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
