** AUSTRALIA. 5990-5995-6000, March 23 at 1256, RA Brandon is back in DRM mode after defaulting to AM for a couple days while waiting to be repaired; after 1400 back to AM as usual, barely audible at 1411 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA [and non]. A fine example of failure of frequency coördination: 13650, March 23 at 1907, RCI in French // 15365, with lo het and music QRM from something else. HFCC shows a one-hour overlap between Sackville which is 73 degrees to Africa, but always putting a good signal off the back into USA, and 13650 R. Kuwait at 17-20 in Arabic, 350 degrees to CIRAF 6 and 7, i.e. west and central USA!! From A-12, March 25, RCI will be gone from 13650, but what do you bet they will be colliding again in B-12? (If RCI still exist) (and MOI Kuwait is oblivious to collisions, witness perpetual 21540 with Spain until 1500: both in B-11 and A-12, Kuwait is supposed to be on 21520 instead (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake March 22, before 2400:
13920, poor at 2344
12980, poor at 2344
11500, poor at 2344
Before 1330:
12980, good at 1318
13970, good at 1318; none in the 14s
15500, poor at 1322 vs het on low side, presumably V of Tibet via Tajikistan which Aoki lists on 15497 altho at 1200 instead
15595, poor and also on weaker 15600 at 1319 with het on 15603
15775, good at 1319 vs algo, presumably landing spot at the moment for Sound of Hope via Tajikistan, which Aoki says ranges 15715-15795
CNR1 jamming:
17790, strong March 23 at 1329-1330* cutoff abruptly, // 13865, i.e. blocking BBC Uzbek, Cyprus site on 17790 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 1180, March 22 at 2353, Cuban-accented talk, with slight reverb, // 5025 R. Rebelde which has multiple transmitters on 1180 to block R. Martí, which was not at all audible here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. RHC anomaly: March 23 at 0504, English is still on 6000, with weak Spanish on 6010 from HJDH if not XEOI; RHC suddenly pops over to 6010 at *0505 with stronger signal amid English talk. Could still hear het from perpetually off-frequency Colombian under (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, March 22 at 1853, R. Africa check: presumed, weak talk, 1859 seems a break in modulation, 1901 resuming. R. Pilipinas is also on 15190 until 1930 but rarely audible here unlike further east, west, and south (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ISRAEL. 15785-USB, Galei Zahal discovered by Zacharias Liangas reactivated on this frequency, and then heard by many others, but still not making it here, e.g. March 22 at 1855 check (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** LEBANON [non]. 9645, March 23 at 0516, Vatican Radio`s Arabic service is atop het from Brasil, better than last night; relative strength varies greatly. 0527 VR IS, 0530 fanfare and opening another Arabic program, presumed V. of Charity originating from Lebanon as explained in my previous report. This time I recorded 2+ minutes, hoping an Arabic-speaker will give us the proper name for it:http://www.w4uvh.net/VCharity.rm
After a familiar fanfare, like a hunting-call, ``Huna idha`at sawt ul- [something]``. Sorry about the wavering B-flat het, as I don`t have a notch filter handy; it`s from R. Bandeirantes, Brasil, always off-frequency circa 9645.2.
As I mentioned before, in A-12 from March 25, the daily Charity relay is likely to shift an hour earlier to 0430-0500 UT on 9645 and/or 11715 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA. 15115-15120-15125, March 22 at 1852, I am hearing weak DRM, no doubt V. of Nigeria; 1857 break, on again from 1900, and signal grows a bit, by 1937 becoming more obvious with noise against 15125 REE Costa Rica, but I still doubt VON would have been strong enough to decode. Wolfgang Büschel agrees on the source, despite the lack of DRM receivers in Africa (and everywhere else), but hey, it`s the best ``new`` thing, digital radio!! An exercise in piety (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. BTW, I never hear southeast OK`s 750 station, 250 W [NOT kW as in my previous report!] daytimer KSEO in Durant; and wonder if it really be on the air; NRC-AM log shows religious format, CP for 220 watts (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. 17530, March 23 at 1325, the RRI German service is again suffering from very strange audio artifacts on both sidebands. I have reported this numerous times before, and am astounded that no one else ever has, AFAIK. I suppose most listeners just grin and bear it or tune away. This time I recorded a sesquiminute clip, first in AM mode tuning up and down across the frequency, then with BFO on. http://www.w4uvh.net/RRIfact.rm
The spur carriers approx. plus and minus 5 also make a het with center frequency. Maybe someone can now identify what is causing this? Exactly the same thing was happening on // 15460, both Tiganeshti site, which leads me to suspect the problem is at the studio or in the link rather than the transmitter site. Rumanian jazz started at 1334.
It`s our penultimate chance to hear this annoying defect well in North America, as from March 25, RRI German moves one hour earlier and to lower less favorable frequencies for us, 9675 from Saftica and 11875 from Tiganeshti; will either continue with the same problem? I have never heard anything like this on any other RRI transmission, tho it stands to reason some other languages are likely to suffer the same defect.
I also checked the Romanian service on 17820, found it OK at 1334; then at 1343 suddenly switched to English! In order to interview Rachel, an American Jewess who was putting on an ecumenical concert in an Italian church. After ``welcome to our frequency on Radio Romania International``, I re-rolled the tape for a clip of that, also on the above file.
Here the ``bubble-jamming`` QRM is locally caused by Suddenlink cable DTV converter boxes, periodically infesting SW frequencies unless I unplug them all. Or to give due credit, they are Huawei DC730 Digital Transport Adapters (DTAs)! Sounds suspiciously ChiCom; but credit also to Dolby Labs, which licensed their manufacture. If you ever have a choice, avoid these units!! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOUTH AFRICA. 15480, March 22 at 1856, BaBcoCk music loop IS with flutter, preceding the AWR Arabic bihour via Meyerton as HFCC- registered, but not as a BaBcoCk service. So is it really, or should not be playing their IS? Also scheduled at 16-19 on 15480 is KBS direct from Korea South. A-12 HFCC no longer shows this AWR Arabic, and I haven`t searched for where it`s going (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAIWAN [non]. 6875, March 23 at 0509 tune-in, open carrier/dead air from RTI relay via WYFR. Finally modulation cuts on at 0517, Carlson Wong with ``technical difficulties`` apology, ``regular programming canceled`` but instead ``very nice music``, presumably filling the rest of the hour played from Okeechobee backup, as music is going right up until 0600, resuming dead air when Spanish is supposed to start (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TURKEY. 17755, March 23 at 1324, TRT IS of only one version repeated, is inbooming following German service which is much better heard here than the English hour which follows on 12035, much too low. From March 25, English will be at 1230 on summer frequency 15450, which may be a little better than 12, but VOT listeners in North America would be well-advised to do so in German; except in A-12 it will be on 13760 at 1130, no doubt less propagable again (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7811-USB, March 23 at 0544, AFN Florida going from `Our Ocean World` to `Food in a Flash` rather than Jim Hightower commentary, but I caught him on KRZA webcast at 1506, with a few choice words ridiculing our OK Sen. Inhofe. BTW, he`s quite short and less menacing in person, yet he has the power of gross ignorance and a megabuck of oil money (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1609 monitoring: confirmed first broadcast on very strong WTWW 9479, Thursday March 22 at 2100.
Tuning in at 0325 March 23 before the next airing, UT Friday 0330 on WWRB, 3195 is vacant! I quickly find it on 5050 instead, so they have fortunately moved up into a less noisy band for the spring, but unfortunately without advance notice. I hustle to send word to several DX lists of the new frequency a few minutes before airtime, which does start at 0330 after a respectful 42 second pause following the SC preacher. Yes, 5050 this time, not 5051.
Next airings: From 0100-0120v UT Sat on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB. UT Sunday 0400 on WTWW 5755. On WRMI 9955: Sat 0800, 1500, 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, Mon 0500, 1130. On HLR 5980: Tue 0930.
Also on WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1730, Sun 0830 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7490, March 23 at 0511, no signal from WBCQ, unlike past two nights with unscheduled Brother Scare (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1440, March 22 at 2350 UT, Spanish religion with good signal, presumed KTNO in The Metroplex; now I am wielding the DX-398 on the porch and the null is in the right place (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VIETNAM. 7906-USB, March 23 at 1306, weak YL seems to be in English intonation, later Vietnamese. ACI from other SSB on the hi side which could have been avoided with tighter selectivity. I was checking this following tips from Takahito Akabayashi, Sei-ichi Hasegawa and Ron Howard, about Vietnam Coast Radio Stations (VISHIPEL), from 16 different locations in rotation twice a day each, including Ho Chi Minh City, the only one in English, and even with commercials, at 1305. Also on 8294-USB, unchecked here yet. Originally reported last June by Al Muick when he was on R&R in Thailand (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9500, March 23 at 0515, preacher in English with African accent, poor. Nothing listed, but suspect TWR Swaziland which does use this frequency in local evenings. English at this hour is supposed to be on 3200, 4775 and 6120. Maybe groggy morning operator forgot to change frequency on one of the transmitters? Will it rehappen? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA [and non]. A fine example of failure of frequency coördination: 13650, March 23 at 1907, RCI in French // 15365, with lo het and music QRM from something else. HFCC shows a one-hour overlap between Sackville which is 73 degrees to Africa, but always putting a good signal off the back into USA, and 13650 R. Kuwait at 17-20 in Arabic, 350 degrees to CIRAF 6 and 7, i.e. west and central USA!! From A-12, March 25, RCI will be gone from 13650, but what do you bet they will be colliding again in B-12? (If RCI still exist) (and MOI Kuwait is oblivious to collisions, witness perpetual 21540 with Spain until 1500: both in B-11 and A-12, Kuwait is supposed to be on 21520 instead (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake March 22, before 2400:
13920, poor at 2344
12980, poor at 2344
11500, poor at 2344
Before 1330:
12980, good at 1318
13970, good at 1318; none in the 14s
15500, poor at 1322 vs het on low side, presumably V of Tibet via Tajikistan which Aoki lists on 15497 altho at 1200 instead
15595, poor and also on weaker 15600 at 1319 with het on 15603
15775, good at 1319 vs algo, presumably landing spot at the moment for Sound of Hope via Tajikistan, which Aoki says ranges 15715-15795
CNR1 jamming:
17790, strong March 23 at 1329-1330* cutoff abruptly, // 13865, i.e. blocking BBC Uzbek, Cyprus site on 17790 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 1180, March 22 at 2353, Cuban-accented talk, with slight reverb, // 5025 R. Rebelde which has multiple transmitters on 1180 to block R. Martí, which was not at all audible here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. RHC anomaly: March 23 at 0504, English is still on 6000, with weak Spanish on 6010 from HJDH if not XEOI; RHC suddenly pops over to 6010 at *0505 with stronger signal amid English talk. Could still hear het from perpetually off-frequency Colombian under (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, March 22 at 1853, R. Africa check: presumed, weak talk, 1859 seems a break in modulation, 1901 resuming. R. Pilipinas is also on 15190 until 1930 but rarely audible here unlike further east, west, and south (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ISRAEL. 15785-USB, Galei Zahal discovered by Zacharias Liangas reactivated on this frequency, and then heard by many others, but still not making it here, e.g. March 22 at 1855 check (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** LEBANON [non]. 9645, March 23 at 0516, Vatican Radio`s Arabic service is atop het from Brasil, better than last night; relative strength varies greatly. 0527 VR IS, 0530 fanfare and opening another Arabic program, presumed V. of Charity originating from Lebanon as explained in my previous report. This time I recorded 2+ minutes, hoping an Arabic-speaker will give us the proper name for it:http://www.w4uvh.net/VCharity.rm
After a familiar fanfare, like a hunting-call, ``Huna idha`at sawt ul- [something]``. Sorry about the wavering B-flat het, as I don`t have a notch filter handy; it`s from R. Bandeirantes, Brasil, always off-frequency circa 9645.2.
As I mentioned before, in A-12 from March 25, the daily Charity relay is likely to shift an hour earlier to 0430-0500 UT on 9645 and/or 11715 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA. 15115-15120-15125, March 22 at 1852, I am hearing weak DRM, no doubt V. of Nigeria; 1857 break, on again from 1900, and signal grows a bit, by 1937 becoming more obvious with noise against 15125 REE Costa Rica, but I still doubt VON would have been strong enough to decode. Wolfgang Büschel agrees on the source, despite the lack of DRM receivers in Africa (and everywhere else), but hey, it`s the best ``new`` thing, digital radio!! An exercise in piety (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. BTW, I never hear southeast OK`s 750 station, 250 W [NOT kW as in my previous report!] daytimer KSEO in Durant; and wonder if it really be on the air; NRC-AM log shows religious format, CP for 220 watts (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. 17530, March 23 at 1325, the RRI German service is again suffering from very strange audio artifacts on both sidebands. I have reported this numerous times before, and am astounded that no one else ever has, AFAIK. I suppose most listeners just grin and bear it or tune away. This time I recorded a sesquiminute clip, first in AM mode tuning up and down across the frequency, then with BFO on. http://www.w4uvh.net/RRIfact.rm
The spur carriers approx. plus and minus 5 also make a het with center frequency. Maybe someone can now identify what is causing this? Exactly the same thing was happening on // 15460, both Tiganeshti site, which leads me to suspect the problem is at the studio or in the link rather than the transmitter site. Rumanian jazz started at 1334.
It`s our penultimate chance to hear this annoying defect well in North America, as from March 25, RRI German moves one hour earlier and to lower less favorable frequencies for us, 9675 from Saftica and 11875 from Tiganeshti; will either continue with the same problem? I have never heard anything like this on any other RRI transmission, tho it stands to reason some other languages are likely to suffer the same defect.
I also checked the Romanian service on 17820, found it OK at 1334; then at 1343 suddenly switched to English! In order to interview Rachel, an American Jewess who was putting on an ecumenical concert in an Italian church. After ``welcome to our frequency on Radio Romania International``, I re-rolled the tape for a clip of that, also on the above file.
Here the ``bubble-jamming`` QRM is locally caused by Suddenlink cable DTV converter boxes, periodically infesting SW frequencies unless I unplug them all. Or to give due credit, they are Huawei DC730 Digital Transport Adapters (DTAs)! Sounds suspiciously ChiCom; but credit also to Dolby Labs, which licensed their manufacture. If you ever have a choice, avoid these units!! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOUTH AFRICA. 15480, March 22 at 1856, BaBcoCk music loop IS with flutter, preceding the AWR Arabic bihour via Meyerton as HFCC- registered, but not as a BaBcoCk service. So is it really, or should not be playing their IS? Also scheduled at 16-19 on 15480 is KBS direct from Korea South. A-12 HFCC no longer shows this AWR Arabic, and I haven`t searched for where it`s going (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAIWAN [non]. 6875, March 23 at 0509 tune-in, open carrier/dead air from RTI relay via WYFR. Finally modulation cuts on at 0517, Carlson Wong with ``technical difficulties`` apology, ``regular programming canceled`` but instead ``very nice music``, presumably filling the rest of the hour played from Okeechobee backup, as music is going right up until 0600, resuming dead air when Spanish is supposed to start (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TURKEY. 17755, March 23 at 1324, TRT IS of only one version repeated, is inbooming following German service which is much better heard here than the English hour which follows on 12035, much too low. From March 25, English will be at 1230 on summer frequency 15450, which may be a little better than 12, but VOT listeners in North America would be well-advised to do so in German; except in A-12 it will be on 13760 at 1130, no doubt less propagable again (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7811-USB, March 23 at 0544, AFN Florida going from `Our Ocean World` to `Food in a Flash` rather than Jim Hightower commentary, but I caught him on KRZA webcast at 1506, with a few choice words ridiculing our OK Sen. Inhofe. BTW, he`s quite short and less menacing in person, yet he has the power of gross ignorance and a megabuck of oil money (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1609 monitoring: confirmed first broadcast on very strong WTWW 9479, Thursday March 22 at 2100.
Tuning in at 0325 March 23 before the next airing, UT Friday 0330 on WWRB, 3195 is vacant! I quickly find it on 5050 instead, so they have fortunately moved up into a less noisy band for the spring, but unfortunately without advance notice. I hustle to send word to several DX lists of the new frequency a few minutes before airtime, which does start at 0330 after a respectful 42 second pause following the SC preacher. Yes, 5050 this time, not 5051.
Next airings: From 0100-0120v UT Sat on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB. UT Sunday 0400 on WTWW 5755. On WRMI 9955: Sat 0800, 1500, 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, Mon 0500, 1130. On HLR 5980: Tue 0930.
Also on WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1730, Sun 0830 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7490, March 23 at 0511, no signal from WBCQ, unlike past two nights with unscheduled Brother Scare (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1440, March 22 at 2350 UT, Spanish religion with good signal, presumed KTNO in The Metroplex; now I am wielding the DX-398 on the porch and the null is in the right place (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VIETNAM. 7906-USB, March 23 at 1306, weak YL seems to be in English intonation, later Vietnamese. ACI from other SSB on the hi side which could have been avoided with tighter selectivity. I was checking this following tips from Takahito Akabayashi, Sei-ichi Hasegawa and Ron Howard, about Vietnam Coast Radio Stations (VISHIPEL), from 16 different locations in rotation twice a day each, including Ho Chi Minh City, the only one in English, and even with commercials, at 1305. Also on 8294-USB, unchecked here yet. Originally reported last June by Al Muick when he was on R&R in Thailand (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9500, March 23 at 0515, preacher in English with African accent, poor. Nothing listed, but suspect TWR Swaziland which does use this frequency in local evenings. English at this hour is supposed to be on 3200, 4775 and 6120. Maybe groggy morning operator forgot to change frequency on one of the transmitters? Will it rehappen? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
