** CHINA. Firedrake April 20 before 1300, only time to catch a couple:
15800, very good at 1259
15900, very good at 1259
After 1300:
15555, fair at 1300 with het and noise jamming. This one still going while the above cut off
15500, good at 1321 with het; none in the 16s, 14s, 13s, 12s. Most of them cut back on, circa 20 minutes past the hours
Before 1400:
12300, fair at 1359; none in the 13s, 14s
15490, fair at 1353, het on lo side from V of Tibet, Tajikistan
15565, fair at 1353 with noise jamming too
15785, very good at 1353; Galei Zahal has now escaped: see ISRAEL
15900, good at 1353
16100, very good at 1357
16700, good at 1357
17100, very good at 1357
After 1430:
15800, very good at 1434
17100, very good at 1435; none in the 16s, 14s, 13s, 12s
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. 6060, April 20 at 0600, RHC English news of Topic 5, what else? with heavy flutter, and frequency is also wobbling. Sounds like Doppler effect during severe propagation disturbance --- but the other three frequencies 6010, 6050 and 6125 are loud and clear! Well, not loud in the case of 6125, but no such flutter or wobble on any of them. 6060 is the signal aimed furthest away from us, toward `New York` and Europe, so maybe it`s hitting some weird propagational pocket? Continued during next semihour. Certainly not in auroral conditions, as CFRX 6070 was also clear and steady, better than usual, in fact. Knowing RHC, maybe instead this anomaly is a terrible defect originating with the 6060 transmitter. FWIW, WWV reported at 0600:
``Geophysical Alert Message
#Solar-terrestrial indices for 19 April follow.
Solar flux 138 and estimated planetary A-index 5.
The estimated planetary K-index at 0600 UTC on 20 April was 3.
No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours.
No space weather storms are predicted for the next 24 hours.``
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CZECHIA [non]. 9955, April 20 at 0548, ``We Shall Overcome`` performed in Czech during the Spanish service of R. Praga, which still exists on SW thanks to WRMI. In the style of the New Christy Minstrels, who AFAIK never recorded WSO. No jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, April 20 at 0544, R. Africa is again on before 0600, poor with gospel huxter; nothing from Nigeria 15120 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EUROPE. WOR radio transmission --- Hi Glenn, Radio Spaceshuttle
from Scandinavia will be on air next Saturday 21st April 2012. We
shall transmit on 15845 kHz USB and if allowed we like to relay also
latest World of Radio program of yours. WOR scheduled at 0915, 1215,
1515 and 1715 UT.
Transmission will start 09 UT and ends 18 UT. Glenn, I wish there
could be some High Frequency Pirate News on your program, please.
Greetings, (Dick Spacewalker, April 17, WORLD OF RADIO 1613, DX
LISTENING DIGEST) Hope Galei Zahal, Israel, back on 15850 is too weak
to bother; but LSB might be better for 15845 (gh, DXLD)
** ISRAEL. 15850, April 19 at 1933, poor signal with music, presumed Galei Tzahal finally back on this frequency to escape 15785 QRM [see also CHINA: Firedrake], first reported April 18 by Wolfgang Büschel. Could be a problem for R. Spaceshuttle from Scandinavia broadcast April 21: see EUROPE (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT. 15540, April 19 at 1902, R. Kuwait in English with news about Kuwait, mainly concerning some guy named Sabah, (Saba-h al-Ahmad al-Ja-bir as-Saba-h, as in Wikipedia for the Emir, the extra hyphens meaning macrons over the preceding a`s), mentioning Kuwait University; interrupted by musical relief bits more than once a minute; fair signal. 1925 switch to western pop music, 1930 fade it out for `Today in History`. For a while, the daily Islamic-evangelism show in English had been appearing at 1900; is it back at 1800 now? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MAURITANIA. 7245, April 20 at 0554, IGIM is back with VG S9+22+ signal and chanting, still at 0630. Maybe made an effort to turn on the SW earlier than usual for Fribbath (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO [and non]. 6185, April 20 at 0559, right after China/Canada quit 6190, no signal here from XEPPM. Julián Santiago Díez de Bonilla, DF, has had further contact with Srta. Pilar Cruz at the station, who now confirms that according to the engineers, 6185 is on the air from 14 to 05 UT only, duplicating MW 1060 from 22 to 05; so implying that separate SW programming is now at 14 to 22 = daytime only.
Formerly SW was on during night only, 6 pm to 6 am local, which now during DST would be 23-11 UT. While the additional daytime span should be good for single-hop covering much of Mexico beyond the 100 kW MW groundwave range, it`s no good further away. At 1407 April 20 I could only detect a carrier on 6185 in the noise level.
Julián and I would like them to resume broadcasting overnight beyond 0600, when propagation is best and interference is least. He also suggests that if they take a 3-hour ``rest``, it should be at midday 17-20 UT, and be on the air at 11-14 when propagation is still funxioning better. The severe undermodulation on 6185 before 0500 has not been addressed, so if that`s always the case, this is all an exercise in futility.
1060 is a rare almost-clear channel in Mexico, only one other station listed by IRCA, XETF, 1 kW in Veracruz, R. Formula, ex-1250, but is XEEP really 100 kW at night? IRCA Log, Cantú and WRTH all show it reduced to 20 kW. We can still hear it sometimes, but with plenty of QRM: April 20 at 0608 had some Spanish, and at 0615 S Asian music, likely XEEP in its eclectic format; mixed with a Brother Scare psychophant from WLNO New Orleans, more or less nullable.
Furthermore, only IRCA has that Veracruz station on 1060. WRTH and Cantú still show it on 1250. But Cantú strangely crosses the border to add this one instead:
``1060 KXPL Radio NET 1060 Cd. Juárez, Chih. (El Paso, TX) 10,000 D``
It`s the only El Paso station he includes, tho I have not searched the entire list for any other trans-border outlets (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA. 7275, April 20 at 0627 I caught TUNISIA until its automatic chopoff at 0628*; with BFO on, I could still hear a much weaker carrier, so perhaps FRCN Abuja is still there (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA. 15120, April 19 at 1904, no DRM noise detectable from VON Abuja, just the analog spur from SPAIN, q.v. Off the air today, or not propagating? 15120 Ikorodu also unheard when normally in AM at 0544 April 20, tho Equatorial Guinea was making it on 15190 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN. 15119.5, April 19 at 1904, REE spur from 15110, matched by one on 15100.5 or so; detected in the absence of any DRM noise from Nigeria 15115-15120-15125 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 15180, April 19 at 1304, VOA Korean with good signal, atop some CCI; quickly IDed by // 7225. Not noticed here before, no wonder, since HFCC April 20 shows it just started April 19, at 12-15, 250 kW, 21 degrees from Tinang, PHILIPPINES, the also-USward azimuth. 24 hours later, not so good.
Oops, MBR also started using 15180 from 15 April at 13-14, 250 kW, 45 degrees from Trincomalee, SRI LANKA! What station, service? Aoki April 20 already has PHT, but not TRM. BTW, 15180 is also a V. of Korear frequency, but only at 00-04 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1613 monitoring: confirmed on WWRB 5050, UT Friday April 20 starting between 0332 and 0333. Next: UT Sat 0130v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB/LSB; UT Sun 0400 on WTWW 5755. On WRMI 9955: Sat 0800, 1500, 1730; Sun 0800, 1530, 1730; Mon 0500, 1130. On Hamburger Lokalradio, Germany, 5980, Tue 0930. Also see EUROPE for four additional broadcasts Saturday April 21 from R. Spaceshuttle, 15845-SSB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15610, April 19 at 1900, WEWN signal has built up to very good midday level, also audiblizing the squishy spurs which are still very much attached to this transmitter, peaking approx. 15619 and 15628, the latter bothering Greece on 15630, and also detectable at 15601 and 15592 where fortunately there are no victims at the moment. So all that downtime of the English transmitter was not to fix this years-long defect (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 870, April 20 at 0619 UT, WWL with Dave Ramsey has competition from another station playing C&W and making a fast SAH with WWL nulled, maybe 20 Hz. 0622, ID sounded like WHCD 102.5, then quoted Ephesians. No such call on 102.5. Closest call match on 870 in NRC AM Log is WTCG, 5 kW daytimer in Mount Holly NC, religious format.
However, it must be WPWT, 870 Colonial Heights TN, which has been widely reported cheating on the IRCA list: April 19: ``9:15 pm EDT, daytimer on with trad country and IDs for 870 and 100.7, mixing with WWL and Cuban ticker. Playlist is on http://topgunradio.com 10,000 watts non-directional (Steve Francis, Alcoa, Tennessee)``
``WPWT and WHGG [1090] are diplexed on the same tower in Gray, TN. They have always had problems with the diplexing system because of the
closeness of the frequencies, and the shortness of the tower. Not
only is the tower very short for both frequencies, it also uses -
get this - a three element ham radio HF beam (looks like a Cushcraft) as a top hat.
Both stations are using Harris DX10 transmitters with Kahn Power Side. At least they were a few of years ago when I was working at Bristol Broadcasting (WXBQ/WEAZ/WTZR/WFHG(AM-FM). A close friend of mine was doing some contract work for WPWT/WHGG at the time and had some real horror stories of their site. 73, (Rene' Tetro, WFIL-WNTP, Philadelphia)``
So maybe the ID I heard was for their other station WHGG, and/or one of the FMs in the cluster (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 910, April 20 at 0617, and still at 0626 UT, open carrier looping east/west. Most likely 1 kW KVIS Miamuh OK, giving us an unintended respite from 24/7 gospel-huxterage. I remember when this was a genuine full-service local station KGLC (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 16778-USB, April 20 at 1311, as I am tuning down MHz by MHz from 21780, startled to hear vocal music here in the marine band; sounds SE Asian or Chinese, with orchestra. On for less than a minute, cutting off, also at 1315, 1323, 1329 but nothing more past 1430 as I left a receiver on in the background. It was very hard to tune in, making me wonder if modulation was inverted. During pauses there continued to be a very reduced carrier on 16778, probably also from this. Likely some vessel messing around.
According to Klingenfuss SW Frequency Guide of a decade ago, 16788 is/was ship channel 180. Of the 41198 posts in the UDXF yg in the past six years, not a single significant hit on 16778 (or 16.778) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
15800, very good at 1259
15900, very good at 1259
After 1300:
15555, fair at 1300 with het and noise jamming. This one still going while the above cut off
15500, good at 1321 with het; none in the 16s, 14s, 13s, 12s. Most of them cut back on, circa 20 minutes past the hours
Before 1400:
12300, fair at 1359; none in the 13s, 14s
15490, fair at 1353, het on lo side from V of Tibet, Tajikistan
15565, fair at 1353 with noise jamming too
15785, very good at 1353; Galei Zahal has now escaped: see ISRAEL
15900, good at 1353
16100, very good at 1357
16700, good at 1357
17100, very good at 1357
After 1430:
15800, very good at 1434
17100, very good at 1435; none in the 16s, 14s, 13s, 12s
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. 6060, April 20 at 0600, RHC English news of Topic 5, what else? with heavy flutter, and frequency is also wobbling. Sounds like Doppler effect during severe propagation disturbance --- but the other three frequencies 6010, 6050 and 6125 are loud and clear! Well, not loud in the case of 6125, but no such flutter or wobble on any of them. 6060 is the signal aimed furthest away from us, toward `New York` and Europe, so maybe it`s hitting some weird propagational pocket? Continued during next semihour. Certainly not in auroral conditions, as CFRX 6070 was also clear and steady, better than usual, in fact. Knowing RHC, maybe instead this anomaly is a terrible defect originating with the 6060 transmitter. FWIW, WWV reported at 0600:
``Geophysical Alert Message
#Solar-terrestrial indices for 19 April follow.
Solar flux 138 and estimated planetary A-index 5.
The estimated planetary K-index at 0600 UTC on 20 April was 3.
No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours.
No space weather storms are predicted for the next 24 hours.``
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CZECHIA [non]. 9955, April 20 at 0548, ``We Shall Overcome`` performed in Czech during the Spanish service of R. Praga, which still exists on SW thanks to WRMI. In the style of the New Christy Minstrels, who AFAIK never recorded WSO. No jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, April 20 at 0544, R. Africa is again on before 0600, poor with gospel huxter; nothing from Nigeria 15120 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EUROPE. WOR radio transmission --- Hi Glenn, Radio Spaceshuttle
from Scandinavia will be on air next Saturday 21st April 2012. We
shall transmit on 15845 kHz USB and if allowed we like to relay also
latest World of Radio program of yours. WOR scheduled at 0915, 1215,
1515 and 1715 UT.
Transmission will start 09 UT and ends 18 UT. Glenn, I wish there
could be some High Frequency Pirate News on your program, please.
Greetings, (Dick Spacewalker, April 17, WORLD OF RADIO 1613, DX
LISTENING DIGEST) Hope Galei Zahal, Israel, back on 15850 is too weak
to bother; but LSB might be better for 15845 (gh, DXLD)
** ISRAEL. 15850, April 19 at 1933, poor signal with music, presumed Galei Tzahal finally back on this frequency to escape 15785 QRM [see also CHINA: Firedrake], first reported April 18 by Wolfgang Büschel. Could be a problem for R. Spaceshuttle from Scandinavia broadcast April 21: see EUROPE (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT. 15540, April 19 at 1902, R. Kuwait in English with news about Kuwait, mainly concerning some guy named Sabah, (Saba-h al-Ahmad al-Ja-bir as-Saba-h, as in Wikipedia for the Emir, the extra hyphens meaning macrons over the preceding a`s), mentioning Kuwait University; interrupted by musical relief bits more than once a minute; fair signal. 1925 switch to western pop music, 1930 fade it out for `Today in History`. For a while, the daily Islamic-evangelism show in English had been appearing at 1900; is it back at 1800 now? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MAURITANIA. 7245, April 20 at 0554, IGIM is back with VG S9+22+ signal and chanting, still at 0630. Maybe made an effort to turn on the SW earlier than usual for Fribbath (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO [and non]. 6185, April 20 at 0559, right after China/Canada quit 6190, no signal here from XEPPM. Julián Santiago Díez de Bonilla, DF, has had further contact with Srta. Pilar Cruz at the station, who now confirms that according to the engineers, 6185 is on the air from 14 to 05 UT only, duplicating MW 1060 from 22 to 05; so implying that separate SW programming is now at 14 to 22 = daytime only.
Formerly SW was on during night only, 6 pm to 6 am local, which now during DST would be 23-11 UT. While the additional daytime span should be good for single-hop covering much of Mexico beyond the 100 kW MW groundwave range, it`s no good further away. At 1407 April 20 I could only detect a carrier on 6185 in the noise level.
Julián and I would like them to resume broadcasting overnight beyond 0600, when propagation is best and interference is least. He also suggests that if they take a 3-hour ``rest``, it should be at midday 17-20 UT, and be on the air at 11-14 when propagation is still funxioning better. The severe undermodulation on 6185 before 0500 has not been addressed, so if that`s always the case, this is all an exercise in futility.
1060 is a rare almost-clear channel in Mexico, only one other station listed by IRCA, XETF, 1 kW in Veracruz, R. Formula, ex-1250, but is XEEP really 100 kW at night? IRCA Log, Cantú and WRTH all show it reduced to 20 kW. We can still hear it sometimes, but with plenty of QRM: April 20 at 0608 had some Spanish, and at 0615 S Asian music, likely XEEP in its eclectic format; mixed with a Brother Scare psychophant from WLNO New Orleans, more or less nullable.
Furthermore, only IRCA has that Veracruz station on 1060. WRTH and Cantú still show it on 1250. But Cantú strangely crosses the border to add this one instead:
``1060 KXPL Radio NET 1060 Cd. Juárez, Chih. (El Paso, TX) 10,000 D``
It`s the only El Paso station he includes, tho I have not searched the entire list for any other trans-border outlets (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA. 7275, April 20 at 0627 I caught TUNISIA until its automatic chopoff at 0628*; with BFO on, I could still hear a much weaker carrier, so perhaps FRCN Abuja is still there (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA. 15120, April 19 at 1904, no DRM noise detectable from VON Abuja, just the analog spur from SPAIN, q.v. Off the air today, or not propagating? 15120 Ikorodu also unheard when normally in AM at 0544 April 20, tho Equatorial Guinea was making it on 15190 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN. 15119.5, April 19 at 1904, REE spur from 15110, matched by one on 15100.5 or so; detected in the absence of any DRM noise from Nigeria 15115-15120-15125 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 15180, April 19 at 1304, VOA Korean with good signal, atop some CCI; quickly IDed by // 7225. Not noticed here before, no wonder, since HFCC April 20 shows it just started April 19, at 12-15, 250 kW, 21 degrees from Tinang, PHILIPPINES, the also-USward azimuth. 24 hours later, not so good.
Oops, MBR also started using 15180 from 15 April at 13-14, 250 kW, 45 degrees from Trincomalee, SRI LANKA! What station, service? Aoki April 20 already has PHT, but not TRM. BTW, 15180 is also a V. of Korear frequency, but only at 00-04 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1613 monitoring: confirmed on WWRB 5050, UT Friday April 20 starting between 0332 and 0333. Next: UT Sat 0130v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB/LSB; UT Sun 0400 on WTWW 5755. On WRMI 9955: Sat 0800, 1500, 1730; Sun 0800, 1530, 1730; Mon 0500, 1130. On Hamburger Lokalradio, Germany, 5980, Tue 0930. Also see EUROPE for four additional broadcasts Saturday April 21 from R. Spaceshuttle, 15845-SSB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15610, April 19 at 1900, WEWN signal has built up to very good midday level, also audiblizing the squishy spurs which are still very much attached to this transmitter, peaking approx. 15619 and 15628, the latter bothering Greece on 15630, and also detectable at 15601 and 15592 where fortunately there are no victims at the moment. So all that downtime of the English transmitter was not to fix this years-long defect (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 870, April 20 at 0619 UT, WWL with Dave Ramsey has competition from another station playing C&W and making a fast SAH with WWL nulled, maybe 20 Hz. 0622, ID sounded like WHCD 102.5, then quoted Ephesians. No such call on 102.5. Closest call match on 870 in NRC AM Log is WTCG, 5 kW daytimer in Mount Holly NC, religious format.
However, it must be WPWT, 870 Colonial Heights TN, which has been widely reported cheating on the IRCA list: April 19: ``9:15 pm EDT, daytimer on with trad country and IDs for 870 and 100.7, mixing with WWL and Cuban ticker. Playlist is on http://topgunradio.com 10,000 watts non-directional (Steve Francis, Alcoa, Tennessee)``
``WPWT and WHGG [1090] are diplexed on the same tower in Gray, TN. They have always had problems with the diplexing system because of the
closeness of the frequencies, and the shortness of the tower. Not
only is the tower very short for both frequencies, it also uses -
get this - a three element ham radio HF beam (looks like a Cushcraft) as a top hat.
Both stations are using Harris DX10 transmitters with Kahn Power Side. At least they were a few of years ago when I was working at Bristol Broadcasting (WXBQ/WEAZ/WTZR/WFHG(AM-FM). A close friend of mine was doing some contract work for WPWT/WHGG at the time and had some real horror stories of their site. 73, (Rene' Tetro, WFIL-WNTP, Philadelphia)``
So maybe the ID I heard was for their other station WHGG, and/or one of the FMs in the cluster (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 910, April 20 at 0617, and still at 0626 UT, open carrier looping east/west. Most likely 1 kW KVIS Miamuh OK, giving us an unintended respite from 24/7 gospel-huxterage. I remember when this was a genuine full-service local station KGLC (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 16778-USB, April 20 at 1311, as I am tuning down MHz by MHz from 21780, startled to hear vocal music here in the marine band; sounds SE Asian or Chinese, with orchestra. On for less than a minute, cutting off, also at 1315, 1323, 1329 but nothing more past 1430 as I left a receiver on in the background. It was very hard to tune in, making me wonder if modulation was inverted. During pauses there continued to be a very reduced carrier on 16778, probably also from this. Likely some vessel messing around.
According to Klingenfuss SW Frequency Guide of a decade ago, 16788 is/was ship channel 180. Of the 41198 posts in the UDXF yg in the past six years, not a single significant hit on 16778 (or 16.778) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
