** ASCENSION. 17640, April 30 at 1346, BBCWS in English with long/short path echo. This is helpfully aimed 114 degrees from English Bay, so the long path traverses S. Africa, exiting over East London (shouldn`t that be South London?), across Indian Ocean near Amsterdam Island, WA and NT Australia, PNG, north of Hawaii, entering N. America at San Francisco, as viewed on the NGS globe with geometer. Short path is about 6650 miles, so long path is 18350 miles, or 11700 miles further. At the 186,000 miles per second speed of radio, the delay is only 0.06 second (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** AUSTRALIA. 19000, April 30 at 0137, R. Australia with good signal in English, new frequency. Unfortunately, even-MHz frequencies are subject to birdies on the FRG-7 Wadley loop circuit, making a slight het whether tuned to top of the 18-19 range, or bottom of the 19-20. Tnx to tip from Andy Bonin, VE2OTW in Magog, Quebec, Canada, who first heard 19000 April 29 from 0000.
19000 is one of the frequencies planned for new DRM service which was supposed to start April 1, but delayed for some reason. So we should not be surprised if it and others like 9890 suddenly switch to DRM mode. That schedule was:
``Time UT kHz Target DRM mode
0100-0300 19000 central Pacific C 10 kHz 16QAM level 1 11 kb/s
0700-0900 7410 south-west Pacific B 10 kHz 64QAM level 2 24 kb/s
0900-1100 9475 south-west Pacific B 10 kHz 64QAM level 2 24 kb/s
1100-1300 6080 west Pacific & PNG C 10 kHz 16QAM level 1 11 kb/s
1300-1500 9890 central Pacific C 10 kHz 16QAM level 1 11 kb/s
1500-1700 5940 SE-Asia C 10 kHz 16QAM level 1 11 kb/s
1700-1900 9475 SE-Asia C 10 kHz 16QAM level 1 11 kb/s
(Nigel Holmes, Chief Engineer, Radio Australia via Craig Seager,
Australian Radio DX Club via Alokesh Gupta, March 20, dxldyg via WORLD
OF RADIO 1609, DXLD 12-12)``
The YL DJ on 19000 before 0200 seemed to have a French accent. I wonder if she`s another repurposed survivor of the cancelled RA French service, like the manager himself. Still in well at 0230, but not at 0330; presumably went off at 0300.
15160, which has been missing after 0500, is still on the air before 0500, heard at 0411 April 30 // 15515, equivalent signals USward.
12080, April 30 at 0535, RA audible with poor signal in talk // 13630 and 15515, but not // 15240, other RA English playing music at the moment, presumably Asian service following Indonesian, aimed mistakenly into the Pacific and North America. See also UNID 6020.
It`s May 1 in Melbourne and has this schedule been updated to show any of the new times and frequencies? No!http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/waystolisten/abc-radio-shortwave-frequency-guide.pdf
I then go to the Indonesian language website, and link to its SW frequency schedule to find whether 15240 is in it:http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/indonesian/radio/waystolisten/abc-radio-shortwave-frequency-guide.pdf
But it`s obviously just about English, not Indonesian! Where instead you are supposed to listen to the FM relay nearest you (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake April 30, after 1300:
15485, fair at 1305 with het on hi side
15555, fair at 1303 with het on lo side; during ramshorn/cymbals part
After 1330, a dozen:
17250, fair at 1330
17170, very good at 1330
17100, fair at 1330
16980, poor at 1331
16700, very good at 1331
16100, very good at 1330
15970, very good at 1332
15670, fair at 1333, mixing with Chinese, probably additional CNR1 jam
15570, good at 1333, het on lo side
15495, good at 1333, het on hi side
14950, very good at 1335
14800, very good at 1335; none in the 13s, 12s, 11s, 10s, 9s
Before 1400:
15490, good at 1358, het on lo side
15970, very good at 1357
15610, fair at 1357, het on hi side
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. It seems the DentroCuban Jamming Command has decided it`s not worth the trouble to turn off the noise during the weekly silent period of R. Martí, 0300-0900 UT Mondays: April 30 at 0527, still wall-of-noise on 6030, 7405. Goodbye, DX opportunities on 6030. Tnx a lot, Arnie!
RHC is all excited about the Primero de Mayo parades tomorrow; 17580, April 30 at 1347 a report from Santiago about the desfile there: the correspondent knows exactly how many workers will be participating already! The glory of regimentation. No doubt other cities will parade, but the big `un `ll be in Habana, and may well cause disruptions in the RHC SW schedule in order to broadcast it live. ``¡Patria o Suerte, Pensaremos!`` May 1 is also RHC`s anniversary.
17580 has usual CCI and SAH by now, and RHC turns it off by 1400, not 1500 as on Arnie`s disinformation schedule. YFR Bengali via Wertachtal is at 13-15 on 17580, at 1401 the YFR theme heard poorly, so RHC really needs to turn 17580 off at 1300. Another frequency failure by this outlaw station which refuses to participate in HFCC and avoid such collisions (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ISRAEL. 15760, April 30 at 1356, poor signal with IBA IS prior to Persian, the only language worth shortwaving from here. So the wintry 1500-1630 broadcast has been shifted an hour earlier for summer: per timeanddate.com, Israel went on UT+3 March 30, until Sept 23, while Iran went on UT +4.5 March 21, until Sept 21. EiBi shows the other frequency is 13850 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH. 15180, April 30 at 0105, no signal on 15180 or 13760, where V. of Korea used to broadcast English to Latin America. Could be no propagation, but a new schedule is just going into effect, per NK-watcher Martyn Williams who has been monitoring their announcements. Probably for their own convenience, not that of listeners who have to sleep sometime, this transmission is being moved 3 hours later to 0400. So at 0414 I try these two again plus third 11735, and nothing but a JBA carrier on 13760, could be VOK.
11710 // 9335, April 30 at 1339, triumphal choral music, so VOK English to NAm is still here; decided to keep colliding as usual with heavy CCI from RFA Burmese via TINIAN at 1230-1430 on 9335.
11735, April 30 at 1401, hyper-assertive N. Korean talk. Yet, Arnulf Piontek`s complete new VOK schedule shows 11735 only at 0300-1000. Hope this does not stay on too much later, to QRM Zanzibar! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 6185, April 30 at 0412, XEPPM is still nothing but a dead carrier. A pity, since until 0500 there is no adjacent QRM. Vatican is also on 6185 at 0230-0500, to E Europe, but now pretty much faded out here by 0400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PAKISTAN. 17520, April 30 at 1350, exotic S Asian vocal music, flutter and hum; 1400 one(?) time pip, muffled and distorted talk, presumably R. Pakistan Urdu service as scheduled 1330-1530, 250 kW, 282 degrees from Islamabad per HFCC [and colliding with Vatican in Urdu via Madagascar from 1410; what a coincidence!]. Aoki says 17520 is instead API-6 at 312 degrees. Noel Green replied to an earlier log:
``Yes, R. Pakistan is scheduled and heard on 17520 between 1330 and 1530 and is usually on top of VAT via MDC at my location in NW England, but often with strong QRM too. Aoki is correct in that it is listed as API-6, and EiBi too in that it is listed via 282 degrees in the PAK schedule. My understanding is that it is meant to reach N Africa, as well as other places within this azimuth, despite being listed as 'External Service for Gulf & M.E.' The parallel channel is API-5 via 15290 and at 282 minus 12 = 270 degrees (as shown). (Noel R. Green, England, April 11, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1612, DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN [non]. 15725, April 30 at 0414, poor signal in Arabish, ``salaam aleikum``, heavy ACI from 15720 NZ, presumed V. of South Sudan Revolutionary Radio. Beware of R. Pakistan also on 15725 at 05-07 in Urdu, but might include some English. Aoki now shows VOSSRR at 04-07. NZ is supposed to quit 15720 at 0458 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 17530, April 30 at 1309-1310:10* open carrier on and off and on, no doubt VOA Greenville testing transmitter well prior to 1700 Portuguese.
I have also heard 15470 doing the same, and found that English is now scheduled from Greenville at 16-17: checked at 1628 April 30, excellent signal off the back concluding `New Dynamic English`, reference to http://dyned.com --- obviously a private company contractor.
1630, opening ``30 minutes of Spe-cial Eng-lish, news and info, Technology Report and This Is America``, after the news with Bob Doty in Washington, until 1640-1645 TR and 1645+ TIA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1614 monitoring: 9955, WRMI broadcast at 0500 UT Monday confirmed closing at 0528 mixing with pulsing jamming, more or less readable depending on how each is fading independently (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9330-CUSB, April 30 at 0538, dead air, open carrier from WBCQ. When modulating Good Friends Radio Network, it`s often quite loud into the night now (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 15660, 15615 and 17855 in decreasing order of strength, April 30 at 0530, ``Palladio`` diamond theme music that R. Free Asia plays reliably, Chinese talk. Sites are Tinian, Tinian, Saipan, respectively (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 15775, April 30 at 1250, VOA Korean on new frequency ex-15180 where it was colliding with SRI LANKA, Aoki now showing that as V. of Wilderness, also in Korean at 1300-1330 Mon-Sat, 1300-1400 Sundays, an MBR client, due northeast from Trincomalee. Ivo Ivanov had listed this on same schedule in Japanese.
15180 does have a poor signal in Korean talk, April 30 at 1306, gospel-sounding music. V. of Wilderness is run by Cornerstone Ministry, in Tustin, California; so not primarily a political clandestine.
15775, VOA Korean programming had bits of classical music interspersed with narration, and clips in English ``Hitler is dead``, probably BBC in 1945y, and ``fall of Saigon``. 1300 into news, breaking for news-ID in English at 1302.
Aoki now shows VOA Korean on 15775 at 12-15, 21 degrees from TINIAN, the USward antenna accounting for very good signal here, tho with lite flutter. Trouble is, until 1257 or so there is CCI from something in Chinese --- what else but ChiCom jamming, probably CNR1, due to V. of Hope via Tajikistan on 15775 at 1300-1330, per Aoki, but subject to jumparounds in time and frequency. IBB really needs to coordinate better with SOH (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6020, April 30 at 1343, R. Australia is no longer here, no QRMelbourne, but something in Chinese, poor signal with a bit of organ? music. Aoki and HFCC show CNR8 Mongolian service at 13-14 from Beijing 491 site; but it really sounded like Chinese, as I heard ``Mei Guo`` mentioned. V. of Vietnam-4, 20 kW from Daclac also scheduled, very unlikely.
Could it be Shiokaze, from Japan? That had been on 6020 lately, but Ron Howard reported April 29 it had just shifted to 5985, colliding with off-frequency Myanmar. If they were smart, they went right back to 6020 once R. Australia had left. Nothing audible here on 5985, nor anything expected a bihour after sunrise (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** AUSTRALIA. 19000, April 30 at 0137, R. Australia with good signal in English, new frequency. Unfortunately, even-MHz frequencies are subject to birdies on the FRG-7 Wadley loop circuit, making a slight het whether tuned to top of the 18-19 range, or bottom of the 19-20. Tnx to tip from Andy Bonin, VE2OTW in Magog, Quebec, Canada, who first heard 19000 April 29 from 0000.
19000 is one of the frequencies planned for new DRM service which was supposed to start April 1, but delayed for some reason. So we should not be surprised if it and others like 9890 suddenly switch to DRM mode. That schedule was:
``Time UT kHz Target DRM mode
0100-0300 19000 central Pacific C 10 kHz 16QAM level 1 11 kb/s
0700-0900 7410 south-west Pacific B 10 kHz 64QAM level 2 24 kb/s
0900-1100 9475 south-west Pacific B 10 kHz 64QAM level 2 24 kb/s
1100-1300 6080 west Pacific & PNG C 10 kHz 16QAM level 1 11 kb/s
1300-1500 9890 central Pacific C 10 kHz 16QAM level 1 11 kb/s
1500-1700 5940 SE-Asia C 10 kHz 16QAM level 1 11 kb/s
1700-1900 9475 SE-Asia C 10 kHz 16QAM level 1 11 kb/s
(Nigel Holmes, Chief Engineer, Radio Australia via Craig Seager,
Australian Radio DX Club via Alokesh Gupta, March 20, dxldyg via WORLD
OF RADIO 1609, DXLD 12-12)``
The YL DJ on 19000 before 0200 seemed to have a French accent. I wonder if she`s another repurposed survivor of the cancelled RA French service, like the manager himself. Still in well at 0230, but not at 0330; presumably went off at 0300.
15160, which has been missing after 0500, is still on the air before 0500, heard at 0411 April 30 // 15515, equivalent signals USward.
12080, April 30 at 0535, RA audible with poor signal in talk // 13630 and 15515, but not // 15240, other RA English playing music at the moment, presumably Asian service following Indonesian, aimed mistakenly into the Pacific and North America. See also UNID 6020.
It`s May 1 in Melbourne and has this schedule been updated to show any of the new times and frequencies? No!http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/waystolisten/abc-radio-shortwave-frequency-guide.pdf
I then go to the Indonesian language website, and link to its SW frequency schedule to find whether 15240 is in it:http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/indonesian/radio/waystolisten/abc-radio-shortwave-frequency-guide.pdf
But it`s obviously just about English, not Indonesian! Where instead you are supposed to listen to the FM relay nearest you (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake April 30, after 1300:
15485, fair at 1305 with het on hi side
15555, fair at 1303 with het on lo side; during ramshorn/cymbals part
After 1330, a dozen:
17250, fair at 1330
17170, very good at 1330
17100, fair at 1330
16980, poor at 1331
16700, very good at 1331
16100, very good at 1330
15970, very good at 1332
15670, fair at 1333, mixing with Chinese, probably additional CNR1 jam
15570, good at 1333, het on lo side
15495, good at 1333, het on hi side
14950, very good at 1335
14800, very good at 1335; none in the 13s, 12s, 11s, 10s, 9s
Before 1400:
15490, good at 1358, het on lo side
15970, very good at 1357
15610, fair at 1357, het on hi side
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. It seems the DentroCuban Jamming Command has decided it`s not worth the trouble to turn off the noise during the weekly silent period of R. Martí, 0300-0900 UT Mondays: April 30 at 0527, still wall-of-noise on 6030, 7405. Goodbye, DX opportunities on 6030. Tnx a lot, Arnie!
RHC is all excited about the Primero de Mayo parades tomorrow; 17580, April 30 at 1347 a report from Santiago about the desfile there: the correspondent knows exactly how many workers will be participating already! The glory of regimentation. No doubt other cities will parade, but the big `un `ll be in Habana, and may well cause disruptions in the RHC SW schedule in order to broadcast it live. ``¡Patria o Suerte, Pensaremos!`` May 1 is also RHC`s anniversary.
17580 has usual CCI and SAH by now, and RHC turns it off by 1400, not 1500 as on Arnie`s disinformation schedule. YFR Bengali via Wertachtal is at 13-15 on 17580, at 1401 the YFR theme heard poorly, so RHC really needs to turn 17580 off at 1300. Another frequency failure by this outlaw station which refuses to participate in HFCC and avoid such collisions (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ISRAEL. 15760, April 30 at 1356, poor signal with IBA IS prior to Persian, the only language worth shortwaving from here. So the wintry 1500-1630 broadcast has been shifted an hour earlier for summer: per timeanddate.com, Israel went on UT+3 March 30, until Sept 23, while Iran went on UT +4.5 March 21, until Sept 21. EiBi shows the other frequency is 13850 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH. 15180, April 30 at 0105, no signal on 15180 or 13760, where V. of Korea used to broadcast English to Latin America. Could be no propagation, but a new schedule is just going into effect, per NK-watcher Martyn Williams who has been monitoring their announcements. Probably for their own convenience, not that of listeners who have to sleep sometime, this transmission is being moved 3 hours later to 0400. So at 0414 I try these two again plus third 11735, and nothing but a JBA carrier on 13760, could be VOK.
11710 // 9335, April 30 at 1339, triumphal choral music, so VOK English to NAm is still here; decided to keep colliding as usual with heavy CCI from RFA Burmese via TINIAN at 1230-1430 on 9335.
11735, April 30 at 1401, hyper-assertive N. Korean talk. Yet, Arnulf Piontek`s complete new VOK schedule shows 11735 only at 0300-1000. Hope this does not stay on too much later, to QRM Zanzibar! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 6185, April 30 at 0412, XEPPM is still nothing but a dead carrier. A pity, since until 0500 there is no adjacent QRM. Vatican is also on 6185 at 0230-0500, to E Europe, but now pretty much faded out here by 0400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PAKISTAN. 17520, April 30 at 1350, exotic S Asian vocal music, flutter and hum; 1400 one(?) time pip, muffled and distorted talk, presumably R. Pakistan Urdu service as scheduled 1330-1530, 250 kW, 282 degrees from Islamabad per HFCC [and colliding with Vatican in Urdu via Madagascar from 1410; what a coincidence!]. Aoki says 17520 is instead API-6 at 312 degrees. Noel Green replied to an earlier log:
``Yes, R. Pakistan is scheduled and heard on 17520 between 1330 and 1530 and is usually on top of VAT via MDC at my location in NW England, but often with strong QRM too. Aoki is correct in that it is listed as API-6, and EiBi too in that it is listed via 282 degrees in the PAK schedule. My understanding is that it is meant to reach N Africa, as well as other places within this azimuth, despite being listed as 'External Service for Gulf & M.E.' The parallel channel is API-5 via 15290 and at 282 minus 12 = 270 degrees (as shown). (Noel R. Green, England, April 11, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1612, DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN [non]. 15725, April 30 at 0414, poor signal in Arabish, ``salaam aleikum``, heavy ACI from 15720 NZ, presumed V. of South Sudan Revolutionary Radio. Beware of R. Pakistan also on 15725 at 05-07 in Urdu, but might include some English. Aoki now shows VOSSRR at 04-07. NZ is supposed to quit 15720 at 0458 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 17530, April 30 at 1309-1310:10* open carrier on and off and on, no doubt VOA Greenville testing transmitter well prior to 1700 Portuguese.
I have also heard 15470 doing the same, and found that English is now scheduled from Greenville at 16-17: checked at 1628 April 30, excellent signal off the back concluding `New Dynamic English`, reference to http://dyned.com --- obviously a private company contractor.
1630, opening ``30 minutes of Spe-cial Eng-lish, news and info, Technology Report and This Is America``, after the news with Bob Doty in Washington, until 1640-1645 TR and 1645+ TIA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1614 monitoring: 9955, WRMI broadcast at 0500 UT Monday confirmed closing at 0528 mixing with pulsing jamming, more or less readable depending on how each is fading independently (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9330-CUSB, April 30 at 0538, dead air, open carrier from WBCQ. When modulating Good Friends Radio Network, it`s often quite loud into the night now (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 15660, 15615 and 17855 in decreasing order of strength, April 30 at 0530, ``Palladio`` diamond theme music that R. Free Asia plays reliably, Chinese talk. Sites are Tinian, Tinian, Saipan, respectively (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 15775, April 30 at 1250, VOA Korean on new frequency ex-15180 where it was colliding with SRI LANKA, Aoki now showing that as V. of Wilderness, also in Korean at 1300-1330 Mon-Sat, 1300-1400 Sundays, an MBR client, due northeast from Trincomalee. Ivo Ivanov had listed this on same schedule in Japanese.
15180 does have a poor signal in Korean talk, April 30 at 1306, gospel-sounding music. V. of Wilderness is run by Cornerstone Ministry, in Tustin, California; so not primarily a political clandestine.
15775, VOA Korean programming had bits of classical music interspersed with narration, and clips in English ``Hitler is dead``, probably BBC in 1945y, and ``fall of Saigon``. 1300 into news, breaking for news-ID in English at 1302.
Aoki now shows VOA Korean on 15775 at 12-15, 21 degrees from TINIAN, the USward antenna accounting for very good signal here, tho with lite flutter. Trouble is, until 1257 or so there is CCI from something in Chinese --- what else but ChiCom jamming, probably CNR1, due to V. of Hope via Tajikistan on 15775 at 1300-1330, per Aoki, but subject to jumparounds in time and frequency. IBB really needs to coordinate better with SOH (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6020, April 30 at 1343, R. Australia is no longer here, no QRMelbourne, but something in Chinese, poor signal with a bit of organ? music. Aoki and HFCC show CNR8 Mongolian service at 13-14 from Beijing 491 site; but it really sounded like Chinese, as I heard ``Mei Guo`` mentioned. V. of Vietnam-4, 20 kW from Daclac also scheduled, very unlikely.
Could it be Shiokaze, from Japan? That had been on 6020 lately, but Ron Howard reported April 29 it had just shifted to 5985, colliding with off-frequency Myanmar. If they were smart, they went right back to 6020 once R. Australia had left. Nothing audible here on 5985, nor anything expected a bihour after sunrise (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
