** AUSTRALIA. 6020, May 5 at 1300, barely audible in high storm noise level, I can barely // RA to 9580, so it`s still in English instead of temporary excursion to Chinese last week (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake May 5, before 1300:
11500, poor at 1256
12600, good at 1256
13130, very good at 1255
14700, very good at 1254
14800, good at 1254
14950, very good at 1254
15550, good at 1248, het on hi side
16100, very good at 1250
16700, very poor at 1249
16980, good at 1249
17450, very poor at 1251
Before 1400:
12600, good at 1338
13850, very good at 1338
15495, fair at 1338 with additional buzzsaw jamming
15610, good at 1338
15900, poor at 1344
16100, very good at 1344
16700, poor at 1344
16980, very good at 1344
17450, poor at 1344
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** FRANCE. 21580, May 5 at 1252, poor signal in French about ``football``, // stronger 21690. RFI`s curtailed midday broadcast of only one hour at 12-13 on these two, 21580 at 155 degrees, and 21690 at 185 degrees from Issoudun, both rated 500 kW, but likely less. 155 is closer to off-the-back here, and expected to be stronger, but it`s not; antenna or power anomaly? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 540, May 5 at 1115 UT I awaken briefly and turn on a radio here, to find a quickly echoing signal in Spanish, some kind of dramatic narration with music; furthermore there is a steady SAH of 200/minute = 3.33 Hz. I conclude it could only be the hi-power 150 kW XEWA in San Luís Potosí SLP with reverb/echo from the other lo-power 1 kW XEWA in Monterrey NL. The echo and the SAH must be very annoying in the equal-signal area somewhere between the two sites, i.e. not far outside Monterrey, and even in direxions other than SLP`s (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. 11840, May 5 at 1355, tonetest on and off. Presumed VOR Pet/Kam about to start two hours of English at 265 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 13570, May 5 at 1255, WINB is already on its higher frequency, this Saturday; *1245 is its start according to website schedule. Maybe on Sundays starting at *1000 they still use 9265 for the first hour or two (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [non]. 7250, May 5 at 0403, bigsig in Polish as scheduled from VR. At first I thought there was CCI under, but turned out to be BXVI pontificating in some other language, being voice-overed, until brought up from under at conclusion.
I was checking this because HFCC A-12 shows this as a 10 kW transmitter in Santa Maria di Galeria [SMG], along with another 10 kW starting at 0400 on 3975 in the Vatican itself [VAT]. I don`t believe there is any mere 10 kW at SMG, and this was certainly not so feeble, so registration must be wrong, but did it mean 7250 is really VAT Gardens at this time? Apparently not.
3975, if on, was totally lost in the high spring storm noise level on 75m. 0400 happens to be the current sunrise time over the so-called Holy See, so chances of hearing it are diminishing every night. I did manage to hear the 10 kW VAT when really on 7250 in the winter until the former 0528 switch to SMG 250 kW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 5745-5890: May 5 at 0538, I happen to tune to 5745 and hear a signal very slowly moving upward, seems to have multiple digital carriers, zero-beats downward across WTWW 5755 and then pitch increases again. This is typical behavior of an ionosonde, probably aiming vertically, probing the ionosphere for MUF propagation research. I decided to time its rate of ascent, altho I had not noted the exact second it was on 5745, 5755. I got ahead of it going across 5890 WWCR with non-BS gospel huxter, at 0542:15; then retuned to 5910 but it never reached there to cross Alcaraván whose much weaker signal would have made it easy to spot. Then I retuned all the way from 5 to 7 MHz but never found it again. Perhaps it deliberately avoids the broadcast band officially starting at 5900. Assuming 0538:00 UT for 5745, and 0542:15 for 5890, the rate would be: 145 kHz per 255 seconds = 0.57 kHz/sec or kc/sec/sec, like an acceleration. Or 5.7 kHz every 10 seconds (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake May 5, before 1300:
11500, poor at 1256
12600, good at 1256
13130, very good at 1255
14700, very good at 1254
14800, good at 1254
14950, very good at 1254
15550, good at 1248, het on hi side
16100, very good at 1250
16700, very poor at 1249
16980, good at 1249
17450, very poor at 1251
Before 1400:
12600, good at 1338
13850, very good at 1338
15495, fair at 1338 with additional buzzsaw jamming
15610, good at 1338
15900, poor at 1344
16100, very good at 1344
16700, poor at 1344
16980, very good at 1344
17450, poor at 1344
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** FRANCE. 21580, May 5 at 1252, poor signal in French about ``football``, // stronger 21690. RFI`s curtailed midday broadcast of only one hour at 12-13 on these two, 21580 at 155 degrees, and 21690 at 185 degrees from Issoudun, both rated 500 kW, but likely less. 155 is closer to off-the-back here, and expected to be stronger, but it`s not; antenna or power anomaly? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 540, May 5 at 1115 UT I awaken briefly and turn on a radio here, to find a quickly echoing signal in Spanish, some kind of dramatic narration with music; furthermore there is a steady SAH of 200/minute = 3.33 Hz. I conclude it could only be the hi-power 150 kW XEWA in San Luís Potosí SLP with reverb/echo from the other lo-power 1 kW XEWA in Monterrey NL. The echo and the SAH must be very annoying in the equal-signal area somewhere between the two sites, i.e. not far outside Monterrey, and even in direxions other than SLP`s (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. 11840, May 5 at 1355, tonetest on and off. Presumed VOR Pet/Kam about to start two hours of English at 265 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 13570, May 5 at 1255, WINB is already on its higher frequency, this Saturday; *1245 is its start according to website schedule. Maybe on Sundays starting at *1000 they still use 9265 for the first hour or two (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [non]. 7250, May 5 at 0403, bigsig in Polish as scheduled from VR. At first I thought there was CCI under, but turned out to be BXVI pontificating in some other language, being voice-overed, until brought up from under at conclusion.
I was checking this because HFCC A-12 shows this as a 10 kW transmitter in Santa Maria di Galeria [SMG], along with another 10 kW starting at 0400 on 3975 in the Vatican itself [VAT]. I don`t believe there is any mere 10 kW at SMG, and this was certainly not so feeble, so registration must be wrong, but did it mean 7250 is really VAT Gardens at this time? Apparently not.
3975, if on, was totally lost in the high spring storm noise level on 75m. 0400 happens to be the current sunrise time over the so-called Holy See, so chances of hearing it are diminishing every night. I did manage to hear the 10 kW VAT when really on 7250 in the winter until the former 0528 switch to SMG 250 kW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 5745-5890: May 5 at 0538, I happen to tune to 5745 and hear a signal very slowly moving upward, seems to have multiple digital carriers, zero-beats downward across WTWW 5755 and then pitch increases again. This is typical behavior of an ionosonde, probably aiming vertically, probing the ionosphere for MUF propagation research. I decided to time its rate of ascent, altho I had not noted the exact second it was on 5745, 5755. I got ahead of it going across 5890 WWCR with non-BS gospel huxter, at 0542:15; then retuned to 5910 but it never reached there to cross Alcaraván whose much weaker signal would have made it easy to spot. Then I retuned all the way from 5 to 7 MHz but never found it again. Perhaps it deliberately avoids the broadcast band officially starting at 5900. Assuming 0538:00 UT for 5745, and 0542:15 for 5890, the rate would be: 145 kHz per 255 seconds = 0.57 kHz/sec or kc/sec/sec, like an acceleration. Or 5.7 kHz every 10 seconds (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
