** CANADA. 1140, July 3 at 0557 UT, as I was trying to sort out the Spanish [see MEXICO], a brief surge brings in an full ID from AM 1140, CHRB, High River, Alberta. Maybe new here, but with 46 kW night power should not be unusual, except: night pattern has zero signal south, all of it in a tangent circle northward per NRC Pattern Book of a few years ago. I don`t think we can believe such patterns from CHRB, nor XEMR all southward. High River is just SSE of Calgary which I assume is the only reason such a small town would merit such a big station (50 kW non-direxional day) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake July 3, only a brief incomplete check:
15560, poor at 1316-1317*
15495, poor at 1317, maybe just replaced 15560?
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COLOMBIA. 14950, July 3 at 0134, still no return of Salem Stereo (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [non]. Radio República ended via RMI via Sackville June 25, altho it could have continued a while longer like most other relay clients, except for China, Radio Martí, which has moved Sackville transmissions back to Greenville. But now R. República is back, again on 9490!
9490, July 3 at *0058:30 huge open carrier comes on, S9+25 at least. At 0100, Cuban NA (take that, RHC!), 0101 RR theme and ID, but no frequency or schedule announcement, right into first program, `Leer y Pensar`` (Read and Think), featuring an anti-Commie book whose title I wish I had caught.
I did not hear any jamming just before the carrier came on, nor once it had started; apparently RR has bought some time free of jamming by this unannounced new transmission. Previously had been only Sat & Sun 23-02 Sun & Mon via Sackville, but now it`s daily 01-02 via: GUIANA FRENCH. (However, I remember running across some residual pulse jamming on 9490 late at night on Sat or Sun, typically vs nothing at that time.)
At 0133 still no jamming audible (tho MSY signal is so huge it could have obscured some), but wall-of-noise is upon 9955 WRMI which is scheduled to be carrying the DX program `Frecuencia al Día` on UT Tuesdays --- hardly an anti-Castro show as host Dino Bloise is not even a Cuban; most other days of the week this semihour is not even in Spanish! I see that WRMI has posted an updated program schedule dated June 24 via http://www.wrmi.net or a click away from:http://www.wrmi.net/pb/wp_d12a1732/wp_d12a1732.html
There was also WON jamming upon 5955, near the R. República Costa Rica frequency 5954.3v, which could not be detected, altho it may still be active at least during this hour. At 0155 on 9490, the only frequency announced by RR was still 5955! One is hard-pressed to find any SW schedule info via their website or that of the parent agency Directorio Democrático Cubano.
Backing up to 0149 when I retuned to 9490, still no jamming, but I was hearing QRM in English seemingly from a US religious station, mentioning Sodom & Gomorra [MS Word spellcheck approved] tho nothing else is scheduled on 9490. (Nor is RR, yet? in HFCC). This may have been receiver overload from the supersignal on 9860 WHRI which I found later. R. República was hardly finished with 9490 when it was cut off the air early in mid-sentence at 0155.5* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO [and non]. 1140, July 3 at 0554 I try again to identify the gospel-huxter in Spanish heard some weeks ago: discussion, ad? for a mariscos restaurán in Monterrey, so that`s certainly XEMR despite pattern maps showing null signal northward. Hardly dominant now and I soon catch a quite unexpected ID from CANADA, q.v. At 0600 noticias with a few-note jingle, but this was more from the SE, suspect CUBA; turning the DX-398 a bit, another Spanish is now religioning, XEMR? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NETHERLANDS [non]. 9895, July 3 at 1149 I am awake early enough to confirm that R. Nederland still exists! With this single Spanish frequency-hour from 1100 via BONAIRE. Good signal but more fading than I would have expected, aimed toward Cuba and USward. 1153 plugged RN`s new sexy website, http://www.hablemosdeamor.nl --- so it seems not just press freedom but sexual health is the remit of RN! The Dutch libertines know all about free sex. No jamming audible yet, and maybe if `La Matinal` stays away from Cuban/exile politix, it will survive intact. More likely the Vatican would jam it, ha (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NEW ZEALAND. 11725, July 3 at 0532, RNZI is audible in AM with poor signal, unlike absence 24 hours earlier; however, could not make out any DRM noise on 11670-11675-11680.
9655, checked at 1152 July 3, VP signal with song, 1200 timesignal and ``30 minute roundup of news``. Meanwhile, DRM on 7435-7440-7445 was audible before 1200, not after.
6170, today there was no DRM noise by mistake here, and I was waiting for AM to come up; it did cut on at *1258:45 saying ``in a few moments we`ll be starting transmission on 6170 kHz in the 49 meter band``, so unfortunately listeners could not have heard that on 9655 before it went off: so hard to synchronize everything exactly by remote-computer control, instead of having a real human being at the site listening to the programme feed. Then 1259 bell-bird and 1300 news, but as usual losing out to daynoise.
The how to listen page with the frequency schedule doesn`t explain what happened; for that you have to go back to the bottom of the home page under What`s New:
``Digital DRM transmitter off air today --- 02 Jul, 2012 21:32 UTC ---
RNZI's digital DRM transmitter is off air today (Tuesday NZ) due to a fault. We hope to be back on with a digital service this evening.
RNZI's analogue service, and website live feed, continue as normal.
RNZI off air Monday 2 July --- 02 Jul, 2012 01:08 UTC --- RNZI is off air (both the analogue and digital transmitters) this afternoon 12pm-5pm NZ time - for work at the transmission site. Internet live feed continues as usual.`` [that was 0000-0500 UT, but they were still off after 0500 July 2] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA [and non]. 15120, July 3 at 0604, VON with news in progress, good signal and the humwhine isn`t too severe, but awful by comparison to former colonial masters` signal which has just opened on 15105, BBCWS news in English with pristine audio. That`s 170 degrees from Woofferton during this hour, not Ascension as I expected.
At 0604 VON cut off the air, then back on as I QRT. It was certainly not on the air when I tuned by earlier around 0550, so was it on and off during that hour too, or just off? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN. 9650, UT Tue July 3 at 0415-0445, listened with half an ear to the weekly Emisión Sefarad from REE direct; the YL host speaks Judeo-Español, but I think her interviewees are free to respond in plain old Castilian, like the OM heard around 0430 when an automatic timesignal also played. I noticed that the carrier stayed on past 0450+ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN SOUTH [non]. 15725, July 3 at 0540, V. of South Sudan Revolutionary Radio is holding up longer and better than 24 hours earlier; again a guy yelling a speech, with some crowd responses; this sounds like a tonal African language rather than Arabish. He speaks a few syllables at a time, with frequent pauses; still going at 0548 with poor signal. And still audible even weaker at 0602 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 15225, July 3 at 0544, lovely song by YL soloist, fair signal; 0546 announcement in Arabish? and ``Gott sei di Ehre`` theme, so naturally I assume it`s a WYFR relay --- but no! HFCC, EiBi and Aoki all say it`s AWR in Arabic at 04-06, 250 kW, 120 degrees via Wertachtal, GERMANY. Was there a change or source mixup, or is AWR also playing this tune, to confuse everybody? Aren`t there enough hymns to go around without duplication? Consult any hymnal with hundreds of them, as I often do when attending a more-or-less secular concert in a church venue; and bring my own padding if the pews are hard (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [non]. 13730, July 3 at 1211-1214* monitored the last two sesquiminutes of VR`s surviving English to Americas via CANADA, and after very brief quotation from pope and plug for saints of the day, NO announcement any more about this not being on shortwave. Maybe they finally figured this out at the studio, but could still have alleged it instead at the opening of broadcast like happened at 0250 July 2 on 9610 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 15595, Tuesday July 3 at 1316, fair signal with jazz caught my ear; what`s this? But cut off abruptly at 1316:25*. Nothing scheduled at this time, tho Vatican uses 15595 sporadically at many other hours; and DW starts Dari via Singapore at 1330. 13-14 is the jazz hour on VOA, but only on weekends (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake July 3, only a brief incomplete check:
15560, poor at 1316-1317*
15495, poor at 1317, maybe just replaced 15560?
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COLOMBIA. 14950, July 3 at 0134, still no return of Salem Stereo (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [non]. Radio República ended via RMI via Sackville June 25, altho it could have continued a while longer like most other relay clients, except for China, Radio Martí, which has moved Sackville transmissions back to Greenville. But now R. República is back, again on 9490!
9490, July 3 at *0058:30 huge open carrier comes on, S9+25 at least. At 0100, Cuban NA (take that, RHC!), 0101 RR theme and ID, but no frequency or schedule announcement, right into first program, `Leer y Pensar`` (Read and Think), featuring an anti-Commie book whose title I wish I had caught.
I did not hear any jamming just before the carrier came on, nor once it had started; apparently RR has bought some time free of jamming by this unannounced new transmission. Previously had been only Sat & Sun 23-02 Sun & Mon via Sackville, but now it`s daily 01-02 via: GUIANA FRENCH. (However, I remember running across some residual pulse jamming on 9490 late at night on Sat or Sun, typically vs nothing at that time.)
At 0133 still no jamming audible (tho MSY signal is so huge it could have obscured some), but wall-of-noise is upon 9955 WRMI which is scheduled to be carrying the DX program `Frecuencia al Día` on UT Tuesdays --- hardly an anti-Castro show as host Dino Bloise is not even a Cuban; most other days of the week this semihour is not even in Spanish! I see that WRMI has posted an updated program schedule dated June 24 via http://www.wrmi.net or a click away from:http://www.wrmi.net/pb/wp_d12a1732/wp_d12a1732.html
There was also WON jamming upon 5955, near the R. República Costa Rica frequency 5954.3v, which could not be detected, altho it may still be active at least during this hour. At 0155 on 9490, the only frequency announced by RR was still 5955! One is hard-pressed to find any SW schedule info via their website or that of the parent agency Directorio Democrático Cubano.
Backing up to 0149 when I retuned to 9490, still no jamming, but I was hearing QRM in English seemingly from a US religious station, mentioning Sodom & Gomorra [MS Word spellcheck approved] tho nothing else is scheduled on 9490. (Nor is RR, yet? in HFCC). This may have been receiver overload from the supersignal on 9860 WHRI which I found later. R. República was hardly finished with 9490 when it was cut off the air early in mid-sentence at 0155.5* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO [and non]. 1140, July 3 at 0554 I try again to identify the gospel-huxter in Spanish heard some weeks ago: discussion, ad? for a mariscos restaurán in Monterrey, so that`s certainly XEMR despite pattern maps showing null signal northward. Hardly dominant now and I soon catch a quite unexpected ID from CANADA, q.v. At 0600 noticias with a few-note jingle, but this was more from the SE, suspect CUBA; turning the DX-398 a bit, another Spanish is now religioning, XEMR? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NETHERLANDS [non]. 9895, July 3 at 1149 I am awake early enough to confirm that R. Nederland still exists! With this single Spanish frequency-hour from 1100 via BONAIRE. Good signal but more fading than I would have expected, aimed toward Cuba and USward. 1153 plugged RN`s new sexy website, http://www.hablemosdeamor.nl --- so it seems not just press freedom but sexual health is the remit of RN! The Dutch libertines know all about free sex. No jamming audible yet, and maybe if `La Matinal` stays away from Cuban/exile politix, it will survive intact. More likely the Vatican would jam it, ha (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NEW ZEALAND. 11725, July 3 at 0532, RNZI is audible in AM with poor signal, unlike absence 24 hours earlier; however, could not make out any DRM noise on 11670-11675-11680.
9655, checked at 1152 July 3, VP signal with song, 1200 timesignal and ``30 minute roundup of news``. Meanwhile, DRM on 7435-7440-7445 was audible before 1200, not after.
6170, today there was no DRM noise by mistake here, and I was waiting for AM to come up; it did cut on at *1258:45 saying ``in a few moments we`ll be starting transmission on 6170 kHz in the 49 meter band``, so unfortunately listeners could not have heard that on 9655 before it went off: so hard to synchronize everything exactly by remote-computer control, instead of having a real human being at the site listening to the programme feed. Then 1259 bell-bird and 1300 news, but as usual losing out to daynoise.
The how to listen page with the frequency schedule doesn`t explain what happened; for that you have to go back to the bottom of the home page under What`s New:
``Digital DRM transmitter off air today --- 02 Jul, 2012 21:32 UTC ---
RNZI's digital DRM transmitter is off air today (Tuesday NZ) due to a fault. We hope to be back on with a digital service this evening.
RNZI's analogue service, and website live feed, continue as normal.
RNZI off air Monday 2 July --- 02 Jul, 2012 01:08 UTC --- RNZI is off air (both the analogue and digital transmitters) this afternoon 12pm-5pm NZ time - for work at the transmission site. Internet live feed continues as usual.`` [that was 0000-0500 UT, but they were still off after 0500 July 2] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA [and non]. 15120, July 3 at 0604, VON with news in progress, good signal and the humwhine isn`t too severe, but awful by comparison to former colonial masters` signal which has just opened on 15105, BBCWS news in English with pristine audio. That`s 170 degrees from Woofferton during this hour, not Ascension as I expected.
At 0604 VON cut off the air, then back on as I QRT. It was certainly not on the air when I tuned by earlier around 0550, so was it on and off during that hour too, or just off? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN. 9650, UT Tue July 3 at 0415-0445, listened with half an ear to the weekly Emisión Sefarad from REE direct; the YL host speaks Judeo-Español, but I think her interviewees are free to respond in plain old Castilian, like the OM heard around 0430 when an automatic timesignal also played. I noticed that the carrier stayed on past 0450+ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN SOUTH [non]. 15725, July 3 at 0540, V. of South Sudan Revolutionary Radio is holding up longer and better than 24 hours earlier; again a guy yelling a speech, with some crowd responses; this sounds like a tonal African language rather than Arabish. He speaks a few syllables at a time, with frequent pauses; still going at 0548 with poor signal. And still audible even weaker at 0602 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 15225, July 3 at 0544, lovely song by YL soloist, fair signal; 0546 announcement in Arabish? and ``Gott sei di Ehre`` theme, so naturally I assume it`s a WYFR relay --- but no! HFCC, EiBi and Aoki all say it`s AWR in Arabic at 04-06, 250 kW, 120 degrees via Wertachtal, GERMANY. Was there a change or source mixup, or is AWR also playing this tune, to confuse everybody? Aren`t there enough hymns to go around without duplication? Consult any hymnal with hundreds of them, as I often do when attending a more-or-less secular concert in a church venue; and bring my own padding if the pews are hard (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [non]. 13730, July 3 at 1211-1214* monitored the last two sesquiminutes of VR`s surviving English to Americas via CANADA, and after very brief quotation from pope and plug for saints of the day, NO announcement any more about this not being on shortwave. Maybe they finally figured this out at the studio, but could still have alleged it instead at the opening of broadcast like happened at 0250 July 2 on 9610 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 15595, Tuesday July 3 at 1316, fair signal with jazz caught my ear; what`s this? But cut off abruptly at 1316:25*. Nothing scheduled at this time, tho Vatican uses 15595 sporadically at many other hours; and DW starts Dari via Singapore at 1330. 13-14 is the jazz hour on VOA, but only on weekends (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
