** CHINA. 13780, August 1 at 1906, CCCCCCI instead of Firedrake against RFA as heard July 30; and 9455 not audible today. ? ChiCom Chinese language Co-Channel Interference, no doubt CNR1. This was a quick check with the DX-398 on the porch at 115 degrees F in the shade (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake August 2, before 1230:
12370, fair at 1227; newish frequency not heard before July 6, by Steve Handler and myself
12980, fair at 1227; none in the 11s, 10s
14700, very good at 1226; none in the 13s
15435, very good at 1222
16100, very good at 1223
16920, poor at 1224, quite a contrast with 16100
16980, equally poor at 1224
17450, very good at 1225; none in the 18s
Before 1300, not a full search:
15560, good at 1238, het on hi side
After 1300:
15485, fair at 1311, het on hi side
15570, poor at 1312, with additional noise jamming, het on lo side
Before 1400, all with flutter now:
12980, poor at 1355; none in the 14s, 13s, 11s
15490, fair at 1352, het on lo side
15605, fair at 1352, het on lo side
16100, very good at 1352
16920, poor at 1352
16980, poor at 1352; none in the 17s
After 1400:
17560, good with flutter at 1406; vs V. of Tibet via Madagascar jumper
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COLOMBIA. 14950.75v, August 2 circa 0200, 1215 and 1400 chex, still nothing from Salem Stereo, but we have now reached the target date for resuming, per last word from the pastor, so keep alert for revival (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 11565 CW, August 2 at 0410, cut spy numbers in groups of five, still going at 0431, not especially strong, and pure CW, carrier cutting on and off. Cut numbers means each is replaced by a Morse Code letter for easier copy.
15330, August 2 at 1252, lite pulse jamming against nothing, Arnie`s incompetent blocker never turned off for A-12 when R. Martí is never using this frequency.
9530, August 2 at 1356, the POS RHC 9540 transmitter is again making filthy FMy blob circa here and a weaker clone circa 9520; not sure if a remnant remained on 9540 too vs CCI. VOI doesn`t know how lucky it is, still missing from 9526 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EGYPT. 9315, August 2 at 0202, R. Cairo English to N America sesquihour is still here, despite alleged plans to switch to 9720. Modulation is so poor I can`t confirm it`s really English, but nothing on 9720. With splatter QRM from their own Arabic trash transmitter on 9305, so if for no other reason, they really should move the English to unimpeded 9720.
15610, August 2 at 0401, Qur`an with flutter, undermodulated, not // Saudi Qur`an on 15170. But 15610 cut off abruptly at 0405* --- Allah`ll get `em for that! Thought it might be runover from previous hour but HFCC shows it was start of R. Cairo Swahili service, 04-06, 250 kW, 170 degrees from Abu Zabaal. No doubt fixing R. Cairo is not even a blip on the Moslem Brotherhood to-do roster (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUIANA FRENCH. 17870-17875-17880, August 1 at 1904, very strong DRM noise going here an hour earlier than usual (TDP The Disco Palace at 20-21), presumed same site, but with what? Is there any mention of this on the DRM fora or official schedules? Of course not! I asked Ludo Maes about it, but no reply. Will it continue?
So now the complete 1930-2030 BBC Hausa 17885 Ascension transmission has QRDRM. BTW, TDP never got around to replacing in HFCC A-12 17755 with 17875 for the 20-21 transmission, as it changed in April once we told them RHC had occupied 17750. The 19 broadcast could well be an unpublicized DRM demo for some promotional meeting. Jeff White says it might be for Brasil (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ITALY [non]. 15215, August 2 at *1358, brand-new clear frequency for IRRS, as usual starting clumsily with tail of some report in English about the Euro, 1358:25 cut to ``Triumphal March from Aïda`` theme, and very brief ID, ``IRRS shortwave in Milano, signing on``. Dead air past 1400, then fade up The Overcomer Ministry, joining in progress some black-sounding gospel huxter other than BS, punxuated by hoots from the congregation.
Started at poor-fair level, S7 to peaks barely reaching S9+3 and weakened progressively. Meanwhile I compared to TOM via WWRB 9385, but never could figure out which was ahead of which, they were so far out of synch as I was losing the IRRS signal. On 15215, IRRS will no longer have to worry about colliding with irregular R. Africa on 15190.
Ron Norton had notified us of the new schedule, as 150 kW: 15215 to Asia at 14-15 and also new 17770 to Africa at 17-18, never mentioning it is still mostly Brother Scare; as DX Re Mix News reports, these are still via Tiganeshti, ROMANIA, at 100 and 187 degrees, respectively.
What a letdown after the majestic opening theme to hear nothing but BS. Heard that again on 17770 at 1659 tune-in August 2, now much better signal than 15215 had been. Same sign-on procedure and JIP (join in progress) TOM, same non-BS g.h. as before. I again compared to 9385 WWRB (whose signal was axually weaker!), and easily found 17770 running exactly 60 seconds behind 9385 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MAURITANIA. 7245, August 2 at 0503, Arabic speech from IGIM, on early again, with SSB QRhaM, no doubt for all those Ramadan breakfasters. Sunrise in Nouakchott is currently 0643 UT, somewhat earlier in most of the country eastward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MOROCCO. 9575, August 2 at 0530, Médi 1 in French with ``Bonjour au Maroc, cinq-heures-trente``, informations; fair signal, better than adjacent 9580 Gabon (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 515, August 2 at 0439, `PN` beacon on MCW, weak but clear and steady on my bathroom radio, Panasonic RF569-D, which I inherited from a late aunt, and was apparently made for Sears, a good little radio. Batteries are used only in power failures, so I checked and removed one of the four AAs before it had leaked very much. O yeah, PN is in Ponca City, not too far away. Heard it too on the DX-398 at 0512 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. See ITALY [non]
** THAILAND. 17800, August 2 at 1240, Russian with flutter, mentions Svoboda several times, appropriately for R. Liberty, not often heard here and I would not have guessed the site, Udorn during this hour only, 250 kW, 351 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 11905, August 2 until 0429* good signal in uncertain African language: HFCC shows VOA Kinyarwanda, 350 kW, 320 degrees so also USward from MADAGASCAR at 0400-0430. The previous semihour in same was via Sri Lanka until July 29, replaced by Somali from July 30 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 13645-13675 approx., August 2 at 1214, VOA Spanish, Greenville-B is putting modulation spike spurs here from strong 13750, peaking circa 13660 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1628 monitoring: ready in time for first airing on WRMI, UT Thursday August 2 at 0330: but unable to ftp file due to computer problems at the Hialeah transmitter site. Jeff White says engineer got out there ASAP and rebooted so WOR finally played intact starting at 0352; until then, the webcast was running silent, and 9955 never checked. Better luck we hope on the 9955 repeats:
Sat 0800, 1500, 1730; Sun 0800, 1530, 1730; Mon 0500, 1130 (plus many more webcasts, such as Thu 1500, confirmed)
On WTWW: Thu 2100 on 9479, UT Sun 0400 on 5755
On WWRB: UT Fri 0330v on 5050
On WBCQ: UT Sat 0130v on 5110v-CUSB Area 51
On HLR: Sat 0630 on 7265, Tue 0930 on 5980
On WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1730, Sun 0830
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15825, August 2 at 1313, surprised to find WWCR with a talk show, rather than `Inspirations Across America`` black gospel music as still on the schedule M-F 13-14; host is so self-confident that he felt no need to give his name or program name when breaking for commercial; 1349 recheck tho signal has faded down from VG to only fair, now it`s IAA. They put on wrong program earlier? Was certainly not YL Joyce`s `Power Hower` either as on 7490/13845 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [and non]. 11715, August 2 at 0411, fair signal in Arabic, presumed Vatican Radio as scheduled from SMG. I made a point of retuning at 0428 for the expected 0430 relay of V. of Charity from Lebanon, but the signal was already off; nor evident on 9645, so is this relay terminated? HFCC A-12 still shows 11715 at 0355-0500 100 kW, 113 degrees, in Arabic; and 9645 at 0400-0430 in Arabic, break until resuming at 0455 in English.
There are still plenty of other VR broadcasts audible minus Sackville: 11625, August 2 good after 0430 in French; at 0457 IS with a fast SAH, 0458 the stronger signal goes off and the IS continues without SAH. This was the overlap between SMG finishing French and Madagascar about to start English, per HFCC. Morning broadcasts alternate these sites, additionally: 0400-0430 Ethiopian via MDC, 0530-0700 Portuguese, French & English via SMG.
13765, August 2 at 0523, VR English to Africa in well as usual via MADAGASCAR, but again with lite whine QRM of slightly varying pitch, transmitter defect? Unlikely to be jammed. Also had splat from VOR English on 13775, stronger than usual.
9645, August 2 at 0533, VR with mea-culpas in Latin mass, good signal not on earlier, but with lo pitched propellor noise, another modulation fault? Carrier sounds stable on BFO. This is one VR frequency which is always via SMG only, whenever you hear it thruout the day.
13730, August 2 at 1213, no signal from VR, confirmed kaput via Sackville which would have been on until 1214* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 980, August 2 at 0506 UT, W & M rendering ``gracias a dios`` dominating frequency, then a 150/minute = 2.5 Hz SAH with a Coast-to-Coast outlet; Spanish loops close to due south, so I start looking at the Mexican listings: most likely would be XETU in Tampico, but none of the Mexicans have an obvious religion-only format; and this one is in Cantú`s by-frequency list, but no Tamaulipan at all on 980 in his by-state listings! So does that station exist, or not?
O well, maybe it`s an American? Yes, here`s the likely one from the NRC-AM Log: SS:REL on KRTX, Rosenburg/Richmond/Pasadena, TX, just call it Houston! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9634+, August 2 at 1256 looking for the mystery carrier as heard a couple of previous dates, but no sign of it today, just very weak one on 9635.0, overlain by stronger but still weak CRI carrier *1258 with flutter, no musical prélude until 1300 IS and sign-on in listed Hindi via Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN. Still no 9634 het, tho RA is strong as usual on 9580, so maybe it was something else, or intermittent from Shepparton.
Ron Howard in California was also monitoring this today, hearing VOV-1 on 9635.0 at 1240, no doubt my initial weaker station, and only a slight unID het from 9634 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 15325, August 2 at 0516, 1000 Hz tones cutting on and off frequently. Only thing scheduled here in HFCC is NHK in Japanese, due west from Yamata at 0500-1000 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake August 2, before 1230:
12370, fair at 1227; newish frequency not heard before July 6, by Steve Handler and myself
12980, fair at 1227; none in the 11s, 10s
14700, very good at 1226; none in the 13s
15435, very good at 1222
16100, very good at 1223
16920, poor at 1224, quite a contrast with 16100
16980, equally poor at 1224
17450, very good at 1225; none in the 18s
Before 1300, not a full search:
15560, good at 1238, het on hi side
After 1300:
15485, fair at 1311, het on hi side
15570, poor at 1312, with additional noise jamming, het on lo side
Before 1400, all with flutter now:
12980, poor at 1355; none in the 14s, 13s, 11s
15490, fair at 1352, het on lo side
15605, fair at 1352, het on lo side
16100, very good at 1352
16920, poor at 1352
16980, poor at 1352; none in the 17s
After 1400:
17560, good with flutter at 1406; vs V. of Tibet via Madagascar jumper
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COLOMBIA. 14950.75v, August 2 circa 0200, 1215 and 1400 chex, still nothing from Salem Stereo, but we have now reached the target date for resuming, per last word from the pastor, so keep alert for revival (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 11565 CW, August 2 at 0410, cut spy numbers in groups of five, still going at 0431, not especially strong, and pure CW, carrier cutting on and off. Cut numbers means each is replaced by a Morse Code letter for easier copy.
15330, August 2 at 1252, lite pulse jamming against nothing, Arnie`s incompetent blocker never turned off for A-12 when R. Martí is never using this frequency.
9530, August 2 at 1356, the POS RHC 9540 transmitter is again making filthy FMy blob circa here and a weaker clone circa 9520; not sure if a remnant remained on 9540 too vs CCI. VOI doesn`t know how lucky it is, still missing from 9526 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EGYPT. 9315, August 2 at 0202, R. Cairo English to N America sesquihour is still here, despite alleged plans to switch to 9720. Modulation is so poor I can`t confirm it`s really English, but nothing on 9720. With splatter QRM from their own Arabic trash transmitter on 9305, so if for no other reason, they really should move the English to unimpeded 9720.
15610, August 2 at 0401, Qur`an with flutter, undermodulated, not // Saudi Qur`an on 15170. But 15610 cut off abruptly at 0405* --- Allah`ll get `em for that! Thought it might be runover from previous hour but HFCC shows it was start of R. Cairo Swahili service, 04-06, 250 kW, 170 degrees from Abu Zabaal. No doubt fixing R. Cairo is not even a blip on the Moslem Brotherhood to-do roster (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUIANA FRENCH. 17870-17875-17880, August 1 at 1904, very strong DRM noise going here an hour earlier than usual (TDP The Disco Palace at 20-21), presumed same site, but with what? Is there any mention of this on the DRM fora or official schedules? Of course not! I asked Ludo Maes about it, but no reply. Will it continue?
So now the complete 1930-2030 BBC Hausa 17885 Ascension transmission has QRDRM. BTW, TDP never got around to replacing in HFCC A-12 17755 with 17875 for the 20-21 transmission, as it changed in April once we told them RHC had occupied 17750. The 19 broadcast could well be an unpublicized DRM demo for some promotional meeting. Jeff White says it might be for Brasil (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ITALY [non]. 15215, August 2 at *1358, brand-new clear frequency for IRRS, as usual starting clumsily with tail of some report in English about the Euro, 1358:25 cut to ``Triumphal March from Aïda`` theme, and very brief ID, ``IRRS shortwave in Milano, signing on``. Dead air past 1400, then fade up The Overcomer Ministry, joining in progress some black-sounding gospel huxter other than BS, punxuated by hoots from the congregation.
Started at poor-fair level, S7 to peaks barely reaching S9+3 and weakened progressively. Meanwhile I compared to TOM via WWRB 9385, but never could figure out which was ahead of which, they were so far out of synch as I was losing the IRRS signal. On 15215, IRRS will no longer have to worry about colliding with irregular R. Africa on 15190.
Ron Norton had notified us of the new schedule, as 150 kW: 15215 to Asia at 14-15 and also new 17770 to Africa at 17-18, never mentioning it is still mostly Brother Scare; as DX Re Mix News reports, these are still via Tiganeshti, ROMANIA, at 100 and 187 degrees, respectively.
What a letdown after the majestic opening theme to hear nothing but BS. Heard that again on 17770 at 1659 tune-in August 2, now much better signal than 15215 had been. Same sign-on procedure and JIP (join in progress) TOM, same non-BS g.h. as before. I again compared to 9385 WWRB (whose signal was axually weaker!), and easily found 17770 running exactly 60 seconds behind 9385 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MAURITANIA. 7245, August 2 at 0503, Arabic speech from IGIM, on early again, with SSB QRhaM, no doubt for all those Ramadan breakfasters. Sunrise in Nouakchott is currently 0643 UT, somewhat earlier in most of the country eastward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MOROCCO. 9575, August 2 at 0530, Médi 1 in French with ``Bonjour au Maroc, cinq-heures-trente``, informations; fair signal, better than adjacent 9580 Gabon (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 515, August 2 at 0439, `PN` beacon on MCW, weak but clear and steady on my bathroom radio, Panasonic RF569-D, which I inherited from a late aunt, and was apparently made for Sears, a good little radio. Batteries are used only in power failures, so I checked and removed one of the four AAs before it had leaked very much. O yeah, PN is in Ponca City, not too far away. Heard it too on the DX-398 at 0512 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. See ITALY [non]
** THAILAND. 17800, August 2 at 1240, Russian with flutter, mentions Svoboda several times, appropriately for R. Liberty, not often heard here and I would not have guessed the site, Udorn during this hour only, 250 kW, 351 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 11905, August 2 until 0429* good signal in uncertain African language: HFCC shows VOA Kinyarwanda, 350 kW, 320 degrees so also USward from MADAGASCAR at 0400-0430. The previous semihour in same was via Sri Lanka until July 29, replaced by Somali from July 30 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 13645-13675 approx., August 2 at 1214, VOA Spanish, Greenville-B is putting modulation spike spurs here from strong 13750, peaking circa 13660 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1628 monitoring: ready in time for first airing on WRMI, UT Thursday August 2 at 0330: but unable to ftp file due to computer problems at the Hialeah transmitter site. Jeff White says engineer got out there ASAP and rebooted so WOR finally played intact starting at 0352; until then, the webcast was running silent, and 9955 never checked. Better luck we hope on the 9955 repeats:
Sat 0800, 1500, 1730; Sun 0800, 1530, 1730; Mon 0500, 1130 (plus many more webcasts, such as Thu 1500, confirmed)
On WTWW: Thu 2100 on 9479, UT Sun 0400 on 5755
On WWRB: UT Fri 0330v on 5050
On WBCQ: UT Sat 0130v on 5110v-CUSB Area 51
On HLR: Sat 0630 on 7265, Tue 0930 on 5980
On WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1730, Sun 0830
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15825, August 2 at 1313, surprised to find WWCR with a talk show, rather than `Inspirations Across America`` black gospel music as still on the schedule M-F 13-14; host is so self-confident that he felt no need to give his name or program name when breaking for commercial; 1349 recheck tho signal has faded down from VG to only fair, now it`s IAA. They put on wrong program earlier? Was certainly not YL Joyce`s `Power Hower` either as on 7490/13845 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [and non]. 11715, August 2 at 0411, fair signal in Arabic, presumed Vatican Radio as scheduled from SMG. I made a point of retuning at 0428 for the expected 0430 relay of V. of Charity from Lebanon, but the signal was already off; nor evident on 9645, so is this relay terminated? HFCC A-12 still shows 11715 at 0355-0500 100 kW, 113 degrees, in Arabic; and 9645 at 0400-0430 in Arabic, break until resuming at 0455 in English.
There are still plenty of other VR broadcasts audible minus Sackville: 11625, August 2 good after 0430 in French; at 0457 IS with a fast SAH, 0458 the stronger signal goes off and the IS continues without SAH. This was the overlap between SMG finishing French and Madagascar about to start English, per HFCC. Morning broadcasts alternate these sites, additionally: 0400-0430 Ethiopian via MDC, 0530-0700 Portuguese, French & English via SMG.
13765, August 2 at 0523, VR English to Africa in well as usual via MADAGASCAR, but again with lite whine QRM of slightly varying pitch, transmitter defect? Unlikely to be jammed. Also had splat from VOR English on 13775, stronger than usual.
9645, August 2 at 0533, VR with mea-culpas in Latin mass, good signal not on earlier, but with lo pitched propellor noise, another modulation fault? Carrier sounds stable on BFO. This is one VR frequency which is always via SMG only, whenever you hear it thruout the day.
13730, August 2 at 1213, no signal from VR, confirmed kaput via Sackville which would have been on until 1214* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 980, August 2 at 0506 UT, W & M rendering ``gracias a dios`` dominating frequency, then a 150/minute = 2.5 Hz SAH with a Coast-to-Coast outlet; Spanish loops close to due south, so I start looking at the Mexican listings: most likely would be XETU in Tampico, but none of the Mexicans have an obvious religion-only format; and this one is in Cantú`s by-frequency list, but no Tamaulipan at all on 980 in his by-state listings! So does that station exist, or not?
O well, maybe it`s an American? Yes, here`s the likely one from the NRC-AM Log: SS:REL on KRTX, Rosenburg/Richmond/Pasadena, TX, just call it Houston! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9634+, August 2 at 1256 looking for the mystery carrier as heard a couple of previous dates, but no sign of it today, just very weak one on 9635.0, overlain by stronger but still weak CRI carrier *1258 with flutter, no musical prélude until 1300 IS and sign-on in listed Hindi via Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN. Still no 9634 het, tho RA is strong as usual on 9580, so maybe it was something else, or intermittent from Shepparton.
Ron Howard in California was also monitoring this today, hearing VOV-1 on 9635.0 at 1240, no doubt my initial weaker station, and only a slight unID het from 9634 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 15325, August 2 at 0516, 1000 Hz tones cutting on and off frequently. Only thing scheduled here in HFCC is NHK in Japanese, due west from Yamata at 0500-1000 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)