** AUSTRALIA. 12080, Sept 19 at 1310, no signal and hence no Waltzing Matilda from R. Australia which was testing in AM here 24 hours earlier; no answer yet to my inquiry whether it was really Shepparton (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BANGLADESH. 15105, Sept 19 at 1251, Bangladesh Betar is fair mentioning a ``Himalayan kingdom``, ending Sports Review, song. 1329 check, only a JBA carrier when should be on in Nepali.
15505, Sept 19 at 1400 opening music and Urdu already; just missed the IS if any and early timesignal. S9+12 with flutter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHAD. 6165, Sept 19 at 0530, news or at least talk in French, S9+12 holding its own against CKZN 6160.9. No doubt RNT is active today, as it seems to be quite sporadic (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake Sept 19, not full searches:
15485, good at 1307, het on hi side
15495, fair at 1328, he on hi side
15605, fair at 1327, with noise added, het on hi side
15615, poor at 1401 vs WEWN; see U S A
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COLOMBIA. 5910, Sept 19 at 0534, ``las 12, 34 minutos en Alcaraván Radio . . . 1530 en AM y 5910 en onda corta . . . en Colombia, Alcaraván Radio``, back to music. So they`ve set their clock! Note the spelling of the name and the order of the words, often misreported. Good signal in the clear (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 15340, Sept 19 at 1300, RHC strong signal but as usual lately, modulation severely suppressed. By 1306 must have kicked the transmitter (or wiggled that patchcord), as mod is back to normal, but HCJB still audible underneath (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CYPRUS. 17750-17774, Sept 19 at 1312, OTH radar pulsing, presumed from here, and exactly same sound on 18900-18925. At 1403, it`s more like 17747-17773, bothering a legitimate broadcaster on 17770 (Turkey in Arabic), and nothing around 18.9 MHz, but instead at 1404, 19818-19843 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, Sept 19 at 0544, open carrier with sesquikHz het, no doubt R. Africa vs ZYE522 (not 622 as in WRTH) on 15191.5v. It must be about to sign-on, so I roll tape hoping to catch a real ID, but it`s off again around 0550 and nothing back yet by 0600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUIANA FRENCH. 11995, Sept 19 at 0357, the open carrier with some hum from presumed TDF is on already. Next I need to listen to the RTI Spanish relay closing at 0300 whether they just leave the transmitter on after that. Still humming away at 0540, S9+10 above the CODAR swishes; steady with slight fades as to be expected from a southerly path vis-à-vis Turkey 11980 which was northerly fluttery (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN. 6055, Wed Sept 19 at 1314, R. Nikkei is in English for a biminute talking about the seasons and festival dates; 1316 briefly in Japanese, back to English, no doubt an advanced language lesson (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT. 15540, Sept 18 at 1959, R. Kuwait is a JBA carrier, and likewise from *2002 the Arabic service on 17550. By 2108 the latter has improved a bit to very poor. As summer is about to exit, so is the relatively reliable reception of R. Kuwait, and they are loath to make seasonal frequency changes (like down to 11990 which would help a lot). Maybe we will still have some good days for the 1800-2100 English, but vary a lot as they hit the night-path lowering MUF barrier on controlling first hop out of Kuwait. How is it in target Europe? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MAURITANIA. 7245, Wed Sept 19 at 0537, IGIM is on and chanting at S9+15 level but quite undermodulated (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 710, Sept 19 at 0557 UT, ``Soy Soldado``, the super-patriotic recitation some stations play for whom the belligerent national anthem is not enough, atop English station KGNC or KCMO. No doubt it`s XEDP Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, the usual prime XE on 710 here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 750, Sept 19 at 0559 UT weak music in WSB null, 0600 full ID for XHCSI 89.5 y XECSI 750, then choral NA. Cantú:
750 XECSI Éxtasis Digital + FM 89.5 Culiacán, Sin. 5,000 250
Not bad for 250 vs 50000 watts. Welcome to Sinaloa, Brother (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 1000, Sept 19 at 0559 UT, KTOK OKC is conveniently in dead air, allowing clear ``La Rancherita`` slogan to be heard especially when nulled, before KTOK remodulates just prior to 0600; i.e. XEFV Ciudad Juárez, Chih (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. Re my query about 1570 and 1530 in Tulsa market:
How lucky can I get?? Got off work early this afternoon, found your email re: 1570 KZLI, tuned into 1570 and promptly heard "ESPN Deportes Radio" jingle into a DUAL ID in English "KXTD 1530 Wagoner and KZLI 1570 Catoosa" into "SportsCenter" in Spanish. Glanced at the clock and realized I had stumbled onto the 1600 CDT 18SEP12 TOH ID. So it appears that 1530/1570 simulcast ESPN Deportes. The AM band in Tulsa now has 5 sports format stations: 1300 KAKC, 1430 KTBZ, 1530 KXTD, 1550 KYAL, and 1570 KZLI (3 English, 2 Spanish). 73, (Bruce Winkelman, Tulsa, OK, Sept 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOMALILAND. 7120, Sept 19 I start monitoring at 0300 since Ron Howard reported they had started a morning broadcast Sept 18, already on at 0339. So far just a lot of ham CW at various pitches, occasional longer carriers on and off, but more likely hams. Not much SSB QRM, just a few ``olás`` at 0310. Lining up BFO with 6120 RHC, waited and waited. Finally *0329:50 approximately on comes a sufficient carrier. And at 0335 some HOA vocal music starts.
Rated SINPO 23342; lots of atmospheric noise. The current lightning map for golfers athttp://www.weather.com/maps/activity/golf/uslightningstrikes_large.html?from=mapofweek
showed none at all in North America, except a few spots in NW Florida, and a lot across the NW Bahamas and the Straits of Florida.
At least there is little QRhaM now, except for some off-frequency keying at 0340. Rolled tape hoping to catch some ID, but not even an announcement. Reception gradually deteriorates lowering the S/N level. 0342 music changes from vocal to band, I think, maybe an anthem? 0350 singing again; just about gone and JBA by 0400. Maybe another night will be better if they keep running in their mornings.
Walt Salmaniw in BC was surprised not to be hearing it this date when I was getting it. But the short path from Hargeisa to Vancouver goes *much* further north thru the auroral zone than that to Enid. Toward Vancouver it crosses Tromsø, northern Norway, and northern tip of Greenland even beyond Thule, about 80 degrees latitude max. To Enid it`s no further north than 55 degrees in the north Atlantic. BTW, Hargaysa is quite close to Djibouti, if you want to compare reception with 4780.
7120, Sept 19 at 1405 check still no sign of it by longpath here, while 7110 Myanmar carrier was JBA.
BTW, Dave, G4ZOW of ``Transmitters `R` Us, Ltd.`` posted to the shortwaves yg Sept 17 that he will be going to Hargeisa to repair the old 25 kW ELCOR transmitter, installed 5 years ago but had antenna mismatch problems and has been off the air ever since; not sure why, but maybe to be backup to the new 100 kW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [and non]. 11880 via CR, // much weaker REE 15585 direct and a sextasecond ahead, Sept 19 at 1306, opening theme music of `Españoles en la Mar` so the program is back today after missing yesterday during this hour, into nautical news (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 15610, Sept 18 at 2003, WEWN is very strong, must be getting HF sporadic-E boost; often applies to 15825 WWCR as well, same distance in a somewhat different direxion, but not this time, still quite weak. Of course, WWCR is often running much less than full rated 100 kW. 15550-USB, WJHR, a closer neighbor to WEWN on the other side, was sufficient.
15615, Sept 19 at 1401, weak WEWN suffering from co-channel Firedrake, added ChiCom noise jamming, and idling het/fax from Australian weather service. Not a good frequency pick (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 12105, why has WTWW-3 been absent so much recently? George McClintock tells me that programming is being reconfigured, and a new more accurate schedule has been put up, but not necessarily on the air yet 24 hours. Since the times show a 6-hour difference between Central and UT, does ``shortly`` mean from the beginning of November? If applicable before then, which times are we to believe during DST with 5 hour difference? Probably the Central column.
``Transmitter 3 Scripture readings 12.105 Mhz
New schedule to start shortly:
Central UTC
6 - 6:29am Unshackled Russian 1200 - 1229
6 - 9am Russian 1200 - 1500
9 - 3pm Arabic 1500 - 2100
3 - 6pm French 2100 - 2100 [sic]
3 - 6pm German 2100 - 0000 [sic; both?]
6 - 9pm Spanish 0000 - 0300
9 - 9:29PM Unshackled Portuguese 0300 - 0329
9 - 12 midn Portuguese 0329 - 0600
12MN - 3am Yoruba 0600 - 0900
3 - 6am ChineseEnglish [sic] 0900 - 1200``
Note the new language, Yoruba! May be back on shortly part-time, but 12105 still missing at 1630 Sept 19 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 780, Sept 19 at 0603, WBBM in a fade so without nulling it I hear ``es la una, con tres minutos``, with a SAH of about 1 Hz; nulled, KSPI carrier is not on tonight. Must have just missed an ID, somewhere in the CDT zone (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 1570, Sept 19 at 0548 UT I am surprised to find a station in English, an interview discussing speaking Chinese, giving XERF a run for its money when nulled, making a fast SAH with it, before XERF fades back up. There are dozens of US stations allowed less than 1 kW at night, some watts in the double or even single-digits, but my wild guess as the most likely here is KBCV Hollister MO (address: Springfield) which somehow merits a hefty 3 kW at night, and is not that far away in the appropriate direxion. FCC AM Query shows night pattern with major lobe NW, minor lobe ESE, with nulls toward Del Rio and opposite; we are on the edge of the NW lobe westward from it. KBCV is a Bott religious station, i.e. the interview would be about missionary work (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 15252.5, Sept 19 at 1330, INTRUDER, Spanish SSB 2-way, but quite intermittent, making it hard to pinpoint frequency during brief transmissions, and I am not sure I got it right; back on at 1334 for a few more words (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BANGLADESH. 15105, Sept 19 at 1251, Bangladesh Betar is fair mentioning a ``Himalayan kingdom``, ending Sports Review, song. 1329 check, only a JBA carrier when should be on in Nepali.
15505, Sept 19 at 1400 opening music and Urdu already; just missed the IS if any and early timesignal. S9+12 with flutter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHAD. 6165, Sept 19 at 0530, news or at least talk in French, S9+12 holding its own against CKZN 6160.9. No doubt RNT is active today, as it seems to be quite sporadic (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake Sept 19, not full searches:
15485, good at 1307, het on hi side
15495, fair at 1328, he on hi side
15605, fair at 1327, with noise added, het on hi side
15615, poor at 1401 vs WEWN; see U S A
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COLOMBIA. 5910, Sept 19 at 0534, ``las 12, 34 minutos en Alcaraván Radio . . . 1530 en AM y 5910 en onda corta . . . en Colombia, Alcaraván Radio``, back to music. So they`ve set their clock! Note the spelling of the name and the order of the words, often misreported. Good signal in the clear (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 15340, Sept 19 at 1300, RHC strong signal but as usual lately, modulation severely suppressed. By 1306 must have kicked the transmitter (or wiggled that patchcord), as mod is back to normal, but HCJB still audible underneath (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CYPRUS. 17750-17774, Sept 19 at 1312, OTH radar pulsing, presumed from here, and exactly same sound on 18900-18925. At 1403, it`s more like 17747-17773, bothering a legitimate broadcaster on 17770 (Turkey in Arabic), and nothing around 18.9 MHz, but instead at 1404, 19818-19843 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, Sept 19 at 0544, open carrier with sesquikHz het, no doubt R. Africa vs ZYE522 (not 622 as in WRTH) on 15191.5v. It must be about to sign-on, so I roll tape hoping to catch a real ID, but it`s off again around 0550 and nothing back yet by 0600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUIANA FRENCH. 11995, Sept 19 at 0357, the open carrier with some hum from presumed TDF is on already. Next I need to listen to the RTI Spanish relay closing at 0300 whether they just leave the transmitter on after that. Still humming away at 0540, S9+10 above the CODAR swishes; steady with slight fades as to be expected from a southerly path vis-à-vis Turkey 11980 which was northerly fluttery (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN. 6055, Wed Sept 19 at 1314, R. Nikkei is in English for a biminute talking about the seasons and festival dates; 1316 briefly in Japanese, back to English, no doubt an advanced language lesson (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT. 15540, Sept 18 at 1959, R. Kuwait is a JBA carrier, and likewise from *2002 the Arabic service on 17550. By 2108 the latter has improved a bit to very poor. As summer is about to exit, so is the relatively reliable reception of R. Kuwait, and they are loath to make seasonal frequency changes (like down to 11990 which would help a lot). Maybe we will still have some good days for the 1800-2100 English, but vary a lot as they hit the night-path lowering MUF barrier on controlling first hop out of Kuwait. How is it in target Europe? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MAURITANIA. 7245, Wed Sept 19 at 0537, IGIM is on and chanting at S9+15 level but quite undermodulated (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 710, Sept 19 at 0557 UT, ``Soy Soldado``, the super-patriotic recitation some stations play for whom the belligerent national anthem is not enough, atop English station KGNC or KCMO. No doubt it`s XEDP Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, the usual prime XE on 710 here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 750, Sept 19 at 0559 UT weak music in WSB null, 0600 full ID for XHCSI 89.5 y XECSI 750, then choral NA. Cantú:
750 XECSI Éxtasis Digital + FM 89.5 Culiacán, Sin. 5,000 250
Not bad for 250 vs 50000 watts. Welcome to Sinaloa, Brother (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 1000, Sept 19 at 0559 UT, KTOK OKC is conveniently in dead air, allowing clear ``La Rancherita`` slogan to be heard especially when nulled, before KTOK remodulates just prior to 0600; i.e. XEFV Ciudad Juárez, Chih (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. Re my query about 1570 and 1530 in Tulsa market:
How lucky can I get?? Got off work early this afternoon, found your email re: 1570 KZLI, tuned into 1570 and promptly heard "ESPN Deportes Radio" jingle into a DUAL ID in English "KXTD 1530 Wagoner and KZLI 1570 Catoosa" into "SportsCenter" in Spanish. Glanced at the clock and realized I had stumbled onto the 1600 CDT 18SEP12 TOH ID. So it appears that 1530/1570 simulcast ESPN Deportes. The AM band in Tulsa now has 5 sports format stations: 1300 KAKC, 1430 KTBZ, 1530 KXTD, 1550 KYAL, and 1570 KZLI (3 English, 2 Spanish). 73, (Bruce Winkelman, Tulsa, OK, Sept 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOMALILAND. 7120, Sept 19 I start monitoring at 0300 since Ron Howard reported they had started a morning broadcast Sept 18, already on at 0339. So far just a lot of ham CW at various pitches, occasional longer carriers on and off, but more likely hams. Not much SSB QRM, just a few ``olás`` at 0310. Lining up BFO with 6120 RHC, waited and waited. Finally *0329:50 approximately on comes a sufficient carrier. And at 0335 some HOA vocal music starts.
Rated SINPO 23342; lots of atmospheric noise. The current lightning map for golfers athttp://www.weather.com/maps/activity/golf/uslightningstrikes_large.html?from=mapofweek
showed none at all in North America, except a few spots in NW Florida, and a lot across the NW Bahamas and the Straits of Florida.
At least there is little QRhaM now, except for some off-frequency keying at 0340. Rolled tape hoping to catch some ID, but not even an announcement. Reception gradually deteriorates lowering the S/N level. 0342 music changes from vocal to band, I think, maybe an anthem? 0350 singing again; just about gone and JBA by 0400. Maybe another night will be better if they keep running in their mornings.
Walt Salmaniw in BC was surprised not to be hearing it this date when I was getting it. But the short path from Hargeisa to Vancouver goes *much* further north thru the auroral zone than that to Enid. Toward Vancouver it crosses Tromsø, northern Norway, and northern tip of Greenland even beyond Thule, about 80 degrees latitude max. To Enid it`s no further north than 55 degrees in the north Atlantic. BTW, Hargaysa is quite close to Djibouti, if you want to compare reception with 4780.
7120, Sept 19 at 1405 check still no sign of it by longpath here, while 7110 Myanmar carrier was JBA.
BTW, Dave, G4ZOW of ``Transmitters `R` Us, Ltd.`` posted to the shortwaves yg Sept 17 that he will be going to Hargeisa to repair the old 25 kW ELCOR transmitter, installed 5 years ago but had antenna mismatch problems and has been off the air ever since; not sure why, but maybe to be backup to the new 100 kW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [and non]. 11880 via CR, // much weaker REE 15585 direct and a sextasecond ahead, Sept 19 at 1306, opening theme music of `Españoles en la Mar` so the program is back today after missing yesterday during this hour, into nautical news (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 15610, Sept 18 at 2003, WEWN is very strong, must be getting HF sporadic-E boost; often applies to 15825 WWCR as well, same distance in a somewhat different direxion, but not this time, still quite weak. Of course, WWCR is often running much less than full rated 100 kW. 15550-USB, WJHR, a closer neighbor to WEWN on the other side, was sufficient.
15615, Sept 19 at 1401, weak WEWN suffering from co-channel Firedrake, added ChiCom noise jamming, and idling het/fax from Australian weather service. Not a good frequency pick (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 12105, why has WTWW-3 been absent so much recently? George McClintock tells me that programming is being reconfigured, and a new more accurate schedule has been put up, but not necessarily on the air yet 24 hours. Since the times show a 6-hour difference between Central and UT, does ``shortly`` mean from the beginning of November? If applicable before then, which times are we to believe during DST with 5 hour difference? Probably the Central column.
``Transmitter 3 Scripture readings 12.105 Mhz
New schedule to start shortly:
Central UTC
6 - 6:29am Unshackled Russian 1200 - 1229
6 - 9am Russian 1200 - 1500
9 - 3pm Arabic 1500 - 2100
3 - 6pm French 2100 - 2100 [sic]
3 - 6pm German 2100 - 0000 [sic; both?]
6 - 9pm Spanish 0000 - 0300
9 - 9:29PM Unshackled Portuguese 0300 - 0329
9 - 12 midn Portuguese 0329 - 0600
12MN - 3am Yoruba 0600 - 0900
3 - 6am ChineseEnglish [sic] 0900 - 1200``
Note the new language, Yoruba! May be back on shortly part-time, but 12105 still missing at 1630 Sept 19 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 780, Sept 19 at 0603, WBBM in a fade so without nulling it I hear ``es la una, con tres minutos``, with a SAH of about 1 Hz; nulled, KSPI carrier is not on tonight. Must have just missed an ID, somewhere in the CDT zone (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 1570, Sept 19 at 0548 UT I am surprised to find a station in English, an interview discussing speaking Chinese, giving XERF a run for its money when nulled, making a fast SAH with it, before XERF fades back up. There are dozens of US stations allowed less than 1 kW at night, some watts in the double or even single-digits, but my wild guess as the most likely here is KBCV Hollister MO (address: Springfield) which somehow merits a hefty 3 kW at night, and is not that far away in the appropriate direxion. FCC AM Query shows night pattern with major lobe NW, minor lobe ESE, with nulls toward Del Rio and opposite; we are on the edge of the NW lobe westward from it. KBCV is a Bott religious station, i.e. the interview would be about missionary work (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 15252.5, Sept 19 at 1330, INTRUDER, Spanish SSB 2-way, but quite intermittent, making it hard to pinpoint frequency during brief transmissions, and I am not sure I got it right; back on at 1334 for a few more words (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)