** ALGERIA [non]. 7295, Oct 11 at 0514 UT, poor signal in Qur`an from RTA via FRANCE; also intermittent het, presumably from an AM ham disturbed by RTA appearing on his favorite frequency. At least RTA is audible again, but propagation still hasn`t fully recovered, and inaudible on // 9535 (nothing much but REE/CR 9630 on 31m!), but Ivo Ivanov, Bulgaria, observed that RTA had a separate, unID Arabic service on 9535 during this same hour, not // 7295; which is it?
Meanwhile, 7275 Tunisia had better signal but weaker modulation than 7295; and 7245 Mauritania still missing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BANGLADESH. 15105, Oct 11 at 1255, BB English very poor with flutter. Ivo Ivanov agrees that the Nepali at 1315 has been absent.
15505, Oct 11 at 1359, JBA carrier has just come on, presumably BB; can`t even make out IS or TS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 6180, Oct 11 at 0515, RNA with VG signal, but music is distorted since they messed with their audio processing; // 11780 is JBA. Maybe should call this RNB, as others have reported Brasília programming much of the time rather than Amazônia, and I haven`t really heard a specific ID (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. 740, Oct 11 at 0528 UT under KRMG is ``Don`t Sit Under the Apple Tree``, WWII (or WWI?) song, also making a SAH of about 7 Hz. Hard to imagine this being anything but CFZM Toronto, with NOStalgia format. NRC AM Log shows only a few other very weak and very far stations on 740 with that. As if trying to compensate for absence of CFRX from Toronto; never mind CFRB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. 6070, Oct 11 at 0517, no signal, not even a carrier from CFRX Toronto. While higher bands were blacked out, still getting other Canadians well on 6110, 6160, 6160.9, so suspect CFRX off the air; altho it is considerably closer than any of them vs possibly disrupted, expanded skip zone. Europe was still in too, e.g. Austria 6155, and Africa, Chad 6165. Anyhow, CFRX could be heard again at 1252 with Canadian-accented discussion aboot Lance Armstrong, cost of elexion campaigns (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. 6175 & 9555, Oct 11 at 0515, cannot hear VOV relay on either frequency --- which means it is probably on correct 9555 tonight, just not propagating, as Sackville NHK was inbooming on 6110 and 31m had REE CR as the OSOB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHAD. 6165, Oct 11 at 0516, fair signal in French news from RNT. Brian Alexander and Ron Howard have observed this one cutting on and off the air at unpredictable times (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake Oct 11, before 1300:
15550, very poor at 1254; none in the 17s, 16s, 14s, 13s, 12s
Propagation over hi-latitude paths is still quite degraded
After 1300:
9680, poor at 1307, while not much else co-channel instead of usual collision of RTI, CNR1 jamming, RRI; same at 1349
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 6010, Oct 11 at 0532, RHC English `news` audio is breaking up, unlike on // 6050, 6060, 6125.
17580, Oct 11 at 1256, very good RHC signal, but modulation very suppressed; surprised this is not causing spurs to be squeezed out all over the band. 1313 recheck, modulation almost fixed, OK level but somewhat distorted. And now, 17580 is louder than // 17730 with low but not distorted modulation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, Oct 10 at 1956 I find R. Africa is in a rut --- in fact a loop, repeating over and over a syllable that sounds like ``dan`` and occasionally with some other sound. Can`t figure out the period of the loop, or be certain of the original language. Goes on the same until 2006 when stops and then a YL preacher in French! Occasional hiccups but audio otherwise OK. Stops at 2019:50, no ID or sign-off, and carrier off at 2020:20*.
(Harold Frodge, MI, had observed a similar problem at 1645-1700 4 October: ``Still huxtering with same segment repeated every 30 seconds from tune-in; a stuck huxter. (And, I listened to it for 15 minutes. What a hobby!)`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1638, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 790, Oct 11 at 1238 UT, Spanish talk mentioning Sabinas, Coahuila, Funerario Martínez, discussing politics; loops SSW. Perhaps they were referring to the theft of the corpse of Heriberto Lazcano, founder of the brutal Los Zetas gang, from a funeral home, but checking several press reports about it, I don`t find the name or even the town where this happened, somewhere in Coahuila. There is a mortuary by that name in Sabinas (and elsewhere), but no Sabinas station on 790.
Tentatively this one from direxion and talk format, per Cantú:
790 XEGZ Milenio Radio + FM 99.5 Torreón, Coah. 1,000 1,000
IRCA Mexican log says that transmitter site is across the state line in twin city Gómez Palacio, Durango (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 960, UT Thursday Oct 11 is another dead-air day for KGWA Enid at 0500: see U S A for log of something else (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PHILIPPINES. 9430, Oct 11 at 1352, FEBC Chinese with Firedrake QRM? No, it`s Firedrake-like background music on their own program; a bit later changed to Beethoven in the background (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7506.4, Oct 11 at 0225, presumed WRNO is still a very poor signal instead of the usual blowtorch, so mismodulation can`t even be evaluated. Assumed previous nights that this was taken out by propagation disturbances, but now I am wondering it they are really on much reduced power? Also suspect my measurement of 7506.8 was a miscalculation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9980, Thursday Oct 11 at 1304 I am getting Brother Scare overload on various 31m band frequencies, because WWCR-4 is already up and running on 9980: much stronger than via non-synchronized WWRB 9370. WWCR website shows 9980 available as early as 1200, but the program schedule dated 1 Oct shows not used until 1400 on weekdays, 1500 on weekends. Oh, yeah? And the transmitter schedule is effective Oct 7, so there must have been some change to that. Not sure what, but maybe a 1-hour shift in some of the QSY times (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1638 monitoring: completed in time for first airing on WRMI, UT Thursday Oct 11 at 0330 on 9955: confirmed on webcast, but only mixture of bubble and pulse jamming, rather than full wall-of-noise, on 9955. Try again and again: Sat 0800, 1500, 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, Mon 0500, Tue 1100=new.
Or on WTWW: Thu 2100 on 9479, UT Sun 0400 on 5745
Or WWRB: UT Fri 0330v on 5050 --- if they manage to play it this week
Or Area 51 via WBCQ: UT Sat 0130v on 5110v-CUSB
Or HLR: Sat 0630 & 1630 on 7265; Tue 0930 on 5980
Or WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1730, Sun 0830
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9955, Oct 11 at 1345, very poor signal but recognizable as Jeff White narrating some radio history item, so must be `Wavescan` on WRMI, as now scheduled Thursdays at 1330, a recent change. Need to update my DX/SWL/Media programs schedule. No jamming audible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 600, Oct 11 at 0523 UT, `Coast to Coast AM` from two stations about one second apart, very annoying. One is certainly the usual WMT Cedar Rapids IA; NRC AM Log shows four other affiliates and so does the C2C website: we can rule out KVNA AZ which is 48 watts at night and doesn`t join in until 0607 UT. Also unlikely is faraway KOGO San Diego. That leaves KCOL in Wellington CO, and WREC in Memphis TN, the latter with a 10x power advantage. KCOL also has a deep null toward us and Memphis, while WREC is a tangent circle to the southwest, but not a full null toward here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 730, Oct 11 at 0508 UT, ``Hot Soul in the Summertime, 730 KKDA`` momentarily atop XEX Spanish sports talk, which soon resurged, fast SAH between them. They are apparently unaware that nowhere in the world is it summertime, including Grand Prairie TX: a station on autopilot. Will they still be playing this after December 21 too? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 960, Oct 11 at 0500 UT, local KGWA again provides a Fox-hole this UT Thursday, so nulling its strong open carrier, this time there is something besides ABC News from KMA et al., instead some jazz music, and ID in passing sounds like ``WKZG-AM``. Checking NRC AM Log later, the closest match is WABG in Greenwood MS with has a talk/blues format, 500 watts at night. I bet that`s it! FCC AM Query shows its night-only direxional pattern is mainly south but a minor lobe at 285 degrees towards here:
http://transition.fcc.gov/ftp/Bureaus/MB/Databases/AM_DA_patterns/708653-80603.pdf
(Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1030, UT Oct 11 at 0225, KCTA is back with hummy open carrier, altho had been missing night before at 0559 UT. And Oct 11 at 0505 check, also not heard. So they are still running it past legal daytimer-only sign-off, but not as late (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1260, Oct 11 at 1246 UT, banda music again, and this time a definite slogan ID at 1247 as ``La Reina``, and 7:47 TC, so now it`s definitely KDLF in Boone IA, which on day power of 5 kW (officially starting at 1230 UT in Oct, 1300 in Nov), aims at us with major lobe to the southwest, but also sufficient signal to its SE to cover Des Moines (a.k.a. De Los Monjes) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1420, Oct 11 at 1325 and still 1336 UT, Laura Ingraham show about weight loss rather than politix. Affiliate list shows only one around here with her on this early is: KBHS Hot Springs AR. Format must have changed from NRC AM Log 2012 as C&W - Classic Country, 5 kW in daytime and non-direxional. Seemed to be ENE/WSW, but DF on the DX-398 must have been skewed from ESE/WNW. She`s also on 1.5 kW KTAN Sierra Vista AZ, from 13 UT, which is more like WSW, but I doubt it would be dominant this late; daytime non-direxional 1.5 kW is supposed to start at 1330 UT in October (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1430, Oct 11 at 1325 UT, ``KZQZ, where the oldies sound best``, St. Louis MO. No sign of KTBZ Tulsa or KALV Alva OK (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VIETNAM. 12000, Oct 11 at 1259, S9+20 open carrier; after timesignal bleedover from 11990 CNR1 jammer, at 1300-sharp sign-on VOV in Chinese ``Viet Nam zhisheng guangbo diantai`` or something like that; had been in pause after Russian service on same azimuth 27 degrees from 100 kW Hanoi-Sontay site, also USward. No jamming audible from Cuba or China, nice clear signal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Meanwhile, 7275 Tunisia had better signal but weaker modulation than 7295; and 7245 Mauritania still missing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BANGLADESH. 15105, Oct 11 at 1255, BB English very poor with flutter. Ivo Ivanov agrees that the Nepali at 1315 has been absent.
15505, Oct 11 at 1359, JBA carrier has just come on, presumably BB; can`t even make out IS or TS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 6180, Oct 11 at 0515, RNA with VG signal, but music is distorted since they messed with their audio processing; // 11780 is JBA. Maybe should call this RNB, as others have reported Brasília programming much of the time rather than Amazônia, and I haven`t really heard a specific ID (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. 740, Oct 11 at 0528 UT under KRMG is ``Don`t Sit Under the Apple Tree``, WWII (or WWI?) song, also making a SAH of about 7 Hz. Hard to imagine this being anything but CFZM Toronto, with NOStalgia format. NRC AM Log shows only a few other very weak and very far stations on 740 with that. As if trying to compensate for absence of CFRX from Toronto; never mind CFRB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. 6070, Oct 11 at 0517, no signal, not even a carrier from CFRX Toronto. While higher bands were blacked out, still getting other Canadians well on 6110, 6160, 6160.9, so suspect CFRX off the air; altho it is considerably closer than any of them vs possibly disrupted, expanded skip zone. Europe was still in too, e.g. Austria 6155, and Africa, Chad 6165. Anyhow, CFRX could be heard again at 1252 with Canadian-accented discussion aboot Lance Armstrong, cost of elexion campaigns (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. 6175 & 9555, Oct 11 at 0515, cannot hear VOV relay on either frequency --- which means it is probably on correct 9555 tonight, just not propagating, as Sackville NHK was inbooming on 6110 and 31m had REE CR as the OSOB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHAD. 6165, Oct 11 at 0516, fair signal in French news from RNT. Brian Alexander and Ron Howard have observed this one cutting on and off the air at unpredictable times (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake Oct 11, before 1300:
15550, very poor at 1254; none in the 17s, 16s, 14s, 13s, 12s
Propagation over hi-latitude paths is still quite degraded
After 1300:
9680, poor at 1307, while not much else co-channel instead of usual collision of RTI, CNR1 jamming, RRI; same at 1349
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 6010, Oct 11 at 0532, RHC English `news` audio is breaking up, unlike on // 6050, 6060, 6125.
17580, Oct 11 at 1256, very good RHC signal, but modulation very suppressed; surprised this is not causing spurs to be squeezed out all over the band. 1313 recheck, modulation almost fixed, OK level but somewhat distorted. And now, 17580 is louder than // 17730 with low but not distorted modulation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, Oct 10 at 1956 I find R. Africa is in a rut --- in fact a loop, repeating over and over a syllable that sounds like ``dan`` and occasionally with some other sound. Can`t figure out the period of the loop, or be certain of the original language. Goes on the same until 2006 when stops and then a YL preacher in French! Occasional hiccups but audio otherwise OK. Stops at 2019:50, no ID or sign-off, and carrier off at 2020:20*.
(Harold Frodge, MI, had observed a similar problem at 1645-1700 4 October: ``Still huxtering with same segment repeated every 30 seconds from tune-in; a stuck huxter. (And, I listened to it for 15 minutes. What a hobby!)`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1638, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 790, Oct 11 at 1238 UT, Spanish talk mentioning Sabinas, Coahuila, Funerario Martínez, discussing politics; loops SSW. Perhaps they were referring to the theft of the corpse of Heriberto Lazcano, founder of the brutal Los Zetas gang, from a funeral home, but checking several press reports about it, I don`t find the name or even the town where this happened, somewhere in Coahuila. There is a mortuary by that name in Sabinas (and elsewhere), but no Sabinas station on 790.
Tentatively this one from direxion and talk format, per Cantú:
790 XEGZ Milenio Radio + FM 99.5 Torreón, Coah. 1,000 1,000
IRCA Mexican log says that transmitter site is across the state line in twin city Gómez Palacio, Durango (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 960, UT Thursday Oct 11 is another dead-air day for KGWA Enid at 0500: see U S A for log of something else (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PHILIPPINES. 9430, Oct 11 at 1352, FEBC Chinese with Firedrake QRM? No, it`s Firedrake-like background music on their own program; a bit later changed to Beethoven in the background (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7506.4, Oct 11 at 0225, presumed WRNO is still a very poor signal instead of the usual blowtorch, so mismodulation can`t even be evaluated. Assumed previous nights that this was taken out by propagation disturbances, but now I am wondering it they are really on much reduced power? Also suspect my measurement of 7506.8 was a miscalculation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9980, Thursday Oct 11 at 1304 I am getting Brother Scare overload on various 31m band frequencies, because WWCR-4 is already up and running on 9980: much stronger than via non-synchronized WWRB 9370. WWCR website shows 9980 available as early as 1200, but the program schedule dated 1 Oct shows not used until 1400 on weekdays, 1500 on weekends. Oh, yeah? And the transmitter schedule is effective Oct 7, so there must have been some change to that. Not sure what, but maybe a 1-hour shift in some of the QSY times (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1638 monitoring: completed in time for first airing on WRMI, UT Thursday Oct 11 at 0330 on 9955: confirmed on webcast, but only mixture of bubble and pulse jamming, rather than full wall-of-noise, on 9955. Try again and again: Sat 0800, 1500, 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, Mon 0500, Tue 1100=new.
Or on WTWW: Thu 2100 on 9479, UT Sun 0400 on 5745
Or WWRB: UT Fri 0330v on 5050 --- if they manage to play it this week
Or Area 51 via WBCQ: UT Sat 0130v on 5110v-CUSB
Or HLR: Sat 0630 & 1630 on 7265; Tue 0930 on 5980
Or WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1730, Sun 0830
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9955, Oct 11 at 1345, very poor signal but recognizable as Jeff White narrating some radio history item, so must be `Wavescan` on WRMI, as now scheduled Thursdays at 1330, a recent change. Need to update my DX/SWL/Media programs schedule. No jamming audible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 600, Oct 11 at 0523 UT, `Coast to Coast AM` from two stations about one second apart, very annoying. One is certainly the usual WMT Cedar Rapids IA; NRC AM Log shows four other affiliates and so does the C2C website: we can rule out KVNA AZ which is 48 watts at night and doesn`t join in until 0607 UT. Also unlikely is faraway KOGO San Diego. That leaves KCOL in Wellington CO, and WREC in Memphis TN, the latter with a 10x power advantage. KCOL also has a deep null toward us and Memphis, while WREC is a tangent circle to the southwest, but not a full null toward here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 730, Oct 11 at 0508 UT, ``Hot Soul in the Summertime, 730 KKDA`` momentarily atop XEX Spanish sports talk, which soon resurged, fast SAH between them. They are apparently unaware that nowhere in the world is it summertime, including Grand Prairie TX: a station on autopilot. Will they still be playing this after December 21 too? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 960, Oct 11 at 0500 UT, local KGWA again provides a Fox-hole this UT Thursday, so nulling its strong open carrier, this time there is something besides ABC News from KMA et al., instead some jazz music, and ID in passing sounds like ``WKZG-AM``. Checking NRC AM Log later, the closest match is WABG in Greenwood MS with has a talk/blues format, 500 watts at night. I bet that`s it! FCC AM Query shows its night-only direxional pattern is mainly south but a minor lobe at 285 degrees towards here:
http://transition.fcc.gov/ftp/Bureaus/MB/Databases/AM_DA_patterns/708653-80603.pdf
(Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1030, UT Oct 11 at 0225, KCTA is back with hummy open carrier, altho had been missing night before at 0559 UT. And Oct 11 at 0505 check, also not heard. So they are still running it past legal daytimer-only sign-off, but not as late (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1260, Oct 11 at 1246 UT, banda music again, and this time a definite slogan ID at 1247 as ``La Reina``, and 7:47 TC, so now it`s definitely KDLF in Boone IA, which on day power of 5 kW (officially starting at 1230 UT in Oct, 1300 in Nov), aims at us with major lobe to the southwest, but also sufficient signal to its SE to cover Des Moines (a.k.a. De Los Monjes) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1420, Oct 11 at 1325 and still 1336 UT, Laura Ingraham show about weight loss rather than politix. Affiliate list shows only one around here with her on this early is: KBHS Hot Springs AR. Format must have changed from NRC AM Log 2012 as C&W - Classic Country, 5 kW in daytime and non-direxional. Seemed to be ENE/WSW, but DF on the DX-398 must have been skewed from ESE/WNW. She`s also on 1.5 kW KTAN Sierra Vista AZ, from 13 UT, which is more like WSW, but I doubt it would be dominant this late; daytime non-direxional 1.5 kW is supposed to start at 1330 UT in October (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1430, Oct 11 at 1325 UT, ``KZQZ, where the oldies sound best``, St. Louis MO. No sign of KTBZ Tulsa or KALV Alva OK (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VIETNAM. 12000, Oct 11 at 1259, S9+20 open carrier; after timesignal bleedover from 11990 CNR1 jammer, at 1300-sharp sign-on VOV in Chinese ``Viet Nam zhisheng guangbo diantai`` or something like that; had been in pause after Russian service on same azimuth 27 degrees from 100 kW Hanoi-Sontay site, also USward. No jamming audible from Cuba or China, nice clear signal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
