** ALGERIA [non]. 7295, Oct 4 at *0359:50 RTA relay via FRANCE, cut on joining brief NA by military band, VG signal, announcement by YL in Arabic, stinger. Day 4 of the reactivated service (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ANTARCTICA. 15476, no trace of LRA36 carrier, Oct 4 at 1316 or after 1400, despite being a Thursday with rumors of reactivation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BANGLADESH. 15105, Oct 4 at 1238, very poor signal but I can tell that Bangladesh Betar is on today; a little better at 1255 in English with hum. As usual, no sign of it after 1315; has the Nepali service been dropped permanently or maybe moved to 7 MHz, which ought to suffice over a short night path?
15505, Oct 4 at 1400, Urdu is starting as it more reliably does (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 6180, Oct 4 at 0457, RNA reactivated after absence for a week or so, but abnormally poor signal I had to // 11780 to be sure, way weaker than Vietnam/Canada 6175 and also weaker even than Mexico 6185 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. 6175, Oct 4 at 0457, VOV Vietnamese is again stuck here instead of 9555. Now I am wondering if they are deliberately attempting to stay on lower more reliable 6175 for the rest of Sackville`s autumn existence. Latest HFCC 3 Oct still shows 9555 in effect until 28 Oct (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake Oct 4, before 1300:
17250, very poor at 1245, and QRM from Cuban spur on lo side, q.v.
16920, fair at 1252; none in the 18s
16600, good at 1252 with flutter
15555, good at 1254 with flutter
14700, very good at 1255
13530, very good at 1256
12980, very good at 1256; none in the 11s, 10s, 8s, 7s
After 1300:
9680, poor at 1310, and not much else CCI, RRI and/or RTI/CNR gone? But heavy ACI from 9675 and 9685
15485, fair at 1317
15565, poor at 1317
After 1400:
17570, poor at 1426, with V. of Tibet, Madagascar, axually on top!
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. RHC`s multiple-spur producing 17580 transmitter was back in whack yesterday, but resumed today Oct 4 checked after 1243: all spurs have that whine of same constant pitch, and more of them this time, than last time, also have some *Spanish modulation when tuned in AM mode, while with BFO they are nothing but squishy FMy blobs. Approximate displacement is 56 kHz above and below, putting the primary and strongest ones on *17636 and *17524.
Below, also audible circa: 17468, *17412, 17356, [but none on 17300??], *17244 QRMing Firedrake on 17250, 17188, 17132.
Above: *17692, 17748, 17804, [but none on 17860?? --- like the fifth order 17300 on the lo side, why?], *17916, [not heard on 17972 either], 18028-barely audible.
The 9540 RHC spur-transmitter tries to compete, but only manages a weak, squishy blob circa 9525 vs no VOI, at 1312 Oct 4, and same sounding thing circa 9555, while 9540 itself has heavy CCCCCCI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 870, Oct 4 at 1217 UT, XETAR, Guachochi, Chihuahua, La Voz de la Sierra Tarahumara, with numerous IDs in passing, ``Espacio 870``, local music and announcements only in Spanish while I listened briefly. Fair and clear signal, no QRM. XETAR is now an oddity with no // FM outlet to announce with priority. I hope they stick with AM!
Many of the other SRS regulars were in, such as 620, 650 (XETNT), 710, 730, which I don`t always bother to relog unless I capture an interesting detail which might be of ID help later to others (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA [and non]. 960, Oct 4 at 0500 UT, local KGWA Enid defaults to deadair again for a pentaminute instead of midnight network news, noticed at 0503 so I hasten to null it, turn up the volume and try to ID something else. This time there is an interview, but maybe just part of ABC news via KMA; and also some music, possibly Mexican before KGWA remodulates with a local ad blasting on at 0505. Perhaps the holes of silence depend on day of week in the automation programming. Last night, UT Wednesday, there was none (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOMALILAND. 7120, Oct 4 carrier on at *0331.3 from R. Hargeisa; Qur`an starts around 0333.6; at 0350 I notice an extended talk portion. I see that today`s Aoki shows this as 04-07 irregular & 15-19, despite numerous reports confirming that it starts around 0330 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN. 21610, Thursday Oct 4 at 1251, REE is really in Basque today instead of defaulting to Spanish.
[and non] 21540, Oct 4 at 1434, R. Kuwait has built up to very good signal with Qur`an on this poached frequency which they continue to register as ``21520``, and as usual with co-channel interference making a SAH of about 5 Hz from a much weaker signal: but it`s enough to tell that it is NOT // Spain on 21610 (or 17595)!
Altho can`t copy the understation or even be positive of the language, it`s a woman`s voice or at 1439 even music, while 21610 is a man`s voice. It`s hard to imagine any other station butting into this collision, so there must be some other explanation, like Spain not running // programming at this time for some reason.
Checking the official program grid,
http://www.rtve.es/radio/radio-exterior/programacion/
there are certain blocks with alternative programming, and this is one of them if you roll over: `Paisajes y Sabores` or `Africa Hoy` L-V at 1430. 21540 must be the latter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN. 7200, Oct 4 at 0354 Arabish but cut off already at 0355:20*. Is this typical of Khartoum? Aoki shows 0200-0430, but it`s also wrong about time for Hargeisa, q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. VOA promoed that it would be broadcasting live the first presidential debate at 0100 UT Thursday October 4 --- on voanews.com and also ``on shortwave radio``, without any details. It might call for special transmission from Greenville, whence English to the Americas was abolished long ago, but scanning all the bands, nothing found, and the regular Spe-cial Eng-lish frequencies at 0130, 7465 and 9820, came up as usual with S.E., not the debate. I suppose this was aired live on SW mainly to Asia where there are already some morning transmissions, hopefully extended as necessary to include the entire sesquihour?
WRTH A-12 update shows not much, and each only for portions of the 0100-0230 period: 1593 Kuwait, 7430 Kuwait, 9780 Sri Lanka, 11705 Thailand. Hope we can get complete accurate info about VOA SW frequencies everywhere ahead of the remaining three debates. BTW, R. Martí was not carrying the debate either, in any language.
I also recall from four years ago that REE Spain surprisingly carried the US debates live in translation, but not this time, regular programming on 6055, 9535, etc.
The USA also has several private SW stations which have some flexibility and might have considered airing the debate as a public service, but pre-empting regular programming (or in the case of WHRI, turning on a normally silent transmitter). A quick tune thru all the SW bands found absolutely Zilch. So much for public service. If anyone did hear the debate on a US SW station I missed, please let us know!
Shortly after 0100 UT, I also tuned across the AM and FM bands, and found the following stations airing the debate; not a complete list, but those with obvious bigsigs vs the TV and computer noise which had not been turned off:
KOKC 1520, KRLD-1080, WHO-1040, KMBZ-980 (presumed), WLS-890, WWL-870, KOA-850, WHAS-840, WCCO-830, WBAP-820, WBBM-780, WSB-750, KRMG-740, WGN-720, KCMO-710 (or maybe KGNC). Notable was WLW-700 staying with baseball, and many other stations sticking to whatever format. On FM it was much worse, the *only* one being KOSU 91.7, which thought it important enough to pre-empt its usual ``The Spy`` nonsense after 7 pm. Everyone else stuck to gospel-huxtering, rock or country music, sports, etc.
And I checked the TV networks available on extended basic cable here: NBC, ABC, Fox, CBS, PBS, CSPAN 1, CSPAN 2, CNN, Fox News, CNBC, Univisión (in squeeze-o-vision, why??), MSNBC. A few others which should have run it did not: BET, Telemundo. I was not watching CNN, but noticed later that they were displaying instant-reaxion metrix at screenbottom (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 17530, Oct 4 at 1426 VOA Music Mix ID but underneath much stronger carrier with some crackle, producing fast SAH. At 1431, now only one signal with VOA news. Most likely the carrier a warm-up test from Greenville, which does not really start 17530 until 1700 in Portuguese, but it really ought to do this on a separate frequency so as not to QRM VOA via São Tomé at 1400-1500. In between, Vatican relay is scheduled at 1500-1530 in Hausa, but such warmups are not typical of SMG; and also Wertachtal adds another semihour of Portuguese from 1630, but only on Fridays and this is Thursday. See also UNIDENTIFIED: 17520
17870, Oct 4 at 1429, SW Asian language, mentions Washington, and long-path echo. HFCC shows VOA Kurdish, 250 kW, 120 degrees from Wertachtal, GERMANY at 1400-1500.
Off the back USward would be 300 degrees, with most of the signal pushed toward the long path. It so happens this transmission is within a degree or two of being exactly opposite from us, altho the 120 azimuth from Wertachtal is toward Jerusalem, considerably missing Kurdistan further north. It exits Asia across the Arabian peninsula, grazes the NE tip of the Horn of Africa, then all over-water across the Indian Ocean, way south of Australia & New Zealand, up across the Pacific hitting North America across Sinaloa. Short path is approx. 5100 miles, so long path is 19800 miles, which is 14700 miles further, for a delay at the speed of radio of 0.079 second. Usual proviso about being slightly further bouncing off the ionosphere than all at sea level (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1637: ready for first airing on WRMI 9955, UT Thursday Oct 4 at 0330: as usual, totally blocked by wall-of-noise jamming. Tnx a lot, Arnie! Repeats on WRMI: Sat 0800, 1500, 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, Mon 0500, 1130.
On WTWW: Thu 2100 on 9479, UT Sun 0400 on 5745
On WWRB: UT Fri 0330v on 5050 (resumed last week)
On Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB: UT Sat 0130v (last week, 0135)
On Hamburger Lokalradio: Sat 0630 & 1630 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 [non]. 17605, Oct 4 at 1430, AWR ID in English, introducing Afar, VG signal, then nice HOA music. Is 300 kW, 145 degrees from AUSTRIA. Before 1400 this frequency bears an equally good signal from YFR Burmese, presumably still substitute Pridnestrovye site instead of Uzbekistan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 1030, Oct 4 at 0502 UT, the open carrier with hum from the south is still here, presumed KCTA 50 kW non-direxional daytimer Corpus Christi TX. Maybe they won`t notice until they get the next electric bill. Meanwhile, why don`t the FCC and other 1030 stations operating legally jump on them? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 7205, Oct 4 at 0357 two stations making fast SAH, and also some broadcast on 7185. I assume Ethiopia and/or Eritrea, no way to sort them out (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 17520, Oct 4 at 1432, open carrier. Aoki shows the only thing scheduled is R. Pakistan in Urdu at 1330-1530, 250 kW, 312 degrees from API-6 Islamabad, but I seriously doubt that. HFCC lists 282 degrees instead, and also Vatican, 250 kW, 45 degrees from Madagascar. The latter would be much more likely here propagationally, even off the side, except this transmission expired 26 August. Yet another possibility is Greenville testing, shifting off 17530 a few minutes earlier, where it was clashing with São Tomé; see U S A [and non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ANTARCTICA. 15476, no trace of LRA36 carrier, Oct 4 at 1316 or after 1400, despite being a Thursday with rumors of reactivation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BANGLADESH. 15105, Oct 4 at 1238, very poor signal but I can tell that Bangladesh Betar is on today; a little better at 1255 in English with hum. As usual, no sign of it after 1315; has the Nepali service been dropped permanently or maybe moved to 7 MHz, which ought to suffice over a short night path?
15505, Oct 4 at 1400, Urdu is starting as it more reliably does (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 6180, Oct 4 at 0457, RNA reactivated after absence for a week or so, but abnormally poor signal I had to // 11780 to be sure, way weaker than Vietnam/Canada 6175 and also weaker even than Mexico 6185 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. 6175, Oct 4 at 0457, VOV Vietnamese is again stuck here instead of 9555. Now I am wondering if they are deliberately attempting to stay on lower more reliable 6175 for the rest of Sackville`s autumn existence. Latest HFCC 3 Oct still shows 9555 in effect until 28 Oct (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake Oct 4, before 1300:
17250, very poor at 1245, and QRM from Cuban spur on lo side, q.v.
16920, fair at 1252; none in the 18s
16600, good at 1252 with flutter
15555, good at 1254 with flutter
14700, very good at 1255
13530, very good at 1256
12980, very good at 1256; none in the 11s, 10s, 8s, 7s
After 1300:
9680, poor at 1310, and not much else CCI, RRI and/or RTI/CNR gone? But heavy ACI from 9675 and 9685
15485, fair at 1317
15565, poor at 1317
After 1400:
17570, poor at 1426, with V. of Tibet, Madagascar, axually on top!
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. RHC`s multiple-spur producing 17580 transmitter was back in whack yesterday, but resumed today Oct 4 checked after 1243: all spurs have that whine of same constant pitch, and more of them this time, than last time, also have some *Spanish modulation when tuned in AM mode, while with BFO they are nothing but squishy FMy blobs. Approximate displacement is 56 kHz above and below, putting the primary and strongest ones on *17636 and *17524.
Below, also audible circa: 17468, *17412, 17356, [but none on 17300??], *17244 QRMing Firedrake on 17250, 17188, 17132.
Above: *17692, 17748, 17804, [but none on 17860?? --- like the fifth order 17300 on the lo side, why?], *17916, [not heard on 17972 either], 18028-barely audible.
The 9540 RHC spur-transmitter tries to compete, but only manages a weak, squishy blob circa 9525 vs no VOI, at 1312 Oct 4, and same sounding thing circa 9555, while 9540 itself has heavy CCCCCCI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 870, Oct 4 at 1217 UT, XETAR, Guachochi, Chihuahua, La Voz de la Sierra Tarahumara, with numerous IDs in passing, ``Espacio 870``, local music and announcements only in Spanish while I listened briefly. Fair and clear signal, no QRM. XETAR is now an oddity with no // FM outlet to announce with priority. I hope they stick with AM!
Many of the other SRS regulars were in, such as 620, 650 (XETNT), 710, 730, which I don`t always bother to relog unless I capture an interesting detail which might be of ID help later to others (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA [and non]. 960, Oct 4 at 0500 UT, local KGWA Enid defaults to deadair again for a pentaminute instead of midnight network news, noticed at 0503 so I hasten to null it, turn up the volume and try to ID something else. This time there is an interview, but maybe just part of ABC news via KMA; and also some music, possibly Mexican before KGWA remodulates with a local ad blasting on at 0505. Perhaps the holes of silence depend on day of week in the automation programming. Last night, UT Wednesday, there was none (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOMALILAND. 7120, Oct 4 carrier on at *0331.3 from R. Hargeisa; Qur`an starts around 0333.6; at 0350 I notice an extended talk portion. I see that today`s Aoki shows this as 04-07 irregular & 15-19, despite numerous reports confirming that it starts around 0330 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN. 21610, Thursday Oct 4 at 1251, REE is really in Basque today instead of defaulting to Spanish.
[and non] 21540, Oct 4 at 1434, R. Kuwait has built up to very good signal with Qur`an on this poached frequency which they continue to register as ``21520``, and as usual with co-channel interference making a SAH of about 5 Hz from a much weaker signal: but it`s enough to tell that it is NOT // Spain on 21610 (or 17595)!
Altho can`t copy the understation or even be positive of the language, it`s a woman`s voice or at 1439 even music, while 21610 is a man`s voice. It`s hard to imagine any other station butting into this collision, so there must be some other explanation, like Spain not running // programming at this time for some reason.
Checking the official program grid,
http://www.rtve.es/radio/radio-exterior/programacion/
there are certain blocks with alternative programming, and this is one of them if you roll over: `Paisajes y Sabores` or `Africa Hoy` L-V at 1430. 21540 must be the latter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN. 7200, Oct 4 at 0354 Arabish but cut off already at 0355:20*. Is this typical of Khartoum? Aoki shows 0200-0430, but it`s also wrong about time for Hargeisa, q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. VOA promoed that it would be broadcasting live the first presidential debate at 0100 UT Thursday October 4 --- on voanews.com and also ``on shortwave radio``, without any details. It might call for special transmission from Greenville, whence English to the Americas was abolished long ago, but scanning all the bands, nothing found, and the regular Spe-cial Eng-lish frequencies at 0130, 7465 and 9820, came up as usual with S.E., not the debate. I suppose this was aired live on SW mainly to Asia where there are already some morning transmissions, hopefully extended as necessary to include the entire sesquihour?
WRTH A-12 update shows not much, and each only for portions of the 0100-0230 period: 1593 Kuwait, 7430 Kuwait, 9780 Sri Lanka, 11705 Thailand. Hope we can get complete accurate info about VOA SW frequencies everywhere ahead of the remaining three debates. BTW, R. Martí was not carrying the debate either, in any language.
I also recall from four years ago that REE Spain surprisingly carried the US debates live in translation, but not this time, regular programming on 6055, 9535, etc.
The USA also has several private SW stations which have some flexibility and might have considered airing the debate as a public service, but pre-empting regular programming (or in the case of WHRI, turning on a normally silent transmitter). A quick tune thru all the SW bands found absolutely Zilch. So much for public service. If anyone did hear the debate on a US SW station I missed, please let us know!
Shortly after 0100 UT, I also tuned across the AM and FM bands, and found the following stations airing the debate; not a complete list, but those with obvious bigsigs vs the TV and computer noise which had not been turned off:
KOKC 1520, KRLD-1080, WHO-1040, KMBZ-980 (presumed), WLS-890, WWL-870, KOA-850, WHAS-840, WCCO-830, WBAP-820, WBBM-780, WSB-750, KRMG-740, WGN-720, KCMO-710 (or maybe KGNC). Notable was WLW-700 staying with baseball, and many other stations sticking to whatever format. On FM it was much worse, the *only* one being KOSU 91.7, which thought it important enough to pre-empt its usual ``The Spy`` nonsense after 7 pm. Everyone else stuck to gospel-huxtering, rock or country music, sports, etc.
And I checked the TV networks available on extended basic cable here: NBC, ABC, Fox, CBS, PBS, CSPAN 1, CSPAN 2, CNN, Fox News, CNBC, Univisión (in squeeze-o-vision, why??), MSNBC. A few others which should have run it did not: BET, Telemundo. I was not watching CNN, but noticed later that they were displaying instant-reaxion metrix at screenbottom (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 17530, Oct 4 at 1426 VOA Music Mix ID but underneath much stronger carrier with some crackle, producing fast SAH. At 1431, now only one signal with VOA news. Most likely the carrier a warm-up test from Greenville, which does not really start 17530 until 1700 in Portuguese, but it really ought to do this on a separate frequency so as not to QRM VOA via São Tomé at 1400-1500. In between, Vatican relay is scheduled at 1500-1530 in Hausa, but such warmups are not typical of SMG; and also Wertachtal adds another semihour of Portuguese from 1630, but only on Fridays and this is Thursday. See also UNIDENTIFIED: 17520
17870, Oct 4 at 1429, SW Asian language, mentions Washington, and long-path echo. HFCC shows VOA Kurdish, 250 kW, 120 degrees from Wertachtal, GERMANY at 1400-1500.
Off the back USward would be 300 degrees, with most of the signal pushed toward the long path. It so happens this transmission is within a degree or two of being exactly opposite from us, altho the 120 azimuth from Wertachtal is toward Jerusalem, considerably missing Kurdistan further north. It exits Asia across the Arabian peninsula, grazes the NE tip of the Horn of Africa, then all over-water across the Indian Ocean, way south of Australia & New Zealand, up across the Pacific hitting North America across Sinaloa. Short path is approx. 5100 miles, so long path is 19800 miles, which is 14700 miles further, for a delay at the speed of radio of 0.079 second. Usual proviso about being slightly further bouncing off the ionosphere than all at sea level (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1637: ready for first airing on WRMI 9955, UT Thursday Oct 4 at 0330: as usual, totally blocked by wall-of-noise jamming. Tnx a lot, Arnie! Repeats on WRMI: Sat 0800, 1500, 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, Mon 0500, 1130.
On WTWW: Thu 2100 on 9479, UT Sun 0400 on 5745
On WWRB: UT Fri 0330v on 5050 (resumed last week)
On Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB: UT Sat 0130v (last week, 0135)
On Hamburger Lokalradio: Sat 0630 & 1630 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 [non]. 17605, Oct 4 at 1430, AWR ID in English, introducing Afar, VG signal, then nice HOA music. Is 300 kW, 145 degrees from AUSTRIA. Before 1400 this frequency bears an equally good signal from YFR Burmese, presumably still substitute Pridnestrovye site instead of Uzbekistan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 1030, Oct 4 at 0502 UT, the open carrier with hum from the south is still here, presumed KCTA 50 kW non-direxional daytimer Corpus Christi TX. Maybe they won`t notice until they get the next electric bill. Meanwhile, why don`t the FCC and other 1030 stations operating legally jump on them? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 7205, Oct 4 at 0357 two stations making fast SAH, and also some broadcast on 7185. I assume Ethiopia and/or Eritrea, no way to sort them out (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 17520, Oct 4 at 1432, open carrier. Aoki shows the only thing scheduled is R. Pakistan in Urdu at 1330-1530, 250 kW, 312 degrees from API-6 Islamabad, but I seriously doubt that. HFCC lists 282 degrees instead, and also Vatican, 250 kW, 45 degrees from Madagascar. The latter would be much more likely here propagationally, even off the side, except this transmission expired 26 August. Yet another possibility is Greenville testing, shifting off 17530 a few minutes earlier, where it was clashing with São Tomé; see U S A [and non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
