** CHINA. Firedrake Nov 30: none found 18-12 MHz around 1355 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** FRANCE. 7295, Nov 30 at 0624, expecting to hear Algeria relay, but this is neither in Arabic nor French but a tonal African language, must be Hausa; assertive speech and rustic music, 0629 some RFI sounders and cut off at 0630* abruptly. Yes, RTA relay on 7295 is now at 05-06 only followed by RFI Hausa at 0600-0630 via Issoudun.
15530, Nov 30 at 1410, RFI with good signal in Russian; in fact, this is consistently one of the best signals from Europe on 19m at this time, despite being 500 kW, 80 degrees from Issoudun at 1400-1430. A lot of radiation being wasted in this direxion (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE. 7475, Nov 30 at 0615, ERT with music not // 9420, so once again it`s the separate R. Filia service; 0615-0620 YL talking in unID language about Dr. Andrew Horton, of University of Oklahoma! Also mentioning cinematography, Melina Mercouri. Here`s more about him:
http://www.andyhorton.org
which axually forwards to:
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/H/Andrew.S.Horton-1/
0620 back to music. This was probably in Albanian, the language R. Filia was monitored by Ivo Ivanov to be carrying in the 0500-0530 period in October before the timeshift; and I could more likely recognize the other languages R. Filia uses (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 9430v, Nov 30 at 1335, ``banshee`` spurblob of rumbling carrier, making variable het against FEBC. Was not heard half an hour earlier. Jose Jacob on dx_india has the answer Nov 28: ``National Channel not heard on 9470 at 1320 to 0013. However occasionally
its spurious distorted signals heard on 9380 kHz area. Frequency varies and disappears.`` Now I recall the same Delhi transmitter was doing that a few years ago (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9526-, Nov 30 at 1457 I am tuning in to detect whether VOI is on the air, and before I can check the BFO, het starts from 9525 as CRI English via Kashgar just comes on for the 1500 broadcast, saving me the trouble. I think VOI has been on the air most of the time lately, but with extremely weak and useless signal here, including English at 13-14. Atsunori Ishida, http://rri.jpn.or agrees it`s been heard every day at least since Nov 12.
9680, Nov 30 at 1458 music, 1459 Indonesian announcement, fair signal, and incomparably better than 9526; 1500 ``RRI Jakarta`` (air-air-eee) ID with piano music, 1501 opening another program, and NO QRM from the Taiwan/Mainland radio war which per Aoki runs from 11 to 17; and RRI supposedly closes at 1500. It has been signing off a few minutes after 1500 every day per Ishida; no entry yet for Nov 30.
BTW, see Ishida also for news of an Indonesian on 6125.5, tentatively Nabire // 7290, but off at 0856* Nov 25, 0912* Nov 30 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN [non]. 15410, Nov 30 at 1406, R. Farda, with some overmodulation/distortion, most noticeable during music. This is 300 kW, 92 degrees via Woofferton UK at 14-16; weaker // 15690, 100 kW, 85 degrees from Biblis, GERMANY, was not distorted at 1416 during announcement with lots of kHz, presumably SW schedule being given (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO [and non]. 960, Nov 30 from 0600 UT during local KGWA deadair, mostly Mexican in QRM with romantic, almost operatic music, 0604 ``la estación grande``. Suspect XEFAMA again from Ciudad Camargo, Chihuahua.
At 0605 sharp, KGWA blasts back on with commercial for Land & Lawn which starts with bangs on a countertop bell. I always have to watch the seconds tick away and get the volume turned down before this extremely jarring resumption of modulation. This ad plays frequently, but not every night at 0605 UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SARAWAK [non]. See DXLD 12-47,
http://www.w4uvh.net/dxld1247.txt
for a story from Borneo Post via Zacharias Liangas about plans for a new Iban clandestine on SW. It`s referred to there as Radio Kenyalang, on behalf of the Sarawak Workers Party:
http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/11/21/new-iban-language-radio-station-in-the-offing
And more about it:
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v6/newsgeneral.php?id=711276
Kenyalang is a bird, a hornbill,
http://bigdogdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/sarawak.jpg
of some significance in Sarawak:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Star_of_Hornbill_Sarawak
WRN now informs me that this station (not yet sure what name it will really use) starts Friday Nov 30 at 1200-1400 UT on 15650. Site not clear, or whether it will be daily, but I suspect Palau like Radio Free Sarawak, which WRN also handles on 15420 at 1000-1200.
However, a new entry in HFCC shows Kazakhstan!
15650 1200 1400 49,54 A-A 200 132 0 238 1234567 271112 300313 D KAZ NEW WRN 18376
Which seems unlikely, since all shortwave operations from there were closed earlier this year (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1645, DX LISTENING DIGEST via dxldyg, 0530 UT Nov 28)
Listeners to early airings of WOR 1645 already knew about this, but following advance word of it in the dxldyg I was expecting more monitoring from further east:
``Observed on 15650 kHz abruptly at 1201 UT today in [presumed] Iban language, announcement several times mentioned "Radio FREE Kenyalang". Reception good via Global Tuners receiver in Sekule, Slovakia. There's a Radio Kenyalang on satellite, presumably not connected to this enterprise. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgFSHpSwxSs
(David Kernick, UK, dxldyg via DXLD)``
``Palau? I've my doubts - when compared to all other TJK, CHN, THA, IRA, GUM, MRA, AUS sites on 19 mb; rather from Moldova or Bulgaria sites? S=9+15dB and more. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DXLD)``
``15650 Radio Kenyalang. Very strong, right now a 1254 via Utwente Web SDR, music, then phone-in, with two mentions of the station`s name, also something about frequencies. Audio clip here [5:36]
http://www.mediafire.com/?fvfi13ui2dlfmde
BTW, I agree with WB, it's steady and solid signal in the Netherlands, so I think this is from Europe site (Horacio Nigro, Uruguay, Nov 30, dxldyg via DXLD)``
IDs on his recording at 1:48 and 2:13 say ``Radio Free Kenyalang``.
Then I started monitoring 15650 at 1318 Nov 30: very poor to JBA signal with talk in presumed Iban; 1320 one beep and change speaker; 1321 music. By 1329 it`s a JBA carrier, much weaker than e.g. poor 15630 Greece. 1343 still JBA carrier; 1353 back up a little, 1358 unheard, maybe off already. It may well be that in ``prime time`` no transmitter was available on Palau. Propagation from Europe to here was fair on other 19m signals (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [and non]. 9765, Nov 30 at 1333, REE via CR is very poor with CCI, weaker than // 11815 which itself is only poor. The 9765 CCI would be CRI English via Xian.
José Bueno sent a link to REE`s official new reduced B-12 schedule:
http://www.rtve.es/contenidos/documentos/FrecuenciasB_12_2012.pdf
Some oddities: I am not hearing 17595 at all at 13-15 M-F, when now it`s listed to S America instead of N America. Still shows 3350 via CR at 02-06 to C America, tho UT Nov 29 we were hearing 9630 instead (not checked in time on Nov 30). Maybe that was just a mistake?
To N America, besides the DRM in Spanish at 00-02 maintained on 9630, one other broadcast: Sephardic, 0415-0445 UT Tue on 9690 is still on the schedule. But who cares about English?
At least podcasts are available and a huge archive of previous shows:
http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/audios/emision-en-ingles/
As quickly found from Alan Roe`s hitlist:
http://www.worlddxclub.org.uk/WDXC_links_stations.html
As Bill Bingham in South Africa heard, apologies to European and North American listeners for cutting them off from SW are at 10 minutes into the Nov 28 broadcast. Says the English staff just found out about the cuts two days after they happened. BUT ----
Mark Coady had written to Alison Hughes and just got this reply, via NASWA yg:
``Dear Mark, Thank you so much!!! I wanted to answer earlier but it's been quite confusing here. Not only were we, here at the broadcast not informed, but apparently neither was the director of Radio Exterior. Obviously a long story and I don't know a quarter of it. It's been an awful week, angry, unhappy --- but the great news is that we are recovering our short wave service (yes, at least for the time being and next time they cut it, we expect to be able to warn everybody, give thanks, and name the new sites for listening), on the same frequencies, at the same times. Broadcasts may be restored this weekend, but certainly (they tell us) on Monday. YIPPEE. Your letter meant an awful lot to us. Thank you Mark, from all of us and especially me y un abrazo muy fuerte, Alison``
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TIBET [non]. 13625, Nov 30 at 1355, quite good signal in Tibetan with some deep fades and a SAH, cut off at 1358 uncovering a much weaker understation, which had a 2-pip timesignal(?) slightly before 1400:00. It`s RFA in Tibetan, 250 kW, 295 degrees TINIAN at 1200-1400 [sic]. Naturally it`s jammed by the ChiCom, but the understation unseemed CNR1 and certainly not Firedrake. O, CRI itself has an English broadcast from 1400 via Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K. 3950-3955-3960, Nov 30 at 0608, DRM noise making part of the N American hamband useless: HFCC shows it`s ``DRM mix``, BBC English, 100 kW, 121 degrees from Skelton to Europe at 05-07 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1645 monitoring: WWRB, 5050 // 3195, UT Friday Nov 30 at 0430.5, WOR starts right after the final ``Amen & Amen`` from Pastor Cain in SC; and both frequencies cut off the air at 0459.5 immediately after WOR finishes, no ID or sign-off.
Next: UT Sat 0230v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB;
UT Sat 0630 on HLR 7265; 1630 on 6190 (unconfirmed)
Sat 0900, 1600, 1830; Sun 0900, 1630, Mon 0530, Tue 1200 on WRMI 9955
UT Sun 0500 on WTWW-1 5830; maybe sometime that evening on WTWW-2 5085
Sat 1830 on WRN via SiriusXM 120 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15610, Nov 30 at 1317, WEWN with mass in English, only poor signal direct, not built up to daytime level yet, and with heavy long-path echo, some 39 megameters the long way round. By 1415 it`s now solid by short-path, no LP audible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING IGEST)
** FRANCE. 7295, Nov 30 at 0624, expecting to hear Algeria relay, but this is neither in Arabic nor French but a tonal African language, must be Hausa; assertive speech and rustic music, 0629 some RFI sounders and cut off at 0630* abruptly. Yes, RTA relay on 7295 is now at 05-06 only followed by RFI Hausa at 0600-0630 via Issoudun.
15530, Nov 30 at 1410, RFI with good signal in Russian; in fact, this is consistently one of the best signals from Europe on 19m at this time, despite being 500 kW, 80 degrees from Issoudun at 1400-1430. A lot of radiation being wasted in this direxion (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE. 7475, Nov 30 at 0615, ERT with music not // 9420, so once again it`s the separate R. Filia service; 0615-0620 YL talking in unID language about Dr. Andrew Horton, of University of Oklahoma! Also mentioning cinematography, Melina Mercouri. Here`s more about him:
http://www.andyhorton.org
which axually forwards to:
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/H/Andrew.S.Horton-1/
0620 back to music. This was probably in Albanian, the language R. Filia was monitored by Ivo Ivanov to be carrying in the 0500-0530 period in October before the timeshift; and I could more likely recognize the other languages R. Filia uses (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 9430v, Nov 30 at 1335, ``banshee`` spurblob of rumbling carrier, making variable het against FEBC. Was not heard half an hour earlier. Jose Jacob on dx_india has the answer Nov 28: ``National Channel not heard on 9470 at 1320 to 0013. However occasionally
its spurious distorted signals heard on 9380 kHz area. Frequency varies and disappears.`` Now I recall the same Delhi transmitter was doing that a few years ago (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9526-, Nov 30 at 1457 I am tuning in to detect whether VOI is on the air, and before I can check the BFO, het starts from 9525 as CRI English via Kashgar just comes on for the 1500 broadcast, saving me the trouble. I think VOI has been on the air most of the time lately, but with extremely weak and useless signal here, including English at 13-14. Atsunori Ishida, http://rri.jpn.or agrees it`s been heard every day at least since Nov 12.
9680, Nov 30 at 1458 music, 1459 Indonesian announcement, fair signal, and incomparably better than 9526; 1500 ``RRI Jakarta`` (air-air-eee) ID with piano music, 1501 opening another program, and NO QRM from the Taiwan/Mainland radio war which per Aoki runs from 11 to 17; and RRI supposedly closes at 1500. It has been signing off a few minutes after 1500 every day per Ishida; no entry yet for Nov 30.
BTW, see Ishida also for news of an Indonesian on 6125.5, tentatively Nabire // 7290, but off at 0856* Nov 25, 0912* Nov 30 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN [non]. 15410, Nov 30 at 1406, R. Farda, with some overmodulation/distortion, most noticeable during music. This is 300 kW, 92 degrees via Woofferton UK at 14-16; weaker // 15690, 100 kW, 85 degrees from Biblis, GERMANY, was not distorted at 1416 during announcement with lots of kHz, presumably SW schedule being given (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO [and non]. 960, Nov 30 from 0600 UT during local KGWA deadair, mostly Mexican in QRM with romantic, almost operatic music, 0604 ``la estación grande``. Suspect XEFAMA again from Ciudad Camargo, Chihuahua.
At 0605 sharp, KGWA blasts back on with commercial for Land & Lawn which starts with bangs on a countertop bell. I always have to watch the seconds tick away and get the volume turned down before this extremely jarring resumption of modulation. This ad plays frequently, but not every night at 0605 UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SARAWAK [non]. See DXLD 12-47,
http://www.w4uvh.net/dxld1247.txt
for a story from Borneo Post via Zacharias Liangas about plans for a new Iban clandestine on SW. It`s referred to there as Radio Kenyalang, on behalf of the Sarawak Workers Party:
http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/11/21/new-iban-language-radio-station-in-the-offing
And more about it:
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v6/newsgeneral.php?id=711276
Kenyalang is a bird, a hornbill,
http://bigdogdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/sarawak.jpg
of some significance in Sarawak:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Star_of_Hornbill_Sarawak
WRN now informs me that this station (not yet sure what name it will really use) starts Friday Nov 30 at 1200-1400 UT on 15650. Site not clear, or whether it will be daily, but I suspect Palau like Radio Free Sarawak, which WRN also handles on 15420 at 1000-1200.
However, a new entry in HFCC shows Kazakhstan!
15650 1200 1400 49,54 A-A 200 132 0 238 1234567 271112 300313 D KAZ NEW WRN 18376
Which seems unlikely, since all shortwave operations from there were closed earlier this year (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO 1645, DX LISTENING DIGEST via dxldyg, 0530 UT Nov 28)
Listeners to early airings of WOR 1645 already knew about this, but following advance word of it in the dxldyg I was expecting more monitoring from further east:
``Observed on 15650 kHz abruptly at 1201 UT today in [presumed] Iban language, announcement several times mentioned "Radio FREE Kenyalang". Reception good via Global Tuners receiver in Sekule, Slovakia. There's a Radio Kenyalang on satellite, presumably not connected to this enterprise. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgFSHpSwxSs
(David Kernick, UK, dxldyg via DXLD)``
``Palau? I've my doubts - when compared to all other TJK, CHN, THA, IRA, GUM, MRA, AUS sites on 19 mb; rather from Moldova or Bulgaria sites? S=9+15dB and more. 73 wb (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, dxldyg via DXLD)``
``15650 Radio Kenyalang. Very strong, right now a 1254 via Utwente Web SDR, music, then phone-in, with two mentions of the station`s name, also something about frequencies. Audio clip here [5:36]
http://www.mediafire.com/?fvfi13ui2dlfmde
BTW, I agree with WB, it's steady and solid signal in the Netherlands, so I think this is from Europe site (Horacio Nigro, Uruguay, Nov 30, dxldyg via DXLD)``
IDs on his recording at 1:48 and 2:13 say ``Radio Free Kenyalang``.
Then I started monitoring 15650 at 1318 Nov 30: very poor to JBA signal with talk in presumed Iban; 1320 one beep and change speaker; 1321 music. By 1329 it`s a JBA carrier, much weaker than e.g. poor 15630 Greece. 1343 still JBA carrier; 1353 back up a little, 1358 unheard, maybe off already. It may well be that in ``prime time`` no transmitter was available on Palau. Propagation from Europe to here was fair on other 19m signals (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [and non]. 9765, Nov 30 at 1333, REE via CR is very poor with CCI, weaker than // 11815 which itself is only poor. The 9765 CCI would be CRI English via Xian.
José Bueno sent a link to REE`s official new reduced B-12 schedule:
http://www.rtve.es/contenidos/documentos/FrecuenciasB_12_2012.pdf
Some oddities: I am not hearing 17595 at all at 13-15 M-F, when now it`s listed to S America instead of N America. Still shows 3350 via CR at 02-06 to C America, tho UT Nov 29 we were hearing 9630 instead (not checked in time on Nov 30). Maybe that was just a mistake?
To N America, besides the DRM in Spanish at 00-02 maintained on 9630, one other broadcast: Sephardic, 0415-0445 UT Tue on 9690 is still on the schedule. But who cares about English?
At least podcasts are available and a huge archive of previous shows:
http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/audios/emision-en-ingles/
As quickly found from Alan Roe`s hitlist:
http://www.worlddxclub.org.uk/WDXC_links_stations.html
As Bill Bingham in South Africa heard, apologies to European and North American listeners for cutting them off from SW are at 10 minutes into the Nov 28 broadcast. Says the English staff just found out about the cuts two days after they happened. BUT ----
Mark Coady had written to Alison Hughes and just got this reply, via NASWA yg:
``Dear Mark, Thank you so much!!! I wanted to answer earlier but it's been quite confusing here. Not only were we, here at the broadcast not informed, but apparently neither was the director of Radio Exterior. Obviously a long story and I don't know a quarter of it. It's been an awful week, angry, unhappy --- but the great news is that we are recovering our short wave service (yes, at least for the time being and next time they cut it, we expect to be able to warn everybody, give thanks, and name the new sites for listening), on the same frequencies, at the same times. Broadcasts may be restored this weekend, but certainly (they tell us) on Monday. YIPPEE. Your letter meant an awful lot to us. Thank you Mark, from all of us and especially me y un abrazo muy fuerte, Alison``
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TIBET [non]. 13625, Nov 30 at 1355, quite good signal in Tibetan with some deep fades and a SAH, cut off at 1358 uncovering a much weaker understation, which had a 2-pip timesignal(?) slightly before 1400:00. It`s RFA in Tibetan, 250 kW, 295 degrees TINIAN at 1200-1400 [sic]. Naturally it`s jammed by the ChiCom, but the understation unseemed CNR1 and certainly not Firedrake. O, CRI itself has an English broadcast from 1400 via Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K. 3950-3955-3960, Nov 30 at 0608, DRM noise making part of the N American hamband useless: HFCC shows it`s ``DRM mix``, BBC English, 100 kW, 121 degrees from Skelton to Europe at 05-07 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1645 monitoring: WWRB, 5050 // 3195, UT Friday Nov 30 at 0430.5, WOR starts right after the final ``Amen & Amen`` from Pastor Cain in SC; and both frequencies cut off the air at 0459.5 immediately after WOR finishes, no ID or sign-off.
Next: UT Sat 0230v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB;
UT Sat 0630 on HLR 7265; 1630 on 6190 (unconfirmed)
Sat 0900, 1600, 1830; Sun 0900, 1630, Mon 0530, Tue 1200 on WRMI 9955
UT Sun 0500 on WTWW-1 5830; maybe sometime that evening on WTWW-2 5085
Sat 1830 on WRN via SiriusXM 120 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15610, Nov 30 at 1317, WEWN with mass in English, only poor signal direct, not built up to daytime level yet, and with heavy long-path echo, some 39 megameters the long way round. By 1415 it`s now solid by short-path, no LP audible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING IGEST)
