** AUSTRALIA. 2485, March 12 at 1243, Aussie talk, poor signal from VL8K but no ute blob, I am relieved to note, tho some het maybe from a local device. Somewhat better on 2325 VL8T. I have yet to detect any signal at all from 2368 Radio Symban (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BURMA [non]. 11795, March 12 at 1329, English ID from R. Free Asia, music, mixing with open carrier, and 1330 cut to RFA theme, another English ID introducing Burmese, but dumps off the air at 1332*, resuming at *1333. VG signal here, and hope it is at least half as good in Myanmar! Per HFCC here`s what was happening with site shifts:
1230-1330, 250 kW, 280 degrees from TINIAN
1330-1400, 250 kW, 57 degrees from Iranawila, SRI LANKA plus later:
1400-1430, 250 kW, 94 degrees from Kuwait
Is it really necessary to make all these changes during a single transmission? Because they can! Surprised I was getting the biggest signal from Sri Lanka, if that still be correct (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake March 12, before 1300:
11500, good at 1256 with flutter. No further search at this hour.
Firedrake March 12, before 1330:
11955, good but stops at 1327 while a[nother?] carrier remains; 1330 CRI theme opening scheduled Indonesian via Kunming. Nothing in Aoki to account for Firedrake here, as CRI is also on 11955 in Malaysian from Kunming in the 1230-1330 hour. Maybe a mistake? Or maybe Sound of Hope was on 11955 instead of usual 11970 attracting FD.
Firedrake March 12, before 1400:
12370, good at 1345
12500, good at 1345; none in the 13s
14750, very poor at 1350
15510, good at 1352, het on hi side from V of Tibet
16160, very good at 1353-1400* with flutter; none in 17s, 18s, 19s, 20s [I hardly ever tune the 20-21 MHz range, normally devoid of any broadcasters, even harmonix] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 11740-11940, big buzz all evening March 11-12 UT. Prime suspect is the RHC 11840 transmitter which is at the center of this range, but where the buzz is also audible. *Now* I can definitely pin the source on that, since I was monitoring from 0455 UT March 12 with the buzz circa 11855 on one receiver, and RHC 11840 on another. Both cut off at exactly the same instant, 0501:01*. 11840 is currently scheduled at 21-05 UT on 10 degree antenna, says Ivo Ivanov, so that`s 8 hours a day of this crap:
Yet another example of the horrible engineering at RHC, where they don`t give a damn about interfering with other stations, most of an entire band. I had thought the same transmitter is probably used on 11840 in the mornings with similar undermodulation level, but so far no such buzz around it or any other RHC frequency.
How long will it take to fix this? Listeners may want to complain directly to Arnie Coro: he won`t acknowledge anything from me but if he has any sense at all, keeps up with the daily reports from RHC`s most dedicated volunteer anomaly monitor in the USA. This buzz must be blocking countless other 25 mb signals from countless other SWLs, but I`ve yet to see anyone else mention it.
5040, March 12 at 0543, RHC English now at 05-06, moved up from 06-07, with Afro song (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 4750-, Tuesday March 12 at 1249, deliberate talk, spelling, think it`s the `Kang Guru Indonesia` weekly Australian English lesson from RRI Makassar. Also songs at 1250 and 1259-1301 which could have passed for S Asian = Bangladesh, but this one is slightly on the low side; 1301 announcement. Ron Howard has reported KGI around this time on Tuesdays (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 4790-, March 12 at 1303, Indonesian talk, rough modulation, louder than 4750. This 4790 signal was not there a few minutes earlier before 1300. 1303 music, 1305 beeps like a protracted timesignal mixed with other audio; all vs CODAR QRM. 1306 music, overmodulated with some distortion; 1314 announcement in Indonesian, 1325 fading down.
This is RRI Fak Fak, which just reactivated after almost 10 months, a very pleasant surprise, as caught by Ron Howard and Atsunori Ishida, whose http://rri.jpn.org/ shows:
``4790 kHz RRI-Fak Fak Opening Sound file ( MP3 )
Closing Sound file ( MP3 )
Local news Sound file ( MP3 )
KGI Sound file ( MP3 )
WEB Site FAK FAK PAPUA BARAT, Sekali Di Udara Tetap Di Udara http://www.rrifakfak.co.id/ [rather rudimentary but streaming linx]
1000-1500*: *2000v-2130-:
Mar 10 -1000-1459* LA. JN at 1200. Since May 25, 2012. *2014 Koran.
Mar 11 -1000-1200* JN at 1159. *2016 Pops.
Mar 12 -1000-.... KGI at 1100. JN at 1200.``
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN [and non]. 13750, March 12 at 1349, IRIB Arabic from Kamalabad is now in the clear, no longer colliding with VOA Spanish which has made its usual DST move one UT hour earlier for both morning and evening transmissions, even tho HFCC claims there is no such move effective March 10, staying at 13-14 UT. Altho VOA Spanish is supposedly for Latin America in general, this timeshift is convenient only for Cuban lapdogs also going to UT-4 on the same date as the gusanos in Miami (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [non]. 9770, March 12 at 0528, NHK concluding English semihour with ``Voices from Tohoku``, very good signal, second only to 11740 via Guiana French, which will be abolished at monthend. 9770 is the 500 kW, 155 degree beam from Issoudun, FRANCE, which in A-13 will move to 11970 and probably be our main source for this transmission, no longer intended for North America at all (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 850, March 12 at 0625 UT in KOA null, promo for some show L-V a las 20 horas por Milenio Noticias, then discussing Venezuela, Vatican. So it`s XEM in Chihuahua city (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 1150, March 12 at 0604 UT, choral Mexican NA is playing, NE/SW or so DF; fortunately this is close to the null of KSL IBOC peaking 1147 kHz. 0605 segué to Coahuila state anthem by soprano. By 0608 finally singing ID but unreadable now, losing out to `C2CAM` presumably KSAL. The only Coahuilan on 1150 is per Cantú:
1150 XEBF Radio Extremo Torreón, Coah. (desde San Pedro) 2,500 1,000
IRCA Log agrees except for powers as 1000/250 watts. WRTH goes with Cantú`s figures (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA. 15120, March 12 at 0502, VON in English news, fair signal with fading, but a ripple on the modulation as the AM carrier wobbles. Gone - off or faded out by 0518, when 15580 VOA Botswana is still in with fair signal. Haven`t heard this 0440-0700 UT VON transmission in months; a `benefit` of DST, forcing my prime DX monitoring times one UT hour earlier including this bedtime session, now typically from 0500 or so instead of 0600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3205, March 12 at 1246, music on very poor signal, but the only 90m PNG frequency with anything (except 3325 probably Indonesia instead). Have all the others signed off by now? 3205 is presumably NBC Sandaun West Sepik, Vanimo. Ron Howard reported this one reactivated Feb 28 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SARAWAK [non]. 11600, March 12 at 1255, presumed R. Free Sarawak, good signal with flutter, presumed Iban about to close 2-hour broadcast; site still not confirmed, but pinned on Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, by Ivo Ivanov (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN. 9505, March 12 at 0532, poor signal with HOAish music, i.e. Khartoum/Omdurman, no match for Miraya on 9940 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN SOUTH [non]. 9940, March 12 at 0525, good signal in African English, interview about livestock in South Sudan, 0530 pause for ID as ``Miraya Breakfast Show``, call-in 091-206-2439, guest being the Commissioner of Juba County; hilife music break, ``the pulse of the new nation``, and Miraya FM jingle. I didn`t realize they had this much English, or maybe I was just lucky as the 03-06 trihour is listed as a mix with Arabic.
Site? Don`t you believe the disinformation BRB puts in HFCC as the imaginary ``Simferopol, Ukraine``. EiBi is noncommittal, site as /XUU which means unidentified in EiBi parlance. Aoki probably has it right: 50 kW, 195 degrees from Kostinbrod(Sofia), BULGARIA, but reception is so good here I would have suspected something even better (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 9690 & 9760, March 12 at 0528 I notice same C&W music, and then IDs as Denge Amerika, so it`s VOA Kurdish. At 0535 I find that 9760 is running about 1 second behind 9690. HFCC shows 0500-0600:
9690 is 100 kW, 108 degrees from Lampertheim
9760 is 100 kW, 105 degrees from Nauen, both GERMANY.
9760 is slightly stronger here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 2660, March 12 at 1242 UT, very poor signal with gospel music, so KGLD Tyler TX is still harmonicizing from 1330, tho not always even a carrier audible any more (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 1020, March 12 0555 UT, what luck, my semi-local KOKP Perry OK is not only not modulating but not carriering! It`s totally off, so what can I hear with KDKA nulled? Tropical music in Spanish. At first I suspect Cuba, but DFing this, it` more like N/S. There are six Mexicans on 1020, and four of them in the eastern part, any of which would be welcome. Of course fadedown for ID at 0600, but it`s by a SHVA (super-hype voice actor) which certainly rules out Cuba so it has to be Mexican --- or Unitedstatesian.
Oh oh, I bet it`s just KMMQ in Nebraska, which I normally hear when on 50 kW daypower around sunrise, but which does run 1400 watts at night, and the direxion fits. Furthermore, it did not play the Mexican NA at midnite CST. Better luck on 1150: see MEXICO (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 1160, March 12 at 0611 UT Mexican music in KSL null, making slow 48/minute or 0.8 Hz SAH; unfortunately not in the null of KFAQ 1157 IBOC. 0612 adstring, but losing out to KSL with Jim Bohannon. Of the 5 XEs on 1160 in IRCA Log, four have nite powers of 100 or 250 watts. WRTH agrees only on two of them being 100 watts. We should be able to look up which one is 0.8 Hz from KSL! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BURMA [non]. 11795, March 12 at 1329, English ID from R. Free Asia, music, mixing with open carrier, and 1330 cut to RFA theme, another English ID introducing Burmese, but dumps off the air at 1332*, resuming at *1333. VG signal here, and hope it is at least half as good in Myanmar! Per HFCC here`s what was happening with site shifts:
1230-1330, 250 kW, 280 degrees from TINIAN
1330-1400, 250 kW, 57 degrees from Iranawila, SRI LANKA plus later:
1400-1430, 250 kW, 94 degrees from Kuwait
Is it really necessary to make all these changes during a single transmission? Because they can! Surprised I was getting the biggest signal from Sri Lanka, if that still be correct (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake March 12, before 1300:
11500, good at 1256 with flutter. No further search at this hour.
Firedrake March 12, before 1330:
11955, good but stops at 1327 while a[nother?] carrier remains; 1330 CRI theme opening scheduled Indonesian via Kunming. Nothing in Aoki to account for Firedrake here, as CRI is also on 11955 in Malaysian from Kunming in the 1230-1330 hour. Maybe a mistake? Or maybe Sound of Hope was on 11955 instead of usual 11970 attracting FD.
Firedrake March 12, before 1400:
12370, good at 1345
12500, good at 1345; none in the 13s
14750, very poor at 1350
15510, good at 1352, het on hi side from V of Tibet
16160, very good at 1353-1400* with flutter; none in 17s, 18s, 19s, 20s [I hardly ever tune the 20-21 MHz range, normally devoid of any broadcasters, even harmonix] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 11740-11940, big buzz all evening March 11-12 UT. Prime suspect is the RHC 11840 transmitter which is at the center of this range, but where the buzz is also audible. *Now* I can definitely pin the source on that, since I was monitoring from 0455 UT March 12 with the buzz circa 11855 on one receiver, and RHC 11840 on another. Both cut off at exactly the same instant, 0501:01*. 11840 is currently scheduled at 21-05 UT on 10 degree antenna, says Ivo Ivanov, so that`s 8 hours a day of this crap:
Yet another example of the horrible engineering at RHC, where they don`t give a damn about interfering with other stations, most of an entire band. I had thought the same transmitter is probably used on 11840 in the mornings with similar undermodulation level, but so far no such buzz around it or any other RHC frequency.
How long will it take to fix this? Listeners may want to complain directly to Arnie Coro: he won`t acknowledge anything from me but if he has any sense at all, keeps up with the daily reports from RHC`s most dedicated volunteer anomaly monitor in the USA. This buzz must be blocking countless other 25 mb signals from countless other SWLs, but I`ve yet to see anyone else mention it.
5040, March 12 at 0543, RHC English now at 05-06, moved up from 06-07, with Afro song (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 4750-, Tuesday March 12 at 1249, deliberate talk, spelling, think it`s the `Kang Guru Indonesia` weekly Australian English lesson from RRI Makassar. Also songs at 1250 and 1259-1301 which could have passed for S Asian = Bangladesh, but this one is slightly on the low side; 1301 announcement. Ron Howard has reported KGI around this time on Tuesdays (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 4790-, March 12 at 1303, Indonesian talk, rough modulation, louder than 4750. This 4790 signal was not there a few minutes earlier before 1300. 1303 music, 1305 beeps like a protracted timesignal mixed with other audio; all vs CODAR QRM. 1306 music, overmodulated with some distortion; 1314 announcement in Indonesian, 1325 fading down.
This is RRI Fak Fak, which just reactivated after almost 10 months, a very pleasant surprise, as caught by Ron Howard and Atsunori Ishida, whose http://rri.jpn.org/ shows:
``4790 kHz RRI-Fak Fak Opening Sound file ( MP3 )
Closing Sound file ( MP3 )
Local news Sound file ( MP3 )
KGI Sound file ( MP3 )
WEB Site FAK FAK PAPUA BARAT, Sekali Di Udara Tetap Di Udara http://www.rrifakfak.co.id/ [rather rudimentary but streaming linx]
1000-1500*: *2000v-2130-:
Mar 10 -1000-1459* LA. JN at 1200. Since May 25, 2012. *2014 Koran.
Mar 11 -1000-1200* JN at 1159. *2016 Pops.
Mar 12 -1000-.... KGI at 1100. JN at 1200.``
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN [and non]. 13750, March 12 at 1349, IRIB Arabic from Kamalabad is now in the clear, no longer colliding with VOA Spanish which has made its usual DST move one UT hour earlier for both morning and evening transmissions, even tho HFCC claims there is no such move effective March 10, staying at 13-14 UT. Altho VOA Spanish is supposedly for Latin America in general, this timeshift is convenient only for Cuban lapdogs also going to UT-4 on the same date as the gusanos in Miami (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [non]. 9770, March 12 at 0528, NHK concluding English semihour with ``Voices from Tohoku``, very good signal, second only to 11740 via Guiana French, which will be abolished at monthend. 9770 is the 500 kW, 155 degree beam from Issoudun, FRANCE, which in A-13 will move to 11970 and probably be our main source for this transmission, no longer intended for North America at all (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 850, March 12 at 0625 UT in KOA null, promo for some show L-V a las 20 horas por Milenio Noticias, then discussing Venezuela, Vatican. So it`s XEM in Chihuahua city (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 1150, March 12 at 0604 UT, choral Mexican NA is playing, NE/SW or so DF; fortunately this is close to the null of KSL IBOC peaking 1147 kHz. 0605 segué to Coahuila state anthem by soprano. By 0608 finally singing ID but unreadable now, losing out to `C2CAM` presumably KSAL. The only Coahuilan on 1150 is per Cantú:
1150 XEBF Radio Extremo Torreón, Coah. (desde San Pedro) 2,500 1,000
IRCA Log agrees except for powers as 1000/250 watts. WRTH goes with Cantú`s figures (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA. 15120, March 12 at 0502, VON in English news, fair signal with fading, but a ripple on the modulation as the AM carrier wobbles. Gone - off or faded out by 0518, when 15580 VOA Botswana is still in with fair signal. Haven`t heard this 0440-0700 UT VON transmission in months; a `benefit` of DST, forcing my prime DX monitoring times one UT hour earlier including this bedtime session, now typically from 0500 or so instead of 0600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3205, March 12 at 1246, music on very poor signal, but the only 90m PNG frequency with anything (except 3325 probably Indonesia instead). Have all the others signed off by now? 3205 is presumably NBC Sandaun West Sepik, Vanimo. Ron Howard reported this one reactivated Feb 28 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SARAWAK [non]. 11600, March 12 at 1255, presumed R. Free Sarawak, good signal with flutter, presumed Iban about to close 2-hour broadcast; site still not confirmed, but pinned on Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, by Ivo Ivanov (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN. 9505, March 12 at 0532, poor signal with HOAish music, i.e. Khartoum/Omdurman, no match for Miraya on 9940 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN SOUTH [non]. 9940, March 12 at 0525, good signal in African English, interview about livestock in South Sudan, 0530 pause for ID as ``Miraya Breakfast Show``, call-in 091-206-2439, guest being the Commissioner of Juba County; hilife music break, ``the pulse of the new nation``, and Miraya FM jingle. I didn`t realize they had this much English, or maybe I was just lucky as the 03-06 trihour is listed as a mix with Arabic.
Site? Don`t you believe the disinformation BRB puts in HFCC as the imaginary ``Simferopol, Ukraine``. EiBi is noncommittal, site as /XUU which means unidentified in EiBi parlance. Aoki probably has it right: 50 kW, 195 degrees from Kostinbrod(Sofia), BULGARIA, but reception is so good here I would have suspected something even better (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 9690 & 9760, March 12 at 0528 I notice same C&W music, and then IDs as Denge Amerika, so it`s VOA Kurdish. At 0535 I find that 9760 is running about 1 second behind 9690. HFCC shows 0500-0600:
9690 is 100 kW, 108 degrees from Lampertheim
9760 is 100 kW, 105 degrees from Nauen, both GERMANY.
9760 is slightly stronger here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 2660, March 12 at 1242 UT, very poor signal with gospel music, so KGLD Tyler TX is still harmonicizing from 1330, tho not always even a carrier audible any more (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 1020, March 12 0555 UT, what luck, my semi-local KOKP Perry OK is not only not modulating but not carriering! It`s totally off, so what can I hear with KDKA nulled? Tropical music in Spanish. At first I suspect Cuba, but DFing this, it` more like N/S. There are six Mexicans on 1020, and four of them in the eastern part, any of which would be welcome. Of course fadedown for ID at 0600, but it`s by a SHVA (super-hype voice actor) which certainly rules out Cuba so it has to be Mexican --- or Unitedstatesian.
Oh oh, I bet it`s just KMMQ in Nebraska, which I normally hear when on 50 kW daypower around sunrise, but which does run 1400 watts at night, and the direxion fits. Furthermore, it did not play the Mexican NA at midnite CST. Better luck on 1150: see MEXICO (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 1160, March 12 at 0611 UT Mexican music in KSL null, making slow 48/minute or 0.8 Hz SAH; unfortunately not in the null of KFAQ 1157 IBOC. 0612 adstring, but losing out to KSL with Jim Bohannon. Of the 5 XEs on 1160 in IRCA Log, four have nite powers of 100 or 250 watts. WRTH agrees only on two of them being 100 watts. We should be able to look up which one is 0.8 Hz from KSL! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
