** BOLIVIA. 5952.40, March 16 at 0056, fair signal in Spanish, R. Pio Doce holding its own well against the Cuban jamming centered on 5955; still no sign of a R. República just above 5954, at least not around this hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 4924.86 approx., March 16 at 0047, weak music vs CODAR, Portuguese; 0102 sounds like a hymn. Still not sure which of the two ZYs this be (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 11840, March 15 at 2145 check, RHC Spanish with very low modulation, and buzzes come and go around 11830 and 11850.
15230, the RHC Portuguese hour is still missing, March 15 at 2354 check, Spanish song // 11680, 11840, 17705.
13780, March 16 at 1411, is this morning`s AWOL RHC frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** DIEGO GARCIA. 12759-USB, March 16 at 0059, very poor signal with some music, got to be AFN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN. 11815, March 16 at 1328, E Asian reception is hot this morning, with NHK inbooming in Japanese service; if REE/CR is also on, it`s buried. Variety show with rock music, surprisingly inserting an English announcement at 1329, ``Ladies & gentlemen --- Saturday night show``, back to Japanese banter, laughter, ``Mission: Impossible`` theme (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [and non]. 6101.12, March 16 at 1347, KCBS still off-frequency and about to fade out, as evidenced by nothing but the het it makes. This time compared to my keyboard, it`s closest to D#6/Eb6 = 1245 Hz.
Perhaps more remarkable is that something else on 6100.0 is still cooperatively propagating, which per HFCC can only be CRI in Mongolian, 100 kW due east from Urumqi --- altho Aoki offers another: 500 watts from R. Rossii, Kyzyl, which must be getting creamed in its region. I wonder if the Juche are by mistake running another, new transmitter on 6100 without deleting the old one off-channel? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NORTH AMERICA. eQSL: received March 16, 2013: ``Thank you for your reception report. I have confirmed your report and have attached Your QSL card and a program log for your reference. I apologize for the extended delay in getting these out. All the best, +-Redhat, X-FM Shortwave``
Thank you, Redhat. Here it is:http://www.w4uvh.net/X-FM347.jpg
also added to my Gallery via http://www.worldofradio.com/QSL.html
Text on the card reads: ``BBQ`d X anyone? This is to confirm reception of X-FM`s Thanksgiving show on 11-24-2012 at 0633 UTC on 6925 KHZ AM Stereo by Glenn Hauser. QSL # 347 Thanks for Listening!`` With photo of guy in a cover-the-head helmet and sunglasses underneath, with Pirate Radio shirt, in front of a pristine oven.
Here was my original log and report: ```6925+, AM, strongest signal heard from a pirate in a long time, steady S9+18 and very little fading, but with BFO, carrier slightly unstable and on the hi side; and VG modulation too, Nov 24 at 0612, claims to be broadcasting in C-Quam stereo --- really? But who has a C-Quam SW radio? Professional-sounding DJ, ex-FM? with produced IDs, slogans, ``music to the power of X``. Back-announces a few songs at a time. 0617 hello to Skeezix (?) and to Blue Ocean Radio; address xfmshortwave@gmail.com offering QSLs ASAP, but is behind since it`s time-consuming to check the reports against logs, listen to clips, which he prefers to get. 0623 stage-whispered IDs as XFM. 0633 says tune ``Saved by Zero`` will be next, 6:33 timecheck so apparently live, ``XFM, the power of X``; 0641 ``Music to the power of X``. I doze but still going at 0712 inviting reports also to be posted at FRC, FRN or HF Underground. 0714 saying goodnight,
then something by Incubus; finished at 0721, ID again mentioning C-Quam, ``music to the power of X``, and carrier cut immediately.``` (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PALAU. 9930, Saturday March 16 at 1335, aged gospel huxter struggling to read his script about how important Jews and Israel are, but don`t get no respect; constant crackling imposed, maybe bad audio source. Aoki shows each program on HBN = T8WH, with 9930 allegedly on the air during this quarter-hour only on Sat & Sun: Sat, it`s `Message from Donald Raymo---`; Sunday will be `Bread of Life Victory Hou-` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU. 5980, March 16 at 0046, music audible, maybe mixing with something, splash from 5990 CUBA. Retune at 0100 as 5990 is going off, too poor to copy much on 5980, but with BFO I time the R. Chaski cutoff tonight at 0100:52* which is 4 sex later than last night (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 9555, March 15 at 2148, ME pop music, good signal,
sounds quite secular, i.e. BSKSA General program I, 500 kW, 295 degrees from Riyadh at 1755-2257 per Aoki (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TUNISIA. 7275 & 7335, March 16 at 0609, both frequencies are missing! What has happened to IWT? I did still hear 17735 yesterday afternoon. Need to check out the complete former(?) schedule, per WRTH 2013:
0300-0510 12005 17735
0400-0625 7275
0600-0810 7335
1600-2000 12005
1600-2010 17735
1700-2110 7225
1900-2310 7345
That reminds me, I was also not hearing 7345 late in the day March 15. These times are rounded off, usually starting a few minutes before and maybe lasting a few minutes after (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 17860, Saturday March 16 at 1559, open carrier, 1600 ethereal electronic music, Kim Elliott with the first `VOA Radiogram` experimental broadcast, with lots of examples of digital text as he explains it all. Surprisingly, reception was less than solid, which he will no doubt rationalize as additional proof of how robust these modes are. Off at 1630 after some music fill.
This is HFCC-registered as 80 kW, 45 degrees from Greenville. Is it some old standby transmitter which won`t run more than that, or deliberately QRP? The northeastward beam is also historic, as Greenville hasn`t aimed anything at Europe for more than a decade. Details at http://voaradiogram.net
Repeats of this semihour ``soft launch`` are UT Sunday: 0230 on 5745, 1300 on 6095, 1930 on 15670. The lower frequencies are on 190 degree beam, the higher ones on 45 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 15620, March 16 at 1353, Horn of Africa music, 1355 M&W mentioning Washington, 1359 VOA theme, standard sign-off ``This program has come to you from Voice of America, Washington``.
Following immediately without a beat, ``Jesus Saves`` IS from FEBC, 1400 gamelan and opening in Indonesish. The signals so perfectly matched in reception and in timing that one would have believed they emanated from the same relay transmitter, but no, not at all! Aoki and HFCC show what really happens:
1300-1400, VOA Somali, 100 kW, 10 degrees from BOTSWANA
1400-1430, FEBC Javanese, 100 kW, 200 degrees from Bocaue, PHILIPPINES
I expect the latter carries on well to Somalia as well as to Oklahoma. There was also a squishy het on the lo side from the WEWN 15610 spur circa 15619, but fortunately only a weak signal from that so far (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7490-AM, March 16 around 0050, WBCQ with `Allan Weiner Worldwide`, in full double sideband AM. Misinformation is circulating that this frequency is upper sideband reduced-carrier, or full carrier upper-sideband only. No, it sounds like full AM, and switching between LSB and USB on the DX-398 confirms that is exactly what it is as usual. Anyone could tell this if they bothered to listen to 7490.
The other WBCQ frequencies are all reduced carrier USB, sometimes with a bit of LSB bleed, and slightly off-frequency. WBCQ likes to call it ``compatible USB``, meaning there`s enough carrier so you don`t need a BFO, which is very debatable. `AWWW` may be live, but as usual not synchronized, several sex apart on the // 5110v and 9330v, even tho the transmitters must be next to each other, a neat trick (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1660 monitoring: confirmed on Area 51 via WBCQ, 5110v-CUSB, UT Saturday March 16 starting just after 0131.
Saturday 1500 on WRMI 9955: checked at 1510, only two JBA carriers on slightly different frequencies and maybe a bit of jamming. The other one would be IBB Tibetan via Tinian, and/or the ChiCom jamming which that surely attracts.
Next: Saturday 1730 on WRN via SiriusXM 120; UT Sunday 0400 on WTWW 5830. All are one UT hour earlier than last week, so we may pretend they are at the ``same`` local time after DST imposition (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 6175, March 16 at 0527 I remember just in time to recheck what WHRI is doing at the end of the V. of Vietnam relay in Vietnamese: hear a few sex of the BaBcoCk music fill loop before cutting to WHR promo for new business, then full WHRI ID with `Onward Christian Soldiers`` before going off, which might cause a bit of consternation in Hanoi if they ever monitor their own relays (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 11715, March 16 circa 1325 no signal from KJES tho it now supposedly starts at 1300; but at 1414, KJES is inbooming tho undermodulated with English catechisms about Yahweh. That may be one of the nine giganames of God but hardly in orthodox Roman Catholicism, yet KJES claims to the Catholic, from Our Lady`s Youth Center in El Paso TX. Here`s a biobit about the founder, who was a Jesuit!http://www.fatherrickthomas.com/about/
Wolfgang Büschel found this low-res Bing view of the Vado NM site:http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=32.134064~-106.596250&lvl=20&dir=0&sty=h&where1=32,1340638888889%20-106,59625&form=LMLTCC
which BTW I visited on the ground many years ago and saw the rotatable LP antenna, but there was no one around to talk to. I also dropped in to their HQ in EP, where again there was no one around, but picked up some lit; IIRC that`s where I first became acquainted with The Catholic Worker (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 3928-LSB, March 16 at 0533, some SSB music stix out sorely, including bits of Kurt Weill, 0536 ``Good, Bad, Ugly``, with cuts and pauses, not heard after 0539; no announcements. So is it a pirate, or merely a ham with a fuzzy understanding of the rules? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 4924.86 approx., March 16 at 0047, weak music vs CODAR, Portuguese; 0102 sounds like a hymn. Still not sure which of the two ZYs this be (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 11840, March 15 at 2145 check, RHC Spanish with very low modulation, and buzzes come and go around 11830 and 11850.
15230, the RHC Portuguese hour is still missing, March 15 at 2354 check, Spanish song // 11680, 11840, 17705.
13780, March 16 at 1411, is this morning`s AWOL RHC frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** DIEGO GARCIA. 12759-USB, March 16 at 0059, very poor signal with some music, got to be AFN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN. 11815, March 16 at 1328, E Asian reception is hot this morning, with NHK inbooming in Japanese service; if REE/CR is also on, it`s buried. Variety show with rock music, surprisingly inserting an English announcement at 1329, ``Ladies & gentlemen --- Saturday night show``, back to Japanese banter, laughter, ``Mission: Impossible`` theme (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [and non]. 6101.12, March 16 at 1347, KCBS still off-frequency and about to fade out, as evidenced by nothing but the het it makes. This time compared to my keyboard, it`s closest to D#6/Eb6 = 1245 Hz.
Perhaps more remarkable is that something else on 6100.0 is still cooperatively propagating, which per HFCC can only be CRI in Mongolian, 100 kW due east from Urumqi --- altho Aoki offers another: 500 watts from R. Rossii, Kyzyl, which must be getting creamed in its region. I wonder if the Juche are by mistake running another, new transmitter on 6100 without deleting the old one off-channel? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NORTH AMERICA. eQSL: received March 16, 2013: ``Thank you for your reception report. I have confirmed your report and have attached Your QSL card and a program log for your reference. I apologize for the extended delay in getting these out. All the best, +-Redhat, X-FM Shortwave``
Thank you, Redhat. Here it is:http://www.w4uvh.net/X-FM347.jpg
also added to my Gallery via http://www.worldofradio.com/QSL.html
Text on the card reads: ``BBQ`d X anyone? This is to confirm reception of X-FM`s Thanksgiving show on 11-24-2012 at 0633 UTC on 6925 KHZ AM Stereo by Glenn Hauser. QSL # 347 Thanks for Listening!`` With photo of guy in a cover-the-head helmet and sunglasses underneath, with Pirate Radio shirt, in front of a pristine oven.
Here was my original log and report: ```6925+, AM, strongest signal heard from a pirate in a long time, steady S9+18 and very little fading, but with BFO, carrier slightly unstable and on the hi side; and VG modulation too, Nov 24 at 0612, claims to be broadcasting in C-Quam stereo --- really? But who has a C-Quam SW radio? Professional-sounding DJ, ex-FM? with produced IDs, slogans, ``music to the power of X``. Back-announces a few songs at a time. 0617 hello to Skeezix (?) and to Blue Ocean Radio; address xfmshortwave@gmail.com offering QSLs ASAP, but is behind since it`s time-consuming to check the reports against logs, listen to clips, which he prefers to get. 0623 stage-whispered IDs as XFM. 0633 says tune ``Saved by Zero`` will be next, 6:33 timecheck so apparently live, ``XFM, the power of X``; 0641 ``Music to the power of X``. I doze but still going at 0712 inviting reports also to be posted at FRC, FRN or HF Underground. 0714 saying goodnight,
then something by Incubus; finished at 0721, ID again mentioning C-Quam, ``music to the power of X``, and carrier cut immediately.``` (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PALAU. 9930, Saturday March 16 at 1335, aged gospel huxter struggling to read his script about how important Jews and Israel are, but don`t get no respect; constant crackling imposed, maybe bad audio source. Aoki shows each program on HBN = T8WH, with 9930 allegedly on the air during this quarter-hour only on Sat & Sun: Sat, it`s `Message from Donald Raymo---`; Sunday will be `Bread of Life Victory Hou-` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU. 5980, March 16 at 0046, music audible, maybe mixing with something, splash from 5990 CUBA. Retune at 0100 as 5990 is going off, too poor to copy much on 5980, but with BFO I time the R. Chaski cutoff tonight at 0100:52* which is 4 sex later than last night (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 9555, March 15 at 2148, ME pop music, good signal,
sounds quite secular, i.e. BSKSA General program I, 500 kW, 295 degrees from Riyadh at 1755-2257 per Aoki (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TUNISIA. 7275 & 7335, March 16 at 0609, both frequencies are missing! What has happened to IWT? I did still hear 17735 yesterday afternoon. Need to check out the complete former(?) schedule, per WRTH 2013:
0300-0510 12005 17735
0400-0625 7275
0600-0810 7335
1600-2000 12005
1600-2010 17735
1700-2110 7225
1900-2310 7345
That reminds me, I was also not hearing 7345 late in the day March 15. These times are rounded off, usually starting a few minutes before and maybe lasting a few minutes after (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 17860, Saturday March 16 at 1559, open carrier, 1600 ethereal electronic music, Kim Elliott with the first `VOA Radiogram` experimental broadcast, with lots of examples of digital text as he explains it all. Surprisingly, reception was less than solid, which he will no doubt rationalize as additional proof of how robust these modes are. Off at 1630 after some music fill.
This is HFCC-registered as 80 kW, 45 degrees from Greenville. Is it some old standby transmitter which won`t run more than that, or deliberately QRP? The northeastward beam is also historic, as Greenville hasn`t aimed anything at Europe for more than a decade. Details at http://voaradiogram.net
Repeats of this semihour ``soft launch`` are UT Sunday: 0230 on 5745, 1300 on 6095, 1930 on 15670. The lower frequencies are on 190 degree beam, the higher ones on 45 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 15620, March 16 at 1353, Horn of Africa music, 1355 M&W mentioning Washington, 1359 VOA theme, standard sign-off ``This program has come to you from Voice of America, Washington``.
Following immediately without a beat, ``Jesus Saves`` IS from FEBC, 1400 gamelan and opening in Indonesish. The signals so perfectly matched in reception and in timing that one would have believed they emanated from the same relay transmitter, but no, not at all! Aoki and HFCC show what really happens:
1300-1400, VOA Somali, 100 kW, 10 degrees from BOTSWANA
1400-1430, FEBC Javanese, 100 kW, 200 degrees from Bocaue, PHILIPPINES
I expect the latter carries on well to Somalia as well as to Oklahoma. There was also a squishy het on the lo side from the WEWN 15610 spur circa 15619, but fortunately only a weak signal from that so far (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7490-AM, March 16 around 0050, WBCQ with `Allan Weiner Worldwide`, in full double sideband AM. Misinformation is circulating that this frequency is upper sideband reduced-carrier, or full carrier upper-sideband only. No, it sounds like full AM, and switching between LSB and USB on the DX-398 confirms that is exactly what it is as usual. Anyone could tell this if they bothered to listen to 7490.
The other WBCQ frequencies are all reduced carrier USB, sometimes with a bit of LSB bleed, and slightly off-frequency. WBCQ likes to call it ``compatible USB``, meaning there`s enough carrier so you don`t need a BFO, which is very debatable. `AWWW` may be live, but as usual not synchronized, several sex apart on the // 5110v and 9330v, even tho the transmitters must be next to each other, a neat trick (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1660 monitoring: confirmed on Area 51 via WBCQ, 5110v-CUSB, UT Saturday March 16 starting just after 0131.
Saturday 1500 on WRMI 9955: checked at 1510, only two JBA carriers on slightly different frequencies and maybe a bit of jamming. The other one would be IBB Tibetan via Tinian, and/or the ChiCom jamming which that surely attracts.
Next: Saturday 1730 on WRN via SiriusXM 120; UT Sunday 0400 on WTWW 5830. All are one UT hour earlier than last week, so we may pretend they are at the ``same`` local time after DST imposition (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 6175, March 16 at 0527 I remember just in time to recheck what WHRI is doing at the end of the V. of Vietnam relay in Vietnamese: hear a few sex of the BaBcoCk music fill loop before cutting to WHR promo for new business, then full WHRI ID with `Onward Christian Soldiers`` before going off, which might cause a bit of consternation in Hanoi if they ever monitor their own relays (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 11715, March 16 circa 1325 no signal from KJES tho it now supposedly starts at 1300; but at 1414, KJES is inbooming tho undermodulated with English catechisms about Yahweh. That may be one of the nine giganames of God but hardly in orthodox Roman Catholicism, yet KJES claims to the Catholic, from Our Lady`s Youth Center in El Paso TX. Here`s a biobit about the founder, who was a Jesuit!http://www.fatherrickthomas.com/about/
Wolfgang Büschel found this low-res Bing view of the Vado NM site:http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=32.134064~-106.596250&lvl=20&dir=0&sty=h&where1=32,1340638888889%20-106,59625&form=LMLTCC
which BTW I visited on the ground many years ago and saw the rotatable LP antenna, but there was no one around to talk to. I also dropped in to their HQ in EP, where again there was no one around, but picked up some lit; IIRC that`s where I first became acquainted with The Catholic Worker (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 3928-LSB, March 16 at 0533, some SSB music stix out sorely, including bits of Kurt Weill, 0536 ``Good, Bad, Ugly``, with cuts and pauses, not heard after 0539; no announcements. So is it a pirate, or merely a ham with a fuzzy understanding of the rules? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
