** BANGLADESH [and non]. 15505, March 29 at 1358, no signal from BB, nor is much expected with degraded propagation today; but at 1401 there is a JBA carrier, growing by 1426 to music audible poorly with heavy flutter. WWV reports K-index at 12 was 4, at 15 was 3, but ``no space weather storms`` observed or predicted.
Much lower-latitude path from TINIAN was still propagating Vatican IS well, tho aimed westward after Vietnamese before 1400, on 15495 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BOLIVIA. 5580.36, March 29 at 0106, music is weakly audible here. I often check this around 0100: usually a JBA carrier at best, from R. San José, San José de Chiquitos, Santa Cruz, which WRTH says is 250 watts until sign-off varying around 0200. Chiquitos is a province within Santa Cruz department (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BOLIVIA. 5952+, March XXIX at CV, YL timecheck in Spanish mentioning ``IV minutos``, but the rest of it is incomprehensible, back into Aymara or Quechua? Then some shouting. From Radio Pio XII, Siglo XX, as usual the #II signal ex Bolivia following RSC 6135-, and enough oomph to muscle aside the pointless Cuban jamming on 5955.
(We are spared the frequency in Roman numerals since that would involve the difficult task of putting a line over a V for 5000+). How boring it is now; habemus papam with a I or rather no numeral at all! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake, March 29 before 1400, all with flutter:
13530, very poor at 1351; none in the 12s, 11s
13920, very poor at 1352
13970, poor at 1352
14750, very poor at 1353; none audible higher with poor propagation but probably active. Even RHC is JBA on 17 MHz! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 9540, March 29 at 1321, weak RHC signal has CCI not only from Kunming but from pulse jamming! Belying the too-close relationship (same site?) between RHC and the DentroCuban Jamming Command. Jamming cleared up a few minutes later. Chinese Commies vs Cuban Commies vs Cuban Commies!
BTW, RHC has already sent out an A-13 schedule effective April 1, showing no further changes in English, but a few frequency changes in Spanish et al., distributed to the DXLD yg so far (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUAM. 9650, March 29 at 1331, Golos Nadezhdiy, with Moscow timecheck, M&M&W chatting, good signal, playing a bit of ``Wonderful, Merciful Savior`` in English, 1333 back to Russian mentioning Minsk. Is AWR 1330-1400 Russian broadcast from KSDA, i.e. Voice of Hope, a pervasive catch-slogan with the 7DA. ``Radio Nadezhda`` was also name of a former SW clandestine against Estonia, and now of WRBS, a Christian station in Boston, and maybe also NY/NJ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN [and non]. 9665, March 29 at 1329, VIRI IS, poor with flutter and Korean CCI, 1330 sign-on in Japanese, NA. ! Yes, VIRI scheduled here, 500 kW, 60 degrees from Sirjan since Dec 9, says Aoki. What were they thinking?! With KCBS on 9665 for ages; but never in HFCC so maybe IRIB didn`t know about it, not bothering to turn on a radio or consult DX sources before picking a new frequency. Anyhow, for A-13, Iran is moving elsewhere (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 1120, March 28 at 1957 UT, KEOR is back on with praise music in Spanish; after long pause, at 2000 finally an ID: ``la mejor música, Radio Victoria, KEOR desde Tulsa, Oclajoma``, back to music. Now sounds subjectively stronger on caradio, and may well be on new 7 kW CP, up from 2 kW, as well as starting regular service. I know it was not on the air the previous overnight, as nulled KMOX around 0530 to be sure. Still on at 1703 UT March 29, but now not so strong vs lightning crashes and neighborhood noise (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. Another new obstacle to SW reception: March 29 at 1313, a wideband noise field between 21550 and 23100 kHz (at least), also with an additional pulse tone regularly every few sex. Hope it`s not an electric fence, as a neighbor has been planning to install to keep loose dogs on-property (or did he really mean a sonic fence? I hope). Later at 1355, still the noise but without the tones. Meanwhile nothing is propagating on 13m, not even Kuwait 21540 (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. RF 31 & 32 = virtual 31-3, KXOK, Enid, March 29 around 1600 UT, with Azteca on third subchannel, axually present instead of black screen, silent sound, but very likely to fail again for days at a time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU [and non]. 5980, March 29 at 0100, I barely have time for a Chaski-check, but do manage it before too late: Cuban pulse jamming plus carrier; 0101:20 the usual sounder, cut off at 0101:58.5* which is another 5 sex later than last night.
This time, it leaves a JBA carrier on 5980 from something else. Nothing is scheduled, but maybe Iranawila, Sri Lanka has not turned off carrier yet after 0000-0100 VOA Tibetan, and/or the CNR1 jammer both of which have normally been fading out well before 0100, unlike earlier in winter. Another 5980 possibility is R. Guarujá, 10 kW in Florianópolis SC, Brasil, potentially 24 hours, but doubt it is active as never heard a sign of it in my nightly Chaski-checking; altho the 1 kW Brazilian on 5940 can often be detected by its off-frequency het. What about A-13? HFCC shows nothing of a major nature at all scheduled between 21 and 03 on 5980 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1662 monitoring: confirmed on WTWW-1, 9479, Thursday March 28 at 2100:33, usual excellent signal. Next: 0330v UT Friday on WWRB 3195, unconfirmed; did anyone hear it? UT Saturday 0130v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB; Saturday 0630 & 1430 on Hamburger Lokalradio 7265-CUSB; Saturday 1500 on WRMI 9955; Saturday 1730 on WRN via SiriusXM 120; Saturday 2330 [NEW] on WTWW-2 9930; UT Sunday 0400 on WTWW-1 5830 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9689, March 29 at 1335, AIR GOS English news has a constant het on the lo side of less than a kHz --- until I attenuate the FRG-7 a bit, and it disappears. This is not a transmitted spur, but result of receiver overload from deliberately offset 9479 WTWW, which causes such hets at various spots on the 31m band. If it were on-frequency there would merely be cross modulation to eliminate by attenuation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 11715, March 29 at 1344, not even a JBA carrier from KJES between 11710 DPRK and 11720 Iran, which nominally starts during DST at *1300. Still nothing after 1400 either, when often it inbooms. US signals above 10 MHz are poorly propagating today, so can`t be positive it`s really off the air, at a megameter skip distance (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 690, March 29 at 0512 UT, open carrier/dead air again no doubt from 10/5 kW KGGF, Coffeyville KS, which has an appalling record of no one-minding-the-store, like my log of an afternoon game lacking audio except for the commercial breaks July 18, 2010, and almost as bad on October 3 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 830, March 28 at 0539 UT check, no WUMY Memphis TN even with WCCO nulled, so our fun is over after several nights of daytime-like operation instead of 2 watts (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1050, March 29 0517 UT, altho XET 990 was inbooming, XEG 1050 must have been in a fade, as hardly needed nulling, when I heard an ID for ``Radio 10-50, KJBS``, briefly awakening me from my doze. This turned out to be the only significant log during this midnite bedtime session; uplooked later, it must have been KJBN, Little Rock AR, as there is no KJBS anywhere, nor anything fuzzily similar on 1050. But KJBN is supposed to be 19 watts at night, 1 kW day U1, with 64-watt PSRA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 88.7, Friday March 29 at 1435 UT, KRZA Alamosa CO/Taos NM, never audible here except by webcast (how I wish I were in their FM coverage area!), but I often check the 1430 UT strip of `Spotlight on Upper Rio Grande` Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri local shows, which axually have a complicated day/week rotation schedule not shown on their grid, but today the Spring Fund Drive is in progress, very interesting conversation between current and a former general manager about their San Antonio Mountain (NM) transmitter site, where after lightning damage they had to replace transmitter and move tower.
Even tho it`s very remote with no one around normally, measurements showed too much RF at ground level, requiring a fence. Now the new setup has improved coverage toward Taos and Santa Fe. Currently however, only running 40% power until the ground thaws and some repair can be made. KRZA has long served Taos secondarily (apparently too small to support its own public/community radio station), but now they have a Taos phone number and plans to build a studio equal to the one in Alamosa. The two GMs never identified themselves, but per website the current one is Holly Felmlee, who refers to KRZA`s ``founding mothers``.
I think KRZA also needs a better studio clock, as they frequently have trouble meeting NPR news at 1501 UT, upcut today, and completely missed Jim Hightower at 1506 for which they later apologized.
Bombshell within that NPR newscast today: `Talk of the Nation` will be canceled this summer [at the end of July], and host Neal Conan is leaving NPR. To be replaced by `Here & Now`, from WBUR but then with more NPR participation; a shame to lose TOTN, but `Science Friday` will continue. There have really been more hours of talk programming, ``a glut`` between Morning Edition and ATC than affiliates can fit in; something needed to go, and H&N clearances should then go up. The live TOTN time is currently 18-20 UT. Much more about this:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/03/29/175677788/talkofthenation
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Much lower-latitude path from TINIAN was still propagating Vatican IS well, tho aimed westward after Vietnamese before 1400, on 15495 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BOLIVIA. 5580.36, March 29 at 0106, music is weakly audible here. I often check this around 0100: usually a JBA carrier at best, from R. San José, San José de Chiquitos, Santa Cruz, which WRTH says is 250 watts until sign-off varying around 0200. Chiquitos is a province within Santa Cruz department (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BOLIVIA. 5952+, March XXIX at CV, YL timecheck in Spanish mentioning ``IV minutos``, but the rest of it is incomprehensible, back into Aymara or Quechua? Then some shouting. From Radio Pio XII, Siglo XX, as usual the #II signal ex Bolivia following RSC 6135-, and enough oomph to muscle aside the pointless Cuban jamming on 5955.
(We are spared the frequency in Roman numerals since that would involve the difficult task of putting a line over a V for 5000+). How boring it is now; habemus papam with a I or rather no numeral at all! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake, March 29 before 1400, all with flutter:
13530, very poor at 1351; none in the 12s, 11s
13920, very poor at 1352
13970, poor at 1352
14750, very poor at 1353; none audible higher with poor propagation but probably active. Even RHC is JBA on 17 MHz! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 9540, March 29 at 1321, weak RHC signal has CCI not only from Kunming but from pulse jamming! Belying the too-close relationship (same site?) between RHC and the DentroCuban Jamming Command. Jamming cleared up a few minutes later. Chinese Commies vs Cuban Commies vs Cuban Commies!
BTW, RHC has already sent out an A-13 schedule effective April 1, showing no further changes in English, but a few frequency changes in Spanish et al., distributed to the DXLD yg so far (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUAM. 9650, March 29 at 1331, Golos Nadezhdiy, with Moscow timecheck, M&M&W chatting, good signal, playing a bit of ``Wonderful, Merciful Savior`` in English, 1333 back to Russian mentioning Minsk. Is AWR 1330-1400 Russian broadcast from KSDA, i.e. Voice of Hope, a pervasive catch-slogan with the 7DA. ``Radio Nadezhda`` was also name of a former SW clandestine against Estonia, and now of WRBS, a Christian station in Boston, and maybe also NY/NJ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN [and non]. 9665, March 29 at 1329, VIRI IS, poor with flutter and Korean CCI, 1330 sign-on in Japanese, NA. ! Yes, VIRI scheduled here, 500 kW, 60 degrees from Sirjan since Dec 9, says Aoki. What were they thinking?! With KCBS on 9665 for ages; but never in HFCC so maybe IRIB didn`t know about it, not bothering to turn on a radio or consult DX sources before picking a new frequency. Anyhow, for A-13, Iran is moving elsewhere (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 1120, March 28 at 1957 UT, KEOR is back on with praise music in Spanish; after long pause, at 2000 finally an ID: ``la mejor música, Radio Victoria, KEOR desde Tulsa, Oclajoma``, back to music. Now sounds subjectively stronger on caradio, and may well be on new 7 kW CP, up from 2 kW, as well as starting regular service. I know it was not on the air the previous overnight, as nulled KMOX around 0530 to be sure. Still on at 1703 UT March 29, but now not so strong vs lightning crashes and neighborhood noise (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. Another new obstacle to SW reception: March 29 at 1313, a wideband noise field between 21550 and 23100 kHz (at least), also with an additional pulse tone regularly every few sex. Hope it`s not an electric fence, as a neighbor has been planning to install to keep loose dogs on-property (or did he really mean a sonic fence? I hope). Later at 1355, still the noise but without the tones. Meanwhile nothing is propagating on 13m, not even Kuwait 21540 (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. RF 31 & 32 = virtual 31-3, KXOK, Enid, March 29 around 1600 UT, with Azteca on third subchannel, axually present instead of black screen, silent sound, but very likely to fail again for days at a time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU [and non]. 5980, March 29 at 0100, I barely have time for a Chaski-check, but do manage it before too late: Cuban pulse jamming plus carrier; 0101:20 the usual sounder, cut off at 0101:58.5* which is another 5 sex later than last night.
This time, it leaves a JBA carrier on 5980 from something else. Nothing is scheduled, but maybe Iranawila, Sri Lanka has not turned off carrier yet after 0000-0100 VOA Tibetan, and/or the CNR1 jammer both of which have normally been fading out well before 0100, unlike earlier in winter. Another 5980 possibility is R. Guarujá, 10 kW in Florianópolis SC, Brasil, potentially 24 hours, but doubt it is active as never heard a sign of it in my nightly Chaski-checking; altho the 1 kW Brazilian on 5940 can often be detected by its off-frequency het. What about A-13? HFCC shows nothing of a major nature at all scheduled between 21 and 03 on 5980 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1662 monitoring: confirmed on WTWW-1, 9479, Thursday March 28 at 2100:33, usual excellent signal. Next: 0330v UT Friday on WWRB 3195, unconfirmed; did anyone hear it? UT Saturday 0130v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB; Saturday 0630 & 1430 on Hamburger Lokalradio 7265-CUSB; Saturday 1500 on WRMI 9955; Saturday 1730 on WRN via SiriusXM 120; Saturday 2330 [NEW] on WTWW-2 9930; UT Sunday 0400 on WTWW-1 5830 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9689, March 29 at 1335, AIR GOS English news has a constant het on the lo side of less than a kHz --- until I attenuate the FRG-7 a bit, and it disappears. This is not a transmitted spur, but result of receiver overload from deliberately offset 9479 WTWW, which causes such hets at various spots on the 31m band. If it were on-frequency there would merely be cross modulation to eliminate by attenuation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 11715, March 29 at 1344, not even a JBA carrier from KJES between 11710 DPRK and 11720 Iran, which nominally starts during DST at *1300. Still nothing after 1400 either, when often it inbooms. US signals above 10 MHz are poorly propagating today, so can`t be positive it`s really off the air, at a megameter skip distance (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 690, March 29 at 0512 UT, open carrier/dead air again no doubt from 10/5 kW KGGF, Coffeyville KS, which has an appalling record of no one-minding-the-store, like my log of an afternoon game lacking audio except for the commercial breaks July 18, 2010, and almost as bad on October 3 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 830, March 28 at 0539 UT check, no WUMY Memphis TN even with WCCO nulled, so our fun is over after several nights of daytime-like operation instead of 2 watts (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1050, March 29 0517 UT, altho XET 990 was inbooming, XEG 1050 must have been in a fade, as hardly needed nulling, when I heard an ID for ``Radio 10-50, KJBS``, briefly awakening me from my doze. This turned out to be the only significant log during this midnite bedtime session; uplooked later, it must have been KJBN, Little Rock AR, as there is no KJBS anywhere, nor anything fuzzily similar on 1050. But KJBN is supposed to be 19 watts at night, 1 kW day U1, with 64-watt PSRA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 88.7, Friday March 29 at 1435 UT, KRZA Alamosa CO/Taos NM, never audible here except by webcast (how I wish I were in their FM coverage area!), but I often check the 1430 UT strip of `Spotlight on Upper Rio Grande` Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri local shows, which axually have a complicated day/week rotation schedule not shown on their grid, but today the Spring Fund Drive is in progress, very interesting conversation between current and a former general manager about their San Antonio Mountain (NM) transmitter site, where after lightning damage they had to replace transmitter and move tower.
Even tho it`s very remote with no one around normally, measurements showed too much RF at ground level, requiring a fence. Now the new setup has improved coverage toward Taos and Santa Fe. Currently however, only running 40% power until the ground thaws and some repair can be made. KRZA has long served Taos secondarily (apparently too small to support its own public/community radio station), but now they have a Taos phone number and plans to build a studio equal to the one in Alamosa. The two GMs never identified themselves, but per website the current one is Holly Felmlee, who refers to KRZA`s ``founding mothers``.
I think KRZA also needs a better studio clock, as they frequently have trouble meeting NPR news at 1501 UT, upcut today, and completely missed Jim Hightower at 1506 for which they later apologized.
Bombshell within that NPR newscast today: `Talk of the Nation` will be canceled this summer [at the end of July], and host Neal Conan is leaving NPR. To be replaced by `Here & Now`, from WBUR but then with more NPR participation; a shame to lose TOTN, but `Science Friday` will continue. There have really been more hours of talk programming, ``a glut`` between Morning Edition and ATC than affiliates can fit in; something needed to go, and H&N clearances should then go up. The live TOTN time is currently 18-20 UT. Much more about this:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/03/29/175677788/talkofthenation
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
