** BANGLADESH. 15505, March 5 at 1402, big hum is back from Bangladesh Betar with presumed Urdu underneath; it was like this on March 3 but missing on March 4, typical (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BELIZE. 7198-LSB, March 5 at 0628, V31VJ is calling CQ DX and working simplex. Never says where he is; oh yeah, this means Belize. His QRZ.com page is not very informative, merely: Jim KB8TXZ during February & March (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BOLIVIA. 5952.36 approx., March 5 at 0057, R. Pio XII, Siglo XX has better than usual signal tonight, clearly in Spanish. Back to this at 0112 after Chaski monitoring. Conversation in Spanish, despite Cuban jamming centered on 5955 against non-República 5954.3 or wherever it was, as the jamming can be avoided by LSB tuning, but that confronts another weaker carrier on 5950, and more splatter/overload presumably from 5935 WWCR. Radio Santa Cruz, 6134.8v also in well tonight with fewer problems (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 11780, March 5 at 0635, RNA/RNB with usual VG signal, talking about Villa-Lobos, so they are more serious than usual. Then playing a neat YL vocal version of ``Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake March 5, with FE signals hot this morning, as equinox is imminent, before 1400:
11500, good at 1348
12370, very good at 1359
13970, very good at 1359; started scanning too late to catch any above 14 MHz before 1400*
After 1400:
7390, very poor at 1417 under VOA Cantonese via Tinang, PHILIPPINES
Before 1500:
11500, fair at 1449; none in the 10s
12230, good at 1449
13130, good at 1450
13920, good at 1450 but mixed with fax, Australia?
13970, fair at 1449
14980, very poor at 1451
15870, poor at 1459.5-1500* uncovered after unID blob goes off 15867
16100, good at 1454 but with more flutter than the others
17535, fair at 1454 vs V. of Tibet via Madagascar, unheard
none in the 18s or 19s
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CLIPPERTON. 7185-LSB, March 5 at 0622 pileup is here, so bet TX5K DX-pedition is down-5. Yes, 7180-LSB with weak but readable signal at 0631 ID, ``listening up-5``.
Replying to my previous reports, Julián Santiago Díez de Bonilla in the DF says Clipperton was taken away from Mexico thanks to Italian intervention partial to France:
``Glenn: las isla de Clipperton es en realidad un atolón ubicado en el Pacífico a 1200 kilómetros del Puerto de Acapulco. Este atolón perteneció a México hasta que por maniobras poco claras Francia ser apropio de ella en 1931 "gracias" a un laudo emitido en ese año por el rey italiano "Victor Manuel III" de Italia que fungió como juez entre Francia y México emitiendo una resolución totalmente parcial a los franceses.
Hay un libro muy interesante llamado "Clipperton isla mexicana" de Miguel González Avelar editado por el Fondo de Cultura Económica en 1992 que habla de las implicaciones legales y políticas en el caso de Clipperton.
Asimismo una historia novelada llamada "La isla de la pasión" de Laura Restrepo editada por "Alfaguara" en 1989 habla de la última guarnición mexicana que custodiaba la isla a principios del siglo XX. Saludos, Julián``
Very interesting. If it was Mexican before, there should have been some other name for it than the oh-so-English Clipperton, which is hardly French either. Has it any valuable resources? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COLOMBIA. 7150-LSB, March 5 at 0608 as I am fishing around for Clipperton, find some ham here with VG signal who keeps making lots of quick European DX contacts with mostly 5-9 signal reports as if this were a contest --- and he never gives his own call!! Almost. A few minutes later it goes by unexpectedly and I don`t copy it, but it sounds very strange. Mesmerized, I can`t tune away until I get the ID! Clipperton, QRX. FINALLY, he says it fonetikally again at 0621: HK/LU9ESD. Meanwhile he has mentioned that he is on the Caribbean coast of northern Colombia. Must be an Argentine visitor, with background noise or noisy vox, presumably duplex as I was not hearing any of his contacts on the same frequency. If I had found the other frequency, there his call might have been given more often, tho standard procedure for impatient hams is only to say their own calls over and over, hoping for a break in the pileup and a comeback. QRZ.com lookup shows: Manu
Siebert, Estomba 487/91, 8000 Bahía Blanca, BA, Argentina, but he is QRV in HK-land until March 8, and was also involved in the HK0NA Malpelo 2012y DXpedition team (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EGYPT. 17650, is there any Bambara from Cairo at 16-18? See USA [and non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUAM. 13363-USB, March 5 at 1421, AFN is on its `day` frequency instead of 5765-USB, talk show, 1424 PSAs re children, Iwo Jima, perhaps blocking ads on the NBC TV Today show? Still audible but weaker at 1447, unfortunately troubled by one of my cable DTV boxes` bubble-jamming; I unplugged the closest one, but that wasn`t it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUIANA FRENCH. 9490, March 5 at 0116, the R. República relay is very strong, and still can`t hear the former plus/minus 116 kHz spurs on 9374, or 9606, altho the latter is now suffering from DRM bleed out of 9630 Costa Rica. However, closer spurs to 9490 are back: these feature recognizable modulation // 9490 altho very distorted, and with variable squealing, and no specific carriers, circa 9504.75 and 9475.25 = plus/minus 14.75 kHz, and also circa weaker 9456 and 9524 = plus/minus about 34 kHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU. 5980, March 5 at 0100 no CNR1 timesignal but R. Chaski is audible with soft instrumental music. I am recording it from 0059 for the next 8 minutes until cutoff, so you can hear what I hear each night. Watch out for the noise bursts; if my cassette recorder hold up (it`s getting wowy), I`ll keep trying and put up better ones if possible:
http://www.w4uvh.net/chaski1.rm
The music comes thru a lot better than the talk. 0100:40 sounder and announcement, 0101 maybe mentions onda corta, ``What a Friend`` theme they often play around here, sounders and more talk; 0102:40 music and more talk; 0103:25 local noise bursts; 0103:50 more sounder, Spanish, mention ``el equipo`` (the team); occasional modulation splatter too from algo; 0105:35 concludes tract with ``escríbanos a --- (Los Ángeles?)``; 0106 music, 0106:35 more noise bursts, so after staying in narrow AM Mode, I switch to offset BFO to be sure to catch the fin which is at 0107:38*. It was 44 degrees on the porch with the DX-398 and very windy from the north (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 5745, UT Tuesday March 5 at 0233, no signal from VOA Greenville, despite scheduling since March 1 for this half hour on the new `Radiogram` service. Apparently Kim Andrew Elliott is not back yet from the SWL Fest/vacation, or catching up on other work, to undertake this. Are they really going to fill a full semihour with these tones, rather than less than a minute at a time on The Mighty KBC? Reminder of all the times to check for this: 0230-0300 on 5745, 1300-1330 on 6095, 1600-1630 on 15670, 17860. I slept past 1330, but no sign of either after 1600, so I seriously doubt 6095 was on yet either (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. Re whether any SW station but VOA broadcasts in Bambara: no signal at 1600 UT March 5 on 17650, where R. Cairo shows in some listings with a bihour in Bambara. At 1638, still not even a JBA carrier on 17650 altho propagation from that area is quite poor today; it would be nice to have more certain confirmation of its absence from Eurafrican monitors.
As for VOA`s biday of specials in Swahili at 2100-2130 on 15265, 13740, 11875, Robin Harwood in Tasmania says, ``This may explain why, Glenn: Kenyan presidential and parliamentary elections.``
And Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart adds, ``Our local TV on all channel
(we get 60 excellent public broadcaster TV programs from all over Europe in various languages...) reported over and over again on Kenya national election in past weeks, and about heavy clashes some 5 years ago, when many Kenya people murdered by different vernacular gangs. So is a matter of national election report, special broadcast by VOA today. see for example
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/24/kenya-election-violence-fearful
73 wb``
So these would be at midnight in Kenya, where the local media are insufficient, or untrustworthy? VOA`s regular Swahili is at 1630-1700 on two of the same frequencies (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 3215, March 5 at 0121, WWRB frequency is missing, while 3185 is on as usual with Brother Scare service. 5050 has also been missing for several nights, neither AM nor SSB. Meanwhile, WWCR is on 3195 which will shift to 3215 at 0200. 3215 for WWRB is currently available at 21-02 per HFCC.
As for March 10 with DST, the pattern should be per HFCC, assuming all transmitters are funxional: WWCR on 3215 from 01 to 09 and no more 3195 at all; WWRB on 3215 from 21 to 01, then 3195 at 01 to 04.
WWCR has three different schedules posted currently at
http://www.wwcr.com/transmitter-sched.html
for thru March 9, March 10-31, and A-13 for March 31-May 31. No surprises of new frequencies, just the usual shifting around (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 2000-USB kHz, March 5 at 0110 UT, New York Radio, VOLMET is on this strange frequency again tonight, which is on the borderline between 160m hamband and fixed(?) above it, so theoretically would not be used by anything. At 0057, nothing before 0100, when Gander shares the other frequencies. Did WSY70 get special authorization because even 3485 was too ``high`` to propagate over some paths to craft?? Also audible on stronger 3485, 6604, 10051 and even 13270, all USB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 2660, March 5 at 0558 UT, not even a JBA carrier, so has KGLD finally fixed its second harmonic? Will keep checking (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9510-9511, March 5 at 1349, no V. of Tibetish blob here today like there was yesterday, nor anywhere else in the vicinity; just a very weak undisturbed signal on 9510, which per Aoki should only be BBC in Bengali via OMAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 15867, March 5 at 1451 very distorted blob in talk, with squealing, no specific carrier but centered here and audible out to 15850-15877. Trying to ID language, maybe SE Asian. Cuts off at 1459.5* so seemingly a professional site despite this little problem, (uncovering much weaker Firedrake for another semiminute on 15870).
I search the 15 MHz band in Aoki on -1500 closings, and find a few possible sources:
15285 GFA Hindi, Trinco, Sri Lanka
15310 RFA Vietnamese, Tinian
15515 Aap ki Dunya, Iranawila, Sri Lanka
15640 DW Urdu via Singapore
15660 KSDA Burmese
Or could this too be V. of Tibet, ex-9511v, ex-7414v?
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 19330, March 5 at 1455, lite Cuban-type pulse jamming as I was scanning for Firedrake, typical of an harmonic, except this does not correspond to any known jammer fundamental such as 9665. A slim possibility: maybe one of the pileup sites on 15330 mispunched? Otherwise just a stray (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BELIZE. 7198-LSB, March 5 at 0628, V31VJ is calling CQ DX and working simplex. Never says where he is; oh yeah, this means Belize. His QRZ.com page is not very informative, merely: Jim KB8TXZ during February & March (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BOLIVIA. 5952.36 approx., March 5 at 0057, R. Pio XII, Siglo XX has better than usual signal tonight, clearly in Spanish. Back to this at 0112 after Chaski monitoring. Conversation in Spanish, despite Cuban jamming centered on 5955 against non-República 5954.3 or wherever it was, as the jamming can be avoided by LSB tuning, but that confronts another weaker carrier on 5950, and more splatter/overload presumably from 5935 WWCR. Radio Santa Cruz, 6134.8v also in well tonight with fewer problems (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 11780, March 5 at 0635, RNA/RNB with usual VG signal, talking about Villa-Lobos, so they are more serious than usual. Then playing a neat YL vocal version of ``Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake March 5, with FE signals hot this morning, as equinox is imminent, before 1400:
11500, good at 1348
12370, very good at 1359
13970, very good at 1359; started scanning too late to catch any above 14 MHz before 1400*
After 1400:
7390, very poor at 1417 under VOA Cantonese via Tinang, PHILIPPINES
Before 1500:
11500, fair at 1449; none in the 10s
12230, good at 1449
13130, good at 1450
13920, good at 1450 but mixed with fax, Australia?
13970, fair at 1449
14980, very poor at 1451
15870, poor at 1459.5-1500* uncovered after unID blob goes off 15867
16100, good at 1454 but with more flutter than the others
17535, fair at 1454 vs V. of Tibet via Madagascar, unheard
none in the 18s or 19s
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CLIPPERTON. 7185-LSB, March 5 at 0622 pileup is here, so bet TX5K DX-pedition is down-5. Yes, 7180-LSB with weak but readable signal at 0631 ID, ``listening up-5``.
Replying to my previous reports, Julián Santiago Díez de Bonilla in the DF says Clipperton was taken away from Mexico thanks to Italian intervention partial to France:
``Glenn: las isla de Clipperton es en realidad un atolón ubicado en el Pacífico a 1200 kilómetros del Puerto de Acapulco. Este atolón perteneció a México hasta que por maniobras poco claras Francia ser apropio de ella en 1931 "gracias" a un laudo emitido en ese año por el rey italiano "Victor Manuel III" de Italia que fungió como juez entre Francia y México emitiendo una resolución totalmente parcial a los franceses.
Hay un libro muy interesante llamado "Clipperton isla mexicana" de Miguel González Avelar editado por el Fondo de Cultura Económica en 1992 que habla de las implicaciones legales y políticas en el caso de Clipperton.
Asimismo una historia novelada llamada "La isla de la pasión" de Laura Restrepo editada por "Alfaguara" en 1989 habla de la última guarnición mexicana que custodiaba la isla a principios del siglo XX. Saludos, Julián``
Very interesting. If it was Mexican before, there should have been some other name for it than the oh-so-English Clipperton, which is hardly French either. Has it any valuable resources? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COLOMBIA. 7150-LSB, March 5 at 0608 as I am fishing around for Clipperton, find some ham here with VG signal who keeps making lots of quick European DX contacts with mostly 5-9 signal reports as if this were a contest --- and he never gives his own call!! Almost. A few minutes later it goes by unexpectedly and I don`t copy it, but it sounds very strange. Mesmerized, I can`t tune away until I get the ID! Clipperton, QRX. FINALLY, he says it fonetikally again at 0621: HK/LU9ESD. Meanwhile he has mentioned that he is on the Caribbean coast of northern Colombia. Must be an Argentine visitor, with background noise or noisy vox, presumably duplex as I was not hearing any of his contacts on the same frequency. If I had found the other frequency, there his call might have been given more often, tho standard procedure for impatient hams is only to say their own calls over and over, hoping for a break in the pileup and a comeback. QRZ.com lookup shows: Manu
Siebert, Estomba 487/91, 8000 Bahía Blanca, BA, Argentina, but he is QRV in HK-land until March 8, and was also involved in the HK0NA Malpelo 2012y DXpedition team (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EGYPT. 17650, is there any Bambara from Cairo at 16-18? See USA [and non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUAM. 13363-USB, March 5 at 1421, AFN is on its `day` frequency instead of 5765-USB, talk show, 1424 PSAs re children, Iwo Jima, perhaps blocking ads on the NBC TV Today show? Still audible but weaker at 1447, unfortunately troubled by one of my cable DTV boxes` bubble-jamming; I unplugged the closest one, but that wasn`t it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUIANA FRENCH. 9490, March 5 at 0116, the R. República relay is very strong, and still can`t hear the former plus/minus 116 kHz spurs on 9374, or 9606, altho the latter is now suffering from DRM bleed out of 9630 Costa Rica. However, closer spurs to 9490 are back: these feature recognizable modulation // 9490 altho very distorted, and with variable squealing, and no specific carriers, circa 9504.75 and 9475.25 = plus/minus 14.75 kHz, and also circa weaker 9456 and 9524 = plus/minus about 34 kHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU. 5980, March 5 at 0100 no CNR1 timesignal but R. Chaski is audible with soft instrumental music. I am recording it from 0059 for the next 8 minutes until cutoff, so you can hear what I hear each night. Watch out for the noise bursts; if my cassette recorder hold up (it`s getting wowy), I`ll keep trying and put up better ones if possible:
http://www.w4uvh.net/chaski1.rm
The music comes thru a lot better than the talk. 0100:40 sounder and announcement, 0101 maybe mentions onda corta, ``What a Friend`` theme they often play around here, sounders and more talk; 0102:40 music and more talk; 0103:25 local noise bursts; 0103:50 more sounder, Spanish, mention ``el equipo`` (the team); occasional modulation splatter too from algo; 0105:35 concludes tract with ``escríbanos a --- (Los Ángeles?)``; 0106 music, 0106:35 more noise bursts, so after staying in narrow AM Mode, I switch to offset BFO to be sure to catch the fin which is at 0107:38*. It was 44 degrees on the porch with the DX-398 and very windy from the north (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 5745, UT Tuesday March 5 at 0233, no signal from VOA Greenville, despite scheduling since March 1 for this half hour on the new `Radiogram` service. Apparently Kim Andrew Elliott is not back yet from the SWL Fest/vacation, or catching up on other work, to undertake this. Are they really going to fill a full semihour with these tones, rather than less than a minute at a time on The Mighty KBC? Reminder of all the times to check for this: 0230-0300 on 5745, 1300-1330 on 6095, 1600-1630 on 15670, 17860. I slept past 1330, but no sign of either after 1600, so I seriously doubt 6095 was on yet either (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. Re whether any SW station but VOA broadcasts in Bambara: no signal at 1600 UT March 5 on 17650, where R. Cairo shows in some listings with a bihour in Bambara. At 1638, still not even a JBA carrier on 17650 altho propagation from that area is quite poor today; it would be nice to have more certain confirmation of its absence from Eurafrican monitors.
As for VOA`s biday of specials in Swahili at 2100-2130 on 15265, 13740, 11875, Robin Harwood in Tasmania says, ``This may explain why, Glenn: Kenyan presidential and parliamentary elections.``
And Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart adds, ``Our local TV on all channel
(we get 60 excellent public broadcaster TV programs from all over Europe in various languages...) reported over and over again on Kenya national election in past weeks, and about heavy clashes some 5 years ago, when many Kenya people murdered by different vernacular gangs. So is a matter of national election report, special broadcast by VOA today. see for example
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/24/kenya-election-violence-fearful
73 wb``
So these would be at midnight in Kenya, where the local media are insufficient, or untrustworthy? VOA`s regular Swahili is at 1630-1700 on two of the same frequencies (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 3215, March 5 at 0121, WWRB frequency is missing, while 3185 is on as usual with Brother Scare service. 5050 has also been missing for several nights, neither AM nor SSB. Meanwhile, WWCR is on 3195 which will shift to 3215 at 0200. 3215 for WWRB is currently available at 21-02 per HFCC.
As for March 10 with DST, the pattern should be per HFCC, assuming all transmitters are funxional: WWCR on 3215 from 01 to 09 and no more 3195 at all; WWRB on 3215 from 21 to 01, then 3195 at 01 to 04.
WWCR has three different schedules posted currently at
http://www.wwcr.com/transmitter-sched.html
for thru March 9, March 10-31, and A-13 for March 31-May 31. No surprises of new frequencies, just the usual shifting around (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 2000-USB kHz, March 5 at 0110 UT, New York Radio, VOLMET is on this strange frequency again tonight, which is on the borderline between 160m hamband and fixed(?) above it, so theoretically would not be used by anything. At 0057, nothing before 0100, when Gander shares the other frequencies. Did WSY70 get special authorization because even 3485 was too ``high`` to propagate over some paths to craft?? Also audible on stronger 3485, 6604, 10051 and even 13270, all USB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 2660, March 5 at 0558 UT, not even a JBA carrier, so has KGLD finally fixed its second harmonic? Will keep checking (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9510-9511, March 5 at 1349, no V. of Tibetish blob here today like there was yesterday, nor anywhere else in the vicinity; just a very weak undisturbed signal on 9510, which per Aoki should only be BBC in Bengali via OMAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 15867, March 5 at 1451 very distorted blob in talk, with squealing, no specific carrier but centered here and audible out to 15850-15877. Trying to ID language, maybe SE Asian. Cuts off at 1459.5* so seemingly a professional site despite this little problem, (uncovering much weaker Firedrake for another semiminute on 15870).
I search the 15 MHz band in Aoki on -1500 closings, and find a few possible sources:
15285 GFA Hindi, Trinco, Sri Lanka
15310 RFA Vietnamese, Tinian
15515 Aap ki Dunya, Iranawila, Sri Lanka
15640 DW Urdu via Singapore
15660 KSDA Burmese
Or could this too be V. of Tibet, ex-9511v, ex-7414v?
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 19330, March 5 at 1455, lite Cuban-type pulse jamming as I was scanning for Firedrake, typical of an harmonic, except this does not correspond to any known jammer fundamental such as 9665. A slim possibility: maybe one of the pileup sites on 15330 mispunched? Otherwise just a stray (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
