** ARGENTINA. 11706 & 11716 approx., Oct 5 at 0058, some weak noise patches imply matching spurs from the 11711v RAE transmitter whose signal is only fair (Glenn Hauser, oK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHAD. 6165-, Oct 5 at 0050 weak talk vs storm noise level, still there at 0102 as RHC hasn`t cut on yet, so RNT is again all-night. I am again on a porch monitoring session with the DX-398 as usual around this hour, with lightning flashes as a big storm is about to pass thru Enid (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. 6165, Oct 5 at 0206, RHC is in Spanish instead of English; also rippling SAH from understation, presumably Chad which was still audible past 0100 before RHC came on.
Checking other RHC frequencies: 6000 only is in English; 6100, 6060, 5040 in Spanish, but 6100 has a totally different lo-fi sound, different program feed and/or transmitter site. 0223 recheck, 6165 still in wrong language Spanish; by 0252, 6165 is finally in English // 6000 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EAST TURKISTAN. 9590, Oct 5 at 0055 a bit of ``Andean`` music but sure can`t be from there: it`s filler at the end of the two-hour Spanish broadcast of CRI via Kashgar (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EGYPT. 9965.0, Oct 5 at 0221, R. Cairo is back on frequency after a few nights on 9967; it`s good they are paying attention, except for fixing the modulation, still JBM in Arabic (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE [and non]. 9420, Oct 5 at 0522, no signal from Avlis, tho a trihour before I had noticed it on 7475. Next-door Albania with CRI Arabic is audible on 9515, 9590. One of these days, Grecian SW frequencies will go off and never come back, but for now operation is unpredictable, and we`re fortunate that the fired staff have kept them, and the programming, going at all for so many months (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 11985, Oct 5 at 0057, poor signal in talk; 11740 sounds the same but very poor, implying that AIR Sinhala service is axually in // on these two tonight (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 3325, Oct 5 at 1226, I had missed the 1200v* closings for most of the PNGs on 90m, but still a signal here, the OSOB, from RRI Palangkaraya, Indonesian talk, then surges during some music; also check 4750 but little if any signal there. At 1235, 4750 RRI Makassar is doing better with similar music but not //, and 3325 back to talk; still audible at 1250, fading into the noise by 1256 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 71.75 MHz, Oct 5 after tuning thru all the TV channels in analog and in DTV (output channel 4 from the Zenith box), I turn it off but leave the TV on channel 4 analog, to be jarred by a meteor burst of Spanish audio circa 1330, and some more for about a second each at 1406, 1425, 1441, 1445, and a longer one at 1521 UT. They really stand out, breaking the Broksonic`s muting on an `empty` channel before it times out and turns itself off (and I turn it back on). I`m running the other Zenith TV set too, which doesn`t always pass the audio at exactly the same time: no muting, but more dependent on some video carrier being present.
Following yesterday`s terrific catch, if I do say so myself, of XET-TV channel 6 in Monterrey NL via a tropo duct around 1500 UT, I have left the antenna aimed that way, altho the chances of that recurring are minuscule, as weather patterns move on.
Now however, a likely source of this analog Spanish via meteor scatter on channel 4 is another Regiomontanan, 100 kW (visual) XHWX in Monterrey, as ~750 miles is an ideal distance for MS if not for lowband tropo; however, there is one other full-power in the area, XELN in Torreón, Coahuila. These could be from either or both.
See Bill Hepburn`s channel 4 map:http://www.dxinfocentre.com/TV4.pdf
W9WI.com now has a Google-maps display of stations on each channel:https://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://www.w9wi.com/web/tv-channels-kml/4.kml
Were these six bursts random meteors? No more caught past 1525 UT. Meteor shower schedules at Earth & Sky list the Draconids but not peaking until Oct 7-8, so maybe precursors to that; and the visually-limited astronomers are downplaying the greater Orionids due to moonlight, only on October 21.
Here`s more about both, again solely from the visual standpoint, as apparently they don`t know about MS DX on TV and radio:http://woodbridge-va.patch.com/groups/around-town/p/2103-draconid-and-orionid-meteor-shower-peak-dates-the-warmup-act-arrives-woodbridge-va
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU [and non]. 5980, Oct 5 at 0047, heavy DentroCuban pulse jamming again tonight trying to ruin reception of R. Chaski; harder to detect a carrier underneath, and/or does the jamming also have any carrier? 0105 standing by for cutoff: On BFO it sounds like some carrier is cutting off and on, but that`s caused by the pulsing. This stops at 0106:01, which correlates with the R. Chaski pattern, 5 seconds later than last night, and thus surpassing the 0106 reset barrier(?). The storm is about to hit so I rush back inside before it rain, and monitor another hour on the FRG-7 with indoor wire (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SLOVAKIA [non]. 9955, Oct 5 at 0055, some very poor level music vs storm noise more than jamming, presumed R. Slovakia International relay via WRMI, English as scheduled UT Tue-Sat at 0030 (also daily at 1230-1259). In case you haven`t heard, RSI may be getting some funding back and could resume its own SW from Jan 1, 2014; they have registered a full schedule like the old one for B-13 just in case. But this is quite uncertain and another possibility is persuading WRMI to reactivate its NW antenna to serve North America, perhaps more likely if they don`t get Rimavská Sobota itself back in business (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7305, Oct 5 at 1205, very strong signal in Spanish; what`s this? Greenville-B for sure, but supposed to go off at 1200 after Vatican relay violating separation of church and state. Can it be VOA Spanish service back on SW, by mistake? It`s a very informal morning show with two or three announcers chatting rapidly; 1210-1219 a medley of happy-birthday tunes in Spanish, English, Japanese, Korean(?) goes on and on; then more talk with no IDs but I think I heard ``La Voa`` mentioned in passing, on this ``programa de los sábados``.
Then I check the R. Martí frequencies: only jamming on 7405, but it is on 9805 over jamming and // 7305! 1223 on to an `Efemérides` segment = today in history; 1224, 7305 suddenly cuts off as someone realizes the mistake; and a few sex later, 7405 cuts on, then stops modulating while carrier remains on, and 9805 continues normally. At 1245, 7405 with weather report by a fuera-Cuban meteorologist which the dentro-Cubans still jam even when there`s a hurricane about (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7490, UT Sat Oct 5 at 0103, WBCQ is already back to Brother Scare, so `Allan Weiner Worldwide` must have run only one hour this week; other frequencies are also in non // programming, 9330; and 5110-CUSB with scheduled `Heart & Soul Radio` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1689 monitoring: 5110-CUSB, UT Sat Oct 5, Area 51 via WBCQ starts playing WOR at 0201:40, but with crosstalk from something else; restart in the clear at 0202:33. Next: Sat 2330v on WTWW-2 9930; UT Sun 0401 on WTWW-1 5830 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 5085, Oct 5 at 0204, WTWW-2 is dead air instead of Brother Scare, still same at 0251 with some hum; next check 0519, BS is back on with his own greater hum.
Next morning, checking whether WTWW frequency switches will again be around 1230 instead of 1300? No: at 1232 still on 5085 and 5830; 5085 still on at 1301, but cut to 9930 at *1302 (overcoming Palau), while 9479 cut on at *1301 having quit 5830. However, WTWW-3 still hasn`t come up on 12105 by 1316 or 1344 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7506.4, Oct 5 at 0219, WRNO is back (for first night?), with usual gospel huxter, but undermodulated; weaker signal and modulation than 7490 WBCQ BS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHAD. 6165-, Oct 5 at 0050 weak talk vs storm noise level, still there at 0102 as RHC hasn`t cut on yet, so RNT is again all-night. I am again on a porch monitoring session with the DX-398 as usual around this hour, with lightning flashes as a big storm is about to pass thru Enid (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. 6165, Oct 5 at 0206, RHC is in Spanish instead of English; also rippling SAH from understation, presumably Chad which was still audible past 0100 before RHC came on.
Checking other RHC frequencies: 6000 only is in English; 6100, 6060, 5040 in Spanish, but 6100 has a totally different lo-fi sound, different program feed and/or transmitter site. 0223 recheck, 6165 still in wrong language Spanish; by 0252, 6165 is finally in English // 6000 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EAST TURKISTAN. 9590, Oct 5 at 0055 a bit of ``Andean`` music but sure can`t be from there: it`s filler at the end of the two-hour Spanish broadcast of CRI via Kashgar (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EGYPT. 9965.0, Oct 5 at 0221, R. Cairo is back on frequency after a few nights on 9967; it`s good they are paying attention, except for fixing the modulation, still JBM in Arabic (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE [and non]. 9420, Oct 5 at 0522, no signal from Avlis, tho a trihour before I had noticed it on 7475. Next-door Albania with CRI Arabic is audible on 9515, 9590. One of these days, Grecian SW frequencies will go off and never come back, but for now operation is unpredictable, and we`re fortunate that the fired staff have kept them, and the programming, going at all for so many months (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 11985, Oct 5 at 0057, poor signal in talk; 11740 sounds the same but very poor, implying that AIR Sinhala service is axually in // on these two tonight (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 3325, Oct 5 at 1226, I had missed the 1200v* closings for most of the PNGs on 90m, but still a signal here, the OSOB, from RRI Palangkaraya, Indonesian talk, then surges during some music; also check 4750 but little if any signal there. At 1235, 4750 RRI Makassar is doing better with similar music but not //, and 3325 back to talk; still audible at 1250, fading into the noise by 1256 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 71.75 MHz, Oct 5 after tuning thru all the TV channels in analog and in DTV (output channel 4 from the Zenith box), I turn it off but leave the TV on channel 4 analog, to be jarred by a meteor burst of Spanish audio circa 1330, and some more for about a second each at 1406, 1425, 1441, 1445, and a longer one at 1521 UT. They really stand out, breaking the Broksonic`s muting on an `empty` channel before it times out and turns itself off (and I turn it back on). I`m running the other Zenith TV set too, which doesn`t always pass the audio at exactly the same time: no muting, but more dependent on some video carrier being present.
Following yesterday`s terrific catch, if I do say so myself, of XET-TV channel 6 in Monterrey NL via a tropo duct around 1500 UT, I have left the antenna aimed that way, altho the chances of that recurring are minuscule, as weather patterns move on.
Now however, a likely source of this analog Spanish via meteor scatter on channel 4 is another Regiomontanan, 100 kW (visual) XHWX in Monterrey, as ~750 miles is an ideal distance for MS if not for lowband tropo; however, there is one other full-power in the area, XELN in Torreón, Coahuila. These could be from either or both.
See Bill Hepburn`s channel 4 map:http://www.dxinfocentre.com/TV4.pdf
W9WI.com now has a Google-maps display of stations on each channel:https://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://www.w9wi.com/web/tv-channels-kml/4.kml
Were these six bursts random meteors? No more caught past 1525 UT. Meteor shower schedules at Earth & Sky list the Draconids but not peaking until Oct 7-8, so maybe precursors to that; and the visually-limited astronomers are downplaying the greater Orionids due to moonlight, only on October 21.
Here`s more about both, again solely from the visual standpoint, as apparently they don`t know about MS DX on TV and radio:http://woodbridge-va.patch.com/groups/around-town/p/2103-draconid-and-orionid-meteor-shower-peak-dates-the-warmup-act-arrives-woodbridge-va
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU [and non]. 5980, Oct 5 at 0047, heavy DentroCuban pulse jamming again tonight trying to ruin reception of R. Chaski; harder to detect a carrier underneath, and/or does the jamming also have any carrier? 0105 standing by for cutoff: On BFO it sounds like some carrier is cutting off and on, but that`s caused by the pulsing. This stops at 0106:01, which correlates with the R. Chaski pattern, 5 seconds later than last night, and thus surpassing the 0106 reset barrier(?). The storm is about to hit so I rush back inside before it rain, and monitor another hour on the FRG-7 with indoor wire (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SLOVAKIA [non]. 9955, Oct 5 at 0055, some very poor level music vs storm noise more than jamming, presumed R. Slovakia International relay via WRMI, English as scheduled UT Tue-Sat at 0030 (also daily at 1230-1259). In case you haven`t heard, RSI may be getting some funding back and could resume its own SW from Jan 1, 2014; they have registered a full schedule like the old one for B-13 just in case. But this is quite uncertain and another possibility is persuading WRMI to reactivate its NW antenna to serve North America, perhaps more likely if they don`t get Rimavská Sobota itself back in business (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7305, Oct 5 at 1205, very strong signal in Spanish; what`s this? Greenville-B for sure, but supposed to go off at 1200 after Vatican relay violating separation of church and state. Can it be VOA Spanish service back on SW, by mistake? It`s a very informal morning show with two or three announcers chatting rapidly; 1210-1219 a medley of happy-birthday tunes in Spanish, English, Japanese, Korean(?) goes on and on; then more talk with no IDs but I think I heard ``La Voa`` mentioned in passing, on this ``programa de los sábados``.
Then I check the R. Martí frequencies: only jamming on 7405, but it is on 9805 over jamming and // 7305! 1223 on to an `Efemérides` segment = today in history; 1224, 7305 suddenly cuts off as someone realizes the mistake; and a few sex later, 7405 cuts on, then stops modulating while carrier remains on, and 9805 continues normally. At 1245, 7405 with weather report by a fuera-Cuban meteorologist which the dentro-Cubans still jam even when there`s a hurricane about (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7490, UT Sat Oct 5 at 0103, WBCQ is already back to Brother Scare, so `Allan Weiner Worldwide` must have run only one hour this week; other frequencies are also in non // programming, 9330; and 5110-CUSB with scheduled `Heart & Soul Radio` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1689 monitoring: 5110-CUSB, UT Sat Oct 5, Area 51 via WBCQ starts playing WOR at 0201:40, but with crosstalk from something else; restart in the clear at 0202:33. Next: Sat 2330v on WTWW-2 9930; UT Sun 0401 on WTWW-1 5830 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 5085, Oct 5 at 0204, WTWW-2 is dead air instead of Brother Scare, still same at 0251 with some hum; next check 0519, BS is back on with his own greater hum.
Next morning, checking whether WTWW frequency switches will again be around 1230 instead of 1300? No: at 1232 still on 5085 and 5830; 5085 still on at 1301, but cut to 9930 at *1302 (overcoming Palau), while 9479 cut on at *1301 having quit 5830. However, WTWW-3 still hasn`t come up on 12105 by 1316 or 1344 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7506.4, Oct 5 at 0219, WRNO is back (for first night?), with usual gospel huxter, but undermodulated; weaker signal and modulation than 7490 WBCQ BS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
