** DIEGO GARCIA. 12759-USB, Dec 15 at 0139, trace of music, i.e. AFN. Takes a very good opening for this last remnant of AFRTS on SW to become readable (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA [and non]. 15190, Dec 14 at 1953, can`t detect any signal from R. Africa, Bata, nor after 2000 when R. Africa, Okeechobee is on at 2017 and 2112 chex --- for the first time no self-collision since the latter began December 1.
Have Radio Africa Network finally got their acts apart, or is it just a fluke, propagational or otherwise? Was anyone hearing 15190 Bata earlier on this date? Now at 1953, Botswana on 15580 has a fair signal; and so does 17790, WRMI`s previous frequency which is also undermodulated (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE. 15630, Dec 14 at 1428, music and talk, presumed Greek on poor signal, and also at 1737. What`s left of V. of Greece is seldom heard on 15 MHz any more, but surely can`t be OMAN, the source of numerous wooden registrations, while Avlis is totally missing from HFCC. Fortunately, WEWN 15610 is not strong enough at the moment to audiblize its second-order spur on 15628.
7475, Dec 15 at 0204, undermodulated Greek again. Tsk, ``undermodulated`` is such a long word and we have to write it so often about so many stations. Should I declare an abbr., like UM? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN [and non]. 17840, Dec 14 at 1340, Qur`an from Iran`s Arabic service via Zahedan is about equal level to ROMANIA with other music, unholy mixture making SAH between 4 and 5 Hz. Here we are, a sesquimonth into the B-13 season and these two still have not terminated the totally unnecessary collision at 1300-1420 on a band with so many open channels. Yes, I am in the target of neither, but I can`t believe each is QRM-free in their own targets, Africa and Europe (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 9775, Dec 14 at 1342, open carrier with flutter, from R. Free Chosun via secret site; for third day in a row, prélude of same romantic songs in English, tho modulation starting a bit later at 1347.5; 1352 ``Here for the Long Run`` again, and 1358 ``At Seventeen`` again, 1400 into RFC theme and hyper-assertive Korean opening (trying to sound like ``Vox Dei` DPRK TV announcers??).
Also some flutter on 9800 VOA Korean via Tinang, Philippines; propagation is disturbed today as both these usually escape the variable auroral zone. Standard remark about disinformation regarding true site of RFC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NETHERLANDS {non]. 7375, UT Sunday Dec 15 at 0145, The Mighty KBC is back to good signal this week with rock music, even OK on the G8 with whip only; 0150 Eric is interviewing ``Mr. Spencer`` about healing by laying hands on the radio, resulting in screams (watch out for those hot tubes, or hot chassis!). Kraig Krist`s ``Forgotten Song`` segment was expected to air in this quarter-hour, but I still missed it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NEW ZEALAND [and non]. 5950 & 6170, Dec 14 at 1422 check, RNZI not audible on either, nary a carrier: suspect totally off the air (or on a third, wrong frequency?), as Australia 5995 in well enough and also audible on 5940; no wrong DRM on 9625-9635 either (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NORTH AMERICA. 6935-USB, Dec 15 at 0135, very good signal still with RF gain on the DX-398 all the way down (tho with external antenna), torch singer, ``What Can a Woman Do?``, segué 0136 ``Just Like a Woman``; 0146 recheck yet another ``woman`` song, 0149 quick ID I thought said ``Ronin Radio``, then ``Pretty Woman``.
But I must defer to numerous other loggers of this feminine streak at
http://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,14366.0.html
who say it`s Wolverine Radio. I think they have done this before. No other pirates audible. This one still going at 0210 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TURKEY. 12035, Dec 14 at 1424, new IS from TRT is very poor, as a reminder of how useless the 1330 English transmissions is in the B-seasons (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K [non]. 21630, Sat Dec 14 at 1339, BBCWS in Hausa is already on the air instead of *1400 via ASCENSION; must be another extension like I heard on Friday after 2000 on 15105. Yes, HFCC now shows that since 23 November, 21630 Hausa, 65 degrees from Ascension, on Saturdays lasts from 1230 to 1500 instead of merely 1400-1430 on the other six days. More reason for SPAIN to have moved to 21640 on Saturdays, yet why stick to colliding 21630 on weekdays??? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1699 monitoring: NOT, last week`s 1698 re-playing instead after 0030 UT Sunday Dec 15 on WTWW-2, 5085. Presumably the other airing at 0501 UT Sunday on WTWW-1, 5830 will really be 1699 as it goes thru a different service (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 12105, Dec 14 at 1426, WTWW in Biblical Russian, heavy CCI and SAH from IBB in Burmese via SAIPAN, during 1400-1430 overlap, unacceptable. Don`t you believe Saipan beamed NW can`t interfere with Lebanon beamed NE!
WTWW-3 also continues into the night with no corresponding lower channel unlike the other two WTWWs, even tho being a band higher, it`s most in need of one. Winter nights after sunset, it`s barely audible if at all.
5085, Dec 15 at 0141, WTWW-2 with big hum and pulsing; some kind of looping/feedback?? Experimental digital mode? But 0143 back to ham news in normal voice talking about digital media, no outro specifying that had just been an example/test. It had gone on for at least two minutes, unsounding like any VOA Radiograms (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9955, UT Sun Dec 15 at 0137, Jeff and Thaïs White are talking Spanish about ice sculptures in Orlando and northern China, as this edition of `Viva Miami` is really in Spanish instead of English. I wonder how you say ``Viva Miami`` in Spanish? Hi. Atop lite pulse jamming.
Recheck 0154, WRMI is open carrier/dead air; 0156 now with noise which I soon determine is coming out of the 9975 KVOH transmitter instead, q.v. By 0202, mod has resumed on 9955, preacher in English, still with awful noise from Rancho Simi.
Meanwhile at 0155 I check other WRMI transmitters, all three with Brother Scare: 11730 extremely strong, in fact still audible stepping to 11725 and 11735, making me wonder if transmission itself is broader-band than normal. Also strong on 11565; strong enough on 9690 but this one is undermodulated with usual het (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9925-10025 approx., Dec 15 at 0156, KVOH 9975 is already on before scheduled *0200, with prélude of praise music in Spanish, extremely distorted on fundamental and putting out spur field plus/minus 50 kHz or so, worse closer in, and first noticed as noise on 9955 WRMI which had defaulted to dead air for some minutes. Still QRMing it when trying to be heard in English at 0202. 10000 WWV totally blocked, altho probably not propagating much to here. I notified Ray Robinson ASAP that they should turn it off immediately until repaired. Ray replied at 0303:
``Hi, Glenn. Thanks for your message. We're having a problem with very high winds at the transmitter site tonight, which may be impacting the antenna. The engineering team are well aware of the issue, and will take whatever action is necessary.``
I think it was still on at my next check, but off at my next2 check 0417, while 9955 WRMI was still well audible.
Back at 0200 sign-on, announcement in Spanish about schedule changes, referring to http://www.kvoh.net where we can copy the details -- so they already plan to cut back the 9975 service:
``SCHEDULE CHANGE --- Effective Monday, December 16th, 2013, KVOH will broadcast on 16 meters in Spanish, Mon-Fri, from 1400 to 2000 UT, and on 31 meters in English, Sat-Sun, from 0300 to 0500 UT.
Our webstream relays all our shortwave broadcasts live, and at other times carries repeats of earlier programming. Program content on the webstream is in Spanish and English, at the following times:
0800-2000 & 2300-0300 UT – Spanish
0300-0800 & 2000-2300 UT – English
For details of our shortwave broadcasts, see our updated program schedule.
http://kvoh.net/wp-content/uploads/KVOH-Program-Grid-English.pdf
``
It`s apparent they really mean UT Sun & Mon for the 03-05 9975 in English, which includes preachers at 03-04 UT Sun, ``tbd`` at 03-04 UT Mon, and at
04-05: `Late Night from Los Angeles with Pat Conrad`:
UT Sun: (Bop Era & Beyond)
UT Mon: (Swing Era - 30s & 40s) Hmmm, 8-9 pm isn`t exactly ``Late Night`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 5050, Dec 15 at 0140, WWRB is back on this frequency, in AM instead of USB, and // 3215 as client apparently is willing to pay more (less than double?) for two frequencies in order to question Evolution; still so at 0210 when // has switched to 3195 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7315, Dec 15 at 0204, `Pirating With Cumbre`, Chris, Lobdell with a 25 (or 21?) November log of My New Underpants, and playing clips of JFK Radio and something for Happy Hanukkah which he hopes will air before mid-December --- just made it! Must be a new episode at last. UT Sunday 0200 is a previously unconfirmed time for PWC/DWC on WHRI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [non]. 7305, Dec 15 at 0206, pause, then instrumental music fill on electronic keyboard; 0208.5 pause and another; 0211 pause and yet another. Evidently, VR is *still* having problems getting its Spanish service to Latin America to and thru the Greenville relay! Supposedly still scheduled 0200-0245 daily (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 700, Dec 15 circa 0105 UT on caradio, romantic music in Spanish is dominant vs BKB from WLW, but fades of course before anything IDable. At 0121, home on DX-398 with WLW nulled, I`m hearing YL DJ mention ``40 principales``, in a long interview. Maybe just a passing reference to ``top 40``, rather than slogan ID as no such station is in any of the three major Mexican listings on 700 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
This report despatched at 0428 UT December 15
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA [and non]. 15190, Dec 14 at 1953, can`t detect any signal from R. Africa, Bata, nor after 2000 when R. Africa, Okeechobee is on at 2017 and 2112 chex --- for the first time no self-collision since the latter began December 1.
Have Radio Africa Network finally got their acts apart, or is it just a fluke, propagational or otherwise? Was anyone hearing 15190 Bata earlier on this date? Now at 1953, Botswana on 15580 has a fair signal; and so does 17790, WRMI`s previous frequency which is also undermodulated (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE. 15630, Dec 14 at 1428, music and talk, presumed Greek on poor signal, and also at 1737. What`s left of V. of Greece is seldom heard on 15 MHz any more, but surely can`t be OMAN, the source of numerous wooden registrations, while Avlis is totally missing from HFCC. Fortunately, WEWN 15610 is not strong enough at the moment to audiblize its second-order spur on 15628.
7475, Dec 15 at 0204, undermodulated Greek again. Tsk, ``undermodulated`` is such a long word and we have to write it so often about so many stations. Should I declare an abbr., like UM? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN [and non]. 17840, Dec 14 at 1340, Qur`an from Iran`s Arabic service via Zahedan is about equal level to ROMANIA with other music, unholy mixture making SAH between 4 and 5 Hz. Here we are, a sesquimonth into the B-13 season and these two still have not terminated the totally unnecessary collision at 1300-1420 on a band with so many open channels. Yes, I am in the target of neither, but I can`t believe each is QRM-free in their own targets, Africa and Europe (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 9775, Dec 14 at 1342, open carrier with flutter, from R. Free Chosun via secret site; for third day in a row, prélude of same romantic songs in English, tho modulation starting a bit later at 1347.5; 1352 ``Here for the Long Run`` again, and 1358 ``At Seventeen`` again, 1400 into RFC theme and hyper-assertive Korean opening (trying to sound like ``Vox Dei` DPRK TV announcers??).
Also some flutter on 9800 VOA Korean via Tinang, Philippines; propagation is disturbed today as both these usually escape the variable auroral zone. Standard remark about disinformation regarding true site of RFC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NETHERLANDS {non]. 7375, UT Sunday Dec 15 at 0145, The Mighty KBC is back to good signal this week with rock music, even OK on the G8 with whip only; 0150 Eric is interviewing ``Mr. Spencer`` about healing by laying hands on the radio, resulting in screams (watch out for those hot tubes, or hot chassis!). Kraig Krist`s ``Forgotten Song`` segment was expected to air in this quarter-hour, but I still missed it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NEW ZEALAND [and non]. 5950 & 6170, Dec 14 at 1422 check, RNZI not audible on either, nary a carrier: suspect totally off the air (or on a third, wrong frequency?), as Australia 5995 in well enough and also audible on 5940; no wrong DRM on 9625-9635 either (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NORTH AMERICA. 6935-USB, Dec 15 at 0135, very good signal still with RF gain on the DX-398 all the way down (tho with external antenna), torch singer, ``What Can a Woman Do?``, segué 0136 ``Just Like a Woman``; 0146 recheck yet another ``woman`` song, 0149 quick ID I thought said ``Ronin Radio``, then ``Pretty Woman``.
But I must defer to numerous other loggers of this feminine streak at
http://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,14366.0.html
who say it`s Wolverine Radio. I think they have done this before. No other pirates audible. This one still going at 0210 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TURKEY. 12035, Dec 14 at 1424, new IS from TRT is very poor, as a reminder of how useless the 1330 English transmissions is in the B-seasons (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K [non]. 21630, Sat Dec 14 at 1339, BBCWS in Hausa is already on the air instead of *1400 via ASCENSION; must be another extension like I heard on Friday after 2000 on 15105. Yes, HFCC now shows that since 23 November, 21630 Hausa, 65 degrees from Ascension, on Saturdays lasts from 1230 to 1500 instead of merely 1400-1430 on the other six days. More reason for SPAIN to have moved to 21640 on Saturdays, yet why stick to colliding 21630 on weekdays??? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1699 monitoring: NOT, last week`s 1698 re-playing instead after 0030 UT Sunday Dec 15 on WTWW-2, 5085. Presumably the other airing at 0501 UT Sunday on WTWW-1, 5830 will really be 1699 as it goes thru a different service (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 12105, Dec 14 at 1426, WTWW in Biblical Russian, heavy CCI and SAH from IBB in Burmese via SAIPAN, during 1400-1430 overlap, unacceptable. Don`t you believe Saipan beamed NW can`t interfere with Lebanon beamed NE!
WTWW-3 also continues into the night with no corresponding lower channel unlike the other two WTWWs, even tho being a band higher, it`s most in need of one. Winter nights after sunset, it`s barely audible if at all.
5085, Dec 15 at 0141, WTWW-2 with big hum and pulsing; some kind of looping/feedback?? Experimental digital mode? But 0143 back to ham news in normal voice talking about digital media, no outro specifying that had just been an example/test. It had gone on for at least two minutes, unsounding like any VOA Radiograms (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9955, UT Sun Dec 15 at 0137, Jeff and Thaïs White are talking Spanish about ice sculptures in Orlando and northern China, as this edition of `Viva Miami` is really in Spanish instead of English. I wonder how you say ``Viva Miami`` in Spanish? Hi. Atop lite pulse jamming.
Recheck 0154, WRMI is open carrier/dead air; 0156 now with noise which I soon determine is coming out of the 9975 KVOH transmitter instead, q.v. By 0202, mod has resumed on 9955, preacher in English, still with awful noise from Rancho Simi.
Meanwhile at 0155 I check other WRMI transmitters, all three with Brother Scare: 11730 extremely strong, in fact still audible stepping to 11725 and 11735, making me wonder if transmission itself is broader-band than normal. Also strong on 11565; strong enough on 9690 but this one is undermodulated with usual het (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9925-10025 approx., Dec 15 at 0156, KVOH 9975 is already on before scheduled *0200, with prélude of praise music in Spanish, extremely distorted on fundamental and putting out spur field plus/minus 50 kHz or so, worse closer in, and first noticed as noise on 9955 WRMI which had defaulted to dead air for some minutes. Still QRMing it when trying to be heard in English at 0202. 10000 WWV totally blocked, altho probably not propagating much to here. I notified Ray Robinson ASAP that they should turn it off immediately until repaired. Ray replied at 0303:
``Hi, Glenn. Thanks for your message. We're having a problem with very high winds at the transmitter site tonight, which may be impacting the antenna. The engineering team are well aware of the issue, and will take whatever action is necessary.``
I think it was still on at my next check, but off at my next2 check 0417, while 9955 WRMI was still well audible.
Back at 0200 sign-on, announcement in Spanish about schedule changes, referring to http://www.kvoh.net where we can copy the details -- so they already plan to cut back the 9975 service:
``SCHEDULE CHANGE --- Effective Monday, December 16th, 2013, KVOH will broadcast on 16 meters in Spanish, Mon-Fri, from 1400 to 2000 UT, and on 31 meters in English, Sat-Sun, from 0300 to 0500 UT.
Our webstream relays all our shortwave broadcasts live, and at other times carries repeats of earlier programming. Program content on the webstream is in Spanish and English, at the following times:
0800-2000 & 2300-0300 UT – Spanish
0300-0800 & 2000-2300 UT – English
For details of our shortwave broadcasts, see our updated program schedule.
http://kvoh.net/wp-content/uploads/KVOH-Program-Grid-English.pdf
``
It`s apparent they really mean UT Sun & Mon for the 03-05 9975 in English, which includes preachers at 03-04 UT Sun, ``tbd`` at 03-04 UT Mon, and at
04-05: `Late Night from Los Angeles with Pat Conrad`:
UT Sun: (Bop Era & Beyond)
UT Mon: (Swing Era - 30s & 40s) Hmmm, 8-9 pm isn`t exactly ``Late Night`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 5050, Dec 15 at 0140, WWRB is back on this frequency, in AM instead of USB, and // 3215 as client apparently is willing to pay more (less than double?) for two frequencies in order to question Evolution; still so at 0210 when // has switched to 3195 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7315, Dec 15 at 0204, `Pirating With Cumbre`, Chris, Lobdell with a 25 (or 21?) November log of My New Underpants, and playing clips of JFK Radio and something for Happy Hanukkah which he hopes will air before mid-December --- just made it! Must be a new episode at last. UT Sunday 0200 is a previously unconfirmed time for PWC/DWC on WHRI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [non]. 7305, Dec 15 at 0206, pause, then instrumental music fill on electronic keyboard; 0208.5 pause and another; 0211 pause and yet another. Evidently, VR is *still* having problems getting its Spanish service to Latin America to and thru the Greenville relay! Supposedly still scheduled 0200-0245 daily (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 700, Dec 15 circa 0105 UT on caradio, romantic music in Spanish is dominant vs BKB from WLW, but fades of course before anything IDable. At 0121, home on DX-398 with WLW nulled, I`m hearing YL DJ mention ``40 principales``, in a long interview. Maybe just a passing reference to ``top 40``, rather than slogan ID as no such station is in any of the three major Mexican listings on 700 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
This report despatched at 0428 UT December 15
