** CHINA. 9400-9430, Dec 18 at 1440, filthy FMy extremely distorted spurblob centred about 9415, with CNR1 audio // 9530, 9680, 9825. No doubt it`s the same transmitter which yesterday was infesting 9320-9345. Still there circa 9415 at 1501. I suspect this a persistently malfunxioning transmitter rather than deliberate jamming. Aoki shows no obvious targets in today`s range, unless it`s BBC English on 9410 which is supposedly *jammed.
9670, Dec 18 at 1443-1500*, Firedrake is F-P here, new spot? Aoki shows victim is VOA Tibetan via Lampertheim, Germany, this hour only.
6075 & 6145, Dec 18 at 1448, poor signals from Firedrake, as usual, against RTI.
7530, Dec 18 at 1447, CNR1 jammer // 9680 and several other 7 MHz channels; 7530 target is VOA Tibetan via Tinang, this hour only.
9495, Dec 18 at 1459 open carrier in the clear, 1500 sign-on as R. Free Asia, a few seconds later hit by CNR1 jammer also making fast SAH. RFA is in Chinese via SAIPAN, this hour only per Aoki (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 6060, Dec 18 at 0638, RHC English here is open carrier/dead air making the het from Brasil(?) easier to hear. Then the transmitter breaks off the air for a few seconds, returns still dead. Meanwhile the overkill other English frequencies: 6100 is undermodulated as usual, while 5040, 6000 and 6165 are nominal.
17730, Dec 18 at 1452, RHC Spanish is gone again from its second 16m frequency in the mornings, still poor on 17580 with the usual IBB CCI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA SOUTH [non]. 9775, Dec 18 at 1351, open carrier is on, then adding music at 1351.5. After no music yesterday, now R. Free Chosun prélude has new tunes in English rather than the same ones they were repeating daily before that. Not recognizable, but some with an Xmas theme; pauses between these, so maybe from same album tracks.
1400 as usual opening RFC with theme music and hyper-assertive sign-on. Recheck 1503, now hard rock vocal song in Korean. And once again, VG signal comparable to 9800 VOA Korean via Philippines (until it quits at 1500), whence 9775 could also emanate, surely not transpolar from Uzbekistan or Tajikistan as per disinformation in the registrations (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 530, Dec 17 circa 2105 UT, ``K530AM``, Vance AFB is finally back on the air with the usual PSA loops, such as booster seats, gate hours info, and seems stronger than before it crashed on Black Friday. Hope I can still get a good null on it for Enciclopedia, CUBA at night, not including of course on the caradio: there it`s mixing with Cuba`s music, fast SAH (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. I hadn`t checked off-the-air antenna reception of KETA 13, for a while, as it tends to suffer from dropouts, but early UT Dec 16, I tuned across ch 13 and found that OETA had added two more subchannels! Create on 13-3 and PBS Kids on 13-4. These two had previously only been available on some cable systems, i.e. OKC, and not Enid. OETA had previously told me that putting them on the air would degrade the HD quality too much of their main channel. I don`t yet know whether all four are now on all OETA transmitters full-power and low-power translators around the state, but if so, I would hope they put the kidvid channel to better use, since large blocks on 13-1 and 13-2 are devoted to kidvid daily, and another 100% kidvid channel is a bit much.
I`ve suggested they put CLASSIC ARTS on it, which the current OETA GM is well familiar with, having run it on his previous station, KRSC-TV in Claremore, an educational but not OETA affiliate. OETA website is being rebuilt, making it hard (impossible?) to find schedules for Create, now that I can get it! Create has schedule on its own website, cooking and various how-to, travel shows. I`ve found it too of little interest, mostly reruns of programs already seen on OETA if I wanted to. It also comes across as almost an infomercial channel, as everybody is pushing DVDs and other stuff. It it a money-maker for PBS stations carrying it? Many others do, as close as Wichita (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OMAN. 15140, Dec 18 at 1406, R. Sultanate of Oman is back on normal frequency for the English hour, rock music, fair signal, after having been unmodulated and turned off yesterday, apparently replaced by 15355 as per Ivo. It was a bit premature to declare a ``new frequency``, based on one day`s mixup. 1436 recheck, YL in news about explosions in Pakistan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 9955, Wed Dec 18 at 1329 checking WRMI, at tune-in instead of fill music post-Prague (which is still on the schedule from 1305), an English interview with an 88-year-old is cut off at 1330 for Zanotti ID, then into another show in Spanish presenting music in English, but first, a few minutes of gab between the M&W hosts. Per sked, it`s `La Hora del Rock`. There is also some lite Cuban pulse jamming still audible today.
Until now, the other WRMI transmitter on the NW antenna has been coming on 9955 for a few seconds, a few minutes before 1400 as warmup, but this time it cuts on at 1349 and its unmodulated carrier stays on, suppressing audibility of the rest of the program in progress on the previous transmitter via SSE antenna! At 1359:20 cut off Rock show for `WRMI Scoreboard`, now switched to the stronger signal on the NW antenna/transmitter, celebrity ID by an unID voice; could it be Keith Perron? And into `Wavescan` after 1400. Concluding with loggings from Bangladesh, and some Bahamian music, 1430 into this week`s `Viva Miami` in Spanish with Jeff & Thaïs.
WORLD OF RADIO has been scheduled at the new time of Thursdays 1330, and I hope it`s not overlain or curtailed like the other 1330 shows have been so far. Of course, I would be happy if WRMI could switch to the NW antenna before 1330 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 17775, Dec 18 at 1437, KVOH only fair signal so far, but by 1450 has built up to very good level, such that it`s apparent they are employing a low-bit internet feed from studio to transmitter, which really degrades the music, also the talk. Maybe the topography makes it impractical to employ a hi-fi FM STL on the 900 MHz band?
Correct my previous remark about shifting sunrise times: the sun will keep rising a bit later each morning until early January; past that hump, KVOH starting 17 MHz as early as 1400 will become progressively less problematical. It`s sunset times which have already reached their earliest the first week of December and are shifting later pre-Solstice, when they even out for the Shortest Day (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENIING DIGEST)
** U S A. WCIT-AM Test Website === Guys - you should have all received a verification letter by email; I also wanted to alert you of the website I built which shows you the results of the test. I will try and keep it updated:
http://www.talkwithronwilliams.com/WCIT%20Listener%20Test.htm
(Mark D. Gierhart (W8MDG), Engineering & IT, Childers Media Group - Lima, 57 Town Square, Lima, OH 45801, Dec 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Nice, even displays each individual report and mileages. Evidently mine was the second most distant, a little closer than Winnipeg. Bruce Winkelman in Tulsa also heard it but not on this map (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 13660, Dec 18 at 1406, hear BaBcoCk music as I tune by, fair signal with flutter, and staying with it, soon hear bits of other music, including steel drums, sitar, accordion, guitar, interspersed with announcements, ``You are listening to a test transmission`` and ``please report to transmittertest@gmail.com`` Turns out to be a 3-minute loop, and is cut off abruptly at 1421:18*. It`s probably from Woofferton UK, perhaps for staff training purposes, as previously revealed; would it be too much trouble to mention the site in the loop announcements? Recheck at 1434, now 13660 has a tone test with intermittence plus some hum (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
This report despatched at 1719 UT December 18
9670, Dec 18 at 1443-1500*, Firedrake is F-P here, new spot? Aoki shows victim is VOA Tibetan via Lampertheim, Germany, this hour only.
6075 & 6145, Dec 18 at 1448, poor signals from Firedrake, as usual, against RTI.
7530, Dec 18 at 1447, CNR1 jammer // 9680 and several other 7 MHz channels; 7530 target is VOA Tibetan via Tinang, this hour only.
9495, Dec 18 at 1459 open carrier in the clear, 1500 sign-on as R. Free Asia, a few seconds later hit by CNR1 jammer also making fast SAH. RFA is in Chinese via SAIPAN, this hour only per Aoki (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 6060, Dec 18 at 0638, RHC English here is open carrier/dead air making the het from Brasil(?) easier to hear. Then the transmitter breaks off the air for a few seconds, returns still dead. Meanwhile the overkill other English frequencies: 6100 is undermodulated as usual, while 5040, 6000 and 6165 are nominal.
17730, Dec 18 at 1452, RHC Spanish is gone again from its second 16m frequency in the mornings, still poor on 17580 with the usual IBB CCI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA SOUTH [non]. 9775, Dec 18 at 1351, open carrier is on, then adding music at 1351.5. After no music yesterday, now R. Free Chosun prélude has new tunes in English rather than the same ones they were repeating daily before that. Not recognizable, but some with an Xmas theme; pauses between these, so maybe from same album tracks.
1400 as usual opening RFC with theme music and hyper-assertive sign-on. Recheck 1503, now hard rock vocal song in Korean. And once again, VG signal comparable to 9800 VOA Korean via Philippines (until it quits at 1500), whence 9775 could also emanate, surely not transpolar from Uzbekistan or Tajikistan as per disinformation in the registrations (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 530, Dec 17 circa 2105 UT, ``K530AM``, Vance AFB is finally back on the air with the usual PSA loops, such as booster seats, gate hours info, and seems stronger than before it crashed on Black Friday. Hope I can still get a good null on it for Enciclopedia, CUBA at night, not including of course on the caradio: there it`s mixing with Cuba`s music, fast SAH (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. I hadn`t checked off-the-air antenna reception of KETA 13, for a while, as it tends to suffer from dropouts, but early UT Dec 16, I tuned across ch 13 and found that OETA had added two more subchannels! Create on 13-3 and PBS Kids on 13-4. These two had previously only been available on some cable systems, i.e. OKC, and not Enid. OETA had previously told me that putting them on the air would degrade the HD quality too much of their main channel. I don`t yet know whether all four are now on all OETA transmitters full-power and low-power translators around the state, but if so, I would hope they put the kidvid channel to better use, since large blocks on 13-1 and 13-2 are devoted to kidvid daily, and another 100% kidvid channel is a bit much.
I`ve suggested they put CLASSIC ARTS on it, which the current OETA GM is well familiar with, having run it on his previous station, KRSC-TV in Claremore, an educational but not OETA affiliate. OETA website is being rebuilt, making it hard (impossible?) to find schedules for Create, now that I can get it! Create has schedule on its own website, cooking and various how-to, travel shows. I`ve found it too of little interest, mostly reruns of programs already seen on OETA if I wanted to. It also comes across as almost an infomercial channel, as everybody is pushing DVDs and other stuff. It it a money-maker for PBS stations carrying it? Many others do, as close as Wichita (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OMAN. 15140, Dec 18 at 1406, R. Sultanate of Oman is back on normal frequency for the English hour, rock music, fair signal, after having been unmodulated and turned off yesterday, apparently replaced by 15355 as per Ivo. It was a bit premature to declare a ``new frequency``, based on one day`s mixup. 1436 recheck, YL in news about explosions in Pakistan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 9955, Wed Dec 18 at 1329 checking WRMI, at tune-in instead of fill music post-Prague (which is still on the schedule from 1305), an English interview with an 88-year-old is cut off at 1330 for Zanotti ID, then into another show in Spanish presenting music in English, but first, a few minutes of gab between the M&W hosts. Per sked, it`s `La Hora del Rock`. There is also some lite Cuban pulse jamming still audible today.
Until now, the other WRMI transmitter on the NW antenna has been coming on 9955 for a few seconds, a few minutes before 1400 as warmup, but this time it cuts on at 1349 and its unmodulated carrier stays on, suppressing audibility of the rest of the program in progress on the previous transmitter via SSE antenna! At 1359:20 cut off Rock show for `WRMI Scoreboard`, now switched to the stronger signal on the NW antenna/transmitter, celebrity ID by an unID voice; could it be Keith Perron? And into `Wavescan` after 1400. Concluding with loggings from Bangladesh, and some Bahamian music, 1430 into this week`s `Viva Miami` in Spanish with Jeff & Thaïs.
WORLD OF RADIO has been scheduled at the new time of Thursdays 1330, and I hope it`s not overlain or curtailed like the other 1330 shows have been so far. Of course, I would be happy if WRMI could switch to the NW antenna before 1330 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 17775, Dec 18 at 1437, KVOH only fair signal so far, but by 1450 has built up to very good level, such that it`s apparent they are employing a low-bit internet feed from studio to transmitter, which really degrades the music, also the talk. Maybe the topography makes it impractical to employ a hi-fi FM STL on the 900 MHz band?
Correct my previous remark about shifting sunrise times: the sun will keep rising a bit later each morning until early January; past that hump, KVOH starting 17 MHz as early as 1400 will become progressively less problematical. It`s sunset times which have already reached their earliest the first week of December and are shifting later pre-Solstice, when they even out for the Shortest Day (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENIING DIGEST)
** U S A. WCIT-AM Test Website === Guys - you should have all received a verification letter by email; I also wanted to alert you of the website I built which shows you the results of the test. I will try and keep it updated:
http://www.talkwithronwilliams.com/WCIT%20Listener%20Test.htm
(Mark D. Gierhart (W8MDG), Engineering & IT, Childers Media Group - Lima, 57 Town Square, Lima, OH 45801, Dec 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Nice, even displays each individual report and mileages. Evidently mine was the second most distant, a little closer than Winnipeg. Bruce Winkelman in Tulsa also heard it but not on this map (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 13660, Dec 18 at 1406, hear BaBcoCk music as I tune by, fair signal with flutter, and staying with it, soon hear bits of other music, including steel drums, sitar, accordion, guitar, interspersed with announcements, ``You are listening to a test transmission`` and ``please report to transmittertest@gmail.com`` Turns out to be a 3-minute loop, and is cut off abruptly at 1421:18*. It`s probably from Woofferton UK, perhaps for staff training purposes, as previously revealed; would it be too much trouble to mention the site in the loop announcements? Recheck at 1434, now 13660 has a tone test with intermittence plus some hum (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
This report despatched at 1719 UT December 18
