** CANADA. 6160, Jan 8 at 0706, after RHC 6165 ACI is gone, one CBC station in the clear, sufficient signal with discussion of Winnipeg weather, cold and windy as it may be, still being better than Mars; at least the air is breathable. Very slight SAH at times from the other CBC. I suppose CKZU Vancouver is more likely to be propagating to here, but usually in the nightmiddle they are more equal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. 11635, Jan 7 at 2250, mix of music and Chinese with LAH (low audible heterodyne) from something off-frequency. Per Aoki, the pileup here consists of ChiCom jamming inspired by R. Taiwan International at 22-24, 100 kW via Paochung; but also scheduled is V. of Korea [North], 200 kW from Kujang until 2257 in Russian, 2300 onward in Korean. Cuban Spy Numbers finish 11635 at 2155 on Sun, Mon, Wed, Fri, and this was Tuesday anyway.
6075, Jan 8 at 1418, Firedrake mixing with Chinese = either CNR1 additional jamming or less likely the target RTI, while as usual on // 6145 Firedrake only is audible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 15340, Jan 8 at 1459, tune across RHC to find another canned frequency announcement playing, so I stay with it: yes, exactly the same one heard other days circa 1429, wackily claiming the last of the four 25m frequencies is ``1,790``. If the announcer can`t recognize such an obvious error, can`t anyone else at the station? Maybe nobody pays any attention to it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EGYPT. 11905, Jan 8 at 0638, Arabic in somewhat distorted and suppressed modulation, but should be readable to a native. Poor-fair with slow fades, music interludes, 0646 phone interview, fading down by 0700 when I can`t pull any ID. Modulation certainly worthy of Cairo, and per Aoki that`s exactly what it is:
``11905 R. CAIRO 'El-Bernameg Al-Aam' 0200-0700 1234567 Arabic 250 315 Abis EGY 3110N 03005E ERU b13 GS``
I tune across here almost every night during this hour and never heard this before. Nothing else is making it on 25m from Europe, ME or Africa, nor on 13, 17, 21 MHz, but see NIGERIA on 15120.
Maybe this is a consequence of the big leap in solar activity. WWV reported at 0600/0618 on the air:
``Geophysical Alert Message
Solar-terrestrial indices for 07 January follow.
Solar flux 237 and estimated planetary A-index 8.
The estimated planetary K-index at 0600 UTC on 08 January was 3.
Space weather for the past 24 hours has been strong.
Solar radiation storms reaching the S2 level occurred.
Radio blackouts reaching the R3 level occurred.
Space weather for the next 24 hours is predicted to be moderate.
Geomagnetic storms reaching the G2 level are expected.
Solar radiation storms reaching the S2 level are expected.
Radio blackouts reaching the R1 level are expected.``
Note the SF way above 200 which we haven`t seen in ages. But I`ve yet to find any improvement on the higher bands in the daytime, still only weak, marginal signals above 15 MHz, which were generally much better last fall with lower flux (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA [non]. 15190, Jan 7 at 2244 tune-in, dead air from R. Africa Network via WRMI. Continued so until 2300* after a few uncopied words were blurted before cutoff (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE. 7475 not // 9420, Jan 8 at 0628 with separate pop musix (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 9775, Jan 8 at 1352, R. Free Chosun is on again with English love song prélude, the same three as always, good signal. BTW, I *never* have heard any sign of Juche jamming on this; why not? Inconsequential to Un? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA. 15120, Jan 8 at 0642, VON with good signal instead of no signal propagating, bad modulation as usual, YL speaker briefly much more comprehensible than OMs. 0644 JBM ID as ``English service of Voice of Nigeria``. It`s the SSOB, virtually the OSOB with only a few other weak signals on 19m; not including 15190, where R. Africa is apparently not on yet (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU. 5980, Jan 8 at 0100, JBA carrier from R. Chaski, enough to tell when autotimer cuts it off, at 0102:55.5*, which is 22.5 seconds later than last check four nights ago = averaging 5.625 seconds per 24 hours (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENIING DIGEST)
** PHILIPPINES [and non]. 9545, Jan 7 at 2252, FEBC ``Jesus Saves`` IS repeating under but almost equal to VOA Chinese, fair with flutter, from different Philippine sites, a fine example of coördination! Or is that really ChiCom jamming I am hearing? It`s surely applied to VOA. FEBC should crash-start its Hmong at *2300, if they have to be on the same frequency.
Just one would be plenty to block Solomon Islands, which unfortunately is also trying to use 9545. Minor stations like SIBC need to be frequency-flexible, to avoid the big-guns, but seldom are due to red tape, as administrations, ignorant of the dynamix of SW, assign only certain frequencies and expect them to stay there just like on MW, no matter what the QRM to be suffered (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENIG DIGEST)
** SOUTH CAROLINA [and non]. On January 1, Brother Scare on WRMI expanded from 48 transmitter-hours a day to 72, and Jeff White says that will be in effect indefinitely. There`s a lot more green on the graphic frequency schedule, and a lot more green pouring into station coffers, not just this one.
If you think Brother Scare is the ``new Radio Moscow`` now, gobbling up SW frequencies, just wait until Saturday January 11. I heard him after 2315 UT January 7 on WWCR 9980 et al., talking about his new plans: going on the six transmitters of World Harvest Radio! Just sixty miles from Walterboro.
Says he tried to get on WHRI before but was rebuffed, and this time they invited him on. The contract has been signed and he has sent the largest amount of money yet to a SW station. Will be 24 hours per day on at least 12 frequencies, mostly 2 hours each, the minimum span he insists on.
Two of those transmitters are presumably really PALAU; as we`ve explained before, the Angels 1 thru 6 really refer to `program services` not specific transmitter units. Ivo Ivanov calculates that the six WHR transmitters total 80 hours per day of unused airtime.
So it looks like WHR will be fitting him into lots of previously unsold airtime which is obvious from their schedules vs registrations. This will mean much more SW transmission, as a lot of the filler LeSEA programming was only on webcasts despite SW schedule registrations.
Cost is higher than most, but BS thinx it`s worth it (and no doubt divinely inspired) since the transmitters are named ``Angels``, and ``World Harvest`` refers to The End Of The World. Not so happy about one named Six, however; he may encourage them to reactivate another old unit to make it Seven. No doubt he will be playing these comments over and over.
Where does he get all that money, while rational broadcasters are cut back further and further? Nick VK2DX Hacko, NSW, explains:
``Glenn, I am surprised that you are surprised! A luke-warm congregation of 400 members can easily support $125K ministry on an annual basis. Double the amount if church is run by an enthusiastic and / or charismatic pastor. And triple if it is run by an extremist.
While a rational secular listener will quickly dismiss Bro S`s message, it will also naïvely underestimate his professionalism: B Stair is specifically asking for amounts over $10K; and he is a professional who knows how to excite his audience.
I am sure you are aware of Judeo-Christian Protestant congregations whose members happily contribute 10% of income to evangelism. A church of 10 mil members world-wide can easily buy as much on-air time as it wants - which is far more that most governments could afford.
Personally, I am not against religious broadcast if it is done in a correct, tolerant and intelligent way. But most of the stuff originating from South US is plain nonsense, embarrassment and insult to both religious and secular listeners. As such, it should be limited to domestic audience only [MW] and removed from SW``.
That would of course now have a devastating economic effect on more and more US SW stations becoming dependent on the LDPOG, such as WBCQ 7490-, which at 0630 Jan 8 I found to be running 54 seconds behind 7570 WRMI. Yes, this time, WBCQ very slightly on the lo side of 7490v compared to the 1490 pileup. At 0634 BS is saying he`s on at least 25 transmitters and frequencies targeting the entire world. But I think that may have been recorded before the WHR deal came out (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** THAILAND. 9390, Jan 8 at 1406, poor signal from Udorn, instead of English broadcast, loop with chimes IS repeating ``This is HSK9, Radio Thailand World Service, broadcasting from the Public Relations Department in Bangkok``. Over and over, still at 1419 but now very poor with flutter. What happened to the English semi-hour? Site lost feed from studio? Studio on strike or unavailable due to strife? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. At least tonight, UT Wednesday January 8 at 0105, Radio Miami International programming is on 7570 // 9955, but on the NW antenna, much stronger here than 9955 toward the SSE, plus the lower-band advantage. Wavescan until 0130, then R. Slovakia International. 0158 program promo, before 0159 `WRMI Scoreboard`, Allen Graham ID from Quito, 0200 into Spanish with an Italian accent, natch, from R. Vaticano relay; unseems // Vaticana via VOA on 7305, violating Separation of Church and State, no doubt separate feeds/playouts. 0230 on 7570, back to English religion, presumably `Bible Commentary` as sked on 9955. How much more? No more; by 0245 switch back to BS on 7570, as 9955 is scheduled for `Viva Miami`. And BS remains on 7570 at several later spotchex.
Graphic frequency schedule still shows TOM on 7570 all evening. Hope this is the start of more audible RMI programming in North America as I have suggested to Jeff would be a good idea. Unknown if this was an experiment or a mistake in program feeds. Jeff White has no comment on it. What will happen following nights? Hope R. Libertad before 0100 does not also show up on 7570 as that will only draw more jamming. Any exile programming should be kept on 9955 only, or frequencies totally separate from English and other programming.
Program schedule for 9955 to compare:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AivhtkIEGb3_dENObnZrMkt1YmtUWGxkbkd3TGNzOXc&hl=en#gid=0
I don`t find any separate schedules yet for RMI itself on other frequencies.
What about anything lower than 7570 for WRMI? Jeff tells me that ``5850 will be on beginning February 17``. It`s registered for 22-11 UT, but might not be on entire span. Program source unknown.
9955, Jan 8 before and after 1400, like last Wednesday, `AWR Wavescan` is playing twice back to back, with `Scoreboard` in between. However today the transmitter/antenna switch from SSE to NW at 1359 blox the sports show, overriding it before its ``quickest minute`` can finish. It`s still the first WS for 2014, repeated from last week including JSWC logs toward the end, altho we are now in the second week. I`ve been wondering which of the multiple repeats of WS is normally the first to première a new episode?
BTW, Family Radio was supposedly going to park the WYFR callsign on one of its domestic stations, but separate searches Jan 8 of FCC AM, FM and TV Queries find it nowhere, so appears to be up for grabs, should anyone really want it. Or maybe a ship? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also EQUATORIAL GUINEA [non]; SOUTH CAROLINA [non]
This report dispatched at 1718 UT January 8
** CHINA [and non]. 11635, Jan 7 at 2250, mix of music and Chinese with LAH (low audible heterodyne) from something off-frequency. Per Aoki, the pileup here consists of ChiCom jamming inspired by R. Taiwan International at 22-24, 100 kW via Paochung; but also scheduled is V. of Korea [North], 200 kW from Kujang until 2257 in Russian, 2300 onward in Korean. Cuban Spy Numbers finish 11635 at 2155 on Sun, Mon, Wed, Fri, and this was Tuesday anyway.
6075, Jan 8 at 1418, Firedrake mixing with Chinese = either CNR1 additional jamming or less likely the target RTI, while as usual on // 6145 Firedrake only is audible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 15340, Jan 8 at 1459, tune across RHC to find another canned frequency announcement playing, so I stay with it: yes, exactly the same one heard other days circa 1429, wackily claiming the last of the four 25m frequencies is ``1,790``. If the announcer can`t recognize such an obvious error, can`t anyone else at the station? Maybe nobody pays any attention to it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EGYPT. 11905, Jan 8 at 0638, Arabic in somewhat distorted and suppressed modulation, but should be readable to a native. Poor-fair with slow fades, music interludes, 0646 phone interview, fading down by 0700 when I can`t pull any ID. Modulation certainly worthy of Cairo, and per Aoki that`s exactly what it is:
``11905 R. CAIRO 'El-Bernameg Al-Aam' 0200-0700 1234567 Arabic 250 315 Abis EGY 3110N 03005E ERU b13 GS``
I tune across here almost every night during this hour and never heard this before. Nothing else is making it on 25m from Europe, ME or Africa, nor on 13, 17, 21 MHz, but see NIGERIA on 15120.
Maybe this is a consequence of the big leap in solar activity. WWV reported at 0600/0618 on the air:
``Geophysical Alert Message
Solar-terrestrial indices for 07 January follow.
Solar flux 237 and estimated planetary A-index 8.
The estimated planetary K-index at 0600 UTC on 08 January was 3.
Space weather for the past 24 hours has been strong.
Solar radiation storms reaching the S2 level occurred.
Radio blackouts reaching the R3 level occurred.
Space weather for the next 24 hours is predicted to be moderate.
Geomagnetic storms reaching the G2 level are expected.
Solar radiation storms reaching the S2 level are expected.
Radio blackouts reaching the R1 level are expected.``
Note the SF way above 200 which we haven`t seen in ages. But I`ve yet to find any improvement on the higher bands in the daytime, still only weak, marginal signals above 15 MHz, which were generally much better last fall with lower flux (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA [non]. 15190, Jan 7 at 2244 tune-in, dead air from R. Africa Network via WRMI. Continued so until 2300* after a few uncopied words were blurted before cutoff (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE. 7475 not // 9420, Jan 8 at 0628 with separate pop musix (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 9775, Jan 8 at 1352, R. Free Chosun is on again with English love song prélude, the same three as always, good signal. BTW, I *never* have heard any sign of Juche jamming on this; why not? Inconsequential to Un? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA. 15120, Jan 8 at 0642, VON with good signal instead of no signal propagating, bad modulation as usual, YL speaker briefly much more comprehensible than OMs. 0644 JBM ID as ``English service of Voice of Nigeria``. It`s the SSOB, virtually the OSOB with only a few other weak signals on 19m; not including 15190, where R. Africa is apparently not on yet (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU. 5980, Jan 8 at 0100, JBA carrier from R. Chaski, enough to tell when autotimer cuts it off, at 0102:55.5*, which is 22.5 seconds later than last check four nights ago = averaging 5.625 seconds per 24 hours (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENIING DIGEST)
** PHILIPPINES [and non]. 9545, Jan 7 at 2252, FEBC ``Jesus Saves`` IS repeating under but almost equal to VOA Chinese, fair with flutter, from different Philippine sites, a fine example of coördination! Or is that really ChiCom jamming I am hearing? It`s surely applied to VOA. FEBC should crash-start its Hmong at *2300, if they have to be on the same frequency.
Just one would be plenty to block Solomon Islands, which unfortunately is also trying to use 9545. Minor stations like SIBC need to be frequency-flexible, to avoid the big-guns, but seldom are due to red tape, as administrations, ignorant of the dynamix of SW, assign only certain frequencies and expect them to stay there just like on MW, no matter what the QRM to be suffered (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENIG DIGEST)
** SOUTH CAROLINA [and non]. On January 1, Brother Scare on WRMI expanded from 48 transmitter-hours a day to 72, and Jeff White says that will be in effect indefinitely. There`s a lot more green on the graphic frequency schedule, and a lot more green pouring into station coffers, not just this one.
If you think Brother Scare is the ``new Radio Moscow`` now, gobbling up SW frequencies, just wait until Saturday January 11. I heard him after 2315 UT January 7 on WWCR 9980 et al., talking about his new plans: going on the six transmitters of World Harvest Radio! Just sixty miles from Walterboro.
Says he tried to get on WHRI before but was rebuffed, and this time they invited him on. The contract has been signed and he has sent the largest amount of money yet to a SW station. Will be 24 hours per day on at least 12 frequencies, mostly 2 hours each, the minimum span he insists on.
Two of those transmitters are presumably really PALAU; as we`ve explained before, the Angels 1 thru 6 really refer to `program services` not specific transmitter units. Ivo Ivanov calculates that the six WHR transmitters total 80 hours per day of unused airtime.
So it looks like WHR will be fitting him into lots of previously unsold airtime which is obvious from their schedules vs registrations. This will mean much more SW transmission, as a lot of the filler LeSEA programming was only on webcasts despite SW schedule registrations.
Cost is higher than most, but BS thinx it`s worth it (and no doubt divinely inspired) since the transmitters are named ``Angels``, and ``World Harvest`` refers to The End Of The World. Not so happy about one named Six, however; he may encourage them to reactivate another old unit to make it Seven. No doubt he will be playing these comments over and over.
Where does he get all that money, while rational broadcasters are cut back further and further? Nick VK2DX Hacko, NSW, explains:
``Glenn, I am surprised that you are surprised! A luke-warm congregation of 400 members can easily support $125K ministry on an annual basis. Double the amount if church is run by an enthusiastic and / or charismatic pastor. And triple if it is run by an extremist.
While a rational secular listener will quickly dismiss Bro S`s message, it will also naïvely underestimate his professionalism: B Stair is specifically asking for amounts over $10K; and he is a professional who knows how to excite his audience.
I am sure you are aware of Judeo-Christian Protestant congregations whose members happily contribute 10% of income to evangelism. A church of 10 mil members world-wide can easily buy as much on-air time as it wants - which is far more that most governments could afford.
Personally, I am not against religious broadcast if it is done in a correct, tolerant and intelligent way. But most of the stuff originating from South US is plain nonsense, embarrassment and insult to both religious and secular listeners. As such, it should be limited to domestic audience only [MW] and removed from SW``.
That would of course now have a devastating economic effect on more and more US SW stations becoming dependent on the LDPOG, such as WBCQ 7490-, which at 0630 Jan 8 I found to be running 54 seconds behind 7570 WRMI. Yes, this time, WBCQ very slightly on the lo side of 7490v compared to the 1490 pileup. At 0634 BS is saying he`s on at least 25 transmitters and frequencies targeting the entire world. But I think that may have been recorded before the WHR deal came out (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** THAILAND. 9390, Jan 8 at 1406, poor signal from Udorn, instead of English broadcast, loop with chimes IS repeating ``This is HSK9, Radio Thailand World Service, broadcasting from the Public Relations Department in Bangkok``. Over and over, still at 1419 but now very poor with flutter. What happened to the English semi-hour? Site lost feed from studio? Studio on strike or unavailable due to strife? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. At least tonight, UT Wednesday January 8 at 0105, Radio Miami International programming is on 7570 // 9955, but on the NW antenna, much stronger here than 9955 toward the SSE, plus the lower-band advantage. Wavescan until 0130, then R. Slovakia International. 0158 program promo, before 0159 `WRMI Scoreboard`, Allen Graham ID from Quito, 0200 into Spanish with an Italian accent, natch, from R. Vaticano relay; unseems // Vaticana via VOA on 7305, violating Separation of Church and State, no doubt separate feeds/playouts. 0230 on 7570, back to English religion, presumably `Bible Commentary` as sked on 9955. How much more? No more; by 0245 switch back to BS on 7570, as 9955 is scheduled for `Viva Miami`. And BS remains on 7570 at several later spotchex.
Graphic frequency schedule still shows TOM on 7570 all evening. Hope this is the start of more audible RMI programming in North America as I have suggested to Jeff would be a good idea. Unknown if this was an experiment or a mistake in program feeds. Jeff White has no comment on it. What will happen following nights? Hope R. Libertad before 0100 does not also show up on 7570 as that will only draw more jamming. Any exile programming should be kept on 9955 only, or frequencies totally separate from English and other programming.
Program schedule for 9955 to compare:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AivhtkIEGb3_dENObnZrMkt1YmtUWGxkbkd3TGNzOXc&hl=en#gid=0
I don`t find any separate schedules yet for RMI itself on other frequencies.
What about anything lower than 7570 for WRMI? Jeff tells me that ``5850 will be on beginning February 17``. It`s registered for 22-11 UT, but might not be on entire span. Program source unknown.
9955, Jan 8 before and after 1400, like last Wednesday, `AWR Wavescan` is playing twice back to back, with `Scoreboard` in between. However today the transmitter/antenna switch from SSE to NW at 1359 blox the sports show, overriding it before its ``quickest minute`` can finish. It`s still the first WS for 2014, repeated from last week including JSWC logs toward the end, altho we are now in the second week. I`ve been wondering which of the multiple repeats of WS is normally the first to première a new episode?
BTW, Family Radio was supposedly going to park the WYFR callsign on one of its domestic stations, but separate searches Jan 8 of FCC AM, FM and TV Queries find it nowhere, so appears to be up for grabs, should anyone really want it. Or maybe a ship? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also EQUATORIAL GUINEA [non]; SOUTH CAROLINA [non]
This report dispatched at 1718 UT January 8
