** BOLIVIA. 4717-, Feb 14 at 0058, R. Yura no doubt on characteristic off-frequency, very poor to poor but enough for some music to be heard. A month ago, Bob Wilkner measured it on 4716.65. Stig Hartvig Nielsen visiting Bolivia doesn`t split kHz, but said it`s just R. Yura, forget the Yatun etc., stuff as in listings (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BOLIVIA [and non]. 6135-, Feb 14 at 0005, Spanish station with big het; 0007 timecheck for 20:07 ``en Radio Santa Cruz``, and music. RSC is on the low side, but what is the hetter on the hi side? Can`t make out any audio from it, nor at 0057, and woefully incomplete HFCC shows *nothing* on 6135 between 2200 and 0300. So it must be R. Aparecida, Brasil, as in Aoki, which is overcomplete.
My keyboard matches the het pitch to Ab5 which per my handy bookmark to Physics of Music-Notes,http://www.phy.mtu.edu/~suits/notefreqs.html
is 831 Hz (rounded from two decimal places). So I haven`t made a direct measurement of RSC tonight, but it`s usually around 6134.8, only 200 Hz or so low. So R. Aparecida is probably about 630 Hz high on this occasion; known to vary more than Santa Cruz. Final recheck at 0114, they are still hetting each other. If it`s this bad here, how can it be circumbolivia? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA [and non]. 6070, Feb 13 at 2222, checking for reactivated CFRX Toronto: it`s just barely audible, much weaker than e.g. 6090 Anguilla, which is much weaker than 6115 WWCR, which of course counts on 100 times the nominal power of CFRX and no doubt a much higher gain rhombic antenna.
I was going to recheck before 2400 as RHC is to come on 6070 at 0000, and at 0001 UT Feb 14, it`s not yet too late: no RHC on 6070, and CFRX is much better now, tho RHC is splattering from 6060. ``Newstalk 10-10`` attributions in news, but *0003 RHC carrier on, quickly ramping up power and overcoming CFRX, tho I can still make out an item about Mayor Ford before RHC modulation cuts on less than a minute later, just as they are mentioning a joint R. Rebelde/RHC program, apparently the music-fill hour sounding like folk Andean for starters. After that we can forget about listening to CFRX for the next five hours, as the best it can do is provide a bit of QRM to Cuba, q.v., making a low audible het (LAH) as Wolfgang Büschel has measured CFRX 36 to 41 Hz low, and RHC is presumably closer to nominal. How long will frequency manager Arnie prolong his ``bully`` reputation? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. 11990, Feb 14 at 0019, soft SE Asian song with piano, 0021 announcement. HFCC shows it`s CRI in Khmer at 23-01, 100 kW, 200 degrees from Nanning site. Numerous other Chinese and E Asian signals are in at this time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 6070, Feb 14 from *0003, RHC overrides CFRX, see CANADA. It`s the disposable (?) music-fill hour, opening as joint with R. Rebelde, but at 0009 I can`t check 5025 for // as it is gone again (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EAST TURKISTAN. 5960, Feb 14 at 0058, M&W in Chinese alternating, lo-fi audio. Uplooked later, per HFCC it`s CNR, 100 kW ND from Urumqi at 2330-1800; Aoki refines it to the Chinese program of PBS Xinjiang.
Shortly I am hearing four lower frequencies from the same site:
4980, Feb 14 at 0100, 5+1 timesignal about one second late, fair signal, but rough distorted modulation, in presumed Uighur, 100 kW, 230 degrees.
4850, Feb 14 at 0100, second weakest in talk, and splash from 4840 WWCR; this one is PBS Xinjiang in Kazakh, 100 kW ND from Urumqi.
4500, Feb 14 at 0100, poor signal in talk, presumed Mongolian, weakest of the bunch; 50 kW, ND.
5060, Feb 14 at 0100, fair signal in Chinese, distorted, but less so than 4980 Uighur; as usual, the best strength of the bunch (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU. 5460, Feb 14 at 0056, JBA carrier. I had just finished a monitoring session and turned the computer back on only to find this:
``5460 tentative Perú, Radio Bolívar, Cd. Bolívar, 0020 to 0039 possible reactivation, first time noted this season. Fair signal in South Florida. 73s (Bob Wilkner, Pompano Beach, South Florida, UT Feb 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST)``
So turned computer back off and tried for 5460; typical signal comparison here to what Bob gets. But this led to several other good logs, back on the porch with DX-398 as it`s warmed up enough to be tolerable, and most of the past sesquiweek`s snowpack has finally melted (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU. 5980, Feb 14 at 0100, S. American conditions are improved a bit (See BOLIVIA), so that R. Chaski carries along some audio, but seems under-modulated for the carrier level. Nevertheless, I dispense with that and switch on the offset BFO, to detect the exact cutoff time, which is: 0102:37.5*, true to form, 11 seconds later than a binight ago (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 11930, Feb 13 at 2221, Qur`an from BSKSA, with pulse jamming under: R. Martí may be finished with 11930 at 2200, but the DentroCuban Jamming Command lingers on, and woe betide any station foolish enough to time-share an OCB frequency. In fact, 11930 pulsejamming can often be heard in the middle of the night!
This Sa`udi is 500 kW due west from Riyadh, but fortunately there is also // 11820 in the clear and much stronger at 320 degrees toward W Europe, and incidentally, us. I let the latter lullabye my nap until it cuts off abruptly circa 2300, the scheduled closing time for both after five hours each (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** THAILAND. 13745, Feb 14 at 0022, HSK9 with news in English about the eastern USA snowstorm; heavy flutter but still readable. No QubaRM as 13740 is not on, and 13780 is far enough away (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 4819.5-USB, Feb 14 at 0103, as I am bandscanning for South Americans, encounter a paramilitary net, with the impressive name repeated by NCS with every call, ``Eighth Western Rivers Contingency Communications Net``. His call is in a format I haven`t heard before, given fonetikaly, NF85AR. He`s calling state by state, Kansas at the moment, and gets a reply from NM85AO, both `loud & clear` and later mentioned as running 10 watts. 0106 calling Minnesota; 0107 Arkansas, gets reply from NF85JD in Little Rock, who starts to give his W5 ham call by mistake; then Michigan, NF95GD.
NCS et al. complain of CODAR QRM (so do I) but are pleased with how well this apparently new frequency for them is working propagationally, and should hold up until sunset becomes too early in spring. After inviting check-ins from anyone else, no takers, full ID by NCS as ``This is Coast Guard Auxiliary Radio NF85AR``, and securing the net at 1914 CST = 0114Z. Thruout, there was a het from carrier on 4820, probably Lhasa, possibly Kolkata, as there is no Latin American.
Later, Googling on the full name of the net, I reach nothing but this 26 page PDF all about it:http://www.trlmo.com/cgaux8wr/WR/wr_2013_4.pdf
That`s their fourth quarter 2013 newsletter. From that, it appears there are lots of YLs (or XYLs) involved in this aux, but no feminine voices did I hear on the net.
Further searching finds this map of USCG Districts:http://www.uscg.mil/top/units/
No. 8 is the great center of America, from ND to TX, from NM to the FL panhandle, WV, the SW corner of PA, and parts of the Great Lake states not adjacent to the Lakes. Here`s the Eighth District, HQ New Orleans: http://www.uscg.mil/d8/
But what about the Western Rivers?? ``"Western Rivers" means the Mississippi River, its tributaries, South Pass, and Southwest Pass, to the navigational demarcation lines dividing the high seas from harbors, rivers and other inland waters of the United States, and the Port Allen-Morgan City Alternate Route, and that part of the Atchafalaya River above its junction with the Port Allen-Morgan City Alternate Route including the Old River and the Red River``.
That seems rather too restrictive, until you consider that the Mississippi River and its tributaries includes the Ohio, Missouri and Yellowstone all the way up to Montana. It would not include the Rio Grande/Bravo, but New Mexico is part of this anyway.
I don`t expect to find net schedules, as such info is generally restricted, so I start searching on the callsigns. NF85AR brings right up a roster of some 300 stations which is supposedly restricted, for official use only, so I am patriotically not giving the link, but:
NF85AR is Douglas Eubanks, Bellevue NE
NM85AO is Homer Sykes in Topeka KS
NF85JD is John Donar in North Little Rock AR
NF95GD is Gary Dawkins in Hesperia MI
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1708 monitoring: confirmed with excellent signal on WTWW-1, 9475, Thursday Feb 13 after 2201; we`re in luck this week, as the other two WTWW transmitters, 9930 and 12105, are off at this time. Next:
UT Friday 0426v on WWRB 3195
Saturday 0730 & 1530 on Hamburger Lokalradio 7265-CUSB
UT Sunday 0030 on WRMI 9495
UT Sunday 0030 on WTWW 5085
UT Sunday 0501 on WTWW 5830
UT Monday 0400v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB; usw. Full sked:http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9955, Feb 13 after 2200, checking what WRMI is doing on main channel: not BS but some other gospel huxter in English; after 2300: `Wavescan` with Ray Robinson presenting an item. At 2355, Brazuguese, I think religious, as don`t recognize it as a DX program. By now jamming is ramping up in preparation for the Radio Libertad hour. It starts off after 0000 UT Feb 14 somewhat audible despite the jamming.
This is contrary to the just updated 9955 programming grid as of Feb 9https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AivhtkIEGb3_dENObnZrMkt1YmtUWGxkbkd3TGNzOXc&hl=en#gid=0
which shows Overcomer on 9955 until 2400 UT Mon-Fri! With other programming at 22-24 only on Sat & Sun.
Next I check the bonus frequency 9495, weaker but in the clear: UT Thursday Feb 14 at 0000, it`s `Frecuencia al Día`, which host Dino Bloise says has just marked its seventh anniversary; enhorabuena. Usually concludes with a DX report from Ernesto Paulero in Argentina playing several clips of his captations, including today, Zanzibar. 0029, Rudy Espinal WRMI ID in Spanish; 0030 `Historias de Radio` about Jujuy province (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
This report despatched at 0425 UT February 14
** BOLIVIA [and non]. 6135-, Feb 14 at 0005, Spanish station with big het; 0007 timecheck for 20:07 ``en Radio Santa Cruz``, and music. RSC is on the low side, but what is the hetter on the hi side? Can`t make out any audio from it, nor at 0057, and woefully incomplete HFCC shows *nothing* on 6135 between 2200 and 0300. So it must be R. Aparecida, Brasil, as in Aoki, which is overcomplete.
My keyboard matches the het pitch to Ab5 which per my handy bookmark to Physics of Music-Notes,http://www.phy.mtu.edu/~suits/notefreqs.html
is 831 Hz (rounded from two decimal places). So I haven`t made a direct measurement of RSC tonight, but it`s usually around 6134.8, only 200 Hz or so low. So R. Aparecida is probably about 630 Hz high on this occasion; known to vary more than Santa Cruz. Final recheck at 0114, they are still hetting each other. If it`s this bad here, how can it be circumbolivia? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA [and non]. 6070, Feb 13 at 2222, checking for reactivated CFRX Toronto: it`s just barely audible, much weaker than e.g. 6090 Anguilla, which is much weaker than 6115 WWCR, which of course counts on 100 times the nominal power of CFRX and no doubt a much higher gain rhombic antenna.
I was going to recheck before 2400 as RHC is to come on 6070 at 0000, and at 0001 UT Feb 14, it`s not yet too late: no RHC on 6070, and CFRX is much better now, tho RHC is splattering from 6060. ``Newstalk 10-10`` attributions in news, but *0003 RHC carrier on, quickly ramping up power and overcoming CFRX, tho I can still make out an item about Mayor Ford before RHC modulation cuts on less than a minute later, just as they are mentioning a joint R. Rebelde/RHC program, apparently the music-fill hour sounding like folk Andean for starters. After that we can forget about listening to CFRX for the next five hours, as the best it can do is provide a bit of QRM to Cuba, q.v., making a low audible het (LAH) as Wolfgang Büschel has measured CFRX 36 to 41 Hz low, and RHC is presumably closer to nominal. How long will frequency manager Arnie prolong his ``bully`` reputation? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. 11990, Feb 14 at 0019, soft SE Asian song with piano, 0021 announcement. HFCC shows it`s CRI in Khmer at 23-01, 100 kW, 200 degrees from Nanning site. Numerous other Chinese and E Asian signals are in at this time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 6070, Feb 14 from *0003, RHC overrides CFRX, see CANADA. It`s the disposable (?) music-fill hour, opening as joint with R. Rebelde, but at 0009 I can`t check 5025 for // as it is gone again (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EAST TURKISTAN. 5960, Feb 14 at 0058, M&W in Chinese alternating, lo-fi audio. Uplooked later, per HFCC it`s CNR, 100 kW ND from Urumqi at 2330-1800; Aoki refines it to the Chinese program of PBS Xinjiang.
Shortly I am hearing four lower frequencies from the same site:
4980, Feb 14 at 0100, 5+1 timesignal about one second late, fair signal, but rough distorted modulation, in presumed Uighur, 100 kW, 230 degrees.
4850, Feb 14 at 0100, second weakest in talk, and splash from 4840 WWCR; this one is PBS Xinjiang in Kazakh, 100 kW ND from Urumqi.
4500, Feb 14 at 0100, poor signal in talk, presumed Mongolian, weakest of the bunch; 50 kW, ND.
5060, Feb 14 at 0100, fair signal in Chinese, distorted, but less so than 4980 Uighur; as usual, the best strength of the bunch (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU. 5460, Feb 14 at 0056, JBA carrier. I had just finished a monitoring session and turned the computer back on only to find this:
``5460 tentative Perú, Radio Bolívar, Cd. Bolívar, 0020 to 0039 possible reactivation, first time noted this season. Fair signal in South Florida. 73s (Bob Wilkner, Pompano Beach, South Florida, UT Feb 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST)``
So turned computer back off and tried for 5460; typical signal comparison here to what Bob gets. But this led to several other good logs, back on the porch with DX-398 as it`s warmed up enough to be tolerable, and most of the past sesquiweek`s snowpack has finally melted (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU. 5980, Feb 14 at 0100, S. American conditions are improved a bit (See BOLIVIA), so that R. Chaski carries along some audio, but seems under-modulated for the carrier level. Nevertheless, I dispense with that and switch on the offset BFO, to detect the exact cutoff time, which is: 0102:37.5*, true to form, 11 seconds later than a binight ago (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 11930, Feb 13 at 2221, Qur`an from BSKSA, with pulse jamming under: R. Martí may be finished with 11930 at 2200, but the DentroCuban Jamming Command lingers on, and woe betide any station foolish enough to time-share an OCB frequency. In fact, 11930 pulsejamming can often be heard in the middle of the night!
This Sa`udi is 500 kW due west from Riyadh, but fortunately there is also // 11820 in the clear and much stronger at 320 degrees toward W Europe, and incidentally, us. I let the latter lullabye my nap until it cuts off abruptly circa 2300, the scheduled closing time for both after five hours each (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** THAILAND. 13745, Feb 14 at 0022, HSK9 with news in English about the eastern USA snowstorm; heavy flutter but still readable. No QubaRM as 13740 is not on, and 13780 is far enough away (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 4819.5-USB, Feb 14 at 0103, as I am bandscanning for South Americans, encounter a paramilitary net, with the impressive name repeated by NCS with every call, ``Eighth Western Rivers Contingency Communications Net``. His call is in a format I haven`t heard before, given fonetikaly, NF85AR. He`s calling state by state, Kansas at the moment, and gets a reply from NM85AO, both `loud & clear` and later mentioned as running 10 watts. 0106 calling Minnesota; 0107 Arkansas, gets reply from NF85JD in Little Rock, who starts to give his W5 ham call by mistake; then Michigan, NF95GD.
NCS et al. complain of CODAR QRM (so do I) but are pleased with how well this apparently new frequency for them is working propagationally, and should hold up until sunset becomes too early in spring. After inviting check-ins from anyone else, no takers, full ID by NCS as ``This is Coast Guard Auxiliary Radio NF85AR``, and securing the net at 1914 CST = 0114Z. Thruout, there was a het from carrier on 4820, probably Lhasa, possibly Kolkata, as there is no Latin American.
Later, Googling on the full name of the net, I reach nothing but this 26 page PDF all about it:http://www.trlmo.com/cgaux8wr/WR/wr_2013_4.pdf
That`s their fourth quarter 2013 newsletter. From that, it appears there are lots of YLs (or XYLs) involved in this aux, but no feminine voices did I hear on the net.
Further searching finds this map of USCG Districts:http://www.uscg.mil/top/units/
No. 8 is the great center of America, from ND to TX, from NM to the FL panhandle, WV, the SW corner of PA, and parts of the Great Lake states not adjacent to the Lakes. Here`s the Eighth District, HQ New Orleans: http://www.uscg.mil/d8/
But what about the Western Rivers?? ``"Western Rivers" means the Mississippi River, its tributaries, South Pass, and Southwest Pass, to the navigational demarcation lines dividing the high seas from harbors, rivers and other inland waters of the United States, and the Port Allen-Morgan City Alternate Route, and that part of the Atchafalaya River above its junction with the Port Allen-Morgan City Alternate Route including the Old River and the Red River``.
That seems rather too restrictive, until you consider that the Mississippi River and its tributaries includes the Ohio, Missouri and Yellowstone all the way up to Montana. It would not include the Rio Grande/Bravo, but New Mexico is part of this anyway.
I don`t expect to find net schedules, as such info is generally restricted, so I start searching on the callsigns. NF85AR brings right up a roster of some 300 stations which is supposedly restricted, for official use only, so I am patriotically not giving the link, but:
NF85AR is Douglas Eubanks, Bellevue NE
NM85AO is Homer Sykes in Topeka KS
NF85JD is John Donar in North Little Rock AR
NF95GD is Gary Dawkins in Hesperia MI
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1708 monitoring: confirmed with excellent signal on WTWW-1, 9475, Thursday Feb 13 after 2201; we`re in luck this week, as the other two WTWW transmitters, 9930 and 12105, are off at this time. Next:
UT Friday 0426v on WWRB 3195
Saturday 0730 & 1530 on Hamburger Lokalradio 7265-CUSB
UT Sunday 0030 on WRMI 9495
UT Sunday 0030 on WTWW 5085
UT Sunday 0501 on WTWW 5830
UT Monday 0400v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB; usw. Full sked:http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9955, Feb 13 after 2200, checking what WRMI is doing on main channel: not BS but some other gospel huxter in English; after 2300: `Wavescan` with Ray Robinson presenting an item. At 2355, Brazuguese, I think religious, as don`t recognize it as a DX program. By now jamming is ramping up in preparation for the Radio Libertad hour. It starts off after 0000 UT Feb 14 somewhat audible despite the jamming.
This is contrary to the just updated 9955 programming grid as of Feb 9https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AivhtkIEGb3_dENObnZrMkt1YmtUWGxkbkd3TGNzOXc&hl=en#gid=0
which shows Overcomer on 9955 until 2400 UT Mon-Fri! With other programming at 22-24 only on Sat & Sun.
Next I check the bonus frequency 9495, weaker but in the clear: UT Thursday Feb 14 at 0000, it`s `Frecuencia al Día`, which host Dino Bloise says has just marked its seventh anniversary; enhorabuena. Usually concludes with a DX report from Ernesto Paulero in Argentina playing several clips of his captations, including today, Zanzibar. 0029, Rudy Espinal WRMI ID in Spanish; 0030 `Historias de Radio` about Jujuy province (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
This report despatched at 0425 UT February 14
