** BANGLADESH. 15505, Feb 3 at 1400, Bangladesh
Betar is JBA, but I tune in too late to hear the mistimesignal which is probably
still ending before 1400. Starting to propagate again after nothing over the
winter hump (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 9725, Feb 3 at 0637, very poor signal with Rosary in Brazuguese, so RB2 is active here, and also on 11935 which is fair; 6040 unchecked. However, I hear the same thing on 11855 R. Aparecida, and by golly, they are // but slightly out of synch, 0638 both going into Ave Maria song. What a waste (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 11710, 11745 & 11815, Feb 3 at 0641, crackling spurs from music on 11780.1, RNA/RNB are stronger than usual, such that the second-order one on 11710 is audible, but no match on 11850 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUAM. 15190, Feb 3 at 1406, fair & steady signal, preacher with curious Britishish accent, asserting his religion is the real one; BDXC`s Broadcasts in English booklet by the radio IDs it right away as KTWR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUYANA. 3290-, Feb 3 at 0643, very poor signal from V. of Guyana, presumably with BBCWS overnite relay, marred by ute blob circa 3287, but then it goes off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 1410, Feb 3 at 1342 UT, Mexican news in Spanish looping southwest, then talking about the Carretera Mazatlán, so XECF, Los Mochis, Sinaloa, 10000/500 watts, La Mexicana, per IRCA Log. I have also logged it once a year starting in 2011 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. NTSC channel A2, 59.75 MHz, Feb 2 at 2212 UT as I turn on & tune in, there is Spanish audio, not much video, antenna south, soon faded out, so a bit of a sporadic E opening, surely from XH-land (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NAVASSA. 21205-USB, Feb 2 at 2111, here`s K1N, preferred fonetix kilo-one-november, the DX-pedition. Says he has been on the island for three days but took a while to get set up. Pileups on the hi side, more than one frequency, yet somehams keep calling on the DX frequency, such as K3CH, until he is shamed by another ham. A couple contacts: W8WY, 59 at 2112; EA8BPX, 59 at 2113.
As customary, K1N cannot spare the time to utter his own call with every contact, and his correspondents utter only their own calls --- many repeated countless times hoping to get a split-second opening in the pileups before success. There are also occasional AM carriers near the DX frequency, by spoilers. K1N team have a plan to track down such destructive interferers, so good luck. Website says:
``Deliberate QRM is at expected levels; you are encouraged to fill out a DQRM report to help isolate the location of those transmitters. There's a "DQRM" button on every page of our website. In addition, you can go directly to http://www.dqrmreport.com and file there``
Then I tune around 10m and 17m, don`t find any K1Ns, but do hear various hams discussing the event. Nor on 12m.
18150, 18145, 18140 all have pileups at 2146 Feb 2, presumably in honor of K1N, but I can`t find that op on 18135 or anywhere else.
21205-USB, Feb 3 at 1434, this is still the K1N frequency, and there are pileups on 21215, 21225, 21230 at least. K1N says ``10 up`` after which W4DEE calls him immediately on 21205! But for the most part 21205 stays clear, and if not, some other hams will rudely run off the intruders.
During a one-minute period, I count K1N making five contacts, but one or two required more than one transmission to nail down the calls, so with a little luck he could squeeze in six or seven. Say six, during continuous operation by one op/transmitter, so that adds up to 600 per hour or 14,400 per 24-hour day. What else could matter?
Brock Whaley agrees it`s a mess: ``Glenn, I heard K1N Navassa Island pop on at 1200 UT on 21205 USB. Good signal here, but a huge mess of a pile-up, often rude, extends from 21210 to 21160, no kidding. I'm sure the excitement will calm down, but right now it's amateur after amateur yelling out their calls, and putting each other down. Ham radio at its finest (Brock Whaley, Ireland, Feb 3 for DXLD)``
Still no specific frequencies on website: ``The QRM problem is one reason we are not publishing our operating frequencies, but we will be on or near the "usual" DXpedition frequencies``
But latest news: http://www.navassadx.com ---
``3 February 2015 --- Weather delays have plagued and delayed deployment. We were hoping to get four helicopter loads in yesterday, but only one made it because of Jamaica weather. We have ten ops on the island. We have 160M & 80M dipoles at 160 feet from top of light house!!!! ...and other dipoles lower from nearly each window.
It has been VERY WINDY and very hot...and very dirty. We have heavy rains every evening, collected for washing, as we all feel very grubby. We have four stations QRV, five by the end of the day. SteppIR's going up today.
Seas have been extremely rough and "Electra" has been seeking refuge in Jamaica, but is on her way to Navassa today, as forecast for tomorrow looks good for unloading. Then we'll be able to get more stations on the air. Everyone is in good spirits and healthy, just hot and dirty!
We have been very pleased with pileup cooperation when working the difficult JA/Asia/Oceana [sic] windows. We can hear a din of pileup activity, and at times difficult to pull out individual calls on these long hauls.
Will have more time for a full report after more team arrives today and camp/ops get more established. We're off to a good start and within 24 hours should be in full swing for the next 10-12 days``
So narrowly focused on 2-way ham radio, after going to all that trouble and expense, I bet the K1N DXpedition has never even thought of adding a transmission at little or zero additional cost, which would qualify as shortwave broadcasting from a `new` country. It wouldn`t have to be continuous for the duration of the DX-ped, just a few hours here and there, on one transceiver tuned to an SWBC band and broadcasting recorded programming, such as ``Voice of Navassa World Service``. Possibly something about the geography and wildlife if not the lacking politics, culture and music of the place. It could even be in SSB. But then, hams tend to look down on one-way DXers as inferior beings, tho possibly on the road to becoming real hams (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA [and non]. 1120, Feb 3 at 1340 UT, KEOR Catoosa/Sperry/Tulsa is *still* open carrier/dead air, serving only to make a SAH of 200/minute with remnant of KMOX = three and a third Hz. Since the transmitter remains on, even tho no modulation, does that not qualify it as a silent station per FCC rules? Maybe that`s why they leave it on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 1419.9 approx., Feb 2 circa 2030 UT, I have traveled to a spot in Enid almost 2 miles due south of the KCRC 1390 antennas, and proceed to DF the spur --- yes, on the DX-398 it`s due north/south, to that clinches it as an artifact of KCRC, like the one on 1360.1 approx. on the other side. Ideally one should isolate the spur carrier from the frequency it is hetting against, but these are too close, so I`m going by the null-dip in the audible het. My previous quick DFing NW of Enid in the rain had coincidentally led to the wrong culprits in TX and KS. BTW, KCRC 1390 carrier is very slightly on the lo side compared to its neighbors, which also accounts for slightly different pitches on the spur hets (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RWANDA. 15275, Feb 3 at 0652, good signal from DW in Hausa via Kigali, on the 295 degree beam across west Africa, carrying on between Florida and Cuba, into Mexico, but plenty good further north. In fact, it`s the OSOB. It also has English at 07-08. But be careful: 15275 is a heavily used DW frequency, so depending on the hour could also be via Sri Lanka, UAE, Madagascar or France.
Altho early A-15 HFCC registrations continue with numerous KIG entries thru 24 October just in case, it`s now been confirmed that this relay station is about to close down too! So enjoy it while you can. Ivo Ivanov received this:
``Dear all, DW relay station in Kigali / Rwanda will be closed at end of B14 season and dismantled afterwards. All shortwave services --- English, Amharic, French, Hausa, Swahili, Dari, Pashto, will be continued in A15 by rentals at same times and to same service areas. Kind regards, Thomas Feustel, Technical Distribution`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 15580, Feb 3 at 1401, VOA news relying heavily on AP, fair with deep fades; 1405 into `International Edition` but fading down more. Site is BOTSWANA at 14-16, 10 degree beam (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1758 monitoring: confirmed Monday Feb 2 at 2201 on Global 24 via WRMI; sufficient. Awoke too late to confirm Tue Feb 3 at 1200 on WRMI 9955. Next:
Wed 0401 on Global 24 via WRMI 9395
Wed 0730 & 1530 on Hamburger Lokalradio 7265-CUSB
Wed 1415 on WRMI 9955
Wed 2200 on WBCQ 7490v
Wed 2201 on Global 24 via WRMI 9395
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 2660+, Feb 3 at 1237 UT, very poor signal, music barely audible, and can`t tell what kind; should be religious from KGLD, 1330 in Tyler TX as presumed still radiating a bit on its second harmonic. 1245 UT seems to switch to talk. Listening again from before 1300 UT past 1303 UT but can`t hear any signal boost at official Feb sunrise when it should double power from 500 PSRA to 1000 watts full daytime power. Still detectable at 1313 UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
This report dispatched at 1648 UT February 3
** BRAZIL. 9725, Feb 3 at 0637, very poor signal with Rosary in Brazuguese, so RB2 is active here, and also on 11935 which is fair; 6040 unchecked. However, I hear the same thing on 11855 R. Aparecida, and by golly, they are // but slightly out of synch, 0638 both going into Ave Maria song. What a waste (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 11710, 11745 & 11815, Feb 3 at 0641, crackling spurs from music on 11780.1, RNA/RNB are stronger than usual, such that the second-order one on 11710 is audible, but no match on 11850 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUAM. 15190, Feb 3 at 1406, fair & steady signal, preacher with curious Britishish accent, asserting his religion is the real one; BDXC`s Broadcasts in English booklet by the radio IDs it right away as KTWR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUYANA. 3290-, Feb 3 at 0643, very poor signal from V. of Guyana, presumably with BBCWS overnite relay, marred by ute blob circa 3287, but then it goes off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 1410, Feb 3 at 1342 UT, Mexican news in Spanish looping southwest, then talking about the Carretera Mazatlán, so XECF, Los Mochis, Sinaloa, 10000/500 watts, La Mexicana, per IRCA Log. I have also logged it once a year starting in 2011 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. NTSC channel A2, 59.75 MHz, Feb 2 at 2212 UT as I turn on & tune in, there is Spanish audio, not much video, antenna south, soon faded out, so a bit of a sporadic E opening, surely from XH-land (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NAVASSA. 21205-USB, Feb 2 at 2111, here`s K1N, preferred fonetix kilo-one-november, the DX-pedition. Says he has been on the island for three days but took a while to get set up. Pileups on the hi side, more than one frequency, yet somehams keep calling on the DX frequency, such as K3CH, until he is shamed by another ham. A couple contacts: W8WY, 59 at 2112; EA8BPX, 59 at 2113.
As customary, K1N cannot spare the time to utter his own call with every contact, and his correspondents utter only their own calls --- many repeated countless times hoping to get a split-second opening in the pileups before success. There are also occasional AM carriers near the DX frequency, by spoilers. K1N team have a plan to track down such destructive interferers, so good luck. Website says:
``Deliberate QRM is at expected levels; you are encouraged to fill out a DQRM report to help isolate the location of those transmitters. There's a "DQRM" button on every page of our website. In addition, you can go directly to http://www.dqrmreport.com and file there``
Then I tune around 10m and 17m, don`t find any K1Ns, but do hear various hams discussing the event. Nor on 12m.
18150, 18145, 18140 all have pileups at 2146 Feb 2, presumably in honor of K1N, but I can`t find that op on 18135 or anywhere else.
21205-USB, Feb 3 at 1434, this is still the K1N frequency, and there are pileups on 21215, 21225, 21230 at least. K1N says ``10 up`` after which W4DEE calls him immediately on 21205! But for the most part 21205 stays clear, and if not, some other hams will rudely run off the intruders.
During a one-minute period, I count K1N making five contacts, but one or two required more than one transmission to nail down the calls, so with a little luck he could squeeze in six or seven. Say six, during continuous operation by one op/transmitter, so that adds up to 600 per hour or 14,400 per 24-hour day. What else could matter?
Brock Whaley agrees it`s a mess: ``Glenn, I heard K1N Navassa Island pop on at 1200 UT on 21205 USB. Good signal here, but a huge mess of a pile-up, often rude, extends from 21210 to 21160, no kidding. I'm sure the excitement will calm down, but right now it's amateur after amateur yelling out their calls, and putting each other down. Ham radio at its finest (Brock Whaley, Ireland, Feb 3 for DXLD)``
Still no specific frequencies on website: ``The QRM problem is one reason we are not publishing our operating frequencies, but we will be on or near the "usual" DXpedition frequencies``
But latest news: http://www.navassadx.com ---
``3 February 2015 --- Weather delays have plagued and delayed deployment. We were hoping to get four helicopter loads in yesterday, but only one made it because of Jamaica weather. We have ten ops on the island. We have 160M & 80M dipoles at 160 feet from top of light house!!!! ...and other dipoles lower from nearly each window.
It has been VERY WINDY and very hot...and very dirty. We have heavy rains every evening, collected for washing, as we all feel very grubby. We have four stations QRV, five by the end of the day. SteppIR's going up today.
Seas have been extremely rough and "Electra" has been seeking refuge in Jamaica, but is on her way to Navassa today, as forecast for tomorrow looks good for unloading. Then we'll be able to get more stations on the air. Everyone is in good spirits and healthy, just hot and dirty!
We have been very pleased with pileup cooperation when working the difficult JA/Asia/Oceana [sic] windows. We can hear a din of pileup activity, and at times difficult to pull out individual calls on these long hauls.
Will have more time for a full report after more team arrives today and camp/ops get more established. We're off to a good start and within 24 hours should be in full swing for the next 10-12 days``
So narrowly focused on 2-way ham radio, after going to all that trouble and expense, I bet the K1N DXpedition has never even thought of adding a transmission at little or zero additional cost, which would qualify as shortwave broadcasting from a `new` country. It wouldn`t have to be continuous for the duration of the DX-ped, just a few hours here and there, on one transceiver tuned to an SWBC band and broadcasting recorded programming, such as ``Voice of Navassa World Service``. Possibly something about the geography and wildlife if not the lacking politics, culture and music of the place. It could even be in SSB. But then, hams tend to look down on one-way DXers as inferior beings, tho possibly on the road to becoming real hams (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA [and non]. 1120, Feb 3 at 1340 UT, KEOR Catoosa/Sperry/Tulsa is *still* open carrier/dead air, serving only to make a SAH of 200/minute with remnant of KMOX = three and a third Hz. Since the transmitter remains on, even tho no modulation, does that not qualify it as a silent station per FCC rules? Maybe that`s why they leave it on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 1419.9 approx., Feb 2 circa 2030 UT, I have traveled to a spot in Enid almost 2 miles due south of the KCRC 1390 antennas, and proceed to DF the spur --- yes, on the DX-398 it`s due north/south, to that clinches it as an artifact of KCRC, like the one on 1360.1 approx. on the other side. Ideally one should isolate the spur carrier from the frequency it is hetting against, but these are too close, so I`m going by the null-dip in the audible het. My previous quick DFing NW of Enid in the rain had coincidentally led to the wrong culprits in TX and KS. BTW, KCRC 1390 carrier is very slightly on the lo side compared to its neighbors, which also accounts for slightly different pitches on the spur hets (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RWANDA. 15275, Feb 3 at 0652, good signal from DW in Hausa via Kigali, on the 295 degree beam across west Africa, carrying on between Florida and Cuba, into Mexico, but plenty good further north. In fact, it`s the OSOB. It also has English at 07-08. But be careful: 15275 is a heavily used DW frequency, so depending on the hour could also be via Sri Lanka, UAE, Madagascar or France.
Altho early A-15 HFCC registrations continue with numerous KIG entries thru 24 October just in case, it`s now been confirmed that this relay station is about to close down too! So enjoy it while you can. Ivo Ivanov received this:
``Dear all, DW relay station in Kigali / Rwanda will be closed at end of B14 season and dismantled afterwards. All shortwave services --- English, Amharic, French, Hausa, Swahili, Dari, Pashto, will be continued in A15 by rentals at same times and to same service areas. Kind regards, Thomas Feustel, Technical Distribution`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 15580, Feb 3 at 1401, VOA news relying heavily on AP, fair with deep fades; 1405 into `International Edition` but fading down more. Site is BOTSWANA at 14-16, 10 degree beam (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1758 monitoring: confirmed Monday Feb 2 at 2201 on Global 24 via WRMI; sufficient. Awoke too late to confirm Tue Feb 3 at 1200 on WRMI 9955. Next:
Wed 0401 on Global 24 via WRMI 9395
Wed 0730 & 1530 on Hamburger Lokalradio 7265-CUSB
Wed 1415 on WRMI 9955
Wed 2200 on WBCQ 7490v
Wed 2201 on Global 24 via WRMI 9395
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 2660+, Feb 3 at 1237 UT, very poor signal, music barely audible, and can`t tell what kind; should be religious from KGLD, 1330 in Tyler TX as presumed still radiating a bit on its second harmonic. 1245 UT seems to switch to talk. Listening again from before 1300 UT past 1303 UT but can`t hear any signal boost at official Feb sunrise when it should double power from 500 PSRA to 1000 watts full daytime power. Still detectable at 1313 UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
This report dispatched at 1648 UT February 3
