** CANADA. 15034-USB, May 11 at 1516, Trenton Military ID and claiming time is 1515z, still ``no report received`` from Halifax, Bagotville, Trenton, Ottawa, Toronto; repeating --- (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. 13270, May 10 at 1406, JBA carrier presumed CNR1 jammer vs SOH; no New York Radio of course. This reference http://dxinfocentre.com/volmet.htm says it`s Out of Service Til Aug 2, but Mike Cooper suspects that refers to last year as he has seen no new NOTAMs about it not being decommissioned (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 11700, May 10 at 2211, S9+25 of dead air or trace of modulation, unlike 11760; something`s always wrong at RHC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 7379.20, May 10 at 2219, RHC French news interspersed with stingers, S9+20. First time I`ve caught this one way off frequency; got to be same transmitter as in the mornings often at similar offset knocked below 13740. Something`s always wrong at RHC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 5025, May 11 at 0600, R. Rebelde is S9 of dead air. Something`s always wrong at RadioCuba (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUATEMALA. 4055, May 11 at 0606, Radio Verdad/Truth sign-offs in Spanish, English, German, Italian, Swedish?, Japanese ... as I then doze off. At least in Spanish & English, claims to be on ``4.05 MHz``! Also gives P O Box 5, Chiquimula address, despite having asserted for a few years that they have *no* postal service in Guatemala, so all contacts must be by e-mail, including e-QSLs only. Has anyone tried postal mail to them lately, and what happened? Returned as undeliverable? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA SOUTH. Correcting typo: DE of course instead of DR:
12843-CW, May 8 at 1334, ``CQ CQ CQ DE HLO HLO HLO QSX 12 MHZ K`` repeating over and over and due to inconvenient fades took several times to copy it completely. EiBi shows this is Seoul Radio, 24 hours. Among the few maritime stations left running V or CQ markers on HF (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN. 9690, Friday May 10 at 2202, REE English with corrida and other sports news; not long before it`s back to music, this time early choral at 2217 check, also on 12030 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TURKEY [and non]. 9830, May 10 at 2158, heavy RTTY, believed to be from Isabela, Puerto Rico, but 2201 VOT opening in the clear, only to be blasted by more RTTY at 2202. But usually it`s mostly finished after 2200; clear but weak at 2217 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 4102.8-CW, May 11 at 0603, weather beacon W is JBA, from somewhere in the SW desert; with various beep combos, and the only ID as W periodically (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. WORLD OF RADIO 1981 monitoring: confirmed first US SW broadcast, Friday May 10 at 2200 on WRMI 9955, good S9+40 atop lite pulse jamming. Before 2200 music fill and WNYW-style ID.
Also confirmed UT Saturday May 11 at 0130 on WRMI 7780, fair S9/+10.
Ivo Ivanov, Bulgaria, confirms: ``GERMANY Reception of World of Radio via HLR on 6190 CUSB, May 11:
https://swldxbulgaria.blogspot.com/2019/05/reception-of-world-of-radio-via-hlr-on_11.html
0631-0700 6190 GOH 001 kW / 230 deg CeEu English Sat, weak signal``
Also confirmed Saturday May 11 at 1440 the 1431 via UTwente SDR on Hamburger Lokalradio, 9485-CUSB --- for the first time in many weeks any such signal detectable, but totally unusable vs huge splash from Romania on 9490. Even with bandwidth narrowed to 1 kHz, all I can recognize is that it`s my voice, but not positive latest edition as it should be. Now if HLR would switch to LSB, it would be much better; why not? Only thing on 9480 this hour is CNR Beijing for Tibet. Next:
1930vUT Saturday WA0RCR 1860-AM
2100 UT Saturday WRMI 9955
0300vUT Sunday WA0RCR 1860-AM [nominal 0315]
1030 UT Sunday HLR 7265-CUSB Germany
2130 UT Sunday WRMI 7780
0130 UT Monday WRMI 9395
0230 UT Monday WRMI 7780
0300vUT Monday WBCQ 5130v Area 51
0330 UT Monday WRMI 9955
0930 UT Monday Unique Radio 5045-USB NSW
1815 UT Monday IRRS 7290 Romania
0100 UT Tuesday WRMI 7780
0800 UT Tuesday Unique Radio 5045-USB NSW [2 editions]
2100 UT Wednesday WRMI 9955
2100 UT Wednesday WBCQ 7490v
0100 UT Thursday WRMI 7780
[it appears we will now be running on a Friday-to-Thursday cycle, so freshest new airings are on weekends]
Full schedule including AM, FM, webcasts, satellite, podcasts:
http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9955, Friday May 10 at 1402, surprised to find WRMI still running, with music, Oldies? 1411 Bob Biermann ID, Africanish music. One-hour extension to 1500* is supposedly Sat & Sun only for some gospel huxter; unknown how long on today Friday. On Saturday May 11 not checked until 1514 when it`s off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9330.139, May 10 at 0611, WBCQ with TOMBS VP at S7-S4, obviously back on old transmitter after #6 L&C 4 hours earlier. Next check at 1402 TOMBS is poor on 9330.179; at 2202, 9330.2 approx., VP TOMBS -- all of which mean this is not the 500 kW on-frequency unit. Nor is it on 7490, since the BS there is also VP, approx. 7490.15.
Allan Weiner twitted plan to employ the 500 kW at 135 for his AAAWWW this week from 0000 UT Saturday May 11 on 9330, so I`m relistening then but no signal, while the webcast has no theme but rather band noise as if plugged into a SW receiver getting nothing. Then AW comes on saying he can`t find the theme music, apparently in a different studio than usual.
Just as he says that 9330 is not up, there it comes, as I am also monitoring on the ATS-909 next to the computer, which needs a BIG signal to get thru to it. Says also on 3265, never any good here. 9330 cuts off at 0005:30. AW is not in contact with engineer Tom at the 500 kW, so unsure whether it`s on or not. It does come back on at 0007.
Angela is with him and we learn that as a child she spent time at CFTO-TV channel 9 Toronto, where her father worked in ENG (not engineering, but electronic news gathering). Starts talking about DTV and its drawbacks, says a single transmitter may have up to 5 subchannels. NO, it can be more and often is; but bad for rural areas where analog TV used to reach, not DTV. Some ATV station in NB is still analog the last time he checked.
0012 (or 0017?), 9330 cuts off again. 0019 back on but weaker. 0020 power goes up but modulation goes down. Says transmitter is 95% efficient. 0025, 9330 goes off again. Says audio is processed to ``FM quality`` via a $14K Omnia-11 unit. The antenna is still being tuned which is why they are not ready for full service yet. Yesterday`s tests were limited to 130 kW (not 135 as he said previously??)
At 0027, 9330 is back up but recognizable as Brother Scare, usual occupant of this frequency. At 0031 Tom calls in with what`s going on: says started with 130 kW, but overloaded causing arcing, so went off; back on, progressively reducing power to 100, 60, 25 kW but same thing kept happening, so finally left it off, and brought old #4 transmitter back up on 9330. At first thought AAAWWW was on it too, but rather TOMBS.
AW says target date was 15 May but probably won`t make it, as turnbuckles are being tightened. Maybe a week later. Tests so far have been with only 2 dipoles active, rather than full complement of 4 x 4, yet have been getting great reports worldwide. Says WBCQ makes zero money, has to be subsidized out of his own pocket (such as buying and selling antique autos?).
At 0048 says BS is on 9330. VSWR of the 500 kW is only 5 kW, not a lot by comparison. When in service, there will be NO time for sale on it, all taken by funder World`s Last Chance, which AW says provides excellent religious programming --- except he will put AAAWWW on it. Brother Scare will then be moved to 7490 occupying all unsold time there (so all day, all night 15-12 UT except for WWCR span? But presently registered for only 19-04 UT).
Unusually I listened to almost the whole hour, but John Carver also reports, and please keep doing so:
``Tonight's show started almost on time on 7490 after some fill music, a miscue and some dead air. No theme song this evening. Angela in the studio with Allan. Allan starting talking about the tests this past week on the superstation. He said that 9330 wasn't on the air at the moment but would be broadcasting tonight's show when they brought it up.
Discussion moved to television for some reason. I received a telephone call and had to turn the radio down for a bit. When I turned it back up they were talking television.
Finally back to the superstation, Allan said they'd received signal reports from New Zealand and India during the testing period. Phone call at 0025 with a signal report saying that that the new transmitter was up on 9330 but had dropped out twice so far. Allan said that during the antenna adjustment period, they were asked to keep the power down to 130 kW.
Tom called at 0030 and said he'd shut down the new transmitter as it was overloading and that 9330 was back on the old transmitter. Allan goes on some more about getting all the bugs out of the new antenna. Says that is the biggest hurdle left. Had planned to have the superstation on the air for normal operation by the 17th of this month but it might take a week longer as they worked on adjusting the new antenna. Said that they would continue with transmitter tests thiscoming week also but probably only on 9330 as the antenna has to be retuned every time they change frequencies.
Reading of emails at 0051. Closing prayer at 0058. Allan said that when the superstation went on the air for real, Brother Stair would move to 7490 and would fill every empty slot in the schedule. Program off the air at 0101 followed by music. 7490 was off the air at 0105. John, Mid-North Indiana``
Kai Ludwig, Germany, has just commented on the WOR iog: ``It will get interesting when this WLC Radio stuff really goes on air. The German variant is recorded in a real, decent studio, apparently with native speakers of German, of young age and using a presentation style for their own age group. It all sounds really professional, besides the choice of medium: This target audience can hardly be reached with radio anymore, let alone shortwave. So again the question:
Who in the world drives this whole thing, is involved in the program production and, first of all, pumps millions of $$$ into a project that at a glance looks like the child of some Youtube clowns? Kai``
AW`s latest twit circa 14 UT May 11 says nothing about superstation or further testing plans (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 17775, Sat May 11 at 1514, NO signal from KVOH during presumed Wavescan airing. OSOB is 17815 WHRI, JBA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15825 & 13845, May 10 at 1403, WWCRs are S9+20, sure pilots of HF sporadic E; and 6m DX Map shows MUF above 100 MHz, heavy 10-meter contacts all over eastern USA. Later I do get one FM DX catch, q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 88.1 WBFM, May 10 at 1654 UT, noting the MUF is still estimated above 100 MHz, I turn on the ATS-909 next to the computer, which is mostly usable only for near/local stations and very strong HF, to 88.1, and immediately fades up a non-ID/promo for ``The Joy FM``, and fade down again, but the two Okies are no problem on this.
WTFDA FM Database search on this exact slogan leads to only one 88.1, WJIS, 100 kW in Bradenton FL, a good fit for paths in this opening and optimum sporadic E distance 1086 miles = 1748 km. My first Es FM DX catch this year. I hasten to the porch for a clearer shot across hourtop, but nothing else logged vs all the ACI and CCI --- not a single really clear/open FM frequency around here, very frustrating (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9200.000, May 10 at 0613, S2-S5 of open carrier. Only thing in Aoki/NDXC is, you guessed it, CNR1 jamming vs SOH; but I would not expect much of that at this hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
This report despatched at 1717 UT May 11
