** CHINA. CNR1 jammer survey, Aug 3 at 1408: no WOOBs in the 13s, 12s, but JBA carriers on 11100, 10920. No doubt would have been many more before 1400* (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)
** CUBA. 13740, Aug 3 at 2043, S9+10 of dead air from RHC; warmup? well before scheduled *2100; no spurs.
15370, Aug 3 at 2046, S9 of suptorted Arabic, which even when well-modulated sounds like choking. No spurblobs noted now. Something`s always wrong at RHC (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)
** IRELAND [non]. ITALY [non]. 7290, Mon Aug 3 at 1855 retune UTwente for IRRS presumed Bulgaria as `The Shortwave Report` is concluding with mandatory segment from Dan`s favorite station RHC, as he mislists its frequencies ``from 6 pm [PDT] to midnight`` to include 6060 and 6165, both of which are long gone. The last item always gets cut off, since IRRS inserts `Feature Story News` of about 5 minutes at 1830; this week something from NHK Japan, chopped just before 1859 for IRRS sign-off, which continues to give address as that 5-digit P O Box in Milano, totally contradicting info that it is no longer in use! Such as this note with eQSL received by Konstantin Bersankov, St. Pete in the latest Rus-DX:
``Please also notice that we have discontinued our PO BOX or any regular mail address for listeners' correspondence, and we are unable to reply to QSL request by regular mail.
You may also find useful information on the following websites:
https://www.nexus.org
https://milanoventures.com
http://egradio.org
Let me know if we can further assist you. Hope this helps. Best regards. Ron``
http://qsl-review.blogspot.com/2020/01/irrs-shortwave-nexus-iba.html
where it is assumed a QSL for 7290 at 1800-1900 June 20 [Saturday] was for Romania; Altho nothing from IRRS specifies this as Romania --- now believed to be Bulgaria. Furthermore, KB quotes this from their website explaining why transmitter sites are kept secret, the only non-Soviet broadcaster to do so:
``Since IRRS & NEXUS-IBA started relaying programs on shortwave in 1989, several organizations and individuals appeared on the market as "competitors", offering similar services, sometimes in a fraudulent and very un-professional way. We came across people charging for fake (not existing) transmissions, and producing fake listeners' letters, as well as broadcasts that are cheap, but so poor in quality that cannot not be heard on the intended target, and those who commission them have no means to check them.
In order to protect our interests and those of our members against such competitors, our policy had to be changed in recent years not to disclose information about our transmitter sites and our agreements with our service providers and governments. Since we aim to to provide top quality broadcasting services at the lowest possible cost to our members, our transmitting sites may change as several technical and contractual conditions change.
There is a simple way to explain this: when you buy anything at your local shop, did you tried asking where exactly do they buy items that they sell to you? I am sure no shop-keeper, service provider or reseller will provide you information of their own sources for the same reason.
Sometimes multiple transmitters are involved in order to provide better coverage and/or redundancy. Nevertheless these sites will remain confidential and are not disclosed to the general public. There has been lots of speculations during the years (right and wrong) when different "experts" tried to locate every and each of our transmitter sites, and then published misleading information on the internet and on other publications.
Only the power, time, program type, language and especially the target area is clearly published in our schedules. We believe that this is the information that our listeners need to know in order to tune into our members' broadcasts.
Our programs are all originating from our Network Control Centre (NCC) in Milan, Italy, where we operate all of our broadcasting services.``
This rationale makes no sense to me; the response to competitors putting out fake info is to be completely transparent with real info. If it change from time to time, fine, just acknowledge it. And then there`s IRRS as HQ in IRELAND per WRTH (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)
** U S A. 10-m beacons with some sporadic E struggling to MUF:
28298.8-CW, Aug 3 at 1424, long pause and long message starting with dits, VVV DE K4JDR/B and ending with SK run together which is hard to render typographically. I copied as K4JGR, but must be per WJ5O: ``28.2988 K4JDR C RALEIGH, NC # 10W, VERTICAL QRT Dec 2010 reactivated Feb 15 Jan 2018 reported(SWL)`` --- QRZ.com: ``K4JDR USA flag USA, RONNIE J CASEY, RALEIGH, NC 27603-7336``
28255-CW, Aug 3 at 1428 and again at 1447, KB4UPI/B: ``28.255 KB4UPI C GADADEN [sic], ALABAMA # 3 W, DIPOLE NEW 2 Dec 07 relocated (agn)1 April 14`` --- GADSDEN is on I-59 NE of Birmingham about 1/3 on way to Chattanooga. Lots of illustrated info plus hamautobio at https://www.qrz.com/lookup/kb4upi
``I am located on Camden Cove Island in Etowah county AL. See our 28.255 Mhz Beacon, up since 1987. KB4UPI 10 Meter Beacon 28.255 EM73ax
Our 10 meter beacon runs 5 watts into a 10 meter vertical antenna on the top of my boathouse. The beacon was first placed on the air in October of 1987 on 28.224, and the first report came from Don, WB4YRJ, who is now a SK. The frequency was chosen because it was the only place I could make the converted CB transmit at due to the crystals I had on hand. Later I changed it to 28.267 for much the same reason. It was later changed to 28.255 at the request of the HF beacon coordinator Bill, WJ50. Contact Bill before you start any intended beacon operation. See the WJ5O Beacon List.
The beacon has received reports from all over the world over the years. The most distant report was in March of 1990 and came from SWL, Brian Webb, ZL2262 in New Zealand. That is 4998 (MPW) miles per watt. See his report below.
I QSL 100 per cent worldwide to ham operators and SWL's. No SASE is required. Send your QSL and I'll send mine. Copy the short message if you wish. All I need for a QSL is the frequency, time, date, and signal report. Email reception reports are always welcome and appreciated. To send me a simple report via email you may send it to MickUpi*Gmail.com. The at sign is replaced to prevent email harvesting.
The picture above is the present setup in the attic of my boathouse at my QTH on Camden Cove Island in AL. I am located in Gadsden Alabama on the banks of the Coosa River and Neely Henry lake. I have had several transmitters over the years. The present one is a RS HTX-100. It runs on low power at 5 watts. This radio should never be run at high power (25 watts) in beacon operation. It will burn out and require service. It should also have a fan. See the fan below.
Radio --- Close up view of the RS HTX-100 radio running 5 watts. These radios are still readily available on eBay for around $80 to $100. Look closely at the knob on the top right. Above it is printed, "pull for low power". I placed a 3/16" thick rubber washer behind the knob. Without the washer it is easy to accidently bump the knob and put the radio on high power.
Keyer --- Close up of the MFJ-447 memory keyer. It has keyed the transmitter for many years. The keying transistor was burned out during a lightning strike a few years ago, but it is easily replaced.
Meter --- This is a cheap and simple SWR/Power meter I bought at a hamfest for $3. I use it to look at the meter when take a look in the attic of the boathouse and see if the radio is transmitting. All it takes is a quick glance.
Fan --- Not a good picture, but this is an AC fan blowing on the fins on the back of the radio. It is vitally important to to protect your transmitter. AC fans seem to be far more reliable than a DC fan. This one is setting on some foam rubber pads to dampen the vibration and make it less noisy. Even running at 5 watts the HTX-100 will get too hot without the fan.
This is a Motorola model TPN1154A 16 amp power supply that runs the radio and the keyer. These commercial power supplies are usually overlooked at hamfests because people don't know what they are, and it's not surprising because the units have no ratings on them showing what the voltage or maximum amperage is. Depending on the model they can be rated at 5 to 25 amps. You can buy them at hamfests for 10 to 15 dollars. The digital meter on the top right was added. It bounces from 13.7 to 13.8 as the transmitter turns on and off. Curiously Motorola made them and set them up to operate at 14.9 volts. A small resistor can easily be added to the regulator board to bring the voltage down to 13.8 volts. Many thanks to Kevin Custer, W3KKG and others for providing info on these power supplies. To see more info on the power supplies Click Here
This peice of coax is which a squirrel chewed the coax shield away where I once had the equipment outdoors at another QTH. If outside I have learned it is best to leave the coax hanging freely instead of attaching it to trees. I can only wonder why squirrels do this.``
28289.3-CW, Aug 3 at 1447, AL DE WJ5O/B himself: ``28.2893 WJ5O C TROY ALABAMA # 2W VERTICAL New Frequency 25 Jan 14``
Almost always, including today, when such beacons are making it QRP, tuning higher up to 28500 finds *no* phone hams, who could run up to a kilowatt, contacting; where are they? (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)
** U S A [and non]. WORLD OF RADIO 2045 monitoring: confirmed UT Monday August 3 at 0030 on WRMI 7730, VG here +30 degrees off beam, some deep fades.
Also confirmed UT Mon Aug 3 at 0130 & 0230 on WRMI 7780, VP for a change at UTwente, but VG as far as Maine SDR; also WRN webcast at 0130.
Also confirmed UT Mon Aug 3 from 0303 on Area 51 webcast after Free Radio Skybird runs a bit over, closing with an address in New Hampshire. WBCQ sked shows it 0230-0300 and ``Free Radio Skybird, Hermans Radio & Record Room, and other shows air Sunday evenings on 5130 every other week.`` WOR good into Rochester SDR; at 0322 check direct on 5130, S9+10 but noisy.
Larry Will tells us: ``[WOR] Glenn Hauser interview on Radio NewYork International, 2008: https://archive.org/details/dan-lewis-rni. Hour 2 of this RNI show hosted by Dan Lewis features an interview with Glenn Hauser. This media comes from the WBCQ archives. L.``
Tnx, Larry, that brings back some memories. Starts :17 minutes into and lasts until :41, direct link:
https://ia801501.us.archive.org/29/items/dan-lewis-rni/Dan%20Lewis%20RNI%2028%20December%202008%20Hour%202.mp3
if the URL with spaces in it survive replaced here by all those %20;
otherwise it`s the fourth item on the download options, VBR MP3, and
the second sub-item.
BTW, whatever became of Dan Lewis? His blog http://danlewisradioguy.blogspot.com/ stopped after Tuesday, April 17, 2018 --- some interesting reading there such as about ``Randi Steele``.
WOR 2045 also confirmed UT Mon Aug 3 at 0330 on WRMI 9955; as usual on this airing, R. Prague fill music runs right up to 0330 with no ID break; that makes up for some double-IDs at other times. Here it`s S8-S9 but fading vs pulse jamming. A few minutes earlier at 0324 check, 9955 was S9/+10 well above lite PJ.
BTW, WRMI escaped any hurricane outage, far enough inland from the path to get no more than 20 mph gusts per NWS Okeechobee city info.
WOR 2045 also confirmed Monday August 3 at 1805 tune-in via UTwente, well underway and no dropouts on IRRS 7290 via Bulgaria; just the usual rough modulation, warble from 7291 and plus/minus 10 splash. Next:
0100 UT Tuesday WRMI 7780 to NE
2100 UT Wednesday WBCQ 7490v to WSW
0100 UT Thursday WRMI 7780 to NE
Full schedule including AM, FM, webcasts, satellite, podcasts: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html
WOR program and website are totally non-commercial. Contributions via PayPal to woradio at yahoo.com -- not necessarily in US funds as they will convert
One may also contribute via MO or check in US funds on a US bank to: Glenn Hauser, P O Box 1684, Enid OK 73702 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)
** U S A. 13845, Aug 3 at 1908, zero signal from this WWCR while all the others are inbooming, including higher 15825 at S9+20 tnx to Es, so not a MUF issue; 12160 S9+30; 9980 S9+20; 2042 recheck, 13845 back on with PMS at S9+10 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)
UNIDENTIFIED. 12844.75-USB, Aug 3 at 1407, 2-way in Spanish mentioning barco, numbers perhaps referring to cargo, unprofessional whistling into mike (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)
This report dispatched at 2321 UT August 3
** CUBA. 13740, Aug 3 at 2043, S9+10 of dead air from RHC; warmup? well before scheduled *2100; no spurs.
15370, Aug 3 at 2046, S9 of suptorted Arabic, which even when well-modulated sounds like choking. No spurblobs noted now. Something`s always wrong at RHC (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)
** IRELAND [non]. ITALY [non]. 7290, Mon Aug 3 at 1855 retune UTwente for IRRS presumed Bulgaria as `The Shortwave Report` is concluding with mandatory segment from Dan`s favorite station RHC, as he mislists its frequencies ``from 6 pm [PDT] to midnight`` to include 6060 and 6165, both of which are long gone. The last item always gets cut off, since IRRS inserts `Feature Story News` of about 5 minutes at 1830; this week something from NHK Japan, chopped just before 1859 for IRRS sign-off, which continues to give address as that 5-digit P O Box in Milano, totally contradicting info that it is no longer in use! Such as this note with eQSL received by Konstantin Bersankov, St. Pete in the latest Rus-DX:
``Please also notice that we have discontinued our PO BOX or any regular mail address for listeners' correspondence, and we are unable to reply to QSL request by regular mail.
You may also find useful information on the following websites:
https://www.nexus.org
https://milanoventures.com
http://egradio.org
Let me know if we can further assist you. Hope this helps. Best regards. Ron``
http://qsl-review.blogspot.com/2020/01/irrs-shortwave-nexus-iba.html
where it is assumed a QSL for 7290 at 1800-1900 June 20 [Saturday] was for Romania; Altho nothing from IRRS specifies this as Romania --- now believed to be Bulgaria. Furthermore, KB quotes this from their website explaining why transmitter sites are kept secret, the only non-Soviet broadcaster to do so:
``Since IRRS & NEXUS-IBA started relaying programs on shortwave in 1989, several organizations and individuals appeared on the market as "competitors", offering similar services, sometimes in a fraudulent and very un-professional way. We came across people charging for fake (not existing) transmissions, and producing fake listeners' letters, as well as broadcasts that are cheap, but so poor in quality that cannot not be heard on the intended target, and those who commission them have no means to check them.
In order to protect our interests and those of our members against such competitors, our policy had to be changed in recent years not to disclose information about our transmitter sites and our agreements with our service providers and governments. Since we aim to to provide top quality broadcasting services at the lowest possible cost to our members, our transmitting sites may change as several technical and contractual conditions change.
There is a simple way to explain this: when you buy anything at your local shop, did you tried asking where exactly do they buy items that they sell to you? I am sure no shop-keeper, service provider or reseller will provide you information of their own sources for the same reason.
Sometimes multiple transmitters are involved in order to provide better coverage and/or redundancy. Nevertheless these sites will remain confidential and are not disclosed to the general public. There has been lots of speculations during the years (right and wrong) when different "experts" tried to locate every and each of our transmitter sites, and then published misleading information on the internet and on other publications.
Only the power, time, program type, language and especially the target area is clearly published in our schedules. We believe that this is the information that our listeners need to know in order to tune into our members' broadcasts.
Our programs are all originating from our Network Control Centre (NCC) in Milan, Italy, where we operate all of our broadcasting services.``
This rationale makes no sense to me; the response to competitors putting out fake info is to be completely transparent with real info. If it change from time to time, fine, just acknowledge it. And then there`s IRRS as HQ in IRELAND per WRTH (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)
** U S A. 10-m beacons with some sporadic E struggling to MUF:
28298.8-CW, Aug 3 at 1424, long pause and long message starting with dits, VVV DE K4JDR/B and ending with SK run together which is hard to render typographically. I copied as K4JGR, but must be per WJ5O: ``28.2988 K4JDR C RALEIGH, NC # 10W, VERTICAL QRT Dec 2010 reactivated Feb 15 Jan 2018 reported(SWL)`` --- QRZ.com: ``K4JDR USA flag USA, RONNIE J CASEY, RALEIGH, NC 27603-7336``
28255-CW, Aug 3 at 1428 and again at 1447, KB4UPI/B: ``28.255 KB4UPI C GADADEN [sic], ALABAMA # 3 W, DIPOLE NEW 2 Dec 07 relocated (agn)1 April 14`` --- GADSDEN is on I-59 NE of Birmingham about 1/3 on way to Chattanooga. Lots of illustrated info plus hamautobio at https://www.qrz.com/lookup/kb4upi
``I am located on Camden Cove Island in Etowah county AL. See our 28.255 Mhz Beacon, up since 1987. KB4UPI 10 Meter Beacon 28.255 EM73ax
Our 10 meter beacon runs 5 watts into a 10 meter vertical antenna on the top of my boathouse. The beacon was first placed on the air in October of 1987 on 28.224, and the first report came from Don, WB4YRJ, who is now a SK. The frequency was chosen because it was the only place I could make the converted CB transmit at due to the crystals I had on hand. Later I changed it to 28.267 for much the same reason. It was later changed to 28.255 at the request of the HF beacon coordinator Bill, WJ50. Contact Bill before you start any intended beacon operation. See the WJ5O Beacon List.
The beacon has received reports from all over the world over the years. The most distant report was in March of 1990 and came from SWL, Brian Webb, ZL2262 in New Zealand. That is 4998 (MPW) miles per watt. See his report below.
I QSL 100 per cent worldwide to ham operators and SWL's. No SASE is required. Send your QSL and I'll send mine. Copy the short message if you wish. All I need for a QSL is the frequency, time, date, and signal report. Email reception reports are always welcome and appreciated. To send me a simple report via email you may send it to MickUpi*Gmail.com. The at sign is replaced to prevent email harvesting.
The picture above is the present setup in the attic of my boathouse at my QTH on Camden Cove Island in AL. I am located in Gadsden Alabama on the banks of the Coosa River and Neely Henry lake. I have had several transmitters over the years. The present one is a RS HTX-100. It runs on low power at 5 watts. This radio should never be run at high power (25 watts) in beacon operation. It will burn out and require service. It should also have a fan. See the fan below.
Radio --- Close up view of the RS HTX-100 radio running 5 watts. These radios are still readily available on eBay for around $80 to $100. Look closely at the knob on the top right. Above it is printed, "pull for low power". I placed a 3/16" thick rubber washer behind the knob. Without the washer it is easy to accidently bump the knob and put the radio on high power.
Keyer --- Close up of the MFJ-447 memory keyer. It has keyed the transmitter for many years. The keying transistor was burned out during a lightning strike a few years ago, but it is easily replaced.
Meter --- This is a cheap and simple SWR/Power meter I bought at a hamfest for $3. I use it to look at the meter when take a look in the attic of the boathouse and see if the radio is transmitting. All it takes is a quick glance.
Fan --- Not a good picture, but this is an AC fan blowing on the fins on the back of the radio. It is vitally important to to protect your transmitter. AC fans seem to be far more reliable than a DC fan. This one is setting on some foam rubber pads to dampen the vibration and make it less noisy. Even running at 5 watts the HTX-100 will get too hot without the fan.
This is a Motorola model TPN1154A 16 amp power supply that runs the radio and the keyer. These commercial power supplies are usually overlooked at hamfests because people don't know what they are, and it's not surprising because the units have no ratings on them showing what the voltage or maximum amperage is. Depending on the model they can be rated at 5 to 25 amps. You can buy them at hamfests for 10 to 15 dollars. The digital meter on the top right was added. It bounces from 13.7 to 13.8 as the transmitter turns on and off. Curiously Motorola made them and set them up to operate at 14.9 volts. A small resistor can easily be added to the regulator board to bring the voltage down to 13.8 volts. Many thanks to Kevin Custer, W3KKG and others for providing info on these power supplies. To see more info on the power supplies Click Here
This peice of coax is which a squirrel chewed the coax shield away where I once had the equipment outdoors at another QTH. If outside I have learned it is best to leave the coax hanging freely instead of attaching it to trees. I can only wonder why squirrels do this.``
28289.3-CW, Aug 3 at 1447, AL DE WJ5O/B himself: ``28.2893 WJ5O C TROY ALABAMA # 2W VERTICAL New Frequency 25 Jan 14``
Almost always, including today, when such beacons are making it QRP, tuning higher up to 28500 finds *no* phone hams, who could run up to a kilowatt, contacting; where are they? (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)
** U S A [and non]. WORLD OF RADIO 2045 monitoring: confirmed UT Monday August 3 at 0030 on WRMI 7730, VG here +30 degrees off beam, some deep fades.
Also confirmed UT Mon Aug 3 at 0130 & 0230 on WRMI 7780, VP for a change at UTwente, but VG as far as Maine SDR; also WRN webcast at 0130.
Also confirmed UT Mon Aug 3 from 0303 on Area 51 webcast after Free Radio Skybird runs a bit over, closing with an address in New Hampshire. WBCQ sked shows it 0230-0300 and ``Free Radio Skybird, Hermans Radio & Record Room, and other shows air Sunday evenings on 5130 every other week.`` WOR good into Rochester SDR; at 0322 check direct on 5130, S9+10 but noisy.
Larry Will tells us: ``[WOR] Glenn Hauser interview on Radio NewYork International, 2008: https://archive.org/details/dan-lewis-rni. Hour 2 of this RNI show hosted by Dan Lewis features an interview with Glenn Hauser. This media comes from the WBCQ archives. L.``
Tnx, Larry, that brings back some memories. Starts :17 minutes into and lasts until :41, direct link:
https://ia801501.us.archive.org/29/items/dan-lewis-rni/Dan%20Lewis%20RNI%2028%20December%202008%20Hour%202.mp3
if the URL with spaces in it survive replaced here by all those %20;
otherwise it`s the fourth item on the download options, VBR MP3, and
the second sub-item.
BTW, whatever became of Dan Lewis? His blog http://danlewisradioguy.blogspot.com/ stopped after Tuesday, April 17, 2018 --- some interesting reading there such as about ``Randi Steele``.
WOR 2045 also confirmed UT Mon Aug 3 at 0330 on WRMI 9955; as usual on this airing, R. Prague fill music runs right up to 0330 with no ID break; that makes up for some double-IDs at other times. Here it`s S8-S9 but fading vs pulse jamming. A few minutes earlier at 0324 check, 9955 was S9/+10 well above lite PJ.
BTW, WRMI escaped any hurricane outage, far enough inland from the path to get no more than 20 mph gusts per NWS Okeechobee city info.
WOR 2045 also confirmed Monday August 3 at 1805 tune-in via UTwente, well underway and no dropouts on IRRS 7290 via Bulgaria; just the usual rough modulation, warble from 7291 and plus/minus 10 splash. Next:
0100 UT Tuesday WRMI 7780 to NE
2100 UT Wednesday WBCQ 7490v to WSW
0100 UT Thursday WRMI 7780 to NE
Full schedule including AM, FM, webcasts, satellite, podcasts: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html
WOR program and website are totally non-commercial. Contributions via PayPal to woradio at yahoo.com -- not necessarily in US funds as they will convert
One may also contribute via MO or check in US funds on a US bank to: Glenn Hauser, P O Box 1684, Enid OK 73702 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)
** U S A. 13845, Aug 3 at 1908, zero signal from this WWCR while all the others are inbooming, including higher 15825 at S9+20 tnx to Es, so not a MUF issue; 12160 S9+30; 9980 S9+20; 2042 recheck, 13845 back on with PMS at S9+10 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)
UNIDENTIFIED. 12844.75-USB, Aug 3 at 1407, 2-way in Spanish mentioning barco, numbers perhaps referring to cargo, unprofessional whistling into mike (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)
This report dispatched at 2321 UT August 3
