Glenn Hauser logs September 1-2, 2011

** ALBANIA. Previously missing from the unofficial R. Tirana webcast, rechecked UT Sept 2 at 0331 instead of silence, the English service is underway! with opening frequency schedule; unfortunately I `tuned in` too late to tell if Klara had corrected 13640 to 13735 for the 1845 and 2000 transmissions, which are still off the air, anyway. Yes, 7425, the 0330 frequency, is still absent too. Heard features alternating with music including at 0347 `Around Albania` about two tourist villages in the south. Ended at 0400 and back to silent streaming.

Christian Milling in Germany, who was involved in setting up the stream with Radio 700, tells us:

``Hi, what I can confirm from checking the RT stream are the following languages on the Webcast. All programs are now recorded and uploaded to the webserver (sorry for the non-translation in the feed, but my knowledge of Turkish and Serbian is rather low...)

1545-1600 Greek
http://www.radio700.info/podcasts/gr/al/tirana/tirana.php
1800-1830 German
http://www.radio700.info/podcast/de/al/tirana/tirana.php
1830-1900 Turkish
http://www.radio700.info/podcasts/tr/al/tirana/tirana.php
1900-1930 French
http://www.radio700.info/podcasts/fr/al/tirana/tirana.php
2015-2030 Serbian
http://www.radio700.info/podcasts/rs/al/tirana/tirana.php
0330-0400 English
http://www.radio700.info/podcasts/en/al/tirana/tirana.php

The Greek Service consists only of an announcement and music non stop.
Unfortunately I can't hear the Italian programs online. Obviously they are transmitted via the second audiochannel that is connected to the transmitter sites, so here no recording possible.

It seems that the Webcast is fed to Fllakë Transmitter 2 programs and Shijak Transmitter 1 programs, except for Italian and some of the English broadcasts. During the day the webcast seems to carry the domestic service of Radio Tirana 1.`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ANTARCTICA [non]. 15476, LRA36 still missing at the end of another week, checked Friday Sept 2 at 1301; and 1404, when weak carriers from other stations could be detected on 15470, 15480 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake September 2, before 1300:
 7970, very poor with flutter at 1240
10300, very good at 1246
12270, very good at 1247
13920, fair at 1247
14720, very good at 1250
15565, poor at 1252, het on the hi side
15900, very good at 1250
16100, JBA at 1259
16980, JBA at 1257
18180, very poor at 1258; no 17170

Before 1330:
 7970, JBA at 1325

Before 1400:
18180, good at 1351 with flutter; Steve Handler getting it too in IL
17170, good at 1351 = 18180; none in the 16s now
15900, very good at 1353
15525, JBA at 1354
15430, good at 1354; none in the 14s
13920, open carrier at 1356 with flutter, JBA? Or maybe not FD
13130, very good at 1356 with flutter; none in the 12s
10300, good at 1359
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Re: `Voices from Other Lands` guest on CRI in my previous report, Rich Cuff helps out with a likely suggestion: ``Might it have been ex-senator Gordon Smith? He was a two-term senator [from Oregon]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/12/AR2011021202489.html
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_H._Smith
He's president of the NAB, which leads me to think he was the contact``. Maybe will eventually be added here:
http://english.cri.cn/08webcast/voices.htm
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GERMANY [non]. 15275, Sept 2 at 1253 weak signal in French, with some noise jamming which normally accompanies Firedrake jamming of V. of Tibet around here, but neither of those. Collateral victim anyway is DW at 12-13, 250 kW, 170 degrees to W Africa via Woofferton UK (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUIANA FRENCH. 17875-17880-17885, Sept 2 at 1403, weak DRM is here again today. Alokesh Gupta forwards this from the drmna yg confirming my suspicions, but why for a fortnight if the digital meeting in Brasília was only on Sept 1?

``From Thursday 01 September to Thursday 15 September 2011 included, new transmissions from Montsinéry (French Guiana) to Brazil:

13.00 to 16.00 UTC
P = 150 kW DRM
Freq = 17880 kHz
Az : 165°
DRM Parameters:
B mode
Bandwidth = 10 kHz
MSC= 64 QAM
CR = CR0.6
Audio encoding = AAC + SBR
Program =  RFI _L2 (only music).

RFI and TDF logos will be transmitted as data content. Wishing you good reception. Sorry for late notice. Regards. Jacques GRUSON F6AJW``
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ITALY [non]. 15610, Sept 2 at 1259, ``Triumphal March from Aïda`` opening theme of IRRS via ROMANIA, marred by cutting off a few sex just before it finished, then resumed with simple ``IRRS shortwave in Milan, signing on``, dead air, then fade up and joining in progress, Brother Scare, who continued for rest of hour at a couple chex; so another day without defaulting to KQED programming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** JAPAN. 9750, Sept 2 at 1242, ``My Love Is Here to Stay``, is it Eartha Kitt or Diana Ross? Anyhow, more great eclectic music courtesy NHK Japanese service, 1244 YL DJ announcement. This is 300 kW, 290 degrees from Yamata at 07-17 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. Sunrise MW DX Sept 2, UT:

1030, at 1157 UT Sept 2, ``Radio Fórmula 10-30 AM``, then 1158 Mexican NA, so probably had already been programming. Only one in Cantú list is: 1030 XEYC Radio Fórmula Cd. Juárez, Chih. 5,000 500

1130, at 1158 UT Sept 2, ID as ``La H-N``, i.e. per Cantú:
1130 XEHN Ke buena Nogales, Son. 1,000 D

1130, at 1158 UT Sept 2 overtaking the above, ``La Poderosa FM [algo] y 11-30 AM, . . . Sinaloa``, both in KWKH null, so this one is:
1130 XEMOS La Poderosa + FM 94.1 Los Mochis, Sin. 1,000 250
Doesn`t seem powerful to me!

980, at 1158 UT Sept 2, mentions ``Mexicano de la Radio``, 9-80 AM, announcer Marco Campos, then conversing with a YL. I suspect that the slogan was fully ``Instituto Mexicano de la Radio``, i.e. the government group including notably XEB-1220 and XERF-1570. Cantú frequency list unfortunately does not show ownerships or affiliations, but the IMER website http://www.imer.gob.mx/ has a dropdown list of Emisoras, not all of them including frequency, but I spot one match with Cantú`s 980 roster: ``La FQ, Cananea, Sonora`` which goes to:
http://www.lafq.imer.gob.mx/ which Cantú lists as:
980 XEFQ La Voz de la Cd. del Cobre Cananea, Son. 2,500 500

990, at 1202 Sept 2, long multi-verse choral NA past 1203 but losing to QRM; at 1205 Spanish music to ``Somos la -- [algo]`` could well be another station, then to Elvis` ``All Shook Up``.

900, at 1207 Sept 2, numerous ads with addresses at various kilómetros on ``Carretera a Álvaro Obregón``. This Googles right to Cuauhtémoc, Chihua2, so Cantú has it:
900 XEDT La Reina Cd. Cuauhtémoc, Chih. 5,000 1,500
I couldn`t find a place called Álvaro Obregón in any of my atlases, but Google maps locates it as a colonia due north of Cuauhtémoc on highway 5.

870, at 1210 Sept 2, low-key YL DJ, quite a relief from the super-hype on so many commercial stations, plus no QRM, with birthday greetings, time as 6:11, into a polca, of course from:
870 XETAR La Voz de la Sierra Tarahumara Guachochi, Chih. 10,000 D

880, at 1212 Sept 2, US béisbol homerun statistics, including some player for ``Los Metropolitanos de Nueva York`` --- ``Mets`` is just too hard to pronounce in Spanish! Beyond that, no clues; could be US or Mexican. Only US SS in new NRC AM Log around here is KJOJ in Conroe TX, near Houston, but supposed to be AC format. Of the nine Mexicans on 880 there are at most four possibilities at this hour. Maybe XEV, R. Fórmula, Chihua2? (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO [non]. 990, at 1220 UT Sept 2, most of the Mexicans have faded out, but still a strong dominant signal here and hard to null, with SS ballad, 1222 ``Radio Éxitos`` singing ID, then more upbeat ballad by YL or kid with a big voice; 1226 ``El Amor --- Radio Éxitos 9-90 AM, La Mejor``. 1230 a more extensive ID/promo just lacking the needed details: ``Radio Éxitos 9-90 AM``, something about not saying any dirty words. Next song romantic, including refrain/lyrix ``se va muriendo, quiero vivir``, ``en mi casa, en mi alma, hay un sitio para ti``.

Major suspect is The Metroplex outlet hijacked several years ago from Wichita Falls, now KFCD, COL Farmersville TX. New NRC-AM Log still shows it as Spanish religion, but Googling on slogan and frequency gets hits on KFCD including Wikipedia with this update note: ``On june 4 2011 Till Today Is Broadcasting Spanish Hits 70" 80" Called Radio Exitos 990 Recuerdos y Mas`` (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NETHERLANDS [non]. 9650, Sept 2 at 1327, under music from CRI English via CANADA, talk in Indonesian until cut off at 1328*. No doubt the IBB Tinang, PHILIPPINES relay at 1300-1327 in Dutch stayed on one minute more with this bonus of RNW Indonesian; too bad it`s no longer English. Altho it`s possible the entire transmission was in Indonesian by mistake (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. Heavy wildfire coverage continued on KFOR, KOCO and KWTV the afternoon of Sept 1, but they all condescended to go back to network news at 2230 UT, all on main channels; NBC at least had a report from OKC. CBS focused on Fort Worth where they own a station, KTVT. Scott Pelley intoned those call letters strangely, stressing the V instead of the final -T (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TAIWAN [non]. 5950, RTI relay via WYFR is totally SNAFU, Sept 2: at 0552 I hear talk in French! Then some rock music, 0555 more M&M conversing in French, 0556 rock song in English, 0559, French again, mentions fréquences but cut off before any given.

Just before 0600 we heard a few words of RTI ID in Spanish mixing with WYFR ID in English. 0600 switch to RTI English giving part of their SW schedule, on 7445. 0600:38 ends a timesignal, and switch to sign-on of RTI Spanish service, news for 1 September.

5950 is supposed to carry English at 05-06, Spanish at 06-07. I assume they were totally screwed up in Taipei, playing out the wrong program, French which is scheduled only at 19-20 and never via YFR. Around 0600 I can imagine them madly pushing buttons trying to get the proper Spanish recording on air, and finally succeeded (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15976 approx., Sept 1 at 1831, very distorted FMy spur with no carrier spreading 15970-15982 in Spanish. First thought is CVC, which has previously put a nasty spur in the 16`s, but no match to Chile 17680. Talking about Cuba and Venezuela, but RHC is nowhere on the air at this hour. So third choice is Radio Martí --- yes, matches 13820, which is 2156 kHz lower, so spur from Greenville --- but could be from one of the two other RM frequencies, 11930 or 9565. Can`t figure out any formula to account for 15976 mixing with RM or any other Greenville frequency (and there aren`t any active after 17820 VOA Portuguese closed at 1830).

Recheck at 1955, still going, and significantly, continues after 2000 when GB turns 13820 off and over to Sackville, which is initially inaudible under the jamming, weaker than GB had been. Noticed that the spur is nicely centered in between RTTY on 15960 and 15990, not bothering them. An hour later at 2058 I still hear 15976, and enough of // RM on 13820 to confirm that it`s now out of synch, being routed thru Sackville. The two remaining GB channels with RM, 11930 and 9565, are scheduled until 2400*. I am listening to 15976 again at 2358 and it seems to stop at 2358:30* a bit before the fundamentals do? Hard to tell vs jamming when they really go off. So that`s inconclusive.

Meanwhile I had notified GB of the problem, no doubt caused or exacerbated by Irene which blew the entire plant off the air for a biday. So is it from the 9565 or 11930 transmitter? Sept 2 at 1400 I could tell that 11930 had started up as scheduled, under the jamming, a trihour before 9565, but no 15976 audible yet. Checking again at 1656, still no spur, nor even after 9565 had started up at 1700. So it may have been fixed in the meantime.

R. Martí was weak, but the daytime-absorbed jamming was weaker, so I heard them promoting a special broadcast Thursday Sept 8 at 8 pm --- I surely hope it`s Pres. Obama`s much-anticipated speech to a joint session of Congress, rather than a silly ballgame, which usually appear on weekends (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1580 monitoring: at 2100 UT Thursday Sept 1, confirmed on WTWW 9479 and starting later in the minute on WRMI 9955, not jammed but weak here. Also confirmed at 0330 UT Friday Sept 2 on WWRB still on 5051. Their `winter` switch to 3215/3195 as of Sept 1 has not happened yet, nothing from WWRB on either frequency earlier in evening. At 0500 UT Friday Sept 2, confirmed on WRMI webcast, starting shortly after ACB Radio Mainstream webcast, which repeats 2-hourly thru 2330 Fridays, via http://www.acbradio.org/mainstream
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 17690, Sept 1 at 1827, umlauty talk in Turkish mentioning Germany. HFCC reveals it`s YFR at 17-19, 250 kW, 102 degrees via BaBCock, Woofferton UK (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 11435.0, Sept 2 at 0604, huge S9+25 open carrier, then variety of digital noises on and off, slight fading; far stronger than any SWBC signal on 25m. Suspect something out of Cuba associated with spy-number transmissions. Yes, here`s an old log searched on UDXF yg:

``11435.0 kHz am Cuban SK01. Huge carrier +40dB 06:26:11UTC (2010-10-01) (allenk on StarChat#wunclub) These are the loggings from the NSA logbot on several IRC channels. They are listed by Freq, Mode, Comment, UTC time, nickname, QTH and IRC channel`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Glenn Hauser logs August 30-September 1, 2011

** ANGUILLA. 11775, Sept 1 at 1245, tune-in to dead air; could it be a pregnant pause by DGS while he puffs a deadly cigar? No, after a while, gospel music interlude ``Kick Yo Feet`` audio cuts on and off and on and off, etc., then PMS starts talking about Labor Day weekend without cutouts. CB still has its problems, but has remained on the air whenever checked last several days, also 6090 at night (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. 7245-7275, Sept 1 at 1227, OTH radar pulses, presumed from here, vs heavy QRM from various broadcasters and hams. More of the same sound at 7335-7355. Both may have extended further if not blocked by QRM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake Sept 1, before 1300:
 7970, good at 1230
13970, very good at 1250; none in the 10s, 11s, 12s
14400, poor at 1251
14720, very good at 1250; none in the 15s, 16s, 17s by 1257

After 1300:
17170, poor at 1327 with flutter // others
15520, very poor at 1359-1400*
15430, very poor at 1311, het 15432; poor at 1323 // 15280; none 16s
15280, fair at 1307 plus noise jamming
14720, very good at 1323 // 11560 [as were they all]; music had an abrupt edit to `ramshorn` at 1323
13970, poor at 1322
12025, poor at 1319 about level with CNR1 jamming; no others in 12s
11560, very good at 1320 // 12025. Unusual spot for FD, and no sign of anything else; Aoki shows only YFR, Hu Wei, Taiwan in English 13-15!
11560 was even inbooming on the breakfast table radio with whip only
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. 9600, Sept 1 at 1237, a CRI interview catches my ear, sounds like Al Gore, talking about American radio, then on to other topix focusing on US/China relations and interdependency, // 9760, 11980, 13645, 13790. He was a two-term US senator. Finally outro before hourtop as having been Gordon (Golden?) Brown on `Voices From Other Lands`. Maybe the name is wrong as I don`t find any such person in US Senate archives, by general Googling, nor on the CRIEnglish website, which does not yet have anything about the latest VFOL. 9600 and 11980 site is Kunming, 13645 Kashgar, 13790 Wulumuchi, both EAST TURKISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ITALY [non]. 15610, checking IRRS again Sept 1 whether it would bring us KQED or BS: 1259 Aïda theme, very quick ``IRRS Signing on`` and right into BS. Not even a request for reception reports. Next few minutes there is a raucous mix of music and Bible citations, sounding like a mistake, but that`s what BS sends out before coming on to announce he is on 15610 plus several other frequencies including 9980 which is not really on the air until an hour later via WWCR, and he is speaking to the entire world --- what an ego this wacko has to feed. 1358:50 cut off BS as he was about to give his Walterboro P O Box number, and now we get the full IRRS contact info for special QSL as WEWN starts to mix in the Queen of Heaven. Poor reception thruout, eastward via ROMANIA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KUWAIT [and non]. 21540, Sept 1 at 1315, R. Kuwait is the SSOB of the moment, better than 21505, 21610, 21780 with Arabic song well atop Spain underneath, but REE gains and by 1412 is atop 21540 with `Españoles en la Mar` report on Somali piracy (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MAURITANIA. 7245, Sept 1 at 0545, post-Ramadan IGIM chanting, still on the air earlier than pre-Ramadan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. Sunrise DX Sept 1, UT:

920, Sept 1 at 1205 mentions ``Hermosillo, la ciudad más bello de México``; yes, it is a pretty little place, i.e. R. Capital, XEHQ again, meanwhile mixing with NA from another XE:

920, Sept 1 at 1205 instrumental NA mixing with XEHQ, 1207 mentions Radio Noticias, Chihuahua2, so Cantú IDs this as:
920 XEQD 920 Noticias Chihuahua, Chih. 1,000 250

The USA QRM is getting worse at sunrise across MW, but 870 remains a nice clear frequency for XETAR, with WWL faded out and nothing much from The Metroplex (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 1640, Sept 1 at 1217 UT, Faith 1640, supposedly an Enid station, KFXY, but ad for OCCC, and OKC traffic report by Connie Carson. Is she doing this from a studio in OKC, or Enid? Or anywhere? KFXY, unusually direxional for an X-bander, just happens to have a major lobe toward OKC. BTW, notably undermodulated, as it has been for some time now, I have been intending to outpoint. 1640 has been on the air ten years already, so about time for some significant transmitter problem (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. 15510, Sept 1 at 1256, classical music with hum, so VOR Pashto service is modulating today (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1510+, Sept 1 at 0544, KCTE Independence MO is *still* putting a wavering het against 1510.0 stations, for at least the fifth night in a row, instead of zero-beating *and* turning off the transmitter at night like it is required to do by license (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9330, Sept 1 at 1233 weak carrier, can`t make out any modulation, WBCQ or completely off uncovering another? But there is nothing else except Syria registered, tho never known active before 1600. Anyhow, by 1407, 9330 is WBCQ modulating about Solomon (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. August 30, all three major network stations in OKC blew away regular programming including network news at 2230 UT, for continuous wildfire coverage from northeast OKC. This may have been going on all afternoon as they said the fires started around 1730.

Only KWTV, however, replaced its continuous news subchannel 9.2 `News9Now` with what would have been on 9.1 during this period, as I found `CBS Evening News` in progress on 9.2 at 2245. As soon as it was over, cut back to simulcast 9.1 when local news would have been on live anyway and I noticed E-T was back on 9.2 instead of 9.1 before 2400 UT. From 0000 Aug 31, 9.2 resumed playing back previously recorded newscasts, as CBS went back on the main channel.

KOCO-7 (ABC 5) and KFOR-27 (NBC 4) also have subchannels but did not avail themselves of this way to propagate their networks` newscasts! Meanwhile depriving their entire audiences outside the wildfire zone of access to the world. Instead, ThisTV stayed on 5.2, continuous weather on 4.2, and Ant-tv on 4.3 --- altho the latter went black during a power failure at KFOR and was slow to resume. Only KOCO kept on wildfire coverage past 0000 UT = 7 pm CDT for another hour or so. I don`t think the emergency suddenly ended as primetime began.

August 31 it was a repeat performance as the fires were still raging around OKC. Network news at 2230 UT was available only via 9.2. KWTV and KFOR quit continuous fire coverage in time for primetime at 0000, but KOCO stayed with the fires all the way until 0400 UT Sept 1, missing `Nightline` too, but not an `Oprah` rerun. Maybe a third day of this, afternoon and evening of Sept 1??

All three carried a live news conference on the fires at noon = 1700 UT Sept 1, even KOCO which deleted noon news months ago. They have it ``contained to an 18-square-mile area``, working on hotspots; depends on whether wind kicks flareups again. Meanwhile there were plenty of shots of raging fires, live or recorded? Next news briefing at 5 pm = 2200 UT. I expect these stations are streaming plenty about the wildfires for those who can`t get them on TV (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1580: not ready in time for 0330 UT Thursday on WRMI, so first airing at 1500 on 9955. Further opportunities: Thursday 2101 on WTWW 9479, and WRMI 9955; Thursday 2130 on WBCQ 7415.

WWRB website says from Sept 1 they are on `winter`! schedule using 3215 and 3195, which I think implies that 5051 will no longer be in use. For WOR UT Friday 0330v check 3195 if not heard on 5051.

More WRMI airings: Friday 1430, Saturday 0800, 1500, 1730, Sunday 0800, 1530, 1730. WTWW, UT Sunday 0400 on 5755. WBCQ, UT Monday 0300v on 5110v-CUSB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 9568.4, Sept 1 at 1409 carrier making het with 9570. Suspected Ethiopia longpath, as there was no het closer to its nominal 9560 which had a weak signal from something, probably KSDA, while 9570 was probably KBSWR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 17875-17880-17885, Sept 1 at 1325, DRM noise. Nothing whatsoever on 17880 or 17875 is on the supposedly ``always up-to-date`` DRM DX schedule at http://www.drm-dx.de/ dated July 19!
Furthermore there are no posts about this in the linked DRM Software Radio Fora. Nor in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/drmna/messages

We have sporadically heard DRM noise centered on 17880 before, but HFCC shows nothing either, just 17875 at 13-20, 150 kW, 320 degrees from GUF, plus 17-21 at 165 degrees. I made sure what I am getting is on 17880, not 17875.

I was anticipating something like this because of a Media Network blog item of Aug 30, ``Digital radio seminar in Brazil`` today only:

``The Brazilian Ministry of Communication has organised a high-level one-day seminar on Digital Radio on 1 September 2011 in the capital Brasília. The main objective of this event is to have an extensive discussion with various segments of society about digital radio, which includes what criteria should be used for the  adoption of a digital standard with emphasis on the practical implications for broadcasters and the industry. [. . .]

Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) is one of the systems under discussion and the chair of the DRM Consortium Ruxandra Obreja will be present in the meetings along with the Commercial Committee chair Michel Penneroux, Alex Zink, vice-chair of the Association and vice-chair of the DRM Technical Committee, and Jose Maria Matias of the University of Mexico, involved in the recent DRM30 and DRM+ trials conducted by DRM in Brazil.``

So I bet it is really Montsinéry with a DRM demo for this meeting, not publicized for ordinary listeners, and on the 165 rather than 320 degree antenna (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

MV Baltic Radio is on this Weekend

MV Baltic Radio is on the air this Sunday the 4th of September 2011
 
MVBR Schedule:
       0900 to 1000  UTC  on 6140 KHz,  100 KW
       0900 to 1000  UTC  on 9480 KHz,      1 KW      
       1200 to 1300  UTC  on 9585 KHz,  100 KW with a Test Transmission  
 
 
Good listening and good reception!      73s Tom
 
PS. MV Baltic Radio relay service Schedule for 2011/12
       1st    Sunday – MV Baltic Radio                 0900 utc
       3rd    Sunday – European Music Radio        0900 utc   (18th September)
       4th    Sunday – Radio Gloria International    1300 utc
 
NEW EMR Postal Address:
         European Music Radio,
         c/o M.V. Baltic Radio,
         Seestraße 17,
         D-19089 Göhren,
         Germany

Glenn Hauser logs August 30-31, 2011

** BULGARIA. 11600, Aug 31 at 0523, surprised to find no signal here instead of usual long-running open carrier from R. Bulgaria which used to come on by 0510 or even earlier. So kept monitoring with BFO, and carrier did not cut on until *0529:20, just in time for IS // 9600 and opening German at 0530. Ha, someone(s) at Sofia and/or Plovdiv must have seen my recent log querying why they were wasting so many watts prior to 0530 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake Aug 31, before 1300:
10300, very good at 1243
12970, very good at 1243
13130, very good at 1249
13920, good at 1244
14720, very good at 1249
15900, fair at 1249
16100, very good at 1257
16980, fair at 1257
17170, poor at 1258

After 1300:
15430, very poor at 1305, just starting, I think vs 15432 carrier het, which also QRMed Romania in Chinese on 15435. The latest Aoki, dated Aug 26, showed V. of Tibet via Tajikistan at 1300-1306 on 15437, 1306-1330 on 15442, but today must have been on 15432 instead at the moment

15280, fair at 1307. Aoki shows this too is vs a jumparound V. of Tibet via Tajikistan, 1301-1330 on 15282, 1401-1430 on 15283

12025, very poor at 1313 under CNR1 in Chinese jamming

Before 1400:
18180, just barely audible at 1350
17170, fair with flutter at 1349
15900, fair with flutter at 1349; none in the 16`s

15520, very poor at 1351 vs het de 15523: no doubt another V. of Tibet jumparound via Tajikistan, which Aoki Aug 26 had on 15527 at 1330-1337, 15517 at 1337-1400

15425, fair at 1352, ex-15430 earlier in the hour, q.v.
14720, good at 1353
14400, very good at 1353
13970, very good at 1353
13920, fair at 1353 with het, fax QRM?

13670, fair at 1354, Firedrake music NOT // 13970 and 14400. Unusual spot for Firedrake; Aoki Aug 26 has nothing to explain it, and in fact, lists both PBS Xinjiang, Urumqi in Uighur, and CRI in Chinese via Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN at this hour; wrong audio by mistake? Or maybe it was coincidentally non-jamming programming with same kind of music.

13650, poor at 1355, Firedrake mixing with Chinese, not // 13970 either. Aoki shows this is also an Urumqi channel until 1357, CRI in Chinese, plus VOK in Chinese. So maybe a second Wulumuchi transmitter with the wrong feed, as here too there is no known opposition broadcasting. After 1400, only VOK remained

13130, very good at 1356, // 13970
12025, very poor at 1356 under Chinese from CNR1 jammer; none lower
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9525-, Aug 31 at 1236 music and then announcements in Special Japanese, VOI reception now good enough to confirm that IADs are still happening several times a minute in a very irregular fashion (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ITALY [non]. 15610, it turns out that Brian Alexander in PA was monitoring the same hour as I, Aug 30 at 1259-1400 when IRRS via ROMANIA was not carrying Brother Scare but other (default?) programming, mainly the discussion about California`s Three Strikes law; but he got the program name, `Forum`, which pinpoints it to have originated at KQED in San Francisco, so I replied:

``Brian and I were obviously listening to the same thing. Aha, `Forum` means it came from KQED, their excellent talkshow which I never have time to listen to on KQED itself. This was the 10 am segment on August 16, details and audio:
http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201108161000
And the name I heard was Michael Rushford. Certainly a great improvement over BS; thank you, IRRS. It`s about time KQED got a shortwave relay! But why?``

I checked 15610 again Aug 31 at 1259, and there was IRRS ``Aïda`` theme, 1300 cut to Brother Scare, so no luck today in hearing something incomparably better. Still BS at some swift rechex later in the hour (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** JAPAN [non]. 15445, Aug 31 at 1815, enough of Islamicization from KUWAIT [q.v.], tuned down here to poor-fair signal with a song; 1816 Japanese announcement and another song, sounds like an American novelty tune from the WWII era in the forties, but in Japanese: were our enemies doing that too? Lyrix included ``hinky-dinky-doo``, and soon outroed as ``Tokyo Shoe Shine Boy`` --- I think; I was not expecting to hear English words and may have converted some similar-sounding Japanese phrase unwittingly.

Yes, Google that title, and find there is such a song, with mp3s, YouTube and discussion, such as this, http://www.technogirls.org/enka/
which says it dates from the immediate postwar era. Another example of SWLing leading to learning a little about other cultures, rather than racking up QSLs and country totals.

Until 1830 back to KUWAIT, listened to several more such-era songs. Really fun programming, and only wished reception were better. This was R. Japan at 17-19, 250 kW, 135 degrees via Wertachtal, GERMANY.

I am still waiting and hoping for one of our bilingual readers to provide a translated program schedule of all NHK`s Japanese music shows on SW. This may well repeat at a better time for us. Wonder if it`s a domestic service relay from the nightmiddle (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KUWAIT. 15540, Aug 31 at 1757, after VATICAN [q.v.] on 15570, I tuned down here to much better signal, R. Kuwait already on air, not in English, but S. Asian music and YL announcement in such a language, presumed Urdu as in the domestic Multilingual service which is not supposed to be on SW, but they just turn the transmitter on early. 1759 brief NA by military band; 1800 5+1 timesignal accurate to within a semisecond, English ID with time as 9 pm = 1800 UTC, plays NA again within a 2-minute period, sign-on claiming frequencies are 963, 93.3 and 11990, quick [p]review of programs starting with `Under the Umbrella of Islam`.

Seems like a live rather than canned announcement as the program lineup varies from day to day, yet they remain clueless that they have not been on 11990 for years. Also, they used to announce the FM as 96.3, which matched the MW channel, how neat, impossible to do with North American allocations, but lately they have been saying 93.3. Since they can`t get their SW frequency right, I have no idea whether this is right, either, but 93.3 is another listed channel.

By 1801.5, right into the Islam show, part 2, dealing with stories of conversions to Islam [that`s fine, but beware of converting away!], announcer with American accent but other speakers in story-telling, dramatizations, laced with frequent quotations from the Qur`an. Outright Islamic proselytizing in English is still a rarity, vs just quoting and translating the HQ as Egypt and Iran do, but the novelty soon became tiresome, so tuned on to 15445; see JAPAN.

1830 I returned to 15540 for R. Kuwait`s main English newscast, mainly about Syria and Libya. I was thinking it was more substantial, but finished already with fanfare at 1836 and on to essential pop music. At least it`s 3 or 4 times as long as the 2050 headline news segment.

Meanwhile some strange QRM hit this and many other frequencies, with periodic peaks, but audible all the way from 11 to 24 MHz. A big peak was found at 19625: four noise pulses between pauses, the last one slightly longer as in an alarm-clock pattern, or a Morse V. No alarums going off inside WOR HQ, so whence? Took the DX-398 outside and it grew louder in one direxion, soon pinned onto an Enid Waste Management truck a block away with a claw picking up a huge pile of debris from a house which had been cleaned out. Flashing lights on the back of the truck (``keep 50 feet back``, surely excessive), matched the noise exactly. Whew, it soon would go away (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MAURITANIA. 7245, Aug 31 at 0522, IGIM still on earlier than usual, but W&M talk in Arabish, rather than chanting. With Ramadan over, we are expecting this to cease 24-hour operation and sign on circa 0600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. Sunrise DX August 31, LSR here being 1202 UT:

920, Aug 31 at 1205 UT, NA just ending so must have started late, then picked a `Radio Capital` ID out of the QRM, so it`s XEHQ, Hermosillo, Sonora, again. But I started late too, missing the pileup of openings at 1159+.

1040, Aug 31 at 1210 UT novelty song, 1211 jingle ID mentioning ``Once . . . Número Uno, La Primera``, and timecheck for 5:10, so it`s XEGYS in Guaymas, again, thus reminding us that Sonora stays on MST of UT-7 just like, and because of, neighboring Arizona. Not sure where the ``11`` comes from unless they are rounding the frequency way off to the hi side as on a badly-calibrated analog dial? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. 15510, Aug 31 at 1254, open carrier with hum or maybe just barely modulated, poor signal. 1300 YL suddenly starts talking with announcement, music, still with hum and undermodulated. Aoki shows the VOR Pashto service at 12-14 via Krasnodar, while HFCC calls the site Samara but omits the language. EiBi agrees it`s Pashto for both hours via Samara; but the dead air in first hour is not unusual, another example of incredibly bad studio/transmitter coördination by Voice of Russia: see also TAJIKISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TAJIKISTAN. 11500, Aug 31 at 1243, open carrier with hum, flutter, presumed the scheduled VOR English relay, minus modulation, unlike 24 hours earlier when it axually could be heard (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CHINA - Firedrake report re V. of Tibet

** U S A. 9330-CUSB, Aug 31 at 0512, WBCQ once again broadcasting dead air only, instead of Good Friends Radio Network; still the same at 0518, 0532, but at next check 1234, religion had resumed, ending a program with Norcross GA address (not to be confused with better-known Waycross, almost twice as large). Why does this keep happening? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9955, Aug 31 at 0516 UT Wednesday after WRMI ID, `Conexión Digital Radio Deportes`, new show I had not run across before, gives date as 29 de agosto, over/under considerable Cuban pulse jamming. Then checked the WRMI program grid updated 26 July, and see it listed then and three other times as `CD Deportes`. Conexión Digital is the name of a DX group based in Argentina, I assume only coincidentally, as I have seen no mention of such a sports show in their bulletin or listserve (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 17820, Aug 31 at 1311, very strong open carrier S9+22 atop DW Hausa via Portugal, traces emerging during OC fades: no doubt it`s IBB Greenville back to its usual habit of tuning up the transmitter 4 hours ahead of the 1700 Portuguese on 17820, but off before 1312 uncovering DW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VATICAN. 15570, Aug 31 at 1742, heavily African-accented English discussion among three voices, fair-poor and could only understand snippets, not helped by one of my cable DTV boxes putting bubble jamming right on 15570; unplugged two of them, but must be yet another responsible. Thought I might have some neat or new clandestine, so kept straining to copy it. 1749 mentions UN office, bells and drums, ``communications update``. 1756 closing until ``next week at the same time`` a discussion on the relationship between radio administration and listeners, or something like that. Just got in a ``Laudetur Jesus Christus`` and a few notes of the Vatican Radio IS before chopped off the air at 1757*. So that`s all it is, one of VR`s direct-from-SMG frequencies, listed // 13765 and 11625, English daily at 1730 i.a. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

SIDC Weekly Bulletin

:Issued: 2011 Aug 30 1340 UTC
:Product: documentation at http://www.sidc.be/products/bul
#--------------------------------------------------------------------#
# SIDC Weekly bulletin on Solar and Geomagnetic activity            #
#--------------------------------------------------------------------#
WEEK 556 from 2011 Aug 22 

SOLAR ACTIVITY
==========
Solar activity was low during the full week, with NOAA ARs 1271 and 1272
producing only small C-class flares.


GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY
===============
Geomagnetic conditions were quiet during this week, with unsettled periods
on August 23 due to the arrival of a fast speed stream (with a period with Kp=4).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DAILY INDICES
DATE          RC  EISN  10CM  Ak  BKG    M  X
2011 Aug 22  ///    063  108  010  B2.5  0  0
2011 Aug 23  ///    066  104  013  B2.4  0  0
2011 Aug 24  ///    047  104  009  B2.5  0  0
2011 Aug 25  ///    047  104  007  B2.9  0  0
2011 Aug 26  ///    057  105  006  B2.7  0  0
2011 Aug 27  ///    050  104  007  B2.5  0  0
2011 Aug 28  ///    046  101  007  B2.2  0  0
# RC  : Sunspot index (Wolf Number) from Catania Observatory (Italy)
# EISN : Estimated International Sunspot Number
# 10cm : 10.7 cm  radioflux (DRAO, Canada)
# Ak  : Ak Index Wingst (Germany)
# BKG  : Background GOES X-ray level (NOAA, USA)
# M,X  : Number of X-ray flares in M and X class, see below (NOAA, USA)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTICEABLE EVENTS
DAY BEGIN MAX  END  LOC    XRAY OP TENCM TYPE                      Cat NOAA NOTE


#--------------------------------------------------------------------#
# Solar Influences Data analysis Center - RWC Belgium                #
# Royal Observatory of Belgium                                      #
# Fax : 32 (0) 2 373 0 224                                          #
# Tel.: 32 (0) 2 373 0 491                                          #
#--------------------------------------------------------------------#

RADIO FREE ASIA ISSUES FOURTH 15TH ANNIVERSARY QSL CARD SEPTEMBER 2011

Radio Free Asia (RFA) announces the release of our 39th QSL card. This is the fourth QSL card commemorating 2011 as RFA's 15th anniversary. Not only is The Dalai Lama the subject of this card, but The Dalai Lama was also the subject of RFA's very first QSL card. RFA's first broadcast was in Mandarin Chinese on September 29, 1996 at 2100 UTC. Acting as a substitute for indigenous free media, RFA concentrates its coverage on events occurring in and/or affecting the countries to which we broadcast. Those countries are: Burma, Cambodia, Laos, North Korea, Peoples Republic of China, and Vietnam. This QSL card will be used to confirm all valid reception reports for September 2011. Similar designs will be announced monthly between now and the end of the year. To learn more about RFA'sanniversary, visit www.rfa15.org.

Reception reports are also accepted by email at qsl@rfa.org, and for anyone without Internet access, reception reports can be mailed to:

Reception Reports
Radio Free Asia
2025 M. Street NW, Suite 300
Washington DC 20036
United States of America.

Upon request, RFA will also send a copy of the current broadcast schedule and a station sticker.

Glenn Hauser logs August 29-30, 2011

** ALBANIA. Further monitoring of R. Tirana, Monday August 29, on webcast if not SW: No English at 1845, but Turkish continued to 1900. I think there are two different feed lines as the MW site is not // the SW site. Since the unofficial stream was set up by German friends, they are partial to the one containing German (at 1800).

I re-`tuned in` to stream at 1957, dead air until IS started at 2002:30. `Perfect` reception only reveals the flaws in this old worn-out lo-fi and distorted recording. But I kept listening to it until 2013 stepped out to be sure 13735 was still off the air; it was, and couldn`t hear it way out here on // 7465 if it were on.

Back to the stream just in time to hear theme at 2015 and opening in Serbian! So this is still the feed to MW 1458 Fllakë. Maybe after 2030 when there is only one external program at a time, Albanian or English, we will hear those on web? No!

I left a winamp player running for hours and hours until past 0400, and no audio from R. Tirana ever came back. What a waste. Next check at 1440, webcast had resumed, again in Albanian, not English, and 13625 still off.

However, Harry Brooks in NE England tells the dxld yg that some English broadcasts are still being produced: ``Radio Tirana's English broadcasts are available via podcasts made by Radio 700 in Germany. The previous week`s podcasts have been a bit irregular. The 20th, 23rd and 24th August are silent and the 25th August is all interval signal. It's not unusual for the Radio Tirana webcast to be silent though and Radio 700's webcast recording software sometimes accounts for a silent podcast. The podcasts are available at
http://www.radio700.info/podcasts/en/al/tirana/tirana.php
and judging by the filenames are probably recorded from the 0330-0400
English broadcast which is 0530 in Germany`` (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ALGERIA [non]. 7295, Aug 30 at 0545, RTA via FRANCE with nice harmonious singing, an Eid celebration? Rather than usual Qur`an, which had resumed a few minutes later (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BONAIRE. 6250, leapfrog Aug 30 at 0526-0527* Japanese song cut off the air abruptly while fundamental 6080 NHK relay continued another biminute; because fulcrum 6165, RNW Dutch had gone off the air as always at 0527.

So these transmissions are the same as always, altho Horacio Nigro found a cryptic notice on RN`s Spanish Facebook, which I translate, ``RNW SW transmissions will be affected in the next days due to ruptures (roturas, or breakages), in the Bonaire relay transmitters. Broadcasts toward Cuba and the Caribbean region will be heard with lessened quality. Please accept our apologies for this inconvenience``.

So what exactly has happened to them and how have the parameters changed on which times and frequencies? I asked Andy Sennitt about this, who promptly replied:

``Hi Glenn, The transmitters are fine. There was a lighting strike on Saturday that damaged one of the antenna switches, so they used a backup antenna. The signal into North America was already back to normal on Monday, and everything should be normal again today. I presume the reason for the cryptic note was that whoever wrote the Facebook item is not a technical person and didn't understand the exact nature of the problem :-) Andy`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake Aug 30, around 1230:
 7970, poor at 1222
10300, good at 1231 with flutter. Most of them are rather fluttery
13130, good at 1237
13850, good at 1237
13920, good at 1238
13970, poor at 1238; none in the 14`s
15555, poor at 1245 with het
15900, good at 1239 with flutter
16100, good at 1243
16980, good at 1243

Before 1400:
16100, very good at 1342. None in the 15`s until this:
15425, fair at 1351 also with noise jamming
14720, very good at 1344
13970, very good at 1345
13920, very good at 1345
13830, fair at 1345
13130, very good at 1344
12270, fair at 1345
12025, very poor at 1345 under CNR1 jamming; none in the 11`s, 10`s

After 1400:
10300, fair at 1435, back on this hour; did not look for others
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** COSTA RICA [and non]. 5954+, Aug 30 at 0530, I hear a less than 1 kHz het against 5955 = RNW via Sines, PORTUGAL, underneath all the Cuban noise jamming, i.e. only evidence that ELCOR is still on the air with R. República (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ITALY [non]. 15610, monitored the entire hour of IRRS relay via Tiganeshti, ROMANIA, Aug 30, which is supposed to be Brother Scare. 1259, ``Triumphal March from Aïda`` by Verdi which serves as IRRS theme music (I thought, how incongruous, we are about to hear the lowest of brows, Brother Scare`s). But instead:

1300 American-accented ``IRRS Shortwave, signing on``, minute of dead air; 1301 initially Firedrake-like percussion, then into modern jazz; 1306 harp music and talk in French! 1308 cut to English, 1309 outro news, mention San Francisco Chronicle, bits of Vivaldi, discussing events in the Bay Area, with Susan at 1315, bit of rock music; 1322 mention public radio, poor and fading. 1324 subject is the three-strike law in California, its pros and cons. One guest name sounded like Michael Rushforce. 1330 reception improves. Same subject continues, later with call-ins, e.g. from Oakland at 1355. Never could figure out which radio station originates this.

[Three strike law refers to severe penalties, mandatory long prison terms, even life, for those convicted of a third offense; it alludes to American baseball, ``three strikes and you`re out``, i.e. your chances to hit the ball are over for the time being. A strike can be either a swing at the ball and missing it, or not swinging at it when it is within the specified area, all as called by the umpire. The analogy is a bit strained, since the strike count includes doing nothing!

California is most notorious for 3-Strikes, which overburdens the prison system, but several other states have this too; see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_strikes_law for more]

1358, the WEWN 15610 carrier comes on, but IRRS still readable. 1358.5 Regina Cœli IS starts, followed by IRRS cutting off the California talkshow, with own ID, asking for reports to Milano, then Aïda theme again, mixing with WEWN sign-on at 1359.5, news, while IRRS music lasts until 1400:20*.

What`s going on here? On August 3 I had a similar log of a public radio talkshow from California during this hour instead of scheduled Brother Scare. Automated default to fill programming when the BS feed is lost? Accidental punchup in Romania of wrong satellite channel? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MAURITANIA. 7245, Aug 30 at 0523, IGIM with characteristic chanting; as Ramadan is about to end, I assume it will shortly revert to previous schedule ex-24 hours, of signing on later around 0600. At 0548 had switched to lively music, so maybe the Eid celebration was already underway (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. Sunrise skip Aug 30:

610, Aug 30 at 1156, ``estás escuchando `Así Suena Sinaloa`, por G-S``
610 XEGS La Ley Guasave, Sin. 1,000 500 as in Cantú

660, Aug 30 at 1157, mentions Ciudad de Santa Rosa, and then ``aquí en Delicias``, i.e.:
660 XEACB Radio 660 Cd. Delicias, Chih. 3,000 1,000

900, Aug 30 at 1159 Mexican NA, 1201 sign-on but only snatches copied, mentioned ``oeste del estado``, ``Grupo Divertida``, BZ? And right into rather radical political speech for several minutes until fade-out. Cantú shows the only 900 in NW Mexico is this:
900 XEDT La Reina Cd. Cuauhtemoc, Chih. 5,000 1,500
and linx to website http://www.lareina900.com/ credited at the bottom to ``Grupo Radio Divertida, Chihuahua, Chih. México``. Divertida = fun

Mexican NAs were playing around 1200 UT on several other frequencies, but can`t catch them all with simultaneous sign-on IDs, as I log everything in real time with my own ears (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA [non]. 11500, as if to answer my recent question, ``no, this is not Bulgaria,`` instead of open carrier, Aug 30 at 1233, good modulation in American English, W&W discussion of American brands such as P&G, CocaCola, by Donna West and another YL, on ``In Between on Voice of Russia``.

Altho latest HFCC does not show any VOR on 11500, Aoki still does, Dushanbe relay, so congrats to the Tajix for turning up the volume for a change. Oh oh, next check at 1346, 11500 is back to open carrier with flutter, or maybe just barely modulated, or is that CCI? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1270, Aug 30 at 1217 UT, thought I was getting Tulsa in Spanish, but traffic report was for Irving and other parts of DFW Metroplex, ID as La Voz del Pueblo, i.e. KFLC Fort Worth. Also with IBOC noise on the sides, which is not the case from Tulsa (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 11535, Aug 29 at 1249, Acts II being read at dictation speed in English, YFR via Paochung site, TAIWAN, per Aoki, supposedly Chinese service during this hour. [Date is correct: omitted by mistake from previous report] {if publishing this item later, remove the parts in [] and {} since they will be irrelevant anywhere but here} (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 15750, Aug 30 at 1241, new YFR relay still here with hymn, 1244 in English, reference familyradio.com. Ivo Ivanov tentatively assigns this to Almaty, KAZAKHSTAN, at 11-13, testing 200 kW, 132 degrees to SE Asia, along with another new YFR test, 14-15 on 7530 tentatively Gavar, Armenia, 300 kW, 125 degrees to S Asia which I have not heard (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. VOA Greenville B confirmed back on air also for African services, Aug 29 at 1810 in Portuguese on 17820; 2013 check in French on 15730, very good. I understand they are again running at full power after the storm.

13750, Aug 30 at 1236, Greenville back with VOA Spanish instead of mistaken Martí 24 hours earlier; // 9885 with report from Tripoli by an accented correspondent (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1510+, Aug 30 at 0533, KCTE Independence MO is still illegally on the air at night and illegally far beyond frequency tolerance for at least the fourth night in a row, hetting proper 1510 signals (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Keith, of foodnotbombs was the guest interviewed on KRZA 88.7 Alamosa/Taos via Live365 webcast, Aug 30 at 1430-1500 UT. Says he has a 45-watt FM transmitter on hand and invited contacts from people who would like to work with him on putting it on air. Says he was a co-founder of the longtime but now defunct pirate, San Francisco Liberation Radio. He`s now in Taos awaiting copies of his new book to organize a book-signing. Contact via http://www.foodnotbombs.net/ --- avoid .com and .org! Address on site is really nearby Arroyo Seco NM (Dry Wash). Has a neat animated opening about the Food Not Bombs ethic (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Nauen o Wertachtal pari non son...

A seguito delle numerose lamentele dei nostri ascoltatori del nord Italia, torneremo presto ad utilizzare il sito trasmittente di Nauen piuttosto che quello di Wertachtal utilizzato sperimentalmente nelle ultime settimane. Dopo i disservizi sofferti in passato e il fastidioso effetto eco derivato dalla contemporanea attività dal trasmettitore principale non presidiato di Nauen e quello di backup presidiato di Wertachtal, avevamo deciso di spostare definitivamente la nostra attività presso quest'ultimo credendo che potesse darci maggiore affidabilità, come in realtà è avvenuto. Lo stesso però non può dirsi per la diffusione in alcune regioni (vedi mappa), altamente penalizzante per il nord Italia, al contrario di quella di Nauen che riesce a servire perfettamente tutto il territorio nazionale. Vi invitiamo quindi ad inviarci i vostri rapporti d'ascolto già da domenica prossima, quando cominceremo ad effettuare le prime prove per riportare tutto alla normalità

 

Roberto Scaglione

http://www.studiodx.net

 

Log da Piancada

Nottata molto caliente quella tra il 20 e 21 agosto trascorsa in compagnia degli amici friulani nella loro postazione di Piancada. Segnali ascoltati interessanti in particolare nella banda tropicale, questo il mio log:
 
4985 2050- B ZYF690, R.Brasil Central,Goiânia- Mx, ID in P
4915 2100- B ZY641, R.Daqui, Goiânia- vari ID in P, mx
4815 2115- B ZYG640, R.Difusora,Londrina- Px religioso in P
4775 2125- B ZYG207, R.Congonhas,Congonhas- Rosario in P
4935 2135- B ZYF641, R.Capixaba,Vitória- Px religioso in P
5035 2155- B ZYG853, R.Aparecida,Aparecida- Rosario in P
5045 2203- B ZYG360, R.Cultura do Pará,Belém- parlato in P
4885 2220- B ZYG362, R.Clube do Pará,Belém- px sportivo in P
4955 2235- PRU OAX5S, R.Cultural Amauta,Huanta-Px parlato in Quechua
5952.5 2230- BOL CP60, R.Pio XII,Siglo Veinte- Px parlato in Quechua
6184.8 2244- BOL CP32, R.Santa Cruz,Santa Cruz- Px di musica, vari ID in S
3310  2320- BOL CP..,R.Mosoj Chaski,Cochabamba- Px parlato in Quechua
5921.3 2335- PRU OAX6A R.Bethel, Arequipa- Px religioso in S
4746.9 2350- PRU OAZ5B R. Huanta 2000, Huanta- Px mx locale in S
3329.6 2354- PRU OAX3Q,Ondas del Huallaga,Huanuco- Px parlato e ID in S (sentire reg)
6174 0000- PRU OAX7C, R.Tawantinsuyo,Cusco- huaynos,ID "Radio Tawantinsuyo" (reg su mz)
3324.96 0020- B ZYG867,R.Mundial,São Paulo- Mx e px parlato in P
5939.86 0027- ZY… R Voz Missionária, Camboriu SC- px religioso in P
4716.7 0032- CP..,R.Yura,Yura- Px mx andina
4789.97 0043-  R.Visión,Chiclayo- px religioso e mx in S
1520  0400- PTR WVOZ, San Juan, Puerto Rico- Px mx locale, ID alle 0415 "Radio Voz"
1510  0400- USA WWZN, Boston MA- Px parlato in E e ID alle 0400
1499.9 0400- PRU OBX4I,R.Santa Rosa,Lima- Px religioso in S
1610 0412- AIA The Caribbean Beacon,The Valley- Px parlato in E
1620 0412- CUB CMBA Radio Rebelde- parlato in S e mx locale
 
Saverio De Cian c/o Piancada

Shortwave Radio Logs from WDX6AA

AUSTRALIA    Radio Australia-Shepparton    17795  2312 GMT  English  433  Aug 27  YL with comments on her trip to a hospital and how good they treated her.

BONAIRE    Radio Netherlands Intl Relay-RNI    17605  2318 GMT  Dutch  444  Aug 27  YL and OM with comments. Music interlude 2321 GMT.  OM sining 23 23 GMT. RNI anthem 2326 GMT.  Off the air at 2327 GMT.

CUBA   Radio Havana Cuba-RHC   15370  2343 GMT  Spanish  444  Aug 27  YL and OM with ongoing comments.

KUWAIT   Radio Kuwait   17550  2328 GMT  Arabic  444  Aug 27  OM singing Arabic music.

NEW ZEALAND   Radio New Zealand Intl-RNZI   15720  2334 GMT  English  333  Aug 27  Two OMs in a conversation.

NORTH MARIANAS   Radio Free Asoa-RFA   15585  2340 GMT  Chinese  444  Aug 27  YL and OM with comments.

UNITED STATES, Tennessee   WWCR-#3   4840  0600  GMT  English  444  Aug 27  OM on the program for Victory God.  OM with comments on how GOD made human people.

UNITED STATES, Florida    Radio Taiwan Intl Relay-RTI   17725  2315 GMT  Spanish  444  Aug 27  YL with comments.

Stewart MacKenzie, WDX6AA
Huntington Beach, California, United States of America
Rcvrs: Kenwood R5000 and Grundig Satellit 650
"World Friendship Through Shortwave Radio Where Culture and Language Come Alive"
ASWLC: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASWLC
SCADS: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SCADS

Glenn Hauser logs August 29, 2011

** ALBANIA. Since R. Tirana has been missing from both frequencies, I brought up the unofficial webcast
http://radiotirana.funkhaus.info:8000/
at 1428 August 29, to see if the weekday English broadcast at 1430, missing for a month from 13625, and still absent at 1442 check today, would at least be on the webcast? No, music at first, 1430 Albanian announcements from R. Tirana in `Kalendar` feature, then alternating pop music and brief talk segments in Albanian.

So are English broadcasts even being produced? If SW remains silent, we need to check the webcast Mon-Sat also at 1845, 2000, UT Tue-Sun 0030, 0145, 0230 and 0330. The later segments to North America have also been heard previously with additional English repeats in between the SW times. Ramadan is about to end, in case that has something to do with this (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRALIA [and non]. 15340, Aug 29 at 1240, HCJB in S Asian language, in the clear, no 15341 Morocco het! Not on 15345v either, so off the air. HCJB`s other transmitter in English on 15400 also audible. But at 1333, IMM was back on 15341v to het HCJB whose audio remained atop (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake Aug 29, before 1300:
 7970, good at *1226. I had just tuned by on the 7-8 MHz FRG-7 range without hearing it, and then starting at the bottom edge of the 8-9 MHz range, 7965, there it was on 7970
10300, very good at 1233; none in the 11`s, 12`s
13130, very good at 1237
13920, poor at 1236
14720, good at 1238

After 1300:
15430, very poor at 1307; on early or continuously thru hourtop

After 1330:
16100, fair at 1336
14720, fair at 1338
13920, very good at 1339
12270, good at 1339
12025, poor at 1340 mixed with CNR1 jamming
10300, fair at 1342
 7970, poor at 1342
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also MALAYSIA, ChiCom QRM

** EURASIA. Following reports that MW TA carriers were penetrating deep into NAm, I made a check UT Aug 29 at 0250, and could detect some weak ones on 1521 (no doubt Saudi Arabia) against KOKC, and on 1089, plus a few other hints too weak to be sure of vs birdies, appliance radiation, etc. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MALAYSIA. 9835, Aug 29 at 1228, Qur`an squeezed by ACI, but RTM is apparently sporadically active. At 1251, speech in Malay, mentions ``subsidy``, over CCI, flutter; By 1254 the CCI is gaining. What could that be? HFCC, Aoki and EiBi show nothing else on 9835 until India at 1315 or 1330, tho there are plenty of collisions at other times.

11665 is an even worse frequency choice for RTM`s Sarawak service: I can never hear it, just a het with the Chinese radio war, such as Aug 29 at 1341, CNR1 echo-jamming vs Taiwan at 04-06 and 10-17 per Aoki (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. Sunrise MW DX Aug 29:

750, Aug 29 at 1159, an anthem, but not Mexican national, soon obvious from the lyrix that it`s the Sinaloa state hymn; 1201 ID or sign-on mentions 89.5 FM y 750 AM, ergo per Cantú:
750 XECSI Stereo Vida + FM 89.5 Culiacán, Sin. 5,000 250

DXLD correspondent Ing. Civ. Israel González Ahumada, M.I., in Mérida, Yucatán, has just rounded up videos of many state songs, official or not, including Sinaloa`s: ``(No tiene himno; lo consideran su himno)``
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eErA7omckaE

Then I played it, titled:
``Chayito Valdéz "El Sinaloense" ( REINA DE LA CANCION RANCHERA )``
and I`m afraid that is a completely different song from the one on 750, which was not in ranchera style, certainly a more majestic and fitting paean, M cantor mentioning Sinaloa several times. I had to side-tune to 752 to evade splatter from KRMG 740 Tulsa already on day power and pattern. The video includes several clips of cock-fighting as if that were something to be proud of, the state sport?

830, Aug 29 at 1202, mentions 830 AM and Sinaloa, 6:02 time; Cantú:
830 XEVQ La Grande de Sinaloa Culiacán, Sin. 5,000 1,000

880, Aug 29 at 1158, Full ID, as XERFR, Grupo Fórmula. Unfortunately, that is the network flagship in the DF on 970 with 50 kW during daytime. Fortunately, Cantú shows only one Fórmula on 880:
880 XEV Radio Fórmula Chihuahua, Chih. 5,000 250
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MOROCCO. See AUSTRALIA [and non]

** U S A [and non]. IBB Greenville is back on the air, Monday morning Aug 29, after two days off following hit by Hurricane Irene. It was rather waterlogged requiring some cleanup.

Checking for VOA Spanish, Aug 29 at 1228, I hear music on 9885, and then at 1231, news // 15590.

However, the third VOA frequency, 13750, has different music at 1228, soon obviously R. Martí on the wrong frequency! Things must have got mixed up during the outage. 1258, standard frequency list announced effective in ``pocos minutos``: 7405, 11845, 13820, cut modulation and open carrier for a few minutes before 13750 off. No jamming!!

Meanwhile I was checking the proper R. Martí frequencies; VOA Spanish might have been swapped onto one of them, but could not confirm that: at 1219, just jamming on 6030; at 1232, 9805 and 6030, only jamming audible; 7405 jamming but RM audible // 13750; at 1300 the jamming had started on 11845 and 13820 but no RM audible (it`s often a bit late coming up in the best of times as disconnected IBB programmers do not build in any transition/retuning time, necessary with old SW transmitters). 7405 maybe has some audio under the jamming.

By 1339: 13820 bears RM, readable mixed with jamming; at 1342, 11845 with jamming only. At 1443, 13820 is good over jamming, 11845 and 11930 poor under jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9370-, Aug 29 at 0517, WTJC is back on the air after a couple days off after direct hit by Irene, closing(?) program with website http://www.songministries.org in Greenville SC. Undermodulated. Also on some 7 hours later, so seems back to stay (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1579 monitoring: UT Monday Aug 29 just after 0300, confirmed on WBCQ Area 51 webcast and did not get around to checking 5110v-CUSB. Followed by CKUT`s `International Radio Report` from Sheldon Harvey and friend at 0330, as TS Irene was about to hit Montreal 13 hours earlier; live local news is shockingly missing on radio stations in this major city. Let us all thank Larry Will for carrying these two programs on Area 51! WBCQ 9330-CUSB was still on the air the following morning (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1510+, Aug 29 at 0535, ESPN programming making a big slightly warbling het with decent 1510.0 stations such as WLAC, at least the third night in a row that 10 kW daytimer KCTE, Independence MO is not only on the air at night, but off-frequency as it has been for many months. Will the FCC now wake up and do something about this?? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VATICAN [and non]. 9645, Aug 19 at 0518, tune in to hear Finnish, a rare language these days on SW, part of the undefined `Scandinavian` service of VR, better called Nordic. Just in time to hear them switch to Latin for ``Laudetur Jesus Christus``, and cut the carrier at 0519:12*, uncovering R. Bandeirantes, Brasil which had been making a hefty het, always off-frequency a few hektoHz to the hi side. Another Vatican service continued in the clear on 9660, English to Africa.

Current printed VR sked merely says `Scandinavian` daily 0500 on 9645, 7335, 1260 and 1611, followed at 0520 by Albanian on the MWs only.

This site is handy for checking out which stations are still broadcasting in which languages:
http://www.addx.de/Hfpdat/plaene.php

Which now shows that indeed, Vatican Radio is the ONLY SW broadcaster left in Finnish!

Von   Bis   ITU  Sender            Frequenzen/Relais/Bemerkungen
---------------------------------------------------------------------
0500  0520  CVA  R. Vatikan        Mo&Sa 1260 1611 6185 7335
1840  1900  CVA  R. Vatikan        Fr&So 1260 1611 6185 7355

Altho dated 15.08.2011, this is obviously outdated winter info with 6185 instead of 9645! We usually find misleadingly outdated info in this reference, unfortunately.

VR has its work cut out for it, as the World Almanac 2002 said that the chief religion in Finland was Evangelical Lutheran, 89%, not even bothering to count the Catholix.

Not even CRI uses Finnish (on SW anyway), per WRTH, tho they have a sweet deal to invade Europe thru a front company based in Finland, Radio 86; see the recent Media Network blog item (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 6183.0, Aug 29 at 1220, steady CW beeps are QRMing China on 6185, at the rate of 48 per minute; they sound slightly irregular (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 6768.0 is today`s spot for the `mutant open carrier` as Terry Krueger calls them, Aug 29 at 1220, along with some hum, and bits of audio, maybe just nearby SSB QRM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Log Roberto Pavanello

 1449 27/8 23.10 R. Libia - Tripoli Arabo insulti a Gheddafi buono
 3905 27/8 23.15 R. Sallandse Boer - EE ID e MX buono
 4976 26/8 19.55 R. Uganda - Kampala Swahili MX buono
 5815 28/8 08.30 R. Royal - EE ID e MX buono
 6135 27/8 23.50 R. Santa Cruz - SS MX suff.
10000 27/8 23.25 Observatorio Nac. - Rio de Janeiro PP ID e ora suff.
11765 27/8 23.30 R. Deus è Amor - Curitiba PP ID buono
11780 27/8 23.35 R. Nac. Amazonas - Brasilia PP MX buono
11815 27/8 23.40 R. Brasil Central - Goiania PP calcio buono
15345 27/8 23.20 R. Nacional - Buenos Aires SS NX suff.

Roberto Pavanello

Vercelli / Italia

Glenn Hauser logs August 28, 2011

** CHINA. Firedrake August 28, first in the ChiCom noon hour:
17170, poor at 0426
16100, very poor at 0426; no others 12-19 MHz

Before 1300:
 7970, poor at 1239
10300, good at 1242
12120, very good at 1248 mixed with constant RTTY on 12120, unusual spot for FD
15555, poor at 1252, vs het 15552
No others 13-18 MHz by 1255

After 1300:
15280, poor at 1324, het 15278
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. DentroCuban Jamming Command grinding on 9565 at 1312 Aug 28, between Australia 9560 and China via Cuba 9570; 9565 jamming totally unnecessary at this hour. See also USA: Greenville report (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. Sunrise DX August 28, UT:

650, at 1159 Aug 28, Mexican history item, 1200 ID as ``Radio 65 FM``, then mentions 106.5 FM y 650 AM. How convenient: Cantú shows:
106.5 XHTNT Radio 65 + AM 650 Los Mochis, Sin. [no power on FM; new?]
650   XETNT Radio 65 + FM 106.5 Los Mochis, Sin. 5,000 1,000

We seem to have a pipeline from Los Mochis this morning as well as several previous sunrises:
770, at 1201 Aug 28, `Los 40 Principales`` full ID with XEREV, i.e.:
770 XEREV Los 40 Principales + FM 104.3 Los Mochis, Sin. 5,000 100
BTW, KKOB 770 NM nondirexional day pattern starts in Aug at *1230 UT, Sept *1245, Oct *1315

870, at 1202 Aug 28 choral NA, 1203 mentions ``en esta hermosa Sierra Tarahumara`` then into indigenous language, from XETAR, Chihuahua.

920, at 1204 Aug 28, ID as R. Capital, Hermosillo, i.e. per Cantú:
920 XEHQ Radio Capital Hermosillo, Son. 5,000 1,000

990, at 1214 ID as Radio México 990 AM, ``todo México``. Radio México is the name of a group, not a particular station. Here`s their own listing:
http://www.gradiomex.com/default.asp?pid=15992
But nothing on 990. Info there is © 2009, so quite possibly outdated. Thru Cantú state-by-state listings for 990s in western México I don`t find any matches. (Before 1200 I was getting a strong 990 with temp in C, presumed XET Monterrey 50 kW). ``Radio México`` possibly just a generic mention as heard here, not a corporate name, altho the Group should assert its exclusive right to say it? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NEW ZEALAND. 15720, UT Sunday Aug 28 at 0455, caught the tail of what sounds like an excellent documentary from the USA, outro as `The Promised Land`, 0457 cut off credit to ``American ---``, likely followed by ``Public Media``, for QSY announcement to 11725, bellbird and off.

It was a relay of RNZ National, listed as: ``4:07 The Sunday Feature: The Promised Land, with Majora Carter --- Decades ago, in response to an oil spill off the coast of California, John Francis made a vow to give up riding in motor vehicles, and stepped out on a walk. And he kept on walking for the next 22 years (APM)``

Can`t find much about TPL on the APM website, but also heard program`s own site as http://www.thepromisedland.org ---
More here, listen and download:
http://www.thepromisedland.org/episode/8-john-francis
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SUDAN [and non]. Checking R. Dabanga Aug 28: 0431 on 13620, only hearing the 1000 Hz tone jamming, then 0431:45 Dabanga audio via MADAGASCAR comes up, down and up again. Meanwhile, the other Talata frequency during the first semihour, 13730 is continually modulating with frequent IDs in passing, no jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1579 monitoring: confirmed on WTWW 5755, UT Sunday Aug 28 after 0400, VG signal. Besides WRMI and WRN, next airing is UT Monday 0300v via Area 51 on WBCQ 5110v-CUSB. Full schedule including many other webcasts:
http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. IBB Greenville-B is still off the air 24 hours after last heard, altho Irene should be well out of the area by now: Aug 28 at 1229, VOA Spanish missing from 9885, 13750 and 15590; R. Martí 6030, 7405 and 9805 produced jamming only. At 1302, jamming only on 11845, ditto 1318 on 13820. Besides RM, only other scheduled broadcasts from GB today Sunday are 17-18 Portuguese on 17820, 20-21 French on 15730.

At 1700 Aug 28: 17820 still silent, and nothing but jamming (DentroCubans aren`t taking any chances) on RM frequencies 13820, 11930, 9565. I fear there is more wrong at GB than just resetting the circuit breaker (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WEWN back to normal on three transmitters and three frequencies at once with usual defects, Aug 28:
0412, VG in Spanish on 5810
0434, poor in Spanish on 11870, // much stronger 5810
0435, poor in English on 11520
1238, very good in Spanish on 7555, mass
1243, poor on 12050, mass with organ
1245, very good on 13580, mass in English
1256, very good on 11550, Regina Cœli prélude
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also USA: WINB

** U S A. 13570, Aug 28 at 1320, gospel music from WINB blasted by squishy/squeaky 13571v spur from WEWN 13580, with more of them audible around 13562, 13589, 13598. This happens only on Sundays when WINB is currently active in the mornings, until WEWN QSYs to 15610 by 1400. Christians vs Christians! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Following up yesterday`s report of `La Super X` on 1160 being KCTO in the Kansas City market, so what is 1250, which had used that slogan? Aug 28 at 1217, 1250 IDs merely as ``La Equis, 12-50, la súper estación`` by super-hype locutor, denigrating the unnamed competition as ``ruido`` = noise. Ad for a ``gran baile`` 4 de Setiembre featuring a musical group from Chihuahua, which could send one way off on the wrong track. Then ad in Spanish mentioning multiple locations in Kansas City area, pronounced by YL/child as in English. 1160 was also audible but 1250 much stronger. So 1250 is merely La X, and 1160 is La Super X; are they jointly owned, since the Super X slogan transferred from 1250 to 1160? No, FCC AM Query shows 1160 KCTO is owned by Alpine Broadcasting Corp.; 1250 KYYS by Entercom, so must be bitter rivals fighting over that valuable X branding! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1510v, Aug 28 at 0440, slightly variable het. This is commonly heard around sunrise and sunset but not in the nightmiddle, previously tracked months ago to KCTE Independence MO. We also noted the het 23 hours earlier but did not log it; Bruce Winkelman in Tulsa did, measured on 1509.83 with IDs all night every hour on the hour, ESPN programming. Listed as 10 kW daytimer-only. On NRC-AM, Bruce says, ``Tulsa is almost "dead-center" in the SW lobe of KCTE directional pattern. Bad het against WLAC and others on 1510.00. Daytimer on all night and off-frequency to boot --- anybody home??`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 6924.7 AM, Aug 28 at 0418 weak music from some pirate, and this off-frequency is often the spot, single transmitter? Compared it to a weak carrier from a non-pirate on 5925, presumably 5925.0, registered as Lampertheim (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 6925.0 SSB, Aug 28 at 1234, loop of ``who let the dog out?`` and barking, weak in noise level. Seems I have heard this before on a pirate, but can`t find it previously reported. Matched a carrier on 5925 from a non-pirate, so on-frequency unlike the 6924.7 AM unID earlier. At this hour 5925 would be CNR Beijing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###

Shortwave Gold

Ascolti AM (orari UTC)


Sabato 27 agosto 2011
13.55 - 6204,5 kHz
SHORTWAVE GOLD
EE/II, oldies e IDs OM.
Segnale buono-sufficiente
shortwavegold@gmail.com


Luca Botto Fiora
QTH
G.C. 09E13 - 44N21
Rapallo (Genova) - Italia


RICEVITORI
R7 Drake - Satellit 500 Grundig - E5/G3/G6 Etón - VR5000DSP Yaesu - ATS909 Sangean


ANTENNE
Loop in ferrite ACA di 75 cm interna (@70 kHz-2 MHz)
Loop filare da finestra da 1 spira 150x100 cm (@2-5.5 MHz)
Dipolo aperto esterno 30 m (@5.5-30 MHz)
-
VARIE
Ampli RF K0LR-WA1ION per loop in ferrite
Ampli RF LX1456 Nuova Elettronica per loop da finestra e dipolo aperto
Balun a choke coassiali 1:1 di RG174 per dipolo (dal sito di IZ7ATH)
Eliminatore di QRM MFJ 1026 (modificato W8JI)
Software demo Multimode 6.2.3 Black Cat Systems

Glenn Hauser logs August 27, 2011

** CANADA [non]. 17810, Aug 27 at 1847 as I tune in to RCI they are talking about immigrants from South Asia, so it`s still ``Radio Canada Immigration`` despite supposed change of focus. VG signal I was sure came from Sackville, NB, but uplooked later, it`s 175 degrees from Skelton, UK! BBCWS in English on 17795 was just about as good, and that`s Skelton too, 180 degrees. The other two RCi frequencies at 18-19 are 11765 Skelton on 9530 Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GERMANY [non]. 15620, Aug 27 at 1850, good signal in Hausa from DW via RWANDA, except for squishy spur around 15619 from WEWN 15610, now built up to strong level, maybe some sporadic-E boost, which hasn`t made it into VHF for a fortnight or so as the summer TV/FM DX season ends (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA SOUTH [non]. 15360, Aug 27 at 1852, thought it was Japanese pop music, but excuse me, it must have been Korean. 1854 Russian announcement. Scheduled is KBS, 250 kW, 62 degrees via Rampisham UK at 18-19. Yet another service that will have to find another site if Ramp gets shut as planned by Xmas (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ROMANIA. 15310, Aug 27 at 1855, vocal music with disco beat, uncertain language. 1900 5-pip timesignal, Romanian news about North Carolina, ergo RRI as scheduled, 17-20, 300 kW, 285 degrees toward France (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 15825, Aug 27 at 1904, Brother Scare // 9980, and a reverb apart from 9385 WWRB. There he is, occupying even more spare time on WWCR; pdf sked still dated Aug 1 shows him on 15825 Sat 19-20 and Sun 1745-2000 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. As far as I can tell, Greenville frequencies have been off since before 1300 UT. Definitely missing: Portuguese from 1700 on 17820; French from 2000 on 15730.

The rest are Radio Marti, heavy jamming as usual, so can`t be positive there is no RM signal under, perhaps at reduced power. At 2011, I could hear a trace of Spanish on 13820 under jamming, but that`s because Sackville takes over at 20-22. If there is protracted silence from Greenville, Sackville would be the obvious choice for extended hours of RM.

RM 11930 and 9565 are scheduled until 2400;
VOA Spanish at 23-24 on 5890, 9885 and 12000
(Glenn Hauser, 2044 UT Aug 27, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Update: at 2305 Aug 27 check, the VOA Spanish service is unheard on 5890, 9885, 12000, tho some DentroCuban jamming is still on these frequencies.

We can see on the radar maps that Greenville has been hit hard by Hurricane Irene, but the wraparound winds from the N/NE are moving on up the coast. The problem at Greenville B is that the circuit breaker on the 69 kv line needs to be reset, but it`s outside in the rain and not a good idea to open the cabinet.

As per previously gathered GB schedule, the only transmissions for the rest of early UT Sunday are R. Martí: 6030 at 0000-1300, 7365 at 0000-0300, 11775 at 0000-0100, 7405 at 0300-0700 and 1200-1400, 5980 at 0700-1200, 9805 at 0900-1300. 11775 continues at 01-03 via Sackville (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9370-, WTJC remained off the air at 1912 UT Aug 27; I checked later exactly where the eye of H. Irene made landfall, and it was Cape Lookout, which is right next to Morehead City and WTJC Newport (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###

NASB Newsletter - August 2011

National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters

NASB Newsletter - August 2011

 

 

NASB Set to Host First-Ever HFCC Conference in United States

 

The NASB and our associate member Continental Electronics Corporation are welcoming around 100 delegates from more than 40 international broadcasting organizations around the world to the HFCC/ASBU B11 Seasonal Coordination Conference in Dallas, Texas September 12-16, 2011.  This is the first time in the more than 20-year history of the HFCC that the twice-annual meeting has been held in the United States. 

 

The main purpose of the week-long event is to coordinate shortwave frequency schedules on a worldwide basis for the B11 season, which begins in October 2011 and ends in March 2012.  A major theme at this conference will be the continuing importance of shortwave for international broadcasters, along with examinations of alternative methods of program delivery such as the Internet, satellites, podcasts, local AM and FM retransmissions, etc.  The presidents of four NASB member stations will be attending the event to learn about the frequency coordination process and to explain their perspectives on shortwave and international broadcasting in general.  These include Dr. Dowell Chow, President of Adventist World Radio; Lauren Libby, President of Trans World Radio; Charles Caudill, President/CEO of World Christian Broadcasting; and Eric Westenberger, President of the corporation which owns WWCR in Nashville, Tenneessee.  Other presentations are tentatively scheduled by Sentech of South Africa and about the development of DRM -- Digital Radio Mondiale -- in Russia.  Adil Mina of Continental Electronics will open the conference.

 

HFCC stands for "High Frequency Coordination Conference."  For many years now, the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) also participates in these semi-annual meetings.  Many Arab delegates are scheduled to participate in the Dallas conference, as well as a delegation from Iran.  There will also be major delegations from China, Russia, many European countries and some from Africa, Asia, Australia, North and Latin America.  NASB member stations KSDA, KTWR, KNLS, WRMI, WWCR, WEWN and KFBS will have delegates present.  Tom Lucey will head the FCC delegation to the HFCC, and the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau will have a delegation as well.  Former NASB President Doug Garlinger will also be in attendance.

 

The conference will take place at the Sheraton Dallas North Hotel, located very near the Galleria Mall in Dallas.  Three excursions are planned for the week, including one to the Continental Electronics factory where high-powered DRM-capable shortwave transmitters are manufactured.  Two sponsored dinners are planned at area restaurants to sample the local Texas and Mexican cuisine.  An excursion will take place on Friday when the conference ends to nearby Fort Worth to see a longhorn cattle drive, authentic country and western music, a barbecue dinner and a rodeo.

 

If you have not registered yet and would like to attend the HFCC Conference, it is still possible to do so.  The registration fee of $150 can be paid upon arrival.  There is more information on the Conference webpage, www.hfcc.org/Bq11/phtml.  You can get a registration form by sending an e-mail to info@wrmi.net. 

 

 

New NASB Facebook Page

 

The NASB has a new page on Facebook.  Much of the material that has normally appeared here in the NASB Newsletter in the past is now appearing on the NASB Facebook page in order to get the news out more quickly.  We encourage you to check the page occasionally for the latest news about NASB member organizations and about shortwave radio in general.  At the moment, the fastest way to access the page is to go to the NASB webpage, www.shortwave.org.  Then click where it says "Find us on Facebook."  If you like what you see, we encourage you to click on "Like" so we can get a vanity URL from Facebook.

Look for more information about the NASB on our webpage, www.wrmi.net. 

Glenn Hauser logs August 26-27, 2011

** ALBANIA. R. Tirana: No signal on 9860 or 7425 at 0020 UT Aug 27. No signal on 7425 at 0333 either (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ANGUILLA [and non]. 11775, Aug 27 at 1241, PMS is back on, over Cuban nonsensical pulse jamming a semiday out of phase from when it is really `needed` against R. Martí. Has Anguilla considered economic sanxions or at least diplomatic protests against Cuba for this? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRALIA [and non]. 15400, Aug 27 at 1248, HCJB sufficient in English, rarely audible, but it`s just a sermon. If they really wanted to lure in secular listeners, they should not have abandoned stealth evangelism by cancelling `DX Partyline`. Meanwhile the other transmitter was providing a hefty het upon Morocco 15341; long paths? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. 6160, Aug 27 at 1223, talk in accented English about women`s rights (or lack thereof) in Brasil, fading in and out. Must be CBC Overnight via CKZU Vancouver; 1228 outro show as `Women in the Spotlight`, I think; 1229 intro `World Football` from BBCWS. That`s around 5:30 am PDT Saturday; this schedule
http://www.cbc.ca/overnight/schedule.html
shows `Witness` before 5:30 am, could be, altho I do not find that topic shown on the BBCWS programme site (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. Most Firedrake frequencies missing Aug 27; what`s going on? Certainly not due to propagation as numerous usual CNR1 jammers and CRI frequencies were still audible up to 18 MHz. See TAIWAN 10300.

1240-1250, NO Firedrake found 10-19 MHz, but among many others:
1246, Chinese CCI on 15795 and 15670, CNR1 jammers
1248, Chinese CCI also on 15250, 15115, CNR1 jammers
1250, CRI in Chinese on 17650, English on 17490, via EAST TURKISTAN

After 1300, found just a couple, in-banders:
15280, poor at 1322-1330*, vs het on 15282; no jump found after 1330; at 1332 carrier/het on 15288, and algo on 15290, not Firedrake
15285, very poor at 1358, not earlier; no others up to 19 MHz (this was the only FD that S. Handler in IL found today in a 2-hour sweep)
12025, very poor at 1326 mixing with CNR1 jamming
No others 10-19 MHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH [non]. 9950, Aug 27 at 1259 open carrier, 1300 opening in Korean with music, good signal enough to shoulder aside the DentroCuban jamming on 9955; is via TAIWAN, Nippon no Kaze, as it is known in Japanese, anti-kidnapping service, but could not make out such an ID nor in Korean. HFCC misleadingly lists this transmission as Babcock via CHINA in Japanese! See also TAIWAN 9960 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO [and non]. Sunrise skip MW DX:
610, Aug 27 at 1159, ``Sólo por la G-S``, 5:59 time, therefore per Cantú: 610 XEGS La Ley Guasave, Sin. 1,000 500
But did not hear ``La Ley`` mentioned; still vigent?

1160 mystery, solved: not a Mexican: see U S A (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. Surprised to see KFOR-27 OKC with totally green screen and nothing else during the `Tonight Show`, UT Saturday Aug 27 at 0408, and kept that way almost until 0426, dead audio too until suddenly rejoined during Richard Engel interview rerun. Both OTA RF 27, and via Suddenlink cable. Meanwhile, OTA 4.2 had usual continuous weather, and 4.3 with Ant TV, `Benny Hill`, no greenscreens there.

This is a favorite time of night for EAS tests to interrupt programming (tho I hadn`t noticed it on any other station), so I wonder if the EAS thingie got stuck?? They do use a similar shade of green for background of crawlers at screentop when funxioning normally. Was no one paying attention at KFOR master control?? Hmmm, are EAS tests not required on subchannels too?

Earlier in the afternoon, the finale of Jeopardy on Channel 4 had `technical difficulties` so on the following newscasts KFOR had to apologetically tell viewers who won, twice! Meanwhile, KROU 105.7 antenna is being installed upon the KFOR tower (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TAIWAN. 10300, Aug 27 at 1239, weak Chinese, no Firedrake, presumed Sound of Hope. Firedrake was also widely absent today; see CHINA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TAIWAN. 9960, Aug 27 at 1301, Vietnamese squeezed between DentroCuban Jamming Commands on 9955 and 9965; not in HFCC, but Aoki as Family Radio via Tainan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** THAILAND. 9890, Aug 27 at 1235, R. Thailand in fairly well during English news about a bombing; at first thought re Pakistan, but apparently in Thailand itself, southern unrest vs new government, then other political news of Thailand. By 1258 more flutter in talk about heart attacks, ulcers. BTW, VOA was missing from 9885, see U S A (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY. 15450, Sat Aug 27 at 1248, VOT talking about R. Free Asia, perhaps its special off-topic Japanese QSL this weekend, so must be an on-week for `DX Corner`; poor (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1160, Aug 27 at 1203, 7:03 time on ``La Super Equis, 11-60 AM`` in KSL null, then live YL DJ. Cantú has 5 Mexicans on 1160, none with this slogan, nor any X in the callsigns after the first letter! How about the one in X-alapa, Veracruz, XEBE, Radio Perote? That`s really too far east at this hour, and too far-fetched.

Could it be a US domestic? Googling finds Super X was the name of Albuquerque 1190 a dekayear ago, and currently of 1250 in Kansas City, but that`s no help. Maybe it`s a syndicated/group name? It`s in the CDT zone. There are two Texans: KVCE in Highland Park, address in Houston; and KRDY San Antonio as in Radio Disney per last year`s NRC AM Log. Has one of those Hispanicized? 

Aha, got it, by changing the Google from Equis to X: it`s merely Kansas City, http://www.lasuperx1160.com/ Just try to find a callsign on that website! Last year`s NRC-AM log has KCTO, Cleveland MO, address in Liberty MO, talk/oldies format. FCC AM Query shows it`s still KCTO, COL Cleveland. That`s such a speck, it`s not in the Rand McNally index, but finally found it south of KC MO on the MO side of the border, while address in Liberty KS is way up on the NE side of KC. But is the site in KS or MO? Longitude is 94-36-28. This source
http://www.netstate.com/states/geography/ks_geography.htm
says Kansas starts at 94 degrees 38 minutes west, so that puts it in MO, barely.

So what has become of KYYS 1250 Kansas City KS, which had been ``La Super Equis``? It`s easy to hear here but had not paid much attention to current sloganeering; still in Spanish, anyway. Domain http://www.lasuperx1250.com/ has expired (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WEWN, all three transmitters missing earlier on Aug 26, but at 2124 found 15610 back on, poor in English about Guatemala; 13830 very poor in Spanish, nothing on 12050. So one transmitter is down, two are back.

Then UT Aug 27 still found on two out of three:
0537 on 11870, usual poor signal in Spanish, but nothing on 7555
1231, nothing on 7555
1240, 12050 fair with organ music during morning mass; squeal at 1356
1244, 13580 with same mass in original English, peaking S9+10 and cannot hear any +/- 9 kHz spurs, making me wonder if they have swapped transmitters while one of them is down?
1325, 13580 is stronger now, still no spurs audible, but:
1357, 13580 now is strong enough to audiblize the spurs; never mind
1358, 15610 weak but audible with Regina Cœli IS, ex-13580; nothing on 11550 after 1300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9885, Aug 27 at 1239, VOA Spanish missing, but still going with weekend music fill on 13750, 15590. Hurricane Irene is now buffeting Greenville-B, but ancient transmitters are subject to breakdown anyway. See my yesterday`s report for full Greenville schedule, more frequencies to check if missing.

UNC-TV has produced a video visit to VOA GB, must see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR0Wdg0rwgk
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9370-, Aug 27 at 1233 and 1355, no signal from WTJC; no doubt off due to Hurricane Irene. Newport is at the southern end of the Cape, only a few miles inland. God`s wrath for daring to represent Him without permission? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###

Shortwave Radio Logs from WDX6AA

AUSTRALIA   Radio Australia-Shepparton-RA   15560  2207 GMT  English  444  Aug 25  YL with drug addiction comments on young people. Also comments on gambling.

BONAIRE   Radio Netherlands Relay-RNI   15540  2205 GMT  Dutch  444  Aug 25  Two OMs with comments.

CANADA   Radio Japan-NHK Relay   5960  0350 GMT  Japanese  444  Aug 25  YL chatting with two OMs  //15325[333].

CANADA   Radio Canada Intl-RCI  15330  2146 GMT  French  444  Aug 25  YL and OM with comments. YL and OM singing 2150 GMT. Suddenly off the air 2159 GMT. //15235[444], 17735[[444].  S/on in Spanish 2200 GMT.  [444]. //11980[333], 15455[444].

COSTA RICA   Radio Exterior Espana Relay-REE   3350  0338 GMT  Spanish  333  Aug 25  YL with comments.

UNITED STATES, Tennessee    WWRB   3185  0330 GMT  English  333  Aug 25  OM with comments in the Overcomer Ministry.

UNITED STATES, Tennessee    WWCR-1   3215  0335 GMT  English  433  Aug 25  YL and OM on faking charges by the USA on American citizens.

UNITED STATES, Tennessee    WWCR-2   5935  0348 GMT  English  444  Aug 25  OM Preacher on God's Damnation to non-Christians.

Stewart MacKenzie, WDX6AA
Huntington Beach, California, United States of America
Rcvrs: Kenwood R5000 and Grundig Satellit 650
"World Friendship Through Shortwave Radio Where Culture and Language Come Alive"
ASWLC: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASWLC
SCADS: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SCADS

Shortwave Radio Logs from WDX6AA

BULGARIA   Radio Bulgaria   9700  0028 GMT  Bulgarian  222  Aug 24  YL with comments. //11700[222].

CANADA   China Radio Intl Relay-CRI   6145  2340 GMT  English  333  Aug 23  YL and OM with comments. A very noisy frequency.

GREECE   Foni Tis Helladas   9420  0018 GMT  Greek  322  Aug 24  OM with comments and some folk vocal music.

PORTUGAL   Radio Netherlands Intl Relay- RNI   9445  0021 GMT  Dutch  333  Aug 24  Two Oms with comments.

SPAIN   Radio Exterior Espana-REE   0024 GMT  Spanish  333  Aug 24  YL and OM with ongoing comments.

UNITED STATES, North  Carolina    Radio Marti   7365  0004 GMT  Spanish  333  Aug 23  YL  and OMs in a conversation.

UNITED STATES, Tennessee    WWCR-1   7465  0006 GMT  English  333  Aug 24  Two YLs with commentson A 3.2 earthquake in the Washington areas.

UNITED STATES,  Pennsylvania    WINB    9265  0012 GMT  English  333  Aug 24  OM with Bible commentry on a very noisy freq.

Stewart MacKenzie, WDX6AA
Huntington Beach, California, United States of America
Rcvrs: Kenwood R5000 and Grundig Satellit 650
"World Friendship Through Shortwave Radio Where Culture and Language Come Alive"
ASWLC: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASWLC
SCADS: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SCADS

Radio Gloria is on 6005 khz this Sunday

Radio Gloria is on the air this Sunday the 28th of August 2011. The frequency will be 6005 khz, and the time slot will be 0900 to 1000 utc.There are N0 6140 khz Transmissions this month
 
The Programme is also available via the Internet on:
shortwaveservice.com/9480 - between 0900 to 1000 utc
Coloradio.org  - - - - - - - - - between 1500 to 1600 utc
Also repeated on the 4th of September  1100 to 1200 utc on 9480 khz

Good listening and good reception!
 
Good Listening   73s Tom
 
PS. MV Baltic Radio relay service Schedule for Summertime 2011
       1st    Sunday – MV Baltic Radio                  0900 utc
       3rd    Sunday – European Music Radio         0900 utc    (September)
       4th    Sunday – Radio Gloria International     1300 utc
 
NEW EMR Postal Address:
         European Music Radio,
         c/o M.V. Baltic Radio,
         Seestraße 17,
         D-19089 Göhren,
         Germany