** ALBANIA. R. Tirana, 13640, new English to NAm at 1530-1600, best heard yet on Nov 5 at 1529 with IS, 1530 opening with usual schedule, S9+15 or 34443, but fighting my local line noise. Modulation still needs more punch. Not bothered by a weak adjacent on 13635, presumably CVC Darwin in English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** AUSTRALIA [non]. Again hearing motorboating/buzz, defective transmitter underneath RA on 6020, Nov 5 at 1348. Per Aoki B-07, the only other station on 6020 at that hour would be Hanoi, Vietnam; is that it? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. In connexion with the REE Cariari spurs around 17595 and 18105 from the 17850 transmitter, which persisted for a few weeks in Sept/Oct, I recently remarked that 17850 would be replaced by 15125 in B-07. I am not sure how I concluded this, but the REE B-07 schedules we see now certainly show both in use. The one via José Bueno, for the CR relays only in the daytime, as reworked by Alan Roe: 1200-2300 SAm Sun 9765 15125 1500-2300 NAm Sun 17850 1600-2300 N&SAm Sat 9765 15125 17850 1800-2000 N&SAm M-F 9765 15125 17850 In any event, the spurs are no longer detectable when 17850 is on, such as Nov 3 at 2050, Nov 4 at 1513 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. RHC Spanish DX program, En Contacto, Sunday Nov 4 at 1335-1350 on 11760 et al.: included at 1338 a talk by new correspondent in Guatemala, Julio Pineda, about DRM. Sounded like it came from a DRM press release; nothing about its drawbacks. Also outdated, as he said HCJB was the only Latin American station doing DRM, unaware of Bonaire, Chile and Guiana French (and HCJB is only doing it in German to Europe, currently). Also said that propagation would start improving from the middle of this year with the sunspot cycle rising. Wrong again; ask Arnie, who used to contribute a propagation segment for this show but is no longer to be heard on it; I wonder why? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. It is notable that no more jamming is heard on 11845, only a week after R. Martí vacated, as checked Nov 5 at 1523. Word must have finally got around the DCJC network to pile on 15330 instead (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Cut numbers on pure CW, 7520, Nov 5 at 1331, presumably spy message from here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GABON [and non]. AN1, 17630, Nov 5 at 1411 had some weaker co-channel in English, no doubt CRI via Mali aimed eastward. This collision has been going on for years, and must be much worse in Africa. Perhaps the Chinese do not realise Gabon is there, not being registered with HFCC (only R. Japan relays appear). When the 17630 Gabon signal is good, I look for the harmonic on 19160, but no luck so far this season (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUIANA FRENCH. The unreliable DRM broadcast from TDF on 17870-17875-17880 was much weaker than usual, Monday Nov 5 at 1442. Africa and Europe were propagating OK, so strange that GUF would not. Power reduxion or beam change? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. AIR VBS, 9870, Nov 5 at 1336, fair signal with fast SAH, or was it just polar flutter? Xi`an China might be co-channel. Enjoyed the VBS music on and off during the next hour. AIR GOS in English, OTOH, was inaudible on 9690 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. Don`t usually have much luck with VOI when it is on 11785 instead of 9525, but Nov 5 at 1353, lacking WHRI since it is a weekday, could hear weak Korean talk which must be VOI as scheduled, also low het with something else, because VOI is habitually off-frequency, about 11784.9. At 1554 recheck, could hear the VOI gamelan band & English ID routine which they run during this semihour, but no comparison to the nice signal they used to have on 9525 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM [non]. Shuttle Discovery communications relay on SSB at 0710 Nov 5. I was falling asleep, but thought I heard some music included, jeopardizing the ham license of Goddard SFC`s WA3NAN, Greenbelt MD, which this must have been as I was tuned to about 7183. I was also too tired to measure the frequency, but that`s about where the FRG-7 was parked when I turned it on the next morning. WA3NAN lists 7185 as one of its shuttle audio relay frequencies at http://www.amsat.org/amsat/sarex/shutfreq.html (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JORDAN. R. Jordan seems to have replaced some of its English hours on 11690 with French. Nov 5 at 1524, well after HCJB was off, but as always with RTTY on the low side, I found pop music in French, and at 1526 an announcement in French. Again at 1538 when splatter from Venezuela/Cuba 11680 was also a problem. When there were lyrics to the music, they were in French, such as at 1556. Then at 1600 theme music, presumed ID but fade, and into rock music in English, which went on to 1607 when an announcement said ``You are listening to ---, new sound``. I never got a definite ID for Jordan in either language, but don`t see how it could be anything else. For B-07 RJ is scheduled on 11690 at 1400-1730 to Eu and 48-USA plus Atlantic Canada. WRTH 2007 shows RJ has a French service on FM 90.0 until 1600, which they are now apparently duplicating on SW until that hour, leaving only one sesquihour of English. Or was it a mistake? Further monitoring needed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KUWAIT. R. Kuwait is still in English on 11990. Finally caught the tail end of the 18-21 transmission, Nov 3 at 2057 tune-in with Madonna tune to disco beat. 2058 sign-off announcement giving English schedule, also at ``8 AM`` and on FM. 2059 brief NA. 2100 5+1 timesignal, news theme, and YL news in Arabic. Finally cut off abruptly at 2106* SINPO 34343, deep fades (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LAOS [non]. Confirmed on the first day of standard time in Indiana, that Hmong Lao Radio has shifted one UT hour later on WHRI, still on 11785 but at 1400-1500 Sunday Nov 4, followed by Hmong World Christian Radio at 1500. Both should also apply to Saturdays. BTW, DXing with Cumbre was also on 11785 before 1400. Then checking http://www.whr.org repeatedly on Nov 4 to get an updated DWC schedule, I found it was down. Guess they are taking a while to get all the times changed? No, it`s back up Nov 5 but ET/UT times are STILL shown as 4 hours apart instead of 5! Worse than useless (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADEIRA [non]. ``Abraço da Madeira`` show on RDPI, 15560, during the 1405 UT Sunday hour Nov 4, excellent reception. Pause for news on the semihour. This show is on the schedule at http://tv.rtp.pt/EPG/radio/epg-dia.php?canal=5 13:11 12:11 ABRAÇO DA MADEIRA das 13:11 às 15:00 i.e. 1311-1500 local = 1211-1400 UT. This page, which shows exact programming by every particular date, such as Nov 4 in this case, still displays local time as one hour ahead of UT! Even tho Portugal is now back on UT, so the true time for this show, heard in the 1400 UT hour, must really be 1311-1500 UT! So all other listings displayed are one hour off. Madeira, BTW, stays on the same time as Portugal, unlike Açores, which is one hour behind but also shifting DST-wise, UT -1 winter, UT summer, per WRTH 2007 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. XEYU was still missing when I patrolled 31m around 1330 UT Nov 5, but next time I crossed the frequency, at 1447, it was back on with discussion in Spanish. Frequency had ascended more than halfway from 9599 to 9600, as with BFO on, stepping back and forth 1 kHz on the YB-400, the pitch was slightly lower on 9600 than on 9599, so it would be around 9599.55 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. REE now has a classical music show, ``Clásicos Populares``, M-F for 55 minutes during the 14 UT hour, which I came across Nov 5 at 1412 on 17595 with its usual good signal and audio, also // barely audible 21570 and 21610. Nothing very deep here, as the title implies, and they spend too much time talking with artists; heard some Goldberg Variations in two different segments, Mozart. Interrupted show abruptly at 1455 for frequency change announcement: Africa from 21540 to 17755 about to happen, and goodbye to NAm until 1900 on 9630. But 17595 continued on air with no break, and no perceptible reduxion in signal as they welcomed C&SAm listeners instead. What supposedly happens at 1500 is that a second Noblejas 250 kW transmitter at 302 degrees goes off, while another one at 248 degrees keeps running. BTW, the program grid effective Oct 29 at http://www.rtve.es/archivos/70-6806-FICHERO/ParrillaReeInvierno2007.pdf is marked HOE at the top, which means Hora Oficial Española, UT +1 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKEY. VOT was much better, tho only fair, on 12035, than on 11735, Nov 5 at 1403 ending YL lecture outroed as ``Views & Colours of Anatolia``, 1405 a truncated version of their IS, which always annoys me, just chopping it off; one complete iteration of it would not take much time. Then Turkish music interlude. At 1407 noticed 12035 transmitter was cutting off the air and back on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. If one wants to hear the documentaries and other features in the 14-15 UT hour from BBCWS to Africa, one can do so in North America via Ascension on 17830 // 21470, such as Nov 5 at 1410 about global warming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Making a periodic check trying to confirm WOR on WBCQ 9330, UT Monday Nov 5 at 0415, nothing audible on that frequency, probably above MUF if it is on; checked 7415, and since I was already in LSB mode on the DX-398, found reduced audio there, while there was quite a bit more audio on the USB, so 7415 is sort of CUSB. Nothing audible on 5110 either. By 0515, 7415 had almost faded out too and I could barely recognize my own voice, which, BTW, had to arrive at WBCQ yet again by phone feed since they had lost the recording/file of the latest show and were about to play the previous one as they already had at 0400; same thing happened the week before. Just before 0515, Ed Bolton was singing! Instead of making his usual desperate pitch for contributions following Amos & Andy (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WWCR mixing product on 5980, Nov 5 at 0656, Pastor Pete Peters and Doctor Gene Scott together, with 5890 leaping over 5935. Both fundamentals were extremely strong, S9+20 while 5980 was S9+15. Heard on two receivers. Not heard on the opposite side, 5845, perhaps obscured by 5850 WEWN. At 0701 PPP began another hour, identified as originally broadcast on 11/21/06. R. Martí is supposed to start at 0700 on 5980, but neither it nor DentroCuban jamming could be heard immediately under WWCR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. As suspected, with WEWN running two 500 kW transmitters only 20 kHz apart, leapfrog mixing product found on 11510, Nov 5 at 1520. That`s 11550, the squealy transmitter in Spanish, over 11530 in English. Could not detect a match on 11570, however, perhaps obscured by WYFR 11565. Spur on 11510 impossiblizes reception here of VOA Sri Lanka in English, despite coincidentally favorable azimuth of 340 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Made a point of monitoring VOA`s new weekday broadcast at 1400-1415 on 11840, 17595, on its first day, Nov 5. Tuned in early to 11840 and nothing there until about 5 seconds after 1400 when cut on with brief open carrier, and then joining Spanish program already in progress, which turns out to be from the Voasat network, ``Deportivo Internacional``, which was announced as a new program itself, altho nothing said about the SW frequencies! Announcer doesn`t understand time conversion as he said it was lunes a viernes 9-9:15 hora de Wáshington, 1300 hora universal, but of course that is now equivalent to 1400! Could not listen to this silly ballgame nonsense straight thru, but then checked 17565 and found it equally strong, and came back before closing. Last item was about a team named the Lakers. In Spanish, one might wonder if it has anything to do with lagos? One thing Los Ángeles is not known for, is lakes. Looking at my Rand McNally, all one finds are little reservoirs scattered here and there, implying they are artificial, and no real natural lakes. At 1414, Freddy Silva was wrapping it up, with forced enthusiasm and constant frenetic musical bed. Stopped at 1414:30, and after a pause, standard VOA sign-off in English. So now we know the purpose of the new 1400-1415 M-F VOA broadcast, but why? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA [non]. ``Aló, Presidente``, via Cuba quickly checked Sunday Nov 4 at 1514, found 17750 & 13750 synchronized; 11875 & 11670 an echo apart from the other two (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. Checking a few things tonight, I don`t hear the 1181 carrier at 0415 UT November 5; I think it was also missing a night or two before. Is anyone hearing it at all any more? Will it forever remain an unsolved mystery as to exact location? (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ### __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! 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