** ALASKA. 6890, KNLS better than usual during English hour, Jan 19 at 1406 ID and 2-minute segment on stamp collecting, US plans for 2010 issues, Year of the Woman. A bit of an echo, backscatter? 1408 Postcard from Alaska, about Glacier Bay starting with bird SFX. Now they`ve got listeners hooked with innocent secular stuff, at 1412 hit `em with gospel-huxtering: ``True Stories from the Bible in Contemporary English``. Still, every state should have its own SW station promoting tourism, even if it`s produced in Tennessee (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** AUSTRALIA. 2485, VL8K, Jan 19 at 1345 with some talk audible, but not on weaker NT carriers 2310, 2325. At 1346 I could almost imagine there was a carrier on 2368.5 from R. Symban, but too much LSA beacon harmonic --- see U S A (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA [and non]. 15340 in English Jan 19 at 1455 with big het from perpetually off-frequency Morocco on 15341. Must be HCJB Kununurra, only thing scheduled, and CVC Cox Peninsula (still on the air) was making it well with gospel rock on 13635, neither reliably audible here over night-path. At 1458 Morocco went off, about to shift to 15345, so could hear 15340 at 1500 closing Spotlight, easy English program with e-mail address. Now the problem is splatter from Radio Martí 15330, and nothing much further audible from HCJB-Au, which is supposedly in English daily 1445-1530, after lots of other S Asian languages from 1145, all aimed 307 degrees from WA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL [and non]. 6185, apprehensively enjoying nice Mexican music on XEPPM, 6185, Jan 19 at 0625 now clear of Catholic clash from Vatican, and already at *0629 on comes Brasília overriding it. Feb 21 cannot come soon enough, when Brasil goes off DST and this should start cutting on sometime between 0730 and 0800 UT instead. Inexplicably, RNA shifts programming and transmission one hour back and forth due to DST in Brasília even tho there is no DST in target Amazônia! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Firedrake check Jan 19 at 1526: fair on 8400, not heard on 9000 or anywhere in the 10000-11500 range (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA [and non]. OTH radar pulses presumed from here, Jan 19: at 1402, 5760-5810 QRMing AFN Guam 5765 with AP Radio News ID at 1403, denoting an optional cutaway to affiliates for whom even 5 minutes of news is too much to swallow; and also QRMing the hugely stronger IBB Tinian in Cantonese on 5810. Also OTHR at 1406 covering 6770-6820 but no broadcasters to bother (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. 2859.8, R. San Carlos --- seems the only times I hear it are when checking something else quickly on the portable, in the cold outdoors on a clip-on antenna away from the household noise sources --- there it was definitely in Spanish vs noise level still high, Jan 19 at 0150, two times 1429.9 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Has anyone noticed anything unusual from RHC in Creole? They allegedly have only one half-hour program daily which doesn`t leave much time for anything but propaganda. The `official` sked e-mailed out after B-09 began claims Creole is only at 0100-0130 on 13790 to Rio de Janeiro! And that matches the transmission schedule currently presented on the website in Spanish. I think they are known to substitute French for Creole, anyway. It seems their service in that language has atrophied. The YouTube visit to RHC a few years ago showed a gringa(?) non-Haitian lady in charge of it. Is she gone? There seems to be no Creole page at all on the RHC website, but looking at French, the transmission schedule there is years out of date, claiming Creole is: 2130-2200 9505, 2230-2300 9505, 0100-0130 9550 --- both frequencies abandoned long ago. If Cuba really wanted to help, they would have greatly expanded their Creole service by now, like VOA, BBC, RFI. Not to mention actually delivering aid, doctors from that paragon of medical excellence. But having to submit to US air traffic control?! Instead they and Chávez bitch about US aid generously given to Haiti as some kind of opportunism to take over the country (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HAITI [non]. Checked the two emergency 20m channels for Haiti: 14265-USB, Jan 19 at 1503 NCS was NB7PX, listening for Haiti, DR, calling Barbados but no traffic at the moment. 14300-USB, Jan 19 at 1506 NCS WA1RKP, open for relief effort traffic, several talk-overs by hams who apparently could not hear each other. Both nets were bothered by stronger SSB signals on the low side. A reminder that TWR Bonaire 800 kHz says it is relaying 4VEH from Cap-Haïtien starting at 0315 UT until 0700. Let`s have some monitoring reports of that; not likely around here with OKC on 800 (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Much more concerning Haiti: CUBA; U S A ** INDIA. 9470, AIR National Channel via Aligarh, again exhibiting problems, but at least not jumping to lots of other frequencies as it used to. Jan 19 at 1333, Hindi talk // clear 9425 Bengaluru, but 9470 with motorboating, warble, hum (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI carrier weakly detectable but not any modulation, Jan 19 at 1340 during presumed English hour. RRI HS on 9680 also weak, but some music audible. 4750, RRI Makassar, Jan 19 at 1352 continuous YL talk in Indonesian, with ripple presumably from one of the other 4750 stations on a slightly different frequency, likely CNR1. Also some music on 3325 at 1349 but can`t be sure it was Palangkaraya as Atsunori Ishida http://www.max.hi-ho.ne.jp/a-ishida/ins/ says Buka, PNG often QRMs past 1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [and non]. Jan 19 was a good calm morning for reception from here, first checking 2850, at 1344 with Korean talk, deep fades from S9+8 peaks. Weaker at 1348 on 3250, 3320, jammer on 3480. Looked for more Juche jammers at 1516: exactly same noise sound on 5890 vs VOA as on 6003 and 6015. 6003 is against Echo of Hope, but 6015 is new, per Aoki 0654-0004 against the reactivated South Korean channel, some audio of which was audible under at 1524: ``6015 KBS Hanminjok Bangsong 1 0350-2400 1234567 Korean 100 ND Hwaseong KOR 12659E 3709N KBS b09 Jan. 1- // 972, 117[0]`` At 1521, similar jamming noise on 6600 with victim audible and 6518; different sound with faster pulsing on 6350. 6285 in Russian which is VOK. 6250 had noise jamming pulses instead of Pyongyang BS – a mixup at the transmitter site or are the South Koreans retaliating? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. 5875, BBCWS in English via THAILAND, Jan 19 at 1404 with optional cutaway cue ``World News from the BBC`` for benefit of affiliates for whom three minutes of news is plenty; atop co-channel in Arabic we have been noting for several days now. A little birdie tells me this is indeed BBCWS via Cyprus site: 5875 BBC 1400 1600 Arabic Cyprus smtwtfs Arabian Gulf 300 121 VTC 1/18 Tho I was hearing it before January 18. BBC assumes they can double up on this frequency without significant self-QRM in respective target areas, which may be true, and at the same time as a bonus make BBCWS 5875 unlistenable by undesirable North Americans who have no right to hear it any way on SW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. One of VOA`s known Kriyol SW frequencies, 13725, heard on the air earlier than scheduled *2200, Jan 18 at 2134 tune-in but nothing yet on the other SW channels 15390 or 11905. Announcement at 2138 mentioned only this SW frequency after three FM frequencies, 92.?, 93.3 and 105.1 --- which had been unknown before and not specified in press releases. Presumably some or all of them are airborne from the psyop SOW which flew in from Harrisburg PA. Then at 2140 started putting callers on the air trying to find out about relatives or contact them. Surprised to hear the first one in English, from a woman in Martinique seeking her father, gave her own phone number, but all the others were in Creole almost until hourtop. Then I started looking for the other SW frequencies. As usual, they were late coming up as news on the hour had started on 13725! At 2201, open carrier on 15390, modulation from 2202. At 2201 no carrier on 11905, but on and modulating at next check 2204. I suspect 13725 may have been on for hours before I ran across it. More below. Rechecking toward end of the scheduled 22 UT hour, at 2254: 15390 inaudible, presumably just faded out; 13725 weak and fading, but 11905 still very good; 2259 a bit of dirge classical music, standard VOA sign-off in English. These are all Greenville, of course, aimed close to a right angle from OK. [Later, Jan 19:] Expanded hours for 13725 still do not show on the C-page of the A-Z frequency schedule: http://author.voanews.com/english/about/frequenciesAtoZ_c.cfm and if you click on Creole for that service`s page, you may find lots of interesting info in fraxured french at http://www.voanews.com/creole/ but if you then click on Frekans, you go right back to the A-Z schedule presented in English. Nor do I see anything on either page about the three new airborne(?) FM frequencies I heard announced today. At 0145 UT Jan 19, I tried the new nighttime Kriyol transmission at 01-02 on 1180, 5960 and 7465. 5960 was fair but fading, and 7465 JBA. 5960 was previously the Tue-Sat Spe-cial Eng-lish channel at 0130-0200, along with 7405, where nothing is heard now, so suspect the latter Greenville transmitter has also been pre-empted, or co-opted, but on 7465 instead. It so happened that at 0147 they were playing back the same caller in English from Martinique that I had heard at 2140, otherwise Kriyol. I thought I might be able to detect 1180 audio from Marathon // 5960, but no, just too much QRM from multiple US/Mexican transmitters if not Cuban audible here; I have no reason to believe the Cubans are turning off their jamming during the VOA/Creole hours on 1180. (Terry Krueger in FL says there are at least three unsynchronized Rebelde outlets on 1180.) I was also wondering if Marathon might have loosened up or modified their direxional pattern during the Haiti hours to maximize the signal there, and possibly change its backward radiation too, normally extremely suppressed. Looked for VOA Creole`s expanded morning transmission Jan 19: tune in 6135 at 1326 but nothing audible, scheduled Bonaire relay from 1230. It`s a bit late for propagation, 9:26 am local, but expected to hear at least something. Maybe they had to close a bit early. The other expanded frequency, from Greenville, 9660, was VG running a USG editorial in Creole, 1329:30 English sign-off. During open carrier could hear RRI in German, now colliding for a semihour. IBB uses 13725 from Tinian until 1700, but then it`s open, not registered by anyone. But at 1757 Jan 19, the midday Creole transmission expanded to 1730-1930 is on VG 15390 and fair 17565, not yet 13725, tho it was certainly running well before 2200 the day before. Maybe picks up at 1930? (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 15550-USB, still no trace of WJHR at 1725 check Jan 18. In fact, the last date I definitely heard it was Dec 20, tho others reported it last on Dec 30. So has it been completely silent since then, or just brief tests we have missed? I wrote to G S Mock asking him about this. He replied Jan 19: ``WJHR had an antenna failure. High rf caused melting in the wires. This is good news though! A new antenna is being installed as soon as the weather permits. I hope to have the station up and going in a few days if all goes well. The new antenna is a quality log periodic which should put out a substantial signal. Thankyou for your your concern and keep listening. We will continue to be on this frequency during the A10 season. G.S. Mock wjhr @ usa.com`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 2366, Lamesa TX NDB on seventh harmonic of 338 kHz, stronger than recently at 1346 Jan 19, so with BFO was able to recopy definite Morse ID as ``LSA`` despite negative keying on A2 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6927, as I tuned by Jan 19 at 1519 heard some distorted music on SSB, no doubt a pirate, but before I could be certain of the frequency it was gone (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 10107, 2-way SSB in Spanish a surprise on this CW-only hamband, Jan 19 at 1527. Probably the usual narco/poacher intruders rather than Mexican hams (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 17630, fairly strong open carrier Jan 19 at 1446-1447:30 and noticed back on before 1452. Would like to think it`s Africa Numéro Un, Gabon, reactivating its long-missing second transmitter, and propagation was possible from there, but pretty steady and I fear it`s only another IBB Greenville warmup on an otherwise unused frequency. In between, could hear weak CRI Mali, so if ANO does reactivate, they should really come back on a clear frequency! And that goes for 15475 too vs Antarctica (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ### ---[Start Commercial]--------------------- Order your WRTH 2009: http://www.hard-core-dx.com/redirect2.php?id=wrth2009 ---[End Commercial]----------------------- ________________________________________ Hard-Core-DX mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx http://www.hard-core-dx.com/ _______________________________________________ THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License published by Michael Stutz at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/dsl.html
