** ALASKA. 2863-USB, Sept 23 at 1156, weak VOLMET in American English, fortunately far enough from COSTA RICA, q.v. 2859.8; several sites alternate each semihour, and per http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/VOLMET at H+25-30, and +55-60 it`s Anchorage (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ALBANIA. 7390, Sept 23 at 0628, R. Tirana IS, 0630:16 opening in Albanian. Fair signal at S9+18 with fading, but usual undermodulation. Considering this is non-direxional for Europe, doing well to make it here. Also has some QRM from 7405 DentroCuban Jamming Command, bleedover or spur (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA. 15476, LRA36 barely audible with some music at 1350 Sept 23, weaker than Rampisham 15480, and no better later on; but at least confirmed active today (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRIA. 17610, a good source of exotic HOA music, Sept 23 at 1450, and a good signal altho weaker than adjacent BSKSA 17615. This is the Afar hour, of all things, from AWR, 300 kW, 145 degrees via Moosbrunn, so we are close to directly off the back, 325 degrees. It`s hard to imagine the lyrix in this traditional music form are Christian, but surely they must be, as the SDA invade yet another culture with a well-established religion of its own (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Firedrake Sept 23: none heard 8-18 MHz between 1130 and 14, especially checking the prime hangouts (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. 2859.8, tnx to a tip from Brian Alexander reminding us of the harmonic, last heard 6+ months ago, it`s still there, and oncoming fall/winter conditions should audiblize it better. Sept 23 at 1117 I hear some Mexican music, stronger than North Korea 2850; 1119 a brief announcement may have mentioned San Carlos, for this is surely R. San Carlos, off-frequency as before, 2 x 1429.9. WRTH 2010 says it`s TIRDVC, 3 kW on 1430 from Ciudad Quesada at 1115-0200, but no mention of the harmonic! making this CR`s only active SW station, if you don`t mind fudging HF a bit below 3 MHz. By 1135, it had become weaker than 2850 and bothered by intermittent local line noise bursts (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. RHC keeps us guessing with their anomalies: Sept 23 at 0622 I find Spanish on: 5040, 5970, 6120, 6150 (6150 and 5970 usually in English); English was really only on 6010, 6060. At 0623, The 5040 transmitter was fulcrumming the 5025 Rebelde transmitter, producing a weak mix of the two audios, leapfrogging to 5055, fading out and in, not to be taken for Vanuatu, the long-gone TIFC Costa Rica still in the WRTH 2010 frequency list, or one of the Brazilians (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE [non]. 13640, RFI Spanish service via GUIANA FRENCH, Sept 23 from 1220, usual VG signal, but nothing heard in Spanish, just RFI Musique, including ``Calico`` at 1224; 1228 RFI IDs, no Spanish. Must be another disruption, as today`s another general strike in France. Thought it might be extended past 1230 as sometimes happens, but off at 1229:38, clearing TRT music on 13635 which I then enjoy. 9955, RFI English is now relayed by WRMI M-F at 1400-1430 instead of R. Prague; I imagine Jeff White worked out such a deal at HFCC Zurich in August, but why? RP is still scheduled at other times on WRMI. To confirm Sept 23 at 1408, heard English news, YL interview OM on phone about Cambodia and Vietnam, former French sphere of influence, hardly Czech, but still not certain it was really RFI until 1415 timecheck as quarter past the hour, ID and on to other features. Must be pulled off WRN, which has RFI English also at 1400-1430, a transmission which used to be on RFI`s own SW too. Maybe it`s really live, unlike yesterday`s news from Prague. Signal today was poor, but no jamming; more of a problem was splatter from VOA 9945 music for Indonesia, 200 degrees from Tinang, Philippines, but only on Thu-Fri-Sat; plus Brother Scare overload from WWCR 9980. But, what will happen when WRMI switches from EDT to EST, the semihour for this becoming 1500-1530, while RFI stays at 1400? Or maybe not, via WRN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUATEMALA. I was unavoidably awake before 1100 UT Sept 23, so made the best of it by monitoring, starting with 4055 for R. Verdad, nominal sign-on 1100, but nothing heard at 1059-1104 and later chex. However, at 1124 it was on with prayer(?) or at least preaching in Spanish; 1127 music. BFO needed, but it was hard to tune exactly so the music sounded right, even by first zeroing in on Nikkei 6055. Just about no carrier from TGAV at this time, and then like Bob Wilkner, I concluded at 1150 there was an FM element to the transmission, as during pauses there would be sort of a carrier, unstable. Still audible but almost gone by 1159. I never heard the choo-choo SFX as used to air around 1130, despite ``El Tren del Evangelio`` still on the schedule for 1125-1200 Mon-Sat. Meanwhile I was also monitoring the harmonic from COSTA RICA, and the 90m from HONDURAS, q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HONDURAS. 3250.0, Sept 23 at 1138, hymns in Spanish, so the HRPC transmitter is currently in whack rather than spurring on 3288v. Some lite SSB QRM on side, perhaps MARS. 1143 YL sings ``Maravillosas Palabras de Vida``, appropriately for R. Luz y Vida, San Luís, Santa Bárbara. Their QSL with a map, spells out call as ``Honduras Radio Proclamando a Cristo``. Neither the current WRTH nor the final PWBR give us this info (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KUWAIT [and non]. 21540, R. Kuwait putting in a fine S9+18 signal, Sept 23 at 1356 with drama in Arabic; too bad they did not pick a clear frequency as REE Spain QRM audible under; its // frequencies 21540 and 21610 rated S9+10 all by themselves, so does that also account for 10 of the 18 dB registering on 21540? It doesn`t work that way. By 1440, RK was in Qur`an, cantor with an especially beautiful voice; I suppose it`s vesper time in Kuwait. Now the SAH from Spain is worse, estimated around 11 Hz. 21540 is still the SSOB at S9+15, greater than only S9+12 from Libya on 21695 which also has crummy muffled lofi audio by comparison, not to mention soporific content. 1444 brief Arabic spoken, and over to a different chanter. So on 21540 we have moros vs cristianos; I wonder how this goes over in Córdoba? Probably way over, that is Noblejas inaudible in skip zone, just Kuwait. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. 3450-, Sept 23 at 1152, the ``OK`` HIFER beacon is well audible slightly on the lo side, nothing but CW ID several times per minute. This is allegedly in Oklahoma, perhaps not far from me, running a fraxion of a watt. See http://www.highfrequencybeaconsociety.com/The_Societies_Beacons.html (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA [and non]. The VOR Pashto/Dari service on 15510 via ``Krasnodar`` at 12-14 can provide some fine exotic music, if not from an exotic place; signal especially good Sept 23 at 1352, then switching to the theme from ``Love Story`` at 1357, which I think I have heard them playing at same time before, rather off-topic. 1358 Pashto announcement spelling out website with English letters, VOR IS, and at 1359 overlapping with DW about to overtake the channel for Russian via Rampisham. I also heard a few words of Chinese, could not tell from which station, in a switching error! VOR carrier stayed on a few sex past 1400, with its constant hum, then DW in the clear (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. Sept 23 I try to hear ``Sudan in Focus``, the new VOA service for Southern Sudan, which per VOA press release allegedly started Sept 20, M-F at 1630-1700 on 9675, 12015, 13825, sites as yet unknown. No signal on 9675. Only RTTY on 12015 --- so it`s not Greenville, which uses that frequency after 1700; I can hear a trace of it on 13825 using USB, but far too much DentroCuban Jamming Command and Radio Martí on 13820. I trust all three have no such problems in the target area. More about it including ondemand listening at http://www.voanews.com/sudan But when I play the current file, it starts with Africa News Tonight headlines; then less than a minute later, Sonny Side of Sports, about India, South Africa, not Sudan, a long report on boxing, outroed as airing at 1631 UTC! After that, still no Sudan in Focus program. Impossible to tell the date/day this file came from, so is it automated and putting up the wrong one with nohuman at VOA making sure SIF is in it, or has SIF`s début been delayed? I quit after listening to the first half (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWEDEN [non]. 9955, Sept 23 at 0631, there is ``Radio Sweden Wednesday`` on Thursday, introduced by George Wood, with elexion update. Quite a good signal, mostly atop the pulse jamming. WRMI in fact was much better than WYFR on 9985, but still weaker than WYFR 9715 and 9680. This was amid WRMI`s extensive relays of WRN North America, which the latest schedule shows scattered at various other times, besides the major blox: but never telling us which stations are axually relayed at which hours. For that, we have to bring up the WRN schedule itself. Compare [URL may change, as linked from WRMI`s Facebook] https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AivhtkIEGb3_dENObnZrMkt1YmtUWGxkbkd3TGNzOXc&hl=en#gid=0 with http://www.wrn.org/listeners/assets/PDFs/WRN_English_North_America_Summer_2010.pdf Hmm, this may mean that R. Sweden can`t get rid of SW altogether at the end of October! Contrary to their intent, if they are still putting an English show on WRN, we may get it via WRMI, altho this timing is a bit inconvenient for those who need to sleep (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also FRANCE [non] ** TUNISIA. I was watching my watch, Sept 23 at 0626 as I knew RTT was about to cut 7275 off the air unceremoniously amid the enjoyable Arab music they play. Modulation stopped at 0627:25, carrier cut at 0627:36, uncovering no FRCN Nigeria which had activated 7275 recently but only for a few days, so RTT does not need to worry about their co-channel after all. Meanwhile, // 7335 continued (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WEWN still missing from all frequencies checked, such as 7555, Sept 23 at 0625 – just the utility hash from France on the hi side, unimpeded. WEWN really needs to abandon 7555 when Europe is propagating. Also in the 1300 hour, no 13835, 12050 or 11550. Glen Tapley of WEWN must have read my previous report, since this email was awaiting me: ``Glenn, FYI. WEWN will be off air for scheduled downtime until Friday 9/24/2010 2100 UTC. Glen Tapley``. IIRC, they were also off for maintenance several days in August 2009; then we hoped among other things they would fix the squeal and the spurs, but no. This time, maybe? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. First airing of WORLD OF RADIO 1531 confirmed on WRMI webcast, also 9955, Thu Sept 23 from 1500; next airings are Thu 1900 on WBCQ 7415, Thu 2100 on WRMI 9955, UT Fri 0330 on WWRB 3185, Fri 1430 on WRMI 9955, Fri 2030 on WWCR 15825, Sat 0800 on WRMI 9955, NEW Sat 1400 on WRMI 9955, Sat 1600 on WWCR 12160. Full WOR sked, including non-SW outlets: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. I sometimes check out the hi end of the MW band late at night, using the same E-W longwire to the FRG-7 as for SW. Something strange, Sept 23 at 0635 UT I was hearing a het of about 1 kHz on KOKC 1520, from 1521 --- that`s too late for Saudi Arabia, which is commonly audible earlier. And a het of almost, but not quite the same pitch, from 1539 against jumble of signals including an open carrier on 1540. These do happen to be Region 1 MW channels, but such a pair is suspicious, as if a station on 1530 were running a 9 kHz tone test, or spurs of the same frequency. The 1521 and 1539 signals were fading, so not an artifact of some local appliance, altho 1539 was somewhat unstable judging from the pitch fluxuation. 1539/1540 het pitch was slightly higher than the 1521/1520 het, so if they were coming from a 1530 transmitter, it was slightly on the lo side. Could not make out any audio from them. Ideas? (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
