** AUSTRALIA [and non]. 6150, May 24 at 1240, R. Australia with classical piano music instead of usual programming; except for WTWW 5830, it`s the SSOB, well atop RHC Spanish collision until 1300*. Before then I hear the same music // on other RA frequencies, 9475, 11945, 12065; 1254 announced as Beethoven`s Op 2, No 2 played by Arrau, time 5<11 on ``ABC Classic FM``, then choral piece; 1300 no RA IS or theme, or even news, but switch to `Jazz Up Late`. Announcer mentioned several platforms but NOT RA or SW! Not even aware of his suddenly acquired worldwide audience? Starts with music from a festival sponsored by WKCR in NY. At 1313 I find this also replaces RA Chinese on 11665 (now clashing with Malaysia), and clear but delayed at 1338 check via PALAU on 9965, so presumably also on 9475 now blocked by 9479 WTWW.
I was checking this because on May 22 and 23 at *1259, Ron Howard had been hearing R. Australia announce this on 11665: "Radio Australia programs will not be broadcast for several hours from 10:30 this Friday evening. Instead join us for a special selection of the most beautiful music in the world courtesy of ABC Classic FM"; RA services should resume by "mid-day Saturday Eastern Australia Time". Affects not only English but Chinese; no other languages scheduled until 2200-2330 Indonesian on 9695 via UAE, 11695 Shep, presumably also to be replaced. What in the world is going on? A planned strike at RA? Melbourne studio down for maintenance? Experiment with new programming format?? Website does not explain it, but correctly shows current programming as from ABC Classic FM, altho elsewhere still linx to the RA/National programs which are ordinarily carried. The approx. span for this anomaly converted to UT would be: 1230 UT Friday to 0200 UT Saturday. Here`s the Classic FM website: http://www.abc.net.au/classic/ And the Saturday program schedule: http://www.abc.net.au/classic/programs/saturday.htm Check after 7 am Saturday = 2100 UT Friday on 21740. `Weekend Breakfast` is on until 2300: ``There's plenty to enjoy on my weekend breakfast menu - from Bach to Broadway, chamber music to comedy.`` Starting at 2100 with Rustic Dance by Percy Grainger. http://www.abc.net.au/classic/program/weekendbreakfast/ And at 2300-2400 when 19000 is also on, `Keys to Music`: http://www.abc.net.au/classic/program/keystomusic/ A Bach cantata, and part of Britten`s War Requiem. At 0000-0200, `Your Requests`. 21740 goes off at 0100. It`s great to hear classical on SW (jazz already existed in small doses on RA, VOA), and RA ought to divvy up its multiple frequencies so some of them keep with ABC Classic FM after this anomaly. Dream on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 11815, May 24 at 0057, poor signal in Brazilian Portuguese, no doubt R. Brasil Central. I never hear this later at night when other ZYs are propagating on 25m, so presumably signs off sometime. DRM from REE/Costa Rica is scheduled 00-01 to S America, but must have closed a bit early if on at all this date. This of course is yet another scandalous instance of frequency mismanagement, a major international broadcaster ignoring the previous presence of a domestic SW station in the target area; but Brasil is also to blame for refusing even to take the minor step of registering all its SW frequencies with HFCC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Firedrake [non], CNR1 jamming May 24 before 1400 with very poor propagation: 17170, very poor and choppy at 1340 16920, JBA at 1341 14750, JBA at 1342 14700, JBA at 1342; none in the 13s or 12s (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 9870, May 24 at 1250, AIR VBS good but fadey with pop Hindi songs, but only in the clear before 1300 when CCCCI starts, i.e. CRI English. Hey, whatever happened to AIR`s announced plan to convert 9870 to DRM, at least part of the time experimentally; did they ever try it? I hope not (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 5980, May 24 at 0056, R. Chaski carrier detectable, today not only vs. natural noise on the band but also Cuban pulse jamming, which is ``necessary`` only after 0700 when R. Martí is on 5980. But I can still time the Chaski-cutoff at 0100:44 which is 6 seconds later than last nite. (Axually more like 5.3 seconds later on average, but hard to split seconds on my watch.) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1200, May 24 at 0506 UT as I tune across WOAI opening `Coast to Coast AM`, George announces that starting Monday the show will be on the 1190 station in Dallas. Hmmm, moving from what, KLIF? No, current affiliate list for TX at http://www.coasttocoastam.com/stations/texas shows no station at all in The Metroplex, a major, major market! Not under that monicker, nor Dallas, nor Fort Worth, nor any obvious suburb/COL (White Oak 99.3 FM turns out to be in east TX). 1190 is KFXR (originally KLIF), with that extremely complex 5 kW night pattern, utilizing 12! towers: http://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?list=0&facid=25375 and the major lobe heads WSW, 252 degrees: http://transition.fcc.gov/ftp/Bureaus/MB/Databases/AM_DA_patterns/221001-66822.pdf FCC link to topo map http://msrmaps.com/image.aspx?t=2&Lon=-96.413056&Lat=32.899167&w=2&ref=G|-96.413056,32.899167 showing nite site (which is different from day site) with coordinates: 32° 53' 57.00" N Latitude 96° 24' 47.00" W Longitude (NAD 27) is very slow-loading but finally displays ``37 km NE of Dallas``, i.e. somewhere on the eastern shore of Lake Ray Hubbard, near Rockwall and Glen Hill. That makes its major lobe shoot right across Dallas proper and more or less Fort Worth beyond, but many other parts of The Metroplex will find themselves in a null. Getting back to WOAI, I notice that C2C runs many seconds behind same program on other outlets; in fact, no two of them seem to be synchronized, as in random bandscanning from one station to another, often on adjacent frequencies, you hear the last several words repeated or skipped (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1670 monitoring: confirmed on WTWW-1 9479, Thursday May 23 at 2100.5, usual excellent signal. Also confirmed on WWRB 3195, UT Friday May 24 at 0328.3, after a respectful pause, after Dave mentioned that his computer is back in service after lightning strike last week, after music fill. Still not on 5050 too or instead. WOR could also appear sometime after 1800 UT on WTWW-2 9930. Otherwise: Next: UT Saturday 0130v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB; Saturday 0630 & 1430 on HLR 7265-CUSB; Saturday 1500 on WRMI 9955; Saturday & Sunday 2329v on WTWW-2 9930; UT Sunday 0400.5 on WTWW-1 5830 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VATICAN [non]. 7305, May 24 at 0200, Vatican Radio via Greenville, USA, only fair signal aimed south, following open carrier until hourtop, which could have more usefully been modulating something like English. Ed Insinger, NJ, has been corresponding with the VR frequency manager about this 0200-0245 transmission. Often after 0230 instead of continuing in Spanish, French has been heard, and recently a listener in target S America was hearing something other than Spanish at 0200, so I was checking it out. Nothing but Spanish heard here, but HFCC shows IBB (VOA) in Burmese at 0130-0300, 250 kW, 276 degrees from Thailand, which could well carry on to S America across the darkside. Yet another instance of frequency planners not recognizing that signals cannot possibly be restricted to the intended CIRAF, in this case 49W. VR cannot even depend on getting a full half-sesquihour of Spanish on the GB 7305 transmission due to the complexities of satellite feed scheduling. Furthermore as we have reported previously, VR`s only other token broadcast to America, on the same frequency 7305 at 1130-1200 in Spanish via Greenville, also has a collision problem: CNR beaming 37 degrees from the SZG site in China, long before and after this semihour. Maybe, just maybe, VR should find new frequencies for both, and schedule them at times when they can correctly feed the intended language! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) _ 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. 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