** AUSTRALIA. 5995, March 20 at 1332 I notice that R. Australia is in AM on this frequency // 6020; 5995 Brandon had been running DRM at 12-14. Inquiry is out to Nigel Holmes; apparently they have already canceled DRM here in preparation for new DRM service from Shepparton (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.:
Radio Australia will commence a DRM schedule from its main Pacific station at Shepparton, Victoria from 1 April 2012. Average power is 40 kW from a Continental 418G transmitter. Competent reception reports welcome especially notifying interference to the RA transmissions. Include postal details if emailing reports. Broadcasts to central Pacific may also be audible in North America; broadcasts to the south-west Pacific and PNG may also be audible in eastern Australia. Broadcasts to south-east Asia may be audible in Europe. Time (UT) kHz Target DRM mode 0100-0300 19000 central Pacific C 10 kHz 16QAM level 1 11 kb/s 0700-0900 7410 south-west Pacific B 10 kHz 64QAM level 2 24 kb/s 0900-1100 9475 south-west Pacific B 10 kHz 64QAM level 2 24 kb/s 1100-1300 6080 west Pacific & PNG C 10 kHz 16QAM level 1 11 kb/s 1300-1500 9890 central Pacific C 10 kHz 16QAM level 1 11 kb/s 1500-1700 5940 SE-Asia C 10 kHz 16QAM level 1 11 kb/s 1700-1900 9475 SE-Asia C 10 kHz 16QAM level 1 11 kb/s (Nigel Holmes, Chief Engineer, Radio Australia via Craig Seager, Australian Radio DX Club via Alokesh Gupta, March 20, dxldyg via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. 11925.1, March 20 at 0535, Portuguese conversation, poor signal, but barely // 9645.3 under Vatican het, R. Bandeirantes as usual slightly off to the hi side. Scanned 25m for other Brasilians after hearing that propagate and found only: stronger signal slightly below 11765-, SRDA Curitiba, instead of usual wacky wailer David Miranda, an equally emotional dramatic dialog by sobbing W&M. MUF barely reached 12 MHz with no broadcasters above 12030 DVR audible; see RUSSIA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Firedrake March 20: 11500, fair at 1339; none higher (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) But see EAST TURKISTAN 13855 ** EAST TURKISTAN. 13855, March 20 at 1342, in Chinese with ``El Condor Pasa`` on pan flute and other Zamfir tunes mixed with talk, 1349 ``Sandunga``. Gone at 1409 check. VG signal despite lack of any Firedrakes in the 13s or other ranges. HFCC shows 13855 at 13-14 only, CRI in Chinese, 500 kW, 308 degrees from Urumqi, so quite a near-transpolar inboomer. Propagation is finally picking up after all the geomag storms. Rivaled neighbor WWCR 13845 which was also inbooming, presumably with some springtime HF sporadic-E help (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 15045-15050-15055, March 20 at 1410, plenty of DRM noise here from AIR Sinhala service at 13-15, now making it again with trans-polar propagation improving. After sitting out the B-11 season, AIR has resumed registering its schedules with HFCC for A-12: http://www.hfcc.org/data/schedbybrc.php?seas=A12&broadc=AIR with this one continuing. Trouble is, HFCC has not yet figured out how to mark which transmissions are DRM, while in the master frequency list they are denoted N for the French numérique (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN. 17670, March 20 at 1414, fair signal in Arabic with salaam, pensive monolog, presumably religiously-inspired, amid IRIB`s 6-hour service from 1030, 500 kW, 259 degrees from Kamalabad to N Africa, also Iberia and Mideast, which also makes it here when hi-latitude propagation is coöperating as it had not been for a couple of weeks (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LEBANON [non]. 9645, March 20 at 0540, song in Arabic, via Vatican Radio, but based on previous observations, this is a relay of Voice of Charity, which has four (not just three as in WRTH) FM frequencies in Lebanon. See http://www.radiocharity.org/aboutus.html WRTH 2012 says it is at 0530-0600 on 11715, which is the // VR frequency for Arabic from 0500, the first half of which is their own (11715 here inaudible except for R. Japan USward in Russian from 0530). 0555 song about Allah, so apparently these Maronite Christians are allowed to use that Arabic word for their version of god. 0556 fanfare, and ID as Sawt al-Hidat? Not at all sure of that word, however you say charity in Arabic. Google translate is no help, pronouncing only the English word and providing no Romanization of several possible words! What is it, Tarek? Cut off at 0557 after just two notes of the VR IS. All the while, had het from q.v. Brasil 9645.3 but dominating it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 710, March 20 at 1226 UT, a fellow speaking Low German, with hymn accompaniment; his accent sounds English rather than Spanish, and he mentions Chihuahua, so here`s another station serving that community. Immediately into Spanish with usual singing ID from XEDP, ``La Ranchera de Cuauhtémoc``, as often heard around sunrise only in Spanish. I wonder if that Plattdeutsch was brief announcement or a full program? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** POLAND [non]. 15770, March 20 at 1422, Polskie Radio ID in Russian with piano jingle, good signal, 1400-1430 via Woofferton UK. Enjoy PRES while you can, as drastic cuts are coming in a few days with A-12, as in http://www.hfcc.org/data/schedbybrc.php?seas=A12&broadc=PRW where we see this transmission will survive, shifting to 1300-1330 on 15480, even tho there is no time change in Russia! But only five other SW transmissions will remain, all via Woofferton, in Polish, White and Red Russian --- deleting what was left of English, and the Polish relays to N America which have been at 22-23 UT on 15260 Sackville, 7330 Woofferton, and were tentatively planned to continue in A-12 one hour earlier on 9590 Woof and 15260 Sack. Maybe they will broadcast a farewell mass this Saturday at 2200 if the new schedule has not already started at local midnight. Alan Roe reports to DXLD March 18: ``Tonight's edition of "What's Up?" confirmed that Polish Radio External Service in English is dropped from shortwave from start of A-12 Season. Only available on Internet, satellite & via WRN from 25 March 2012`` (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. 9840, March 20 at 0542, Russians vs Russians! This night, R. Rossii from Moskva site and VOR English from Pet/Kam are about equal level, making both useless. They collide every B-season, but in A-12 from March 25, Pet/Kam moves to 13775 at 04-06 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 7490, March 20 at 0548 hymn on WBCQ frequency, S9+22, yes // 5890 and 3185 but not synchronized, and at 0554 Brother Scare is talking, so 7490 running much later than scheduled 0400*, with BS only until 0300. Make-good time or just a bonus? Meanwhile 9330 is in dead air; see U S A (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 9760, March 20 at 0545, good signal with sorta Farsi talk? No it`s Kurdish, VOA 05-06 via Nauen, GERMANY (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 9330-CUSB, March 20 dead air observations of WBCQ: 0539 silent on good signal with hum; next check at 1225 still DA, 1232 modulating, but 1257 open carrier again (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also SOUTH CAROLINA [non] ** U S A. 10000, March 20 at 1418, WWV propagation minute is again voiced by a robofem: SF=102, A=10, K@12=1, no disturbances past or next 24 hours, yay! I heard `her` first Feb 27 as in DXLD 12-09, then back to a human. I`m not so impressed with her mechanical intonation, speaking too quickly, swallowing numbers, and not repeating any even tho another 15 sex are available. She`s been noticed by ARRL: http://www.arrl.org/news/surfin-wwv-goes-digital Stan Horzepa says, ``text-to-speech engine from NeoSpeech generates the new voice "Kate," which was chosen for its clarity and consistency. The new voice is getting rave reviews.`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 660, March 20 at 0602 UT after striking out on the Mexican unID sign-off, I can hear Lincoln Financial ad, 0603 KTNN ID and Navajo chanting. Not as strong as around sunrise, but even this much is contrary to nulling output toward New York. So today I retune in at 1228 UT to catch KTNN switching to full day pattern an hour earlier than legal. KSKY Dallas dominates with K-sky IDs, ad for AMAC auto insurance (Association of Mature American Citizens is trying to peel off farrightwingnuts from ``too-liberal`` AARP; good riddance), apparently amid Bill Bennett`s Morning in America show, or just promos? Mentioned that a few times, but never heard him. Anyhow, even with KSKY right-angle nulled, no KTNN at 1230; at 1232 a Spanish station starts to audiblize itself, mentioning some Mexican cities. At 1234 I check the other Navajo station on 880, and it is well audible, see separate log, right back to 660 in time to hear KTNN suddenly appear at 1235 with Navajo chanting and drumming; 1238 ``KTNN AM 660 Window Rock-Gallup`` not a sign-on, but canned ID (they have scads of them, each with a separate second city in rotation), right into national ads in English for Pennzoil, Netflix, then Miss Navajo Nation with ID for this ``Voice of the Navajo Nation, AM 660, KTNN``. Recheck at 1300, KTNN still audible with ID, CNN news. Legal local sunrise for Window Rock AZ in March is 1330 UT until when they should not be skywaving toward us and WFAN, but I enjoy hearing them anyway, full of culture-clashes (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 670, March 20 at 1300, local news from Texarkana AR about debit-card scam to beware of; 1302 Historic Washington`s Jonquil Festival, and other quasi-PSAs involving several area codes, ``Southwest Arkansas` News Leader, KWXI,`` Hot Springs ad, plug for an old-fashioned barber shop in Glenwood. Dominating frequency with only a weak SAH when nulled, but fading already at 1303, a semihour past today`s Enid sunrise 1234 UT. NRC AM Log 2011-2012 shows KWXI is a 5 kW daytimer at Glenwood, pronounced ``quick-see`` which I did not hear, just the individual letters. Glenwood is closer to Hot Springs than Texarkana, on US 70. Station`s official sunrise in March is 1230 UT, in April 1145. ``Kwixy`` used to be a hot name for rock stations, however legally spelt and some calls were quite imaginative (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 770, March 20 at 1323 UT, KKOB Albuquerque NM in well after non-direxional day pattern starts at 1315 (in March, 1230 UT in April), with M&W chat show, the W giving traffic reports every 10 minutes on the 7s; included brief plug for substation KTBL 1050, which is no more really in Los Ranchos than 770 is, both from downtown ABQ studios, only KKOB entitled ``The Talk Monster!!!!!!`` presumably inspired by Rush (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 880, March 20 at 1234, Navajo talking about Jeremiah; 1243 offering a DVD about astronomy, Navajo talk about Ephesians and Hebrews – as if the Dinehs` ancient religion were insufficient! Is KHAC, Western Indian Ministries` missionary station at Tse Bonito NM next to Window Rock AZ, which I was checking to compare to 660 KTNN, q.v., which did not pop in until 1235. I don`t believe this was on night power 430 watts either, rather 10 kW day power which is not legal until 1330 UT in March. KRVN, beware, let alone WCBS! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1000, March 20 at 1246, ads for ESPN.com in null of KTOK OKC. It seems that WMVP 50 kW Chicago is the only ESPN on 1000, so presumed that. Not often heard here, with a deep null to the west at night, but less so on day pattern in March from 1200 UT; KTOK signal seems weaker than usual lately. It`s not as strong as another OKC 5 kW, WKY 930, but KTOK site is on the S side while WKY is on the N side closer to us (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1070, March 20 at 0435 UT after tip on ABDX list from the engineer at WSCZ Sans Souci SC, tone test again heard 23 hours later. He was going to do it again for DXers but only for half an hour or so from 0400. Were there ever any code IDs? Al Hajny of WSCZ said on ABDX, ``This is a "new" MW-50C from KYW. The old transmitter was stripped, along with the ground system and nearly every piece of copper in the place - including 14 gauge copper wires from the light switches up to the fixtures - a few feet in some cases. Underground lines tied to a truck and yanked out. Wiring up to the tower lights and ring transformers gone. The middle tower is the daytime, the end towers for now are just floating so there is probably some directivity towards the NNW and SSE.`` Todd Roberts, WD4NGG, said, ``Still hearing the test tone at 12:35 AM EDT. It sounds like a 1 kHz tone but actually it measures 999 Hz = 1 Hz low. Thanks for running the test!`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1480, March 20 at 1252 UT I notice a strong open carrier here, obviously from my nearest station, KQAM Wichita KS, ``The Big Talker``. Cat got your tongue? Left a receiver on 1480 to determine how long dead air would last, requiring all kinds of advertiser refunds if anyone but me notice: talk modulation finally cut on at 1341 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 1660, March 20 at 1307 UT, quick echo between two sports-talk stations, no doubt KQWB West Fargo ND, and KRZI Waco TX, both ESPN. This should happen a lot, but I don`t recall noticing it before (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM [and non]. 11605, March 20 at 1417, shrill siren jammer against something JBA, i.e. R. Free Asia in Vietnamese, 250 kW, 250 degrees from Tanshui, Taiwan at 14-15 per Aoki; missing from HFCC, where the ChiCom forbid such info on behalf of the VietCong (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 660, March 20 at 0559, choral Mexican NA, and unlike 24 hours earlier I am staying tuned for the ID afterwards, but --- nothing after 0601. Was this station axually signing off? FWIW, the only 660 in IRCA Mexican Log shown closing at 0600 is XEACB, Ciudad Delicias, Chihuahua, and the direxion fits. But remember we are in the two sesquiweeks of confusion between US and Mexican DST start dates, except for border cities, which Delicias is not (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 1380, usually I can`t get anything a few miles from local 1390 KCRC splash even when nulled, but March 20 at 1250 ut something in Spanish briefly. Guessing game thru the NRC AM Log 1380 listings starts with KDXE in Arkansas, until I am reminded that KMUS Sperry OK (Tulsa) is allegedly Spanish now too, besides KMWF San Antonio TX market, the only three SS in this region. (Note, I only use ``SS`` when it really means Spanish-speaking, not just Spanish) (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 9875, March 20 at 1336, 1000 Hz tone, gone at next check 1341. Nothing is scheduled here between 1000 and 1500 per HFCC and Aoki (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ---[Start Commercial]--------------------- Order your WRTH 2011: http://www.hard-core-dx.com/redirect2.php?id=wrth2011 ---[End Commercial]----------------------- ________________________________________ Hard-Core-DX mailing list Hard-Core-DX@hard-core-dx.com 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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