January 2008 ABDX Journal
Vol 3. Issue 1
Editors Corner:
ABDX membership has grown by 4. ABDX Nation is now 179 members. Newbies, let us know what you are hearing and send in your logs. Your logs are what make ABDX a healthy and active list. We thank all of you who have contributed your logs to this months Journal
As always, ABDX is looking for those who would like to edit a section or send in a story for publication in the Journal. If you are interested, email dc2daylight at gmail dot com. I can only offer those who contribute by editing, free membership and accolades. Of course membership is free for all but the accolades are what makes the pay worth it all. Join Jay Heyl, Martin Foltz and me in producing the Journal!
January’s CME was for tiny mighty-mite radio logs. People are DXing with little pocket radios and some of the catches are exceptional. February’s CME is for GY DX on 1230, 1240, 1350, 1400, 1450 or 1490.
You all should take a look at Allen Willie of Newfoundland’s logs. What a haul of some very nice catches. It looks as if Allan has a great site to DX from!
We enjoy seeing our members who have made it to the “Hall of Fame” for those of us with faces for radio! If you are a member and want to be in the Rogues Gallery, send your pix to webmaster@americanbroadcastdx.com.
Only submissions from ABDX members will be accepted unless the editor decides the information is so important that it should be added. This will probably be very rare, Should you receive this and you are not a member, go to this URL and tell us a little about yourself and we will consider you for membership.
This is the site to join ABDX.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ABDX/
To join ABDX by mail here’s where to send the mail:
ABDX-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
The ABDX website URL is:
www.americanbroadcastdx.com or www.abdx.org
The ABDX CME Journal is available to all at no cost. Please pass it around to your DXing friends and also post it on other lists as well. We want as many as possible to see the Journal so we can grow the DX hobby. Please do your part to keep our hobby viable.
You can get your copy of the journal at www.abdx.org
The January CME Announcement
By popular demand we bring you the January CME [Coordinated Monitoring Event]. The January CME will accept any log from any radio on any broadcast frequency but the main thrust is on small mighty-mite receivers.
This CME is DX using any small radio that is a mighty mite. A mighty mite is consumer radio and not specifically made for DX and the size of a pack of cigarettes more or less, absolutely unaided in any way such as the SRF-42, SRF 59, a Zenith Royal 20, DT200V, SRF-M35V, Grundig Mini 300, SRF-A1, DT300VX, SRF-MK10, SRF-M85V, Grundig mini100PE, even an RCA 2.5" pocket TV can be used and other units the likes of those mentioned. The mighty mite can have a speaker or headphones, it doesn't matter. It just should be able to fit in a shirt pocket.
These mighty-might logs can be on any band, LW/AM/FM/HF/WX/TV but
there MUST NOT be any external antenna used with these radios for this CME and IT MUST FIT IN A COMMON SHIRT POCKET. These mighty-mites used for this CME MUST BE run on battery power only.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your chance to DX as you did some years ago before we all got the high dollar ultrasensitive radios we all enjoy the other 11 months of the year. There will be a separate set of logs for these radios prominently exposed at the beginning of the January edition of the ABDX Journal.
Let us all see what we can do with little firebreathing DX eating mighty mites. I am sure we will all be surprised at what we all can hear. What are you hearing?
The February CME Announcement
You wanted GY month so at ABDX, we aim to please. GY DXers, its your
month. I don't expect much in the way of loggings but I am hoping all of you prove me exactly wrong. If you do it will make me happy.
I hope to see you all DXing and sending in logs for GY month and
prove me wrong.
Kevin Redding, Phil Rafuse, Powell Way, Mike Richard, Jay Heyl and Martin Foltz the ABDX crew.
The Broadcast Band
Peter Jernakoff –Wilmington, DE
SDR-IQ and antenna
An initial review of my 7-Jan-08 SDR-IQ RF spectrum sunset captures yielded
the first two new ones of the new year.
07-Jan-08 // 1703 local // 830 khz. // WCRN // 50 kw // Worchester, MA //
Male with end of stock market report then quick, faint ID: "...it's
5:03...WCRN [what sounded like 'news']...". // New. In a brief WEEU
(Reading, PA) fade. A 261 mile catch.
MP3 clip available here:
http://www.21centimeter.com/21centimeter/Recordings/830-khz_1703-Local_1-7-08_WCRN_Worchester_MA.mp3
07-Jan-08 // 1706 local // 870 khz. // WFLO // 1 kw day // Farmville, VA //
End of stock market report then female with "This is WFLO AM or FM,
Farmville, Virginia." Into weather report after which the station signed
off for the day. // New. A 222 mile catch.
MP3 clip available here:
http://www.21centimeter.com/21centimeter/Recordings/870-khz_1706-Local_1-07-08_WFLO_Farmville_VA.mp3
07-Jan-08 || 1700 local || 910 khz. || WRNL || 5 kw day || Richmond, VA ||
Fortuitous fade up from jumble to ID by male: "...sports radio 910, WRNL,
Richmond, Virginia." || New. A 177 mile catch.
MP3 clip available here:
http://www.21centimeter.com/21centimeter/Recordings/910-khz_1700-Local_1-07-08_WRNL_Richmond_VA.mp3
07-Jan-08 || 1700 local || 970 khz. || WJMX || 10 kw day || Florence, SC ||
End of Staples ad then male with "The first choice for breaking news,
Newstalk 970, WJMX AM. Depend on it." This was then followed by "...since
1947, your home for news and information, it's Newstalk 970, WJMX AM,
Florence. It's time now for ABC news." || New. A 442 mile catch.
MP3 clip available here:
07-Jan-08 || 1659 local || 980 khz. || WAAV || 5 kw || Leland, NC ||
Weather report, followed by upcoming program announcements ending with "on
WAAV, Leland-Wilmington, a Cumulus broadcasting station." Followed by "The
Cape Fear's news leader, WAAV, Leland-Wilmington." Into CNN Radio news. ||
New. A 400 mile catch.
MP3 clip available here:
And a double ID on 1000 khz.:
The first -->
07-Jan-08 || 1700 local || 1000 khz. || WRAR || 0.3 kw day only ||
Tappahannock, VA || Fortuitous fade up to "...AM 1000 WRAR,
Tappahannock...broadcast...Action Incorporated now concludes its broadcast
for the day. Please join us tomorrow morning for more Newstalk AM 1000..."
Presumed final call letter mention covered up by a sudden WIOO/WEEO ID (see
below log). || New. A 138 mile catch.
The second -->
07-Jan-08 || 1700 local || 1000 khz. || WIOO || 1 kw day only || Carlisle,
PA || Sudden "Country Gold, [sounded like WIOO], Carlisle, and WEEO,
Shippensburg." Although the first set of call letters are not clearly
discernible (at least to my ears), this has to be WIOO. WIOO and WEEO
broadcast parallel programming per the 28th edition of the NRC AM Radio Log
and both stations are listed on the WIOO website (www.wioo.com).
MP3 clip for the last two catches available here:
John Cereghin – Smyrna, DE
SRF-59
Caught WTMA, Charleston SC on 1250 at 1700 local on December 31, with
"The Low Country's Big talker", then a VERY SLOW and distinct "This is
W-T-M-A" (the way IDs ought to be!). Got them in the car radio...chalk up another one to the DX Dashboard Society!
I'm glad I was able to finish out 2007 with one more new station. It was a good year, with 82 new MW stations logged. I'm sitting at 649 MW stations right now, so I'd like to be at 700 by New Year's Day, 2009!
1/8
1420 WLIS, Old Saybrook CT at 2155 Eastern, heard the ID for both WLIS
and WMRD-1150 in the hash before quick fadeout. My 650th MW station.
1450, WVAX, Charlottesville VA, at 2205 Eastern, "Charlottesville's
Progressive Talk, WVAX".
1/11
New log from the DX Dashboard Society this morning on the morning
commute- WDTW-1310, Dearborn MI, with Detroit traffic report and
"Motor City weather". Was looking for WADB in Ashbury Park NJ (a
station I need) with recent reports that they have flipped from
Spanish ESPN sports to English ESPN. I hear an ESPN station on 1310
but it may be WGH in Newport News VA, so no ID on that front yet, but
a new station to add to the log isn't a bad way to start the day.
SRF - 59
1/11
1100 KWWN Las Vegas They're in strong, 7:00 PM PST with ESPN 920 programming!
1/26
Loggings on my SRF-59. I've only been playing with it a little but it seems selective and sensitive. Times in PST.
530 WNHV296 CA, Los Angeles LAX TIS 1/14/08 8:57 PM terminal info by man and woman
540 XESURF BCA, Tijuana 1/14 8:58 PM The Great American Songbook on AM 12-60 and 5-40
550 KUZZ CA, Bakersfield 1/14 9:02 PM country music
560 KSFO CA, San Francisco 1/14 11:27 PM Coast to Coast
570 KLAC CA, Los Angeles 1/14 11:26 PM sports
600 KOGO CA, San Diego 1/15 8:03 PM
610 KAVL CA, Lancaster 1/15 8:06 PM Fox News Radio, no ID. 1/25 7:05 PM Fox Sports 6-10, High Desert Traffic
640 KFI CA, Los Angeles 1/15 8:07 PM ads, wx, Wayne Resnick show
740 KCBS CA, San Francisco 1/25 7:16 PM All News 7-40 KCBS
770 KKOB NM, Albuquerque 1/25 7:19 PM ads for Albuquerque business, no ID heard
780 KKOH NV, Reno 1/25 7:20 PM Michael Savage, News Talk 7-80 KOH
790 KABC CA, Los Angeles 1/25 7:26 PM Tami Bruce, Talk Radio 7-90 KABC
Most frequencies had stations, I just didn't hear and ID or slogan so they're not listed.
The radio does well, stations on 630 and 650 next to KFI are audible.
Keith McGinnis – Hingham. MA
SDR-IQ and K9AY
1/6
at 9:55 EST WUST 1120 Washington DC with Jewish programing under a
partial phase of WBNW .
1/3
I have also joined the SRF-59 world. Radio arrived today by courier and I
just had a few moments to put it through its paces.
Wow. What a rig. Audio is outstanding. Selectivity better than expected.
Sensitivity is blazing hot. TA hets hammering in. Saudi 1521 doing a major
job on WWKB. 1179 whining against WHAM, 1089 TalkSport UK ripping up WBAL.
Domestics in nicely, tuning tight but manageable, directivity with the
internal ferrite antenna is wonderful. Instant nulling, except for WBBR.
Man, that station pounds in here and defies most attempts to knock it down a
peg or two with nulling.
This radio is a gem. Will play with it some more and report...maybe even do
a CME submission.
1/4
Tuned in to 800 at 2100 CST for the end of a hockey match between the Windsor Spitfires & Plymouth Whalers so it must be CKLW. Good signal on top of the heap for about 10 minutes with Juarez nulled. Alan & Harry (south of me) have logged CKLW recently but it doesn't show up here often.
UNID: Last night at 2120 CST I heard the Dennis Miller Show on 950 kHz. Couldn't catch an ID and didn't see 950 listed at "DennisMillerRadio" dot com. If this is on 950 in your area please let me know.
1/27
We took a short trip up to Bass Lake, CA, in hopes of spending some time in
Yosemite Valley and Badger Pass for some skiing, but due to snow and
transmission problems, we never made it beyond Bass Lake. At least the kids
had a good time playing in the snow.
I was hoping to get a local weather report from KTNS ("Kittens 10-60") in
nearby Oakhurst, but even though the programming seemed to be locally
originated, I never did seem to get much beyond what came from CNN News at
TOH. In all fairness though, this seemed to be the case no matter what
station I tuned to.
Thursday night we hopped in the car, and I was greeted with static on 1060.
I had forgotten that they go to flea power at night. Even so, Saturday
night they were blasting in with 80's music, so either they were off
completely on Thursday night, or they were on day power on Saturday night
(my bet is on the latter, since they sounded too good to be only 23 watts
from 8 miles away).
I heard KTNS from home back when they did their DX test. They got out well
on day power, so this might be an opportunity for someone to log them if
they haven't already.
I am hearing some type of Gospel station at 1180, what station is that do you know? , I Have been listening for an hour and no ID...
2nd Item, All I am hearing on 1181 is a very loud whistling noise, even outside. switching the radio to Single Side Band does not help, I Hear the whistling from 1179-1188 KHz, and only in that range of the SW band. [Denver does not have BPL].
Maybe I am not hearing what everyone else is hearing, Please give me some more information on the 1181 Pip, or Het.
1270 KLXX ND Bismarck-Mandan. 0930 CST. 16 Jan 08. Bunch of local ads including one for Cenex and one for Fort Mandan.. Into local weather. Not new but not a regular.
Well, alright. I'm getting rather tired of getting up in the morning to
temps in the -20F to -30F range.
Here are some recent loggings. All relogs.
540 CBK SK Regina. 0706CST. 1-23-08. Loud with CBC news.
620 CKRM SK Regina. 0609 CST. 1-23-08. Saskatchewan's home for country music--CKRM.
650 CKOM SK Saskatoon. 0610 CST. 1-23-08. Ad for paint & wallpaper store. Newstalk 650 slogans.
660 CFFR AB Calgary. 0707CST. 1-23-08. Local ads. 660 Newstime 6:07.
740 CBX AB Edmonton. 0706CST. 1-23-08. Mixing with CHWO with CBC news.
800 CHAB SK Moose Jaw. 0650CST. 1-23-08. Calendar of events. Ad for discovermoosejaw.com Your home for the greatest hits of all time.
900 CKBI SK Prince Albert. 0653CST. 1-23-08. Country music. I.D. Temps for Prince Albert & other cities.
910 KCJB ND Minot. 0644 CST. 1-23-08. Fair signal. Country music. I.D. Local ads.
940 CJGX SK Yorkton. 0659CST. 1-23-08. Absolutely crushing 940 with country music & TOH I.D. "CJGX-940 Stereo-Yorkton."
980 CJME SK Regina. 0702CST. 1-23-08. Local news & weather with many SK temps.
1010 CBR AB Calgary. 0704CST. 1-23-08. Big signal with CBC news.
1390 KRRZ ND Minot. 0925CST. 1-24-08. Ads for North Central Feed & Seed and Ballard's Resort on Lake of the Woods. Oldies and many KRRZ I.D.s.
I was hoping to reach out and touch Dawson Creek, BC but WLS was hogging 890.
Radio Shack 12-656A Radio Shack loop.
Jan 2 /08
21:07 UTC 1310 khz CIWW , Ottawa, Ontario w/ Oldies 1310 ID and song "Spirit In The Sky" good
21:23 UTC 1530 khz Vatican Radio, Vatican w/ spanish program and ID , strong
21:28 UTC 1512 khz VRT , Belgium w/ America song "Horse With No Name and commentary in Dutch or Flemish , strong
Jan 3/08
3:05 UTC 720 Greenland, KNR w/ rap music and Greenlandic type language ; strong at times
3:08 UTC 1040 khz WHO, Des Moines, Iowa w/ Brierwood Golf AD, and Hawkeye Basketball Game coverage , ID ; good
Jan 4 / 2008
20:13 UTC - 1521 khz - BSKSA ; Saudi Arabia w/ arabic commentary and chants , mention of Arabie , ; good readable level
20:21 UTC - 1449 khz - Libya ; Libya w/ arabic commentary ; readable but interference on signal
20:44 UTC - 1390 khz - WEGP ; Presque Isle Maine ; Talk program with US Election chat ; ID ; good
20:54 UTC - 1044 khz - S.E.R. ; Spain w/ spanish news commentary by man and woman ; ID ; good
21:00 UTC - 990 khz - CBY Cornerbrook, Newfoundland w/ CBC id's ; As It Happens prgrm ; good
21:00 UTC - 1089 khz - Talk Sport ,; England w/ News items and talk in English , mentiones of England ; good
21:02 UTC - 1179 khz - Radio Sweden w/ program in German , mentions of Sweden ; good
21:04 UTC - 720 khz - KNR Greenland w/ song "Help Yourself" by Tom Jones ; greenlandic commentary ; good
21:06 UTC - 1260 khz - CKHJ Fredericton, New Brunswick w/ KHJ ID and weather forecast ; good
21:09 UTC - 684 khz - RNE1 Spain w/ usual distinguishing musical tones and spanish commentary ; good
21:10 UTC - 1280 khz - CFMB Montreal, Quebec w/ Spanish language prgramming , mention of Montreal ; strong at the time
21:12 UTC - 1300 khz - WJDA , Quincy, Mass w/ ID and religious prgramming in Spanish ; good then faded out
21:15 UTC - 1310 khz - CIWW , Ottawa, Ontario w/ Oldies 1310 ID's and Elton John song ; fair to good
21:23 UTC - 1070 khz - CBA ; Moncton, New Brunswick, w/ CBC prgramming about Juicers ; strong
22:06 UTC - 1270 khz - CJCB , Sydney, Nova Scotia w/ country songs and ID's and jingle ID ; good
22:15 UTC - 1548 khz - Kuwait Radio w/ arabic and pop music songs ; fair
22:17 UTC - 1467 khz - Radio Maria France via Monaco w/ religious prgms in English.... sometimes signal like local
22:21 UTC - 880 khz - WCBS, New York NY w/ News and ID " WCBS Newstime is 5:21 "
22:24 UTC - 1575 khz - France Info ; France w/ French news and commentary ; fair
22:32 UTC - 1570 khz - CFAV, Laval, Quebec w/ Boomer and mentions of Montreal in French , pop songs between
22:36 UTC - 882 khz - BBC Wales w/ woman's commentary ; BBC mentioned fair but w/ splatter
22:41 UTC - 1008 khz - R. Punto Canary Islands w/ spanish and musical selections ; fair
22:42 UTC - 981 khz - noted Arabic spoken, but only slight signal; presumed Algeria ; poor
22:47 UTC - 1050 khz - WEPN, New York, NY w/ traffic report ; good
23:26 UTC - 1134 khz - Croatian Radio in English w/ Voice of Croatia ID , weather report ; Croatia today program ; good
Jan 5 / 2008
00:00 UTC - 1500 khz - WWWT Washington, DC w/ "3WT ID " sports with baseball news ; solid copy
00:03 UTC - 1170 khz - WWVA Wheeling, W Virginia w/ Fox Radio News and WWVA ID's ; signal good then faded
00:06 UTC - 1100 khz - WTAM Cleveland, Ohio w/ station call ID and then into talk about Cavaliers basketball ; good
03:39 UTC - 1580 khz - CKDO Oshawa, Ontario w / Last Kiss song by J Frank Wilson, and 1580 CKDO ID ; fair
03:48 UTC - 1560 khz - WQEW New York, NY w/ Disney Radio id's , prgming ; Hanging out with Ally and AJ ; good
04:44 UTC - 1010 khz - CFRB, Toronto, Ontario w/ Newstalk 1010 CFRB ID, news ; fair over WINS at the time
04:48 UTC - 1650 khz - WHKT Portsmouth, Virginia w/ R. Disney prgrming ; musical mailbag promo ; good then faded out
05:00 UTC - 1130 khz - WBBR New York, NY w/ Listen to Bloomberg 1130 ID CMC Markets PSA ; good
05:02 UTC - 1030 khz - WBZ Boston, Mass w/ News and WBZ ID's fair to good
Many others heard along the way also including Albania and KMOX St. Louis with fair copy
By the way I couldn't hear the DX Test in Ohio of WIMA on either the SRF-M37 or the FRG-100 this way
Checking the dial today, it sounds as though CHVO 560 Carbonear, Newfoundland is silent on AM as of today after their move to 103.9 FM . So far have only heard WGAN in Portland, Maine when CHVO was off another night long ago Should be an interesting night here working 560 if thats it for CHVO on AM.
558 and 567 with Spain and Ireland should be more audible now also
Jan 6
22:03 UTC - 1510 khz WWZN - Boston, Mass w/ Sporting News Flash / Tattoo fade ad/ " Boston's Sports Station 15-10 The Zone" ID ; Sporting News Jingle ; good w/ some fading
22:15 UTC - 780 khz CFDR - Dartmouth, Nova Scotia w/ "Classic Country KICKS" ID and Tanya Tucker song ; good
22:44 UTC - 1370 khz WDEA - Ellsworth, Maine w/ "AM - 13-70 WDEA" ID, song by Classics IV - Stormy ; good w/ some fading
23:32 UTC - 1550 khz Algeria ; Western Sahara Polisario Front's 1550 outlet via Tindouf, ALGERIA w/ Arabic commentary, mention of President of Sahare // parallel at same time to 6300 khz on FRG-100 ; fair but fading often
Jan 7
1:02 UTC - 1590 khz - WARV - Warwick , Rhode Island w/ Religious program and WARV ID ; fair
1:04 UTC - 1480 khz - WSAR - Falls River, Mass w/ Weather report and then ID by weatherman "14-80 WSAR" , Credit Union ad ; good
1:10 UTC - 1040 khz - WHO - Des Moines, Iowa w/ Iowa Bulldogs Basketball
ID "10-40 WHO" ; fair w/ flutter
1:33 UTC - 1080 khz - WTIC - Hartford, Connecticut w/ Match.com ad , "WTIC 10-80 " ID and mention of WTIC.com ; fair
Jan 9
23:06 UTC 1110 khz - WBT - Charlotte, North Carolina w/ "11-10 WBT " ID mention of WBT.com , traffic ; fair
23:07 UTC 1120 khz - KMOX - St. Louis, Missouri w/ KMOX ID, time check Mortgage Store Ad ; fair with fading
23:29 UTC 1020 khz - KDKA - Pittsburgh , Pa w/ Kick Nicotine promo, Comcast Ad, "10-20 KDKA " ID fair w/ slight fading
23:35 UTC 730 khz - CKAC - Montreal, Quebec w/ NHL Hockey and talk in french ; good
23:50 UTC 870 khz - WWL - New Orleans , Louisiana w/ talk show and ID ; fair
Jan 10
2:03 UTC 1540 khz WDCD - Albany, New York w/ Your Money, Your Future DVD Ad , News and Views Program, ID , good but with fades
**** THEN IT WAS UP TO HISTORIC CABOT TOWER AND SIGNAL HILL ; FOR SOME MORE DXING WITH THE MIGHTY MITE ******
21:11 UTC 1044 khz - SER, Spain w/ sports commentary, sounded like a game in progress ; strong
21:13 UTC 1395 khz - TWR via Albania unknown language and usual muisc tones ; strong
21:14 UTC 1521 khz - BSKSA - Saudi Arabia w/ arabic chants ; fair
21:16 UTC 1467 khz - Radio Maria France via Monaco w/ arabic type music ; good
21:20 UTC 684 khz - RNE 1 Barcelona Spain w/ News, mention of Capital of Espana and minister ; strongest signal from up here at the time
21:23 UTC 880 khz - WCBS - New York, NY w/ new and WCBS 880 ID ; good
21:25 UTC 909 khz - BBC Radio Five Live - ID same , news items ; good
21:26 UTC 1134 khz - Croatian Radio w/ commentary not in english ; good
21:27 UTC 1449 khz - R. Jamahiriyah w/ arabic chants ; good
21:28 UTC 1179 khz - R. Sweden w/ swedish and classical music featured ; good
21:31 UTC 1089 khz - Talk Sport Radio w/ LSC.gov.uk PSA, "1089 and 1053 Digital Radio " ID ; good
Planning on more Dxing from atop the hill soon again, will try and get some audio of it also.
Jan 18 /08 1548 khz 5:09 UTC Moldova, Voice of Russia Relay Kishinev Grigoriopol w/ russian language programming, mentions of Moscow also Sigourny , ID in Russian before 5:30 UTC fair
Jan 21/08 23:26 UTC 1575 khz United Arab Emirates - Radio Farda , Al Dhabiya UAE w/ arabic chants and Id by woman; checked back at 23:44 UTC and signal a bit stronger than before w/ man giving Radio Farda ID and then arabic pop type song; fair w/ some fading
Jan 20/08 22:22 UTC 1008 khz Canary Islands; Radio Punto ; Las Palmas w/ news in spanish ; Radio Punto ID mentions of Canarias ; good 2405 mi 3870 kms
Jan 24/08 - 3:35 UTC - 1430 khz -WENE Endicott , New York w/ sportstalk format; mostly basketball w/ audio play by plays ; mentions of Fox Sport Radio; 1430 The Team ID's; fair 1196 miles 1925.9 kms
Jan 23/08 - 21:05 UTC - 1512 khz - Radio Vlaanderen International, via Wolvertem w/ Dutch or Flemish language ; News story about President Kibaki of Kenya, mention of programming and times; mention of Nederlands ;id by woman and several songs including "Kick In the Head"Jazz tune; good
2544 mi 4094 kms
Jan 23/08 - 23:44 UTC - 1044 khz - RTM Sebaa-Aioun w/ fast paced chanting ; arabic commentary then slower chants and music at 23:52 UTC
woman giving ID and mentions of Morrocaine at 23:59 UTC ; good with Spain mixing occasionally also 2538 mi 4084 kms
Jan 23/08 - 21:20 UTC - 1575 khz - RAI Uno ; Genoa w/ face paced announcer giving sports play by play possibly soccer in Italian; fair 2904 mi ; 4674 kms
Jan 28/08 5:50 UTC - 1300 khz WJMO - Cleveland, Ohio w/ ID "Praise 1300 , The New 1300 AM " given by woman ; gospel songs played before and after ID ; fair w/ slight fading Note : This is the EX – WERE My first new Canadian or American AM station this year.
Jan 30/08 - 4:38 UTC - 1480 khz WMDD Puerto Rico; Fajarda w/ spanish mentions by woman of Fajita and Privada, Tropical also Puerto Rico mentioned; sounded like local ads fair ; by 4:50 UTC noticeably weaker
Jan 30/08 - 6:20 - 6:35 UTC 1341 khz R. Ulster via Lisnagarvey Northern Ireland w/ program on sleep studies in English then R. Ulster ID with current temperature by man followed by woman w/ BBC News ; fair
Jan 31/08 20:50 UTC - 1530 khz - Vatican Radio; Vatican State w/ announcement by man in English "This Is the English Program of Vatican Radio" ; commentary and talk the Augustin Text ; commentary on Kenya then @ 21:20 Interval Signal and into Spanish after. ; poor then fair later on
Jan 31/08 22:12 UTC - 1476 khz - ORF Austria w/ announcer in German between two piano style minuet music selections ; Osterreich mentioned then song in German by man ; poor to fair with fading
1/16
Tuned around this morning between 6:00-6:15 am Central/12-00-1215 UTC and there was no trace of "The Het" on 1181. 530 kHz was still in well at that time,
so there was propagation to Cuba, and 1181 always is audible for about 145 minutes after 530 fades out. Temporary or permanent? I don't know---I report, you decide.
1/19
Tuned to 1180 this morning around 6:45 am Central to see if "The Het" was back (it wasn't), and caught a beautiful signal from "La Romantica" in Ciudad Delicias, Chihuahua. Slogans used were "Romantica" and "La Frecuencia de Amor," with "en punto" TCs after every song that were two minutes slow. Format, naturally, was schmaltzy Spanish love ballads. At 7:03 am, there was a beautiful full ID, including call letters. Signal began to drop precipitously at 7:08, and by 7:13 was under a weak English station with two men, both with thick southern accents, having a surreal discussion/argument ("Kids don't like clowns, they're scared of clowns!" "That's right, all those clowns that visit children's hospitals, the adults
want them there, not the kids!"). Both stations were lost at 7:15 when KGOL, Houston, abruptly appeared on frequency with their usual Vietnamese programming. Normally KGOL totally dominates this frequency each morning, so I assume there was a technical or operator glitch today.
1/22
Those mourning the loss of "The Het" on 1181 kHz can now rejoice----there's a new puzzle to take its place.
I tuned around 1180 last night and heard nothing in several checks. This morning (January 22) was a very different story.
I first tuned 1180 around 6:35 am Central/1235 UTC and heard a "zwwapp, zwwapp" sounding sweep tone on the channel. I started tuning above and below the frequency and found the signal spread out from approximately 1163 to 1195; it may have gone higher but I couldn't pull anything through WOAI's IBOC
sidebands and primary signal.
The signal had multiple peaks and "valleys." For example, at one point it peaked on 1168, 1178, and 1191 kHz simultaneously with the signal clearly present, but at a significantly lower level, across the 1163 to 1195 kHz range between the three peaks. You could almost visualize the spectrum display of that signal as you tuned across the range. The signal was very evident in AM mode but was even more obvious using the BFO. The frequencies of the peaks shifted during my listening but always stayed within the same frequency range. I heard one of the peaks land on 1170 and it really did a number on KFAQ, Tulsa, rendering
it unlistenable here.
The signal sounds like a cross between the old "Russian Woodpecker" OTH radar and CODAR, but with a slower pulse repetition rate.
By 6:50/1250, the Cuban on 530 had faded out but "The Swisher" was still in well. At 7:05/1305 I could hear it clearly on 1180 through KGOL in Houston. By
7:10/1310, it seemed to have finally faded out or gone QRT.
OK, Radio Rangers! Let's go git 'em!!
1/23
After wrapping up my CFRB guest shot at 10:30 pm Central last night, I quickly checked for "The Swisher" using the Eton E5. It was heard from about 1165 to past 1200 kHz, with three very strong peaks on 1170, 1180, and 1190---it was punching through those stations and really interfering with reception of them. It was even audible on 1200 through WOAI's analog primary!
This is a very interesting operation. It sounds like an OTH radar, but why put a system like that in the middle of the AM band? Where is T. X. Thrush when you
need him?? (Another DXing reference from the 1960s thrown in for my fellow old-timers on this list. . . . )
Checked tonight around 7:00 pm Central and "the Swisher" was going strong with peaks on 1170, 1180, and 1190; very good signals.
Checked back tonight at 8:55 pm Central and now "The Het" is back on 1181!
"¡Es muy weirdass!" as our friends in Nuevo Laredo might say.
1/31
I listened last night on 1660 and it was dominant here----even blowing away Waco---with the Rosary at 8:20 pm Central/0220 UTC tune-in, ID as "Relevant
Radio" and for tours to Lourdes (honest!) at 8:30, then into a mass from Relevant Radio HQ in Green Bay, WI. No mention of format change, station sale, etc.
1/5
Not on a mighty-mite, but on a heavy weight Collins/Teledyne R-390A
with the usual LF Engineering M-601C antenna:
NEW 1350 WHWH Princeton NJ playing Carly Simon's Your So Vain, followed
by an ID. Normally CKAD Middleton NS dominates this frequency, but tonight the two stations are trading back and forth.
Looking at the latest NRC pattern book, WHWH's pattern is not exactly aimed my way!
1/10
Its not often that a CME leads to personal injury, but...
I have been scanning the MW band with the SRF-59. Pretty impressed.
here are some higlights:
530 RVC in the Turks and Caicos
570 Cuba
720 Unid spanish language station - no trace of WGN and too late at night for Greenland
760 high pitched 5KHz het on WJR - I fired up the R-390A and was rewarded with Option Musique on 765 from Switzerland quite clear on the R-390A. Shows that the SRF-59 makes a nice het spotter.960 Cuba - Question: are Cubans obsessed with constantly setting their watches and clocks?
1650 CJRS Radio Shalom Montreal QC
But, my right thumb is sore - really sore. Reminds me of Commander MacDonald of Zenith fame and the rationale for the Zenith Trans-oceanics - spread dials, many bands, non-general coverage to avoid the need for "micrometer fingers".
Before folks discovered how to tear down, clean and reassemble R-390A RF decks with synthetic oil, there was a real problem with "R-390A wrist".
Now, with the ultra-light, mity-mite craze, we are likely to see folks showing up in ER rooms everywhere with bad cases of "SRF-59 thumb".
Now, where IS that ice pack?
1/21
I'm listening to 1580 CKDO right now on the R-390A. My old high school buddy, Daryl Maclean, is now the nighttime DJ and is on right now. Daryl was always an oldies fan, so he is working at the right place.
I hate to say it, but as good as they sound on my R-390A, they sound even better on their streaming audio, which is remarkably unswishy.
Heard on a 55 Collins / 63 Teledyne R-390A hooked to a LF Engineering M-
601C antenna at 11:55 p.m. AST:
870 WWL New Orleans LA with a clear ID. I've heard them before, but I
believe this is the first time since hurricane Katrina that I have caught them.
Then shortly after, back to the usual jumble [Gorham ME, Ithaca NY, Stephenville NL] that is the norm for 870 here at night.
1/26
I heard what sounded like Indian type music on 1040Khz, under WHO.
Any ideas who this is? (And a fe wminutes before that, I thought I heard carribean type music!)
At 5:24pm, I had both an ESPN and Fox Sports station on 1660Khz fighting it out. I know one station was WFNA Charlotte which is running ESPN but who was the other on 1660 that was running Fox Sports?
At 6:31pm, I heard a promo also on 1660Khz for a show every weekday afternoon at 12noon on "Relevant Radio" which is WCNZ Marco Island, Florida.
At 5:48pm, I heard some asian language on 1540khz and presume this to be CHIN Toronto.
At 6:06pm, I heard a "1290 WTKS" liner followed by the intro for a The Cigar Show, hosted by Cigar Dave (confirmed this information was www.cigardave.com and www.newsradio1290wtks.com)
At 6:08pm, I heard a "AM 1260, Your Music.. Your Way" promo which is Radio Disney.. but am not sure if that's St. Louis or Cleveland.
About 5:45pm, I heard an oldies tune on 1560Khz, which segued into another oldies tune which got abruptly interupted by a man in a deep voice, "1560 WAGL .. Lancaster..Rock Hill...Charlotte".. followed by America The Beautiful..and then a message containing all their technical information, talking about they were on Clear Channel 1560, one of America's most powerful radio stations... and then as soon as that announcement was done, the carrier disapepared.
At 6:02pm, I heard an interview with Dr. Robert foglesong and mentions of the Mississippi State University Radio Network on 1640 WTNI Biloxi, Mississippi
At 6:29pm I heard a song with the lyrics "When your eyes met mine......just catch the wave.......don't be afraid of loving me" then speing in french on 860khz which I presume to be Toronto.
For several minutes in the 6pm hour on 1040Khz, I hear sports play by play which turned out to be WHO 1040 Des Moines. Underneath the entire time, was some indian sounding music... Any ideas on who this is?
1/28
I have 5 new loggings, and one ofn them is UN'id.
Early in the afternoon, I logged WFTD-AM 1080 Marietta, GA. It's 50KW Day/30KW Critical with 2 towers in use both during day and critical hours with a pattern that is mainly SE but a low to the NW. Heard Korean News, commercials and announcers.
At 3:58PM, I heard the end of a "health" talk show concerning vitamins and plant extracts.... the hosts mentions "HealthyTalkRadio.com" and the show ends, then I hear, "From The Top Of Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga Tennessee this is WFLI-AM 1070" by a male in a deep, rich voice..... then into some gospel sounding music for a short minute followed by a male announcer introducing a 15 minute paid religious program. (50KW/3 towers and pattern that's easterly)
Under WFLI was another station, running Sean Hannity and then Fox News. Was this WFNI 1070 (Ex WIBC) Indianapolis?
At 4:08PM, I heard a traffic report followed by a weather report with mentions of "Sports Raido AM 850 The Buzz", which is WRBZ Raleigh, NC with 10KW non directional.
Also logged 580 WGAC Augusta, NC with Neil Bortz promos. Nothing entirely spectacular on this one.
1/29
610 WAGG Birmingham, Alabama..... heard at 9:18pm with a mention of "Birmingham's Gospel..........." coming out of a song followed by an announcer. They are apparently running a satelitte delviered service.
1/30
About 12:17 I heard what I know was clearly an oldies tune, then as the song faded out I heard what I think was "Oldies 590 W....." then the DJ came on.
It was a satelittle music service and Im guessing Jones, as I don't recognize the announcer as a Dial Global (Westwood One) or ABC Radio Announcer but I could be wrong, the signal wasn't that good.
I thought I heard an M in there, but not sure if it was the last letter or ot.. I know there's WARM in Pennsylvaia, but I'm not sure it wa them.
all heard on SRF-59 from Warwick R.I.
session started 9 PM EST Thru 12:15 AM EST 12/31 thru 1/01 HAPPY NEW YEAR
Did ritual of turning off power to house EXCEPT for boiler for heat !!! Many heard at arm chair copy see notes:
550-local
560- WHYN springfield mass - good signal
570- WMCA NY - good signal
580- Worestor-boston very good signal
590- Boston - very good signal
600- unided - playing dance music ???? -poor signal
620- Presumed Vermont- good signal
630- local
640- Presumed Springfield Mass - fair signal
650- No trace of WSM ??? 660 hash splatter
660- WFAN NY NY - Excellant signal
670- Chicago ILL - Fairly good signal with some 660 hash but better then Kaito 1103.
680- WRKO Boston - Excellant signal
690- Canada Presumed- good signal
700- WLW - Ohio- Very Good Signal however a little hash from 710 again better then kaito 1103
710- WOR - NY NY- Excellant Signal
720- Presumed WGN Chicago Ill- Fair-good signal a with a little 710 hash
730- Semi Local ??? -fair signal
740- Tornoto Canada - Excellant Signal and Excellant musical treats !!!
750- WSB Atlanta Ga- good signal
760- WJR- Detroit Mich- Excellant Signal
770- WABC = NY NY-Excellant Signal
780- Canada Under/ mixing with Chicago -fair depending on null/fadeups
790- Local
800- CKLW - Canada- Excellant Signal
810- NY - Very good Signal
820- Ny ?? good Signal
830- Worestor Mass w/ presumed michigan underneith- good signal
840- WHAS - Kentucky- Excellant Signal
850- Boston Mass- Very good signal
860- Canada presumed - very good signal
870- WWL under/ mixing with pesumed boston ???? Signal varied
880- WCBS- NY- Excellant Signal
890- WLS- Chicago- Very Good Signal
900- Canada presumed- good signal
910- WAAB Bangor Maine- fair signal
920- LOCAL w Canada underneith - poor signal on canada fighting l ocal however at one point canada fair-good during a fadeup had local 920 in a pretty good null !!!!!
930- Upstate NY -good signal
940- Canada (montreal spelling) - good signal
970- Unknown- good signal
980- Troy NY- very good signal
990- Local w/ Upstate NY legends 990 stepping all over them - fair/good in mix
1000- Chicago Ill- good signal
1010- WINS NY NY - Excellant Signal
1020- KDKA- Penn- Good Signal served with some WBZ hash better then Kaito 1103
1030- WBZ- Semi Local - Excellant signal
1040- Presumed WHO- Fair signal with WBZ hash slop better then Kaito 1103
1050- WEPN- NY NY - Excellant signal.
1060- Boston ???- fair signal
1070- Canada- Very good signal
1080- WTIC -Hartford CT- very good signal
1090- WBAL- maryland- Excellant Signal
1100- WTAM- Ohio- Very good signal
1110- WBT- NC- Good signal with a little nullable hash- Good Time Machine Treat
1120- KOMO ??? - fair-good signal
1130- NY NY - Ex cellant Signal
1140- WRVA - Fair Signal
1170- Wheeling (forgot calls)- good signal
1180- WHAM- Rochester NY- good Signal
1190- Ny Ny - good signal
1200- Unid- fair-good signal w /some 1210 hash
1210- Philly Penn- Excellant Signal
1220- LOCAL being peppered with IBOC HASH from 1210 in PROTECTED CONTOUR !!!!!
1500- WTWP- Washington DC - Very good Signal
1510- Boston semi local- very good signal
1520- WWKB- Excellant signal
1530- Ohio - good signal
1540- Alanany NY (former WPTR) Exellant Signal
1550- Canada presumed - good signal
1560-WQEW- NY NY- Good- Very good w- up down fades from time to time
Note: Most of the GW channels were packed though i didn't list them in this bandscan.
1650-WHKT - Portsmouth Virginia- 12:00 AM EST - TOH ID radio disney - good signal- 1/01/08
1/12
This battle took place at high noon 1/12/08 on the pawtucket R.I. /
Mass line. both radios were taken above ground into the somewhat open
field in the school yard across the street.
On the MW band the sony SRF could hear 660 WFAN and 880 WCBS very weak
under the high noon sun. the volume had to be cranked pretty high to
hear them. both "clears" are located in NY about 150-160 miles as the
crow flies.
Next i took the Grundig Mini 300 and tuned in the same two test
stations. to keep this test fair i used the sony srf-59 stock
headphones with both mighty mites. both had good batteries installed.
at first with the grundig 300 telescopic loaded whip down both 660 and
880 came in like on the sony srf-59. Next i activated the Grundigs
secret weapon !!! This is UNDOCUMENTED in the instructions !!! I
pulled the telescopic loaded whip up !!! both 660 WFAN and WCBS 880
were heard at just about CITY GRADE under the noon sun !!! A band scan
on both units showed the grundig pulled in a couple weaker signals in
the grave yard freqs the sony couldn't quite touch.
Next i hit the FM band.
The sony basically heard most of both the R.I. market and most of the
boston market. boston is about 40 - 50 miles as the crow flies.
On the grundig which had overload and image issues in the basement
reception improved much above ground. the boston stations which were
drowned under overload in the basement came right in with ease above
ground. it only had trouble with 99.1 from plymouth mass with strong
local 94.1 bleeding and drowning it. some moving around nulled the
overload . the overload other then this was only an issue on empty
channels. If the SRF-59 could hear it the Grundig could get it and
would overcome the overload. Both contestants had trouble with 94.5
boston as strong local 94.1 hammers it even on the sony srf-59. you
have to move both radios a certain way to receive it. Please remember
i am in a heavy IBOC infested area as well. Both units are in OEM
stock condition and are modded in anyway. I'll leave it open to you to
decide a winner. Keep in mind location and propagation can effect
results therefore the reason i conducted this at high noon.
1/23
Last night around 9:30 PM est i went to DX with the sony SRF-59. the
location was the pawtucket basement apt. a loud buzzing QRM wiped out
all but the strongest local AMs. I have experienced this QRM back in
Warwick R.I. as well. it can come and go without warning. i am unsure
of its cause but am thinking it has something to do with the cable TV
lines and high speed internet ETC over cable. it has a pattern of
happening during the evening hours when people are likely to be home
from work and school. when it happens a loud buzzing knocks out AM,
LW, and SW bands.
radios including the sony srf-59, Kaito 1103, grundig S-350, Ge SR
2,Ge SR 3 are / have been rendered useless when this happens. The sony
SRF 59 has been known for good nulling abilities but all attempts to
rotate it all different ways failed. no matter what i did the QRM
could not be nulled. i was ready to call it a night but wanted to
listen to a few tunes. i dont have my XM so i grabbed the grundig mini
300 as it has better SQ on FM. when i turned it on it was last set for
740 . i could here CHWO over the QRM. I pulled the antenna up and
moved the radio. to my amazement the QRM was NULLABLE !!!! A further
scan of the dial proved the QRM could be nulled all over the dial as
well and DX was possible. It even did a great two for one job nulling
WBZs IBOC hash allowing KDKA to be heard on 1020 along with nulling
the QRM. Most of all of the skywave clears could be heard as if the
QRM wasn't there. For some reson i can't explain the sony SRF-59
couldn't over come this. When i return to warwick main QHT in the
future i am looking forward to see if the grundig 300 mini can zap
this nasty QRM there as well. Even more of a question is what is
causing this QRM. In warwick i thought it had something to do with the
airport a few miles away. Now i'm thinking cable or maybe the new
fiber the phone company has been pushing ??????
Heard on grundig mini 300 Pawtucket R.I. Basement apt. had to work at
this one two nights in a row to catch an ID before they switch to
night pattern at 5:30 PM
1130 WDFN Detroit Michigan 5:15 PM EST nice booming fade up over WBBR
gave calls and said detroit. first heard 1/22 without ID tonight i
sacked them !!!! good signal stepping all over WBBR NY 2nd night in
row !!! 1/23/08
1/24
heard on grundig mini 300 Pawtucket Basement apt slicing right thru
WBZ IBOC.
1040 WCHR flemington NJ 6:30 PM EST you are listening to WCHR
Flemington NJ your inspiration station. fair signal nulling WBZ IBOC
as best as possible leaving a small amount of hash underneath. 1/24/08
1/12
1590 WABV SC Abbeville 1108 with #1 song from Don Williams... I Believe in You and special announcement from Paul Walker letting everyone know I was listening in Silverstreet, SC [PEW-SC]
I had to call him and he didn't believe me until I played the radio over the phone!
Legal ID now:
1/19
WSB Atlanta, WSRV HD-2 Gainesville
Right now at WKDK for board running of a Newberry College Basketball game. Snow not here yet.
Early Friday AM January 25......SRF 59 near Silverstreet. SC
1310 WDOD TN Chattanooga 0818
1300 WMTN TN Morristown " Classic Country WMTN" 0820
1200 WJES SC Saluda Amazing that I could hear stuff underneath on 6000++ watts critical hours 0825
1160 WCFO GA East Point 0830 Running Bloomberg stuff and ad for The Lodge at Bridge Mill
1540 KXEL IA Waterloo 0850 Local Iowa sports..... AMAZINGLY good
Saturday, January 26 with the SRF-M80V (the current model is tie SRF-M85V) walking Jolene on Sandy Run Creek road around 5 PM
1580 WVKO OH Columbus..... . decent enough to listen to
1590 WAKR OH Akron coming in over top everything else
IEN-GA Ira Elbert New, III, Watkinsville - SONY SRF-59
770 WYRV VA Cedar Bluff - 01/06/08 1749 - Contemporary Gospel Music and an Announcer thanking the listeners for all that they do. Decent signal mixed with WVNN in Athens, AL and WLWL in Rockingham, NC. "WYRV" and "We're AM 770, WYRV". (IEN-GA)
820 WCPT IL Chicago - 01/06/08 1804 - CNN News, Randi Rhodes Show promo, and mentions of Progressive Talk Radio. Decent signal in the mix. "WCPT, 820 AM". (IEN-GA)
1200 WAMB TN Nashville - 01/06/08 1838 - Big Band music. Good signal in the null of WOAI in San Antonio, TX. "This is 1200, WAMB". (IEN-GA)
980 WONE OH Dayton - 01/18/08 2000 - TOH ID. TOH ID in the silence a fraction of a second before WYFN, Nashville, TN delivered its TOH ID. Good signal only to fade under WYFN. "WIZE, Springfield". (IEN-GA)
1360 WCHL NC Chapel Hill - 01/18/08 2050 - An AD for the Carolina Car-wash in Carrboro and Do Something Radio with Richard Greene. Weak, steady signal. "WCHL". (IEN-GA)
1570 WECU NC Winterville - 01/18/08 2245 - Urban Contemporary Gospel Music & 1/4-hour drop. Good signal. "1570 AM, WECU". (IEN-GA)
IEN-GA Ira Elbert New, III, Watkinsville – DRAKE R8B 135' N/S Wire
1170 WQVA SC Lexington - 07/11/06 1301 - Spanish Music and TOH ID. Good signal (S8) in the afternoon static. "WQVA...Lexington, South Carolina". (IEN-GA)
Had a few minutes to scan the AM band on my Radiosophy HD-100 receiver this afternoon (4:45-5:00 PM CST, Saturday, Jan 26, 2008).
Here are the stations that lit up the blue HD light ...
790 kHz KBME
ESPN 790 - The Sports Animal http://www.790kbme.com/main.html
950 kHz KPRC
The 9-5-0 AM Radio MoJo http://www.950kprc.com/main.html
1590 kHz KMIC
Radio Disney http://www.radiodisney.com
BTW, all were heard using the "mickey-mouse" AM antenna that came with my HD-100. Haven't tried using my Radio Shack Loop with it yet.
1/7
MW - all times UTC
980 KSVC Richfield, UT 1630 Numerous local spots during break from Dr. L
Laura Show, local references to "Delta", "Sevier Valley". ID at TOH, but
way down in the mud by then. Heard during check to see if Los Angeles'
KFWB was still on . (Barton , AZ)
1130 KFAN Minneapolis, MN 0100 Doing sports play by play , heard references to "Tulsa" , but clear ID at TOH "on AM 1130 KFAN". + (Barton,AZ)
780 KKOH Reno,NV 0020 Syndicated talk show in progress with topic of-what else?- immigration. Very solid. (Barton,AZ)
1100 KNZZ Grand Junction , CO talk radio pgm at 1130 , heard by nulling out -and- not being just down the street from 50 kW KFNX. Mixing with another unid.
980 KFWB Los Angeles, CA Single pip and ID by M anncr "KFWB news time eight o'clock", at 1600 - late local for MW. Good but faded into the mud at 1620.
570 KNRS Salt Lake City , UT 0100 with "Glenn Beck Show", ID by M "Family
Values Talk Radio". Good signal.
1110 KDIS Pasadena,CA 0400 UT / 2100 MST Radio Disney pgm and solid
signal after nulling out splash from nearby KFNX 1100. (Barton,AZ 1/26)
1140 KSFN Las Vegas, NV 1525 / 0825 MST Local spots ("Vista Chevrolet")
during break from syndicated "Sporting News Radio".Using slogan "the Spike 1140" . (Barton,AZ 1/26)
1490 KRKC King City , CA 1447 / 0747 MST ID by male suddenly heard
out of the "rumble", then back to rumble. Nothing else heard. (works that way sometimes on this band :>D ). (Barton , AZ 1/26)
1460 KENO Las Vegas, NV 1650 "Sports Memo Radio Show" and sports promos. Long f/out, foll by Jim Rome at 1715. Spot at 1749 for (who else?) Vista Chevrolet and ID by male at 1800 / 1100A-MST. (Barton,AZ 1/26)
1330 KGAK Gallup, NM 2217 / 1500 MST Country music, male anncr in
Navajo language. Many local references and Englsih words sprinkled in to
otherwise all Navajo dialogue. Interested me as singal was strong at local
mid-afternoon. (Barton,AZ 1/22)
1/2
First one from Indiana. WGBF Evansville, clear ID into news. 776 miles, logging #335.
1/6
1630 KRND Fox Farm with Regional Mexican mix La Grande
1630 KCJJ Iowa City with numerous local commercials in break. ID, promo for Rock & Roll Oldies Show. This is a new one for me (#336) No sign of KKGM Ft. Worth tonight.
570 Radio Reloj Cuba. Tones and news content. Rare to get the full audio on this one. Usually just tones under KLIF.
1/24
The Mexican all traffic station heard in the US on 1590 has changed format to Christian. Now known as Luz 1590.
1/7
Heard on a Mighty Mite SRF-M37V, nekkid of course:
570 KALL SLC, UT 0102 FOX News
570 KLIF Dallas, TX 0105 ID Coast to Coast
600 KOGO San Diego, CA 0108 Coast to Coast
600 KCOL Wellington, CO 0110 Coast to Coast
630 KHOW Denver,CO 0112 Coast to Coast
640 KFI LA, CA 0113 Coast to Coast
650 KMTI 0114 Manti, UT C&W
660 KTNN Window Rock, AZ 0116 Trucking Bozo
680 KNBR SF, CA 0121 sports talk
700 KALL SLC, UT 0119 sports
710 KNUS Denver, CO 0121 ID
740 KCBS SF, CA 0122 news
750 KOAL Price, UT 0123 Coast to Coast
770 KKOB Albuquerque, NM 0124 Coast to Coast
790 KABC LA, CA 0126 informercial
810 KGO SF, CA 0127 Ben Wattenberg
820 WBAP Ft Worth, TX 0129 oil ad
850 KOA Denver, CO 0130 27F
880 KRVN Lexington, NE 0135 Wolf Creek Express ad
890 KDXU St George, UT 0137 ad stopset
1020 KCKN Roswell, NM 0136 C&W
1030 KTWO Casper, WY 0137 Coast to Coast
1070 KNX LA, CA 0138 war news
1080 KRLD Dallas, TX 0139 ad for weight loss.
1160 KSL SLC, UT 0145 Nightside project
1200 WOAI SA, TX 0146 Coast to Coast
Have to finish the rest later.....
1/13
KKMO heard in null of local KPXQ 1360 with sweep tones about 0102 -
0113 MST couldn't make out much of the marching music. Didn't listen
longer because the bed was beckoning.
1210 KGYN Guymon, OK 1/7 1855 PSA Stay in school
1320 KFNZ SLC, UT 1/7 1902 BCS Championship game
1350 KABQ Albuquerque, NM 1/7 1905 Air America Radio
920 KVEL Vernal, UT 1/12 0015 with ID.
1/15
780 WBBM Chicago, IL 1253 1/15 with ID and time check.
980 KMBZ KC, MO 0100 1/15 ToH ID not once but twice.
1040 WHO Des Moines, IA 0104 1/15 with news story about dead geese.
1080 KRLD Dallas, TX 0107 1/15 wrecked by IBOC.
1130 CKWX Vancouver, BC 0109 1/15 news about a man who lost an arm.
1/26
Decided to listen on the Sangean HDR-1 the digital anti DX IBOC radio and heard something new. Its a case of IBOC taketh away but sometimes giveth back in return. I have not been able to listen to any sports programming on KDUS 1060. Its a sports local that carries the Phoenix Coyotes hockey games [ex-Winnipeg Jets]. When KNX went IBOC, there went KDUS and the hockey games on radio and they are my local.
Tonight I turned the radio on which has done nothing but gather dust since the IBOC programming sucks so mightily here in Phoenix, and when I got to 97.9-2 and there was KDUS 1060 being relayed. I can listen to hockey again no matter if KNX destroys my local AM station or not.
1/31
1300 KAZN Pasadena, CA 1/31 0022 with Chinese language programming.
1430 KVVN Santa Clara, CA 1/31 0030 with VietNamese language
programming. New #889!
1/11
I'd have to agree about the confused ionosphere. Not that we're having any
heavy rain here (I wish). We've got over a foot of snow on the ground and
just about every day is that gray murkey unsettled look. Nonetheless on my
way home from work last night, I had a rare treat. This is like a once a
year occurrence.
1130 KWKH LA Shreveport 1/10/07 10:37pm Signal poor
to fair, mixing with CKWX. Heard Mickey Gilley singing "True Love Ways" and
into a liner "You've found the home of the legends. AM 1130 K-W-K-H"
I think the slightly auroral CX helps to block out KRDU from California and
let the south in. I'm sure KWKH is a pest for many of you, but an extreme
rarity for me so pardon my excitement :)
1/1
Just got up to go downstairs for some dinner (1956 EST), and as I was
turning things off in my office/DX shack, I looked down and noticed that
my HDT-1, which I'd left on 1030 while listening to WBZ the other night,
was displaying not only a text ID from WBZ but also an apparent audio
lock. Of course, as soon as I reached down to turn on the stereo so I
could hear the audio, it went away...
(And the skywave from WBZ's IBOC hash is strong enough tonight to
completely wipe out any listenable audio from my "local" WYSL
1040...sigh...)
1/3
Ok, I went out and bought an SRF-59, too. Somewhere, somebody in the
Sony marketing department is probably scratching his head and
wondering why, in the Ipod age, there's suddenly been a run on a
cheap, no-frills pocket radio.
No amazing catches yet, but here's what I have so far:
550 KOAC, Corvallis OR. Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) with TOH ID,
into NPR news 5:59 pm PST, 1/3/08. Local-like signal; have heard them
before but was never able to get a clear ID.
610 KONA Kennewick (Tri-Cities) WA. ABC news headlines, ID "K-O-N-A
Information Radio," into Clark Howard financial talk show, 6:05 pm
1/3/08. Not that far from me but never heard them before on any of my
other radios. Local-like clarity.
SRF-59, unaided, in my parked car (dashboard DX!).
1/12
Getting a strong carrier here on 1610khz @ 11:50pm.
These are from a couple weeks ago with my then newly acquired SRF-59 as I listened in bed for a while before turning out the light. Nothing earth shattering, but still not bad. New York, Detroit, New Orleans, Fort Worth, all barefoot on a $15 pocket radio. Times are EST.
2008-01-15 0103 820 WBAP News. Mention of Texas corridor. Several IDs during promos.
2008-01-15 0105 760 WJR Midnight radio network.
2008-01-16 0200 880 WCBS ID coming out of news.
2008-01-16 0205 870 WWL News with ID going into C2CAM.
KGDP 660 heard with recorded ID loop at 1555 PST 01/15, repeated every
15 seconds. "This is radio station KGDP, six hundred sixty kiloHertz,
Oildale, California." Mixing with KTNN. I checked again at 1620 PST and
they had their usual religion programming.
The Whole Earth
1/7
9570 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS Radio Veritas Asia 1540 . SINPO 35433. Hrd
Male in RR to TOH, short ancmt in EG, trumpet mx and off at 1555.
9335 KOREA (NORTH) V.o. Korea at 1115 in French with strong signal, muddled audio.
9650 CANADA RKI-World (via Sackville) 1200. Buried under DPRK until mixing, then overwhelming V. of Korea at 1215. Pgm of S. Korean pop music. 43434 by 1220 .
9599,5 MEXICO R. UNAM 1545, instrumental music - sounded more like soundtrack to Twilight Zone than Classical, at least this session. Fair to Poor, mixing with slight het and audio from CRI.
4799.95 GUATEMALA R. Buenas Neuvas 1045. Good, with music pgm under
the shooper. Somewhat better in LSB. (Barton,AZ 1/27)
7445 TAIWAN R.T.I. 1105 Fair, with newscast. (Barton , AZ 1/27)
7355 KNLS Anchor t. , Alaska noted in Chinese at 1115. (Barton , AZ 1/27)
5875 ??? SINGAPORE BBC-w.s. 1145 Panel discussion show , ID's and sudden tx shutoff at TOH. (Barton,AZ 1/27)
4750 R.R.I. Sulawesi 1305 religious sounding music. Fair. (Barton,AZ 1/27)
11710 NORTH KOREA 1620 in French and with very strong signal.(Barton,AZ 1/26)
PIRATE 6950.1 USB WTCR, Twentieth Century Radio, tune-in 0427 1/1 to opening bars of the Twentieth Century Fox movie theme repeated like an interval
signal, ID by man, into "Beast of Burden" by the Stones. Very strong signal into central Texas and a change from previous 6925 channel; this one should be
widely heard.
For the first and only reception report I've sent this century!
PIRATE WTCR QSL card in two months from "Dr. Morbius" for reception on November 16, 2007, 0300 UTC, on 6925 kHz USB. Color inkjet printed outer space motif card with verie info on back. Sent two dollars and stamps to Box 1, Belfast, NY mail drop.
** AUSTRALIA. RA, 5995, clear of Harold Camping after 1500 and still holding up
at 1505 Jan 2 after news, with program from ABC Local Radio, starting with
``Buttons & Bows`` tune, how Aussie. Compere kept talking about ``the program`` but never heard its axual name. So can we find out? At the RA website you haveto pretend you are going to print a pdf schedule in order to view it. The one for Pacific is dated Winter 2007 so at least a semi-year out of date, showing
Australian Express at 1500 (not 1505) UT Wednesdays. I don`t think so. Probably a prolonged summer-vacation substitute, just plug in LR and forget about doing any real RA shows; who cares what the listeners may expect? When we hear ``ABC Local Radio`` on RA, are we really listening to Melbourne, and only 3LO, Melbourne? Schedule at http://www.abc.net.au/melbourne/schedule.htm shows 2-5
am [AEDT] Thursday is Michael Pavlich with Overnights
** CANADA [non]. Another FE collision continues with nobody caring (but me?).
Jan 3 at 1459 on 5965, I heard the NHK IS, but then an ID for RCI and at 1500
Chinese, mixing at about equal level with CRI in Russian. Sorting this out, per
HFCC:
CRI is on 5965 from 14 to 16, but at 15 switches site from Xi`an 73 degrees to
Beijing 55 degrees (and thus for DVR, also NAm beyond), while Yamata has RCI
Mandarin relay at 15-16, 235 degrees. BTW, Turkey in Azeri also scheduled at
that hour, 90 degrees from Emirler but not heard here. Must be fun listening in
Asia
** INDONESIA. Suara Indonesia, 9526, in Indonesian until 1501 Jan 1, but open
carrier stays on; didn`t keep on it to see how long
** JAPAN. R. Nikkei, 6115, Jan 2 at 0729 mentioning ``tampa hoso`` = shortwave
radio, and list of MHz before closing at 0730* Earlier, at 06-07 this collides
with CRI via Canada aimed due west. CRI is usually on top, but with heavy QRM
de Japan, especially in winter. The frequency gurus at VTC or CRI apparently
can`t imagine that Nikkei would be a factor in C/WNAm. It is intriguing to
wonder what the Japanese service of a SW station in Tampa FL would call itself
** MAURITANIA. R. Mauritanie, 4845, on the air and still audible at 0716
January 2 in Arabic; unlike Chad not on 4905, probably faded out by now
** MEXICO [and non]. Altho someone reported LV de tu Conciencia on 6009.5
recently, I checked 6010 again Jan 2 at 0722 when two stations were mixing
about equally, one Spanish talk and the other music. Both were very close to
6010.0 and were about 6 Hz apart, judging from the SAH. If it`s not Mil and
Con, what else could one of them be?
** NEW ZEALAND. As of 2227 UT January 3, the RNZI transmission schedule at
http://www.rnzi.com/pages/listen.php is still labeled as expiring Dec 31. Are
we to assume that RNZI is no longer on SW, analog or DRM? I think that`s what I
was hearing on 5950, Jan 3 at 1455, but only a poor unID signal in English
mentioning World Book Club. Is that something from BBC?
** PHILIPPINES. FEBC, Manila/Bocaue, 9430, very good big signal in Chinese, and no jamming on this station! Jan 1 at 1505 with singing, ``Happy New Year``. 345 degrees but plenty of it reached OK
** RUSSIA. VOR concluding Korean hour at 1458 Jan 2, good on 6005, IS and off at 1500* sharp. This via Komsomol`sk/Amure is bad news for Echo of Hope, Korean clandestine on 6003 until 1500 too, except I did not hear a het from it during these two minutes. However, on Jan 3 I intuned a bit earlier in time to hear
the het, which went off at precisely 1458:30
** SOUTH AFRICA [non]. Channel Africa, 0726 Jan 2 with ID and info in English
on 6160, via the Newfoundland relay. This matches the CBC Radio Overnight
schedule, http://www.cbc.ca/overnight/schedule.html considering that CKZN is on
the AT/NT feed meaning this was 3:56 am local time, otherwise known at 3:26:
The international program schedule is: Weekdays:
1:05 Radio Netherlands
2:05 Radio Sweden and Radio Australia
3:05 Channel Africa and BBC World Service
4:05 Deutsche Welle and Radio Polonia
5:05 Radio Australia, Radio Prague, Deutsche Welle and Voice of Russia
** SUDAN [non]. Southern Sudan Interactive Radio Instruxion, 15675 via South
Africa, Thu Jan 3 at 1425 with super-condescending English lessons. Are these
only for children? I should think an adult learner of English would be put off.
1425 wrapping up, saying this afternoon (1400 UT) transmission is Tue-Thu-Sat,
while the morning repeat [sic] is M/W/F. From 1429 well past 1430, transmitted
two different alternating tones every 6 seconds, apparently a SENTECH thing
** SWEDEN [non]. R. Sweden`s feature on Wed Jan 2 at 1544 on 15240 via Canada was about the future of SW. A reporter in Paris interviewed participants in CYBAR (sp?), a conference on audience research. First was Simon Spanswick of AIB; then Jeff Cohen of WRN, who thinks that DRM can be the future, first on domestic radio, and then for international broadcasting; altho there have been issues in getting receivers on the market. DAB, however, a few years after it was introduced in the UK, is finally taking off with almost all new radios sold being DAB-capable. Finally, Graham Mytton, ex-XBAR at BBCWS, who says ``shortwave was a wonderful hobby for young people in the 70s and 80s``, but now with the Internet, ``[DXing] is not a big hit any more.`` Show concluded by asking listeners how they pick up R. Sweden? There is precious little to listen
to in English on my breakfast table SW radio in English at 9:30 am [CST], so I
am thankful RS has not given up on it yet. I prefer not to rush to fire up my
computer as soon as I awaken. The entire segment should be found halfway thru
the 1530 edition in the 30-day archive at
http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/international/nyhetssidor/sandningsarkiv.asp?date=02/01/2008&programID=2054
** TURKEY. VOT, 12035, fairly good with Live from Turkey, Thu Jan 3 at 1400
with usual hourtop music break. On a previous show the announcer gave away the reason: he has to go to another studio to read the news on a domestic network. Then back to show, no in-callers heard; at 1413 introducing a new program for 2008, much like one which ran in 2006 under a different name, which will be almost daily, ``Did You Know That?``, the first ep about boron, element #5
which is metallic and not metallic, of which Turkey has ``vast reserves`` and
is used in railroad trax, medicine, fuel, etc. This brief but fact-crammed talk
lasted little more than a minute. We shall have another sesquimonth or so to
wait for the printed 2008y program schedule to come in the P-mail, not
available online, and I doubt such a minor feature will be mentioned, anyway
** U S A. Seems we can write off KAIJ as a WOR affiliate until further notice.
Thu Jan 3 at 1600 on webcast, 1386 was still being repeated from weeks ago
instead of a newer edition or even the newest, 1389. The thing is apparently
running unattended until the webcast contract is over. I imagine little if any
of the other programming is refreshed either
** CHINA. On 4900, Jan 4 at 1415, M&W talk definitely in Chinese. Per Aoki this
could only be V. of [the] Strait, Fuzhou, at 12-17, 50 kW at 140 degrees,
axually in Amoy
** CUBA. CRI relay in English on 13740, Jan 4 at 1434 had audio cutting out
every few seconds. Commies vs commies!
** GERMANY [non]. The DW Amharic and jamming situation of such intense interest in Nov and Dec seems to have receded, but I checked this out again on Jan 4 at 1436. I could hear both 15620 and 15660, the lower frequency stronger, but no jamming detectable on either, unlike 15645 where there was only jamming (I think; often hard to tell from ambient noise level), altho DW via Sri Lanka is
supposed to be on 15640. Both 15620 and 15660 are Rwanda, but the latter is
non-direxional, and not always audible here
** INDIA. AIR GOS, 9690, Jan 4 at 1424 with a talk which may have been outroed as ``Focus``. Good modulation level, but over constant hum, also coming out of this transmitter?
** INDONESIA. 4605, RRI Serui, Papua, presumed as the only station in the world known on this frequency, Jan 4 at 1415 with YL ballads, 1418 announcement. Weak signal on 4790 vs CODAR may have been another Indonesian; none of the other 60m Indo frequencies produced anything above the local noise level
** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [non]. Fri Jan 4 at 1422 checked for Don Anderson and the Amigo Net on 8122-USB, as previously reported, but nothing heard
** LAOS [non]. Hmong World Christian Radio has disappeared from WHRI 11785, since Sat Jan 5 at 1513 check it was Lester in English instead; indeed HWCR has also vanished from the online WHR schedule, but Hmong Lao Radio is still there Sat & Sun 14-15 on same
** OKLAHOMA. After tuning around for the WIMA 1150 DX test, Jan 5 at 0705 UT, I found a VG signal from KGYN 1210 Guymon with ID and 0706 ``High plains forecast`` from NewsChannel Ten, i.e. KFDA-TV Amarillo. No Man`s Land might as well be part of Texas, lost to Okie media. Remarkable signal for a station with a null toward Philadelphia, and no doubt yet another case of non-direxional day operation at night. BTW, WOAI IBOC QRM, but could be nulled as these are close to right angles from here ** PORTUGAL. RDPI, 15560, paused in some sports talk for unclear reason to play
``Santa Claus Is Coming to Town`` classic version in English, Jan 5 at 1517.
Enough!
** UKRAINE [non]. Jan 5 at 1458, ``The First Noel`` orchestral version playing
on 9885, then announcement in something Slavic. Must be the new CVC service via Jülich relaying an FM station in Ukraine, Radio Svitle. Guess it`s Xmas eve for them ** U S A. Frecuencia al Día, the DX program produced by Dino Bloise, with input from a number of regular contributors, has quietly stepped into the vacuum left by RN`s canceled Radio Enlace. I ran across it at one of WRMI`s unspecified, `flexible` timings, UT Fri Jan 4 at 0637 on 9955, which was propagating for a change, and not jammed at the moment. So that`s Friday 0630 for FAD, among many other airings. For those listening an hour later at 0730 Fri, WORLD OF RADIO has been heard in the past but not reconfirmed lately
** U S A. Another US SW station missing: KTBN. Jan 4 at 0641, vacancy on 7505 while all the other US SW stations on the band were audible; recheck at 1408, still missing. Not heard lately on the daytime frequency either, 15590, such as Jan 5 at 1610 and 1716. Has anyone heard them this year on either frequency?
FCC and HFCC are ambiguous about the exact schedule, showing a 2-hour overlap in the morning and a 1-hour overlap in the evening, even tho KTBN has only one transmitter! This gives them the flexibility of switching at 14, 15 or 16, and at 00 or 01 without having to specify which. In deep winter, surely the times
should be 1600-2400 & 0000-1600
** GERMANY. Jan 7 at 1500 found Persian talk on 9925, rather good signal, and
since it`s Persian, it can`t be from Iran. Went to music around 1515; at 1529
spelled out a .org e-mail address in English, but could not catch it all; then
at 1530, P-mail to Box 40591, but not certain of that either. None of this
struck me as religious, so had high hopes for something clandestine. What does
PWBR 2008 say? Nothing! So I had to wait a while to look up online resources:
EiBi: 9925 1430-1630 G Bible Voice FS ME /D-w
Which means Farsi from UK via Wertachtal, altho Aoki shows same as Juelich
starting Dec 1, which explains why PWBR missed it. Probably changed from Jülich to Wertachtal since then, as many DTK transmissions have shifted sites. Doesn`t Iran have enough problems without trying to convert them to Protestants?
** GUATEMALA. R. Coatán, no doubt, on 4780 with chipmunk-style singing in
Spanish mixed with CODAR, 1346 Jan 6
** INDIA. Don`t often hear AIR on 60m here, but Jan 6 at 1342 on 4840, S Asian
music, woman singing, later excited dialog; poor signal and still audible at
1358. AIR Mumbai is the only listed possibility. Not so much from Indonesia or
China on band this morning. Repeat performance the next morning, Jan 7 at 1350. In Marathi, or Hindi?
** TAJIKISTAN. Harold Camping, whose ego trip surpasses even Brother Stair`s,
pontificating, Jan 7 at 1409 on 6225 with echo, so seems both short and long
path from Dushanbe, 200 kW, 125 degrees, YFR relay scheduled at 14-15
** U S A. KTBN, which had been absent a few days, back at usual strength Jan 6
at 0632 on 7505. Sounds suspiciously like a TV soundtrack
** VENEZUELA [non]. "Aló, Presidente`` service via Cuba, Sunday Jan 6 at 1405
check talking about Cuba instead of Venezuela, in usual RHC prélude to the real
show, on 11875 atop WEWN, 13750 clear, and barely audible on 17750 mixing with WYFR. Not found on any other frequencies; RHC mainstream programming continuing on 11760, 11805, 12000, 15370
** AFGHANISTAN [non]. Radio Solh, 15265 via UK, enters another month and
another year still playing exactly the same music every day at the same time,
including the sticking CD at 1346-1349+ as reconfirmed Jan 10. The final tune
before 1500* is growing on me. Yes, it is not only the same music, but
obviously a recording of the same entire transmission, including defects,
replayed day after day
** BRAZIL [and non]. There were reports from Brasil that RNA was either missing
or extremely weak on 11780 and 6180, but I found 11780 inbooming here Jan 9 at 0653 check, with wakeupshow, 4:53 am in the DST areas, but mostly for Amazônia at 3:53 am? Nothing, however, on 6180, unQRMing XEPPM 6185 for a change, which had some nice and clear jazz going. But Jan 10 at 0641 check, 11780 was missing, tho Chile was VG on 11805, also audible on 11745
** IRAN [non]. Fair and fluttery signal in Russian, or similar, Jan 9 at 1437
on 5815. Per Aoki this is VOIRIran via Lithuania, 100 kW at 79 degrees,
something you really don`t expect to hear on 50+ meters at this hour, but there
have been some other reports of this from C&W NAm. From 1527 to 1530 they make a beam switch to 259 degrees for R. Racja from Poland to Belarus
** MEXICO. As Julián Santiago advised, XEXQ has returned to the air after more
than two sesquiweeks; classical music, but only a poor, squeezed signal here on
6045 at 1318 Jan 10. Also audible at 1354 Jan 11 but quite weak
** MEXICO. XEYU, 9599+, Jan 10 at 1330 with RFI news relay for about 10
minutes; good signal and no significant het
** U S A. Jan 10 at 2230 I found Radio Weather running on WHRI 11765. I forced myself to listen for a few minutes to confirm my suspicions that Rod Hembree is palming off on gullible listeners not only his wacky religious views, but communications news items which are anything but. One of the topix was a Notice of Apparent Liability for alleged indecency, issued to station WCZR. This is not easy to look up on the FCC website, but a google search quickly found an
FCC page showing that a NAL for that station was dated February 20, 2004! So
here is a show almost four years old. He later included a Stardate capsule,
which are extremely dated but I did not catch what date if any was announced
** AUSTRALIA [non]. Jan 12 at 2320 I found quite a het on 11550. Two stations
of roughly equal strength about 400 Hz apart and hard to separate; even the
SW-07 synch funxion couldn`t help. On other receivers and antennas I was able
to separate them sufficiently to determine that on 11550.0 was Spanish, no
doubt WEWN as scheduled, but mostly skipping over and rather weak; and on
11550.4 something in Indonesian.
Time to break out my brand new copy of PWBR 2008. The only other station on
``11550`` at that time, besides WEWN, is shown as R. Australia in ``other``
language via Taiwan. Doesn`t help to look in the non-blue-edged pages in
country order, since this is too far off-topic for PWBR. A major world language
spoken by over a hundred megapeople, Indonesian, does not merit any individual listings, just lumped in with ``other``.
HFCC? The public file, from which all RA Shepparton transmissions have been
censored, shows no such R. Australia on 11550, but it does show Indonesian at
2200-2330 on 9630 via CVC Darwin, which lets its registrations including RA
relays stand.
EiBi? Not listed there either.
Once you know it`s RA, this transmission can be found on page 408 of the 2008
WRTH, as 2200-2330 on 11550 via Taiwan.
Aoki? There it is, in the 11 January update with more details:
11550 R. AUSTRALIA 2200-2330 1234567 Indonesian 100 205 Tainan TWN 12038E2311 ABC b07
But Aoki misses WEWN on 11550! Which per WEWN website and DXLD 8-004, is on 11550 all the way from 1500 to 2400.
Anyhow, any doubts about the off-frequency one were resolved when I heard
11550.4 ID as R. Australia at 2328:30, shortly before going off
** CUBA. RHC, 9550 in English, Sat Jan 12 at 2330 found CO2KK in
non-copyrighted propagation forecast, i.e. the end of the show, which wrapped
at 2331:30 after the traditional code outro. So if it`s 17 minutes or so long,
it would have started around 2314
** LITHUANIA. R. Vilnius, 7325, English to North America, Jan 12 at 2340 had a
report on the Lithuanian language dictation test, apparently a major national
literacy event. I notice that the announcers almost omit the I in pronouncing
Vilnius, and also almost omit the U in Lithuania. At 2344 began first mailbag
of 2008y, mentioning that most of the reception reports lately had come from
Japan, and were quite similar to each other, concerning the NAm service on 7325 which was making it there despite the usual Chinese co-channel (which I was also getting). One correspondent listened to the Lithuanian semihour at 2300 but not the English at 2330. The entire mailbag had some hauntingly familiar music bed running, which was nice, but not necessary for SW intelligibility.
They also mentioned that RV can be listened to on the internet, something I had
yet to try, via http://www.lrt.lt But going there one sees little but Lithuanian. Following the instruxions in English comes to a dead end, unless you pretend you are getting a podcast of ``current affairs in English`` from http://www.lrt.lt/prenumerata/podcast.php?chid=234933&secid=2&flt=7345
However, even at 0351 UT Sunday, the latest show available there was from
Friday January 11. That mp3 file displays as 35:14 long, but signed off
English at :28 minutes in, then filled with nice folk music, 30:00 into
Lithuanian, and then pop music.
At 2354 gave the English schedule as: NAm 2330 on 7325, 0030 on 9875, and
``next day`` to Europe at 0930 on 9710.
We`ve had conflicting info about whether the weekly KBC Radio broadcast via the same Sitkunai site to NAm, UT Sundays 0100-0159, is now on 6255, or like the 2130-2230 broadcasts to Europe, on 6265. UT Jan 13 at 0150 I could detect a weak carrier on 6255, not 6265, but would prefer to have more certain
confirmation from eastward. I wonder why RV on 7325 was making it so much
better
** ANTARCTICA. Have looked for LRA36 several times lately, but no sign of it,
in accordance with South American reports that it has been missing from 15476.
Including Jan 14 at 1908. Seems like they usually disappear in Jan/Feb, tho
you`d think summer would be the most pleasant time for them. Maybe the staff
are out frolicking on the beach. Whenever I check this I also check for RAE;
** ARGENTINA. Jan 14 at 1907 check, could detect a carrier on 15344.4, no doubt RAE, and an even weaker carrier on 15345.0 causing a lite het, which would be Morocco
** CUBA. RHC, 15370, Sunday Jan 13 at 1442 with ``La Cultura en Cuba`` show
about composer Ernesto Lecuona and playing some of his great music until 1452. Probably starts at 1430, and goes into Monitoring Reminders Calendar; also on the usual // frequencies
** ETHIOPIA [non]. Dimitse Tewahedo, via WHRA, 11785, Monday Jan 14 at 1900 managed to surpass the previous abrupt cutoff at 1905 and continued mostly with music past 1906 and 1911
** INDIA. AIR GOS, 9690 to SE Asia, Jan 14 at 1455 with closing news headlines, and also hum on transmitter as noted previously
** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [non?]. 8122-USB, Jan 14 at 1415 with Don Anderson`s detailed weather info for the Sea of Cortez, mentioning the southern crossing (for yachts) at 23 degrees north; finished his portion of the Amigos Net at 1436 IDing as ``Summer Passage``, which I think is his yacht, so apparently he was aboard rather than aland at Oxnard CA; his signal was just as big as ever, eclipsing other stations in the net
** KURDISTAN [non]. V. of Mesopotamia, via Moldova/Pridnestrovye,
Kishinev/Grigoriopol, 11530, good Jan 15 at 1440 with presumably Kurdish music including wailing, ululation, string instrument accompaniment, until taken out by the eerie Catholic choir of WEWN around 1457
** RUSSIA [non]. Continuous pop music on 13755, 1520 past 1530 Jan 15, fair;
some lyrix seem Russian. Yes, per EiBi it`s 13755 1500-1600 RUS VoR Sodruzhestvo R ME /D-w 13760 The V. of Russia Commonwealth service via Wertachtal, Germany. PWBR also shows this but for summer only, obviously not the case
** CUBA. The latest in the never-ending series of operational errors at RHC was
another beneficial one, allowing us to hear R. Musical Nacional programming on
SW, as has occasionally happened before at this time. But don`t expect it to
happen exactly like this the next night, or ever again ---
Jan 17 at 0640, RHC in English on 6000 talking about, what else? You know what
--- was underlain by a coloratura soprano. This was not the case on 6060 which
had RHC English only. Normally there is no significant co-channel QRM to 6000
at this hour, but the same mix was also on 6180, so that`s a red flag that the
audio was not from another transmitter, but from the same transmitters in Cuba,
with a mixture of audio feeds going into them, and consequently out of them.
Sure enough, at 0659 on 6000, just as RHC was closing, I heard a Radio Musical
Nacional ID; both cut off at 0700 as that frequency went off the air. But 6060,
which had not had RMN before 0700, stayed on the air with nothing but RMN, at
full modulation, with program as scheduled ``La Ópera``. Announcer spoke for
some time, plugging other shows including Teatro de la Opera, but never giving
the time, which would feature Thaïs. Then some classic recordings (originally
78s?) of a singer whose name I didn`t recognize or catch. This was still going
at 0734.
Meanwhile I checked 6180 again at 0718. RMN was also heard there, but now
mixing with yet another Cuban domestic network, this one with talk, keywords
``mesa redonda``, ``poder popular``. 6180 had an additional SAH, probably
Amazônia
** ECUADOR. Stop the presses! HCJB may have finally caught on that for the last few years, they have been automatically announcing the wrong frequencies for their morning Spanish broadcast. I checked 11960 Jan 18 at 1359, 1429 and 1459, and instead of the Einstein- or other notable pseudo-evangelical quotations
plus frequencies, I heard all three times the formerly alternating ID break
consisting of quena and HCJB`s mailing address instead. They still don`t have
the automation coördinated properly, as the tail end of the previous program
gets cut off for the ID at 30 seconds before the hour and half hour. But I
won`t be satisfied until I hear a new announcement with the correct
frequencies, 11690 and 11960 instead of 11760 (which was never correct), and
9745.
15270-15275-15280 DRM, Jan 18 at 1425, sounding just like the Dentro-Cuban
jamming on 15330, 15710. Presumably HCJB 4 kW testing DRM again on its usual 19mb frequencies. Those who invented DRM should have made it sound less likejamming on an analog receiver; bad PR this way.
DRM-DX schedule checked a couple sesquihours later still shows HCJB DRM only at 11-12 UT, German to Europe
** GUATEMALA. R. Cultural Coatán, 4780 is a regular here in the mornings;
unfortunately I don`t usually fire up until after sunrise. Following John
Wilkins` hypothesis that XERTA might be on 4780 too, I paid more attention than
usual, Jan 18: around 1333 mariachi music, mixed with talk but hard to
ascertain language, suspect not Spanish. 1401 ID mentioning 60 metros, but
could not catch name of station. Musical bed with the ID was, incongruously for
either, ``London Bridge``.
Afterwards in talk segment, evidently preaching, in non-Spanish, except for an
occasional recognizable Spanish words such as ``capítulo``, ``versículo``, i.e.
chapter and verse in Bible quotations. Gradually fading, but still audible at
1410, almost gone by 1420 when I quit.
I doubt that XERTA in the DF would be broadcasting in any native language, but
TGLT certainly does. Meanwhile, nothing more than a carrier detectable on 4800,
if that was XERTA. There was no more than one signal on 4780, aside from the
constant CODAR sweeping by that and 4800. Then I see Scott Barbour`s report of Jan 17 that TGLT signed on at 1129 with ``London Bridge``. That clinches it for
me
** U S A. 11715, KJES, Jan 17 at 1417, off-key kid-choir with endless
repetitions of hymn verse starting ``A correr`` and ending ``en la sangre de
Jesús`` --- Yes, Spanish meaning ``Run. . . to the blood of Jesus``. Kept
faking us out, is it about to end? Now? Now? But paused for English ``let me
know if you can hear me`` ID at 1430, and shortly into usual call-and-response
in English. This blurs the border between their designated Spanish and English
hours
** CUBA. Checking Jan 20 for the début of RHC`s Euro service: at 2020 UT check, 11750 quite weak in Portuguese, so guess it is really aimed off some 90 degrees from OK. Also same in Spanish at 2110. By then much stronger secret English broadcast was still running on 11760 // as usual much weaker 9505
** CHINA [non]. CRI, Portuguese to Brasil via Chile, or Commies via Christians,
Jan 21 at 2153 on 17645, nice Chinese music, YL announcer with heavy accent;
2156 transmission schedule, but this frequency not mentioned. In a fade, I
thought they said 17625, but looking up
http://portuguese.cri.cn/101/2006/05/11/1@42862.htm
it claims they are on 17615! 17645 was noticeably weaker at 45 degree azimuth
than 17680 in CVC Spanish from the same Calera de Tango site at 0 degrees. The latter is constantly heard, sometimes very strong, just about any time during
its long daily span 1100-0100 --- well, at least during daylight hours here
** CUBA. Checking Jan 20 for the début of RHC`s Euro service: at 2020 UT check, 11750 quite weak in Portuguese, so guess it is really aimed off some 90 degrees from OK. Also same in Spanish at 2110. By then much stronger secret English broadcast was still running on 11760 // as usual much weaker 9505. However, 11760 is bothered by 315 degree beam from WHRI 11765, which gave 11750 the edge on Jan 21
Earlier, monitored the 49m channels around 0700 Jan 20. At 0700, 6000 briefly
announced ``El programa Zarzuela y Opereta``, presumably from the R. Musical
Nacional network feed, time check for 2 am, but modulation then cut off, to
open carrier. At 0701, 6000 resumed same music it had been playing before that
announcement, and finally at 0702 RHC IS and opening the Esperanto service, as scheduled UT Sundays only. They really need to work on smoothly switching
network feeds. At 0702, 6180 was still on with carrier, while 6060 was off
** ECUADOR. Found another airing of Conozca el Ecuador, which was not on HCJB`s Spanish schedule the last I checked – Monday Jan 21 at 2230-2300 on 12000. This show plays more folk music than talk. Started with two pieces, one vocal, one instrumental, then a feature on the craftswomen of Imbabura province. Music cut off abruptly at 2259 for several seconds, apparently antenna change, as stronger signal when it came back. Then timesignal and 2300 news. Per HFCC, this is what happens in those few seconds off:
Until 2300 there is one 100 kW transmitter at 150 degrees.
After 2300 there are two transmitters, one 50 kW at 157 degrees,
and the 100 kW reverses angle to 330 degrees, now favoring us, spelt U-S
** PORTUGAL. The Caixa Postal & Dexismo show on RDPI was not heard Monday Jan
21 at previously scheduled time of 1848, as I brought up the webcast a few
minutes early. Then checking that date`s program schedule at
http://tv.rtp.pt/EPG/radio/epg-dia.php?datai=&dia=21-01-2008&sem=e&canal=5&gen=&time=
indeed it shows only at 0845 and 1418, and not at 0030 UT Tuesday either, and
also has the podcast icon, where we may also listen to it and the previous
week`s show, without really making it a podcast:
mms://195.245.128.30/rtpfiles/audio/wavrss/ati/41528_20699-0801211540.wma
From previous experience, there is a lot of variation from one week to the next
in RDPI`s program scheduling, so who knows what will happen next Monday. At
least they post advance program schedules for each specific date, which is more
than can be said for many ISWBC stations.
A link to the show pop-up reminds that the presenter is Isabel Flora.
This week`s program was nothing but an interview with someone reminiscing on
the phone about Emissora Nacional; no mailbag, no DX. The new season`s first
show, dated Jan 14, was about the postal system, starting with a song; no
mailbag, no DX. It does appear the name of the show is rather misleading
** VENEZUELA [non]. RNV via Cuba, 11680, Mon Jan 21 at 1509 tune-in during
heavily accented English segment, about relations with Italy, FARC; 1513 back
to Spanish with Chávez declaring that FARC and ELN should be considered
legitimate armed forces, not terrorists; playing the hostage release for all
it`s worth. Over co-channel which Aoki shows could be either BBC Arabic via
Rampisham, or KCBS North Korea --- but does not list RNV which has been there for months as originally reported in DXLD! EiBi has all of the above, but shows RNV as English during the first semihour, while that continues to be only
sporadic and unpredictable
** CUBA. Following advice in WORLD OF RADIO 1392, checked RHC 49mb frequencies at 0700 UT Jan 25: 6060 switched from RHC closing music at 0700 sharp to ``Compositores Cubanos`` program from R. Musical Nacional, but transmitter cut off after a few seconds. At 0701, found 6000 running with undermodulated talk program about Condoleeza Rice, Neocons, US immigration policy, past 0704; think I heard Mesa Redonda mentioned, so may have been replay of that discussion program on some other network feed. And there was a weaker mix of Spanish talk and music underneath, but this was revealed as WYFR when Cuba finally went off at 0705. 6180 was already off at 0701 ** INDONESIA. VOI back on 9526 after several weeks` absence during the hours I
am awake: Jan 22 at 1439 in Indonesian, pop music, constant hum more obvious
during talk and pauses, but good strength. Transmitter dumped off the air for a
fraxion of a minute at 1440, 1449, 1452 and 1458. Usual format of mostly music,
1456:30 to closing warta berita headlines, 1459 YL singing anthem until 1501:30
open carrier with increasing hum, finally off at 1504*. No sign of CRI in
Russian which usually occupies the 1500 hour on 9525, altho there was a lite
het from something when I first tuned in. Thought 9526 might come back on with
gamelan/English ID loop from 1530 as it used to, but still off at final check
1536
** INDONESIA. VOI still on 9526, Jan 24 at 1439 in Indonesian music, which was
sticking for a full minute until 1440. I did not hear a click or pop, so maybe
it was a digital rather than vinyl problem. There followed 4, four minutes of
dead air --- well, not quite dead, as it allowed us to appreciate the hum and
het unimpeded. Finally resumed programming, and played NA earlier than usual at 1456 --- it`s by a soprano with a beautiful voice. Tune in for that if nothing
else. 1504 recheck, still on with carrier, hum
** INDONESIA. RRI Makassar, 4750, fairly good and better than it has been
recently, as late as 1423 Jan 25, M&W in Indonesian talking over music. And a
quick check for VOI found it still on 9526 around the same time
** KOREA NORTH [and non]. Checking out a report of the jammer and Echo of Hope missing from 6348, I found they were both there as usual Jan 25 at 1416, the jammer pulsing at a steady rate of between 4 and 5 times per second
** U S A. Outdoing VOI, WBCQ 9330 was heard with open (reduced) carrier for at least 4 minutes from tune-in 1512 Jan 23. Quite an improvement over Radio
Weather
** U S A. WYFR, 5745, with Camping, Jan 23 at 0640 overridden by open carrier
and then brief tonetest before going off. Typical behaviour of IBB, probably
testing transmitter to be used later by R. Martí, tho not scheduled until *1000
** VENEZUELA [non]. RNV, 11680 via Cuba, Jan 22 at 1506 tune-in again with
heavily-accented English segment, over constant bed of drumming, about US
financing of AUC in Colombia, US` double standard about terrorism, unemployment rate 6.2%, lowest since 1991. Segment called ``Informative Short News`` in typically poor translation to English, Spanish ID and I thought it was over, but resumed English at 1509 with ``Belligerence, the Only Way to Peace``,
Chávez speaking and voice-over translation about FARC and ELN not being
terrorist organizations, and must give up kidnapping. This was identical to
what I heard the day before at about the same time; they`re getting as bad as
RHC in harping on the same subjects ad nauseam, but what else would you expect? English ended at 1518. Way over the co-channel QRM
** MEXICO. Monday Jan 28 is another of those rare days when XEPPM, 6185 leaves its transmitter on in the daytime after nominal 1200* Tune-in at 1551 to ID in passing as R. Educación accompanying a report from Oaxaca, and more talk
programming past 1600 when there was an ID for XEEP 1060 only. S9 +18 with the only comparable signal at this late hour on 49m being WBOH 5920, which was only S9 +13 but sounds louder due to overmodulation. XEPPM has a nice clean easily readable signal, and I wonder how long it will stay on; still going at 1610 tune-out. I also wonder how far into El Norte it can penetrate during the
daytime. If they can do this with 10 kW, how nice it would be if they had 50 kW
and deliberately broadcast in the daytime when there is zero co- or
adjacent-channel interference! BTW, this has happened previously on Mondays,
but not sure if that is their doing, or just when I have happened to notice it.
BTW2, XEXQ 6045 has been missing again for the last few weeks, and so has XEYU 9599.3v in the last few days. BTW3, note that XERTA`s new frequency 4800 could produce a second harmonic interfering with XEYU at local DF range; fortunately, XERTA is rather weak
** AFGHANISTAN [non]. R. Solh, via UK, 15265, Jan 30 at 1419-1459:30*, quite
good reception and recorded it to availablize the music in an mp3 archive, TBA
** CUBA. Just after checking 11680, found an open carrier on 11750 at 1514 Jan
29, then at 1515 up came audio from R. Rebelde talking about their 50th
anniversary; is this the axual date? Included old-timer with creaky voice,
abruptly cut off at 1520* exposing some other weak signal on 11750. Neither RHC nor Rebelde is scheduled on 11750 at this time, but RHC recently added 11750 at 2000-2300, so I suppose testing that transmitter with whatever audio feed was handy
** INDONESIA. V. of Indonesia, 9526, mostly missing lately; not there Jan 29 at
1430 check; but Jan 30 at 1403, Suara Indonesia ID in warta berita, with hum,
ringing sound; 1404 cut off briefly. Jan 31 at 1441, missing. Also RRI, 9680,
Jan 30 at 1414 Indo ballads mixing with Chinese talk, SAH of about 4 Hz varying
slightly
** IRAN [non]. R. Farda, 11750, Jan 31 at 1445 with ID and music. This is
Lampertheim, Germany, 100 kW, 108 degrees
** MEXICO. After a few days` absence, XEYU back on 9599.3v, Jan 29 at 0610 with classical, deep fades; and at 1410 news about water shortage in Mexico City, and blackouts. 1528 recheck, classical. XEPPM 6185: no repeat of yesterday`s daytime apparition, checked Jan 29 at 1526
Jan 30 at 1412, 9599+ again on in Spanish
** VENEZUELA [non]. RNV CI via CUBA, 11680, Tue Jan 29 at 1501-1514 was all in Spanish, no English, the usual Chavista stuff, as if everything going on in V
revolves around Hugo; signal started out weaker than usual, gradually grew. Re
their poor English when it happens: can`t they find any native speaker in
Venezuela willing to spout the Chavista propaganda lines fluently?
Heard on grundig mini 300 pawtucket R.I. basement apt. please bear with me with spelling on this logging.
Note: SW band is packed however finding broadcasts i can understand is
another matter.
6.05 mhz radio ramainia (SPELLING) (pronounced like that) 4:30 PM EST gave 4 different freqs for western europe and north america. said you are listening to english broadcast and want on to news about NATO (north atlantic treaty organization . good signal until i turned on PC then bye bye. 1/22/08
ID kHz Date UTC S/P ITU Station Miles
HXF 200 01/24/08 1041 WI USA Hartford 936
DMZ 203 01/24/08 1047 TN USA Dickson 1004
GDW 209 01/05/08 2257 MI USA Gladwin/Wiggins 743
GF 209 01/27/08 1058 NY USA Glen's Falls/Queensbury/Ganse 206
K7 211 01/10/08 0307 QC CAN Ste-Anne-des-Monts 542
CX 219 01/21/08 2217 PA USA Harrisburg/Latle 372
FZ 220 01/21/08 2219 NY USA Fulton/Oswego County Airport 332
YAS 221 01/24/08 1112 QC CAN Kangirsuk 1268
EPO 225 01/28/08 0940 -- CLM El Paso/El Eden 2583
HSB 230 01/24/08 1122 IL USA Harrisburg-Raleigh 1012
ZUC 230 01/20/08 1203 ON CAN Ignace 1169
CNH 233 01/27/08 1126 NH USA Claremont 162
URT 235 01/24/08 0101 -- BRA Uruburetama 3666
USC 240 01/29/08 1024 -- CUB Santa Clara 1441
3E 242 01/20/08 1223 NS CAN Sable Island/North Triumph Plat 543
LE 242 01/21/08 1129 KY USA Lexington/Blayd 811
LKG 242 01/27/08 1135 GA USA Americus/Lindbergh 1010
FZK 243 01/24/08 1137 WI USA Wausau 1004
TWM 243 01/21/08 1140 MN USA Two Harbors 1127
CB 245 01/21/08 1155 NU CAN Cambridge Bay 2276
UDG 245 01/03/08 0950 SC USA Darlington/Dovesville 728
GGI 248 01/21/08 1157 IA USA Grinnell 1164
PRO 251 01/24/08 1147 IA USA Perry 1236
ZQA 251 01/29/08 1030 -- BAH Nassau 1221
JA 253 01/24/08 1149 MN USA Hibbing/Chisholm 1187
BYN 260 01/27/08 1144 OH USA Bryan 740
EPM 260 01/02/08 2057 ME USA Eastport 273
HAO 260 01/27/08 1145 OH USA Hamilton 774
JH 265 01/29/08 0127 -- GRL Julianehåb/Qaqortoq 1663
TM 266 01/28/08 0151 FL USA Miami/Qeezy 1254
UCP 272 01/22/08 1017 PA USA New Castle 534
ADF 275 01/03/08 1037 AR USA Arkadelphia 1355
YLC 277 01/03/08 1040 NU CAN Kimmirut/Lake Harbour 1463
GPQ 278 01/03/08 1046 GA USA Carrollton 992
SI 279 01/29/08 0132 -- GRL Simiutaq 1646
RBC 280 01/16/08 0140 -- XUU ? ?
DMO 281 01/22/08 1033 MO USA Sedalia 1231
DOU 285 01/24/08 0129 -- BRA Dourados 4502
KU 298 01/22/08 1041 -- GRL Kookøerne/Kook Islands 1710
YQ 305 01/22/08 1043 MB CAN Churchill/Eastern Creek 1566
MA 326 01/27/08 1051 TX USA Midland/Farly 1890
FH 331 01/29/08 0141 -- GRL Frederikshåb/Paamuit 1641
HEG 332 01/02/08 2117 FL USA Jacksonville/Herlong Field 1021
PH 332 01/02/08 2117 MI USA Port Huron/Phurn 641
SG 332 01/22/08 1059 WI USA Green Bay/Depre 927
FF 337 01/22/08 1102 MN USA Fergus Falls/Hamre 1322
LH 338 01/05/08 0004 OH USA Lancaster/Caser 662
PFT 342 01/22/08 1110 MN USA Pinecreek/Piney 1346
YC 344 01/22/08 1116 AB CAN Calgary 2154
AIG 347 01/22/08 1140 WI USA Antigo 981
LPZ 350 01/28/08 0917 -- BOL La Paz/El Alto 4005
RB 350 01/22/08 1144 NU CAN Resolute Bay 2417
STM 350 01/24/08 0151 -- BRA Santarém 3185
ANU 351 01/10/08 0026 -- ATG V. C. Bird 1764
HOT 353 01/16/08 0201 -- VEN Higuerote 2165
LLD 353 01/26/08 1005 -- HWA Lanai 5125
BXG 356 01/26/08 1024 GA USA Waynesboro/Burke County 881
IUL 356 01/22/08 1150 IN USA La Porte 859
TKX 358 01/15/08 1148 MO USA Kennett 1132
CZB 359 01/15/08 1138 IL USA Casey 952
SDY 359 01/22/08 1152 MT USA Sidney 1711
YQZ 359 12/23/08 1048 BC CAN Quesnel 2515
HT 360 01/02/08 2137 -- AZR Horta 2190
JAC 360 01/16/08 0205 -- BRA Jacareacanga 3390
JDN 360 01/23/08 1055 -- CLM Jardin 2508
SW 360 01/15/08 1144 MN USA Warroad/Roadd 1311
MHA 364 01/15/08 1152 WI USA Manitowish Waters 1027
AA 365 01/22/08 1156 ND USA Fargo/Kenie 1363
CVL 365 01/24/08 0208 -- BRA Caravelas 4536
EOK 366 01/22/08 1201 IA USA Keokuk 1111
PNM 368 01/22/08 1204 MN USA Princeton 1201
LMS 370 01/28/08 0928 -- HND La Mesa 2095
FQW 371 01/18/08 1028 TN USA Murfreesboro/Walter Hill 957
PUR 371 01/22/08 1209 MO USA Marshall 1225
OZN 372 01/26/08 1052 -- GRL Ikerassassuaq/Prins Christian S 1711
BRR 375 01/24/08 0213 -- BRA Barreiras 4031
CCY 375 01/10/08 0102 IA USA Charles City 1149
GUA 375 01/24/08 0220 -- GTM Guatemala City 2229
RYB 375 01/16/08 0859 MS USA Raymond 1289
UCY 380 01/16/08 0908 -- CUB Cayojabo/Cayabo 1492
TRI 382 01/24/08 0226 -- TRD Port of Spain/Piarco 2205
UCC 382 01/24/08 0228 -- CUB Jardines del Rey 1406
CDX 388 01/26/08 1101 KY USA Somerset/Cumberland River 841
EN 389 01/26/08 0128 WI USA Kenosha/Codee 918
ZHD 399 01/10/08 0131 ON CAN Dryden/Thunder/Barclay 1216
FO 400 01/02/08 2210 NY USA Westhampton Beach/Squir 136
BZ 407 01/25/08 0127 GA USA Statesboro/Bullo 899
CM 407 01/05/08 1155 IL USA Champaign/Veals 950
PEL 410 01/16/08 0102 -- BRA Ponta Pelada/Manaus 3151
SO 410 01/16/08 0100 MI USA Marquette/Suomi 913
DJD 415 01/25/08 1108 GA USA Canton 933
EVB 417 01/26/08 1127 FL USA New Smyrna Beach 1060
CW 418 01/25/08 1113 LA USA Lake Charles/Mossy 1503
TLC 418 01/28/08 0938 -- EQA Tulcan 2851
PI 420 01/02/08 2217 -- AZR Pico 2201
TU 420 01/25/08 1117 MS USA Tupelo/Veron 1137
V 420 01/27/08 1026 -- CUB Varder 1443
PCA 425 01/24/08 0253 -- DOM Punta Cana 1596
UV 426 01/25/08 1123 MS USA Oxford/Tunng 1171
MMT 427 01/02/08 2307 SC USA Mc Entire/Eastover (AF) 789
SYW 428 01/25/08 1125 TX USA Greenville/Cash/Majors 1540
CHE 440 01/24/08 0255 -- PNR Chitré/Alonso Valderrama 2403
NEED 505 01/10/08 2200 AL USA Fort Rucker ? ?
FN 517 01/25/08 1133 IA USA Clinton/Hillz 1043
TVX 521 01/02/08 2311 IN USA Greencastle 883
Log showing first reception of each signal from 20080101 onwards.
Daytime: 15:00-19:59, Night: 20:00-14:59
Output sorted by date
----------------------------------------------------------------------
YYYYMMDD UTC kHz Call LSB USB Miles + Location
----------------------------------------------------------------------
20080102 00:49 245 JYL 1020 294 Sylvania, GA, USA
20080102 01:07 326 PKZ 1055 1025 374 Pensacola, FL, USA
20080102 01:13 326 UOT 410 435 Y UNION COUNTY, SC, USA
20080102 01:23 340 IWJ 1020 293 Blakely, GA, USA
20080102 01:25 340 BOG 1025 1025 1692 Bogota, CLM
20080102 01:30 344 ZIY 1026 1040 629 George Town, CYM
20080102 01:38 349 AAF 1030 1020 236 APALACHICOLA, FL, USA
20080127 20:51 270 TPF 1040 1032 71 Tampa, FL, USA
20080127 21:03 275 FPR 1035 1037 90 Fort Pierce, FL, USA
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1/6
Around 7:00 am this morning there was a very good FM tropo opening. I briefly checked 101.1 on my E5 and found WRR in Dallas dominating the channel with
classical (the Blue Danube Suite, in fact). By carefully tilting the E5 and its antenna, I was able to also hear KONO-San Antonio and KLOL-Houston. KLOL
was doing their "Mega FM" schtick while KONO was doing some sort of public service programming on credit counseling. It was neat to be able to simultaneously hear stations on the same frequency from the three largest cities in Texas! Other north Texas stations, like KEGL-97.1 in Fort Worth, were also coming through.
We have an approaching Pacific front and warm air out of the Gulf for at least the next 24 hours, so anyone else in Texas/Louisiana should be alert for tropo possibilities.
My house in warwick is undergoing major renevations. i am staying in
my basement apartment in pawtucket on the atelboro line (RI-MASS).
there is one on 104.3 overmodulating real bad in a foriegn language i
dont understand playing music (spanish ????). There is another on
107.7 blasting in mono. the one on 104.3 is tearing up WBCN on 104.1
and 104.5 lawrence mass. the other is tearing into 107.9 WXKX
medford. the 107.7 is running speech in foriegn language. Can anyone
in the pawtucket area pick these up and help ID ????
1/19
Heard this morning on the Maritime-wide Saturday morning show, being
broadcast live from Moncton. Host Stan Carew says, "no more scratchy
reception on the AM band, now crystal clear on 106.1 FM."
No Weather Watchers This Month
1/1
Well, not really DX per se...but I'm watching WGRZ-DT 33 (2.1) from Buffalo with their own local pregame show for the "Ice Bowl" outdoor hockey game that's about to get started over there. (Our NBC here in Rochester, WHEC, is doing its own local pregame show live from Ralph Wilson Stadium also, separate from WGRZ's show.)
Too much ice on my antenna (a Channel Master 4248 UHF corner reflector
at about 40' above ground level) for the usual solid lock that I get on
WGRZ-DT from about 70 miles away. Receiver is the Accurian set-top box,
feeding a nondescript Toshiba 13" CRT set.
1/2
Wow!! I can get 29 DTV channels if I count the sub channels.
What are you getting?
Mine are KPRC (NBC, weather, LATV)
KUHT (PBS, PBS-X, V-Me)
KHOU (CBS & a weather channel)
KTRK (ABC, a local channel & a weather channel)
KETH (TBN, Church Channel, JCTV, TBN Enlace & Smile As A Child)
KTLJ (Daystar)
KTXH (MyNetwork)
KRIV (Fox)
KHCW (the CW)
KLXN (Univision)
KTMD (Telemundo)
KPXB (KPXB with some ION programming QUBO, ION Life, Worship)
KNWS (independent english)
KTBU (owned by America One but doesn't air much of the network programming)
KAZH (TuV)
KZJL (independent spanish)
KTFH (Telefutura)
There are 4 low power analog spanish stations that have no digital
counterpart in the area.
Either KTXH, KRIV or KHCW had a music video channel of some kind but
it's not carried by that station anymore.
If I swing an antenna to the Bryan/College Station area I can get
KTBX which is CBS with The CW on it's 2nd channel but it's too weak
for regular reception plus the 2 channels duplicate whats available locally.
1/26
There was E skip messing up 2-4, but WBTV was mostly dominant. There was some French and Spanish audio on 2.
4 WYFF was messed up badly my local NBC from Greenville. It was about to lose sync.'
This month we had Nevada primary coverage and a few logs. There are more primaries, let’s hear about them. Thanks to everyone for submitting the information and logs. Read on…
Jan 16, 2008
The Nevada primary
will be this Saturday 1/19. For DX I would guess that KDWN 720 Las Vegas and
KKOH 780 Reno would be the best two to check for local and statewide coverage,
for those interested. If you can not hear these stations via DX they are on the
net.
KKOH:
http://www.kkoh.com/
KDWN:
http://www.kdwn.com/
We have no ABDXers in NV that I know of but if anyone might have any other
stations they know of, let us know.
Jan 22, 2008
Internet radio: all
the music without the awful adverts
Classic FM, the UK's most popular commercial radio station, has just launched
another six stations. Obviously these are not being broadcast over good old FM:
the spectrum is already full up. They are
internet stations, and play in a browser window (Internet Explorer only, so
far). There's nothing to download or install.
Internet radio stations are different. There are thousands, so each can target
its own niche audience. For example, you might not be able to get a jazz station
over the air where you live. But searching
SHOUTcast.com for jazz throws up more than 300 stations, including variants of
smooth, modern, big band, bebop, uptempo, downtempo, acid and Latin jazz.
There's even a station called Bossa Nova Samba Jazz.
AM and FM radio stations often have effusive presenters and intrusive
advertising, and you'll still get both if you listen to these stations via the
web. Internet-only radio stations, by contrast, tend just to stream music. It's
more like listening to someone's MP3 player remotely than "real" radio, but it
may be just what you want.
Sound quality is no longer a problem. Most serious stations broadcast MP3
streams at 128kbps, which is fine for PC listening; some use 192kbps or even
256kbps. Most sound as good as or better than the UK's DAB digital radio, which
encodes broadcasts in inefficient MP2 and generally has poor stereo. Of course,
some internet stations use lower speeds - 96kpbs or less - but you can
compromise between the appeal of the content and the quality of the sound.
Greatest hits channel
The new My Classic FM service offers six options including Baroque, Opera and
Movies (for film music). There's also one called Hall of Fame - a "greatest
hits" channel - based on listener votes, and one called Music for Studying. They
sound pretty good through PC headphones. (Since Internet Explorer is required, I
assume they are streamed via 128kbps WMA.) The major drawback is that, for
copyright reasons, the stations are only available through UK-based servers.
Where My Classic FM varies the formula is in allowing users more control. You
can pause tracks, rate what you hear and skip or ban things you don't like.
Well, up to a point: you can only skip six things per session, or the system
might start to run out of tracks.
It does make you wonder how much content there is. I've been listening to the
Baroque channel and it is repetitive and omits major figures such as Telemann,
Rameau and Scarlatti.
Another problem is that it's an easy-listening version of Baroque: like living
on nothing buy bonbons. Classic FM is deliberately not aimed at "connoisseurs of
classical music", but it would be nice to have a "difficulty knob" to turn up.
Nevertheless, My Classic FM's web-based player offers other functions. There are
tabs for listening to the live broadcast, "listen again" programmes, videos and
Classic FM TV. If you get bored, a drop-down menu opens a new window for sister
stations such as Capital, theJazz and XFM. Pity it doesn't open them in the same
window ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/22/internet.radio?
gusrc=rss&feed=media
--
Very interesting
Kevin. I have a couple of questions. How are they paying for this broadcast
service? And how do they measure its popularity?
- Bill Harms
--
> Very interesting
Kevin. I have a couple of questions. How are they paying for this broadcast
service?
I don't know.
> And how do they measure its popularity?
The computer software knows when someone connects and logs it. You can see how
many people are connected at any time.
- Kevin Redding
Jan 25, 2008
Fred Cantú, who is
continually adding valuable information to his website, now has prepared a list
of links to live streams from Mexican stations:
http://www.mexicoradiotv.com/live.htm
Jan 19, 2008
I'm listening to an
Ouachita Tigers (College) basketball game at www.obutigers.com from the
webstream of terrestrial affiliate KYXK 106.9Gurdon/Arkadelphia, Arkansas with
Grant Merrill doing some Play by Play.
He's doing pretty good. He's been a radio friend of mine since my days at WQMA
and we've kept in touch all this time. He's 26 or 27, only a few years older
then me and good at what he does.
--
Jan 21, 2008
Was listening to Four
Winds at Wells County Boys Basketball on "The Mix 1470" KHND Harvey, North
Dakota from 8:30 till 10:15pm eastern (Harvey, ND is in Central time)
--
Jan 21, 2008
Listening to 1240 WKDK Newberry, SC at 10:32 PM Eastern, just heard our very own
Curmedgeon, Pedantariffic Powell Way doing the weather forecast into a song
followed by "My Baby Loves"
Good Job on the music slection PEW!
--
Jan 21, 2008
Powell does a good job...I must admit. I've been picking my own music for going
on 20 years. WKDK sounds a lot like my part 15 station here at my shop. When I
first got into radio I was told "remember, you're not hear to play just what YOU
like...you're here to please the listeners...not just
yourself." We have a mid-morning jock (the guy that's on after me) that seems to
have a problem with this. Ego as big as Texas and thinks he "knows" what people
want to hear and is pretty much pleasing himself when he's on the air. He loves
the sound of his own voice. Getting back to the topic at hand, for NBN (nothing
but net) loggings, you can hear me on the air weekdays between 7am and 9am
MOUNTAIN time on
http://www.1240keva.com/magic.asx . The guy I was speaking of above is on
after me. This url is NOT published anywhere so please don't spread it
around...we could get in big trouble. I am using an old server running Windows
NT4 and Windows Media Encoder 7 so no it's probably NOT the best feed you'll
hear but it ain't bad and it is stereo.
Michael n Wyo
--
Jan 25, 2008
At 11:25PM Eastern
Saturday night, I'm Listening to V6AH 1449Khz Kolonia, Pohnpei via their
webstream
http://www.fm/pohnpei/radio.htm
It is 3:25pm Sunday afternoon there.
So far I've heard an American "Hot" (New) Country tune, a Top 40 (Hit music)
tune and now it's a song thats of a local flavor.
Jan 1, 2008
Since he was listening
to the WKDK.com feed last night.
Kevin can tell what I did live on the air...
Powell E. Way III
"From Gilbert, Arizona
to Newberry, South Carolina, we're WK Dee K"
Kevin
Jan 6, 2008
There is one thing for
sure, the size of the power at a station is not so important anymore. I listen
to The Newberry Indians all the way in AZ on WKDK via the net.
Kevin
And that’s it for January.
73’s, Martin
CULTURE
Stop the music
Jan 06, 2008 04:30 Am
DAVE LEBLANC
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
Where have all the radio flowers gone?
Elevators, almost every one.
And the airwaves aren't as sweet. Before the derogatory term "elevator music" was slapped onto it, there was a radio station format known as "Beautiful Music." It was popular, it was very beautiful – audio paradise.
Hundreds of radio stations pumped the sounds of violins and large orchestras out in waves of air. With their hi-fis and their ears, listeners lapped it up like honey.
Honey, it was a golden age. Bert Kaempfert, Mantovani, 101 Strings, Percy Faith (a creator of the genre, who hailed from the CBC) – with a phalanx of strings, these bands and a thousand others made over ``evergreens,'' tamed jazz, softened rock hits into lush dreamlands.
Beautiful was influential. Three decades ago, I bounced along in the back of my parents' car, the dial on CHFI: Ba-da-da-da-da-DA-da, Ba-da-da-da-da-DA-da sang the guitar of George Benson's "Breezin'' (the album of the same name charted No. 1 on Billboard's Jazz chart in 1976). Behind Benson's playing was a rich background of strings, the hallmark of Beautiful Music.
I remember knowing, somehow, that this was the soundtrack to a world I'd know when I grew up and became my parent's age, which at that time would have been about 40.
I'll be 40 in June, and find myself asking: "Where did all the Beautiful Music go?"
Beautiful Music was a radio format born on the FM band. FM's birth owes a great deal to Beautiful Music. Edwin Armstrong created the high-fidelity band in the 1930s, but in the next decades very few people owned an FM receiver, and most signals were an AM station's simulcast.
In Toronto, that began to change in 1957 with CHFI (the "HFI" stands for "hi-fi"), the country's first FM-only station. According to Bill Dulmage on www.broadcas ting-history.ca, a "unique programming concept enabled CHFI-FM to not only broadcast to homes with FM receivers, but also provide a background music service" to businesses. Commercials were clustered, "and in stores and offices were muted by a tone signal which preceded them." (This may explain why the Beautiful Music format today gets confused with the independent, American Muzak service created in 1934).
It wasn't until the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's predecessor, the Board of Broadcast Governors (BBG) began to license FM stations for separate programming in 1960 that FM began to have its own identity. Without spelling it out in its regulations, that identity was aimed at adults: "The sense was there was nothing but talk and kids yelling at you on AM, so we'll create the antithesis of it," Jerry Good, a CHFI program director during the 1970s, remembers. "[FM] was born of a great sea of instrumental music."
what wasn't `junk' to adult ears in the early 1960s? I've always thought that "Beautiful Music" or "Good Music" (as CHFI labelled it) was the result of a romantic tryst between classical and jazz. The two genres had cocktails in the hotel's swanky lobby bar and then went upstairs and got busy; nine months later, a new style of music was born. The combination of seasoned jazz players backed by lush string arrangements on instrumental cover-versions of popular songs written by the likes of Lennon and McCartney or Antonio Carlos Jobim certainly made for something original.
"I think it drew from both elements," agrees jazz saxophonist and arranger Rick Wilkins, 70, an Order of Canada recipient in 2002. "I certainly knew it was different than the music we were playing after hours . . . at the House of Hamburg or jamming at George's Spaghetti House." Vast quantities of materials were being produced for the record market that Beautiful Music radio could draw content from. In Europe, Frank Chacksfield, Ronnie Aldrich, James Last and Paul Mauriat recorded constantly; from the United States came Ferrante & Teicher, the Jackie Gleason Orchestra, Henry Mancini's outfits, the Hollyridge Strings (famous for Beatle covers) and the indefatigable Lawrence Welk. Arranger Percy Faith grew up in Toronto; his 1930s CBC broadcasts, picked up in the U.S., did much to take mood music mainstream. Moving to the U.S. he became a star on radio and Columbia Records. Toronto-born Robert Farnon met with similar success in England. Meanwhile the easy-listening genre, and musicians and music fans of all tastes, owe a debt to J. Lyman Potts and his Canadian Talent Library.
Started in 1962 at Montreal's CJAD and transferred the next year to Toronto, when Potts became assistant to the president of Standard Broadcasting (W. C. Thornton Cran, known as "Winks" to his friends), the non-profit Canadian Talent Library was the most important vehicle for Canadian music ever created. While CFRB and CBC had always hired local musicians to perform live on air, practically nothing was available on record.
When the Bureau of Broadcast Governors was created in 1958, Potts, anticipating content regulation such as finally took effect in 1971, remembers thinking: "What the hell are we going to do? The solution was to make his own records. Starting as a radio station subscription-only service, by 1966 CTL recordings became available to the general public (and other radio stations) via major labels such as RCA, Capitol and Quality.
It wasn't hard finding musicians. Toronto was a hotbed of jazz, and the CTL recorded Johnny Burt, Howard Cable, The Rhythm Pals, Peter Appleyard, Moe Koffman, Guido Basso, Rob McConnell and Boss Brass (created for a CTL session in 1968), Hagood Hardy, the Laurie Bower Singers, Ben McPeek, Jamaica's Jackie Mittoo, Keath Barrie, Frank Mills, and, by 1977, the Rick Wilkins Orchestra. "I used to have people calling me wondering where my orchestra was playing," laughs Wilkins, described as "the Nelson Riddle of Canada" by Potts. "In fact we only ever played one job and it was down at the CNE one time when CFRB had a whole CTL afternoon."
Wilkins, an arranger on dozens of CTL recordings, remembers the process: Tapes of "potential" rock and popular songs would be handed to him and, after three or four days, he'd decide which ones would work as arrangements. Potts and his team released more than 260 albums before the CTL merged with the Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Records in 1985. That's an achievement, considering this was with a catalogue of chiefly easy-listening records. It wasn't just the stellar musicians involved–"I weep when I hear the talent we had," says Potts–but the success of the Beautiful Music format on radio that made it possible.
"Lyman kept an awful lot of people working," says veteran music writer and radio consultant Larry LeBlanc, 59, who co-founded the music trade publication The Record in 1981.
The airtime, in turn, sold more records. Ubiquitous in their day – and yet today in thrift stores – are CHFI's Candlelight & Wine LPs, albums of content from the station's flagship show. It went to air in 1962 when the smooth-voiced Don Parrish was called up from reading news at CFTO, and it ended when he retired in 1987 at age 69. Don's son Al, a bassist in the band Tanglefoot, thinks the albums started in the mid-1960s. "He thought this was just a perfect little slice of the show," says the 54-year-old. It was "All the stuff that I wouldn't have been caught dead listening to when I was a kid."
By the 1970s there was a demographic "sea change" Don Parrish couldn't ignore. The greying audience was seen as a problem by younger programmers weaned on rock-and-roll, and sales departments didn't seem to know how to sell the format in the youth-obsessed 1970s.
"It's just that, you discover . . . there are easier ways to attract the listeners that the advertisers and the agencies want," explains Good. "You really have to be a pretty dedicated soul to consistently try to sell Beautiful Music."
"The kids grow up with a whole different sound in their heads," Wilkins says.
Younger artists like George Benson and, increasingly, soft-rock vocals, were brought in fill out playlists. The traditional supply of content was drying up, too, as old bands ceased recording, says LeBlanc. In 1980, he prepared a position paper for CHFI when it was called before the CRTC for violations to its license agreement. The title: The Demise of the Easy Listening Instrumental.
Meanwhile the CRTC was asking FM broadcasters to do something they'd given up hope for on for the AM band: educate and enlighten listeners with spoken-word content. This caused the format to "rip apart," says Good, a Ryerson instructor in the Radio Television Arts program for almost 30 years. "The regulations were . . . really, really tough on Beautiful Music broadcasters."
In 1987, an attempt to revive the format in Toronto occurred when "Something New on the Air," Easy 97.3, signed on. I began my career there, working with ex-CKFM announcers Carl Banas, Russ Thompson, Bill Anderson and Don Cameron. The songs I plugged into the cart machines were often CTL recordings; Banas had phoned up Lyman Potts and asked to borrow the records and Potts had obliged and driven them over. Shortly after I left to join CFRB a few years later, Easy caved and became EZ Rock.
In the 1990s, twenty- and thirty-somethings discovered martinis, cigars and swing music. That led them to "lounge" or "space-age bachelor pad music," really re-branded Beautiful Music in eye-catching CD cases. A smash for Capitol Records was the 1996 "Ultra Lounge" series of tracks from their back-catalogue. Other labels began to re-release everything from Jackie Gleason to Cal Tjader.
Was it a comeback, or a passing fad? Swing-dance classes have been replaced by Pilates classes.
Montrealer John Trivisonno, 42, host of "Thrifting for Tunes" on Luxuriamusic.com, says easy-listening music was never about being tongue-in-cheek or having a soundtrack to accompany martinis, but enjoyment. In the '80s, ``when all I seemed to listen to was everything – pop, rock, punk, and so-called `new wave,' I would still occasionally slip on an Enoch Light record."
The Internet offers either the last fadeout, or a tentative sign of life, for "live" Beautiful Music, as it was once heard. One of a few surviving stations is WKTZ in Jacksonville, Fla., which signed on in 1964. It streams its FM signal worldwide(http://wktz.jones.edu). Wikipedia has a detailed entry on Beautiful Music, and one senses website spaceagepo p.com targets curious youth more than greying devotees. Overtones of Beautiful can be heard in Toronto on Moses Znaimer's AM740, and Evanov Group's "The Jewel" 88.5; CBC's easy "Galaxie" channel is heard via TV cable.
Takes differ on whether these signal future life for Beautiful Music. No, says Good; Boomers rock. "The over-50 people today are different from the over-50 people back then." Larry LeBlanc, tentatively, finds Beautiful Music a default "part of their (boomer) taste cells."
But Potts, now 91 and living in Burlington, a recipient of the Order of Canada, thinks people still want "a song of love . . . a song of inspiration, a song of comfort. Music,'' he says, "doesn't die at age 50." Combine that with Lewis Mumford's famous observation: that "the commonest axiom of history, is that every generation revolts against its fathers and makes friends with its grandfathers."
Dave LeBlanc, 39, lives in Toronto and is an "audio architect" at Newstalk 1010 CFRB. Email daveleblanc@cfrb.com
Anger as RTE to switch off medium wave band
By Laura Noonan
Saturday January 19 2008
IT'S being billed as "goodbye to an old friend". RTE is to axe Radio 1's medium-wave services, in a move which has drawn political criticism and which is set to provoke outrage among churchgoers.
Since 1926, the much-loved service has been a mainstay for people living in rural areas where FM reception is poor and a vital tool to broadcast church services.
But station executives believe that modern technology, has signed medium wave's death warrant, and it will switch off on March 24.
RTE also believes the transmission costs of supplying the service no longer justifies its existence, since the content is now available elsewhere.
Medium-wave shares almost all its content with the FM version of Radio 1, except for Sunday religious services and a mid-week soccer game.
There is to be a public information campaign ahead of the switch-off date. This will highlight the fact that the full Radio 1 MW services will remain available on long-wave radio.
The broadcaster is also talking to charities about providing subsidised radios for those who don't have sets with FM or long-wave frequencies.
Elderly
The station's research shows that one in 10 radio listeners use the medium-wave version of Radio 1, with the service particularly popular with the elderly and those living in remote areas.
Fine Gael communications spokesman Simon Coveney said shutting down medium wave transmissions has implications for people in rural parts of the country and at sea.
"This is a public service broadcaster and this shouldn't be abandoned," he said.
Labour communications and marine spokesman Michael McCarthy said the decision would have the biggest implications for fishermen working 50 or 100 miles off the coast and relying on the broadcasts for weather reports and for farmers.
- Laura Noonan
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/anger-as-rte-to-switch-off-medium-wave-band-1269254.html_
NIST Radio Station In Hawaii Gets Antenna Makeover
1/28/2008 Gaithersburg, MD -- Radio station WWVH in Hawaii, operated since 1948 by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to broadcast time, frequency and other announcements, recently powered up innovative replacement antennas.
In a seven-year project to adopt a technology used on Navy ships, NIST has installed new antennas encased in fiberglass rather than traditional steel supports, to resist corrosion from the salty ocean air. The fiberglass design will reduce maintenance and repair costs. The new design also enables the flexible, lightweight antennas to be easily lowered to the ground for maintenance, reducing safety hazards to staff who previously had to climb the towers, which are up to 98 feet tall. The improved antennas should reduce signal downtime for WWVH users.
From its location on the island of Kauai, WWVH broadcasts on four different frequencies. Each frequency requires a different antenna; including backups, the station has a total of eight antennas, seven of which are made of fiberglass. NIST erected and powered up the last fiberglass replacement antenna in October 2007. NIST staff believe the project is the first demonstration of high-powered, high-frequency fiberglass antennas on land.
Broadcast Information: NIST radio station WWVH broadcasts time and frequency information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The announcer states the time in hours and minutes every minute “at the tone.” The information broadcast by WWVH includes time announcements, standard time intervals, standard frequencies, geophysical alerts, marine storm warnings, and Global Positioning System (GPS) status reports.
Service Area: WWVH officially serves the Pacific Ocean and Pacific Rim but has received confirmation of reception from as far away as South Africa, a distance of 19,300 km (12,000 miles) from Hawaii. NIST’s two radio stations, including WWVH in Hawaii and WWV near Fort Collins, Colorado, essentially cover a large portion of the world between them, although reception might be difficult in some areas. NIST also operates a third radio station near Ft. Collins, WWVB, which broadcasts a special code that automatically sets consumer clocks, watches, and other timepieces to NIST time.
How to Pick Up WWVH Signals: WWVH operates in the part of the radio spectrum known as HF (high frequency), commonly called shortwave. The station broadcasts on four different frequencies: 2.5, 5, 10, and 15 megahertz (MHz). A normal AM/FM radio will not pick up the signals (the middle of the AM radio dial is about 1 MHz and the middle of the FM radio dial is about 100 MHz), but there are many inexpensive shortwave receivers that can pick up the station. Listeners can also hear the WWVH broadcasts by telephone, by calling 808-335-4363 (a Hawaii phone number that is not toll free).
Information is broadcast at different frequencies simultaneously because these signals travel different distances as the weather and conditions of the ionosphere vary. NIST’s goal is to make at least one frequency available at all times in the service area.
SOURCE: National Institute of Standards and Technology
There was an e-mail in my inbox this morning at work announcing the start-up of a low-power emergency radio station that will cover the NASA/Johnson Space Center (JSC) area (six-mile radius).
Here are the particulars, thanks to JSC's Center Ops Directorate:
FREQ: 1690 kHz
CALL: KHA926
POWER: 10 Watts, normal ops; 30 watts, emergency ops
TRANSMITTER SITE: NASA/Johnson Space Center
ANTENNA HEIGHT: 30 feet
The station is scheduled to go full-time on Feb 1st.
No bargains this month
All this talk about the SRF-59 got me really curious about what it could do. After work tonight I swung by K-Mart -- a place I haven't been to in a very long time -- and they had one left hanging in the unlocked glass case. The post it was hanging on said $9.99, but that was obviously for some other item. There was no sticker anywhere for the SRF-59. I took it to the register where the cashier said it was $14.99. Sold!
I'll give Sony credit for packaging. This is the first zip-open blister pack I've ever seen. Like most of those zip packages, it didn't work as intended, but it was still a lot easier to open than the 3-way CFL I got at Home Depot, which had me concerned that I was going to have a toxic mercury spill before I got the thing out of the package.
Instead of the supplied headphones, I decided to try the SRF-59 with my Etymotics earphones. I wasn't expecting it to work especially well because the Etys are fairly high impedence and give a lot of small audio devices a bit of trouble. The SRF-59 handled them just fine. It was set to FM when I turned it on and happened to be tuned to a local station. I was quite impressed with the sound.
I flipped around the FM dial a bit. The tuning seemed a bit sensitive and fidgety, but not too bad.
Then I tried AM. Within seconds I knew I wouldn't be spending a great deal of time tuning around with this radio. The tuning is far too sensitive. I don't mind analog, but it has to be set up right. I suppose it's tough for the manufacturers trying to find just the right ratio so it doesn't take a dozen rotations of the dial to get from 530 to 1700 but still make it sensitive enough to move easily from 1500 to 1510. Sony missed.
As far as reception, I'll have to play with it some more before I render a verdict. First impression is that it's as good as everyone is saying.
I suspect this radio will replace the DT200V as my in the car emergency lunchtime radio. It should be more than adequate to find the local talk stations I listen to sometimes at lunch. And at only $15 I won't get too upset it something happens to it. The DT200V will move up to a position of greater safety.
As for the other somewhat radio-related purchase, the 3-way CFL mentioned above was installed in a lamp in the living room. It emits strong RFI within a few feet of the lamp, just like every other CFL I've installed. The interference doesn't seem to have much impact beyond maybe four feet, so it's not a complete disaster. I'm still dreading the day when there are hundreds of these things within a few hundred feet of my house.
Grundig Mini 300
After having the radio for a 5 days its time for a review.
the grundig mini 300 is an am fm sw pocket radio. it runs off two AA
batteries. it has digital readout with ANALOG tuning. It is very user
friendly and easy to operate. i'll start with the good then the not so
goods.
The good (MW):
The MW is sensitive and selectivity is decent. when compared side by
side with the sony SRF-59 it was able to receive all the stations the
SRF-59 could receive. I could also hear WSB 750 which the sony SRF-59
could not quite catch. the only problem areas were near strong locals
and first adjacent channel. example 1220 is a strong local. 1210
philadelphia was a little difficult but not impossible. nulling and
rocking the tuner over towards 1208 KHZ yielded 1210. the same with
790 which is a very strong local. the first adjacent is 800 canada.
rocking tuner towards 802 pulled 800 thru 790 splatter. note the sony
srf-59 also had issues with these first adjacents . outside of this
away from strong locals all was fine. also it is quick getting up and
down dial.
The Bad:
Its only single conversion . An image may pop up here or there but
nothing i can't live with. as mentioned above a litttle work is needed
to hear staions next to strong locals.
The Good (FM)
HMMMMMMMM
good sound quality on local.
The Bad (FM)
Do NOT attempt to use this for FM DX !!! Strong locals bleed allover
the dial. A filter mod is needed for urban areas. This would proberly
be not as much of an issue away from an urban area with no nearby
strong locals.
In all fairness i was able to get the boston stations however doing so
was somewhat of a struggle. the radio had to be moved around along
with the headphone wire to null down the bleeding from the strong
locals. again a filter mod is needed.
The good (SW)
Tuning SW was easy and catches were quickly found. The telescopic whip
is loaded so this is good for indoors and tough locations where its
hard touse an external antenna.
The Bad (SW)
There is NO SSB. All the SW frequency's are not covered. it starts
around 5 something MHZ. there is no seperate fine tuning its done on
one tuning knob however i did not find this a major problem and was
able to work this out fine. remember this is only single conversion.
Over all Good:
there is a clock with an alarm. there is a speaker. the FM is in
stereo VIA headphones or included earbuds. Included is a nice pouch
toput it in and a belt loop. it is good on batteries i ran it several
hours over 5 days and batteries still good. the clock holds time while
you change the batteries and is easy to set if you take too long.
The Bad:
The only general minus is there is no backlight for the display.
However the display is easy to read. One more thing forget those
earbuds that are included and use some decent headphones instead.
My DX-160 arrived a few days ago and I've had a chance to play with it
some. It has a few mods, such as a jack on the back for attaching a
frequency counter.
Its a fun little 1970s box. Pretty hot on MW. Nice and selective too.
For folks on a budget, a DX-160 would make a nice addition to a decent
digital display portable for a mini-shack. Also makes a nice office ,
bedroom, workshop dx beast. I suspect for now it will be my workshop
rig.
Speaking of digital display portables, they are battery pigs but the DX-
440/ATS-803A twins are awfully nice receivers which have stood the test
of time well. These also can be had at good prices used, just be picky
to get one in nice shape.
HAARP It worked for me here in Morro Bay, CA - using a DX440 and 6' whip on my vehicle @ 0640 on 6792.5kHz, I could hear the reflected carrier between the terrestrial transmissions. The signal strength varied in intensity even more than the skywave signal.
Another CFFX no from Detroit. Local WWJ-950 runs IBOC 24/7, totally wiping
960 out.
Thankfully, I'd heard and QSL'ed CFFX a couple of years back, before
WWJ picked up that junk, so at least it's not a total loss.
No on CFFX. My local is KKNT.
The KKMO DX Test was heard here in So Cal.
1360 KKMO Seattle WA 1/13 12:00-12:15 AM PST sweep tones, tones, some of the march music made it in, under and over KLSD San Diego.
Nothing [CFFX] at 11 PM PST. Too much KKNT Phoenix and the station with Spanish music that uses the slogan La Favorita, maybe KOVO?
Also heard ESPN radio in there at 11:18 PM with some code so maybe their wierd ad with code in it.
We were out last night and I didn't get home until 11:30 PM PST/0730 UTC so I gave 7407.5 kHz a try and they were there. Weak signal with a string of moon bounces sometimes at the same signal level as the main signal and then a string of missing bounces. Counting this as a utility station.
** U S A. Looked for the WIMA 1150 Lima OH DX test, Sat Jan 5 at 0700-0705, but no sign of it, only network news, probably the usually dominant KSAL Salina KS
** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM [and non]. The second night of HAARP Moonbounce tests was much less successful, probably due to diminished Earthly ionospheric conditions. 6792.5, Jan 20 at *0629 started hearing carriers on and off, but generally weaker than Jan 19, and could not hear echoes for sure. More QRM from spoilers on nearby frequency such as at 0636, CQ DE WB --- but didn`t copy the rest of the call. 0650 also noted occasional CW and SSB QRM before quitting
KKMO solid in Boise with sweep tones, tones and voice ammouncement
1/4
I didn't stay up for the test, but set up Total Recorder and am now checking the recordings (after going out for a big lunch to celebrate Mrs. F.'s birthday).
Nice clear voice announcement from Fred at 0200 - "In cooperation with the National Radio Club Joint Test Committee...," then code and band music. CKOC was almost nonexistent here, and the 4 kHz filter on the R8A eliminated any issues from WHAM's IBOC.
Thanks to Jim and Fred and the guys at WIMA!
No reader submissions this month!
No one got the bird this month!
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