February 2009 ABDX Journal
Vol 4. Issue 2
Editors Corner:
ABDX membership has reached 204 members! I thank all of you for
being members of ABDX.
The February CME is all about weather
logs. The March CME is split
on AM band Frequencies and the whole HF band.
From today until 2359 March 16 DX is open for 1110 to 1710 kc.
From 0001 March 17 until 2359 March 31 DX is open for 530 to 1100 kc.
For
the entire month DX is open for HF (shortwave) on any band or frequency. Also
open are three letter calls on any band. (this should be good for a lot of LW
logs as well...)
There
is a European DX test on 846 kHz on March 15 to go from 0200 –0600 UTC
from Radio North. WHYL will also be running a test at the same time.
If anyone wants to help write a column
for the Journal please write me at amfmdx at centurytel dot com. If anyone has a
one off story for the Journal it would be excellent to have it sent along as
well.
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.abdx.org
The ABDX 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
Kevin Redding, Phil Rafuse,
Powell Way, Mike Richard, Jay Heyl and Martin Foltz the ABDX crew.
The Broadcast Band
1420
khz - CKDY - Digby, Nova Scotia Feb 2/09 7:18 UTC w/
weather forecast of snow flurries , temp "Get your AVR Weather 24 Hours A
Day" , Mobil ad
Radio
used : SRF- 30FP Ultralight barefoot
1390
khz - WEGP - Presque Isle, Maine Feb 1/09 23:30 UTC w/ weather
forecast: snow tonight , rain tomorrow high 34 low 13 , WEGP
ID by man
Radio
used : SRF-M37V Ultarlight barefoot
970
khz - WZAN - Portland, Maine Feb 2/09 7:35 UTC w/
National Weather Service extensive forecasts for regional areas of
USA then Drunk Driving PSA , Midnight Truckers Network
Radio
used SRF-39FP Ultralight barefoot
2/5
Hearing
a station in and out on 1300 khz with man speaking in French about Brazil
, thought at first it might be WJDA Quincy, Mass but their website says
they only program in English , Portugeuse and Spanish , any ideas ?
1420
WHK Cleveland, Ohio - 1:30 UTC 2/7/09 w/ talk show ,discussion about
Afghanistan then into Newstalk 1420 WHK ID and News EX-WRMR ; SRF-M37V
Ultralight barefoot
570 KLAC
Los Angeles, CA 0100 UTC / 1800
L. ID came up very clearly out of
mix of soup betweeen them and KNRS, Salt Lake City UT that i had been monitoring
since 00:30. KLAC heard only for a
few seconds into the news, then yielded back to KNRS.Actually, i HAD been
listening to catch KSNM, Las Cruces, NM, that sometimes makes appearances at
local sunset. Heard these two
instead.
QSL : KNBR
680, San Fran. , CA. - confirmation
by letter recieved over the weekend, one year later from original rx, ironically
also on a rainy day . i had been
picking up supplies and left home in my truck in the rain at just before 2:00P
local time and found a station on 680. couldn't imagine who would be there at
that hour, but at TOH, very solid clear ID on KNBR "the Sports
Leader".
now i have confirmation . the veri signer wrote "We at KNBR
support radio enthuisasts worldwide".
also included were a picture of a past "rock girl"
calendar girl from affiliate station "the Bone" 107.7,2
"Bone" decals with San Fran 49ers Logos, 2 Bone-FM stickers and
2 KNBR 680 stickers.
(btw, the sticker gives both 680 and 1050 as frequencies. is there
something i dont know here)
i am most certainly greatful for this unexpected radio bounty.
570 KLIF
Dallas, TX 00:45 UTC.
Break from a talk show w/ shaky signal to local spot and local station
promos with "570 KLIF".
HQ 180
1610 2/13/09 12:13 AM PST WQIX414 City of Ojai emergency advisory
radio
system,
weak with ID loop by man. Mixing with mystery WPFK505.
2/19
I haven't really tried for the Ontario Airport TIS on 770 kHz but I
tuned in while driving this morning at 8:45 AM PST and heard them with airport
info. This was only about a mile from my house but I live in a hilly area. I'll
give it a try at home when I can.
1070 COLOMBIA HJCG R Santa
Fé, Bogatá 03Feb09 1030 - Latin music then man with ID "Radio Santa
Fé" - Recorded – good
760 WLCC,Brandon FL - 18Feb09 2247 - Recorded- good - Mexican music, then SS DJ with ad mention "downtown Tampa" and station slogan "La Ley"
2/8
Go to this URL and scroll down and you will see this....
"WBDH 580 and 1570 proudly broadcast in full independent
sideband AM Stereo."
All I can say is there it is on the website. They don't appear to
be hiding it.
Heard on a DX-398 and 150 foot wire.
550 WDUN Gainesville, GA 2/12 0710 with man and woman talking about
the upcoming HS baseball season. NEW.
1070 WAPI Birmingham, AL 2/13 0725 with weather report.
Heard on an Eton E-1 and 150' wire:
690 KEWI Benton, AR 1915 2/22 playing NOS/EZL for quite some time
until power drop. NEW
As heard on an XM Roady 2 a DX 398 and seen on Raycom Sports:
840 WHAS Louisville, KY 2002 2/25 A crushing basketball victory by the awesome and mighty South Carolina Gamecocks over the Kentucky by 19 points. Via DX I was able to hear the SEC East #1 Gamecocks rack up a school record 20 blocked shots against the Wildcats.
All times CST:
580
KIDO ID Nampa. 0640 30 Jan 09.
Ad for a breakfast being sponsored by Treasure Valley Boy Scouts. Other
ads. KIDO newstime 5:45. Fair signal. Relog.
1410 KKLO KS Leavenworth. 1000 29 Jan 09. Suddenly appeared with TOH I.D. for about 10 stations around Kansas. NEW.
1010
WPPI MN Sauk Rapids. 2/5 1643 CST.
Adult--Standards--NOS type music. Many
"Uptown
1010" slogans. "Minnesota's Ring-a-Ding radio."
Another of those Johnny-come-lately west & west-central MN stations
cluttering up the former clear frequencies with too much power. They seem
to be trying to serve the Fargo, ND-Moorhead, MN market. And it looks like
there are more to come. WPPI seems to be closer to St. Cloud.
1/31/09
970 khz WDAY
'Depend on It' class B 5000 w ,News\Talk , Fargo N.D. 323 miles
1580 khz KCHA 'Fabulous
1580' ,Oldies , 500w day, 10 w
night ,Charles City Ia. 305 miles
2/8/09
KFAQ 1170 Tulsa
Okl.
Is giving a chance to
win an old time radio show on CD
If you would like to enter call : 918-460-1170
2/28/09
2007 Dodge Ton Pickup 6:00 to 6:35 central
1160 khz KSL
'KSL News Radio' Salt lake City UT. Raising money for the Primary childrens
Med. center and traffic \weather ,raining there.
1520 KVGV ?? heard
talk of sports and other stuff but unsure of the call sign? Iv'e run across this
one before at home but still have'nt got a good copy on the letters so this is
close i think?
A
wee bit of dashboard DX from my recent trip from Orlando to Chicago. This is all
on the factory radio in my '04 Acura TL.
First,
from the southern-most part of Illinois, just over the border from Kentucky.
(The trees all through the western tip of Kentucky were toast. At least half of
them had serious damage from the ice. Thankfully, the roads were clear when I
drove through.) These are from about 10:50 to 11:15 on 2 Feb 09.
570
WKYX Paducah, KY
610
WRUS Russellville, KY
640
WCRV Collierville, TN
650
WSM Nashville, TN
670
WSCR Chicago, IL
680
WSMB Memphis, TN
1150
WGGH Marion, IL
2/5
Who is stunting on 1390 with "Coming February 9, it's Old School 1390"? Just this over and over with no ID with a few urban/R&B bits thrown in. Ideas?
Got an ID- it's WEED Rocky Mount NC.
** U S A. 1560 kHz with booming dominant loud & clear signal in
sports talk, discussing merits of Monday night football hosts, Feb 7 at 0649 UT,
phone 1-800-878-PLAY. Missed hourtop ID if any but at 0706, got program name
``Sports Overnight America``, and mentioned several affiliates, including
KTRB-860, but not 1560.
Would normally tune out this nonsense, but something is amiss.
Strongly suspect KGOW Bellaire/Houston TX, which has a 50 kW rig for daytime
only, but which got out very well a few months ago during a hurricane on
emergency usage. Searching on S.O.A., one gets to this which does show KGOW as
an affiliate: http://www.sportsbyline.com/affil.htm
And KGOW`s own program schedule, ``lineup`` calls it ``Midnight
Sports Byline`` starting at 9 pm most nights with no details of exactly what`s
on until 7 am local CT:
http://www.1560thegame.com/media/?page_id=150
This signal was huge, and by comparison, XERF-1570 was buried in
QRM. So was KGOW running day power and tower? Inspecting FCC info at http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?list=0&hpat=2&facid=17389
---
Licensed nite power is 100 watts, but this was no 100 watts; no
point in even looking at the direxional pattern for that. But also has a CP for
15 kW at night, with peak at 145 degrees, nulls at 45, 100, 295 and 345 degrees
--- we are about 345 degrees from Houston.
The 50 kW day pattern, however, has a broad peak from 340 to 50
degrees, centered on 15 degrees, so it sure looks like this was in use --- and
no hurricanes anywhere near.
If
I were one of the four other Texans on 1560, or KOCY Oklahoma City, not a trace
of which was audible here, I`d be blowing the whistle on KGOW.
UNIDENTIFIED. USA, 1500, unID "Radio Olympics",
2302-2324, 22 Feb, English, ads, news including a report from Greece, Greek
program at 2312, Greek music; they mentioned several other "R.
Olympics" stations that were in parallel; 33442, QRM de VENEZUELA +
adjacent frequencies.
1690 UNID with ethnic program in Greek, 2336-2351, 22 Feb, Greek
music; 44433, QRM de NAm (Carlos Gonçalves - Portugal, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
He assumes 1500 is USA since it`s not on a European 9-kHz channel,
but I wonder if it could be another pirate in Greece. Any ideas about an
American station on 1500 which would fit? Surely not Washington DC. I see that
1500 WMNT in Manatí, Puerto Rico is Radio Atenas, but presumably in Spanish
(Glenn Hauser, ibid.)
2/2
WCNL-1010 Newport NH seems to have left the day power on tonight -
heads up out west! C&W
format.
Also noted a few minutes ago, WAPI-1070 with talk, apparently on
day
power/pattern.
2/17
Looks like daytimer WQCT Bryan OH left the big 500 W rig on
tonight...
ID'ing as "the home of Good Time Oldies in northwest Ohio,
WQCT
Bryan". Also noted: unid with "Newstalk AM 1520" slogan. Who dat?
2/28
On Friday, I unexpectedly logged one of my most-wanted stations,
WJDM-1530, a 1 kW (670W critical hours) daytimer in Elizabeth NJ.
Though neither the station nor its owner, Multicultural Radio
Broadcasting, seem to have much of a presence on the web, my
understanding was that WJDM's format was religious, in Spanish.
I have often checked 1530 just before their sunrise shut-down time,
listening for Spanish talk, but nada was heard.
On Friday, I did a quick check of 1530 just after 1700 EST... as
usual, no Spanish, but quite a few stations in the mix (WCKY plus various
eastern daytimers). Something
caught my ear, though... a fellow speaking rather slowly in English. I tweaked things to try and bring up his voice, and heard:
"this is Danny Stiles... on the Internet, log on to www.dannystiles.com...".
Then a bit of a fade while another web address was given, and the part
that really caught
my attention: "you can hear me on... every afternoon from 1
till 5, Monday through Sunday, on WJDM 1530 AM, also 1430 AM, 10 at night until
midnight, and on WPAT...". I
later found all of these details on his website... turns out Danny is an
85-year-old gent who has been in broadcasting for more than 60 years.
He is said to have a personal collection of over 250,000 albums, many of
which are 78's, and is still spinning 'em on the air, on four different stations
(and on the web too).
I'm mighty pleased with this catch, and the background story is
kinda neat too. I've probably heard
WJDM before, and never realized it... better late than never!
2/1
`Sports Radio 5-50 WGR Buffalo` heard at 0200 EST
(0700 UTC) on the Sanyo MCD-S830 barefoot in the wrong direction SSE instead of
WSW (west-south-west)...
2/8
Pan-American DX (all times UTC)
526 BAHAMAS ZLS, Stella Maris FEB 1
0232 - Non-directionnal beacon throwing some very slight splatter against
Cuba-530 on the Sangean CST-818 / PK's Magnetic Shielded longwave loop combo in
AM Wide Mode. SIO 243 poor-fair ! (Chiochiu-QC)
530 CUBA CMBQ, Radio Enciclopedía, La
Havana FEB 1 0230 - playing a Muzak instrumental version of the Billy Ocean's
1984 smash Dance hit "Caribbean Queen". Fair-good in CIAO null on the
Sangean CST-818 / PK's Shielded Magnetic longwave loop which was set to amplify
the highest frequency (500 kHz) which throws quite some gain around the bottom
end of the mediumwave band too ! Slight splatter from ZLS-526, in CIAO null ! SINPO
34433. This one isn't quite as regular as the former Radio Visión
Cristiana tx in South Caicos, it is at least slightly weaker than RVC-530,
though it does make in at listenable levels even during below-average conditions
to the Caribbean ! (Chiochiu-QC)
555
ST KITTS ZIZ, Basseterre FEB 8 0520 - back-to-back calypso music
with some English-Caribbean DJ chatter using the TALKOVER effect, part of it was
Carnaval related. Switched to BBC World Service by 0600 UTC ! Very good peaks
with slow fadings that were deep, though it always comeback at the very good
level mark. SINPO 45434. I still have the radio on at a very low volume
with barely noticeable splash from semi-local WEVD-550 at 4:30 PM
(1630 EST - 2130 UTC). (Chiochiu-QC)
750 VENEZUELA YVKS, Caracas, DF FEB 7
0320 - Woman in Spanish noted in passing at a nice but fadey quality
and atop WSB. Very regular, easier for me than Coro-780 which is unheard
here since a couple of weeks (last heard in January of 2009, of course, but
weaker than YVKS-750). +FEB 7 0125 - w/ the "Ventana Deportiva"
sports program. Poor-fair signal w/ some good peaks. Deep fadings, WSB QRM ! (Chiochiu-QC)
760 COLOMBIA HJAJ, RCN Cadena Basíca,
Barranquilla FEB 6 0025 - news repport regarding someone who died, followed by
ads, one of them being for "Banco Popular" with the "está es sú
banco" slogan then time pips at 0030 UTC (1930 EST; 7:30 PM local) leading
once again to "RCN Noticias..." news. This and YVKS-750 are the only
South Americans that reach Montreal during such abysmal Latin American
conditions ! Radio Coro in the Falcón state is missing here... +FEB 9 0145
- woman host taking call from listeners that were, among other things, bothered
by their work. Unstable propagation, deep fadings, very good peaks in WJR null !
SINPO 45422. With WTIC-1080 staying quiet with their IBOC hash, I may always try
to pick up Emisora Atlantico HJIJ-1070 now that hard-to-null CBA Moncton is gone
for good ! However, as I write this, at 9:02 PM Eastern (0202 UTC), WJR
Detroit has become unnulable ! Grrrrr...! (Chiochiu-QC)
550 WGR Buffalo, NY 0200 - legal ID "Sports
radio Fife-Fifty WGR Buffalo" with the Sanyo MCD-S830's barefoot
perpendicular to the wrong direction SSE instead of WSW. Fair level ! Condx must
have been quite good toward Buffalo, since this one is rarely making above the
550 kHz jumble ! I think it beams away from Montreal in order to protect
semi-local WEVD and former semi-local CHLN ! WEVD beams north-west, to protect
CHLN from the north-north-east and WGR from the south-west. I wonder what is the
directionnal pattern of WGR and why I heard them with the radio oriented toward
the wrong bearing ! (BC-QC)
600 WICC Bridgeport, CT 02/22 - "WICC Six
Hundreed" strongly breaking through a few other signals with CKAT megapest
in North Bay, ON not much in evidence at this time. Regular, though not that
easily heard as in the past, mostly due to the rather poor condx. (BC-PQ)
1530 WDJZ Bridgeport CT. 6:50 AM EST popped up just in time to
catch calls WDJZ then said something like on with the music or close to that
effect. This was dawn enchancement around sunrise daytimer only !!! 2/4/09
1070 WKOK Sunbury PA 7:52 AM EST ad ending followed by calls WKOK 1070 AM 2/7/09
2/8
Got in a little dashboard DXing on my way to Bible Study after work
Saturday evening:
17.45 EST ** WAVA-AM 780 Arlington, VA - Poor in mess dominated by
WBBM
with
sign off, mention of Salem Communications. New catch!
2/27
WKPT-1590 khz @ 9:00 pm Eastern w/ Bee Gees, D and mention of 99.7 ? New for here.
1240
WKDK Newberry, SC ....2304..... "Wolfie" better known as Powell, doing
his "Wolfie Weather" for the world famous "Page Turner" on
his Wednesday night live show. 02/25/09
PEW
at home with then Zenith H615Z in the exact right place.
2/2
WNBH-1340 New Bedford, MA and WLKW-1450 West Warwick, RI both
changed
formats at midnight tonight. They
were Timeless Favorites (oldies) and are
now ESPN Radio full time. WNBH-1340
does have some high school games and
also some local specialty programming weekends.
WLKW-1450 has a specialty
show on Sunday // WNBH. That
one is a Frank Sinatra music show.
Navtex logs
01C
490 - 03Feb09 0401 - -- SCT Portpatrick GPK - Miles 3005
01E 490 - 03Feb09 0040 - -- ISL Saudanes TFA - Miles 2484
01K 490 - 03Feb09 0842 - -- ISL Grindavik TFA - Miles 2414
01L 490 - 02Feb09 2113 - -- DEU Hamburg-Quickborn DDH49 - Miles 3608
02A 490 - 02Feb09 2325 - -- CNR Las Palmas EAL - Miles 3181
02E 490 - 03Feb09 0043 - -- FRA Cross Corsen FRC - Miles 3113
02G 490 - 03Feb09 0108 - -- POR Monsanto CTV - Miles 3154
02T 490 - 02Feb09 2316 - -- ESP Tarifa,AN EAC - Miles 3414
03B 490 - 03Feb09 0047 - -- TUR Istanbul TAH - Miles 4809
04D 490 - 02Feb09 2033 - QC CAN Riviere-au-Renard (Sept-Iles) VCK - Miles 618
04J 490 - 02Feb09 2301 - NS CAN Sydney (French) VCO - Miles 597
04V 490 - 02Feb09 2335 - NB CAN Fundy (French) -Yarmouth NS VAR-3 - Miles 249
01R 518 - 02Feb09 2350 - -- ISL Grindavik TFA - Miles 2414
01R 518 - 02Feb09 0251 - -- ISL Saudanes TFA - Miles 2484
02D 518 - 04Feb09 0430 - -- ESP Coruna EAR - Miles 3043
02G 518 - 03Feb09 2100 - -- ESP Tarifa,AN EAC - Miles 3414
02I 518 - 03Feb09 2120 - -- CNR Las Palmas EAL - Miles 3181
04A 518 - 02Feb09 0401 - FL USA Miami NMA - Miles 1260
04B 518 - 03Feb09 1551 - -- BER Bermuda Harbour ZBM - Miles 709
04C 518 - 01Feb09 2022 - QC CAN Riviere-au-Renard (Sept-Iles) VCK - Miles 618
04E 518 - 01Feb09 2041 - GA USA Savanah NME - Miles 915
04F 518 - 01Feb09 2046 - MA USA Boston - (Cape Cod) NMF - Miles 18
04G 518 - 01Feb09 2302 - LA USA New Orleans NMG - Miles 1368
04H 518 - 02Feb09 0910 - -- ATN Curacao JPC - Miles 2039
04H 518 - 01Feb09 2112 - ON CAN Prescott (Wiarton) XMJ 329 - Miles 385
04N 518 - 01Feb09 2131 - VA USA Chesapeake (Portsmouth) NMN - Miles 463
04O 518 - 02Feb09 0220 - NL CAN St Johns VON - Miles 949
04P 518 - 02Feb09 0231 - ON CAN Thunder Bay XLJ895 - Miles 1035
04Q 518 - 01Feb09 2256 - NS CAN Sydney VCO - Miles 597
04U 518 - 01Feb09 2320 - NB CAN Fundy - Yarmouth NS VAR-3 - Miles 249
04W 518 - 01Feb09 2339 - -- GRL Nuuk (Kook Island) OXI - Miles 1706
04X 518 - 01Feb09 2350 - NL CAN Labrador VOK - Miles 917
12C 518 - 02Feb09 0359 - CA USA San Francisco (Point Reyes) NMC - Miles 2757
12J 518 - 02Feb09 0527 - -- ALS Kodiak (east of) NOJ - Miles 3595
12O 518 - 04Feb09 0839 - -- HWA Honolulu NMO - Miles 5149
12Q 518 - 04Feb09 0506 - CA USA Long Beach (Cambria) NMQ - Miles 2740
12W 518 - 04Feb09 0522 - OR USA Astoria NMW - Miles 2636
15A 518 - 04Feb09 0401 - -- CHL Antofgasta CBA - Miles 4512
15D 518 - 04Feb09 0430 - -- CHL Puerto Montt CBP - Miles 5745
15H 518 - 02Feb09 0800 - -- CHL Antofgasta CBA - Miles 4512
15K 518 - 02Feb09 0831 - -- CHL Puerto Montt CBP - Miles 5745
01L
518 - 07Feb09 0217 - -- NOR Rogaland LGQ - Miles 3347
01O 518 - 05Feb09 2155 - -- SCT Portpatrick GPK - Miles 3005
01P 518 - 05Feb09 0235 - -- HOL Netherlands Coast Guard PBK - Miles 3425
01Q 518 - 05Feb09 0347 - -- IRL Malin Head EJM - Miles 2914
01S 518 - 05Feb09 2259 - -- DEU Hamburg-Quickborn HH(SH) DDH51 - Miles 3608
01W 518 - 05Feb09 0740 - -- IRL Valentia EJK - Miles 2853
02R 518 - 05Feb09 2259 - -- POR Monsanto CTV-251 - Miles 3154
06P 518 - 07Feb09 0630 - -- ARG Bahia Blanca L2I - Miles 5578
15I 518 - 08Feb09 0809 - -- CHL Valparaiso CBV - Miles 5144
01I
490 - 14Feb09 0020 - -- ENG Niton, England GNI - Miles 3230
02M 490 - 14Feb09 0202 - -- MDR Porto Santo CTQ - Miles 2945
02W 490 - 13Feb09 2340 - -- ESP Coruna EAR - Miles 3071
12D
518 - 23Feb09 0830 - BC CAN Prince Rupert VAJ - Miles 2823
15J
518 - 25Feb09 0837 - -- CHL Talcahuano CBT - Miles 5419
01B
518 - 28Feb09 0810 - -- NOR Bodø LGP - Miles 3465
15L
518 - 28Feb09 0841 - -- CHL Magallanes CBM - Miles 6552
(Editor's
note – below is some of the actual text captured by Chris in these Navtex
loggings.)
Iceland
<22:54:03> ZCZC RB29
<22:54:05> REYKKAVIK VIA GRINDAVIK
<22:54:08> A FORECAST MESSAGE FROM THE ICELANDIC METEOROLOGICAL OFFICE.
<22:54:17> 062115 UTC FEB 2009
<22:54:21> _2-4,8,& ,4.121
<22:54:23> 5A STRONG GALE WARNING (GORE THAN 20) I_ IN EFFECT FOR THE
<22:54:32> S_ BANK_ OG W BANKS - S PART, W-BEEP SEA BANE_,
<22:54:40> #SE-DEEP SEA
<22:54:42> BANKS, S-DEEP SEA BANKS AND SW-DE P S_A __
Puerto Montt, Chile
<04:36:01> ZCZC DA07
<04:36:02> ROUTINE
<04:36:04> 090430 UTC FEB 2009
<04:36:08> COASTAL WARNING NR 0347
<04:36:11> PUERTO MONTT RADIO/CBP
<04:36:15> CHART NR 7370. SHALLOW REPORTED
<04:36:21> AT A DEPTHTOF 2.5 M, IN
<04:36:25> L-422924S3 G-0732506W3. CANAL
<04:36:30> QUINCHAO.NA
<04:36:32> IGATE WITH CAUTION.
<04:36:35> NNNN
Bermuda
<20:04:28> ZCZC BE57
<20:09:43> BERMUDA RADIO
<20:09:46> 081613
<20:09:47> HSFAT1
<20:09:48> HIGH SEAS FORECAST FOR METAREA IV
<20:09:53> U.S. NWS OCEAN PREDICTION CENTER WASHINGTON DC
<20:10:01> 1630 UTC SUN FEB 08 2009
<20:10:05> CCODE/1:31:04:01:00/AOW/NWS/CCODE
<20:10:11> SUPERSEDED BY NEXT ISSUANCE IN 6 HOURS
<20:10:17> SEAS GIVEN AS SIGNIFICANT WAVE HEIGHT...WHICH IS THE AVERAGE
<20:10:26> HEIGHT OF THE HIGHEST 1/3 OF THE WAVES. INDIVIDUAL WAVES MAY
<20:10:36> BE MORE THAN TWICE THE SIGNIFICANT WAVE HEIGHT
<20:10:42> SECURITE
<20:10:44> NORTH ATLANTIC NORTH OF 31N TO 67N AND WEST OF 35W
<20:10:52> SYNOPSIS VALID 1200 UTC FEB 08.
<20:10:58> 24 HOUR FORECAST VALID 1200 UTC FEB 09.
<20:11:04> 48 HOUR FORECAST VALID 1200 UTC FEB 10.
<20:11:10> .WARNINGS.
<20:11:13> ...STORM WARNING...
Greenland
<23:39:25> ZCZC WB40
<23:39:27>
<23:39:28>
<23:39:28> GREENLAND 090208 2340 UTC
<23:39:33>
<23:39:34>
<23:39:34> WARNING NO. 143
<23:39:38>
<23:39:39>
<23:39:39> GALE WARNING FOR:
<23:39:42>
<23:39:43>
<23:39:43> NUNAP ISUATA KANGIA:
<23:39:47>
<23:39:48>
<23:39:48> NORTH 18.
<23:39:50>
<23:39:52>
<23:39:52> NUNAP ISUATA KITAA:
Astoria, Oregon
<05:27:00> ZCZC WB11
<05:27:16> OFFN_PO
<05:27:19> NAVTEX MARINE FORECAST FOR WASHINGTON_AND OREGON WATERS _
<05:27:28> NWS OCEAN PREDICTION CENTER WASHINGTON DC
<05:27:35> 808 PM PST FUN FEB 8 2009
<05:27:41> ...PLEASE REFER TO COASTAL WATERS FORECASTS (CWF) AVAILABLE
<05:27:52> THROUGH NOAA WEATHER RADIO AND OTHER MEANS FOR DETAILED
<05:28:01> COASTAL WATERS FORECASTS...
<05:28:07> .SYNOPSIS...A LOW PRES TROUGH WILL CROSS THE REGION OVERNIGHT.
<05:28:18> A
<05:28:19> HIGH PRES RIDGE WILL QUICKLY MOVE THROUGH THE WATERS MON INTO
<05:28:29>
<05:28:31> MON NIGHT. A STRONG COLD FRONT WILL PASS THROUGH THE REGION
<05:28:41> TUE...FOLLOWED BY A STRONG LOW TUE NIGHT INTO WED. ANO_
<05:28:52>
<05:28:53> PRES RIDGE WILL SWEEP SE THROUGH THE AREA LATE WED INTO THU.
<05:29:03> A
<05:29:04> COLD FRONT WILL MOVE ACR_SS THE AREA THU...AS LOW PRES MOVES
<05:29:15> W _
<05:29:16> OF THE AREA THU INT_ FRI.
<05:29:21> CANADIAN BORDER TO CAPE LOOKOUT
Netherlands
Antilles
<09:10:22>
ZCZC HA24
<09:10:23> THIS IS COAST GUARD NETHERLANDS ANTILLES AND ARUBA
<09:10:32> TO ALL VESSELS USING EPIRB (EMERGENCY POSITION INDICATOR
BEACON) AND PLB (PERSONAL LOCATER BEACON) AS OF 1 FEBRUARY 2009 THE PROCESSING
OF THE OLDER EPIRB AND PLB FREQURMINATED.
<09:11:06> AS A RESULT NO MORE 121,5 BUOYS CAN BE USED AS A SATELITE
SEARCH AND RESCUE BEACON.
<09:11:20> ONLY BUOYS (EPIRB AND PLB) OPERATING ON THE 406 MHZ F_EQU__CY _RCH
AND RESCUE.
It looks like the old Emergency frequencies of
121.5 and 243 (mentioned in an earlier transmission on 518 last night) are
being phased out in favor of 406.
Although not total strangers during the year, here are some "semi-rare" Navtex examples from Region 12. I am always amazed at this reception on 518. It's reminiscent of when coast-to-coast MW reception was possible forty years ago, that sadly I never experienced.
HONOLULU, HI
<08:37:54> Q_AZCZC OA19_7-7
<08:38:07> '3:5+3 #9,9)7)7 ?,. 105-09
<08:38:12> HI ISLAD_ - ISLAND OF OAHU - PEARL HARBOR/FORD ISLAND_Q
<08:38:23> 1. PEARL HARBOR LIGHT 23 (LLNR 29470)
<08:38:32> HS_ BEEN REPORTED EXTINGUISHED_M _
<08:38:38> . MARINERS ARE AD_IAD TO USE _AUTI__BN WHEN TRANSITING THE AREA
LONG BEACH, CA.
<09:02:26> B__PKZCZC QA16
<09:02:48> CCGD11 BNM D11 0133-09I
<09:02:53> 1. CA-SAN DIEGO-DIVING/SWIMMING OPERATIONS WILL TAKE
<09:03:03> PLACE AT THE FOLLOWI
<09:03:06> G:
<09:03:08> 1500-1700U 20 FEB 09 IVO GLORIETTA BAY
<09:03:16> MARINERS ARE REQUESTED TO USE CAUTION WHEN
<09:03:23> TRUNSITING THE AREA. Q
<09:03:27> 2. CANCEL BROADCAST AT TIME//210100 FEB 09//
ASTORIA, OR
<09:27:58> ZCZC WA42
<09:28:01> 1. CANCEL CCGD13 BNM 0136-09 DTG 092257Z FEB 09
<09:28:11> 2. CCGD13 BNM 0158-09.
<09:28:16> WASHINGTON. STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA. BOUNDRY PASS. SUCIA ISLAND
<09:28:27> BUOY 1
<09:28:29> (LLNR 19830) IS WATCHINM PROPERLY.
<09:28:37> 2. CANCEL AT TIME//201500Z FEB 09//.
Here is a fairly long haul Navtex to BC from last night.
<08:30:25> NAVTEX FOR PRINCE RIPERT VAJ_AT_#:30
<08:30:31> PM
<08:30:32> _KOHP_
<08:31:13> P_ALE.
<08:31:20> WND: S_25-35_=_/
<08:31:30> Q_EE_ CHARLOTTE SOUND: WNG_ GALE. WND:_
<08:31:37> SE20_30=_/14Z
<08:31:43> S20-30. 24/01Z S10--0._
<08:31:47>
<08:31:48> C_NTRAL _OAST FROM MCINNES ISLAND TO
<08:31:54> PINE ISLAND: _NG: GALE. W_D: SE20-30
<08:32:01> XCPT OUTFLOW NE25-35 NEAR THE MA_
<08:32:08> INLETS. 23/19Z SE10-20 XCPT OUTF_OW_
<08:32:14> NE25-35 NEAR THE MAINLA
<08:32:21> HE_A E A_RWIT:___DIXON
Here's a fairly rare one from Talcahuano, Chile.
<08:37:52> ZCZC JA_TW
<08:37:53> WTPIWP UTC FEB 2009
<08:37:57> TALCAHUANO RADIO/CBT
<08:38:01> RADIOAVISO COSTERO
Some good copy from Long
Beach CA:
<09:18:54> ZCZC QA89
<09:18:56> CCGD11 BNM D11 0134-09_
<09:19:01> 1. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA-SANTQ CRUZ BASIN-HAZARDOUS
OPERATIONS
<09:19:13> WILL
<09:19:14> TAKE PLACE ON THE FOLLOWING DATES AND TIMES:
<09:19:22> 231500Z - 240100Z FEB 2009
<09:19:28> 241500Z - 250100Z FEB 2009
<09:19:35> 251500Z - 260100Z FEB 2009
<09:19:41> 261500Z - 270100Z FEB 2009 _
<09:19:47> 271500Z - _WIPQPPZ FEB 2009
<09:19:53> IN AN AREA BOUND BY THE FOLLOWING COORDS:
<09:20:01> 34 03 00N 119 24 00W
<09:20:06> 33 53 00N 120 05 00W
<09:20:12> 33 15 00N 119 25 0_W
<09:20:18> 33 28 00N 119 07 00W
<09:20:24> 33 54 00N 119 06 00W
Also some new beacons,
including my fourth BC and second NE.
YI
359 - 03Feb09 1103 - MI USA Ypsilanti/Yipps 1031 - Miles 694
BUB 377 - 03Feb09 1130 - NE USA Burwell 1023 - Miles 1491
YWB 389 - 03Feb09 1150 - BC CAN Kelowna/Westbank 400 - Miles 2410
I installed a ground rod for my receivers yesterday
and the noise level is lower, especially on longwave. I have a Palomar
Engineering VLF
converter on the HQ-180A and running the shortwire. I heard 5 new stations to
bring my totals to a big 9!
404 MOG Montague CA 2/9/09 6:09 AM PST
397 SB San Bernardino CA 2/9/09 6:14 AM PST
338 PBT Red Bluff CA 2/9/09 6:21 AM PST
233 LG Los Alamitos CA 2/9/09 2:13 PM PST
359 EMT El Monte CA 2/9/09 2:15 PM PST
Most of these are locals, nothing rare but I'm just getting my
equipment set up. I'll finish up the ground wiring to the receivers and
maybe string up a longer antenna.
153
unID FEB 8 0445 - woman talking in an unID language. Very weak and noisy ! SINPO
15231 ! Algeria was tentatively received here on 2 or 3 occasions, but it could
be something else this time, like Germany or maybe Romania. (Chiochiu-QC)
153
ALGERIA Alger Chaîne 1 / RT Al Jazaira Radio Wahad, Bechar FEB 5
0220 - Presumed with Arabic music at the same time the Tipaza transmitter on 252
kHz (actually 253 to get rid of local UL on 248) was almost booming in with
Dance music. Weak-poor level with the PK's Shielded Magnetic longwave loop set
to amplify the lowest frequency possible ! I think the frequency limit is 162,
not 153 or 150 kHz; I doubt it is a receiver problem. I never get good audio on
153, though Algeria is almost a pest for several DXers in eastern North America
! (Chiochiu-QC)
162
FRANCE France Inter, Allouis FEB 2 0358 - booming in with weather
reports about icestorms, time pips, followed by a short newscast, then an
obscure (to me!) lite rock number. Very good, booming in with some heavy
static scratches from a thunderstorm somewhere mid-Atlantic, but NO
computer-related growl or CATV noises ! SINPO 45243. +FEB 4 0440 - with a radio
drama regarding some marginal woman (sexual workers) working in "maisons
closes". Quite good with, surprisingly, no computer hash that
night ! SINPO 35443 +FEB 8 0400+ - with their usual Sunday litterature
related program. Good, but noisy signal. SINPO 45232 ! (Chiochiu-QC)
171
MOROCCO Medi Un, Nador JAN 31 0130 - special request for the "Por
Ella" smash salsa hit of Victor Manuel and "Tous les cris, les
SOS" of Daniel Balavoine. Usually fair-good when tuned to 173 kHz to avoid
a growl on the low-side of this channel ! +FEB 8 0105 - with an eclectic set of
Arabic vocals (Middle Eastern pop, Algerian and / or Moroccan, raï, trad, dance,
etc.) that were taped as I was going to a party ! The only LW broadcaster with
even half-decent audio the past night ! Geomagnetic conditions were unsettled !
(Chiochiu-QC)
183
GERMANY Europe 1, Felsberg (Saarlouis) FEB 8 0504 - This one,
France-162 as well as Algeria-252 were the longwave broadcasters with
listenable signals the past night around midnight local (0500 UTC). SINPO 45333
! +FEB 9 0330 - Good through some annoying buzz, playing an old-fashionned
disco-sounding French song. SINPO 45242 ! (Chiochiu-QC)
189
ICELAND Rikisutvarpid, Gufuskalar FEB 4 0420 - playing a wide
variety of English and Icelandic pops that did include the "Message In A
Bottle" early 80's smash hit by The Police. Very good, SINPO 45544 ! This
and Europe 1 on 183 kHz are usually the strongest longwave broadcasters in the
Montreal area ! (Chiochiu-QC)
198
ENGLAND BBC Radio 4, Droitwich - threshold to poor and noisy during
most of the past week. (Chiochiu-QC)
207
MOROCCO RTM, Azilal FEB 5 0310 - Presumed with apparent Arabic
programming (traditionnal Arabic music and plaintive male talk) in heavy beacon
QRM. Best ever audio from this one ! (Chiochiu-QC)
252
ALGERIA Alger Chaîne 3, Tipaza FEB 1 0410 - woman with weather
forecast in French with temperatures ranging between +14 degrees and
twenty-something. Definitively not a local receiver-generated image from a local
French-speaking Montreal AM broadcaster ! Finally had some decent audio here.
Fair reception ! +FEB 6 0210 - back-to-back dark-edged raï influenced house
tracks over assumed Ireland ! SINPO 33332 Poor-fair reception ! +FEB 8 0510 - in
and out with news as well as weather repports that dealed with rain and snow and
temperatures lower than the average for this time of the year in Algeria. After
the weather repport, the female announcer kept talking about Algeria. Good
to fair signal stregth, but splatter from the local UL non-directionnal
beacon on 248 kHz made readibility quite a thrill after the wx repport ended
(even when detuned to 253 or 254 kHz in AM Narrow Mode) ! Still, during the wx
repport, Algeria-252 was armchair (SIO 433-4) ! (Chiochiu-QC)
252
IRELAND RTE Radio One, Clarkestown FEB 9 0335 - Man in
Irish-accented English slightly over Algeria. Both very poor with heavy QRM from
local UL non-directionnal beacon on 248 kHz. SINPO 22432 !
162
FRANCE France Inter, Allouis FEB 21 around 0350 - Woman in French.
Fair-poor, not threshold, but still too mushy with all the additional
slight, albeit annoying buzz, to understand. Steady though. SINPO 35332.
Almost surprised to get this one under such mediocre ionospheric conditions
! (Chiochiu-QC)
171 MOROCCO Medi Un, Nador FEB 17 2305 - Assumed with barely
noticeable
audio. Very, very weak with some growl from computers in the neighborhood
(not our own). Of course, during such mediocre conditions, logging
Russia-171 would be unthinkable and Russia-171 and Morocco-171 are the only
signals that are reported in eastern North America on this channel with the
probable exception of a LowFER ! (Chiochiu-QC)
183 GERMANY Europe 1, Felsberg FEB 21 0605 - with repport from a
psychoveterinary who was trying to understand the animal's feelings. Good
through some slight buzz. SINPO 35354. The only longwave broadcaster to
reach the Montreal area with, at least, a half-decent signal ! I got to
understand that animal's feelings issue, because the signal was in French,
not in German. In fact, until 1981, in France (as well as in most of
Europe), private radio was illegal. If you were caught running a radio
station (a pirate one in this case), the Police will be visiting your home
in less than a hour. They were continuously monitoring the whole LW, MW, SW
and VHF FM spectrum for that purpose ! So, a few guys had the bright idea of
running private radio from neighboring countries such as Luxembourg, Germany
or Monaco and in the case of other European countries, from aboard a ship
out in the International Seas ! While the latter one is known as being an
offshore pirate, the former one is known as being a "radio périphérique".
Otherwise, I have quite some trouble with my German, as I missed the class
last Friday and I did not do yet the small homework for the private German
teacher I see twice each month ! (Chiochiu-QC)
189 ICELAND Rikisútvarpid, Gufuskalar FEB 21 0607 - Assumed this
usual
blaster with music and talk heard weakly. (Chiochiu-QC)
198 ENGLAND BBC Radio 4, Droitwich FEB 21 0603 - Man talking in
British-accented English. When the PK's Shielded Magnetic longwave loop was
set to amplify 198 kHz, while attenuating everything below and above,
including nearby 201, the local beacon on 201 kHz went unreadable (even
though it's in Morse which is known for cutting through all sorts of QTM
c.f. Cuban Radio Reloj) as this one violently overspilled 3 kHz above ! Fair
and mushy and unreadable for me, as I'm not QUITE as fluent in English, as I
am in French, Romanian and, to a lesser extent, Spanish, though sounded
vaguely like a weather repport, as I barely picked out 1 or 2 words out of
the mush ! Not // ZIZ-555 (BBC Radio 4 realays BBC World Service overnight)
anymore at this time ! (Chiochiu-QC)
These are the first logs from
my new quasi-temporary location in Aurora, IL. My stay here is temporary, though
the length of my stay is still to be determined. Perhaps another month. Perhaps
two or three months.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
YYYYMMDD
UTC kHz Call Miles
+ Location
----------------------------------------------------------------------
20090228
20:42 212 MPZ
174 Y Mt. Pleasant,
IA, USA
20090228
20:34 212 VP 77
Y Valparaiso, IN, USA
20090228
06:03 353 IN 525 Y
'Raize' International Falls, MN,
USA
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2/8/2009
tropo
1701
92.3 KNFM TX Midland; modern C&W 525 miles "Lonestar
92", "absolutely the most country music in west texas"
1716 103.3 KCRS TX Midland; "103-3 KISS-FM" promo ; 525 miles pop/dance mx, "streaming online 24hours a day at 103-3 KISS-FM dot net"
Time Freq Call
Dist
(UTC) MHz Letters
Location (Miles) Comment
2026 88.1
Rel. mx. Very weak.
2027 88.5
Rel. mx. Very weak.
2041 88.7 WSRI
Sugar Grove, IL 6 Rel rock
2054 88.9
Rel mx. Weak.
2056 89.1 WONC
Naperville, IL 7 ID via RDS
2057 89.3 WDLM
East Moline, IL 112 SRN news. Mention of East Moline.
Very weak.
2102 89.5 WNIJ
Dekalb, IL 40 NPR
news. ID at TOH. Weak.
2106 89.7 WONUp
Kankakee, IL 46 Rock.
2107 90.1 WMBI-HD1 Chicago,
IL 21 Rel mx.
WMBI-HD2 Chicago, IL
21 Rel mx.
WMBI-HD3 Chicago, IL
21 Rel mx. Bad artifacts.
2109 90.5 WNIUp
Rockford, IL 40 Classical mx.
2110 90.7
Talk about Darwin. Other
talk, mx, breaking through.
2112 90.9 WDCB
Glen Ellyn, IL 14 SS Tropical mx
2113 91.5 WBEZ
Chicago, IL 38 Talk about
Darwin. HD won't lock.
2116 91.9
Rel chorale mx
2116 92.3 WPWX
Hammond, IN 42 Rap.
"Power 92"
2120 92.5 WCPY
Dekalb, IL 24 Talk
about drugs. Verified via web.
2124 92.7
Liberal talk.
2126 93.1 WXRT
Chicago, IL 33 Rock.
2127 93.3 WPBG
Peoria, IL 99
"The Drive". Mention of Peoria.
2128 93.5 WVIXp
Joliet, IL 18 SS mx.
"Recuerdo"
2134 93.9 WLIT
Chicago, IL 38 ID via RDS
2135 94.3 WJKLp
Glendale Heights, IL 19 Soft rock. Rel. "K-Love"
2310 94.5
"Big Mix". Extremely weak.
2138 94.7 WLS
Chicago, IL 37 Ad for Cubs
2308 94.9 WDKBp
Dekalb, IL 33
"B-95"
2140 95.5 WNUA
Chicago, IL 38
"Smooth Jazz"
2141 95.9 WERV-HD
Aurora, IL 4
"Changes"
2142 96.3 WBBM
Chicago, IL 37
"B96"
2143 96.7 WSSR
Joliet, IL 20 ID via
RDS
2144 97.1 WDRV
Chicago, IL 38
"Stairway to Heaven"
2147 97.9 WLUP
Chicago, IL 38 ID during
promo
2149 98.3 WCCQ
Crest Hill, IL 21 Country mx
2304 98.7 WFMTp
Chicago, IL 37 Classical
mx.
2302 98.9 WJEZ
Dwight, IL 49 ID
before news.
2301 99.3 WAJK
La Salle, IL 54 Rock mx. ID
between songs.
2152 99.5 WUSN
Chicago, IL 38 Country mx.
"US-99"
2153 99.9 WCPQ
Park Forest, IL 39 Talk.
2154 100.3 WILV
Chicago, IL 38 Mx. Very
weak. Verified via web playlist.
2257 100.7 WRXQ
Coal City, IL 31 Rock mx. "Cat
Scratch Fever"
"RXQ" between songs.
2256 101.1 WKQXp
Chicago, IL 38
"Q-101". Rock mx.
2255 101.7
Mx
2156 101.9 WTMX
Skokie, IL 37 ID
during break
2252 102.7 WVAZ
Oak Park, IL 34
"V-103"
2158 102.9 WMKBp
Earlville, IL 40 Rock. "Classic
rock 102-9"
2249 103.1
SS mx. Very weak.
2158 103.5 WKSC
Chicago, IL 38 Pop mx.
"KISS-FM"
2202 103.9 WWYW
Dundee, IL 26 ID
during promo
2203 104.3 WJMK
Chicago, IL 37 "Big
Jack"
2204 104.7 WCFL
Morris, IL 28
Simulcast of WBGL
2246 105.1 WOJO
Evanston, IL 38 SS. HD won't
lock.
2244 105.5 WZSR
Woodstock, IL 36 Rock mx. "Star
105.5"
2206 105.9 WCFS
Elmwood Park, IL 37 "Fresh"
2243 106.1
Rock mx
2240 106.5 KCQQ
Davenport, IA 108 "Q-106.5" Quad
cities.
2208 106.7 WPPNp
Des Plaines, IL 33 SS mx
2214 107.1 WSPY
Plano, IL 14
ID via RDS
2235 107.7
Soul mx
2214 107.9 WLEY
Aurora, IL 19
"La Ley". Ranchero mx
A rather odd addition to our WX CME ...
I was tuning around on my Radiosophy HD-100 HD radio this past
Saturday afternoon when I heard a local FM station re-broadcasting one of my
local NOAA Weather Radio Stations on one of their HD channels.
So, here goes:
107.5 MHz KHTC-HD3
TX Houston @ 12:20 PM CST
Rebroadcast of KHB-40, NWS league City, TX (162.55 MHz)
I haven't noticed that on any other local station HD subchannels,
but I confess I haven't really
had time to check.
** MEXICO [and non]. When Es MUF was visibly and audibly on channel
6 in Spanish, UT Feb 20 at 0002, I started monitoring FM, on the DX-398 with
whip mostly positioned horizontally or diagonally depending on local QRM, and a
lot of unexplained local mixing products leaving only a few frequencies
sufficiently open for DX.
First at 0002 noted that 87.75 had at least two Spanish audios
mixing. This time I think they were Mexican TV stations rather than Los Ángeles
FM stations pretending to be LP TV stations. IDs reference Fred Cantú`s list: http://www.mexicoradiotv.com/frec_fm.htm
It turned out I was getting one station from each of three cities
down the Gulf coast simultaneously.
93.9: 0004, in stereo, giving phone numbers too rapidly, one maybe
834-8309, ``La cadena que más suena en todo México, la Qué Buena``, romantic
music. 0021, multiple shouts by different voices of slogan ``Aquí suena``, PSA
on elecciones by IFE government agency; Cuban music. 0045, Que Buena, ads for Fábrica
de Francia; PSA for ``Veracruz en tu Casa``, ``Ven a Coatzacoalcos``, Poza Rica
ad; Tuxpan water shortage as worx are closed for cleaning. 0046 ``Aquí suena la
Qué Buena``. Opening still in progress but I had other things to do.
Cantú: 93.9 XHTXA Ke buena Tuxpan, Ver. 14,490 watts.
97.7: 0005, Spanish music, RDS reads WFM 97.7; some CCI too. 0017,
DJ says ``seguimos defecándola, sí, señor`` -- really? Talking dirty. And
then spoken ``WFM 97.7``. Jamaica travel promotion; fútbol en Matamoros; ad in
Spanish for event at Dodge Arena, with 956 area code, which is extreme S Texas
along the border, a concierto to take place on 15 de agosto! Didn`t catch name
of performer but must be big if they are advertising it four sesquimonths ahead!
Adstring presented at breakneck speed, peso prices. I don`t see how even a
native could retain the details of phone numbers, etc. 0020 ad for Arboleras del
Río. 0042, ad for periódico El Bravo, tel. Number. (I think this was
frequency; at this time I had to step down to 97.55 to avoid QRM.)
Cantú: 97.7 XEEW WFM Matamoros, Tamps. 2,860 watts.
95.3: 0006, Spanish timecheck for 6:06, rapid DJ, giving phone
numbers, `la gran cadena . .. de MVC[?] Radio``, rock music by YL in English,
stereo. RDS reads EXA FM. 0017, DJ says ``EXA FM 95.3`` [pronounced ek-sa].
0024, another election PSA, always with slogan ``Así, nuestra democracia crece``,
by Instituto Federal Electoral; 0026 adstring including a Tampico event on Feb.
28. 0028 another IFE PSA explaining that elexion day is 5 de julio, but
registration deadline is 31 de marzo. Anti-organized-crime PSA. 0030 full ID as
``Exa FM, XHOX, 95.3, 60 mil watts, Calle Primera ---, Tampico, Tamaulipas``.
Cantú: 95.3 XHOX Exa FM Tampico, Tamps. 30,410 watts.
99.7: 0010, Spanish talk re exército mexicano, $, RDS on my
receiver still shows defunct local KNID-FM; mentions protestas in Chilpancingo,
Guerrero. No ID but Cantú: 99.7 XHPB Mar FM Veracruz, Ver. 49,503 watts is the
only station in the skip zone along the gulf coast as per other logs.
US Stations:
96.5: 0032, ID as ``The Beach 96.5``. Must not be in Oklahoma.
0037, ``Beach 96.5, in the Beach Patrol jeep, live on the beach``, ad for
Immaculate Word Academy; CCI in Spanish. Beach 96.5 is KLTG in Corpus Christi, http://www.thebeach965online.com/
99.5:
0009, Mexican music, weak with fades. 0036, Payne-Weslaco Ford ad in English,
then Little Caesar`s ad in Spanish. 99.5 must be KKPS Brownsville, etc.,
bilingual http://www.quepasa995.com/
2/20
Sporadic
E TV DX is back again tonite, but not as big an opening, so far, as last nite.
0133 UT Saturday, Spanish on 2, presumably Mexico, and working up to ch 3, skip
interference to 4 KFOR and 5 KOCO by 0140.
The Whole Earth
6020 AUSTRALIA
Radio Australia ABC 2/9 1200
and + , somber pgm discussing arson
fires in Australia and comparing with the "Black Friday Fires" of
1939. this household's heart goes
out to the people of Australia at this difficult time, for anyone downunder who
may be reading this.
5955 CHINA CRI (via Beijing) at 1010 w/ YL and feature pgm.
monitored in USB due to splash from being sandwiched between WYFR and CVC in SS.
Interval signal and close at TOH.
4700,75 GUATEMALA R.
Buenas Nuevas at 1230 . music to
long talk by YL in SP. tough one here. LSB cuts annoying het form pres. Mexico,
but leaves equally annoying swooper. Trying USB, just the reverse. No win
situation today.
11635 TAIWAN
R. Taiwan Intl. in Chinese, music, talk; R.T.I. jingle played at 2310 for
good ID. Very strong signal, especially for direct Taiwan, not from
Florida relay.
17680 CHILE
CVC 2230 ID by M in SP;
reggae like music and much stronger than usual signal today.
15560 AUSTRALIA
R. Australia 2145 YL and OM
doing ping-pong style Pacific weather
reports. Strong , but w/ irritiating whine from a UTE still present
on subsequent re-checks .
11665 JAPAN R. JApan NHK (direct) 2330 w/ long talk with OM and YL in Japanese lang. Really solid.
6230 USB VMW Wiluna Australia 2/9/09 1442 tune in to marine weather
read by a man, off at 1443:30 with ID. fair signal.
2/24
This morning I spent time listening to utility stations including
some weather broadcasts.
6676 USB 1330 & 1400 UTC, Australian VOLMET with aviation wx by
man.
6676 USB 1340 UTC Bangkok VOLMET with aviation wx by a woman
6676 USB 1350 UTC Singapore VOLMET with aviation wx by a man
6230 USB 1430 UTC VMW-Wiluna Australian Bureau of Meteorology,
marine
weather forecasts.
Heard on an Eton E-1 and 150 foot wire...
5446.5 USB AFN Key West, FL 0300 1/15 with ID "This is AFN"
then into AP Radio News. Really nice signal.
Heard on a DX398 and 150 foot wire
15605 Radio France International Issodun 1620 2/22 with news
program and a sports feature in English. Weak.
15585 R. Exterior de Espana Noblejas 1635 2/22 loud and strong with
futbol in Spanish.
17830 BBC Ascension Is. [p] 2055 2/26 with blast furnace hot signal
and local like transmission. Running news then at 2100 s/o.
Heard on a DX398 and 150 foot wire:
15.825 WWCR Nashville, TN 2107 2/26 with some radio show that is
featuring some real nice doo-wop stuff from the 50s. Signal fair but definitely
usable.
** ANGUILLA. DGS/PMS, 6090, Feb 1 at 0714, noticed that this was
running about 4 words behind WWCR 5935. These used to be synchronized, using
exactly the same satellite downlink, so something has changed. 11775 has also
been mostly active in the daytime lately. I understand that periodic power
outages affecting different parts of the grid on Anguilla, for ``maintenance``
may be partly responsible for the station`s sporadic absences (Glenn Hauser, OK,
DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. The DentroCuban Jamming Command won`t relent for
QSO with Ted Randall on WRMI, 9955, Sundays at 06-08 UT. Feb 1 at 0708 could
hear the show but with jamming pulses several times a second, rather than a
solid wall of noise, so maybe just one transmitter still running. Apparently
CO2KK`s fraternal ham radio sentiments do not extend far enough to get them all
turned off.
RHC again running overtime past nominal 0700* in English, Sunday
Feb 1 at 0705, still with English `news`, VG on 9550, also audible on 11760,
6060, 6140 with QRM, but not 6000 which is supposed to carry Esperanto this
semihour on Sundays only, but instead a weak WYFR audible. 0712 recheck, 11760
and 9550 at least were still running.
Re-recheck at 1501, Esperanto was opening on unscheduled 13680, but
this was just over-run, chopped off at 1503 to open carrier, as they were about
to give the first scheduled frequency, at 0700, 6000 --- whew, just as well, for
as I had just observed, that broadcast was a bust. Then found Esperanto running
on its only scheduled 1500 frequency, 11760, much weaker than 13680 had been
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also VENEZEULA [non]
** GERMANY. Besides Muzprosvet in DW`s Russian service, there is
another excellent music semi-hour in the English service, but which hardly
appears on SW any more, covering many genres from week to week, tho not so
avant-garde as the Russian one: A World of Music.
Here`s the DW audio archive including this show, which on Feb 1 was
about the recorder, and its applications both in jazz and classical:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,2142,4703,00.html
And here is the direct link to the audio:
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NEW ZEALAND. Sounds Historical, excellent 2-hour show from
National Radio via RNZI, just starting at 0706 UT Sunday Feb 1 as I tuned in
9765. ``The way we were``, topics to include Hawkes Bay earthquake, racial
confrontation in the XIX century, foundation of Nelson colony on Feb 1. This was
the final ``summer special holiday edition``, which I guess means repeats.
I had thought this started at 0808, for less than one hour only,
silly me, for believing the schedule at http://www.rnzi.com/pages/schedules.php
It`s currently on the advanced summer-time sked, which means on N.R.,
S.H. is at 0700+ until 0900 UT, but the RNZI sked shows generic N.R. during the
0700 UT Sunday hour. DST of UT +13 lasts until April 6 this year; then it should
revert to 0808-1000 UT, whatever frequency RNZI may be on by then.
Here`s the show`s home page, currently featuring the latest
programme, but audio is available back 8 weeks, with all the music removed for
copyright reasons, in 20+ minute segments:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/soundshistorical
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. No sign of the WWCR harmonic on 6430, Feb 1 at 0445, just
the strong ute it was colliding with, and WWCR-1 program heard on 3215 only.
George McClintock came out of retirement Jan 31 to work on eliminating the
harmonic, which was a transmitter tuning problem. If anyone does hear this or
any other WWCR harmonic or spur, please report.
At
0709 still no harmonic on 6430, but the 49m channels were showing up on 25m,
possibly due to receiver overload; it`s hard to tell. Not only on second
harmonics 11780 mixing Brazil with a SAH and fades, and 11870 with PMS eclipsing
WEWN, but also on 11825 which is the sum of 5890 and 5935, with both audios
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** ALBANIA. R. Tirana, 13720 to NAm, Feb 2 at 1542 with ID, then
item about the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Albanian angle. Some
fading, S9+10 to 15, and good modulation. Hope that keeps up (Glenn Hauser, OK,
DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ECUADOR. HCJB, 11920, Feb 2 at 2248 with declamation by
missionary in clearly enunciated, unlike a native-speaker, Kulina, Brazilian
Amazon Indian language scheduled 2245-2300 at 150 degrees. Shortly into duet
with a song to the tune of ``Silent Night``, long after Xmas; I am not sure a
literal translation of the original German would make much sense in the jungle,
so would not be surprised if that carol tune has been reworked into something
else, as common among hymnalists. 2251 segué to OM solo mentioning Maria. Rest
of show was instrumental music rather than Bible readings, 2259 into Portuguese
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ISRAEL [and non]. 15785 with SAH estimated at 11 Hz between two
roughly equal stations, one in Arabic, i.e. WYFR at 45 degrees, and the other
presumably Galei Tzahal in Hebrew. WYFR is scheduled on this frequency only at
1600-1645, and this was at 1601 Feb 2. Aoki says GZ stops at 1600, just in time,
but not today. WRTH and PWBR say 24 hours and 10 kW while Aoki says 5 kW (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. BSKSA, 15435, Feb 2 at 1505, VG signal with Qur`an,
but the buzz is back --- it sounds like something frying, which may be exactly
what`s happening somewhere in the transmitter, tho so far it has not burned up!
It`s easily audible but not strong enough yet to impede readability. The
recitations were interrupted every few minutes for some slow talk in unsung
Arabic; // 15225 which was as usual weaker, and no buzz detectable. Not //
13710, another BSKSA program which was also Qur`aning. By 1530, the buzz had
cleared up on 15435 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
**
U S A [and non]. Standing by for WRMI to switch to NW antenna on 9955, Feb 2 at
1459, just heavy Dentro-Cuban jamming against previous program, R. Cuba Libre;
can`t have any talk of a free Cuba, now, can we? 1459:30 I could tell the WRMI
carrier came on, but still too much jamming; at 1501 could make out English,
presumably R. Prague relay as scheduled (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
** ANGUILLA. 11775, Feb 3 at 1430 and 1515 chex, just open carrier,
no PMS. Is anyone in The Valley paying attention? Off the air again around 1400
Feb 4 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** AUSTRALIA. The VL8s were in Feb 4, first time heard here in
months. 2485 best with Aussie-accented English talk at 1345; also could hear
weaker carriers on 2325, 2310 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. Vinyl Café from CBC Radio 1, Wed Feb 4 at 0722 on 6160,
Stuart McLean going from a story to a song. This is the final Tuesday night
repeat from the PST zone via CKZU, 11:06 pm local across Canada. SAH probably
from CKZN but CKZU quite dominant at the moment (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** ECUADOR. Yet another HCJB anomaly. Listened again to the ID at
1444:30 Feb 4 on 11960. Besides claiming to be on ``11690, 21455, 11690``, says
``la señal`` will indicate the time of 9:45 am --- but unlike BBCWS, HCJB never
runs timesignals on the quarter hour! The announcer must have been recording a
string of these ages ago for the automation, without engaging brain (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 4790, RRI Fak2, again the only Indo audible on 60m,
Feb 4 at 1355 with talk in Indonesian, constant CODAR, and 4750 still absent
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. VOI has been very poor to poor lately, even
inaudible, on 9525.9; Feb 4 at 1446 all I could make out was open carrier and
hum; by 1450 some undermodulated music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN. While P`yongyang was in on 2850, Feb 4 at 1342, also
noticed SSB VOLMET in YL robot English on 2863 kHz. Hard to catch cities, but
heard Fukuoka mentioned twice, and at 1344 ``Tokyo, out`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH. Nice when propagation and noise level coöperate to
bring in P`yongyang on 2850, an old and extremely out-of-band frequency: Feb 4
at 1338 M&W in Korean with dramatic dialog, fair with heavy fading; nothing
heard on somewhat higher NK channels 3250, 3320, 3560, so we may class this as a
mediumwave opening?
However, at 1349 there was a continuous wailing sound and a het on
3480, which I assume has something to do with this, as in Aoki:
3480 KOREAN NAT. DEM. FRONT 0757-1400 1234567 Korean 5 ND Wonsan
KRE 12725E 3905N KNDF relay KCBS --- Also another entry for same at 2157-0400.
One might wonder, why they bother if all they do is relay KCBS?
This is a ``target broadcast`` in WRTH 2009, page 495: ``broadcast
service claimed to be provided by the Pyongyang Mission of the [South Korean]
`Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front` (AINDF). Believed to be a North
Korean government operation. Jammed.`` And they QSL from an address in Shinjuku,
Tokyo. This is the one also on 1053, 4450 and 4557.
Also, 3985 at 1354 with roaring noise, waves, no doubt NK jamming
against Echo of Hope (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 9880, Feb 4 at 1448, Japanese W&W
narrative, sad-sounding, with occasional music stingers; G signal with lite hum.
Per Aoki this is: Furusato no Kaze, daily at 1430-1500, 250 kW, 3 degrees via
Darwin, AUSTRALIA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA SOUTH. 6215, Korean numbers pronounced by emphatic YL, Feb
4 shortly after 1400 and again at 1437. S. Hasegawa, NDXC says this is ``random
number station of S. Korea. I can sometimes receive even 5715 kHz at 1400``. But
nothing audible here on 5715. Are the numbers really random, or encrypted spy
messages? Neither frequency is in Aoki, probably classified as utility (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. With all the axion on the 120 and 105 m bands,
looked for PNG stations on 90m, Feb 4 at 1347: 3235 with island music; best
signal was 3365, but only a carrier with hum, still wastefully audible past
1400. Carriers on 3325, 3345 at 1352. 3335 at 1358 bothered by non-Spanish SSB
(Glenn Hasuer, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. While the day before, BSKSA was inbooming on 15435
with buzz, also 15225 and 13710 audible after 1500, on Feb 3 at 1505 check, no
signals at all from any of these. Some European signals were making it thru,
somewhat weakened, such as Farda 15410 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. Brother Scare via Germany audible on both
13810 and 17485, but the two were an echo apart, Feb 3 at 1509; 13810 is Nauen,
17485 is Jülich, so that explains the disparity. WWRB 9385 with same program
was 34 seconds behind. Is WWRB taking a webfeed?
Also heard B.S. on WCKY 1530 Cincinnati circa 0715 Feb 4 mention
that he is not getting much response from listeners to KAAY 1090 Little Rock so
it`s time to re-evaluate whether to continue on that station (Glenn Hauser, OK,
DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. KJES, 11715, inaudible around 1405 Feb 4, but by 1457 it
had infaded with G signal, but very undermodulated, YL solo. This correlates
with sporadic E opening on HF if not VHF, which during the hour had also brought
WWCR from nothing to inbooming on 15825. Once again, it seems these HF Es
openings are quite broad geographically, unlike when they hit VHF (Glenn Hauser,
OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 12150, VOA at 1454 Feb 4 with editorial about
Richard Holbrooke, envoy, and clip of Sec. State Clinton. Hard to copy tnx to
CODAR x 2. This is via Iranawila, Sri Lanka, 250 kW at 322 degrees. I cringe
whenever I hear an English-speaker pronounced `envoy` half in French, half in
English. Make up your mind! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** AUSTRALIA. 2485, VL8K Katherine NT, Feb 6 at 1351 discussing the
Universe, surprisingly good here, S9+12 but deep fades; almost listenable, and
could only detect carriers with BFO on 2310, 2325. Sunrise here was 1328 UT and
getting one minute earlier every day (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 11765, Súper Rádio Deus é Amor, Curitiba, Feb 5 at
0628, wacky wailing David Miranda preaching in Portunhol, overriding BBCWS
English via South Africa with 25 times the power, as listed in Aoki, which also
says ex-R. Tupi is off the air between 0300 and 0900. Something does not
compute. ZYE726 also so strong that it was causing ACI to RHC on 11760, and one
had to side-tune downward to avoid (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 11815, R. Brasil Central, Goiânia, music // 4985, Feb 5
at 0630. 11815 only fair, much weaker than 11765 and 11925 Brazilians; 11780 not
on yet (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 11925, R. Bandeirantes, São Paulo, such a treat to hear
real Brasilian programming rather than gospel huxters; Feb 5 at 0631 talking
about Carnaval do Salvador; 0632 ``Bandeirantes, a caminho do sol``, meaning on
the way to sunrise, timecheck for 4:30 am --- but that`s DST, it`s really only
3:30 am; news headlines. Good booming signal. Only on a fraxion of nites does
the MUF coöperate for such reception up to 12 MHz (Glenn Hauser, OK,, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. CRI English, 5955, weak but clear at 1410 Feb 6, an echo
apart from Cuba 13740. 5955 is 95 degrees from Beijing site, per Aoki (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. 9000, Firedrake mixing with some other audio, maybe Sound
of Hope itself, or an additional CNR-1 jamming source? Feb 6 at 1420, stronger
than 8400 but both poor (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. RHC normally closes 6180 in Spanish at 0500, per sked, but
Feb 5 at 0657 it was still going with news sounder, 0658 timecheck for ``8 de la
noche, hora nacional en toda Cuba``, so a replay from 6+ hours earlier!
Distorted, lo-fi, adjacent-channel interference from Brasília 6185. RHC still
going past 0700. Next nite, Feb 7 did not check until 0723 and it was not on
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 4790, Feb 6 at 1359 tuneby with the RRI theme, Song
of the Coconut Isles. At http://www.intervalsignals.net
you may hear this on the RRI Pro-3 clip rather than Fak2 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH. 2850, KCBS, Feb 6 at 1354 with singing, weaker than
VL8K 2485, 26 minutes after LSR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. Shiokaze, Sea-Breeze, the service obsessed
with North Korean kidnappings of a few Japanese years ago, has returned to their
previous frequency via Japan, 5910, after a few weeks on 5985: Feb 6 at 1407 in
heavily-accented English, as usually on Fridays, mentioning bombing of that KAL
flight; 1412 speculating on Obama`s policies vis-à-vis P`yongyang. 5910 is
better here, no QRM except for lite splatter from WBOH 5920 (Glenn Hauser, OK,
DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. This time I was waiting for Furusato no Kaze
to start via Darwin, 9880. Less than a minute after R. Japan finished 9875, Feb
6 a few sex before 1430 heard a few words of Chinese, then into Japanese. Uncoördinated
switching at Darwin; wonder what the Chinese was about (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT. 13620, R. Kuwait presumed, doing very well against WYFR
13615, Feb 6 at 1537 with ME music; 1611 recheck still good and WYFR gone,
axually closing at 1545 per Aoki; fast-paced Arabic programming mixing music and
talk. Kuwait is 310 degrees toward us, while 13615 is 160 degrees away from us
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
**
RUSSIA. R. Rossii, 6075 via Pet/Kam, has developed a slightly unstable carrier
--- or is it a modulation problem? Hard to tell, a bit of motor-boating
underneath audio on Feb 5; and Feb 6 with late timesignal at 1400 and stayed on
for a semiminute while I reconfirmed 8GAL; see UNIDENTIFIED (Glenn Hauser, OK,
DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ALGERIA [non]. RTA, fair on 5865 via France with Qur`an, cut off
abruptly at 0657* Feb 7 as transmission had to end, unbeknownst to the studio
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. RNA, 11780, VG signal Feb 7 at 0638, but split-second
audio dropouts every few seconds, making it unlistenable. Still during a song at
0657 recheck on // 6185, and dropouts synchronized so an audio feed input
problem, not a transmitter problem. This has been ongoing for months; is no one
paying attention in the Brasília control room?
I was somewhat surprised this was incoming, as no Brasilians were
audible on 31m, and no other Brasilians on 25m either, contrary to previous
night, when 11765, 11815 and 11925 also audible. Super-power makes the
difference. Not much else on 25m except CVC Chile also inbooming on 11805 (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. CBC News, 6160, Feb 7 at 0701, double feed one word
apart, especially long ones like Saskatchewan, mostly about Canadian job losses;
usual fast SAH between CKZN and CKZU. Since CBC decided to put them both on the
same frequency many years ago, they should also have taken steps to synchronize
them. But this applies only during newscasts and Cross Country Checkup live
nationwide, which is during the afternoon anyway; otherwise the two are 4 or 3
hours apart (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. 9550, Arnie Coro news with big hum, Feb 7 at
0634. Wiggle that patchcord! A theory on why there are so many SNAFUs at RHC:
people there are demoralized, and don`t really give a damn. They know it is the
home of the Big Lie, such as U.S. ``genocide`` against Cuba. Even if they agree
with the Party Line, they are as bored to death as listeners abroad about RHC`s
obsession with the ``Cinco Héroes`` Commie talking point.
Propagation was unusual, with little else audible on 31m --- not
even WYFR, 9355, 9680, 9715, which are normally inbooming, nor WTJC 9370. There
was some weak French on 9580, which would be Gabon (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. VOA Spanish, 15590, with Saturday morning music show Feb
7, outro at 1358 as ``Éxitos Latinoamericanos llegó a Vds. vía satélite e
internet, www.voanoticias.com`` So at
VOA, shortwave is not even worth mentioning as another delivery platform. Off at
1359:30* without any sign-off announcement. It`s also nonsensical to have a
website URL with `news` in it when you also play music. But that`s becoming
common: a local TV station which only spends a small fraxion of the 168-hour
week on news, such as KWTV OKC, brands itself as ``News 9`` (Glenn Hauser, OK,
DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** COLOMBIA. Altho Yimber Gaviría in Colombia had reported no
signals from Lleras on 5910 or 6010, Feb 8 at 0300, when I checked Feb 9 at
0607, Marfil Estéreo was on with songs, good signal on 5910; on 6010 a mess of
hets and could not be sure LV de tu Conciencia was among them (Glenn Hauser, OK,
DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. RHC Esperanto service missing, Sunday Feb 8 at 1500 check,
11760 already off the air; nor any RHC Spanish frequencies overrunning as often
happens, in quick scan of 11, 13 and 15 MHz bands. A repeat of Esperanto is
scheduled Sundays at 1930 on 11760, but nothing there either at 1948 check. I
wonder if the Sunday 0700 and 2330 broadcasts were also absent.
However, RNV CI was active on 11680 opening 1500+ in broken English
with program summary, much of which would turn out to be in Spanish. This
transmission has normally been missing on Sundays with transmitters tied up for
Aló, Presidente, but none of those were on the air this date (Glenn Hauser, OK,
DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. I was waiting to hear the conclusion of the 1300
English broadcast from RRI on 11970 as soon as WYFR signed off at 1345 Feb 9 –
but no trace of it, while Romanian service on 11940 was audible, as was English
on 15105. I again wonder if they have moved 11970 somewhere else, as they
should, or if this new transmitter keeps breaking down. Schedule at http://www.rri.ro/art.shtml?lang=1&sec=20&art=15758
still shows 15105 and 11970.
Anyhow, on 15105 at 1352 after rock music in English and ID,
plugged their current contest THE GOLD OF THE APUSENI MOUNTAINS all about which
is here: http://www.rri.ro/art.shtml?lang=1&sec=16&art=18303
Prizes are two 10-day trips for two in August, all expenses, EXCEPT
you have to pay your own way to and from Romania, and get your own visas. This
page does not say HOW the winners are chosen. I suspect that from all the
correct entries (assuming there are any), a drawing is held, but why don`t they
say so? Failure to clarify this is unethical, and makes entrants think if they
get all the answers right, they are bound to win (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. BSKSA, 15435, Feb 8 at 1504 in Qur`an with buzz,
the latter not too loud but definitely problematic (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [non]. Surprised to hear Vatican Radio in the clear on
5965, Feb 9 at 0605, English Bible lesson, no trace of REE relay via Costa Rica
which normally collides. But it was back to usual mess at 0612 recheck, with Vat
underneath // 7250. Meanwhile I had checked 3350, and that was also off the air
--- but the latter is supposed to be off, scheduled only 0200-0600 Tue-Sat,
while 5965 is 0200-0800 daily.
Just as I suspected, the new program schedule effective Feb 1, at
http://www.rtve.es/files/70-13363-FICHERO/Parrilla__5.pdf
mentioned in DXLD 9-012, turns out to be another imaginary one!
M-F at 1330-1400 UT it shows Fuero Propio – fuero means laws or
privileges, so I don`t get what this is supposed to be about. But in fact,
Noticias en Lenguas Co-Oficiales is still running in this slot as reconfirmed
Monday Feb 9 at 1347 in Galician, talking about Mallorca, 1350 into Basque as
usual, via CR on 11815, and surely on all the other frequencies relayed and
direct (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. One of the Greenville transmitters is starting to squeal,
à la WEWN, probably exactly the same problem, needing replacement of modulation
cards covering a certain audio frequency segment: 15330, Feb 9 at 1453 with R.
Martí very strong, and jamming not a problem at the moment. So even when it can
surpass jamming, R. Martí interferes with itself (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** MALAYSIA [and non]. Finally something more than just a het
around 6050, Feb 10 at 1400, timesignal and ID as R. Suara Islam; it sounded
like the next word was Indonesia, but must have been Kuala Lumpur per frequent
logs by Ron Howard, California. The het was still there and presumably this
audio was axually on 6049.60 as he has measured it. Then only the het and
seemingly open carrier for next few minutes as no further modulation audible.
Ron says this transmitter switches from the Asyik FM program to the Suara Islam
program at 1400, and the transmitter is on the air only irregularly as late as
1540.
Per WRTH this is the Kajang site, near Kuala Lumpur in West
Malaysia, 100 kW, but consulting Aoki, on 6050 you find only the East Malaysian
station listed, 10 kW RTM Sibu, Sarawak, and nothing about KL, very misleading,
as Sibu is apparently inactive. This confusion is not helped by RTM keeping
registering them both, with Kajang as only 50 kW.
Listings agree that the only other transmitters on 6050 at 1400 are
Lhasa beamed WNW, and HCJB, neither very likely here that late, but HCJB is
certainly dominant earlier in the morning (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** MEXICO [and non]. Slightly wavering het on 6105 in Russian, Feb
10 at 1522, presumably from XEQM Mérida around 6104.8, and thus with a slightly
unstable carrier. 6105.0 is CRI via Shijiazhuang site, 500 kW, 315 degrees, but
during this semihour IBB Tinian is also listed with VOA Uzbek, 250 kW, 305
degrees. Unfortunately, there is lots more Eurasian usage of 6105 during the
rest of the day. So far, this is about as good as it gets for XEQM reception
here; hard to believe it`s even 250 watts (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** U S A. Feb 9 at 2242 noted strong open carrier on 7505 --- no,
it`s more like 7505.2. Left a receiver on there for hours, and stayed
unmodulated, but weakened a great deal by 0200 Feb 10 when music was audible,
the sign-on time of WRNO, which this no doubt was all along. Getting ready to
expand programming from 3 hours a day?
WRNO`s open carrier was running again on off-frequency 7505.2, Feb
10 at 1515 check, and still at 1704 recheck --- tho it`s supposedly authorized
on this frequency only between 23 and 16 UT. But that did not stop them before
when ``testing`` 24 hours. Maybe they are `burning in` a new component.
Only
other stations currently listed on 7505 are: 14-16, YFR via Moldova, 300 kW, 116
degrees, but I am not sure this is really in use; 1630-1730 IBB Tinian, RFA
Burmese, 250 kW, 279 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** CHINA. Firedrake not only on 8400 and 9000 as often the case,
but also on 9300, Feb 12 around 1445. This too is in Aoki as a 1 kW Sound of
Hope transmitter, also tying up more Chinese jamming. This monstrous country is
scared to death of what tiny SOH may have to say (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. 6030, Feb 14 at 1357 with DentroCuban Jamming
Command pulsing vs. Chinese from CNR1 program // 6040 and 5030. CNR1 went off
6030 after timesignal at 1400, uncovering something weaker, presumably India,
Cyprus, and/or Calgary, but the jamming continued. Commies vs Commies! The Cuban
jamming is overrun against R. Martí, which closes 6030 two hours earlier! and
CNR1 is axually Chinese jamming, per Aoki, against ``Ming Hui Radio 1300-1400
1234567 Chinese 100 325 Tanshui TWN`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** DESECHEO. Heard the big ham DX-pedition to this tiny island in
the Caribbean west of Puerto Rico on 14190-USB, Feb 14 between 1422 and 1444.
During that entire period I never heard the word ``Desecheo`` mentioned once.
The op there IDed only as ``K5D`` without fonetix, but he used a lot of fonetix
on the stations he was calling, ICAO alfabet except S = sugar, e.g. calling an
SN4- at 1428. What`s he got against sierra? I am baffled why so many hams mix up
their fonetik alfabets; is this deliberate or just carelessness, or ignorance?
Among the calls logged were ON4QX at 1423, then ON4EB, 1424 ON5JV;
hmm, what a coincidence, three Belgians in a row. Was this set up? Every so
often, including amid these contax, K5D mentioned ``200, 220`` meaning he was
listening on 14200 and 14220 (or 14200 thru 14220?); yet every so often someone
would call him on 14190, which hi-traffic DX-peditions try to keep free for the
DX station only.
W3LWH didn`t get it, calling periodically on 14190 at 1420, 1431,
1432, 1432, 1434; at least he made it quick with nothing but his call, and we
were to assume he was really trying to contact K5D. Then at 1433 someone said
``Oscar Lima`` a few times on 14190; not sure what that meant, just spoiling? AM
carriers too at times on frequency. At 1443 someone equally exasperated with
W3LWH and some others interjected that K5D was ``listening up``, and ``what a
zoo`` --- I agreed and had enough. A new DXCC country is safely in my log,
unless I heard the last DXpedition there.
Much of the time, there was a much stronger SSB ham on the low side
around 14185, so not good on the wide FRG-7; best reception on the ICF SW07,
which I break out for such special occasions, as always just using the Sony loop
in the south-side window. I also tried 7084 a bit earlier before 1400, but no
sign of K5D there, just a strong Mexican(?) on 7087. Nor did I have any luck
around 0700 on 3781 or 1843.3, other frequencies publicized for the K5D
DXpedition. Also checked 18165 and 18145 at 1445, but not there either.
This Desecheo DXpedition also got me thinking about the whole deal.
Just once, it would be nice if a DXpedition to a rare island promulgated some
slightly different rules, such as: each contact must last at least one minute,
and include: not only call, signal report, but also handle, location by town,
state or country, and a factoid about that location. The DX station would do the
same, especially the factoids. What`s the point of going to an exotic place and
not saying anything about what it`s like, its history, obstacles overcome, etc.,
etc. Here`s a bit about it on their website:
http://69.89.25.185/~trexsoft/t-rexsoftware.com/desecheo/about.htm
But this would drive the DXCC crowd batty, as it would reduce the
supremely important goal of racking up as many meaningless contacts as possible.
The derivation of the name of the place should be interesting. The
root in Spanish refers to refuse, or throwing stuff out. This page confirms it
means ``thrown away``:
http://www.dokufunk.org/amateur_radio/dxcc_entities/index.php?CID=4728&lang=EN
Another thing: at very little additional cost, such a DXpedition
could also put a SW broadcast station on the air! One more transceiver, and
antenna (or diplexing onto another one) could be dedicated to broadcasting
prepared recorded one-way programming about the place. Preferably on AM, but
we`d settle for SSB; preferably in a broadcast band (just one will suffice), or
at least in a fixed band outside the ham bands. Turn it on and let it run, not
interfering at all with the ham activity. This should not be a pirate, but duly
authorized like the ham operation, so there is no question about counting it as
an SWBC country.
In places under US jurisdixion like Desecheo, this could be
accomplished with an experimental license, which would bypass all the
unreasonable requirements for a regular SWBC station, like 50 kW minimum,
step-by-step construction permit, program test authority, etc. Experimental
licenses are routinely granted by the FCC for all kinds of stuff with some
scientific or covert purpose. Dream on: tho a lot of hams are allegedly also
SWLs, I bet this idea has never been seriously considered, and certainly never
fulfilled (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, must be R. Africa heard at a much
earlier time than usual, Sat Feb 14 at 1541, sounds like the jailed Tony Alámo
with his low-key preaching; next check at 1555, a YL was on instead, talking
about visiting Mali and Mozambique. I bet if I had been listening between the
off-timed programs, there would not have been any ID, anyway. Unlike some other
signals on 19m, this one had no flutter fading, sufficient with no QRM, rather
like Morocco 15345 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** HONDURAS. HRMI has been missing lately from 3340, but it was
active Feb 14 at 0646 check with music, 0706 talk in Spanish; presumed ID as
nothing else there and when active habitually runs late- or all-night; poor with
quite a lot of fading, and frequency a smidgin on the low side. Yes: earlier in
the evening Brian Alexander measured it on 3339.99 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. JSR, Shiokaze, 5910 confirmed in English
again this Friday, Feb 13, at 1414 check with heavy accent talking about N
Korea. No jamming or other QRM audible, but insufficient signal. Even worse 24
hours later, and not in English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA [and non]. 15235, Feb 14 at 1545 a bit surprised to hear
a song in Spanish, but this turned out to be the Arabic service of RRI via
Galbeni, 1547 YL speaking Arabic, 1548 song in Romanian(?), 1555 IS and off
after frequency announcement. Heavy flutter. At 1605 a weaker signal from
Channel Africa in French had taken over 15235 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** RUSSIA [and non]. Feb 13 at 0700 I was tuned to 7200, hearing R.
Rossii ID and timesignal mixing with R. Bulgaria IS. Ex-Commies vs ex-Commies!
The two deliberately collide since R. Rossii is Yakutsk scheduled all the way
from 2000 to 1600, 100 kW non-direxional; R. Bulgaria is starting a broadcast in
Spanish via Plovdiv 250 kW, 258 degrees, to Spanish Morocco and nearby countries
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 15435, BSKSA, now with a very big buzz at roughly
equal level to the Arabic modulation, Feb 14 at 1543, and still at 1604. Much
weaker // 15225 without buzz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. WCKY, 1530, Cincinnati OH, Feb 12 at 0641
tuneby, Brother Scare mixed with audio noise bursts. Not local QRN, but
transmitted that way, bad feed. Once great station not only takes no pride in
its programming but in its engineering (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [and non]. REE, Amigos de la Onda Corta, at new time 0605
UT Sat, instead of originally publicized 0505 UT, Feb 14 monitored on webcast.
If I had been listening on SW, would have been on 5965 via CR. NOT on the
frequencies mis-announced at the beginning of the show. Tho they had corrected
the time from 0505 to 0605, still listed the frequencies in use at 0505,
including 6055 and 3350, which are off the air after 0600! After 0630 I was
listening on SW and confirmed those two were off, 6055 already occupied by
Nikkei, Japan; as REE`s companion mailbag show Cartas del Oyente was starting,
again with listing of all times and frequencies for it, but still with both
wrong time and consequently wrong frequencies, `0530` including 3350 and 6055!
Will REE ever get its act together?
Among topics on the DX program was an interview with someone from
the S500 club in Valencia on the campaign to get `diexismo` and `diexista`
approved as real words and entered into dixionary of the Spanish Royal Academy
(DRAE). It might help if these words weren`t mimicking English pronunciation of
``DX`` --- in proper Spanish they should be spelt deequisismo, deequisista, but
that isn`t going to happen.
Also their definitions as explained were SWL-oriented only,
including QSLing as mandatory! I beg to differ --- one can DX in any language
without QSLing, which is an optional sub-hobby; the QSL-maniax cannot imagine
doing one without the other, and try to dominate or denigrate the rest of us.
Ignored also were hams who use these same terms to refer to two-way contacts
only.
Also monitored the Cariari relay`s behavior on Saturday morning,
Feb 14: At 1552, big open carrier from 17850; 1559 both this and 15125 had
sign-on message also mentioning 9765 --- 1600 is the start-time only on
Saturdays. But after one-second-late timesignal, 15125 went quiet, while 17850
started programming with news. It was not until 1607 that the audio was faded up
on 15125, program about opera. Meanwhile I confirmed 9765 // but just barely
audible. Will REE ever get its act together? Oops, I already said that (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
**
U S A. A split-second check of WHRI-6, 11785, Sat Feb 14 at 1551 confirmed a
gospel-huxter was on instead of DXing with Cumbre. Checking the WHR online
schedule I see that DWC has finally been deleted from that timing, 1530, now
shown on 11785 Saturdays at 1830 UT only. So was DWC heard then? Of course not!
Not even on the air! But it was on the webcast (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST) ###
** BRAZIL [and non]. RNA, 11780, Feb 15 at 0633, again putting
extremely distorted spurs plus and minus 50 kHz, causing severe interference to
RFI on 11830, and on 11730 ratcheting the top side of RNZI 11725 requiring one
to side-tune lower for it. Previously the spurs have been more like 58-59 kHz
away from fundamental. This was so heavy on RFI that I had a hard time
identifying the language they were speaking. It`s supposed to be Portuguese, via
South Africa, but sounded mostly like French; perhaps there were extended
excerpts of something originally in French. But hey, no more audio dropouts on
RNA itself, listening to 6185 and 11780, tho the 11780 modulation was a bit low,
which may correlate with putting out lots of distorted modulation on the spurs.
The sign-on time of RNA varies by day of week, but now that DST is over, should
be one hour later than during the past quadrimonth (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. RHC, 11760 and // somewhat undermodulated 12000, Sunday
Feb 15 at 1435-1454 ``La Cultura en Cuba`` this time featuring classical pianist
Fran Fernández who is about to perform a 50th-anniversary concert. I had never
heard of him so Googled, and got around a megahit starting with http://www.franfernandez.com/ --- but
that`s a different Fran Fernández, Spanish guitarist born in Granada in 1981!
It seems there are lots of other Fran Fernándezes such as a makeup artist/hair
stylist in Tampa. Refining the search by adding Cuba, one gets only 666 hits but
still too much chaff. Adding pianist gets it down to 166, such as http://www.thecubaexperience.co.uk/articles.asp?id=286
where he is referred to both as Fran and Frank; and this long interview with
him: http://www.cmbfradio.cu/cmbf/musica/musica_5.htm
Tho Esperanto was missing last Sunday, it was back on RHC this
Sunday Feb 15, at 1501 on 11760, and also on 13760 at 1510 check, so unclear if
another overrun error, but supposedly scheduled on 11760 only. OM announcer made
a mistake right away, stressing Amériko rather than Ameríko as required by
inflexible Esperanto rules (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also
VENEZUELA [non]
** INDONESIA. VOI, 9525.9 at sufficient level for a change, Feb 15
at 1348, YL talking about laws and regulations on investing in Indonesia, citing
them by 5-digit number, MEGO. 1349 outro that this was the weekly Miscellany
program, ID in passing, 1351 Music Corner. Must be running late as these usually
start earlier in the semi-hour. Yes: English hour wrapup not until 1407 and into
Malay (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN. DRM noise audible on 9775-9780-9785, Feb 15 at 0640.
What`s this? REE as scheduled from Noblejas, 05-09, 100 kW at 50 degrees (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K [and non]. Feb 15 at 1325 found strong co-channel
interference over PMS via WWCR, 13845, and zero-beat to her, central Asian
language, then classical music until cut off at 1330* with no further
announcement. I had the misfortune to tune in during the only semi-hour per day
when WWCR does not have 13845 to itself worldwide. Per Aoki, this is the Kyrgyz
service of BBC via Rampisham, 500 kW, 62 degrees, which started Dec 6; IIRC, BBC
was banned from local FM relays in Kyrgyzstan so had to go back to outmoded SW
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
**
VENEZUELA [non]. Unlike last Sunday, this Sunday Feb 15 there was no RNV CI
broadcast at 1500 via Cuba on 11680, and once again there was no sign either of
Aló, Presidente on 11875, 13680 or 13750, nor at recheck 1603 (Glenn Hauser,
OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** AUSTRIA [non]. Monitored 13675 after CRI relay closed at 1559,
and up came something in German at 1600, with ``12 Uhr`` timecheck and
immediately into Mittagsjournal, but no ID! It`s rather poor form to initiate a
transmission without even identifying yourself. Hmm, it`s noon in Sackville, so
are they now producing German programs there? But context of items soon led one
to believe it was Wien, and therefore this `news` was at least 5 hours old! What
if something important had broken in the interim? Never mind, you vill vait
until 24 hours later to hear about it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL [and non]. Unlike the night before, Sunday morning, RNA
was absent from 11780, Monday Feb 16 at 0633, and so were its spurs on 11730 and
11830. I`ve yet to figure out the real schedule for these and 6185
transmissions; XEPPM was also QRM-free. They do vary depending on day of week,
and now local time is UT -3.
WRTH 2009 just shows 0900-0200 but this is certainly incorrect, or
incomplete. PWBR `2009` shows 11780 at 0645-0230, but one hour later in
``mid-year`` (i.e. 0745-0330 now that DST is over; it really doesn`t feel like
mid-year yet!), and furthermore filling in the gap on Sundays only for 24-hour
operation. That corresponds roughly with what I have been hearing, not hearing.
PWBR fails to mention any Brazilian station under Voices From Home, page 330!
This one would certainly qualify more than any other, if they are dealing only
with strong signals heard worldwide.
Aoki says 11780 is on at 0700-0245 7 days a week, but power as only
7.5 kW, instead of 250 as in WRTH, so other Aoki info is questionable; PWBR does
not hazard a guess as to power. Aoki`s azimuth is 360 degrees, meaning due
north, I suppose. Eibi guesses both 6185 and 11780 are 24 hours, and doesn`t
deal with azimuths from anywhere.
HFCC has no entries for Brasil on 11780 or 6185, but frequency
managers ignore these behemoths at their peril. BTW, there was a report a few
months ago that RNA would be buying new transmitters in February, hopefully
spurless ones (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. 6030, Feb 16 at 1431, very weak signals mixing to
produce fast SAH, but briefly one dominated with YL giving Canadian news
headlines, ergo CFVP Calgary. Brief ``running water`` ute QRM, but no jamming
audible this time; the DentroCubans had either turned it off or it had faded
out. 6160 CKZU was also audible slightly better at 1432, talking about risk of
landslides in BC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ETHIOPIA [non]. 15195, Feb 16 at 1614 noted carrier, weak
station mixed with what sounded like DRM noise, barely bothering Equatorial
Guinea too on 15190; noise suddenly stopped at 1621. What does PWBR `2009` say?
Nothing! HFCC also has nothing at all on 15195 between 1500 and 1700. But Eibi
and Aoki agree it is the Monday-only 1600-1700 broadcast of Ethiopian Orthodox
Church (EiBi) = EOTC Holy Synod Radio (Aoki), via Samara, Russia, 200 kW, 188
degrees, accompanied on Sundays only by Addis Dimts Radio, all in Amharic. So
was the noise jamming? No DRM scheduled anywhere around here; they sound so much
alike (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING)
** FRANCE. RFI English, 15605, Monday Feb 16 at 1631 starting a
strange show called ``Mission Paris``, announced as a co-produxion with Deutsche
Welle, and the EU. Seems to be a drama, with lots of SFX, à la video game?
About demonstrations, mentioned remote-control (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** ITALY [non]. Studio DX, in Italian via WRMI 9955, Feb 16 at
0648, fair signal mixing with DentroCuban jamming pulses, so Roberto Scaglione
should also have a bone to pick with fellow DX program producer Arnie Coro, who
never gets jammed. Airing as scheduled UT Mondays 0630 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA [non]. 15180, Feb 16 at 1616 apparently in Hausa,
mentioning Abuja, Nigeria. What does PWBR `2009` say? Nothing! But this is of
course Aso Radio, not a clandestine, but relay of a local FM station back to the
country, as in Aoki, M-F 1600-1700, guessing the site is France. EiBi doesn`t
guess on the site at all. HFCC doesn`t know anything about it. However, as we
outpointed previously, WRTH 2009 says it comes via Samara, RUSSIA. There was
also QRM from an open carrier on 15178, but I am not certain whether this was
something local (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN [non]. Miraya FM, via IRRS via Slovakia, 15650, Feb 16 at
1500 was unreadable under Greece, but in the clear at 1635, heavily accented
English M&M discussion about Rwanda, intermittent hums; peaks S9+10 but
still difficult copy (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. Surprised to hear WEWN in English with EWTN
women`s program on 9390, Feb 16 at 0704, instead of usual 9455. All current
online schedules including WEWN`s own at http://www.ewtn.com/radio/freq.htm
show 9390 not on the air until 0900; a change, or SNAFU?
WEWN in Spanish, 11520, Feb 16 at 1448, co-channel QRM with SAH
varying 3-4 Hz; what does PWBR `2009` say? Nothing colliding in W-season; but in
fact it`s RNW English to S Asia via Madagascar during this hour (Glenn Hauser,
OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. DXing for Desecheo, Feb 16 at 1535, found nothing on
14190 but a VA3, so tuned up to 14200 at 1538 and heard brief urgent no-frills
contacts between a WX3B and numerous Europeans, as if he were about to close
down forever at any moment. Where is this exotic station? Carroll County,
Maryland, he soon revealed, and even has a QSL manager. I must visit this rare
DX county sometime, of which the seat is Westminster, directly NW of Balmore on
the way to Taneytown, per the Rand McNally atlas, which inexplicably devotes two
pages to Maryland and only one page to New Mexico, which is 12.4 times larger,
but hardly 24.8 times less congested, and worth of no less map detail (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. 7245, Feb 17 at 1357 W&M in English discussing
relationships, the word ``cherish``; religious? Hardly, soon switched to
Chinese, so this is CNR-2 as scheduled, 150 kW, non-direxional from Beijing 491
site, per Aoki; ham QRM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. AIR VBS, 9870, Feb 17 at 1414 running produced ads mixing
Hindi and English, including ``the best performance, the best your vehicle can
get`` followed by march tune. Usual polar flutter but good signal (Glenn Hauser,
OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PHILIPPINES. 9520, S Asian singing, but modulation breaking up
badly, Feb 17 at 1437. This is RVA Telugu service, 250 kW, 280 degrees from
Palauig-Zambales, following two other semihours in Sinhala, Tamil (Glenn Hauser,
OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. 9900, Feb 17 at 1405, SW Asian singing reminding me of
R. Solh; alternated music and talk segments, Pashto? Several mentions of
Afghanistan, but too much talk to be R. Solh. Also had very heavy polar flutter,
worse than AIR 9870. Weakened gradually but still audible at 1447.
What does PWBR `2009` say? Nothing at this time except 1400-1430
mid-year FEBC Bocaue, Philippines in unID language to C Asia. That doesn`t fit
either, as no such polar flutter on Tinang 9760. Aoki and HFCC have the answer,
I would not have guessed: VOR Pashto/Dari service at 13-15 via Samara, 250 kW,
140 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. BSKSA, 15435, Feb 17 at 1502 again with BB, AA,
i.e. big buzz and Arabic at about equal levels (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** CUBA. RHC, 12000, even more undermodulated than usual, Feb 18
right at end of transmission when checked at 1458 with frequency lineup for 2100
broadcast, and only meter bands for the 2400 transmission, which axually starts
about an hour earlier. At 1459 checked // 11760 to see if its modulation was OK,
but that was already off, perhaps being retuned to 11680 for Venezuelan relay.
1459:30 I returned to 12000, which was introducing `audio real` repeat of
morning broadcast, Despertar con Cuba, with Bárbara Betancourt starting it, but
by 1501 modulation cut off; carrier still on at 1509 final check (Glenn Hauser,
OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN. 13800, Feb 19 at 1412, nice Iranian music, but soon
replaced by boring discussion in Arabic about Islam, Iran. Then found much
weaker // on 13790. Yes, VIRI Arabic service until 1430 is scheduled on both,
13800 being Zahedan at 289 degrees, 13790 Kamalabad at 178 degrees, per HFCC.
PWBR `2009` shows the latter as ``Tehran`` with a macron over the a. Kamalabad
is the site right next to Teheran, per map in WRTH; my Times Atlas of the World
does not even have Kamalabad in the index, having failed to realize that one day
it would become a world-famous SW transmitter site, however insignificant it may
otherwise be.
BTW, ``Rick Steves` Iran`` was an excellent hour-long travelog
aired on OETA in Oklahoma the night of Feb 18; but I can`t find it on the PBS
website, so maybe something not so new, or too new for them to have caught up
with it. TV Guide online shows it as a 2008 produxion, but airing now as
``new``. Worth outseeking (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 15435, BSKSA Qur`aning with no buzz, Feb 18 at
1510, so settled in for my morning fix, 1515 ID as from Mecca --- but don`t DF
this in order to align your prayers, as it`s really a bit off from Riyadh site!
1516, the buzz became audible, and steadily grew past 1528 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** SLOVENIA. Tuning around 20m, still not finding K5D Desecheo
again, but landed on 14178 where S58SA was in contact with W6FDR, Feb 19 at
1430. Said he was running 800 watts. Who`s this? QRZ.com has the answer: S58SA,
Anton Savernik, Ljubljanska Cesta 88, 1230 Domzale, Slovenia, with his portrait
--- and they will be relieved to know that there was no inappropriate content on
http://www.qrz.com/callsign/S58SA
--- how do they definite ``inappropriate``, anyway? Anything off-topic from ham
radio? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WEWN back on 9455 where it is supposed to be, Feb 18 at
0750 check during the same show for women I heard before on 9390 by mistake,
this one about the dilemma of a Catholic marrying a Seventh Day Adventist in the
Philippines. Advice: anyone who would do that is not really a devoted Catholic
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WRMI, 9955, fairly good signal with KBS World Radio
wrapping up Tue Feb 17 at 2157; cut off start of news capsule from WRN, ID, and
2200 sharp into R. República; still no jamming audible nor for at least 5
minutes, tho e.g. 9565 vs Martí was grinding away. Did not hear any break in
WRMI transmission or change in strength as expected for switch from NW to S
antenna (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 5920v, WBOH, Feb 19 at 1350, giving FBN contact info in
Spanish, with usual het caused by its being off-frequency compared to Irkutsk,
which manages to transmit much closer to the correct frequency. Spanish is not
shown on the FBN schedule at this hour, which fails to mention what timezone is
used, an external broadcaster so inward-looking they think everyone goes by
their own local zone! http://www.fbnradio.com/new_page_copy(1).htm
--- and what a weird URL format. We must assume it`s EST/EDT, i.e. currently
8:30-9 am, when it`s all in English, supposedly (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** PHILIPPINES. Reception from DW 15620 in Russian this Saturday at
1530 was not very good for Muzprosvet avant-garde music show, so I was glad
instead to find on 9570, Feb 21 at 1540, some nice classical organ music with
orchestra catching my ear. 1544 Russian ID for Radio Blagovest, seemingly
mentioning a seminary in New York, then talk/sermon in clearly enunciated
Russian; 1554 ending, banging bells, ID again; 1555 R. Veritas Asia ID by YL in
English, said next broadcast would be in Vietnamese, but 9570 off at 1555:40*.
Aoki shows the 1500-1557 hour on RVA in Russian is R. Blagovest, 250 kW, 331
degrees. WRTH 2009 does not mention R. Blagovest under the RVA listings; it`s
just a program title.
This page at RVA about its Russian service never mentions
Blagovest, but quotes some reception reports from Vashek Korinek in South
Africa, who seems rather inactive now, and (Iwao) Nagatani, Japan. See http://www.rveritas-asia.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=78&Itemid=127
which also has a crummy map cutting off all of Russia east of Omsk,
as if that were not the primary target from the Philippines at 331 degrees!
I don`t find Blagovest mentioned anywhere on the RVA site, but
there is no search funxion. Google is unable to translate either component or
the whole word, but looking at various hits, it seems to refer to Russian
Orthodox music, bells in particular. But RVA is Catholic! A 2004 logging in the
HCDX archive from the Ukrainian-Canadian Volodya Salmaniw elucidates what I was
hearing:
``PHILIPPINES 11795, 1544-, Radio Blagovest Jun 13 Excellent
reception in Russian, with Protestant type programming in Russian, with organ
music (foreign to the Russian church), then ID 'Vy sluyshayte Radio Blagovest',
followed by Moscow address, and finally 'Radio Blag'. (Salmaniw, Victoria, BC)``
Seems unlikely a Catholic-run station would really be carrying a
Protestant program. Perhaps to the Orthodox, anything Catholic sounds so far-out
as to be Protestant (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. Feb 21 I was standing by on 15435 for the sign-on
of BSKSA, and on it popped at *1458, big buzz overriding their own Arabic talk.
Continued intolerable, still at 1531 check over muezzin; Sawt ul-Buzz (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Just as I tuned across WBOH 5920v, UT Sat Feb 21 at
0653:40 they started to play The Star Spangled Banner, until 0654:50, then to
honky-tonk hymn with barbershop harmony. Perhaps FBN plays the SSB around this
time each day? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ZAMBIA. 1Africa still on 9420 colliding horribly with Greece,
Feb 20 at 2200 tune-in; thought I might have been too late to reconfirm, but CVC
stayed on past 2200, giving me time to count a SAH of 215/minute vs Greece, =
3.6 Hz. CVC was again trying to persuade African stations to become affiliates,
and finally turned off at 2203:44* leaving Greece descathed. We are waiting and
hoping, which Spanish combines into a single word, for CVC to start using 13835,
a new frequency they have registered for this same 17-22 UT transmission (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** AUSTRALIA. RA, 6020, very good Feb 22 from 1315 tune-in until
abrupt 1355*, coverage from previous morning on ABC Local Radio of National
Service of Mourning, re bushfires in Victoria; included poetry, speeches by
Princess Anne, Governor General, etc. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [non]. A few nites ago at 0000, heard some jamming against
nothing on 9810. I was bystanding, Monday Feb 23 at 2257 on 9810, when lite
jamming was already in progress again; 2258 jamming level stepped up, and 2259
stepped up some more. A few seconds after 2300, R. República cut on in progress
with usual theme music and slogan ``con fe en la victoria``. Did not hear any
frequency or schedule mentioned. RR was more or less readable despite the
jamming, at least initially. Only jamming was audible at this time on WRMI 9955.
Recheck 0050 UT Feb 24: 9810 mainly jamming, could tell something else was
there; meanwhile R. Canada Internal, fairly good on 9755 in English about
Ukrainian-Canadians.
I bet 9810 is Sackville, and probably 2300-0400 or so as per
previous usage; daily? Bernie O`Shea in Ontario was hearing this at 0130-0300+
Feb 23, the night before. And Jeff White says RR is ending its evening broadcast
via WRMI 9955 as of Feb 27. Searching thru the website http://www.directorio.org is a waste of
time; nothing there about current scheduling, no hits on 9810, and only very old
hits on 9955 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NETHERLANDS [non]. 3955 in Dutch, Feb 23 at 0620, poor signal,
deep fades, but not much QRhaM at the moment. If it`s in Dutch, it can`t be from
Netherlands! But surely R. Netherlands via somewhere else. This is 250 kW, 121
degrees from Skelton UK at 0600-0657 only. Per current ADDX language schedule,
the only countries still broadcasting in Dutch on SW are RN and VRT, the latter
only 4 hours a day, none of that direct from Belgium either (Glenn Hauser, OK,
DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 15435 from 1500 Feb 23, Sawt al-Buzz, not too
severe initially vs Qur`an, but steadily worsening. At least it fills up the
dead-air pauses as long as a semi-minute at 1523, as the muezzin builds up steam
for his next outburst (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
**
U S A [non]. 7565, Feb 23 at 1406, self-assured preaching in S Asian language,
fair and clear signal; 1408 mentioned Mary Magdalene; 1429 many mentions of
Bible, and Moody Bible, continued past 1430. What does PWBR `2009` say? Nothing
at all listed on this frequency! EiBi has the answer, YFR in Bengali via Moldova
at 14-16. Aoki adds that it`s 300 kW, 116 degrees and started Dec 4 (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COLOMBIA. 5910, good signal Feb 24, enjoying nice bouncy music
from Marfil Estéreo, pausing at 0700 for ID including calls HKI79, back to
music which unseemed religious, but I couldn`t really understand the lyrix. Call
of this SW transmitter is axually HJDH (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. Voice of Indonesia, ``the sound of dignity``, back on
9525.0 for a change instead of 9525.9, so different transmitter at Cimanggis?
Feb 24 at 1445 during some great drumming and singing, 1449 IDs in Malay and
English, 1450 opening English broadcast 10 minutes early! With program summary,
1451 switch to another YL with news, heavier accent and muffled mike, so harder
to copy. Lead story something about compensation for Aceh tsunami victims, as
repeated at news closing 1501. The clock may be off in the studio, but the
transmitter site was closer, cutting this off at 1503:12* after Perspective
commentary about Hillary had just started at 1502. No QRM before or after 1500,
but constant self-inflicted hum (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [and non]. 8122, Amigos Net on USB, Feb 24
at 1428 with Don Anderson, Oxnard, California, giving his weather forecasts,
especially winds, for vessels along the western coast of Mexico, such as
recommending when would be a good time for a sailboat in a particular place to
`make the crossing`. 1432 various boats in contacts, 1435 net control on the
Jacaranda announced QSY to 4-bravo = 4149 kHz, which I did not bother to check
at this late hour, as signals were barely audible on 8 MHz, that net presumably
starting at 1415, or at least that`s when Anderson joins in. There was also QRM
from SSB slightly to one side of 8122 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. KEOR, 1120, Catoosa/Sperry/Tulsa, off the air again
when checked around 2030 UT Feb 23, and 1700 UT Feb 24. Maybe the days of oldies
over and over and over are over, pending transfer to Catholic diocese (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOUTH AFRICA. Channel Africa, 17770, better than usual Feb 24 at
1513 with news, 1518 mentioning 9625 as only frequency during this second hour
of the English broadcast. So they are still confused in the studio about what
frequencies are really on the air from Meyerton (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** U K [non]. BBCWS via Ascension, 27 degrees, 6005, Feb 24 at 0701
with news and off the air promptly at 0706* after ``and that`s the latest BBC
news``. Certainly strange scheduling, but no accident. Evidently the transmitter
is not needed immediately at 0700 for something else, so why not squeeze in a
little more news? Aoki shows until 0705, but this cannot be as BBCWS news always
runs until 6 past the hour so it will match up with NPR news timings. (I had
also noticed previously the newsreader naming herself just before the optional
cutaway at :04, another innovation.) HFCC shows until 0710 but this is also
incorrect. EiBi has it right, until 0706. Is anyone aware of any other BBCWS SW
transmission in English which does this? Possibly BBCWS has a commitment to feed
some local African relay station the news at 0700. Before 0700, 6005 is hard to
hear due to RHC on 6000, but after 0700 we get Mali clearly on 5995 and BBC on
6005 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 5920, Feb 24 at 0650 check and still 0659, nothing but a
big open carrier from WBOH; I was checking whether they played the Star Spangled
Banner at the same time as three nights before. Quickly switched to WTJC 9370 at
0653, which was just barely audible and not playing the SSB (Glenn Hauser, OK,
DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [and non]. 9660, Feb 24 at 0656, RA Brandon 10 kW with
rock music, SAH of 3.7 Hz; what could that be? At 0658 Vatican IS started. Did
not monitor further, assuming VR was about to start a transmission, but checking
EiBi later, found that VR, 500 kW, 200 degrees from SMG, is supposed to be
ending 9660 at 0658 after English at 0630, while RA goes on until 0800 (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** CUBA [and non]. Checking out what Radio República is doing: Feb
24 at 2237, surprised to find it unjammed via WRMI 9955 with intriguing talk
about human evolution, brain size, language and music, concluding with some
hypothetical Neanderthal music at 2240-2242, then ID giving only frequency 9810,
6-11 pm de lunes a domingo, i.e. the new non-WRMI relay at 2300-0400, not yet on
the air at this moment, and surely Wednesday-Tuesday rather than Monday-Sunday;
why don`t they just say todos los días? R.R. does have quite a bit of
apolitical programming which need not be jammed, but I doubt the DentroCubans
were deliberately relenting against the hated, wormy, FueraCubans. BTW, Cuba`s
public venom is directed against Radio Martí, with Radio República`s existence
hardly ever even acknowledged.
Meanwhile, a wall of noise on 9565 against Radio Martí. 9955 had
the usual het at this time of day, presumably the perpetually off-frequency
Taiwan transmitter scheduled for RFI relay after 2300, but at 2253 jamming had
also started to appear on 9955; by 2300 it had overwhelmed WRMI when I wanted to
detect whether it was parallel 9810 --- probably not.
So I was standing by for 9810 to come on; at 2257 jamming already
grinding away against nothing; at 2259 Sackville DRM shifted from 9795-9800-9805
to 9785-9790-9795 for TDP`s dance music, thank you very much. Jamming increased
against 9810, but I could still hear R. República cut on about 15 seconds after
2300, surely via Sackville too.
Earlier at 2235, I also noted the DentroCuban Jamming Command on
11930, with at least two strong non-synchronized modulated pulses against
nothing, Radio Martí having signed off that channel at 2200. The pulses
periodically coincided, but mostly were offset different fraxions of a second as
they were emitted at slightly different rates, deliberately to be more annoying
if they had had a victim (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUAM [and non]. Tuned in 11850 at 2229 Feb 24 just as a formal
sign-off announcement was running in English, from Adventist Broadcasting
Service, 100,000 watts. Maybe Guam or KSDA was mentioned earlier, but not now
until 2229:30*, the conclusion of scheduled semihour in Indonesian. Radio Free
Asia [see U S A [non]] took over 11850 a few sex later (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** NETHERLANDS [non]. 15280, Feb 24 at 2218, VG signal in
Indonesian, but deep and selective fading. What does PWBR `2009` say? Nothing.
Must be RN; who else would be talking about Schipol, bits of Dutch and even
English mixed in with the Indonesian, and 2220 RNW ID. But then at 2221 I notice
that the audio is hiccuping, every few seconds looping back and repeating two or
three times a few syllables already just heard. This is extremely annoying,
especially if you really understand Indonesian. And also ruins song in English
which follows at 2222. Just as bad if not worse at 2236 recheck when an IDstring
ran in Dutch, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and something else. Is anyone
paying attention at Hilversum or transmitter site? I guess a satellite feed
problem. 15280 is not Madagascar as first assumed. This is the 2200-2257
transmission via IBB sites, which changed from Tinang at the beginning of B-08,
to Tinian for a sesquiweek, and finally to
SAIPAN since 7
November. Hard to believe it is beamed due SW from there rather than NE toward
US. But a refund is in order (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
**
U S A [non]. Shortly after KSDA finished with 11850 [see GUAM], Feb 24 at *2230,
a seamless transition to R. Free Asia, opening in English with Khmer to follow.
At first I thought they said ``Thai`` as the name has an almost-long I, the way
RFA pronounces it, as I have noticed before and must be closer to the proper
pronunciation in that language itself. In next few minutes, YL announcer
mentioned Malraux, Reagan amd others in the same breath. Wonder what that was
about. This signal, much better than KSDA had been, easily held its own against
adjacent WYFR on 11855. RFA`s open carrier was probably already on for a
crash-start when I tuned in KSDA a minute earlier, suppressing its loudness but
also holding off WYFR`s sideband. This is TINIAN at 278 degrees (Glenn Hauser,
OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** BRAZIL [and non]. A while ago I wondered ``where`s the
Dentro-Cuban Jamming Command when we need them?`` regarding David Miranda, the
supremely annoying gospel huxter who mixes Spanish and Portuguese, wailing on
more and more frequencies, especially Brazilian SW transmitters, such as 9565,
where I was hearing him unimpeded. His empire is growing like a cancer. Now I am
happy to say that the incompetent Cubans were indeed jamming him on 9565, as
they often leave their jammers running long after Radio Martí is through with a
frequency, in this case 2400. Feb 28 at 0725 check, DCJC was pulsing atop the
``God Is Love`` guy on 9565, tho he was inbooming on // 11765 (Glenn Hauser, OK,
DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COLOMBIA. Colombia para Cristo was preaching separately on both
frequencies, Feb 28 at 0729: 6010 with OM in Spanish, interspersed with YL
translating into English, just like we hear on HRMI 3340 (which was open carrier
at 0736 check) and could even be the same ministry. At this time, HJDH 6010 was
well atop XEOI, which could be detected underneath keeping Mexican music alive,
and making a rippling SAH with it, probably 15-20 Hz or so apart. HJDH 5910,
which is usually musical with Marfil Estéreo, also had a good signal with no
QRM at 0733, and a different preacher in Spanish with no translation, not //
6010 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ECUADOR [and non]. 11690, HCJB Spanish totally free of RTTY QRM
de 11687.5! Maybe Cutler read my March MT column? It would be very premature to
hope they have quit for good. Saturday Feb 28 at 1403, HCJB starting mailbag
show, // much stronger 11960. Companion RTTYs still running as usual at 1440 on
12015 and 9830 (axually, they may be totally unrelated --- I just group them
because the three blatantly invade broadcast bands). 1445 Aventura Diexista
segment was entirely an interview with Dino Bloise when Alen Grájan was
visiting Miami (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA [and non]. Here`s what`s next for VOI. After shifting
from 9525.9 to 9525.0, missing a day, and English at 1400 instead of 1300 ---
On Feb 27, zero again on 9525.0 and 9525.9, so I check their other
frequency and there it is – on 11785.0, good signal at 1350 with Indonesian
songs, 1356 YL announcement, and at 1359 concluding English hour which then was
back to its former time starting at 1300. After some dead air, 1401 opening
Malay, 1402 drops off the air for a moment; carrier comes back on and then the
modulation gets interrupted briefly. When on, good signal but with own hum; no
het or other QRM. 1510 recheck seemed to be off, but by then my noisy computer
was on. As happened the last time VOI used 11785 last year at these hours, it
will be blown away on Saturday and Sunday by WHRI with Hmong Lao Radio at 14-15,
and I believe WHRI is also on before 1400, weekends only.
As expected, impossible to reconfirm whether, like the day before,
VOI was again on 11785 during +14-15+ UT Saturday Feb 28, as frequency is
overwhelmed by WHRI, Hmong programming after 1400, and English gospel huxter
before 1400. Anyhow, no VOI on 9525.0 or 9525.9. Must try to check Sunday at
1500 when WHRI closes earlier (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. JSR, Shiokaze back on 5985, ex-5910, ex-5985,
ex-5910, ad infinitum, Feb 28 at 1426 in Japanese with several mentions of
Shiokaze over pervasive sad piano music, to 1430* No QRM audible but I suppose
colliding again with Myanmar; it was doing just fine on 5910 as far as I was
concerned. Do they really gain anything by switching back and forth, such as it
taking a few days for the Dentro-Korean Jamming Command to upcatch? (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NEWFOUNDLAND. It sure helps to tune across the 2 MHz band with
BFO on; only some SSB signals make it thru the noise level here, such as 2598,
Feb 28 at 0740 with marine weather for Newfoundland. Crummy audio due to vox
and/or announcer speaking into telephone instead of a decent studio mike. Could
not catch ID, but did hear Newfoundland locations, Grand Banks mentioned. Per
Klingenfuss 2002 book, there were two stations on 2598: VCM in Saint Anthony,
and VOK in Cartwright, both of the Canadian Coast Guard.
However, a search of the UDXF yg comes up with a log by Peter
Poelstra, Netherlands, last Dec 11 at 0737 of VCP, CCG Placentia, also with
Grand Banks weather (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PORTUGAL. 11885, fair signal in Portuguese Portuguese, Feb 28 at
1406; must be RDPI. Yes, // much stronger 15560. 11885 is the weekend-only
transmission, 45 degrees across Europe at 1200-1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WBOH: Finally, Feb 27 at 0627 UT check, 5920 was
modulating well, with hymns, three days after noticing it unmodulated (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** ECUADOR [and non]. Missing Feb 28, but RTTY on 11687.5, NAA? was
back as usual March 1 at 1357, heavily QRMing HCJB Spanish on 11690. See also
VENEZUELA [non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA [non]. With VOI back on 11785 Feb 27, I was standing
by at 1500 March 1 to see if they were still there, as they are totally blocked
weekends while WHRI is on, including at first check 1358 with gospel huxter in
English. After Hmong Lao Radio, at 1459 OCS theme and ID, then a bit more Hmong
hmusic(?) before cutting to open carrier and off at 1500:30, uncovering a weak
station, but does not sound like VOI --- just talk in non-Malay-Indonesian
language and not English either. Not Guaíba, Brasil; and BTW Brasília 11780
was audible much stronger.
Checking PWBR `2009`, it looks like V. of Turkey as scheduled in
Arabic from 1500 in W-season --- EXCEPT, no such listings in HFCC, WRTH, Aoki,
EiBi or VOT`s own schedule! Nothing else at all listed during this hour
anywhere. So maybe it really was VOI past 1500 on 11785 in uncertain language.
No, nothing audible from VOI on 9525 or 9526 at this hour or earlier (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Thanks to Kevin for the two submissions this month.
Posted by: Kevin Redding
Sun Feb 8, 2009 6:43 pm (PST)
http://www.the1920snetwork.com/streams/index.html
Check this out, its streaming old shows and sounds pretty good.
Kevin
Posted by: Kevin Redding
Sun Feb 15, 2009 7:05 pm (PST)
Better audio for BBC Radio online -- now testing
The BBC is finally moving to support AAC streaming radio. It may be at a fairly low bit-rate and a few years late, but it's still very welcome.
At the BBC Internet Blog, James Cridland has posted Better
audio for BBC Radio online, which says: "It's been some time in coming, but
today marks the next step in improving the audio quality of BBC Radio
online."
In brief, the BBC's national radio stations are now available in higher quality
AAC or AAC+ format if you become a BBC iPlayer Labs tester. That means "the
streams don't need any new software - just a recent version of Flash Player. No
media players, no Totem or VLC, no plugins for Quicktime," adds Cridland.
The purpose is to test bit-rates, buffering and performance, so the audio
quality may go down as well as up. Also, Cridland comments that the audio
quality will not be as good as the currently-available Windows Media Audio
streams that you can access directly. Still, without the ubiquitous take-up of
Microsoft Silverlight and (for Linux) Moonlight, it's a step in the direction of
greater accessibility.
Since the BBC in general has neglected to publicise internet radio (compared
with the vast sums ploughed into promoting DAB), and since Lord Carter's
hopeless interim report on Digital Britain has ignored it, I think we should be
grateful for small mercies. The BBC's history in this area has not been good, so
we should applaud its real step towards greater goodness.
However, Steve Green of the Digitalradiotech.co.uk website has already
complained in advance*. He says on his site:
The BBC has been using 128kbps MP3 and 192kbps MP3 for the
stereo on-demand radio streams since last June when radio was integrated into
the BBC iPlayer, but the BBC has reduced the bit rate levels of the
stereo on-demand streams from using 128 and 192kbps MP2 to using 96kbps AAC+!
In other words, the BBC has increased the sound quality
(because AAC is a more efficient codec, as Apple iTunes users know) but it could
have increased the quality even more by sticking to the bit-rates it
was already using. However, since this is a trial, I don't think it's
unreasonable for the BBC to start at a lower bit rate: we can only hope it's
increased before the launch.
As Steve Green also points out -- correctly -- the bandwidth used by all of BBC
radio is trivial compared to what's used by BBC TV and video streams. Frankly, I
think that if the BBC chooses to run a fleet of Hummers, it should stop bitching
about the fuel consumption of a couple of mopeds.
Either way, high bit-rate BBC audio streams -- preferably using AAC -- are
important to the future of British broadcasting. Shops selling internet radio
sets will then be able to demonstrate that the essential BBC stations are
available in much higher quality than today's DAB, with a much greater choice of
content, over a much greater geographical area (albeit with some loss of ease of
use).
This will, of course, make the BBC's massive investment in low quality broadcast
DAB look somewhat nonsensical.
Since a very large proportion of internet radios will also offer DAB and FM, the
need to support AAC decoding will also encourage DAB radio manufacturers to
support DAB+ -- the internationally-agreed
replacement for the BBC's antiquated DAB.
All this will also, of course, show up the abject failure of the Digital Radio
Working Group, of Lord Carter's awful interim report on Digital Britain, and of
the gutless regulators at Ofcom both to support internet radio streaming and to
put the UK on a sound course for the move to DAB+.
DAB+, which uses AAC, will enable broadcasters both to
increase audio quality and, by reducing bit-rate requirements, reduce the cost
of DAB broadcasting, which currently seems to be bleeding independent
radio operators to death.
* You can read Steve Green's Complaint to BBC about the bit rate reduction on
the on-demand Internet radio streams, which was filed before the latest
announcement. It provides an overview of the technology, and raises some
questions that the taxpayer-funded BBC should answer openly and honestly.
Previous
Blog home
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
And that’s another month on the Net.
73’s, Martin
Weather
observations at 1:00 PM CST:
Call
Site Name Site Location
Freq Power
WXK73 Houghton,
MI Painesdale
162.400 1000
WNG630
Finland, MN Lake
County 162.425 300
KXI43
Grand Marais, MN Bogus Lake 162.450
300
KZZ79
Spooner, WI Webster 162.475
1000
KXI44
Ely, MN
Ely 162.500
300
KZZ78
Ashland, WI Ashland 162.525 1000
KIG64
Duluth, MN
Arnold 162.550 1000
When
I started my career with UPS I made deliveries once in a while to MAFOR station
WAS in Duluth, MN. Very interesting place.
Of the six Great Lakes MAFOR stations, only Chicago, IL, Port Washington, WI & Lorain, OH broadcast during the winter. The others signed on every spring when shipping started.
WX
'DX' from the road.
On
1 Feb 09 from Chattanooga, TN. (Incidentally, do NOT stay at the Town &
Country Inn in Chattanooga. What a DUMP! I booked it through hotels.com.
I took one look at the room, got back in the car and went looking for some place
else. Even though it was paid in advance, no way I was staying there. Bad part
of town, ancient room in disrepair, more mildew than tile in the bathroom. Nasty
place. The Comfort Inn, on the other hand, was quite nice and was only $10 more
than what hotels.com
charged me for the other dump.)
WXK48
Chattanooga, TN
WWF44
Henagar, AL
There
were a couple others but I couldn't get IDs on them.
On
2 Feb 09 from a rest stop near Mt. Vernon, IL.
KXI46
Shelbyville, IL
KXI79
Hillsboro, IL
KXI48
Newton, IL
KXI49
Salem, IL
On
2 Feb 09 on the road near Champaign, IL
WXJ76
Champaign, IL
KXI47
Paris, IL
On
2 Feb 09 on the road near Campus, IL (population 145)
WXK24
Odell, IL
KXI86
Crescent City, IL
KZZ58
Kankakee, IL
KZZ81
Lockport, IL
On
3 Feb 09 from Aurora, IL
KWO39
Chicago, IL
KXI58
Plano, IL
KZZ81
Lockport, IL
WXK24
Odell, IL
KXI41
Crystal Lake, IL
KZZ57
Rockford, IL
KZZ58
Kankakee, IL
2/8
Hey guys sorry i been so busy latey with getting my
disablety info in order
but i just took my new toy my NEW
midland weahter radio for her first dxing sessen
all times in CST
12:16 162.400 WXK-61 Cookeville TN.
Reg WX roundup ID "W X K 61 LOCATED IN PUTNAM CO "
12:18 162.450 WNG-629 Spencer, TN
"and now the forecast for speacer Pikeville......"
12:20 162.500 WXN-74 Hickman, TN
"located in Smith CO"
trying to get all the locels logged. hopeing
the band opens up soon
** OKLAHOMA. OKLAHOMA TV STATIONS PREPARING FOR DIGITAL SWITCH
By The Associated Press Published:
February 5, 2009
http://www.newsok.com/oklahoma-tv-stations-preparing-for-digital-switch/article/3343506
Despite congressional action allowing a four-month delay in the
switch to digital-only television, stations in Oklahoma City and Lawton plan to
make the changeover as scheduled on Feb. 17.
The situation in Tulsa is less clear.
Officials with Oklahoma City stations KFOR, KWTV, KOCO, KOKH and
OETA and Lawton station KSWO said the switch from analog to digital signals will
proceed without change.
"Everything's done, we've notified everybody, we've run the
ads at our expense that the government required us to," KWTV general
manager Rob Krier said.
"They told us a year ago, or two or three, and we've been
going full steam ahead to get ready for this and for them to come out a week
before, two weeks before, that's even not fair."
The U.S. House voted 264-158 Wednesday to postpone the switch to
digital until June 12. The Senate previously approved the bill unanimously and
President Barack Obama has said he will sign it.
The Obama administration and Democrats in Congress maintain that
the previous administration mismanaged efforts to ensure that all consumers —
particularly poor, rural and minority Americans — will be prepared for the
switchover.
People who subscribe to cable or satellite TV or have a newer TV
with a digital tuner will not be affected. Those with older televisions
receiving their signal via antenna will need a converter box to continue to get
reception. A government program providing coupons to defray the costs of
converters has hit its funding limit.
Krier said, though, that tests in which the station briefly
switched to a digital-only signal, leaving analog TVs with no signal, went well
and there were few complaints from viewers, leading him to believe most are
ready for the change.
One Oklahoma City station, KSBI, said it plans to continue
broadcasting both analog and digital signals.
"We are fortunate in that we will be able to continue to
operate both in analog and digital through the new cutoff date," Brady
Brus, president of Family Broadcasting Group, Inc., said in a statement.
"It will be operations as normal for us through June 12."
[KSBI = analog 52, digital 51 in OKC, but what about their
statewide analog translator network, even into Kansas? -- gh]
In Lawton, KSWO general manager Larry Patton said viewers have had
plenty of time to prepare.
"They've had two years to get ready is our feeling," he
said. "We feel there's always going to be a few people who are going to
wake up on the morning of Feb. 17, or June 17, or whenever it is, and not be
ready.
"We're willing to get it done."
David Griffin, president and chief executive officer of Griffin
Communications, which owns both KWTV in Oklahoma City and KOTV in Tulsa, said he
has filed a request to switch both stations to digital transmission on Feb. 17.
But he also said he reserves the right to rescind that request for
one or both stations if other broadcast outlets do not convert or if there are
signal interference problems.
Steve Foerster, vice president of corporate development for
Griffin, said stations could interfere with each other's signal if some move to
digital only while others continue with an analog broadcast.
"If we could get all stations in both markets to convert, we
believe that would be in the best interest of the public."
Michael Vrabac, vice president and general manager of Tulsa television station KJRH, said stations in that market haven't finalized a date to make the switch (via DXLD)
** OKLAHOMA. KFOR-TV, channel 4/DT 27 in OKC, which has been
pushing Feb 17 as their DTV switch date, has chickened out. Mentioned in passing
on the noon news Feb 9 was that KFOR is postponing turning off analog, but they
went ahead and did another `test` with a You`re-Not-Ready slate appearing on
analog, but not on digital.
As he pulled cables on an old-fashioned patch panel --- just
pretending? --- the chief engineer on the news admitted there were other
stations in the market going ahead Feb 17. Their website http://www.kfor.com still shows a countdown to
the second to Feb 17! And I don`t find anything there to contradict it.
A few days ago, KOCO-5/DT-7 announced it would keep analog on after
all. This was apparently a corporate-level Hearst-Argyle decision. Keeping
analog 5 on doesn`t really impact any other stations around here.
KWTV-9/DT-39/permanent DT 9, had been running a crawler much of the
time, affirming Feb 17, seen earlier the morning of Feb 9, but not when I
checked around 1830 UT. Their website http://www.news9.com
also has a countdown to Feb 17 in the lower right corner, but I can`t find
anything specific there on the local OKC or KWTV situation. Ah, at 1900 UT, the
crawler came back saying they would turn off analog Feb 17 at 1:00 pm (1900 UT
--- same time as OETA; is 1 pm mandated as the exact time for all stations to do
it, if they are doing it?)
AFAIK, KETA-13/DT 32/permanent DT 13 is not delaying, but I don`t
find any unequivocal info any longer on their website http://www.oeta.tv This is the only one that
really matters here in Enid, as their DT 32 is blocked and we can`t wait to get
OKLA 13.2.
I
haven`t even tried to find out what`s going on at analogs 14, 25, 34, 43 and 62.
52 already said they were delaying. Maybe everyone will FINALLY make up their
mind once Pres. Obama signs the delay bill and the FCC filing date is past? What
a circus
1530 UT during Regis & whatshername, KWTV-9 analog signal
noticeably weaker than usual, snowy. Probably running old backup transmitter one
last time in preparation for turning on the full-power DTV-9 for the first time
instead of 39. KETA-13 seemed same as usual.
At 1900 UT, the analog KETA-13 cut off the air just as a program
was starting, and a few seconds later analog KWTV-9. Within 5 minutes they were
both back on in DTV. I have two main rooftop antennas. The higher UHF-only one,
as presently aimed, gets a slightly stronger signal from KETA on 13 than does
the lower and lower-gain VHF/UHF antenna! Perhaps with a little tweaking both
will stay locked in on 13. I was also getting KWTV-DT-39, which just turned off,
better than I am getting KWTV-DT-9. But maybe not fully powered up just yet.
Shortly after 1900 UT, KAUT-43 analog also vanished, after playing
back a general DTV transition report as had been on its primary station KFOR-TV,
which is delaying.
KOKH-25 and jointly owned KOCB-34, kept running crawlers that they
would cease analog on Feb 17, but obviously not at the same hour as the others;
still on and crawling at 2019 UT. KOCB-34 has been chosen as the `nightlight`
station in the market. Both stations` websites are totally unhelpful about
exactly what they are doing and when.
[Later:] I was watching these two at midnight, UT Feb 18 0600; at
0601 they both started playing a NAB-produced nightlight show starting with
``this channel is no longer broadcasting in analog…`` Lots of info in there
conveyed as simply as possible, but a BIG error: claimed rabbit ears only pick
up VHF channels! About 9 minutes long, alternating with same in Spanish --- will
these loop for the next 4 months, or 1???
Promo on OKLA (KETA-13.2) at 1928 UT finally addressed the issue of
what happens with their translators? Showed a map of them along the N/NW border,
and the S border, said they would remain analog through 2009, [not merely thru
June 12] and then change to digital.
Another promo had Mark Norman, tech dir., saying that viewers need
to rescan their converters on Feb 18! And do without OETA for a semi-day? He
also recommended that everyone rescan converters or DTVs once a month to be sure
they are getting all available stations. I have news for those urged to use this
technique: The scan will miss some weaker signals at that moment, which you may
want to have on the menu when they come in a bit stronger. Why not once a
sesquiweek? What`s sacred about a month in this mess?
Another report on the 0030 UT Feb 18 news said that while KOED-11
and KETA-13 had gone digital only in the metros, the other two full-power relays
KOET-3 Eufaula and KWET-12 Cheyenne would continue analog as well as digital,
for the greater benefit of rural areas.
KSBI 52/D51 runs a crawl that not only are they keeping analog on
until June 12, but from Feb 20 they are moving from Cox Cable channel 9 in OKC
to channel 15 --- for sesquiyears their occupancy of cable 9 has been a big
problem, due to bleed-thru from full-power analog off-the-air KWTV. Now with
KWTV DT on 9 the situation must have become intolerable. I wonder who loses C15
as a result? The station originally on Cox Cable 7, KFOR, I think, had the same
problem when KOCO started DT-7, so it also got a new cable channel
During
the latest OKC tornado, I wasn`t sure which FM station KFOR-4 was partnering
with, but in a promo seen Feb 17, it`s Clear Channel`s KTST 101.9, what else?
``The Twister``. Presumably other CC OKC stations will be added with KFOR
soundtrack if it gets really bad
After doing some antenna adjustments on the roof, to optimize local
DTV, I come down and find Es in channel 2, Feb 19 at 2235 UT. Really off-season
in February! Women`s variety program in Spanish, color included. Bug in upper
right looks like Tele/Ven (on two lines) or Tele/Ver. Typical signal from
Mexico, however, rather than Venezuela. Clearer look at bug and it is Tele/Ver,
so channel 2, Veracruz. Lots of local ads, promos followed, ``orgullosamente
TeleVer``, Carnaval de Veracruz, etc.
Ah,
what a pleasure to see the dynamic fading of analog TV from abroad, which too
soon we shall be deprived of at home; the whine of video offset interference. At
2245 UT in better; 2247, signs of signals and CCI on 3 and 4 minus matching
KFOR, still analog.
** MEXICO [and non]. After doing some antenna adjustments on the
roof, to optimize local DTV, I come down and find Es in channel 2, Feb 19 at
2235 UT. Really off-season in February! Women`s variety program in Spanish,
color included. Bug in upper right looks like Tele/Ven (on two lines) or
Tele/Ver. Typical signal from Mexico, however, rather than Venezuela. Clearer
look at bug and it is Tele/Ver, so channel 2, Veracruz. Third line in fine print
below it may be callsign. Lots of local ads, promos followed, ``orgullosamente
TeleVer``, Carnaval de Veracruz, etc. Logo can be seen here: http://www.telever.com.mx/
Ah, what a pleasure to see the dynamic fading of analog TV from
abroad, which too soon we shall be deprived of at home; the whine of video
offset interference. At 2245 UT in better; 2247, signs of signals and CCI on 3
and 4 minus matching KFOR, still analog. After 2300 ch 2 was in a drama or movie
which appeared to be black and white, tho maybe the color burst frequency was
QRMed or just above MUF. By 2342 there was channel 5z CCI, and by 2355 video and
audio in Spanish on channel 6.
We had some area tropo enhancement the morning of Feb 10, and with
the UHF antenna pointed SE, rather than SSE directly toward OKC, in order to
favor Tulsa a bit which is N of ESE, the best DTV signal from there, and the
only one with a solid lock, was KJRH-DT-56, but could not get enough signal from
KOTV-DT-55.
On adjacent channels, gain of receiving antenna is surely not to
blame. Same situation has been noted previously, leading one to believe KOTV-DT
is running much less power than KJRH, even tho from exactly the same coordinates
(and therefore tower), as per http://www.w9wi.com/dtvch/dtvch-ok.html
But that listing shows the DTV power for KOTV as 840 kW, and for
KJRH as only 18.2 kW! Not made clear, but I guess these powers refer to the
ultimate DTV channel, rather than the temporary one. KJRH will be on VHF 8,
while KOTV will stay on UHF 55. And that means KJRH cannot fire up DTV on 8
until KTUL fires down analog on 8 (its temp and permanent DTV being 10). I fail
to see the rationale of Channel 2 moving permanently to 8, the channel of one of
its longtime rivals. Of course if everybody adhered to the same date, it would
all work out neatly in the end. But that plan has been ruined.
The NEW W9WI site with complete listings http://www.w9wi.com/newweb/states/OK.html
shows KOTV-DT-55 with STA of only 300 kW instead of licensed 970
kW, while KJRH-DT-56 is 800 kW
BobSmith007, (2/6/2009 8:34:14 AM): What's up with KTUL. Their
digital signal basically doesn't work and they are always guarded about
comments. I know they are on the VHS side and the signal is different than
everyone else`s, but they seem unwilling to acknowledge they have a big problem.
Whirled Peas, (2/6/2009 9:44:51 AM): KTUL's digital signal is
reduced because the channel they are temporarily using is also being used by
another station in Kansas [KAKE 10 Wichita], so they weren`t expected to be up
to full power till Feb. 17.
Now if that other station delays its move, KTUL is screwed and has
to keep transmitting its weak signal. KTUL's viewers also include a lot of
poorer rural folks who may be among the last to get converters, antennas, a new
TV or switch to satellite, so that's another problem for them (Tulsa World forum
via DXLD)
The tornado outbreak across northern Oklahoma City the afternoon of
Feb 10, and the consequent wall-to-wall coverage of the emergency by OKC TV
stations led me to monitor closely what was happening on their analog and
digital channels. Fortunately, Enid only got a brief thunderstorm and a bit of
rain at the edge of the axion.
At 2049 UT, KFOR-DT-27, KOCO-DT-7, and KWTV-DT-39 all lost their
DTV transmissions. Nothing received off the air, while Suddenlink cable in Enid,
which picks them up off the air somewhere and converts them to SD, displayed
freeze-frames of the last bit of video received.
KOCO-DT-7 was back shortly as received on antenna, but KFOR-DT-27
was not back until 2057 UT, and KWTV-DT-39 not until 2058 UT. These were
critical minutes as the tornado was touching down in heavily populated NW OKC.
Guess what: their analog channels which I get off my antenna as
well as I have for sesquidecades, continued without interruption! I could still
get KFOR-4, KOCO-5 and KWTV-9 just fine.
Suddenlink was not so quick to recover; it lost KWTV-39/9 again
from 2102 to 2108, and KOCO-7/5 was often without audio, and/or locking up,
while at the very same time I confirmed I was getting audio and video fine on my
antenna, via KOCO-DT-7. This was still happening as late as 2345 UT when the
worst of the storms had long passed.
At some point both KFOR and KOCO started duplicating their main
channel continuous weather coverage on their weather subchannels 4.2 and 5.2. At
first it was ludicrous to see them going on with their usual loops of highly
irrelevant weather info recorded earlier.
Since people were being urged to take cover underground, the TV
stations also promoted relays by FM stations, the Citadel cluster in the case of
KOCO, and Renda in the case of KFOR (or was it KWTV?). That leaves Clear Channel
for the other one, but not confirmed.
KFOR was the only station with live chopper video of the big
tornado as it swept across NW OKC and into Edmond, doing lots of damage.
KOKH-25/DT 24, and KSBI-52/DT 51 were also doing continuous tornado coverage,
but I can only monitor so many stations at once.
THE LESSON HERE IS, getting back to the DTV outages above: analog
is more robust, for whatever reason, when there are high winds and/or power
outages. The tornado track was a few miles away from the NE OKC antenna farm and
studios of the big 3 stations. Not only cannot people receive DTV on
battery-portables, but the DTV stations are liable to be interrupted in such
situations.
Hey, another very good reason for them all to put off the
transitions until June 12, toward the end one more year`s tornado season, but
which got a very early start this year.
KWTV remains the one committed to turning off analog Feb 17, but
they may be having second thoughts
2/18
Only WLJT channel 11, PBS, from
Lexington, TN noted off air in analog.
WBBJ channel 7, ABC, from
Jackson,TN and W18BL channel 18, Unity
Broadcasting Network, in Adamsville, TN observed in analog.
2/15
In central Texas, four of the five full power stations will close
analog at midnight Tuesday.
KCEN will continue analog 6 with emergency and news programming
only. The other stations will contribute money to fund the power costs.
This seems like a good choice since analog 6 is audible on FM
radios and they probably have the lowest power cost since they're only running
100kw.
Three of the other stations in the market are UHF. The one hi VHF
(KWTX analog 10) is moving to UHF.
KCEN is staying on their digital channel 9. There will be no low VHF stations in the market after analog 6 goes dark.
Polskie Radio
Shortwave Broadcasts Use DRM
03.05.2009
Media
Broadcast, a German company that installs and operates transmission platforms,
has begun transmitting digital broadcasts for Polskie Radio via shortwave and is
using the Digital Radio Mondiale standard for the service to European listeners.
"The
introduction of DRM is considered a renaissance for shortwave radio," Media
Broadcast said in the announcement. "The Polskie Radio broadcasts can be
heard with DRM throughout Europe in considerably better sound quality."
A
member of the TDF-Group, which operates shared facilities and terrestrial
networks in Europe, Media Broadcast launched the service in December. An
English-language program is broadcast on 6015 kHz from 6 p.m. to 6:59 p.m. UTC;
a German program is broadcast on 3975 kHz from 8:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. UTC.
Media
Broadcast has transmission facilities in Nauen and Wertachtal, operating at up
to 500 kW. Here's how it promotes DRM on its Web
site: "Thanks to the introduction of the Digital Radio Mondiale
technical standard, the shortwave market is undergoing a structural change.
Digital shortwave opens up new possibilities for data transmission. Users can
supply their listeners with information that both accompanies and is independent
of program content as well as data services and multimedia applications. This
gives rise to new formats and additional marketing possibilities."
The
TDF-Group is part of the Digital Radio Mondiale Consortium.
http://www.rwonline.com/article/75708
No
bargains this month
Hello
all
Just
wanted to send a note about the new Antennacraft FM-6 that I now have. I
recently purchased it and it’s been sitting at my shop for about a month.
Only because it’s winter and it’s hard to want to go outside in the cold and
mess with stuff like mounting and coax lines and the like. Well yesterday
it was a sunny day and highs actually climbed above freezing and I decided I was
going to go for it. I had everything I needed for the job with the
exception of a piece of aluminum mast for the antenna. Hopped on the
computer to see if our local radio shack was open on Sunday. Turns out
they’re not. However I found out that Home Depot had 5’ mast pieces
for $7.84. So grabbed the 2 boys and hopped in the car and made a 45
minute trip to Park City, UT to Home Depot to grab the mast. It ended up
being about 4:30pm by the time I got started on the project. The sun went
down on me and I kept working. By that point I was just running the coax
to the two places I wanted it to be. From the antenna the line goes to a
splitter inside an old (no longer used) box on the corner of the house that the
cable company used to use years ago. Inside there I have a 2-way splitter
mounted with one line going to the receiver in the bedroom – a small bookshelf
type receiver – nothing special no major name-brand. The other line
continues along the outside of the house over to the living room. This one
was the bear of the project as it was about a 40 foot run on the back side of
the house where the sun never hits so I was trompling through snow banks about 3
feet deep to put the clips that hold the cable in place. Want to say it
was about 8 pm when I got done with the outside work so that I could go inside
and defrost. In the living room there is a Marantz system with separate
amp and tuner. I also was pondering putting my Accurian HD radio there in
the living room too since supposedly with a roof antenna I’d be able to get
some HD. Therefore the line in the living room gets split again and one
line goes to the Marantz tuner and the other to the Accurian. Upon first
impressions I was quite impressed as the FM-6 pullled in most of the stations I
had hoped for – most in the Salt Lake City market. The antenna is aimed
to the southwest pointing toward Salt Lake City’s Farnsworth Peak. Of
course our local KNYN-FM-Magic 99 (the station I work for) comes in loud and
clear, as do all of the Humpy Peak stations. For those who don’t know,
Humpy Peak is a peak about 35 miles to the south of Evanston where they bury
transmitters and put boosters on the air in the Salt Lake market for those
stations. There are 6 stations up there now and still more to come.
Those all come in flawlessly even though they’re shielded by hills and
mountains between here and there. For that matter there’s about 60 miles
of nothing but mountains between here and Salt Lake so the signals don’t make
it into Evanston well at all. The FM-6 pulls them over the mountains and
right in to the radios. Was hoping some signals would sneak into the back
side of the antenna and be able to be pulled in as well – such as signals from
the east. However, that’s not the case. Especially when there is a
mountain in the way. Up here at the radio stations were up on a hill so we
have signals coming in both sides of the antenna but we’re considerably higher
in elevation. At home it is where it’s pointed. I can pick up just
about all the stations that are on Farnsworth peak and mount Vision. All
the ones with major power. There is one or two that aren’t at higher
power like most of the others (92.5 KUUU West Jordan comes to mind) that don’t
come in as well. I can get KUUU but not as clear – it’s dirty and
won’t pop in to stereo. Now then….the HD. Yes! Well yes
and no. With the coax line split outside and then split again for the two
receivers here in the living room, I can get stations but don’t get any HD
encoding. Just not quite enough signal. Took the one splitter off
and connected directly to the incoming line – then the HDs started to appear.
So I noted signal loss being a problem because of that 2nd splitter. Against
Kevin’s advice I went ahead and put in a signal amp. It is a 12db amp
that I had on-hand already so I didn’t have to buy anything. Figured it
was worth the shot. That helped and even on the analog Marantz tuner it
really helps out a lot. Pulls several stations right out of the mud and
even brings in the stations up in Kemmerer (2 FMs there) from the back side of
the antenna. Plus the Marantz tuner ain’t the greatest when it comes to
reception. Honestly it’s probably about as deaf as the Accurian. I
went ahead and put the amp on the incoming line and then put in the splitter.
Now I can get some HD. I noted that the last time I was in Salt Lake City
with the Accurian in the car (and it shows because the accurian remembers where
they HD-2 channels were before) I picked up HD-2 and HD-3 on KUER 90.1 from the
university of Utah. Last night I couldn’t pick up any HD. Of
course it’s always possible that their HD is off right now for some reason or
another. I get HD decoding and HD sound on 97.1 KZHT (chr) plus their HD-2
channel (Americana?). Next HD is KTMY (My 99.5) – a hot AC station that
I actually enjoy listening to. Their HD-2 channel is all jazz. Also
pick up HD on KSFI 100.3 (ac) plus their HD-2 channel (Soft Sunday sounds –
LDS music). KSL 102.7 (simulcast with KSL-AM – news/talk) comes in just
great with their HD-2 channel – KSL News Now. That’s a neat little
channel as it is all local news and weather forecasts. The other I get in
HD is KOSY 106.5 (ac) along with their HD-2 – which I think is all 80s.
Just for kicks I decided to disconnect the splitter and come right into the
Accurian directly off the amp. Even better!! I got decoding on KODJ
94.1 even though their signal seems to be crappier than the others – not sure
why or if they’re on lower power these days but it was a dirty signal in
analog then the HD would pop in and clean right up and sound great. Their
HD-2 would come in too – I want to say it was a simulcast of 570 KNRS.
Meanwhile with the amp, add KBER 101.1 (rock) to the HD list – their HD pops
on and their HD-2 channel comes on as well – 50s 60s oldies I think is on
their HD-2 channel. I should have wrote these down but was to involved in
the excitement of seeing all these things popping in. Another that came in
when being connected directly to the amp was KRSP 103.5 (Arrow 103.5) and their
HD-2 channel. Before the format change, 105.7 (another CCU station) had
HD. They WERE “My Country 105.7” and I think simulcasted KNRS 570 on
their HD-2 channel. Here within the last week they dropped the country and
are doing Spanish. La Preciosa. No HD now as far as I can tell.
Then too it may just be one that I’m not picking up. Finally
I went ahead and put the splitter back in so that I could hook both receivers
up. Not as many HD signals but probably not many of those that I’d
listen to anyway. The ones I WILL (and my wife will) listen to, I can get
with the splitter. I am considering bumping the splitter up a notch –
the ones they sell at Wal-Mart now are 18db instead of 12db so that’s 6 more
db of signal and that just might do the trick better than that 12 db amp as far
as bringing in more HD. I know I was warned that amps bring in lots of
noise. I’m just not seeing it. I’m seeing great results with an
amp and as far as HD signal reliability it’s wonderful. Without the amp
I’d get zero HD and have several stations that I wouldn’t be able to get at
all. I think before I get the amp I may try a little tweaking with the
antenna too. I eye-balled it when I mounted it. It’s entirely
possible that a slight turn to the left or right could improve signal quality
even more.
I knew
this would be a long-winded message but I figured many of you would find it
interesting.
Thank you to all who helped me out with this project and recommended the FM-6. It’s a great antenna!
No tests this month
No FCC Release This Month
No
Satellite this month.
ABDX
consists of:
Editor/List
Owner: Kevin Redding
Webmaster:
Michael J. Richard
Moderators:
Phil Rafuse
Powell E. Way III
LW
Editor: Jay Heyl
NBN
Editor: Martin Foltz
And
204 of the greatest DXing contributors on earth!
Please pass the ABDX Journal to all the DXers you
know. The dues are free and all we would like to do is see you contribute your
logs on occasion.
To join the DXers at ABDX either go to this URL:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ABDX/
Or email dc2daylight at gmail.com