May 2008 ABDX Journal

Vol 3. Issue 5

Editors Corner:

ABDX membership is stable at 183 members. I have been exceptionally busy and in the middle of a move from Arizona to Tennessee. This is the reason for the extreme lateness of this issue. Hopefully my life will get back on track and things will get back to normal.

Congrats to Scott Fybush on the arrival of his new child. We all congratulate him and his wife on the new Dxer.

TV and FM DX is beginning to pick up since we are beginning to see a few tropo logs . It’s also the last year for analog TV DX. See what you can get in this final year. Those of us who have DTV are seeing that those TV digital signals travel a long way.  AM and HF DX is suffering from “crunchnicity” from spring lightning storms. Give FM and TV DX a shot.

We enjoy seeing our members who have made it to the “Hall of Fame” for those of us with faces for radio! If you are a member and want to be in the Rogues Gallery, send your pix to webmaster@americanbroadcastdx.com. We would love to see you in the gallery.

Only submissions from ABDX members will be accepted unless the editor decides the information is so important that it should be added. This will probably be very rare, Should you receive this and you are not a member, go to this URL and tell us a little about yourself and we will consider you for membership.

This is the site to join ABDX.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ABDX/

To join ABDX by mail here’s where to send the mail:

ABDX-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

The ABDX website URL is:

www.americanbroadcastdx.com    or www.abdx.org

The ABDX CME Journal is available to all at no cost. Please pass it around to your DXing friends and also post it on other lists as well. We want as many as possible to see the Journal so we can grow the DX hobby. Please do your part to keep our hobby viable.

You can get your copy of the journal at www.abdx.org

The May CME Announcement

Here we go with May's CME.

AM, FM, TV one station on each frequency or channel.

SW one station on the 120, 90,75, 60, 49, 41, 312, 25, 21, 19, 16, 13

and 11 meter bands.

LW 5 nondirectional beacons or broadcast stations.

Anyone who does all this can go to the gas station or convenience

store and pay a dollar for his Powerball ticket or a years free dues

in ABDX.

We will certainly accept logs on any frequency and satellite logs as

well.

The June CME Announcement

Kevin

Kevin Redding, Phil Rafuse, Powell Way, Mike Richard, Jay Heyl and Martin Foltz the ABDX crew.

The Broadcast Band

Paul Walker – Abbeville, SC

Zenith Royal 705

5/19

At 8:21, I heard a song ending followed by female on air personality chattering away for minute, then a break followed by a male saying, "This hours weather is a public service of WMLT". 

The station is 5000 Watts Day non Directional and 500 Watts Night, 2 towers  SE of Macon and Northwest of Vidalia.

I beleive they are an affiliate of Sheridan Music Netowrk's "The Light" format which also used to be on 1570 in Morrow, GA

JUST before 8pm, I heard the close of The Performance Racing Network's 1 hour live talk show "Fast Talk" with the announcer reading the credits and copy right information followed by WLXN's Legal ID and a mention of a CNN news update coming next.

5/20

Around 3:33am, I just heard an ad for "The Tireman" buried in the mud and then a mention of "NewsTalk 1370 WSPD" after the commercial, going into a program. 

I've also got a sports station that seems to be dominant on 1370Khz. It will fade down in the mud but still be barely intelligable... and other times it's about a 6 out of 10 signal wise. I heard several mentions of Colin Cowheard and Espn radio. I'm presuming this to be Bahakel Communications WDEF-AM 1370 Chattanooga, TN. 

I have not actually heard an *LOCAL* ID from the ESPN Station, but WLOP Jesup, GA's own website lists them as a FOx Sports Radio Affiliate and wikipedia.org lists WDEF-AM as ESPN Radio. 

WPSD is 5KW Day, Non Directional and 5 KW Nights, with a 3 tower North/Southeastern Pattern. WDEF is 5KW Day Non Directional and 5KW with a 4 tower Southeast pattern.

5/21

They [WXRA] are BLASTING in to Abbeville and Silverstreet/Newberry, South Carolina. Most definately on their 10KW/3 tower SE facing DAY pattern instead of their 48W/3 tower SE facing night pattern.
 
Slogan is "Groovin 1580, Old School Hits" They play Oldies, Motown and Urban Hits. A phone num,ber announced as a listener line is (859) 280-1580. The signal is SO strong that even if I leave WABV's Gates BC1-H exciter on, I can STILL here them! (Note: WABV is on 1590! Thats how strong they are!)

5/22

8pm, an ID for La Favorita heard on 1460khz. This would be WXEM Buford, GA which is SE of Gainesville, GA 

At 8:03pm, I heard a weather forecast on 1350Khz from WNNG Warner Robbins, GA fighting with semi local WLMA 1350. 

At 8:34pm, I heard a promo liner, "Your station for news......(unintelligable garble in the mud).... Alabama's Big Talker.....1070 W......". This would be WAPI BirminghamI also heard an ID for WFLI Lookout Mountain/Chattanooga under WAPI.

Powell E. Way III – Silverstreet, SC

Sony SRF-39

Poof and it's gone loggings: 1200

Poof and it's gone loggings

With the new SRF-39 prison radio, on the late evening dog walk:

1200 only

1200 WJES SC Saluda music and poooof!!! Gone at

817....revealing...

1200 WXIT NC Blowing Rock, running Boortz then sign

off at 8:30 PM then pooooff gone.... revealing:

1200 WAMB TN Standards with promo for

their AM translator @8:31 PM

1330 WMLT GA Dublin.... Good in Silverstreet AND Abbeville, SC ... break with weather ..... heard on a DX-398 2021 05/19/08

Jay Heyl – Orlando, FL

ICF-S5W

5/20

Last night I quite clearly was getting significant IBOC hash on the

low side of 700. WLW-700 in Cincinnati was booming in, so I suspect it

was the source. WLW is a mere 750 miles away. The IBOC hash totally

obliterated 690 and seriously degraded reception on 680. I did not

detect any effects of it on the high side of 700, perhaps because

there's a 50kW on 710 out of Miami.

Norbert Ansay – Warwick, RI

Grundig Mini 300

Heard out in the yard at 1:00 PM EDT (high noon sun time) 4/30/08 on grundig mini 300 Warwick RI. The ground was nice and soaked from rain the previous day. Note GW channels packed.

540- sounded like somebody testing IBOC hash later disappeared

550- WDZZ pawtucket RI

560- see 540

570- WMCA NY NY

580- boston

590- boson - worcestor

630- WPRO local

650- boston

660- WFAN NY NY very good signal

680- WRKO Boston

710- WOR NY NY good signal

740- mass very poor signal

760- mass good signal

770- unable to hear WABC in spite of other NY blow torches with good signal

780- 790 splatter

790- local running TRUE OLDIES network nice to hear music on AM !!!!

800- 790 splatter

810- 790 splatter

820- NY fair signal

830- worestor vry good signal

850- boston

880- WCBS NY NY very good signal

890- Boston fair signal

910- WHJJ IBOC

920- WHJJ Local

930- WHJJ IBOC

940- More WHJJ IBOC

950- Boston

970- UNIDED

990- Local

1010- WINS NY NY Very good signal (best ever heard at high noon)

1020- WBZ IBOC

1030- WBZ Boston

1040- WBZ IBOC

1050- WEPN NY NY Very good signal

1060- WBIX Boston

1080- WTIC Hartford CT poor signal

1090- WILD boston mass good signal with a little 1110 slop . in spite of slop best ever heard at noon hour.

1110- Local slopper

1130- WBBR NY NY being bombarded with slop from 1110

1140- more 1110 slop

1150- UNIDED poor signal

1160- UNIDED poor signal

1170- Mass fairly good signal

1180- hope vally RI fair signal

1190- WLIB NY NY good signal

1200- Boston ??? good signal

1220- Local

1240- Woosocket RI weak signal

1260- Boston radio disney very good signal best ever heard

1280- 1290 IBOC

1290- NPR Local

1300- 1290 IBOC / W somebody under it. Poor signal in hash .

1310- UNIDED fair signal

1320- Mass semi local

1330- UNIDED

1340- New bedford

1350- UNIDED

1360- UNIDED

1370- UNIDED

1380- UNIDED

1390- UNIDED

1400- Mass fall river

1420- mass ???

1430- UNIDED

1440- UNIDED

1450- WLKW local

1460- Mass

1470- UNIDED

1480- Semi local

1490- 1480 splatter w/ someon under

1500- presumed CT with religion. weak signa

1510- Boston

1520- Presumed worcestor w poor signal

1530- Mass god signal

1540- Newport RI

1550- Mass ???? good signal

1560- Presumed WQEW NY NY poor signal

1570- Mass W 1590 slop

1580- 1590 slop

1590- LOCAL PEST

1600- 1590 slop

1630- RI TIS

1660- UNIDED 

5/4

Heard on newly arrived Eton E100 ultralight from warwick R.I..

1270 WTSN Dover NH 8:50 PM EDT ad block mentioning NH phone

number followed by calls given and said something close to 1270 AM serving the seacoast. Strong signal 5/3/08

5/11

who is running fox sports on 1200 AM. started DX session at 4:05 AM Sunday morning. Station dominated channel most of time between 4:05 AM and 5:00 AM when murphys law kicked in for a fade out at ID time. During the fade down i heard a very fuzzy ID that sounded like OI at the end. A google search showed WOAI texas carried fox sports. i then checked the WOAI website for a program shedule i could not verie what they ere running. media player would not stream live. Anybody ??? from warwick RI.

took a ride a few miles down the road to he beach (monday 5/26 around 10:30 AM till about noon) hoping to catch some action on FM since it hit

80. no such luck. Did note 550 WDDZ hashing 540 and 560. returned

home and veried running IBOC.

Current MW IBOC status for R.I. area:

550 WDDZ daytime

630 WPRO OFF

920 WHJJ daytime

1030 WBZ day and night

1290 (PBS) day and night

The graveyards were pretty packed with reginl groundwave signals.

although NOT broadcast noted the 27 MHZ CB band was hot. seemed to have strong skip from R.I. to the south carolina area.

Martin Foltz – Mission Viejo, CA

12-655

5/26

A rare new TIS station log. The last new one was 3 years ago.

1630 UCLA Emergency Advisory System, 5/26/08 5:42 AM PDT, in weak with announcements by a man. At 5:53 XEUT turned on their carrier and I

could still hear the TIS underneath. I'm happy with this one but there

was lots of noise and my recording is poor. I'll try again tomorrow

morning. Only my 8th TIS since 2003. Anyone know the calls? I searched

the FCC site but couldn't find it. I did find info on the station

including an address and email for the guy running it.

Allen Willie – St. Johns, NL

FRG 100  and 100 foot wire/SRF59/M37

Here's my results up to this point  for the May CME with a listing of the AM frequencies and a station logged on each so far. Conditions have been rather dismal with the solar flux in the 60 - 70  range as some frequencies which normally  produce  more distant stations often heard here  have been silent for the most part here this month. I'll send in another email with  any remaining frequencies that I hear between now and end of the month 

540 khz - CBT - Grand Falls, NL  5/14 3:44 UTC w/ CBC programming about a scool accident ; good 

560 khz - CHVO - Spaniard's Bay,NL 5/12 17:29 UTC w/Eagles song, "Great Country 103.9 Kicks FM" ;good 

570 khz - CFCB - Cornerbrook, NL 5/20 4:15 UTC w/ "We Give you the Music  That Keeps You Coming Back  CFCB "ID fair 

590 khz - VOCM - St. John's, NL 5/12 17:33 UTC w/ News/Ad for  Daniel O'Donnell concert/weather with ID; vgood 

620 khz - CKCM - Grand Falls, NL  5/19 3:30 UTC w/ relay of VOCM news ; good 

640 khz - CBN - St. John's, NL 5/12 17:36 UTC w/ letter reading; Cue program reminder;CBC Radio 1 ID; vgood 

650 khz - CKGA - Gander, NL  5/20 3:26 UTC w/ Country music , relay of VOCM ; fair 

710 khz - CKVO - Clarenville, NL 5/19 3:47 UTC w/ Canadian Cancer Society PSA, relay of VOCM ; fair 

720 khz - KNR - Simuitaq, Greenland  5/17 3:53 UTC w/ two men in Greenlandic, songs in unique language; good 

730 khz - CKAC - Montreal, Quebec  5/17 3:55 UTC w/ french talk about the internet ; good

740 khz - CHCM - Marystown, NL 5/17 3:57 UTC  w/ Keith Whitley song, country music ; good 

750 - CBGY - Bonavista, NL 5/14 3:45 UTC w/ CBC Programming about a school accident ; good 

780 khz - CFDR - Dartmouth, Nova Scotia 5/12  1:14 UTC w/ Tom T Hall song, "Great Country,Real Country 780 Kicks"ID good 

800 khz - VOWR - St. John's, NL 5/18  15:49 UTC w/ light music & religious programming ;reading verses ; very good 

880 khz - WCBS - New York, NY 5/19   1:34 UTC w/ Lowes AD, Baseball in progress , fair 

920 khz - CJCH - Halifax, Nova Scotia  5/20  5:12 UTC w/ Everly Brothers song , "In Halifax, The Greatest Oldies of All Time, 920 CJCH " ID , fair 

930 khz - CJYQ - St. John's, Newfoundland 5/12 19:53 UTC w/ Piecemakers website ,"You're listening to Radio Newfoundland", newfoundland music ; vgood 

970 khz - WZAN - Portland, Maine  5/19 4:03 UTC w/ Health Insurance AD/ Drug prescription PSA and 970 WZAN ID ; fair 

990 khz - CBY - Cornerbrook, NL  5/14 3:44 UTC w/ CBC programming about a school accident ; good 

1010 khz - CFRB - Toronto, Ontario 5/19 4:01 UTC w/ News and CFRB ID's ; good 

1030 khz - WBZ -Boston, Mass 5/12 1:24 UTC w/ CG Wight Management promo, ID ; fair 

1050 khz - WEPN - New York, NY 5/20 3:24 UTC w/ Beef PSA, 1050 ESPN New York ID, NBA Game recap ; good 

1080 khz - WTIC - Hartford, Conn 5/14 3:50 UTC w/ talk show and ID, mention of WTIC.com ; fair 

1100 khz - WTAM - Cleveland, Ohio  5/20  3:20 UTC w/ talk show and ID; fair 

1130 khz - WBBR - New York, NY 5/14 3:51 UTC w/ talk about stocks ; good 

1140 khz - CBI - Sydney, NS 5/14 3:44 UTC w/ CBC programming  about a school accident ; good 

1150 khz - CHGM - Gaspe, Quebec  5/19 1:41 UTC w/ french talk and country music ; good 

1190 khz - WLIB - New York, NY   5/19 3:51 UTC w/ Circle Sisters PSA,Power Tax Relief Ad, 11-90 WLIB ID, good 

1210 khz - VOAR -Mt. Pearl, NL 5/12 19:59 UTC w/ "Family Christian Radio VOAR" ID,  My Money  Life program; vgood 

1230 khz - CFLN - Goose Bay , NL  5/20  3:28 UTC w/ country music and relay of VOCM  ; fair 

1240 khz - CKIM - Baie Verte, NL 5/14 2:35 UTC w/ VOCM Realy, Alabama song,VOCM Network ID ; fair 

1260 khz - CKHJ - Fredericton, New Brunswick 5/19 1:31 UTC 

1270 khz - CJCB - Sydney, Nova Scotia 5/14 2:28 UTC w/ CJCB ID More Great country, ticket giveaway promo,Cape Breton weather ; good 

1280 khz - WFAU - Gardner, Maine 5/19 1:39 UTC w/ Sports Talk radio and  basketball, feed from WEEI Boston ; fair 

1310 khz - WLOB - Portland, Maine  5/14 3:54 UTC  w/ E-Harmony AD, medical PSA, WLOB Jingle and ID, talk show ; fair 

1320 khz - WDER - Derry, New Hampshire 5/20   4:19 UTC w/ imspirational song, E harmony  Ad , Stop smoking promo, ID ; fair 

1350 khz - CKAD - Middleton, Nova Scotia 5/14 0:32 UTC w/ "This is AVR'" ID ; country music, Shania Twain song ; fair 

1370 khz - WDEA - Ellsworth, Maine 5/14 2:31 UTC w/ hearing aid promo; program promo "AM-1370 WDEA " ID ; good 

1390 khz - WEGP - Presque Isle, Maine 5/20 3:35 UTC w/ news ,weather and sports;morning talk show promo; good 

1400 khz - CBG - Gander, NL 5/14 0:44 UTC w/ CBC Programming;talk on fuel sources ; good 

1410 khz - WPOP - Hartford, Conn  5/24 2:22 UTC w/ sports talk, baseball scores and summaries ; fair 

1420 khz - CKDY - Digby, Nova Scotia  5/19 3:59 UTC w/ CKDY ID and country music ; fair with fading 

1430 khz - WENE - Endicott, NY 5/19  3:37 UTC w/ Yankees Radio Network ID,basketball scores,good 

1440 khz - WJAE - Portland, Maine 5/19 3:41 UTC w/ Sports report on basketball and hockey, ID , fair 

1450 khz - CFAB - Windsor, Nova Scotia  5/19 3:24 UTC w/ weather, "Today's Best country 1450 CFAB" ID, fair 

1460 khz - CJOY - Guelph, Ontario 5/9 6:04 UTC w/" The Royal City's Greatest Hits, CJOY"ID Billy Joe Royal song ; good 

1470 khz - WLAM - Portland, Maine 5/19 1:30 UTC w/ ESPN Radio Sports ID ; listener phone call from Arizona; good 

1480 khz - WSAR - Falls River, Mass 5/19 3:05 UTC w/weather forecast,mental illness PSA, 1480 WSAR ID , Fox Sport Radio ID , good 

1490 khz - WBAE - Portland, Maine 5/19 3:42 UTC w/"1400 and 1490 The Bay" ID, song by Kingston Trio, fair 

1500 khz - WTWP - Washington DC 5/14 2:42 UTC w/ Taxmasters AD ,Fire insurance promo ; "This is Talk Radio WTWP " ID; good 

1510 khz - WWZN - Boston, Mass 5/19 1:24 UTC w/ American Financial Solutions Ad, Sports talk 15-10 The Zone ID, Genesis Finacial Ad, good 

1520 khz - WWKB - Buffalo, New York 5/19 3:55 UTC w/ "A New Voice, A New Choice"ID, mention of KB , talk , good 

1530 khz - Vatican Radio, Vatican City 5/20  3:18 UTC w/ italian  program ; fair 

1540 khz - CHIN - Toronto, Ontario  5/19 3:56 UTC w/ ethnic programming in Arabic, fading but fair 

1550 khz - CBE - Windsor, Ontario  5/23  3:50 UTC w/ CBC Overnight programming ; fair 

1560 khz  - WQEW - New York, NY 5/14 3:57 UTC w/ Radio Disney WQEW ID, Toys R Us promo, mention of radiodisney.com ; fair 

1570 khz - WNSH, Beverly, Mass 5/13 3:30 UTC w/ Talk Show/Vacation promo,USA Radio News *** NEW ONE ***   # 1192 

1580 khz - CKDO - Oshawa, Ontario 5/14  3:35 UTC w/ Burton Cummings song; "Oldies 107.7 FM 1580 CKDO " ID 

1590 khz - WARV - Warwick, Rhode Island 5/19 3:45 UTC w/ Religious programming ; Jews for Jesus  ; good

Here is part two with some more logs for the CME in the month of May (AM Band) 

Conditions improved a bit but not stellar by any means. 

660 khz - WFAN - New York, NY 5/27 Sports Talk ,ID; fair 

830 khz - WCRN - Worcester, Mass 5/27 3:15 UTC w/ WCRN ID, NBA Basketball ; fair 

850 khz - WEEI - Boston, Mass 5/27 3:28 UTC w/ UPS Ad , Boston Celtics game ; fair 

1000 khz - WMVP - Chicago, Illinois 5/27 3:35 UTC w/ Mention of ESPN Radio, game broadcast ; weak 

1110 khz - WBT - Charlotte, NC 5/27 3:29 UTC w/ News/ Time Check WBT ID ; weak 

1170 khz - WWVA - Wheeling, W Virginia 5/27 3:20 UTC w/ religious program

Phil Rafuse – Stratford, PEI

Drake R8 and LFE M601C or As Listed

5/2

For the last half hour or so, I have been enjoying the funky, hip

music of 1575 Radio Farda, not by something 'easy' like SW, Internet,

satellite or whatever. Nope. Good old AM broadcast MW from U.A.E.

beamed to Iran. Not a bad signal here in PEI on a Drake R8 and

Collins R-390A tag team fed by the LF Engineering M-601C 2 foot long

active antenna remotely located out in the baby barn 22 feet from the

house.

On fades, it drops under the R8's noise floor, but even so it is still quite audible on the R-390A. When it recovers, its strong enough that the R8's synch detector can make it quite pleasant to listen to.

Got several IDs of Radio Farda, so I made up an arrow sticker for my MW DX world map.

Oh yes, I was listening to Radio Sawa 1170 KHz before WWVA took over that frequency. Made up a second arrow sticker for the map.

These are my farthest east IDed MW signals to date. My farthest west MW station for which I have an ID is KRND Fox Farm WY, aka 'La Grande'.

Someday I hope to get 1566 in India.

Heard on a Drake R8 at 11:45 p.m. ADT May 2, 2008:

1670 WTDY Madison WI with Alan Colmes talk show Confirmed by listening online.

NEW!

The NRC DX News claims that 1670 CJEU Gatineau QC is on the air - radio

Enfant. I thought I heard them in March, perhaps with irregular testing, but I could have been mistaken, as the signal was very, very weak. Might have been WVVM, for instance.

Does anyone know if CJEU is, in fact, on the air? I suspect Barry in Ottawa would know for sure? I haven't heard anything myself recently that would make me suspect that they are on the air, just WVVM in GA and now tonight WTDY.

5/7

I tried for 1110 WBT, but no luck last night. Some nights they are strong, other nights they are non-existant.

I did listen to some coverage on 1060 WBIX and 1130 WBBR, both "skywave locals".

Along with the usual sidetrip to 1134 Croatia. Actually, I picked up several TAs on the R-390A last night on the higher frequencies,including recoverable audio on Saudi 1521, Germany 1422 etc. Nothing from the U.A.E. last night e.g. Radio Saba and Radio Farda.

5/8

Quite possibly the first time in the History of PEI???

Radio reception in HD Radio

660 WFAN NYC NY in HD

Yes, the flashing blue LED on the Radiosophy went steady, there was a

second or two delay, suddenly the hockey game went into stereo with

better top end. I pressed the "enter" button on the HD-100 and I got

scrolling info, WFAN 660 HD, New York, pressed enter again and got a

scrolling telephone number.

WFAN stayed in HD for about 10 minutes, then dropped out and back to

analogue. I must say, it did sound good.

Just seconds ago, it did a little dance, X1J or something like that

flashed up, and its back in HD.

5/29

I'm getting a good signal from what I suspect is WTDY 1670 Madison WI.

I don't have an ID yet, but I do have English language sports talk. I also have pop type music in the background - likely WVVM.

A very nice signal on 765 KHz, almost certainly Option Musique from Switzerland, based on the soft AC type format.

Last night, I picked up Greenland on 720 later than I would have suspected. Or, at least I'm pretty sure it was Greenland, based on the language. This time it was a nice strong signal - that helps!

All this heard on a Kenwood R-2000 fed by the LF Engineering M-601C antenna. I really like the R-2000 - outstanding audio, super easy to use, great sensitivity. My new favourite bandcruiser.

1422 KHz playing classical music - I suspect Germany

1566 KHz spoken word programming in what sounds to me to be English,

interwoven with some music programming. The signal is very weak,

rising upon occassion enough to hear two or three words clearly.

5/30

This morning at 10:00 a.m., 92 CJCH Halifax NS's oldies station became 101.3 The Bounce a youth-oriented Top 40 station to compliment its pop/light rock sister station, the legendary CIOO on 100.1. CIOO was the station that demonstrated, back in the 1970s, that it was possible for FM to be profitable in the Maritimes, in spite of the

then preference for AM radio. How times have changed!

I will be setting the Vibe's car radio to 920 to see if they do the usual 3 month simulcast on AM. If so, DXers should expect to hear new, youth oriented music on 920, little or no mention of 920, CJCH, and lots of mention of FM, The Bounce, 101.3 etc.

And, no commercials for the first three weeks.

I suppose its possible that that 920 is dark already, or that it will chug with the oldies for a bit. I can't tell from my office S350.

Richard Berler – Laredo, TX

Sangean PR-D5 or as listed

1000 KHz: XEOF Mexico City, 20KW on my SRF-59. This in the null of our local 100W Nuevo Laredo also on 1000 KHz!

860 KHz: KKOW Pittsburg, KS, 5KW on my SRF-59. Mixing in and out was KONO San Antonio (900W).

Neil Kazaross – Barrington, IL

Drake R8 and phased BOGs

I left the DX truck hooked up to my west Phased BOG System last night as cx were OK and rather quiet for this time of year. Waking up presunrise is not part of my daily activity here, but I awoke with the onset of light and went out to the truck and was not disappointed. Tuned around a bit and soon ~ 1020utc (sunrise is 1035 here) after messing around 531, I think was not TP and some TIS was somewhat off freq since didn't seem spot on 531, found bits of a 612 signal, (WTMJ/WMT IBOC sandwich has meant the end of any chance for this which was near threshold audio level a year ago) and up to 702 and a nice het ripping up the remains of WLW which was fading to groudwave. Over to 738 and a decent het there and noting CHWO fading but 702 was stronger and suffering less from WGN 720 superlocal IBOC than was weaker 738 ! 

Phasing out WLW's mostly weak groundwave and finally at 1031 I was rather sure there was threshold audio on 702 with male talk, but too weak to identify even the language as EE, but distinct from the equal level

remaining trace of WLW back over to 700. Audio stayed at threshold level for about a minute and once we hit SR, as always, anything DU took a quick dive to at best weak trivial hets. I tried back to 738, but WRPQ had come on at 1030 providing enough QRM to block any chance.

So while, I am almost certain of threshold audio from ABC 702 Sydney I can't count it as it just wasn't good enough to meet even my rather lax standards for split freq DX. This however, is the best I've done from IL for non X band Aussie audio.

Just not enough oomph on 702 to hear real audio like I did for a few

minutes from Wisconsin last Sept when I could certainly tell an Aussie

accented gal was interviewing some guy on peaks. That QTH is a DXer's dream, although here in IL, line noise is now again usually nil, like this morning.

Night IBOC now clobbers several freq's (not all ment) where I have had TP's carriers over the years from the midwest. (It off course, is a real issue

for TA's as well, especially mid band)

I am curious about 576. A nice 50 kWer in Sydney, an east coastal city and

certainly in a location to propagate eastward across the Pacific. Noting how

well 702 gets out, and that I have basically no severe QRM on 570 or 580

presunrise, why have a never had more than a trace weak het ?

Glenn Hauser – Enid, OK

DX398

5/11

** OKLAHOMA. Checking OKC IBOC stations, Sat afternoon May 10: For first time in a long time, WWLS-640 was lacking IBOC, at 2210 check. No, it was not due to live silly ballgame coverage, as it was in usual silly sportstalk. At first I wasn`t sure whether off or masked by T-storm noise level. Unfortunately the latter prevented any extended groundwave on 630 or 650 from being audible. The other one, KTOK-1000, which a few days earlier also had IBOC turned off, had it back on blocking 990 and 1010

5/20

** OKLAHOMA. Silly me, thinking XERF 1570 might still reach here on

skywave as late as 1252 UT May 20. Nostalgia music in English, ``Let`s

Call the Whole Thing Off``, linguistic pronunciation debate; 1254

``The More Icey You, the More I Want Choo``, 1257 DJ announcement in

English, ``Mandy``. 1259 ID as KZLI, Catoosa-Tulsa`` and dominating

Frequency

** OKLAHOMA. Talking House at 3225 Whippoorwill, in NW Enid, gets out pretty well on 1670 kHz, audible on caradio all along west Randolph as far as Oakwood Mall, range of some 2-3 miles, 1640 UT May 22. Probably the same one I have also heard some miles to the NW of Enid into the country

** OKLAHOMA. KOKP, 1020, Perry OK, checked because a tornado was bearing down on the town, May 24 at 2355 --- heard just the tail end of annoying NWS attention tones as it went back to stupid sportstalk. At least they presumably got some government warning on, but not important enough to person the station locally

** OKLAHOMA [and non]. The Atwoods parking lot on the west side of Enid is a hot

spot for MW groundwave, low noise too, so I did a quick bandscan May 28 on the

caradio. A few significant observations.

1340, KEBC, OKC normally alone on channel in daytime here in Enid, but could

hear something underneath sportstalk at 2022 UT. Most likely is KJMU Sand

Springs, near Tulsa. Maybe I could have pulled it thru a null if I had a directional antenna. KJMU was off the air from last Oct to Feb, per reports from Bruce Winkleman via DXLDs 7-136 and 8-020. I wonder if they did any upgrading in the meantime. They are of course limited to 1000 watts non-direxional, but the ground system, etc., could have been improved.

Indeed KJMU is the only possibility, assuming there is no skywave. Altho a

heavily-populated `graveyard` channel nationwide, 1340 has a big unoccupied hole

around here, as is obvious from the NRC AM Pattern Book --- in KS, only two

stations along the extreme eastern border with MO. None in the TX panhandle,

unless you include Lubbock. None in SE Colorado.

I should have tried harder in the daytime at quiet rural locations in western OK

or KS, and/or with defacto fence beverages, to better my NRC distance record for

KSSR Santa Rosa NM, which I think has been silent for a few years now, perhaps

never to return.

Per FCC AM Query for facility number 29504, there was an involuntary transfer of

ownership after the original owner J. MICHAEL ESQUIBEL, was DECEASED, to JOSEPH M. ESQUIBEL, PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE, presumably his son or heir, which went thru on Feb 13, 2006. KSSR is still LICENSED: as of 01/01/2008 and License Expires 10/01/2013. And as far as FCC are concerned, on the air, even if it

isn`t.

If anyone is travelling along Route 66 (or rather I-40), or US 54/84 in the

Santa Rosa area before I get out there again, please note whether 1340 is on the

air

1170, KFAQ, Tulsa at 2026 UT was accompanied by IBOC buzz on each side. It is

not listed as an HD station by iBiquity, at

http://ibiquity.com/hd_radio/hdradio_find_a_station?state=OK&sortBy=undefined#stationlist

Has anyone else noticed IBOC from KFAQ at night, or day?

1000, KTOK, OKC, an IBOC station, but seems to be more and more sporadic. Not on

at this time, 2027 UT, allowing Spanish gospel from Texas on 990 to be audible,

KFCD Farmersville in The Metroplex, and also C&W music on 1010, KIND

Independence KS. When KTOK IBOC is on, these are totally blown away by the buzz.

930, WKY, OKC, still IBOC-free, despite reports it would be next.

640, WWLS, OKC/Moore/Norman, strong IBOC on as usual totally blocking 630 and

650, and as always, also bothering KSKY 660.

620, KMKI, Plano TX, Disney for The Metroplex, has IBOC on, as can be heard

bothering 610 Kansas City, tho not distinguishable from much stronger WWLS IBOC

on 630

Harry Helms –Smithville, TX

Eton E5

5/26

I finally got my Quantum Loop unpacked and did my first serious MW listening today from my new QTH of Corpus Christi, TX. I am not directly on the Gulf of Mexico, but I am less than a mile from the Oso Bay

section of Corpus Christi Bay.

Listening from about 1:00-3:00 pm Central, I noted all of the Houston and San Antonio stations at a good level. One surprise was how ordinary the signal from WOAI-1200 was; it was only slightly better than KONO-860. The only Austin area station I could hear was KLBJ-590 with XEFD, Reynosa, Tamaulipas, nulled (XEFD has a killer signal here).

WWL-870 has a very loud signal here, as does KLVI-560 in Beaumont. In the other waterpath direction, the furtherest south I heard was XEAR-660 in Tampico, Tamaulipas. I briefly deluded myself into thinking I was  hearing Veracruz on 720 until I realized I was instead hearing KSAH in San Antonio! Obviously, the potential for some serious waterpath DX,  specially on the Gulf itself, is high. I wonder what a good portable like the ICF-2010 and a couple of hundred feet of wire somewhere like Padre Island National

Seashore----on the undeveloped stretch free of electrical lines and other interference sources----could do?

I restricted my digging-the-weak-signals-out DXing below 800 kHz today, and here are the highlights of what else I heard from Mexico:

540 XEWA, San Luis Potosi (or maybe Monterrey?), Nuevo Leon, good level.

580 XEHP, Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, weak but making it above the noise.

590 XEFD, Reynosa, Tamp., very strong signal here including some ads mentioning McAllen.

640 XETAM, Ciudad Victoria, Tamp., a little strongerthan 580.

780, XESFT, San Fernando, Tamp., with "La Tree-play Tay" slogan.

790, XEFE, Nuevo Laredo, Tamp., good level.

800, XEDD, Monetemorelos, NL, a surprise barely above the noise but definitely them with their "La Tremenda"slogan.

810 XERI, Reynosa, Tamp., nice level.

There were other signals that seemed to be of Mexican origin, but I didn't catch IDs.

I'm going to put together an AM bandscan over the next couple of weeks. This new QTH seems to have a lot of DXing promise. And I'm sure there are some great tropo paths across the Gulf!

Scott Fybush – Rochester, NY

Sony SRF-59

5/7

Didn't have much luck with my SRF-59, from the top deck of Yankee Stadium just behind the right-field foul pole - too much noise and hash

from all the locals (or maybe that was just John Sterling's call of the

game on WCBS 880.)

Tried for WBT and couldn't pull it out around WBBR a few miles away on

1130. No hope for WOWO in the forward lobe of WLIB. No hope for WBBMwith WABC next door; ditto WLS/WABC and WGN/WOR. So that pretty much left hyper-local WINS for election news.

But the good news: Indians 5, Yanks 3. I'll take that over DX any fine

spring evening. I suspect our esteemed moderator would concur :-)

Steven Wiseblood, Boca Chica Beach, TX

Sony SRF-59

5/4/2008

1951 XEUACH 1610 MEXICO Chapingo, estado de MEXICO,

traditional Mexican mariachi, ranchera and classical Spanish guitar. signal good-very good at times. M ancr "escucha Radio Chapingo", full ID at 2024. 

The Whole Earth

Glenn Hauser – Enid, OK

Yaesu FRG 7

** CUBA. RHC was celebrating May Day, as well as its own official 47th

anniversary, by keeping 9600 on the air past its usual 1300 closing, still going at 1307, and no 15370 instead. Nor any het from XEYU which must be gone again

** ECUADOR. HCJB`s Kulina service to a Brazilian tribe, 11920, April 30 at 2254had missionary referring to Matéu Capítulo XXIII. Seems to have a preference for Matthew, and may be working his way thru this book, as last time I ran across it, April 5 as in DXLD 8-042, the reference was to Matthew XVIII. Checking Chapter 23, my favorite verses would be 15 and then 33.

Stop the presses! HCJB has finally started announcing its own frequencies

correctly in Spanish. This is after years of announcing the wrong frequencies, and months of announcing no frequencies. Now, as promised, I must be satisfied. May 1 at 1259:30 on 11960, the automated ID gave website, and frequencies 11690, 21455 and 11960 in that strange order. Also audible on much weaker 11690 mixed with RTTY. 11960 also had a transmission break of several seconds at 1259. That`s when they change azimuth from 355 for Cuba, to 330 for Mexico

** GERMANY [non]. DW provides one of the best listenable signals in English, other than US gospel huxters, during the 2100 UT hour, and it isn`t even for us, but instead via Rwanda to West Africa. Wednesday April 30 after 2130 I was listening to Arts on the Air, concluding with an interview about conducting with Paavo Järvi of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Unfortunately I was tuned to the slightly stronger frequency 15205, which always cuts off rudely and abruptly at 2157, forcing me to quickly retune to // 11865 for the last 3 minutes of the program.

DW is as bad about this as Radio Australia at 1357 on 9580. If they can`t keep all their transmitters on air till the end of the broadcast, the program should have been produced to end 3 minutes earlier. Or at least a courtesy announcement on the early-closing frequency advising listeners to retune ASAP --- but they would still miss something, just as I did. Shortly before 2200, there was a rapid heavy SAH for a few seconds as the upcoming German transmission via Portugal overlapped on 11865, starting soon enough this time to hear the full ``Null Uhr`` time check

** KOREA NORTH. Unlike April 30, on May 1, VOK was just barely audible on 11710 (if that`s what it was) and consequently no sign of the spurs on 11644 and 11776, checked at 1304

** SPAIN [non]. May 1 at 1250 on 15170 via Costa Rica, another check of REE`s supposedly Basque-language news: after the opening ID it was entirely in Castilian once again, mainly about three bombs ETA allegedly exploded to celebrate May Day. Catalan also missing at 1255

** VENEZUELA [non]. RNVCI via RHC, 11705, May 1 at 1300 was running late, giving years-out-of-date transmission schedule once again, proving that the announcers and producers in the Caracas studio pay no attention to their own shortwave broadcasts. This is not one of RHC`s better transmitters as there is some distortion, and in the final contact-info, words were cutting out. Ran until 1302* with a Windows logo and off

** ZIMBABWE [non]. SW Radio Africa, 12035, April 30 at quick check 1832, woman with comments on how bad things are there, such as people being whipped with bicycle chains, murdered. Was that Gerry Jackson herself? Fair reception with fading, but had not been hearing at all for some time. Perhaps switch from Norway to Rampisham UK site has inadvertently helped reception here. Turned the radio back on at 2100, just in time to hear Yankee Doodle Dandy, VOA opening French on 12035 via São Tomé

** ANTARCTICA. A very weak carrier detectable on 15476, not 15475, Friday May 2 at 2056, is the first sign of LRA-36 I have had since reactivation earlier this month. Yet nothing audible on 15345, and I also checked 15825 for WWCR with WOR, also inaudible

** BRAZIL. R. Brasil Central ID heard in passing immediately upon tuning in to 11815, May 3 at 2345, then went on to thank god for something; 25432 at best

** ECUADOR. HCJB, 12000, Spotlight program in Specialised English, Sat May 3 at 2347, having just started. Very good signal. This is during the so-called Spanish service, and for some reason HCJB won`t show it as an English transmission, lest English speakers actually expect more English broadcasts from Quito

** LAOS [non]. Hmong Lao Radio, via WHRI 11785, Sat May 3 after 1300, several chex hoping for rustic instrument folk music, but only heard talk; 1332 finally music, but it`s Hmong rap! Eeeew, I couldn`t listen to more than 7 minutes of it. Signal was not the usual blowtorch, poor propagation

** U S A. On 7570, May 3 at 0630, preacher in English with squealing

transmitter, WHRI? No, this time it`s WEWN

** U S A. WBCQ inaudible on 7415, May 3 at 0631 and May 4 at 0455. I suspect the Brother Scare relay is gone again, but still shows at 0430-0700 UT Sat on annotated schedule and at similar times other nights, always ending at 0700

** U S A [and non]. WWRB, 9385 playing music, maybe not from TOM, Sat May 3 until abruptly off without so much as a good-bye, at 2348* uncovering weak signal from Albania on 9390, which was much better on // 7425

** ARGENTINA. LRA, R. Nacional, 15345.1, UT Monday May 5 at 0138, fair at peaks but with deep fades, apparently a dramatic dialog about singing tangos. This frequency is on so late only on weekends, not to be confused with RAE on weekdays, tho it`s the very same transmitter at General Pacheco

** BRAZIL. 9665 with good carrier level, but just barely audible modulation, language unknown, and buzz on the sidebands if tuned a bit above or below, May 5 at 0105. I have no doubt from previous experience that this is the CRI relay via Brasília. Is Brasil collecting rent on this total joke? Serves the damned Chicom jammers right. Per HFCC it`s at 01-02 at 215 degrees, and 03-04 at 250 degrees; however it was still on at 0204 recheck; wonder if it stays on during the intervening hour, vying with North Korea for the worst signal on 9665

** CANADA [and non]. CHU, 7335, May 5 at 0110 with South Asian music underneath from Vatican at 98 degrees. This collision goes way back, but not strong enough to prevent using CHU for its intended purpose, which is not extended program listening. VR is currently scheduled on 7335 at 0010-0200 to India, and again 0230-0520 to Central Europe on a variety of northeastward azimuths. At least WHRI has stayed off 7335 following all the protests last summer

** EGYPT. Tho supposedly scheduled until 0300 on 6290, R. Cairo was missing at 0201 check May 5. I had been hearing its fairly strong, distorted signal in Arabic during the previous hour. Ed Insinger also heard them go off around 0200 a few nights ago. This may be why: Egypt went on DST of UT+3 April 25, tho it does not affect non-Arabic broadcasts; DST lasts until August 29, per timeanddate.com The question is, whether all of Cairo`s Arabic SW transmissions have shifted one UT hour earlier, as the domestic programming within them no doubt has

** HAWAII [and non]. With only three significant signals audible on 16m, why in the world would two of them be adjacent? KWHR, which used to prefer the 17500+ range, recently started using 17800, despite R. Australia on 17795, as both were heard May 5 at 0136. Fortunately, RA has a much stronger // frequency here, 17715

** HUNGARY. Latest WRTH update shows only 5 hours of SW broadcasts left from Budapest, including 0100-0200 on 5965. Kai Ludwig in eastern Germany hears traces of something under Cuba, and now I can confirm that it is indeed Hungary. May 5 at 0124 could hear some music and talk under RHC, frequency just about zero-beat, but too much Cuba to determine language. 0155 recheck had classical music, 0157 ``Itt Budapest`` ID, 0158 IS, and off at 0159*

Why in the world would Budapest choose a frequency occupied by Cuba, for broadcasts to North America, token as they may be? This is 306 degrees, to the conterminous USA, eastern and central Canada, contrary to WRTH Update which says

to Europe. Could it be that the Hungarians thought the frequency was available, since as an outlaw nation, Cuba refuses to participate in HFCC? But the Hungarians are equally to blame for not knowing better, as Cuba`s occupancy of 5965 is hardly news in the SW monitoring community and all the non-HFCC references

** NEW ZEALAND. RNZI, 13840 AM, May 5 at 0057 with ABC report from Guam, about US politix, so not to be confused with R. Australia or the US ABC. DRM buzz also audible on 15715-15720-15725. Scheduled time for exchange of modes on these two is 0158-0159, but missed it. At 0210 recheck, 15720 had indeed become AM and 13835-13840-13845 DRM

** U S A. VOA in Spanish, UT Monday May 5 at 0127 closing some unnamed program with piano music, on 5890 and 6110 both jammed, and on 9885, no jamming audible. Continued at 0130 with Buenas Noches América, when the jamming disappeared. That`s because scheduled at 0100-0130, except UT Tue, is Ventana a Cuba, and we can`t have any windows opening in Cuba to the rest of the world! Hey, how come

Cuba gets to speak to US audiences in English with no such blockage, even

accusing us of genocide, terrorism? I would like to see a detailed program grid from VOA Spanish, but we only get generalities here:

http://www.voanews.com/spanish/programas_radio.cfm

** CHINA [and non]. May 7 before 1300 I noticed Firedrake making it thru

somewhere around 15450, but did not pin it down; rechecked after 1300 it was gone.

But this prompted me to do a full bandscan to find as many FDs as possible, between 1306 and 1320. Here I`ll put them in reverse order, not the order found, nor am I going to try to research all their targets, but most of them are regulars, against VOA, RFA, BBC, Taiwan or Sound of Hope:

12040 11900 11785 11665 9845 9780 9680 9605 7445 7310 7105 6110 6095 6085 6030

That`s a total of 15. At 1342 also heard on 15285. At 1433 also on 9930, 9450.

Some of them were alone as far as I could tell, others mixing in various

proportions with stations in Chinese. Checked several Firedrakes on two

receivers, and they were always // synchronized

** GERMANY [non]. DW Russian via Rampisham UK, 15420, May 7 at 1429, good signal in CNAm and still no place for WBCQ to be; this hour and more via UAE at 15-17 are still scheduled by DW to continue, unlike their Arabic after 1700, moving to 15445 from May 10. WBCQ plans to try 15420 again from May 12, but not clear during what hours

** PHILIPPINES. Lao-like language, May 8 at 1308 on 9625 with a low het, no doubt 70 Hz from off-frequency CBC. Close: per listings this is White Hmong fromFEBC, Manila. More transmissions from here: see TIBET [non]

** SOUTH AFRICA. 15325, Wed May 7 at 1341-1341:30* alternating hi and lo tones every 6 seconds, which is the SENTECH Meyerton test/fill feed, with the transmitter apparently left on an extra 11 minutes after the conclusion of SSIRI scheduled at 1300-1330 M/W/F

** SPAIN [non]. REE Co-Official Language block was a bit off-timed, May 7, tho I did not tune in 15170 Costa Rica soon enough to hear how and when it started. 1249-1253 Gallego, 1253-1258 Basque but really in Castilian. There is some question whether the missing Catalan was supposed to be before these or after these, and whether the block is really supposed to air at 1240-1255 or 1245-1300.

One more check of the Co-Official [read: token] Languages segment on REE, Thu May 8 on 15170 via CR. Tuned in at 1241 and found Catalan underway, so did start at 1240; at 1245 to Galician, and 1250 Basque but really in Castilian, 1255 music fill. So that appears to be the real schedule; now if only they can get the Basque language itself back into the mix

** TIBET [non]. 11605, May 8 at 1258 with synthesized Asian music, 1300 ID in English as R. Free Asia, and into Tibetan service. Listened until 1303 but no sign of any jamming! SINPO 35443. Per Aoki this is Tinian at 309 degrees and it is certainly jammed, just not audible here, as higher-latitude paths were not propagating so well. BTW, at 1200-1229 it`s the Amdo dialect of Tibetan, 1229-1300 the Khams dialect, and 1300-1400 regular Tibetan. I wonder if the English IDs go into such details?

A station on 9890 with a solo vocalist accompanied by a rustic plucked

instrument, May 8 at 1305 per Aoki also turns out to be Khams Tibetan from FEBC Bocaue, Philippines, 100 kW at 305 degrees, and not jammed.

On 31m the jammers had a better chance, but VOA Mandarin via Philippines on 9845 was still well over Firedrake at 1306; also at 1354 with chinese@voanews.com

address. And VOA English from Philippines, 9760 at 1315 was VG, much better than heard in a long time

** U S A. With a little help from the sporadic E layer, Defunct Gene Scott was quite strong on WWCR 13845, May 7 at 1339, and one could clearly hear in the background The Power Hour from 7465, mixing at the transmitter site. (Is it caused by antenna proximity, transmitter proximity, or even in the studio audio consoles? Or some combination?)

In fact if DGS would pause for breath, one could easily understand the other program. However, when I went to 7465 itself, I could not hear any other audio mixing. As for the Es, at that time 15825 was still weak, but by 1430 recheck, it was very good as the MUF had risen. Still did not find any skip on VHF 54 MHz+ later this day

** ZAMBIA [and non]. May 8 at 1252, two stations mixing with SAH on 13590, not just 1Africa, CVC. According to EiBi there are two others stations at this time besides CVC: DW in French to NAf via Portugal, and VOR in Mandarin to FE via Novosibirsk. The two I was hearing most likely Portugal and Zambia

** CUBA. Surprised to find an unID language on 11705 (not 17705), fair to good signal, May 9 at 1939 --- soon became obvious it`s RHC with mentions of ``Viva la Revolución``, into a song; and 1942 talk mentioning Cuba and Habana.

Modulation stopped abruptly at 1944 and carrier off less than a minute later. Some kind of test; this is during the 5-hour break when RHC is supposedly not doing any broadcasting of its own between 1500 and 2000, (Sunday 1530-), just some Venezuela relays.

Unless it`s something brand-new, must have been Guarani or Quechua, which are not on the schedule until 2230 and 0000 respectively, on 17705 (not 11705). 11705 is not on RHC`s current schedule at all tho unlike RNV, we know it is used for the Venezuela relay at 1200-1300+. We also know it`s useless to Ask Arnie to explain such things, which at any other station would not be top-secret.

Back-dated transmission schedule page supposedly expiring in March,

http://www.radiohc.cu/espanol/frecuencia/frecuencias-espanol.htm continues to lag behind what we axually hear. 11680, added in late March, shows at 00-05 only in Spanish, but May 9 at 2137 there it was too in French with VG strength;

French at 2130 is listed on 11760 only, where there was no signal. Meanwhile 9505 was in Creole, 11750, 11800 and 9550 in Spanish

** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. R. Africa is back, on 15190.0, after a three-week absence, last heard April 17. Now heard May 8 at 1958 with ratchety-voiced US preacher rattling off the usual catch-phrases, no break for ID at 2000 but none needed. Only fair with deep fades, but most of the signals on 19m were degraded. Joined at 2000 by Harold Camping YFR via Ascension 15195. Apparently correlates with the other Bata transmitter 5005 also reported back on the air a few days ago.

Tho it was back May 8, R. Africa gone again from 15190 May 9 at 1938, 2128 chex; but tuning around at the earlier time I did discover something new from CUBA, q.v., so thank you, Bata

** GUIANA FRENCH. It appears that the ALLISS rotatable antennas at Montsinéry are very direxional, without much on side- or backlobes, unlike so many other sites. May 9 until 2130*, 17630 with music concluding RFI Spanish semi-hour to C America was extremely strong, while right next to it, 17620, French to W Africa which continued, was barely audible --- despite the fact that 17620 per HFCC is running 500 kW vs 250 kW on 17630, and the respective azimuths are 75 and 295 degrees

** MOROCCO. Fair signal S9+18 on 15345.0, but barely perceptible modulation, and could not be certain of language, mostly talk, May 9 at 2146-2202*. This is typical sign-off time for Nador site of R. Marocaine, as WRTH calls it, and no sign of variable Argentina this time

** RUSSIA [and non]. Another check of 13590 to see how 1Africa/CVC Zambia is doing vs the collisions, May 9 at 1310 and immediately heard ``Soviet Hymn``, an odd time to be playing it, but must be VOR as scheduled 12-14 via Novosibirsk at 110 degrees in Mongolian for Mongolia and China, per Eibi and HFCC. And it was mixing with a weaker station, producing SAH, no doubt CVC

** SPAIN [and non]. REE`s new service to Brasil, May 9 at 2130 on 17595, with W&W discussing Espanha in Portuguese with Brazilian accent; 2142 Spanish lesson frequently interrupted by tone cues. 17595 signal was poor, but better than a weaker co-channel producing a slow SAH, and not // 15110 REE main stream in Spanish which was as usual extremely strong direct from Spain and expanding into sidebands making 15105 and 15115 useless. 15110 is 250 kW from Noblejas at 302 degrees. 17595 is 250 kW at 248 degrees, and it collides with WEWN in English --- I won`t guess at the real power, 85 degrees, at 1900-2200, part of which collides with Spain. It must be pretty bad in the Caribbean area, and WEWN`s W Africa target, maybe not so bad in Brasil.

You will not find Portuguese on REE`s schedule in the WRTH May Update, and not even 17595 on the air at this time, since it says M-F 10-19, Sat-Sun 12-22, and this was a Friday, all to America, not specified whether N, C or S, so maybe means all of them.

EiBi, however, has the Portuguese hours:

17595 1800-1900 Mo-Fr E Radio Exterior España P SAm

17595 2100-2200 Mo-Fr E Radio Exterior España P SAm

And nothing on M-F 1900-2100, so apparently REE just comes back on at 21 for the repeat hour in Brazilian, reducing the collision with WEWN to one hour on weekdays. And 17595 is the only frequency opting out for the Brazilian service. Aoki does not show the Portuguese at all.

This apparently official sked, tho posted on an unofficial site, does show the 10 hours of Portuguese per week as in EiBi:

http://telefonica.net/web2/radioescuchadx/reea08.pdf

** GERMANY [non]. DW Amharic via Rwanda, 15650, which started April 26, fair May 10 at 1406, but with lite echo, possibly dual long/short path; no jamming audible.

DW Russian on 15620 at 1407 May 10, and unsynchronized on 15420. 15620 is Kigali, a somewhat roundabout way to get from Germany to Russia; but at least 1 second quicker than 15420 which is via Ramphisam, UK

** KOREA NORTH [and non]. P`yongyang not bad on 9665, May 10 at 1248 with music, and the ``rushing noise`` accompanying which some think is jamming but I think is coming out of same defective transmitter.

Then checked 11710 for imminent VOK NAm service, at 1256 finding low het between VOK`s open carrier which must be slightly off-frequency, and some Firedrake. But Commies vs Commies didn`t last; at 1300 the Firedrake went off, leaving VOK in clear with IS, ID, program summary, news, which by law must always start with the activities of Kim Jung-Il, preceded by some of his numerous official titles.

I would have had enough, but was obliged to see if the spurs were making it

thru. Yes! 11644 was barely audible, along with noise, but soon faded, and

barely audible a het on 11776 against Anguilla, but Firedrake there was more of a problem. The fundamental wasn`t nearly as strong as the previous log when 11644 was easily audible.

So what attracted the Firedrakes? Per Aoki: Taiwan on 11710 until 1300; All India Radio in Tibetan on 11775 until 1330

** KOREA SOUTH [non]. KBSWR, 9650 via Sackville, Sat May at 1242 during Worldwide Friendship show, review of the week`s Korean lessons; SAH and increasing CCI, from P`yongyang, which coincidentally is in Japanese at this hour, per Aoki: 9650 Voice of Korea 1100-1250 1234567 Japanese 200 109 Kujang KRE 12505E 4005N VOK a08

I don`t really know which came first, but KBS should find a better frequency, as it doesn`t even make it halfway across North America without colliding with their archrivals. I have been saying this for a long time, but they ignore my advice. VOK is aiming at Japan after all, so how could it be a problem in OK??

** MAURITANIA. 4845 the only decent non-North-American signal on 60m, May 10 at 0610-0624, monotonous undermodulated chanting as always around this time --- or rather there are several tones, but not that many. This is ideally soporific for us, tho it`s wake-up time in West Africa, a bit of a mismatch

** MEXICO. XEXQ, 6045, audible May 10 at 1227 with string classical music, poor at brief peak. Have not seen many reports of this, so just keeping track of when it can be confirmed as active. Possibly there may be an evening time when it comes thru better, QRM permitting.

Comparing XEXQ to R. Mil, 6010, a bit further from here, but usually with better signal, tho never outstanding with its low power too --- May 10 at 1230 string of Núcleo Radio Mil promos, giving phone number (toll-free?) for calls from USA and Canada, plug for ``Buenos Días, México`` show M-F at 10 am to 1 pm local = 1500-1800 UT, and perpetual slogan ``donde vive la música de México``, finally back to axual music at 1232

** RUSSIA [and non]. RHC usually has 12000 to itself, but May 10 at 1359-1400* was hearing SAH of about 3 Hz, and VOR IS. Per Aoki this is Chinese via Khabarovsk at 220 degrees, just ending. Commies vs Post-Commies!

** BOLIVIA. R. Santa Cruz, 6134.8, must be the best bet for Bolivia in North America, at least in our evenings. Once República and jamming are done at 0000, the frequency happens to be open, with nothing even on 6135.0 to het it. After noticing a pious het from another Bolivian on 5952.4 which had no chance against WYFR on 5950, I tuned to 6134.8 at 0008 May 11 and there was Andean music, with brief announcements at 0011 and 0020, ``buena música``; seemed to be interviewing kids at 0025, but mostly music, still at 0035, and at 0055 when applause was heard, so may have been a live event.

For something so exotic it was a good signal, but otherwise it was very tough copy, partly due to some distortion, but mostly due to heavy T-storm static from Missouri and Arkansas, if not closer. I later learned tornados hit Picher and Haywood OK. Never heard an ID, but no doubt this is it, due to frequency offset and other reports, which have had it closing at 0108. Maybe those were not UT Sunday, because this time it kept on going at 0113 and 0123 checks, but nothing heard at 0130, altho the carrier was still detectable, and that went off at 0134* Surprisingly, RHC 6140 was not much of a problem until after 0100 when a weak station on 6130 also came on, squeezing RSC

** CANADA. RNW relay in Dutch via Sackville southwards, 9525, May 10 at 2341 was very undermodulated with extraneous clix added, unlike // 11970 Bonaire which was VG and running about a second ahead of 9525, which was still degraded later in the hour, tho I think I tuned across it earlier in the 2300 hour and it was OK

** COSTA RICA. REE relay still off-frequency on 11814, May 10 at 2217 check, also hetting weaker signal on 11815. Per

http://telefonica.net/web2/radioescuchadx/reea08.pdf

this is currently scheduled:

11815 25 m 110º * 1600-2300 Español Sábado

11815 25 m 110º * 1200-2300 Español Domingo

11815 25 m 110º * 1800-2000 Español Lunes a Viernes

** CROATIA [non]. There has been contradictory info about how long the extra V. of Croatia relay frequency via Germany, 7285, would last. Registrations showed until May 10, while Brian Alexander heard them early UT May 10 saying it would last until May 15. However, 9925 was quite good, and 7285 was missing when I checked later May 10, at 2338 and 2435. So we can only hope 9925 will now hold up, but I would not count on it with solar flux about as low as it can go

** CUBA. RHC anomalies, during monitoring session May 10-11:

At 2308, 11750 in English ``news``, Ed Newman repeatedly referring to ex-CIA agent Valerie Flame --- yes, he was saying Flame, not Plame. Reception much better here than on the scheduled English frequency at this hour, 9550. 11750 went on for some time, but when I rechecked at 2330 as DXers Unlimited was starting, it had vanished.

This edition of DXUL was identified as ``Mit-Week``, apparently repeat of a few days ago, ``the only fully integrated radio hobby program``. No, what I heard matches the script he has just posted for the weekend of May 10-11.

13760 at 2333 was in Portuguese, introducing the program for this date, 10 May. Website schedule

http://www.radiohc.cu/espanol/frecuencia/frecuencias-espanol.htm

shows this now in use at 2300-2400 to SAm, if this is how one is supposed to interpret the / in this single-line entry:

17705 / 13760 16 / 22 22 – 22:30 - 23 – 23:30/ 23 – 24 [sic]

And 17705 at 2335 was in one of the Indian languages, VG signal this time, and definitely not on 15340 as in WRTH Update, talking about what else, the ``cinco héroes`` which is apparently untranslatable into scheduled Guarani. And after 0000, 17705 also in Portuguese.

11680 in Spanish, May 11 at 0047 had audio cutting out every few seconds, unlike // 11760; there was a slight echo between them with 11760 leading

** CUBA [non]. WRMI, 9955, Sat May 10 at 2343 had an exile show in Spanish, but no jamming audible; unlike Martí 9565 where béisbol was heavily jammed. Per WRMI grid, this is Voz de Coordinadora, which is sneakily sandwiched in between two English programs until 2330 and after 2345

** ECUADOR. HCJB Kulina service, 11920, May 10 at 2245 just finishing intro in Portuguese with ID as A Voz dos Andes. Then preacher started chanting in Kulina, 2248 with address in Curitiba, more singing, cross-fading at 2250 to talk referring to Matthew XXIV, which was mentioned several times, and then into Matthew XXV. Made my teeth gnash. I never hear verse numbers given. He was faded out at 2259:30 for ID and into Portuguese service. I would not be surprised if he just keeps going on original recording, like the Spanish Bible readings on WWCR, where the programming cuts off abruptly when the time is up, perhaps by

operators or automation who do not understand the language and know where to make a clean break

** MEXICO. XEPPM 6185 mixing with SERBIA: q.v. No sign of XEXQ 6045 in the 0030-0130 period May 11

** NETHERLANDS. 9450 at 0037 May 11, VG signal with rock song. What`s this? PWBR ``2008``, which I keep by the radios to consult while the computer is off, no help. O yes, it`s R. Nederland, Bonaire in Spanish, as group soon shouted ID. Also // 6165 but about one second behind it in deliberate delay to even out power consumption. Music is still not banned on the Spanish SW service of RN; it`s La Fonoteca per

http://www.informarn.nl/horariosyfrecuencias/sabados-y-domingos

I can remember when The Concertgebouw Orchestra was on RN shortwave every Sunday, but you won`t hear classical music concerts on any SW language service of RN now

** SERBIA [non]. IRS, still on poorly-chosen 6185 to NAm; UT Sunday May 11 did not hear it at 0000, and at 0050 was enjoying some marimba music from XEPPM, but at 0058 that was mixing with IRS carrier and IS, 0100 opening English, but unreadable with audio level about equal to R. Educación, and splatter from RHC 6180 news sounders. Meanwhile 6190 and 6195 were begging for IRS to occupy their vacancies, altho 6190 would be better in deference to Prague on 6200. At 0130, Mexico City was again in the clear with piano roll music. This encouraged me to bring up the XEEP webcast later, including ``Ghost Riders in the Sky`` at 0322,

``Mañana is Soon Enough for Me`` at 0324

** THAILAND. Still absolutely no sign of R. Thailand on 12120 at 0050 check May 11, under all that RTTY. This 0030-0100 was supposed to be English to North America, as it was in B-season on 12095 --- but now the target is E Africa! And the following hour in Thai at 0100-0200 on 12120 is now targeted at Middle East --- but this doesn`t make sense not only because it`s in the middle of the night there, but also because it`s supposedly still aimed at 6 degrees from Udorn, the original trans-polar path designed for ENAm, nowhere hear the azimuth for EAf/ME. Furthermore there is no change in parameters at 0100 tho the target

areas supposedly change.

I am beginning to wonder if this has morphed into an imaginary service. It might as well be. How about the WNAm service at 0200-0330 on 15275. Is anyone hearing that anywhere now? It`s still supposedly at 38 degrees, the azimuth for WNAm, but the target area is Malaysia and Indonesia except New Guinea, again nowhere near the appropriate direxion. What`s going on here?

** U S A. The Crap with AJ has been cut; instead of that in the 0000 UT Sunday May 11 hour on WBCQ 7415, we heard George Zeller in the foreground and Allan Weiner in the background discussing, what else? Pirate radio, probably something from the Winterfest, at 0035. Cut the Crap with AJ recently got a scathing review from a listener in DXLD, but who knows if it is really gone? Still on the online schedule. 0100 into Marion`s Attic as usual

** U S A. WEWN, 11520, May 11 at 0048 in English, VG signal here for a change tho aimed at 40 degrees from Alabama, YL talk, presumably M. Angelica herself on an old tape --- accompanied by continuous squeal of slightly varying pitch as is the wont of at least one WEWN transmitter

** VATICAN. 9650 with VR IS May 11 at 0039, Latin ID at 0040 and into S Asian music; only poor, but it seems we can hear VR no matter where it is aimed. Hetless Vietnamese was also audible on 9600 during the previous hour. 9650 is ex-5915, presumably to avoid Burmyanmar

** AUSTRALIA. May 12 at 1400, found pop instrumental music on 13775, 1402 into Chinese, no jamming, fair to good signal. First checking PWBR `2008` the only listee is RFA Palau, jammed in an `other` language, but surely they would have news on the hour. As usual, only updated online listings would later identify this properly. Aoki and Eibi say: CVC Darwin at 1000-1500 in Mandarin. And RFA is not using 13775 at all this season

** BRAZIL. In DXLD 8-056, and 8-057 MOLDOVA, I mentioned CRI relay via Brasil on 9665 at 0200, but just noise and distortion. Mauno Ritola asked me to confirm whether this was really the case, since in Finland all he hears is VOR via Moldova.

Yes, CRI relay on 9665, presumably still Brasil, is definitely there. UT May 13 I did not get to check at 0100, but at 0240 there was only VOR Moldova // 9480 Germany. And that was very much bothered by much stronger 9660 NHK Bonaire in Portuguese.

Recheck 9665 at 0259: S9+20 open carrier, 0300 into CRI IS and opening in Spanish, but very undermodulated. As far as I could tell it was not too

distorted, but muffled. There was a fast SAH, maybe about 15 Hz, with presumed Moldova, which is still supposed to be on with VOR English to NAm after 0300

** CHINA. Firedrake check May 12 at 1356: 12050, 12040, 11990, 11805- under RHC, 11785, 11665, 11605, 11590-which went off at 1400. At 1400, 12050 was open carrier, not sure Firedrake or target, while 12040 was still running FD. At 1411, FD back on 12050, and 12040 FD with a SAH. Also FD VG at 1409 on 15285.

This was not an exhaustive search for all audible FD, but at 1413 also found

generally weaker ones on 11510, 9450, 9605, 9845, 9930; and at 1416 on 14410, as I did make a point of bandscanning the non-broadcast MHz segments up to 18 MHz. The last surely against Sound of Hope, fortunately staying above the hamband

** COLOMBIA [and non]. 6010, La Voz de tu Conciencia, HJDH ID just as I tuned in, May 12 at 0643. Lo audible het with XEOI, annoying collision, as both were about same strength, LVC continuing with some stealth religion talk, while R. Mil was trying to keep Mexican music alive

** CUBA. You can have a bunch of high power transmitters and a big array of antennas, but still not manage to get the modulation for them reliably from the studio to the transmitters. Weakest link syndrome.

May 11 at 1322, and still at 1335 recheck, found the CRI relay frequency 9570 on the air with carrier only, no modulation.

At 1400, 13750 was starting up the Aló Presidente service, but kept dumping off the air briefly every few seconds during the attempted frequency announcement, then starting Mundo 7 runup show; I listened no longer

** GERMANY [non]. DW Russian via Rampisham, May 12 at 1408 on 15420; no sign of WBCQ here or on 17495, but latter could easily still be on and not propagating.

** U S A. See GERMANY [non]. Rechecked at 1720: 15420 now clear, but WBCQ still on 17495 with usual religionist declamations predominating on this transmitter, reduced carrier and more modulation on the USB than the LSB, but enough on the LSB to be listenable in that position too, if one ever wanted to. Allan Weiner indicated to me the WBCQ move back to 15420 has been delayed

** AFGHANISTAN [non]. R. Solh, 17700 via Rampisham UK, finally audible here again May 13 after a long absence due to poor propagation. Only poor to fair signal with occasional peaks, and lots of fades, from tune-in 1332 with music; 1344-1346 talk, 1346-1349 the sticking CD, so quickly confirming they are STILL playing exactly the same defective recording as they have done every day since at least last fall! 1359-1400 a pause in modulation but no carrier break, 1400-1404 talk, but can it be news or just the same old propaganda announcements also duplicated daily? 1419 into familiar music I have recorded and uploaded before. Still trace of it at 1600 recheck, but quite poor. Can its reappearance be accounted for by SWPC numbers? Not really: for May 12, solar flux was 68; at 1200 May 13, K=1; at 1500, K=2. Repeat performance May 14 at 1332+

** CHINA. Firedrake check, May 14 at 1314 found lots of the regulars such as 15285, but also some I had not noticed before, 15330, 15795 and even propagating on 17565, long path? Despite usual poor signals overall on 16m. Aoki has the answers: 15330 is BBC Uzbek via Cyprus during this semihour only. 15795 is All India Radio, Chinese via Bangalore at 1145-1315. 17565, however, is unaccounted for not only in Aoki, but Eibi, HFCC, and WRTH, so bears further investigation. Firedrake was also audible before 1300 on 14410 vs Sound of Hope

** KOREA NORTH. VOK, 11710 in English to NAm, May 14 at 1322 was somewhat distorted and just strong enough to carry along with it the more distorted spur, which this time was centered between 11645 and 11646

** U K [non]. BBC Mundo Radio, via WHRI 9410, Wed May 14 at 1230 with Efemérides, a neat little show with clips from the BBC archives, this time about the 60th anniversary of Israel, the Spice Girls, the tragic downfall of Winnie Mandela, i.a., until 1234 when the classical music fill was introduced as ``Los Compositores e Intérpretes de Siempre --- Los Clásicos``, then a Puccini aria for starters from Madame Butterfly, as always, unannounced. Usual excellent signal

** U S A. WBCQ, which was still on 17495 May 12, was trying 15420 again May 13, first detected at 1408 underneath DW Russian via Rampisham, with distinctive monotonous intonations of New Mexico preacher which occupies great gobs of time on this transmitter, whatever the frequency. However, could no longer detect it by 1414, either off or losing the relative strength battle. Meanwhile, many other 19mb frequencies were open, including 15590, ex-KTBN, which is being reserved for the perpetually ``mañana`` WRNO reactivation.

Rechecked 15420 at 1559 after DW had finished, and weak WBCQ in the clear. BBC Seychelles is listed on 15420 still during this hour until 1700 at 280 degrees, but no sign of it here, which is normal. Probably in Europe it is dominating rather than WBCQ. Just like on 17495 the day before, flanking reduced carrier was USB modulation, but also some on LSB, not completely suppressed, in about the same proportion.

BTW, per HFCC, all WBCQ frequencies are on antenna azimuth of 245 degrees toward Laredo, make that Nuevo Laredo (not Tijuana as I first said), but not all are 50 kW --- 9330 shows as 100 kW. Like most SW stations, actual transmitter power in use is probably considerably less than nominal, and actual antenna lobes may differ considerably. 245 degree azimuth carries on just south of Invercargill, so the heirs of Arthur Cushen should have a good shot at hearing WBCQ.

Here`s the entry on the annotated WBCQ program schedule: ``Program IDs as "The Lord of the Spirit Radio Broadcast". Female speaker notable for monotone delivery of scriptural material. Usually six half-hour

programs in three hours.(6/6/03)

Sunday, May 29, 2005, 1946: Global Spirit Proclamation, sio 444. Finally got an address and e-mail contact for this show: HR60, Box 11, Sence Lake, NM 87315, e-mail prophet@hubwest.com``

As a little googling quickly shows, it`s FENCE LAKE, a very remote place in Cíbola county south of Gallup and Zuñi Pueblo, SW of El Morro, NW of Quemado where state hwy 36 makes a right angle. I believe I have driven thru there at least once without knowing it was the home of a major evangelical organization! Furthermore, the annotated ``17495`` sked shows this not starting until 1700, 7 days a week until 2100, and not even on the air before then except on Sundays from 1300 for The Zeph Report, so that is obviously outdated.

The question is now, whether WBCQ will stay on 15420 at 1400 (1300?)-2300 daily, perhaps later on Wednesdays and Fridays, and live with the QRM until 1600, as long as the prophet is paying for the extra time --- and how is reception in Fence Lake, anyway?

Checked again May 14: no trace of WBCQ or anything on 15420 before 1400, when BBC Russian via Rampisham came on. BBC Seychelles is on there before 1400 but not audible here. Listening carefully with BFO until 1417, could not detect WBCQ underneath, nor on 17495. Another check after 1500: still no sign of WBCQ on either frequency, despite BBC becoming much weaker on 15420 with switch to UAE site.

Second-nearest SW station to WBCQ, Sackville was as usual inbooming on 15220 before and after 1500 and also on 15240 after 1430.

Nearest SW station to WBCQ, WHRA, is scheduled on 15 and 17 MHz as follows, for comparison: 12-14 15710, 14-16 15195, 16-18 17520, 18-20 17690. Per WHR website, these all appear to be 7 days a week now. But no sign of 15195 at 1510 check!

We`ll see if WBCQ appears on 15420 later in the day, perhaps including WORLD OF RADIO at 2300 Wednesday

** U S A. WEWN, 17595, inbooming May 13 at 2108 with two OM discussing their lady, in English, with litely squealing transmitter. Not a trace of Spain`s Brazilian service underneath, unlike log a few days ago. WEWN was benefiting from sporadic E, as 15 and evenmoreso 17 MHz are normally in skipzone here only one megameter away. Yes, at 2117 Es started to show up on ch 2 TV, more than 3 times WEWN`s frequency, 55250 kHz.

KVOH, 17775, Los Ángeles, was also in well, May 13 at 2104 giving local P O Box address and introducing some música al estilo norteño and seemingly secular

** CHINA. The morning of May 17, Firedrake musical jamming was all over the place, so I checked some of them out, here arranged in frequency rather than logging time order. Victims looked up in Aoki:

17565, the Firedrake jammer against variable V. of Tibet via Uzbekistan was on here until 1400* and did not return later. The day before yesterday was on 17575, the day before that on 17565.

15285, FD very good mixing with BBCWS Chinese ID (via Singapore) at 1359. This one produces an interesting effect by tuning to 15280 or 15290 during the high-audio-frequency segments, which I have not noticed on other FD outlets. Sort of like listening to a different version of the music. With BFO on, no spurious carriers on the sidebands, however.

14410, FD as Sound of Hope jammer at 1411. SOH not audible.

13830, FD audible at 1350, vs inaudible RFA Tibetan via Tajikistan.

13365, first one checked, FD at 1349 // 11990 and all the others. 13365

presumably against one of the inaudible low-power Sound of Hope transmitters.

Rather than turning off at hourtop for monitoring check, 13365 was in open carrier at 1402, resuming music at 1404:30.

12040, FD very good at 1412, but with SAH of about 5 Hz and victim audible under, VOA Chinese via Philippines.

11990 at 1349, FD vs inaudible VOA Chinese via Novosibirsk.

11965 at 1417, weak FD vs inaudible VOA Chinese via Tinang.

11805 at 1415, FD overriding RHC Spanish, not usually the case. Commies vs Commies! Vs. inaudible VOA Chinese via Tinian.

11665 at 1413 FD; vs inaudible RTI Chinese.

11510 at 1413 FD mixing with something, i.e. VOA Tibetan via Sri Lanka.

9845 at 1421, FD, SAH and co-channel audible from victim, VOA Chinese via Tinang

9605 at 1420, FD mixing with Chinese, BBCWS via Singapore.

9450 at 1418, FD against a hi-power Taiwan Sound of Hope, with SAH.

These are just the tip of the Firedrake iceberg, against many more victims if I had kept digging or FE propagation were even better.

How can China expect any respect from the nations whose broadcasts it tries to block, let alone from the world at large?

** COSTA RICA [and non]. TIRWR, 11870, May 16 at 1313, with a wavering het. This one has been off-frequency before, and now I expect it is this transmitter with is somewhat unstable compared to another 11870 station, which would be IBB Tinang, Philippines; after 1330, however, RVA Palauig, Philippines takes over, and it too could be unstable/off frequency. In any event, unlistenable due to WYFR 11865 splatter.

Checked again May 17 at 1342, Defunct Gene Scott with same warbling het, but now it`s against RVA, so the same thing happens against two different 11870 stations, further confirming the problem is at Cahuita, which is slightly on the low side.

BTW, TIRWR has not been heard at all on 9725 mornings or evenings for a good many days

** CUBA. RHC anomaly report: May 17 at various chex between 1325 and 1414, 11760 was just open unmodulated carrier. 11805 was modulated, but under Firedrake at 1415 --- Commies vs Commies! 12000 also had co-channel QRM, from VOR Chinese via Khabarovsk

** ECUADOR [and non]. Finally had a chance to check out HCJB`s ham-transmitter on 21455, supposedly USB but recently reported as LSB. May 16 around 1830 a weak signal, but it was in German and equally LSB/USB --- that`s WYFR to Europe, weak enough to be HCJB but which uses this frequency 1600-1945, with HCJB before and after. At 2038 in Spanish, now it`s really HCJB and yes, reduced carrier plus USB, not LSB, very weak. So there

** INDONESIA. VOI has been pretty regular on 9526 lately, best before 1400, but May 17 at 1419 must have been off, as CRI Russian had no het at all to 9525

** JAPAN [and non]. NHK Warido R. Japan via Sackville, 11705, May 17 at 1423 during World Interactive also had a weak pre-echo, indicating another transmitter site also on 11705. In fact, we found it odd that in A-07, Yamata is also registered to 11705 at 1315-1430, 235 degrees in various languages, and indeed we heard it earlier at 1315, but it`s normally inaudible, and I thought it really went off at 1400, but the current schedule

http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/radio/shortwave/all.pdf

does show 11705 as in English at 1400-1430 to SE Asia, following Indonesian at 1315. This was an above-average ``FE morning``, cf all the Firedrakes

** LAOS [non]. Hmong Lao Radio via WHRI, Sat May 17 at 1330, talk and bits of traditional music, no rap, thank a god. Altho a good signal, this is no longer the super-signal it used to be from 250 kW Angel 2. It has been demoted to 100 kW Angel 6, as implied but not stated in the WHR online schedules, and confirmed in registrations as 100 kW now while in B-07 this was 250 kW, still at 315 degrees toward Hminnesota. IBB Udorn at 30 degrees toward us + Firedrake still audible underneath

** MOROCCO [and non]. 15345, May 16 at 2038 had Arabic dominating in poor signal, but with a very fast SAH estimated around 25-30 Hz. With BFO on, it was obvious there were two carriers offset, as two hets at once could be heard by sidetuning slightly, the other being of course Argentina

** U S A. Looking for WBCQ-4 (should we call it that?), not heard at all May 15, or morning of May 16 but finally just barely audible at 1705 May 16 on 15420-CUSB, with New Mexico prophet intoning. Poor at peaks, between fadeouts. Also around 1945 recheck. Hard to believe this is 50 kW, even PEP, aimed toward TX if not OK. Allan Weiner later confirmed they were off the air May 15, back May 16, and working on raising the power. May 17 at 1308 could only hear DW Russian via Rampisham. The hours WBCQ is active on 15420 are quite unclear and variable.

** U S A. Altho the WHR online schedule for Angel 5 at

http://www.whr.org/customcf/dsp_schedule_read.cfm?Search=Angel5

claims it is on 15710 until 1400, then 15195 seven days a week, I have not been hearing it on weekdays. On Sat May 17 at 1359-1400 they were inbooming at the QSY time. These are of interest only to compare with the other Maine station on 19m, WBCQ 15420-CUSB

** CHINA. Firedrake musical jamming check Sunday May 18, noting some differences from the day before:

17565, poor at 1336, so must be the current jumpy frequency of V. of Tibet via Uzbekistan? Not 17557 as in Aoki, but probably lands there upon occasion. Ends at 1400.

17550, FD at 1406, no doubt vs V. of Tibet via Madagascar, which I believe does not jump around or vary. Starts at 1400.

14410 and 13345, FD at 1411, both against low-power Sounds of Hopes. 14410 had quite a good signal but with flutter. The 13345 transmitter was on 13365 the day before (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** JAPAN [and non]. Good signal with music on 13630, May 18 at 1413 initially seemed Solh-like, but not when the Japanese lyrix came thru. And yes, // but not synch with NHK 11705 via Canada. 13630 is Skelton at 70 degrees, but I suppose might be useful in NE America, too close to Sackville for the 1400-1430 English broadcast.

11815 in Japanese at 1417 had annoying het from REE Costa Rica, still

off-frequency 11814. This is a problem only on Sundays as Cariari does not start `11815` until 1800 on weekdays, 1600 on Saturdays, but 1200 on Sundays

** SAUDI ARABIA. 17660, May 18 at 1406 with Qur`an, 1407 talk in French, very poor signal but better than usual. This is the BSKSA 14-16 French service of R. Riyadh, aimed due west. At first I was thinking this should be V. of Africa, Libya, in English, during the same bihour, but that is now on 17725 aimed due south, unheard

** VENEZUELA [non]. Sunday May 18 check of Aló, Presidente service via Cuba: at 1408, 17750 was audible, contrary to usual situation, but much better on // 13750, and also // poor 11875 which had co-channel, which per EiBi and Aoki could only be Taiwan in Indonesian. 1409 starting Mundo 7 runup program produced by RHC, with Entre Cubanos to follow later. Also audible at 1416 on 11670, which made an echo with 13750 due to different transmitter site and/or program feed routing

** CANADA [and non]. CHU missing from 7335, May 19 at 0135 --- not a trace, even with BFO on, just Vatican with S Asian service; yet CHU was inbooming on 14670 and also audible on 3330, so I conclude 7335 must really have been off the air, temporarily

** CHINA [and non]. I could hardly believe my ears the morning of May 19 when between 1415 and 1508 I sought in vain for any Firedrake. Not a trace of China`s lively jamming music to be heard in any of the usual places. Here`s what I found:

14410 at 1415 woman talking, seems Chinese. I first figured with FD off, Sound of Hope was getting thru, but from later reports, the Chicom just switched jamming audio from FD back to CNR-1 program, which they have used extensively before, due to the quake mourning period May 19-21. At 1435, 14410 was still weak with talk. By 1456, JBA.

Nothing audible on another OOB SOH frequency 13365 or 13645 like the days before, but propagation from E Asia (and just about everywhere else beyond N America) was very poor today, as least above 12 MHz. I was still getting VOA Korean on 11740 well at 1439 via Tinang, but IBB Philippines and NMI relaysalways have a lower-latitude advantage over China here.

15285 at 1416, normally a big FD signal, just something else, weak. BBC

Singapore the target.

12040 at 1419, Chinese with co-channel, no music. VOA Tinang the target.

11540 at 1508, SAH between two Chinese, not including Firedrake: RFA Tinian being the target.

9930 at 1418, 1440, Chinese with weak co-channel. Now I`m not sure which was on top: KWHR with SOH, or China jamming. Unfortunately, I did not think to carry out parallel chex to tell which audio was CNR-1 heard on various frequencies.

9605 at 1424, Chinese, no FD music. BBC the target.

9525 at 1423, het with VOI 9526, so I knew China was propagating on this band.

9450 at 1416, a high-power SOH frequency from Taiwan, no FD music.

I posted the no-Firedrake news on the DXLD yg and Andy Sennitt suggested it could be due to mourning. Sei-ichi Hasegawa, NDXC soon explained that during the 3-day quake mourning period, Firedrake has been replaced by CNR-1 as jamming source, out of respect for the dead. I say: How about some respect for the living, too, and their right to freedom of information?

** CHINA [non]. CRI facilitates a very unfavorable comparison between its

Albanian and Cuban relay sites, by adjacenting them on 9570 and 9580

respectively for English at 0100. May 19 at 0142 check, modulation was much stronger and clearer on 9570 than on 9580.

Are the Chicom really paying the Cubcom for such degraded relays, with similar problems on many other frequencies? Or do the Cubans donate their worst SW facilities out of general fraternal Commie gratitude? It`s odd that there have never been any RHC relays via China sites, which surely they could get if they wanted; guess Cuba isn`t that interested in reaching Asia

** CROATIA [non]. VOC, via GERMANY, 9925, May 19 at 0138 with a `hollow` reverb sound, i.e. very slightly unsynchronized transmitters. Not really objexionable,but an interesting effect, more apparent on speech than on music. Between 0100 and 0300 three 100 kW transmitters at two sites are all running at once, two at Wertachtal aimed 240 and 300 degrees, and another at Nauen, presumably the dominant one here, aimed 325 degrees. At 22-23 there is only one Wertachtal on 9925, at 23-01 there are two Wertachtals, and at 03-05 one Nauen. 7285 remains silent, and 3985 direct from Croatia is not making it here

** CUBA. Monday morning, May 19, RHC did not sign off around 1500 as it normally does. Listening to 15370, they were standing by for a live press conference about US infiltration into counter-revolutionary groups inside the country. After a few seconds of music fill, cut to the live event at 1502 about terroristas y mercenarios, // 13680, 12000, 11760. Ever notice how anti-Castro forces weren`t really labeled ``terrorist`` until after 9/11? To the dentro-Cubans, terrorist simply means anyone who opposes the unelected Commie

dictatorship. MEGO

** JAPAN. I keep running across additional frequencies for the 1400-1429  English broadcast, tho not really needed with reliable Sackville relay on 11705. May 19 at 1422, there it was on 11985, running slightly ahead of 11705, and much better today than 13630 Skelton. 11985 is due west from Yamata

** U S A [and non]. VOA Greenville, 94 degrees toward Africa, but with plenty of back-radiation to Central N America, excellent on 17895 May 19 at 2031 during African Beat music show, also interviewing in-studio guest, a Congolese/S African musician. This frequency is on air 1830-2100, while 15410 on same beam is at 1730-2000, and suffers from CVC co-channel. 17895 should also be great for Music Time in Africa, Sat & Sun 2000-2100, but the variety of American music shows at 21-22 have to make do with 15580 Botswana

** BRAZIL. I scan the 60 mb just about every night around 0600, and

never heard anything on 4755 until May 20, besides CODAR, of course.

At 0621 music, and talk definitely in Brazilian Portuguese, so my

first thought that PMA might finally have come back was quickly

dashed; a bit early for them anyway, 1721 local. It was also very

slightly on the low side, but I would not say as low as 4754.90.

Presumed R. Imaculada Conceição as others have been reporting.

Apparently all-night now, and I wonder if that is a recent expansion

in hours accounting for its new audibility? However, it sounded more

like a commercial station to me than a religionist. Nothing else from

Brazil found on 60m except a trace of 4915; 4790 Perú however was

stronger than usual

** BRAZIL. As byproduct of looking for International Radio Serbia on

6185, I had to deal with the splatter from RHC on 6180, May 21 at

0004; 6180 itself had heavy SAH and QRM from Amazonian service, as

usual. This was // clear 11780, but when I rechecked at 0021, 11780

was no longer to be heard, just bleedover from DentroCuban jamming

against Radio Martí on 11775

** CANADA. CHU still missing from 7335, May 20 at 1306 but audible on

14670. At 2105, 7335 was back on. Raymond Pelletier of NRC told me

they were fixing some tech problems, and that all transmitters would

be upgraded this summer

** CHINA [and non]. In second day of three-day quake mourning period,

still no Firedrake jamming to be heard May 20, but instead CNR-1

program feed, in some cases offset with echoes to make it more

annoying. At 1306, such jamming on 7445, 6110; on 9930 at 1411, about

equal mix of CNR1 and Sound of Hope via KWHR; one was dominating on

the FRG-7 with longwire, the other on YB-400 with internal random

wire. Same programming but not sure if // on 9450 from Taiwan

** CUBA [and non]. RHC 13760, May 19 at 1437 had a subaudible

heterodyne of about 6 Hz. Per EiBi and Aoki, the only possibility is

VOK in French to Europe, tho Aoki lacks the 11-15 UT RHC broadcast on

13760, where it has been for some months; and HFCC of course lacks

both N Korea and Cuba!

** JAPAN. NHKWRJ, 11985, fair at 1320 May 20 with Today`s Angle, i.e.

one dekaminute into the 1310-1340 transmission. This is due west from

Yamata, same as the 1400-1430 English broadcast recently reported

** KOREA NORTH. KCBS, which has been varying down to 11678-11677, May 20 at 1418 was more like 11679.8, judging from the het Korean talk was making with a 11680 station, and BFO confirmed nothing on the lower

frequencies. Aoki suggests 11680 should be RFA Vietnamese via Sri

Lanka, or VOT in Turkish

** KOREA NORTH [and non]. 9940, May 20 at 1312 in Korean plus rapid

pulsing jammer with pitch varying slightly. This would be North Korea

Reform Radio, daily at 1300-1330 via Taiwan, per Aoki. I notice that

John Wilkins in CO reported it exactly one week earlier, but no

mention of any jamming. Fortunately, DPRK jamming tends to be rather

sporadic

** NEW ZEALAND. RNZI still on 13840 AM, May 21 at 0019 with news

reports, no QRM audible, tho the quake jarred China into occupying

this frequency where it causes QRM in the Pacific and surely Asia. We

have been wondering if RNZI would move as a result. 15715-15720-15725

DRM also in with strong buzz

** NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS. Ah, almost a month from Solstice now and we are getting late-nite HF openings. May 20 at 0609 heard Chinese on 17880, fair with heavy fading, M&W interview, only station on 16m band, // 15680 but the latter running about 1 second behind. These are Radio Free Asia, 17880 via Saipan at 310 degrees, and 15680 via Tinian

at 296 degrees. No jamming audible, but Aoki says they are jammed as

you would expect. I expect the higher-latitude jamming from China was

not propagating as this seemed to be a rather localized opening from

the NMI

** SERBIA [non]. International Radio Serbia is gone again from the

Bijeljina transmitter in Bosnia-Herzegovina. On May 19 and 20,

Wolfgang Büschel and other European monitors were no longer hearing

the European service on 6100, just the low-power Stubline unit on

7200v. So is 6185 to North America also off?

Yes, no IRS, checking here UT May 21 at 0003, just XEPPM on 6185 with

Mexican music, 0023 Spanish talk. Also with huge splatter from Cuba

6180. Too, see UK for discussion of suggested move to 6190, 6195.

An hour later at 0105 I clicked on their website at

http://glassrbije.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=36&Itemid=156

and English stream came on right away. Since they don`t have enough

sense to use a clear SW frequency when it`s working, I`m glad I did

listen to crystal-clear webcast, embedded autolaunching WM player, so

why do they prompt a real player download?? Because I had been

wondering about the Eurovision Song Contest, this year from Belgrade.

Some of the features were about that; it started today with

semifinals, and the finale will be May 24. Nevertheless, IRS seems to

be partial to the Serbian entry! Not a good time to lose their main SW

capacity again.

I was looking for any word about suspending frequencies, of course

not, and finally found the transmission schedule

http://glassrbije.org/E/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=21&Itemid=34

which is the same one as before including 6100 and 6185. Closing

announcement at 0125 claimed we could hear them at the same time

tomorrow 6100 and 7240 --- but this transmission has never been on

those frequencies! Geez. What`s the story on Bijeljina, Dragan Lekic?

** THAILAND. R. Thailand World Service, nice chime IS and English ID

on 11625, May 20 at 1415, mentioning studios in Bangkok, transmitter

in Udon Thani, introducing Mandarin, and no jamming! This is the best

I`ve heard them in a long time, as the entire English broadcasts just

don`t make it here, whether aimed at NAm or not. 11625 is supposed to

shift from 54 to 30 degrees at 1315 as languages change from Japanese

to Chinese. 30 is better for us

** U K [non]. BBCWS via Ascension to Africa, 21470, unexpectedly good,

S9+10, May 20 at 1327, only signal on 13m band, report on how India

thrives on chaos, in Global Business. Maybe was getting help on the

last hop from some sporadic E (WWCR 15825 also up), and by 1405 had

declined to fadey S6-S9.

Checking for SERBIA 6185, May 21 at 0004, also went to the two

frequencies I had suggested for them to get away from the QRM, 6190,

and 6195. 6190 was still vacant, but very weak signal on 6195, which

by 0025 I could tell was in English. Can`t be anything but BBCWS via

Singapore, scheduled 22-01, sort of grayline well before sunset here.

If BBC would not mind, it could still be used by IRS to NAm, further

away from the mess on 6180 and certainly much less of a collision than

with the Mex on 6185

** U S A. WWRB, Morrison/Manchester TN, [NOT: McCaysville GA/Copper Hill TN --- that was WGTG, gone for years!] 3185 still audible with Brother Scare as late as 1259 UT May 20, just as Dave Frantz broke in

for a legal ID, then more B.S. So I guess they kept going past 1300,

but did not keep listening to find out.

The FCC has now posted an updated A-08 schedule as of 6 May, with a 2

instead of a 1 at the end of the URL:

http://www.fcc.gov/ib/sand/neg/hf_web/A08FCC02.TXT

Its very first entry shows 3185 as 00-13 at 340 degrees. It also still

shows 9385 at 13-23 at 340 degrees, but B.S. was still going there

until abrupt cutoff in mid-word at 2355* May 20, so it seems FCC

schedules are regarded as only approximate by some private US SW

stations. After 0000 May 21, we found WWRB with B.S. on 5745, 6890

** U S A. WRMI, 9955, May 21 at 0015 with religious talk in Spanish,

apparently without jamming, or maybe weak jamming underneath, could

not quite decide. Altho I thought it was some private preacher, per

April 1 schedule grid this would be R. Vaticano. But it still has not

been updated to move the 22-23 shows to 01-03, and add the new UFO

show from OKC at 21-24 weekdays

** VATICAN. 11740 in Italian at 0612 May 20, so it can`t be ITALY!

Except extraterratorially speaking. Yes, soon mentioned Vatican, as

scheduled, at 263 degrees; however, on Sundays only from 0600 it`s

Latin at 55 degrees. This was fair, but much better than Habana on

11760

** CAMBODIA [non]. As I was tuning 12130 for Hoa Mai via KWHR [non] --- I also noticed another broadcast on 12140 at 1246 May 21, in

Cambodian. Searches of the online A-08 skeds Aoki, Eibi and WRTH were fruitless,altho RFA is on 12140 after 1400 in Vietnamese. Suspecting Radio Free Asia, Ichecked their own schedule at http://www.rfa.org/english/about/frequencies.html

and there it is:

Khmer (2 hours daily)

1230-1330 12140, 15525

2230-2330 7580, 13740

This is a recent change as of May 18, the 12140 site Tinian. Even better signal May 22 at 1258 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. The 3-day mourning period is over, but still no sign of Firedrake May 22, checking many of the usual spots; at 1256, found 14410 with weak talk instead, most likely CNR-1 jamming against Sound of Hope; 9605 at 1315, CNR-1 jamming against BBC, no FD. I am suffering Firedrake Withdrawal --- the SW bands are not the same without it all over the place

** CUBA. 17705, May 21 at 2002 found open carrier instead of Venezuela relay, off at 2003, back on at 2004:30 but nothing further heard next few minutes. Refund

** SPAIN [non]. Quick check of REE Co-Official Languages segment, May 22 at 1250 on 15170 via Costa Rica: opening in Basque, immediately into Castilian news about Euskadi. O well, surely almost all Basques understand Spanish, so why bother with their own peculiar language?

** TAIWAN. 15465 with strange stuff May 22 at 1252, very emotional drama in oriental language with heaving sounds, musical accompaniment; 1255 outro and just music; 1300 5-pip timesignal (all same pitch) and off immediately without further announcement. Here`s what Aoki lists:

15465*R.TAIWAN INT. 1200-1300 1234567 Chinese 100 230 Paochung TWN 12018E 2343N CBS2 a08

15465 R.TAIWAN INT. 1300-1400 1234567 Amoy 100 230 Paochung TWN 12018E 2343N CBSD a08

Which means that it`s jammed until 1300, but not jammed when switching to Amoy at 1300; however, that part was missing, anyway

** U S A. Open carriers on 17530 and 17565, May 22 at 1352, the latter with a SAH and over some co-channel station, music. These are Greenville warming up for 1400 broadcasts in English, Spanish respectively, both signing-on at 1359. This is typical for IBB Greenville, turning on transmitters with open carrier 10-15 minutes before programming. Is this really necessary, Chollie? Seems a waste. And in this case blox something else. Probably the jumpy V. of Tibet via Uzbekistan and/or Chicom jamming, landing on 17565 today

** U S A. KVOH, 17775, not especially strong, Spanish religious talk, May 21 at 2019, but just strong enough to audiblize its parasitic spurs on 17920-17921 and weaker around 17630, plus/minus 145+ kHz. They all weakened by 2030

** VIETNAM [non]. 12130, May 21 at 1243, sounds like old woman screaming in the field, not clearly enunciated, but presumably Vietnamese on the Wednesday-only 12-13 Hoa Mai transmission via KWHR Hawaii. 1258 announcement in rational Vietnamese, 1259 KWHR ID and OCS past 1300

** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. RN de la RASD, 6300, May 21 at 0640, strumming and singing mentioning Sahara; fair with QRM from ute pulsing, and also SAH, presumably RHC mixing product but RHC audio not a factor at the moment

** CHINA [and non]. Still no resumption of Firedrake May 23, e.g. on 11785 checked at 1257, at least two Chinese language services mixing

** CUBA. RHC again running open carrier on 11760, normally one of their best morning frequencies, May 23 at 1256, 1305 and still at 1357 chex. Why? Loses feed to transmitter and nobody notices? The other usual frequencies were modulating normally

** CUBA [non]. R. República has resumed broadcasts via Germany. Heard May 22 at 0147 on 5955, in Spanish, typical fare and not // jammed UK 6155. No jamming yet on 5955, which is Tue-Sat 01-02, 125 kW from Nauen at 285 degrees since May 16.

The also have a new live morning show, Amanecer, M-F at 10-11 on 9490 via Sackville, 250 kW at 227 degrees

** GREECE. Greek music fair at 0514 May 23 on 11645. This 05-06 hour from VOG is supposed to be in Albanian, in the Filia service, but did not stay with it till any announcements

** MEXICO. Looking for traces of XEXQ, 6045, May 23 at 1249 and traces there were of classical music on definite weak carrier; at first thought it was Ritual Fire Dance, but then recognized some notes from Bolero; battling noise level from Kansas/Nebraska lightning

** NIGERIA. VON, 15120, May 22 at 1847 with news of Nigeria and Africa; fair signal in the clear, fades, modulation better than usual; continued past 1900 when overshadowed by Spain 15110

** SERBIA [non]. After missing for a few days, International Radio Serbia is back on air via Bijeljina, B-H. May 22 at 2337, resumption of the usual heavy clash between it and XEPPM on 6185, with a rippling SAH and the Mexican on top, but rather sure the other station is Serbian as scheduled, and same situation after 2359 as IRS starts English. Wolfgang Büschel had noted at 2000 the other Bijeljina frequency, 6100, was back on the air in German

** SPAIN. Arabic singing on 12015, May 22 at 1926 slightly over constant RTTY, but only poor signal and seems undermodulated; automatic timesignal on halfhour 1930 tipped off that it`s REE, yes, as scheduled eastward from Noblejas.

Was not expecting to hear classical music on Friday morning from REE during the 13 UT hour, since Clásicos Populares is now scheduled Mon-Tue-Wed only and there`s a talk show on Thursdays, but there was some May 23 at 1308 on 17595 and via Costa Rica 15170; this show focused on México, 1324 IDed as ``América Mágica`` as on schedule Fridays 1305-1355, with one repeat UT Mondays at 0005-0055

** TURKEY. Qur`an recitation with usual long pauses, good at 0510 May 23 on 11980. Figured it was some Arab country, like Algeria relay, but looked up and it could only be VOT Emirler, scheduled in Turkish at 310 degrees toward us. Must default to Arabic for Qur`an since it`s Friday, but what is this doing on a secular state broadcaster??? Or do they do this every day? Is there a struggle at TRT over whether to broadcast Qur`an?

** U S A. VOA Portuguese to Africa, 9815, May 22 at 1824 concluding Temas e Debates, singing, and into a VOA Editorial. Service over at 1829 but no sign-off; 1830 into VOA English for one minute by mistake, 1831-1840* open carrier, why? This is Greenville at 91 degrees. I wonder how well 9 MHz gets to Angola over an afternoon path in our summer. Why not use something closer? O yeah, 9815 was via Morocco 12 months ago, no longer an option; several services formerly via Morocco to Africa are now via Greenville. CIRAF targets for this:

all of Africa except the northern and southern tiers of countries. 91 from

Greenville is centred on Lagos, close to São Tomé, but it misses Guinea Bissau and Angola which are further south, as well as Maputo, but crosses Moçambique near Nampula, if it gets that far

** U S A. WBCQ check May 22 at 1817, during quite poor propagation: 15420 was JBA, I think, vs GB-15410 splatter; I found out too late on Wednesday that WORLD OF RADIO has been moved up to 2100 UT Wednesdays on 15420-CUSB. 9330, said to be on the air this one hour only weekdays, 18-19, definitely on at 1826 but poor with talk show // 7415. At this hour, 9330 carries better than 7415, which is why the client wanted it on, no doubt

** ARGENTINA [and non]. May 23 at 2001 found a fluxuating subaudible heterodyne, every few seconds oscillating from 0 to maybe 10 Hz, which means at least one of the two transmitters here is unstable, and we bet it`s RAE, which at least has managed to almost match Morocco, a feat in itself. Just traces of French and Arabic audio, respectively. Earlier this week RAE was as much as 280 Hz low

** BIAFRA [non]. V. of Biafra International, via WHRI, 17650, Friday May 23: excellent local-like signal, with only occasional quick deep fades to remind us the ionosphere is involved.

Main speaker is a very persuasive orator, and it was hard to tune away as he detailed all the charges against the vicious Nigerians. Mostly in English, but at times alternating with Ibo (or Igbo?), a tonal language.

2008 tune-in, was saying that Nigeria had killed 2,000 innocent people, just because they did not want to be Nigerians.

2015, ID in English and talk in Ibo, mentioning Fulani, Yoruba and 1976

2017, full English ID mentioning origination in Washington, DC; call-and-response song.

2022, News Analysis. May 30, 1967 was the birth of Biafra due to genocide and the brutal prejudice of Nigeria, northern Nigerians in particular; alternating with Ibo. A million-man-march is called for this May 30 to celebrate theanniversary (so next week`s program should be even more interesting).

2035 ID with Washington DC again; Commentary about Nigerian savages, and how Biafra could eventually emerge stronger and free, like Israel, Ireland, France and South Africa. ``Biafra has come to stay``, ``Hail Biafra, the land of justice``. Biafrans all over the world in exile should celebrate independence on May 30, 2008 and display the green, black and red flag with a rising sun in themiddle; there is a provisional Biafran government in exile.

2043 referred to ``Nigerian Islamo-Fascists``, (has he been inside the Beltway too long?) and several more comments of a pro-Christian nature. There is a peace march from somewhere to Enugu, May 22 to 30;

took a minute or two seemingly naming every town in Biafra.

2053 ``God Bless Africa`` anthem on flute, and more music to 2058* without any WHR ID.

According to FCC A-08 schedules, this transmission Fridays only at 20-21 on 17650, 250 kW at 87 degrees, will be switching to 15665 from June 1 to September 7, then back to 17650 for the rest of the season. Make that June 7 which will be the first Friday after June 1. Nothing about that heard on this week`s broadcast, nor found on their website, with lots of other info, topped by the flag as described:

http://www.biafraland.com/vobi.htm

The WHR online schedule shows for Angel 1:

2000 - 2100 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Fr VOBI Broadcasts Oguchi Nkwocha 17650 So Oguchi Nkwocha may or may not be the main orator; searching on this name at the biafraland website was unproductive

** RWANDA. DW Kigali, 15205 in English at 2102 May 23, still with unstable frequency warbling slightly with BFO on, unnoticeable with BFO off

** SPAIN. I checked for XEYU May 23 at 1815 but nothing around 9600. Weak signal on 9600, May 23 at 1936 with song in Spanish repeating the word belísima, or was it morísima? Or was it Italian? Anyhow, one might think XEYU was back except this was on 9600.0, not 9599.3v, and a few minutes later an announcement in French. Faded down and gone by 1950. Looked up later, it`s REE which is in French M-F 19-20 on 9600 at 110 degrees. Beware, as this broadcast could also contain some Spanish

** U S A [and non]. So much for a clear shot at Syria, which never made it here the last few days, not even a carrier on 9330. WBCQ, which shut down 9330 after losing Rod Hembree`s business, not only brought it back at 18-19 May 22, but Brother Scare to the rescue! He`s now on 9330, as heard May 23 at 1953, running about 3 seconds ahead of WWRB 9385. No Syria het even tho Turkey was in on 9460, and Greece weaker on 9420. Overcomer Ministry still going at 2105 with a drama, not B.S. himself at the moment. Then I heard from Allan Weiner that BS has bought 24/7 hours on 9330 and then 5110: Seven days on 9330 at 1200-0100, on 5110 at 0100-1200.

Allan also says WORLD OF RADIO will not be back on 9330 or 5110 yet, just on 7415 as before, Thu 2330 and Mon 0415; and 15420, Wed 2100. 15420 was JBA here May 23 at 1959

** U S A [non]. If you don`t get enough African music from VOA in English, the French service has a wildly enthusiastic DJ, as noted via Bonaire 17550, Friday May 23 at 2005 giving phone numbers and spelling out e-mail addresses, presumably of listeners wanting contacts. One sounded like cher-US-star, then some Mozambique music. VG signal here slightly out of the target area

** U S A. VOA in French on 9830, May 23 at 2107 news, ID, mixing with constant RTTY. At 2100-2130 M-F this is São Tomé at 335 degrees; strangely enough, it`s half an hour earlier on Sat & Sun

** U S A. Pastor Pete Peters, via WWCR 9980, May 23 at 2108 with hum, dead air, someone who can count to two making mike chex, feedback; 2110 PPP audible but off-mike, apparently a live outdoor event, inviting children to come forward and be taught how to sing something for a Sunday performance. 2112 a prayer but barely audible by non-deities despite huge signal; 2114 could barely hear the call but the response blasted in, ``Jesus Christ is king``. 2115, PPP is finally on-mike himself, and immediately offers prayer for the audio crew, ``send us tech-angels to help``. BTW, Laporte CO is not far from the May 22 tornado outbreaks, but no mention of that heard

** ARGENTINA [and non]. Re previous report: May 23 at 2001 found a fluxuating subaudible heterodyne, every few seconds oscillating from 0 to maybe 10 Hz, which means at least one of the two transmitters here is unstable, and we bet it`s RAE, which at least has managed to almost match Morocco, a feat in itself. Just traces of French and Arabic audio, respectively. Earlier this week RAE was as much as 280 Hz low 

WTFK??? 15345, I hope most realized, as nobody has asked, but I am guilty of omitting it (gh)

** CHINA. Still no Firedrake almost a week after it went off, presumably for the 3-day quake mourning period. Sunday May 25, FE propagation was good, so found Chinese talk and programming, presumably CNR-1 jamming instead as follows, targets derived from Aoki:

15795 at 1253, over All India Radio, in Chinese. Certainly not a friendly

neighbor. What does China have to fear from India?

15465 at 1255, Chinese recitation and singing. This may have been RTI in Chinese as also heard recently, but listed as jammed. What I heard did not seem // the CHR1`s.

15255 at 1253 // 15795, VOA Chinese via Tinang.

14410 at 1332, CNR1, running a bit ahead of otherwise // 12040. On 14410 it`s against Sound of Hope via Taiwan.

12040 at 1330, CNR1, VG over VOA Chinese via Tinang.

BTW, this was during a local power outage, not related to the tornados elsewhere in Garfield County yesterday, altho the fact that it took OG&E two sesquihours to repair it may have been. This reduced the line noise level but did not eliminate it, as I tuned on battery power

** CUBA [and non]. RHC, 13760, May 25 at 1332 over co-channel QRM with a SAH, which must be V. of Korea to Europe: Commies vs Commies. Am I enjoying this too much?

** U S A. WRMI, 9955, better than usual, F-G at 2113 May 23, no jamming, as Overnight AM about Mars missions was about to pause for break; guest has website http://www.drsky.com where we see has also appeared on C2CAM. Do NOT go to doctorsky.com, a ripoff paid link site combining night sky with weight loss! Jeff White says WRMI still hasn`t finished fixing up their NAm antenna

** U S A. WHRI 11785 with Hmong Lao Radio, Sunday May 25 at 1326 was accompanied by very distorted // spur around 11793, plus some pulsing noises periodically. There was some QRM to DGS on 11775, but it did not sound the same, and could not pin it down to 11777

** CHINA. CNR-1 jammers, sounds like a drama, May 26 at 1642 on 9905 vs R. Free Asia in Chinese via Palau; and // on 9930 against Sound of Hope via KWHR

** MADAGASCAR. Netherlands national anthem, which RNW apparently plays once an hour concluding each Dutch transmission, until 1657* May 26 on 15335; this is 335 degrees from Madagascar. Earlier in the hour was also hearing 13740, also Dutch but at 359 degrees, replacement since May 15 for 13840 tnx to China

** TURKEY. After weeks of poor to nil reception on 15450, VOT  surprisingly good May 26 after 1300 concluding Hues & Colours, later Turkish folk music. Perhaps a fluke opening from the region, with VOR also in on 15550 et al. SWPC 1200 UT mid-latitude K-index of 2, and Solar Flux for the day before of 68 would hardly account for it

** U S A. WBCQ, 15420-CUSB, May 26 at 1657 with the Fence Lake Prophet in characteristic cadence, usually two syllables even pitch, next syllable higher pitch, i.e. anapestic meter, but not strictly so as the passages read were not intentionally written in that way, sometimes three plus one, as in Morse U or V. In any event, this prophet`s brain is wired in a very strange way. Fair signal.

1702 broke for program ID as Words of the Spirit, offering free printed

publications by that name and Battle Cry Sounding. Gave e-mail address prophet @ [something].com and P-mail address which I could not copy either. Pause at 1703:30 to 1704 or so, but no WBCQ ID inserted; is it ever? Some SWBC stations believe FCC hourtop ID requirements do not apply to them. Later, heard from Allan that he has upped power on 15420

** U S A. WHRI, 11785, with spurs worse than the day before, May 26 at 1638, big distorted blob on 11775 blocking Defunct Gene Scott, Anguilla, and another one on 11795 with no detectable victim. Christians vs Christians!

** ZIMBABWE [non]. SW Radio Africa, 12035 via Rampisham UK, May 26 at 1710 interview with MDC activists who have fled. Seemed not entirely in English, or I was not locked into the accent yet. Reception improved from fair to good as I listened for a few minutes

** CHINA. When I heard somewhat religious-sounding songs with full orchestra, in unID language on 12260.0, S9+10 at 2013 May 27, I suspected I had something new and significant. Could it be a harmonic, 2 x 6130? But nothing audible there so early in the afternoon. Hmmm, WYFR still carries Taiwan relays and also does its own Chinese programming, so let`s look around for parallels --- soon found one on 11740, which I remembered is a WYFR frequency; trouble is they were not in sync. I finally decided that 12260 was a split second ahead of 11740. Could not

be a WYFR mixing product, as there is also nothing midway on 12000, so two strixe against that idea.

Everything fell into place when I fired up the Aoki list: 12260 is a Sound of

Hope frequency, so jammed, of course by CNR-1, no longer Firedrake. 11740 is Radio Free Asia, in Chinese via Tinian, and WYFR, not in Chinese does not come on 11740 until 2200. So all I was hearing were two Chicom jammers

** CUBA [and non]. 13760, May 27 at 1404, het of about 200 Hz on the hi side to RHC. This is where VOK has been colliding for a long time; a few days ago, two were within a few Hz. But now there is a third player; somehow I got on the mailing list of CRI`s French service, and this just came in:

``Changement de fréquence --- A partir de 22 mai 2008, la fréquence 13670 / 21.95 orientée vers l’Afrique du nord-ouest, est remplacée par 13760/21.8. Soyez fidèle

Time? Per EiBI it was: 13670 1400-1600 CHN China Radio Int. F WAf /ALB So via Albania --- and THAT may be the SAH I have been hearing on RHC 13760, with Korea an audible het further off, so it`s a three way now, Commies vs Commies vs Commies! Way to go!

** INDONESIA [and non]. Incredibly, instead of the whining 1-kHz het between 9525 and 9526, May 27 at 1434 check, only heard a lo het of 100 Hz or slightly more, estimated; Indonesian music, axually sounded more Mideastern, atop the other station, presumably CRI Russian as scheduled and often heard during this hour. Yes, VOI was back on 9525 after many months on 9526, but will it stay there? Or so is my assumption unless a third station has moved in to confuse things, like on 13760

** TURKEY. Once again May 27, VOT 15450 coming in fairly well, but at 1306-1313 it dumped off the air repeatedly. I turned on the BFO and it was apparent that when it came back on each time, the power would build up to normal in 2 or 3 distinct steps

** U S A. WINB, 13570, May 27 at 2018 with the anapestic-cadenced New Mexico prophet, but not // 15420 WBCQ with same programming but at this moment breaking for contact info. 13570 had the usual unstable warble on transmitter when monitored with BFO. Per  http://www.winb.com/schedule.htm Global Spirit Proclamation on WINB is M-F at 16-18 and 20-22. Does the speaker ever give her name?

** U S A [and non]. WRMI inaudible on 9955 at 1433 May 27, just some residual pulse Dentro-Cuban jamming. This is when the DX program Frecuencia al Día is scheduled, Tuesdays 1430. Perhaps as the only Spanish program during the entire week in this semi-hour it attracts undue attention as possibly counter-revolutionary; tough luck, Dino, who isn`t even Cuban! However, at 2011 recheck, WRMI was in the clear, no jamming, fair signal at S9+18 with programming in English about Poland; from WRN, Polish Radio as scheduled

** U S A. KVOH, 17775, May 27 at 2025, overmodulated but muffled and distorted, worse than usual, Spanish religious talk with piano(?) background. Figured I would find the 17920/17630 spurs along with it, but not this time

** ALGERIA [non]. Surprised to hear same Qur`an on three different 7 MHz

frequencies in // --- well, not quite; comparing on different receivers, they

were slightly out of synch with each other, May 28 at 0537, 7305 leading 7260,

more melodic than your average muezzin, with pauses for plain speech in Arabic;

7150 slightly behind 7260 and 7305 at 0542 when segué to secular music, Arabic

talk. At 0545, 7305 definitely strongest and 7260 weakening. Per new sked from

DX Mix News, Bulgaria, Issoudun, France relay started May 24 on 7305 during the

0500 hour; per old skeds, 7260 is Skelton and 7150 is Sines, both under auspices

of VTC while 7305 is TDF. All these are aimed back at northern Africa

** ANGUILLA. Defunct Gene Scott, 11775, absent May 28 at 1326 check. At some

point they will probably close down for a while to install the ex-KTBN

transmitter, but I don`t know if this is it. So will they be running two

frequencies at once, or retire the old one?

** INDONESIA. VOI definitely back on frequency 9525 after months on 9526

instead, May 28 at 1300 with English announcement that Japanese was ending,

Korean starting. Axually, it`s a shade below 9525 by a few tens of Hz perhaps

** SAUDI ARABIA. BSKSA huge buzzy transmitter centered on 11915, no doubt the

same unit as before 1800 on 15205, heard May 28 at 2118. It only spread about 5

kHz above and below here, but messes up most of the 25m band in Europe

** U S A. Glad to confirm that WBCQ, 15420-CUSB, aired new WORLD OF RADIO 1410, when checked at 2102 UT Wednesday May 28. Quite weak signal compared to

Chile-15410, etc.

** U S A. VOA, Greenville, 15390, supposed to carry Creole service to Haiti

starting at 2100 until 2130, but May 28 at 2104, found open carrier only, a

farting noise, off and on the air a few times; finally brought up audio at 2106

joining program in progress, which I had already confirmed was running OK on //

13725; also on // 11895 checked at 2117. The old GB transmitters must be quite

temperamental

** U S A. WHRI`s spur from 11785 is getting worse and moving around. May 28 at

2113, found a huge blob centered on 11771, a bit further from fundamental than

before. Earlier in day, Anguilla was missing from 11775 and may still have been

as I could not hear any trace of it, no beat with an 11775 carrier. During

music, the 11771 blob was just about as loud as 11785, but more distorted. Also

matching spur at 2115 on 11799, this one colliding with RHC on 11800 in Spanish,

which I had not been able to hear a few minutes earlier. Christians vs Commies!

** U S A. WTJC, 9370 is another POS transmitter. May 28 at 2122 found an

extremely distorted FMy blob with music spreading 9255 to 9285, centered around

9270 when first checked, a few minutes later more like 9275. WTJC has done this

before so I suspected them immediately, but on 9370 itself there was a carrier

with barely detectable modulation I could not be certain was //. However, WBOH

5920 was audible, with a familiar hymn tune, and it was definitely // the blob

which by 2126 was centered about 9260 spreading plus/minus 30 kHz. So much for

Wadi el Nil on 9250! However, at 2129 all the 9 MHz stuff vanished as they

turned off the WTJC transmitter + parasitix. It stayed off most of the half

hour, but at 2200 recheck, 9370 was back on with full modulation, ID and IRN

`news`, no spurs, fortunately for WINB which had also just opened on 9265.

BTW, Dave Frantz of WWRB once told me that helpful people from FBN in Newport NC

came over to run his previous station WGTG in McCaysville GA when he had to be

away, but they stole the plans for his homemade transmitter so they could build

their own, which in a few years signed on as WTJC/WBOH

** ANGUILLA. PMS, 11775, missing yesterday was back today May 29 at 1300 check

** CHINA. After 10 days, Firedrake music is back as the primary jamming method

of the Chicom dictatorship, afraid to death of letting the oppressed Chinese

people get any information from abroad. May 29 between 1250 and 1306 I was

hearing FD again on many of the usual targets, some with the victim also

audible, but usually not, on a not-very-good FE morning: 7280, 9605, 9680,

11665, 11710, 11785, 11805, 11825, 12040.

Another bandscan at 0116 May 30: the lowest frequency with some FD audible was

15385, weak and fluttery; also at 0119 on 17765; both against VOA Chinese via

Tinang

** CHINA [non]. CRI in English, with two separate programs at 0124 May 30:

regular show on 9580 via Cuba, // 9790 via Canada with item about Tibetan

houses; and on 9570, 6020 via Albania with SAH and AH, China Drive show from

domestic service, at first a bit of Chinese music, but then American-accented

announcer talking about psychoanalysis, NBA playoffs. Is it still drive-time in

Beijing after 9 am? Is this a regular spot for China Drive, 0100 UT via Albania

but not Cuba or Canada? 9580 modulation had some rumble on it but better than

last time I noticed

** INDONESIA. While the past two days it was back on 9525, instead of 9526, VOI

was not detectable on either frequency May 29 at 1306

** SERBIA [non]. IRS still on 6185 colliding with and generally underneath

XEPPM, in Serbian at 2335 May 29, and after 0100 May 30 in English, unusable.

Nothing on 6190. Dragan Lekic tells DXLD that he has been in contact with

Predrag Graovac, technical director of International Radio Serbia, and passed on

my suggestion that they move to 6190 --- and this will be done starting May

30-31! For the NAm broadcasts between 2330 and 0130, including English at

0000=except UT Sundays and 0100=daily. Reports wanted to

radioju(at)sbb(dot)co(dot)yu

** U S A. World of Radio via WRMI 9955, new time of 0100 UT Fridays, audible

without jamming May 30 at 0118 check, but very poor with noise; by 0122 it was

much better and readable

** U S A. WHRI still putting out spurblobs from 11785 transmitter; haven`t they

noticed yet? May 29 at 1953 centered on 11771 and 11799

** U S A. KVOH, 17920 spur, May 29 at 2117 consisted mainly of a regular beat

like a washing machine agitator, // 17775 which had the same beat plus norteña

music

Keith McGinnis – Hingham, MA

SDR-IQ and Wellbrook 1539

Heard today May 4,2008

Radio Canada International 9800 khz Listened between 1530 UTC and

1600 UTC. This is first time RCI has decoded here. Signal was pretty

good with dropouts infrequent.

Allen Willie – St. Johns, NL Yaesu

FRG100 and 100 foot wire

Have managed to log at least one station on each of the shortwave bands mentioned for the CME for May with the exception of two yet to hear something on. Left yet are 11 and 120 meters .

Here are the logs as follows on the rest so far.

90 meter band - 3.320 khz -  May 9/08  - 23:18 UTC - SABC  South Africa w/ commentary and music in Afrikaans ; SINPO - 44433 

75 meter band - 3.985 khz - May 9/08 - 23:07 UTC - REE Spain w/ woman in spanish  and news ; SINPO - 45444 

60 meter band - 4.745 khz - May 9/08 - 22:59 UTC - R. Mauritaine w/ arabic commentary , mentions of Mauritaine ,string guitar music, time pips TOH ; SINPO 44444 

49 meter band - 6.065 khz - May 8/08 - 21:22 UTC - R. Sweden w/ news and sports in English, mention of documentary on Swedish cemetery problems; SINPO 55544 

41 meter band - 7.285 khz - May 8/08 - 21:45 UTC - China Radio Intl via Albania  w/ commentary on Olympic torch relay; SINPO 55544 

31 meter band - 9.700 khz - May 8/08 - 22:05 UTC - R. Bulgaria w/ musical program featuring Bulgarian musicians at concert  and ID in English,;SINPO 5555 

25 meter band - 11.620 khz - May 5/08 - 21:25 UTC - All India Radio w/ Faithfully Yours, a letter from listeners reading program; SINPO 55555 

22 meter band - 13.620 khz - May 9/08 - 17:47 UTC - Voice of Kuwait w/ song by woman in arabic, commentary by man and woman; SINPO 55544 

19 meter band - 15.085 khz - May 9/08 - 17:35 UTC - VOIRI Voice of Iran w/ chants followed by frequencies given in German, mentions of Iran; SINPO 55534 

16 meter band - 17.530 khz - May 9/08 - 14:03 UTC - Voice of America via Kuwait ? w/ news items on World News Now, report on athletes preparing for Olympics in Beijing; SINPO 55544 

15 meter band - 18.890 khz - May 9/08 - 17:55 UTC - WYFR, Okeechobee, Florida w/ Family Bilble Reading Fellowship program , Family Radio ID, website and mailing address given in English; SINPO 55555 

13 meter band - 21.570 khz - May 11/08 - 14:47 UTC - REE Spain w/ commentary on type of sports game by two men in Spanish; SINPO 44322 

As mentioned have  2 bands left to complete 11 and 120 meters. Also have started to log one station on each AM frequency also. Results to post soon.

Good morning from the North Atlantic 

Listened from 11:40 - 12:30 UTC  May 17 on the shortwave bands with the following:

 AUSTRALIA  - 11.945 khz - 11:40 UTC - R. Australia  w/  English program about   "happiness " and meditation SINPO 44434  ;    // 9.580 khz SINPO 35533

 CHINA - 17.490 khz - 12:17 UTC - China Radio Intl w/ English news including earthquake report;Chinese media stories   SINPO 45533

  CHINA (presumed CRI ) 11.750 khz - w/ Chinese language lessons (transmission abruptly cut off at 11.59 with no closing)

 JAPAN - 17.585 khz - 12:22 UTC - R. Japan NHK w/ English talk on sightseeing in Tokyo  SINPO 55544

 KOREA, SOUTH - 9.650 khz - KBS Radio Korea w/ English news and ID by woman  "KBS World Radio in Seoul, S. Korea"  SINPO 55555 

UNIDENTIFIED - 12.040 khz - weak w/ oriental or chinese music, drumbeats  and unknown language  SINPO 25522

Down in the Basement

(Editor – Jay Heyl)

No Column This Month

Nothin’ But Net

(Editor – Martin Foltz)

Thanks to Paul Walker, Kevin Redding, Harry Helms, Michael Richard, Don Kaskey and Powell E. Way III for their submissions and comments for this month’s column. Enjoy.

Kevin Redding – Gilbert, AZ

In the Internet Age, AM Radio Needs Fine-Tuning

Sun May 4, 2008 11:39 am (PDT)

In the Internet Age, AM Radio Needs Fine-Tuning
By Marc Fisher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 4, 2008; M03

The flat voice of a police officer reading off the blotter contrasts starkly with the smooth introduction from the professional announcer who precedes him on the air: "8:09 p.m., report of juveniles setting fire to a pile of papers behind an apartment complex; 3:14 p.m.,
Annapolis police respond to report of an argument. The man violently resisted efforts to place him in the police car."

It's the morning police report coming to you "from Radio Park" on Annapolis's hometown station, WNAV (1430 AM), one of a dwindling number of intensely local voices of the sort that used to dominate the AM dial.

The digital revolution threatens to render irrelevant or unprofitable many of the most prominent old media, whether they be newspapers, books, magazines or television and radio stations. As each of those industries struggles to hold on to audiences or attract young consumers, the medium that has fallen farthest and fastest is probably AM radio.

AM is where radio was born, yet its static-plagued, low-fidelity stations seem to have lost an entire generation of listeners. Paradoxically, however, AM -- from tiny small-town stations specializing in farm reports and high school sports coverage to booming big-city outlets that pioneered the concepts of all-news, sports talk and Top 40 pop hits -- is where much of what's popular on the Internet got its inspiration.

The swap shop call-in shows that once filled the midday airwaves on many local stations are the spiritual godfather of Craigslist and other online classified sites. The sports phone-in shows that have long been an AM staple spawned the fan message boards that have
proven so popular on the Internet. And although the great American tradition of ranting -- passionate political tirades, righteous religious preaching, get-rich-quick financial schemes -- surely dates back to Colonial times, it was first propelled into a mass, coast-to- coast culture on AM radio, and has found a happy new home on the Web.

Only two AM stations show up in Arbitron's latest ratings of the audience for the top 21 radio outlets in the Washington area, illustrating a steady decline that began three decades ago but has accelerated in many cities over the past few years. Washington's longtime top-rated AM station, all-news WTOP, moved over to the FM dial two years ago, giving up AM radio's superior geographic reach to be where the listeners are.

The two AM stations that do show up in the top 21 -- conservative talk WMAL (630) and sports talk WTEM (980) -- have significantly older audiences than the most popular FM stations. (The next three AM stations in the local ratings are all Spanish-language stations, with much smaller audiences.)

But to spend a week listening only to AM radio, as I recently did, is to explore a world not unlike that of the Internet, where what's dominant is not reasoned and careful conversation, but the wild and woolly, voices crying out to be heard in a soundscape of plenty.

"Is masturbation okay?" talk host Marsha Sumner asks her panel on Heaven 1580 (WPGC), a gospel and Christian station. "If God is not getting the glory, something is wrong. Sin is sin, boo."

Another Christian station, WFAX (1220) in Falls Church, features a preacher breathlessly explaining why he's reluctant to pay his taxes. "We Christians are taught to pay our government for good leadership, but the Bible nowhere tells us we should pay our taxes for evil," he says.

A motivational speaker on one of several brokered-time stations -- stations that sell their airtime by the hour to all comers, but mainly to people selling stock schemes, preaching some manner of gospel or hawking conspiracy theories of a certain extravagance -- spends half an hour urging employees to learn the way to their bosses' hearts.

And on three different signals in Virginia, Maryland and the District, syndicated talk host Laura Ingraham asks her guest to please "tell us about the connection between Darwinism and Nazism."

"I'm so glad you asked, Ann," replies guest Ben Stein, an author who has apparently slipped and confused Ingraham with another blond conservative firebrand, Ann Coulter.

Syndicated talk shows make up most of the English-language programming on any scan of the AM dial these days. It's vastly cheaper and easier to carry nationally syndicated shows than to produce original programming.

So big stations carry Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and the sports guys from ESPN and Fox, while scratchier signals beam in second-team conservatives such as Michael Medved, Michael Reagan and Bill Bennett. Over at WWRC (1260), what's left of the attempt to create a liberal alternative to right-wing talk radio struggles on, with Ed Schultz, Bill Press and Thom Hartmann finding a tiny audience for their daily menu of complaint about the rest of the media, plus Bush-bashing of the awkward-presidential-sound-bite school.

And then station managers wonder why listeners have migrated to live, local programming over on the FM dial. The ratings say the audiences for many AM stations number only in the low thousands or perhaps even lower.

Yet from a spot in Northwest Washington, it's possible to hear 35 AM stations by day and dozens more at night, when signals from clear across the country come sailing in.

At least six of those 35 stations broadcast in Spanish, three more in Korean or Chinese, a couple of others occasionally in Amharic or French. These are the proto-Facebook groups of an earlier era, subcultures invisible to much of the population, yet thriving in their own little corners of the culture.

The voices on AM radio are too often canned and delivered by satellite from distant places, saying nothing about life in the Washington area. Once-great local stations such as WAGE in Leesburg and WMAL in Washington now rely largely on talk shows pulled off the satellite.

But whether it's a Spanish station in Manassas offering listeners a chance to vent their views on Prince William County's crackdown on illegal immigrants, or longtime local talk host Bernie McCain talking D.C. politics on WOL (1450), there are still a precious few spots along the dial where the programming sounds like the place from which the station is broadcasting.

A comeback for AM is a long shot, but it is only possible with programs that cannot be heard anywhere else, not even on the Web, with the daily recitation of the police blotter, the triumphs of local high school athletes and the voices of the places where we live.

Kevin

Increase in Internet radio listening among workers

Wed May 7, 2008 6:47 am (PDT)

BizReport : Research : May 07, 2008
Increase in Internet radio listening among workers
A growing number of workers are listening to radio online at work and abandoning AM/FM receivers, according to a recent study.
by Helen Leggatt

Findings from Arbitron and Edison Media Research’s “Internet & Multimedia” study show the number of people in the U.S. that listen to the radio over the Internet has increased from 12% to 20% from 2007 to 2008.

During the same period the number of employees listening via traditional radio sets dropped from 88% to 80%.

In particular, the study found that education played a big part in whether an employee was likely to listen to radio online. Thirty percent of college graduates listen to online radio most often compared with just 12% of non-college graduates.

"For a growing number of people, obviously especially among those whose work is in front of a computer all day, the Internet is simply a better solution for 'radio' listening than a traditional AM/FM Radio,” said Larry Rosin, president of Edison Media Research.

“Thus radio stations need to think about the quality of their streams, and promote their streams. After all, on the Internet, the competition is not just the other stations in town; instead the possibilities are essentially infinite."

For marketers, knowing that there’s a large audience listening during work hours should encourage better use of online radio ad station media, including testing different time slots.

http://www.bizreport.com/2008/05/increase_in_internet_radio_listening_among_workers.html

Kevin

Posted by: Harry Helms W5HLH

Wed May 7, 2008 7:27 am (PDT)

"Workers of the world, log on! You have nothing to lose but your limited station choices!"

----------
Harry Helms W5HLH
Smithville, TX EL19
 

Posted by: Kevin Redding

Wed May 7, 2008 7:32 am (PDT)

 CCrane has a WiFi radio to help with this....

http://www.ccrane.com/radios/wifi-radios/cc-wifi-radio.aspx

Kevin

Paul Walker – Abbeville, SC

Nothin' But Net... Classic Hits Power 97.7 KPOW-FM La Monte/Sedalia

Fri May 2, 2008 1:00 pm (PDT)

At 96K Stereo, this station sounds pretty good! Power 97.7 is a Classic Rock/"Harder" Rock n Roll leaning Classic hits station.

The webstream is obviously being fed by an FM radio tuned to 97.7 plugged into acomputer. From the hiss and noise in the signal you hear when the audio is low, it sounds like it's a radio outside their primary coverage area.

The website is www.power977.com

They also have "Hometown COuntry 1490" KDRO at www.kdro.com. It's a Classic COuntry station and they stream as well. But their stream sounds as if the left channel is ALOT louder then the right channel.

Incidentally, Power 97.7 ID's as KPOW-FM which is because three is another KPOW..... it's KPOW 1260, licensed to *POWELL*, Wyoming

--
Sincerely,
Paul B. Walker, Jr.
 

Nothin' But Net... Bluegrass Country

Fri May 2, 2008 1:02 pm (PDT)

OK, so I'm a little biased, but the webstream DOES sound pretty good and I've been connected to it for days on end with no problem.

www.bluegrass-country.com

--
Sincerely,
Paul B. Walker, Jr.

Nothin' But Net.. All Swamp Pop Radio!

Sat May 3, 2008 2:04 pm (PDT)

Check out at www.kmrcradio.com !! The stream sounds pretty darn good for only 32K/32hz!!

The company that owns KMRC 1430, a 500 Watt Daytimer also owns KAGY 1510 Port Sulphur, a 1KW Daytimer and WABL 1570 Amite a 500 Watt Daytimer.

There's another Swamp Pop station, "The Rajun Cajun", KLRZ 100.3 Larose, LA & KLEB 1600 Golden Meadow, LA. They stream as well at www.klrzfm.com.

--
Sincerely,
Paul B. Walker, Jr.

Nothin' But Net.. Oldies 92.5 KVPI

Wed May 7, 2008 12:38 pm (PDT)

I'm listening to "Good Times and Great Oldies, 92.5 KVPI-FM" Ville Platte, Louisana. The music is pretty decent and the stream is decent as well. I've already heard a few tunes that would set this apart from your regular oldies stations.

They have an AM station that does a partial simulcast in the Early Morning and Afternoon. In the Mid Day and Evenings, KVPI-AM separates and does some separate programming. Both stations air News in French twice a day and KVPI-AM 1050 does 1 1/2 hours of music in French every weekday night and some Classic Country music as well.

KVPI-oldies 92.5 has a very, very laidback, very downhome approach on the air. You'll see what I mean if you listen.

The website is www.oldies925.com

The webstream is www.barnabasroad.com/station=kvpi-fm.html

Paul B. Walker, Jr.

Posted by: Michael J. Richard

Wed May 7, 2008 1:25 pm (PDT)

Sounds like they haven't changed much since when I actually lived there. Ville Platte is about 20 miles from Eunice - where I was born. KVPI was basically a local for me. I can remember being a kid and the AM had a lot of French programming and the FM was mostly music although it was just kind of a variety or MOR of the time (late 70s / early to mid 80s). Last few times I been home I've listened in and it's been exactly what you described.....oldies on the FM and some simulcasting on the AM with plenty of separate times too and French programming and the like. Our local in Eunice - KEUN AM 1490 used to be the same way too. Local programming and music and news in French and English in the early mornings and on the weekends - my grandmother used to listen to it. Unfortunately KEUN-AM has become nothing more than a talk outlet and they still do some specialized stuff on the FM. Good to see KVPI is still keeping with their tradition and hasn't changed much. Brings back many memories. I'm pretty sure if I dug deep enough I could find some 8-track tapes that dad recorded from KVPI-FM 25-30 years ago.

Michael n Wyo
 

Posted by: Donald K. Kaskey

Wed May 7, 2008 2:23 pm (PDT)

Which brings to mind our old favorite KBON. Sadly (for me anyway) I find per their web page that they are only available by subscription of either $6 or $7 a month. Too many free Internet stations to fool with this anymore. Too bad, I enjoyed their programming a lot.

OWG
 

Posted by: Paul B. Walker, Jr.

Wed May 7, 2008 3:10 pm (PDT)

I feel KBON's pain.

Webstreaming isn’t cheap and stations can't always get it sponsored, so it's just expense that they're losing money on. They have to cover their expenses somehow.

Keep in mine, just because you have a Music License from ASCAP, BMI and SESAC for your AM or FM signal DOES NOT mean you have one of your online streaming. In fact, you don't with SESAC.

Paul

Nothin' But Net. "Que Buena Orlando" WLAA-AM 1600

Sun May 11, 2008 3:38 pm (PDT)

I just HAD to sample Rama Communications latest abomination after a format and call swap in Orlando.

Que Buena Orlando WLAA moved from 1680 to 1600 with Inspiration Gospel WOKB moving from 1600 to 1680.

Their AM signal is horrible, the hum is HORRENDOUS (even worse then WABV's was) and the processing is squashing the buhjesus outta the sound and signal.

Listen for yourselves,

http://www.realradiousa.com/WLAA.mp3

--
Sincerely,
Paul B. Walker, Jr.

KCJJ-AM 1630 Video/Audio Streaming

Fri May 16, 2008 12:17 am (PDT)

During the day, you can hear the audio of the radio station while watching a view of their studio.

At night, you can hear the local police scanner activity with a view into their parking lot

Check it out at:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/kcjj-raw

--
Sincerely,
Paul B. Walker, Jr.
 

Posted by: Powell E. Way III

Fri May 16, 2008 5:54 am (PDT)

> At night, you can hear the local police scanner
> activity with a view into

Which (rebroadcasting the police frequencies from a scanner) is illegal.

Powell

Posted by: Paul B. Walker, Jr.

Fri May 16, 2008 11:46 am (PDT)

Powell,

I didn't know that..... I've seen..er..heard of people streaming scanner audio online before. Look for it. It's all over the Internet, usually being done by hams.

 --
Sincerely,
Paul B. Walker, Jr.
 

Posted by: Kevin Redding

Fri May 16, 2008 12:10 pm (PDT)

> I didn't know that..... I've seen..er..heard of people streaming
> scanner audio online before. Look for it.. it's all over the
> internet, usually being done by hams.

Don't feel bad Paul, I had no idea that it was against the law either. I have seen websites all over the place doing the police scanner.

I am curious to see the latest rule on it. Either a lot of people are breaking the law or the law has changed.

Kevin

Posted by: Powell E. Way III

Fri May 16, 2008 12:47 pm (PDT)

ANY 2 way is illegal to stream. Actually it is illegal to DIVULGE 2 way comms.

Powell
 

Posted by: Powell E. Way III

Fri May 16, 2008 12:50 pm (PDT)

--- Kevin Redding wrote:

> Don't feel bad Paul, I had no idea that it was against the law
> either. I have seen websites all over the place doing the police
> scanner.
>
> I am curious to see the latest rule on it. Either a lot of people are
> breaking the law or the law has changed.

The law was harshened after someone illegally received someone’s analog cell communications and recorded and gave the info to media.

People doing it doesn't make it legal.

Powell

And that’s it this month.

73’s, Martin

The Line of Sight and Beyond

Steven Wiseblood – Boca Chica Beach, TX

Receiver, FM-6 antenna

5/7

0656 94.1 WEMX Kentwood, LA  ads, promos, "

"Baton Rouge's leader for hip-hop and R&B, MAX 94-1"

0707 103.3 WCDV LA Hammond; "The New Sunny 103.1" "Todays refreshing MIX"

0842 100.7 WJLQ FL Pensacola; pop music mix  "Q-100" "The Gulf Coasts best music"

0849 103.1 WMXZ FL Valparaiso  "MIX 103-1" "Kidd Kraddick in the morning'

0852 103.7 KHJK TX La Porte; "JACK-FM" slogan, ads, classic rock/hits,

"Playing what we want"

0859 104.7 WJIW MS Greenville, womens conference at a local church,

promo, ID

0912 99.5 WRNO-FM LA New Orleans, "Glenn Beck" 

5/10 GULF Tropo 

1513 103.3 WCDV  LA Baton Rouge                             485

"SUNNNY 103.3" slogan; "Your home for TODAY's refreshing

soft ROCK"

1518 100.7 WYPY LA Baton Rouge; C&W mx                 485

"New Country 100.7" slogan                 

1520 95.7 WKBU LA New orleans;                                 520  

"Bayou 95.7" slogan; "100% Classic ROCK"

1525 99.9 KTDY LA Lafayette; light rock/mix                   435

"99.9 KTDY" 

1530 106.7 KKND LA New Orleans;                               520

"106-7 The WOLF"  C&W mx

1828 92.1 KROI TX Seabrook-Houston;                          245

"Praise 92.1" slogan;  Christian gospel music

1830 101.9 XHCAM MEXICO Campeche, Campeche;     620

"KISS-MIX","con los mejores DJ's". SP rock music

full ID with //AM 1280, mention of 10kW.

1840 100.7 WJLQ FL Pensacola;                                  660

"Q-100" slogan; mix 70's, 80's, 90's and today

1856 102.1 KQIS LA Basile-Lafayette;                           435

ID, "The best soft rock all day"

1914 101.5 WYNK LA Baton Rouge; C&W,                   485

ID "101.5 WYNK"

1940  94.9 WKSJ AL Mobile; C&W,                              660 

"95-KSJ" slogan

1956 102.7 WXBM FL Milton; C&W mx,                        660 

'the FOXWORTHY countdown"

2047 94.1 WEMX LA Baton Rouge; "MAX 94-1"            485

"Baton Rouge's official station for Hip Hop and R&B"

Phil Rafuse – Stratford, PEI

Pontiac Vibe Car Radio

5/30

101.9 CHRK Sydney NS, calling itself "The Giant" is now on the air:

http://giant1019.com/index.asp?mn=2

CHRK officially breaks the Sydney area broadcast monopoly held for the

last several years by MBS Radio, owner/operators of CHER-FM, CKPE-FM

and CJCB-AM.

2/3 of their morning team are from stations to the immediate west - Rob

MacNamara was at 101.5 CIGO-FM aka The Hawk while Tashia Lee had been

holding down afternoon drive at CJFX-F

You don’t Need a Weatherman…

Harry Helms – Smithville, TX

Yaesu FT60

5/7

There was a terrific "short tropo" opening this morning from about 6:50 am to just after 7:00 am Central. I turned on my Yaesu FT-60 to check the

Austin NOAA station on 162.40 and found it, and all other NOAA channels, loaded with several stations fighting to be heard.

In addition to stations in southeast Texas I've heard before, two new ones:

162.55 WXK80, Lafeyette, LA, "now your local forecast for Lafeyette and vicinity"

162.425 WWG38, Kosciusko, MS, "now your local forecast from the Jackson NWS office" surfacing amid the mess; per the Jackson NOAA web site, this is the only Jackson office station on this frequency.

At 7;02 am, it was as if a switch was flipped in the troposphere and the opening abruptly closed, leaving only semi-regulars from College Station, Victoria, etc., QRMing stations in the Austin/San Antonio area.

The Visible Universe

Powell E. Way III – Silverstreet, SC

13” color TV and living room conical

5/7

This morning I noticed some "enhancement'....yep ....ran to the TV and turned on the converter box. Got CBS WTOC from Savannah GA some 200+ miles in HD.

Glenn Hauser – Enid, OK

5/13

Have been leaving a TV on ch 2 long hours waiting for some Es to happen, and today some finally did, but no IDs ---

Tipped by WEWN 17595 at 2108 UT May 13; normally barely audible in skip zone but now inbooming with Es from a megameter away in AL. A few days ago Spain to Brasil was audible on same frequency during same hour.

2117 something on 2 with logo in lower right and weather map, but too oor to get a clue as to provenance. Signs of skip in and out, and at 2205 a drama/soap opera featuring a very gravid woman. No audio yet so unsure of language then.

Extra, Extra!

DRM Shortwave Test Proposed for Alaska 

5.02.2008

A company has applied to the FCC for an experimental license to test Digital Radio Mondiale transmission on several shortwave bands in Alaska, according to a report from a shortwave blog about DRM.

Digital Aurora Radio Technologies of Delta Junction, Alaska, intends to test statewide DRM in the 5, 7 and 9 MHz shortwave bands, according to 26MHz.us, which is written by Bennett Z. Kobb.

On its application, the company stated that the goal is to assess performance of digital terrestrial shortwave broadcasting and serve the entire state. Commission approval is pending, according to the report; for now the FCC assigned call sign WE2XRH.

“In general, the population of Alaska is underserved with respect to the ability to have a high-quality, reliable public radio audio service,” the blog quotes the company saying. “This is especially true for sparsely populated areas of the state.”

Digital Aurora proposes to perform propagation, signal-to-noise ratio, field strength, bit rate and audio quality measurements over a two-year period, according to the application.

The report says a unique element of the test is the proposed use of government surplus over-the-horizon (OTH) radar transmitters made by Continental Electronics. 

http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0100/t.13248.html

Jerry Lenamon – Waco, TX

The following from the latest Radio Journal

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\

Two new AMs light up in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. So you

thought that after literally dozens of FM move-ins and AM upgrades

that have pulled signals from as far as 200 miles away into the

Dallas-Fort Worth market, that perhaps the dial there is now full? Not

so fast. M&M Broadcasting has completed upgrades on two of its signals

west of Fort Worth that has turned them into bigger players within the

crowded market. KJSA, Mineral Wells, TX moves from 250 watts on 1120

to 20 kW daytime on 1110, using a new four-tower array northwest of

Fort Worth beaming southeast over the Metroplex. KCLE, Cleburn, TX

(1140) powers up from 850 watts to 5-kw by day, serving a big chunk of

southern Tarrant and Dallas counties. M&M already has a deal in place

to sell the upgraded KJSA to Businessradio Dallas, which has moved its

"Bizradio" format there from leased time on KMNY, Hurst, TX (1360).

The move will put the format on the same frequency in Dallas that it's

using in Houston, where it's on KTEK, Alvin, TX, also at 1110.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\

I just checked this and both stations (1110 & 1140) are audible here

in Waco. 1110 & 1360 are // but not too good. 1110 has interference,

perhaps from 1110 in the Alvin.

Bargain Barn

Nothing for sale this month

Show and Tell – New Toys

Phil Rafuse – Kenwood R-2000 / Zenith D7000Y

Just received a Kenwood R-2000 and tried it out briefly during a late

lunch hour. Pleasantly surprised with the sensitivity. Delighted with

audio quality. Very pleasant to use. I'll write more later, but I

think I'm really going to like this receiver.

Yes, the wide filter is wide - very wide. Yet, somehow it still

manages to reject splatter surprisingly well. Right now I'm

listening to Virgin 1215 and I've never heard them sound so good, and

yet, WPHT is being kept in its place rather well.

Narrow is pretty narrow. About a half hour ago I was getting Egypt on

864.

It is the nicest sounding solid state communications receiver I've

ever experienced. When tuned to a frequency where several stations

are duking it out, it is very easy to pick words out.

I love the tuning feel - and the different settings for the tuning

knob.

My D7000Y arrived today, and, with the exception of the battery

compartment [corrosion and missing battery terminals] its in pretty

good shape. Will need a detail type cleaning. Works on AC. The eBay

seller packed it very well.

I put it through its paces - pretty sensitive on FM, AM and SW good

too. I'll be able to evaluate it better MW sensitivity wise in the

daytime. Also, we are experiencing some wickedly powerful troph

enhancement right now on FM.

Nice audio. More selective than my ZTO 1000D.

Emily Keene – A Long Laundry List of New Toys

I have taken Mr. Bush at his word and have used my economic stimulus check to stimulate the economy through the purchase of several new radios. Thanks to Mr. Bush, I now have a Redsun 2100 with the SSB hook-on, a CCrane SWP, yet another Eton S350DL - this time in red, a Grundig G1100, a totally weird Radio Shack 12-150 ( in spite of reading the dreadful reviews, or maybe partly because of them! ), another Degen DE1121 ( this time in English ), a Tecsun R-308 AM-FM analog with a nice, big speaker, and I am still awaiting the arrival of a Grundig G4 and a G6. I know I could have bought one substantial radio instead of all these odd and quirky smaller ones, but I have a lot more fun playing with peculiar inexpensive radios than with, say, my Drake R8 or even my E1. I enjoy the high-quality radios and the flushing out of weak stations as much as the other DXers, but I especially like taking a small or underrated radio and pushing it to its limits to see if I can get it to bring me something unexpected. Besides, I live two blocks from the beach and if these little radios get sand all over them, it's no big deal. In the summer, I plan to do most of my listening at the beach, since that's why I moved here from the mountains of PA!

Emily Keene – Grundig G6

I spent part of the holiday weekend exploring The Dark Side - my son talked me into buying a used PSP on eBay, which I immediately filled with videos, music files, etc. I cannot tell a lie - it was a lot of fun, and I now have a very cool media center ( I bought several games, but haven't played any of them...) The PSP has a wi-fi "radio" of sorts. There are about 50 stations sorted by genre, many of them not of USA origin. They were quite good in their limited way, and I particularly enjoyed the "talk", jazz, hard rock, international ( announcer spoke German ) , and classical offerings. Oddly, Polish, Pakistani and Turkish stations were among the choices. The sound was very good with headphones, and I had a lot of fun with it. Then, I tore myself away from the Anti-Radio, and opened my newly-arrived G6 ( it came along with a G4, which I am saving for tomorrow..) I spent all day yesterday playing with the G6, and will give my impressions, prefaced with a caveat - I LOVE s mall radios, so I am predisposed to like this thing. In any case, I am highly pleased with my G6.. It is tiny, has SSB that works better than on my other portables, has the air band which I love since I live near several international airports ( NYC suburb ), the shortwave is complete and provides steady reception, there is LW, FM includes the Japanese portion from 76.0, and there is a jack for an external antenna. Other features: attractive and effective orange backlight, 700 memories ( they can't be scanned - it is the same page system as in the G5 / E5 - in fact, the whole radio is like a mini G5 with added air band.), SSB works on all the AM broadcast bands, time zone and day of the week can be programmed in, and the clock switches when another time zone is selected, radio can be reset without deleting the memories, there is a tuning dial / jog wheel which is very easy to use and there is no muting, frequencies can be entered directly from the keypad, batteries ( not included ) can be recharged inside the radio, there are three alarms and the clock is always visible except when operating in memory mode. What's not to like? Well, I wish I could scan through my memories like I can on the new CCRadio SWP, although the SWP mutes so dramatically that I actually use less time "scanning" my memories by hand on the G6. The auto-scanning that the G6 does provide - with three different settings - is worthless, since it only stops on stations that are extremely strong and the air band ( annoyingly ) does not scan at all. Other reviewers have noted the surprising selectivity and sensitivity of this radio, and I agree - the radio is hot, especially on MW and SW.

My verdict : this is an excellent radio, especially when the low price and size are taken into account.

Testing, Testing…

No tests this month

Call Sign Changes

I Got The Bird!

No one got the bird this month!

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