** AUSTRALIA [and non]. 9580, Aug 12 at 1320, tnx to the absence of R. Australia, I can finally hear the noise field around this frequency emanating from the 9570 CUBA relay of CRI; which Andy Reid in Ontario has found such a QRM problem to RA. Also some on 9560 but not as much.
17840 & 15240, Aug 13 at 0021, RA is STILL OFF. Meanwhile, more discussion of this in the DXLD yg, from Keith Perron: ``I suspect people have short memories. Every 12 or 18 months, depending on the schedule. Last year it was in June. Transmissions out of Shepparton stop anywhere from 3 to 5 days. In 2010 it was 11 days. Every 12 to 18 months Broadcast Australia does maintenance at the site. There was also a 6 day period in 2013 when all transmissions were gone. Those that now reply to messages concerning Radio Australia’s broadcasts are no longer people from Radio Australia. This is now handled by ABC people, who really don’t have a clue what Radio Australia is doing or even care. Their main job is replying for domestic radio and television services K``. I, gh, replied: ``Keith, We hope you`re right, but the possibility remains that a decision could be taken to dispense with SW as has happened with so many other services. We`ll not rest easy until it come back. And this does give us the opportunity to reaffirm our desire for SW to continue, should it by some chance reach a decision-maker. Glenn`` Keith: ``It's not the right time of year. Now, while it is true that ABC International would like to do away with RA, getting emails and letters outside their target does not help. ABC International, which is the parent of Radio Australia and Australia Plus, have a very specific target, which is the Pacific and Asia`` (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 6180, Aug 13 at 0039 as I tune across RNA with BFO and note the carrier is wobbling, right away it goes off, not back in the next few minutes, still off at 0050. 11780 is also wobbling but less so, and stays on, sounds OK and no spurs found in the plus/minus 90-100 kHz range or multiples (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. 5990 & 15120, Aug 13 at 0052, CRI Spanish relays are back on, having been AWOL last night (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUINEA. 9650, Aug 13 at 0000, R. Guinée is still on, very poor S4, so I just monitor when the carrier cuts: 0001:42.5* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MADAGASCAR. 11770, Aug 12 at 2252, MWV is VG in Arabic, music. How about the other transmitter scheduled during the same hour in Chinese? On 9455, JBA algo with similar sounding music. HFCC shows nothing else on 9455 during this hour (weak WRMI southward runs 13-20 UT only). IIRC, Chinese service at 55 degrees was weak here as to be expected. For months, MWV has been on only one transmitter, causing some broadcasts on the original A-16 schedule to be suspended. But Sunday August 7, Larry Will in Maryland found the English at 1800 back on the 17640 air; during that hour they had been running only the Russian on 9570 (not likely to be heard here, but easily reported from Europe). I haven`t checked 17640 yet, but maybe both are now operational; or they have swapped suspended services. 18-19 and 22-23 were the only doubled-up hours on the schedule (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. 1580, UT Sat Aug 13 at 0024 UT, KOKB Blackwell is in sportstalk // 1020 KOKP and 105.1 KOSB --- so no breaking format for music tonight, like last night and Sunday into UT Monday. Apparently off the air or cut to night power early as not heard by 0054 UT, when I`m getting WVOX off-frequency again, see U S A (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1838 monitoring: confirmed Friday August 12 at 2130.5 on WRMI, 13695, S9+30. Next broadcast, Fri 2330 on WBCQ 9330: tune-in at 2328 I think I hear the IS/ID again circa 9330.8, but then it`s off, and no WOR heard at 2330. They must have decided to reset the frequency then, as by recheck 2355, end of WOR is running on 9330.06-CUSB. I don`t know when it came back. On the other receiver at 0015 Aug 13 I make it 9330.05 --- somewhere in there. Next: Sat 0630 HLR 6190-CUSB to SW Sat 0700 Unique Radio NSW 3210 ND Sat 1400 Unique Radio NSW 3210 ND Sat 1430 HLR 7265-CUSB to SW Sat 1930v WA0RCR 1860-AM ND Sat 2230 WBCQ 9330v-CUSB to WSW Sun 0310v WA0RCR 1860-AM ND Sun 0830 Unique Radio NSW 3210 ND Sun 2330 WBCQ 9330v-CUSB to WSW Mon 0030 WRMI 7730 to WNW Mon 0300v WBCQ 5130v Area 51 to WSW Mon 0330 WRMI 9955 to SSE Mon 2330 WBCQ 9330v-CUSB to WSW Tue 1100 WRMI 9955 to SSE Tue 2130 WRMI 15770 to NE [to be pre-empted] Tue 2330 WBCQ 9330v-CUSB to WSW Wed 1315.5 WRMI 9955 to SSE Wed 2100 WBCQ 7490v to WSW Wed 2330 WBCQ 9330v-CUSB to WSW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 7490, UT Sat Aug 13 at 0005, WBCQ with long monolog from Allan Weiner about his early pirate radio adventures, especially on 1620 kHz before there were any commercial stations on it, and the Falling Star Network. How he got busted tnx to a couple of over-zealous radio hams, but he doesn`t blame ham radio for that today. I`m trying to listen to him with one ear while listening to the CDXA special from WRMI 7730 into the other. Finally starts taking calls around 0030. WBCQ is also on 5130 but too weak in the noise level to copy other than to tell it`s not synchronized with 7490. Closest carrier to 3250 is something weak wobbling a bit around 3254.0, so quite possibly something else (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 11580, Aug 12 at 1350, this WRMI frequency is still missing (scheduled as transmitter #1, 24 hours at 44 degrees). By 0016 check Aug 13, 11580 is back on, in Slovak. But at 0047 I find another frequency missing: 7780 which is also 44 degrees, Overcomer toward Europe, paired with 15770 in the daytime. See also VENEZUELA [non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 7730, Aug 13 at 0030, right after the Ecos del Torbes tribute, WRMI has another special, Jeff White introducing fldigi beeptests to be presented at the imminent HFCC B-16 conference in Miami. At 0047 I notice that some music is playing in the background, I suppose deliberately to find how such QRM affect decoding. Details: http://voaradiogram.net/post/148784430842/wrmi-will-showcase-digital-modes-via-analog-radio It`s notable that WRMI nor any US SW station is willing to go whole-hog into DRM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 12105, Aug 13 at 0041, WTWW-3 is S8 with dead air. Was today`s entire transmission from 1800 Aug 12 thus? Could well be, but I wasn`t checking (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LITENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 850, Aug 13 at 0107 UT, interesting mix of Rosary in Spanish and choral/organ music, i.e. KJON Carrollton TX, and KFUO Clayton MO --- Catholix vs Lutherans! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENINGN DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. 1579.58, Aug 13 at 0054 UT, off-frequency carrier from WVOK Oxford AL is easily audible hetting 1580.0, but nearby KOKB Blackwell seems to have gone off early in the past semihour, facilitating WVOK monitoring vs weaker 1580 signals. With narrow bandwidth, LSB and passband tuning I am able to pull a little audio, talk until 0100 UT music, but no ID copied. Just in case, I confirm this is not // 1390 KCRC, a spur-producer, nor remnant of KOKB, not // 105.1 KOSB. Splash from 1570 XERF is really a bigger problem: one of their frequent trans-frontera missing-person notices at 0101 UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA [non]. 7730, UT Sat Aug 13 at 0000, the WRMI-13 transmitter at 285 degrees with special booking `América en Antena`, provided by the Club Diexistas de la Amistad, VG signal. It`s all about the history of Ecos del Torbes, emblematic tropical/SW station which as I recall was one of the last if not the very last YV station to quit shortwave, 4980 and 9660 (other than Radio Nacional). It seems that August 9 was Ecos del Torbes` birthday in 1947. The show also marks the 26th anniversary of América en Antena, and the 40th of the C.DX.A. So 2017 will be an ``even`` 70th anniversary of the station. Mainly in Spanish, but introduction includes some English at 0002; Ecos del Torbes IDs in Spanish, English (mispronouncing Táchira), and even French. First part about EDT has annoying vocal music in the background, later a Sousa march, more tolerable. I know mixing music with talk is considered to be professional radio produxion, but I respect music too much to treat it that way (exception of course: the WOR theme & billboard). These days EDT is on MW 780 (only), but some of the IDs in the program mentioned both SW and internet, which I thought did not overlap chronologically; see http://ecosdeltorbes.net And it history page: http://ecosdeltorbes.net/2015/12/04/historia/ which says its original SW frequency was 3550 (before my time!). Does not mention 4980 or when that was closed. There are several other AM & FM stations in the group. Outro gives contact info, offers special QSL and concludes with singing ID. Then at 0030, WRMI goes right into its beepy radiogrammy special to impress the HFCCers. Another final repeat of the Torbes show is scheduled 48 hours later, UT Monday Aug 15 at 0000 on 7730. What is Torbes, anyway, and why does it echo? Torbes is a short 82-km river upon whose left bank is established San Cristóbal in Táchira state. The Friendly DX Club alludes to being inclusive with neighboring Colombia, long before the hostile MaduroChávez regime and the current economic crisis in Venezuela. I`m pleased to hear news just today that an agreement has been reached with Colombia to facilitate border crossings as desperate droves of Venezuelans seek to shop in Colombia (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** YEMEN [non]. 11860, Aug 12 at 1422, Rep. of Yemen Radio, Sana`a reception is improving, now S9 to S9+10 during triumphal, chanting music; presumed via SAUDI ARABIA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This report dispatched at 0439 UT August 13 _ Hard-Core-DX mailing list Hard-Core-DX@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx http://www.hard-core-dx.com/ _______________________________________________ THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License published by Michael Stutz at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/dsl.html
