** BONAIRE. VOA attempted to get airtime on TWR 800 Bonaire last year, in order to reach adjacent Venezuela without the inconvenience of shortwave, but first started after 0000 UT with HJHJ 600 Barranquilla, Colombia, as I monitored last summer. Now a TWR deal is in effect per this via El Dial, Spain:
``Antillas Holandesas AER, 20/03/2021 18:39, https://aer.org.es/archivos/26720, EA2-0800 Según Erminy Fernando en el grupo de FB Cadena DX, la VOA ha iniciado transmisiones a Venezuela desde las instalaciones de TWR en Bonaire (800). Reportado 2100-2230 con el programa “Venezuela 360”, presumiblemente de lunes a viernes. (Rafael Rodríguez en el grupo DXing.info fb, vía Ydun’s Medium Wave Info).(via El Dial)`` Now that it`s Monday March 22, I check for it via TWR`s own Bonaire SDR. At 2142 an interview is underway with someone fluent in Spanish but with obvious American accent -- I wonder why such people don`t make a little more effort to tighten up their dixion. Seems to be about the border situation; and then another one about the pandemic in the US, neither of which very pertinent to Venezuela. 2159 VOA ID and sign-off, quick ID as ``PJB-98, Apreciamos su sintonia`` and back for more VOA. 98? What`s that about, an FM frequency? There`s no PJB or any other Bonaire FM station in the 98s listed in WRTH 2021. While sufficient, the 800 signal is not superstrong on TWR`s own SDR --- they must be deliberately attenuating it, understandably. On the waterfall, much stronger signals show on 550, 710 and 910 which are obviously Caracas, and 860 from Curacao (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR) ** IRAN. Another check of VIRI March 22 to confirm whether still on SW in English, despite reports that some or all languages would quit. At first no signals at 1920 on 6040 & 11880, monitoring both via SDRs in Holland and Ireland where I have been getting IRRS with WOR. But both cut on late at *1922:30, again like yesterday without the formal sign-on procedure but instead JIP English, something about Pakistan just ending. 1923:40, music, ID as ``Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran`` and schedule as 1920-2020 UT on 6040 to Europe, 11880 to South Africa, also on FM 91.5 for Tehran, several satellites, mobile phones. 1924:48 some traditional music; 1929:06 ``IRIB English Radio, coming up, the news``; 1930 chimes and news. I check again for the *2350 Spanish broadcast March 22 and there it is via Bonaire SDR, standard opening with IS, NA, ID, Qur`an, on 5980 with splash from CRI/Cuba 5990; and 7230 with SSB and AM QRhaM, since after all, Iran is INTRUDING into the W Hemisphere hamband. So it seems that all this talk about quitting SW was a false alarm, started by LVRII itself announcement in Spanish, but since then others have heard them also announcing a new A21 sked for Spanish! It may be confusion inside the organization, or even a power struggle? There are at least three entities involved, IRIB, VIRI, and Pars Today. It`s never been clear to me exactly how these relate to each other. Anyhow, this has encouraged me to listen to Iran a lot more than I ever have; remember even when they had a separate English for North America in our evenings, called `Voice of Justice`? Not sure of its lifespan, but I see it in my handy 2005y WRTH (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR) ** OKLAHOMA. 1460, March 22 at 1902 UT, KZUE El Reno with series of promos for Grupo Fórmula, and more totally México-centric programming as they plug into Fórmula feed every afternoon, not sure of exact times. At least there is no jittering on the audio like during music the last time I tuned by. Surely it`s not the only Unitedstatesian doing so, but in NRC AM Log KZUE`s Grupo is filed only under La Tremenda with two FM translators on 97.7. KZUE is a 500-watt daytimer but plenty to reach Enid; caradio again (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR) ** U S A [non]. VOA now on 800 to Venezuela: See BONAIRE ** U S A [and non]. WORLD OF RADIO 2078 monitoring: confirmed Monday March 22 from 1902:18 on IRRS 7290 via Bulgaria. Started late and as I feared, not flexible enough not to cut me off before finished, at 1930:06, onward to IRRS ID with PO Box, and Feature Story News again. As monitored via UTwente SDR: strong signal holds up, but so does the ACI splatter from 7290 Vietnam and 7295 East Turkistan, which cannot be avoided. Earlier: carrier on at *1857:10; no sign-on but 1900:38 JIP FSN in progress, not just half a minute of headlines as customary; 1901:34 cut to IRRS ID; 1901:46 *more* spurious FSN; finally cut it off at 1902:18 for WOR. Another problem is annoying skipping of my audio, but this must be a UTwente thing, since another SDR at Curlow, Ireland is not skipping, but just as QRMed. Note that from next week, March 29 after the imposition of DST in Italy, this airing shifts one real UT hour earlier to start circa *1801v. Per HFCC A-21 the QRM situation then will be: 7280 still Vietnam in Spanish; 7290 Iran in Russian until 1750, and hope it`s off in time, but even more so, CNR China until 1805. 7285 & 7295 both clear; but 7300 Iran in German until 1820. Next: 1030 UT Wednesday WRMI 5850 to NW 2100 UT Wednesday WRMI 7780 to NE 2100 UT Wednesday WBCQ 7490v to WSW 2200 UT Wednesday WRMI 9955 [jammed?] to SSE 0130 UT Thursday WRMI 5010 to S Full schedule including AM, FM, webcasts, satellite, podcasts: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html Our non-commercial broadcasts and website depend on voluntary support: thanks this week to Gerald T Pollard, Raleigh NC, for a generous check to Glenn Hauser, P O Box 1684, Enid OK 73702, with comment, ``Equinoctial greetings to the Recording Angel of Shortwave, who is in especially fine voice these days`` [sic] One may also contribute, not necessarily in US funds, via PayPal to woradio at yahoo.com (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR) ** U S A. 7489.957v, March 22 at 2226, WBCQ has shifted from the plus side circa 7490.1 or .2, down to here, as Allan Weiner is conversing with a caller about radio, evidently an `AAAWWW` playback. Also applies amid `From the Isle of Music` Cuban hour at 0030 UT Tuesday March 23. I wonder why the change; random or deliberate, and just can`t land on .000? (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR) ** VENEZUELA. 6205.031v, March 23 at 0005, 0007, 0010.5 between tunes, Radio Onda Corta Venezuela is now inserting Morse Code IDs as ROCV. S7 into Bonaire SDR, the AM signal remains rather distorted but sounds less so when tuned in SynchAM mode. Another one at recheck 0120 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR) ** VENEZUELA [non]. VOA now on 800 to Venezuela: See U S A [non] This report dispatched at 0300 UT March 23
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