** ALBANIA. 6100, R. Tirana, Dec 24 at 0437, S9+5, SINPO 45444, ending press review, into show about Albania and the EU, summary of 2009 efforts to join (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 4885, Dec 24 at 0424, songs in Spanish provoke a double-take, but retracted due to Portuguese announcement between them. Best Brazilian signal on 60m at this time, presumed R. Clube do Pará, even better than its neighbor R. Cultura do Pará on 5045 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA [and non]. While RCI gets derision from its former fans, making up new meanings for the ``I`` other than International, its domestic-orientated programming attains wider and wider dissemination! ``The Link`` bumped many foreign stations off CBC Overnight, nationwide on Radio 1, and now tnx to carriage on WRN, is also being relayed by WRMI!
On 9955 Dec 24 at 0642 there was Marc Montgomery, an excellent host and a trooper making the best of his assignment, but who needs this via WRMI? Only fair signal but no jamming audible. Furthermore, at 0655 on 6160, I believe he was one of two guys chatting, presumably CKZN with CBCR1 relay; not // 9955, as the RCI version on WRN via WRMI is in half-hour segments at 0630-0700 and 0930-1000 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CROATIA [and non]. 3985, only 75m broadcaster audible at 0428 Dec 24 in Croatian, mentioning Hrvatski, 0436 music. S9+5 and a good signal ahead of German relay on 7375. There had been speculation that HRT runs only 10 kW here, but sure sounds to me like 100 now. Also around 0430 and earlier, // 1134 was putting in one of the stronger TA carriers, and many more were detected all over the MW dial at 9-kHz spacings (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. RHC check at 0421 Dec 24: only one frequency in English, 6000, and it is only fair; meanwhile there are plenty in Spanish, 6060, 6110, 6120, 6140, 9600, with a variety of strengths and modulations. Also scheduled in Spanish until 0500 are 11690, 11760, 13770, 13790, the higher ones seldom propagating here.
One has to wonder about RHC`s priorities, such a token service during North American prime time; tho 6140 sometimes is in English instead. Hey, I am not complaining, just observing. Only after 0500 do decent strong signals in English start, on 6010, 6060, sometimes 6140.
At 0653 Dec 24, 6150, 6140 and 6120 in Spanish; 6060 and 6010 English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** DJIBOUTI. 4780, Dec 24 at 0426, HOA music, fair vs CODAR. Nice to hear R. Djibouti as I am seldom monitoring early enough to get it. Nominal schedule is 03-21, and eastern NAm also hears it winterly in afternoons. Capture it now before R. Discovery, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC comes on the frequency next year (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ETHIOPIA [and non]. 7165 at 0415 Dec 24, music and noise jamming in Eritrea/Ethiopia radio war, the hams mere bystanders; 7110 R. Ethiopia clear with talk in presumed Amharic. Presumed short-path, better signal than 14 hours earlier via longpath (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUINEA. 7125, Dec 24 at 0649, RTG on the air in the morning for a change, intruding in the 40m hamband, but they`ve got more serious problems than following ITU allocations. Reverby speech from a large venue in French regarding ``la violence``, with interjexions by studio announcer. 0704 recheck considerably weaker in music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOUTH AFRICA [and non]. 7230, Dec 24 at 0416 two stations mixing at equal levels in talk, SAH of approx. 6 Hz. One of them in English, no doubt Channel Africa as scheduled, 04-07, 100 kW, 5 degrees from Meyerton.
But the other? Aoki possibilities, most likely the first:
R. Liberty in Russian via Biblis, GERMANY, 100 kW, 63 degrees
NVK R. Sakha, Yakut/Russian via Yakutsk, 100 kW, 300 degrees
AIR Kurseong, India is also listed here in WRTH, but not this early
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TURKEY [and non]. VOT English to NAm, Dec 24 at 0420: much better via Sackville 6040, even tho it`s two sesquiseconds behind Emirler direct on 6020, weaker and with the perpetual Peruvian het tnx wailing wacko David Miranda and Radio Victoria; major broadcasters using 6020 are oblivious to it. Don`t they get reception reports with low-I SINPOs? Don`t they ever bring up a remote receiver or an IBB file and check it themselves? Seref Isler was as always in too big a hurry to read his script (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** UKRAINE. 7440, RUI, Dec 24 at 0440, VG signal, so much so that I could hear a hum/whine from the generators(?), during English to NAm, quoting Abe Lincoln at the moment. M&W alternating, and the M has one of the most distinctive voices/accents on SW, a pleasure to listen to. Power is currently registered as only 600 kW altho it`s a 1000 kW transmitter at Lviv (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K [and non]. Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, annual BBC tradition on Xmas eve, best heard here on Rampisham 12095, Dec 24 at 1508, but hardly necessary as it`s relayed live by hundreds of public radio stations across the USA, including the two closest ones here, which normally avoid duplication, KCSC 90.1 and KOSU 91.7. The US version requires introduxion by an American, the reverent Minnesotan Michael Barone.
Did not scan the entire SW spectrum, but did notice at 1513 that BBC was carrying something else on Ascension 17640, so the Africans were spared this colonial relic, an overt religious service on a public broadcaster. I suspend my disbelief anyway since I enjoy the music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** CANADA. 9625, CBCNQ, Dec 24 at 2305 in CBC World At Six special with reports on the 20th anniversary earlier this year of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Including how only in Hong Kong they managed to hold a vigil in honor of the martyrs, suppressed by police everywhere else, but ``China cannot face its future until it faces its past`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHILE. HCJB via CVC, Calera de Tango, 11920, is *still* accompanied by spurs we and others first reported weeks ago; is no one paying attention at Quito, Calera de Tango, Colorado Springs or West Bromwich? Dec 24 at 2352, tho 11920 in Portuguese sounded OK, it was flanked by distorted, motorboating, mushy spurs with matching audio centered at approximately 11902 and 11938, the latter too close to a legitimate transmission on 11935, presumably CRI in Cantonese via Kunming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. When you hear a ChiCom transmission echoing, it`s a sign of one of their accursed jamming techniques, to degrade their own broadcast so no one will want to listen to it, let alone anything mixed in. However, at 2353 Dec 24, their latest farang/gaijin voice of China, Paul James in Beijing was making secular remarx about the Xmas season just before closing on 11790, and that had quite an echo. In this case it must have been long/short path as echo-jamming is normally imposed only with CNR1 domestic programming, and there is nothing known requiring interdixion at this hour on this frequency, i.e. 190 degrees from Xi`an (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. 10000, time pips pitched higher than WWV or WWVH, so knew I had something else, Dec 24 at 2358. Unfortunately it wasn`t PPE Brasil since there were no announcements every dekasecond; but conveniently at 2359 began repeated Morse code IDs in A2 as BPM until 2359:45, on top of WWVH YL complete ID during this minute and at :29 hourly. BPM is at Lintong, a suburb of Xi`an whence I was also getting CRI on 11790 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. RHC Dec 24 at 2322 on 13790 in English, and 13770 in Portuguese, plugging their 50th anniversary philatelic contest. Strangely, both emissions are designated for ``Buenos Aires`` rather than English- or Portuguese-speaking areas. A third language, Spanish, was to be heard on 11770, overrun from supposed 2300 close after European service (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RWANDA. Tnx to Steve George tip, heard RRR on extended Xmas eve broadcast. He said 6055 would run past usual 2100* at least until local midnight 2200 UT. I did not tune in until 2226, when Hark The Herald was being sung in uncertain language; 2228 announcement at first seemed Japanese and I feared it was R. Nikkei already, but shortly mentioned Rwanda and I realized it was an African language, presumably KinyaRwanda. Fair signal, no QRM. More music and chat continued, still going at 2257 but at *2258:50 completely blown away by REE cutting on with IS prior to its 2300 French broadcast (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [really]. 4005, no doubt Vatican Radio the station in German at 2259 Dec 24 with Roman Catholic stuff. Frequency is normally off the air at this time per skeds, but per VR`s special-broadcasts page http://www.radiovaticana.org/coorpro/entrasmisspec.htm
this was: ``From St. Peter's Basilica , Eucharistic Celebration presided over by the Holy Father. Live broadcast from 09.50 p.m.`` [= 2050 UT, two hours earlier than usual to give the octogenarian B-16 an extra bihour of rest before he has to make another appearance the next morning; per BBC World News on TV]
Tho it started at 2050, as usual VR did not specify an end time, but should have been over well before 2300 this year; the German-speaker I heard briefly may have been a non-Pope announcer recapping. Sked showed several other special SW frequencies for this, 5885 in Italian, 7235 and 9760 in French, 5900 and 7395 in Chinese, 7305 in Spanish, and 9530 in Portuguese. Per Aoki, 4005 normally carries English, Spanish, Arabic and finally Italian between 2050 and 2250*.
Not scheduled for the convenience of Western Hemispherians, from 1050 UT Dec 25 is: ``The Holy Father's Christmas Message and "Urbi et Orbi" blessing at 12.00 p.m.`` Its special SW frequencies are 5965 in Italian, 9645 and 11740 in English, 7250 in German, 15275 and 17675 in French, 17600 in Spanish and 17715 in Portuguese. No indication of how long it will last, either. This is when the pontiff gets to show off his multi-linguistic skills (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6950.1, Chipmunx singing Deck the Halls and other carols in medley, no doubt a pirate, Dec 24 at 2233; poor signal and not heard at next check before 2300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
