** AUSTRALIA. 6020, noticed RA singing Auld Lang Syne [all of which get red-lined by the spellcheck, er spell check], a few minutes before 1400 UT Dec 31. But in Vic and NSW they imagined the new year started an hour earlier by setting their clox forward. Only in Queensland UT +10 was it properly almost midnight, so program originating there?
6020 soon went off, but then at 1406 was listening to RA on 7240, with IDs for ABC Local Radio, tribute to Paul Kelly to follow, originally on Triple-J, beware of occasional coarse language (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 6185, RNA at 0700 Dec 31 with full ID claiming 500,000 watts, and ``Bom Dia, Amazônia``. Apparently they are adding the 250 kW each on 6185, 11780. Blasting away XEPPM as usual, and RNA starts considerably before 0700, unnecessarily (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. I keep hoping to hear CBW 990 in daylight now near solstice, even low noon, as it`s the closest full-power MW Canadian, due north. Especially since KTOK 1000 OKC has turned off IBOC leaving 990 more or less clear, but not quite yet: on the caradio Dec 30 at 2310 UT after CBC news, starting third hour of ``Up to Speed``, evidently the local Winnipeg drive-time show (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake Dec 31: at 1407, fair on 8400, nothing on 9000, 10210, 11300 or 11350.
Almost at local noon, 1814 UT Dec 31, good signal in Chinese on 7445, // weaker 7415, these two by far the strongest stations on the 40m band. Both have R. Free Asia via TINIAN during this hour, and consequently jammed by the ChiCom. But I was hearing only one station on each frequency, no echoes either; unsure whether RFA or CNR1 jamming. RFA aims northwestward, while the jamming is usually atop, more likely non-direxional.
Another Firedrake check at 1815: poor on 8400, 9000, 11300, but not on 10210 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 11600 with heavy DentroCuban Jamming Command noisewall, Dec 31 at 1821, no trace of a victim. Is there really something underneath, or are the Cubans super-paranoid? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. VOI apparently back on the air Dec 31 at 1411, as very weak carrier detectable on 9526.0, and could not make out any modulation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN. This year we did not have any advance info on special New Year`s Eve NHKWNRJ transmissions; were there any? Unfortunately, it`s not normally on the air leading up to local midnight 1500 UT. Caught tail of 1400 English on 11705 via Canada, as they were concluding part 2 of 2, top Japanese songs of 2009, and off by 1430 Dec 31.
9535 is on in Japanese USward after 1500, but did not tune in this usual good direct signal until 1502 when it was mostly yak, 3-way discussion involving two genders, some excitement, but no obvious NY festivities (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. 6075, Dec 31 at 1400, R. Rossii ID but instead of going off at this hour, kept going with newscast, no 8GAL audible. Must be on late because of NYE, tho 2010y already started there at 1200 UT in the UT +12 zone (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 9675, good signal Dec 31 at 1818 talking about Iran, so first suspected that, but all the umlauting pointed to Turkish language. It is BSKSA service in that language at 18-21, 500 kW, 340 degrees from Riyadh, thence USward. No sign of BBC in French, 250 kW, 168 degrees from Rampisham toward Africa, also scheduled during this semihour only on 9675 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** THAILAND. 9725, R. Thailand, aimed SE from Udorn, but fairly good here to the NNE, Dec 31 at 1415 amid English semihour, item about Japan and Indonesia at the Institute of Peace and Democracy in Bali, spoken by YL with accent different than we hear from other Asians; music liner and 1417 into a 2-minute PSA by OM on the policy of the Thai government regarding VAT refunds. Enumerated lots of hoops to jump through, and I sure hope those tourists needing the info were recording or adept at shorthand. 1419 a pro-education PSA from ASEAN, ``ten nations --- one community``.
1420, weekly Thursday feature ``Health Focus`` on the medical benefits of bananas, such as in milkshakes vs heartburn; rub peels on mosquito bites, tnx to high potassium and magnesium content; reduce stroke risk by 40% per NZ Journal of Medicine; four times the protein of apples, and other good stuff, so make it ``a banana a day, keeps the doctor away``. Hmmm, does Thailand export bananas by any chance? Never see any here, but I couldn`t wait to munch a Guatemalan one for breakfast, congratulating myself on all the benefits I was ingesting (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 9565 fair in SW Asian language, Dec 31 at 1455 vs lite DentroCuban jamming. Uplooked later in Aoki, it`s IBB`s Deewa Radio in Pashto, via Wertachtal, GERMANY at 75 degrees; haven`t noticed it before (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. I am *still* hearing DRM noise on 9445-9450-9455, such as Dec 31 at 1817, even tho it is not on any schedule I can find: HFCC, Aoki, EiBi, and even http://www.drm-dx.de/ which was supposedly updated just today.
We can only assume this prolongs the test from IBB Greenville with HCJB assistance which started in August (?), altho not initially on these frequencies. I can`t find any recent reports of it in the DRM Software Radio Forums; are they even aware of it? And the last mention of this in the drmna yg was November 27 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 11975, VOA English like a local signal, directly off the back from Greenville, report on malaria in Africa, Dec 31 at 1820, but gone after 1830. Unfortunately, GB uses 11975 only for this semihour, tho missing from Aoki probably because it started after B-09 season began. Per EiBi, VOA English on 11975 continues at 1830-1900 but via Thailand, so no wonder not audible here; and 1900-2100 back to Bonaire, whence well heard again (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. While bandscanning on the caradio for TA carriers, also happened upon KKOB, 770, Albuquerque NM, Dec 30 at 2349 UT, with 39-degree temp, ad for NYE at a casino, some guy from Oklahoma subbing for regular local talkhost; he`s normally heard on KNML-610. Topic of the moment: ABQ`s DUI policy. Some noise from WBBM 780 IBOC. This is one of the best times to hear KKOB, after sunset here but before sunset there when they go extremely direxional westward.
According to the FCC SR/SS table for KKOB coordinates:
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/srsstime?dlat=35&mlat=12&slat=9.00&dlon=106&mlon=36&slon=41.00&tzone=C
LSS in December is 5:00 pm MST = 0000 UT. In January they gain a quarter-hour until 0015 UT.
Interesting that the *other* KKOB, the nondirexional 230 watt fill-in co-channel relay in Santa Fe, has a different sunset time in December of 4:45 pm:
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/srsstime?dlat=35&mlat=40&slat=56.00&dlon=105&mlon=58&slon=21.00&tzone=C
FCC classifies it as an ``experimental synchronous operation``. But I suppose they don`t turn it on until the primary transmitter goes direxional a quarter-hour later. Even so, at certain places between the two cities the signals interfere with each other, and I believe someone reported they are not precisely zero-beat as one would expect.
While we are there, we see that the sunrise times are 7:00 am MST in Dec, 7:15 in Jan, i.e. 1400 and 1415 UT for both cities, when we should also have a good chance eastward if we are not too far away.
The KKOB ABQ night pattern is a classic two-tower broad cardioid with a deep null toward New York (and Enid, and less precisely, Santa Fe):
http://www.fcc.gov/ftp/Bureaus/MB/Databases/AM_DA_patterns/84381-2608.pdf
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. Had lots of Trans-Pacific carriers on MW the morning of Dec 30, so also looked for Trans-Atlantic carriers in the evening, bandscanning from 2301 UT until 2349, but this time only on the 10-kHz-stepping caradio while driving around Enid or parked. Listened for hets of various pitches, once I heard that Saudi 1 kHz het on 1520 KOKC, which is quite strong here. The carriers, by interpolating hets between adjacent frequencies, etc., rearranged into descending order:
1521, 1476, 1431, 1269, 1251, 1215, 1179, 1089, 999, 909, 819, 729, 711, 621, 549.
Notes: 1089 was especially strong. Probably Talksport, UK.
1215 produced a slightly different het against 1210 and 1220, i.e. off-frequency to the hi side. This points strongly to Albania, as in Mwoffsets, altho primary listing had it on the lo side as of 13 months ago:
1215 1214.933 ALB Radio Tirana/VOA/TWR Europe/CRI (Fllakë) [1214.27-1215.07 ] 0600-2300 2008-11-27 v strong drifter
711 was a double het, i.e. two stations off-frequency from each other. Morocco, 300 kW El-Aiun is a notorious variant, but 50 kW Libyan also varies, and there is also a high-power station in France (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BELGIUM. Made a point of tuning the very last SW broadcast from this country, as RTBF was previously publicized to be silencing 9970 forever at 2215 UT Dec 31. Tune in at 2205 but signal quite poor in French talk; at least WWCR was not blasting 9980, that fading down quite a bit. I wish I could have made out whether RTBF was saying anything special by way of farewell, but just too weak; at 2214 switched to a different announcer, 2215 still on the air with music, which ceased at 2217 and then the carrier was also gone (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BULGARIA. 9400, R. Bulgaria, where 2010 had already begun, UT Dec 31 at 2241 in Spanish with NY greetings to listeners, march music, audio somewhat distorted, M&W announcers alternating, poor with flutter, eventually mentioning búlgaros. Separate programming on 7400 must have been English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EGYPT. This is among the UT+2 countries, so I was checking Cairo just before 2200 UT Dec 31 for any signs of celebration. 6270, the English frequency, should have been in an ideal position, as the transmission is in progress rather than starting or ending at hourtop like so many stations, but at 2157 I could barely make out some modulation, sounded like Arabic music. Up to 6290, the Arabic service, which has plenty signal and modulation, but distorted, and nothing special happening; turned out I was tuned to GREECE [q.v.] at hourtop (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GABON. 9580, Africa Número Un, Dec 31 at 2223 in French with phone calls, during their final hour of 2009, and hoped for some NY celebrations by 2300 UT, but at 2254 it was off or outfaded (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GERMANY [non]. Deutsche Welle should be a good source for Jahrwechsel programming, but I was trying to hear it on 6075, Dec 31 at 2259 when the signal was poor; could only make out a DW jingle and NY greeting at 2300. Instead of 6075 which is Sines, PORTUGAL at 40 degrees, as uplooked later, I should have tried other relays on 11865, 12025 or 15640, altho higher-frequency propagation from eastward was not very good either (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE. Another UT+2 country which ought to mark the yearchange at 2200 Dec 31: separate programming on 7475 and 7450, the lower one stronger but always with ute het. Music on 7475 seemed to keep going, so shifted to Macedonian station on 7450 at 2200 and was hearing a countdown in Greek, but it was about 10 seconds late! Then applause. At 2224, 7475 V. of Greece was taking some phone calls while 7450 was in music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RWANDA. 6055, like Xmas eve, RRR was on late NY Eve, but reception not quite so good, Dec 31 at 2155 with party talk in presumed Kinyarwanda, perhaps some French inmixed. 2201 a bit of yelling as 2010 had just arrived in Kigali. 2227 excited talk with (live?) music background (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN. One can depend on REE for some the best pre-midnight entertainment on NY Eve. 9640 had good signal Dec 31 at 2220 UT with presumably live pop music in Spanish; 2244 amateur singers in Spanish, something about keeping you well-informed with the news, so maybe that was the news department performing. 2250 into English song, ``O Baby, Oops, I Did It Again`` --- no, not Britney, but really retro in the style of a 1930s cabaret.
That was the highlight, and it had just finished when at 2255, 5 minutes before 2010y, REE cut to the frequency-change/sign-off announcement it always runs on ordinary nights at that time, grrr! By 2257 the IS was running on 6055, and more weakly on 6125, but at 2300 6055 opened in French without a live NY celebration. In fact, it sounded like a playback of the original French hour earlier in the evening. So much for Spain. How about another UT+1 land, GERMANY? q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1700, KVNS Brownsville TX is about three times as far as KKLF in Richardson TX, but periodically overcomes it, e.g. Dec 30 at 2200 UT with ID like ``Playing the best of the 60s and 70s, Classic Hits 1700, KVNS Brownsville and The Rio Grande Valley``; shortly fading back below an ESPN station, presumably KBGG Des Moines IA. These three are close to collinear from here, but caradio antenna is nondirexional anyway. Also heard KVNS some other times peaking in the late afternoons before sunset (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 3215, open carrier at 2227 Dec 31, no doubt WWRB wasting its watts (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
