** CANADA [and non]. CFRX quite absent from 6070, Jan 17 at 0635, just continuous CVC gospel-rock music via Chile. Not even a SAH on it. Propagation from northerly paths was even worse than usual, with 9 and 7 MHz virtually dead; 6 MHz bore 5920 WBOH VG, but 5935 and 5890 WWCR were VP; nothing much from Austria on 6155 or Croatia on 6165, as are normally incoming nightly. But CFRX was well audible as usual over day path at next check 1415. Same situation UT Jan 18: no CFRX audible at 0630 but there OK at 1355 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. Convoluted situation with RNV relays: see VENEZUELA [non]
** ECUADOR. HCJB, Aventura Diexista, Sat Jan 17 at 1448 on 11960, with Alen Grájam reading DX news in first-person even tho I am sure it was written by someone else. Gave postal address of RNV Antena Internacional as Apartado postal 3970, yes, repeated as 3970 instead of correct 3979, so both the writer and A.G. did not recognize this as an obvious typo. BTW, WRTH 2009 page 489 does not even mention this address altho RNV keeps announcing it; instead, a street address in Caracas and the QSL manager in Miami. There have been reports of p-mail bouncing from the box anyway.
Don`t you believe more erroneous info which followed on HCJB: R. Sweden in English via Sackville 6010 at 0230-0300 and 0300-0330, instead of the correct repeat time of 0330-0400! Later had recordings of Galei Zahal 6973 and Bahamas 1540. Who wrote this? Credited to Leonardo Santiago, of Mérida, Venezuela, who provides monthly DX reports for this program, to return in February (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. Shiokaze, via Japan on new 5985, Jan 17 at 1417 in Japanese talk, no piano undercurrent, and no QRM. I noticed Jan 14 that this was missing from 5910 where it had been for some weeks. And Jan 15 at 1406 had a very poor signal in Korean or Japanese on 5985 with a het, which I supposed was Myanmar, but other reports have Myanmar also on 5985.0 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [and non]. REE with Sólo Canciones show I enjoy, Sunday Jan 18 at 1440 with Yves Montand, later a segment on Lady in the Dark; 17595 direct not propagating well so had to default to inferior audio on CR relay 15170, which was well atop Romania. 1455 cut away from this show with 10 minutes to go, for PSA about voting in Galicia, and then QSY announcement to 17850 which would come up in 3 minutes (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 9725, Jan 17 at 1536 with song in Vietnamese, for children? Then Vietnamese announcement. Good reception, had not noticed before. Is VOA via Saipan at 15-16 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VENEZUELA [non]. RNV CI, via CUBA, back on correct frequency 11680, Jan 17 at 1500 signing on in English, instead of 11760 where it was Jan 16. For incorrect mailing address see ECUADOR. I see that WRTH 2009 says the RNV broadcasts at 11, 15 and 23 are in Spanish/English, while all the others, 10, 12, 19, 20 and 22 UT are in Spanish only. Is this correct: no English ever heard on the latter ones?
Since Aló, Presidente resumed last Sunday Jan 11, I checked for it this Sunday Jan 18: At 1405, 11875 was already on with separate programming about Venezuela, not // RHC mainstream on 11760, 13760, etc. 13750, which is normally used only for the A,P service, was on the air but with open carrier. By 1426 it was modulating // RHC 13760 but an echo apart, rather than // 11875 as it should have been.
11690 was not heard at 1405, but at 1430 check found that also on the air with A,P service making fast SAH with HCJB underneath, also with persistent RTTY QRM from 11687.5. As we outpointed months ago during the hiatus, when 11690 first appeared on the RHC schedule for this, there would be a collision with HCJB, which uses 11690 every day until 1500. And now that has come to pass. Yet 11680 and 11670 are open!
At 1433, I could also hear some co-channel under 11875, singing; probably Lisboa which is scheduled on this frequency Sat & Sun only until 1500. Also at 1433, could barely hear the A,P service on 13680, underneath skirts of CRI/Sackville 13675.
Not expecting to hear A,P service on 17750, but checked at 1435, and there it was with good signal during Mundo Siete week-in-review program produced by RHC, which is a standard feature in the run-up to joining the feed from Venezuela. It was // 11690 but an echo apart.
13750 was still carrying the wrong feed at 1435, RHC mainstream, and still at 1453 // 13760. Next check of 17750 at 1457 found it had vanished. At 1458, 13750 had finally split from 13760, different programming, with 13750 now // 11875, 11690 and 13680 with A,P service. At 1501, 11760 switched from RHC Spanish to Esperanto as scheduled, this time not // extra 13760 which was off by 1502.
Suspended monitoring for breakfast, assuming that the Hugo show would soon be underway, but at next check 1554, 11690 and 11875 were off, and 13750 had gone back to open carrier, so evidently after all this trouble, he was a no-show. More lack of communication between Caracas and Habana, or the mercurial mandator pulled out at the last minute?
If 1) Hugo really did his show every week at a certain time, and 2) RHC broadcast it on a certain set of non-colliding frequencies, 3) not mixed up with other RHC mainstream service, everything would be nominal and I would have nothing significant to report about this. But that will never happen at the number one SNAFU station (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** CUBA. Convoluted situation with RNV relays: see VENEZUELA [non]
** ECUADOR. HCJB, Aventura Diexista, Sat Jan 17 at 1448 on 11960, with Alen Grájam reading DX news in first-person even tho I am sure it was written by someone else. Gave postal address of RNV Antena Internacional as Apartado postal 3970, yes, repeated as 3970 instead of correct 3979, so both the writer and A.G. did not recognize this as an obvious typo. BTW, WRTH 2009 page 489 does not even mention this address altho RNV keeps announcing it; instead, a street address in Caracas and the QSL manager in Miami. There have been reports of p-mail bouncing from the box anyway.
Don`t you believe more erroneous info which followed on HCJB: R. Sweden in English via Sackville 6010 at 0230-0300 and 0300-0330, instead of the correct repeat time of 0330-0400! Later had recordings of Galei Zahal 6973 and Bahamas 1540. Who wrote this? Credited to Leonardo Santiago, of Mérida, Venezuela, who provides monthly DX reports for this program, to return in February (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. Shiokaze, via Japan on new 5985, Jan 17 at 1417 in Japanese talk, no piano undercurrent, and no QRM. I noticed Jan 14 that this was missing from 5910 where it had been for some weeks. And Jan 15 at 1406 had a very poor signal in Korean or Japanese on 5985 with a het, which I supposed was Myanmar, but other reports have Myanmar also on 5985.0 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [and non]. REE with Sólo Canciones show I enjoy, Sunday Jan 18 at 1440 with Yves Montand, later a segment on Lady in the Dark; 17595 direct not propagating well so had to default to inferior audio on CR relay 15170, which was well atop Romania. 1455 cut away from this show with 10 minutes to go, for PSA about voting in Galicia, and then QSY announcement to 17850 which would come up in 3 minutes (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 9725, Jan 17 at 1536 with song in Vietnamese, for children? Then Vietnamese announcement. Good reception, had not noticed before. Is VOA via Saipan at 15-16 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VENEZUELA [non]. RNV CI, via CUBA, back on correct frequency 11680, Jan 17 at 1500 signing on in English, instead of 11760 where it was Jan 16. For incorrect mailing address see ECUADOR. I see that WRTH 2009 says the RNV broadcasts at 11, 15 and 23 are in Spanish/English, while all the others, 10, 12, 19, 20 and 22 UT are in Spanish only. Is this correct: no English ever heard on the latter ones?
Since Aló, Presidente resumed last Sunday Jan 11, I checked for it this Sunday Jan 18: At 1405, 11875 was already on with separate programming about Venezuela, not // RHC mainstream on 11760, 13760, etc. 13750, which is normally used only for the A,P service, was on the air but with open carrier. By 1426 it was modulating // RHC 13760 but an echo apart, rather than // 11875 as it should have been.
11690 was not heard at 1405, but at 1430 check found that also on the air with A,P service making fast SAH with HCJB underneath, also with persistent RTTY QRM from 11687.5. As we outpointed months ago during the hiatus, when 11690 first appeared on the RHC schedule for this, there would be a collision with HCJB, which uses 11690 every day until 1500. And now that has come to pass. Yet 11680 and 11670 are open!
At 1433, I could also hear some co-channel under 11875, singing; probably Lisboa which is scheduled on this frequency Sat & Sun only until 1500. Also at 1433, could barely hear the A,P service on 13680, underneath skirts of CRI/Sackville 13675.
Not expecting to hear A,P service on 17750, but checked at 1435, and there it was with good signal during Mundo Siete week-in-review program produced by RHC, which is a standard feature in the run-up to joining the feed from Venezuela. It was // 11690 but an echo apart.
13750 was still carrying the wrong feed at 1435, RHC mainstream, and still at 1453 // 13760. Next check of 17750 at 1457 found it had vanished. At 1458, 13750 had finally split from 13760, different programming, with 13750 now // 11875, 11690 and 13680 with A,P service. At 1501, 11760 switched from RHC Spanish to Esperanto as scheduled, this time not // extra 13760 which was off by 1502.
Suspended monitoring for breakfast, assuming that the Hugo show would soon be underway, but at next check 1554, 11690 and 11875 were off, and 13750 had gone back to open carrier, so evidently after all this trouble, he was a no-show. More lack of communication between Caracas and Habana, or the mercurial mandator pulled out at the last minute?
If 1) Hugo really did his show every week at a certain time, and 2) RHC broadcast it on a certain set of non-colliding frequencies, 3) not mixed up with other RHC mainstream service, everything would be nominal and I would have nothing significant to report about this. But that will never happen at the number one SNAFU station (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
