16m was cooperating at 2212 April 30 with RHC on new 17660 in French, good signal but distorted modulation; no ID needed as who else would be talking about Committees for the Defense of the Revolution? About same signal level on 17705 in Portuguese, but more distorted.
9640 confirmed as the new Mesa Redonda frequency, ex-9820, apparently just getting under way at 2230 April 30; undermodulated. Nominal span is 22-24, but I think it usually starts at 2230, and not necessarily on the air every weekday. I wonder how the ChiCom feel about this overlapping their own Spanish broadcast daily from Kashi to Spain until 2300 on 9640 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [non]. Altho Radio República`s new 9840 had been heard the past three days, both before and after 2200, it was missing on April 30 when checked at 2207. Nor was there any jamming on the frequency. Possibly it was still on during the 2100 hour, but more likely a brief test period has ended. A quick scan of other bands 7-18 MHz failed to find a replacement for 9840. I was standing by on the other frequency 9545, which at 2259 already had jamming ramping up, and a few seconds after 2300 on came R. República with theme, ID, no frequencies mentioned, and into ``Encuentro Informativo`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGST)
** EGYPT. R. Cairo, 11590 in English to NAm, April 30 at 2310 with Arabic music, undermodulated but sufficient. At 2315 timesignal 17 seconds late, so why bother if you can`t do better than that? News march theme, and YL with presumed news in English, but now the modulation is so low I can`t make anything out; the propagational fading is louder than she is from the speaker. Par for the course for this totally incompetent station (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA [and non]. As I tuned across RRI in English on 9790, Thursday April 30 at 2227, they were just starting their mailbag program, reading a report from one Joseph Padula in Mont Albert, Australia. This fellow born in 1939, touts his professionalism, an award he got, his restored California bungalow. I suspect he is very closely related to Robert J. Padula, a.k.a. Bob. But why would anybody switch from a perfectly good first name to a middle name? Perhaps he is starting over his QSL-collecting career under a new identity.
RRI was also well audible when checked earlier at 2213 on // 9675 and 11940, the latter bothered by buzz bleeding over up to 11950 from the DentroCuban Jamming Command on 11930 vs Martí, but not on the low side. Commies vs ex-Commies! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 11915 with Qur`an, fair with SAH April 30 at 2212, but NO BUZZ. This has often been reported with buzz, same BSKSA Riyadh transmitter as we hear on 15435 at 15-18 and on several others before and after. It is sporadic, and I doubt the problem has been permanently fixed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WWRB, 9385 with plus and minus 68 kHz spurs on approx. 9317, and weaker 9453, April 30 at 2237 as Alex Scourby was ponderously pontificating. With E-W longwire aimed at Manchester TN and preselector peaked on each frequency, I read the FRG-7 S-meter as S9+22 on 9385, +15 on 9317 and +12 on 9453 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WRMI still has not resumed weekday afternoon broadcasts on 9955. Nothing there, no jamming either, at 2207 check April 30. Jeff White says they are still waiting on some maintenance to be done. Unless time is sold, the 8-hour period of 16-24 UT M-F is scheduled to be filled by World Radio Network relays in English, as I assume it still is on WRMI`s webcast. Maybe in May? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. Sem Limites, the CVC Brazilian service show of snippets of popular classical music bits mixed with evangelism, on 15410 via Chile, April 30 at 2239 until 2257 when cut abruptly to rock music. This show is a travesty, not presenting any piece in its entirety, just chopping them up and cutting them off abruptly, such as at 2248. These people have no appreciation or respect for classical music, but are just using it for one hour a day to try to reach a different audience than otherwise. Here`s their hard-sell announcer: http://www.radiocvc.com/Grfx/Jose001.jpg
Per schedule at http://www.radiocvc.com/programas2008.htm this is supposed to be at 20-21 hours Brasília time, and so I had expected it to be at 2300 UT, its original time before Brazil started fooling with DST. That ended this year already on February 15, but apparently CVC did not shift its Miami-based programming one UT hour later to keep it at the same local time in parts of Brazil going on and off DST! So it is still running at 22-23 UT.
Despite my disgust, I kept listening for a while, as this could be the final SW broadcast of CVC in Portuguese, which was previously reported to be ending at Aprilend for financial reasons, tho continuing on internet and satellite feed to affiliates. Yet to be confirmed, but just try to find any mention of their last remaining SW frequency on website. We`ll find out on May Day (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VENEZUELA [non]. RNVCI via CUBA, 13680 // 15250, VG April 30 at 2302 as YL is opening in stilted English with program summary, the latter part of the hour to be back in Spanish. Gave date April 30. Then starting with ``Informative Short News`` about Venezuela preparing for swine flu tho no cases yet (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
