** BRAZIL [and non]. 6185, RNA, *0631 Dec 4, wiping out XEPPM which was playing some nice Mexican music. The earliest I have caught Brasília cutting on so far. Altho quite different, I might enjoy the Brazilian music too except I resent what they are doing to Mexico, and Radio Educación still has enough co-channel signal to make RNA listening unpleasant (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake Dec 4 at 1420: 8400 fair, 9000 poor, 10210 JBA. Dec 5 at 1334: 8400 poor, 9000 JBA, 10210 & 11300 zilch (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 6140, RHC mostly in English in the 05-07 period, but Dec 4 it was back in Spanish at 0612 check, much lower modulation than // 6150, 6120.
6010, RHC, UT Sat Dec 5 at 0609, ``Ed Newman`` with ``Thursday night`` news, but this is Friday night! Stories included Comcast buying NBC, which could be 24+ hours old, and Bobby Woods ``executed last night in Texas``. That occurred at 6:40 pm CST Thursday Dec 3, so it`s Ed who must have been confused about the current day, rather than a 24-hour-old program being played, which certainly could happen at this erratic station (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CZECHIA [and non]. 9845-9850-9855, DRM noise Sat Dec 5 at 1341, not usually heard here. It`s R. Prague via Woofferton Fri and Sat only at 13-14 in German and English per own sked, 35 kW.
Fortunately, R. Prague also still broadcasts in analog which I have no trouble decoding; less than a semihour later on 13580, Dec 5 at 1409, offbeat stories including a goat escaping pursuers into a town named Goat-Eaters, punxuated by Dixieland music. Show might be named ``News of the Weird`` but already taken; instead it is just ``Magazine`` and 1412 into SoundCzech, as described in the schedule: ``Magazine - The show that starts where the news ends - we bring you the stories you might otherwise have missed. SoundCzech - learn useful Czech phrases through song lyrics``. You can hear all this 25 hours later on WRMI, 9955; or not, depending on antenna use and jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. AIR National Channel, Dec 5 at 1318 with IS on 9425 fair, // blobless 9470 poor at sign-on. As usual, VBS on 9870 was much better (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. VOI missing from 9526 and 9525, Dec 4 at 1425 during Malay hour. Wish I had checked an hour earlier for English, but probably the same. No carrier at all detectable now. Don`t think it was propagation, as RRI home service on 9680 was S9+15, fair with dialog in Indonesian. Altho seldom with adequate modulation, 9525.9 had been reliably on the air the last few weeks.
Next day Dec 5 at 1338, 9525.9 had a very poor but detectable carrier, and JBA modulation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PORTUGAL [and non]. 15560, RDPI with usual big weekend signal, Dec 5 at 1420; during pauses could hear squeal on the transmission. Modulation somewhat distorted, not just, I think, due to selective fading. Program: Hotel Internacional which is really a pop music chart show, nothing to do with the hostelry biz, Sats 1410-1500. Plays same jingle between each pair of songs.
Some of the songs in English so not clear to me just what the parameters are. This page has audio files of last few shows, says based on Tabela AFP: http://ww1.rtp.pt/multimedia/index.php?prog=1278
This page autolaunches the `latest` show, still 11/28 as of three hours after airing new one 12/5
http://ww1.rtp.pt/programas-rtp/index.php?e_id=&c_id=5&dif=radio&p_id=1278
So we have yet more musical choices on 19m Saturday mornings: from 1430 on 15700, R. Bulgaria`s rather more exotic folk music show; on 15410, R. Farda with its mix of Farsi and western pop music; 15330, R. Martí`s music documentary, this week at 1445 on Trio Los Panchos, but that`s mostly narration, with musical clips (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. RRI won`t speak English to us in our mornings any more, but on 11940, Dec 5 at 1353 after kid`s squeaky voice in Romanian, at least played cowboy song in English, ``Wherever You Go, We Go, Amigo``. VG signal here as well as in German on 11970 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** THAILAND [and non]. 7365, at 1314 Dec 5, R. Thailand with English ID in transition from Japanese to Chinese, over co-channel QRM already in Mandarin. In this case I don`t think it is deliberate ChiCom jamming, but a genuine collision which should have been avoided, as CNR1 Shijiazhuang site is also scheduled on 7365 at 1200-1735, 37 degrees. The CIRAF zones even match at #44 for the Mandarin quarter-hour from Thailand, so a red flag, if you`ll pardon the expression, should have gone up at HFCC coordination meeting. Also, the A-09 frequency for these languages, 9455, was not collided or jammed. At 1332, HSK9 had switched to Thai for the rest of the hour, still with Chinese clash (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TURKEY. VOT English on 12035 is still having distorted modulation problems, Dec 5 at 1352 vocal music; 1400 multi-lingual ID filler for two minutes, then more pop music. Good signal level today, anyway. This is one of the supposedly refurbished Çakirlar transmitters (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 13835, Dec 5 at 1406, Nutcracker Suite playing, but in Dec that doesn`t mean any newfound commitment to classical music, just the must-play most-hackneyed seasonal `favorite`, WEWN slipping into secularity, ooooh, but by 1414 back to sacredarity with organ music; unsolid signal as usual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DGIEST)
** U S A [and non]. VOA, 15205, Friday Dec 4 at 1433 with Reporters` Notebook, stronger but echoier on // 11985, and weaker on 9760. I can`t find this show on the VOA A-Z program list, tho there is one with a similar name, Reporters` Roundtable supposedly on the African service at 1730. This was not about Africa; one of the segments in the discussion included Dan Robinson from Capitol Hill. I wonder what the other times for it are, if any. It was revived after cancellation.
Assuming the separate VOA A-Z language transmission schedule is correct, and that all frequencies carry the same English programming during this hour, the entire frequency list at 1430 is: 7575 9760 9930 11985 12150 15205 15580 17650 17715.
7405, somewhat above or equal to DentroCuban jamming level, UT Sat Dec 5 at 0556, surprised to hear VOA jingle and editorial in Spanish about Pres. Obama`s Afghanistan policy, but this is Radio Martí. 0600 back to RM programming with ``Noche de Paz`` Xmas carol. There have been reports that VOA Spanish service would be encroaching on RM territory due to budget restraints, etc., so maybe this is a sign of it.
OR: RM has always run VOA editorials and I just haven`t noticed. However, it had been a long-standing policy for VOA to keep the not exactly objective RM at least an arm`s length away, lest it damage VOA`s own reputation. Makes no diff to the Cubans, who jam both.
VOA Spanish service for sure, 9885, Sat Dec 5 at 1342 with Éxitos Latinoamericanos ``en VOASat e internet`` but no mention of SW! And back to pop music really in Spanish for a change. This Greenville signal was rather weak and AIR VBS, one sesquidekakHz away on 9870 from the other worldside was axually much better.
11635, at 1349 Dec 5, ME music which must have been Kurdish, as shortly IDed as ``Denge Amerike, Washington`` and VOA jingle. It`s 104 degrees from Lampertheim, GERMANY, but uncomfortably close to Arabic on 11630 starting Qur`an, i.e. KUWAIT at 230 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 3956-LSB, Dec 5 at 0535 anti-Catholic polemic being read by a ham, allegedly quoting Cardinal Newman, etc., to effect that the RCC is either totally representing God, or the Devil, ``Kingdom of Evil`` and the Vatican has the Devil sequestered within its walls.
Gave ID as KC0EBM at 0538, paused, no one replied, and then resumed. Another ID at 0541 and apparently finished for time being. No attempt at 2-way contacts, but at least he IDed. Trouble is, only once each, not clearly and no fonetix. I am pretty sure it was KC0EBM, but could have been EBN. ARRL lookup shows, from official FCC public info:
FRIESS, THOMAS E, KC0EBM (General)
3320 WILLIS
PERRY, IA 50220
While KC0EBN is a previous call sign for someone else, now W0ARL
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. On the caradio circa 2030 UT Dec 3, noticed a lo audible het on 1410, primary groundwave station here being Wichita, but skywave already inkicking. The just updated MW offsets website has hundreds of entries, many of them really LW, and a relative few SW, but only a few US stations are mentioned on 1410, of which only this one is a possibility, by proximity and rough het pitch, but the info is 2.75 years old: 1410 1409.952 USA WDSK (Cleveland, MS) 20070303
http://www.mwlist.org/mwoffset.php?khz=
(Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, X LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6074, 8GAL weak but identifiable with usual V/CQ marker, and a good thing I intuned early as it already started about 15 sex before 1400:00 Dec 4 as Russia was about to go off. But strangely, nothing heard from either China which are usually already ramping up their radio war a few minutes before and to dominate 6075 thence (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6925, Dec 5 at 1325 melodic unrecognized song, poor signal to 1327* off with no announcement. No doubt a pirate; I think WBNY has been active in the mornings, but not much to go on here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** CHINA. Firedrake Dec 4 at 1420: 8400 fair, 9000 poor, 10210 JBA. Dec 5 at 1334: 8400 poor, 9000 JBA, 10210 & 11300 zilch (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 6140, RHC mostly in English in the 05-07 period, but Dec 4 it was back in Spanish at 0612 check, much lower modulation than // 6150, 6120.
6010, RHC, UT Sat Dec 5 at 0609, ``Ed Newman`` with ``Thursday night`` news, but this is Friday night! Stories included Comcast buying NBC, which could be 24+ hours old, and Bobby Woods ``executed last night in Texas``. That occurred at 6:40 pm CST Thursday Dec 3, so it`s Ed who must have been confused about the current day, rather than a 24-hour-old program being played, which certainly could happen at this erratic station (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CZECHIA [and non]. 9845-9850-9855, DRM noise Sat Dec 5 at 1341, not usually heard here. It`s R. Prague via Woofferton Fri and Sat only at 13-14 in German and English per own sked, 35 kW.
Fortunately, R. Prague also still broadcasts in analog which I have no trouble decoding; less than a semihour later on 13580, Dec 5 at 1409, offbeat stories including a goat escaping pursuers into a town named Goat-Eaters, punxuated by Dixieland music. Show might be named ``News of the Weird`` but already taken; instead it is just ``Magazine`` and 1412 into SoundCzech, as described in the schedule: ``Magazine - The show that starts where the news ends - we bring you the stories you might otherwise have missed. SoundCzech - learn useful Czech phrases through song lyrics``. You can hear all this 25 hours later on WRMI, 9955; or not, depending on antenna use and jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. AIR National Channel, Dec 5 at 1318 with IS on 9425 fair, // blobless 9470 poor at sign-on. As usual, VBS on 9870 was much better (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. VOI missing from 9526 and 9525, Dec 4 at 1425 during Malay hour. Wish I had checked an hour earlier for English, but probably the same. No carrier at all detectable now. Don`t think it was propagation, as RRI home service on 9680 was S9+15, fair with dialog in Indonesian. Altho seldom with adequate modulation, 9525.9 had been reliably on the air the last few weeks.
Next day Dec 5 at 1338, 9525.9 had a very poor but detectable carrier, and JBA modulation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PORTUGAL [and non]. 15560, RDPI with usual big weekend signal, Dec 5 at 1420; during pauses could hear squeal on the transmission. Modulation somewhat distorted, not just, I think, due to selective fading. Program: Hotel Internacional which is really a pop music chart show, nothing to do with the hostelry biz, Sats 1410-1500. Plays same jingle between each pair of songs.
Some of the songs in English so not clear to me just what the parameters are. This page has audio files of last few shows, says based on Tabela AFP: http://ww1.rtp.pt/multimedia/index.php?prog=1278
This page autolaunches the `latest` show, still 11/28 as of three hours after airing new one 12/5
http://ww1.rtp.pt/programas-rtp/index.php?e_id=&c_id=5&dif=radio&p_id=1278
So we have yet more musical choices on 19m Saturday mornings: from 1430 on 15700, R. Bulgaria`s rather more exotic folk music show; on 15410, R. Farda with its mix of Farsi and western pop music; 15330, R. Martí`s music documentary, this week at 1445 on Trio Los Panchos, but that`s mostly narration, with musical clips (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. RRI won`t speak English to us in our mornings any more, but on 11940, Dec 5 at 1353 after kid`s squeaky voice in Romanian, at least played cowboy song in English, ``Wherever You Go, We Go, Amigo``. VG signal here as well as in German on 11970 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** THAILAND [and non]. 7365, at 1314 Dec 5, R. Thailand with English ID in transition from Japanese to Chinese, over co-channel QRM already in Mandarin. In this case I don`t think it is deliberate ChiCom jamming, but a genuine collision which should have been avoided, as CNR1 Shijiazhuang site is also scheduled on 7365 at 1200-1735, 37 degrees. The CIRAF zones even match at #44 for the Mandarin quarter-hour from Thailand, so a red flag, if you`ll pardon the expression, should have gone up at HFCC coordination meeting. Also, the A-09 frequency for these languages, 9455, was not collided or jammed. At 1332, HSK9 had switched to Thai for the rest of the hour, still with Chinese clash (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TURKEY. VOT English on 12035 is still having distorted modulation problems, Dec 5 at 1352 vocal music; 1400 multi-lingual ID filler for two minutes, then more pop music. Good signal level today, anyway. This is one of the supposedly refurbished Çakirlar transmitters (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 13835, Dec 5 at 1406, Nutcracker Suite playing, but in Dec that doesn`t mean any newfound commitment to classical music, just the must-play most-hackneyed seasonal `favorite`, WEWN slipping into secularity, ooooh, but by 1414 back to sacredarity with organ music; unsolid signal as usual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DGIEST)
** U S A [and non]. VOA, 15205, Friday Dec 4 at 1433 with Reporters` Notebook, stronger but echoier on // 11985, and weaker on 9760. I can`t find this show on the VOA A-Z program list, tho there is one with a similar name, Reporters` Roundtable supposedly on the African service at 1730. This was not about Africa; one of the segments in the discussion included Dan Robinson from Capitol Hill. I wonder what the other times for it are, if any. It was revived after cancellation.
Assuming the separate VOA A-Z language transmission schedule is correct, and that all frequencies carry the same English programming during this hour, the entire frequency list at 1430 is: 7575 9760 9930 11985 12150 15205 15580 17650 17715.
7405, somewhat above or equal to DentroCuban jamming level, UT Sat Dec 5 at 0556, surprised to hear VOA jingle and editorial in Spanish about Pres. Obama`s Afghanistan policy, but this is Radio Martí. 0600 back to RM programming with ``Noche de Paz`` Xmas carol. There have been reports that VOA Spanish service would be encroaching on RM territory due to budget restraints, etc., so maybe this is a sign of it.
OR: RM has always run VOA editorials and I just haven`t noticed. However, it had been a long-standing policy for VOA to keep the not exactly objective RM at least an arm`s length away, lest it damage VOA`s own reputation. Makes no diff to the Cubans, who jam both.
VOA Spanish service for sure, 9885, Sat Dec 5 at 1342 with Éxitos Latinoamericanos ``en VOASat e internet`` but no mention of SW! And back to pop music really in Spanish for a change. This Greenville signal was rather weak and AIR VBS, one sesquidekakHz away on 9870 from the other worldside was axually much better.
11635, at 1349 Dec 5, ME music which must have been Kurdish, as shortly IDed as ``Denge Amerike, Washington`` and VOA jingle. It`s 104 degrees from Lampertheim, GERMANY, but uncomfortably close to Arabic on 11630 starting Qur`an, i.e. KUWAIT at 230 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 3956-LSB, Dec 5 at 0535 anti-Catholic polemic being read by a ham, allegedly quoting Cardinal Newman, etc., to effect that the RCC is either totally representing God, or the Devil, ``Kingdom of Evil`` and the Vatican has the Devil sequestered within its walls.
Gave ID as KC0EBM at 0538, paused, no one replied, and then resumed. Another ID at 0541 and apparently finished for time being. No attempt at 2-way contacts, but at least he IDed. Trouble is, only once each, not clearly and no fonetix. I am pretty sure it was KC0EBM, but could have been EBN. ARRL lookup shows, from official FCC public info:
FRIESS, THOMAS E, KC0EBM (General)
3320 WILLIS
PERRY, IA 50220
While KC0EBN is a previous call sign for someone else, now W0ARL
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. On the caradio circa 2030 UT Dec 3, noticed a lo audible het on 1410, primary groundwave station here being Wichita, but skywave already inkicking. The just updated MW offsets website has hundreds of entries, many of them really LW, and a relative few SW, but only a few US stations are mentioned on 1410, of which only this one is a possibility, by proximity and rough het pitch, but the info is 2.75 years old: 1410 1409.952 USA WDSK (Cleveland, MS) 20070303
http://www.mwlist.org/mwoffset.php?khz=
(Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, X LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6074, 8GAL weak but identifiable with usual V/CQ marker, and a good thing I intuned early as it already started about 15 sex before 1400:00 Dec 4 as Russia was about to go off. But strangely, nothing heard from either China which are usually already ramping up their radio war a few minutes before and to dominate 6075 thence (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6925, Dec 5 at 1325 melodic unrecognized song, poor signal to 1327* off with no announcement. No doubt a pirate; I think WBNY has been active in the mornings, but not much to go on here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
