** CHINA. Another sparse day for Firedrake, May 18 as propagation was subnormal, solar flux still stuck at only 69 as of May 17, and K index = 2 as of 1500 May 18. At 1323, found only on 10300 with fair signal, nowhere else 8-18 MHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 6250, Castilian at 0555 May 18, so RNGE is active. Unfortunately, a local CBer on 27185 in love with his own reverberating voice is splattering not only all over 27 MHz, but all over the entire SW range at least down to 5 MHz! Must be one of my wonderful neighbors (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI, Exotic Indonesia on Tuesday May 18, sufficient signal without too much hum, at 1321 the Banjarmasin guy outroed one of his segments by naming himself something- Mahendra. Topic was something about development in South Kalimantan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA [non]. 9735, VOR via GUIANA FRENCH again in Spanish UT May 18 instead of English which lasted only three days; at chex 0223, during the 03 hour, and still at 0455 in Spanish so did not close at 0400 but usual 0500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15825, WWCR-1 at 1330 May 18 with piano gospel music soon joined by singer, strongest station on band (SSOB), with sporadic-E enhancement, and not much else making it on 19m except weaker Sackville and Habana.
Nothing significant by F2 from Europe; yet on 16m, Spain was still audible on 17595, plus WYFR on 17555, 17795, Chile on 17680, Ascension on 17800. Checking TV-FM Skip Log later, Es MUF did make it up to at least 60 MHz over eastern North America (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 17585, VOA Greenville still fires up for a semihour at 1400-1430, but instead of News Now, it`s Music Mix! May 18 at 1426, with a sporadic-E boost, a song by Canadian Michael Bouvlet (sp?), ``I Haven`t Met You Yet``, then YL DJ, ``VOA Music Mix Network`` jingle, and rapper about ``having sex with a boy who`s 16`` but ``no money for an abortion``, so VOA is doing its best to propagate American values and culture?
This is the transmission which used to be a continuous news hour, but rudely interrupted in the middle for a totally unnecessary site change from Greenville to Botswana. Now the rap crap stops a few sex short of 1430, open carrier continues a bit and can hear weak signal under, presumably still Botswana, but now it really is news/talk instead of continuing with the `music`.
So the recent VOA format change has apparently caused the two halves of this hour no longer to match. By 1435 check the GB carrier is off but Bots too weak vs noise level; the other carrier axually had helped to audiblize it.
17585 is intended for Africa from both sites, but what programming? The new sked provided by Kim Elliott at http://www.kimandrewelliott.com/VOA_English_to_Asia_and_ME.pdf ignores Africa, but for Asia at 1430 weekdays it goes from Crossroads Asia to International Edition. Possibly the latter is also now on 17585? But before 1430, it wouldn`t do to broadcast an Asian regional program to Africa, so have to stick something else in there! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 6250, Castilian at 0555 May 18, so RNGE is active. Unfortunately, a local CBer on 27185 in love with his own reverberating voice is splattering not only all over 27 MHz, but all over the entire SW range at least down to 5 MHz! Must be one of my wonderful neighbors (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI, Exotic Indonesia on Tuesday May 18, sufficient signal without too much hum, at 1321 the Banjarmasin guy outroed one of his segments by naming himself something- Mahendra. Topic was something about development in South Kalimantan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA [non]. 9735, VOR via GUIANA FRENCH again in Spanish UT May 18 instead of English which lasted only three days; at chex 0223, during the 03 hour, and still at 0455 in Spanish so did not close at 0400 but usual 0500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15825, WWCR-1 at 1330 May 18 with piano gospel music soon joined by singer, strongest station on band (SSOB), with sporadic-E enhancement, and not much else making it on 19m except weaker Sackville and Habana.
Nothing significant by F2 from Europe; yet on 16m, Spain was still audible on 17595, plus WYFR on 17555, 17795, Chile on 17680, Ascension on 17800. Checking TV-FM Skip Log later, Es MUF did make it up to at least 60 MHz over eastern North America (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 17585, VOA Greenville still fires up for a semihour at 1400-1430, but instead of News Now, it`s Music Mix! May 18 at 1426, with a sporadic-E boost, a song by Canadian Michael Bouvlet (sp?), ``I Haven`t Met You Yet``, then YL DJ, ``VOA Music Mix Network`` jingle, and rapper about ``having sex with a boy who`s 16`` but ``no money for an abortion``, so VOA is doing its best to propagate American values and culture?
This is the transmission which used to be a continuous news hour, but rudely interrupted in the middle for a totally unnecessary site change from Greenville to Botswana. Now the rap crap stops a few sex short of 1430, open carrier continues a bit and can hear weak signal under, presumably still Botswana, but now it really is news/talk instead of continuing with the `music`.
So the recent VOA format change has apparently caused the two halves of this hour no longer to match. By 1435 check the GB carrier is off but Bots too weak vs noise level; the other carrier axually had helped to audiblize it.
17585 is intended for Africa from both sites, but what programming? The new sked provided by Kim Elliott at http://www.kimandrewelliott.com/VOA_English_to_Asia_and_ME.pdf ignores Africa, but for Asia at 1430 weekdays it goes from Crossroads Asia to International Edition. Possibly the latter is also now on 17585? But before 1430, it wouldn`t do to broadcast an Asian regional program to Africa, so have to stick something else in there! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
