** CANADA. 11655, Dec 27 at 1521, RCI IS and IDs in English and French, leftover from NHK relay ending at 1500, but why? Off at 1522*. Was atop a much weaker signal, listed as KSDA Guam in Telugu (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST
** CHINA. 9415, Dec 26 at 2342, VG signal in Vietnamese, with short/longpath echo. HFCC shows it`s CRI, 500 kW, 193 degrees from Beijing site (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CUBA 9820
** CUBA [and non]. 9820, Dec 26 at 2325, RHC in Spanish with Chinese CCI. HFCC shows: Xian, 150 kW, 290 degrees at 2055-0100. Aoki shows it as CNR2 Xianyang 594 site, same power and azimuth, but also Voice of Beibu Bay Radio, 15 kW, 225 degrees from Nanning in Vietnamese Sun-Thu, Chinese Fri/Sat, but are those local or UT days? Anyhow, Commies vs Commies vs Commies! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
49 mb check at 1125 Dec 27: RHC 6000 mixing with Harold Camping on WYFR; VG on 6095, also 6140, 6150. Open carrier on 6120, also RHC, or Sackville? 6060 with RNV relay mixing English and Spanish. 15120, Dec 27 at 1450 RHC Spanish with tourism feature about Hemingway`s house in Habana, but fast SAH from understation featuring wailing, i.e. Saudi Arabia`s Bengali service (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also NIGERIA
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, R. Africa, Dec 27 at 1536 VP with preacher in English; not yet the convicted child-molesting evangelist `Tony Alamo`, now serving 175 years in Terre Haute rather than Tucson, whom Ron Howard has been observing both at 1600 and 2200 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** FRANCE [non]. 13640, RFI via GUF, Dec 27 at 1146, VG with music, lyrix sounded Japanese, 1147 ID in Chinese. Just part of RFI`s eclectic music fill after Météo Marine in French which takes far less than the full semihour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUATEMALA. 4052.5-, R. Verdad, nothing there at 1125 Dec 27, so late signing on again; 1138 check, now it`s on with ``Hark, the Herald``, by children`s chorus, language uncertain, then ``Noche de Paz`` in Spanish; fair signal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN. 9875, Sunday Dec 26 at 1420, NHK World Interactive answering listener letters. I expected it to be pre-empted as on last Sundays of month by Listening Library, but per http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/radio/listening-library/index.html
this is appearing quarterly rather than monthly, Oct 31 and the next one Jan 30 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CANADA
** MAURITANIA. 7245, no signal Dec 27 at 0605, so checked if ORTM was back on 4845 --- not there either, and WWCR 4840 was weakening as skip lengthened. 0618 recheck, 7245 now on with usual chanting, so opened late (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 6185, XEPPM with musical prélude, Sunday Dec 26 at 2305 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. Finally getting some analog winter sporadic-E TV DX. At 2346 UT Sunday Dec 26 I noticed that WWCR 13845 and WEWN 15610 were putting in good signals, as the bands were otherwise dying for longer hauls. A good tipoff that Es is in play.
At 0223 UT Monday Dec 27 first noticed video on channel 2. 0225 found it coming from WSW, tucanal bug in UR, so that`s XEPM Juárez. Then on channel 4, Azteca 13 bug in UR, the two vertical lines and three dots to their right (5+5+3) in game/variety show, ``Boing/La Academia``. Briefly glimpsed SONORA in an ad, so that`s XHHSS in Hermosillo. A few good fade-ins from it. Occasional signs of signals on 5 and 6 but by 0248 MUF down to channel 2. Just about gone by 0300.
Next morning after finding WWCR 15825 and WEWN 15610 inbooming, and 6m Es maps showing activity in eastern USA, I aimed ENE on ch 3 hoping for WBRA-DT from VA; on separate analog set saw signs of video briefly at 1646 on ch 2 (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MOROCCO. 15341+, Dec 27 at 1512, RTM still here in Arabic, slight het from 15340; but at 1535 check had made the switch to 15345+ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA. 15120, Dec 27 at 1509, VP signal from VON in English but in the clear after RHC and BSKSA closed. HFCC shows Sa`udi on 15120 until 1600, but WRTH 2011 has its Bengali ending at 1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. 6015, RRI in English, Dec 26 at 2315, no spurjam from Cuba this time; previous report of this on 6020 under Cuba must have been 5 kHz off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 17615, BSKSA, Dec 27 at 1516, fire & brimstone preacher, vocal range all over the place, unusual for Arabic broadcasts; his voice and/or the playback may be defective. A few minutes earlier, was quite pleasant with Qur`an. See also CUBA, NIGERIA, 15120 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 4825-USB, Dec 26 at 2320, Navy MARS net in ``comments`` segment, informal talk about weather, equipment, NCS NNN0KIP. Also heard some AFA- calls, Air Force MARS. Googling indicates NNN0KIP is somewhere in east Texas (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9245.8, Dec 26 at 2220, spur from WWRB // 9385 with Overcomer, but non-Brother Scare speaking at the moment. Very weak and fading. Could not find a match on the hi side, 9524.2 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9985, Dec 27 at 1134, VG with vintage cowboy music. WWCR-1 has expanded from one hour to two on 9985, 10-12 UT, with the second hour M-F being ``Worldwide Country Radio``. 1158 QSY announcement to 15825 and off. By 1202, WWCR-4 had come on 9980 with TOM music.
At 1537, found 15825 with preacher had VG signal instead of JBA, tnx to sporadic E HF opening, providing 15610 WEWN likewise. Now`s my chance to try to hear the +/- 15.6 kHz spurs which accompany other WWCR-1 frequencies, 3215 and 7465. Yes, there they are, quite weak but detectable on 15809.4 and 15840.6. Also began monitoring ch 2 for ascension of Es MUF, and briefly saw some analog video at 1646 with antenna ENE (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15550-USB, WJHR with usual over-assertive preacher, rough audio besides being SSB, Monday Dec 27 at 1447, confirming it is not limited to Wednesdays only as in WRTH 2011. Today`s signal aided by sporadic E over short 1-megameter path, rising to good peaks after 1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9955, WRMI, UT Sunday Dec 26 at 0549, great music from Bolivia, Perú on ``Aires Andinos`` and sufficient non-jammed reception too. Current sked as of Dec 17 shows all these times for it: UT Tue 0330, Wed 1230, Thu 0100 {corrected, not 0000, tnx to Harry Brown for catching this}, Sat 1200, Sun 0530, 0730 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [non]. 9865, Dec 27 at 1128 OC, 1129 Vatican Radio IS, opening Spanish to Latin America and the Caribbean, but then dumped off the air and never returned at several chex following semihour. Is Sackville, CANADA relay, almost as if operator thought better of doing this transmission. Has it been deliberately suspended? It had ACI from 9865-9870-9875 RNZI DRM noise which runs until 1200 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 3320, Dec 27 at 1152, open carrier with tone test, or rather het, I think now from a second carrier, this time slightly lower pitched than the adjacent CHU pips. Obviously at this hour it would have nothing to do with South Africa. Nothing much audible from North Korea either below 4 MHz, except a carrier on 2850 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** CHINA. 9415, Dec 26 at 2342, VG signal in Vietnamese, with short/longpath echo. HFCC shows it`s CRI, 500 kW, 193 degrees from Beijing site (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CUBA 9820
** CUBA [and non]. 9820, Dec 26 at 2325, RHC in Spanish with Chinese CCI. HFCC shows: Xian, 150 kW, 290 degrees at 2055-0100. Aoki shows it as CNR2 Xianyang 594 site, same power and azimuth, but also Voice of Beibu Bay Radio, 15 kW, 225 degrees from Nanning in Vietnamese Sun-Thu, Chinese Fri/Sat, but are those local or UT days? Anyhow, Commies vs Commies vs Commies! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
49 mb check at 1125 Dec 27: RHC 6000 mixing with Harold Camping on WYFR; VG on 6095, also 6140, 6150. Open carrier on 6120, also RHC, or Sackville? 6060 with RNV relay mixing English and Spanish. 15120, Dec 27 at 1450 RHC Spanish with tourism feature about Hemingway`s house in Habana, but fast SAH from understation featuring wailing, i.e. Saudi Arabia`s Bengali service (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also NIGERIA
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, R. Africa, Dec 27 at 1536 VP with preacher in English; not yet the convicted child-molesting evangelist `Tony Alamo`, now serving 175 years in Terre Haute rather than Tucson, whom Ron Howard has been observing both at 1600 and 2200 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** FRANCE [non]. 13640, RFI via GUF, Dec 27 at 1146, VG with music, lyrix sounded Japanese, 1147 ID in Chinese. Just part of RFI`s eclectic music fill after Météo Marine in French which takes far less than the full semihour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUATEMALA. 4052.5-, R. Verdad, nothing there at 1125 Dec 27, so late signing on again; 1138 check, now it`s on with ``Hark, the Herald``, by children`s chorus, language uncertain, then ``Noche de Paz`` in Spanish; fair signal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN. 9875, Sunday Dec 26 at 1420, NHK World Interactive answering listener letters. I expected it to be pre-empted as on last Sundays of month by Listening Library, but per http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/radio/listening-library/index.html
this is appearing quarterly rather than monthly, Oct 31 and the next one Jan 30 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CANADA
** MAURITANIA. 7245, no signal Dec 27 at 0605, so checked if ORTM was back on 4845 --- not there either, and WWCR 4840 was weakening as skip lengthened. 0618 recheck, 7245 now on with usual chanting, so opened late (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 6185, XEPPM with musical prélude, Sunday Dec 26 at 2305 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. Finally getting some analog winter sporadic-E TV DX. At 2346 UT Sunday Dec 26 I noticed that WWCR 13845 and WEWN 15610 were putting in good signals, as the bands were otherwise dying for longer hauls. A good tipoff that Es is in play.
At 0223 UT Monday Dec 27 first noticed video on channel 2. 0225 found it coming from WSW, tucanal bug in UR, so that`s XEPM Juárez. Then on channel 4, Azteca 13 bug in UR, the two vertical lines and three dots to their right (5+5+3) in game/variety show, ``Boing/La Academia``. Briefly glimpsed SONORA in an ad, so that`s XHHSS in Hermosillo. A few good fade-ins from it. Occasional signs of signals on 5 and 6 but by 0248 MUF down to channel 2. Just about gone by 0300.
Next morning after finding WWCR 15825 and WEWN 15610 inbooming, and 6m Es maps showing activity in eastern USA, I aimed ENE on ch 3 hoping for WBRA-DT from VA; on separate analog set saw signs of video briefly at 1646 on ch 2 (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MOROCCO. 15341+, Dec 27 at 1512, RTM still here in Arabic, slight het from 15340; but at 1535 check had made the switch to 15345+ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA. 15120, Dec 27 at 1509, VP signal from VON in English but in the clear after RHC and BSKSA closed. HFCC shows Sa`udi on 15120 until 1600, but WRTH 2011 has its Bengali ending at 1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. 6015, RRI in English, Dec 26 at 2315, no spurjam from Cuba this time; previous report of this on 6020 under Cuba must have been 5 kHz off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 17615, BSKSA, Dec 27 at 1516, fire & brimstone preacher, vocal range all over the place, unusual for Arabic broadcasts; his voice and/or the playback may be defective. A few minutes earlier, was quite pleasant with Qur`an. See also CUBA, NIGERIA, 15120 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 4825-USB, Dec 26 at 2320, Navy MARS net in ``comments`` segment, informal talk about weather, equipment, NCS NNN0KIP. Also heard some AFA- calls, Air Force MARS. Googling indicates NNN0KIP is somewhere in east Texas (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9245.8, Dec 26 at 2220, spur from WWRB // 9385 with Overcomer, but non-Brother Scare speaking at the moment. Very weak and fading. Could not find a match on the hi side, 9524.2 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9985, Dec 27 at 1134, VG with vintage cowboy music. WWCR-1 has expanded from one hour to two on 9985, 10-12 UT, with the second hour M-F being ``Worldwide Country Radio``. 1158 QSY announcement to 15825 and off. By 1202, WWCR-4 had come on 9980 with TOM music.
At 1537, found 15825 with preacher had VG signal instead of JBA, tnx to sporadic E HF opening, providing 15610 WEWN likewise. Now`s my chance to try to hear the +/- 15.6 kHz spurs which accompany other WWCR-1 frequencies, 3215 and 7465. Yes, there they are, quite weak but detectable on 15809.4 and 15840.6. Also began monitoring ch 2 for ascension of Es MUF, and briefly saw some analog video at 1646 with antenna ENE (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15550-USB, WJHR with usual over-assertive preacher, rough audio besides being SSB, Monday Dec 27 at 1447, confirming it is not limited to Wednesdays only as in WRTH 2011. Today`s signal aided by sporadic E over short 1-megameter path, rising to good peaks after 1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9955, WRMI, UT Sunday Dec 26 at 0549, great music from Bolivia, Perú on ``Aires Andinos`` and sufficient non-jammed reception too. Current sked as of Dec 17 shows all these times for it: UT Tue 0330, Wed 1230, Thu 0100 {corrected, not 0000, tnx to Harry Brown for catching this}, Sat 1200, Sun 0530, 0730 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [non]. 9865, Dec 27 at 1128 OC, 1129 Vatican Radio IS, opening Spanish to Latin America and the Caribbean, but then dumped off the air and never returned at several chex following semihour. Is Sackville, CANADA relay, almost as if operator thought better of doing this transmission. Has it been deliberately suspended? It had ACI from 9865-9870-9875 RNZI DRM noise which runs until 1200 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 3320, Dec 27 at 1152, open carrier with tone test, or rather het, I think now from a second carrier, this time slightly lower pitched than the adjacent CHU pips. Obviously at this hour it would have nothing to do with South Africa. Nothing much audible from North Korea either below 4 MHz, except a carrier on 2850 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###