** CANADA [and non]. 6070, no sign of a carrier from CFRX, May 1 at 0521, a time when it is normally audible. Altho propagation was degraded on higher frequencies, 49m was working from Spain on 6055, Sackville on 6080, etc. Abnormally, the highest frequency with any signal at all was 13630, very poor Australia. So has CFRX crashed again? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake May 1:
7970, JBA at 1253, none higher found before 1300; propagation degraded. K-index 4 at 1500
10965, poor at 1335
12600, poor at 1335
13130, fair with flutter at 1334
13920, fair at 1358
14700, fair with flutter at 1332; still at 1418
15780, fair at 1418 and not fluttery, // 14700. 15780 a new frequency, so vs what? Nothing in Aoki here and now, but on 15775, SOH at 1430-1500 via TAJIKISTAN, close enough? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 11845, May 1 at 0515, DentroCuban pulse jamming against nothing, a frequency R. Martí uses only in the daytime.
13880, 13780 and 13680, May 1 at 1335-1349, RHC `En Contacto` celebrates 50th anniversary of RHC; after two birthday greetings to listeners, including Nicolás Éramo, Argentina, somewhere in his forties, rest of show consisted of prompted congratulations from some other broadcasters and listeners in their own voices, including:
Dr. Édgar Amílcar Madrid, R. Verdad, Guatemala
Antonio Buitrago, R. Exterior de España, `Amigos de la Onda Corta`
Jeff White, on behalf of NASB! How generous from a jammee, WRMI
Someone from AIR, Italy
A listener in Costa Rica
Pedro Sedano, Asociación DX Barcelona
Manuel Castro ---
Valentina --- of La Voz de Rusia
Sergio Acosta, `Cartas@RN`, Radio Nederland
David ---, Argentina
Rubén Guillermo Margenet, Argentina
Paco Rubio of Asociación DX Barcelona
Most of these were pro-forma and non-political, but RGM quoted Fidel about ``the truth carrying far``. I was listening on 13780, but include 13880, the leapfrog mixing product of 13680 over 13780, which was clearly audible to S9+8 at 1358 check, and is not formally reported as often as it should be.
Also reconfirmed Esperanto on 11760 at 1502. See also VENEZUELA [non]
RHC`s website http://www.radiohc.cu/ has changed, but GIGO. Altho the appearance is a bit more modern, don`t you believe the frequency schedule which includes outdated times/frequencies, introduces new errors such as ``11560`` instead of 17560 to Europe; English at wrong times 20 and 00 instead of 19 and 23, etc., etc. And where`s the link to it and to the Spanish program schedule? Under ``de interés``. Also note no linx to English or other language pages. What an improvement! O, there they are -- upper right of homepage. Now we have to click on the Union Jack to get to English. What`s that got to do with RHC`s primary English audience, in North America? Another anti-American insult (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ECUADOR [non]. I wanted to monitor this week`s `DX Partyline`, where Allen Graham announces he is terminating at the end of May the long-running show he inherited. WRMI had it scheduled at 0415 UT Sundays on 9955, webcast, but not any more. See latest April 22 schedule grid via
http://www.wrmi.net/pb/wp_d12a1732/wp_d12a1732.html
showing its`s replaced by `Radio Líder Brasil` at 04-05 Sundays.
Plenty of remaining DXPL times, a dozen: Sun 0030, 1430, 2330; Mon 0330, 0500, 1115, 1545; Wed 1430; Thu 0515; Sat 1000, 1500, 2015 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GABON [and non]. Press reports that Africa Number One has ``lost its signal`` were circulating April 29-30 and were published without question. See:
http://www.afriquejet.com/news/africa-news/gabon-based-pan-african-radio-loses-signal-2011042910317.html
http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/africa-no-1-silenced-by-eutelsat-over-unpaid-debts
http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=11185
The trouble is, it has not! Upon my request, several DX Listening Digest monitors axually tuned to 9580 and were still hearing it, and so did I:
9580, May 1 at 0507, music in French reminding me of ``Lion King``, not to be confused with talk in Arabic from a similar station on 9575, Médi 1 from Morocco. Initially poor signal improved somewhat during following hour. 0510 song with English lyrix. 0511 YL announcement in French, OM promo for a program after 17 hours. 0524 mostly music. 0532 ID for Africa Numéro Un, more music. 0559 suffering from some intermittent audio dropouts, which worsened, but between them, first caught mention of FM 94.5. No news on the hour, mixed with open carrier. 0605 long list of FM frequencies in different African cities, Africa No. Un mentioned multiple times. Sounds rather normal to me, altho as recently as April 23 I was hearing news during the previous semihour, and questioned how objective it could be since Libya is part-owner of ANO. The press reports confirm that Libya is majority owner, and failure to pay up has disrupted it satellite connexions, at least
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GERMANY [non]. Correxion, re the music DW played on 15640 after `Quadriga` in previous report: ``I had parked my dial on that frequency just to enjoy the tunes and "Tarty", I believe, was actually "Dancing in September" originally done by Earth Wind and Fire. In the bridge there's a series of nonsense syllables at the beginning of the lines which do sound like "tarty" or "party" but official lyrics put them down as "ba-de-ya". For the longest time I thought it was "party" myself. Just sayin'. Clara Listensprechen`` (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9526-, May 1 at 1251 during Japanese hour, VOI has announcement in English with contact info. Sounded like `live` YL rather than one of their canned promos. 1308 check, same YL during real English hour. Poor with flutter; lately VOI modulation has been `thin`, not commensurate with signal strength (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 11715-, Sunday May 1 at 1356, KJES catechisms in English by OM, repeated by YL zombie, one each. Modulation sufficient for a change, but slightly distorted on peaks, VG strength. This one is often inaudible, not even a carrier, so presumably irregular (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non?]. 17545, VOA good with talk instead of `Music Mix`, maybe because it`s Sunday, May 1 at 1423 with Hollywood reporter Allan Silverman on ``Jumping the Broom`` new movie. HFCC still lists this as 100 kW, 124 degrees from São Tomé, but I still suspect site has switched to Greenville. Higher bands were quite degraded, with only comparable signals on 16m being 17680 Chile and 17690 Guiana French (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VENEZUELA [non]. For the third week in a row, no `Aló, Presidente` on May 1. At 1417, RHC has turned off 13680 early, as it does on Sundays only because the transmitter is needed later on 13750 for A,P, but there is no carrier on 13750, 17750 or 15370, other A,P channels. El Hugazo`s excuse this week is that his `space is being ceded` to Labor Day celebrations. Next Sunday I suppose it will be because of Mothers` Day. See http://www.alopresidente.gob.ve/ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
** CHINA. Firedrake May 1:
7970, JBA at 1253, none higher found before 1300; propagation degraded. K-index 4 at 1500
10965, poor at 1335
12600, poor at 1335
13130, fair with flutter at 1334
13920, fair at 1358
14700, fair with flutter at 1332; still at 1418
15780, fair at 1418 and not fluttery, // 14700. 15780 a new frequency, so vs what? Nothing in Aoki here and now, but on 15775, SOH at 1430-1500 via TAJIKISTAN, close enough? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 11845, May 1 at 0515, DentroCuban pulse jamming against nothing, a frequency R. Martí uses only in the daytime.
13880, 13780 and 13680, May 1 at 1335-1349, RHC `En Contacto` celebrates 50th anniversary of RHC; after two birthday greetings to listeners, including Nicolás Éramo, Argentina, somewhere in his forties, rest of show consisted of prompted congratulations from some other broadcasters and listeners in their own voices, including:
Dr. Édgar Amílcar Madrid, R. Verdad, Guatemala
Antonio Buitrago, R. Exterior de España, `Amigos de la Onda Corta`
Jeff White, on behalf of NASB! How generous from a jammee, WRMI
Someone from AIR, Italy
A listener in Costa Rica
Pedro Sedano, Asociación DX Barcelona
Manuel Castro ---
Valentina --- of La Voz de Rusia
Sergio Acosta, `Cartas@RN`, Radio Nederland
David ---, Argentina
Rubén Guillermo Margenet, Argentina
Paco Rubio of Asociación DX Barcelona
Most of these were pro-forma and non-political, but RGM quoted Fidel about ``the truth carrying far``. I was listening on 13780, but include 13880, the leapfrog mixing product of 13680 over 13780, which was clearly audible to S9+8 at 1358 check, and is not formally reported as often as it should be.
Also reconfirmed Esperanto on 11760 at 1502. See also VENEZUELA [non]
RHC`s website http://www.radiohc.cu/ has changed, but GIGO. Altho the appearance is a bit more modern, don`t you believe the frequency schedule which includes outdated times/frequencies, introduces new errors such as ``11560`` instead of 17560 to Europe; English at wrong times 20 and 00 instead of 19 and 23, etc., etc. And where`s the link to it and to the Spanish program schedule? Under ``de interés``. Also note no linx to English or other language pages. What an improvement! O, there they are -- upper right of homepage. Now we have to click on the Union Jack to get to English. What`s that got to do with RHC`s primary English audience, in North America? Another anti-American insult (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ECUADOR [non]. I wanted to monitor this week`s `DX Partyline`, where Allen Graham announces he is terminating at the end of May the long-running show he inherited. WRMI had it scheduled at 0415 UT Sundays on 9955, webcast, but not any more. See latest April 22 schedule grid via
http://www.wrmi.net/pb/wp_d12a1732/wp_d12a1732.html
showing its`s replaced by `Radio Líder Brasil` at 04-05 Sundays.
Plenty of remaining DXPL times, a dozen: Sun 0030, 1430, 2330; Mon 0330, 0500, 1115, 1545; Wed 1430; Thu 0515; Sat 1000, 1500, 2015 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GABON [and non]. Press reports that Africa Number One has ``lost its signal`` were circulating April 29-30 and were published without question. See:
http://www.afriquejet.com/news/africa-news/gabon-based-pan-african-radio-loses-signal-2011042910317.html
http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/africa-no-1-silenced-by-eutelsat-over-unpaid-debts
http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=11185
The trouble is, it has not! Upon my request, several DX Listening Digest monitors axually tuned to 9580 and were still hearing it, and so did I:
9580, May 1 at 0507, music in French reminding me of ``Lion King``, not to be confused with talk in Arabic from a similar station on 9575, Médi 1 from Morocco. Initially poor signal improved somewhat during following hour. 0510 song with English lyrix. 0511 YL announcement in French, OM promo for a program after 17 hours. 0524 mostly music. 0532 ID for Africa Numéro Un, more music. 0559 suffering from some intermittent audio dropouts, which worsened, but between them, first caught mention of FM 94.5. No news on the hour, mixed with open carrier. 0605 long list of FM frequencies in different African cities, Africa No. Un mentioned multiple times. Sounds rather normal to me, altho as recently as April 23 I was hearing news during the previous semihour, and questioned how objective it could be since Libya is part-owner of ANO. The press reports confirm that Libya is majority owner, and failure to pay up has disrupted it satellite connexions, at least
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GERMANY [non]. Correxion, re the music DW played on 15640 after `Quadriga` in previous report: ``I had parked my dial on that frequency just to enjoy the tunes and "Tarty", I believe, was actually "Dancing in September" originally done by Earth Wind and Fire. In the bridge there's a series of nonsense syllables at the beginning of the lines which do sound like "tarty" or "party" but official lyrics put them down as "ba-de-ya". For the longest time I thought it was "party" myself. Just sayin'. Clara Listensprechen`` (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9526-, May 1 at 1251 during Japanese hour, VOI has announcement in English with contact info. Sounded like `live` YL rather than one of their canned promos. 1308 check, same YL during real English hour. Poor with flutter; lately VOI modulation has been `thin`, not commensurate with signal strength (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 11715-, Sunday May 1 at 1356, KJES catechisms in English by OM, repeated by YL zombie, one each. Modulation sufficient for a change, but slightly distorted on peaks, VG strength. This one is often inaudible, not even a carrier, so presumably irregular (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non?]. 17545, VOA good with talk instead of `Music Mix`, maybe because it`s Sunday, May 1 at 1423 with Hollywood reporter Allan Silverman on ``Jumping the Broom`` new movie. HFCC still lists this as 100 kW, 124 degrees from São Tomé, but I still suspect site has switched to Greenville. Higher bands were quite degraded, with only comparable signals on 16m being 17680 Chile and 17690 Guiana French (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VENEZUELA [non]. For the third week in a row, no `Aló, Presidente` on May 1. At 1417, RHC has turned off 13680 early, as it does on Sundays only because the transmitter is needed later on 13750 for A,P, but there is no carrier on 13750, 17750 or 15370, other A,P channels. El Hugazo`s excuse this week is that his `space is being ceded` to Labor Day celebrations. Next Sunday I suppose it will be because of Mothers` Day. See http://www.alopresidente.gob.ve/ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###