** ANTARCTICA. 15476, as usual late coming on, May 13 at 1233 nothing, but *1238:19 carrier on with immediate musical prélude; 1249 switch to another song, then LRA36 ID and usual sign-on, not with ``Soy Feliz`` theme but song with similar beat. S9+12 and I have no time to listen further today.
I`m rather surprised that this is not being reported more widely. A 2 kW transmitter from 12 megameters away, the only SW station on the continent, is by any definition DX, altho some DXers are prejudiced against anything above the tropical bands. I continue to find it interesting to see how propagation from so far below varies from day to day, and how sign-ons vary from day to day, always remembering that it could vanish again for months at a time. Do others find it passé once logged; or just can`t get it? I realise timing is inconvenient for live listeners in eastern North America with a 9-5 job or school hours in the way (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BULGARIA. 11600, checking another R. Bulgaria Kostinbrod test frequency, altho not to NAm, at 0530-0700: May 12 at 0609, waltz music, then French ID. // 9600 a bit stronger but 11600 clearer, and 11600 also running about one second behind Plovdiv 9600.
Again UT May 13, at 0534 in German, 11600 seems further out of synch by about two seconds after 9600, then folk music at 0538. 11600 had more fading but signal levels about equal. The 100 kW Kostinbrod tests are to continue thru May 15; schedule in DXLD 11-18 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake May 13, this time tuning downward, all //:
16980, very good at 1222, quite like Kashgar on 17490, 17650
16100, very good at 1223
15900, good at 1225
14900, fair at 1226
13130, good at 1227
12240, good at 1227
10300, fair at 1228
7970, JBA at 1229
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. Checking whether RHC stays on new 6100 after hearing it during two May 12 transmissions: UT May 13 at 0252, Spanish is on 6120, not 6100 or 6150. At 0520, squealy English is back on reactivated 6150, ex-6100. At 1231, Spanish also back on 6150, ex-6100, // 6000. BTW, Ron Howard says MALAYSIA did not stay on 6100, apparently the transmitter moved to 7235 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI, May 13 at 1207 song, 1208 English ID with website http://www.voi.co.id plugging streaming, also phone (text?) number and e-mail, chat. Said something about other languages including Indonesian, Arabic, Japanese, German, but too poor to copy details. Yesterday during this hour only, they switched to Indonesian and the other languages have been missing from SW. Did not hear any mention of SW frequencies like they used to do, altho all of them were wrong, out of use or 1 kHz off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT. 21540, May 13 at 1217, Arabic music from R. Kuwait, the SSOB, rivalled only by 21780 Rwanda, with hardly a trace of Spain on 21540 or 21610 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA [and non]. 13610, May 13 at 1353, `Moscow Nights` tune, then jazzed-up-tempo `Beethoven`s Fifth`; some CCI. 1358 to Chinese announcement and VOR IS until 1359*. Ergo this was VOR`s Chinese service, 250 kW, 230 degrees via Vladivostok, atop the CCI of CRI English via Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [and non]. 11880, REE via COSTA RICA, May 13 at 1254 tuned in just in time to reconfirm that Basque is still running, and with spurious 5+1 timesignal ending at 1254:15! Maybe that part of program was pre-recorded and they couldn`t defeat it. 1255 back to Castilian plus Portuguese ID in promo, music fill.
17595, May 13 at 1305, I am listening carefully to the opening of `Españoles en la Mar`` with its Morse-code theme, because the fifth character should be one we never hear in English CW, the Enye, and yes, there it went, --.-- which did not always display properly in my previous item appearing in DXLD 11-18. Too-smart-for-its-own-good MS Word likes to combine two hyphens into one dash, or result in garble.
Before body of show, two separate promos asking listeners to contact them about whether listening on SW, satellite or internet; they are giving away 10 digital radios, and numerous books. This show`s particular address is enlamar @ rtve.es. Then onto first report, about problems facing the Spanish fleet fishing for red tuna off Libya.
About the possibility of closing SW, José Bueno in Spain says ``this time it`s serious`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SRI LANKA [and non]. 17735, May 13 at 1220, good signal with W&M conversation in C Asian language, one of them on the phone. Aoki shows R. Liberty in Kyrgyz during this semihour only. HFCC shows IBB Iranawila, 250 kW, 344 degrees, so also favors NAm far beyond Kyrgyzstan; had not noticed this one before. CRI Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN, was also in well on 17490, 17650 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Correxion to last report: I wrote 17745 twice instead of correct 17545! Here changed:
17545 // 15580, May 12 at 1430 with `International Edition` from VOA, good weekdaily newscast, closing at 1456 referring to VOA Asia, even tho these frequencies are from São Tomé to Africa, 124 and 138 degrees respectively, but both very good today even here.
1457 Editorial about Syria, but 17545 cut off at 1458:20* before it could finish. Then checked 15580 and it was also off, but came back on and off for a few more words of editorial, stayed on after 1500 for VOA News, unlike 17545. It seems the editorials have been scheduled during expendable transmitter-switching times just before hourtops, à la the Chinese lessons on CRI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also PAKISTAN [non]
** U S A. 2390 is no longer on air, but 5050, WWRB, UT Friday May 13 at 0330 usual dead air, quick ID by Dave, finally at 0332 rough start of WORLD OF RADIO 1564 playback, cutting off part of the opening. Modulation OK, but I find that 5050 is weaker than its neighbors geographically and frequentially, 4840 WWCR and strongest 5755 WTWW, the three about 5 dB apart on my meter. Could be due to different rhombic antenna patterns. Dave replies:
``Greetings: Are we within 5 dB of each station? We are using a 150 foot high Rhombic that is beaming 045 degrees. The other stations antennas are on telephone poles less than 100 feet(?) high --- with wire sag? In that situation our Rhombic antenna will be much more directive. WWRB received about 10 Emails last night from Europe & eastern Canada stating that WWRB was 15 dB stronger than the other stations and significantly louder.``
Other WORLD OF RADIO 1564 monitoring: Confirmed on ACB Radio Mainstream webcast after 0300 Friday, to repeat 2-hourly thru 2330. On WRMI, Friday 1430+ confirmed on webcast, but not enough signal on unjammed 9955 at 1455 to be sure it`s on. Further airings on WRMI are: Saturday 0800, 1730, Sunday 0800, 1530, 1730. On WWCR: Friday 2030 on 15825, Saturday 1600 on 12160, Sunday 0630 on 3215. On IPAR: Saturday 1800 on 7290 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9370, WTJC, good May 13 at 0543 and spurless with 9345 and 9395 clear. Seems we are in another respite interlude (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 17680, CVC La Voz, Miami via CHILE, as always with loud and clear signal even if little else is making it on 16m. Yet I avoid this station because I resent stealth evangelism as deeply dishonest. But I gave them a chance May 13 at 1347 with some admittedly catchy music. It`s in a countdown show of some sort, and this song initially seems secular/romantic, mixing some rap with normal crooning, ``Solo Tú``, a love song? Only in the sense of loving Jesús! Who toward the end is named as the object of affexion. Keeping this time from being totally wasted, I also noticed some IADs (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [non]. 13730, May 13 at 1212, VR via CANADA, fair signal and hardly any SAH from Portugal, ending `Vatican Radio World News` as always with a quick quote from PBXVI, this about May 13 being Our Lady of Fatima`s Day; reference http://www.vaticanradio.org and to be back [in English] at ``6:15 Rome Time`` --- i.e. 1615 UT to Eu/ME on 15595, 7250, 5885, 4005, 585 as in BDXC-UK`s comprehensive A-11 Broadcasts in English booklet. 1214 to open carrier, no IS before off by 1215 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6170, May 13 at 1232 no signal at all, unlike 48+ hours earlier. I need to ask RNZI about that (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9872 approx., May 13 at 0542 roaring noise, unseems DRM but could be jamming, or ute? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 12048 approx., extremely distorted FMy signal, talk sounds like English intonation, but not positive, May 13 at 0528. Checked RHC on 49m and VOR on 22m for // but neither fit. Then at 0529 heard a bit of the VTC fill music loop before cut off at 0529:45* Babcock has a lot of transmissions on the 12 MHz band, but none on 12045 or 12050 or anywhere else ending at 0530 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
I`m rather surprised that this is not being reported more widely. A 2 kW transmitter from 12 megameters away, the only SW station on the continent, is by any definition DX, altho some DXers are prejudiced against anything above the tropical bands. I continue to find it interesting to see how propagation from so far below varies from day to day, and how sign-ons vary from day to day, always remembering that it could vanish again for months at a time. Do others find it passé once logged; or just can`t get it? I realise timing is inconvenient for live listeners in eastern North America with a 9-5 job or school hours in the way (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BULGARIA. 11600, checking another R. Bulgaria Kostinbrod test frequency, altho not to NAm, at 0530-0700: May 12 at 0609, waltz music, then French ID. // 9600 a bit stronger but 11600 clearer, and 11600 also running about one second behind Plovdiv 9600.
Again UT May 13, at 0534 in German, 11600 seems further out of synch by about two seconds after 9600, then folk music at 0538. 11600 had more fading but signal levels about equal. The 100 kW Kostinbrod tests are to continue thru May 15; schedule in DXLD 11-18 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake May 13, this time tuning downward, all //:
16980, very good at 1222, quite like Kashgar on 17490, 17650
16100, very good at 1223
15900, good at 1225
14900, fair at 1226
13130, good at 1227
12240, good at 1227
10300, fair at 1228
7970, JBA at 1229
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. Checking whether RHC stays on new 6100 after hearing it during two May 12 transmissions: UT May 13 at 0252, Spanish is on 6120, not 6100 or 6150. At 0520, squealy English is back on reactivated 6150, ex-6100. At 1231, Spanish also back on 6150, ex-6100, // 6000. BTW, Ron Howard says MALAYSIA did not stay on 6100, apparently the transmitter moved to 7235 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI, May 13 at 1207 song, 1208 English ID with website http://www.voi.co.id plugging streaming, also phone (text?) number and e-mail, chat. Said something about other languages including Indonesian, Arabic, Japanese, German, but too poor to copy details. Yesterday during this hour only, they switched to Indonesian and the other languages have been missing from SW. Did not hear any mention of SW frequencies like they used to do, altho all of them were wrong, out of use or 1 kHz off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT. 21540, May 13 at 1217, Arabic music from R. Kuwait, the SSOB, rivalled only by 21780 Rwanda, with hardly a trace of Spain on 21540 or 21610 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA [and non]. 13610, May 13 at 1353, `Moscow Nights` tune, then jazzed-up-tempo `Beethoven`s Fifth`; some CCI. 1358 to Chinese announcement and VOR IS until 1359*. Ergo this was VOR`s Chinese service, 250 kW, 230 degrees via Vladivostok, atop the CCI of CRI English via Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [and non]. 11880, REE via COSTA RICA, May 13 at 1254 tuned in just in time to reconfirm that Basque is still running, and with spurious 5+1 timesignal ending at 1254:15! Maybe that part of program was pre-recorded and they couldn`t defeat it. 1255 back to Castilian plus Portuguese ID in promo, music fill.
17595, May 13 at 1305, I am listening carefully to the opening of `Españoles en la Mar`` with its Morse-code theme, because the fifth character should be one we never hear in English CW, the Enye, and yes, there it went, --.-- which did not always display properly in my previous item appearing in DXLD 11-18. Too-smart-for-its-own-good MS Word likes to combine two hyphens into one dash, or result in garble.
Before body of show, two separate promos asking listeners to contact them about whether listening on SW, satellite or internet; they are giving away 10 digital radios, and numerous books. This show`s particular address is enlamar @ rtve.es. Then onto first report, about problems facing the Spanish fleet fishing for red tuna off Libya.
About the possibility of closing SW, José Bueno in Spain says ``this time it`s serious`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SRI LANKA [and non]. 17735, May 13 at 1220, good signal with W&M conversation in C Asian language, one of them on the phone. Aoki shows R. Liberty in Kyrgyz during this semihour only. HFCC shows IBB Iranawila, 250 kW, 344 degrees, so also favors NAm far beyond Kyrgyzstan; had not noticed this one before. CRI Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN, was also in well on 17490, 17650 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Correxion to last report: I wrote 17745 twice instead of correct 17545! Here changed:
17545 // 15580, May 12 at 1430 with `International Edition` from VOA, good weekdaily newscast, closing at 1456 referring to VOA Asia, even tho these frequencies are from São Tomé to Africa, 124 and 138 degrees respectively, but both very good today even here.
1457 Editorial about Syria, but 17545 cut off at 1458:20* before it could finish. Then checked 15580 and it was also off, but came back on and off for a few more words of editorial, stayed on after 1500 for VOA News, unlike 17545. It seems the editorials have been scheduled during expendable transmitter-switching times just before hourtops, à la the Chinese lessons on CRI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also PAKISTAN [non]
** U S A. 2390 is no longer on air, but 5050, WWRB, UT Friday May 13 at 0330 usual dead air, quick ID by Dave, finally at 0332 rough start of WORLD OF RADIO 1564 playback, cutting off part of the opening. Modulation OK, but I find that 5050 is weaker than its neighbors geographically and frequentially, 4840 WWCR and strongest 5755 WTWW, the three about 5 dB apart on my meter. Could be due to different rhombic antenna patterns. Dave replies:
``Greetings: Are we within 5 dB of each station? We are using a 150 foot high Rhombic that is beaming 045 degrees. The other stations antennas are on telephone poles less than 100 feet(?) high --- with wire sag? In that situation our Rhombic antenna will be much more directive. WWRB received about 10 Emails last night from Europe & eastern Canada stating that WWRB was 15 dB stronger than the other stations and significantly louder.``
Other WORLD OF RADIO 1564 monitoring: Confirmed on ACB Radio Mainstream webcast after 0300 Friday, to repeat 2-hourly thru 2330. On WRMI, Friday 1430+ confirmed on webcast, but not enough signal on unjammed 9955 at 1455 to be sure it`s on. Further airings on WRMI are: Saturday 0800, 1730, Sunday 0800, 1530, 1730. On WWCR: Friday 2030 on 15825, Saturday 1600 on 12160, Sunday 0630 on 3215. On IPAR: Saturday 1800 on 7290 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9370, WTJC, good May 13 at 0543 and spurless with 9345 and 9395 clear. Seems we are in another respite interlude (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 17680, CVC La Voz, Miami via CHILE, as always with loud and clear signal even if little else is making it on 16m. Yet I avoid this station because I resent stealth evangelism as deeply dishonest. But I gave them a chance May 13 at 1347 with some admittedly catchy music. It`s in a countdown show of some sort, and this song initially seems secular/romantic, mixing some rap with normal crooning, ``Solo Tú``, a love song? Only in the sense of loving Jesús! Who toward the end is named as the object of affexion. Keeping this time from being totally wasted, I also noticed some IADs (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [non]. 13730, May 13 at 1212, VR via CANADA, fair signal and hardly any SAH from Portugal, ending `Vatican Radio World News` as always with a quick quote from PBXVI, this about May 13 being Our Lady of Fatima`s Day; reference http://www.vaticanradio.org and to be back [in English] at ``6:15 Rome Time`` --- i.e. 1615 UT to Eu/ME on 15595, 7250, 5885, 4005, 585 as in BDXC-UK`s comprehensive A-11 Broadcasts in English booklet. 1214 to open carrier, no IS before off by 1215 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6170, May 13 at 1232 no signal at all, unlike 48+ hours earlier. I need to ask RNZI about that (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9872 approx., May 13 at 0542 roaring noise, unseems DRM but could be jamming, or ute? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 12048 approx., extremely distorted FMy signal, talk sounds like English intonation, but not positive, May 13 at 0528. Checked RHC on 49m and VOR on 22m for // but neither fit. Then at 0529 heard a bit of the VTC fill music loop before cut off at 0529:45* Babcock has a lot of transmissions on the 12 MHz band, but none on 12045 or 12050 or anywhere else ending at 0530 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
