** CHINA. Firedrake May 15: hi-latitude propagation was very suppressed above 12 MHz, the only big signals coming from southerly Chile, Cuba, WYFR. But CNR1 echo jamming was VG around 1300 on 11990, 12040
14700, Firedrake poor at 1231, none audible higher
13920, fair at 1235
12240, very good at 1236
11500, no Firedrake but some JBA talk
10300, not at 1241
7970, fair at 1249
Next Firedrake group from the next hour:
15970, poor with heavy flutter at 1354
15670, fair at 1355, mixing with talk, CNR1 or victim
15430, fair at 1355
14700, good at 1358
13970, very good at 1358
13850, good at 1358
10300, fair at 1359
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** FRANCE. 11995, RFI in English, UT Sunday May 15 at 0449 with news about the E-U, good signal; already off at next check 0457. Didn`t have the full sked at hand, but WRTH Update shows // 9805 from 0400, and then from 0500 only on 15160 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE. 15630, May 15 at 2211, VOG is unusually broadcasting a seemingly live event, lots of applause and crowd noise, PA reverb, mostly in English, with Greek voice-overs. Various countries, such as Ireland and later Latvia at 2220 are declaring which other countries they prefer, and awarding points! O, it must be the Eurovision Song Contest, about which I had heard zero this year until running across this good signal. Azerbaijan was right up there in the voting and as I Googled later, came out the winner; next year in Baku! // 9420 with SAH and CCI-Iran, but 15630 much better now (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ISRAEL. 15850, May 14 at 2209, Galei Zahal, poor signal but audible for a change, mentioned Israel as soon as I tuned in, Hebrew. At 2219, peaking at S9+12. Also audible but very poor at 0454 May 15 in presumed Hebrew talk. WRTH says 10 kW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JORDAN. 11960, May 15 at 0452, Arabic music and announcement, good signal but heavy flutter, much better than Turkey 11980. This is R. Jordan, in what little is left of it on SW, per WRTH Update, 04-05 on 11960, irregularly at 1055-1130 on 15290 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 54-60 MHz, sporadic E analog TV DX faded in May 15 at 1438 UT, with weight-loss infomercial in Spanish, large numbers frequently across bottom of screen, 5004 0724, presumably a phone number. Then checked the DX Sherlock 6m QSO map and it showed only one contact between Houston and Atlanta via ``Iono-scatter``. Ch 2 in and out, still at 1452 but not much later, when the 6m map started to show Es across SW USA and border Mexico. Rotated antenna from SSE toward WSW BCN, but nothing yet on ch 2 or 3 by 1615 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NETHERLANDS [non]. 9500, since our last log of RNW in English by mistake, they are back in proper Dutch, May 14 at 2214, fair signal, better than before, via RWANDA, and about one second behind much better Bonaire // 15540 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. Stair cult vs Camping cult, religionists vs each other! 9385, Brother Scare via WWRB, May 15 at 1242 is contradicting Mr Camping about the May 21 Rapture. BS believes in it, but not the date, and Camping is `absolutely absurd`: his calculations are meaningless since ``there was no 10,000 years ago, no million years ago, no dinosaurs or prehistoric humans``. The real Rapture will come only after The Tribulation and is in the other direxion with heaven coming down to earth as in ``thy Kingdom come``, obviously. Battle of the wackos! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 5050, WWRB with big band music, UT Sunday May 15 at 0355 checked on webcast. Altho the entire website is slow to be updated, the program schedule for `Global I` = 5050 has been, including 0330-0400 UT Sundays --- `Back to the 40`s``. See the entire grid http://www.wwrb.org/schedule/global_1/combined.pdf
which also shows that on UT Tuesdays at 0200-0230.
Also, a `Classical Music Program`, UT Saturdays 0030-0100. Then there`s `Back to the 80`s` in a couple of other blox, disco music. Some Sunday night shows might be of interest:
0200-0300 UT Mondays, `Planet X` presumably the oldtime SF drama
0300-0400 UT Mondays, AirCommand Radio --- what`s that?
The schedule for Global II still shows 12180, which has not been in use for years, and 3195, which tested briefly a few weeks ago, and no significant details.
Global III is nothing but The Overcomer on 9385, 3185.
Global IV says ``testing new frequency``, 15.795 MHZ | 090° Dual Feed Reflector Curtain Antenna Coverage http://www.wwrb.org/c_maps/090.php
at 1300-2200 (which we have not yet caught on the air). That map shows primary coverage into W, C, and E Africa, secondary coverage to S Africa, and more northerly regions.
Checked 15795 again just before despatching this report, May 15 at 1618: nothing, not yet, altho it`s likely to be highly variable like its neighbor WWCR 15825, JBA at the moment, depending on HF sporadic E enhancement as it`s otherwise in the F2 skip zone barely a megameter away (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
14700, Firedrake poor at 1231, none audible higher
13920, fair at 1235
12240, very good at 1236
11500, no Firedrake but some JBA talk
10300, not at 1241
7970, fair at 1249
Next Firedrake group from the next hour:
15970, poor with heavy flutter at 1354
15670, fair at 1355, mixing with talk, CNR1 or victim
15430, fair at 1355
14700, good at 1358
13970, very good at 1358
13850, good at 1358
10300, fair at 1359
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** FRANCE. 11995, RFI in English, UT Sunday May 15 at 0449 with news about the E-U, good signal; already off at next check 0457. Didn`t have the full sked at hand, but WRTH Update shows // 9805 from 0400, and then from 0500 only on 15160 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE. 15630, May 15 at 2211, VOG is unusually broadcasting a seemingly live event, lots of applause and crowd noise, PA reverb, mostly in English, with Greek voice-overs. Various countries, such as Ireland and later Latvia at 2220 are declaring which other countries they prefer, and awarding points! O, it must be the Eurovision Song Contest, about which I had heard zero this year until running across this good signal. Azerbaijan was right up there in the voting and as I Googled later, came out the winner; next year in Baku! // 9420 with SAH and CCI-Iran, but 15630 much better now (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ISRAEL. 15850, May 14 at 2209, Galei Zahal, poor signal but audible for a change, mentioned Israel as soon as I tuned in, Hebrew. At 2219, peaking at S9+12. Also audible but very poor at 0454 May 15 in presumed Hebrew talk. WRTH says 10 kW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JORDAN. 11960, May 15 at 0452, Arabic music and announcement, good signal but heavy flutter, much better than Turkey 11980. This is R. Jordan, in what little is left of it on SW, per WRTH Update, 04-05 on 11960, irregularly at 1055-1130 on 15290 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 54-60 MHz, sporadic E analog TV DX faded in May 15 at 1438 UT, with weight-loss infomercial in Spanish, large numbers frequently across bottom of screen, 5004 0724, presumably a phone number. Then checked the DX Sherlock 6m QSO map and it showed only one contact between Houston and Atlanta via ``Iono-scatter``. Ch 2 in and out, still at 1452 but not much later, when the 6m map started to show Es across SW USA and border Mexico. Rotated antenna from SSE toward WSW BCN, but nothing yet on ch 2 or 3 by 1615 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NETHERLANDS [non]. 9500, since our last log of RNW in English by mistake, they are back in proper Dutch, May 14 at 2214, fair signal, better than before, via RWANDA, and about one second behind much better Bonaire // 15540 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. Stair cult vs Camping cult, religionists vs each other! 9385, Brother Scare via WWRB, May 15 at 1242 is contradicting Mr Camping about the May 21 Rapture. BS believes in it, but not the date, and Camping is `absolutely absurd`: his calculations are meaningless since ``there was no 10,000 years ago, no million years ago, no dinosaurs or prehistoric humans``. The real Rapture will come only after The Tribulation and is in the other direxion with heaven coming down to earth as in ``thy Kingdom come``, obviously. Battle of the wackos! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 5050, WWRB with big band music, UT Sunday May 15 at 0355 checked on webcast. Altho the entire website is slow to be updated, the program schedule for `Global I` = 5050 has been, including 0330-0400 UT Sundays --- `Back to the 40`s``. See the entire grid http://www.wwrb.org/schedule/global_1/combined.pdf
which also shows that on UT Tuesdays at 0200-0230.
Also, a `Classical Music Program`, UT Saturdays 0030-0100. Then there`s `Back to the 80`s` in a couple of other blox, disco music. Some Sunday night shows might be of interest:
0200-0300 UT Mondays, `Planet X` presumably the oldtime SF drama
0300-0400 UT Mondays, AirCommand Radio --- what`s that?
The schedule for Global II still shows 12180, which has not been in use for years, and 3195, which tested briefly a few weeks ago, and no significant details.
Global III is nothing but The Overcomer on 9385, 3185.
Global IV says ``testing new frequency``, 15.795 MHZ | 090° Dual Feed Reflector Curtain Antenna Coverage http://www.wwrb.org/c_maps/090.php
at 1300-2200 (which we have not yet caught on the air). That map shows primary coverage into W, C, and E Africa, secondary coverage to S Africa, and more northerly regions.
Checked 15795 again just before despatching this report, May 15 at 1618: nothing, not yet, altho it`s likely to be highly variable like its neighbor WWCR 15825, JBA at the moment, depending on HF sporadic E enhancement as it`s otherwise in the F2 skip zone barely a megameter away (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###