** COSTA RICA. 17725-18215, July 20 At 1953, the total range of spiky spurfield from REE 17850 transmitter, worst 17855-18000 or so. Fundamental also distorted forcing modulation to ooze out around the edges. Probably same unit which behaves likewise periodically from 9630 at night. Why are there not any:
1, reports from other DXers/SWLs? Just ignore when it happen?
2, awareness and fixness on the part of REE
3, complaints from `professional` monitors, e.g. ITU
4, complaints from countless other stations affected
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 11760, July 21 at 1128, modulation on this RHC transmitter is still breaking up; I`m afraid it` something worse than a bad patchcord; while 11690 and 11860 are OK.
The POS 9540 RHC transmitter is also out of whack again today, July 21 at 1132, this time putting an FMy spurblob circa 9525, with extremely distorted modulation matchable to 9550. Tough luck for Indonesia 9526, in addition to it self-inflicted problems. Anyway cleared 9540 for something in Chinese at 1148, i.e. CRI Beijing site during this hour. Commies not vs Commies! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EGYPT. 9965, July 20 at 2358, very poor unID signal, maybe R. Cairo. They were supposedly just moving the 2300-2430 English to E North America here from 6270, which was hardly appropriate for the summer, tho HFCC shows 9965 effective from Abis ever since 25 March! Nothing audible in the noise on 6270, but inconclusive long before sunset. 9965 is also supposed to continue in Arabic at 0030-0430, and at 0128 check there is still something there, can`t tell if just a carrier, or typical Cairo under/non-modulation.
9315 is also supposed to be replaced by 9720 for Spanish at 0045-0200 and English at 0200-0330. At 0128 there is still a carrier on 9315, altho the Arabic channel 9305 is again absent despite scheduling. Nothing on 9720. Another check at 0257: 9305 is now on as is 9315, and 9965 has achieved some awful modulation, can`t discern language, but timesignal at 0300 is 18 seconds late (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [non]. 11850, July 20 at 2053, poor signal in French with a squealing transmitter (I think), never any ID caught until partial timesignal, 3 pips or so at 2100, then open carrier to 2100:52*. HFCC shows it`s NHK via MADAGASCAR, 2030-2100, 250 kW, 305 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 710, July 21 at 1106, XEDP, Ciudad Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua goes from multi-verse choral NA to ``Soy Soldado``, super-patriotic militaristic pledge of allegiance, spoken by a male rather than sung; 1109 segué to state song with Chihuahua mentioned several times, tenor with choir and band. 1110.5 a male prays briefly to Jesus, then a female sings to be pardoned. Finally sign on with their new(?) FM getting top billing, XHDP 89.9 10 kW, y XEDP 710, 5 kW, La Ranchera, street address, another station of Grupo BM Radio, finally usual jingle ID as XEDP, 1113 live DJ mentions 89.7 only, 1120 time as 5:20, 1125 song ``El Borracho`` (The Drunkard). Since I heard a Low German gospel-huxter yesterday at this time, I was trying to catch when that started, but not at all on this Sabbath by 1128.
A super signal and very steady, hardly any fades. I would have rated it 50 kW, not just 5; finally started to fade around 1137, a few minutes after LSR here. WRTH and Cantú give it 7 kW, big deal. Cantú also shows 89.7 with the real callsign XHEDP, so some previous holder of XHDP must have objected to such an usurpation. Since many letters of the Spanish alfabet end in the syllable -e, including ache, the intrusive E in the middle of the official callsign can easily be swallowed, unheard. I bet that`s why SCT picked it for this purpose. The jingles produced long ago still just say XEDP (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAIWAN [non]. 7570, July 21 at 0439 check, the 0400 hour of RTI via WYFR for the third night is in the wrong language, English instead of Spanish. Do they have any Spanish listeners who care and might inform them? Late last year, such language mixups went on for weeks and weeks (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1626 monitoring: confirmed on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB, UT Saturday July 21 from 0130:40. Further airings:
Sat 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, Mon 0500, 1130 on WRMI 9955.
UT Sun 0400 on WTWW 5755
Tuesday 0930 on HLR 5980
Also on WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1730, Sun 0830 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. At 1219 UT July 21 I discovered NPR `Weekend Edition Saturday` at unusual places on the FM dial, notably 90.9 with ID as Iowa Public Radio, i.e. KUNI Cedar Falls, 514 miles, but soon turned my attention to TV the rest of the morning for big tropo opening from as far as Austin MN, mostly DTV on UHF, but a few analogs too, to be compiled later (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [non]. 12050, July 20 at 2101, WEWN relaying Vatican Radio in Spanish alleging that the Pope`s travels are newsworthy; very good signal, much stronger than // 13830.
Those who are anticipating Vatican-withdrawal after the Sackville relays in English cease July 31, might turn to WEWN. Besides this in Spanish, the current English schedule grid at http://www.ewtn.com/radio/download/Shortwave_Grid.pdf
shows three segments with Vatican in the title, but not the same:
Sunday 1730-1800 on 15610, `Vatican Radio Weekend`,
Saturday 1330-1400 on 15615, and UT Sunday 0130-0200 on 11520, `Vatican Insider` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
