** CHINA. Firedrake July 28 before 1300, started too late, heard only:
15970, fair with flutter at 1259-1300*
After 1300:
15485, good at 1302, modulation on and off and on, het on lo side
15560, good at 1300-1301+, but gone at 1308
15570, fair at 1308, ex-15560? But now with additional noise jamming
Before 1330; still no full 11-18 MHz bandscan performed:
15500, fair at 1323
15560, fair at 1323, ex-15570, ex-15560
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COLOMBIA. 5910-, July 28 at 1104, HJDH has gone from ordinary music to a vocal/choral Colombian NA, 1106 IDs from Alcaraván Radio on 1530 and 6010 also mentioned, but didn`t hear any 5910; weakening, probably about to fade out. Gaisma.com doesn`t deal with Puerto Lleras, nor is it in the first atlas I pick up from my pile. WRTH map shows it RSD in the middle of Colombia, SE of Bogotá on the way to San José del Guaviare. The latter is in Gaisma.com with a sunrise today of 1050 UT, 3 minutes later at the capital; at only about 3 degrees north, HJDH SR varies only about 16 minutes during the entire year (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, July 27 at 1921, Amerenglish gospel huxter, not Tony Alamo, so R. Africa is back after missing a while; a bit stronger at 1941, but gone at next check around 2020. Seems they never stay on past 2200 like they used to. Harold Frodge, MI in the MARE Tipsheet July 27 observed that this had not been heard in a few weeks, ``15190 seems to have dried up``; but it`s moist again. Not heard at 0508 check July 28 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE. 15630, July 27 at 1945, ERT is ignoring the Olympix! Just usual Greek music, and even at 2026 the slightly over-worn `Zorba the Greek` theme, while the opening ceremony is underway. O well, it`s not in Athens this time. Maybe they couldn`t afford the rights (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9526, July 28 before and after 1300, no carrier at all detectable from VOI, tho 9680 had the usual pileup of RRI, RTI and ChiCom jamming. I had seen a report that VOI was 4 Hz *above* 9526 on July 26 and wanted to check that out; altho I can`t measure it that precisely, it`s easy to tell which side of 9526 it`s on once the YB-400 BFO is zeroed with WWV, then observing the pitches stepping 1 kHz up and down; and so far I have always heard it very slightly on the lo side. But appears to be off the air today, and Atsunori Ishida agrees, not heard since 1500 UT July 26, and was also absent on July 25. See what I can make out of a non-log? Well, something missing from where it`s supposed to be is not insignificant (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MADAGASCAR. 17670, July 28 at 1325 fair signal with Vietnamese singing, then talk, by 1331 sounds like a sermon. It`s AWR at 13-14, 250 kW, 60 degrees, way offbeam for here, but yet another example of the terrific coverage of this now salvaged relay site for the post-RNW era; perhaps assisted by near-antipodal focusing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. Sunrise MWDX July 28, UT:
590, July 28 at 1119, ``Radio Paco`` mentioned amid music, sure sounds like an ID slogan, but no Mexicans listed anywhere by that name. Since I have just been getting XENK Mexico City on 620, a good bet is the 590 in the DF, officially XEPH, ``La Sabrosita``, which can be loosely translated as ``mouth-watering``. Trying to avoid being too distracted by the cheesecake infesting the website, at http://www.sabrosita590am.com.mx/v3/paginas/programacion.php
I find that the Saturday 6-8 am bloque musical is deejayed by one Francisco Suárez, who could easily nickname himself ``Radio Paco``. Q.E.D.
620, July 28 at 1111 UT, classic rock in English, ``He Ain`t Heavy; He`s My Brother`` by the Hollies; good signal, would R. Disney in The Metroplex play that? Probably not and the signal is too good for KMKI. 1116 ``Lo mejor de los 70``, and Radio 6-20 ID, various federal PSAs, promos, Asociación de Radio del Valle de México clinches it must be XENK in the DF. Is also selling this music? 1118 ``El Catálogo de Oro``, next ``Ophelia`` in English; is it all? ``Internacional`` may be a code-word for that. Per http://www.mexicoradio.tv.com ---
``620 XENK Radio 6.20 Audio Música de catálogo internacional. 50,000 watts día, 5,000 watts noche desde San Andrés de la Cañada, [Estado de] México Grupo RASA.`` and the logo claims AM stereo. This signal should have been strong enough to audiblize that but my AM stereo radio is gathering dust. Website is simply the enviable http://www.620.com.mx Gaisma.com shows DF sunrise today as 1212 UT, later than I would have guessed, more than a semihour after Enid`s 1135; but being further west and much further south accounts for it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA. 15120.0, July 28 at 0509, VON with weekly mailbag including hum but not too bad. Reading report asking for QSL, and again saying she could not match it with schedule; launching pad for going on to give times for several programs, `Landmark`, `Evergreens`, `Musical Heritage`. Ivo Ivanov recently had this on 15121 and was wondering if that shift would continue (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [non]. 17775-17880, July 27 at 1922, approximate extent of modulation spike spurs from REE Cariari, COSTA RICA relay on 17850, where the fundamental was distorted and somewhat undermodulated, again causing the spurs to ooze out around the edges.
Main victim: BBCWS on 17795, see U K. Next check 1942, splatter on the hi side up to 17955, now encompassing 17885 in Hausa, i.e. BBC via ASCENSION at 1930-2030. REE was talking about fútbol and also the Olympix, maybe digression from own coverage of opening ceremony? At 2000, REE turns the noisemaking duties over to TDP DRM via GUF centered on 17875 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN SOUTH [non]. 15725, July 28 at 0506, V. of South Sudan Revolutionary Radio at S9+12 with best signal here in quite a while, tho fluttery, opening procedure including chanting. Better than 15580 VOA Botswana, but weaker than Dabanga/Madagascar 15400 which has a direxional advantage (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K [and non]. 17795, July 27 at 1923, this is the `best` frequency from BBCWS during presumed live coverage of the Olympix opening ceremony, but it is insufficient, made worse by the spurs from 17850 Spain via Costa Rica. Per HFCC, this transmission only started July 20, at 18-20, 170 degrees from Woofferton, but I`m sure I was hearing it before that date; maybe there was some modification, or hiatus. Also on 17795 at 16-18, 55 degrees via Ascension.
BTW, posters to internetradio are saying that BBCWS has suspended on-demand access even to news programming, as Olympic rights issues trump everything. (Fortunately I am still getting Prom Concerts OD from BBCR3, an every-summer event in London; I just hope they don`t ever mention the Games.)
NBC-TV in the USA makes us wait until `prime time` to see the OOC, and as they always do, give certain unlucky strings of parading nations short-shrift due to commercial breaks, instead of just ``stopping tape`` and resuming where they broke off, as would have been entirely feasible on a long-delayed broadcast. At least instead of skipping them completely, each time they did a quick recap of the victims, with no closeups of the often elaborate costumes, and few banal geographical titbits for ignorant Americans, until picking up further down the line with [non] `live` coverage (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 12105, July 27 at 1917, WTWW-3 is back on after missing a few days, in Arabic, but noticeably weaker than neighbor 12160 WWCR. Must be keeping below 50 kW threshold to avoid burning out another insulator on rhombic antenna. George McClintock sent some photos showing him removing the bad one, apparently not replacing it as they are just spaced every so often along the lines. I suppose that`s OK as long as there are no heavy winds to short the wires together. Previous short caused some grassfires underneath, so this is a serious matter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1627 monitoring: confirmed UT Saturday July 28 at 0130 on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB. First checked webcast for prompt start, and later in the semihour 5110: fortunately the USB avoided the ute QRM on the LSB. Next airings:
Sat 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, Mon 0500, 1130 on WRMI 9955.
UT Sun 0400 on WTWW 5755
Tue 0930 on HLR 5980
Also on WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1730, Sun 0830
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9367.75, July 28 at 1315, WTJC `9370` gross off-frequency measured here by keyboard F#5 = 740 Hz pitch against BFO on 9367.00; also compared to 9369.00 whence it made a D#6 of 1245 Hz, which would have amounted to 9367.755; so with all the variables and margin of error, let`s call it 9367.75, the last digit always open to question. Programming? O, the usual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
