** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake Dec 2: 7390, poor at 1419, underneath Chinese, i.e. VOA Cantonese via Tinang, PHILIPPINES. No other Firedrake found 12-18 MHz at 1450-1454 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 15340, Dec 2 at 1405 and still at 1452, dead air from RHC, like last Sunday, as the incompetent operators again fail to modulate what would be one of their strongest frequencies. Still as normal on 15230, 13780, 17580, 17730, 11760.
At 1435-1450 listened to `En Contacto` on anything but 15340. Co-host María Elena Calderín mentioned at the outset that Manolo de la Rosa is recuperating at home from an operation, which explains his absence lately; tho his voice is still heard on some pre-recorded segments. Our best wishes to Manolo for a speedy recovery and return to the air (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE. 9420, Dec 2 at 0645, VOG is in well with another Sunday morning concert by Greek Orthodox cantors; and not // 7475 with other music from R. Filia subservice (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 9415v, Dec 2 at 1417, AIR`s ``Aligarh banshee`` blob is here as I tune in, soon moving up across 9420 Greece: the transmitter supposed to stick to 9470. Why can`t they tell at the transmitter site that this is happening; or monitor their own broadcasts? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN [non]. 12005, Dec 2 at 1409, Persian talk and pop music, likely R. Farda: yes, // much better 15410 but not synchronized, while it is synchronized with weaker // 15690. HFCC shows:
12005 is 100 kW, 80 degrees from Lampertheim, GERMANY at 0730-1530
15410 is 300 kW, 92 degrees from Woofferton, ENGLAND at 1400-1600
15690 is 100 kW, 85 degrees from Biblis, GERMANY at 1400-1700
Had logged it as 12000, but my reading on FRG-7 analog dial must have been skewed by the parallax (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MADAGASCAR [and non]. 6135+, Dec 2 at 1422, poor signal from Shiokaze, JAPAN, with het on hi side, surely R. Madagasikara by long path as IDed by others. Just too weak in the noise level to pull any modulation before or after Sea Breeze off at 1430* sharp (Glenn Hausere, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SARAWAK [non]. 15650, Dec 2 at 1353, JBA carrier, perhaps R. Free Kenyalang, indicating daily 12-14 UT broadcasts via unacknowledged Sofia, Bulgaria Spaceline site (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [and non]. 17595, Sunday Dec 2 at 1331, REE `Amigos de la Onda Corta` is in progress at its new and expanded time, 1305-1355. As I tune in, giving e-mail of amigosdx @ rtve.es and the monthly propagation outlook for December by usual contributor Alonso Mostazo, band by band, hemisphere by hemisphere, which, sorry, I don`t find to be of any use. 1340 on to the tacked-on `buzón` segment, replacing instead of reviving a separate mailbag show.
One tidbit of useful info came in response to some Spaniard abroad complaining about REE broadcasting non-Castilian languages and even some music in English: the new management has decided that Catalan, Basque and Galician should get 10 minutes each per week --- but no times given! I need to go back and listen to first part of `AdlOC` when the head of REE was to be interviewed about their new scheduling.
Propagation is good today, and // 21610 is also sufficient tho weaker. 17595 is the usual bigsig we think must be aimed at North America again rather than South America. 17595 remains on at 1506, 1530 chex, but this might apply only to Sundays.
At 1355, 1405 and again at 1455 there was a repetitive announcement about scheduling to the Mideast and Africa: 21540 to equatorial Africa starts at 1100, and 21610 to ME takes over from 11895 but did not catch the details. Surely there must be many more schedule changes which should be announced. At 1405, also found on weak 15125 via Costa Rica. Remaining to be confirmed is the other new time for `Amigos`, UT Monday 0000 on any frequencies we can find.
The 1406 program is `Españoles en el Exterior`. `Amigos de la OC` now at 1305 Sundays knocks out `Mundofonías`, our favorite world-music hour. Alan Roe has already researched that and found that it`s been eliminated from the new REE schedule, altho it`s still being produced:
``I now find on the Mundofonías blog at
http://blog.rtve.es/mundofonias/
confirmation of this. Mundofonías is produced by an independent company, and new programmes can still be downloaded via their website at
http://www.mundofonias.com `` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TURKEY [and non]. 9820, Dec 2 at 0645, big het, which must be VOT as scheduled in Turkish at 0500-0700, 250 kW, 138 degrees from Emirler, vs R. Nove de Julho, Brasil, always off-frequency to low side. At same time Vatican 9645 also had het on hi side, from R. Bandeirantes, Brasil.
12035, Dec 2 at 1410, poor signal with Turkish music, but much better than nothing which is what we usually from VOT`s English at 1330 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 21600, Dec 2 at 1458, jazzy gospel music, from WHRI, I think a Sunday-only frequency, then QSY announcement to 17570. So I go there and wait: finally cuts on a few sex after 1500 with IRN-USA ``news`` joined already in progress (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN. 7250, Dec 2 at 0640 UT, strange propagation from Vatican Radio, SMG. During Latin mass, this frequency with only fair strength signal has very heavy flutter; of the parallels, 3975 is very good, 6075 is good, and even 9645 is audible with fair signal and Brazilian het.
NONE of the other three have any flutter like 7250; listening to that alone, one would have thought there were a severe auroral disturbance. At 0649, with BFO, 7250 even exhibited Doppler-effect frequency-flutter. Very strange for the middle frequency to be affected like this while lower and higher ones were not. WWV reported nothing extraordinary at 0600:
``Geophysical Alert Message
Solar-terrestrial indices for 01 December follow.
Solar flux 102 and estimated planetary A-index 4.
The estimated planetary K-index at 0600 UTC on 02 December was 2.
No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours.
No space weather storms are predicted for the next 24 hours``
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 960, 0600-0605 UT Sunday Dec 2, KGWA dead air audiblizes mostly Spanish music and talk, probably XEK or XEFAMA as previously IDed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 15340, Dec 2 at 1405 and still at 1452, dead air from RHC, like last Sunday, as the incompetent operators again fail to modulate what would be one of their strongest frequencies. Still as normal on 15230, 13780, 17580, 17730, 11760.
At 1435-1450 listened to `En Contacto` on anything but 15340. Co-host María Elena Calderín mentioned at the outset that Manolo de la Rosa is recuperating at home from an operation, which explains his absence lately; tho his voice is still heard on some pre-recorded segments. Our best wishes to Manolo for a speedy recovery and return to the air (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE. 9420, Dec 2 at 0645, VOG is in well with another Sunday morning concert by Greek Orthodox cantors; and not // 7475 with other music from R. Filia subservice (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 9415v, Dec 2 at 1417, AIR`s ``Aligarh banshee`` blob is here as I tune in, soon moving up across 9420 Greece: the transmitter supposed to stick to 9470. Why can`t they tell at the transmitter site that this is happening; or monitor their own broadcasts? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN [non]. 12005, Dec 2 at 1409, Persian talk and pop music, likely R. Farda: yes, // much better 15410 but not synchronized, while it is synchronized with weaker // 15690. HFCC shows:
12005 is 100 kW, 80 degrees from Lampertheim, GERMANY at 0730-1530
15410 is 300 kW, 92 degrees from Woofferton, ENGLAND at 1400-1600
15690 is 100 kW, 85 degrees from Biblis, GERMANY at 1400-1700
Had logged it as 12000, but my reading on FRG-7 analog dial must have been skewed by the parallax (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MADAGASCAR [and non]. 6135+, Dec 2 at 1422, poor signal from Shiokaze, JAPAN, with het on hi side, surely R. Madagasikara by long path as IDed by others. Just too weak in the noise level to pull any modulation before or after Sea Breeze off at 1430* sharp (Glenn Hausere, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SARAWAK [non]. 15650, Dec 2 at 1353, JBA carrier, perhaps R. Free Kenyalang, indicating daily 12-14 UT broadcasts via unacknowledged Sofia, Bulgaria Spaceline site (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [and non]. 17595, Sunday Dec 2 at 1331, REE `Amigos de la Onda Corta` is in progress at its new and expanded time, 1305-1355. As I tune in, giving e-mail of amigosdx @ rtve.es and the monthly propagation outlook for December by usual contributor Alonso Mostazo, band by band, hemisphere by hemisphere, which, sorry, I don`t find to be of any use. 1340 on to the tacked-on `buzón` segment, replacing instead of reviving a separate mailbag show.
One tidbit of useful info came in response to some Spaniard abroad complaining about REE broadcasting non-Castilian languages and even some music in English: the new management has decided that Catalan, Basque and Galician should get 10 minutes each per week --- but no times given! I need to go back and listen to first part of `AdlOC` when the head of REE was to be interviewed about their new scheduling.
Propagation is good today, and // 21610 is also sufficient tho weaker. 17595 is the usual bigsig we think must be aimed at North America again rather than South America. 17595 remains on at 1506, 1530 chex, but this might apply only to Sundays.
At 1355, 1405 and again at 1455 there was a repetitive announcement about scheduling to the Mideast and Africa: 21540 to equatorial Africa starts at 1100, and 21610 to ME takes over from 11895 but did not catch the details. Surely there must be many more schedule changes which should be announced. At 1405, also found on weak 15125 via Costa Rica. Remaining to be confirmed is the other new time for `Amigos`, UT Monday 0000 on any frequencies we can find.
The 1406 program is `Españoles en el Exterior`. `Amigos de la OC` now at 1305 Sundays knocks out `Mundofonías`, our favorite world-music hour. Alan Roe has already researched that and found that it`s been eliminated from the new REE schedule, altho it`s still being produced:
``I now find on the Mundofonías blog at
http://blog.rtve.es/mundofonias/
confirmation of this. Mundofonías is produced by an independent company, and new programmes can still be downloaded via their website at
http://www.mundofonias.com `` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TURKEY [and non]. 9820, Dec 2 at 0645, big het, which must be VOT as scheduled in Turkish at 0500-0700, 250 kW, 138 degrees from Emirler, vs R. Nove de Julho, Brasil, always off-frequency to low side. At same time Vatican 9645 also had het on hi side, from R. Bandeirantes, Brasil.
12035, Dec 2 at 1410, poor signal with Turkish music, but much better than nothing which is what we usually from VOT`s English at 1330 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 21600, Dec 2 at 1458, jazzy gospel music, from WHRI, I think a Sunday-only frequency, then QSY announcement to 17570. So I go there and wait: finally cuts on a few sex after 1500 with IRN-USA ``news`` joined already in progress (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN. 7250, Dec 2 at 0640 UT, strange propagation from Vatican Radio, SMG. During Latin mass, this frequency with only fair strength signal has very heavy flutter; of the parallels, 3975 is very good, 6075 is good, and even 9645 is audible with fair signal and Brazilian het.
NONE of the other three have any flutter like 7250; listening to that alone, one would have thought there were a severe auroral disturbance. At 0649, with BFO, 7250 even exhibited Doppler-effect frequency-flutter. Very strange for the middle frequency to be affected like this while lower and higher ones were not. WWV reported nothing extraordinary at 0600:
``Geophysical Alert Message
Solar-terrestrial indices for 01 December follow.
Solar flux 102 and estimated planetary A-index 4.
The estimated planetary K-index at 0600 UTC on 02 December was 2.
No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours.
No space weather storms are predicted for the next 24 hours``
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 960, 0600-0605 UT Sunday Dec 2, KGWA dead air audiblizes mostly Spanish music and talk, probably XEK or XEFAMA as previously IDed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
