** CHINA. Firedrake search Dec 21 at 1345-1352: none found 12-19 MHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 11760, Dec 21 at 1327, 1344, this is a missing RHC frequency as at least one transmitter continues to be down. Still going in Spanish on 9540, 11690, 11750, 11860, 15230, 15340;. At 1351, 17730 is also absent while 17580 is VG; by 1440, 17730 is back on too (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN [and non]. 13750, Dec 21 at 1346, VOA Spanish from Greenville has CCI from Qur`an(?) and fast SAH, i.e. VIRI Arabic at 0830-1430, 500 kW, 178 degrees from Kamalabad (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAINT HELENA. Tnx to a tip from Robert Kipp, listened to the final hour of Saint FM online. It closed down at 1600 UT Dec 21. Rather emotional comments and plenty of resentment against HM government, as this community radio station had been free to criticise it. In case the website survive a while longer, it`s http://www.saint.fm/index.htm
Robert says that rival Radio Saint Helena will also be closing down after a final broadcast (and we hope webcast, but not SW), December 25 at 1800-2400* --- ``The new St. Helena Broadcasting (Guarantee) Corporation , Ltd. (SHBC) (Darrin Henry (CEO)) has promised to make a live-audio-stream of the "Last Day" broadcast from Radio St. Helena, and Ralph Peters, the RSH Station Manager, has put together a special program with many interesting audio clips with greetings from people around the world.`` SHBC`s own replacement stations may not be on the air until January (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOMALILAND. 7120, Dec 21 at 1352, HOA vocal music, initially with QRhaM in Spanish SSB with Radio Hargeisa as BFO; and as always, CW QRhaM just to one side. 1359 playing usual military band anthem, 1400 brief OC and off at 1400:35* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [non]. 7435 & 7220, Dec 21 at 1358, REE IS audible from CRI Kunming site prior to Nepali. 7435 also has some CCI, perhaps overlap from CRI Nanning in Chinese scheduled to end at 1400; if not Vietnam which is registered 24 hours in HFCC and Aoki says is on 7435 before and after 1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1648 monitoring: On 5050 and 3195, WWRB, UT Friday Dec 21 at 0430, Pastor Larry Cain in SC (praise God!), is running a bit late with his usual wrapup; finally ``amen & amen`` at 0434:05. Then Dave Frantz comes on with a live announcement that WOR is coming right up after the computer ``spools up`` or something, and so it does, starting at 0434:58.
Fortunately the SW frequencies stay on past 0500 for the full WOR, and at 0504 Dave is back with another live announcement, about his NDB on 529 kHz, LYQ, which he says he is keeping non all-night for the benefit of DXers, altho it is not currently needed at his airstrip with no night flights scheduled, the previous contract having run out --- but a new one will start in a few weeks. Reception reports for LYQ are wanted via the website http://www.wwrb.org (I can usually hear it weakly, het against Cuba 530).
Dave also muses that he started DXing in 1968, discovered SW by accident. An old AM transistor radio of the 1960s or 1970s (but probably not modern ones) can be forced to pick up SW by wrapping a few turns of wire around the loopstick, and hooking that up to 25-30 feet of antenna wire. Near the 1600-1700 kHz range at the top end, he could then hear RHC, VOV and R. Moscow, but never found out what the original frequencies were.
I explain: Some modern portable radios with poor selectivity also get powerful 6 MHz band SW signals above 1600 kHz, the usual formula being multiply by 3 and add twice the IF, e.g. RHC on 6000 could appear on 1700 = x 3 = 5100 plus 2 x 450 = 900 leads to 6000. It`s not that they are really tuning SW; it`s that they are incapable of rejecting such SW image signals, and adding more antenna gain just overloads the units, making this more likely.
It`s a good thing I was listening on 5050, since as usual, the webstream carrying WOR automatically cuts off at 0500 to the default KJV Bible readings, whether WOR is over or not. Dave finishes at 0508 and SW transmitters go off.
Next chances for WORLD OF RADIO 1648: UT Saturday Dec 22 at 0230v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB; UT Sunday Dec 23 at 0500 on WTWW-1 5830.
On WRMI 9955: Sat 0900, 1600, 1830, Sun 0900, 1630, Mon 0530, Tue 1200
On HLR: Sat 0630 on 7265, 1630 on 6190
On WRN via Sirius XM 120: Sat 1830. On other WRN services via satellite: to Europe, Sat 1000 UT; Africa/Asia/Pacific, Sun 1500 UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1410, Dec 21 at 1316 UT, ad for Hi-Gain Feedlot in Farnam (not about antennas!), also mentions Eustis which is the next town down the road. This must be nearest 1410 station, KOOQ in North Platte NE, which NRC AM Log shows as 24 h with ESPN, but some of them also do some local non-sports programming. 5000/500 U2 with PSRA of 500, and this is of course pre-sunrise, 1400 UT in Dec, 1415 in Jan. Direxional night pattern has a broad lobe to the south and a slightly smaller one to the north (Glenn Hauser, OK, FRG-7 with E/W longwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1420, Dec 21 at 1314 UT, KTOE ID in passing and ad for Kia of Mankato. This is 5/5 kW U2 from Mankato MN; heard on the FRG-7 as I tuned by dominating frequency with E/W longwire. Night pattern is figure 8 NE/SW, favorable for us, while day pattern is ND. Official sunrise in Dec & Jan is not until 1345 UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. Trans-Pacific carrier search just before local 1340 UT sunrise here Dec 21, at 1332-1336: very weak carriers detected on 747, 774, 828, 873, 882, 972, 1053, 1566; and maybe on 612, 693 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX-398, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9330, Dec 21 at 1326, banshee blob is slowly crawling across WBCQ as I tune in, on its way upward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 13645, Dec 21 at 1347, DRM noise, from what? Nothing in the big three online schedules (nor 13640, 13650), nor from DRM itself: http://www.drm.org/?page_id=151
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 11760, Dec 21 at 1327, 1344, this is a missing RHC frequency as at least one transmitter continues to be down. Still going in Spanish on 9540, 11690, 11750, 11860, 15230, 15340;. At 1351, 17730 is also absent while 17580 is VG; by 1440, 17730 is back on too (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN [and non]. 13750, Dec 21 at 1346, VOA Spanish from Greenville has CCI from Qur`an(?) and fast SAH, i.e. VIRI Arabic at 0830-1430, 500 kW, 178 degrees from Kamalabad (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAINT HELENA. Tnx to a tip from Robert Kipp, listened to the final hour of Saint FM online. It closed down at 1600 UT Dec 21. Rather emotional comments and plenty of resentment against HM government, as this community radio station had been free to criticise it. In case the website survive a while longer, it`s http://www.saint.fm/index.htm
Robert says that rival Radio Saint Helena will also be closing down after a final broadcast (and we hope webcast, but not SW), December 25 at 1800-2400* --- ``The new St. Helena Broadcasting (Guarantee) Corporation , Ltd. (SHBC) (Darrin Henry (CEO)) has promised to make a live-audio-stream of the "Last Day" broadcast from Radio St. Helena, and Ralph Peters, the RSH Station Manager, has put together a special program with many interesting audio clips with greetings from people around the world.`` SHBC`s own replacement stations may not be on the air until January (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOMALILAND. 7120, Dec 21 at 1352, HOA vocal music, initially with QRhaM in Spanish SSB with Radio Hargeisa as BFO; and as always, CW QRhaM just to one side. 1359 playing usual military band anthem, 1400 brief OC and off at 1400:35* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN [non]. 7435 & 7220, Dec 21 at 1358, REE IS audible from CRI Kunming site prior to Nepali. 7435 also has some CCI, perhaps overlap from CRI Nanning in Chinese scheduled to end at 1400; if not Vietnam which is registered 24 hours in HFCC and Aoki says is on 7435 before and after 1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1648 monitoring: On 5050 and 3195, WWRB, UT Friday Dec 21 at 0430, Pastor Larry Cain in SC (praise God!), is running a bit late with his usual wrapup; finally ``amen & amen`` at 0434:05. Then Dave Frantz comes on with a live announcement that WOR is coming right up after the computer ``spools up`` or something, and so it does, starting at 0434:58.
Fortunately the SW frequencies stay on past 0500 for the full WOR, and at 0504 Dave is back with another live announcement, about his NDB on 529 kHz, LYQ, which he says he is keeping non all-night for the benefit of DXers, altho it is not currently needed at his airstrip with no night flights scheduled, the previous contract having run out --- but a new one will start in a few weeks. Reception reports for LYQ are wanted via the website http://www.wwrb.org (I can usually hear it weakly, het against Cuba 530).
Dave also muses that he started DXing in 1968, discovered SW by accident. An old AM transistor radio of the 1960s or 1970s (but probably not modern ones) can be forced to pick up SW by wrapping a few turns of wire around the loopstick, and hooking that up to 25-30 feet of antenna wire. Near the 1600-1700 kHz range at the top end, he could then hear RHC, VOV and R. Moscow, but never found out what the original frequencies were.
I explain: Some modern portable radios with poor selectivity also get powerful 6 MHz band SW signals above 1600 kHz, the usual formula being multiply by 3 and add twice the IF, e.g. RHC on 6000 could appear on 1700 = x 3 = 5100 plus 2 x 450 = 900 leads to 6000. It`s not that they are really tuning SW; it`s that they are incapable of rejecting such SW image signals, and adding more antenna gain just overloads the units, making this more likely.
It`s a good thing I was listening on 5050, since as usual, the webstream carrying WOR automatically cuts off at 0500 to the default KJV Bible readings, whether WOR is over or not. Dave finishes at 0508 and SW transmitters go off.
Next chances for WORLD OF RADIO 1648: UT Saturday Dec 22 at 0230v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB; UT Sunday Dec 23 at 0500 on WTWW-1 5830.
On WRMI 9955: Sat 0900, 1600, 1830, Sun 0900, 1630, Mon 0530, Tue 1200
On HLR: Sat 0630 on 7265, 1630 on 6190
On WRN via Sirius XM 120: Sat 1830. On other WRN services via satellite: to Europe, Sat 1000 UT; Africa/Asia/Pacific, Sun 1500 UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1410, Dec 21 at 1316 UT, ad for Hi-Gain Feedlot in Farnam (not about antennas!), also mentions Eustis which is the next town down the road. This must be nearest 1410 station, KOOQ in North Platte NE, which NRC AM Log shows as 24 h with ESPN, but some of them also do some local non-sports programming. 5000/500 U2 with PSRA of 500, and this is of course pre-sunrise, 1400 UT in Dec, 1415 in Jan. Direxional night pattern has a broad lobe to the south and a slightly smaller one to the north (Glenn Hauser, OK, FRG-7 with E/W longwire, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1420, Dec 21 at 1314 UT, KTOE ID in passing and ad for Kia of Mankato. This is 5/5 kW U2 from Mankato MN; heard on the FRG-7 as I tuned by dominating frequency with E/W longwire. Night pattern is figure 8 NE/SW, favorable for us, while day pattern is ND. Official sunrise in Dec & Jan is not until 1345 UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. Trans-Pacific carrier search just before local 1340 UT sunrise here Dec 21, at 1332-1336: very weak carriers detected on 747, 774, 828, 873, 882, 972, 1053, 1566; and maybe on 612, 693 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX-398, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9330, Dec 21 at 1326, banshee blob is slowly crawling across WBCQ as I tune in, on its way upward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 13645, Dec 21 at 1347, DRM noise, from what? Nothing in the big three online schedules (nor 13640, 13650), nor from DRM itself: http://www.drm.org/?page_id=151
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
