** CROATIA. 3985, Dec 28 at 0556, poor signal with song about one word ahead of // 7375 via Germany, i.e. Voice of Croatia, which is about to self-destruct (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 5855-AM, Dec 28 at 0545, spy numbers, very strong signal equivalent to the big RHC transmitters, and probably shared with them: YL with only 5 digits in Spanish, 05607, then switch to digital noises; a minute later one more different 5-digit group, back to digital. I bet Arnie never refers to these ``digital tests`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 5025, Dec 28 at 0557, R. Rebelde talk audio with continuous breakup, unlistenable; recheck 0614 for a moment OK, then music is breaking up too. It`s incredible the Cubans just can`t get their acts together from studio to transmitter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SARAWAK [non]. 15325, Dec 28 at 1259, JBA carrier as I am checking out the one-day test by IRRS to SE Asia at 13-14 that Ron Norton had told us about yesterday. Not rechecked until 1331, and now it has come up to a fair signal with music, sad song; 1334 talk in presumed Iban, mentioning ``Radio Kenyalang`` twice, ``Radio Free Kenyalang`` once, and berita (news); 1334 back to music. Has some deep fades. Presumed ROMANIA site tho never to be acknowledged by IRRS. Compared it to known RRI 15170 signal which was no better at 1300, but at 1331, 15325 was really a bit stronger, which doesn`t make sense since 15170 is aimed USward, 300 kW at 290 degrees from Galbeni, while 15325 is presumably the usual 300 kW from Tiganeshti aimed toward Sarawak.
Tudor Vedeanu inside Romania at Gura Humorului reports a good signal.
Kai Ludwig says, ``Tuned in shortly after 1350: Boaaar, it was booming into Germany at a local-like level, making one suspect that Tiganeshti churned it out on a 307 degree curtain by mistake. Asian music, then in noticeably poorer audio quality the promised closure announcement in American-sounding English, with RRI interval signal from the other transmitters bleeding in (ooops). Then similarly degraded Aïda fragment until the carrier had been cut.``
Wolfgang Büschel was also monitoring 15325 in Germany and with remote receivers. He`s 99% sure it`s via Tiganeshti. It was 30 over 9 in England and Italy; 10 over 9 in Moscow with some echo; heavy echo closer to Romania, backscatter; S8 in Australia where it`s the middle of the night; inaudible in northern Japan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TURKEY. Voice of Turkey sent two very nice items by p-mail, without comment but apparently my prizes for correct answer to a Question of the Month: a small zippered pouch/purse, about 4 x 6 inches, with stunning fabric design including TSR Voice of Turkey www.trt-world.com on one side, different design with no logo on the other side. Golden threads really glitter, not done justice in these scans, nor the richer color of the red. Enlarge for a close look at the fine weave:
http://www.w4uvh.net/TRTpouch1.jpg
http://www.w4uvh.net/TRTpouch2.jpg
This belongs in a museum case, not in my pocket!
Also, a 3.5 x 3.5 inch coaster (?) illustrating Cappadocia, where churches were carved into rock faces but some of them look like human faces, à la Rushmore. Overlaying it is a grid of smaller squares, which reflect incident light in such a way that the light appears to hover above the picture, but it`s hardly 3-D. Closer inspexion, looks like circular diffraxion gratings, but no rainbow effects. Not sure what the reason for that is. In the scan you can barely see some of the patterns in the sky, but not the 16 points of light they reflect:
http://www.w4uvh.net/TRTCap.jpg
Has a thick, black non-magnetic backing. Thank you, VOT! The items were mailed 19.11 and received 27.12. They certainly encourage me to listen even more to VOT SW broadcasts. I previously won a different cap with TRT logo, as in for my head (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 5890, Dec 28 at 1257 I hear some `Star Spangled Banner` but it`s just part of it as background music to VOA Korean, via TINIAN. Standard rant about lack of respect for our national anthem, also exemplified by WINB which talks over it, and no other US SW stations, public or private, ever known to play it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1649 monitoring: second airing confirmed UT Friday Dec 28 at 0431 on WWRB 3195, but 5050 was off the air again --- you never know from one week to the next. This followed a respectful 34-second pause after Pastor Larry Cain of Anderson SC exclaimed ``amen & amen!``. Once a hum starts up in the dead air, it`s a good sign that WOR playback is about to start.
Next: UT Saturday 0230v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB.
Saturday 0630 AND 1630 on Hamburger Lokalradio 7265 (not 6190)
Saturday 0900, 1600, 1830, Sunday 0900, 1630, Monday 0530, Tuesday 1200, maybe Thursday 0430 on WRMI 9955
UT Sunday 0500 on WTWW 5830
Saturday 1830 on WRN via SiriusXM 120
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 750, Dec 28 at 1321 UT, M&W conversing in Ukrainian, which means 15 kW daytimer WNDZ in Portage IN (Chicago market), which I seem to log one morning per season, previously Oct 26, 2010, and Oct 18, 2011, so I just barely made it this year. Latest official sunrises are in Dec and Jan at 1315, so just came up, from PSRA of 500 watts, which starts at 1230 in Dec, 1245 in Jan (not as early as 1200 except in March before DST starts, for some odd reason, as there is no ``limiting station`` these months, not even WSB). Ukrainian is also a Manitoba language, but no 750s there (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 880, Dec 28 at 1316 UT, local talkshow finally getting out phone number after fumbles as 501-492-5576, which means Arkansas, and website http://www.wethepeople.com Says he`s on Friday mornings only, without delays so no profanity, please. Is also E/W in null of KRVN so it`s 50 kW KLRG, Sheridan AR, now with own show instead of WTAN network. Re my observation yesterday of dead air/open carrier presumably from this, may have been due to widespread lingering power outages in AR following last week`s winter storm. But if you can`t get the programming to the transmitter, why keep burning kW at the site? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [and non]. 7250, Dec 28 at 0623, VR direct is still not on the air, unlike previous nights on air earlier than scheduled with Albanian.
7305, Dec 28 at 1119, big open carrier, with some hum, atop something in Chinese. Must be Greenville B already warming up for one of only two token broadcasts to the Americas left from Vatican Radio. No IS, but 1130 ``Laudetur Iesus Christus`` and into morning Spanish, naming a bunch of announcers and staff, then starting off with saint and martyr info for the date. Why don`t other stations honour martyrs??
The Chinese is CNR1, 37 degrees from Shijiazhuang 723 site per Aoki, which means it`s also aimed eventually at the Americas. Surely VR could have found a clearer 7 MHz frequency, but hey, it matches the same one used via Greenville at 0200-0245, so why not? Maybe no retuning necessary if idle in between (Glenn Hauser, OK DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. Trans-Pacific carrier search performed Dec 28 at 1322-1329 UT after first finding one on 747, stepping the DX-398 in USB with slightly offset BFO producing a low pitch to be recognized at 9 kHz intervals not too covered by NAm signals, found all these: 585, 594, 603, 693, 702, 738, 747, 774, 828, 873, 972, 1053, 1278, 1287, 1314, 1323, 1332, 1566. Today`s Enid sunrise will be 1342, only two minutes from the latest of the year next week (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 2910, Dec 28 at 1137, couldn`t sleep so gave up and turned on the radio, to find what must be a third harmonic of something on 970. Some music but never a complete song, mostly talk in Spanish; very weak but with BFO on to help, I devote my full attention to pulling something out of it. 1145 mentions ``de la salud``; 1153 improving slightly but still very tough copy against the QRN and QSB. 1200 mentions diciembre, but no Mexican NA which raises my hope it is beyond there in C America (or just USA). 1201 signal surges some more, during brief guitar and vocal music; occasional adjacent SSB QRM but otherwise clear frequency. 1203, clear timecheck as ``6 de la mañana con 2 minutos``, so it`s somewhere in the UT -6:01 zone, hi. At 1211 I compare it to North Korea which is much stronger on 2850.
At 1220 it`s fading up again with YL in Spanish, mentions ``Colonia Sabinas``(?), and a restaurante, phone numbers starting with 91-. 1226 callsign in passing sounds like XEDP, but last two letters could be any fonetically similar combination, i.e.: B, C, D, G, P, T, V. Mentions cumpleaños, birthday greetings being typical morning fare on local Mexistations. 1229 TC for 6:29.
I have two sets of headphones; so far I have been using one with boosted bass response, so I try the other one with less bass, more treble, but that means more noise overall, so back to the bass. Listening thru my stocking cap seems to help too in this extremely poor signal environment. 1241, SSB ACI again, and 2910 signal is weakening; by 1250 it`s a JBA carrier. This is still almost an hour before sunrise here, so indicates it`s in the eastern part of Mexico.
Later begins more research on above clues: First, the callsign. It so happens that the only phonetic match on 970 in IRCA and Cantú is:
970 XEVT VT + FM 104.1 Villahermosa, Tab. 10,000 5,000
IRCA shows 10/1 kW, but agrees station slogan is simply ``VT``. So does WRTH 2013 but power as 10/5.
Colonia? Finally found a list of them for Villahermosa, 180 of them with postal codes
http://www.guiapv.com/codigos_postales/index.php?t=bcid&sk=4&skt=Q2VudHJv&eid=27
and there is no Salinas, but maybe this is what I heard:
``Sabina Centro Tabasco 86153``
It seems there is a Colonia Salinas in Zacatecas where there is also a 970 station, but that rules out its callsign: XEZAZ which also has a ballad/romantic music format, no fit. Can`t get anywhere looking for typical phone prefixes in either city.
As a DX resource we need a master list of colonias for all of Mexico (and beyond), but it would be monstrous if there are as many as 180 in a relatively small city like Villahermosa.
If I am ever awake again during these hours, must pursue 2910 further, but I hope others will too and get a definite ID (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 4110, Dec 28 at 1246 UT, I make a point of looking for WGOH in Grayson KY, 3 x 1370 which Harold Frodge has heard in MI in the evening. 1245 is when they should start 5 kW non-direxional day power in December and January; until 2215 in Dec, 2230 in Jan. But all I get now is a JBA carrier, and SSB ACI. Nothing at earlier check 1218 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 4417, Dec 28 at 0549, very poor signal with talk in AM by one voice, occasionally another. Too weak to make out language, and does not sound like marine or aero weather, but conversation. Still going past 0600. A broadcaster? None listed here, but Radio Eco, Bolivia has been on 4409 or 4410 and could have varied (and also on all-night maybe for holidays?). Next check since I am unavoidably awake at 1110, reads S9+10 but just barely modulated, still at 1129; however, recheck at 1246, a carrier is still there, too late for Bolivia. Could be some other closer Latin American. This of course does not work out as a MW harmonic, unless the fundamental is way off frequency. Nor as a leapfrog or difference product between higher frequencies unless one of those too is not on a 5-kHz channel.
Klingenfuss 2002 book shows 4417 is/was channel 421 for SSB coast stations, QSX 4125, but doesn`t name any. Searching the UDXF yg, info not quite so old mentions IAR in Roma and Walvis Bay, Namibia on 4417; and US Navy Composite Warfare Net, but it`s unlikely these utes would be on AM instead of SSB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 5855-AM, Dec 28 at 0545, spy numbers, very strong signal equivalent to the big RHC transmitters, and probably shared with them: YL with only 5 digits in Spanish, 05607, then switch to digital noises; a minute later one more different 5-digit group, back to digital. I bet Arnie never refers to these ``digital tests`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 5025, Dec 28 at 0557, R. Rebelde talk audio with continuous breakup, unlistenable; recheck 0614 for a moment OK, then music is breaking up too. It`s incredible the Cubans just can`t get their acts together from studio to transmitter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SARAWAK [non]. 15325, Dec 28 at 1259, JBA carrier as I am checking out the one-day test by IRRS to SE Asia at 13-14 that Ron Norton had told us about yesterday. Not rechecked until 1331, and now it has come up to a fair signal with music, sad song; 1334 talk in presumed Iban, mentioning ``Radio Kenyalang`` twice, ``Radio Free Kenyalang`` once, and berita (news); 1334 back to music. Has some deep fades. Presumed ROMANIA site tho never to be acknowledged by IRRS. Compared it to known RRI 15170 signal which was no better at 1300, but at 1331, 15325 was really a bit stronger, which doesn`t make sense since 15170 is aimed USward, 300 kW at 290 degrees from Galbeni, while 15325 is presumably the usual 300 kW from Tiganeshti aimed toward Sarawak.
Tudor Vedeanu inside Romania at Gura Humorului reports a good signal.
Kai Ludwig says, ``Tuned in shortly after 1350: Boaaar, it was booming into Germany at a local-like level, making one suspect that Tiganeshti churned it out on a 307 degree curtain by mistake. Asian music, then in noticeably poorer audio quality the promised closure announcement in American-sounding English, with RRI interval signal from the other transmitters bleeding in (ooops). Then similarly degraded Aïda fragment until the carrier had been cut.``
Wolfgang Büschel was also monitoring 15325 in Germany and with remote receivers. He`s 99% sure it`s via Tiganeshti. It was 30 over 9 in England and Italy; 10 over 9 in Moscow with some echo; heavy echo closer to Romania, backscatter; S8 in Australia where it`s the middle of the night; inaudible in northern Japan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TURKEY. Voice of Turkey sent two very nice items by p-mail, without comment but apparently my prizes for correct answer to a Question of the Month: a small zippered pouch/purse, about 4 x 6 inches, with stunning fabric design including TSR Voice of Turkey www.trt-world.com on one side, different design with no logo on the other side. Golden threads really glitter, not done justice in these scans, nor the richer color of the red. Enlarge for a close look at the fine weave:
http://www.w4uvh.net/TRTpouch1.jpg
http://www.w4uvh.net/TRTpouch2.jpg
This belongs in a museum case, not in my pocket!
Also, a 3.5 x 3.5 inch coaster (?) illustrating Cappadocia, where churches were carved into rock faces but some of them look like human faces, à la Rushmore. Overlaying it is a grid of smaller squares, which reflect incident light in such a way that the light appears to hover above the picture, but it`s hardly 3-D. Closer inspexion, looks like circular diffraxion gratings, but no rainbow effects. Not sure what the reason for that is. In the scan you can barely see some of the patterns in the sky, but not the 16 points of light they reflect:
http://www.w4uvh.net/TRTCap.jpg
Has a thick, black non-magnetic backing. Thank you, VOT! The items were mailed 19.11 and received 27.12. They certainly encourage me to listen even more to VOT SW broadcasts. I previously won a different cap with TRT logo, as in for my head (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 5890, Dec 28 at 1257 I hear some `Star Spangled Banner` but it`s just part of it as background music to VOA Korean, via TINIAN. Standard rant about lack of respect for our national anthem, also exemplified by WINB which talks over it, and no other US SW stations, public or private, ever known to play it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1649 monitoring: second airing confirmed UT Friday Dec 28 at 0431 on WWRB 3195, but 5050 was off the air again --- you never know from one week to the next. This followed a respectful 34-second pause after Pastor Larry Cain of Anderson SC exclaimed ``amen & amen!``. Once a hum starts up in the dead air, it`s a good sign that WOR playback is about to start.
Next: UT Saturday 0230v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB.
Saturday 0630 AND 1630 on Hamburger Lokalradio 7265 (not 6190)
Saturday 0900, 1600, 1830, Sunday 0900, 1630, Monday 0530, Tuesday 1200, maybe Thursday 0430 on WRMI 9955
UT Sunday 0500 on WTWW 5830
Saturday 1830 on WRN via SiriusXM 120
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 750, Dec 28 at 1321 UT, M&W conversing in Ukrainian, which means 15 kW daytimer WNDZ in Portage IN (Chicago market), which I seem to log one morning per season, previously Oct 26, 2010, and Oct 18, 2011, so I just barely made it this year. Latest official sunrises are in Dec and Jan at 1315, so just came up, from PSRA of 500 watts, which starts at 1230 in Dec, 1245 in Jan (not as early as 1200 except in March before DST starts, for some odd reason, as there is no ``limiting station`` these months, not even WSB). Ukrainian is also a Manitoba language, but no 750s there (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 880, Dec 28 at 1316 UT, local talkshow finally getting out phone number after fumbles as 501-492-5576, which means Arkansas, and website http://www.wethepeople.com Says he`s on Friday mornings only, without delays so no profanity, please. Is also E/W in null of KRVN so it`s 50 kW KLRG, Sheridan AR, now with own show instead of WTAN network. Re my observation yesterday of dead air/open carrier presumably from this, may have been due to widespread lingering power outages in AR following last week`s winter storm. But if you can`t get the programming to the transmitter, why keep burning kW at the site? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [and non]. 7250, Dec 28 at 0623, VR direct is still not on the air, unlike previous nights on air earlier than scheduled with Albanian.
7305, Dec 28 at 1119, big open carrier, with some hum, atop something in Chinese. Must be Greenville B already warming up for one of only two token broadcasts to the Americas left from Vatican Radio. No IS, but 1130 ``Laudetur Iesus Christus`` and into morning Spanish, naming a bunch of announcers and staff, then starting off with saint and martyr info for the date. Why don`t other stations honour martyrs??
The Chinese is CNR1, 37 degrees from Shijiazhuang 723 site per Aoki, which means it`s also aimed eventually at the Americas. Surely VR could have found a clearer 7 MHz frequency, but hey, it matches the same one used via Greenville at 0200-0245, so why not? Maybe no retuning necessary if idle in between (Glenn Hauser, OK DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. Trans-Pacific carrier search performed Dec 28 at 1322-1329 UT after first finding one on 747, stepping the DX-398 in USB with slightly offset BFO producing a low pitch to be recognized at 9 kHz intervals not too covered by NAm signals, found all these: 585, 594, 603, 693, 702, 738, 747, 774, 828, 873, 972, 1053, 1278, 1287, 1314, 1323, 1332, 1566. Today`s Enid sunrise will be 1342, only two minutes from the latest of the year next week (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 2910, Dec 28 at 1137, couldn`t sleep so gave up and turned on the radio, to find what must be a third harmonic of something on 970. Some music but never a complete song, mostly talk in Spanish; very weak but with BFO on to help, I devote my full attention to pulling something out of it. 1145 mentions ``de la salud``; 1153 improving slightly but still very tough copy against the QRN and QSB. 1200 mentions diciembre, but no Mexican NA which raises my hope it is beyond there in C America (or just USA). 1201 signal surges some more, during brief guitar and vocal music; occasional adjacent SSB QRM but otherwise clear frequency. 1203, clear timecheck as ``6 de la mañana con 2 minutos``, so it`s somewhere in the UT -6:01 zone, hi. At 1211 I compare it to North Korea which is much stronger on 2850.
At 1220 it`s fading up again with YL in Spanish, mentions ``Colonia Sabinas``(?), and a restaurante, phone numbers starting with 91-. 1226 callsign in passing sounds like XEDP, but last two letters could be any fonetically similar combination, i.e.: B, C, D, G, P, T, V. Mentions cumpleaños, birthday greetings being typical morning fare on local Mexistations. 1229 TC for 6:29.
I have two sets of headphones; so far I have been using one with boosted bass response, so I try the other one with less bass, more treble, but that means more noise overall, so back to the bass. Listening thru my stocking cap seems to help too in this extremely poor signal environment. 1241, SSB ACI again, and 2910 signal is weakening; by 1250 it`s a JBA carrier. This is still almost an hour before sunrise here, so indicates it`s in the eastern part of Mexico.
Later begins more research on above clues: First, the callsign. It so happens that the only phonetic match on 970 in IRCA and Cantú is:
970 XEVT VT + FM 104.1 Villahermosa, Tab. 10,000 5,000
IRCA shows 10/1 kW, but agrees station slogan is simply ``VT``. So does WRTH 2013 but power as 10/5.
Colonia? Finally found a list of them for Villahermosa, 180 of them with postal codes
http://www.guiapv.com/codigos_postales/index.php?t=bcid&sk=4&skt=Q2VudHJv&eid=27
and there is no Salinas, but maybe this is what I heard:
``Sabina Centro Tabasco 86153``
It seems there is a Colonia Salinas in Zacatecas where there is also a 970 station, but that rules out its callsign: XEZAZ which also has a ballad/romantic music format, no fit. Can`t get anywhere looking for typical phone prefixes in either city.
As a DX resource we need a master list of colonias for all of Mexico (and beyond), but it would be monstrous if there are as many as 180 in a relatively small city like Villahermosa.
If I am ever awake again during these hours, must pursue 2910 further, but I hope others will too and get a definite ID (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 4110, Dec 28 at 1246 UT, I make a point of looking for WGOH in Grayson KY, 3 x 1370 which Harold Frodge has heard in MI in the evening. 1245 is when they should start 5 kW non-direxional day power in December and January; until 2215 in Dec, 2230 in Jan. But all I get now is a JBA carrier, and SSB ACI. Nothing at earlier check 1218 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 4417, Dec 28 at 0549, very poor signal with talk in AM by one voice, occasionally another. Too weak to make out language, and does not sound like marine or aero weather, but conversation. Still going past 0600. A broadcaster? None listed here, but Radio Eco, Bolivia has been on 4409 or 4410 and could have varied (and also on all-night maybe for holidays?). Next check since I am unavoidably awake at 1110, reads S9+10 but just barely modulated, still at 1129; however, recheck at 1246, a carrier is still there, too late for Bolivia. Could be some other closer Latin American. This of course does not work out as a MW harmonic, unless the fundamental is way off frequency. Nor as a leapfrog or difference product between higher frequencies unless one of those too is not on a 5-kHz channel.
Klingenfuss 2002 book shows 4417 is/was channel 421 for SSB coast stations, QSX 4125, but doesn`t name any. Searching the UDXF yg, info not quite so old mentions IAR in Roma and Walvis Bay, Namibia on 4417; and US Navy Composite Warfare Net, but it`s unlikely these utes would be on AM instead of SSB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
