** CUBA. 6165, Jan 6 at 0609, RHC English is instead open carrier/dead air in yet another SNAFU. Along with 6010 and 5040, this is its strongest frequency here; those and weaker // 6060, 6125, were unaffected.
At 0626 on 6165, guess what, digital noises, interrupted by Spanish spy numbers! YL with one 5-digit group only, ``45411``, then back to noises, further interrupted by other single groups past 0635. Is this its new format or may we somewhen else still hear long strings of groups on AM or cut CW?
This makes it painfully obvious that RHC is an integral part of the Dirección General de Inteligencia, sharing transmitters, so it`s easy to get RHC on spy frequencies or vice versa. (Easy, that is, if you are run by incompetents.) Not the first time it`s happened, by far, but the most blatant in recent memory.
Not exactly an exchange --- spy numbers normally appear on some frequencies between 5.8 and 5.9 MHz, but none at this time, nor any RHC to be heard on former spy frequencies.
9511 approx., Jan 6 at 1413, weak spurblob around here, presumably from also weak RHC 9540, as frequently happens.
15340, Jan 6 at 1425, RHC is dead-air on huge carrier, as most likely to happen on Sundays in reverent respect for the missing El Hugazo; shux, no spy numbers instead here. Still DA at 1520, and by now 13780 is completely off the air.
17580, one of the still funxioning frequencies, meanwhile, I monitored at 1435-1450 Sunday Jan 6, for the first `En Contacto` of 2013y. After listener birthday salutes for the week to come, as usual every year, repeated last week`s salutes to the 129 ``most active listeners`` of the past year. I assume this means everyone who axually wrote directly to the program. They are in 12 groups, starting with one listener from Nicaragua, to first place again, 23 from --- CUBA!
Makes you wonder if the show is also carried on domestic radio, but I don`t think so. Dentrocubanos feel comfortable writing to this one safe shortwave station, and also save on postage costs needed for meagre rations. Except for Spain, all names were from the Americas, almost all Latin, including a few from EE UU y Canadá. Brazilian name pronunciations were forced into Spanish, even José. AFAIK, RHC has no DX program in Portuguese, so they have to listen to Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE. 7475, Jan 6 at 0613, Orthodox chanting/singing; it`s Epiphany = Greek Orthodox Xmas, and the sound is a bit more formal than usual on other Sundays, otherwise unremarkable. So Radio Philia has again been banished from 7475, instead // mainstream VOG much weaker 9420 tonight, but 7475 dumps off the air at 0622*-*0625; when back, it`s also subnormal with some flutter following propagation disturbance (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUAM. 15260, UT Saturday Jan 5 at 2201, nice SE Asian music, involving gamelan, fair-good sufficient signal; 2206 announcement sounds almost Indonesian with keyword ``siaran``, IDs something like ``Radio Athrem Dewara`` plus two more words; back to vocal music. By 2215 talk mentions ``Christus``, a dead giveaway it`s a missionary station.
HFCC and Aoki agree it`s KSDA, 255 degrees from Agat, alternating Javanese on Sun/Tue/Thu, with Sundanese on Mon/Wed/Fri/Sat, so this must have been the latter; but what is the true wording of the ID? AWR website is no help; has lots of listening options, such as
http://www.awr.org/fr/listen/program/124
but nothing in print about the axual ID! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 11670, Sat Jan 5 at 2143, AIR GOS good but with flutter, concluding talk about the Nicobar Islands I wish I had heard, introducing Film Music. Faded that out at 2200 with no announcements about what the music was, but always enjoyable: they must view it as just a filler. Meanwhile checked //s: about as good on 9445, but not so good on 11620 and 7550. Which ones are best varies a lot from day to day as we in North America must struggle to hear AIR via the only means possible, virtually trans-polar off-beams, never any relays abroad.
[and non]. 13710, Jan 6 at 1421, AIR GOS in poor signal about Nepal, with CODAR QRM up to 13730, that having invaded the 22m SWBC band even further above 13.6 MHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [non]. 11880, Jan 5 at 2142, I can still hear music under RHC Portuguese, no doubt NHK also Portuguese via GUIANA FRENCH, so it still hasn`t changed to 11960, as Ivo Ivanov says they are going to. Hurry up! Such a change should have been made immediately as soon as RHC usurped the frequency, as you can`t negotiate with Arnie Coro, who never admits he`s made a mistake. 11960 remains unoccupied (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 1580, Jan 5 at 2155 UT, again today, KOKB Blackwell is in open carrier/dead air, while sibling station 1020 KOKP Perry is nominal. Evidently the 1580 relay is unattended (and unmonitored!), so once it craps out, it takes a lot of time for them to send someone out to fix it; who cares? Stupid sports talk, when managing to modulate (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 21505, Jan 6 at 1433, BSKSA in Arabic marred by humbuzz, so at least one of their transmitters is still defective, but nowhere as bad as it once was, on 15435 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAIWAN [non]. 15440, Jan 5 at 2214, RTI`s only English to NAm, via WYFR is back today after providing dead air yesterday (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K [non]. Re my yesterday`s 15710 log, Kai Ludwig replies to the dxldyg:
``BBC WS to Europe in Dari and Pashto --- This is the service that has been broadcast for quite some time, almost a decade I think, from Skelton on 6195, as I reported time and again, reconfirming that it's still on air. Besides Dari and Pashto it also contained a third hour, in Farsi.
So now moved to Zygi, together with the necessary frequency change, and with the Farsi hour being terminated. Which also means that the (still mostly failing?) CyBC transmission is during its last months not the only thing the Zygi site beams to Europe.
I have never seen any explanations for this service and its target audience. So I take this as another opportunity to ask if someone knows an insider who could comment on this, also the aspect that this weird service no longer offers Farsi but still Dari and Pashto? Kai``
I didn`t mention or monitor it, but HFCC shows 15710 now has something else following at 1600 and really beamed in the proper direxion:
15710 1600 1630 41N,42SW CYP 300 101 0 186 1234567 281012 310313 D 17710 Hindi CYP BBC BAB 3229 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1650 monitoring: UT Sunday 0500 on WTWW-1 5830: at first thought it was off the air, but monitoring outside with least noise level, I`m there, but quite weak. Yet, WTWW-2 on 5085 is inbooming. The MUF has a sharp cutoff between 5.1 and 5.8 MHz! Other Tennesseeans (I refuse to call them Vols), WWCR 5890 and 5935 are just as attenuated. I hope anyway, the `skip is long`, with 5830 still getting out further away: how was it on the west coast of North America, or Europe? Yet2, at 0608 recheck, 5830, along with 5890 and 5935 are back to usual very good level. Must have been hit by a propagation disturbance an hour earlier, then recovered. Such luck.
Remaining chances to hear WOR 1650 this week are via WRMI 9955: Mon 0530, Tue 1200, probably Thu 0430. Unknown yet whether HLR will make another Wednesday appearance, 7265-USB at 0630 & 1630 like the last biweek (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9370, Sunday Jan 6 at 1415, no signal from WWRB, and not audible on night frequency 3185 either, which if still on is buried in daytime noise level. I want my Brother Scare! 1527 check, now 9370 is on but with defunct Alex Scourby`s pseudo-authoritative Bible readings as provided by TOM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 12105, Sunday Jan 6 at 1522, WTWW-3 is on today in Arabic, probably bad news again for R. Dialogue, clandestine from Madagascar to Zimbabwe on same at 16-17, but unchecked here then (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 13927-USB, Jan 6 at 1524, Allan Stern`s favorite MARS frequency, some military 2-way conversation is still audible, with heavy OTH radar QRM ranging 13918-13943, presumably from CYPRUS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
At 0626 on 6165, guess what, digital noises, interrupted by Spanish spy numbers! YL with one 5-digit group only, ``45411``, then back to noises, further interrupted by other single groups past 0635. Is this its new format or may we somewhen else still hear long strings of groups on AM or cut CW?
This makes it painfully obvious that RHC is an integral part of the Dirección General de Inteligencia, sharing transmitters, so it`s easy to get RHC on spy frequencies or vice versa. (Easy, that is, if you are run by incompetents.) Not the first time it`s happened, by far, but the most blatant in recent memory.
Not exactly an exchange --- spy numbers normally appear on some frequencies between 5.8 and 5.9 MHz, but none at this time, nor any RHC to be heard on former spy frequencies.
9511 approx., Jan 6 at 1413, weak spurblob around here, presumably from also weak RHC 9540, as frequently happens.
15340, Jan 6 at 1425, RHC is dead-air on huge carrier, as most likely to happen on Sundays in reverent respect for the missing El Hugazo; shux, no spy numbers instead here. Still DA at 1520, and by now 13780 is completely off the air.
17580, one of the still funxioning frequencies, meanwhile, I monitored at 1435-1450 Sunday Jan 6, for the first `En Contacto` of 2013y. After listener birthday salutes for the week to come, as usual every year, repeated last week`s salutes to the 129 ``most active listeners`` of the past year. I assume this means everyone who axually wrote directly to the program. They are in 12 groups, starting with one listener from Nicaragua, to first place again, 23 from --- CUBA!
Makes you wonder if the show is also carried on domestic radio, but I don`t think so. Dentrocubanos feel comfortable writing to this one safe shortwave station, and also save on postage costs needed for meagre rations. Except for Spain, all names were from the Americas, almost all Latin, including a few from EE UU y Canadá. Brazilian name pronunciations were forced into Spanish, even José. AFAIK, RHC has no DX program in Portuguese, so they have to listen to Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE. 7475, Jan 6 at 0613, Orthodox chanting/singing; it`s Epiphany = Greek Orthodox Xmas, and the sound is a bit more formal than usual on other Sundays, otherwise unremarkable. So Radio Philia has again been banished from 7475, instead // mainstream VOG much weaker 9420 tonight, but 7475 dumps off the air at 0622*-*0625; when back, it`s also subnormal with some flutter following propagation disturbance (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUAM. 15260, UT Saturday Jan 5 at 2201, nice SE Asian music, involving gamelan, fair-good sufficient signal; 2206 announcement sounds almost Indonesian with keyword ``siaran``, IDs something like ``Radio Athrem Dewara`` plus two more words; back to vocal music. By 2215 talk mentions ``Christus``, a dead giveaway it`s a missionary station.
HFCC and Aoki agree it`s KSDA, 255 degrees from Agat, alternating Javanese on Sun/Tue/Thu, with Sundanese on Mon/Wed/Fri/Sat, so this must have been the latter; but what is the true wording of the ID? AWR website is no help; has lots of listening options, such as
http://www.awr.org/fr/listen/program/124
but nothing in print about the axual ID! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 11670, Sat Jan 5 at 2143, AIR GOS good but with flutter, concluding talk about the Nicobar Islands I wish I had heard, introducing Film Music. Faded that out at 2200 with no announcements about what the music was, but always enjoyable: they must view it as just a filler. Meanwhile checked //s: about as good on 9445, but not so good on 11620 and 7550. Which ones are best varies a lot from day to day as we in North America must struggle to hear AIR via the only means possible, virtually trans-polar off-beams, never any relays abroad.
[and non]. 13710, Jan 6 at 1421, AIR GOS in poor signal about Nepal, with CODAR QRM up to 13730, that having invaded the 22m SWBC band even further above 13.6 MHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [non]. 11880, Jan 5 at 2142, I can still hear music under RHC Portuguese, no doubt NHK also Portuguese via GUIANA FRENCH, so it still hasn`t changed to 11960, as Ivo Ivanov says they are going to. Hurry up! Such a change should have been made immediately as soon as RHC usurped the frequency, as you can`t negotiate with Arnie Coro, who never admits he`s made a mistake. 11960 remains unoccupied (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 1580, Jan 5 at 2155 UT, again today, KOKB Blackwell is in open carrier/dead air, while sibling station 1020 KOKP Perry is nominal. Evidently the 1580 relay is unattended (and unmonitored!), so once it craps out, it takes a lot of time for them to send someone out to fix it; who cares? Stupid sports talk, when managing to modulate (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 21505, Jan 6 at 1433, BSKSA in Arabic marred by humbuzz, so at least one of their transmitters is still defective, but nowhere as bad as it once was, on 15435 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAIWAN [non]. 15440, Jan 5 at 2214, RTI`s only English to NAm, via WYFR is back today after providing dead air yesterday (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K [non]. Re my yesterday`s 15710 log, Kai Ludwig replies to the dxldyg:
``BBC WS to Europe in Dari and Pashto --- This is the service that has been broadcast for quite some time, almost a decade I think, from Skelton on 6195, as I reported time and again, reconfirming that it's still on air. Besides Dari and Pashto it also contained a third hour, in Farsi.
So now moved to Zygi, together with the necessary frequency change, and with the Farsi hour being terminated. Which also means that the (still mostly failing?) CyBC transmission is during its last months not the only thing the Zygi site beams to Europe.
I have never seen any explanations for this service and its target audience. So I take this as another opportunity to ask if someone knows an insider who could comment on this, also the aspect that this weird service no longer offers Farsi but still Dari and Pashto? Kai``
I didn`t mention or monitor it, but HFCC shows 15710 now has something else following at 1600 and really beamed in the proper direxion:
15710 1600 1630 41N,42SW CYP 300 101 0 186 1234567 281012 310313 D 17710 Hindi CYP BBC BAB 3229 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1650 monitoring: UT Sunday 0500 on WTWW-1 5830: at first thought it was off the air, but monitoring outside with least noise level, I`m there, but quite weak. Yet, WTWW-2 on 5085 is inbooming. The MUF has a sharp cutoff between 5.1 and 5.8 MHz! Other Tennesseeans (I refuse to call them Vols), WWCR 5890 and 5935 are just as attenuated. I hope anyway, the `skip is long`, with 5830 still getting out further away: how was it on the west coast of North America, or Europe? Yet2, at 0608 recheck, 5830, along with 5890 and 5935 are back to usual very good level. Must have been hit by a propagation disturbance an hour earlier, then recovered. Such luck.
Remaining chances to hear WOR 1650 this week are via WRMI 9955: Mon 0530, Tue 1200, probably Thu 0430. Unknown yet whether HLR will make another Wednesday appearance, 7265-USB at 0630 & 1630 like the last biweek (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9370, Sunday Jan 6 at 1415, no signal from WWRB, and not audible on night frequency 3185 either, which if still on is buried in daytime noise level. I want my Brother Scare! 1527 check, now 9370 is on but with defunct Alex Scourby`s pseudo-authoritative Bible readings as provided by TOM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 12105, Sunday Jan 6 at 1522, WTWW-3 is on today in Arabic, probably bad news again for R. Dialogue, clandestine from Madagascar to Zimbabwe on same at 16-17, but unchecked here then (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 13927-USB, Jan 6 at 1524, Allan Stern`s favorite MARS frequency, some military 2-way conversation is still audible, with heavy OTH radar QRM ranging 13918-13943, presumably from CYPRUS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
