** AMSTERDAM ISLAND [and non]. 14180-USB, Jan 27 at 1448, FT5ZM, on the DX-pedition, finally located here, after hearing pileups below it, mainly 14175, from 1443. WA5TYJ was reciting nothing but his call over and over, then QSYed to 14168. Several other stations attempting to contact FT5ZM on frequencies in between, because he says ``listening down`` without specifying any particular frequency. Fonetix are always ``Fox Tango Five Zulu Mexico``, and he gives his call often enough, but not with every single contact as he should; and many of the 5-9`s he awards are to partial calls, another no-no.
From one of the closest bits of land to our antipodes, FT5ZM has quite a sufficient steady signal, the only problem being QRM from clueless callers on the same frequency, jamming by carriers, dits, or even music, and too much ACI from stations as close as 2.5 kHz down, as someone also complained. On the FRG-7 whose bandwidth is too wide, constant ACI from aside, as if a ragchewer.
Among the calls or semicalls worked by FT5ZM were: N5IOO at 1451; NOS and 4MW at 1453; K1OYQ at 1454; K9OW at 1456. At 1457, ``QRZ North & South America only, a difficult path``. Still saying that at 1512; 1519 switch to rest of world for a while, including BV5RN at 1523, SM5CZQ at 1524.
I`ll bet in their narrow focus on ham radio, it never even occurred to the NCDXF, that for negligible additional cost they could also have activated Amsterdam as a shortwave-broadcast country, by letting one of their transceivers funxion part of the time as a broadcast station, on a broadcast band, perhaps unattended, just playing a tape loop ID and music.
Website is http://www.amsterdamdx.org/ including a slideshow and very brief history of the island. So far they`ve raised $336,320 of their $450K goal. I don`t even see the coördinates there, and Amsterdam is so remote that it`s not indexed in several of my atlases. The biggest one has it at 37-52 south, 77-32 east. That`s further south than Enid is north, which means winters could be severe, but it`s summer there now. Looks like this will last until about Feb 9 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 6165, Jan 26 at 0702, RHC is still on with music, but off a few minutes later.
6000, Sunday Jan 26 at 0702, RHC`s weekly Esperanto is very good here, tacked on to one English frequency.
15482, Jan 26 at 1405, RHC spur audible for the second day here, very poor but // 15340 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE. 7475, Jan 26 at 0700, IS and clear ID as ``Helliniki Radiophonia``, poor signal this late. Others have reported some other name between those two words (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 9370, Jan 26 at 2007, instead of TOM, WWRB presents big hum only. What are we going to do?! On 31m, we can only hear Brother Scare on 9690, 9930, 9955, 9980! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1705 monitoring: confirmed on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB after 0400 UT Monday January 27, and also on webcast. Next: Tue 1200 on WRMI 9955 southward; new Wed 1400 on WRMI 9955 northward; Wed 0730 & 1530 on HLR 7265-CUSB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 5830, Jan 27 at 0626, WTWW-1 is off the air again, while the other TN stations are inbooming as well as WTWW-2 on 5085 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 12050, Jan 26 at 2016, R. Católica Mundial besides the constant squeal, is very distorted, while // 13830 is just squealing; during ``por su dolorosa pasión`` monomania (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1010, Jan 27 at 0711 UT just as I tune across, ID for ``--- Classic, KIND``. That`s Independence, in SE KS, not so far but still doing well for only 32 listed watts at night, vs 250 day, non-direxional. Sure would be nice if we could believe listed night powers when we hear such stations (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1550, Jan 27 at 0641 UT, ad for Subway catering with a 225- area code. Figured it would most likely be Springfield/Branson, but no, it`s Bâton Rouge LA! This is on the FRG-7 with E-W longwire, at the moment atop heavy CCI. So WPFC which is supposedly 42 watts night, 5000 watts day, non-direxional, ``winning people for Christ`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
This report despatched at 1715 UT January 27
From one of the closest bits of land to our antipodes, FT5ZM has quite a sufficient steady signal, the only problem being QRM from clueless callers on the same frequency, jamming by carriers, dits, or even music, and too much ACI from stations as close as 2.5 kHz down, as someone also complained. On the FRG-7 whose bandwidth is too wide, constant ACI from aside, as if a ragchewer.
Among the calls or semicalls worked by FT5ZM were: N5IOO at 1451; NOS and 4MW at 1453; K1OYQ at 1454; K9OW at 1456. At 1457, ``QRZ North & South America only, a difficult path``. Still saying that at 1512; 1519 switch to rest of world for a while, including BV5RN at 1523, SM5CZQ at 1524.
I`ll bet in their narrow focus on ham radio, it never even occurred to the NCDXF, that for negligible additional cost they could also have activated Amsterdam as a shortwave-broadcast country, by letting one of their transceivers funxion part of the time as a broadcast station, on a broadcast band, perhaps unattended, just playing a tape loop ID and music.
Website is http://www.amsterdamdx.org/ including a slideshow and very brief history of the island. So far they`ve raised $336,320 of their $450K goal. I don`t even see the coördinates there, and Amsterdam is so remote that it`s not indexed in several of my atlases. The biggest one has it at 37-52 south, 77-32 east. That`s further south than Enid is north, which means winters could be severe, but it`s summer there now. Looks like this will last until about Feb 9 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 6165, Jan 26 at 0702, RHC is still on with music, but off a few minutes later.
6000, Sunday Jan 26 at 0702, RHC`s weekly Esperanto is very good here, tacked on to one English frequency.
15482, Jan 26 at 1405, RHC spur audible for the second day here, very poor but // 15340 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE. 7475, Jan 26 at 0700, IS and clear ID as ``Helliniki Radiophonia``, poor signal this late. Others have reported some other name between those two words (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 9370, Jan 26 at 2007, instead of TOM, WWRB presents big hum only. What are we going to do?! On 31m, we can only hear Brother Scare on 9690, 9930, 9955, 9980! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1705 monitoring: confirmed on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB after 0400 UT Monday January 27, and also on webcast. Next: Tue 1200 on WRMI 9955 southward; new Wed 1400 on WRMI 9955 northward; Wed 0730 & 1530 on HLR 7265-CUSB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 5830, Jan 27 at 0626, WTWW-1 is off the air again, while the other TN stations are inbooming as well as WTWW-2 on 5085 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 12050, Jan 26 at 2016, R. Católica Mundial besides the constant squeal, is very distorted, while // 13830 is just squealing; during ``por su dolorosa pasión`` monomania (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1010, Jan 27 at 0711 UT just as I tune across, ID for ``--- Classic, KIND``. That`s Independence, in SE KS, not so far but still doing well for only 32 listed watts at night, vs 250 day, non-direxional. Sure would be nice if we could believe listed night powers when we hear such stations (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1550, Jan 27 at 0641 UT, ad for Subway catering with a 225- area code. Figured it would most likely be Springfield/Branson, but no, it`s Bâton Rouge LA! This is on the FRG-7 with E-W longwire, at the moment atop heavy CCI. So WPFC which is supposedly 42 watts night, 5000 watts day, non-direxional, ``winning people for Christ`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
This report despatched at 1715 UT January 27
