** MEXICO. Circa 2030 UT Dec 25, 6m maps show sporadic E openings up to 97 MHz over eastern USA, but seeing nothing on TV and hearing nothing on FM, I move on to other tasks, such as gathering pecans before another winter storm hits us. I don`t turn on TV again until 2249 when I find Es now on TV from analog Mexico, all times UT:
2249 on 2, weak video but Spanish music audio; video has CCI beat bars of about 5 kHz, perhaps from local device/cable radiation, and doesn`t go away. Now the maps show some contacts across Texas but not Mexico on 6m.
2255 on 2, same fades in again
2304 on 2, stronger fade-in with VW ad, Banco Azteca, Crest; 2306 glimpse of trece
2315 on 2, Azteca trece, full screen animation, corte informativo, no audio
2322 on 2, continuamos, now small trece bug in UR during film drama
2331 on 4, MUF now up to here with some video, soon CCI among 2 or 3 stations, including 20 kHz apart plus/minus offset small beat bars
2347 on 3, now some video and audio CCI here; as often happens, we get signs of DX on 4 before 3, presumably due to geographical factors
2350 on 4, novela, Televisa 2 star bug in lower right
2351 on 5, now some lite video CCI is showing up here
2353 on 5, novela, Televisa 2 star bug LR
2355 on 2, animation with dancing elves, Azteca 7 bug in UR
Will all these signals be blacked out forever in one week with the apagón analógico? It seems that a few minor stations are getting exceptions. Unlike in the US and Canada, where there remain *some* lowband TV stations now in DTV, Mexico is abandoning VHF for UHF only, effectively putting an end to DX abroad. For now, to be continued (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 5020, Dec 25 I`m not awake until 1430 but check 60m anyway half a sesquihour after sunrise --- and here is a JBA carrier --- I bet SIBC is on late for Xmas. Ron Howard soon confirms that: ``5020, Wantok FM 96.3 relay via SIBC, 1425, Dec 25 with pop & Christmas songs``; I also have JBA carriers on 4835 Australia, 4885 Korea, 4940 China (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN [and non]. 15550, Dec 25 at 1548, R. Dabanga with poor signal via VATICAN, and jammed by a 1 kHz tone. Carrier peaks detected at 15549 and 15551, so not a single off-frequency carrier to make a het, which the Sudanese sometimes employ instead, but instead a co-channel transmission modulating 1000 Hz tone (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15580, Dec 25 at 2107, good signal during the only hour per week when it`s worth it for VOA to be running 15580 in English from Greenville site, i.e. `Music Time in Africa` --- Xmas song in Portuguese, outroed by hyper-hostess Heather Maxwell as ``Natal`` from Cabo Verde. Next: ``O Holy Night`` from Benin, and to follow more carols from DRC, Ghana, Togo, but later in hour straying to Jamaica, Cubamerica. At 2159 closing, Heather still gives several times but never this one, Fridays at 2100+, unknown to her (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. WORLD OF RADIO 1805 monitoring: confirmed Friday Dec 25 at 2130 on WRMI 15770, barely audible, and almost faded out by 2200; from 2130.6 on WRMI 7570, good and completed to finish. Next:
Sat 0730 HLR 7265-CUSB to SW
Sat 1530 HLR 7265-CUSB to SW
Sat 2030v WA0RCR 1860-AM ND?
Sun 0415v WA0RCR 1860-AM ND?
Sun 0900 WRMI 5850 to NW
Mon 0400v WBCQ 5110v-CUSB Area 51 to WSW
Mon 0430 WRMI 9955 to SSE
Tue 1200 WRMI 9955 to SSE
Wed 1415.5 WRMI 9955 to SSE
Wed 2200 WBCQ 7490v to WSW
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 5085, Dec 25 at 0738 check, Art Bell is back! But I`m sure only as a holiday rerun instead of Heather, topic marijuana legalization in Colorado, `Midnight [sic] in the Desert` via WTWW. Maybe another AB revival next night (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9265, Dec 25 at 1505, S9 open carrier, rather than WMLK, much more likely WINB on early for Xmas rather than *2045 weekdays; 1557-1601+ still dead air, so when will they start? Online skedhttp://winb.com/schedule.htm is now effective Dec 20, but nothing about extended Xmas Friday programming. AND --- after having achieved correct UT/ET conversion of 5 hours in the last revision, now they are back to incorrect 4-hours as if EDT conversion!
WRTH 2016 on page 504 still lists Hans Johnson as sales/frequency manager. Founder of Jihad-DX, later Cumbre DX, but long inactive as a DXer, Hans surely knows how to convert times correctly, so who is responsible for this atrocity? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** YEMEN [non]. 11860, Dec 25 at 1431, usual R. Sana`a rousing music, change to a slow ballad at 1438:40 but curtailed for Maghrib call to prayer starting at 1439:16, which is 8.5 seconds *earlier* than yesterday rather than later, so the timing is again zigging and zagging, but the trend continues to be later, in keeping with axual sunset times in Yemen. Now it`s S9+15 and IBB Kuwait R. Ashna still audible underneath during pregnant pauses (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9600, Dec 25 at 1501, S9 open carrier with flutter until off at 1502:40*. HFCC and Aoki show nothing here before 1500, but at 1500-1530 is supposed to be CRI in Persian via Kashgar --- maybe gave up after failing to ignite transmission (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 11621.0-USB, Dec 25 at 1456, INTRUDER, 2-way in colloquial Spanish, OM talking about huevos (which kind?) with lots of engine(?) noise in background; his weaker contact without the noise sounds like a YL voice, unusual for these, but no mentions of putas heard (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 18165-USB, Dec 25 at 1551, not much amateur activity, but here`s someham in what sounds like Low German, probably from northeast America. A frequency to recheck (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
This report dispatched at 0019 UT December 26