** BELGIUM [non]. 17880, May 12 at 1408, DX-Antwerp thirtieth anniversary special is underway, fair signal but deep fading via Guiana French, 250 kW on 311 degree beam to E North America. I listen for the rest of the hour, to hear:
1408, announcements of full schedule for all these specials, in French, German; address for QSL: dxaqsl @ gmail.com 1410, schedules in Spanish, Arabish 1415, English talk, lamenting closing of several SW stations or reduxions; tropical band stations in Africa are disappearing too as equipment wears out and is not replaced, relying on FM instead; likewise, Latin America. Russia makes DRM a national standard [not any more!] but remains to be seen whether this will save SW elsewhere. Says DXA has about 100 members, including strong core of a dozen. Promotes their `open days` following weekend May 19-20 with schedule of events; and will have a fortieth anniversary broadcast if there is still SW 10 years from now. 1421, disco music, ``That`s the way I like it`` 1422, Jonathan Marks, greeting from Media Network and self-promotion 1424, Mika greeting in English and Finnish from dxing.info 1425, music, YL in Dutch talking about several SW stations 1432, more disco 1433, Victor Goonetilleke, Sri Lanka greeting; someone else concluding with ``tot siens``; someone in English on behalf of Benelux DX Club 1434, French; deep fades 1441, still French, about the open days events, music 1442, DSWCI greeting in English and Danish, presumably Anker Petersen 1443, greeting from gh of WOR and DXLD, in English 1444, German, about the OD schedule 1450, music, ``Radio – seems like a friend to me`` 1454, open carrier until 1500*. No further announcements, closing or sign-off; something missed? 1657, standing by on 21680 for the repeat to WNAm from GUIANA FRENCH, only 9 degrees further west at 320. *1659:45 much stronger and unfading carrier than at 1400; 1700 opening ``Special transmission for 30th anniversary of DX-Antwerp``, then same announcements in Dutch, French, German, Spanish, Arabish; 1702 full schedule in English, QSL info, 1704 Dutch, 1706 French, and this is where I came in three hours earlier. Retune 21680 at 1754 to hear whether there was more modulation, but it`s already in dead air again, with some hum, much stronger than RFI GUF in French Africawards on neighboring 21690. Tuning further around 13m, I find suspicious hummy and not clear carriers circa: 21565, 21644, 21664, 21716, 21788, 21797. The hum was at a somewhat different pitch than 21680, and wondering if it was some local device, but 21797, which was stronger than the lower ones, cut off at precisely the same time as 21680, 1800*, and then all the others had vanished too. I bet that if I had listened before 1754, I would have heard distorted DXA Special audio on them. Note that these do not match up neatly as equally-spaces displaced spur multiples. It should be interesting to find whether the final repeat, in DRM at 20-21 on 17870-17875-17880 also has spurs, tho only 100 kW instead of 250 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 6180, UT Saturday May 12 at 0458, RNA is on again; looks like this and 11780 have changed to all-night schedule every night instead of UT Sundays only, making it more of an ACI problem for XEPPM 6185. 11765, only other 25m Brasilian audible at 0515 May 12, much weaker than 11780 but sufficient; nothing on 11815 or 11925 which sometimes are on and audible in the nightmiddle. 11765 seemed like news or at least talk in normal voices, but after some music at 0535, it was back at 0537 to wacky wailing gospelhuxter Davi Miranda, from ZYE726, SRDA Curitiba (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. 15330, and better 15235 and best 17735, May 11 at 2017-2026, RCI English `The Link` is discussing its own fate, report from parliamentary correspondent Amanda Pfeffer in Ottawa. Interviewed IBB guy; Alan Familiant, former RCI director; one Liberal MP who wants to save RCI, and another, Conservative, who had never heard of it until she asked him about it. Offered glimmers of hope, before moving on to next subject. Listen to first part of this May 11 edition here: http://www.rcinet.ca/english/program/the-link/home/ or this undated excerpt, really the same thing, 11.5 minutes: http://www.rcinet.ca/english/column/the-link-s-top-stories/15-28_2012-05-11-the-future-of-international-broadcasting/ But says towers in New Brunswick will likely be torn down at the end of this process (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA [non]. 6080, May 12 at 0500, CRI English stays here as Sackville fails again to change to 6190 where scheduled, and this time I tune in early enough to witness the terrible collision it causes with NHK Radio Japón in Spanish via BONAIRE, both equally bigsigs. Come on! 11750, May 12 at 1224, Sackville has failed to put R. Japan on wrong frequency today, returning it to BBC London during arts show, incidentally USward from THAILAND (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. Firedrake May 12, before 1300: 11500, poor at 1256 12600, fair at 1256 13920, fair at 1257 13970, fair at 1257 14700, poor at 1258 15555, fair at 1258 15900, good at 1258 15970, good at 1258 16100, good at 1258 16980, good at 1258 17250, very poor at 1259-1300* Before 1400: 16100, very good at 1336, none higher 15940, very good at 1338 15900, fair at 1338 15615, fair at 1338 mixing with WEWN 15495, poor at 1336 14800, very poor at 1338 13850, very poor at 1341 12600, very poor at 1341 11500, very poor at 1341 but // 16100 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. 5910, UT Sat May 12 at 0544, HJDH good and clear with music, no QRM past 0545, as the TWR Polish service via Wertachtal at 0545-0600 is M-F only, and not on 7225 via Austria either tonite (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Slipshod RadioCuba operators produce this May 12: 6000, RHC English is still here at 0503, supposed to finish at 0500; in `This Day in History` segment (always something revolutionary and/or negative about the US), and not yet on 6010 which is supposed to start at 0500. NOT the same transmitter, as 6010 is soon on with carrier while 6000 is still going, modulation off and on, and from 0505, 6010 keeps modulating. Now I can tell 6000 and 6010 are an echo apart, i.e. different sites. The missing frequency was 6125 while 6000 was still on, as 6050 and 6060 were already normally in English. Strangely, 6000 does not display the same undermodulation that 6125 does. By next check 0541, 6125 is on and 6000 is off. 9790, large open carrier with hum is still on at 0513 May 12, following CRI relay ending at 0500. 11840, RHC music is still on at 0516, Spanish supposed to end at 0500. But 9810 is off, and so is 5040, which was already running IS at 0455 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE [non]. 21690, May 12 at 1303, surprised to hear RFI in French still on the air past the 1200-1300 hour scheduled, poor signal. Finally cuts off at 1306:40*. Meanwhile heard nothing on 17620 or 15300. HFCC shows 21690 is via GUIANA FRENCH during this hour, changing to Issoudun from September 2 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL [and non]. 15850, May 12 at 0120, pop music at S9+10 level, much better signal from Galei Tzahal than we get at other dayparts; Greece 15650 was also good (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA SOUTH [non]. 9650, May 12 at 1225, KBSWR in English again with strange audio artifacts at peaks of modulation. Since I have never heard same on any other Sackville transmissions, I conclude it is the fault of something closer to Seoul. 1250 retune to find Kevin O`Donovan in progress giving V. of Greece schedule, something about XM, propagation from SWPC; 1252 on to Tech Tips from Jeff in Baltimore, telling us about what he is going to tell us next week about which of the five leading browsers are best to use on KBS website (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MAURITANIA. 7245, May 12 at 0538, IGIM poor signal sounds like Qur`an but not chanting (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. 6185, May 12 at 0458, XEPPM poor signal but modulation sounds sufficient, if it weren`t for Brasil expanding 6180 schedule to ACI it; lucked out tonight on the other side, with CRI via CANADA from 0500 again on wrong frequency 6080 instead of 6190; just weak BBC audible on 6190. Not that it matters, as XEPPM is still signing off at 0500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. Not understanding much Dutch, I couldn`t justify spending its last 24 hours with R. Nederland, but tuned in again just before The End, May 11 at 1958, when 21555 was very good from BONAIRE. A bit of the national anthem played, then a sad song, watch ticking, heartbeat, historic Dutch announcement judging from the scratches on the record, and one final word, ``nil``, then carrier cut immediately at 2000***************. As expected, various regular Dutch transmissions are now gone: 6190, May 12 at 0122, nothing, but Spanish still on 6165 Bonaire 6165, May 12 after 0500, nothing; also ending the NHK leapfrog on 6250 9650, May 12 at 1305, at last, no big collision with CRI English via CANADA; had been RNW Dutch via Tinang, Philippines. We are truly out of touch with the Dutch (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. 15120, UT Sat May 12 at 0520, VON has VG signal with less hum than usual, in some reggae music, then resuming mailbag so I forewent ontuning and listened for a while: acknowledged report from Jorge Raúl somebody in Jalisco (they sure don`t know the first thing about Spanish pronunciation at VON). He reported to *VON* that he heard *1Africa* on 9430! back in January. They think he must have been listening to 9690, since that`s VON`s only frequency on that band, altho his report was during the 0425-0500 period with a number of songs and commentaries, SINPO (with a long I) 44444. Hostesses say it`s ``difficult to reconcile`` his report with VON since they don`t start until 0445 [and not on any 9 MHz frequency then], and go on to plug a number of their own programs at times on 9690, 15120 that he should listen to. Nevertheless, they are sending him a QSL card! plus sticker and magazine. 0528 outro the `Listeners` Letters` show; addresses englishvon @ yahoo.com or englishservice @ voiceofnigeria.org CVC 1Africa, Zambia, was on 9430 at 04-06 in the B-10 season, as in WRTH 2011, but later dropped the segment before 0600 on any frequency, as in WRTH 2012. So he could not have been hearing it on 9430 in January of this year. And certainly had nothing to do with VON, altho those 1Africa broadcasts are aimed *at* W Africa, mainly Nigeria, and onward across North America. Total SNAFU (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. 640, May 12 at 1348 UT, ESPN Radio promo after promo, from what used to be WWLS: no IBOC noise on at the moment, whence seems like it is less and less imposed, fortunately. 1400 ID as ``KWPN AM, Moore-Norman, a Cumulus station``. I had been wanting to catch their new ID for the record, as another W-call far west of the Mississippi bites the dust. But this one was not really heritage; it was strangely granted on 12/7/81 according to FCC callsign history for facility 22190, when it replaced WNAD, which really was a heritage call at the University of Oklahoma, which got out of the radio business (only to resume it years later with KGOU, class-A FM non-commercial, yet on 106.3, with much inferior coverage, altho has now built up spotty relays at several other locations in the state). We can only assume having that the old W- call made it easier to get a new W-call. I thought 640 was a Clear Channel station operating out of 50 Penn Place in OKC. But application/ownership info shows it was previously owned by Citadel, WAPI in Birmingham AL, and before that by Citadel, KKOH in Reno NV! I assume that`s just for bookkeeping. Now they obviously want to brand it more clearly as an ESPN affiliate. While I was at FCC, took a look at their day and nite patterns: 5 kW day has major lobe to the SW, not much toward Enid tho not a full null. 1 kW nite has null west toward KFI, of course, and a lesser null to the east, protecting what? Memphis, I guess. Major lobes sort of kidney-shaped toward NNE and SSE (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. 15385, May 11 at 2015, VG signal in Castilian, what?? It`s REE on wrong frequency instead of 15110, which is absent, and this transmitter has brought with it the distortion on peaks altho not the spurs. 15385 is used by REE earlier in the day, so forgot to change frequency! 15110 normally starts at *1855, so I bet this made huge collision with KJES, entitled to 15385 at 1800-1930 (unless it happened to be off the air today), and also making a het. Hope this happen again during that sesquihour so I can witness it! Was discussing películas, and still on 15385 at 2107+. 15160, May 11 at 2333, today this is the best of REE`s Noblejas-only frequencies, and 11680 is indeed blocked by former colony Cuba. And it is in Catalan, closing with a different theme than we used to hear in our mornings, 2335 into Galician, with familiar sea-shanty theme. So it`s M-F 2330-2335 Catalan, 2335-2340 Galician (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K [non]. 6190, May 12 at 0458, fair signal from BBCWS in English, about to be blasted away by CRI/Sackville? Not tonight, stays on wrong frequency 6080 instead to collide with NHK Spanish Bonaire, so BBCWS remains audible past 0500. That`s 7 am in SOUTH AFRICA, where later and later sunrises now are in its favour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [non]. 17650, May 12 at 1334 HOA? Music and 1335 announcement, fair signal. HFCC and Aoki shows it`s IBB/VOA Somali, 250 kW, 139 degrees via VATICAN at 13-14 since April 17. SMG is sure relaying a lot of IBB stuff now; fortunately there is no reciprocity via Greenville, but there is via Tinang and Tinian, still raising church/state separation issues (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 12105, May 11 at 1820, WTWW-3, Bible service is missing; certainly not due to propagation as nearby 12160 WWCR is inbooming/ Ditto almost 24 hours later at 1815 May 12. Something must be wrong. And we are still awaiting regular service from WTWW-2 which tested 9990, 5085 three months ago (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 5110v-CUSB, UT Saturday May 12 at 0137, I am a bit concerned as WBCQ Area 51 is still playing music instead of WORLD OF RADIO at nominal time 0130. 0145, still music. But at next check 0150, WOR has started. Meanwhile I check http://www.worldmicroscope.com and find that Area 51 has been re-expanded to 7 days a week! ``Thanks to an appeal from Allan Weiner and resulting donations, we are pleased to return to daily operation on 5110. Look for new and interesting programming Monday through Thursday from 8 to 10 p.m. US eastern time (0000 to 0200 UTC) on 5.110 MHz.`` And longer hours on other nights: UT Sat 0000-0300 [tho this week must have run past 0300 with half-sesquihour Jean Shepherd after late WOR]; Sat 23-Sun 03, and Sun 23-Mon 03 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 5050, May 12 at 0455, very good open carrier, and still at 0543, presumably WWRB not turned off after programming finished at 0400; why? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 5810, May 12 at 0456, WEWN is reactivated on this Spanish frequency, playing ``Regina Cœli`` IS (equivalent to steel drums QSY music on WWCR), and off at 0456:48*. Was suffering from squeal. Then I retuned to 7555, whether it would also reactivate there: not for a while, but finally on at *0502 with carrier, 0503 adding modulation in progress. 0546 in ``por su dolorosa pasión`` monomania, not squealing on this frequency. Instead, at 0517, much weaker only fair signal on 11870 could be heard squealing, making it seem that they also swapped transmitters. I wonder if there was also a break in 11870 broadcast. 7555 must be back to normal 05-13 schedule, as also still on at 1232 during usual morning mass in English being voiced-over in Spanish. The original in English is on 11520, with crackles (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CHINA: Firedrake 15615 ** U S A. 9955, UT Sat May 12 at 0512, WRMI, poor signal but no jamming, with preacher in English, instead of R. Vaticano in Spanish on latest WRMI programming grid dated March 31; probably other changes by now too, needs updating (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ---[Start Commercial]--------------------- Order your WRTH 2011: http://www.hard-core-dx.com/redirect2.php?id=wrth2011 ---[End Commercial]----------------------- ________________________________________ Hard-Core-DX mailing list Hard-Core-DX@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx http://www.hard-core-dx.com/ _______________________________________________ THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License published by Michael Stutz at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/dsl.html
