** GUATEMALA. I rarely send reception reports for QSL, but can hardly refuse when directly invited by the station to do so. So my log of Feb 20 as in DXLD 8-022 was e-mailed to R. Verdad, 4052.5v, and the reply came in the P-mail March 12. The unsealed envelope was secured by one little piece of mystik tape, which had been broken, so I can`t be sure everything originally in the envelope was still there, but nevertheless it contained:
1, a very nice pennant (or banner as they call it) on yellow background with frills hanging below, with the usual slogans and logos. I will scan and availablize the image along with the QSL in my gallery http://www.worldofradio.com/QSL.html The pennant has a somewhat rubbery backing, and the obverse of the QSL card was stuck to that, but could be peeled off without much damage. A faint image of the card remains on the back of the pennant, as some of the green ink came off 2, QSL card as illustrated on their own website, showing a quetzal, and labeled QSL 8 for 8th anniversary. Filled in my name, location, date and time of reception. Still has some rubbery residue from the pennant. Blank on the back 3, yellow sticker with some of the same slogans and logos as the pennant 4, faux cheque from the Banco Vida Eterna, with numerous Bible verses, and signed by `Jesucristo`. Even has `safety` text in the entire background of the obverse, Juan 3:16 5, slip of paper with drawing of 7 figures à la the ascent of man from ape to sapiens, instead from a guy holding a wine glass degenerating to a pig with a keg, ``El acoholo adormece al hombre, para despertar a la bestia.`` -- Dr. Saint Jacques [not if you drink in moderation; good for you] 6, five pages of printed material, similar to what is on their website http://www.radioverdad.org starting with a customized letter in English addressed to me, dated Feb 26, enumerating all the countries whence reports have come, saying power is now 650 watts, at 89-32-15 W, 14-48-10 N. Signed by Dr. Édgar Amílcar Madrid who recounts his background and the history of the station. Since a child, he always wanted to be on the uncrowded 75 meter band, and got his wish 7, another sheet, `Radiation Area of Radio Truth` with a little world map centered on Chiquimula (not great circle azimuthal equidistant), and 4 separate lists of reports received in the past 8 years, by continents, countries, departments of Guatemala, and `states` of Canada, Mexico, USA 8, program schedule in English (tho most of the programming is axually in Spanish), in time order 5 am to 24:05 with more than 44 entries, for Monday through Saturday only; Sunday: Special Programming. However, at 16:30-17:00 some day, not clear which, as there is another entry for the same semihour, = 2230-2300 UT, there is E Imb`utz Ajk`in (The Good News, in Chortí). Maybe it`s Saturday only I see that the early morning show I heard when I discovered Radio Verdad eight years ago, is still on the schedule, presumably with the same choo-choo sound effects, The Gospel Train, at 5:25-6 am = 1125-1200 UT, a time pointed out in the literature, when TGAV is DXable at great distances, just before local sunrise 9, What to do if the band is very noisy to tune ``RADIO TRUTH``, tips on orienting antenna, preferably 25 to 100 meters long, and avoiding noise sources 10, 2008 calendar on card stock, also promoting the program Volviendo a Jesús, which is also on some Guatemalan FM stations, and Honduran AM stations, same as received before 11, the lightweight airmail envelope, with red and blue parallelograms around all borders, also has logos of RV and Volviendo a Jesús, Romans 12:21, and three stamps, two of which for Q6.50 each are identical, an old Q5 quetzal stamp on the new stamps, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Guatemalan Philatelic Association, 1932-2007; unfortunately, like on the previous mailing, the third stamp is pasted on top of the other two; this one from the same set, for Q1.00 showing an old Q1 stamp in different colors of the same old bird perched on a corinthian pedestal. Lightly handstamped postmark for 27 FEB Our congratulations to Dr Madrid on the anniversary, and appreciation for an individual broadcaster enthusiastic about shortwave, who is trying to make a difference in his country and beyond. Although he says, ``Lightning have destroyed a part of our main short wave transmitter several times, and we have made many vain efforts to convince our Government to provide us with an FM frequency besides the SW.`` The recently published e-mail correspondence in Spanish with Magidel Cruz R. in Mexico mentioned that R. Verdad has also been denied power increases on SW beyond 1 kW, since Honduras does not want his station to be audible there, altho it is anyway (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA. V. of Africa, 17725, seldom audible during English bihour, but one of the better signals on 16m, March 11 at 1414, YL with stilted exposition about African unity and Al-Fatah`s rôle in it. Can`t help but wonder if MAQ himself writes this stuff and mandates it be translated and broadcast (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. Another hifer beacon in the state, ``MO`` easily heard on 4077, 1250 UT March 11, nothing but repeated MO in A1=CW, ten times per minute. S9 plus 15 (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Dave Frantz keeps asking me if I have heard his beacon LYQ on 529 kHz. Now I can say yes. Driving in Enid at 0424 UT March 11, on 530 kHz had a big het against hymn and Spanish announcement from RVC. At times I could hear a bit of code but not enough to copy full ID, nor hear the voice weather info, but no doubt this is it. Of course, this was on caradio with no way to side tune, notch, or null. I was also reminded of severe noise problems at various locations, especially next to Walgreens, whose security system (?) wipes out the MW band. (And a second Walgreens is UC here now!) While LYQ may be excellently engineered to get out better than your average beacon, I`m still baffled why he would want it to be on 529 kHz, even tho so authorized, 1 kHz from several broadcast stations. Just a few kHz lower would be better for all concerned, unless there is some ulterior motive. Dave indicates the US government chose the frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 6074, 8GAL, still no sign of it March 11 at 1359-1401 check as Russia was signing off with usual late timesignal. Really need to check 6074 for it at some earlier hours. Otherwise, about time to quit reporting non-receptions! We would just like to identify and locate it, even if no longer audible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Geophysical Alert Message # Solar-terrestrial indices for 10 March follow. Solar flux 70 and mid-latitude A-index 17. The mid-latitude K-index at 1500 UTC on 11 March was 4 (51 nT). No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours. No space weather storms are expected for the next 24 hours (SWPC via DXLD) ### ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ---[Start Commercial]--------------------- Order your WRTH 2008: http://www.hard-core-dx.com/redirect2.php?id=wrth2008 ---[End Commercial]----------------------- ________________________________________ Hard-Core-DX mailing list [email protected] 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
