** CUBA. 11840, Dec 24 at 2257, RHC Spanish, good signal level, but just barely modulated, and distorted. Why bother to broadcast such a degraded frequency at all like this?
5040, Dec 25 at 0153, RHC Spanish is still rumbling in AM, and wobbling with BFO (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also JAPAN [and non] ** EGYPT. 9720, Dec 25 at 0204, R. Cairo, music with fair modulation! instead of usual dead carrier; a Coptic Xmas present for North Americans in English? Not for them until January 7. Couldn`t stay with it for news and rest of program, unfortunately. Meanwhile 9965 Arabic frequency is still open carrier, whine, maybe JBM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA [non]. 15190, Dec 24 at 2016, no signal detectable from either R. Africa; yet WRMI with BS is audible, poorly on 15440 at 2030 check, so evidently WRMI is missing from 15190, and so is Bata or maybe the latter is just not propagating. However, at 2101, one of them is on with music, and bet it`s WRMI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [and non]. The big NDR Xmas Eve special was a big bust here, but I assume did better on various high seas than 800 km from the nearest salt water in deep North America, far beyond any intended coverage. At 1956 Dec 24, nothing audible on 6125, 9460, 9885, 9925 (too close to WTWW 9930 anyway), but possibly a carrier on 11955. Propagation from Europe is currently pitiful. At 2103 I check the second batch of frequencies: nothing on 6040, 9625, 9880, 9925, a JBA carrier on 9435, better at 2133 when it`s more likely Romania in the collision I foresaw. Final check at 2255, still nothing making it from NDR frequencies, which were via Nauen, Germany, Issoudun, France, and Moosbrunn, Austria (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE. 7450, 7475, 9420, Helliniki Radiophonia missing from all three at 0200 UT Dec 25 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JAPAN [and non]. 13650, Dec 24 at 2255, NHK IS seems strong signal but undermodulated, while Japanese programming is not // on 11665. What`s really happening: NHK is under open carrier from CRI Habana relay, which after timesignal at 2300 opens in Portuguese. From 2259, NHK has started `Sakura` and signs on in Thai for the 20-minute morning broadcast aimed 240 degrees from Yamata, and here off the back at 60 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. 7375, Dec 25 at 0145, Mighty KBC via Nauen, GERMANY is in its week-long holiday series of `Wolfman Jack` shows at 00-02; now a love song, 0148 Wolfman Jack himself and a local station break with Mighty KBC ID, Dutch announcement, WMJ jingles, ``Let`s Make a Deal`` parody. Sufficient, but with more splatter from 7385 WHRI than 7365 Cuban jamming and Radio MartÃ, so tuning slightly below is helpful (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTH AMERICA. 6925-AM, Dec 24 at 0138, only pirate on band playing Xmas rock, poor to fair peaks with deep fades; 0139 laughing DJ with back-announces for ``Hang Your Balls on the Xmas Tree``, and ``Kill a Tree for Christ``, hee hee. Sounds like a Wolfman-Jack wannabee, while the real thing was on 7375; 0140 jingle for RNI, and another novelty Xmas song. So someone is playing old(?) Radio Newyork International stuff; WBCQ being otherwise occupied. Still on at 0212 check, very poor, but now Wolverine is on 6945+. However, these guys http://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,14579.0.html thought 6925-AM was RJI = Radio Jamba International (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NORTH AMERICA. 6945.18-USB, Dec 25 at 0214, Wolverine Radio ID, ``Have Yourself a Merry Little Xmas`` by YL singer. Usual good signal from this pirate (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. 530, Dec 25 at 0211 UT, ``K530AM``, Vance AFB remains stuck in the milliwatts, JBA with PSAs (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. 7320, Dec 25 at 0157, undermodulated R. Rossii ID, fair with fading. Question is, circumsolstice, how early could this be heard, from sign on 1700 UT? A bit further north it might well hold up all ``day``, being 100 kW aimed northeast, 45 degrees from Magadan toward Chattanooga, while Enid is 54 degrees azimuth from there. After all, 0200 UT is close to midday in Magadan at 59-46 North. Too bad they can`t fix the modulation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. 9675, Dec 24 at 1952, halting talk by a voice not very suitable for radio, and what is the language? Mentions Australia several times. Keeps going past 2000, fanfare, maybe some ID mentions MHz; more similar talk; finally decide it`s Turkish, but maybe with an Arabic accent; 2014 music and mentions Islam, and ``burasi`` by YL which clinches it as Turkish, the scheduled BSKSA broadcast as R. Riyadh, 1800-2057, 500 kW, 340 degrees toward Turkey, and as it happens, USward far beyond. Only fair signal by now, but hardly anything from Europe or anywhere outside North America is making it on 31m (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 5110v-CUSB, Dec 25 at 0141, the insatiable egomaniac Brother Scare has occupied another transmitter, bumping off rational programming, such as `Marion`s Attic`. WBCQ online sked now shows TOM at 00-11 UT Tue thru Sat on 5110. That`s why Area 51 is no longer on UT Saturdays, but still possible on UT Sun & Mon. Of course, this frequency is totally unnecessary, since BS already has an incomparably stronger signal all-night just 25 kHz away on 5085 WTWW, plus several others. The WBCQ 7490 program schedule now shows Overcomer daily at 05-11 in addition to the previous prime-times: UT Mon-Fri at 01-04, Sat 02-04. However that`s not borne out by monitoring, and really heard on 7491.38; see USA: WBCQ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. 15225, Dec 24 at 2017, VOA French to Africa as usual VG east and west from Greenville, but today it`s mixed with English due to prime language of studio guests, and sounds live. They`re discussing songs and referring to horebhaitian, spelt in French, a website or Facebook handle. It`s an a cappella girl group, 2024 finally singing something, ``Taste and See`` a hymn with nice harmonies; VOA host outros them bilingually as Les Angels, and has to wrap up SW broadcast before cutoff at 2030* by referring to continuing on FM in several African cities. 15580, Dec 24 at 2030, then I retune from 15225 French for more VOA African Beat music on English service, first something about mother and Tupperware (??) as I then nap-doze. It`s also Greenville until 2100 slight overlap in carriers but break in modulation as switching to Botswana for VOA news (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 7491.38, Dec 25 at 0142 I am checking 7490 for WBCQ, after finding 5110v-CUSB occupied by Brother Scare (see SOUTH CAROLINA [non]), but instead find a very weak AM signal measured on this frequency, making even weaker het against something on 7490. At 0143 the 7491+ station fades up enough to hear it say ``The heart and soul of --- music`` (?). `Heart & Soul of America Broadcast` is what had been on 5110 three or four nights a week, so must have been demoted to this once Brother Scare moved in. Current online 7490 sked shows H&SOAB only on UT Sundays 00-02; with Overcomer UT Wednesday at 01-04, but not. See also SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. This signal is so weak and so far off-frequency that I suspect it is not the usual 7490 transmitter but a backup/alternate of much lower power. Still the same at 0159 with VP/JBA music. Remains to be heard what becomes of the rest of WBCQ 7490 programming. As for the very weak het with 7490, no other broadcaster is scheduled there (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This report dispatched at 0443 UT December 25 _ 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
