** AMSTERDAM ISLAND [non]. Trying for the FT5ZM DX-pedition again Jan 23 but no activity around 14180, nor 21285. DX-pedition website http://www.amsterdamdx.org/about-dxpedition/#tab-478-3 shows nominal SSB frequencies: 3790, 7082, 14185, 18130, 21285, 24955, 28485. They also have RTTY and CW: a couple of the latter on bands not using SSB: 1826.5, 10115 kHz.
But Jan 23 at 1420 there are pileups on 18135 and 18140, countless North Americans speaking nothing but their own callsigns over and over and over, hoping to override the others and get a call back from FT5ZM. Maybe it`s on 18130, but just not audible here; occasionally someone comes on 18130 with quick comments, such as ``this is a total soup`` at 1433; ``working up`` at 1444. Still nothing audible on 18130 at 1505, but now at 1506, there are pileups too on 18145. *Never* in all of this do I ever hear the call FT5ZM mentioned; it`s ``understood``. Anyhow I definitely heard it yesterday on 20m. Looking thru the DXpedition website, finally found a map on the very last of the 28 slides, showing two operating locations: on west part of island at 37-48 S, 77-32E; and on the NE coast at 37-47 S, 77-34 E. City-to-city distance calculator doesn`t fail to connect Enid with Amsterdam I., at 19601 km = 12180 statute miles = 10584 nautical miles. The exact antipodes is the middle of Prowers County in SE Colorado, nearest town Lamar. Reception could be great there with antipodal focusing, but there still has to be propagation from some direxion (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 11783.2, Jan 28 at 0122, RNB is still way off-frequency, coincidentally opening up 11780.0 for the UT Tuesday Sephardic semi-hour from SPAIN, q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BRAZIL. 11815.3, Jan 28 at 0127, R. Brasil Central in Portuguese, remains off-frequency by only 0.3 kHz, compared to RNB/RBA 3.2 kHz above its nominal. Need to do better than that (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CHINA. 11860, Jan 28 at 0128, Firedrake, fair with flutter. Uplooked later, nothing to account for this in Aoki or HFCC, but: from 0130 CRI Nepali service via Kunming on 11860. Perhaps this was a switching error, making FD a prélude to that. Unfortunately I did not recheck after 0130 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. 5025, Jan 28 at 0624 check, R. Rebelde is off again, but back on at 1345 check. I wonder if its SW hours have deliberately been reduced? Altho no longer needing to share transmitter with 5040 RHC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. 11880, Jan 27 at 2057, unexpected English #2: surprised to hear RHC in English, // 11760. The slopperators at Radio Cuba have tuned 11880 on a few minutes early before 2100 French which is supposed to be // 11760. See also JAPAN [non] 6000, Jan 28 at 0105, RHC English is very undermodulated unlike // 6165 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR [and non]. 6050, Jan 28 at 0059 I`m listening carefully to Vozandes, since HQ in CO has issued a press release that HCJB Global has been renamed Reach Beyond! So what will its original Quito station call itself now? Clearly still, ``H C J B``! poor signal, 4-pip time signal, last one prolonged and into usual Waorani mantra at 0100. Tnx to Yimber Gaviria, Colombia for this item: HCJB GLOBAL BECOMES REACH BEYOND -- A NEW NAME AND A NEW CALL TO CHRISTIANS WORLDWIDE --- Friday, January 24, 2014 7:29 PM HCJB Global announced today that the 82-year-old ministry, founded in Quito, Ecuador, is changing its name to Reach Beyond. The new name and the release of the Reach Beyond Mission Manifesto are intended to encourage and challenge Christians worldwide to reach beyond their comfort zones and perceived limitations to share the love of Jesus in places where the gospel has seldom, if ever, been heard. HCJB Global's "Beyond the Call" radio program, on more than 1,000 stations around the U.S., will now be called "Reach Beyond." Link http://crossmap.christianpost.com/news/hcjb-global-becomes-reach-beyond-a-new-name-and-a-new-call-to-christians-worldwide-8605 Tsk2, after establishing a relatively new identity DU as ``HCJB Australia`` where of course the letters do not mean anything like an ITU callsign. So it`s now Reach Beyond Australia?? No, they haven`t got the message yet either, still HCJB Global Australia: http://www.hcjb.org.au/ But listen for possible change on the air (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** EQUATORIAL GUINEA [non]. 15190, Jan 27 at 2053, R. Africa via WRMI with the preacher in French; seems to be a regular around this time; everything else heard so far has been in English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE. 7475, Jan 28 at 0117, ER playing C&W classic ``Stand by Your Man``, Tammy I guess, 0118 segué another C&W in English, ``Ruben James`` in Madison County; clear here but // 9420 with CCI and SAH caused by CRI. It`s not Greek to me (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 11985 // 11740, Jan 28 at 0100, AIR Sinhala service, both poor and 11985 from Delhi-Khampur has some IADs unlike 11740 from GOA; I can hear enough 11740 on the G8 with whip to compare with 11985 on the DX-398 with external wire, to tell that they are still an echo apart during music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGESET) ** IRAN. 7420, Jan 28 at 0115, Spanish conversation about pobreza with pauses, 0116 soft music and crescendo, poor with flutter. It`s VIRI at 0020-0220, 500 kW, 274 degrees from Kamalabad (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JAPAN [non]. 11850, Jan 27 at 2055, unexpected English #1: formal welcoming statement from new president of NHK, then into French translation as this is the French semihour of R. Japon via MADAGASCAR. See this story via Rick Barton, AZ: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140125_16.html But that`s not all that Katsuto Momii has said making news lately: Japan NHK Boss Under Fire for Comfort Women Remark http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/japan-nhk-boss-fire-comfort-women-remark-22112644 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CUBA ** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5910, Jan 28 at 1350, weak talk, seems Chinese, and piano music typical of Shiokaze, and nothing, not even a het on 5985, where Sea Breeze had just moved Jan 16 from 5910, but now apparently back on 5910 again (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. 5980, Jan 28 at 0054, carrier from R. Chaski until cutoff at 0104:47.5* which is 16.5 seconds later than last check three days ago (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. 11780, UT Tue Jan 28 at 0122, REE weekly Emisión Sefarad is in the clear, especially by tuning a bit low, tnx to the prolonged off-frequencing of RNB from 11780 to 11783+, surely unintentional (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 9495, Jan 28 at 0054, WRMI alternate with outro for `La Rosa de Tokio` media program from Argentina, which has occupied this hour UT Tue (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 12050, Jan 27 at 2054, WEWN Spanish modulation is still very distorted in addition to the constant squealing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZANZIBAR. 11735, Jan 27 at 2058, ZBC with Ungujan music, poor signal; no DRM detectable as Wolfgang Büschel was hearing co-channel earlier Jan 25 and 26 from unknown, unscheduled source. Cut off rudely amid announcement at 2059:47* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 1140, Jan 28 at 1340 UT, station in Spanish says it`s now on two frequencies, 690 y 1140; O`Reilly`s auto parts ad with jingle in Spanish; but mixed with another SS, maybe XEMR. I would expect the first one to be KLTK, Centerton AR (Rogers market), ``La Más Mexicana``, as often heard around SRS. The 690 could be KEWI Benton AR, which may have flipped from news/talk/sports in English. Benton is SW of Little Rock, getting into that larger market, not to be confused with Bentonville, Walmart HQ in the NW corner of AR, which is near Centerton, altho it`s missing from my Rand McNally. Closer 690 KGGF Coffeyville KS is still in English, whew. This says nothing about being on 690 too: https://es-la.facebook.com/pages/La-Mas-Mexicana-1140/114761538559014 but there`s nothing more recent on it than Sept 2012! Tried some live streams, none of which work, nor does http://www.lamasmexicana1140.com/ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 1200, Jan 28 at 0133 UT, tropical music segués, with WOAI nulled; 0138 UT YL in Spanish about how to avoid divorce, apparently a counseling service, consejero, concludes with twitter and phone number only once: 1-800-829-2500, then romantic music. When WOAI fades a bit, this is well audible, otherwise making fast SAH. That phone leads to a religious book publisher, Bethany House. My suspicion is again WAMB Nashville TN, which just changed format from big bands. Probably the same one heard recently with open carrier after sunset. Blaine Thompson forwarded this to ABDX: http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/archives/2014/01/10/longtime-big-band-station-wamb-changes-formats-in-the-wake-of-owner-bill-barrys-death ``WAMB FM 99.3 and AM 1200 are proud to bring full time Latin Pop Music and English Pop Hits to the Middle Tennessee area. WAMB owner, the late Bill Barry was regarded as modern day pioneer in the Broadcast industry. He was proud to be the first one to bring Hispanic programing to Nashville and had been working with the Silva Entertainment family for over 2 decades. The new format will target first and second generation Latin American Market. WAMB regrets the end of 42 years of previous programming which included "Big Band" and the music of yesteryear. The family of Bill Barry greatly appreciates the staff, loyal listeners and advertisers that have touched our lives. However, this beautiful music can still be found weekdays from 12 noon until 3pm on WCOR AM 1490.`` And refers to: https://www.facebook.com/99.3FMNASHVILLE Tail wags dog: Per NRC AM Log, 99.3 is really only a translator, W257AR, yet it gets top billing over a 50 kW AM transmitter!! WAMB 1200 is supposed to be daytime only, but with 3.8 kW Critical Hours, whenever those are (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This report dispatched at 1735 UT January 28 _ 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
