This is the first edition of Blog Logs for 2011. Dxers are enjoying some excellent catches on the bands and we welcome our readers to share their logs, observations or station news. Hope your DX in 2011 is superb.
Gayle Van Horn
Austria
5875DRM / BBCWS in English via Moosbrunn-AUT relay, Current Affairs program at 0720 UT, report from Haiti earthquake disaster. Hurt many children too, and brought them via airplane to US hospital recovery help ... S=9+35dB strength, SNR powerhouse roughly around 26.0 dB.(wb, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Dec 28/HCDX)
Bolivia
6134.806, Radio Santa Cruz, 1020-1035. Period of music at tune in. At 1024, male breaks in with time check and Spanish comments about the music. Back to music at 1026at 1030 promos and canned ID.s Signal was good.(Chuck Bolland, FL)
5952.410, Emisora Pio XII, 1034-1045. Heard at tune-in male announcer in Spanish with program comments. Possibly the comments were news items? Signal was fair but splatter was making copy difficult. (Chuck Bolland, FL).
Brazil
15190.0, Radio Inconfidência, 2325-2345. Brazilian music. Portuguese talk. Threshold signal but improved to weak but readable levels on peaks. No // heard. (Brian Alexander-PA)
Clandestine
6205 Radio Free Sarawak. At 1200 tune with nice S-3 signal, improving to nearly S-4 after 1230. Man announcer with deep voice at start to 1206.5, then carrying on a conversation with other man/men (sounded like remote feeds) throughout the broadcast. Pop vocals with male singer at 1225 to 1230.5 and with female singer 1237.5 to 1240.5. Announcer with deep voice seemed to be program host. Man announcer with background instrumental music at 1258.5, then just music at 1300 for five seconds - carrier off at 1300:08. No interference or noise. SINPO 3/45544. Best signal here from Tajikistan since a few years back on the old home service channel of 4635. The 2230-2330 bcst on 7590 has not been audible here (although a distinct carrier can be seen on the Perseus). (Bruce Churchill, CA/Cumbre DX)
Colombia
2980.01, Radio Vida Nueva, Barranquilla, 1020-1100. Presumed second harmonic of 1490v. Spanish religious music. Occasional Spanish announcements. Very Weak. (Brian Alexander-PA)
Cuba
5025, 0131, Radio Rebelde with latin music and echo announcements. Verified by streaming audio. Very weak at the time I caught it. I will try to get up earlier tomorrow and see if the signal is stronger. Two positive Rebelde IDs. Radio Habana also coming in on 5040 which is supposedly beamed towards North America. Much better signal on this frequency.(Al Muick, Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan).
India
9690 AIR 1445-1459.* Sub-continent music to 1455, then ID for General Overseas Service and news bulletin. Closedown announcement and off at 1459.All programming in English for fair signal Fair signal. (John Wilkins-CO)
Indonesia
9680.061, RRI Jakarta, 1220-1230. Group of individuals in Indonesian with comments. This sounds like a discussion between the group which includes a female. Signal was good. Using the WR-G31DDC which shows a second signal on 9680.00 kHz which could be R Taiwan International which is scheduled to be up on Fridays. Howeveer, Jakarta is stronger and can't hear any audio from Taiwan. (Chuck Bolland, FL)
9525.965, Voice of Indonesia, 1223-1235. Noted a female with Japanese comments,but at 1225 she gives an ID in English as, "Voice of Indonesia ..." Missed words could have been Japanese in the ID. Following this, Japanese music presented with talk over it in Japanese. Signal was Good. Chuck Bolland, FL).
Lithuania / Iran
9770 IRIB Tehran in morning Italian language service via Sitkunai-LTU relay. 0652 UT, Dec 28. S=9+30dB. politics report about Palestine Guerra, occupation by Israel. \\ direct from Kamalabad Iran, 15085 kHz only S=8 - poor propagation condition today, 13620 kHz at S=9+20dB much better signal strength. But also the very strong Chinese signals from Kashi and Urumchi suffer this morning.
13600 IRIB Tehran via Kamalabad-IRN in French at same time span, Holy Quran prayer program sung at S=9+15dB at 0705 UT, and \\ from Sirjan-IRN site 15560 kHz S=8 only.
(wb, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Dec 28/HCDX)
Malaysia / Sarawak
5030.02 Sarawak FM 1452-1502. Phone calls to 1500, then two time pips, and into presumed news in Bahasa Malaysia, I think. Fair signal here, there was something on 9835 but could not tell if this was the new parallel or something else. (John Wilkins-CO)
7295, RTM Kuala Lumpur, (presumed) 1153-1200. Noted just music at tune in. At 1159 a male in English comments. Signal too weak to pull out details, but heard a couple of words such as "welcome". This is followed with the news. A recheck at 1213 produce a better signal with music being heard. Signal was threshold at the top, but was poor by 1213. (Chuck Bolland, FL)
7270, RTM, Kuching, (presumed) 1208-1230. Heard some music at tune in, immediately followed by comments from a female. Comments were probably in Iban. After a moment local type music is heard. At 1214 a female in Iban comments briefly then back to music.At 1215 the audio portion of the signal drops off the air while the carrier is still up. Maybe the band is changing? Didn't hear anything more after that. (Chuck Bolland, FL)
9750.034, Voice of Malaysia, 1220-1245. Have been listening to this for almost a half hour without realizing it was Malaysia, since the announcer was using a language I wasn't expecting. I still don't know what it was. Indonesian is scheduled, but it sounded more like Spanish to my untrained ear. Gotta get my ear trained. Anyway at 1239 ID was given and I was able to copy "Malaysia" in there. This was followed with music. At 1243 another ID given by a male in possibly Indonesian language. Signal was good.(Chuck Bolland, FL)
Peru
6019.257, Radio Victoria, 0920-0930. Noted two ladies in Spanish conversation. This continues during the period. Needless to say, the frequency is covered with splatter as well as general interference. Signal was fair however. (Chuck Bolland, FL)
Romania
6020DRM / RRI Bucharest via Galbeni site in English at 0630-0657 UT Dec 28. S=9+25dB level, signal SNR ratio up to 17.8 dB. "Galbeni ID 300-1, ID: 1001". Nx, with election report in Moldova item, and EURO popularity poll in Germany, latter the people majority will back the former DeutschMark currency.
9450DRM / RRI Bucharest's German service, both via Tiganesti site. S=9+20dB on 0710 UT Dec 28. Labeled "SNR Tiganesti E1, ID 1001", SNR 22.3 dB. \\ in AM mode on 7210am at S=9+20dB signal strength.(wb, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Dec 28/HCDX)
Russia
9840 Radio Rossii national bc program in Russian from Moscow Taldom site scheduled 5-8 UT westwards to Russian community in western Europe. 0645 UT Dec 28. S=9+20dB, nx items, "Russia's National Technology Project", special report "New German Bundeswehr Army soldiers" on private voluntaries in future.
11635DRM / Voice of Russia's English sce program towards East Asia and Pacific. Due to poor propagation signal level, only 7dB above the average noise level, SNR suffered a little bit this morning. SNR varied between 11 and 18.7 dB, S=9+15dB, but also some audio breaks via my Dream software/soundcard loudspeaker line. At 0732 UT report from Russia, "Pushkin prayed to the Gospel"...(wb, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Dec 28)
6075, Radio Rossii, 1135-1145. Barely able to hear any audio, but when I do it's a male in Russian with comments. Mainly hearing the tone that this station is transmitting from it's own transmitter. (Chuck Bolland, FL)
Rwanda
6055, 1923, Radio Rwanda with telephone call-ins in French and vernacular as well as some really nice African choral music. Fairly good signals but fighting a losing battle with China, also in French on the frequency. It was a multi-station pile-up, but confirmed with streaming audio (had to download Silverlight plugin for Linux!). (Al Muick, Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan)
Sri Lanka
11905 Radio Ceylon *1530-1628.* Time pips (2+1) to 1530:35,then several Radio Ceylon ID's in English and presumed Hindi. Time check for "9:00"; also heard an ID for Sri Lanka Bcsting Company. Some sub-continent music was followed by English news at 1543. More music followed to 1617, then seemed news again in Hindi. Off at 1628. Good signal with minor co-channel interference. (John Wilkins-CO)
USA
3160.04, WPJK, Orangeburg, SC, *1232-1245. Second harmonic of 1580. Several false starts of canned opening announcement, then full complete opening ID announcement. Station promos and into the Gospel Train Show with several “Q-toots”. Gospel music. Weak but readable. (Brian Alexander-PA)
Zambia
6162, ZNBC, 2150-2206.* Afro-pop music. Talk. Instrumental national anthem at 2205 followed by test tone and off. Poor. Very weak. Too weak to catch many program details but did hear definiten national anthem. (Brian Alexander, PA)