DX Notes: November - December 2016

MAY I begin this post by wishing you all a Merry Christmas, as I compose this post at 1620 UTC on Christmas Day - Sunday 25 December 2016.

For the final time in 2016 on RFTFT, a compilation of radio broadcast logs. Times listed are UTC (Universal Time Co-ordination, same as GMT), frequencies are listed as kHz (kiloHertz), unless otherwise stated in the log.

November 2016: Medium Wave

• 14 November: 1436 UTC: 1557 kHz: Mixture of signals, unable to identify, though the strongest most likely to be BBC Radio Lancashire (250 watts via Lancaster [Oxcliffe]).
• 14 November: 1516 UTC: 1566 kHz: Mixture of signals lost in the white noise and static, possibilities on this channel include BBC Somerset (1 kW via Taunton [Relays of BBC Bristol]), also Premier Christian Radio (800 watts via Guildford). Holland also broadcasts on this frequency; That broadcast was discounted.
• 14 November: 1541 UTC: 1575 kHz: Female speech started strongly, soon faded. Serious propagation. Logs show RAI Radio 1 (Italy) and SER (Spain) on this channel.

• 14 November: 1555 UTC: Log notes show the onset of dusk at this time; Birds beginning to roost.
• 14 November: 1600 UTC: 1584 kHz: Music, followed by female speech - News bulletin? Male speech too. Music: Huey Lewis & The News 'Power of Love'; The Mamas & The Papas 'Monday Monday'. Traffic & travel report identified BBC Hereford & Worcester, 300 watts to North Herefordshire, via Woofferton, Shropshire. Moderate to poor reception. Music: Culture Club.
• 14 November: 1731 UTC: 1593 kHz: This is not a UK channel, though it did sound like a broadcast trying to break through - Logs only state Romania. Discounted.
• 14 November: 1740 UTC: 1602 kHz: Music: 'Rivers of Babylon', Cliff Richard 'Power To All Our Friends', The Drifters. No speech or ID logged! Logs list BBC Radio Kent (250 watts, Rusthall), Desi Radio (70 watts, Southall), Thruxton (1 watt, Andover) as UK broadcasts, Seagull (Holland) and SER (Spain) as European broadcasts on this channel. Music continued: Thin Lizzy 'The Boys Are Back In Town'.

• 14 November: 1827 UTC: 1638 kHz: Music, which includes whistling! Logs list the Dutch pirate De Vrolijke Mijnwerker [The Merry Miner]. Fade out... Fade in! Logs state polka music...✔ I believe this to be the broadcast I am hearing. Fair to poor reception.
• 14 November: 1849 UTC: 1656 kHz: Music - Though logs state the closest broadcasts to this channel are De Vrolijke Mijnwerker (see above) or Zender Matrix (Holland) on or around 1670 kHz. Yodeling music. Polka music. Very faint reception.

December 2016: Short Wave

• 20 December: 2043 UTC: 6195 kHz: Voice of America, English to Africa via Botswana. Moderate reception. 'African Beat': English speech, music to close of broadcast. VOA ID: 'Yankee Doodle'. ✱ 2100 UTC: 6195 kHz now broadcast from Sao Tome: News headlines: Shooting of Russian Ambassador to Turkey. Evacuation of Aleppo. US President Elect Donald Trump meets staff. New electronic laws in Thailand. 'VOA1 - The Hits'. Music: Twenty One Pilots 'Heathens'. Ellie Goulding. Improved reception from Sao Tome: Good to moderate reception. English to Africa via Sao Tome.
• 20 December: 2142 UTC: 7285 kHz: China Radio International, English to Europe & Africa, via Albania. Strong to good reception. Male and female hosts of the English language programme 'Roundtable'. Topics include listener feedback online; Smog; The pace of life; Emojis and memes.

• 20 December: 2225 UTC: 9420 kHz: Music, with a Mediterranean flavour... Logs state Voice of Greece and a 2012 schedule does confirm Greece on this channel at this time. Upbeat music, male and female vocalists, speech from a male - In Greek? Music with female vocalist. Strong to good reception.

That concludes the logs for 2016.

RFTFT's Top 3 of 2016: Video Edition

Springtime with Sharapova

Roxanne Leah Townsend

This hair makes me feel so kinky - it's the curls... pic.twitter.com/PHSCnUgO4J

— Makeupby_ROXY (@roxi_townsend) April 12, 2016

Wallpaper of the Week, 1 May 2016

The above videos were included in the original Top 3 of 2016 posts, as refered to in the post dated Sunday 18 December 2016.

Three and a half hours have passed since I began to compose this post, so I shall bid you good evening and wish you all the enjoyment of your celebrations.

RFTFT's Most Popular: Top 3 of 2016

ONE week until Christmas Day; Two weeks until New Year's Day, so I am taking the opportunity to review 2016 on Reporting From The Fox Tower by bringing you the top three most viewed posts of the year, beginning with the most popular first.

Springtime with Sharapova

The most viewed post on Reporting From The Fox Tower during 2016 has been 'Springtime with Sharapova', which was posted May 28th and has had 1038 (One thousand and thirty-eight) views. The post anticipated the upcoming summer of sport, which included the Euro 2016 football tournament and the tennis season. It was relating to the tennis season that Springtime with Sharapova reflected on Maria Sharapova's 2014 victory at Roland Garros. Springtime with Sharapova was followed up a week later by 'Summertime with Sharapova', which did not fare as well.

To the second most popular post:

Roxanne Leah Townsend

The Silver medal for 2016 goes to Roxanne Leah Townsend, for the post 'Roxanne Leah Townsend', which was posted September 11th and has had 178 views.

The post was a celebration of Roxanne Leah Townsend, to show Rox continued love and support.

The third most popular post:

Wallpaper of the Week, 1 May 2016

The Bronze medal for 2016 goes to the 'Wallpaper of the Week' - A long standing feature, here on RFTFT - for May 1st, which has had 123 views.

The post reflected on the music video for 'Under Your Spell', which featured Eden based actress and model Abbie Steele. The image for the post was taken from the music video.

This blog has long supported Abbie's career, and will continue to do so.

Support Abbie by visiting her website, follow her Twitter updates and click 'Like' on her Facebook page.

Those are the top three most popular posts of 2016, Reporting From The Fox Tower will post over the festive season, so please do continue visiting!

Wallpaper Of The Week, 1 May 2016

WALLPAPER Of The Week marks the first anniversary of the release of the unofficial 'Bucks New Uni Short Music Video' project for the band Desire and their song 'Under Your Spell'.

The video features Abbie Steele, pictured, whose career as a model and actress has been championed by this blog. Reporting From The Fox Tower has included many posts covering Abbie over the years, which you can find in the Blog Archive. The most recent post, 'Another first for Abbie', which first featured the 'Under Your Spell' video, can be read here. In that post, you can find links to previous posts involving Abbie and you can trace other posts on the subsequent links.

You can find out more about Abbie by visiting her website; Follow her on Twitter and 'Like' her Facebook page.

I shall close this post, first by wishing you 'May Gosling', second sharing the video of Desire - Under Your Spell.

Enjoy.

Another first for Abbie

REPORTING FROM THE FOX TOWER has, for a long while, supported the career of Miss Abbie J Steele and her career as an actress, director and model took another huge step this month, when Abbie featured in her first music video, which I will bring you in a moment.

First of all, to bring you up to speed with Abbie and the support this blog has given her, click here to go to the October 2014 post 'Autumn with Abbie', which is the most recent post on this blog to feature Miss Steele. That post includes links to previous posts featuring Abbie.

You can also find out more about Abbie by visiting her website; Follow her on Twitter and 'Like' her Facebook page.

Here are some stills of Abbie in the video :

Here is the video : Desire - Under Your Spell.

Enjoy.

Autumn with Abbie

REGULAR visitors to Reporting From The Fox Tower will know I am a supporter of the career of Miss Abbie J Steele, pictured above.

Abbie has a new website, abbiesteele.co.uk where you can follow her career as an Actress and a Model, whilst finding all about her as a person and view videos of her work, the photographic and runway portfolios, as well as reading the blog on her website. The site also has links to Abbie on the social media sites of Linkedin, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. You can also subscribe to Abbie's newsletter via email.

One of Abbie's most recent photoshoots was a bridalwear shoot, with a backdrop of restored railway rolling stock, which links nicely to the previous posting from the Eden Vally Railway at Warcop!

I hope this update has been informative. My previous posting, An Appreciation of Abbie, posted Saturday 14 June 2014, can be viewed here.

Until next time, enjoy.

An August post! (Better late than...)

AUGUST MAY almost be over, but the sun is still shining and the day is good. Apologies for not posting throughout the month of August, I hope to be back with comprehensive postings over the coming days / weeks / months(!), bringing you some of my thoughts regarding my interests, including sports updates, including football, tennis and cricket.

I hope to catch up with Abbie Steele to bring the joint article that has been mooted since the last post (which you can find if you click Abbie's name) and to bring you all of Abbie's latest social media and website news, as well as all the news from her career as a professional model.

Also, I hope to reflect on the continuing work of Eden FM Radio - now broadcasting on 107.5 FM as well as online.
There was also the news from Taylor Swift this summer, regarding her new single, video and album, so that may be a priority.
Enjoy the remainder of Summer 2014 and stay with Reporting From The Fox Tower!

An Appreciation of Abbie

TAKING time out from the FIFA World Cup 2014 to take time to remind you of the thread in support of Miss Abbie J Steele, which was titled Then and Now. In support of Abbie, RFTFT will bring you all the latest details of her current work, as an actress and model, in a future post. That posting will include links to Abbie's social media sites and her new look website, which is being created at the moment. I am also hoping Abbie herself will write a few lines for this blog, which would be very much appreciated.

For now, I shall close this posting with an image of Abbie, taken late 2013 from a professional photoshoot, which I hope you enjoy.

Abbie J Steele - Then and Now

HERE ON RFTFT, we do like to follow up previous posting threads. Today, we look back to the summer of 2010, when the amazing Miss Abbie J Steele, pictured above, competed in the Miss Cumbria contest of that year. This blog was a keen supporter of Abbie's campaign to muster votes to take her through to the final. More of Abbie's 2010 campaign in a moment.

With the co-operation of Abbie herself, RFTFT will bring you all the latest details of her current work, as an actress and model, in a future post. That posting will include links to Abbie's social media sites and her new look website, which is being created at the moment. Hence the name of this posting as Then and Now - This is the 'then' post, the future post will be the 'now' post.

So, let's return to the 2010 Miss Cumbria campaign, which RFTFT supported. The above image was from 2010 and I shall now include links to the posts in support of Abbie, for your ease of access. The title of each post will include the appropriate link.

Here are the links:

Vote for Abbie

Listening and voting

(second part of post)

The Beautiful Ballerina

Miss Cumbria 2010 - The Result

That concludes this post. Thank you for visiting RFTFT and we will be back with Abbie again soon!

Miss Cumbria 2010 - The Result!

THE RESULT of the Miss Cumbria 2010 competition is in. As you may be aware, Reporting From The Fox Tower lent its support to the campaign run by Abbie Steele. The Miss Cumbria 2010 final took place on Saturday 3 July, at the Stanwix Arts Theatre, Carlisle. Prior to the final, the competitors faced fundraising challenges and a public vote. Here are the results of Miss Cumbria 2010:

IN the public vote, Kirstie Day received over 800 votes, Abbie Steele received 259. In the fundraising challenges in aid of The Variety Club, Kirstie raised £5000, Abbie raised £560.

The winner of Miss Cumbria 2010 is Kirstie Day, age 18, of Carlisle, centre of picture, above. The Runner up, only one point behind Kirstie, was Abbie Steele, age 19, of Stainmore, centre left, black dress. Third was Sarah Goulding, age 20, of Cockermouth, whilst Claire Beeby, age 23, also Cockermouth, far left, green dress, was fourth.

Kirstie received not only the Miss Cumbria title, but also Most Popular Contestant (for the public vote) and Biggest Fundraiser.

So our Congratulations go to Kirstie, but also to Abbie, well done, so very proud of you!

(Click on the names highlighted above to see the Miss Cumbria gallery images. Main picture by Paul Fisher Photography)

A Belated Happy Birthday, Miss Lohan!

Only a couple of weeks late, but a belated Happy 24th Birthday to the Hollywood Hurricane, the actress who can start a riot in an empty house, Miss Lindsay Lohan. The picture above was taken during the evening of Friday 2 July, when Miss Lohan was out celebrating her Birthday with her entourage, with a can of Red Bull. Surely Lindsay has ingested enough stimulants of legal and illegal varieties, without adding a high energy drink to the mix? So, for your next Birthday, party like the Lohan ... !

The Beautiful Ballerina

LAST CALL for your votes for Abbie Steele, pictured above, for her campaign to become Miss Cumbria 2010. Voting closes Friday, 2 July 2010, at 11:59pm BST, so please, pick up your mobile phone and text Cumbria 05 Abbie S to 84205. I hope to bring the result of the Miss Cumbria competition to RFTFT, but for now, as always, Good Luck Abbie!

Listening and voting, June 2010

THIS blog is in two parts; the first part is the 'Listening', which is the list of broadcasts I heard on the Short Wave band, Saturday, 19 June 2010. The 'voting' is the second part, which I shall persuade you to take part in after I have posted my Short Wave logs, starting here!

• 0805 UTC, 11645 kHz : Radio Filia, Greece. Continuous music! Radio Filia website.

· 0832 UTC, 11670 kHz : BBC World Service, United Kingdom. English to Middle East via A'Seela, Oman. President Obama. BBC World Service website.

· 0847 UTC, 11785 kHz : China Radio International, China. Chinese speech, sports report. CRI in English online.

· 0922 UTC, 12020 kHz : RDP Internacional, Portugal. Portuguese speech, including telephone callers to the show and music. RDP English website.

· 1024 UTC, 13635 kHz : Voice of Turkey, Turkey. Arabic to Asia and Africa, 500 kW. Play/drama, followed by pop music. TRT World website.

· 1207 UTC, 13665 kHz : Radio Rossii, Russia. Sport bulletin! Website in Russian.

· 1225 UTC, 13700 kHz : Radio Nederland Wereldomroep, Holland (The Netherlands). Dutch to Europe. Live report from the FIFA World Cup, Durban, South Africa: Holland v Japan, half time.RNW Dutch website.

· 1247 UTC, 13720 kHz : Radio Exterior de Espana, Spain. Spanish to Europe. 'Diario de Europe' / 'Hispanorama'. REE website.

· 1307 UTC, 13760 kHz : Voice of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). English to Europe and America. Sixtieth anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea. (No website)

· 1327 UTC, 13790 kHz : China Radio International, China. English to Europe, Asia, Australasia, America via Urumchi, China. 'China Drive' followed by 'Media Scan'. (Please follow the CRI link above)

· 1405 UTC, 13800 kHz : Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iran. Arabic speech, male host, telephone callers, music. Worldservice website.

· 1425 UTC, 13845 kHz : WWCR-3, Nashville TN USA. English to Europe and America. University Network programme. WWCR.com

· And finally, 1536 UTC, 15825 kHz : WWCR-1, Nashville TN USA. English to Europe, Middle East and America. 'Showers of Blessings', followed by Brother Eugene Brown with 'Words of Hope'. 'Words of Hope' website.

Don't stop voting!

Part two of this post is, of course, further encouragement for you to vote for ABBIE STEELE, pictured right, in her campaign to become Miss Cumbria 2010. A quick recap of how you can vote for Abbie:

By telephone : Call 09016561528 and then key in 05 when asked;

By text : Cumbria 05 Abbie S (with capitals in the correct places) to 84205.

Voting lines are open till 2nd July for Miss Cumbria. All votes cost 60p plus standard network charge on mobile phones.

The official Miss Cumbria website, featuring Abbie in the photo gallery, voting details and votes cast so far, can be visited by clicking here.

Once again, Good Luck Abbie! x

Vote for Abbie!

ABBIE STEELE, pictured left, of Stainmore, Cumbria, has been chosen by the Miss Cumbria organisation to compete in the Final - Abbie needs your votes!

To make Abbie Miss Cumbria 2010, voting is by telephone and text. Voting lines are open until July 2, 2010.

To vote by telephone, call 09016561528 and then key in 05 when asked. To vote by text, send Cumbria 05 Abbie S [with capitals in the correct places] to 84205.

All votes cost 60p plus standard network charge on mobile phones.

Show your support for Abbie on Abbie's Miss Cumbria Campaign on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Abbies-Miss-Cumbria-Campaign/124362190936005

Become friends with Abbie on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=699796809

Good Luck Abbie!