DX Notes, October - November 2017

WELCOME to my radio listening logs for October - November 2017, covering Short Wave and Medium Wave. All broadcasts were received on the Roberts R881.

[Housekeeping notes: Times in UTC (GMT), frequencies in kiloHertz (kHz), transmission powers in watts and kiloWatts (kW)]

Short Wave : Friday 20 October 2017

• 20 October: 1925 UTC: 9730 kHz: The Short Wave Band is very noisy these days. I believe I hear China Radio International in Spanish / Portuguese language, spoken at length by a male, with music in the background - Not sure if the music is the same broadcast. China Radio International in Portuguese via Kashi-Saibagh, 500 kW, though Voice of Vietnam is also on air on this frequency: English language to 1930 UTC; French from 1930 UTC via Hanoi-Santay, 100 kW. Moderate reception of this frequency; To 1930 UTC.
• 20 October: 1935 UTC: 9810 kHz: IRIB Voice of Islamic Republic of Iran. Moderate reception, 500 kW via Sirjan, Iran. Male speech in English! The male speaks of the Russian Foreign Minister, who says Washington DC should withdraw the US nuclear weapons. Russia hopes to speak to Pyongyang. English language to Europe and Africa. News from Madrid. News from Istanbul, an explosion. News of the Russian Foreign Ministry and the International Atomic Agency. IDs, times and frequencies, contact details. Music. To 1952 UTC.
• 20 October: 2041 UTC: 11580 kHz: WRMI Radio Miami International, USA. Moderate reception, 100 kW via Okeechobee FL USA. Deep, male voice in American English; English to Europe and Americas. To 2049 UTC.

Sunday 5 November 2017

5 November: 1820 UTC: 5935 kHz: Radio Romania International. Strong reception, 300 kW via Tiganesti, Saftica, Romania. Listener's Day broadcast: Richard Cole, Pennsylvania, USA, points to Donald Trump as a source of fake news, as does a listener in Alabama, USA. Listener in Nevada USA shares their views on Donald Trump. Comments from a listener in Brazil.

Martin Cowin (Me!) at 1825 UTC with views on fake news, the subject of today's programme. UK listener with views of fake news on social media. English to Europe. Listeners in the USA on sources of fake news on social media. To 1840 UTC.

Medium Wave: Saturday 25 November 2017

• 25 November: 2042 UTC: 1314 kHz: RNE Radio 5, Spain. Strong to moderate reception. Classical orchestral works, which have featured speech at two intervals. The speech was male, I believe it to be Spanish. I believe the music to also be Motion Picture Soundtracks. The male speech has an 'echo', so I believe I hear more than one transmitter. To 2058 UTC.
• 25 November: 2102 UTC: 1323 kHz: Smooth Radio, Sussex, UK. Strong to moderate reception, 500 watts via Southwick, Brighton. Music: Madonna 'Crazy For You', male voice with 'Smooth Radio' ID, Cyndi Lauper 'Time After Time'. Female voice: 'Your relaxing music mix, Smooth Radio' ID. KC & The Sunshine Band 'Please Don't Go'. 'Smooth Sanctuary'. George Benson 'In Your Eyes'. Male presenter with a link. Alicia Keys 'Empire State of Mind (Part 2)'; The Bee Gees. To 2120 UTC.
• 25 November: 2138 UTC: 1332 kHz: Smooth Radio, Cambridgeshire, UK. Good to moderate reception, 600 watts via Gunthorpe, Peterborough. Music: Lady Antebellum 'Need You Now'. Male host with ID for Smooth Radio prior to a lengthy ad break, including ads for Christmas! Ad for a pantomime. Music: John Lennon 'Woman'. Female ID, Fleetwood Mac 'Dreams'. 'The Smooth Sanctuary', male host. Female ID, Simply Red 'Holding Back The Years'. To 2151 UTC.

• 25 November: 2158 UTC: 1341 UTC: BBC Radio Ulster, Northern Ireland, UK. Strong to good reception, 100 kW via Lisnagarvey, County Down, Northern Ireland. Gaelic speech with music to 22 UTC. News: Arrests following stabbings at York Road, Belfast. Libyan coastguard says migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean have died. British Transport Police detain two men following incident in London on Friday night. Time Magazine v Donald Trump. Sport: Rugby Union: Ireland lose to Argentina. Weather, BBC News. 'The Saturday Club': Mystery voice, television theme, look at the news of the week, from the archive, female guest. Dedications by text: 81771, email jb @ bbc . co . uk and via Twitter @ bbcradioulster. Music: Maureen Evans 'Like I Do'. Recap of contact details. John is the host. He had to clean out the car! Music: Andy Williams 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You'. To 2216 UTC.

[Following BBC Radio Ulster on 1341 kHz, I tuned to 1350 kHz, which was quiet. Tuned to 1359 kHz, which carried a 'Black Friday Event' ad, which ruled out BBC Radio Solent, but could have ruled in Free Radio 80s (Shilton, Coventry) or Smooth Radio (South Wales / Essex). Signal did not carry, so moved on to tune to 1368 kHz.]

• 25 November: 2225 UTC: 1368 kHz: Radio Caroline North courtesy of the Radio Caroline Support Group, via Manx Radio! Strong to good reception, 20 kW via Foxdale, Isle of Man. Inclusion of an ID for 648 kHz - Caroline is going on the old BBC World Service frequency! Male host, contact from a listener at Heddon-On-The-Wall, ad break which included the Ross Revenge having to change location - Documentary available to purchase from the webshop. Weather for the Isle of Man. Music. Male ID 'This is Radio Caroline North'. Music from Status Quo; Music from The Temptations. Competitions: Listeners in Norfolk and Walsall. David Knight has been in contact with the show. Music, jingles for Radio Caroline North 1368 kHz! To 2250 UTC.

[1377 kHz was quiet]

• 25 November: 2252 UTC: 1386 kHz: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Lithuania. Good to moderate reception, via Viešintos, Lithuania, ID as 'Radio Svaboda'. Speech from male and female, sounds quite emotional! Eastern Europe / Russian language IDs at 2259 UTC, male with news at 23 UTC: Vladimir Putin; Islamic terrorists; Angela Merkel; France: President Macron. Mugabe leaves power in Zimbabwe. To 2308 UTC.
• 25 November: 2312 UTC: 1395 kHz: Radio Seabreeze AM, Holland. Moderate reception, via Grou, Holland, 100 watts - From a transmitter BELOW sea level! Music: Mumford & Sons, male speech, web address, link into next song: Fleetwood Mac 'Dreams'; Meatloaf & Cher 'Real Dead Ringer For Love'; Duran Duran; Pretenders 'Don't Get Me Wrong'. To 2331 UTC.

[1404 kHz was quiet]

• 25 November: 2336 UTC: 1413 kHz: Premier Christian Radio, London, UK. Good to moderate reception, 500 watts via Heathrow (West London) / Dartford Marshes (East London). Male voice with a weather forecast, ID for Premier Christian Radio, music with male speech, 'God is in the moon' - Song by female vocalists, 'Church On The Moon'. 'Gospel Tonight' is the name of the show. Male ID. Echo from both transmitters. To 2354 UTC.

• 25 November: 2356 UTC: 1413 kHz: BBC Radio Gloucestershire, UK. Good to moderate reception, 500 watts via Bourton-On-The-Water / 200 watts via Berkeley Heath. "This is the Late Show from the BBC" male host, music: Texas 'I Don't Want A Lover'. Male ID for the song and the 'Late Show' - Guess the item competition - Ten minutes of the competition left! Guess from a listener in Falmouth. ID for the BBC. Music: Lynyrd Skynyrd 'Sweet Home Alabama'. [QRM from Premier Christian Radio] More guesses in the competition: A walkaway cooker?! Music: Bee Gees 'Tragedy'. The mystery items were mortar and pestle (for grinding up food). Music: Moody Blues 'Question'. To 0015 UTC.

[1422 kHz was quiet]

• [Sunday] 26 November: 0018 UTC: 1431 kHz: Smooth Radio, UK. Good to moderate reception, 350 watts via Rayleigh ( Southend-on-Sea, Essex) / 140 watts via Manor Farm, Reading, Berkshire. 'Smooth Love Songs, on Smooth Radio' Emeli Sandé & Labrinth 'Beneath Your Beautiful', ID, Wham! 'Last Christmas' - Hoping to be the Christmas Number One for 2017, to mark one year since the passing of George Michæl on Christmas Day 2016. Now playing: Vanessa Williams 'Saving The Best For Last'; Rod Stewart 'I Don't Want To Talk About It'; Shania Twain 'You're Still The One'. To 0032 UTC.

That completes the logs for October - November 2017. My intention is to spend some of the festive - New Year period listening to broadcasts, with the hope that the logs will appear on Reporting From The Fox Tower at the close of 2017 and / or the first days of 2018. Until then, Good Listening!

📻

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.