mercoledì 5 maggio 2010

Glenn Hauser logs May 5, 2010

** ANTARCTICA. 15476, LRA36, Wednesday May 5 at 1228 with pop song, enough of a carrier to produce a good het with 15480. Still audible with music at 1325, but not much after that (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake May 5:
14900, poor at 1234
13320, fair at 1235
13300, fair at 1320, but modulation cutting on and off, unusual
12980, good at 1319
12960, poor at 1236
12600, fair at 1319
11460, poor at 1318 and 1340
10420, fair at 1318 and 1340
10300, fair at 1239
 9355, good at 1242; against what? VOA and RFA use this frequency a lot but are supposedly taking a break during this hour. At 1344 no FD, but VOA Cantonese via SAIPAN.
 8400, nothing today, nor any heard above 14900.
Note to editors who cannot afford so much white space: please insert semicolon after each frequency-line rather than running them together.

15435, May 5 at 1325 weak talk marred by varying het, presumably today`s frequency for V. of Tibet via UAE at 1330-1400 listed by Aoki on 15430? However, Romania`s Chinese service is on 15435 at 1300-1330, so it would be surprising if the ChiCom are now jamming that deliberately rather than VOT, or warming up for same (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. Once again, RHC DXers Unlimited shows up at the wrong time: UT Wed May 5 at 0520 I come upon it in progress, best on 6010, next undermodulated 5970, and worst 6060, weak with Spain ACI de 6055. Arnie was already at Item 5, so close to the end. Must have started circa 0505 instead of 0535. Playback operator mixed up two half-hour tapes? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. 9780, DentroCuban Jamming Command pulsing at rate of 128/minute, lower-pitched than usual, May 5 at 1337. Here because of R. República which uses 9780 only at 02-04! Now there is something collateral under the jamming, per Aoki, Taiwan in Chinese, which also gets direct jamming from China (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA. 9690, May 5 at 1330, poor signal with some hum, AIR opening GOS in English, correct language for second day in a row, into news. Worse on // 13710 with CCI, presumably CRI French via Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN to Europe as scheduled; Cuban leapfrogs no longer possible on this frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA [and non]. 9526-, VOI, good signal and modulation May 5 before 1300 in Japanese; 1335 OK in music during English hour. Still on at 1413 during Indonesian(?) hour, making big het with stronger CRI in Russian on 9525.0 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 6045, XEXQ, May 5 at 1206 tune-in with sign-on so I must have missed Pomp & Circumstance; kept talking until classical music started at 1215. Thought I heard ``Seguro Social`` mentioned, perhaps government PSAs. Poor signal as usual, but OK for 470 watts (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** POLAND [non]. 11675, seems PRES via AUSTRIA, English at 12-13 has faded into oblivion. This service to Eu in B-09 carried on well to NAm in the same direxion, was weakening bit by bit in A-10, but as of May 5 a just barely audible carrier is all we can get at 1245. We hope there will still be some better days allowing it thru; anything we can get is a bonus as PRES refuses to target North America deliberately with a more suitable relay (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TAIWAN. Unlike yesterday, no trace of scratchy RTI spur around 11695-11705, May 5 at 1238; so RNV via CUBA 11705 unscathed, but nothing on 11715 either, where RTI English is supposed to be. Plenty of Mainland signals coming thru on 25m, mainly CNR1 jammers (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) But see UNIDENTIFIED 11643

** U S A [non]. VOA has dumped the `World News Now` format for some regionalized news blox
(see
http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=8871 ---
Kim says this has been a ``soft launch``, i.e. unpublicized).

Consequently some of the most enjoyable features such as Wordmaster have disappeared from their habitual spots, in this case at 17 or 18 minutes past the hours on Wednesdays. We hope they are still on the schedule somewhere else.

9760 via PHILIPPINES, Wed May 5 at 1229 has Sarah Williams outroducing what is now called ``Crossroads Asia``. This followed an interview rather than This Day In History which had been appearing without fail at :28-:30 minutes past the hours. 1230 into the new segment on the half-hours, ``VOA`s International Edition``. At the moment 9760 is atop the deliberate co-channel interference from CRI.

Recheck at 1415 when 9760 is clear, with mid-ID as ``Crossroads Asia on Voice of America``, but continued with news of Burma, Afghanistan, no Wordmaster. Maybe that feature has been shifted to the second half of hours? Not at 1451 on 15580 when in another news interview.

It should be noted that VOA previously had regional news blox, until the World News Now thing replaced them; this may be an ultimate improvement (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Periodic chex of WWCR frequencies found them all still missing May 5, for the fourth day in a row following the Nashville flooding. None of them on at 0527, nor at 1205, 1240. However, just as I tune in 13845 at 1321 there is a big open carrier, and soon at 1322 WWCR ID, transmission cutting on and off, then joining Pastor Melissa Scott in progress, and staying on. VG signal obviously sporadic-E enhanced.

Kept looking for others, 7490, 9980, 15825, but still none of them at 1333, 1343. By 1411, 13845 had switched to Joyce Riley, and per current schedule her Power Hour is already supposed to be on WWCR-2 at 12-15 weekdays. Another check at 1451 still found 13845 the only frequency back on yet (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 11715, KJES with considerable carrier but hardly any modulation, May 5 at 1315, kids chanting ``Jesus Saves`` over and over for most of a minute, to embed this dogma into their tiny robotic brains, tantamount to child abuse. Despite carrier level, bothered by splash from 11710 Korea North (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15550-USB, you`d never know it was on without the BFO and full gain, but WJHR detectable May 5 at 1451 with its signature programming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 11643, approximate center of horribly distorted FM blob, May 5 at 1246 between AM signals on 11640 and 11650. At one point the intonation sounds like Vietnamese, but can`t make anything further out of it. Next check 1259 it was gone. Nothing scheduled on 11645 at this hour except wooden registration for Greece. Possibly the Taiwan [q.v.] transmitter missing from 11715 which the day before was making a different sounding spur on 11695-11705 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 16725, May 5 at 1327, Spanish SSB 2-way alternating with bits of CW; in voice, included alfanumerics (``tango, eco, alfa``), and whistled into mike, what a lid. Without embargo, in marine band so maybe legit rather than poacher/narco. Standard remark about wishing native speakers would monitor these things and extract some ID or clues (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###