sabato 25 dicembre 2010

Glenn Hauser logs December 24-25, 2010

** ARGENTINA. 11711-, UT Sat Dec 25 at 0200, RAE 8-note IS, over and over, with occasional IDs in all its languages. Weak and fading in the distance, it sounds so forlorn, and about to be gone forever from SW in one week? I recorded a few minutes for the archives. English is supposed to start at 0200 UT Tue-Sat, but the IS kept on playing. 0215 switched to longer multilingual IDs mixed with other music, and 0217 finally sign-on English program, but by now signal is too weak to copy. It had been reading S9+18 which ought to be sufficient, but much less than its nearest comparison, 11780 Brasília at S9+22. Perhaps the delay was an Xmas-eve problem, and morale is probably quite low (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. 5965, Dec 25 at 1511 two stations and motorboating sound (low rumble, like on Pet/Kam 6075); one in Chinese, which is RCI via JAPAN, and the only other scheduled is CRI in Russian via Beijing. Seems rather inconvenient that RCI`s relay partner CRI is on the frequency itself is trying to use for China. So is one of these transmitters defective? Or was the rumble from an external source (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** DJIBOUTI. 4780, R. Djibouti, Dec 25 at 0328 assertive speech, mostly over the CODAR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EAST TURKISTAN. 4980, Dec 25 at 0055, just about the OSOB below 5 MHz, W&M talk, sounds Turkic, not Chinesic, bits of music. 0100 5+1 timesignal one second late. Only thing listed in PWBR `2009` is Xinjiang PBS, Urümqi. Also in B-10 HFCC, starting at 2330, 50 kW, 230 degrees, but in Chinese (Zho).

WRTH 2011 (under CHINA) shows 4980 as same source, but Nov-Apr only and *inactive, so can`t look up which language service it is supposed to carry. Aoki, however has it in Uighur language and active on the B-10 schedule, so with the lack of anything else on frequency, and a good transpolar darkness path, I feel safe in presuming it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EGYPT. 6270, Dec 25 at 0235, R. Cairo English is just an open carrier with some whine, same at 0240 and 0324 chex, and also had noticed it about an hour before. Thus they do not have to worry about modulation quality. Another Xmas-eve who-cares SNAFU? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GERMANY [non]. Kept running across DW as I was aroundtuning Xmas eve:

11725, Dec 24 at 1857, Catholic Xmas sermon in German, later mass sounds. After 1900 playing secular Xmas music in English but German YL announcements, then even Stille Nacht in English. This is 250 kW, 295 degrees via RWANDA. RNZI is also on 11725 at this time, but no sign of it.

11665, Dec 25 at 0140, string of Xmas tunes by Elvis (in English) but announced in German; 0147 more Xmas music in English, then mixture of ``God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen`` with ``Take 5``. `Tis the season for messing around with carols, but breaks the monotony and repetitiveness. Cut off abruptly at 0159:30* without ID or any announcement.

This is DW, 0100-0159, 282 degrees from Ascension to CIRAF 7S, 8S, 10, 11, 12N, which means: southern USA from New Mexico eastward; Mexico, Central America, Caribbean, NW South America. So once again we have a non-English [almost] broadcast officially targeted for part of the USA, despite deletion of us as a recognized coverage area years ago. If they overtly broadcast to NAm in English more people might notice and complain (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GREECE. 7475, Dec 25 at 0613, two or three Orthodox cantors making quite a sound, never achieving true harmony. This is normally heard on UT Sundays around this time, but must have been celebrating Dec 25 as Xmas. John Babbis reported, ``From 01.00 Friday, December 24, until 09.00 Monday, December 27, Greece Time, (2300 UT Thursday, December 23 until 0700 UT Monday, December 27), ERA5, the Voice of Greece, will be connected with the Christmas program of the Greek Radio`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI, Dec 25 at 1333 with ``Silent Night`` in Indonesian, announced in English. I forced myself to listen for 60 seconds in order to count the number of IADs (intermittent audio dropouts), and there were 19, unevenly spaced, most ~3 seconds apart, occasionally with a respite up to 5 seconds (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NETHERLANDS [non]. 11655, Dec 24 at 2035-2057* RNW via MADAGASCAR, ``The State We`re In``, very interesting interview with an antiquities smuggler who says he`s saving the pieces from destruxion in their country of origin, Egypt. VG reception, almost as if it were for US (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NIGERIA. 7275, Dec 25 at 0611, very poor signal sounds like it may be in English, no doubt R. Nigeria, Abuja, in the clear this time since Tunisia [q.v.] is on the wrong frequency, 7225 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ROMANIA. 5975, RRI with nice variety of Romanian Xmas music, none of it familiar, announced in French, Dec 25 at 0245-0257* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN [non]. 9675, REE via COSTA RICA, Dec 25 at 0227 program about ``tiempo mágico`` with strange music; at fades, a fast SAH appeared; would not expect Brasil to be that close to same frequency, but possible. Otherwise good, fortunately, since 6055 direct is squeezed by CUBA on both sides. Who thought that was a good idea? Arnie. 9675 far overshadowed RTI English via WYFR 9680 despite being aimed right at us, 315 degrees, but so is REE at 340 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SUDAN. 7200, Omdurman, Dec 25 at 0326, Arabic music, chanting and drumming, somewhat undermodulated. 0332 announcement included ``Idha`at . . . Sudan``. 0334 fading (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TUNISIA. 7225, Arabic at 0611 Dec 25, where none should be, and // 7335, so once again RTT is on wrong frequency, the one it uses previous evenings, instead of 7275. 0621 kids` chorus, which I think is a Saturday-morning staple, 0626:50* cut off abruptly just like it does when on 7275. Since R. Nigeria [q.v.], Abuja is back on 7275 now, we wonder if Tunisia`s shift is deliberate, but it then reverts to 7275 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 18530, Dec 25 at 1458, the Brother Scare organ was playing, weak but unmistakable. On Saturdays only we may enjoy the WINB second harmonic all day from 9265 as 13570 takes a break (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 6768, Dec 25 at 0132, 5-digit Spanish spy numbers by YL (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###