venerdì 31 dicembre 2010

Glenn Hauser logs December 31, 2010

** ANTARCTICA. 15476, LRA36 still absent Dec 31 at 1414, thus completing the year unheard since Nov 12. Will it ever come back? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ARGENTINA. David Zantow informs us that RAE has been announcing they will stay on shortwave after all in 2011; he had to listen to the webcast and a pertinent clip from their UT Dec 30 broadcast has been posted on the dxldyg and now also at
http://www.w4uvh.net/rae2011.mp3
No explanation of how this has been achieved, vs the PCB problem in their transmitter and the new law against it.
15344.9, Dec 31 at 1850, I am getting a weak signal here, can`t tell whether it`s RAE or Morocco and whether it is in English, which is scheduled M-F 1800-1900; the other English, to NAm at 0200-0300 UT Tue-Sat on 11711v (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL. 4885, R. Clube do Pará is one of the most reliable Brazilians on 60m, which runs all-night, but unheard for quite some time vs hi noise level here. 4985, R. Brasil Central is another, but nothing from it tonight, considerably more distant.
At 0618 Dec 31, 4885 is the OSOB from South America, with pop music. 0621 announcement but rather distorted and reverberating; think I did hear Pará mentioned and two or three ``kHz``, so likely full ID. With BFO on, I discover that the carrier is unstable, wobbling slightly. 0633, ``Bom dia, Brasil``; Belém is on UT -3 with no DST there this summer, so local is only 3:33 am. 0644 playing original version of ``Corina, Corina`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ETHIOPIA [and non]. 9559.7, approx., Dec 31 at 1527, considerable het against Chinese on 9560, i.e. R. Ethiopia, vs RCI via Japan or CRI via Kashgar (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 9690, AIR GOS, Dec 31 at 1427 reviewing India`s military achievements of 2010y, including a stealth ship, joining a small club of nations capable of such (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDONESIA. 9525-, VOI, VG signal at 1528 Dec 31, while yesterday it was off after 1500, music with IADs. But off at 1603 check an hour before local 2011y. Meanwhile, RRI domestic on 9680 was much weaker with vocal music at 1530, still on at 1603 with excited live talk, 1622 still celebrating (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ITALY [non]. Since this Saturday is only the very first day of the year, and new business often starts on the following weekday, I asked Alfredo Cotroneo of IRRS to confirm whether the deletion of WORLD OF RADIO, alternate Saturdays at 0900 on 9510, axually starts Jan 1. Yes, it does, but WOR ``will continue to be "regular" (as before) every Sat at 2000 CET (1900 UT/winter) on 6090 kHz, until further notice.``
What about DX Partyline after it at 0930; is the whole hour changed?
``Their 15 minute broadcast will be the same as before.
``FYI: we are dropping Mon-Thu 2000-2100 CET (1900-2000 UT/winter) on 6090 kHz effective Jan 1, 2011. New frequency & program schedules will be online on Dec. 31 at http://www.nexus.org/NEXUS-IBA/Schedules%60%60
That shows the new program at 0900 Sat is Outlook, at least this week. What about the alternating Radio City, etc., on other weeks?
IRRS will not discuss its transmitter site, under any circumstances, registered as MIL for Milano with HFCC. Presumably this is due to contraxual obligations, despite the fact that previous independent DX research uncovered documents from SLOVAKIA confirming that it is in fact Rimavská Sobota.
As we know, Radio Slovakia International is closing down its own SW broadcasts at yearend, thus raising the question of whether the transmitter site will be kept operational only for the limited schedule of IRRS?
Starting Jan 1, would listeners monitor the IRRS schedule and note whether there has been any significant change in reception, or operational clues leading to the likelihood of the transmitter site having been changed. Other frequencies (for Miraya FM, from and back to Sudan) have been 9670, 15710:
As of 1937 UT Dec 31, the transmission schedule on IRRS website
http://www.nexus.org/NEXUS-IBA/Schedules/IRRS-SW_B10.html
had not been updated to show deletion of Mon-Thu 19-20 on 6090 as mentioned above, still dated Nov 13 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [non]. NHK can be depended upon for NYE celebrations in the hours before local midnight, and can also be depended upon to frustrate listeners wanting to hear the arrival of the next year at 1500 UT. 11655 via CANADA, VG Dec 31 at 1416 with apparent live music variety show; 1439 had 2-second clips of lots of different songs which probably made more sense if we had original video to go with them, as I suspect this is soundtrack of TV show. 1443 crowd starting singing ``Auld Lang Syne`` in Japanese, but then voiced over with talk. Sure enough, Sackville cut them off the air at 1458:55* just before the big moment. By 1504 I was hearing weak S Asian music on 11655, no doubt KSDA GUAM in Telugu (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5985, Shiokaze, Dec 31 at 1408, YL in Japanese rather than usual English on Fridays. NYE must have persuaded them to switch to primary tongue for the occasion. Lite het from Myanmar 5986v (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA. 15120, VON, Dec 31 at 1534 in English about Zimbabwe, but muffled, distorted, and unstable carrier, plus splash from WYFR 15130 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NIGERIA [non]. 17485, Hamada Radio International via RMI via GERMANY, Friday Dec 31 at 1411, fair signal with speech to a crowd (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 13592.5, the previous unID reported as 13590, with the strange musical loop repeated, and a clip at the end of WORLD OF RADIO 1545, does turn out to be from a nearby CBer putting his semi-harmonic of 27185 on 13592.5. About the same time Dec 31, at 1451 he is active and playing the loop again, which matches much stronger signal on 27185. Words still hard to make out, but sounds like ``You`re an idiot, ha ha ha ha``, which seems appropriate for the CB culture (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. I dozed thru the New Year in NZ, eastern Australia, and PNG, but started listening just after local UT+10 midnite at 1403 UT Dec 31: 3385 had an audible signal, something talking, likely R. East New Britain, Rabaul, on later than usual 1200v* as in WRTH for all these stations. I could also detect carriers on 3365, 3325 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PHILIPPINES. 9430, looking around for some signal hitting 2011y at 1600 UT Dec 31, settled upon FEBC: at 1559 Chinese song, ID, but no timesignal or fireworx when it`s New Year both in China and the Philippines (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA. 6075, the geniuses at R. Rossii decided we should have more hours of motorboating on NY Eve. Normally goes off at 1401* but UT Dec 31 at 1433 still there, but no significant program modulation, just Chinese mixing in from Taiwan and/or ChiCom jamming: an exercise in extended futility. In fact, at 1550, I could still hear the rumbling RR carrier from Petropavlovsk/Kamchtaskiy where local time is UT+11, so midnight was already at 1300 UT. Perhaps the transmitter ops were out celebrating or had passed out. After all, allowing the motorboating to go on the air for months and months is not exactly a sign of taking responsibility (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** RUSSIA [non]. 9570, R. Blagovest via R. Veritas Asia, PHILIPPINES, on what is presumably its last day on the air, Dec 31 at 1522, Russian discussion about Christ, etc. 1526 there is some lite musical CCI but I can find nothing else scheduled; maybe it was crossmodulation. 1545 now the speech is more deliberate, no doubt a scripted sermon (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 11785, Dec 31 at 1435, the ``Sa`udi buzz`` is again audible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TUNISIA. 12005, Dec 31 at 1555 open carrier, 1556:36 join Arabic conversation in progress. Typical behaviour of RTT, which is scheduled here 1600-2010 per Aoki, 500 kW, 100 degrees from Sfax, while as usual registered in HFCC one hour off, 1700-2110. Aoki also shows that BBC Rampisham had Azeri at 1600-1630 for B-10, but it is ``off`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K. 3950-3955-3960, DRM noise discouraging hams from using this segment of their band, Dec 31 at 0617. It`s BBC via Skelton, per HFCC, 05-08, 100 kW, 121 degrees. The AM transmitter at Skelton on 3995 carrying DW in German in commonly audible around here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 17740, Dec 31 at 1412, open carrier. 15580, Dec 31 at 1413, another open carrier. Likely both IBB Greenville, tuning up for later broadcasts on these frequencies, both scheduled not until 1700 in Portuguese, English, respectively (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15795, open carrier Dec 31 to 1553*. Probably WYFR tuning up for 1600 English broadcast to Europe, but unchecked later (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 9955, WRMI confirmed with WORLD OF RADIO 1545, Friday Dec 31 at 1543, losing out to pulse jamming fading up and down, not bleed from 9965 where wall-of-noise jamming against presumed R. República. Tnx a lot, Arnie! Next WOR airings on WRMI are Sat 0900, 1500, 1830, Sun 0900, 1630, 1830, Mon 1230. On WWCR: Fri 2130 7465; Sat 1700 12160; and will UT Sun 0330 on 4840 already be canceled as of UT Jan 2, or the following week? Plus Sun 0730 on 3215.
WOR 1545 also confirmed on webcast of WWRB 3185, UT Friday Dec 31 after 0430 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9385, WWRB with Brother Scare, surrounded by his buzz envelope out to 9365-9405, bothering mainly WTJC 9370v, Dec 31 at 1546 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [non]. 9310, Dec 31 at 1547, S9+20 open carrier, 1551 continuous tone test, 1555 back to OC; 1557 VOA YDD sign-on, 1600 into central Asian language. Once again this is scheduled as R. Liberty in Tatar/Bashkir via Tinang, PHILIPPINES at 16-17, 250 kW, 332 degrees, which should not be preceded by VOA sign-on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN. 13765, VR in English, Dec 31 at 1537 historical talk about Carmelites vs Moslems; 1540 VR ID as for S Asia, news of PBXVI. Had long-path echo. Is 500 kW, 95 degrees from SMG (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VENEZUELA [non]. 11680, RNV completes yet another year announcing almost totally outdated transmission schedule, just as I tune across via CUBA, Dec 31 at 1520. All we have to hear is the first entry in Spanish = ``to San Francisco at 11 am on 13740``. BTW, how is your own transmitter site at Calabozo coming along? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###