lunedì 28 febbraio 2011

Glenn Hauser logs February 28, 2011

** ANTARCTICA. 15476, Feb 28 at 1334, still no carrier from LRA36, tho there was a weak one on 15480 from Turkey. Roberto Scaglione reports they plan to start this week on an 11-18 UT schedule, so we need to keep checking until 1800. At 1710, I could almost imagine I was hearing a carrier, but this was on DX-398 portable outside with reel-out since household noise sources were on by then (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake Feb 28:
7470 at 1257; not on 8400 at this time
9360 at 1330, still not on 8400
Aoki shows 7470 is RFA in Tibetan at 11-14 via Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and of course *jammed. RFA also on 7470 from other sites at 14-17, 22-24, 01-03, all jammed except lucky/insignificant Cantonese at 14-15. Nothing specific on 9360 except Sound of Hope jumping around between 9300 and 9380, so 9360 its presumed landing spot today (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. 9955, Monday Feb 28 at 1230, nothing but DentroCuban Jamming Command`s wall of noise blocking WORLD OF RADIO on WRMI. Tnx a lot, Arnie! Next WRMI chances are Mon 2230, Tue 1630, Wed 0200, 1630 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUAM. 9975, Feb 28 at 1231, KTWR IS, 1232 ID pronounced in English as KTWR, Agana, Guam, into Chinese. She said Agana, not Agaña. I wonder what the percentages are for each among natives/residents of Guam, or should I say Guahan. HFCC shows `cmn` presumably meaning Chinese Mandarin, daily 1230-1330 at 305 degrees. Aoki refines this to Sun-Fri in Chinese at 315 degrees, Saturday at 1230-1300 in Hui at 305 degrees. EiBi misses the latter, but all three show strange variations in the 1130-1500 period (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUAM. 5765-USB, AFN still AWOL, Feb 28 at 1255 check (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN. It`s gone again --- the nominal M-F 1330-1400 Basque service from REE. 17595, Monday Feb 28 at 1335 still in Castilian, no explanation, as if programming is normal, so I am forced to listen to a language I can understand: about Academy Awards, 1336 sports capsule, 1337 REE ID, 1338 `Heliotrope` talk on subject ``la música es una terapia para todo ser humano``, mentioning handicapped achievers such as el ciego Maestro [Joaquín] Rodrigo, 1342 song in Spanish, ``Te Amo`` by an English performer who can`t walk (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U K [non]. 7540, Feb 28 at 1257, B-B-C- chimes, good but with flutter and no QRM. 1259:30 BBC signing on in Chinese --- dare we hope the service to follow will be equally clear? Of course not! At 1300 a second timesignal starts mixing, and then a second broadcast in Chinese. Aoki shows BBC as 1300-1530 M-F, 250 kW, 20 degrees via Nakhon Sawan, THAILAND, so also USward, with *CNR1 jamming. Why not just give up?

21550, first check of 13m today finds this the OSOB, and then as Spain fades in, the SSOB, Feb 28 at 1346 in Hausa with DW jingles, 1350 ID. Is via PORTUGAL at 13-14, 145 degrees, following French at 12-13, 170 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI on the air today, Feb 28 at 1323 about folk traditions, YL in halting English, subject not clear, maybe tatooing. IADs but VG signal. Toward end of this `Indonesian Wonder` segment, IAD of at least 5 seconds. 1326 on to `Let`s Speak Bahasa Indonesia` easily and carefully, repeat after me (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** LIBYA. 17725, Feb 28 at 1404, very poor signal, unseems English, probably Swahili running late again. Not checked again until 1439, now English with usual announcers, and 21695 also audible better. 1449 usual half-wrong frequency announcement claiming 21695 and 17850; stuff about Africa, 1457 Morocco mentioned. All that I heard sounded placid and normal, not yet any rebels breaking in and taking over the station. How much longer? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15500-USB, Feb 28 at 1711, WJHR Milton FL (NOT CA = California as in Aoki and copiers), on new frequency ex-15550. No ID but usual gospel huxter, and missing from 15550-USB where it had been since starting in December 2009. Tnx to a tip from Mark Coady, Ontario, who first reported 15500 (altho typoed at first as 15400), Feb 25 at 1610 and on LSB, but it`s definitely still USB, no carrier when I hear it. QSY escapes the collision with 500 kW from Iran on 15550 until 1630, and nothing else at all scheduled on 15500 between 1400 and 2200 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 11750, good with VOA news, including backgrounder by André de Nesnera on Libya, Feb 28 at 1235. This is the only hour for VOA English on this frequency, 250 kW, 21 degrees from Tinang, PHILIPPINES, so also USward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VATICAN [non]. Re whether VR is in Spanish or English at 1200 on 9865 via Sackville. Rechecked Feb 28 at 1209 and it`s still back in English, clip of PBXVI and then announcer both in English. Since I have only checked this sporadically, not every day by any means, who knows whether it might be equally sporadically in either language (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. Trans-Pacific MW carrier search, Feb 28 starting precisely at sunrise in Enid, 1304 UT on DX-398 in offset USB mode: 1314, 1305, 1296, 1242, 1134, 1116, 1053, 972, 882, 828, 774, 747, 666, 612, 594. Then I went up from 1314: 1566 and 1611 ---

The last looped WSW instead of NW like the others, which fits for Australia, where WRTH lists 17 ``high-power open narrowcast stations``, HP meaning max 400 watts! And there are no Asians or other Pacificans on 1611. I double-checked the frequency and it was right on 1611, so unlikely to have been a US TIS variant. Still, it`s hard to believe I would even be getting such a carrier. The 100 kW VL8s on 120m were not audible today.

In my scans there may be others only 1 kHz from 10-kHz channels which I simply can`t detect due to the QRM; thus those logged above end in -2, -3, -4, -5, -6, -7, or -8. But 1610, of course, has no broadcasters of normal power in the US, just HAR/TIS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###