mercoledì 27 aprile 2011

Glenn Hauser logs April 27, 2011

** ANTARCTICA. 15476, April 27 at 1252 weak talk, building to S6 peaking at S9+10 by 1259, and stronger than UK 15480. Musical segués continue until 1306 announcement, just as the Greenville carrier comes on for pre-test; it goes back off at 1309 after brief tone test, and does not come back on until 1421:40 prior to scheduled R. Sawa transmission at 1430; see U S A. Back in the clear, at 1309, 15476 had a spirited dialog or trialog, 1312 music again. Signal declined and by 1415 was just barely audible carrier. I see reports from elsewhere that 15476 is sometimes on the air before 1200 or after 1500, so seems rather flexible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

** CHINA. Firedrake April 27:
 7970, fair at 1241
10300, fair at 1247, fair at 1427
10970, good at 1242
11500, fair at 1248, with CCI, lo het. Per Aoki, not only is Sound of Hope here until 1600, but also V. of Russia, English via Tajikistan until 1300, then Hindi. By 1426, FD is dominating 11500
12600, very poor at 1349; had not heard any in the 12`s for a few days; also JBA at 1426
13920, good at 1243
13970, very good at 1426
14700, poor at 1244; all the others // except this one
15430, fair at 1345 and growling jamming too vs V of Tibet via UAE
15570, fair at 1351 vs nothing in Aoki, except: V. of Tibet via Tajikistan on 15568 from 1340, but no het audible now
15900, good at 1251; off at 1338
16100, good at 1253; fair at 1338
16980, very good at 1254; no others up to 19 MHz, but CRI EAST TURKISTAN also VG on 17490 English, 17650 Chinese; 16980 off at 1338

CNR1 jamming, like a spoilt child yelling so he cannot hear what his parent is trying to say to him:
11990, very good at 1347 vs VOA Chinese via SAIPAN
15115, very good at 1347, the other Chinese slightly under being VOA via THAILAND; an echo apart from 11990

At 1508, CNR1 jamming against 13640, 13675 and 13755. Per Aoki and HFCC, the victims are:
13640, R. Free Asia via Tinian (CRI English from Kashgar also sked)
13675, R. Free Asia Mandarin via Tajikistan
13755, VOA Uzbek via Kuwait
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 11760, RHC again here instead of 6010 with music // English service on 6050, April 27 at 0525. Usually 11760 is inbooming but not this time, only fair with fades. A 0540, 6010 still missing, as in `DXers Unlimited` Arnie is talking about sporadic E showing up on 10m, and how Cycle 24 is rising. 6050 was the only decent frequency for this, as // 6060 was quite weak as usual (aimed toward ENAm and Europe), and 6150 way undermodulated as usual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GREECE. 11645, VOG with the R. Filia service is not always propagating, but April 27 at 0526, poor signal in non-English talk, not // 9420. Might be separate Greek, but not sure; no change after 0530 during hour sometimes in English including BBCWS relay (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NIGERIA [non]. 21480, April 27 at 1423, fair signal in Hausa from Hamada Radio International via Wertachtal, GERMANY. 13m not funxioning as well as it had been, but usual signals also audible on 21470, 21505, 21540, 21540, 21610, 21655 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SUDAN [non]. 13620 and 13730, usual totally different jamming against the two R. Dabanga frequencies, April 27 at 0520 check. Maybe RD should try hopping to different frequencies nearby (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY. 15450, April 27 at 1315, V. of Turkey has fair signal during music-fill end of broadcast, so I make a point of catching the sign-off announcement at 1323: a month after A-11 began, the YL is still clueless, thinx this broadcast *starts at 1330 on 11735 and 12035, while it is really at 1230 and now on 15450 only, as the other frequency, 15520 eastward has been deleted in favor of a separate new English broadcast on that at 1630, as now HFCC registered but not confirmed here. Anyhow, there was no signal on 15520 at 1320+. After her imaginary schedule announcement, before carrier-off, only one iteration of the redone IS on a keyboard, so one would not know there are no longer any variations (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. R. Sawa observations April 27:

15480, Greenville pre-test, carrier on at *1306-1309* marring LRA36 15476; off after quick tone at the end. Back on at *1421:40 with strong open carrier, brief tone at 1422; 1429:35 turns on music, presumably from R. Sawa, but like yesterday, 1430 cut to VOA English, ``From Studio 23 in Washington, International Edition``. Unlike yesterday when stayed with this for at least one hour, at 1433:45 cut back to Sawa music; was not listening closely but noticed still music at 1449 so quarter-hour news break was less than 5 minutes. Music rules at R. Sawa! In a misguided attempt to influence and inform younger Arabs. 1458 rap in English, 1500 Arabic announcement, 1510 some YL singing ``People Got the Music``, 1515 R. Sawa ID and akbar.

Meanwhile, already at 1431, the 15480 signal had declined from solid to rather weaker and fading. It was even eclipsed by briefly // 15580 São Tomé. Could be a propagational anomaly, altho WWCR 15825 had become enhanced by sporadic-E; or a power cut at GB as sometimes the 250-kW units have to run much less due to technical problems.

17530, fair with Arabic music at 1340, 1341 W&M Arabic talk, 1345 akbar = news. HFCC says this is via Kuwait, 250 kW, 285 degrees at 1300-1500 to CIRAF 38 = Egypt, SE Tunisia --- and Libya, which we have to thank for Sawa`s shortwave comeback. But is all that music and little bits of news really helpful for the mission? Unfortunately, VOA is now incapable of a full-service Arabic broadcast.

17540, fair at 1504 with music // 15480 but not synchronized. 17540 is Kuwait at 1500-1600, same parameters as 17530 before 1500. (In yesterday`s report I overlooked this shift.)

Never heard anything from 17785, supposedly in use from Botswana at 1430-1600 for R. Sawa (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15825, WWCR, April 27 at 1506 got a boost from HF sporadic E from barely audible to good strength, while 13845 was up from fair to very good (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ZAMBIA [and non]. 13599.8, 1Africa, still attempting to reach 13600 instead of scheduled 13590, April 27 at 1250 making het with a real 13600.0 station; by 1425 its gospel rock is atop the competition (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###