mercoledì 30 novembre 2011

Glenn Hauser logs November 29-30, 2011

** AFGHANISTAN [and non]. 7200, another try for R. Afghanistan`s new frequency Nov 30 at 1528: only a JBA carrier, maybe this, under QRhaM this time from W4RNZ = PRICE, CARL E, CARTERSVILLE, GA 30120, working a K5 on LSB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRIA. 6155, Nov 30 at 0641 baroque music from Ö1, back-announced as from 1600y, ``Die Hexe``, 7:43 live timecheck in Austro-German. Kudos for including classical music in this remnant of SW service from Austria, 0600-0715 only. The only other broadcast is 0900-0935 on 17630 and/or 18910, unlikely to be heard here.

Altho labeled as B-11, Aoki at 6155 still lists English and French news at 0710-0714 weekdays, which really stopped sometime in A-11, unfortunately, tho it was only token, mostly foreign headlines and very brief weather intended for domestic consumption. That demographic is now better served by a fulltime non-ORF, non-SW station; see
http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/new-english-language-radio-station-opens-in-vienna
WTFK? ``Danube International Radio (DIR) is initially being launched online with an official opening planned for 2012 after they obtain an FM licence.`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake Nov 30, before 0700:
15900, fair at 0649; no others 12-19 MHz

Before 1500:
9200, JBA at 1427
No others found up to 20 MHz by 1444

After 1500:
13785, poor at 1522, with ACI de CUBA, and some CCI. A reminder that we must not search for FD only in the OOB or WOOB [way-out-of-band] ranges. Aoki explains: VOA Uzbek via Kuwait at 1500-1530 is jammed, altho CNR1 might be the usual audio? Aoki adds that VOA was off the air on a Sunday and Thursday. (And the only other occupant of 13785 is Sirjan, Iran in English from 1530) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. 9955, Nov 30 at 0630, R. Praga noticias via WRMI fair signal and NO jamming, unlike 48 hours earlier.

6125 undermodulated // 6060, 6050, 6010, RHC UT Wed Nov 30 at 0644-0645 Arnie wrapping up the mitweek edition of `DXers Unlimited`, so now at one dekaminute, must have started at 0635 instead of 0630 previously; varies.

6125, once again Nov 30 at 0706, RHC is still on the air on this frequency only, in unscheduled Spanish, sports segment starting as I QRT; for how long?

Latest incompetent DentroCuban Jamming Command observations:
15590, Nov 30 at 1438, pulse jamming still going here after VOA 1400*
15330, Nov 30 at 1440, R. Martí very strong with no jamming detectable, altho RHC also strong on 15380
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** FRANCE. 9805, Nov 30 at 0628 I tuned in early enough to check whether RFI is in Hausa or English on the // frequency 7220 which has been in English instead of Hausa recently: no, 9805 is fair in non-English, sounds like Hausa, and concludes at 0630* sharp after jingle and ``RFI`` ID in French; while 7220 was playing musique as strike filler. So the wrong language on 7220 apparently has nothing to do with the strike, Hausa continuing on the other one. Current complete schedule of RFI Hausa per HFCC is:
0600-0630  7220 9805
0700-0730 11830 13685 15315
1600-1700 17615
So the Hausa service is not on strike at the moment. Andy Sennitt says that programming is axually produced in Lagos, not Paris. I`m not likely to hear the 0700 broadcast, but at 1620 Nov 30, I can hear 17615, and it is in non-French, non-English, presumably Hausa.

I have a very hard time recognizing Hausa for sure, despite its nomenclatural affinity to yours truly, just ``African tonal language``. We need some key words often heard on SW to recognize, such as ``this is``, ``news``, ``republic``, ``president``, etc. No Hausa (yet?) on Google Translate.

Consulting RFI`s Hausa page,
http://www.hausa.rfi.fr/
we see that Hausa is written without any tonal diacritix, which must make it that much harder to learn, unlike Vietnamese; in the lower right corner there is a list of RFI languages linked as expressed in Hausa, ending with what passes for vietnamien:

Harsunan kasashen ketare
    Inglishi
    Larabci
    Kambodiyanci
    Sinanci
    Faransanci
    Espaniyanci
    Parisanci
    Portuganci
    Rashenci
    Batenamisanci
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH. When we`re up as late as 0700, we hear various NK frequencies opening, even on the lower bands propagating now in winter at 1600 local time, such as 7220. (Is 2850 still active? Mikhail Timofeyev in Russia wonders, and so do I, not heard lately before sunrise, but it fights a high local noise level here and there.)

6600, already at 0639 Nov 30, weak Korean is audible, without jamming, which means it`s clandestine V. of the People, from the South. Then I check // 6518 and it seems to be cutting on the air right then. Recheck at 0655, now both are noise jammed. Aoki shows VOP really starts at 0500, but the jamming doesn`t begin until 0650, 250 kW vs 50 kW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KUWAIT [and non]. 21540, Nov 30 at 1450, huge collision between R. Kuwait and REE Spain continues in almost-vacant 13m band, Kuwait atop with music and Arabic talk. Spain goes off at 1456 leaving Kabd in the clear for a few minutes until it cut off at 1500:24* just after ID and beginning the news, how rude! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MAURITANIA. 7245, Nov 30 at 0635 check, IGIM is still not inactive, with usual soporific wake-up chanting (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MYANMAR [non?]. 7110, Nov 30 at 1416, very weak and fluttery music on AM, clear for a bit, then at 1421 lite CW QRM from a WA4 calling CQ automatically, switching to hand-keying for contact. New OOB 7110 has been reported the last few days from further east and west, by Jose Jacob in India, Victor Goonetilleke in Sri Lanka, and Martien Groot in Netherlands as definitely in Burmese, at 1230-1430v but not // any known Myanmar frequencies, so what is it, from or to Burma? One heard jamming after 1430 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGESTE)

** OKLAHOMA. 1140, Nov 29 around 2225 UT, KRMP OKC daytimer was billing itself as ``The Touch``, which is ``all-new``; rarely listen, so not sure how new that really is, but updates NRC AM Log 2011-2012 which had it as ``The Old School Station``. It`s mostly talk format now, including Tom Joyner weekday mornings, with gospel-huxters all-day Sundays;
http://www.thetouch1140.com/ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN [and non]. 9625-9630-9635, Nov 29 at 2241, jarring DRM noise with big signal here at unscheduled time, blotting out 9625 CBCNQ, fortunately cut off at 2243; at 2255-2300+ an AM open carrier back on 9630. Assume REE playing around, as this is their DRM frequency via COSTA RICA at 0000-0200 (but normally turned on a few minutes earlier), and also HFCC registered as AM from Noblejas at 1900-2300, 302 degrees to C&ENAm, Mexico, CAm, Caribbean, but the latter NOT on this version of schedule:
http://aer-dx.org/novedades/index.php?IdRSS=211
So it`s yet another wooden/alternate frequency from REE.

From 2256 past 2300 I also checked 11810-11815-11820, where REE has a new DRM transmission via Cariari CR to NW SAm supposedly at 23-24, but it`s not on, fortunately for poor R. Brasil Central, Goiânia, which can`t change frequency on 25m and must put up with whatever the Spaniards throw at them; RBC poorly audible in AM with M&W in Brazilian. The REE sked above shows 11815 DRM instead of 23-24, at 00-01 which is when we did hear it on Nov 11 as in DXLD 11-46, and means that Cariari now has two DRM transmitters, but making quite limited use of them (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TAIWAN [non]. 6875, Nov 30 at 0637, RTI via WYFR completes the month in wrong language German instead of Spanish. Usual huge signal toward Mexico (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1592 monitoring: surprise, there I am on WBCQ 7490, Tuesday Nov 29 at 2235, and without much BBC QRM underneath. This was once a WOR time, but ceded to `Frecuencia al Día`, heard as recently as a week or two ago, so I have no idea whether this is a permanent rechange, a fill-in, or what, but try again next Tuesday as well as our normal airing on Thursdays at 2230 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. After finding Firedrake on 15900 at 0649 Nov 30, I try to hear any signals on the 19m band, and come up with only two weakies:

15250 in Russian at 0650, which Aoki and HFCC show is R. Liberty during this hour only, 250 kW, 21 degrees from Tinang, PHILIPPINES, so on its USward antenna. And at 0652 something very poor talking on 15440, must be DW Hausa via RWANDA. That`s all; no Nigeria 15120 tonight (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. 7341-SSB, Nov 30 at 1412, formal net taking signal reports on frequencies secretly designated NCC and NCA; among the calls was ``Iowa CAP 4``, until QSY to another channel at 1414. So I Google on that, and find at
http://www.reocities.com/CapeCanaveral/9078/comm.html
that Iowa CAP 4 is Richardson, Mercer, Lt. Col., IOWA CAP 4 and IOWA CAP 176, ham call K0VIF, e-mail to Cedar Rapids.

CAP = Civil Air Patrol, more about which on same ex-geocities page. Unfortunately the frequency-management link is dead. 7341 had lite QRM from a very weak AM carrier on 7340 which Aoki points to Mumbai (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 11714.8, Nov 30 at 1434, KJES in English with robotic responses to catechisms, e.g. ``the just will be glad: the just will be glad``; S9+22 but somewhat undermodulated. I haven`t bothered to log this for weeks, and in future might conclude it was inactive, so here it is just to reaffirm its viability, however in a horrible rut (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)