giovedì 12 gennaio 2012

Glenn Hauser logs January 12, 2012

** BULGARIA. 5900, Jan 12 at 0628, ME music, poor signal, cuts off without announcement at 0630*. Thought it might have been something more interesting than R. Bulgaria, but it`s all that`s scheduled, in Turkish. HFCC also shows 0630 in German, but it`s really a wooden alternative to 7400 or 9400, no signal on 5900 after 0630 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EGYPT. 6270, Jan 12 at 0626, typical R. Cairo emission from Abis with undermodulated, distorted Arabic music and talk, whine past 0632, but gone at next check 0650. This frequency is supposed to close at 0430 after 5.5 hours to NAm in English and Arabic, which follow another 7 hours in Urdu and European languages starting at 1600. Try to outdo WBCQ with overruns? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MAURITANIA. 7245, Jan 12 at 0641, IGIM is on and chanting, good signal tonight (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NETHERLANDS [non]. 9810, Jan 12 at 1210, Spanish report from Cuban correspondent about the Damas en Blanco and likely protests to be attempted during papal visit in March. Faked me out, thought I was listening to Vatican`s broadcast at this time, but on to Dutch stuff past 1215, i.e. RNW via BONAIRE at 1200-1227.

VR previously had Spanish at 1130-1215 via Sackville in the 9.8s, and I heard it Dec 16 at 1145 on 9865 with QRDRM from NZ 9865-9870-9875. Now it`s in B-11 HFCC as daily 1130-1200 only, but missing from WRTH and some other contradictory schedules, so is this service extant or not? And is it really on 21680, direct to SAm, or not?

As for RNW in Spanish, Wim Janssen, head of the LA department, confirmed at the Colombo-Venezuelan DX Encuentro that the SW service will be cancelled later this year (but still on the web and via affiliates) --- despite the new mandate of RNW on its drastically reduced budget only to serve countries lacking press freedom, like Cuba, where nothing on SW will drastically reduce their audience!

And the Bonaire relay is likely to close for lack of enough relay business other than RNW to keep it viable. If Greenville were to close, as previously planned, Bonaire might survive (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1599 monitoring: first broadcast confirmed on WRMI webcast, UT Thursday Dec 12 at 0430; only jamming audible on 9955, tnx a lot, Arnie! Remaining 9955 airings: Sat 0900, 1600, 1830, Sun 0900, 1630, 1830, Mon 1230; plus many more webcasts: see
http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html

On WTWW: Thu 2200 on 9479, UT Sun 0500 on 5755
On WBCQ: Thu 2230 on 7490, UT Mon 0330v on 5110v-CUSB Area 51
On WWRB: UT Fri 0430 on 3195
On HLR, Germany: Tue 1030 on 5980
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 7490, Jan 12 at 0622, WBCQ is again on far past its nominal 0500*, but this time not with Brother Scare, instead with rock music. At first it sounded gospelish, but couldn`t make out the lyrix. Not // BS on 5890, 3185. VG signal on 7490, maybe testing, or avoiding freezing the equipment, but no signal on 9330-CUSB, which usually makes it here overnight.

MUF/northern paths may have been down, as 9370 WTJC was weakish but still audible as was 9955 WRMI with Channel Africa. 7490 still running music at 0633 check, but I enjoy the music from Tunisia 7335 more, so it`s not until 0647 that I rerecheck 7490, and by then WBCQ is gone (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VATICAN [non]. 9865, VR still on air via Sackville in Spanish at 1130-1200? See NETHERLANDS [non]

UNIDENTIFIED [and non]. 9585v, Jan 12 at 1525 I am hearing a lo but audible het between two weak stations, one of them off-frequency. Before I could decide which side, the het went off at 1526:10* while the other continued on 9585.0, talk in unID language.

Checking WRTH, EiBi, Aoki and HFCC, the one going off would have been TWR SWAZILAND in Malagasy as scheduled until 1525 (except French on Saturdays), and well-known to be a frequency-misser; but nothing else is scheduled during this hour on 9585 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)