martedì 24 gennaio 2012

Glenn Hauser logs January 23-24, 2012

** ALBANIA. 7530, Jan 23 at 2100, R. Tirana opening English, barely audible in noise level. A month past shortest day, this transmission is losing out here, but should remain good for Europe, while we still have one other English broadcast, 0230 on 7420 (except UT Mondays) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BELGIUM [non]. 17755, Jan 23 at 2038 tune thru 16m, I find DRM noise extending far beyond the alleged 10-kHz bandwidth of 17750-17760 for TDP Radio via GUIANA FRENCH. Stepping 1 kHz at a time on the DX-398, with a few meters of external antenna plugged in, I can hear it gradually declining out to +/- 23 kHz, i.e. 17732 to 17778. Fortunately, not much else in AM trying to use the range at this hour, not even KVOH which has yet to reactivate 17775. Biggest victim would be RCI Portuguese on 17765 at 2000-2030 and 2100-2130, but only on Fri-Sat-Sun (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BRAZIL [and non]. 15190-, Jan 23 at 2217, definitely Brazilian talk, from R. Inconfidência, slightly on the lo side, and nothing else. Before 2100 I had tuned past here and noted very weak signal vs YFR/Ascension 15195, and assumed to be the ZY too; however, Mark Coady in Ontario reported English preaching on 15190 from 2124 to 2140, believed to be R. Africa, Equatorial Guinea reactivated. That one sure is elusive/erratic; need to keep checking for it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BRAZIL. 9585 // 9565, Jan 24 at 0638, David Miranda wailpreaching, but MUF too low for more on 25m // 11765 as heard 24 hours earlier. Also separate Brazilian programming on 9645v, 9665, 9675. Now the 9820 station is definitely // Turkey 9700, not R. Nove de Julho varying on the low side.

As for the identity of the 9585 outlet, Karel Honzík, Czechia, reminds us: Glen[n], there is SRDA São Paulo on 9585 kHz (exactly 9584.97 measured by me on 6 January). The station is really missing from WRTH 2012; I do not wonder that the editor did not find it on the frequency last year because it had drifted several kHz upwards. Now it is back again. Globo abandoned the transmitter several years ago`` (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9526-, Jan 23 at 2056, I notice a carrier plus het, music from one of them, and then measure VOI`s characteristic off-frequency before 9525.0 goes off at 2057, probably CRI Russian, 318 degrees from Beijing, while 9526- continues, but that too gone at 2105 check. Unusual to hear anything at all here from VOI at this hour, but it did reactivate earlier today. French is supposedly the final European language until 2100; 30 degrees per Aoki but 290 degrees per HFCC, which makes a lot more sense for audibility in Europe. However, Atsunori Ishida logged it in Japanese at 2054 Jan 23, in which case the 30-degree antenna also USward should have been used. Besides their severe transmitter problems, I have also suspected they have antenna problems, or at least put 9526-/9525- on the `wrong` ones, as the 13-15 UT signal in NAm went from sufficient to very insufficient.

9526-, Jan 24 at 1415, VOI is on again with talk in Indonesian, poor signal with flutter, but no QRM during this hour only; much weaker than RRI 9680 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5985, Tue Jan 24 at 1408, Shiokaze is in Chinese, spoken slowly by YL with piano background; via JSR Tokyo/Yamata, JAPAN at 1330-1430 mainly in Korean and Japanese, with no more English at all? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MAURITANIA. 7245, Jan 24 at 0650, IGIM is still not on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO [non]. 6185-, Jan 24 at 1405 check, no signal from XEPPM, unlike 24 hours earlier when transmission was extended; just something Far Eastern (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MYANMAR. 7110, Jan 24 around 1405, very weak carrier served as BFO for some hams, but none on 7100 where I was looking for new Myanma Radio frequency. Then I see report from Ron Howard that it was indeed on 7110 instead of 7100 today when he heard it at 1237-1337, and not // 5985.83 or 5915 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 7325-, Jan 24 at 1403, JBA carrier, maybe a tad stronger than yesterday during this Wantok Radio Light window between CRI transmissions. Just mentioned as a reminder to keep checking in case there be a better propagational night (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PHILIPPINES. 9355, Jan 24 at 1506, strong S9+22 open carrier with some flutter, brief breaks at 1509 and 1511, off at 1512*. Must have been IBB Tinang tuning up for the 1530-1630 VOA Burmese broadcast due west (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN. 15110, Jan 23 at 2040, REE usual very strong signal direct, is crackling on fundamental, and splattering out to +/- 21 kHz, i.e. 15089-15131, corresponding to modulation peaks, at the moment during sports coverage, likely calcio, with an Italian trying to speak Castilian. Noblejas, please adjust your transmitters (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TAIWAN [non]. 6875, Jan 24 at 0641, weird novelty sorta-rap song in Chinese with English words mixed, mainly refrain ``bye-bye`` (or is it ``bai-bai``?), ending with ``a shave and a haircut: two bits`` riff, so is it still the German service of RTI via WYFR, instead of scheduled Spanish? Yes, 0645 German outro by YL. Truly multi-cultural (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U K [non]. 9740, Jan 24 at 1432, BBCWS via SINGAPORE with `Discovery`, first of two parts on depression --- does it serve any useful purpose, and if not, why haven`t we evolved out of it? Truncated show is already over at 1450, into `Foreign Correspondent` with two reports, on Syria, and on replanting lemon trees. Have they retitled FOOC? Outro still said `From Our Own Correspondent`. Maybe ``Foreign`` was really ``From Our Own`` slurred? Good signal here, better than // 11890, 6195, 5875, not // 5975 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15385.1 approx., Jan 23 at 2045, KJES NM has very good signal and close enough for US government work, during Spanish catechisms. Probably sporadic-E enhanced, but did not reach VHF from old Mexico (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15619 and 15627 approx., centers of filthy squishy spurs constantly spewing from the WEWN English transmitter, Jan 23 at 2105 when fundamental 15610 is very strong with sporadic-E enhancement from one megameter away, and likewise on the low side (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VATICAN [non?]. 7385, Jan 23 at 2059 I am tuning across the 7 MHz band, not hearing much, but the SSOB is here with VR IS; suspect an African relay, but it goes off at 2059:30*. Trouble is, the only schedule per all the sources is Russian *starting at 2100 direct from SMG at 35 degrees, which I would not expect to be so good here, so early in the afternoon. VR does have this annoying habit of running the IS after transmissions, then turning off instead of starting one.

Maybe they moved Russian a UT hour earlier than originally planned, due to the permanent time change in Russia? But it was supposed to be only half an hour. Hmm, EiBi shows the target as Far East, rather than Europe, i.e. for the morning. HFCC shows CIRAF targets as 29, 33, and 34, i.e. western Russia (late evening) plus southeastern Russia = FE, skipping all of Siberia in between?? In case there was a feed mixup, nothing else scheduled just before 2100 on 7385. And now from 2059, WWCR signs on 7465, becoming the SSOB by far (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 21630, Jan 24 at 1515, open carrier, fair signal. Only one scheduled now is WHRI but normally not active weekdays, and besides, there were no spurs; monitored a while longer but nothing developed. BBC Ascension, and IRIB Sirjan use 21630 at other times (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)