domenica 1 aprile 2012

Glenn Hauser logs March 31, 2012

** CHINA. Firedrake March 31, before 1300:
15445, very poor at 1238, this time weaker than 15450 Turkey
14700, JBA at 1247
13970, very good at 1247
12600, good at 1248

After 1300:
12230, very poor at 1325
12600, very good at 1324
13920, poor at 1324
13970, very good at 1324
14700, very poor at 1323
15445, fair at 1251, vs het on 15448 also against Turkey 15450
15500, very good at 1319
15550, very good at 1319
15900, fair at 1322
16100, very good at 1322
16700, very good at 1322

Before 1400:
15485, very good at 1342
15560, very good at 1342 with het on 15558
15900, poor at 1347

After 1400:
15615, very good at 1415

Other ChiCom jamming situations:
15115, March 31 at 1319, VOA in English about US funding projects, faked out as then into Chinese for consecutive translation; and with CNR1 jamming. This hour has VOA Chinese, 14 degrees from Thailand USward

15250, March 31 at 1245, echo jamming plus a het vs VOA Chinese Tinang
15265, March 31 at 1317, Chinese echo and a het here instead; against RTI in Chinese

15795, March 31 at 1321, just whining and grinding in the interim after jamming India`s Chinese service until 1315, before Sound of Hope via Tajikistan at 1400-1430 per Aoki

17855, March 31 at 0527 the OSOB is weak Chinese here, W&M talking. RFA via SAIPAN is listed in Aoki and HFCC at 03-07; strangely enough, so is CRI but in English from Beijing site at 04-0557. But RFA Must Be Jammed too, likely with CNR1. 15 MHz band had lots of signals, most of them weak (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. 11845, March 31 at 1404. R. Martí now with noise jamming despite adjacent RHC 11840, but RM atop it, unlike on 11930 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, no signal from R. Africa, March 31 at 1506 after TOM via ROMANIA is off [see SOUTH CAROLINA [non]], nor at 1939 when Bata had been fairly reliable the last couple weeks. Ron Howard was also not hearing them at the earlier hour on March 29 or 30 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9526-, March 31 at 1331, zero signal during the VOI English hour today tho 9680 RRI was well audible.

9680, March 31 at 1407, RRI with Indonesian singing, accompanied by hi-pitched audio cutting on and off rapidly almost like fast CW; more obvious by tuning BFO plus or minus 5 to either sideband. I think it`s coming from the same transmitter. Nothing audible from the Taiwan/Mainland radio war which used to collide with 9680 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** JAPAN [non]. 11705, March 31 at 1403, R. Japan news in English, fair signal at S9+12. Remember when NHK was nice enough to relay this frequency via Sackville to North America? Then for a while it was via Japan simultaneously with an echo; then only from Japan. And now in A-12 it`s from a new site, PALAU due west, but which turns out to be sufficient again here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KUWAIT [and non]. 21540, Saturday March 31 at 1401, R. Kuwait in well, but can`t hear any Spain underneath, tho it is fairly good on 21610. At 1440 still all I hear is Arabic, and 1445 into Qur`an. Long pauses still don`t reveal any Spanish; 1500* cut off abruptly still Qur`an in progress: Allah`ll get `em for that.

The REE schedule at
http://programasdx.com/principal_archivos/frecuenciasreea12.pdf
has the answer. It`s one of those anomalies, where on Sat & Sun they close 21540 at 1400*, an hour earlier than on M-F at 1500*. Of course, REE ought to move it somewhere else completely as long as Kuwait stix to 21540 instead of the frequency it promises to use, 21520. Usually big REE signal to NAm on 17595 also notable by its absence, now scheduled 13-15 M-F only (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 750, March 31 at 1215 UT, steady música romántica from WSW/ENE, alone on frequency and no signal from KMMJ Nebraska even when nulled. 1217 ID as ``Stereo Vida, sólo para ella``, and the next song also sung by a YL --- so maybe the format is really only for lesbians? Fading by 1221. Cantú shows the only Stereo Vida on 750 is:
750 XECSI Stereo Vida + FM 89.5 Culiacán, Sin. 5,000 250
WRTH and IRCA agree, except with day power of 1,000 W (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MOROCCO [and non]. After several days starting A-12 on 15341+ or 15345+, IMM is back to 15349.1+, as in most of B-11, resuming hetting any station unfortunate enough to have chosen 15350. March 31 at 1239 the old high-A-note het again, i.e. 880 Hz vs 15350 = 15349.12 or so. IMM is stronger here with some Arabaudio. Strangely, no signal (yet) from HCJB Australia on 15340 which had been hit by its het. But at 1316 it`s in with a good and het-free signal with S Asian music.

Morocco is still on 15349.12 with a 15350.0 het at 1435. The 15350 victim is Gospel for Asia = Athmeeya Yatra Radio in a multitude of S Asian languages from 1230 to 1500, 250 kW due east from Wertachtal, GERMANY. For details see Aoki which now has A-12 up in plain text, and updated daily:
http://www1.m2.mediacat.ne.jp/binews/bia12.txt
If IMM now stays on 15349.12 during its entire 08-21 UT span, the other victims will be:
CRI English via EAST TURKISTAN until 1057;
VOA Burmese via PHILIPPINES at 1130-1230
R. Veritas Asia Filipino via VATICAN at 1500-1553
HFCC also has a wooden entry for RSO Oman at 18-20

Not checked again until 1938 when IMM is still on 15349+ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ROMANIA. 11870-11875-11880, March 31 at 0537, DRM noise is overriding 11870 WEWN on AM in Spanish, which had no such problem in B-11. A-12 scheduled at 0530-0600 only is RRI in English to W Europe, 307 degrees so also USward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SAUDI ARABIA. 15285, March 31 at 0524, Swahili talk, somewhat distorted modulation, Cairo? No, not this time, but Riyadh, BSKSA scheduled 04-07, 500 kW, 190 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. The Overcomer Ministry is no longer extending the IRRS relay via ROMANIA 15190, an extra two hours Saturday only after 1500 for the live Sabbath service until 1700. Nothing there March 31 at 1506, tho it had been on earlier, such as at 1318. That means 15190 is also open for R. Africa, Equatorial Guinea [q.v.] should it come back on the air as early as 1500, (1515 or 1530 as below).

The latest HFCC as of March 30 no longer shows the Sat 15-17 broadcast from MIL either, altho still at 13-15, in ``Arabic``! As well as Fri 1500-1515 and Sun 1500-1530 (the latter axually Santec in English). Instead: 15700 Saturdays only at 15-17 in ``Arabic``. I did not run across Brother Scare there altho at the time I was not aware of that scheduling.

What does the IRRS/NEXUS-IBA/EGR site say? The Saturday schedule as of 25 March now does show 15700 at 15-17 after 15190 at 13-15 UT.

DX Mix News also picked this up and thinx the site is probably ARMENIA. Also shows Armenia on 15650 for a daily TOM broadcast at 12-14. Remembering this frequency, I was checking 15650 after 1500 which already has V. of Greece colliding with R. Liberty in Turkmen. At 1507 I could almost think there was a third station in the mix with the urgent intonations of Brother Scare, like on 15420, 9980 and 9385, but of course none would be synchronized for a definite match.

What does the TOM homepage say now March 31: possibly pertinent:
``MidEast 11590 15-17:00 UTC Daily
Africa 15750 7-10:00 UTC Saturday-FREE!
FAR EAST 15190 13-15:00 UTC Daily
Satudays [sic] 15700 15-17:00 UTC ****
AFRICA 17580 15-16:00 UTC Daily
FarEast 15650 12-14:00 UTC Daily``

Don`t even look at their ftp shortwave schedule download, which is further out of date without these, but with WBCQ still on 7415, etc.
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN. 6055, March 31 at 0528, another REE frequency with severe problems, maybe same transmitter as on 15110 from 1900? But this one is not spurring all over the place; instead, distorted modulation audible only at peak spikes, and no match for RHC encroaching on both sides (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also KUWAIT [and non]

** TAJIKISTAN. 11500, March 31 at 1249, just a big hum from the Dushanbé relay of VOR`s English to S Asia, which had been funxional earlier this week. That`s more like it! Thruout the A-11 season, this transmission often failed, and it seems A-12 will be no different. Is no one paying attention in Moscow or Orzu? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY. 15450, March 31 at 1245, VOT is starting `DX Corner`, so confirmed this is an on-week for the fortnightly. She starts with VOT`s own new English schedule: unfortunately, every time cited as ``UTC`` is really local, so all of them are three hours too late!!! She doesn`t even realize she is reading the wrong column of her own schedule! This does not bode well.

And what is she going to do without Media Network to crib? After an item about Japan to launch a new satellite, at 1251 cited ``DXing the Finnish Way`` website with item about 639 kHz in Czechia; at 1250 about R. Azad Hind in India, a story we also have fully credited in DXLD 12-13; then at 1254 about HFCC B-12, August in Paris, sent to her by Drita Çiço. I also got her mass-mailing about that, so I know Drita had picked up the item (and fully credited it herself), from DXLD 12-12, but did the Turkess credit DXLD? Of course not! I am sick and tired of broadcasters and others ripping off my hard work without even the courtesy of a mention! Another item followed about a ham commemoration of the Titanic, and already ending show at 1257.

Hear it for yourself on a Saturday/UT Sunday repeat, at the correct UTs in our just-updated A-12 DX/SWL/MEDIA PROGRAMS:
http://www.worldofradio.com/dxpgms.html

DXing the Finnish Way, http://finndxer.wordpress.com/
is mostly second-hand (not that there`s anything wrong with that) more about MW than SW, and usually cites sources including DXLD, altho ``various`` doesn`t cut it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U K [non]. 21630, March 31 at 1357 another collision on 13m, B-B-C- chimes over some language talking with distorted modulation, but at 1359 just as London is signing on, the other audio stops. HFCC explains it, as 1400 is when Somali via Cyprus Saturdays only [but often in English instead] hands 21630 over to Hausa via Ascension (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 12150, March 31 at 1325, VOA `Jazz America` with good signal, also on 7575, but what about 9760, where we spotted in the A-12 HFCC that CRI English via Kunming would also be colliding during this hour on weekends? Yes, it is, March 31 at 1329 check, atop the jazz, while another CRI frequency is clear nearby, 9730 Beijing site. How long till IBB does something about this, like moving away from 9760? 12150 is TINANG, 9760 is TINIAN, 7575 THAILAND.

Meanwhile, VOA Korean via TINIAN, 7225 was playing its own jazz piano music March 31 at 1327, then Korean announcement (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1610 monitoring: Area 51 via WBCQ 5110-CUSB, this UT Saturday did not start until 0129 March 31, after an extended `AWWW`. More audio on the USB, but also audible on the LSB. Next best airing: UT Sunday 0400 on WTWW 5755. On WRMI 9955: Sat 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, Mon 0500, 1130. On WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1730, Sun 0830 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VATICAN [non]. 13730, March 31 at 1207, very poor signal in English M&W; by 1212 improved slightly to hear Vatican Radio ending news mentioning date, maybe plugging a saint, 1214 open carrier to 1215*. So VR`s English broadcast at 1200 is again on the air via CANADA, and confirmed, altho there was no VR or RCI IS before closing. It`s 189 degrees from Sackville to Caribbean and Central America, no comparison to the bigsig on 13750 from Greenville VOA Spanish with country music in English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VIETNAM. 12000, March 31 at 1245 Russian YL with strange accent, then a clip I thought was in Chinese, but must have been Vietnamese, since this is VOV`s 1100-1330 transmission alternating Chinese and Russian on 100 kW, 27 degree beam from Hanoi-Sontay, also USward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 11860, March 31 at 0536, again tonight weak signal mixed with 1000 Hz tone. Latest HFCC and Aoki still show nothing but Iran in Turkish and Tibet in Chinese (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 15425-15445, peaking circa 15432, weak propeller noise, and same pitch heard at 15540-15550. That points to spurs equally emanating from a frequency at the midpoint, circa 15490, but blocked by Firedrake on 15485. So my theory is that the spurs are from V. of Tibet via TAJIKISTAN which Aoki has on 15487 at this hour, amid many other split spots for their jammer-evading jumparounds. Or even from the 15485 Firedrake transmitter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)