sabato 11 maggio 2013

Glenn Hauser logs May 9-10, 2013

** ANTARCTICA. 15476, May 9 at 2237, no signal from LRA36 during supposed reactivation starting at 2200: later learned from South American monitors that they were hearing it *before* 2200 and after 1800, so that is its approximate schedule, maybe M-F only. Just as well, since I had ACI from 15480 Egypt to South America which starts at 2215. Nothing at all is scheduled anywhere on 15470 or 15475 at 18-22, but 15480 also has BBC Arabic at 17-21, via UAE until 20 and via Oman after 20, so where that is problematic, the best window for LRA36 should be 21-22.

Wolfgang Büschel was hearing the 15476 carrier only via a remote radio in Iceland. As before, RNASG will no doubt be a tough catch in North America with 1? kW. Compare to LTA LSB feeder on 13363.55 or 15820, not on today, but more likely on weekends; and to RAE/Nacional on 15345v which starts at 1800 except Saturdays from 2000. It`s still a long way from General Pacheco to Base Esperanza but those are the closest 15 MHz SW stations to LRA36.

BTW, the WRTH 2013 National section under Antarctica lists LRA36, but for SW says ``see International section``, where there is NO ANTARCTICA entry at all! Removed from the 2012 edition. Will this be rectified in the imminent A-13 update due any day now via the
http://www.wrth.com/updates_new.asp link? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BANGLADESH. 15505, May 10 at 1356 tune-in, already on with tone & hum, 1357:48 starts IS, and TS ends at 1359:47, sign-on mentions Bangladesh Betar, fair signal, 1405 music break, more talk in Urdu (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake May 10, before 1300:
13795 is still/again heard, fair at 1230, the last of the lot, and not much CCI today from target R. Free Asia, Tibetans via KUWAIT at 12-14.

CNR1 jammers on former FD frequencies: nothing found 12-18 MHz except:
13830, fair at 1256
15610, poor at 1340 under WEWN, het on lo side from V. of Tibet
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. 17575, May 10 at 1257, adjacent 17580 Cuba, Chinese orchestral music, not Firedrake, 1300 Chinese announcement, but not your usual CRI or CNR1 opening, and cut off at 1300:33*. Listed by Aoki as CRI Russian service at 12-13, 500 kW, 315 degrees from Shijiazhuang 723 site at 11428E, 3804N (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** COSTA RICA. 5965, May 10 at 0455, REE relay is on right frequency, with sufficient signal but quite undermodulated, not enough vs the noise level, and no comparison to e.g. neighbor 5935 WWCR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 6010, May 10 at 0457 is playing NA, i.e. closing of Spanish service // 5040 and 6060, despite 6010 not supposed to be on until 0500 and only in English, which is still on 6000, 6165; meanwhile 6125 already on too with open carrier. Previously it seemed that the 6000 transmitter was the one eventually changing to 6125. Maybe it was really the 11760 transmitter.

15215-15245, May 10 at 1235, buzz coming out of RHC 15230 transmitter, QRMing some neighbors, the level and extent fluxuating (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** IRAN. 17660, May 10 at 0525, VIRI`s IS is playing, poor with flutter; 17700, May 10 at 0527 found same, but not in synch; 0530 both sign on in standard format: brief ID, NA, another announcement, Qur`an (an exercise in piety), but I couldn`t make out the languages. HFCC shows ``Bosnian`` on 17660, Spanish on 17700, both 500 kW via Kamalabad, 297 and 289 degrees respectively (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH. 15180, May 10 at 1240, VOK VG signal with nice harmonious choral music from paradise, then piano solo and band. Pulsating jamming noise could be heard during soft passages and pauses, but no other language mixing in. 1248 Korean announcement and anthem until 1250*. The jamming noise stopped a second before the carrier was turned off, which may be significant (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MOROCCO. 9579.1, May 10 at 0515, French news, 6h15 timecheck, and in the clear with no het from Gabon for a change, i.e. this is Médi 1 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NEW ZEALAND. 11725 AM & 11675 DRM, May 10 at 0518 check, RNZI is back on both transmitters, unlike 24 hours earlier (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 1120, May 9 at 1943 UT check, KEOR is off again. You never know whether they will be on the air or not. Is that any way to run a radio station? (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SUDAN [non]. 11560, May 10 at 0519, good signal with hilife music, 0521 non-English announcement, i.e. Miraya FM, which does have some English portions. Ivo Ivanov`s latest DX Re Mix schedule puts it thus:

``SECRETLAND Summer A-13 of transmissions via Secretbrod (with great probability) 0300-0600 on 11560 SCB 050 kW / 195 deg to EaAf English/Arabic Radio Miraya`` --- meaning the contentious Kostinbrod site near Sofia, BULGARIA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 15775, May 10 at 1341, VOA Korean with usual bigsig via Tinang, PHILIPPINES also aimed USward. English lesson based on lyrix from Pink Floyd`s ``The Wall`` with clips, weirdly apropos for NK audience: ``We don`t need no education`` --- then explaining how that is not proper English: make it ``any education``, or ``we need no education``. And even more so: ``We don`t need no thought control!``; ``Teachers, leave them kids alone`` -- again, should say ``those``, not ``them``. ``You`re just another brick in the wall``. Finally at 1354 let the whole song play for a while without interruption.

BTW, VOA has been indicted by BBG Watch for propagating NK propaganda unchallenged, with video evidence. Well worth reading about this and other issues:
http://www.usgbroadcasts.com/bbgwatch/2013/05/07/broadcasting-board-of-governors-information-war-lost-dysfunctional-defunct-and-ungovernable-david-ensor-speaks-%E2%80%93-the-newsroom-and-the-fy2014-budget/
http://www.usgbroadcasts.com/bbgwatch/2013/05/09/broadcasting-board-of-governors-%C2%A0information-war-lost-%C2%A0dysfunctional-defunct-and-ungovernable-%C2%A0the-latest-numbers-game/
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 12025-12075, May 9 at 1949, WEWN 12050 accompanied by undefined (no particular peaks) noise field plus/minus 25 kHz. Normally strong daytime signal may have been enhanced by sporadic E.

13830, May 9 at 1949 is squealing on the other Spanish frequency.

15610 English is not as strong, however, and its squishy spurs are weak but detectable at plus/minus 8 kHz (not the usual 9). Suspect they have swapped transmitters on 15610 and 12050, or tweaked something without really fixing the problems (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9930, May 9 at 1954, WTWW-2 is on with ``Hello, Love`` C&W music on VG signal; happened to recheck at 2239 and heard playback of WORLD OF RADIO 1665 (from three weeks ago), just ending, so it started at 2210 unpredictably in Ted Randall`s webcast loop. This could happen anytime between 17 and 24 UT, alternating with his QSO shows, Amateur Radio Newsline, etc. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1668 monitoring: Jeff White confirms that WRMI was off the air with minor transmitter problem during what would have been the first airing UT Thursday May 9 at 0330; since has returned. Next on 9955: Sat 1500, Tue 1100.

First airing confirmed Thu 2100 on WTWW-1 9479; however, transmitter cut off just as it was opening for about a minute until *2101:48. Hope there were no further breaks (meanwhile, 12105 was off the air but 9930 continued, and would play back WOR 1665 at 2210: see separate log).

Second airing confirmed UT Friday 0330 on WWRB 3195, but under heavy spring storm noise level. I have urged Dave to go up to 5050 for the rest of the season.

Next: UT Saturday 0130v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB; Saturday 0630 & 1430 on HLR 7265-CUSB in Germany; Saturday & Sunday 2330v on WTWW-2 9930; UT Sunday 0400 on WTWW-1 5830 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VIETNAM [and non]. 12130, May 10 at 1411, Vietnamese with whoop-whoop jamming audible underneath, i.e. as in Aoki, RFA at 14-15 via SRI LANKA, but no asterisk denoting this is jammed, unlike the later 12130 entry, RFA via Tinian at 16-17 M/W/F in Uyghur. As often happens, HFCC contradicts Aoki on site for Vietnamese, as also TINIAN, presumably more recent info (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)