martedì 3 marzo 2009

Glenn Hauser logs March 2-3, 2009

** AUSTRALIA. RA was not propagating on 9580, 9590 in Dec-Jan, and much of Feb, but by March 3 they are back up to good strength, 9580 until 1358 and 9590 continuing another hour or two, tho with much weaker signal here in the Alaskan service, requiring the longwire, not just a whippy portable.

At 1436, a show featuring pow-wow music from Rapid City, and discussing the innovation of allowing women to sing. Per schedule grid at http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/universal.htm
this was AWAYE, from Radio National, which airs on RA only at 1405-1500 UT Tuesdays, this ep mainly about Lewis & Clark and the Blackfeet; audio available: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/awaye/stories/2009/2489541.htm

This page explains the show and the presenter, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/awaye/about/ but never what Awaye means; is it an acronym?

BTW, the Feb 7 AWAYE show, repeated from 2005y, was about CAAMA – and ought to have gone into the VL8 shower services:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/awaye/stories/2009/2482010.htm
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA [and non]. Wondering whether Sackville was still relaying VOT in Turkish instead of English at 0400 on 7325, I missed checking UT March 2, but on UT March 3 I could detect no signal at all on 7325. Either Sackville transmitters were down as the 6175 Vietnam relay was also inaudible, or more likely the MUF had plunged? Other North American signals on 6 and 7 MHz were poor, such as WRNO 7505 just barely audible; main European still making it was Spain on 6055, thanks to its southerly location, despite the fact that on the way to Enid it enters North America over Gander, which is about 2 degrees further north than Sackville. ``The skip was long``; meanwhile far-southerly signals such as Russia via French Guiana on 7335, Netherlands via Bonaire on 5975 were inbooming as usual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. Arnie must have seen my recent report that RHC is colliding with Romania in Spanish on 6140 at 0300-0357, because UT March 3 at 0448 I found RHC in English back on 6180, ex-6140 where it had been for several months. Such `quick` action is unusual. But now RHC is colliding with, altho atop, DW English via Rwanda in the 04 UT hour. I don`t yet know for sure whether RHC is off 6140 at 0300, and/or earlier, but probably. Recheck at 0502, RHC still on 6180 and now seems less QRM from Rwanda where the sun is rising, which runs until 0530 with no change in facilities. 0650 recheck, still on with music, in the clear.

If RHC stays on 6180 in A-09 it will again be colliding with VOA Greenville in English to Africa, from 0500 to 0700, which was the subject of a heated controversy last year as I complained about it for months and RHC finally moved to 6140, pretending it was for some other reason (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA. Unlike Monday, on Tuesday March 3, AIR National Channel, 9425, went back to Hindi at 1435 after the 1430 news in English, hard for an Okie to understand due to heavy accent and heavy flutter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. VOI still MIA March 3 from 9525, 9526 and 11785, checked at 1330. Or I should say ``missing in inaxion``. The bands were-chock full of fluttery Chinese signals, except on these frequencies. Also checked 15150, but 19m below 15590 was virtually dead, not yet open, tho a few minutes later it started to bloom, still minus Indonesia. At 1359 CRI Kashi was again up on 11785 with vamping musical prelude, 1400 opening in Chinese, still no sign of VOI. 1436 recheck, still no VOI on any of its known frequencies (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NEWFOUNDLAND. Tuned 2598-SSB again March 3 at 0743 and found much better signal than last time with marine weather for Newfoundland and The Maritimes; 0747 concluded with ID ``This is Placentia Coast Guard Radio --- oot``. Just as Noel Green reported, the current occupant of this frequency, a.k.a. VCP-4 with a daily broadcast starting at 0737. He says per http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca this is at St. Lawrence-Placentia. St. Lawrence is on the SE corner of the Burin Peninsula, while Placentia is across the bay on the west side of the Avalon Peninsula.

I finally found the schedule on page 15 of this document:
http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/folios/00026/docs/part-2ae-2008-eng.pdf
but referred to there as ``MCTS Placentia/VCP``. Several other stations broadcast on the same frequency in rotation, mostly starting at 7 or 37 minutes past different hours (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. For the record, KEOR 1120, Catoosa/Tulsa/Sperry, which I visited last week when it was on the air, was off the air at 2043 UT check March 2, and also at 1630 March 3 (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA [and non]. On a caradio bandscan at 2039 UT March 2, 1600 dominated by nearest station, KUSH in Cushing OK, with a SAH of 3.5 Hz; could also hear Vietnamese underneath, surely KRVA in The Metroplex, TX. But that`s the station I am 99% sure is the source of the audible het on 1600, which at this time was barely detectable. So a third station was involved; by proximity, a likely possibility is the Kansan, KMDO in Fort Scott, which I have never logged for sure (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ROMANIA. 12005, March 3 at 1422 with hip hop, lyrix seemed English; what could this be? 1424, sign-off in Chinese with, what else? RRI website info, 1425-1428* IS. Also, 11940, March 3 at 1439, Romanian service was playing soul music, ``women and girls rule my world`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. 5935, at tune-in 0728 March 3, talk in Russian, rudely interrupted by stronger Dead Gene Scott, who was merely in one of his lengthy pauses via WWCR, probably puffing on his ceegar. Identifying the Russian was not as easy as I expected. Aoki shows R. Rossii, Magadan but not at this hour. HFCC says it`s Chita, which I doubt. Lhasa is also scheduled except this was during its Tuesday-afternoon siesta. I`ll go with EiBi who does show R. Rossii, Magadan on 5935 at 1800-1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 4940, March 3 at 0729, fair signal in open carrier, helping to modulate CODAR swishing past every second. Unlikely to be any known 4940 broadcast station at this hour, China, India, Perú, São Tomé or Venezuela, so maybe just a ute (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. In DXLD 9-019, Blake in SC reported some `jamming` bothering WBCQ 5110 on the low side at 0150 March 2. At 0727 March 3, long after WBCQ is off 5110, I noticed noise centered about 5107, but I am sure it is some kind of utility, unsounds like jamming, especially with BFO on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 6120, very strong open carrier, March 3 at 0723-0740*; had a little hum on it, and turning up volume to max, could hear weak talk in Dutch, which was RN via France underneath as scheduled during this hour. Only thing else on 6120 is TWR Swaziland, but this was far too strong for them at 9:30 am local. Prime suspects are Habana and Greenville, testing for some reason; bears watching (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 13415-13440, presumed OTH radar pulses at 1404 March 3, mixing with CODAR at the top end (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###