** CHINA. Firedrake observations May 15: at 1240, very poor, barely audible on 8400, while very good on 9000 and as has recently been the case, not // any more but from separate feeds. None audible today on 9400 under FEBC. Maybe they hit it by mistake previously, overzealously blocking anything heard in Chinese. At 1322 FD on 15150 fairly good and not // 9000 either; all these presumably against inaudible Sound of Hope, Falung Gong via Taiwan.
Meanwhile lots of CNR1 jamming, such as on 19m, at 1323 on 15330 // 15285, but 15330 went off at 1330, and the victim on 15285 was also audible. BBCWS Uzbek via Cyprus is scheduled until 1330 on 15330, // 17515 where I also heard CNR1 jamming two days before (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. Another screwup at RHC, but mitigated by brevity: May 15 at 0500 I happened to be tuned to 6120, as the RHC Spanish service was closing for the night, distorted and lofi. Then it re-opened in Portuguese, but cut off the air after a semiminute. Portuguese at 0500 seems to be a regular feature on their program feed line, who knows why, as it is the middle of the night in Brasil and is not promoted as available even on webcast.
At 1221 on 6000 heard the voice of Arnaldo Coro with part of a `news` item within Despertar con Cuba, saying that Cuba would not be adopting the US DTV standard ATSC, due to trade restrixions(?) and anyhow, Cuba will have access to a superior DTV system when it is ready to change. Take your time: we are looking forward to more analog Cuban TV DX once most US lowband TV stations are gone June 12. It should be an interesting DX challenge to decode Cuban DTV, whatever it may become.
RHC 12000 again hit by heavy distorted co-channel QRM in Chinese, at 1314 May 15, previously tracked to the V. of Russia Khabarovsk transmitter as scheduled.
RHC 13880 leapfrog mixing product best yet, May 15 at 1318, S9+15 and not very distorted, quite readable, in item from UN Radio citing infexion figures for H1N1 in various American countries. Matching amphibian on 13580 was as usual weaker, only S9+10 or so, about the same as R. Prague English to NAm, and thus plenty to ruin its reception. These are caused by inadequate separation, physically and electronically, between the 13680 and 13780 transmitters and their antennas (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** FRANCE [non]. The strike at RFI must be continuing on May 15, as on 13640 at 1203 instead of news in Spanish I was hearing a version of ``Buena Vista`` mixing in rap, as if the original version were insufficient these days. 1206 ``RFI Musique`` ID and more music fill. This was SSOB --- strongest signal on band 22m, by far, eclipsing VOA, RHC, DCJC, etc., which had not yet built up to full strength. Scheduled as 1200-1230 RFI Spanish at 295 degrees from GUIANA FRENCH, following a semi-hour of French at 1130, 320 degrees, which I believe is Météo Marine --- is that cut off by the strike too? How will the mariners manage? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH. 11735 in Chinese with noisy buzz apparently emanating from same transmitter, VOK Kujang as scheduled during this hour, preceded and followed by Korean on same azimuth, 238 degrees with 200 kW per Aoki. VOK also audible more clearly in English on 11710. One assumes the ChiCom would never jam Chinese from their good neighbor (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K [non]. I haven`t mentioned this in months, so for the record, the same old classical music warhorses are *still* being used by BBC Mundo, the Spanish service relayed by WHRI on 9410 weekdays at 1200-1300. Great reception of great music, but only excerpts, and never identified as no announcements are permitted; listened May 15 1250-1300* abruptly off just as one piece had fortunately ended on its own. These included O Mio Babbino Caro, and Sunrise from Peer Gynt.
This is because BBC Spanish has been drastically reduced to nothing but a newscast at 1200, and the rest of the hour has to be filled by archival material, and from 1233 nothing but music, classical on M/W/F, pop hits on Tue/Thu. It would take only a minimum amount of effort for BBC Mundo to produce a real classical music show with much more variety and IDs of the music, but that is obviously beyond their capability or desire to do so (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
Meanwhile lots of CNR1 jamming, such as on 19m, at 1323 on 15330 // 15285, but 15330 went off at 1330, and the victim on 15285 was also audible. BBCWS Uzbek via Cyprus is scheduled until 1330 on 15330, // 17515 where I also heard CNR1 jamming two days before (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. Another screwup at RHC, but mitigated by brevity: May 15 at 0500 I happened to be tuned to 6120, as the RHC Spanish service was closing for the night, distorted and lofi. Then it re-opened in Portuguese, but cut off the air after a semiminute. Portuguese at 0500 seems to be a regular feature on their program feed line, who knows why, as it is the middle of the night in Brasil and is not promoted as available even on webcast.
At 1221 on 6000 heard the voice of Arnaldo Coro with part of a `news` item within Despertar con Cuba, saying that Cuba would not be adopting the US DTV standard ATSC, due to trade restrixions(?) and anyhow, Cuba will have access to a superior DTV system when it is ready to change. Take your time: we are looking forward to more analog Cuban TV DX once most US lowband TV stations are gone June 12. It should be an interesting DX challenge to decode Cuban DTV, whatever it may become.
RHC 12000 again hit by heavy distorted co-channel QRM in Chinese, at 1314 May 15, previously tracked to the V. of Russia Khabarovsk transmitter as scheduled.
RHC 13880 leapfrog mixing product best yet, May 15 at 1318, S9+15 and not very distorted, quite readable, in item from UN Radio citing infexion figures for H1N1 in various American countries. Matching amphibian on 13580 was as usual weaker, only S9+10 or so, about the same as R. Prague English to NAm, and thus plenty to ruin its reception. These are caused by inadequate separation, physically and electronically, between the 13680 and 13780 transmitters and their antennas (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** FRANCE [non]. The strike at RFI must be continuing on May 15, as on 13640 at 1203 instead of news in Spanish I was hearing a version of ``Buena Vista`` mixing in rap, as if the original version were insufficient these days. 1206 ``RFI Musique`` ID and more music fill. This was SSOB --- strongest signal on band 22m, by far, eclipsing VOA, RHC, DCJC, etc., which had not yet built up to full strength. Scheduled as 1200-1230 RFI Spanish at 295 degrees from GUIANA FRENCH, following a semi-hour of French at 1130, 320 degrees, which I believe is Météo Marine --- is that cut off by the strike too? How will the mariners manage? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH. 11735 in Chinese with noisy buzz apparently emanating from same transmitter, VOK Kujang as scheduled during this hour, preceded and followed by Korean on same azimuth, 238 degrees with 200 kW per Aoki. VOK also audible more clearly in English on 11710. One assumes the ChiCom would never jam Chinese from their good neighbor (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K [non]. I haven`t mentioned this in months, so for the record, the same old classical music warhorses are *still* being used by BBC Mundo, the Spanish service relayed by WHRI on 9410 weekdays at 1200-1300. Great reception of great music, but only excerpts, and never identified as no announcements are permitted; listened May 15 1250-1300* abruptly off just as one piece had fortunately ended on its own. These included O Mio Babbino Caro, and Sunrise from Peer Gynt.
This is because BBC Spanish has been drastically reduced to nothing but a newscast at 1200, and the rest of the hour has to be filled by archival material, and from 1233 nothing but music, classical on M/W/F, pop hits on Tue/Thu. It would take only a minimum amount of effort for BBC Mundo to produce a real classical music show with much more variety and IDs of the music, but that is obviously beyond their capability or desire to do so (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
