giovedì 25 giugno 2009

Glenn Hauser logs June 25, 2009

** CANADA. 11850, YL in non-Mandarin Chinese dialect, June 25 at 1213, VG signal but with squeal – alternating 2 or 3 pitches, which almost seemed like exotic instrument musical accompaniment; it could be heard more clearly by tuning to the LSB, as the USB was bothered by BBC/GUF from 11860. It`s CRI in Cantonese as scheduled via Sackville during this hour. Don`t recall hearing Sackville with the squeal problem much before (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake check June 25: at 1222, nothing audible on 8400 or 9000 but at 1331, both very poorly audible. At 1242, very poor on 13500 only but gone at 1338 recheck.

However, the CNR1 jammers were doing much better. At 1238 kid singing off-key (on key in Chinese terms?) on 11840, poor but in the clear, unlike on // 11825, 11805 and 11785 where it just happened to collide with Western broadcasts in Chinese! Also on 12040, 13830. 11825 mix had a ``Voice of America`` singing ID in English at 1232.

So could 11840 be a legitimate CNR1 frequency? Of course not! Per Aoki, It`s there to jam All India Radio`s Chinese service, altho inaudible here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** FRANCE [non]. 13640, RFI via GUIANA FRENCH, VG June 25 at 1134 with YL reciting Météo Marine info; she is a real human, not a computer or robot! Wonder if marine weather is exempt from strike. Next check 1142, already back to Musique. Presumably continued to 1230 instead of Spanish, and off the air after 1230 unlike some other occasions (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. Someone reported VOI on 9524 or so around 1800; thus I checked whether the frequency had also jumped when we can hear it between 1200 and 1400: no, still just a shade below 9525 at 1330 June 25 when gamelan could be discerned, but pretty weak now during the English hour, unlike at 1200 when it was incoming well (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MALAYSIA. VOM, 11884.7, June 25 at 1148 fair signal with rolling fades in ballad, noticeably distorted audio, 1152 announcement in Chinese; 1208 in talk, presumably news, 1210 back to a song. 1228 a bit of Chinese operatic music, 1229 brief announcement and 1230 open carrier for a few minutes.

No IDs discernible, but who else is on 11884.7? PWBR `2009` shows 11884v, but Ron Howard frequently logs it close to 11884.7, which should round to 11885, not 11884.

This is the VOM Chinese service at 1130-1230, and not jammed! Is it for overseas Chinese around SE Asia? No, target is Beijing area, with 50 or 100 kW at 25 degrees from Kajang site, and thus also favoring us.

Perhaps the ChiCom consider VOM too insignificant to bother with, and/or from a country sufficiently autocratic to be rated as friendly. No het audible either from anything on 11885.0 tho Aoki shows PBS Xinjiang, Urumqi is also on in Uighur, running 50 kW at 230 degrees. Nice to hear VOM here, as I never have any luck with VOM on 15295, or any of the 7 MHz Malaysian channels (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. For those DXing Nightlight loops in the twilight of the analog era, I note that KJRH, channel 2, Tulsa, visibly inserts its slogan ID periodically, ``2 Works for You``, e.g. at 1404 UT June 25. O, I see this station is scheduled to turn off as of June 26! For the first time in 55 years, Tulsans will be able to TVDX on prime channel 2. Before 1700 UT unID Es DX was starting to come in here on 2, and KJRH is easy to override at this distance.

During the transition, I got KJRH-DT on channel 56 a number of times, but that`s now off-limits, and their permanent DT is channel 8, which I guess is already going, with KTUL moved to DT channel 10. KJRH ERP on 56 was 800 kW, while on 8 it`s only 15.9! What are they thinking? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN [non]. Quite a while since my last check of REE`s token Co-official language newscasts, M-F 1240-1255. So June 25 at 1245 tuned in COSTA RICA relay on 15170, very strong signal such that even its undermodulation was sufficient, as Catalan was ending and Galician was starting with its catchy sea-chanty theme. 1250 into Basque, but as always just the quick open, and close at 1255 are really in Basque, while the body of the segment is in Castilian.

This is really wacky, as the whole point of doing news in co-official languages is to broadcast in those languages, however briefly, isn`t it? It makes one suspect that no one at REE Madrid understands Basque, so the Basques have been instructed to do their news in Castilian, to be sure nothing untoward is conveyed on behalf of terrorists, separatists. OTOH, one can also assume every Basque who might be listening also understands Castilian, certainly not vice-versa (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WWCR 15825 inbooming already as early as 1131 tune-in June 25, and under Alex Scourby`s ponderous Bible readings, the self-inflicted squeal was quite audible. Best signal by far on 19m, tho VOA Greenville B also in well on 15390 Creole, 15590 & 13715 Spanish. Means sporadic E had already kicked in, but this morning did not reach VHF channel 2. 13845 WWCR not yet on the air, but it too inboomed after 1200 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. VOA Spanish, 13715, Enfoque Andino segment, June 25 at 1137 with report from someone at VOASAT affiliate R. La Plata, Sucre, Bolivia. I think they were just mentioning its frequency 9715 as I intuned, but I believe that is inactive, varying to 9717 per WRTH; 1139 another one, from Bogotá (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. WEWN, 11530 in English sermon, VG June 25 at 1219 plus the usual distorted parasitix around 11520 and 11540. Something was getting creamed on 11520, per Aoki YFR in Indonesian via Taiwan, Catholix vs Protestants trying to convert Moslems! And on the other hand, something on 11535 was getting it from both sides. I should have focused on IDing that as nothing is listed, altho VOK is on there at other times (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###