venerdì 25 settembre 2009

Glenn Hauser logs September 25, 2009

** BRAZIL. 4885, romantic music and Brazilian announcements between songs, presumed R. Clube do Pará, the usual 24-hour dominant here, but a long time since it overcame noise level enough and CODAR, Sept 25 at 0523-0529+ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake Sept 25: at 1340, equally poor but audible on 8400, 9000; nothing on 10210 or other higher frequencies, except for the usual // mix on 12040 with CNR1 and VOA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. Which combination of frequencies and languages will RHC be using tonight, UT Sept 25 at 0519? 6140, 6060 and 6010 in English; 6120 and 6000 in Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 4750, RRI Makassar, best heard in quite a while, Sept 25 at 1241 lively W&M dialog in Indonesian, 1242 romantic music, sufficient signal over rumble of co-channel QRM. What a pity that China and Bangladesh have to use the same frequency when there are plenty of openings nearby.

Nothing much else audible from Indonesia on 60m, but could hear some AM talk on 3995 at 1251, marred by insensitive SSB hams who regard broadcast stations, even RRI Kendari as nothing but a nuisance, or at best a BFO source. See also PAPUA NEW GUINEA.

VOI with usual low modulation during English hour, Sept 25 at 1350; no het so did not bother to measure frequency as usual 9524.9, but at 1435 a big higher-pitched het from CRI on the lo side rather than a lo het on the hi side; ergo, VOI has switched back to the transmitter almost one kHz high. In the clear again at 1500 when I could barely outmake a www announcement, but off at 1501* before English could really start repeating. Ron Howard measured it on 9525.88, and during the 10 UT broadcast this same day, Chuck Bolland reported 9525.85 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH [and non]. Juche jamming noise audible on 3985, 3912 and 3480 against the S. Korean clandestines, Sept 25 at 1252. Could make out some talk too on 3912. Same type of roar less effectively against VOA Korean on 5890 at 1255 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PAPUA NEW GUINEA [and non]. Signs of life on PNG channels, Sept 25 at 1253: 3220 and 3385 with music; something on 3260; 3335 with off-frequency SSB QRM; 3345 sounds like two stations, the other being RRI Ternate if active? At 1301, 3220 had a song, while at 1303, 3335 sounded like news, still with SSB QRM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. 7200 at 1310 Sept 25, Russian talk vs SSB ham on exactly same frequency. Russia is also audible on 7200 as early as 0500 now. Per Aoki this is NVK R. Sakha-R. Rossii, 100 kW non-direxional from Yakutsk at 19-15. WRTH says it`s 250 kW, which I could easily believe. HFCC says 250 kW and 45 degrees, which I could also believe, enhancing the signal usward. Yakutsk is at 62 north, 130 east. Sunset there today was 0909 UT per
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=1907

7200 is supposed to be off-limits for broadcasters as the boundary frequency between ham and BC bands now in Regions 1 and 3, but Aoki also shows Malaysia/Sarawak and Myanmar on 7200 --- is either really active on 7200? As well as further west, Iran and Sudan.

15510 playing songs in Italian by an OM singer with an American accent, Sept 25 at 1348 and 1355; one lyric was ``non é un'altra donna``. What`s this? Certainly not Rai or SRI Switzerland, the Italian native-language countries which abandoned SW long ago.

What else but the VOR Pashto/Dari service, as in Aoki at 12-14, 250 kW, 110 degrees from Krasnodar, RUSSIA as also revealed by VOR IS at 1359, smooth transition at 1400 to DW, 500 kW, 76 degrees via Rampisham, UK in Russian with Novosti (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Further chex of WRMI 9955 on the UT Friday Sept 25 NW antenna test (see previous report) did not turn up any audible signal between 0400 and 0530 when I upgave. Happy Station has another new time on the schedule, Friday 1300, but just as I expected, at 1339 nothing but DentroCuban jamming audible then when WRMI is on the SSE antenna (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 5000+, Sept 25 at 1246 noticed different-pitched timesignals slightly on hi side of strong WWV, definitely not on the lo side; WWVH much weaker but also audible. The pips were slightly unsynchronized with WWV; minute markers were also distinctly pitched compared to WWV/H; listened carefully past 1300 including during WWV voice announcements just before minutetops, but never heard any voice (or code) IDs from this.

Propagationally, BPM in Xi`an, China most likely, but supposedly on standard frequency too of 5000.0; Taiwan, South Korea and India are not all active on 5000, if any of them are. One reference is
http://www.dxinfocentre.com/time.htm but it`s not up-to-date enough to include PPE in Brasil on 10000 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 5785-5835, weak OTH radar pulses covering this range, presumably from China, Sept 25 at 1256 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 9600.4, very weak carrier detectable as het to 9600.0, Sept 25 at 0514, XEYU? But I also heard het of exactly same pitch on 9700 against presumed DW Rwanda, don`t know whether above or below.

Quite a coincidence, raising question whether it is something of local origin, such as a long-forgotten almost-100 kHz crystal oscillator? But my HQ-160 is long gone, sob. If so, should appear every 100 kHz, but no sign of anything like that around 9500 or 9800. And anyway, harmonix of 100 kHz if slightly off-frequency would not be precisely 100 kHz apart so the het pitches would differ slightly (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###