sabato 17 ottobre 2009

Glenn Hauser logs October 16-17, 2009

** AUSTRALIA. Morning monitoring session starts Oct 17 at 1237 with lowest frequency 2310, and there is weak country music from VL8-land; a bit stronger on // 2325, and even better on // 2485 at S9+12; 1239 Strine-accented YL DJ mentions Abbey Lane before more music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BURMA [non]. 15480, Oct 17 at 1427 with tone test. Must be Democratic Voice of Burma about to start; 1430 to surprisingly well modulated music compared to what I expected from the tone level, cut to another piece of music and starting announcement in Burmese. This is via ARMENIA, so one can only wonder if relations between that country and the junta, if any, have been damaged or even brought about retaliation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. Besides the usual culture clash of CNR1 jamming VOA Cantonese via Tinang, Oct 17 at 1312 on 7365, there was also a big hum/buzz, and could not really tell from which source, or something else. CRI site is Shijuazhuang per Aoki at 37 degrees USward.

Firedrake Oct 17: at 1316, fair on 9000, very poor on 8400; at 1409, poor on 10210 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** COLOMBIA. 5910, Marfil Estéreo, active Oct 17 at 0531 with ID as HKI79-FM, usual non-soporific music for the nightmiddle, marred by ``running-water`` intermittent ute bursts overriding it, and continuous beeps on hi side; also bleedover from superstrong Cuban cut-numbers on 5898, Morse code spy letters sending like Arnie Coro`s DXers Unlimited keying at closing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. DentroCuban Jamming command still wasting countless kilowatts which could have been used for something constructive, by pulsing against nothing, Oct 17 at 0519: on 9545, 9565, 9825. Well, not nothing, but not anything threatening The Revolution, unlike at other dayparts. 9825 was ruining something in English, i.e. Deutsche Welle via South Africa at 0500-0530. Will the foreign ministry of Germany complain to that of Cuba? Of course not! 9565 bothered the wacky wailing preaching of Brasil`s IPDA, so no loss there.

Over at RHC itself, what`s happening? At 0527 Oct 17, 6010 and 6060 in English, but toss-up frequency 6140 this time in Spanish, along with 6120 and 6000. No phone ringing any more on these RHC frequencies, but still could hear that on 5898 underneath cut numbers spy transmission at 0532.

RHC 11760 spur check Oct 17 at 1407: typical tones on 11504.0 and 12067.2, but not much higher or lower (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA. AIR Aligarh blobcheck Oct 17: it`s back, after missing yesterday. Now centred approximately on proper frequency 9470, but spreading 9460-9480 with extreme distortion. At 1317 tone test matched that on Bengaluru 9425, and remained // for: 1318 IS, again with split-second audio dropouts at least on 9425, could not really tell on 9470, and so on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 4750, Oct 17 at 1259, RRI Makassar, Indonesian talk atop CCI, but not much else on 60m.

VOI, 9525.9, with good modulation for a change, proving it can be done if anyone is paying attention, Oct 17 at 1324 YL with news in brief, mentioning aid to W Sumatera, and another quake Friday. 1325 ID with www site for streaming, and claiming to be on three frequencies. 1326 Indonesian Wonders about something flavorful in east Java. Readability had soared to better than 50 percent (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH. Oct 17 a good NK morning: at 1240 on 2850, Juche soprano at S9+15, 1241 Korean announcement and more inspirational music. At 1245, 3912 had roaring jamming with S Korean victim also audible; at 1246, VOK feeder on 3560 audible in music, 1247 announcement not // 2850. At 1251, warbling jamming on 3480. At 1255 on 3280 music and presumed Korean. Just had time to scan 90m and not find much on the PNG frequencies except maybe 3325, before some neighbor turned on TVI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** LAOS [non]. Since Hmong Lao Radio was missing last weekend from its Sat/Sun 13-14 sked via WHRI 11785, I was standing by at 1300 Oct 17 to see what happen. Very strong open carrier came on for less than a minute 1300-1301, overriding VOA jingles. Surely this was WHRI, just reminding us they are still entitled to use that frequency hour, but are not doing so currently. Recheck at 1410 found them on the air with other Hmong program, World Christian Radio at 1400-1430 Saturdays only.

Since last I checked, HLR webpage
http://www.h-lr.com/ has added one more audio file, dated Oct 8, but it`s already Oct 17. Archive had two files per week in September on dates which correspond to Thursdays and Sundays, so was one of them different via Taiwan, and is that still on the 15260 air? In Oct the only two dates are 1 and 8, both Thursdays, implying that the WHRI broadcasts are indeed out of produxion (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MADAGASCAR [non]. WRN says they are again broadcasting Radio Mada, the clandestine service opposing last January/February`s coup, Sat and Sun 1530-1600 on 15640 via Moldova.

At 1530 Saturday Oct 17 here in OK, Western Hemisphere, only detectable a very weak and fluttery signal on 15640; the frequency also flutters, i.e. Doppler-affected. O o, I see that DW English via Portugal has been scheduled during this hour, so did WRN get them to cede, or is there a collision audible elsewhere? How is reception in the Eastern Hemisphere? Kai Ludwig points out that DW 15640 is really DRM (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. Winterish conditions are oncoming, with the lowering sun; Oct 16 already at 2100 UT, Spanish atop 1570, historical talk credited in 2103 outro as from Casa de la Cultura de Ciudad Acuña; but by next check 2123, the OK station was dominating with local ad for Tulsa. Both on caradio, nondirexional antenna. This has happened before, as the powerful XERF gets into skywave early, but then fades back down, all long before sundown which was 2353 UT (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. Driving around western Enid, still hearing a Talking House on 1670 in the daytime. Listening to the spiel, it`s exactly the same T.H. first heard in early August! One of the realtor`s claims is that if YOU take advantage of his T.H. deal, your house will sell quickly. Ha, this one still hasn`t sold in over two months. It`s the one with three stories, and all bedrooms on the top floor. Altho no exact address announced, as we were assumed to have been parked right in front of it, I was able to locate it as reported in DXLD 9-057:
http://www.w4uvh.net/dxld9057.txt ---

``Soon found a match, 202 Tanglewood in Whispering Hills, altho nothing mentioned there about its being a radio station!
http://www.enidhomes.com/homes/684398.htm
Yes, map finds address near intersexion of Wheatridge and Purdue.``
And followed up a month later in
http://www.w4uvh.net/dxld9069.txt

How many more months will this be running for follow-ups? Still have not visited this out-of-the-way radio station, but must do so, as this `part 15` transmitter has quite some range. While approaching I will be alert for smoke coming out of my caradio. Meanwhile the neighbors are no doubt out of luck from listening to any of the five real North American broadcasters on 1670.

Then the afternoon of Oct 16 I finally drive out to the place. To stay on paved roads, go west on Willow, north on Wheatridge almost to Purdue, and turn right into the little housing development, where some more are under construxion. You will not see a Tanglewood street sign on Wheatridge, as it is the parallel street to the east. This is indeed a big gray 3-story house, but it`s obviously occupied, with about 5 SUVs around it, a child`s yellow plastic wading pool not currently in use;

At gable peak there is not only a satellite dish, but a one-foot square antenna (? Or light?) aimed east, not what you would expect for a 180-meter wavelength. There were some cables hanging loose around these into the attic, so perhaps some of that goes with the 1670 kHz unit, but could not be sure. The road sign bearing 1670 frequency was propped up against the house, not really visible from the street, and surely on its way to being moved elsewhere, but the transmitter still running, so at 2035 UT I recorded the spiel at local range. Despite my apprehension, caradio did not start to smoke, and I could even still hear adjacent KXTR 1660 Kansas City in the daytime, parked next to the site. However the inhabitants are subject to huge Part 15 RF at point-blank range. Maybe I should remind Mr Winklejohn about it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA [and non]. During a MW bandscan while waiting in a western Enid store parking lot, which is known to be a good hotspot for MW reception, I was getting only a very weak SAH on 1210, Oct 16 at 2105 UT. KGYN Guymon, despite its great distance in No Man`s Land, normally owns the channel in daytime. I must conclude they were either off the air or doing penance for running nondirexional at night so much, by running the direxional antenna with null toward Philadelphia, and almost toward Enid, in the daytime! ``Newsradio 1200, WOAI`` already audible at 2107, but weak enough that its IBOC on 1210 was not yet a problem.

Next check at 1740 UT Oct 17, on DX-398 in the yard away from home noise sources: nothing audible on 1210. Station seems to have two real websites,
http://www.kgynradio.com/ and http://www.kgynradio.net unlike the squatters you get if you leave out the -radio-, neither of which hints at anything wrong (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PHILIPPINES. 6170.4, continuous [note spelling] het to RNZI, Oct 17 at 1309, presumably little DZRM and still at 1420; the day before there was no sign of it. To pull some audio from DZRM one needs to try before RNZI *1259, which I have not yet managed to do. However, RNZI will soon abandon 6170 for 7440 in B-09, but then 6170.4 listeners will have VOR Khabarovsk 6170 to cope with covering 1000-1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SAUDI ARABIA. BSKSA barely making it on 13m again today Oct 17 at 1358, poor on 21460 not // 21640; 21505 // 21640, and the buzz on 21505 was not so bad, still allowing some Arabic to be audible. At hourtop, 5+1 timesignal heard on 21505, which one minute later on WWV I determined to have been one second early! See also UNIDENTIFIED OTH radar (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. Configuration of VOA relays amid 7 MHz band Saturday Oct 17 at 1313: 7575 VG with jazz singer in English service. At 1414 on 7550 in English momentarily, but just a clip before back into Indonesian. This one had the best signal by far, Tinang at 220 degrees, Fri/Sat/Sun only, and much too close to VOA on 7545, Tinang due west, in English report about Croatia, // 9760.

So IBB is deliberately running two transmitters 5 kHz apart from same site during the 14-15 hour. At 1416 a JBA signal on 7575, so site must have switched at hourtop from Tinang USward, to Udorn westward; eventually decided it was // 7545 but not synchronized, a few words off when speaking, and then with C&W music. Also something very weak on 7520, apparently Vietnamese via Sri Lanka scheduled (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. 5920, still no sign of WBOH, at 0533 check Oct 17, Radio Rossii in the clear with Radio Zhurnal // 5940, nor at next check 1310, while at 1316, WTJC was running as usual on 9370v with overconfident preacher. Good riddance at least to the never-on-frequency mess they had been putting out 24/7 on 5920v.

Is there anything on their homepage
http://www.fbnradio.com/ about closing down WBOH? Of course not! That could detract from the fall share-a-thon`s receipts, news about that just added, so it is possible to update their site. How many donors will be aware that at the same time, FBN are cutting their SW service in half? Still claims to be running both WBOH and WTJC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. OTH radar pulses from China, presumed, covering roughly 50 kHz each: Oct 17 at 1308 on 6460-6510, 6770-6820, 6860-6920; at 1317 on 8020-8070 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 8000.5, sounds like time signal pips, Oct 17 at 1315. Trouble is, the CW beeps are at the rate of 80 per minute instead of 60, so perhaps from an alternate universe with 80-second minutes, or everything happens 33 percent faster (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. OTH radar pulses from Cyprus, presumed, covering roughly 25 kHz: Oct 17 at 1402 at 17640-17660, neatly bothering both BBC English on 17640, and Saudi Arabia French on 17660. 17640 site is Ascension, so one must wonder if the British OTHR operators on Cyprus would have avoided that range if it too were via Cyprus? Why don`t these radars pick a few ranges which are really clear of other signals and stick with them?? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###