lunedì 19 ottobre 2009

Glenn Hauser logs October 19, 2009

** BULGARIA. 15700, R. Bulgaria, at 1511 Oct 19, Bulgarian talk muffled and distorted (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA [non]. 12140, Oct 19 at 1532 YL spelling out address in Larnaka, Cyprus with English letters, but really speaking Persian, and address @persianvoice.org for e-mail. Good signal. Aoki says it`s Bible Voice via Jülich at 1530-1730. Remember that Jülich site is to be abolished as of Oct 25, so all transmissions via there will have to be moved elsewhere if they continue, such as Nauen, Wertachtal or Issoudun (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake Oct 19: at 1342, fair on 8400 with flutter, poor on 9000 which this time is // unlike yesterday. At 1426, 10210 good at S9+20 but fluttery, // 8400 and 9000. At 1541, all three still audible: 8400 very poor, 9000 fair, 10210 good with flutter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. RHC Oct 19 at 0532: 6140 in English this time, // 6060 and 6010, no phone ringing audible; 6120 distorted in Spanish, 6000. At 0536 on 5898 spy transmitter open carrier with hum, and could still hear phone ringing.

11760 spurcheck Oct 19: at 1356 there it is on 11504. Lowest audible around 11198, highest 12075, approximately. But another check at 1528 found NONE of these two dozen spurs, altho 11760 was still on the air. Must have changed transmitters around 1500 for the mid-day service, which was then // other fundamentals on 11690 vs RTTY, and perpetually distorted and breaking up 11800. RNV transmission also on 11680 briefly in English about TeleSur, then to HCF blustering in Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** FRANCE. After monitoring the Turkey/BBC clash on 15160, Oct 19 a few sex before *1500, on came AWR with better signal, ID in English as Adventist World Radio, Voice of Hope, then same in off-topic French, German and Italian, reference to awr.org and in English introducing broadcast in Nepalese. This is via Issoudun, 250 kW at 80 degrees followed by another semihour in Hindi (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA [and non]. AIR Aligarh blobcheck Oct 19: at 1345 centered about 9445 and spreading 9435-9455, bothering Thailand on 9455. Alok Dasgupta has been diligently trying to get AIR to fix this for months, and now reports that something may be done at B-09 seasonal changes. And already they are running the defective transmitter only from 1318 to 1600, then switching to a good one that is available. I don`t usually monitor that late, but did so Oct 19.

At 1556 the blob on 9445 is so bad it sounds like DRM, nothing but noise. Wait a minute, that *is* DRM, the IBB/HCJB Greenville test still in force, 9445-9455 and centered on 9450. At 1600 I could hear a weak but non-distorted signal on 9470 // 9425 but a few syllables out of synch, so the AIR change had happened.

You won`t find anything about 9450 DRM on the DRM DX forums, but it is discussed on the drmna yahoogroup, still being reported as scheduled 16-20 on 9450. So this should have just started; complicating the picture is the DRM from VOR in Hindi scheduled until 1600 via Irkutsk on 9440-9445-9450, which must have really got a drubbing today from the AIR blob.

What I don`t get is the wacky and totally self-defeating mindset by the PTB at AIR that the horribly defective transmitter must be kept on the air no matter what, at least until 1600. Burocracy says: punch the on-button and don`t ask questions (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. VOI, 9525.9, back to just barely audible modulation level Oct 19 during English hour at 1346 in music, flutter; after a few days of decent modulation. Is anyone paying attention at Cimanggis? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OMAN. BBCWS on seldom-heard 15310, Oct 19 at 1439 with American-accented YL discussing women`s health problems and mistreatment, not // 17640, 17830 or 21470 which are on African stream. 15310 at 14-16 is via Oman at 63 degrees toward zone 41, i.e. S Asia from Pakistan to Bangladesh. Better signal than Radio Sultanate of Oman`s English on 15140, nevertheless (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ROMANIA. RRI Arabic service, 15160, Oct 19 at 1445 with ID and Romanian folk music, winning the battle for my attention vs the Turkish music on 15180. As hourtop approached, increasing co-channel QRM underneath 15160 including during RRI sign-off at 1455, IS at 1456-1457:30*. Then the CCI was in the clear until its 1459:30* but too weak to ID. Listed as BBC Hindi via Cyprus at 97 degrees, while Tiganeshti Arabic is at 247 degrees, so theoretically no collision, but I bet there really is for anyone trying to listen from N Africa to S Asia (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. 5920, R. Rossii, Oct 19 at 0538 song by a Russian bass, but hum and motorboating on carrier; with BFO on, carrier obviously unstable, much like was once the case on 7200, 5900. This could be nothing new on Pet/Kam 5920, but masked until now by off-frequency QRM from WBOH, now deleted (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SAUDI ARABIA [and non]. BSKSA doing well on 13m Oct 19 at 1432, Qur`an on 21460, big buzz plus Arabic on 21505, // clear Arabic on best 21640. BBC Cyprus 21470, Spain 21570 and 21610, Libya 21695 were also audible, in a geographically broader opening than usual. But at 1508, all the Sa`udi frequencies were gone and presumed off, moved to lower bands. Usual huge buzz around 15435, weaker but clear on 15225, and at 1522, not // Qur`an good on 13710. Enjoyed that for a while pro arte, as I am able to, not being burdened by the baggage of belief and understanding only a few words of Arabic (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 17485, Oct 19 at 1505 song about God`s Holy Mountain, into preaching by a non-Brother Scare; no // on 9385 since WWRB was off the air, but must be the BS service via Jülich. Poor audio from internet feed with artifacts. Next check at 1534, WWRB was back on and running 14 seconds ahead of 17485, still the voice of some BS psychophant rather than himself, and now still had CCI underneath from Radio Prague after 1530; both off by 1559* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN. 15170, REE via COSTA RICA, Oct 19 at 1442 with phone interview about Spanish music programs on radio stations in parts of France (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SUDAN [non]. 15650, Miraya FM via Slovakia, Oct 19 at 1510 in English with several IDs; 1512 interview about land mines in southern Sudan, hard to understand due to accents and flutter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY. 15180 at 1441 Oct 19, familiar music bit which also fills time on VOT English broadcasts, then ID starting ``Hee nee`` which is Swahili, not a language on the VOT sked, and this was not one of their two-minute fillers of multilingual IDs either. Instead 14-15 on 15180 is supposed to be Uighur. No jamming audible, tho the ChiCom do not take kindly to anyone else broadcasting to their own oppressed minority. At 1444 a long period of dead air, finally music resuming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. VOA English was good on 7575 until off at 1359, so I then tuned to 7545. Shortly transmitter came on at same level, but cut off again before any modulation. After a semi-minute came back on at much weaker level. I suppose the first turn-on was with the same antenna USward by mistake, so went back off to switch to proper antenna westward. Both from Tinang, PHILIPPINES, 7575 is 21 degrees usward until 1400, then 7545 is 270 degrees westward.

Then checked Greenville 17585 and found it inbooming with VoA news, sporadic-E help? If so, not affecting closer WWCR 15825, tho it was a bit better than usual, hollow-sounding backscatter. But from 1405 to 1407, 17585 dumped off the air repeatedly. Missed the 1430 transition to Botswana, but some time after that, noticed 17585 from Botswana was much weaker than Greenville had been, not always the case (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) DRM: see INDIA [and non]

UNIDENTIFIED. 12210-12240, Oct 19 at 1430 with weak OTH radar pulsing, presumed from CYPRUS. Stronger covering 21790-21815 at 1434 when BBC Cyprus was also audible on 21470, and still at 1508 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 15151, intruder, 2-way Spanish USB at 1458 Oct 19 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###