domenica 15 novembre 2009

Glenn Hauser logs November 14-15, 2009

** BRAZIL. 9585, fair signal Nov 15 at 0045 ``para Brasil e o mundo, os milagres de deus``. It would be miraculous if they could give the correct time, instead as ``22:43`` at 0046. This being CBN, originally R. Globo, São Paulo (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. 15385 with CNR1 echo-jamming plus other noise, SAH, all to prevent the Voice of America, in Mandarin via Tinang, Philippines, being heard by the oppressed Chinese people, who if they knew the truth might rise up and overthrow their Communist masters, who obviously don`t have any confidence they would be chosen in free elexions, Nov 14 at 0013 and same at 0054 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** COLOMBIA. 5910, Marfil Estéreo with ID as soon as I intuned, Nov 15 at 0035, ``sólo éxitos``, which seems hyperbole as they`ve got to work in the evangelism somehow. Good signal in the clear; in fact, looking over the schedules, it seems that 5910 is pretty clear for 1 kW HJDH all night 2300-1200 except for Romania at 0100-0300. What luck, as Colombia para Cristo does not participate in HFCC, and you`d think this `open` frequency would be pounced on by more of the big boys (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. Altho not jamming VOA on 5890, 9885, the DentroCuban Jamming Command was all-out against Radio República on 9810, Nov 15 at 0021 mixing rather equally, which is still unacceptable. See also USA : WRMI, VOA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GERMANY [non]. 15640, F-G Nov 15 at 0015 with Strine-accented reporter in English interviewing Italians about aftermath of Aquila earthquake. And at 0053 about new shopping center in Prague. Since it`s not // RA 17715 or BBC Singapore 15335, it must be --- DW! Yes, 00-01 via Pet/Kam, Russia, 250 kW, 247 degrees, but audible well enough way over here, something the DW PTB did not count on when they decided to cut off North American SWLs (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

** INDIA. Noise blob centered on 9455, Nov 14 at 2142, perhaps AIR Aligarh, altho I was not hearing 9425 or 9445 at this time.

4880, Nov 15 at 0026 music and some talk with heavy fading, uncertain language, weaker aside the Brazilian clash on 4885. 0032 had some 2-way SSB QRM. By next check 0050 had faded to JBA carrier. Only fit is AIR Lucknow which signs on at 0025, and then fades into the sunlight. Lucknow is between Aligarh and Gorakhpur near the western end of Nepal.

6155, Nov 15 at 0039 S Asian singing, with tabla, good atop fast SAH of a weaker station. AIR Urdu service via Bangalore, 0015-0430, 500 kW, 330 degrees so penetrating slightly further than Pakistan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. As I previously figured, 6105 itself is free of QRM in the early evening, so XEMQ Mérida was also clear on 6104.8 Nov 15 at 0037 with music in Spanish. But as I also previously figured, Habana`s new 6110 is a big adjacent problem, at first somewhat evitable by offtuning low, but at 0056 RHC was splattering too much even in talk rather than music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ROMANIA. 9525, UT Sunday Nov 15 at 0043 playing Stravinsky. Nice and rare to hear some serious classical music on SW. Only fit is RRI Spanish service via Galbeni. If the outdated program sked on their site is still correct, it`s the second show on Saturdays, Horizonte Cultural Rumano (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SAINT HELENA. Radio Saint Helena Day, 2009y, 11092.5-USB --- I heard it, but it was totally unsatisfying, mostly inaudible. Fortunately, last year and others were much better, and QSLed, so the novelty is wearing off, anyway.

Started monitoring at 2000 UT Nov 14, but as I dozed during my nap, no trace of it thru 2150, just the ute on the low side (fax idling?), and occasional other types of ute QRM, such as two beeps every 16 seconds, bits of CW; at 0024 running-water overriding everything, but briefly.

At 2134 I checked BBC Ascension, 12095, the nearest geographically and frequencially, found it only fair with flutter fading. If that`s the best we can expect from the South Atlantic, with 250x the power and many times the antenna gain, not surprising RSH is not making it.

However, next check at 2220 on a different receiver/antenna setup, RSH was just barely audible, bits of music. 2254 sounded like a sea chanty; singing, anyway (Mick Delmage, Alberta says a pirate interrupted at this very moment). 2312, mostly music. Later could catch a few occasional words: 2358, `thank you very much`; UT Nov 15: 0003 mention Jamestown; 0005 Japan? 0006 very familiar romantic tenor tune I am trying to name.

During the final hour I knew I would be spending my time better by bandscanning for lots of other stations rather than straining to hear a few more words from RSH, but checked it occasionally. 0024 about the same barely audible reception; 0030 even weaker; 0041 JBA music; 0058 very poor going from talk to music, maybe GSTQ at wrapup. The final sesquihour was allegedly toward NAm.

This was so marginal, that any way to increase gain was necessary, so tried various combinations of receivers and antennas. What I really need is a log-periodic. There were no detectable changes at the publicized antenna rotation times of 2100, 2200 or 2330. However, at 2301 it either went off briefly, or local noise level went up.

The signal was so weak that I had a hard time zeroing in on it, with no carrier as a guide; finally picked a spot on the DX-398 40-Hz fine-tuning between 11092 and 11093 and stuck to it.

Anyway, tnx to everyone for their trouble in putting this on again, no doubt a treat for those who could hear it better or for the first time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. VOA Spanish check vs DentroCuban jamming, UT Nov 15: at 0020 both 9885 and stronger 5890 were playing jazz, no jamming audible. At 0052, Club de Oyentes show was giving full postal address of a Brazilian listener for many years, who must be resigned to Spanish instead of Portuguese (tho he could get the VOA African service in Luso if he tried). Still no jamming heard on 5890. See also CUBA [and non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Altho Cuba jams WRMI during countless hours while in English or non-exile Spanish, Nov 15 at 0022 a poor signal on 9955 was discussing Cuba, but no jamming. WRMI program grid as of Nov 1 at the DXLD yahoogroup files shows 0000-0030 UT Sunday is La Voz de la Asociación, among several other Saturday-evening exile programs. Association of what? It`s missing from the website list of programs at
http://www.wrmi.net/schedule.php which now has a lot of info about various shows, including some photos of participants, altho not all the times have been updated. Jeff White explains: ``It's the Association of Veterans of the 2506 Brigade (Bay of Pigs). Just started recently`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Thought I would check the WBCQ 7415 webstream and see if anything is on it now that 7415 itself is off the air Saturday at 2215 when Marion`s Attic used to air. Yes, what else but Brother Scare! As if he didn`t have enough platforms. Better check 7415 to see if it is really off the air --- yes it is, at 2220, but ZD7 is becoming audible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VIETNAM [and non]. 11605, Nov 15 at 0017 with nasty mix of Brazilian and Asian language, audible het of some 200 Hz. At next check 0046, just Brazilian alone closing program with ``ciao, até o próximo sábado``, and then folk music. That is VOR via GUIANA FRENCH.

The Asian is RFA Vietnamese via TAIWAN: schedule fits, ending at 0030. I was thinking jamming was in play, but maybe just a typically off-frequency Taiwan transmitter, a menace to any on-frequency outlets even from the other worldside (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###