sabato 28 novembre 2009

Glenn Hauser logs November 27-28, 2009

** ALBANIA. 7435, R. Tirana in Albanian music at 2153 Nov 27: quite distorted modulation as happens too frequently from Shijak (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ANGUILLA [and non]. Caribbean Beacon is normally later than nominal 2200 switching from 11775 to 6090, but Nov 27 at 2159, DGS already audible on 6090 mixing with VOR IS and DRM from both sides, quite a squeeze job, Ismaning, Germany from 6085 and Junglinster, Luxembourg, also in German, from 6095, while VOR is 285 degrees from ``Armavir`` at 21-23 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRALIA. While a few days ago I found RA incoming well after 1600 on 11980 via Darwin, it was barely audible Nov 28; instead, 9710 via Shepparton was best, on 30 degree beam toward Alaska, 1605 opening Margaret Throsby interview show, but first playing Greensleeves (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BULGARIA. 15700, R. Bulgaria, Nov 28 at 1430 ID in Bulgarian and into folk music show called ``Chardota`` or something like that, sounded Roma. Much better than // 11700. I was going to keep listening to it, but first a bit more bandscanning, which sidetracked me to another music feature on R. Martí; see CUBA [non]. The Sat 1430 semihour on RB is worth a weekly revisit (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake Nov 28 at 1427: good on 9000, better on 8400 and just barely audible on 10210. Why does relative reception of the big 3 FD channels vary so much? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** COLOMBIA. 5910, Nov 28 at 0634, timecheck for 1:36 and Marfil Estéreo ID; this time had to strain to make it out, weaker than usual; also the area can get desensitized by super signals from WWCR on both sides, 5890 and 5935 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. RHC anomaly survey Nov 28: at 0610, 6140 in English, Ed Newman (not Noonan as Ken Zichi guesses), phone ringing audible in background. Much stronger // 6060 and 6010 with no phone audible, and at this time 6060 did not have Spanish service audio mixed in either!

Cuba does its best to make enemies, not just of the US but of other Latin Americans --- like jamming the innocuous media/DX show La Rosa de Tokio produced in Argentina, UT Sat Nov 28 at 0614. Strong rapid jamming pulses were disrupting this on WRMI 9955, altho not a wall of noise. Try again when it`s scheduled 24 hours later, UT Sunday 0600-0700.

6110 had been missing before 1500 the last few days, but Nov 28 it was back as early as 1357 in music show (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [non]. I axually listened to R. Martí on Saturday morning for more than an hour and conclude it`s getting a bum wrap as merely ``la emisora propagandística norteamericana`` as R. Nederland always calls it along with RFE/RL. 15330 was inbooming as usual Nov 28 at 1436, well atop the DentroCuban jamming, tho as time went on the relative jamming level built up.

RM was telling the story of ``Doña la Negra``, a Veracruz washerwoman with a wonderful voice discovered by Agustín Lara, and went on to be a big singing star. It seems the Mexicans had no qualms about nicknaming people by their race. A string of at least a semidozen names made up her birth monicker; I never caught them all, but started with Marieta. It also seems she was too pre-Internet to get any significant Google hits.

Excerpts of her singing were playing continuously along with the narrative, but we never got to hear a complete song uninterrupted. She was obviously Mexican, Jarocha to be specific, but show also dealt with Cuban influence upon her music. After a scandal-free life, she died on 19 Dec 1982.

At 1452 moved on to another singer, a sonero, whose 90th birth anniversary is current, Bartolomé Moré (sp? a.k.a. Benny, or Barto). 1459 cut to R. Martí theme and ID, as if the program were interrupted, and the name of it was not outroed.

1500 starting Resumen Semanal, this week on a Thanksgiving theme, with interviews made at the Miami International Book Fair; at 1535, when I tried 13820 but found jamming worse there, while 11930 was buried, it was Robert Fleming, ``an enormous gringo`` who wrote a book after walking from one end of Cuba to the other, to get to know the common people and found them very hospitable, tho wondering why he didn`t hire a car. After 1600 continued with more from the MIBF.

All this was very well-produced and enlightening, not hard-line exile propaganda at all (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CYPRUS. 11040-11065, OTH radar pulses, presumed from here, Nov 28 at 1417. Please keep them this far out of SWBC bands (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EGYPT. 6270, R. Cairo, English to Europe but also USward beyond at 330 degrees, Nov 27 at 2203 sufficient modulation, YL talking about schools in Congo, recipe, 2209 on an Egyptian film director. No QRM a tall (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA. 9690, AIR GOS in English, Nov 28 at 1422, talking about air pollution in Indian cities. This frequency always has a hum on it, not so bad as to drive away listeners, but wouldn`t a little filtering take care of that? Site listed for this 1330 sesquihour to SE Asia is Bangalore (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. KGYN 1210 Guymon: Nov 27 at 2046 UT caradio was at one of the regular hotspots for AM reception in western Enid. At first, nothing but very weak traces on 1210, then KGYN fades in with ``US Country 1210 KGYN`` ID and then fades back down. Never reached normal sufficient level when on 10 kW non-direxional daytime groundwave, so this was skywave, at reduced or direxional-west power (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PHILIPPINES [non]. 11715, Tagalog talk with music bed, Nov 28 at 1524; RVA via VATICAN; low rumble het KJES off-frequency but well atop it until latter started gaining at 1530, with chorus audible. Catholix via Catholix vs Catholix! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. VOR WS in English to NAm check Nov 28 at 0615: 9840 tho with some co-channel under from R Rossii, better signal than // 9855, and no signal this time from 12030 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SERBIA [non]. 6100, Nov 27 at 2154, presumed Balkan music making fast SAH with RCI Viva in French which was on top. Still same mix at 2204 when International Radio Serbia should have been in English, and RCI was changing to Mandarin. Not to be confused with CRI in Chinese, also scheduled at 2200 from Kunming. Going by the `book` rather than reality, CRI and RCI may pretend IRS is not there since it does not participate in HFCC, to everyone`s detriment (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SEYCHELLES [non]. WEWN inaudible and presumably off the 12050 air (it did have a fair signal in Spanish on 11550), facilitating hearing something on 12045, Nov 28 at 1413, YL in English mentioning meter band more than once, then apparently reading a Bible story with extra expressiveness. Poor signal with flutter. Must be FEBA via UAE as scheduled 14-15 in several S Asian languages, per Aoki, except Saturday it is supposed to be a quarter hour each of Malayalam, Konkani, Urdu and Kashmiri, but this was in English, a very rare language for this station, supposedly only on Sundays at 1400-1430. Of course one gains nothing about the world of reality by hearing them in English, whenever that may be (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. WWCR`s pdf program guide for November still shows Brother Scare 7 days a week at 1500-1900 on 13845, but Nov 28 at 1515 there was DGS instead, and at 1540 PMS; only fair signal with no Es help from this direxion. Too bad, as it`s Sabbath when BS would have wanted as many outlets as possible, such as WBCQ on 15420-CUSB earlier than usual other days of week (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SRI LANKA [non]. The Tamil Tigers` specials expired Nov 27, as nothing heard on 11510, Nov 28 at 1418 check (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SUDAN [non]. 17745, Sudan Radio Service via PORTUGAL, Sat Nov 28 at 1505, M&W discussion about the importance of registering to vote, with usual heavy echo imposed on speech but not on music bits interspersed. Sounds like something out of Washington. O, I said that before, but so did they about registering to vote, an obsessive topic with SRS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WWV loud and clear on 20000, Nov 28 at 1513, so it has to be sporadic E opening at less than 800 km. Not enough to inbring KOA aux on 25950, however, quickly sought (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 11525, VOA World News Now, Nov 28 at 1521 about Black Friday; poor signal, not noticed here before, a recent change? Listed as Tinang, PHILIPPINES, 283 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) R. Martí: see CUBA [non]

UNIDENTIFIED. 6074, Nov 28 spanning the 1401 minute, 8GAL V/CQ marker just barely audible under Chinese radio war on 6075. BTW, just before the hour as I was intuning, noticed some other CW circa 6085, not just a marker (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)