lunedì 1 marzo 2010

Glenn Hauser logs March 1, 2010

** CHINA. 9380, the only Firedrake found March 1 at 1258, good signal here but nothing on 8400 or 9000. Monitoring pause with open carrier at 1300-1305, then resuming traditional percussion music on 9380. No victim heard but presumably Sound of Hope, and incidentally messing up other stations, DW starting 9380 at 1330 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [non]. CRI, 6190 via Sackville, March 1 at 0553 ``The Beijing Hour`` upwrapped by British-accented OL, identifying self as Susan Osman, also ID as ``CRI Beyond Beijing`` which is what I have been hearing on KGBC-1540 Galveston TX.

Susan Osman? She`s the ex-BBC TV presenter who quit because of a ``culture of ageism``, and moved China to host a breakfast radio show, but first time I`ve run across her. Google her name for numerous stories about that from early last December. Looks pretty good to me for a 51-year-old (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

** CUBA [and non]. 9955, heavy DCJC but mixing about equally with WRMI in Spanish religious program, March 1 at 0544, sounds Catholic, so Vatican Radio? No, latest schedule shows ``En Camino`` during this semihour UT Mondays (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GERMANY [non]. 9560, at 1615 March 1, DW news in English with report on Chinese guy who has been blacklisted since he wrote about Tiananmen Square, and was intercepted before he could board a plane for an apolitical literary festival in Cologne, apparently now under house arrest. His previous attempt last year to attend a book fair in Germany was also big news. This broadcast is at both 345 and 60 degrees, 250 kW each, via SRI LANKA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** JAPAN. 9535, NHKWNRJ, in Japanese direct from Yamata to NAm, March 1 at 1532 with usual good signal, now playing ``Sukiyaki`` --- It`s a great tune, but I should think NHK would avoid it as too too stereotypical (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MAURITANIA. WWCR has announced it is moving from 4775 to 4840 as of Monday March 1 at 0300-1200 UT (and as reported, tried it already during the DX Block, Feb 28 at 03-04). Apparently this notice mixes local date with Universal time, for they were still on 4775, UT March 1 at 0604-0630+, so I took the opportunity for one last time to doze off to the soporific wake-up moanings of Mauritania on 4845, unimpeded by QRMashville. That persistent ute slowly pulses on the hi side, which we will no longer be able to avoid by off-tuning to the lo side, even if the WWCR signal fades from full blast (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOMALIA [non]. 9960, at 1558 March 1, VTC ``interval signal`` the low-key music loop, so this must be the frequency chosen for the new target broadcast to Somalia, Radio Bar-Kulan; was not expecting to hear this much with WWCR on 9980 and RTTY on 9960; 1600 opening programming, including Qur`an snippet, by 1605 into Horn of Africa music, and still at 1614; RTTY not there at first, but it was dominating by 1633.

Do the horn of Africans really need another SW station playing HOA music? This one is supposedly supported by the UN, altho at the end of the hour, Mike Barraclough in England heard an AWR ID, probably one of many switching errors at SENTECH.

Chris Greenway, who broke news of this pending operation, reported the alternate frequency at 16-17 would be 9930, and they have a morning broadcast too at 0500-0600 on 15750 via UAE, but have yet to see any reports confirming that one (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SWEDEN. 9360, R. Sweden opening English at 1530 March 1, 1531 into domestic news starting with shrinking GNP; fair and clear, 125 degrees from Hörby, so we are close to directly off the back, 305 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U K [non]. 9410 via WHRI, BBCWS still in English instead of Spanish, at end of hour March 1 at 1258 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9480, WTWW already very loud and clear S9+25 at 1300 March 1 carrying Pastor Pete Peters, ID still as running equipment tests. Such an overloading signal required the entire 31m band to be tuned with attenuation or de-tuned preselector; same huxter on 9980 WWCR, and we can`t detune the preselector from both at the same time without going down to 8 MHz.

However, as far as we could tell, 9480 was not radiating spurs at this time. Presumably fill programming until ready for more live stuff from the NRB. Other listeners in Europe, Asia and North America were hearing WTWW also active overnight on 5755 until 1200.

Peters resents being called a hater; yet you only have to listen to him for 5 seconds at random to hear how hatefully he rants. PPP racist crap is a great way to drive away new listeners, and I don`t check again until 1805. Now it`s back live from NRB, Ted Randall interviewing someone about repentance.

OMG, now it`s Pastor Pete Peters himself, live and in person with his exaggerated country accent. Barf! PPP is upfront about targeting white people, Anglo-Saxons and their northern European ilk, rather than cur-dogs (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Superstrong signals from stations such as WWCR lead to strange things, both transmitted spurs and receiver-produced spurs. With the FRG-7, March 1 at 0545 I was hearing two WWCR programs mixing equally on 11825. I had looked for this before but not found it, i.e. 5890 plus 5935. But as I fiddled with the YB-400 next to it to confirm the //, I found that the 11825 signal came and went.

It was there only when the YB was turned on, even if it was tuned to the FM band or some other SW frequency. It was also affected by whether I was touching the whip antenna, which had an indoor length of wire clipped on. Anyhow, in this particular case the `spur` was caused by receiver interaxion, but would not have happened at all with non-overloading signals (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Roughly eight months after being convicted and four months after being sentenced to 175 years for multiple counts of child sexual abuse, Tony Alamo`s 13-14 UT broadcast on WINB 9265 has finally been replaced by a lesser ex-convict, Brother Scare! As monitored March 1 at 1302 and still at 1330, 1458.

Meanwhile also looked for the WINB second harmonic, and there is Stair again, clearly readable on 18570 at 1458 // 9265, and 14 seconds behind the German relay on 17485. 9265 and 18570 are still on the air at 1520, instead of the usual 2-hour weekday break at 14-16 between Alamo and Alamo.

Has WINB finally canceled Alamo? NO! There he is still during another of his three daily scheduled hours, 1612 on 13570, so was the extended BS earlier an anomaly? Has the online WINB sked been updated accordingly? Of course not! Still shows Alamo M-F at 13, 16 and 20 UT.

WINB probably harmonicizes as well when on 13570v, so keep an ear on 27140 if there is any propagation and you can stand to tune between CB channels (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VATICAN [and non]. 7335 continues with a big collision, roughly equal levels from VR in English direct, and VOR in Spanish via Guiana French, March 1 at 0550. The two overlap between 0330 and 0600, with VR in various east European languages, some beam changes along the way. Strange thing is, VR is supposedly in Bulgarian at 0540-0600. Also strange is that Stewart MacKenzie keeps old-list-logging VOR 7335 as from Chita site (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###