mercoledì 3 marzo 2010

Glenn Hauser logs March 2-3, 2010

** ANGUILLA [non]. 11775, DGS missing March 3 at 1621 as I was checking for // to WWCR 13845, see USA; a very weak signal instead with something else, presumably VOA in Persian via Biblis, GERMANY, as scheduled 1530-1630. Maybe Caribbean Beacon, an ID they never really give, will still be off tonight from 6090, which would be more helpful, but don`t count on it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA [and non]. 6160, March 3 at 1340 open carrier atop CKZU Vancouver, with the same SAH we hear after 1400. Therefore, CBC`s RCI not only brazenly interferes with CBC Vancouver during the 14-15 UT hour for its non-direxional relay via KOREA SOUTH in Mandarin, but allows KBS to turn the transmitter on that ill-chosen same frequency at least a third of an hour early. Recheck at 1357, the RCI IS has started (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake March 3: found only on 9380, at 1354, against unheard Sound of Hope, and tough luck, DW; QRM from WWRB 9385 BS splash, and WTWW 9480 PPP overload. At 1452 found another FD, on 7580, still unexplained and unlisted by Aoki, and by now not heard on 9380.

CNR1 is all over the place as jamming, including some frequencies with echo, removing any doubt it is legitimate, such as 11895, March 3 at 1421. Aoki shows the a*terisked victim as BBC in Chinese via Singapore at 1300-1530 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. 7220, March 3 at 1359:46 starting REE IS, before cutting to CRI sign-on at 1400, the usual pattern from Kunming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CYPRUS. OTH radar pulses, presumed from here, March 3 at 1412 on 15258-15283, so 15285 Wertachtal escapable by off-tuning upward. Still same at 1512 recheck. Then at 1516 heard exactly same sound but much weaker on 15738-15763 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CZECHIA [and non]. R. Prague might want to reconsider retaining 11600 and dumping 13580 in its one-transmitter-at-a-time austerity measures, for Spanish at 1500. March 3 at 1504, could make out RP theme and Spanish, but co-channel from weaker station with music, plus het. Nothing else scheduled, and not the Cuban noise jamming which starts at 1600, but maybe still to do with the Cuban radio war, or something out of east Asia (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, R. Africa, at 1513 March 3, S9+10 signal, but just barely modulated preacher in English. And he is paying good money for this? So many gullible gospel huxters pays their money and never monitors, a good business for the unethical broadcaster. But the preacher gets the satisfaxion of imagining he is converting Africans (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GOA. 15175, AIR IS at 1514 March 3, only a few audio dropouts and decent modulation for a change, flutter with S9+5 peaks, 1515 opening Gujarati (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. VOI, 9526-, March 3 at 1355, undermodulated music toward end of English hour; off the air during the 14 UT hour, but back on at 1457 check with more undermodulated strummin` `n` singin`, atop het from CRI East Turkistan 9525.0 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** LIBYA [and non]. Here`s another station without a clue what frequency they are really on! 21695, March 3 at 1405, tune in to frequency announcement in English, ``17850 at 4-6 pm, that is 2-4 pm GMT``, and shortly, ``Voice of Africa from the Great Jamahiriyah``. Have they moved on 16m? Of course not! Still on // 17725, while at 1408, 17850 bears usual BBC Somali via Cyprus (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MALAYSIA/SARAWAK. 5030, RTM Kuching, March 3 at 1402, S9+12 in talk, presumed news in Iban from Wai FM network relay, and would have been quite readable if I understood a word of Iban; some Cuba 5025 music splash, but quite a good signal for Swk. At 1454 music still audible on 5030 once Cuba had almost outfaded (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MOROCCO. RTM missing from 15341 and 15345, March 3 at 1412. HCJB Australia not propagating so missed its chance to come thru unscathed on 15340 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA [and non]. 6075, R. Rossii, Pet/Kam, March 3 at 1359-1400+*, motorboating as usual and impossible to zero-beat, no sign now of 8GAL V/CQ marker on 6074. Once RR was off, weak Chinese on 6075, either RTI or ChiCom jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN. As I expected, nothing from REE on 9690, March 3 at 0607, 24 hours after they had a very good signal, apparently transmitted by mistake on that frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CHINA

** SWEDEN [non]. 15480, started looking for new transmission at 1411 March 3, but too early; at next check 1511, VG signal with SW Asian music, 1512 talk in unID language, but according to Wolfgang Büschel, it`s IBRA Radio via Rampisham UK, in Dari during this semihour amid 1430-1545 transmission in Pashtu before, Hazaragi after. Why are they sending so much RF into deep North America? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See previous report under UNIDENTIFIED [non]

** UKRAINE. 7540 with intermittent ``Russian`` tune-up tones, March 3 at 1451, flutter. I.e., the ``Simferopol`` transmitter already on air prior to 1500 start of V. of Mesopotamia relay, KURDISTAN [non], which stays on 11530 right up to 1500; ergo two different transmitters.

On 7540 at 1500, timesignal about 4 seconds late, and some music, presumably VOM, but too much splash from 7535 ChiCom jamming vs BBC via Thailand (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Add KJES to the roster of US shortwave stations putting out spurs. March 2 at 2022 I found very distorted Spanish centered about 15557.6, S9+12 level, modulation soon matched to KJES on 15385 which was S9+22, much stronger than usual; despite this, 15385 was undermodulated, with usual catechisms, i.e. zombie crowd repeating what the leader just intoned. Another weaker spur in between around 15532. However by next check 2032, 15385 had faded way down and the spurs had disappeared. Probably got a sporadic-E boost uncovering the spurs. Axually, undermodulation on fundamentals has a positive correlation with spurs elsewhere (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENINNG DIGEST)

** U S A. 5755, WTWW with bigot PPP, March 3 at 0604, VG signal so I compared it to // 5890 via WWCR, and to my surprise, WWCR was noticeably weaker, non-solid signal. Normally propagation from the two nearby stations is the same, but this time the skip zone boundary must have been on the edge; and/or azimuths from their rhombix made the difference.

9480 at 1449 March 3, still PPP, who apparently is the only programming now that the NRB is over, and lite squeal on the modulation, more noticeable offtuning to the USB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 13845, WWCR, March 3 at 1415, poor signal, YL interviewing someone about New World Order --- that`s not PMS` shtick! Yes, 13845 is now // 7490 with The Power Hour, Joyce Riley! Same still at 1502.

March program schedule on WWCR website confirms this is no mistake, she now scheduled on 13845 at 1300-1600 daily. Daily? On 7490 TPH is only M-F with other programming Sat/Sun. 1621 recheck, 13845 has resumed DGS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also ANGUILLA; USA: WEWN

** U S A. 13835, WEWN, March 3 at 1415 checking for spur slush on 13845, but WWCR seems to be clear of it, leading to hopes that WEWN is repairing its problem, but further monitoring of its English frequencies at stronger signal levels required (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Altho it had not been especially problematic the day before, spurring all over the place, WTJC nevertheless missing from 9369v, March 3 at 1450. Preventive maintenance? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 4050, March 3 at 0608 country music audible, no doubt KWMO, Washington MO, 3 x 1350 as previously IDed with same format. Why do I keep reporting this? Because it is something which should not be there, an anomaly. More pertinent question is why many other DXers are not reporting it?

Altho 4050 is always weak and frequently not audible, the fact that it appears at all shows something is wrong with KWMO`s harmonic suppression. If this were normal, we would also be hearing countless other MW stations on their third harmonix every 30 kHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VENEZUELA [non]. 11680, RNV via CUBA, VG signal March 3 at 1505 momentarily in English. English? Hardly. Make that broken English, about what else, Chávez activities. OM speaker is worse than the YL, as first of all the translation from Spanish is far too literal, and secondly, he tries to pronounce English words as if they were Spanish, making them only intermittently understandable.

Add to that his poor dixion which would hardly qualify him as an announcer in Spanish itself. What`s his registration number as a licensed announcer, anyway? In Venezuela you supposedly can`t go on the air without such authorization, as e.g. bolivarian apologist Adán González proudly cites his number. Nitpicking like that could get a private broadcaster forced off the air for violating the rules.

1508 canned outro by better announcer as having been ``Informative Short News`` a program title a native English speaker would never come up with, and Windows boot-up logo used deliberately as a transition. Are they aware of this in Redmond? RNV anyway is good for laughs. And we are still waiting for Calabozo to fire up, removing the [non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 15570, S9+18 open carrier at 1410 March 3, surely another Greenville warmup for upcoming broadcast really on 15580 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###