domenica 7 marzo 2010

Glenn Hauser logs March 6-7, 2010

** ALBANIA. R. Tirana, in Albanian on 6130 and // 7425 with equally good signals, March 7 at 0123, Albanian songs but modulation somewhat distorted and lacks any higher frequencies of which SW is capable. Sounded like 7425 had a `bonker` ute QRMing deep underneath. But not heard when it went off at 0129, as 6130 stayed on to open English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ARGENTINA. During ham contest, March 7 at 0017, on 21365-USB heard ``LP2F Contest``, presumably meant to imply that his own call was LP2F and he wanted extremely brief contest contacts only. QRZ.com lookup shows: ``Ezequiel Reinaldi, Las Rosas - Santa Fe, Argentina, LU1FDU Contest Callsing [sic]``. I wasn`t aware LP- prefixes were now in use (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ARGENTINA. 15345.2, R. Nacional, Saturday March 6 into UT Sunday March 7 at 0000 with automatic timesignal one second late compared to WWV, amid sports commentary, S9+18 signal, 0002 ``¡gooooooooooaaaaalllllll!``, a form of insanity that anyone scoring a goal should merit such exuberance. It`s only a (SB) game (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BRAZIL. Some ham contest is underway this weekend, meaning lots more SSB QRM on 41 and 75 meters than usual, but also much more activity on 15 and even 10 meters. March 6 at 2320 there was not a single SWBC signal on 13 meters, but ``15`` meters was hopping from South America, primarily Brasil, PY2s and ZXs, also ARGENTINA, ECUADOR [qq.vv.]. Went up to 10 meters and also heard one PY2, but only logged a couple of Ticos (See COSTA RICA).

At 0014 March 7 back on 15m, logged one Brazilian for the record, ZX5J, who was giving reports of 59-kilo on 21244.5, inconvenient split frequency for kHz-step tuning. QRZ.com lookup says ZX5J is a team contest station at Morro da Boa Vista, Rancho Queimado - Santa Catarina (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHILE. Unfortunately, the quake did not shake some sense into the CVC 11920 transmitter relaying HCJB, for it still outputs big nasty slushy spurs on each side, March 6 at 2342 in Portuguese, centered as closely as I could tell at 11901.5 and 11938.5 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake, UT March 6 at 2330: fair on 17970 and weaker // 15140. Searching straight thru from 12000 to 20000, did not find any others. At 0005, 17970 still going, and there was a much stronger Chinese-language broadcast on 17645, i.e. CNR1 jamming or VOA Tinang, PHILIPPINES.

BTW, if you hear CRI programming on 17970 during the 23 hour in English, 00 in Spanish, that would be 3 x 5990 via Habana, which could certainly happen as 18090 was audible; see CUBA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** COSTA RICA. Ten meters probably had more LA DX had I tuned in earlier, but an hour before sunset March 6 was getting a couple of Ticos on USB: At 2324 UT on 28439, TI8II, running 100 watts; and at 2325, TI5N on 28455, weaker than TI8II, but did not catch a power. QRZ.com lookup shows:
TI8II, Carlos S. Bedoya, Puntarenas, who insists on two valid IRCs for QSL;
and TI5N: STATION OWNER TI5KD, GUACIMA, ALAJUELA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 17705, March 7 at 0003 what passes for news on RHC, about Chávez and Zelaya, in Quechua, but frequently defaulting to Spanish, e.g. for numbers, concepts such as ``presidente legítimo``. 0010 into Q? music. S9+18 signal on the only broadcast in this language as per WRTH 2010, altho spelt ``Quecha``, which I thought was some DXers` typo but now it has been immortalised and people copy it. Remember when R. Moscow, or was it Peace & Progress, broadcast in Quechua, and did Peking too?

Now the ADDX schedule by language does not even bother with Quechua. Of course, many Andean domestic and regional SW stations use it, including HCJB, but no external broadcasters except RHC, as confirmed by EiBi`s Q-code for that language.

18090, DCJC jamming pulses at 0021 March 7, i.e. 3 x 6030 against Radio Martí, same time as was hearing third harmonic from PERÚ, q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ECUADOR. Another ham contester on 15m, HC1HC, March 7 at 0019 on 21292-USB, exchanging a 59K signal report. QRZ.com does not give his exact location, just Pichincha, but name is ALFREDO CAVIEDES and his QSL shows the Equatorial Monument (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** HONDURAS. 3250.0, March 7 at 0050 hymny music in Spanish, fair and undistorted signal no doubt from HRPC, Radio Luz y Vida, back on its nominal after noisy jumps to 3287/3290. OLASOB = only Latin American station on band, 90 metres (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** IRAN [non]. 5810, weak S Asian music at 2318 March 6. Not listed in Aoki or EiBi, but it`s R. Farda via Sri Lanka due northwest, at 2230-2400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MAURITANIA. 4845, ORTM, March 7 at 0117 still on with speech in Arabic, usual hum, whine or het on big undermodulated signal plus a bit of SSB QRM on the side. WWCR still on 5070 at this hour; latest sked from them, see USA, shows 4840 has been cut back to 03-06 UT only, so Nouakchott should again be in the clear for its rousing wakeup show (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NORTH AMERICA. 6875, slightly on hi side, March 6 at 2315 weak rock music, presumably pirate and not WYFR. Still going March 7 at 0052 with Paul Robeson`s rousing rendition of The Internationale, which is enough to convince just about anyone to become a traditional communist, then clip from Dragnet, a non-sequitur? And robotic YL voice ``You are listening to The Crystal Ship, pirate radio``, off immediately at 0052.5*.

Later I checked e-mail and found that John Poet had notified of this broadcast: ``On air as of now on 6875 kHz AM (2205 UTC), testing Valiant #2 which has had some modulation issues. Should be on there for awhile.`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PERU. Since I had just heard hams from Brasil, Argentina and Ecuador on 15m around sunset here, 0020 UT March 7, would R. Victoria, Lima, third harmonic also make it? Yes, 18057.9 had a weak carrier with a trace of audio. An hour later at 0118, check of 6019.3 found the fundamental totally blown away by CRI 6020.0 via Albania, but sufficient to be audible as a het of about 700 Hz, the usual situation all evening (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PERU. I`ve had little luck with the mid-5-MHz WOOB Peruvians since the good old days of R. Ilucán on the consecutively-integered 5678. So I was pleased as a Peruvian hear any signal at all, March 7 at 0024 on 5485.7. On the main #1 longwire antenna, east-west, into the FRG-7 was getting S9+5 signal but most of that was noise. At 0031 tried the #2 longwire, which is longer and NW/SE and that registered only S3, occasional peaks to S4 but the local S/N was better so stayed with that, also for subsequent logs this evening.

But it was still so weak that despite considerable strain to hear something identifiable especially around hourtop 0100, could not tell anything except it was in Spanish, very lively DJ and music; 0045 mostly music. 0058.5 to an announcement which may well have mentioned Radio Frecuencia Popular, Olmos as IDed by Rafael Rodríguez, Colombia, replacing previous occupant of exactly same frequency, Reina de la Selva, Chachapoyas. Was enjoying at least the fact that this was a nice clear frequency, until 0132 when 2-way Spanish contact started up on 5482.5-USB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY. The 1330 broadcast of VOT in English is a total loss on both frequencies, 12035 and 15300, as we have outpointed repeatedly to no avail, so later I play the one-day file of that March 6 broadcast. News is mainly about outrage over USC resolution about the Armenian genocide being genocide by Turkey. Skipping ahead to recipe feature, ``Food for the court``, delicacies for the Ottomon palace cuisine, ended at 19:30 into the hour, the rest filled with excellent music, so I kept listening, but you`d think there would be more talk features before their concluding Question. They also said the food show would continue next week, so it`s not an alternator. This was an off-week for DX Corner, which is (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Mentioned on Ask WWCR #310 starting 27 Feb for two weeks:
New program on 13845, starting 25 Feb, at 13 to 16, The Power Hour, now simulcast with 7490. (As we have already noticed, but M-F only.)

Brady and Jerry also discussed: Big movement, frequency-wise. Have been testing on 4775, 03-12, starting with 4-hour reair of Alex Jones show. Going to adjust it, altho have had good response, preceding A-10 to test another frequency FCC approved for us, 4840. Hope less interference than 4775 which only had a little bit. Wants reports to 4840 @ wwcr.com and one can report specifically on any WWCR frequency in that format (not including, I assume, spurs, tho have not tried to see if those would bounce).

4775 improved reception in Europe over 5070, which they had thought was good already; apparently not. This is all testing, so no guarantees where they will stay, or wind up in A-10 scheduling.

However, the online transmitter schedule, tho still dated effective March 1, has been modified again as checked March 6: instead of nine hours on 4840 as initially, 03-12, now it shows 4840 for only three hours at 03-06, then back to 4775 at 06-12:

Transmitter #3 - 100 KW - 40 Degrees
12:00 AM-06:00 AM 0600-1200 4.775 MHz
06:00 AM-11:00 AM 1200-1700 7.490 MHz
11:00 AM-05:00 PM 1700-2300 12.160 MHz
05:00 PM-09:00 PM 2300-0300 5.070 MHz
09:00 PM-12:00 AM 0300-0600 4.840 MHz

However, the home page still shows 03-12 for 4840 - ? So now we can presumably hear Mauritania [see also] again with its riveting wake-up show on 4845.

The defective WORLD OF RADIO file got played again at 0330 UT Sunday on 4840, about 0350 going into looping so the rest of the show was missed. Since we heard this also happening at 1755 Saturday, it probably will have applied also to the other two WWCR airings, Friday 2130 on 7465 which we did not check, and Sunday 0730 on 3215.

I hope WWCR listeners will be able to hear WOR 1502 somewhere else, such as several remaining repeats on WRMI 9955, or WBCQ Tuesday 2000 on 7415, probably Wednesday too. Full schedule on all stations is at
http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html
Or listen via http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Checking Lavwadlamerik, March 6 at 2310, Greenville 7590 had distorted modulation and splatter audible out to plus and minus 20 kHz, even bothering the big signal from Cairo on 7580 --- could hear VOA scratching in its background, more so tnx to Cairo`s weak modulation in English.

UT March 7 at 0120, LVA good on both 5835 and 5960, giving websites for US Embassy; but 5835 is always so much stronger than 5960 during this hour that I would not be surprised if 5835 has two transmitters on it at once (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. No show for Area 51 on 5110 WBCQ, Saturday evening March 6, checked several times between 2348 and 0130 March 7. At the first time, however, there was some very weak SSB 2-way on 5105, perhaps Spanish.

Area 51 was supposed to be still running on SW 5110 Saturdays and Sundays, and
http://www.worldmicroscope.com says:

``Greetings from Kulpsville! We will be doing live broadcasting from the 23rd annual SWL Winterfest today and tomorrow via WBCQ 5.110 MHz. Our schedule is as follows:

•Friday, March 5: 6 pm – 11 pm eastern US time (2300-0400 UT)
•Saturday, March 6: 5 pm – 1 am (2200-0600 UT)
We will be available on the internet on our regular Area 51 webcast at
http://www.splatterbox.us:5110  Comments (0)  March 5, 2010``

I did not bring up that webcast until 0300 and it was running, but with pre-produced pseudo-dramatic programming. I also checked 7415 at 2348 in case WBCQ turned that back on just one Saturday evening for this special occasion, but no.

Were there any Fest SW broadcasts Friday evening on 5110, 7415 or 9330, when I was out in OK? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. SINPO 55555 reception of C-SPAN via Suddenlink Cable, Enid on channel 20, Saturday March 6 at 2338 UT with DX program ``The Communicators`` in progress until slightly past 2400. This week`s guest was Martin Cooper, `` inventor of the cell phone``, discussing spectral efficiency. (Apparently the inventor of the walkie-talkie is overlooked/superseded.)

Interesting to hear Marty`s POV on ever-increasing spectrum demands for telecommunications, expected to grow by 40! times in the next dekayear. At one point he said that spectrum is an infinite resource, and at another that it`s not much use above 3.5 GHz. Besides reallocating as much as possible to telecomms, e.g. from broadcast TV, this can only be accommodated by ever-increasing efficiency with new technology.

The program normally repeats on CSPAN-2 Mondays at 1300 and UT Tuesdays 0100. And audio, video here:
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/id/220548
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 5010, checked frequently Saturday evening March 6 between 2255 and 0130 UT March 7 in case there would be a repeat showing of last Saturday`s station reported by several others, which could have been Dominican Republic, Honduras or even Madagascar --- nothing there this time. There was some brief ute noise at 2348 around 5008 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 6855.0 at 0054 March 7, tuning around after TCS quit 6875, found at first very distorted SSB, then cleared up and recognizable as country music, but with questionable lyrix. Presumed pirate, but needed to get quickly back to PERU 5485.7 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED [non]. 13645, re previous report with link to a clip from Brasil of station, got this response:

``Hello Glenn, The station heard is AIR itself, probably in Gujarati. As you say 13645 is scheduled at 1515-1600 via Bangalore. I must say that the recording quality is excellent. Yours sincerely, Jose Jacob, Hyderabad, India``

So apparently the service was extended, or one hour late on those occasions, or possibly the Universal time was confused due to the change from summer to standard time in Brasil a few days earlier? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###