lunedì 8 marzo 2010

Glenn Hauser logs March 8, 2010

** AUSTRALIA. Unlike normal G-VG reception, RA inaudible on 9560, 9580 and 9590, March 8 at 1327; it was OK on 6020. Weaker signals were there on 9585, 9595, not to mention CRI/Habana 9570 with its blobby mess.

RA was also absent from 31m 24 hours earlier, so I am beginning to wonder if these transmitters are off the air, or the nightside TP MUF is unusually low. Strongest to weakest normally: 9580, 9590, 9560. Maintenance at Shepparton, or new schedule? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRALIA. 15400, Chinese at 1358 March 8, no doubt HCJB as scheduled until 1430, 340 degrees. Then went to 15340 for their Urdu service at 307 degrees, and could only hear the het it makes with Morocco 15341. 1431 recheck, het and 15341 gone already, but only weak signal on 15340, too much Martí 15330 splash (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also MOROCCO

** CHINA. Firedrake March 8 at 1331, poor with flutter on 8400 and 9000. This pair had not been heard for a couple of weeks (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [non]. 6115, CRI via CANADA, UT Monday March 8 at 0630 with Frontline show, convoluted tale of someone who sat outside staring at someone`s door all day, scaring the person inside who was aware of this thru a peephole. Could not stay awake for the resolution, but seems like odd programming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ETHIOPIA [non]. 15195, March 8 at 1607 good with Horn of Africa music including singer; 1612 announcement and now I notice there is also DRM-like noise on frequency, axually Ethiopian jamming of EOTC Holy Synod Radio, the clandestine which broadcasts Mondays only at 16-17 via Samara, RUSSIA site, per Aoki, and also reported by Wolfgang Büschel March 1 with such noise jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GOA. 15175, March 8 at 1516 with fluttery open carrier, no doubt AIR Gujurati via Panaji supposed to start at 1515 we have logged a couple times recently, but where`s the modulation this time? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9680.0, RRI Jakarta at 1326 March 8 with gamelan. Someone was wondering if this transmitter is off-frequency like VOI 9525v/9526v, but I have never heard an audible het on 9680, and now confirmed as matching a MW station, Louisiana? on 1680 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** IRAN [non]. 15410, surprised to find no signal from R. Farda, March 8 at 1358 but it was good with news at 1430. First tune-by may have been during transmission break switching from Lampertheim 100 kW to Skelton 300 kW site at 1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KURDISTAN [non]. Wolfgang Büschel reported to DXLD and in BC-DX:
``Belgian police have raided sites in Brussels, Antwerp and other cities as part of an international investigation into connections with a Kurdish separatist group, the PKK. Turkey applauds arrests.

11530 kHz channel of Denge Mezopotamya from UKRAINE Mykolaiv Luch
Posad-pokrovskote shortwave site is silent this morning March 5th.``

Sergei S. also found 11530 and night frequency 7540 missing March 4-5, but 11530 was back weakly on March 6. Voice of Mesopotamia is run by Roj TV, and on SW is brokered by TDP. A couple of background stories:

http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/belgian-police-raid-offices-of-roj-tv
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5319300,00.html

I checked 11530 on March 8: at 1332 I could tell it was there under WYFR Portuguese which runs until 1345. Then fluttery but in the clear at 1345 in Kurdish with phone rings and calls, pauses. At 1408 in music, 1417 Kurdish rap vying with TDP 15760 [see U S A [non]] to be the hippest, ha2. 1427 back to more traditional music.

I sure hope Ludo Maes of TDP, a very nice fellow when you meet him, does not get ensnared into this terrorist investigation by associating with such shady characters (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MOROCCO. Seems RTM is taking longer than 4 minutes to change from 15341 to 15345, as previously timed. March 8 at 1358, het with 15340 which happens when HCJB Australia is propagating; but no het at 1431, so 15341 apparently off the air already. At 1517, 15345 was audible with whine but otherwise just barely modulated (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OMAN. 15140, R. Sultanate of Oman inaudible around 1430 March 8 when has English news; as often happens, frustratingly improves after 1500 when in Arabic, e.g. March 8 at 1530 fair with Qur`an (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PERU. 18057.9, third harmonic of R. Victoria, Lima, OAX4Q, 3 kW on 6019.3, weakly audible at 1441 March 8 in Spanish; 1504 better than usual with wacky wailer David Miranda, so I also look for second and fourth harmonics. No, nothing on 24077.2 but locally hi noise around there; and nothing on 12038.6 except CODAR. Could be that its harmonicization favors odd numbers, i.e. fifth at 30096.5 but we`ll need a bit more MUF before that possiblizes. Keep those other frequencies in mind; or if anyone ever hears anything on them, searching DXLD will lead right here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. 9840, VOR in English to NAm, March 8 at 0615, has co-channel interference in Russian also producing a fast SAH, i.e.:

R.  Rossii via Moskva-Taldom     site, at 05-08, 250 kW, 260 degrees;
VOR via Petropavlovsk/Kamchatka site, at 04-07, 250 kW, 70 degrees,

per Aoki and HFCC. You might not think the two would collide in CNAm, but you would be wrong (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 17485, Brother Scare via GERMANY is usually weakish but clear, but March 8 at 1513 accompanied by CW transmission on 17481 requiring off-tuning hi from 17485 on wide filter. Did not spend enough time to catch a DE (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN. Another Monday, another Sephardic broadcast from REE, 1425-1455 on 15385: March 8 at 1447, narration with piano accompaniment, then next segment ``España Hoy`` introed by classical guitar. 1453 sign-off announcement faded during the fourth digit, so could not be positive she still says 15325 instead of 15385, but did notice she attributes that frequency to ``16 metros``! Also said 0115 to South America would be on 11795, 0415 to North America on 9650; both UT Tuesdays. Off 1455* after fanfare (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SUDAN [non]. 17700 is alleged by DX Mix News, Bulgaria to be Southern Sudan Interactive Radio Instruxion, via ASCENSION, starting at 1600, but March 8 at 1603 in Arabic, habari, jingles, 1604 clear ID pronounced in English as ``Sudan Radio Service``, and again less than a minute later, also frequently mentioning just Sudan.

So we would be justified in thinking 17700 is really SRS and not SSIRI. However, it is still never // 17745 SRS via PORTUGAL; and possibly SSIRI takes news from sister station SRS with IDs from the latter? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY [and non]. 12035, VOT English March 8 at 1338, weak signal but sounds like sufficient modulation for a change; badly bothered by ChiCom jamming vs VOA Chinese via Saipan on 12040 during this hour only (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 7575, March 8 at 1258, VOA English announcing frequencies to be audible in following hour, but underneath stronger open carrier also causing SAH, the weaker cutting off incomplete at 1259 for OC only until 1300 start next hour of VOA English.

Yet another unnecessary site handoff, i.e. SRI LANKA, 250 kW 33 degrees, over to TINIAN, 250 kW, 279 degrees. Anyhow, reception was much better here after 1300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Surprised to hear Ask WWCR, Monday March 8 at 1345 as I tuned across 15825; the current edition 310 already heard starting with how they had not missed any airtime during all the snowstorms, sometimes requiring personnel to spend the night on the premises.

The Ask WWCR page
http://www.wwcr.com/ask-wwcr.html claims this show has only two airtimes, the invariable 8:45 pm Saturday on 5070, and the first and fifth Mondays: ``1/5 Monday 7:30AM 1130 WWCR-1 15.825`` ?? That 4-hour-difference time conversion is for EDT, not even CDT and not current CST, so what UT did they really mean? The 8:45 pm entry is also misconverted as 0045 UTC.

The full pdf program schedule dated 1 March instead shows Ask WWCR every week on all these, UT:
Sunday 0245 5070
Sunday 1045 4840
Monday 1345 15825
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Have heard nothing official from WTWW Lebanon TN, but seems its only programming continues to be Pastor Pete Peters, // WWCR-4. Since I was searching 18+ MHz for more exotic harmonix anyway, paused at 18960 for a weak signal, which occasionally surged to recognizable PPP, i.e. 2 x 9480. Could be receiver overload, but fundamental is so strong cannot detect fading there, maybe verging on reaching harmonic thresholds (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 17920v, spurblob at 1603 March 8, accompanied by its much stronger fundamental, 17775 KVOH which had just opened with Spanish preaching (Glenn hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED [non]. 15760 AM, something new March 8 at 1353, disco music, ``Boogie Oogie Oogie`` followed by many other selexions, always seguéd not missing a beat, except 1401 ID as ``The Disco Palace`` and ``On Broadway`` which is not exactly disco, but jazzed up version with Stevie Wonder. 1412 sounds like Michael Jackson. Signal is good but with some deep fades, especially 1430. 1442 with jazzed up Beethoven`s Fifth. 1500 still going, 1501 another minute-late TOH ID, as ``The Disco Palace``, and #1 song in the UK; what year, I wonder? A bit later ``Mamma Mia``. 1513 ``I Feel Love``, Donna Summer, I think. 1530 still going but weaker. 1554 ``Hear the Music . . . in The Disco Palace``. 1601 ``The best disco music --- The Disco Palace``.

The Disco Palace has been reported before as a DRM-only station which started transmissions a few weeks ago, Feb 10 per Aoki, via GUIANA FRENCH at 20-21 on 17750-17760. Now we get to hear it on AM, whee!

Strangely enough, this Miami dancehall shares initials with Transmitter Documentation Project which is enamored of similar music for its DRM broadcasts, one of which precedes the other TDP on 17755, and the Belgian broker is responsible for the new TDP broadcasts too.

But that`s not all. Right next to 15760-AM there appeared a stronger DRM blob 15740-15745-15750, first noticed at 1445, and it too ran past 1600. Could this be coincidental? We think not. In fact, Sean Gilbert in UK was monitoring that DRM as The Disco Palace, but did not mention the AM.

DRM 15745 is via Bonaire, a one-day(?) test toward Europe, as in the latest DX Mix News, which also does not mention AM 15760, so is it Bonaire too? ---

``1300-1830 15745 BON 100 kW / 080 deg WeEu, test on Monday March 8``

There was also a Media Network blog entry about this dated March 5 saying the DRM test March 8 would be at 1300-1825 but again no mention of an accompanying AM transmission on 15760; probably a good idea if they want to reach more than a dozen listeners.

I asked Andy Sennitt, and just got the answer from him, so both are BONAIRE:

Hi Andy, DRM on air right now. As a test the signal is also on air in AM on 15760 kHz. 250 kW at azimuth 80 degrees. Regards JP [Jan Peter Werkman, RNW] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 15804-SSB, 2-way Spanish, March 8 at 1519, discussing catching a corrida, frequently mentioning quantities in kilos. Both sides heard, one somewhat stronger than the other. Presumably narco-traffickers airborne or seaborne. Or submarineborne? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 17840, Monday March 8 at 1438, an electronic music loop like a VTC interval signal, but not the same music we have heard before. Nothing scheduled here except Lisboa on weekends only.

Surprised to find at next check 1455 that 17840 was carrying R. Nederland in Brazilian Portuguese, a language banned from SW years ago. 1500 timesignal and switch to RN Spanish news; 1511 ending news and opening ``Podio Europeo de Jazz`` DJ the non- or de-retired Alfonso Montealegre, which continued for the rest of the hour.

Next2 check at 1602, 17840 bore a signal too weak, not sure if same transmitter, but at 1619 better with classical music, 1630 fading out. Probably some kind of test, but whence? Bonaire again like DRM 15745?

See also UNIDENTIFIED 15760. None of this appears on the RNW schedule
http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/rnw-frequency-schedule-winter-20092010
which has not been updated since 28 January (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 18387-, slightly below frequency, 2-way SSB in Chinese or similar, March 8 at 1526 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###