sabato 24 aprile 2010

Glenn Hauser logs April 23-24, 2010

** BRAZIL. RNA colliding with MEXICO: q.v.

** CHINA. Firedrake April 24, showing up on different frequencies, in perpetual cat-and-mouse with never-heard Sound of Hope 1 kW annoyance transmitters from Taiwan (or so we can only assume):
10410, fair at 1325
12990, fair at 1337
13970, JBA at 1342
14920, poor at 1345

Also, 9450 at 1425 April 24, mixture of echo jamming and noise. Per Aoki, SOH Xi Wang Zhi Sheng is scheduled here at 14-16 via a 100 kW transmitter at Yunlin, Taiwan, 335 degrees. Yunlin is also used for several RTI and Family Radio transmissions, but only on 9450 for SOH (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. RHC is still on 12020 colliding with Portugal, both for South America, April 23 at 2300. RHC // 12030, and RDPI // 9715. Cuba atop 12020, and it sounded like Portugal had modulation problems underneath on 12020, serves the DentroCubans right. Since RDPI 12020 is M-F only, one might think the problem had been resolved if monitoring on Saturday and Sunday --- but not as long as RHC stays on 12020 after 2300. Wake up, Arnie. Recheck 12020 April 24 at 0226, RHC alone now, but its audio is awful scratchy; and also at 0425.

Poor propagation plus T-storm noise worst below 11 MHz, but I can still log stuff like this: April 24 at 0235, 9810, jamming against nothing, long abandoned by República, and VOR Spanish via Guiana French having finished at 0200.

At 0235, 9780 with jamming against something, Radio República`s current frequency at 02-04, readable at equal level to the noise. 9460 at 0237, R. Martí also equal to the jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI English April 24 from 1310, good modulation and quite listenable with usual features such as This Day in History with three topix, one of which was the Hubble Space Telescope. Unusually, managed to be atop the CRI Russian het from *1357 on 9525.0, and could hear the VOI English sign-off until 1401* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** JAPAN. 15195, April 24 at 0428 jazz on guitar, off by next check after 0500; presumed NHK on longtime channel. Yes: Aoki says Japanese service 0155-0500, 290 degrees from Ibaragi-Koga-Yamata to Asia. This is broken up into four blox with identical parameters: 0155-0200, 0200-0300, 0300-0415 and 0415-0500; why? R. Japan does play a lot of western music, classical too, probably home service relay (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KUWAIT. 15540, R. Kuwait once again in English at 18-21 UT Friday April 23, after having carried Arabic the day before (and Wolfgang Büschel implied it was also in Arabic on Tuesday April 20 when I did not check; is that correct?). Good signal today, 1800 sign-on, giving frequencies 963, 96.3 (what a coincidence?), and 11990! The former 1800 English channel --- what do they know in the studio? They obviously don`t bother to tune in their own broadcast and find out what frequency it is on, or not on.

1801 program summary, seemed mostly to be music. Even before 1802 began ``Islam & Peace`` with ponderous declarations. But once that is over, RK lightens up with mostly western pop music. Didn`t have time to listen much, but rechecked before closing: 2058 ID again giving frequencies for this broadcast and also ``15110`` for 05-08 (local 08-11) English, which hasn`t been confirmed in many months; in fact if it`s on SW at all, we don`t know where. 2100 into Arabic news, still on past 2108 when cut off yesterday, but had disappeared by next check 2113, as it had also been fading down (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO [and non]. Just when does RNA Brasília sign off for the night? I figured it would be around local midnite, currently 0300 UT. April 24, tuned in 6185 at 0241 to find RNA on top of XEPPM, with the rapid SAH as always between them adding to the annoyance; but at 0312, RNA still on the air on 11780 with timecheck for 00:12 and greeting ``un novo dia``. And both still on at 0320. By next check, 0343, both were gone. Probably varies, when they get around to it, just like sign-on.

But 6185 still had SAH CCI at 0343, now from Vatican. The latter is weaker, so now XEPPM is on top in Spanish, but still too much QRM. 0359 can hear the VR IS mixing, scheduled until 0500. Since CRI/Sackville runs very strong ACI from 6190 at 05-06, that means Radio Educación is essentially unusable all evening until 0600. Thence we may finally enjoy its eclectic music in the clear should we be awake, until RNA come back on, presumably somewhen between 0730 and 0800; except UT Sundays when it is all-night (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. 9455 poor signal, April 24 at 1424 station in English discussing EU, inserted VOR sounder so no additional ID needed, then War Chronicles from this day in 1945y. 9455 is 14-16, 250 kW, 265 degrees via Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky for South Asia (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TIBET [non]. 9885, in tonal Asian language, not Chinese, April 24 at 0234, with ute QRM (BTW, ute is short for utility, not an initialism or acronym and there is no reason to write it in all-caps as so many are wont to do). 0257 some music and off at 0259*. Per Aoki, it`s Wertachtal, GERMANY, 250 kW at 75 degrees with Radio Free Asia in Khams dialect of Tibetan from 0230, preceded by Amdo dialect at 0200, and mainstream Tibetan at 01-02. Surely jammed by the ChiCom, but that not audible here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15825, WORLD OF RADIO 1509 confirmed on first WWCR airing, Friday April 23 around 2050, but just barely audible here in skip zone, hope much better elsewhere. Next chance: Saturday 1630 on 12160, which inbooms tnx to sporadic E, but with some reverb added not on my original audio file.

5890, Pastor Pete Peters is back on WWCR-4, following an hiatus. UT Sat April 24 at 0242 there he is, // WTWW 5755. Program schedule dated 9 April still omits the Aryan, with 00-02 UT Tue-Sun occupied by filler Golden Age of Radio Theatre, but at 02-03 it was a rebroadcast of The Roth Show, Tue-Sat (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9955, WRMI reconfirmed with Sat 1330 airing of WORLD OF RADIO, April 24 at 1348 poor but readable via the SSE antenna, with lite pulse jamming. Jeff White says, ``We have an outside engineer working on the North American antenna situation. But his time is limited. We will eventually get this back in operation. There has been very little demand from clients for North America lately``. He also sends the latest program schedule grid updated as of April 23, which is now available only as an attachment on the DXLD yahoogroup (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15000 and even 20000, WWV VG at 0228 April 24, thanks to sporadic-E opening, which also brought in some analog video on channel 2 around 0200 from somewhere. And more signs of TVDX at 1616 UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. The WEWN English transmitter continues to put out mushy spurs at approx. plus and minus 10 kHz, and woe betide any station foolish enough to broadcast next to such a noisy, inconsiderate neighbor. These were especially noticeable April 24 as a sporadic-E opening enhanced WEWN`s megameter-distant signal:

at 0230, 11520 put mushy, squealing spur on weaker 11530 WYFR in Spanish; at 0342, 9455 put spur on 9445, tho no victim audible there; if there was a match on 9465, it was obscured by DentroCuban jamming and Radio Martí on temporary 9460 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VATICAN [and non]. UT April 24 I make a point of checking the transition from Bonaire to Sackville on 9610 by R. Vaticana at 0250: From 0236, it`s VG with Vatican discussing topic-A. At 0247 I suspect the SAC carrier is already on, as there is a slow SAH and RV audio is a bit distorted and pumping, but no.

Sackville really cuts on at *0249:45 while Bonaire is playing IS, and for a few sex there is a lo het, enough to distort the pitch of the IS: I wonder which one is off-frequency, or both? Then English in the clear with just as good a signal here as French had been.

Veronica presented program about England in honour of St. George`s Day, blithely ignoring topic A, or so it started, tho I did not listen to it all. 0317 concluded with ``Latin Lover``, ha ha, apparently a regular segment, with Carmelite Fr. Reginald Porter, really about the Latin language and words derived from it, or not, such as on today`s theme, Londinium, fretum = channel or narrows.

0319 to ID and IS, cut off at 0319:30 revealing something weaker on 9610, but back on by 0320 to start Spanish with VG signal. During those few sex, SAC switches from 240 to 253 degrees, and from antenna type 158 to 218; why?

Also, at 0239 I had checked // 7305 Vatican in French and found it about one word ahead of 9610. Uplooked later, I see that this frequency also makes a site switch at 0250, from Santa Maria di Galeria, Vatican direct, to Sackville, so that`s my next project to monitor.

Also, shortly after 0300, noticed separate VR English to Africa on 9660 which is via MADAGASCAR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also MEXICO [and non] ###

Apologies again for omitting subject line in original post! Identical except I have now added a comment under USA WWCR/WOR.