domenica 13 marzo 2011

Glenn Hauser logs March 13, 2011

** CUBA [and non]. When DST went off last fall, RHC surprisingly moved its Spanish programming one UT hour later, i.e. keeping it on the same local time, so with DST of UT -4 resuming March 13, in coördination with Yanqui Imperialism, we expected program times to shift back one UT hour earlier, but at the beginning of the day this did not happen --- no change in UT:

1336, on 15120, `Cuba Campesina` is starting with its theme song and announcements, instead of `En Contacto`, the DX program we were expecting. At least it is still not conflicting with Spain`s DX program `Amigos de la Onda Corta` adjacent on 15125 and much stronger // 15170, both via COSTA RICA, which remains at 1330 Sundays, but no telling when that will be scheduled once A-11 arrive.

RHC`s `Revista Iberoamericana` is billed as 5-7 pm Cuban time, so maybe that transmission at least will shift from 22-24 to 21-23 UT and along with it, `En Contacto` around 2240 instead of 2345.

We were astounded to hear English from RHC in the morning! March 13 at 1351 on the weak frequency 11730, while all the others remained in Spanish --- 11760, 12040, 13680, 13780, 15120, 15230, 15360. English seemed to be in ``news`` segment about Japan, human rights concerns (ha, ha, ha, from Castros` Cuba???) in Bahrain, Yemen; then commentary on ALBA, too literally translated, e.g. employing ``expressed`` as an intransitive verb! 1359 started philatelic show, but 1400 morphed into Spanish, now // all the other frequencies. Our hopes were dashed for a regular morning English broadcast, as this was apparently a SNAFU in the playbacks, but bears further checking.

At 1436, `En Contacto` had just started with birthday segment, so remains at the same time as before, at least for now, but by now, 12040 and 13680 have gone off, as they habitually do on Sundays after 1400, whether or not there is any `Aló, Presidente`. And today there was not, as they did not even bother to fire up the special frequencies 13750, 15370, 17750, also silent at 1526 check, and at 1605.

Still on for `En Contacto` until 1450, the main feature being about R. Reloj and its rôle in the revolution, were 11730, 11760, 13780, 15120, and with heavy CCI, 15360. Now, will the third play still be at 0240 UT Monday, or 0140?

How about Esperanto: will there be any this week at scheduled time of 1500 on 11760 only? Of course not! Stayed in Spanish, also at 1525 recheck. Maybe will show at 2230 Sunday on 15370, which has been more reliable lately.

¡Ajá! RHC sometimes sneaks in changes to its website schedule which you might not expect since there is no specific effective date on it, not to be confused with the automatically displayed current date:
http://www.radiohc.cu/espanol/c_frecuencia/frecuencias.htm
Don`t even bother looking at the versions presented in other languages, which are left to languish far outdated.

At 1610 I take a look and see that Esperanto on 11760 Sundays is now shown as 1600 instead of 1500 --- and yes, there it is, when 11760 is monitored at 1612. This should be more convenient, at a time when Spanish transmissions are in siesta.

Looking over the rest of the schedule, there are no new frequencies shown, and I don`t see any other changes; overall Spanish hours are still listed as 12-16 and 22-06, rather than shifting one UT hour earlier. And yes, no English shown on 11730 before 1400.

Oh oh, unlike last spring, it seems that Cuba has NOT yet gone on DST, the same date as USA. In order to express its independence, Cuba is doing it one week later this year on March 20, according to
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/clockchange.html?n=99
No other country does it on that date, but close to Iran on March 21.
So next Sunday, we shall have to check all this out again.

Meanwhile, there may be some added confusion about jamming hours, with Martí and Miami on DST while Cuba is not (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA SOUTH [non]. 6045, KBS World Radio relay via Sackville, Spanish at 06-07 to Europe, has been tough to hear clearly ever since last November when RHC glommed onto 6050 with much stronger signal. But March 13 at 0624 I notice that the VTC, or rather Babcock fill-music loop is playing instead of KBS, so RCI has lost the feed from Seoul: the same music as always played between VOV relays on 6175, and also heard during other breakdowns, e.g. from SENTECH (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** LIBYA. 17725, VOAf from the GJ, March 13 audible around 1345 presumably in Swahili; 1415 check, poor in English, by 1525 fair-good with music; still nothing on 21695 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1555 monitoring: 9955, WRMI, Sunday March 13 at 1530, ex-1630 due to overall DST-shift, poor signal with SAH from Taiwan, but no jamming. Further repeats on WRMI as timeshifted: Sunday 1730, Monday 1130, 2130, Tue 1530, Wed 0100, 1530 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###