domenica 3 aprile 2011

Glenn Hauser logs April 1-2, 2011

** ANGUILLA [and non]. 11775, April 2 at 1350, PMS is JBA and I thought she was very undermodulated until I noticed a SAH, indicating suppression by a stronger carrier atop; but nothing else scheduled now except AIR Tibetan/Nepali via GOA at 1200-1430, surely not the source of this. Could have been a R. Martí Greenville or Sackville tuneup for evening service (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BURMA [non]. 12140, April 2 at 1352, fair signal in Burmese giving boxes in Bangkok and Tokyo, so suspected a gospel huxter, but it`s really R. Free Asia, 250 kW, 272 degrees via TINIAN at 1330-1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. 9550, April 2 at 1302 in Vietnamese, and still audible at 1404, i.e. CRI, 500 kW, 193 degrees from Beijing site. This starts at 1100, and I can hardly wait to exclaim ``Commies vs Commies`` again when RHC allegedly also starts using 9550 April 4 at 11-13.

Firedrake April 2:
10300 the only one audible, from *1310 overcoming Sound of Hope, see TAIWAN. MUFs and hi-latitude paths were depressed, WWV saying altho there were no geomag storms, K-index was 4 at 12 UT, 3 at 15 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. 7405, April 2 at 0611, R. Martí with no jamming audible, unlike 6030 at 0615.

5040, RHC Spanish April 2 still on at 0616 about, what else, Los 5, well past nominal 0500*; they sometimes leave 5040 on while the 6 MHz frequencies quit at scheduled time.

15120, RHC JBA April 2 at 1317, and mixing with something else weak, barely better on clear 15230. 19m was just about dead, with K=4 at 1200, the only decent signal being CRI/Sackville 15260; likewise 16m except for CVC Chile 17680.

As for the anticipated revived European service of RHC from April 4 at 1930-2300: Manolo de la Rosa has made yet another correxion, via Juan Franco Crespo: now saying it will be on 17650! Instead of 17560, instead of 17550 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CHINA

** EQUATORIAL GUINEA [and non]. 15190, zero signal from R. Africa, April 2 at 0602, vs SSOB 24 hours earlier, so hard to believe it is even on the air this Saturday; while Nigeria 15120 was audible both dates. AUSTRALIA was VG on 15160, also 15240, 15415 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** FRANCE [non]. 17690, RFI via GUIANA FRENCH, good April 2 at 1359 with musical prélude, 1400 timesignal, opening Spanish with 4 pm timecheck, ``repaso de la actualidad en 3 minutos``, 1403 a show about human rights, so no huelga hoy (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUINEA. 7125, RTG still sporadically active intruder in the exclusive (?) worldwide 40-m hamband, Saturday April 2 at 0612 with Qur`an interrupted every few seconds for translation/explanation in French. Co-channel from an SSB ham in Spanish needing no BFO, tho there were plenty of clear frequencies around 7125; a deliberate spoiler? Such programming was a surprise to me, as I did not realise Guinea is 85% Moslem, 8% Christian, per 2002y World Almanac. So at least 7% think for themselves, dare to be different (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9526-, after a spate of reliability for a couple weeks, VOI absent when English would have been aired, Saturday April 2 at 1302 and later chex during the hour. From adjacent RRI domestic relay transmitter at Cimanggis, 9680 still running with gamelan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NETHERLANDS [non]. 9650, with RNW Dutch back on this summer frequency at 1300 via IBB Tinang, PHILIPPINES, I made a point of monitoring the end, underclashing with CRI English via Sackville: 1325 mentions Marijke van der Meer, a familiar name from RNW English, 1326 NA, and 1327 open carrier instead of two sesquiminutes of the English feed until 1330*, which was a regular feature last A-season. So it`s been deliberately suppressed, and I can no longer say it should be added to the RNW transmission schedule, and comprehensive schedules of English broadcasts; shux (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NEWFOUNDLAND. 6160, April 2 at 0614, VG S9+18 signal in English, could be RCI, interview about Ivory Coast, then saying Lynn Desjardins will be next. After music break, at 0618 program ID as ``The Link`` from Montréal. Axually, it`s CKZN with CBC Overnight still carrying Radio Canada Internal/Immigration produxions. No sign of co-channel CKZU which, four timezones to the west, would not yet be in such programming. In previous seasons, RCI relays from Asia have been scheduled later on 6160, colliding with CBC`s own CKZU/CKZN! But not in A-11 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NIGERIA. 15120, the sometimes-audible VON English service from 0455: April 2 at 0601 news in English with deep fades peaking S9+10, unstable carrier, distorted crackly modulation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ROMANIA. 13800, April 1 at 2037, RRI with news in English, into `Radio Newsreel`, good // weaker 11880 and even weaker 11940. 13800 is not listed in this early version of the RRI A-11 schedule:
http://www.bclnews.it/a11schedules/romania.htm
Just 11880, 11940 and DRM 9765. But 13800 is in HFCC as:
13800 2030 2100 8 TIG 300 307  1234567 270311 301011 D Eng ROU RRO ROU 
i.e. to 8=E USA, beyond Europe (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. 5930, April 2 at 1251, R. Rossii with nice Bach organ music, 1253 Russian announcement; as usual stronger than // 5940 an echo apart in final few minutes of broadcast day (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RWANDA. 15275, April 2 at 0603, DW news in English, fair. It`s 250 kW, 295 degrees from Kigali for WAf, also USward; as NIGERIA 15120 was also propagating, but no EQUATORIAL GUINEA 15190, qq.vv. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN [and non]. 5965, REE via COSTA RICA mixing with Vatican, April 2 at 0606, program involving flamenco music, not `Amigos de la Onda Corta` DX show which in B-10 was at 0605 Saturdays. Would they shift it one UT hour earlier for A-11 so we could still hear it by staying up only till 12:30 am local? Of course not!

José Bueno`s DX program publicity says it is now at 0630, so we would have to stay up until 2 am! On 5965 CR and direct 11890, 12035, which were not propagating this night. He says the only other airing is Sundays at 1330, same UT as in B-10, but it was NOT on at that time March 27, maybe really shifted to 1230? On 11880 via CR, which like 15170 before it, is absent on Saturdays, back on Sundays; et al. 0630 Saturday also needs to be confirmed by someone awake (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TAIWAN [and non]. 10300, April 2 at 1307 instead of usual Firedrake, axual talk in Chinese and no jamming! Poor signal. *1310 Firedrake cuts on, but a mix of them still audible. In B-10, Aoki had 10300 as one of numerous 100-watt nuisance transmitters of Sound of Hope = Xi Wang Zhi Sheng at 2000-1700, but they must have put a much more powerful transmitter on it now; 1348 recheck, not much but FD audible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

** UGANDA [non]. 15410, R. Y`Abaganda, carrier on a dekasecond before *1700 Saturday April 2, new A-11 frequency ex-17725 for 1700-1715 weekly broadcast via Issoudun, FRANCE --- but very poor signal, some music audible, so presumed, while RFI itself on 15300 from same site was much better. This disparity is too great to explained by the registered parameters:
15300: 500 kW, 190 degrees
15410, 250 kW, 140 degrees
The latter has advantage of being much closer to directly off the back toward here, and half the power should not result in much less than half the signal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 5755, WTWW, April 2 at 1241 discussing brass bracelets on collars for dogs to make them less nervous, then cut to dead air for about a minute. Scriptures for America Worldwide has never got its technical act together. Resumed, playing ``Turn Your Radio On`` and denouncing psychophysical effects of bad/loud music. And the very strong WTWW carrier remains wobbly, obvious with BFO switched on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 7575, April 2 at 1257, VOA concluding `Press Conference USA`, so must now be scheduled Saturdays 1230 on this and other frequencies, 7575 being 18 degrees USward from Udorn, THAILAND.

9355, April 2 at 1258, good signal with VOA YDD sign-on; 1300 fragments of a couple different feeds, then ``Voice of America in Cantonese``, a minority language not worth jamming by the ChiCom, unlike Uzbek, Tibetan, etc. This is 349 degrees from Tinang, PHILIPPINES at 13-15.

12150, Saturday April 2 at 1351, VOA `Jazz America` vs CODAR // weaker 9510 and even weaker 7575. It`s Saturdays and Sundays 13-14, 12150 being 349 degrees via Tinang, PHILIPPINES.

15115, April 2 at 1357, Chinese // 9845 and echoing, vs something else in Chinese, i.e. VOA at 13-14, 250 kW, 18 degrees from THAILAND. Only Asian signals making it thru on 19m, attesting to the power of ChiCom jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also BURMA [non]

** U S A [and non]. WORLD OF RADIO 1557 monitoring: Sat 1400 broadcast on WRMI 9955 barely audible but not jammed; BFO helped and I notice that WRMI carrier is also slightly unstable, compared to several other signals in the area. Next airings are Sat 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730.

On WWCR, confirmed Sat 1600 on 12160; final repeat to be Sun 0630 on 3215.

IPAR/IRRS/NEXUS-IBA confirms WOR time is now Sat 1800 UT on 7290, also 1368, 1566 MW in Italy, and: ``You are also getting unscheduled repeats during streaming only time and on AM/Medium Wave daily from 19:04 CET to 01:00 CET [1704-2300 UT], both in Rome and N Italy.``

IRRS and I would of course like to know how well we are being received around Europe on 7290 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ZAMBIA [and non]. 13590, April 2 at 0603, CVC 1Africa with gospel rock in English, VG signal. In A-11 this is scheduled all the way from 06 to 20, 100 kW, 315 degrees toward W Africa and Michigan, colliding with China, then Russia at 10-15, and Germany 1530-18 certain days (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 9947.5, the continuous tone test first heard April 1 is also heard April 2 at 1305, mainly QRMing 9950 in Korean, i.e. Nippon no Kaze, 2 degrees from Taiwan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###