lunedì 2 maggio 2011

Glenn Hauser logs May 1-2, 2011

** ANTARCTICA [and non]. 15476, LRA36 back on the air Monday May 2 following weekend off. At 1311, S9 to S9+10 peaks and going from easily heard music to talk at strain level. 1314 back to better-audible music again. The trio of XYLs should sing their announcements for much better projexion! At this time the Esperanza signal stood out, with nothing stronger on adjacents, but hardly outstanding. Also much better than Turkey 15450 during hi-latitude propagation degradation. By 1352, UK on 15480 could be heard, 250 kW eastward, but the 2 kW on 15476 holding its own! Altho LRA36 as usual weakening by now (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. 6070, CFRX Toronto still missing May 2 at 0542, and also at 1302. Time for its ODXA contacts to check up on it. Replying to my previous report, at 0029 UT May 2, Robert LaFore, Acworth GA wrote, ``No sign of CFRX here in Georgia, Normally it is in most of the day.`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. 9625, May 2 at 0538, CBCNQ carrier is still on, and this time also with continuous tone, weaker than ACI REE CR 9630 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake May 2: all heard were //
 7970, no sign of it at 1253 or anytime later
10300, poor at 1323; none on 10965/10970 or lower than 10300; 10300 very poor with flutter at 1434
11500, very poor with flutter at 1322; not positive FD in the mix
13130, very poor at 1319
13920, poor at 1320 with utility QRM. None in the 12`s
14700, JBA at 1318
14970, fair at 1318
15900, I tuned into good open carrier at 1315, and Firedrake music cut on at 1315:38. Is there now a standard 15-minute break at hourtops?
16100, as good as // 15900 at 1316; none higher
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. 9955, May 2 at 0537 vs WRMI in Spanish, DentroCuban Jamming Command producing a different sound than usual: not the wall of noise, not the pulsing, but a whine with intermittent oscillating tone rather like a phone ringing, but each lasting longer than a normal single ring. What`s being jammed? R. Praga, República Checa, scheduled daily at 0530-0600. Are the Cubans still so pissed at Czechia for overthrowing communism and going capitalist? More likely typical incompetence.

5955, May 2 at 0545, the jamming against R. República had a similar sound to 9955, but totally obliterating it.

Meanwhile, at 0545, 6030 had normal lite pulsing against nothing, Cuba unwilling to observe a total weekly truce while R. Martí is off the air for 6 hours Monday mornings (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ECUADOR [non]. Re previous report, the WRMI times for DX Partyline --- one of them was wrong as I have to convert all the times on the grid from EDT times and days to UT times and days: UT Tuesday 0330, not UT Monday. I also missed Tue 1500, since in searching the grid, it`s just ``DXPL``, Here`s the whole list again:

Plenty of DXPL times, a baker`s dozen: Sun 0030, 1430, 2330; 0500, 1115, 1545; Tue 0330, 1500; Wed 1430; Thu 0515; Sat 1000, 1500, 2015.

For the remaining DXPL times on IPAR, HCJB Australia [never HCJB Ecuador!], and WWCR, see the updated
http://www.worldofradio.com/dxpgms.html
Also for the other English DX programs on WRMI: WORLD OF RADIO, WAVESCAN, VIVA MIAMI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI continues to be very poorly audible, just enough to detect the off-frequency carrier and bits of modulation, May 2 before and after 1300 English, a far cry from the big signal it usually had thru March into early April; a seasonal thing, or change in power/antenna? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH [non]. 6135, Shiokaze/Sea Breeze reported by Ron Howard on this alternate frequency since April 28, out from under R. Australia on 6020, so I try to hear it May 2: with BFO at 1328 I am hearing a weak TADIL-A 5+1 bonker on the lo side, and at 1329 a carrier comes on 6135 from JSR, but that`s all I can get this far into the dayside, so can`t expect to listen to it again until autumn, as they never switch to a higher band (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KUWAIT. 15540, R. Kuwait again on the air late after closing English at 2100, in Arabic at 2108 April 28, better than // 17550 [not 17750 as typoed in original report] which is supposed to be on until 2400 but much more subject to fading and fadeouts (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NEW ZEALAND. 9615, just as I tune in May 2 at 1257, I hear Guam mentioned in a down-under accent before the carrier cuts off. I seriously suspect it was RNZI, which per its own schedule at
http://www.rnzi.com/pages/listen.php
is supposed to be on 9655 until 1258:
1059-1258 9655 AM Timor, NW Pacific Daily
but poorly heard here as it is on the NW antenna toward Timor. As soon as the carrier went off at 1258, I could hear a weak YFR theme, i.e. due south from Irkutsk, RUSSIA.

By the time I got to 6170 at 1302 during news, RNZI was on there as normal, but weakening into the dayside. At 1330 I could tell that `Mailbox` was starting with theme and right into utility DX report, but too poor; will have to demand it online. If they had stayed on 9615 this time, would have been readable.

9615 is on the current RNZI schedule only at 1836-1950, so apparently their computer control messed up again (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. As I was bandscanning MW on the caradio, Sunday May 1 at 1933 UT, came across Brother Scare on KTLR 890 OKC, just as he was pontificating on the ``beautification`` of PJP2. Wish I had heard him say that more than once, whether it was just a tongueslip or real ignorance of which he is so capable. Has anyone else heard him say that? What a difference one letter makes (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN [and non]. 11815 via COSTA RICA, REE, May 2 at 1305 opening weekdaily `Españoles en la Mar` program with standard Morse code ID; just copied the last three letters, MAR, mixing with Japanese speech and SAH from NHK direct. Much better on // 11880 northward.

Next time, listen earlier for a special character you won`t hear in English, the Ñ. Wikipedia says: ``When the Morse Code was extended beyond English, a symbol was allotted for this character, though it is not used in English ( — — · — — ).`` Lots more about Enye at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%91
Yes, the original URL has that single strange letter at the end.

11880, Monday May 2 at 1435, REE is amid token English news headlines by OM announcer, not Justin Coe, with a somewhat British accent, mostly about Bin Laden; says another victim of Al-Qaida terrorism, Spain approves of killing him. 1438 handed over to Arabic YL without outroing himself.

After less than a minute, the closing in Castilian plays, as she starts to cough; must have hit the wrong button, as then she resumes with a bit more Arabic news, also about Bin Laden, before the closing plays again to conclude by 1440 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9370, WTJC still out of whack, May 2 at 0540 with modulation spikes around 9345 and 9395. Worse than ever at 1300 with ID, requesting reception reports! And into IRN-USA slanted `news`. Now the spurs are as strong as the fundamental. By 1339, the spur field has increased to bother WBCQ on 9330, IBB on 9355, WWRB on 9385, and most points in between, as far out as 9320 and 9420. 9385 WWRB had usual very strong signal with BS, but the scratchy spur from WTJC could be heard underneath, tsk2 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 11715-, no sign of KJES, Monday May 2 at 1322, unlike Sunday at 1356 in previous report. However, at 1405, S9+12 carrier but just barely modulated with singing, eventually recognizable as `Ave Maria` with guitar accompaniment. Much better reception from the fellow zombies in P`yongyang on 11710. As usual, KJES frequency slightly on lo side, compared to something on 9715, listed as IBB TINIAN in Vietnamese (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9955, Monday May 2 at 1434, Roberto Scaglione`s `Studio DX` in Italian is audible, poor WRMI signal but not jammed for a change. See also CUBA [and non], ECUADOR [non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###