sabato 7 maggio 2011

Glenn Hauser logs May 6-7, 2011

** CHINA. Firedrake May 7, all // when checked:
10965, fair at 1244; poor at 1346; very poor at 1435
11500, poor at 1349, CCI, // 10965
13920, good at 1216 with ute/het
14700, poor at 1248 // 13920; poor at 1352
15430, very poor with flutter at 1355; // 16100 at 1358
16100, good at 1255 // 13920; good with flutter at 1358

16980, good at 1256. I compared to reception quality of CRI 17490 English and 17650 Chinese, both known to be Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN, and 16980 was better; however it was much like 17575 at 1257 with non-Firedrake Chinese music, a CRI postlude until cut at 1300* after only two pips. 17575 is scheduled as Russian, 315 degrees from the SZG site at 12-13. 16980 was not on at 1358 when 16100 was still running

17705, May 7 at 1300, ZRGD/CJKT ID atop Indian music from AIR Chinese, which the ChiCom feel so threatened by. I.e. CNR1 jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 5735, May 7 at 0546, pulse jamming against nothing, timed at the rate of approx. 232 per minute or almost 4 per second. Something interesting might turn up on 5735, unless this was totally spurious.

15360, Saturday May 7 at 1432, RHC starting `Cancionero Iberoamericano` good music show, altho previously heard at this hour was `Sonido Cubano` as still shown on `new` program schedule:
http://www.radiohc.cu/index.php/de-interes/programacion.html

Tried all the frequencies and found:
15360 fair
15230 fair
15120 off by 1400
13780 and 13680 good
12040 JBA under Chinese QRM
11830 mix and SAH with WYFR
11760 good
11730 poor
11690 poor with RTTY
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CYPRUS. 17860-17885, OTH radar pulses, presumed from here, May 7 at 1439, and luckily enough, not hitting any broadcasters, and indeed per HFCC none are scheduled at this time on Saturdays, except some ADM from UAE on 17885, probably wooden (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GERMANY [non]. 13730, May 7 at 1211, French underneath VATICAN via CANADA until its 1215*. 1218 in clear, as DW to Africa with contact info, jingle. It`s via Sines, PORTUGAL, about which Kai Ludwig reports:

In the May edition of the "Journalist" magazine: ``DW will close its Sines and Trincomalee transmitter sites. Radio programmes in Persian, Russian and Indonesian will be cancelled before the end of this year. It appears that the DW radio operations at Bonn will be hit particularly hard by cuts, with employees having to move to DW TV in Berlin.``

15410, May 7 at 1356 sounds like the VTC fill-music loop, but off at 1357* after unmistakable 4-note DW jingle. Scheduled as Hausa via RWANDA, so no Babcock involved; however, on 15410 from 1400 it`s DW via Woofferton in Russian, so maybe the two overlapped (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GREECE. 11645, May 7 at 0527, at last we hear R. Filia via V. of Greece in English instead of Albanian --- but nothing to do with Greece, as it`s just a BBCWS relay, at the moment mentioning demonstrations in China, confirmed by // 7255 ASCENSION, and slightly ahead of it, programme ID as `World Today`. At 0530, 11645 cuts to announcement in Greek, and then something in French; poor with flutter, and deteriorating later in the hour.

Those languages match John Babbis` new 11645 schedule for Saturdays, plus Spanish from 0545. On Sundays, 0500-0530 Albanian, 0530-0600 BBC `Satellite English`; M-F 0500-0600 all Albanian, but cuts off well before 0600 for QSY. It seems rather pointless to take the second quarter hour only of BBC`s 55-minute `W.T. Weekend`, also the programme excerpted on Sundays (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** HAWAII [and non]. 15000, May 7 at 1247:45, quite good signal from WWVH ID and no trace at all of WWV following it; 1248 NIST Survey announcement which the two have stuck in at many different once-open minutes each hour; this version ends with ``aloha``. 1248 on to Pacific weather. Could also hear different pips on the lo side, no doubt 8 kW RWM Moscow-Taldom from 14996 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI back on the air May 7 at 1240 with lite music, fair signal, IADs. 1305 poor during news in English; at 1314  noise starts to override, and still atop VOI at 1343. Could be taken for jamming, but unlikely; maybe spur from some near-frequency transmitter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH. 11710 and 11735, we are doubly blessed with two different streams of triumphal music from VOK, on the English and Chinese services respectively, May 7 at 1348; at 1351 also on 13760 // 11710. At 1354 they go into their respective language announcements. Until then one might have thought them parallel, without comparison (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KUWAIT. 15540, R. Kuwait, May 6 at 2055 after news headlines in English, reading a proclamation, article by article, about amnesty for illegal immigrants. NA at 2059 and off immediately at 2100* unlike other occasions, switching to Arabic feed // 17550 and staying on as much as 20 minutes past.

21540, May 7 at 1304, Arabic music and talk, over SAH from Spain collision, the SSOB but not saying much, as still poor and nothing else but Spain itself audible on 21610. Seems like the spring peak of 13m reception is over; we can only hope that rising SSNs will compensate to some extent over the summer (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** LIBYA. 17725, May 7 at 1301, Swahili fair with deep fades, snatch of Beethoven`s Ninth, as always on VOAf from the GJ; signal had been barely detectable past week. At 1440 not so good in English, but could make out ``Dear listeners ---`` and something about, guess what? The Revolution. No, not this one; that one (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PALAU. 9930, May 7 at 1233, English lesson cum Bible lesson from Luke XII:15, YL explaining difficult(?) words with other words: ``take heed`` means ``pay attention``; ``beware`` means ``watch out``; ``covetousness`` means ``to want other people`s things``. T8WH is registered here 24 hours! With no competition except South Africa at 16-17 from Babcock in Somali (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PERU. 4790-, haven`t had a decent signal from R. Visión, Chiclayo for ages, but there it is, slightly on lo side, May 7 at 0549 hymn with piano, minor-key Andean touch, S9+15 over CODAR but carrier unstable. 0554 changes to shouting predicator, discussion of evangelio (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PHILIPPINES. 9920, May 7 at 1230 ``Jesus Saves`` IS on chimes, dead giveaway it`s FEBC, then segué to Hmong-like hmusic on quena-like hmouth instrument with calliope overtones; 1231 change to quartet(?) singing about Jesus. 1238 talk with sort of a ringing het on it. Per EiBi this is really in Koho, spoken in Vietnam, daily at 1230-1300 following a complicated rotation of other languages from 1100, via Bocaue site (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SAIPAN. More searches for KFBS frequencies on the schedule previously included for A-11: still nothing, May 7 at 1220 on 11920, 11800, while 11650 had very poor something, presumably CRI as before; so is KFBS defunct? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 15420, May 7 at 1356 and 1358, no signals from WBCQ, which is normally running its IS/ID loop prior to the 1400 Brother Scare Sabbath Service. Still nothing at 1420, 1431. Propagation does not seem to be that bad; WBCQ 9330 is in as usual. It`s a new month and BS`s contract may have run out in April? But recheck at 1650 found him JBA on 15420, incomparably inferior to blastfurnace 9980 WWCR, // but not synchronized.

Meanwhile, BS also audible on 17485 via GERMANY, May 7 at 1432; first thing I heard upon tune-in was BS yelling ``blood running out of the body``, with murmurs of assent from psychophants, prompting a quick tune-on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN. Still wondering what became of the mailbag show on REE in Spanish, which used to accompany the DX program, the latter still running UT Saturdays at 0505-0530 on 11890, 12035. May 7 at 0532 talking about a poetic folklore competition, unseems mailbag; does it still exist anywhen? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY. 15450, VOT, poor May 7 at 1351 in `DX Corner` with YL reading some radio news about NHK; 1253 music break. Too poor to copy, but we need to ascertain if she is still ripping off items from the Media Network blog without credit. The on-demand file on the website is not yet for May 7, but May 6 as of 1730 check (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U K [non]. BBCWS relay via GREECE: q.v.

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1563 monitoring: Friday 2030 on WWCR 15825 confirmed at 2044 check May 6, but very poor with no Es enhancement, skipping over here. E.g., KUWAIT [q.v.] was much better on 15540. WOR repeats on WWCR are Saturday 1600 on 12160, Sunday 0630 on 3215. Confirmed on WRN/WRMI webcast at 1731, to repeat Sunday at same time, and also on WRMI Sunday 0800, 1530. On IPAR via SLOVAKIA, Saturday 1800 on 7290. Also on WRN via SiriusXM new channel 120, Sunday at 0831 and 1731 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 17545 and 15580, VOA sufficient, Saturday May 7 at 1425 concluding `On the Line` discussion, 1427 `USG Editorial` about AU/US coöperation on Ivory Coast, Libya, but lasted only one sesquiminute, then fill music ending with VOA jingle, until 1430 `Encounter` discussion of UBL. It seems my previous suspicion that 17545 could be Greenville is not so; both SÃO TOMÉ at this hour. Yes, let`s always call him Usama from now on, less confundible with Obama (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 15120, May 7 at 0520 in Chinese a few seconds behind // 17855. Unlike Aoki and its easily overlooked or misunderstood a*terisks, Eibi explicitly shows CNR1 jammers on these frequencies, as well as R. Free Asia in Mandarin, 03-07. 15120 is TINIAN and 17855 is SAIPAN. Deliberate offset delays are typical of those sites to even out power consumption, even if both were from the same site, so I am quite sure it was RFA being heard, and the ChiCom jamming not propagating. 15120 did have some QRM under and SAH, no doubt poor NIGERIA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9370, WTJC and its filthy spurs: May 7 at 0534, worst on 9395, weaker around 9345 talking about Jee-e-zus (3 syllables); also bothering Greek music on 9420 and audible up to 9445. And also at 1242, worst on 9345 vs VOK, 9320 and 9395 vs nothing, audible down to 9300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 7555, if you tune in WEWN anytime between 04 and 06 UT on Tue-Sat, also // 11870, chances are great you will hear their super-unxuous announcer intoning ``por su dolorosa pasión``. That`s exactly what I hit May 7 at 0537, and in fact he recited it over and over, alternating with an OL saying ``en misericordia de nosotros y del mundo entero``. This went on for over a minute before they moved on. What a downer! I think the intention is to be comforting and peaceful in the moonlight --- even when the moon has already set, like tonight. The show is nevertheless always called ``Paz a la luz de la luna``, EN VIVO, per
http://www.ewtn.com/radio/sp_radio_sched.asp#ixzz1LgLRpqIy
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15420, WBCQ: see SOUTH CAROLINA [non]

** VATICAN [non]. 13730 via CANADA, May 7 at 1212, closing ``Vatican Radio World News`` with some words from PBXVI. Caster was Charles Collins, American-accented. Seems VR is doing more newscasts like a real radio station rather than a gospel huxter, but can`t resist inserting Catholic stuff into them.

Good reception unlike yesterday, but CCI and a SAH from something in French. No IS from VR, but dead air 1214-1215* uncovering French which HFCC shows is DW, 110 degrees from the doomed Sines, PORTUGAL relay, while VR is 100 kW, 189 degrees from Sackville for CIRAF 11, i.e. Caribbean and Central America (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 6925+ on AM, May 7 at 0532, music from a pirate, but very poor, too weak (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

What next? My penultimate report was subjected as ``April 4-5`` instead of May 4-5. All the individual dates in it were correct, anyway. I have also been asked to give my location and equipment. I work this into items from time to time, but for the record:

Main receiver: FRG-7 unmodified. Also use RS DX-398 and Grundig YB-400 as backups, portables, measuring frequencies, checking parallels. Also have a rarely used Sony ICF SW-07 with window loop antenna which I occasionally try when synch detexion might be helpful. Usually it is not, since signal levels are lower with its antenna. Also various lesser portables kept in other houseparts, car.

Main antenna; random wire about 7 feet above ground, about 110 feet long, most of it running east-west. For the other receivers or during storms, some shorter random wires inside the house. Also have a shorter random wire outside around the porch, used with the DX-398 for quick checks away from some of the interior computer noise when inconvenient to turn that off. This combo is never as sensitive as the FRG-7 with interior noises minimized (Glenn Hauser, Enid, Oklahoma, USA) ###