domenica 8 maggio 2011

Glenn Hauser logs May 7-8, 2011

** BELGIUM [non]. Further evidence that DRM is NOT compatible with AM shortwave broadcasting, and should be restricted to totally different utility bands: May 7 at 2010, 17750 WYFR in English has heavy QRDRM noise from 17750-17755-17760 TDP via GUIANA FRENCH. HFCC shows the two overlap for half a sesquihour at 2000-2045. Does WYFR AM also disrupt the handful trying to listen to TDP in DRM? Does WYFR care? Ha (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake May 8: As usual there was a break from 1300* until later in the hour when they were showing up again, vs SOH or VOT; also, lots of T-storm noise on lower bands. Weather.com map for golfers checked at 1528 showed the only lightning area in USA was northeastern South Dakota.
 7970, poor-fair at 1243, with T-storm noise
10300, fair at 1249; very poor at 1338
10965, very poor at 1338
11500, poor at 1250, // 10300, mixing with another station, lo het
12600, poor at 1339
13920, good at 1341, fair at 1358
14700, poor at 1255, very poor at 1342
14970, poor at 1255
15430, poor at 1343
15900, good at 1256, good at 1348
15970, good at 1256
16100, good at 1256, good at 1348
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 17560, RHC may have driven prior occupant VOA off this frequency, but now it even disrupts R. Kuwait [q.v.], Arabic on 17550, May 7 at 2011, especially when playing `news` sounders with audio approaching 10 kHz.

13680, RHC, Sunday May 8 at 1340 check during `En Contacto`, it`s a repeat of last week`s anniversary show, at the moment Dr. Madrid from R. Verdad greeting again. `EC` is normally introduced with the week-number edition during each year, so will this get a separate number or will one be skipped??

At 1359, while 13780 continued with programming, 13680 went to dead air, until 1401:45*, but the transmitter shift to 13750 never showed up by 1417. It might have eventually, if there were an `Aló, Presidente` this week, but El Hugazo excuses himself once again, not for Mothers` Day; see VENEZUELA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, R. Africa with a serious problem, May 7 at 2038, carrier cutting off and on twice a second, quite regular but not precisely so. This means we got roughly alternate syllables from the gospel huxter of the moment, totally useless. This was still going on at 2055. Finally during music at 2107 cut off the air and stayed off, did not come back by 2117. Perhaps the operator did not notice until it was music being disrupted? Did it finally die or will it be right back the next day? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI, fair May 8 at 1316 in English about tourism in 2011y, something about Garuda from June 1 to Singapore; long IAD in usual under-modulation, but at least it`s on the air today. RRI 9680 much louder (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KUWAIT [and non]. 17550, May 7 at 2011, R. Kuwait in Arabic mixed with music, at first seemed CCI, but apparently transmitted that way; strong but fluttery, and with QRM from CUBA 17560 especially during `news` sounders with audio approaching 10 kHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MOROCCO [and non]. 15345, May 7 at 2100, RTM with Arabic music, no audible het from ARGENTINA, but with BFO could detect a second carrier too, slightly offset at the SAH level. 2116 both had weakened a lot, or was it only R. Nacional by then?

We should now expect Morocco to close at 2100 instead of 2200, since per
http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/2011.html
DST of UT +1 is now in effect:
``Morocco All locations Sunday, April 3-Sunday, July 31``
The early ending no doubt due to the ever-earlier precession of Ramadan, as explained last year when DST lasted a week longer:
http://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/morocco-ends-dst-2010.html
This year Ramadan runs from 1 to 30 August, at least in Morocco
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PERU. 18057.6, new frequency, May 8 at 1354, very weak carrier here and imagination-level bits of audio, but no doubt it is R. Victoria, Lima, third harmonic as frequently heard and IDed before, when closer to 18057.9, and now correlating with many other reports that the fundamental has been varying closer to 6018.2 than 6018.3 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TAIWAN. 11535, May 8 at 1351, good with Chinese talk by OM. Nothing in HFCC to account for this, so check Aoki: of course, it`s TAIWAN, banned from HFCC by the ChiCom, with Family Radio at 12-13 via Yunlin site, and thus not worth jamming either. Think of all those hundreds of millions of non-Christians in China who have less than two weeks to get saved or get damned! Tsk2 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 17795, May 8 at 1302, WYFR English is putting overmodulation spur spikes out to 17780-17810. Who cares, with The Rapture almost here! See also TAIWAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1563 monitoring: Sunday May 8 at 1535, very poor signal on 9955 WRMI, but enough to confirm, and no jamming as is usually the case now during this hour. Next airings on WRMI: Sunday 1730, Mon 1130 & 2130 (both likely jammed), Tue 1530, Wed 0100. On WRN and via SiriusXM 120: Sunday 1731 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9370, WTJC, May 8 at 1244, dirty spurs still emanating, peaking around 9345, 9395, i.e. +/- 25 kHz. Will the Fundamentalists ever notice and clean them up temporarily yet again? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VENEZUELA [non]. May 8 at 1535 I check the `Aló, Presidente` frequencies via CUBA, and none of them are on: 17750, 15370, 13750, 13680 (something else there), 11690. Missing for the fourth week in a row! Has El Hugazo run out of hot air? The A,P website has this excuse: ``El programa "Aló, Presidente" de este domingo, 8 de mayo, no será trasmitido y cede para que continúe el proceso de registro la Gran Misión Vivienda Venezuela.``

So it`s not because of Mothers` Day! According to
http://www.mothersdaycentral.com/when/
(disregard the advertising as that is the real purpose of M.D.), Venezuela is among the majority of countries which like the USA observe it on second Sunday in May = May 8, 2011, but others spread it all the way from February to December. Is there an `only child day`, and if not, why not? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 15527.5-SSB, May 8 at 1344, Spanish 2-way intruder, discussing ``la bodega allá en la esquina, 20 por ciento de descuento``. Could that be a coded message, or really so banal? Sounded quite casual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###