lunedì 14 novembre 2011

Glenn Hauser logs November 13-14, 2011

** AUSTRALIA [non]. 9855, Nov 13 at 2306, fair signal from radioaustralia.net.au going from news to Monday morning news-talk show; new one for me, where I was not expecting to hear Australia, but not really: HFCC shows it`s 500 kW, 90 degrees via UAE at 22-24 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake Nov 14, before 1500:
12500, poor at 1452
12600, JBA with ute QRM at 1452; none in the 10s, 11s
13850, good at 1455 with WWCR ACI
13970, good at 1455; none in the 14s, 15s, 16s, 17s
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non] Further monitoring of RHC changes effective Nov 13:

I had not heard any signal on 11760 before or after 2000, where the first English of the day used to be at 19-20, so not shifted to 20-21 either? Not checked again until 2113, when 11760 was back on, in French, and // 13640 to Europe. Normally this broadcast is on only one frequency, so should 11760 have been in English during that hour?

For Spanish, I am mainly concerned with confirming the current repeat times for the DX program `En Contacto`. Did not check at 2140 when it once appeared. Some unrelated interview is on at 2234 and later on 11840, 13640, 13690, etc. But there `EC` is, still in progress at 2355 on 13640, 13690, etc., same Crespo essay as heard in the morning after 1435, so must have started circa 2345.

Into UT Monday Nov 14: at 0147 on 13690, when it previously aired, instead `Cadena Deportiva Latinoamericana` sports news. So I check once more an hour later, and at 0249, yes, `En Contacto` is just about to end, so started at 0235 on all the frequencies then in effect. Likely all the other listed tarde programming has shifted one UT hour later too. Has this been updated to that effect?
http://www.radiohc.cu/de-interes/programacion.html
Of course not! Until and unless it is, and don`t hold your breath based on previous experience, add one hour to the times shown.

However, the equally slow-loading Spanish frequency page,
http://www.radiohc.cu/de-interes/frecuencias.html
has been updated Nov 14, to correspond with many of our observations on Nov 13, and confirms the morning sign-on is now 1200 instead of 1100. This replaces the one we forwarded a week ago.

Buenos Aires            15230/13670 19/22 24-05 y 12-16/ 12-15 UTC
Nueva York              6010/11840 49/25 12-13/12-16 UTC
San Francisco           13780 22 13-16 UTC
Chicago                 9850/6140 31/49 13-16/12-13 UTC
América del Sur         15380 19 12–16 UTC
Banda Tropical          5040 60 22–24 y 02-06 UTC
América Central         11750/9540/9810 25/31/31 13-16/12-16/22-06 UTC
Europa                  13640 22 22-24 UTC
Norte Centro Suramérica 11760/6150 25/49 12-16 y 24-05/ 12-13 UTC
Caribe                  6120/9710/11690 49/31/25 24-06/22-24/12-16 UTC
América del Sur         11840/9740/13690 25/31/22 22-06/24-05/22-05
      
MESA REDONDA (Lunes a Viernes y días especiales)[not always, or 2330-]
América del Norte       6000/9660 49/31 23–01 UTC
      
ALÓ PRESIDENTE (Domingo) [IMAGINARY]
América Central         13680 22 14-18 UTC
Caribe                  11690 25 14-18 UTC
América del Sur         15370/17750 19/16 14-18 UTC
América del Norte       13750 22 14-18 UTC

Hoping that this is the ``final final`` version, I am reworking it into easily readable format, time order, stripping useless meter band clutter; do not copy this without credit to gh who spent his valuable time transforming it, thank you:

12-13 6010 6140 6150
12-15 13670
12-16 9540 11690 11760 11840 15230 15380
13-16 9850 11750 13780

22-24 5040 9710 13640
22-05 13690
22-06 9810 11840
00-05 9740 11760 15230
00-06 6120
02-06 5040

However, 9540 was off the air when checked at 1448, perhaps fearful of being slapped again like yesterday by WHRI but that`s only on Sundays. I am also not hearing 11690 much, just as well with all the RTTY.

The French frequency page is inaccessible. Trying to navigate thru the RHC website encounters lots of 404s, especially since they went php.
English: the homepage is reachable after a long wait, but not the frequency page even tho it is certainly ``of interest``!

Further obs on Nov 13: 15370 still had Esperanto Sunday at 2230, the 13 Nov edition, but with CCI under; at 2300 into Creole. HFCC shows KSDA at 22-24 northwestward from Guam in Chinese (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA [and non]. The upper half of the 15.0-15.1 MHz off-route aero band is a loss: 15045-15050-15055, AIR Sinhala is back in DRM Nov 14 before 1500, unlike yesterday in AM --- doesn`t this confuse listeners, being yanked around for the sake of DRM nonsense? 15060-15085 has OTH radar, vs R. Cairo on 15080; 15080-15100 has that heavy intermittent clicking/pulsing, centered about 15090-15095, between a strong station and a weaker one seemingly answering at 1543; what is that?? Been there for a long time.

9470, Nov 14 at 1546, AIR in English introducing a dialog, poor and // 9425 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also VATICAN

** IRAN. Have about given up trying to hear IRIB`s so-called ``Voice of Justice`` English to NAm, allegedly scheduled on colliding 7365 and 7200 at 0330-0430 --- forgot to check this UT Monday whether Cuban jamming stopped at 0400 when R. Martí went silent, unlike last week. But without even trying, I run across another English broadcast:

15525, Nov 14 at 1537, VIRI news sounder, and into English I was not expecting, with continuing musical beat underneath as the news would be too boring all by itself; fair signal, peaking S9+10, tho 105 degrees from 500 kW Kamalabad. Uplooked later, the only // for the 1530-1630 is 13785, 105 degrees from 500 kW Sirjan, unlikely to have been any better (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** IRAN [non]. 9520, Nov 14 at 0657, heavy collision producing fast SAH between a stronger station with ME music, and an understation in talk, seemingly Chinese. At 0700, timesignal and into Persian talk mentioning Iran and Farda on the overstation, while the understation had another timesignal about 10 sex later.

HFCC B-11 shows only IBB Persian at 0530-0830, 100 kW, 105 degrees from Biblis, GERMANY. I didn`t realize that R. Farda aired timesignals at UT hourtops, no doubt to remind Iran how far out of step it is with the rest of the world.

Aoki has the likely other answer, tho it`s still A-11 info: 0600-0950 (except Tuesday siesta), PBS Nei Menggu, 50 kW, 36 degrees from Hohhot, [Inner Mongolia], so it`s also USward, more so than Farda (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KAZAKHSTAN. 7550, Nov 14 at 1549, very poor signal in S Asian language? Aoki shows it`s Family Radio in Pashto, 14-16, 500 kW, 170 degrees from Almaty/Nikolayevka; as the Kazakhs are all too happy to propagate the infidels for pay. BTW, mainstream Christians who survived The Rapture also consider the anti-church Harold Camping an infidel, or is that infooldel (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NETHERLANDS [non]. 9895, Nov 14 at 0704, RNW in M&W Dutch conversation has lost its hum --- but that`s only because of the site change at 0700 from Grigoriopol, Pridnestrovye to Nauen, GERMANY, where M&B knows how to modulate properly. HFCC shows morning usage of 9895 by RNW is 0600-0657 KCH, 0700-0900 NAU, plus weekends 0900-1100 SMG = Vatican (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NIGERIA. 15120, Nov 14 at 0654, VON is the OSOB at S9+12 with news about Botswana and South Africa; humwhine on unstable carrier but still R5. There were hardly any signals on 11 and 13 MHz, and nothing on 15 either tuning downward until I got to this. Quite amazing, the propagational pipeline from Ikorodu to Enid which exists some nights, but you never know which; 24 hours earlier there was nothing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SAUDI ARABIA. 15435, Nov 14 at 1539, Arabic with heavy crackling breakup extending at least 15435-15455, from BSKSA. Program modulation itself sounds OK, this imposed atop it, by this still-defective transmitter. We are thankful that it has not yet resumed producing huge buzz over a much wider range (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 10000, WWV, Nov 13 at 2115-2116 was announcing that something would be discontinued as of November 30. It was rushed, poorly enunciated and hard to copy; need to recheck at any other :15.

Which reminds me, I also want to complain that the propagation half-sesqui-minute at :18:00-:18:45 no longer repeats any of the data even tho there is time to spare. The repeats immediately after the first number would often compensate for momentary fades or selective distortion (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 7490, Sunday Nov 13 at 2250 checking how `Marion`s Attic` on WBCQ is doing against BBC Thailand: certainly on top, but with low rumbling audible het as WBCQ must be drifting off-frequency again. The `narrow` filter on the FRG-7 helps a lot in this situation, cutting off the lower audio frequencies; does anyone have the spex on what frequencies this filter passes (as well as the other two settings)? Meanwhile, 7505 remains open and free of QRM, let alone WRNO (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1590 monitoring: confirmed just after 0400 UT Monday Nov 14 on Area 51 webcast, presumably also WBCQ 5110v-CUSB. Remaining WRMI 9955 and webcast times: Monday 1230, 1630, 2230, Tuesday & Wednesday 1630; on Hamburger Lokalradio, Germany, 5980: Tuesday 1030 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 13580, Nov 14 at 1454, something is getting jammed with noise and two or three alternating tones. Only scheduled this hour in HFCC and Aoki is VOA Kurdish, 250 kW, 105 degrees from Wertachtal, GERMANY; to be followed by R. Cairo Albanian at 15-16, but this noise is more than just a defective ERTU transmitter; would VOA Kurdish really be jammed by anyone? Turkey? Iran? Syria: ha ha, they can barely maintain their own SWBC.

17715, Nov 14 at 1500, VOA news in English is fair, but with very heavy flutter, 1505 into `Border Crossings` from VOA Music Mix. Uplooked later, I was surprised to find HFCC shows site as BOTSWANA, 100 kW, 10 degrees, whence flutter is unusual, expecting a trans-polar route. But propagation has really been disturbed today unlike yesterday. You`d never know this from WWV at 1500:

``Solar-terrestrial indices for 13 November follow.
Solar flux 155 and mid-latitude A-index 1.
The mid-latitude K-index at 1500 UTC on 14 November was 1 (9 nT).
No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours.
No space weather storms are predicted for the next 24 hours.``

On Oct 28, Mike Cooper heard Larry London announce all the new SW frequencies for `Border Crossings`: 15580, 17715, 17895 to Africa; 7575, 9930, 12150 to Asia; 11840, 13570 to Middle East, Europe, Northern Africa (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VATICAN [and non]. 15175-15180-15185, Nov 14 at 1542, DRM noise tho nothing is scheduled in HFCC except AM from VATICAN due east in English. Did they push the DRM button by mistake?

Also with unID AM carrier on 15175, no audio pullable, which could have disrupted any DRM reception. Nothing is scheduled there in HFCC until KBS direct from Korea South at 1600. O, 15175 would be AIR in Gujarati via GOA at 1515-1600, B-11 info which made it into Aoki but still not into HFCC.

Aha, unlike HFCC, this version of DRM schedules
http://www.drm.org/broadcast_schedule
does show Vatican as DRM on 15180, not AM:
1530-1600 daily 15180 90 India 125 Vatican Radio Santa Maria English
So, hee hee, we have big DRM advocate AIR getting QRMed by DRM *to* India 5 kHz away (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)