giovedì 4 aprile 2013

Glenn Hauser logs April 3, 2013

** AUSTRALIA [and non]. 15400, April 3 at 1352, HCJB strong in S Asian language, presumed Hindi as scheduled, ex-15340, but continues to clash with Iran which was already using 15400 in A-seasons, making a SAH. Didn`t HCJB know this? Having used the same frequency successfully at a totally different daypart does not mean it will work now. Smax of amateurish frequency management, and no longer participating in HFCC while Iran does. This is bound to be a much bigger problem in S Asia targets, during Iran`s sesquihour in Urdu. At least IRIB listeners have the alternative of clear // 15300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BANGLADESH. 15505, April 3 at 1357, BB carrier is on with hi-pitched tone, no hum; 1358 add crackling; 1358.5 IS, not much hum but now marred by the crackle; timesignal 8 seconds fast and 1400 Urdu opening theme (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake April 3, before 1300:
12320, fair at 1255 with flutter
13530, poor at 1255
14370, very poor at 1259; seldom this close to 20m but never <14350
15560, very poor to 1300* with het

Before 1400:
15870, good at 1348; none in the 14s, 16s, 17s despite VG CRI Kashgar
15610, fair at 1351 colliding with WEWN; also buzz jamming
15565, fair at 1352
13920, very good at 1346
13530, poor at 1347
13130, very poor at 1347
12320, JBA at 1348
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) More jamming: see U S A [non]

** CHINA [and non]. 13575, April 3 at 1257, nice non-FD Chinese music // much weaker 13600. HFCC shows CRI Russian service via Urumqi, Xi`an respectively, continuing another hour on 13600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also EAST TURKISTAN

** COSTA RICA. 5995, April 3 at 0059 pop music, poor with ACI from CRI/CUBA 5990, 0100 speaking Castilian: I bet it`s REE reactivated here via CR; yes, a few sex behind // 9535 direct, scheduled 00-04 on 110 degree beam and remains poorly audible here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. 6120, April 3 at 0058, RHC Spanish is still here instead of 6100 as in publicized schedule; did Arnie change his mind or did RadioCuba forget to QSY? So it still abuts 6115 WYFR, also later at 0300-0400 during retimed RTI English relay.

What does the online schedule at
http://www.radiohc.cu/index.php/de-interes/frecuencias.html
show now? If it ever loads --- is Cuba still depending on slow satellite service for Internet despite the cable to Venezuela? No, I get a 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable at 1530 UT, still at 1730. Finally appears at 1800: and still not updated with 6100, nor 17720 instead of 15340 for Europe, which we have already confirmed.

5990, April 3 at 0103, CRI relay is on way late, still going with `Beyond Beijing` in English after scheduled Spanish until 0100*.

6165, April 3 at 0530, RHC English missing, and consequently also missing from leapfrogs 6205 & 6270; but nothing audible instead on 6165, if CHAD should be there; however, cleared 6160 for the bi-coastal CBC heterodyne war against itself (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [non]. 11930, April 3 at 1316 WON jamming but I think R. Martí somewhere underneath, while on 13820, RM is VG atop the jamming, talking about García Lorca, more innocuous apolitical programming.

The cutbax at IBB Greenville include reducing RM to two frequencies at a time instead of three, which means the DentroCuban Jamming Command can pile even more noise on the remaining frequencies; but I don`t think they are smart enough to do that, as they keep jamming many frequencies against nothing, or against such terrible targets as Brother Scare on WRMI. Ivo Ivanov has compiled the curtailed RM schedule which I rearrange into the two transmitter sequences:

00-12 6030,
12-14 7405,
14-24 11930

00-04 7365,
04-07 7405,
07-10 5980,
10-13 9805,
13-20 13820,
20-24 9565
All except for 03-07 UT break on UT Mondays; or should be -09.

As for antenna azimuths, the first set are all 205 except 11930 at 183 degrees; the second set are all 183 or 174.

However, it may not be that straightforward. Kai Ludwig explains: ``Still up to four transmitters could be required for this operation, unless at least one switches frequencies momentarily, which, I think, can be done only with the single Telefunken and the single Brown Boveri prototypes (unless secretly some gear from closed sites has in the meantime been taken from storage and installed at the Greenville plant).

What now arises is the question about the contents of Radio Martí. Does this remaining program stream from Miami still cover Venezuelan topics, too, or has USIB given up targeting Venezuela with shortwave radio? So far this was, if I recall correct, a joint effort of VOA and OCB. Got it simply lost in all the panic in which the latest cuts have apparently been decided? Kai`` (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also UNIDENTIFIED: 11930

** CUBA [non]. 9490, April 3 at 0057, R. República via RMI via FRANCE is back, good signal over jamming, after transmitter failure at Issoudun last night (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EAST TURKISTAN. 17630, April 3 at 1410, CRI with western-accented guy rather critical of government`s lack of transparency in budgets. At first I assumed he meant the US government, but no, he`s talking about China`s, with two Chinese-accented women. On and on, finally break at 1429 as ``Roundtable on China Drive from Easy FM``. Apparently the guest whose name I never caught is considered an expert in economix. Hope this does not lead to any more ``suicides``. This is the Urumqi relay of CRI replacing Mali, still very good signal way over here, as were the two French frequencies before 1400, 17560 and 17650 via Kashgar (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** FRANCE [non]. 11605, April 3 at 0522, Parisian French fluttery but sufficient signal, i.e. RFI, 0500-0700, 100 kW, 340 degrees via SOUTH AFRICA and USward; also a het from somewhere (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUAM. 15445, April 3 at 1306, fair not in Burmese, but several mentions of AWR pronounced in English, and address as P O Box 977, Yangon, Myanmar,
www.awrmyanmar.org --- HFCC shows it`s Kachin, with KSDA on 15445 during this semihour only (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** JAPAN [non]. 11970, April 3 at 0519, NHKWRJ in English via FRANCE is poor but at least it`s audible tonite, no comparison to TURKEY 11980; 0524 usual concluding music filler. How about the South African relay for 1800 English on 9590 or 11885? Neither audible here, nor expected as too low for our summer, while 15720 via Madagascar was usually sufficient in our winter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA SOUTH. 15575, April 3 at 1300, KBSWR opening in English, good with flutter, 1301 news about the North banning workers from the South and whether to let those already there go home; you never know whether this only English for North America aimed at South America will make it, but today is a good day; and even still in at 1351 during traditional music, and after 1400 in Korean (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 1120, April 3 at 1222 UT, praise music in Spanish, weak with slow SAH against KMOX almost null, so KEOR, R. Victoria is on as early as this today (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. RF 31, April 3 at 1508 UT, KXOK-LD, Enid with the two Spanish subchannels: usually it`s 31-3 AZTECA which is black and silent, but now Azteca America is back and 31-2 M - FOX, Mundo Fox is black and silent, but always with their PSIP IDs still running (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PERU [and non]. 5980, April 3 at 0059, R. Chaski carrier is again audible vs pulse jamming and other band noise, until cut off at 0102:24.5*, i.e. 11 sex later than two nights ago (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SUDAN [non]. 11650, April 3 at 0520, good signal from R. Dabanga as soon IDed in passing, non-Arabic language. This is now the VATICAN relay frequency of PNW at 0400-0557, 250 kW, 145 degrees from SMG, close to backward here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TAIWAN [non]. 6115, April 3 at 0350 check, RTI confirmed with retimed to 0300 English relay via WYFR; while the only other one remains at 2200 on 15440; 6115 has ACI and het from RHC 6120 which was supposedly switching to 6100 for A-13 but yet to do so (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** THAILAND. 9390, April 3 at 1249, R. Thailand, HSK9, fair and fluttery with news in English about Syria; new frequency not only for English at 1230-1300 to Australasia but also at 1900-2000 & 2030-2045 to Europe. (I`ve always wondered what the rationale is for one hour, and then another 15 minutes later to same target) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY. 17770, April 3 at 1438, ME pop music, declining from poor signal to very poor at 1445 in unID language talk, gone at 1503. HFCC shows Arabic hour from VOT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U K. 9440, April 3 at 0528, B-B-C- chimes, 0531 in Hausa with news axuality clips in English, i.e. at 0529-0600 from Woofferton (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. 5890 & 9885 & 12000, April 3 at 0056, nothing but wall-of-noise jamming from CUBA audible, as VOA has voluntarily self-destructed its Spanish service on SW, which would have been on air until 0100 UT Tue-Sat. Also gone in the mornings.

9490, April 3 at 1250 good signal in Korean; it`s VOA via TINIAN, while // 15775 is via Tinang, PHILIPPINES.

17530, April 3 at 1356, VG signal with HOA music; 1358 announcement, 1359 outro as from Voice of America, Washington, and carrier off. HFCC shows it`s via SMG, VATICAN; and to be followed at 14-15 by VOA English Botswana, but nothing else immediately audible; if it`s there, must be much weaker or starting late.

17740, April 3 at 1402, hi-pitched noise jamming with something in Chinese; also slow low pulsing. Then I hear exactly the same combination of jamming sounds, but worse, on 17540.

Different at 1430: 17540 has something weak without jamming, and 17740 has no noise but still Chinese, CNR1? HFCC resolves this with both carrying VOA Tibetan during this hour, 17740 via Udorn, THAILAND, and 17540 via Lampertheim, GERMANY.

BTW, are the ChiCom still jamming English broadcasts from BBC, VOA, R. Australia, Taiwan as alleged last month? I never hear any such and no reports of it lately (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 770, April 3 at 1234 UT, ``KKOB sports``, fair but steady signal; must already be LSR there for ND 50 kW? Yes, FCC official Albuquerque sunrise time for April is 1230 UT, altho today it`s really 1250; calculated by closest quarter-hour at mid-month which will then be near 1230. Our sunrise today was 1214.

BTW, the other New York-blocker further west on 660, KTNN sometimes coincides with KKOB SR times, but in April-May-June it`s a quarter-hour later at 1245, 1215 and 1200 UT respectively (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 860, April 3 at 1232 UT, polka piece, i.e. the regular morning spot on KKOW Pittsburgh KS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 930, April 3 at 1230 UT, ``WTAD sports`` so it`s Quincy IL again with WKY nulled (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 9479, April 3 at 1251, slightly irregular beeps (carrier on and off) amounting to about 24 per minute. Very strange, a few minutes before WTWW comes up on exactly the same off-frequency. If still there, could not detect them at 1309 beneath PPP, SFAW on WTWW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 11930, April 3 at 0524, totally wasteful Cuban pulse jamming as usual against a R. Martí frequency never in use at night, but now there is also some broadcaster talking with poor signal under the jamming. Only thing in HFCC is BELARUS:

11930 0500 0800 29,30 MNS 250 72 0 218 1234567 310313 271013 D 11930 BelRus BLR BTC SDT 6539 PK100 --- but is that really on the air? BTC is known for its phony wooden registrations. Not in Aoki. Not in EiBi, and nothing else either to account for this, tho he says the A-13 file was 85% complete as of 1 April.

BTW, for some reason, Aoki direct text linx are not put up until further into a new season, so get the current A-13 file from
http://www1.s2.starcat.ne.jp/ and unzip it.

Whoever this may be on 11930, they are clueless that it`s risky to pick any frequency used by R. Martí at any time in the past, present or future. Or that of any other Cuban jamming victim (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)