domenica 31 marzo 2013

Glenn Hauser logs March 30-31, 2013

** ALBANIA. Early A-13 chex for R. Tirana, now scheduled to N America:
0130-0200 9850 English except UT Mondays
2300-2400 9850 Albanian daily

instead of in B-12:
0230-0300 6100 English except UT Mondays
0000-0100 7465 Albanian daily

But at 0155 UT Sunday March 31, nothing on 9850,
and at 0232 UT Sunday March 31, nothing on 6100 or 9850
So we`ll have to wait until Monday night = UT Tuesday to check the new frequency in English. The only other English broadcast is now 2000-2030 Mon-Sat on 7465 for Europe (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 15170-15220 & 15240-15290, tell-tale noise field surrounding 15230 RHC Spanish, March 31 at 0135, comes & goes while 15230 itself is not especially strong, and the immediate adjacent frequencies 15225 and 15235 are clear. Worst at 15220 and 15240, diminishing gradually up and down. Must have swapped transmitters with 11840 which was thus infested last week, but is now free of parasites (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUIANA FRENCH. 9490, UT March 31 at 0059, R. República IS and ID, well over jamming, still strong enough to be GUF, and in fact it definitely is, since the persistent squeaky spur is still there around 9505! This daily 00-02 UT transmission is moving to Issoudun, France site presumably 24 hours later, even tho it`s now officially A-13. This must be the final final broadcast from Montsinéry, as R. Japan already indicated last week that it would end after the UT Saturday relays. Indeed, nothing on 5960 after 0200, which had been following R.R. in Japanese with same spur constellation as 9490. Instead of closing at 0157 as had been happening, 9490 stayed on until almost a minute after R.R. quit modulating, until 0201* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA SOUTH [non]. 9605, March 31 at 0059 big open carrier; 0100 KBS in Spanish, so the new WHRI relay begins, replacing defunct French Guiana relay on 11635. Excellent signal here, yet KBSWR makes English speakers in N America strain to hear them direct at 13-14 on 15575 (maybe, as not HFCC registered for A-13; must reconfirm) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PERU [and non]. 5980, March 31 at 0052, slightly wavering carrier detectable under distant T-storm noise level, probably Doppler rather than transmitter problem, and some talk modulation from R. Chaski --- and 5990 CRI Cuba relay is in open carrier only, an omen of things to come? No, just another anomaly as these relays normally make no seasonal changes and it`s still there in HFCC A-13 until 0100. It`s a nice clear night and the local streetlight does not fire on until 0100; it`s too far away to help read the DX-398 dial on the porch or my watch or my logbook, but for the first time this year there is still enough daylight so I don`t need the porch light yet, fortunately since when I do turn it on later it`s starting to draw in the bugs. Spring has sprung. Will have to yellowize it. Back to the business at hand: R. Chaski cuts its carrier at 0102:08.5, five sex later than last night (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

** RUSSIA [non]. 9665, March 31 at 0109, VOR English to *Latin* America has made its seasonal move up from 7290 via PRIDNESTROVYE, VG strength and with same humroar as before; interview about Jewish Refusenix. Also a slight het, probably poor Brasilian (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SERBIA [non]. Early in A-13, March 31 around 0125 I am searching for IRS, nothing on 6190 or usual summer frequency 9685. This station refuses to participate in HFCC, forcing us to hunt for it. EiBi reminds us that a year ago in A-12, they were on 9685 until 0130, the final semihour being in English on Sundays, rather than 0030-0100 Tue-Sat. Wouldn`t you know it, the ``program schedule`` (no program titles, really a transmission schedule) at
http://voiceofserbia.org/program-schedule
is still for B-12 with everything an hour later (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TAIWAN [non]. 11565, March 31 at 0112, VG signal in Spanish with somewhere temps, Chinese song --- not, it`s a jingle, ending with letters pronounced in English, R-T-I! 0113 opening post-news show with M&M, ``Bajo la Lupa`` (Under Scrutiny) about what`s happening on the Mainland under new dictatorship. So the final hour at least of the registered 23-02 UT WYFR broadcast at 140 degrees now carries RTI Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY. Checking VOT at B-12/A-13 transition time: English hour March 30 not audible before 2300 on 9830, nor after 2300 on 5960 but one of them may have got lost in the burgeoning proto-summer noise level. At 0055 I am hearing the TRT IS at good strength but with flutter on new 9870, atop AIR VBS. Way to go, TRT! Poor VBS gets more QRM as if ChiCom were not enough, and likely worse in much closer S Asian areas with back-radiation from Emirler. 0057 I find another TRT IS on 9770, but no CCI here. Instead of evenly-spaced pauses between iterations, one time there is a long pause, another time none at all. At 0100 both turn out to be new frequencies in Spanish from VOT; missed the frequency announcement but TRT is typically mixed up about correct times and frequencies especially around changeover dates. HFCC listed: 290 degrees on 9870, 270 on 9770 and of course now shifted one UT hour earlier, tho that hardly matches in any target except Cuba where DST
 happened two sesquiweeks ago in lockstep with Yankee Imperialism (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1662 monitoring: confirmed new time since last week on WTWW-2, 9930, starting a sesquiminute after 2330 UT Saturday March 30, so ran a bit past 2400; followed by no ID or sign-off announcement, but played nice harmonious duet version of `Star Spangled Banner` and off at 0002 UT March 31. No following transmission on 5085 tonight. Kudos to Ted for playing Our National Anthem, which I have been advocating, but most US SW stations ignore.
Next: UT Sunday 0400 on WTWW-1 5830. Last week, Ted also replayed WOR Sunday at 2315 on 9930, but no promises on that.

Earlier on Saturday afternoon, George McClintock was testing 9930, for me to monitor the spurs and wobble I keep hearing. Spurs were there part of the time, and the carrier wobble with BFO was obvious to me. Yet George can`t hear any on his spectrum analyzer. I consistently hear it from the WTWW-2 transmitter, altho its severity varies. When I do hear it, other strong transmitters nearby such as 9980 WWCR are *not* doing it, so I don`t think it`s my FRG-7 receiver to blame like George does. He thinks it may be an adverse reaxion by a PLL receiver circuit to the amount of carrier reduxion employed, but I also hear same on the DX-398 and YB-400. Quite a mystery. It would be most helpful if other listeners would check 9930 for this wobble and let us know if they can hear or see it, like Sunday when presumably on air after 2100 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 5050, March 31 at 0053, WWRB is on with gospel huxter; T storm noise level is too high now for any DX on 120, 105, 90, 65 or 60 metres, so WWRB now needs to make seasonal transition to 5050 being the primary, or only evening frequency for non-BS programming, instead of 3195 which is also still on after 0200 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9860, March 31 at 0057, huge open carrier with lite humroar, rather live waves crashing on a distant beach, IIRC; it`s been so long for me away from the sea. Fear it`s WHRI; yes, praise music at 0107. A-13 shows it`s available 00-03 at 315 degrees toward ``Canada``, but as usual only certain fragments will really be on the air. Hope it will not bother R. Tirana when it gets going on 9850; see ALBANIA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. 7375, March 31 at 0126, KBC says ``we want what you want`` then ad in Dutch for their multiband radios (I want to hear that in English); back to English for ID ``We are the Mighty KBC``. Feared I missed Kim`s digital text test, but retune at 0133 to tail of ``running water`` mode, immediately followed by music at 0134.

5745, March 31 at 0233 check, VOA`s own weekly Radiogram test is hardly the solid signal we have come to expect from Greenville B, presumably because it`s a low power (80 kW) transmitter aimed south, fading, and furthermore is undermodulated as Kim is explaining MFSK (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** UZBEKISTAN. 11590, March 31 at 0123, fair signal in S Asian language. HFCC A-13 shows it`s now NHK Hindi via Tashkent at 0100-0130 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)