venerdì 14 novembre 2014

Glenn Hauser logs November 14, 2014

** ARGENTINA [and non]. 11711.0, Nov 14 at 0308, RAE is in English instead of French; het from weaker station on 11710 can be eliminated on the PL-880 by tuning USB (but not vice-versa with LSB). RAE has apparently swapped times for English and French on UT Tue-Sat so English is at 0300-0400. Mark Coady first noted this Nov 7, a week ago, assuming it was a mixup. News headlines with sounders between items, 0312 about the Paraguayan president trying to exceed his term limit. Frequency seems very close to 11711.0 now instead of 11710.6 or 11710.7. Meanwhile, what`s the het? Only thing scheduled at 0300 on 11710 is CRI Russian, due west from Urumqi, EAST TURKISTAN. When English was at 02-03, it was hetless, tsk (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. 11600, Nov 14 at 0258, checking whether Station YHWH is here, but only some weak Chinese. Aoki says 100-watt Sound of Hope is relaying Radio Free Asia during long hours on 11600; therefore, I am hearing CNR1 jamming of at least 100,000 watts (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CONGO DR. 5066.25 approx., Nov 14 at 0318, JBA carrier, presumed R. CANDIP following tip from Tim Rahto Nov 10 when reception peak in Iowa was at this hour. Does it sign on now around 0300, well before local sunrise? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 9710, Nov 14 at 0304, RHC Spanish, good level but undermodulated and slightly distorted. Stand by for collision with Iran, something Arnie did not realize or work out with VIRI. Yes, at 0327 check, VIRI is on with Qur`an at about equal level; see IRAN.

9535, Nov 14 at 0306, RHC Spanish, fair signal, hum and undermodulated about like 9710. Much better on 6060 & 5040.

Propagation is such that RHC (and WRMI) are barely audible on 11 MHz: 11670, Nov 14 at 0308, RHC Spanish poor with flutter

13740, Nov 14 at 0315, RHC Spanish detectable but very poor (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ECUADOR. 6050, Nov 14 at 0253 sounds like mbira, but this must be an Andean instrument, from HCJB; 0254 song in Spanish. Good signal past 0330 when I didn`t think to check if they`re still doing Spotlight in English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EGYPT. Monitoring later in the evening than usual, gets slightly different results from R. Cairo:

9860, Nov 14 at 0300, open carrier/dead air, or just barely modulated?
Poor-fair signal during what is now the alleged English to NAm at 0200-0330

9965, Nov 14 at 0300, Arabic with whine, good signal

9905, Nov 14 at 0302, good signal, just barely modulated, enough to tell that this Arabic is not // that on 9965. That`s because 9965 is the external service via Abu Zabaal, and per Aoki 9905 is ``'El-Bernameg Al-Aam`` the home service General Program relay via Abis.

{Meanwhile, I feel a brief Earth tremor at 0302:55, which did not register with USGS since this one:}
``2.8 16km ESE of Medford, Oklahoma 2014-11-14 02:46:58 UTC+ 5.0 km``
per
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ETHIOPIA. 5950, Nov 14 at 0251, open carrier, fair signal. I`m looking for Station YHWH, heard by Ron Howard two nights ago at 0254-0335* on this, a new frequency, a live broadcast by ``Josiah`` rather than recorded. He didn`t mention any QRM out in California, but here all I am hearing is the usual V. of Tigray Revolution; flute? IS is going by 0257, 0301 announcement, poor signal quite weaker than the other Ethiopian on 6110. At 0321 some HoA music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ETHIOPIA. 6110, Nov 14 at 0254, music box IS from R. Fana, fair signal, 0259 announcement; 0324 check in talk, it`s much weaker as the sun is upcoming there. Nice that this and 5950 are easy now in North America with lack of ACI or CCI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** IRAN. 9710, Nov 14 at 0327, new frequency for IRIB/VIRI North American service in English (``Voice of Justice``, take that), is colliding with CUBA, q.v., since Arnie has not seen fit to avoid it; Cuba after all was here first in previous season(s). About equal level; Iran starts at 0323 or so, with opening exercises, 0327 Qur`an, so having established this, I go to the // 7325, which is in the clear, good with flutter, but running about 2 seconds behind 9710, i.e. Sirjan while 7325 is Kamalabad. After Qur`an, English stuff about Allah, 0330 chimes, ID, theme, news and one could have listened until 0420 to one of the handful of remaining North American SW services in English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also PALESTINE [non]

** MEXICO [and non]. 6185-, Nov 14 at 0339, XEPPM good signal with jazz, 0342 into swing, big band; no QRM and sufficient modulation. More jazz to be had on 9395 Global 24, and 11711 Argentina is also jazzy at 0341 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PALESTINE [non]. 9895, Nov 14 at 0303, fair signal with Qur`an. Little do I realize until uplooked in Aoki that this is the "Al-Quds TV" relay of VIRI, 500 kW, 289 degrees from Zahedan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RWANDA. 6055.0, Nov 14 at 0323, RRR talk in presumed Kinyarwanda, good signal, but somewhat distorted, overmodulated (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH AFRICA. 6155, Nov 14 at 0324, English with heavy accent about Ukraine and Russia; 0326 dead air for a minute or so after mentioning Pres. Obama. Then `Africa Rise & Shine` program name so it`s Channel Africa. Fair signal with flutter, much weaker than 6165 Cuba but far enough away from it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 5985, Nov 14 at 0321, Brother Scare via WRMI during QRM from BBC Persian, has nincompoop on about Planet X, imminent collision with Earth. I`ve kept hearing this same nonsense for the past two or three days as I tune across the still numerous BS frequencies. Also repeated over and over, BS` latest plea for dough, and frequency reports by phone, as several contracts are running out at yearend and he has to figure out what`s worth keeping.

He has already dropped WTWW, which despite its blasting signal, became more and more unreliable under the usurped management of Ted Randall. Finally, it seems the formerly BS-dedicated #2 transmitter had to be put on the #1 frequencies when that transmitter failed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 6080, Nov 14 at 0323, open carrier with the usual lite pulse jamming (Cuban stray or spur?), still so at 0338, when I can also detect a weaker second carrier causing a SAH. Supposed to be modulating at 03-04 on 6080 is VOA English via VATICAN! The other one is perhaps Brasil. I suppose VOA 6080 came to life at 0400 with site switch to São Tomé (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1747 monitoring: confirmed at 0030 UT Friday November 14 on Global 24 via WRMI 9395. Followed by jazz show, but at 0259 check I hear the 1812 Overture playing.

What will happen on WWRB? Nov 14 at 0257 I find BS on both 3185 and 5050. Same at 0425. But the webcast has that other preacher. I recheck SW at 0430 and no WOR on either; back to the webcast: at 0432, WOR 1747 playback starts and stops; fourth try at 0434 keeps playing, the intro way too loud and distorted, finally turned down and listenable by 0435.

But is it on one of the SW frequencies by now? At 0439 check, both those are still BSing. And of course, WOR on webcast-only gets chopped off at 0500 since it restarted late: ID and address for WWRB to introduce `Bible on Shortwave` [NON!]. O, well. Next WOR time: Friday 2130 on WRMI 7570 & 15770 as they break away from BS for an hour; etc. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. 5985, Nov 14 at 0321, Brother Scare via WRMI has CCI almost as strong in Persian. Aoki shows it`s BBCWS due east from Woofferton UK at 0230-0330. WRMI in the clear again at 0337 check (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also SOUTH CAROLINA [non]

** VATICAN [and non]. 9660, Nov 14 at 0305, VR with heavily-accented African English talk about educating Christians and Moslems; good signal --- so who needs a dedicated North American service any more --- we poor cousins of the African audience can make do with this. O my! // 11625 is even better, at very good level, running about one second behind 9660. This 0300-0330 broadcast on 9660 is 250 kW, 150 degrees, so off the back from SMG; while 11625 is 250 kW, 305 degrees from MADAGASCAR during this hour, but before and after it, SMG (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also USA: VOA 6080