sabato 14 marzo 2015

Glenn Hauser logs March 14, 2015

** ANGUILLA. 6090, March 14 at 0534, Caribbean Beacon is back on with PMS, usual very good signal, slight het from off-frequency competition. This and the day frequency 11775 had been off for at least four days since absence first noted March 10 at 0535. Strange thing about these silences: we never notice any problem with transmission before they happen. But some kind of breakdown, or maintenance?

11775, March 14 at 1305, CBB also confirmed back on air in daytime, well atop the AIR CCI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BRAZIL. 11705-11720, March 14 at 0527, the RNA second-order crackling spur is very bad now, audible over this 15 kHz range, so maybe centred slightly above usual 11710. Even louder and more obnoxious are the first-orders circa 11745 & 11815. Fundamental 11780.1v modulation is blasting but not very distorted: I say again, if they would only back off the mod level on that, the spurs might go away (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. 9550, March 14 at 1259, RHC IS under open carrier with flutter, 1300 stronger CRI theme and opening Vietnamese. RHC is announcing that 11950 and 9850 and 6000 are now closing (but of course, 11950 keeps going, while 9850 is already off a few minutes earlier). Until DST was imposed by Yanqui (economic?) imperialism, RHC was running 9550 for only one hour at 14-15 UT, but now evidently switched one real hour earlier like other morning frequency usage. But either way, there is a Commie vs Commie collision with CRI, which runs Vietnamese straight thru from 1100 to 1557; despite 193 beam from Beijing, its 500 kW easily trumps RHC`s signal even here.

11950, March 14 at 1306, RHC is still on despite announcement at 1300 that it was closing (now nominally shifted an hour earlier for DST); while 11930 bears no RHC, just wall-of-noise jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA. 13710, March 14 at 1330, AIR GOS good with flutter, as I am enjoying equinoxial reception from the station/nation which has always refused even to try to serve North America. This is 500 kW, 108 degrees from Bengaluru toward SE Asia, official CIRAF targets: 49, 50 and 54, i.e. Myanmar to Philippines to Indonesia. 

Opening after unrelated music, depriving us of their wonderful IS, then 1330 sign-on with quotation of the day, ``The mind acts like an enemy for those who do not control it. ~ The Bhagavad Gita``. Have they always done this? Not noticed before. Good roundup of Asian and world news for 10 minutes; 1340 Comment[a]ry on the Delhi Dialogue with 10 ASEAN nations; 1345 plug new website http://www.airworldservice.org and program summary for rest of transmission up to 1500; 1346 into `Light Music`. But after 1400 ruined as always by CRI English CCCCI. // 11620 and 9690 are unusable (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** IRAN. 11730, March 14 at 1304, VIRI modulation is suppressed, while on // 11675 it`s OK, but poor levels with flutter. Both are Kamalabad in Urdu at 1250-1420, but with very different results. At 1327 during Qur`an, they are about equal; by 1357 they again sound very different, more hum and less modulation on 11730; at 1418, 11730 is already off, but 11675 not off until 1419 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 1170, March 14 at 1252 UT, KFAQ Tulsa is out of order: carrier breaking up with modulation peaks, sounds bad on AM, and obvious with BFO; recheck at 1430 UT, it`s back in whack. This has happened before (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SUDAN [and non]. 7316, March 14 at 0531, carrier jammer to R. Dabanga on 7315 via VATICAN, making 1-kHz het. Determined by careful tuning to be the case, rather than a 7315 transmission with 1 kHz tone jamming, as an alternative method: nothing on 7314 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9605, March 14 at 1255, talk about María in Spanish, i.e. Vatican Radio relay via the Voice of the Catholic Republic of America --- what? You say, this is not a Catholic Republic? Then, why in the world is the US government transmitter in Greenville broadcasting Vatican Radio to the exclusion of all other religions? So it can violate Separation of Church and State, the consequences be damned!

Furthermore, Vatican already has its own US station, WEWN, which also relays VR in Spanish (but not English) twice a day, making VOA relays even more uncalled-for. Further2more, as listed at
there are several more VR relays via USG IBB transmitters in TINIAN, and Tinang, PHILIPPINES --- despite Vatican already having its own SW station there too, Radio Veritas Asia!

At 1259, 9605 is wrapping up with VR IS. BTW, this transmission was originally at 1130 on 7305, same frequency as nite service at 0200, but when DST ended last November, there was a surprise switch to one hour later on a higher band. So now with DST resumed, why hasn`t it switched back to 1130? After two sesquiweeks of confusion, they`ll get around to it with A15 from March 29, scheduled at 1130 on new frequency 9700 --- oh oh, RNZI has also reserved that at 08-13 (and 1650-2000), but RNZI always over-registers to cover alternatives (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Re my log of Spanish on 880 opposite to KRVN in Nebraska, Stephen Luce, Houston TX replies in the DXLD yg: ``Glenn, KJOZ is indeed Spanish language religious, at various times // to one or more of co-owned 980, 1380 and 1590 in the Houston market. Both the day and night signal for KJOZ are surprisingly mediocre at my Northwest Harris County QTH. The application to move would involve separate day and night sites; IIRC the night site would beam SW while the day site goes NNW. BTW Conroe is as much a part of the Houston urban sprawl as Baytown is`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VIETNAM [and non]. 9920, March 14 at 1257, VietCom siren jammer is louder than usual, whoop-whooping against FEBC Iba, PHILIPPINES, in minority language Hre again, since this is a Saturday. Tho annoying, it doesn`t totally block the intrusion, but certainly draws attention to it as something important (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 774, March 14 at 1246 UT, JBA carrier looping NW/SE, no doubt the 500 kW NHK-2 from Akita, #1 TP penetrator to deep North America, if any. Used to be that companion 747 Sapporo would also show up, but not lately. It does suffer more ACI splash, from 50 kW 740 KRMG. Nothing on several other TP 9-kHz channels checked. Our sunrise today: 1244. In only one week at equinox it will attain 10 minutes earlier (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

This report dispatched at 1656 UT March 14