Glenn Hauser logs December 2-3, 2020

** BRAZIL. 11905-11910-11915, RNA DRM tests are back, on a non-Cuban frequency, as Richard Langley reported to the WOR iog at 1804 UT Dec 2: ``As just posted in the DRMNA io group: ``"Per Brother Francisco via Twitter: 'EBC & Brasília University tests 11910 kHz DRM on air now! 16-QAM MSC, Mode A, AAC + SBR. #drmlog'"`` --- My replies:

>From 1830, No signal here, but weak at Brasília SDR, better at Bonaire SDR, S5-S6, solid H2Ofall block 11905-11915 but not audible except occasional bursts of noise. Nothing else heard, but Aoki/NDXC shows what else is on 11910, hardly clear:

11910 1200-1300 CHN CHINA RADIO INTERNATIONA Amo Beijing 572 1-7 
11910 1300-1357 CHN CHINA RADIO INTERNATIONA Eng Beijing 572 1-7 
11910 2055-2400 J   NHK WORLD RADIO JAPAN    Jap Ibaragi-Kog 1-7 
11910 1400-1500 THA *jammed VOICE OF AMERICA Tib Udon Thani  1-7 
11910 1800-1857 KRE Voice of Korea           Fre Kujang      1-7 
11910 1900-1957 KRE Voice of Korea           Eng Kujang      1-7 
11910 2000-2050 KRE Voice of Korea (KCBS)    Kor Kujang      1-7 

I go back to Brasília SDR --- how far is it really from the Rodeador site? At 1924, some music is being heard at S9+15 and not // talk on 11780-AM, S9+20/30. DRM reads 14.06 kbps, 11.5 db SNR, mode B. Nothing but music about 50% of the time but keeps going into oscillation, dropping to silence and coming back as if nothing happened. The signal is not fading much, if any, at local range. At the bottom of the box there is a rotation of 3 or 4 one-line texts, about samba, drogas, weather in São Paulo. At 1945 the SNR is 18.5 dB, but still same in & out music. DRM sked menu still shows 11880. 1956, SNR is 22.4 dB, S9+35, same in & out music only.

By 2110 the DRM noise is audible direct on my R75, S7-S8 vs noise level of S5; while 11780-AM is S7-S8 also. And RHC has not yet come on 11880 for the 2100 French, but it is on by 2138 check in Brazuguese. Something`s always wrong at RHC.

11910-DRM checked again via Brasília SDR at 2301, music remains cutting on and off --- but mostly off. In fact from at least 2310 constantly listening, only a few notes of music cut on at 2318. Then constantly tries to decode and fails. At 2333 I check for any QRM --- yes, there is a weak AM carrier under the noise on 11910, presumably Radio Japan until 2400, which is 300 kW at 290 degrees; but we know how well NHK propagates backwards, and it`s almost antipodal to Brasil. That may be enough to ruin this hardly robust DRM. But after Yamata is off, at 0023 Dec 3, hardly any DRM decode. Still needs some tweaking.

A major defect of the DRM concept is that it has to run inside the otherwise AM SWBC bands, a big PR problem QRMing normal broadcasts, making enemies instead of friends; and which altho thinning out are still a hard place to find a clear frequency, especially for 24 hours -- while there is plenty of space in the adjacent fixed utility bands already occupied by various forms of digital transmission --- where DRM belongs, if anywhere. Ordinary SW AM reception should not be blasted inside the bands by this noise even if technically it is not QRDRMing (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)

** CUBA. 11880, Dec 2 at 2110, no signal from RHC which is supposed to start French at 2100; eventually on by 2138 check in Brazuguese. At least Brazil has moved its DRM testing to 11910, q.v. Something`s always wrong at RHC (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)

** CUBA. 13740, Dec 3 at 0050, RHC in wrong language, not Spanish but English, which is supposed to be on 5040 only at this hour. Via Brownsville TX TWR SDR, `Chariots of Fire` theme` JBA on 13740 // VG 5040. Tnx to tip from Steven Wiseblood in the RGV who was getting 13740 well earlier in the hour. Improved here by 0055. Something`s always wrong at RHC (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)

** ERITREA [non]. 17545.06, Wed Dec 2 at 1540, VP talk and music; 1550 it`s Horn-of-Africa music, 1553 announcement, 1556 more music until 1558*. Recorded but too poor to pick out any ID. Like last Wednesday, suspected to be Bayto Yaikl clandestine, which is supposedly scheduled on Saturdays only, when it was first heard. Now broker Jeff White of RMI confirms that it`s also on Wednesdays at 1530; but I wonder if it`s also via Issoudun. A week ago it was off-frequency+plus like this, but need to check whether it`s the same offfrequenciness on Saturdays. Despite problems like clickbeeping, none here, I don`t recall any ISS transmitter being so far displaced on other known broadcasts. See previous discussions at: http://www.w4uvh.net/ghlogs_2020_1105_1111.txt / http://www.w4uvh.net/ghlogs_2020_1119_1125.txt (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)

** OKLAHOMA. 388-MCW kHz, Dec 2 at 0707 UT, ND beacon OK, which is doubly okay, from OKmulgee - Preston, 25 watts. Not often heard. What is Preston? ``Preston is an unincorporated community located in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, United States. The post office was established December 13, 1909. It was named for an Okmulgee oilman, Harry Preston. Wikipedia``. BTW, it`s a hard G in -gee, same as in Muskogee, long O, accent on middle syllable (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)

** OKLAHOMA [and non]. 1600 kHz, Dec 2 at 2140 UT, KUSH Cushing with Americana music is already getting QRM in Vietnamese from KRVA The Metroplex TX, still on 25 kW day power, skywave a sesquihour before sunset (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)

** U S A. 1250, Dec 2 at 2143 UT, heavy SAH of about 4 Hz between country music and other music. Spanish KYYS Kansas City normally dominates; C&W around here are KRRD Fayetvil AR and KZHN Paris TX (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)

** U S A. 11720, Dec 2 at 2112, VOA Grimesland with hyper African rock music, S9/+10 off the back and overmodulated/distorted. What a pity VOA prioritizes African music to Africa where there must be plenty of African music on the radios already, rather than any kind of American music of which there is a tremendous variety from classical to country. VOA should fill this hour with a different American genre each day of the week (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 2062 monitoring: not airing Wed Dec 2 at 2100 on WRMI 7780, JBA something else, despite insistent listing on their System F skedgrid -- and also on the no-frequency System D.

Not confirmed Wed Dec 2 at 2200:20.5 on WBCQ 7490.109V, but instead 2061 replays! This happens occasionally with WBCQ despite having 6 days to get the new edition programmed in; well, better than nothing.

Confirmed Wed Dec 2 at 2300 on WRMI 9955, which I check at Brasília SDR since I have it running for 11910-DRM: S9+15/25, but fluttery and hollow with disturbed propagation, at least well above the Cuban jamming level.

Also confirmed UT Thu Dec 3 at 0100 on WRMI 7780, fair S5-S7 at UTwente; 0057 ID after Slovakia claimed to be on 9395.

Full schedule including AM, FM, webcasts, satellite, podcasts: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html

Our non-commercial broadcasts and website depend on voluntary support: thanks this week to James F. Leppard, Anderson SC, for a check in US funds on a US bank to: Glenn Hauser, P O Box 1684, Enid OK 73702

One may also contribute via PayPal, not necessarily in US funds, to: woradio at yahoo.com

New WOR 2063 should be ready by early UT Friday December 4 for first broadcasts at 0130 on WRMIs 5010, 5850, 9955 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)

** U S A. 15770, Dec 2 at 2120, no signal from this WRMI-9, which must be off, while 15610 WEWN and even 15555-USB WJHR remain audible if poorly. 15770 is supposed to run 1200-2400, but the only non-TOMBS and non-SMTV variety programming hours worth hearing are 13-14 & 20-21 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)

** U S A. 5970, Dec 2 at 0652, S9+20 of dead air except for some squeal, from WEWN Spanish, RCM; competing with 5085 WTWW-2 for deadairness (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)

** U S A. 5085, Dec 2 at 0656, S9+40 of dead air except for some hum, from WTWW-2, along with JBA spurs +/- ~13 kHz, competing with 5970 WEWN for deadairness (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)

UNIDENTIFIED. Re: New whooper beacon on 4095.6 as in last report: I have not been able to pull it in directly by 0700 December 2, but:

There is a thread about this starting Nov 16 at: https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,74397.0.html

including this one: ``Teotwaki    Moderator    DX Legend    *****
Posts: 2190    Karma: +12/-1    California

« Reply #28 on: November 28, 2020, 2314 UTC »

Token has posted a YouTube video of receiving the DW Whooper at his home along with a detailed description of beacon's characteristics. https://youtu.be/LEKZDaD7J8g

"This is a pirate beacon, probably located in the US desert south west. Some of these beacons have names, either given by the person who built / place the beacon or given by listeners who monitor the beacons, this one, at this time, is being called the "Desert Whooper", for obvious reasons. The chirps have a distinctive, and one assume intentional, non-linear chirp, or "whoop", and the CW ID is "DW". This beacon was first reported on the associated forums on HFUnderground in November, 2020. It is assumed that it started operations about the same time.

The frequency of this beacon is 4095.6 kHz, and it consists of a series of chirpy CW dashes, or short, frequency chirping, duration carriers. Each dash shifts downwards in frequency by about 600 Hz from start to stop. A "cycle" for this beacon has a CW ID consisting of the letters "DW", followed by 22 chirping dashes, the first dash after the CW ID is slightly longer than the other dashes. As far as I know, whoever placed this beacon has not yet released any details of its hardware. {was sweeping *upward* when I heard via Nevada --- gh}

Two other pirate beacons are seen in this video, a new and as yet unnamed beacon on 4097.2 kHz consisting of 2 second long flat chirps, and the long active Windy beacon in a failed mode.

Recorded at my location in the Mojave Desert of California, USA, on 26 November, 2020, 2353 UTC."

He has lots of neat beacons and other signals on videos which are available at his channel`` https://www.youtube.com/user/FirstToken/videos

and

``Offline Teotwaki --- « Reply #11 on: November 21, 2020, 0036 UTC » Glad you could hear DW on the KFS SDR. BTW I saw your Twitter posts and this new beacon is unrelated to Stephen McGreevy’s “inyo whooper”. He has written some long posts here and said he is quitting beacons altogether. His beacons never had CW id’s and his whooper has been off the air for quite a while. Logged Jim`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)

This report dispatched at 0121 UT December 3