Monday, May 11, 2009

Glenn Hauser logs May 1-2, 2009

** BIAFRA [non]. V. of Biafra International, 17520 via WHRI, routine weekly check Friday May 1 sometime during the 19-20 UT hour reconfirmed it is still airing there, sufficient reception (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHILE. CVC still running on 15410 in Portuguese, May 2 at 1344 check with SAH, two days after projected closedown of Brazilian service on SW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Besides 7185 each morning in the Taiwan/China radio war, another persistent broadcaster in the 40m hamband is 7105, much weaker signal, but May 2 at 1315 I was hearing what resembled scat singing in Chinese(?), W&M alternating, 1319 announcement unseemed Chinese, and into vocal music ballad. Presumably this is PBS Nei Menggu, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, as in Aoki, 50 kW at 52 degrees favorable usward too.

Firedrake check May 2: at 1342 good on 13970 but no sign of it on 15600; at 1354 about equal on 9000 and 8400; at 1459 still going on 13970.

11615, the other kind of ChiCom jamming, heavily echoing programming presumably originating with the CNR1 network, at 1457 May 2. Victim is VOA Chinese via Saipan at 14-15 only, which was totally buried.

Perhaps it is about time for IBB to make a more aggressive response to ChiCom jamming, like jumping frequencies up or down 5-10 kHz without notice, where this can be done without affecting other stations. As it is, all IBB frequency usage and changes are immediately known to the enemy thru HFCC, making it a piece of cake to keep them blocked.

Or use spare IBB transmitter capacity to jam CRI broadcasts, making it clear that this is nothing but retaliation, not a US policy against China`s freedom, ha ha, of speech (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also NETHERLANDS

** CUBA. RHC on new 11770, May 1 at 2140 in Spanish; OK reception except het from Anguilla 11775. This replaces 11820 where it had been since April 13, colliding with Saudi Arabia which had already been using this frequency to Europe for sesquiyears (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ECUADOR. HCJB enters yet another month announcing its own frequencies incorrectly; caught the morning Spanish broadcast May 2 just before 1500* on 11960 with automated ID at 1459:30 promoting Ecuador as a cacao-producer and still claiming to be on ``11690, 21455 y 11960`` despite 21455 having been canceled years ago (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EGYPT. 15255 with Qur`an, May 2 at 1502; I thought that would be handy for those prevented by the buzzy Saudis from clearhearing the muezzin on 15435. 15255 turns out to be R. Cairo`s Albanian service, also aimed usward, so I expect it was only a brief introduxion; there are lots of Moslems in Albania of course, thanks to the Ottoman legacy, but do the Orthodox get their due from Cairo? Fat chance (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NETHERLANDS [non]. 9650, CRI at 1300-1400 via Sackville in English, 250 kW aimed 240 degrees rather close to my azimuth, puts in a big reliable signal, but as I have been noticing ever since A-09 began, has considerable co-channel QRM from R. Netherlands in Dutch via Philippines, despite the latter supposedly aimed 200 degrees from Tinang. Serves the ChiCom right for all their deliberate blockage of Western broadcasts into China, to get creamed by this unintentional collision!

RN is registered only at 1300-1327 but I have previously noted this staying on until 1330, and May 2 it was strong enough to make out the content. After the Dutch NA until 1327, switched to English for 3 minutes of The State We`re In, as I heard mentioned World Press Freedom Day, the very topic shown in this week`s RN programme previewwes. And it cut off at 1330* sharp. This is not the first time IBB has failed to match the exact times it should be relaying RN, but hey, it`s two two additional sesquiminutes of well-deserved QRM to CRI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. 7330 in English, May 2 at 1309 introducing a classical music excerpt, with heavy QRM from RCI and CRI colliding on 7325. 7330 must be VOR in English to Asia via Vladivostok as scheduled 12-15 in
http://www.ruvr.ru/files/File/WORLD_SERVICE/09_FREQUENCY_SCHEDULE.doc
And the Saturday 1300+ show is Music and Musicians, per the handy 24-hour grid at http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&w=225&p=

This raises doubts about my previous log of English before 1300 on 7330, which I assumed to be Poland via Germany as it is also scheduled there. In fact I should retract that.

9850 with VOR news in English at 1403 May 2, beneath splash from ChiCom jamming on 9845; VOR 9850 was running about 1 second ahead of // 15605. The sites are respectively Chita and Moskva, per Aoki. So like in the VOA 17585/9760 case, at VOR too it takes longer to get the program to a nearby site than a faraway one (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SAUDI ARABIA. Saut ul-Buzz, Riyadh, 15435, May 2 at 1501 with frying sound atop Arabic talk leading into Qur`aning. Should be // 15225, but too weak to unearth from CRI Sackville adjacent. However, those in need of a Qur`an fix could find one on 15255: see EGYPT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. 17585 with open carrier, fair signal, May 2 at 1350. Finally at 1359 VOA sign-on and English news // 9760 but 17585 running one or two words behind 9760. Does that mean it is further from studios than Tinang? No! 17585 is in fact Greenville, 1400-1430 only in that wacky split hour, continued after 1430 from Udorn, Thailand site (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WRMI, 9955, Saturday May 2 at 1455 with a Jesus show, listed as Zion Teacher, and mixed with DentroCuban jamming. Do the Cuban Commies have it in for Jesus and Zion? No, they are just totally incompetent (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WWCR, 15825, assisted by sporadic E to reach an adequate signal level, May 2 at 1500 with James Hickey, back from surgery, to cite Revelation III: 1, which is about the Seven Stars – Pleiades? Was strong enough to hear the squeal, one of the neglected legacies of WWCR`s former CE.

The Saturday 1630 airing of WORLD OF RADIO on 12160 started on time this week, or maybe even a bit early, as checked on webcast (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Ted Randall has been wanting to interview me for a long time, so we finally got together on the phone April 29. We talked for almost a sesquihour, so with breaks added, that could occupy most of a 2-hour QSO with Ted Randall show. He says it will air first on Tuesday May 5 at 2100-2300 on WBCQ 7415, and probably repeat the following Thursday, as well as various other times, also on WRMI 9955 Sundays at 0500, and become available for download. Many thanks to Ted for his promotion of WORLD OF RADIO, which he says, more hams ought to know about (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Is anyone hearing DXing with Cumbre this A-09 season at any time on any WHRI/WHRA/T8WH frequency? You can probably find a bunch of times in the online schedules but that doesn`t mean they axually radiate on SW. I was reminded of this conundrum as I tuned by 11785 Saturday May 2 at 1457 and still heard a gospel huxter instead, in a time once occupied by DWC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###



** BULGARIA. Just tuned in 9800 at 2229 May 2 to hear the Minute Waltz played on a wind instrument, weak signal off at 2230* without announcement. Since it`s an -00 frequency, the prime suspect is R. Bulgaria, and indeed nothing but it is scheduled there, at 2130-2230 in Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ISRAEL. 15785, weak mix of music and talk, fading out, modulation seems distorted, but carrier is stable, May 2 at 2146 and still there at 2201 presumably in Hebrew as nothing else known here but Galei Zahal, IDF station. HFCC ignores it; Aoki has it only at 07-16 with 5 kW non-direxional, so I`ll have to go with EiBi showing time as 06-24. Only other station at any time on 15785 is CRI via Xi`an not continuously between 0100 and 0700 in English, Chinese (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MOROCCO [and non]. 15345, RTM, fair with Arabic music, May 2 at 2148, no sign of Argentina, altho Chile was VG on 15410; but RTM still on at 2201 with YL in Arabic news, and now a low het barely audible, BFO confirming two carriers on slightly different frequencies. Morocco still on at 2205, back to music, so suspended efforts to hear RAE at the moment (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SAUDI ARABIA. BSKSA, non-buzzy 11820, again in the clear, May 2 at 2158 check with Qur`an, tnx to RHC`s move away May 1 to 11770 after we exposed their big mistake in ever going on 11820 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY. VOT, 9830, English to North America, Saturday May 2 at 2221 had Seref reading letters from listeners; did not sound like mere reception reports, but hard to make much of it due to severe co-channel RTTY QRM; yet it was indeed ``DX Corner`` as announced ending at 2226. I tried various bandwidths on two receivers, USB and LSB, stepping up to 3 kHz either side, and could not get rid of the RTTY which must be centered exactly on 9830.0.

Therefore VOT would be well advised to get off this frequency, which has been occupied by RTTY for ages, and should never have been chosen in the first place. At this time there was nothing on 9825 or 9835, so a 5 kHz shift should fix it. Per online listings, 9825 is clear during this hour, altho VOA starts Spanish at 2300 from Greenville and probably would be running open carrier long before then; I did not check. Portugal could run as late as 2300 on 9820, which would be a problem, altho not today, off earlier.

Nothing listed on 9835. If Radio República were to resume 9840 at 21-23 drawing Cuban jamming, that could be a problem, but no sign of that. Overall, the better choice would be for VOT to shift up to 9835, unless they want to look for an opening further afield (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15600, WYFR preaching in Spanish bothered by squealing, extremely distorted modulation, May 2 at 2149. At first I thought its own transmitter was defective, but then it became clear the QRM was from an external source, since it did not match WYFR modulation and worsened during WYFR fades. Same situation after 2200 when WYFR switched to French.

Right next to it at S9+20 on 15610 is WEWN, 250 kW at 40 degrees in English, and guess what --- matching spur on 15620 except it was not noticeable because it had nothing to beat against, until I turned on the BFO. So this is the WEWN transmitter we have recently complained about putting out plus/minus 10 kHz spurs, e.g. on 9330 and 9350 from ex-fundamental 9340, but the same problem goes back many years on many frequencies. Any station daring to broadcast only 10 kHz away from WEWN is asking for it. Catholix vs Protestants! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WWCR, 13845, inbooming May 2 at 2154 evidently with HF sporadic E assistance, so strong that under DGS I could hear modulation from another WWCR transmitter bleeding thru, confirmed as // 7465 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###

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