mercoledì 25 febbraio 2009

Glenn Hauser logs February 24, 2009

** CUBA [and non]. Checking out what Radio República is doing: Feb 24 at 2237, surprised to find it unjammed via WRMI 9955 with intriguing talk about human evolution, brain size, language and music, concluding with some hypothetical Neanderthal music at 2240-2242, then ID giving only frequency 9810, 6-11 pm de lunes a domingo, i.e. the new non-WRMI relay at 2300-0400, not yet on the air at this moment, and surely Wednesday-Tuesday rather than Monday-Sunday; why don`t they just say todos los días? R.R. does have quite a bit of apolitical programming which need not be jammed, but I doubt the DentroCubans were deliberately relenting against the hated, wormy, FueraCubans. BTW, Cuba`s public venom is directed against Radio Martí, with Radio República`s existence hardly ever even acknowledged.

Meanwhile, a wall of noise on 9565 against Radio Martí. 9955 had the usual het at this time of day, presumably the perpetually off-frequency Taiwan transmitter scheduled for RFI relay after 2300, but at 2253 jamming had also started to appear on 9955; by 2300 it had overwhelmed WRMI when I wanted to detect whether it was parallel 9810 --- probably not.

So I was standing by for 9810 to come on; at 2257 jamming already grinding away against nothing; at 2259 Sackville DRM shifted from 9795-9800-9805 to 9785-9790-9795 for TDP`s dance music, thank you very much. Jamming increased against 9810, but I could still hear R. República cut on about 15 seconds after 2300, surely via Sackville too.

Earlier at 2235, I also noted the DentroCuban Jamming Command on 11930, with at least two strong non-synchronized modulated pulses against nothing, Radio Martí having signed off that channel at 2200. The pulses periodically coincided, but mostly were offset different fraxions of a second as they were emitted at slightly different rates, deliberately to be more annoying if they had had a victim (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUAM [and non]. Tuned in 11850 at 2229 Feb 24 just as a formal sign-off announcement was running in English, from Adventist Broadcasting Service, 100,000 watts. Maybe Guam or KSDA was mentioned earlier, but not now until 2229:30*, the conclusion of scheduled semihour in Indonesian. Radio Free Asia [see U S A [non]] took over 11850 a few sex later (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NETHERLANDS [non]. 15280, Feb 24 at 2218, VG signal in Indonesian, but deep and selective fading. What does PWBR `2009` say? Nothing. Must be RN; who else would be talking about Schipol, bits of Dutch and even English mixed in with the Indonesian, and 2220 RNW ID. But then at 2221 I notice that the audio is hiccuping, every few seconds looping back and repeating two or three times a few syllables already just heard. This is extremely annoying, especially if you really understand Indonesian. And also ruins song in English which follows at 2222. Just as bad if not worse at 2236 recheck when an IDstring ran in Dutch, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and something else. Is anyone paying attention at Hilversum or transmitter site? I guess a satellite feed problem. 15280 is not Madagascar as first assumed. This is the 2200-2257 transmission via IBB sites, which changed from Tinang at the beginning of B-08, to Tinian for a sesquiweek, and finally to
 SAIPAN since 7 November. Hard to believe it is beamed due SW from there rather than NE toward US. But a refund is in order (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. Shortly after KSDA finished with 11850 [see GUAM], Feb 24 at *2230, a seamless transition to R. Free Asia, opening in English with Khmer to follow. At first I thought they said ``Thai`` as the name has an almost-long I, the way RFA pronounces it, as I have noticed before and must be closer to the proper pronunciation in that language itself. In next few minutes, YL announcer mentioned Malraux, Reagan amd others in the same breath. Wonder what that was about. This signal, much better than KSDA had been, easily held its own against adjacent WYFR on 11855. RFA`s open carrier was probably already on for a crash-start when I tuned in KSDA a minute earlier, suppressing its loudness but also holding off WYFR`s sideband. This is TINIAN at 278 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###