lunedì 30 marzo 2009

Glenn Hauser logs March 30, 2009

** ALBANIA. R. Tirana, now on A-09 schedule with all English one UT hour earlier after two sesquiweeks of confusion since most of NAm went to DST earlier. March 30 at 1430 opening English on 13625 with updated English transmission schedule; fair modulation but only fair signal and fading (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRIA. Ö1 still with token 3-minute English newscast in A-09, heard on 6155 March 30 ending at 0612, into French. Remains to be reconfirmed whether this is still secretly included weeknights in the external service at about 13 minutes past each semi-hour 0000-0130 on new 9820 to Americas (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA [and non]. 11585, AIR music from Delhi with talk CCI, March 30 at 1443. Nothing but AIR scheduled, altho RFA Tibetan via Tinian starts at 1500; maybe ChiCom jamming on early? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. I am cautiously optimistic that the long-running radio war on 9680 among VOA, Taiwan and China, obliterating clear reception of RRI domestic service relay despite its 250 kW, may be over in A-09;
at least March 30 at 1348 I was hearing nothing but RRI with mostly music show, Indonesian announcements, breaking to open carrier 1402-1408 when I could be sure there was nothing else on frequency, 1408 resuming programming in progress, conversation, someone singing over the phone, better pre-recorded music, vocal and percussion, etc.

In B-08, Aoki listed these collisions:
9680*R.TAIWAN INT. 1100-1700 1234567 Chinese 100 352 Taipei TWN 12124E2509N CBSC b08 Jan.1
9680 RRI Jakarta 2200-1300 1234567 Indonesian 250 316 Jakarta-Cimanggis INS 10651E0623S RRI
9680*VOICE OF AMERICA 1200-1500 1234567 Chinese 250 349 Tinang PHL 12037E1521N IBB b08
The * indicates also ChiCom jamming, so that meant at least 4 transmitters at once. However, note they had RRI stopping at 1300.

EiBi B-08 had RRI until 1500; and even worse, R. Japan also on 9680 at 1200-1600. I`ve yet to find any IBB, RTI or NHK listings for A-09 on 9680 in this time period. WRTH and Aoki do not specify which RRI domestic program is on 9680, but EiBi says number 4 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ROMANIA [and non]. RRI Romanian service on new 11920 ex-11940, good and clear March 30 at 1340, and // much weaker 15195, ex-15170 so no longer colliding with REE/Costa Rica. However, there was still a SAH on 15170, from what? Must be VOA Somali, due north from Madagascar during the 13-14 hour. RRI Romanian is now 12-14, 285 degrees from Galbeni for France on both frequencies (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SAUDI ARABIA. Sawt ul-Buzz continues on A-09 on 15435, March 30 at 1501 so loud that it overrides the Qur`an recitation; still // 15225 much weaker but buzzfree, in skirts of CRI via Canada 15220 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SERBIA [non]. Just as I predicted when the A-09 schedule of IRS came out a few days ago, showing a change from 6190 to 9580 for the North American service at 0000-0130 ---

It is colliding with RRI on 9580, at 00-01, as checked March 30 at 0034. A clash between two English broadcasts to North America, and a SAH of approximately 6 Hz between them. At the momoent there were two male voices, the bassier one coming from IRS and the tenor one from Romania, which helped to distinguish them, but not exactly the best resolution for this problem. A minute later, RRI had a M&W conversing, and the latter station also has crisper modulation, as you would expect from their brand-new transmitter.

Another way out would be for one of them to be on LSB and the other on USB! But I doubt such cooperation would be possible. Moving one of them to a completely different frequency is what is needed. The only reason IRS went to 9580 is that they (or as R. Yugoslavia) had used that frequency several years ago to NAm --- but they should not have assumed it was still open for them after years of absence. IRS is one of few (only?) European broadcasters that do not participate in HFCC, but even a cursory check of HFCC or other frequency listings should have shown them that 9580 is NOT now available for them.

Altho RRI has just started using 9580 at this hour in A-09, the second hour, 01-02, has been used by CRI via Habana for many years, and it still is. By recheck at 0116, CRI was way on top, but I could hear some music under, presumably IRS, also with a SAH but seemed slightly slower than 6 Hz.

According to Dragan Lekic in DXLD 9-027, IRS A-09 schedule is:
0000-0030 9580 BIJ 250 kW/ 310 degrees NCAm SERBIAN MON-SAT
0000-0100 9580 BIJ 250 kW/ 310 degrees NCAm SERBIAN SUN
0030-0100 9580 BIJ 250 kW/ 310 degrees NCAm ENGLISH MON-SAT
0100-0130 9580 BIJ 250 kW/ 325 degrees NoAm ENGLISH

While looking for a clear 9 MHz frequency, they should go back to 6190 as in B-08, which per a few chex seems unoccupied, altho Urumchi and Berlin are registered, but they were no obstacle in the previous season.

IRS has also retimed the two English broadcasts so now they are in consecutive half-hours. This makes no sense; previously there was a half-hour break between them. Since there are 5 major timezones in NAm, the second broadcast should be much later in our evenings for convenient listening in the western zones as intended by the 325 azimuth. This was once the case, as I recall, at 0430 UT when they were using 11 MHz in summer (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY [non]. As of UT March 30, the VOT relay via Sackville moved one UT hour earlier to 0300, still on 7325. And it is STILL in Turkish (?) instead of English, checked at 0335 UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###