sabato 22 agosto 2009

Glenn Hauser logs August 21-22, 2009

** CANADA. CHU is rarely strong enough here to tell, but as Liz Cameron, MI, has been noting, there is some buzz mixing with the 7850 signal, Aug 22 at 1221. It`s more obvious with BFO on, and the transmitter seems slightly unstable (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Searching every kHz between 8 and 19 MHz for Firedrake, Aug 22 between 1200 and 1300, only found one, and it is new, 10210, poor with flutter at 1230. Next check at 1310, inaudible, altho next2 check at 1359 there it was again, but carrier cut off at 1400:30.

A few months ago FD was showing up in the 10.2+ MHz range, no doubt prompted by Sound of Hope using such frequencies. By golly, today`s edition of Aoki already has 10210 as a [possibly] 24 hour 1 kW Xi Wang Zhi Sheng SOH outlet, from Taiwan, 119-55 E. 26-10 N, and *jammed of course.

As for the absence otherwise of far out-of-band FD, this happened about the same time as Typhoon Morakot, so I theorize that many of the SOH low-power ham-type transmitters on Taiwan were blown off the air (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** COLOMBIA. Missing the night before, Marfil Estéreo back on 5910 air Aug 22 at 0538 with typical music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. My thorough morning bandscan Aug 22 encountered DentroCuban Jamming Command pulses in some odd spots, probably spurs from nearby intentional jamming frequencies, or one of the innumerable transmitters on each victim channel mistuned.

1220 on 7378, covering 7375-7380, from 7405? Sometimes there is jamming against nothing on 7365 when not in use by Martí, not now.

1229 on 9930, lite pulses, no sign of scheduled T8WH Palau, vs very heavy jamming against inaudible WRMI 9955, which itself is totally uncalled-for as WRMI is now broadcasting R. Prague 7 days a week during this entire sesquihour. Commies vs ex-Commies? How many poor DentroCubans are starving because of this waste?

1246 on 9775, more weak but unmistakable pulsing, probably related to the heavy jamming on 9805 Martí. Collateral victims in this case would be Fu Hsing, Taiwan, and/or CNR-2 Beijing, unheard, in their own radio war. Notice that these Cuban jamming spurs(?) are typically 25-30 kHz on the lo side, not the hi side of the prime frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [non]. 5980, R. Martí, Aug 22 at 1159:30 cut off the air just as SW QSY announcement was starting, before any of the next batch of frequencies could be mentioned, leaving listeners stranded. How about a bit closer coördination between Miami and Greenville if not Washington? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GERMANY [non]. 13860 with YL in French, Aug 22 at 1234. It`s DW via Sines, PORTUGAL during this hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. Have not bothered to report VOI lately, but for the record, still going with English hour on 9524.9, Aug 22 at 1316 check reminiscing about the Japanese occupation. Signal rather weak; it was much better an hour earlier in Indonesian (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH. 6070, free of CFRX QRM so now the big roar from Pyongyang`s ailing transmitter can be heard in the clear, Aug 22 at 1204. Hardly any program modulation makes it thru the self-inflicted QRM, but heard a bit of music and 1210 traces of talk. Per Aoki, This is VOK`s Japanese service at 0900-1250, 125 kW, 109 degrees from Kanggye, which no doubt has an audience in Japan of approximately zero. How many poor North Koreans are starving because of this waste? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA SOUTH [and non]. KBSWR, 9650 via Canada, paused in bandscanning Saturday Aug 22 to listen to a few minutes of Worldwide Friendship mailbag show. At 1248 the YLs were reading some listener comments from website, but I heard no apology for publishing contest winners` full e-mail addresses. 1251-1254 weekly listening tips from Kevin O`Donovan in Farmington NM: LRA-36 currently being heard in Europe; Brunström heard RAE 15344; Willie`s Place (Nelson) is on Sirius 64 and XM something this weekend. If KBS is not enough for you from Korea, TBS-EFM is a 24-hour English station from Seoul, with Korean and Western pop music, some live news and talk shows, such as 11-13 UT ``In Town`` hosted by Sue Pa[r]k of KBS itself with pop hits and messages, webcast via
http://tbsefm.seoul.kr

Checking that website, they case it ``tbs eFM``, and the show is axually ``M Town``, the hostess a.k.a. Park Su-yeon,
http://tbsefm.seoul.kr/efm/pro_main_mtown.jsp?id=mtown
So what does M stand for, music/messages? BTW, TBS stands for Traffic Broadcasting System so no doubt we will also know all about the latest jams. Contact Kevin at dxshow @ gmail.com

Back to Seoul for the last few minutes, some KBS program previews for following week, but unfortunately ``today`s program highlights`` has been eliminated from KBS website in all languages. However, little by little they are enabling streaming to work on Macs, and also are twittering the latest news in English every minute (?!) via
http://twitter.com/kbsworldradio

I notice KBS just refers to `Korea`, not `ROK`, or `South Korea`, as if there were none other (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also NETHERLANDS [non]

** MEXICO. R. Mil, 6010, in the clear with fair signal, Aug 22 at 1200 with SEP PSA, ID for XEOY 1000 only, jingle and into music show, where Mexican music lives.

RASA Mérida, 6104.7, Aug 22, must have intuned just in time at 1205 as heard ad in Spanish strangely giving website ending in .uk, but big het from 6105.0, and also squeezed by stronger 6100 and 6110 signals. In next few minutes, could not pull any further audio from XEQM, which faded down quickly, but still able to het. 6100 is CRI in Russian via Beijing site; 6105 is Taiwan in Cantonese via Kouhu; 6110 is ChiCom jamming/VOA Tinian (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also UNIDENTIFIED 6045

** NETHERLANDS [non]. Hearing RNW in Dutch where I should not: 6225, Aug 22 at 0521, quite readable as BONAIRE leapfrog of 6165 over NHK relay this semihour only on 6195.

Also as soon as KBS via Sackville [see KOREA SOUTH] quit at 1259 Aug 22, RNW IS and Dutch announcements for Indonesia via Tinang, PHILIPPINES in clear for less than a minute until Sackville came back on with CRI relay. Sack is switching from 268 to 240 degrees during this break, and CRI does come in a bit stronger here, but RN continues audible underneath until 1330 at varying levels depending on day-to-day propagation fluxuation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 13845, WWCR with very poor signal at early hour of 1235 Aug 22, not Brother Scare but certainly someone else preaching on The Overcomer Ministry, for // 3185 WWRB, but 13845 a few sex ahead of 3185 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TAIWAN. 9735, RTI Japanese service reactivated, Aug 22 at 1317, poor signal, no spurs today on 9730 or 9740. This is the Tainan transmitter that was blown off by typhoon, and temporarily replaced by 7130 from another site, where nothing was audible today. FE reports indicate this came back several days ago but first time I`ve heard it again (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. The first WWCR airing of WORLD OF RADIO 1474 confirmed on new experimental 15820 ex-15825, Friday Aug 21 at 2029:30 (rather than starting as early as 2028:30 sometimes), only fair signal here in the skip zone with no Es to help. Also Aug 22 at 1238 still on 15820, for how much longer? poor with preacher (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also SOUTH CAROLINA [non]

** U S A. WRNO must have been testing longer hours on 7505v, but Aug 22 at 0515 it was off as usual. Propagation was a bit strange, but surely would have heard some sign of it if on.

Also at 0510, 0515, WEWN absent from 7555 and 11870, but they have been missing quite a bit of airtime lately.

At 0515, usually dominant WYFR was JBA on 9680 and 9715, even less on 9355 and 9385, but good on 7730, so the MUF had plunged to between 8 and 9 MHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. A few weeks ago I found a time when World Harvest Radio was axually broadcasting DXing with Cumbre on SW, Sunday 1200 on WHRI 9410. The online schedule still shows it also Saturday on same, so finally checked for that Aug 22: NOTHING, not even on the air at 1223, so WHR`s fantasy scheduling is reconfirmed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 9490, Aug 22 at 1225 M&M conversation, sounds like a mix between Korean and Japanese --- maybe Korean with a Japanese accent? That must surely affect some individuals with a cross-cultural background, but would not expect to be heard on VOA, which this turned out to be per schedule, 1200-1300 via Saipan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. Shortly after I tuned in 6045, Aug 22 at 0529, BBC Hausa via Ascension went off abruptly while still talking, but before it did I was noticing a fast rippling SAH, like we used to get from slightly off-frequency and very low-powered XEXQ San Luis Potosí, which has not been reported in months. And I never hear any trace of it around 1200/1400 when frequency is clear. However, after BBC off there was no audio to pull. Could also have been the new Uruguayan; nothing else scheduled, but bears further investigation 0530-0600 before 6045 is blocked another hour by KBSWR via Sackville (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISITENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 6950-7000 approx., over-the-horizon radar pulsing/clicking, presumably China, at 1214 Aug 22. Then also heard a matching segment 6800-6840 peaking at 6820 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###