martedì 29 dicembre 2009

Glenn Hauser logs December 29, 2009

** BELGIUM. Countdown to suicide: two days left after Dec 29, RTBF, 9970, poor in French at 1415 YL being interviewed by OM, 1416 into music; some echo. Or is it? The Wavre transmitter then becomes available for rent to some gospel huxter; that would suffice for the country-counters to keep Belgium as active on SWBC. Of course TDP keeps Belgium on the map via transmitters elsewhere; see KURDISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake Dec 29 at 1412: just barely audible on 8400, not 9000 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** COSTA RICA. 2860-, quick check on portable away from some of the household noise sources, Dec 29 at 0130 could detect broadcast audio, presumed R. San Carlos, still harmonicizing 2 x 1430- (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. Just like RadioCuba`s RHC transmitters, the DentroCuban Jamming Command transmitters are in dire need of maintenance, putting pulses on extraneous frequencies --- at least, we think they are. But hey, since their purpose is disruption, who cares if there is a little extra?

This reinforces Cuba`s reputation as an outlaw nation, unwilling to behave like a mature, self-confident society, since the government was and is imposed by force upon an unwilling and betrayed populace, who must be `protected` from contrary ideas.

Dec 29 at 1410, DCJC pulses in the middle of the exclusive 40m hamband, around 7140, coming and going. Altho jamming sometimes extends beyond 1400 on 7405 where Radio Martí was, no jamming heard there now or anywhere above 7300, so unseems spurious from that.

Could the DCJC have heard some anti-Castro comments by an exile ham? Possibly, but the regular diatribes we have run across before were on 7210.

More: Dec 29 at 1402, DCJC pulses against nothing wandering around 9900-9915, bothering Arabic on 9915, i.e. BBC Cyprus. At 1524 this was ranging 9870-9895, bothering AIR VBS on 9870. Could be spurs from a transmitter on 9955 where WRMI was still getting sufficient pulse jamming to make Prague English relay unreadable; but then VOA Spanish is on 9885 at totally different dayparts (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA. AIR GOS, 9690, Dec 29 at 1424 with ever-present hum which Terry Krueger calculates at 50 Hz, ending Press Review by main announcer who has excellent diction overcoming hum, and into next show India Ahead(?), by another speaker who was undermodulated and with playback problems, incomprehensible. Tsk, as uncharacteristically, this was better signal than VBS on 9870, and much better than NC on 9425 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. VOI missing for the second day from 9526v, Dec 29 at 1420, nothing there tho RRI Jakarta was audible with Indonesian talk on 9680 at 1424. Could not detect VOI on alternate 11785v instead; see SAUDI ARABIA. At least on weekdays that`s the only obstacle, during the 5-day break between Furman FueraHmong inblasts (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KURDISTAN [non]. 11530, V. of Mesopotamia, Dec 29 at 1455 with great music, 1459 brief announcement, 4-pip timesignal ending at 1459:50, and off abruptly as frequency via UKRAINE changes to 7540.

Kurdistan must be an advanced society, 10 seconds ahead of the rest of the world, but we wonder if these 500 kW SW broadcasts pervade the country [non], which surely has plenty of local AM and FM stations now (see WRTH 2010 pages 236-238, mixed in with the rest of IRAQ).

Does one hear VOM emanating from every taxi, every shop --- or any of them, since it`s SW [and Hotbird satellite] only? Presumably it represents one particular faxion, so does that lack local transmitters for some reason, requiring this platform? WRTH 2010 page 500 explains:

``Station is licensed in Belgium and is produced by the Kurdish-Belgian media production company Roj NV``. BELGIUM? That fits for this transmission brokered by TDP, which linx to website, but apparently only in Kurdish with Roman letters:
http://www.denge-mezopotamya.com/ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PORTUGAL. RDPI, 15690, Dec 29 at 1457, S9+8 which was strong enough previously to audiblize plus/minus 168 kHz spurs, but those not to be heard today. Perhaps our observation reached engineers who suppressed them. Carlos Gonçalves passed it on, and also heard no spurs an hour later (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SAUDI ARABIA. Checking 11785 for traces of Indonesia [q.v.] missing from 9526v, Dec 29 at 1441, heard only BSKSA buzz, but now for a change, some bits of Qur`an also audible underneath it. Progress.

Usual cursory check of 13m, Dec 29 at 1526 found weak and fluttery Arabic on 21460, i.e. BSKSA, which amounted not only to the SSOB but the OSOB (strongest and only station on band) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY [and non]. 11815, VOT Turkish music ruined by off-channel as usual REE Costa Rica producing not only audio mix but fast, rippling subaudible heterodyne, Dec 29 at 1445. However, Turkey in the clear at 1521 as per Aoki, REE uses 11815 only from 12 to 15 and only M-F.

You would not know this consulting HFCC, where much larger possible spans are woodenly registered: 00-04, 04-10, 10-23; and 18-24 with additional transmitter and antenna. WRTH 2010 agrees that the only time REE is really using 11815 is M-F 12-15, for which we are thankful and so should be the Turx.

SW Asian music is still available in the clear before 1500 on nearby 11805 thanks to VOA Kurdish via GERMANY; see also KURDISTAN [non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WTWW, checking for activation of new SW station in Lebanon TN, should be imminent, but nothing heard yet on 5755 or 9480 at 0130 and 1518 Dec 29 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Catholix vs whatever PMS is --- Dec 29 at 1446, WEWN inbooming on 13835, unlike WWCR on 13845, the two about the same distance from here but a geographically selective opening. This allowed the dirty Ave Maria Radio spur on 13845 to impede PMS to the point of unreadability; not that I wanted to read her, an exercise in piety (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###