martedì 12 gennaio 2010

Glenn Hauser logs January 11-12, 2010

** ALASKA. 6890, KNLS, Jan 12 at 1413 poor in English with a story about seeds that Jesus allegedly told. Checked a few more times during the hour, but got no better (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA [and non]. 6160, where CBC`s RCI clashes with CBC Vancouver in the 14-15 hour: Jan 12 at 1416 the usual fast SAH, with RCI signal atop, except it was just barely modulated in Chinese, the relay via Kimjae, KOREA SOUTH, and could also hear CKZU in English underneath (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake check at 1439 Jan 12 found none on 8400, 9000, 10210, 11300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CYPRUS. OTH radar pulsing Jan 12 at 1440 on approx. 9132-9158, plus exactly same sound but weaker on 10150-10172, presumed from here, but I am having my doubts. The ~25 kHz bandwidth is typical of Cyprus rather than China, but propagationally could also be something AustralAsiatic, and there are a number of other such radars (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 5005, Jan 12 at 0622 with weak talk, music, drumming, must be RNGE Bata, seldom heard and suspect not always on air in mornings. Then checked Malabo on 6250 at 0628 talking about human rights, enumerated lots of things that would be fixed for all citizens by the year 2020; 0629 ID as R. Malabo. 0630 into music; tried to determine if // 5005, but could not be sure due to much weaker signal there (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ERITREA. 7165 with HOA music, Jan 12 at 1437 but soon overridden by North American SSB hams, apparently a net tho none listed here in the final edition of Nets to You from April 1, 2007. At 1438, VOBME signal, probably long-path, faded up a bit, providing a BFO for hams with suitably weak signals (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ETHIOPIA. 7110, some broadcast talk weakly at 1437 Jan 12, presumably R. Ethiopia via long-path as was also getting 7165 at the time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH [and non]. 5910, Shiokaze/Sea Breeze still here for 1400-1430 broadcast, Tue Jan 12 at 1409 in Japanese, and Juche jamming also audible, the oscillating noise but not enough to block it here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MALAYSIA. 5030, RTM Kuching, Sarawak, Jan 12 at 1400 better than before, tnx to unusually weak Cuba 5025, and its own signal also improved and still without ChiComQRM. Talk in presumed Malay, 1404 music. 1424 DJs chattering and laughing after a song. (At 1456 I find that my oil heater puts a noise blob around 5020-5040, so shack will stay cold to hear this a bit longer.) Now 5030 is definitely stronger than Rebelde. 1500 unexpectedly loud two-pip timesignal, compared to the talk modulation: shows that program audio level could be boosted if they cared to. TS was about three sex late, so hardly reliable for navigation. I think the second pip was slightly prolonged but same pitch as first one. Into scripted news by YL. This is a simulcast of the Wai FM service but no such ID heard yet (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MAURITANIA. 4845, ORTM, Jan 12, 0624 at S9+12 level, but modulation not commensurate, usual soporific chanting around this time. Has been on rather reliably lately (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 5020, BBCWS sounder and news in English, Jan 12 at 1400, enough to be sure it`s the SIBC overnight relay, and Cuba was weaker than usual on 5025 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 13810, Brother Scare, in a lather about something, Jan 12 at 1514, lite long-path echo // weaker 17485 but not exactly synchronized. I have seen some reports of 13810 attributed to USA, but certainly not. 13810 is Nauen, 17485 is Wertachtal per HFCC, tho Aoki still shows the latter in B-09 as Juelich, plus a few other listings --- I think not (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY. 12035, surprised to find a TRT-sounding signal here Jan 12 at 1444, long after this frequency is supposed to close around 1422 when English concludes. This was in a Slavic language, and believe I heard TRT mentioned, perhaps in an URL. Sure did not seem Russian; thought it might be ``Bosnian``, which TRT had last year at this time on 9525, but that`s among the many languages they have supposedly deleted.

12035 had the same audio distortion as heard during English, plus the low het tnx to someone off-frequency. Produxion style also was VOTish, with long program theme music following announcement of show title. S9+12 signal suddenly cut off the air at 1447 as someone realized their mistake, uncovering a weak signal from something else which produced the het, perhaps VOR Samara tho not in all listings. The only transmissions during this semihour on the TRT schedule are:

11815 Turkish (also heard, well)
 9785 Kazakh
 9410 Russian

I did not check these until I had looked them up a few minutes later. By then, 9410 had a mix between BBCWS English via Oman and VOT Russian; 9785 dominated by ChiCom jamming and VOA Chinese via Philippines. It`s also noteworthy that all three are Çakirlar, so the Emirler site is not on the air at all at this time. Why would it not be in use? VOT has been caught several times before asleep at the switch, putting a following language on the previous frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 15770, Jan 12 at 1510, tonal African dialog mentioning Abuja and Nigeria, no doubt VOA Hausa as scheduled, but whence? Aoki says São Tomé, EiBi says Botswana (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9480, WTWW, Lebanon TN, testing with open carrier only for a ``human exposure study``, Jan 11 from *2055 past 2141, with occasional breaks. Also heard at *2302-2307*. Running about S9+22, comparable to WWCR on 9980, i.e. a very strong signal. I was hoping for an ID or some modulation, but not yet. However, I am positive it was WTWW, since George McClintock advised me this test was about to start with 90 kW, later said it was 60 kW. There was only one small RF leakage problem near a window. The SWR is OK, no arcing problems. However, some guy wires were installed incorrectly, since he was inside the building working on the transmitter instead of supervising the crew outside. He says they were hoping to run another test, with heavy modulation early UT Jan 13 on 5755 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
 
** U S A. 6800, weak mix of two audios from US station, Jan 12 at 0638, soon matched to WWCR on 5070 and 5935, as this is a leapfrog of one over the other at plus another 865 kHz. Had not heard this one before. I believe it was axually transmitted as could still hear it with attenuation on the FRG-7 and also on the YB-400. This led me to look for a corresponding leapfrog of 5070 over 5890, which at plus 820 kHz would land on 6710, and there was a trace of something there (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9955, no signal from WRMI, and no jamming either, Jan 12 at 0645 when should have been airing RCI via WRN relay; yet WYFR was inbooming on 9715, 9680, also on 9355, 9495, 9985, so I conclude WRMI must have been off the air (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. 13700, S Asian language at 1515 Jan 12, good signal would have been fine if not for WYFR 13695 splash. 13700 is YFR via Nauen in Hindi, so it`s Camping vs Camping! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 6925, Jan 12 at 1412 singing on SSB, plus carrier, but it was hard to keep zero-beat, so maybe unstable; just too weak to catch any details; no doubt a North American pirate (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 7105, Jan 12 at 1436 YL talk in unID language, but had rising intonation at the end of most phrases. I was thinking Nei Menggu was still here, so did not pay much attention, but Aoki B-09 no longer has it and A-09 says it stopped Sept 1, leaving nothing but Madagascar listed now, which would be long-path like Ethiopia/Eritrea on 7110/7165 at same time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###